Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 545 - Talking to Family About Diet & Nutrition

Episode Date: July 7, 2021

Today the crew is talking about how you can have the conversation with a friend or family member who might need to lose weight, even if they don't think so. Sometimes they will ask for advice, but we can't just open the flood gates. Today we give you tips on how to start these conversations. Subscribe to the NEW Power Project Newsletter! ➢ https://bit.ly/2JvmXMb Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Special perks for our listeners below! ➢Eat Rite Foods: http://eatritefoods.com/ Use ode "POWERPROJECT25" for 25% off your first order, then code "POWERPROJECT" for 10% off every order after! ➢LMNT Electrolytes: http://drinklmnt.com/powerproject ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Sling Shot: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/ Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

Busting out some of that element. Bam! Oh, that didn't mess up all the audio. No, it didn't, did it? Well, bam! There you go. Dude, I tried a little bit of element on some watermelon. Andrew brought that giant bowl of watermelon.

And I didn't have watermelon element. I had the grapefruit element. But I put some of that on some watermelon. It was amazing. Wow. It was really good. Wait, so you did that while we were there or after we left? After.

Okay, because I was going to say, if you did that while we were there and then you didn't offer us any. I didn't tell you. That's fucked up. No, no, no. Don't worry about it. I did it later on. It was kind of an accident. I put the watermelon down and then the element was there and I was like, oh, these two need to like meet each other.

Yeah. It was delicious. You guys have talked about that so much, but I still haven't done element on fruit. I haven't done it on watermelon. I would like to though. Yeah. Watermelon's great. But I left all my watermelon at your place.

So yeah, you brought over a lot. Yeah. What was crazy is like, we actually almost didn't bring that big old bucket of watermelon. It was like, ah, it's a long drive. What if it old bucket of watermelon it was like ah it's a long drive what if it gets gross and it's like it's kind of a big thing and stephanie's like just take it because i was not gonna lie like it's a big ass thing of watermelon i feel kind of embarrassed to bring this big old bucket i don't know i felt weird and then everyone loved it so i'm like okay this is dope but yeah maybe if i sprinkled some element on it would have made

it even better it was delicious delicious. It was. Yeah. I wish I had. We know a lot of people that participate in keto diets and a lot of people that are lowering their calories, and they seem to feel like crap when they're doing that. And a big difference can be just getting the right electrolytes in there. So check out some Element. It tastes good, and it will help you get through your workouts better. Absolutely.

You guys need to hit up drinklmnt.com slash powerproject. Right now, as of the recording of today, it's the 6th of July, they are still offering the free Element Recharge Pack. So you just pay $5 shipping and you get an eight sample pack sent to your door. If you have tried that or if you haven't, you know, whatever, if you want to step up, we highly recommend the value bundle. That's getting four boxes, so four separate flavors, If you have tried that or if you haven't, whatever, if you want to step up, we highly recommend the Value Bundle. That's getting four boxes, so four separate flavors, whichever you like, for the price of three.

Again, that's at drinklmnt.com slash powerproject. No code needed. Head over there ASAP. What's up, y'all? Did you guys see that bench press I sent you guys? I didn't get to watch it, actually. I saw the Deontay Wilder, huh? Yeah, man, that guy is a fucking beast. Well, apparently his bench isn't.

But people are making fun of his bench really bad. People are making fun of his legs. They're like, cover up those legs. They're like, I've seen more mass on an ostrich or something. Well, if we learned anything from like, I don't even want to say it. I want him on our podcast but there are a lot of there are a lot of athletes that have really stick legs um that are just like okay so like john jones is a beast oh yeah but his legs are like knives yeah right so it's just it's just wild like you don't really need mass to be a killer he's got some

thin ass calves and he's a fucking beast yeah there's a there's a there's a term for that um because when you do look a lot like nba players um we call them bmcs or black man calves um because there are like if you've seen there are a lot of athletes that are super athletic and they're just like they have the most explosiveness but their calves like are look non-existent on their leg and it's like up here and it's a little blip it's a genetic thing man like there's a lot of people just have that like a lot of people have high calf insertion high calf insert the reverse of that does not look very good the low calf insertion would aka a cankle oh oh god i thought you're gonna say where it looks like a nutsack let me ask you is it that just low calf insertions or is

it just that they have so much fat on the leg that it covers the achilles well there's both there's both sometimes the calf is like way down low by the ankle and sometimes they have an actual just cankle yeah the really really good look is when you when you see the knee is the same size as the calf and the calf is the same size as the ankle. We just call that thick. Yeah, yeah. It's like, what happened there, man? There's no shape going on there.

Oh, God, yeah. Anyway, Wilder's got to work on that bench. He does. He's got to wild out on the bench. He does. He just had the kind of crazy, like a kipping bench press. You know, the hips were getting into it, and it just got to be wild. But the main issue is not necessarily the bench press, because we know that, like, who

cares how he benches? It's not, like, a huge deal. But there's two main issues I have. One is, like, he could hurt himself doing that. And that's not a great place to get hurt. You know, you know hurt yourself you know maybe do it in the ring when your championship belt's on the line or something like that he was so happy too but that's the biggest problem is the celebration afterwards yeah that's the biggest problem and uh people people were doing you know because people are crazy online so people were doing math. One dude was like, hey, that's the equivalent, because this guy said, I weigh 185, I bench

X amount of weight. He's like, that's the equivalent of me benching 258 pounds. He's like, which is kind of cool, but he's like, it's a shitty bench. I think that was like 310 pounds. I was going to comment on it, but then I was like, this guy can knock me out just by looking at me. So I ain't saying shit. Amen. Let the man celebrate his bench press. We all have different PRs, right? That was his. But the way he celebrated, he got up, he was so hype.

I wonder, when is his fight? He was fighting Tyson Fury again, right? Again? Yeah. Shit. Yeah, I think it's the third. Him and Joshua just won't go at it. I just saw it.

That is a big dude, though. Look at his shoulders. Yeah. And there's those ostrich legs. He said ostrich legs. There's like literally no... Hey, the setup on the bench ain't bad. Somebody taught him

something yeah you know his like coach is like watching this just cringing because he's probably not there or something you know oh and they really helped him with that uh all you all you yeah yeah they pat him all you yeah let's go and and the other well the major concern I have, he's on a bench press that has a fucking leg extension at the end of it. Thank you. I just saw that. I'm like, no, that's like the bench press you get from like Sears catalog. This guy was champion of the world or maybe he still is. I don't even know.

Yeah, that's his picture on the wall. That's his gym. Or it might be like, I don't know if that's his gym. Could you imagine how fucking hard that guy can hit though? Oh, I've seen it yeah oh my god seen him there was um how wide the shoulders are yeah i don't know if it was him but there's a video of someone walking he's got the tony huge gloves on and everything and then they just walked out of the ring like oh yeah yeah was that him or was that like another somebody else looking yeah i posted it on the the podcast instagram account a while back but

yeah he just straight up left yeah god yeah i've seen his highlights for knocking people out though you don't want to get hit by that imagine me seeing him in person being like hey you're bent uh never never mind sir uh sorry didn't realize you're seven feet tall yeah he would just like give me one of these on top of the head, drive me right into the ground like a cartoon. Yeah, man. Just his – that's – you remember what I called that punch? We can't say it on air, but you know what I called that punch. There's a lot of things we're not allowed to talk about on air. Yeah.

Yeah. What about your inappropriate behavior this weekend? What did I do? On the beach. Getting naked on the beach. Oh, yeah. Fully naked. I had my

boxers on he's like we're going streaking and he just took off i was like what the hell by the way technically what was that call that we did was that paddle boarding or what i think so that's no that was body or is it no i tried boogie boogie boarding it's boogie boarding that's what i call it yeah boogie boarding boogie boarding okay what'd you call it i thought it was paddle boarding because oh no i think yeah i think yeah paddle boarding is different no paddle boarding is where you stand like stand up paddle where is it anyways right no i don't know well maybe you stand up a little bit on paddle boarding but that'd be surfing right but then that would be a stand-up paddle board boogie boarding so that was really fun yeah yeah it was exciting yeah i felt uh i didn't uh i thought i'd fuck myself up but it's it's kind

of fun like like the ocean is interesting like it'll fuck you up we can yeah like i was out there a couple times like uh where the waves got just they weren't big but they were coming in like like two waves at a time yeah and i like kind halfway rode one, and it just didn't work out very well. I kind of just bubbled over top of it. Nothing happened. And then the second one just kicked my ass. I'm like, damn. But it will just throw you whatever way it wants to throw you.

And you don't have much choice. I mean, it's not like you can use your muscle and be like, I'm just going to hold back on this. It makes it ten times worse. The more you tense up, the harder it is. But, yeah, it was it was super cool man it's fun that you guys get to just do that i gotta go back out there and uh just like mess with that stuff because that that just felt so good look at those quads yeah yeah i was surprised at that the quads actually it's kind of funny it kind of makes you look short it does you're not sure I look like I'm five foot six in this picture. It's disappointing.

But yeah, it was really cool. Yeah, it was a good time. You know, I think something that I recognize, I can't help but recognize, you know, when we get into these kind of holiday situations is, you know, how the rest of the family like eats, you know, and being somebody who's in nutrition, being someone who's in fitness. You never want to be that guy. You never want to be like I don't want to like run up to people and knock sandwiches out of their hands or be anything crazy like that. I really just mainly, especially at this point in my life, just want to encourage people to make good choices and to work towards making better choices, make good choices and to work towards making better choices, making choices that are not what I feel, but what they feel are towards their best interest, you know, and I don't

know that this is the weird thing is like, I don't even know what's best for me, much less anybody else. So that's an interesting thing when you get into a situation where you might be judging somebody saying, oh, man, like, I hope that guy doesn't grab another beer. I hope he doesn't. I hope he doesn't eat any more ice cream. He doesn't need it. Maybe those are messages we should be, you know, maybe saying to ourselves, too.

But anyway, it's hard to, like, you know, learn how to toe that line and learn how to communicate with family members on how they can make better choices. And on top of that, what makes it even more difficult is they might not even want to hear it. So you have to wait for an opportunity. As a parent, I've referred to situations like this in the past as opportunities for education. Educational opportunities are your kid breaks something in the house and they don't tell you about it. That's not, in my opinion, that's not a great time to get really pissed off and to yell and scream. It's an opportunity to educate.

Now, you might still be mad. You might show the kid that it mattered to you on what they broke, that it meant something to you. Hey, you broke this family heirloom and you didn still be mad. You might show the kid that it mattered to you on what they broke, that it meant something to you. Hey, you broke this family heirloom, like, and you didn't tell anybody. This is very disrespectful. But it's not a time to, like, lose your cool. So I just kind of think when I see people eating certain ways or making certain choices, I'm thinking to myself, okay, store that in the brain for later on. Um, I'm thinking to myself, okay, store that in the brain for later on.

If they ask any questions, you know, now I have a little bit of information and maybe I can share something with them that will be, you know, more useful. I think that's a big thing that you said right there. Uh, when they ask some questions, because I know, um, I think after listening to this episode, there's going to be a lot of people are like, yeah, change my family's life. Right. And then you're just going gonna go talk to everybody like it like interject into everybody's thing and and what what you might find is maybe that might work but a lot of times like if you interject and they haven't asked for anything they'll just be like fuck you i really don't care like you can go take

your diet soda somebody else i like my full sugar Coke. Right. So I think it's like, it is those situations where like, maybe you do go to a family function or you go over to somebody's house, a cousin's house, you bring something slightly different or you choose not to drink the Coke in the fridge. You're like, I got my diet soda.

And then they ask a question. You can be like, let me tell you something about sugar. You know? So I think that might be the easiest and best way to go about it although i mean previewing an episode that we just had with our homie gourmet sometimes you may need to figure out a good way to interject without them asking especially if you see that they really need that help that's that's a great place to start but i like what you said about like

bringing stuff and andrew does a great job with that. He did it at our party. He brought some watermelon. I think that we were under this impression that the changes that we're going to make have to be so drastic that we can't really enjoy ourselves. And if there's anything to show anybody, if there's anything to teach anybody, it would be that. Like, hey, you actually get to enjoy the fuck out of yourself it's just in a different way and yeah there'll be times that will be kind of lame you know there'll be there'll be some times that like aren't cool there'll be some times where you have to trade out your favorite burrito for um you know eating a lean

source of protein and that might eating a burrito is. Eating a burrito that's full of cheese, like a super burrito, right? Fuck, man, with cheese on the outside and everything? Like, that's just, it's unbelievable. We talk all the time about Chinese food on the show. Like, just going to Chinese food and just ordering, like, whatever you want. Like, that's incredible. Yeah. But I think from a standpoint of being reasonable with your nutrition, I think we need to try to get to like a 70, 30, 80, 20. And that's like if you're already in pretty decent standing. So how do we encourage how do we help people maybe get towards that?

that one thing I wanted to ask you guys and maybe this is a little bit too complex but it seems like if somebody does have the question or they bring they talk about like oh I need to lose weight or whatever because they know you're into fitness is it almost like an icebreaker because I would hear kind of the same thing over and over like oh I think I need to lose weight it's like you try to educate or whatever but the next time you see them it's like oh you know i need to lose weight it's like you try to educate or whatever but the next time you see them it's like oh you know i mean i really just i need to like well what happened with the stuff i told you about you know the last time we had this conversation it's almost like because it is on top of their mind so much it's just like conversational at that point it's no longer that they actually want to it's sort of like oh the weather today you know like they see

you coming so they're like oh shit i to talk about diet and nutrition and fitness and that sort of thing. So like, how would you navigate something like that? My mom did that all the time. And I think it was to like, say like, Hey, like I, I still care. I'm still interested, you know, and also a defense mechanism towards like, I don't really want anybody asking me any questions about any of that. So I'm just going to, I'm just going to talk about how I'm going to try this new thing. Because that'll,

that'll distract away from like what I'm actually currently doing. And that could be really, that could be really tough. But I think the key is to present a lot of options to people, not confuse them with too much shit or overwhelm them. But for most folks that you talk to, there's usually something that they like to do. My buddy Russell, who I'm helping lose weight, he likes to swim. So I'm like, we're going to use a lot of swimming because he was walking for maybe like a week or so and And his feet just, they couldn't handle it.

Um, at the current, at the current level that he's at conditioning wise, he just, even a walk is, is tough for him. So he's like, I got to do the walks and I'm not doing the walks.

He's like, I'm falling apart. My feet hurt. I'm like, we're okay. No walks. Let's focus on, you like the pool and even go swimming with his son,

which he really enjoys. It's like, that sounds magnificent. Let's, uh, hone in and focus on you like the pool and even go swimming with his son which he really enjoys like that sounds magnificent let's hone in focus on that so I think trying to present some people with some options is a great great place to start options is a great place to start but again another thing that like gourmet said from today's episode is like think about you know, you do see that there's a problem and you do care, but the question is how much do you care? Like, do you care enough where you maybe give this person this piece of information and you'd say, Hey, if you ever want to text me about this, or if you haven't ever any questions, please just text me. Because at the end of the day, we all know that you can give somebody an endless amount of information and they'll know it and they'll probably have questions later. But if they don't feel that

they can reach out to you, they probably won't. They'll probably go about it on their own and then they'll, you know, just kind of fizzle out because that motivation from that one conversation is in that one conversation. Then it leaves later on. So sometimes you might need to let this individual know that the line of communication is open and I am here for you but the thing is is that is that is a responsibility on your part now not that like you must take care of them or whatever but at the end of the day like you if they want to come back for something or ask you a question you you you kind of should be open to answer that question or be there for them especially I mean we all have different relationships with our families but if they are you know if you care about them you can see see they're, they really want help. You should try to let them know that you're

there because that's a big thing. Um, having someone that they can be accountable to, you know? Um, and then maybe another good idea because some people, like you mentioned, sometimes they come back over and over and over again. They're asking the same question at every single function at every single party. It's the same conversation. maybe check in on them every now and then because we i mean i'm guilty of this when i've been asked a question i haven't checked in with somebody and it's again happens so i will people that i and my family that are kind of as far as their health because i'm gonna send them a text i'm gonna check in on them say hi how are you doing with that how are you doing the walking that we talked about i've been doing the fasting we've been

talking about how's that been going and since i've been talking about? How's that been going? And since I've been doing that, a lot of them have been able to stick with that. It's not that I'm coaching them or anything. I'm just giving them a quick check-in on the stuff that we talked about. And it helps. It's amazing to say, hey, how are you doing? I'm just checking in. And you don't even say what you're checking in on.

You just say, hey, what's up? You talked to someone weeks ago about how to kind of kick their sugar addiction. You gave them some advice and they just like spill their guts to you. You know, you get like a text. We call in my house. We call it a Linda text because we have a friend named Linda. Well, text. She'll text bomb.

Like, she'll just send you like this epic test text. You don't even know how she does it so fast. Like, how is this this how is this possible you get like bombed she had a rough draft ready to go yeah yeah wait for someone to ask me how i am so you get this linda text from somebody and uh it turns out you know they had a weekend or a week that was just, it didn't go well for them. They had trouble with their car. They had trouble with a spouse or they had six, seven different problems. And it led them to, you know, not kind of staying on the plan. So it's interesting just even kind of mentioning like, hey, how's it going?

A lot of times they'll divulge the information. And then from there you can say, well, would you like further assistance? You know, you, cause I, I've been there, I've had that happen to me. And like with your strategy, you're just like, I just, you know, people think I'm highly dedicated, but I just can't even really have the shit in the house. Like, that's your answer. Like each person has their own, each person has their own, uh, anecdote. You know, my wife is one of those crazy people that can like take a bite of something somehow i don't get it wow she'll be like i just want a couple tastes of that and then she'll put it back i'm like what i don't i don't

get it what are you doing are you sheena we need to get her like a cat scan on her brain or something we need to fully developed human being right there up here yeah i haven't reached that level of development yet. You can take a bite and say, I can't do it. Like what? I think, you know, ultimately we're trying to figure out how to keep people like dedicated to some sort of plan. Right. But, you know, how to stay dedicated is hard. You know, it's not really motivation.

It's like a dedication. It's a dedication to like these habits. It's like a dedication. It's a dedication to like these habits. And I think maybe a good place to start would be with maybe swapping out an old habit with just something like just a tiny bit better. Like, can we get you to, maybe the person does still struggle with their sugar issue. Maybe they still do drink a lot of soda. But maybe the next time you see them, they're like, yeah, I've actually been staying up on the walks.

You're like, fuck. Yeah. All right, great. Good. We got one thing out of the way. Uh, let's see if we can start to,

um, to check some other boxes. I think one big tough thing too is like, like, yeah, it doesn't always, it is good to have the information as far as like, okay,

well this is what this food does and this is calories and this is a caloric deficit and yeah that that all is super beneficial but a lot of things like with a lot of people it could go a lot deeper than that it could be like that's where they find their comfort right and that in itself is difficult because it's like okay you currently find comfort from eating like that that makes you feel happy and feel good i mean we can all actually attest to that feeling like when you eat something really good like when you have like when you have like the right ben and jerry's ice cream or something like that or when you have the right burrito like the movie you were just talking about right i could sign up with that really good cookies let's turn to racist just kidding hey I said burrito

and Zaragoza I was like yeah that's me so you set yourself up for that anyway I'm done I'm done

this podcast can't be racist can it I don't know I'm not gonna go there's a rabbit hole I was gonna go down but I'm not gonna do it

we're fairly represented right we are we got chocolate vanilla salted caramel but maybe this our this is our way of saying like nah like i'm not it seems like i got a white friend oh yeah yeah hey i got i got in semen i got andrew like there's no way anyway but like we can all find comfort from food but I think a big

thing for us is that we have other things that we actually find true enjoyment from and like that give us fulfillment like there's a lot of things that you do with your family and you do on the outside of just eating that give you fulfillment I think for a lot of people and I know there were people in my family like this, that they found true enjoyment out of that

and they didn't have many other places where they got that from. So I think that's something to maybe see if you could have a conversation with somebody about, this might be where you are right now. So if you're listening to the show, this might be where you are. But we're also saying that if you find that that's where you used to be and that's not where you are anymore, you can maybe help your family figure out, Hey, maybe you could try doing this, or maybe we could figure out something else, some hob, something to do together outside of that. Cause we know that you do kind of need to change your circle sometimes. Um, especially when it comes, if you, if you have a bad diet, like sometimes that is sometimes the cause of that or a big cause of that

is because of the people that you're always around. Yeah, that one can be really tough. I think as bad as you might feel about your maybe lack or your current inability to switch over to a better meal plan that better serves you, no matter how shitty you think you are at it or how bad you are at it, hopefully that's as bad as it gets. Hopefully it doesn't continue to get worse. Ways of making it better seem fairly simple.

Trying not to consume as many calories or cutting back calories from liquids is a great way to do it. Looking into maybe a little bit of like intermittent fasting, just pushing a meal back or ending your night a little earlier with your food. Walking seems to be fairly simple for people to implement into their lives. Maybe some like extra focus or mindfulness towards like non-exercise movements that are exercise, like not really necessarily working out, but just moving more something as simple as and ridiculous as this could sound um you go to get something from the fridge and you want to sit down with a couple of things in front of the tv sit down with one thing in front of the tv uh you're about to sit down and watch your favorite show but you kind of have to pee sit down watch your show for a couple minutes

and then use the like just little things if you if anytime there's an opportunity to stand versus sit try to stand anytime there's an opportunity to uh rather than just stand to move a little bit work on trying to move you know the parking further away from the grocery store using the stairs all these these things. They really, truly, I know it always seems like bullshit, but they actually do add up over time. And the next thing is lifting your diet, your entire, this is why I say lift through it. Your entire life can be fucked up. Your entire life can be flipped completely upside down. There's people that I know right now that have gotten themselves

in really good positions in their life. They have great jobs. They make a lot of money. They have a great family. They have everything going for them. And somewhere along the line, the wheels fell off. They're addicted to drugs or're addicted to alcohol they didn't stay connected to some of the stuff that they did when they were younger and now they're just in a bad way and they're trying to find their way back most of the time what i've seen from those kind of people is they usually try to do it through some sort of physical activity. So imagine the whole time you have jujitsu or you have lifting. That's the one thing that my brother has done that has been huge for him is he stayed connected to his lifting the entire time.

He's had knee surgeries and hip surgeries and had issues with alcohol, had issues with pills, went through depression, went through all these different scenarios. But the entire time and went through a lot of issues with his food. He was really heavy at a certain point. He stayed connected to lifting. That kept him in check.

So as bad as you might, you might feel like, man, I'm a fucking idiot when it comes to, I cannot get this straight. I do good for a couple of days and then I F up again. I do good for a couple of days and I, you know, I just keep screwing it up. But imagine if you can start lifting now today and be anything consistent with it, get a couple of lifts in every month or every week. Um, and it accumulates over a period of time. If you can hold onto that, you'll be able to make the changes in the kitchen at some other time. It might take a while, but from what I've seen, from what I've noticed from a lot of people,

how many people do we know that power lifted for many, many years? They got huge. They got big. And I've heard all kinds of stories about guys running into issues with painkillers and different things like that too in our sport. Shit totally fell apart.

They at least stayed connected to lifting. Now they got their nutrition intact and now they look healthy. They look great. So lifting can be something that you can start simultaneously where you're trying to figure out that other shit with your nutrition. I think someone great to look at actually, as far as that's concerned, just like JP. Absolutely.

I mean, JP, he extremely strong squatter, held a lot of squat records, great to look at actually as far as that's concerned just like jp absolutely i mean jp extremely strong squatter held a lot of squat records but he's talked about how he felt when he was that big and then i mean the whole time as he's been transforming his body he stayed connected he did something as far as he could as far as lifting just because like he had a spinal issue and that was giving him a lot of problems and a lot of pain um but he still found a way to stay connected to lifting and now i mean i think he's set to do a meet like 16 weeks i think he's 16 weeks out or something like that he's going to do another powerlifting meet the first one in a very

long time um so that's i mean if anything yeah that would be one great habit that again you could suggest to anyone in your family to pick up a gym sometimes can be a little bit you know daunting and for some people it might be a little bit uh what's the word i'm intimidating right um but i mean if we've learned anything from covet if you can gift them a pair of dumbbells or give something that you could even do at home to start that could then be the first step for them to get into a gym because how many people do you know that their first look at exercise was a pair of dumbbells and that that led them to be more curious and then that led them to a gym even though giving gifting someone dumbbells can seem a little bit fucked up like hey have these right it can it can hey sometimes it could be something that works and maybe you show them how to do some stuff. Maybe show them a couple lifts.

Show them how to, I mean, if you're the fitnessy person in your family, you know, leading by example is a great thing to do. Bringing certain foods to parties is a great example. Encouraging people to exercise. You know, whenever I go on any vacations, you know, I'm about to go out to New Jersey at the end of this month and meet up with a lot of family members. We're going to work out every day, every morning. And the workouts, like, sometimes they're not great. Like, sometimes we do, like, a couple sets of push-ups, a couple sets of squats, and then maybe we'll, like, walk. But it's like we did something.

We got something in there at some point. Sometimes it might be more rigorous. Sometimes we might actually, like, run or do something a little bit, maybe even go to a gym, do something a little more rigorous. But, um, a lot of times when I'm out in Bodega Bay, we, uh, we'll walk the beach, but sometimes we're walking those hills or doing the stairs like I did with you guys. Uh, we have a weighted vest. We have some kettlebells. We got a couple of things out there to where, um, yeah, you can get some, get some training. things out there to where, um, yeah, you can get some, get some training. And so, you know, if you are the person in the family, uh, that is into some of these things, encourage people.

And maybe normally you run, maybe you run every morning, but, uh, maybe you don't do that for that day because you just, you get everybody to walk, you know, you might have to make a little, or you can get up earlier and run if you're that obsessed with it. But these are things that I've done, and it's been amazing, you know, to go and walk with my nieces and nephews and my own kids. And they don't always go. They don't always go, but, like, they see it. They know that this is, like, part of a lifestyle. They understand there's a lot of junk food out there, and there's going to have to be some way to try to figure out how do we balance that shit out? Like we're in like a fight and a constant battle against those things.

So let's promote fitness in some way. And sometimes with children, like, you know, getting them to like lift weights or something is just not in the cards. But getting them to, you know, walk or throw a football around or something is probably a little easier. them to, you know, walk or throw a football around or something is probably a little easier. Can you guys explain, even like you just mentioned, like some days the workout's not going to necessarily be like a 10 out of 10, but I don't know, I guess I'll say like getting the gold star for the day, you actually worked out. Can you explain like the benefits of doing that and the consistency that comes along with it? I think most of that is from a mental perspective. Somebody could make an argument that it's, somebody can make an argument that it's not great because, uh, you could be

tired. Maybe you're underslept. Um, maybe you drank a bunch of the night before or something like that. And the workouts is not, uh, it's not ideal. And sometimes people will say, you know, go heavier, go home, which I do believe. I do prescribe that. I do think I don't mean like heavy, heavy, but I do think you have to bring a certain intensity into the gym to get the results that you're looking for. Now, it doesn't mean that we're maxing out or anything, but if you're at like 40, 50 percent for the day, the last place you should probably be is in the gym. However, from a mental perspective, I think it's great. And I think that for me personally,

I don't think there's anything better that I can do than to just get in some sort of exercise. So for me, I don't have any problem with a completely shit workout, although it doesn't make me feel nearly as good as having a great workout. But if I have a window to get in like some sort of 20 minute workout

and it's just something quick, it's something simple and the intensity isn't like optimal for the day, I'm not going to sweat it because I train all the time. I think that is a really good concept. Not just for, I think this is a great concept

for the listeners to pick up because even for me nowadays too, not every single workout that i have inside of the gym is like a crazy hard hour-long workout or 90-minute workout a lot of times if i know i'm not feeling it on a certain day i'm gonna go in and i'm may do something for between 15 30 minutes maybe 40 minutes or something but it'll be easy you know I'll just be getting my body moving in some way, getting my, getting myself sweating and just getting something in. I think if kind of what we alluded to earlier, the, the idea of just trying to get some movement each day, right?

So getting in a walk, um, being on your feet more, you know, instead of sitting down. And if you really, really don't feel like working out, instead of doing a hard workout, if you have a pair of your dumbbells at home, do something for 10 minutes or do something sporadically through the day that elicits some type of movement. Because I think that's a very, I think that's a very strong habit for people to have. Do something every day, even if it's not a hundred percent or even it's not a 10 out of 10, even if it's a three out of 10, you did something. And if you have the goal of just doing something and making your body move every day, I think that that can lead you to being able to,

in a much easier fashion, get to your end goal as far as your body is concerned and then maintain it. Because for me these days, there's never a day that I go without doing something that I deem kind of physical i know people would maybe they look at me they're like oh of course well you're an athlete blah blah but i a lot of athletes have like off days where they don't do shit right um so just building physicality into your lifestyle in the easiest way possible i think is a strong thing to learn how to do do you have any days off? See, when people ask me that, technically for some people, like for example, if someone that does jujitsu, I don't do jujitsu

every single day. I mean, I do it for maybe four or five sessions a week. So there's two days I don't have jujitsu. But on those days, maybe I do something in the gym. On those days, maybe I do something with my kettlebell at home if I don't get into the gym but there's some sort of there's some sort of i guess athletic movement that i just move my body even if i can get like my pull-up bar on the on the door and maybe get some push-ups and squats and bodyweight squats or i have kettlebell so i usually do good like kettlebell squats i get something in um slant board's been super useful for that too uh so that's the thing it's's like, no, I don't think I have any days off, but I do have days that I would think are really easy, but it's still stamps me in on getting my movement in or my exercise type movement. And at this point, getting walks in

is just a normal thing. Like I feel good when I walk. So that's why I walk out of habit. I don't walk because I feel like I need to burn calories. But even for you right now, if that movement is getting in multiple 10 minute walks, do that. And then maybe have it be something a little bit more, maybe get in some squats or pushups or something. But I think that's a really strong habit that we can build easily without having to change your lifestyle in any crazy way. I think there's things happening here and to us, uh, that we don't even like understand or know like this, these habits are, um, they mean a lot to us and they do a lot for us. I think somebody might think, Oh, well, you just not worry about it and

just have a day off. Um, it's not really that we're worried about it. I think you're similar to myself. Like if you're traveling in your days compromised and it doesn't seem like it's in the cards to get in much of anything, I'm okay with it. I don't know about it for yourself, but it doesn't usually bother me. What about yourself? If you just miss everything because you were driving and you were doing this and that? That doesn't bother me. For me, at this point, it's not even because i feel that i have to it's just a habit that i right if i didn't get to the gym at all then i'll just feel like i just

want like i want to like i want to move i want to get it out of me that's what i feel like and maybe that's just a personality thing but every single day i feel like if i don't get some sort of exertion i'm holding something in yeah it's like trapped inside of you the way that we were talking with when we talked in the past with people that are heavy that have been on the show that have been successful in losing weight they've had issues where they gain the weight back sometimes because that that person is still sitting inside there saying eat eat eat with you with your background athletic background soccer background there's probably a person inside you saying, like, you should keep moving.

Go fucking. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel the same way, even though I wasn't moving around as much as a kid. I feel the same way. Like, for today, I got to bed at, like, 12, 1230. That's pretty late for me. And so I slept in, I did our first podcast

that we did this morning and then I drove here. I haven't done anything yet. So right away I was taking a shower today. I was like, I'm going to go somewhere and go for a walk. Like I'm probably going to walk for 30 minutes or an hour. And I already have that scheduled in my head. Like do that, you know, before dinner, you know, and then go, go ahead and enjoy your dinner. But, um, that's kind of like it's now programmed into my system, but what makes it effective, this kind of idea of getting in something every day is the reward system that's built into our, the system that we have as human beings,

you're checking off a box. Like you get to pat yourself on the back. So, you know, Andrew's question about like, you know, just getting in a workout that's maybe like a six out of 10, man, you still get to pat yourself on the back for it. And you're not going to really, you're not going to really beat yourself up too much over it. I think ultimately, you know, what I like to share with people is,

you know, try to understand this principle of how interested are you in really making these changes? How interested are you in getting, in getting better and the pursuit of getting better? Sometimes people get like so interested that they only do it for like a cut, like a short period of time. And they burn the candle from both ends. I think that we're aware of that. And so we're like, we don't want to like fizzle out. So we'll just get something in every day.

It's not always going to be a long workout. It's not always going to be a treacherous thing. But I think when you get done with a particular workout for the day, and let's just say it was a shit workout. And let's say the next day the diet wasn't on point. It was kind of a shitty diet day too. And you're just in a little bit of a slump. You can still be satisfied and excited about what you're doing because you're still doing some representation of it. And you'll continue to work on it. You'll continue to get it better.

And for me, I just say to myself, well, unfortunately, at the moment, if I'm just totally being honest with myself, I'm not as interested in that as I thought. And I think people might have a problem with kind of hearing that, but that's been very true for me. It's like, how interested are you really in this? If you want to be better at it, then you would already be better because you would already be doing the things that you've been talking about in your own head. You'd already be following them. So don't really worry a ton about being a nine or a 10 every single day.

Um, just kind of continue to think the more that I do this, the longer that I'm in the game, the more and more interested I'll get. I'll keep leaning towards better and better decisions over a period of time. You know what I was thinking when you mentioned you need to make sure you're actually interested in that? Like as much as like maybe like as much as taking care of your health is important. Um, some people truly aren't interested in that if they feel that they're okay. Right.

So if you feel content, like if you feel content with what you're doing currently, even if you're not doing the best practices, um, even if there's a lot of things that from the outside looking in, people can see that you need to fix. Some people truly aren't even interested in that yet. So the thing you start to wonder is like, I care about this person and they don't seem to be interested in that. How can I get them interested? Cause like, it's like, again, it's, you can't

change anybody and you can't think it's your responsibility to change somebody. But you know, I know in terms of the way I feel about my family members, when I see someone going down and they don't seem to care, I really want to find a way to help get them to care. And I can say this, I don't have the answers for how you can get somebody to care if they actually don't. I don't have the answers for that. But I really do usually try to figure out how the hell i can get them thinking in that direction you know there's people that will uh smoke a cigarette you know through the hole in their neck you know because they they had to have a tracheotomy or whatever there's people

that will get a diagnosis of having diabetes and not only will they not do anything about their diet but they won't even take their medication, which the medication, it's like at least the medication can assist with maybe some habits that you're working on. So, yeah, it's really the whole thing is very fascinating because you're like, yeah, how do I how would I get someone to be more interested? But I think the only answer is, is to. Are there are there opportunities for education? Like, is somebody asking, are they asking you a question? Are they reaching out for help? And then also, you know, because you do care about these people, you do love your family, pay attention, you know, because they might be mentioning something somewhere where it's might be a little bit of

like a cry for help that maybe you weren't, maybe you just weren't, you weren't paying attention to. And so I think there's always some opportunities to kind of educate people, but to try to figure out how to get somebody interested in stuff, I think you might have to try to just know the person the best that you can and i love um what our guest said on our podcast we had earlier today he said maybe like firm up your relationship with that person a little bit better before you go and because that wouldn't that would mean a lot to that person like maybe maybe you've shown like that you don't pay that much attention to that person maybe you kind of like like have demonstrated many times you don't really care, but

now that shit. Yeah. Like I, when he said that to me, I was like, I know. Oh shit. There's two people that I got to get a strong relationship with them, you know? Yeah. No, absolutely. Because I think it's like, um, we get excited because it's something that we feel that we

know. Yeah. And so selfishly we're like, hey, this is what you should do. Right? I don't sound like that. Yeah. Now you're the expert now, you know, because you want to like, you just are so pumped. You want to tell somebody what to do or how to fucking, you know, live their life or whatever.

And we don't have any, I don't have any answers for any of that. But I have assisted people before with losing weight. So if there is an opportunity, uh, for me to communicate in some way with somebody, it's something I noticed, um, this past weekend, one of my friends asked me about lifting and I pointed him towards five, three, one, cause he lifts, he's lifted a little bit. And, uh, he gave me the most, one of the most reasonable things I've ever heard in my life. He's like, I would just like to gain. And this was reasonable for him because again, he's, he hasn't been like,

you know, lifting like hard for 20 years or anything like that. Um, he's been lifting kind of the last five years and he's been, and that doesn't really,'t really he's not on a program that's like intensive or whatever right so he's like I want to lose about five pounds of fat and gain about five pounds of muscle and that right of way told me exactly how much stuff this guy knows it gave me insight into his intelligence level even with the very topic of fitness because i'm like okay this dude has he has been around it he must understand it because somebody else would be like all i want to do is lose like 30 pounds you know he was like i want

to have a little bit of a shift in my body composition and i was like wow that's fucking awesome and i kind of started to break it down, on what would assist him kind of through that, uh, through that process. But that way might be a good place to communicate with somebody on, um, talking to them about reasonable goals of like, what are things they can,

you know, whether, again, if they ask a question or if you get in conversation and they seem interested, uh, then maybe you can kind of interject and say, Hey,

you know what? I could see for you. I could, I can honestly, I can honestly say that with the people I've worked with in the past. And if you worked on a couple of these things, I could see you, you know,

losing 15 pounds in the next two, three months, you know, whatever the situation is. But I just thought that was super reasonable. And I was like man that guy that guy gets it you know one thing from what um what gormy said today is you think about how often like when you were really young how many big kids you'd see in a classroom okay

and then you think about it now how many just like young kids are heavy and overweight compared to just 15, 20 years ago. It actually is wild because even I thought about it. Um, it, if you do listen to a lot of this podcast consistently, right, then you hear a lot of the things that we do talk about and things are just getting worse and worse and worse as far as like obesity, young kids being overweight. And if you can think of somebody or a child in your family, it doesn't have to be, maybe it is your kid, but maybe it's your cousin's kid or maybe it's whatever. It's tough to say that it is your responsibility to talk to your family, especially again, everyone has different relationships. But I would kind of almost want to challenge you to try and see if there's a way you could do that. Because there's this idea that's in my head, like, you know, if you can deal with your family, right, and you can somehow relate to them some information, whether it's relaying a podcast episode or, you know, being there as a resource of some kind. The information that you give them is then going to have a ripple effect within that, that family. They know more, they're maybe paying more attention. And then maybe that goes to more

people and goes to more people just because you worked on dealing with your, your nuclear and your, you know, a little bit, your cousins or whatever you, you did do that. So it has a ripple. And I think that that can be some way that not only are you helping yourself in terms of your health and fitness, but then you're helping way more people than you'd expect. I think these tough conversations can be had. Um, they're, they're certainly not easy, but I mean,

if I, you know, I guess maybe like I'm already in fitness and nutrition. So if someone mentioned something to me about my own kids, um, I believe I'd be open to it, you know, but,

but again, because I'm already, you know, uh, I already understand the value. Maybe sometimes people don't understand the value. Um, because I'm already, you know, I already understand the value. Maybe sometimes people don't understand the value. Because someone could, I think a lot of times parents, what they know is what they've done and what they've been presented with. I was talking with a guy this weekend and he was going, he was so pumped about his daughter playing soccer and she's part of this travel squad and he

kind of talked about how like they're kind of in pretty deep he's like i try my best to like chill but he's like i'm super excited uh that she's doing well and i'm sorry it was softball and uh he was just saying like how pumped he is and how excited he is and everything and uh then he mentioned like he has i think his two children he was like he's like my, he has, I think he has two children, and he was like, he's like, my kids, he's like, they have to play sports. He's like, that's just the way it is. He's like, they have to play sports. He's like, I see tremendous value in sports.

And I agree with the statement. Like, there can be tremendous value in sports. Maybe to say that they have to play a sport is, like, maybe a little bit of a, maybe a little too much. But I think trying to figure out a way for your kids to be active is is very smart you know trying to figure out a way to because the food thing it's like no one really wants to fuck with the food but my whole point here is that the reason why that father said that is probably because when he was a kid his parents

said pick a sport you know okay you can play the piano and you can, uh, you know, play the cello or whatever the fuck you want, but like, you're going to still play a sport on top of that. Uh, and so he saw value in that and he understood, he understood that. Um, I think when we start to talk about nutrition, a parent might be like, well, what my, my kids don't need any, what, why would they need anything different than what I had? You know, I, I ate fucking French fries,

ate Oreos. I ate all that shit when I was a kid. I'm fine. You know, they're sitting there drinking a beer and they could lose 30 pounds, you know, but I think it's just, it's what they know.

It's what they're comfortable with. I think, you know, I was thinking about something when you said that. You know, he said the guy was like, oh, my kids have to play a sport. That's cool. And then I was thinking about my mom, right? Part of the reason why she put me in sports was because she was a single mother and she needed some place to like her kids to fucking be because I'd be an annoying ass if I didn't have that.

Right. But, you know, I didn't have that. Right. Um, but you know, I was able to be around teams. I was able to have great coaches that had no positive effects on my life. But the thing is the big reason why my, I feel like I have to move each day that I feel that I need some level of exertion. It's not only because of sport,

but it's also because I'm used to i'm i feel like i need that at this point and i know that when i don't get it i don't feel like i i don't i generally just don't feel as i don't have as much vitality let me put it that way so if right if i feel also very connected to my body and i can because i've been doing this for so long, just whether it be sports with soccer or lifting, like I can tell when my body just needs. I just feel like I need that. Right. So I think that this could be a good thing to try and not just develop for yourself in the aspect of just getting some sort of movement in each day. It's going to be a crazy workout, but maybe developing for your kids.

Help them to have a closer relationship to their body and the way their body feels. Like if you do have a kid that does sports, they're going to be used to playing sports. And then when they become adult, I hear this all the time from people I work with that maybe they got overweight. They're always like, I used to play sports as a kid. I love that feeling. I used to play sports in college and I want to get back to that when you know what that feels Like to exert your body and feel that level of exhaustion and then feel good after doing that and feel a level of fulfillment When you lose that

You try to figure out every fucking way to get it back because you realize that nothing really Has you as connected to your body as that right and i wish i could say oh yeah i developed this for myself but it's because my mom put me on that shit as a kid that's why i have this right now and that's why it's so hard for me to get into really out of shape because that was ingrained into me as a child yeah and it's really hard for if people don't experience that and they like, no, I feel fine without working out. Like, then you want me to go exert myself? Like, that sounds terrible. But it is a weird feeling. And fortunately slash unfortunately, I got it kind of thrown at my face when it happened, when I made the realization. made the realization um i don't know what happened i went through a spurt where i wasn't working out for like maybe like just like a month and then i came home after a solid workout and my wife stephanie was like wow like this is the first time i've seen you smile in a long time i was like oh shit like that like yeah that like that hurt but also it was just like a huge slap in the face

like dude yeah like you're a better person when you work out and you know that that was like i said the first time where i was like damn this really is that important to me and it's just weird because before that you know i probably would have said that yeah i do feel better but like i could get away with it but then you know after experiencing that i was like damn like it's a lot bigger than you know trying to get bigger biceps or whatever you know it's way more important than that i I was like, damn, it's a lot bigger than trying to get bigger biceps or whatever. It's way more important than that. I would say when it comes to sports, kids might not necessarily need sports. However, kids do need to be exposed to a lot of different things.

And so one thing to expose them to would be to challenge your mind. One thing would be to challenge your artistic ability, your creativity. And another thing would be to challenge your athletic prowess, challenge how fast you can run, how high you can jump. And we don't really have physical education the way we used to. And so I kind of agree with the statement. used to. And so I kind of agree with the statement. Like it's, it's a, it's a, definitely a worthy cause, uh, to look into having your child participate in something. And maybe it turns out like, um, my son, he didn't really care much about sports, so he didn't play him. Um, he played baseball for about three years. Um, uh, I don't think he tried any other sports, but he was maybe even four years. He played for a

while. He told me one day, he's like, I don't really like it. I'm like, are you sure? He's like, I don't like it. And I was like, what else do you think you want to, or he swam too. He started out with swimming and then he went to baseball. And he's like, I don't really think sports are for me. He's like, I don't really like them. And I was like, how is this possible? No, I was like, okay. I was like, you know what? I think I was just kind of thinking in my head, like physical fitness is important and these things.

But I was like, you know what? I'm not going to give him a fucking speech about it. I'm going to let him find his own way. I was like, all right, cool. So he finished out the year and and played my daughter still uh plays volleyball i think i think the i think one of the huge things that sports teaches teaches you along with a lot of other things my favorite thing that sports ever taught me was that i'm not the best it taught me like you ain't shit dude like you actually you actually fucking suck in a way like i actually like that because i remember like uh you know playing

playing football i did pretty well um and but like where i came from like our school was not like this like major powerhouse football team um, once we got to like a sectional championship or towards the state championship, that's when you started to look around and go, Oh, okay. Like I'm cool at my school and I'm really good in the league. And in the section,

I'm, I'm still pretty damn good, but in the state, I ain't shit. These kids are built different. Yeah. And then now let's like let's open it up to like the east coast it's like now you're fucking getting buried right let's open

it up to the whole country and it's like it's just it's overwhelming at how advanced and how but but it makes sense like it's not anything to like cry about or get sad about it makes sense like it's not anything like cry about or get sad about it makes sense there's a lot of people out there gunning for the same spot we all have different genetics and different upbringings and different environments and um you know someone could fake still figure out a way to make it i think if you are really that you know interested enough in it but that was important for me that was important for me especially as somebody that didn't think they were smart now it's like oh shit now that's kind of taken away from me too like now what do i do it myself but it challenges you and pushes you in new directions that maybe you wouldn't have otherwise gone into i would not have done a lot of the things that i did if football came really easy i'd probably end up at some school and I probably would have tried to pursue that.

And who the fuck knows what I got into or by I found my way the way I needed to. Yeah, you hit the nail right on the head. And I think I mean, this is a we're kind of getting a little off topic, but I think sports is teaches your kids teaches us how to lose. You know, we talk about like how participation trophies are kind of bullshit um back in my day i think we did have somewhat of a participation trophy i remember it was uh what was it like the sportsmanship award or whatever most improved for like the shittiest team and that's the one thing they got fired up for but no it's you know i see it in my daughter

like um when she was a lot younger like we'd be playing video games or something and she would lose she'd get really upset i'm like whoa like no we got to teach you how to lose a little bit you know so i think that's what sports can do but like i said that's a little bit of a different topic because we were talking about trying to teach our family about nutrition and stuff like that yeah or it could turn you into a toxic winner like yeah for me i can yeah yo but like if i ever like because there's a time that i think i'd be in my ex you're trying to learn chess right and um like i beat her right then there was one day she beat me i was like oh you don't know what you've just unlocked yeah downloaded chess.com my phone played like a few

few hundred games made it not fun anymore i wrecked this one like i destroyed it's not good like when i get beat at something it's not good because i have the mission of destroying you yeah well anyway yeah that's why you're so good at jujitsu you know it's um but now you're right about that like it does teach you how to lose and yeah i mean there are a lot of different like you don't have to put your kid in sports right um i think there but there is some benefit especially because like you're seeing now like you mentioned mark there's a lesser importance on physical education just helping them figure out a way to connect to their body it doesn't need to be in sport but just something to have awareness of like what your body can do right

even if you're then because yeah i think about like some people aren't the most athletic or whatever right but there's still ways for them to feel connected to what their body can do these i think a good example could be things like climbing like you know those rock climbing spots shit yeah right that's something that like it's it's a level of strength training it's a I think a good example could be things like climbing, like, you know, those rock climbing spots, right? That's something that like, it's, it's a level of strength training. It's a level of body control,

but you see some people, they just come to the room and they just fucking, they look like they've never lifted a day in their life. And then there's spider manning up the wall and they, they, they feel free and connected to their body because of what it's allowing them to do. Just something like that.

That's a great thing to do because much like trail running or just walking trails or any of that kind of stuff, keeping your body weight in check is like, it's really important. I mean, if you weigh 275 and you're trying to climb, it's just going to be that much harder. Not that you can't do it, but it's going to be more difficult. So, you know, finding some things to do that kind of keep your body weight in check uh is definitely is definitely a wise thing to do um my son is still you know he still exercises you know he he'll lift a little bit here and there it's like pretty sporadic um he'll run here and there but

you know leading by example i think is is critical. He knows, like him and Quinn know that I work out most days. Um, they know that, uh, my wife is swimming every morning. Like it's just, it's a, it's a huge part of our lives and we really don't go a day without it. So the kids might come and go on stuff. They might get fired up about some form of exercise for a while or get excited about a sport. Um, but I'm pretty confident that it will be part of their lives. I just think that they understand like what it can do for them. And I believe that they'll gravitate towards it. Yeah. So, I mean, in regards to like helping out family members and whatnot, I think the easiest first step one is just to not drink calories

it seems pretty straightforward and i mean we're talking about like enjoying our diets like dude i'll give somebody coke zero and it's like fuck like this is awesome like yeah you can you can have that not really even think about it your kids shouldn't be drinking them drinking it either unless it's from like milk yeah yeah yeah exactly but um what would be like i guess we'll say like another thing that we can help people when it comes to having this conversation with family members here's something i noticed and my family does this um it's it's different as you're it's different as kids in the family get older and when i say older like once they're like over 14 15 years i just

it's just i don't know it matters less and let them start to make their own decisions but hopefully at some point you communicated with them the importance of nutrition and uh what that looks like if you did do that already at that point i think you kind of let them start to make their own decisions and own choices for younger, you make the decisions for them. Grilled cheese or mac and cheese and French fries is, it's not, it's not a meal. You just need to get past it. It's, it's not French fries and grilled cheese is together in combination. It's not a meal and it's a very unhealthy practice and there's really no reason to do it. So what I would suggest instead is maybe do something slightly different. Like maybe you just order just grilled cheese and you say no fries.

Maybe instead of every kid getting a little bit of grilled cheese and a giant thing of fries, maybe you order grilled cheese for all the kids and maybe there's still French fries, but maybe they just get less. You know, I think we just have to figure out, like, how do we you don't not everything has to be a crazy compromise. We could still eat some of these fucking things. But do we need to eat that at lunch and then eat pizza for dinner? Like, it's just getting to be a lot. Right.

And then have an ice cream, you know, after that, it's just, uh, it really, really accumulates. So I think in general with, with, um, a real simple thing for people to, uh, engage in is like, let's figure out some way to exercise every day. The same goes for the kids. It's not like exercise is bad for kids. The same goes for the kids. It's not like exercise is bad for kids. And work towards drinking less calories and maybe even eliminating liquid calories. And then I think the other place to kind of go from there is to try to get some protein in for people.

Some sort of meal somewhere in the day that has, you know, I think back to my childhood and the things that we ate for meals and they were always relatively healthy. They, you know, calorie wise, they're probably pretty dense, but they usually had protein, you know, eating like meatballs or chicken Parmesan or these different things. And yeah, like again, the fat content might have been high. The carbohydrates might have been high. The calories might have even been high. But it was a nutrient-dense meal that filled me up pretty good. And when I think about the mistakes that I had as a kid, it wasn't really in the meals because we ate pretty,

it wasn't like we ate really good, but my mom usually cooked some sort of protein something or other. We had a carbohydrate, like a starch and a vegetable, and that would be the meal. But it's a lot of the snacks and a lot of the extra stuff. And so kids love fruit. Kids usually like yogurt, encourage them to eat things that have protein in them rather than just being like these

little sugary bombs they might be getting throughout the day. You know what? I will say this because I remember I'm like, oh, wow, I remember she did do that. So, of course, as parents, you need to lead by example. So you need to be you should be trying to get yourself some exercise. You should be trying to eat well, right? But Hey, if you really like Kit Kats and you're, no, you're addicted to it. Don't let your kids, don't let your kid have it.

Like, because my mom, cause I remember this cause my one mommy, Sue, she, she, she, she loves Kit Kats. Kit Kats are her favorite chocolate um and she'd buy it and she died it i'd never have access to like hey mom get a kit kat she's like nope it's like those are my kit kats right but she never let me have any of that type of stuff and i know that we talk about being and leading by example right but if you're not at that stage yet where you can get rid of your Kit Kats, just don't let your kid have it. Because she never let me have any of those damn Kit Kats.

And I remember that to this day. I'd be like, can I just have the Kit Kat? And she'd be like, nope. Because she knew it wasn't good for me. And she knew it wasn't good for her. But she really didn't let me have it, right? I actually think that that's a fairly important message too. Like, I don't know uh my kids asked me

you know about like cursing and stuff before and i was like cursing's not for kids you know like it's and yes i should refrain from using it around you as well like i i guilty you know i can i can cut back um and i so i think that i mean same, right? Like you don't want the kid to sit there. That's exactly what I was going to bring up. You know, drinking some vodka. There's things that are more appropriate and less appropriate for kids at certain times. However, I would also say this, that your kids, people ask all the time, what should my kids eat? They should eat the same things that you're eating.

They should primarily be eating protein. They don't need to be on some strict, crazy diet. They can afford to eat more sugar than us. They can afford to eat a little bit more carbohydrate. They bounce around all day, usually. Usually when you're six, seven, eight years old. But once you're 10 and you're not in a sport, you're not moving around nearly as much.

And as soon as the kid starts to gain weight, that's when that, uh, that rollercoaster starts to hit. So I, I'd kind of just say that, you know, having, having other family members eating similar to you is,

is a great, that way you're not isolating anybody. No one's on, you know, the one fat kid in the family is not on some particular thing where he's sitting there eating fucking green beans and chicken breast. Everybody's engaged in it. Everyone doing it and uh when you when you kind of when you work on that it's just it can become fun it could become like a hobby it can be come something that everyone participates in absolutely what else we got Well, we keep mentioning the Gourmet Goes Keto episode.

That was recorded earlier today, but it'll come out after this episode. And when that is, I'm not sure. Because today's Tuesday, so maybe Thursday that that episode will come out. Maybe on Thursday. Yeah. So something to keep in mind. But yeah. And then just again, I'll bring it back up but like you

know we just had my daughter's birthday party and we didn't have any cake we didn't have any candy we did have soda but all of it was the zero sugar uh variety of of root beer of coke and of course sun kiss because i think that's the best one um nobody cared you know it was we just had food and fruit and that was it nobody had a heart attack nobody felt like they had to call the cops because there wasn't cake at a birthday party there wasn't candy or no no no piñatas no nothing and it was fine like nobody freaked out and i don't know it just seemed like everybody went home happy. You know? Yeah.

One thing that, um, actually, I'm going to mention it later because I think it was, it's really important, but it made me think of like, uh, no,

I'm just going to mention it now. One thing that was mentioned from that podcast, uh, was when he said that, you know, he would have a list of things like five specific things to be done when he felt like that surge of hunger after eating um there was a thing like i couldn't go take a walk or i can um read a book read a book like there was legit a list of like it was like having a move set in a video game.

Let's say you're playing a fighting game and you have a combo, right? So you get hungry and you have this three piece combo that you're about to hit up to fight that hunger. Like, I think that's something that if, again, if you want to share things with family members,

if you want to give them tools, like maybe give them tools to fight that off when that happens. Cause that happens to us all the time. Like when I have a, I think actually just, just, just right now, like I really wanted to eat something earlier,

but I knew that, ah, shoot, let me just get a protein shake. Like that's one of my, that's my two piece combo right there. Hit it with a scoop and a half and I'm good. Right?

So if you can give people some tools, uh, that'll just make that act that easier. because I think we all deal with that. That can help a lot of people out too. Let me just give you a scenario so people can play along at home here. Let's say that I want to lose 20 pounds and I typically eat decent during the week. But every weekend I fall off. I like to kick it with my friends and I go way off path. Um, let's say my favorite thing is pizza. You know, I, I, I have an issue with

pizza and I normally do pretty good during the week, but occasionally I'll fuck up even during the week and I'll, you know, at late at night, sabotage myself or something like that. Uh, what would your advice be to a family member that came to you that said, hey, I've been trying this diet and I kind of halfway do it and then I kind of fall off on the weekend and occasionally even during the week, this is the kind of stress of the week builds up and I find myself going off plan. I think a cool thing in that specific situation, if we're talking about pizza, I think a lot of us know other options that could deal with that other than the specific pizza. So an example would be, I was thinking to Andrew when I thought about this, Quest pizzas. Just because they're really good, they don't have a crazy amount of calories, they will fill you up.

And when I've had those, they can actually hit that spot for you, right? And when I've had those, they can actually hit that spot for you. Right. So for a lot of people, instead of complicating things, instead of like saying, OK, let's just, you know, on that day, let's fast and then let's try to make some protein, et cetera. Even though that'd be a good idea, maybe they could have a protein shake and then maybe they could eat two quest pizzas. And the reason why I say two is because two quest pizzas, as far as the calories are concerned, the two quest pepperoni pizzas are far less calories than a typical pizza that you'd get. And they're also very satiating because they're protein rich. Right. So it's not two quest pizzas is not going to do nearly as much damage as a typical pizza.

And your family member that isn't much into health is going to be like, oh, it's a pizza. Let me go try that. It can actually be something that's legitimate. Right. Yeah. It's easy to be like, oh, it's a pizza. Let me go try that. It can actually be something that's legitimate. Right? Yeah. It's easy. Yeah. And then, I mean, there's going to be the people that like, no, bro, that's frozen pizza.

That's bullshit. It's not real pizza. That's true. Right. So what my counter to that is either to have the Quest pizza or make your own pizza. Like, I make my own all the time. And I don't wait till the weekend, though. Like, if I want pizza, I'll have it whatever day throughout the week I want.

I could have it every day, but then what happens on the weekend when that day comes, it's like, I'm not actually as hyped as I was before. Because before, you're waiting since Sunday night. You're like, shit, Saturday night. I cannot wait to go have that pizza. It's like, well, here we are on monday it's like okay i'm gonna have it right now actually and it does satisfy and then tuesday it's like ah fuck i think i want it again okay go ahead and have it again because the calories are still very low so then you have it therefore you no longer feel like you're holding back anything you don't

feel like you're on a diet anymore so when that saturday comes you you still can enjoy it if you want but chances are you're not going to be as like dude okay i know we say we're going to get two extra large pizzas but you know i really want some fucking pizza let's get three you guys you get one you get one i get one we'll get different you know you get real fired up for it right yeah when you do it this way you don't get as pumped for it anymore and it's almost kind of like it's almost sad because you're like no but i want that pizza it's almost kind of like, it's almost sad because you're like, no, but I want that pizza.

It's like, but you will not want it as much. And that's kind of how I've been approaching it. And like when I'm on a quote diet, I don't feel like I'm on a diet because I still eat all the foods that I want. They're just a lower calorie version of that food. Even with some of that, I would still suggest what we always suggest, and that's to fill up on something even healthier. Maybe not get real full off of it, but eat eight ounces of steak or something like that before. Totally. Or like Nsema

was mentioning, have a protein shake. And let's not forget, let's not undersell the value of lifting weights. Nsema talked about how you can mitigate this situation where somebody really loves pizza. And his answer was to not try to not eat pizza because we know how difficult that can be. Figure out a way to still be able to hit that craving. But if you're lifting, that's a way to mitigate all calories all the time because you're gaining muscle mass. So we can't forget the value of that. So if a family member isn't lifting, you need to go tell them to go fuck themselves.

You need to just, you know, explain to them the value of how important it is to be lifting some weights because it can change your metabolism forever. It's like you want to lose weight. Are you lifting? No. Go fuck yourself. Yep. That's a quick, smooth conversation. Man.

Swiftly abrupt. Yo, but that, I've mentioned my mom so many times in this podcast, yo, but that was the greatest gift that she's ever given me to be perfectly honest. Just take me to the gym that one day and just like tell me, just go figure it out because she didn't like tell me how to do it. I think the first thing I had was dumbbells and then i got tired of what i was doing with dumbbells in my grandma's bedroom so then she's like okay she's like okay now you can go to a gym and that was like the best thing that ever happened to me just like getting into a gym

and starting to lift some damn weights you know um so yeah super. It's a whole other topic for a whole other day, but being really connected to your kid, you know, really like just imagining your mother. She probably just, you probably didn't have a whole lot of privacy. She probably just come in your room and like flip shit upside down and kind of look around and be like, why is this a mess? Or, you know, what is this? Where'd you get this from or like if you had something uh that uh like if you

had something that like wasn't yours she'd be like where'd you get this from probably right like she fucking knew everything about you right like you know you had a new a new baseball glove you know and she knows like you're not making money or whatever have a job it's like where the fuck does this come from it's as a parent sometimes those things they seem like you know you're wedged up your kid's butt all day long but sometimes it's important you know you want to know where they're at and it seems like uh your mom did a good job kind of like steering you but before you even maybe even needed to be needed much steering you know she just did it kind of for you she's like you're you're heading in this direction yeah you're heading in that direction now you're heading in this direction i think that's an interesting thing you know uh yeah

absolutely and when i hear parents like uh i'm not a parent so i can't like you know talk i don't know but when i hear parents that they're like i want my kid to have a bunch of freedom i get it right your kid should have freedom to choose freedom. I get it. Right. You get to have freedom to choose what they want to choose. But like, there are times where I think like, sometimes you need to just tell the kid to just do it, do it and stick to it for a little bit.

Like, cause if I told my mom, I don't want to do it. Ooh, boy, you don't want to do it. Or if you didn't want to eat something that she cooked right that doesn't happen that didn't that didn't happen for because i knew that i would eat it right i like i never felt like she she was a dictator or anything but she definitely knew where the stip was the

ship was being steered because she was the adult and i was the fucking kid right and like yeah like i think what if you were what if you got upset what if you got real upset what if you cried if i cried did she just tell you to go to your room or something or she probably didn't really put up with much of that either right give you a reason to cry well okay let me put it this way um as a kid uh i i don't know maybe it was because of the way i was raised but the only times i would cry was if i was being spanked like it was it was like or if there was like an emotional family thing but that that in itself is there's a what about whiny whiny pouty slumpy she's like allow any of that or she did yeah no she did she did like

if ever like i was really sad about something we'd have we'd have a talk like if i lost a game or if i did really bad and like whatever it meant like if you're upset with like a situation that she kind of forced you into like you got to go rake the leaves and you wanted to go play with your buddy and you're like you know kids do this i can't and you wanted to go play with your buddy. And you're like, you know, kids do this. I can't believe you make me do this. Were you able to do any of that? That's the thing. Like, I, this is the funny thing about African households.

Cause all my African friends would be like, I get it. But yeah, I wouldn't want to do it, but I, I just would go do it. I wouldn't show like, I don't want to do it. I'd be like, you know, even I wouldn't even say I don't want to do it i'd be like you know even i wouldn't even say i don't want to do that i'd just be like i got it like because you know like the consequences you know the consequences you know the consequences but you you also have an understanding like a like you're you're the kid go like this is this is your parents go do what you're supposed to do that's like african kids can relate and i this is the funny thing and there's no shade on american parents no shade but sometimes i just see some

of these kids talking back and i'm just like oh my god oh yeah no absolutely you can say that to your mother like you can say that to you they let you all they did was tell you to go to your room? Oh. Wow. They didn't knock your ass out? Like, whoa. Meanwhile, the room is fully decked out with video games, and it's fucking awesome. Right. That's why I'm just like, you know what? I know that there is a cultural difference there, because kids that were in Nigeria, it was very normal in the classrooms.

Teachers had canes to beat kids in the front of the class you did something bad in an african classroom in nigeria teacher would bring you to the front of class and whip your ass in front of the classmates right so like community whippings are a thing like my uncle and my aunt could give me a little whipping and it's okay it's a family affair right i don't people be hearing this and they're like abuse let me tell you it wasn't abuse it was just discipline if you look at stuff from like the military you know and i know things have changed there as well but like when somebody comes up when people come out of the military when all of anyone comes out of the military they're not as fat as they were when

they went in yeah you know because they have to get like militant. They need structure. Human beings respond great to structure. They respond great to just knowing how they should behave. You know, otherwise you're just kind of left on your own to kind of figure it out for yourself. With my kids, I've been pretty fortunate. They're usually not like disrespectful. I parent totally different than my wife. So we have good cop bad cop and i'm always good uh like you know i i'll i knock on their door and shit like that like and

give a minute and i go in but like my wife just you know shooting right in she's like it's our house like fuck them you know that's great and i try to explain my uh you know they get older you know she's like no no no she's like yeah no and i was like all right well she's like i don't tell you how to parent i'm like that's true good point good point good point right oh man hey you do you i'll do me there we go i think that you know they they sometimes need a little bit a little bit of both but uh having some structure and then also like taking control of their uh their food i think is really important and if you haven't done that before that's where it gets to be harder but that's where you'll have to do some of the stuff

we talked about earlier where you'll have to lead by example and kind of show them the way and show them the light yeah and then see i think you know once you do start, not hanging out, but you just start being around more parents, you'll see it's not necessarily a Nigeria versus U.S. thing. Although this doesn't help the argument, but my mom would tell me about school in Mexico, how if they get in trouble, they have to put their hand down on the desk and then just whack right across the hand. Catholic school. Yeah. Well, that's what it was. But you're like me and my wife, like with our daughter, like we're super lenient. Like she can get away with anything, but she's just a good kid. So that's part of it. But yeah, we'd go to her school and be like, oh, hell no.

Or like, you know, we're just around somewhere and the kids are just badass little kids. And the parents are just like, oh, they're just expressing themselves. Kids have different. You need to beat the shit out of them it's like that kid needs some discipline right now and I agree with that like all kids have different temperaments there's not just like one slate that comes out and they are just like that like I was a kid who if I had the opportunity I'd get into some shit if I absolutely could I would make the choice to, uh, to, to, to,

to be a wild boy, you know? Right. So I was like, my sister didn't need any of that. Right. Like we were, we were kind of different in that sense. She'd be straight line. She didn't need as much discipline as me, me. I did like, I did, you know?

So that's just how it is. But you got to figure that out for your own kid. Want to take us on out of here, Andrew? Sure will. Thank you, everybody, for checking out today's episode, especially everybody on the live feed. And although I'm going to probably regret this, but ex-vegan Logan, he's always in the live chat saying all kinds of crazy shit. Appreciate you, dude. Even though some of the stuff you say is so outlandish, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Still appreciate you. Thank you, everybody, for checking out today's episode. Shout out to Piedmontese for sponsoring today's episode. Sorry, it's Element. My bad. Piedmontese was earlier today. So drinklmnt.com slash powerproject to pick up a value bundle. No code needed.

Just go ahead and load that up uh check out watermelon salt grapefruit salt citrus salt and orange salt those are the top four in my opinion and sema can correct me if i'm wrong there but uh make sure you're following the podcast at mark bells power project on instagram at mb power project on tiktok and twitter my instagram and twitter is at i am and Z at the Andrew Z on tick tock in SEMA, where you at and see me in there on Instagram and YouTube and see me in Yang on tick tock and Twitter.

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