Mark Bell's Power Project - Mark Bell's Power Project EP. 241 - How to Become a Diet Zen Master
Episode Date: August 29, 2019Today Mark Bell and Nsima Inyang talk about how they have been able to control and track their diet without ever having to bother counting macros and counting calories. ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellsl...ingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Find the Podcast on all platforms: ➢Subscribe Rate & Review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-bells-power-project/id1341346059?mt=2 ➢Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4YQE02jPOboQrltVoAD8bp ➢Listen on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mark-bells-power-project?refid=stpr ➢Listen on Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Izf6a3gudzyn66kf364qx34cctq?t=Mark_Bells_Power_Project ➢Listen on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/markbellspowerproject FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz
Transcript
Discussion (0)
no no nothing hit like this this stuff hit a long time ago i just thought of something kind
of funny so the white white sleeves right so you know we have the cone shirts coming out right
yeah those were called the cone sleeves right what else is in the shape of a cone
the white sleeves you get it oh it's like if we wear the white sleeves on our head
well we're already having issues with the whole process over here we made a shirt
we're not on the air yet right we are now on the internet oh never mind
we'll talk about it another day oh god anyway how's your jiu-jitsu going and you're lifting
and stuff ah man it's great um jiu-jitsu is it's i i never get tired of it i really really really
really hope that i don't ever get tired of it um but it's awesome you know it's funny tom tom who's
the guy who designs a bunch of stuff here he he just started jiu-jitsu recently.
And he was saying something that was really kind of, I mean, I agreed with it too in a way.
He was saying that he lifts a lot, right?
But when he goes in on the weekends and he does jiu-jitsu on Saturday and Sunday,
he says after every single session, he literally just can't be stressed.
Like he'll even think of stressful things, but he just feels so just like, ah, like he's released so much. He just can't be stressed. Like he'll even think of stressful things, but he just feels so just like,
ah, like he's released so much. They just can't be stressed about it. And like, that's how I feel too. Literally after every single, yeah, you just feel worked. You feel good. Um, and you just like,
can't stress about things. It's really difficult for me to stress about things after doing jujitsu.
Even when I tire myself out in the gym and I have a really good workout, it's somewhat of the same feeling, but it's just not as, I guess, taxing that it makes me feel that way. I still feel good,
don't get me wrong. I still love it, but it's just different. I went to CSA a couple days ago,
Combat Sports Academy, where Slingshot Record Breakers will be held once again in November.
where Slingshot Record Breakers will be held once again in November.
And Kieran Fitzgibbons, the owner of the gym,
he's the guy who trains all the fighters.
He's been doing this stuff for like 30 years.
Really, really highly experienced, highly skilled.
And he's working with Gaston.
I forget Gaston's last name, but he's the dream killer on Instagram.
The most deadliest elbow, maybe in all of MMA, maybe behind bones jumps.
I don't know.
But this guy knocks people out in a bad, bad way.
When people get hit by this, you're like, ah.
It's just one of those knockouts where you're like, I like this sport,
but I really didn't like seeing that.
That was like a couple steps too far.
Please get up.
Yeah, Gaston is a real beast.
But to your point, see, that thing is just so precise.
Oh, my God.
And he's an animal.
He does a great job of staying in shape and keeping his condition. We'll have him on the podcast soon.
He's a great guy.
But Gaston was training, and he wasn't
frustrated or anything, but he's working on
these punches and these kicks,
and Kieran was getting
killed by him. I mean, Kieran
was head-to-toe
in gear, protective
gear, to allow Gaston to kind of work
on these combinations. He had his ribs
all padded up, and then he had
holding the pads in his hands and
everything.
Gaston kept doing these kind of double
body shots and
Kieran has to prep himself for every
shot, especially from someone so
highly skilled that can kick and punch an
elbow like this.
You can't just hold pads for somebody that's really
highly skilled.
Yeah, we're watching video right now and we're just cringing at how uh amazing these elbows are it's really really ridiculous uh but kieran is
is he's got a kind of it's almost like doing like a rep like there's a certain breath involved in it
there's a certain a certain way that you handle it and there's also a certain way to kind of absorb somebody's
punch or absorb somebody's kick, especially
when you're holding pads for somebody.
You'll see some shots of it here.
And you can see, so Kieran's very
braced for every shot, especially
when it comes to the gut.
He's got plenty of pads. You see there,
he's getting pissed. That was the liver, I think.
Yeah, he just told him. He's like, stop that, you
fucking asshole. He's telling him. And they go pretty hard you know they go hard in these
training sessions uh but what kirian did at one point is kirian just put his hands to the side
he's like fucking go for it then he's like just do it he's like just get out of your system he's
like if you feel frustrated he's like just go for it and gaston actually finally stopped after he
did like five or six but kind of to your point it's like he got whatever that thing that was in there whatever that like angst or whatever that thing was it
was bugging him whatever that thing was he got it out and i think it's cool like if you can get that
out and lifting or if you can get that out through doing jujitsu then maybe you don't have to like
walk around being so anxious about shit all the time seriously no like wear your shit out yeah
and i don't want anyone to get a mixed mixed message or anything like even after i even after i lift i feel way less stress i just feel good um and it's
not like when i go into jiu-jitsu i'm getting rage out on people and like yeah you know kicking
people's asses for that reason but you just feel like a weight just like i don't i can't even
describe it you just you feel a weight lifted and it's just nice. It's so much energy, right?
So much energy poured into it.
How does that feel in comparison to lifting?
To having a really good, let's say, power lifting session
and being power lifting prep versus having a good jiu-jitsu practice
and getting ready for Worlds?
I think maybe the difference could just be that it's a martial art and I'm physically working against another individual.
I think maybe that might be the mental side of it.
Not just you and the weight.
Not just me and the weight.
Because after a session of jiu-jitsu and I've sparred with eight or nine different people, right?
And I've done so many different things in terms of submissions or maybe I got submitted.
It doesn't matter.
different things in terms of submissions, or maybe I got submitted and it doesn't matter.
I just, I feel more accomplished after that, in that session, just because of like the,
I don't know, the breadth of what was done. And maybe I worked on a lot of new techniques and stuff. Some things work, some things different didn't. But I just think since there's just so
much there, that's maybe another reason. But primarily, I think it's just the energy that's expended.
After a hard powerlifting session or hard lifting session, I don't expend as much total energy.
I don't burn as many calories versus a 90-minute session of jiu-jitsu.
Jiu-jitsu, you think, is twice as much, four times as much, like if you had to just take a wild guess
versus the lifting sessions, I do probably four, four or four or five times as much.
So in the lifting, it's like you have to kind of be ready for each rep and each set, right?
There's really nothing happening in between. Yeah. And that's not the case with jujitsu.
Yeah, no, no, no. Like when you're sparring, like your first off, you're sparring the whole thing.
There might be moments in the sparring session where like you're in a control position so you're you know you're you're a little bit
more still but you're never perfectly stopped you always may be trying to hold your weight so you
can keep this person down there's always some type of movement going on a lot harder than sitting on
a bench in between sets yeah yeah a lot harder than that and like again if if you don't do jujitsu
i don't want this to i don't don't
take this as like i'm thinking jujitsu is better or anything um but it is just it has different
energy requirements just like crossfit you know in those in those wads like god they're moving
the whole time they're doing burpees then they're doing the the uh what the organ machine the
rowing machine and they're just doing this over and over then they're going for a freaking run
like that's just way more energy expended you you know? So like in essence, it's like that much.
But again, I think the, just the, the, the feeling of literally just going against an opponent,
right. It's different. And we've, we've spoken about this a little bit in the past.
There's, there's a mental side of it to where like you
know that you're in a combative situation with another person and let's say you submitted them
a few times or you were submitted a few times right that feeling of like they if they didn't
stop with my tap they could have either broken my limb or killed me because they could have just not
stopped the choke and i wouldn't have been
able to do anything about it because when you tap like you you have no escape you know i can't
escape this i'm stuck this is my only way out yep don't kill me don't kill me or don't break my
don't don't tear my knee or break my arm or wreck wreck me don't do that right so you are submitting
or you're putting another individual in that situation and you've you've bettered them in that situation.
There's something mentally to that that really I don't even know how to explain it.
But it's just there's a feeling of, I don't know, accomplishment or a feeling of just like just like sadness when you do get submitted a lot.
That just makes you really just want to go back and continue to
get better and learn more. Is it like disappointment? Like you're kind of disappointed?
Like I'm sure at your level now, right? You're a purple belt, correct? Purple belt, yeah.
So at your level now, I'm sure it would just be like pure, almost disappointment. Like,
how did I end up like that was like, why did I, how did I end up in that?
Yesterday, my boy Kaleo got me in a knee bar
when we were rolling uh and he he's really good at doing like leg stuff but he got me in a knee bar
um i after that got him into omoplata but when he got me that knee bar and i tapped i was like i was
a little bit disappointed because i was just like damn how'd i end up in this situation it doesn't
feel good because like i don't like to have to submit but sometimes you just do but it's not a
feeling of like, at least
nowadays, it's no longer anger or anything. Initially, when I first started and I'd get
tapped all the time. First off, you're getting tapped so much that you're pretty quick to like
get past the point of being angry about it. Like it's just going to happen to you.
But now it's just like, shoot. Okay. That sucks. I just got to figure out a solution to that though.
But it still doesn't feel good. Like you're still not happy that you had to tap to this person right um but yeah you think the
energy requirement is through the roof because it's like i don't know if you played chess much
i i haven't played much chess but they're like there's so much strategy involved on top of it
being physical on top of like oh oh shit he's going for a knee bar oh shit now like
and it just the second he goes for the knee bar and the second that you kind of quote unquote
block it or counter it now he's going for something else and like you're on the defense
and you're trying to figure out how to get back on the offense and your your mind must be going
crazy the whole time you know let's be racing yeah no oddly enough though like initially i think
there are stages
especially when you're doing new or trying a new game in your jujitsu trying a different um like
let's say there's a there's a position called the daily heva and you've never done the daily heva
before when you're first starting to implement that in your game your mind will be racing you'll
be thinking a lot about it but then there comes a point where you've done it so much that your body
just moves and your your body just counters where you've done it so much that your body just moves and your,
your body just counters because you've done something so much with, with the positions
that I'm really used to working with. I don't have to think as much because when he does something,
my body automatically will do this and I'll just do this just because like, I know this well enough,
not like I've mastered it, but I've become proficient enough where my, I don't have to
think about it anymore. My body will move on its own to do that.
But when it does come to like doing something new or like trying to play a game that I haven't done before,
then it will be like I'll be in a position and my mind will be like, okay, so what should I try grabbing here?
Okay, that doesn't work.
Try this instead.
So that'll be there until I become proficient enough at it where I don't have to think anymore.
I remember seeing Hoyce Gracie, you Gracie in the first couple UFCs.
I mentioned this a bunch of times, but other people didn't know it was happening.
They didn't know Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.
It was like a big surprise when he got people and stuff and no one could tell what was happening.
But how calm he was on his back with somebody else on top of him trying to you know trying to
kick his ass trying to make him tap trying to choke him out trying to knock him out he was so
calm and i remember thinking how weird it was hoist he just like wouldn't even really look at
the guy at all like he just he would just kind of look off to the side and seemed almost like he was
like distracted or like in his own world or like did he see like a cute girl in the front row or like what, what's he doing?
You know, and that the announcer was like, you know, this is jujitsu at its finest.
He might look like he's not paying attention, but he knows exactly what the other guy's doing.
He knows where the other guy's feet are right now.
He knows where the other guy's hips are positioned.
He knows where both the hands are.
He's fully aware just because the bodies are in contact with each other and he's like you'll notice you know if the guy you know moves his hand this way
then he's going to do that the guy moves his leg that way he's going to do that so he had like
you know he's just strategizing he's down there strategizing but he looks like he could care less
about the hell's happening that's yeah that's that's the aspect of like looking away that you
just mentioned i i never really thought
about that really much but there are some times when when i'm rolling or i'll see cassio do this
i'll see other people do this we're not really even looking at your opponent you're just kind
of looking just somewhere off and your hands are just doing stuff um like sometimes i don't know
why but it just feels necessary at that point to feel it out rather than looking at your opponent
and stuff.
I don't even know why, but that does sometimes happen.
And that is in and of itself really, like, really, really cool.
It could be kind of stressing you.
So, like, let's, you know, I would be new.
I would be, you know, I'd be a novice.
I'd get destroyed by everybody there pretty much, right?
So I'm on my back, and if I'm not comfortable with what you're going to be doing to me or trying to do to me, then I'm going to want to lean up and flex my neck and try to see what you're doing, right?
And it's like, well, how long are you going to do that for?
Yeah.
If you even do that for a minute, your ass is going to be tired.
Yeah.
And you're probably going to get choked out or get in some other. This is amazing watching these old UFCs where Kimo almost threw,
or Hoist and Kimo almost went right out of the cage.
What I love watching about Hoist Gracie, though, too,
is a lot of these guys never get credit for being strong.
Hoist Gracie is strong.
I can't recall any UFCs where everybody knocked anybody out or anything,
but that's just another different level of strength
and there's different aspects there's different
levels of strength and the mobility
and the way he was able just to kind of
cling on to people and like just not
let him go
yeah he's like a bear
I could watch him all day I used to be
so fascinated even when he had those fights
he had some fights
that went like 28
30 minutes it's like everyone was so bored by him but i was like no whatever this is this is cool
i don't know what he's doing but this is neat when he went against uh uh ken shamrock and stuff like
that really really cool fights and hoist got beat up pretty good too which no one ever saw before
nice headbutt him yeah you know one know, one thing that I find that I
think, uh, like honestly, that's helped my jujitsu. And we've talked, we've talked about this too.
That's helped my lifting too. Whenever I roll with people nowadays, like I'll get a lot of
comments of people saying, dude, you look so uninterested or like, you just look like you
look like you're bored. You look like, you know, but it's just because first off I'm breathing
through my nose. I'm just like staying calm. Like my face is just really,
really calm.
And that's helped out a lot.
And I noticed that a lot with like hoist or whatever,
like in his fights,
his face is usually just pretty chill.
You know,
there's something to that.
And that's,
that's what I noticed the other day when I was watching Gaston,
he's prepping for a fight.
I think maybe like this weekend he was so calm.
And then I asked like, there was no like you know he's making some noise because he's like hitting the pads and stuff
but he also was like pretty pretty calm with that for how hard he's throwing you know he's not making
these crazy noises he's not like he's not there like looking for attention he's not mad he's not
and so i asked him you know this is, this was probably about five, probably about
5.30 PM or so. So he probably already been there all day. Like these guys, they don't leave the
gym. And if they do leave the gym, it's to get a massage or, or to get, you know, get some more,
get some more food or it's, you know, an active release therapy session. It's something, it's
something for fighting. You know, they have these 12, an active release therapy session. It's something, it's something for
fighting. You know, they have these 12, 14 hour days that are all devoted towards fighting
and I'm watching him kick and punch and he's just, yeah, no emotion, no real grit. He's just,
he's just throwing these violent shots. And then I asked him, I was like,
you know, what, what's it like at this point? And you have a fight coming up this weekend. And like,
you know, what, what's it like at this point? And you have a fight coming up this weekend. And like,
he's like, man, he's like, the training's done. I feel really good about my training.
I did the best I could. The fight's just the fight. He's like, I, you know, I'll win some of them. I was like, you don't really, you're not really anxious or he goes, I'm, you know,
a little anxious and excited to get in the ring again. Cause that's always fun. That's,
that's what I love to do. But he's like, I feel, I feel really good. I feel confident. I'm not
really worried about anything. I was like, man, that's, that's, it must be a nice place to be,
you know, cause he's had so many fights under his belt most time. You know, what if, you know,
you're in school when you're a kid and, and, uh, you know, you kind of get that old school,
see after school type thing. Right. And then these kids like face off.
I mean, you get really nervous.
You get really nervous when it's confrontation.
Right.
Yeah.
And now like this guy, like he just doesn't care.
He's prepared for it.
Right.
It's just the reps of like it's getting the reps in of competition.
Just like, you know, probably when you first started powerlifting and you knew you were going to go to the gym and do some heavy squats or whatever, it would really make it be nerve wracking a little bit because you're like, I'm about to get into this heavy weight and it's going to be tough.
But after you do that, like you get so used to doing that over time that it's not as bad.
It's the same thing with like my first jujitsu competition.
I was super nervous, but I was still nervous before my last few ones.
super nervous, but I was still nervous before my last few ones, but it was, it was a different type of nervousness because I've done so many competitions that I just didn't feel as,
as anxious about it. You know? So you think the nerves impacted you negatively at all? Like,
like, did you really feel like a crazy amount of nerves, like in your gut? And, or were you like
shaky? I wasn't shaky, but I felt some stuff in my gut until I stepped on the mat.
So it was literally like I was feeling it
and I was just like doing the best I could
just to stay chill like I usually do.
But then once I stepped on the mat,
it was just like things were good.
Like I wasn't feeling that anymore.
And I don't know what it is to that.
But I never looked at,
like I said,
I never look at nerves even nowadays. I don't look at it
negatively. I don't think it's, it's a negative thing. I think it's more so an excitement about
to like that you're about to compete. So it's not like I knew I put in all the work I needed to put
in. I trained as much as I could. I did everything I needed to do to be as ready as possible. So it
wasn't nervousness of not being ready. It was more so like, damn, it's here.
It's about to happen.
Let's get it.
Like it was an excitement for that.
I like that.
That's a good thing.
I like that.
I think you can kind of lean into that.
You know, you feel I've had that before where I've had some real nerves about a contest
or something.
And then I've, you know, I tried to like suppress it.
You know, I tried to be like, no, like the contest is like in a week.
Like, just don't even worry about it.
And then what I learned over a period of time is like, just like receive it.
Just accept it.
It's there and be like, hell yeah.
Like, this is awesome.
This opportunity is going to be so cool.
And yeah, like it's going to be stressful, but this is what you signed up for.
And you're doing so much preparation for it.
There's no other option. Like it's going to work out great. You've done everything that you could. this is what you signed up for and you're doing so much preparation for it. It, there,
there's no other option. Like it's going to work out great.
You,
you've done everything that you could.
And you know,
part of the reason why you play the game in the first place is because you're,
it is a roll of dice.
You don't know what each,
each day looks like.
Uh,
you don't know how you're going to show up.
And in your case,
you don't know how the other guy is going to show up,
but you try to show up the best you possibly can.
And you should feel good about that part of it.
And when those nerves hit,
just try to lean into them a little bit.
But sometimes you can have nerves that are like,
they can really crush you.
Like if you're doing,
if you're talking in front of people and then you are nervous.
And once you start to talk,
you recognize how nervous that you sound.
And then you're in a lot of trouble and you're like, oh, my God.
You know, this is not going well.
I've had some of that with speaking engagements before because I've done a lot of them.
But I've ironed that out.
You know, I'm usually pretty good.
But there would still be scenarios that would still scare me.
Like if I got a call from the Today Show to be on there or something like that, that would be new.
So I would be like flat out, not just have i'd be scared flat out scared uh however i think that i
have enough experience to where i'd be able to kind of it works through some things that make
sense enough for me to be able to uh make it through and i would probably look back and be
like god damn it i can i could do so much better than that. I need another shot, you know? Yeah.
But I've also experienced that in professional wrestling. And that actually happened to me a few times, you know,
getting in the ring in front of a few thousand people is a really,
really wild experience.
And what happened was, and luckily I was in a tag team match because a tag
team match gives you more rest, but I was in the opening.
They call it a spot. I gives you more rest. But I was in the opening, they call it a spot.
I was in the opening spot.
The opening spot probably just took about, I don't know, 90 seconds.
90 seconds is not very long, you know, but it depends on what you're doing.
Hit a heavy bag for 90 seconds pretty hard, you're going to be breathing pretty hard, right?
And so that's a little bit like wrestling, especially when something's going at a fast pace.
wrestling especially when something's going at a fast pace but what happened was i got so nervous and i got so overwhelmed that this energy dump like this nervousness it made me feel cold and
then like my legs weren't working like i was trying to like run the ropes i was trying to do things
and i felt like i had a backpack that weighed 50 pounds on my back. Wow. And I never experienced anything like that before.
So I got through all the moves that I got through.
And there was definitely a couple in there that were more sloppy than what I was used to performing.
And then once I got done with that and I actually tag teamed with my brother, which was pretty cool.
Once I got outside the ring, I was like, you need to breathe.
And so I started to like breathe. And even the ref came he's like dude he's like breathe he's like this is fun right he's
like this is fun right like he's talking they you know they talk and and they like wave their finger
at you make make it look like on tv that they're yelling at you or something but he's like this is
fun right and i'm like you're right it's fun okay and then i was fine but holy shit that hit me like a ton of bricks that's you know that's one thing like whenever you get in some of these
situations and let's say it's like your first time you forget to breathe like you forget to
actually breathe like my first jiu-jitsu competition like after after my match i was like
i was holding my breath so much like why am i so lightheaded right now it's because i wasn't
breathing is that that's so crazy that like the most simple thing is what you forget to do I was holding my breath so much. Like, why am I so lightheaded right now? It's because I wasn't breathing.
Is that,
that's so crazy that like the most simple thing is what you forget to do.
You feel like you're going to die.
Yeah.
When you're,
when you're learning new technique,
um,
cause you talked in the past about like visualizing a lot of stuff.
Do you have any time to do that?
Like day of,
or is that something you kind of take with you?
Like,
uh,
once you leave the,
uh,
the school and you start like visualizing like
oh shit this is where i didn't get it or this is where he got me that sort of thing yeah i usually
try and bring my camera with me so i can like see that type of stuff um but i will think about that
type of stuff later to see like how maybe we got there usually after the role though i know how we
got there because i i asked them like okay how how'd you do that or like what allowed you to get
this and usually they're good enough to be able to explain to me what happened. So
usually I'll just talk about it right then and there. But I mean, in terms of the visualization
thing, like it helps a lot, like, especially if I watch something on YouTube and I'm like,
I want to do it. If I can visualize that a little bit, oh man, once I go in and hit it,
it's just like, it's there. So that I do find that, that like, that's crazy how beneficial that is for, for this. And like, I wonder, cause for like,
I've never done public speaking like you have or anything in front of crowds. But when I like,
when I've seen like you and Stan do that, like, do you, do you yourself in the way that you go
about it? Do you have like, you don't have like a script or anything. You're just going with like what you feel needs to be put forward, right?
But I guess how would you, how would someone go about doing that successfully on their first try?
Let's put it that way.
Because I feel like that is nerve wracking.
I think maybe a couple things on that would be, number one, just realize you're
different than other people. You're probably not going to, you know, do the same thing that I do.
You're probably not going to do the same thing that Stan does. Stan and I are very different,
very, very different. Stan is meticulous with detail and he's meticulous with organization.
Stan does a lot of practice. He practices a lot of the stuff that he says.
When he does those rants, those are rehearsed.
Stan has a great, has a very powerful and strong memory.
And it's probably from how meticulous he is with organizing things that he's developed
it over the years.
So he could recite a study without any, you know, without having any trouble at all.
Whereas for myself, it's important
for me to understand that that's not a strength for me. And even if I rehearsed it, it wouldn't
be in my best interest to spend time there because it's not where I'm strong. I might be stronger
with a story. I might be stronger with sharing, you know, starting things out with a quote or starting things out with like
a fact and then leading people places. You know, I found that, you know, while doing public speaking
for a long time, it's always good to start out with a strong point of interest. Like what's
something now the people are coming here because they already know who I am. So that's another
factor. Now, if you're like,
if you're getting on a stage and you're kind of in competition, which it turns into a competition,
and there's other speakers, then you might have to deliver the message a lot differently. But I
would say some of the main things to think about would be, you know, are you a person that's pretty
organized and can you remember things pretty
well? Because if you're of that nature, then that would be a great place to start. You can kind of,
you can kind of write out almost like a script and have some ideas and have some plans on what
it is you want to execute. What's the message that I want to get across? And for someone like
yourself, it would just be like, if you're trying to if you're like
oh man i i don't know if i can talk like stan i don't know if i can talk like mark and what's
great is you don't have to you talk you talk kind of like from your heart and you talk and what i
mean by from the heart is like it's stuff that you're actually attached to on an emotional level
um could be an experience you had when you were young, how you, you know, played soccer and, and you realized quickly that, you know, if you were
going to play any sport that you need to be stronger and then you lift it or whatever the
story is, right? It's a story that you share. And then kind of on a, in a, in addition to that would
be, you know, just, just really trying to lean into, you know into where you're strong, the message that you want to get across.
For myself, it's usually maybe a little bit more motivational.
I'll try to share stories.
And Stan is going to be sitting in a lot of fact and giving you.
He did a presentation.
PowerPoints.
Yeah, he did a full-on presentation.
I think what gets to be hard about public speaking
is that everyone's trying to have a performance,
and it shouldn't be a performance.
It should be more of a conversation.
I would say that some of the most successful ones I've done
have kind of started out with like a quote or like a fact. So, I mean, let me try to think of a hypothetical real quick.
So what if you started out a seminar like this on nutrition? So it's six out of seven people
are successful with their diets. Six out of seven people have been shown in many studies
have been shown to be able to lose 20
pounds or more. Why is America still fat? And then you can kind of start in, you know, on that and
say, well, 95% of the people have been shown to not be able to hold onto that. It's not manageable.
So they did, they did a routine that they were able to do for a little period of time. And then
you can make sense of it all right right off the bat.
You can make some really good sense of it all and say, OK, you saw in these examples that these people were able to lose 20 pounds, but they gained it back very quickly.
So we could all agree, right?
Everyone on the same page.
We can all agree that it's going to take some consistency.
And if we're talking about consistency, now we need to talk about something that is sustainable
for you to follow right yeah and you can kind of lead on that now you got there's a bunch of people
there going god damn it i lost 20 pounds three times and i gained it back and then some every
time right yeah yeah that makes sense those little uh those little kind of tricks i think
uh would be would be good for people to to follow But even again, referencing back to yourself would be
you stick to where you're strong.
You talk about jiu-jitsu.
You talk about bodybuilding.
You talk about powerlifting.
You're not mentioning anything that you haven't tried or done.
You talk about your experiences with your clients.
I got this one guy out in Colorado,
gained 50 pounds on his deadlift,
and all we had him do was weighted back extensions or
whatever that experience is. And now it's like, well, that's not necessarily a fact. That's not
necessarily a thing where, but it's not anything anybody can debate. It's not a study with a
thousand people, but that's this experience for this one guy. And maybe you tried it and worked
well for you and it worked for some other clients. Like,
well now you really got some dialogue.
That's really powerful.
Yeah.
I call it a hitting base hits,
you know?
So like,
uh,
hitting base.
Yeah.
Cause like,
even when I pick up a camera to go do a photo shoot,
you know,
I,
I tense up,
I get nervous and it shows because like halfway through the photo shoot,
that's when the pictures get really good.
Cause I'm,
I'm opening up,
I'm loose,
but I,
I say like,
okay, let's just hit some base hits right now like let's get on base meaning let's get some
simple shots and then eventually yeah okay now let's we got runners on the field let's let's
hit a home run right now you know so like yeah if you come out the gate at a speaking engagement
you're trying to get the whole crowd to laugh like good luck dude unless you're joe rogan right
like that's probably not the route you should be taking. You might know the answer to this question, Andrew.
How does that same thought process relate to the Diaz brothers and how they fight?
I think you know.
I mean, I could take a wild guess.
Take a wild guess.
Are you just talking about putting the pressure on?
They don't necessarily go for a knockout punch every single time, but they're
going to jab you nonstop. I knew you
knew the answer, goddammit, Andrew.
Oh, okay. Yeah, because even though this
one-two punch, you have
to brace for it every single time.
And over and over.
It's like, whatever they can land, they're just going to take.
And you're like, that ain't doing shit to me.
But after a while, it will.
25 minutes of that and you can't breathe. And they're calm and they're snapping these punches. And you're like, these are't doing shit to me. But after a while it will. 25 minutes of that and you can't breathe.
And they're calm and they're snapping these punches
and you're like, these are shit.
This guy's so weak.
Like, what is he even trying to do?
But he keeps hitting you in the arm
and then you can't throw good punches yourself.
He keeps hitting you in the side.
And you're like, I think at first you're just annoyed
because he's peppering you with shots
and none of them hurt.
And you're like, this guy's a clown.
Like, I'm going to throw him on his head.
But he just keeps doing it and he keeps doing it.
And neither one of them get tired.
No.
But Diaz brothers are a bunch of savages.
Damn.
Yeah.
So like imagine just trying to brace for that hit
and then still trying to breathe to get your hit.
Like you just, yeah, you can't.
And it just does not stop.
So this is really cool what you brought up
because this brings up our next topic about nutrition
that we wanted to focus in on for today.
And it's like, what could you find to where somebody asks you about your diet,
somebody says, hey, dude, like what have you been doing different?
Because you look awesome.
Or I got a question, man, what do you do for diet?
Because whatever you're doing looks like it's working, Right. And what if you were able to tell the
person say, actually, you know what my, my, you know, you maybe describe the diet a little bit.
The next question from the person probably is going to be something like,
is that really hard to follow? Cause they're going to really wonder like,
man, and SEMA, you fast 18 hours on a lot of days, 16 on some other days, and
you mainly just eat later in the day. And that sounds, that sounds hard, right? So you want
something that you could, that you can follow. You want something that you can do. And so that's
probably why people ask that question. But like in your case, how hard is your diet?
It's, it's not hard. like i don't even look at it
as a diet anymore you know how everyone's like oh it's not a diet it's a lifestyle
at this like not really but you actually kind of sounded black at the end
but seriously
staying out of it
But seriously, staying out of it.
But but but like really like at this point, it's it's a lifestyle in the sense that, you know, I know what I can do and I know what I like.
I know what I can do and I know what I can't do. Like, for example, I know that I can't go buy a box of all-butter cookies and expect it to last the whole day in my house.
I'll come over.
No, but seriously, I know where my self-control doesn't lie
because there are some people that could buy a box of those cookies
and it'll last two weeks because they won't eat all of it.
How do people
like that even exist right exactly but i know my limitations and the fact that i know that i
if i buy it i'm gonna eat the whole box that day you know what i mean so like uh like i've built
you know i've tracked in the past which gave me a good understanding of food and not everybody
has to do this like you didn't do that but you you're at the same place but i'm at a place where i can eat however i want to eat every single day self-control um because i
understand what i can do what i can't do and what i how i can eat for myself to maintain my physique
and it's taken a lot of like mistakes it's taken a lot of experiences doing certain things that i
don't do anymore um to be able to get to this point.
But the main thing that is like, I think the biggest thing is like, what are the steps that
like, what are the, I guess the steps that everybody can put into their own life that can
help them get from that point A to a point B where now they're eating healthy every single day,
but they're not stressed about their next meal.
They're not stressed about food.
They're not stressed about their diet because it's just a way of eating that they enjoy and they like,
and it's part of their actual lifestyle.
I had to actually look up what butter cookies are.
Is this what you mean?
No, no, no, no.
Okay, so they're these cookies from like Rayleigh's,
and they're called all butter cookies,
but they're like, they're normal cookies,
but the texture and the consistency, it's like so gooey and just so good.
Like, that's the thing.
Like, you know, I know people who can just have it, but I have to eat the whole thing.
It's the kind of thing that would be impossible to put in your mouth without chewing on it.
And all the saliva that builds up from it,
it's just going to make the thing disintegrate.
Oh my God, yes.
The saliva is just going to make everything just fall apart
without you even trying anything.
Once you put it in there, it's done.
Ah, man.
Like, yeah, man.
I know butter cookies.
You know them, exactly.
But you see, with the way that my diet works at this point,
I can have some of those things,
but I know I need to have some other people who can take a cookie.
People are writing this down.
They're like, okay, got it, butter cookies.
Butter cookies, yeah.
So that I don't eat all six because I know myself.
I know that I will eat all six.
So if you really did want to eat something like that,
then maybe that's just something that you do when you go out to eat, you have dessert or you, you walk to a, or go to your
favorite place as ice cream or something like that. Yeah. I don't keep that. Like I just don't
keep that stuff in the house because I know where my self-control is strong and where it's weak.
It's weak with the, with the, the carton of ice cream. I won't just have a little cup and put it
in there. I'll take the whole thing.
I'm pretty bad with that too.
Even in terms of ice cream,
I realize that a pint of Ben and Jerry's is extremely dense,
but I'm going to kill that entire thing.
But even worse, if I was to buy the half-gallon thing of ice cream,
I would eat that whole thing too.
It's just like whatever serving I buy, I'm just going to eat the whole thing save here but see
that's why when you buy you let like do you buy that stuff i mean no i i i just i can't really
buy it unless unless i know for a fact that that's what i want to do yeah you know if i'm like hey
this is i'm committing to this i'm going to eat this committing to that just the way same way i
commit to you know getting on and sticking on the diet with a lot of uh like being regimented about it sometimes when
it comes to the the opposite side of that i i want to kind of just go after that in whatever way i
can so i got to make sure though that i'm not um i don't know eating like 15 different things that
way because i'm just going to go nuts i'm gonna go crazy you know let me ask you this mark with where you are right now
you didn't bother tracking or doing much of that stuff right what did you have to go through you
know when you started doing all this diet stuff to where you are now that you that you think like
helped you to actually maintain what you're doing now that, that helped
you like learn what you can do, what you can't do? Like, what are the things that got you from
point A to point B? Yeah, I think it's important to, for people to know that I've just been
lifting for a really long time. I've been into exercise a really long time and I've also been
into diet for a really long time. So I have been paying attention to
nutrition supplements. I've been paying attention to all these things for a really long time. So
by the time I got, you know, into my powerlifting career and then weighed 330 pounds,
um, it wasn't like I never really heard about how to eat before. I already had a good understanding
of like what to eat and especially probably a better understanding of like what not to eat before. I already had a good understanding of like what to eat and especially
probably a better understanding of like what not to eat, which I think is an easier thing to agree
upon. People will have a hard time agreeing on, you know, how much meat we should eat, if we should
eat meat at all and versus vegetables and people get nutty with that stuff. Right. So I think,
you know, where you'd want to probably start is to start to learn about food.
And a great way to learn about food is to look at nutrition labels.
A great way to learn more about food is to kind of pay attention to when you're in the grocery store, kind of pay attention to like how it's set up.
You know, a lot of the healthier stuff and they're, you know, the grocery stores are aware of this now, so they put unhealthy stuff there too.
But if you shop around the outside of the grocery store,
that's usually where kind of the meat is, the produce,
and you go down the aisles and that's where all the junk is.
And that's where all the stuff costs three cents to make,
but they charge six bucks for it or whatever, right?
Meanwhile, people are talking about how expensive the meat is. It's like in comparison, the markup on a box of cereal is insane versus
the markup on, uh, on some steak. So I think I would actually agree in a sense of like,
we should be looking at nutritional labels. We should have a sense of what does this have in it,
you know, and how much stuff is is that does it have a lot of ingredients
is this something that i want to be eating now that i'm in pursuit of trying to be healthier
where i think everyone should start because in my opinion if you've struggled with food in the past
and you don't have a track record of like being able to control yourself very well. I think that most people should start off with some type of exercise and, and something simple that you can actually,
that you can actually do, whether it be, you know, swimming, cycling, walking, hiking.
I don't even really care so much about the gym at first. If that's something that you like to do,
I don't even really care so much about the gym at first.
If that's something that you like to do, then that would be fantastic as well.
But I think that people just need to really work on moving more.
The next place I would go from there is, again, well, I'm sorry.
I'd start with the food labels that I mentioned before.
Learn about your food.
Figure out what walking or biking or something to that nature.
And then kind of the last element of it is you have to kind of get real with yourself and you have to have kind of a hard conversation with yourself
and say, you know what? I've been kind of gluttonous. I've been really just enjoying a
lot of alcohol and food. And like, I've been a bit of a pig, you know, like you're not trying
to like kick yourself while you're down or anything, but it bit of a pig, you know, like you're not trying to like kick yourself
while you're down or anything, but it's important that you, you're kind of honest.
Like if I'm being honest, then, then I've been eating too much over the last several
years.
So now you're gonna have to figure out, well, how, what can be an effective way to where
I can eat less?
If you just all of a sudden pull 25% of someone's calories out from underneath them
and told them to move more, that's going to be one of those people that's going to gain the
weight back. They might lose weight really effectively. They might lose 30 pounds in 30
days, but that's not the goal. That's not the game that we're trying to play. We're trying to
lose some weight and have a downward trend for a while until you start to feel more comfortable
about yourself and you start feeling more confident in yourself.
Then you can kind of audible and switch things up from there.
I think it's really important that you figure out what is this way of me eating less going to look like.
And that's where you can decide I'm going to track.
That's where you can decide I'm not going to eat any carbs.
That's where you can decide how you're going to be able to manage your calories on a daily basis.
The reason why I get frustrated sometimes on the calories thing is that I do think that it's pretty skewed.
But it is a level of measure.
We don't really have any other way of measuring it.
When you say skewed, you mean like it's like hard to get super accurate?
Yeah, it can be tough to be accurate. It can be tough to try to figure out like a level of calories that somebody exerts.
You know, what's your level of activity?
Somebody's like, mine's an eight.
And they're really like a four.
But they're just always tired because they're out of shape, right?
So I think some of those things are a little bit of guesswork.
It doesn't mean that they don't work because you can still, you'll still end up at some point landing on a energy amount that makes sense
for somebody to continue to have progress losing weight,
but you're going to have to figure out what is going to be a way that's going
to be effective for me to drop weight.
If weighing stuff on a scale frequently seems to be something that's really
going to annoy you and it doesn't seem like it's something that you can do,
that does not even mean that that's no longer an option for you.
Because if you get in practice of doing that
and you start to learn what the calories look like
for a piece of chicken versus a piece of steak,
you don't have to do it forever.
It may be in your best interest to do it for a while so you learn it,
but you don't have to do it forever. It may be in your best interest to do it for a while so you learn it, but you don't have to do it forever. There's also some options of getting meals from some of these meal prep
companies or not the best option, but like getting stuff certain sizes from the store,
even like a hamburger patty, like a hamburger patty that's already like in patty form is going
to cost more, but it's already in the shape of a patty. It already has X amount of calories. It makes counting your calories really,
really easy if that's something that you want to do. But for me personally, because I've had such
a background in food and nutrition and kind of understood what it was going to take to lose
weight, I never bothered with it. The only thing that I weigh all the time is myself. That's how
I track whether I'm eating too much or too little.
To me, it has always made the most sense to me.
I made the comment before, you know, if I had a bucket that I carried with me and somebody poured water into it and I walked around with it and then I poured some water of it, and I walked around, someone poured more water into it.
You can think about the water representing energy, energy, energy out, right?
Am I going to continue to weigh what went in and what went out
and sit there and try to calculate it?
Or am I just going to weigh the bucket?
So for me, I've always just weighed myself.
That's kind of my look at it.
And I also understand the reason why people do track. That's where you came from. That's kind of my look at it. And I also understand the reason
why people do track. That's where you came from. That's your background. And you used to be really
hungry, right? You used to have like a ferocious appetite. For myself, I've been pretty fortunate.
I get hungry and I can eat. And if I allow myself to get pretty hungry, I can eat pretty good.
But I think in general, people would be kind of disappointed with the amount of food I can eat. And if I allow myself to get pretty hungry, I can eat pretty good. But I think in general, people would be kind of disappointed with the amount of food I can eat.
It's really not, it's nothing like right home about. It's not super impressive. I'm no furious
Pete, that's for sure. And so maybe it fit your personality better. You're probably a little bit
more organized than me and stuff like that anyway. I've never really been that way. And so it's
going to have to be something that fits your personality, your environment. It's going to
have to fit into all aspects of your life. Yeah. You know, one thing I really liked that you
mentioned is that like the people can just like look at, they can look at labels and kind of
understand what's in the food they eat because Because once a person starts doing that and they start to understand relatively what is a lot and what's a small amount,
they'll start to look at that bowl of cereal a little bit differently.
Like, okay, oh, wow, a cup of Frosted Flakes is 50 grams of carbs.
Wait up.
I'm having like four cups of that every single morning. I'm having 200
grams of sugar with my bowl of cereal in the morning. God, right? That's crazy when you
actually start to realize how much it is. So that's why I think that I don't like it when
people only start to do meal plans. If somebody were to give somebody a meal plan, I don't like
that that much, especially when someone's just starting out because yeah,
like you mentioned, they can lose that weight. They can stick to that for a while,
but they haven't really built a back end, you know, in the back of their head and understanding
of what's going in. Meal plan might be like you're having some oatmeal and some egg whites
in the morning type of thing, but it's not really saying like amounts and it's not necessarily the calories aren't worked out type of deal.
Yeah. The calories aren't worked out. They don't know what the amount that's in it.
So they'll lose weight on the meal plan, but when they stop the meal plan, they don't really have
any type of understanding on how to maybe do it on their own or how to hit those calories with,
with the different types of foods. So that, that's one thing. And that, that's what, something that really helped me with
tracking. But the thing about my personality that comes in line with why I was, even when I was
tracking, I was having such a voracious appetite was because I still had some of the habits of like
snacking here and there. Right. So I would, I would have a meal and I would have
multiple meals throughout the day, but after that meal, I'd always have, I'd always want to eat a
little bit more. So I'd eat that meal and maybe I'd find a little bit of something else. Um, and
then I'd have my next meal and maybe I'd have a little bit of something else. And then I have my
last meal and a little bit of something else. And even though I never really got crazy out of shape,
I wasn't ever feeling like I was in control of my hunger or I had control of this stuff.
I think one of the big habits that helped me to be able to control this was just making sure that literally everything I ate was full meals, like was literally just whole foods.
And I know myself well enough that I know that if I do keep snacks around,
that I won't eat a small amount of them. Like they just don't work for me.
Did that come from bodybuilding? Was that the experience through bodybuilding where it was like,
if we're going to eat, it's for fuel and it's to build muscle?
Yeah, that was that during bodybuilding. Like when I was in prep though, there was much more focus.
You know what I mean? Like when I was was eating to help with getting bigger and powerlifting, I didn't care about snacks.
I'd eat them because it was going to help me get bigger.
You know what I mean?
It was falling within my calories so I could get bigger.
But for bodybuilding, there wasn't much room for snacks in terms of the amount of food that I had access to.
And let me explain that just for a second to everybody.
of food that I had access to. And let me explain that just for a second to everybody. A big reason on why there's not room for a snack is because if you don't have the right combination of
macronutrients and micronutrients, you're going to really feel like dog shit. So yeah, you could
have a snack here and there and probably wouldn't necessarily hurt anything. But if you're having enough snacks that it's pulling you away, it's deterring you from eating some of these meals, you could really be sabotaging yourself on not getting the quote unquote gains with a Z.
Right. And you could also be sabotaging yourself from just not having the right nutrients and not feeling good and wanting to be
hungry and having a ton of cravings. Yeah. Like I could totally make, you know, these cookies fit,
like they'll fit my macros for sure. But then when it comes to energy during my workout or when it
comes to cravings later on during that day, because I maybe didn't have enough fiber to fill my
stomach upside felt fuller. I'll then maybe end up binging because now I'm
super hungry. It's not a good call. Um, so like outside of bodybuilding, I was able to make that
stuff fit, but like I B because like, I still had that habit of snacking on stuff and having small
stuff around. Um, it caused me to like maybe always be in a little bit of a surplus or never
feel really in control of my appetite, you know?
I think in our reference, what we're referring to too with snacking, I believe you're referring to the same thing, correct me if I'm wrong, but we're referring to pretty much processed
foods.
Yes.
Right?
We're not talking about-
An apple.
Yeah, we're not talking about eating an apple.
We're not talking, because like, I actually do think that that's a pretty good practice.
I've had friends and family and other people try this before.
Before they leave work, they have a piece of cheese or some type of cheese that they like and they eat an apple.
Because a lot of times somebody's, you know, it's 430, it's five o'clock.
They leave work.
By the time they get home, you know, they had to get gas in the car.
So I have to do it in the next morning and and so on.
By the time they get home and by the time they eat, it's been a really long time before that last meal.
And sometimes their hunger just overrides every good thought that they had
towards their nutrition and towards their health.
And so a snack that is like not processed food,
something that's fairly healthy,
can really be something to help keep you on your path.
So just keep in mind when we're referring to snacks
and we're talking about how important it is to get rid of snacks,
we're pretty much talking about processed foods and stuff that comes in like a package.
Yeah, no, totally.
So like that's why I don't do any of that pretty much
because I know that that'll just keep my appetite going throughout the whole day.
Then another thing also was having
times where like, I just focus on eating. So it doesn't need to be a 20 hour fast, but fasting
has helped me a lot in the fact that like we've mentioned this, it has helped me understand how
to be okay feeling a little bit hungry, you know, cause I feel like, especially if you're going to
go from being 300 pounds or a really high weight, right? And it took you a long time
to get there. You're not going to want to feel hungry or you're going to feel really, really
uncomfortable when that happens. So I think one thing, a habit that fasting has helped me a lot
with is becoming friends with the feeling of being hungry every now and then. And some days I don't
fast by the way. So it's not like I'm fasting every day, but I don't feel like my hunger is in control of my actions, right? Because a lot of times when you're trying to diet,
a lot of times you fall off your diet because you're just plain hungry.
I like that a lot. Your hunger is in control of your actions. That happens to people all the time.
It happens to me all the time. And I also think that fatigue is something you got to be really
careful about too. A lot of times your sleep times your sleep can be compromised by the foods that you eat.
I mean this is fact.
Like it can be compromised by the food that you eat.
And if you become unhealthy, many, many people that are unhealthy have just crap sleep habits.
Many people that have crappy sleep habits have heart attacks.
I mean it's that serious.
Heart attacks, diabetes.
that have crappy sleep habits have heart attacks. I mean, it's that serious, the heart attacks,
diabetes. You know, I don't know if there's been a link to cancer, but like cancer seems to be.
There has been.
Well, there you go. Cancer seems to be something that is linked pretty highly to different amounts of stress. And unfortunately, we still don't know how some people get it. They can get it
through all kinds of crazy exposures to different things. But I would imagine that if you can sleep better, if you can eat better, if you can have some better habits, that maybe you kind of stand a chance of like fighting some of these things off.
But snacks, man, that should, that would be the first thing to try to really fix.
And let's just say that you, like, love snacks more than you love anything in the whole world, right?
What we could do, you could still fit some snacks in there.
And I think the diet that Nsema and I have landed on, my brother kind of landed
on the same thing and we did it through such different ways. He was tracking stuff. I never
really messed around with that that much. But the easiest diet in my opinion is to utilize
intermittent fasting with a diet that's primarily a carnivorous diet. Like the main thing in the diet is meat. There can still be rice.
There can still be potatoes. It's like, it's like the only like way that I know how to like not be
on a diet. Like it doesn't feel like a diet. Um, and maybe someone can kind of say like,
if it fits your macros or somebody's other diets feel the same way because there's room for some
of these other foods. but I still don't
really love the idea of like measuring and weighing and, and, and being attached to an
app on my phone. Like just shoot me. I'd rather, I'd rather be out, you know, than, than to have
to mess around with that. So if you're trying to find like a cheat code, if you're trying to find
something that, that can work really, really well for you, you know, again, keep in mind, like there is no, there's not necessarily a magical thing that you
can do where you're going to be like, oh my God, I lost, you know, 20 pounds in one day or something.
And that's not even a goal. We're not trying to lose weight super fast, but just kind of keep in
mind that, you know, if you want to try something that doesn't feel like a diet, try intermittent
fasting with a primarily based
carnivorous diet. And if you still love snacks so much that it's your favorite thing, have them at
the end of the day when you already met your requirements for your micros and whatever
nutrition you needed for the day. Yeah. Yeah, no, totally. You got it all in and you want to have
some potato chips. You got it all in. You want to have a potato chips. You got it all in. You want to have a Quest bar.
You got it all in.
You want to have milk and some cookies.
It could be anything as long as it's not every night, as long as it's not all the time.
Look, if you could do this and you could have two cookies and a glass of milk later on in the day
after you got all your other requirements in,
you exercised, the negative impact that that's going to have,
I would imagine, would be pretty damn minimal.
Yeah.
Oh, go ahead.
No, I was just going to ask you, like, when you were tracking,
did you ever get, like, anxious when you were doing it?
You know, this is something that a lot, like, yeah,
a lot of people talk about.
Yeah, a lot of people get really anxious because it's like,
oh, I have to track this.
Or, like, they just, it really just messes with them mentally as far as food's concerned.
Personally, no, it didn't.
It didn't make me feel anxious, but I can understand.
I can understand having anxiety when it comes to that because there's like, yeah, I can understand the anxiety aspect of it.
because there's like, yeah, I can understand the anxiety aspect of it.
Plus, I mean, it's important too.
Like he's had a long history in exercise too.
Like even before you got really, really into diet,
you were already training for a few years probably,
and you were already like into it.
So I think that's a big difference. Like some people that we talk to,
sometimes they're completely coming from nowhere.
They haven't really ever explored any of this.
So it's like it's all so damn new to them.
And it's like, man, I feel like I need to move into your fucking house, man.
Like I need to help you that much.
I need to, you know, especially like just something like going shopping.
It's really complicated.
You hear, oh, yogurt's great for you.
Like shit, well, is it?
Like if we start looking at labels, do i get the non-fat one because it may be may have less calories but
it has more sugar or i get the high fat one depends on what road you chose like what road
are we going to go down now those things can be nice too because they do have all the information
on how many calories it has and stuff but it's uh there's a lot of tough choices out there man
it's not easy yeah because i mean we're essentially like like telling people like
or trying to give tools for people but like when it comes to actually like tracking and
counting your macros and stuff like they can go the opposite way right it can but i really think
that we need to know why we're doing it before we head in. So first off, when it comes to someone who's
like, let's say they're trying to lose weight, right? Let's not say gain weight. Let's say,
let's try like a lot of people, they're trying to drop body fat. They're trying to drop weight.
The first thing is understanding that it's, there's going to be a lot of habits that you're
going to be, you're going to have to change to do this successfully in the longterm. So the changes
you want to make or changes you want to make for a long time, because most people, they can drop the weight, right? But they're not able
to keep it off. They always end up gaining it back. So the changes that you're trying to make
right now, you're trying to make them for the long term. If you're going to take the route of
tracking your macros, the first thing that I typically try to tell people to do, especially
if they've never done it before, is let's not change a crazy amount of things in terms of what you're eating.
Let's not even have numbers we're trying to hit.
Let's just learn how to just track what you're eating.
So eat the same things.
Some things.
OK, let's not F with anymore because that's just bad.
But let's eat these same things and let's just track it so you can have an understanding of how much food you've
been intaking, even if you're wrong here and there, let's just do that. Um, and then from there,
cause tracking is frustrating. When I first started tracking macros, I remember how frustrating those
first few months were. So every, every time I tell someone you're about to learn how to track,
I always let them know this is going to be frustrating, kind of bit of annoying,
and you're going to fuck up quite a bit. Because that's kind of how it is.
But after they get the hang of that, then they can start hitting benchmarks and then they can actually understand what's in these portions of food, which I think that's a pretty big deal.
And then understand the calories it takes to drop.
But I think the biggest thing, Andrew, what was your exact question?
I think the biggest thing, Andrew, what was your exact question?
It was just if you ever got anxious when you were tracking and, you know, kind of, but you just kind of said it like how you got to warn people.
Like, because this could actually kind of set you back a little bit once you realize like, oh my gosh, like I got to try to eat under this amount of like, I can't do that. Yeah. Yeah. So like in most cases, I don't really, I think it's just because it's learning how to do something new and it's almost a little bit invasive. Like, cause now you're, you're having to weigh certain foods, et cetera. I can see how it can be a bit of a hurdle, but everyone that I have track, I tell them the reason you're doing this is so you don't have to do it later. Right.
reason you're doing this is so you don't have to do it later. Right. Right. Some people, some people that I work with don't track at all just because their lifestyle doesn't fit it. Let's just say
they're like 50, like, yeah, actually tag deep. He's 50 something years old, travels around for
business a lot. He does not have time for tracking and all that type of stuff. So then we just go by
portion sizes and taking out all the beers at night that you have and all like that type of
stuff. And boom, we're moving forward. But some people,
it is really beneficial.
I believe for the longterm because the short term,
okay,
yeah,
this is going to be something that we're going to do,
but it's a learning experience.
That's all I look at it.
It is.
I used to think when I was tracking in the past that,
Oh yeah,
this is something I'm gonna do for the rest of my life,
which is why I'm really careful.
And when I say those,
like,
so say those types of things like this is what I'm going to do for the rest
of my life.
Because like, I would hate to have to track every single day now.
But the thing is I built that understanding so that I don't have to.
And I learned, like we've mentioned, in terms of snacking, I don't do that anymore.
All my meals are meals, right?
And in terms of the fasting, okay, I don't have to fast 20 hours every day.
Some days will be 14, 15, 16 hours.
But I've now built a habit of segmenting the times I eat to certain periods of the day, not I'm grazing all day and eating all day long.
I think that's one big thing that a lot of people do.
So it's just like if you had that habit and the habit of not snacking, that would cause
you to move forward even without tracking. Yeah. Let's just say that you, uh, were curious,
you know, and you're sitting there thinking about, you know, I, I just, I would love the
opportunity to figure out how to make more money. And you know, what if you just, so, but what if
you sat down and actually really thought this out? Like, how am I going to make more money?
And what if you thought to yourself,
well,
shit,
like I don't really have like a,
a skillset that's like that I can just sell,
you know,
you know,
training.
So you can sell that,
right?
So people know they know something,
their mechanic,
they could sell that.
They can make money that way.
Um,
but some people,
maybe they don't,
they're not sure.
Right.
So when you sit down and you think about it,
what's going to be a way that I could make some good money?
Well, maybe a way to make some good money
would be to become a photographer or videographer
or be able to do web-based stuff.
Look, everyone has a website nowadays, right?
So learning the internet, digital marketing, right?
So you might start to kind of like,
what's something that I think I could actually do? And then like, what else would fall in line with figuring out ways to make more
money? How about I maybe try to find some people that make some good money? They probably have
some good insight in how to make more money. Maybe I'll hang around with those people.
You start to put strategies into place. And the main thing that you're doing is whether it's, you know, you want to be a personal trainer or whether you want to
be a manager of a restaurant, what you start to put into place is a strategy on how you're going
to be able to acquire the proper knowledge to match up with wherever you're going next.
It's like you need training for it. And so what you're saying with the tracking, I really like,
and I never looked at it that way before.
Maybe I'll stop hating on it so much.
But that really makes a lot of sense.
That actually really makes a lot of sense.
It's like, you're going to hate me,
but I'm going to make you track for the next several weeks
because we really need to know what you're eating.
We need to know at what level.
And more so than you as the coach knowing what the person's eating, they need to know what they're eating and they need to have the skill set to be
able to like fix themselves.
They want to, you know, they go away for on vacation and they were following a diet and
they lost 20 pounds, but they gained like 10 of
it back. They just went, they just went, they went for it. Right. Well, now it's like you hope that
you gave them some of the skillset to where they can get back on track. They can remember, oh yeah,
all right, fuck. I need to, I need to track again. I need to get back on schedule and I need to get
kind of back into the things. So really just just it's trying to figure out how can you acquire more knowledge, maybe learn about a couple different diets because maybe not eating any carbs just doesn't sound like it makes any sense to you and it's nothing that you want to try.
Look into some different diets.
There's a lot of options.
And I'm not going to even – we're not going to go too deep down this road.
We mentioned sleep a little bit.
We've talked about sleep on almost every single podcast, but you know, I was just talking to, to a person about this recently. Like she has cravings all the time. And then I was like,
Oh, cravings. Well, okay. Let's, let's just talk about this. How much sleep do you get a night?
Four to five hours, you know? And like whenever I get like minimal sleep, I have cravings and that,
that, that's being in shape. That's, you know, working out, that's having good dietary habits.
I start to get, not just wants, cravings. So like another one of the big habits that you're
going to need, if you're going to be able to go on a long-term change in terms of your protocol
for your food is to get enough sleep, because that's going to help you in terms of your protocol for your food is to get enough sleep because that's going to
help you in terms of these cravings that pop up all the time for you. If you're rested and like
your hunger hormone ghrelin and your society left in all of that, if it's in line, then you're not
going to be having to fight against your own biology to stay in shape. Cause if you don't do
that, you're going to be trying to fight against like systems in your body that are telling you
to have foods that you know you shouldn't be having.
You're making your job harder for yourself.
Yeah, we do hammer the sleep, but it is important.
It's a critical element.
And what you said earlier about is very truthful.
You said there's going to be a lot of things that you're going to need to change in order to be in order to be able to kind of, you know, have the
weight loss be more permanent, you know, again, to lose a couple pounds and to lose it quickly,
we could change one or two things and you could lose some weight, but like, we really need to
instill some strong disciplines that are going to last for a long time. And so when you start
to think about, oh man, I need to, you know, change a lot of myself, it gets to be really frustrating, gets to be really, really hard.
But it's just like one thing at a time, you know, just work on one thing at a time.
For myself, some of the things that I had to fix over the years, you know, number one was I needed to try to figure out how to get a handle on cravings.
I needed to figure out how to get a handle on cravings. I needed to figure out how to get a handle on carbohydrates. Um, not, you know, not potatoes, not rice, but you know, stuff that
tastes really, really good, like pancakes and, uh, peanut butter cups and ice cream and all that
good stuff. I need to figure out how to get a handle on that. So my, you know, my weapon against
it was just to not eat it. And it ended up working out really,
really well for me, but I would have never known if I didn't try it. I think for yourself,
something that has helped with the hunger suppression has been fasting, which sounds
completely counterintuitive to what you think. But it's like, if we, you know, if we go almost
the opposite direction sometimes of, of what we think, sometimes we get
a really, really good result because the discipline of it is it's a challenge enough to where it's
kind of exciting in a way. Like, I think I could do this. And you hear the other people do it. So
you're like, that guy is not better than me. That girl's not better than me. I can figure this out.
Yeah. And there you are, you're, you're, um, you're on your way. But the main thing for me or two main things for me, you know, was fixing the issue with the carbohydrates.
And then the second part of it was fixing just kind of just shitty sleep.
You know, I would sleep like crap and I'd wake up and I'd wake up in the middle of night and I watch TV and I would just eat.
nap and then I'd wake up and I'd wake up in the middle of the night and I'd watch TV and I would just eat. So one of the tricks that I did though, one of the things that I did that worked really
well, it took me a long time to get my sleep. Uh, and I'm still always a work in progress with it.
Um, one of the tricks that I did was I would make a protein shake, I'd shake it up and I'd leave it
in the fridge and it had, it had a little bit of heavy cream in it it tasted really good
it wasn't this insane amount of food or anything it was just a protein shake it was a lot less
damaging than what i was doing before yeah i was like if your fat ass wakes up and i even have
stairs and everything i shouldn't be you know you figure like going up and down the stairs would be
like at least somewhat of a deterrent but yeah i was like if your fat ass wakes up and you want
to eat something just have the protein shake and so things like that, it took a long time to be able to
get there, but I made it. Yeah. No, that's a, that's a really like, that's a really good
trick in and of itself. Eat more protein. Like that, I guess if we're going to make a list of
this sleep, don't snack. Uh, what else was there? Something else become friend or eat at certain
times and protein. If you just eat a lot
of protein, even before your meal, you're going to eat less food. You know what I mean? If you
have a protein shake before you have a meal, let's say you feel really hungry, right? If you snag up
and you drink a protein shake, shoot, you're not going to want to have whatever it is you're about
to have. I do that quite a bit, especially when I'm going to go to sushi. When you know you're
going somewhere where you're going to eat a lot, you can eat a lot more food,
a lot more overall calories than at something that you really like. Right. Yeah. So, you know,
have even let's just say you were going for Italian food, like most Italian food is going to
be going to have fat and carbs and it's going to have a big surplus. So maybe you can have, um,
not, not the most appetizing thing in the world, but maybe you have a chick, a piece of chicken
breast before you go. It's like, you know, now when you go, it's going to be that much harder to,
uh, slug down a ton of food. Something I'll do here and there is just eat egg whites.
I just eat cause I get hard boiled eggs and I don't like the yolks in the, in the hard boiled
eggs. So I'll just eat egg whites. I know some people are don't like the yolks in the, in the hard boiled eggs.
I'll just eat egg whites.
And I know some people are like, oh, all this stuff's in the yolk or whatever, but like
I don't really dig them when they're hard boiled that way.
And so I've done that a bunch of times.
I eat three or four of them and it's like, that's not going to make me full, but it gives
me a little something.
And then, you know, by the time I go eat, I'm actually still digesting that.
Yeah.
So I'm not in such a frenzy and then um i think it's super important because i'm sure and seeing we've
heard like from somebody you've been working with like oh i messed up on my diet like i was doing
so good i was on such a good uh you know i was i was on a roll like now i gotta start all over
again and then they might fall off but like how important is it to like learn from a
setback you know like i had mentioned on the other uh podcast the other day like i had a really big
meatball sandwich and it was delicious but i felt like crap afterwards so now i definitely don't
want to eat that again but other people might look at that and be like oh i'm you know i'm a piece of
shit again because i ate bad so i'm just to keep going down this road because that's just who I am.
I think if you're someone who works with people, you just got to let them know that first off it's going to happen.
Just like whenever I tell people, okay, this is going to be really frustrating to start to do and it's going to suck and you're going to mess up multiple times.
It's the same thing with the whole diet process.
You will binge.
I really hope you don't, but you
will. And just understand that when it happens, we're cool. I'm not mad at you. Um, but you got
to also be cool with yourself and understand that you can just get right back on it the next day
because I've binged multiple times too. You know, you know, it's going to happen. Um, that's why I
don't go for perfection. Like I want to go hard and I want to make it happen. I want to do as well
as I can, but we're human, right? There's going to be a night where maybe you only get three hours of
sleep because something stressful happened. And then the next day you're compromised and you're
like, ah, I want to eat this and you eat it and then you feel bad, but you literally just got to
get back on it because that's going to happen. And it's not like you've lost all of your progress.
Slow down a little bit. It's not a big deal. Yeah. I think it's important too that
us. Slow down a little bit. It's not a big deal. Yeah. I think it's important too that probably you probably want to try to do those things later in the day. Well,
it's probably not the greatest thing to eat a big meatball sub and go to bed.
But in general, I think that those slip ups and those binges, they probably happen for most people
later on in the day anyway. But I that the next day you know feels a little bit
like a reset feels a little bit like a new start um and you know what too like i think sometimes
and this is a really slippery slope but sometimes you just got to let those cravings just come on
let's let them happen just let them let's let them be and like feed the craving yeah just feed it
yeah like i was talking about with uh some of the fighters we were watching earlier.
You just let them get all that shit out that they want to get out, right?
What is that thing inside you that's driving you so hard towards that?
And then maybe you could even have a little bit of a strategy behind it.
Maybe say, hey, I'm going to exercise like this this week.
I'm going to implement some fasting.
But at the end of every night, I'm going to have a piece of chocolate. I'm going to implement some fasting. But at the end of every night, I'm going to have a piece of chocolate
or I'm going to have some ice cream or I'm going to have –
I don't really see harm in doing that.
I don't recommend that you start anything out that way.
I think that it would be a good idea to get some momentum going.
But maybe you're craving like a burrito.
Maybe you're craving some pizza.
And again, maybe you utilize some intermittent fasting
and maybe your first meal after some of your fasting is some meat. So you're still eating
something that is going to be nutritious for you. And maybe the last thing that you eat is a couple
slices of pizza. But if you had some meat or you had something beforehand, hopefully it will fill
you up enough to where you don't eat 75 slices of pizza. Exactly. It's like diet jujitsu, man.
to where you don't eat 75 slices of pizza.
Exactly.
It's like diet jujitsu, man.
This is sick.
But, yeah, not that. Yeah, you need technique, man.
You need counters, right, to everything that you're about to do.
And then also, too, like, you know, just I think that this is a huge mistake,
you know, is kind of like binge.
You know, you binge on something and then you punish yourself a ton for it.
We talked about that before where that's like a form of bulimia.
I do think the eye for an eye approach, like, hey, you know, you ate a lot,
so you should exercise a lot.
It makes some sense, but just because you ate a lot in that one day
doesn't mean that you have to try to exercise it all the way the next day.
I mean, if you were to eat like five Big Macs or something, I mean,
you're going to be exercising a lot to try to work off that amount of calories, right?
So it doesn't really make any sense. And that's not anything that's sustainable.
And if you overwork yourself the next day, you're overtrained. If you're overtrained,
you're going to be fatigued. And if you're fatigued, you're going to have cravings.
What if you train so hard the next day because you're upset with yourself, because the way that you ate, that it overstimulates your central nervous system.
What do we know about that? Well, that negatively impacts your sleep. So now your sleep is screwed
up. You had four hours of sleep. You had a stressful day. Your kids are paying the ass,
works hard, right? And now you're just, you're going to, your defenses are down. Your hands
aren't up anymore
and now you're just going to be like oh you know what i'm gonna have a piece of cake i don't care
and you're just gonna kind of like you're gonna start to fall apart so you don't want to ever
really try to overdo any one thing um even when it comes to like fasting you can what's your
behavior like like if you if you try a 72 hour fast i think, you can, what's your behavior like? Like if you, if you try a 72
hour fast, I think it's also important. What's your behavior like the next 72 hours? Um, I have
a lot of, a lot of friends that will say, oh yeah, you know, I fasted 24 hours and, but they're like
two days later, I found myself, you know, elbows deep in some ice cream, you know, they were just
going, they were just going at it. And, um, that's something, it's just, it's just a lot of awareness. It's a lot of, let me just,
let me, you know, remove myself from a life I had before where I wasn't paying attention to
the stuff I was eating and let me get a good, healthy relationship with paying attention
to what I'm going to consume now. And let's have most of the things go towards my goals rather than most
things pulling me away from my goals. If you can kind of get in a, you know, 70, 80% range,
then you're really starting to head in the right direction.
No, I totally agree. You know, one thing is like, like you mentioned, the awareness aspect of things
and figuring out exactly the best things that, that work really, really well for you, because
for the longest time, even myself in terms terms of, let's say, carbohydrates, right?
Because I knew the function that they could, especially for high-performance athletes, be used as a form of energy.
So a lot of high-level athletes eat a lot of carbohydrates.
So in my mind, when I was doing a lot of these things, I was like, there's no way.
There's no way that if I could eat 200 grams of carbs or. I was like, ah, there's no way there is no way
that if I could eat like, you know, 200 grams of carbs or even less than that, that I'd perform
well. I always never thought that was possible because I'd always be hearing like these high
level powerlifters or high level just athletes being like, oh man, I don't have my carbs.
I feel like a zombie. I can't, I can't do it. Right. But then I was like, you know what,
let me just give it a try. Because sometimes when I eat excess carbohydrates, I feel a little bit like I feel a little bit sluggish if
I don't work out. So let me see how I feel doing exercise with that's 150 grams of carbs or
something that day or some, some number like that. And I felt fine. Like, like, especially when I had
a closer workout sometimes, or even fasted now, I feel fine. I think like, you know, you got to experiment
and figure out maybe for those specific athletes, maybe it's true. Maybe they can't get by without
eating a lot of carbs. But for me, like now I don't eat that many carbs each day. I don't need
to because it doesn't really affect my performance in that crazy of a way, you know? So like that
works for me, but that might not work for somebody
else. So throughout this whole diet process that I've been on for these, whatever, seven, eight
years, there's all these little things I know work really, really well for me, but just because they
work for me, it doesn't mean that they're going to work for you. So that awareness aspect of things,
knowing what you can get away with, knowing you can have some things in the house that going crazy,
or, you know, you, you,
you don't have to fast to be able to like, you know, maintain whatever you'll have to figure
that out for yourself. Although again, the fasting is, can be really beneficial, I think, but like
one more thing for myself, there was a point where like I was fasting so long every single day and I
was getting really, really, really lean, but I was like, oh, I'm taking this a little bit too far.
I'm getting too lean right now.
I'm going to just increase my window and eat a little bit more food because I don't feel as good being this lean.
So I had to figure out where I should back off from that a little bit and have a little bit more control with that fasting.
You know, you can get addicted to any of it.
As crazy as that sounds, You can get way into it.
And you kind of get excited, too.
You're getting leaner.
You're like, this feels great.
And then after a while, it doesn't feel great.
You're like, whoops, went too far one way.
Something I was just thinking about while you were talking about some of the different pitfalls and some of the different things you ran into. I think it's, you know, each person has their own challenges and each person has
just a different day than everybody else. And they have different negative influences,
different positive influences in their life. And sometimes you don't always have people,
you know, around you that are on board with what it is that you're doing, you know? And so
it's like, man, I can really be really hard. You know, I I've been very fortunate. Um, my wife is
super supportive of like almost, almost all of my behaviors, whether they're not great or, or
whether they, or whether they're more positive, you know, she's has been pretty supportive, uh,
on many, many fronts. And she understands that, like, if I make a decision to be a little bit
more meticulous with my diet, cause I feel like my diet's kind of a forever, uh, evolving thing.
It's a moving target. I move it around. I try different things. Um, I might try keto for a few
weeks just to kind of restart and get myself back in that mode. I might be back on carnivore. I might
be eating more fruit at a certain time. I just like to try stuff.
I continue to try stuff.
And so my wife is supportive and she understands the weirdness.
The kids understand it too.
And it doesn't bother them one way or the other.
I can still take them to whatever restaurant they want to go to.
And if that restaurant just doesn't have anything for me to eat, I just won't eat anything.
I'll just drink like an iced tea or just kind of like chill.
And it doesn't bother me, though, because I'll just eat before I leave the house.
I'm full enough.
I feel good.
I had my nutrition.
I had the food that I needed.
And now it's just their turn to eat.
So that's really important.
But if you don't have that, that's got to be tough.
I would
imagine you'd have to have some sort of conversation and tell your significant other, you know, here's
what I'd like to do. And here's why, like, I, I really don't feel very good about myself. And I
would imagine that most people, if you told them that you don't feel good about yourself and that
you're kind of upset with yourself, you you're heavier than you want to be. If you kind of upset with yourself, you, you're heavier than you want to be. If you kind of laid all that
on the line, then I can't, I can't see a scenario where they would be negative on that.
You would hope. Yeah. Like you would definitely hope. I think that's something that if you're
with somebody and you are trying to take this leap, you do have to communicate that to them
so that they know maybe that they could help you out. But I wonder what kind of,
I guess, what kind of help would you tell somebody if, because there's a few people I actually know
that are in this situation, them and their significant other aren't in the greatest of
shape. They want to take that move forward. They are taking that move forward, but their significant
other continues not to really support them, right? How do you then, how do you deal with that move forward, but their significant other continues not to really support them.
Right. How do you then how do you deal with that?
Like you're married and your significant other is not you.
You're getting healthier. They're not really that interested in that.
They don't really they're not supportive of that.
I mean, they're not doing anything to make it harder for you, but they're not necessarily making it easier.
Nor are they even on that path. Right.
How would you what kind of advice would you give them?
Because honestly, I don't know what to tell somebody like that.
Yeah.
I think, unfortunately, I think when it comes to a situation like that, you would have to
say, well, I think, you know, we might need somebody else to step in because I don't understand
why you're not in support of what I'm trying to do.
And then, I mean, before that, before you get to that point,
before you're like, hey, let's go see a therapist,
I think what you should lay out there is to say,
this is what I'd like to do,
and this has nothing to do with me being unhappy with you.
I'm not trying to become a different person to be with somebody else,
because that might be their fear.
They might think, oh, shit, well, he's looking all good,
and he's feeling great about himself.
And now his secretary is checking him out or something like that.
That might have like a fear of maybe they're worried that other women check you out or something like.
All kinds of crazy things happen when you're in a relationship.
And jealousy is a really crazy, powerful thing.
So I think that that would be the important thing to share is like,
I'm not trying to like be anybody else.
I just am not happy with where I'm at right now.
So I'd like to try to figure out a way to make progress towards this.
So I just feel better so I can be more productive,
so I can be a better husband,
so I can provide more for everybody in the house.
And so I can, you know,
go outside with the kids and play with them and that kind of stuff.
Might have to like, you know, you might have to figure out a way to
be more reassuring. I think a lot of times in relationships and I think men are maybe a little
bit more guilty. They just don't really say much. They just kind of like do things. And I think the
female might be like, huh? Like why are you doing that? And so I think it would be important just to,
and you know, I've learned, we just, wife and I just celebrated 19 years of marriage and
I've learned that it's really just important just to, uh, uh, just flat out, just say it,
you know? And, and anytime I ever thought like, oh, I don't know, I don't know about,
I don't know about saying this or sharing that. It's always actually made everything a million
times better.
There's never been a situation, you know, where she's like flipped out on me because of something.
You know, so it's just your fear of like,
I don't want to say that to them.
That might hurt them.
That might really bother them.
But I think in this case in particular, it's like, man, just lay it out there.
Tell them what you want to do.
And if they're that negative about it and they really like want to sabotage and everything, then I think
maybe you have a larger problem. And one more point is that my wife, while she's been supportive,
she doesn't like follow the exact same diet. And she also is not going to like cook every meal for
me and stuff like that um you know i i
have certain foods at my house and i just i cook them up um but she's also just super understanding
but i think it's because she knows that my goal is like she might be cooking dinner and she might
have been like working on something you know she might be cooking something for the whole family
and i might be like cooking up some eggs just because i saw whatever she had and i'm like i'm not that's not where my diet's at right now so i need to eat this
and it's never like it's never to hurt her or to shit on anything she's trying to do it's just like
that's not currently what i'm doing i'm not going to bother asking you to do anything extra for me
so i'm just going to do this and i sit down and I eat with the whole family, but I eat something different. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Actually, let's say this. I'm curious about what
you'd have to say to this too. Let's say that, you know, you, you guys are maybe have both been
in shape and then one individual starts to trend down building unhealthy habits. They're getting
out of shape. You notice it,
you know, it's like kind of getting an issue. How do you voice that to them to help like to try and get them to bring it back? What is the best? How would you, because I know there's so many
situations that, you know, you could put this forward, but how would you go about that? Because
probably a lot of people would probably deal with that too. Man. I think, you know again i think trying to trying to address things as straight on as you can
in in my case you know i know my wife really well i know that she loves swimming
i know that she loves to feel good yeah i know that she loves to be in shape
um and i i know what it means to her so if if I saw something that was, um, if it was all stuff
that was normal and there was just like a progression of like weight gain, I guess I
probably would just, I probably wouldn't even question it. I probably wouldn't even address
it at all. I'd probably just be like, I don't, you know, I'm not sure what's going on, but,
but I would imagine for her to gain weight, especially at this point, there would have to
be like a real change somewhere. So if I, so if I saw the change, I would imagine for her to gain weight, especially at this point, there would have to be like a real change somewhere. So if I,
so if I saw the change,
I would probably want to address it and say something, the effect of like,
I know you don't like, you don't want this for yourself. You know,
at least that's what I think. Like, I don't, you know, I, you know,
and it's hard, hard to really bring up, right.
It'd be really difficult to bring up, but you could say, I know that you probably don't enjoy this,
so let's get you back on track.
Let's figure out a way to get you back on track.
Something I've noticed that has helped a lot of people get back on track
is to find something old that you used to like to do,
and maybe you can start doing it again.
Maybe you really love to walk or jog
or you used to have a group that you used to go
and cycle with on the weekends.
Or just find, if you can find that thing,
whatever that thing was that you used to like to do,
and if there's not anything there,
then you'll have to probably just kick off a new habit,
which will be really hard, right?
But if you have something kind of older
that you'd
like to do, then I think that would be, um, you know, that would be an important thing.
I'm trying to think like in terms of, you know, when I've gained a lot of weight,
you know, my, yeah, my wife, she didn't, she knew it was like, it was sort of for power,
the thing. I mean, I took it probably too far, but, um, she never really had anything negative to say there. I do think
that sometimes in those cases, or many times in those cases, it takes somebody to say something
negative that they didn't even really maybe mean to hurt somebody. I'm not saying to do this in
your relationship, but I've seen this come from like somebody outside the relationship where they say something mean,
another family member says something really like rude, but they didn't mean to be rude.
Like, oh, you look different, you know, or something like this, like where you're like,
whoa, like they didn't, they just, for whatever reason, they couldn't, they couldn't keep their
mouth shut, you know, or, or they just word something the wrong way at the wrong time.
And it's devastating
however i've seen people really flourish from that where they where they're like you know what
i'll make that fucking bitch eat those words i'll make that person eat those words right and so it's
an unfortunate thing when somebody really hammers somebody with something really negative um but
sometimes it can help and you know it's probably going to come from like mom or it's
probably going to somebody else in the family's probably clean that up for you yeah wow they'll
come in and do the do the damage for you well i think i had like yeah no there's so there's there's
a lot of good stuff in there i like uh so with your diet you know we started out kind of talking
a lot about this in terms of rate of ease, right?
It's just not that hard for you anymore.
You also, over a period of time,
you start to acquire a stronger kind of skill set
in abstaining from certain foods.
You get more used to it.
You get more comfortable, so it gets to be easier and easier.
So now you could say on a scale of 1 to 10, the diet's like a five, like maybe, um, maybe once or twice a day,
you think about, Oh, it'd be kind of cool to go to this place and eat that food or whatever, but
it passes and you're, you're totally fine with it. Yeah. Um, what is your diet right now? Like,
what do you usually eat? Is there, um,
is there certain things that are just like out of bounds that aren't part of the plan,
uh,
for the moment?
Like,
are you eating like meat and vegetables and fruit,
like eating rice,
potatoes,
what you eating?
Yeah.
So just go over the food I have in the house.
I have ribeyes.
I have some,
um,
other like leaner type of steaks.
I have salmon in there that I'll eat like every few days.
I have liver. I have eggs, hard boiled and like straight eggs. I've got milk A2 for like some
protein. What else? I have spinach, vegetables. I have some oranges, but I also have orange juice.
Some of this stuff is like from the vertical diet. Let's see what other bananas sweet potatoes potatoes um
did i mention anything others in meats or carbs all the stuff all the stuff you mentioned by the
way tastes fucking awesome yeah yeah like it really does it does it tastes it tastes great
i have rice the the bibigo stuff from cost. We've mentioned that before. The brand is Bibigo.
It's this sticky rice that's just absolutely phenomenal.
You guys should grab that.
So that's great.
In terms of food, that's...
I mentioned salt.
No, in terms of food, that's pretty much it.
Like I keep...
Oh, I have pork belly too.
I get bacon every now and then.
And yeah, like I keep, like nowadays,
like my food is like super simple,
but it's really, really good.
That it's literally like that.
Yeah, so it's whole foods for all my meals.
I don't have any snack foods in the house.
Do you eat like two or three times?
Like I know you mentioned you backed off a tiny bit on some of the fasting,
but is it usually like you get home from jujitsu at what time?
Depends on the day.
So Tuesdays, Thursdays, I'll get back from jujitsu at like eight.
So I'll usually have a really, really big meal after that.
Some of the days before jujitsu though,
I will have like a meal a few hours before jujitsu so I can get in a lot of
like, you know, a lot of the micronutrients I need to be getting in during the day helps me get that
in. Also carrots, by the way, carrots are there too. Um, and avocados, sorry guys. So, uh, yeah,
going back to that. So like some days it is one big meal depending on like how, how busy I've been
during the day. Most days it's two meals. That's pretty much how it is.
It's rarely I'll have three meals during the day, but that's fine too. If it happens,
it's not like I'm straight off the diet. I just, maybe like maybe on a certain day,
I don't, I think maybe it was yesterday or the day before I decided to eat earlier in the day,
like I decided to eat at like 10 or 11 AM and I just had three meals that day. So it's, yeah.
Right. That's how it is. I mean,
this is really simple, but people just need to spend a lot more time not eating. Yeah. But you know, like really when I think about this, the only reason why this is so simple right now is
because there are certain negative habits that I don't have anymore that allows me to do this. So
maybe for some people, this does sound kind of difficult, but at this point for me, it's not difficult at all. It's just like, I don't, I don't have, you know, cravings for certain things. I don't graze and eat throughout the whole day. And because of that, that's why this is so easy to do. But back in like maybe a few years ago, probably would have been for more difficult for me to go so many hours without having anything to eat. You know, that would have like, that would have been a no, no. I'd have something in my pocket or something in my car that I can go and snack on.
It's my belief that in life that people need stuff to look forward to.
It's such a powerful thing that it even keeps people alive.
You hear sometimes a spouse dies and then it's not too long after the other one dies too, right?
And a lot of it has to do with
like something to look forward to sometimes grandkids can help keep grandparents alive
longer and things like that what is it when it comes to your nutrition what is it you're looking
forward to like what how are you able to stay on this plan like you mean like what am i looking
forward to in terms of like your food hey your food yeah like how are you able to like it doesn't
like for somebody listening right now they're like this guy's an idiot man i can't
fucking i can't fast for 20 hours i can't fast for they're like i can't even uh make it through
the night without being starving in the morning so what is it that you're looking forward to
with your food that is allowing you to kind of handle this almost on a daily basis i think it's
maybe i would say maybe the heft of like the next meal.
First off, like I know like I'm probably going to go eat like a ribeye with a few eggs. There's
going to be some avocados, some carrots. There's also, yeah. But like eating all of that and
there's probably gonna be some pork belly tonight cause I'm defrosting that. That's so freaking good.
Oh my God. Yeah. That if I think about it right now, after this podcast, I almost want to go home
and make it now, but I'm probably just going to eat it later.
But anyway, it's just the meal is so good and it's so hefty.
I know how good it is that like that's what I look forward to in terms of that meal.
I don't know if that sounds weird to some people.
But like, yeah, that's what I'm looking forward to.
That's what I was trying to set you up for.
I was trying to set you up to say that specifically.
And you're 250-ish pounds. I'm
250-ish pounds. This is something that like for maybe some people that enjoy food, that like food,
this could be your thing that you could look forward to. I get to get home from work or from
a long day and I get to just eat the hell out of whatever, you know, not whatever foods you want,
but whatever foods that you have set up for your nutritional plan. And I think the foods that he mentioned are all dead on. You're not going to
get yourself in a point. Now, keep in mind his activity level is, is probably quite a bit higher
than most, especially because of the jujitsu, but pull the jujitsu out. And then maybe you would
just pull out a little bit, a little bit extra food, right? Maybe, maybe, maybe you'd change out
how lean the steak is. Maybe you'd change out
the pork belly or maybe you'd eat less carbs. You'd make some sort of movement somewhere.
But you get the general idea of like, you got most of your stuff done for the day. It's five,
six, seven o'clock, whatever time it is for you. And you get to go home and like go to war with
your food, you know? And if you're eating two meals, you know,
you're eating at eight
and then probably eating again at like 10.
Yeah.
So it's like probably takes you from eight
to like 8.30 to eat.
And then it's like, you got an hour break
and you're cooking again, you're eating again.
So again, it's like, I think it's really important
that people have something to look forward to,
especially when it comes to the nutrition
is how the hell are you going to stay on that plan?
Maybe for some of you listening to this today, maybe it looks like that you're going to have
a cheat meal here or there, you know, but like the cheat meal thing can just be a really
slippery slope.
If you have awesome food in your diet already, you just don't care about a cheat meal as
much.
You really don't care as much.
One thing that we never address
on this show because we very rarely talk about it um most of us we don't really drink that much
you know we don't have drinks all that often do you have drinks here and there i had a beer last
night what but like that's the thing it's just the way we find out andrew yeah i'm really surprised
no it's funny you mentioned that no but the thing is like like before i had that beer last night i was going with my girl i was like you know what
shoot i want a beer tonight but it was like what maybe two or like a week and a half since i had
another beer or something like that so i don't drink often but sometimes like like last night
i was like it's been a while since i've had a beer you got a beer at this meal that's pretty much it um but i would say like there are people
like alberto alberto loves his beer and his ipas like he's a beer connoisseur like i think he'll
have almost a beer maybe almost every single day but he's in really really good shape because he
knows how to handle that with his food so i do think that there is a way to handle that those
waters um in a healthy fashion um but like i just don't do it that often
where like it's it's it matters i would say that like getting drunk probably doesn't really fit
into uh a nutrition plan all that well i've been drunk in a long time yeah like getting like you Like, you know, like, shit.
Maybe I can think of like. I think I was there.
Yeah.
It's awesome.
At the Arnold with each other.
But like maybe I can think of a scenario where it fits in to get pretty drunk like once a month or once every, you know, like there's really not a lot of room to be like really pounding a lot of alcohol.
What I would suggest that if you do like to drink is that you try to set it up for like
a specific day or days.
But I would, again, I would treat it like the snack.
I'd have it at the end of the day, have one or two and try to get your ass over it.
the day, have one or two and try to get your ass over it.
Um, you know, there's just not going to be, there's not going to be a lot of like junk stuff that's ever going to be part of any nutritional plan and alcohol.
Unfortunately it's, it's a poison to your body and it's something that your body doesn't
even want to deal with anything else that's going on in your body at the moment.
It wants to metabolize the alcohol.
So your body's like, Hey, like let's hold off on that fat burning that we're
going to do. Let's hold off on all these other activities because we have to figure out like
what the substance is that's in us that's making us laugh and making us act silly right now. So
those are just some things to think about. And I would say like, if you're, if you're trying to
make some room for it, I drink here and there with my wife. I try not to drink all that often.
I would say the amount of drinks I have in a month, maybe three, something like that.
Yeah.
It could be as high as four.
It could be as low as like two.
It just kind of depends on what season it is.
But I also take MindBullet too, which sometimes helps me when we get these weird situations where you're surrounded by a lot of family members.
And you're not sure how you're going to deal with them without alcohol.
So I sometimes will reach for that.
You guys know what I'm talking about.
Or use the Mind Bullet potion, which has been hitting your boy for the past three hours.
This is good stuff, man.
We're going to podcast all day.
Yeah, we could.
We could.
Just hit that MindBullet potion.
MindBullet.com.
We got some shit to hit up right here.
We got some white strong sleeves coming out in mid-September.
Those look awesome.
They're knee sleeves and elbow sleeves.
We're also tying in a special with that as well.
So look to all that coming soon. Follow along on MB Slingshot on Instagram. And then also,
this is something that we just shifted to more recently. We recognize that a lot of our
international shipping orders, people have been complaining for a very, very long time.
shipping orders. People have been complaining for a very, very long time. And so we wanted to remedy that. We wanted to cut back on the shipping rates. The shipping rates would average $35,
sometimes even $40, which is just like, man, when you look at that total,
you're getting off that website, right? You're not ordering shit, right? So we have $15 flat rate shipping to anywhere in the world,
and it's also $5 flat rate shipping domestic.
And in addition to that, if you spend over $100,
you get free shipping to U.S. and Canada.
So hopefully that helps,
and hopefully we get to more people all over the world.
Strength is never a weakness.
Weakness is never a strength.
Oh, wait, there's a meat too, right? September, did we have the day on Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength. Oh, wait. There's a meet, too, right?
September.
Did we have the day on that?
Sunday.
September.
10?
September.
I don't have the date.
Oh, wait.
Let me look at my phone.
You won't.
My phone will tell me.
Hold on.
And then also the Ed Cohn shirts.
Oh, yeah.
Cohn shirts.
I don't know when Ed Cohn shirts are dropping.
I believe that's Thursday.
We need to gather more information. I thought we just had this. We don't know when Ed Cohn shirts are dropping. I believe that's Thursday. We need to gather more information.
I thought we just had this.
We don't even know.
I don't even know.
I-O-E-N-O.
Let's see.
Okay, September.
Probably September 8th.
Probably Sunday, September 8th.
That's the day after my birthday.
The meats aren't on.
Your birthday is September 7th? September 7th, September 8th. That's the day after my birthday. The meats aren't on. Your birthday is September 7th?
September 7th, 1992.
Damn.
Fell on Labor Day that year.
Damn.
My little Quinny, her birthday is on the 6th.
Really?
We were so close.
I know.
I didn't even mention this on the podcast, but this is a whole other podcast.
I'm alone for the next 10 days.
Oh, my goodness.
Yeah.
The wifey is out of town.
The wifey went to Greece.
I think she went with her boyfriend, but she said she's going with a bunch of girlfriends.
Oh, you guys just went to Italy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Oh, wow.
Man, poor Marky Moo.
I know.
I think I'm just going to eat In-N-Out Burger the whole time she's gone.
Welcome to my life.
You like that plan? In-N-Out, yeah, going to eat In-N-Out Burger the whole time she's gone. Welcome to my life.
You like that plan? In-N-Out, yeah, all day.
I don't know, but I don't know what to do with my kids. I'm all by myself.
Wait, oh.
She just went to Greece and
it's you and the kids?
And the kids
just started school and everything?
I'm going to cut them off and pick
them up and all that stuff.
It's going to be fun. Ed Cohn shirts this Thursday. at school and everything. I got to like drop them off and pick them up and all that stuff.
It's going to be fun.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
Ed Cohn shirts this Thursday.
Yeah, the 29th.
Yeah.
Cool.
Look for that as well on markbellslingshot.com.
Strength is never a weakness.
Weakness is never a strength.
Catch you guys later.