Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1109: Build Muscle & Strength with the Farmer's Walk, How to Cycle Between Cutting & Bulking, the Truth About Meal Replacement Shakes & MORE

Episode Date: August 31, 2019

In this episode of Quah, sponsored by Organifi (organifi.com/mindpump, code "mindpump" for 20% off), Sal, Adam & Justin answer Pump Head questions about the best way to cycle between cutting and bulking, the unseen benefits of the farmer’s walk, powder-based meal replacement shakes, and maintaining a healthy relationship with money Sal shares his love for ‘simple’ candy. (5:40) The importance of staying hydrated and the value of having a ‘vessel’ (like the new MIIR flasks) to carry around with you. (11:32) How blue light affects our sleep and health. (19:03) Justin has a CRAZY rat problem and landed on the best solution... (30:07) The future of war is here! US issues cyber-attack on Iran. (34:08) Why are the guys so excited for September 10th?? (37:14) Schools implementing ‘phone-free’ policies, phone addiction, distracted kids, how we consume information & MORE. (40:11) #Quah question #1 – How to know when you are ready to start a cut? What is the best way to cycle between cutting and bulking? (48:44) #Quah question #2 – What are some unseen benefits of the farmers' walk? (58:34) #Quah question #3 – What are your thoughts on powder-based meal replacement shakes and the meal replacement concept? (1:05:35) #Quah question #4 – You talk about the importance of one’s relationship with food and exercise, how does one maintain one with money? (1:12:06) Related Links/Products Mentioned MAPS OCR Launch Promotion: Discount code “OCR30” at checkout August Promotion: MAPS Prime & Prime Pro ½ off!! **Code “PRIME50” at checkout** Visit MIIR for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Why Athletes Should Be Avoiding Harmful Blue Light Visit Felix Gray for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Blue light has a dark side Barn Cat Adoptions - The SPCA for Monterey County The US hit Iran with a secret cyberattack to disrupt oil tanker attacks the same day Trump almost authorized military strikes Apple will launch iPhone 11 on Sept. 10 in Cupertino Bill Burr: Paper Tiger | Official Trailer | Netflix Schools are making students lock their phones in pouches to prevent distraction MAPS Strong | MAPS Fitness Products - Mind Pump What Caffeine Does to Your Body And Brain Human breast milk may help babies tell time via circadian signals from mom Visit Organifi for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code “mindpump” at checkout** Winning the $1 billion Mega Millions jackpot won’t make you happier, but it will make you more satisfied, study finds Was Michael Jackson In Debt Before He Died? A Look At The King of Pop's Finances Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Bill Burr (@wilfredburr)  Instagram Danny Matranga | CSCS | BSc. (@danny.matranga)  Instagram

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this super exciting episode of Mind Pump, so of course we talk about fitness health, nutrition, fat loss, muscle building, but we also cover current events and our own personal lives. Ooh, we do that stuff in the first 44 minutes of this episode, it's the intro portion. Here's what we talked about.

We started by talking about our favorite candy of all time. I brought some candy for the guys here at the studio. Yeah, no Reese's cups, though. Trying to get the fatter they get, the leaner I look. Then we talked about the new Mir Thermos Cup that we got, it's a double wall vacuum insulated thermos. It's phenomenal, it says, stay authentic on it.

It's amazing. Mir, of course, makes phenomenal products, the best mugs, cups, and thermoses. And we are sponsored by them. So if you go to mirror.com, that's m-i-i-r.com and use the code mind pump, you'll get a full 25% off your order. So a full quarter of the price of your order will be at waived with our discount. Then we talked about blue light studies. So studies on blue light, how it affects our sleep, athletic performance, and how it can be potentially connected to cancer

through reducing our melatonin production. Now, one of the easiest ways you can protect yourself from the effects of blue light at night is to wear blue light blocking glasses. Now, our favorite company is Felix Gray. They are one of our sponsors. They have blue light blocking glasses that are not orange. They're clear, but they're powerful.

They still block the blue light, but you don't look like a dork wearing orange glasses. Yes, thank you. So here's what you do. Go to Felix Gray Glasses. That's Felix F-E-L-I-X. Gray is GR-A-Y. Glasses.com-for-sash-mind-pump. And you'll get free shipping and free returns on the Felix Gray glasses that you choose.

Then Justin talked about his brand new pet. It's a cat. Now. But it's designed, it's designed to kill all the rats in his backyards. It's got a little bit of crazy cat. A little murder. Then I talked about the cyber attack that we did towards Iran for shooting down one of our drones.

Apparently, we kicked their butt from behind our desk. He's glad, huh? Then we talked about how the new iPhone and Bill Burr special coming out on September 10th, that's gonna be a great day. We talked about how phone pouches are being used in schools to lock kids' phones so they could focus better. And then we get into the fitness portion of this episode.

The first question, this person wants to know, when you're ready to start cutting. Like how do you know it's time to cut your calories and get leaner? And also, what's the best way to cycle between cutting and bulking? So we've talked about in the past how intermittently increasing your calories

will help you in the long term burn body fat and vice versa, how that may help people who want to build muscle. So we talk all about that in that part of this episode. Next question, this person wants to know what all the benefits are of the farmer's walk. Farmer's walk is an exercise that we have in a couple of our programs, map strong being one of them.

What are the benefits? Does it help you build muscle? Does it make you stronger? And what parts your body does it work on? FarmersOnly.com. The next question, this person wants to know what our thoughts are on powder-based meal replacement shakes.

There's companies out there that are saying that their shakes can replace meals. There's even one company out there that says you could just have their shakes and never eat real food again as crazy and insane as it sounds. Some people are doing this. So we give our educated opinions on that. Don't be an idiot. And the following, the final question, this person wants to know what we think about having

a healthy relationship with money. Now I know we're trainers and fitness enthusiasts, and we're not experts. But we're so much more so. We're not experts in money at all, but there are a lot of, a now comparisons between how you are with food, how you are with exercise,

and how you might treat money. It's right there in front of us. Good relationships, or good relationships and pathological ones are still bad. And so we give our opinions on that with money. Also, one day left, that's it. This is the final day for the Maps Prime

and Prime Pro 50% off sale. After today, the price goes up, it doubles. And I won't go down again for a very, very long time. I remember Maps Prime teaches you how to prime your body before your workouts. Now, priming is like warming up, but much, much more. First off, it's individualized. So you take a test in the prime program,

it tells you what parts of your body you need to focus on, what movements you need to do to prime your body properly. It improves mobility, gives you greater ranges of motion, helps you activate more muscle fibers. In other words, a good 10 minute priming session will make your current workout far more effective. Now MAPS Prime Pro, well that's all about correctional exercise. If you have aches and pains, mobility issues, poor posture, you need to get better at your

squats or deadlifts, your overhead presses. It may have to do with the mobility in your shoulders, your hips, your knees, your wrists, your hands, your feet, maybe even your neck. While Maps Prime Pro addresses all those areas and teaches you how to apply correctional exercise to get better movement and less pain,

that program is also 50% off. So here's what you do for both Maps Prime and Prime Pro for the discount. Go to mapsfitnisproducts.com and use the code prime50. That's PRIME50, no space for the discount. Do you guys know what this is right here? I'll make this sound so the audience knows. That's a bag.

Yeah, it is a bag. See what's in the bag? Wow. Candy. Fucking candy, but it's not just any candy. How dare you, we're a fitness. It's the real, yeah, I know, dude. You know what's funny?

Once why I have candy? You are, and I think, so I used to have a candy addiction, and I've openly admitted that. But if someone is going to buy a box of candy at the airport, this guy, you, or organic fingers. Or yes, it's candy. You know what's funny? I have candy.

You never do. Never. Like maybe once just us. Once every like a couple months or something. Well, once every, I mean, we fly a lot, right? So we probably fly at least 10 to 12 times a year. And I would say every second or third flight, I can, you walk over, you're like,

hey you want some? Yeah, I don't be like, I'm gonna start burst. Yeah, something fruity and chewy. But see, they never have the good stuff because the good stuff is too old-school and cheap. Like, see what's in this bag right here? I'll pull the first one out.

It's like, well my grandma would give me. But that's the good shit. Here's the first one, the word, there's originals. Butter Scotch. Oh yeah. Look at Doug right now. Look at Doug's face right now. He's happy Dude, I went through Scotland trying to find this butter Scotch. Look here. That didn't exist No butter Scotch discs so my grandma and by the way, I eat candy very annoyingly if you've ever watched me eat a hard candy Not like that. You know how are you supposed to eat a candy? You're supposed to put your mouth let it dissolve right?

Not me, dude in my mouth to to to no no Choo choo next one choo choo so I can eat it like it's oh you are candy like that like it's food Oh, that is a second. Yeah, no no you suck it. Come on. Did you guys suck it now look at this one? This is the one that got Adam all excited the barrel the barrel you saw this in a barrel. Look at this. Oh, yeah Dad all you dropped it dads Dad's root beer candy. Yeah, nobody makes that anymore. That is good And here's the other one. This is one of my favorite. I know a lot of people like this Don't give me a lafytaffee. Oh you do banana lafytaffee. That's the best

No terrible you don't like banana lafytaffee. What is banana candy? What is go to her? Huh? What is root beer? It's root. It's, is it Doug? Do you want root beer or a butterscotch? Root beer, bro. What, what gives root beer flavor? Sausperilla. Yes, sausperilla. It used to be sausperilla root.

I don't think they make that anymore with sausperilla root. Is that, is that true? You just threw it. You can buy a sausperilla. So here's a deal. I don't know if it's true, but it came out of my mind and my mouth. I might have Doug check up on it.

Yeah. Am I right? Yeah, what is root beer made out of? Well, it did start as desperate. Are there actually a licorice root? Oh, it's a lic, oh, see, no, that's, now you think of it say that. It does have like a black licorice kind of aftertaste. Mm-hmm.

Maybe, let's see, why is root beer called that? It's got cherry bark. Wow, it went to green. Vanilla cherry bark, winner-gastis. Oh, last is... Licorice root, there's, okay. I think the last one was a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of Nobody drinks root beer anymore, do they? I had root beer. I do. I'm on this right now. What's the, uh... This is the best fitness podcast in health that anyone's ever heard of, right? So, I don't know if I told you guys, you guys haven't asked me about this in a long time. We just talked about the show quite a bit. Oh, dearest.

About my diet co-condition. Um... I gave up, that's why. Yeah, well, I've kicked it ironically. Maybe because you were bugging me, I was like, fuck, Sal. I'm gonna have a diet call. I'm gonna leave him alone.

I'm making him drink more. You are. So, my personality, too. The fucking Tommy-Dream-Di-Coke, fuck you, I'm gonna have a day call. Oh, I am gonna leave him alone. I'm making him fat more. You are. That's so my personality too. The fucking Tommy Drink Day, fuck you, I'm gonna have another one. I told Justice it's not bringing it up anymore. Yeah, you made a pact.

So I haven't had one in like forever, right? And I made the switch first to the like La Croix and like the kind of. I stay away from that because it's French. Yeah, the, the, the, the, the, I can't pronounce it right. Yeah, really. It just sounds all like you know,

pretentious. Yeah, yeah. So I switched to those first and I guess it's just the carbonation that was the thing. It tastes like water that was dreaming about strawberries. It tastes like it. It's a very hint. Yeah. Well, it worked.

It got me away from it. And then when I have a sweet tooth now, I keep like a, I buy them in six packs. I have the Hanson's real cane sugar root beer. Oh, that's not bad. That's actually not bad version. No, it's, yeah, yeah. So I'm like, if I really want,

if I'm like really craving the sugar or really want, Dad's is the best though. No, no, no. You're like, Dad's, oh yeah, they're good too. And W all day. Yeah, they're good too. Yeah, but this is a little bit better for you. Why?

Cause they use real good, Henry Wine Hearts. Oh, that one's, that one's. No, I haven't had that. Oh yeah, that's a little more adult. No, and you're right, nobody has a group of your floats anymore. Oh, I do. What kind of a father am I? I haven't even given my Q1.

That's it. We had that for my oldest, his birthday. That's what he wanted for instead of cake. We did that. That's like pure, it's so much sugar. Oh my God. Oh, man. Maybe I'm a good father.

Yeah, that's why. It's terrible. It's like mainlining them. No, I was in Campbell and there's this candy store called, what's it called here? Rocket Fizz and you walk in there. Oh, man. And they've got all these old pictures and stuff on the wall

and candies that you can pick from. And because it's a candy store, you can find candy that you don't always find. Yeah. And I'm the biggest, I love cheap, shitty candy the most. Like I like those long skinny rolls of the little circle. It was sweeties. Oh yeah.

I like simple candy, sugar and maybe a little bit of color and I'm good. You know what I mean? Then I'm sat like the pixie dust, dust ones or you'd like, you know, eat it with a sugar scooper. Yeah. I was like a hard sugar scooper. Pixie sticks were the lasiest candy I've ever heard of in my life. Just sugar.

Sugar and straw. Hey boss, what do we do with all this leftover sugar over here? You know, it's throwing a straw. You boss, what do we do with all this leftover sugar over here? You know, it's throwing a straw. You can throw some food coloring on it. The leaf that shit, you know what I mean? Anyway, do you guys see our new cool water bottles over here? Dude, they're gorgeous.

It's badass. I know. I'm pretty excited. So I think we talked about, what do they, they're flasks? My Andrews throw me that. We can, this is from a video and we're all boy. Oh boy, hold on. Well, I mean, don't get hit here.

Ah! You see that? I'm gonna van a white this for everybody on YouTube. So that's a flask. Yeah. That's like a thermos, right? It's got. So the gin's slated.

Yeah, what's cool about the, I mean, you could put, you could put something hot or cold in it, right? And for 24 hours, it'll keep it that like that temperature. So if you could put, if you were to put hot coffee in there, I wouldn't put hot coffee in there, but you could put hot coffee in there. And then within, for 24 hours, it'll stay hot.

Do you guys remember the kid in school that I always brought, like hot soup and chicken soup in his thermos? My buddy did that. But do you do that? I feel like he's a rich kid, dude. Lazy? Yeah, if you had a nice thermos that you got soup

and then he always had like a treat, like inside there, his mom was like, had baked fresh baked cookies. It's my best friend had a lot. See, not me, dude. My mom was like, personal chef put it together. My mom would give me pasta and be in a tupperware. You know what I mean, stains and sauce.

So do you guys use these? Like I use these all the time. This is like my water bottle, dude. I bring it everywhere. I love the size of it. I like them because they do, they maintain the temperature. So if you leave in the car or whatever, you know, it's not like 10 minutes later,

it's boiling hot or whatever. Yeah, and I think Mir does the best. I, this, not only just the style of it, like the handle of it, how you hold onto it, the seal, like I forget what they, I mean, the way it's double, triple, insulated is like top of the line stuff. So all there, and what's cool about Mir is,

they don't, they don't just have their own mirror cups and products, you can actually white label, which is what this is right here. So mirror is somebody that we work with, a partnership that we have, but we actually white label it, so we have our logo, our brand. So it says stay authentic on the side,

and it's our, it's double wall vacuum insulated. So there's two layers of insulation that prevent it from transferring energy. So it's not gonna, so if it's hot in there, it's gonna stay hot, if it's cold in there, it's gonna stay cold. You know what I like these flasks for? Stuff like that.

It was one of the more, and this is so funny. As a trainer, you learn what gets your clients to do new behaviors and what doesn't. And sometimes it's the dumbest, stupidest thing, but it's one of the most effective things. One of the difficult things I have trouble with with clients was getting them to drink more water. Not all my clients had issues with that,

but the ones that did, it was so hard. It was so hard to get them to drink more water. I don't think about it. I'm not thirsty. You know, it's this and that. And I'd be like, I know, if your urine is really darkening, or, oh, yeah, I was definitely needed more water, but I just forgot. But I don't want to drink, you know, five glasses before going to bed. So I was always trying to find ways of getting them to drink more water. And the dumbest thing ever was one of the more effective things was to get them to buy a big flask like that. And I'd say, here, fill this up with water

and then just know that it needs to be done by the end of the day. This is, that's it, it's so dumb. This is, this is why I remember early on, you know, I remember you guys racking on the, the meat heads that carry the gallon of water around and it was a game changer for me. I was somebody who didn't drink enough water. And when I actually started to track, and I was like, okay round and it was a game changer for me. I was somebody who didn't drink enough water.

And when I actually started to track, and I was like, okay, let me carry a gallon and then see like, not try to crush it. This was before I tried to get a gallon, I was like, I just want to see what I'm doing. Now I just had to discipline myself to drink out of the same thing so I could track it. I was grossly under drinking water.

I had a moment like that where I realized, besides just introducing more mobility, so I could alleviate a lot of pain from all these fixed positions that I was in all day long, hydrating more, really helped to alleviate, give my joints more lubrication, so I didn't get all that pain. Everybody's always searching for the next supplement

to give them a better pump, okay? Oh, I mean, there's a whole market around supplements that them a better pump. Okay. Oh, I mean, there's a whole market around supplements that give you a better amount. Let's sell water right now. I swore to God. This took me a long time to put together, but if I made a point to have a lot of water, now I'm not talking about like overdoing it, because you can overdo water and in fact, it could be quite dangerous.

I mean, just drink like I'm supposed to drink a decent amount of water before my workout. My pumps are always so much better. I'm gonna push you further than that because it's a half gallon for me. I've got it down to a science. I know exactly what it is. Oh yeah, you made it. You waited, you marked it off me.

Yeah, oh total. And that was such a game changer for me. It's so silly. And I'm a tall guy, so I have big, probably long muscle belly, so maybe it gallons a lot for Somebody who's listening there 510 and you know 180 pounds or whatever, but For me if I had a if I put down a half gallon of water like within the hour going to the gym and at the gym

By the time that half gallon got in me and I started getting getting pumped up I would look and now what time of the day you're working out So I'm at like one o'clock in the afternoon. So half a gallon of water by one o'clock? Yes. Yeah. And it makes sense if you're drinking a full gallon, that's about halfway through the day.

Right. How soon did it take for you to acclimate? So you didn't have to go peel the time. So that takes a while. And that was probably the hardest part, I'd say, when I realized that I wasn't getting enough water and then started pushing myself to drink more consistently. And I have, it just runs in my family.

My uncle's got a, everybody in my family have small blotters. So, you know, I'm going, I was going to multiple times in the hour. That was the most annoying part about, but it does after a while. You don't, do you don't pee as much? Yeah, you do, you do.

You do, it takes a little while to get acclimated to that. And then you do and then it's not as bad, but that's just something that I had to get used to. But it's what a game changer, such a silly thing is just to be very hydrated. Oh, look, I got a great pump, and it's way better than the pre-workout, citrallying whatever supplement

that I was taking before. At the same time that I was starting to figure this out, that I was not drinking enough water. I was also, anytime I went really heavy on squats, I would get this like pop in my quad. And it was really weird, a weird feeling that I have and it would be really painful. It'd scare me every time and then I'd stop squatting

and this was all around the same time. And when I started hydrating big time, went away completely. I never had that issue ever again. So the most common feedback that I would get from clients who we noticed that they weren't drinking a water and then we got them to drink more water. The number one comment I would get would be like, my back pain's gone. Yeah, my stiffness is gone. I'm a true dude.

And I remember at first being like, this is a coincidence. This is a correlation. It's not. But then it happened so often, it was 100% predictable, and it's true. If you're ever dehydrated or just not drinking enough water, you're just stiffer, you're just more stiff. Drink an adequate amount of water, you're more lubricated, you move better. And it makes sense, your body's made up of so much water.

It makes perfect sense. Yeah, Lou, but. And one of the most, just, what? That's true. One of the best techniques I ever got, I ever used to get clients to drink more was to have them carry around a container

that had a lot of water, like a flask, like the one where we have now the stay authentic mere flask, because you fill it up, you know, you know, in it is half a gallon of water or two thirds of a gallon of water, or whatever, however much is in there. And you know it up, you know in it is half a gallon of water or two-thirds of a gallon of water or whatever, however much is in there. And you know, as you're looking at it, you can see how much you've drunk. Besides, and that's more effective than drinking glasses of water, I think, because you tend

to lose track. You tend to lose track of how much water you've had and how much water you need. So, anyway, it's funny, great, great story. So, article I just read about blue light and blue lights effects on our health. They did one on athletes. And they found that having the athletes where blue light blocking glasses got them on average to sleep seven minutes faster, but also dramatically improved the rating that they gave the quality of the sleep

for an average of six to 10. And this is on a scale of I think it was one to 10. So their quality went through the roof and they fell asleep much faster. And people think, well, is that really a big difference? It definitely is. If you start to add up, you start to add up seven minutes of sleep throughout the week, what does that turn into yeah 49 minutes of sleep for the week

Right add that up over the course of two weeks three weeks four weeks a month months And now you can see how those little yeah, and you're a high-performing athlete every little bit of recovery that you can add into Your routine is gonna make you know massive ways all yeah, they make a big difference Well, I really think that's the biggest thing that when I talk about like wearing my Felix Grey's every night, the big thing is this is I just notice that I fall asleep faster. Yeah.

I notice that when, if, and here's a thing, if I don't even wear my glasses, but I do a lot of the right things. Like I eat earlier, I've exercised much earlier the day, I'm hydrated, I don't over consume my food, I turn off my computer and my phone by when the sun goes down, my lights are dim, oh, I go to bed just fine.

But the reality is that I don't do that a lot of times. A lot of times I work out later than what I'd like to. A lot of times I'm watching TV till 10 o'clock at night, a lot of times I'm in bed and I'm on my phone and I'm doing these things. And when I do that and I don't wear my glasses, I notice that it's, I spend an extra 20 to 30 minutes it feels like for me, okay?

For me to finally fall asleep. Now, when I discipline myself that, okay, if I'm gonna be on my phone, I'm gonna be on the computer or TV, whatever past the sun going down. If I just discipline myself to throw my glasses on, and then I do all those same things, I notice that I can fall right to sleep

and it doesn't take that 20 to 30 minutes. That is the biggest difference that I know. It's crazy. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely something to this circadian rhythms and, you know, like how you're, you're, you're buying, it's just like a switch that goes off, you know? It's like, you know, this is the, the second half of the day, and like your body, it's just like a switch that goes off. It's like, this is the second half of the day

and your body just knows that we're shutting down. Because I've gone through that whole thing where I dim the lights and I calm down, try to calm, but I didn't put the glasses on. And the glasses were that extra step that was even more impactful. Yeah, the two simple things you can do in a regular modern life that don't require

a ton of change because that's the other thing too is I can go through and list all the things you can do, but some of them are difficult to implement in because our lives are busy or whatever. But the two most effective things you can do to get your circadian rhythm to be balanced is get sun exposure during the day. That makes a big difference. It's one of the reasons why you'll notice when you're at the beach all day, or at the pool, or at the park, you go home, and you sleep so good at night.

And if you have kids you notice this, like your kids are outside during the day, they sleep really, really good at night. So that's number one. And the second one is to minimize your exposure to the most offensive form of light in terms of our circadian rhythm, which is blue light. Now, Harvard did this whole article on blue light's effect on our health, and they

compared blue light to other forms of light, and they found that blue light suppressed melatonin twice as long as green light. So between three out of suppressing it from one and a half hours, it suppressed it for three hours, and they also found that it shifted circadian rhythm by about twice as much as well. Wow. So wearing substantial. Yeah. And so they're saying wearing blue light blocking glasses is a good, easy way to kind of minimize

that. But they're also saying that they think it'll probably reduce cancer risk because what we're finding now is that there's a higher, when you're circadian rhythms off, if you're like a shift worker or you're, you know, if you don't get good sleep or whatever, there's a direct relationship or strong correlation to cancer risk. Well, the article I read from Harvard says that they theorize that it's because of the depressed melatonin because we're finding that melatonin's got anti-cancer effects, and when your melatonin is low, then that tends to increase the rate at which you get cancers.

So it's not just feeling like shit, and they're showing connections to diabetes, the way your body works with sugars, the way your body burns body fat, cancer too. So it's a, yeah, it's kind of a big deal. And it's just an easy fix because, ideally, here's a deal. Ideally, what you wanna do is this, when the sun goes down, you want your house to be dark. I mean, this is the ideal perfect situation. You wanna match the sun that's outside your house.

So if you look outside, oh, the sun is setting, turn all the lights down and let's use really low light or red glowing lights. Or fire candles. Fire candles or like I use a Himalayan salt lamps. But I know that that's not pragmatic for most people. It's low light, you can't do homework in that light.

You're not gonna be able to really read a lot in that light. You're not gonna bump into things, but it's not ideal for a lot of people, but that's the ideal perfect scenario. Now, if you're not one of those fanatics, or you don't, you're not like me, and you're like gonna turn everything off and do all that stuff, just pair a blue-blight blocking glasses.

Super easy, put them on, and it's not as good, but it's way better than doing nothing at all. We have options now and aren't sort of dorky. They're considering people like me. Oh, that's a, I don't care how hard you sold me on all of this until we found a brand like Felix Gray that the style looks good. And for me, the other thing that I didn't like, I remember when we first started messing with blue blockers, this was well before we even partnered with Felix Gray

what you had those orange ones that you were wearing so and I'm just like fuck this bro aside from you looking really like a dork real few also dude it also ruins your experience watching the movie because it completely changes all the colors in the movie like and I watched TV at night and that's part of part of the time that we watch TV, unfortunately, is when the sun goes down, and I know that's not ideal for my circadian. But that's TV time for most people. Right, so, and I was trying to do the,

you know, what would be better for me, so I was wearing these orange blue blockers, and now I'm like, oh, I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it consistently because there'd be a show that is, you that is graphically appealing and then you're watching like Discovery Earth. Yeah, yeah, and then you're watching it and all the colors are all distorted and like that's,

this isn't working for me, you know? So I was inconsistent, but since Felix Gray has the clear lenses and it doesn't distort it like that, that's, it's been really useful. And they have the two options. They have the one that you wear. Because here's the other thing about blue light, constant exposure during the day. There's a certain type of blue light that can be damaging to your eyes.

If you're looking at it for too long, this may be why people who work on computers all day long get that eye strain or the headaches that they start to feel. And they're finding that it may even be, may even have some detrimental effect on their, on their vision. Oh, beyond, yeah, because I mean, I have to wear glasses when I read for a certain amount of time and I was wearing just regular glasses, you know, with prescription and found that I would still get

a bit of eye strain to where I would get headaches if it was like a certain amount of time on there. And then I finally got the prescription ones with the blue light blocking. It made a big difference. Right. And so what you don't want to do is where like 100% or super powerful blue light blocking glasses during the day because then your brain will perceive that it's nighttime and it's daytime. You don't want your brain to think it's nighttime when it's daytime and vice versa.

But there is a certain frequency of, or type of blue light that is more damaging than others. And so the Felix Ray daytime ones block the bad type that damage your eyes, but then also allow you to work during the day and your brain not think it's nighttime. Then they have the nighttime blue light blocking ones, which are more like where you're talking about them. So it blocks most of it out.

Right, I keep those ones up next to my nightstand, my bed, which is if I do something like a bad habit, like get on my phone when I'm like in bed, which can happen. And then I keep the other ones downstairs in the kitchen and the living room area where if I'm watching TV or doing something like that, when it's like eight o'clock,

sun's down, but I'm not trying to fall asleep yet, but I'm still working and doing things. So this is such a great example too of an area where I've changed my mind completely. I remember when we first went to the first paleo effects, the hidden side. The hidden side. And yeah, we were like, you know, making fun of people like you're wearing glasses, just so dumb like whatever.

And then the science started coming out and I'm reading more and more of the science. I'm like, oh, shit. There's something to this. Totally. And it's just a modern solution for a modern problem. But at the end of the day, just like it is with nutrition, ideally, you wanna get all your nutrients from food. I think you'd still be a pretentious turt about it though.

I really do. You can be sure good. Yeah, I think you could still be a turt about it. I think that there's a limit to it, and it gets a no one, like you don't see me wearing my blue blockers all the time. Like, if I know that I'm gonna be working on my phone. When you're on a all the time. Like if I know that I'm gonna be working on my phone. When you're on a date.

Yeah, right? If I know I'm gonna be working on my phone. It asks me about my glasses. Or in front of the computer for extended periods of time, I know it's a good choice for me to probably put those on. So if you're somebody who I guess works in front of a computer all day long, it makes sense to me.

You gotta do it. For you to be wearing glasses. You guys look good in glasses too. You think so? Yeah, well you wear yours for 10 to be smart for me. Yeah, I know you wear yours half the time because you think they look good. I do. They do. I wear I wear them a lot because I notice a big difference when I'm buried in my phone. Nothing makes gives me the eye strain and the headache more than, you know, four hours plus of social media time. Are you prone to headaches? Do you get them? No,

not really. Not this is something that is one of those things that it does that too. Really? If I'm staring at my phone, computer is not as bad as the phone is the worst for me. And I don't know if it's because it's smaller, brighter, whatever it is, but staring at my phone, when I start getting beyond the one hour, two hour plus mark,

which is pretty much almost every day with all the stuff that we do, I start to get this headache. And it starts with the eye strain first, where I'm kind of like blinkin' my eyes, and it's bothering me a bit, and then it turns into a headache. If I push through it,

because I have stuff to do, and I'm like, I can't stop, and I know I have to, and I don't have my glasses on, then I notice that. I have my kids trained now. My son is, especially, he's trained. He has a pair right next to...

It's all ritual now. Oh yeah, no, when he's on there, he's trained, he has a pair right next to it. It's all ritual now. Oh yeah, no, when he's on there, he puts them on. I've really done a good job of convincing him like, this is a big deal, you need to do this because especially now kids are, they're just in front of screens, the majority of the time. I mean, and I'm not talking to play video games, I'm not just do homework. Yeah. You know what I mean?

They're never looking at books. No. It's always on the computer. Oh, I'm trying to squeeze it. I tell you guys about my rat problem. What? What? Yeah, I have like a crazy rat problem.

That's your house? Yeah. I don't know if this is like wood rats or like, what's this? Cause of the specific kind. Yeah, they've attracted them because all their food and like we throw them all our scraps and stuff. And so, you know, one rat found, you know, ooh, this is, you know, a well that I can keep going back to. And they went and made a nest out of one of the stumps

that's outside. And we've just had, like, they're getting more bold and more out in the open every day. Like, there's one that was on the deck and it was just like, staring at us as we're watching TV. And I'm like, we gotta fucking do something about this. You felt like you were getting punked? Yeah, and he's like, hey, you're not gonna do anything.

So what are you gonna do? So what do you do? So, I mean, so we looked at, first I got all these traps and so I got the ones that snapped their little bodies in half, you know, your welcome vegans. And I did that for a while. But you didn't eat them? No, I didn't eat them.

No, no, this was not, we're gonna eat rat. Yeah, that's okay, there we go. No, you would if you were on a while. But you didn't eat them? No, I didn't like are better about like getting it without getting caught in it. So either way, it wasn't working. And so I was like, man, what am I gonna do? I don't really wanna do the poison thing because I got a dog too and chicken's all these like my kids and everything. So I was like looking at options. And Courtney actually was doing some research

and found that there's this program through, I don't know if it's the SPCA, but they have these cats that are feral, that they basically bring into the shelter and they're trying to find homes for, and so they act as like barn cats. So you put them on your property, it's really low maintenance.

Like you just have to keep them there for three weeks, so they recognize that this is their new home, and you give them water and food, and you keep them there for three weeks. So they recognize that this is their new home. And you give them water and food and you keep them in this cage, basically the shelter for three weeks. And then after that, they're on their own and they're just like hunters. Oh wow.

So it's like introducing a new predator into our little ecosystem. The cats, you ever guys ever watch a cat hunt outside? They're little lions. They're badass. They kill more birds than anything else. Dude, they're little, like, I saw my cousin had a cat that was, I swear to God, two steps away from a lion. This, he was furry and orange,

and you'd watch him walk through the grass and just pounce on shit. And he was a little badass. So did you get it yet? Yeah, we got him. We got him yesterday. What you did? Boy, girl. It's a boy. We named Hobbs, because he looks a little badass. So did you get it yet? Yeah, we got him. We got him yesterday. What you did, boy girl. Yes, so it's a boy. We named Hobbs because he looks like a tiger.

Oh, Calvin Hobbs. Calvin Hobbs. Now is this why you're doing it? You did the whole conspiracy thing about the black plague or whatever about rats? Yeah, I freaked me out, dude. I went down the rabbit hole because I was like, man, I can't be the only one that's having like rat.

I keep hearing about rat problems. I listen to other podcasts and they're talking about some documentary in New York. They were like looking into it and it's gotten way worse. Right under our nose. They're just, they embed themselves in walls and I guarantee like your house has rats. You even realize it. And so that freaked me out because they still carry that. I don't know whatever it is that create the bubonic plague. They carry some kind of form of strain to that.

And then on top of that, and then you start thinking about like, anyways, like people that are you know, like defecating everywhere, you know, homeless and all that. And then like that, that's a recipe for the black plague. So I got freaked out, dude, because there's a lot of homeless and campments around. Well, I'm excited to hear the journey of Hobbs. I wanna hear how this goes. Yeah.

I hope he's a killing machine. You know, we'll see. I'm curious to be killed with chickens. That's why he might do that. I would say, I mean, if they like birds already, those are pretty easy bird to kill. I'm like, come on man, need my eggs, dude. I love those eggs.

Did you guys hear about the cyber attack that we launched towards Iran? No. So you know how they shot down one of our drones? Yeah. So they shot down one of our drones. I'm gonna pull up the article because it's kind of crazy. Shortly afterwards, we put our cyber security

or cyber soldiers or whatever. What are the bunch of nerds behind computers? Yeah, but for war. Yeah, let's get on. But for war. So I guess this is at this weird visual event. So here's what the article says. US cyber military forces brought down a database used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps that was used to target

ships in the Persian Gulf. So hours after they shot down one of our drones, our cyber-military went in and just fucking just wiped out their database, killed their computers. Wow. Yeah, this is the future of war. That's why I thought it was so fascinating. Well, imagine how, I mean, it is interesting. It's an interesting topic because we always talk about the scare of nuclear bombs and things

like that. Man, you want to sabre threat some of you. Could you imagine if somebody came in and had the ability to just shut down the banking system? Yeah, like wipe out all internet access and connections to everybody across the world, simultaneous or in the US simultaneously. Boom, all said done. Like think of like the like the economic damage and destruction would be, um, would be immeasurable. It would be a such a terrible blow to an advanced nation. I mean, one of the worst. I mean, imagine if they

went in and wiped out everybody's debt, that would be, people think that's cool. That would be terrible for the financial system, and nobody would step forward and be like, oh, well, here's what my debt was. I don't know, I had no debt, we were talking about. It would be a terrible, like, there's so many different ways

to get a tag of country. Well, just to get a tag of country. All the banking system is, all of our tracking of our money is all through a computer. So imagine if it just wiped out everybody's bank statement, like you also have zero dollars. And then you're trying to, I'm trying to prove how much money I had in my account.

They're like, well, we've got nothing here. They're getting it back. The thing that, be crazy. The thing that keeps us relatively safe is it's a lot of it's decentralized. So like this bank will own their data, this bank over here will do their thing. Yeah.

So I'm not an expert on any of this stuff, so I have no idea how any of that would work, but boy, that could be very destructive in damaging. And I'm sure that a geek squad. I wouldn't be surprised if there's constant attacks being lawbed at us right now, as we're talking. I'm pretty sure this kind of warfare is being waged every day.

You know what I mean? So when I read that, I thought, how crazy, that we could go in there, take out their, you know, part of their military, just through a cyber attack, not a single bullet launch, not even a soldier, you know, gone, didn't go anywhere, just a bunch of angry guys around computers. Yeah. Cheating fingers.

Look at this. They go in to kill another drone, they hit a button. And that, you know, it's, you know. Now air bomb. Yeah. You've been fooled. Some shit pops up other. Yeah.

Crazy. I got so number really excited. September 10th, dude. We've got not only is Bill Burr, his Netflix special. Oh, I love him. One of my favorites. And I've seen the teaser for it looks hilarious. I can't wait for that.

Same day, also iPhone 11 coming. Oh. It'll be interesting to see what they're doing right now. Is there any different? You know, the big race right now, so the big race amongst all the phones is battery life, how long it lasts, and how quick it can recharge.

Which is, I mean, obvious, right? It's what the market is demanding, but it also speaks to our phone and addiction. Right, isn't that crazy? Like, that's the number one thing right now that's... So is that what they're saying that they're gonna have the biggest improvements in? No, they actually say that the camera

and some other things are gonna be the major improvements. Of course, they are trying to, they're always trying to shrink the battery, increase the how fast it can get charged and how long the charge lasts. So that's always... You know that that technology right there, that's some of the most important technology

that we work on, is this how do we store energy and transfer energy without losing a ton of it. Like when you gather energy from the sun with solar panels and store it and transfer it, something like 40% of it is lost. It's time to do something like that. So that's what, yeah, a lot of people don't realize like what goes into that and like also storing in batters.

We don't have the type of batteries that can store as much energy as you'd like, you know, from a lot of these like wind turbines and like, you know, so we could get more of this free energy that's out there. It also kind of scares me though a little bit because it goes back to the thing that I've been worried about forever

is that we just keep moving in this direction. Yesterday I was walking with Maximus and I was doing my questions when I was doing his walk. So that's the new thing that I do with him every day. I'm on my phone answering questions while I'm walking with him and I'm at the park and I'm doing laps laps and I look up and there's only like four or five other people that are like walking around the park and doing things and they're all these moms and all of us at the same time are all on our phones, like looking down and like, oh this is weird.

I just think that's so crazy to think and here you are out there with your kid, I'm out here with my kid and like, and I'm like glued to this phone in front of me and I mean, the only thing I'm grateful for is that I'm fucking aware of it, right? Like that I'm like, because you gotta think how many people

are just mindlessly doing that, just do. It's the rest sucked in, sucked in, sucked in. Because you grew up in time without it. You know the difference. World. It's weird that if you really think about it, it's weird how this piece of technology has literally become an extension of ourselves.

To the point where, think about it this way, I already know the answer. One of my biggest fears of losing something used to be your wallet. Fuck, if I lost my wallet, what a pain in the ass. I'd way rather lose my wallet than my phone. 100%. Oh yeah. 100%. It's just such an extension and so much I have to do on it.

Well, it's damn near. It's pretty much for a place to your wallet. Exactly. I mean, it's your wallet and a bunch of other things I'll build into it. I mean, it's damn near. It's pretty much for a place to your wallet. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, it's your wallet and a bunch of other things all built into it. I mean, you have to be panic thinking about that. Yeah. Yeah.

No, I was along those same lines. I was reading in these stats are pretty obvious that like most teenagers, it's like 95% of teenagers have access to phone, have a phone. And so the schools are like paying attention to this. And so already there's a thousand schools committed to Yonder, I believe is the name of the company, but they provide those magnetic pouches that can basically lock up your phone.

So they're gonna start implementing that within the schools. Did you guys see the article about the dad who created the app that? Yeah, yeah, I sent that. Yeah, did you talk about that? No, I haven't talked oh yeah that was what was that like he has to answer his text to his parents before the law he locks his box it out yeah I love it I think that's dad tech you know yeah it's a little fist bump I put out

there no good idea I think it's smart that they do that with students it's super distracting for kids they're not they're doing what they need to do they're not connecting and they're not socializing and my brother's a teacher. I mean he tells me that all the time. That's a constant battle What a hard thing though for a teacher because at the same time too I think like oh man How awesome it would have been to have the phone and Google when I was a kid going through school because I feel like Man, it's so easy to if there's something I want to learn about today Which it it still baffles me that we're

in these times. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that if I really wanted to learn about something, like I had to go down to your local library and actually start looking and reading in books and taking hours and figure that out or asking somebody much older and wiser than me and giving them to drop the knowledge, whatever, right? But you literally can sit down, you know, about a topic whatever, right? But you literally can sit down, you know, about a topic. And it just seconds read, read for the next hour to two hours and like learn so much on a single topic. Like, that's pretty fucking amazing that we have. It's awesome. As a teacher, I would, I'd have this real hard challenge of like, well, you want to teach your kids to be able to use this, this, this incredible incorporate it.

Right. And it's going to be an important part of our evolution, but then at the same time, warning them of the dangers of the addictive part of it, like, what a tough, the part for me, the part for me that I find most fascinating is that we're all instantly, extremely knowledgeable by extension. So because we have a phone that connects to the internet, we now have very quick access to all information, most information that's ever been recorded. So now we instantly are knowledgeable, but we totally lack wisdom.

There is no retain any of that. Yeah, and there's no wisdom because you're retaining any of it. People need, there's a big part of, there's a lot of value in the process of seeking information that we've lost. You know what I'm saying? The process of seeking information, talking to people, talking to experts, asking questions, having discussion.

Well there's a lot of lessons. That's gone now. There's a lot of lessons in the mistakes on the way to the truth. That too. I mean that's, that's, I mean we were just having a discussion with one of our guys who works with us before we got on here. And real quick, we can have a debate about something as simple as autoimmune issues. And we were talking about dermatologists. And there's a lot of science that says,

it has nothing to do with nutrition. They haven't linked anything to do. Your skin, if your skin is whatever, and it's this battle back and forth. But I'm somebody who goes to dermatologists who that's exactly how they've told me for years, and it wasn't until the vitamin D thing that you shared with me, Sal, tell way later that I piece that together. And it just reminds me that, like, man, when you just, when you Google something and it

tells you that, oh, this study is proven this, but there hasn't been enough trials and examples and experience, and there's not enough information around gut health for us to know about that, to speak in certainties about a topic or a subject just because you googled it, and this is what we know now, can be very dangerous, and something that you learn when you have to do the legwork of learning and going the wrong direction. It's learning how to learn. You have to go back to teaching people how to even do that. It's crazy, like critical thinking, how can I think my way through this to get the right answer?

It's the process of getting there that you get all the gems. Well, let's use fitness as an example because that's our area of expertise, right? I could look up and find information that will tell me, let's say you follow this in a mind pump and we tell you, if you you work out this particular way it's wrong here's where it's your experience don't work out that way and it's good information okay that's good and that's that's good that we have that information but there's a little there's a different level of understanding when you've gone through and experienced it because you've tried to learn and feel what it feels like and know what it feels like it's a different

level it's a type of wisdom. And what we're finding is that the journey is far more valuable than the destination. And oftentimes what we're doing is we're getting rid of the journey. We're changing the journey so radically that there almost is no journey. There is no journey in learning

as much as there is, pull up the information, I know it. I don't have to retain it because I can access it whenever I want. And for people who are disagreeing with me, right now, just think in your head, see if you can remember more than three phone numbers. I guarantee you can't. I guarantee most people listening to this podcast right now

don't know more than three phone numbers. And if you do know one or two phone numbers, it was probably your childhood phone number because that's back when you had to remember things. But we've outsourced that so much that now, I don't know my girlfriend's phone number. I talked to her every single day on the phone. I don't know Jessica's phone number.

I couldn't tell you, if my phone broke, I'd be fucked in terms of getting a holder. And that sounds simple, but when I was a kid, I knew all my aunt's phone numbers, my grandmother's phone number, my parents phone number. Yeah, you're good friends numbers. I knew parents numbers. Yeah, and it's a sound silly, but again,

what's happening, we're becoming very knowledgeable, but we're losing a lot of the wisdom, and that can be a little bit dangerous. I think it gives us a false sense of, you know, where we're at. Like, oh, I know. Well, and in our field too. In our field too. I know things.

When you do studies, good studies, do a good job of controlling a lot of the environment and isolating things. In real life, that's just not how it happens. True. You can take a study and we can control it with 10,000 people. They all have this situation. We feed them all a certain way. But the reality of it is that's nothing like real life. In real life, that person won't have a lot of those controls,

or that person might have something completely different. And those variables could make a difference in that outcome. Here's a great example of that. So, and again, we'll stick to health and fitness. If you look at studies right now, the current research, so it could change later on, but right now the current research shows that if you want to live a long time, like a really long, long, long time,

that one thing you could do that seems to work is eat a very, very low calorie diet all the time. So a sub-normal calorie diet will, seems to improve longevity in most animals, including humans. Okay, great. This includes low protein, low, I mean, everything's kind of low. That's the point where you're a malnutrition, but definitely lower than what we would consider

optimal for physical performance, mental performance, and quality of life. And that's the part that you won't get from that study. Now I know, sure that may be true, but I know that eating some more protein and some more calories will make you stronger, give you more energy, probably improve your mood a little bit, make you feel better. That's the wisdom that comes in. Well, not only that, you're also what makes that study true is you're also comparing to the opposite side, which are the all the people that over-consume and eat like crazy. Right. Yeah. And so there are the example that you're comparing to. So, oh, like, when you compare that, the person who over consumes all the time versus somebody who for for long periods

of time is under consuming and eating a deficit. Yes, the deficit shows, but what about the person who that has a much better balance of the two of them that sometimes they live in a deficit, sometimes they live in a surplus, and they have a really good relationship with food and exercise. Yeah. So exactly, there's just... I think it's important that we stay humble. I think that's the point, right? To be humble, we don't know everything. Even though we know everything, we don't know everything.

There's a lot that we can learn. I think would be the lesson. This quas brought to you by Organify. For those days you fall short on getting your organic veggies or whole food nutrition, Organify fills the gap with laboratory-tested certified organic superfoods to help give your health a performance the added edge. Try Organified, totally risk-free for 60 days by going to Organified.com. That's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com

and use a coupon code MindPump for 20% off at checkout. First question is from Lindy Lizer. How to know that you're ready to start a cut? What is the best way to cycle between cutting and bulking? Okay, this is a common question. I think we've done enough episodes now where we've kind of talked about the potential negative effects about cutting your calories too low for too long and how difficult that is to maintain long-term. And so because of that, I tend to get, and I don't know if you guys get questions like this,

but I get them relatively often, where someone's like, okay, well, how do I know then when it's time to cut? Like, when can I reduce my calories to get leaner? This is gonna be different from person to person. I like to, I used to like to tell my clients, when you're at the point, when you're able to eat a amount of food where you feel very comfortable and you think you would be comfortable even eating less than that long term, that's the point at which it's probably okay for

you to start to cut, or at least it gives you a better chance of hitting a caloric level that you'll be able to maintain long-term. Now it's not perfect. And the reason why it's not perfect is a lot of people's appetites are not necessarily based off of hunger, but many times based off of other factors. And so they never tend to feel satisfied because what they're trying to satisfy is unsatisfiable. You know, like I eat because I'm stressed, I eat because I'm anxious, I eat because I hate myself for I'm depressed, in which case, there is no amount of food typically that'll satisfy you.

I've known people to be totally stuffed and uncomfortably stuffed with food, but still eat because they feel sad or whatever. So it's not perfect, but if you're otherwise self-aware, I would say get to the point where for example if I'm a man and I want to maintain I feel like okay I think I can maintain realistically comfortably at 2400 calories a day. Let's just say then I want to get my calories as I'm you know building my metabolism building my muscle I want to get it to where you know

2600 calories is kind of what I'm eating, then I can drop it down to 24, get leaner, and kind of maintain that, or maybe a little bit lower than that. I like this question because it's hard to answer, because like you said, Sal, there's a lot of, there's a lot of exceptions to the rule, there's a lot of variables that come to play,

but it's also something that I deal with still on a regular basis. I'm here right now, so that's why it's kind of a cool question right now too. You know, since I've had Maximus six weeks ago, we have a very sedentary job now. We sit on a podcast all the time. We're either in front of a computer,

in front of a phone, we're flying a lot, sitting a lot, and then now, and anybody who's had a child knows that the first six weeks or so is a lot of holding him and laying on the couch pretty much is I watch a lot of fucking TV right now. You're feeling a little fluffy. Yeah, so I am, I'm softer.

My body fat percentage is definitely up. I'm training though, right? So I'm lifting weights right now, and I'm building a my body fat percentage is definitely up. I'm training though, right? So I'm lifting weights right now, and I'm building a little bit of muscle, so that's good. But what has happened during this time, I've dramatically reduced my chloric intake. I'm only eating like twice a day. I eat twice a day, I'm probably eating around

3000 to 3500 calories or so. And that's maintaining for me. Sometimes it seems like it even puts on body fat for me. And for me, I've been as high as in the 5,000 calorie range before and not putting body fat in. So I know it's like to eat that much and not get fat, which is what I love about having a metabolism that is burning. 5,000 calories a day is it gives me a lot of flexibility.

It allows me to on Fridays have cheeseburgers with Katrina and feel great from it, not feel like it sets me back a week in my progress. So here I am right now, I wanna lean out. Like so, you know, the guy who wants to be more aesthetic looks at himself in the mirror right now and I go, man, I wish I was a little bit leaner right now. But then I assess my training and my diet and I go, well, fuck, I'm only eating two times

a day. And it's 3,000 calories, sometimes even a little less than that. Do I want to cut myself down to 2,000 calories just to lose a couple pounds of body fat right now? I know I could do that. I could say, hey, Adam, let's try and go for an hour walk every single day and let's cut your calories to 2,000 calories a day. And absolutely, I'll drop a good 3 to 7 pounds of body fat. Now, why I won't do that right now and why I've decided not to do that right now is I know to Sal's point that once I do that,

that's now my new maintenance level is now eventually the body will adapt to that new calorie intake. Let's say it was 2000. Okay, so I leaned out and I'm feeling a little bit better about myself. Maybe I'm not all the way as lean as I like, but I'm leaner than what I was two weeks previously. But now my body is used to only eating 2000 calories. now I have a choice other I need to kick up more cardio and more movement and more intensity in my workouts or reduce my calories even further. Now this is a rabbit hole that a lot of people get into that sends you into a place that is really tough to maintain once you get to the goal. And so I think it's very crucial when you're trying to decide,

is it time to cut or not that you take this into consideration? And so because of that, my goal for clients, and this wasn't until later on that I really pieced this all together and like my goal for myself right now, I don't worry about. So I'm a little fluffy right now, and I'm gonna be carrying a little bit of body fat. Right now, my goal is to build. I'm to just, even though my ultimate goal is to lean out and I want

to be leaner, I reframe my... You're going with the flow. Yes. And I'm going to, instead of fighting my body and cutting calories, I'm going to keep my calories where they're at. In fact, I'm actually kind of boosting them a little bit and kind of flirting with closer to the 3500 calorie range, really pushing the volume in my training and strength training right now and trying to build and put some mass on me because I know that for every pound of muscle that I can add to my body, it's going to speed my metabolism up. Now, my goal right now is actually not to move anything on the scale, not really to lose any body fat. It is, can I continue to eat more calories

and not get any fat? And the way I don't get fatter is I end up building muscle instead of putting body fat in because my training is there. And my goal, just like it is for clients, is to reach a point where I go, fuck, it's getting hard to get that many calories. That's always a good sign for me

that it's time to go the other direction. If I am having a hard time getting enough calories in the day because my calories are so high, that's a very natural good place to switch and go the other direction. So that's what I'm waiting for. That's the advice that I give to clients is, well, if you're at a place right now

where you're just satisfied, I don't normally like to take you and start cutting you from there. I like to try and build your metabolism up to where you look back at me as a client and you go, fuck at him. You got me eating five times, six times a day, and I'm eating freaking 25, 2800 calories if I'm a girl. If I'm a guy, I'm eating 4,000 calories. This is hard.

I'm like, great. Now let's start to cut because then when I ask you to reduce 500 calories, you're in. I'm like, great. Now, let's start to cut. Because then when I ask you to reduce 500 calories, you're in a very comfortable place. And now you're in a caloric restriction. And the body starts to drip. Right. And one thing you said too is you're because you're because you're eating a little bit higher calories for your level of activity. You're focusing on building muscle. Right. So what you want to do is you want to make these calories work for you. So you're either going to store the calories as body fat or turn into more calorie burning machinery, which helps you more down the road.

So if you're thinking about doing a cut, it's a great idea to work up to a cut by building muscle and giving you a better place to start with is basically what we're talking about. This is how I did every before every show. I used to tell clients that are competitive, right? The same thing. That the real hard work to competing on a stage is not done during your cut for the show. It's done leading into the cut.

Did you do a good job of building a roaring metabolism? So then when I do decide to kick cardio up, if I do decide to restrict calories, the body responds and you start to drop really fast and we have a long way to go. You have a lot of room to keep doing that every two to three weeks. Now the second part was what's the best way to cycle between cutting and bulking? Okay, so let's just assume everything's healthy, everything looks good. I would say spend more time in the one that is your goal,

but spend a little bit of time in the opposite. So let's say your goal is to bulk. I would push calories and workouts. And stay consistent for, now a couple of ways you can do this. You could go one day a week, eat lower calories, but the rest of the week eat high calories. Or you could push it a little longer. Some people have a lot of success going two or three weeks

for a bulk, and then eating two or three days or four days at maintenance or a slight cut. And then reverse that. If you're cutting, you could do the same thing. Two or three weeks of consistent cut with four days or five days of maintenance or slight surplus or bulk, or do it break it down over the week.

You know, five or six days a week, it's a cut, one day a week, it's maintenance or a bulk. Those, both those options seem to work best, and this is from experience. There is a little bit of science that supports what I'm talking about, but most of what I'm talking about right now is based off of working with clients and experience.

But I found those two cycles to be generally the better ways to approach it. Yeah, I just tell them no cuts, no butts, no coconuts. Sure, it's pretty simple. Our next question is from Michael Vanderloo, what are some unseen benefits of the farmer's walk? Farmer's walk. Ooh, yeah.

I didn't get into doing these until map's strong. When we put out, I've done Farmer's Walks before. I had to sell this on you guys. Yeah, and, and, well, I mean, for map's strong, it was obvious. Well, you're out on you. Yeah, you watch strong man competitions, they have to hold stuff and walk on them.

But you're right, Justin, you used to talk about them all the time as being great muscle builders. But I always was like, what specific muscle am I working? You know, I know it's good for tension. And I understood on paper it's value. Yeah, increasing muscular tension, great for reinforcing good posture. And just overall a good muscle building exercise. And just isometrics in general, I've always been a fan just because it's really good

for the joints to experience that kind of support where I'm getting my whole body to learn how to really brace and tense on command and still be able to move and have that kind of support through movement. So for the farmer's walk, you can really load the farmer walk too. So another thing that's great about adding more of that

volume and adding more of load within your workouts like a farmer walk is a very easy way to do that. One of the unseen benefits that I noticed and again Justin was somebody who really got me doing this. I mean I can count on one hand how many times before him that I had probably incorporated a farmer walk. It's now a pretty regular thing that I add in there. And one of the things that I noticed, and it reminded me of, took me all the way back to like my early 20s when I was training with these like power lifter guys, and they were trying to get me to squat,

and like at that time I could like barely squat a plate, and they stuck like three plates on my back, and they're like, you know, they wanted me to squat and feel that, and I'm like, you're fucking crazy. I can even do two plates. Why do I have three on here? And he's like, your body needs to get acclimated and feel, needs to feel the weight.

Like that's how they just explain it. You just need to learn to feel the weight. And what I noticed from that was, he was right. Like, you know, before that, two plates was scary as fuck. But once I felt what three plates fell to my back, all of a sudden two plates didn't feel so scary anymore. And I think a similar unseen benefit

from the farmer carries, because you could load them so heavy, right? A lot of people can farmer carry more than they can chest press, more than they can even squat, more than they can deadlift. Well, maybe not what they can deadlift, because you got a deadlift to get it up, but most people can...

You can get a lot of weight? Yeah, you can do a lot of weight due to the farmer carries, and you're moving, walking, right? So what I noticed with it, and you're holding onto that, when you're holding onto two, 300 pounds like that, then go try and grab 100 pound dumbbells and chest press it.

All of a sudden I felt that to be a lot easier. So I noticed like, it turns your, it turns your CNS, your central nervous system on. Here's an experiment that you could try right now. Take your right hand and squeeze it as hard as you possibly can. Now, if you're doing that, you'll notice

that the rest of your body also tensed up. Now, all you're trying to do is squeeze your right hand, but instinctually, you tense your entire body, other muscles, I have nothing to do with your right hand. You probably tensed up your left hand and your feet and your face and your core just so you could squeeze your right hand more. And that's instinctual because it works.

It's beneficial. If you were to squeeze a gripper with your right hand as hard as you could, but keep the rest of your body completely relaxed and then do it again, but this time, tense up your whole body. You're far stronger when you tense up your whole body, even though the rest of the muscles of your body

directly have no effect on that hand. There's no direct effect, but there's this indirect CNS signal that happens. And what farmer walks do very well, they increase your amplitude, in a sense. Totally, they turn everything on and they change the set point. So think of it this way.

Think of your central nervous system as having a safety set point, if you will. Your body will only let you access a certain amount of your total potential. And this is actually true. This is true. Olympic lifters who train very, very consistently at a appropriate intensity and do very explosive movements, they have been tested at being able to hit

something like 90% of their total potential. The average person is somewhere around 30 or 40%. You just can't access the actual strength that you have, and it's because your body is trying to keep you safe. it doesn't think it can. But when you test it by doing a farmer walk where you're walking with this heavy weight, and you gotta do it right, don't hurt yourself, but to challenge yourself, so your tense, your tight, you're walking with it,

the whole body is working to maximize your output. Then when you go do the rest of your workout, your CNS is your output went up a little bit. You've now increased it by a couple percent within that workout. This is literally within that day. So they've done this with studies on heavy lifting. If you were to do like a heavy single squat and then go jump, you get a higher jump than if you didn't do the heavy single squat beforehand, it just turns on your CNS.

It's like what I talked about the other day when I go heavy deadlift and they go over to do pull ups. I feel like I just fly up when I start doing the pull ups. And that's what the unseen is. And it's not just like you feel that way, it's real. No, no, it's obvious. You can get way more reps out. The weight will feel lighter when you're doing it. Like do this, go do the farmer, do heavy farmer walks,

and then go over and go do your heavy chest press or go do heavy single dumbbell rows after that And you'll feel like the way you pull that weight or you push that weight After you've just got used to holding on to 300 400 however much weight you can do a farmer walk with all of a sudden 100 pound dumbbells don't feel like anything if you value strength and performance at all You need to really value your central nervous system You could the reason why you're stronger when you have caffeine in your system

and studies will prove this consistently, a certain amount of caffeine people will lift more weight or why people on PCP or crystal meth are so hard for police to stop is because those are strong central nervous system stimulants. The reason why a parent can lift a car off of their pinned child and an accident, there's actual case studies where you have a 140 pound mom move a car to save their child.

It's not because she instantly grilled this new muscle. It's because in that situation, the CNS was turned on. You can actually train this in your body, farmer walks one of the best ways. Well, yeah, not just sad, it's to elongate that process. So to build up that, I always, you know, I talk about this ad nauseam about work capacity, but in terms of being able to control and maintain that level of tension,

this helps to train that so you can elongate the amount of force that you can produce in each exercise. So, you know, if there's a point of a lift, where you always struggle where you feel like, you know, if there's a point of a lift where you always struggle where you feel like, you know, there's not as much power output. This will help to kind of train you to sustain the the level of power output that you had going in. Next question is from Britt Maxston. What are your thoughts on powder-based meal replacement shakes and the meal replacement concept? Oh, God. You know, what this this makes me this is such a great example.

I love it that it's in our space because we could comment on this meal replacement. What a great example of the human's natural narcissistic arrogance. Like we're so arrogant that we think, I mean, this is the truth now, okay? Besides the brain, the brain is the most complex thing we've discovered in the universe by far.

The next most complex thing is mammalian metabolism. Our how food is processed and used in our body is extremely complex, and we still don't know, we still don't understand all of it. For example, it wasn't that long ago. I think it was like less than 10 years ago, maybe even shorter than that, that we discovered that breast milk,

that women produce for their babies, changes depending on the time of day that she's producing the breast milk. Morning breast milk, wake up. Yeah, that's a recent study. Yeah, it wakes the baby up, breast milk at night, helps the baby sleep. We didn't know that before,

we were giving baby formula, and we're like, oh, it's got proteins, carbs, it's got, you know, the potentials. We've got nutrients in there, so it gives the baby everything it needs. Powder-based meal replacements will keep you alive. Okay. They're not gonna, you're not gonna,

you're probably, this is soil-inced entire pitch. Yeah. You're not gonna die from them, but they're definitely not ideal. And we're so arrogant to think that we can create in a laboratory of food and a powder that's gonna give you optimal life.

And remember, being alive doesn't mean you're living, just because you're alive doesn't mean you're living. Living is far more complex. Here's the other part of it that we completely, completely, and don't even consider. There's a psychological component that's huge that comes from food. You're gonna cut that all completely out.

The enjoyment you get from making food, eating food with friends, sharing in the different flavors and textures and experience from food. Think of all the emotional connections you have food. A lot of them are bad, but some of them are good. Let's just get rid of all of them and now get people to just have,

and that's what they sell. They sell like it's, oh, it's super convenient. You don't have to get up from your desk. You don't have to worry about food anymore. It's cheaper, just mix this up in your water, drink it, and now you're not even able to. It's like mindless eating too. No, you're not a car, and I mean, I'll just put gas.

Well, the concept of it and why it works is because it controls that for most people that need that control, right? That's why they're successful. The reason why I think something as silly as slim fast could be around for as long as it's been around and work for so many people is because those same people, you know, are too lazy to weigh their food or measure or track or pay attention. It's just much easier for them to say like, hey, instead of swinging by subway or having your sandwich that you normally have for lunch, have slim fast instead. And it's a whole

135 calories, you know what I'm saying? So that's the concept of it and why it could potentially work for people is just simply the calorie restriction. You go from somebody who doesn't track calories or over-consuming or under-reporting and now suddenly they have this little tiny controlled drink that's only got a few hundred calories.

I wonder, is there somebody out there that's like trying to live off of just liquid, like a liquid diet? Like how long it's gone? The soy, the soy link guys. I know. I want to know like the, the, the, the length he was able to like, keep it up. You absolutely could. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I mean, you could do it, but I mean like what a, like a horrible existence. You know, there's probably somebody who's listening right now too. There's like, well, aren't you guys sponsored by a powder?

We never tell people to replace their foods with lasting, that was right. But I think it's important to bring that up because I think some people just don't get that. They hear us talk about a product and think that we would recommend it like that. And we never would. Just bottom line.

Is it have value sometimes? Sure. If I'm in how I use it and how I tell clients to use it is, if I tell you as your trainer that I need you to get 130 grams of protein, that's what you should be eating on it for optimal performance and results in your goal. And it's eight o'clock at night, you had all your meals already and you're at 75 grams of protein. I think it's an excellent choice to be able to do something whip up a shake real quick and have it. Do I think that's better though than you actually getting under there grilling a piece of chicken and having some rice and broccoli?

No, definitely not. But the reality is a lot of people would choose something that's way worse or skip the intake completely, completely when their body needs that extra protein. So to me, that's how things like this should be used. Unfortunately, the money is behind people using it all the time and as much as possible. If it's got 30 servings in it, I want you to get through that in the entire month.

So these companies try and make the case for it that it can replace a meal. It's better for this. It's convenient all the time. Oh, let's do this. And so now it's turned, and what I hated in our space, is I used to get clients, and I know you guys have had the same situation where I'd have clients that hire me and they'd be like, you know,

I got my trainer, I've got my shakes, I got my bars, like they think that it's a healthy thing for them to do is to add this into the diet and I'd be like, well, why did you do that? Do we need that? Or do you need that specifically instead of lunch? Right. You know, things like that. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. And we also don't know what we don't know. That's my whole point about food. There's still, we discover things about food still today, all the time.

Now I do think at some point, we might figure it all out, but I don't think we're there at all. And so, and I'm referring to people who are replacing meals with these powders, like the soilent powder where the whole thing is just drink these all day long. You'll never have to get up from your desk, you could totally work all the time and whatever. And you'll be healthier because it's, you know,

we made the perfect... Promoting good habits. Yeah, because we've made the perfect food. No, I don't think it's a good idea at all. I think it reinforces a bad relationship to food. I think it prevents you from developing a relationship with food and good understanding. That is anything that resembles anything that's long term.

If you want long term, I've never met anybody who lost weight with liquid protein shakes or meal replacement shakes through replacing meals. I've never met anybody who had a long term. It's never been sustainable. Exit strategy. In my experience. Yeah, there's no long term exit strategy.

Okay, oh, then what are you gonna do after you lose your hundred pounds? Oh, then I'll go back to eating, you know, regular food. Oh, you mean like you did before because you didn't have the relationship with food that helped you do that properly. You're just gonna jump back into it. Oh, no, we have a strategy.

That's the hard part. That's what you should be working on. We're gonna get right now. Exactly. Next question is from Danny Matrenga. You talk about the importance of one's relationship with food and exercise. How does one maintain a healthy relationship with money?

Oh, good question, Danny. Oh, wow, Danny, finally ask this good question. Yeah, first time he asked a really good question. I think she give him a little star. Yeah, he's a good guy. Danny, for those of you who know, he's our head trainer. Super, super guy. Super smart kid, he's all over our YouTube channel.

You know why this is a phenomenal question? I learned this recently, relatively recently, that you used to look at nutrition and exercise and how people can develop a bad relationship with them or a good relationship with them. And once you develop a good relationship with exercise and nutrition, you have this balance, this natural balance. You take care of yourself, you eat right, exercise, it feels good.

It's not this crazy struggle back and forth. Same thing with money. Same thing with money. People who tend to have money issues, it tends to be because they have a bad relationship with money. Such a good point. And it's so funny. Don't you feel like there's the same type of extremes too, right?

The impulsivity, right? It applies the money just like it does food and everything else. Food, I, you know, it's funny. I had a friend whose family had constant issues with money. And, you know, they would always either be in debt or couldn't pay bills. And you'd see the gifts that they buy each other for Christmas and they were ridiculous,

expensive presents and stuff. And I know they're trying to be good and nice and show their love, but I remember thinking like that's a bad relationship with money. You're always struggling with money and then when it's time to buy a gift, you spend $500. You know, that shows that there's a little bit of an issue with money and then when it's time to buy a gift you spend $500. Right.

You know, that shows that there's a little bit of an issue with money that you don't necessarily respect it or value it in a healthy way. So this is something that I think people need to work on. In those studies, they have studies on lottery winners. I talk about that all the time. People win the lottery in two years later, the broke, where you have celebrities who are totally broke. Michael Jackson, you know when he died, he was something like $500 million in debt.

Oh really? Even after taking the Beatles catalog? Yes, $500 million in debt, because he had just this terrible spending habits. Oh, I didn't know that. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, so this is too many Ferris wheels. Yeah, maybe.

Well, what do you think about your personal relationship with money and how have you managed that? You know, I grew up, so both of my parents are immigrants. My mom came here, which was four. My dad came here after he married my mom. Both of them very poor upbringing. So when my grandfather, my mom's dad came here. He had very little skills that were applicable, the new place that he moved. He became a custodian,

worked his ass off. It's funny. My family's the exact people that, you know, programs are designed for that are supposed to help them. And no one in my family's ever enrolled in these programs, because they're always about like, I'm going to work as hard as I possibly can and find every opportunity I possibly can. I'm not talking down on people that need help. It's just an actually just kind of highlighting kind of the attitude that they have. So my grandfather worked seven days a week. My mom grew up, you know, lower middle class, but they never bought things. They didn't have money for.

They saved every penny. My dad grew up very poor. He started working full time at the age of nine. So nine years old, he had to go to work, didn't go to school anymore. And when my parents got married, my mom would tell me, you know, I remember why as a really young kid, my mom would take napkins and she'd open them up and she'd break them up into four squares. She'd tear them up. And she used cloth diapers with me and my sister because they couldn't afford diapers. When we would go out to dinner, like a bit like,

oh my god, hey everybody, we're gonna go out to dinner. It was a big deal. It was McDonald's. We'd go to McDonald's. Remember this as a kid, you know, that was a big deal. We were never in debt. My parents were able to raise four kids, have a house that they were able to pay, and my

dad had no further education than I think third grade, and he worked very, very hard and they saved a lot. And so my relationship with money was work hard and save. Now, that's good, but it's not great because I never learned the other side of it, which was invest. It was all about saving, safe, safe, safe, and didn't know anything about investing. So then when I was 19 years old, managing gyms, I was one of the top performers in a big fitness company. This is back in 1998.

I was making a hundred, I made a hundred and twenty grand, I think, that first year, which for a 19 year old, there's a shit ton of money, especially back in 1998, I never bought it. I didn't buy a house, I didn't buy it, I didn't invest in the stock market. All I did was put in the bank and live at home, my parents. Which was better than I think a lot of kids would have done, but I wish I had that other person in my life that could be like, hey, what are you doing with your money?

You got all the money saved up. Let's take 40,000 and buy this property and teach it on bad things. I also think that there's, I think it's a spectrum, just like there, and I love that you started with the analogy of what exercise and food and how that, and I think there is what most people would think is a really healthy relationship could be borderline

unhealthy too on the other extreme, right? So I think that there's extremes on both ends of the spectrum that somebody who has a terrible relationship with it, they buy a thousand dollar gifts for Christmas when they barely make $500 a month is totally irresponsible and they never have money and they're broke and whatever. And then there's the other person who makes all this money and they save and invest and they put it all in these things that this and they never spend it or do anything with it. I think you can become a miser. I think that's gonna make all this money and live in like a little shack and, you know.

Right, I think that's unhealthy too. The funny part about it, there's so many social constructs that are surround money. It's really an interesting topic and a topic that I like to talk about and learn about and think about because really all it is is fucking paper. It's really just a way for us to exchange things, right? 100%.

I go to work every day, I work really hard, I get paid for that, right? That's why, and then what I do with that is, well, you know, I can exchange that money for something else. Now you can save it and exchange it for security because some people value that highly, you can save it and exchange it for security because some people value that highly or you can exchange it for things because some people value that highly.

But really, I think it's understanding that balance and I think to your point, Sal, that when you really get at control of it, I think you have a really nice ebb and flow. I personally save and invest, but I also spend. Like I have friends that save everything. And I have a buddy of mine who may have as much, maybe as saved up as me and makes significantly less

than what I do and is always thinking about investment in the future. But I also see the way that he lives his life, and I think, man, that's so crazy. You have all this money in the bank and invested and you're worried about having a second streaming service because it's 399 a month. Like, that's, to me crazy.

If there's a show on there that you really love and enjoy and it gives you fulfillment to watch it, but you're gonna choose not to do it because 399 times 12 months adds up to a whole 50 or $60 that you could have used. So I really think that there's also a balance too, because then you could spend your whole life preparing for the future, which may never come for you.

Or are you really working for? Or may get taken away from you. So I think sometimes we look at money and we give it this thing so much more than what it really is. Really, it's just an exchange for your labor that you... If you compare it to food, because it's easier for us to communicate, I think, when it comes to nutrition, because that's what we... I have a much better grasp of what a bad relationship and good relationship to food is, or at least I can communicate it better than when I try to communicate with money.

So, with food, there's eating for enjoyment, there's eating for health and sustenance and performance. When does it become pathological? It becomes pathological when I'm eating to fulfill something that can never be fulfilled with food, right? If I'm trying to eat because I'm depressed or I'm numbing myself or I'm distracting myself, now it's become pathological. Okay, so if I'm depressed, or I'm numbing myself, or I'm distracting myself, now it's become pathological.

Okay, so if I'm buying things because I'm trying to distract myself, because I'm fulfilling something that cannot be fulfilled with money, like I'm lonely. So I'm gonna spend tons of money on when you go to the mall and you shop. Yeah, or buy friends, hang out with my friends, and pay for everything, because I'm lonely.

Or I'm insecure, and so I'm buying these things, so I look more powerful. I gotta have a nice car, so everybody thinks I look cool, not because I really enjoy or I'm insecure. And so I'm buying these things so I look more powerful. I got to have a nice car. So everybody thinks I look cool. Not because I really enjoy the car, whatever, because it fulfills, I'm trying to solve an insecurity through money. That's when it becomes pathological.

So if you can examine that, be honest with yourself with that, what tends to happen, this is what tends to happen. The people that I found that I think have the best relationships with money, they tend to have the stuff that they kind of value and they don't have the stuff that they don't value. So like, I used to train a lot of executives

and high achieving doctors and surgeons. And I remember one guy that I trained, I love training him because his attitude towards money was one of the healthiest I've ever seen. Now he was a vascular surgeon and he was a damn good one. He probably would make, I'm sure he made close to three quarters of a million dollars a year as a vascular surgeon. He was a badass and he was working all the time.

This guy drove a 1999 Nissan, it was like one of the SUVs, like an old Nissan SUV. It had like 200 something thousand miles on it. And he worked out in a shirt that had holes in it and shoes that were kind of old. Now at first I was like, God, is this guy like a, is he a miser? Like, is he just just work, save his money, not spending of it?

So I remember asking, like, why do you drive, why do you drive such an old, old-ass Nissan? It's like, oh, I fucking love that thing. He goes, I throw my dogs in there, they get it all dirty. It's been with me forever. I don't really care about whether or not I bump into things with it. I just enjoy driving it.

And he goes, you know, at home, I have a Porsche. I had no idea. Like, oh, you have a Porsche. He goes, yeah, I like that too, but I use it for other things. And I'm like, well, why do you work out, and you're in these kind of work-out clothes? I'm working out. It's like, you have a port, you go, yeah, I like that too, but I use it for other things. And I'm like, why do you work out and you're in these kind of workout clothes?

I'm working out. I was like, I don't care what this looks like. Went over to his house just after a year or something of training him. Gorgeous house up in the hills of Los Gatos. And I knew that he really valued privacy. So we had land, he valued privacy. And I could see the stuff that he put in his home

were things that he truly valued. And I remember thinking like, oh, like he doesn't spend money on what everybody else thinks. He doesn't have to walk around with flashy clothes. And that's okay too, if that's what you value. But my point is he didn't, therefore he didn't spend his money on those things. So I think that's where you start to look at the pathology.

So like if you're looking at your money, like in your making money, you're thinking, you know, I'm sad, I wanna go shopping at the store to make myself feel better. That's probably a bad relationship with money. You know, you might be better off taking that money and investing it so it can work for you and grow and develop some.

I've shared on the podcast a long time ago that I built this kind of formula and I'm not like completely, you know, strict with this ever, but it's what kind of head, it started me in the right direction of a better relationship with money and that was at the end of every month, I would look at like all my normal bills, your cost of living, food, things like that. And whatever some of money that I had left over, I would invest or save half of that, and then the other half, I would allow myself to spend. And the harder I worked, the bigger that number became.

If I got better at my craft, I worked harder. The number that I was able to save and spend on myself was greater, and if I wanted something bigger or nicer, and it would take more than two or three months of saving than I would just keep saving that money away and then I would go and spend it and buy but I would always do that where I was like I was never Taking all of my money blowing all of it on something and then like having to wait for the next paycheck to get me by I was like so I just created this good habit of you know putting a little way spending and enjoying a little bit now older way beyond all that I have just a nice ebb and flow of, I know if I've been

in a streak of indulging and spending on myself, then I'll go the other direction and I'll make sure I balance it out by investing more and saving more of the next couple months after that. So I have this really nice, and really what it is, is just having a good relationship with money. But I do believe that there is, you know, there is, just like there is with food and exercise, a big spectrum,

and there is streams on both sides. And just like in fitness, where we look at the people with the amazing bodies, and they're all ripped and shredded. And we think, oh, they must have the best relationship with food and exercise. Oftentimes it's the world. And sometimes just says, somebody has all kinds of money,

right, or has all kinds of things that you would think, oh man, they got it all together when it comes to making money or having money. Sometimes those ones are not at all. And so I think there's a nice balance of the two of them. Yeah, I think I'm still learning. I think that this is one of those things. I've been, I definitely was raised more in like a blue collar kind of a setting where

I never spent outside of my means. What I worked for equated to what I was able to buy. Getting beyond that for me and learning how to better optimize my investing strategies and be able to make my money, make money, is something that I'm still reading and learning and trying to get better at and implement for my family. So therefore, you get all those main things covered, all the rent, all the day-to-day things

that need to be accounted for, everybody's living towards all those foods on the table, the lights are on, the main utilities, so I just make it sure that's all established. Now it's like, okay, since I've sort of established that, now how do I be better? How do I optimize? I feel like this is just, this is a whole another leg of my experience with money. Let's talk about debt because debt to me in if I were to compare it to nutrition,

trying to think of a good analogy, it would be like fasting. You can utilize debt and be smart with it and improve your financial stability and circumstances. You can be very smart with debt. In fact, some of the most brilliant, millionaires and billionaires in the world tell you to go in all kinds of debt. No, be very smart with debt. In fact, some of the most brilliant, millionaires and billionaires in the world tell you to go in all kinds of debt.

Know how to work through debt. But most people do not have a relationship with money at a level where they can do that. Where debt becomes a big problem. The way I view debt is this. If I have to want something more than I don't like the debt. In other words, I almost never am in debt, but mainly because I never really want anything bad enough

to go into debt. Now, a house is different. A house I may want a house where I've had several in the past and I want that house and I don't mind the debt to have the house. But like a car, for example, and this is just me. I'm not a huge car guy. I've realized this to myself.

I don't value it so much that going into debt to own a car doesn't bring me a ton of value. But again, that being said, debt is a tool. It's an advanced, I would consider an advanced tool for the average person. If you knew, if you had a good relationship with money, a healthy relationship with money, you could utilize and manipulate debt in ways to benefit you.

But people have such a poor relationship with money, that debt becomes a bad, it becomes terrible. And you see these people who are just, you know, the average American, I think has something like $15,000 of the credit card debt. Yeah. And what do they buy with it? Now you got a massive hole to get out.

Yeah, and what are they buying with it? It's not like a central shit, you know what I mean? Debt with it, debt with a car and debt with a house are two different things too, because, and there's of course, there's two camps that would argue that with the house and stuff, but a house would still consider. And it is a liability, but it's also an asset, and it's also an investment, where a car, you know, unless you're buying like a rare car. Right, like a classic. I consider my, my, my Camaro was an investment. That's actually what made me funny, we were talking about that. What made me buy the Camaro,

I remember when I had saved up enough money to go out and go buy myself a $100,000 whip, and that was like a big goal for me. I had saved up this money to go buy myself. And the younger kid in me and the ego wanted to go get something flashy and new. I wanted to get some flashy new car that was awesome. And I thought to myself before I did it

and I was shopping all these different vehicles and I and I always liked Classic Camaro is a car that my my real father had and drove and it was something that I always wanted as a Kid growing up and I thought you know what I can kind of do both here I can get something that I've always really wanted but then also it be something that's an investment You know anybody that has classic cars knows that, you know, on average, most of those vehicles go up between six to 12% every year just because every single time one gets in an accident, the value of those things go up

because they're even more rare. But things like that, I think, are, other side from classics, are things that are regular cars are a different type of debt than like a housing debt. So any sort of debt that I were to consider putting myself in, you know, running credit card to go buy a bunch of electronics or buying a car, I'll never do it unless I have the cash saved.

So like when I, you know, when I go out and go buy a really nice car, I have that, I already have that cash. I'm doing it for the leverage to build credit and that, because we live in a world now where that does matter. And I was... As you're using debt in a right, in a smart way, where a lot of people don't understand, they don't have a good, they're not advanced enough with the nutrition to go and use fasting for their health. Right, I'm saying? It's the same thing. There's a basics that you need to learn. And basic rule number one is,

work hard and make money, that's number one. And don't spend what you don't have and save money. Like if you can't get that down, you can forget about investing dead. You're just gonna fuck yourself up. But if you get that down, then you kind of graduate to the next level, okay, I can save money. I don't spend more than I make.

And I have a consistent job at work hard. Now I can look into how do I use debt, leverage debt, and how do I invest so that I can continue to make this grow. But this is funny, I always tell myself slow to spend. You know, that's sort of like a rule I have, because it's just, again, like those impulse buys and those things, like it's tempting at first, but for me, it's like, okay, if I keep thinking about it over and over and over, then, you know, it's something I'm gonna consider.

It's a lot like food, what do you think about it? That's why you think it's quite a great question. Yeah, it's a lot like food. It's all relationships that we can become pathological. You know, there's, I don't know what the number is, and I'm pissed off, I don't remember this. But statistically speaking, people in lower incomes, in comparison to higher incomes,

spend a much greater percentage of their income on luxury type items. So I'm not saying that they buy more luxury items, but a greater percentage of their income goes to shit that they probably shouldn't buy. So you'll see a lot, a greater percentage of people in lower income spend money on things like jewelry or cars or electronics

as a percentage of their income, things that are considered luxury, not necessity, then people who cigarettes and things like that, things that are not necessary, but that are kind of just money killers, a greater percentage. And that's because a lot of times, people who don't have a lot of money,

a lot of that has to do with the accumulation of the bad relationship that they have to food, oh excuse me with money. So it's like over time these people could it be in a higher bracket of savings and wealth, but because they, when they get money, they spend it on this stuff that's not very smart, or they have a bad relationship with money. They kind of keep themselves down there. And you can look these statistics up and they're really crazy. Oh, a lot of that's,

I mean, this is something that I battled with as a kid in his early 20s who was making good money. Like I wasn't rich at 20, but I was making six figures, which for me that was a lot of money. Of that six figures, probably 90% of it was spent on exactly what you said. Because it was more about everybody else.

It was more about the insecurity that I had with being successful, coming from nothing to wanting to show everybody that I am successful now. So therefore, here I am, buying all these flashy things, spending all this money on everybody else, picking up bar tabs all the time. And so I was a classic example of that. And most of the time, when you see people like that

that have lower income that's been a majority of it, it's because you're trying to look as if you're wealthier than you really are. And what you don't really know is you're really shooting yourself in the foot for long-term real success and wealth. That's right. And with that, go to minepumpfree.com

and download our guides. They're all absolutely free. You can also find all of us on Instagram. You can then just in at minepump. Just in me at minepump., and Adam at Mind Pump, Adam. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pump Media.com.

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