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Language: en
obesity is a choice this doesn't mean
it's easy to solve but it is a choice
you must accept this or you will never
solve this problem yeah all right I
agree with that wholeheartedly and I
know how much you care about people so I
don't want people shutting down or
thinking that you're being a jerk it's
just like this is a problem that you can
unwind and it is a problem that you
created for yourself again lies abound
lies in the food pyramid lies that we
tell ourselves lies that our parents
raises with all that but so the the list
that I gave you in terms of what people
need to understand what they're going to
have to unwind and then I had you put it
in order so in no particular order this
was the list diet exercise which for
what we're talking about we'll call
cardio already accumulated fat I don't
think people understand is is a it's a
organ and it signals hormonally and all
kinds of stuff muscle mass excuses
insulin resistance mitochondrial
dysfunction hormones life style which
for this I'm going to say is sleep
sunlight and stress and then love
relationships joy joy for Life something
a hobby that you really love
all right that was the list so in terms
of things that that get people there and
keep them stuck
what what's the order all the things
that you listed contribute but a couple
of them contribute to the rest there's a
couple of them that are drivers all of
them so first I want to I want to
address the tweet that I sent out and I
say that with the most compassion I made
a career I mean two and a half Decades
of working with people trying to help
them improve their health and anytime
you're trying to change anything you
have to you absolutely especially if you
want to do it long term you have to
accept
the things that you can't change and you
but you also have to take the
responsibility for things you can so
that feeling of empowerment is crucial
to long-term success like there was one
indicator one predictor of whether or
not a client that I worked with would be
able to get that long-term success which
by the way is less than five percent if
you look at all the data on weight loss
diets and attempts to lose weight it's
like a 95 fail rate it's it's dismal and
it doesn't matter is that initial weight
loss or long term this is like within a
couple years so you lose the weight and
then you gain it back that's like 95 and
I would stretch it out to even higher if
you were to go uh stretch that timeline
out even further I mean millions of
Americans lose weight every year right
nobody can keep it off so and it just
doesn't matter what the diet is right by
the way they compare all diets diets
that are considered healthy like
Mediterranean diets that are extreme
like carnivore veganism
um you know fasting you name it all of
them have a similar or the same fail
right okay so the problem is not losing
weight the problem's keeping it off and
the challenge is like what's what's
happening what is it that is preventing
people from
being able to positively impact their
health and then maintain that that
process or maintain that type of
relationship that keeps them there and
that was the problem that I worked on
and tried to solve for years and years
and years you have to start with
believing that there are things that you
can control and accepting that those
things are your responsibility and
saying okay now that doesn't make it
easy
it at all it's still hard as heck
obviously modern society is the default
of living in a modern society is poor
health the default is obesity you have
to it's really terrifying that's 100 if
you just lived a quote unquote normal
life in modern societies you're going to
be
sick unhealthy and probably overweight
okay so you have to take conscious steps
develop different behaviors disciplines
structures you have to be weird in the
sense that you're not going to be like
most people
um in order to live differently in order
to to break free from the default which
is sick unhealthy
um and obese you accept that there's
things that you can change control
except that this is my responsibility
doesn't make it easy but you got to
start there and then let's talk about
that list that you sent me so you went
through all those different things there
are two things that contribute to the
rest now I remember years ago it was a a
trainer
I first started out thinking that losing
weight would help people become happy
I later took me 10 years to figure out
that you first had to learn how to be
happy before you could really lose the
weight and keep it off forever that's
really the direction of where things go
when you look at data on people working
with dietitians or nutritionists versus
people working with therapists we're
talking about obese people therapy has a
higher success rate long term than
people who work with dietitians or
nutritionists let me restructure this
let me paint a different context
um when you're eating and living in a
way that is making you severely obese
and giving you poor health it's not
unlike somebody that has a poor
relationship with let's say alcohol
so let's say you have a friend that has
got a bad relationship with alcohol
they're an alcoholic and from the
outside it's easy for you to look at
them and say God why can't they just see
that they're killing themselves like why
can't they stop doing this it's very
similar to when somebody's let's say 60
pounds overweight it's like what is
going on why can't they care for
themselves in a way that's gonna
make them feel better why can't they
take care of themselves like somebody
who deserves to be taken care of that's
the root of what's going on we use food
um rarely as a way to nourish ourselves
and rarely do we eat because we're
genuinely hungry
most people in modern societies never
really feel
true hunger we don't go more than a day
without food for most people okay I
think the right way to think about food
is it is a drug that you have to take
every day to survive that's one that has
drug-like effects 100 so that's one very
accurate way to look at it so if you
look at all the reasons why people eat
it's usually because of feelings I'm
anxious sad depressed happy or because
I'm bored or as a distraction
um we develop a relationship with food
in modern societies that revolves around
palatability mostly how good does it
taste you know how does it make me feel
while I'm eating it and maybe
convenience those are the two main
things and so our relationship is almost
entirely revolved or developed around
those two things this is why when people
are with each other and they say hey
what do you want to have for lunch it's
an interesting conversation well I feel
like this or what about that or it's
what they're what they're using to
regulate or consider what they're going
to eat next is those two things
palatability convenience maybe fun and
that's about I want to push on this a
little bit so when I think about therapy
being more effective than going and
working with a trainer or a dietitian
that brings me back to this idea of it's
a drug-like effect so last year was the
first time in my life where I've ever
been so stressed that I found myself
wanting to manipulate my neurochemistry
and I was like whoa so now I understand
uh how people get here because I was
like this is this is really intolerable
and if I didn't have rules in my life if
I didn't have meditation if I didn't
have a healthy relationship with my wife
if I didn't have a healthy relationship
with food I would have really gotten
myself into trouble and it was the first
time where I was like oh this is the
people get into a neurochemical state
that is so unpleasant they will do
anything to get themselves out of that
they will smoke weed they will drink
alcohol they will
sex addiction food addiction all of it
like that they have to change that
neurochemical state there's something
though when I say that it's like a drug
that I can tell doesn't quite click into
place like a puzzle piece for you yeah
but for me that sounds right what is it
you think that I'm missing that is still
congruent with the idea that therapy is
the most useful treatment yeah so what
you're saying by the way that it's like
a drug is 100 correct the reason why
what you're reading is that it doesn't
maybe fit 100 is because when we use the
word drug
the um the understanding that people
have or the I guess the knee-jerk
reaction is oh that's negative
because food is can also be quite
positive by the way so can drugs drugs
can also have profound positive effects
as well but when we say it in that
context be like oh my God it's negative
I'm saying all this though in the
context of someone is obese and they are
stuck yes no you're you're 100 right
um they aren't eating uh to feel good
um long term it's to feel good in the
moment or to numb themselves or distract
themselves and this is a a very
difficult relationship to break in fact
if you look at the the studies on drug
addiction which we can put food
addiction in this category when you look
at the studies on drug addiction with
you know the old ones on mice they would
put mice in a cage and then they'd give
them like water or Like Cocaine waste
water and the mouse would just shrink
the cocaine laced water until it died
and so they said oh these are so
powerfully addicting that you can't
control yourself well later on
scientists said hold on a second this is
a mouse stuck in a cage let's create an
environment where they have Playmates
where there's lots of space there's lots
of things for them to do and what they
found is the addiction rate dropped
significantly so the substance wasn't
necessarily the problem it was the state
of mind that drove the animal which or
human to this type of abuse so what we
need to do if we're looking for
long-term success is stop considering or
stop thinking of humans as machines
where we can put inputs and then it just
follows directions
and remember that were these emotion
driven Behavior based creatures and so
when you gave me that list I put at the
top two which Drive everything else all
the other stuff in order in order okay
let's hear it I'll give you what's
number one yeah I wrote them all down so
lifestyle first love then comes excuses
and then the rest
are important but the order of them
isn't as important then it goes diet
muscle mass exercise hormones insulin
resistance mitochondrial dysfunction and
then already accumulated body fat now
all right hold on so I got lifestyle
love excuses diet muscle and then
exercise
hormones people have got to be freaking
out the exercises that low I know uh
insulin resistance
mitochondrial dysfunction
and then already accumulated body fat
last one is body fat yeah okay so
interesting yeah and I'll I'll explain
this and it'll start to make sense okay
so why did I put lifestyle love at the
top
those two things Drive behaviors if your
stress is dysfunctional
if you don't get lots of sunlight you
get poor sleep those are very very
strong Behavior drivers that will drive
your behaviors to comfort distract
seek out Foods or activities that in the
moment might make you feel better but in
the long term aren't so great love is
right up there as well love has or lack
of love has profound negative effects on
our health and amazing
um effects on our behaviors there was a
study done
um within the last 10 years where they
showed that having poor relationships
was as bad for your health as smoking 10
cigarettes a day
so you could be a health fanatic but
also have terrible relationships and you
might as well be smoking 10 cigarettes a
day do you know what the mechanism of
action is like is it that it raises your
blood pressure or something like that do
we know all of the above when you look
at the the physiological effects of poor
relationships all of the physiological
measures that we can measure decline all
of them immune function hormone uh
hormones become imbalanced sleep becomes
dysregulated neurochemical balance
becomes dysregulated we're such social
creatures that it's in the Geneva
Convention isolating someone for too
long is considered inhumane this is
these are prisoners of War okay
um that's how that's how terrible it is
for us now this list is linear but it's
actually more of a circle okay because
all those other things that I listed
when those start to go downhill when I
start to not be active when I start to
lose muscle mass as a result of it when
my mitochondrial function starts to
become dysfunctional when I start to
develop insulin resistance when I
develop when I gain more body fat and
then that body fat starts to Signal my
body through hormones and chemicals what
it does then is it goes right back to
affecting my lifestyle affecting the
relationships that I have which then
also affect all those other things and
it actually becomes a positive feedback
loop so for people who don't understand
what a positive feedback loop is it's
like when you have a microphone and a
speaker and you put the mic close to the
speaker and it gets real loud because
the microphone picks up the noise of the
speaker the speaker then projects it and
it just gets super loud so when you get
into that spiral
um it gets really really hard to break
now
um this isn't to say that you need to
just focus on lifestyle and love and
everything else will follow
exercising alone if you do it in the
right way
um and that's going to remind people how
low exercise is on your list yeah yeah
again if you have a bad lifestyle and
poor relationships you can become
fanatical about exercise you can become
orthorexic about your diet you're not
going to be healthy and we're talking
about health here okay you're not going
to be healthy and and I know plenty of
people like this in Myspace in the
fitness space Fitness space is riddled
with bodies that look ripped uh that
belong to extremely unhealthy
dysfunctional uh individuals and so
where if if somebody is obese first of
all for anybody that's listening to this
as a podcast style is jacked uh it's
important to note uh and for anybody
that is obese and they're looking at
somebody that's in shape it I think they
would need to understand what under the
amazing outward appearance where they do
look healthy
what isn't going well yeah that's that's
a really really good question you know
the one of the biggest challenges this
is where I feel for
people who struggle with obesity well
there's lots of reasons why I feel for
them but this is one a big one obesity
is a very outward visible obvious sign
of poor health or dysfunction I'll say
if we can tie it back to Lifestyle
when I see somebody that's overweight I
know they're struggling emotionally I
don't wonder I know right but like a
gambling addiction can't always see it a
drug addiction a lot of times you can't
see it someone has a sex addiction
terrible relationships other dysfunction
they could present themselves and at
first glance they're like oh they're
okay but if you're walking around 80
pounds overweight
you know there's a lot of judgment
there's a lot of assumptions
um and uh you're it's like you're
wearing your challenges
um on on your sleeve it's it's out for
everyone to look at so it makes it even
more challenging uh I would say
um but okay so
you look at somebody and they look
ripped you're on Instagram oh wow look
at that person they're super ripped but
what you what you might not know is that
person abuses their body through over
exercise that the relationship with diet
is not a healthy one it's extremely
restrictive it's very orthorexic lots of
stress around their food if it's not
perfect if I'm not hitting the right
macronutrients uh oh my God I'm gonna be
going on vacation what am I going to eat
I'm going to that restaurant I can't go
there I can't enjoy birthday parties I
don't like going out with anyone unless
they're Fanatics like I am so uh it's
it's this unhealthy relationship that on
on the surface appears to be because you
look at someone and we've learned to
glorify extreme bodies
um as healthy oftentimes drug abuse
drugs that make the person feel better
that don't have calories you'll see a
lot of drug abuse with the fitness space
that isn't alcohol because alcohol makes
you fat so what drugs are popular oh
gosh any drug that doesn't have calories
cocaine uh ecstasy you know marijuana
you name it oh it doesn't help it
doesn't make me gain body fat so I'll
abuse it and then uh pharmaceutical
performance enhancing drugs anabolic
steroids growth hormones appetite
suppressants and the like so they can be
very unhealthy and be quite miserable
even though they appear and and this is
one of my gripes with the fitness
industry
there's so much bad information that
comes out of the fitness I'd say
majority of the information that comes
out is bad and a lot of the reason why
it's bad part of it it's consumer driven
we want the Quick Fix easy answer
but a lot of it is that the information
that we get is coming from these uh
Fitness fanatic orthorexics like these
are people who
don't understand uh what it's like to be
normal they're obsessive about their
lifestyle and so they're communicating
to the everyday average person and so
what do you hear you hear stuff like
Beast Mode no days off food is fuel I
don't even taste the food I just eat
what I need to nourish my body you know
type of deal which
I could see for some high performers
might have some value look you're a high
performer in business I think you know
what I'm talking about when it comes to
that you have this another gear that you
could turn on
but I think when the average person
hears that first of all either they're
like oh that's what I got to do and that
doesn't work because they're not that
fanatical or it turns them off
completely you know so I want to talk
about that for a second
um okay going back people are obese
they're stuck there are lies running
around in their head
a lot of those lies are being told to
them by them they've absorbed some
things through other people but I want
to go back to your Tweet and it's like
yeah okay
I come from a morbidly obese family when
I say that I love these people I love
these people so in no way do I disparage
people that are in this gnarly situation
but I I really want people to understand
that when somebody says go beast mode go
ham all that it will work
and if you do it and you can sustain it
like there is something I don't ever
want to say hey this really hardcore
mentality is not going to work I love
that [ __ ] I love people going ham and
pushing themselves and like dude I want
to be the greatest of all time and one
of the things that drives me crazy is
when everybody's like uh the tyranny of
low expectations like oh you're
overweight oh man like you're never
gonna make it like don't worry like aim
low no and of course people don't say
that but it's like hey
aspire to something that you are
inspired by that you really would be
prepared to just go after for a very
long period of time but understand that
you have to find a thread and You Begin
pulling it and so just anchoring
background lifestyle lifestyle was sleep
sun and stress which you said is
everything is Downstream of that yeah
and so people like I I don't want to
give people low expectations I want them
to Aspire to something great but then I
want them to take one step at a time
so I know that being a trainer for as
long as you were really beat you down
because a lot of people give up and so
I've heard you say a lot that like my
goal is to get people to do two or three
days a week and they'll sustain it I
really have a hard time with that I know
you know why you have a hard time with
that how many Tom Billiards do you think
exists in the world are people like you
you are literally one in a million so
those messages that you hear the beast
mode and Aspire and they resonate with
you because that's who you are there's
two ways to do this sustainably okay
there's two ways one which is extremely
rare which you fall into is The Epiphany
this is the moment that's it the light
switch and it could be anything it could
be
trauma it could be you just decided it
could be an event someone had a heart
attack my friend died from cancer
sometimes you see this and they're just
like that's it I'm never gonna be the
way I was before that's extremely rare
extremely rare I know more people who've
had heart attacks more people who've
lost people to poor health who didn't
have that Epiphany than people who have
and it stuck with them so you're a rare
individual now here's where the majority
of people are
it's the developing the skill of
discipline and modifying and changing
their behaviors over time this is where
a majority of people will find success I
am not saying aim low I'm saying if you
want to climb the mountain there is a
way to get there and it's a step-by-step
process and every step is a step forward
you do have the control you do have the
responsibility but we have to do this in
a way that is sustainable and the only
way to do so is to take this
step-by-step approach now the reason why
I say my goal is to get people to
develop a relationship with exercise
where they're doing it two or three days
a week is because in my experience the
average person who is not the ultra
driven High performing High achiever You
Know Rarity the average person
wants exercise to improve the quality of
their life and they don't want to do it
all the time they want to go to work not
because they want to you know be the
most successful person in the world but
they just they want to do something they
kind of enjoy but they want to go back
to their house and enjoy their family
and leave and Lead that kind of a life
and there's nothing wrong with that so
those are the people that I'm talking to
now if you were my client
um you came to hire me you'd be easy
you'd be the easiest client in the world
I know I would know exactly how to train
you I tell you what to do and you do it
and you'd show up as many days a week as
I told you and however many times a day
I told you to show up in my 25 years of
working with people I can say I've had
like two or three clients like that the
vast majority that wouldn't work and I'm
a I can be very inspirational
motivational speaker and communicator
and in my early days as a trainer that's
what I tried to do is I tried to turn
everybody into a Tom or a me in that
regard and I was successful at getting
people on board terrible fail rate
um long term and again the data is super
clear on this so how do we get the
average person
to become healthy you can reboot your
life your health even your career
anything you want all you need is
discipline I can teach you the tactics
that I learned while growing a billion
dollar business that will allow you to
see your goals through whether you want
better health stronger relationships a
more successful career any of that is
possible with the mindset and business
programs in Impact Theory University
join the thousands of students who have
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today
how do we get the average person to lead
us the lifestyle that's balanced that
improves their longevity makes them feel
better balances out the hormones get
them to a body fat percentage or body
composition that is sustainable but
healthy improves their Mobility gives
them energy how do we get those people
to do so it's a different conversation
it's more of a conversation like
um
you know like like this take ask
yourself the following questions and
I've said this so many times I think I
even said it last time I was on your
show
what's one step I can take today
that is realistic forever but also
somewhat challenging it's got to be
challenging because otherwise it doesn't
mean anything but it's got to be
realistic forever because otherwise I am
going to set myself for up for failure
95 okay whatever that step is there's no
wrong answer
there is no wrong answer so it could be
I'm going to drink an extra glass of
water it could be I'm gonna walk five
minutes a day now is that ultimately
what's going to lead them to this
healthy lifestyle if they just did that
no probably not but what it does and in
my experience is they do that
and they do it and it becomes a
consistent Behavior they develop a good
relationship with it and then on their
own naturally they ask themselves again
it usually happens within a few months
what's the next step that I can take
what else can I do and over time this
trend becomes a snowball and over time
we developed this relationship where I'm
never going to stop taking care of
myself I enjoy this I'm never going to
stop eating in a way that's healthy
because I want to not because I'm
feeling forced but because this is
something that
um is is caring for me that I'm caring
for myself that's the direction that
takes people there long term everything
else is good luck
um I could give people all the answers I
could give them the cheat sheets what I
used to do
and it just it just doesn't work it's
hard it's almost impossible this is a
skill that takes time to develop and
again the Epiphany when you say this is
a skill what's this this relationship
with yourself with exercise with
nutrition with lifestyle that is healthy
okay so going back to give a
Counterpoint to that and I want to fully
acknowledge that the number of people
that you've seen in this context is
extraordinary and so I don't want to
diminish the just you've tested this
idea against Real World people
um what I come back to so I get the same
kind of thing through impact Theory
University but it's not usually about
the body it's about the mind so think of
it as goals that aren't the body so
you've dealt with goals that are the
body an ideal endlessly with goals that
aren't the body and the one thing I've
seen over and over and over is that
people don't want it badly enough it's a
it's a game of desire and there were two
things as you were talking that I wrote
down one was desire that people just
they have to want that thing and the
problem with fat loss the reason I think
that people lose fat but then they gain
it back is
consistency like people don't understand
like when it comes to success in
business they can do what I tell them
for two weeks but can they do it for two
years and even if they can't two years
is nothing can you do it for two decades
so every time I put my head down and I'm
like I have to get this person to change
their behavior I come back every time
that they've got to want it badly enough
and then they have to see results now
the thing like that I want to scream
into the [ __ ] camera and get people
to hear me if you eat right you will
feel awesome but there there is this
window for me it was about three weeks
where when I started eating well which I
will say is Whole Food and don't eat
things and Spike your glucose if you do
those two things oh my God like you're
gonna be in great shape but for three
weeks it was miserable and I remember
going to my wife and saying if I ate a
cookie right now I would feel better I
have a headache this is [ __ ] stupid
like I just want to eat a cookie and my
wife is like you can keep whining about
it or you can realize that if you keep
going down this path you will break your
addiction to sugar and supposedly
because this is a long time ago now it's
like so commonplace that people
understand metabolic flexibility the
difference between burning sugar and
burning uh ketones and ah but I didn't
know any of that but she was like look
supposedly on the other side of this
you're not addicted to Sugar anymore and
those headaches will go away so either
eat the cookie and stop complaining or
get to the other side of this my wife
can be really cut and dry sometimes I
[ __ ] love it and so I was like yeah
you're right I'm not gonna eat the
cookie and then I woke up one day and I
was like I feel different it was so on
off like I went from headaches this is
miserable to waking up one day and being
like something is different
and like I there is a person I'm
thinking about right now that I love
very much so very much and
every time I see them
they are in tears over how much they
hurt they don't feel good
and they they'll even say I know I know
it's my diet
and I'm like
for three weeks just for three weeks
because if they get that result and they
start feeling better now they want it
and once they want it like nobody has to
tell me to eat well anymore because I
don't like the way I feel when I don't
eat well and I'm lucky enough to be old
enough that like if I eat something bad
my skin will start to itch my joints
will hurt and so I'm like I know how
much I can get away with so I never eat
more than that because I don't want to
be itchy or I don't want my joints to
hurt or I don't want my sleep disrupted
I don't want brain fog oh my God so but
ultimately what I really want people to
hear or for you to smash me down and say
I'm out of my mind because I am very
open if you can open a door to me and I
can see a way to helping people that I
don't currently see
they've got to do something to build the
desire and if they if they fail to build
the desire they will never get beyond
the like doing enough yeah you're um
there's a lot of Truth in what you're
saying but you have to ask yourself this
right how many people became sober
and then went back how many people lost
weight improved their health felt better
and then went back so it's like what's
going on they got the result
they felt better they felt healthy and
yet they went back to what they were
doing before
that made them feel so crappy what do
you say in a single sentence what you
think happens
they didn't build the right relationship
with what they were doing so I'll I'll
give you an example okay
let's say
um I go into weight loss
from a standpoint of
um self-hate I hate my body I'm gross
exercise is now a punishment
diet is now restrictive
so while I'm eating better
it's restrictive I can't have that I
can't have that I can't have that
exercise in the beginning is cathartic
because I'm punishing myself this is why
people initially love working out to
exhaustion they leave crawling out of
the gym wow that was a great workout
right they commiserate over how hard the
workout was with their friend but then
eventually it's like this sucks who who
could possibly enjoy beating themselves
up every time they work out
so the relationship they built with this
lifestyle
although their health is improved
although they move better what they're
focusing on you know what you shine the
light on is what you what you see right
what they're focusing on is this is
punishment
this is restrictive
this sucks
now let's flip that
um instead of saying I hate my body I'm
gross it's like
I Love Myself by the way it's not a
feeling it's not like the joy the the
love feeling love is an action okay I
have kids I don't always feel the
feeling of Love sometimes I want them I
want to kick them out of the house but
um I actively love them okay so it's an
action you have to choose oftentimes if
you've been married for a long time
anybody who's done that for a long time
knows it's a choice sometimes
so I can look in the mirror and say
I need to start loving myself I need to
start taking care of myself
I deserve to be cared for by the person
who is most responsible for me which is
myself
now exercise becomes self-care
malnutrition becomes self-care it's no
longer restrictive I can't I can't I
can't it's you know what I don't want
that I actually don't want that going to
the gym is no longer punishment it's
self-care you show up the gym and you go
all right what can I do to like take
care of myself sometimes it's hard
workout sometimes it's easy to work out
sometimes it's stretching sometimes it's
cardio sometimes it's strength training
you're actually trying to care for
yourself now you've developed a
relationship with the behaviors that
lead to
healthy Fit Body because it's the
behaviors that lead to that it's not
it's not the effect it's not the result
that leads to the behaviors it's the
behaviors that lead to the result
that's how it typically works so now I
want to care for myself now when I eat I
want to care for myself now I've
developed a relationship with those
things where look
um I crave healthy food I know people
hearing this might be like what are you
talking about no no I know Pizza tastes
better than a fresh salad like I know
the palatability of pizza is through the
roof but I've developed a relationship
with food to wear I also know all the
other values that that's salad may bring
me I feel better my skin is better my
energy is better I feel sharper my
digestion is better
um that pizza is going to taste amazing
but I know all the other stuff that
comes along with it so when I'm sitting
down and I'm offered both nine out of 10
times I don't want the pizza and I can't
have it that's very different I don't
want it
I do want the salad you know um Tang but
Tom this took me 10 years to figure out
I trained people I I apologize to all
the people I trained the first 10 years
I was a trainer because I was terrible
but I remember
um early on or for those first 10 years
I should say first decade
when when I would look at people's diets
and change their diets I would take
things away okay write down what you eat
over the next two weeks and then they
bring it to me and I look at it okay
we're gonna cut this out we're going to
cut that out we're going to cut this out
and it was a terrible long-term approach
I mean if they listened to me they would
do it we'd see results and then
everybody eventually went back everybody
later on I stopped taking things out I
started adding things you might think
well how's that make any sense you're
trying to get someone lose weight what
do you mean you're adding things I added
things that I knew would contribute to
the behaviors that would then get them
to take things out of their diet so I'll
give you some simple examples I would
say hey look eat
continue eating the way you are but
here's what I want you to do I want you
to hit these protein targets every day
so here's what we're gonna have to do
we're gonna have to add
protein to every meal to hit your
whatever 130 grams of protein a day so
that's going to be 40 grams of protein
plus a protein shake so when you eat
your breakfast lunch and dinner I don't
care what else you eat but before you
eat whatever you eat hit the 40 grams of
protein then eat the rest now why would
that work protein is very satiating
protein controls blood sugar contributes
to behaviors that make you eat less
gives you more sustainable energy so
when they would do that you know what I
would find they would end up eating less
here's another one
um I would say hey do whatever you're
doing continue doing it but I want you
to drink uh almost a gallon of water a
day let's let's hit that Target every
single day there's no fat burning
Miracle properties of water aside from
you know if you need to get the right
amount of water but I knew when they
would do that they wouldn't drink
anything else that had calories they had
to drink a gallon of water you know hard
that is to do for most people
um and it also helped with craving
satiety energy inflammation those types
of things this is a great strategy
without denying that I will say it is
sidestepping that therapy is more
effective
so when I asked if you could describe in
a single sentence what you think is
going wrong the single sentence I have
is that this is a neurochemical problem
people are trying they have an emotional
issue and they are manipulating their
neurochemistry and the reason I think
people rebound so I know somebody that
was sober for a very long time 30 years
and then they relapsed and
if I told that story to a therapist and
said what do you know about that person
they're going to say something stressful
happened and the answer is yes
and
if it's
a breakup if it's a career failure
whatever things happen in the mind that
people go I can't feel this way and
going back to you know one of the really
brutal things about being overweight is
that everyone can see that you're
struggling with something emotional
but there are other ways that people can
begin to develop that healthier
relationship therapy is one of them but
then the other is feeling good which we
talked about but the other is a
compelling future
and so what do you think the role of
compelling futurists like I am excited
about something and I'm willing to fight
for that something yeah that's all
you know you you said we're sidestepping
therapy what I said about adding things
I learned from therapists I I had huge
growth as a coach and trainer working
concurrently with therapists with
clients and it started with clients that
I would get that
um were recovering from eating disorders
so I get people who are recovering
anorexics or bulimics and they would
come to me hire me and I'd say do you
mind if I work with your therapist
because I'm a trainer I'm not a
therapist and I would work with the
therapist with these people and I
learned a lot a lot about how to be
effective through my vehicle which was
Fitness and that's one of the things
that I learned was the psychology that
we have around restricting can be so
powerful take tell people to take things
away and it's hard tell people to add
things and it tends to be a little
easier because it doesn't feel they're
rebelling against instructions the
Rebellion tell me what I can eat
absolutely by the way speaking of
rebelling you know why people
when they go off a diet they don't like
just go back to what they were doing
before there's a period of like where
they went worse they go worse than what
they were doing before you ever notice
that it's like they don't go off the
diet and eat like one cookie they go off
the diet need a box of cookies make
themselves sick it's because they're
rebelling against their own selves their
own tyrannical identity that was telling
them you will punish yourself with
exercise you will restrict your diet and
then eventually that inner child or
whoever feels like they're being
punished who's like At first they're
like yes you deserve to be punished but
eventually he's like I don't want to
live this way anymore breaks free and
like a teenager doesn't just go back to
what they were doing before actually
over corrects did the therapist ever
give you anything around how to get them
to stop feeling they need to punish
themselves yeah absolutely you have to
connect one of the biggest mistakes
people make with exercise is obsessing
over the scale
that's a metric it's not it's not it's
an important one so I'm not going to
downplay and say it's not important but
it's not the only metric
there's lots of things that exercise and
nutrition positively impact that for
lack of a better term most people are
not even aware of because all they're
focused on is the scale in fact people
are so focused on the scale that they'll
sacrifice their health in order to make
the scale go down they'll actually make
themselves feel worse
but they're like oh it's working because
the scale is going on down
um not even paying attention all the
other things so I used to really help
people connect the dots to all the other
things that were happening so it's like
okay the scale hasn't moved over the
last couple weeks but how was your sleep
how was your energy how's your skin have
you noticed any changes in productivity
what about your moods what about your
libido and then they come back and be
like you know what
yeah actually I'm sleeping like way
better than I was before and you know I
feel more patient with my kids you know
I remember I had this one gentleman that
I trained it was very successful
um entrepreneur and he had a tough
relationship with exercise but it was
this very disciplined entrepreneur that
used to always confuse me by the way
where as a trainer early trainer I
thought it was just people were just
lazy and then I realized like these are
some pretty successful people that are
hiring me I mean a higher personal
trainer you have to have Expendable
income so most of them were doing pretty
well and I thought they're not lazy
there's something else that's going on
they obviously crush it in other areas
of life they are lazy just in that area
in that area but but they're but how can
I get that carry over you know it's like
they're not just generally lazy people
like what's going on here right so I had
this gentleman who was a successful
entrepreneur and I remember when this
connection happened to him and I knew
like this guy's never going to stop now
he came to me and he goes Sal
I am giving the best sales presentations
I've given in years and he goes and I
realize because I feel so much better
from exercise and that's what I knew
this guy's not going to stop now the
thing that he loves most he has now
connected to the fact that he's
exercising which
by the way
there isn't a single and this is a great
selling point for most people
there isn't a single thing in your life
nothing
that will not improve
if you improve your health
nothing I agreed partner you'll be a
better partner uh entrepreneur you'll be
more productive more Innovative you'll
have better ideas you'll be able to work
harder sleep gets better libido improves
hormone profile improves you're a parent
you'll become a better parent because
your health improves on the other end of
that there isn't a single thing in your
life that won't become worse if your
health declines
so why is this important
well um we talked about the scale okay
all right well so the scale is one
metric let's look at everything
maybe you didn't lose any weight and
you've been working out for three months
because you still haven't figured out
the right amount of calories you're
still kind of overeating but you're
exercising maybe making some different
choices with food that were better than
before
what other things can you look at what
other things have you noticed those are
also very important pay attention to
those things as well then you start to
develop this this broad complete picture
of what's happening through this process
then you start to develop this full
relationship this balanced relationship
that then stays with you for the rest of
your life I'll tell you what
if you were to take 100 people who have
been consistently appropriately
exercising for 10 years people are
consistent with it people who've
developed a good relationship with it
tell them to list the top five reasons
why they continue to do it and I bet you
how they look what make the top five I
bet you number one has to do with
something mental I feel better I have
better energy uh it makes me more
positive or helps my depression or
anxiety
how they look won't make the top five
trip off that and yet the number one
reason why people approach exercise is
to change how they look
um here's something that I've said on my
show many many times and this one I
remember when I first said it it's like
people it resonated so strongly and I
realized that I was taking this for
granted
if you chase Aesthetics
you will eventually lose your health and
then you will lose the Aesthetics
if you chase health
you'll get health and then you'll get
those Aesthetics you your body is a
reflection of your health and if you
compromise your health to accomplish
this look that you're looking for
then you'll have neither eventually
you'll lose both I learned that the hard
way you know you mentioned my microbiome
gut issues I learned at the age of 31
when I had sacrificed my health for the
pursuit of trying to look
you know ripped or buffed or whatever
and I lost a lot of my health and then
my I started losing muscle and started
feeling terrible and I had a whole year
where I had to like completely change
how I looked at things and thankfully it
was a blessing I looked back and it was
a terrible time but I'm so so uh
grateful that I had that because it
really shaped and molded the voice that
I have now
um on my show and how I communicate
health and fitness to most people so the
way I'm talking about health and fitness
is
I believe strongly the way that we need
to communicate it to the average person
it is not easy I'm not saying that uh
you know what I am saying is this is
that if you want to get there you want
to do it long term you have to work on
the why not as much as the how the how
is important
what I do for exercise what I eat all
that also contributes to the you know
the why and the drivers but let's let's
start to look at the why why am I doing
this what's making me do the things that
I do
um why am I reaching for
the the the slice of you know cake or
pizza instead of the thing that I know
that'll make me feel better why am I not
getting up to move why am I allowing
myself to
to make my health worse what's going on
here this is not an easy process it is a
process of awareness but as you move
through this process you'll get there
you'll totally get there and there's
there are
um and I don't want to make it sound so
esoteric I can give specific ways
that'll help a person get there like
I'll give you one example a lot of
um unhealthy behaviors become impulsive
behaviors impulse is just under
Consciousness it's just under awareness
it's that reaching for that unhealthy
food because I'm anxious
um and I'm not really fully aware of
what's going on right so one simple
silly sounding yet effective way of
helping somebody through this process is
create barriers between you and your
impulse and don't allow yourself to be
distracted when you're eating those two
those two things right there would
typically with my clients result in like
a 10 pound weight loss just those two
things right there so I'll give you an
example of the barrier
um take a food that you know for
yourself is like your impulse food right
for me it was potato chips don't have it
in the house but don't say you can't
have it say oh if I want it I'll have it
I just got to drive to the store and get
myself a bag of potato chips that
barrier between you and the impulse just
creates the space for a little bit of
awareness and what happens often when
you do that is you pause do I really
want to get in the car why do I want the
am I really hungry uh I'm not going to
do it so that's one silly simple example
it makes a big difference
the other thing I said was to not eat
while distracted
so
studies are
um I've shown this by the way
when you eat while distracted on your
phone on your computer watching TV
you'll need about 10 to 15 percent more
calories
so you want to cut your calories by 10
to 15 without even trying
just sit down to eat and don't be
distracted literally sit down you and
your food
and just eat
don't do anything else that will
naturally in the studies show this
result in a 10 to 15 percent reduction
in calories so if you eat 2500 calories
a day you'll eat 250 less calories a day
which is like 30 minutes of cardio
you know that's how many calories you
burn about 30 minutes of cardio like
simple things like that make a profound
difference another one which I think
I've said on your show is to avoid foods
that um have been engineered to make you
overeat
so when people I used to love doing this
by the way people would think I was like
a wizard or there's some magic to what I
was doing I would say you know Miss
Johnson would hire me she wants to lose
30 pounds I'd say all right here's what
I want you to do eat as much as you want
just don't eat heavily processed foods
she's like what do you mean does that
eat as much as you want Whole Foods
fruits vegetables
um potato meat eggs you know eat whole
Natural Foods eat as much as you want
let's start there and then they lose
weight and they'd be like what I can't
believe like heavily processed foods or
so you know make your body gain body fat
and then I tell them well you're eating
about 500 calories less a day you just
don't realize it and the data on this is
some of the best studies done on food
are done on heavily processed foods
versus whole Natural Foods actually take
groups of people in a controlled setting
one of the challenges with nutrition
studies is they tend to be observational
so people will come in and Report which
is just notoriously wrong tell people to
tell you what they ate a week ago it's
like forget it yeah they can't remember
or they lie yeah it just it just never
yeah but by the way I'm super aware I
know it's some food tell me to estimate
I'll be off right so um just super
that's that's why there's so many
conflicting studies but these studies
actually took people put them in a
controlled environment and said and they
put whole Natural Foods in this side
type heavily processed foods in this
side macros controlled similar ratios of
proteins fats and carbs and they just
let people eat and they observe them
then they took those groups and switched
them just in case you had like a group
of people that ate more than they
switched them five to six hundred
calorie difference between the two sides
that's a big when I tell people when I
cut people's calories down to get them
to lose weight I typically would try to
cut about five six hundred calories so
again we're talking about behaviors here
right psychology I could tell somebody
track your calories cut 500 calories or
I could say eat as much as you want just
don't eat heavily processed foods both
will result in the same calorie
reduction one of them is much more
likely to feel restrictive and the other
one is more likely to be something that
they'll feel like they're not
restrictive and it's something I can
maintain and do on a long-term basis
that's so interesting so going back to
um where we started so you've got
everybody is there are lies that are
bouncing around inside their head most
of them are self-inflicted
and they're causing them to make
mistakes causing them to go for hyper
palatable food to manipulate their brain
chemistry causing them to think that I
need to be punished and so I'm going
into the gym and now I hate the gym
because I'm just beating myself to death
uh I need to punish my I'm fat I'm gross
I'm disgusting and I shouldn't eat these
things and so now they're ruling things
out but then because they haven't dealt
with the emotional issues a stressful
thing comes up they're feeling bad again
they turn back to their drug now they're
not eating a single cookie they're
eating a whole box of cookies and
they're in this death Loop and this is
why I say it isn't that people don't
know what to do anybody that's made it
this far in the episode has already
heard you say the very simple truth and
that is eat Whole Foods and so if you
eat Whole Foods and avoid spiking your
glucose uh
you're done like you don't have to worry
about anything else and so the question
is now that everybody that's heard that
uh
I have a feeling 95 of people will still
put the weight back on long term
and so I want to go back to the
therapist and this idea of
self-punishment
and
the way that I combated this was with
rules so I'm really prone to negative
emotion and so I'm really prone to
um thinking oh I did something I didn't
succeed the way I wanted to succeed and
you know damn it that's makes me a bad
person I've done something wrong and I
need to be punished for that and when I
finally realized that I had that because
it was subconscious not like I thought I
need to be punished but it was just like
I was beating myself up I was going over
and over and over like oh my God you're
a loser like you're never gonna do it
like of course this is where you're at
like because you're dumb or whatever
right and so just like I realized okay
hold on
I need to set guiding
beliefs in my life and
I was like okay I think every person
ought to act in accordance with the
following statement
you should only do and believe that
which moves you towards your goals and
that ended up really changing things for
me because I realized oh wow like I was
beating myself up because I thought I
deserved that level of punishment but
once I had a rule that said I can't stop
that first negative impulse of like oh
you're an idiot or you deserve to have
lost I was like
I can't stop the first one but I can
stop myself from looping on it what's my
goal is my goal honorable because look
if you're a dirt bag and you've got
goals that are about manipulating and
taking advantage of other people like
not good but if my goal is Honorable and
exciting to me so I really want it going
back to desire but then also it elevates
not only myself but other people okay
well then why would I death loop around
what a loser I am
because it will stop me from pursuing
this goal that is Honorable and so I was
like okay I that really makes sense and
I think making that a Guiding Light in
my life will be useful and it was it was
huge it stopped me from spending the
mental and emotional
energy on
like either beating the life out of
myself in the gym starving myself which
I was very good at by the way uh and so
all of that back to your point about you
have to develop this healthy
relationship once I started not only
putting uh behavioral guide posts around
what I ate like and I think it's
brilliant eat the protein first great
behavioral guideline but also put a
behavioral guideline around what I
allowed myself to think repetitively
ended up being really transformative and
so going back to when you were talking
about hey I had these entrepreneurs
they're really high performing I know
they're not lazy people but they are
being lazy about this thing what gives
it it just comes down to what do you
want badly enough what do you have
behavioral rules around like even when I
think about my own physique I used to
have more muscle mass I used to be
leaner and I always tell people my body
is a reflection of the exact amount that
I care
and so I care right I'm not obese I stay
healthy I make sure I don't have joint
pain I make sure I'm sleeping I don't
have brain fog I'm very clear I'm
optimizing cognitively
but I'm not yoked because it was just
taking too much time and energy but my
life really is regulated by behavioral
rules around what I allow myself to
think and then everything Cascades from
that Tom I want to I want to interrupt
you right there because what you what
you said is so brilliant in that what
you just went through and I don't know
if you realize this were the four stages
of learning which we all go through
whenever we develop a an automatic
lifelong behavior and this is what they
are this is what the four stages are the
truth is hitting your career goals is
not easy you have to be willing to go
the extra mile to stand out and do hard
things better than anybody else but
there are 10 steps I want to take you
through that will 100x your efficiency
so you can crush your goals and get back
more time into your day you'll not only
get control of your time you'll learn
how to use that momentum to take on your
next big goal to help you do this I've
created a list of the 10 most impactful
things that any High achiever need needs
to dominate and you can download it for
free by clicking the link in today's
description alright my friend back to
today's episode it starts off with
unconscious incompetence okay you don't
know that you don't know like you said
you had this negative self-talk but you
weren't even aware of it it was just
like there it was happening so you had
to move to the second stage of learning
which was conscious incompetence oh this
is what I don't know this is what's
happening right now okay I need to do
something about that which takes you to
the third stage and sometimes people get
stuck here if you get stuck here then
it's it's hard to continue to progress
but the third stage is conscious
competence I have to consciously
do the things that move me forward I
create the structures the disciplines
the behaviors so for somebody with
weight loss it would be like I'm going
to eat protein first I'm going to avoid
these Foods I'm going to get up and move
on these days okay conscious competence
but conscious competence you can't live
there for the rest of your life okay
I'll give you and so the fourth stage of
learning and then I'll use this I'll use
other examples kind of illustrate why
you want to get there the fourth stage
of learning is unconscious competence
okay so let's talk about a behavior or a
skill that we have that is in stage four
that we take for granted breathing
walking imagine if you had to
consciously think about walking and
breathing all the time and in fact I
apologize for people watching because
you're probably now consciously
breathing it's real uncomfortable but it
would suck right you have to consciously
take a step every time or consciously
breathe in and breathe out like you
can't live there right so you can't live
there when it comes to your health you
can't live there when it comes to your
lifestyle but you have to go through
that in order to get unconscious
competence which happens through doing
it over and over and over and over and
over and over again until it becomes a
behavior and that's exactly what I've
what I'm trying to communicate here is
you go from each stage so it opens up by
you don't know what you don't know to
okay I'm listening to the podcast I'm
watching this video I'm hearing them
talk
that's all the stuff I don't know I'm
going to make these changes I'm going to
create these structures these these
behaviors and Sal said start with
something small make it something
realistic that's challenging I'm going
to start there so now I'm consciously
competent about the things I'm doing do
it long enough and then it becomes like
I lead
you know I exercise and I eat a
particular way and I'm in that fourth
stage I'll probably never stop it's just
a part of living it's like walking and
breathing for me that's the place we
need to get to if we're looking to have
this be the rest of our lives because
going back circling back to the
beginning of the episode
Modern Life the default is poor health
if you just live a modern life according
to the way Society structured the way
technology is structured the way our
jobs our houses are organized the way
everything's organized your fourth level
of learning is going to take you to poor
health the unconscious competence that
we have in modern societies is to eat
hyper palatable Convenient Food to
ignore all the other signs is to be
inactive everything's designed to reduce
activity I mean I I you could doordash
anything you want to your door you could
walk nowhere if you wanted to almost
literally pretty soon we'll have hover
chairs like they do in Wall-E
um your your our medical system is
designed to keep us there I have a
headache take a pill I feel joint pain
take a pill I feel this take this not
let me see what's causing those types of
things so it is a it is going to be a
process you do have to get the conscious
competence stage but if you're able to
do it properly and you do it long enough
then you'll get because I don't look
I'll tell you what I'll ask you this
I guarantee you don't have to sit there
and consciously think about your
structured discipline like you did when
you first started I bet you now it
probably feels like second nature it
would probably be hard to kick you out
of it now whereas before you had to keep
yourself there you had to really really
focus on what I was doing and what's
going on and am I moving forward you
probably still have those conversations
with yourself but it's not like it was
in the beginning and that's only because
you're so growth minded that you're
probably always trying to grow even more
right you're always trying to put
yourself through that through that that
scale of those four stages of learning
but yeah that's it right there and if if
you get to that fourth stage
diet becomes
just how you eat you know exercise well
this is just this is just what I do do I
enjoy it yeah I enjoy it for the most
part you know just like I enjoy
breathing and walking
yeah man this this topic is
is something I fret about a lot because
the fact that the default stance in the
modern era is unhealth the fact that
being unhealthy makes people miserable
in Myriad ways one if people aren't
already aware I really believe there's a
subroutine that runs in your mind that
if you're if you're not in shape not
shredded or anything like that but if
you're not in shape you will feel badly
about yourself I don't think there's any
escaping that I don't care how much body
positivity comes out people will not be
able to escape it did you see the
meta-analysis that came out on that no
there was a meta-analysis that recently
came out and they are now finally this
is positive very positive news they are
now finally going to consider exercise
as a first line treatment for anxiety
and depression
so the meta-analysis came out you think
that's more important than diet
yes really not in the not in the context
of what's going to make you healthier
just talking anxiety
if you get you get people to start
exercising and they do it right and it's
appropriate and they enjoy it they tend
to then try to eat better
they they tend to then try to to uh take
care of themselves why people could
exercise so much lower on your list then
because the rest of them were kind of
lumped into one interesting because so
the other stuff led to Lifestyle and
love and relationships lead to
everything else but with this
meta-analysis showed was that exercise
was as effective and this is this is in
the meta-analysis of looking at like six
months okay as effective as uh
Pharmaceuticals and talk therapy yes now
I would argue and I and I I'll bet my
house on it that in the long term
exercise is more effective because than
diet no van um Pharmaceuticals and yeah
because
um there's no down regulation of
receptors there's no adaptation to where
it's no longer as effective this is very
interesting and I don't want to lose the
force for the trees here but so as
somebody that struggled profoundly with
anxiety I will say that the the biggest
breakthrough for me wasn't exercise I
was exercising like a cleaned at Peak
anxiety and exercise amazing I don't
want anyone to think it's not vundabar
but if I were going to say n of one
plural event of one is not data or
whatever the phrase is I get that but I
will say my bet given how much the gut
regulates neurotransmitters it's
something like 70 or more of the
serotonin in your body is created and
stored in the gut there's a reason for
that so you are a collection of a lot of
microbes from mitochondria to the
bacteria on your skin in your mouth in
your gut now for me it was Diet monster
once I cut diet monster out my anxiety
dropped by like 70 percent I'm going to
say this so it's in the context of
appropriate exercise I bet you
a lot that you overworked out I bet you
that when you first went into exercise
it was inappropriate I'm pretty bad in
the gym yeah don't I I want to give
myself that credit and okay look how you
do anything is how you do everything and
you're uh you have two gears probably
sleep and go no so oh God I don't want
to deny that how you do that that is a
very good heuristic okay very good rule
of thumb it gets you real close but the
reality is I think that what people's
lives end up becoming is what do you
care about and I know I sound like a
[ __ ] broken record but I really want
people to understand this like if you
are not consciously saying I care about
these things yeah this is why I tell
people get your [ __ ] value system
down what do you value because and
people value things and they haven't
take the time to pull it into their
conscious awareness and so they're just
steering by like for instance if
somebody tells you you can't eat those
cookies and you are like [ __ ] you I'm
gonna go eat those cookies you value
autonomy you do not want anyone telling
you what to do be honest about it I
don't like people telling me what to do
okay are you going to be a slave to that
you need to be very thoughtful because
if autonomy is like over everything
which mine used to be so I can certainly
relate yeah same then you're going to be
in real trouble because now you're just
doing something to be defiant instead of
saying oh I value longevity I value love
whatever but like rank really put them
in order yeah I mean to be fair okay to
be fair diet and exercise are I mean if
I had to pick here's why I if you forced
me I would pick exercise here's why
exercise is easier than the diet to move
a little more statement I can get
someone to move a little more more
successfully than I can get them to
change their diets food or drugs baby
it's hard and people are in a bad mental
state so that's why I sell it this way
because I know people are watching right
now and here's what ends up happening
they're going to hear what I say and if
they do anything they're going to do
well Sal said this is more important
more people will find success by
moderately applying appropriate exercise
at first
then they will by trying to change their
diet at first so when I would get
clients and any trainer who's watching
has been doing this for a long time will
tell you
it's easier to get them to show up for
the workouts than it is to get them to
fundamentally change their diet so
that's the reason why I would rank it a
little higher now I would just say this
so that I can firmly establish myself as
the [ __ ] in this conversation
I'm just gonna say boys and girls that
are listening that's a you problem
because diet is way more effective I
need people to acknowledge to themselves
you are doing a sub-optimal thing
because you've not gotten a hold of your
own mind so if you let me think out loud
for a second I want to ask myself why I
feel so strongly about that so I work
with people a lot so people that only
know me on YouTube but don't know me and
impact their University where I'm trying
I am trying man to teach people what I
did to go from scrounging my couch
cushions to find enough change to put
gas in my car to be able to afford to
drive to a [ __ ] job interview to
building and selling a billion dollar
company this is my third multi-million
dollar company in a row like this [ __ ]
is teachable now I my father-in-law
didn't want me to marry his daughter my
mother assumed that I was going to fail
when I left for college my best friend
said I just assumed you were going to
marshmallow your way through life
these people had not misidentified me I
really was that lazy I really did not
know how to put things together it is
just a series of ancient ideas that have
literally been around for thousands of
years that if you deploy them everything
in your life will change but I have a
real issue remember this is me thinking
out loud I have a real issue with like
people aren't just saying the real
[ __ ] thing and I think the real thing
is you have allowed I get it life is
hard your parents [ __ ] you up in a
thousand ways the bully that picked on
you messed you up but you going back to
your Tweet you have to own that you can
change 100 it's what I call the only
belief that matters the only belief that
matters if you want to change your life
is that if I focus on getting better at
something I will actually get better and
the thing I am that I think keeps
driving me to push this point is the
thing you actually need to get good at
if you want to go from the 95 of people
that fall back and put all the way back
on to the five percent
you
it's going to be a little cheesy and so
I reserve the right to refine this
you don't love yourself
and you have so much negative emotion
that you are flailing about in every
area of your life and whether you're
like me and
you are like the thing that I use to
soothe myself is meaning and purpose
and so meaning and purpose leads me to
work a lot now I'm very thoughtful about
managing love love is my highest
priority my marriage to make it not
cheesy my marriage is my highest
priority
but even I know that like like I
understand that there are insecurities
that I have that lead me to want to
prove that I'm worth something and I
manifest that in the world of business
cool
acknowledging it being aware of it keeps
me from ever letting that spiral out of
control but people need to understand
there's a mess inside your mind you
don't love yourself you don't have a
healthy relationship with who you are
and who you want to become
and you're ignoring your biology
and if I can get people to
hey if eating protein first is the thing
that gets this going I [ __ ] love it
man like whatever thread you can pull
whatever's going to be the doorway if if
working out a little bit is like that
thing that okay it gets you going but if
you don't address your mind
you will never address your biology and
if you don't address your biology you
are dead in the water yeah you are you
are 100 correct but I'm going to give
you an example of a story I'll tell you
a story
that or create a story that kind of
exemplifies a little bit of the
the approach What's Going to Be an
Effective approach so I remember as an
early trainer
people would sit in front of me and I'd
ask them about their fitness goals and
what's prevented them from working out
in the past and I would get the um I
don't have enough time I don't have
enough time
to exercise I'm just too busy
now initially or early on I would do the
whole we all have the same 24 hours in
every day it's how you prioritize your
time and the more time that you make for
exercise and for your health will
contribute to the time that you do other
things that'll make you more productive
it'll make you better parent the whole
thing all true all totally true okay
not nearly as effective as when I
learned to say this it is tough you
probably are really busy how much time
do you have to commit to some exercise
and then whatever answer they gave me
was fine was fine because it opened the
door they would hire me and I'd train
them once a week
and if I did a good job which I figured
out how to do later on then they'd come
back twice a week and then three days a
week and then so on so what you're
saying is correct
but the way that we're going to reach
most people
you know what's that saying you attract
more flies with honey the way you reach
most people is
empathy understanding truth honesty
which is what you're delivering right
now I do not believe in lying to people
you got to be honest with people create
those boundaries
um be very clear
but let's start here and then let's see
what happens and what almost always
happens is they start to move in that
direction they start to move in the
right direction so everything you said
is 100 true and it is 100 a choice and
you do everybody watching listening to
this right now has the power to move in
the right direction 100 and it's your
fault
you're where you're at it's largely your
fault yes there's circumstances yes
there's but
if you made different choices different
decisions
you would be in a better position maybe
not perfect nobody is but you'd be in a
better position accept that okay what do
you do with that information now it's
still hard I don't know what to do do
this take one small step that's it take
one small step start caring for yourself
you said people don't love themselves
people listening to this right now are
like well how can I change that feeling
I have all these negative emotions how
do I change those negative emotions
here's how you do it act like somebody
who cares about themselves that's all
act like somebody who cares about
themselves act like
take care of yourself like somebody
that you actually love and then here's
what happens those negative feelings
start to become less and less and you
start to create more positive feelings
what do you think about this you have to
do things that you believe are worthy of
respect in order to have self-respect
100 100 agree with that absolutely if we
treated ourselves here's what makes it
tough Tom
this is why people treat themselves so
poorly
it's because who knows you better than
you
so you know all the shitty thoughts that
you have you know all your imperfections
you know all your weird whatever stuff
so you can judge yourself
pretty damn harshly based on real
information that's what makes it so hard
so I like to tell people this
think of someone in your life that you
really care about
how would you treat them how would you
feed them how would you encourage them
what would you say to them when they
struggle what would you say to them when
they have those negative thoughts what
would you say to them when they want to
skip going to the gym or not being
active
that's how you should talk to yourself
and if that means you have to act it out
because you don't feel it well that
that's that's that's where you start 100
eventually it becomes more like second
nature but that's where you have to
start so this whole like you know you
mentioned body acceptance movement and
body positivity movement it's such a
um it's been presented as such a
distorted opposite end of the spectrum
incorrect
terrible approach you know I went into
the Spectrum you have the whole hate
your body you're gross look like these
sexy people or you're worthless and what
they did is they went the other end and
said
um your poor health means you love
yourself loving yourself and accepting
yourself means you do nothing about the
fact that you're 80 pounds overweight or
that you have bad health or that you
can't you know play with your kids
because you ran out of energy or you
know out of breath that's also incorrect
um acceptance is more like this
um yeah this is this is what I look like
this is what's going on
I accept the fact that I've played a big
role in this and I've accept I accept my
limitations I don't have the genetics to
look like a model or whatever that's
fine
body positivity and self-care is okay
now it's time to take care of myself and
what does that look like what does it
really look like what does that really
look like most the time most the time it
looks like eating healthy most the time
it looks like being active most the time
it looks like prioritizing good sleep
most the time it looks like getting rid
of toxic relationships and fostering the
good healthy ones sometimes it's eating
a cookie and having some pizza and a
beer sometimes it's taking a day off of
the gym but most the time it's all that
other stuff so if you just go from that
standpoint and separate yourself and ask
yourself those questions the decisions
you'll make will most of the time point
you in the right direction and again I
want to be very clear not easy so one of
the hardest things to do as evidenced by
the fact that a majority of people uh
have poor health and majority of
Americans are overrate and we're on our
way to becoming a majority obese Jesus
so it is not easy it's super hard but it
is possible it is 100 impossible and the
the way it will create for you you know
this
this other thing that annoys me about my
space is this a whole emphasis on
motivation which I'm sure probably irks
you just as much in the business space
whereas people like I don't have
motivation like well I don't wake up
motivated every day either I do it
anyway I do it anyway that's the
difference between discipline and
motivation by the way
creating the behaviors
that make you consistent having that
discipline
leads to the environment that Sparks
motivation more often
also so you like being motivated then do
it when you're not and you'll get
motivated more often anyway
isn't that isn't that weird
yeah facts all right
I want to talk about the mechanism of
action with some of these things so
we've talked a lot about lifestyle but
just to put a fine point on it sleep
sunlight stress
um
I don't think people get nearly enough
sunlight yeah but that's probably uh
another episode love we could definitely
derail on that excuse as we've talked
about but let's get into diet a little
bit more okay so
um what are your like what if you were
going to put a quick nutshell on your
strategy what's uh to use Ray dalio's
terms in finance what's your all-weather
strategy you don't know who the person
is you don't know what they're
struggling with but what's that nutshell
where it's like go do this I want to
preface this first by saying that
there's a there can be a very wide
variance when it comes to individuals
and diet so you're going to see some
people who are going to do much better
on diet based on genetics and microbiome
or something yes and and behaviors and
emotions and our connections to food and
that kind of stuff so just we're just
such a fingerprint physiologically and
emotionally and psychologically but
generally speaking most of us are
somewhere in the middle generally
speaking if you prioritize protein and
eat a high protein diet you'll eat less
generally overall and you'll get better
blood glucose levels that are more
stable which leads to behaviors that
lead to better eating so you don't get
these spikes and drops that tend to make
us irritable or have cravings and that
kind of stuff which leads to overeating
so high protein diet this across the
board has been shown to be beneficial
for fat loss muscle building energy and
is there like a ratio one gram per pound
of lean body mass 0.6 to 0.8 grams of
protein per pound of body weight I tell
people the only way no matter what
you're 800 pounds no um uh for
relatively average weight individuals so
if you're a little overweight or
whatever that's fine if you're obese use
your lean body mass so you want to take
your body fat percentage subtract that
and then that lean body mass is the
number that you'll hit and I tell people
to aim for a gram because most people
fall short of it and they fall within
that number and again that's better for
almost any goal
um and it helps you care vegetable
versus uh meat no not if eating that
much protein if your protein goes below
that then animal sources make a big
difference it's so in other words if
your protein intake is high you're
eating a gram of protein per pound of
body weight doesn't matter the sources
if your protein is like you know 0.3
grams per pound of body weight animal
sources make a big difference they
really do so I'm glad you asked that
question
um the second thing I would say is avoid
heavily processed foods just avoid them
they are carefully and expertly
engineered to make you over uh over
eight do you think overeating is the
only problem or are there chemical
issues that are also causing all of that
leads to the overeating but yeah you're
100 right so they have drug-like effects
they've taken here's what they do if
you've ever I don't know have you
interviewed anybody who's in the um
processed food space that talks about
how they they engineer these Foods it's
remarkable I used to be in the food
that's right so we
hyper aware of this is remarkable it's
like it's not just the taste it's the
texture it's the mouth feel that's the
yeah it's the wrap Vanishing caloric
densities the imagery they use oh the
science is remarkable I mean you could
eat most people could eat a family size
bag of potato chips but they couldn't as
a warm-up yeah but they couldn't eat
five plain potatoes right same same
amount of potatoes in fact the potato
chips are so crazy higher in calories
right so avoid heavily processed foods
because they will make you overeat or
you're gonna be white knuckling this
thing the entire time which it's that's
a terrible idea so high protein white
knuckling meaning I have to reduce my
calories so much yeah you're just oh
you're just constantly like it'd be
heavily processed foods you're
constantly gonna be battling overeating
it's just just you're not going to win
that battle uh it's very very
challenging so high protein avoid
heavily processed uh Foods
um make sure you get enough fiber fiber
also has a wonderful satiety effect on
most people great for digestion leads to
a healthy gut microbiome as you've
talked about on the show microbiome can
drive a lot of our behaviors it turns
out our bacteria influences our
behaviors to ensure their own Survival
yeah so it's kind of like where zombies
walking around with bacteria it's
telling us what to do
having a biological experience yeah like
getting people to understand that you're
in a battle you're you're living
harmoniously with all these bacteria but
they want things and they'll speak up
they will they will change your mood
they will change whatever you eat you
will want more of so if you eat cakes
cookies pies ice cream you're gonna
crave that if you eat meat and
vegetables you're going to Crave that
people don't believe it until they do it
but it is bananas it is it is is 100
true so um the next thing I would say is
um eat or sorry is drink half a gallon
to a gallon of water a day this tends to
contribute to better behaviors overall
better energy
so here's what the data will show you
the data will show you it's not that big
of a deal too I don't see how it could
be anything else yeah because dude from
an evolutionary standpoint animals
[ __ ] kill each other at the water
hole water holes are seasonal they're
there sometimes they're gone the next
like how would humans ancestrally have
ever had access to that amount of water
you know what the challenge you know
what you know what it is is that what
we're not talking about is essential and
optimal
there's like you need a certain amount
of water and this is what we understand
optimal of what we don't understand so
much just like protein essential protein
for a man would be like
40 grams a day maybe
um I mean I weigh 210 pounds I could I
could eat 40 grams of protein a day and
I would definitely lose muscle mass and
the like but I wouldn't die right eating
essential amount is it optimal not even
close right
with water there's essential and then
there's optimal and in my experience a
half a gallon to a gallon a day for most
people
so long as your electrolytes are
balanced and all that stuff that's a
whole other discussion
um you will typically see better
behaviors more energy less Cravings
better digestion
um and and so on it tends to lead to
just just behaviors that lead to a
healthier lifestyle so those would be
the most important
um you start there you could totally
start there by the way starting your day
off with a high protein meal they're now
showing they have CGI so continual
glucose monitors are pretty cool they'll
show how your body responds to food in
real time if you start your day with
protein with a high protein meal even if
you eat garbage later on your blood
glucose levels won't be as affected as
they would have been had you not started
with a high protein meal so start your
day off with a good protein fiber
breakfast and later throughout the day
you'll probably will have better
behaviors or less cravings and you'll
feel better later on and then down down
the list I would say
learn how to track your Macros this is
that whole conscious competence stage
where now I'm kind of paying attention I
know with 30 grams of protein looks like
I know what 50 grams of fat looks like I
know you know what 30 grams of
carbohydrates look like I know what 10
grams of fiber looks like I know what
what what's in the foods that I'm eating
and that's important because when we get
to that unconscious competent stage we
have to be able to attach or connect the
foods we're eating to how we feel and
then eventually it could be like I don't
count I don't sit there and count my
macros I I know like oh I need more
protein that's what makes me feel this
way or I'm gonna you know like today I'm
coming on your podcast I eat a
particular way when I do these podcasts
because I really optimize my yeah yeah
oh there's a way I'll eat to optimize my
physical strength and performance and
then there's ways that I'll eat to
optimize my cognitive performance what
what do you do on a day where you need
Peak mental acuity oh it's usually it's
going to be high protein fat fiber lower
carbohydrate and in fact if I really
want to be sharp this is my this just
works best for me and you'll see this
with a lot of people
um fasting slash ketogenic tends to
provide that for me if I want best
physical performance I want to go hit a
PR in the gym I want to go lift a lot of
weight then I'm going to have a lot more
carbohydrates and typically starchy
carbohydrates if I want to
positively impact my digestion this is
again for me that I'm going to eat
well-cooked vegetables fish grass-fed
meat and I'll avoid starchy
carbohydrates I'll have berries those
tend to do really well for me I've
identified that for myself by the way
what's cool about that now is
um I don't sit down and think about it I
see how I feel and then that tends to be
what I crave so I came here and this
morning what did I crave eggs berries
cooked spinach so that's what I had for
breakfast this morning that's very
interesting there's there is a lot of n
of one individual stuff with diet but I
found that there really is and it I
would say it lines up what I would tell
people is basically identical to what
you just told people I I think that
there are going to be things outliers on
the extremes where some people really
like a vegetarian or vegan diet they
just feel so much better and then you
know on the other side where it's all
meat all the time but for the most part
like there's a real down the middle
fastball that if most people just stick
to that they're going to be yes and you
can't separate this is where things get
really interesting and this is why I
talk so much about the mental emotional
component you can't separate how you
feel about foods not physiologically but
maybe emotionally or mentally
with the physiological aspect I mean you
take a vegan
who is vegan because they truly do not
want to kill animals like they're like
the vegans that stay vegans long term
forever are typically these like they
really believe like I don't want animals
hurt I don't like to eat animals I do
this for the betterment of animals you
give that person a piece of meat you
force them to eat a piece of meat you
will see a spike in blood sugar
because of the stress response the fear
response really absolutely because they
ate something oh my God this is terrible
oh yeah you you'll if like right now if
you get stressed out you get some bad
news you answer the phone you'll see a
spike your liver will release uh
cortisol goes up and your liver releases
a ton a ton of yes true compared to
eating carbohydrates oh it could be
worse get really really stressed out and
you'll see your physiology act like
you've just ate a bunch of candy or like
you just made not sure for me so I wore
a continuous glucose monitor probably
for six of the 10 months that I was
stressed out of my [ __ ] mind and it
was I could see it when something acute
would happen I'd be like okay yeah but
compared to eating something I would I
would and you're this is where the
variability in individuals I would
venture to say that you probably
do pretty well with stress yes yeah so
yeah so um I'm speaking generally
um there's also an immune response
um some you might have someone who eats
an avocado
and sees a strange spike in blood
glucose really yeah but it's not because
of the the fat or anything that's in the
you know obviously it has no
carbohydrates or sugars but maybe their
body has developed some type of an
immune reaction to the avocado and that
releases glucose yeah because it's a
stress response it can in some people so
people like people have food
intolerances and they'll eat a food not
an allergy but like an intolerance lead
of food and then they'll feel like
garbage afterwards that's an it's a
systemic
um stress response
um there may be foods that you have a
positive association with and you'll see
positive neural chemicals and hormones
and stuff you know that I mean you can't
separate the two you really can't it's
like um they both speak to each other so
why is this important to know I mean
we're getting into the weeds here but
it's important to know because
you you want to consider all of it you
want to consider all of it when you're
getting if you get down if you get
through the basics that we talked about
which that's that's 90 something percent
of it okay but when you get through all
that and you're doing it then the other
stuff starts to starts to matter more
and you can say okay well
um I do have this positive association
with these things this negative
association this does for whatever
reason make me feel a particular way who
knows but it doesn't matter I feel this
way it's like the placebo effect placebo
effect is real we can measure it so is
it there yeah it totally is yeah it's so
interesting talk to me about hormonal
regulation so one thing I'm actually
considering uh well not considering I'm
going to get my blood tested do you know
Derek for more plates more days yeah I
do it's gonna say I think you guys had
hit it off yeah uh so had him on the
show was talking about trt yeah
um so he's going to be doing a blood
draw for me running a panel I'm super
curious to see where my testosterone
levels are
um
what do you think about trt so I know
you've done it for a while yeah so I I
uh Western medicine is amazing for what
it's great for and if there's what acute
issues that could be solved through
medical intervention
um if if uh lifestyle fact if lifestyle
and behaviors can't
solve a particular issue and medical
intervention can can help and go that
route okay I'm so I'm not a black and
white I'm not what should I do naturally
first before I say oh I need trt so the
things that affect testosterone in men
um significantly are sleep stress diet
exercise in particular strength training
and sunlight
um not like Brazil nuts or anything like
that if you have a nutrient deficiency
if you have a zinc deficiency and you
supplement with zinc or you eat
something that's high in zinc you'll see
a positive influence on your
testosterone if you don't have a
nutrient deficiency it's not going to
make a difference so these foods that
raise testosterone are typically because
they're feeling nutrient deficiencies
that are common uh in men okay but if
you supplement like if you have low
vitamin D and you take vitamin D you'll
see better testosterone levels but if
your vitamin D is great you could
supplement with vitamin D all day long
it won't do anything for in fact it
might be detrimental so
um those things that I listed so like if
you lift weights and you're getting
stronger and building muscle you'll
typically see
uh higher testosterone levels Higher
free testosterone and more Androgen
receptor density so these are the
receptors that testosterone attaches to
if your sleep is not great but you
improve your sleep you'll typically see
an improvement
um in testosterone if your stress is uh
overwhelming and you find a way to
manage it better whether that be reduced
stress or have stress management
techniques then you'll typically see an
improvement in testosterone levels and
then there's genetic factors and other
factors that are harder to parse out
like you know personally for me in the
early 2000s you know full disclosure I
don't think this is a surprise for most
people this is why most people start
exercising
um I started working out because I had
body image issues I had insecurities too
skinny yeah too skinny and so I started
working I wish you know people who I've
struggled with being overweight say that
people who are too skinny I know I know
we have a guy here that just he
struggles to put on weight it is so
crazy to me yeah to watch him eat I'm
just watching him pack away the calories
and he'll be like dude if I let off like
my just obsession with make sure I eat
all my calories he was like I will lose
like three four pounds in a week I'm
like what the hell I know it's weird
never it's but insecurities are
insecurities right so uh well yeah you
can't tell him tell someone otherwise
but I got into it because of body image
issues and in the early 2000s uh you had
this Market gray Market of supplements
that were called pro hormones I remember
that remember that when uh Mark Maguire
was taking Andrew stand it down all that
stuff well anyway supplement companies
can be pretty they can be like the
pharmaceutical industry what they did is
they went through the laws and they saw
what was illegal
and what wasn't necessarily legal and
they went and found discarded anabolic
steroids that pharmaceutical companies
stopped pursuing that weren't
technically illegal and sold them as pro
hormones over the counter so here I am
young kid insecure I want to build
muscle
oh I can buy it over the counter it's
legal it's a pro hormone so it's not
technically but it was it was a designer
steroid and so I took them and you know
in fact they're not Black Market
steroids but they could you could get
them over the counter so I took them on
and off for years and then eventually
stopped taking them well it turned out
that they affected my body's ability to
produce testosterone once I hit
my late 30s early 40s I was just
just couldn't tell what was wrong I had
everything optimized I was doing you
know I'm a fitness guy so I worked out
slept good ate right took the right
supplements did everything right
um the part that was weird to me was my
libido was okay
um but it's I've now learned that libido
can be affected by so many other factors
than testosterone but you were having
issues everywhere else lethargy just my
energy was off I was getting anxiety
which I'd never had before so that's
part of why I want to try it so I've
dramatically reduced my anxiety but it's
still like a daily thing where I'm like
ah like it's there I won't say ever
present but it's there yeah it was weird
for me like I just get I would get
anxiety speaking which that's my
favorite thing to do
um it just it didn't feel right I would
tell my wife my PRT helped with that so
I got my testosterone levels checked so
we had a um a company approach us hey we
want to work with you guys we're a
hormone replacement facility
um and we've been approached many many
many times by other companies but this
one said hey we'll give you guys free
blood work and so we're like okay let's
go see what's going on and um I went and
got my blood work tested and it came
back and my testosterone was in the
floor it was my total testosterone was
to was below 240 which is like yeah 300
is like the bottle right
um and then you know in retrospect at
that point I was like oh my gosh it all
makes sense now and at that point I was
like exercising well and eating right
and taking the right supplements and I
you know I get my nutrient levels tested
and I had this conversation with my wife
and I said honey
if I raise my testosterone by 50 I'll be
low I'm still going to be low wow like
this sucks and so I had this like it was
really challenging for me to make the
decision because why because I'm a
health and fitness guy so I'm like oh I
shouldn't have to you know this is and I
know some people go through this which I
consumed I always would need to as I got
older yeah so I got I so I went on
testosterone replacement therapy and um
yeah I was like Game Changer complete
Game Changer and I was like okay now I
feel like myself
um and by the way I'm a great
you know and of one so people who are
like what's the difference between low
testosterone and high testosterone in
terms of like let's say athletic
performance and fitness so and I'm a
great example because I was doing
everything right before and I continue
to do everything right after somebody
the only change was the testosterone and
for me it was about
around 14 pounds of lean body mass and
around seven pounds of body fat
yeah so I lost body fat and built this
was over the year over a year and a half
interesting because I've always told
people 15 pounds of lean muscle for
somebody that's not obese is a game
changer oh yeah like you're gonna look
fundamentally different now you were
already I'm sure pretty big so maybe not
as noticeable on you but oh no I mean
it's a good amount of muscle it was a
game changer for sure um but that's
because I went from low to like High
um and where are your levels now now uh
now so what happens when you get tested
um because there's different ways you
can administer testosterone but um I
prefer the old-fashioned you know once a
week injection
um when you imagine why not daily
um I feel better I feel better this way
um and most people with an athletic
background will if they go on trt we'll
we'll go this route interesting yeah so
I just feel better but uh I know people
who are more like the convenience of
topical you know you pay attention to
Rogan at all I do because he does trt I
thought I heard him say he does daily I
don't want to put words in his mouth but
not sure but I know he does testosterone
he's also done growth hormone a couple
other things
um but yeah it'll it at its peak it'll
be out of range a little bit out of
range but by the time it comes down
during the week then I'm around like 800
900 uh total.com so which is about free
do you pay attention oh God I you know
what that's a good question
um same it would be slightly out of
range and then within within high within
high normal and it you know this again
I'm not a doctors this is out of my
wheelhouse now uh when we're talking
about like testosterone levels and stuff
like that but as explained to me by the
people that I work with
they base it off of the range but also
how you feel so and you look at things
like libido energy
um sleep you know that kind of stuff and
then they'll look at markers like blood
markers uh your you know red blood cell
count cholesterol levels you know blood
lipids that kind of stuff
um so now I'm an advocate but I'm not
the I'm not going to tell people to
uh go on trt when they have an unhealthy
lifestyle because that'll mask a lot of
things and probably not going to help
you a ton
um I mean it's I'm sure it's better than
nothing but um you are typically your
testosterone levels are quite
manipulatable through lifestyle and we
can see this in in studies with with men
although although
testosterone levels of men have been
dropping consistently now for decades
and we're quite not sure we're not quite
sure what the hell's going on this is
again out of my wheelhouse but this is
well established like men's testosterone
have been going down since the 50s and
60s that's crazy yeah like an average 20
year old testosterone now is like what a
50 year old would be in the 70s and 80s
or something like that I'm gonna just
pop off because I know nothing about
this but if I had to guess it's going to
be diet it's going to be chemical
exposure
um both on the food and in the air
yeah I'm sure between those two things
you're going to get obliterated from an
endocrine perspective yeah they think
it's like xenoestrogens uh they think
it's lack of activity in diet that's
that's probably causing lack of activity
yeah yeah I can see that lack of muscle
mass strength men's strength levels of
decline pretty significantly as well
um but yeah so that was a that was a a
game changer for me so if it's
appropriate I'm a huge believer it was a
life-changing my health dramatically
improved yeah it's very interesting to
me okay insulin mitochondria yeah what
do you how do you think about those
um
I so as news started coming out about
that Alzheimer's is probably Diabetes
Type 3 or diabetes of the brain
um and then I had a guy on named Chris
Palmer I don't know if you know him but
he's got a hypothesis he wrote a book
that's basically the punch line is that
mitochondrial dysfunction is the root of
all mental illness anxiety depression
schizophrenia like all of it all of it
all of it and
while I don't know if he's right or not
he's got a pretty compelling case for if
you look at what's happening to the
mitochondria that when you take those
might like if it's the
um mitochondria in other parts of your
body it will manifest as not being able
to have enough energy it will manifest
as an inability to deal with glucose
appropriately body fat storage like on
and on becomes an issue what happens
when that's happening in the brain and
it just asking the question of what does
mitochondrial dysfunction in the brain
so if we're unable to get the right
amount of energy in the brain what ends
up happening what are the consequences
of that it makes sense that there would
be some pretty scary repercussions do
you think about that is that something
that you look at yourself yeah so that's
um that's compelling that's a compelling
argument
now the challenge is uh
what contributes to the poor
mitochondrial function that's a much
more complicated
conversation but here's uh here's what's
interesting you take people with
Alzheimer's dementia and sometimes
um actually a significant percentage of
people with depression anxiety you put
them on a ketogenic diet and you see
improvements and that directly has to do
with the energy production of
mitochondria so people who have issues
with
utilizing glucose for energy the reason
why you see improvements is they're now
utilizing ketones and ketones are just a
cleaner easier
source of energy and so glucose
literally sticks to cells yeah so it's
so if your body isn't inappropriate if
your body isn't
um utilizing glucose well
then that's why you see improvements in
those things with people when they go on
like things like like I said like
ketogenic diets where they fast for
example that's pretty interesting okay
so let's talk about insulin and
mitochondrial function
um and I think they're both closely uh
pretty closely related you're when you
start to become insulin resistant you
start to see some dysfunction
uh in the mitochondria
one of the most one of the single most
effective ways to improve insulin
sensitivity is to build muscle
now it's not the be-all end-all but it's
one thing that will almost always
improve insulin sensitivity in fact they
have studies on muscle is very insulin
sensitive it's also one of the places
that we store glycogen which is made
from glucose and use it and use it right
so the liver being the main source place
but then muscle mass so if you build a
little bit of muscle mass you you
improve your body's ability to store and
utilize glucose for energy
um so they do they have studies on obese
individuals where they don't have them
lose any weight at all they haven't
built a little muscle and we see some
improvements in in their blood glucose
and their insulin sensitivity you know
I'm going to say if I wanted to get
somebody to work out that was struggling
with weight one thing I would do put a
continuous glucose monitor on them and
then say you can eat whatever you want
this this could absolutely [ __ ] kill
them at a cellular level but this this
is so powerful for me at Christmas where
I take all all of my rules I throw them
out the window I eat whatever the hell I
want I steer only by how I feel and one
thing I've learned about myself is if my
blood glucose goes to 175 I don't feel
good I actually feel kind of sick I'm
like lightheaded it's really gross I
absolutely hate the way that it feels so
nobody has to tell me not to go over
that but one thing I realize is I can
eat let's say ice cream which is a big
thing for me ice cream and licorice oh
wow uh yeah so that's it yes oh wow is
there any other kind yeah licorice is
not licorice it's red vine yeah licorice
is a flavor yeah you're right anyway I
get on my high horse about licorice uh
at Christmas what I do is I will go and
do a lot of uh leg workout leg legs and
back oh okay and so big muscle groups
yeah so in early in the day I just go do
really high rep legs back legs back legs
back and I'll mix it up obviously so I
don't end up like with imbalance but
then I find I can eat a ton and four so
I did this uh for about two weeks over
Christmas and my average glucose level
was like 78 so I had a CGM on the whole
time morning noon and night eating ice
cream licorice Cookies Cakes pies
whatever the hell I wanted and all I
steered by was my average glucose level
I was shocked you just by working out so
to your point that the muscles just suck
it up now whether the following
statement is true or not but I heard
this I'm almost certain I heard this
from uh Jesse the glucose goddess uh who
said that if your muscles are screaming
out for glucose it will actually go into
those cells without the need for insulin
if that's true and it's also true that
insulin actually ends up damaging the
system when it's in over abundance then
working out having that muscle mass
becomes an incredible way this is
terrible but it becomes an incredible
way to be able to cheat a little bit on
your diet and get away with it no you're
I mean this is a bodybuilders have known
this for a long time or they'll I do not
advocate for this I think this is
terrible I think it's terrible it just
it Fosters a poor relationship with food
but they'll say things like eat gummy
bears and pixie sticks post workout
and they'll show that they're that their
blood glucose isn't affected and they
see it's great well you got a lot of
muscle you just did some strength
training and your bodies are your
muscles are sucking up amino acids and
glucose uh to repair muscles are glucose
you know utilizing machines and they're
very insulin sensitive sarcopenia is
very strongly related to diabetes what's
sarcopenia muscle loss it's very
strongly related to
diabetes and insulin resistance so now
you have nothing using that glue yeah
you know by the way all exercise
appropriate exercise will have a
positive impact on on blood glucose and
insulin sensitivity but nothing compares
to strength training in that regard
strength training has the most profound
and when you do a apples versus apples
time versus time spent one day a week of
cardio or whatever one day a week of
strength training five days a week of
each whatever you go Apples to Apples
strength training
controls or works with blood sugar
glucose insulin you know sensitivity far
far more effectively and it's just
because it just builds muscle so if you
can see it with a CGM like I the first
time that this happened and I was
feeling weird from eating ice cream I
was like let me try to do some air
squats and literally over the course of
I don't know 45 minutes to an hour I
just watched it just start going down
down down down down down and normally
when I eat ice cream it's going up up up
up up up up up so it's very impressive
it's it's one of those things that is as
drug-like as you want it to be it's like
oh you have this thing your blood
glucose is escalating just doing air
squats now I had to do a lot of them but
just doing air squats you could watch it
happening on the cgms
that's so fun yeah that's why like uh
pre and post activity even if it's mild
actually is pretty good for um for that
when you eat so what they call
postprandial activities so like you eat
and then go for a walk you'll see
significant just a walk yeah there was a
study oh this was a good one I hope you
guys can find it if not I'll look for it
they did a study and they of course they
Market it as like this miracle thing but
it's there's nothing spectacular it's
what happens the body where they had
people simply do cat like heel raises
like I'm doing them right now you can't
see it on camera but literally I'm just
picking my heels up and bring them down
they had people do that while they ate
and afterwards and they saw significant
improvements in their their blood
glucose and insulin sensitivity so yeah
so even just activity around a meal and
it doesn't have to be much you know what
I find that's interesting about this Tom
when you if you want to find truths one
of the best ways to do so in my opinion
is to look at different cultures
different societies and see if you can
find commonalities in their behaviors
and then there's typically some value
there and what I find that's interesting
is most old cultures value a post-dinner
walk or post meal walk you'll find this
in many different countries where it's
like they eat a big meal and then let's
go for a little stroll outside very
interesting
um but yeah that's that has a pretty
good effect it's real simple but yeah
just just build some muscle and most
people are inactive will build a decent
amount of muscle just strength training
even once a week you'll see a nice
Improvement in that
yeah that especially so going back
actually to one of the ideas that we
touched on briefly is
I think the most transformational thing
that you can do for your life your
mentality everything everything is ADD
muscle
the the act of having to do it and I've
heard you talk about this and this is
very important if you could take a drug
and out of the muscle for you it won't
work but the person you have to become
in order to be consistent enough to show
up to put on the muscle it teaches you
this really powerful lesson at like a
deep limbic level of I showed up I
pushed myself I did something hard and I
added muscle you're going to earn
self-respect so and I think it is very
important if you want to respect
yourself you have to do things you think
are worthy of respect there's no way
around that so you can't stare in the
mirror and say I love you I love you I
love you you've got to go do something
that you already think is cool that you
think is valuable and if you do that
it's really transformational for how you
feel about yourself I don't think I
would have gone on to have the success
in business that I had if I hadn't first
had to morph my physique
and by showing up and pushing through
everything and getting trapped under the
bar multiple times and like having to
figure your way out and like embarrass
yourself and ask for help like all of
those things and and you see it and it
actually happens and you go from like
one of the coolest things in the world
to me like I can't do this anymore but I
used to be able to bend over and pick up
almost 400 pounds and that used to
really like every time I do it I'll be
like this is crazy like I literally you
can just bend over proper form bending
my legs obviously not straight legged
deadlifts but that psychologically was
so powerful and so the fact that it then
also helps with glucose and it also
helps with mitochondrial function and it
also helps with mental acuity it's like
one of those things that and this is why
I want to like scream into the camera to
get people to do it because man if you
push through and you stay consistent on
the other side of that self-respect you
hit the nail on the head Tom you could
take a helicopter and it could fly you
to the top of Mount Everest and the view
will be amazing and everything's look
great and wow this is beautiful
but it's nowhere near the
transformational
experience is climbing the mountain
yourself and I've said this so many
times on my podcast that one of the
things I love most about Fitness that I
learned myself personally and I could
see in the clients that I train
was that it's one of the most powerful
vehicles for personal growth
it's extremely powerful part of the
reason why it's powerful is it's
unassuming a lot of people don't go into
it thinking like this is a personal
growth you know thing it's like I just
want to get more fit but you mention a
lot of things that you learn from it you
know getting pinned none of the bar uh
that's like learning how to fail
like you know uh there's a story what
was the statement winners winners lose
more than losers lose
okay so it's like learning how to win is
great learning how to lose is even more
important because you're going to lose
way more in life than you're going to
win
um so what does exercise teach you if
you pursue it how to suck
how to lose
um I had to continue to try and practice
teach you self-acceptance because at
some point you're gonna get older and
you're not going to be as strong as fast
as you were before but you do it anyway
uh it creates a positive relationship
with pain
you know like um people who who are
Advanced with exercise feel as much or
more pain in the workouts than beginners
do yet they feel it differently or at
least they experience it differently
think about the carryover into everyday
life with that I mean think about how
you can learn how to experience pain and
challenge in everyday life because you
go to the gym and you can you know push
yourself through a set of 20 reps in the
you know heavy barbell squat or whatever
um it teaches you growth it teaches you
how to keep trying and iterate and
change and try different things and
change the directions because this isn't
working well that's working oh this is
great it's a wonderful Journey it's one
of my favorite things about it I used to
love training kids for that reason I
would train
young teenagers or you know late teens
and they come see me and their parents
would come and comment about how they
got better grades or how they were you
know better at home why because this
week we did 10 push-ups next week he did
12 push-ups guess what Johnny yeah
you're not the same person this week as
you were last week you did two more you
are fundamentally a different person
like you can't tell me that doesn't have
carryover into everything else so yeah
you hit the nail on the head with that
massively brother where can people
follow you uh mind pump media uh you can
find our podcast you can find us
anywhere but mind pump media look us up
I love it all right everybody if you
haven't already be sure to subscribe and
until next time my friends be legendary
take care peace
keep watching if you want to learn the
daily hacks to melt fat lose weight and
live longer Sean Stevenson welcome back
to the show I am very excited to talk to
you and at the end I want everybody to
stay tuned because I'm going to give you
the best John Stevenson quote which sums
up one of the most important principles