Barbell Shrugged - Barbell Shrugged  — The Flexible Dieting Lifestyle w/ Zach Rocheleau  — 322

Episode Date: July 4, 2018

Zach Rocheleau is founder at the Flexible Dieting Lifestyle, and owner and head coach at Genetic Potential Academy. He is a also Precision Nutrition Sports and Exercise Nutrition Certified Coach and a Certified USA Weightlifting Sports Performance Coach. At his gym, Genetic Potential Academy, Zach has helped many people transform their nutrition, which led to hundred of pounds lost, no more medication for diabetes/high blood pressure/cholesterol, and created lifestyles that people have always desired. The great results his clients achieved urged Zach to crate the Flexible Dieting Lifestyle, where he helps and educates people how to create the perfect diet for them. Enjoy! - Doug and Anders Show notes at: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/bbs_rocheleau ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please support our partners! @organifi - www.organifi.com/shrugged to save 20% @thrivemarket - www.thrivemarket.com/shrugged for a free 30 days trial and $60 in free groceries @OMAX - www.tryomax.com/shrugged and receive a free box of Omega 3 Fish Oils @Onnit - www.onnit.com/shrugged for a free 14 pill bottle of the leading nootropic Alpha Brain and 10% savings on all purchases. ► Subscribe to Barbell Shrugged's Channel Here ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

Shrug family, it's Anders Varner here. Another radical week coming to you with Zach Rochelot. He is the creator of the Flexible Dieting Lifestyle Instagram page, teaching all the people how to eat their macros, stay healthy. And man, this is an interesting conversation because this kid's probably like half my age. And us old people have a responsibility to stay connected to what is going on with all the young people in the world these days. And, man, I don't know how I feel about all of the things that Zach Rochelot is putting out there.

He likes to create protein cake and cookies and cookie butter on rice cakes and ice cream and a whole bunch of things that fit your macros. Yet, man, I haven't prescribed a nutrition prescription in the way that he has done it in ever in my life. And it really makes me question what my purpose is on this show. Is it to highlight people that have really big followings? Or is it to only deliver the information that I think is 100% accurate? And the thing that's really interesting about Zach is he's a really smart guy. He's super charismatic. He has a massive following.

And he's really making the world better. So why should we not highlight this stuff? Because he does it through creating cookie butter ice cream and rice cakes. And the truth is, is I don't really care how he does it anymore. I have literally thought about this episode for a very long time because I really, really, really like Zach. I think that he's such an awesome guy. I just don't know how I feel about cookie butter ice cream. And the truth is, is that maybe it doesn't matter what I think about cookie butter ice cream. What matters is that he is bringing a ton of awareness to a way in which people can eat and chase their macros and do it in a decently healthy way.

I think that we so often get hung up in what I think is right and wrong. When I say I, it could be you, it could be anybody you're talking to, but the way that I think nutrition should be taught is very specific to just me. And the truth is, is I may not be able to reach nearly as many people as he does

or affect the way as many people think that he does. But that doesn't mean that I'm wrong. It doesn't mean that he's wrong. What it means is that he's got a different approach and the fact of the matter is that he's getting a whole lot of people, specifically people that are half my age, which is a demographic that I don't really connect with that much. He is getting them

thinking about the nutritional value of protein, carbs, and fat. And that's really, really important. And he's doing it through a platform that didn't exist when I was 18 years old. It didn't exist. And nobody ever thought that we'd be able to share ideas on a platform this large. So Zach Rochelot, you're a gangster. Keep doing what you're doing. I think it's super important that you're on this journey and I support everything you're doing so much. I hope that one day we do it through a different idea than protein cookie, cookie butter ice cream. I think that stuff's delicious on a Saturday night and I want to be all about it. I just think that as I have aged and as I have gotten away from these things and how to hack the system, I'm much more interested in other pieces of nutrition like gut health and hormone regulation and pieces along those lines. and I think what Zach is doing is so freaking important because he's able to reach an audience

and educate them and get them thinking about what they're eating and bringing knowledge to a space that is wildly needed. It's so important for me to go back and find people that are Zach's age and a very different demographic and find out what they're talking about. Because if I don't, and I don't challenge myself to what the new kids are doing and the new messes they're putting out in the new mediums that they're putting it out in,

I get fucking old and I don't want to be old. I don't want to be stuck in my ways and be some curmudgeon old podcast host that can't, that thinks I'm right all the time. That's not who I want to be. I think Zach is a total badass. I really think everybody should be following him. I think everybody should be learning from him. And I think that most importantly, the dude is on a journey to help people. And anyone that leads from a place of love like that has got just a super high five coming from me, possibly a bro hug. I just think that he's on a journey. Right now, this journey is incredibly fun to him.

He's having a ton of fun in the kitchen. He's reaching people, and he's making them think, and he's educating them about nutritional basics. I can't wait for you to listen to this. I think it's super important that you go into this with an open mind and learn something. Learn what the kids are learning. Don't be old and think you know shit. You don't.

You don't know what the kids are doing right now, and he's at the pulse of that conversation, and he is the future. He is the one that's going to be leading this conversation well into the next 10, 20, 30 years. And he's got such a massive platform to do it that it's just incredibly impressive. I can't wait for you to listen to this episode. Make sure you get over to the program vault.

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Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. I'm Anders Varner. We snuck out onto the roof of the Hilton downtown at the Bay, hanging out with Doug Larson, Travis Mash, and Zach Ruscholo from the Flexible Dieting Lifestyle. That name is no joke. We're here to talk about some macros today, lifestyle choices. Every time I turn on your Instagram account, there's like a rice cake with an M&M in it,

smothered in ice cream, and then quads hanging out. So we got some stuff to dig into because I want to eat like that, but I have no control over what goes into my mouth. If it's in front of me, it's going down. That's what we were just talking about. So I need to learn how I can control this thing. What is the diet? How do you work with these people so they can understand that maybe ice cream isn't the best option?

But if you've got a problem like me, it can be an option. I feel like your Instagram might be a little misleading by the way we're talking about the hierarchy of nutrition and like you're you got this cool pyramid set up where you have you know different priorities for what's most important first second third fourth so I kind of dig into what those priorities are and then I really want to hear like do you really eat like your Instagram suggests all the time or is that just like for show or what the deal is there? Well, it's super interesting. So Instagram is a very visual platform. So what I've become known for is like I initially came into the industry teaching flexible dieting. But then I saw a huge void.

Nutrition was one of those things like we would have these foods that would, quote unquote, be off limits because either our diet didn't let us have them or they didn't fit into our macros really well. So if we want ice cream, we can't really eat a lot of it if we're trying to lose weight. And we're on macros that represent that. So I saw a huge void in the sense of I personally love food a lot. It's something I enjoy, but I didn't want to have the certain foods and blow through my macros for the day and thus be hungry and thus leading me to eat more than what my macros needed to be in order to reach my goals. So I started recreating a lot of the foods that I craved in in a way to where I could fit my macros I could eat a lot of it and I could do it on a daily basis yeah and that is where like when you look at my

page it looks very misleading until you scroll down you look in the macros for something you're like whoa like this is different and that's what I became known for and so over the past like three years I've created over I mean we're approaching over 1500 recipes that are unique that's key i think that's the thing that most people are missing you just give people macros and say eat whatever you want to stay in these macros and you know people can't sustain that no they blow it in the morning they're like cool i'm gonna blow my breakfast and then come dinner you don't have any left you have nothing left and you're like screw this diet i quit yeah usually that's

like okay all my carbs and fat are gone and i need 100 grams of protein what do i do yeah so when you got into this did you start with the macro piece or was this like i'm gonna try the paleo i'm gonna try the zone all this shit sucks why can't i get stronger why can't i reach any goal like Like if I eat an ice cream, I'm going to just, I ruined everything for the week. And then I just ate a gallon of ice cream all at once. Like I quit. See, where's the progression in this for you? You just described me perfectly. So my first, so when I was 20 years old, I had a career ending hip injury. So I played college basketball, believe it or not. We're all pretty much vertically challenged.

You shoot from half-court? Yeah, yeah. I can shoot it very well. I can handle it very well. You got to speak for yourself. I'm not vertically challenged. So I played Division II, paid for my college education. But during my sophomore year, I tore my iliopsoas tendon,

which you guys understand the body very, very well. I tore that, and it felt like a gunshot in my hip. It was awful. And I didn't run for over a year. I was in a wheelchair for over a month after surgery. It was pretty damn serious. How did you tear? That's a really weird thing to tear.

Yeah. The doctor said there was only three other cases in the history like they've ever seen they consulted with doctors so what happened was it was insidious i was neglecting so many things and my nutrition my sleep my mobility my strength training everything to where it was just slowly just slowly just tearing away tearing away and then all of a sudden, just done. That's crazy because it seems like that would affect your body in so many ways, you know, just because the psoas originates in your lumbar spine.

I just feel like. It was awful. It was tough. So that was a long run, but the career was over just like that. And so that started my world into, like, the fitness industry in the sense of of like, why the hell did this happen to me? Like it was like this, this huge moment. Like my whole life I was known as Zach,

the basketball player. Like I was known as the, the white kid on the basketball team and all my friends were all six, nine and black. And they get, and I was this crafty and I was a leader. And when times got hard, like my D one teammates were all looking for me and to help them.

Yeah. And, but that was gone like like that and i was like whoa like what what do i do now and i my why became i didn't want this to happen to anybody else and so i learned that okay nutrition sleep recovery um mobility strength training all these different things are very very important and so i started learning more and more and more about them and my first like uh introduction to nutrition was paleo and the place to start yeah at that time it was eliminate all the fun real quick. Yeah, yeah. Great places to start and quit right away. This is not sustainable.

Week one. Yeah, it was hard, man. It was one of those things that just created these frameworks that I had to stay within. And it was either a win or a loss. It was either you won and you stayed within the paleo frameworks or you lost and you didn't. And so it became like this good-bad relationship with food there was the bad food bad for me yeah and so like you said if i ever had ice cream it was like i'm getting this out of i'm getting it out of my system it was that mindset i'm gonna get this out of my system and so i would i would be good for two weeks and then after like after so much willpower

i would binge and over the two weeks with a win-lose mentality like that once you've lost it's like well fuck it already lost i might as well just keep going i'm going all out yeah it's blazing it was crazy and i didn't realize i had a problem i just thought everybody did it i was like oh a cheat day like because everybody was talking about cheat days i'm like oh what's good for my metabolism and i was like well yeah when you restrict for long periods of time and you're eating less calories than you need then your body's screaming at you that you need more calories and so i love the justification like oh well i've been i've been fasting and this is really good for my metabolism to eat this gallon of ice cream i'm doing the right thing right now i am how many times have you had that

debate with your friends like if i eat all the ice cream in I'm doing the right thing right now. How many times have you had that debate with your friends? Like, if I eat all the ice cream in one day, my body won't digest it. So it's like I'm not really eating it. But if I eat a little every day, it's probably more unhealthy. So far, that's my favorite takeaway. I'm done now. Yeah, so that was a super interesting evolution for me. So I remember I realized I had a problem when I left the grocery store.

I went to the grocery store with a list of all the things that I wanted to have my most glorious cheat days for. I used to look forward to them. And the day after was very sad because I knew I probably was about two weeks away from the next one. But I left one day the grocery store and I forgot one thing that was on that list. And I got so scared. I was so scared that like, oh my gosh, I almost didn't get that out of my system. And I was like, I have a problem. Yeah. I have a problem. So I have to, I had to reevaluate. And so I went back to studying nutrition again and really understanding. So this happened when I read a book called Start

with Why by Simon Sinek. and it really challenged me to find the why behind anything and I went to the why of nutrition and so I started learning about calories in versus calories out I started learning about wow so if I track my macros my protein carbs and fats those actually help me hit my calories as well because there's a certain caloric total with them but they also have a unique role in our bodies. And I understood of like, whoa, like how did I not know these? And these are like two of the highest priorities of nutrition. And I'm only focusing on the next one on that list is meal quality. And that's all that I was really focusing on.

Our food quality, let me say that. And I was like, whoa, like I understand food quality is very, very important. But if I'm neglecting two other humongous parts of it then i'm leaving a lot on the table and so i went back and so i started doing something called if it fits your macros uh now it's synonymous with what's known as flexible dieting and so i started tracking my macros and what happened was when you track your macros and you have this whole world where there's no foods off limits I went from one extreme to the other I can have all the foods now and I was like whoa I was like this is really cool Christmas yeah I was like cheat day every day but I'm then I'm like whoa not really because those cheat days didn't have

a macro total associated with them so you learn moderation and you understand that like when i had these macros if i wanted to fit in a pop tart if i wanted to fit in ice cream these things they had i can fit them in but it's going to make it harder if i try and fit them in all the time to hit my macros on a daily basis i'm going to be hungry right and i'm not going to hit my protein i'm a daily basis, I'm going to be hungry. Right. And I'm not going to hit my protein. I'm going to be having weird meals where I'm just having tons of protein shakes or I'm having tons of chicken breast and all that. This became, I remember getting to the end of the problem begins. Yeah. And so it just becomes like really, really weird. And so then I went through this little thing where I would just fit in all the foods that I didn't have before, but then I'd end up cheating again because I wouldn't hit my macros. I'd go way above them because I was hungry and I was still

learning. This is a learning experience. So one thing I've learned over the past six years on this journey is the fact that never be too hard on yourself and understanding that everything is learning. You're just, you're just, you're building every single day, learning from one experience to another. So what I learned from that was I needed to go back to the basics again. I needed to not neglect food quality like I did when I was just focused on my macros. I needed to come and bring it all together. And so the magic really happened when I focused on food quality and macronutrients. And I brought them together.

And that's where it it just became like life changing for me because then i was truly free and for other people absolutely people need to hear this you know like people are just beginning the whole if it fits your macros world they they need to they need to know this up front so they don't have to go down this terrible road and make so many mistakes and quit some just quit yeah there's almost a battle between like the paleo type people that focus on quality and then like the macro zone type people that focus on quantity when really as you're saying they're both obviously important like i think i think especially when you're starting out it's easier to grab onto one of them because like i

only have one thing to think about and that makes it very simple but then once you kind of get a handle on either one of them you go oh okay I got some value from learning about quality or quantity, either one. Now I'm going to swing the other way and see what I'm missing out on the other side. And then once you get some experience, you blend them together, and then that's like when your kind of real lifestyle diet begins. Not really diet, but just how you eat. There's definitely some value to that. You know, like when you start doing, you know, say you do paleo, and it's that first step. And, you know, you're starting to learn about foods they're good for your body so it's a good stepping stepping stone

to doing more what you're talking about which yours is more of the holistic approach i think yeah so so and that it comes back to learning so in the simple fact that like when i have somebody start tracking their macros i want them to start with the mindset that you will not have to track anything ever again. So you'll be able to eat intuitively. So if anybody's starting to track your macros, think of it in the sense of like in two to three months, you should not have to be a slave to your scale. Oh, that's so awesome. So that's the very reason I hate it so much. That's the best part. That's the best part about macros is that it teaches you what's in your food. So you know what the hell you're eating. And there's feedback at every meal. The constant feedback is what really sets it apart in my mind from telling a beginner to do paleo where they kind of don't know at the end of the day, did I do a good job?

Did I do a bad job? Well, that one thing wasn't good. And then you might have that mindset you were talking about earlier about like, was it a bad day or a good day? And it's very bipolar in a sense like where the the macros thing like every single meal every single day you know exactly how good or how bad of a job you did and you're starting to learn what's in your food and then you don't have to weigh and measure because now you know what you're eating yeah it's it's such a learning experience so then so like for example i i get like in the very beginning so like when i start with somebody and i only coach clients right now that are like over 400 pounds like like 400 pounds because that's so i i don't like i get asked all the

time zach will you help me step on stage will you help me do this i'm like i don't do that i'm not taking years off your life i want to add years to your life so like i only work with people that are if i get them to lose 200 pounds they're putting 30 to 40 years on their life that's a super interesting thing though because there's a lot of the mental side that goes on when someone's at that 400 pound mark and my gosh yeah you know i always wonder like when someone goes on kind of one of these like flexible diet lifestyles where we're allowed to give them a decent amount of carbohydrates in a day or you know people are addicted to that stuff and if you give them a little bit all of a sudden they turn into like the addict and well the thing is like i could be that guy yeah if i didn't train

and have like the background in training like you give me like a bite of ice cream i'm like you know what day's over yeah sitting on the couch here we go but like i i don't have that like addiction side of it and like that's gone to the extreme how do you work with people like that that clearly have some mental and emotional connection to food food it's it's it's it's rewriting their story so it's going to the trigger of what is actually going on here so if somebody takes a bite of ice cream there's so many different things that are going on that they're telling themselves that if they take that bite of ice cream they gotta, they have to be more like in control in the sense of like, I can put it back. Like, but that happens over time. So in the beginning, I might not have them do that. Or

if they have that bite of ice cream, I have it right after a meal that keeps them full. So for example, this is a great example. So I have a client who's over 400 pounds. He's, uh, he started with me at four 35. He's just over 400 right now. It's been only a couple of months. And, um, I mean, when you're really overweight, you can lose a lot of weight really, really quickly. You're doing a lot wrong. So that's okay. Percentage wise, it's really not that big. No, no. In the grand scheme of things. So, uh, he, uh, one thing in the very beginning is understanding your triggers. Like there's an emotional relationship with food.

Like everybody needs to understand that. So he messaged me, and I always tell him to be aware. He said, I think peanut M&Ms are a trigger for me. And that sounds funny. It doesn't sound funny at all. I know that. Yeah. They're right next to you when you check out of the grocery store every time that beautiful yellow bag

or Snickers Snickers is my thing man and then I'll be like well that's kind of a meal damn lie I worked out three hours ago I'm gonna have this and so I asked him the first thing was like when did you have this

what time of day? And he said, I said, what were you doing up until that point? He's like, oh, well, I was super busy. He's a SEO specialist. So he does a lot of web development, everything like that. So he's behind a computer a lot. And so he, up until that point was working on a project for a client. It was really like time sensitive.

And so up until 2 p.m., hadn't really eaten anything right and that was his first piece of food for the day and i said whoa i'm like that's literally like taking like a drug right there and just getting the craziest dopamine release ever because there's nothing that's slowing that that insulin release so you have a little bit of fats, mostly carbs and sugars, that are just sending you on this full-fledged high. Love it. And thus you're still hungry because they're not going to keep you full,

and thus you think it's a trigger. And I said to him, I said, tomorrow you're going to have lunch, and then right after lunch you're going to take those same peanut M&Ms, and you're going to say you can eat the whole thing if you want. But I want to see how many you have. He said he had two.

And that was it. And so it's just understanding how everything fits. And understanding, it's like doing a study. Is everything constant? So if you want to do a really, good study you got to keep things constant and change one thing and so with him there were so many moving parts but just understanding there's not a causal relationship there's more than likely a correlation happening and getting to that root and understanding like okay what is actually happening here right gets him to understand that

most foods are not triggers it's just when you actually eat them. It's when you actually eat them and what is going on. If you are in a stressed out state, please do not pick up that ice cream right in front of you because you're probably going to eat the whole thing. I feel like the best thing is just not have it available. If it's available, you're going to eat it. If there's ice cream in my fridge or freezer rather, I'm probably going to eat it. But if it's not you're gonna eat it like if there's ice cream in my fridge or freezer rather i'm probably gonna eat it but if it's not there then i can't eat it that's the easiest way in my mind no problem and then make it yeah and make it even more difficult

and that's the thing like i just want people to be so in control i want so um i was interviewed the other day and uh it was a girl who has a huge Facebook community talking and teaching them about macros and everything but she has more of a holistic mindset and but she's like how do I get people to get started with flexible dieting she's like do I have them like eat Oreos every day and everything like that I'm like no no no no no no like heck no like don't go to another extreme so if somebody has more of a good bad relationship with food i said one day a week doesn't matter what day it is get them just to take a bite of an oreo that's it put it down that's it and understand and then wait the next day as long as they hit

their macros how do you how do you look how do you feel i'm good you're not gonna die everything's good and then this minimal minimum effective dose and so i think i just want everybody to be in control and know that they are in control so like in the beginning not having that ice cream there but once i get to a point in time where i'm like okay let's try it and then understanding that more than likely if you have ice cream three to four hours after your last meal you're probably going to overeat but if you have ice cream three to four hours after your last meal, you're probably going to overeat. But if you have it right after, you just want the taste. Like we all just want the taste, like in reality.

Usually after you have the taste, you're like kind of disappointed. Like, ah, that was delicious, but probably it wasn't as cool as I thought it was. Depending on what it is. Sometimes you're like, that was amazing. Well, actually, when it is amazing, I find that the best thing to do is to have it right before you're going to leave. So people buy me Skittles because they know that I like Skittles. I never buy them myself. And if I eat a few, they taste really good and I want more.

But what I've found is that I can eat them and not want to eat more if I just grab a few, I'm walking out the door. I put them in my mouth. And by the time I'm done eating them, I'm in my car and I'm leaving. And then by the time I get home, like the craving, like that taste in my mouth where I'm like, dang, I kind of want some more of these. That's all gone. And I'm like reset by the time I get back home. Yep. It's super interesting.

See, this is the thing. We're all evolving. Yeah. Like this is a learning process. Got to figure it out. And you figure out. And that's the biggest thing is like people ask you, what do you do like what do you what's the flexible dieting lifestyle it's i trick myself to being able to have an oreo every once in a while

in a situation where i can't eat the whole bag but do you have to deal with you know so people when they're 400 and above like there's some major normally there's some major psychological issues going on absolutely you have to get really deep, like talk about their childhood? I mean, where do you leave that alone? You want to as soon as possible. Yeah. You want to, but you have to understand. There's never a perfect time.

It's just waiting for that time. It usually comes out. Yeah, it just comes out. You usually don't even have to ask. They'll have an emotional response, and they'll tell you. And that's when I know it's truly an and it's it's going to the stressors what are actually causing you stress on a daily basis yeah like i want you to feel like you're walking on a cloud every day because you you you are and you understand that okay probably at 1 p.m today there's going to be a stressor

that's coming onto my life okay what do i do I do? More than times than not, if it doesn't catch you off guard, you're going to be okay. You can prepare for that. You can prepare for it. I think people that, you know, like we live in gyms basically and we're in this weird bubble, especially kind of out here in California, like we're always around healthy people. Like everyone is health-minded.

They know how many, like a six-ounce chicken breast has got this and this is my meal. There's vegetables around us, but we don't operate inside the cubicle cages that people do in offices. And that is a landmine everywhere you walk. Like donuts and they sell that shit to you. Like here's your kind bar. You're like, Oh, that's in a pretty package. That might be healthy. Freaking decision fatigue out the wazoo. It's a candy bar with almonds in it. It's so-and-so's birthday today. We're celebrating.

It's so-and-so's birthday every day. Yeah. I think that a diet along these lines and having a framework is really good for a lot of people because they don't have to beat themselves up because you're not escaping Susie's birthday party on Tuesday afternoon before your workout.

Now you're an outcast. Let's be honest. Now you're like, people are going to be like, why do you do that? Why are you doing that? I don't know how many times I've heard this, and this is something that, like, haunted me. It was, like, the fact that, like, I want to be able to have ice cream with my kids.

If my kids, my future kids, I don't have kids right now. When my son comes up to me, Dad, let's go get an ice cream i'm like heck yeah like we give a high five and we go have an ice cream together like that's the things that really truly freaking matter yeah and i want but the thing is i wanted to understand how all that fits like i'm a data guy so i have a degree in economics so like i really and how i teach nutrition is opportunity cost and it's understanding that like if i eat this i'm not eating this i could have i could eat i have two options i have an option in front of me i could eat this while choosing not to eat this yeah and understanding that if this is more this gives me more utility which is the way we

gauge happiness and economics then i will choose this one over this one. Yeah. We're going to take a quick break. When we get back, I want to talk about some longevity stuff. And we mentioned in the pre-show gut health. And that gets into a whole new world of longevity, understanding kind of like, yes, you can eat ice cream. But there's a lot deeper. The deep brain in your gut might not agree with that all the time.

So we'll get into that when we get back. Absolutely. Shrug family. Hope you guys are enjoying this week's show with Zach Rochelot. Want to talk about some of the gangster products over at Organifi. We talk about them every week because they're important. We talk about them every day in my life because I use them. I wake up every morning and I get my green drink.

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And using the coupon code SAVE20, this Independence Day is going to get you 20% off the membership. Make sure you get in there. Shrugcollective.com backslash vault. SAVE20 is the coupon code. Back to the show. Welcome back to Barbell Shrugug we're here with zach rush a low flexible dieting lifestyle before we let the break i want to learn about some gut health because look we can go on these flexible dieting lifestyles but there's also like that's just the the macro level is kind of like a higher level of importance. And the gut health thing has taken over the world.

And not only has it become like a really hot topic, but we know nothing about it because there's jillions of bacteria in there that are calling the shots. And we don't even know really how it's happening. Like we'll take some probiotics, prebiotics. We'll take all these things. No one really knows what's going on. How do you talk to your clients, especially know that are just like learning about macros and then all of a sudden it's like okay now we've got this thing down let's talk about the next level yeah

so i'm no expert at gut health like i'm gonna preface that real scientist yeah like i'm i'm i'm pseudo so i'm just uh practical yeah i'm practical so i i i'm in the sense of like people see me as like a chef now i have no culinary background so i'm actually able to teach the lay person how to cook because they don't need any type of culinary background so that's really helped a lot but in regards to gut health this is doing your best like what do we know that's going to help your gut health it's right um and it's super interesting like a lot of people who wash their hands all the time and it's like well you might be kind of setting yourself back in so many different ways like actually allowing your

immune system to take in more bacteria i have said that for years right i can't my buddy's sitting over here we've been arguing about this all. After you go to the bathroom? He gets sick all the dang time, and he washes his hands all the time. Yeah. I never get sick. I mean, I did get salmonella a few weeks ago. I mean, besides that, I was horribly sick. You grew up in the country.

You live in the country now. People that are in the country, they're outdoors more. They have dogs. Kids that have dogs versus kids that live in the city, they always have healthy microbiomes. Yeah. There's something to not being too freaky clean all the time. They're outdoors more. They have dogs. Kids that have dogs versus kids that live in the city, they always have healthy microbiomes. There's something to not being too freaky clean all the time. Literally, my grandmother would sit me in a mud pot. When I would go visit in the summertime,

because my mom was like a clean freak, she'd be like, hell no, in the mud. See, I would just splash probably poop all over me. I'm the dirty kid, too. My wife gives me the shit all the time about, like, you're so dirty. Why are you so? I'm like, I'm also so healthy. The dirt is a good thing for us. I don't think I ever washed – this is terrible.

I shouldn't say it. I don't think I washed my hands after going to the bathroom. No way. Hey, give me something. Touching the sink is dirty. Hey, give me something. I'm the same way. Found him with your dirty hands.

Think about it. Share some of that. Your penis is like the cleanest. It's covered. Wait, his penis or all penises? All penises here are covered. Our penises are clean. That's true.

You're probably getting your dick dirty by putting your hands on it right the other way around. That's all I've been saying. Right? Is this coming out in your new book? Oh, yes. We have a full section about clean dicks. But the big thing is. He's like, anyway, shut the fuck up.

Back to nutrition. Oh, man. Clean your pants. Mom, when you listen to this, just bear with us. Mom, please don't listen to this. But the biggest thing is getting them to understand, like, it's not going to be perfect. We still don't know. We probably still don't know we probably still

will never know there's so many moving parts but just understanding that you should be eating a lot of vegetables a lot of green leafy vegetables you should be getting your fiber intake so that's one thing that's neglected a lot with macros is people will supplement with fiber supplements it's like no no no if you're doing it right you should be hitting your 25 to 35 grams of fiber from your vegetables from your fruits all these micronutrient dense foods that also have fiber in them right and just doing those things like yeah you can have your kombucha you can have your probiotic you can have your prebiotic you can have all these different things but like don't be so crazy about

it like don't overly stress don't if you're walking around with your kombucha don't think that you're better than anybody else you are eating a bunch of junk and then and then having kombucha and sauerkraut and whatever else like as a band-aid on this problem of not eating very well in the first place it's kind of like eating like shit being fat and then taking fat loss pills thinking like okay i'm gonna get shredded without changing my diet. It just tastes like poop, man. I mean, I've had it once. You don't like it?

No. Come on, dude. Oh, really? No. Man, you can't move to sauerkraut. I'd rather eat sauerkraut than that. I smash sauerkraut. You put it on hot dogs.

Yeah. Is that what you put it on? Yeah. Of course you put it on hot dogs. What do you mean? Rauwers. Yeah. Oh, that's funny.

But he just looks at you like, God, you eat hot dogs? That's gross. Damn right. Rice cake, ice cream, sandwiches. Seriously. You can't judge. You know better than me. But, yeah, I mean, I like food.

Food's good. Food should be enjoyed. So I kind of wanted to move on to your gut. Let's just not be over. And our gut actually has a direct correlation with our brain and everything like that. So in the sense of if you're so anal about different things about your nutrition and everything like this, how many times have you thought something and then you get an upset stomach? Right.

It's like, whoa, what's going on here? And you think something and then you get an upset stomach? Right. It's like, whoa, like what's going on here? And like you think something into reality. Absolutely. And so I just want people to understand like it's never going to be perfect. There's no such thing. But you're just trying your best. And that kind of leads into like when somebody wants to go 100% clean but still hit their macros like they want to say and only organic natural foods and nothing processed whatsoever versus an 80 20 rule so like 80 of the time you're checking off the

box of your micronutrients whole minimally processed foods things like that but then having 20 you can fit in whatever you want that's not in that other category makes total sense yes but what happens is if you want to do 100 and you have that is less stressful than 80 20 go for it but if you're stressed out all the time because you're trying to stick to that 100 then i believe that extra stress is worse off than the 20% that you'd add in of those foods. I don't see there's yet to be, I could be proved wrong, but I've yet to seen research showing that an abundance of nutrients, an overfilling cup of your nutrients once you've hit your levels that you need, a super dose, doesn't do you any better. And so I believe that the 80-20 mindset

and understanding that if you eat a food, you don't eat an Oreo or anything, you don't have that negative, you don't get that negative like I'm a failure or I just cheated feeling. I believe that you just eat and you focus on hitting your macros, you focus on that 80% of the time,

you're doing your best, you're checking off those boxes and then 20% of the time, that's your lifestyle calories. That's your ice cream cone with your kid. That's the thing that creates true sustainability. And that's where it all kind of fits in. If you want to have this food that you have a higher chance of binging on, have it right after your meal.

It's one piece of because we all grew up in gyms, when someone hands me a meal, I very rarely think, like, food, great. It's like, that's the protein. That looks like six ounces. Cool. Like, oh, I should be eating more of that because I'm trying to get stronger.

Like, I need a pound of that or whatever it is. Makes life so much easier. When you think about performance. I never think about like how great is dinner going to taste tonight. That's usually secondary to like I'm going to need some steak. I probably need like a starchy carbohydrate. You're seeing it as fuel. Yeah, like being able to disconnect like this is delicious.

That's a terrible way to go about like health. Like does it taste good? Because the thing that tastes good, well, your taste buds, one, delicious. That's a terrible way to go about health. Does it taste good? Because the thing that tastes good, well, your taste buds, one, will adapt to eating vegetables all the time. Then all of a sudden they start to taste delicious. But the ability to just kind of be mindful of, and macros is a great step in the right direction to get people moving to where they want to go because it's like nope four ounces is you know that's 24 grams of protein we at least have like a framework of like

a way to think about that in a different manner than delicious well the biggest thing is too is like people underestimate how many calories they're actually eating like there's crazy studies showing that like the plus or minus is like over 2,000 calories like so somebody says that they're eating 1,500 calories in reality they're they could be eating up to 3,500 it's like whoa plus or minus 2,000 it's pretty insane yeah it's um that screws science completely up well in the sense of like people are eyeballing they if you ask them hey hey travis how many calories are you eating today uh and you think oh yeah i ate like 2200 but in reality you could be because you're not educated and i'm just i'm not like saying go through your whole day i'm

just saying like how many and then you actually track and you're like well it was like 4000 yeah so like that's the thing and and people once you become educated like that, you can be within 10% of that. So if somebody's asking me, Zach, how many calories do you eat today? I can be within 10%. And that's the closest way you want to be because say I eat 10% more than I normally would. What happens was is my NEAT, my non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which is just like me fidgeting. Probably because I ate 10% more, I'm going to be more fidgety. I'm probably going to stand more than I was sitting.

My energy is going to be higher. I'm going to take the stairs more. I'm going to hop around, things like that. So I'll end up being at a net same result. And so being within 10%, that's usually what happens. One thing that's super cool about kind of the platform you've created through Instagram, and I assume you have a YouTube channel as well. You were doing some videoing.

Kids these days need this education process, and I assume you're not reaching 45-year-olds. There may be some of them, but you're really kind of leading the education piece for kids and making nutrition cool yeah and giving them a resource that's not some fucking teacher screaming at them about vegetables like about the food pyramid yeah people need fun cool people to follow that they can like learn something every day and they're intrigued to oh cool like what's the next step and maybe a picture of an ice cream cone like makes them think differently about where they're at because they're so many people are just trapped in a society or their bubble doesn't look like our bubble and they have to go find a place to get some decent education and your platform has really created this awesome resource for kids and you know 20 something year

olds that it's like man i relate to kid, and he's doing it right. It's a super cool platform that you've created. It's the coolest feeling ever. It's one of those things like I believe that I'm teaching the future parents. And so what's really cool is I have actually a lot of parents that actually send me pictures of their kids actually making and eating the recipes yeah i have uh five different instructors around the country that teach kids cooking classes and they teach the kids using my recipes and they send me pictures all the time we're working on a kids cookbook i want to be able to travel more um and do more of these kids events and and being

able to do more teaching like that but I just want the younger generation to understand that like you guys are all like, we're all in control. Was that a conscious thing of like, man, I really were like, I've always just been a big kid. Like I always like, we lift weights for a living dude. We're with you. I love bright colors. Like I just, I like having fun. I've always, so like when I was younger like any job I had was with kids my all running kids camps or anything like this I was given at 14 years old the ability to run my

own camp when I wasn't even supposed to be employed like at that time and I was able to run a really successful kids camp and so that's been the one constant every job i've ever had has been with kids and i've always resonated and been able to create um i think it was steven spielberg and i watched his documentary and like with et and all these movies like and i heard the way he was talking to the kids in order to get an emotional response to get them in the actual character and i realized whoa this is what i've been doing with kids my whole life. Because you make anything a game. You make anything a game. And so with my platform and what I've been able to do is I made food fun again.

And I made it in the sense of like it's surface level in the sense of it looks really, really pretty. And it looks terrible for you. So then I give people what they want. So it looks really bad for me. So I'm going gonna have this but then i give them what they need because it's in a macronutrient profile that they can eat on a daily basis and it's so incredibly easy to make that's such a like a market a niche that's so rarely touched i mean we live in gyms so everyone's always hammering performance performance performance it's like what about living yeah and with i i've noticed a lot of it as i've gotten older where people aren't training anymore and they're just trying to live

a healthy life and i struggled with for a couple years like i didn't know what like a base weight was for me where i wasn't training two to three four hours a day and all of a sudden i was like 10 12 pounds heavier than my competition weight and and I was like, am I fat? Am I out of shape right now? I don't really know where this is. I'm still trying to figure that out. That pint of ice cream every night. It's super interesting because our hunger is based on what we do the most,

so it's very habitual. And what's happening is when people go from training a ton to not training as much their energy expenditure how many calories they burn is not as high what happens is your hunger doesn't change it takes a while so what happens you still are still hungry you're still eating the same amount of food same amount of calories and thus you start gaining weight because you're in a caloric start plus now And so you start putting in, before you know it, like a lot of these competitive athletes, they'll put on 10 to 12 pounds like nothing because they're still eating that

same way because they were structured. Their hunger was based on that. And so, but that's this understanding. So if I know that I'm going to be burning less calories, I need to, if my hunger is going to still be the same, this is going to be a good tip. So if you're not training as much, you have to just be aware that your hunger is still going to be as high. What you need to do is your macros are going to be lower because your caloric expenditure is going to be lower. You want to find and substitute foods that give you the same

amount of food volume. So you're eating the same amount of food, but for less amount of calories. And that's where a lot of your vegetables comes in instead of instead of your your whole cup of rice you do a quarter cup but then you pair it with some vegetables man i think this is something that needs to be talked about you know i played college football and like you know you go there you gotta gain weight you gotta get huge especially the alignment you know and like they die early you know there's so many studies out there that say all the collegiate and god heaven forbid the nfl which i work with a lot of collegiate and nfl football players but man they don't they say oh good luck thanks for you know starting for us for 10 years peace you know and these dudes are 350 pounds and they're you know six six and they now

now what they have no idea how to live life outside of it. It's so sad. They could change one to two things and their life is forever better. Yeah. They're going to need to because they're so beat up. Their brains are riled. They need to start getting healthy. A lifetime of trauma.

Trauma of small car wreck. It's hard because we're taught to focus on the wrong things. They're focused, oh, I need to start eating healthy again. And so they restrict the hell out of themselves. And then what happens, they end up right back, they quit. And they don't know what they're supposed to do. But if they can understand that they are in control and they understand the principles that are happening, what they truly need to focus on and what we've talked about, then they can win. I love that you keep coming back to the principles.

How do you combat when clients come to you or, you know, whatever, whoever they're communicating with is like, oh, should I, should I try this? Like, oh, should I try this? Because there's so many of these like fad pieces that come out all the time. Every day. It's, it's, it's cool in the sense of like, so for example, there's this intermittent fasting craze going on right now in the sense of like, so for example, there's this intermittent fasting craze going on right now in the sense of like, oh my gosh, like I've tried all these things,

but intermittent fasting is working for me. I'm like, well, when you're eating windows a lot smaller, it's very hard to overeat. So if you were normally eating for 16 hours in a day and you were sleeping for eight, but now you flip it on its head and you only eat for eight hours and you're fasting for 16 yeah then it's a lot easier to eat less food right there's nothing magical happening you are just in a caloric deficit now and you're letting your body recover a little bit yeah but yeah it's gonna make sense it's gonna make sense so that and that's the biggest thing and so when a client comes to me and asks me questions i never say well you shouldn't do this it's like you have empathy in the sense of like i was once where they were i didn't understand the principles what were happening right and having empathy knowing

that like if anybody gives me shit or talk shit to me on social or anything like that they just don't like what they don't understand right like. Like, I don't put out information that I expect people to hate me on. Yeah. So when somebody comes and disproportionately wants to hate on me, it's because they don't understand what's actually happening and what I'm trying to teach. Yeah. We see this in the weightlifting world all the time.

I mean, it is so from what program you should be on, periodization protocols, you just name it, and there's someone yelling at someone and it's like uh possibly my athletes aren't like your athletes right potentially i don't know like we're not training i hate red yeah who is ready like who are these i'd like to fight them you know always assume that that guy that's yelling at you is exactly like you you're like why doesn't he see it like me it doesn't there's just's endless. And from carb intake to protein intake to weight and weight. It's all relative. Timing.

It's all relative. And if people just followed the principles and understood the principles, all of a sudden now you can play with those principles in a way that matter. I'm curious. There's some questions I've had. I used to know Charles Polligan. I don't know if you guys know that guy. Brilliant dude.

He's definitely one of my earlier mentors but um he would say that some people respond better to fats where some people respond better to carbohydrates he said back in the 90s he said probably 30 do better with carbs and then 70 probably do better you know with fats as energy what are your thoughts i could see that as a correlation not causation in the sense of 30% are high level training a ton and need a lot of carbohydrates. 70% are sitting at a desk and not doing as much activity. So fats are slower digesting. They're not readily available fuel sources. They're very good for hormonal health.

But in the sense of if you're not training a ton, you don't need a lot of carbohydrate. And I could just, I just, that's initially what came to my mind right away. Whenever I hear that ratio, I just think 30% of people are actually training hard and need carbohydrate. That's brilliant. Do you think that genetics come into play though, that certain macronutrients might be better for you versus me? It's tough, man. It's hard to say because we get really good at digesting what we eat the most. So our bodies adapt. So our bodies adapt. I'm not an expert in that. I don't know the exact answer, but that's what I've seen. I've noticed with a lot of people.

I just can't say that one person's born differently than the other. I just believe that throughout your life, you've eaten a certain amount of each of them. And it's just like with anybody, if you go from eating 60 grams of protein in a day, and then somebody says, hey, try and eat 200. It's like, well, first off, they're probably not going to be able to do that. But they're so full because their body is not used to digesting that much protein.

And protein is very satiating. That's why a high protein diet works very well because it keeps you full. And so that's the biggest thing that's happening is you just are really good at digesting what you're used to digesting all the time. And then my, my question, this is, I'm just being selfish because I'm for, I'm speaking for the people. Good, good. So like is, you know, like you see with, um, you know, if it fits your macros all the time, people eating Pop-Tarts and donuts, are truly all calories created equally?

Like, so carbohydrates from a donut, same as carbohydrates from. It's super interesting. If everything is constant in the sense of, like, let's compare a sweet potato and a Pop-Tart. Very similar macronutrient profiles. Right. So, if. Mind-blowing. Yeah. It yeah it's very very it's it's crazy like a sweet potato and pop tart have very similar macronutrient profiles so

one of them so let's compare the two so pop tart has mostly carbs and trace fats and trace proteins and so it's not really checking off the boxes for fiber not really checking off the boxes for fiber, not really checking off the boxes for micronutrients, etc. Right. So the sweet potato checks off the box for fiber, checks off the box for micronutrients, is a heavy carb source. Okay. So let's say both of them provide us with 35 grams of carbs. Our body is going to see both of those carbs the same. But the one from the sweet potato is going to be digested a little bit slower because it's paired with fiber so it's not going to send you i mean

but most people are not eating just a sweet potato they're eating it with a protein or eating it or with like a big chunk of butter on top oh gosh of course is that bad so but like what about the additives and preservatives that go into the see? See, that's the thing that I want. Those are the tiny little details that like people want to overly stress about. We still don't know. We still do not know. But I know what I know is one's providing more micronutrients. So, if you've already filled up your bucket of micronutrients for the day, you spilling it over with that sweet potato is not going to change.

Your body still sees it as the same amount of carbs. But if you have not hit, so if you're deficient in micronutrients, yes, your body is going to see a difference. So if you're overeating Pop-Tarts, then you're going to become micronutrient deficient because you're not checking off that box. So that's where the 80-20 comes in. It depends.

Are you eating like an asshole or are you not? Don't eat like an asshole. Don't eat like an asshole. That's a real thing. Don't you think we all know the answer already? We do. But they want someone like you to tell them. They want the picture.

They want some reassurance. My wife, who did not come from like, I come from performance. That's my whole life. I eat to perform. I want to be the best in the world. Absolutely. My wife, you know, grew up and she's an artist and her family really enjoys cooking.

And so, you know, it's a little different in the way that we look at things. But like a person like Drew versus me, is it going to be the same when you talk to these two people? It's looking at their day and understanding how their relationship with food is. So one of the things I do with anybody that I work with, I said, what are your three to five favorite foods? If I were to say, what are your three to five foods that you think that you would cheat on your diet with? So my goal is – that's so easy pizza right away but the thing is so if they give me those things i can look and find recipes that tackle those cravings right to where there's never that void of having to cheat because you already have

them and they can fit into your macro so that and so when you look on my page that's a lot of what you see because that's what i've become world class at because I'm able to do that. That creates true sustainability because there's no more that excuse to cheat. There's no more. And so that's one of the biggest things is like understanding what foods that you love the most and then finding a way that they fit within your macros. So yours and Drew's are going to be completely different because you guys are two different body types and two different goal sets, et cetera.

What are some of your most popular recipes, by the way? So I have a protein frosty, so like a remake of Wendy's protein, like any type of frosty. They love those. So is that supposed to be like a healthy version of a Frosty? What's in that? I hear Frosty and I'm curious how it's made. That's super curious.

What is the recipe? And he should make his own. Travis is over here taking notes. There's a few recipes I just have a special community of people I just cannot share. There's like three of them that i just cannot i just vow to them that because they invested in us i would so it's my protein frosty my protein cookie butter and uh actually those are the only two

so you can't tell us i can't tell you guys those ones those are top secret what's number three because those two are going to be actual products that come to market. I'm going to give you guys a top secret. So, like, have you ever had frozen blueberries? Delicious. Of course. And you put almond milk on top of it? Haven't done that part. It turns into a frosty.

Like, it turns into ice cream. Have you done this? Uh-uh. We used to have coconut milk, and I'd put it in the freezer for a minute and then eat it. Just take frozen blueberries, put it in a glass, and pour almond pour almond milk and stir it up and it just turns into ice cream i wish my wife was here right now and you can't put like what is it not splendid but what's like stevia if you put a little bit of that and it changes the whole world right there but like it's it's the most it's a simple thing and it totally oh i don't crave ice cream anymore. So, Travis, if you think that is life-changing for you, we'll be best friends.

Yes. Very easy. My wife is going to love this guy. Travis has gotten progressively hungrier throughout this episode. It's been noticeable. I do want to eat. I mean, I would say on my Instagram page, I give away so many recipes. So, like, protein cupcakes, protein cakes, protein donuts.

Like, literally everything you can think of. I taught people how to make a homemade dough, pizza dough, and you can make a pizza in your waffle maker. So, like, literally, like, anything you could possibly think of. I love this. When did you start the actual cooking and putting recipes together? Probably two and a half years ago. About two and a half years ago, I went to the University of Google, started searching for recipes. Most of them were really bad.

They didn't work out well. And so I just started checking off the box. Okay, I'm craving this. Let me try this. And then people started like, whoa, can you start sharing this? So I started sharing it. They're like, hey, can you make a recipe book so i i didn't know how to make a recipe book so i just found a a software and i built my own first recipe book and uh i pre-order i did a pre-order and like i sold like 500 copies in a week i was like killer i was like whoa like this is kind of cool. And so eventually, yeah, it just started to build and build and build,

and we've sold so many. So this frosting, let's get back to that. We're going to break you down. You're going to get bent. How do I get to share in this frosting? So, like, it's secret. So do you sell it? Oh, yeah, it's in my recipe book.

So buy the recipe book. I get that. Buy the recipe book or we have what's called a macro magician membership site, which is like a host where literally in between a recipe book, I post recipes that literally are in real time that I kind of came up with. So you're getting it right away. You're getting it right away. You literally, right when it's posted on Instagram, it's already in a recipe on the site.

So you get those in real time. You said you had like 1,500 recipes. Are you just in your kitchen constantly tinkering and mixing and matching and trying to make new stuff? Because that's a lot of recipes to come up with on your own. That's a lot, yeah. I'm just kind of plugging and playing. It's fun because when you do, you create one recipe, and then you might not touch that recipe for four months. But during those times, you find out about new ways to use different ingredients.

And then you go back four months after and you're like, whoa, this will take it to the next level. And then eventually, it's just with your nutrition. It's with everything. Like you know that with your training and everything. Like you just plug and play. And then you come back and you repeat. Every single time, you just go back and you try again, you try again. It sounds like programming.

My program now is like so different than two years ago because I keep trying new things and plugged it in. You know, this is making me want to cook, and I've never been a big – I'm not. Yeah. I'll go just into the fridge and just eat. Whatever is left over. I go like this and then I go like that. I get yelled at a lot for eating with the fridge door open

because it's very rarely like making it even to the microwave. It's just in the mouth. Okay, so this is another thing. This is another thing. So with habits, it's eating more meals, no more grazing. That's where people really screw themselves up. Grazing is what gets you. I am a cow. I am a grazing. I knew somebody was going really screw themselves up. Grazing is what gets you, man. I am a cow.

I am a grazer. I knew somebody was going to bring that up. So what is the necessity to have? Say you're wanting to start the whole, I want to start cooking and using some of your recipes. What does one have to have in their kitchen to just make some awesome recipes? I mean, not much guys like literally i mean you can i mean obviously you need a pan uh to cook anything on the stove like that's super simple uh maybe a pizza pan maybe a waffle maker um but those are all very i mean most people have

these things like i i just focus on so if if i have to make something and i have to get somebody to get something that I don't think they normally would have in their kitchen, I won't make it. Or if it's with an ingredient that it's not readily available that you could buy at like freaking Walmart or Whole Foods or anything. Like I meet people where they're at. And that's the thing. Like if they have to use – oh, you should try this new sandwich griddle maker or something like that. I'm like how many people are actually going to want that? Because I don't want people to buy my books and stuff and then have to buy all of these things. And then that's friction.

I don't want friction. So I want to create things that are super easy and convenient to where people can get quick wins. Drop those barriers. Drop those barriers of entry. Like that's the, that's, that's the number one thing I can give anybody advice is understand where, have empathy for where everybody else is coming from. You don't have some space age kitchen. You talking like, I'm starting to see this like immaculate kitchen.

No, not at all. It's super, it's super simple. We literally, I travel, like we did one the other day. It's like I travel around. I do like cooking with like,. Like, we did one the other day. It's like I travel around. I do, like, cooking with, like, I cooked with Noah Olson the other day. I cooked with Brooke Ince not too long ago. So I travel around the country and, like, I cook and just kind of build relationships like that. But one thing we did when we were in L.A. is I, like, put on, I said, hey, in the next two hours, everybody enter and write down why we should come cook for you if you live in la and so we got tons of entries and so i picked one person and turns out her kitchen was

literally like the size of like us right here together yeah and so just we made it work and it was like a super cool episode and everybody loved it but and i don't ask them what they have we just make the most of what they have and so like i get there like okay this is what we have we go to the grocery store we figure out we make it work and then that's the thing so like i don't like you don't need any like you don't need anything we want to film we're about to start filming some content where i literally have a griddle on the side of the road and i'm like cooking stuff and then hand it to people yeah well we're gonna meet up in the lunch room here in a little bit you're gonna make me some protein ice cream i'm about to eat my hand now where can people find these ebooks instagrams youtubes all those things so our biggest hub where everybody finds us and we kind of point

everybody in the right direction is the flexible dieting lifestyle on instagram uh that's going to be the best place that you're going to really get to know me and um i think the best thing you can do is if when you're listening to this is shoot me a dm on instagram i see them all i've gotten to a point where i cannot respond to all of them but i see them all i see your message they all and if it's a really damn good one i'm gonna i respond to the ones that it looks like they spend a lot of time yeah yeah if you give me a compliment you say something nice i'm gonna respond yeah um so that i mean that shoot me a dm let me know that you listen to this.

That would be really, really cool. Slide into his DM. Slide into the DM. Just make it happen. Just make it happen. And then you can find us at flexible.inglifestyle.com. That's our hub where we kind of point everybody in the right direction. And then on YouTube, if you just search in Flexible Dining Lifestyle,

you'll see our YouTube page. We have a bunch of free recipes everywhere. And by the time I think this comes out, we'll have put something together for you guys' specific audience to get them started. Travis? MashedElite.com.

Come watch the big man lift some weights. I can still lift some weights. My athletes can lift more weights. I have the strongest 14-year-olds I've ever seen in my life. Dude, it's insane. It's insane. Stupid, right?

I have the strongest youth in the country, for sure. Unreal. So I don't know how we got it. Nothing makes me feel worse about myself than watching your 14-year-olds. It makes me feel. You know, the other day I found myself competing with Morgan, my 14-year-old. And then the moment I realized I'm competing with a 14-year-old, I just dropped my head.

It's an all-time low. You're not even half my age. Yeah, I know. Not even, yeah. You got a killer podcast as well? Yeah, yeah. You can go to The Barbell Life. So, yeah.

Episode drop today. Episode drop today with Jonas Saracen. People, I can't believe people don't know more, but he's the head strength coach for Carolina basketball. He's amazing. That's really cool. Okay. Very cool.

Cool. Doug? You can follow me on Instagram as well, Douglas E. Larson. Anders Varner on Instagram. Come to shrugged.thelowbackfix.com. We have all kinds of fun programs, strength and conditioning, and physical therapy combined together, getting people healthy for low back pain. Save $20 on your first program.

Make sure you get over to YouTube, iTunes, subscribe, leave a nice comment, don't be a jerk. Come and hang out with us and we'll see you next week. Shrugged family, thank you for tuning in to this radical show with our boy, Zach Rochelot. Make sure you get over and follow him at The Flexible Dieting Lifestyle and see all kinds of delicious food that he's creating inside your macros.

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