Barbell Shrugged - Fat Loss First Steps w/ Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Coach Travis Mash Barbell Shrugged #583

Episode Date: June 7, 2021

In this Episode of Barbell Shrugged:   Do you need to track your macros? Understanding macronutrients The importance of protein Why eating foods you like matters Simple solutions to increasing metabolic health   Anders Varner on Instagram   Doug Larson on Instagram   Coach Travis Mash on Instagram   ————————————————   Diesel Dad Training Programs: http://barbellshrugged.com/dieseldad   Training Programs to Build Muscle: https://bit.ly/34zcGVw   Nutrition Programs to Lose Fat and Build Muscle: https://bit.ly/3eiW8FF   Nutrition and Training Bundles to Save 67%: https://bit.ly/2yaxQxa   Please Support Our Sponsors   Organifi - Save 20% using code: “Shrugged” at organifi.com/shrugged   BiOptimizers Probitotics - Save 10% at bioptimizers.com/shrugged   Garage Gym Equipment and Accessories: https://prxperformance.com/discount/BBS5OFF Save 5% using the coupon code “BBS5OFF”

Shrug family, this week on Barbell Shrug, we're talking about first steps of fat loss. Fat loss for beginners and inside this episode, you are going to learn if you need to track your macros, understanding what macronutrients actually are, the importance of protein in reaching your fat loss goals, as well as why eating foods you like matters most in your fat loss goals, and then simple solutions for increasing your metabolic health. But before we get into the show, we of course have to thank our friends over at Organifi, the green, the red, and the gold. For four years, thousands of happy Barbell Shrug listeners are increasing the quality of the micronutrients that they are putting into their body. Friends,

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during checkout to save 10%. That's magbreakthrough. M-A-G-B-R-E-A-K-T-H-R-O-U-G-H dot com forward slash shrugged and use the code shrugged10 during checkout. Friends, I actually take this every single night. It makes me sleep super deep. I'm on that seven, possibly eight. And guess what? I got a kid coming. It's going to be a disaster.

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And it shows up on all the tracking devices and stuff when I take it. So head over to magbreakthrough.com forward slash shrugged and use the code shrugged10. Friends, let's get into the show. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. I'm Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Coach Travis Smash. Today's episode, we're going to be talking about fat loss for beginners, but we're talking a little bit about Steffi Cohen,

and I need to let you guys know that I have been watching her boxing videos, and there is zero chance that I could beat up Steffi Cohen. She looks like a real boxer. She has really good footwork. It's really impressive watching her transition from probably somebody that's never boxed over the last year to signing a fight deal and definitely being able to throw. I don't know what boxers call it but i watched those videos and i'm like damn that girl that girl's gonna kick someone's ass see i mean you know she's never you can't really say that someone's been in a fight even though she's my friend but like even if i were going to go to boxing i would say let's just wait and see who knows who's the person she's fighting how and how experienced are they do you know know? I don't know.

But I have a feeling. Is it this other person's first fight or are they like a real seasoned boxer? Oh, yeah. Well, that's – I'm talking – yeah. Even if someone's been in like two fights in a ring, that's a giant step up. Yeah. Like how many times has Steffi been punched in the face by someone that's trying to punch through her skull? I don't know.

Right. I'm just talking about footwork and hitting pads, which to be honest with you, would be my main goal if I was to take on boxing is just look cool hitting pads. I don't want to punch through someone's face. I don't have that gene in me. I like people. I don't want to ruin their face.

But what I'd like to do is have dope pad hitting montages on instagram that would be sick yeah yeah i i think i really believe the mma boxing i think this is going to be the new i just see it happening i have a feeling that she knows like the paul brothers and they're making boxing really cool. Boxing's been out since MMA came in and just became like, but now all of a sudden you've got people talking about boxing again. I think boxing's awesome.

Pugilism is just, I love to see two skilled boxers. It's just a beautiful thing. Even, what's the guy, oh my gosh, totally, here I go, going blank. The guy who fought the MMAma guy went blank on both their names come on conor mcgregor yeah yeah floyd mayweather floyd mayweather like to watch floyd mayweather it's just like he's he's a dude

truly an artist the way he's able to avoid getting hit like you can't hit him like he's like the he's also him and his dad. I can't remember who he fought. It was many years ago. But he was like the first guy when he was hitting pads with his dad. And I was like, that is so cool. Like, seeing the rhythm that those guys get into, it's the coolest thing ever watching very skilled people like that

just like, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop like that. Just like the hands fly so fast. Right. It's just crazy. It's insane. Right. Mash, they announced Team USA yesterday or this past weekend. Yes. Going to Tokyo.

Right. Is this the most weightlifters we've ever had in the Olympics? No. No. Like in 1996 1996 we had a group it was a huge i'm pretty sure we had 10 um why was 96 who was on that team who's who why was that one so big well uh because it was in america it was in atlanta and um you know it was weight lifting the rules were different you know we didn't have all these like you know we weren't

getting in trouble over steroids so we had I'm pretty sure there was 10. I mean, there's Wes Barnett, Tim McRae, Pete Kelly. They have the, I mean, the WWE wrestling star, what's his name? Oh, my gosh. Anyway, the big. Yeah, I don't know a WWE guy. Mark Henry. Mark Henry.

Oh, I got you. Yeah, Mark Henry. He was there. I didn't even know he had a WWE Mark Henry. Mark Henry. Oh, I got you. Yeah, Mark Henry. He was there. I didn't even know he had a WWE career. That's great. Oh, yeah. I'm pretty sure there were 10 men alone. Wait, so who made it this year?

I haven't seen the full list. Oh, Wes. I've known. Wes. Wes Kitts. Maddie. Who's Marcus? What?

Wait. Hold on. What? The kid with the long hair. Harrison. Harrison. Mattie who's Marcus what wait hold on uh what the kid with the long hair Harrison Harrison Morris sorry

Morris there you go yeah CJ Cummings and then Kane Wilkes and then the girls Maddie Rogers

Kate Nye Nobles and Jordan Delacruz yeah right on man that's eight that's a good crew eight four men four women it's the biggest we've had Knight, Nobles, and Jordan Delacruz. Yeah. Right on, man. That's eight. That's a good crew.

Eight. Four men, four women. It's the biggest we've had in a long time. Yeah. In 1996, we had 10 men alone. There wasn't girls weightlifting in 1996. What did Maddie win to get the nod, or was she just at the top? Was there like an event that put her over? I don't know exactly how all the qualifying.

What she did is, you know, you can, it's all rugby points. So it doesn't really matter. The total is not necessarily what gets you. So she got a lot of rugby points when she was in that 76 weight class and the 71, I think she only did 76. Yeah, the 76 weight class. She did a few at 81, but she scored enough rugby points that no matter what someone totals at 87, she still got the nod.

So, I mean, she's in great shape. So I can't take – she's probably – she is probably peaking better than anybody on the team right now, minus Jordan Delacruz. She's going to do really well. I'm actually proud of her. Kate and I, is like obscenely strong.

She's not peaking well, though. What happened, I think there was some coaching conflicts. I don't know all the details. Now she's with Power and Grace. She seems to be all the details. All I know is now she's with Power and Grace, and she seems to be getting better now, but she went through a long, not so good, you know, like, I think

COVID, her coach just got super, he's a computer whiz, this guy, so he got super busy at work, they didn't communicate well, like, a lot of things happened, but hopefully she will be back in shape. I would have, because up until just this past year no one has peaked better than kate nye and then right now she's not looking as good as everyone

else but she's now with spencer arnold and so i look to see her you know take a big jump did she move or is she training remote is she like hanging out with morgan she's uh i think she's going back and forth well morgan's not there anymore you You know, Morgan is in California and she, she might go there once in the blue moon, but you know, she's, I don't think she's completely retired, but she's kind of,

you know, she didn't make the Olympics. So she's debating on, you know, what's next, but she's still power and grace, of course. But how many people,

when, when USA weightlifting puts out like their, their scorecard for, was it 2025 that you're doing or is it 2024? 2024. So it's going to be a three-year cycle this time. Well, I mean, not really. For you, it's not.

But if you compete next year, then it's three years to come back. Well, you're going to compete this year. 2021 is the 2020 Olympics. So they're going to compete this year 2021 is is the 2020 olympics so they're about to compete in just a few months in august 24 so yeah they'll have three years so you know are people allowed to go to tokyo this year no no visitors not letting anybody no just uh athletes and the coach and that's it damn it's even harder you know you know it's it's interesting because you know i'm still waiting on sandra to see if she gets the nod from denmark i'm pretty she's got a really good shot so um how many people i don't know if i'll get to go or not i hope so

but where's 2024 at yeah it was just one of the thing. I'm working on it right now. Paris. Yeah. Yes. Which is, we have a really good shot. You know, we have several. You bringing Emily Drew back? Take her back to her creative roots? Oh, man. If I went to Paris without her, like, I would come back to the house.

She'd kill you. Yeah. There'd be no, I would know where she'd go. All the people when we went over there, she had the most fun, like reliving college. Just doing her art and just a shout out to tiny roots by the way it's her the company that she's um doing her her pattern design for and they're killing it they launched this week and they are absolutely smashing and so that's beautiful yo 2028's in la yeah that's fun, too. I hope that might keep me in the game one more time.

But maybe by then I'll just go with you guys and maybe we can get like a press pass. Sign me up. Dude, I've wanted to go to the Olympics for so long. We actually, yeah. Me, too. We got to get one down to Peru. We got to talk to USA Weightlifting. Set that call up.

Phil Andrews, let's go, buddy. You need a podcast down there covering, talking to all the weightlifters. We need to get hooked up. Hold on. I will handle that as we speak. Look at that. That's how the business happens right there. Yeah, dude. How many people are going to be on that

trip from Mash Elite Performance to 2024 in Paris? We have several who haven't got a shot. We've got

obviously Ryan, Morgan, Jordan Cantrell, and then we have some up-and-coming young ladies.

We've got Hannah, Mallory. They have really good shots. With them, we'll see how

they do. It'll be a them, we'll see how they – it'll be a big depending factor will be how they progress between this year and next year because Kate and I this time and both Jordan Delacruz and Kate and I at this point last squad, nobody knew their names. One year later, they destroyed everybody. So we'll see how the young girls develop, and then we'll see. But the boys looking really, really good.

Yeah. Dude, how are you guys going to win the national championship in weightlifting at Lenoir-Rhyne for like the next four years? Yes. Almost for sure. Yes. Assuming something weird doesn't happen. Nothing weird will happen.

We will win every time. Nothing weird will happen. I love that. What division school is that? Well, in weightlifting, we're all Division I because we don't have that many. There's way more weightlifting schools than you would think, but a lot are just not producing well at all. Who are the other schools that are like your main competition?

ETSU. I don't know many programs. Yeah, Northern Michigan, East Carolina, ETSU. competition etsu i don't know many programs yeah northern michigan east carolina east carolina etsu um there's a school in texas there's a school in um there's a school in st louis there's uh that was a school in um in georgia who has a really good scholarship program but they're just not producing yet so do any of the big schools have weightlifting programs like like ohio state and you know usc etc michigan lsu um you know it's really lsu shreveport though you know it's copy this program down there they've produced over the years i guess

if you added it all up you got to say that they're the number one because they produced, you know, Kendrick Ferris and several other amazing athletes. Oh, uh, they've produced two Olympians, Kendrick and, uh, I can't remember.

Uh, I'm memory. I go, I go blank when I'm trying to remember a name. I have like a, a nervous, yeah. I don't remember any of those details.

I was like, ah, some dude that I was hanging out with. And I think that he said, I don't,'t not really sure but i remember having the conversation um yeah i was really cool i i was i was scrolling through usa weightlifting's instagram this weekend and realized that we have eight people going and i was like damn that has to be the most ever like it's been super cool seeing usa weightlifting among like like their world just how they yeah we test so rigorously and to be able to actually get that many people through with our testing standards up against a sport that's like so notoriously dirty we've

talked to phil we've talked to ursula about all this stuff um but it's like uh to see that we get that many people through is super cool i would never expect eight people from the usa to go and weightlifting ever i would now like i remember when uh natalie woolfolk was like and casey bergner like they one of it was casey that didn't make it because we only got like two spots. One back then, pretty sure. That's brutal. Now we've built a program where we get eight spots to

qualify. Not everybody loves him, but I love him and you have to give him credit. The dude came here to get USA Weightlifting on the map and he did just that. Right now, arguably, we're the second best weightlifting country in the world. We went from people laughing at us

to second best. Only China in our way, in my opinion. They're making test tube babies. That's cool. Seriously. Who are your parents? I don't know. That scientist in the white coat right there. That guy over there made me.

Yeah. For beginners, let's talk about it. Where do we I don't know. That scientist in the white coat right there. Yeah, that guy over there made me. Yeah. Bellos for beginners. Let's talk about it. Where do we start this conversation? What's step one? When you come to Doug Larson and you have never really thought about fitness, you've never really thought about nutrition, and we're going to start learning the process of building a strong,

lean athletic body what are what are some of the the goals and the high level pieces that you want to start to implement here so when i think about phallus i think about three things primarily i think about doing enough strength training to to have yourself keep muscle mass as you lose body fat there's eating enough protein to keep muscle as you lose body fat. And then there's keeping your carbs and your fats low enough where your total caloric load is below maintenance. So you need to be in a caloric deficit somehow. So you keep your protein high enough,

get your carbs and your fat low enough, and then do some type of strength training. I feel like those are the big three things. I think burning calories is like way overrated. I think that's like where beginners tend to think about starting. They think burning calories is like way overrated. I think that's like where beginners tend to think about starting. They think like, oh, I got to start doing cardio and burning calories. I think that that plays some role in the, in this equation, but I think it's like a minor point you can get by with just altering your nutrition and make great progress. Whereas if you didn't

change your nutrition at all and you just start working out really, really hard, you might not make any progress at all as far as like aesthetically, visually, how you look, you know, look leaner, et cetera. So protein, calories, and training. Those are really the big three. And if you can start with nutrition, I think that's all the better.

Also with nutrition, you're already eating throughout the day. So you don't have to make time to eat you're already doing it like you might have to you know find five hours a week to work out and that can be you know that can be tough for people and that's just training time not even like commuting time and showering and whatever else you're going to do really it's like a two and a half hour process yes if you're smashed on on time and you just don't have much time to to do um you know real workouts workouts, I think you should do something.

You should do 10-minute workouts if that's all you have time for. But change your nutrition first because you're already presumably eating multiple times a day. And if you just change the foods you're eating and potentially track your macros, I think that's the best place to start, especially for beginners. I would agree. Track your macros. Look at your patterns. You know, you could easily, once you have established your patterns and like, you know, normally your average caloric intake, you could start making small changes.

You got to decide who am I? Am I a person who just wants to jump right in and say, F it, I'm going to change everything. Or you can make small changes. Like, for example, if you notice that, you you know you're just really bad in shape you're drinking three sodas a day you're eating dessert every single day you can make small changes by saying i'm switching to water or i'm only going to have one and that but the key is like you know it's got to continue to progress you know you you make a small change the next week you make another but then eventually you know if you want to get in great shape, you're going to have to make a decision on caloric intake. It's got to – you got to own that mess.

You know, I do believe – you guys correct me if I'm wrong. This is more your world. But if all of a sudden I spend a month, you know, on a macro plan, say I've cut out, you know, 150, 200 per day from my normal, and I'm losing weight, Eventually I'll start to see what that looks like. And it won't be so hard or tedious because I'll know that, you know, I saw Hayden Bo talking about this, you know, I'll know that this, you know, X amount of steak, you know, looks like this. And so it won't be quite as tedious, but you know.

Yeah. You got to start to build the habits and make, make some sort of visual connection. Cause you're not always going to have a scale with you. Like if you're bringing a scale to the restaurant, you're sure you're doing it, but you're also just not, you're not, uh, you're not making it a lifestyle thing. I'm actually Travis mash is on Facebook yesterday doing mic drop saying I'm

still here. Yeah. Sleep on me world. What are you doing with your, what's going on with you? What's going on in your training? Doing what I just said. I'm tracking my protein.

So I'm going to go pretty high. I'm going to do three grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. So it's pretty high. And then from there – Is that about 220-ish for you somewhere in there? Grams? A hundred times three. No, it's about 300 i'm about my man is

eating some steak yeah well i'm doing a lot i'm doing a lot of protein shakes it makes it so much easier yeah and um you know what and now i've committed because i've committed to my best friend i've saved that car i saw that yeah so i i never ever go back this dude is like i mean he's like my dad almost how long is the plan? What do you got going on? Well, he's getting – he is turning 50 in July 17th. Your buddy Kevin, right? KJ, yeah, KJ.

Kevin, KJ. So he's turning 50 in July. So I'm going to go there. But I'm going to – it's going to be a long term. I'm going to get in good shape. I've started mapping out what that looks like. Obviously, I'm not trying to do 800 squat. I'm trying to, you know, I have minimums.

Like, I still want to squat 600, bench 400, deadlift in the sixes. But then I want to do some, you know, some, you know, weightlifting goals. I want to snatch, not heavy. I just want to be able to snatch again. I want to clean and jerk really, you know, pretty good. But then I want to run. I want to do some sprinting goals. Really, like, here's what I'm thinking. You know, the bobsled is something. really you know pretty good but then i want to run i want to do some sprinting goals really like

i'll here's what i'm thinking you know the bobsled is something this is why i'm so happy i'm so happy i asked you yeah the bobsled is what i really want to do is like yeah i want to do um i want to go there do the combine because you know they look at your 30 meter your 15 meters oh wait you want to, do bobsled. You think you'd make Team USA? I doubt it. But, you know, they have masters, too. I don't know.

We'll just see. The key would be my hip. Can I get my hip moving? Because if I can't, I won't be fast enough. Like, it's got to move. So we'll see. I'm going to talk to Kelly Starrett. Obviously, I'll talk to Aaron at Spring University and just see, like, what's possible.

Otherwise, I guess I'll have to get the surgery and then pursue it. But I would like to do that. I love bobsled. You know, I look back and thought, maybe of all the decisions, that's when I should have done more instead of weightlifting. I should have – Bobsled's where all the strength athletes are going right now. The girls are smashing. You put Kelsey Keels back there now that's got to

be like the strongest girl of all time i stood next when doug and i interviewed her up in boston i just kept like looking at her just being like damn it you are bred for speed and power girl get after it like you are a savage yeah looking back that's probably that sport probably has more of my you know innate characteristics than any sport i did because you know you got that little fear factor of yeah 100 miles an hour on ice and so i want to get back to that too i feel like i'm getting as i get older things that i would have done i'm a little bit weary of. I'm not as confident. So, like, I'm changing everything. I'm not going to go – I'm not going to grow old like that.

I'm going to – What was the bet with KJ? What was the bet with your buddy? Well, when I say on the rock, it's something that we did when we were kids. You know, we both had a broken home. So, we really – it was the two of us the majority of the time because it's just rough at home and so um one time we went to this place and uh it's called elk souls it's on the river where i'm from and we took a rock um you know we did the whole knife we cut

cut ourselves did the blood um blood brother thing yeah the the blood bled onto the these two rocks and then we buried them he kept them there and then a year later we came back and those rocks were still there and so we still have them and so when i say on the rock to him it's a wrap i will not go back unless i die i'll have to die so so he would call me like for example one time uh this i guess his girlfriend had messed around with some dude in a terrible part of where I'm from, like a place that the cops won't go. And he said, on the rock, you're driving me up there

and I'm going to fight this guy. And I was like, damn, that's terrible. I got to go. And I was so scared. And it was right, his grandmother pulled a gun on us. That's how bad of a place it was. Anyway, for a whole nother show. Yeah.

His grandmother came out. it was a big old long not your typical suburb story here we are not from the suburbs and he made me go into the deepest of mountains he made me you guys ever heard me tell the story about the the woman when she died there were 12 people buried under her forts yeah that's where we that's where he took me and i'm like i'm not coming back the whole time i'm driving there i'm like bro we're we're gonna get killed today we're not gonna make it yeah um well dude i one thing that and this is why doug and i work uh so well together when it when it comes to working on, um, like fat loss and getting people in shape is like, I love the, the idea of like increasing your protein, eating better, making small changes

and stuff. But one of the things that I, I end up always kind of like recognizing in people that aren't hitting their goals or they're not living the life that they want to live is like, they really just don't wake up with the attitude of like, here's the amount of shit that I need to get done today. And no matter what happens, this is what I'm going to get done. And it always to me looks like they just get like pushed around by life and they they end up compromising all of the like things that they know they need to do for themselves because things get crazy at work or things get crazy at home or things get crazy with the kids or i had to eat out and and one thing just it always turns into these like excuses over and over over again like why they didn't get to the gym why they weren't able to wake up in the morning why they weren't able to do this stuff

and you start to realize that like to me the most important thing that's allowed me to do anything when it comes to fitness really is that I'm gonna go train I don't care if I have to wake up at 5 a.m. or I do it at 8 p.m. or I do it with my daughter watching or I'm Doug Larson and I'm cooking dinner and I go out in between like dinner reps and go squat. Like it's going to get done. And so many people when they start this journey, they've only been practicing getting pushed around. And they're unable to really build this mentality of forcing the issue and playing offense when it comes to really knowing what their goals are and actually going and chasing them. And it's really interesting to me because you'll see super successful business

people that just can't carry over the same mentality from, from business life to their fitness life. And it's all the same things. Like if you need to go send the email, be on social media, whatever it is, like there's, there's a certain amount of work that just has to get done. And there's really no excuse to not getting it done when you have, when you've set the goal, when you've gotten to a point where you're, you overweight no matter what it is it's like just wake up and go do the thing it's there's literally like very little complexity to to any of this it's exactly what doug said like eat some more protein so set out the amount of chicken you need to eat make sure it's gone by the end of the day like it to me it seems so simple the problem is

in between people's ears they just struggle to make the full commitment to getting where they want to go and it's because they've practiced this like this soft life for so long that it leads you to a place and it's, you have to unravel it and, and develop that commitment in that, um, the, in a way like that discipline to just, no matter what this is, no matter how hard the day gets, I have to go to the gym. Yeah. It's a yes or no. It's not like, ah, well, kind of like, I hope, I hope it, it's never going to be perfect, especially in hope i hope it's never going to be perfect especially in our lives it's never going to be perfect it's never going to be easy but if you have to like

just no matter how hard it gets it's going to get done and the rest of it starts to fall into place a lot like really easy as long as you don't let life just kick the crap out of you every day key is scheduling that mess in because if you like say, I'll work out when I get, you know, as soon as things free up, I'll try to go to the gym. It will never free up. You know, I know with me, I never, I bet you guys are the same. I never really finish my work at any time during the day.

There's always things I could be doing. So if I say that. Social media is hell. Yes. You can always go make another post. Make another post. You know, return this email. Twitter with people. Twitter with people.

You got to schedule it in. Same with nutrition. So, you know, right now you know, my wife and I sat down and scheduled everything. Like when I had time to work, when I had time to train, same with her because now she's getting busy. You got to schedule that mess in and then you got to commit. I know

last semester when I stopped training, it was not that I didn't have time. I chose to do other things. You're going to own that mess. I totally owned it. I really want to end my post-grad work with a 4.0. That's important to me.

Proud of you, buddy. I chose that over trading, but I'm not going to again. I'm done with that because we all know now I almost died. That was a dumb decision. Dude, I totally had a 4.0 in like seventh grade. That's good. That was it. Junior high superstar.

You're kidding me. That was it. 12 superstar you're kidding me that was it 12 years old that was at my best that was when my parents stopped telling me that was when my parents uh ended the rule if you don't make honor roll you're uh you can't play sports i was like and i guess i'll make honor roll this is i guess i'll do it that's what my mom did once i could play hockey and not have to make honor roll, peace out honor roll. My mom is set. Go ahead.

I think understanding the technical tactical side of basically the three things I just said, like most people understand they probably should be training and doing some type of weightlifting. Most people understand that they probably should have protein high and calories low. I think that's intuitive for a lot of people. The hard part is all the logistical stuff that go along with that. It's how to actually get that stuff done in the real world. You need new habits. You need to learn how to meal prep. You might even need to learn

how to cook or you need to get pre-made meals sent to you like you got to put some conditions and structures in place to make it yeah make it easier to do um so there's kind of a logistical side of like learning how to do it well uh which is going to take practice it's you're going to have to do it poorly before you do it well it just it takes practice just like swinging a baseball bat or or learning japanese like you got to practice to get good at it so i think you should make the the assumption in your mind that you got to practice to get good at it. So I think you should make the assumption in your mind that you're not going to be good at it. And you're not supposed to be good at it because it's relatively new and you're not going to be good

at it until you practice a lot. So you'll get better over time. One other piece that I think is also really important is potentially even writing a letter to like your five closest people. You know, maybe it's your boss, maybe it's your girlfriend, maybe it's your parents, maybe it's your roommates, writing them a letter saying, this is really important to me. I'd like you to support me. You know, I typically have these behaviors. I don't want to do them anymore.

Please don't ask me to do them. You know, like, you know, whether it's like going out and drinking and you're asking your best friend to not try to pressure me to drink or whatever it is but if you but if you write it all down you like very specifically ask those closest to you for support i think it can make everything much much easier that way you're not and if you just have one one like one pager that you just you text over or, or email or whatever to your friends, um, makes it where you don't have to keep repeating yourself and try to tell the

whole story. Cause you might tell the first person this big, long diatribe about why, why this is important and what you want to do and how you're excited about it. And then the next person, they can get like 60% of the story. And then everyone after that, you're just like,

yeah, I'm trying to lose weight. Yeah. But then they don't have like the full context. So, um, getting that support, being proactive with getting that support,

I think is important. Yeah. The community support things too, because nobody's really going to buy into your goals until you've proven to them that you're actually going to stick around. Like if your job, if you, if you think you're going to like start a new fitness program and you're going to go to the gym after work, and all of a sudden it takes you 20 minutes to get to the gym, 45 minutes to an hour to train, 20 minutes to get home, you just went from 5 to 6.30 at the gym. And now whoever, whatever the opportunity cost is, is whatever was happening

in your life that you were there for helping out in your family. And like now all of that is all of those responsibilities are going to get shifted around. I think one of the, you know, waking up and getting, it's not going to be easy to convince all the people around you that you're actually serious about making change. Like that's a really, really important piece of it. And I think that, you know, when it comes to like working out in the morning, that's like the easiest, you don't have to convince anybody because nobody wants to wake up with you at 5.30 AM. Like who's going to argue with you? Who's, who are you upsetting? If you get out of bed an hour and a half before everybody to

go to the gym? Nobody. But if you come home and it's 5.30, you're like, okay, now I got to go to the gym. And you're gone from 5.30, 6 o'clock to 7. You come home, you shower, you're trying to like, you've completely pushed all of the responsibility that goes on onto other people. And now your family, that support system is just going to be irritated with you because they don't understand that you're actually committed to it. And it's going to be really, really challenging for that support system to really be a support system because you just made their life significantly harder. Like you got to figure out ways where your new life that you're trying because at first you're just

going to be annoying and they don't believe that you're going to no matter how much you tell somebody they're not going to believe that you're going to stick around and do this thing for the next year six months year five years like there's an entirely new system if you have to go to the gym every day that everyone's going to have to create their schedule around. So don't beat them to the punch. Make it impossible for them to want to have to wake up and deal with you at 5.30 a.m. when you wake up to go slam some pre-workout and go to the gym. Agreed. I think most of all the successful people that at least I know and I think that you guys know. I mean, it's just something you have to do, you know, early in the morning, you know, and you've got to be prepared. Like you said, don't interrupt, you know, your whole family

just because you're all of a sudden, I'm not going to. I cannot afford to interrupt my wife because she's busy right now. So I can't say, hey, I need you to watch the kids more. So it's got to be something where, you know, and here's the one thing I had to be honest with myself. There were times where I wasted time last semester while we get on Instagram. And so you just got to make hard passes on that mess. You know, you got to say, you know, I'm not doing social media.

I'm going to focus on my nutrition right now. And, you know, you just got to cut that mess out, man. And, like, whatever it takes, put your right now. And you know, it just, you got to cut that mess out, man. And like, whatever it takes, put your damn phone down, you know, and then go cook your meals or go plan your meals or go do what you need to do. So I'll have to be zero social media for this kid for a while until I get, get on the habits of doing the things I know I need to do. Yeah. Eliminating the number one app on your phone that you use. I haven't been on Instagram much, really in like the last month by much.

I mean like, I don't think I've made a single post because we're just running things in a different manner now. And the amount of time that I'm on my phone is got to be at like 25% of my normal amount when I was making posts daily

and trying to do stories and all this stuff. Like when, when the focus shifts a little bit, it's like, I don't even need a cell phone anymore. I could just really, nobody wants to call me. We do zoom now. Zoom is like zoom is the main function of life um but i guess they gotta like if you start to look at just the where objectively view where you spend your time it's it's it becomes very obvious that you're most likely wasting a lot of time um I think there's another aspect to it to where if you're going to go about doing some large lifestyle transformation, the beginning stages of it, and I would assume that this is really why a lot of people don't succeed, is because it's so freaking lonely to go about something like this. It's like one of the reasons why having a coach is so

important because you're probably insecure going to the gym. You're probably insecure about the food you're eating. You're probably stepping outside the lines of what the norms are in your family. You're most likely going to walk into the gym and kind of like look at the machines and not really like know what to do and if you're doing it right and there's just going to be more questions than actual answers or progress that you're seeing immediately and then you feel like you're wasting your time it's lonely you need someone to rap with you need someone to like that's what's so cool about having training partners you're just in it with somebody and you have somebody to actually work with. And, and,

and having a coach that cares is going to be able to understand that. But it's like, it's lonely when you don't know what you're doing. Like it's, it's really, it's like me when I tried to do woodworking, I'm out here trying to make a freaking shelf by myself. I suck. So easy to quit. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. But when it comes, you know, and if someone needs to go and lose a bunch of weight, they're going to suck at it at first. Like Doug said, they're going to, you're going to need to assume that you're going to be bad at it at first because you just, you haven't practiced. You don't know what those things are.

And going about it on your own makes it just a million times worse. It's like so much harder to deal with those pressures of am I doing it right and having nobody to talk to to figure it out. It's just, it's brutally lonely. I have a friend who she, she lifted with us for, for many years, like from before we even had, you know, the first CrossFit gym here in Memphis, like we were doing weightlifting at university of Memphis from like 2006 to 2008. And then we opened the gym the next year and she was lifting with us even back then, back in graduate school and lived with us for like five or six years. And then over the last couple of years, like hasn't, hasn't been a part of that, of that community for maybe more, maybe like five years. And she came to me like a year ago and she was like so much harder now it's like before all of my friends lifted weights all the time and everybody ate well so it was so easy but then now

she's out of that world and she's in a totally different world and nobody trains like she she's an artist you know she does she does photography and she she sings and all kinds of things like that and like now the majority of the people she sees on a daily basis don't train at all and so it's like it's it becomes this thing rather than being the thing that you do to turn it turns into this thing that you're like trying to fit it in because it's not a part of your normal life anymore so i think there's a lot of value in and you know that's why people join crossfit gyms like join a crossfit gym you be a part of your normal life anymore. So I think there's a lot of value in, in, in, you know, that's why people join CrossFit gyms,

like join a CrossFit gym. You be a part of community. You have all kinds of friends that are, have same, similar goals. They understand your training. Yeah. Like it's,

it's just easier to be a part of a community than trying to, to do it as like this, this weird outsider. It totally is. Yeah. There's a powerlifting gym here that has weightlifting. It has a lot of other things. It's really a cool gym.

Next time you guys are in town, we'll go to that place. And, like, you know, I'm really considering, you know, joining that. And maybe, you know, I don't necessarily want to be the, you know, like the pro powerlifter again. But those minimums are still high enough to where I should probably go there maybe twice a week, get with a crew of guys like I used to, and like, you know, it's squad day, it's bench day, deadlift, and just to have a community around me.

Because it is hard by yourself. It's like, you know, I've got the perfect setup. I have no excuse. I've got a gym in my house, a gym in my office. Like, you know, but that community is what I'm going to be needing as I do what I've talked about earlier. Dude, I want to be just like Coach Bergner. He has the geezers.

Those guys are such savages. Four or five of his buddies, they're like all in their 70s, and they meet up a couple days a week and they lift weights in his garage. And the weightlifting they do probably doesn't look like the weightlifting that we have done or that they have done before because they're seven years old. So it's going to look all janky, but they're hanging out. They're moving. They're laughing. They're having a good time. They're outside. They're doing bro stuff. Yeah, they're just hanging out. Bro time. That's right. Lifting weights with your buddies, but they just happen to be in their 70s. This is the first time in my whole, I was talking to Ashton about this the

other day. This is the first time in my life where the friends that i hang out with on a daily basis are not in business with me and are not my training partners that's who do you hang out with these people these damn people and their their lack of drive no um dude i have a neighbors yeah like my neighbors they're it's it's solely because like i live in a neighborhood where all the dads are like really interested in like being a part of their kids lives so that's what unites all of us that's like the the the dragon that we're slaying is trying to be good parents and trying to raise kids in a great neighborhood and do that thing where like my entire life really leading up to now having kids is like, okay, how strong are we going to get?

Well, you're strong and I'm strong. I'd like to be stronger than you and you'd like to be stronger than me. So let's go see who wins this ridiculous king of the hill battle every single day. And then business kicks in and you're like, okay, well got to go play this game now too. And you rally yourself around all these entrepreneurs and all these people that are in business. And, um, it's not like, you know, like I hang out with you guys every day, um, whether we're in the same town or not, but you know you know my my most immediate set of friends that i hang out with

have like very little to do with we will work out together but it's it's not like me and you guys getting in a room where we have this like super awesome training session it's like we just go work out like we're working out it's just fun but's, it's not the driving factor of what unites us. And I feel like, um, it's cool, but the sessions, the, the drive, the it's, it's, it's so secondary or tertiary in, in the importance of, of all of that, that, um, it um it it it does make it challenging because you are on your own so much of the time and there isn't like this like everyone has different priorities that don't involve can i squat four or five hundred pounds or whatever the hell you're trying to do like it when when everyone's just trying to live a good life or has different goals that are more important than just fitness, it is challenging to force yourself every single day to not really go against the grain but carve out that time. Tuesday afternoon, all the dads might be outside playing scooter or whatever,

and I'm in here doing split squats while watching them have a beer. Right. Split squat, yeah. Yo, back in time, I think macros, in my opinion, from what I've seen and people who've worked with, et cetera, macros for beginners especially is the best course of action, not because it's necessarily a better system than food quality, more so because it's a way for a beginner who doesn't know very much to constantly throughout the day learn about what they're eating, what's in it, and how it all works because they're going to weigh and measure the food. They're going to look up that food online. They're going to see exactly how many grams of carbs, fats, and proteins are in it. If you're

doing that research all day long, every day, you're going to learn at a phenomenally fast rate. If you tell a new person like just eat food quality throughout throughout the day like they'll be eating vegetables and whatever else but they're not really going to have like a tangible objective view of how well they're doing whereas every single day if you're doing macros you know yes or no did i hit my macros like did i do a good job or did i not do a good job and so there's there's an enormous learning component to it and then there's an enormous calibration component to it that i really like yeah yeah but it does take more time we're talking about time it does it does take more time because you have to weigh and measure your food

and there's a lot of work there so if you're smashed on time then maybe it's troublesome but you know that whole thing has been i feel like that whole time thing when it comes to macros has been completely solved like I think it was more time consuming. Like when we all started training and tracking macros, where you'd be in a spreadsheet trying to put formulas together and store like a food list that you could then transfer over onto another sheet inside a spreadsheet. Like that was really challenging pre my fitness pal. People love to think that they actually eat a variety of foods guess what you don't there's like four protein sources that people eat it's called beef chicken

possibly fish and probably a little bit of pork there just isn't that much else and then you put your favorite protein powder in there no matter what it, two scoops gets you 44 grams of protein and you start to memorize these numbers. So no matter where you're at, it doesn't matter when you go to the store, you buy a pound of meat, you split it in half, you put it on a pan and you cook it and you just put it in your mouth. It isn't that like this macro thing is so simple now that they have apps where they're just an entire database loaded like it used to be challenging because it was so hard to get to have your spreadsheet near you or to be carrying your logbook around with you like that was really hard you'd have to do the math by yourself even before like excel was a thing was when i was tracking macros at the beginning like

all that stuff was yeah time consuming now the beginning. All that stuff was, yeah, time consuming. Now, the top 10 things that you eat, you probably eat every single day. There's one of those four protein sources. The fifth one's probably a protein shake. The majority of your carbohydrates probably come from, well, this is where things get a little crazy if you're eating a bunch of cookies and crap. People just have to understand that the actual variety of foods that they eat in the day is significantly smaller than what they believe that they eat.

If they think they're eating a variety of foods, I'm going to assume that the majority of those foods are very unhealthy for you because you probably like cake and you like cookies and you like macadamia nut cookies and M&M cookies. And it sounds like variety, but once you start to just get down to like whole foods, you're probably eating a lot of potatoes. You're eating a lot of rice. You eat a lot of eggs. Like there's, there's a very small number of foods that are actually really good and taste good that you want to eat on a daily basis. Fruits and vegetables.

Delicious. Eat them. Yeah. I actually think that there's a lot of value in intentionally making your weekly meal plan very monotonous. Yeah. You're already, as you're saying, you're already mostly eating the same stuff. Most people have a style or some type of a rhythm with the food that they buy, and they don't really break out of it very often, maybe for one meal here and there.

But like for the most part, the vast majority of the calories you eat are consistent foods. So if you can very intentionally just embrace that whole idea and just, you know, every day for breakfast you have three eggs and a piece of bacon and a handful of blueberries and it's just like that every day then it just it just makes your life so much easier because you don't have to sit there and like reinvent the wheel all the time and some people it's going to drive them nuts for me it doesn't drive me nuts i can eat the same breakfast essentially every day and every day i wake up and i'm looking forward to eating it so make it you gotta make it stuff that you like or you're gonna you're gonna fall flat on your face but i'm almost willing to yeah i'm almost willing to bet that i've had the exact same breakfast with like maybe one no it's it's basically the exact same breakfast of three eggs a cup of egg whites cas, or macadamia nuts,

and potentially some vegetables for just years and years at a time. There's like no stopping. Doug Larson, where can people find you? Mash isn't here. Go to mashleet.com. There it is. Doug Larson. I'm on Instagram, Douglas E. Larson.

I'm Anders Varner at Anders Varner. We are barbellstruck to barbell underscore shrug. Get over on Instagram, Doug C. Larson. I'm Anders Varner, at Anders Varner. We are BarbellStruck, to Barbell underscore Shrug. Get over to BarbellStruck.com forward slash DieselDad, where all the busy dads are getting strong, lean, and athletic without sacrificing family, fatherhood, or fitness. Everybody in San Diego, Palm Springs, LA, and Vegas. Get over to Walmart. Three programs on the shelves in the pharmacy.

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