Kyle Kingsbury Podcast - #5 Cannabis and Keto with 2 time Highland Games champion Matt Vincent

Episode Date: October 30, 2017

Matt Vincent is a 2 time Highland Games World Champion. After retiring from competition Matt has become an advocate for Cannabis and low carb eating as tools for healing.          Connect with Matt Vincent on Instagram and YouTube                        Check out HVIII Brand Goods         Connect with Kyle Kingsbury on Twitter and on Instagram        Get 10% off at Onnit by going to Onnit.com/Podcast                       Onnit Twitter         Onnit Instagram  

Thank you guys for tuning in to the On It Podcast. Today's guest is Matt Vinson. I first met Matt Vinson at my old strength coach Jesse Burdick's wedding, and I felt like a kid in a candy store because I was wandering around after the wedding looking for a table to sit at, and Juliet Starrett, that is Dr. Kelly Starrett's wonderful better half, came and found my wife and I, and she was like, hey, where are you guys sitting? We got two extra seats at our table, so open seating, and we didn't know a whole lot of people there and we go sit down and it's Mark Bell, his wife and his wife, Dr. Kelly Surrett and his wife, and then Matt Vincent and his wife. And, uh, really got to dive deep with the guy,

learn all about him. He's a two-time Highland games champion, uh, runner up, you know, silver medalist in one of those. But the guy's story is fantastic. He talks about the ending of his career through injury, some of the dietary practices that he's gotten into to help heal, and really avoiding pain medication, which five surgeries on the knee could have been a massive issue for him, but it has not been, thankfully, thanks to documentaries like Prescription Thugs. And we dive into all things that are good in this podcast. I think you'll love it.

Check it out. Thank you guys for tuning in to the On It podcast. I'm your host, your new host, Kyle Kingsbury. And I'm joined today by my buddy, Matt Vincent, who's made his way out from Louisiana. Yeah, down south, keeping it dirty. Awesome, brother. Well, I it dirty. Awesome, brother. Well, I want to dive into, I mean, I know you have a big fan base, a lot of people that know you, but this might be a new crowd. I think probably.

Let's start from the get-go. At what age did you start lifting weights? What got you into athletics? Athletics, you know, a typical kid from the south started training for football freshman year going into high school. So probably 13, 13, 14 years old, right around there. And really just always loved it. Loved the weight room, loved the gym. And so that was kind of history of sport was got into football in high school.

It was okay at it, nothing great. I got recruited by a couple small schools, but it was better at track and field as a shot putter. And then I got asked to go do track and field for LSU. And I went and spent five years there throwing shot put discus and hammer. Tigers. Yeah, was a terribly average shot putter, discus, and hammer thrower in college. Which, you know, I've always laughed about it. It's like there's a window of if you were a better thrower than me.

I threw right around 60 feet in the shot, 200 feet in the hammer, and 180 feet in the discus. And those are way far off of an Olympic mark. And so if you were a better thrower than me by 5% or 10%, you could probably be like, all right, I could probably chase the Olympics. But if you were worse than me, you're really bad. So I fit right in this nice window of I don't need to tell myself that I have a career as a shot putter. And then school finished and got out of that and then spent a couple years doing powerlifting, strongman.

And I eventually found the Scottish Highland Games, so more throwing. And then did that for about the last 10 years. Let's dive into that. You find your calling in a sport that's a little bit odd to most people. Can you break down exactly, like, what are the events? You guys wear kilts. Yeah, yeah. So we're kilts, traditional kilts.

I wear spandex under mine. Otherwise, I'd be a bloody chafed mess by the end of the day. My thighs don't know not touching. More injuries than you want to talk about right now um and so highland games is essentially like um like it's been around forever like they've they've done it with clan battles and stuff like that through scotland for a couple thousand years and uh so you have nine events you've got two stones that you throw you have a heavy and a light uh 22 pounds and 16 pounds they're essentially like throwing the shot put uh the heavy one you throw just from a standing throw and then the

other one you get a full approach like throwing uh just like you would the shot put um you have two weights that you throw for distance essentially a steel block uh with a lingar chain and a ring on it and so you hook grip onto it and throw it with one hand okay we have a 56 pound and a uh 28 so heavy and a light and we have two hammers that we throw essentially look like a mace a little bit more flexible okay and on it yeah so you throw those from a fixed position you actually wear these crazy boots that have like a blade on the front of them so you dig the blade into the ground so that once the hammer gets behind you and the force is pulling you up, you can actually pull on the ground with your legs to bring it back in and accelerate it.

And so we throw a 16 and a 22-pound version of that. We throw the caber, which is a telephone pole that everyone is relatively familiar with. We throw a 56-pound weight up over a bar for height. And then the last event that happens at some games and not at others called the sheaf. And it's a, a 20 pound burlap bag that you throw with a pitchfork for height over a bar.

So I have a pitchfork that I traveled with for 10 years. You're just going around in airports and your kilt spandex and pitchfork. Yeah. I don't, it wouldn't, wouldn't travel in full gear, but you definitely show up at the airport with your pitchfork. So I've got like a Nike shoe bag tied up around the end of it

and then like a foam insulation around the handle. Whatever the lady at the desk asks you, is that that? Just say yes. It's never been pitchfork. Is that a hockey stick? Yes. And the conversation moves on and you can go to the plane. That's crazy. So you get to carry that you can go to the plane. That's crazy.

So you get to carry that pitchfork on the plane. No, no, no, no. You check it. Mine's like six foot long. So it's a disaster to travel with. That'd be an odd shaped item. It's funny. The longer you do the sport, the lazier you'll get.

So you just start like, someone there will have a pitchfork. I'll just use theirs. It doesn't matter anymore. So when you got into that,'re coming up you find something that you actually i mean it's fun you give a shit about it right so you know talking about what we're talking about in the sauna like getting into things where it's not a job it's play right right you fucking enjoy it and you're happy to be there and then you notice hey maybe i'm pretty fucking good at this there's a difference between when you're throwing shot put in college

versus how you're doing in the Highland Games, right? Yeah, absolutely. You know, throwing in college, I mean, you're dealing still – while throwing is an individual sport, like, you're still dealing with the team aspect, and there's still some drama, and there's still – it's 19-year-old kids. You know what I mean? And so there's going to be some bullshit attached to it, whereas, like, Highland Games is so individual and then for the

most part like there's like once you get to the pro level and that took me took me a couple years uh i took really really well to the sport basically if you were a thrower in college it's like you have cheat codes to start doing the highland games and once i got into it and got into the pro level i really liked it because it's like the same 12 to 15 dudes that you'd see every weekend. And so it was just an excuse to go hang out with your buddies in a different place and get paid for it. Yeah. And you're outdoors.

Yeah, you're outside, you're in the sun. And depending on where we were, like if we were in Scotland or Iceland or if we were in Canada, we would finish up a game and then we would all grab beers and stuff like that and then make our way to find some river to go sit in to get out of the heat and then sit there and just talk trash to each other for an hour. So how did you get into it? Did somebody tell you, like, hey, man, this is something you should do?

So as getting into strength sports, like with powerlifting and weightlifting and strongman and then being a thrower, like as a thrower at the collegiate level you know about the highland games like you know that this is a thing that exists like wrestlers know about mma yeah yeah and so there's also this side of it like but where do you get started because there's not in highland game gyms you know what i mean so it's find a competition that's local to you usually they're part of like a bigger like a renaissance fair or something like this where do they have larp live action role play going on the side i've seen a lot of lightning bolts get thrown man it's dangerous stuff guys cruising around the king super serious uh you know luckily luckily we're all aware of we're all a little bit in on the

joke of how silly it is what we're doing but it's good fun man you know and we looked at it at least at the pro level like it's a sport like it's not it's it's not the wwe you know it's not scripted or any of this other type of stuff but the rules get a little loose depending on where you're competing and stuff like that and it was just a good time and we're there to put on a show. I mean, these people came through the gate and have paid money and that's why we're getting paid. I got you. Because we're paid entertainment. Yeah.

Meanwhile, we are competing. Yeah. Still the winner gets paid more. So, you know, so you find out that the thing exists and you go find one and try to do it. Usually get your ass kicked at it because someone's done it longer. And then you talk to those people make some relationships and figure out how to train for it and where do you get implements and how do you buy those and then how do you where's the next game we can do so we found a couple in Dallas that my brother and I would drive to and go compete and

did I did two full years as an amateur you know I was traveling a lot for work so I would schedule like work and sales trips around. Like, oh, there's a game in Tennessee this weekend. I'll go see people in Memphis on Thursday and then hang out for an extra day. So you're doing outside sales at the same time. Yeah. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you had to travel quite a bit for that? Yeah, and I would drive for the most part. Like, whether I was driving up the East Coast and going to be on the road for two weeks trying to see as many customers as I could from, say, South Carolina up to Virginia. And so I could figure out that, oh, if I'm going to be on the road for two weeks, I may as well do that two-week trip in late March when there's a game in South Carolina and the next weekend there's a game here. If I'm on the road anyway, I may as well let work pay for me to get out and go compete, right? And so that's kind of how i was trying

to you know find my my swindle into it of let let someone else pay for me to make the trips hell yeah so a couple years in and the amateur level yeah you decide like i've got a decent feel for this i'm going to turn pro yeah the turning pro in in the highland games it's kind of strange um it's an invite only sport and so to turn professional like you've you got to spend a couple years on the grind as an amateur even if you're winning everything but that needs to be a must like you've got to be throwing far enough to turn pro there's no numbers per se and there's no like qualifier like i'm a professional but i mean if you can win amateur world title like you're probably throwing far enough to to throw with the pro. And then you also need to be invited.

And there's some games that, like, man, the old guard's there, and those dudes ain't leaving until they're dead. So if you're hoping to get an invite, like, you've got time. It doesn't matter that you're the best. No one cares. No one cares to invite the best guy in the world over. We've got these eight guys who've been here for the last 15 years, and they're fine.

They get the job done there's still a draw yeah yeah hell yeah so you do that for what eight years yeah as a professional for eight years and you get two world championships two world titles and never finishing lower than second hell yeah so it was a good run man i'm pretty happy with it and then uh as you were saying you did not choose your exit. Your exit was shown for you. Yeah, yeah. A bunch of knee surgeries.

The knee was worn out the whole career. It was held together with duct tape and hope and sinew and scar tissue. Eventually, just a straw that broke a camel's back, I finally tore a meniscus. Did all of those years without an ACL. And then finally tore a meniscus without you know did all of those years without an acl and then um finally tore a meniscus and got that fixed and then kind of decided that like all right at the end of this season which would have been the end of 2016 like i gotta fix the knee let's get in there and fix it and then we'll take a year off let's fully recover and then full charge we're

back in and just it doesn't play out that way right like you know those were my plans but that didn't seem to be the plans that everything else had lined up for me so you take it as it comes and figure out what's next and so uh you know five surgeries in 18 months on the knee trying to fix all the damage i've done and uh now we're now we're here we seem to be on kind of the mend at least a little bit of the most recent surgery yeah so talk a little bit about some of these amazing people that you've worked with along the way that have kind of helped your career um we have some commonalities yeah there's there's a lot of awesome people right and and that's the biggest thing that while

while I'm in on the joke that Highland Games is silly, like the idea of getting paid money to throw rocks in a field further than someone else's is a silly idea. But like my favorite people on the planet, like everyone I know now is because I was good at that, they want to talk to me. And so like being able to use that as the catalyst to, you know, make really good friends with Mark Bell or Kelly Surrett or Jesse Burdick, right? These guys now that are weekly conversations I have has been everything,

and all of that is due to the time I put in as a Highland Game athlete. If I didn't do that, what do you talk to me? I'm just an average power lifter. I wasn't very good at that either. So, you know, maybe, you know, maybe you break in and maybe you make a relationship and stuff like that personality-wise, but the Highland Game World Championship thing sure opened doors. Hell, yeah. Yeah, we met, actually, at Jesse Burdick's wedding.

Wedding, yeah. And I had heard of you before. I actually, you know, following Kelly Sturette and seeing, like, you know, he hit me up. He's like, man, I got this total badass staying at my house. And he's like, when he's gone, I'll have you come up and you can jump in my ice. Because he had that 11 foot pool that was cooled down. I was like, that's a strong move.

That pool, man. Did you see it while I was getting built? Yeah. Like we'd gone to stay and something like that. And like, it's not finished yet. He basically just has this zombie pit in his backyard that's like 11 feet deep like what are you doing with that little girls like there's no stairs there's no anything like to get out of it it's just this hole yeah it was brutal but uh he spoke so highly of you and then

getting to meet you at the wedding you know we were walking around and and uh there's a lot of cool people at that lot of cool people for sure but tosh still was kind of you know my wife looked at me and she's like i really want to sit with people we know you know it'd be kind of odd it's always an awkward thing when you sit with a group of people you never and it was open seating yeah yeah right so kelly's wife juliette came over and she's like do you guys have a place to sit come sit with us we were like all right cool so we go sit down and it's you and your wife ashley it's mark bell and his wife it's kelly and juliet and we're like holy shit like this works great the table the brain trust this is the table what a weird wedding that was though like we i was laughing about i was like this

thing should just be like hashtag the fattest and the fittest because you've got like camille leblanc who's like crossfit games winner is there meanwhile mark bell's there yeah yeah yeah the guy that trains with jesse andy with all the cat shirts yeah he's also there it's like there's there's half guys that are super fucking gross and then there's this other group of girls that are all incredibly fit and amazing just a really strange combination of people it was funny it was funny to look around especially dancing but i remember because kelly officiated it. Yeah. And he's sweating bullets. Jesse's sweating bullets. Sweating to death, dude.

And I kept staring at Mark Bell thinking like, this guy's got to be cooking. And I didn't see one beat of sweat drop off his head. I was like, is he just so dehydrated all the time? What's wrong? Yeah, what's wrong with him? Like, he's the biggest dude here. He looks like Ray Lewis squeezed into a suit that's too small for him.

He's so gross, dude. And no sweat's coming out. He's like, oh, I was sweating. Just not out of my face. Yeah, he... What did he... So at some point when Mark was still fat, Kelly had talked him into getting a hot tub.

And so he gets it and he's in it and ends up calling Kelly after. Calls Kelly or Jesse afterwards. He's like, dude, my shins are pink. And he's like, yeah, it's blood flow. It hasn't happened in years. In your terrible legs. He's like, oh, okay's blood flow. It hasn't happened in years in your terrible legs. He's like, oh, all right.

Okay. I'm nervous. What is it? I think I'm dying. I can't feel my left arm. Smell toast. That's great. So obviously, I mean, you do anything long enough, whether that's marathon running, MMA,

anything, you're going to get repetitive stress in there. And especially when competition is on the line and you decide that, all right, I'm just going to keep going through this thing, right? So you talked about your ACL getting torn years ahead of time before you decided to hang it up. Obviously dealing with that now and you're still out of the woods recovering from that knee injury, but how much has it helped having guys like Kelly Sturette on board?

It's priceless, right? It's priceless to have those guys that you can reach out to and confirm ideas or be like, hey, man, I got this problem I can't quite solve. You're really smart, and I'm a caveman. What do you think? And having someone like Kelly to either say, back off and give it time time or he's like, you're fine. That's okay. Pain. Like that's this healing. Yeah. You know, let's just keep moving. Yeah. And then no, you know, and it's, you know,

after 20 years of lifting and 20 years of training and pushing yourself, like, you know, the difference between good and bad pain, that pain of like, Oh, we're done for the day. know shut it down because if i don't this will cost me two weeks you know live to fight tomorrow is it kind of is a better better plan than be stupid and win training that day and not be able to do anything for the next month yeah i'll leave it all out on the field in this practice yeah talk a bit about like these the training schedule because you guys have multiple competition spread throughout the year some of them are more important than others. Of course, right?

So we would basically compete. I would do about, I probably competed as much as any of the American guys. The Scottish guys, it's a little different. Their schedule is a little, it's shorter, but they'll do like three or four games a week. So for the American guys, it's essentially every weekend. And so I would compete from early May, late April till the last game is the Celtic classic, which is this weekend in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

It was like national championship. And so I would do 21, 22 games in that time span. So you'd do a set of three, have a weekend off a set of four weekend off, maybe two in a row, vice versa. And so like you really

as an athlete like you can only peak you know really set yourself up for that big performance a few times a year because you need a you know you need a strength cycle that goes into it you've got to taper off and you've got to be ready for it and you can't ask yourself to be that way for 23 weekends like you can't maintain that plateau it's not a plateau it's a peak you know and so it's early in the season there's going to be games and at least for me as an athlete was saying like all right this one doesn't matter like I've got a lift Thursday night heavy because I'm eight weeks out from from a big game and so I may be sore this weekend and this weekend is focused in practice and those those competitions i looked at as sharpening the stone get used to competing

get used to focusing get your let's dial in the variables about you know how do i approach the throw how do i approach the trig what are my cues and what am i working on this week so that whenever that peak comes man it's autopilot yeah that you're just go faster and those little details have already dialed in because you've done them so many times hell yeah you know and you're not burning yourself out no right you're not giving your all in in every single competition because you know what's most important that two or three times a year, right? Right. And, I mean, you can't hold that line, that top level.

I mean, you may sneak in a big throw, but that wasn't the plan. Like, I mean, never turn down a personal record. But, I mean, the idea is you want to throw those when they count. I'd rather throw five personal best at the World Championship than I would have thrown them eight weeks ago at some game in albuquerque that you know didn't didn't pay well and there's nothing on the line yeah and so you know don't go win that game and then take fifth at worlds you know what i mean like you messed up and so like that mentality to it is is some some for me like i'm not a guy that would win every week. I was a top two, hold on, maybe sneak in a win here.

But when it came time for Worlds, that's whenever I could turn it on. Oh, yeah. I think that's a really important thing for people to understand that are not competing at a super high level. It's just this concept of, I mean, think about how many people sign up for gym memberships in January, burn themselves out, and then they don't show up from March on. Resolutionist. Exactly.

But it's the concept of, I'm going to go for it. I'm going to do everything I can to get there. And they don't listen to their body. They don't take time off. They don't think of things in cycles or periodization. And you don't even have to do periodization if you're not competing. But just this idea, the concept of deload like i'm gonna bust my ass for a little while and i know when i have a given break or i'm gonna just get out in nature go for some hikes some active recovery yeah

easy training for me that's getting on the bike yeah doing something different that's still effort but not it doesn't fatigue the cns i can let the cns recover i'm not trying to go kill myself um you know that that was always really important like my training cycle has always been uh like five weeks on one week off and or sorry four weeks on one week off and so that week of deload was always like three sets of 10 at 50 go in break a sweat if something was better than going into the gym and breaking a sweat like go take 10 light throws at 80 effort or go ride your bike for an hour yeah like that's that's a deal that works the weird spot that people mess up deloads is when you finish that fourth week and you've had kind of a

mini peak or you know go through whatever that cycle is that you go chase a new PR so that you can reset for the next cycle. Well, I feel good. I don't want to get out of the gym. Good. Stay feeling that way every cycle forever. You know what I mean? Like why would you push this to go six weeks and then be tired

or something's fatigued when you can fully recharge now instead of burning that battery down? Well, that's when people, it's the concept of I'm going to chase this goal short term and not think about bigger picture. I'm not going to think long term. And really, you know, if you think about your body and sustainability, I mean, that word gets tossed around with the environment and everything. And I'm not saying it's not important for the environment. I'm just talking about you and I personally and everyone listening to this personally. If you think of your goals, big picture, long term, lifelong, making it a sustainable practice is everything. And that includes routinely having at least that five to seven day deload where you can actually relax and get out of your element and a lot big big thing for me was doing things that i wouldn't normally do so that it's it you know it's one

thing to say like all right i'm gonna cut my weights to 50 and do some of the similar exercises another thing to say like i'm just gonna go fucking be in nature or yoga this week which for me is a thrower is totally different right but totally different how does that not help me you know i am gonna it to – it is strengthening. It is hard work. It is sweating. It's, you know, moving fluids through my body, and it's some stretching mobility stuff.

As a thrower, like, mobility is a big part of the game because, I mean, the further I can put my right shoulder or right hand behind my right hip, the longer I get to apply force. And so that, you know, it's no different than a pitcher. You know, the further that hand can get back behind him, the longer he gets to pull on it. Yeah. And you have that mental reset by doing something that's completely out of the wheelhouse.

Right. So it's not like, hey, I'm going back to the same gym to do the same things, and it's going to be easy this week. It's like, no, no, no. Like, let's completely change the environment. Let's take my mind off this thing. And then when I come back, I'm hungry again. Yeah. And that was, that was huge for me too, because for, for the entirety of my career, I train, I train in my garage, I train by myself. And so I've never had training

partners. I've just always done it, go throw by myself or lift by myself. And so getting out of that to to you know take the wife and go for a bike ride instead of being in the gym dying was always nice yeah it's a welcome yeah like oh cool man let's let's go do something else that's awesome so we talked about your injuries how did your you were a pretty big dude when you were throwing and all throughout your career yeah so about 280 290 290 yeah damn i was 268 at asu that's a 290 i can't even imagine carrying that kind of weight it wasn't pretty but the heaviest i'd ever got was during strong man i got up to like 318 damn it's real strong i bet it's real gross you have trouble uh wiping your ass doing everything

trouble sleeping you use the removable shower head oh yeah just buy a bidet never got sleep at me i would just snore okay like my window of snore my way it's like if i break like 285 i snore like 283 a lot of sweaty mouth breathing going on iq lowers just goes bad man all that brain power is getting sucked into all that meat oh yeah and it was fun man it look as a strength athlete there's something really cool about some point in your career just putting the foot on the gas pedal and say i want to get as strong as i can physically be not for this weight class how strong can I be so let's eat everything I can find and let's train like a motherfucker and there's a window to do that

but at some point like I don't know a lot of 350 pound 50 year olds yeah you know they're dead so not trying to do that either like at some point let's go the other direction. And so that was for me, like getting injured and finally not having that excuse to tell myself at the end of the season of like, all right, we're going to lose a little weight. Let's let's drop some body fat. And then come January, you know, it's time to put the gas back on and, and start training and eating because I've got to be two 75 to 82 85 to throw far. That was, that's my, my window. I tried doing it lighter.

I tried doing it heavier. If I got heavier, I was slow. And if I was too light, I just didn't have enough sand in my pockets. And so every time that I would start seeing a little bit of strength loss, it would just hit the brakes and be like, nope, that ain't happening. I'm doing that. Back to it. And so we'd fix a couple cheeseburgers and move on.

But I don't need to be that strong anymore you know i don't need to have a 700 pound squat it doesn't serve me anything in my current life um so the one thing i've never done well is diet i've never never committed to it i never did it i never got to learn how to do it. And so this year being hurt and saying, I'm taking the year off, like, like, man, I'm I've, I've lost 50 pounds. And if I wanted to go back up to two 80 and get strong, well, it's almost one o'clock now. I could probably pull that off by dinner, you know? So it's never going to be hard for me to go the other direction if I really wanted to gain it back. But you know was it was different learning the discipline of what foods work for me what diet works for me and following more of a uh you know a high fat low carb ketogenic approach did did a lot of good for me yeah you look

phenomenal i feel i feel a lot better man you know and there's still a lot of work to do you can see the 50 pounds off and it's crazy because obviously being limited being on you just got off crutches right right and you know give you a big hug and i'm like damn dude's heart is a rock still i was like fuck yeah that's awesome you know yeah you know you know uh the the big hard thing to realize for me with the weight loss was that it's it's 90 in the kitchen you know it has very little to do with what i'm doing in the gym you know it's you just got to be in a caloric deficit anything you do in the gym is lanyap to that being in a caloric deficit it's just helping because it's it's so hard to burn an extra

thousand calories and it's really easy to eat an extra thousand calories. Yeah. And so, well, there's the hormonal response to, you know, and Ben Greenfield and a lot of the guys that we follow and talk to on this subject. I mean, the calories in calories out works to an extent, but really, when you start talking about hormonal response from carbohydrates, that's why you can see all things, the same, all things equal calories, the exact same tin ferris posted about this in uh the four-hour body the the 90 they had a study done with a b and c group 2 000 calories each uh one group got 90 carbs one group got 90 protein one group got 90 fat carb group gained over a pound a day protein group lost just over a half a pound a day.

And the 90% fat group lost over a pound a day. And that has to do with hormones. It has to do with insulin response. And if you're eating enough carbohydrates to stimulate insulin, that's going to carry and store and tell the body, hold on. It's not going to tell the body to burn anything, right? Right. So it makes a world of difference.

And I think the reason i like talking with you about this is because the fact that there's quite a few people out there who have limiting injuries that they're not going to recover from they're not going to get better they won't get out of their wheelchair they're they're there for life right and there's always that complaint of well you know if i could move more and don't get me wrong i'm not making light of serious injury or handicaps, but what I'm saying is there is a way. There's a way for everyone.

That's that focus, right? That's that difference in the mindset of like, okay, I can't squat. I can't deadlift. I can't throw. I can not eat like an asshole. I can pedal the assault bike with one leg in my arms. I can just use my arms i can sit on the bench with dumbbells and never move from this single spot and destroy myself in an hour with with 20 pound dumbbells and like those aren't heavy for me but enough effort enough

time they are yeah and so but the biggest part of that is i mean what can i do you know and if you stay focused on that and not who gives a shit about what you can't do that's out the window i also can't fly i also can't have a million dollars today to have someone cook all my meals for me so those things aren't options why even talk about them you know but what i can do is is choose what goes in my mouth that's a really simple one it doesn't just show up you know it's and for me as much as i travel and do stuff like that carbohydrates for me were the easiest to avoid you know because i am going to eat out a lot i'm going to be on the road and it's very easy to say like no bread no potatoes no rice perfect you know because if

you're eating out you can't avoid fat that's why things are delicious that's how they cook in restaurants and so it was really easy for me to you know have you know eight ounces of ribeye and an avocado this made sense i'm. You know, and the biggest difference, man, I noticed energy level for me was how sustained everything felt. And what I always try to try to explain it to people was, you know, carbohydrates are this,

you know, if you've got a fire burning carbs are gas, you can throw on the fire and you get this giant explosion. However, you pour enough gas on it. It's just going to smother it and go out too. However, so you have to keep putting this small amount of gas on the fire to keep the gas, you know, keep it rolling, right? Or you have an oil lamp and that thing just burns low and slow off of fat forever.

And that's that thing. So you don't get these big spikes, you don't get this big crash, you don't get any of that. I just felt way more even, and I was able to not wake up in the morning starving, and I could have coffee with a little bit of MCT oil in it and be good till noon you know and learn to eat when i'm hungry and learn to stop eating at when i'm full instead of hate myself yeah it's much easier to pump the brakes and listen to your body so we get so conditioned and that's like another thing like you hear all these these health and wellness professionals saying like chew your food do this do that pay attention or even you know more of the the meditation type guys with mindfulness be mindful of the food you put in your body well what what the fuck does that mean it means not having tv on in the background it means actually engaging it

means looking at your plate and whether you pray or not like engage with your food watch it go in slow it down a little bit slow it down a little bit you know man because you can for me with with carbs like i mean there's that kind of 20 minute window right where you're eating that before your body triggers to tell you that you're full and man i can blow through some stuff in the shape of potatoes you accomplish a lot in that 20 minutes yeah and then all of a sudden 20 minutes and i was like i've made a mistake i've made a huge mistake i have to go lay down on the floor now like face down on the concrete stop from sweating you know whereas like it's hard to overeat with you know steak and an avocado or iceberg lettuce which is essentially nothing there's just no caloric value to it whatsoever uh but you can eat a ton of that and get full you know at some point you know

it'd just be like all right i'm full that was great yeah i find that often now when we're doing like uh we still love eat burgers you know so we will do turkey burgers grass-fed beef and we'll wrap it in like a dark leafy green like swiss chard or collard greens and we'll make you know four or whatever we make for my wife and i. And neither one of us will finish, too. Right. And there's almost that like, well, it's not going to taste good if I reheat it tomorrow. And it's like, I don't give a fuck. It didn't cost that much.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's better for me to say no right now and listen to my body than to put it down just for the starving children in Africa or whatever. Whatever the story is your parents told you. And it'll be fine tomorrow. I can always take a burger and then chop it up and just eat it as ground meat. Cause the, the one thing I've looked at is like, I really do believe in, in moderation and all things moderation, including moderation. Sometimes let's put it down and let's enjoy ourselves. And if I'm going to treat most of the meals during the week, you know, for me,

I'm working out of the house and like most meals are fuel. Like I'm going to treat most of the meals during the week, for me, I'm working out of the house. Most meals are fuel. I'm simply just like, oh shit, I'm hungry. I haven't eaten. It's one o'clock. I'll put fish and some butter in a pan and some vegetables in a bowl and eat it like a dog, basically, and just throw it down and then go back to work or move on to the next thing. Those meals, be strict. Eat the the right things it's just fuel but you don't have to be the guy that brings tupperware to your wife's birthday party to lose weight you know what i mean you don't have to be that asshole either like unless you're trying to get on stage and do bodybuilding and then you don't

want my advice yeah you got it like you don't need my help with your diet if that's your goal you can be cool on tilapia and asparagus for six weeks yeah good man that's that's your thing but like i mean go have a piece of cake don't don't lose your mind but once that's done it's done you know that was your reward and so that you know i'd say i was probably pretty strict with like meals out of line, no cheating for, I bet, probably 12 to 16 weeks. That's so important. So many people, even doing these Facebook Lives, so many people will say, man, I've been doing a ketogenic diet for six weeks now, and I've fallen off the wagon twice.

And I'm like, wrong. That's it right there commit to it for at least 30 days if you can go six to eight weeks yeah hold as long as you can you will you will be it'll go it'll pay dividends yeah and then getting back into ketosis is far easier down the road because your body has understood how to process fats correctly right and that was my answer to people you know via social media and talking and stuff like that and they'd be like so what about a cheat day look what are you doing for a cheat day i was like i had 33 fucking years of cheat days like it's time to figure something else out

i'm tired of being fat i'm tired of feeling kind of gross and like i mean the body's an amazing machine and what it adapts to and can change to and do it so many different levels like if you give it that stimulus long enough it's going to adapt i mean that's the same reason is because i've sat in a truck or a desk for so many years of my life that my pit flexors are short and my backgrounds and these other things right because my body was like okay cool our stable position now is sitting let's build the armored around this we're set to be in that position for 10 hours this is no problem. Whereas if you're a guy who stands all day,

you ask him to sit in a chair for three hours, he's broken. You've mastered the sitting. Yeah, I've got it. But now I've got 10 years of sitting to unfuck. And that doesn't happen overnight either. You don't get to go as hard as you do for that long and then be like okay change like nah man yeah well i did i did the super couch stretch for two minutes and it still felt locked right it might take you're talking about 30 years it

might take committing to that two minutes each leg yeah for five years for five years to really see change to really be able to keep your ribs tucked right and pull the pelvis forward and see that position the way kelly sturette does yeah but let's look at it over a month how much progress can we make in a month can we make can you get a half inch closer to your heel that's huge yeah i mean there's probably only six inches to get through if you got through a half inch like that's a big percentage of where we're at you know what i mean yeah and and people people get lost in that and i think part of that is just you know america is you know we are i want it now yeah we're hail marys and home runs man you know like the same reason we can't watch soccer like this slow shit like meanwhile there's only like 16 minutes of active anything going on in

any of the other sports we watch but that's great you know like i get pissed when i see the prime two-day free shipping i'm like where's my prime one day or my prime same day what kind of shit is this now i'm gonna get a different product wait forever for this thing it was something i didn't need for the last 34 years of my life and now i can't go another set 48 hours without and it's free yeah and it's free i'll pay 10 bucks to have it tomorrow i need pink salt if i don't have it like it just can't work i don't know what's in my cupboard it's gonna last 48 hours you'll make it you'll be fine just ridiculous yeah i think i mean whether you're talking about sports uh lifting meditation especially eating diet whatever it is consistency is king consistency outperforms, whatever it is, consistency is king. Consistency outperforms everything else.

It is the number one variable. Well, that's what we talked about a little bit was, you know, the questions I'll get from people are like, hey, man, you know, some high school kid, right, or, you know, someone, you know, trying to get into lifting, like, hey, man, you know, I want to get strong. Like, what program do you think works? Like, the one that you'll stick to. The program that works is the one that you'll do four days a week

for the next 10 you'll stick to. The program that works is the one that you'll do four days a week for the next 10 years. Do it. Like, you know, the people that jump programs and jump diets and did this for 72 hours. And then I did, you know, five weeks of this. And then I tried this. And so you're just in this perpetual motion of never focusing on a single direction. And like the people that we love on the planet that we're fascinated by have such a level of singular focus that it doesn't make sense to the rest of us

that they get to put blinders on to be the best in the world at something and look man i'm very very proud of what i did in the highland games but that ain't the same as is usain bolt deciding to be the best in the world at running. There's a different level of commitment. And every day that guy woke up for 20 years was to run faster. I've had other interests and some balance in my life, whereas those guys don't. And those are the people you admire. Like, man, try to capture 30% of that. Hold yourself to the standard that every day you're going to do this for 45 minutes every day that's it 45 minutes you waste that staring at a tv of something that

you're not even listening to because you're also playing on your phone yeah do you mean like that time just disappears like you don't even know that it existed you could have done something that would have been huge for you hell yeah and even if you can't carve 45 minutes out, like we were talking about 15 minutes, three times in a day. Yeah. Steal it. Hit 10 minutes, five times throughout the day. Now you got 50 and you're at work and you need to stretch and it's weird around your cubicles, like sneak off in the bathroom. Yeah. Hang out and stall and just stretch for a minute. Like do something, man. You know, decide,ide. Pretend you need a smoke break. Go walk around the building.

Hell yeah. Get outside. So let's talk. I mean, obviously, your friends with Mark Bell, a lot of the guys, we have mutual friends. You watched Prescription Thugs. Of course. On Netflix. Phenomenal documentary.

I recommend it to everybody if you haven't seen it. It's free on Netflix. So $10 a month, it's free. And, uh, you know, they've made some great documentaries prior to that and have an, uh, another one in the works right now. But yeah, point is like, how much did that impact you? I mean, you have all these surgeries you're going through, you're in a shit ton of pain and the way we handle pain in America is here, take this pill. Yeah. It's, it's really strange. It's, it's really strange. Um, I hate that there's no alternatives to pain management, you know, that, that are even allowed by the medical profession. They're, they're, they're essentially malpractice for, for a doctor to say, you know, even for cancer treatment, the fact that anything

other than surgery or chemotherapy is they can't. It's illegal. Come on, man. That's not helping. I'm sure for a guy like you or a guy like myself who's done the things we've done to our body by choice, our pain threshold is different than other people's. For mine to be bad enough that I feel like I need a pain I don't know what's zero on the pain scale anymore? I have no idea. That doesn't exist.

Something hurts at all times, and that's cool. That's my receipt for deciding to do awesome shit for 20 years. But, yeah, man, like, I'm terrified of it. I'm terrified of the idea of, like, opiates and stuff like that. Like, I don't like the way I feel on it. My brain's cloudy. I'm not there. I don't make like, I don't form sentences. Well, I'm just slow and I don't like it. And so whatever I could do to, to stay off of that was huge for me. And, uh, like that, that was the big push for me to try, you know, CBD oil and some different, different methods to really deal with inflammation and deal with stuff post-surgery.

Yeah, that's big. I think that's absolutely massive for people to understand that there are some other things out there. There's other options. Far less addictive. Yeah. And it's interesting, you know, like I've, I've seen, I think a great documentary is The Culture High, which is also on Netflix.

A couple of buddies of mine that are up in Canada. And they were touching on opiate addiction and things like that. But it was more about how society has used cannabis through not just our society, but through the thousands of years. How it's been in all these cultures, how it grows on every continent. And then what are the different ways that it's being utilized now? And how is science starting to catch up to the things that people have said? You know, all these N equal, the thousands and thousands of N equals one experiments that have gone on and shown its efficacy. And it's pretty cool. They were talking to this guy, a Japanese doctor up in University of California, San Francisco. And so he started using high dose THC

and for pain management with people that were going through chemo and cancer. And he was like, this is working. Like it's working so well that a lot of them were able to either stop taking their opiate pills completely or at least cut their dosages in half, which is massive, right? Which is massive for, for, for the healing process, which is massive for mental state,

which is massive for, you know, part of what kills you with cancer, right? Is it's the being sick from chemo. And then that crushes your immune system. And then you're on all this other medication that your body doesn't ever get to rebuild.

And so something else makes you sick. And and then so now you've got pneumonia and i can't do the chemo because i've got pneumonia yeah and so the cancer comes back or or makes up ground and so well i get healthy enough that i get to do the chemo again then i'm sick again and it's this ongoing cycle till till you're dead it's rarely the cancer kills you it's the side effects of cancer and your body not being able to fight that kill you yeah and i mean i just feel like like like what do we have to lose for trying something else well there is a legal issue in some in some states but you know like like i've said many you know many people have said there is a domino effect that's going on

right now yeah you can see it happening you can see it happening not just because of money coming in money's i mean let's not beat around the bush it is a huge factor it's a huge fact but that's going to be the biggest thing that helps it get through but there's money to be made it's also the fact that you know when colorado went legal you didn't see a ton of deaths you didn't see a ton of all the you know you didn't see a ton of violent crime you saw less domestic violence less violent crime just less people getting in trouble and doing stupid stuff and a general sense of well-being in addition to a shit ton of tax money coming in, which they use for schools and different things like that. You know, man, and I spent a lot of years bouncing and working in bars,

working in strip clubs and typical strength athlete on the way up. These are jobs we're all allowed to have. It works great. And like almost, are you really a meathead if you've never bounced somewhere? Like, I'm not sure it's part of the game. It's a prerequisite to enter in any sport. And so like, you know, I always think about it.

Like, the years that I spent in bars, and I've had my fair share of drinks and made dumb decisions. And then I think now, like, you know, using marijuana more. Like, people get too high, and they get introvert and get paranoid and start contemplating what they're saying more than they should. No one's too high yelling at you, spitting, trying to throw punches at you because you bumped into him on the floor. Yeah. Like it's a different drug than alcohol, but it's a drug.

I mean, both of these things are, we're trying to alter our state. Either way you look at it, people are going to the bar to feel differently than they do at work. Yeah. Whether that's one drink or 20 or 30, it's still still the same deal you're trying to change your state of being yeah that can be for the right reasons or the wrong reasons right yeah just because this one's

legal anything you know and you know we give an awful lot of people are very very comfortable giving a lot of credit for our safety to well the government said government said that this is legal, so that makes it bad. I think about my mom's generation or something like that. Well, it's illegal. That's why. Cigarettes are great. Right. Doctors recommend Marlboro.

Right. Not only that, let's go back 60 years. At some point, we gave people cocaine. At some people, we gave heroin. We created heroin to be a less addictive uh morphine you know what i mean like these are things we did you know meanwhile like it hasn't been the safest thing that they've always done for us they're just trying to do the best they can with the information they have and then that water starts getting muddied by you know lobbyists

and different stuff like that and that's its own thing I'm not trying to dive into. I'm sure shit not going to fix it here sitting at this table. But a little open-mindedness. And for me, I just, for the life of me, don't like telling another adult what they can and can't do with their body. Yeah. You want to get tattoos on your face, man? That's your fucking business. But, I mean, there are repercussions for your action.

And you've got to be responsible, too. No one owes you the freedom you know so be smart there like don't get a bunch of face tattoos and then be mad that you can't get a job working at apple you know like that was a choice you made man like that comes with it like you can't cut off your left hand because you don't like the way it looks and then be mad that you can't do stuff. You don't get both. And so, I mean, there are risks and there are stuff like that. And you've just got to decide whether those risks are worth the result for you. You have a respect for what you're doing. You know what I'm saying? That's something I tell a lot of people, especially older folks who have been turned off.

Everyone has this story like yeah man i tried this edible cookie once and it just i was floored and i'll never do it again and it's like yeah i get it much i get it but it's different now you know it's different now because there is regulation it's different now because you know five milligrams is going to be five milligrams right for the most part 10 is 10 for the most part and i think it's much easier to kind of with respect gauge where you're headed you know it's the same deal with alcohol like you don't maybe when you're 13 or 15 if you're a young hooligan like we were you'd look at a jack bottle and be like all right we're gonna dust this thing tonight yeah but as

an adult you look at that and you have some respect for it because you know the power that's in that bottle you know what it can do if you go too far with it right yeah having that for cannabis is no different right and i can see where people mess too far with it, right? Yeah. Having that for cannabis is no different. Right. And I can see where people mess it up with edibles because, I mean, you get a gummy bear. You're like, but it's, Nick, what do you mean I'm going to eat a third of a gummy bear? I'm just going to eat the head. Yeah. Like a third of a gummy bear.

That's a crazy thing to even tell me to do. You know, I'm a big guy. I'm going to eat probably five gummy bears because they're delicious. And now I'm in trouble. Deep trouble. Yeah. I mean, like, but enough peanuts will kill you. You know what I mean?

Too much water will kill you. Enough water will kill you. You know, salt. Anything in a crazy amount is a problem. Yeah. I mean, with that, I don't think marijuana is killing anyone. No. No death to this day.

There is. There is a... They talked about it on Rogan. The fatal dose of marijuana is someone has to smoke like... It exists, but it hasn't happened. No, no. Of course not. Because it's like 600 kilos

has to be smoked in like a 15-minute period. And I just assume that's from asphyxiation from a lack of oxygen. Yeah. You're just dead. Maybe they could get some mega concentrate and mainline it no air getting somewhere in the future we might accomplish that with all these kids doing dabs but yeah so i think that's really powerful you know because that wasn't something that you were into before it's not like you grew up a stoner

no no something where no man it's it's always and there was a big negative side of it man there's a big negative side to a lot of stuff you know especially coming up as a track athlete with being drug tested and hell the highland games are a drug tested sport like we got tested i probably got tested four or five times throughout you know every year of my career and marijuana is on the band list i really never got into any of that until the last 18 months with coming out of surgery. And what a difference I have felt it's made. I'm not eating six Advil a day to make my knees and ankles and elbows feel better. I've also lost 50 pounds.

But the truth of that is, talking to PT buddies, that you put so much more pressure on on your knee and ankle joint contracting your quad than you do standing with an extra 50 pounds of body weight so i mean sure it's better for you to not walk around heavier but it's negligible compared yeah and you'd credit a lot of that pain going away, systemic inflammation, things like that from the use of CBD. Absolutely. Especially with improved sleep. You know, I can't, I can't recover if I can't sleep, you know, stress goes up, cortisol levels go up, all these other things go up if your sleep's bad. And if you can sleep better, like that's the big

one for me. And this, this you know it was a big switch for me too and I'm not an all-day guy you know if I don't need it I don't use it and it always worked to me is like how do we get a better night's sleep tonight because I'm uncomfortable with my leg whether I was in a straight leg brace trying to sleep and so you know the doctor's like oh well cool we'll just give you promethazine and you know an oxy and you know and and you know the doctors are like oh well cool we'll just give you promethazine and you know an oxy and you know and and you know something else to help your stomach because these are going to rip you up yeah you know and then you know and two or three anti-inflammatories like come on man there's four pills for me to go you know six pills for me to go to sleep and then feel like shit in the morning and then have bad sleep because I'll get crazy.

I get really strange dreams on Promethazine and Oxy. And they're not fun dreams. Like, you know, I don't want to be in that realm. They're a bad place. And I noticed with, you know, something simple like a CBD pen, I sleep hard, I sleep good, I'm relaxed. CBD pen. I sleep hard. I sleep good. I'm relaxed.

You wake up refreshed. Yeah. Yeah, that's been my experience as well. And that also comes with fine-tuning because certainly if you overdo it, you're going to have that grogginess lingering next day. But still, it's not as bad as a pharmaceutical grogginess, that kind of thing. Or a hangover. So where are you at now?

You know, like you decided to move on. Yeah. You've got some new tools in the tool bag. You dropped 50 pounds. You look fucking great. How's your mind shift or mindset shifted a bit? I want adventure, man. You know, what we talked about was, you know, the idea of like what's next in life?

You know, it's been real easy to be like, okay, that was done. Now what? Let's not focus on what I can's been real easy to, to be like, okay, that was done. Now what? Let's not focus on what I can't do anymore. I'll just be miserable. You know, I'll miss throwing and hopefully training wise, I can get back to some of it because I do think it's valuable. There's, there's some tools and lessons there,

but I don't think as a competitor in the Highland games that it has any new lessons to teach me. And so what is there out there that I can find that I can figure out adventure wise? Like I want to spend more time with my wife, man, like driving around the country and doing some long road trips, which I really love doing. Our country is amazing. It's huge. I get jealous of my buddies in Europe that can go from country to country and travel

the way they do and get to, oh, you're in Scotland, so we'll pop over to Spain. Like, fuckers. You just pop over to Spain or pop over to Italy on a train. You forget that there is that much difference to the environment from Maine to California. And you can be there tonight. If your life is set up accordingly, you can hop on a plane. You can go. And you can be there tonight. You know, if your life is set up accordingly, like you can hop on a plane, you can go and you can go now. And just, just do it and go and, you know, figure that part out and, you know, and build your life around whatever your priorities are. And mine are going.

I know that I'm at my best traveling a lot. And so I want to keep doing that, you know, same as I did for work for years, same as I did competing. And so, like, I want to keep doing that you know same as I did for work for years same as I did competing and so like I want to get more time out I want to go see you know I'd like to I'd love to at some point make make the drive up to Alaska up to the Yukon and camp along the way and see see that beautiful country that that's there like there's a last frontier you know man like for for as vast and giant as the universe is right there's there's so much of it that we can't explore right just i'll not i'm not going to have the technology in my lifetime to most likely make a trip to pluto to catch a look back at the solar system you know like all right i'll i'll concede that that i don't get to do that

but for all that infinite and amazingness that's out there, like, there's awesome stuff here. Yeah. Like the fucking Grand Canyon is incredible. You know, look at like Trans-Siberian Railroad or you see all these great limestone, you know, stuff like structures in Vietnam and these other places around the world that are amazing and stuff that even humans have done, like the pyramids or any of these other types of things, or, you know, traveling to, to Iceland and knowing, knowing what the water feels like on the North side of Iceland. You know what I mean? Like, I don't have to talk about it or wonder, like I want to know, and I want to, and I want to share that with as many people as I can who, who aren't as fortunate to make those trips I mean I'm very

lucky that life has aligned itself in the way that it is that I'm getting to do this for a living and I mean that's that's what I want to do and I want to I want to you know the wife we we've chose that I mean she's working part-time as an esthetician so we can leave when we want to leave that's nice having that flexibility yeah massive because like over what like over over a few bucks like i'm not interested in having this like big giant safety net of essentially what's a high score in a bank account i mean it's not like it's a tangible thing that i'll ever put my hands on this this cash that's sitting in a savings account somewhere it It's just this sense of safety. And I can always tighten the belt.

I can always choose to live within different means. I've been broke before. It wasn't the worst thing in the world. I've made more money than I make now. It was okay too. And so that's really all money or any of that's good for is buying options. It's if you're using it the right way, like it's options. Don't let the things that you're buying own you to where that you're stuck.

And now that you've got this, I've got this house and then we've, you know, we've got this condo here that, well, so now I'm obligated to go here on vacation. I don't even want to go there, but we own the place and we, you rent there, and we have to go.

And so you just do the same thing every day for 30 years, and you're that guy who's like, oh, shit, I'm 70. I was 20 yesterday. I don't want that. I want to slow down that time, and I want to try to make as many new genuine experiences and meet amazing people and and get what I can out of them and have them enrich my life as much as I can do theirs and that's life experience right that's that's what I get to take with me to wherever that next place is hell yeah brother that those are mine and you can't ever have them and the cool part about those is is like if you and i go do the same thing it's not the same life experience because

your perspective of it's totally different and i just want more of that you know the stuff that i do know i know that being stronger is always going to be better for me i know that mentally i operate better if i'm fit, if I'm strong and I've got something physical I can do, whether that's fit enough to go ride my mountain bike or fit enough to ride my road bike or get up in the morning and do some suspension training, just some push-ups, some burpees,

some things like that to get the blood flowing and feel strong for the day and go after it. One of my favorite things Kelly Sturette ever said was, you know, he knows he's on vacation if he has done a sport, worked out, and took a nap. And I'm like, man, how do I make that my everyday life that it's not vacation? Yeah. You know, so he's like you know that's you know well today you know i stand up paddleboard i did a 45 minute workout in the gym and i and i caught a 30

minute nap man that's set doing it right yeah you know what i mean like that's that's making the most of it and being being being part of the world and in like the outside of it hell yeah brother that's beautiful. So, well, we can wrap it right here, but let's, let's get you to tell people where they can follow you and talk a bit about your brand.

Sure. Awesome hat. Yeah. So my brand is a hate brand. So it's spelled H V I I I the Roman numeral on the back end of it. You say H with an eight hate. And I didn't want to have it as hate, right?

There's just far too many negative connotations that I would spend way too long explaining. I spend plenty of time explaining this one. But it seems once people grasp it, they're like, ah, and then they're in. Like some type of code they've broken. And the idea of it for me was, like, as athletes or anything, like, pushing yourself, right? Like, we don't train the way that we have and live the way we have because we're content. You know, like, it's always like, well, cool, I did that yesterday. Who gives a shit?

What today? What's now? And, like, man, hate yourself enough to push hard. You know, hate being comfortable. You know, be willing to hate yourself enough to not have that cupcake. You know, to eat the right food today, this meal. And a little bit of self-motivation through self-loathing. You know, it's a little healthy for everyone.

And underneath that is all love. All of it, all of it, right? And look,'m as i'm as happy with me as i as i can be it's not it's not the big negative hate you know i you know but it's just hate that complacency yeah that's a driving comfort man that feeling of like good enough fuck you good enough like always better yeah like always more want more for yourself yeah in all areas of life right you know and that that's what i want you know and that's i lost so the other job i had right like i that was i did that for 10 years an outside sales guy in the petrochemical field it was a job i'm good at. I don't give a shit about it. I don't care about, you know, fire protection or, or, you know, refractory work in, in stuff like this. And so when,

when they decided to let me go just because they were, you know, shifting, shifting direction and company, which is fine. And it was luckily at that point, like I had had the brand running for a couple of years and it was kind of like, Oh, I'm just just gonna do this now and like i didn't realize how much i didn't like that job until i didn't have to do it i'm like i don't have to spend 11 hours in my truck today to go have lunch with guys i don't want to talk to and like man my my goal is like i just want to wake up and do whatever the fuck i want to that day and if i can pull that off forever sweet i don't need a giant boat i don't need you know

all these other things that become these weird anchors that that shut down your freedom i mean i'm also not trying to live in a 200 square foot tiny house. There's, there's some middle ground between completely minimalist and completely extravagant that, that you can be comfortable and happy and still have the ability to go. Hell yeah, brother. Where can people follow you online? So you can follow me at,

uh, on Instagram at I hate Matt Vincent, uh, spelt the way it is on the hat or H-V-I-I-I. Hate Brand Goods is another Instagram, and TheHate.com is where we carry all of our goods. And on YouTube, I'm Matthew Vincent, and I kind of try to document travels and all this other type of stuff that we do

and had a really good time documenting the 10 days we were in Iceland, man. Hell yeah, brother. Beautiful. Thank you so much for coming on. Have a ball. Hell yeah, brother. Beautiful. Thank you so much for coming on. Have a ball. Appreciate it, brother. Alrighty, guys. Thank you guys for tuning in to the On It podcast with our guest, my buddy, Matt Vincent. Hope you guys learned a lot in this episode. Matt Vincent has a podcast that's just starting out. I've been a guest on it. Be sure to check that out. And we'll link to it in the show notes here for you.

Thanks for tuning in. All right, guys, you've got questions. I've got answers. Every Wednesday at 6 p.m. Central Time, I'm going to be on Onnit's main page on Facebook doing a Facebook Live Q&A. The Facebook Live Q&A runs for 30 minutes. If you can't make it at 6 p.m. Central Time, all you have to do is write in your questions and I'll be sure to get those answered for you, either by writing it or talking about it on the Facebook Live, which you can check out at any point in time after the show airs. But be sure to tune in live if you can. We're going to get a lot of information rounded out, talking about the podcast, talking about different health topics, and I think you'll enjoy it. Hi, I'm Aubrey Marcus, CEO of Onnit.com.

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