Mark Bell's Power Project - 10 Min Walk Talk - Chris and Mark Bell - Why Keto?

Episode Date: February 21, 2018

On this episode of The Walk 'n Talk, Brothers Mark and Chris dive into the benefits and obstacles they've encountered living life the Keto way.

10-minute walk in such a car. Ketosis and what it's done for him. Let's start out with, I know you did it when you were younger, because I've known you... Your whole life. Not really my whole life, because I probably didn't remember some of it. But you knew me for long, anyway. I know you your whole life. Anyway, tell us a little bit more about what the ketogenic diet has done for you, how you've done the ketogenic diet, and when you started it more recently. Yeah, the ketogenic diet has really completely changed my life and

sort of changed who I am, I think, in general. I used to be somebody that, you know, a long time ago, I was a power lifter. I was into like, how much, you know, the same thing that you're into, how much can we lift? What can we do? What can we achieve the like how much you know the same thing that you're into how much can we lift what can we do what can we achieve and then um you know by having that being taken away from me by having arthritis and having you know genetic hip problem that caused me to have double hip replacement I sort of lost all that and lost myself and got really really fat in the process I got up to about 260, but also like I got away from lifting and I just didn't love myself anymore. And I think that, um, a big part of that was just because I

was putting bad foods in my body and those bad foods affect our brain, but we don't, I didn't know any of that. So what I decided to do, um, was with you was, uh, you know, I was really just sick of not being, not being like you, you know, it's like my brother's ripped, we come from the same family, this can't be genetic, this, like, I know our parents are overweight, but like, this can't be from them, I can't blame them, there's got to be something that I'm doing, Mark is shredded, right, so we launched a war on carbs, and I knew that from doing this stuff back in, like, the 90s,s and doing it during when I was powerlifting and I stayed strong all through my powerlifting career and I did every meet pretty much you know

on a ketogenic diet so going back to the ketogenic diet was really sort of like me just planting the flag and saying I don't want to be fat anymore I don't want to do this anymore and to tell you the truth it could have been sort of any diet, but it was about getting serious about something. Tell me a little bit about the foods that you ate. Just kind of dive into that for people that are listening. What can they grab from this right now and start doing? In the very beginning, you're going to want to eat a lot of fat because you're just switching over and your body isn't going to be ready for it. So in the very beginning, I actually found it to be pretty gross.

I ate like a lot of bacon. I was even like I'd cook up bacon and I'd put olive oil on the bacon. I'd make salads with a ton of dressing. I'd do hamburgers, hot dogs, just everything like that. And that stuff is all fine in the beginning. As we progress through the ketogenic diet, though, I think we decide to make healthier choices. Like, look, we know that processed meats might may cause some cancer. So I like, okay, well, let's get rid of the processed meats and stick to the ones that don't have nitrates. So if I get ham, bacon or sausage,

I get it without nitrates now, right? So I've just cleaned up kind of the same diet. But right now, a big thing for me is avocados are awesome. I think avocados and coconuts products should be the cornerstone of any really good ketogenic diet because not a lot of people have GI problems with them. Basically a ketogenic diet. Some of you guys have been not paying attention to the war on carbs and different things. Basically we're just trying to cut carbohydrates out. What my brother and I have suggested to many people, and we're both fortunate to be in a position where we've helped thousands of people lose a lot of weight. Don't worry about your calories when you first start the diet. Don't worry about your protein intake when you first start the diet. Don't worry about tracking anything. Really just have your goal be to consume

a good amount of fat every day. And that could be, you can determine that amount for yourself a little bit, or you could do a little bit of research, but don't feel like you need to go out and research everything and understand everything that's going on just to start the diet. The main thing is to get used to not eating carbohydrates. should say my my struggle really still and it's the same struggle our dad is having is with the damn scale like we're so conditioned to look at the scale and think that number represents something about us but it really doesn't represent anything about us the other day i went into gold's gym and i was wearing a sweatshirt and i took off the sweatshirt and I had guys that I've known for 20 years guys could have never yeah guys could have never handed me a compliment these guys

shredded you know and um the other day I got compliments from just about everybody in the gym that you'd want to get a compliment from saying like hey man you look awesome hey you're really progressing I can't I didn't even recognize you I don't believe what you look like now. And to me, that's the real proof. So when that happened, I went home and I took the scale and I put it in my closet and I'm not going to pull it out until the new year. I'm trying to stick, like my new year's resolution is not to weigh myself until the end of January and see where I'm at. Cause I, that was my problems. I always would weigh myself every day. And I would think that that was my success or failure, but it really is what you look like. problem. I always would weigh myself every day and I would think that that was my success or failure, but it really is what you look like. I've been talking a lot about being

made out of something different. What do words like that mean to you, being made of something different? I think the ketogenic diet makes you into being made out of something different. It makes you into a disciplined maniac. Like the other day we were talking about soy sauce and you're like, I don't know if it matters that much. And I said, yeah, it probably doesn't matter that much. Like not cutting out soy sauce isn't going to make me look like Bradley Martin. But if it adds to my discipline, if it adds to a layer of like, I got to stay away from that, uh, then I I'm, I'm more on target. I'm closer to the goal. I'm closer.

It might be equivalent to making your bed when you're in the military. Maybe somebody's like, what does making your bed have to do with my relationship with my wife? Well, someone who's disciplined and somebody who's all in, they would say it has everything to do with every relationship you have and everything you do during the day. Absolutely. And I think one of the most important things that I've learned is like we come from a family where I would hear my mom talk about this all the time. She'd be like, I just have a bad relationship with food. And then I was listening.

We're on our way to Rob Wolf's house right now. And Rob Wolf was like laughing about it and said, you shouldn't have a relationship with food. Like it's food. It's just an inanimate object. And so by going on a ketogenic diet and separating myself from being hungry, that's like a main thing it does. It actually allows you to restrict calories because you're not hungry by separating yourself from the food a little bit and giving yourself a little wedge to just take a breath and say, I don't need to eat all the time. That sort of freed me up. And I don't have a relationship with food anymore. Food is just food and I can take it or leave it. And I never was able to do

that. You broke up with food. We had a, we had a massive breakup and, and actually, you know, it's been good, you know, it's been better because when I want a food and also I used to see like, you know, like a piece of cheesecake that's like toxic, you know. And I used to look at foods as good or bad and like, you know, this thing, bread, it's so bad for you. And I'm like, no, it's not. It's just there. It's not bad for me if I don't put it in my body. It's bad for me because I've had several health problems. I've had several issues where we know that gluten can affect those issues.

We know it can raise the inflammation. We know these things about these foods. So rather than saying a food is good or bad, let's know the good or bad qualities about it for our own body. Hey, you know what? Take pride in being different than everybody else. Take pride in having some of everybody else. Take pride in, in having some of the things that you say be a little bit weird. Maybe you might say in front of a group of people, man, I'm just dying for a cheat. I can't wait to have some apples dipped

in peanut butter or have some peanut butter and honey or something a little different. Because again, what he's alluding to is you get yourself to a point where you're so disciplined that it mounts on top of itself and you just become a machine after a while. It doesn't sound like it makes sense right now, but once you get deep into the diet, it will. And also, to Mark's point, everything that Mark has built, the whole super training empire, the whole slingshot empire, is literally based on being different. slingshot empire is literally based on being different. And the reason I say that is I started powerlifting when I was like 16 years old. And I read an article in Powerlifting USA from Louie Simmons, who was using chains on the end of a bar. And I said, now that makes a lot of sense. To nobody else in the world did that make an ounce of sense. But to Mark and I, we're like,

that makes a lot of sense. And we adopted all those things. And we were bringing in chains and bands into Gold's Gym 20 years ago, and people would laugh at us. They'd make fun of us. And now all they do is follow us. And I think that being a little bit different is a great thing. And I think that that's how we forge new ways of doing things. This is a very raw podcast. I've just got the audio going on my phone, and my brother and I are huge wrestling fans, and we know that raw is war, and this is our war on carbs. And we're super excited to share this information.

Right now we're on our way to Rob Wolf because we're filming a movie on nutrition. Just to wrap this up for us, people are finishing up their 10-minute walk. What do you want this film to do for people? I want this film to do what I've done over the past year, and that's re-educate America on the things that we've been lied to about. Like, this isn't anybody's fault. Those people out there that are feeling bad because they're not in great shape, it's not your fucking fault.

It is the fault of big food. It's the fault of big food. It's the fault of people pushing stuff on us. But it is our fault to do nothing about it. So now it's time for us to re-educate ourselves, get out there and do something about it. Of course, we've all had a little bit of say in our own fatness, but let's also be real. We've been also told a lot of lies. Let's clear up the confusion and let's move forward. How can people get started? What do they got to do? They just got to join the war on carbs and say, I'm in. I think they should follow you or I on Instagram. I think they should buy a book called the 21 day keto reset by Mark Sisson. That's

probably one of the best books I've found. If you're older and you get confused easy or you just want something that's really basic, get a book called Eat Bacon, Don't Jog. Eat Bacon, Don't Jog. It's like a little handbook. And that will start you on the ketogenic diet in under 20 minutes, to tell you the truth. Do I need to weigh stuff? Do I need to prick my finger? Do I need to weigh myself every day?

What's your suggestion? I would say in the beginning to not do any of that. I would say in the beginning to just find out, like, first of all, do you know what foods have carbohydrates in them? Are you aware that milk has like 12 grams of sugar in it? Give us that quote about food labels. I like that one. Well, you know, the thing is that we always look at food labels and we want to see how many carbs something has. But if you concentrate and focus on not eating foods that have labels, you will be way better off. And that kind of takes a little thought. It's kind of a... Your food should have faces and not labels.

Yeah, it should have faces and it should be able to grow. And then obviously when we kill it, it doesn't grow anymore. But, like, you know, our food should be pulled off of the produce shelf. It should be pulled out of the freezer. You know, it should be meat and vegetables and things like that. And when we, you know, broccoli doesn't have a label, you know. And you just got to remember that. The more foods without labels, the better off we are.

All right, guys. Gratum Ferociter. Put one foot in front of the other, step by step, ferociously. I'm Mark Bell. That was my brother, Chris, and we'll catch you later.