Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 298 - Laura & Chris Spath - How they Lost 250lbs on a Carnivore Diet!

Episode Date: December 23, 2019

Chris and Laura Spath have lost a combined 250lbs from following a ketogenic and carnivore diet. They’re here to talk to us about how they were able to stick to the diet, lose the weight, as well as identify and address their long-time food addictions. In this episode Laura and Chris reveal some secrets and tips on how ANYONE can adapt a healthy lifestyle and lose weight easily. Be sure to follow Laura and Chris' journey on Instagram and YouTube below: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBT6FNxVkQFgudbJXomqveA Laura: https://www.instagram.com/lauraespath/ Chris: https://www.instagram.com/chrisjspath/ Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT10” at checkout for $10 off $40 or more! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject  ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject   ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok  FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

Alright, what's going down y'all? What's up man? You know, just chilling. You're looking shredded. Yeah, getting shred again. Yeah, so this morning, I mean, this will be way too much information. Oh yes. But, jumped on the scale.

Yesterday was 170.8. Today, 171.6. Not upset, just like, you know, like, okay, that's interesting. This was after my first dump weighed myself took a picture start walking to get ready to go to the gym like oh nope nope nope nope i gotta i gotta run back this is this is too much second wave hit i mean it was alarming yeah i'm like you know what that was a lot yeah jump back on the scale 170.4 you had a lot of poop in you bro yeah not anymore wow we're recording now yeah yeah but we're not

going live today yeah i was uh talking to some people uh at the seminar and then also just uh online more recently with people that have lost large amounts of weight and then people that are trying to lose large amounts of weight. And this kind of same topic keeps coming up. People are asking about like keto snacks and what to do with, can I have keto snacks? Can I make these fat bombs? Can I have, you know, something like a perfect keto bar? Should I, you know, be counting my calories and all these different things? And my thought process on the whole thing is, you know, take something like a Piedmontese steak, which first of all is super lean. So that helps a ton because then you're still not getting the, you're not getting an overabundance of energy, but still tastes really good.

It's just, I think just go for it. I think figure out a way, because like you can't go, not that you can't do it, but it's very difficult to go from being 100 pounds heavier to 100 pounds less without the ultimate realization of, I'm just going to have to eat less food, and I'm going to have to feel hungry. And you want to try to mitigate that the best that you can. And the way that you can neutralize that, your secret weapon can be protein. And when you start to eat, you know,

steaks like from certified Piedmontese, or you start to have eggs, you start to mix in other foods that are high in protein um and that becomes very satiating i had uh a whole packet of piedmontese sliders the other day i was like oh i'm just gonna have like four or something because i knew i was gonna eat a little bit later in the day too and i just ate the whole thing which i don't it's like a pound and a half or something like that it was it was uh i just it was so damn good yeah but what happened was you know i had that at like maybe 11 a.m i didn't eat again until i think it was like six you know i was you know totally satiated and uh i went to go eat with my son and i was i just

didn't eat eat anything when he and i went to eat he's like you're not gonna get anything i was like no i'm i'm fine i'm good then we saw a movie and then you know i didn I went to eat. He's like, you're not going to get anything? I was like, no, I'm fine. I'm good. And then we saw a movie and then I didn't get to eat again until afterwards. But that high protein, it works. It really does work. It helps a lot. Yeah. What's the deal with the sliders? Why do they taste so amazing? I don't know. I think

they're putting some extra flavor in there. I think so too. They're delicious. Yeah. So if you guys are catching this in the month of December of 2019, they're actually giving everybody 25% off. You don't have to use any special codes. Everybody? Everybody. But if you guys want to support the show, make sure

you hit the link in our show notes or the YouTube description. Just head over to piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D M-O-N-T-E-S-E dot com. But if you're listening to this after the new year, use promo code POWERPROJECT for 25% off your order. And if your order is $99 or more, you get free shipping.

Yeah, yeah. Natty Professor, you work with a lot of clients. Yeah. How do you help talk someone off the ledge if they want to have a lot of snacks and stuff? Do you kind of just say, hey, man, let it pass. Just eat up for a little while? what do you usually do with people uh i usually have them get all their shit snacks out of the house yeah and then substitute it with something

else so like either quest bars or something within that realm that can still taste pretty damn good um but again they have to get everything out of the house because it's too easy to go down to your pantry and just go to town. I do the same thing. Yeah. Quest cookies, quest bars, um, quest potato chips,

those kinds of things. Like those are things that can replace your, your former like bad behavior. And if you think about it, like with other behaviors that you may have picked up over the last two, couple of years, um, maybe you've gotten in a habit of reading more books

and maybe in the past, like reading one book a year was hard and now you're getting through a book a month. Things that used to be hard and difficult will get easier and easier the more that you practice them. But you normally have to replace a bad habit with something different. And in this case,

your worst day might look like somebody else's best day because on your worst day, the worst thing that you might eat might be like a keto snack, might be like a Quest pizza or a Quest cookie, something like that. They are processed. These are processed foods. But they're here to help save us and to give us uh you know to help to help with our food cravings but in a cleaner way yeah and you're gonna quote cheat clean you're not gonna have any guilt you're gonna have an awesome you know quote dessert and uh not feel terrible about it so you guys need to head over to quest nutrition.com at checkout enter promo code mark's quest for 20 off your entire order and i've been on my own quest for basically the last 10 years of losing 100 pounds. And people ask me often, they're like, how long did it take?

And the people that we're talking to today, it didn't take them long to shed off an enormous amount of weight. But for me, the journey and the whole process was a 10-year process because of how many different things I had to stop doing. And then when you bring in things like perfect keto bars or when you utilize their whey protein or utilize the MCT powder in coffee, it makes the whole process a lot easier. Rather than like it's just all this huge switch out of nowhere. Okay. All right, fat Mark, you're going to weigh a three 30 and now we're going to get you down to two 30 and you have to start, you know, you got to start implementing these 17 things in your life right now. And it's like, no, I didn't do it that way. It was all, you know, small steps and things like perfect keto bars and those kinds of snacks have helped me. And I know they're helping a lot of other people. bars and those kind of snacks have helped me and I know they're helping a lot of other people.

I've used a lot of different techniques and things and tricks over the years, but having something in your coffee, having a little bit of fat in your coffee is something that has helped me tremendously. I used it throughout the entire process, whether it was putting butter in coffee or MCT oil. We didn't have perfect keto when I first started a lot of the stuff, but I wish that we did because it does make the process easier. And I know it will help make the process easier for a lot of other people out there. Yeah. And it gets just like, it gives you something, especially the MCTs in the coffee. It gives you something to have other than drinking coffee and water all day. If you're fasting, it makes it so much easier. So something to look forward to something

to look forward to. Yeah. And I've been using and I've been still using the vanilla MCT oil powder when I'm fasting all day long. It's not all day long, but it seems like it sometimes. Getting a little thin on that. But yeah, and they're actually offering power project listeners a different promo code these days um so you guys need to head over to power or perfect keto.com slash power project at checkout enter promo code power project 10 which will give you 10 off any order of 40 or more so before it was about 15 off this is about 25 off so a little bit more incentive to kind of get things going i should grab some of those oh that's what it is i'm like what's going on they got uh they got krill oil which is um basically like

omega-3s they have um they they have electrolyte uh capsules which i think are really beneficial for a lot of people that are on a carnivorous diet or on a keto diet because they tend to cramp up a bunch and then sema's mixing up some powder right now. We got them all hyped up about it. The nootropic powder's really good. I mean, they have a lot of options. Just go on the site. Just go check it out for yourself,

and you'll see they got a lot of great options on there. Yeah. So who do we got on today, Mark? You know, we have some people on the show today that have lost, I i think a combined uh like around 200 something pounds 250 shit 280 pounds that's a couple extra people's worth right yeah yeah um you know these are these are people that pop up in my feed sometimes you know because of the hashtag war on carbs that's a that's a hashtag I follow. And then I end up seeing a lot of our fans

and a lot of the people that have been affected by us or by Paul Saladino or by Dr. Sean Baker or just by someone like a Ken Berry. They've been affected by this kind of low-carb community. And what's cool is everyone's trying to help each other out. community and what's cool is everyone's trying to help each other out so these people they um they posted up a um they posted up a family photo and i'm just continuously getting responses from people saying you don't know what it's like man because i'm from an italian family you don't know what it's like because uh you know we're hispanic bro, and we cook up a lot of fajitas or whatever the hell it is

their excuse is, right? And then other people are saying, I got a family to feed. I got three or four kids. I can't go out and buy a filet all the time and this and that. And so I saw this picture of these two people that were young. I'm not sure how to say the last name. Spath, I guess, is the last name. Laura and Chris Spath. I saw Laura post a picture,

and I was just really, really taken back by it. It was a family photo, and it was a before and after, and the after picture, the guy still looks like the guy like he lost a lot of weight he had a tremendous transformation um but man the woman she made just a miraculous uh transformation and i think also too because um there's just a lot more that plays into it i don't want to like you know infer anything but but I think that possibly when she was heavier, maybe she didn't feel as good about herself. So she wasn't as like,

quote unquote dolled up. And, uh, in picture number two, it's quite obvious that not only does she look a lot better, um, but she probably also feels that she looks better, which that's huge, right? How you feel inward is as you saw. So when I saw that, they really shocked me. And I was like, wow, this is some crazy transformation. So then I just, I wrote on their post and said, this is amazing. Like you guys, that that's fantastic. And these are people that are doing it with a family. These are people that are, that I don't know, like they're not in the fitness industry. They're not blessed like some people to not have a job and to make things miraculously work like some people make it appear. But these are two hardworking people that have children that are figuring out a way to make it work in their lifestyle or making it work with whatever their budget is. So I'm super pumped to talk to them today because I think you guys, the listeners, I think you have a lot

more to say than you think. And as funny as it is coming from us to tell you this, you guys have more important shit to say than we do because it's a weird thing to say but like we're already coming out the other end you know we're already we're already like kind of we we we traveled up the hill for a long time and uh you know we we got up there not not like we're great or anything like that but we have worked very hard to get to certain spots in certain positions um and so we kind of sometimes forget about those little steps along the way and then sema's never had to work for anything in his life so he doesn't know anything about hard work or dedication he just came out the womb jacked and tan and ready to go

and so you're gonna just not want to listen to basically anything that he says but for some people like andrew and I, we've had to work for. Here they are. What's going on, guys? Hopefully they can hear us. Let's see. Can you guys hear us? Yes, we can.

Cool, I'm going to fix the microphone here. One second, sorry. Sure thing. Okay, cool. I think we can hear you now. Awesome. Really excited to dive into some of this for today. So just knowing a little bit of your history and understanding, you know, where your nutrition used to be and then understanding that you guys got into some keto-style dieting and then now you're on a more carnivorous diet. I think the first thing to kind of get to is how were you guys able to – and if you still have, how were you able to stop some of the bad habits and bad behaviors of your previous nutrition? Because I think you guys lost a combined weight of like 250 pounds or something like that, right?

Yeah, I think it's hard to break those habits. And I think we still deal with that some. And the fact that we're doing it together is maybe what makes it a little more possible for us to stay strict. We definitely don't have cheat days anymore. And I think realizing that we can't have even a cheat day is almost what made it easier. Okay. Let's hone in on that for a second. What's the reason for that? Because for some people listening, they're like, that doesn't even sound logical. How am I going to go without a cheat day? day um i think that we realize that it's almost like a drug and we're addicted and an alcoholic can't have a drink on the weekend or even a drink once a month they need they need to abstain completely so um if we were to eat like we're not the type of people that could have pizza and

ice cream on a friday night and then wake up up Saturday and go to the gym and get back on track again. I'm going to wait until Monday and then I'm going to keep eating bad again until some other reason that I'm going to start. So we just knew that it's, it sounds so restrictive to never have any cheat days ever, but it, it almost makes it, it, it does make it exponentially easier. Would you say that you, uh, quote-unquote cheat day nowadays because maybe you go and create like a keto meal or you do something a little different that you saw a recipe for and it's maybe not exactly just steak and water. It's like maybe some variation of that. I think a cheat for us nowadays is cheese maybe because we really, we can't even do keto treats. I think we both feel pretty disgusting after that or it really

affects us mentally. It doesn't satisfy my sugar craving and it makes me feel bad. So we don't do any kind of keto treats, but we like Christmas, Thanksgiving, we've been eating a lot of cheese and maybe having an extra snack in the evenings. We'll eat some pork rinds or some cheese and some summer sausage or something like that. But we, we do keep it carnivore, but maybe that's our carnivore cheat where we wouldn't do that normally. How long did it take you to, to end up in this spot? Cause that again, there's going to be people listening that are just like, man, I just, they're not attracted to that because it just seems so hard. Did it take months and weeks or even a year or two? I think, I think just to go back to my situation,

I had type two diabetes and was really a mess physically. And then I wound up getting necrotizing fasciitis, which is a flesh-eating disease. And I almost died in the hospital. This was three years ago, Christmas Day, actually. And it took a little while after that, but really coming to the realization that I have children. You know, this is my livelihood, and it's the realization that I have children, you know, this is my livelihood and it's not something that I can play with. And so I just went down the rabbit hole of research and all that. And then once I found, you know, what works out there in the world and how it can apply to me, it was easy. And then it was results. And then it's

addicted to getting addicted to the results as a team we're doing it together we're almost trying to compete with each other on how much we lost this week or how well we're doing and and then we found this whole community and podcasts and and it just became this whole sink that wound up with our health you you know, and vitality at the end of it. And, you know, maintaining for so long now, it's just been realizing those non-scale victories, even, you know, being able to get on an airplane without feeling uncomfortable or wrapping a towel around yourself, you know, things like that that you think back to the way it, and you just don't ever want to go there again. I look down at the scar on my arm and, you know, I'm not going to pick up that cupcake.

What actually causes necrotizing fasciitis? Well, it's caused by a bacterial infection. And people that have compromised immune systems, particularly type 2 diabetics, are very susceptible to that because their immune system can't fight back. So mine was actually the strep virus went in through a little sore on my elbow and then it necrotizes after that, you know, and then it starts spreading and the only way to get rid of it is to

physically remove the flesh. So I don't know if you guys can see my arm, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. And that's just, I mean, that's basically just from food, right? From like, uh, abusing food for a long period of time. And then it led to the immune system being compromised. And then you, do you have any of that anymore? No, no, absolutely. I mean, I came out of the hospital with that all

gone. You know, I was in the hospital for about seven weeks. And when I came out, I was okay after that, but I knew it took me a little- You were still diabetic after that. And I didn't want to get it again. And I knew that this was all complications from the diabetes. So that's when I made the decision to get rid of that diabetes. And it took us a while, right? We wish it was instantaneous. It definitely took us a year of healing and figuring it out before we could get on track. I mean, we stopped and started a keto diet every week, every month, it seemed like for that entire year. And we just really could never stick to anything together. We usually caused each other to cheat. One of us would have a cheat day and then the other one would be like, ah, well,

sounds good to me. And then we could never get back on track again after that. So it did take us a while to find something that worked that we were finally able to stick to. In that year process, were you making any progress? We were really good at losing 20 pounds. I could lose 20 pounds in a couple of weeks. When you're that overweight, losing 20 pounds, and then I needed a celebration to celebrate the 20 pound loss. And then I would usually gain back at least 15 of it. And then I could lose another 20. So maybe there was some steps, you know, two steps forward, maybe two steps back again.

We kind of went back and up and down the same 20, 30 pounds a lot that year. So what were the habit changes that you think that led to, you know, losing 20 pounds, then continuing on losing more and more and more weight? What types of things did you guys change in terms of what you do? We started, I mean, it was different. We kind of just had a mindset change. We both really just were tired and sick and kind of both came to that. We were both ready at the same time. I think that helped as well. And, you know, deciding not to have a cheat day. We also started eating a lot more meat instead of, you know, living on chicken breast and vegetables. We were eating a lot of steak, which made you not want to cheat day as much. So that was really helpful. that were instead of allowing the other or giving the other person permission to cheat, we were encouraging each other not to. So, you know, our plan cheats for our anniversary dinner ended up being like, okay, well, what if we just went out and got expensive steaks instead and do something

else that was a little more supportive. And I think, like Chris said, the results are pretty addicting. That year of losing you know in 2018 when we both lost all the weight in a year was just I mean it was a blur and there was no desire to cheat I think the last year has been harder when you're maintaining and you're not seeing the scale change every day and you don't have those bigger goals that you're looking towards or you're you're not trying to lose 100 pounds again like how do you maintain by still staying on track? That's been, especially for me, a lot more where the emotional triggers are coming out where I want to emotionally eat and trying to find other ways of coping with stress and work and kids and life without going to food. And I don't, you know, indulge in sweets, but I still struggle with the need or the

desire to do that. And that's something that I still am healing with myself and working on repairing. Isn't it kind of weird, you know, it's like, why, why is your day so related to your food? It's a, it's a strange thing. And then I think when you start to get where you guys are, you can kind of look back at it and just kind of think, well, that was kind of foolish. Like you're kind of like, why was I always doing that? But when you're actually in the moment, it feels like you can't break out of it. It feels like you're locked up in a cage and that you don't have a choice but to go towards these cravings that we have. Did you guys throughout the process, either one of you drink at all alcohol?

We were really never big drinkers beforehand. I mean, maybe I travel a lot for my job, so I might have like a drink or two with coworkers. But we were not, we were never really big drinkers. Occasionally socially, but never on any consistent basis. And since we started, we really haven't, I don't think we've had any. One time, like a year and a half ago, I was on a business trip and I had like a couple of vodka sodas in the evening one night and came home from that trip and had lost zero weight. And I was like, no, okay, that's it. I'm done. That clearly stalled me. It slowed me down. And that was a year and a half ago. And that's the last time I ever had anything, but we

were never big. We were never big drinkers to begin with. So you guys don't drink at all now? No. No. You know, you guys were talking about the scale a lot. And one thing that I noticed is that especially when people are losing a lot of weight, some people have a problem like seeing the scale go maybe up sometimes and down. Were you guys going, cause you mentioned like you didn't lose any weight that weekend, right?

Were you just going down, down, down? Or did you have a lot of like spikes up and down? There might've been some flat weeks, but when we started, I think we were in such a bad place and so overweight, over fat, I should say, that that line went down. I mean, one week might have been one pound and the next week might have

been five pounds. Yeah. Or zero, but never any up. Right. Never, never any up over a week period. And that went up till about 80 to a hundred pounds loss. Then it got flat and maybe some little ups and downs, you know, um, one thing we had to adjust to was how much we were eating when we were a hundred pounds overweight versus, you know, you want to keep eating that same amount. And still to this day, I still eat the same amount. So I kind of tweak with protein ratio and fat ratio and things like that so that because uh over time i've always overeaten right so if i

adjust the fat ratio now i can still have that full feeling but not be taking in too much energy or calories so you track you track your calories i do not track my calories. I just, uh, I noticed if I eat fattier, if I eat more fat at the same volume that I'm eating, I will stay flat or even gain weight. So what I do is when I want to get back down a little bit, I'll just eat sirloin and chicken breast instead of ribeye and cheese to try to clear things up a little bit for people um you know if you were to eat like if someone was to eat like 3 000 calories like i'm not much of a cal i don't even believe in calories i i hate that they even get mentioned but um for various reasons i i do think it can be effective and uh that's been proven by a lot of people who

step on stage and bodybuilding like it can have some accuracy can really help people tune in their their nutrition. But anyway, if someone's take consume like a 3000 calorie a day diet, and they did that primarily through the standard American diet, that has a much different impact than if you're consuming protein, because we started to come to this realization in the last few years that maybe protein shouldn't even really count as an energy source. It can be used as energy, but it's kind of rare, and fat and carbohydrates are more readily available in terms of energy. So anyone who's listening to this who might not even want to participate in messing with a carnivore diet or even a keto diet, if you just shifted your 60% of carbohydrate intake to having maybe more like 60% come from protein, you can end up with some pretty solid and pretty good results, end up satiated the way that you're talking about. Because, again, protein doesn't really count, I guess you'd say, like against us in terms of calories. And then also protein is so satiating. Fat is satiating.

Most people enjoy a steak. And so it makes those kinds of things a lot easier. Do you guys use any dairy? Like you mentioned cheese. What about something like butter, heavy cream and coffee, something like that? Neither one of us likes coffee, so it's like bizarre because we get asked that a lot. So we don't do cream and coffee just because it tastes like dirt. But we do. Maybe I'll cook some eggs and some butter or occasionally do that.

And then cheese is more of a treat. I think I tend to fall into those addictive tendencies with cheese as well, where I'm not, you know, I'm not eating a cheese stick. It's like end up grabbing too many of them. And so that's more of a treat, I guess, or something that we try to stay away from on a daily basis. Um, but I think when like, we kind of, we've definitely agree with you as far as the protein. I realized for a while I was eating two pounds of steak a day, and I had gotten lean. I actually am up 10 pounds heavier than my lowest weight, but I'm a lot healthier now because when I got down to my lowest,

I think I just was still eating two pounds of steak a day, but it was so lean. I wasn't eating the extra. I was eating ribeyes, but I wasn't eating kind of the extra fat on the ribeyes or ensuring that I was eating all of the fat pieces around it. And so I think my body just needed to gain a little bit of weight and muscle and I needed to eat more fat at that point. So even two pounds of beef wasn't enough fat for me at that point. How much research did you guys need? Did you guys need to really dive

in and read a lot of books and understand the science of all this stuff? Or is that something that as you were going along the process, just a little bit more knowledge just maybe helped you stay true to the diet more? Yeah, I'm definitely like the science nerd. He's the smart one. I'm the one that's, you know, Ted Naiman, Ben Bickman, all these guys that are, you know, out there talking about all the science. I'm listening and soaking up everything that I can. And then I'm filling her in on, well, this is why this and this is how this works and whatnot. And we're both definitely driven by those different things and trying to make tweaks and model what we're doing after some of the advice they give. It definitely was a big help in the beginning.

It's kind of where I started was I just YouTubed how to reverse diabetes. And the first guy I found was Dr. Jason Fung, the fasting. And then it was just like a rabbit hole from there. And down the road I went. You're like, shit, went you're like shit don't eat you're like i don't want to try that and we kind of went through like cole's uh you know cole robinson oh he's awesome yeah yeah so those were i mean fasting has also been a big part of this as well so we love to eat a lot and we regulate how much we eat with how often we eat. And I think sometimes people try to know too much

before they start. I was eating things in the very beginning that I would never eat now, but at least it got me to where I am. And if whatever you can do to get the junk out of your diet at first, then start there. And then over time, and the more you lose, the more you're going to have to change to keep losing or to keep getting healthier, I guess. So start now with whatever you know, and then you can learn as you go. You don't have to be perfect to get started. Yeah. I'm not eating hot dogs. It's better than Twinkies.

We ate a lot of bunless hot dogs and microwaved with a low-carb tortilla in the beginning. And I wouldn't do that now, but that was my dinner for like months was microwaved hot dogs wrapped in a tortilla with a slice of cheese in it. And did that work? Hey, I lost 30 pounds that month, and I did that for a while. So when you have that weight to lose, I couldn't do that now. I wouldn't feel good on a low-carb tortilla anymore, and I wouldn't want to do that now,

but it certainly was beneficial for me in the beginning. Some people get upset about like a dirty keto, you know, like, um, and, and going to fast food. And my opinion on all this is that, um, if you're excessively overweight, I think that's a enemy number one. And I think that if you can figure out a way to reduce that weight, if you can figure out a way to have that fat leave your body, then I think you're heading in the right direction. Regardless of how weird or crazy the type of food is that you eat, you could have sausage every day. Maybe that's not preferred and maybe we can make some sense and say logically like maybe that's not great to eat that much processed food that has that many other ingredients in it. But at the same time, I'm thinking one of the best ways to detoxify the body is to lose body fat because body fat holds on to most of the toxins, mostly environmental toxins

and things that we consume. So if you can knock that out and you're starting to head in the right direction, I think it could be something that you can work on reducing at some other time. But if you're losing weight, then that's step number one. Yeah. I mean, I traveled for my job and I'm, or even just at work, like I, you know, work full time and have to eat out. Sometimes I go to a fast food restaurant at least once a week and just get plain burger patties. I can crush 16 In-N-Out burger patties for my one meal that day. And 16. Yeah.

That's awesome. So no, no offense, Chris, but like half the audience just totally fell in love with your wife. I pull up to the, to pay and they usually are asking me like, where's the dog? You know, I think there's a dog in the car that I'm going to feed him to. You're like, give me one fork. Yeah. Yeah.

That is always funny because like when I go to In-N-Out, they recognize me based on my order. And then they want to give you like, I don't know, like 10 different forks and napkins. And you're like, no, I'll just do one. We're good here. I don't even i don't even use one i just have have my own salt shaker in the car and then just fold it oh there you go like a little taco savage expedite the whole thing right right yeah um what you said a second ago about the um the hot dog the the weenie and the tortilla um that's like growing

up mexican that's a staple in the house. So the fact that you were able to eat that and still lose weight, like you just made a lot of people happy. So I'm really glad you shared that. So obviously not the optimal thing, but if that's what it takes to get started, it's better than Twinkies. Absolutely. I'm really curious about, uh, uh, your, your journey on the way down in terms of the weight, because like you guys mentioned, you made a lot of changes as you're heading down to figure out how to get to that next place and you implemented fasting. But what were some of the big changes you made while dieting other than maybe the food quality? Did you guys like were you guys eating less and less food or was it what were some of the big changes you made to continue dropping? I think it was just mostly less and less often. We were people who ate six to eight times a day. I mean, I was constantly snacking. My bottom desk drawer at work was full of a bag of gas station snacks, and I was constantly just munching on that.

And so really, we started with three meals a day and a snack. Then went to three meals, two meals, one meal, and really just went, then we try to, you know, did a fast. So that was one of the biggest things was stop thinking that you needed to eat every time somebody else was eating is one of the, I guess, just eating less often. Yeah. Same for me. You know, we started the intermittent fasting

pretty early on and that wound up getting down to one meal a day. And can pretty much eat as much as I want. I can make the most glorious steak, two steaks, sit there and eat it till I'm full. And then my mind is liberated knowing that I'm not eating again till the next day. And I'm not hungry again till the next day either. And that trajectory keeps going. And the other adjustment as far as eating, like I talked about earlier, for me at least, I got to a certain point and I kind of hit a wall and I kind of had to make a choice. Do I start eating less, which I do not want to restrict, or do I go the Naaman route and start dialing down the fat a little bit? So I started doing that and then the weight started coming off again and I lost another 20 pounds or so after that.

Yeah, it takes a lot of trial and error to kind of figure out how you can continue to make progress. Um, eating five times a week as opposed to five times a day, like that is staggering. Like that is amazing. You guys are amazing. I mean, this progress is, is unbelievable. And I think you're motivating and inspiring a lot of people. I think maybe when somebody thinks of that, I think we can all agree like eating five times a week would literally work for everybody. But would it work for everybody in terms of being able to kind of switch their mindset

into that, just like you guys played it out, like it took time. It didn't, you know, that's the important thing to know is it didn't you know that's that's important thing to know is it didn't happen overnight i don't know why you know we have this uh like i i've been trapped by this as well and i i'm always thinking that i always need other stuff whether it's uh um you know a car or whether it's like just leaving the house with food like i always a person that always needs and wants more shit all the time. And so I have a closet full of clothes.

I have closets full of food. I have four refrigerators. I mean, it's just absolutely insane. I don't know how we get to that point. I definitely had enough hugs as a kid, so I don't know what it is I'm trying to make up for. But I think a lot of people are in that boat and they think they just need to eat all day long. What do you think was like the number one step to get you guys to calm down with that, like wanting, wanting, wanting to always have food, to always pack, like even just leaving the house for an hour?

You're like, oh, I should bring a protein shake with me or I should bring a bag of almonds with me. Or you always just think you need something. How'd you guys break that? I think just time and research. And when you realize you're not, when you go without it and you realize you're not hungry and you didn't starve and you're fine is a big realization. You didn't die. Yeah. Going 24 hours without eating food and not dying is pretty, I mean, it's, you realize you're going to be okay. And it actually wasn't that hard. And, you know, keeping yourself busy or something, the first time that you try to do that is big. The big part for me, and this is, you know, a whole other, you don't have to get into it, but it's with the kids. I used to not even go to the grocery store or go run an errand without taking snacks for the kids.

And big shift to stop giving them snacks every time we go run an errand was a big change for me and realizing that they'll be fine without them having a snack too. So if I don't need it to eat every couple hours, like why do they either? So that was, I mean, maybe that's something else,

but I think just doing it to eat every couple hours. Like why do they either? So that was, I mean, maybe that's something else, but, um, I think just doing it and realizing that you'll be okay is, is the easiest way to fix it. You know, also learning, learning about, you know, giving that your body that metabolic rest between meals and knowing that that's a healthy thing combined with the fact that when you're eating the right foods, you're not hungry. It just makes it easy.

So now when I see somebody like, oh, I have a four-hour plane flight. What am I going to take to eat? I just kind of laugh. That's insane. Right. You don't eat anything. Yeah. Do you guys feel that hunger is like healing?

You don't want to make people self-conscious about every time they eat, they have to think that they're doing something negative necessarily. But do you think that some hunger is necessary and maybe being hungry is like the fat burning process getting underway? I think there's a little bit to that. Just doing the fasting, I think there's a point where I don't think it's a little bit to that. I'm, um, you know, just doing the fasting. I think there's a point where I don't think it's contradictory to say that your body is going to tell you it wants food, even though it has plenty of body fat to burn. Uh, cause it wants to preserve that and it doesn't want to waste it because he never knows when it's going to use it. So I think that, um, if you're hungry, you're definitely burning body fat,

I think, at that point. And pushing yourself a little bit, you know, a little adversity is not necessarily a bad thing. I talk about not being hungry when you're eating this way. It's so much better, less than when you're on that insulin roller coaster and it's like, ah, give me food. It's just like a subtle feeling in your stomach that, you know, you could eat right now if food was in front of you. You'd like to. But also, if I can't eat for a couple hours, I'll be fine.

Like, it's kind of more different than anything. And so pushing that limit a little bit, I think when we were in peak weight loss mode, you know, and we don't, we mostly seven times a week now, but, um, um, when we were losing the bulk of that weight, when we were eating five times a week, it was like, okay, I'm just going to push it a little longer. I'm going to stay this way a little longer. I'll go for a walk in the cold, you know, do things that make you a little bit uncomfortable to try and get a little bit better each time from that. Did you guys like through this whole process, were you guys going to the gym at all? Were you active in that way?

Or did you guys just like do it mainly through your diet? We had both. I had lost 80 pounds before I went to the gym at all. And after I lost 80 pounds, I was like, okay, maybe I need to start thinking about like what happens next and toning. And I'm, after I lost 80 pounds, I was like, okay, maybe I need to start thinking about like what's happens next and toning. And I'm, you know, like just wanted to start tightening things and toning and worrying about skin and muscles and realizing there was a lot of space in my skin that needed to be filled.

And so we started going to the gym. I knew nothing about lifting. I, the thought of doing running on the treadmill was sounded terrible to me. And so I started taking weightlifting classes at a gym and I would go two, three days a week and just lift weights and do what they told me to do. And so that's kind of been my routine for the most part is just, just that I don't get on a treadmill. I don't run, but I lift heavy two, three days a week. And for me, same thing. It was about 80. Well, when I first started, I went for a walk about four mile walk every day, every afternoon. And, uh, he's home with

the kids during the day. So I would walk in the door from work and he's like, I gotta go. It was a good, like break to get out of the house and go for a walk at the end of the day. I knew that, that extra, even though it wasn't anything high intensity is just, you know, burning down some of the being diabetic, you know, kind of helping clear out the liver of all the excess sugar and garbage in there, just burn a little bit, get the sun and things like that on myself. And then – so that was probably maybe five days a week I would do that, and I still do that. And then after about eight months or so – 80 pounds, I'm sorry, which was about, I don't know, six months after we started, I started going to the gym as well. And I just do just a simple compound movement workout, usually with just the machines or doing pull-ups, things like that,

just to work the major muscle groups. And you go five days a week for that? I usually go four to five days a week, yeah. Was there ever any sabotage from one to the other or like trying to slow down somebody's progress? Because I know sometimes with couples, they get concerned. Somebody starts looking better and then maybe you're worried that they may be attracted to someone different or someone different from the outside may now be attracted to them. So I've seen this happen with couples often where somebody might lose like 40 pounds

and the other spouse is getting upset and wants to kind of sabotage or put an end to this dieting craze. Was there any sabotaging of each other or did you have some – was it hard to see the other one make progress here and there? No. I think this is because we were doing it together. We knew that we needed each other to keep going.

No sabotage. We both looked better. I do think I went through more stalls than he did, which was harder. I think that's pretty typical for women. I started before him about a month. And so I was at a little bit of a head start.

And then eventually he gained and passed me. And, you know, I think some women, most women are going to have a little bit more stalls in there, which was frustrating. And I kind of, you know, definitely got a little grumpy at him, I'm sure, during some times. And I kind of, you know, definitely got a little grumpy at him, I'm sure, during some times. But, you know, usually he would help me tweak what I was doing or we would work together on fixing some things. Or he would then encourage me by doing a fast with me or making some changes with himself so that we could stay on track together. Was it emotional at all? Did you guys fight at all during some of this? I'm sure. Yeah. I think definitely,

like let's, you know, you store a lot of hormones in your fat. And so releasing all that fat releases a lot of hormones. And there's was a few months where I was not the most wonderful person to be around just because I think that my body was going through so many changes with all the fat loss. And I'm sure that was difficult. Chris is doing the right thing over there. Just keep smiling. Hey, Laura, um, I'm curious about this cause you know, you did a lot of fasting, you did a lot of prolonged fasting and you hear a lot of people say, um, woman need to think about certain things when, when they fast or it's not safe or whatever. So you went through this process

successfully. Is there anything that you did different from Chris or was it all the same? Was there anything you added into your diet supplementation or was it just your diet? I definitely eat more fat than he does. I tend to stick with fattier meats. And then I realized when I was eating really cleanly trimmed ribeyes that I wasn't feeling good. And that's when I went through that like kind of grumpy phase because I just wasn't getting enough fat or getting enough energy. And I think that it affected my hormones some during that time. And the minute that I started like adding more fat back in and making sure that I was getting enough energy that made

the difference. So I would try to eat lean like him. He would eat top sirloin and some lean ground beef or some shrimp and it helped him drop those weight, some extra, you know, 10 pounds. And I tried to do the same thing and it didn't really work for the weight loss. And it also just made me really hormonal. So, um, I just had to remember that I need to eat a little bit more fat, which then I have to regulate a little bit how much and how often I'm eating because I'm eating fattier. So I can't copy him as much anymore as I did in the beginning. So does this mean like your fasts were sometimes a little bit longer when you took them or?

I do think, I think long-term I fasted more often than, than he did. Um, I would do maybe two 48 hour fast a week instead of one, or I would, you know, then I would eat a lot of fat after that. Okay. Got it. And then also you guys mentioned your kids now, what, like a lot of times, especially when couples are trying to do something or parents trying to do something, they always have their kids as an excuse. And you mentioned that you weren't like, you don't have them snacking or whatever. So now with the way that your diets are, have you adjusted the way your kids eat? Do they like, do they eat like five times a day? How do your kids eat now? So we focus, we don't track their macros or have anything like that.

We focus on keeping out processed foods, sugars, grains, seed oils, kind of any of that. Those are the major players, I guess. And they don't snack. The school requires them. My daughter's in kindergarten and they have a required snack time in the afternoons, which is unfortunate. But we send something. Normally the kids and the parents provide their own. And I would say from what I can tell 90% of the time, it's some sort of cookie or goldfish or Cheez-Its. And those are things that we want them to have. So we send something for her to take and kind of pull out of her bag during that time. But they, we prioritize protein is I guess the most simple

way to say it. They eat three meals a day. Usually one of them is pretty big and then two smaller meals and then prioritize protein, a lot of meat, eggs. If they want some veggies, they get some veggies. They have some lower sugar fruits. They have some macadamia nuts, usually cheese. What else? But they'll have a sweet potato, right? We'll take a sweet potato and cut it up and put it plain and in the air fryer. And they'll, they'll have some of that as well. Um, we just make sure that that's on a day where they've already had protein,

where they're not eating like that type of carb for three different meals. Yeah. They eat a lot of eggs, a lot of sausage, um, a lot of burnt burger patties with no bun. It's pretty much sort of paleo almost. Yeah. With cheese, I guess. Paleo with cheese. Yeah. Walk us through a little bit of like convenience and price. Like what are things that you guys do that you feel is pretty convenient? You mentioned rolling through In-N-Out. What are some things that you guys do that that's convenient and easy maybe uh for the both of you maybe as a family and then um what are some things that you guys do that uh are maybe factoring in the price or does price even need to be factored in because you eat uh so infrequently well that's that's what i was gonna say convenient and cheap is not eating right right yeah you know when people ask if carnivore is affordable, we say, I mean,

I used to spend more in ice cream a week than I probably do in steak. So it definitely balances out. We shop at the grocery store with what's on sale. We get the ads from the newspaper and we buy what's on sale that week. we you know I eat out more than Chris does Chris eats at home every day and just he's also cheaper he eats just exactly what's on sale from a regular grocery store every day and I'm a little bougier and want ribeyes so I go to Costco and get a pack of ribeyes if I'm feeling fancy and or if there's nothing else on sale that I want um you know we do burger patties we do like the frozen burgers from Costco our kids eat usually one of those a

day or we go through a lot of just frozen burger patties from typical places like that um yeah every Monday we get the the ads in the mail from the grocery chains that tell us the sale for the week and they're all laid out on the counter and we're planning what we're going to do that week and that way we always can get something that's we don't have to freeze it's you know available at the store that week this week it's new york strip next week ribeye the next week sirloin whatever it is and then i'm always buying like some ground beef lean ground beef like 93 percent um when it's on sale so that i can make some burger patties for myself during that time with the style of diet that you have you guys can cook every meal basically right or not every meal but almost every meal right and i think that that's a huge factor because that

the food just tastes better like you don't have to you're not carrying around food with you like at work or something like that. And then having to microwave something that was cold. I think for a lot of people, it's very like on appetizing. And when their buddy says, hey, let's go to Chipotle and grab a burrito. You're going to do that every single time over having whatever nutritious thing that you have in the fridge at work. So I think, you know, even just eating once or twice a day is big. Yeah, we eat, both of us eat lunch for our one meal. So people are always asking, like, don't you miss out on family dinners? And I mean, family dinner when you have toddlers sounds

terrible. Like, do you want to really cook and get your kids to eat and then clean up and deal with all that in the two hours that I have from when I get home from work before they go to bed? Like, I would much rather sit and read and play with my kids and give them my time and focus versus fighting with a meal. That's just because we're all sitting down at the table. That's not that relaxing and bonding. So we do. But I get asked a lot about microwaving steaks. I don't want to eat a microwave steak leftover at work. It's that doesn't, it's not appetizing to me. And you're right. I would, um, not keep up with this. So I tend to eat out more because I want,

I'll get burger patties that are fresh. I don't mind a cold, some cold, like flat meat or like flank steak. I'll eat that cold. Chris makes me some like sliced up deli, like tri-tip that I'll take to work and eat that cold. So I have other options that I'll, for things that I'll do to take to work or I'll just fast one day as well. Um, you mentioned earlier too, that you still, first off, you still have those sugar cravings and you're still coping with some of that so like what tactics do you use when like maybe when you feel that or when that comes about do you just immediately eat protein like what do you guys typically do i think i probably deal with

more the emotional side of things than than chris does um try to, at this point I'm reach out. I know that isolation, if I tried to kind of hide what I'm going through or if I'm stressed and I'm craving something and I try to hide that, that only like makes me want to convince myself that I could do it. Right. I just say isolation feeds that addiction. And so I try to be open about it and talk to Chris. Um, if I'm around other people, I would never falter because I don't would never let anybody see me fail. But it's when I'm, you know, home alone on a Friday night, and Chris is working and the kids are, you know, asleep that that that comes out. And so I try to listen to a podcast or, you know, call a friend or watch a YouTube video of something

that's going to help me or just even get my mind off of it. If I'm just sitting on the couch feeling stressed out from work after a week, then that's when I'm going to have those cravings. So maybe it's just do a little workout on the floor or especially like texting a friend or calling somebody, listening to really good podcasts helps a lot. I think a good cue for people, a really healthy thing to do is just try to do the opposite. Like, so if you are sitting around kind of like feeling sorry for yourself or the day was rough and you're like, man, I just, you know, I want to go to the store and get a snack or I want to reach into my fridge and eat A, B or C.

Just think like, what's the exact opposite of that? You know, the exact opposite of that is probably something that will make you more proud of yourself. And so you have an option to stick up some points on the scoreboard and to feel tremendously a lot better about yourself rather than a lot worse. And it's hard in those moments because those cravings really are hitting you hard. But you can think like, yeah,

what are some opposites of this? I can train, I can hit the floor and do some pushups, I can go on a walk. And then I tell people a lot of times, and this is not easy to do, but like we all could use more sleep. So just go to fucking bed. Just don't end up in your pantry. Just try to bypass it and just get your ass to sleep. Another trick I've been telling people about is, you know, when you do eat dinner or you do eat your meal or meals, you know, put your shoes on before you do it so that

that way it triggers you to go out on a walk immediately afterwards. So that way there's nothing, you can have your jacket ready or whatever it is you need to go outside, flashlight, whatever it is you need to go outside. Everything's already all set. And then it's easier when you're done with your meal to go, ah, like I already got things halfway started. I might as well stop being fat and I might as well go on a walk. That's so true. We do that a lot. If I eat one bite of something too, I have to tell myself, you can't even have a bite. If I were to have one piece of string cheese at night, then I'm done. Like I will eat anything that is I can find in this house or I can order. And that's a

lot of things. So that's part of it is too, is just knowing that you can't control yourself. That's okay. It's okay. You don't have to be somebody who can like just have a small snack. You don't need to have any snack. And then I just remind myself that I'm not really going to be able to stay on track if I have that. What are some of the excuses that you guys maybe used to use when you guys were heavier?

And how much did both of you weigh? Let's start with that. How much did you guys weigh? I was, my highest recorded was 294. I was probably a little higher than that, but that's what I go off of. I was 263 is the highest that I had recorded. And that was like at a doctor's office. And I'm five, eight. So either, I mean, no matter what, that's still really heavy.

And then what were the excuses that you guys may, may have told yourself like internal dialogue? And then what are the excuses that you guys may, may have told yourself like internal dialogue? And then what are the excuses that you guys maybe shared with each other about like, ah, we'll wait till after Christmas. We'll wait till the new year. We'll wait till Monday.

What, what were some of those excuses sounding like? I think the one we use with each other the most was just like, all right, well we'll get it out of our system this weekend and then we'll start on Monday. Like this three days of eating crap is going to really get it out of our system and we'll get back on track. We used to do that a lot or we deserve it. It's a special occasion. Every special

occasion, the first of the year. And we would be telling ourselves that in like end of October, Hey, this next year, the first of the year, this is going to be the time. And then that means we have to eat everything that we can over the next couple months or couple days. Those were the big ones for me. I don't think there was ever like an excuse that came to the surface. I think it's just the moral of a subconscious fear of failing and ignorance at how to do it. Because you think about doing it and you just think you're going to be hungry and miserable all the time which is the way it was every time we tried it before and so it wasn't until we really did it this way where we didn't have that hunger and misery of course there's little bits of hunger like we talked about earlier but it's not the same hunger as when you're trying to restrict yourself

to a thousand calories of carbs a day you know know, that's, that's insane insanity. But, uh, we felt once we were doing it and then we realized, well, this is easy. I'm satisfied. Like, and the scales going down and down, it's like, all right, the race is on. And 10 months we lost over 200 pounds. I think emotionally it's hard. Like I spent a lot of time. I just had a baby. I use that as an excuse for a long time where I just had a baby. It takes time. So that must mean I need to eat ice cream. Ladies, your baby's five years old. Like, let's go. And when I went into the labor with him, like I didn't weigh that much during my pregnancies. And I was started at 200 pounds when I got pregnant with both the kids.

And so that was a huge trigger. But telling myself, well, I'm nursing. I need extra calories. So that was me. I need a pint of ice cream every night. And then also just I'm too stressed right now. Works too crazy right now. It's not a good time for me.

You know, I had a rough day. I can't too stressed right now. It works too crazy right now. It's not a good time for me. You know, I had a rough day. I, I can't handle it right now. It was, that was my internal struggle of, I can't handle it. I need something to make me feel good right now. And before you guys were like, you know, that heavy, were you guys trying different diets before this? Like, were you, did you try vegan? Did you try counting? Like what did you guys do before? you did you try vegan did you try counting like what did you guys do before i always many years ago i did atkins for a little while which was uh basically similar and and and it was successful and i never stuck with it and then that was probably 10 years ago but then um before we just started this we really didn't do anything else other than low carb mainly because uh i i was convinced that it works because it worked for me before and also i hate vegetables so this is like kind of made for me um so that was

the only way well our our oldest daughter is um or like our oldest daughter together is um five and so after she was born, we did lose some weight. That was right at the time he found out that he was a type two diabetic and we lost weight together. I think I lost 60 pounds that time. And then we did it like a weight loss competition with friends. We're very goal driven people. And so we lost a lot of weight together, just doing low carb in general, or what we thought was low carb. And at the end of that, the day the weight loss competition was over, we went out for cheesesteak and french fries and kind of really never got back on track at that point and gained it all back again together. Eight years ago, we both have yo-yoed a lot in our lives, but I did a vegan diet for a year.

Just same thing. I saw a vegan movie and thought this is what I need to do to lose weight and be healthy. And so I did that for about a year. Um, lost 50 pounds, but was pretty drained. My hair started falling out. It was pretty terrible by the end of it. Um, so I think then I got, I I posted something I was like off the vegan wagon for the night and I had eaten a giant ribeye and then I never got back on it after that. What are some like pitfalls that you guys may have fallen into have you ever run into any issues with fasting have you ever you know cramped up really bad and and then kind of learned that you need more electrolytes or ever just been really fatigued or ever passed out or ever ended up binging because you fasted too much?

It was too much too early on or something like that? With your meds? Oh, yeah. Well, early on, I was getting dizzy a lot, like having lightheadedness. And I thought maybe it was my blood sugar. I checked my blood sugar. It was normal and couldn't figure it out. So I went and tested my blood pressure and my blood pressure was super, super low because I was taking blood pressure medication still from before.

So I had to get rid of that. And that went away, obviously. But that was one rid of that. And that went away, obviously, but that was one kind of unknown. But, um, I can tell if I fast for, for a while and I'm not putting salt in my water or not having potassium, I get definitely get some leg cramps and foot cramps. Um, they'll wake me up tonight or kind of just end up walking around the house. So I can tell at that point, but other than like electrolyte supplements, we don't take anything like that,

just salt and some potassium. Actually, Chris, you brought up something really interesting. You pretty much reversed your type two diabetes and Jason Fung talks a lot about that. What else did you have to do other than maybe getting rid of the blood pressure medication for individuals that do have type two? Like, is there anything special that they need to be doing as far as like the changes in their diet,

their medication, they're taking insulin, all of that type of stuff? Um, I can't speak to insulin. I was never on insulin. I was on two different drugs for diabetes, metformin and glyburide, glyburide and glubiride. I'm not sure how to pronounce that, but I was taking both of those. And within, once I changed my diet, within two weeks or so, my blood sugars were normal. So I just stopped taking them. Also, I was going down that research rabbit hole and just learning how it's kind of pointless if you're not eating any sugar so um and the advice from people like dr fung and stuff and i'm not going to give medical advice to somebody who's diabetic right now um i was i'm i'm out there i'm walking every day i'm eating the right stuff i'm spacing my meals out that stuff's in the past. So I pretty much stopped that right away. And

my blood sugar took maybe three weeks to a month before it was never above 85 in the morning. And I just credit that to being completely on plan, spacing the meals out, working off some of that excessive sugar, glycogen in the body, burning some of that down and just letting things kind of normalize. And then that's maintained the whole time. I was on about six or seven different medications and I stopped them all. The first one I stopped was a statin. Once I started researching, I found out the truth about statins and I threw that one in the garbage, but the blood pressure medication, the diabetes stuff, I was taking ibuprofen every day, three, four times

a day, just for the pain you're in when you're carrying around that much weight. Sleep apnea, that went away. He used to sleep with the machine that he's off completely. He was, he's been off of that for a long time. Damn. What did you guys weigh when you met? I was probably like 220, maybe 200. Like I was not, I was definitely not them like around between 200 and 220 kind of going up and down.

Same thing. Always on a diet of some kind. I was probably around 250 to 275 somewhere in that and then what about your childhood what were you guys both heavy growing up or i think i definitely had was a pretty normal kid um growing up and then once i hit puberty is when i really started to gain and then i went to college and gained and gained. And I was always at least, you know, double digit pant sizes, probably around like 180 for my late teens. And then once I hit my 20s is when I really started to gain even more. So I was definitely this is the by far the thinnest I've been since puberty.

Wow. And I was I always struggled a little bit. I was a chunky kid in, even from junior high, I remember. And then in high school, I was probably 240 to 250. And then after high school, I actually had to get down to 180 because I joined the Air Force. And so I wound up having to lose 60 pounds. So I was 240 when I was 19 years old. 18 years old. And then I lost 60 pounds to get to 180. Went into the Air Force and over four years came out of the Air Force

at 215. And then it's ever since then until I got to about 300. And now I'm back down to the 180s. Do you guys feel that food is like an addiction? Do you feel it's an addiction for people? A hundred percent.

It is for me, a hundred percent. And I think that was where we have always yo-yoed because we never realized that before. We were both really determined, driven people. We're certainly, we were not lazy. We're really good at sticking not lazy. We have real, we're really good at sticking to a plan when there's a goal. But once we hit that goal, it's the celebration, it's the getting off track, and it's never being able to, to regain that control again. Or being naive to think that, okay, now I can moderate and just have it once a week.

That was the problem. That was when we finally realized that is the first time that in our separate lives we've ever been able to maintain any weight loss before together or previously because we've realized we can't just have a Friday night once a week cheat night and get back on track again. And that's been very freeing for us. What has this done for you guys as a couple? It's been good. I mean, overall, we get a lot of like, things must be different now questions, which is fun. But it's been good. I think in some ways it's,

I know I would not have made it this far without Chris. And we definitely have only been able to accomplish it together. And I think we both know we, we need each other for long-term health and happiness for our family. There's accountability there. You know, we keep each other accountable as well as motivated. And it's fun too. I mean, it's the subject of lots of our conversations and we talk about podcasts,

you know, we talk about Mark Bell, like my post today, you know, like we, we, it's, it's kind of something positive that can fill our downtime rather than doing something unproductive. Right. And we still cooked. I mean, it's nice not to have to, I think if one of us was doing it and the other one wasn't, it would, there would be so much resentment there and it definitely would have driven a wedge between us. I don't think either one of us would have come this far if the other person wasn't on track. And even little things we're talking about, what are we going to eat on Christmas and planning on our Christmas meals? It's just very comforting to know that I'm not going to have somebody who's going to try to tempt me, or I'm not going to have

to deal with the stress of having a bunch of Christmas cookies around the house for that. So it definitely has brought us closer together. There's certainly been some stress along the way and some difficulties, but I think that we know we need each other a lot with this and we know it all would have completely driven a wedge between us if we were not in this together. I think it is a pretty big deal though. Like how you guys, when you said you guys are determined people, like you've lost 60 pounds, 50 pounds and gained it back and you've done it multiple times. And then now with what you guys have done now, it's something that you've

maintained. This is, has this been the longest time that you guys have maintained this weight loss? Now it's something that you've maintained. Has this been the longest time that you guys have maintained this weight loss? 100%. My goal was to have two birthdays in a row where I was a consecutive weight, and that's never happened to me in my life at all. Yeah, same. Basically since October or so, 14 months now, 15 months, I've been within five pounds of the same weight.

And that's, yeah, never happened in my life. Never. I would have drastic swings, 50 pound swings at least every year. And that idea of control that you mentioned, it's like even myself and I think Mark too, like even like though we were, I guess in shape before in terms of food, like we still had that addiction to wanting to eat these foods and you couldn't control, like not going to go get it. Like we'd go make it happen. You know what I mean? And this like with fasting and this style of diet, it's the only time that we've ever felt, at least I think we've ever really felt in control of our cravings for food. So that's, it's crazy.

And it's, we still have, we, I think still we're supporting each other in learning that. And I think we both have a long way to go. You know, there was one of us walked into a gas station and saw a brand new kind of candy bar and take a picture and text the other person.

And we're like, Oh, this is, and then the other one's saying it's not worth it. Right. It's definitely not worth it. Like let's, what do you want to eat tomorrow instead?

We still have those moments, both directions. And it's something that the other person understands because we're going through it together and to and not addiction. What do you guys think the fasting like a drug and to really think that i i'm an addict like almost to do the whole 12 steps with yourself you know like i'm an addict and i know that i can't touch that you know and then it makes it easier it's almost liberating because then you don't obsess about it anymore and if if you had asked me five, ten years ago, ever in my life, what my favorite food is, I would say steak. So now I can have my favorite food every single day.

So it makes missing the Twix bars a little easier. Have you guys noticed that the discipline, and this is something I've noticed, the discipline of fasting has maybe, it sounds weird to say it, but it's maybe calmed down a lot of other things in your life. I think that the food stress is a weird pull on you all the time. There's a website called Rule.me and it has a lot of recipes on keto type stuff. And when I went in there and read about like, you know, why the website has that name, it's because the guy used to be like 300 or 400 pounds or something like that. And he was ruled by food. And I just thought that's a great message. Like a lot of us are ruled by food. Food

kind of really controls and dictates the day. I felt like once I got in tune with fasting, not that I'm an angry person or an antsy person really, but like I was a little bit more high strung when food had that, when food ruled me, when food was, it just had that pull all the time of, you know, I'd go to a restaurant, I'd be hungry and I'd be like, oh man, it's taking so long and I'd be frustrated. And And any time I got hungry, I would get, like, irritable and things like that. Have you guys noticed that through the discipline of fasting that maybe things have kind of calmed down? It's a little bit easier to be more rational, a little bit easier to be more logical? You might think I'm not very loved like calm all the time anyway but

yeah I mean I for sure if if anything it's physiological where you're not dealing with those insulin spikes and it's an actual thing where you're going to be have less emotional roller coaster because you're not feeding that but I think it's been big for us to try to create memories as a family and do things that are not all food centered and to try to not let food be the reason why we celebrate the fact that we don't have to eat cake on my birthday or on an anniversary. Doesn't what you eat doesn't have to define how you celebrate something. And that's been a big part of this for us. And so, you know, fasting has helped. I sit in a lot of restaurants with a lot of people and a lot of corporate business lunches and don't eat. And

it's very hard for other people sometimes that you're not eating and they are. But I think that for me, there's no, it's, I'm calm and I can work and it gives me a chance to focus on the relationships that I'm having with people because I'm not eating. And I very much enjoy that sometimes. You know, you said, you just said something that was really interesting. It's very hard for other people when you're not eating and they are. What do you mean by that? I think when you're making a choice to not eat sugar or to not eat carbs or to not eat in general, people take that as an offense to them. And that must mean that you're judging what they're eating and what they're doing.

And it has caused some stress and some tension in a lot of relationships for people because they project their own insecurities upon themselves. And you not eating is an offense to how they're uh how they're eating yeah so it's it's really hard for people sometimes when you change and they don't i saw some good friends of mine last night um out at a sushi restaurant and they were like oh you know we're just you know we got our cheat day like they had to get it off their chest that you know that like that i saw them with carbs it was uh it was kind of funny and i don that, you know, that like that I saw them with carbs. It was, it was kind of funny. And I don't care, you know, like, that's, that's up to them. And I, you know, I,

I wish everybody good health and everything. But like, I don't, I'm not gonna sit there and switch out your food for you, or, or take all your rice off your table and throw it away or something like that, you know? Yeah, absolutely. I think people just start feeling guilty about it. But if you're somebody who can moderate, I think as long as the majority of your diet is on track, if you want to have a cheat day once in a while, great, have that. I wish I could, but that doesn't mean that, you know,

are you kidding yourself really though that you can and get back on track again? Or is that just your excuse? Like, is this really the time, you know, the one cheat day? Or are you just trying to pretend like you can moderate when you know you can't? What you got over there, Andrew? So I'm curious like what your guys' take on this because I'm sure you guys get asked, you know, or maybe you don't actually. There's a lot of people that don't want to know the answer.

you know or maybe you don't actually there's a lot of people that don't want to know the answer but you know there's somebody that's listening right now and they have so much momentum going the opposite way they're hearing your guys story and you guys are the minority right now right like there's not enough people that can replicate what you guys have done so where is like the absolute like very bottom minimal place to start for somebody who, like I said, they've just been going the wrong way for simply too long and they know they're unhealthy. They want to change or at least they think they want to change. They might have told somebody they want to change, but yet they're going to go home tonight and still have the pizza because it's Friday or whatever it may be. the pizza because it's Friday or whatever it may be. But where can that mom or that dad that's had the exact same situation as you guys, what is

step one? I think step one is making that decision, saying I'm done. You have to kind of, they talk about, back to the drug analogy again, you don't do anything about it till you hit rock bottom so i think for us we were at that rock bottom when it came to that and we said okay we're done it's not i'm gonna try yeah it's not i'm gonna try this for a month i'm gonna try this for a week i'm gonna eat good until my birthday it's you just have to be ready to be done completely and commit yeah and and then

once once you do that you almost like fall on the sword essentially you know you give give yourself into that then you recognize all those excuses when they come to your brain and you recognize the reasons why not as being pussy, you know, like, and then you, you stand up against it and you walk into the fire instead of, you know, running away from it all the time. And once you've made that decision, and if you're not at that place, you know, then it's going to be a roller coaster. It's going to be rough. You've got to, you've got to stand in the, into the wind and go. And that's the one thing that I can't do for somebody. I can tell you what you can eat and what you can't eat, but I can't motivate you and I can't get you to want to make a change for yourself and for your family. Um, you know, you, you have to

be ready on your own or figure out where does that motivation come from, from yourself. And then, uh, when you guys did have bad eating habits, did the kids kind of have the same habits as well? You know, it's funny. For the first several years, they ate so clean. I did like made their own baby food. We never did rice cereal. I nursed. I was so clean.

They never got sugar. They didn't have salt until they were one. I followed all the organic baby feeding ways. And then the kids would go to bed at night and we would order an extra large pizza and wings and ice cream. Oh, nice. So we definitely kept them more on track. I didn't know, we didn't know certain things, I guess.

So they were eating like some toast and breads, things that they don't eat now. And then I think that year that Chris was sick and recovering, we went through as a family a lot more fast food convenience meals box mac and cheese that was when all the organic make your own food went out the window and we kind of brought in like just we have to survive at this point and all the convenience and then it took us a little bit of time once we were on track before we started switching their diet again yeah that's actually what I was going to ask next was like, was there

a time period where you had to kind of get them back on track? And like, do you have any tips for parents? Because we hear that a lot. You know, it's like, oh, I want to eat good. And it's like, and Seema tells them like, okay, get all the crap out of the house. Well, I would, but you know, the kids love Pop-Tarts and, you know, they eat cereal before they go to school every single day. So, um, do you have any advice for parents that do want to clean everything up and get the kids kind of to follow a, whether it be a similar diet as the, as they're following or at least just clean it up? Yeah, I think, I mean, just knowing that of what our kids, even our kids are not going to want to eat protein and eggs if they have just had carbs and junk two hours before that. So no kid is going to sit down and want to eat chicken or steak for dinner if they just had goldfish two hours before.

So kids will refuse to eat, even our son now will completely refuse to eat anything of just straight protein if he's been given a snack. So the first thing we do is just cut out the snacks for the kids. Like they're going to be fine without it. And if they're hungry, they will eat and they will eat. We, we try to make it about what they like. I'm not going to force them to eat something that they don't like just because I don't want that done to me. So when we're throwing food on the grill and we're having a big grill,

it's like, okay, do you want a burger patty? Do you want a sausage? Do you want a plain hot dog? Do you want chicken? Like they get to pick their protein and then pick something else after that. If you're just starting, I would say, try to make small swaps, swap out the Cheez-Its or some grain-free crackers, swap out the, you know, swap out, like put in, we take a grain-free tortilla sometimes and wrap it around a burger patty so that the kids think that they get a bun, right? So making small swaps at first, but start with something that they like and build on it. For a while, The only thing our son would eat was like an all beef hot dog plain. And he called that a sausage and then he builds on

it and now he'll eat burger patties and now he'll eat steak sometimes. And you kind of have to just start from there. If they're dipping everything in a sugar-free ketchup for a while, like that's fine. Let them build on that. And then over time you can continue to keep offering things um yeah we again back to that decision you're their parent and you need to make the decision and they're not going to starve you're going to put food in front of them they're going to be okay yeah and once they eat it they'll feel good and they'll keep eating it. They'll get used to it. So the good thing about your kids is you can make that choice where we can mess up and go buy ice cream. You know, the kids can't. So, you know, it'll be a rough day or two or a couple days maybe, and there'll be some adjustments.

But you can get through that. And they'll be much better off for it. And also I think it was important for us. We're not so dogmatic and crazy about it that we don't know that there's going to be birthday parties at school and there's going to be all these different things and we don't keep them home we let them do that and they get their cupcake when they go to the birthday party and whatnot and enjoy that we just whenever they're here whenever we're putting the food in front of them it's going to be no sugar no grains you know

that's funny because that was actually my next question. So we do our absolute best. We will meal prep with our daughter and we'll get her all the food that she needs for the day. But we get her every other week. So on our off weeks, we can tell she's not eating what she needs to eat. And this is an off week. And yesterday, she actually had a, like their,

their school Christmas feast. Right. And then she comes home and she's just, she looks, she's out of it. Her stomach's hurting. And it's like, well, well,

babe, what did you eat? She's like, Oh, I had Mac and cheese. Like, okay, what else did you have?

Like, Oh, I had cookies. Okay. What else did you have? I had chips. And I'm like, babe,

at what point did you have any protein? And she's, she's, she understands enough to, to know that, like, at what point did you have any protein and she's she's she understands enough to to know that like like what the difference is and she's like i haven't had anything i'm like well that's why your stomach's hurting right now because you ate so different than what you're normally used to um do you guys also like meal prep with them or like send them to school with like packed lunches that are that are healthier choices than what a normal kid would do?

Yeah, we definitely – I mean, our daughter takes bacon and cheese and cold zucchini for her lunch at school. Or a lot of – we send all their lunches, and then I send the snack in the afternoons for them. But we try to just teach them more concepts about protein makes you strong and too much sugar makes us sick. You know, they're three and five. So we're not trying to talk about fat and macros and, you know, what you look like. And that's hard because we talk about weight a lot. And so how do we talk about that with the kids without making them?

You know, everybody thinks that if you were in some way restrict sugar with your kids, you're going to give them some sort of complex and later in life, which is so ridiculous. But our three-year-old right now, we say, okay, what protein do you want for dinner? And he'll, he knows I want a plain burger patty or he'll pick out. I want a sausage. And so they know that they need protein to be strong and that mommy and daddy used to eat too much sugar.

And that's what made us sick before. If we do have a birthday party we're going to, we talk about, hey guys, we're going to eat extra eggs today and we're going to eat extra protein for lunch because you guys have that birthday party later and you're going to be getting some sugar. So no fruit with lunch because that's sugar

and you're going to have some sugar later. So we want extra protein early in the day before you go have some sugar later. That's amazing. And so I know you guys got to run in about 10 minutes now. Do you guys get like any flack from like other parents with not controlling, but like, you know, kind of you're doing something different than what most parents are doing. So I was just curious, like if you guys have ever gotten stuff from people and what kind

of ammo can you give me? Because I've gotten some shit for that stuff before i'm like oh just let them be kids it's like well i mean i i want them to live a long time and healthy so but yeah i was curious wait i get a lot of the same guilt that i was talking about earlier you know we went to a play date and the kid said something later about like wanted a popsicle and she was like i told you don't talk about sugar like she felt guilty because she knew she fed her kids stuff that my kids don't get to have and so that was still like she was a little that was an affront on her

in some ways um i think that i we still i wish i was more strict when we went places to birthday parties and just said no. And that's something that we haven't done as much. And I wish I was that we're kind of getting more confident. The older our daughter gets to, she's almost six. She's making those choices for herself. She said, hey, we have this Christmas party or when we go to school, they're doing snacks. She's the one who wants to bring her own snack now instead of having sugar snacks so it helps when she can speak up for herself

but definitely people are we don't talk about it either so most people don't know and in that case they kind of know us and know our journey and then they they don't really judge at that point i mean it sounds silly to us and so we don't have you know a lot of grandparents and family events where the kids are people are getting into that my mom also has switched and she is super strict carnivore she's lost 70 pounds reversed her diabetes she's 62 and she's. She's 62 and she's incredible. She's amazing. And she's saving her own life by eating this way. It was a big realization for her as a grandma to realize that I can do things with my grandkids. That's not about food and that I don't need to buy them candy every time I come see them and I can read books with them and we don't have to bake cookies

for me to be a good grandma. So she visits us, you know, quite a bit. And that has been, I know it's hard because the grandparents are usually the ones that are like pushing the treats on the kids. I've been sharing with my kids since the time they were really little that, you know, just poor eating habits make you fat. Like I just flat out have been telling them that since they were kids. They're both teenagers now. So I don't, you know, I don't talk to them that way anymore. They, they can make their own decisions. And, but my son, you know, he'll have a Coke every once in a while when we go out to eat, but half the time he'll get a Coke, half the time he'll get a diet Coke, half the time he'll get water. You know, he, he mixes it up here and there and he kind of knows, like, if I'm going to eat ice cream, he's not going to have the sugar. So he just is conscious.

He's not necessarily self-conscious. Like, I don't want that to make me fat. He just is aware he has all the tools he needs. And then, you know, what he decides in his life, uh, is up to, is up to him. And the same thing with my daughter. So it just, her parents are paying, paying attention to this. I think it's, um, it's, it's totally fine. I don't think the word fat has to be, uh, such a bad word. I think that, uh, we can all agree that it's, that it's, uh, it would be best if you didn't get too fat as you got older. And, um, it can limit, it can limit a lot of the things that you're going for. It can limit the person that you end up with. I say this quite a bit too.

It's like if you made a decision like some of the decisions you guys made, it sounds completely crazy and sounds totally irrational to a lot of people. It doesn't sound irrational when you put context to it and say, hey, what if this would change the rest of your life? And it's like, Oh, okay. Well maybe, you know, at least steps towards that. And at least maybe getting halfway to where you guys got to, uh, would, would make some sense for some other, some other people. Um, what do you guys eat exactly? We'll kind of wrap this thing up with, uh, with that. Cause we didn't really talk about that much, but I, I know you guys pretty much just eat meat, but, uh, is there anything else in there? Well, I eat about two pounds of beef a day. Um, maybe once every couple of weeks I'll have some chicken,

maybe some ground beef, but usually whatever steaks on sale and, uh, occasionally some cheese and I put salt on it and that's it. I am kind of the same way. I try to stick with two pounds of beef a day as well. Burger patties if I'm out and mostly ribeyes. I like to eat what's on sale, but sometimes I just treat myself and just mostly eat ribeyes. I don't want to eat any.

I'm a New York strip guy. I'm not going to eat any of those dumb, dry New York strips that are on sale. I would rather get Costco ribeyes. When I travel, I eat some eggs or some bacon just because eating out, I can't afford to buy two ribeyes when I go out places. And so I eat some eggs and I might eat some chicken

or actually I don't even know the last time I ate chicken but I'll get some eggs or bacon or something like that just because it's cheaper when you're eating out. A lot more burger patties but if I had my way I would have a plate with two fresh grilled ribeyes on it once a day and that's it. And you guys eat once a day?

And then any different kinds of drinks or anything, or is it always a water? Just water. We both went through kind of like Diet Coke, uh, addictions on and off. We'd go off of it for a while, come back on again, kind of this, is it really helping us or is it really causing us to have more cravings? Um, It definitely was a part of our weight loss journey. And that's, I'm not thrilled about that. And I'm happier without it.

But it's, you know, that's where we were at. It kind of, in some ways, helped me not eat sometimes. Because maybe I was kidding myself, right? It helped me satisfy that sweet craving. But maybe it was causing it in the first place. So I certainly wouldn't suggest that to anybody. You guys are amazing. Thank you both so much for your time.

I really appreciate it. I was glad that I found you guys on Instagram and you're a huge inspiration to a lot of people that are going to hopefully join all of us for World Carnivore Month, which is starting up in just a couple of days, you know, so hopefully not even on January 1st, hopefully people that, you know, on the day after Christmas, they could kick off some World Carnivore Month. Thank you guys so much for your time. Is there anywhere you guys want to direct people? You want people to follow along with some of your journey? Both of our Instagrams, I'm a little more active chris is the smart one like we said but i'm usually the more vocal one which uh works so instagram especially uh and i also have a youtube

channel if you just look up my name laura spath on youtube i do talk with my mom on there um i've talked with chris we talk a lot more just about like our day-to-day life and it has kind of like a timeline of how we lost the weight. So that would be the best place to hear more about us. That's awesome. Thank you guys so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Have a great rest of your day.

Thank you guys so much. Take care. Bye. Yo. Damn. Those two were awesome. That was great. There's like so many people that come to mind right now, like so many couples with kids that I'm just, once this is out, I'm just going to forward this to them because it's always the kids.

I know five couples right now that come to mind that have told me, but my daughter, but my son, but, and it's just, yo, they're the answer right there. yo they're right they're the answer right there yeah i know i mean you know i feel strongly that a podcast like this should go like viral because of you know these you know we're like i said earlier today like we're on the other side of it and then people are just like oh well these guys you know they've been doing it for a long time i'm on steroids and sema's got genetics right and so there's nothing we don't have anything to say, right? But these are people that they have a budget they need to adhere to. They don't have time to go play power lifter or bodybuilder all day long.

They have children and they have worked this into their lives and it's not something that costs any extra money and it's not something that takes any more time. It actually probably is saving tremendous amounts of time because of you know you heard them basically say they eat once a day eating once a day can be very difficult but if you can get yourself to that point i i think it's great eating once or twice a day i think i think is the answer for a lot of people and i think that

it would uh it could help millions and millions of Americans. But what they were saying, Chris, I mean, he really dug himself out of a hole. He was on a lot of medications, which I'm sure that's expensive, time-consuming going to the doctor. He's not attached to any of that anymore. He doesn't have to do any of that. He doesn't have to go through that process anymore. They talked about how they were responsible with gathering coupons and things

like that and going to a local grocery store to get their meat in a way that's more economical. And I just think there's so much to learn there. And if you rewind that podcast, listen back to it, I can't even really think of one. There was not one nugget in there that you couldn't follow. No one really talked anything about a ketone. We didn't talk about fats turning into ketones. We mentioned the word macros, which shouldn't scare anybody too much at this point. We about protein fat and carbs but it was so general it was so much of like this is just a lifestyle that we've uh taken on and we together have lost 250 pounds just uh remarkable yeah amazing yeah the meal frequency aspect is so gigantic because

like i think that's the first time i really thought about like, in general, most people are eating what four to five times a day. Let's just say four times. So they're having 28 different meal sessions a week. Let's add on some snacks. Let's say they have 10 snacks in the week. So 38 different instances of eating food a week. And what they literally just said is in the deepest part of their diet, they would eat five times a week. And now they're just eating seven times a week that's there we go yeah i think you're being pretty generous in saying that it's only like 38 oh yeah like i mean it's people are eating non-stop because they can't get through the day without a snack yeah we uh is what i thought was amazing there was actually kind of maybe there was a couple of things,

but there was two things early stuck out and I wrote it down. She said, we regulate how much we eat with how often we like, that's just holy crap, right? Like that's exactly what you're saying. That's exactly your, your point.

And I think people that don't want to be ruled by food anymore could, I mean, just very simply, like let's forget about ketosis and these different things going on in your body and forget about trying to complicate it and weighing stuff. If you could commit to eating, I would even say twice a day, if you can commit to eating twice a day, I think you can kind of kiss a lot of your body fat goodbye yep uh and i i don't even i don't even really know if you need rules i i think the rules will will i think they'll handle themselves if you're just being responsible and you're being conscious of the fact that you need to have protein and you're

trying to get about a gram of protein per pound of body weight, I think that would lead you to the right thing. And the other thing she said, which I thought was awesome too, was once you have somebody have a snack, they no longer desire the more valuable food that you're going to serve at dinner. So a kid, and she said two hours prior, which I thought that that was, that's an interesting selection of time. But that's literally what people that have kids

and it's 4.30, that's what happens. Your kid comes through and they're like, hey, like you haven't seen them all day because they're like in the room on their phone or doing whatever, right? People don't see their kids as much because they're just, you know, your kids are off doing their own thing.

They don't want to hang around mom and dad all day. And then they come, they only, you know, go to you and they need food. And so they come rummaging into the kitchen and they want to go through the pantry. And there it is. It's 430 and they eat, you know, not, they don't, a lot of times children, even older children, it's not like they're dumb or anything, but they just, people in general are not good at regulating how much food they consume and a child is going to take the thing a goldfish and just dump it into a huge bowl you

know they could easily grab like a mug or something and have a much smaller portion size but that's not the way we work we just turn the thing upside down basically and if it overflows that's you know that's just fine and then they go back into their room and they they eat on that and then there it is it's now 6 30 and mom and dad cooked a great meal and the kids just like totally not interested and i've talked about that before you know going to your favorite restaurant going to the nicest place in town and uh you get their highest priced meat and uh if you went to that restaurant with a big old bag of doritos and you ate a bunch of the doritos beforehand the steak would literally taste

like nothing yeah and so i think that people are they're flipping their taste buds inside out um you've heard like grandmas say this before like don, don't spoil your dinner, right? Well, maybe that's actually really great advice. Because when you have that snack, even if it is about two hours beforehand, it's probably still going to lead you to not want to eat the protein that you're putting in front of yourself. Yeah, I love all the stuff they're saying about the convenience and affordability of actually eating this way. Because you're right, they're eating seven times a week. Look at the numbers. That's going to be cheaper than the 40 that we did a rough estimate on.

And her just straight up admitting, yeah, I spent more on ice cream than I do on steak. That's going to be eye-opening to a lot of people. Cause we get that. I mean, I know you get that question all the time, Mark, or that complaint, I should say like I would eat better,

but it's too expensive. I got so much going on. It's like, no man, like look at our boy, Justin, you know, he was,

he spoke at the, uh, the, the carnivore meetup that we had here at super training. He's like, yeah, I did what I had to do. We got a family. They got to eat. And we just would go to Winco out here.

It's a really affordable grocery store. And they made it work. I love this podcast because they took everyone's excuse and said, no, this is what we did. But, yeah, this is what we did. But, yeah, this is what we did. So good. Yeah, I do wonder how much people spend on food, you know, on a daily basis that they're not even really calculating. You know, if you're someone that's on a carnivore diet, you're going to eat meat. So you're going to cook up some, like, burgers.

diet, you're going to eat meat. So you're going to cook up some like burgers. But then if you are a regular person, um, that's not on a carnivore diet, you might buy meat from the grocery store, but then you're also buying, uh, buns and you're also probably buying other things to put on their ketchup, mustard, those things. And when you're on a carnivorous diet, you really don't really mess with any of that. So I think that it's easy for people to say, oh, well, like, you know, you can go get three patties from McDonald's and it's, you know, six bucks or something like that or nine bucks, whatever the hell it costs. And they can, you know, point to the filet that you posted about and say that that filet is 60 bucks or whatever. Right. They can compare that. But that's not really what we're trying to compare.

We're trying to compare a different lifestyle, you know? So if you, I kind of almost wonder, you know, I'm doing the world carnivore month all through January on my YouTube channel. I'm going to document every day. I'm going to get some blood work done and show people just kind of the whole thing. But I wonder, I wonder if there'd be some room in there to spend a reasonable amount of money, have a certain amount of money associated with every day. But I don't know what the average person spends. I don't know if it's $10 or if it's $20 or I don't know what it looks like. But I think whatever the number is, I think that people have irrational thought

toward how much money they actually spend every day. You roll through a Starbucks and you're already at like $4 or $5. A lot of times people that aren't on a nutrition plan, I mean Starbucks' average customer is more like in the $12 or $13 range. They get the breakfast and all that stuff. That means you're buying something more than just the coffee probably, right? And so it would be an interesting thing to figure out.

Maybe it's something I'll put to it because then it will keep me from – it will kind of make me eat less often. So maybe I'll give it a shot. But these guys eating five times a week sounds like they might spend like maybe eight or ten bucks per meal or something like that. Which that doesn't sound like all that much money at the end of the week. money at the end of the week. Anyway, I do hope people that are listening to this, that I hope that you guys, you're going to hear me promoting the hell out of it. World Carnivore Month is January. This will be year number three for me. The first year was the hardest. That was the most difficult. I went 14 days as full carnivore as I could, and then it kind of made me a little crazy just because I was probably fasting too much. And then through the second half of it, I ate more, and I felt fine.

I kind of went off the diet once or twice during that period. And then last year, I was able to adhere to it really well, and that felt great. And this year, I'm going to try to do the same thing. So it's just basically just eating meat. And you've got steaks and hamburgers and chicken and any sort of meat that you want, whether it's game meat or any of that kind of stuff would be okay. And then like some butter, bone broth, and probably some cheese just because that makes eating out like in and out a little easier and stuff like that yeah but uh yeah man that'll that'll pretty

much be it their whole uh i know we're about to finish but the what you just said there in terms of like the first year is difficult the second year is a little bit easier i'm anticipating probably the 30 days this year for you is going to be a breeze but But they were talking about their progression through that, losing all of that weight. And that was the thing. Like they lost weight before and it wasn't super smooth. It's not like they had everything on track, but they just kept making little adaptations. They just kept making little adjustments. And that was just their life, you know?

Yeah. They mentioned having the diet sodas in there and a couple of things like that were in there and they just eventually pulled it all away. But it took time. It ass time how's shreddy getting going bud it's it's it's the getting is good good it's going really well um i've been sending in sima whether it be a like a bathroom selfie with my weight oh yeah i know right so it's going really well um i yeah i i can't thank you guys enough for all the help but um i'll do my my absolute best uh we have a photo shoot scheduled for monday we have to figure out exact times but um i'm actually i'm pretty nervous about that too like i'm never in front of the camera when it comes to photos. So we'll see how that goes. Um, I am 22 pounds down and I remember, I think

it was like after the second or third week I had told Mark, I'm like, yeah, dude, I'm pretty pumped. Like I already lost 12 pounds. And you know, he was like real supportive. He's like, dude, that's, that's sick. Like you're doing so good. It's going to take about 24 pounds, though. And I was like, whoa. And he's like, that sounds crazy. I know, but it's possible. I'm like, what? 24 pounds does sound pretty crazy.

I'm like, but going from 190-something to 160-something, that sounds crazy. Obviously, if I had a different goal or if, uh, we had set different, you know, time parameters on it, we would do it a little bit different, but you know, we're, we're, we're going, we're going pretty, pretty, uh, pretty crazy with this one. And it's been fun, man. I'm fasting every day. That's gotten, you know, what you're saying about like it building discipline. It absolutely has, uh, tracking everything. I know you don't know, what you're saying about like it building discipline. It absolutely has. Tracking everything. I know you don't want or you don't really promote tracking and stuff, but man, it's been such a huge help for me.

Like I've tracked in the past, but it's been like kind of like, meh, like, okay, that's pretty good for the day. Now tracking literally everything because I'm like, shit, I can't go over on my cars because we're almost there. I can't go over on my fat, but I need to get that fat in. And, yeah, I wasn't eating enough fat. And now that I am, like, I feel so much better. Stepmill this morning was pretty crazy.

I went pretty nuts on it. But, you know, I'm amped up, man. I'm getting there. Tracking just gives you more accuracy, you know. man, I'm getting there. Tracking just gives you more accuracy. It allows you to have information each day on what it is that you're eating. And then it also makes it a lot easier for a coach to interact with you and say, oh, man, you're looking a little flatter than I thought.

I thought this amount of carbs would be enough. And then he could say, okay, well, we need to add some back in. So it leaves you a paper trail, and then it allows the coach to go in. Otherwise, you know, coach would be like, that's weird. I don't know why you're looking that way. You should be like, and then they'll say, well, what did you eat? And you're like, well, I don't really remember. And it's like, well, now we don't have any, we don't have enough information to really, you know, trigger you to go one way or the other. Yeah. And we talk about how important sleep is on this podcast so much,

and I know how important it is. I know that. Taking a picture every single day and seeing how little sleep I got and what that does to my body, I can see it. Yesterday, I didn't get sleep. I looked okay. Progress is still happening but like it was fine got really good sleep oh my gosh like i look totally like it looks like it was like

a couple weeks and it was just 24 hours yeah and so understanding that aspect also and that's something that i wouldn't be able to see unless i did shred this much. So that's been another eye open. It's like, I, again, I knew how important it was. Now I'm just like, Oh, it, it's more important than I even thought. Yeah. It's crazy. It is crazy. When you see those pictures back to back, like you can tell, like it looks like you were five pounds heavier, even though you were close to the same way. It's wild. Yeah, man. Awesome having those guys on the show today. That was super cool. Thank you guys so much for tuning in.

Where can people find Andrew? At IamAndrewZ on Instagram. And I have actually some more places where you guys can find the podcast. So I don't know. Can we get an air horn ready? Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. So we're on Twitter now at MB power project and LinkedIn. I've been listening to Gary V talk about LinkedIn way too much for us not to be

on there. So that's linkedin.com slash in slash power project. That's where we're going to have a lot of fun. And I mean, who knows the possibilities are endless. We should be on TikTok. And we will eventually be on TikTok once I figure out how to do that shit. Andrew, you didn't care about all the extra fees and stuff to be on LinkedIn?

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We're going to take over the whole podcast universe and no expense. It doesn't matter. Money is no object when it comes to this right now. That's right. Going straight to the top. And Seema, where are you at, dude?

At Seema Eang on Instagram and YouTube. Attaboy. Sick this right now. That's right. Going straight to the top. And Seema, where are you at, dude? At Seema Eang on Instagram and YouTube. Attaboy. Sick shirt, bro. Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Same to you. I think it's me. That's me that's throwing the meat.

You know what's funny? It's actually you, but my girlfriend, I was wearing it. She's like, oh, is that you? I'm like, no. I mean, I'm bald, but that's not me. That's Mark. Your shoulders are wider. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, you'd have to make make the uh emoji guy there a little bit more jacked a little bit darker too that's true yeah give him a little bit of sun yeah mark how's the new youtube channel going it's going great man yeah um getting a lot of good uh a lot of good feedback um you know i i did the video the other day talking about my bro and uh his death and stuff like that. And there was just crazy responses on there. People, I don't expect people to like air out their, you know, grievances and stuff,

but that's really what people did on there. It was pretty, um, pretty wild to see, but you know, hopefully that, that helps. And then hopefully, um, you know, some of the other stuff I'm pumping out. Talking a lot about keto, a lot about intermittent fasting, and really just a lot of the stuff that I'm passionate about and excited about is really just what this podcast today was all about. It's all the stuff that I'm trying to help people figure it out. I'm trying to come up with a formula that can help fight obesity, basically. I think there's one out there, you know,

but it's hard, you know, am I going to be able to get every single person that I come in contact with to do it? I don't know, but I'm going to try. You know, I'm going to really try because I do think that there's some simple things people can implement into their lives to help make a lot of progress.

And I know that by making that progress that they'll feel better and that a lot of their, not just feel better necessarily like from a health perspective, but they'll just feel better about themselves because they'll feel more accomplished. And I think that can cause a cascade of things to happen in their life that they just feel better about in general, whether it's their relationships, their work, all that kind of stuff. So yeah, to have a new podcast, having a new YouTube channel has been cool.

That's cool, man. So if anybody maybe got this, this podcast sent to them, um, just one way to thank us. If you found any value is just subscribe to this podcast. We do this stuff all the time.

Uh, essentially this is like the mothership. A lot of the stuff that we do on YouTube or Instagram or whatever it starts here so if you want to get a leg up on literally everybody else just hit a subscribe give us a rating on iTunes we sincerely appreciate that and we appreciate all of you for listening

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