Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 299 - William Shewfelt

Episode Date: December 24, 2019

William Shewfelt is an actor, model, speaker, and health/nutrition advocate. He is most notably recognized as Brody, the Red Ranger from Nickelodeon’s Power Rangers Ninja Steel. He was once an all in, strict vegan, and now is a proponent of a ketogenic and carnivore diet. He is also the co-host of the Bigger, Stronger, Faster podcast with Chris Bell. Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/shop.aspx?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Power%20Project for 25% off your order plus FREE Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 15% off your order! ➢Quest Nutrition: https://www.questnutrition.com/ Use code "MARKSQUEST" at checkout for 20% of your order! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

Thanks to our sponsors. Really appreciate our peeps at Quest Nutrition. We got some of the donut bars just sitting right here on the table, but I think that there's one more left. Oh, there's only one more in there. We have to keep it there so everybody can see it, though. Quest also has, not only do they have a million different kinds of bars, a million different types that you can kind of get all over the place.

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head over to quest nutrition.com at checkout enter promo code mark's quest for 20 off your entire order yeah that was cool having pete montes here for the seminar and then having them on the show they explained a lot you know i don't i don don't know much about meat other than I just love eating it. So it was great to hear them talk about their business and just how much they care about the company and how much they care about what they're putting out there. And we appreciate the hell out of them. They're always good to us.

And it's just a great company. If you want to try to get more protein in and you don't want the fat to go along with it, check out some of the Piedmontese steaks. And sitting on the table right here on our podcast, we got some of the beef jerky even. Yeah, I've been getting a lot of DMs from guys that have been getting their beef. And it's just like it's all good. Everyone's talking about how freaking good it is. Yeah, across the board, all the cuts, the fat is lower in comparison to anything that's out there.

It's amazing. Yeah, and the conversation that we just had with Chris Aceto. I mean, he was saying how he utilizes some carbohydrates in people's diets and it's higher or lower with people. And we always talk about how much protein you need. If you're going to overeat on anything, it would be the protein. And then the hardest thing to manage for most people is just the fat calories.

And how do you have food that tastes good that doesn't contain large amounts of fat you know because like uh fast food restaurants and a lot of these other things there it's when we get the fat calories up along with the carbohydrates at the same time we end up with delicious foods a lot of times but piedmontese steak tastes really good even without the extra calories yeah that's how you do it you head head over to Piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E.com. Right now, through the rest of the year, they're giving everybody 25% off the entire order.

And if your order is $99 or more, you get free shipping. So, yeah, you don't need a special promo code this month. But if you want to support us, use the link in the youtube description and the podcast show notes and i've been on this no carbs till christmas kick since uh the first of november that's got to be tough right oh yeah you know it it's not it's not easy but um when you got snacks you can you can uh kind of bypass that i'm not on snacks. I try not to eat them too often. But sometimes at the end of the day, I'll reach for a Perfect Keto bar. I'm still in ketosis.

I actually have the strips that you can pee on that they sell through Perfect Keto as well. You can go on their website and purchase them off of there. And I'm still in ketosis and have been for a little while now. So still feeling good, still feeling strong. Everything's coming together. Training wise, um, strength feels like it's actually coming back up now that my body weight has,

uh, kind of leveled off. And I think it's, you know, it's because of the nutrition and it's because of, uh, being motivated enough to kind of stay on the diet and keep with the diet, which is usually the hardest part for people.

But a lot of the products over at perfect keto, Keto, I think they're not only going to help me, I think they'll help you. So check out some of the stuff from Perfect Keto. They have actual ketone products that you can put into some of your drinks, some of your coffee. The nootropic has ketones in it. They have protein powders that have MCT oil powder in there. And then we often will utilize the MCT oil powders in our coffees

and things like that too just to help enhance the flavor. Yeah, I was just thinking the pea strips, I don't even need to make it all the way to the bathroom to use them. Yep. Anyway. Just stick them down the front of your pants. I'm actually going to buy some of those because I think I'm in ketosis more than I expect, so I'm going to buy some of those after this think I'm in ketosis more than I expect.

So I'm going to buy some of those after this. Yeah. You guys got to check them out. Head over to perfectketo.com slash powerproject at checkout. Enter promo code powerproject for 15% off your order. You know, it's a rough one. White knuckles. Oh, my God.

Actually, are we going already? Are we in? Almost. Are we in? Are we in? Almost. Almost. Are we in? Are we in the way? Because, I mean, sometimes this stuff is important. I mean, most of the time it's not.

All right. We're going now. So I'll back it up, I guess, to this morning. You won't. So I took a poop this morning that was just like a pure, like little round blob. Like not a turd and not like a poop, you know, not like a long poop. It was just like – it looked like soft serve ice cream. Nice.

That was one of our recipes in the book. Soft serve ice cream. Hey, what a great way to plug the book. Did it come out messy though or did it come out smooth no that's the weird part is it wasn't yeah it wasn't messy was it like a swirl on the end or a little bit of extra little frosters freeze uh swirl at the top but i was just in our bathroom and i always find it interesting what you end up seeing in there um like sometimes like where people are able to get poop or pee, you're just baffled.

It's amazing. How is this possible? We need to run forensics on this stuff and figure out. You're buying poop. Yeah, we need to get how they get out those strings and they line them up with different things. This is the way the splash went. This is the point of exit that was probably happening. It's like maybe the guy was like leaning forward.

Maybe the person was leaning forward too much or maybe they used the squatty potty a little too hard or something. But I didn't – fortunately, I didn't see any of that today. But I did see the streaks on the actual bowl, like at the bottom of the bowl. And I always find that interesting because it's like what kind of poop like does that? How dense was it? Yeah, it has to leave its mark, right? It's got some weight behind it. That's why.

It needs this earth to know that it was here. I didn't think about that. The velocity in which it shoots down. Is this making your situation any better? It's not making it worse, per se, but we'll see. Anyway. We'll see. Anyway. We'll see. Good start to the morning, other than all the poop stuff.

You get that out of the way and then end up with a photo shoot for our boy Andrew. Yeah. Our boy William comes in. He's like, what the hell's going on around here? Everyone's taking their shirts off. And William wants to get in on the act because he's always taking his shirt off. Just one look at William's Instagram and you're just're just like dude i'm out of shape like no matter what no matter how good you're doing you're just like oh i gotta just drop a little bit more i

think i counted up eight abs on like this picture that's in his uh cookbook here not these days man it's it's been bulking season for me oh yeah season thank goodness yeah so for the past let's see since i was 17 been like 154 so i'm 165 right now which is the heaviest i've ever weighed in my life so it's good nice yeah congrats dude i'm swelling up as i speak you're huge bro but yeah so it's finally the bulk has finally started what uh What are you running? Low TRT. We're doing some Tran. I'm running some carbs.

Are you eating some carbs? I am, yeah. They're not entirely strict. This podcast. I didn't know about this. Andrew, you didn't do a background check? We thought we did and he said Tran, Tess. Okay, we thought we did. And, you know, he said trend, test. Okay, okay, we're cool.

We're good. He said carbs. Just like, dude, I thought you wanted to be safe about things. And then he said bread. Oh, my gosh. Now we realize this guy's off the rails. We're going to have to start pricking people's fingers before we get them on the show here. There's no ketones in this potty right now.

I wonder why he hit 165. He's eating bread. Illegal. It's just inflammation. Pure inflammation. That's awesome. So why the switch to eating some more carbs or eating carbs period well trying to bulk on carnivore um i tried that for quite a while and without dairy so i try to do it without dairy because i don't react well to dairy so without dairy i just could not put weight on like in terms of satiety um so, so I, I just realized, you know, you're making harder, this harder on yourself than it needs to be.

So I started bringing in sweet potatoes and white rice and things like that. Um, that was going well, but it's just like, I just decided, you know what, let's just relax a little bit with this. I hit a protein goal every day. And then on top of that, um, if I eat any carbs outside of that, whether it's fruit or rice or sweet potatoes, um, that's pretty much what I'm doing currently. So it's still the same template of what I would usually eat, meat, eggs, fish, some form of maybe organ meats occasionally. And then on top of that, it's whatever I want to eat. So, yeah. So you get to like throw down a burrito or something like that here and there?

Here and there, yeah. Yeah. Cool. You get to, like, throw down a burrito or something like that here and there? Here and there, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I try not to overdo that, though, because I don't want to mess my gut up. Right. Chipotle will do things to you. But you might kind of just, like, end the day with something sweet or something that you really are craving or something like that.

Yeah. Yeah. It's nice. It's nice. The whole shredding thing gets old after a while. Like, it really does. Like, when you get shrunken down to- It's counterproductive.

Yeah. You keep trying to lose weight all the time. You're actually just probably going to start to hit a wall and maybe start to burn up some muscle. Training's a lot more fun when you're bulking too. Oh, yeah. Way more fun. Just feeling the weights and having that glycogen, having that sodium in you, it feels a lot better. I think diet breaks are massively important for people.

I think every once in a while people just say screw it. Yeah. And whether you want to have a cheat meal here and there or whether you even want to just take a few days off, I think as long as we're not talking about people that are still on their journey to try to lose like 100 pounds and things like that, like I do think it's important that you do your best to stick to your guns and whatever way you got to get a W, whatever way you got to get a victory. If that means you need to have like a fathead pizza here and there,

you need to do something that's, you know, it's not coming from natural food sources. You just do what you got to do to stay on diet. But I think other than that, when we're just talking about fitness people and people that are in better shape, I think you got to just completely just let it go every once in a while and just be more relaxed about it. And not worry so much about what you weigh and how much your food weighs and how much energy is in the food and all that crap. Isn't there a word orthorexia for like people that just get obsessed with that stuff? Yeah. Yeah. Like I, I've been obsessed with that stuff for a long time.

So this is the first time in my life where I'm just completely relaxed and happy about it. Like I realized, you know what, like you've kind of achieved what you want to achieve, which was like achieving a certain kind of body and clearing skin up and things like that. And I'm like, let's just relax a little bit and enjoy it. So I'm enjoying it. Yeah. Real quick.

I want to know about this. When you said you were trying to bulk on carnivore, were you also like really trying to pump up your fats too or were you just like killing up the protein? Yeah. No, the fats were going up. So instead of New York steaks, as usual, it was ribeyes. I was adding butter to things. The thing I noticed about that is that with that bulk, you tend to put on more fat. So yeah, you're converting the fats into glucose if you need that, but you're also just consuming so much fat that it's like spilling over. So like I kind of like pulling in the carbs and, you know, like sucking some of that water into the muscles.

I think that you can bulk a little bit leaner than on carnivore. But yeah, that's just what I'm playing around with right now. Cool. I like a variety of diets myself. I've used a bodybuilding style diet in the past and I probably have had my best results in terms of being able to – like I don't – about the look or not caring too much about what I weigh. I had my best results with a little bit of carbohydrates in there. Yeah. Sweet potato, rice.

Sometimes it would be every third day. Sometimes it would be a couple times a week. But it wasn't a couple times a day. Once it started getting a couple times a day, that's when you have couple times a day. Once it started getting a couple times a day, that's when you have to kind of shift maybe what you're doing a little bit and aim your direction maybe towards a bodybuilding diet because you'll probably have to bring the fats back down a little bit. Yeah.

I find fasting, like continuing to fast and then doing lots of protein and then having the carbs on top of that, that works out really well for me. That kind of creates enough of boundaries around the carbs so that it's not like an all day kind of thing. So yeah. Not a complete onslaught. Yeah. Yeah. What you, what you've been up to lately, what you've been doing? What I'm doing right now is preparing for getting into acting. So that's, that's been my main focus. Um, my main thing with acting, like I love acting and I have the acting bug, but it's not a great stable way to make a living, especially when you're starting out.

If you're not willing to do the whole like busting tables kind of thing and all that, which I wasn't willing to do, and I'm also not willing to get a job. So when you have those two factors, you have to figure something out. So I really focused more on like the health and nutrition side of things, doing this online business where I help people out with like keto and carnivore diets, writing these books, you know, the carnivore cooking one and the PE diet and just focusing more on that stuff. And then on the side, I was doing a bunch of commercial modeling and I was doing like some print modeling and stuff like that. commercial modeling and I was doing like some print modeling and stuff like that. But yeah, having done those things and kind of set up some of that foundation in the past year and a half, I really want to act again. And I feel like I'm in a good position to do that now. And I'm still 24 and I don't want to wait too long. So I'm going for it.

Don't you have like a leg up on everybody though? Because like you, you've been in some pretty big stuff in the past. It's not a bad, like, I don't feel like I'm starting from scratch, but I wouldn't say like I'm going to walk into it and just get a role handed to me. You know, like I feel like I'm going to have to hustle as hard, if not harder than when I started to get to where I want to be, like to book some of these young DC roles and things like that. It's going to take a lot of work.

So yeah, I'm excited. By the way, if you guys don't know what we're talking about exactly, was the red ranger which is that's pretty fucking awesome thanks man you're welcome when did all that start that started as a kid uh did your parents uh uh encourage you to get into acting or was it your own idea or like how'd you get into the red ranger-ness in the first place i know we've talked about it previously but might as well let people know again. Yeah, I liked the idea of being an actor from when I was young. Like I remember watching this movie that nobody was inspired by but me.

It was Sharkboy and Lava Girl. And I saw- I remember. Right? I saw Taylor Lautner in that and he was like this like tan, spiky hair kid. And that was me at that age. And I was like,

and I was doing karate and he was doing karate. And I was like, why am I not there? Why am I not doing doing that that looks great um so i would watch that kind of stuff clips of that it's there we go oh wow that was fast girl oh my god there's nothing about this movie that's an inspiration to anyone that's great how old were you i was maybe like nine eight or nine that's awesome um but yeah, like I grew up on wrestling. So I had all of these like larger than life heroes in my head.

So I loved all of that stuff. Did karate all the time. Look at that. That's not Sharkboy and Lava Girl. That's like. Oh, that's not. I don't know. That's like Teletubbies or something.

What is that? I have no idea. I don't know. We don't know what we pulled up, but this is my. That is Taylor. That is? This movie is a lot worse than i did even better dear god there you go yeah that was the kid that i was like i could have been that kid oh my god by the way that's uh what's his name something from twilight what's his name um jacob team jacob yeah yeah But yeah, so it was something I wanted to do as a kid. Um, but I, I just had all these thoughts like, you know, you always think that your, your dad has to be

a director or you have to know somebody in the family that's an actor or you have to come from money or something. So, um, for those reasons I didn't go into it, but also because I had like a lot of insecurities around my appearance. That was a big part of it too. I had like severe acne issues when I was like a teenager. So that definitely like impeded my ability to go for that stuff. But once I shifted my mindset around that stuff and I realized like, you know what, you can do it. That was when I was in college. And I kind of told you this story.

There was someone who, there was this girl in college who gave me this compliment. And then I was like, you know what? If she sees it, then why don't I just go for this? And that was literally all it took. It was funny. I actually sent her a text maybe a month ago. And I haven't messaged her in years. And I was like, hey, I don't even know if you remember who I am. But I'm know, thanks. You said something nice a long time ago, and it actually changed the course of my life. So I just want to say thanks. And she's like, what the hell? Yeah, you were very self-conscious about your appearance. And she said that, you know, one of her friends liked you or something like that, right? Or something to that effect? Yeah. So she, like, her suite of, like, friends and, like, our suite of guys would always hang out.

And she's like, yeah, like, I don't know if you know this, but all the girls in our suite think you're really cute. And to me, it was like... You're like, hell yeah. To me, that was the last thing I expected. So it's funny. Just hearing something like that sometimes can just be the little domino effect that sends you in the right direction. So yeah, that kind of moved me in that direction. It's an interesting thing because nothing, nothing has changed. It's just

somebody said something and you take those words and they can kind of show you, you can, you know, let the words sometimes crumble you when you get something negative or you can take something positive and run with it. Yeah. It's, it's, I think it's an imperative for us to think about like the way that we speak to people too you know you could either really be watering someone or you could really be tearing them down and people don't think about that sometimes like especially guys like we'll joke around with each other and sometimes we could we could throw a little dagger that just hits a soft spot that somebody you didn't expect you know it's It's a little too much. Take someone right down to their knees. Like, whoops. Yeah, yeah.

That's true. Guy ends up crying in his car later on because some sentimental song hit the radio and just in tears, driving down the street. Oh my God. But yes, I ended up starting to go for the acting stuff when I was 20

and just really, really pushed on it my last year in college, because I was doing an economics degree for three years up until then. So that was kind of like where I thought my life was headed. But once I once I shifted my mindset, I kind of made a deal with myself, like, anything you ever wanted to do in life, and like, you know, whatever your greatest potential is, like, let's just go for that. You really have nothing to lose. And that's the truth. Like we, you know, we're all going to die and we really don't have anything to lose by trying to become our greatest self. So that's, that's what, that's pretty much the mission I've been on since then. You know, a quick question, because a lot of people that are, that really want to get into acting, they feel like they needed to do something

earlier, like maybe do theater as a kid or whatever you didn't do any of that right did you so how did you like when did you start doing any type of acting at 20 at 20 yeah and what was that through because you said you were econ in school so where did you do it any and everything that's that sounds bad though you're right um yeah a lot of gay prepare there are a lot of couches I was introduced to now what that actually means is so at UCSD like I literally scoured everything around me so I set this goal for myself junior year of college and I realized I had one year left of college so I was like by the end of this year if I can book like a major role on a tv show I'll be good I don't have to get a job when I, when I

leave college. So that was the goal that I set for myself, which was kind of ludicrous at the time, but I started with anything that was around me. So at UCSD, they had an MFA program, um, and they had a great theater there and a theater program. So I started auditioning for all the plays. I started going on all these, um, casting networks, auditioning for every non-union gig that I could get my hands on. You know, going on to like different castings for like little stand-up comedy things, like all kinds of random stuff. And I would just do that stuff constantly. And my mentality was if I take enough shots, I'm going to sink one of them. And that's going to slowly start to build up my resume.

You got to get your head shots done. You go to acting classes. So I started going to the acting classes at up my resume. You got to get your headshots done. You go to acting classes. So I started going to the acting classes at UCSD because it was available to me. And it was just taking all of those little opportunities, which led to booking a few short films at the neighboring college, SDSU, which led to I booked some theater roles. And then I started booking non-union commercials. And then I started booking some independent film work. And then I started booking like really small TV things. And then that's what non-union commercials. And then I started booking some independent film work. And then I started booking like really small TV things. And then that's what led to Power Rangers.

So it was just like a little snowball effect within that year. But the crazy part about that for me was that by the end of that year, I booked the Power Rangers gig. So that to me kind of confirmed that if you set a goal and you're really, really focused on it and you actually break it down and take the steps necessary, you can achieve it. But after that, I actually learned that that takes a certain obsessive focus that causes other areas of your life to really deteriorate. So at the same time, I wasn't talking to my family. I had no social life. I didn't hang out with anybody on the weekends. I would get up at four and go to bed at like 10. So I wasn't sleeping much. It was a very like obsessive kind of dangerous mentality to have. You have a tendency to do that in other areas. Like maybe you did that with the carnivore diet

a little bit as well. I have a tendency to do that in a lot of areas. Yeah. And just go all like, you're like, I like, I like this. I dig this. And then you go so far in that it's like, it's almost like a weird trap. Honestly, I don't, I don't ever regret that though, because to me it feels like I'm simply trying to figure out where the bumpers are, you know? And then, and then eventually I start to find like a more middle path. But yeah, that's, that's kind of always been my approach. I learned about something, I want to implement it. I just go full 180 and I start doing it. And then it's like, all right, maybe not that much.

And you find that it's like that whole U-shaped curve thing. And you find, you know, let's just get an optimal amount of whatever it is. I kind of feel sometimes with dieting and like fasting and, you know, not eating carbs and some of these things, you could sometimes make yourself a little crazy. Did you ever kind of feel that? Yes. Where you're just like obsessive compulsive about it. You're like, I'm just, you know, you're, you're questioning every move that you make during the day. And you're, you're almost like kind of telling yourself to shut the hell up. Like, just go do something.

Just go eat something. Yeah. Yeah. Me and Jordan site recently, we kind of did a skit about how our diets are no big deal. And he's a guy that like likes to weigh stuff and count stuff. And I, and you know, I'm'm kind of more the keto background and stuff. And I was like, yeah, it was no big deal. I was like, all I did today is I walked to this restaurant.

It's like a 12-mile walk, and I'll walk back because they make sure to burn off some of the fuel and stuff. And then he's like saying, yeah, he's like, it's not a big deal for me either. And then he asked the waitress for a scale, and he's like, oh, you don't have a scale. Good thing I brought my own. He whips his out of his bag and stuff like that. And sometimes it feels that way, like that we're just like being irrational, I guess, is the main thing. I think that like my honest mentality around that is that that can be dangerous. But if you're self-aware of that and that you know that at some point you need to come out of that, I think there's nothing wrong with temporarily being that way because I think there's a lot to be learned from that.

Because of the skin issues I had, like, so my whole nutrition journey, I was like 12, 13, and it started like everybody else on bodybuilding.com, buying everything in GNC with my parents' money, like all that kind of stuff. And then when I was 15 to 18, like that whole acne journey really caused me to have to figure stuff out because, you know, when all the doctor prescribed meds aren't working and they're putting you on antibiotics and everything's making it worse, you realize it's an internal problem. So that really caused me to be obsessive because when it's the choice between, oh, let's relax about diet and have acne or let's get rid of the acne, but we're going to have to be really strict. That was a very easy decision for me to make. And people think that you're disciplined, but it's not discipline. It's a very, very easy decision to make. Like, I don't want to look like that. I want to feel confident.

So that created a kind of level of obsession. And that continued for a long time, like a good six, seven years. And only in this past year have I felt like I'm a normal person now. So that's nice. It's nice to kind of come out the other end of that. And I think most people that are, you know, aiming towards success or people that have already maybe acquired some success, I think people are always going to be like, yeah, man, that guy's a maniac. You know's crazy or that guy's like an Elon Musk or a Jeff Bezos or anyone that reaches a high level in jiu-jitsu or something like that or bodybuilding. Jay Cutler, we're going to be like, yeah, Jay Cutler is an alien, dude.

I think that Cutler is one of the ultimate examples that we have of somebody that went to the extremes, but also understood how ridiculous some of it was and was able to come out of it and be healthy, both mentally and physically. It sometimes can be tough when you're trying to put yourself through, you're just trying to like be better, but then you can also at some point become a uh personal development like junkie where you're just you're yeah you're like like i'm consuming information all the time i i the second i wake up i got headphones on and i'm like listening to something um and i but i also self aware that like hey this is like kind of ridiculous like you you know i'm i'm picking up a new tesla today like it i'm already doing well like you can fucking chill out every once in a you you know i'm picking up a new tesla today like i'm already doing well like

you can fucking chill out every once in a while you know there's too much of a good thing with that right you can get too far down the rabbit hole of all things self-improvement like you hear everybody in this sort of space talk about all the same stuff you know like if anybody that's ever been on tom bill you show like, oh, wait a minute. I've heard them on 35 other podcasts. So you realize everybody's hearing the same stuff. Everybody's trying to practice the same stuff. And they're all being molded into these like hyper achieving, goal oriented, perfect sleeping, perfect nutrition, fasting, meditation. What's your morning routine, bro? Yeah. What's your morning routine? Like I love Ted Naiman got asked that on Mike Mutzla. And he's

like, you know, I kind of roll out of bed and i like stumble down to the coffee machine and it's usually after about six hours of sleep and i usually go to bed um like bathed in blue light from my tv and i was just like thank god because because mike mutzle like he just everybody on that show gives him this like perfect i do my mantras and then i jump into a cold shower and then i do my wim hof and it's like i was so glad to hear that was he being a was he being legit he was being totally serious he doesn't have a morning routine he just goes to work yeah and i was like that's amazing oh god that's great he seemed very casual when we had him on our show yeah he seemed um you know he was like he just he just kind of stuck to his guns about protein like

protein seems to be the main thing and he doesn't seem to be all that worried or overly concerned with yeah anything else he's done a great job of uh i think deciphering the information you know but i do think people can get uh a little too caught up in it at the same time sometimes people need to get caught up in something. Like you said, I really like what you said there about like kind of learning where the bumpers are. Like if you don't ever train your arms to the point where you can't move them for the next three or four days,

you know, how do you really know, you know, what the limitations are now? Do we need to do it all the time? Like now, now you, now you're kind of,

now it's just starting to get ridiculous to a certain point. Yeah. But you should, you should know those things. You should learn those things. And they're going to come at a cost. Yeah. They're going to come at a cost. What ended up being like your solution to your skin issues?

Because, I mean, you did – like did you start the vegan diet in the past for the skin issues or – yeah. That's exactly – yeah. So did that work at all? It worked. It did. Yeah. I can say that for it. Um, so I, I started doing a whole foods plant-based diet when I got to college. That was after a huge bout of Accutane.

Um, Accutane's a rough thing to do. Oh my God. So it takes pretty much all the lubrication out of your body. So I was like 17 doing strong lifts and I would have to get out slowly from under the squat bar because of the compression of my spine. There was no there was no fluid between those joints. When I would go to sleep at night, I would have to arch my back on the bed and slowly lower it into the bed. Because if you just lower it, it was so much pain. You get up in the morning and like you have to slowly put your feet on the ground because like your feet, you can't stand on your feet because it hurts so much from the Accutane. So it was it was fun. Um, but that cleared my skin up. And then a couple months later,

it all comes back cause your oil starts to regenerate and your fluids come back. So I was like, all right, we're not doing that again. And I'm not going to go on all these different creams and stuff again. Um, I had been down that rabbit hole for like four years at that point. So I was in college. I was like, you know what? I got a little bit of money. I'm working my side jobs and stuff. So let me try to take care of my diet. And at the time from everything I was researching, like I knew about paleo, Mark's Daily Apple was, you know, going back then. And I was reading some of that, but I started to read more about like antioxidants and this mitochondrial theory of aging. Like if you have enough antioxidants, you can decrease your oxidative stress, which means less heart disease, less cancer, less acne, like anything related to inflammation goes down.

So I was like, okay, you know what? Let me just like load up on the antioxidants. So that led me to whole foods, plant-based. So that's whole grains, nuts, seeds, beans, legumes, fruits, vegetables, berries, all that kind of stuff. Every superfood you could think of, matcha and flax seeds and turmeric and all that. So I did that for three and a half years and that cleared my skin, which was, that was amazing for me. But over time, I got more and more exhausted.

I got weaker. I got more hungry. I could eat to where my stomach was distended and I got more hungry. I could eat to where my stomach was distended and I was still hungry and I still wanted to eat. Um, mental fog. Like I couldn't focus on one task for about 45 minutes. Um, cause I would need a snack. I would need something to keep me going. Uh, fasting wasn't an option either. So you try to fast and 2 PM hits. And when your blood sugar hits a certain level, like you freak out. And I would like sprint back to my apartment to get like something to eat, which was like prunes. Like that was what I would snack on, stuff like that.

I just heard Andrew go, oh, no. Prunes. But, yeah, it was that sort of thing. So that's what I was doing in college while everyone was having a good time. Yeah, that would destroy me. Yes. Oh, my gosh. I was having three explosive episodes of,

yeah, exits a day. It was bad, man. Like I didn't have a normal crap in those like three years. And Dr. Michael Greger, who does the nutritionfacts.org and he published his book, How Not to Die, which I used to gift people with that. Anybody that had a health issue, I gave that to a professor once and he's like, I'm not going to up your grade.

And I'm like, it's not for that. I just, you know, so I was that guy. But so Dr. Michael Greger would say that humans ancestrally had around like a hundred grams of fiber a day. And most people are doing maybe like 10, 20, 30, if you're really going for it. So I tried to get up to 100, and I would make these green smoothies just packed with beets, kale, parsley, turmeric, whole lemons in there with the peel and everything. Oh, God. Cloves, like all these little superfoods blow my stomach up every single day.

It was rough. It was rough. But yeah, so by the end of the three and a half years, I was one season into Power Rangers, still doing that diet. And you could see on the first season of Power Rangers, I've got water retention in my face. I'm like, I'm thin. And when I finished that first season, I was like, this is not how the Red Ranger is supposed to look. This is not working for me.

And that's the hard part about change. When people get really obsessed about something, different circumstances require different solutions, which is something I realize now. Like sometimes people will get on like a 3 a.m. or a 4 a.m. kick, or they might get on like a carnivore kick, or they might get on a meditation kick or any of these things. And then as their life circumstances change, they don't want to change their solutions to match that. And then that creates like this sort of tension, you know. with the power rangers thing out there was so much tension i was so sleep deprived i was i was like so stressed that the three weeks in between two seasons i went home went right back into the rabbit hole started learning about keto this was

in like maybe 2017 so there wasn't as much out about it. It was like Finney and Volick and Jason Whitrock was doing his stuff on, on YouTube. And there's a few guys talking about it. Logan Delgado was out there too. Um, and I started learning about it. So one 80 overnight, of course I had to go extreme with it. The next day I was done with vegan. I was eating bacon and eggs and I went to In-N-Out and got a four by four and I just completely went for it. And I actually, everybody's like, how'd you feel after that? Incredible. I felt like literally the influx of B vitamins and all that kind of stuff and sodium too. I had never had high salt for years. I felt incredible. I don't know how my stomach was able

to digest it, but I didn't have any digestive issues. I felt really good. So that's pretty much what I did. And then after a couple of weeks, I started to get some keto flu kind of things where my body realized we don't have any glucose coming in. So the headaches and I was drinking like chicken broth like crazy and stuff like that. So that was kind of like the transition for me into keto. And keto was great. Checked off almost every box except for body comp. And I was doing like moderate protein fat to satiety. Once I flipped that and I was kind of moderating the fat a little bit and I was letting

myself load up on protein. That's when I kind of found out about carnivore and Ted Naiman stuff. And I combined those two and that's where everything I kind of checked off every box and I was, I was happy. What did you find out about about the two diets because a vegan diet and a carnivore diet are both in a sense elimination diets so you i'm sure you have because you've gone through the process of doing both um you have probably gone through the process of eliminating all different kinds of things i'm a big believer in like maybe the most important thing is like what we don't eat rather than maybe what we eat. Like, yes, we do need to get nutrition from it,

but does it really matter if someone's eating like, you know, four ounces of steak and having some fruit and vegetables throughout the day versus someone eating, you know, four pounds of steak and having a small amount of like fruits and vegetables? We don't really know. We don't really truly know. But what are some things that you learned about, you know, kind of eliminating a lot of different foods out of your diet? Let's see. I would actually say that I think what you do eat is hugely important. So like on that

vegan diet, I eliminated so many bad foods. Like there was no sugar, no vegetable oils, anything like that. And, but I still was not at an optimal state. So I think with both of those approaches, they're both great for not dying, but in terms of like thriving in an optimal way and like really feeling great in the short term and the long term, I think what you eat is hugely important. Um, and the main thing I've noticed is that bringing in these really like nutrient dense animal foods had a huge impact on satiety for me. So all of a sudden I could get satiated and feel energized and get strong off of maybe like 1800 calories. If I try that on a vegan diet with the same amount of protein and similar levels of

energy calories, so carbs or whatever, it's not the same thing at all. You're starving and you're like panicky and shaky. It's not good. So yeah, like my mindset around things now, and maybe this is just because of where I'm at right now, but I focus so much on what am I bringing in to the exclusion of other things. Perhaps in the beginning, there does need to be a hard exclusion of those things for you to actually feel those initial benefits to give you the motivation to keep going. You know, if you try to do like an inch by inch approach

in the beginning, you might feel nothing. So it's so easy to go back those inches that you just gained. But that's why I think this whole carnivore thing that Dr. Baker started, where he started this like 30-day challenge when he went on Joe Rogan, that was so powerful for so many people because you feel crazy different when you do 30 days of like red meat and water. Even after three days. Yeah.

It's a huge difference. In 30 days, you feel way different. And what I'm alluding to is – and this is hard for people to practice and this is the reason why people make such hard lines. This is the reason why people are like, no, you don't eat any carbs is because a diet that has some good variety to it is a fantastic idea on paper. And I think that fruit and vegetables play – that can play a big role I kind of have my own personal theory on like vegetables and stuff I actually think that vegetables literally just mainly take up some room they may have some nutritional value but I think that their value is that they're not meat and so I think you can kind of overdo I think you don't overdo anything

really so people that are kind of on a you carnivorous diet, maybe eating three pounds of steak, maybe we can look at it in a more logical sense and say like maybe that's not the greatest thing. But we still – like I said earlier, we still don't know. But the problem with having variety is – and the problem with teaching people, oh, you need a well-balanced diet, man, is just that it's very hard for people to adhere to. They really – they struggle. I, from what I've seen, occasionally I'll run into somebody, I'll be like, dude, just cut out sugar, cut out flour, you know, and they'll come back to me and like, I lost 30 pounds. But the biggest benefits that I've seen from communicating with people and I

tried all different kinds of tricks on people has usually been a keto style diet or a carnivore diet. Like, Hey, just see if you, you know, the keto diet is easier to start with because you have more, you have at least a little bit more options and then kind of like moving into like a carnivore diet. That's where I see, uh, people having, having a much larger impact because they, they just know where the lines are. So like if someone's like, oh, you can have fruit, you can have vegetables, you can have rice, potatoes,

maybe they're drinking orange juice here and there and maybe they're just doing some things. Maybe they're throwing a bunch of butter in their oatmeal in the morning. Like there's probably a bunch of infractions that they might be running into that they're just not paying attention to. Yeah, setting up hard guidelines earlier on is probably a really good thing.

And then over time, you can figure out where and how to loosen those for yourself. I think in the long run, I think it can be a really good thing to include as much variety as you're able to include. Because I do like this idea of like triaging. Like if your body's not getting enough of certain things, it can potentially leach that from, from your muscles and from your bones and stuff like that. So like my, my focus is like as much variety as I can include. Um, but I think that in terms of getting into the habit of things,

yeah, definitely cutting things out and just, just making it easy on yourself. If you tell yourself, I will just eat as much red meat as I want. That's so easy. You know, you don't have to go hungry. You get to have delicious steaks. You get to have as many of them as you want. I think that's a great entry point into starting to bring other things in. And there's not a lot of don'ts. It's just do like that's the one. Let's just do that. Yeah. It's a, it's an add on rather than a subtraction and people get pissed about subtractions. I can't have carbs or I can't have pasta. I can't have bread or whatever the thing is you take away. The second you take away something, that's where their focus goes to. so much more fun to be proactive than to be a monk, you know, like it's so much more fun to say,

Hey, I'm going to do three 10 minute walks a day instead of two. And I'm also going to have 200 grams of protein. So, you know, and then the night comes and you've already done the walks and you've had the protein and you don't really want the halo top now. So you're like, you're chill. Sorry, halo top, but you're chill. I'm just choosing my own, my own things. But yeah, so it's, it's like focusing on what you can do can really, really help your mindset. And I think that's why exercise is such a big thing. Like a lot of people say with the whole diet and exercise thing, it has to start with diet, but sometimes I feel more proactive starting with exercise. And then you're like, okay, my performance in the gym sucked. Let me eat a little bit better today and try to fuel it in the future.

So whichever, whichever it is first for people, it doesn't matter as long as you're doing it. Yeah, it doesn't matter. But I personally feel that it's harder to start with diet just because there's so many negative influences. Could you start doing some walks here and there? I just think that's a reasonable ask. I don't think that's too difficult to do. But someone who's in pain, maybe that is a hard thing. Maybe it is

easier for them to kind of start out in their kitchen. You know, one thing I think is really important to point out too, is that the nutritional value of things that you don't want to eat is zero. You know, and that's a, that's like a major factor so like we could be like oh dude you need to eat like you know you're doing bodybuilding like you need to eat these proteins and you need to eat like brussels sprouts because they help fill you up and the person's like i i fucking hate brussels sprouts like well now now we need a different option same thing with exercise too there's always other options for exercise somebody goes comes in the gym and you're like all right we're going to – we did some squats and now we're going to move into some lunges.

And they're like, well, I can't do lunges. They kill my knees. It's like, well, do we have other options on leg movements or they can't do leg extension? Do we have other options that we can put in there? Yeah, sure we do. And same with the foods and stuff like that too. So I think – and that's where we are different. And I think that in general, I think people are very similar.

And if you put people on similar diets, I think – and they actually follow them, I think people will have profound – it will have a profound impact in a good way on a lot of people. And I don't think you're going to see – you'll see some variation in like the weight that they lost according to you know how much weight they needed to lose but you put people on kind of like a chicken breast diet with a small amount of like veggies and small amount of carbohydrates everyone's going to lose weight oh yeah but then is that just like which guy is that sustainable for maybe not any of them you know because there's not enough flavor and there's not enough different things in there and And so that's where we differ. We differ in our kind of like mindset more so than anything. I agree.

I'm curious about your experience right now with your bulk because you said that this is the heaviest you've been in a while, right? And you started implementing some carbs. And one thing I noticed when a lot of guys start off lighter and they want a bulk, they just eat an insane amount of carbohydrates and they just bump everything up and it just becomes very unhealthy. They start putting on a lot of fat. Yeah, you just get fat. Exactly. But in your case, how are you navigating that? Because you're still utilizing fasting right now or no? You are? Yeah, I am. So you're utilizing fasting, you're gaining weight, you're gaining muscle. Most guys typically think that's not possible. So how are you navigating that right now? Just training harder. Just training harder. Yeah. So I'm, I'm not eating a ton of carbs. Um, but I'm also not being like really restrictive around it. I know you're not like counting it super hard, but how many would you say you're eating if you were to like a total guesstimate?

Uh, if I completely guessed, man, dude, it's, it's literally between 50 to one 50 a day. Yeah. Like it that's, that's about what i can handle after the protein and after the fasting you know like i'm not that hungry but i am trying to get it in so yeah like that's that's the structure around it but um honestly like the main thing for me is like i'm so focused on just training harder getting stronger like pushing myself in the gym and i can feel what the food's doing for that. It's night and day. Like from when I was, uh, I had done a DEXA scan with, um, Robert Sykes, Mr. Keto Savage. And I was like 6% body fat then. And I felt weak as hell.

Like, you know, um, it just was completely night and day. I think now I'm probably over 10% and I feel incredible, you know, like in the gym. So that's my main focus, like eat what I need to eat to keep improving the performance within the confines of not getting fat, not eating a bunch of junk and still being able to fast a little bit. And are you paying much attention to the scale right now? Like when you see the scale maybe stall for a little bit, do you pay attention to that or you just try to focus on performing better every week? A little bit of both. Like, I'll be honest, I'm not setting like a hard deadline. Like I need to

hit this 165 by a certain time. Like for me, it's like 2020, I'm focused on getting as strong as I can, slowly gaining weight, slowly building up. I'm not rushing it. And there's like no hard deadline for me. So if I see I'm down at 163, I'm like, you know what? Okay, lost a little bit of water, lost some weight. Let's make sure we eat tonight and lift heavy. Let's make sure I'm sleeping too. Sleep has been a huge thing for me. I didn't realize how important sleep was.

Like, holy crap, everything I ever wanted from, you know, fasting and coffee and all these productivity routines and blah, blah, blah. Like everything gets better when you sleep. It's incredible. So I pay a lot of attention to that these days. Yeah. That just slapped me in the face recently with these, this whole shred down thing. Like I would like certain days I'd be like, man, I look great. I feel great. Like this is awesome. And then I would get bless you by the way. Thank you. And then I would get like a, you know,

like six or less hours of sleep and I'd wake up the next day and I'd weigh less and I would look way worse. Like, yeah, you know, just like, yeah, because I got so lean, I was able to actually notice like how much it affected me. Yes. And I was just like, I again, I said it before, like, I know how important sleep is. But now that I could like black and white, you know, like the harsh contrast was just like oh my gosh like it yeah it is more important than i even understood that's that's funny you said that for shredding i i found that going through the bulk is what forced me to pay attention to sleep because you can't lift heavy if you're like always sleep deprived and you can't catch up either yeah the last thing you want to do

is get under like a heavy squat bar and you know that you're going to have to hit like a five rep max and you're going off of four or five hours and it's like the third day in a row and you're just like why am i doing this to myself this could be easy i could be taking this on right now and i would feel that in every other area of life but the whole like shred mentality i used to have i could sleep deprived because like it would cause me to lose more weight i was like oh great like i'm even more shredded like i'm leaner yeah no like i would send pictures in sema every single day and you know he he noticed too he was just like dude look at you know picture one versus picture two like what's the difference i'm like well i just got

sleep and you know that picture and he's like okay well yeah what's the problem we'll get more sleep yeah it's like i'm trying man but yeah so i i think just because maybe it's like my first time coming down that's why i'm able to actually notice it i i think just because maybe it's like my first time coming down that's why i'm able to actually notice it and you know really see the differences that like a couple hours extra sleep will make speaking of coming down i want to take this uh mind bullet yeah everybody so so we're really going with the full thing i think so yeah yeah you just shove it right up your ass shots shots shots uh kratom enema yep mine bullet mine bullet down the hatch minebullet.com mine bullet potion into the face oh and no one's dead yet yet how's it taste how do you

earthy uh very bitter yeah i know it's gonna have a very strong impact yeah because there are definitely some plant compounds in there shout out carnivore cooking and we're all going plant-based again yeah let's go have some plants you know i think you bring up a really good point i think uh bless you again i think uh you know what we do um really dictates our actions when you're trying when you're trying to be better when you're trying to figure out a way um and you're maybe not even trying to be better necessarily when you're just self-aware you know if you're aware that you want to be better jujitsu and you're showing up to class and you're half dead and you get your ass kicked by people you normally don't get your ass kicked by,

something's wrong. So you're either stressed out, you're not sleeping properly, or your food is off. And if you want to be better and you're being self-aware and you have a second on your way back from practice or on your way back from the gym

on why you had a crap performance, which you should be reviewing because I always think the greatest person you can ever interview is yourself and you need to do it all the time, as weird and crazy as that sounds. You need to ask yourself a lot of questions. You know, if you're kind of just in a mode where you're just not really caring too much and you're just exercising for fun, that's kind of a different thing. And I think that it's important to go into some of those modes here and there as well. But in general, when you're trying to, you know, trying to improve and trying to be a little bit better, uh, I think that that's where you can

start to break down stuff and say, Oh man, you know, I do love hanging out with my friends and that was a lot of fun last night. And, but, uh, I should, okay. Tonight I I'm gonna be in bed by nine o'clock you know it was fun hanging out last night but I need to stop that I need to get better at this you know I need to get better at lifting you need to get better at whatever the hell is in front of you you know you need to get better at over a period of time those things should kind of almost like auto regulate themselves you know if you're paying attention But you have to be paying attention. You go in the gym and you go to do a squat and you were expecting to, you know, be 20, 30, 40 pounds stronger on a lift.

Something is off. It could just be the diet. I think what you were saying about your blowouts that you had when you were doing the vegan diet, I think these things become kind of normal to us. I'm like, oh, it's just like, you know, that's the price of being healthy. I got to eat stuff that doesn't taste very good. And I have to, you know, and I have to shit myself all the time or whatever it is. And maybe you're kidding yourself with a keto diet too or a carnivore diet.

I've had gut issues sometimes on a carnivore diet when I went really, really strict and didn't have anything else in there. I ended up, same issue you had. Yeah. Ended up liquefying those steaks somehow. I'm not sure how it happened. Powerful gut. But again, you know, like do a little review.

Like, you know, what is it I'm doing differently and how can I make a change? And oh, maybe it would be good to throw in some variety so my stomach doesn't liquefy my steaks anymore or whatever the thing is for you. It's funny how those answers are always there inside of you when you ask the question. Like a little thought will pop into your head like, oh, maybe it was this food that caused that, or maybe I should start doing this. And the answers are there, but you just have to ask yourself the questions. And the cool thing about like setting goals that like this is what my whole life has kind of become ever since I was 20 and I picked that acting goal.

You realize like, oh, wow, that acting goal made me healthier and it made me more well read and it made me sleep on time and it made me get up on time. And it made me sleep on time and it made me get up on time. And having that one leading goal created like this domino effect throughout my entire life of what am I going to have to do to achieve this? And it affects every other area of your life. I know a lot of people that don't have they don't take on those challenges outside of maybe work. So they never really have anything to cause that cascade throughout their life. But like that's the beautiful part part of lifting weights and getting stronger. That's the great part of setting professional goals.

It causes you to take care of all the other areas of your life. That clarity that you're just talking about, like I shouldn't hang out with my friends late tonight because I need to get to bed at 9 because I need to get up on time and to go lift. You wouldn't know that if you weren't trying to hit a certain number in the gym or if you weren't trying to get stronger. It would just be like, well, I'll go lift and it's going to be subpar, but who cares because I go lift all the time and that's just what I do. But when you pick a goal and you're like, this is what I have to do, you really have to change other things. And that's almost always, I think, a positive thing.

But sometimes the price is a little too high for some of those things that you pick. And I think sometimes about that whole like Icarus effect of like trying to fly too close to the sun. You try to push things a little too far and you might have wanted to pivot or you might have wanted to try something else. And then it affects your health or your relationships or your mindset or something, you know. Like I always think about the whole juggling balls thing and a few are glass balls and you really don't want to drop those. Sometimes if you really want to launch

that eighth ball into the air, which is like achieving greatness and whatever, and you drop your family and your health and everything and you're like, I'm great now, you know? And it's like, you dropped a lot of important stuff that might not have been worth it. Is your Academy Award going to be with you by your bedside when you're dying? Like maybe not.

Right, and that's a good point. In this scenario that we're giving, like I was saying, maybe not hanging out with your friends. We're not saying that you have to shut that off forever, and we're not saying that that's the only way to be successful. However, something probably has to give and something probably has to change for you to be able to make steady improvements all the time because it just gets harder. It's hard to get leaner. It's hard to get bigger. It's hard to be stronger. It gets harder to make more money. Everything just amplifies and gets a little bit more difficult. And that reach, like are you overreaching? And that's why it's important

that you get a little closer to your goal before you are you know really trying to you know you overreach for anything and you're going to get a lot of times you're going to get hurt and that's what you have to be you know really conscious of but like what you put in is good you know it's going to be what you get out um but i i just, I, I find myself, uh, kind of trying to juggle those balls like you're talking about right there because juggling balls, uh, because you know, you are trying to, you're always trying to improve, always trying to get better. But I guess the main thing is just, um, you know, finding shit that just makes you happy. Yeah.

Shit that makes you, you know, makes you just feel good. Like when you do it and then you kind of keep track of that and you, you know, makes you just feel good. Like when you do it and then you kind of keep track of that and you're like, I like doing that. I want to figure out how do I, how do I get myself to a point where I can do more of that? How do I get myself to a spot where I can do more of that? And I think that's a very healthy thing to think about. And I don't, I don't think there's a negative cost on that side of it. You said something really helpful to me a couple months ago when I came up here and I just hung out with you for a little bit. And you said some really simple things that had a big impact on me.

And one of them was just pick two or three of the easiest things that you can do that you're not currently doing that will move you in the right direction. And I was like, that's so damn simple. Forget about the correct answer for all of the different things I'm doing in life. Like what's two or three things that I can do to move me in the right direction that I'm not currently doing that are easy too. And that's the other thing that was really helpful. It's like, everybody always says like set lofty goals or set these like huge, huge goals and everything needs to be at the edge of your capabilities. And it's like, no, no, no. How about you actually hit the five reps that you're supposed to hit? So let's pick a weight that you can actually hit those five reps. And like that, that kind of became my thinking more

in terms of what I'm doing in life right now. Like let's, let's pick challenges that we can actually hit in the short term. The long-term stuff can be crazy for me, but like in the short term, I need to actually do that. Like that actually needs to get done. So that was really helpful for me. So, yeah, I know you do have probably long to actually do that. Like that actually needs to get done. So that was really helpful for me. So, yeah, I know you do have probably long-term goals too. Like are you setting both obviously these easy goals and do you have bigger things that you're trying to focus on too? Yes, exactly. Yeah, for me, it's like I've got some like big things that I want to accomplish in the world of acting and in terms of writing and in terms of like just contributing to society.

So that's like the life stuff. I always like to set yearly goals. That's really fun to look back on at the end of the year and see how it worked out. And then even broken down further from that is just like everything that's kind of going on at the moment, like what's happening. So I just have a little notes sheet on my phone where I just have like all the different little projects that I'm working on. And then what are the next couple steps to take care of? And that's, that's kind of how I like to organize that right now. Like I used to try to schedule almost every minute of my day to have some sort of work,

but then I found that having space in between moments is like, it's so much more productive. You can react and shift and like change according to circumstances and, and perhaps make a better decision rather than sticking to the plan that might be leading you in the wrong direction. And you wish you could change it, but you're like, I don't want to feel like a flake because I wrote this crap down, you know? So I started giving myself more space and just more flexibility and that helped a lot too. That's cool. Um, do you ever, uh, like worry about like financial stuff? Like, do you ever have, have goals like, okay, by whatever year I want to be like, uh, you know, I want my acting to pay all the bills or

stuff like that. Like, does that ever, is that ever a driving factor for you? Hell yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's definitely stuff that I'm especially thinking about right now. Yeah. Like having different sources of income, like through the books and the online business and the acting and commercial stuff. It's like the first time where I feel like I don't have to only make a living off of one thing. So I can learn how to like make money off of those different things and then to kind of know how how to manage that so for me right now it's so simple like i'm not at the level where i'm like where do i invest this and what do i put this into it's like no no just save it you know just save as much as you can yeah um you know keep your living expenses really really low build it up build your credit score all that kind of

stuff and where did you learn that from like keeping the expenses down and that sort of thing because i know like you know when i was your age i was like buying cars that i shouldn't have bought and you know get myself in a silly debt that like i shouldn't have been in but you know listening to you it's like damn i wish i was more like that guy i've been very close to wanting to do those things and i've i've been i've been this close to like doing that but um i i just thought about money as buying myself time and i remembered like you know with the whole acting thing, sometimes you make a lot of money and then sometimes you make no money for six months or you might make like small checks off of commercials and stuff.

So I thought about that and I was like, you know what, if I save as much of this as possible and I just keep living within my cash flow, that was the thing I was thinking about. Like until your cash flow increases, keep your living circumstances at a certain level. It doesn't matter if you make a big check, like just put it away in savings. Um, but to me it was like, I'm going to keep living within those circumstances until that gets better. Uh, but yeah, like that's, that's pretty much where I'm at with that. Like I just, I try to buy myself time with money. That's what it is. Like if, if I go into this acting stuff this year and I blow all the money that I've made in the past year, um, and I buy cars and I do all this kind of stuff, then I'm not buying myself time.

And then there's pressure for me to book gigs and then acting is not fun. And then it's like a job. And then I have to take, you know, agent tells me, Hey, uh, you're going to be snorting Coke on this one. And then this one, you're going to need to be nude, but Hey, you know, agent tells me, hey, you're going to be snorting coke on this one. And then this one, you're going to need to be nude. But hey, you know, you got to make that money. And I'd be like, well, crap, why did I get into this? You know, and that was actually a big reason why I had these these agents and managers that I'm not going to mention, but they had that mentality. It was like, look, this is work.

And if we send you out for these roles where you need to do like sexually explicit stuff that you don't want to do, or it's just a real filthy kind of character, which I also don't really care to portray. I know who my fan base is, and I want to stick to a certain thing. They didn't like that, because they're not used to that in acting. Most actors will be like, yeah, I'll do whatever it takes. Like desperate. Yeah, yeah.

And I was just like, I, I'll do whatever it takes. Yeah. Yeah. You know? Um, and I was just like, I don't want to do that. So that was a big part of the reason why I decided I don't want to make a living off of acting. I want it to contribute to my income, but I don't want to make a living off of it because then it's just not fun. It's, it's not as fun, honestly. So, um, yeah, I'd rather make a living off of other things. Awesome. Yeah. I think people sometimes have it backwards. They think that they, uh, they have so much pressure because they have bills and they may have got themselves into a position that they shouldn't have. So that really sucks. But if you ever want to make money, you have to be successful first and then money will follow. So that's the blueprint. Like you need to be, um, at least the

blueprint for like nowadays, maybe times have changed and things like that over the years. But I think for the moment that we're in now, like be kind of an expert in something or kick ass in something. Maybe you're not the expert, you know, maybe you're not, um, you know, the go-to person for this or for that, but you're, you're well polished. You're good at it. You have an understanding of it. And Seema's got a great understanding of training. You have a great understanding of the carnivore diet. So it's easier for people to – you're providing value for people. and I'm coming off being vegan. It's like, who's the go-to guy for that? You are. And it's not because you went to school for it or anything like that.

It's because you have been working hard at it. You've been practicing it for a long time. So you have to be a successful person with a successful mindset. And then I know it sounds like you're just like praying for money or something like that, but this is how it works. This is how it happens.

In order to like do something great, you have to already be something. You have to have some substance to you. And I think that's what all of us in this room, why we put so much value on training because the training feels like it's literally a reward back to us on some of the stuff I'm talking about. It's like the only way to like, it's the only way to like practice, right? Is to diet correctly, is to say no to certain things at certain times, whether it's, you know, ice cream cake or whether it's certain jobs or you don't want to ever be, you don't want to ever feel desperate. And I think the worst thing that people can do, especially younger people, time is short, man, you know, in this world. And I think, you know, you're in school for like 10 years and the time you're five until

you're like 16 or something, 11 years, whatever that is, or maybe even a little older, sorry, more like 18. So you're in school for like 12 or 13 years or something ridiculous like that, which I think is way too long. Anyway, this is in the United States where you're stuck in school forever. And then really like when do you start figuring stuff out? Like I didn't really figure out much. I don't think until I was like 30. And then you start to think about that. And a lot of things have already kind of passed at 30.

And just shit moves really really uh shit moves really really fast and i think the worst thing that young people can do is be a slave to their bills you know to be stuck to their bills it it crushes your freedom uh you saying like i don't want this bill for this car i don't want this bill for uh a house like i i just i just i don't I don't think the times that we're in right now, I don't think it's a smart idea at all. I understand everyone has the dream to like buy a house. But even with my dad being in real estate, I've always been like dumbfounded by even the purchase of a house period because I'm like no one ever really buys it. Like you don't really buy it.

You don't really own it. Most of the time – I mean it's very rare that someone just goes and like buys a house right um so it's just those are things to think about like if you if you're trying to find things that you like to do and things that make you feel good and they provide value to you a good way to short change that immediately is to stack up a bunch of bills because you'll be doing a bunch of work that you don't want to do. Now, there are going to be times where you have to do a lot, you know, a bunch of stuff that you don't love to do. Maybe you'll have to do stuff for free and maybe you'll have to do certain things a certain way to get momentum for something. But, you know, other than that, you got to figure out how to get your head above water so you can focus in on like what do I really – like I enjoy doing this podcast.

I enjoy giving out information. I love giving out content. I love talking about training. I love helping people with strength and diet and stuff like that. So as I'm going through all this, I'm like I don't want to fucking talk about my products anymore. Like I, I love them and I created them, but I want, that's not, that's, that was just a by-product of me like lifting and like fucking myself up. And so I made all that stuff to kind of go along with all that stuff. But what I've been passionate about since I was 12 years old was lifting. And right away I got into learning about nutrition and I've been obsessed with it

ever since, because I think this is an awesome way for people in modern times to be practicing, like getting better on something, uh, without having to, like, you don't need to go to school for it. You don't, you don't really need anything else for it. Just you get to work on it, uh, on your own, on your own time, your own way. You were talking about like things that young people can do to actually start to learn about life. And I don't know if this is a good idea or not, but I feel like getting out of your home and getting away from your parents and like when you leave the nest, like leaving it and letting yourself struggle is a really good thing. When you leave the nest, like leaving it and letting yourself struggle is a really good thing. And I think that if you always feel that security in the back of your mind, that safety net, I don't think that's a good thing.

Like I think knowing that it's kind of sink or swim sometimes is really, really helpful. Because you just realize like, hey, no one's going to push the ball forward but me. Like no one's going to save me. No one's going to take care of me. Like I have to do this. So it's the same thing with the gym. It's a self-imposed challenge, but I think that that's great for a lot of young people. Like if you can leave and go to college somewhere and just like leave home, like that's a great thing. Um, you learn a lot from that. Do you think that you, cause like nowadays when people look at college, um, it's a, it's a different type of investment depending on where you go, right?

But what were your takeaways from that? Like did you have a goal going in when you were going towards economics? Like were you trying to go towards a certain job and then you shifted to acting or what did you get from it exactly? I went in there so idealistic like every young person. So I went in there. I remember watching all of the debates in 2004 and then in 2008, and I loved economic policy debates. I was like, man, this is crazy. And I would read about Milton Friedman and I would read about Keynesian economics and

I'd read about all this stuff. I was like, this is amazing. You could really impact the well-being of like the poorest person in the poorest country based off of like economic policy, free trade, the way that countries like you can even influence foreign policy based off of economic policy, you know, like you could save lives. And I was like, man, this is incredible. Like I would love to learn more about this and like the theory behind it. And I go in and we're doing calculus and we're doing micro econ and finance and accounting. And I'm like, man, this sucks. And I'm doing every single summer. I told myself I would never go home. So I would do internships every summer. So I would work at like a consulting company or an insurance company or an accounting company. And from doing those internships and seeing some of those different

options and also like throughout the school year, I was like super active. I was – I got involved in our economic society. I did mock trial. I did Model UN. I was in all these different orgs. And doing all of those different things showed me like this isn't really where you see your life. Like I don't think this is really what I want to do. I don't want to write papers. I don't want to be working at the Federal Reserve.

I don't want to be a professor. I don't want to be a professor. I don't want to be working in an office and all of those kinds of, like, I remember having a call with my dad when I was, I was doing this long internship at Liberty Mutual and I called my dad and I was like, man, dad, this is, it feels like I'm in prison. That's honestly what it feels like. Like every single day I'm here and I look at the eyes of everyone around me and they're dead inside. Like I said, honestly, like their souls have been sucked from them. And they would ask me, they'd be like, so, you know, why do you want to work here?

And I would BS them and tell them like, hey, you know, I think it's a great opportunity, blah, blah, blah. I could see myself doing this in the future. And they're like, no, don't. They're like, go, go. You're young. And a lot of other people are like, they would honestly tell me like, hey, I did this out of college and, you know, it paid and I got a family and I got a husband and like, you know, I just kind of fell into it. That same shit happened to me, bro. Same exact thing.

And as soon as you could leave, you run. You run. Like, that's what it was for me. That last year of college, I realized I'm at a crossroads here. And doing the Liberty Mutual thing, I realized, look, I'm actually okay if I had to work Starbucks or drive a Lyft or sleep in my car instead of doing this. I said, if I have to, like, just be totally homeless, in America, I'm a young man. I work hard. So I know that it's never going to be that bad. There's soup kitchens. There's things.

There's cup noodles. I'm fine. So if I can bring my standard of living that far down to where i could do anything i want yeah i was like why don't i do anything i want so what do i want and why don't we throw everything into whatever i want to do because i have the freedom i have no obligations to anyone i don't have any debts i don't have any bills to pay it's just me a young single man that can like pursue his goals so that last year of college that's why i was like so obsessed because i Cause I was like, Holy crap, if this doesn't work, I'm back to that office,

you know? Like it was a huge motivator for me. So, um, yeah, that was, that was kind of like one of the big reasons why I really, really pushed hard on that. But you were asking about like, why did I get into econ and where did I want to go with that? I really loved like kind of more international stuff. I like global policy. I liked, I love the idea of maybe working for the UN at some point, getting involved with, you know, well, like one of those organizations, World Bank, things like that. I didn't like the idea of like working in like domestic policy or like day-to-day kind of things. So that's what I wanted to do. But then I started to like shift my vision around through acting and through gaining influence and through writing

books and starting to build up my profile and starting to build up some accomplishments and like creating a name for myself. I could in the long term have the same sort of impact that I wanted to have through economics simply by using like celebrity and status and influence, um, to be able to promote some of the ideas I have around economics, um, to be able to promote, you know, just things like that. So that's always kind of been like a long-term thing. Like how can I serve people through, um, building up like a, um, a profile or something like that. So. Yeah, I think what like the big thing. The kratom's hitting

by the way. Oh yeah, you feel it. My legs are warm. Nice. Should we all just stop and hug? I'm feeling it right now, man. I thought you were serious. Okay, well. Yay! Kratom, guys. Hey, hey, hey. I love you guys.

Oh, you guys are the best. We all cry. It's that kratom hug but dude that kratom hug nah like I think if any teenager or college student immediately can get themselves into an internship in whatever

they're trying to do because when I ended up in the hospital doctors were telling me the same shit they're like wait yo think of other things you want to do. Cause when I ended up in the hospital, doc, doctors were telling me the same shit. They're like, wait, yo, think of other things you want to do before, before settling on this, because you're going to be spending a lot of time here. I have a family I'm stuck. I can't leave the checks too big. If there's something else you want to do, go try that out first. Like if you could somehow get into that job and just see how it is, That's so huge. Yeah. It makes a big difference. That was the biggest thing I learned in college. And that's what I always tell my little siblings, like the classes. Yes, you do your best. You get good grades. But it was everything I did outside

of that meeting people and networking and learning to talk to people and learning how to go to an interview and like conduct yourself well, learning how to show up on time to things like all of those kind of things. That was what I really learned from college, just how to be an adult, how to manage my own affairs. No one's going to do your laundry. No one's going to make your bed. No one's going to take care of that. Nobody's cooking for you.

So you either eat junk food or you cook your own food, like all of that kind of stuff. I think it's super helpful. Like I always tell young people, try to go to college if you can, like don't start working immediately. If you can go to college, even if you're going to end up racking up some debt, I think that you might make such a return on the investment of what you learn in college, especially if you take advantage of it. If you're not always partying and if you're not always slacking off and trying to live

it up, do those things because that's the other time when you can do that. You can't do that when you have a wife and kids. Go have fun. Go to a few parties. Enjoy, you can't do that when you have a wife and kids. Like, go have fun. Go to a few parties. Enjoy yourself. Don't do anything you're going to regret. I love when people say, don't do anything I wouldn't do. That's like the best saying.

But yeah, like do those things. And then also work really, really hard on networking, meeting people, going to your professor's office hours, asking questions, like trying to build up your career stuff. Cause everybody should know by now that the old model of get your degree and then land a job off of interviews, your senior year is not really happening. You know, like even for engineers, even for people in, you know, like the sciences, it's not even happening for a lot of them. People that do CS and so on. And that's how he ended up in doing what he's doing because he said he couldn't get a job. And do you want to trust your future to like the health of the economy? You know,

like that's, that's really, really risky. So just do a lot of stuff when you're in college, like really think about it and like spend your time wisely and get things done. I had fun in college, but I also like worked hard. So it's – I think it's a really, really good experience for young people to have. I think we end up spending like about 20 years or so and sometimes even more, which is crazy. It's wild like to think that you spend 20 years learning stuff from school and then it kind of, uh, it kind of shapes everybody to be similar in a weird way. What it, what it ultimately does, what I see it, what I see it doing, and there's a million positive things, uh, and beyond that it does as well. But, um, on the kind of negative side, what I see is it, it, it reminds me of just like, you know,

running in sand versus like, uh like running on a flat surface. You're just – you're going to tire yourself out. I don't know about you guys, but like when I was like – when I was about 15, like I was fucking pissed. Like I was like full of piss and vinegar and I – like I would love to still be that way, but you can't be because you get fatigued by just the whole uh just because i was a fucking teenager like aren't all teenagers mad no just like um you're just aggressive no no no i i didn't i didn't like fight people and shit like that but i was just uh i i was just i don't know more aggressive you know i played football and stuff like that but like i just mean like um i don't know i just i i felt like i had a lot more

energy to be pissed about something you know if you said something to me i wouldn't fight you over it because i'm not that kind of person i can like get in a fistfight but i would argue like crazy i'd be like no that's not the way you know now i'm just like yeah whatever i don't fucking care whatever he thinks is fine i'm gonna go about my fucking day but you're what what i see is like a lot of people like you said you're uh really into like economics and it's cool that you developed a swerve around to continue in that field but a lot of times that dream dies because of the bullshit process that you have to go through and it's like oh i need to do this and i need to work the state legislator and then i need to go and then by the time you get around all these suits and all these people and all this

conformity you're like fuck this and they all tell you that their dream died too and they're like that's the way it is and you're like really like that's that's the way it is well crap like my dream died too and and i like i remember in high school i was thinking damn man when you were young you had dreams of like you thought you could be an actor one day and you thought like you could achieve all these different things. And like, damn, like this is, this is not where it's headed. Like you're going to go to UCSD study econ and then go get a job. Like this sucks. Like what happened to all those dreams? And like once, once I tasted that there was that opportunity, I was like, Ooh, there's a fork in the road and I could take it right now, but I have to like get on that train right now. I was like, oh crap, I got to do this.

Like, because the great thing was like, what's the worst that's going to happen? Really? Like, I just didn't think it was that bad. Like we live in America, you know, like this isn't, you know, like a completely impoverished third world country where, you know, you're like, oh, I'm going to go be an actor. And they're like, good luck, man. Like, good luck even getting a job here. Like, it's not that like there's all these different safety programs. And there's, you know,

if you've got family, that's fantastic. You can always crash on somebody's couch. If you have a car, like, what a blessing. You could sleep in your car. There's like so many things you could do. So if you ever get the chance, I do think living like the life of your dreams and doing what you love for a living is kind of a luxury. And I think you could probably build your way into that, like, you know, the whole side hustle thing and stuff like that. You could probably build your way into it. But, you know, when you got kids and a significant other and all that kind of stuff, like that's a tough decision to make. And like now it's not just you following your dreams. It's your family sacrificing for your dreams.

So yeah, like I don't, I hope nobody's feeling like regret or like any sort of wistful sadness listening to this. But like, I think that honestly, I do think that those opportunities will come up a few times in life though. I don't think that that thing only rolls around once and that's it. And you missed it. And like, well, I'm screwed now. There'll be a few times when you can seize opportunities that will move you in the direction of your dreams. And it's probably always going to make your heart flutter. And you're probably always going to feel like, Ooh, this

is kind of risky. Like, do I do this? And that's when you sit down and you have the talk with the wife and you talk to the kids and, and then you say like, Hey, this is something I really want to do. And hopefully they're understanding enough to let you do it. And if you're young, like just swallow it and do it, like do it, you know, and it's terrifying. It's supposed to be terrifying. Like that's, that's the thing that people don't talk about that, like go for their dreams and stuff. Like they don't talk about how scary it is when you're like afraid that your whole family is going to think you're a bum, like you're some starving artist. Like what happened to this like proud econ kid that like we sent off and we tell everybody now he's not getting a degree and now he's going to be an actor and living in la like

by the way super supportive okay that's that's like you always talk about like the being the product of good parenting and how you want to provide that for your audience like that's a huge blessing my mom is like a like patent or something she's like this lady that like the biggest cheerleader in my life. So, um, yeah, I remember when I brought it up,

stopping people at the grocery store to, to tell them about your cookbook and stuff like that. Probably like that. That's my mom. Exactly. You got to read this Jack and Tan book. It's amazing. Look at my son. Yes.

At church muscles. He's got telling the priest at church. Do you watch power Rangers? That sort of thing. So it's like, she's like, Oh, that oh, that's lovely, man. That's my dad. Yeah, his birthday is on the 14th, and I just drove in last night,

and I saw him this morning. Shit, man, he ain't messing around with that tan. No, yeah, I'm not messing around with the editing is what it was. Your shoulders are bouldery. He actually has a better frame. Like, my mom kind of sized me down a littleery. He actually has a better frame. My mom kind of sized me down a little bit. She's like a small, small lady.

He's actually got a really solid frame. He got up to like two something. And yeah, he used to lift. I've got some pictures of him when he was young. I think everybody has this story about their dad, though. But he used to be pretty swollen jack. But the cool thing is he is now, I think, a month or a month and a half into lifting again. That's why I brought him here. So he's been talking about this for the longest time.

And I always kind of drag him to the gym. But he's been doing it totally on his own. And then he just started going to Zumba classes, which we're all having a huge laugh off of because he's like the most shy, reserved kind of dude. But, yeah, he was here recently. It was fun. That's awesome if if like because i've talked about this a little bit before i'm gonna make this short but like my mom culturally nigerians are extremely academic school oriented you know that realm when i left school i never told her but i just don't know i didn't tell her when i when i left because like that

would have been oh that would have been scary but like when i did tell her and i was working at the I just don't just shit on the dream because i know a lot of i have a lot of friends whose parents just shat all over what they wanted to do because it wasn't necessarily normal that's so negative too i don't think parents i don't think they even realize it yeah i don't think they realize that you know i i'm a big fan in just about everything i do and in really actually never saying no like i'd rather confuse people than to say no. I'd rather them walk away and be like, I don't know what that was about rather than to say no. Because if somebody that works here or someone's looking for a certain salary or something, I'm not going to be the person that's going to say,

like, no, absolutely not. Because I feel that you can reach that value that you've laid out. Yeah. And I also heard what you said. And I recognize why you're saying that, because you feel that that's what you should be valued at. And I think a lot of times with kids, I don't think we realize that, man, you really are hurting. Like you're crushing them. Like you're, you're not valuing what they said. And there's nothing worse as a little kid. And even as great as my parents were, and as great as my brothers were, and we were all loving family and everything. I can, I can like vividly remember the times that like my spirit's been crushed, you know, or, or they said, get out, you know, get out of here. You know, we're,

we're watching a, a rated R movie or something. They just don't want you around or they don't feel like you fit in or whatever for that time period. That kind of stuff, man, it feels bad. And I think a lot of times a parent, they're thinking like, go to college. I need you to go to college. I need you to do A, B, and C. I needed to go to college. I needed to do A, B, and C. And then when you go to them and like, you know, or even trying to say that you want to do something different, they could really be crushing your dreams without even really saying that, I don't know way. And I think that you end up, you know, kind of leaving the kid feeling kind of empty, you know, and just not feeling very good actually, you know. I think that like where parents, I guess in my experience, you know, I was always into cars. So I'm like, hey, like parents, I want to go to UTI, University Technical university technical institute whatever it's like mechanic school

and they're like no no we don't want you to be a mechanic like that's that's a terrible idea like all right guess i'm not doing that i've always loved cooking like i don't know what the hell i'm doing like i think maybe like culinary school or something because college just wasn't in the uh the equation like i just i didn't want to go to traditional school same thing like no you're not a cook like you're not gonna do that like fuck okay i guess i'm not and they're totally right i would have hated being a mechanic i would have probably disliked trying to like cook food and stuff but we don't know what that could have led to yeah and i think that like my parents were like so like simple-minded to be like oh my gosh if he does that he's gonna hate his life like we're

we're gonna do everything we can to make sure he doesn't do that but when i look at my daughter now like she wanted to do a certain type of uh dance class instead of the one that like i was hoping she would do but it's like well maybe this will lead to something else yeah and like uh in a weird way it led to her saying she wants to do jujitsu so So I'm super stoked about that. I know. One of the happiest days that a dad could ever experience. So we're going to sign her up for jujitsu. But if I would have just been like, no, you're doing this dance class and that's it,

it wouldn't have led to her admitting that she kind of just wasn't really into dance anymore and she wants to do jujitsu. And I'm like, Oh my gosh. Like just like the, the nightmare I had of thinking like if I had stopped that conversation right then and there, like the way my parents did, it would have been like, oof,

like, man, that's scary. But you know, it led to something else. So I think that's something what like parents can also think of is like, okay, you don't want your son to be a,

you know, a hippie in a van with a, with a band, you know, but like, Hey, maybe your son to be a you know a hippie in a van with a with a band you know but like hey maybe on the way he you know gets in touch with like a manager and he starts managing these hippies or something and he not he's the man you know he's making all the money while they're out traveling or whatever you know because yeah like if you just think simple-minded you're gonna miss out so much one of the things i learned is like if if you if you communicate in a way that your parents will actually like realize that you're like if you

really take your time with it instead of like hey mom i want to go be an actor but if like what what i did before i ever told her that i was going to leave college or go into acting i started doing stuff already so she saw that i'm that you into one. I'm not really asking her, but I would like her to approve of it. But two, it's like, I'm not thinking about doing this. I'm not dreaming about it.

It's not like a nice idea or let's see how this goes. It's like, I'm actually putting work into this. It's like the same thing with any sort of pitch, you know, like you kind of have to prove something. You got to earn your stripes first and then. Yeah,

a little bit. It's like a kid that wants a new car and all they've ever exhibited is like irresponsible behavior, you know? So sometimes like you do have to kind of earn their ability to trust you and they might say no. And this sounds terrible, but they might not really mean no. Like it might just be a matter of time until you've proven to them that like you're you're able to do something and then they realize like okay you know we can trust him with this like every parent has that like oh this is the responsible kid and this one's a wild one and like you get these labels and then the kids are like yeah i guess i'm the wild one and i guess i'm the responsible one and you live within that

yeah um yeah parenting damn yeah it's certainly it ain't easy you know and i and i what i've seen you know sometimes people just getting like crushed you know an example would be like you're at a pool party and the kid wants to like jump off the diving board because he sees the older kids jumping off the diving board maybe maybe the kids maybe his kid has two left feet like maybe the kid honestly is not very coordinated and maybe the kid kid – you've seen your own kid like hurt himself a bunch of times. The worst thing though you can do is to say you're not jumping off that diving board. And some parents take it even further. They'll actually say like you're not coordinated.

That's terrible. That's not – I know. But they don't realize like – I mean I kind of think that's like almost the equivalent of like abuse in some way because when you hear that over and over again, then you're like, okay, I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. And you add it all up and you're like, I can't do much of anything. And an easier thing to do would say, okay, you know what? I'm going to go in the pool in a few minutes, and when I go in, I'd love for you to jump off the diving board, i'd love you to jump to me you know or you figure out some sort of compromise or we're going to jump in

together we're going to do it you know we're going to do these things together and with my kids you know my wife is is really good at saying no because sometimes you do have to literally just say no um but i you know i my kids know like i'm the sucker in the family and they can come to me and they can get like whatever they want sort of thing. But I always like to try to find some middle ground. And I've just learned for myself like it leads to just a more peaceful life in general. When someone asks for something, I don't really say no. I try to start to think in my head, how do I meet this person at least halfway?

Even though I kind of think this is kind of dumb, I still want to be able to, I want the person that asked me the question, I want them to understand that I value them and I heard what they said. And so I'm going to try to meet, you know, can I realistically meet them? I mean, sometimes it's just absolutely no, I can't do it or, or you can't do something. But even last night, my daughter is like – she's like I've been kind of locked up in the house all day. I was like, well, I was like you weren't really locked up in the house. You were on your phone and I was available all day to do whatever you wanted. It's like 7 o'clock and I'm thinking like I want to start to work my way towards bed.

We got some early stuff we're doing here today. And she's like, can we, you know, can we go to downtown Davis? And I was like, you know, it's like 15 minutes or so, 15 minute drive. So 15 there, 15 back half an hour and then hanging out down there for half an hour. hour i was like you know what um let's just get in a car and like just go for a ride you know and then so we went for a ride i dropped my son off at his friend's house because he was bored as hell too and uh and then i was like yeah we're halfway there shit let's go downtown so we went downtown went for a walk we walked together her and i spent time together for, I don't know, 90 minutes. And it was awesome. You know, it was cool. And so, like, I'm always trying to figure out a way to try to just, you know, value something that somebody is saying and pay attention to it. And, you know, from a parenting standpoint and from a business owner standpoint, like, okay, I heard what you said.

You want to make $70K a year. I heard that. And you're currently not anywhere near that at the moment. I'm not going to necessarily say no. I might say, okay, if we can work towards these things right here, I'm going to give you a bump right now. And after six months, we can look this over. And if you were able to follow through on a lot of this stuff and we're both feeling good about it, boom,

we'll bump you up to exactly what you asked for. That kind of stuff. I mean sometimes, like I said, sometimes we just can't. They just want the opportunity to get to that. People just want to be heard too. Yeah. Just want to be heard. That's really powerful that you give them things that they can do rather than saying like we'll see how you do at the end of the year and it's super vague and they're like well what do i do but you give them like hey if you do these things you will

definitely be 70k worth you know yeah well these are all like learned things you know i had to learn these things because i'm very i'm vague in general i guess like i i'm kind of just vague all the time you know but because i just i want people to be like self-starters and stuff but it's it's complicated you know um why like why are you going to be a self-starter for somebody else you know because that's they ultimately they work for me right they work for here um we're all kind of in it together um but then it's it's a matter of it's really truly a matter of hiring the right people which is a whole different podcast in and of itself. But when you hire the correct people, if you get someone who's excited about engineering the podcast, then there's not a lot of conversation about how to get Andrew more hyped up to do podcasting because he's already into it.

If I had somebody else who maybe just doesn't care about podcasting that much and it was something we had to like force and we had to get them fired up and excited to do it, that's going to sputter and that's going to – that person is going to feel underpaid and overworked like over and over. It's just going to be – it's just not going to work out very well. It's great when you could do something for work that you would do for free. Like know, like it was so easy for me to take free acting gigs. Cause I'm like, this is fun. I would do this regardless. And it's giving me experience. I had a lot of people when I was about to do the power Rangers gig that were like, don't sign the contract. And like agents were saying that, cause like, it's not the greatest contract as an actor. And I have a lawsuit coming to me right now for saying that. Oh no, no, I'm kidding. They're, they're crazy. It's not the greatest contract as an actor. And I have a lawsuit coming to me right now for saying that. Oh, no.

No, I'm kidding. They're crazy. It's like one of those things where they're like, yeah, you know, you could probably hold out for something different or better. But to me, it was like, man, all I see are pluses. All I see is experience that I would pay to get. I would pay to do this show. So why would I not sign this contract? Like it didn't

make any sense to me so for me like i remember a lot of days on set where um you know if there was ever any grumblings in the cast about like pay or hours or anything like that it was like i i i just felt like work me harder like you use whatever use whatever you want out of me because i'm i'm very very glad to be. And I wanted to show them that. Yeah. Real quick, our buddy Luis Pena has a birthday this week. And he said that you are his favorite Power Ranger. Oh, man.

So if we can get a shout-out birthday to Luis. Luis, happy birthday, man. Hope you have a good one. Yeah. And then he had actually had another question about like your diet and your training and stuff. Um, how much like cardio do you implement throughout like your week? Like, and like what type of cardio do you do? Yeah. So three days a week it's lifting and then pretty much every other day I take one day off, but every

other day. So three days a week I'll do cardio. Uh, I do like day off, but every other day, so three days a week, I'll do cardio. I do like zone two cardio, which is basically, it's basically just a light jog or, you know, you could go hiking and do things like that. But I just go for a light jog for usually 30 to 45 minutes, sometimes up to 60 minutes if I feel like it. But yeah, it's not a huge calorie burn, honestly. It's not too bad. And because it's so low intensity, it's like very lipolytic. So you're not tapping into too much like glycogen. So I still feel good the next day in the gym. The only things I have to pay attention to are making sure I'm getting in the sodium, the water. So refilling some of the water weight that I lost through the sweating and through the running. But it's not like burning through all my glycogen stores. Do you pay attention to your heart rate when you do that? Or you just pay attention to expenditure, like how you're feeling?

How I'm feeling now. So when I started it, I used to do like the heart rate monitor and it's like 180 minus your age and you stay at or below that. But then what I started doing was, can I run at a pace that I'm able to only breathe through my nose? And once I got that down, then I just started like, all right, I know the intensity, so let's just relax with it. It's really just running

at the most comfortable pace possible. So that's kind of what I do. It's actually kind of annoying because you're like, I want to go, because you want to go faster. Yeah, you want to go faster or you want to go slower.

You're like, I kind of feel like walking. Or I kind of feel like I'd rather sprint one of these. But it's really effective. I've done it a bunch and I actually am kind of practicing that now where I'm learning from that is like the – if I run like quote-unquote too fast, I run too fast, then it slows my walk down too much. So it's like I go at a pretty good pace with the walk where it's like maybe about almost four miles an hour moving pretty good. And then I might kind of do like a light jog just because I get bored. It's like every 30 – I'm not doing a hit thing though. a light jog just because i get bored you know it's like every 30 i'm not doing a hit thing though i'm not you know i'm not going all in and like revving the treadmill up to you know 15 miles an hour

anything crazy like yeah it's just uh a moderate pace but yeah i do find it uh to be super effective and then breathing through the nose is actually really interesting too because anytime you like overdo it you're like oh shit like I got some pretty good oxygen debt going on right now. Yeah. And you feel it in your brain. Like if, if you're going too fast, you'll actually get a headache if you're just doing the nose breathing. So I think honestly, like if you want to go a little faster and your body's really telling you like, Hey, yeah, like I, I got it in me right now. Like, let me just go a little bit faster. You do that. And then two days later, when you're running again, you don't feel it and you relax a little

bit and you just kind of like work with your body a little bit. If you're not like doing a competition or something. What are you doing with your lifts, bench and squat and deadlift and that kind of stuff? Pretty much all the compounds. It's like basically I stopped programming my own stuff. I just started using this thing called Fitbod and I just picked one of their programs. It's like the bodybuilding template and I focused on the compounds

and then I said, throw in some accessories and it's a push day, pull day, leg day. So yeah, just three lifting days a week. I've been considering throwing in yoga. And the reason why is like all of those little things that you're supposed to do around your training, like working your external rotators and working your lower back and doing bridges and like working your adductors and abductors and all that kind of stuff. Like the little things that I

say to do at the end of the workout and I don't do, um, I'm like, man, yoga hits a lot of those and I'll be able to hit my posture, upward dog, downward dog, like stretching, you know? So I'm, I want to include that and i'm kind of toying with the idea you should yeah you should definitely do some yoga and uh i would even say like look into some yin yoga because i think you would like kind of the weirdness of it because it's really just the it's kind of the practice of like just sitting still you know getting still that there's some meditative part i mean a meditative part of all of yoga really but um it's it's a lot less dynamic than regular yoga which can be fun because you get to move a lot

more and uh the intensity is much higher so it's a bigger challenge which you would have have absolutely no no problem with but uh yin yoga is like it's it's mainly like it's pretty grounded you're pretty much on the ground the entire time. But for you, I could see it being valuable. Cause it's like, no, William, like you're just going to slow the fuck down. You know, that's what we're going to do for the next 60 minutes. You're just not, you're not going fast. You're not going hard. You're chilling, you know? Yeah. I think it'd be cool. That was something I realized when the first time I came here and we were lifting and you know, Mr. Like superset circuit, let's, let's do this. Let's do that.

And everybody's benching and in between benching, everybody just hangs out. And I was like, what is this? This is great. Sign me up. Yeah, it was crazy, but it totally makes sense. You know, you take your time with it and you focus on what you're doing for the purpose. Like you don't need to stack on other stuff. That was, so you told me to listen to Jim Rohn

and Jordan Peterson last time we talked in Davis. And I've been doing that religiously. And Jim Rohn says, concentrate. He says, don't write the letter when you're in the shower. When you're in the shower, shower, enjoy the shower. When you're at work, work. When you go to the beach with the family, be at the beach with the family.

Don't bring the briefcase. Like that was huge. Cause I kinda, and not to diss Gary Vee, I love Gary Vee, but I kind of got into this mindset of like, you should always be working. Like if you, if you're not where you want to be, like, why are you relaxing? You need to hustle more. So I would try to saturate every second with like this ongoing question in my mind of what should I be doing right now? And it was always like, well, why aren't you responding to those emails? You should have responded to like, do that now. So, you know, you stop at a light and you check your phone. Did you get a text? Boom. And then

you're, you're going to get like, you never just kind of, let's do this at this time. Let's do that at that time. And then I thought about the way I lift and I'm like, well, I'm not like hitting jump squats every second of the day. And like, always trying to like, I have a time for that. And I have a time for this. So let me have like a work time. Let me have a time to relax at the end of the day. I don't need to be working up until the second I go to sleep just so I feel like, you know, and you're so stressed out. You're like, I definitely had a productive day. And it's like, you could have condensed that and like really smashed it in the time allotted. Yeah. And then just like breathe, you know, and have those different moments.

So that was helpful. Like I, I really took a lot out of, um, and Jim Rohn's so charming too. He's, he's so like easy to listen to. He gets, he gets me fired up somehow and he's not really, he's not yelling or it's not like a CT Fletcher video or anything like that. What, something that I feel is important on that same note is when you are other, you know, quote unquote other places, you know, when you're on the beach with your kids and you're texting or you're, you know, in the shower thinking about like work or you're at work and you're thinking about being like, it's really weird how that all happens. Like wherever you are, you're thinking of like the opposite thing somehow or. Or your diet.

Yeah. Yeah. If you're at work, you're going of like the opposite thing somehow. Or your diet. Yeah, yeah. If you're at work, you're going to be thinking about being at home. And sometimes when you're at home, you're thinking about work. And then what truly happens is you really end up being nowhere. Yeah, damn. You kind of end up really not being anywhere because you're like half present and trying to multitask and trying to juggle too many things at one time. Yeah, you chase two things, you end up with none. You end up with nothing.

Yeah, that's tough. I'm trying to get better at that too, but, you know. Or think about like— Awareness is just crucial, I think. The goals that we have, like for you being lean and like you think about what is life going to be like when I'm lean and you think of all the benefits and things like that and how you're going to feel and then you're lean and the second you look at yourself in the mirror and you've hit that lean goal, you're like, okay, what's next? Let's get bigger. Let's, and you never took a second to be

like, man, this is incredible. Like here I am in this moment. I achieved this. Let's enjoy this. Let's celebrate it a little bit. Let's, let's have fun with it. It's like always, you're always living in the future and this moment doesn't ever exist. It's just like, well, if I enjoy this moment, then I'm not going to be creating for the future. You know? Oh, I never thought of it that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. That's how I think a lot of people feel. It's like you always have to be

living for the future to ever have anything in the present. But it's like, you know, where does that get you when you're on your deathbed, you know, and what future then do you have to live for? Because you never live for the present moment. Yeah, and where does it get you on your deathbed when you didn't hang out with your friends because you were so obsessed with increasing your bench or being better at something?

Because you thought it would make you more jacked and you'd feel more confident around your friends and you'd be more accomplished because you're the badass of the group, but you never hang out with them anyway yeah right and none of them give a fuck about your bench press anyway they would have loved you the same anyway it's it's weird yeah i will say though uh my parent or my parents for sure but like the rest of my family my fiance showed him a picture like a progress picture and i again i could have told them like

yeah i can deadlift 315 now like for reps and like okay is that cool is that means nothing to them yeah but abs are universal language ah yeah people are like oh shit you're in you're in shape now it's like dude i've been doing this for so many years and now like okay fine little do they know i'm like the lightest i've been in like four years, though. They're like, damn, you got so much bigger. You're like, I've been getting that a lot, too. That's the thing, though.

When you look at the cover of this book, you look like you're 200 fucking pounds. Yeah, man. 150 there. I know. That's the crazy thing, man. Got some good bicep peak there, buddy. And those shoulders. I've talked about those on the previous podcast, too. You messed, buddy. And those shoulders. I've talked about those on the previous podcast, too.

He messed up everything. The shoulders, yeah. Well, I feel like everything I do goes to my shoulders. Like when I'm benching, and this isn't good. I should be retracting more, but I can feel my front delts are just like powering through it. How about like cable flies, too? Yeah, I'm working on like pulling them back for that and like squeezing the chest and doing these things. Like I think spend presses where you have like a plate and you're just like.

Oh, yeah. Those are terrible. I wonder if it's a lean guy thing because I feel it in my shoulders big time too. Yeah, it compensates I think for a lot. Do you still do any martial arts training like nowadays or not? Not really. I was considering getting back into Muay Thai, but not really. I feel like I just want to do whatever it takes to hit my acting goals this year.

So I feel like for me, there may be like some tricking involved. There may be like maybe I'll do some like stunt kind of training. Okay. But yeah, I'm not going to do anything outside of it that I don't need to do. Gotcha. Because I think it's going to take a good chunk of time. I like a little bit about what you're saying about, you know, about free, about like how you would just kind of do something, you know, like the Power Ranger, Power Ranger deal that you got. You know, I think that's a really powerful thing. And I think that for a lot of people, if they could just wrap their mind around, you know, what, what are these things that you do in your day to day, uh, that are free, that you really enjoy that are legitimate things that maybe you could figure out a way, uh, to do more often or to turn into money, you know,

to turn into like financial gain of some sort, or, or maybe you can figure out a way to do more of it through having financial gain somewhere else. Like you're mentioning having a multiple revenue streams. Like that's really smart. I think, you know, in today's world of, of, uh, you know, e-commerce and being able to people to order stuff online, I think that's a, that's great. Like if you do online training and then maybe you have T-shirts and hats to go with it. It's just like another it's like, OK, I did that. And now there's this extra revenue stream that people can support because I think sometimes it feels weird. We feel weird selling shit and you shouldn't you shouldn't feel weird.

You make stuff. And if people want to buy it, it's up to them. And you shouldn't really have – you shouldn't really be too caught up on the logistics of it and you shouldn't be too caught up on whether you're being annoying with like selling shit to people because people will just make up their own mind their own way on if they want to purchase it or not. purchase it or not. Yeah. Like you are providing a service and I would not write plans for people and I would not create like, you know, carnivore training guides or eating guides and things like that if I wasn't getting paid for it. So nobody would ever have the information that I created in those guides if I wasn't being paid for it. But because I'm being paid for it, it's like, sure, I'll, I'll take the time to like sit down and come up with a plan for you and work with you on a weekly basis. And it's providing a service that they wouldn't otherwise have.

So I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And the other thing too is people could follow like all the stuff that you put out on Instagram and stuff. And they could piece it together if they wanted to do it for free. Yeah, yeah. They'd be like, all right, well, he eats a lot of meat. All right, write that down. And you talked about your training. And I think that there's many people like that nowadays that are giving a lot of information and you could piecemeal it together uh through

going to youtube and through piecing together something they put on their twitter and piecing together this and that and you could probably end up with a with a great program but it's sometimes it's easier to and more organized is to say i just going to pay the guy and have him write shit out for me. I think it's great to do both. Like you should give everything out that you have. Like, I think I, I like the idea of giving out all your secrets, you know? Um, because one of the things is like, a lot of the time people aren't really going to do it anyway, you know? So it's, it's not like the ones that pay are the ones that actually like really want to take that step forward. Like one guy that I followed for a while, a Kino body,

Greg O'Gallagher, which who you guys should have him on the podcast. That'd be awesome. But he's a really solid dude. So I, I watched pretty much every single one of his videos in college because I didn't want to pay for his programs. And when I finally had the money to pay for his programs, I bought every single one of them because I loved his information, you know? So sometimes there's that like long-term return on, on putting out that amount of content. Yeah. He's big into fasting too. I think he was doing that like back in 2011, 2012. Yeah. So yeah, that's pretty awesome. But yeah, man, the real Bruce Wayne. That's a classic video. That was a classic. Oh, that's him. Yeah. Okay. Now it's pretty awesome. The real Bruce Wayne. That's a classic video.

That was a classic. Oh, that's him? Yeah. Okay. That's from Canada. Canadier. What you got over there, Andrew? Somebody on Twitter actually, shout out to people on Twitter, at MBPowerProject, was just curious about like you had said something about like the fattier

meats were actually making you kind of like keep more fat on or was he miss? Okay. Why do you think that? I just said that like maybe it's like a lean body thing because I know once I started having lower fat and adding carbs, granted my diet, it has been nearly perfect perfect so that has more to do with it than anything but i felt better i felt like i was still retaining like the pump in the gym and i didn't feel heavy now it's hard for a thin guy to feel heavy but like i just did i felt like it weighed me down so do you think that maybe that has something to do with why like the fattier cuts of meat weren't really like agreeing with your body in the way you wanted it to be? I think so, man. Like the way that I think about it is just like you have a bigger glycogen or like you have that glycogen storage capacity.

So when you're switching out some of the fat energy calories for some carbs in there and then a little bit less fat, you're going to fill up a lot of those glycogen stores, especially if you burn through them. If you say, forget the carbs, it's going to be all fat. Well, all of that is going into your body fat to be burned at a later time. So that's kind of like one of the main ways that you're storing it. You're still going to create glycogen off of that. But I just feel like bringing carbs in and what that does for the muscles and bringing water into the muscles, like it's even sort of an effect. Like it's sort of an illusion too. You just look a little bit leaner because you're a little bit more filled out. The water's in the muscle.

So I might not have actually been leaner. It might have just been like an effect. And I know that bringing in carbs a lot of the time can help decrease your cortisol and get rid of some water retention. So that could have been part of it too. Like I might've just been retaining some water in my abs. You bring in the carbs, you drop the stress in the body and you flush out a little bit of water.

So this is a not real science and I'm sure someone could come in and slaughter me. But if you just try to think about it this way, that like where, where is glycogen stored mainly? I realize it can be like in your liver and it can be some other places. But it's mainly in your muscles, right? Your glycogen is in your muscles. And then where is your fat stored?

Yeah. So you kind of think about it that way. You have an overabundance of anything and you start to overeat on anything, that's going to lead you to gain weight in a way that you probably don't want, maybe with the exception of protein. But if you start eating really high fat and you're still overconsuming food because they're delicious, right? That's kind of the thing. over consuming food because they're delicious, right? That's kind of the thing. But, you know, when I did the three ribeyes, three ribeyes for three days in a row, it was like near impossible to eat three ribeyes. I mean, I love meat. I love ribeyes. But by the second day, and it was only a three day experiment by day two, I was chopping up the I was chopping the one and a half, you know,

so I really only ate two per day. But if you do have a big appetite and you're able to hammer down some of these foods, then maybe you can still end up overeating. Like can you overeat on a keto diet? Of course you can. Can you overeat if you're trying to do a lean-down version of a keto diet? That gets to be really hard. If you start to kind of quote unquote trim the fat away, now you're talking about a challenge.

Like that gets to be really hard. Like if you're only having steaks that are leaner. Now that's not a great long-term diet anyway because you're going to feel like shit very soon after. But how would you not feel like shit? A great way to not feel like shit would be to either add the fat back in or to add some carbohydrates in there yeah what a cool thing to uh to like bring to people's attention that you couldn't eat three ribeyes three days in a row yeah like i know you had challenged people like hey let's let's do this

and somebody who you know might be overweight is probably like deal like oh come on that's easy you're right but try it oh it was it was kind of hard i mean they were pretty good size but yeah it was it was fucking tough i mean i guess if i really wanted to dedicate myself to it i could probably do it yeah but even with like trying to fast and trying to like you know i had i tried doing one in the morning and i tried doing one at lunch and then one at dinner. And by the time I got to dinner, I was like, I just don't even care. I don't care about food at all. I feel totally fine. Then I tried spacing it out and I tried, or I tried fasting and trying to do like almost all of it towards the end of the day, like a double dinner. And like that didn't work. It was, it was hard. Yeah. And it's funny. So like, uh like uh the the episode that went up today on youtube

and itunes with uh laura and chris bath she has kind of a similar story about when she was actually vegan or vegetarian i'm not sure and she just went on a cheat she had a ribeye so kind of like you she you know you had one you had one thing going and then you tried a different thing. She never went back. She's like, I feel so good all of a sudden. It's like, oh, all the sodium and all the things that you were talking about, like the vitamins finally getting into your body. She experienced the same thing and she never went back.

And her thing is she just has one ribeye every single day. And it's like that's all she needs. It's amazing. amazing that whole episode's incredible everybody needs to check that out right after this podcast man i like that one ribeye every single day that's so simple it doesn't get more simple than that right yeah you know something that i i find uh cool about your story is you know the the the acne thing right like it seems like uh well everyone's got acne you know like well that's what you hear when you have most people have yeah most people have it right like like especially teenagers you go through you know having some pimples here and there and stuff but trying to solve a problem like that is weird and complicated and then

on top of it being like kind of complicated, it teaches you a lot of life lessons because it's like, well, you're focusing in on this and you're trying to, you know, use those clear assault pads and like you're trying to do all this stuff with it. But it's a much bigger story that needs a much larger solution. What have you kind of learned through that process? Like, you know, kind of through a nutritional standpoint, but just a life lesson as well. It's like, it's not about like, it's not about cleanliness. I'm sure you were taking showers and stuff like that. It has, it literally has almost nothing to do with that at all. You know, what are some things you've learned from that? Oh man, there's, so when I had that, I would ask myself, because I would always think in

terms of like, God's trying to teach me a lesson. Oh, that's a beautiful picture. People listening probably can't see this, but it was, it was a picture that I took my first day on Accutane. I think I was like 17 years old. And that was actually a good angle too. On the left and right, it was like pretty severe. And then of course on the chest and back and stuff. A few things you learn about that. So one of them is you realize

how much your confidence is impacted by that, which is huge and your ability to interact with people. So you're no longer yourself. So I would always think I want to do whatever it takes to be myself. So taking care of what you need to take care of. But I would always think I want to do whatever it takes to be myself. So taking care of what you need to take care of. But I would always think like, what lesson is God trying to teach me? Like that's the lens through which I viewed it. And I was like, I got it, God. Like, you know, wash my face. Like, okay, so can we get rid of this now?

Like I'll take care of myself. But I realized, like now I realize it was way deeper than that. It was about, man, it was about like being confident. It was about feeling unstoppable when things are in your favor. It was about moving forward. It was about, you know, bringing your best to challenges about not saying no and not backing down from those. Like when I had that, there were many times when I felt kind of hopeless around that whole situation. And it's like your whole life kind of changes. Like you see people walking up and they're looking at your face and they're

kind of like studying your face. And then you look at them and they look away, that sort of thing. Any friends that you had, all of a sudden they start hanging out with you a lot less or, you know, those kinds of things. So everything's amplified.

Yeah. And, and people might not even actually care but because you care so much because you're dealing with it every day you project that yeah you think everyone's freaking out about it you think that he and i are getting together laughing about it be like oh he's you know do you think all these crazy thoughts but that becomes your reality that becomes the kind of image that you uh you of yourself. How did you, so, you know, doing the vegan diet helped a lot. It seemed like the carnivore diet helped a lot. How have you been

able to help other people? Like has this, when people have come to you about acne specifically, have you been able to help everyone be able to get rid of it? I haven't been asked about that a ton, but when I did that post, I did get a lot of people asking me about it. And I just give them very, very simple advice about what works. So the vegetable oils are huge. Like you really have to cut those out completely.

The sugars, that's huge. Vegetable oils are what? Like in processed foods and stuff like that too. And at restaurants pretty heavily and things like that, right? Exactly. So pretty much any fat that's used at a restaurant 99 of the time is canola oil or peanut oil or some sort of like seed oil or maybe try to ask if you do go to a restaurant and say hey like you know i'm allergic to that or make some deal of it right that's actually a great strategy you just tell them you're allergic to it. They'll, they'll make sure it's not in there. Um, so sticking to, you get like coconut

oil is fine. You could do butter. Um, olive oil is fine. So the fats that you eat, that's huge because that's going to be lining your cells and that's going to be like a huge source of inflammation. If you're experiencing that acne is all about reducing inflammation. So that's one of the things you do, obviously cutting out sources of sugar. I found that on the vegan diet, even though I was consuming sugar from fruits, that wasn't really an issue. It was consuming like junk, really. You know, when I was back at home and it's in the morning and you have a muffin on the

way to school, it was like that kind of stuff that really makes it bad. So if you're having fruits and vegetables, I think you're fine. So that's another thing. Another thing that's really helpful, liver. So Accutane is basically extremely high dose vitamin A and liver is also very high dose vitamin A in a very bioavailable form. So if you can consume liver a few times a week, vitamin A kind of helps you regulate the amount of oil your body's producing. If your body's overproducing oil and you have slow skin cell turnover, it causes the bacteria to accumulate. It can cause these little clogs in the pores. And then that's where you start to get this like really inflammatory acne. So have some liver that'll bring down some

of that oil production and that'll help out with that as well. Egg yolks are extremely helpful. Oysters with the zinc and kind of regulating your testosterone levels, that's extremely helpful. Any sort of fatty fish. Omega-3s are extremely helpful with reducing the inflammation. So those are the main ones.

I kind of tell people to eat, you know, properly raised meat, eggs, fish, incorporate some liver in there. I actually think green tea is really helpful with that as well. I had a lot of green tea when I was trying to get rid of it. So green tea, grains I found to be something that really aggravates it for me. You know, even if it's whole grains and even if it's oatmeal, things like that. So there could be something about that and the way my gut responds to that, that tends to trigger it. But that's the advice I give people. It's completely something that you can get rid of in a relatively short amount of time. If you turn things around, like if you really change your diet,

you can actually get rid of this. Like that picture that we were showing, I feel like I could have reversed that acne in probably three weeks if I, if I focused on doing, man, I wish I knew that back then. Cause I wouldn't have had to do the whole Accutane thing, but you can reverse that or do a vegan diet. Like if, if I could tell that kid anything, I would tell him, look, you start fasting, you drink water throughout the day. When you're at school, you don't really need to eat. When you get home, you're only eating protein. I want you to have, um, you know, maybe some fruits and vegetables. You have some liver and that whole thing is going to go away. Oh, and make sure you sleep as much as you can. So stop going to bed at midnight and then you got to get up at six for school, but actually sleep because sleep's going to reduce inflammation as well.

And that would have made life a whole lot easier for me. Amen. I think it's powerful that you at least went through the difficult aspects of it because now that people come to you, I mean, you have all these experiences, you have all of the stuff that you already did. Some of it works, some of it doesn't, but you know, so that's, that's awesome. There was a thing that I used to tell myself back then, like it's this mantra that I always repeat to myself when I'm going through those times is like, it was like, we'll figure this out. Like, we'll be okay. Like, this is going to be all right. And I would always tell myself that.

But at that time, I used to think, man, I would see people like walk out of their house in the morning and like they're in like pajamas or whatever. They're going to go to the store to get something. And I'm like, they did not have to wash their face, put anything on. They can just get up and go to the store to get something. And I'm like, they did not have to wash their face, put anything on. They can just get up and go to the store and just relax. But I would always tell myself like, if I ever get rid of this, I'm going to go for acting. Like I'm probably going to be unstoppable if I ever get rid of this. Cause I can do whatever I want after that. That felt like the major limiting factor in my life. The funny thing is when you take care of it, it's not just that you actually, it's's it's like inside of

you you realize like that same insecurity and issues with self-esteem will start to surface in other areas and then you realize like you can't keep playing whack-a-mole like you actually have to take care of whatever that deep insecurity is so just like the acne kind of inside out approach yeah you have to uh and then i'm sure like as a kid um with that amount of acne it was probably hard to like communicate with people as well as you you're able to do nowadays and and look people in the eye as much and things like that are probably difficult right yeah you don't look anybody in the eye when you have that like i i would never have a face-to-face conversation with someone i would kind of be, if I was talking to you, I'd be like looking over here and

my head would be kind of, and I'd look up every now and then just to not be rude. There was no talking to girls. You don't talk to girls when you're, when you're that insecure. So yeah, that like, there was a lot of kind of, I guess, social stunting at that point. And then I went to college and that girl said that compliment and I had a lot of catch up work. I was like, all right, we're back. We're back up and running.

Let's start talking to people and being a human being. Is the acne what led you to all the different diets pretty much? Exactly. That's what kind of forced you into learning. So I mean none of it would have ever happened if you didn't have – so maybe that was God's plan all along for you, huh? It was a huge blessing in disguise, like a lot of struggles if you have the right mindset around it. If I had just said, you know what, like I'm not going to try to figure this out.

I'm just going to deal with it and live with it. Like that wouldn't have led to any growth. The struggle was a good thing. So, yeah, you know, when people tell you to accept yourself and like body positivity and things like that, that's, that's great. You know, don't, don't judge yourself for something you can't change, but also don't accept something that you can change and improve on. You know, don't, don't get complacent for no reason. Like I knew that I could have had a healthier diet. So I was like, let's do that. Why, why am I going to accept that? I can't eat pizza, you know, or things like that. Like you don't accept that stuff. What else have you seen the style of diet that you, you know, that you've,

a carnivore style diet, what else have you seen it help people with that maybe you work with? One of the big things is like your mental health. That's something I've noticed a lot of. And yes, part of that could be the fact that you're consuming a lot of fat-soluble nutrients that help your brain, and you're reducing so much inflammation, and you're taking out so many toxins that it can create an environment for the brain to function optimally. But I think also the simplicity of finally having a solution that you can stick to, and that you feel good on, and it's sending your body in the right direction, and just feeling like you're doing something effective if that's placebo or not that mental

like simplicity can really just calm you down and if you're always stressed out all the time it just makes things worse so i've noticed both of those things people have a sense of relief and then they also have a lot of mental clarity so that's a big one satiety comes back so people are like i've never had to eat this much to lose fat you know like um some of the people that do my programs they're like do i really have to eat this much protein like i'm too full and it's like that's a great problem to have like good you know um so satiety is a big one upping the protein a little bit does tend to help out with like the muscle glycogen. So I've noticed a lot of people tend to do well when they're not afraid of the whole gluconeogenesis

process and they have a bit more protein. That's another one. Just sustainability. So people finally find something that they can actually stick to. And it becomes a base for a lot of people. I noticed a lot of people that do carnivore, myself included, don't end up staying strict carnivore, but we use it as a base. It's something you can always revert back to. I know that steak and eggs work, so that's going to be there for the rest of my life and I can just tinker around the edges. Yeah. If something happened and you were to gain weight and be depressed or something for a period of time, you'd be like, all right, steak and eggs. Yeah. You have control. Yeah, you're in control of your weight and of your body, which is a huge thing. Like when Jordan Peterson talks about cleaning your room, it's simply to give yourself a

feeling of being in control of your life. But whenever you feel out of control of something and you can't do anything about it, that's like a really bad feeling. And if you feel that way about your body, you're like, I'm trying so damn hard to lose weight, but I'm so hungry. I can't stop eating. If you finally feel like, wow, I'm actually full and I'm losing weight and I feel great. And you're in control of that. It changes a lot of other things in your life. You're like, what else can I take care of now? So that's, it's like a good starting point for other things. As far as your diet was concerned,

actually, did you ever feel, cause you never mentioned that you had problems with binge eating or anything like that. You did. Yeah, yeah. Towards the end of the vegan diet, to keep body fat off because I was so hungry, I started to calorie restrict. So I would hit like the small deficits and things like that. And calorie restricting on a vegan diet for me, plus like the sleep deprivation of being on the show, you get picked up at like six something in the morning. So the only time I had energy to train would be before that.

So I would get up at like 3.30 or four and go train. And then you get back from set at like eight. So I was sleep deprived and I was like not eating enough. And I was fueling myself off of carbs. So I was always hungry too. So I would have times when I would finally break and I would go buy like coconut ice cream and I would go buy like, um, man, sweet potato fries. And I would just go crazy on that. And I had a weekend. Oh boy. So I had this weekend in New Zealand where we had about three, four days in

between filming and me and my buddies went to Sydney, Australia, and we just hung out there for the weekend and, you know, they, they were eating normally and we go out to a little casino and, you know, have fun. I was nowhere to be found when they were all hanging out because I was literally at this restaurant ordering everything. And I gained 10 pounds that weekend. And I went back and the makeup people were, were trying to draw contours on my face. Cause I'd bloated up like crazy. Um, and, and it's like, you're trying to hit the brakes and you're trying so hard, but you can't stop eating. You it's just like, let me just down, you know, all this food and then I'm going to be good. And as soon as you're done with that, you're walking back to your hotel. You're like, let me

just stop in the gas station real quick. It's really like an addiction. It's like a drug thing almost. So yeah, I had issues with binge eating. And for a while I thought like, do I have a mental issue? Like, is that where this is led with all the calorie counting and restriction? And you see people that just eat normally and they're lean and you're like, what the hell? How do you do that? Like, how do you possibly eat until you're full and have energy and be lean? I almost didn't think that was possible. And I thought maybe my hormones are just messed up or maybe I have a slow metabolism now. So when you find out that you can eat normally and be full and be lean, that's like, really? You can, but you can, there's a way to do it. You take care of your sleep, you eat the

right foods, you stay active, you do a little bit of fasting and you put everything together and it works. Yeah. What do we got going on in 2020? What's the goal? I don't know if I like talking about my goals or not. I really don't know. Some people say do it. Lay them out there, bro. No, just anything coming up, you know, in the next couple of weeks or months. Oh yeah. Well, I'm actually going to Nashville to do some rap. Oh, awesome. Yeah, you sent me a video. You're rapping. Yeah.

So I've been having fun with that. That was another one of those weird opportunities that life throws you, and I said, you know what? I have no shame. So I was like, let me just do it. So I've now done like a couple songs, and ComicBook.com, who's like really supportive of what I've been doing. Um, and they've got a great platform.

So we're going to go there. We're going to do a live performance. They're going to be like hosting and stuff like that. That's awesome. Um, yeah, it's, it's going to be fun. So that's coming up. Uh, the two books are out. So that's, that's already done.

And the main focus for me in 2020 now is just all about acting. Nice. Uh, the carnivore cookbook, we have it on the table here. What's the other book? And then the PE diet with Dr. Ted Naiman on myself. And that was a pleasure, man. Cause he's like, I really, really, uh, value the stuff that he puts out there. He was the kind of guy, he was the guy that led me through that maze of like binge eating where I was like, Oh wow, this strategy works. So I would always think like, I wish this guy would make a book, you know, like eat more protein. You feel that that helped you a

lot with binge eating? Hugely, hugely. And also in terms of the whole keto thing, like you don't need to eat so much fat. Like how about just eat the fats that are already in the meat and already in the eggs and just eat more of those foods. You don't need to chop a butter and slap it on top and do that. So he helped me out a lot with that, the PE diet. And yeah, that's kind of what I'm up to right now. What are you doing kind of on like a daily basis to get further down the road with your acting? Like is there – are you like acting in front of a mirror?

Are you getting out of your car and going on the street corner and reciting some Shakespeare or something? Like is there – what's some of the process that you're trying to work towards? Right now it's studying film, and that's something that I work on as much as I can. So it's usually a couple times a week. Watching shows, that's huge. And then also just watching actors I admire and then studying their process and what they do. I like a lot of old actors,

so I like to read a lot of Marlon Brando's crazy self and what he would do for preparation and things like that. But yeah, watching film. And when you're watching it, it's not watching it for enjoyment. You watch the actor's performance and what did they put into that? What sort of voices are they adding to that?

What sort of inflections? Sometimes I'll watch it and I'll look at the lighting. What does the lighting do to a person's face? Sometimes you watch it for like emotional intent. And you'll see things like if somebody is trying to portray intimidation and the way that they slowly raise their head, do they start with the eyes and do they look at you or do they keep their eyes down and then slowly? It's like little things like that, little things you can add in your toolbox. So I watch it for different things. So that's part of it.

And then I'm going to be getting back into acting classes. So that will be like a regular process. And then auditions keep you on your toes too because you're pretty much every single day working on a new scene, a new approach. That's really fun. Like auditions kind of feel like testing your strength. You're practicing all these skills and you think you're learning stuff in acting class. Then you get to the audition and you figure out like is this landing or not? Like when they say action and these people are watching back there, can I fake my way through this or not?

So it's kind of fun. I think just a general self-development too will help with the whole process, you know, just working on yourself. You're already doing the lifting. You're already adhering to a specific diet. Um, you know, having a regimen and, you know, waking up early and trying to get after it. Like all those things will be, will benefit you a ton, you know, as you work your way up the ladder with acting. What we're all doing is creating characters. That's what it really all is. So every single day when we're working on this character and we're like, you know what?

I want this person to be strong and confident and timely. And I want this person to be articulate and I want to do this and that. And you're putting all of these things into that character. It's very similar with acting. When you put a certain outfit on and you're working on a character, you can start to feel that it causes you to act differently. And you can take a lot of those things to your own life. Like, well, maybe if I want to be more confident, I can sort of put things on and I can stand in a certain way. I could speak in a certain way. I could think certain

thoughts more often. I could say things to myself. If you're trying to go to like a really dark place with a role, your internal dialogue changes. And that can be really unhealthy, I think, for a lot of actors. But you have to use whatever's going to work for you. So I'm not somebody with a lot of trauma and I don't care to have any trauma. So like certain roles that are dark, sometimes you have to give it something and just fake it. And that actually works sometimes, you know, because you have to think it's not all your performance. There's music playing and there's writing and there's a story and the audience has an expectation going into it. So they're already going to perceive you a certain way. Sometimes you just have to show up and not try too hard.

So, yeah, it's a really, really fun process. But I think about that a lot in terms of building character. The same way that you build a character in acting, you're doing that with your life constantly. Who do you associate with? What lifestyles are you studying? What books are you reading? What's that putting into the vessel? And then what performance are you giving throughout the day? And if you don't like the performance, then like you give yourself director notes, you know, you ask yourself the questions like, and you kind of interview yourself and then you kind of change things about your preparation. So acting is pretty much life, but yeah, you just learn to manage the process or you're kind of aware of it i think acting is like bizarre it's like it's severely underrated from people that have never been in front of a camera um you know

to act something out like uh say like putting out a fire you know if we were like had a fire truck out front it's like oh we can all panic and we can all like pretend that we're firefighters that wouldn't really be that hard to act because we are occupied with uh other other things and we can all like pretend that we're firefighters that wouldn't really be that hard to act because we are occupied with uh other other things and we have like props basically but like try to act like you're the podcast engineer like and you know so then you're now you're you're on camera and you know you got a couple lines but you're supposed to just be like chill so it's like it's really difficult because you're not you're not yelling you're not a maniac you're not a depending on what you know what person you're trying to uh act like i guess but it's um it's a crazy crazy talent it's a really interesting talent when i watch you know some of these real seasoned people

uh act i'm always like blown away like a morgan freeman or something like that where you're just like i just i have no idea how i would you know because i envision some of that sometimes just because i've been in front of a lot of cameras before and i'm like wow that would just be really really that would be really difficult to figure that out to come in and yell and scream or to cry or something i could probably figure out some of those things uh but to try to figure out how to like act normal even if you said hey i want you just to act in front of the camera and be yourself but you gotta you know have these lines that would be weird too like it would you know because i don't have practice at

it that's repetition yeah it's like the repetition you do, like when you're trying to convey that ease and confidence in front of – or like in a performance, if you have to do something very simple, so they say – and then you think about something and an idea pops into your head and then you get up and you go do that. To do something as simple as that, it's like repetition. So then it finally just looks easy and natural over time. That's a big part of like those effortless performances where they say like the person was just living in the moment. Really what it is, is you just feel comfortable. Like if you go up there and it's your first time doing it, like you're screwed. You know, if they say action and like you're like, you know what? I'm just going to be natural and just live in the moment.

You got lines and then they tell you to hit your mark and then you need to turn your face this way because the light is hitting a certain angle. And then you have to think about all that. And this whole effortless performance thing that you thought you were going to do, it's done. Like you have to act like you're good at it. Even you even have to do that. Like it's, it's all of those kinds of things. So it's like the more preparation you do beforehand you just give yourself a better shot when you get in the ring like when you're

when you're actually on the set and the director is yelling at you and you're trying to focus and then the camera is going to be like panning over here and you're like don't look in the camera like don't be an amateur and you're trying to like look where you're supposed to look and still focus on what you're doing if you're still thinking about your lines like you're screwed you know? So that's another thing that comes from the gym is just like repetition with it and making it easier on yourself.

What's your favorite scene? What's your favorite thing that's ever been acted out that you've seen that like just still gives you like goosebumps or still gets you excited about acting? Oh boy, Al pacino's really good al pacino's done some incredible incredible performances when you when you watch the subtlety and the danger of his performance in the godfather and then you watch how just crazy he is in scarface

you can't believe that's the same person you'll never see another bad guy like me that's like the greatest thing ever it's it's amazing because he he embodied two completely like different styles of acting with those you know like a very more reserved kind of method style and then with with um with Scarface it was like he went for it you know he went off the rails with that like it's amazing to watch that I have movies that give me chills like I would say a lot of marlon brando's performances like i i find incredible because he had that thing down like um he what a character that guy was but he really had he knew how to make you watch and not want to look away and then he could play with your expectations so you're like expecting something and he's just not giving it to you

yet he's just kind of like dwelling and lingering a little bit. And then boom, when you're least expecting it, like he hits you with something and you're like, whoa, that's that. I didn't expect that. So he, he's very fun to watch. But for me, it's mainly like movies that have certain moments that feel like moments of ecstasy when the music and the story and the cinematography and everything comes together at one moment, like you could feel it inside and it kind of like you tear up a little bit or you get goosebumps it's like nothing better than a good movie and there's like nothing worse than a bad movie exactly like on the complete flip side right there's nothing worse to be like man that was a real bag of shit that i just watched but it feels so great when you saw something that um you know moved you in some way.

Even if you're not into acting or not into film necessarily, you just saw something that just really grabbed you. So it's an interesting thing. Anytime you can convey stillness in a movie in a beautiful way, that's powerful. Stillness? Yeah, stillness. So there's this movie, Amelie, and it's a French movie. And they'll have scenes in there where you're literally just seeing like, it's like streaming water in Paris, things like that. And the girl is just walking down the street. And this goes on for like 10 seconds and you're watching it. And it's the most beautiful thing you'll ever see. And it's

like that kind of stuff. I love that in movies. And that's like one of my goals to be able to be in a movie that has one of those moments you know where everything comes together at one moment where people just feel like emotionally overcome yeah i think we sometimes lose track of the fact that you know i think sometimes lose track of the fact that you're telling the you're telling a story with a picture you know so you can use words but there's a million as you you're mentioning, lighting, music, like there's so many other ways we can attack this. It doesn't have to all be, it doesn't have to all be through the, the words. What about like an actor that maybe somebody wouldn't expect that you really like, like, is there like a, like Chris Farley or an

Adam Sandler or someone that you, you know, appreciated because they really just like went for it in a different way or maybe even like a standup comedian or, or somebody who's maybe a little off beat. Norm MacDonald. I love, I love him. I think he's incredible. Saturday night live for a long time, right? Yeah. Weekend update. I'm a huge fan. So I watch a lot of like old Johnny Carson kind of stuff. And I love those old comedians

that would go on there huge fan of don rickles um i i would just like the way that he would attack people but it was with love um but in terms of actors that people wouldn't expect um i like uh peter o'toole he was he was a great english actor um he did a lot of really, really cool things. Yeah. Most of the actors that I'm a fan of, though, are just like from that kind of old school era. I liked watching like Clark Gable and stuff like that. Really classic performances. Did you like Tarantino's latest film?

I didn't see it. Oh, you didn't get a chance to see it? Yeah, I didn't actually watch it yet. Is it good? The Irishman? Is that what it is, right? No, the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Oh oh that one whoops yeah oh no i haven't seen the irishman yet yeah once upon a time in hollywood yeah um there's there's some really cool scenes in there there's a lot there's actually a pretty long scene that uh has um leonardo caprio like acting through like because he's an actor in the film and so

they show this scene where he's getting super frustrated with himself but I'm sure if anyone could relate to it it'd probably be yourself he just he has a really good performance so I think you'd probably enjoy that you should check it out there are times when the director is giving you a note over and over and over again

and it just starts to piss you off because you're you're doing what he's telling you to do. Or at least you think you are, right? Yeah, you think you are, but there's something that they're getting at that you're just not doing. That gets really frustrating sometimes. It's over and over again and then you can feel the

crews getting frustrated. Then you're like, God, that kind of stuff's weird. Sit your hips back when you're squatting. I am. I am. Like, no, you ain't. Exhale all of your air.

I am. No, you're not. I'm trying. I can't breathe. Yeah. That's, I mean, I'm sure you, you experienced this and I know for sure, Mark, when it came to the bodybuilding stuff, like how much more respect do you have now for people that can just turn it on, flex, pose for a picture, on stage do all that and then smile like dude right now

i'm looking at it's like damn near impossible so i'm sure like acting was kind of the same thing right like as soon as you actually get into it you actually know how much more like uh complex everything is it's not just like camera and smile yeah it it's it's really just repetition that's all it is and you get more comfortable over time and every role is just a new problem to solve and you don't want to use the same solutions if you think you've arrived at like a style of acting you're like okay i know what i do now i i read the script and then i go rehearse it a few times and i add a few movements into it and some stuff to make it seem unique. And that's what I'm going to do for every role. Like maybe not, you know, you might maybe need to like study the

psychology of your character. You might need to study why they do what they do. You might need to write up for every single line of dialogue. You might need to write up a whole page of backstory just to fully inhabit the mind of this person. Like it's different things. And then there's some roles where they hired you just because you're you. Just be yourself and say the lines, you know, and it might be as simple as that. So like every role definitely is a different circumstance. Thank you so much for today. Always appreciate you having here at Super Training. You enjoying some family for Christmas here?

Yeah, yeah. I'm going to hang out with them. We're going to do all the things they're already doing Modesto, so a whole lot of nothing. I was going to say, you're going to do crystal meth? Methdesto. Yeah, no, we're going to do the usual and just hang out and spend time together and it'll be good. And then back down to Huntington. Cool. Great to have you on the show. Where can people find you? Uh, Instagram

at William Shufelt, S H E W F E L T, uh, on youtube.com slash will Shufelt. Um, and then I also do this, uh, will to win podcast where I kind of compile all the content I make from videos and I put that into a podcast. So it's just will to win podcast and yeah. Oh, we'll give you some clips for it from, uh, from today. Awesome. Thank you. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength. Catch y'all later.