Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2511: How Do You Know You Are Doing Fitness the Right Way? (Listener Live Coaching)

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin coach four Pump Heads via Zoom. Mind Pump Fit Tip: How do you know you are doing fitness the right way? You can tell by the fruits it produces. (2:03) This is a reminder of how terribly abused caffeine is in modern society. (19:01) When the joke goes too far. (22:54) A HUGE milestone for Mind Pump Fitness Coaching. (28:12) Husbands want peace, wives want safety. (32:31) How your blood sugar affects your mood. (42:02) Cannabinoids have a positive effect on insulin sensitivity. (43:06) The censorship pendulum is swinging back. (49:51) #ListenerLive question #1 – What advice would you guys have for me to be able to hit a 315 bench before I'm over the hill of age? (58:47) #ListenerLive question #2 – How much strength loss should I expect during a cut? (1:10:22) #ListenerLive question #3 – How would you guide someone with a binge eating disorder to a life of intuitive eating and eating until they are satisfied? (1:19:52) #ListenerLive question #4 – Could you all talk about how physical and mental trauma impacts weight and progress? (1:30:14) Related Links/Products Mentioned Ask a question to Mind Pump, live! Email: [e-mail] Visit Organifi for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Code MINDPUMP at checkout for 20% off. ** Visit NED for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Code MINDPUMP at checkout for 20% off ** January Promotion: New Year's Resolutions Special Offers (New to Weightlifting Bundle | Body Transformation Bundle | New Year Extreme Intensity Bundle | Body Transformation Bundle 2.0  ** Savings up to $350! ** Mind Pump #1297: 3 Ways to Know If Your Workout Is Not Right for You Mind Pump #2412:  The 5 Worst Fitness Mistakes Damaging Your Overall Health & Longevity Mind Pump #2505: The Story of Mind Pump (10 Year Anniversary Special) Online Personal Training Course | Mind Pump Fitness Coaching Lunchtime Leniency: Judges' Rulings Are Harsher When They Are Hungrier The impact of marijuana use on glucose, insulin, and insulin resistance among US adults Meta says it will end fact checking as Silicon Valley prepares for Trump Visit Butcher Box for this month’s exclusive Mind Pump offer!  ** New users will receive their choice between chicken breast, ground beef, or salmon in every box for a year + use code MINDPUMP and get $20 off your first box. ** Train the Trainer Webinar Series Mind Pump #2507: Six Steps to a 315 Pound Bench Press Mind Pump Store Building Muscle with Adam Schafer – Mind Pump TV Ninja NC301 CREAMi Ice Cream Maker, for Gelato, Mix-ins, Milkshakes, Sorbet, Smoothie Bowls & More, 7 One-Touch Programs, with (2) Pint Containers & Lids, Compact Size, Perfect for Kids, Silver Visit Transcend for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** 25% off Tesofensine and Semaglutide: These discounts apply to individual medications only (no bundling required) | 25% off the Transcend GLP-1 Probiotic. Patients can redeem this discount by ordering through a wellness specialist OR by purchasing online. ** What is "Parts" Therapy? Internal Family Systems Explained Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Adam | Relationship Psychology (@attachmentadam) Instagram  

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because the Y is so much more than my gym. Try the Y free for seven days at try the Y.ca. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom style humor, Moms and Mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandi. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched, true crime stories. Each week we deep dive into a variety of mind boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heists to whodunnits. We're your go-to podcast for mysteries with a motherly touch.

Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts. If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pumper. In today's episode, callers called in. We got to help them out on air. We got to coach people on air. That's a good time, but that was after the intro. The intro today was 56 minutes long. In the intro, we talk about science and fitness

and family life. It's a good time. By the way, if you wanna call in and get coached on air, email us your question at live at mindpumpmedia.com. Now this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Organifi. Today we talked about their Red Juice. If you go to organifi.com forward slash mind pump,

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and the body transformation bundle 2.0. All of them massively discounted. All of them available right now. Go to mapsjanuary.com. All right, here comes the show. T-shirt time! And it's t-shirt time! Ah, shit Doug, you know it's my favorite time of the week. We've got three winners this week. one for Apple Podcast, two for Facebook. The Apple Podcast winner is Perowinkle Clover. And for Facebook, we have Arki Kalathrakis, Sarah and Sarah Rogers Kinchelow. All three of you are winners.

Send the names I just read to iTunes at mindpumpmedia.com, includes your shirt size and your shipping address, and we'll get that shirt right out to ya. How do you know you're doing fitness the right way? Well like a healthy tree you can tell by the fruit it produces and no I'm not talking about how fit you look, how ripped you are, how buffed you are. There are other fruits you should pay attention to and if you have them you know you're doing it right.

It's a great biblical reference. I was just gonna say it bro. Oh my god. I've never heard this before. This is gone now, bro. Oh my God, what are we gonna do with this guy? It is a great way to explain what we're gonna talk about. It really is.

I like it, we're gonna start doing fitness tip parables. Hey, listen, it makes perfect sense. We'll go down the list. Absolutely. We will go down the list. And the reason, I'm not knocking it. It's amazing how much stuff makes sense in that book. Yeah, I know. I'm not knocking it.

Which somebody told me. Yeah. You know, what's, you know what's, and I clarified by saying it's not how you look. Because there are a lot of people that look shredded and jacked and muscular and whatever, but they're not doing fitness the right way because it's actually causing problems.

It's dysfunctional. We know a lot of people like this in our space. In fact, I would say a majority of people that work in the fitness space do it the wrong way in that particular sense. So the first one is you are less stressed. It is not a cause of your stress. So what does it look like when fitness

causes stress for you? You're worried about your workouts. You're worried that you missed that meal or you went on a vacation. What am I going to do? I'm going on a vacation. What am I going to eat? What am I going to do? The holidays are here. I can't gain a single pound. I can't skip a workout. It's stressing me out. I'm tracking and counting everything and if I don't, I don't know what's going on here. That is wrong. It should cause you more, you should have more freedom and less stress, not more stress. A lot of times you could see,

it's literally on their face. Like you could see the bags under their eyes, you could see the gauntness, you could see like these visible signs that they're pushing through regardless of what their body's trying to signal to them. This is a hard one because a lot of people, like for example, will say that this is,

working out and everything like that is something that they do to de-stress or to have balance and be healthy in their life. But that same person too, because of something happens the night before or that day, emergency happens, they can't get their workout. And now they're just, they're angry, they're miserable, they're short.

That's right. They're all these things. And it's just like, oh, it's because I didn't get my workout. But I mean, that's an unhealthy relationship also with exercise. If you can't ebb and flow with life, and you can't miss the gym for even a few days, a week in a row, without it affecting your mood like that,

you've got an unhealthy relationship with it. You have somewhat of an addiction to it and understanding it's a very fine line with that healthy, good relationship with it to the obsessive side of it. No, I'm so glad you said it that way, right? Because a lot of people might be listening going, oh, it's my stress relief. That's not me. And it's like, no, here's how you test yourself. What happens when you miss a workout?

What happens when you miss that perfect meal or you go on a vacation or you're at a birthday party and you're gonna eat things that are not in your meal plan? Does it cause you stress? If it does, you're not doing fitness the right way. You're actually turning it into something that's not good for you. And the reason why this is another hard one

is because these are the people that tend to be the fittest. These tend to be the people that are admired and respected for their fitness knowledge and the way they keep themselves so in shape all year long. And so they've been getting people praising them for all of their life for the way they go about this. And many times have this attitude that this is the better or the right way to be, and they try and influence their people, family, friends, clients,

to pursue this same type of relationship with exercise, and it's arguably as unhealthy. That's right. Next would be you have more vitality. Now I use the word vitality, because when I say energy, sometimes people confuse it with being hyper or being wired. That's not the same.

Vitality means you're just more alive. In other words, you're not more tired, more sore, or more stiff. You'll see this often with people who over train. They do too much. They go to the gym too often. They train too hard. And so when they're not in the gym, they just kind of feel stiff and sore and fatigued. They find themselves crashing,

needing more caffeine to stay awake. They just don't feel more vital. This is especially true post-workout. Post-workout, you should feel, we've said this many, many times on the podcast, you should feel better at the end of a workout than you did at the beginning. Not better in the sense that you survived

and I accomplished something, but actually more energized. I mean, I work out before we do the podcast and if I come in here feeling dead, I know that the workout was inappropriate or too hard, or maybe I should have skipped. When I come in here and I feel great and alive and we have great podcasts, it's because I know I did it right. I mean,

I'm pretty sure you said that first because I still use that because that's an easy way for me to even check in with myself because, you know, we love working out and easily I can tow that line. And so it's a real easy generic gauge on was that appropriate or did I overreach? Did I get in my car? Did it crush me or do I have energy? Yeah, did I get in my car and leave and the rest of the day I'mreach? Did I get in my car? Did it crush me or do I have energy? Yeah, did I get in my car and leave and the rest of the day I'm more active. And I talk about this a lot too

about how I've connected those dots of why I love working out, what working out does for me, less about the physical side of it, but like I'm a better husband. I help my wife out more around the house because I worked out. And if the workout was crushing me to where I wanna come home, I just wanna lay down.

Yeah, then I know that I'm overreaching and I'm doing too much in there. And just because you feel that sense of accomplishment after you get done lifting, doesn't necessarily mean that it was an appropriate amount of intensity. That's right. Next is you are happier. So the opposite of this, people would say,

well, you're sad or whatever. No, it's irritable and you're concerned with, what it looks like is you're concerned with comparing yourself to others. If you do fitness wrong, you'll go into it, finding yourself, comparing yourself more and more to people who look better than you, who are stronger than you, who are, you know, maybe doing it, quote unquote, better than you are, and you'll find yourself become more and more miserable.

You'll find this often with fitness fanatics, fitness fanatics, where they're working out, they're eating perfect, but they don't seem to be any happier. In fact, they seem like they're miserable unless they're working out. And it's because they're comparing themselves with other people and their happiness depends on how they look in comparison to the people around them. When you do fitness right, it doesn't matter what other people look like. It doesn't matter what other people are doing. You're just feeling better. You're feeling better overall. I feel like this one has become more and more challenging the last decade with just the

social media. Yeah, with Instagram. And I mean, it's so interesting how and we're I mean, I'm guilty of this too. Like you follow X amount of people and if you're into working out or you're motivated at that time and so you decide that you're going to follow all these pages, you don't realize how that starts to shape your reality and how actually rare and unusual it is to see 6% body fat and jacked people like that.

But when your reality becomes the social media thing that you check in with multiple times a day, every single day, you end up seeing more of that than you actually see real people in the real world. And it starts to, your reality starts to drift. It's distorted. Yeah. And then it starts to suck. What is the, the thief of joy? Yeah, yeah. Comparison is a thief of joy. Thief of joy.

You know, you might have been really happy and content with the way you look and feel and where you're at in your fitness school, but because you've decided to follow all these pages that look crazy, you now start to compare yourself to all these other fitness influencer people, and it robs your joy. Yeah, there's an exponential amount of more examples

of these people that you can look at, because of social media. It's funny, I was talking to my wife about this a bit. We used to go train together at this gym and there was always the gym enemy, the arch enemy, the one that was in there that had your body tied, was a little bit better physique than you, kind of walks in and she'd always get mad when this little girl was there. I'm like, stop looking at her. You know, this is about

you. But yeah, I think it's very common thing that just your eyes just kind of go towards something that like, you know, wow, that looks really good. I want to do that. But really, once you really internalize it and you just pay attention to what you're doing, you get so much more out of it. I always like the great example we give too, because I think everybody's also experienced this before, of never being really content, always wanting more, and stuff like that.

And then like, say, five years or 10 years goes down the road, and then you look back at that picture. You're like, I look so good. Damn, I looked so good back then. And you're like, but shit, if I actually were honest with myself, how did I perceive myself in that moment? Oh shit, when I think about it, I was chasing this look or whatever like that

and it's wild because you have to remove yourself from that self sometimes to go, oh wow, I actually wasn't. The goal is to acknowledge it in the present. Right. Like that's really hard to do. Look, I mean, take our word for it. Like we are in the fitness space,

we have the top fitness podcasts in the world. So that means we get to meet a lot of these quote unquote social media perfect bodies or whatever. And I'm gonna tell you something right now, you don't wanna trade places with them. They might look that way, many of them by the way don't, they look that way because of the way they take the pictures and Photoshop and whatever,

but you don't wanna trade places with them. They're not happy, it's definitely not worth it. And by the way, we manage gyms for years. There's already a self-selection bias of people who work out when you're in a gym. The amount of people you see with a six pack in the gym at any given moment is tiny. It's almost never. It's almost never.

That's how rare it is, but you wouldn't know that because your algorithm shows you these people all the time and you think this is just what people look like when they work out. It's not. Next up is you are more secure, not more insecure. Here's what can happen when you do fitness wrong. You start working out and you start becoming hyper aware of your imperfections. All of a sudden you're working out and you're more worried about how you look.

You're more concerned about your appearance. you start to hate yourself even more. If you pursue fitness through self care, you start to care more about yourself, not hate yourself more. So you actually become more secure with your body. Fitness done right makes you feel more secure, even if you don't get crazy results. Not more insecure.

If you're finding yourself pursuing fitness, you're six months in and you're like, I'm more insecure with wearing certain things. I'm more insecure with presenting myself a certain way. I'm more body conscious in the negative sense. You're doing it wrong. Yeah. I feel like a good exercise for this or to know if you've reached this is if you can go up or down 3% body fat and it not affect your confidence level. And I think that if you find somebody who's really obsessed with their body fat percentage or the way they look in their mirror, them going 3% or 4% north or south really messes with them, messes with their security, their comfort level, their confidence. And when you think about it from a health perspective,

that's such a small percentage to move up or down that is not significantly impacting your health whatsoever. In fact, you could potentially getting healthier adding a few percent body fat, depending on how lean you were. And so that is a great measure of like, okay, how secure am I with my fitness and myself because I should be able to

easily ebb and flow five to 10 pounds or three to 5% body fat and it not ruin my confidence. That's right, and then lastly is you are health focused, not body focused. If you do fitness right, your main concern is does this improve the quality of my life? And am I healthier? Not, how do I look?

If your main priority, now I'm not saying how you look isn't something that you think about or is a concern, but if it's your top concern, if it's your top priority, you're doing fitness wrong. And I'm gonna tell you something right now that's gonna blow people's minds. If you do it right and you bear all the fruits that we're talking about, the good ones,

you'll become more fit, you'll look better, you'll be healthier. If you pursue it wrong and you get all those negative effects, eventually you'll lose the whatever you're chasing, which is to look as good as you possibly could or whatever, you'll start to lose that as your health begins to fade. Because with poor health comes poor aesthetics and the poor looks.

With good health, all the good looks follow. So the irony of what we're saying is, the stuff that you're chasing and doing it the wrong way, you're not gonna get either. You have to do it the right way regardless. Whether you just want the good food or not, you just wanna look better, you have to pursue it the right way regardless, whether you just want the good fruit or not, you just want to look better, you have to pursue it the right way.

Chase health and aesthetics will follow, right? That's it, 100%. Now along those lines with this, we've said this line many, many times on the podcast, Adam's the first one to say it, and we've repeated it many, many times, and I want to go a little deeper into it, and the quote is,

you want to do the least amount of work to elicit the most amount of change, and I think that's important to understand because the least amount of work with exercise is actually the best dose as well. It's not that you're getting away with the least, it's that that will consistently produce the best results across the board.

That's what you can build off of. And I want to separate a couple things with this, okay, because people then think, well, does that mean I'm not going to be active? No, no, no. There's two main general, there's a crossover here, but two main general categories with exercise. One of them is stress producing,

and one of them is just activity, okay? Or recuperating or rejuvenating, okay? Stress producing activity, the goal of that is to trigger an adaptation response. So I wanna get stronger, I wanna improve my stamina, I wanna get more flexible, I wanna build muscle. That's the stress side of exercise, okay? The other side is just activity.

And this is like walking and hiking and playing with your your kids and just moving you're not chasing an adaptation You're not playing with your kids because you want to get more stamina. You're not going hiking because you want to build muscle You're not going for a walk because you're trying to run a marathon You're just doing those things to be active and to feel good The stress side of exercise is what we're referring to when we say do the least amount of work To elicit the most amount of change when you're looking at your total activity The stress forms of exercise the minimum amount to produce the adaptation is the best amount So I want to make sure I communicate that because sometimes people get confused and they think what we're trying to say is do nothing

Yeah, no, no being active every day is phenomenal. It's great It's the hard stuff that you need to pay attention to and do the least amount to elicit the most amount of pain. I'm so glad you broke it down like that because I think whenever I do say that, the misinterpretation or the people that it doesn't sink in with are the ones that think

that another way is still a faster, better approach. No. It's just like, oh, okay, I get why they're saying that, but I still don't care. I'm trying to get there as fast as I possibly can. It's like, believe it or not, that is also the quickest and most efficient way that you can do it.

It's hard for people to wrap their brain around that because, and I really think it's just because almost everything else in our life, it serves us to do more, to go harder, to do more, and that is going to end up getting you a greater return on most everything else that you do, and investing in education and effort towards a sport, towards a thing. The more you do, the harder you do it, the longer you do it, the better return. Unfortunately, when it comes to body composition change and pursuing health, that doesn't science, it doesn't math.

That's not how it works. The annotation process in general, it's like if people can understand how that works, it makes perfect sense in the fact that you don't overwhelm it. It needs to be able to have that perfect amount, that perfect dose, and the only way to find that is to gradually bring yourself up into that intensity.

I like to think of it like a light switch. You push a light switch just hard enough to turn it on. Now, once it's on, it's on. Now imagine if I pushed a light switch on and it's on, and now I'm just applying more and more pressure and pushing it, it's already on, but now I'm just gonna break it. Now I'm just gonna break the light switch.

That's what happens with the adaptation process. The minimum dose to elicit the adaptation wheels is the best dose. And that's the stress side. Again, that doesn't mean don't be active every day. Go ahead and do that stuff. But the stuff that's challenging, that's what you wanna do, the minimum effective dose.

Because again, that's the best dose. Along these lines of health and all that stuff, I gotta tell you guys about Josh, our editor, and what he's doing with caffeine, and it just reminds me of how terribly abused caffeine is in modern society. So Josh comes in, we're hanging out, by the way, I love this kid, he's one of our editors,

and he's such a disciplined kid. Such a disciplined kid. And he comes in, and I don't remember what he was saying and I caught a little bit of his conversation. I said, what did you do? He's like, oh, I'm 40 days without caffeine. 40? 40.

And I'm like, what? Wow, I thought it was just a week. 40 days? I'm like, how much were you averaging? He's like, oh, it was about 300 milligrams, I think is what he said a day before. And I said, well, what made you stop? This is by the way, young kid, right?

So he's such great discipline and awareness. He's like, I was getting energy crashes throughout the day. So I cut it out, cold turkey, and he said it sucked for about a week. And I said, well how do you feel now? He goes, I have consistent energy throughout the day. I fall asleep super easy. I wake up super easy.

A lot of people don't realize that caffeine, consistent caffeine use And scaling the dose up results in in the opposite of what you'll get crashes. Yes today I mean, that's always that's always my light indicator of like I've gone too far. Yeah Like you and it normally looks like this You know however many milligrams you're out you bump and then you feel like oh, this is I'm feeling good again Oh, then you bump again, then oh, you're feeling good. And then eventually you reach this, I gotta do that much just to feel normal,

and then you decide, oh, I'm gonna go a little higher, see if I can get that feeling again. And you get it maybe initial right till you feel it like a little bit, but then shortly after you get tired. And it's weird. And it's a crushing, crappy feeling. It's awful, it's like, oh, this is awful.

I've drank all that caffeine today and I feel like this? Yeah. That's when you know it's been too much and you gotta go back the other direction. Yeah, for a kid his age to already have the awareness and to do that without being told, I know that's pretty cool. I think everybody needs to do a regular, scheduled caffeine detox.

Now, is he, so he went cold turkey, but did he reintroduce things like the red juice? Oh, he's using the red juice. Oh, okay. Yeah, he's so he went cold turkey but did he reintroduce things like the red juice or anything? Oh he's using the red juice. Okay. Yeah he's using Organifize red juice. Yes that's smart. Yes because the rhodiola. That helps so much. It does help a lot. I notice a huge difference by using that. Yeah because you go caffeine cold turkey cut it out it like make no mistake caffeine is a drug it's a real drug I've said this before, if we discovered it today, it'd probably be illegal.

The LD50 on it is not as high as other drugs are illegal. You get withdrawal symptoms that are nasty. Like you cut caffeine out. It's like migraines, irritability. I do, I think it's like, I mean, I know that every individual's gonna have a different experience, but it's easy for me when I do it this way. And so peak for me is 600 milligrams,

which is basically a cup of coffee and two energy drinks. That's when I know I'm peaking. It's like, this is the, I get some other way. When I hit that point and I know I gotta go back, the, what I do right away, drop one and replace it with a red juice drink at that same time that I would do energy drink. Oh, so you just scale it down.

And then, and then after I've done that for about a week or two and I'm feeling good, I take the second one out, two red drinks right now that I have for that. And then three, and then I don't need anything. And you don't get the crazy with that. No, nothing, it's actually easy. That red juice in replace of the energy drink at that time is just enough to like mitigate and not make me feel

like I'm missing anything. It's got adaptogens in it that give you some energy so I think that's what takes the edge off the rhodiola and some of the other stuff in there so I was asking about that he's like yeah I've been using it on a regular basis I'm sure if I went all three and just one energy drink I mean one I'd feel that but this scale back one at a time like that and replace it's actually not hard I'm planning on doing that soon. I get those energy crashes, I'm like, it's gotta be the caffeine dude.

And you know when you get the energy crash, you're irritable. And then I'm a jerk, you know what I mean? I'm a jerk around people, like I don't wanna be a jerk. You know, everybody. Speaking of being a jerk, I tell you guys what I do with my kid. Yesterday, I don't know.

So my son, right, my four year old, he's just full of boy energy. And people who have kids and boys know what I'm talking about. Just that boy energy, like he just wants of boy energy. And people who have kids and boys know what I'm talking about. Just that boy energy. He just wants to throw things. He wants to shoot his Nerf gun at people when we tell him not to.

He wants to hit you in the butt, because you say, don't hit me in the butt, and that's what he wants to do. He wants to wrestle. So we're just, it's fun. I love it, I have a good time. But he crosses the line a little bit. So he has a little Nerf gun. And his mom tells him, don he crosses the line a little bit so he has a little nerf gun and

His mom told like don't aim this at people because he's got a little sister right so he could hit her and whatever And so of course what to do he shoots me with it, and so I you know I take it from him He's upset or whatever so he gets mad. I'm like listen, buddy. You can't shoot me with it I'll give it back to you later, but you know it's dangerous if you hit your sister etc etc So he goes over and he gets this we have this big like it's not a rubber ball But it's like a big plastic, so it's not heavy like rubber But it's one of those big plastic balls or whatever and so he's throwing it at me right and he but he's doing it with a little Anger and so I'm like hey dodgeball energy. Yeah, yeah, so I can I could tell he's a little irritated with me right

So he's throwing at me so he throws it and I block it But I pretend like it hit me in the eye, because I wanna see what he would say. So I'm like, oh, my eye, and he's like, I don't care, I don't care. I'm like, no. I'm like, yeah, I'm like, no, you hit me in the eye, it really hurts, so I'm like, I'm gonna stretch this out.

So I'm walking around like, oh gosh, that really hurts, and I could tell now, by this point, he's a little bit like, wait, is my dad serious? Is he joking? He's like, you didn't hurt your eye. I said, yeah, I did, I really did. He goes,'s like you didn't hurt your eye I said yeah, I did I really did he goes no no you didn't said yeah I did so I go for it. I gotta show your picture. I go over to our cupboards We have like band-aids and stuff in there, so when he's not looking I open the thing and they take out gauze

And I color some red marker on it Put it on my eye and I got two like little blue. Did you get into that lane? God damn you went far bro. You know the guy, I took two bluey band-aid, my daughter's blue band-aid. You know what though, you know his son's been fucking with him when he goes out far.

He's like this little shit I'm gonna fucking, I'm gonna give it to him. Part of it was I thought it'd be funny. You got a fake eye. Ah! Oh dude, hold on, I get the better. Part of it is I thought it would be funny, right? So I go over there and he's with Jessica

and he's like, but I didn't really hurt himself, I'm like, oh my eye hurts. So I put the gauze on and I put a bandaid on the top, so it's holding it and I walk out and he kind of looks at me because there's a little red marker on it, he goes, no, that's not real, and Jessica could tell, she's like,

he's just kidding with you, honey, it's not real, I'm like, yeah it is, it hurts, and I'm walking around and he's following me and he's saying that's not real, that's not real. But I could tell he might be believing me. So just to nail it home, I go in the bathroom, I get a wad of toilet paper and I turn it into, and I wet it so it's like a wet squishy ball.

And I lift the gauze up and I drop it. Oh my God. Ah, you're a cd bro. Yeah. You freak him out? Oh my God. He had to look out his face, oh my God. He's like, no, that's not real. I can tell you, I'm a little scared. You just walk away, you're like, consequences. Yeah, so I pull it off, and I'm like, I'm just kidding, buddy. The rest of the night, eyeballs don't look like that.

They don't fall out, right? I'm like, no, your eyeballs don't fall out. That so reminds me. I told you guys this story about when I was at camp, and this kid was blind, and I didn't know, and I was like, oh, my God. I'm like, oh, my God. I'm like, oh, my God. I'm like, oh, my God. I'm like, oh, my God. I'm like, oh, my God. I'm like, no, your eyeballs not gonna fall out. That so reminds me. I told you guys this story about when I was at camp and this kid was blind and I didn't know because he had two glass eyes. And he was just in the cabin with

us. A red stick didn't give it away or anything? No, no, no. He was in the cabin. I just met him. I know that would be obvious. He's just, uh, no. No, that would have been a dead giveaway. Uh, he was in the, he was in the cabin and he was, you know, we're meeting everybody, me and my brother, and, and he just decides since everybody was in there, he like turns around and, and then he like reveals it. He literally took the glass eyes out, had it in his mouth. It just eye sockets, eye sockets and eyes in his mouth. Shut up. Oh my God. Oh my God. It just eye sockets. I got a heart attack. Eye sockets and eyes in his mouth.

It was like a Beetlejuice. Bro, how old are you? Bro, I was like eight maybe. Oh my God. Seven. Bro. Holy shit. We were all like.

You start crying. Ah! And then just I was dying laughing the whole, this kid won me over. He was the funniest like crazy kid, dude. Wow. How are you gonna do that to somebody, dude? That crazy kid, dude. Wow. How you gonna do that to somebody dude? That is crazy dude. Wow. You know what? Smart kid though right? How you made friends with him. I don't remember you telling that story. No, like what a sense of humor that kid had though. Oh my god. Got me so bad

You know you tell you that's so funny. It just shows you how different kids we have like so I've done like what you just said I can't do it because Max is so sensitive. If I do that, like, because I'll mess with like we're wrestling and go, oh God, and right away he gets all emotional and he grabs and he's like, I'm so sorry, dad. Oh my God, dude, I can't even mess with him like that. I've done that before. Yeah, dude, he gets so like- If I tell that to Aurelius, if we're wrestling, oh you hurt me, he goes chew it and he goes yay.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, Max is the complete opposite. He right away, oh my God, I'm so sorry daddy, he comes and gives me a hug and then he's afraid to play with me anymore, I'm like dude, it's okay. Oh my God, dude, it's so crazy. I love it so much. But I've done that where I want to mess with him and have some fun

But it's like I can't do that. He gets yeah, you get all sad right away They actually your audience actually actually hurt me. It's a cute man, dude. I am Not to totally shift gears, but I'm in such a good mood such a really it's such a cool moment for Us as a business especially where we're going in for us as a business, especially where we're going in 2025. We just did our tenure, we talked about what the vision for this year is. By the way, that tenure episode was great.

Yeah, it was better than I thought. I actually watched it last night. Watching it, it brought back a lot of memories, and I watched it with Jessica, and she's like, I remember that, I remember that. Yeah, when we did it, I wasn't sure, and I think I've shared this before. I don't really listen to the podcast hardly ever. And so every once in a while, I will

dip in. I had told Katrina, I was like, yeah, we did the 10 year. I was like, I don't think it was that good. And she told me the next day, she was like, oh my God, that was so good. She's like, are you serious? You didn't think that was good? I'm like, well, I don't know. I don't watch it. I didn't feel like it was that great. And so because she said that, I watched it. And then it was, I think the storytelling and the, some of this, it brought back memories. And I think what maybe I thought or felt when we initially were going to do it was, yeah, I've heard all these stories. I've told stuff like that, like, but it felt, it actually felt new. Even though like- It was all in one, all in one timeline too.

Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. So anyways You know you brought up at the end of it that you know vision for 2025 and where we're going and you know, collectively we're all obviously on the same page that Huge focus of this business We hope the next 10 years is really going after the the trainer space and really influencing that I think We agreed that the first 10 years was obviously building our credibility with the general pop and helping people out. And then obviously people getting to know us and trainers and helping them,

but really going hard and heavy in that direction. And our course last year, we created that and that was the first move in that direction. And it was neat when we did it. Cause I remember another thing that we all agreed on was, I don't want to get in, I don't want to battle and rival academia. I don't want to try and create a national certification that we're, you know what I'm saying?

Like, I don't want to get into that. Like we already talk about academia as like in a different light, and it's not where we want to get, all of us agreed. And so we're like, let's just go put out what we think will be the most valuable fire piece of content for coaches and trainers to make them better coaches and trainers

and more successful. And we did that, and I thought we did a great job. How cool is it though to get recognized by academia less than a year later and our course is now 1.9 CEUs, which is the highest amount that you can get for a course for trainers now. So. It is recognized, if you're a trainer,

in order to maintain your certification, a national cert, you need to get, was it two? 2.0 CEUs. And 0.1 is a CPR. Yes. So you do our course and get your CPR, which you have to anyway. That's it.

Yes, you're set. We are now, I know, it's crazy to be recognized like that with the course. It's really, really crazy to get recognized. And you know. I know, it's crazy to be recognized like that, with the course. It's really, really crazy to get recognized like that. I thought I was kind of ballsy and crazy the first place to not try and do that because it's like these trainers who have invested in us, had all the trainers that did it the last year,

it's so cool and it's so cool to be able to probably reward them with this now because then they'll just have to take the multiple choice test, I believe, and then they'll be able to get it, is that they invested in us and their course without getting anything in return like that. And I had to be honest. I wouldn't have done that. I remember being a trainer making less than a hundred thousand dollars a year and trying to get by and make more money. And I had to do CEUs every two years,

you have to do it to keep your certs up. There is no way I would go out and spend even a couple hundred dollars on a course or a thing that didn't account towards my CEUs. It just, I didn't have the extra income. I don't care how good of guys we think, I thought we were or not, I wouldn't do that. So the fact that we had so many trainers

that invested in us before we even could deliver that is awesome and amazing, and now the fact that we, it's worth 1.9 is super dope. I know, I saw you reaching out to our friends in the big box spaces. Yeah, already sent messages to UFC, already sent messages to 24 hour fitness. Like hey guys, your trainers now get CEUs with our course,

which is full circle, such a full circle thing, right? We left and then we're back. I know, so cool. Hey, I got a post for you guys that Adam Lane Smith did that I thought was exceptional, I think would spark great conversation with us. It talks about, oh yeah, he's good, and it's a post, I'm gonna pull it up here.

It's actually been quite, I'm normally seeing a lot of his stuff, and he hasn't popped up in my feed in a while. So I'm gonna read this to you. Let me finish it all, so it's on X, so it's multiple threads, and then let me know what you think. I showed my wife this, and she was like,

oh my God, that's so true, and I've showed several people, both men and women. For the man side, I 100% believe it's true. My wife and other people that I've brought it to said said yes, that's very true for women as well now Adam Lane Smith is he's an attachment You know, he understands attachment theory. He works with couples and individuals as a therapist He's an expert with Adam Lashow. So he knows this is what you know, so back on data and experience So here's what the post starts with it says husbands want peace experience. So here's what the post starts with. It says, husbands want peace, wives want safety. On the surface, those needs seem

different, but they stem from the same root, trust. When trust is strong, peace and safety grow naturally. Here's how to meet both needs and create a passionate, fulfilling marriage. For men, peace means calm, respect, and a lack of chaos. They want to come home to a partner who values their efforts, communicates clearly, and works with them, not against them. Peace isn't passivity, it's teamwork. For women, safety means emotional and physical security.

They need to feel heard, cherished, and supported like their partner has their back no matter what. Safety isn't control, it's trust in your partner's commitment and care. The secret, peace and safety are two sides of the same coin. A husband who feels at peace is more affectionate and kind. A wife who feels safe is more loving and responsive. Both needs feed into each other." So tell me what you guys think about this. I love that. I'll add something. I think that in a lot of relationships, probably many people were nodding their head as you're going through that list, thinking of their

partner, and how they wish their partner would do more of X, Y, and Z. But the secret to that is not looking at it like that and focusing on your side, your side, and over delivering on that. And it produces that. So look, this is what I think so many relationships get stuck on is they hear something like that or one of them gets it really well. And then him to listen to this.

That's right. And then it's that they need to hear this or this or my husband doesn't do this or my wife doesn't do this thing. And it's like, yeah, but the answer to getting that side that you want is not telling them or waiting on them or making them feel bad or pointing it out to them. It's doubling and tripling down on your side

and becoming more of that person. And being patient. Yes. Because it will produce the other side. Yes, it will. Here's what he says, for husbands, provide emotional safety so women need to know their emotions won't be dismissed or ridiculed.

When she shares, listen without defensiveness. Respond with, I can see why that upset you, let's work on this together. This builds her sense of security, that's safety. For wives, provide emotional peace. Men want conflicts resolved calmly without escalation. Avoid sarcasm or blame during your disagreements. Instead say, this is important to me, can we talk about it when we're both calm? Peaceful resolution helps them feel respected. Tell me this isn't absolutely true.

For husbands, be consistent. Nothing disrupts a wife's sense of safety more than broken promises or unpredictability. If you say you'll do something, fall through. Consistency shows her she can rely on you and that's what safety feels like. For wives wives show appreciation Men need to know their efforts are noticed a simple. Thank you for always being there for us

Or I appreciate how hard you work Foster's peace in his heart gratitude keeps the relationship warm and there's more and more on this but Absolutely brilliant. Yeah, absolutely brilliant What you said is so true if you like as a man if you feel that on the side it naturally Makes you want wanna do the stuff that he's saying that husbands do. And sure, vice versa. When that light bulb goes off for you finally

in the relationship that, oh, this is how this works, and then you lean into that, it just, it bears so much fruit. It really does. I think so much damage has been done to couples and marriages with the whole message of we're the same. Men and women are the same.

You guys are the same, treaty set each other the same. Everything's different. We're so different. Never been the case. No, because if I flip that, and I didn't even tell you guys, if I said for husbands and I read the wise ones, you guys would be like, not really. And the women would be like, nah, not really.

So, I mean, there's truth in this men and women are different Fundamentally, and I think when you understand that like me why that was so powerful if you ask Katrina I mean we've been here 14 years and if you ask Katrina what was one of the more pivotal moments for us was when We we watched attachment Adam and he broke down was when we watched Attachment Adam and he broke down women want love, men want respect. And how different that is. And you take some, because my wife is extremely loving, very, very loving and touchy and she's always good

about saying that stuff, I love you. And I think in her head, because she does that all the time, she's like, I do an abundance of that, and she does. But it's always hard to be the guy who communicates it. Like, yeah, I mean, it's nice that you say all that, but I actually really don't care. I know you love me. You're here on this side.

I don't need any more of that from you. The respect is the thing that I need. I need when this happens or this goes on, I need to feel respected from you by these X, Y, Z things, right? And that's going to go so much further than a thousand of the I love you. So it was really, and then same thing goes for me too, right? On the other side of being like, she needs that love, she needs to feel that. So even though I'm better at exercising the respect and all these other things with her, it's like, man, I have to get better at letting her feel that way. I think understanding how different we are

and how we need different things to be successful in this relationship versus comparing each other on who does what and I do all these things and you do all this. Man, you'll never get anywhere. How valuable do you think pre-marital counseling would be if they understood this and they took couples in before they got married and said,

hey, you guys, this is what it's gonna look like. I think it would help a lot of challenges. Yeah, I think you can look at it like that. I also think that a lot. The dating process should reveal that as well. I think a lot of the wrong people marry the wrong people. Yeah. I think that you show each other.

What did you say once, your insecurity? Yeah, you're attracted to that. You end up being with the person that actually fuels or feeds into all your insecurities and the things that because it's like you're attracted to that chaos. It's like this person who had all this trauma as a kid, whether they know it or not, and they are subconsciously attracted to that drama and they don't even realize it. So then what they think they fall in love with is somebody that fuels that feeling and emotion

that they're still addicted to from the trauma that they live in. And they think that that emotional feeling that they get inside of them of the ups and downs is love. And so that they're drawn to that type of a relationship. So yeah, I mean, I'm definitely pro counseling before marriage, but I'm even more pro you becoming aware of yourself.

Yeah, more introspective work. Yeah, on the type of person. I mean, it took me a very long time to even recognize that in myself on the type of woman I was attracting for the first 15 years or 10 years of my dating life of like, oh, there's a pattern here. Like, I keep falling in love with these, these girls that feed this thing of me. And when I look into peer into what was that, it was like, oh,

that's all rooted in my insecurity. I want to feel like the smart guy who's leading the way and all this stuff like that. So I attract these girls that have these daddy issues that want someone to tell them what to do and lead and stuff like that. And initially, that feels good. Initially, it feels like, yeah, this is right. This is love. But ultimately, that ends up boiling over.

So yes, I think therapy and counseling before marriage is an incredibly valuable thing. But the truth is, a lot of times that people that are choosing to go do life with and marriage with aren't even the shouldn't be with them. They're just, just a fact. It's like that you are still attracting the wrong person and you think you're you're misinterpreting love. Now I do want to add something to that because there's,

there might be someone listening who's already married already has kids and then they're like, Oh, I married the wrong person, we should get divorced. The data shows that if you work and you do it right and you work on yourself, that you can save it. So in other words, you could say, oh, it was the wrong person, maybe I was the wrong person, but people can change.

Well, you also love. Because you don't want to get caught in that. Love is also a choice. That was another thing I didn't understand and I had wrong as a young kid is I always thought it was this Disney feeling that I was supposed to get. It was going to overwhelm me and like everyone says, you'll just know when you know. You'll know when it hits you.

Follow your feelings. Yeah, it's like this whole idea that you're supposed to feel this. It's like, no, love is an action. It's a choice. So to your point, maybe you did marry the wrong person, but if you both actively choose to love each other, then you can become the right people,

and you can make it, but I think where a lot of people go wrong is they end up marrying the wrong person because they didn't realize what they really needed. Speaking of relationships, I read this crazy study that it was hilarious, and I think Justin, you had brought up something similar, not on a podcast, but I think off air. They did this study with CGMs,

so continual glucose monitors, measured blood sugar, and they found that when people, that couples who had erratic blood sugar, especially the drop, the odds that they were gonna argument with each other were something like seven times higher. Okay, so what I brought up, that's hilarious, because it was about judges. Oh, that's it, that's what it was.

Yeah, so it was a 65% chance that you're gonna get a better ruling if the judge had eaten lunch. Shut up. Yes. Shut up. Yeah, they tested that out. Your blood sugar dropping infects shut up. Yeah. They tested that out and it helped you. Your blood sugar dropping infects your mood 100%.

I mean, the hangry is a real thing. Yes, dude. Yeah, it's like. Dude, that is so funny. So what do you want them to count it for? Do you schedule it after lunch or something? Yeah, yeah. We need a recess.

You see how you say it. Are you sending them some good food or what? You give them some bagels or something. Yeah, that's funny. Maybe that's the whole give the teacher an apple thing. Maybe that's it. Yeah. Speaking of blood sugar, we had a caller recently that was talking about CBD and blood sugar and you were talking to him about it and I didn't know that there's actually companies that are researching this right now. Pharmaceutical companies.

What do we know about? I didn't know that. Cannabinoids may have a positive effect on insulin sensitivity. So Doug, you can actually Google, if you Google that right now, cannabinoids and insulin sensitivity. So there's some pharmaceutical companies, in the back of the day it was GW Pharmaceutical, but they got bought out by somebody. They were looking at CBD and other cannabinoids

as potential treatments for diabetes. And people with CGMs will sometimes comment, when I use, you know, Ned, or when I, you know, I notice my blood sugar is more stable. I don't get the highs and the lows. I'm not proclaiming that, everybody. Look it up for yourself in the studies. But there you go, see?

Cannabidiol may improve insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance, same? Yeah, interesting. Yeah, so cannabinoids are interesting. And by the way, this is the theory as to why people who use cannabis regularly are leaner and healthier. Which doesn't make sense. Also, always the oxymoron, right?

Yes, because of the munchies and all that stuff. And so scientists are like, why do we find this in the data that stoners, by the way, don't be a stoner to be healthier because there's a lot of bad stuff that comes from that. Yeah, you still make bad decisions. Yeah, but they find that it may, that they're leaner and they think it has to do with this, that it has to do with the insulin.

That's so interesting to me. Speaking of which, Ned's product, the de-stress one, do you guys like that one? Yeah, I do. Love that. So it has the- Who's that during the day? So it's got the CBD and the other cannabinoids

and the terpenes, like the full spectrum, plus it has ashw it's got the CBD and the other cannabinoids and the the the terpenes like the full spectrum plus has ashwagandha So that combination with ashwagandha is what gives you guys that nice Yeah, feeling that you get from it cool You know you brought up just now not to put your business out online or anything like that But the GW you cashed out pretty big on that a few years back. Yeah, you check in on it just to see you Well, I don't know who bought them. I forgot who bought them. Oh, so you don't even know.

I know. No, I was. I was about that long time ago. They bought out, and they had to pay off all the shares. So I got the money because they bought them out. Yeah. And I made like 10 times my investment. Yeah, I know.

You killed it on that. Yeah. But I don't know who bought them out. I forgot. Maybe you could look that up, Doug. GW Pharmaceutical. See who bought. Yeah, just curious. Like if you would have re-b, GW Pharmaceutical, see who bought. I totally forgot.

Yeah, just curious if you would have re-bought in with a new company or would have hung in there if it's doing even better or that was the right, I mean, obviously you 10X, you did the right thing no matter what. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jazz Pharmaceuticals. Who is it?

Jazz. What do they have in their pipeline? What are their medications? I wonder if there's anything. Some jazzy products. You know, I'm not so, what's the word I wanna use, bullish on medicinal, pharmaceutical cannabinoids because you can get them naturally and they're not patented.

So they're always trying to find ways to make something patented. More concentrated somehow. Yeah, or whatever. Make it kind of a synthesized version so you can block other people from copying. Does it feel like the cannabis space and stuff like that has really kind of calmed down?

Little bit. It does. Remember, it felt like when we first were getting going and stuff like that, obviously there's a bit of a bias because I was in it and around it so much, but it does feel like it was so hot for a minute there where everybody was infusing cannabis into everything and everyone's talking about it because it's this cure-all for everything and it does feel like it's kind of like no big deal anymore. The one place that we saw the best and there's still lots of

research but was with certain types of epilepsy. So Epidiolex, that was the product from GW that I think Jazz bought them for. It treats a type of epilepsy that was like, there were no treatments for it. And these were kids that were getting Dravet syndrome, that's what it was. These kids were getting multiple seizures a day, some of them getting 50 seizures a day,

and then they'd give them CBD. Parents? None, or like hardly any. Well, here's the story. The story day, and then they'd give them CBD. Parents? None, or like hardly any. Well, here's the story. The story is, these parents of these children who were getting all these seizures, which is terrible. Because that many seizures in a row can cause brain damage. Dude, that has to be, as a parent,

one of the scariest moments to watch your kid go through. So I have personal experience with that. I've seen it in person too. I'm not a family member, but I've seen some. I have a sister who has epilepsy, and I was, how old was I? Yeah, in person too. I've never had a family member, but I've seen some. It's like. I have a sister who has epilepsy, and I was, how old was I? I don't remember how old I was, maybe 10,

when we found out, and we didn't know what it was. So it was kind of scary, but I was maybe too young to maybe understand the testing, but I saw her have a seizure in front of me, and it was so scary to see. So I can't even imagine. Well, especially with the family too, it happened to me, and the family didn't even know

that she had that condition. It just, it came, you know, fast and quick, and we had to, you know. And you can't do anything. You really are just supposed to just make sure that they don't hurt themselves, but allow it to take its course. There's some seizures, some seizures,

just the eyes move or just the face, then you have what's called the grand mal seizure with the whole body. They're flopping around. Yeah, so my sister was, I think she got petite mal, they were called, which are not the big, big ones, but big enough to where she would contour it. Oh man.

And, but she's on medication, so it's almost completely controlled. But with Dravet syndrome, these parents saw their kids having all these seizures, there was no treatment at all. Parents went on forums and were reading about parents giving their kids high CBD marijuana and solving it. So parents were breaking the law, were doing this for their kids,

and then that's what drove the recent... Remember there was a... Didn't that lead to Colorado? That's right. Yeah, they actually started to consider it becoming illegal. Wasn't it that story of the lady who like broke into the hospital or something like that and gave it to her kid, her kid was being hospitalized or something like yeah, they actually started to consider it wasn't that story the lady who like broke into the hospital or something like that I gave it to her kid was being hospitalized or something like that and she like snuck into the hospital room Yeah, I remember there was a crazy story like that

I thought was Colorado or that Courtney was a pediatric nurse and they had it all locked up and you know It it smells like it's like skunky and all that and so it was illegal but like every now and then she'd go, and that was prescribed. And it was funny, because it just felt like, so I'm keeping them real drugs. But then, yeah, totally effective, though, over these other pharmaceuticals.

That's the power of the internet, by the way. That was a positive story, because if those parents didn't have connection. Oh, imagine how long it would take. Because Dravet syndrome's not super common. But they found each other on forums, started talking about, oh, this works, then they sought it out themselves,

and that's what drove the research. I mean, talk about, I mean, we do talk a lot about all the negative things of the internet and social media. You're right, it's double edged, right? It is, because there's an example, I mean, look how far we've come with that, and how strong the laws were just 20 years ago. We would have never be here today

if it wasn't for the ability of the internet and everybody to share stories and forums and stuff like that. Speaking of internet, what do you guys think about Metta? Zuckerberg. So Dana White is on their board now? So that started. I just- They just did a video today and just described

that he's getting rid of all the fact checkers. It's community notes like X. Great, great video. It's brilliant. And I just, I remember when we were talking about this and I said that, listen, when we were like hammering them around election time and I was like, you know what? I just, from what I knew about Zuckerberg starting Facebook, these guys, a lot of the and Twitter was Jack Dorsey, right?

That's who it is, Jack Dorsey, is that correct? These were like libertarian guys. So I really didn't believe that they were this hardcore leftist liberal dudes that were like intentionally trying to mess with elections. I really didn't think it was nefarious like that. And to me, this confirms that. It like really confirms that for me that,

because I thought in that video he did, he really explains how they got there, how they got there, what they're doing to remedy that, and I think it's all great moves. Yeah. I think, so I'm weary over everything that's happening right now because- You always are. True, but hey, I know history.

And it's weird that the pendulum has swung so hard, so quick, that it's become, it's like populism. Remember, you had Instagram and Facebook were. That's the movement of information now, those, the rapid speed is, I think that's why. Maybe, but it's weird how they switch so, so quickly. It's like, what is going on? I mean, I brought it up with the shows and everything,

and I felt the same way too. And I think Justin's right. I just think it's, it feels, because you know history and you're right and you know what follows that movement and how dangerous that movement can be. But I think why it feels so drastic and so fast is to Justin's point. We never in history has information been able to be disseminated this fast. So public opinion. It's so quick. And so it just so fast we realize, oh wow, we went too far. And so it's not that hard to correct course really quick where 30 years ago it would have

taken us a whole other presidency before we felt a slight movement in that direction. That's what I think. Maybe it's interesting because it's not just here it's happening in Europe right now the swing it's happening all over the place it's really interesting. I thought Europe is still doing crazy shit with speech and everything. The UK seems to be flipping. I know Canada digging their heels in with the censorship. Italy already did. But Canada got rid of Trudeau's step down but then I heard somebody else Justin's another tyrannical dude just step down, but then I heard somebody else just another Tyrannical dude just step right in. Well, he kind of like just adopts the same policies like as far as what I've so I don't

Know much about their politics. So I don't think I don't know if anyone's swinging as much as I don't know I hate using this comparison because it gets used for everything and it's ridiculous But you know a lot of people need to understand like Germany post-war war one was under a lot of people need to understand, like Germany post-World War I was under a lot of turmoil. They were poor, they were hammered because of the war, so people were doing poorly. Then you had this really wild progressive movement in Germany where they were doing a lot of crazy stuff, a lot of immorality, quote unquote,

and people were sick of it. They elect Hitler to come in, elect him. He won an election. Very popular, he comes in and started fixing things. And because he was so popular, he was able to grab tons, like full power. They had the Reichstag fire, blames it on terrorists, when probably they set the fire.

They gave him full power and then we know what happened there. So the worry always with populism is it could always go bad. So I'm looking at this swing, and I'm like, how did we go from where we were to here, where now it's like the vast majority now are in this direction? I mean, I do, I agree with Justin on this assessment of it.

I just think that we've never in history been able to get this information out. That's true That's also true. Yeah, it's it's like at the touch of our hands. We can all decide. Well, we're left now We're this way. I mean, I thought it was so I just brought this up last week Like it's gonna be so different. It was so weird to me too. And I just found another show I'm I've literally watched like six shows Yeah, I guess the last two months that are like conservative values where I was just, I mean just seven months ago I was complaining to Katrina how like oh my god everything's

fucking woke everything's like I can't even watch a goddamn television show without feeling like I got some political slant to it like literally just said that and then now I feel like it's the other side and of course the what I like overnight I mean what I love about someone like you is that you keep that balance and even for myself it's like I also don't want to like yeah cuz then you have yeah I'll give you an example so because even when you agree it's like right I agree and I like this shows you know for that I also recognize I don't want to see it go the other so here's the thing that you need to watch out for and I'm not saying this is happening you're right,

I do have that tendency to be skeptical about everything or whatever, but here's what you need to be careful for. When it goes too far in the direction that we were, the message is dismantle and destroy everything. That ultimately isn't popular. Ultimately people back off of that after a certain point, like we don't wanna destroy everything.

When you go far in the other direction, it starts to sound like this. Bring back the old empire. Bring back the old empire, old glory. And so you'll see things like, we're gonna pass a law that makes burning the American flag illegal. And people might be like, yeah, how dare you do that?

But that's got crazy implications, right? So that's just what you gotta be careful for. That naturalism. I'm less interested in that. I'm excited for the transparency. Yeah, hopefully. I wanna know, I just really hope they stick with disclosing a lot of these things just for information sake

and for people to understand how this all kinda got up to this point, and how we can then sort of decipher as a collective how we're all gonna organize this better. So it doesn't happen again. What if the answer is this, by the way, guys? Okay, so the answer wasn't, let's censor everything. What if the answer also isn't,

let's let everybody say everything? What if that's just shit on the other side, that's equally, it's bad also? So I think what we're gonna find is. Taking on like billions of people's problems at once is not natural. But by the way, the reason why that might be bad, because I'm like 100% pro free speech,

but the reason why that might be bad is free speech in the traditional sense before social media, there were natural inherent risks with going out. Yeah, you get punched in the face if you said the wrong thing. Yeah, if I walk up to you and say public square. Yeah, you get punched in the face if you said the wrong thing. Yeah, if I walk up to you and say some stupid shit, I might get hit in the face or get ostracized.

Get his recourse. Now behind my keyboard, I'm anonymous, and I can say something crazy, and then that's popular. Now the sociopath is the guy who gets all the likes. I actually learned a new term that you call astroturfing, but this is where you'd get actors or people from whatever organization, deep know, whatever organization deep state You know, whatever you want to call it where they would go into forums and they would like, you know

influence everybody's Opinions about certain subjects and so this was like very intentionally done. Yeah, but Astro Turfing. I was like, oh, okay that I've never heard that If Justin's point is right what we might be entering be entering in, which will be weird to feel, is this just faster and faster ping pong. That looks like fun. For like a month you're happy, you're like, oh, finally, oh, fuck, now we're back this way. We're all going to go mental, dude.

We just settle down and disagree on it. I mean, that's where we might be. We might be, which- You know what? At the end of the day, no matter how society's organized with our laws and whatever, you need a moral society for it to be okay. An immoral society, a society that doesn't value human life, doesn't value each other.

The problem with that Sal, though, is agreeing on that morality. Is agreeing on where that comes from. That's the problem. Correct. And we have roots. I know. We have roots that develop the West, and that, I believe, is where they'll lie. Because you're right, we have to agree.

Otherwise, it becomes subjective. Yes. That is dangerous. That is dangerous. That's the hardest part about that. Because I think people would agree with that statement, but then it lies like, well, who's the moral person that's telling you what's moral or not, right?

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plus $20 off, but you have to use the code MINDPUMP. Again, it's ButcherBox.com forward slash MINDPUMP with the code MINDPUMP. All right, here comes the rest of the show. All right, so these live questions are brought to you by TrainerWebinar.com. This is where Adam and I get on webinars, they're free, and we teach coaches and trainers

how to be more successful and more effective. Our first caller is Steve from Canada. Steve what's up man? What's happening Steve? You know what a whole heck of a lot in yourself? We're good. We're doing great. Chilling. I rattle off my question let me know when I should start I guess but I kind of had a self-goal come up for myself to hit a 315 pound bench this past year and you know um kind of worked at it pretty hard throughout the spring and into the summer and whatnot home gym and whatnot so i've never been really been to a gym or anything for uh expert advice or anything and then just listening to you guys quite a bit i thought you know what i sent you guys

the email back whenever that was and wait to hear see what you guys think if I'm crazy trying to go for this bowl or if you guys got a program would help me dial in to achieve this bowl if it's possible and my wife actually ended up buying me the maps 40 plus 15 power lift thing for Christmas there. So it'll be the first program I've ever I guess. Okay so all right Steve you were breaking up a little bit but let me just paraphrase and then I'll include some of what you put in your email okay? Yeah sure. All right so you you have a goal of being able to bench press 315 three plates that's a that's a great goal. It says

here you open up your email You you were born on a farm raised on a farm and the first time you got near a bench You could already put up 225. So you're a naturally Strong dude very very strong dude right now You could do a max of 285 and this is out of working out on your own not really following a program Just kind of working out in your home gym. And you're wondering if, you know, what program would work for you type of deal, right? Yeah, pretty much.

And then also, yeah, I'm kind of a little nervous about hitting the 40 mark, because all the doom and gloom stuff is you're kind of finished with your strength years when you hit that age or that size, right? And I know, listen to you guys, you're all kind of in that zone. So it's like, I guess I'm hanging on to my youth. And if I can hit that age or that size, right? And I know, listen, you guys, you're all kind of in that zone. So it's like, I guess I'm hanging on to my youth

and if I can hit that number as I'm cresting the hill here, it's something I wanna look back on and be kind of proud of myself for doing. Yeah, if you hit 225 without working out. Absolutely. Yeah, you can hit 350. You'll have 350. For sure. Yeah, you got in the tank with good programming, though.

You gotta have good workout programming and hit a you know High protein diet consistently and good sleep and then you should be able to get there Now the question is what would a schedule look like for you? It says here you do 15 to 25 minutes a day five days a week right now of lifting Yeah, but like with You know, it's just kind of fly by the seat of my pants because I've never really been to a gym or anything so it's just kind of go grab the seat of my pants because I've never really been to a gym or anything. So it's just kind of go grab the jet and work away on it, right? And when you guys talk about doing heavy, that's preaching to the choir.

I love lifting heavy stuff. You know, farmer, I just, I've always enjoyed heavy and hard work. So, and you know, with farming these days, you think you're still doing it, but it's a lot more mental and you know, diesel fuel and hydraulics has made things a lot easier. So in order to maintain strength, they gotta kinda do it this way. Okay, are you okay with working out more than that or is that the time, like the time that we have to work with? That's kinda what I have been doing,

but like I got the gym just in my shop outside of my home, so I don't mind a little bit more, I suppose, whatever you you guys are because there's two ways we could go that I'm thinking yeah yeah well obviously we have to be in the 20 minute mark we're gonna do maps 15 but if we're gonna go uh mass power lift power lift which he has so he has that you have that I mean I think Sal's advice literally my goal for you would be follow mapsAPS Power Lift as it's laid out, hit your protein intake, and I guarantee you're gonna hit 315. That's how confident I feel. Just being true to the program, so being consistent, following it as laid out, not adding, not taking a bunch of stuff away from it, following it as it's laid out, and consistently making sure you're hitting your protein intake, you're hitting that 315. The frequency for that's already laid out,

so you're gonna develop the skill even further of benching, which is something to just like mechanically, you get more sound with that. It's just, you have to really just monitor your intensity and you're going to see a lot of progression with that program. Yeah, the thing that Justin says is real important, right? Because follow the program doesn't just mean do the exercises and do the reps that it says you also want to listen to the intensity that it recommends so you're not going to be going to failure or beating

yourself up every time you work out that'll actually set you back and and based off of what you said I'm assuming you're walking into your gym on your own and going real hard heavy 15 20 minutes and then walking out without any rhyme or reason good programming makes a tremendous difference but it needs to be followed the way it's it's laid out and explained if you make if you mix up one variable you really do reduce the effectiveness of the programming now I will say this if you follow Maps power lift and you start to feel a little burnt out a little tired if your sleep starts to get disturbed

then go to maps any go to maps excuse me 15 and Do the advanced version in math 15 and then that one should be more appropriate and you'll also get stronger in that program as well It's just less volume and the reason why I'm saying this is I also notice in your email I mean you run a farm you got four young boys If you're following power lifting you're like man, this is week three and I just feel why I'm saying this is I also noticed in your email I mean you run a farm you got four young boys If you're following powerlifting like man, this is week three and I just feel like I'm over doing it, you know I'm not getting stronger. I'm kind of tired then go to Maps 15 do the advanced version That one for sure would be appropriate at that point agreed. Okay No, I'm really glad my wife was able to get this for me for Christmas. Cause flying by the seat of my pants doing this, like I've enjoyed it, but you know,

just us, you guys, you guys are, I feel like I trust you guys. And that's why I wanted to run the question by you guys and you know, also work with hopefully one of your really good programs to do this. Yeah. Well, I mean to be able to bench two 85 without following programming proper program. That's why we all, that's why we feel so confident. You're a strong but confident dude. Yeah, you're probably gonna supersede your goal for sure. Yeah, and I was, well I guess just in December here, because I sent that out in August email.

I self checked, I could do 295 as well. So I, you know, between August and then I've, you know, been pushing it to, you know, a little more yet. So I guess it's not far away, but it's also 20 pounds. It's like, shit, am I over the hell of age or is it? No, no. Gas in the tank can do that. No, no, you got this, you's also 20 pounds. It's like, shit, am I over the hell of age? Or is there gas in the tank to do that? No, no, you got this.

You got this. And just so you know, Steve, when it comes to strength, it's one of the last things to go away in a man as he ages. The first thing that they'll start to lose is agility. Agility, speed, but strength is last. Strength and power, especially strength, can last a long, like some of the strongest men in the world will break records in their 40s. So yeah, it's the agility that you'll, that if you start to lose anything,

that's what you may notice as you get older. But strength sticks around for a while. Okay, yeah, no, I want to, you know, as my kids are growing, I kind of want to be able to, you know, wrestle with them and kick their ass until they're a certain age to get the respect level to get. That's all our goal is now, bro. That's the same goals we got. So that'd be stronger than my boys. God bless.

I held your boys. Uh, one just turned 11. Uh, one's about turn nine, seven, and the youngest one's too. Oh, good for you, man. The whole range. Right on. Good for you. God bless.

All right. So if you, do you have mass 15 the whole range. Thank you. Right on. Good for you, God bless. All right, so do you have Maths 15 or just Power Lift? You've got both. I've got Maths, Maths 40 plus with Power Lift. I believe that was what was in the bundle she got. I'll send you Maths 15 so you have that one as well.

Doug's nodding his head like he's got it. You guys are awesome, I appreciate that. One other. Oh, Doug says you already have Maths 15 so you're set. It is in there, okay. Yep, yeah you're set. Yeah, your wife took care of you. Yeah, she did.

You're set up. Those are all the right programs for you, too. Yeah, I'm looking. Like I said, I've never gone to a gym, just done home stuff. So it's definitely difficult with the program, that's for sure. Falling a program for the first time is going to be awesome. In fact, I would love to hear back from you, Steve, after you get through the program.

I'd love to hear where you land. Because I think I'm with Justin. I think you're going to exceed 315. I'm curious to see where you land. Cause I think, I think I'm with Justin. I think you're going to exceed 315. I'm curious to see where you land. Let's put you in the forums. If you have any questions, well, if you have any questions, you can ask us or people in our forum about the program. Cause you may have questions.

So let's put you in the forum. That'd be cool. All right. You got it, man. You're all set. Yeah. Could I rattle one other question off to you guys? Yeah. Let's hear it. Was kind of thinking about it. Once I got told, I got the invite to come on, which I was completely honored to be able question off to you guys? Yeah, it's here. Was kind of thinking about it once I got told I got the invite to come on, which I was completely

honored to be able to talk to you guys. It was like a Christmas kind of a Christmas present coming from you guys. Obviously notice I got boys. Is there any programming that you guys have done with anyone for working with my kids to help get them stronger too? I just don't want to throw these, you know, whenever my kids and I go to the swimming pool, like, you know, you guys always say not to compare yourself with others, but like, my God, I don't know where the bandaid is going and all these kids

and these young men, there's like nothing out there. So I just want my boys to grab it and- I love Steve. I love, especially since the range you have age wise, I love map suspension. Teaching them. Yeah. And that's all you need. So you can literally throw it on a tree. I love, especially since the range you have age-wise, I love MAP suspension. Teaching them, yeah, and that's all you need. So you could literally throw it on a tree, you could do it somewhere in the barn, you could do it anywhere, and it's really, and it's good, and it's right for their age.

And it's gonna teach them stability, and it's fun. So it's kind of fun for you all to do it. Small investment to get a suspension trainer. We sell them at our mind pump store. You can get them right from there. They're like 50 bucks. And then you're set. And I can have Doug send over map suspension to you. So you got that program and then you run that with your kids. I think that's a great program. I appreciate that. Because yeah, it's just I wanted to grow up and be strong. And you

know, it's getting harder and harder these days with everything being so easy. But I'm not just gonna say that's okay. Let's I just want to build these guys be solid young men, right? Yeah, you're already doing the right thing by leading by example. That's the first step lean by example They see you lifting like that And then I think if you incorporate some of the fun stuff with mass suspension That'd be my only advice to you is don't force them to do it Just show them have fun with it make it more about the experience first. Make it play. And that, yeah, make it more kind of like, oh, we're all just trying these exercises out. And then over time they'll, they'll, they'll ask for it and then you'll know.

Okay. Well, yeah. My, my six year old had just turned seven. Like he's, he's got like a different level of strength in him, but he'll walk out to the shop and don't cringe at this, but he'll grab my 85 pound dumbbell and just pick it up. Like, wow, there's nothing to it. That's awesome. My boy does the same. That's great good for you. Yeah. I see we're gonna send that over to you too. So you got map suspension on you too. Awesome guys. I appreciate it. Hey, thanks so much for all that you guys put on like, you know, I'm in the machinery for long hours through the spring and summer. It's you know, there's garbage to listen to on the radio and that these days. So I binge listen to you guys and some various other podcasts and it's just, you guys put out really good stuff. So thank you for that.

Appreciate that. Thank you. Thanks. Yeah. And Sal, thanks for sharing your faith journey too. I love hearing when you dabble into that. That's a really good stuff. Appreciate that man. God bless. Thanks for doing that. Thank you. Yeah. Right on Steve. Thanks. Yeah. Good stuff. If you, if you went into the gym and bench 225 the first time, 315 is like he's on accident hitting 295. Yeah, no, that's exactly what I mean. Be deliberate about it. It's like it's game on.

I mean, I hope I hope he follows it to a tee and I hope he calls us back because I'm super curious at where he lands. If you hit 225 the first time you benched you have 405 in you. That's that's how I feel. Yes, I feel. With good training. I the first time you benched, you have 405 in you. That's how I feel. That's how I feel. With good training. I didn't want to say that, but I thought the same thing.

Yeah. I mean, but that would be more really consistent, good programming if you got that in you. And maybe a couple of rounds. I think he's going to blow through 350. If he just took krate team, he'd had 10 pounds to expect for that. That's great.

Our next caller is Adam from Washington. Adam, what's up? Yeah. What's up? Doug's got head guys. Honored to be on the show. Thanks for coming on for us, man. Well, uh, basically the question is about, uh, trying to lose some weight and seeing the bar get so much heavier in the gym than it used to be. Uh, let me give you a little bit of a background. I started lifting about three years ago,

and it was kind of an interesting inspiration to start lifting. I was in Costco with my four boys, and my five-year-old son was with me, and I pointed out a bench press that they were selling in Costco. And I said, hey, you know, your dad used to do a little bit

of power lifting in high school, but you know, it's been a long time. And he said, well, yeah, dad, that's when you were strong. You're not strong anymore. Oh, and I'm in the gym the next day. That cuts me right now. Yeah, it did. It hit me hard because, you know, especially a five year old,

I'm supposed to be a superhero, you know? Absolutely. And so I signed up that night. And I got into the gym. And I just kind of did what I knew. I did the powerlifting movements. I did a program that really focused on the big four. You know, your squat bench, deadlift, and overhead press.

And I ran that for about 18 months. And I just went for it. You know? And I was able to get some really impressive numbers. The one I was most proud of is not having touched a weight in over 25 years. You know, I was able to squat 510. Wow.

So man, I was really proud of that. And it was awesome to come home and see my boys just light up when I told them what dad was lifting, you know, in the gym. That's great, man. Yeah. And so after focusing on strength for a long time, I do need to lose some weight. You know, I'm sitting at 37% body fat. It needs to be addressed. And so I really needed to change gears on that.

And so, uh, now I'm looking at cutting, uh, calories and I'm, uh, focusing on protein, I'm doing all the things that you guys talk about. But yeah, squatting, it just feels so much heavier now. And I just need to know, like, I know that I'm going to lose some strength in a cutting phase. I know that I'm adding calorie deficit. And so that's going to affect it. But really, how much is acceptable? What should I really be allowing myself to feel when I'm seeing that strength loss or should I be bumping on my calories and going a little bit slower? I love this question.

You know, Sal, I've been meaning to tell you this that so in my series that I did about I think two or three episodes ago, I addressed us how we talk about this sometimes because I do think sometimes we talk to people about how if their programming's off and they're cutting too hard that they shouldn't lose much strength. But it is very normal to lose strength in a cut. Every cut I've ever done, I lose strength. The stronger you are, the more likely it is to lose strength. You had a 500 pound squat.

If you're squatting 185, you're probably not going to lose much strength. 500 pound squat at that high of performance, just the reduction in calories, even if you lost no weight, you'd probably see the strength go down a little bit. Yes, so it's very, very normal. What I really look for is, I don't wanna just see consistent losing strength.

I kind of expect this drop off of 15, 20% right out the gates. If I'm a 500 squatter, I'm going to be down to 425, 450 pretty quick. But then I want to see it level out. I should be able to maintain that level of strength. And if I continue to see dropping, getting weaker, weaker, then I'm probably pushing too hard.

I'm probably cutting calories too hard or overextending myself and or not getting good rest and then I'm needing to dress things but absolutely it is normal to in a cut especially when you're that strong you're going to see a deficit. In fact there's a reason why when we talk about this a lot like why psychologically I like to and I talk about this in my series I go I started showing everybody how now all of a sudden I'm going to start doing superets and high reps because I know I'm weak and so I intentionally want to lift lightweight lots of reps and superset so I your head if you're like, man, I was moving 500 pounds. Now I'm only, I'm struggling at 400 now versus, you know what, I'm gonna go all the way down to 200 and I'm gonna be repping 15, 20 reps or I'm gonna superset it with another exercise. And so I have to go so light that I'm not getting, I'm not getting hung

up on how much weaker I feel. Does that make sense? Yeah, there's a couple of strategies too with this. One is to break up the cut with some maintenance or a little mini bulk for a week or two, which is actually not a bad strategy to preserve muscle anyway. The second thing is look at your strength to weight ratio. This will give you a better picture of an appropriate amount of strength loss, right? So if you lost 50 pounds but your lifts went down 30 pounds, you're actually stronger as a percentage of your body weight right so that's what I like to look at Okay, I'm going down and wait and my strength is going down, but it's actually not bad. It's actually quite proportional So that's just the other way to look at and then lastly I'll say be careful with the volume of your training when you're in a deficit when you're in a deficit

Lastly, I'll say be careful with the volume of your training when you're in a deficit. When you're in a deficit, you're not going to recover as well. And so what tends to happen is we tend to increase the volume when we're in a deficit because we're trying to burn more calories. Not necessarily a good strategy. So you want to, so people tend to over train. They'll cut and then they'll over train on top of it, which makes everything worse. So I tend to reduce the volume as I reduce my calories to prevent that from happening. So just a few things to kind of think about. But the strength to weight ratio is another one and you know what always helps me, Adam

brought up one way and you can do that in a million different ways. You can change exercises too. You do exercises you never do so you have no idea how strong you're supposed to be and get those newbie gains. That's another way to do it. The other way is I like doing body weight exercises or some body weight exercises as I'm losing weight because I get better at them as I get lighter. So like my pull ups get better. Yeah, so if I lose weight, I get more pull ups. I'm like, oh, I'm stronger, but really it's because

I'm lighter, you know? So just a few things to consider. I'm trying to look right now and see what episode it was where as I'm lifting, I'm talking all about this and just some of my strategies and thought process around it. It's one of the last four episodes that I don't know if you've seen on the mind pump TV, I did a whole series of me getting back into shape and I addressed this conversation right here.

I went on for a while about it because I know sometimes we communicate this a little bit different on the show and I'm talking to the camera just telling everybody like, man, it's very normal for me to feel weak. It's just, I, when I drop calories like that, especially for an extended period of time, I see strength go down. And if I don't do some of these tips, it really will fuck with me psychologically. And, and you add in this too, you'll probably notice this cause you're also depleting all these carbs, so your glycogen's out. So your muscles look flatter. And so you, not only do you feel weaker, you look weaker, you know, so you're also depleting all these carbs, so your glycogen's out, so your muscles look flatter. And so not only do you feel weaker, you look weaker.

So when you're all pumped up with carbs and you've got a good lift, I mean, you look all filled out, your muscles are all full. When you're depleted, you have this kind of flat look. You don't get as good of pumps, and that can mess with you. So now you start going, oh my God, I'm weaker and I'm losing all kinds of muscle, F this, and you go back the other direction.

And so there's a lot of things that I do strategically to not even like dress differently. So I wear oversized, like triple X big shirts and stuff like that. So I'm not looking at myself and judging how I look and I go lighter weight. So it's like, I'm focused on the skill of what I'm lifting. I'm not worried about how heavy it is. Like there's a lot of things I do to make sure. Adam, can we send you a program that's different from what you're used to so

you could just start something new while you're on this cut? Yeah, that would be great. I'm running maps 15, the advanced version right now. You know, I switched to that, uh, not too long ago because, you know, I started last semester, my, my master's degree. And like I said, I got four boys. And so my wife was kind of encouraging me to look at the volume anyway, because I was tired at night, falling asleep before it was bedtime,

you know? Well, and so I like math 15 performance also. So I'll send you that one as well. Stay where you're at. And then when you're done with that, go to the maps 15 performance. I think that's good advice. And that's really good advice where you should be right now. Um, so stick with that and then afterwards follow the math 15 performance. Yeah, and you'll be set. Yeah, absolutely Well, thank you guys so much. You got it. Yeah. Thanks for calling in. Yeah, God bless you Bro he could hear your thoughts with those headphones

Did you say Doug Edmonds? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Doug Edmonds. I saw his picture in the whole time. You know, this is a good conversation because when I'm training or working with a relative beginner, I don't want to see strength gains when we're cutting, okay? When you're advanced and really strong, you're going to get some strength loss in a cut. It's just, if you're squatting five-something

and you go in a deficit, the deficit, before you even lose anyway, within three days you'll see a drop in strength. Dylan, and you go in a deficit, the deficit, before you even lose anyway, within three days you'll see a drop in strength. Dylan, if you can find that clip, because I know it's one of the last four episodes, I'd love to play that for the guys. We could talk, it'd be a good conversation to have

on the front half of the episode and talk about it, because I do think that we say that sometimes. I think people expect that they're gonna keep, they're not gonna lose any strength. I'm like, bro. I lose strength every time Yeah, so it's normal but you get the best part about it is you get it right back as soon as you feed That's right you refeed also and you get strong again. So that's a positive thing. Our next caller is Victoria from North Carolina Hi, Victoria

How you doing I'm good, how are you guys good help you? Okay, so I'm really nervous I'm just gonna go ahead and read my question. Um, so I am a 28 year mom, 28 year old mama three, um, from small town, North Carolina, um, I'm five seven and I've always struggled with my weight. Um, my main issue is with binge eating. Um, I love weightlifting and have on and off for about three years, with most recently being consistent for about six months. Unfortunately, my weight has been steadily increasing.

I just started a GLP-1, but will not be able to be on it long due to finances, so I want to maximize it while I have it. My question is how would you guide someone with a binge eating disorder to a life of intuitive eating and just eating until they are satisfied. Wow, that's great.

I'm so okay. So how long are you gonna be on your GLP-1? Probably until about March-ish. Oh, good. Good. Yeah. Okay, we have some time. Make some progress there.

Okay, so let's talk a little bit about how the GLP-1 can be leveraged to help you with what you're looking for. Okay, so and how long have you already been on it? Um, I'm about to take my fourth shot. Are you noticing the effects already? A little bit, not super, not a lot yet though. And are you ramping the, are they doing the scale up with the dose? Or did you start?

I go back in two days to meet with my doctor. So I'm not sure if they're gonna. They'll increase you. That's probably what it is. Yeah. Okay, so GLP-1s without going down into the weeds, essentially they're gonna, they really start to reduce your appetite and cravings.

Okay? So the signal, the loud signal that you may have to, or connection to food gets blunted. Now here's how we can leverage that because what we don't want to do is rely on the GLP-1 to fix this for you because when you go off, eventually, not right away, but eventually, the old appetite starts to come back.

So here's what you've got to do. While you're on the GLP-1 and that signal starts to get blunted, you want to develop new behaviors and habits around food and a new relationship with food during this process. The longer you're able to do that, the easier it is going to be to maintain when you go off the GLP-1. Because what happens with behaviors is there's neural connections that form in the brain. The longer you don't engage in a behavior, the weaker those neural connections become, and the stronger other connections become.

So here's what I want you to do. I want you to identify triggers and states of mind or things that happen that tend to trigger binge eating. So maybe it's stress, fatigue, anxiety, whatever. None of those things are gonna go away, by the way, on the GLP-1. You're still gonna feel stressed, you're still gonna feel anxious,

or whatever those triggers were before. When those triggers come up, I want you to find an alternative way to deal with those feelings. So if I'm anxious and I notice, oh man, when I'm anxious, that tends to be when I overeat, or when I watch TV or whatever. When those things happen,

either you could find something else, either it be you can journal, you can read, you can meditate, you can play with your kids. You wanna come up with some other alternative behavior and then be consistent with it throughout the entire time you're on the GLP-1. The second thing is make sure you hit your protein targets when you're on the GLP-1 and continue to strength train. Through that process

it will be easier to maintain after the GLP-1 than it would have been had you done this without the GLP-1 but it's not perfect because the appetite will come back but if we could take that feeling and connect it to something else or move in a different direction, you should be in a much better position. I actually think, Victoria, you're one of the really good examples of who I think GLP-1s can be really, really helpful for. I think there's a lot of people that are taking it

like it's a quick fix, but I think the people that it's made the biggest difference in my opinion from the people that we've helped are the people that know and recognize they have binge habits and they're trying to fix it, but they just, it's like they're white knuckling it when they're doing it. It's so hard for them to do that. And I think it really helps with that, that loud signal.

And another thing that helped me when I went through this process, I've openly shared that I have that kind of relationship with ice cream, right? I can't come, I can't have one bite. I binge the whole pint. Knowing what your binge tendencies are, when they are, what the foods are, and then creating new things that you eat during that time. I found that really useful for myself. Like it was really easy when that loud signal got damped down. I didn't have the cravings for the ice cream anymore, but then I still had, you know, a lot of times I love at after dinner

and I'm watching TV or something like that I like to snack or eat on something. So switching that from being an ice cream thing to Greek yogurt and it's something that's Similar enough to where I get that kind of cold, you know Like creamy taste that I got that is helped me make that transition that when I came off the GLP one I've now created this new habit of what food I was eating in replace of that. So finding those types of things will help also. So I don't know how aware of what things you tend to binge on. If you have certain things that just get you with ice cream, candy, drinks, whatever it is, but look for healthier alternatives that you can also replace in that

time too. I think that will really help during this time also. Do you have, do you know, are there triggers that you've already identified? I don't know about triggers per se, but I'm really bad about wanting something sweet after dinner. I'm fine all day long, and there's just something about after dinner.

Gotcha. We're kind of getting chilled, getting the kids ready for bed, and then she's like, oh, I want something sweet. Yes, okay, so is that where you tend to do the binging? Yeah. Okay, what Adam said is gonna help them. While you're on a GLP-1, eat something that's sweet

after dinner, but try to make it a better option. Magic spoon's a great option. So like, yeah, if you go processed, magic spoon cereal, or it could be Greek yogurt with some fruit and some berries, and just develop that as your new habit and behavior. And then when you go off the GLP-1, stay away from the old foods as long as you possibly can, because those neural networks are gonna weaken,

but you'll strengthen them right back up if you start to engage again. And it's a slippery, it's literally a slippery slope. Look at it like that. So replace it with something else. Don't say, no, I'm not gonna have anything after dinner, but I know I'm gonna have some berries with some Greek yogurt or whatever.

Something sweet that's, you know, like one thing that I do, I bought myself after Adam recommended the Ninja Creamy, it's this like, it's not even a blender, I don't even know what you would call it. But I make protein. Yeah, I know what you're talking about, yeah. So I make a protein shake, and Paleo Valley, their caramel one, it's ridiculously good.

And I'll make some of it, freeze it, and then at night I'll put the creamy on, and it's like a sorbet almost. And it's like super low calorie, and it's protein. And I'll put the creamy on and it's like, it's like a sorbet almost and it's like super low calorie and it's protein. Yeah. And we'll have that. The protein is satisfying. So that helps cause you get a little bit of that sweep, but also to kind of staves it off. Cause you're like, okay, I'm a little bit satiated.

Totally. You're going to do, you're going to do good. You're going to do good. Yeah. If you, if you approach this systematically, you're going to do good. Okay. Yeah. Um, a couple of years ago, I was in like the best shape of my life. And then, um, I was when I honestly, when I found you guys, um, I was probably, I want to say like 30 pounds lighter than I am right now, but then I got pregnant with my third, um, surprise, surprise pregnancy. a surprise, a surprise pregnancy. So it's just, I've been,

it's been hard getting back on the track. How old are your kids, Victoria? My oldest is seven. I have a five-year-old and then our baby will be two in March. Oh, you're gonna be fine. You know what, I've trained so many women pre, during and postpartum.

And I know what they say, oh, six months, you work out, whatever. No, no, every woman I've ever trained, it took them about a one and a half to two years to get back, really back on track. Okay? Because you know that the sleep starts to get a little bit more stable

and the whole hecticness, the craziness of it. So you're gonna do fine, Victoria, especially if you've done this before. I'd love to send you Maps GLP-1 and I'd love to get you in our private forum if you're not already in there, just so we can help you through this process. And are you going through our partners?

Are you getting the brand name GLP-1 or the generic? Cause you can save money going generic. I don't know which one is which, I'm on the Wood Gobi. My primary care was able to get it for me and did your insurance cover does that a pocket? No, it's my insurance is covering it, but I'm losing my current insurance in March. So that's fine Well, we'll send you a link to our people and if you have to pay out of pocket you might save money No, you will for sure. Go be is way expensive if you had to pay out of pocket Yeah, if you pay out of pocket with the generics,

it's a lot less. It's the same exact thing, though. So we'll send you a link, okay? Okay. All right. All right, Victoria. Yeah, good luck. You got it.

You got this. Awesome. Thank you guys so much. You got it. You know, I'm glad I asked. I was just talking to Jessica about this. It takes about two years, and I don't mean two years to get back in shape, some women do it faster.

What I mean by that is for things to really settle and for you to just get back on the- Feel repair and balance hormones. Repair, balance hormones, life isn't so crazy, my kids sleeping in their own room, and it's just, it takes about two, so just, you know that that's what's gonna happen. I also think there's, I notice a difference,

at least in my client's entry, when you've had multiple kids versus a Course a difference one kid bounce back is seems to be way different than after the second or the third kid of course Of course, and it's just there's there's there's stress is the body but beyond that when she when you have one kid It's one kid to take care of she's got three kids You just got a baby and two kids to handle as well. It's tough. Now, great candidate for GLP-1.

That's a great example of somebody who I think it can be massively life changing. If you leverage it right, it's going to be great. Yeah. Our next caller is Sharon from Virginia. Hi, Sharon. How you doing, Sharon? How can I help you? Hey guys. How are you?

We're good. How are you? Great. Good. Thanks. So I'm going to just jump into my question. My question is, could you all talk about how physical and mental trauma and stress impacts weight in progress? Sorry. A little backstory, I was recently medically retired

from the Marine Corps after 16 years. And while Marines are known for their strict physical fitness, we also place a great emphasis on image and have to adhere to strict weight standards. For about 16 years, I took very dangerous steps to make weight at least twice a year, despite being in incredible shape

and performing exceptionally well on my physical fitness tests. This behavior included severe dehydration, starving myself for up to two weeks several times a year, and excessive cardio and sauna sessions. About a year and a half ago, I hit a point where I had my fourth laparoscopic surgery to remove endometriosis and told myself,

I'm never doing this dangerous behavior again, and I didn't, but I gained a lot of weight. Admittedly, after my fourth surgery, I didn't recover the same way a lot of weight. Admittedly, after my fourth surgery, I didn't recover the same way as I had my previous surgeries, and I still experience a lot of issues nearly half of the days of every month, making it difficult to sleep, concentrate and work out, but I always do something every day and still weight train about three to five times a week. I completed MAPS Anabolic after my surgery and also M also maps 15 twice. I realized that at my age, I'm 45,

and the physical surgical trauma to my core area has paid a toll on my body. But there was also some work-related stuff that negatively impacted me mentally. And I think that that played the biggest role in my recovery and weight gain. But I don't know if my workouts are helping or hurting because there's no movement in the way that I look and how my clothes fit. But I don't know if my workouts are helping or hurting because there's no movement in the way that I look

and how my clothes fit. But I am getting stronger as I'm able to progressively load almost every time I work out, which is pretty awesome. Additionally, I started a very low dose of Trisepatide to help with inflammation. But, and I recently bought your GLP-1 maps program, but I just wanna know if I'm missing something. I asked that you speak about this

and how trauma impacts our health, weight, and progress because this is actually a much bigger issue than me. I hear similar stories when I speak with other veterans and first responders since we have a similar kind of trauma-bonded experience of high operational tempo, loads of stress, emphasis on physical fitness, but not necessarily in a healthy way, and issues with sleep. Yeah, great great I'm glad you called in. I also noticed in your

email, Doug if you could scroll up a little bit, you also have done a few rounds of EMDR? I have yeah. How's that work for you? It was good yeah I mean some of the just kind of putting everything into a good box and going, okay, this wasn't as big as you thought, and kind of putting some of that, I still do see a regular counselor, because I think that that's helped to just be able to just put everything into context. All right, so to answer the quick, easy question

about what is your workouts doing for you? Were you getting stronger, and if you feel feel better you're doing the right thing? So in terms of how you look in the mirror, how you're judging yourself and your appearance, we're in a process of healing. And I can't tell you how long or how little that's going to take. A lot of that is up to how fast your body can move and how easily you can face the demons that you have to look at to get through them. And so it could take a while, but this is a process of healing. And so you have to be very patient and kind to yourself because what will interrupt that

process is a shame spiral where you start to judge what you did, what you're doing now, and that adds to the trauma. Now the impact it can have on your health is profound. But there's also something called post-traumatic growth. So there is post-traumatic stress, but there's also something called post-traumatic growth that can happen, and a lot of that has to do with the way you look at things, the way you approach things. I think therapy makes a big difference.

I like that you did EMDR. I think parts therapy, if you haven't done that, might be something that might be very, very helpful. Parts therapy puts trauma in the context of something that the brain and the person can understand and then process. It's called parts therapy because you start to connect them to different parts of yourself. Like oh, this is 13 year old me that's rebelling against this or this is five year old, whatever. And it sounds funny but it's extremely effective

when you look at the data on it. But you have to understand you're in a process of healing. And so this is all self-care. Everything you're doing from now on is gonna be self-care. If you do a good job of caring for yourself, the aesthetics is gonna start to follow. But if you focus on the aesthetics, the self-care isn't gonna happen

and the aesthetics aren't gonna happen as well. Sharon, are you also still battling Endo? Yeah, unfortunately. Wow, okay. That's a lot. I mean, my sister has struggled with Endo her entire life and I just know how... It sucks. It's unbelievable. It breaks my heart to see what she has to go through all the time.

And she works for us, she's part of the company, so she follows a lot of the advice. And I still see her go through the ups and downs of that. And I know how little information that we have about helping people with that. So I mean, I think one of the things that you need to do is actually commend yourself. I think where you've come from, where you're at, what you're doing for yourself, the way you are taking care of you and what you're battling through is unbelievable. So I think you have to remind yourself what a great job you're already doing. And so I think that's important to this process. I think that that is step one, because if you also continue to beat yourself up

over the peaks and valleys of this journey for you, then you're going to constantly find yourself spiraling out of control. but reminding yourself what you came from and where you're currently at is so important. I think that's probably one of the most important things to start with is that. And yeah. And then to focus on the other things of really trying to connect the dots

when you are training and doing these things that I am stronger, I do have better energy, I am starting to sleep a little bit better. Do not allow the physical, especially when you're battling something physical things that I am stronger, I do have better energy, I am starting to sleep a little bit better. Do not allow the physical, especially when you're battling something physical like endo. I know what that can do to my sister's body. I've seen her look one day in unbelievably fit and then literally four days later, look like she's pregnant and swollen.

So I mean, I can't imagine the psychological fuck that that puts on a woman who's trying to lean out and do that. And so you can't allow that as you're battling through that. So really work on connecting the dots to the other aspects of your life that you recognize that this is doing for you. Like, oh man, you know what, maybe this this physical thing isn't exactly where I want it right now, but I am getting better here. And I haven't done these.

I haven't done these things of cutting like I did in the past that were so dangerous to me in years now. I do notice that this is getting so really try and connect the dots to all the other aspects of your life that you are seeing positive change based off these new behaviors that you're building and then I just continue with the counseling and or potentially invest in a really good personal trainer. I mean if you had a good trainer I think that would also be helpful. I mean having somebody who's reminding you to do that as we're going through this process is important, but I think you need to let yourself know how fucking good of a job you're already doing. You're doing really well. The thing with trauma, which is

interesting that I learned maybe a couple years ago, you know, if you look at like the healing process of, let's say you damage your skin and it heals, there's an order of operation in terms of the healing. If I block one of the steps, like if I block that initial step of inflammation, or I block the scab, the formation of a scab, or I block the formation of the first layer of skin, the following steps can't occur. It has to happen in order. For emotional and mental trauma, there's also a step process. And so if you block a step,

let's say you don't wanna look at something painful or you avoid it or you put it in a compartment and you don't deal with it, it stays there. So the process you're going through of healing means you have to go back, which you probably have already experienced some of this with EMDR. You have to go back and face the challenging stuff. The reason why I'm telling you this is because

oftentimes it gets harder before it gets easier, but you have to get harder first. So the process you're going through means you're on the right track. Like you're moving in the right direction, even though right now you're going through means you're on the right track. Like you're moving in the right direction, even though right now you're going through the probably some of the more difficult. It sounds like you've actually made it through the hardest parts.

Yeah, I kind of feel like that, which is good. I feel like I'm on the other side. Now I'm just waiting for the body to catch up. It will. I've trained so many people, it will. Be compassionate towards yourself. Yes So and then you know Adam gave great advice like look at things in context So it's like wow, I I'm not doing that thing I used to do right and yes, I you know

I did I do feel bad but not as bad as I used to you know Or I do feel really bad, but I'm not beating myself up like I used to like there's all that put things in context Yes, absolutely Are you in our are you in our forum already? Do we have you in there? No beating myself up like I used to. Like there's, put things in context. Yes. Absolutely. Are you in our, are you in our forum already? Do we have you in there? No. I would love Doug to put you in there too. And that way you've got, you know, if you don't hire a trainer, you can lean on us as you go through this process. And if you message in there and just tag the boys and I, um,

we'll get back to you and we'll stay in contact with you. Uh, and, and please don't hesitate to reach out for that. I mean, if you feel like that, you find yourself kind of spiraling out or you have questions about your training or the diet going on, like make sure you reach out to us and let us help you through this process. But I think you're already doing a great job and it's going to continue to get better for you. Thanks, guys.

I really appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah, you got it. Thanks for calling in and tag us in the forum. Okay. Yeah, sounds good. Thank you. One last thing, not a question, but you guys have really just changed us, my husband and me, so and I've passed you around to so many of my friends as podcasts. So thank you guys and my husband became a doctor after he retired from the Marine Corps. So now he has actually started writing prescriptions for Mind Pump podcast. No way. Yeah. That's awesome. That's great. I wanted to let

you guys know how much of an impact you really had. Wow. Tell me. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate the support. Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks guys. Appreciate it. Have a good near. See, this is when I hate being virtual. Yeah. I just, you know, talking with someone like that in person, I mean, that's a client that I want to train. I feel like, yeah, you, I feel like I want to continue to remind. I tell you what I watch, uh, I had a girlfriend who had it, uh, and then I didn't know much about it then.

And then my sister's battle with endometriosisosis and it is, it is a mother fucker. You know there's a connection. And they, and they, it was so terrible. Yeah, yeah. I mean there is for all autoimmune, they say like, like 60%. But endometriosis seems to be a pretty particular.

Yeah, yeah. And it's, man it's a terrible, and I have man, I've seen my sister send me a picture of her abs and looking ripped and looking, feeling amazing and then like three days later, just looks like she's pregnant. I mean, just inflamed like crazy in crazy pain to where she can't do anything. And then they just want to medicate you.

They want to throw you on painkillers and numb it. And you want, there's a party that wants to do that because you just want to be, feel comfortable for a minute. And, and they know so little, they know so little about it. I'm sure your sister wouldn't mind talking. Oh, Cassie already does. I mean, she, I mean, I'll tell Sharon, Cassie is in the forum. Cassie is my sister. If you tag her, you can connect her.

Most people that listen to the podcast, that Cassie gets a chance to talk to that as endo, she ends up linking and sharing articles and forums. There you go. There's a very tight community that she's built because she's battled with her her entire life. Maybe forward an email, Doug, to Sharon and let her know. And Cassie will definitely share stuff with her because yeah, no, I've watched her battle that her entire life and man it is tough. Yeah, it's tough. It's really tough and

what she came from already and the fact that she's not falling back into the old behaviors of probably you know, binging or doing whatever she was doing to lose the weight like that in itself is a massive success. Sorry to progress. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. Justin is at Mind Pump Justin, I'm at Mind Pump DeStefano, and Adam's at Mind Pump Ad.

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes maps anabolic, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically

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