Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2612: How One Man Lost Over 300 Pounds Without Any Cardio

Episode Date: June 5, 2025

How One Man Lost Over 300 Pounds Without Any Cardio with Jamie Selzler Lessons learned. (2:02) What episode got him hooked? (3:23) His highest recorded weight. (4:30) Obesity is a disease. (6:21) Food became overpowering. (10:17) The moment he feared for his life. (11:58) Keeping promises to yourself. (16:01) How did the process change his relationship with himself? (19:53) Having the foot on the gas. (21:56) Consistency and discipline TRUMP motivation. (23:26) His #1 message to coaches and trainers. (27:38) The importance of having a team. (30:34) EVERYONE deserves love, respect, compassion, and empathy, NO MATTER their size. (32:48) Celebrate every win and success. (34:04) What would Mom have done? (40:27) Input goals ONLY, not output goals. (42:05) His GLP-1 experience. (48:02) A HUGE opportunity for trainers and coaches. (59:10) The importance of having a support system. (1:01:48) A parting message for those in his shoes. (1:10:46) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Legion Athletics for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Code MINDPUMP for 20% off your first order (new customers) and double rewards points for existing customers. ** June Special: Shredded Summer Bundle or Bikini Bundle 50% off! ** Code JUNE50 at checkout ** Listener Live Podcast with Jamie – Mind Pump # 2574 – Question #4 Aspire Fitness KY DMAIC - The 5 Phases of Lean Six Sigma Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources Featured Guest/People Mentioned Jamie Selzler (@jselzler) Instagram Jamie Selzler (@jamselz) TikTok Coach Josh Bowen (@buffgandhi) Instagram Mike Matthews (@muscleforlifefitness) Instagram Dr. William Seeds (@williamseedsmd) Instagram  

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Mind Pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. This episode, I'm not lying, it's my favorite episode I've ever done in the history of Mind Pump. We had a listener on the show. I'm not lying. It's my favorite episode I've ever done in the history of mind pump We had a listener on the show We had actually had him as a caller a while back and he shared how he lost over 300 pounds through listening to our show and employing some of our advice

When we talked to him, we all thought we need to have him on this podcast so that other people can hear about his journey. He literally lost over 300 pounds, didn't do a single bout of structured cardio, but of course he's strength trained, he changed his diet. You'll hear all about the struggle and the learning that he went through on this incredible, amazing journey. No surgery, by the way. He lost it all without surgery his his name Is Jamie Selzer by the way, you can found him on Instagram at J selzer.com as J Selzer L Er you can also find him on tik-tok at jame jam cells. So this J am Selze we know you're gonna love this guy.

We totally loved him. We all got emotional many times on this podcast while interviewing him. By the way, this episode was brought to you by Legion. In fact, in this episode, he talks about some of the things he used to help him, and he did use Legion supplements, and so this episode is brought to you by that company.

And if you go through our link, you'll get 20% off. Go check him out. Go to buylegion.com. That's B-Y-L-E-G-I-O-N.com forward slash mind pump. Use the code mind pump, get that discount. We also have a sale on some workout programs. The Shredded Summer Bundle and the Bikini Bundle, they're both half off.

If you're interested, go to mapsfitnessproducts.com and then use the code June50 for the discount. All right, here it comes. Jamie, welcome to the show, man. I can't believe I'm here. It's absolutely wild that I'm here. Like Adam said off air, we've never done this, right? So we've never invited a listener or a caller on the show, but when we had you on and you told your story,

I mean, we're trainers, that's our heart. And when we heard that, we're like, we got to get this guy on the show. We got to get this guy in here so we can tell his story because there's people who were in situations like yours, similar ones, who feel like this will never happen. This can't happen. It's impossible.

And that's why we wanted you on, man. And you do such a great job of communicating. Well, I appreciate it. I should say I have a bit of a bone to pick with you guys to start though. Uh oh. You know, every, all your live callers, you know, they're excited and so they send it to

their friends and family. And I did that as well. And I had a number of confused, angry messages back because it was on the episode about having a bigger rounder butt. So people are like, why are you sending this to me? All my particularly female friends are like, are you trying to tell me?

What are you saying? Oh, that's hilarious. Oh, that's hilarious. And so, but you know, it are you sending this to me? All my particularly female friends are like, are you trying to tell me? What are you saying? Oh, that's hilarious. Oh, that's hilarious. But it was a huge honor to be on. As I said in that call, I've been listening to you guys. I wouldn't say since you've been around. It's really the last two or three years, but I've listened to every episode.

And I've learned a lot. And that's how I got here today is lessons like what I learned from you guys and others. Do you remember what the first episode or thing that you heard that hooked you in to listening to more? Oh, I don't know if it's a specific one. I remember when I started listening two years ago, it was just to the very, to the newest episodes at that point. And then I started going back and listening to the early ones, not in order at first, but

just in particularly stuff about anything that was fat loss related. You did a number of episodes where that was a focus, um, or there were callers that were about that. So that's really what I was focused on at first. And then it was fascinating to go through, I started going in order.

And so I remember like getting to the 2000 and I remember the first time, and this is like a year ago, I heard this, you guys were like, you guys heard about this thing out of China, this blue or whatever? And it was sort of like, you know, we didn't know at the time what was going on. And then of course, once you got into the COVID times and the stuff about having people work out from home and the stuff you could do. But really it was really for me the fat loss kind of stuff because that's what I was focused

on. So Jamie, we were talking off air and you had sent I guess some videos and pictures of yourself before you really got onto this journey. And you said in one of the videos, I think you said you were officiating your sister's wedding. In that, how much did you weigh? And that one is about 625. My highest weight was 652.

My highest recorded weight. I suspect I was higher. And I'm happy to talk about how I got there and the whole story. Oh yeah, we'd love that. The video that you'll see was my sister's wedding. It was three years ago today. It was on a beach in Florida.

And obviously it was a great day. It's your sister's wedding was three years ago today. It was on a beach in Florida and obviously it was a great day. It's your sister's wedding, but it was a brutal day. I mean, walking when you're 600 plus pounds, walking on the sand is hard. Sure. I mean, it's really hard because you're sinking in and I fell on the sand right after the wedding. I stepped back a little too far, slipped and was on the ground.

And I remember it was hilarious, because I mean, it didn't hurt myself like from the fall. I didn't end up hurting my knee, but I was on the ground trying to get up and just laughing at myself, but also terribly embarrassed that I would, someone would record me and I would become like some viral star of like the fat guy stuck on the beach.

And, uh, I remember my brother, my new brother-in-law, one of his good friends came up to me and he's like, here, I'll get you up. And I looked up and I'm like, I'm 600 pounds, like you're not picking me up. And he's got guys in his fifties. He's like, I'll get you.

And he reached down and put his arm around me and just popped me right back up. And it turns out he's like an amateur powerlifter and like benched his 500 pounds internationally. Oh wow. I am so lucky this guy was here because he got me up before it got too bad.

That's great. But yeah, I've been over 500 pounds now since I'm 46. So since I was early 20s. Wow. So let's go back and let's talk about what this was like for you, because there are people listening. Definitely going to tune to this episode who are very challenged by this.

There's typical weight loss, 30 pounds, 40 pounds, and then there's where you're dealing with large amounts of weight and it's a completely different, it's a much different struggle. I worked with quite a few people in this, back in the day I managed a gym, these guys did as well, where it was across the street from a weight loss clinic they did, a bypass surgery. And when I started working with people in this category, it was very different. It was similar in the sense of the steps, but different in terms of like what it was like for them.

And so let's go way back. When did this start to become a challenge for you? Do you remember when weight was an issue or when this was something that you noticed like, okay, this is something I have to deal with? Probably high school is when my weight, it was not an issue in terms of mobility or things like that, but I knew I was bigger. For me, it started probably when I was nine or 10. I remember going to my grandparents place for a few weeks

over Christmas break and my sister and I never really had like, you know, sugar, like soda, stuff like that. I remember my grandparents having a fridge in the garage that had like full of sugar, of soda. And like, take one whenever you want. I remember like going back after two or three weeks, bigger. And that really changed something in me where now I started using my allowance. Instead of buying baseball cards, I was buying, um, you know, I'm not going to say brands, but you know, you know, bad drinks for you. And like, that's how it began for me. Um, then I, I was probably in high school, probably three 50 ish, maybe I'm six

foot two, actually I'm six foot three, but I reached someone to the doctor and he says I'm six foot two now, which makes my doctor a dirty liar. Anyway, so I'll always be 6'3". So then once I get to college, gain a little weight in college, turn 21, start drinking with my friends, begin eating poorly and balloon up higher and higher. But it really wasn't until I was probably in my mid twenties where I got to, got to 500 where it was really impacting my life. And, um, I guess my message to folks who are not that big is to have some empathy.

Like there are many reasons, I know, I should say this, no one chooses to be that big. No one in their right mind chooses to be that big. No one in their right mind chooses to be that big. Um, it happens from a series of I'll start next week. I'll start getting better Monday and then failing on Monday for a variety of reasons. I truly think that obesity is a disease. It doesn't mean that you don't have a role in

managing that disease or preventing that disease. Um, but mean that you don't have a role in managing that disease or preventing that disease, but I think it was for me. Being that large impacts everything in your life. I mean literally everything when you're that size, from the moment you get up to the moment you go to sleep at night and even while you're sleeping because I've developed sleep apnea. And when you go through life like that, you end up really beating yourself up and you end up feeling like you are not worthy of living a better life. You get looked at, people stare at you, they laugh at you, I can't tell you how many times when I was

that size, I traveled for work for many years. I'd be in airports and I'd see people sneaking pictures of me. And occasionally I would stare. I'd be like, I know, I know what you're doing. I had, when you're that size, you have to get used to kids saying things. Mommy, that man's so fat.

And I don't fault the kid, it's a kid. A kid's going to say what a kid's going to say. So it's no one's fault. But when you're faced with that every day and you find that the only thing that is really comforting you and not judging you is food, that's what you go back to. And that's what I went back to.

Yeah, so when did you find food comforting and when did you start developing that? Was it when you were having the sodas? No, probably actually once I was, later 20s, early 30s, I started, I worked for a large tech company for over 20 years. And so I moved for work a ton. I was moving like every 12 to 18 months.

And so I'd moved to these places where I was generally gonna be alone. I didn't know anybody. Only knew people who worked for me. I was always a senior manager, and so I generally don't hang out with people who work for me. And so it began to just a thing to do when you're bored or you're lonely.

And what eventually happened for me, and I've talked to other people who are significantly obese, who experience the same thing, which is where food becomes how you handle emotions, but all emotions. If I had a day where I had good news, I got promotion. Celebrate.

I'm going to celebrate. I'm going to order a pizza tonight. If I had a bad day I had good news, I got a promotion. Celebrate. I'm going to celebrate. I'm going to order a pizza tonight. If I had a bad day, I'm going to mourn with food. If I'm bored, I'm going to eat some food. Like food was part of every single aspect of my life until I eventually started GLP-1 medication, which made a difference. But that's eventually what happens is the food becomes overpowering.

And I try to lose weight a few times over the years and to failure every time. And in one case, I think actually ended up damaging myself because it was just an incredibly restrictive diet that involved no weight training whatsoever and ended up losing, you know, 75 or a hundred pounds in a few months. And this is under the care of a doctor losing 75 or a hundred pounds over a couple of months.

And then moved and gained it all back quickly and I guarantee I lost a huge amount of muscle and gained back fat and after that move, which was 2016, is when I really started to notice my body breaking down. I like what you said about empathy because this problem doesn't get fixed or solved, I should say, by shaming yourself or feeling bad about yourself. So by making someone feel worse, what you're gonna do is encourage this

or make this a harder thing to struggle with. What was the switch? What was the moment when you were like, I'm gonna tackle this, but I'm, you talked about losing weight before, so you attempted before, but what was the switch? What was the moment when you were like, I'm gonna tackle this, but I'm gonna, you talked about losing weight before, so you attempted before, but what was the final, when was the final thing that started to work for you? What was the mentality? That's what I'm most interested in.

What was the mental process that made this now a far better success? There was a moment which is I was, couldn't get off the toilet. I was too big and weak to be able to do it. And feeling like what happens if I can't actually somehow get up? Didn't have my phone.

And is this how I die? Not this moment necessarily, but something like this. I started thinking about what's that gonna be like for whoever finds me? How's my family gonna have to deal with this? What do you do with a body this size? Like those are the really dark thoughts I had. And it wasn't self-harm thoughts

because I've always been, even at my heaviest, I was still a generally happy person and optimistic. Um, but that's when I realized I, I'm in serious trouble. A few years before that, uh, right after COVID happened, it was the first flight I'd been on and I was next to a woman. And, um, when you're that, that I, no one likes, no one really likes flying,

but when you fly and you're that big, no one wants to be next to the person that's that big, I get that. It's not fun being that person either. But anyway, I was next to this woman and apologized to her because I was crowding her on the airplane and she was very kind and empathetic and told me that she was, I was flying from Seattle and she told me that she was a doctor, an

endocrinologist. And she started talking about this new class of medication that rifled bariatric surgery. And this is before these had come out. And so she gave me her card and said, you should come and find me when it's time, when, when, when you get back home. And I never did because I was of the, I was

never going to get bariatric surgery. I was never going to use medication because I thought I can just out, I have enough willpower. I've been very successful in a business career, managing thousands of people. It's not like I have a lack of ambition or willpower. You're not lazy. Not lazy at all. It's not like I have a lack of ambition or real power. You're not lazy.

Not lazy at all. And so I thought I can just get through this. And so when I had the moment years later, where I realized that this was not going to get better, no matter how badly I wanted it, I needed to change. And so for me, it started with the doctor and figuring out what was going on with me, having insulin resistance, having pre-diabetes, having metabolic issues and was able to get started with smaglotide.

And I didn't start really changing my mindset yet. That was just sort of the door that I opened that allowed me to start realizing that I actually could lose weight. Once I started that, I started listening to things like Mind Pump. I started reading various blogs and realized that the way to lose weight is obviously a calorie deficit, but what goes into a calorie deficit? And so I had to start learning and educating myself. As the process went on, I developed just some rules for myself, which I shared when I called

and I'd be happy to talk about them again. But once I just started saying, these are the rules I'm going to follow, everything became significantly easier. You have to share those because that was one of the things that I was like, he's got to come on here and talk about that because I thought that was such a brilliant way to approach this. So, share those again for sure. The most important thing for me is that I have to start keeping promises to myself. And there are so many times in our lives, all of us, whatever we struggle with,

whether it be weight in my case or addiction or anything, it's so easy to keep a promise you make to the people you love and we do that pretty well. It's so easy to break a promise we keep to ourselves. I bet all of us in this room, I bet many of those listening can list off five promises they've broken in themselves in the last week. And so, I just said I have to make a promise to myself and keep it like it's a promise to someone I love. Because I do love myself. And I have to treat myself like someone I love. So that was the most important thing that I did and that I've done ever since.

Did you start small? Did you start with smaller promises? Or did it encourage, because that's a big deal. What you just said is a huge deal, and 100% everybody struggles with this. And what it does when you start keeping promises to yourself is you start to become more honest with the promises you make.

Did they start smaller? What was that process like, just that right there? Yeah, they started pretty small. The promises initially were things like, I had a major problem addiction with food delivery services. And so, the promise to myself was not that I wasn't going to stop ordering them, it's that I delete the apps, so if I'm going to order, I'm going to go through the trouble of downloading the app and re-signing in. I love this. You created a barrier.

Yes. A hurdle. Yeah. And so that was the initial promise to myself, which is I'm not gonna say you can't eat the bad food, and I've never said I can eat, I still eat, I mean, I still eat bad food. There's no such thing as a bad food.

I just don't eat a lot of it anymore. But anyway, so that was it. It was small promises like that. Where'd you get that? Okay, that is, by the way, the fact that you came up, that's how we used to coach people. Where did you come up with that? Did you learn that or were you just like,

this makes sense? I just did it because it made sense. Because it was like my go-to app. I put them on the main screen. I was gonna say, you realize how easy and convenient it was. You're like, I just need to make this a little more difficult. And I also canceled the subscriptions to those, so it'd be more expensive.

Do you know how hard, do you know that takes a long time to train and coach people to really figure that out, to create a barrier, like it's just a small barrier. Such a smart one though. Like it's a, it's like a speed bump. Yeah. It's a big enough one that will make an impact right away. But it's not crazy enough to where it's like, I can't hold this commitment. I create barriers all the time. If I'm walking to a door and there's like an automated door on one side and then a push door on the other, I will walk around and go to the push door.

Cause I'm like, well, at least I'll get a little bit of resistance here. That's great. I walk around. So like I try to create the little barriers like that all the time. So the first one was that, are there any others that you remember? Drinking water, like switching off of soda and, um, and drinking water was a huge one initially. Um, and then, uh, walking more initially, and then walking more.

So, I was walking initially, the promise to myself is that I would find a reason to walk. Because initially my walking was sadly from my recliner to the door to get food. So, it wasn't like, I'm going to walk this many steps, it was like, okay, my promise to myself is if I can walk somewhere to do something, I will. Yeah, absolutely.

And I mean, I look back now and I was getting 500 or a thousand steps a day at that point, which is wild because I, you know, I regularly do 15,000 now. Wow. And the, and I, I mean, I walked here today a mile and a half to the studio because I'm like, oh, it'll be a nice little walk in today.

And so you just have to find reasons to do it. But that's what making promises to yourself is, like anything, and we can talk about goal setting later, but you have to make a promise you know you can keep. Yes. How did that change, that process change your relationship to yourself? What a question. What a question. Yeah. I think that I respect myself more than I used to. I've been a confident person my whole life.

It comes across by the way. Thanks. I've always tried to be confident, not arrogant. I don't think I'm better than anybody. But I've been confident, but I don't think I respected myself. You know, it's just for people listening, just to put it in perspective, think about how you would be, your relationship with another person, if they were the kind of person

that didn't keep their promises to you, versus if they started keeping their promises. That's what happens to yourself. And you use the best word, respect. Yeah, and part of this for me, a promise myself means that when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, I have to keep my foot on the gas all the time. And maybe of this for me, I promise myself, means that when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, I have to keep my foot on the gas all the time. And maybe not everyone does. Maybe some people can

take the foot off the gas. I have to actively make decisions and choices every day because I know I have decades of poor choices and no medication is going to stop me from making those choices, only I can. Now, how did this, when did you notice that this started, like your friends and family started to notice this shift in this mindset shift that you were starting to make? It probably took about six months or a year before there's noticed. Unfortunately, one of the downsides of being the size that I was is I had a, I had such a hard time with mobility.

That's one thing I always very much appreciate about talk about mobility. I read your book in the section about mobility, so critical. And my mobility got so bad that I, I needed a walker. I mean, I got it after the whole toilet thing is I got, I needed a walker to get around my apartment. I needed it to get everywhere, but I had such ego that I could not let myself be seen by friends and family with needing that support. So I just stopped seeing people.

Can I, I just want to just tell you something a little encouraging about what you said about keeping your foot on the gas for this particular topic or issue for yourself. Everybody has that. It's just something else. keeping your foot on the gas for this particular topic or issue for yourself. Everybody has that. It's just something else. For some people it could be gambling, it could be I'm on my phone too much, it could be I'm

distracted and not present with my family. It could be a lot of different things. It just isn't as visible. This is one of the reasons, besides the fact that we train people for so long, I always had a lot of empathy because you get to know people and you figure out, and you know yourself. Let's just start there, you know yourself. There's things that you struggle with, it's just you don't wear it. So it's not so obvious. So people might not notice. And like you said, for all intents and purposes, you were successful in other aspects of your life.

And it's an excellent point, Sal. People who have obesity, their biggest, I don't know if you want to call it a flaw, the thing that they struggle with the most is the most visible thing on them. That's right. Mm hmm. That's right. And maybe that's covering up some underlying thing, but it's so easy, it's easy for us, it's human nature to judge things that are different than us. Yeah.

And so we have to be very conscious that we sometimes do that. And for people with obesity, that's what they experience constantly. But yeah, so for me, having the foot on the gas means that if I take, if I slow down, it doesn't mean I can't, I take rest days, I do all that stuff, but if I say, you know what, I'm just going to take a week off from all of this, I know

you could put every ounce of samaglitide or trisempitide in the world into me and it will make no difference if I decide to stop. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so let's talk about the rest of the rules. Rule number two is that motivation is great, but it's not important to me anymore. Now, did you hear that from us, or did you figure that out?

Do I have to pay you if I heard that? No, no, because I'm going to tell you something. I heard it from you. That's why they say motivation is bullshit. Sell police is everything. Well, you know how long it took me to figure that out with clients? It took years. I don't think I would have figured it out by myself on my own. I had to figure it out by training people.

So that's a big one. No, it's definitely something I heard from you guys. I realize that, and I tell people, if I use motivation, even now, losing, I've lost 330 pounds from my highest weight, and I'm stronger and I'm excited to use my body in ways that I never had before. That's so great. I'm still motivated to sit and watch Netflix for all day.

You know? I wake up on some days and I'm still motivated to just lay in bed, but I practice consistency and discipline. I go lift weights four days a week, not because I'm motivated to, but because I am a guy that lifts weights four days a week. That's great. And I walk at least 12,000 steps a day because

I'm a guy who walks 12,000 steps a day, whether I'm motivated to do it or not. And it's when you are, when you, and I don't have to tell you guys this, when you are feeling that motivation, it's great. It makes it so much better. Yeah. But I don't need that.

So consistency and discipline, Trump motivation, a hundred percent of the time. Have you seen any carryover from that understanding into other aspects of your life, or has it just changed again? How has it affected your relationship with yourself or the world or people around you? Because that bleeds into, in my experience,

just like, man, that applies to almost everything. I think I'm a better friend. I think I'm a better coworker. I think I'm a better family member to the people that I care about. Because my lack of consistency and discipline was beginning to bleed over into other areas of my life where I wasn't there

for people the way it should have been. Uh, and, but once I started practicing this and realizing that consistency and discipline are just important, you can apply that to every aspect of your life, not just fitness. You can apply it in your relationships, in your work, um, in anything really.

And so it certainly has changed my life. I mean, there's so many people think when you need to lose weight, you just have to cut your calories or lift more or do cardio, which I don't do. But it really, you have to start with your mindset. If you don't change your mindset, everything else is temporary. Jamie, you have no idea. The people that we get the most angry with, the people we get frustrated with, they have to hold our tongues and not just tear apart on social media are these

fitness, I don't know what you would label them, that have no experience working with other people, have never, they're just obsessed themselves and they communicate fitness in this terrible, inaccurate way. Just do it. Food is just fuel. Go work out. No excuses. We all have the same 24 hours in a day.

You have like that is you are not helping anybody. I could, I mean, and maybe during this time we can talk about it at some point about like, I have a lot of advice for trainers and coaches out there. But I've learned, I have a great one now. I think of the last time I really got, I tried to lose weight the right way, lifting. I hired this, I lived in Lexington, Kentucky. This is 2012. Fantastic coach. I'm going to shout him out. Josh J.B. Bowen, Aspire Fitness. Check him out if you're in Lexington. I worked out with him three days a week. He is of the mind pump philosophy. That's great. And he was so good and he believes in mindset, but I was not ready. I feel like I failed my trainer in that case,

not the other way around. And I didn't really change how I was eating. And I'm thinking if I were to have a trainer like that, once I started doing the work, I mean, it could have taken over the world. Yeah. But mindset is so critical. And I think coaches and trainers have a role in team management. I think it's important to have a trainer like that, once I started doing the work, I mean, it could have taken over the world.

Yeah. But mindset is so critical and I think coaches and trainers have a role in teaching that mindset. I'll tell you why he did a good job, because you went and worked with another trainer, because here's what would have happened if he was a crappy trainer.

You might not have ever gone back. That is absolutely right. And that's my number one message to trainers and coaches out there is they're dealing with people who have a significant amount of weight to lose, is that if it takes a lot when you are hundreds of pounds, I'm going to say 50 to 100 pounds or more overweight, you are dealing with the emotional aspect of going to a gym and feeling judged.

I'm aware now that at gyms, if you're listening to this and you're a big person, no one at the gym is judging you or looking down on you for your size. I promise you. They are impressed and proud that you're there, but you don't realize that at the time because you're used to being judged in every other aspect of your life.

That's right. So you think the people who are the most fit are going to judge you the most and that includes trainers. Anyway, if you are a trainer or coach and you have someone my size or close to come in, you should first ask yourself if you are the right person to coach this person. I think it takes a special coach to take on a

client who has a hundred, 200 pounds to lose. It does. It is. And it's okay as a coach to say, I'm not the right person for you, but let me find someone who is. Because if you are a bad coach for that person, not only are they going to continue down a path to an early death, but you have now scared them away from all gyms in the future and you have hurt your

profession by being a bad coach for this person. Very well said. Absolutely. By the way, how awesome is it now to go to a gym? Because, okay, so you have this fear of being judged, but I know what it's, I work in gyms, I know what fitness, quote unquote, fitness people think when they see somebody who's a couple of hundred pounds overweight trying to work out. You know what we're all thinking?

Oh my God, look at that. What a badass. And we're fighting the feeling. I actually fight the urge. It's inspiring. I fight the urge to go up and high five the person because I don't want to come across as being, you know, condescending. Condescending. Condescending. And I literally say, I don't want to do that. I don't want them to think I'm like making fun of

it. But in my mind, I'm like every time I'm resting, I'm like, I'm going to go give the guy a high five. I'm going to go give the guy a high five. And I do it now because I hope they recognize me, so maybe they don't think I'm. I think as someone who's that size and has had that before, someone coming up and saying, you're killing it, keep it up. It's for me, that's just fuel to the fire. Awesome. Okay, good. And now, you know, at my gym, I joke that I want a leaderboard because I want, because I think I lift like press hair heavier than anyone. I want my name on a leaderboard. And I'm telling you, and I say that to be funny,

but also three years ago, the idea of going into a gym scared the ever living shit out of me. Yeah. And now I think I lift more than others do, at least in one lift. That's awesome. And I encourage people just to do it. But anyway, for coaches out there, you have

a responsibility to your client. You have a responsibility to your profession. And that means that it's okay to say no to your client. You have a responsibility to your profession. And that means that it's okay to say no to a client as long as you help them find someone who can say yes. Again, 100%. 100% agree. You know, Jamie, during this process, did you

ever start to unpack anything that led to maybe something traumatic that happened? Like, did you ever like feel like, man, something happened to me as a kid that I started this coping mechanism, and then obviously you talked about what it snowballed into, but through this whole process, did you ever unpack anything else? A little bit.

When I was, parents got divorced when I was young, single mother, my mom got remarried to a great guy when I was a little bit older who adopted me. So I think there was probably something along the lines with that. One thing I did when I started this process, I thought it was really important for me to have a team. So my team includes my doctor, it includes my personal trainer. It includes a physical therapist who helped me have a grade two meniscus tear, which happened when I fell on the beach that day.

And so he's part of my team. And that also included seeking therapy. And so I found a therapist, I only did a few sessions and she said that, she said I didn't really need it because I was working through some of this stuff. For me, part of why I sought therapy is that when you see people who lose significant amount of weight, they're often treated differently and they're treated better by people in their circle,

they're treated better by those in their, you know, random strangers. And I've experienced, not by my friends, I'm treated the same as I always have, but by my friends and family, by strangers I definitely notice a change. not by my friends, I'm treated the same as I always have, but by my friends and family. By strangers, I definitely notice a change. And so I sought therapy at first to prepare myself for being treated differently.

That's smart. And my worry was if people start being much nicer to me, is that going to make me angry at them for not being as nice before? You're a very- So self-aware. Your self-awareness and intelligence. So self-aware to think of that.

These are conversations I had with clients that they were- That happens. Yes. This happens. Then all of a sudden you start questioning everybody. Oh my God, this is like- It's so funny too because, I don't know, you want to call this human nature or whatever, that you would think, oh, people are nicer to me.

This is encouraging, but here's the mind games we play with ourselves. Why were they treating me like they were before, the way that they were before? What's wrong with me? And it turns into this terrible spiral that keeps you in this trap. I think a huge part of this that I share with people is everyone deserves love, respect, compassion, and empathy regardless of their size.

Whether they're 650 pound Jamie, or 320 pound Jamie, or whatever I end up being at the end, everyone deserves it. And that includes showing empathy and respect for yourself, including your past self. A big part of this for me has been forgiving my past self for not seeking help sooner, for not making the right decision sooner. I've had to forgive myself and say I did the best I could with what I had at the time I was doing it. And the only way I think you can really approach your future successfully is to let go of that anger or sadness about your past self. And that's one thing I've learned as part of this process.

And it's so much easier now. I've been told that our approach, when we talk about health and fitness is grace-based. You just broke it down right now. Grace is my favorite word. I think extending grace to yourself and others is the most powerful thing that we can do in this life. I 100% agree.

All right, so you gave us two steps. What's the next one? Third is celebrate every win, celebrate every success. And so... Not with pizza though. You know, it's interesting. It might be, it might be a little bit. I went out with a buddy and had beer and pizza a few weeks ago.

And this used to be three times a week for me. I think it's probably been a month or two months since I did that. And it was the best pizza I've ever had in my life because I had had a great lift that day and I had not done it often. I'm like, oh, this is the best pizza. I didn't eat the whole pizza like I used to. I had like three or four slices and called it a day. But I celebrate every success and every win. And it does not matter how small it is. I walked here today. It was 1.3 miles from where I stayed. And the whole time I'm celebrating because I walk that all the time,

but I'm walking that in California now. That's kind of fun. So I'm going to celebrate that. Me being here is a huge win for me, one that I never anticipated. So thank you for giving me this. But it can be something as small as fitting in a booth at a restaurant, which I never used to be able to do. It used to be if a friend wanted to go out to eat and they'd suggest a restaurant,

I'd have to go online and look at all the pictures to see what's the seating. This is what big people have to do. What's the seating situation like there? Are the chairs going to break? I've never broken a chair, thankfully. But are the chairs going to break? I've never broken a chair, thankfully. But are the chairs going to break? And so if you look at it and say, I can't do that, you're usually, you're embarrassed.

You don't want to tell your friend I can't go there, say, I'm not feeling it tonight, whatever. So getting to actually interact in life is a big part of that. I flew here for this. It's the first time in 25 years where I did not need a seatbelt extender on any of my flights.

Wow. Wow. Great job, man. Killer. I was the last one to board all my planes, hoofing it down the jet bridge. And even a year or two ago, I would have missed the flights because of layovers.

So I just celebrate every single success. I write them down. I literally write them down on paper and I speak them out loud. I tell them to whoever is around with me, like, I'm sitting comfortably in this chair. That's a win. I want to speak it out loud. I really think that celebrating all of those wins that you have, what do they say? Like, winning creates winners? And so, by speaking that out loud, you are drilling

into your head that this is worth it. And even if, and I'm not a fan of watching, I watch this, I weigh myself every day, but I use it just as data, I don't use it as an indicator of my self worth. I think that if you get so focused on those outcome type things which we'll talk about, you don't celebrate the wins and successes. Yeah.

I mean, you just, the wisdom that you're speaking right now and the brilliance, I don't know if you realize just- Well, we talk about trying to teach clients to attach all the other positive things that come from having a lifestyle like that. So it's a similar type of process. It's a, man, I've got great energy today, or I slept so well, or I'm in such a good mood, or I was able to like... We so often with clients, they get hung up on the outcome, the scale, or how they look

in the mirror. And it's like, man, living a healthy and fit life provides so many other positive things that if all you focus on on this, you're going to allow that thing that changes all the time up or down to ruin your day. And it's like there's so many other wins that you had that it's like you got and that's such a powerful thing to get a client to know how to attach all those things. And just to add the neurobiology to what you're saying, by the way this applies to life okay so our nature, if you allow yourself to

just naturally notice things, our nature, our biology is geared to notice negative things and scary things. So, your biology doesn't say, I want to keep Sal happy and joyful. It says, keep him alive. So, it's negative and scary, negative and scary. It actually takes awareness and focus So it's negative and scary, negative and scary. It actually takes awareness and focus to notice positive things, it really does. And what happens is it changes your filter. As you notice positive things or you write them down, that's another brilliant step.

I don't know if you realize how brilliant you are for doing that. Writing it down, that's a whole nother level of awareness and what's happening is it's changing your worldview. And your worldview goes from negative and scary to joyful and amazing and great and grateful and that changes everything. A grateful joyful way of being is one that is pro health. The other the opposite side of that is the opposite and so what you did was so bright but you have to do it through awareness so this

doesn't happen naturally so people listening listening right now, if you just like, I'm just going to be more positive. No, you literally have to pay attention, write it down, say it out loud. Intentional effort. Yeah. So that's awesome. That's huge.

It's certainly, the thing that when I post pictures, whatever on Instagram or something, the most common thing that my friends say back to me is that I look happy. I get it all the time and I've always been a happy optimistic person, but it's not like I'm always Instagram or something, the most common thing that my friends say back to me is that I look happy. I get it all the time and I've always been a happy, optimistic person, but now it's just very different because of that reason is

if I'm seeking out wins all the time. And it doesn't matter how small it is, I should have hopped out of my car awful quick, like when? Are you, did it make you realize, because I, you know, I do this a little bit now. Did it make you realize that there are a lot of good things to be grateful for that you missed?

Or that you might miss if you didn't just? Uh, no, absolutely. There are, there are things when your body changes where you are more mobile and functional that I just, my body was a prison. My body was a prison and it got worse and worse over time. And my body now is still a work in progress, is it's a superpower.

It's my superpower. And that changes everything. I mean, you're more optimistic about everything. I mean, I'm sitting here in a room with the six largest biceps I've ever seen in my entire life, but I still feel awesome. Yeah. Way to kiss the bicep.

That's good. Yeah. He does it all the time. But I still feel great about myself. As you should. Because I don't have to compare myself to other people, you know. That's great. All right. Because I don't have to compare myself to other people. That's great.

All right. I have to ask this because I mean, and I think everyone's already, the self-awareness, the confidence, the optimism, where does that stem from? Mom, something like, where does that come from? My mom. You guys are going to make me cry. I don't want to cry. You're almost making me cry this whole time. So that's fine.

My mom passed away 12 years ago. Okay. And everyone says this about their mother, the kindest, nicest, most empathetic person. My mother really was, like legitimately was. My mom was the kind of person who, if she knew that a lot of people don't want charity, so if she was somewhere or at someone's house or knew of a person that was really hurting financially, she would like offer to buy a pen or a broken toaster for like 20 bucks that they were going to throw away.

And she said, I really need this. And it was her way of like helping someone and having them be able to keep the pride of identity charity. Of the dignity of that. And that's who my mother was my entire life. And she passed away 12 years ago. And ever since then, literally every day, every decision I make, I try to ask myself, what would she have done? How would she have approached this? And it's colored every aspect of my life, including this. She always encouraged me to be healthier, never judged me or made me feel bad for my size.

She would be insanely proud. That's great. Yeah. That's great. Um, fourth step. Fourth step is input goals only, not output goals. So output or outcome goals are things like the number on the scale. I've never had a goal weight throughout this. I mean, I started at 650. I think I, when I first met with my doctor about starting GLP-1 medication, he's like, kind of, where would you want to be?

Where would you be happy? And I remember saying, if I, if I got to 400 pounds, I'd be pretty happy because when you're 650 pounds, 400 pounds is skinny. That's 250 pound loss. Yeah. That's huge. And so I thought if I get to 400 pounds, that's great.

So I never really had a goal as I went along. And I just started creating goals based on inputs. I try to get to 400 pounds, that's great. So I never really had a goal as I went along. And I just started creating goals based on inputs. I think I got this listening to your podcast. I think I got this from the workplace over the years. I'm a huge believer in Lean Six Sigma processes. I encourage those who want to learn about, to look up DMAIC, D-M-A-I-C, it's a way to solve problems by finding root causes. And part of that as you control and fix problems is focusing not on what the output is, but on what are you actually doing to cause the problem. And so rather than look at

what a defect driven model from my case, I just wanted to create goals that were about positive good things. So my goals are about things like, what am I eating? And how many steps am I walking? What am I lifting? What are my lifts like in the gym? Am I actually using progressive overload, which I had no clue what that was until mind pump. And now it's just like, it's my Bible in many ways is progressive overload.

How much water am I drinking, things like that. And so, I set all my goals very reachable. I don't make them easy, I don't make it too easy, I don't set a goal of drinking 10 ounces of water a day, but I make sure that I can actually achieve the goal. And I do that for everything, and I assume that all of the outcomes, which would be my blood work at a doctor, the number on the scale, those all take care of themselves. And so I still don't have, I mean, I think I'll probably lose maybe another 50 pounds at some point, but I don't really care a whole lot. You're, you're focusing on what causes the result, not the result itself.

So brilliant, absolutely brilliant. And it keeps everything in the right perspective and it keeps you consistent versus like, I gotta do this, here's this target. It's like, I'm gonna walk. That's my goal today, I'm gonna walk. What's gonna happen, you lose weight? I don't know, we'll see what happens.

And in practical steps, for me, even after I started GLP-1 drugs, I didn't really lose a whole lot of weight. I lost a little bit, but I didn't lose a whole lot of weight the first three or four months until I actually started tracking my calories and macros. And I had always sort of eyeballed it

beforehand or guessed, and I just, I wasn't, people are not aware of how calorie, calorie dense a lot of foods are. And so I really had to educate myself on what I was eating. And so once I did that and realized, oh, I can still eat a lot of food and just change how I'm eating, then the weight started dropping off quickly.

That's right. You have to share some of those, because this was a big, even a moment for me as a trainer. I'd already been a trainer for like 10 years when I really started to weigh and track things. And I was just blown away by, you know, what I assumed was a certain amount of calories. So share some of the ones that like, you went,

Oh my God. I still laugh about this. I love stir fry vegetables, give me some peppers and broccoli and I'll make the world's best stir fry. And I'm like, why am I not losing weight? I'm eating all these vegetables. I'm eating like pounds of vegetables. And I realized as I'm doing the stir fry, I'm like taking the am I not losing weight? I'm eating all these vegetables. I'm eating like pounds of vegetables. And I realized as I'm doing this stir fry, I'm

like taking the olive oil and like, just like pouring it like, oh, it tastes so good. And I, you know, stuff like that, like that, that blew me away. Um, oils, like how calorie, and I still use them a little bit. Tablespoons, like a hundred calories. It's insane.

Or nuts, right? A handful of nuts. Snacking on nuts is a big one. 600 calories. I think if you're not educated on this, you sort of associate the size of food with how many calories it has. Yeah, yeah.

Calorie dense food does not have to be big. In fact, that's usually the opposite. Yeah, yeah. And then protein, really focus on protein. I eat 275 grams of protein a day, which I joke is like, you guys understand, it's like a part-time job. Yes, it is.

That's a lot, man. That is a lot. Where are you getting that from? So chicken and ground beef, tuna, and then I supplement with, I do a couple of protein shakes a day, I'll do some protein bars. Okay. If there's something out there that is protein, I will try it just to see how it tastes and if it

works. The science is important to me. I really care a lot about where I get my supplements, my protein supplements. So I won't say names, but I only, people I use are, you know, like Mike Matthews, sponsors of, you know, sponsor like Legion. I really focus on making sure that it's not just

kind of garbage supplements, but I supplement for protein. That's good. So input, inputs, not outputs. Inputs, not outputs. Love that. I think that's, that's probably the hardest one. I think most people can start saying, yeah, I can

be consistent and I can care about myself, but it's when you were trying to lose weight and not seeing the number change on the scale, it's sort of like working a job and not getting paid. That's right. Yeah. I probably stole that from one of you actually. I use that analogy all the time.

It's an analogy I always use. I'm going to say I came up with that. And so I really do think about that when, if I'm online and you know, talking or talking to my friends and people are like, I'm doing all this stuff and, and you just want to say, you have to practice some patience. So I think that the input goals are the hardest

thing in a culture that is built around a number on the scale. Totally. By the way, run your business this way and watch what happens. Same thing. Absolutely. All right. That's step number four.

What's number five? Really, those are the four main steps. That's all right. I have other things that I do constantly, but everything goes back to one of those key four things. Let's talk about your experience with the GOP1. That's right where I was going to go. We didn't make this about that, which I'm so glad because I think it of goes back to one of those key four things. Let's talk about your experience with the GLP-1. That's right where I was going to go. We didn't make this about that, which I'm so glad.

Well, it's not. It's not because everything you said was so sound and so amazing. And that's how I've coached everyone. And that's how I'll coach anyone on a GLP-1 or not. But let's talk about what the GLP-1 did. Did that change how you perceive food, help you change behaviors?

Neurons that fire together, wire together, so you had these behaviors over decades. Did the GLP one help kind of break those behaviors and then develop other ones? Like what was that experience like? Yeah, there's a guy named Dave Knapp who is in the GLP space, really news and stuff. And what he says, and I want to give, the reason I'm saying this, I want to give him credit. He says that

GLP-1s are a tool that levels the metabolic playing field. And I think that's a really good way of looking at it. I thought that it was, before GLP, I thought it was normal to think about eating all the time. I thought it was normal that when you're out having lunch on a Tuesday, you're planning your dinner for tomorrow night. And I thought that's what everyone did. And so once I started GLP, that stopped. I still get hungry and I've always, I mean, I still eat, but I realized like, oh, food

was not a central tenet of my thought process all the time. Can I just say, by the way, this is the disease part of obesity that people will point Food was not a central tenet of my thought process all the time. And yeah, go for it. Can I just say by the way, this is the disease part of obesity that people will point to. That there seems to be, you have, when you look at American society,

yes, most people are overweight, obesity's growing, but past the, what would be considered average, you start to have these signs and symptoms, or the way that a person's brain operates and many people are not aware. You weren't aware until it went away. And like, what is going on? I thought everyone just had stronger willpower than me.

That's right, and GLP-1s seem to help with that. Dr. Seed's labels it like the hedonistic reward system of the brain where it starts to kind of change that a little bit. And so you just all of a sudden noticed, I'm thinking differently. Yeah. And what was that like?

It was wild. Was that weird? It was weird. You know, I'm not a scientist. I suspect that some people are more predisposed to gaining weight than others. Yes. And I think our food environment with ultra

processed food makes it so much easier for those specific people to gain weight because before GLPs, if it didn't come out of a box or a can, I probably wasn't interested in eating it. Yeah. And so I actually had some sadness after I started GLP. That's what I was waiting for. I didn't want to say it to you, but I wanted to hear it.

Did you hear my experience with the ice cream? And I don't know if you heard me talk about my experience with GLP. I remember hearing you talk about it and it resonated with me because I felt that when I saw it. Yeah, I remember, I remember not even craving it, it being in the freezer and that, that already being weird for me. Cause if it's in my house, it's like, I'm thinking about it. And it was in there not thinking about it. And then I even like, I'm going to go have it, even though I didn't even want it. And then just not satisfied. And then I was sad a little bit.

Like that's like my favorite food in the world. Missing the pleasure of it. It was like, it's like you're losing a friend. It was like losing a friend. I re, once I just stopped craving this stuff all the time, I realized how much I was relying on it to fill a gap of boredom or emotions or, and it took a good month or two before I worked through that stuff.

I was just going to ask you, so I was waiting for you to say that, use the perfect word sadness, because that's what people experience when they change a behavior that has been their friend for so long, maybe a bad friend, an abusive one, but a friend nonetheless. That gap is still there though. So you're not filling it with this thing now. What did you fill that gap with? What was it that you put in there?

Was it just the positive awareness, all the steps they were talking about? How did you fill that gap? Weight lifting. That's great. That's lifting weights. What a way to fill that gap. It was around that time that I started lifting and it was a challenge at first as it is for

everyone. I thought I was always of the mindset, I'm huge, I have so much muscle and I realized that I have strong legs to move me around, I have the world's strongest triceps because I realized when you're obese. Pushing yourself up. You're pushing yourself up. So if you're out there and you weigh 400 pounds,

I promise you have great triceps. No, I filled it with lifting weights, was a big part of it. You know, the first time I truly realized that the GLP-1 had changed my thinking was every weekend, Saturday, Sunday morning, I would drive to a fast food place, I'd get a couple breakfast sandwiches and some orange juice and, you know, it's probably 1500 calories or 2000 calories. And I would just, it was just routine. I did it all the time.

And I'd been on the GLPs for a month or two and I'd been doing this every weekend, but I was driving to the fast food place and halfway there I just had this thought in my head which is like, what am I doing? Like, I don't want this. Why am I actually doing this? And I'm like, this, it's just habit. So, I pulled into a parking lot and I turned around and I went home. And that's the last time I ever did that. Wow. I've had no desire to do that ever since. Wow, that's incredible.

It's powerful. It was life changing. And right after that, I had, you know, a friend of mine, his daughter sells cookies for Girl Scouts. So I had some Girl Scout cookies and, you know, in the past, if I would have got four boxes of Girl Scout cookies, I thought those would have been demolished in four days.

And I put them in my cabinet and then like a month later I was getting something, I found them, I'm like, I forgot that these were in here. But for those who want to know what food noise is, which is what the GLP ones have a huge impact, if I have Girl Scout cookies or anything. Call in your name. Call my name.

I know that it's in there and I'm thinking about it all the time. Yeah. It's always there and I have to go take a bite of it. Hmm. And that's what food noise is. Food noise is if you're in a store or on an airplane and there's a kid who's just crying and having a tantrum

and wants a candy or the phone or whatever, and you're trying to quiet the kid down, you know the only way to do it is just give them what they want, even though you know it's not the right thing to do. Right. That's what food noise is. That's right. And when that goes away, life is significantly better because you can fill it with stuff like

lifting weights or walking or I mean, whatever you like doing, you find new things. I didn't know that I loved lifting weights. Now I'm sad if I miss a day. So you just don't know that when it's happening. Are you, how long have you been using the GLP-1 now? Uh, almost two years. Okay. And I started with semaglutide, then I

switched to, there were shortages. I used name brand. Uh, then I switched to triseptotide. I've been on that for about 18 months. Okay. Are there any plans in the future to try to taper off and come off, or is this something you like? Well, not that you need to to or like it's, yeah.

I think it's a fair question. My perception is those, first of all, for those who are listening, these are not for everybody. And I think if someone has truly chronic obesity and has made many other efforts, has made efforts to, with lifestyle change and diet and can't stick, I think these are a valid thing. These are not for someone who is trying to lose 10 pounds to look better in a swimsuit.

And I worry that that's happening. There are actually better peptides for those people by the way. I'm sure there are. Yeah. And this is not one of them. Um, but, uh, I, I was significantly obese for many years.

And so I imagine, although I've completely changed my lifestyle, I mean, in every way my lifestyle is different than it was three years ago, I don't know that I want to tempt fate on that one. Yeah. I think I will eventually lower a dose and I don't know if that means getting to microdosing at some point or getting just the lowest dose. At some point here soon I'm going to, you know,

I'm 46 so colonoscopy time, right? So when you do that, you have to stop for a few weeks. I'm going to have plastic surgery remove, I've had a huge amount of skin on me and you have to stop for a few weeks. So that'll be my chance to see what happens to my mind.

That's perfect. I got it. So just to encourage you again, so when you think about behaviors and how we build, I remember, I remember who it was we had on the show that communicated this, but if you think of like fresh snow on a slope and then you, people start skiing down a path and eventually

that path gets deeper and deeper as people ski down it. This is what happens with behaviors. We develop these really strong neural connections with repeated behaviors. And when we stop doing those behaviors, those connections start to weaken. And when we do other behaviors,

we create new neural networks or neural connections. And those strengthen. So over the last two years, you have weakened a lot of those old behaviors and you've actually built and strengthened new ones. And so, it's intentional. It's intentional and I don't know how long

that's gonna take, but at some point, it's gonna be, It's gonna be hard water. Yeah, it's not gonna be, well I'll tell you this, it's not gonna be like it was before. No, I've specifically described it to people this way because many people have asked me that question

or they just say you have to stand up for life and I'm like, well, yeah, if I have a disease and a medication that treats it. So here's how I put it. I plan on using these for the rest of my life. I assume that I will not be on these at some point either because insurance issues or cost or access or they take it off the market because they find some

terrible problem. So this entire time I've assumed that I will be forced to stop. And so I've tried to change all those behaviors to make sure that if I do have to stop, it's not new. I saw this very recently. If you go online, you'll see this, the start of

new health, new, new plan years for health insurance. A lot of insurance companies are dropping this coverage for, you know, the, for GLPs. And you realize when people find out they're about to lose their coverage in a month, they totally freak out because they realize they've not actually changed anything.

Yeah. They've just used them to essentially, you know, change how they eat or suppress the appetite or whatever. And so there have been many weight loss medications over the years that get taken off the market after a little while. I don't think this one, I think this one's pretty solid, but I think it's better to be safe than sorry and change my lifestyle before I'm forced to change my lifestyle. That's a great attitude. You have the right attitude. You couldn't have done it better. I don't think it's going away. I think it's going to, and I think you've said it so well that there is a type of person that this is really, really powerful for, then there's people that probably shouldn't

be doing this. And I agree. I think we see a lot of people that shouldn't be using it. And then those that are, I don't think are quite using it the right way, which is just taking it, using it for the calorie restriction, but not trying to change lifestyle and behaviors because otherwise you come off and it'll all come right back on. You've built muscle, you've got stronger.

The way that you're working on yourself, creating new behaviors, how positive you are about self-care, you couldn't have done it better. I don't think I could have coached you better than this process. I appreciate that. You have coached me. You just didn't know it. You have coached you better than this process. I appreciate that. Oh, you have coached me.

You just didn't know it. Like you have coached me. You all have been coaching me. Um, you know, I know that you have a lot of fitness professionals, coaches that listen to you and I really want everyone, if you were a professional who makes your living off of fitness, you need to see these things as an

opportunity to grow your business. Totally. There are many people, if you go online, particularly these online type coaches, but I'm sure it's, you know, in-person physical trainer, fitness trainers as well, who say things like this is the easy way out. Unbelievable.

And I'm like, you, there are 20,000 people a week starting GLP ones in the United States. That's 20,000 people who are willing to invest resources into getting healthy. That's right. And if I'm a coach, which I'm not, if I'm a coach out there, I see this and say, these are people who are ready and all they need is someone to not judge them and show them how it's done. That's right.

And that you have some of these mostly guys, but there's women too out there online just attacking people and I they're attacking someone for using these drugs and I'll click on their name and you know, they're like Online fitness coach. I'm like, well you are a shitty coach You're gonna get any clients and keep them by making them feel bad for using whatever tools they have at their disposal Yeah we've been telling all the trainers this is a massive opportunity because even though it helps tremendously with the food noise, there's still a lot of steps that you take that as you've laid out. It's not just take this and then you get fit and it's an easy shortcut.

And here's why they're saying that. Either number one, and maybe a combination of the two things. Uneducated. Either number one, they maybe a combination of the two things. Either number one, they have a dysfunctional relationship with their body, they have body image issues. They're just those kind of trainers. They're orthorexic or obsessed. They're not healthy. They look ripped, but they're not healthy.

Or and or, they see this as a threat to their business. Now, if you're not that orthorexic, whatever, and you're not projecting that, and you think, oh my God, this is gonna take away my clients, no, because here's what happens. You get people who would never step foot into gym, go into GOP1 and start losing weight, now they're thinking about working out. So what you're actually seeing,

and I bet we're gonna start seeing data on this, are more people are looking for trainers and coaches once they start a GOP1. It's crucial that they train. That's the thing. Well, Jamie just said it. I mean, what'd you say, 20,000 a week are starting? That's crazy.

Yeah. 20,000. And then to your point, a big portion of those people are forking out quite a bit of money to do that. They're not cheap to do it. And they're interested in working with trainers. Yeah. So in other words, they are actively putting money towards, I need help with this, which

trainers and coaches are supposed to be guides for people like that. And so you're silly to not think that's a massive opportunity. We teach our trainers totally. Jamie, what do you do for work by the way? So I've worked for, can I say companies maybe? I worked for Amazon for 20 years. Okay.

And so when I started Amazon we had 3000 employees and when I left there were a million and a half. So I was there for, I was there back when Bezos would like just pop around the office and so, you know, it's a little bit different now. And actually I left Amazon partially because, because, because of my weight. When, when COVID happened, Amazon got real busy. And I worked at our corporate headquarters, or I, in the basically tech, tech support customer service type area. And so when everyone else was hanging out at home watching Tiger King, I

was working 80 hours a week. That was the only good part of the pandemic. Yeah. Well, I've, I keep seeing these people talking about Tiger King. I'm like, boy, if I wasn't working 80 hours a week, maybe I could watch it. I eventually did get to see it. But, uh, so anyway, during that, especially that, that'm like, boy, if I wasn't working eight hours a week, maybe I could watch this. I eventually did get to see it. But, so anyway, during that, especially that year of COVID, I was working eight hours a week and

mostly from home in the office, some a little bit, and really gained a lot of weight. I mean, I'd lived, I'd been living in England right before that for work. I'd moved all over. So I'd lived in England for three years and then moved back to the U US and then COVID happens. I'm like, great.

I was socially distanced internationally because I didn't know anyone over there and now I'm socially distanced here. But I gained a huge amount of weight. Yeah. Like I didn't want to begin to tell you some of my, what I, my eating during COVID rough, bad. And my mobility got so bad. I remember like flying back, I'm from North Dakota.

I flew back to North Dakota to see some friends. I volunteer in this program for the American Legion every year, it teaches leadership skills to young people. And so I went back for that and could barely move was, I was ginormous. And my friends all separately were pulling me aside saying, hey, I'm really worried about you. Like, they didn't collaborate on this. They were all just individually, these are friends I've had for 20 years and have known me this whole time. And I went back to work from that trip

and realized this job, I loved my job, but this job is just killing me. I'm working too much, my health is worse than it's ever been. And so I quit. I mean, I called a long goodbye. It was like a four month long notice I gave, but eventually left and went back to a place where I'd have a support system. If you ask what the fifth one is, it's probably having a support system.

That's right. Mm hmm. Because I now have, you know, friends and family. I fished at my sister's wedding three years ago. They've also, she and her husband have gone on a way less journey. I think between the three of us, we've lost like 700 pounds.

Great. Wow. That's so rad. And so having the support system is critical, which is why I moved back. So since then I worked for Amazon's top competitor for a few years, left that. And so now I'm kind of figuring out what's

next for me. I don't really. I got a suggestion. Have you ever, I mean, as you're talking, I just, my mind's spinning because I think you have a book. Yeah. I think you have, I think you have the ability to reach people that we couldn't reach.

I mean, people look at us, we do a good job, we have a lot of listeners, but people look at me and I can't necessarily reach them right off the gates because you don't know what I'm going through. There are a lot of people who are challenged, who are challenged like you, and I wouldn't tell you this if I didn't think you'd communicate it the right way, but you communicate it as well as we do, except you've lived it. It's infectious in the best way. You have a book, you got a book there

that I think that is compelling and I think would really help a lot of people. And so I think if you wrote a book about it, I think it would crush. I agree. And we'd have you back on to sell it. I appreciate it. I do know that as I figure out my next chapter,

it has to be something related to what I've done to change my life and hopefully encouraging others to do the same. And I don't know if that meant that I would, I don't know if that means I'll do it as a living or if I'll just do it on the side. You know, I just like, I've started social media, like posting little videos of advice, not to make money, just to like, hey, here's how you should

set goals as an example. I, because there's so many people starting these medications and a huge, you know, million plus people a year are going to be trying to get healthier, there are dangers. And this is what I've learned from you guys. So I guess I have to give you some royalties from a book deal at some point.

If you do this the wrong way, you can cause harm to yourself. Which is why I'm constantly telling people you have to incorporate resistance training, whether using GLP or bariatric surgery, or just like the old fashioned way. If you try to do this without resistance training, you're going to see a number on the scale go down, but you're going to end up in worse shape than you were before, even if you've lost 50 pounds. Yeah. And so I'm trying to evangelize that constantly.

I'm sure I'm annoying the hell out of my friends and family because I'm talking about it all the time. Wow, they love you. You know, I wanted to ask you something about friends and family that we didn't really touch on. Did you, because my clients had to lose a lot of weight many times had to change their circle of friends because a lot of them were enabling them.

So it's not like you have different friends. It's not like you had, for the most part, friends that were more supportive of the other direction. But in my experience, I've had clients, did you have to cut anybody out? Did you have any bad friends that would just encourage bad behaviors? That you're like, I can't do this anymore. No, I mean, I'm old at 40. I know I look like I'm 29, but I'm 46 at this point.

Uh, and so I, I didn't really have to cut anyone out. Um, I'm a confident dude. And so if I've never really put myself around people who encouraged really bad behavior, I certainly have friends who I, who were also big. I mean, one of my, one of my best friends in the world, I officiate weddings for fun. I've done seven of them. I'm retired. I'm retired, don't ask me to do any more, but his was the first one. And he had gone through bouts of cancer, he had been at death's door multiple times

and he and I were both really big, we're about the same age and I won't say his weight, he was bigger than I was at 650. And he's lost a huge amount of weight through surgery and other kinds of things. and I won't say his weight, he was bigger than I was at 650. And he's lost a huge amount of weight through surgery and other kinds of things. And, but as I've gotten older, the people that I'm around also are just getting healthier as well. That's great.

And so, and I surround myself, I have a really good friend who has started thin, he's trying to grow muscle, and so we're like going through this process together where we're eating similar foods at the same amount, but he's trying to add muscle and I'm trying to lose fat. So, I mean, having that type of thing is really good. I would not hesitate to cut out anyone in my life if I thought they were, because for me, getting in the way of my health journey or my, by the way, I hate the word journey, I use it all the time, but getting, someone getting in the way of what I'm trying to do for myself health-wise, they're not just being annoying,

I view them as actively harming me. If you have someone in your life who is actively harming you, you should find a way to change their behavior or if not, remove them from your life. You've not had that. That's what I was looking for from you because even though you didn't have it, I had imagined from your experience, you could imagine how difficult that would be if you had a friend that was constantly encouraging you to go have the beer and do all those things versus

encouraging you to do what you do it. I think there's a lot of people that that's another big hurdle I'd always have to work on with clients is like, how do you tell somebody to cut out their friend who they've been hanging out with 15 years? Even it's just, it's same thing with like a drug addict, someone who has a friend that wants to party. And spouses, I don't mean to, I know you want to talk, so I don't mean to interrupt. I see this with talking to people with spouses where there's one, the husband or wife is getting healthier and the other one is not.

And maybe they're supportive at first, but you see, and I'm not married, but you start to see the one who's not getting fit start saying, what are you doing? So I was coached on that when I first started training people who had to lose a hundred plus pounds and that was that the divorce rate actually spikes.

And so when you have somebody who's on this big weight loss journey, whose wife or husband is also struggling, they both do it together. Otherwise it can actually cause more issues. So that's how I would encourage people when they come in. My sister and brother-in-law are a great example of this. My sister, I say one nice thing about her every 10 years, Jess, this is the one time you get it. This is the one, don't wait until we're in our 50s.

It really is my hero in this stuff. She got started on this stuff before I did. She started GLP One support. She started changing her life before I did. And she's my little sister and I can't let, you can't let your little sister beat you. But she and her husband, then her husband got on board and I'm like, all right.

So I know that I have them in my corner. So let's get this done. That's awesome. That's great. Jamie, I gotta tell you, this has been one of my then her husband got on board and I'm like, all right, so I know that I have them in my corner, so let's get this done. That's awesome. Jamie, I gotta tell you, this has been one of my top five interviews. Oh, wow. Yeah, no, thank you so much for sharing.

You've definitely helped a lot of people just through this podcast and you communicate it better than most trainers I've ever talked to who've done this. I appreciate that. I guess if I want to give a message to folks out there who are in my shoes, it's that it is never too late to take your life back.

Would it have been great years ago? Sure. But today is as good a day as any to start. And you should start today. You don't have to start tomorrow. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Don't be afraid to find a good team in your corner. Don't be afraid to go to a gym and interview a trainer and make sure they're right for you.

Don't be afraid to fire a coach if they're not the right coach for you. Um, don't be afraid of what is on the other side because I'm telling you as a guy who was months away from being totally immobile, life is better, there is no way in which my life is not better today. I can't think of anything. And what's exciting for me now is I know, you guys know Jack LaLanne? Yeah.

Of course, hero of mine. Of course, yeah. Jack LaLanne's, you know, was in his 70s doing one arm pushups on TV. I watched it Lanes, you know, was in his 70s doing one arm push ups on TV. I watched it growing up, you know, in the 90s. And I remember thinking that was kind of silly or, you know, a joke. And now that I've gotten my life back, that is not a joke. I want to be the guy in the 70s who's jacked, you know?

Um, but if you're struggling, you know, I was, I wasn't on the edge of the 70s who's jacked, you know. But if you're struggling, you know, I was, I wasn't on the edge of the cliff. I had fallen over the cliff and I was gripping on to a rock and somehow got myself over, back up. And so, if you are in that situation where you are over the cliff or about to fall, stop, get help, and you can be in a life that you look forward to every day and you can see your body not as a prison,

but as your greatest strength. And part of that means that the stuff you see as the process to get healthier, eating better, lifting, getting your steps in, you eventually realize that the process to get there a better life isn't a process, that is the better life. And for me, that's the biggest change that I've made. And it's a mindset change and it's one that everyone can get and I encourage people to explore it. Thank you so much.

That's beautiful. Very well said. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Appreciate you. I appreciate you guys, not just for this, but for everything. I want you to keep up the good work and I can't wait to hear another 11 years of your podcast. Thank you.

Thank you, man. Appreciate it. 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 and a balling mass performance and maps aesthetic nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos

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