Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - How Cheri Used Thinner Leaner Stronger to Drop 46 Pounds and 12 Sizes

Episode Date: January 3, 2020

In this episode, I interview Cheri, who read my book Thinner Leaner Stronger and used it to completely change her body and life. When she first started on her journey, Cheri was 187 pounds and well over 30% body fat. She tried everything to lose weight, including low- and high-volume training programs and even the HCG diet. After years of frustration, she read my book and got started with proper training and nutrition. And she started seeing results almost immediately. In the span of about a year, she not only dropped to 141 pounds and 12 sizes but also completely transformed her body composition. By adding muscle in all the right places, she learned firsthand why what you see in the mirror is far more important than on the scale. In fact, Cheri was so happy with her results that she’s gotten several other women to start the Thinner Leaner Stronger program and has even created a “Fit Over 50” Facebook group for like-minded women to join a community and hold each other accountable. In this interview, Cheri and I chat about her story and the important lessons she’s learned along the way, including how she learned to use gym equipment properly, how she found a balanced approach to her diet, why she became a certified personal trainer, and more. So if you’re looking for a jolt of inspiration and like motivational stories, I highly recommend you listen to this episode. 5:57 - What was your health and fitness like before Legion? 10:24 - What type of shots were you getting in the stomach? 11:29 - Did you start with diet or exercise? 13:50 - How did exercising go in the beginning? 17:40 - How long have you been properly training? 25:44 - Was there a point when you realized that the training program was working? 28:09 - What obstacles did you have to overcome? 38:26 - What are your numbers now? --- Mentioned on the show: Legion VIP One-on-One Coaching: legionathletics.com/coaching/ Cheri's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cherilynn_livethelifeyoulove/ Cheri's Email: [e-mail] --- Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: www.legionathletics.com/signup/

Hey, Mike here. And if you like what I'm doing on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please consider checking out my VIP one-on-one coaching service where we can help you get in the best shape of your life. My team and I have helped people of all ages, circumstances, and needs. So no matter how complicated or maybe even hopeless you might think your situation is, we will figure it out and we will get you results. Every diet and every training program is 100% custom. We provide daily workout logs and do weekly accountability calls. Our clients get priority email service and discounts on supplements and other products, and the list of benefits goes on and on. So to learn more, head over to www.legionathletics.com slash coaching. That's legionathletics.com slash coaching and schedule your free consultation call. I should also mention that there is usually a wait list and new slots do fill up very quickly. So do not wait. If this sounds even remotely interesting to you, go ahead and schedule your call now. Again, that URL is legionathletics.com slash coaching. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Muscle for Life.

I'm Mike Matthews. And this time around, I interview Sherry, who read my book for women, Thinner Leaner Stronger, and then used it to completely change her body and life. Now, when she first started on her fitness journey, Sherry was about 187 pounds and well over 30% body fat. And she had tried many things to lose weight and keep it off, including high and low volume and intensity training programs, and even the HCG diet. Remember that one where you starve yourself on about 500 calories per day and then supplement with a hormone that is supposed to take away all your hunger and preserve all your muscle? And of course it doesn't. You just starve. After years of frustration, though, Sherry read my book,

Thin Winger Stronger, and then got started with proper and effective training and nutrition. And she started seeing results almost immediately. And then in the span of about a year, she not only dropped to 141 pounds, so she lost about 46 pounds. She also dropped 12 sizes and completely transformed her body composition by adding muscle in all the right places. And that also taught her firsthand why what you see in the mirror is far more important than what you see on the scale. And that is particularly meaningful for women who have been indoctrinated to live and die by the scale. And Sherry was so happy with her results that she has since gotten several other women to start the Thinner, Leaner, Stronger program. And she's even created a fit over 50 Facebook group for like-minded women to join a community and hold

each other accountable. And in this interview, Sherry and I chat about her story and the important lessons she's learned along the way, including how she learned to use the gym equipment properly, which can be an obstacle that many people who are experienced weightlifters maybe don't remember what it was like. But if you can think back to when you first stepped into a gym, it's daunting. And when you first tried to squat and deadlift and bench press and overhead press, it's tricky. And we also talk about how Sherry found a balanced approach to her diet and how she became a certified personal trainer and why and more. So if you are looking for a jolt of inspiration and if you like motivational stories, I highly recommend

this episode and here it is. Hey Sherry, thanks for taking the time to do this. I appreciate it. Oh, you're so welcome. I'm so excited. Yeah, me too. This is great because your transformation's great. Your story's great. And it's always fun to see the fruits of my work.

And of course you put in the work too, but I got to show you the way at least. Yeah, absolutely. Oh my gosh. And so many other people since then from my little post on Facebook and things like that, like so many of my friends are doing your program. At one point I had four girls in the gym with me and we all had our big workbooks out. And I took a picture of us standing there, like with our notebooks on our knees,

writing down our numbers and shared it on social media. Cause I was like, look, it just takes one person to pick up a program program to get other people motivated. Like, it's amazing. Yeah, that's so true. And I see that more often with women than men. And I think that's just because, I don't know, I think women are more interested in what other women are doing.

And I think women are more likely, if they like something to tell their friends about it. It just seems like more word of mouth, not just with books, but with Legion and yeah, with everything that if you can make women happy, you're going to get a lot more word of mouth from that than men. Right. Well, in general, if you just make women happy, period. End of story. Imagine a world where women were on the whole completely unhappy. If there were no women or no happy women working to make the world prettier and more enjoyable, everything might be over by now. But if not, it would be so disgusting. Imagine a world of just men.

It would be like the barbarian thing, like a lot of grunting and breaking stuff. It would just be one big frat house. That'd be the world. It'd be like the barbarian thing, like a lot of grunting and breaking stuff. It would just be one big frat house. That would be the world. It would be a complete shithole. I love it. Oh, my gosh. But that's not what we're here to talk about. We're here to talk about you.

And so why don't we start with where you were at before you found me and found my work and what you had tried up until that point and what was working and what was not working, what was going on? Nothing was working. And I was literally working with a trainer at lunchtime. And then I would come home at night and work with a trainer. And I know you say things about overtraining or whatever, but I tried under training, middle training, overtraining. I tried everything. I didn't have success. I was sending my pictures of my food to my trainer. And at one point, one of them was like, are you not sending me certain things? I tried shots in my stomach. I had tried drops under my tongue. I had tried the

Fennerman stuff that gets y'all jacked up and makes y'all almost die. I literally tried everything. That's why I'm so passionate about it. Because I was like, okay, if this can work for me, who's tried everything, and I'm in my middle forties at the time. I mean, it can work for anybody because you, you know, a lot of people just think, oh, it's, you know, she's young. No, I'm not young. I just look younger now. Everything about me is better. Like my skin, my hair, like everything, obviously my body. But so I seriously had tried it all. It was 187 pounds, 30 something percent body fat. I want to keep thinking it was like 37 or 38, but I can't remember the exact number. I just know I was in a size 18 when I started. The crazy fact that I bought your book back in 2017, I didn't even start the challenge for seven months after that, but I read it.

How come? Just excuses. Just excuses. And then what changed? Nothing else worked. I don't know. I kept following your stuff online and reading your articles. And I love how one article, you can click on something that takes you to the next one. You've got all those links in there. And one of them led to something about hormone balance, intermittent fasting. And that was the first one. And I was like, okay, I can do this intermittent fasting thing.

Surely I can do that. So I just started making up really dumb rules. Like if I was at the office and people put food there, I'd say, okay, if it's there in an hour, I'm eating that donut. You know, that's actually smart in that it's just intuitively smart. It's been shown in research. And it's one of those little psychological hacks, so to speak, that people who talk a lot about habit building will usually talk about. And that is if you feel like you impulsively want to do something that you shouldn't do,

or would be counterproductive, give yourself 10 minutes. Just say, all right, I'm not going to do that for 10 minutes. And if in 10 minutes, I still not going to do that for 10 minutes. And if in 10 minutes, I still really want to do it, I'm going to do it. But oftentimes what you'll find is if you can just wait out the first five minutes or so, the urge will subside and then that's it. Well, I'm pretty sure I read it from something you said, because I wouldn't have even thought to, I will tell you this though, when an hour was up, if I saw the food again, I would go, that's disgusting. People that don't wash their hands have touched it. Now I would never touch it. So it was all a mind game. So I'm like, you can always trick your mind into helping you get through stuff. You just have to get the right

trick. I'm like, I'm gross about germs and people not washing their hands. And so an hour later, I'm like, oh, you're nasty. But that when I first saw the food, I just was like, okay, one hour, you can wait this out and just go back to work and take your mind off of it or whatever. So that was huge for me. So the intermittent fasting is kind of what spearheaded the whole thing was an article you did on that. So then I bought the book, but time. I said, if I could burn calories reading Mike Matthews stuff and watching him online, I'd already be skinny because that's how involved I was with it. The path I'm on now is because everything I'd ever researched to death. You know how like you can go down a rabbit hole and research everything I'd ever done. I saw in that book and I was like, oh my gosh, he's right. Well, you put it in a book and you put the study references.

Of course you're right. But I felt like nobody else was agreeing with the things that I was like, oh my gosh, he's right. Well, you put it in a book and you put the study references. Of course you're right. But I felt like nobody else was agreeing with the things that I was finding online. Like I just kept finding this junk and junk and junk in the magazines that are paid for by the other company. You know what I mean? I'm like, that's junk. That's not true. That's, I don't find that's true. But everything in your book went right along with the stuff that I'd spent all this time rabbit holing for a couple of years before. You know what I mean? It was ridiculous how much time I spent trying to find the exact answer because nothing I did worked. I mean, the fact that you go to where you'll stick a shot of something in your stomach, that is where you know you have reached the end.

I would say rock bottom is probably like a weight loss surgery, but yeah, you're getting there. Oh, you're getting there. True. What's this shot in the stomach? I feel like I haven't even heard of this. I feel like it was another woman's, a pregnant woman's hormones, they said. Yeah, yeah, yeah. HCG.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I ended up throwing them out because I couldn't even, like I did it twice and I was like the panic attack that set in after I'd get that needle out wasn't worth it. Yeah, yeah. That's the hardcore way to do it. Many people, they would just get the droppers and it was, it's just a starvation diet. And most of those products, I would bet a lot of money actually had nothing basically in them. And so it was just a placebo effect if it did have any impact on diet whatsoever, but it was eat 500 calories a day. I think it was like mostly protein and take these little HCG drops. And supposedly, you know, of course the pitch was that it was

the supplement. It was the little drops that were, that's the real magic. If you just starve yourself without the HCG drops, oh, it's going to be terrible. You're going to have crazy hunger pangs and cravings, and you're going to lose all this muscle. And yeah, it was, it was a thing for a while. I remember. Yeah. I tried it all. How did you officially start doing it the right way? Did you start with diet or exercise or both? What was that point? I started with intermittent fasting and then you, you interviewed somebody that was talking about hormone balance. And so I talked to my mom who uses essential oils for like everything. And I was like,

I wonder if they have anything to fix my crazy because I felt like I was losing my whole mind and to balance my hormones. Like because all my tests showed that I was normal. I was like, there ain't nothing about me that's normal. My hair was falling out and stuff. I had problems. I was like, there ain't nothing about me that's normal. My hair was falling out and stuff. I had problems. And so she gave me some stuff that just happened to make me drop my first pound. And that had been after years of not dropping a pound. And I was like, whoa.

Okay, so I went back and was retested. And it turns out I was not everybody else's normal. But then I thought, okay, if I can lose a pound now, then I know I can train and lose another pound. I knew then there was hope. Does that make sense? Sure. What did you find that was abnormal? My thyroid. So everybody else says normal between one and six. And I was at a five. And for me, that wasn't enough. And when I started using that oil, and I don't want people to think it's a magic pill, it's not. But when I started using it, my number dropped by three. And then that's how I lost. I was like, oh, my gosh.

So I'm just not everybody else's normal. I got to be on the lower end to be able to lose any weight. And that's why I was like, OK, so if working to help wasn't working for me at that time, like I don't know if it was I was doing it wrong or whatever else. I just know when I lost the first pound, I was like, okay, I've been reading this dang book and following this guy for seven months. Let's go put it to the test. And so that's when I stepped in the gym with the link to the videos, that thing that you have when you buy the book and then it links to the videos. Do you know what I mean? Like in the table of content. Yeah. The bonus content, like the PDF that you download. Yep. Right. Yes. That thing is life changing because I'd have to watch the video to do it. Like a girl

came into the gym yesterday I was working with and she laid down on the bench backwards with her head where the behind goes. And I was like, oh my gosh, like, this is why I want to do what I'm doing because I can make you walk into a gym and feel like, oh yeah, I've got this. Where with me, it was just like, you were in my ears, you were in my book, like you did it with me. So now I just do it with other people. I was like, no, Mike got me here, but I'll take y'all there. How did it go in the beginning? Oh, it was awful. I got under the bar. I was like, okay, bench press. So let me just get under this bar. And I couldn't move it. And I was like, oh, so I'm going to have to start with dumbbells. I'm devastated at this point. And it was a lot of it. And I was like, oh, so I'm going to have to start with dumbbells. I'm devastated at this point. And it was a lot of it. That's actually a change that I made in the third edition because

I'd gotten a lot of feedback from women over the years on the second edition, which you read. And that was one of the points was it was an oversight really. And it actually makes more sense to just have women start with dumbbell pressing first, because that's very common. There are some women who just jump into it and they can work with the bar, but more often than not, the bar is too heavy to get eight to 10 proper reps. And so that's, for example, a change that I made in the, uh, among a number of changes, but I heard Roman saying, we're going to send you one. So yeah, that'd be cool. Yeah. So that was a lot of ego stuff. And for me, that's where my problems usually fall is in the ego zone. I'm like, oh, of course I have a problem

with that. It's ego related. But I just stuck to it. I was like, whatever. I'm warming up with the five pound dumbbells. I'm barely doing anything with the tens. And so somebody else might look at it now and go, oh, so you only benched 75? And I'm like, but you don't know where I started. Okay. It was a long road. That's still pretty strong. Oh, thank you. When a woman gets to, when she starts approaching body weight, that's like impressive. That takes a lot of work. And I will agree with that. It took a lot of work. And so in a lot of the times when my other girls would fall off or whatever, I didn't have anybody to spot me and I'm working out in a gym by myself or whatever.

I just wasn't able to push to the point of like failure and stuff. So I'm like trying new things and whatever. So I didn't grow much for a long time. And I just got it up by five pounds recently because somebody did spot me and I started doing just heavier, more like some of your stuff, it comes out and I'm like, Oh, wait a minute. That wasn't in the book. Okay. I'm going to try that. And then this recent one you did was like, well, you don't have to fail every time. And I was like, Oh, you don't. Okay. So because I go in there, like I brutalize my body and I'm like dead. Yeah. Which is, I guess in the scheme of things that might be better than drastically under training, but yeah, the sweet spot is, I wouldn't even say in the middle necessarily, it is more toward the end of the

extreme overtraining end. But yeah, you don't want to go too far in that direction. And that ironically also is something that I think I make more clear in the third edition. Oh, that's fun. Is exactly how hard should you be working in your sets, in your hard sets, working sets. And for anybody listening, who's not sure and wondering, this doesn't just apply to women or my women's program. It's really just in general. The rule of thumb is end most of your, your working sets about a rep or two shy of technical failure. And that's the point where your form starts to break down. So not even absolute failure. Absolute failure is where you actually can't continue anymore. Like if you're

squatting, absolute failure is you get to the bottom and you're not coming back up. Like you're sitting that weight down on the safety arms. Whereas technical failure is where it's hard and you might be a few reps away from absolute failure. But if you're training to technical failure, it would be okay, you're grinding a rep out and you start to feel your form break down a little bit. Maybe if you are squatting, you start to kind of waver side to side. Maybe you feel that your knees are starting to buckle in again, where now you are aware of impaired form. And so that would be the point of technical failure. And you can go to that point now and then it should be probably part of a

programming though, not just randomly. And that's, again, that's more relevant to intermediate to an advanced weightlifters than complete newbies, which I don't know, actually, how long have you been doing it right for? How much proper training do you have? Okay, is proper training from you or from the certification? I'm not sure which one you mean. Well, I mean, doing it right in the gym. So that means putting a lot of your efforts into compound exercises, focusing on progressive

overload, the basic things that you learned in the book. Oh, okay. So probably right, maybe a little over a year now. Okay. Well, you're getting to that point now where you're definitely, you learned in the book? Oh, okay. So probably right, maybe a little over a year now. Okay. Well, you're getting to that point now where you're definitely, you're in the beginning of your intermediate phase. And so what you'll find is that all the basic principles still apply, but you have to start working harder to continue making progress. Yes. I read that just recently where you said that, where you were like, it was in the post with you and your skivvies. I think you're going to do a lot more work with a

lot less results. And I'm there now. And that is so frustrating. And I'm so glad I read that when I did because I'm like, oh, that's what he was talking about. I see a picture of me from last year when I thought I was all that and put myself up there in a bikini. I tagged you in it and you were like, hey, you want to come on my podcast? And I was like, nope, not ready. And then I saw it this year and then you said, hey, you want to come on? I was like, actually, yes, because I'm never going to think I'm ready. Not ever. The difference in my body was still drastic, but not enough to where somebody else would go. It took her a year to do that extra, you know, or whatever. And that's totally normal. No matter how optimal

your training is, no matter how optimal your diet is, things slow down. It also depends on what your goals are too. With guys, it's pretty straightforward. They usually just want to get bigger. Like that's it. I just want to be bigger. Never big enough, right? Women though, that's often not the case. Women want a certain amount of muscle and muscle definition and muscle tone, but there is a point when most women are generally happy. And then maybe it's more about, oh, I'd like a little bit more of this specifically, as opposed to just, I want everything just to be bigger. Or maybe it's, oh, I'd like to be a bit stronger. Or oftentimes it's, you know, I'm pretty happy where I'm at, actually. I mean, I like exercising. I want to enjoy my workouts. I want to stay lean. And otherwise though, we all have things that we could go,

I could use a little bit more than that. But women seem to get to a point of happy maintenance faster than men who often are never satisfied basically with, they always feel too small. So that point of taking most of your sets to the point basically where you feel that you got a good rep and your form was good, but it's getting a little bit shaky and your next rep might be a little bit ugly, right around there, that's a good rule of thumb of where you then can just end the set. You don't need to go to the point where your form starts breaking down and you certainly don't need to go to the point where you simply can't even move the weight anymore. And as far as what to do and what to change, at least as you become an intermediate weightlifter, that's what I have. So currently,

I only have a sequel to Bigger Leaner Stronger. So I only have a book for men that talks about that. And I'm in the middle of rewriting that book. So it's going to be a new second edition. And the reason why originally I didn't produce one for women is I wasn't sure where to go with it. Because again, with guys, it's pretty straightforward. Being a guy, I know, like, bigger than you're stronger will take you so far. It's maybe it'll help a guy get probably his first, I don't know, 20, depending on his genetics, let's say 20 to 25, maybe 30 pounds of muscle really depends on a number of factors. At that point, though, it becomes more of a maintenance program. You got to work harder than bigger, leaner, stronger as you work. If you want to gain the last, let's call it 10 ish pounds of muscle that

are available to you. And so for guys, it's very simple. Most guys, they just want to get those last 10 pounds of muscle. So I know exactly, okay, this is then here's the next phase of your journey basically. And here's what changes. Whereas with women, I wasn't sure at the time what that looked like because many women really honestly don't need more than what's in thinner, leaner, stronger to get to where they want to be. Again, because most women are not in the same headspace as guys. They're not just like, I just get me as jacked as possible and that's it. That's why I'm here. But now having worked with many, many women over the years, I have a good idea of how I can make that book productive and still kind of in service of the goals of most women who are in the gym, not just maybe the extreme ones, the outliers who are just super into building muscle or getting

strong. And so that book will come. And fortunately, many of the principles of the men's book will apply to women similar to how the books are, beginner's books are right now. So when the new men's book comes out, you and other women will be able to read it and actually learn quite a bit and adapt quite a bit of what's in there to what you're doing. But it won't be as female specific, obviously, as the women's version is going to be. But if you or anybody listening is wondering, you have to work harder. And really what that means is yes, you do have to continue making sure that you're getting stronger over time. That's always the key is adding weight to the bar, adding weight to the dumbbells over time. It becomes a slow process though. Don't expect it

to be anything like it was in your first six months or even year or so. And then you have to often do more volume than you're currently doing to be able to achieve that. So for example, if you're currently doing nine or 10 heavy sets per major muscle group per week, that'll get you so far in terms of strength and muscle gain, then you'll get stuck. And the major change that you're going to have to make is not so much your exercises that you're doing or the rep ranges that you're working in. You can optimize that a bit, which I will do in the book and I will lay that out. But the primary factor that is going to keep you moving ahead is doing more hard sets. So it might turn into 13 or 14 hard sets per major muscle group per week. And that alone is going to be enough to keep you going. Maybe it could be further optimized, but again,

if you are feeling stuck around nine or 10 sets per major muscle group per week, simply doing a bit more is almost certainly going to unstick you and allow you to continue making progress. And again, the primary benchmark of progress is whole body strength is that your weight is going up on your key lifts. And again, even if it's slowly, even if you're only adding weight to the bar every month on your big lifts, that's okay. Progress is progress in the beginning. It's there's so much progress that it's easy to fall into the trap of or have the attitude of like, oh, well, yeah, I mean, I'm progressing, but I'm not progressing fast enough. Well, you have to kind of change your mindset as you become

an intermediate and certainly as an advanced weightlifter where any progress is progress. That's good. You're not stuck. You are moving. You might be able to move a little bit faster, but if you are progressing, chances are you probably won't be able to move that much faster because it becomes more binary of like you're either progressing or you're not. So anyways, hijack the conversation there. Hopefully I shared some helpful information. Absolutely. Because that's where I am right now. It's like, why did that only increase by that much? I used to could do this in two months, like what it took me this long to do. But that book that you did, was it Even Bigger, Leaner, Stronger? Beyond. Beyond Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. Beyond. That's what it is. No, I read that one too. And it's funny that you say that you're

going to do that for a girl because while I'm reading it, there's certain things I'm like, dang it, I wish this was more about a girl, but I get it. That's the guy one. So I'm so excited to hear that one. Maybe that's the one I'll be in. So yeah, actually goals, goals. I, like I said, your transformation is bookworthy for sure. I love it. All right. So let's get back to you. And so in the beginning it was tough, but you fought your way through it. And once you got into it, was there a point where you realized like, oh, wow, this truly does work where you go, I think all I have to do is keep doing this and I'll get to where I want to be. Yeah, it wasn't long.

Like, seriously, I remember it wasn't probably even a month when I was in the gym and I was doing a curl and looked at my bicep because I read in the book where you say, if you focus on the muscle, you get 20% more results and the study is backing up. So I'm like looking at my muscle, like one of those dudes that I never understood why they did that, but I did it anyway. And I was just like, oh my gosh, like there's a little muscle want to pop through that fat right now. Look at that. And then I was like, okay, so if I can do this in this little amount of time, imagine what I can do if I really stick it out. And so it makes me emotional because that was when I was like, I really believed in myself and that I can do it just like those other girls in the gym, which I was mortified by. I'm

like, well, they've been doing this forever. And that comparison is the thief of joy is so true. And I was like, they had to start somewhere. I just like, get out of your head space, focus on the fact you just saw muscle, pick that up, put it down again and get your shit together. Hey, before we continue, if you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please consider checking out my VIP one-on-one coaching service. Now, my team and I have helped thousands of people of all ages, circumstances, and needs. So no matter how complicated or maybe even hopeless you might think your situation is,

we will figure out how to get you the results you want. Every diet and training program we create is 100% custom. We provide daily workout logs and we do weekly accountability calls. Our clients get priority email service as well as discounts on supplements and the list goes on and on. To learn more, just head over to legionathletics.com slash coaching. And if you

like what you see, schedule your free consultation call. Now there's normally a wait list to work with our coaches and new slots do fill up very quickly. So if this sounds even remotely interesting to you, head over to legionathletics.com slash coaching now and schedule your free consultation call. And let's see if our program is a good fit for you. As you went through the process, what were the obstacles? Did you run into any issues with hunger cravings? Yeah. I mean, so this is where, again, where I relied heavily on essential oils for that kind of thing, like sugar cravings and sugar balance. But all this stuff that I know diabetics were doing to balance their sugar levels and stuff,

I was like, what if I do this to keep me from eating all the chocolate cake? And so that was tremendous. And then just not going to certain functions. I limited some stuff that I would go to bed by eight o'clock so that I couldn't go out or I couldn't be up and I couldn't be near the kitchen. So there were like sacrifices I made along the way that now if you ask me to make them, I'm like, but why? I already did that. You know, and so this weekend I had pecan pie and banana pudding for dessert because I was like, because now I'm living again. So I have to like, there's balance, right? You know, like I gave a lot of stuff up, but I get a few things back here and there.

And it's totally made it worth it. And that's really the end game that we're going for is being able to enjoy that balance where you can have the desserts and know that it actually doesn't matter at all. There are no consequences physically or emotionally. This is not going to lead to a binge or it's not going to lead to fat gain. And where you then naturally are just drawn to where you do the most important things, mostly right, most of the time. And you know that so long as you're doing that, so long as you have 80% right, it's similar to what I constantly talk about with calories. Make sure you just get most of your calories from good stuff. And if you want

to give a bit of them over to nutritionally bankrupt food, who cares? It doesn't matter. Well, that also applies in the bigger picture as well. So long as you are doing most of the things right, the most important things at least, most of the time, occasional lapses have no impact whatsoever, no objective impact. The only way they can have an impact is if you allow them to. If you just don't sweat it and just kind of keep calm and carry on as the Instagram influencers say, it actually does work out. You're totally fine. Right. The one thing I will say that, all right, you recommended that book, The One Thing, which is funny. I started the sentence like that. And so I'm currently reading that one,

but there was another book called The Compound Effect. And I watched a YouTube video on it where he drew a chart where this guy, these two guys are both obese, and one decides to just start parking further from the door at work. And one of them changes nothing, and it shows their trajectory over time. And over the year, the one guy lost weight, the one guy gained weight. Point being, there wasn't even that drastic of a change, but he stuck to it. And so that's what I do. I look at stuff when I have a day like I did on Sunday. I just go, but you know, this is not my big picture. If I am 75%

of the time on it, and that's a pretty big thing for 25% of the time, because that's what happens on my weekends, is sometimes I'm not the person that I preach to be. Or are you though? Because if that's part of the sermon, then again, it's not that you have to be perfect. You don't. I mean, it's impossible to be perfect anyway, but it's completely unnecessary too. Yeah, I agree. I agree. So I guess I should even cut myself some slack too sometimes.

I get that sometimes too, where people don't quite understand. If they don't know me all that well, they just know that I'm like in fitness and I'm a fit guy and I'll be out to dinner and I'll eat dessert. And some people, they're actually confused. They're like, wait a minute, how do you look like, what are you doing? And I understand it's just because foods, sugar in particular has been so demonized, carbs are so demonized. And of course, if you don't understand the basic principles that you understand, and many people listening understand about just energy balance, that

alone changes everything once you truly understand that. And when you understand just the perspective that if you do a good job providing your body with all the nutrients it needs, let's just say, even if it were a day, so six days a week, you are even five days a week. Let's say you do a good job providing your body all the nutrition it needs. And then one day a week, not as great. You don't eat any vegetables that day. And then the next day you do the same thing. Maybe it's no fruit or vegetables. Maybe it's just, well, I would say if you're just eating a bunch of junk food, that's probably a bit weird. But for example, I mean, I'll speak personally. So on Saturdays, usually I'll just skip breakfast because I'm not as active on the weekends. I do a little bit of cardio, but I just skip breakfast

just because I'm not a big breakfast person anyway. I don't really care. So around 11 or 12 or so, I'll have some Icelandic yogurt because I like it better than Greek yogurt. I'll mix in some protein. So just get a fair amount of protein. And then a couple hours later, I'll have like an apple or something. A couple hours later, if I'm going to be at home or around the home in the afternoon, I'll cook myself a hamburger. And then at night, I'll usually have, depends what, if my wife and I, if we're going to go somewhere, I usually get some vegetables in at night, one way or another. Sometimes we'll go to a salad place that's nearby or sometimes I'll make some stuff, something at home and then I'll have some ice cream. And these days I'm eating, it's dolcezza and I don't believe the calories. It's

too good. I don't know. I don't know what to say. I would be a little bit surprised because they're a big company. I'm writing this down now. Try dolcezza. And it's the butter pecan. I think there's another word in it for their version of it, but it's the butter pecan. And the whole pint is like 480 calories according to, and there's always going to be obviously some wiggle room, but, and they can fudge it up to, is it up to 20%? They can fudge the numbers a little bit, but let's just even call it 600 calories. Right. But it tastes like real ice cream.

I didn't know they could fudge the numbers that much. That's insane. Yeah. It's at least 10%. I'd have to look it up again. It's been a while since I've looked at that, but they don't... I mean, just also to... You're never going to be able to hit the exact number every time or probably ever that's on there, right? So it does make sense. There's a little bit of leeway. Oh, okay. It could be within 10%. It might be up to 20% though. Again, I'd have to look, spend some time since I looked at that. However, even if it's 600 calories, it tastes so much better than enlightened halo top or any of these other like skinny ice creams, which can be up to 400 ish calories per pint, depending on what flavor. I mean, I think you can get in the, maybe around 300, maybe in the mid 200s. I remember like Halo Top Pistachio

was probably two something. I mean, that was actually okay, but this Dolcezza is way better. It is life. Way, way better. And I like ice cream. So anyways, I'll have a pint of that ice cream. So that for me would be like not so nutritious day. Whereas the weekdays I'm eating, let's say five or six servings of vegetables a day, two servings of fruit a day, some whole grains, some lean protein, basically no sugar, a little bit of dark chocolate. That's my normal routine. Now, Sunday is usually the same-ish thing. Maybe not the ice cream again, maybe not the hamburger. Sometimes I just kind of get back to my normal on Sunday, but that's my personal routine. And nutritionally

speaking, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. there's just because i'm giving my body less nutritious foods two days a week but i'm not filling it with just trans fat and like disgusting microwavable dinners and shit i'm still eating real food i'm just not eating the way i would eat every day there are absolutely no consequences to that it is an enjoyable way to just change it up and eat some stuff that I like, but I'm not going to eat a lot of and have no reason to feel quote unquote bad about it. Right. It sounds like you do something similar. Yeah, I do. But like I made a hot tilia is all I can call it last night with a low carb wrap and

half a hot dog weenie and some chili. I was like, it's sort of a hot dog with not that there's anything beneficial about eating a hot dog. Let's be real. But I wanted one. Yeah. See, but that's the point though. It doesn't matter when you're doing so many things, right. Just have the hot dog. And if you want to have your favorite, whatever your dream hot dog is, have your dream hot dog. It doesn't, it actually doesn't matter. Well, because it's a weekday and I try and reserve my other big decisions for the weekend, that's why I made it the hot tea on the weekend.

Sorry, I missed that point. Okay, I get it. I get it. I totally have the hot dog on the weekend. But on the weekend, generally, because I'm a single girl, I go out with my single girlfriends and we're having drinks and stuff like that.

So I generally eat nothing but protein on Saturday and Sunday. It's not a bad adjustment to make. And it's not like I'm going out, you know, going all out and then, you know, coming home and getting, you know, tacos at 2am. So I eat a lot of beef jerky and drink shakes and still try and do some kind of cardio. And when I say cardio, I mean like Mike Matthews style, like I don't mean beating my face to death or anything like that, or some sprints, just something that makes me feel skinnier when I leave the gym. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Or just activity. That's why I do it on the weekend. It's not, there's no like great reason why I do cardio other than, you know, it's like 30 minutes, a steady state because I'm not cutting. If I were

cutting, I might do some high intensity stuff, but it's just, it feels good and it's good for the body and it doesn't impair recovery. In fact, if you keep it moderate, which both of us are doing, it'll help you recover faster just by increasing blood flow. So there's just no reason not to do it. And I just love it. I'm like, you can do anything for 25 seconds. If I'm doing 25 second intervals or whatever, and then rest in between that, I'm like, you can do anything for 25 seconds. Like if, if I'm doing 25 second intervals or whatever, and then, you know, resting in between that, I'm like, you can do anything for

that amount of time. The first time I did it though, I got to tell you, I was like, I'm going to write him and let him know I almost puked in the gym. But after that though, then I was just like, Oh, I can totally do this. But I really did. I almost threw up. I got a cool towel. Like, am I going to do this again? Am I really going to do this again? And I was like, oh hell, let's do it again. So, you know, I realized that you haven't shared where you're at now, like as far as your numbers and how things were going, we know you're before. What does your after look like? So here's the thing. I had dropped 53 pounds, but as I gained more muscle, so now I'm at 141. But as I gained more muscle, so now I'm at 141.

So I ain't mad at the number. The reason I'm not is because I took a before picture a couple months ago, you know, like even trainers use trainers. I hired a macros coach. I'd actually done a meal plan through y'all that worked for me for quite a while. And I loved it. Just like a little plug for that there. And then I hired somebody else that was, you know, talked to me twice a week and we did all these things. And during that time I was like, okay, she said, send me pictures. And I was like, I don't want to, but I'm so glad I sent those pictures

because a couple of months later when I weighed a little more and my body was, I can't remember if it was 26 inches different. I could not believe it. So now I show that picture to everybody. I'm like, throw out your damn scale. Throw it out yesterday. I hear people say it all the time, but I never would do it until I saw that picture. And I was like, oh God, I'm so glad you met. And I even said, but maybe it's just better lighting

in that one. She goes, go measure yourself. And I'm like, okay. So it's funny though, like along the way, the more things that happen, the more things I tried. And I do wish in your next one, if you have even more breakdown of how macros and just changing them by one or two, it's hard. I'm not even doing that right now. Cause I just can't wrap my head around it at this moment, but to include more about macros,

cause it's so confusing when you start talking to a new client, you know, and they're like, more about macros because it's so confusing when you start talking to a new client, you know, and they're like, what count of what? Yeah. Yeah. I think you'll like the third edition of both the women's and the men's books. They were really rewritten from scratch. I mean, it's all the same basic information, but everything is reorganized. I think it's all explained better. There are things that didn't need to be in there, maybe interesting information that I took out to be able to put stuff that is more important and more in line with the questions that people were asking me after having read the books. Oh, gotcha. So yeah, no, I think it's a bit bigger. And if I do a fourth edition, I can't go bigger than it currently is. I'm going to have to figure out

if anything had a shrink the word count, but it's not a doorstopper, but it's like getting there. However, I'll say that I think it reads easily and things flow logically and you're learning. I did really try to only put stuff in there that is highly practical and highly relevant to what you're going to be doing and the likely what you're going to be doing and the likely obstacles you're going to run into and the likely questions that you're going to have. And that has been borne out in the feedback that I've gotten from people, especially people who have read previous editions and they've really appreciated the evolution of it. And then people who are reading the new third editions for the first time, I'm seeing a lot less of, in some cases, questions I

would get fairly often where things weren't entirely clear. I don't get those questions at all. And in general, there wasn't much in the way of criticism previously, but there were points that people bring up that were valid points that should be addressed. And so there's very little of that now. Now it's like there are a couple typos that will get fixed in the next print run, or there are an image for some reason, an image like didn't line up correctly with the text, stuff like that, which is nice to see because that was really my goal was to make it as thorough as it needs to be for somebody to really feel like they have a handle on everything that they need to know to get started, get going. Of course, I want to hear from people, but I don't want them to have to reach out to me

because stuff wasn't clear or it's not working as it should work because there's something missing or whatever. Right. Absolutely. Well, I'm telling you though, the book, it's drastic for anybody that reads it. If they really, if they don't let it sit back, well, seven months, I mean, come on, if they can do better than that and not just read it for seven months and actually do it. And then they'll, seven months later, like if they started right then, you look at it and you go, that book changed my whole life. Can you imagine like in the first seven months later, like if they started right then, you look at it and you go, that book changed my whole life. Can you imagine like in the first seven months of when I was doing it compared to, you know, like somebody starting right now? It's like if you would have started, there's a saying about that.

If you would have started then, you'd be where you are, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I can't remember. But that whole fact that I took seven months to read it, like just, I mean, not to read it, to start the challenge is mind blowing because the book has got all the stuff in there. So I can't even wait to read the next one. Yeah, I look forward to hearing your feedback. Definitely let me know what you think once you've gone through it. Yeah, but now I'm a solid size six, by the way.

That's what people ask me. And so I can get online, I can order whatever pants I want in a six and they come in. So I used to just think, well, those stores are just expensive stores. So they say it's six, but it's not really a six, but now I can buy jeans off Amazon if I want to. And there's that six. I mean, to go from like an 18 to a six, I'm not concerned much about

the number on the scale. You know, when I find out my friends weigh less than me and I'm going, huh, wait, what? Oh, you do. Okay. I got to remember that it's not that number. And I can't tell you how many times people said that over the years. And it wasn't until I saw the pictures of myself that I went, oh. Yeah. It's body composition. That's everything. And muscle is dense. Muscle's dense. It is. So a pound of muscle takes up less space than pound of fat. So as you add more, and that's very common for women to be surprised at how much they weigh when they get to a point where they're like, I'm actually pretty happy with how I look. This is cool. And then they look at the scale. They're like, what? Really?

Because I would have normally never been happy with this number. I might get on it once a week or so and just kind of gauge where it is. Which is not a bad idea, actually. It's not a bad idea just to keep an eye on it when it's smart to pay a little bit more attention to it when you are. So as far as weight loss goes, you want to see that your average weight is going down over time. The daily fluctuations don't really matter, but if you take weekly or bi-weekly averages and just look at that, it's good to keep an eye on. It's not the only thing that matters. Measurements matter. What you see in the mirror matters. And then on the flip side,

if you were to go, all right, I want to add a bit of muscle to, let's just say it's your butt. And if there maybe it was one other muscle group, but if it's just your butt to do that, if there maybe was one other muscle group, but if it's just your butt. To do that, there is a point where you would need to maintain a slight calorie surplus. You'll get as far as you can get without having to do that. But then to go any further, you would need to maintain a slight calorie surplus to maximize muscle growth. If that were the case, then it also makes sense to watch your weight a little bit more closely.

Again, not the daily fluctuations, but you would want to see your average weight going up slightly over time. And that would mean gaining some fat, but you don't really worry about it because you can just get rid of it. I love how you say that. You can just get rid of that. I mean, that's the reality though, right? Nobody likes, at least very, most of us do not like having to gain fat to quote unquote

lean bulk. It doesn't mean it has to even bother us, but if we could have it our way, of course we wouldn't. Of course, we would just, you would maintain our optimum body fat percentage and we would just continue to gain muscle. But that only works really in the beginning. And then as you become an intermediate and just more experienced weightlifter, the problem is when you're in a calorie deficit, you don't gain muscle

nearly as effectively. And there's a debate as to like how big that effect really is. Like maybe you actually can gain a little bit, but practically speaking, what you can assume is if you're in a calorie deficit, just assume you're not really going to gain any muscle after you have made it through your first year or so of weightlifting. And so what that means then is if you're not consciously maintaining a calorie surplus, intentionally overfeeding yourself a little bit, which is how it feels like your body does just basically want to get fed what it's burning and that's what feels normal. And when your body's appetite of mechanisms are working correctly, that is what feels good, so to speak. It's just

kind of eating around your energy expenditure. And when you consistently eat more, you do feel kind of overfed. It's definitely just how when you're in a calorie deficit, even though it doesn't have to be grueling, there's a feeling that you can just kind of feel your body doesn't have as much energy as it wants, right? That's what it requires on the flip side to maximize muscle growth, or at least optimize muscle growth. And if you don't make a point of systematically doing that, and that means again, the best way to do it is put together a meal plan, kind of treat it as if you were cutting, but now you're just eating more, what will happen is you'll just tend to eat around your maintenance. Some days you might be a little bit over, but then some days you're going to be under. And so

what can happen is you can go many months where you've spent half of those days or because of your habits, maybe even more, maybe even two thirds of those days in a slight deficit. Maybe it's just a slight deficit, but still that's just not optimal out of a three month period to spend, let's say 60 of those days in a deficit is not going to work for really trying to move the needle on muscle gain. You'd want it to be the other way around, or ideally you'd be able to just stay in a slight surplus the entire time and not have gained so much fat that you had to cut it short. And so anyway, that's just some comments on weight and when it's more or less relevant. When you're in a kind of a maintenance mode, yeah, just hop on the scale. I mean, that's what I do.

I hop on the scale every few days or sometimes I'll go a week or even two weeks without even weighing myself because it's pretty much the same. It's 198 to 201. There you go. There's my weight at any given time. And somebody I follow on Instagram recently said, you know what, if you weigh yourself every day, then fine, but average it out at the end of the week. And that's your number. Yep. And I talk about that explicitly in the new third edition too. I might mention in the second edition, but I make it very clear. And some people even like to do biweekly averages

and that's okay too, actually, if you just watch it every two weeks. Right. Well, so right now that's where I am as far as, and I also read something you recently wrote about muscle imbalances and I'm like, okay, good. Cause my left cheek is smaller than my right cheek. And so, and I'd always wondered, should I just do more reps on that side? Or is that weird? Like, am I going to make it off balance? So when I read that, I was like, of course he knew. I don't know if you know this, like when I'm Google searching anything about fitness, I Google search what I want. And then I do the little plus sign and put Mike Matthews, because I already know I'm not gonna have to read 80,000 things. Cause if your name's attached to it, you already read those 80,000. I'm just

going to get the answer. Yeah. And now I have so many things now. I think I have close to probably a thousand articles over at Legion and I don't know, a few hundred podcasts and I'm doing a couple podcasts a week and usually an article, a new article every other week. And then I'm updating existing articles as well every other week, just because in some cases, things change. In some cases, like if I wrote something three or four years ago, maybe research, newer research has come out, or I've just learned things since then. And I think I can do a better job explaining or give even better advice. And so that's also just for anybody wondering on the website. I mean, I have a couple of people who work with me on that as well and help with like, okay, finding articles that are worth updating and

doing some of the initial legwork and so forth. But we put a lot of time into keeping all of the information there or as much of it as we can as current as possible. So yeah, there's at this point for a lot of questions that you and other people have, the answer is just sitting over at Legion in an article or a podcast. Oh, I know. I know. I find it all. I'm just like, this is crazy. It's just almost too easy for now for somebody to be able to go, I don't know why I can't lose weight. I'm like, okay, let me give you this book. And I can't tell you how many people seriously are using your program now just because I started sharing it. You know what I mean? Well, I mean, nothing like the stuff you get, obviously. I've got a group. As a matter of

fact, we're starting a Facebook page because I'll be 50 in two years. You should send me a picture. If you have people that are doing it all together, that'd be fun. I'll post it to social media. Oh, I've got, I'll send you the one where we were all doing it at the same time. But no, now I've got like a girl in Atlanta that does it. And girls that are like on my business team who also do it in different states around the place. And they'll send me their pictures and go, look what came in today. You know? And I'm like, well, you should tag Mike in it. Like, you know, just hashtag him, do whatever. So we're starting a group on Facebook called Fit Us About 50. Nice.

I like that. Oh, yeah. So so far, there's like 40-something people. We just posted the other day. 40-something women that want to join it and be part of it. And I was like, I mean, we're not charging anything for it. We're just like, we're going to put our stuff out there. And your stuff will be obviously part of that.

And then I've got a spin instructor who's, she's had a lot of luck with Weight Watchers, which that's neither here nor there. I'm just saying she'll have something to offer that's different than what I have to offer. I mean, Weight Watchers is fine in that it really is just a way to control calories. I'm assuming it's still though microwavable dinner type food or are they? Oh no, they do about points now. You can eat regular, you know, just everything has a point. I mean, it's just a proxy for calories. That's all. So, but it's easy. So for somebody like me, I don't like frozen meals, but I like fresh cooked meals that I can pick up. So I found a service here that I just go to the gym and grab my meals and I've got till Friday to get through those. And so that's what I do. So just so we'll have different women in there from different takes of how they're doing things. And then,

so we're all aiming to be our fittest by 50. That's, you know, the goal is, and I was like, it also gives me something to push towards too, because now with training people and doing my oil business, like I am the last on the list. And I'm like, oh my gosh, am I really going to go to the gym? It's 930. And I just finished working. Like, am I really going to the gym right now? And then, you know, it's like, I only worked out twice last week. I was like, oh my gosh, you know, I've got to come up with other ways. And I was like, this is the perfect way because when I'm encouraging other people and inspiring other people, that's what drives me, which is the whole reason I went through with the personal trainer certification. Cause I'm like, I mean, all the things you said, it's like, are you really just

going to pay for somebody to tell you to do this? And I'm like, nope, but I'll tell you what I will charge for. I'll charge you through 10 sessions and I will show you exactly what you're going to read in the book that I just told you to buy. And I'll show you your proper form. And then you'll go into the gym and you won't get on the equipment upside down. And so that is my goal with everybody. I'm like, here you go. Here's 10 sessions. Let's do this. And then I started the thing called the tidbits in my notepad and I've just got to put it on paper. So it's like a lot of the thing called the tidbits in my notepad, and I've just got to put it on paper. So it's like a lot of the stuff that they're going to read in your book and they're going to hear out of my mouth, but so that they go back to it, like the calves thing. And I think you even have something like that in the front of the workbook. That's kind of like the, don't forget these

things. Because when you're saying, okay, you're going to do 12, 10, four, then one at 50%, 50%, 75%, 90%. You know what I mean? You're in one minute rest, one minute rest, all those things. Somebody that you've only got 10 times with kind of, they're like- It's a lot of moving parts. Yeah. The new, I don't know if you also, there's a new workout journal to go with the new women's book, which I can send you as well. And it's even better in that regard. Like we put together, just put more stuff, like here's a cheat sheet basically. And also some stuff on the exercises, just to at least on the key exercises to remind them of proper form and stuff. And you mentioned that on the size, that is kind of an issue. My thought on that is I'm going to have

to think about it. Like I would like to make it smaller. The only problem is I'm not sure how I'll have to see, is that possible while still having the three, four and five day routines in the book? And if that's not possible. No, no, no fitness. Like this, like it being the eight by 11, like all of us walking around the gym with our big old books.

But I was like, you know, at this point, you can probably just have it on your app. Oh no, for sure. It's going to be there. But some people, they just like having a hard copy. Oh, no, for sure. It's going to be there. But some people, they just like having a hard copy. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I did. And in the beginning, that's absolutely.

I was just like, man, this thing is big. There was a guy that goes to the gym that he came in with a notebook. And I was like, what? I've never seen anybody except my people walking around with a book. Really not. I can tell looking throughout the gym, like who's worked out with me before, because they've got their book. But the guy had one, I was like, look at him writing stuff down. Good for him. You don't see it much, but a lot of people do use their phones,

but a lot of people are not using their phones for that. They're often just on Instagram on the leg press machine or something, which I saw today. Right. That's when you know you're not working hard, when you're on Instagram while you're doing the leg press. Right, exactly. I'm guilty. I've had my watch go, are you finished working out? I'm like, oh, oh, no, I'm not. I'm not, I'm not. Okay, sorry.

We've all strayed into our phones now and then, but I can say that you're probably the same way. Most of us, though, are pretty good about it. our phones now and then, but I can say that you're probably the same way. Most of us though are pretty good about it. So then where can people find you if they want to work with you, if they want to hire you? So you're going to love this. My email, because I don't, my website is really more geared to my oil business, but my email for working out is I know Mike Matthews at gmail.com. But my email for working out is IKnowMikeMatthews at gmail.com. That's funny.

Right? And it's so much easier than my name. My name is like C-H-E-R. You're like, how do you spell Sherry again? 18,000 times. So I'm like, just email me. IKnowMikeMatthews at gmail.com. I just created it.

Yes. I don't have that problem. My name is simple and you can't spell it wrong. Yeah. So I was like, this will be perfect. So when they come to me at that email, then I can direct them to a different site. Cause I've got several groups on Facebook, one that focuses on balancing your body from the inside out, one that focuses on, you know, working out one that focuses on. So I've got different platforms. I don't want to overwhelm people. So I'm like, you just tell me what you need or if you just want to chat or if you just need somebody with good energy in your ear to tell you that you can get through this,

you will not die, I promise. Like, just reach out to me. It's what I do. It's what I love. And I mean, I walked away from a really good career path, if you look at numbers or whatever, to do something that's totally different than anything I thought I would ever do. Was that hard to do? Or was that like... Oh yeah, it was terrifying. Like I seriously was terrified. And I was just like, okay,

because at first I just left. I'm like, I'm gonna do my oils business. I'm going to talk to people about weight loss and I'm going to do this. And a lot of people just saw my before after pictures and I'd send them a link to the book and that'd be that. But as time went on, I'm like, I just need to be able to show them what to do. Like, let me just, in my mind, go get this certification thinking that was an easy feat because you know, it's like, it's books. It's fine. I can do that. And then I went, oh wait, what? That took some doing just because all the information that you never think, I don't need to know this body part. Do I need to know what that is? Like, really? And so my test on that, it took me 15 hours to complete my exam. And I have never tested that even in my degree in college was not an exam that took me 15 hours.

So I did it for a purpose. So I was like, they're going to trust what I say more. If I've got this behind my name, like it's just going to, then I can change more lives. And sure enough, it's worked out. And I don't charge people an arm and a leg at all. I make them pay enough where they've got skin in the game and I make them pay for the 10 sessions up front just so that I go, okay, you've committed. Now you've paid for it. Chances of you not showing up are slimmer now than if I just did it for free, like I had been doing. Yeah, totally. And are you on Instagram? I am. I'm SherriLynn underscore live the life you love. But again, it's C-H-E-R-I-L-Y-N-N underscore live the life you love. So it's just harder. And I'm kind of like a selfish grammar

on there. My stories, a lot of people just follow my stories because they're kind of ridiculous, but I don't post a lot of things. I'm not a millionth of what you can do on Instagram. I'm not even a good example of that. I'm kind of active. You're so much better. Your stories, I don't know. You've got stories every day. There's some good content. You got your kids on there. I'm like, oh, that's so cute. Letting people see a little bit of your family. I mean, that's the whole thing. I'd read a book from a girl who is in the oils business and she's uber, uber successful called Getting Noticed. I mean, that's the whole thing. I'd read a book from a girl who is in the oils business, and she's like uber, uber successful called Getting Noticed. After that, I just said, whatever. The time's going to pass anyway, whether I live out loud, so to speak, or not.

So I just started doing what she said. And I was just like, I'm putting my stuff out there, not negative stuff. It's all positive and silly and ridiculous. And I use a lot of Snapchat filters and do faces and whatever. And that over time has led to a lot of people wanting to hear what I have to say, which blows my mind every single day. And then, you know, I'm just going to keep going down that road. Like you said, things will change and, you know, there's ebbs and flows, but for the most part, you know, you're sharing your life and people want to see that if it's going well, and they want to know what you're doing. And I'm happy to tell them. Well, that's awesome.

That's great. It's a great story. I appreciate you coming on to share it and keep up the good work. I love it. Thank you so much. I can't even like, I can't believe it because I wrote it down, but it's still unbelievable. I guess I should say. You know, that's actually one of the reasons why when people, when I first interact with

people, I kind of plant the seed of taking pictures and keeping track of their progress and reaching out to me when they're on their way, basically, is because a lot of people have told me that they just found that motivating. And that was something where they're like, I'm going to do that. I'm going to take my pictures and I'm going to do this. I'm going to stick to it for six months. And then I'm going to send them to Mike because that sounds fun and it's neat. And that's where we get hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of success stories over at Legion is where they're at the blog. And they were all just through initial email interactions. Sometimes there are people who just come out of nowhere and just say, Hey, check this out. I read your book a year ago and I did it. And look

at me now. Many of them are people who read the book and then they had a question or they downloaded the bonus content. And then there are a couple automated emails that go out. Like one of them just asks if they have any questions and then I get to see those. And so there's an initial interaction and there's like a little part where I'm just letting them know like, Hey, I'd love to feature on the website at some point. I started doing the podcast, these types of interviews after. So I suppose I could even add that in there, but it's like, yeah, I'd love to feature on the website at some point when you've reached your goal and many, many people come back later. That's what I did. Yeah. To be

like, Hey, check this out. I did it. Yeah. I was like, no, not yet. That was last year. And so when I said it this year, when you did it this year, I screenshot it, put it on Facebook. And I was like, because when are you ever ready? You're never going to feel totally ready. So I'm just saying, yeah, I like it. Well, Sherry, thanks again. Keep up the good work. Thank you so much. Hey, Mike here. And if you like what I'm doing on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please consider checking out my VIP one-on-one coaching service, where we can help you get in

the best shape of your life. My team and I have helped people of all ages, circumstances, and needs. So no matter how complicated or maybe even hopeless you might think your situation is, we will figure it out and we will get you results. Every diet and every training program is 100% custom. We provide daily workout logs and do weekly accountability calls. Our clients get priority email service and discounts on supplements and other products, and the list of benefits goes on and on. So to learn more, head over to www.legionathletics.com slash coaching. That's legionathletics.com slash coaching and schedule your free consultation call. I should also mention that there is usually a wait list and new slots do fill up very quickly. So do not wait. If this sounds even remotely

interesting to you, go ahead and schedule your call now. Again, that URL is legionathletics.com slash coaching. All right. Well, that's it for today's episode. I hope you found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and you don't mind doing me a favor, could you please leave a quick review for the podcast on iTunes or wherever you are listening from? Because those reviews not only convince people that they should check out the show. They also increase the search visibility and help more people find their way to me and to the podcast and learn how to build their best body ever as well. when the next episode goes live, then simply subscribe to the podcast and whatever app you're using to listen and you will not miss out on any of the new stuff that I have coming. And last, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscle for life.com and share your thoughts. Let me know how you think I could do

this better. I read every email myself, and I'm always looking for constructive feedback. All right. Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon.