Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - How Geoff Lost 79 Pounds & 25% Body Fat on my Bigger Leaner Stronger Program

Episode Date: October 12, 2018

In this episode I interview Geoff, who’s 34 years old and used my Bigger Leaner Stronger program to completely transform his physique. In this interview we talk about how he found his way to me and my work, including what he had tried previously, how things changed after he started implementing the advice in my books, articles, and podcasts. As with everything, nothing ever goes exactly as planned, and learning to adjust and adapt to conditions is an important part of the fitness game, which is something Geoff experienced firsthand. He ran into a number of roadblocks along the way that most of us can relate to, including issues with workout and meal scheduling, hunger and cravings, dietary temptations, and more, and in our chat, Geoff shares what has helped him navigate these barriers skillfully and prevent them from getting in his way. So, if you like hearing motivational stories about how people have changed their bodies and lives, and if you want to pick up a few tips that may help you along in your personal journey, then this episode is for you. 5:03 - What were your diet and exercise habits before BLS? 5:59 - Why did you gain the weight back? 7:47 - Where are you at now with your diet and training? 9:28 - How do you fit training into your busy lifestyle? 11:30 - Did you always have an ‘all in’ mentality? 14:56 - How did you find my work? 16:30 - How did your body respond to the BLS program? 24:09- How has getting in shape affect other areas in your life? 30:10 - What would you like to achieve moving forward in your training?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: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

If you really want to be a success story, if you really want to do this and do it right, then you got to buy into it 100%. Just go for it. What do you have to lose, really? Give it a shot, a good, honest shot, and I think you'd be happy. Thank you. Продолжение следует... Thank you. So so This is where I would normally plug a sponsor to pay the bills, but I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead, I'm just going to quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my newest book, The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation. Now, this book was fun to write because it really is my personal and 100% practical and hands-on blueprint for transformation, both inside and outside of the gym. And I promise you that it will provide you with new and valuable I promise you that it will provide you

with new and valuable knowledge and skills that you will use for the rest of your life. In short, I wrote this book to help you fix the things that are most holding you back from doing and achieving the things you care most about. So if you want to learn how to overcome the mental blocks that are making you unmotivated, unhappy, and unhealthy, then the little black book of workout motivation is for you. And you can find it on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play.

I should also mention that you can get the audio book 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account, which I highly recommend that you do if you're not currently listening to audio books. I love them myself because they let me make the time that I spend commuting, prepping food, walking my dog, and so forth more valuable and productive. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my audio book for free, simply go to www.workoutmotivationbook.com slash audio book, click the sign up today and save button, create your account and voila, you get to listen to my little black book for free. Alrighty, that is enough shameless plugging for now at least. Let's fun to listen to how other people have succeeded and also to get into some of the nitty gritty details because it's good to, you know, I try to through really everything through my books, articles, podcasts, videos, whatever, try to give

the best one size fits all advice that I can, but ultimately everybody ends up customizing things to one degree or another, whether it's diet or training or supplementation or all of the above. So it's also nice for people to hear specifically what are some of the hurdles that you had to get over and how did you take what you learned from me and really make it work for your lifestyle, your circumstances and so forth. So why don't we start with a snapshot of your before and after. So where were you before you found me, found my work and started doing Bigger, Leaner, Stronger and so forth? fitness of any kind. I did venture out when my first child was born for a short period of time and lost an insane amount of weight, 50 pounds-ish, but did it extremely fast. And knowing what I know now, very wrong. And it didn't last. I wasn't able to sustain that. So that's kind of where I was at.

Not a healthy guy. I'm in construction. Just the lifestyle there, very hectic. And we worked a lot, but we also played hard and a lot of late night pizza and late night fast food and just eating what you eat. So that's really where I started with this entire thing. Interesting. And what happened previously? So you lost a bunch of weight and then you eventually put it back on. Knowing what you know now, what happened there? Because obviously that's a lot of people go through that. That's a very common thing. So I was the quintessential salad eater.

I cut my calories just a ton, did a ton of cardio, no hit. So all solid state cardio, ran quite a bit. And it did wonderful for me to drop a lot of weight quickly. And I did that. But as soon as I went on a vacation with the family, ate a little bit, not so great. A taste of the forbidden fruit. That's exactly right. And that just started to spiral for me. And because of just how fast I did it, knowing what I know now, it just wasn't anything sustainable for me. And that wasn't, as I like to call it with people, it wasn't real weight that I lost. I mean, it was just kind of this immediate satisfaction of something that I was going through that I

wasn't going to be able to maintain. So in 2008, that's when that happened. I put all the weight back on by 2009. And I lived that way from 2009 till 2017 when I decided to really buckle down. Advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram at MuscleForLifeFitness, Twitter at MuscleForLife, and Facebook at MuscleFor Life Fitness, Twitter at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness.

So where are you at now? So right now, today, I weigh 179 pounds. I'm probably right around the 11, 12% body fat. Yeah, I've been following your program religiously for the last, I would say 15 months. So yeah, I've been extremely excited and, and that's excitement still is going on today. I mean, it's something that I, I value a lot. I look, you know, look at myself, I look at my lifts, I look at the progress, my diet, how it's evolved. It's been, it's been pretty incredible. Yeah. That's amazing. 80 plus pounds. And also I have some numbers here. So like previously your deadlift was, this is what I have in front of me, was around 185 pounds.

Now it's 335 pounds. I'm assuming that's for reps. Your squat went from 145 to 235. Your bench from 95 to 185. Your OHP from 65 to 135. So you've also gained a ton of strength, which means you've also gained a significant amount of muscle. You can't gain that much strength without gaining a significant amount of muscle. So you've dropped a ton of fat while adding quite a bit of muscle, right?

Yes, sir. And those numbers have gone up just a little bit since then. So I'm still able to make progress. And kind of the way your book is written and all of your information is. My life pattern has kind of followed that where today, you know, it's not walking to the gym and I just, you know, because I walk through the door, I'm gaining muscle. I have to work at it and make sure that I'm doing things the correct way and form the correct way and just really been buckling down on that here the last four or five months. Yeah, that makes sense. Are there any modifications that you've made or any things that were specific to you and your situation that, you know, how do you make it work? Because you have kids, it sounds like you work a lot. You know, a lot of, I hear from a lot

of people that struggle, at least in the beginning to figure out, oh, how am I going to find the time to do this? Or how am I going to even fit this into my schedule? How does that look for you? Yeah. I want to be really clear with everybody on this, that it is a commitment. And if you're not willing to make that commitment, I tell people all the time that what I do may not work for you. So the way that I make it work is I don't sacrifice anything that you had in your information. I am kind of the 100% bought in guy. So let's say I'm traveling for work. I have thermoses and I have, you know, lunchboxes that carry enough food for me for the day to eat it when I'm supposed to eat it. I am

insanely annoying to some people because I will pause things to go get my meal in and eat this. When it comes to my training, I don't sacrifice anything on the training. I'm still on Bigger, Leaner, Stronger at this point. I haven't just because your recommendations to kind of go through that for two years before you jump to beyond Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. So I'm still with Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. And I follow that program and I do the deload weeks. And so for me, what I did was made an insane commitment and I worked my schedule around my family. So my family is important to me. I have commitments with them. So, you know, I put my youngest to sleep at night. I get done with everything. I give everybody a kiss and I go to the gym and I get my workout in. I come home, I sleep, I get up. I like to do my hit cardio training three days a week. I do it Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays with some guys in the neighborhood. Two of my best friends run with me and we do that. We wake up at 4.45, we're out the door by 5.15. We get our run in, we come back

and we get our day started. So for me, I work your entire program into the lifestyle that I have so that I don't affect the people that I love and I don't affect my job, but yet I'm still able to get everything in. And that's been a huge commitment, but it's been something that I'm extremely committed to. That's obviously a common thread among all of the success stories that are featured on the website is the people figure out a way to make it work and more often than not are kind of all in on it. Is that something, is that how you've always been as a person or previously, was that something that, you know, did you develop that discipline? Because I can hear some people listening just going, wow, that's great for you, but I don't think I could do that. What do you say to those people?

So you absolutely can do it. I am wired that. What do you say to those people? So you absolutely can do it. I am wired that way. When I decide and put my mind to doing something, that is what I'm going to do. And I've always been that way from when I was young. And I think that there are great things about that. I also think that there are times where that can be not so great, but in disrespect, yeah, I went all in and anybody can do it with a little bit of planning and forethought, you know, my food and my diet is not that big of a deal today. It was at the beginning, just trying to figure it all out. But a year into it, you know, you kind of have all that worked

out. You know where you're at. You know where your TDEE is. You know what you need to do for where you're at. You know, if you're still cutting, you know what to be with the 20% to 25% below, and you know what you need to be with the 10% above. And I weigh myself at the exact same time every morning, and I got a Bluetooth scale, so it's not data entry for me. It just all is done automatically. And there are things that if you're committed to this, that you can do in order to make this fit your lifestyle better. Yeah, I totally agree. And it's that point of necessity, right? I actually have an article coming out in a couple of days. It's going to be, I guess on, it's going to be this Monday or next Monday.

And I also am turning it into a podcast like for the Motivation Monday on that topic of necessity. If it means enough to you, you can figure it out. And there's also something that just comes to mind when you're saying these things is it's the attention to detail and it's doing all of the little things right that, you know, from the outside looking in, most people, they don't, you know, they're not seeing anything you're doing really. They just see that you're in shape and, you know, if they've been witnessing your transformation,

they've seen that your body has been changing. They can, in some ways look kind of, it can be mystifying to some people. How is it, how is it possible that, you know, in a year you not only lose 80 pounds, but you pretty much completely flip your body composition around. And what is behind that though? And I think that, and you see this, if you read about any of like even great achievers or geniuses throughout history, what appears to be supernatural, whether it's in talent or results, often just comes down to a lot of hard work and a lot of attention to detail and a lot of grinding. That's what produces in the end, whether it's a body or a body of work or a life that seems

outstanding or maybe even just inconceivable to a lot of people. When you really break it down, it comes down to just that. It's all the little things that are done right and they're done consistently. And that I believe anybody can bring themselves to do. And I think that's more encouraging than viewing the results as the product of just a person who's just wired a certain way or who just has it, as opposed to, eh, really what they have is they just have the willingness to continue grinding. Yeah. I mean, I can't agree. I can't agree more. So now walk us through you finding me, finding my work and finding Bigger, Leaner, Stronger and how that

differed? So I really got into a little bit of health issues, nothing crazy. You know, I like to go to the doctor and feel good. And I went to the doctor and he was like, hey, you really should check this and that. So I was like, all right, I need to lose weight and I need to do it right this time. So I went back to diet again this time, but not, I didn't do the all salad diet. I just kind of, I looked at a few things and just ate a lot better than what I had, which really isn't hard when you're that overweight. You just start eating a little bit better. And I noticed as I was losing weight, which I was losing weight at an okay pace that I just had no muscle mass whatsoever.

So I started researching, what do I need to do in the gym? And really, that's how I came across Bigger, Leaner, Stronger and your website. So I really spent a good week going through articles on your website and really just loved the information. It made a lot of sense to me. I'm a researcher. So you're backing with all of your information that you had and all your research you had done and being able to see it and touch it and feel it was really made me comfortable. So I bought Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. I listened to it quickly, downloaded the PDF that came on the back of the book. And really from that

point started my Bigger, Leaner, Stronger journey completely. And that was from diet to weight lifting the entire thing. That's awesome. And how was your training in the beginning? Because you're obviously in a deficit and I'm sure it's quite different than your previous experience, but did you see your body responding? How did your body respond in the beginning? My body responded great. It was doing all the things that it should do. I was absolutely felt fatigued being in a deficit, not having trained seriously before ever. And I mean, I've been in gyms before, but nothing of any huge consequence. So I could definitely feel the fatigue. But as I started to kind of go through, and again, I would read articles on how

to do this right and how to do that right. And as I got in there and really focused on all of those things, and you just start seeing your slow progression. And I'm not one that when it came to this, in my life, I can be very instant gratification driven. But in this, I was very settled to, hey, I want to work the process, I want to work the program, and I really want to do it right. So I was really okay and comfortable with, if I gained one rep a week, that was great for me, you know, and it may be one rep on one set a week. And then the next week, you may add 10 pounds. And just going through that every day that I went into the gym, I was just trying to beat that one rep

the last week, you know, and keep going and keep going. So for me, I never had any training before. And I never had done anything like this before. So to see the results that I was getting right away and how it was going with the diet and the training, I just got excited about it. And I've kind of been that way ever since. I still, to this day, feel the same way when I go into the gym five days a week. I understand. I feel the same way after years and years and years now. I've started training when I was younger, but didn't know what I was doing for the first seven years or so. So it's been a number of years and it's still fun to progress is slower. It's a lot less linear. I'll have exercises that stick. Like my bench is stuck right now. It's because I'm

probably not benching enough. So I'm not too concerned about it. Not that I even really care. I honestly don't really want more size in my chest. I just think it would be cool maybe one day to be able to bench 315 for reps, but to get there for me with my absurdly long arms, I probably have to gain a noticeable amount of size in my chest because the best I've ever done is 295 for a couple. And that was on a lean bulk, blah, blah, blah. But yeah, it's fun to see progress, even if it's slow progress, especially when you understand mechanically what's going on in your body. And when you've adjusted your expectations, which is something that you brought up, that's a good point that I think should actually be highlighted, which is,

this is something from the beginning for me that I wanted to, what I wanted to focus on in terms of a target market for my work, I wanted to try to go as wide as possible, right? I didn't want to cater just to bodybuilders or fitness enthusiasts, but at the same time, there are a lot of people out there that are still looking for the magic bullet. They still think that there is some great shortcut or biohack or whatever that can get them to where they want to be. And that can be losing 20, 30 pounds in 30 days or gaining 20, 30 pounds of muscle in a couple months or whatever it is. And there are plenty of people, plenty of products and services out there that cater to those people. And I guess cater is the wrong word, more like prey upon those people. And eventually, and I know this firsthand, having spoken and worked

with so many people over the years, eventually those people, they get their fill of the quick fixes and they finally realize that quick fixes just don't work. Even when they seem to work over the short term, they really don't work over the long term. And that's where now that person is ready for me and my work really is like, okay, so you've tried, let's look at it this way. If you as a person, if you hear someone say, hey, you can lose 30 pounds in 30 days by taking this supplement and following my little diet. And you can also gain muscle and you're never going to be hungry and paint this utopian picture of how it's going to play out. A person that is inclined to believe that, I can't compete with that because then I'm

over here saying, let's go for max 1% of your body weight per week. And you can't necessarily eat everything you want to eat. You're going to have to watch your food intake. You're going to have to work hard in the gym. It's much less sexy, but the person that, that goes for the shiny stuff, one, you know, and then it doesn't work. And then maybe they try another shiny object that doesn't work. Eventually that person becomes skeptical and jaded and goes, okay, the next time they see a shiny thing, it actually repels them. And then I'm out there saying, okay, so

I've been saying here, here's the real sustainable way to do it. There is some instant gratification, but it's more of a long-term play. It's more of a lifestyle. And I would like to be able to help more people just skip that. Like if they're in that newbie phase in terms of market awareness, where they think they don't know, hey, who knows? Maybe you can lose 30 pounds of fat in 30 days and gain muscle. Why not? I would like to help more people understand that you could just skip all that beginning, all the churn, and just get to reality. And that's kind of what I try to do with my work.

Absolutely. And eventually, your program does become sexy to people like me. And what I mean by that is you're very right. There's a lot of flowery things out there that sound wonderful. But when you get into the trenches of this program and you abide by what it is that you're supposed to do, you understand it, you live it. And at that point, you start seeing all of your success, your personal success. And again, I have this saying that I stay in my lane. I have my lane. When I go into the gym, I'm not ego lifting against anybody else. I don't, you know, I have my numbers. I have my diet. I have my setup that is been developed through this Bigger Leaner Stronger program. And that's my lane. And now that I'm in my lane and I have

your program, I mean, to me, it's completely sexy, right? It's exactly what I want. It's the lifestyle that I want. It's something that I want to maintain for a long period of time. I didn't do this until I was 34 years old. So for me, here I am at 35 years old, and I'm in the best shape of my life. And I plan on keeping that forever, as long as I can go. And having that and being able to look back at that, it is sexy for me. So these people will, they'll get it eventually. I think you're exactly right. Yeah. I mean, that really is. Once your, I guess you could say your expectations become a bit more realigned to reality, then it is that slow, steady progress that becomes encouraging because then you realize

all I have to do is just keep doing this and eventually I'll be where I want to be. And along the way, I'll probably learn some things that will speed it up, but it's never going to get as quick as some people would want me to believe. But for the most part, it's just keep on working these things and I will get there. I think that's very motivating, not just in fitness, but in anything. Yeah. And all of your motivation stuff, the Motivation Mondays, the things that come out, people need to really get entrenched in all of this because there's certain things that you've said. And look, I never in a million years would have thought that one of my successes that I would tell people is that I gained a half a pound last week, right? I was dead on my number last week and I did it right. And so maybe not all of my successes are gym related.

And I know last week I pulled 365 or 375 for reps and I was feeling great about it. And the week before that, I gained 0.4 pounds and I was just excited about that. So it just changes for me all the time. And that's what's so exciting about that, about my entire program for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Tell us about that. How has getting into great shape impacted other areas of your life?

Man, keeping up with my kids. I have a six-year-old and a 10-year-old at home and they're full of energy and just doing life with them and my wife. And really, I don't know that anybody fully understands the impact of being as overweight as I was. Again, starting at 260 pounds, you get tired quick. There's things that I like to do around the house and then just certain other hobbies or activities that wanting to be a part of. I know one that sticks out in my head is my sister's family had a party at a local gymnastics place. And inside of there, all the kids were running around and they had like the American Ninja Warrior courses. And they had the rope climbs and the pull up bars and the warped wall and all that.

And I remember doing it three or four years ago and I couldn't get up the warped wall. I couldn't do this. And it was just kind of embarrassing. And I went back maybe six months ago and I was tearing it up, doing everything. I felt like a 10-year-old all over again. And it's just little things like that, that you go through life and you just don't realize that there's some of those things that are just enjoyable. And it's fun to see other people say, man, look, you know, this guy two, three years

ago, couldn't do this. And now look at him. He's, you know, running around with his kids and doing all that. So it is just from my life, from scoop to nuts. And I'm a very regimented, organized guy who I love structure. I make 19 or 20 meals on Sunday and I have them all ready to go. I know what, you know, where my numbers are. I know what I'm eating that week. I bought a Bluetooth scale and weigh myself every morning at the exact same time. It goes straight to my phone. I track it all the time.

I know what's going on. I am as devoted to this program as you can possibly be. It's one of the things that I tell people. If you really want to be a success story, if you really want to do this and do it right, then you got to buy into it a hundred percent. Just go for it. What do you have to lose really in the long run? I mean, you know, nothing else has worked. So give it a shot, a good, honest shot.

And I think you'd be happy. I totally agree. And, you know, sometimes I'll be emailing with people that are struggling to get going with, and it seems a bit overwhelming to them because this is all new, right? So these are people who have, sure, they've heard of calories before, but they never really understood it. And they'd never, of course, never understood energy balance or counting calories, tracking calories, or really anything that's discussed in the books or in articles, podcasts, whatever. And sometimes also what I'll tell those people is,

okay, so let's start with something simple. Let's start with, it's often the training, right? So let's start with the workouts. Let's get that going. And if you want to play with your diet, let's say if we could quote unquote, clean it up a little bit, that's about it. And I'll just leave that up to you. Maybe if you, for different people, it's different things, right? So sometimes it's, let's try to eat a little bit less sugar, or let's try to eat a little bit less refined carbs and a little bit more like, you know, if they don't really eat any vegetables or any fruit, let's just try to make your diet a little bit more nutritious, but let's really focus like what you're talking about. Let's really dial in the training. Let's get that established as a habit. You're going to be in the gym. Let's

say it's three days a week. Okay. So we'll follow a simple push, pull legs, and you're really tracking everything and you are grooved in on all the exercises, you're making progress until that feels like it's on automatic. And then we'll start looking at the diet or sometimes it's the other way around. Sometimes I, particularly with people who have a lot of weight to lose. And again, if they feel a bit overwhelmed, I'll say, okay, let's get into the nitty gritty on your diet. Let's make your meal plan. Let's make sure you know what you're going to be doing for your meal prep and make sure you can follow this to the T. And on the exercise side of things, let's just keep it simple. What can you do? Can you go for some walks? Could you walk like five

hours a week? Depending on their circumstances, it could be go on the treadmill or go on the elliptical or go on the bike. And once your diet is totally grooved in and you feel like it's on automatic, then let's do the same thing for your training. And that's really dial in your workouts. And it's really, you know, make sure that you have a very specific program that you're following and you understand progression and blah, blah, blah. So, you know, I thought I should also just throw it out there for people who might be feeling a bit overwhelmed listening to you, Jeff, explain all that. You don't necessarily have to try to tackle it all in one go. If you feel up to it, do it. If that is a problem and has been a problem,

then you can make it more bite-sized. Sure. And I think for me, I have two very good friends who live in my neighborhood. They started with me. One's a great runner. The other one is a chiropractor who was in good shape. And they started with me, which just, you know, they came down to my level. They would walk with me a little bit and then we would run and then walk and then run. And we just built it from there. That's kind of how my running training started with them. And then I refined that with them the more I got into your program. But you're really right. I mean, just cleaning up, you know, bite-sized pieces is good. This is not, and I don't want to take anything away from what you do because what you do is extraordinary. But

for normal people like me, this is not rocket science. You have done everything for people like me. So if they buy into this and they do bite off the little pieces, it doesn't take long to download MyFitnessPal and go through and calculate your macros with the sheets that you have and all of the articles that you have to do it and break that down. Once you get used to that, and once you've done it for two, three months, become second nature to me. I can, you know, these things in my mind, just I go through them. It's quick. I can refine my diet. I'm one of those guys who eats a lot of the same things for an extended period of time and then I get tired of them.

So I switch it up. Just doing things like that. The training, same way. You're right. I started with three days a week. I went to four days a week. I'm at five days a week now. I enjoy five days a week training now, just where my body's at and how I'm responding

to it and a little extra attention to the different places. But three days a week worked perfect for me at the beginning. So you are really right. Bite-sized pieces are great for people who can't dive into that, you know, in two weeks, try to have it all figured out. Totally. So what are your plans from here? What would you like to achieve going forward in your training? Oh, the sky's the limit for me. I'm nowhere near the end of my story. So I mean, I'm still feel like I'm at the beginning of it. You know, I did great. I'm nowhere near the end of my story. So, I mean, I'm still feel like I'm at the beginning of it. I did great. I cut the weight, cut down to 10% body fat, like you talked about in your books. Got there. It felt great. Took a little bit of ridiculing from people

because I was small compared to what I used to be. And again, I stay in my lane. So all those people, I just laugh. Yeah, I'm okay. Are you sick? No, I'm not sick. You know, everything's good and gives me opportunity to talk to people. That's a bit extreme. Are you sick at 10%? Really?

I mean, wait, are you mad? That's my question. Like, yeah, I'm thinking the question is that. Yeah. Six percent. I mean, I could see it. Yeah. There's a point where you start to look gone.

I wouldn't say you look sick, but depending on your face, you can start looking pretty gaunt where then people are like, whoa, what's going on? And most people don't see me without my shirt on and, and, you know, after I work out and all those things. So, you know, just anyways, with all of that being said, I mean, my, my journey's just beginning. So I'm at 178 pounds right now. Uh, I would love to be in the high one nineties, probably,, probably even close to 200. I'm six foot three inches tall. I think we're similar in height. So I'd love to be in that, you know, in the 190 to 200 range, very lean at 10%, maybe a little bit below. So for me, I'm just going to keep working the system right now. I'm in a clean bulk. I'm trying to go between a quarter of a

pound and half a pound a week. I did a little bit more of a serious bulk last year. When I got down to 10%, I bulked at about a pound a week. And that to me was, I got up to where I was eating 4,000, 4,200 calories a day. It was just extreme for me. And I didn't enjoy that a lot. Yeah, I've been there too. I like food as much as the next person. But yeah, after a couple months of having to do 4,000 plus a day, I was so ready to cut just so I didn't have to eat food. I was ready to just cut my calories in half. calories. I enjoy that amount of food. I enjoy what I eat every day. Don't ever feel crazy full, able to keep my training going, progressing great. So I'm going to bulk here for a little while and then I'll cut down and then bulk back up and then we'll do the normal right before summer thing for me, get real good shape for summertime. And for the next two or three or four years, I think I'm just going to continue on that path. I have Beyond Bigger,

Leaner, Stronger. I have not read it yet. I started to read it. But once you had that line in the book where if you haven't been through Bigger, Leaner, Stronger for two years and lift these numbers, you should stay with Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. So I just kind of shelved that for right now. I'm going to stay with Bigger, Leaner, Stronger for one more year. I really work on getting to those numbers and I will. I'll get them this year, no problem. And we'll move on to Beyond Bigger, Leaner, Stronger and just keep with the program and nothing special. Just, you know, I'm going to do it because I enjoy it. I enjoy the way I look. I enjoy the way I feel. And yeah, I'm just going to keep on getting it as long as I can.

That's awesome, man. That's so cool. Well, those are all the questions that I had for you. Is anything else you'd like to share with everybody listening? Other than just, I mean, really buy into the program. If you're going to do this, just buy into it. Trust it. It is a great program. I can't thank you enough for what you do. And again, the content that you continue to put out, it helps me continuously. It's just not been a bigger, leaner, stronger, and that's all type situation. I definitely subscribe to your podcast. I listen to it.

The new book, I'm excited. I'm getting ready to get into that. So really dive into it, do it, and you can be in the same place for sure. You can do it. That's awesome. Thanks so much, man. I appreciate it. And there's a lot more good stuff coming.

I don't know if I told you, I don't think I've mentioned it so far in the podcast. Maybe we spoke about it before, but I have updated third editions of Bigger, Leaner, Stronger and Thinner, Leaner, Stronger coming out, which I'm super excited about because I've pretty much rewritten them from scratch. The fundamentals are what they are, but at this point, I wrote those second editions four years ago. I'm a better writer now. I've researched a lot. I've written a lot. I've also gotten a lot of really good feedback from people to really narrow down what should be in the book and what doesn't necessarily need to be in the book. Currently, the book has a lot of information, a lot of things, and it's great. I didn't want it to get bigger. I actually wanted the books to get a little bit smaller,

if anything. And to get maximum value out of those words, though, it's been very helpful to get a lot of feedback from people. So I'm excited to get those books out. You'll have, so you have the audio book, you'll get it free. You'll get, it's going to be a free update for anybody who has the, at least that's how it works through Amazon. I'm assuming iTunes and Google Play probably work the same way where if new files are uploaded, basically everybody who downloaded them previously gets the new ones for free. So you'll get that.

And then the audio book is the same thing. And I recorded the audio book myself, which the guy who recorded previously did a great job. But I think it's the best person to record it is the author if their voice works. Basically, if they don't have a horrible voice, I think it's best for the author to record it. So yeah, we got that coming. I'm going to do a second edition of Beyond Bigger Than You're Strong. That's going to be one of the next projects I'm going to work on, which I'm excited about. A lot of good feedback from readers on that. A new cookbook. And it's

fun. I like being just similar. It's like the training grind. I have my content grind that it's something I enjoy doing. I enjoy getting it out there. I enjoy getting the feedback. So it's a virtuous cycle. Yeah. And for us that follow you, we really, we really appreciate that because it's good stuff for us. Thanks, man. Well, yeah, I really appreciate you taking the time, Jeff. Thank you. No problem at all. Thank you. Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don't mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes

or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback. So please do reach out. All right,

that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon. Oh, and if you liked this episode, then you are going to love my newest book, The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation. You should definitely check it out because this book is my personal and 100% practical and hands-on blueprint for transformation, both inside and outside of the gym. I promise that this book will provide you with new and valuable knowledge and skills that you will use for the rest of your life. In short, I wrote this book to help you fix the things that are most holding you back from doing and achieving the things that you care the most about. So if you want to learn how to better overcome the mental blocks that are making

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