Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - How Legion Coaching Helped Corri Lose 12.5 Pounds and 8% Body Fat in Just 90 Days

Episode Date: June 26, 2019

In this episode I interview Corri, who recently completed my 90-day coaching service and dropped 12.5 pounds and 8% body fat, while getting stronger on all of her key lifts, and at 40 years old! AND after having a baby that she was nursing! Basically, Corri’s a perfect example of how there’s always a way to get into great shape if you want it enough, and that’s why I wanted to have her on the podcast. Now, 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 Corri experienced firsthand. She ran into a number of obstacles along the path to success, including beating hunger, finding time to prepare meals, and working her way through challenging workouts often on too little sleep thanks to the baby, and Corri had a number of insights to share on how she overcame them. 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 in your personal journey, this episode is for you. 5:26 - What have you accomplished with our coaching program? 13:45 - What was wrong with your thyroid? 19:41 - How did having a baby affect your training and diet? 26:21 - How did you deal with hunger while you were nursing? 37:29 - What was your workout plan on our coaching program and what were some obstacles you had to overcome? 41:35 - Have you injured your knees before? 42:32 - How was your sleep 49:56 - Anything interesting that you’re working on? 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 to sign up now!

Hey, hi, Mike here, and welcome to another episode of Muscle for Life. And this time around, I interview Corey, who recently completed my 90-day coaching program and lost about 13 pounds of fat and reduced her body fat by about 8%, and that's in an absolute not relative sense. And she also gained quite a bit of strength on her key lifts, gained a bit of muscle, and she did it at 40 years old. And after having a baby that she was nursing throughout the program. And so all that is pretty cool because I think she's a perfect example of how there's always a way to get into great shape if you want it enough. And that's why I wanted to have her on the podcast.

And of course, as with everything, it didn't go exactly as planned. She had to learn to adjust and adapt to conditions and preferences, you know, what she liked and what she didn't like. And those are important parts of the fitness game. Those are the things that really make it sustainable over the long term. For example, Corey ran into a number of obstacles along the way, including hunger and how to beat it, how to find time to prepare meals that work, how to do workouts on what was often not enough sleep thanks to the baby. And in this interview, she shares a number of insights on how she overcame these things. So if you like listening to motivational stories about how other people have changed

their bodies and lives for the better, and if you want to pick up a few tips that might help you in your personal journey, then this episode is for you. 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 100% natural whey protein powder whey plus. Now this is a naturally sweetened and flavored whey isolate protein powder made from exceptionally high quality milk from small dairy farms in Ireland. Whey Plus also contains no GMOs, hormones, antibiotics,

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you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot. Alrighty, that is enough shameless plugging for now at least. Let's get to the show. Corey, thanks for taking the time to let me interview you on my podcast. Thanks for having me on the podcast. Yeah, a good mic too. I was joking before we went. I was like, oh, wow, somebody with a real mic, not earpods or the dangly bit one. That fall out sometimes.

You just lose people. Yeah, or just moves around. And sometimes with women, it scratches up against their hair. So it sounds like they're in a wind tunnel. Oh, yeah. I mean, I can switch over to that if that's better. If you're going to miss that, I'll switch over. It might be better for people.

Just give them what they're used to. You know what I mean? A lot of people don't like change. They don't like new. It sounds too clear. Something's wrong. No. So the mic sounds great.

So that's good. And we are here to talk about your fitness transformation, of course. And I think a good place to start these discussions is maybe just a quick before and after kind of snapshot so people can understand why you're here and yeah, what you are excited about. And then can kind of rewind to, I'd like to hear about before you found me and my stuff, what that looked like, what you were doing, what was working, what was not working, what your problems and frustrations were. And I'm sure that's what led you to find me. And then we can kind of just roll forward from there because your story is a bit unique as people are going to find out. Because this was kind of like a public transformation of sorts, right? Yes, it was.

So yeah. So why don't we just start with just the overview of what you have accomplished? Sure. Okay. Yeah. Well, I had been doing the weightlifting programs from the Thinner Leaner Stronger book for a while. And then I went through a pregnancy. I had had two C-sections at that point. And I just really felt like I needed help. I was having a hard time like sitting up out of bed and I just felt really weak and blah. And so I signed up for your coaching program. From the time I started that until about halfway through was absolutely mind blowing what I was able to accomplish in a really short time just with some structure and someone building a plan for me. And so I've been maintaining for a couple of months now, but over the course of that 90 days, I think I went from about, I don't know, probably 23-ish

percent body fat, because who actually knows what your body fat is, right? So somewhere in the 23, 24% range. I think I'm probably in the 17 to 18% range now. And that meant losing about 11 pounds and I'm only five feet tall. So that's significant on my body. And then I gained some strength. I've gained significantly more strength since I went into maintenance, and I'm not in that caloric deficit anymore. I've been maintaining for a couple of months, and honestly, it's been life-changing because I feel like I'm in control of what my body looks like, which is something I have never really felt. Yeah. For people listening, might be thinking like, oh, she was already in good shape beginning, so this doesn't apply to me. And I understand that, you know, I've heard from many people, they would hear that, oh, 23%. I wish I was at 23%.

And I get that. However, what Corey did, and I'd say I've worked with many, many women over the years now. And I would say where you're at now is seems to be kind of the end game for most women, right? So, oh, yeah, I never thought I would say I don't want to be any thinner. I never thought I would say that. Yeah, because you get where you're like, now you look super fit, you look athletic, but you don't look malnourished because you've added a fair amount of muscle to the right places on your body. You still have curves. You still look feminine. You don't look like a waif. You go too far and then it starts to look a bit bizarre. Oh, yeah. I don't want anything to do with that. And I have no interest in doing competing or any of that stuff.

I just want to feel good and look good in real life. So I am so happy with where I am. And so that's where you're at now. So for anyone out there, whether it's a woman, maybe she's starting at 30% body fat or 35% body fat, or maybe we take the male version of that and say it's maybe a guy at 25% body fat or something. The process is the same. So just because Corey started out fit by anyone's standards, and now she's like super fit by anyone's standards, doesn't mean that what she did is not applicable to you. All it really means is it'll take you a little, not you, Corey, but the person listening, maybe who's starting less fit. It might just take you

a little bit longer, but the process really is the same. And so I just want to throw that out there because I've had that feedback before with people that I've brought on the podcast, or even just success stories that I've shared where the person started a little bit too fit, I guess. And I understand because what it does is it makes it hard for some people to identify. You know what I mean? Where they go, God, I wish I could just look like there before. And of course, then that is not conducive to being open to taking any advice or even caring. Yeah.

Well, I think it's worth saying, too, that I'm not a naturally ripped or skinny person. I am not very tall. So any body fat that I put on is really visible. And I pretty much have spent my entire life trying to be smaller. I work in the entertainment industry. So you're scrutinized in a different way than other people. And back in the day, it was like, you're never skinny enough and kind of have that in your face all the time. And I have always been a little just rounder around the edges, not a huge person, but not a naturally skinny person. And I think that's worth saying. And honestly, the reason I started in such a good place was because I had been doing your weightlifting program for a couple of years before I did the coaching program. And for the first time, I started to see definition in my arms. I had never seen that. And so I started to put on some muscle. I wasn't following the diet side of things. I had really been through a lot on the diet side. I had undiagnosed hypothyroidism for years. And so I was under eating, over exercising, able to achieve, and then feeling like crap all the time. So I

definitely, I battled that. And that gave me some unhealthy eating habits that just from a psychological perspective, I just like stopped stepping on the scale. I just tried to eat intuitively. So that's kind of why I hadn't really followed the diet. I also had had a baby and I was just nursing and there was just a lot going on. So I'd never really dialed in the diet. I also had had a baby and I was just nursing and there was just a lot going on. So I'd never really dialed in the diet side of things. I understand. I mean, I've seen it now twice with my wife. When you're nursing, that's really not a time to try to dial in the diet. I mean, you can keep it under control, but I understand just how ravenously hungry you can get because it burns a lot of energy. When I did my 90 days while nursing and I'm still

nursing. So that to me is. That's impressive. I didn't know that. Yeah, I was exclusively breastfeeding the entire time. Now the baby's starting on some solids. But, you know, it's one of those things I actually on my consult call with Adam, who became my coach, I actually put that out there because I did the consult not knowing if this program made sense for me right now. Because of that, and I knew I would need some extra caloric intake. I mean, the kind of hunger you experience when you're nursing is just like no other, the hunger, the thirst. And so I was concerned that would work against me. And I also didn't want my supply to drop. And so those are some things that Adam helped me really dial in. And I was very diligent about making sure I was getting enough calories.

And in a way, you think it would be helpful. Like, oh, you're burning all of these extra calories. So that's why it works so well. But the flip side of that is you're so hungry. So it's like. Yeah, theoretically, you hear, hey, it's like an extra 500 calories a day. I don't have to do any cardio until the hunger hits you. Of course, I've not experienced it personally, but I've seen it firsthand.

Oh, it's crazy. And yes, I understand exactly. My wife has never really been a foodie. She's also just a small person, but even she was impressed at how hungry she would get. Oh, the food I can put away. When I have my cheat meal, it's impressive because I can put away some food. And then the other tricky part is when I'm traveling or I'm trying to, Adam will say, oh, we'll just eat protein during the day and just save your calories.

That's all fine and good in theory, but sometimes my husband calls me the cookie monster because if I don't eat for a long enough period of time, I just inhale food so quickly because I just can't control the appetite. And if I do that, it'll backfire because at some point I'm so ravenous and I'm so hangry that I just eat anything that's in front of me. So I'm better off just following my meal plan and making sure that I'm getting a lot of carbs and all of that stuff throughout the day, because otherwise it will backfire and I will have no self-control. That's good for you to learn that those points of kind of personalization that you just have to go through to learn. I would say doing the little protein thing is a good place for people to start. And if that works,

then it works well. Like if you can just kind of stick to your protein, maybe have an apple or have some vegetables with your protein, but save the majority of your carb and fat calories for your later meal. If you're traveling, let's say it's going to be a dinner. That's a good place to start. But if it doesn't work for you, then it's time to change. And there's no point in trying to fit that square peg in the round hole. I think it'll change when I'm not nursing anymore. My older one, I was worried that I was going to gain weight because of that caloric burn. But I actually had held on to weight throughout nursing that I didn't lose until I stopped breastfeeding. And then my appetite just really naturally settled down

into a place where I wasn't as hungry all the time. So it's just, I kind of naturally adapted. So I have a feeling that once I wean the baby, that will probably become a reality for me, but it definitely was a hurdle that I had to overcome. And along with some other parts of, having a five or six month old baby when you start a program like this. Yeah, I want to hear more about that. But first, I was just curious with your thyroid. So what did you do about that? Well, I had gone through a bunch of different doctors trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I have a conversion issue where my body doesn't convert T4 into T3. And so they were testing my TSH all the time and it was showing up fine. And I was sleeping and never getting rested. I was cold all the time. I had dry skin. My hair was falling out

like my eyeballs were dry. I had like all these crazy, crazy symptoms. And then I ended up seeing a nutritionist because I'd had an endocrinologist tell me, oh, well, I was like 27 years old, PS. And he's like, oh, well, you just need to stress less and you'll be fine. And then he'd taken my temperature. It was like 95. And I'm like, is that a normal body temperature? I just ran here. It's fine.

I just kind of got the brush off. So I thought, well, at least maybe I can eat in a way that will give me energy. And when I walked in to see, she's a dear friend of mine named Haley Pomeroy. And I walked in and she said, you know what? I'm happy to help you, but there is only so much I can do. You clearly have a thyroid problem. You need to go see this specialist. And she referred me to a specialist and they immediately diagnosed me and had my thyroid regulated within probably three or four months. And it's been regulated since then. I mean, they've changed my dosages a very small amount throughout my pregnancies and all of that stuff. So yeah, it was a journey though. I probably went

through five or six doctors just going like, what is wrong with me? And then when I saw the blood work and all my hormones were whack, everything was messed up. I wasn't having cycles. I was having one cycle a year. Like I probably couldn't have had kids before getting that regulated because it all works together, you know? And I'd have a gynecologist telling me like, oh, just go on the pill. And then I would have an endocrinologist telling me like, get more sleep. I had a feeling it all worked together, you know, and it just was sort of all of my levels were off and they were. So this doctor just put my blood work in front of me. And then he drew me a picture of what my thyroid looked like and what wasn't working and

very, very quickly fixed me. And I literally just broke down when I left his office and just cried with relief because, you know, I was young and busy and was really struggling. The reason why I asked is because I've had quite a few people over the years reach out to me and say that maybe they think they have hypothyroidism or maybe they've been told that they have it. And I don't know if it's as much of a thing right now as it was then, but that was like a common, especially with just random online quack gurus, basically. It was just one of those hot button topics that if you produced content on, chances are you're going to get some eyeballs and you're gonna to get some years. And then maybe you can sell people some stuff like some shitty supplements

or something. And so often, you know, when I would follow up and ask for a bit more details, it wasn't what you just said. It wasn't, there wasn't any blood work. It was just kind of like, well, yeah, it's because, you know, he just says that my metabolism, that's why I'm not able to lose weight. And he just said, oh, it's because my metabolism is not working well. And it's because, you know, he just says that my metabolism, that's why I'm not able to lose weight. And he just said, oh, it's because my metabolism is not working well. And it's my thyroid and I should take some supplements. I'm like, yeah, no, you can get that checked out for sure. But first, do you have any of these other symptoms? Oh, you don't. It's probably not the case. And even if we're looking at strictly just looking at weight loss. And if you look in the literature, hypothyroidism, yes, it is going to affect your metabolism negatively, but it's not like,

it doesn't crater down to like, you know, 300 calories burned per day or something. Right. No, you know, in fact, I had one person put it to me this way, that it's basically a 10 pound thing. You know, it's like, what it does is it makes you tired. So you're less active. And it can cut into your BMR. If I remember correctly, I want to say a larger drop would probably be in the range of five to 8%, which is significant, but it's more that point of there is that non-exercise kind of spontaneous activity. Yeah.

And you know, you're just kind of turning down the heat on everything where friends could go away for a weekend and like live it up, drink, eat. I would come back. And whereas now, like, you know, I kind of like go back to where I was. If I start eating while following my meal plan again, the repercussions of a weekend like that would just stick around. So there was definitely that where it's like, I can't just go and not think about what I'm putting in my body because that's where I could feel it with my metabolism. It just wouldn't get fired up. You know that feeling after a cheat meal where you're like hot and you're like, that didn't happen. And also I was doing more damage to my body by trying to fight it, under eating and over

exercising, which only makes the problem worse. I don't think hypothyroidism necessarily makes you huge all the time, but it definitely does have an impact. And maybe some of those supplements work like the tiniest bit, but no, I take bioidentical compounded thyroid hormone that's like time released in my body and kind of built for my body. So, but probably was getting diagnosed around the time when that whole thing was really hot. So that's probably why a lot of doctors were brushing me off. Yeah. Yeah. Because they probably are just sick of hearing, oh God, here's another one. Let me guess, thyroid problems because you can't lose the last five pounds, right? Right. But you know, when you do have it, it's very real and those symptoms are very difficult to live with. Yeah. It's very true.

Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or 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 Muscle for Life Fitness, Twitter at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. Okay, so getting back, you're at the point now where you're starting the coaching program and you have a baby. So what are some of the complications that that brings? Like the obvious

stuff. How was your sleep? You had the hunger. What else did you have to overcome? Because most of the people who are listening, they understand the basics, understand, okay, good. We have energy balance. We have macronutrient balance, we have the importance of resistance training and adding in some cardio as desired or as needed. But what a lot of people like about these interviews is really to kind of get into the specific, OK, here's this person's experience and here's the hurdles they had to clear and the pitfalls they had to avoid and so forth. Yeah, of course. I wasn't sure this was right for me at the time that I did the consult call anyway, but I thought the consult call would be telling, right? So I thought it was worth doing the phone call because honestly, I wanted someone else to tell me what to do because I was so tired. So it might seem counterintuitive to go, I have this five, six month old baby. Let me start this program. But I just needed to do something for me. I have a little boy who's almost six. And then when he was four,

we decided we wanted another kid. And I went through a miscarriage around the three month mark. And then my body was bouncing back from that. And then I was in that phase of trying for another six months to get pregnant and the whole up and down, the physical, the emotional, all that kind of stuff. So ultimately, by the time I had my youngest baby, I felt like I'd been pregnant for two years because I'd just been on that hormonal ride for so long. And I felt like I really needed to do something for me. And so I decided if someone else would tell me what to do, I would find the time. And I have a gym that has childcare. So I just decided I would make that

my me time, where I was just sort of stepping away from everything, stepping away from laundry and work and all that other stuff and just focus on doing something for myself. But the reasons I thought it might not be right, I already mentioned, I was really wanting to make sure that my milk supply wasn't going to drop. I had a baby who slept really well for the first four months and I got overly confident and then went into a major sleep regression from like four to seven months where he didn't sleep at all. Sounds like my daughter. She's in that phase. She was sleeping well for a while and then now it's just up and down, up and down. My son was the same way though. He started sleeping better when he was like two and a half. And so my daughter's turning two. You're close. You're close. I think there's some light at the end

of the tunnel, but you know, maybe, maybe that's just sleep deprivation. Maybe I'm just hallucinating. That's just sleep deprivation talking. Yeah. So the baby was waking up, I mean, just so many times and I mean, three, four or five, I have no idea. And then I also had gone back into work. A lot of my work is on my own time, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have to get done at some point. In a way, that made it harder because I was in a lot of ways like a work from home mom, which is hard. And also, I don't love to cook. So I was really concerned about the food prep because if I'm honest, I hate handling raw chicken.

I just, that's like my least favorite thing in life is to touch a piece of raw chicken. Beef, that's fine. Fish, whatever. But like, you know, little things like that. I'm like, I don't want to cook. I don't want to cook chicken. So I was concerned, you know, we were eating out a lot, doing a lot of takeout and doing the healthiest version you can of that. But, you know, still, it's not amazing. And so that was really daunting to me. Makes it harder to control your calories too, right? It makes it so much harder. And honestly, that's probably something I'll talk about more in a

second because it was very eye-opening when I started actually planning my meals and looking at what I had been eating and thinking that I was doing pretty good. But the food side of it was really daunting. I was thinking, I'm so hungry. I'm so tired. All I want to do is eat. I was like opening the carton of my son's goldfish and just like eating those because it just sounded good when you're tired. I was recovering from my C-section. I was completely cleared by my doctor in terms of being healed. But from a strength perspective, I mean, my core muscles were just shot. I mean, they were just, ugh. And honestly, like carrying this really heavy car seat and just getting up and down out of bed a billion times a night. And I just felt really weak and really gross. And I just felt like I wanted someone to tell me what to do. So I feel like I had a lot stacked against me in terms of going into something like this and being able to keep the structure and all that stuff. But I think it's what I needed because it took the guesswork out of my hands. Like, should I be eating this? Should I be doing this? What should I be doing in the gym? That part of it was so stressful. And to just take that away and just to trust that someone

was going to tell me what to do and it was going to be the right thing. Ultimately, that's what made it the right thing for me. Yeah. That's the same thing for many people. They're surprised often if they're not anticipating that going into it, they're surprised at how valuable just that element is just for the psychological and emotional comfort, I guess, that comes with outside of the accountability. It's just that point of like someone else is taking care of all the details and they're just telling me what to do and I do it. And they're going to tell me if I need to do something differently. And if there's something that I don't like, or it's not working for me, I can just tell them and then they fix it as opposed to doing it yourself. And then I feel like that leads to more self doubt and maybe even some level of anxiety about,

am I doing this right? Should I be doing something different? Am I wasting my time? And especially then if something doesn't go right, and that could just be a bad weigh-in, right? So again, if people are not properly indoctrinated in a positive way, maybe they step on the scale and they're two pounds heavier than they were yesterday, and they don't realize that that could be from anything. It could be just some extra water. It could be because they didn't use the bathroom as much or ate a bit more food and you didn't gain two pounds of fat in one day or overnight, but all that kind of spiral out of control. It can make you give up. Totally. And then try the next thing. And then all you are is confused. Totally. So yeah. And doing something for 90 days is long enough to know if it works.

And so, so if you commit to it and you have that accountability for that amount of time and you just go, well, I'm going to do this, I'm going to follow it for 90 days. That's enough time to know if something's working without battling your own demons in terms of, should I change this? Maybe I should do this instead. So that was a big deal for me. Yep. And it's particularly bad in this space just because the goalposts are always moving. The next thing is always right around the corner. And the next big name doctor is always, the next one is always waiting in the wings with the next big breakthrough of what you're supposed to be doing or not supposed to be doing. And often what's new contradicts what was once new just six months ago

or a year ago. Oh yeah, like a complete 180. I mean, absolute opposite side. Totally. How did you deal with the hunger issues from nursing? I think ultimately the plan gave me enough calories. And I think a big part of it was that I had been very carb deprived for a very long time. And so eating carbs was very satiating and satisfying. And I'm a person who needs to eat really frequently. The plan that was built were things that I liked, like there's chocolate on there. I fit in some wine, you know, once or twice a week, because I feel like kind of as a mom, coffee, chocolate and wine are essentials. I just need in my life if I'm going to be sane. So I liked the meal plan. I liked that you can say like, I knew I didn't want to do a protein shake for breakfast. I don't want to take the

time. I know I didn't want to do that. And so I think a big part of it is I liked what I was eating. I liked the plan. The first week was easy. The second week I started feeling the effects of eating way less fat and way more carbs in that I felt full but hungry, if that makes sense. That's often the case, regardless of your macros, when you're in a deficit, like usually the first week, you just don't feel any different. Even for me, when I'm cutting the first week, nothing changes in my workouts. I'd say the workouts, usually that can last for a few weeks. But then, yeah, you're getting into the second week and third week. And definitely, when you get a month in, you know you're in a deficit. And so I know what you mean. It's that

feeling of where you're not necessarily hungry. You just want to eat more food. You just feel like I'm not eating enough food. And because you're not actually, I mean, that's correct. That is just meaning that you're in tune with your body, so to speak, because factually you are not eating enough. Of course, if you were to stay in a calorie deficit for too long, you'd eventually die. And that's the body in a way, it doesn't necessarily overreact because its response to being in a deficit kind of ramps up over time. But in some people, it does kind of overreact. And if only we could convince our bodies that this is only going to last for a little bit, settle down. We're all right. We just want to get abs. You'll probably like this too. I just want those things to show.

Then I'll stop. I think a couple weeks in was the hardest part for me, but that's where the accountability comes into play. I had to do a check-in every day, and I just was kind of trusting that I needed to get over that hump. And I did. And I got really used to the way I was eating. And it wasn't until I was really deep into that.

I was like eight, nine, 10 weeks in when I was like, okay. wasn't until I was really deep into that, you know, I was like, eight, nine, 10 weeks in when I was like, okay, time for a break. It's time for a break. And then being in maintenance, honestly, has been easy. But I will say to you know, every diet for a woman I'd ever heard of was like 1200 calories. And I was eating significantly more than that when I was cutting. So it didn't feel like I was being super deprived. Like I was still having, you know, 15, 1600 calories. Yeah. Which is good. Yeah. And so I knew that I wasn't depriving myself. I was eating really high quality foods. I was eating a ton of protein. I knew that I was feeding myself well. And so I could see what I was

putting in my body in the beginning. It was almost like I wasn't even hitting enough calories. I was having to sort of add stuff in. Yeah. In the beginning, it was almost like I wasn't even hitting enough calories. I was having to sort of add stuff in. Yeah, that's common as well. I've run into quite a few women who were active. In your case, you had help from the nursing. That's the equivalence of like being very physically active and you were being active. So if you were working out, let's say it was four or five hours a week, plus the, it's almost like double that plus when you add the nursing in.

But for many women who were active or in some cases nursing, that's common too, where they're almost skeptical in the beginning. There's no way I can eat this much food. I feel like I'm eating more, almost like I'm forcing myself to eat the last bits of these meals. Like, trust me, the math is what it is. Maybe we need to tweak it a little bit, but it will work. Trust me. One of my meal plans has a burger. I love burgers. And it's a burger. And it said like, like, I want to say it was like two buns or something like that. It's like, what? Like, how is this life? You know, then it was like, you know, some baked sweet potatoes or like whatever. And it was mind blowing to me that I could do that because I spent so much time thinking that like many people that carbs were my enemy. So I think that's where, you know,

it felt good to be eating the way I was eating. Yeah, that makes sense. You mentioned taking a break around the eight week mark. Did you just raise your calories for a few days? Did you do it for a week? How did that work? So I hit my goals pretty quickly. Oh, cool. Yeah. And so I did. I want to say I might have even been like nine or 10 weeks in because we had an awards show coming up and I didn't want to like go. I just was like, let's just stay the course until after we do this. And then I think we did a deload.

And then near the end. So I was, yeah, probably around that 10-week mark is when we then reverse dieted. And we spent the last few weeks of my 90 days. I had hit my body fat goals. I actually lost more weight than we had even planned. I wasn't really in it to lose weight. Like, quite frankly, I thought I looked pretty good for having two kids. You know, I was like, okay, yeah, I've always had, like, love handles weight on my waist, but that'll come off eventually. Honestly, I thought I was going to weigh exactly

the same and it was just going to be- A little bit of a recomposition kind of thing. Yeah. And then the body fat just kind of fell off when I adjusted my diet, shockingly so. I was like, what is happening? I didn't have really specific strength goals. I wasn't like, oh, I want to deadlift this much. I just wanted to feel strong again. You know, I just wanted to feel like a capable human who could sit up out of bed and pick up a car seat. And I had kind of gotten there. And then I was at that point where I wasn't really progressing in the gym because I had been in a caloric deficit for a long time. And really, there's some maybe some little tiny like tweaky things that I continue to work on and sort of do like the gain taming thing where I'm like still trying to get my butt a little bit bigger and some things like that.

That's the female version of just guys saying I just want everything to be bigger. Yeah, it is. The guy version is where you're like, I just take every single major muscle group just to be a little bit bigger. A little bigger. So for women, it's just my butt a little bit bigger. It's just never quite big enough. Yeah. But ultimately, I'm really happy with the way I feel, the way I'm eating, the way I look. We reverse dieted. And ultimately, what I kind of found with the reverse dieting, I reverse dieted up a couple hundred calories.

And then we went through this period of time where we had people in town. I mean, over and over and over. And so I didn't keep pushing my calories up because I found that it was kind of like balancing because even though I was making good choices eating out, I knew my calories were just naturally going to be a little higher if I was eating out two or three nights a week. So, I mean, that's effectively, you know, that's the idea with reverse dieting is just prevent because for some people, even if they do things correctly, it just, it's hard for them to go back to just eating straight at maintenance and it tends to lead to overeating. So the idea is to just kind of gradually just move back into it maybe over the course of a couple of weeks.

So you probably did it. It is hard to know really how many calories you're eating if you're eating out often. So if you just pay attention to what you're eating and you now know enough about the calories and macros of foods to make smart decisions, just eating kind of intuitively like that probably accomplished the same thing. Yeah. And I found that I've kind of learned that sort of what I can get away with, if that makes sense. Like I know if we have family in town and if I know I'm going to be eating out, I just really follow my meal plan during the day. I try to leave myself a little bit of a cushion. So if I was normally going to have, I don't know, like 500, 600 calories at dinner, I would just save some more of those for dinner. And then I know that once I've hit that like three to four days where I'm having a meal out, I need four or five days of eating at home. Yep. I know that I'm not like gaining weight over that time, but just in terms of the,

like the kind of bloat or whatever that comes with that. And just not wanting to continue on that path because then you will start to reverse what you've done. But I've kind of learned how to balance that in a way that I know I can just go back to my plan and I'll be fine. And that's a really good feeling. Yeah, totally. And even if you really overdo it and you're out of town, you're out of the country for a couple of weeks and you're just like, I'm going to eat a lot. One, if you stay active, like if you just spend a fair amount of time walking, for example, people don't realize how quickly those calories burned can add up. So, you know, it's a couple hundred calories per hour, upward of 300, depending on how vigorously you're walking.

So if you're walking, let's say four or five hours a day, I mean, do the math. That's more than you're probably burning on an average day of your workout routine. So if you do that, you know, regardless, let's say you come back with the worst case scenario here is maybe I gain a few pounds of fat. And then, you know, they that like, okay, that's a couple of weeks of going back into a deficit. It doesn't really start to get annoying, at least for me. And for a lot of people, it doesn't really start to get annoying until you kind of get into the second month. So the first couple of weeks are, you still have momentum, you know, maybe the engines have cut out, but you're gliding now.

The nose hasn't really started to point down yet. So that's also something that is just worth keeping in mind. I'm sure you've already experienced that. But for people listening, when it comes to trips and holidays and so forth, is maybe don't go out of your way to absolutely blow yourself up day after day, but don't sweat it. If you're going to have big dinners, let's say a number of days in a row, and your food If you're going to have big dinners, let's say a number of days in a row and your food intake is just going to be higher than it normally would be. If you stay active, maybe you sneak in a workout or two here and there as well. The damage is going to be minimal and it's going to be very easy to undo. If you're going to do it, enjoy it. Really? Exactly. That is really the point. Like I'm about to go to Italy for a couple of weeks.

Oh, yeah. You got to just have fun. I'm not a huge foodie, so it's not like I'm just going to be planning my days around one meal to the next. But I'm also not going to be trying to do the math when I'm looking at menus. I'm just going to order whatever I feel like eating and I'm going to stay active. And deal with it later and know you're fine. Well, and I also find that having, I started out the first month of my plan, you know,

I had two meal plans that I was following, but then I really quickly understood flexible dieting. And so from then on, I was really sort of playing around with my macros. I was using my fitness pal and then just tracking. And as long as I kind of built my day, at least maybe not every little calorie, but like as long as I kind of knew ahead of time sort of what I was gonna eat, I really had fun kind of playing around with that. And what I found is that now when I'm traveling and I am eating out,

even just sort of the awareness changes the way that I eat when I'm traveling. So in other words, like if I know I wanna go eat whatever I want for dinner, I'm probably not gonna sit and eat a cheese tray at lunch because I know it's going to be so high calorie, you know. So it maybe makes some choices that I wouldn't have if I weren't so aware. So I think it kind of balances out in that way, too. Just kind of knowing what you're putting in your body and just a general idea of where everything's going to fall at the end of the day. It kind of changes the way you eat on a day-to-day basis, even when you're not tracking. It's kind of like budgeting money. Totally. It becomes intuitive, you know? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And on the workout side of things, were there any difficulties that you

ran into there? Any changes that you had to make from, I guess, the thinner leaner stronger? So that's what you're doing before. And then in the coaching program, what were you doing? Were you doing something similar? So the plan that Adam built for me was four days of weightlifting. And then it's different now that I'm in maintenance, but it was four days of weightlifting and I was doing two days of lower body. And then I was doing two to three days of HIIT, like for 20 to 30 minutes. And he kind of said, like, if you can walk here and there, and I was like, I don't think I even have time to add those walks in, you know, like, because I only have so much time that I can spend, you know, really, it's like a four to six hours a week kind of thing for me. That's like the most I can budget time wise. And he's like, okay, well, let's see how

you do. If we need to push a little more, we can manipulate that on the diet or the cardio side, we'll just kind of see how you do. So ultimately, I was doing four days of weightlifting and then one or two of those hit days I would tack on to like an upper body day and then probably get in. I was probably in the gym five days a week, maybe sometimes six, but mostly five. I liked to give myself those two days off and just hang with my babies and have that time. And I didn't mind being in the gym a little longer to make that happen. In fact, the fact that they had

childcare meant that I was like, oh, I'm having a little break right now. Like, I love my babies, but like, I think I could go watch a show while I sit on the bike. Yeah, my wife has done the same thing. I understand. Yeah, it's incentive. You know, you have to incentivize the workouts. And really what was different for me, it was a lot of the same exercises, but definitely helping me target, like he knew that I was trying to build my butt. I was trying to build back my core strength. And some exercises were really hard for me because of the loss of core strength. Like I have the hardest time with deadlifts. They're just like the hardest thing for me still. And then he had me doing like just this basic, really slow crunch to try to, fortunately, I didn't suffer from any like

ab separation or anything. So it was safe to kind of like really slowly ease into that. But I'm not kidding when I say like, I could do like three. It was like ridiculous, you know, like where are the muscles? How did you even stand up straight? I mean, who knows? I had probably a terrible posture. In the beginning, I felt like I made some good progress and then things kind of slowed down. And then I actually had a knee injury. My knees don't love to lunge. They have a hard time kneeing. They have a hard time being knee.

You have one job, be a knee. So yeah, when I got to where I was squatting, now I moved past the numbers, way beyond the numbers I was squatting, now I moved past the numbers way beyond the numbers I was doing at the time, but like I was squatting like 120 pounds and then like leg pressing like 300 pounds. And I hit those numbers and my knee was just done. I just did one squat and it was like, nope. And I've always had knees that are like that.

You know, I always said I had like five mile knees. Like if I run past five miles, they're going to give up, you know? like five mile knees. Like if I run past five miles, they're going to give up. So then the cool thing about having a coach was that he was able to just sort of, I was still able to squat, but I had to just back off the weight like crazy. And so from a volume perspective, he kind of kept things the same, but I went down to like, you know, squatting 85 pounds for like 12 to 15 reps or something. And so he was able to kind of help me through that without really losing my way. I didn't have to stop doing anything. We just had to modify. But then, you know, it's a bummer to see those numbers go down like that after you feel like you're getting stronger. Everybody experiences that eventually you get into weightlifting and you don't have to

necessarily suffer an injury, but everyone is going to have some sort of nagging issue arise that is going to force them to take weight off the bar. It's a bummer. So, and it took pretty much the entire rest of the program to get back to where my knee was a hundred percent again. And even now that knee I'm doing single leg leg presses now. And that knee is, I can't go as deep on that side. I can't push as much weight. And so it's still a little weird. And I have to be really careful about my form. And I just got to where if I don't feel like I can nail the form, I just take some weight off and just get the form right and then move forward when I can.

So yeah, that's smart. Have you injured the knee before? Oh yeah. I mean, I grew up dancing and abusing my body, you know, and so I have knees that definitely have given out on me in the past. And then it's usually like a six week thing to get it back to where it needs to be. I think building the muscles supporting my knees has helped a lot. Yeah.

Yeah. And I've learned to really manage it in a good way. But yeah, I definitely have dealt with similar injuries before and I can feel it when it's like coming. Sometimes when I get close to being ready for a deload, I can have dealt with similar injuries before and I can feel it when it's like coming. Sometimes when I get close to being ready for a deload, I can kind of feel things getting tweaky. Yep. That's common.

Yeah. And then like if I just deload for a week, then I'm good. So I've just kind of learned to manage that. That's good. Joint issues have always been also like a reliable indicator for me of the need for a deload. Yeah. It's weird.

Just achy. It was my knees in the past. My shoulders get like that too. Yep. My shoulders, sometimes my hips as well. That was definitely something I had to overcome and a lot of travel. How was your sleep? The baby started sleeping well again, about halfway through. There was a lot of like pushing through things because I was tired. And then we travel a lot. We don't really have a set schedule, which can sometimes be tricky when you have kids. They're really like chill kids, you know, because they just go with the flow. But when I can sleep, I sleep amazing. I just

will sleep so hard. It's just never long enough. Yeah, that's what I was curious how. So it was just a matter of you're getting, I guess, enough sleep to keep going, but not an optimal. And I'm in a pretty good place now. Like the baby is back to being a pretty good sleeper. He wakes up a little earlier than I'd like for him to, but I can't really complain. You know, I'm getting enough sleep to function. The workouts feel better and everything feels better when you get more sleep. So I'm definitely in a better place now than I was when I was on the 90 days. Yeah. And when you traveled, how did you work that out for your workouts and your meal? A lot of what we did was we would travel, you know, like a Thursday through a Sunday. And so I would try to front load my weeks so that I would get my weightlifting in beforehand because I wouldn't know what kind of gym I'd have access to. Adam, you know, helped me as needed, you know, if I needed to tack on an exercise earlier in the week. And then

it's usually pretty easy to get the hit in when you're traveling. You just need a little hotel gym or something. So I would save the cardio. I assume you just, what, you'd use a bike or a rowing machine? Yeah. And I also, this is weird. I know I'm just a glutton for punishment, but I really like to sprint. I just really enjoy it. Were you doing sprints as well? Yeah. Wow. And you were squatting. I stopped sprinting. I remember back years ago, I really like to sprint. I just really enjoy it. Were you doing sprints as well? Yeah. Wow. And you were squatting. I stopped sprinting. I remember back, you know, years ago I was like, I'll do a sprints for my hit. And I enjoyed it just because of the raw aggression of it, but it just rocked my legs and hips. Like it was clear I was going to have to choose sprinting or being able to progress on my squats and deadlifts because I couldn't have both.

Maybe that's why my deadlifts aren't moving. Maybe I need to give up. But usually sprinting or recumbent bike were my two favorite kinds of hit. And so I could pretty much find that anywhere. And then from a diet perspective, I just kind of like I said before, I just did the best I could. I like a lot of convenience foods anyway. Like I had a couple of options at Starbucks that were on my plan, like the best I could. I, you know, I like a lot of convenience foods anyway. Like I had a couple of options at Starbucks that were on my plan, like the egg white sandwiches or whatever.

And so you can kind of find that stuff wherever you are. And that made things easier, you know, pack protein bars or whey protein or whatever. And then usually I'd save a cheat meal for when we were going to be away and then just kind of do the best I could the rest of the time. And for the most part, I didn't see a lot of damage done after the traveling. You know, usually I love red wine and that was something I was concerned about having to give up too much. But I also have a little bit of a like for me, if I'm having a little red wine, it kind of kills my taste for other things. I'm less interested in the bread or the dessert, or I love a good, a really like nice salad with a lot of protein on it and just

a glass of wine where if I don't have that glass of wine, I want like an appetizer or dessert or like some bread. So sometimes it actually kind of balances out. So wine is like a diet hack for you. It is like the best diet hack ever. And so when I was traveling and I would be out at events and whatever, a lot of times there will be a lot of food out. But if I have something to sip on, it kind of kills the need to go and snack at some random table. So I guess that is one of my diet hacks. Red wine, everyone. Whatever works. So yeah, that's kind of what I did when I was traveling. Awesome. Those are all the obvious questions that I had for you.

I think usually I kind of wrap up with where you want to go from here, but I think you've kind of made that clear. So now it's you get to enjoy what you've got and then continue on the, what will probably be the never-ending quest to get a bigger butt. Oh, I know, right? The reason why I say that, I mean, you know this, but for people listening is that it just muscle gain slows down considerably as you get stronger and as you become more muscular. If you were to see Corey's picture, you may not think, oh, she looks quote unquote muscular, but for a woman, she is muscular. You have a lot more muscle than the average woman.

Maybe that's not the word that you would use or some women would use. They would think more like, oh, toned or defined, but you have a lot more muscle than the average woman. And so at that point of, you know, after your newbie gains are well behind you, muscle gain slows down considerably. And so if you want what you might envision, let's say in the change that you're seeing in your butt, if it's going to require, even if it's just like, I don't know, a pound or two of muscle gain there, it can take a lot more work than people might realize. And so we're always our worst critics and we're never satisfied. So you'll get there and you'll be like, nope. You're like, nah, I got to do this now. The other thing I realized is that, you know, my body fat got low

enough that I should have seen abs. And then I was like, oh, I actually don't have any. And so it's flat, right? And I have some oblique situation going on there now. But like, I just don't have the ab development, which I didn't realize was a thing. You know, with everything, my abs had been stretched out from having children and stuff. So I'm just now starting to add back in cable crunches and some weighted ab exercises and kind of putting that in there too. But you know, for the most part, I'm really happy. And the interesting thing is, which might be interesting to people listening too, I feel like I get approached, I don't know, three times a week at the gym or something or wherever. People ask me what I'm doing. I was approached

just yesterday by a woman in the gym. She was watching me do squats and she approached me and she said, I see how much weight you're doing. And I was scared to do that because I thought my butt would get too big. And I'm like, well, I'm actually trying to make my butt bigger. Her comment was, you know, you're little and you're lifting all that weight. Like, how are you doing that? And then she started asking me all these questions. I was telling her about you. I'm like, I'm not a trainer. I just follow what someone else has told me to do. But she had all these questions. And then inevitably, this person who's asking me questions goes, oh, but you look like you probably just put on muscle easily. Or, oh, but you're just probably naturally thin.

Or, oh, you probably just naturally have this or that or the other. And the big thing I'll say is like, nope. I mean, if you looked at pictures of me 10 years ago, I mean, I just I'm not a naturally like super small, like defined person at all. And so I think it really speaks to what you can do with your body composition. If you focus on the right things, you know, if you build some muscle and also keep your body fat in a good place, that is the look you get. It's not a huge look. I have had some arm definition before, but they were much bigger because my body fat was higher. As a short person, I looked stocky,

which is not a look you want to go for as a woman. So I really think that you can manipulate things so that you can have the body you want. And like, I've done that lifting heavy. So I keep preaching that to every woman, like, don't be scared of those weights, you know, like, and now actually my husband is doing the coaching program too. Which is exciting. Which I think you knew, right? Yeah. Because of just kind of seeing how well it works. So, you know, it's actually simpler than it seems like it is to be fit, you know? I mean, it's just smart application of the fundamentals. That's really what it is. It's so basic compared to so many things I've done in my life, like feeling like I had to feel like I was about to die and then it didn't work. You know what I mean? If I could get back all the hours I spent on the elliptical machine, I would have years of my life back.

Or at least you would have watched a lot less TV. That's true. I did binge watch a lot of things. Well, awesome, Corey. This was a great interview. I had a lot of fun. And to finish up, is there anything interesting that you want everybody listening to know outside of fitness with your work, your husband's work, because I think it'd be fun to have him on as well when he's done. Well, you had mentioned kind of doing this publicly at the beginning. And the reason it was public is my husband and I both work in the entertainment industry. I'm an actor, a musician,

and then my husband works in radio. So he does a country morning show that's syndicated all over the place internationally. And so one of the things that we do is share a lot about our life. When I was going through a miscarriage, I talked about it because I think sometimes when you're going through something difficult, knowing someone else is going through it too can kind of just make you feel better. It helps to talk to someone. and that was a really amazing thing. You know, just realizing how many women had been through something similar. I felt like it was healing for me. And I think from what I was told, it was healing for them. So kind of decided to talk about my fitness journey as well. And kind of just feeling like, uh, like that's the best way I can describe it. My wife is kind of in the

mode right now. I understand. I mean, it stems from not sleeping enough, right? That's where it starts. And then because she hasn't sleep enough, she needs to take a nap because her body is picky. If it doesn't get enough sleep often enough, she'll get headaches. And that's so she has to take time then to nap. And then that just kind of annoys her because she wants to do things. And she has, you know, a list of all always has things that she wants to do around the house or with the kids or whatever. And then because she has to nap, now she doesn't want to take time to exercise.

So I understand. She's just in the uh mode right now. Yeah. And that's definitely where I was. So I thought some people are going to judge me because of what you said, because for having two kids, you know, like I looked pretty good,

but it really wasn't about that for me. Like I said, I didn't even like really intend to lose weight or anything like that. It was really about finding some time for myself and to like feel like there's this weird thing that can happen after you have a baby where you just kind of feel like your body is not your own. Between the pregnancy and the nursing, it's all amazing and priceless. But at the same time, you can feel really disconnected from your body. It's different. It feels different, especially after surgeries. There's like areas of my body that I just can't feel. And then you're nursing another human. It's just, you can feel so disconnected from who you are. And this was really about me getting that back. And so I thought, well, maybe if I share what I'm doing, it'll inspire someone or maybe someone's doing it. And then they're like, OK, yeah, I'm going to continue or whatever.

But then the hard part about that is that, you know, I don't want to make anyone feel like they should look a certain way or that they should be focused on something like a vanity thing right now instead of my baby or anything like that. I was concerned about how it would be perceived. And I put before photos out before I had after photos, which I didn't really even think about it because I was like, well, I had two babies, whatever. That's how my stomach looks. And my husband was like, oh, that's actually really brave. Most people post the after with the before. Pre-commitment.

Pre-commitment. Yeah. You don't know what's going to happen. You're like, well, here's my after. It's actually, it went the wrong way. You never know what's going to happen. And so that made me nervous, but I also thought, I don't know, if it inspires somebody out there, then great. And then ultimately, I have found that people are very supportive of someone putting focus in doing something good for themselves. There was literally like one person who had a rude comment and my husband just like lit him up. It was hilarious. He was like, went to my defense. And it was honestly just a flippant remark. It was like someone just said like too thin. And he was like, that's as bad as saying too fat. Oh yeah, that's the standard. There's always some guy who will say that. Literally, I'll bet you on 80% of the female before and afters that I've posted from whether it's coaching or just women who read Thin or Leaner Stronger and did the program and reach out and said, hey, check me out.

There's always some guy, at least one, who's like, eh, teeth in. Well, and I think my husband made a good point. It's like, that is just as rude as saying too fat. And it's also, you have no idea what I'm doing. And you know, his thing was, I have watched Corey go through this and hire people who are highly educated, who built this program for her.

I watch what she eats. He's like mad at me right now because he's only squatting 15 pounds more than I am. That's good. I like that. So yeah, because I made a lot of progress, right? Since I upped my calories and I've been in maintenance. From a strength perspective, I've really seen a lot of progress. If he ever says anything to you that you don't like, yeah, whatever, dude. Yeah, I remember. Get your squat up and then talk to me. Throw some more weight on there. So, you know, I mean, he got defensive because he's going like, this is the girl who last night, she's enjoying her life.

She had a food truck burger and then like a piece of cake. She's nourishing herself. She's taking care of herself and we're going to judge her for it, you know, which honestly didn't bother me at all. Yeah, of course. You're like, whatever. Not even kind of. You're like, I look good. You don't.

So what does it really matter? Not even that. But it's just like you can hide behind your comment and you could ask me, you could say, hey, are you sure you're getting enough calories? And I'd be happy to answer that question. I'd be more than happy. You know, what is your body fat percentage?

I'm happy to answer that question. I mean, ironically, where you're at right now is what is commonly seen just among athletes. Even in the literature, there's a lot of research on athletes. So female athletes, body fat percentage, it's usually somewhere around 16, 17% male athletes and maybe, you know, nine, 8%. So because it's in the context, I guess, of fitness, where you do have, I guess, people out there who

are starving themselves and doing weird things that people can jump to that conclusion. But if they were to see, for example, if you were a female soccer player, probably what wouldn't even occur to people, they would just think like, oh, look at how fit and athletic she looks. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. And honestly, you know, one big thing I'll say for women listening is one thing that's

taught me is to really not worry about what you weigh on the scale, because I think for so many women that can dictate their day, their mood for the entire day. You see a number you don't like. And I would love to like screenshot in MyFitnessPal my beginning of my plan to the end because it's just like it almost looks like a sound wave, right? It zigzags so much. But the trend is down. In maintenance, I weigh probably two pounds more than I did when I finished the program, but my body fat's the same. And honestly, it's like I actually kind of think it's fun to see after a cheat meal, like I weigh like three or four pounds more. And then, you know, a couple of days later that goes away and I kind of understand how that's going to work. And it really is not nearly as meaningful as the way you look in the mirror or the way you feel, because I can weigh more on the scale. And I'm like, I feel like I look leaner today. Some stuff like that from a psychological standpoint, you know, the lifting heavy, the worrying about the weight.

I don't know, for women, that's so hard. And then for other women to go out and just judge somebody not knowing what they're doing is just kind of silly. That was kind of off on a tangent, but yeah, doing something in the public eye was definitely kind of crazy. And then I do think Ty should share his results too.

And he looks different. It's crazy. Just like a week ago, I was like, whoa, like your shape has really changed. It's crazy. Yeah. You'll see it's the same process, but for men, the only difference is to get to the point to get to where you're at for most guys requires that they gain quite a bit of muscle. So that just kind of depends. It depends where he's at and ultimately how he wants to look like. So for women, the look where they feel where you're at, where you're like, I look pretty good.

I mean, I can always work on some things. I'm pretty happy at this point is probably 10 or 15 pounds of muscle gained in the right places. Body fat somewhere around 18%. For guys, it's probably upward of 30 to 35 pounds of muscle gained in the right places. And maybe 10%. But nevertheless, there are going to be major progress made in 90 days. And then he'll have his blueprint of like, cool, now you see what you can

do if you just get everything right for 90 days and you just keep going and it just gets better and better from there. Yeah. It's been cool to see even just from an energy perspective, his calories were too low before and he wasn't eating a whole lot of protein and he has a crazy work schedule. And the difference in his energy in the afternoons is insane. He's more alert. He's maybe still tired, but I think it's really had an impact on his overall energy, the way he's eating. That's great. Which that in and of itself, aside from like wanting to look a certain way, is amazing. Yeah, absolutely. I just can't say

enough good things. I can't even tell you how often I drop your name. It's ridiculous. It is ridiculous. Well, now you can tell people go to the podcast. Yeah. If you want to hear what I did, you can go and listen to the podcast. Exactly. And I really appreciate the support and obviously did a great job and it's fun talking to you because you get it. And this is something that obviously you're gonna be able to do for the rest of your life. Now, it's a lifestyle that is, as you can see, it's easy to maintain and it can be modified very easily. If at some point circumstances change, you can do different types of workouts if you

want to, even if it's just because you feel like it. Or if you decide that you want to do something else with your body composition, maybe there's a point where you're like, you know, I want to see because you now know that it's very hard to gain a significant amount of muscle. It'd be very hard for you to get so jacked that even if you were lean, you'd be like, nah, I'm just too big. So maybe there's a point where you're like, I just want to see how strong I can get just for a couple months, just for fun.

And so you might be like, I'm going to go in a calorie surplus and, you know, I'll let my body fat rise a bit just because I want to see what that's like and then come back down. So and I wouldn't be scared of that now. Yeah, exactly. You have no reason. Exactly. As long as you're like, my abs aren't going to look as good for a little bit, but who cares? Because it's a game. And I know how easy it is to get right back down. I mean, the holidays seem like a great time to try that out. That's the standard. That's it. It's fun to talk about and share something that has really worked. And honestly, thank you for putting out a program like this and, you know, all of your various things that you have out there. It's just such valuable information. So

thank you for sharing something that is just really based in science and not gimmicky and actually, I think, has results that are sustainable. That's a huge thing for me is I feel like I've tried a lot of things in my life. It's ridiculous how many things I've tried. And I think nothing I've ever done in the past, number one, has worked so well, but has kind of like backed you out of it and told you how to maintain results that you've gotten in a way that you still are living your life. And one of the things that Adam said to me repeatedly, which I think is what you talk about too, and which is a really important thing to say is that having a plan that you want to follow that you are pretty good on most of the

time, that's a way you can live versus I'm going to go so hardcore and starve myself or give myself zero carbs ever. And I'm going to do this thing for 30 days and it's going to be insane and intense. And then you just- And I'm going to do an hour of cardio a day and plus an hour of weightlifting. Yeah. And just abuse your body. And then the moment you were off that plan, you're just kind of done. There's no way you can sustain that. And then you're just going to be back in the same boat. That's the tailspin. It's the tailspin. Nose dive into the tailspin. I would venture to say that the maintenance part, I was more scared of than the actual getting there. I mean, I was like, can I maintain this?

And then to be shown exactly how to do that and feel like I can have a bag of pretzels, I can do that. That's another diet hack, by the way. My husband and I have committed to only buying single serve snacks ever. That's a good idea. Especially with kids in the house. But yeah, being able to like being taught how to maintain is like just as big of a deal to me as being told how to get there. Anyway, all that to say thank you. That is a key point. That is something that I've said and written many times is having a good plan that you follow fairly well. That's a realistic goal. That's what anybody can do that. They can be pretty good most of the time. And yeah, so what? You don't have to be perfect at this. You just don't. This is not

a structural engineering. We're not like building a bridge here. Crumble and fall apart. Exactly. Exactly. So anyway, all of that to say, thank you very much for putting your knowledge out in the world. Yeah, my pleasure. Lots more to come, of course, always working on the next thing. So it's fun for me as well. Good. Awesome. Well, thanks again for taking the time, Corey. This was great. Absolutely. 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 wanna 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

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