Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - My Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Message For You

Episode Date: December 24, 2017

I know some people (commies) believe you shouldn’t say this anymore but . . . MERRY FREAKIN’ CHRISTMAS . . . and happy holidays! I hope you’re having a fantastic time with the people you both love and tolerate (often one and the same, no?) and are ready to enjoy a good few weeks of “refeeding” . . . wink wink . . . :-) For my part, I am currently in the cold, northern reaches of Germany, where my wife and her family are from. And, yes, that means I’m surrounded by some of the most delicious bread, brats, and beer on the planet. I don’t drink (I’m weird), but you’ve never had bread like German bread. It’s so good it’s actually upsetting. I’m minimizing the damage though by following a few simple strategies that might help you get through the next couple of weeks kinda not fat, too. Let’s get to it. 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/

Now I know these days some people are communists. They think that you shouldn't say this anymore, but I disagree. So Merry freaking Christmas and happy holidays. I hope you're having a fantastic time with the people that you love and tolerate who are often one in the same, aren't they? And I hope you are ready to enjoy a few good weeks of, let's just call it refeeding, shall we? For my part, I am currently in the cold northern reaches of Germany, which is where my wife and her family are from. And yes, that means that I'm also currently surrounded by some of the most delicious bread brats. Yes. I pronounce it brats. Yeah. Bratwurst, bratwurst, sausages and beer on

the planet. Now I don't drink because I'm weird, I guess, but you've never had bread like German bread. It's so good that it's actually upsetting. That being what it is, I am minimizing the damage though by following a few simple strategies that might help you get through the next couple of weeks kind of not fat as well. And the first one is I'm usually skipping breakfast and I'm eating my first meal of the day around 12 p.m. So in other words, I'm following a simple intermittent fasting protocol because it's harder to eat way too many calories when you eat just one or two larger meals per day. The second thing I'm doing is I'm eating a lot of protein because research shows that overfeeding on protein results in less fat gain than carbs or fats. on protein results in less fat gain than carbs or fats. And protein's also very filling and therefore reduces the chances of random splurging that can spiral into random binging. And the third

thing I'm doing is I'm favoring carbs over fat. So ideally I would overfeed on nothing but protein, but let's face it, that's no fun. So the next best option for us fitness folk, at least, is carbohydrate because it contains fewer calories than fat. So it contains four calories per gram as opposed to nine for fat. And carbs are also generally more filling than fat. So for example, if you eat a bunch of potato, you're going to get fuller faster than a bunch of cheese. Studies also suggest that overfeeding with carbs versus fats may result in less immediate fat gain and especially in lean people. I'm also saving up my calories for big dinners in particular that I know are coming. So like when I know a big dinner is on the horizon, what I'm doing is I'm eating mostly

just protein throughout the day. So then I can arrive to the table with a huge, like a 2000 plus calorie buffer just to hit my TDE for the day. So that's not even a surplus necessarily. So in essence, what I'm doing is I'm eating the vast majority of the day's protein before the big meal. And then the vast majority of the day's carbs and fats in that single meal, which basically lets me stuff myself fairly silly without then waking up a pound fatter the next day. And I'm pretty sure that can happen. Lastly, I am staying active because this not only helps bolster energy expenditure, but it also gives the body other things to do with at least some of the calories that we are plunging down our throats every day, then storing them as nasty, greasy flesh, body fat. And this is pretty easy to do

too. So like sometimes I'm heading to the local gym for a proper weightlifting session, but other times I'm doing, you know, 30 minute, 20, 30 minute body weight routines, or maybe 15 to 20 minutes of high intensity interval training, stair running in particular. I'm staying with my in-laws and their apartment building is like six floors, I think, seven floors. And so I'll just do stair running, which is quite difficult actually. If you haven't done it before, try it. It is hard. Or I might just go walk around the city for a few hours and that burns more calories than you might think. An hour of vigorous walking is to be speed walking, but walking with a purpose burns between three and 400 calories. So do the math.

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. So yeah, that's what I'm up to at the moment.'m eating i'm moving i am reveling in the festivity of capitalist consumerism and mirth sharing what have i been up to though you might be probably

aren't wondering well let me just give you a quick hose down of my 2017 so the first big highlight for me is that my daughter romi was born. This is booger eater number two for me. And she arrived on July 29th. And yeah, she's basically the cutest thing ever. And if you want to see for yourself, just check out my Instagram, instagram.com slash muscle for life fitness and judge for yourself. All I know is this girl is going to cost me a lot of money, but that's okay. That's okay. That's why I work hard, right? Another big thing that happened this year is I

broke 1 million books sold. And honestly, it feels kind of strange just saying that, but the numbers be numbers. I've officially sold over a million books since I published my first, which was Bigger, Leaner, Stronger back in 2012. And yeah, that's pretty cool. Legion also had a big year. Legion did eight figures in sales. And again, it feels kind of odd saying that, but yeah, Legion grew almost 40% this year, which isn't too shabby for a bunch of white male weirdos and wannabe pirates. Go team, go team. Another random 2017 happening is Jeremy told me to buy some cryptocurrency. And I really, at the time I didn't, and I still don't know much about crypto beyond the basics of the blockchain technology, but my CIO, Matt,

is basically a crypto zealot and his best friend, Nate is like a crypto savant. And Jeremy's been kind of nerding out on it pretty hard too. And so these are some smart people that said I should put some money into it. And so I threw some money at it a couple months ago and now I'm up 400%. Yeah. Neat. All right. So now what about 2018? What is next for me and the hashtag fam? Well, first I'm going to be going back to my roots in 2018. So that's books. I've been quiet on the publishing front due to having a metric fuck ton of other work to do in the last couple of years, but that's changing in 2018. in 2018. I'm going to be publishing several smaller books next year, as well as new and improved third editions of my flagship books for men and women, Bigger, Leaner, Stronger, and Thinner, Leaner, Stronger. I also hope to complete a second edition of Beyond, Bigger, Leaner, Stronger in 2018 and start on a new one pot cookbook, which I'm actually excited to work on. I think that'll be a fun project. If only I didn't have to sleep science. Why are you failing me? 2018 also means new Legion

insta fucking buys are coming. Uh, we are going to go for gold next year with Legion and, you know, shoot for another 40 to 60% growth. And a big part of that is gonna be new products and new flavors of existing products. So here's what we have right now in the works. We have more merch, which are right around the corner, actually. We have protein bars, which are very, very close to being done.

We have a stim-free pre-workout, which is currently at flavoring. Hopefully, fingers crossed, we have an approvable sample in January. We have an intro workout slash endurance supplement that we're working on, which is also at flavoring. We have a casein protein coming. We have an energy drink formulation done and ready to send to a manufacturer. So we are sourcing manufacturers now, and we are going to be doing some new flavors of Recharge, Pulse, Genesis, and Whey Plus. And if all the trains happen to run just on time, then we may be able to squeeze in protein and pre-workout ready-to-drinks, RTDs, as well as single serves of several of our products.

another big thing that is going to happen finally going to happen is muscle for life 2.0 now i know i've been talking about this for way too long it's actually a joke at this point around the office actually literally a joke and i haven't delivered yet and it's not my fault okay it's i blame the russians i blame the patriarchy i blame the fucking vegans. Now, seriously though, MFL is currently, so we are in the middle of it. It's happening. It's getting a complete stem to stern overhaul, which means a whole new look, a fresh new look, a store and shiny new digital courses, which I am particularly excited about because they're fucking awesome. They're just great. The first four courses that are anywhere from, let's say 70 to 90% done at this point are one, a deep dive course on nutrition and meal planning with, I will say the absolute

best meal planning spreadsheet you are ever going to lay your paws on. Number two is an aggressive fat loss course, which I did with Dr. Spencer Nadolsky, who specializes in helping overweight people lose fat quickly. The third course that we are working on is a supplementation course with Curtis Frank, who is the co-founder of, and really the man responsible for most of everything that you see on examine.com. And absolutely the single most knowledgeable person as far as supplementation goes that I've ever met and probably will ever meet. And the fourth and final course that we are almost done with is a diet and exercise science course that I worked on with James Krieger, who is a published scientist himself, and definitely one of the good guys.

In the evidence based fitness space. And so I will be keeping you apprised. On all of this. And all the other things. That didn't warrant a mention. But are also kind of cool. As time goes on. And as we move through 2018.

But I hope you liked this update. And again. Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays, Happy New Year. Thank you for the support. My team and I really do appreciate it. And we have a lot more goodies for you to come. 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.

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