Nuanced. - 139. Aiemann Zahabi: The UFC, New Years Resolutions & Weight Loss

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

Join Aaron Pete as he sits down with UFC bantamweight Aiemann Zahabi. Fresh from his victory at UFC 289 in Vancouver, Zahabi reveals his combat strategies and discusses his approach to personal goals. Tune in to hear about effective New Year's resolutions, innovative weight loss methods, the benefits of fasting and cold plunges, and maintaining motivation. This episode is a unique blend of professional sports insights and personal wellness advice.Join the Juji Club: https://www.jujiclub.com/en-caSend us a textThe "What's Going On?" PodcastThink casual, relatable discussions like you'd overhear in a barbershop....Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the shownuancedmedia.ca

Welcome back to another episode of The Bigger Than Me podcast. Here is your host, Aaron. It is the new year. I am so excited to be kicking this episode off all about how we can improve ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, how we can grow as individuals and behave in a way that is bigger than ourselves. My guest today is the great Amon Zahabi. Amon Zahabi. It is such a pleasure to sit back down with you. It has been so long since we talked. Would you mind just briefly reintroducing yourself

for people who might not be acquainted with your work? Yeah, so I'm a man's a hobby. I'm a professional fighter. I fight in the UFC. I've had a lot of lifetime experience of training in martial arts and currently I'm on a three-fight winning street with the UFC. Last we spoke you were heading into UFC Vancouver and I was so excited I got to sit there live and watch you perform which was such an honor. Would you mind taking us back going into that fight and how you were feeling? well uh leading up to the fight uh given my opponent's uh history like his he has like 33 fights or like 32 fights when he was coming into that fight he goes to distance a lot and he's a hard nose fighter

and he has a really good uh right hand so for the two months leading up my brother was really getting me ready for war like it's going to he told me it's going to be 15 minutes of hell so i prepared myself mentally for that like had the guys torturing me in sparring and in wrestling and in training and jitzu. I went to like the Montreal Wrestling Club which is home to like a lot of the national wrestlers for Canada. So they're throwing me around the room because

I heard in one of the fights when Eric Kilang was fighting, one of the commentators said that his dad was like, this is a really good wrestler. So I was like, okay, maybe he has that in his mind to take me down because not too many people have seen me on the ground. So I was like, okay, I'm going to prepare for that as well. So just getting my whole game ready.

And then luckily he finished in a minute. So I was really happy. You know, prepare for the worst. and you hope for the best and this time the best happened for me. That's one area I feel like we don't hear a lot about is the process of trying to figure out what your opponent is preparing for

and how they want the fight to go and how you want the fight to go. How much time is dedicated to trying to figure out what their game plan might be and preparing for contingencies? You know, it's interesting because I always plan for my opponents and I try to stick to that plan

like hardcore, like in my mind to not deviate from what I'm supposed to do. And then now, like, my last three fights, I really realized that other guys are game planning for me just as much as I want a game plan for them. So I have to be careful and not be too stuck on my game plan. Because if I come expecting them to do something and they change it, I have to be, have the flexibility of mind to adapt to the situation. So I really didn't expect every Klanke to throw low kicks because I thought he'd be worried about me taking him down because I'm black belt and jitsu. So I was like, there's no way he's going to kick my leg. He's going to wait to hit me with the right hand.

Like, you've seen me get knocked out in the past, and he has a really good counter right hand. And I thought that was his best way to win was to counter me with his biggest punch. And instead, he came out kicking. So, you know, I just had to adapt in the moment, and I hit him with a nice counter. So I was really happy, you know, because, you know, because, you know, there's that Mayweather is really famous for saying this. He says, true champions adapt. They can adapt to anything, you know?

So, like, I'm really, I just trying to adapt in my face. fights as much as possible. Yeah, so you have all of that groundwork and then you're going in and you're kind of open, you have kind of what you want to have happen, but you're open to what's going to happen and it ends up sometimes working out way better. You're not in a three-round long, 15-minute war. You're in a very quick fight. What was the feelings afterwards? Oh, incredible. Incredible feelings. I was super, super happy because there is a relief in the sense that when you don't take the damage and I had prepared myself to be ready for lots of damage. after this fight.

They call him the Mongolian murderer and he watches fights. They get very intense. He doesn't usually go down. He marks guys up. He hurts them. He gets hurt. It's like a barn burner type fight.

So I prepared myself mentally to like end up in the hospital in that night, you know, with cuts or something, something. I thought something was going to happen. And then like when I dropped him, I put my hands up like in my eye.

The way I saw him fall, I knew he was done. But the referee didn't come in. So I had to jump on him. but first you get a wave of relief that there's no damage and then you get the joy of winning and then it was really cool because like when fras came out and he gave me that hug in the in the cage he told me if you would have let him up i would have slapped you i said yes i know i finished the job i finished i got that woman i finished it's happened before you know guys they raise their hands i think the guy's done the guy gets up fight continues would have been very embarrassing for us would have beaten me and then knowing that you were also a part of a night where all all the Canadians won, and you got to continue to see the night go on and the Canadians take over and show out on that night. What was that experience like to be a part of a team doing that, Canadians doing that? Honestly, it was an honor because I feel like it's going to be a historical moment because it was the first time on a UFC card all the Canadians won.

You know, these usually one loses, maybe two, who knows. But it's a really historical moment for Canadians, and I feel like it really helped bring me. more fans into it from Canada because like MMA was dying out in Canada a little bit and I feel like it gave us a resurgence and now like one of the UFC staff members was saying how they might come to Canada two to four times a year in 2024 going forward so I feel like that night all six of us really played a big hand in that so I'm happy to be part of that and do you have a close relationship with the other fighters going into that night are you all on the same page or what was that process because we look at it from our perspective and we see all

all the Canadians win. It seems like you're all on the same team. Yeah. Well, internationally, for sure, we're all on the same team. And, like, some of those guys I've trained with before. They've come to the gym that come at Tri-Sem before. Some of them I hadn't met. I met them that night.

But it was really cool to, like, go to the hotel and see them after. Because, you know, like, the UFC now since COVID, the policy is there's no green room. So they ask you to leave after the fight. And so when I was going back to the hotel, after each fight, the Canadians were coming back. We got to take some pictures together and with the fans and holding up Canadian flags. So, like, that was cool. the very nice moments we got to share. What is the process afterwards?

I just started a new job and immediately my brain starts going like, where do I want to go from here? What do I want to do next? How do I want to get there? What are the next big step-ups where I can continue on my career but also take care of the family? What is your process? Once you get that win, what are you thinking of? Well, I'm excited to get another fight and I'm excited to just keep the ball rolling, you know? And it was weird, like for me, had a moment in training camp. I had like this mental hurdle where I was like oh man

I won't two in a row already maybe I won't win three in a row it's like a big ask to win three in a row on the UFC and I was having a hard time dealing with that and I brought it up to Farasa remember I'm like Fras I'm like you think I can win three in a row he's like what are you talking about it has nothing to do

with any of the last two fights each fight is it is its own there's no such thing there's no curses there's no you run out of luck there's none of that he's like you train your best you do your best whether you win or lose it doesn't matter to us and just go out there and do your best You know, she just reminded me to just not care about those things. Like, don't worry about the statistics.

You know, a lot of times statistics, they get it wrong, right? It's good to look back and you can make the statistics stay whatever you want, but you shouldn't let it affect your mentality going in. Actually, one of my favorite rappers, Big Sean, has a line, and he was like, I was trusting statistics more than I trusted me, talking about, like, the rates of black incarceration and the challenges they face. And rather than trusting your own ability to grow and develop and succeed. yeah because you hear about stats all the time

especially like from like the commentators and the analysts and the YouTube guys they're like oh this guy has been this many stats this many punches per second so they are they're this and blah blah but in the end man you don't know what's going to happen in there until it happens you know and there are so many ways to win in MMA and so many ways to lose that

you know it's you have to go out there and just be yourself and do it and the outcome will be what it is are you going to be at UFC Toronto I don't know yet I'm definitely I haven't been on the card yet like I didn't get a fight or anything yet

but Arnold Allen is getting ready to fight on the card and maybe I'll go to show him some support if I don't know if he might ask me to be in his corner or not I don't know or if not I might just come and watch the show like as a fan How does it feel to have it right in your backyard now traveling obviously across the country to come

to Vancouver? Oh it's great that's one of the reasons I want to kind of fight on the card because like for the people from Montreal it's super easy to get there Like, you can leave Saturday morning and come back Sunday. It's like a one-night trip, one-night hotel stay. Whereas Vancouver, it's much further. Cost plane tickets.

The hotels are more expensive and all those things. So I was looking forward to trying to get on the car so that more friends and family can come live. But now instead of watching me, I guess we're all going. We're all support Arnold for sure. That's fantastic. And what else has been going on in the past couple of months since we spoke last? Anything new?

Well, I took the kids to Florida, actually. My wife and kids. My wife had like a work conference out there. So we decided to go and use it to go to Disney World. So I ended up taking my kids there. I had a beautiful day. We went there for one day, 15 hours. Let me tell you, 8.30 in the morning to 11.30 at night.

I'm done. I never got to go back. We did everything pretty good. That's fantastic. You've got to be exhausted after that, right? Yeah, it was exhausting, but it was great. You know, my kids were soldiers that day. They're five years old, both of them, right?

They're twins, and no stroller needed. They walked all day. They're happy. They ate well. They didn't give me a hard time, so I'm really happy with them. Yeah. You should be. Since we last spoke, I talked to your twin, Ariel Hawani, and that was such a trip. Yeah, tell me, what was that? That's a big fish, man. It was a huge fish. So I listen to the show all the time and enjoy getting his takes on things. I try and develop, and I've learned a lot through his style of interviewing, how he approaches it, and I kind of study what he does,

because I think he's really good at interviewing people, asking good questions, and being a good journalist. And so he has the Q&As at the end of his Wednesday episodes. And I'd put in the odd question for him and try and make sure it's thoughtful, not ask every week. And over time, he started to notice on Twitter, I'd comment on some of his stuff. And then I just kind of read out and was like, hey, like, I get, you're busy. You're being a host of shows of different events and stuff. And so I get, you might not have the time, but it would be an honor to try and hone my skills and ask you questions about how you interview people. And he was like, let's run it.

And so a few times of trying to go back and forth, fine times. And he texted me on the day of and was like, hey, could you do it at 12 o'clock today? And it was like in 48 minutes. So I had to message to him and go, hey, like, are we able to run this? Like, I haven't been prepared. But like I'd like to do this interview. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. You might not get it again.

And we ended up making it work. That's amazing, man. Yeah, that's really, really cool. Especially that you've stayed so persistent and he noticed, man, that's great that he gave you a great chance to shine, you know, to really get somebody that's like big in our industry it speaks to the fact that like people are of good character i know he gets a lot of flack from different fighters or from different individuals within the ufc or different promotions but it shows that like when it comes down to it giving me the opportunity i'm not some big name he's not doing it because he's going to get 10 million

followers on twitter or something he's doing it to show support and show love for the next generation of potential interviewers yeah you know what's funny is that like you're not going to be like by everyone and if you accept that you can always be who you are you know what i mean so like yeah i'm sure if ariel rub some people the wrong way that's okay i mean that's life man i probably rub a lot of people the wrong way too and but i'm sure a lot of people he has a huge fan base you know so he must be doing something right to get that big of a fan base and you know when it comes to the fighters like i don't follow the drama that he has a lot of fighters but a lot of fighters seem to like him as well you know so sometimes it's a two-way street who knows what happened i don't know i don't

follow all those stories. But if he's true to himself, he's going to have people that don't like him, and if he's going to have people that love him at the same time, you know, that's just part of being an adult. Yeah, it's a scaling problem too, right? When you're dealing with the people within your family, like, that's not a lot of people. But then when you start to deal with 1,000 people, 10,000 people, the odds that one person is going to dislike you, and just for no good reason, that's going to scale upwards. And then when you have people watching your videos and some million people, the odds that there's going to be a group of people who don't like you is going to be higher.

But I think that that's something our brains aren't really adapted to because we're used to interacting with people. You're not used to those comments. We're now you're starting to take it personally. Yeah, exactly. And look at social media is not that old either. And a lot of people have haters. Like, let's say, I don't know, for example, let's say Kim Kardashian.

She's like, mega star on social media. How many people love her? Like she has one of the most biggest, largest following. And how many people in the world hate her, you know? And then she's just being herself, really. And I feel like Ariel has millions of fans. She's going to have a couple hundred thousand haters. Exactly.

I feel like it comes with having a lot of fans. Yeah. But I find him super inspirational and the way that I feel like he interviews so many fighters is different than what you get at the press conferences. And it's not that the press conferences aren't, like, valuable. But his approach of like really getting to the heart of a person is so much more genuine and sincere and gets me really invested in fighters and what's going on. Yeah, I agree.

Like I was talking with you when you interviewed me last time. It's like a breath of fresh air when you asked me questions that aren't just so superficial, you know, and that you try to get your fans and my fans, because we're working together, to get to know me beyond just, oh, how many fights do you have? Oh, yeah, okay, you won your last fight. Okay, tell us about your reaction. Okay, blah, blah, blah. But what else is going on in your life? How do you develop this?

How do you think about the situation? You know, you get into my thoughts. And I feel like Ariel does that really, really well, too. That's why he's so big because he asked the. questions that most regular journalists don't ask you know human questions the real questions that i feel like we want the answer to and that's why i was so interested in sitting down with you was because i really like walked away from our conversation being like this person has a really strong philosophy like something that grounds you beyond just the day to day whatever's

new and shiny the newest iPhone like you have you have a way of thinking about things that grounds you and i find that so many people don't have that so that when they see the new iPhone commercial they're like oh, I need to get that because that's what the commercial is telling me I need, rather than being able to zoom out and look at how you impact your loved ones, how you impact your community, how you impact your fans, how you, like, you understand kind of your role in the world in a different way than I find other people do. Yeah, and that's why I kind of would like talk about different things like that's my philosophies, then always answer the same basic questions, basically. So that's why it's interesting. I love getting on here with you or with Ariel too. actually he always asked me really in-depth questions and you choose to get a different angle so people get to know me more personally

and what it's like to be around me you know around being my friends but even though we're not close right so that's it's I find out that's a better approach to interviewing fighters and I feel like people who go down that route to personalize athletes will have a bigger following in the end as well I agree that emotional connection like watching you fight after speaking with you and after hearing your story

I was way more like my hands were getting sweaty like i was like oh my gosh here we go and you had i imagine my wife man i can't imagine what it's like to be them to be in the arena right there and knowing you every single day and seeing you go into that circumstance all by yourself like when you talked about that in the interview and then being there it was like this is so surreal to sit here and know that i talk to this person and know that they're going into war and then you won and i was super happy and grateful that you didn't take any damage but it was such a different experience yeah i know for sure and you know it's was funny to talk about like my wife like before

COVID she had come to all my fights since I'm like 15 or 16 but during COVID she wasn't able to come to the Draco fight because of the rules and whatever blah blah but I'm on a hot creek I told her listen man you're coming that's it's done until this hot streak is broken even though we're not really supposed to believe in those

things but like I did notice that it's just like way less stressful for me to not have her their fight week because you know MMA fans in the in the arena they get wasted and you know there could be a lot of aggression in the stands and things like that so like I used to always stay in the back of my head if she's okay if she's all right you know what I mean I don't know because I know she's sitting with like either my brother like not for us but my other brother and or like a couple of my friends or whatever but you know you never know what can

happen in the audience like MMA crowd is still a rough crowd they get rowdy you know it's like hardcore fans and drink a lot of beer and you know things happen in the in there so like actually I find it it's more relaxing that she's at home she's safe and she's watching from TV. I feel much better about it. I don't blame you. I was there and we were at the pre-fight press conference and there were some gibronies, if I can yeah, of course. There's going to be wild cats over there, man. Screaming away and they were just yelling, Dana, the whole time, the whole time. And it was like, what are you, like, even if you responded to you, what are you going to say after that? There's no logic to this.

Nothing. There's no logic. There's no logic, but they're excited and we love them. I'm happy they're there. You know, really happy they're there. But, you know, when you see fights happening, it feeds that inner beast, feeds that in you. And sometimes you might just want to put a few hands. And it's

happened a lot where brawls break out at MMA events. It happens all the time. It happens in NFL. It happens at the NHL. People, you know, they get into disagreements. And, you know, MMA, it's spot where it can happen. Or the arena starts to fall apart on the person walking out. Oh, my God.

That was crazy, man. Who was that? That was Mike Mallet, no? Yeah. Was it Mike? Yeah, it happened to him. Yeah, I was nuts. I was watching it on TV and I couldn't believe it. It was stunning.

And then to think that he just walks out and that he fights and he wins is just so weird. His coach almost got crushed. Yeah, yeah. Which was hilarious. He didn't notice is behind him, but it was just so funny. I was like, oh, my God, they almost lost your coach there, but. And you know he zoned in when? Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.

It was funny. Another time when I fought in the Apex, one of the guys, when he was supposed to walk in out. His opponent was already in the cage. Okay, his opponent was already in the cage. It's his turn to make the walkout. I think his back seized up, and he couldn't walk, and then they canceled the fight. I don't know if you've heard about that. No.

Yeah, yeah, I can't remember who it was, and the fight got canceled with his opponent in the cage. Wow. It's insane. Like, you never know what's going to happen in the NBA. I'm telling you, man. Stadium's falling apart, guys getting spasms. It's a nightmare. That's crazy. I had no idea. That's going to be such a trip to know that

the fight could not happen while you're walking. While you're walking out, man. Crazy. Are we able to explore, we're heading into the new year, and I'm just thinking about how people best maneuver this. There's arguments on the one hand that New Year's resolutions aren't necessary that you should start. The day you want to set a goal, you should start that day. You shouldn't put it off to some arbitrary date. But I do feel like there's value in us as a society, all kind of agreeing that we're going to look at where we're heading in life on this date,

and we're going to try and take real steps. This isn't, I'm going to stop having chocolate bars tomorrow. This is more like, how do I improve myself, level up my life over the next year, and grow as a person this year, and how am I going to bring this new tool into my life? I'm just curious, how do you think about New Year's resolutions? Well, it depends, you know, like, I don't, like, like you said, you know, about putting that date, you know, I really feel like you don't need to wait until a date. because in the end the only way to achieve your goals is if you make the decision

that you're going to work at it you know I don't believe in like somebody dragging dragging you to the finish line nobody can motivate you no date is going to motivate you you know

unless let's say for me fight night I have to make my goal wait right so then it's like a deadline a deadline is different than a starting point you know what I mean so like if I were to try to motivate someone

one, right? And that says, like, motivate. I'd rather give them a deadline than to give them a starting point. Because it doesn't matter where you start. It's how you finish. And the only way to create urgency is the deadline. Because the starting point is always going to get pushed. Don't find the 15,000 excuses.

That's where, like, the whole problem with procrastination, procrastination, procrastination, it's not about starting. It's about giving yourself a time limit. And if the time limit can't motivate you, then you don't really want it, you know? Like, let's say, for example, let's say for women, let's say they want to fit in a certain dress and a certain size. That wedding date is the deadline. And most women, they're motivated now. You know, they're motivated. And they're going to get to that deadline no matter what it takes because there are so many things you can do to achieve your goal, right?

So let's say you want to lose weight. You can diet for a bit and then increase your training and then you can increase the intensity of your diet. And then you could, you know, decrease your training a bit, increase your nutrition limits even more. And there's all these different calibrations you can do to get to your goal weight. But the whole point is to get to that weight by this date, you know? So, like, they don't have to start New Year's. But pick the day you want to finish your goal.

Even if you start a week after New Year's, it doesn't matter. But let's say you say, okay, by June 1st, by June 1st, I'm going to be at this weight. Now, it's like the stock market. So many things can go right and wrong up to that. date, but you're going to work your butt off to make sure that you get it by then, you know, and you should give yourself a repercussion.

I'll give you a funny story, my brother, every year on his birthday, okay? He wants to be 9% body fat on his birthday. Every year, so that he never gets fat. So he never gets lazy, right? So that's his deadline. Every year he's got a deadline.

If he doesn't make the weight, the percentage, the 9%, he owes his wife a thousand dollars okay wow but the thousand dollars I think has been cumulative so since he hasn't missed it that money is going up

right so I don't know if it's been five years now I don't know when he came up with the idea three years so if it doesn't make it this birthday he's got it owes are a few grand right I mean so he saw something that hurts it hurts inside like you know it doesn't hurt to give your wife money but it's like oh man I'm going to give her 4k or should I just make this

wait but it's a funny thing that they have going again you know she's like She obviously, she wants it to lose the weight, but she also, like, teases them, oh, no, you know, you should have this piece of cake. You should have this. You know, so it's like it keeps a relationship fun. So I feel like if you have a spouse or whatever and you guys are working towards goals, it could be funny to have, like, little things like that or it keeps the relationship funny, you know.

And then in the end, like, you know, let's see you lose the wager. Your wife, she doesn't really, you know, it's like you're taking money from one pocket and putting in another. It's not a really big deal, you know, but it's just funny to see who could make it. And it's such a good point because for so many goals, we don't have like if we don't reach it nobody knows it's something just kind of in our heads which is why i think they recommend you tell people that you're setting this goal so that you feel accountable even if it's not good enough to be accountable just to yourself yeah and for like

for me my clients let's say for example i take on a client okay i have a very like burn the ships method okay so if they come on they have to lose one pound a week if you don't lose one pound a week two times you're fired and you have to you owe me two hundred dollars a $200 penalty but I can't work with you anymore so you have to pay me for the program plus if I train you personally like with the hours

and if you fail you owe me more money nobody fails why would they pay me to not lose weight it makes no sense it should only pay me if they're losing the weight so they lose the weight because they don't want to pay me and gain weight

right you know so that's kind of the idea and then I give them a deadline okay we're going to be way by every week one pound there's there's no ifs or buts you don't make that pound you owe me money right because i can't be more motivated than you know so that's that's kind of like how i would work i work with my team i think that that's so important because we do like to like offset our responsibilities to other people so that we don't feel that weight on our own shoulders like you're going to make me healthy right and like that's yeah no you you're the only one who's gonna control because like i often think about this there's like this discussion around like overweight people

and whether or not they know whether or not it's it's healthy whether or not it looks good it's not healthy but like the other piece that i always think of because i was like really overweight for a period was they know like when you go have dinner with somebody and then you leave and you go get a burger from mcdonald's afterwards you know you're being a fatty like there's no there's no part of you that's eating that extra burger after having dinner and feeling like no this is a health move like I'm doing this because I care about myself like you know you're doing a guilty pleasure and so so much of that gets left out because it's healthy people saying like you're being unhealthy but as like someone who was overweight I

knew in those moments like no you shouldn't get the fries but I'll get a meat of fries as well yeah exactly exactly like for me it comes down to like I know the program works so the program won't fail you you fail the program that's kind of the idea so let's say you want to, you know, want to lose weight or you want to increase, I don't know, your productivity or whatever, you set your goals and you find a way to do it. There's a million people who can do teach you how to do everything you want on YouTube. There's so much information on Google. Now there's chat GPT. You can learn basically almost anything for almost free. Like any skill, how to do anything, lose weight, lift weights, learn how to fight, learn how to be

a journalist. You can learn how to do so many things on YouTube and Google and chat GPT that the answers are out there. It's you who's not performing, you know? I also feel like people sometimes, like, they set the goal, I want to lose 15 pounds, but they need the understanding around it as well to, like, really get them motivated. So one of the things that, like, struck me was that if you're overweight and you have a kid and you pass on the likelihood that they're going to be overweight as a consequence of you being overweight, and that's genetically passed down. And that blew my mind. So that's like a piece. And then you think about, like, you want to be able to play with your kids.

to be able to be healthy, live a long life. Like all these pieces you're taking away from, it's not just 15 pounds, it's a quality of life question. Yeah. Well, let me ask you, do you have any kids Aaron or no? Not yet. I am 28 years old. Oh, you're a buck, man.

You're a buck. Well, listen, when you have kids one day, wouldn't you want them to be, have a good mentality, a smart mind, educated, okay? You don't you want them to have a good spirit, good belief in something, something bigger than themselves, right? And wouldn't you want them to be healthy, physically healthy and fit? So why wouldn't you want that for yourself? You know, if you want your kids to have it, you should have it. Because your kids, you know, like they don't only learn top down.

You know, they don't only learn what you tell them. They watch your mannerisms. They watch your habits. Every day they're asking you questions, little questions. questions and they're watching you and they're seeing how you live and how you act and how you order food and what you order and what you're doing and blah blah blah blah and how you speak self-talk is huge you know so and they're registering all this right they're there's subconscious like a supercomputer so if you want them to be good in all these three facets of life okay you should be

taking that on as well you know so it's very important to work on your mindset to work on your health and to work on your physicality you need to be strong in all three you know I wouldn't want my kid to just be smart and be fat and have no spirit and like not care, not no, not like believe in anything bigger than themselves. You know, they might end up nihilistic. They might end up super depressed and on, you know, on hormones and all these things. I don't want any of that, man. I want them to be strong in all three facets so they can have a nice, healthy, beautiful life. That's kind of like the goal for the girls, you know. I couldn't agree more. It reminds me of what Jordan Peterson talks about when he talks about this idea that we take better care of making sure our

pets take their medication than we do of making sure we take care of our own bodies and make sure we're healthy that we can care about something else. But to give that care to ourselves, we're not very good at. Yeah, exactly. I feel like that's an issue with obviously a lot of parents for sure, but also team leaders, you know. So a lot of people are bosses. They're not really leaders. You know, luckily for me, for us a really good mentor. He's a great leader. You know, he fulfills those three assets, those three aspects of life. And he also helps educate the guys to have that going on at the same time. And like for me, it's almost like I have two lives.

I have my career life and I have my family life. And I'm trying to excel at both parallel at the same time. My fight life doesn't take away from my family life and vice versa. My family life never takes away from the fight life. But for me, that's what's being successful is I'm able to do both. I didn't have to stop fighting to take care of my family. and I didn't have to, you know, leave my family to take care of fighting. You know, I'm not abandoning them and I'm not abandoning fighting either.

I'm able to kind of like build both up at the same time. And it gives me very busy, for sure. And my wife's amazing. My wife's really, really good. She's doing the same thing. And then I feel like that's how you got to live. You can't just focus on only one thing. You need your life and you need the way to generate income, right?

And you have to have a passion. I was just talking to my daughter's, my daughter was telling me, she's like, I don't know what I want to do. She's five years old. I don't know what I want to be. I don't know what I want to be. I think I'm going to be a singer. I think I'm going to be a doctor. I don't blah, blah, blah.

And listen, whatever you choose, make sure you love it. It's sure you absolutely love it. It's something that you want to do. And then you become so good at it, everyone's willing to pay you to do it. That's it. You figure that out. It'll be fine. Things are going to be fine.

That's a really good advice. Yeah, thanks. To wrap up the conversation on physicality, do you think that it's more useful? If people are like, I want to lose weight, I want to get healthier. that they set the goal of like getting really good at boxing or trying out Jiu-Jitsu or doing something where it's not as specifically about going to the gym every day, five days a week or going for a run five days a week. Is there tools?

How do people make sure that they stay accountable and at least move in that direction? It's funny as I talk to my nutritionist about this concept a lot. And one thing that I find that's really important is that you have to understand. almost all the methods work okay if you want to box to lose weight you want to do Jitsu to lose weight you want to go to the fitness room

and lift weights to lose weight or if you want to just only nutrition you only focus on nutrition you'll lose weight if you want to do the Atkins diet if you want to do the Dolce diet if you want to do the Lockhart diet if you want to do Jenny Craig

you want to do whatever they all work the only thing that doesn't work is you that's true so basically the only answer is that you have to find the plan that you enjoy doing the most so you can sustain

it. Like for me in my experience, the people the easiest way, the least painful way is fasting. It's the least painful way. Is it the only way? No. The reason why I think it's the least painful way is because me, I work with a lot of like businessmen and women and all. And when they

start, when I introduce fasting to them, they like it because they waste less time eating and going out to eat they could spend more time working and less time preparing meals right at a point when they when they fast for 36 hours or 42 hours they only eat once every two days like now they're so much more productive and their mind is still clear and they're losing the weight so it's like it's hitting a lot of elements at the same time so for me i feel like fasting works a lot very well for like the business realm but for some people, let's say like you want to eat, you're eating three, four meals a day, you can still lose weight. If you have no access to gym, you can still lose weight. If you want to not change your

diet, but you want to lose weight with fitness, you can find a trainer who can help you do that too, you know, but find the one that you can do every day happily and enjoy it. That way you won't quit. It's not about getting to the goal. It's about if you get to the goal and maintain it forever. You're going to keep it going, you know? That's the big, that's the, that's the big challenge I faced when I was trying to lose weight was like just hitting those plateos and those like if you hit it you think you made it so you can go back to the way you were living and you can't no you can't you have to make an adjustment you know that's why like fasting is really good because let's say you have to you get deep into fasting like you all of a sudden like you're

doing you know two three days you don't need to eat or whatever blah blah blah but then once you've attained your goal weight okay you could cycle back the length of fasting so instead of doing like a couple of days you can go back to 18 hour fasts which is not a big deal you basically skip breakfast and you have lunch a couple hours later and then boom that's 18 hours and you won't put the weight back on really really fast and then oh if you notice oh i gained like three four pounds oh you know what i'm going to go on a two day fast but now that you've developed the skills of fasting and the mentality you know that you can just knock out a two day fast but if you let it snowball to the point

or it's a hill to climb to come back it's a problem you know one of my teammates okay I bring him to all my fights every year Neil's in my corner okay every time I fight he's in my corner every time my fight he's motivated to lose the weight

after my fights and he goes he loses the weight but then by the time my next fight he's fight again and I keep telling him I'm like Neil it's not it's not being in shape is not hard it's getting in shape it's the getting

but once you're in shape maintaining it is way easier than getting in shape. Getting in shape is hell. It's so painful. It's so painful. The first few weeks of being back in their weight room, your muscles are sore. But if you never stopped, you don't get that sore anymore.

Do you eat anything or do anything? I don't know if you heard about what Dana White's doing and he has this period of time where he's fasting, but then he goes, I think it's 72 hours and then he's doing like a bone broth with it. I've done it before. I'm not doing fasting right now, but yes, I've done it. His bone broth is amazing.

GSP's on a huge kick. I think he just did like a three-day fast right now. He just saw my Instagram. He was posting about it. He had like a huge steak and bone marrow, two huge bone marrow for his after three days of no eating. That's the first thing he ate. It's pretty cool.

And that's another thing. Like when you don't eat for three days, when you have supper with your family, that's like an event. Yeah. You know, like sometimes like one of the, some of the, for example, one of the business guys I worked with, when he got down to eating. not eating for three days. So you'd only eat it two times, two or three times a week. I told him, listen, because he was worried about not having supper with his kids every day.

I said, listen, you don't have supper with your kids every day, but those three times do you have supper with them, you make them special. You know, there's no TV, you know, you and your wife can cook a special meal, or you can order a special meal, or on the weekend that's you're eating Saturday night. You take your whole family out to dinner. And then he realized, after a month or so of that, his kids were like, whoa, like, so nice to spend time with you. It's so much happier, so much more relaxed, blah, blah, blah. So, you know, like, it pays dividends, you know? But they all do. But I'm just saying, like, that's another route.

You know, fasting is just something I work with a lot. So, like, that's my experiences. But they all could be great. That's one area where I do feel like we skip out a lot in Western culture is that idea of having a meal together and making that special and i grew up setting the table in a certain way and like now it's like i don't need to set the table i just put the fork on the plate but there's something to that relationship with like we're going to make this an experience that this is going to be like a connecting moment where we're enjoying a meal i tried something new i made this weird lasagna we're going to give that a try i did

my best on it so i hope you like it like there's an experience to trusting people with food and sharing that kind of time together well it makes sense because now it's so easy to get food i mean for us for the Western culture. It's so easy. You can eat all day. Like my kids, if they wanted, they can snack all day. Like, they ain't going starving. Like, we got supermarkets, we got restaurants, and it's not super expensive.

Compared to, like, back in the day, you know, like, let's see, for my parents' generation, my parents didn't go to restaurants all the time. Yeah. You know, my mom cooked a lot of home. My mom was stayed at home mom. And she cooked a lot of time at home. And, you know, times are harder.

Like, my parents were immigrants. They came here with nothing. So, like, they're happy to have the meal. They're happy to sit down with the family and be able to afford the meal, right? They came from nothing. And I just feel like now, you know, there is kind of like a really nice standard of living in Western culture, you know. And I just feel like, you know, it's not as appreciated, which is normal because now it's so easy. It's just so easy.

But listen, don't eat for three days and tell me if eating your meal is something special or not. I will do that. Then you'll feel like it's special. Then you'll feel like, wow, this is really nice. I'll make you a deal. I will do that. and the next time you come on, I will tell you what that experience was like,

because I've never done a three-day fast before. 72 hours, man. You do 72 hours and record your reaction to sitting down and eating. Let me tell you, you're going to feel bliss. I usually do like the one day and like have just dinner and then I haven't eaten and then the next day.

I'm usually pretty good at that and there is something to not giving your body anything. Like there's something, if you have a granola bar or something, it's broken and now your metabolism is running and it wants food and like now you're hungry but there's something to like you've lasted so long and I do feel so much sharper so I am actually curious about the results that that will bring you should do it because also what's interesting about fatting is your stomach it shrinks yeah right it gets smaller and smaller and you get used

to eating less food so you get by on less and you can last longer because your body is covered in energy all those fat stores right if literally they were three this out years ago man that your body stores fat for energy but nobody's using it you know it's a funny thing what are you storing it for man you don't need it you're charging your battery every three four hours you're eating your food you're

putting all this energy in you got to use it man and I'm at 72 hour fast you're going to see there's going to be a huge wave of hunger but that huge wave of hunger that comes it's more habit than it is physical pain yeah and if you can believe in that

and trust in that it's your hunger pains are really a habit pain and not a physical pain you'll get to the 70s too that's what i've heard is that you start to look at the signs and you start to look at the food and you see the ads and you start to realize how much you've just acclimated to this i have lunch every single day i have dinner every single day i eat food for breakfast every single day and how much slower you feel when you're doing that like there's this old rule of three meals a day and that's just hogwash yeah yeah it doesn't make any sense It doesn't make any sense.

I mean, it depends. You know, like me, when I'm getting ready for a fight, I don't fast because I want the energy for practice. So I eat three meals and three snacks, but they're very small meals. But basically the idea for my nutrition plan for, let's say, fight camp is to not spike my insulin. Right. So I'm just trying to keep my insulin really, really low the whole day. Right? That's another way.

Like I'm telling you, there's so many ways to do it. I'm not just trying to promote fasting only. because fasting is just one way. I just find it convenient if you're very busy and you have a million things to do in your life and you have a family business and kids and all these different things going on, jolly on. Fasting, it actually requires you

to do less work, less cooking, less cleaning dishes, less spending time at the restaurants or at the table. So I just find it so convenient but you can do it in different ways. So if I do this 72-hour fast, should I be doing the bone broth? Is that something I should be having?

No? I mean, you know Listen Okay Dr. Jason Fong is a doctor in Toronto And he's like kind of the guy pioneering Like bringing all the science to fasting to the forefront You know he's like really the go-to guy

And in one of his books He talks about you shouldn't have any of the bone broth Until you have like a fast that's over 48 hours Okay But it's because you're going to go for four days days, five days, six days, seven days. If you're stopping at 72, in my opinion, you don't need it. Yeah, I'm here for doctors a hobby right here.

I'm ready for it. I'll trust your judgment, man. I don't think you need it. I think you got everything you got inside. Okay, we're all up here. You got all in there, man. You know, and listen, I don't know, you should check this guy out, okay? He is very funny.

He's a YouTuber. I think his YouTube thing is called the Fasting Fat Man. I don't know if you've heard of him. I have not, no. Okay, he's got a crazy amount of viewers now. Basically, he was like 500 pounds. And he had his son, and his story goes something like his son had just started crawling,

and he was sitting on the couch. And his son was about to crawl down the stairs, like to go to the basement. And he wanted to get up and stop his son from crawling into the down the stairs and fall down. But he couldn't get off the couch. He was struggling. He couldn't stand up. He couldn't stand up. Finally, he lays down and rolls off the couch and crawls,

bear crawls until he grabs his son. He grabs the son by the ankle, saves him from going down the stairs, okay? So he was like, I can't believe it. I'm so fat now that I can't even help my own son. Right. So it motivated him. Anyways, so this guy decides to go fast.

He didn't eat. for a hundred fifty days 150 days no food but he's being followed by a doctor and he was documenting on youtube that sometimes he became like super super popular right so he's doing like all these vlogs and these different things and he's like keeping people up to date on what's going on what he feels so he was having like some supplements salt and bold broth that's it but no actual food and that's okay because you need those uh you need you need you need salt you need the sodium you need some some proteins but he's doing nothing that spikes his insulin right right so he's trying to keep his insulin really really low and fast and he lost something like 230 pounds in 150 days i can remember the

numbers exactly but it's an amazing amount of weight and uh when he stopped at at uh 150 days he just started scaling down so instead of like not eating ever he was eating every 24 hours like now i haven't been following him since but uh he's he's very inspiration because he is really confident in himself that he's able to make jokes about the situation. He calls himself the fasting fat man. I'm not calling him fat, but he finds a way to make humor out of it,

and he's very relatable to the average person because a lot of people are heavier than they want to be, and this guy was 500 pounds. This guy is at an extreme, a crazy extreme, and he got down to 200. So to lose 300 pounds and to do it with a smile, to be joking like for me i really feel like he's an inspiration i couldn't agree more and he's i'm sure thick-boned right that's whatever yeah yeah big guy really big guy yeah yeah very big guy okay

the other thing i want to accomplish in 24 is start doing this cold flinch thing i want to fit in i want to try this cold thing but it seems cold and yeah like the cold guys they take it too far like listen i'm a little princess in the cold but what can i tell you like me i get into that cold plunge at 10 degrees. I feel like that's like my magic number. Right. And some guys, they take it too far. I don't know why they go colder. I don't think you need any colder than that, man. I think the science is in. 10 degrees, you know, you're not going to get like any frostbite. You're not going to get any mental issues. You're not going to faint in there. I can have a hard time. But some of these guys, they take it to like five degrees,

four degrees. I think it's just a little bit too cold. Try 10. And let me know how that goes. What do you use? Do you have one of those tubs? How do you approach? no like me like let's say when I have fight camp I go to this there's a spa here near my house right and they have like the jacuzzi the dry sauna they have like a steam room and then they have like these quiet rooms and then they also have ice baths like around the different areas so basically me what I do is let's say like every week before I fight for for eight weeks every Saturday I go to the spa I do 45 minutes in the jacuzzi then I go 10 minutes in the sauna

then I do 10 minutes in the ice Then I do it again Yeah, and then I'm doing it again That's it done But 10 degrees, listen If you're in 10 degrees You can do 10 10 minutes

Anything under 10 degrees You're not staying there very long So like I don't know That's the tradeoff for me I found the temperature That's really cold But I can stay in it I can sustain it

Or a lot of guys what they do, they go even colder, say five degrees or four degrees, but they're in and out in 20 seconds. Yeah. So I don't know scientifically what's better. Right. But for me, for the mental challenge,

I like sitting in there and like withstanding the cold for a long period of time, it just helps me get ready for the fight, I find. That's what I was going to ask. Is it more a mental game or is it a physical challenge? What is it more of? Yeah. Like in the 10 degrees, I feel like it's a nice mix of both.

Okay. Whereas anything higher than 10, it's not cold enough. But anything lower, it's going to be very hard to stay a long time. And you don't want to do something that's too hard that might actually make your mental game worse, push you down. Like, if I go in a two-degree ice bath, and I know I can't stay more than 30 seconds, I don't feel tough. I don't feel like I'm overcoming anything. I'm busy having it out. Yeah.

sucks. And I think there are some studies coming out that you can't be in too cold for too long. So you have to be careful There could be some damage in there So I don't know all the science I don't know all the science Maybe Huberman's talking about it I don't know I gotta find that

I like the 10 degrees aspect Okay my next question is around the mental game I find as I said You have a really strong philosophy So I'm just wondering How can people start on this journey I know a lot of Goobers that aren't as thoughtful

And they don't think as critically Where would you recommend people Start their journey If they're serious about growing their mental game, being able to think of things bigger than themselves, how do they move in that direction? There's a lot of different ways, you know, and I feel

like a lost art in a lot of ways is finding a good mentor. You know? I think it's, there's more in mentorship than people give way to these days. If you look at back

in the day, you know, especially like during the Renaissance, it was all about mentorship. You learn from a master. You go in there and you do what he tells you. If he's an artist, you're handing him those paintbrushes. You're cleaning up after him. You're doing all these things, but you're watching him do the strokes.

He's talking to you, he's telling you how he's doing the strokes. You watch how he lives his life. You watch it a lot. And you start to pick up those things like a child would from their parents. You know what I mean? And it was funny because, like, I remember I was having confidence. I'm always talking about the kids, okay? And in my family, like my side of the family,

you always come up with ideas like, oh, what did you do? like how are you trying to solve this problem? Like if this comes up and what about them, planning for the future, planning for the future, 10 years ahead, 10 years ahead, 10 years ahead. I was like, what if my daughters, you know, when it comes to like the teenage phase, they start like giving me issues, right? I say they start becoming like bad girls or whatever. I don't know what.

They get into the wrong things or maybe they get into like friends who do drugs. And I'm worried about them. But what am I going to do? I was thinking, man, maybe I could find them somewhere that I know within like my network who I think is a great mentor who has the potential maybe they're not doing mentorships but has their potential to a mentor

maybe that's somebody I can reach out to and be like hey listen would you take my daughter on as an apprentice you don't have to pay her and this and that blah blah and I'll find incentives for my daughters to go along whether they want money per achievement

or whatever if they want to have a car by that age or if they want to do a trip or something I can use you know a character to motivate them through the process and then I'm also going to have a stick for it if they don't want to.

You know, so it's got to be like a, you need to have both, right? So like for me, I really feel like if I'm finding the people that are doing it already and emulating them and learning from them and there are people in your network, I don't care who you are. You know, a friend of a friend who's doing it

who's making it happen, you know, and you could be a part of that. All you have to do is ask. A lot of the times, if you don't ask, you don't know whether or not they would do it. You just go up there and ask and doing something for free could make you a lot more money than working minimum wage. You know, so mentorship is huge for me.

And I really feel like it's a lost art. It's really a lost art. Man, I vibe with that so much because one of the reasons I started this, I didn't have a dad growing up. And so one of my things was like, there are all these things that I don't know about. And when I went skiing as a kid, I wore jeans because, I didn't know I needed to wear pants because I didn't have that role model saying, this is how you gear up, this is how you set up, I didn't have somebody who taught me this is

what a healthy meal looks like, this is how you eat and you want to make sure there's vegetables and it's not just because they taste bad, it's because it gives you the nutrients your body needs. I didn't learn any of that. So when I started the podcast, the sense was like, I want to know things that I didn't know before, to gain information and have a deeper understanding, have that philosophy, live a healthy life, and share these people I think are admirable with other people so you can follow their journey and get inspired by them and maybe take that step in your own life that people aren't making within my indigenous community. I know there's the biggest challenge is there isn't that role model next door.

We have reservations where everybody's in the same boat. Everybody's on social assistance. Everybody doesn't have a job. Everybody has a piece of crap car. They're all in the similar boat. And if you brought somebody outside of that and said, here's a lawyer, get to know them. Maybe that's not your thing. Maybe we bring in a dentist. Maybe we bring in a An architect and learn from these people. And maybe that's not your vibe, but seeing them be passionate will make you passionate too. And that's what I really wanted to make this platform all about, is inspiring people to reach for more and try and make a difference and grow within themselves in a different way than I think we get so used to. So you're saying that really resonates with me.

Well, I think you're doing a great job, man. That's awesome. I didn't know about not having a father, but that's incredible. You're really growing up to be a man, too, right? Look at you. You're super successful. You're doing great. And I do agree with your idea of, let's say, like, bringing in lawyers to the community and, like, people, you have to bring in that, like you said, the person that's passionate, that passion, that can rub off on a young mind.

You know what I mean? But like you said, if the kid has no interest in lawyers, okay, then you bring a dentist. And then you bring in a restaurateur, like an entrepreneur opens a restaurant. There's some guys who are amazing at open restaurants, man. Some guys are amazing at doing whatever. You have to find the things that motivates the kid that's what he's into already, something he's into. You know, maybe those kids are amazing at drawing. Who knows?

You bring in an artist who can draw and teach it, a kid's class, blah, blah, whatever. I can remember one of my nephews was super into graffiti, right? And my brother found a school, not a school, but like a lady who teaches kids how to do graffiti. And like to pass their final exam or whatever, and it was like a summer program or whatever. They had to go on graffiti wall that they had and they had to make an art piece and whatever. But it's just something to motivate them. He got to be inspired by someone who that's something they're really good at. And I agree with you, man.

And I think that's something that judicious communities need more of, is more people coming in and inspiring them to get out of those, you know, those things. And hopefully more can be done. The other piece that I feel like resonated with me or shaped me was I got to visit my First Nation community and understand what the living circumstances were there. And then I got to go visit my family in White Rock who lived in like a $1.3 million home and had the really nice neighborhood.

So I got like a really strong understanding of like what poverty and what adversity looks like and what success and financial comfort and financial freedom looks like. So I just find that I'm constantly wanting to work on things and grow things and develop things. And then other people are like, I don't know why you work so hard. Like why don't you just take a break? And it's like, but there's just pure opportunity if you just put in the work. If you just put in the effort, you're going to get so much farther than the people who are sitting on their couches watching another rerun of the office or friends or whatever. is, you're going to be moving ahead gradually past them, and the doors are limitless to where you can take your own life.

I agree totally. And I like the idea that you said that you had the contrast of the two lives, you know, and it's interesting because it's more like in the United States, but a lot of millionaires in the United States come from nothing. Something like 71% of millionaires in the United States came from nothing, which is incredible. And if you could do that in one generation, as one person. Like, you started for your family to become a millionaire from nothing. You know, maybe that's something that we should introduce to kids in poverty.

Be like, listen, I know you, like, your circumstances aren't the best. But you go meet people who started from similar, and you get that story from them. How did they make it? What motivated them? How did they put things together to make it work? You know, and maybe those small habits that those other people were able to accomplish, and they can accomplish, right? Because if you only see the end goal and you don't know the story,

the micro goals, the little mini goals that compounded on top of each other to reach millionaire status, you think that the dream is impossible. But really, there is 50 steps to attain before you can even become a millionaire. And that first step is maybe possible. And then you get the first step, you double up, you triple up, you triple, boom, boom, boom, boom. That could be something really, really interesting, you know, that, I mean, I'm really into helping the kids out, you know, because I feel like it is possible for one generation to turn the whole family around. Take them from poverty to

a high society. It can happen. And that's one of the reasons we love the Connor McGregors, right, is that they're emblematic of that exact idea. It was a welfare guy. Exactly. Working, was he, he wasn't the one cleaning, was he a

janitor or something? I don't know if he was a GSP was a garbage man. Yeah, that's crazy. He was picking up garbage, man. Literally a garbage picker. And he's a multimillioner. Came from nothing. Came from literally from nothing.

he made it work, you know, and there are a lot of MMA stories like that, for sure, but also outside of MMA. You know, a lot of businessmen, a lot of smart guys, they opened just a restaurant that was a brilliant idea that's super well structured, and all of a sudden they have six, seven, you know, like where I'm from, okay, a lot of these, a lot of, a lot of guys have opened up breakfast chains, like breakfast chains are huge in my area. Okay, let me tell you something. Every few years, there's a new hot spot breakfast place, okay?

Got it. And there's one place that's called, like, Alamo Coco, okay? And they started the one place, and then they boomed to, like, 30 spots, which is incredible. You know what I mean? And these are just a couple of guys from my neighborhood when I was young, and I'm going seeing him at the restaurant. They're like, oh, my God, hey, ma'am, nice to see you, blah, blah. I remember when you were five years old. I remember when you were 12 and I was five and you were poor, and I'll look at this.

It's incredible. It's really, really cool. It's really, really cool. So, like, you know, those guys, they grew up with nothing. but there were a few friends that got together and they figured they were working in restaurants through family restaurants and then they came up with their own breakfast idea

boom they turned it around and then other guys who worked under them open other restaurants competitors and those chains started going up and then they're competing and then guys who worked under that you guys got at their own restaurant and like now if you come to Montreal it's crazy how many amazing

high-end very nice breakfast restaurants we have very catroth here it's very catrothed Could you guys come out this way? Because I feel like we have like two out in B.C. I'm telling you, you guys have nothing compared to us for breakfast. Nothing. This is the spot for breakfast.

That's fantastic. Yeah. The other part about working with kids is like putting yourself out there and letting yourself be that role model is something I find, as you said, people are willing to do. Like I'm on council for my community. So I get to see the growth going on in the community, in the development and the people who are really putting themselves out there. But there's almost this responsibility that mentors have, people with knowledge, have to go and share that wealth of knowledge and experience with others. And again, that's what makes fighters so interesting is because you're willing to come on and share your story.

But when I reach out to some professors or some dentists, it's kind of like, no, I don't want to go out into the spotlight. Like, I don't want that role. But that's kind of necessary in order for people to figure out how they fit into this world. Yeah, I agree. And also, like, if you're a mentor, you want to teach them the real stuff. you want them to be successful, right? Why would you waste anybody's time?

Unless you're evil. You know what I mean? So, like, it's really important to then, once you realize you're a mentor, you have to continue doing what you're doing, and then also realize what is it that I'm really doing? Because a lot of people, they're great, but they don't even know why, what are the small pieces that make them great? And then they realize as they try to, you know, articulate it or pass on the knowledge,

you know, like sometimes you see a lot of greats that their kids aren't great. It happens more often than not. Yeah. Not every great athlete or every great musician or every great entrepreneur passes that on. A lot of times their kids just end up being spoiled or whatever or become drug addicted or like, just because your success doesn't mean you're going to be able to pass that on. You know, so I feel like even to be a good mentor, it takes a lot of deep self-reflection and understanding what makes you so great.

And not a lot of people can articulate that or pass it on to anybody else. Yeah, there's that difference between like when I first learned about old money and new money and how like some people get the money and then they spend it immediately. Most people who win the lottery end up spending it instantly or misspending it because they've never known what it's like to manage that kind of money. They don't end up succeeding, but the people who instill values and their kids support them, teach them how to run businesses. I don't know if you've heard of Patrick Bet David, but he talks a lot about this in his interview with Chris Williamson about like how do I support my kid and face. enough adversity where they're not like a spoiled brat but not so much as I went through where like I was literally striving to just keep food in the house yeah I mean as a parent is a very delicate balance because I don't want my kids to think

we're rich so much that they think that all the problems I can buy it and then when they grow up they could expect me to solve their problems with with with money I can just throw money I didn't buy their problem away it doesn't work like that you know I want them to try to I want them to to live without me eventually. Like, basically, I want this bird to fly. I want this bird to leave the nest. You know, that's the goal.

Like, that's why I'm always trying to think in the future, like me, my brothers, my cousins. My cousins are really good, too. Like, we're always, you know, giving each other ideas because we have kids different ages. So we talk about the experiences of each age and what they did as a solution and what they regret, you know, because sometimes the solutions that they came up with ended up backfiring, right? No one's perfect. You know, there are certain things you're going to get wrong.

It's normal. But we also share it. to give our other cousins a chance with their younger ones when they get there, right? So we're very open about discussing that kind of thing. And it's a very hard problem to solve, balancing how much you can give them and how much to withhold from them. But it's because if you withhold too much, you create a resentment and then you're going to have to support them because they refuse to do anything.

Or you can give them so much that they're paralyzed to do anything. right so you have two opposite pitfalls here and you got escape into the middle man and it's not easy it's not easy so i'm still working on it so it's a tough cookie to crack i'm just i'm doing my best to uh to keep them in the middle but we'll see how it goes man beautiful my last question and i can't thank you enough for taking the time i've learned so much and i just enjoyed talking to you um it's my pleasure to be here what's next for 2024 what are you hoping to see more fights more fights more money I got problems

I got kids no kidding no no definitely more fights two fights a year three fights really excited to just keep the ball rolling keep it going I'm really excited to just show more of what I can do you know that's really my main goal for that

like for my career wise is to put two fights in a year three fights in a year and in terms of family you know I'm doing some rentals in the house make the living space even nicer and just, you know, taking some trips with the kids whenever we can. A lot of bonding, educating them, things like that. And keeping them on the straight and narrow, man, keeping the kids out of the chain and narrow, you know, just raising them.

Raising them is, you know, it's one of my favorite things to do. I'm so grateful. It's always such a pleasure chatting with you. Can you remind people how they can keep up to date with your journey? Yeah, guys, you can follow me at Ariel Ho-Wan. No, kidding. at AMA Zabia on Instagram and on the M-M-A hour every Monday

I'm there and that's just on Instagram and also guys if you want to learn any of our skills you can go on jujik club.com and you can download some of my brother's instructional video videos. Can you spell that?

J-J-J-G-C-L-J-I. J-U-J-I-C-L-U-B dot com. I'm going to sign up. Yeah, well it's not a monthly thing it's like a per order. So let's say it's like a bike. one DVD set, let's say, about like leg locks. Sure.

Or you bought one on like takedowns, one on boxing. Okay. You know, so he sells like these different DVDs. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I look as crisp as you, but I think I can. Yeah, you're going to get there, man. It's a nice footwork. Actually, my brother teaches some really nice footwork skills.

It's very important, right? Because you can't punch without feet. Yeah, yeah. You know, so you got a cordy in your hands and your feet together. So that'd be interesting, guys, if anybody's interested. And it's always a pleasure to be on here, Aaron. So I'm very grateful for you to have me on. Well, I'm going to go start fasting now.

and I get to work on my 72-hour fast. I'm going to do the cold plunge. Do the cold plunge. When you do the 72-hour fast, film your reaction to eating. Okay. And then maybe we can add it in the next interview after you tell me. Yeah.

Then we can do a little clip. I'll love to see it. Okay, sounds good. We will run nice. Okay, great. Thank you again for doing this. Thank you very much. I'm just smiling the whole time.

It was amazing. Well done. Yeah, it was great. I love being with you guys, man. You guys are the best. honestly like it's very refreshing you know it's not always superficial stuff you guys get to give me a chance for people to know me better you know and i really appreciate that you're just such a fun person you've just got this energy you got this smile you got the energy you got the energy

you too man you guys are great man i always i always feel welcome and i feel very relaxed with you guys okay good i feel like you want to get the best out of me there's no there's no catch you know so that's what makes me feel good oh i'm so happy to hear that means a lot coming from someone who's so thoughtful. Thank you very much. You know, MMA communities are very harsh. So you guys are great. Thank you.

Perfect. Well, enjoy the rest of your day. Tim, do you have anything else you want to follow up with? No, I found it amazing. Interesting thing that twigged for me is with business, you have this built-in deadline. And so you can see your status or your accumulation as you go. This month's better than the last.

And you come to the center. if that's your year end and you have that deadline built in and I never thought about that in comparison to the new year's resolution with no deadline so I mean I think that's the point I feel like it's the opposite who cares about when you start right what's when are we going to make it let's make it you know a good point yeah thank you sir yeah guys have a great day and if ever we want to do something else maybe when I have a fight or whatever you let me know I'm all yours a fight With you? No, I mean, if, before one of my fights.

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought he just challenged you to a fight in there. I'm thinking, Eric, after the 72-hour fast, before your first meal, we're fighting. I want to get you nice and we're weak. I was thinking if it's a good thing you're on opposite ends of the country, if that's the case. I'll move up to the Yukon to stay safe.

All right, guys, enjoy. Sounds good. Thank you, guys. Bye. That was really, really good. Yeah. I was thinking, boy, he's already interviewed him. I wonder what they'll talk about. But it was, it was just amazing. Just the way you kind of kicked it off from where you left off and then really dug into fitness, nutrition. And this whole deep dive into fasting was fascinating. I learned a lot. And it's just motivating when you know somebody else has done it. And I kind of do it. And he's obviously doing it way better. So motivation for the new year, you know? cool for sure what's your plan what are your resolutions what are your deadlines well now I

realize I don't need resolutions that's my takeaway from a personal aspect I COVID did a number on me I used to work out regularly and then got away from it and I used to walk a ton and so I want to get back to that which a shower in the building if I'm not mistaken for all your workouts right Exactly. And how often does that thing get used? Never often lately. Wow. So that actually allowed me to, I've read in air quotes more than 400 audiobooks because I did that

while walking and so I now have a whole bunch of credits on Audible and haven't been digging into that as much. So I'm going to get back to that. Yeah. It seems like a great idea. Where do you walk in the area? or long distances to work? Typically, like, a 5K walk around.

I live off of the river near Keith Wilson, so I need to get back to that. There you go. Well, I'll check in with you, and we'll find out how that walk-in's going in the new year. Sounds good. Remember to like, subscribe, comment, do all the things.

Send it to your friend. They need to know about this. yeah this is a definite must listen episode much much lessen must uh however you consume bigger than me let's go