The Bossticks - The Missing Ingredient To Losing Weight & Building Lean Muscle Ft. Kion Founder Angelo Keely

Episode Date: October 19, 2022

#507: On today's episode we are joined by Angelo Keely, the founder and CEO of Kion. Kion is a wellness and supplement brand focused on human peformace. Today Angelo joins the show to discuss the importance of essential amino acids to build muscle, lose weight, and maintain bodily function. We also discuss how to move past trauma and perform to the highest levels of human potential.  This episode is brought to you by KION Visit www.getkion.com/skinny to receive an exclusive offer and receive 20% off your order of Aminos.  Produce by Dear Media

The following podcast is a dear media production. This episode is brought to you by Keon. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you alone for the ride. Get ready for some major realness.

Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. Aha. I'm looking for help and I accidentally provoke a fight. and they stabbed me twice in the back, and they stabbed me in the knee. They beat the crap out of me. When that happened, it was the beginning of my adulthood, right? It was a very fast, hard transition to, whoa, life is fragile. Everything you do has an impact in your life.

It was an immersive right of passage. And so from that point on, I embraced a health journey that has, like, made me who I am today. Welcome back, everybody. Welcome back to the Skinny Confidential, him and Her her show throwing a little curveball this week out the little Wednesday episode. A little not so expected from us, but here we are. We're full of surprises. That clip is from our guest of the show today, Angelo Keeley. And today we're talking all about proteins, amino acids, essential building locks for the body. This is a really interesting episode that I'm sure

you guys are going to find very compelling. He also tells his story, which is so wild. He talks about being stabbed, almost killed, bus accident. It's a wild journey. And I have to tell you the reason that I am in love with aminos is because of this episode. I've been taking two scoops of the mango after or during my workout. And I really, really like it. I think one of the biggest takeaways here is so many of us are working so hard to optimize our health, our body, our minds. And we may all be doing it at a deficit, especially if you're not getting the amino.

So on this episode, we dive into how essential the amino acids are for the bio. body where to get them, what they can do. And honestly, it's a game changer because it is going to supercharge the results you're getting both in body, mind, results in the gym, performance-wise. And it's honestly very simple and easy to do. You should also know they have a code for you. All you have to do is go to get kion.com slash skinny. You can use the code. Like I said, I recommend the mango aminos and their coffee. Their coffee is legit. It's no mold, no pesticides. We'll get into it in this episode. On that note, let's welcome Angelo, the founder of Keon, to the skinny confidential him and her show.

This is the skinny confidential, him and her. Okay, I am shaking up some aminos on air for you guys. Michael, I'll let you kick it off because I feel like you have a little bit of a story with this situation. While you're shaking the things, I got to understand. I was going to jump. We have the team help us with these briefs. And we always figure out, like, where are we going to get to go with this guy? What kind of story we're going to tell?

it says here, nearly stabbed and beaten to death at 16. I can't imagine what your pickup line for her was. You went deep right away. It took 10 years, but we're here. You go right at the most hardcore content right off the bat. Well, because this is not something we see in all of our briefs, as you can imagine. Yeah, yeah, I haven't met another person that's had that experience. What is the background here?

How does this happen? I think what's actually helpful maybe is give like the context of my family because it kind of fits into this whole story then, which is I was raised in a family here in Austin. I was actually born in Wimberley at home. Anyone in the Austin, Texas area knows that, that town. And my parents had a natural health food store and a natural health food restaurant. And my dad had been like in the supplement business. So we were very crunchy, like very hippie, alternative health nut type family. So I mean, I never went to a doctor until I was like seven. And I was like, I'm on vitamins from a young age and amino acids, which I'm sure we'll talk about today.

Probably like one of the first things I remember my mom giving to me as like a like a vitamin supplement. Well, early. So she knew early. Yeah. I mean, I'm like three. Like she was a master swimmer and a health nut. So like we would take aminos at the gym and she'd be like, Angie, can't you feel it? You know, like so it was early on. You know, I think like most people, you're raised in a family with certain types of values and beliefs. And it's just like you almost can't tell what you're like what is your belief versus what's your family's belief because it's just. It's just like who you are, right? I'm grateful for that context I was raised in. They were also business people and entrepreneurs, which has been a big part of my life, obviously. Naturally, as I got

into middle school, I started to push back. I started to like want to explore everything on my own, try everything. I was very social as most entrepreneurial type people are. I got into drugs and to partying. Yeah, I mean, I just did a lot of drugs and partying and experimentation. Would you consider yourself like borderline addict at that? Or it was just like, experimenting like most young kids? You know, I think that's a tough thing to talk about with young people, like whether you're an addict or not, because the brain is in a very unique stage from 12 to 26. People think that adolescents just last like 12 to 18. No, your brain starts changing at age 12 and it lasts all the way to 26. And it's dramatically different

from the rest of before that and later in your life. And inherently during that time period, you are in a way programmed to be hyper-literal. So take all these things like hyper-literally to take tons of risks naturally because you're trying to push away from your family to like be safe and be able to get away from them. And it encourages really bizarre behavior, like extremely risky behavior. You're trying to refine your social group. It's all this stuff that like doesn't mix very well with drugs. Sure. And so I mean, I would say I wouldn't put myself in an addict box at that time in my life.

I think I was like, I was like a wild, I was a wild kid in Austin. Yeah, maybe that's not the best way to frame it. I hear what you're saying. I think more what I was asking was this like something you were doing every day. Was it like, would you go out of? I mean, I was like, I was like maintaining what I had to maintain in school. But I was like very plugged into like the party culture at my school and having fun. I mean, I wasn't like the kid skipping school just to do drugs.

I mean, it was very oriented around. Partying. Partying social girls. Yeah. I mean, like friends. It was like that was, that's what it was all about. I had taken psychedelics before. And I was also like really into music.

Like music was like one of my main passions. I played a ton of music. And I think that almost opened me up more to like psychedelics. I think that if you have an artistic inclination, then the kind of psychedelic realm can seem like really exciting and intriguing. And if you're 15, 16 years old can seem like really intriguing. So I think I like that. I thought it was really cool.

but one time I took way too much and I was actually at a too much what LSD okay yeah so I think I took like a hit and then I my friend was like do you want more and I was like all right I mean we'd actually been playing music and however I remember it he gave me a lot more and I actually don't know how much more it was like a vile thing so it was a lot more and I just lost my mind you know I think people today talk about like ego death or like whatever is like in the popular culture around plant medicine I mean, I had a psychotic break. I had, I lost my mind. Like, I was really scared. I thought I was dying. I thought I was like my, I felt like I was melting. And how long, how long is this lasting? I don't know exact time period, but it's probably like a couple hours in. I'm like melting, you know, and I'm

trying to look for help. And I'm in a neighborhood that is not like the best neighborhood. It's not that bad of a neighborhood. It's not too far from here, but this is 22 years ago. So it's like Austin's not quite as developed and nice. And I'm looking for help and I accidentally provoke a fight with these other younger guys who are a little bit older than me, but they're clearly a lot more hardcore than me. And they stabbed me twice in the back. And they stabbed me in the knee. And they beat me, they beat the crap out of me. And basically, I wind up found in this kind of like little drainage ditch area kind of thing. And I remember this guy. I mean, I don't really remember the whole experience that well. And this is all while you're on LSD too. Yeah. This is this is not just like

on LSD having a good trip. Like, I'm already like melting. Having a bad trip and then you're getting stabbed and beaten. This is like everyone's worst nightmare with this kind of medicine. But keep going. Yeah. This is the worst. This is the worst nightmare. This is the worst trip.

This is the worst trip. Yeah. I mean, I'm not trying to like claim it. But yeah, no, I mean, listen. People talk again about like ego deaths and all these journeys and stuff. And I'm like, man, I get it. I remember this guy. I must have been some like man who found me.

I don't know if it's like he was with the police. to the ambulance or something. And he was this guy like in a cowboy hat. And I remember him and he's like, you're okay, man. And like, I remember that. And then I basically remember like I knew I was in the care of the emergency people. And I just kind of like let go. And I remember just like falling.

Like I felt like I was like I had released, like I had surrendered because I was in such panic before then. And then I woke up a few days later. And I was in a hospital bed. And because I had been, you know, on drugs and I had been provoking these things. I was handcuffed to my bed and with police officer next to me. And I was just completely black and blue. And I had emergency abdominal surgeries that had to cut all the way down my abdomen.

Holy shit. And my spleen was barely nicked. Why did they have to do that emergency surgery? Because you were bleeding so much? I mean, I think they assume if you get stabbed with a huge knife twice in your back, like they have to just cut you open and look and see what's happening. Wow. And I was very lucky.

All the only thing that happened was my spleen was barely nicked. But my pettelotendin was severed. entirely. So they had to actually pull my pettel tendon back up to my knee and reattach. I still have a cord in my knee. Wow. Yeah, so that's the story. What did your parents think? I just had a son. And I'm like thinking, oh my God, what if this happened to my son? I would be fucking losing it. What was your mom and dad saying during this? And this is a whole new perspective for me now. You just met my seven-year-old daughters here. I have a nine-year-old son and a seven-year-old daughter. And even doing, you know, interviews like this are a conversation where if I'm willing to

share this openly, right? And they're going to listen to this one day. Like, how do they, just in the whole context of being part of a family, being part of generations and people that love you and that care about you and you love them and you care about them and like this kind of bizarreness occurring. You know, I think it was that bizarre for my parents. I think that they were really scared and they obviously loved me. And I had always been someone that would push limits, but I was always someone who was thoughtful, interest worthy, and cared. Like I wasn't like, I wasn't like the dude that was like messing with people. I was like pushing my own limits consistently. So it wasn't some crazy off brand for some crazy thing to happen to me. I have more,

unfortunately, I have a couple more almost as crazy stories as these that happened later in my So I think for them, it's like just so grateful that their kids alive and that he didn't die because lots of other people die in these kinds of situations. And, you know, I'm sure questioning what could we have done to protect him? Is there anything we could have done? But it's tough. I was pretty, like I said earlier, about like the brain development of adolescence. Like, they're in a pretty different place.

They can be pushing away pretty hard. And if they're intelligent or if they think they're intelligent or they like to be advanced, interest just, you know, it pushes you that much more. So I don't know what else they could have done. And I don't think that they thought more than, I think they just felt grateful I was alive. Have you ever done psychedelic sense? Yeah. And was the experience anything like that? I hope not. It was never, there's never been anything like that. And I think my whole, I mean, that was when I was 16. Right. So you've evolved. I have evolved. But, you know, there were periods when that happened, it was the beginning of tying back to what I was saying earlier about

like my childhood. It was the beginning of my health journey. Like it wasn't like, it was the beginning of my adulthood, right? It was a very fast, hard transition right of passage to like, whoa, life is fragile. Everything you do has an impact in your life. If you don't do something, it does something. If you do do something, it does something. The thoughts you have in your mind, you know, create your life. Like it was, it was an immersive right of passage. And so from that point on, I embraced a health journey that has like made me who I am today. And that included at first not taking any substances. It was like, I wanted to be really not sober for the sake of being sober, but I wanted to be clear of mind. You know, I wanted to like just sort out what was going

on inside of me. But then there's been other parts of that journey that have been different than that. My ex-boyfriend got hit in the face with a baseball bat and all of his teeth fell out and he had to get all new teeth. Dentures. His entire face was broken, fucked up. And he woke up in that hospital bed and had an epiphany in high school about the same age as you. When you woke up, was there an epiphany? Like he had, do you have some kind of epiphany of like, oh my God. I know you started your health journey, but did you wake up and just look around and be like, what is going on?

I woke up and it was like a dream. That's what he said too. It was like a, it was like this associative. Yeah. It's weird now. I've only found the language in the last couple of years, but I have this language like my life is my dream is my life is my dream, which is kind of a weird psychedelic loopy poem thing. But I really do find that like what just like real life is and what dream life is is like more similar than we think. And maybe there's some element of like, you know, because we talk about it in like spiritual language, there's waking up or being born again or all these types of things. There was definitely a sense of like, whoa, like, but it was almost like I was

waking up into a dream. The luck. I mean, I don't know how else you go through that and survive and call it anything other than luck. To your point, I think about my childhood and being young and reckless and, you know, doing things. You just don't realize what you don't know back. You don't realize how quick things can change and how dangerous the world can be. And you just go through and there's not, it's difficult. It's not like somebody can come in, at least in my case, and be like like, hey, quit doing that because like this will, you're like, no, not, it won't happen to me. Might happen to other people. It won't happen.

And it's like, I think a lot of young people go through this. And unfortunately, sometimes it doesn't always end up the way that it ended up with you. Like people lose their lives being reckless and doing things just because they don't have enough experience in life to kind of deal with the dangers that can arise from these sort of things. It's scary because you think about all the loss potential. And like someone like yourself, like I guess in a roundabout way, my question is is when you have that life-altering near-death experience, it must be such an immediate perspective shift. Does that like immediately launch you into like, okay, I've just, like, I'm now matured by

10 years. I'm moving forward. Like I've left kind of adolescence behind and I'm now have to be a man. I do think there's an element of a really big dose of time, you know, which is a weird thing to say, but it's similar. And I think that's one of the things that some experiences, some drugs can give you. They give you a lot of time, like a lot of experience really fast, which is, can be the benefit of them, can also really be the danger? Sure. Because like, can you metabolize that much experience all at once? So I wouldn't say that like, such, like, that happened and then suddenly I was like, wow, I'm like, I'm as wise as a 26 year old, you know, but it did dose me with amount of time and experience that changed the whole trajectory of my life.

Like, yeah, I mean, that, I ended up, so I was happened when I was 16 and and a half. And it inspired me to move out when I was 17. So I became emancipated when I was 17, started supporting myself and really started trying to develop my, not really career then, but like, yeah, just supporting myself and learning how to do that. Yeah, I mean, it's changed. I am a person who ever since then has tried to, I think Thoreau said it, like suck the marrow out of life. That's a great thing. Isn't that good? I love that one. Yeah. Well, because I want it. I don't want it. You need a tattoo of a bone marrow on your own. No, but it's like, you know, when you see young kids that go through an immense trauma and it like makes them grow up so much faster and almost

rob them in a way of their childhood. You know, like we know these kids that maybe they come from a broken family or they lose a parent or, you know, something happens to them. And it like forces them to grow up so much faster than they would if they just went at the normal pace of adolescence. So that's, I'm wondering like in your experience if you kind of like felt the same way. I think that did happen. Although it's tricky to say, you know, I think if it had happened to me younger. Like you think about whatever stage of development that you're at when a significant life event or trauma happens, it's going to have a certain type of impact. I also think it separates you from the people who are your age. All of a sudden you feel like separate.

Like if you say something happens to you at 18, you don't feel 18 anymore. That did happen to me. It kind of broke me apart from my age. group and it put me in a context then where when I went to college like I wasn't drinking I didn't do drugs I didn't do any that stuff I was like focused on learning and education and growth and focused on like I mean I was 17 and I was barefoot running around the hike and bike and bike trail and doing cold exposure and heat treatment and you know measuring everything I ate and reading Susie Fallon and like doing all this stuff that was like who's Susie Fallon ancestral diet type stuff yeah and then you go to the Himalayas the

hills of the Himalayas and you get involved in a deadly bus accident at 21. Yeah. I'm sure when I called my dad and told him this one, it's like, it was scary. But he was like, well, I guess if he got through getting stabbed on acid, you know, at 16. And there's no drugs involved in this one. There's no drugs involved in this one. No, this. Yeah, so actually what I ended up doing.

So this journey that kicked off when I was 16, I would say kind of kicked off this experience, set me apart from other people, personal development journey. I ended up going to school, a college actually, and studying religion and philosophy primarily, really because I was just trying to figure out like life. And it was very much not like theology, but like history of religions, just trying to understand cultures and meaning and place. I'd also gotten really into yoga when I was in high school, like 17, trying to just heal myself and, you know, figure stuff out. By the time I was 21, I really wanted to go to India. I wanted to go to India.

And so I arranged a trip to go do service work at an orphanage in the south for about a month, and then to do this advanced program at an ashram in the foothills of the Himalayas. Really cool, like right on the Ganges, like literally on the Ganges. And I was towards the end of this yoga commitment I had made at the ashram. I'm a pretty talkative guy and get to know people, et cetera. And so I got invited by this guy had met there to go visit his village for a couple days. And so I was riding a bus up in the foothills and anyone who's been to India before or has not been there before, they drive in such a way that you constantly are going into oncoming traffic. Like you're just going into oncoming traffic to get around people. It's almost terrifying if you come from a more like rules based. But they know how to do it. They somehow do it. Somehow. But not maybe not all the time. So I'm, you know, I'm up in the foothills. And actually this is a case where the buses aren't really like going into each other's oncoming traffic. But just a two lane. you know, one bus is going up, one bus is coming down thing. And it's always, like, by this time

I've been there a couple months, so I've kind of, I'm not like, like panicking every time I'm in traffic, which is funny. I ended up moving to India five or seven years after that and lived there for like, lived and worked there for a year and a half and drove the whole time. So I clearly can metabolize trauma, as we'll see. It just happened to be that my bus and another bus, the, the backs of our buses, it's like, you know, right on a curve, right at the wrong time we're passing each other. And my bus and the other bus just barely collide, and their bus just tips off the cliff. And I remember looking out,

and I could like see the people's eyes, like this one woman's eyes. And they just, and just tumble, I mean, hundreds of meters. Oh, shit. And there's no, like, emergency services up there. There's nothing. Nobody's coming.

No, no one's coming. And so, like, after a while, there's a couple other young guys. And in the north, they don't really speak English that much. Like, in southern, South India, they speak English more. So I can't really communicate with people.

But I'm like, yeah, let's go. So just spend basically the whole day, you know, six hours try to get down there. And then yeah, it's just a lot of gore, you know, dead people. But there were few that were living. And so we kind of built these makeshift stretchers and just spent the whole time trying to carry them up this cliff and eventually brought them to the top of the cliff. And then there was kind of, there was time. I ended up going back down and just helping to get the last guy. There was one guy actually inside the bus. You can imagine the bus is just clobbered. There's one guy inside the bus and just kind of ripped it apart piece by piece so we could finally get him out. I mean,

after hours of this, I kind of go back to the top of the hill and I just like hitchhike back to the little town and call my dad and tell him what happened. You know, one of the most interesting things about this, though, I said, I wasn't thinking of it when I said I can metabolize trauma, but I never knew this before. But when I went back to my room at the ashram, I just laid down. And I actually, I listened to John Coltrane, Blue Train, which is this album from like my child that I love this like jazz album. And I just shook, like violently shook. And only after years later, 10 years after that, I ended up working in behavioral health care and learned that that is what people do, like animals do in a healthy trauma response. After you have some type of physical trauma,

you'll actually shake it out. Like your nervous system will release it. The work of like, and what happens if you don't shake it out? It gets stored within your system. So is that like where PTSD might come from? Yeah. So I mean, I'm not obviously an expert in this field. But yeah, exactly that. So actually the ability to shake it out after a physical trauma dramatically improves your later experience of how you remember and process that trauma. Is that what you see dogs? Like something happens and they do that way. And they shake. Yes. So it's been a study actually a lot. It's interesting. Yeah. And so I just did that and I was like, am I crazy? But I did it intuitively. And I do think that I was able to process that one, I don't know, better or something.

Can you actually make your body shake after a trauma yourself? Or does that? Does it have to be your body doing it involuntary? That's a good question. I think it's about reaching a level of being relaxed or of kind of like release and then your body will do it. Huh. So maybe like people that can't do they're like just they're pent up so much and they're burying it so deep that they just like it stays in them.

It's almost like the cold plunge, the parasympathetic like shape. It is exactly that. Huh. Yeah. I mean, it's playing on the same framework of like the parasympathetic nervous system. That makes sense. you spend years working in Europe and India in your 20s. At this point, are you still really into health and wellness?

Are you even thinking about the company that you're going to start? Is that even a seed of an idea? I think the seed, there's not a seed of an idea. I think there's the seed of who I am is always there. I always go back and it's like, gosh, if I were going to start a company for three-year-old Angelo that would make his mom happy, it would be like an amin. I was in coffee company. You know, it would be like, that would be the company for my mom and my dad, you know, to be proud

to me. So I don't think it was, it wasn't some intentional thing. I was like scoping out and perfecting in those years, but it's always been in me. But in that time, no, in that time, I think it was more. So if there was a, if there was a psychological impact from that whole bus experience thing, I think I actually became less health oriented and more success and performance oriented. And I always have that thread. The big threads inside me are kind of like fun is always number one.

Like having fun and playing is always number one. But then it's like trying to be like healthy and balanced or like win. And suddenly the desire to win and to be successful took over, which maybe was some form of like a defense mechanism. I don't know. So no, my focus at that time was like, I want to live overseas. I want to get really good other languages.

I want to be this international businessman. And like it was a younger kind of like 20 something male. I want to win, crush the world thing. So it was fun, though. I mean, I did. I learned a bunch of languages. I mean, I got to really like getting to live in France in a few years for a few years and become fluent in French and just like experience this whole other side of me that I had never, I didn't know foreign languages as a kid. So learning of foreign languages as an adult, you see a whole another side of yourself, like how you might express yourself like in these other, this whole frame. And it was an awesome adventure too. So I met my now wife at Barton Springs in 2006,

but then we didn't really start dating to 2007. And then I invited her to go to France with me. And she quit her job and she moved to France with me. So we lived, we got to live overseas for several years together. It's a pretty awesome adventure. Then basically, I should have done something like that. Yeah. Well, you didn't take me to France to live overseas. I took you to San Diego, Lord. So all that basically, you know, what really clicked was she wanted to, she was like, yo, I want to have babies now. Let's go. And I was like, you can do it in India.

She's like, no, I can't do it in India. She honestly just really wanted to be in Boulder. Like, that's where she wanted to be, even though we had met and been from Austin. So I actually went on a, I mean, I got very into meditation all these years. Like, I've done so many 10-day meditation retreats and so much meditation. Just quiet meditation. Like, you don't say anything for 10 days. Yeah.

My favorite retreats are 10 days. Okay. No reading, no writing, no talking, no eye contact. What do you do? You do 10 hours a day of meditation. And then if not, you're like sleeping or walking. That probably helped you heal. It did.

I bet you because you're introspective and you can just, you can really sit with your feelings and figure out why you're feeling a certain way, I bet. Totally. Do you have to work your way up to a practice like that? Or can you just straight up go into a 10 day? You can straight up go into a 10-day, and as you can imagine, I think this goes back to the dose of time conversation we had earlier. That's a very high dose of that kind of stillness and meditation that will have psychological repercussions on you that I think then you have to be prepared to kind of work through after. But you can totally do it.

I mean, people go through all kinds. People go through worst, people go through terrible trauma. Sure, sure. You can totally do that. And it will feel, you know. But I guess what I'm asking. Like you just took a lot of meditation. I know.

But also for me, like if I did that, I know I would come out into the real world and it would be sensory overload. Like I feel like these lights would bother me. His voice would bother me. Like, like, no, I just mean like it would be like you're going to turbo because already already when I meditate in the morning and he comes at me. Like it's you become like quiet with yourself. So I can't even imagine 10 days.

was the world like the traffic and the horns and the ambulance, it's like intense. Well, I guess what I'm asking was maybe in a different vein. It was like, it must take some kind of discipline to go somewhere like that and then just not say or do anything besides meditate and walk and sleep. I mean, it definitely takes discipline. That's what I'm saying. It's not the easiest things to just go and not do anything for 10. I mean, you're doing something, but you know what I mean, for 10 days straight. I would just say, though, a lot of people do it.

You two could absolutely do it. the listeners this audience could do it. You just don't know you can do it yet. Think about all the things in your life that you thought you never could do or never would do. And it does help if you sign up for a program or something that's offered because then like someone else, it's like working out. Sure. Like every, you guys and everyone here can work out dedicated every single day for an hour and a half doing the perfect workouts. Yep. Will you? I mean, it's hard. It's harder than like hiring a personal trainer and the making you do it, right? Or going to a class. So similarly, if you go to a retreat like this, someone else is facilitating it, right?

They're holding the space for you. They're holding you accountable. So in that place, you have to like be, you have to quit, right? You have to be obnoxious and you have to create a scene or you have to quit versus just like, I'm going to adhere. I'm going to show up. This person's in charge. I'm just going to do whatever they tell me to do. So it's hard, but it's not as hard as it's not like I self-facilit.

I've never done this by myself. I might have to get some information on some of these retreats. Updix says you've done so many of them. I'm like, which... If you can be quiet for 10 days, I will... I don't know. No way. You're so goddamn chatty.

When I wake up in the morning, it's the question that my little sister's staying with us right now, she goes, Lauren, I cannot believe what he talks to you about in the morning. It's like the most aggressive, intense shit the second my eyes... Like, what is it? Just things you want to know about or interested in? He'll be asking me, like, plans for our future in 10 years, our bank accounts, Quick books. No, no.

I don't talk to. Now you're exaggering. I mean, you're making it up. I get into like random things. What was I interested in the other day? I get like, I read like something in the newsreeper.

Talking to me about the fucking hobbit the other day. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was like into the blue wizards of the grid. Whatever the hell I was into. It's intense.

Yeah, obviously I've built a career chatting and then I've built a business that does more chatting and then like now we're, I'm going to send you away for tennis. I'm going to get him a gift card for his birthday. What sold me, what I think, the reason I think I'm drawn to this point.

part of the conversation so much is I think that someone like myself would benefit immensely from going somewhere and being quiet and disconnecting for X period of days and just not having this or this or you know that. Or me. Yeah. And I just think it would be an interesting experiment for me personally. I think you're right. I think that what you would discover if you committed to that kind of experience is how

much you're influenced by things outside of you that you actually don't want to be influenced by. Sure. do because my senses, and this is like most successful business people or successful people who are successful socially, is that you're really good at responding to people, right? And that's what I've found to. Like, I'm good at like someone throws a problem my way. Like I can respond to it or I can, you know, do witty conversation.

I can do all these responsive kind of reactive things well, which is great in a social situation. And like, that's how you become more successful. And my sense is if you've built the kind of thing that you guys have built here, you also have a lot of vision. and you have a lot of things that you guys really care about and that you really want. And when you take more time to slow down and take out all these other stimuli that are constantly coming at you and you clear them out, which is, this actually brings it right back to where the story started was, I was at a retreat in India, one of these in India. They're all over the world,

but I was at one of these in India. And I was kind of processing through like all my business career stuff and Carrie, who's my wife, like what she wants. And by the end of the 10 days, all the other bullshit had just burned away because I didn't have anything to latch on to. I couldn't write all about my business ideas, right? All it was was like, Carrie's stuff and business stuff and all these things and by the end it all just burned away and it was like, Carrie, I'm going to, we're going to get married now,

we're going to have babies now, we're going to go wherever she wants to go now. Okay, here's a life hack. Ladies, send your husbands, or send your boyfriends to a 10-day retreat and make sure they come out of that retreat saying your name. But what you're saying is it quieted all the kind of like BS and stuff that didn't really necessarily, you know, matter or that you shouldn't have necessarily been focused on at the time. And it made you focus on the stuff. It got me clarity in that moment. And I would say I've done other retreats.

And the end of the retreat was not Carrie. So sorry, not to scare you ladies. But at that time of my life, at the end, it was like, that's what's important. And literally, I quit my job the next day and moved from India two days later. I was like, clear, convinced, but I'm kind of like that too. Like I get clarity on something and boom, I move for it. I go for the next thing. And I would not have gotten there if I had not just taken the time to turn off all the other people talking to me. And even my own, because this is the thing that's, I think confusing sometimes. I think it's just other people talking to me that are,

I mean, I'm not trying to make it sound bad, other people. But like other people's needs or ideas or me trying to be validated by them or be successful in their eyes or to do list or to do list yeah but what happens is i actually have internalized them and i think it's me now i think all these things that i i think i want to do them but really it's like if i do them then these other people will like like like maybe i can make money or whatever these things are but like do i actually want to do them and you just have to like go inside for a while and listen to your own mind and see what it's saying to get clear about what is actually like, what do I actually want? What do I actually care about? What do I think is most important as this next step right now? And I'm not going to blame anyone else for it.

It's no one else's responsibility. It's like just getting clarity for myself and then making a choice and taking responsibility and going for it. So I think we should sign you up right now. Let's get online. And we're going to, we're going to roll you in the program. Honestly, I could use 10 days to myself. This sounds like a good idea. Let's send you off. You're going to go, you're not going do anything but sit there in silence and I'll be over here. Is it a beautiful setting? It's got to be a pretty setting. What is your just like a really quick side tangent before we get into Aminos? What is your meditation in the morning every single day now based off what you've done? That is such a good question. I have made this shift in the last year and a half to walking.

Walking meditation. Nival. Brava Khan does that. Yeah, I used to be really into sitting meditation. And now I go on like a, I basically walk from my house to this lake that's near my house and walk around the lake and walk back. And you don't bring your phone. You don't have any like stimuli. You just walk. It depends. Sometimes I bring my phone. So it's not like I'm not saying right now I do the super pure walking meditation.

So I'm in no way saying like I'm this guy that does pure form meditation every day. But my sense of how I get my needs met for that clarity is basically getting outside and going on this. walk every single morning. And sometimes I have my phone, I pick it up and I kind of like follow up on something, right? So that's, that's at odds with all the other stuff I just talked about. But that's, that's what works for me now. The other thing I do is I love my shockty mat. You guys know those? It's like it's like a acupressure mat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So like the acupressure mat, I really, sometimes I do that. I'm going to dust the old acupuncture or acupressure mat off. I got it nude to match the house.

We have one. And we also have a pill. I'm going to put that on my ear. I'm going to put that on neck. That sounds amazing. They're pretty intense. I mean, it's like... I love... It sounds like everyone at this table likes intense, though. I'm just going to go ahead and say you like intense. Pull out the old bed of nails. I mean, honestly, if they had a bed of nails and actual nails, I feel like we would have that. I can make you one. No problem. Quick question two. How long is the walk? Is it 10 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour? It's about an hour to an hour 15. And that's your meditation for the day. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing, again, that's the thing that I find that if I do that, The whole rest of my day is different.

And I feel more grounded in myself. And the only other, I guess, selling point I put out there for walking and not saying instead of sitting meditation or whatever else you do is going back to like trauma-related stuff, left right brain hemisphere like interaction and the ability to basically synchronize them when they discovered EMDR. You guys know what EMDR is? Yes, I do. My sister's done that.

Okay, yeah. So EMDR was actually just the clinician who discovered that. like through walking because they realized she realized through walking that there's a left right brain hemisphere thing that happens. So I think that for myself too, maybe because I have like this intensely analytical side of me and then also this like it's funny, I'm even doing my right hand for this intensely analytical side of me and this like way more free flowing, creative, kind of visionary out there dreamy side of me. I think they're kind of in conflict sometimes and I actually think through walking I harmonize them.

Sounds like you. You got to try walking meditation, man. Yeah, I've struggled. I'm working on it, but I've struggled with sitting, but the walking thing sounds like I would like it a lot more. You just go for a walk. He's not like,

keeping my eyes closed. I'm experimenting with it. I'm trying to find like kind of my thing that works. Like she was into Joe Dispenza for a long time. I love Joe Spence. I really admire what he's done, but it's a little bit too like in my, I don't want to hear him talking to me.

Yeah. And I admire what he's done. Yeah. I say that. I have that same experience that like the way my mind is, I don't do well. I don't thrive being facilitated in meditation, in yoga, in a workout class. And those things like I just need to get in my own flow. Like I just need to get into myself. I don't know you guys. There's nothing better. This morning I woke up and did Joe to spend it for 26 minutes and then I did Wimhoff breath

after and I am like buzzed. I believe I believe that. It's like it's like a cocktail. I do think though that different people are potentially wired differently or have different needs. There's also maybe different phases. Like maybe we're in this situation for the next 20 years or something. And then suddenly we're like in our 50s or 60s and it's like, here's what I feel. Oh, I really like being led by maybe I'll change. Yeah. The phase that I'm in right now and going back to chat, he's like obviously we do a lot of this. We're having a lot of like intense conversations. And then, you know, this is my side that the day thing is like there's 70 people. that work in this business that, you know, need some kind of attention from me every day. Two young kids and a three-year-old, a lot of, you know, wife. So it's like, it's a lot of noise. And so for me, I'm like, I need less noise when I'm going to do that. I want to be quiet. I want to sit with just myself. And so having somebody facilitate me like, oh my God, it's just another person in my brain. I really. This is really, really weird, but I taught my four-month-old to meditate. I like, like actually taught him to meditate with me.

And how- I know that sounds crazy. It doesn't sound crazy because my mom used to actually take me out to this bluff when I was little, but I wasn't that little. I was like two or three. And she would just meditate and I would just like sit there and do my own thing. Which is not normal at that age for you. Yeah, but what does it look like in a four month old? I think he's just asleep. So what, no, he's not. No, he's not. So he meditated every day when I was pregnant. And then now this morning we meditated for 30 minutes together. I held his hand and he laid there. His eyes were open. And he lays there. And he, he, he knows the prompt, the meditation. from when I was pregnant. Without fail,

she meditated every day of her pregnancy while he was in the world. And so he knows the voice of Joe Dispenza and he literally will lay there with his eyes open and just meditate. I know that sounds crazy. I believe that. I'm doing it every single day.

I even like then I did my breath work and I laid him on me and did the breath with him. He doesn't cry. He just sits there and meditates. I swear. Like Joe, Joe, is that you? Is he my dad, Joe? I actually have a similar story.

So we're not like of this religious affiliation, but there's this thing called the Gaia tree mantra in India. That is like one of the most oldest famous mantras. And I just love it. And so my wife and I used to like sing it and like chant it. It's just like kind of a calming thing to do. And when she was pregnant with both of our kids, I chanted it like at the womb. Like at the womb, not the womb, at her belly.

It was like a megaphone right at her crotch. Go of her vagina. No. At her belly, I would sing it. And then when both of them were born, we played it. Like, we just have this recording of it that we loved or whatever and we played it. And, like, still to this day, my kids, they'll be like, you know, will you sing that? And if I sing that, they just, like, go into, like, like, got to sleep, but they just go into, like, calm.

Yeah, because they are so crazy. It's like, frequencies. If you put on the frequencies at night, they, like, take it down. I mean, it's so true. I think, I believe in exactly what you're saying. I totally agree with you. If I ever get pregnant again, you can share. at my vagina.

Okay, perfect. Perfect. Joe to spin. You just need to memorize the Joe to spins meditation and then, and then chant it at her vagina. Maybe I can get Joe to come and yell at your vagina. Do breathwork on my clip. So you go through all of these experiences. Yeah.

And then in a weird kind of roundabout way, after you've fought for years to kind of like go off and be your own person, which you did, obviously, you kind of come back to your roots that you were brought up and you decide, okay. I'm going to lean heavy into wellness and amoe. Was that, did you think that out? Or was it just, like, felt familiar? Like, why? I didn't think it out.

I think it's more like having a set of values and watching how those values manifest in your life as you continue to iterate. That's what I'd say it looks like. So when I came to Boulder, I ended up working and leading a behavioral health care company that was really focused on, I would say, a much more, it was cash pay. So private and like we could do awesome behavioral health care. Like cool stuff like insurance won't pay for. And super holistic with health and nutrition and integrative psychiatry and like all this like really cool stuff. And I didn't think, oh, I want to get in that industry. But I just kind of wound up there just showing up

talking to people, you know, being me. And that made so much sense for who I was. Like almost if you trace it backwards like that is the 16 year old like the 16 to 20 year old me needed that. And this actually was a program for like young adults, basically for troubled young adults, just like I was. And so, you know, I somehow ended up there. And I don't know if it's like, it almost feels like I traced it backwards then. And so then once I healed that thing or worked through that, and I'm, you know, trying to figure out what's going to be next to my career and what I want to do and what I care about. I think I was always in a context of my family, too, where it was like weird to have a job. Like my parents, I don't never know my parents having, like, jobs or working for anyone else. So it was

always like I always thought I would be a business person. Yeah, then when it's like, I have a young family and it's like, what's kind of next and what do I care most about? What am I really passionate? What's something that's like I love? You know, what do I love? And I really have always loved nutrition and fitness. And I would say more than anything, this nutrition side of it. Like it's the thing that I think can, it's the foundation. It's like, it's the foundation that if you don't, if you don't do that right, if you don't do that well, all the other efforts that you make, they're just going to, they're going to be like half of what they could be. I mean, like, you can have the best mindfulness and the best fitness, but if you don't take

care of what you're putting in your body, like it really doesn't matter. Yeah. Like if you eat a bunch of really junky food, if you change the macros that you eat or you change the micronutrients that you eat, it directly impacts every single other thing that you do. And that's not to like, I don't know, like downgrade what the meaning of like physical activity is or of, you know, mindset or things like that. and you could maybe make the argument, well, if you don't have the right mindset,

then you won't choose the right foods. But I was raised in an environment where it's like we ate. We really thought about what we ate. But you can make the argument that it would be almost impossible to get the right mindset if you're treating what you're putting in your body like shit, right? If you're putting terrible things that are going to affect your hormones or inflammation levels or your brain or whatever, like it's very hard to get the mind right then. That's where I came from.

And so maybe this is the most important point. Rather than me coming and telling other people, like in the conversation we were having earlier about the meditation thing, right? Like, you know, is Lauren's thing right or is Michael's thing, right? I was raised and I have a belief system that what I put in my body and what nutrition is is the like one of the most, if not the most fundamental thing I need to focus on. So if I'm going to keep growing a career and trying to have integrity with the world and give my children something to be proud of in terms of what I work on and just like have meaning in life, focusing on doing something like making a functional food company and a supplement company

is where I can find the most meaning in life, where I can do like this greatest good because it's what I believe in. It's where I'm coming from. It's where, it's how my parents raised me. It's what all my experiences led me to. And again, that doesn't, I think there's other people that maybe find a calling to like be Joe Dispenza. So now it's going to be, and I don't, I don't know enough about Joe, but like, you know, to like to lead people in this whole mindset meditation approach and that's going to be the most important thing or someone else who's going to be totally focused on activity or a pastor thinks they're going to help people through bringing them to some experience of God through that. There's all these different things that people feel

callings to. I think the simplest thing is like this is my calling and I experience it that way. It doesn't mean that it's the most important thing. But I think it is. It really is though the hammer in the toolbox. I changed my eating drastically this pregnancy compared to my first one. when I had horrible postpartum depression and anxiety. And this one, I've implemented aminos. I've been eating tons of grass-fed meat. The weight is falling off quicker. I feel better. I feel clearer. And I'm eating a lot of vegetables, a lot of water. I'm just like really focused on that, whereas before it was like more carb heavy. And I noticed a big difference. Who needs aminos? That's a good question. I almost think we have to back out.

So I'm going to give you maybe an answer. It's more ambiguous than you like. Perfect. Everyone needs aminos. And the reason why everyone needs aminos, and I'm not saying like everyone needs Keon Aminos or some other dietary supplement is that aminos is short for amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks. So they're like the bricks that make up protein.

And protein, as everyone knows or not everyone knows, but I think people are generally familiar. When we talk about protein typically, we're thinking protein is. is one of the three macronutrients. You got protein, carbohydrates, and fat. But it is very different from the other two macronutrients. The primary role of fat and carbs for us, outside of like essential fatty acids that support

like brain function, et cetera, is to give you energy. You actually convert the fat or you convert the glucose into ATP that then your body burns to move. Proteins can be used for that, and the component amino acids that make up the proteins can be used for that, but the primary role is to replace the essential amino acids in your body that fuel you as a life form.

So if anyone's familiar with like thinking back to like your basic biology, right, like even DNA is made up of proteins. And it's the same types of proteins. Like these are different, these are different conglomerations of these proteins and how they're put together and how they're built and what they form in your body. But literally, so a little over half your body is water of the solid stuff that makes up your body, over half of it is proteins, and thus over half of it is amino acids. But one of the, one of the main things people don't realize about proteins and amino acids in your body is that

they're in a constant state of turnover. So the proteins in your body, let's make it simple and just talk about your muscle. But really, we're talking about your liver, your heart, your kidneys, your skin. Everything, yep. Inzymes, people talk about enzymes, those are proteins. You're neurotransmitters. So the chemicals in your brain that make you feel and think and have emotions, the precursors of those are amino acids or they themselves are amino acids. So like your whole experience of being, maybe not the fuel that you burn to move, but like your whole rest of your experience of living, those proteins are in a constant state of turnover. They're breaking down and then they're rebuilding themselves. So you get rid of the older proteins and you create new ones. It also is

the case that sometimes you need to be transferring around different amino acids to create different proteins in the body. Like suddenly now you need to be like if you have an injury, you're going to suddenly need to have more support in that area. So you're moving around the amino acids in your body. That's why the proteins are constantly breaking down and then being rebuilt. The thing is when you break them down, every time they break down, you lose some. They get excreted as urea. Yeah, I mean, you lose them.

They go out through your pee. And you must eat more. But you don't have to eat all amino acids. You must eat the essential ones. There are 20 amino acids that make up the protein, in your body, like your muscle tissue, and that make up the proteins that we would eat in plants or other animals. Of those nine are essential, and those nine are essential because your body cannot synthesize them. If you eat those nine, then your body can actually synthesize the other

11. It will make them. Your liver will like cook them up and make the other 11 for you to use to help build other tissues, et cetera. Now, there's benefits of eating those 11 directly because in your body doesn't have to make them all, but it must have those nine. Also, those nine, And this is what many people don't know when you get in the debate around plant or animal protein or what's a complete protein. We typically talk about a complete protein has all nine. And that's what makes it complete because it has all those nine essential. But the other really big thing people don't realize is that those nine are the are the active component of protein that stimulates muscle protein synthesis. So the thing that helps you rebuild the protein, you do not have to have the other 11.

not just because you don't have to have them because your body can synthesize them and make them. It will incorporate them when it builds your muscle. It'll use them as like a material. But they don't have to be present to kick off muscle protein synthesis. But the others do. All nine must be present at the same time. So literally if you are a human being, you need amino acids every single day. Okay.

So if someone is not getting all nine amino acids, what are the symptoms that they're experiencing? Like, are they tired? Are they hyper energy? Like, what are the experiences there? What's their their vibe if they're not getting them? A lot of different things because fundamentally, amino acids are going to control like all these things I just said, your organ functional enzymes, mood, et cetera. So for sure, if you are not getting enough of certain amino acids, you will have experiences of dysregulated mood. So you will have you, it's hard to say exactly what you're going to experience because overall, like, the brain is a very complex chemistry of many different neurotransmitters. Because you don't have the complete protein forms. But, but yeah,

but it is utilizing the essential amino acids to create the proper amount of the neurotransmitters to support healthy brain function. Can I give this to my two-year-old? Official language, you should check with your doctor. I give it to my kids. Wink twice if I should give it to my two-year-old. So let me ask you this. And I give it to my kids. That said, instead of like juice, I feel like if I just give her like a half a scoop, right? Well, so I think it's a good question. Like instead of juice. Like these, again, like amino acids and proteins and glucose and fats play different roles. So I wouldn't say it's a direct replacement for juice. Like I think that your, your child should get carbs. Okay. I would definitely recommend giving her child carbs and fats and proteins. And if your

child, if you have a hard time getting your child enough proteins, which I have that more of an experience with like older kids, like a seven-year-old who I just took the lunch and she only wants to eat pasta. I know. I was going to offer her skinny confidential keto and I'm like, that's a horrible influence. Oh, no, she would, she would eat it. She loves sugar. But with her, I am trying to get her to take essential amino acids as a supplement because she's not, she's not getting the protein that she needs.

She's not getting those essential amino acids. I want to talk about that for, not just for kids, but for the general population. Yeah. Why do we need to supplement now, right? And we evolved, obviously, getting these proteins before these supplements. So what's going on in our either food supply or whatever? ever supply that we're not, that we're needing to supplement now more. So I think this goes back to a question of what we're ultimately trying to achieve, which is kind of similar what I was saying

about Lauren. Like, well, I don't know that I would just replace it with the sugar water. If your kid's not getting any other, you know, carbs or glucose, then give it, give them that. But overall, in the history of the world, we've gone through different stages of different diets. And the stage that we're in today gives us the opportunity with modern science. to see what makes the human body perform optimally. And perform optimally can mean all different kinds of things. It's like, oh, I want to be an athlete, or I want to be thinner and more muscular looking, or I want to live a long time, be able to be active for a long time.

So from that context, and naturally, you know, like, people do live longer now than they used to live. Or it's like, I think it was like half of children before five years old died before like 1800. So clearly, like, health is an evolving for. But in today's world, if one's goal is to be vibrant and healthy, so get to be really active, that's like I can go running or I can lift weights or I can play sports with friends or all the different ways in which you might like to be active. I want to climb. I want to do paddleboarding on the lake, et cetera.

And I want to be easy and I want to have fun. You need a certain amount of protein and the essential amino acids that are within them. And we'll get into this in a second, like how much that is. Similarly, if you are in a situation in which you feel like you're overweight and you want lose weight, consuming more protein and the inherent essential amino acids or the essential amino acids that are in them are going to directly support that. I can kind of break down each one of these. I want to stay on that for a second because I do feel that people have been led astray as of recent on cutting more proteins to lose weight, right? Like people, like it's just,

and listen, we've talked about plant-based diets or veganism or, you know, whatever. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But I think that if you're going to take that a approach. It's very important to get the right of proteins and the right aminos because to your point, I think people have been given advice that you can maybe hit some of these fitness goals or weight goals without some of these things. And I just don't believe that to be true. You can cut a ton of calories and cut a bunch of protein and lose weight on the scale. Like literally you will lose weight on the scale. But the deal that people don't realize is that when you cut calories, like let's just say I have a daily, of a daily consumption of 2,000 calories and it

has a certain split of protein carbs and fat, and I cut that in half. And I cut down my protein intake. By reducing the protein intake, I am inherently not just cutting down on the amount of fat that I'm going to lose. I'm going to lose muscle. Yeah. Yeah. And that is these frail looks. That's what that's sorry. I should have. And it will make you, it will create a long term. It'll make it that much hard to lose weight in the future and you'll get a skinny fat composition. So if like people are trying to like, most people want to look tone, right? Yes. Well, I think from a health perspective, though, I think you're seeing a lot of people have a lot of health issues because they lose that muscle tone. And as they age, it's hard to get it back. And then when you don't have it back, you need your muscle to support your structure. And that's why you see all these people getting hurt later in life or having complications because they've lost that muscle structure by not thinking about these things ahead. I'd say we get into longevity in a second, but just to say muscle, I would argue, is the most

important asset to take into your basically 50s and beyond because it becomes that much harder even after that to ensure that you not only have the most vibrant active life and that you don't fall and get hurt and can't recover from it, but also to help support cardiovascular health, metabolic health, et cetera. It is the asset to invest in. But in terms of weight loss, So I think what many people don't realize is they go, they jump between starving themselves, or trying to exercise a bunch or do a bunch of cardio. And if you just kind of like slow down and really look at like how it all fits together, you have a basal metabolic rate.

That is like when you're just lying down in your bed, you burn a certain amount of calories just to like be, right? And so if you don't do any additional exercise and you consume less calories than than what that basal metabolic rate is, you are going to lose weight. Like, you will absolutely lose weight. You'll lose some fat and you'll lose some muscle. Unfortunately, muscle is actually even easier to lose. It's like 700 calorie deficit makes you lose a pound of muscle versus 3,500 calorie deficit makes you lose a pound of fat. So it's easier to lose muscle if you start cutting those amino acids and the protein that you need. Just whatever your basal metabolic rate

is like you need to just think about how much I'm going to eat relative to that. Then people think, oh, if I exercise, it'll help me lose weight. But if you actually look at how many extra calories you burn from like going and like running for half an hour or for an hour. It's not as many calories as you think, especially if you're eating like more processed foods. So then fundamentally the question is, well, then how can I eat foods in a in a more thoughtful way to help increase my metabolism overall? And proteins and amino acids are the most obvious solution for that. And that is because as you increase the amount of muscle that you have in your body, and I'm not talking about like, like, for women, it's not like you're getting like jacked or anything. It's just

like, if you have like a little bit of fat underneath your arm, just imagine that becomes more toned muscle instead. You increase your basal metabolic rate. Literally the amount of calories that you burn just doing nothing go up. On top of that, whenever you consume protein or amino acids, there's something called diet-induced thermogenesis. This isn't like a fat booster thing. It's like jacking up your metabolism or making you all hot or like, you know, like it's not like a, it's not like a stimulant type thing, but literally by eating protein or eating amino acids, you stimulate this muscle protein synthesis. And that process alone, the process of having to create the new muscle and create the new proteins, increases your metabolism. So if you- Enhance helps you burn more fat faster.

It helps you burn more fat faster. While you're even getting into a calorie of a protein or the calorie of an amino acid. Amino acid is even interesting because basically we can get to it, but amino acids are, essentially amino acids are three times more effective than whole food protein, gram for gram at stimulating muscle protein synthesis. So it's like a third of that is equal to one gram of protein. So you could also be someone that's like, you know, maybe you're going to the gym and you're slamming all these protein shakes and drinking about eating a bunch of steaks or meat. But you're doing yourself a disservice where you could have some aminos and get a much better effect. I mean, in addition to those, right? Is what you're saying. I think it's thinking about

like which tools you're going to use. So overall, if you, if you, let's keep the focus more like on the weight loss thing. We can get into strength. We can get into performance and deathless. Let's keep it on weight loss. I got to lose 20 pounds. Okay. So, I mean, really what you want to be trying to do is to consume at least, you know, figure out what your caloric, figure out what your basal metabolic rate is. Like, this is how many calories are just burned doing nothing. Don't even think about I'm going to exercise or do all these other things. You need to get below that. And however many calories you have below that, like that's basically how much fat you're going to lose if you ensure that you're eating a much

larger amount of protein. So I would aim for at least a gram. And we'll explain that how essential amino acids can make this even easier and more efficient. For the target weight that you have, you want to eat a gram of protein per pound of that body weight. Okay, that's what I'm doing right now. Okay. And I'm doing my aminos, my Kianaminos. Awesome. I like the mango flavor the best. Me too. That's my favorite. Although it's, it's divided, but that's my favorite. What flavor are we having now? Mix berry is amazing, but I just love the mango flavor. And I'm doing them after my workout. Great. I was only doing them. after my workout four days a week, but after this podcast, I'll be doing them seven days a week.

And I'm doing weightlifting. Awesome. Okay. Can you do it during the workout? That's how I do it. I put in the water and I just kind of do it. You can take aminos, you can take Keonaminos before workout, during a workout, and after workout.

How do you take it? They all have unique benefits. I like to take them before, during, and after because, so actually you get the benefits are, we can explain this and how it relates to protein, are linear, meaning they get better and better all the way up to three servings at once. Huh. So you can take three servings at once and you will get improved benefit. But naturally, I mean, you're like, I was only doing one.

Yeah. So like, and if you're, if you're, you know, dude who's training, et cetera, like, you can totally take three servings at once. You'll get even, what you'll get is you'll get that much more muscle protein synthesis. Okay. So you'll get more diet-induced thermogenesis. You'll get the creation of, the support and creation of more muscle. So you'll have those positive benefits.

For somebody that has a plant-based or vegan diet. and they want to get the proper protein intake and aminos, what do you recommend if they're not getting, you know, meat from an animal source? Plant-based diet is totally doable to get the protein intake that you need. It takes more time, energy, and commitment to make sure that you're doing it right. And this goes back to, I'll compare plant proteins, animal proteins, essential amino acids.

At the very top, you have how digestible is the protein? Unfortunately, plant proteins are not as digestible inherently to where your body can actually break them down into the component amino acids. Animal proteins are more digestible. Essential amino acids are immediately digestible. Like, they immediately get into your blood, basically. Then the next question is, what is the profile of that protein or that food or supplement source? So plant proteins typically do not, they're not considered a complete protein on their own. Some like buckwheat, soy, quinoa have a better profile than others. Because even though you can, however it goes through the digestion, when you actually get the essential amino acids

that are in it, things like beef and way protein concentrate or weight protein isolate or eggs have a much better profile of those essential amino acids to support your body and stimulating the muscle protein synthesis. It's not just like any amount. It's like what are the proportions of them? So the proportions and plant proteins are not as good. You need to, you need to like basically eat different plant sources together. And I am not a vegan dietitian. So it's hard for me to tell you, always combine these ones in that way. It's like you really need to look into it for yourself and find things that are sustainable and that work for you.

Then with animal proteins, you don't really have to worry about it. They're all pretty good in terms of the essential amino acid profile. When you get to these, these are perfected. So these basically have gone through, you know, this is not our proprietary research. All this has published research. But the last 30 years, they've been studying this. They've been studying it with even things like NASA astronauts. They tried to figure out, hey, if astronauts are going to go to space and they can't do

any resistance exercise, how do we ensure that they don't lose muscle mass? They put people on 28-day bedrests, like pooping and peeing in their bed, but with three serving six times a day of essential amino acids in this similar type of profile, they had net muscle gain after 28 days. So besides energy, muscle building, recovery, and weight loss, are there other things that you'll notice from them? I mean, those are amazing things. But quickly, just to stand this once. So say you're somebody that does all this work in the gym and you build all this muscle and then we all know, like you put all these results and all of a sudden you lose it real quick. Maybe if you have a period of, you know, maybe you go on vacation for a week and it's like,

and then you like deplete a little bit. If you, if you supplement with aminos more, you'll be able to keep some of that muscle gain or some of that muscle mass more effectively. Absolutely. It will absolutely support that. That's amazing. So, yeah, I mean, I think overall, really, whatever your daily protein intake is, let's just say I'm trying to get 150 grams of protein a day.

Ideally, you divide that by about five. So you have about like five, 30 gram protein. you take 30 grams of protein five times a day. The tricky thing is for most people like, I don't want to eat that many times, or I like fasting or whatever. What's an example of like an easy 30 grams of protein? Like a scoop and a half of a weight protein isolate.

How many eggs? Five or six eggs. Yeah, it's like five or six eggs. Yeah, five, four or five eggs. And a typical like filet or ribby is what? I think that's like, I can't remember exactly how many ounces it is. Okay.

Yeah. It's difficult too because in those cases, depending on how fatty. the meat is, there'll be more or less protein in it thus. So that's the other than main benefit of this when you're comparing plant proteins, animal proteins, essential amino acids is plant proteins are people think they're going to be less caloric, but they're actually very caloric for the amount of essential amino acids you get because they have lots of carbs in them. Like if you, to get as much protein, essential amino acids that you really need from rice and beans compared to

chicken, you're going to eat a lot more rice and beans and consume a lot more calories because there's all these carbs. I also notice too with first. protein, like the more protein I eat, the more it crowds out the carbs. I'm not as hungry. And also, I, this is really weird. I'm sure you've heard this, but Todd came on, dry farm wines. Yeah. I don't, like, I don't really want to drink like I used to. Like, I, like, I don't want wine as much. Like, it's not, it, the protein, like, crowds things out. It's very satiating. So, specifically, the essential amino acids in the protein are very satiating. And thus, I mean, the way that I think about using essential amino acids, maybe going back to the big question

around all this is to support myself in stimulating muscle protein synthesis every few hours. Because anytime you don't, that's the weird thing. People are really into fasting now. But when you go to these extended periods of fasting, more than three hours without consuming amino acids, you go into net muscle loss. So it's because your body's trying to sustain levels of amino acids in your blood. And your organs need them. And when your organs can't get them, it starts breaking down your muscles.

Because your muscles are the reservoir of amino acids for your body. That's why they're so important for longevity. So it takes it from the muscle. It breaks down your muscle to feed all the other needs of amino acids in your body. So in terms of like first thing in the morning, snack periods, like still eat good healthy whole food proteins, whether it's a plant-based diet or, you know, it's animal-based. But I think trying to fill in the hole. So like first thing in the morning, if you're fasting, definitely take it every three to four hours. if you want a snack, you know, or you want like some kind of, what's awesome about these kinds of.

So does this not break, this doesn't break a fast? It is not break a fast in terms of the impact on digestion and in terms of the impact of like you're trying to contain how many hours during a day that you're going to eat. Okay. Yeah. Interesting. I mean, I did not know that. And if you're going to do a fasted workout, this is like definitely ideal because when you, because I just did one today. Well, that's what I, so we should be consuming it in the morning and I don't like to do it after. I like to eat after. So like I always do a fast. So I should take the aminos before. I would take one to three scoops before you work out.

Okay. And or like before and then during your workout. Do not go and steal my aminos. Look, this is what he does. This is what he does. He's going to go in. You're going to have to send me way more. Lauren, we're co-hosts here.

No, he comes in. I get him a health tip and then he starts sneaking around. She gets all the good stuff and hides it from me in the house. I can't track it down. She puts in these jars and doesn't lay the jars. I don't want him in my stuff. So I ask. you earlier, besides energy, muscle building, weight loss, athletic recovery, are there other

benefits that you're going to see? Because I know as I've eaten more meat, my hair has gotten so much thicker. Like, are there things like that? That's a great question, too. So people typically take collagen because they think it's going to make their hair or their skin or their joints or those types of things look better or feel improved. Fundamentally, all of those things, collagen itself is made up of amino acids. It has some of these unique non-essential amino acids. It has some of these unique, non-essential amino acids that support that kind of directly. But by taking in more essential amino acids, you overall are giving your body more of the core nutrients that it needs to then produce those specific non-essential amino acids that support hair, support skin, support joints, etc. Nails. If Michael

grows anymore, Harry's going to look like it from the Adam's family. So essentially you're giving your system all of the essential building blocks to be able to activate all of these systems in your body. Yes. Which are based, all of these things are driven by amino acids. It's what they're driven by. Tick-Tock, everyone talks about BCAAs. What is the difference between your brand and BCAAs? So BCAAs are three of the nine essential amino acids. Ah, there's not the nine, guys. There's not the nine. You got to get the nine. You got to get the other six. And it's honestly kind of sad because this is one of those things where science and research about 30, 40 years ago discovered some things about BCAAs. That basically lucine, isolucine and valine, three branch chain amino acids, were really

important for muscle protein synthesis. And so the whole business, marketing, supplement industry is like, boom, capitalize on this. And it creates a whole trend and people become familiar with it and they keep selling it and doing it like many health trends. But the research is like, and this is all published research. very widely available. These are people who got grants to do things for NASA, for sports endeavors, for elderly, et cetera, that show that branch chain amino acids on their own do not support muscle protein synthesis. You have to have all nine. If you go out and you buy one of these other brands

that only has the three, it is a waste of your money if you're taking them on their own. So it's funny because like we were talking off there before when I went out younger and take all these supplements. And like they pushed BCAA so hard. All these supplement companies did. And, you know, all the fitness companies. I mean, everybody I used to work out with them on BCAAs. And it was probably pointless. Well, and again, I like to be a little nuance in this. Like, if you take them in combination with certain other proteins, they can enhance the impact of that protein. Because basically, if you're taking, if you're eating kind of like really deficient proteins that don't have good amino acid profiles and then at the same time, you enhance them with these other amino acids, it can have a

beneficial effect. But understanding all that science, any of you like your gem bros, they don't know. We were taking No Explode cytogener in BCAAs. At the same time. When Michael and I first, like, remet again after we went to high school together. And then I saw him at this bar after college. And he was wearing overalls with no shirt on. And this motherfucker on No Explode had these huge arms. Like, remember Stretch Armstrong that we had when we were a little?

Like, he had these stretch Armstrong arms. And I was like, what is happening? Listen, it was the glory days. but they were back glorious. I feel like the overalls should come back out after these amino acids. You can throw them on. Your muscles are going to be so big. No,

well, I think like, I mean, the stuff we were, I mean, it's funny because I took all that stuff in college and was young. And then a few years went by and I tried to take it again like five or six years later with one of my gym brooch in college. And immediately when I adjusted stuff,

I started bombing. Like my system was like, oh, fuck, no, not this again. It was like, get this stuff out. And that's probably just like all the chemicals, preservatives,

which again, everything in our brand, all of our, products. Clean. Hyper clean. I drink your coffee too. Yeah, my body was like, not this again.

Not again. But, you know, one important point, because I want to make sure, like, particularly your female audience doesn't get scared, they're going to end up looking like Michael and his overalls back in the day jack. I wasn't taking any of this stuff back back. I was taking the worst stuff. This stuff, like, Keonaminos do not make you get jacked. It's literally just going to support the process of when you are trying to maintain a healthy

tone physique that of all the different decisions that you make. for your diet. It's an easy way that you're emphasizing muscle maintenance and fat burning. Think about it that way. It's like, I'm ensuring that I'm maintaining my muscle during this period. And even if I'm cutting calories in some other ways, it's supporting me in my protein goals and ensuring that I'm maintaining a lean, more tone physique. It's not going to make, the only you're going to get jacked is if you're spending two, three hours in the gym, you know, like, yeah. If someone does want to lose weight, have you seen weight loss stories with amino? and eating more protein many times.

Yes, many times. It's a very, it's like one of the most common, you know, stories of people doing that specifically. Again, I think it's a really good combination where you think about, I think it's multiple pieces. So it's not pure like you're just going to take aminos and you're going to lose a bunch of weight. Right. Like anything that works like that or you'd probably be like a drug or something. What it does do is that fundamentally, like we were saying earlier, if you want to lose weight

and really you want to lose weight and you want to keep it off. because that's the biggest issue. People go on yo-yo diets. They starve themselves. They cut all these calories. They lose all this fat and they lose all this muscle. Then they pick up the poor behaviors again and they put back on the weight. But you don't put back on muscle.

Muscle is like harder to put back on. And you have to eat enough amino acids and protein in order to do that. So you end up in this vicious cycle where you just kind of go back and forth and back and forth. And after 20, 30 years of that, you're like in your 50s and you're just fat. Like you don't have the muscle anymore. And it's that much harder to put the muscle back on. I lose muscle way faster now in my 30s almost approaching like low 40s than I did before. It's harder to keep it on for sure.

And unfortunately, it gets harder and harder as you get older. So like now's the time to focus on it. But it's not some complicated thing. It's like, hey, try to get, you know, this gram of protein per pound of body weight. You can't quite get there. Use aminos to help you get there. You can take a third of the amount to create the equal amount of proteins. For example, if I take one scoop, which has five grams of active amino acids in it,

it's equal to 15 grams of protein for muscle protein synthesis. Now, you wouldn't want to replace your entire diet with it because you want to be eating whole foods, et cetera, but it's a really easy way to get there. And it's, you know, you're not dealing with all the digestion and the food and the calories, et cetera, that are involved with like the whole food protein. So in that case, it's just a, it's a great way. Why I think it's been what works so well for people is it's like, hey, I'm ensuring I'm getting in my daily protein.

I'm not overeating like crazy. I'm putting aminos in these other targeted ways. If I'm fasting for snacks, before, during, or after workouts, and that way I'm stimulating that much more muscle protein synthesis. It's that much easier to just be burning calories all the time without taking some kind of stimulant or, like, starving myself or feeling hungry all the time. And then, like, obvious exercise. Like, honestly, like, I walk in lift weights, man.

I've been doing more kickboxing and stuff like that lately. But, like, you don't have to push yourself to some kind of extremes. So this, I think why people like it so much is it's easy. It's easy. It tastes good. It's like a fruity flavor. It's natural. It's clean. This is what I do. You said you use a shaker, but have you tried using a frother? So what I do is I take my Yeti. I put my heart ice cubes in it. I fill it with Mountain Valley Springwater and then I put the aminos in and then I froth it. And it's delicious. If you haven't tried to froth her. So I've done the frothers. I feel like maybe my frothers not powerful enough, but because there's further, there's further like processing you can do of amino acids to make them like these micronanatized things. I forget what it's called right now. We don't go for that extra degree of processing because it's just to make them more pure. Basically, we don't, we want to keep

them more pure. And thus, I find that when I try to froth it, it doesn't like blend up perfectly. Like sometimes I get like a little bit of like little particles. But if I shake it, there's none. So I would just say that to listeners if anyone tries it. Frother, though, too. Can we get like a key on high-powered frother? He just said the frother doesn't work. I've tried. I mean, I want to see your video of you doing it.

I'm going to do it. We should survey the audience. Anyone who listens to this ends up trying, like, can they get it to work with the frother? If they can get it to work with the frother and you show me the manufacturer that frother, I will make a key on frother. We'll make a key on immunos froth. Make sure it says at Kion on it for Instagram. No, I personally don't have good froth control. Every time I use that thing, the water, it explains everywhere.

The move with the froth are just, you put it at the bottom of the cup, and then you froth, and then you turn it off and take it out. I have a great father. I'm going to show you. It always gets won't get to walk you with me and shit goes flying all over. Before we go, I want to do a giveaway, but I want, I have one more question. Okay. Vegan, non-GMO gluten free.

This is the purest one that we can get on the market. Is that correct? I believe so. This is the purest one you can get on the market. And that is through searching the absolute, like, just being so driven in the supply chain to find the best wrong ingredients we can get. and then working tirelessly to make sure that like we can actually make something this delicious with the flavors that taste like this that are all natural flavors and that don't have

a bunch of like weird artificial sweeteners in it and that is just pure and clean and good from a little hippie kid from Wemberley, Texas. I'm telling you're like I'm I wouldn't put junk in my body. I have one more question for you. It's actually kind of a not a question, but it's more of like a routine. How, one, how close can you take this to bed without it affecting your sleep or will it affect your sleep? Many people will take this before bed. So when we talk about energy, it's not like it's going to give you an energy boost like caffeine. So when we talk about energy, and maybe, I don't mean to go too off here, but like when you talk about energy, there's different forms of energy. There's energy that supports the actual energy that fuels your body. There's energy

that facilitates like muscle contractions, et cetera, and facilitates the mitochondrial health at the at the level of the muscle. And thus, when you take this amino acid supplement, it gives your body what it needs so that fundamentally your muscles will function properly. When you're doing an activity. When you're doing an activity and that you have proper amino acids

for your brain and for mood, etc. Because another thing happens when you do activities, it burns more of one specific amino acid, lucine. And tryptophan actually shares the same pathway as lucine, which then increases FHTP in your brain, which increases serotonin, which makes you tired. And that's why people get tired

after extended exercise. So when you're taking amino, it ensures you don't get tired from that. So overall, it's going to give you acutely, like it's going to give you energy today. If you're exercising, allow you to keep moving, going longer, not getting fatigued. And it will give you energy for like overall mood. But it's not going to keep you up. It's not caffeine, which is actually in a dynosine blocker. It basically like blocks signals in your brain. So that's why when you take this before and during a workout, you feel like you have a more effective workout. At least I do because you feel like you have more energy to participate in that workout. Yeah, you will have less muscle unless you feel like you have more motivation.

And on top of that, you prevent the muscle, you prevent the muscle breakdown. So, yeah. And honestly, performance-wise, there's nothing better than combining essential amino acids and exercise together to maximize the benefits of your exercise too. I will never do a workout without taking them before. Okay. So you're taking it mostly centered around like before you're going to work out during and then after, but you're not really like, oh, I'm going to bed now and I'm going to take your,

you're mostly having your three servings around. Yeah. If I was, if I was in a stage right now where I was trying to be a highly like competitive athlete or I was someone that really like just like wakes up in the middle of the night hungry. Maybe that I would consider taking it at night because what it's going to do is it's going to kick off one more stage of muscle protein synthesis before you go to bed. It's going to keep you from getting hungry. It's really it's like it's like a very performance oriented kind of thing to think about taking it before bed if you're an athlete or if you're afraid of getting hungry.

It's great. Yeah. We've covered a lot of ground here today. All right. So we're going to give away, can we give away a bunch of amino acids? Let's do it. Okay. Let's do like a whole packet for one of you guys and all you have to do is follow at Kion K-I-O-N on Instagram and tell us your favorite takeaway from this podcast on my latest Instagram at Lauren Bostick. We also have a code for you. I personally am going to recommend starting with the mango. That's my favorite. Also, I'm just saying I do drink your coffee too every single day because it's organic and

there's no fucking shit added to it. So maybe get that too. Get the coffee at the same time. Just get it. Definitely, though, the mango aminos. what is the code for everyone? Go to Get Kion. That's G-E-T-K-I-O-N dot com slash Skinny.

And there'll be a custom page just there for you guys. You need to come back on. You're a very interesting multifaceted guy. Once I go on my retreat and come back, I'll have to get him up to Thursday. I'm going to get him a gift card to go away for 10 days. I love it. Thanks for coming on.

Thanks for having me, guys. Be sure to use the link, get keon.com slash skinny, so you get the discount and check out the mango aminos and their pesticide free coffee. I had some this morning. It's so delicious and clean. This episode was brought to you by Keon. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.