The Nick Bare Podcast - 114: Life as a Full-Time Athlete with Dan Churchill

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

Performance chef. Hybrid athlete. Dan Churchill is back in town and on the mic.In this episode, Dan unpacks his evolution — from running restaurants to chasing world-class athletic goals. We dive deep into what it really takes to train hard, eat with purpose, sleep for recovery, and show up with discipline every single day. Dan doesn’t just talk goals — he lives them. He’s chasing a sub-60 at HYROX Pro and a sub-3-hour marathon in London. We break down how he’s training, how he’s planning, and how he stays locked in mentally.We also talk identity — how embracing the title of “athlete” can shift your mindset and elevate your effort across the board. Plus, we go into the psychology behind nutrition, and what it means to truly fuel with intent.CHAPTERS:01:24 Dan's Athletic Goals and Training Journey05:19 Work Ethic and Personal Growth12:09 Balancing Personal Life and Professional Ambitions24:51 Dan's Restaurant Business Experience42:22 Commitments and Productivity55:11 Training with Elite Athletes: Key Takeaways01:00:24 Sleep Gadgets and Hacks01:09:31 Fueling for Performance01:24:11 Balancing Diet and Social Life01:35:10 Concluding Thoughts and Future PlansMENTIONS:Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newporthttps://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692Lewis Howes episodehttps://youtu.be/Rl-SnsoPp-c?si=pbJsIBLaagk6R2XoULU Wellness: Wellness Starts Herehttps://uluwellness.com/CONNECT:Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 20% off FOR LIFEhttps://www.bareperformancenutrition.com/pages/bpn-membership?srsltid=AfmBOorlpjVeag2kkt3eZ5UpWcFA5Bb2v5V_93lmO47Vn_Y8DRdLwDLLFOLLOW:IG: instagram.com/nickbarefitness/YT: youtube.com/@nickbarefitnessKEEP UP WITH DANIG: instagram.com/dan_churchill/?hl=en

Today we are back with my friend, the legend, Dan Churchill. Chef Dan Churchill. What's up, brother? And be always good to be here, dude. Just hanging out. It's always great to see you. You too, bro. You too.

When are you moving to Texas? Someone asked you that this morning. You know, I just bought an apartment in New York last year, and I actually think that opens the doors for me to be living in multiple places. So you never know. The next purchase could be. Austin. How does the fiance feel about that? I think she'd be stoked around it, particularly between January to May, March. I think she'd like that a lot. That makes sense. Yeah. And then when it's

really freaking hot in Austin, everyone just comes to live with us in New York. Is she from New York? She's from, she's actually born in Macedonia and then moved to Australia when she was five years old. And then I met her, so she's an Australian and I met her in New York as an Aussie. Oh, wow. Yeah, so I went to the other side of the world to meet my future wife. Crazy. Interesting. Yeah, crazy. Well, congrats on the recent engagement. Thanks, man. Just following the footsteps, dude, you know. Next, it's married, then it's kids. Yeah, dude. And then before you know it, you're where I'm at right now. Nice. Nice. Two kids. Two kids. All right, so let's talk. There's a lot I want to cover in this episode

from an entrepreneurial perspective, an athlete perspective, a chef and nutrition perspective. But before we start diving into some of that stuff, I want to hear your current training goals. What are you training for? And specifically, well, we'll get into it, but you have recently made a shift to be all in on your athletic endeavors. What are you trying to accomplish right now?

Yeah, dude, lots of change since we'll have had episode, but also like, I guess got down to chatting. Like I've, I've, I've left my role as a more intentional chef and become more someone who can probably impact a wider audience through what I'm doing now. But as you just alluded to, I've been really intentional with my athletic journey myself. And so I've got a, I've got an immediate goal of London marathon, which is, I mean, for a 256, 257 marathon there. But my big goal is to go sub-60 at high rock. individual pro. And, you know, growing up, I've always been just enamored with athletic progress. We've talked about this on a podcast before. It's why I love dealing with athletes in the

performance nutrition space. I relate to individuals. I love the grit. I love the grind and the competitiveness. And, you know, unfortunately growing up, but fortunately, I got injured too many times to pursue what was then my athletic journey. I probably wasn't definitely, wasn't good enough for the given sport of rugby, which I was initially pursuing. But now, in this hybrid era or this sport of fitness, I've seen what is capable, particularly through work ethic. And so I've gone all in on pretty much like becoming the best I can be at high rocks and owning that space. When you were younger playing rugby, what was the goal there? Like, how far did you want to take it?

Like, I want to play for my country. I want to play for Australia. And it was really interesting to think now, the best thing I was good at was actually the training camps. So, like, you were going through a range of school and you'd love the fitness part would just come so naturally to you, but also you love that. For me, it was the same with rugby training. When we'd hit the sand dunes, we'd do interval training. We'd be doing, you know, we'd hit the gym and then go into a session or it'd be some sort of circuit-style training modality. A lot, what would you see with preseason training for all sports here?

And I was really good at that. I wasn't the best at speed. I definitely didn't have the most strength, but I had a really good engine. And I really thrived in that experience. There's something there where you'll find that the people who love, really love, like genuinely and authentically love the work, you can outwork in terms of duration of time much more than the people who are operating based off of raw talent. And I know people hear that time and time again, but when you actually experience it and then see it in real life and other people, it is a game changer.

It is a competitive advantage when you actually find something you love and then doing it over and over and over again. it's not work, but that ability to just keep going consistently for long periods of time opens up opportunities, maybe not next year. But, I mean, when did you stop playing rugby? How many years ago? Oh, dude, I was 22 when I played my final game, so 13 years ago. And this is what's so interesting is if I had the choice and said this in my newslet on my YouTube channel, I've said this. It's like, if I had the choice between raw talent and work ethic, I would choose work ethic every single time. And that applies to not just in our athletic prowess, it's in our professional life, it's in our home life. You cannot beat the consistency of showing up

every single day. And unfortunately, you see talent in individuals, but as soon as they hit a speed bump, the work ethic that they don't have is, you know, they are just no longer motivated to continue, whereas people who have work ethic are absolutely dedicated to enduring the tough times just as much as the wins. Especially when that work ethic is ingrained in your DNA, then it's not a means to an end. So you'll see with a lot of college athletes, a lot of professional athletes, And this isn't just applicable to athletics, but the workforce too. They work really hard for a means to an end.

And once that part of their career is over or they accomplish the championship or the win and they move one of the next thing, that work ethic dies with the end of that career or the end of that season. And it's the people who have that work ethic ingrained in the DNA that continue to keep a achieving success. So 13 years ago, when you found out rugby was no longer a thing, from then until now, what was that work ethic like? I mean, yeah, like I self-published two cookbooks. I started building like what was then my personal brand. I was a strength and conditioning coach during the day and a chef at night and I didn't work for money at night. So like that was purely my

work ethic to learn. And this is not, this is, this is all objectivity. This is not me. This is always a challenge to talk about my past in a successful way because of, particularly as an Aussie,

we're not taught to like, you know, be proud of our success. But I was just proud of the way my parents provided us with the intentional work ethic. Because everything we've just discussed, like self-publishing a cookbook means that you have to do everything yourself or you have to set it up so that you are in control of

everything. and the same with like I could have finished work during the day and then knock on and wash dishes for, you know, eight hours and then not gotten up early the next day to be an S&C coach and rinse and repeat. I find that's something that like I've carried through from then even going to like, you know, going from Australia to America. That in itself is a concept of work ethic because I went from a pretty steady situation in Australia to then living in America, sleeping on couches, earning no money, but knowing

that the work was going to be paying off if I just continue to put the time in. And to your point, like the DNA that you have, the moral DNA, the, the, the, the, the, something that you just have in you to have work ethic, it just, it is carried throughout whatever you do. And the problem that what you face is switching it off, particularly around, you know, moments with your, like your, your loved ones and making sure that you are having that moment of, of chill. Oh, that's been one of my greatest weaknesses of my entire life. Now, I would say that in this past year, I've grown more personally and professionally in that specific

instance itself, but it's something that I struggled with for a long time. And I created, not intentionally a lot of collateral damage in my personal life, relationships, my family, friendships, because when I focus on something, I'm really good at hyper-focusing on that thing and getting to where I want to be. And in the process, sometimes you create a byproduct, which is collateral damage in parts your life that you didn't tend to create damage. But I believe, unfortunately, that is part of building a successful life. It is part of going after your goals earlier on because you haven't had the experience

of the consequences that come with it along the way. Yeah, dude. Like I, when you got hit by the car, I think that open, the eyes to so many people. I think you've done a really good job of identifying that because unfortunately, we are going down a path with work ethic where we're tunnel vision. I want to get this. I want to achieve this. This is where I'm at. And you neglect what's actually sometimes more important around you. So I think what you've actually done a credit to is you've gone from being this person that people look up to from a business perspective, definitely from an athletic perspective.

But I think you've done a really good job of showing your intentionality behind your family in the last like phase of your life, which is really, really cool. Because that is the definition of success to me when you can truly look back on life and go, well, am I prioritizing actually the moments that I'll never get again and still have everything else in check that I want to be? So I look at things now where, and that was a big part of the, reason as to why I left the restaurant. I like realized that my time was was taking up or taking away too many opportunities that were not business related. I never I never got to go on a date with my,

my girlfriend at the time now my fiancee. You know, I didn't even have the ability to truly think about how I wanted to propose to her because in my head creatively like I was just I was mush because at the end of the day I was just dead. And yes, as successful, like I had all these things that I wanted to achieve and set out to. But unless, unless you have those moments that highlight what's actually important and you look back on going, what am I going to really remember and never get again unless I have those moments in my time right now? Yeah. I appreciate you recognizing that because it's something that I've been trying really hard to do and convey in my messaging and my content my life this past year is showcase this new chapter

that I'm in right now where I think and I will always believe is extremely important to have really ambitious goals extremely ambitious goals but when you set those goals there has to be a a purpose and a why behind it, especially as you have more responsibility in life. You know, I'm married now. I have two kids, a business with 40 plus full-time employees. So it's like, what is the goal? What is the why? What's the reason you want to accomplish it? And then the last question, I was thinking about this on the bike yesterday, is it the right time? because what I used to do in the past was here's my goal. There's a very clear why and purpose behind it.

That's all I needed. Go after it. But is it the right time? Is it the right time to train for a high rocks when my son was just born? Probably not. Was it the right time to jump into an Ironman prep the week before I got married? Probably not. but I did those things.

And I had to learn through making the mistakes and failures. I don't regret any of them. One thing I'm very grateful that I did was in my 20s and early 30s, is that I worked really, really, really hard. And I still worked really, really hard. But it was another level in my 20s, in my early 30s. It was before I got married. It was before I had kids.

and I could spend every waking moment working and building. And I loved every part of it. But it set me up for where I'm at right now to be able to make certain choices that I couldn't make back then for this season of life. Yeah, bro. Like, you know, first off, like, we joke around, but, you know, Melena and Steph and all partners

who support our endeavors are incredibly, individuals. Incredible. Incredible. Like, you know, just so it's so supportive. And I, I read last week, you know, I do a ton of reading. And I was reading about Queen Victoria and Albert. They were, they were mid-1840s, 1850s, the monarch in England. And they had an unbelievable relationship with each other. The problem was they were, they were. would do every single event in their responsibility as a monarch. And that's like, you know, speeches, events, you know, dinners. And eventually, you know, Albert, he was putting together these amazing events.

And it literally killed him. The work ethic, the time, and he never got to see his kids. They had nine children. Never got to see them all grow up because he was, not that he was not a good father, but he was so dedicated to the work that one night he just, his gut, like, could no longer handle the amount of stress and anxiety

and everything that had built on him. And it's funny you look at that as an example of life. And the reality is, like, we're only in our 30s. Like, I, I'm like, I have worked my ass off since that time in rugby. And even before then, as you have, to get to this business and where you are right now, to then now I realize and I've had that moment of clarity and solidarity, you go,

what's actually important? You know, I want to be able to spend time with Melina. I want to hang out with Maverick. I want to see my mates. But I also want to be a little more relaxed in how I go about certain things. Does this mean the work ethic's not there? Absolutely not. But it just means I'm more intentional with things that aren't just professional related.

In fact, it's more like using the work ethic principle in other areas of my life. How do you do that? Because it's easier said than done. Yeah. Like I also want to be clear here. You know, I haven't got, you know, I haven't known with Charlie or Nico. Like I haven't got two kids like a lot of people listening or three or four. So I don't have to get up in the middle of the night and then also get up in the morning and train and do all those things. But I'd still have responsibilities. I have a team myself. I have to look after Maverick. And as little as that is, to some people, that's still important to me. So what I do is at the start of every week on a Sunday night, I write out my training plan. And that's not a basis of like I put that first. It's based on what is realistic for me to achieve that week with everything else I have

going on. And then it's also just setting that up for work-related materials. It's like, okay, I now know that I'm training at these hours, which means that Melina and I have shared times when we do Maverick, which is great. all outlined. But then also, throughout the day, I don't think Melinda's ever known this, but like I always have little check-ins with her where I just give her a hug or, you know, just send her a text. And because sometimes that's what it takes for me to feel like I'm present. And I think she appreciates that. But also it's now spending more time on the weekends

with her. Friday and Saturday nights, I almost was, you know, waiting for my mates to want to do something and I always felt like that was my social time. And reality is, I love spending time with millennia. So it's like, instead of me waiting for an offer from my mates, I was just, sweetie, what are you doing Friday night if you're free? You know, especially Friday night because I usually have a long run Saturday. I'd love to spend time with her then because it means that I know it's going to be a chill night, but I get to sit down with her one-on-one. It's also just being really intentional with like the time that we do have is actually time that I don't want to be necessarily asking questions. Sometimes I do want to just be present with her, but it's me communicating

with her. That's all that I need, you know, like some, I know, girls, girls and guys want to talk. And sometimes I've just, I am mush. But as long as I'm with her and present and listening to her, that's sometimes me going, hey, I'm here with you. I'm, I'm not perfect. I'm definitely not perfect. But I definitely see ever since the restaurant, our relationship is, is, is, just so much better because of that presence. And to be very clear, Maverick is the dog. He is. He's my best mate.

He's the best. He's honestly, he's a legend. Like if you've seen him on my stories and on my YouTube, he's just like, he's such a bro. Like he could not be more of a Churchill. I've got two brothers and he's exactly the same way. Like loves to get attention, loves to annoy you. But like also just loves to play. He plays this thing called Keepaway where he'll bring the ball up to you.

And instead of dropping it for you to throw it, I'll put my hand out and he'll move his hand away, but come back. And so if I'm like stretching on the floor, he'll be like in my hair, like doing everything because he thinks I'm ready to play or just annoy me. But that is just, it brings me so much happiness. Yeah. He's the best. Puppies. Dude. And then, I don't know.

I'm so funny me complaining about that time with the dog. And I'm like, you know, Nick, Nick's a friend. Like, so I told Nick, I'm like, dude, how'd you sleep? And he's just like, I didn't. I didn't do it. It's like, how do you get up at 4.30 every day? Like, granted, Nick actually does get up a 40 every day or whatever it is. But like, sometimes like, I didn't have a choice.

No, like this morning was one of those mornings where Nico was like up in the middle of night a lot last night. And I just couldn't fall back to sleep after he was up and I gave him a few bottles and stuff. and my alarm went off at 4.30 and stuff was like, are you actually, are you really getting up right now? Because you know I didn't sleep like much. I'm getting up and I'm going to get on that bike. Because I look forward to that go bar and that cup of coffee as soon as I wake up. Yeah, just want to confirm if you guys didn't realize this, Nick actually does love go bars. I love. I love go bars. So where I was actually meaning to go with that question that I asked,

and then you really dove in, which you took it in a direction that I liked, but what I was trying to get across was, I said it's much easier said than done, because for me, at least, and maybe you two, for years when you have this work ethic ingrained in your DNA, And it becomes part of you. It is just second nature.

It is part of your operating habit and ability. You don't know anything else other than that. To turn it off, it's harder than to keep it on. So to recognize that, okay, maybe it's time for me to make some changes. How are you able to do that when a relationship became more of a priority? and you got engaged. Now you're thinking about this wedding coming up. And instead of just working all the time to accomplish that goal,

how do you reshifts me your priorities to honor your other commitments? Yeah, like the brand identity of the former is the industry. Right. Because you know yourself as something. Everyone else sees you as something. And then you're shifting to like include this other area of your life that you've never really accepted. and how do I, how do I, it is easy said than done. Fortunately for me, I've realized I love it.

That other area that I haven't tapped into until the last year and a half year, I really love it. Like I really enjoy spending time with someone. But I do recognize, like to do it, it's not just like, yeah, it's not just putting something down on paper, hey, with intentionality. It's like another thing to act. And I do go back and forward still. It's like, oh, I should train, but then you're like, no, you know, you do have to realize

that you don't need to train. You think you need to train because your old identity told you you needed to train or you needed to, you know, do this thing. No, you don't need to do that. And I used to, like, I think to help answer this question as well, I think one of the biggest developments in my life recently is being more in thought. I say it's my, it's like being thoughtful in thought. And so I go on a walk without my phone and I don't listen to podcasts.

You know, I don't do anything. And what this does is allow my mind to actually think and look at something and be inspired and draw attention. But it's made me realize like, what do I think about all the time? And the things I think about become my priority. And I think about like, oh, what am I going to, how am I going to renovate this place? What's more than I going to think? Like, where can I go for dinner with Molina? You know, it's not, it's like, how do I train better or like, what am I going to do with business?

It's like, it's almost, I've gone to that part of my life where what's actually important to me is now being allowed to come in because I'm allowing it to come in, if that makes sense. Yeah. And so even though I'm still not perfect at it, by giving my space the solid, by getting solidarity, give myself the place to think, I'm truly allowing what's important to me. and when I made that decision last year to leave, it was kind of like that was probably the moment of me showcasing what was important because I could have kept staying and do what I was doing,

but that's what's been for me the way I've done it. It's like the way it's been easier said than done, but it's still being done is truly because when I gave myself the space, it was what I wanted. Let's talk about the restaurant business for a little bit. And your history, your background in the restaurant business. Because when I first met you, you were running Charlie Street and New York. And you then, to me, that was your identity.

Dan Churchill and Charlie Street. And eventually you left Charlie Street. And then you went to be the chef at the allspouse. and the one hotel in Brooklyn. What was that experience like? You know, in that business, those two different experiences, what do your life look like then? Yeah, so the Charlie Street experience is like,

you start your own restaurant in New York City. It is, to do any restaurants tough, to do it in New York is extremely tough and be successful. If you can do it there, they say you can do it anywhere because there's even more variables in the restaurant game. There's conditions of weather. that have such an effect on your status as an establishment.

And, you know, I think as an Aussie coming over and opening up a restaurant, you know, you're blindsided by, you absolutely are naive to the additional problems that you have and extra, to be honest, handouts you have to do. Not you giving handouts, but like there's a person for everything and every person gets paid more money. So like, for me to get something done, instead of me just going to get it done, I have have to pay someone to go get it done. And even if we could do it ourselves, legally, we have to pay someone else to do it. And it's like in the restaurant world where there's thin margins,

you're just like, can't I just go and get this sorted? And like, no, you need to legally pay someone. And they just come in and do a five minute check. And those kind of things happen all the time. So you just, you just unbe known to the additional costs. But I would say it was the most amazing MBA experience in my life. You know, I really, for four and a half years, that space, I learned so much. I built my content studio down below some creatively. It was a really cool, like, you know, project. And to own a business in New York is in, in, in that realm, I honestly have, despite, despite leaving it and, you know, the, the troubles it caused, it has allowed me to grow and advise and honestly get financial gains after. So like, that experience

from me has taught me to be able to tell people what not to do. as a result. Then one hotel comes along and it's probably like the dream job as a chef where you get your name on a restaurant and you minimally operate. But the issue I had with this situation is again, going back to what you said is work ethic. My work ethic, despite the fact that in my contract and the restaurant didn't need me to be there, I wanted to be there. I wanted to be present. I wanted to teach the team. I wanted to show up and show guidance, even though I didn't need to be. So Friday and Saturday. Leadership. Leadership. Exactly. You know, like, you have a responsibility. And so that, that, like, I'd work

Monday to Friday in, like, my media job. And then Friday, Saturday night and the weekends, I'd be there. And that'd be for a full year. And I just, it's, I didn't see my friends. I didn't see Melina. Like, I didn't get to train as well as I'd like. You know, I tried to do Leadville on that. And that was like, the, the training. the training between Leadville 1 and Leadville 2 for me, remarkably different, but also the enjoyment factor behind that, remarkably different.

Yeah, man, like the difference in like a brand journey in that was astronomical. You obviously go from having being involved in a restaurant, and then you are this executive chef that's getting media opportunities, TV, all these kind of things out in New York as a result of having your name on this phenomenal establishment restaurant. But be that as it may, it's like I looked early in my life as a chef. This is the dream job. But I achieved it.

And as much as it was awesome, I realized back then that's what I wanted, but now it's not. And that's a really hard thing to accept because your whole life was drawn towards this idea. And at the age of 34, 35, you're like, why am I feeling not right? despite achieving what I wanted to. It's almost like you achieve what you wanted so early in life. And you appreciate it. You're really grateful.

And even then, it still doesn't feel right. And so that was always like, why am I feeling this way? I also was so tired. I was so sluggish. And my sleep was terrible, you know, because you just laid hours. Yeah. So if anyone wants to be able. to do a restaurant, if don't ever invest in a restaurant until you come to me and we go through

everything. That's good to know. Yeah, just I'm going to be your person. Just I'll dot every eye before you do anything. When you're the Osprey, and I'm not, I'm not asking this question through the lens of the Osprey experience, but just in this season of life that you were in at the moment, were you unhappy or were you unsatisfied? That's a really good way of phrasing that, man. I was definitely not unhappy. I was really, I was probably unsatisfied, which I was like, what am I still searching for? Like, why, why? That's the, I think that was, which actually probably made me at times unhappy, to be honest, now I think about it. Because I'm in this, I'm in this thing that I've always wanted to be in. And I think a lot of people get

to their point in their life, their early 30s, mid-30s, and they're in a really good position in the world. They may be making good money, but it doesn't feel right. And they're starting to think about what was else out there. And it wasn't like I was wondering what was else out there for me that I wasn't doing. It was more like, why am I not spending more time on these things that I could be having more impact on? And the more and more I thought about it, in this world, as like YouTube's grown and, you know, I spent more time intentionally on things that I feel I was born to do. It's become more rewarding. And that's what it was. It wasn't rewarding. It wasn't rewarding me, and not because I didn't love

dishing out a beautiful plate to anybody, it was the fact that I feel like, I feel like I wasn't doing what I was born to do anymore. And that's the difference. Back in the day, I thought it was, being a chef, being this person, and I'm still a chef,

I still do those things to an extent, but I have this opportunity to really help people on nutrition, you know, performance, on a bigger scale. And when I was in that restaurant, I felt trapped. And that's a hard thing to feel. I brought up this concept many times on this podcast before.

I first heard it from Lewis House. And it's called identity foreclosure. And I believe that a lot of people, there should be a call to action to a lot of people listen to this podcast right now. Because I believe a lot of people end up in the situation and they're fearful of foreclosing the identity that they have around themselves in their work. So the whole concept is when you're younger, you have this idea of who you want to be, this vision, this dream, and you start to pursue it. And in the process of pursuing it, you start

to realize that this might not be what I actually wanted. And then you finally get it and you realize this definitely isn't what I thought it was going to be or what I actually won. And in some situations, rarely, people will recognize that like you did, and they foreclose that identity and they pursue a new path. They just pivot and shift. Some people are really good at pivoting and shifting. I think both you and I are to strength. Some people can't. And the thought of that change breaks them. So they don't foreclose on the identity. And they're like, well, I spent the last five, ten years working towards this position, all I got to do is stay in this role for another 20 years and I can retire.

So you do it for another 20 years and then they retire. 20 years is a long time. But it's a really scary thought to say, I just invested this much time to get here. I don't want that to be a waste. So I'm just going to keep doing this for X amount of time. And in the event, you didn't just waste 10 years, you wasted the rest of your life.

So was there a certain point, or something that happened, where you finally said, I'm making the change? Or was it gradual? Like, because you're telling the story, and I'm sure everyone listening is like,

yeah, it's like, this felt like the natural evolution. But still making that decision to leave the one hotel had to be a really hard one because of the, the status and recognition that comes from that position and that role. It was June 2nd at like 1159 p.m. Like I had finished service and I knew next day that I had to get up and run.

I had like, I think from memory it was like a three and a half hour zone two run. For Leadville? For Leadville. And I also had to deliver pieces of content that I was really excited to do that same day, but then also that night, I was going to come back to the restaurant. So this is a Saturday night. So then Sunday, I was going to come in. I was going to do my long run Sunday. Then I had filmed some content. And then that night, come back into the restaurant. And so I finished service and I was like, tomorrow is meant to be a Sunday, the day of rest.

and I'm going to go run probably 40Ks, you know, 25 miles, and then I'm going to film a bunch of content, and then I'm going to come back here. I have actually the choice tomorrow to not do the content if I decide not to. I also have the choice not to come in tomorrow night. But reality is I am not not doing Leadville. So that's not going to change at this point of the game anyway.

I can no longer keep doing this day and day out because that is 24 hours in a day, probably going to get six hours of rest and I'm trying to work two stiler jobs and compete at an endurance sport. It's just not realistic. What am I doing? No wonder why I'm like so absent from life. And I remember I was like, I was, I was, I was looking at the clock and I'm like finishing off orders and I was like looking at the clock.

I'm just like, oh my God, I can't do this anymore. And so when it came to contract renewal, like a really easy decision. I think I remember it's telling you when you, you asked me like pretty, you know, you and I was speaking at the phone. I'm like, it was actually really easy decision internally. It was hard for my ego from like from me going, well, like, I'm no longer that chef at that location. But it was a really easy decision.

decision. And then it was like, okay, well, are people just going to think that I'm no longer a chef anymore because we haven't got a position at a restaurant? Like all those things to cut like naturally come. But then I realized like, dude, this whole time you've been doing this, you being a chef has helped inspire people to realize what you can do with a full time job, which is really, really cool. But they've never really looked to you to follow your chef career. They've looked to you for your advice and thought leadership and nutrition, but also, in how you go about your life for recovery and everything else. So you've kind of been strangling yourself and not supporting your community in going all

in and supporting those means for them. So like that was a really like I had to continue to remind myself that. You know, like I, even this morning at the track, I had like a few people come up to me and just say that, you know, they're loving the YouTube, they're loving the newsletter. That wouldn't have happened if I didn't do this. And I have to be, I have to remind myself, it's like it's okay to take that leap. You and I have taken the leap so many times from our lives. People come up to you and go, hey man, how do I get started?

It's like, well, you do it. You know, people in finance jobs, they love learning about the businesses. I'm sure when you went through your phase, like, of looking to sell a business a couple years ago, you probably had guys go, hey man, just on the side. I just want to let you know, like, really love what you do. But how do you start YouTube? How do you do this? And it's just like, you just do it, man.

And the difference between someone that is, you know, succeeded or at least gotten to where you or I are is the fact that we've endured it. And that's the difference that I look back at like once I made that decision, I'm going to commit to the next thing. And the thing I'm going to commit to, I'm going to endure it, even if it takes so long to get going. So I made the decision at 1159 on that night in June. And I just haven't looked back. How has your life changed since then? Oh, man.

I'll tell you what, my sleep is, honestly, my life is dramatically changed. So I think like sleep and personal health dramatically changed. Like I got my levels checked. You know, actually I got my levels checked after, after Leadville. So it wasn't completely like a natural state of my hormones. But now they're much better than what they were even then. And I'm sure there was a part of my hormones. they were not in their best state leading into Leadville because of those reasons,

despite the success we had. So I think I'm much happier. I've got much more time creatively. I can put more time into thought leadership. I'm writing a newsletter every single week. YouTube has been unbelievably successful and awesome. I'm pursuing an athletic journey for myself that I don't look at myself as as I said earlier, talented,

but because I'm got work ethic, and I'm just showing what can happen when you do it. And most importantly, I'm spending time with Molina. And I've been on a couple holidays. I've been on two ski trips this year already. And not to say that's going to be the rest of my year ahead, but I have the time and energy to execute on tasks

that I truly want to be going all in on. When you said you were absent, when you were working at the restaurant, is that physically absent or is it mentally, emotionally absent? Both, man. Like, my friends would sit down to dinner and they'd be asking questions and, like, I just wouldn't even be present. And, you know, you don't need to go into detail and what that would be with your, your loved one, like, Melina. Like, that'd be, can you imagine, like, we do know. Women and men face this all the time when their partner isn't present in their life. It's like, it's not a good feeling. You know, you don't feel good.

knowing how that makes them feel. But you don't know at the time because you just, you're just so brain dead. You just don't have anything left in the day. And then physically, dude, like, my, the difference, like, I, I talk about this theory. It's why chefs,

so, say, like, chefs sharpen knives. And there's three phases to it. One, the stone, all right? It's establishing the reset, the foundation, of the edge. A good course adjustment. 100%. Second phase is the actual sharpening

where you're refining that. And the third one is the buff, which you do every single day. I can tell you from my two stones that I have carved in this time, my speed on the track. Remember that track workout we did, the 12 by 1s?

Yep. That was a brutal workout. Great fucking workout, though. Yeah. Dude, I can tell you right now, my times would be like 15 to 20 seconds faster consistently. That's epic. Just because of the time I'm putting into it. I said I wanted to do 256, 257 in London. And I really feel confident I can do that. And the same with my sub 60 YouTube series. You look at my time, 68 minutes. And I look at that and go, I definitely at that time still could have shade written off because I had a little bit going on. But now I'm working my way down. And I'm like, I can fucking do this. It's only because I've allowed the space to do that.

And I've started eating more restaurants in New York, which is really, really cool. I never got to do that. I never went out to dinner. Everyone's like, what do your favorite restaurants in New York? And I'm like, honestly, I love cooking at home. But Melena and I now experiencing more restaurants, which is really, really cool. One of the greatest cities in the world, I get to do that. Let's talk about commitments for a little bit.

Yeah. Because there's been many times my life where I've also been the zombie mode where you're there. It's the end of a long day. Oh, man. And your fiance, your wife, your partner's talking to you. And it's in one year and out the other. You're thinking about that next video you're going to produce. You're thinking about problems that are happening with the team and the business.

You're thinking about the next training session. And I think that this society praises people for being busy. I mean, people have praised me many times for having a jam-packed schedule, waking up at 4.30 and going nonstop until midnight for many, many nights. There's a difference between, and we all know, being busy and being productive. And one of the ways that you can leverage being productive or improve your productivity is by honoring your kids. commitments and sometimes being committed is turning things off to turn other things on in a greater capacity. Do you agree with that? Dude, I, yeah, like, for example, my time spent, like, meditatively with Milana on a Sunday morning allows me the freedom to execute tasks throughout

the week because I'm just freeing my mind. I also realize, that like we, like on a very relatable note, there's a reason why we run the easy runs easy as coach talks about. Like, you do zone too easy so that when it comes time to execute, you've given yourself the space to run the zone for. And when you're looking at productivity, I say this to the team, one of my editors, Shingen, he used to do so many things about being really detailed and like trying to refine things. And I'm like, dude, you're going almost like too far and you're being too detailed. I'm going to give you a time cap on your edit, all right?

Because you know you can do the job in the time cap. So I'm giving you a time cap. I gave him one, execute the task, which gives him an extra four hours of the day to honestly either give himself time to relax or execute another video. And for me,

like I've treated that the same way, not by giving myself time caps, but when the time is on, it's on. And then give myself the space to actually recharge. So I think physically I've learned that now. Like I have to recover the amount of training, but I'm doing two sessions a day. Like so I have to allow myself that training volume.

But if I'm at the gym for those two sessions or whatever I'm doing and I come home and I need to relax, I'm relaxing. And I'm not, I'm not doing work. I've noticed that the productivity and everything that I do is like intentionality behind the time I'm spending full of task at hand. And the task is a bad word when you say, looking at time with your lady. But if I'm there to cook 530 on, I'm cooking for Molina.

I'm doing that. She can be on a work call, but I'm doing that. I'm going to do it really well. I want to take a quick break in this episode to talk to you guys about how I use our products around my endurance training and how you can as well. Now, here at BPN, we've created products to fuel your performance and optimize your recovery. But I want to talk specifically around how I use these products in my morning run. Before my morning run every morning, I'm not training fasted. I want carbohydrates and I want electrolytes. So I consume two scoops of G1M Sport, which is our carbohydrate and electrolyte powder,

and one go bar, which is our lightweight oat-based bar. With this combination, I'm getting about 800 milligrams of sodium, and 76 grams of carbohydrates total. Carbohydrates for the fuel, electrolytes for the hydration. This is going to set me up to have the best run possible. Fuel and hydration.

Now based off of the distance, duration, and intensity of that run, I will add in go gels during the workout. And the go gel is our simple ingredient, endurance gel, 24 grams of carbohydrates in each gel and 110 milligrams of sodium. We have a non-caffeinated version and a caffeinated version. The caffeinated version has 75 milligrams of caffeine per gel. And I will have one go gel every 30 to 45 minutes or every 4 to 5 miles.

And we really created the go gel for these bigger effort runs or endurance. training sessions and races. They are extremely useful during races because you get a quick hit of energy from the fuel, the carbohydrates, some hydration from the electrolytes, the sodium, but they also digest very easily. So you're not going to have stomach discomfort and GI distress. And then after my run, I want to rehydrate. So I'm always adding in our electrolyte powder, one to two scoops.

each scoop has 500 milligrams of sodium, full electrolyte profile. So I'm using our products to fuel training, enhance hydration, maintain effort intensity during training sessions with the go gel, and then rehydrating immediately after. So that's how I use our products around my early morning runs and all my endurance training and how you can as well. So go to BPNSups.com, check out all of our endurance products to fuel your performance. And now back to the episode. We work with Play.

They're building out the new BPNHQ gym. Sick. And super impressive company. Yeah. So the way they started was doing flooring in turf for commercial gyms, collegiate athletic training facilities, professional athletic training facilities. and then started getting into equipment and now we're moving into the D to C business.

And their founder's name's Brett Waits, incredible guy, incredible. And I have one of a call with Brett every once in a while. And we were on this call the other day. And he's just sharing with me all of his ideas he has and the way he visualizes the company and projects he wants to work on together and where he sees the fitness industry moving. And I'm thinking in my head, like, this guy's got so many ideas.

His brain's just cooking. And he was telling me that he has two visionary days a week. Yeah. Where he just creates space for himself and just thinks of how he moves the business forward and opportunities the business can pursue to grow and scale. Sometimes, you know, I had this. quote earlier this year, if it matters to you, you will make time. And you have to make time because if you don't make time, you're trying to find time,

and it's really hard to find time. You've got to make the time. Sometimes that isn't just applicable to doing things. It's not doing things. Make the time to not do things so that your brain can creatively think. Like Cal Newport's book, Deep Work. Your body can recover. And then when you go and actually perform and execute, it's so much stronger.

Bro, like the, so how are you with tasks that have a deadline? Are you someone who will wait into the last minute, but like you'll get it done? No. You're not. No, I don't do that.

Cool. So I am. I'm someone who used to be very much along the lines of like, hey, my newsletter, it comes out Tuesday, 9.30 a.m. every single week, right? I'll do it on a Monday. Right? But sometimes you procrastinate a little bit because you're wiped.

actually takes me an hour to write this newsletter, but you procrastinate. I'm like, well, hang on, if I just got a done in an hour and I realize a lot of things that procrastinated me and to that point, it's like being productive, this is the best tool. I've taken it, I take it just everywhere I go. It is the best thing that other than making the decision I did last year and spending more time, it's been the best change in my life. It's a notebook for anyone who's listening to that watching. This is a small, these are chef notebooks because they fit inside your pocket. So when you're like, you know, getting measurements, whatever, you can pull them out. But I realize that, you know, I got simulated so much with all the inbound that comes in on a phone

or on a computer that if I sit in there, I sit down to do it and I sit in front of the computer and then I have all these things in my face. I'm like, wow. So I'll often write all my intentions in this or if I hear a quote or something I like, I'll write this down. And even if I've re, then I turn my Wi-Fi off on my computer, I'll turn my put my phone away. And as I do that, it allows me to be really intentional with the thought that I was doing, which means that for the hour, I fucking crush and get my shit done. And so like going back to what you're talking about, the reason he sets those two days a week to be creative is like they're creative days. And for me, I have my creative moments in the

morning before like the solidarity, before we get up, before you, you go for your runs, everything you do. And they're so important. If you don't get those times for your freedom of thought and actually be in a place that gives you that solidarity. Like, man, you are untel- you're really affecting your mind's potential just to tell you what it's really thinking. Yeah, I agree. How are you with your calendar?

Because there's certain people who need to fill every minute of their calendar for a day. Like, they even have, this is when I'm brushing my teeth. This is when I'm eating my lunch. This is what I'm going to the bathroom. Like extremes. my favorite calendars are empty calendars. When I wake up and I see a day where there's like nothing on it or there's one thing on it,

I'm like, yes, this is my day to like crush. And it's not because I'm not going to do anything, but it's because I can creatively work on things in areas of the business or areas of my life that I'm really passionate about. And there's no time cap I can explore, work, and refine. But I hate when it's like immediate non. podcast at 10, this at 11, this at 12, this at 1. Those are my least favorite days.

Dude, they're so shit. I, uh, yeah, I, I don't like having my days back to back to back. And then I realize that like, I can't do, I can't do like a meeting and then jump into creativity. So I have like my days that are creative and then my days that are meeting days. So like Wednesdays and Fridays are typically my meeting days. And there's a cap to them. So Maddie knows how many she can cap at meetings.

Like it could be literally like, I've hit say three meetings the day. And then someone tries to schedule meeting. It's free. It's like, no, she's like, I can't do it. So I've putting these principles in just because I know that there's things that come up or things I still want to do. But Tuesdays and Thursdays, full day free. They're filming days, but like they're just freedom.

And that has been huge helpful. Like Monday is typically setting up planning for the following week or that week, just finishing off things for that week. and then, yeah, Tuesdays, Thursdays, full day filming days. And Wednesday, Fridays, just, yeah, you can put some meetings in. And it's helped me just like you talked about because you know that day with nothing on it. You're just like, get up. Like, I can make my coffee a little bit slower.

I can still be intentional with everything I'm doing. But almost like putting more time into certain things that make you happy allows you to be more productive. You're not rushing. You're not rushing, man. A life of rush. is it's like I had to do it at some point. I'm trying to avoid that now. Yeah, I did.

Let's shift gears a little bit. Hit me. Really like now transitioning to your performance athletic endeavors. Yep. You've been training with a lot of the world's most elite athletes for years now, but especially these last couple months as you refined your focus of your career, your performance, your athletics. what have you learned training with some of the best of the world in terms of performance, the way

they live, the way they eat, the way they recover? What have you learned that you have now implemented it into your life? Look, I think I'll start up by saying, as much as we hear about the normality of consistent things in recovery, everyone has preferences more than others. I've seen people with the gadgets, the weird things that they'll roll on their feet, like all day, every day, like, Luke is, he gets up in the morning and, like, the first thing you'll do is, like, he'll roll that thing on his feet, which is awesome. But I think what I've, the biggest change I've had was just getting to bed earlier after looking and training with some of these athletes.

Like, they are so intentional about their sleep and we hear about sleep, but how they get into bed has been like the biggest change that I've made based on what I've seen. So for example, I used to, I still have a very creative mind just like you do. And so it's for me to shut it off at nighttime is hard. So I went to nonfiction. I've only ever read nonfiction my like last 15 years. Why? Because I'm just like, oh, work ethic, productivity. You want to learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. So I do that, but I'd be stimulated so we'd never fall asleep. So I switch to like watching NFL highlights on YouTube. And that was like, great, but melatonin would be suppressed.

So I'd never force, I'd fall asleep, my deep sleep would be terrible. And why is that important? Well, deep sleep is where you get the physical recovery benefits and the hormone release. And watching these athletes, they're just like, they're so intentional with their sleep time and naps. I also nap now. That's a big change.

Like, even if it's a 15, 20 minute nap, I'd nap. Do you all, I've always started with naps. because even on the weekend, if the kids are napping and I'm tired, I'll lay down and I can't fall asleep. What do you do to fall asleep for a nap? Dude, this is so, it's funny. Like, if I'm watching TV during the day on a Saturday afternoon after my track, my workout, if I'm lying down, I can fall asleep.

So I can nap. Melena gets annoyed at me to watch a movie and she was like, we're not watching a movie because you fall asleep and I have to repeat what happened at the start of the movie. and then I'm not doing that again. I fall asleep during every movie night. Does Steph hate it? Does she like, does she care?

That's why I don't even really add my input into what we watch anymore. It's just like whatever you want to watch. Dude, I am not a night owl. I never have been. Even when we were like younger and kids, we'd have sleepovers. Yeah. I was the first of fall asleep. Oh, dude.

I think I've talked to about this before. You and I should have a sleep off battle. I sleep standing. I'll go to a bar. I won't be drinking. I haven't had an ounce of alcohol. It'll be 8.30, not 845. My friends, they're going to listen to this.

They're going to laugh because they all. all know this. I will fall asleep. I'll literally be in a conversation like this. And also my eyes would just like, and I'd fall asleep. And they would get like, they'd laugh. And then a bouncer would come over and be like, all right, that guys had enough. And they're like, no, no, no, man. It's called the seven, seven minute power nap. So I have like a seven minute nap. It's like, it's like science at this point. And I'm up again. And I can go for an hour and a half. But like, dude, if my head hits the pillow typically during the day, I'm out, the problem is at nighttime when I have the time for thought, it never went away. And so the

one change I've made is I started reading fiction at night time. And so I read the series. And fiction is like, why would I read fiction? It's like, that's fun time. I don't want to read fun books. And it's like, again, new process on life. You were okay to read fiction before bed. And my, I fall asleep and it has been amazing. It's a great hack. It's a great hack, dude. So it was actually the number one open rate on the newsletter. It's like the biggest hack I've changed in improving my deep sleep, man. Like I, yeah, the, the, looking at the data on my whoop as well, man, is crazy. Like, my deep sleep is increased by an extra of 45 minutes, like, on average.

What time do you try to fall asleep at night? So if I get into bed at nine, I'm reading and I'll typically fall in bed before sleep around like 9.20. And what time do you wake up? Five, anywhere between 5.30 and 6. So I get, my goal is to get eight hours of time in. Eight and a half hours of time in bed. And so I've gone from a year on,

it's like I was having six hours and 20 minutes of sleep time to now seven hours and 45 minutes of sleep time. And it's been dramatically different on every single facet of my life. I can't tell you the last time I had eight hours of sleep. Yeah, dude, fuck. Like I told you, bro. I don't have kids yet. Like, that's going to happen, man.

That's like literally, I like watch your videos. And I'm like, fuck. I'm going to be calling Nick. like all hours of the morning just of, yeah, anyway. But yeah, man, like I, uh, do you, do you, um, put anything on your bed? Do you use like a sleep eight, chilly sleep pad? Do you bring the temperature of your room or your bed down at all?

So we're in the midst of renovating. So like, I'm not going to buy anything new yet, but we're getting the eight sleep when I, when I get when the place is finished. But my bed's a classic bed at this point in time. So I wear blue blocking glasses before bed. That kind of look like Miami Vice glasses. So they're kind of, yeah. pretty funny. I'll be walking Maverick sometimes at nighttime and I've got these glasses on

and everyone just thinks like this guy's going out to party and I'm like, nah, I'm going to bet. You're in New York too. So it's like, yeah, it could be anything. Yeah, it could be anything. But yeah, like I haven't got anything specific yet, but I will be getting with my new health house, I'll be definitely getting all those little accoutrement efforts. But yeah, I'd say back to your original question, the biggest hack I've definitely had is intentionally behind my sleep, allowing naps and then finding this new hack to get me to fall into deep sleep more efficiently, which is fiction reading. We have the eight sleep on our bed.

We used to have the chilly sleep pad. Then we upgraded the eight sleep. I swear by it. So let me ask you this question, though. Does the dog affect the bed? In what way? So like Melena was like, well, we can get the eight sleep, but Maverick would like, when it comes up on the bed, he's going to, like, affect the sensory experience of the bed.

I'm like, sweetie, you're looking too much into it. Do you want the ape sleep or you don't want the ape sleep? Do you want the ape? You know what? I haven't thought about that, but I should because when only one of our dog sleeps in the bed, and sometimes the temperature changes throughout the night because the eight sleep is AI-driven, so it'll measure your sleep performance and adjust based off that performance. I even even thought about it. I even thought about if the dog's in bed. But with that being said, years ago, I would wake in the middle of night drenched in sweat, especially if I'm in a big training block or a prep.

I would wake up so sweaty. So then we started, you know, with eight sleep, it's connected, this water tank, and then there's a pad you put over your mattress. It brings your mattress down to a certain temperature at night. I never sweat. And the millin night, I sleep great. It gives you like a sleep analysis and like feedback report after every night. You can set an alarm where like the pad vibrates to wake you up.

Yeah. This is not a paid endorsement. Like this is a product that I bought that I really love and enjoy. And me and Steph swear by it now where if we travel or if we're in a hotel, we don't have it, we can tell a big difference in our sleep. So this is interesting. So if you guys didn't know, Nick doesn't like the cold. Like he doesn't, I hate the cold. He doesn't like the cold.

You know, getting him into a coal plunge, he would be a little child like the first on the gym being in the, you know, you know what Nick would be like getting into a cold plunge. It's like the first time you're putting your puppy in water. I hate the coal plunge. I hate it. He's so funny. I'm going to get him to do it. Did, Stefan, I did a date night the other night.

And it was this new wellness center here in Austin, uh, uh, Ulu wellness wellness, ULU. Cool. really cool facility, and you can rent a room. And the room is a sauna, a shower, and a cold plunge. So staff booked us this experience for date night. Usually we go to dinner, but we want to do some different. And so I got in the sauna, and then we were going back and forth being the sauna in the cold plunge.

And I just kept pouring water on the rocks to get as much steam as possible in the sauna. Just because I wanted to be so hot before going to the cold plunge. I got in there. I set my timer. It was like three minutes. I was sucking, dude. Sucking.

I would, I reckon that would be the most, like the most YouTube watched shots of you would be watching you in a cold plunge or something. I'm not proud of it. I'm not proud of how soft I am in the cold. I remember when Nick came to New York last year. And I was actually really impressive. It was started last year and it was cold.

It was pretty cold. And you, you ran across the bridge. It was a cold day. Yeah, it was cold. And you still did it. I was like, I don't know, he's out. I was like, here I was thinking I was going to have to find us a gym inside to get on a treadmill.

But now, you still did it. When it comes to running, it doesn't matter how cold it is, how hot it is. Yeah. Because my body would just eventually. Yeah. Some of my favorite runs I've ever done have been in the freezing cold, snow everywhere in Michigan. Oh, yeah. I love running in the snow and the cold.

Dude, it's so sick. It is, it is like minus, we had minus 13 degrees Celsius, which was, what's that in Fahrenheit? It was, it was the coldest day of the year. And it was snowing. And you're just out there. And there's like, there's one or two people out. And it's so funny because you get to this time of year when everyone's out, but you still see those same runners. And you look at each other going, hey, we were out here when the shit fucking hurt.

And then you have all these people out here. And it's like, we work hard. It was really, it's like a really cool wheeling. Real recognizes. Yeah. And just a question, what do you have your temperature at for your sleep eight? What do you have it at? So the sleep eight is different where you don't set it based on temperature. You set it by like negative one, negative two, negative three. With the chilly sleep pad, you would set it by temperature. Gotcha. Which is hard with the sleep eight because if it's like not cold enough, I'll drop in another level. But then I don't know like what temperature it is. Yeah. So that's the only thing I don't like about it.

Okay. Because I like knowing the data, like, this is how cold it is, so I can anticipate what it's going to feel like. I feel it's going to be, because you have the differences between you and your partner, right? Correct. Yes. So this is what's going to be interesting because this is the only time I ever feel used and abused with Melana is during the temperature situation. So she'll use me for, like, warmth for like five minutes.

and then I'm like you. I am like a son. So she'll then just roll over and just like, see you later. So I'm wondering if I just need to keep her so cold that she has no choice, but just to hold me the whole night. Has to snuggle you? Yeah, the whole time. See, I get my space when I sleep.

So I instantly turn like, I sleep on my right side. Yeah, dude. And Steph's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm comfortable sleeping like that. I like my space when I sleep. Wait, does she sleep the left side of the bed or the right inside? She sleeps on the left hand side. Yeah.

And I sleep on the right hand side. And you sleep on your right shoulder. I'm right shoulder. So I face away from the... So does she big spoon you? No. She jet packs you. She jet packs you, doesn't she?

That's amazing. That's amazing. She'll try. I'm like, hang, I need my... The dog usually sleeps between us. Oh, God. Like, the dogs, like, last night, rider's head was right by my ear. and I can just hear him breathing into my head.

Sleeping is really weird. The fact that you do it in the same bed as someone else. It's just a weird concept. Who was I listening to? I think it's Charlese. What's her name? Is it Salis Sharon the actress? Right.

Her and a partner have, I think, separate houses or like separate rooms. I actually think that's more of a common thing than we might think. Really? I've actually met a lot. of people, like after they had kids, started sleeping and they have young kids, sleep in, like, separate rooms because one will go, like, take care of or feed the kid. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But Steph would never let that fly. Not. You're, even if I fall asleep on the couch, she'll wake me and be like, get into bed. All right. Carry me. Carry me. She's just excited to jet pack. Carry me and spin me.

All right. So I'm curious, some of the things that you have changed that have created mental unlocks. So what mindset shifts have you made or adopted that have unlocked new levels of performance in your training? Progress isn't linear. Is a big one. So, you know, that is a passage to me. That is a passage to me. is really important to remind myself because you do have good days and bad days. But when you reflect over the course of a period that's greater than just the immediate, you can see the progress that you've been putting in. So that's been really helpful in not just as an athletic, you know, prowess, but in everything.

I've, you know, it's funny. Like my hydration, I've just been, like, as a physical state, like, I just didn't drink enough water. I didn't drink nearly enough as I needed to. And now that I'm doing, you know, my sessions, which are dialed in every single week, I realize how much more. And I was always having like enough G1M. It was just fluid. Like my actual ounces were definitely never enough.

But is when you were working in the restaurant? Yeah. Is it just because it was inconvenient? Very inconvenient. Well, yes and no. Like I could easily have asked front of house, hey guys, can you get us a round of waters? I just was like not in the space to think about it. Now I'm making a priority.

Like I will, just like I carry my notebook around, I'll carry a bottle of water around. Like I'll carry this. And, you know, little things like that help. Like I have to think of myself now mentally as an athlete. And that's actually got me excited. So, you know, like at the start of the week, I write my schedule out. It also allows me to understand my, like what my mates can join me for. Because a lot of friends were like, can we train?

and I'm like, I'm doing this workout. I would love to see you if you want to do this workout, awesome. And it's put my priority in place for that. And they had a juncture like that last week where my volume of my high rocks zone four and like my squatting and all that was like I'm hitting like 60 miles or 66 miles a week last week, right, in total volume of running plus my other sessions. And I was like, wow, there's a lot. Like my body was really sore.

And so like even that understanding of like, okay, say no, you have to say no to your strength workouts the next three weeks until zone until London, right? And that's why it's funny that Nick's like, hey, dude, we're doing a leg session after today's podcast. I'm like, fuck, awesome. Great. You're going to crush legs. You're going to crush legs. Your glutes are going to hurt so bad. Oh, baby. But last time I was here, dude, I did five by five to 225 because I didn't remember I was telling you I didn't squat, right? I was like, that's cool. Now I'm squatting like a lot more.

for me. And that's like, again, progress isn't linear. I would also say that I think it's just being really, I've talked about intentionality a lot in work. Now I'm using intentionality in my athletic performance too. It's like I am, I do little things now. Like I label my food in the fridge. And this is like one of the most commented thing in my YouTube series is like, you still do that? I'm like, yeah, the reason why I do that, because if I do that little thing then, it means that I I'm intentional behind why I'm doing that, which means I'm intentional by the food I cook, which means I'm intentional behind every other aspect.

If I can do those little things, it's like making your bed, you're putting intentionally through the whole day. So that's been really helpful. Melinda's not a massive fan of that because she's not doing a good job of labeling her food. She's one of the people that chucks, like, cuts a lemon and half and then puts it in the fridge,

like without any form of, like, you know, pantry container. But hey, she'll get. there. It's baby steps. She's still a little like a junior sous chef, so we'll work her way up. Steph just reorganize our fridge so that all these things that come in packages now go in like their own preset containers. And like when we get groceries now, it takes a lot longer to three feel like you get the egg carton, you take the eggs out of the cart and you put them in there like plastic little egg shell holders. So it looks great.

But now you almost can't buy something that doesn't fit in the fridge. I'm like, okay, I bought this thing at the farmer's market that I don't know where it goes because there's not a preset. So an extra fridge is like an overflow. You made a comment there that made me think of something that I believe we should riff on for a little bit. Sure. Talking about identifying as an athlete, which shifted your mindset. of being more intentional. I ended up something really powerful

because you don't have to be a professional athlete to identify one as one. This is applicable to everyone. You do not have to have won a world championship. You don't have to run a sub three hour marathon. You don't have to be a pro to act like a pro. And where I really started, being aware of this is when I was talking to Sally McRae a few years ago.

And we were sitting down at lunch one day. And I made the comment, because she's a professional athlete. I was like, well, I'm not a professional athlete. So, and she stopped me. And she's like, Nick, you're not a professional athlete. But you act like you are. Like the way that you train, the way that you eat, your mindset. And I'll never forget that conversation because I was thinking, you know what, you're right.

And anyone can do that. Anyone can approach their diet and their training and their lifestyle and their sleep and their recovery and their choices as if they are already there. You don't have to have made it to start acting like you have. And once you accept that, that is very, very, very powerful. Dude, oh man, yeah. Like I, everything I think about from even like work, like I think, I've always used analogies in work as an athletic, like, you know, I've talked about offense and

defense with the team a lot. I was like, you guys, your job is to help me play offense. So I use athletic things all the time and references because that's, it's a world I grew up in. It's where I still am in. But for me to actually finally own that I am an athlete. yeah, if I look through that lens, it helps me shape my day. I think so many of us can really use, it's not like you go up to someone like, oh, what are you doing? Like, I'm an athlete. It's not that. It's the fact that you personally, the way that you look at your days and your weeks is like

you look yourself through, as you said, as an athlete, to set you up for success, especially if you're doing the numbers of volume that, you know, we all are. Like, the people that attract this morning plenty of legends wearing go on more hats and they've all no doubt now train a lot more because of the BPN energy. But that is still quite athletic even if they train three times a week. It's like if you look at it like that, you show up, you did that, you did that track workout. You're then going to drink the correct formulation, whether it be G1M or whatever it is fluid-wise. You're then going to eat afterwards. Like all these things are if you have that same character throughout the day.

Yeah, it's game changing. There's certain things you can control. And I think the way that you accomplish your goals and you succeed is by managing the things you can control. If you identify as an athlete, the things you can control your time, not all your time, but to a certain extent. If I know that my kids wake up at 7 a.m., usually, there's rare exceptions, I'm going to make sure my training is done. by 6.30 a.m. to give me some buffer and know that my training is done for the day and nothing is going to affect that. You can manage your time. You can manage your diet. You can manage your training. You can manage your choices. And once you realize you can manage and control those things,

you are now in the driver's seat to identify as an athlete. But if you are just reacting and responding to the circumstances that life throws at you and you're just trying to make it work, you're going to end up picking up fast food along the way. Or one of the biggest things that drives me crazy about athletes is when they skip meals. It's like you knew you had this big training session later this afternoon and you didn't eat anything up until this point. Why? I don't have time.

Yes, you did. That is the worst excuse ever. You didn't fuel for this massive training. session that we're about to get thrown on them, I guarantee you're going to suffer, you're going to fall behind. And that's your fault. It's one of my biggest pet peeves. You can control all of those things, not all the time.

But if you're more consistent with success through controlling those, then you're not. Chances are you're going to reach some level of success towards that goal. Yeah, I've always lived my life around controlling the controllable. I think it's a big one. I've recently been more about helping people. understand to put themselves first. And to your point, like, why didn't you eat? Like, you say you were busy, but that's purely because you didn't put it as a priority. If you really did say as a priority, you would do it. So I think a lot of the questions we can start to ask

ourselves is, if you look at the end of the day, like, what would you do differently? If you would like, if you look at the end of the day, I'm like, fuck, I could have probably thought about packing lunch or maybe making an extra bit of dinner than night before that could help me support. And then you start to question those things. The problem is when you're in the moment, it's impulsive when people forget. It's like the issue becomes, oh, now I'm hungry. And it's not like you've given time to cook something. It's like you either need to reheat something or you need a quick, quick hit or like, and that's the problem we face. Also, you're hungry. So you're like, fuck, I'll just need, I, right, right, you need anything. And that's

I guess like where a bit of planning does come in. If you're doing a work, that's the thing. Now that I know I plan my workouts, I know that I can't, like my workouts are booked in my calendar, but also I've got buffer for eating time. So it's like, essentially, my workout maybe an hour and a half, but it's like two and a half hours because I have to eat just in case, right? So that means that I've allowed time outside of just the training session to fuel. And again, that is, that's just where I'm at with controlling the controllable. And I'm sure everyone has their own ways they can do it, but goes back to one, putting themselves first and actually planning and being intentional about whether it be an athlete or whatever it is that they actually

want to be doing. You made a good observation there's. I agree with you that I think most people fail in the moment where you can have all the preparation, but in the moment when you're presented with an opportunity, hey, I know you have your meal prepped, but we're going to this all you can eat pizza buffet. Do you want to go? Yeah, let's go. So the way that I, I'm not saying, I'm not saying that all you can eat pizza buffets are bad, but what I'm saying is when you make that decision consistently, it's not going to lead to any successful results. So what I like to do is in that moment,

think of how am I going to feel after I make this decision about the decision I just made? In that moment, very briefly, forward think. It's like right now, the pizza buffet sounds much better than this, this boring meal that I prepped. So if I just am influenced by that moment right there, I'm going to say yes to the pizza buffet. But let me stop for one second and think an hour from now

after I just consumed an excessive amount of pizza, how am I going to feel about myself and my decision in that moment? Will I be disappointed in myself? where I feel lethargic, tired would affect my workout later. Probably, yes, to all those things. So let me make a decision now for my future self to set me up for success, something that I'd be proud of afterwards. Yeah, dude, like, this is what's really cool with you and where you're at,

is you have the ability to stop and do that. The problem is a lot of people still haven't trained themselves to get there. And this is really, really awesome. People, I love that. Like, if you can get in the moment at that moment and actually quickly forward think, so powerful. But I think you and I, like, so a lot of my job, everyone, everyone, what's my job? A lot of my job is, is food related. It's actually more psychology related than it is food.

It's like helping people understand the decisions to make around food, despite the nutrition involved, right? So your situation of forward thinking is you've gotten to the point where you can do that. Unfortunately, not everyone can. True. And so we've got to find within ourselves that ability to be realistic. For example, I like to think of, I've trained my week and my weekends really, really hard, right? But I control what I eat during the week so that if I do have an impulsive thing come up, I don't have to forward think about what I'm eating pizza or not, right?

And the reason why I say that is more than often I realize that I need a lot of calories for my weekend. for my load of volume that I've got. So if I get to that point, it's like I don't even question what we eat Friday night. Not because I like don't want to go to the, don't want to have what I've eaten. All I consider do I need to do math

before doing my buffet effort with the pizza, it's the fact that I've controlled my week relatively well that I've earned the right to not think about that kind of stuff, right? And so it is obviously different between people Monday or Friday, all that. But this comes back. to, I think one of the first podcasts we talked about is like, I don't want people thinking about

food so much that they have a negative relationship with how they are feeling when they're eating something that they want or maybe feel I shouldn't have all the time. I do like how you said it's a consistency thing though, right? Like, so if you're consistently making these bad decisions, hey, it's going to happen. But if you get to the point where you can go to that pizza buffet because you've like, I crushed this week, I'm got a big run tomorrow and why, I'm not even going to consider it. Yeah, I'll put that thing in the freezer. I'll have it for later. And that's kind of where I want to make people feel they can make those informed decisions themselves. Control the controllable through the weeks that they can control that by the time

they get to the weekend in these situations, then I don't have to worry about it. Yeah. I've experienced both extremes in those examples. You can eat, bro. You know, tonight, for example, we're going for pizza. Where you going? It's this pizza shop called Pine House Pizza. Sick. Because Steph is getting her wisdom teeth out tomorrow and she can't eat before the surgery.

Her surgery is at 11. So she's trying to get a big meal on tonight. And it's like, where do you want to go? She said, let's go get some pizza. In the past, an older version of Nick Bear would have heard pizza on a Wednesday night. I would have started getting anxious. and started like really adjusting my diet that day to pull back on carbs, pull back on fat, got to the restaurant, trying to like find some sort of option to like

fit into my diet. That stuff used to stress me on a lot. It doesn't anymore. Because like you said, I know that I'm so consistent with my diet. I make better choices more frequently than I don't. When the opportunity comes up to go grab some pizza with family or go to do dinner and enjoy a good experience and meal, it's not going to bother me. It's not going to throw me off track because I control the control balls as much as I do. That's how my life

has changed. Dude, that's, I was speaking to you about this? Was it Steph? I was like, that's one of the coolest scene to see is how relaxed you are around that kind of stuff. Like you, because I, you know this that people look up to you in so many ways. I think this whole new identity of you as a father is way more relatable in so many ways. that people like, oh, if Nick's still doing these things and a father, like, dude, like, crazy how I can imagine the amount of dad's, like, reaching out to you going, bro, fuck, I get it. Thank you so much for talking about this.

Because this, right now, we talked about eating disorders before, this does still not get talked about enough where guys, girls have this complexity around, should I go, should I not? And yeah, like, I, you've gotten to that point of realizing, like, you've earned the right to get there. but I just think it's like, it comes down to you should never be in a position of being uncomfortable, but if you're ever triggered in that situation, there's a previous root cause, not at that moment, that is the situation. But all stands down to like if you're putting the work in, you're being consistent, then you earn that right to be that situation and not worry about it.

Yeah. here's another example for years on Christmas Steph makes what they're called snails like these cinnamon rolls and it's been a part of her family's Christmas tradition

for decades and decades she would always make them Christmas morning and I would never eat them because they weren't part of my diet I mean when I say I can commit to something and be disciplined it's on another level I'm proud of it in some situations and I'm not proud of others.

This past year, Steph made him for Christmas like she always does. And I went and grabbed one and ate the whole thing. And she was like, I've never seen you do that. So yeah, I'm just like, I'm letting loose on that grip a little bit. Because I don't want my daughter as she grows up to see dad never ate any of these foods. There must be something wrong with these foods. There can be something wrong with them when you eat them in excess, yes, obviously. But I don't want my children to have unhealthy relationship with food and eating disorders like I did when I was young because I see what that does to the rest of your life.

So now I feel this responsibility as a father as a role model to set a standard and show and display that it's a way. okay to enjoy friends, loved ones, company, food, and the entire experience. Yeah, absolutely. I'm curious. So what about you, Nick, not the father, but Nick enjoying that cinnamon role? Like, the reason why I say this is there's, there's countless people out there who, for example, on a Saturday, after our long run in New York, we all, as a squad, go to a place called Daily Provisions.

Always get a sausage and egg and cheese, maybe two, and a crawler, which is this cinnamon-like, beautiful textured cinnamon donut situation. I never think twice about do I post this or not to post this, whatever. I don't care. It's because I know that throughout the week I've done what I've done, but that's for me. And so why I raise this is, what do you, do you still get like those, like, because the amount of, dude, how many, you see you sweat on a bike every day. Like everyone sees you 4.30 a.m. now on the bike if you're not running.

You can have plenty of those things every single week and never have an issue based on your volume. Right. So, and what I'm trying to do here is identify relatability so that everyone else can understand. But because of the workout put in, You're almost like, that's not an issue. So why wouldn't you just be more normal about it? What's the thing there for you? I think a lot of it is that maybe this is just the way that my mind has just been trained for so long.

If you give me two options, if you give me a donut, for example, and then you give me a healthier option of something else equivalent to same amount of calories, same carbs, fats, proteins, I'm always going to opt for the healthier option. Now, what changes that decision for me is the company that I'm with, the environment. If I go to dinner by myself, I'm not ordering dessert. If I go to dinner with Steph or some friends and we get a dessert for the table and we share it,

yeah, for sure. I'll be the first to ask for the dessert menu. Cool. Because there's an experience there. but I'm not doing that on my own because I'd rather by default make the better decision. I don't feel guilty for making it or not making it. That's really, really good, man. I'm fucking so glad you said that.

So like, same for me. I don't buy chocolates. I don't bring them home. Melana will go get these cool, like the huge chocolate or whatever it is. I don't ever bring any of that stuff in the house. Not that I'm against it. I just don't do it, right? But at the same time, if we got at the dinner, I'm going to have a dessert.

Like if I'm with my lunch, I would never do it my own. Yeah. But like, if I'm with friends, yeah, totally. But I think I didn't touch on this earlier, but one of the biggest change they've made as an athlete is my overall consumption. I have increased food like there is no tomorrow. I am, as I said, training twice a day. I'm averaging 4,500 calories, sometimes up to 5, 2 some days, just because the amount of energy output I'm having. But as a result, it's also like, I'm, I can probably.

not that I think about, like there's nutrition, vitamins and minerals, the fifth macronutrient, which you've discussed before, and the macros and the energy. Sometimes you just need the energy. You know, like when we're on the fucking mountain at Leadville, Coca-Cola and Oreos is all you want. So it is situational, obviously, right? But yeah, like I think that is a pure example of enjoyment and serotonin and endorphine release is when you're with friends and those kind of things. You should not, you're less in control because you're around friends. So when you're on your own. Yeah, you're going to make the right decisions for yourself. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think back to when I was in this high rocks prep, the amount of calories I was consuming to keep up with the 8 to 12 miles

I was running in the morning and then the mass of high rocks or strength session in the afternoon. What are you doing every day? Calorie wise? Yeah. At least 4,500. Yeah. I would loosely track, but like if I went over, I'd go over. Yeah, of course. And if there'd be moments, where I'd feel tired and fatigued, I'd go eat more. Because a lot of people experience fatigue during a big training block. And, yes, sometimes it is from the accumulation of volume and intensity. And they're like, well, I'm just not like, I'm just not adapting to this training stimulus right now. A lot of times, well, no, you're under fueling.

And because of that and you're under eating, you're not recovering. So if I ever in a big training block start feeling fatigued and tired, I got to go eat more. And I could always tell, like, with a big training day, if I had two back-to-back, big training days, if I didn't eat enough that first day, that second day would suffer. If I ate enough and more that first day, that second day would be powerful. Energy is driven by calories. Dude, huge, bro.

Huge. I, we had a, I think it was last week's newsletter was on think versus feel when it comes to nutrition. and I think it's important to get both. Like, we think you're thinking about the numbers. You're identifying what targets to hit. And I actually think it's really important to know certain aspects of what's in certain foods. You've done this as bodybuilding over and over again.

You can look at a plate. You know what's inside of it. But not everyone's like that. But that's granted you the right to know, instead of doing math, they, like, specifically, you kind of gauge. The other sides feel. And I think you earn feel. So think is where you get the numbers. You understand what's in it.

Maybe it takes a week for me. It takes one or two days to recheck in. But when you recheck in, you do the think, understand the numbers. It allows you just to go through feel. And so what that means is I can roughly know what's on a plate. Realistically, I'm very good at it because of what I do for a living. But now I think about my body. And we've talked about this.

You talk about this on every podcast is like training field versus training. fasting, right? You are trying to feel as if you are charged every single day. You're trying to feel as if, like, you've slept properly and you have the energy because a food is not just supplying the energy for a workout you've done. It's supplying the next couple of days. Right. And so that's so important for people to remember. It's like, they go into these work, they eat throughout the day and like, oh, I hit my numbers for the day. I'm like, cool. But you realize you've actually probably hearing your numbers for tomorrow as well. Like, you have to consider that. And the end of the day, it's like you need energy for every systematic effort of your body,

not just when you're active, but more importantly when you're in recovery. Agreed. Well, Dan Churchill, another beautiful conversation with you as always. Dude, you know what's the coolest compliment I had recently? Huh. I didn't tell you this, but I think I did actually. Maybe I did. So I've recently become a partner with you guys.

but when I told my friends and a lot of people who have been asking about like, you know, products and everything, they just already thought I was. I knew you were going to say that. And it's a really cool feeling. Yeah. Because you and I have had such a like, we've got a very personal relationship and I didn't want to ever, you know, get in the way of that. But to know that people, like a product that I bought, I always bought and loved, people already

thought I was a part of the family. That was a really cool feeling. Yeah, I mean, you've been supporting the brand and the products and the mission and everything we've been doing well beyond an official partnership. I appreciate you, man. Always did. And beyond. Keep going. Well, let's go train. And then Dan and I are having a stake off to see who can make the best take. It will be blind tested by the VPN team. Yeah, we'll follow up with the results. Like, this is, this is, this is, like, if we had a warball competition today, I genuinely think I could beat you. Right? Yep.

I really do. But a steak cook off is so subjective. And I'm just like, fuck. It is subjective. Yeah, it is. And I honestly, at this point, the team knows what my steak tastes like. That's a thing. So, sweet.

I just wanted to share that. Yeah, I appreciate it, dude. We'll see what happens. Let's see what happens. Thanks, happy man, as always. Thanks, brother. Big love.