The Nick Bare Podcast - Archive - Erin Oprea | Leading The First All-Female Platoon In The Marine Corps

Episode Date: August 15, 2022

Episode #141 - Erin Oprea is in town! She comes full of energy and carries great conversation with Nick in this latest episode. They discuss what it was like for Erin to be a woman in the Marines, Erin's idea for a bad-ass dog park and what she's learned from training celebrities throughout her career. Oh, and... they share a giant donut from Round Rock Donut.  About Erin Oprea: The Huffington Report calls Erin a “personal fitness guru.” Her work with celebrities has been seen on Oprah and virtually every television network via the new fit looks of her celebrity clients. She embraced the challenge the U.S. Marine Corps could offer her and enlisted at the age of 20. With nine total years of service including two tours of duty in Iraq, Erin made history when she was appointed to lead the first female platoon attached to the infantry in a war zone. While serving our nation, she became even more aware of the importance of physical fitness and nutrition. She lives in Nashville with her husband Sean and her two boys. As a family they are heavily involved in soccer, sports and other family activities. Find out more at https://erinoprea.com/ More Resources: BPN Website - Supplements and Apparel: www.bpnsupps.com Nick’s Website: www.nickbare.com Nick’s Instagram: @nickbarefitness Nick’s Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/barelifenutrition Follow Us On Social Media: Instagram: @thebareperformancepodcast Facebook: The Bare Performance Podcast

Welcome back to another powerful episode of the podcast. I'm your host, Nick Baer, founder and CEO of Bear Performance Nutrition. Every week, we bring you insightful stories, knowledge, and inspiration to help you reach your full potential in life, fitness, and business. If you enjoy the message we're promoting in this podcast, we would greatly appreciate it if you would leave a rating and review on the platform you're listening to. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes. that embody the go one more mindset. Aaron, Oprah is in Austin, Texas. Yes, yes.

So what a cute city it is. What's going on? You know, thanks for having me. It's a party up in here. It's a party in Nashville. That's the truth. People, so we were just in another city and they're like, it's so busy on our streets. I was like, busy on your streets.

You have not been to Nashville. You can't even, you might as well be like in a club on the streets. How long have you been in Nashville? So I've been in there on and off. So I went to high school there, and then when I got out of high school, I moved back to San Diego where I was from. And then I went to the Marine Corps for nine years and then I came back. So it's kind of been back and forth. But I've been there solid since 06.

And you've probably seen it change a lot? A lot. I thought I was going to leave when my kids grew up. I was like, as soon as they grow up, I'm out. And now I love it so much. I'm not going anywhere. It's really a great city. Well, between Nashville and Austin, both cities, like, there's people moving from all over the country to this two locations for a few locations for a few.

reasons. One, they're beautiful areas. There's no state income tax in Tennessee or Texas. Smart. They're probably coming from California. Lots of California people. You guys got a lot of California here too. Oh my gosh. We have so many. Like all of our neighbors are Chicago. We all Chicago, New York, California. How close to you to downtown from where you guys live? We are downtown. We're like a mile from Broadway, which is the crazy street. We're about a mile. It's a good location. That's a fun walking area. So a lot of people know you. for being a celebrity trainer, high energy, passion, kick ass. But you have like an entire life prior to being this trainer.

I really want to talk about that. Your years in the Marine Corps. I feel like I've lived two lives in one. It's like one whole world to another whole world. Like the most non-celebrity world you could ever be into celebrity world. I was like it's two completely different worlds, but I've had two amazing careers. definitely can't complain. When you were in the Marine Corps and you enlisted in 1997,

when you were in the Marine Corps, did you think that's what your life was going to look like for the rest of your life? Yes. My plan was to retire. I loved it so much. I would have never gotten out. Never. But I really had no choice. Do you think a lot of people live their life like where they start doing something and they assume that's what's going to look like forever and they don't ever try to challenge or change what they expect is what's for them? I'd say there's a good mix of both. There's some people that don't want. I always say nothing grows in your comfort zone.

If you get in your comfort zone and you're just comfortable there, nothing's going to grow. You're going to miss so many opportunities in life. But there's some people that truly love their job and they just want to stay there. So that was in Marine Corps for me. It wasn't like this is comfortable. It was, I mean, the Marine Corps is never comfortable. Let's get real. but I loved it.

It was my heart, it was my soul, but I was going to lose custody of my kids. So that's why I decided when I got divorced, I was going to, like, if you deploy again, you can't have full custody. I was like, I guess I better get out. Are you the type of person that's either all in or all out? Because, like, I made a post about this the other day.

This is the way I am where if I'm going to do something, I'm going to be all in. Like, I'm not going to have one foot in, one foot out. I think that's both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing and a curse. And I feel like I'm kind of that way. But not necessarily on nutrition, though. I can find a good, healthy balance and nutrition and drinking.

I'm not like everything has to be 100% clean. I'm very big on living a balanced diet. I'm the same way. And I relate to you on that level a lot in terms of eating and living and enjoying. Like, one of my favorite things to do is to, with Steph, is to go to dinner and have a cocktail and, like, try different foods. And I love good food. So do we. I love donuts.

A big donut person. I am a donut person. Our favorite thing to do when my husband I go out of town in any new city is to walk to a donut store. I don't care. So we were just in Columbus, Ohio, and we walked six miles to a donut store. Now, it only took that long because my son got us lost, but that's okay. But they weren't worth the walk. Unfortunately, that donut store wasn't.

But it's really fun. It's go try new donuts. And my thing is all about moderation. Go enjoy your donuts. You don't have to eat 12 of them. You don't have one, two, whatever, and then enjoy life. Well, I know Sean has listened to this right now. We're in Round Rock, Texas, where we're recording this.

Round Rock, Texas has Round Rock donuts. It's the best donut you will ever have in your entire life. Well, then I'm going to have to try it because I have one place. At every place we tried, there's one place that is hands down the best donut you've ever had. What makes it so good? It's an everything donut in New York. at the donut project. If anyone's ever in New York,

no, I have no affiliation with them, don't work with them. It was just when I happened to find when we were there. We're actually leaving that day and I was like, oh, donuts where let's try it out. And it was in everything,

it's like sweet to salty balance. It's not overly sweet. I don't like super sweet. I don't like candy on my donuts. But it was amazing. Literally the best donut you love to eat. Is it cakey or is it like knelt in your mouth? It's like the,

is those called yeast donuts? I think the use, like the fluffier ones, like the normal old school donuts. That's what I like. Like the ones where when you pick them up, your hands sink into them? Kind of like, yeah, glazed. You'll love this spot then. Oh, really? Okay. Sean, that's what we're going today, buddy.

It's all, they don't do the fancy toppings. I don't like the fancy toppings. The voodoo donut types. No, this is, like you go in, you get a glazed donut and we literally, so we wanted to turn this donut into a protein powder. What we did is, and I'll collaborate with you. Let's do it. I was telling you earlier, we work with Phona to do all of our flavor profiles.

We sent, we bought a donut from Round Rock Donuts. We vacuum sealed it. We sent it overnight to Phona and told them to reverse engineer this, this donut. So they put it in these machines that pull different notes of sweetness and bitterness and acids and like flavor notes and they try to turn it into a protein powder. And they got really, really close. Did you launch it? We never launched it.

We have like this category of flavors of products that we approve and never launch. Like we have this bank of protein powders, key lime pie, glazed donut, banana foster French toast, like all these flavors that are just sitting there waiting for us to launch. So do you do them like maybe special releases like, you know, for one month limited edition kind of thing? Yeah, like seasonal or collaborations with people or projects. Oh, we so have to do a donut one. I would be in 100%. Maybe we can also try the everything donut one.

I actually, I think we have, next door, we have samples of the glazed donut one. We're going to do that next. We'll do that after we work out. No, we got workout first and then we'll have it. We got podcast, we got workout, donut flavor protein, and then we're going to Peacock for dinner tonight. That's your favorite place. And they have an amazing dessert I heard. Sticky Toffee date pudding.

I'm in. I'm in. All right. Let's bring me. this back to the Marine Corps. I'm curious, and I've heard you talk about this before, but the reason you wanted to join the Marines, and I've heard two reasons. One, the glorified camping

analogy, two, the reference to GI-Jane. Those are the two. So, my ex-husband was a Marine, too. And I said, man, he gets to go camping all the time. It looks like so much fun. I mean, I quickly learned that it's really not camping, but I still loved it. It's a love hate, you know, like you love the military, but it's a lot of BS too. A lot of bullshit. A lot, but I loved it.

I think I love the camaraderie the most. Like the group of guys I was with was amazing. But, and G.I. Jane, I watched that movie, and I was like, I'm going to join the infantry. I'm going to be a seal. And oddly. And it came out. That movie came out the same year you joined, right? No, it was before.

It was before I joined. No, yeah, it was definitely before that. it was because I was in college it had to been like what year was that I mean it came out like early 97 was it early 97 I think so demie more yeah I joined in I joined in fall that year so maybe it was that year geez time flies um but yeah I loved so she was my idol but then when I realized when I got in as a woman you could not be in the Navy SEALs nor could you do infantry it's since changed can women do infantry yet, do you know? In the army. So when I was transitioning out, women were coming into combat arms. And actually, when I ripped out of my platoon leader position, relief in place,

there was a female LT that took over my platoon who now actually lives in the same town as I do. And she was actually just one of the athletes for a photo shoot we did last weekend for some apparel. It's like small world, but yeah, women can, uh... Women can do it now. I know they just, the Marine Corps just put women and men together on, in boot camp. The first, I was asked, I said, hey, can we do like a PR thing and let me just go through boot camp again? I wanted to go through the first class of women and men together.

I thought that would be so fun. I actually, I've had this, this concept for a while now, going back to the Ranger school again, but being able to document it, I think it'd be so different. It'd be so different. to be, I think it's one of those things. I have this reoccurring dream once in a while that I'm getting ready to get out of the Army. But right before I'm about to get out,

someone calls me in their office and says, you have to go back to Ranger School. I'm like, well, sir, I already graduated and I'm about to get out on the Army. And I say, no, like, the only way for you to get out is you have to pass Ranger School again. I have this reoccurring dream of that. Are you serious?

Yeah. Is it a nightmare? It's like, no, I can't do that. Kind of. I think Navy SEALs, was always like, because of GIG. And I was like, that looks like so fun, so much fun. It's made me not fun, but it looks so challenging.

I'm like, that's a game. Let's see if I could do that. Yeah. But women in the Marine Corps, the time that I was in, so I was out before you were in. But there were so many challenges. Like when it was time to deploy overseas, you know, I had trained with the men. I'd done everything with the men. My unit was only two women.

And they said, oh, you guys can't go, you're women. I was like, what? We've done everything. So they left us. and I had to request mass and request mass and request mass and finally send us over there and let them meet up with everybody. But yeah, I feel like it's completely different now,

which is really cool to see. When you join the Marine Corps, were your expectations of what it would be? Were they matched by the reality of what they actually were? No. No. For better or worse? Different. I wouldn't say better or worse.

I never thought the friendship. and stuff would be there like they were. I mean, it's just a special friendship that you'll never have with anyone else after you go to war with them a couple times. It's just super awesome. But living is definitely not maybe what you expect. I mean, we were pretty nasty. 66 days, no shower.

Hey, you do what you got to do. A little stank there. But yeah, I would not say it lived up to what I thought, but I also say it was never disappointed. It was just different. So I wouldn't say good or bad in between. And your first deployment was very different from the second, correct? Yeah, they're both very different, actually.

So my first deployment, I went to, we sat in Kuwait before the war even kicked off. Was that 03? Yeah, 03. We sat there for a month in Kuwait and trained. We were in mop gear, you know, chemical suits, and we would do all the humps. Do you guys call it humps in the army? Rocking. Rocking.

Okay, so we call them hump. which your sounds actually better, but whatever. Marines are still better. But yeah, we do all the humps in our chemical suits with our gas masks, miserable in Kuwait, I have to say. And then they'd say, you're going in, you're not going in, you're not going in, you're going home, nope, you're not going home. And then after about a month, they came in, we were in the bunkers.

No, we just got out of the bunkers. And they came in and they said, hey, you guys are going in tonight. So we went in in chemical suits. I did convoy security, so I shot 50 cows, Mark 19s, 240 golf. I was a turret gunner. What was your MLS? 58-11, so I was a field MP. Okay.

And then you guys were wearing mop gear because of the fear of chemical attacks? Mm-hmm. We got gas sirens all the time. Oh, you did? All the time, where you have to put your gas mask on all the time, like several times a day. Was there ever actual chemical warfare? You really never know. You don't know. Like they would, because you're just in the field. There's no, like you're living in fighting holes. So there's not anyone to say, oh, yeah, you just got, you know, like you don't really know. Yeah. I'm assuming that we didn't since nobody died from it. But we all gas, we're gas masks. I'll tell you the worst day of the war. Probably the worst day of, no, the worst day of my first deployment. There was this sandstorm that was, like you think sandstorm, no big deal. No, it was a, no big deal. No, it was a, sandstorm like I've never seen before. So we were living in fighting holes. We had just gone in.

I'm probably, we'd probably been there three or four days and weapons don't work in the sand. Like ours don't, AK-47s do, but ours don't work. And so, and you cannot, you couldn't swallow. Your eyes were just mud. You couldn't go the bathroom. You couldn't do anything. So they'd rotate us through the high back trucks to try to let us get a bite of food. But it was like guys were just sitting there crying because you couldn't breathe. It was awful. For how long? At least, it had to have been like 12, 20 hours.

I mean, it was a long time. I don't remember the exact time, but it was a good time. It was one of the most miserable days of my life, though. I could imagine. It was awful. You couldn't even see your hand in front of you. That's how thick the same way.

You put your hand right in front of you couldn't see anything. It was insane. And none of your weapons were. Can they say clean your weapons? How? Right. Like, this, it's the Marine Corps. just busy be do something so in your first deployment did you see action yes i did i got my

combat action we've been in my first deployment in my first deployment um we actually had a really funny story on one of one of them the army messed it up for us let's hear it so we were driving and we were taking fire and the army passed our convoy going the other way and they um they won't fire at all. Why? I don't know. That's a good question. What do you think?

Like their rules of engagement were insane. I was going to say rules of engagement. Oh my gosh. Our rules of engagement. So eventually we fell under the Army and they gave us a new ROE card and the rules of engagement card. And they said,

you have to hear this rule. They would make, so a turret gun there's obviously the person that's up in the turret standing on top of the vehicle. And they made us tie a 550 cord and hold our 50-calt in the seats below. And they said if someone's firing then you can get up.

Hmm. So let's hold on to your 50 cow sitting in the seat below. Like literally we had to hold a 550 cord. So if you don't know what a 550 cord is, I know you do, but people listening, it's like a rope. Like kind of looks like a shoe string, but it's pretty strong. So it's very interesting because at that point in 2003, I mean, we was an invasion. Like obviously very kinetic. You think we'd go in guns blazing? No. No. We just kept getting new ROE cards all the time.

You can do this. You have to pop a flare and then you can, you have to warning pop flare, and then you can fire. Rinkor kind of does a lot of things simultaneously. Were you really involved or interested in training, nutrition? Not nutrition then. Just training at this point in your life?

Yes, I was just training. I actually didn't get into nutrition. until right before my second deployment. So I came home for six months and then I left again. And at my going away party, my dad, who was very thin, active, he was a big soccer player, rode 150 mile bike rides, died of a massive heart attack at my party. And I was like, wait, it's not just about being thin and looking fit. There's more to it.

And I think that was the turning point for me on nutrition. That's one thing I'm trying to convince my dad to learn more about. My dad, the bears have great genetics. My dad's diet, horrible. I would say it about mine. And he looks like very, very fit. He's in his late 50s. He's got a six-pack abs, like biceps, he's jacked.

But his diet consists of garbage. I'm trying to convince him, like, hey, dad, like, you look great, but like, let's take care of the insides. It's more than just looks. And that's when it was a big wake-up call. He might have a 6-5, lean. Very lean. He was like 185 pounds, 180 pounds. He was lean.

He still had a massive heart attack. What did his diet consist of? Chicken tenders. I mean, you name it, whatever he wanted. He wasn't a big drinker. He'd drink a couple beers here and there. He wasn't big and wheat. I mean, he had maybe smoke a joint occasionally.

But nothing crazy. It was just bad eating, junk food, whatever. Whatever he wanted is what it consisted of. So that moment there is kind of what woke you up to, let's learn more about nutrition. I would say, well, I deployed right away, and then there's no nutrition in deployments. It's literally live off of either MREs

or what you get in the mail. They did have a chowel-ha, but, I mean, it's a chow-haw. Did you have a favorite MRE? Yes, what was it? Did you ever hear of the Skiddle Girls? No. Skittled girls. It might be inappropriate.

Can we talk about it inappropriate? Take it wherever you want. So in Skiddle Girls, so you know, MRIs, you could get M&Ms or you could get Skittles or you could get like it was like the treat of the MRIs or M&Ms or Skittles, yeah. Right. Well, there was these, I'll never look at Skittal packs the same because girls would switch blowjobs for packs of Skittles. And deployment? Yeah. No kidding.

So every time I see Skittles, I was like, nope, that's blow jobs, I'm good. No shit. Isn't that crazy? That is wild. Yeah. I've heard of similar acts going. on. It really went on.

So if you thought it was just a rumor, it's not true. It was the truth. Well, MREs have literally, probably since you got out, changed dramatically. Have they really? There's, I mean, they're still not great, but there's menu items on there that are next level good. Spaghetti. So we used to open the spaghetti ones. This is terrible.

So we'd be in convoy, you know, like 50 cars long, 50 vehicles long. And the turret gunner, because it's boring. You know, war's boring. we'd open the spaghetti one and throw it at the vehicle behind us and let it splatter all over the windshield and the turret gunner would have to get out and try to clean it while the vehicle's going just to mess with people savage yeah so were you training overseas like you guys get back from a mission are you coming back and hitting a workout or was it just there was no coming back there was no base not the talking about the first supplement there was no base to come back to we I mean we're in fighting holes there's no

training. There's no anything. There's no gyms anywhere. There's no anything. There's no bases. They eventually set up well we didn't not we didn't have tents. Well what we had do you remember the two man tents? Like the ones that yeah. So we had those but they didn't work because the sand

destroyed them so they wouldn't close open like you just got stuck in them or you got stuck out of them because they just didn't work in the sand. And then eventually they would like one of the, if we took over a base or something, then we'd have maybe a hangar and we'd put the whole company in there and one hanger. So when you guys got there, there weren't these established, like fobs? No, not at all. There was nothing.

This was literally day one, like straight in. Wow. There was nothing. Now, the second deployment was completely different. So when I came home, at the end of my first deployment, they pulled us back to Kuwait and we'd run missions into Iraq and then we'd come back so that the end of the deployment, we'd come back. The second deployment, I went in, do you remember the big invasion of Fallujah?

Yeah. So I went in, that's where I was. And so at that point, I ran the prison camp at Camp Fallujah, basically, for all the people that prisoners of war they got. And I didn't run it by myself. Sorry, I didn't run it. I worked at that. I was a sergeant. No, I was a corporal at the time.

I was a corporal. I don't remember. I was one of the two. and they had the big invasion happened and I'll tell you we stood on our roof it was the biggest fireworks show I've ever seen have you ever watched all that happened they cut their electricity in Fallujah and then you just watch these jets going over it was and just dropping bomb I mean it was insane the craziest thing I've ever watched and then they needed women they shut the whole city down cleared it out they needed women

to search women because there's no women in the middle in the infantry at that point and so they needed women to search the women. And so since my job was a field MP, that was kind of my job anyways. And so they had me be in charge of that platoon and they formed an all-female platoon that went to different checkpoints all through Fallujah and searched women, basically.

You were the first person to lead an all-female platoon in the Marine Corps. Yes, and the first females to ever be attached to the infantry. That's a big deal. It was kind of crazy. We had authors come over and write books about it, actually, while we were there, interview us. It was pretty insane. It was a big learning curve for a lot of women.

For all of us, I guess. Big learning curve for everyone. For the guys, they hate us at first. Hated us. Why? Because we're women. I mean, it's Marine Corps. They're not like, I mean, they called us WNs for walking mattress back in the day.

They wouldn't do that anymore. I don't think. I don't think they get away with that. Was it with it straight up like disrespect to your face? Or was it kind of you walk, you know, someone walks by you and then it's like talking crap? I never even thought of it as disrespect. It wasn't like harassment in my mind. It was just guys joking around.

And my, that's the way I always took it. Because I was, I'm not an easily, it would take a lot to really offend me. Oh, it's just guys being stupid. Was that an intimidating role to, to fill at the time? Did you know the capacity of it? I did know, do you know the coins that you get? The challenge coins? Yeah, when a colonel or someone comes in visits.

So I got all the challenge coins because they always came to visit when we were out there with a checkpoint. Because they're like, this is a first, this is a first. And then I would go to the debriefing every night with, I mean, it was basically colonels, I mean, all the higher ups. I was only, there wasn't anyone below like, I mean, probably first. starting was probably, I mean, people watching me, were like, who's that? What's that? But I was like, by far the lowest totem on the pole. I was a sergeant at that point.

How old were you at this point? 26, 7? 26 or 7? So this deployment was completely. They were night and day different. At that point, there was actually bases. It was called Camp Volusia and they had, they had meals and they had showers. And the first deployment, we didn't shower.

And then we got these bucket showers that were handed. made and we had to stir our own shit. Did you ever hear about stirring shit? I saw it in Jarhead. I was a professional shit stirer. I was so good at it. So I was actually in charge. And so I technically didn't have to stir shit.

But I believe if you're going to make somebody else go do it, you have to do it too. Yeah, I agree with that. And so you light your shit barrel on fire and you stir. So essentially, this is the barrel that sits under the porta potty. The wooden porta potty that it's like a piece of wood. They cut a whole lot and you shit and it. And what do you do? Do you pour like a diesel fuel?

on there and then light it on fire? I don't know what they poured in there. I can't remember what they poured in there. I would assume it had to be something like that. And then you just covered, this shit's burning out and it's just covering you. I mean, it just stinks. And there's no showering. Because there's no showers at that point.

Because we only had like, you know those, oh, what's the word? Is it water buffalo? The big. Water buffalo. Yeah. The big things they pull behind the Humvees or whatever, the trailer, water. That's all the water we had. So we'd wash our clothes.

We'd all share like a bucket to wash our uniforms occasionally. But can you imagine how bad they stunk? I mean, the thing is... You don't notice it because every... You don't. And that's like, people like, did everybody stink? I was like, I guess. But when you're right there with them, you don't smell it either.

Yeah, like, it transforms and changes in front of you. Or like, that's just your scent acclimates and adapts. It's pretty crazy because it is absolutely disgusting. Because it's so hot. And you're in flak gear. You're in mop. suit at that point we were still in chemical suits and black jackets and everything else all the time and feces.

There you go. Human feces. Load it all up. Give us all the good stuff. Shit. So I feel like my worlds are as separate as you could possibly be. I mean, I went from that world to the world dumb and now. Two amazing careers.

Sometimes I'm more in that world and I've always said if they called me, I'd go right back. Let's talk about transitioning out of the Marine Corps. and I said you wanted, you planned on making it a career. Yeah. Was there a day where it was like, it's either left or right, yes or no, in or out? It was definitely one day. I mean, I got divorced. My ex-husband, she'd on me while I was in Iraq the second time.

And so I got divorced when I got back. I didn't know, but it was like a little bit after. And I had the, at that point, we were getting ready to go for a third deployment. And so I had that. make a decision and my attorney said because i had full custody they said if you leave again you'll not get full custody back and so at that point i was the only option was to stay with my kids so i got out nine years so i was a trainer before i went in and then as soon as i got out i went right back into training so that's fitness is kind of in my world forever and now i'm like an old

old lady in training i'd say old man but i guess i'm woman so what did you did you got in the Marine Corps, went to a local gym and said, I want to start training? I went to a training studio, actually, and did training at a training studio where each person had their own room. It was like three rooms in one. And I started there. So one-on-one? Yeah, one-on-one.

So that's really all I've ever done is one-on-one. I do group classes, but only like big events. But I don't do classes in general. sometimes like Tyler Hubbard he's one of my clients and there's a group of guys that all work out together with me it's like four guys of me but for most of them it's one-on-one so how did that transpire or evolve into training people like Tyler Hubbard or Carrie Underwood you know what I get that question a lot and that's the thing and I feel like if you go looking for fame it will never find you like you're going to be a miserable person because one, searching for money and fame is misery.

Follow your passion, your dreams, and things will fall into place. Don't search for money. So for me, it was just slow and steady. What I did was, obviously, I could not support my kids on a training career. And that was my whole goal. I said, one day I will be able to support my kids. And so I was working at this gym, training studio, and I was broke as broke can be. Like my kids qualified for free lunch.

it. And I was like, I'm not doing it. We were going to figure this out. And so I opened a house cleaning business at the same time. And I cleaned houses. And I said, one day, I will only be able to train and support my children. And so as my training business grew, so I left there, I decided to leave the gym and just branch off on my own. And so I started going house to house and then slowly build clients. I've never advertised. I've never done business cards. It was 100% word of mouth. And then as, like, I would get a new client, I would get rid of one house. And then I'd and then slowly I was no longer cleaning houses, which I did love. You want to talk about OCD instant gratification.

I mean, cleaning houses is it because it happens instantly. Your training is a long process before you see the results. Cleaning houses, instant. I mean, there's nothing like coming home to a clean house. I mean, you aren't kidding. I don't mind cleaning. Now, I don't want to do it anymore. But it was amazing at the time.

And it made ends me and I was able to support my kids. And now my goal was to support in training. And so my training career grew. And then I started out training of this girl name. Do you know Leon Womack? I do not. So she was kind of in the air of like the Allen Jackson, that older demographic.

And so I trained her daughter, who was in high school. And then I trained her. And then it went to a guy named Frank Liddell, which is her husband. And he's a big producer in town. And then it just grew word of mouth. This is one step after the other. Slow and steady wins the race.

I didn't search for it. I just kept doing my thing. And nobody knew. It wasn't like there was no social media when I did it. I wasn't doing magazines. I wouldn't do anything. I was so quiet about it. I never said a word, never said a word to anybody about it.

I always find it really interesting because I'm sure there's a lot of people out there who are trying to attempt or want to attempt to build what you've built over years, which is just like this patient's game of following your passion and purpose. so people will build this blueprint that they think replicates what they need to do to get there. There isn't an answer. But it's actually not what they want. Like most people who achieve some sort of level of success, no matter how you define that, it might be financial freedom, time freedom, if you want to buy a mansion,

if you want to build, like, I don't know. I don't know what that means for people. But people think that in order to get there, they have to check the box. And if they keep checking the box and then they climb the house, that ladder like magically one day they're going to walk into the mansion and you just do what's right in that moment in time and that you enjoy and you're passionate about it and maybe that will end you in a spot that you're really happy with or maybe it's not but like I like to say that the wherever you end up on your deathbed is the the sum of decisions you made along the course of your

life yeah good or bad successes and failures wins and losses and everyone thinks it's easy Everyone's like, wow, that was such an easy. I was like, guys, it was a long process. I've been through a lot to get to where I am. You just didn't see it because there was no social media. Yeah. So all they see is the win, not all the losses along the way. You still enjoy training just as much as you used to?

Yeah, I do enjoy it. I like other things added to it now. So I used to only want to train. Like that was all I wanted to do one-on-one, train, train, train. And now I want to do that mixed with other stuff. Like I don't want that to be my only thing anymore. So that's why one, I was like, I wanted to reach mass people. I said, how do I train as many people as I possibly could?

My goal was to get as many people as I could feel their absolute best. Not to be a size two, not to be a size four. I just wanted to put on the most beautiful outfit all, and that's their confidence. I was like, how can I do that on a mass level? And I had been reached out, hey, will you do an app? Will you do an app? No, no, no, no. I didn't want to.

And then one day I was like, I'm ready. Today's the day. And so then I launched that. And that's been really fun project on the side. The amount of people that we have on there. It's really cool to hear stories and see transformation. So that's been very fulfilling. So that's different than the one-on-one.

And then next, I think I also want to do something with dogs. I love dogs. Like what? I want to open this thing called, someone's going to steal my idea. Just kidding. I don't really care. Still my idea because I hope if someone does it if it's not me.

So I want to open this thing called Dog Haven in Nashville. So think of an all-inclusive everything in one spot. dog. So you have the most badass dog park. It's like turf. It's got pools and strong lights and and strung lights, like an air stream that has a bar and donuts and coffee in the morning and strong lights, pools, fire hydrants, all the fun stuff. But it also has groomers, daycares, vets, everything, all training, all on the one. So it's like a bakery for dogs, a one-stop shop for everything dogs. That would crush it in Austin. It would crush it in Nashville too. I just need to find sponsors. So if anyone

wants to go in with me on this, I need investors. We can make that happen. You want to do it? Yeah. Like I think it's something that we could start in one place and grow to other places is I think it's like a full-time staff that keeps the turf clean and keeps it from sneaking. His turf could be really terrible too if you don't have the right people.

And you also got to shade it because turf can get really hot. So I have lots of ideas. So that's, yes, where I love training. I want a variety now. Because I've been doing it. I mean, I've been in fitness. I'm almost, I'll be 45 next month. I've been in fitness since I was 18. So I was like, I want to do that too because I love my clients. I love all the people I work with. I have the most amazing group of clients. But there's more to me, I think, now. Fun fact about Austin. I always tell people listen for my wife and she gets so mad at me because

it's the one fact that they're on there. There's more dogs per capita in Austin than anywhere Where else? Is there really? There's dogs everywhere. Like, when you go downtown tonight, there's this park called Zilker Park. And in the morning and in the evening, everyone takes their dog there. Is it a membership place? No, it's just this massive field. And it's right along the river. And it's just a massive open field, but there's dogs everywhere at night. People are throwing balls. They're all off leash. It's amazing. That's so cool. So we have four at our house. There's no such thing. my husband would tell you different, but I say there's no such thing of having too many.

I was like, well, I want another dog. I just love them. Like, literally my, my whole fulfillment is to just lay on the floor and play with dogs and snuggle with dogs. And I work my schedule around,

this is ball time, like my OCD structuredness. This is ball time. This is zoomie time. This is zoomie time. Now we got to feed, but you can't play for a couple hours. You got to let so their stomachs don't knot up.

And then we have another zoomy time, and this is our five mile walk. So very structured. tired dogs are good dogs I will 100% agree with that It's just like kids We have two dogs We have two doodles

And they used to get a lot more exercise Before the baby was born Of course So now I take I take the one dog That's a little overweight On my morning run with me So she gets more exercise

She's the younger one How far do you run her? Just two miles Oh okay I run two miles I come back I drop her off And then I go for the rest of my run I'm about so you're running for half miles

That's a long run for a dog No I started her half mile then we went to a mile and now she's worked up with two miles and she's tired for the rest of the day. It's crazy. But that's how they're well behaved. She's a different dog when she's ran. Absolutely. So I haven't, Nashville's been so high. It's hard to run them. I always, well, I run them really early. You do. Well, we play ball like around 6 a.m. is ball time because I have to work, I have to work so early. So we get up at 4 o'clock for work. So I don't want to get up at 2 to go walk the dogs.

When's your first client start? Usually 5. And it's in your backyard. You have your training facility in your backyard? No, I go house to house. Oh, you do? That's just my own personal place. Sometimes clients will come over just for a change of place, but that's just my gym.

How many clients you train on a day? Well, it used to be 8 to 10, and I'm slowly cutting back because I just want to change into other sectors of life. Have you ever considered, I saw you briefly talk about this in an article, but it was also around like the quarantine. would you ever consider opening a gym in Nashville that you use as a training facility? Ford and when I say like a not your traditional commercial gym where it's just $20 a month. A training facility gym. So basically you have just trainers that use it for training. Exactly.

Would I ever do that? I mean, never say never. It's not been on my radar. But maybe if I open something like that, I would do it with my son, Hunter. That'd be cool. We'd kind of run something like that together. I could see us doing something like that. He'd be more the hands-on one.

He's really driven right now. It's really fun to watch. He works for me now. He's a trainer at Chattanooga, but he's under the umbrella of my business. So he kind of follows my style. That's awesome. Yeah, I love it. He's graduated at college.

He got certified. I said, look, you need to get certified at the beginning of college. So you have years of experience before you graduate. So he got certified, I think either as a freshman or the beginning of his sophomore year. And now he's out of college, which is. crazy that I have a kid out of college because I still feel like I should be college age. And I look in the mirror, I'm like, damn, maybe not. I got some wrinkles.

But that's all right. I still feel like a kid. It's part of life. Hey, it beats alternative, right? Yeah. So I want to talk about the concept of if you fail to plan. You plan to fail. You plan to fail.

Is that a military? That has to be a military quote. It's definitely a military quote. It's definitely a military quote. Yeah. I also love describing the concept of backwards planning to people. people who aren't in the military because it blows their mind. Like, for example, if you keep arriving late to work or an event or like your appointments,

okay, well, here's why you are late. You're not backwards planning. Here's when you have to be somewhere. It takes 30 minutes to drive somewhere. Give yourself five minutes buffer. Keep backing that up. I also. And you got to be 15 minutes early?

Exactly. I love backwards planning. Do you drive your wife crazy with that? Drives her nuts. Anyone not military, I think it drives them crazy. Yeah, like whenever we're late for something, she knows I'm angry and it can be five minutes late. I hate to be late.

So do I, because I tell her, like, now the perception from the people that we're arriving to is that I don't care about them or their time. I want to show up early for them. So the military was always 15 minutes early. Like if you weren't standing in formation 15 minutes prior, then you were late. Yeah.

Did you guys have that too? Oh, 100%. I think that's this military across the board, I think. But then you'd get there 30 minutes early So you didn't get in trouble for not being there. They're 15 minutes early, yeah. Because at 15 minutes you have to be standing there. Yeah, I remember, I've seen a meme before

And it's so accurate Or like say battalion commander puts out You need to be somewhere at 6. And then Sergeant Major says 545 And then first sergeant says 530. That's so true. Before you know you're there at 4 o'clock. Yeah, you're there like three hours earlier.

Like, what the fuck are we here so early? I mean, what do you really do in the military? You sit around. Sit around and wait. Sit around and wait. Now, another one that I love from the military quote is, excuse of like assholes, everyone's got one. It's so true.

We can find every excuse of why we shouldn't do what we should do instead of just get it done. That's actually something I want to talk about after this failed a plan. Field a plan, you plan to fail. Let's talk about how you travel with this suitcase you were just telling me about that is modified to essentially transport anything including humans, coffee machines, and protein powders. All my daily needs are in that, like, things that I love because we do travel a lot for work. And so I like to have everything I want in one spot. So my awesome husband had this suitcase made for me.

So in Nashville, everyone's an artist or in the music industry. Not everyone, a lot of people. And so there's these places that build out their boxes, like sometimes they travel on like big barrels, but whatever. They're built out for their equipment. So like foamed out. so it's perfectly fit. You don't have to worry about anything

get messed up. So we took one of our big away suitcases in there and took everything we wanted in it and had it all foamed out. So all my stuff fits perfectly. I have my portable fan, which I want to sleep with. We have two silk pillow cases

because, yep, I like the silk pillowcases. And we learned don't have white because you forget them. So now they're royal blue because you won't forget those in your hotel room. True. We have a coffee machine.

We travel with an espresso. At home, I use a Jura on the road I use an espresso. Nispresso. And then we, of course, I have our coffee pods. Then we have our supplements. We have our collagen. We have the beats. We have protein powders.

All the good stuff. Perfectly lined up. All my protein bars, all my snacks, everything lined up. And it has a little, like, you fold them, it closes them in the suitcase. And it's beautiful. So it's like an extra suitcase you just take to bring your essential home on the road with you. Yeah. It's fantastic.

Don't leave home without it. It doesn't matter if we're going for one night. We're taking it. And honestly, it sounds like my bedroom with my wife. My wife has the silk pillowcase. All the fans, before the baby was born, we had, we have a chili sleep pad. You know what a chili sleep pad is? Yes.

We had a chili sleep pad. I need one of those, though. I'll tell you what. Game changing. John, we have to get one of those today. I used to wake up sweaty every morning. And I've had the chili sleep. pad for probably almost two years now.

Does it make that much of a difference? Night and day. Really? Honestly, it's one of those things that I believe in it so much. I'm not affiliated or sponsored by any means, but I believe in it so much that when I buy people presents, you get one of those? I get them one of two things. If someone buys a new house, I either get them a chili sleep pad or a Trigger grill.

Trigger. They're both things that I use. Trigger. I love my Trigger. I don't have a grill currently. It's a good one. But the chilly sleep pad, I set my mattress to like 50, or sorry, 65 degrees every night. And it's the perfect temperature.

But our bedroom before the baby was born, chili sleep pad going on. We had a floor fan. We had a ceiling fan and then an oil diffuser. Is that just for her or for you too? Like, do you like it or do you hate it? I don't need any of that but the chili pad. I can sleep in dead silence. I can sleep anywhere, really.

I can sleep anywhere. If you told me to lay on this table and go to sleep, I'd be out in a second. I can tell me to lay on the floor. It doesn't matter. I can sleep like a champ and like literally set my alarm for two minutes. Oh, I'm the same way. Like when we were in the hospital when the baby was born, I slept on that like pull out couch with no issue.

Yeah, I would too. But Steph needed like, her sister came and visited once while I was gone and she slept in the bed with her. And she's like, it's a wind tunnel in this bedroom. I love it. I don't even need the sound. I need, I get so hot.

You should look into the chilly sleep. My husband would love that because he hates the fan so much. And you don't have to control both sides of the bed at once. Like you could turn yours on, he could turn his off, or you can set yours at different temperatures. It's legit. Totally getting that. I'm going to order it tonight as soon as we leave here.

That's going to be my gift to myself. What's tough, though, is now you have to find a place to fit that into your custom suitcase when you travel. How big is it? I mean, it's big. It's a foot and a half by a foot. We just make another suitcase. You could have one just for that.

You know Southwest, you get two suitcases per person and I'm usually always traveling with my husband, so there we go. We've got two suitcases now. Oh, so we usually fly Delta. Your Delta. Big Delta people.

We're big Southwest. See, I don't like Southwest because the pressure that comes with Southwest of having to choose your seat. I don't worry about that because I'm an A-lister. I'm terrible enough. So we're always in the A-list, so we always can pick our seats right away.

We're always first ones on the plane. Oh, yeah. If I ever have to fly Southwest, I'm the person who's like, I'm searching for one spot, looking for two small people where I can fit between. And I'm like, hey, can I please sit here?

I hate to be that guy. Because you're the middleman one. Yeah. You're the last one on the plane. There's another story I would love to talk about, and this goes back to kind of making excuses. I know there was an article online, I think it was a few years ago

that called you out. It was a mom-shaming article. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got lots of those. Well, this one was about because you were a jumping rope at your son's soccer game.

And I was saying this thing, you know, before our daughter was born, I was getting all these messages, all these DMs, people saying, just wait, just wait. When this baby's born, you'll never train again. Just wait, when this baby's born,

you're not going to eat healthy ever again. I was like, that's a choice. voice. Bullshit. Yeah. I said, if it matters to you,

you will make time. I say that all the time. I said, people say, I can't get motivated. I said, it's not important enough to you. If it was important enough to you,

you'd find the motivation. I can tell you to you're blue in the, telling blue in the faith what to do. But until you make the decision that you're truly ready to make changes, it doesn't matter what I say. You're not going to do it. And they're like,

what's the best cardio? The best cardio is a cardio you're going to do. That's kind of the same thing. So, yeah, mom shaming is really bad, though. Dad's shaming. I don't know. Is dad shaming really a thing?

Dad shaming, I think parent shaming is a big thing online, social media. Mom shaming is definitely a big thing. I mean, even we've had a baby for three weeks and people reach out to Steph with unsolicited advice all the time. Is she doing it wrong? Yeah, it's like, who are you to judge? You know what I have to say? I'm so thankful my kids were young when there was no internet. I had no cell phone, no internet.

It wasn't go look up every problem. We didn't have the monitors. Well, they'd just come out, but they were too expensive. I was broke. And so I didn't have a monitor. And so my kids slept the night pretty quickly because, I guess I just didn't hear them. And that's the joys of being young. I was 21 years old with 22.

And my kids slept the night like a champ. Do you find that, why do people, mom or dad shame? Is it because of, insecurity of why they're not doing it? Yeah. Everyone wants everyone else to feel miserable if they're miserable. miserable. Misery loves company. I honestly believe that's a true statement.

I mean, there's some people that are truly trying to help. They think that's what they're doing. Unless people are asking, you know, just maybe the mom is trying to vent about something. They don't necessarily need someone to tell them how to fix it. Just let them decompress for a little bit. But, man, I'm glad I didn't have social media as parenting. I've probably been drilled.

Well, it's like, it's choosing the hard right over the easy wrong a lot of the time. And I saw a while back you had to get your, your car worked on. So you went, you dropped your car off, and you walked like four miles back to your house with your dogs to get some steps in, to get some exercise. Why not? Why not? Instead of just sitting there waiting for the car to be done. No, it was a bonus. I got so many steps in and my dog you got exercise. What more could I want? It was awesome. I love stuff like that. But going back to that mom shaming one. So this was the craziest story. So I was jumping rope. Mind you, there's a soccer field, a fence around it, bleachers.

I was in the parking lot. It wasn't even in the... I did jump rope every soccer game of my kids' soccer career, which is actually still going on. My older younger ones still plays. But I jump roped every soccer game. So I would do an hour and a half

a jump rope every day. Like, not every day, but... Well, most days a week because we lived at soccer fields. And so I was in the parking lot jumping rope where I could still watch the game. And this dad was in a car behind me and he took a picture of me.

And he says, look at this... I don't remember what all... said like basically she's a butter face you know what that is she's a butter face look at her trying to get attention i mean just all this nasty stuff and i was like trying to get attention i'm not even near anybody i'm in the parking lot and then i wrote a blog about it and i took his name out and then carrie underwood reposted that blog i saw the reposted and then it blew up and it got kind of crazy but i mean i hope you learned a lesson to show that his mouth. Sometimes you've got to learn lessons. The hard way. The hard way. That's, I mean,

he had done this. I learned a lot. He had been shaming people. Like, that was his whole thing, as he was just mean to people. I was like, well, mess with the wrong person. Do you find working with celebrities or people that are traveling a lot on the go, high performers? Is it harder, easier, or it doesn't matter? I don't think it matters. To get them to, adopt a certain lifestyle. I don't think it matters. Well, you can't get them to adapt unless they want to. It's, again, that industry, what do you think that industry is full of?

Bad food, drugs, alcohol. Alcohol. Alcohol. A lot of drinking. So that's my number one goal. Like, let's just tone it down there. A lot of them, they have catering on the road. They can have certain stuff made from if they want to. They can take stuff on their buses.

So they can eat healthy if they choose it. So I just try to teach them like, hey, you don't have to be perfect, but let's try to find a healthy balance. Yeah, you can drink, but let's not drink every night after a show because that adds up really quick. And you want to be able to get on stage and run around and not get winded, dancing and doing whatever, because you have to be able to sing.

So that's another thing is you like to train them on a treadmill singing. So they get used to dancing and singing. Oh, wow, I never even thought about that. So you have to be able to sing and not get winded. So running and singing is a great way to do it, or jump rope and singing. But yeah, it's normal, normal busy lifestyle. Yes, they're famous, but you don't have to have chefs. You don't have to have a trainer to do it.

You can take fitness anywhere. If you're on a bus, put stuff under your bus. If you're in your van, put a band in your van, if that's all you got. Like, we have to drop the excuses because everything is manageable if you want to do it. If it's like, I don't really feel like it, then you'll say, I can't do it today because I'm busy. Well, everyone's got 15 minutes to do something. don't say you have to do an hour. Maybe you literally don't have an hour,

but you have 10 minutes, you have 15 minutes. Make do with what you got, but when you do it, don't just do a 15 minutes stroll, like do something. Like really get that body going. Are you typically fixing a lot of bad habits in terms of,

like, this previous trainer told me to eat only greens fruit juice. Oh, no, I don't really. No, no, not really. That happens in terms of just lifestyle habits? Lifestyle habits. their own lifestyle habits. So it's trying to teach, not fix, I just try to teach.

Like, hey, what you did is not bad, but let's just tweak it. So I don't want to say, oh my God, everything you've done is so wrong. You're this, you're that. No, no, no, no. Like, let's just do little modifications. Little things end up being big things over time. If you can just continually, I'll never go in and overhaul someone's whole life at one time because that's when people quit.

My goal is a little baby steps because I want them to realize, wait, I can still have fun. I can still do this, I can still do that. And then you just slowly move down, then they don't realize, like, oh, I can still have my tequila and I can still have pizza, but you don't need to eat the whole pizza. I have a piece of pizza. Don't use pizza as your meal. Have a snack of, you know, like eat something first and then eat the pizza, and then you won't be hungry and you'll have one piece and be fine.

When you first started getting into nutrition, did you have to, like, were you exposed to the extreme diets first and did you go through that phase of trying them out and then realizing there's just lifestyle changes to make or you went straight lifestyle first and were never even phased by these extreme diets? I never did the extreme dieting. I'm pretty much always done balance. I've never done Atkins. I've never done keto. I've never done fasting. I've never done I just live a healthy balanced lifestyle. If I'm hungry, I eat. I don't think food is a punishment. Like you shouldn't not be allowed to eat if you're hungry. Are you into fasting?

No, I don't fast. I've never, the only time I fast is when I had surgery. Otherwise, I'm not fasting. I like to eat. Yeah, I'm the same way. I like, see, I typically work out in the morning, but even if I don't work out in the morning, I'm still hungry when I wake up and I have more energy and I'm trying to get more calories in. So I have typically four meals a day.

A lot of those meals look very similar just because it's easy, it's convenient. Same here. Dinner typically looks different. But me and Steph, you know, we have our recipes that we've really. rotate through. Right. But most of my meal was like meal one, two, three look pretty identical 95% of the time. I am 100. Every meal of my day, every snack, every, like I get one bubbly a day. It's really exciting for me. And I have a bubbly and half of a bar. And like that's my relaxing. Everything to me is the exact same 95% of time too. What's that look like?

So oatmeal egg whites in the morning, berries. And then I'll probably have some more eggs in oatmeal. after that because I'll get hungry a couple hours later. I eat a lot. Do you eat a lot? I eat a lot. I love it. You know what? That's a question I want to ask you.

I know it's your podcast, but it's one that people have asked me about you. Yep. Is how do you run so many? This is a guy question that a lot of guys really are curious about. How do you put in so much endurance running and still stay the size you stay?

All approaches from multiple angles. First, before I started endurance training, I was into natural bodybuilding and powerlifting. So were you bigger? I was 230 pounds. Oh, she. You're big boy. I'll just show you a photo then. I want to see.

In 2000, when I got out on the Army, I said, I am never running a day in my life again. And I said this in a YouTube video. And I posted that and my goal at year was just to get big and strong. I deadlifted 700 pounds that year. I was just lifting. I mean, it was me, Preston, Joe. We were building BPN. And the business wasn't nearly as big as it is today.

So we had a lot of free time to train. We were training multiple times a day, eating a lot of food. Like almost every night we'd go to in and out, get two double doubles, animal style. Oh my God. That sounds like my son. Wendy's. He has four for four every night for dinner. Not my older son, my younger one that plays soccer and works out because he's been trying to get bigger.

Yeah, just getting calories in. So before I got into endurance training, I was a lot bigger than I am now. So that muscle preservation, genetics wise, like if you look at me, my brother, my dad, you my uncle, my dad and my uncle, they're both in their mid-50s, they still run races, like 5Ks and my uncle does half marathons. They're shredded, they're jacked. We have good genetics in the family. And then three, it's just 80 and nine.

to sustain that training. So most of the times when I eat, I'm not even hungry for that meal. I would say 85% of the time I eat, I'm not actually hungry. What's your calorie consumption? Range, I don't know if you count calories. Well, if you eat the same thing every day, you kind of know a ballpark where you're at. Yeah, it's probably like 4,000 calories right now. My running mileage is only 15 to 20 miles a week.

How do you usually break the mileage up? Right now I do five miles Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and I'll do like five to ten miles on a Saturday. But when I was in my marathon prep like three months ago, that mileage was about 70 miles a week. Monday, Tuesday were 10 to 11 mile easy runs. Wednesday was a track or speed workout. 10 to 11 mile easy run, just casual stroll. Yeah, I was like running so much. But I felt so beat down towards the end of those preps.

I did not feel good even though I was getting the calories in. they just they wrecked me I mean it takes a toll on your body for sure yeah but I think like the way I'm able to preserve and build muscle it's those three things like I was into strength training prior to running so in other words you had a lot of muscle on

prior to and so you've lost some oh my gosh I've lost a lot so when guys say I don't want to I'm a bodybuilder I don't want to lose muscle I mean that's if you get into that kind of endurance there's no chance that you're not going to lose it yeah Some, but I also think, like...

Are you leaner? Oh yeah, I'm leaner. Leaning. Definitely leaner right now. But I feel better. I feel lighter. I feel faster. I feel like more like an athlete.

But in the end, isn't that what it's all about? That's what it's all about. Like, I think a lot of people still get confused that they think I don't necessarily train with a grain of salt. I train to look a certain way. I do. You want to look good and lean, but you... But performance is like, I lift weights and I run because it makes me feel

really good and what I get out of it and it heightens every other part of my life. I'm a better leader, business owner, father, husband. But I've done like a natural bodybuilding show before. And when I was at 6% body fat standing on stage, I thought I was going to die. You know, you just don't feel good, even though you look good. Yeah, they say some of those are some of the most unhealthy athletes. Yeah. I think a lot of athletes actually at their prime are typically at their unhealthiest. Isn't that crazy to hear? Because you look at me, you think, oh my gosh, that's just nothing but pure muscle and they're a machine and I want to be like that. And we think they're like God at that point. I think from a physical and a mental perspective, if you look at someone

right before they go into a big event, whether it's a Super Bowl or a bodybuilding competition or whatever it is, a race, one, physically you beat yourself down, but you're at your peak performance. You train so hard, you put so much wear and tear on that body. There's so much wear and tear. And then mentally, like, there's probably some unhealthy habits in terms of food and relationships and things and people in your life. I'm sure priorities are a little out of line. I've been there.

I'm sure a lot of people think you take steroids. I get, it's like the number one comment I get all the time. I could see that. All the time. Because actually someone was talking about you. I said, they said, I wonder if he takes steroids. I said, oh, let's find out. The thing that, like, I told you earlier that I'm trying to figure out how to navigate with a lot of people is I get my blood work done throughout all these preps.

And after two ultra, this past year, we did two ultra marathons. We did level 100, Rocky Raccoon 100 miler. That's insane. We did a marathon prep. and then last May we also did a triathlon. So there were a lot of races in this last year. And I get blood work done regularly just to see where things are at. And especially if I'm starting to feel off, I'll get it checked.

And what I find as endurance training increases, volume intensity, hormone levels typically tend to dip. And they get pretty low. Now, once you pull back from that training, they will come back. But you can feel when your hormones are starting to dip and go low. And a lot of that is through just the amount of training, over-training for some of these events. So it's like I get these comments, oh, he must be on steroids. I could see that for sure. Well, I wish I could show you my hormones at the time.

But that's not saying be scared of running either because that's not the answer. The answer is don't over-train. That's the thing is, in order to run 100 miles, you have to put certain miles on your body. Like last, the 100 mile we did last August, Leadville 100. It's 100 miles through the Rocky Mountains of Leadville, Colorado,

all above 10,000 feet of elevation. Oh my gosh, that's miserable. You're not going to finish that race if you don't put a certain amount of... Absolutely not. Mileage and build durability, right? So it's like, okay, I'm going to go do this 100 miles. And that 100 miles wrecked me for weeks afterwards.

wrecked me. Did you get sick? I got, I got sick. So the most sick I got wasn't actually during the race. We finished the race and all I was thinking about during that race was Leadville is a small town and there was a small coffee shop in Leadville that had this sausage burrito that I was thinking about for the last 20 miles. So I saw one of our crew members at like Mile 90. I said, hey, can you please just get me at sausage burrito for when I finish this? And I crossed the finish line and we walked back to our Airbnb, it was like two blocks away. And my wife brought me a sausage burrito. And I took one bite. Did that make you throw up? I stood up. I ran in the bathroom. I got sick.

I passed out on the couch and I slept for like six hours. And I woke up and the first thing I said to Steph was, where's my sausage burrito? And she said, your brother ate it. Asshole. Were you dreaming about that the whole time you were sleeping too? I was like, I was just thinking about it because it was so good. I hope they went and got you another one because you earned it. Yeah.

But. I feel like that's a big question a lot of people have is the size in that much cardio. But you're not really doing crazy amounts of cardio right now. Not now, but even when I was doing a lot of, like when my mileage was high. Did you keep size in? I could. If I wanted to, I could. Did you balance it with strength training then when you were doing those kind of runs?

Yeah. But for this last marathon, so for the Buffalo New York Marathon, I wanted to. wanted to run a sub-250 marathon. Oh, geez, that's fast. So I knew in order to do that, I had to lose size. So I tried to actively lose size and weight. And I got down to 187 pounds at my latest during that. What are you now?

200. 187, like, for me, does not feel good. 200, 205, 210 feels the best. But I knew in order to run that fast, and I had to hold a 622 minute-mile pace. I knew I had to be. Just a 622. It was a tough one. For real.

Yeah. Like that, there's no way. I'd be puking on a mile too. But that goes back to, like, if I say I'm going to do something, I'm all in. Like if I had to stop weightlifting and lose weight to get to that feasible way to run 248, yeah, let's do it. You can't quit when you decide you're doing something. That's not, that's not cool. Speaking of which, I am going to run a half again.

So I used to do marathons. It's been a long time because I've had a bunch of, I just had my fourth knee surgery. I had two, one in July and one in September, all in the same knee. So I had ACL twice last year plus a broken kneecap. They put screws in. And so my son, my older son said, hey, I'm going to run a half. And I was like, oh, man, I can't do that. Because my doctor said, no running, no running, no running. Absolutely no running. You'll never run again. And you just kind of listen to your doctor. And I was like, wait, did I really just, I was like, I can't do it. And so him and my husband are, doing it. And I was like, I said I can't. Like, that's not an option. I was like, I'm going to run this thing. So I just kind of said, well, if I can run three, maybe. And then I said, if I hit nine miles, if I, I was doing one mile, adding one mile a week just to see how my knee would do. If I could

hit one, nine miles, then I'm signing up. So I signed up. You did nine yesterday. I did nine yesterday. And my knee's not sore. I was like, yes. Doctor's, so I went and saw my doctor. I said, hey, dude, you're wrong. He's like, you're only the second person that has the knee. knee like you have. He's like there's a there's a guy that he worked on he works on a bunch of athletes big in Nashville and he said there's only one other person that has that much arthritis and that much damage their knee of what I've done to you and not have pain. And is it because the amount of muscle you had that supports that? He says it's mostly quad strength is coming back. He's like your quad should not be coming back as well because he's like I have beat your knee up so bad last year.

And he said it's just come back and mostly that I feel like collagen is a big part of it. too. Yeah. I mean, collagen is amazing for ligaments, tendons. Yeah. Collagen, I feel like, is because my arthritis is so bad and I have no pain in it. And that's virtually impossible to have that kind of arthritis and not have pain. Do you take any other, like, joint supplements? No. I do beats. Always, beet elite every, every day for pre-workout. That's my pre-workout. Do you actually eat raw beats too? No, but they're like rocks. I used to juice them. What about, like when they're pickled? Pickled Beets?

No, I haven't done that. I'm a sucker for pickled beets. Well, they say once it has heat put to it, it's no longer effective. Well, shit. I would like to see that. I don't know. That's the rule, though. Have you not heard that?

No, I haven't heard that. So I want to make my own beet supplement one day, but right now I take beetle. So my husband always made my beet juice for me is Beats lemon ginger, delicious shot. And then we switched over. I did this like two-week trial. see if fetally work. And I was like, does it work? Because it's convenient.

It's easy to travel with. And it worked. And so now my son takes it. Everyone takes it. It's amazing. Take it every time for I work out. And I can run nine miles and not get winded. There's a lot of amazing studies behind beetroot, beetroot juice powder.

So much. Like a lot of it's done in soccer players. We're a big soccer family. So a lot of it's done in soccer players. Have you seen that? I haven't seen the studies, but I know it in terms of aerobic capacity, cardiovascular health in general. It's not only just stamina.

It's amazing for stamina, but it's also amazing for your heart. The stories I've heard from people's hearts, like their resting heart rate drops. I've seen people drop like 10 numbers. Wow. It's pretty crazy. If you're consistent, you have to be consistent.

It's not like you drink it one time and you're just going to drop like that. My resting heart rate during a big endurance block gets... 40s? This last one was 37. That's so low. Yeah, I got to. 37. That's insane. What's it normal? 40. 41. But it's very interesting.

But when you were doing weight training and not running, it wasn't there? I wasn't tracking anything. You're like, in and out burgers. Yeah, I wore a G-shock. I was like, I just needed time. G-shock, that's been a while. Yeah, it's all I used to wear in the Army. Like, I don't even know if we had GPS watches then. I'm sure we did. I don't know why I didn't use them, It would have been very useful. We didn't even have cell phones when I went in. Did you guys have, what kind of GPS device did you guys have for deployments? Did you have any? Really?

No. We didn't have phone. We had a sat phone. So you're just going all off map, compass, protractor? Yes. We didn't have a GPS anything. Did you get lost a lot? No, that's not a place you really want to get lost either.

I mean, it's so easy to, you know, you have a. We used to have these Garmin, big Garmin GPSs. I remember those. And it's so easy just to look at your grid and reference on the map. Like, okay, yeah, we're headed in the right direction. Oh, yeah, this is exactly where we're at. That makes things much easier. We always had to pull it out, put it on the hood, the maps.

Yep. And you use like reference points. Mm-hmm. All right, these two reference points pull us to a bad place. Ooh. We've been there, done that. All right, so I think next we're going to train. Oh, it's workout time.

Play time. Work on time. Oh, we got a, this is what, no way. This is what I'm talking about. Tony. Yes. Oh, no way.

A little pre-workout. I'm probably not down for pre-were like, who needs beats when you can have this? Speaking of which, I want to try your pre-workout. We'll mix up some pre today. I probably, wait, does yours have the, shoot, I'm forgetting the word, the one that gives you that tingly? Beta Al-Alanine. Yeah. Yeah.

It does. It does. I probably would get it since I haven't had it. So what we got right here is Tony just pulled in. We were talking about Round Rock donuts in the beginning of this episode. I'm really curious to hear your thoughts on this donut.

So just, are they warm? I'm assuming they're one. This is the, yo, show the camera. This is the big one. Dude,

oh, I don't want to try it until I take a picture. Does I have cheese in it? No, so this is the icing. We got to, We got to try it on camera. This is the icing. It's an egg.

It's an egg wash. I mean, so that's the yolk. I was like, it looks like a lard of fat right there. No, no. This is,

yeah, it's from the egg. Okay, we have to put that close to camera so everyone can see that. Hang on. So typically when we get, I eat the whole thing.

Typically when we get Round Rock donuts, we'll get like 12 at a time. You know, small, regular size donuts. This is what I was telling you. Like, you can,

it's soft. They're off a little bit bit there. I haven't had one of these in a hot minute. So it is very doughy. It's a different color than they normally are. Yeah. It's like an orangey yellow. Like usually they're like a creamy color.

Okay. What do you think? That's good. I'm a donut snob too. It's the icing. It's not overly sweet. Mm-mm. It's sweet.

But it's not like your teeth are going to fall out kind of sweet. When they're warm, they're even better. I love donuts. That's a good donut. Why are we going to work out? That's so good. We'll finish this donut. We'll hit a workout.

And then we're going to Peacock for dinner. Having some tequila. Definitely tequila. Tequila. Definitely tequila. Hey, dude, thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on. I appreciate you.

It's been awesome chatting with you and learning more about your story, seeing your amazing place and all your cool products and all the stuff you guys got going. And congratulations on 10 years. 10 years, baby. This weekend, we are celebrating big. That's awesome. What are you guys doing? So Friday night, we rented out this Mexican restaurant for just BPN team members and their families.

And we're just celebrating internally. And then Saturday, we're doing a 10K run downtown Austin with our community. And then we rented this house in Austin that we're doing a pop-up shop, activation, we're selling products there, bringing people in, selling tacos, smoothies. and just like bringing people together. Our goal with BPN in this next year is to be the supplement company of Austin. We want to take over Austin. So this is like one of our efforts to activate the community.

That's why we're doing like these BPN athletic clubs recently. And just bring people together to do cool stuff. That's really fun. I want to go to the drinking party. You're welcome. I mean, if I was in town, but. Come on back out. Donuts, workouts, tequila.

Run? Run. What more can we ask for? That's it. Cheers. All right. Thanks, Aaron. Thank you.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Bear Performance podcast. Please leave a rating and review on the platform you are listening to if you enjoyed it. It helps us to grow and reach more people with the intent of changing lives through the Go One More mindset. If you are ready to take your health and performance to the next level, head over to bpnsubs.com to take the first step.