The Sevan Podcast - #3 - Zack Lewis

Episode Date: April 29, 2020

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It's not mandated. It's just highly recommended, the governor said today. Yesterday, he mandated it. Today, he took that away and said, never mind, we're not going to do that. We're going to just highly recommend that you do. I wonder if that's political or scientific or, like, I wonder how does he tell you how he makes his decision? Today he said he heard people talk.

He heard what people were saying, and they made the decision today to listen to us and not mandate it. Well, cool. Good on you. Yeah. Do you wear a mask? No. Yeah. And your school is closed, right? You're a second grade teacher? Yeah. Yeah. Our school's been closed since mid-March or near the end of March.

So I haven't worn masks. We're still delivering food for our kids Monday through Friday. And those guys, some of them are wearing masks that, that are passing out food. Some are not. So just. So explain that, explain that to me, explain that to, so first of all, you and I know each other through CrossFit. Yes, sir. And you have a miraculous story. Yes, some say that, yes.

It's miraculous you did it. It's not miraculous in the fact that there's tens of thousands of millions of people around the world, if not in the United States, that would love to be in your shoes now. Yeah, yeah. It's a brand new feeling for me. Yeah, yeah. It's a brand new feeling for me. Just going from where I used to be mentally, just to where I am now even. It's mind boggling. So when you say, for people who don't know, I know your background. CrossFit's done a vignette on you, a six minute video. We haven't aired it yet. Mike Koslop made it. It's amazing. So I know some of your background, but when you say you're still feeding the kids, tell me what does that mean? You're still feeding the kids. Um, in Middletown, we're still feeding the kids as in, we take a breakfast and lunch at 10 o'clock to about 30 different drop-off areas in our district

and kids come, uh, or parents come and pick up their lunch up their breakfast and lunch for the day. And that's because you're a second grade school teacher. We do it as a district and we're title one, which is we provide breakfast and lunch for all of our kids anyway during the course of a day or a week. So we just extended that to drop off areas to better serve our students because if we didn't do it we're not sure exactly how they would be able to get their nutrition for the day. Gotcha and you are a second grade teacher? Yes second grade teacher I love it. And how long have you been doing that? Second this is my first year in second grade but I've taught for 13 years now.

for 13 years now. And how old are you? I'm 37. So, oh my God, I'm 11 years older than you. I can't believe it. It's funny. I used to interview people who were all older than me. Now I interview people who are all younger than me, but it seemed like I was never interviewing people who are my age. I don't know what happened. It just passed right through them. It's weird. Tell me, give me a little bit of background on you. Were you born in Ohio? Born and raised in Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio. Lived here all my life. I moved up to near Wright-Patt Air Force Base with my wife

about 12 years ago. And Ohio is a big sports state, and you grew up playing sports? Huge, yeah. Huge sports state. Really, southwest Ohio is known for our football and kind of high school football. So I grew up playing high school football. Went to college and played in a little small school. But we are very well known for our football, yeah.

And you played basketball, football, baseball all through school? All through, yep, all through high school, all through grade school and high school. Got to college and just picked football. I could have played maybe basketball, but my senior year of high school, I kind of dropped it and just went straight football so and and your senior year in high school what's your body look like how tall are you how much do you weigh I was 6'2 probably roughly 250 um and um I was pretty much in shape um then and then I went to college And you went to college to play football?

To play football, but more to get an education and make sure I graduated with an education in, um, in, um, in teaching. So, um, I could have went to a bigger school, um, and played and been like a walk-on. Um, but my mom and dad impressed on me that, hey, we got to get an education. We're not just going to go play football. And then when you – did you finish college in four years? Yes. Congratulations.

I can't say I did that in four years. And then what happened? So when you leave high school, what do you look like? When I leave college – Oh, sorry, sorry. When you leave college, what do you look like? When I leave college? Sorry, sorry. When you leave college, what do you look like after four years of college? After four years of college, I think I was around 300. I got hurt a bunch of times in college.

Tore my MCL, weirdly, three years in a row, the same one. Rehabbed it back for three years. The fourth year, my parents kind of said, hey, we're not footing that bill anymore, so you're probably not going to play football, so I decided not to play football. During that stage, I think that's where I started gaining weight, got real sedentary, sat around, and really didn't do much because I didn't have a team aspect behind me, so I didn't know where to go, where to turn. I usually had a coach that would say, hey, you're going to eat this, do this, lift this lift that and without that I was kind of stuck and when you say I think I remember

that in high school the guys who are on the football team the night before the game they would have these parties and they would just eat as much carbs as they can like that kind of stuff you were doing that kind of stuff all the the cake, all the pasta, just the night before the games. Yeah, usually we had – As big as you can. Yeah, as much as we could because that's what they said is, you know, eat as many carbs as you can so you're good to go Friday. You don't get tired. You don't get cramped, whatever.

So that's exactly what we did. And we had not good stuff on Thursdays for sure. And so you leave college. You're 22, 23 years old. Yep, 22. You're 22, you're 300 pounds. At that point, was it at that point or at some other point for the first time in your life, maybe it was creeping in like, hey, maybe I'm too heavy?

At that point, it started to get to me because I played basketball with my older brother. When I moved back home, we'd play in like a Thursday night league. And it was hard to keep up and stuff like that. So I was like, I need to do something. So I just, I went to the gym, not really knowing what to do and when to do it. And when you say couldn't keep up, you're just a 300 pound guy with can't play basketball at 23, 24 years old. No, not at 300.

Like a weekend warrior. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I was trying to be a weekend warrior, 300 pound basketball player, with a jump shot and can't run and can't move. So I felt like I had to do something, but what to do, I didn't know. And at that point, did you have any idea, this is 15 years ago, so did you have any idea what proper nutrition was? Not outside of what I've been told. I never researched it myself. I've never went out and tried to find Answers myself I just kind of listened to

What college or high school Coaches said in college Of course they want you as the lineman to be As big as you could And move So I kind of just Whatever they told me to do I did It's funny as I say that

I'm answering the own question in my head And I'm thinking at 22 I thought that you should drink non-fat milk diet coke sugar-free ice cream and you're good low-fat cottage cheese tuna fish yeah you're good to go yeah I had this I had the script totally wrong it was it was basically I guess what I learned from sort of like this Arnold Schwarzenegger, just as much chicken and tuna fish you could eat, and then mainstream media just telling you as long as it's no fat and sugar-free, you're good to go, right?

Were you sort of on that same page? Yes, exact same page. As long as it said fat-free, you're good to go. And as long as your coach said, hey, you can have that, I had it. Right. And I didn't do the Gatorade thing but did you were you big big into doing the gatorade and the sugar drinks and just yeah well i was playing i thought that was it i thought that was that was what you turned to and and uh and now i look back like oh my god yeah

it's crazy um the the basic you know gatorade professes that they increase your electrolytes right but the truth is is that that they increase your electrolytes. Right. But the truth is that they dilute your electrolytes. Yes. It just takes basic math of knowing ratios that maybe I think I learned, you know, fifth, sixth grade, somewhere in there. If I would have applied the basic math, I knew I could have figured it out myself. Exactly. And you would have felt, I mean, I downed Gatorades in games in college and high school, just a ton of it. And I didn't feel good afterwards. I didn't know why. I just thought I was tired or sluggish or whatever from the game. But really, it's probably what I was eating or drinking during a game.

During this, the worst thing I've had during this quarantine is I had a milkshake one day, and I'm usually pretty good. And I swear to God, it ruined my day. It ruined my day. It was too much sugar. I actually felt hungover. That's how I feel with my kids. We'll go to a two- or three-hour spin at the park, and I'm like, I want to get a treat or whatever. I was like, you haven't had one all week we'll go and get something.

And I'll indulge with them too. And then when I get home, I'm like, Oh my God, I feel terrible. I feel terrible till the next day. The worst thing about getting healthy is that you always know when you're not. Yes. It's kind of right that your ignorance is bliss. Yeah. I mean, it's, yeah, you didn't know any better. It was all right. But now that I know what that feels like to be healthy and to be on the other side, it's like, oh, my God, what am I about to do?

How old, when did you find CrossFit? I found CrossFit twice in my life. One, once when I graduated college and had my first coaching job and teaching job, I actually moved a power rack in my house or in my garage and did CrossFit.com workouts. This is at about 27 years old? 27. And I was into it. I just didn't know what in the world i was doing so i'd hurt a lot my knees would hurt a lot um i'd get real sore and i'd feel like i can't work out again so i'd work out one one hard day and then feel like crap three days in a row and i did that for like a year um and saw some good gains and felt good, but I, I quit because I felt so beat down and run down

because I had no idea what I was doing because I wasn't in an affiliate. Right. And you, and you probably didn't have the nutrition component, right? So you were probably still really inflamed, right? Still eating like a football player. Exactly. But training like a CrossFitter. Yeah. Okay. Garbage, you know, all the carbs I could find, uh, still milk, still a lot of dairy stuff. But then I'd go out to the garage and train the right way. But then I'd go and fuel my body with the wrong stuff. So it was just a cycle. And so you did that, you said, for about a year?

Yeah, for about a year I did it. And instead of three on, one off, you were doing one on, three off. Yes, exactly. Okay. It just – I don't know. Do you become a hater at that point? Do you become like, oh, this CrossFit shit's not good. I tried it.

It's bad. No, I wasn't really a hater. I really liked it and liked the idea of it. I just thought it wasn't for the regular person. Okay. I just thought it was just for, like, athletes or people that were't for the regular person. Okay. I just thought it was just for like athletes or people that were already in shape. Right. Okay. That was the complete opposite. Okay. And when you're 27 and you're trying crossfit for the first time, how do you remember,

do you remember how much you weighed at that point? Probably like 325. I really didn't care much about my weight then. Okay. And I didn't pay attention to it. It wasn't until I had my second child that I was like, holy shit, something has to change. And what year was that? How old were you when you had your second child?

She's four now, 34. 34, okay. And that's when you were approaching 400 pounds. Yeah, that was right when I was like at 375. Did you think, oh, shit, I'm this close, I might as well just go to 400? Yeah, of course. Like, why not? Just keep – I mean, I know that's a weird question, but I was like –

yeah, if I was like at 375, I'd be like, before I'm going to lose weight, I'm just going to hit the 402. And do you think you ever hit 400? I could have. After 375, I was'm just going to hit the 402. And do you think you ever hit 400? I could have. After 375, I was, frankly, too scared to step on the scale. And I'd have to go to the doctor and step on the scale for I had real bad anxiety. And I had to take a lot of medicine for that and had to go to the doctor every month or whatever. And I would just tell them, I don't care about this this i don't care about what it weighs just skip that and they would

let you skip it i would weigh in but i wouldn't look at what i weighed okay gotcha just gonna scale look away they write it down yeah people in hospitals must and do you know other people who did that too other people who are 100 pounds overweight who would do that? No, not really. Cause you know, I've heard, I've interviewed a lot of people who are a hundred pounds overweight and that that's the first time I've heard that story. But I mean, I've heard a lot of the other crazy stories, like your family's about to have dinner.

So you run to the store and get milk, but you swing by McDonald's and get two Big Macs. Yeah. And, and, and, and you were always eating with two hands. I was that guy too yeah or like uh gary roberts told me all sorts of crazy stories you get up in the middle of the night to eat a little ice cream out of the gallon and and it's and you don't want your family to know you ate any so then you end up eating the whole thing and then you got to run to the store in the middle of the night and get a new one and then you got to eat it back down again to where it was that sounds just like yeah Gary and I probably have the same stories and I watched I watched

his two uh seasons of his stuff and I was like holy shit this is about me too um it's it's crazy dude it is absolutely mind-boggling once you get into that um just the the wrong way to eat and then you you know you're scared to death what people are going to think. Then you don't want to get caught. And then now you have anxiety over that. It's just, it's a, it's a terrible cycle. What is anxiety? For me, it's like feeling like I cannot stop my mind. Like I always used to worry about the dumbest stuff, like my kids getting hurt or getting sick, and just weird,

like, stuff that's never going to happen. It's always in the future, like what could happen, and I just couldn't turn it off, and I attribute some of that to probably my weight gain and what I was eating and stuff like that, because now, even with this stuff, the COVID stuff, I'm not like, granted, I don't want it. I don't want to be sick. But I'm not anxious about it. I'm not worried and feel that, you know, I got to keep my kids inside or away from their friends or whatever. How stoked are you that you found CrossFit before this COVID thing? Because you see the underlying conditions. It's like 95% of people and you've already started working your way to the health.

Exactly. I mean, it is, um, thinking about it and then thinking about some of my people that hang out with my family members, it's like, dude, just wake up. Um, and I just feel that it's, it's seriously like with this stuff, I seriously feel like it's it's seriously like with this stuff I seriously feel like it's saved my life it's cliche to say but I mean with this stuff if it has saved your life I think it has down that same path should I have it and be in the hospital and anxious you know doubling my medicine and and everything now I barely take any I'd still take some just to keep the edge off a little bit or whatever um but uh I I don't get weird and nervous about it anymore like at this time if this was a two years ago I'd have my hands washed so much they'd be bleeding um when I had my first kid and my second

kid I washed my hands so much they're bleeding my friends are like that's not right and i just looked at my kids i can't stop they would tell me uh you know i have really good friends that would say dude that's you're not supposed to be doing this and i'm just like well i can't stop so and now if i would have a kid i want to do the same stuff i was doing before so when i think of anxiety the the only time in my life that I can think of having anxiety is like you get pulled over by the cops or you're going 70 down the freeway or 80 or 100 and the cop pulls behind you or if I had to speak in front of a large group of people and it was something really formal I would start feeling my heart like I like I kind of would I still want to run away yeah I mean like when the cop pulled behind me i'm the right thing to think would be like oh slow down to 65 and chill i

kind of want to go like 120 and run away for no reason i haven't done anything wrong it's gonna be a race from where we are to home yeah yeah is that what it's like like seems exactly kind of just want to like just run off in one direction that's exactly what it's like and and i did i would like i'd leave whatever situation and either like wherever i was i'd go somewhere by myself whether it's upstairs out you know away from my wife and kids uh whether it's like at a bar hanging out i'd just i'd head out the back um i didn't want to be a part of those situations that made me feel that way so i just like run away i'd sleep a lot sit a lot on the couch I'd fall asleep when my kids were with my wife and kids were in the same room instead of being a part of the conversation part of the things I would be asleep and it was terrible

I bet you that makes you a really compassionate um second grade teacher I think so um it's it's really funny to um some people think that i am like more of like a drill sergeant kind of guy because i'm a guy so they're like you're you don't come across that way and then when they come in my classroom they're like holy shit you're you're a little bit different of a teacher and uh yeah i'm just super compassionate about what my kids go through because you know i i've been through anxiety and feel that way and their life is full of anxiety especially being away from us right now and just being able to feel that with them it helps me as an educator for sure when was the very first time you had anxiety you remember when i felt it the most is when my kid was born my first my first kid Parker my first son was born

it was out of it was out of control um I believe like even when he was born like I would like walk in and out of the um in and out of his room in and out to like outside and like try to catch my breath and come back in I'd find an excuse to to go fill up water again or just some shit, just, just to leave the situation, try to bring myself back down. Right. And it really worked until frankly CrossFit started at my affiliate that I go to. So it's amazing. I, when I was younger,

I remember like if I was going to go on stage in a play and I would get anxiety or like I had to do some sort of performance, I kind of like, or if I was running for student council, I had to speak to the whole school. I kind of looked forward to that kind of anxiety. And I'm guessing when you played football, you kind of looked forward to that. You kind of want, you want it to step up and face it. And then you get older and you're like, for something happens, right? Yeah. You don't want to face it anymore. Yeah. You don't want to face it anymore. You want to run away yeah you don't want to face it anymore yeah you don't want to face anymore you want to run away you don't want to be a part of it it used to be exhilarating right you couldn't get enough of it and now then it was like oh i don't want any part of this um how do you break that seal so so okay so

you did cross it when you found crossfit when you're 26 27 you did it by yourself in your garage briefly tell me how did you find it how did it pop on your radar uh my twin brother was doing it my twin brother was doing it and told me about it and I was like what the hell is that so I looked it up and and he would do it uh he lived in uh California at the time um and I lived in in Ohio and we would kind of of call each other and kind of tell each other what times we got or how we did on a certain lift or whatever. That's how it kind of got started. And is your brother as big as you are? No.

6'2"? Oh, yeah, he's 6'2". He's not as big as I am. He never got to over 300 pounds? No. Did he talk to you about it? You know, dude, he was, when he first moved to California, he was away, so he really didn't know. He knew I was big, but I don't think he knew how big I got until he got back home, and when he got back home,

he'd be like, what are we doing? But he wasn't the dick about it or anything, but he would definitely be like, Hey, you know, what's going on? What, what are you working out? Or, and then when my knee surgeries, when I, when I tore both patella tendons off my kneecaps, he was a, he was my kind of cheerleader to get back to where I, where I could walk again without a Walker. Um, and then I'd tell him like stuff like, dude, I'd never be able to squat again, or I'll never be able to do this or that, and now with CrossFit, he likes to, you know, I'll post something, and he'll call me, like, I thought you said you never could do that again,

so, you know, he's that guy. He's your biggest cheerleader, but he'll also look at you and be like, what are you doing, so it helped a lot to have him. What an amazing thing to go through, to think you'll never be able to do something again and then be able to do it again i mean it was something as vital as squatting right i'm at the cornerstone of independence right yeah they they told me look you'll never be able to get up from a chair again you'll have to sit on a high cushion or high chair at all times um you'll you know you're not gonna be able to walk without this walker um and all kinds of stuff and i was just i didn't know i was i was 30 um

and this has only happened to then the doctor said it's only happened if there's only 50 cases in the world that tear bilateral patella tendons. Usually it's like your quad tendon and your, and then your other ones, your kneecap. So he's like, we don't know what to do. This is, there's no protocol. There's no, there's nothing out there really. So you're kind of gonna, we'll see how it goes. Those doctors who said that you'll never be able to squat again, do they see you? Do they know you're squatting again? No, they have no idea. Yeah. My doctor that did my surgery, he's retired now, so I don't see him much.

But he just didn't know much about it. So when we did it, he's like, I don't know what to tell you. We're going to treat it like a quad tendon, double quad tendon tear and go from there. For eight weeks I was in braces locked from my hips to my ankles until I wasn't allowed to bend my knees. So, I mean, imagine that. Yeah, you must have lost a lot of range of motion. Oh, it's ridiculous.

And they kicked me out of – I did PT for a year, and my insurance finally said that's enough. And the PT guys are like, well, he doesn't have strength in it. He can bend it now, but he has no strength to walk. And they're like, I'm sorry. So I spent a while trying to get that, all that strength and mobility back by myself. Now that you've taken, you've taken your L1. Yeah. Do you look back at that PT and be like, Oh shit, I could have PT myself. Yeah. And right now I could be like, I could walk somebody through it. Like this is how we're going to do this and to walk them step by step.

And that's what the L one has taught me that no matter who you are, you're able to do these movements and you can modify everything before. I just thought this is like when i was following the dot-com stuff i thought this is how i'm supposed to do it and now i can modify infinitely amount of things and it is it's amazing to be able to do it i don't have like when i first started at my affiliate i couldn't do burpees i'm just just going to do them. And then now that I can do, I don't have to step back and get to the floor and I can actually get to the floor. But before I didn't know that you could modify that kind of shit. So it's just, it's great to go through the L1 training

and understand the mechanics of your body. That's the biggest part of it. And to be able to do that, I just can't. I can't express it enough. My wife had a ton of knee surgeries. I'm going to say conservatively five, but I think it's like seven. And the first time she went through physical therapy, and I was watching them do the physical therapy. And after like nine weeks or something, she had lost like half a range of motion.

And I never let her do that again. I'm like, hey, I'm just going to apply the, I'm no fucking physical therapist. I'm no CrossFit coach, but I've been to, you know, because I filmed L1s in the early days. I've been to 20 L1s and I understand human movement according to Greg Glassman's methodology. And her doctors were blown away yeah at once she would come back for checkups i put the brace back on and put the

pin back where they left it and then they would take it off and they could not believe they're like you have more range of motion than when you started and it was just like yeah we just scaled and scaled and scaled everything baby steps that l1 is a miracle yeah it's and it changes your life sitting there you're like you know i wasn't like to everybody else everybody else seemed to be like a a trainer like they're like an athlete and then here i am sitting there and and just being with everybody and learning how to move, it was great. And then just learning things that could help me in my movement. Because some of the coaches, I would ask them questions during breaks and stuff.

And I'd say, hey, you know, I'm unable to do X, Y, and Z. And they'd really take their time and help me understand the mechanics of your body. It was awesome. Were you sore after those two days? No. No, okay. No. i thought i would be um all the coaches in my affiliate were like dude you're gonna be a little sore so you know get ready for that and and i i didn't feel too terrible i modified things when i had to um i was told to modify things when i didn't think i had to. And it just, it wasn't too bad.

That's another huge thing that I learned, you know, from CrossFit. Some people think that the modifications means it's less and a jumping, yeah. A jumping pull-up is just a different stimulus. There's nothing to be, people who can do 30 strict pull-ups should still do jumping pull-ups regularly because we all need the, we need the different ranges of motion. We need the different stimuluses. We need the, and it's kind of hard in the first few years, especially when you're younger to kind of get your head wrapped around that

because you want to do everything RX, but it's not about doing things RX. It's about getting the stimulation right. That makes you a better, stronger person to fight the next day. Yeah, absolutely. Without, you know know when i am able to scale things i'm able to keep up with the class and not anybody ever says like oh you were doing this instead of that they're just like a great job you know where when i first started i didn't have that and it wasn't part of skyfall then so i wasn't i didn't know that it was all right to, to, to make those modifications. So it is awesome to be able to do that and then still get the same workout everybody else would get.

And what's the name of your affiliate? Tell me again. Um, CrossFit Skyfall. CrossFit Skyfall. Um, how did your path cross the second time with CrossFit? Um, your path cross the second time with CrossFit um I was tired of being tired to begin with and I didn't know where to start and I messaged you and said where do I go you said you need to find your affiliate and so I found them and oh shit I didn't realize that so So you were just, you were just an Instagram stalker. Yeah.

You actually, you actually hadn't CrossFit at that. You hadn't actually done CrossFit years at that point. No, no. I just started back in CrossFit in November. Wow. Yeah. That's amazing. My first message to you was like, Hey, I need to get back on track. You look like you, you know, you do this CrossFit thing. You got your boys running around and that. Where do I start? He said, find your affiliate.

How old are your kids? Parker is six and Rory's four. Okay. So you were sort of, you knew I was doing CrossFit, but you were there mostly to look at the kids' stuff. Yes. Yeah. Okay.

And then just one thing led to another and now we're here i can't tell you how happy that makes me dude i can't believe you messaged me back being an instant weirdo so i was like i was like dude he's never gonna message me back i messaged i try to message everyone back unless they ask me something that i'm just stumped on then some usually i'll put it the people i don't message back it's because I don't have an answer for you and I kind of leave you in a pile and then I kind of forget about you I do that to my dad all the time I want to write these really nice things to my dad when he texts me so I'll try to answer it later in the day and then he gets mad at me for not texting him I'm like shit I did it because I wanted to say something

really loving and thoughtful not like yes yeah exactly yeah but yeah that was my first yeah so then i said hey find a local affiliate and you went into skyfall yeah i messaged and they said well when do you want to start i said i want to come in today i went in at 3 30 the next day and how do you get past your anxiety isn't your brain going no you can't go in there no you can't go in there no absolutely was but i had to decide whether i was going to get healthy for my two kids and my wife or if i was going to keep being where i was scared to death everything and never going to progress i had to make the decision and talking to you and then going there it just i was i was in for it so tell me so you call them you schedule an appointment and and and when between the time

you called them and you scheduled the appointment how long was that i mean by the time you scheduled the appointment and went in there how long was it 24 hours three days i think it was three days because i was supposed to go in the day at the next day and i and he said just stop by whenever you know 4 30 this is when class starts. You can come in, check it out. We can talk to you. And I went the next day and just sat in a parking lot like, holy cow, look at all these people walking in here. They don't look like me.

I was like, nope. And I left. Yeah, I knew it. I knew it. Yeah, absolutely. And then one of the owners called and said, hey, I thought you were coming in. And I was like, I was going to,

but I came up with some stupid excuse probably. And, uh, and he's like, well, I'll see you tomorrow then. I'll see you tomorrow. Oh, I'm so, I was about to rip on your affiliate owner, but they redeemed themselves. I'm so glad they called me. That is beautiful. What a great. Y'all they're great. Yeah. Okay. Great. I love it. Skyfall. All right. Yeah. So then the next day you go back i go back and say you know they kind of give me you know what it's about and i've been watching

then i started researching you a little bit more and listen to podcasts after podcasts i'm that nerd that just listens to things try to learn more now and uh and he he's like all right so come back whenever you're ready i was like i, I'm ready now. Let's sign up. Oh, good on you. So I signed up as soon as I was there. Um, uh, the next day they had a, uh, I forget what event they had. They had some event and they invited me to come check it out. Um, it was, uh, it was a competition, uh, but I forget what it was.

And they invited me to check it out. Um, I met a bunch, they introduced me to a bunch out um i met a bunch they introduced me to a bunch of people there um and then the next day i started my like on ramp class um that seems weird that they'd invite you to a competition did that scare you was that intimidating or are you like all right i was right the first time fuck this i'm not coming in um i got i don't i i've lived here for 11 years and i don't have many friends here and i was like maybe i'll meet some people i can hang out with and then when i went in there um there's people like me there and they're members at skyfall so i got to introduce myself and talk to them a little

bit about how things would go it just made me feel more comfortable i think once they knew i got around their community i think i'd feel fine. So I think that's what I mean. What do you mean people like you people over 300 pounds? Yeah. Yeah. There's a couple of bigger guys that are definitely making some big, some big changes and to be able to meet them and kind of get my anxiety out was great. Has anyone in the gym whispered to you? Like when you first started, like,

Hey man, I was you two years ago. Fucking stay with it. You the man for being here. All of them. Okay. I went to a 430 class for a while. And the guys I was working out with, they're like, dude, just stick with it. It's going to suck for a minute.

You're going to feel sore. You're going to feel this and that. But I want to see you here. And that made all the difference. Because if nobody would have talked to me, I would have just been like yeah this isn't for me but they kept you know they kept on me the coaches you know always were telling me how good I was doing or uh set out you know keep working and that kept bringing me back so um it's it's been great my my wife my wife and I would always work out together at the park when we started CrossFit.

First, she thought I was crazy for doing CrossFit. She's like, you're insane. This can't be good for you. And then this is back in 2006. And then by 2007, 2008, she started getting into it pretty hardcore. And then we would visit affiliates or we'd work out in affiliates, but we were so busy, we would always work out at home. And so we didn't really have an affiliate we went to. and then we would visit affiliates or we work out in affiliates, but we were so busy. We would always work out at home. And so we didn't really have an affiliate we went to. And then about two years ago, I want to say maybe two or three years ago,

she started going to CrossFit Aftos. Now I can't get her to work out with me because she just wants to go there and work out with her friends. And we were like workout buddies. Yeah. And it's interesting. She got really addicted to, to her affiliate. She loves her affiliate. She loves working out with those, with those people, which is cool. I'm stoked for. Yeah. It's, it's just a different community. You're not used to like, I just didn't know that existed really. If I knew this is how it was going to be,

I would have found it sooner. But it's just, have you brought anyone into the affiliate? No, not yet there's some people that want to be a part of it and then this all happens so oh right we're stuck kind of stuck right now um there is a guy that's um following me on instagram that started joining our classes our zoom classes so that's pretty cool oh shit that's really cool so you did get someone to come but through zoom and he's not even from ohio he's i think he's from i want to i don't know where he's not from ohio but he's uh he messaged me every now and then and we talk and and things like that so he's going to our zoom classes it's pretty cool

what's your wife think? She loves the changes that's happened. I'm more – we talk about it a lot. I'm more engaging with the kids. And not that I wasn't loving to the kids before. I just wasn't around. Like, I was sleeping, or I knew I couldn't run around with them. I knew knew I couldn't keep up so I just didn't um and now that's all changed you know I take them to the park or hiking every day now um during this quarantine just to get them the heck out of the

house um and and you know just little things like that um she appreciates and just being more of dad and more of the person that I can be, I think, is what's really sold her on CrossFit. And I've seen pictures of her. She looks very petite. She looks like a very slender. She is. She works out. She used to do CrossFit a lot.

She works at Wright-Patt Air Force Base. She's a mechanical engineer there. So they have a CrossFit box. She used to be a big part of that. But she got away from just because of how much she's working now. And she, but she goes and does CrossFit type workouts after work at the base. So she's into it. So you really don't have it. You have a good good role you're living with a good role model yeah which is huge right yeah um if you were on if your wife was 100 pounds overweight and you were on this journey solo it would be incredibly hard right it'd be it'd be almost

but it would still have to be done yeah it has to be done in the way that i feel now it's it's crazy to think that i would ever slide back just because how terrible i feel even like you know the kids i'll eat i'll have ice cream or whatever with the kids um and then the next day it's terrible and i and i know it and now i'm like skipping ice cream so my son's like well i don't want ice cream you're not eating it oh and then he'll ask like like hey how do you get that son's like, well, I don't want ice cream. You're not eating it. And then he'll ask like, hey, how do you get that six pack? I was like, well, I don't have a six pack, son. So I'm not real sure, but we're working towards it. He's like, well, what do I got to eat?

So we talk about that a lot. And just seeing that change in him. And then my kids are like, today we went to the park and did whatever I thought was a cool CrossFit workout. And we did that. And like my kids would get off their bikes. They would do squats. They would do pushups. Then we'd go another minute and then they would stop. We'd do it again. It was just, it's just fun to be able to have them, um,

see the change in me that that's starting. Um, Have they made any vocal observations? Have they observed like, Oh my dad's smaller. Yeah. My, my, my son often son often says, what happened to your stomach? And I'm like, well, what do you mean? He's like, it's not there. It's not as big. So just like little stuff like that.

I don't think they actually understand kind of what's going on, which is great. I like that. You know, I don't have to explain much to them. They're too young to figure it out. They just want to be like dad. And before they didn't, you know, I was on the couch explain much to them. They're too young to figure it out. Uh, they just want to be like dad. And, uh, before they didn't, you know, I was on the couch. Nobody wanted to be sleeping on the couch. Um, and now they see this.

It's, it's great. If you, if, if you could give advice to someone else who is out there in your situation, a father, um, got a big, huge hill to climb, battle to fight, a hundred pounds overweight. What would you say to him? What are some things that they can do to facilitate making that first step to get into an affiliate? One to know that they're not alone in the affiliate. So you're,

I've talked to a lot of guys here lately that are like, I don't want to go because of what I look like. And I want them to know that it doesn't matter what you look like now. The affiliate where you walk into wants to see you at your best. So the first thing I tell them is just to go to an affiliate, go check it out, talk to the owner and just check out the community and see what it feels like. The next thing I want to tell them is just to move. It doesn't even have to be CrossFit right away. You know, just moving and getting off the couch is half the battle and then try to drop, drop some

of the carbs that you're eating. You know, you're not going to be able to drop all of them at the same time because it's not. Give me some practical, give me some practical give me some practical advice what's something that you used to eat that you were able to easily cut out um dairy i used to have milk and cheese with breakfast every day and just cutting that out not having a glass of milk not putting the cheese on the eggs um and a little extra salt and pepper you're good to go okay and then uh bread i don't have i eat lunch meat every now and then because it's a quick easy snack and instead of putting bread on I get a pickle put a pickle in and lunch meat it's not the best snack but then again you're cutting out the bread with it

and you know it's it's it's easy it's quick and it's not too bad for you when I'm indulging let's say I'm having a hamburger somewhere and I know I should like it's quick, and it's not too bad for you. When I'm indulging, let's say I'm having a hamburger somewhere, and I know it's too soon, then if my discipline is pretty good, which it normally is, I'll just take off both pieces of bread. And if I really want to spoil myself, then I'll just eat two patties of meat. But, yeah, that's a great way. Or if you're really indulging, you just keep one piece of bread. You take off the top. You know what I mean?

You have your fingers on the burger no ketchup because you don't want the high fructose corn syrup but those little things hey just like just make it a new rule in your life no top piece of bread on anything you eat and yes you're on your way right the journey begins yeah you're you're right on your way it doesn't have to be these big wholesale changes a lot of guys i talk to are like well i'm gonna'm going to cut out all the X, Y, and Z. It's not realistic, guys. It's just you can't do that. One step at a time is kind of what I've been doing, and I've been seeing some big changes.

So that's my biggest advice. Just one thing at a time. Don't make it a big wholesale situation. How about soda? Is soda gone? I've never, yeah, I was drinking a lot of Mountain Dew, and now I don't have any of that. That really messes with my stomach, and being on this journey, I figured out that I am actually have an intolerance to gluten, so just being on the journey, figured out you know what i can

eat with my body and what i can't now and sodas just it just wrecks me what advice do you have for affiliates for engaging clientele like you like what like yeah just that so before you give advice to people who who might want to go to an affiliate but are intimidated what advice do you have for an affiliate i think just make sure that you are kind of showing everybody at your gym um and it's not always like the elite athlete that you show or um you know you mean like on instagram or social media or okay like i see some gyms only post like they're, they're elite athletes or people that do like amazing things.

And I see that our gym kind of posts to everybody, whoever's at the class is getting in that picture or, you know, they're filming them during the workout. I think just being accepting of anybody that walks in your door and knowing they've had a journey just to walk in you need to make sure you're compassionate to them because you could be their lifeline you you're that person and if you are not welcoming and make sure hey you know we got your back and make sure they they know you're there for them they're not going to come back and then you lost

they lost their lifeline they're going to go back to wherever they were. I was talking to Michelle Moots and Zach and their, their trainers at the gym here. Well, they're, they're all one trainers, but they're also trainers at the gym we have at HQ and they have a, they have a clientele of 250 people. And to into that class you have to be either elderly or overweight or both and um i don't want to misquote them but it was really interesting one of the things i was like teach me something teach me something about being a teacher in this class and they go it's all trust yes it's trust before everything they have to know you're no fucking way gonna hurt them they have i mean just the tiniest steps.

And I would see when they would do burpees with these clients, they would stack boxes up to their chest, and you would just, like, lean forward, touch the box, and then stand back up. Like, you never even went even close to the ground, right? You just leaned over, like, eight inches. And I'm like, they're like, that's day one. Yeah, that's a great point because that's – I mean, when I first went to the gym,

I'd try to be doing everything everybody else was doing, and the coaches would just – they would just come whisper to me, like, hey, man, that's not today. And they'd take some weight off for me. And they just – they wouldn't make a big deal out of it, but they'd come make sure, you know, that you were being safe in the gym. And that was really important to me. And set you up for success every time, right?

Right. So they would say that no one ever – no one wants to to be embarrassed especially these people who've crossed into the most uncomfortable situation of their life yeah ever want to embarrass them or sorry I interrupted you no you're right you're right and and that's I never want to be embarrassed and that's kind of when I went into the gym that's what I was worried about my first couple workouts whatever I'd be embarrassed I was trying to be That's what I was worried about. My first couple workouts or whatever, I'd be embarrassed. I was trying to be, you know, the guy that was funny or the guy that was cracking jokes.

And eventually that all stopped because I didn't have to feel like I had to be kind of covering up something because they would just come by and say, hey, man, that's not it today. Make sure, you know, you take that weight off. We're going to work on your range of motion. We're going to work. And they made sure I knew, understood, they make sure I understand what the day is, whether it's strength, or range of motion, or endurance, or whatever, and that really helped me out, too, just explaining what the day entails for me isn't going to be exactly for everybody in

the class, so just their one-on-one interaction with me was, it was really important to you. How much do you weigh right now? 305. Is it mind boggling to you to think that you used to, it would be like carrying almost like two big full bags of dog food around with you everywhere you go. Like if you were to carry two, like 40 pound sacks of dog food, you used to be like carrying almost like two big full bags of dog food around with you everywhere you go like if you were to carry two like 40 pound sacks of dog food that's what it used to be like yeah and actually a couple of the the trainers asked like hey have you ever like strapped on like 70 pounds and went for a walk I was like no he's like well that's that's what that's what you've

done you've lost that much weight imagine putting that back on and, you know, look how far you've come. So, yeah, that's just – it's mind-boggling to think that I was that big. And now that I'm – you know, I'm still pretty big, 305. But, you know, knowing that I'm on the down slope and knowing that what I'm doing is working is all that matters. What did the teacher say to you at school? The other teachers, have they noticed? Yeah, they've noticed a lot. At first they'd like, they're like,

what are you doing? And I'd tell them and they'd think like, okay, you're doing CrossFit. So you're doing all these crazy workouts and you're doing a billion pull-ups and you're running. And I was like and you're running and I'm like no no I'm not doing pull-ups I'm not running I don't know how I before CrossFit um with my affiliate I didn't know how to run because I didn't I don't have a muscle memory anymore um so they've taught me that too but um they've noticed like they've noticed I can move around and um do different things whether it's like when I used to get on the floor with my class,

it would take me a minute to get up. But now, you know, more or less just jump up or like my clothes fit a ton different. So they'd be like, Hey, your pants are a little baggy, and you might need to go get some something new. Just like little stuff like that. And just noticing, you know, what I'm eating is different at lunches or just little stuff like that and just noticing, you know, what I'm eating is different at lunches or just little stuff like that. Yeah, that's cool. That's, you know, that's funny.

Probably if your clothes were too tight, no one would tell you. But when your clothes are too loose, people can get away with. Yeah, like I did. Those pants look a little bit, they're a little rough. Figure something out. What did you miss is there any moment in your child's life that that you miss specifically that haunts you to this day that you're like fuck i should have gone i wish i had gone to that and that was my weight like anything like you hold is like i can never go back to that nightmare um like in my kid's life yeah or just in like or i'll make the question even broader in

general like something you hold like almost like um you know someone said to mike tyson when tyson once i think when he was younger hey you should see a shrink and get this shit fixed and he's like are you fucking kidding me this damage is what makes me the fucking heavyweight champion of the world is there anything like that you see in your past that you're like that you keep a dark memory you keep that makes it so you won't go back so you'll never you'll never put that weight on again like i will not like i didn't get to go to my kid's third birthday party because or whatever the biggest thing is um man you had to ask me stuff like that when my when parker was learning to ride his bike he was like three

you know he's learning to ride his bike and you know most dads are running alongside him teaching him how to do it and making sure you're guiding them and you know that whole thing um and the biggest thing that kills me is I wasn't I couldn't do it my wife did it not saying that she couldn't do it. My wife did it. Not saying that she couldn't do it, but, you know, I miss that for him, being able to kind of be there for him because I was so big. And I couldn't keep up. And it just bothers me to this day that I couldn't do it. But when my daughter is able to ride her bike, you better believe that I'll be the one pushing her on that bike.

You're getting that on your resume? I'm putting it on there for sure. And now that my kids know that I can almost beat them in a race now, they're on it. I'm putting that on my resume too. How important is it on your wife's support? What, and what does she do for, for, um, wives that are listening or husbands who are listening, um, who are, have mates that are going through the same journey you are, what's the most important thing your wife does to support you through the journey? Um, acceptance really just knowing that, um, what I'm doing is helping me. And she's like,

knowing that what I'm doing is helping me. And she's like, she's never like, oh, you're going to the gym again, or making sure we carve out time to eat together for one, and then make sure we carve out time for our workouts. I try to make sure I work out in the morning at really early, so it doesn't affect anything my family does. But if I, there's a time that I can't do it, she'll call me at work and say, okay, you didn't work out this morning, you know, would you want to work out at 4 30, maybe on the way home from work, stop by, you get your hour in and come home, or come home, help me with the kids at 5 30, when you bounce out, you can go to the 5 30 class, just little stuff like that is so important that, that wives need to make sure that, you know, you're there. They're there for you. I know my wife is there for me. We've,

we've changed our menu of eating. Um, she has helped me with my gluten intolerance at where she reminds me, like we got wings the other night and she's like, you can't have those. Um, so she orders, uh uh orders me just chicken breast um you know i'm still eating out with her i'm just not eating the shit but she reminds me of that um she doesn't throw it in my face like hey you know uh there's there's a way to do it why not too i was gonna say doesn't she have to be really delicate because like you could almost think like you could take offense to that like she's like you're like you know what i mean by that like like she's trying like she's judging you if you don't work out like could take offense to that. Like, she's like, you're like, you know what I mean by that? Like,

like she's judging you if you don't work out, like if you wanted to take a day off or something. So she, she must know you, she knows how to work it. So you feel good. Yeah. She knows how to work it. And those knows really how to kind of explain things to me. And she's even sat me down and was like, look, when I say stuff to you, it's not to, to, to make you feel bad or this or that. It's to make sure that you know I got you and we're in this together.

So that, you know, that upfront, honest conversation is utmost important. Are you looking at the numbers and seeing – are you looking at the COVID numbers pretty closely? I was at the beginning because I was kind of nervous at the beginning, really, just because this is all new. And I'm looking at Ohio, how many new cases we have, or whatever. Now, I'm not looking as much. But it boggles my mind that they talk a lot about how you get it, or how to wear this protective stuff not to get it. Not once have they said, hey, you know, if you change your diet for three months, you probably won't get it. Or if you stop eating the sugar.

Not that you won't get it, but you won't die from it. You won't die from it. You can still get it, and I can still get it, and that's fine, and we'll fight it off. But not eating the sugar that's feeding the virus, if it's in your system, nobody's ever mentioned that. And it really kind of bugs me that nobody has. But, you know, that's what I take away from it right now is, you know, that they keep telling you how you're going to get it and how you can wear this PPE stuff to avoid it. But not one person said, hey, you know, if you change your

diet for three months stop eating extra sugar you might get it but you're going to get it and fight it at home you're not going to get it fighting the icu by yourself the uh sky news reported today that 95 of the people in the uk who've been hospitalized have underlying conditions and then you look at those underlying conditions and i'd say 99% of them are caused by excessive carbohydrate intake, right? Yes. Yeah. And it is, it is. And then, and then I see another article saying, you know, kids are dying from it. And then you look and the numbers are so minuscule.

It's like, I mean, it's nothing compared to how many kids the flu kills. I mean, not even 1%. And so I'm wondering, I wonder the exact same thing you do, why that white elephant in the room really is the fact that someone just needs to say, hey, you can eat, you can follow the CrossFit prescription, and you can eat lean meats and vegetables, nuts and seeds, little starch, no sugar. And you can make it to the 90 nuts and seeds little starch no sugar um and and you can make it to the 90 yard line with this thing right yeah and uh i guess people don't want to take responsibility they're waiting for a vaccine or they want to be absolved of responsibility um i personally like the fact that we have stoplights that say red

yellow and green i like that kind of government involvement and stop. And I don't mind paying taxes to fix the roads. And I like the local swimming pool. But mandating shots for me or mandating it when I can take control on my own seems a little, right? Someone needs to say it. Someone needs to say, someone needs to step in take responsibility yeah it it falls back on us really and it should just be like okay what risk are you willing to take if you're you don't have any of these conditions or you feel safe go out and do

what you need to do um maybe if you're older or whatever and you don't feel safe stay in have some one of those people that don't feel uh threatened by it to go get whatever you need um but yeah it's it's crazy i saw charles barkley being interviewed on cnn last week by don lemon and someone else and they uh forget the other guy's name but they were trying to get charles barkley to go down one avenue of thinking they're like hey is this systematic racism and he was basically saying hey whether there is systematic racism or not and i believe there is this isn't the time to be really talking about it the time right now is to talk about personal responsibility and what i did is i bought an exercise bike and i'm not drinking during the week i'm only drinking a league and i was like fuck yeah charles yeah you know what i mean like now is the time to give people practical

solutions on how they themselves can take control of their life not to um and i'm all open for the conversation later about maybe some people not having being in food droughts or whatever having unfair conditions but now is the time to be like okay this is what you can do you can do 100 jumping jacks six times a day you can drink water instead of coke like give people the medicine yeah exactly once they give them the medicine the problem is they big farmer doesn't make their money off of healthy people so it's like they don't want to mention that kind of stuff and that's the biggest thing for me um and where i teach and what i do is is i want them to understand we have all the medicine we need if we would just change our lifestyle a little bit. How is your affiliate doing? How is Skyfall doing? Are they going to survive this? I know

this is tough on small businesses. I think they're going to survive it. I think, you know, those of the, those of that can still pay their dues are still paying obviously um we're doing we're doing uh the zoom zoom classes all the time um sometimes we'll meet um just individual like i'm i'm a part of like a dad's group um and we will meet like at the park and do a workout granted we're social distancing all that but you know we're we're staying together as a community i think that's really important um but i think we'll get through it and we'll be on the other side when has anyone asked you what is crossfit oh they have they had a lot of people ask um especially at school uh teachers um they want to know about it just because they see the change in me.

And it's kind of a loaded question. It kind of depends on who I talk to, what I give the answer to. And that, and that's exactly where I was going to with some people, you might tell them it's constantly very functional movement, executed high intensity. Other people, you might be like, dude, it's the church that saved my fucking life. Right? It's kind of like, so give me a little bit. Give me some of the definitions you would give to people. Like, what do you tell your parents?

Do your parents know you're doing it? My parents do know I do it. What do you tell them it is? My mom asks a lot what it is because she's interested in it. And I tell her it is just basic living. It is how you're going to get out of bed every day. It's how you're going to stand up from the chair every day. If you fall, God forbid, it's how you're going to get up.

A lifestyle practice. Yes, it's just how you do life. So actually she started, I told her, hey, you're going to do some squats and then maybe raise your arms above your head. She's like, I can't squat. I was like, can you sit down? Yeah. Can you stand up? Yeah. Okay. We're going to start in your chair, and that's how she started, and she's doing pretty good with it, and it's pretty cool to see that. She doesn't do it every day, but that's kind of how I explained it to her. It's that, and my dad is a avid runner um and I won't

ever be able to get him into it just because he's set in his ways and that's how it's going to go down for him um but uh that's kind of how I explained it to my parents do you think you're going to get your mom into an affiliate I'm going to try to um with her, you can't push her too much one way or another. I got to let her make her own decision. But with my ultimate goal being able to open up something in my district where I teach, I want to get her into that eventually. Because I think she would really like it. Even just finding a class just for her. Um, I'm sure there's people, you know, that are retired that go to different affiliates near her. Um,

but that's my ultimate goal is to get her into one and just see what happens. Earlier. You said that you didn't have, you've been living in your town for 11 years. You didn't have a lot of friends. Does your wife have a lot of friends? Yeah. Um, and and we you know we kind of keep a close circle of who kind of who we let in our circle kind of um so we have a ton of friends back down in Cincinnati we kind of fall on them a lot um but moving on to our street where we live now uh the people are unbelievable in a good way yeah in a great way i mean we had neighbors um one of our neighbors decided to get five um evergreen trees and he went to get them and the rest of the neighbors

dug the five holes even before he got home so we just put them in there and they're done just little stuff like that everybody's all about each other and And you couldn't have helped doing that before you lost the weight. Right. That's the stuff I help with around with people I couldn't do before I lost the weight. It's crazy. I'll take my kids and the neighbor's kids for walks and stuff now. Before that, not a chance. I'd be huffing and puffing.

I was dying. It's amazing the mind shift change um it was like that for me too pre-crossfit i would have never wanted to dig a hole in my life now i can't wait to dig a hole oh yeah i'm ready to do some work ready to get a little movement in right i can do that that's not a problem like when i cut the grass my neighbor's a police officer so sometimes he works nights or whatever i'll cut my grass and then i'll go do that and just treat it as you know like another workout just put in some movement and it's no problem and he's like why'd you do that i'm like why not so just little stuff like that and um how long do you think how long you think you're going to be doing this

no doubt just because how i feel now and I know how I used to feel, I don't want to go back. And I don't want to be that person ever again. I don't want to be that anxiety filled, overweight guy that's on the verge of probably having a heart attack. I don't want to ever be there again. Yeah. And especially knowing that viruses like this are, are preying on people with chronic disease.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And this thing's probably here with us to stay, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's like the flu. It's going to be just like the flu next year. It's here and we can either beat it or we can wait for these government people to make decisions or you can take matters in your own hands and actually get healthy let me ask you this final question it's a loaded self-serving question i apologize for it all right um who do you think that the crossfit l1 is for who should take that i think anybody that is and is in an affiliate or wants to go be just a member in an affiliate needs to take it. It's for everybody. And I didn't think it was for everybody at first.

Even before, you know, I scheduled it and I was, you know, got my, you know, when it was and all that. And I still was like, man, this is just going to be like for, I'm not going to learn anything that's going to help me right away. It's coaching. And it's really not. It really teaches you how to move as an individual. So I think it's for everybody. Everybody that's in CrossFit needs to take it. And what about people who aren't in CrossFit? Like I always, people are always asking me, like, what books should I read to raise my kids the way you raise your kids? People will ask me that. I'll be like, I just do everything I learned in my L one and kind of like, you know, they teach you in the L one that through struggle,

your body goes through adaptation. So I know that I need to let my kids struggle. Right. So that's like one of the things, right. Your kid's lifting his bike into the back of the car and you want to go help. If you think it's safe, let your kid go to war, man. You just kind of have to be like okay yeah here we go don't watch it uh it's it's kind of this operating i see it as this operating manual for the for the human genome like um like how to eat how to move how much to eat, how to move, how much to eat, how much to move. Yeah, absolutely. And I think even some people ask me like,

where did I start with CrossFit or whatever? And, you know, I told him about the L1 and I said, you know, if you're apprehensive about that, you need to just go to CrossFit.com and go to the journal. There's so much information there. And, and when I first started way, way back, I would read all that stuff. And now I go back and reread it, but I reread it in a different way. I got a pen and paper with me and write down important things that I find or I go watch videos and things like that. And I think that's where you need to start as well if you're apprehensive

about that and then learn and then do your L1. You're even in a better spot once you take it. It's online now, too. I don't think anyone can take it. I think you have to have already taken it once to take the online course because, obviously, a lot of the magic is, you know, as I've seen in the video that we made of you and I've taken that one, they put their hands on you, right? Yes. Yeah, that's the most important. I think taking it online is a great thing if you took it once already, but the magic happens once you're there. The trainers there, the people around you there,

it's an experience that you just have to go and see and feel for yourself because the trainers, they're unbelievable and i talk like pablo i talked to him um you know i messaged him on instagram and he's going to get me into uh one of his zoom uh uh workouts and stuff like that um andrew i talked to him a lot and his wife jen um i talked to her about just different ideas for for for when I want to do the CrossFit kids things with my kids at school. They're just accessible. And, and you want to think that walking in, you know, you're like, okay, these guys are going to teach and that's all they're going to do.

And that is far from the truth. You can ask them anything and everything and they're there to help you. And being there, I think is, is of utmost importance. I know I said, I was going to ask you one last question, but here's one here. This really is the last question. What's one thing that's changed in your life that you didn't expect to change since you started doing CrossFit? My mindset, my, the,

where my mind is and where my thought process is and everything I do, um, has changed a lot. It used to be, how can I prevent what's going to happen? Um, now it's, how can I go make something happen? Um, I used to be so scared of like, Oh shit, what's going to happen if I go do this or that, or am I going to get hurt if I go, uh, try to cut down this tree, uh, you know, and stuff like that. Now I'm like, let's go cut down this tree and see what happens. Things like that. It's the biggest mind shift I've ever been a part of, and it's still evolving. And it's really neat to see, you know, kind of how it used to be compared to now. I'm not as nervous as I used to be or think like what's going to

happen. I want to make it happen. That's funny you say that. I remember once I started doing CrossFit, there would be things like, there would be like a fence somewhere before I would go around it. And I remember when I started CrossFit, I'm like, I'll just climb over it. Exactly. Like I just felt like a little kid again, like I have whatever. Exactly. The challenges that we have now, I want to face head on. I don't want to, you know, I don't want to scoot around it

or I don't want to get help. I just want to go for it and then see what happens. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. It's not a problem, man. I loved it. Yeah. My third podcast back, you were one of the easiest guests I've ever had,

ever of the 100 or so podcasts I'd done in the past. Awesome, man. I appreciate it, man. Everything you've done for me is, like I said in the message I sent you, I can't explain it. You know, I'm in debt to you, man. I really appreciate it.

Awesome. Well, I will see you on Instagram and I will follow up with you in like six months here. Sounds like a plan, man. I appreciate you. All right, brother. Thank you for everything. No thank you see you bye later