The Sevan Podcast - #403 - Coach Zach, 120 LB Weight Loss

Episode Date: May 18, 2022

Zach is a fitness trainer. Joining us on the show to talk about his journey towards losing 120 lbs. Sign up for our email: https://thesevanpodcast.com/ ------------------------- Partners: https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://thesevanpodcast.com/ - OUR WEBSITE https://sogosnacks.com/ - SAVE15 coupon code - the snacks my kids eat - tell them Sevan sent you! https://www.hybridathletics.com/produ... - THE BARBELL BRUSH https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS https://usekilo.com - OUR WEBSITE PROVIDER ------------------------- #TheSevanPodcast #CrossFitGames #CrossFit Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Amazing and you sound amazing. Bam, we're live. Appreciate that. There it is. Dude dude thanks for coming on oh hey let me change your i'm gonna change your name here to um say it again that's my first mistake i'm a listener i definitely should have put my ig name on there i knew i should have known you do this drifting and lifting lifting yep Yeah. Simple and catchy. And then I'll do, I'll just space it out.

See if that does it. Yeah, that looks perfect. What's up, Zach? Hey, why drifting and lifting is drifting. Isn't that what cars do? Yeah, a little bit, but it's also, I guess a little bit of a, like just traveling around roaming around, um, you know, especially when I was a do? Yeah, a little bit, but it's also, I guess, a little bit of a, like just traveling around, roaming around, um, you know, especially when I was a little bit younger, a little bit of a adventure, still love to, you know, do stuff, experience stuff.

Me and my girlfriend just moved up to Colorado from Texas about a little over a year ago, for instance. So we definitely like to, you know, have fun and, you know, experience different places and things. And so I think I did a lot of that when I was young, too. Basically, you mean just like being a pickup truck, drive around little cities, sleep in the back of the truck, hike trails, camp, just do whatever. You lived that life? That's it. That's it.

Not so much, not as a, you know, not the full van life or full RV life, you know, full time. full van life or full RV life, um, you know, full time, but you know, taking little trips like that, went on a, like a three week backpacking trip over to Europe back in my twenties,

that type of stuff. Oh, that's cool. Um, I, I, I had a, a Toyota pickup truck and,

uh, kind of a weird story. It, it actually got, um, uh, towed away. And when it got towed away,

I, the police never called me to tell me it had been towed away and so it was it was a fucking mess no no sorry it was stolen i reported it stolen then it was found and they never told me it was found and so by the time i looked into it to see that it was found i couldn't afford to get it out of the you know graveyard you know what i mean like yeah the value it was going to be like thousands of dollars to get it out of the, you know, graveyard. You know what I mean? Like the value, it was going to be like thousands of dollars to get it out, but it was only worth a thousand bucks. It kind of sucks. It was like my first car ever. But did they, was it, was it more because it had been there for so long? Yeah. Yeah. But it was their fault. It was fucking insane. But, but either way,

I lived in the back of that. I went all over the United States in the back of that truck and it was awesome. And I had a dog and I would just go places and just sleep in the back of my truck. of that truck and it was awesome and i had a dog and i would just go places and just sleep in the back of my truck yeah it's cool it was a good life man if you if you how old are you uh 32 yeah if you're if you're in your late teens or your 20s and you never just fucking get out and hit the road man you're missing out especially especially in this country it's we're so stoked that we have all these road networks and cool towns and all this shit yeah travel so travel so easy i mean you know you can just pick up and go i mean i guess gas prices are a little more these days but

you know it's you could do it it's still not bad right it's still not bad you could do it i had a can opener and i just ate like canned food i just ate i remember just eating a lot of like canned garbanzo beans and just shit like that yeah right you know know hey it was a good ass life why did you move why did you move to texas from texas we raised in texas grew up in texas okay moved to colorado the denver area okay um but honestly kind of what we were talking about just uh something new um been in texas living there for you know pretty much all my life. Went to college, you know, from Dallas to the North Texas area, went to college in Central Texas, in San Marcos. But, you know, it just both kind of, the pandemic helped a lot, you know, kind of being stuck inside and like, what are we doing here? Is this where we want to be? Do we want to, we had always kind

of joked about moving and then those jokes just every day got one percent more serious until we were talking about getting new jobs and moving and your girlfriend sounds cool it's cool to have a mate that's like just up for that right and you know we had talked before we both kind of always wanted we were both raised in texas and always wanted to live elsewhere she went to college up in oklah So got that experience too, but it was always kind of a traveler before we started dating, um, as well. And so, you know, when you have a partner, it's even easier sometimes being on your own is a little bit scary for people, especially if you've never done it. Once you do it, you get more used to it and more comfortable. I'm sure as you know, but it's, it's, uh, with, with a mate, you know, with especially your best friend, it's, it's fun's fun. What kind of car do you have?

Kia Sorento, a little small SUV. Reliable? Yeah. That's all you need. Yeah. I mean, better gas mileage. I used to have kind of a lifted Toyota Tundra with the bigger tires and the blacked out rims. Again, what I call my dream car.

I had that. But this is a little cheaper, a little more efficient gas-wise. Yeah, it's the one you hang out with your lady and travel around the country. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So you saw the episode after I went to Disneyland. Yeah, that was what made me reach out to you because it was interesting hearing your perspective on things.

And, you know, I mean, I'm sure that place is even more than most places. But I think a lot of people kind of relate to what you're saying, just going around kind of seeing the size of people these days. Give me one second. Something happened with your audio all of a sudden. All of a sudden, it's like popping and crackling. Are you just talking into a computer? No, I'm using my phone. Will you just hang up and log back in for a second uh yes

yeah someone yeah and someone's right his audio is messed up or that's my headphones no no something went sideways with the audio we'll have him we'll have him log out and come back in that was a weird crackling right it seemed like he was he was even using like airpods or something good morning cory eric heidi cory cory eric cory cory bruce that's a lot of corys listening to the show cory pulido pulido and cory leonard uh sam good morning we'll see all right how's that sound oh much better perfect okay yeah thank you much much much much better okay so you saw the episode and then and what were you thinking yeah i mean i just you know i've i thought that what you were

saying was was true one of the things love about your show is just how real you are with it but i think it was real relatable like i'm sure disneyland is a bit more personified than some places but i think a lot of people just walking around everyday life see the size of people these days and how there's a lot of very, you know, there's no shame being, you know, slightly overweight. You need to lose 10 pounds versus you need to lose 100 pounds. Just the people in carts.

I seriously think the more and more distance I get from Disneyland, I'm realizing that, so I used to go to A's games, the Oakland Athletics games in high school or with my friends, and we'd sit in the bleachers, and we did that to drink alcohol. At least I did. I didn't go. I went there to drink beer, right? And I think that people go to Disneyland to eat sugar. I don't – I seriously don't think it's and I think it's just an excuse. It's like when I used to smoke cigarettes, all I would do was move from point to point smoking.

So I'd be like, OK, I'm going to go to work now and then I'm going to I couldn't wait to take my break so I could be in the back with the smokers. I'm going to go to this coffee shop so I can smoke. I think that you reach a size of a certain size of a human being, let's say a 400 pound human being. And your life has you become like a hummingbird. Ironically, you have to move from point to point consuming sugar. I'm guessing no one's ever told me that, but I'm guessing. Man, you are right from a from a guy that was I'm a big guy. So I'm about 220 230 pounds, depending on, you know, how healthy I'm being at the time. But I used to be about the highest

number I ever saw on a scale was 341 pounds. I think I was bigger than being at the time. But I used to be about the highest number I ever saw on a scale was 341 pounds. I think I was bigger than that at one point, but I just say that because that's the number I saw. But from somebody who was that big and my life was kind of like that, you're a bit of an addict and people kind of throw that term around, but being a food addict is real. And you mentioned kind of going from point to, but being a food addict is real. And you mentioned, you know, kind of going from point to point to point. And, you know, you always hear people talk about, you know, like you mentioned, you're planning your next cigarette. I'm going to have a cigarette here. I'm going to sit here. I'm going to do a cigarette. There are people that wake up

and their first thought is, all right, what am I going to eat? What am I going to, and then before they go to bed, you know, what's the food for the next day. And I think there's a lot of people that they could, you know, do without thinking about food for a bit. You know, it's just, it's, but it's hard. You're an addict. You're addicted. It's hard. Yeah. And you know, you're driving home and it's like, what am I going to have for dinner? Oh, there's the taco bell. Okay. I'll just, I'll just have one taco. And then you go through the drive-thru and you're like what am i gonna have for dinner oh there's the taco bell okay i'll just i'll just have one taco and then you go to the drive-thru and you're like fuck it you order six and a coke

yeah yeah three tacos three quesadillas hey do you think it's a weird thing to talk about um i i had some friends who they weren't upset with me, but I hurt their feelings. And I never want to hurt – I'm never like, hey, I want to hurt someone's feelings. And if I do, something's wrong with me. Like when I get to that point where I'm trying to hurt people's feelings, it's like, okay, that's not a good place to be. It's one thing to say something that hurts someone. It's like, hey, that's not a good place to be. It's it's one thing to say something that hurts someone. It's like, hey, that's just the way it is. But but. Now, I think I think what you're I think what you're getting at is true, and it's it's hard to have those conversations, and that's part of the problem.

There's the real information is not being put out there because if it is, it's usually coming from maybe a bit of a bootcamp style, a bit of a, you know, militant, you know, you know, you got to do this. You're not from a place of positivity. Hey, let's have an open, honest discussion about it. And that's kind of where I try to like, you know, come in. And one of the things I really try to do is, is have that from a, from a, you know, place of positivity and not ever trying to shame. Unfortunately, sometimes feelings get hurt, but if you're being truthful and real, then that's not your problem, that's theirs. And this is the part, this is the non,

I was talking with someone about this the other day, this is what we're competing with in terms of what to put in your mouth, right? You have one of the most beautiful epic human beings alive i'm pushing um uh this as a substance to put in your body and you even think the olympics which are supposed to be the pinnacle of human performance and health they're basically funded by the, by the chemicals that are, that, that I would argue appear to be the,

at the source of the collapse of humanity. Oh yeah. I mean, and so it's a trip, right? It's crazy. And you, and you, I mean, it's a, it's a bold statement where you just made, but it's true. You can trace so many things. If you trace it all the way back, not just, you know, immediate short term type stuff like look at it all the way through. Diet, sugar, hormone imbalances are an issue for a lot of people in this country. I mean, the world, you know, let's be honest.

This country is is in abundance, though, and that's a big issue is abundance. Is in abundance, though, and that's a big issue is abundance. You have to – it would seem like you could easily argue that someone who weighs 400 pounds is consuming 10x what someone who's 150 pounds. And why I say that is just your clothes, the amount you eat, the fuel it takes, the medical resources. You just go down the line, and you're like – and then I would also argue, and this is where it's like i don't hurt anyone feeling hurt anyone's feelings you would also argue that your contribution is is significantly less yeah and and your negative contribution so that's the other thing that i don't think and that's why i like having people like you on you are in my mind the modern day hero because i i and i've said this a million times i think we're just mirrors here i don't really think that and we're parading around as savvan and Zach, and we try to have a little bit

of our own identity, but I don't really think that's what's going on. I think we're just mirrors and we reflect each other and we're constantly telling each other what's okay and what's not okay. So when I walk down the street with a cigarette and a Coke and I'm a hundred pounds overweight, I'm telling everyone around me that that's okay. That's what you want to – I think at our deepest level, we want to reflect back to people what they're showing us. And so when someone like you, your narrative changes that you went from unhealthy to healthy, I think everyone around you gets that spark. I hope so. I mean, I'm trying to put out there that's that's that's the plan that's

part of my purpose I feel like for sure and uh oh uh oh we got the audio issue again damn not again

oh no try one more time logging out and then I'll get you back on track when you come back in alright okay funnel cakes

you guys are talking about funnel cakes I don't even know what a funnel cake is but you're you're Bruce you're banned. I just banned Bruce Wayne forever. I said, he's gone. He'll never post again. Last time I went to Disney world, the best ride was, I don't know that ride. I went on six rides,

paid a thousand bucks for my family to get in there. We got, we got six rides. So, so you, so we were just talking about basically being a role model, an example for people around you. Yeah. And it wasn't the plan originally. It was like to get healthy for myself, but I saw what it did for other people. People started – after college, I went into the mortgage industry for a while. I kind of did home refinance loans, worked in a bit of a call center, which,

you know, isn't the healthiest environment, but led to a lot of weight gain, but got into, when I got into fit, you know, kind of got into fitness for myself is when I got into fitness back again as a profession. And, you know, being able to see, you know, like you mentioned being people coming up to me, hey, this is amazing. How did you do it? And I'm like, it's not that hard. But the things that I thought was simple and, for lack of a better word, obvious, it was not obvious. It's not prevalent.

The information is not out there. So I love using it as a platform to talk to people, you know, my story you know, my story, my, my pictures, the transformation stuff can bring them in, but talking to people about their lifestyle and what are the things that are going to lead to that very unhealthy place and how you can get from there. Cause you know, there's, there's so much information out there and it's, it's hard to decipher what's, what works, what doesn't. Everyone's different. And then sometimes people get caught up too much in the details of things. That's for sure.

Can you give me an example of something that you and I might think is obvious because of the path we're on, but that's not obvious for a lot of people? Yeah. And these are things that I, before, was horrible about. But it's things that you learn and it's like um people people you could miss a meal it's okay you're not going to die i promise you you're you're not even going to be unhealthy you might actually be healthier if you just i mean it's okay people think when they as soon as they wake up they gotta eat uh breakfast most important meal of the day i mean you know maybe if you got a heavy training session in a bit, but for most people and people we're talking about, that's not the case. Right.

That's so interesting. You're right. I remember when I thought that it was OK to eat bread, like that just bread was like an important kid. And then one day in high school, one of my buddies who was in great shape is like, hey, dude, why do you eat all that bread? I'm like, what do you mean? He goes, it's a waste. And like, and he, that's just how he explained it to me. You know, that's like 17 year old boy to 17 year old boy talk. It's a waste. And I was like, wow, my homeboy just told me bread's a waste. And so, yeah. And now you're right. Missing a meal. I would never ever be concerned about missing a meal. But you think that a large amount of people are like, holy shit.

Like at three o'clock, they're like, what am I going to have for dinner? Yeah. And I mean, the bread's a great one, too. When people build their plate, the first thing they start with is the carb source and build it out from there. The majority of these people we're talking about. And I mean, I'm a big fan of the liver king and Paul Saladino. And I mean, you know, I'm a big fan of the liver king and Paul Saladino. And, you know, I believe your, you know, your protein should be the center of your plate. Build it out from there, depending on your, you know, activity level, things like that, what you need to support your life.

But most people, they look for, is it going to be a pasta is it going to be a bread is it going to be a what's what am i building around this car which car am i building around that's for sure a big one that people i think have wrong um do you this journey that you're that you're on did so i'm guessing you used to think that too yeah you got to have bread if you don't have like bread's a source of life right yeah and people you know even you know because i i always worked out you know i was an athlete growing up and it's always lifted when i got real heavy i was really into like strongman and stuff like that and it was just kind of an excuse to eat whatever i wanted really um let my addiction run wild but

um it was the you know especially if you're training and stuff, you think, oh, you know, I need carbs. I need carbs. And yes, to an extent, but you don't need that many carbs, especially if you are if your goal is to reduce body fat and you're carrying excess body fat. I mean, basically, we're a fire, right? We're continuing to burn. You have a lot of gas stored up in your body if you never you know put if you never run through that if you're always just putting more and more in it's either going to store or just stay stored you're never going

to burn the excess fuel that's on your body you need to use that as fuel instead of the carb source um when you were so when you were a kid you weren't overweight oh no i was always heavy i was always a big kid just grew up big um i always joke i was real real like tall uh younger kid um i was like 5 10 in the fifth grade wow yeah i was like 5 10 never yeah and i'm like six foot now so i've grown two inches in 20 years so you know things things that slowed down i didn't quite make the nba but um i was always a big guy you know i was a little thinner when i was younger because i was tall and then kind of started filling out a bit played sports though so depending on the season you know you kind of get

a little better shape and stuff like that and then then, and then did you, were you, did you have insecurities about it as a kid? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And you got teased about it and you learned to, you know, you learn to be the funny fat guy, you know, and I think one year in high school, I won like best sense of humor or something like that. And it was just, you're always cracking jokes because you, you know, you got to try to, you think you're, nobody's going to like me for the way I look. So I have to, that's the personality has got to win them over, you know? Were you ashamed? Like you didn't want to take your shirt off at swim parties and shit like

that. Like if it's ever went to the beach, you'd be like hiding and. Yeah. Never wanted to take the shirt off, but I also was like, I knew the white shirt was like a highlighter, you know, if you don't want somebody to read a word, don't highlight it. Oh, sorry. You're cracked. Will you log off and log back in again? Sorry.

It's okay. Don't worry. Don't worry. I've accepted that that's the way the show is going to be. Protein is my favorite. I know. Wasn't that video funny? The food pyramid is upside down.

Did you see that? That South Park episode? How funny was that? Do the schools teach nutrition anymore? Food pyramid? I'm sure they teach some sort of crazy bullshit. Oh, you think that's what it is? You think it's because you think it's because he doesn't have headphones? I don't know. I don't think so. I've had lots of people who don't have headphones. hmm i don't know i don't think so i've had lots of people who don't have headphones trying do you have headphones do you have airpods i do but they're kind of old and i've heard that like when i call people on the phone they don't sound very good i can try okay nah fuck it okay yeah all right yeah no you're good um where are we at so so you're in you're you're you're young man you're growing up and you're heavy so it it's always in mind. You know, it's weird too. Now, like I'll go places and I will be sitting down somewhere and like 30 kids will come in like a classroom full of kids and there'll be eighth graders.

They'll all, they'll all be obese. Yeah. Right. That's like every single one. And I'll be like, wow. So I guess in the chick who's like 30 pounds overweight,

it's now the skinny one. Yeah. Yeah. Thick with two C's. Yes. And, and, andick with two Cs. Yes. Right. And so then I start to think, I wonder if it's those kids all have – because I was like that too. And I wasn't even – I wasn't big or anything, but I just didn't look like the other kids.

So I just – I didn't – and so I just didn't want to ever – I was like always kind of Heidi. Yeah. I wonder if it's like that for them. Yeah. I think everybody grows up with insecurities no matter what it is. Right. Oh, I don't like my hair. I don't like my nose.

I don't like, I'm too small. I'm too big. Right. Whatever. Right. But, you know, I think one of, one of those things is very unhealthy. The other thing. And fixable.

My nose isn't fixable. My height's not fixable, but I can address my weight. That's so true. A great point. Yes, absolutely. And my body composition. Yeah, right. I mean.

The shape of it. Right, correct. I mean, there are things you can do, you know, besides surgeries or anything like that. There are things that you can do, but they require work. And that sometimes scares people off too. There was a, there was a kid in my junior high who had lats. He was on the swim team. And I remember thinking, oh, I want those. And I worked to get them. In 49 years or whatever, 40 years later, I have lats, but. But you got to work to get them.

You can get them, but you got to just work to get them. A lot of lat pull-downs, then pull-ups, and then rows, and the whole shebang. Yeah. Five, six years ago, I couldn't do one bodyweight pull-up. Now I'm up to eight. I'm trying to get to 10. I'm trying to. And when you – so you go through high school and um you graduate and how much do you

weigh when you graduate do you remember i was about i was about 250 260 you know i was an i was an offensive lineman on the football team so you know i was uh i was one of the big guys and you know they encourage you to be big at that point they're not they're not trying to say oh this might not be the healthiest it's now you gotta you know be big and strong and but yeah about 250 265 i lost a little bit of weight in college you know just trying to get in shape you know girls um yeah yeah i know um and then and then after college is really when the weight gain started i probably that's probably about two 235 240 maybe 230 about my lowest you know kind of about what i am now but far different composition gain started i probably that's probably about two two thirty five two forty maybe two thirty about my lowest you know kind of about what i am now but far different composition as you mentioned

um but and then from there it was a pretty much steady gain all the way up to about 340 350 over the course of a few years drink beer smoke weed repeat yeah not as not as much of the weed at that time um you know wasn't living in colorado at that point but right um you know it's uh it would definitely drink drink and eat you know it was wake up eat was you know start from the beginning right as a as an addict as a you know largely overweight person you wake up and you got to think about food so you wake up eat go through your day thinking about what you're going to have for lunch, eat, go through the rest of your day, think about what you're going to have for dinner.

I mean, I've worked out, you know, in between, like I said, I was kind of doing the strongman training and I liked it because I could eat whatever I wanted. I wasn't trying to be on stage bodybuilding. What would you eat first thing in the morning? Usually, I've always liked eggs. Now, you know, so for instance,

this is a good comparison, right? Because back then it was eggs plus hash browns or toast with peanut butter all over it. Usually a piece of fruit and, you know, maybe some bacon or sausage mixed in with the eggs. Probably about like five to six eggs. Whereas nowadays it's four eggs with some sprinkled cheese and some sprinkled bacon bits and no and no and no bread no hash browns no i got i don't need i don't need uh carbs you know at that time of the day right and so you know and i usually don't actually eat till about like 11 or noon i kind of intermittent fast a bit but uh so and it that kind of actually was one thing that helped me because it it trained my mind to not always think about food um when i i had a friend come into town and was visiting and we started i started going out to breakfast with them every single morning

and i probably hadn't had pancakes in two years like or anything like that and four days in a row this is a few months ago and four days in a row i had pancakes with syrup yeah probably the most carbs i had in those four days in a row, I had pancakes with syrup. Probably the most carbs I had in those four days than I probably had in the previous four months. I don't know if it was water retention or what, but I put on 15 pounds in four days. Yeah. I'm not a big dude. I'm a little dude. It was crazy. Your body will do some crazy things right away when you change one way or the other.

And, you know, even if you start to kind of get healthy, that's the thing that scares, you know, kind of tricks people too is your body might not feel right right away. If you do cut out all the toxins and poisons that you're putting in your body currently or vice versa, you know, you add, you add them right away. I mean, it's basically what you put in your body was, in a way, poison to your body. Yeah. Do you have those AirPods next to you? Fuck it.

Let's try them. Let me go grab them. I'll be right back. Okay, let's see. Let's see. Let's try them. I wonder what that is. His phone sounds good for a long time, and then all of a sudden it goes sideways.

Colin, you're alive. He is alive. He's alive. He's too busy in my dms to be to do the show anymore i saw that new high school graduation requirements finance and nutrition well i saw in florida that they had the uh financial literacy as a now part of the requirement for the state of florida which go figure that's better than uh how about those kids that are i don't know i i still can't believe it's a true story but i think i saw it on msn uh those kids who are getting in trouble for using this they're getting charged for

sexual harassment for using the wrong pronoun that's fucking nuts is that real i don't know i mean i've seen the article now twice i saw it it on MSN. I need to look more into it, but fuck it's bizarre. Do I sound better? No. You're just had a log out and log back in again. Thank you for trying that though. It's not,

we're just keeping it every 10 minutes. Right. Hey, there we go. Trying to get someone to send his kids to public school. Not in this lifetime. Not in this lifetime. I know. Hey, how about. What if those kids are being charged with sexual harassment? For using the wrong pronoun, can you imagine you send your kids to school?

And they get a sexual harassment charge? Someone calls them a fat piece of shit and that's okay. They just get, hey, don't do that. But they use the wrong pronoun and you get fucking the police there. What a mess. My kids can't be even, I wouldn't even put my kids in that environment. All right, we got 10 minutes before and it's it

and it's a joke until it's your kids okay so um so then you so you put on this weight and did you have some sort of um uh scare or something what what made you like take control of your life yeah so 100 so i was training training strong man and actually was competing in strong man um and this is down in Texas still. Correct. Yes. Okay. Uh, yes.

And the land of beef and heavyweights. Yep. But, um, yeah, so actually was doing a real heavy yoke carry and, and messed up. My back was already having some pain, um, before and, and really injured my injured my back. Um, and it was a pretty pretty bad took like six weeks of recovery um you know to be able to kind of like move you know freely um it took about six weeks did you break did you did you damage a vertebra yes l5s1 was like the major one you know the the lowest one

and it was my you know it really pinched off the sciatic nerve. Okay. It didn't break though. Uh, it, it, yes, it did. It's slightly fracture. They had to repair it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And so kind of laid up. Um, I had just started at a new company. As I mentioned, I was a mortgage banker and they fired me cause I was in within my first 90 days. I was going to miss so much time. And so, you know, real nice thing, but it is what it is. And so then you got even more, you got a little depressed. Yeah. Oh, for sure. I mean, I, I had to, I lived, I used to live on my own in an apartment in a nice part of town. Um, and you know, kind of shops and bars all around.

And then I had to, I had to break my lease and move back in with my mom because I mean, you know, thank God for her. Uh, I couldn't, I couldn't, you know, operate. Um, and so, but you know, thank God for her. I couldn't, I couldn't, you know, operate. And so, but, you know, long story short, kind of started, you know, during the healing process. Well, it was during the laid up process, in all honesty, is when you start thinking about your life in a way. Not solitary confinement, but in a way, if you're confined to your bed, and all you have is Netflix, I mean, the office gets old quick. So just thinking about life, didn't really want to be in the mortgage industry anymore. I tried to go to this new company to find a new beginning, but really didn't like it. And my initial, my degree and major in college

was kinesiology, kinesiology and exercise science no shit wow i always loved working out the dietary habits the horrible part um how much weight did you put on um while you after you uh broke your back so here's the here's a good one here's a here's a great one you kind of talking about a common misconception. When I, when I broke my back, I was about three 40 to three 50 in six weeks, I got down to two 95 by laying in bed because I wasn't eating. And why weren't you eating? Were you just popping Vicodins and basically, uh, you know, try to get for a little bit and, and, you know, I couldn't go, I couldn't walk to the kitchen. Um, my mom was at work. Um, so, you know, I would have one meal a day and usually it was a big meal, whether it be a big Caniac combo from raising Cain's chicken or something like

that. But that wasn't conscious. That was like, Hey, my back's broken. I'm stuck in bed and I can't like every time I have a, I don't have a thought I don't like, I can just go to the kitchen and like throw down a Coke. Exactly. And I was throwing jelly. OK.

I was thrown into the deep end of rehab. Right. I was. Yeah. Detoxed. You know, you you learn that you don't have to have a meal. I'm fine. OK.

You learn that it's not all about the food you learn. You're lucky. Yeah. Lucky it happened like that. You're lucky it's not all about the food. You learn. You're lucky. Yeah. Lucky it happened like that. You're lucky someone there wasn't there. I think that there's people who are in that situation and someone's just bringing them like boxes of donuts. Yeah.

You know, for sure. And, you know, I, I basically got forced into trial intermittent fasting because I ate one meal a day. Um, and it was, it was probably a two to 3000 calorie meal. I'm being honest, but my, my dietary habits before closer to 5,000 to 6,000 calories a day. Yeah, you were having three of those meals. Correct. At least.

Right. With snacks. Yeah. That's another thing. Snacks. Okay. So you dropped down to 295. And are you aware that this transformation is happening?

And are you kind of enjoying it? You're like, well, I'm fucking laid up, but I just lost 50 pounds. Yeah, not right away. But I mean, it was like, I mean, over six weeks losing 50 pounds. You, yeah, I mean, I noticed it for sure, especially as I was able to kind of get up and go to the bathroom, get in front of the mirror again. You're like, oh, you know, I definitely felt softer because I wasn't lifting weights or anything.

You know, it's like your shoulders, my shoulders and arms are smaller, but my gut was far smaller too. Your body temperature was changing too, right? Like I had a friend who would get a, he would get all juiced up on roids and he, and he was a six, he was six, two, he's a little taller than you, but he says, anytime you go over 300 pounds, everything fucking changes. He says, you have to have a fan on you at all times. He says, you can't be in still air.

Yeah, I mean. I'm like, really? He goes, yeah, you have to have a fan on you. Yeah, especially being down in Texas. I mean, you know, it would be, I, but even, I mean, I would go outside in shorts and a t-shirt and start armpit sweating and 40 degree weather, you know? Yeah, just walking around. You bend over to tie your shoes and coming in that effort and coming up breaks the sweat even air conditioning wow okay because

it's always like i mean if you're if you're if you're a 200 pound man excuse me healthy and you weigh 350 pounds that means you're carrying five bags of uh 50 pound dog or whatever three bags of 50 pound dog food at all times. Like two 75 pound sandbags, one on each shoulder. Yeah. Great. Okay. Sorry.

You got to log off and log back in again. Damn. It's okay. And he's back. What are we? Every five minutes we're going to do this. The noise is Amazon. Listen in.

Maybe, maybe it is. I like that. It's Alexa. Alexa. We'll ask him. Let's test that theory. It's Alexa. Alexa. We'll ask him. Let's test that theory. Let's test that theory. Hey, Zach, do you have an Alexa in the room? No. Oh, okay. It was just a weak theory by one of the listeners. They said it's Alexa listening in.

I have one, but it's not in this room. I had to think. Okay. But no, it's not in this room. Yeah had to think, but no, it's not in this room. Yeah. Ignore, ignore him. That guy's known to be crazy. Okay. No, I love the comments. I'm trying not to read them while I'm on, while I'm on it, you know, because I'm, then I get nervous and overthink things. Yes. It's, it's tough not to read the comments. Okay. So, so you, um, so you lost that weight and then, and did that set a spark? Yeah, no, for sure. And like I mentioned before, I always kind of had a passion for like strength training, um, in a way, or, or, you know, what I like to call working out, um, definitely not, you know, the, the nutrition aspect of things at that

time as much, but always had a passion for working out and wanted to, you know, be a strength conditioning coach, personal trainer type when I was in college and, and even in high school. Um, so kind of wanted to go back down that path. But like you mentioned, kind of seeing the results and seeing things, it definitely gave me a spark. It definitely got me to, you know, want to continue to, hey, what's going on here? Why is this happening? How could this happen? This is not what I've been told is supposed to work.

You know, I'm skipping meals. That was, that would slow my metabolism down. I would, I would actually end up gaining weight if I skip meals. You think you hear things like that. And it's, you know, you, when you're forced into things that work, which is, you know, a caloric deficit, my, my activity levels at that time were not high. My calorie consumption did not need to be high, even though, you know, it actually kind of was. But, you know, even laying down, you have a, you have a basal metabolic rate, your body burns calories, being alive, being awake. I wasn't moving, but my body was probably still burning. I mean, over what I was consuming,

But my body was still burning, I mean, over what I was consuming because I was losing weight. And then – so your back is basically broken. You're stuck in bed for six weeks. You lose 50 pounds. And then what happens? What are the first movements you start doing? Like how do you start – what happens? How old were you then?

How long ago was this? It was about six years ago. What happened? How old were you then? How long ago is this? It was about six years ago. And one of the things you said to me that I really liked when we were texting back and forth is not only did you lose 120 pounds, but you've kept it off for four years. Yep. I mean, my weight's always fluctuated throughout my whole life. And as I mentioned, you know, just, you know, I could gain and lose 20 to 30 pounds depending on whatever in a few months. It was just I'm one of those type of people. Some people are hard gainers or, or things like that, but that was no problem for me. I could, but it's the keeping it off is the hard part.

People go on crash diets all the time, but they don't change their lifestyle. Right. And so that's, you know, you have to make there, you have to make sustainable changes. That's a good word I like to use, sustainable changes, because a cayenne pepper and lemon-infused water for four meals a day, you can't do that forever. So, yes, you're going to lose weight initially, but as soon as you go back to Krispy Kremes for breakfast and thinking about what you're going to have for lunch and dinner throughout the whole day, nothing changed. You're, you're going to go back to where you were. It's interesting you say that because, so I don't eat on, on Saturday nights, I stop eating and I don't eat again until Monday morning. And people ask me if they should do it. And I don't think for most people that's sustainable. No, but they could start small.

no but they could start small yeah totally they could start small but if you if you have a um if you if you have a uh i don't know i i just think that's something like it works well for me i'm 50 years old and my life's pretty chill right i mean i have three little boys so it's crazy like that but i don't um i like your activity and your workouts are probably planned differently on Sunday versus Wednesday when you've got goals in you throughout the week. And you have to be, you know, if you have a fan and it gets weird, right? You go to a wedding, you're not eating. Family comes over, you're not eating. You have to have you have to be ready for things that you don't think that are going to be big deals will become big deals, not just for you, but for other people. What do you think for someone who is, and I don't even think it's, I think that there's

a huge percentage of people who are a hundred pounds overweight now, like monstrous. What would you say is the very first thing someone like that should do? Also, another thing is, although we know changing your diet is more powerful, I suspect I have no proof of this, that if you start moving first, you will then make the changes to make moving easier. So like when I started CrossFit, I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. And then at some point I was like,

fuck, this is this, like I have to choose. Yeah. These are working together. That's for sure. And movement. And it adds,

it adds twofold, right? Cause you have, you have, now you're adding in burned calories. Even the simplest of movements, a walk, especially with somebody 100 pounds overweight. Right. Especially with somebody who's carrying what we talked about, the imaginary sandbags on their shoulders. Even a walk is going to burn plenty of calories. Plus, your body will adapt.

Adaptation is what occurs. So not just the actual science of calories in versus calories out, but your body says, if I'm going to walk 10 minutes every day, all of a sudden, I got to be less weight. I got to be more fleet of foot. All right. The body knows. The body will adapt. Now, it's not an overnight process right but stimulus causes adaptation that's exercise science and that's kind of one of the

things for sure but that's one of the things i try not to dive too deep into i try to keep it pretty simple and not use big terms because as you mentioned the question we mentioned first was somebody who's 100 pounds overweight where would you start and that's a great question there's a few things you definitely got to see what's going on because every person's different so what is going on in your life what are your lifestyle habits what's your dietary habits activity habits all that but there are a few key things that we can just start right away first thing quit drinking any calories. Just stop. It's empty, wasted calories. Most people, even if they think they're eating healthy, if you drink six sodas in a day, well, now you've added 1,500 calories. So your 1,500 or 2,000

calorie day just became 3,000. And what do you think about diet soda? 3000. And what do you think about diet soda? I mean, it depends. I really try to preach health and fitness as well as just, you know, what your body looks like in the mirror. But at the end of the day, they are zero calories. So they're not going to add much in the way it's better. It's better. And that's the thing that some people confuse, right? They think healthy versus healthier. No, no, no. Diet sodas are not healthy. Right.

But they are healthier than a real soda. Yeah. If you would have told me 30 years ago that I would never drink soda, I wouldn't believe you. But I never drink soda. I never even think of soda. The only thing I drink is water or alcohol if it's that time. And it says – it's so – I would think it's so easy to quit drinking soda too if you just switch to sparkling water. That's a great one. Because you get that same burn sensation.

Yeah, the fizz. Yeah, people like that. Another trippy thing is I always thought that I drank coffee for the caffeine, right? That was the drug I would chase. And when I made the series Killing the Fat Man for CrossFit and I had Gary Roberts on there, he liked coffee because of creamer. And that shit is fucking Satan. Yeah, people think, oh, we're getting back into liquid calories, liquid drink. And I mentioned the Kansas soda, but a Starbucks whatever. mentioned the cans of soda, but you know, a Starbucks, whatever, Frappuccino.

What's a cans of soda? What's that? Cans of soda. Oh, cans of soda. Oh, cans, cans. Okay. If I said cans of soda, I thought that was like when you, when you open a Coke and then put in another five tablespoons of sugar. Okay. Yeah, that's, I see. No, no, no, no, no. That's funny though. There are things like that for sure. That's funny, though. There are things like that for sure. But, you know, but yeah, people make their coffee and they order, you know, people were like a caramel frappuccino. And then they also ask for four packets of sugar or Splenda. It's like, hold on. I mean, we are we are at so much sugar now. We are at so many calories now. So you're basically, you know, adding another thousand calories to your diet, your daily diet. I wanted to show you this. Oh, have you seen this new Pepsi product out?

It has it's a can. God, I can't find it. And it has 62 grams of sugar. It's like called like Pepsi Super. Oh, Nitro. I think it's it's a is that what it is? It's not so much sugar. Oh, my gosh.

Isn't that crazy? Yes. Nitro Pepsi. But there's there's so much sugar and things that you wouldn. Isn't that crazy? Yes. Nitro, Pepsi. But there's so much sugar in things that you wouldn't even think there's sugar in. I mean, obviously, we all know sodas, and so you know it's kind of an obvious one. But, I mean, look at, like, if you go get a Jimmy Dean frozen breakfast bowl from the grocery store. Uh-huh. I mean, go look at the sugar in that.

I mean, it says it's just eggs, cheese I mean, it, it says it's just eggs, cheese, sausage, and bacon, but it's got 30 grams of sugar. It's like, hold on. What? No wonder it tastes so good. No wonder it's addicting. You know? Well, it's funny. It's funny you say that. I was on a flight the other day and they brought me a, uh, uh, pancakes and, uh, syrup and I, and I passed on it or it was waffles and then I said hey do you have any beef jerky and they said sure I was on united and she brought me the beef jerky and I opened it and I took a bite and I'm like I better check 13 grams of sugar in a little tiny bag of jerky I'm like yeah I always like to look at what's more in the meat products the protein or the sugar

that's nuts because there's bags of jerky where protein's 11 sugar's 15 it's like hold on this is a this is a meat product those are the things also that people um the different levels of what you were saying about being healthy versus um healthier that people believe in these things called food droughts and i i think that that's like so far away from the reality of what people need to be worried about like people who talk like that are the same people who say there's privilege no you thinking like that is privilege your whole fucking thought process is fucked up there's a huge difference between going to the store and getting a pack of fucking hot dogs that have one

gram of sugar versus going in and getting a fucking mountain dew and a bag of doritos you can actually fucking change your whole fucking body composition and get healthier eating these ass hot dogs yeah people don't really you can go to mcdonald's and fucking take the don't order the fries take off the top bun don't get the shake just get a water get the burger with the bottom bun and you were like you're you're miles ahead of the dipshit who ate the fries and drank the shake yeah and yet these these privileged people who use this fucking word about privilege it's almost like they're setting people up for failure it's like stop you're giving them an excuse oh because it wasn't an organic cucumber shut the fuck up yeah give people the fucking

skills and tools that they need to start taking steps now there's tons of easy steps to take yep there's there's there's like you mentioned there's minor details so people would think oh you know they really focus on those mind and it's like you're missing you're missing the big picture here i had a friend who was obsessed with jack in the box and i would go there all the time with him and that's exactly what i would do i would just get the he would order i'd just get a cheeseburger with ketchup mustard and pickle and take off the top bun. Top bun, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I never felt like shit. I never got the inflammation. But if I did every once in a while, fuck around and get like an Oreo shake or I would feel horrible for fucking three days. Yeah. And there's people that live their life feeling that way because that's what they think is normal. That state of inflammation, that state of hormone imbalance it's normal um and and you you mentioned um one thing you know we were talking about the overarching thing so it's like what you need to be concerned about is sugar intake or calories and sugar right let's just

we'll throw a couple things out there But then people think about specifically refined sugar, right? Yes. Like, don't worry about the apple, but worry about it depends. Again, we're talking about different people here. So the morbidly obese people need to an apple is not going to kill them. Right. That's not an issue. But if you go, what I was about to say is if you go and you think, oh, I've seen this commercial for this acai bowl place.

Yeah. You think, oh, I've seen this commercial for this acai bowl place that has 120 grams of sugar because there's so many fruits and syrups. That's not healthy. But you think it's healthy because you don't know. I just need to be worried about sugar. You're like, I need to be eating these healthy foods, things like that. No, you need to get big picture things. Did you get COVID?

Yes. And how happy were you that you had lost that weight? Yeah. I mean, honestly, it's serious. I mean, I'm very happy. To answer your question bluntly, very happy. I wasn't scared. I wasn't scared.

But you would have been if you were 340. Yes. Terrified, right? Yeah. Yes. I wasn't scared. But you would have been if you were three 40. Yes. Terrified. Right. Yeah. Yes. I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm young, I'm, you know, healthy, but every, every picture, at least you see, you know, there's numbers, there's plenty of numbers, but when you see actual people in actual pictures, the majority, the night over 90% of the ones I saw people who passed away were either 80 plus or a hundred pounds overweight at least.

I have a guy coming on the show here in a couple weeks. His name's Paul, and I met him at the beach. And he said that he was in the hospital for 82 days. And I said, with what? And he said, COVID. I'm like, no shit. And he goes, yeah. And they had given him a trach, and they had cut a hole in his stomach. his stomach and I was like dude you don't look like a dude who would have had that

much trouble with it and he said yeah well I lost 50 pounds just lying there or 80 pounds I can't remember and I was like but do you remember any of it and he's like no they kept me unconscious but he was also smoking like two cartridges of the jewel every day. Ah, yeah, yeah. That, well, anything with the lungs, right? Cause it was a respiratory type virus. So anything, if you're, you know, if you have lung cancer, if you were a smoker in any way, that type of stuff. I mean, it definitely, we saw that correlation for sure, but you know, it's, you gotta be careful what you read, right?

So it's, it's interesting for sure. So you stopped – so number one, immediately stopped drinking. Is that feasible to ask of someone? For me and you, it's normal. But for someone who's like an addict and you're 150 pounds overweight, let's say you're a 150-pound man. You should weigh 150, but you weigh 300. Is that realistic to say, hey, you need to stop – you can still do everything you're doing, but what I'd like you to do is stop drinking calories at all? Yes, I think very much so. Okay. No one's going to be like – I mean I'm okay with people.

If you want it. If you want it. Okay, no one's going to be like – I mean I'm okay with people. If you want it. If you want it. I mean if you don't want to change, nobody can force you to do something you don't want, I mean theoretically. Because I know it's not 100% realistic to be just like, hey, stop eating all refined carbohydrates and sugars. Like fuck, that's just gnarly, right? Right, and that's why I think – I like to start with things like the liquid calories.

I mean that's not even – we're not even getting into food yet. Can we at least talk about this like if if you really want to lose it can we at least switch from sodas to sparkling water and and none of that starbucks shit either that's the other crazy thing anytime i go into one of those places i cannot fucking believe the drinks on the counter it's so so many calories and sugar in such a small cup it's's crazy how calorically dense those drinks are. It's insane. America wakes up and just drinks a milkshake full of caffeine now. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, if you can, switch to black coffee. And again, we're talking about health versus healthier. Switch to a Monster. Don't those things have like 10 calories? Like if you want the massive caffeine spike. Exactly. If that's what you need. Right. Exactly. Again, ultimately we're going to get you off that too, but we got to start somewhere.

Dean Stevens, I lost 125 pounds and when I stopped drinking, the weight fell off. Yep. Exactly. There's a few things you can cut out. Drink liquid calories and snacks are my two biggest things. If you are a hundred or more pounds overweight, you do not need to be eating food in between your food. I have this rule. I want to say that one more time. Yep. Yep. Yep. Say it again. Yes. If you are a hundred or more pounds overweight, you do not need to be eating more food in between your meals. Snacks have got to go. And then how many meals a day should you have? I mean, it depends on your activity level.

You know, I'm more about everybody's different. So I'm more about trying to focus on like the total calorie picture, how you break that up. If you can only eat twice a day whatever that's fine i'm not i don't try to get as much into that one dean there's these people the way the human mind works is someone wants to say to you okay so say that to me again and i want to be your client go ahead say which part just say so number one is um uh stop drinking your calories and say number two to me and say it to me like I'm your client. And I'm going to tell you what a fucking pussy brain sounds like. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, I got you. All right. So what we're going to do is we're going to cut out snacks. These are added calories that we have on a daily basis that are unnecessary. Oh, Zach, I need my bag of celery and carrots. I have to have my celery and carrots by my desk. It's just celery and carrots. Can't I just have those so I can just nibble on them all day?

Unfortunately, no, because I'm going to tell you why. You're an asshole. Maybe, maybe. But I'm an asshole that wants you to be healthy. Okay. Live a long life. Because you know that's what people do. People are always looking for, oh, I got to work around. I'll just do celery. I'll do a workout. I'll just do water like you were saying with a little cayenne and lemon.

Yeah, yeah. But what if I get hungry? Yes, yes, yes. deficit. Your body will respond to a caloric deficit with hunger. Half the time you're hungry, though, it's not even because of the caloric deficit. It's other issues. The chemical response you get from your mouth pleasure when you put food in your mouth. That's another thing why I try to eliminate snacks. We do not need to be dependent on putting things in our mouth all day, every day, and just feeding that addiction, feeding those bad habits. It reminds me of the nonsense I would hear, just the sheer stupidity. Girls in CrossFit would be like, oh, I don't want to get bulky.

And the first thing out of my mouth would be like, well, two things. One, you don't have the fucking discipline or the commitment to get bolted, so shut the fuck up. And two, oh, you want to stifle the expression of your DNA? Like, what are you doing? What's your even purpose for being alive? And that's one of the things I try to get people a little bit away from. Don't get me wrong. Everyone wants to look good.

Right. Everyone wants to look good. My boy, Rich Froning. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Everybody wants to look like Rich. A truer statement has not been said. Right. But the thing is, if you get away from looks and closer to health, that's where the ultimate, your mindset has to change a little bit. Be more focused on your health and fitness. Your body will reflect, as you mentioned, you can't change your genetics. Your body will reflect your, your optimal, if you're at optimal fitness, your body will reflect that.

Uh, Oh, you froze. You froze. Look at, uh, you may have to log out and log back in. Yeah. Maybe the number one thing I heard as a coach from women. Yeah, nuts. It's nuts. It's nuts. Okay. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling, winning. Which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do. Who wants this last parachute? I do.

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This episode is brought to you by Disney's Young Woman in the Sea, now streaming on Disney+. I've decided to swim the English Channel. A woman? I Disney's Young Woman in the Sea. Now streaming on Disney+. I've decided to swim the English Channel. A woman? I believe she'll die in that water. From producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joachim Roening comes the must-see true story, Daisy Ridley. I go to England or die trying.

Trudy, you don't have to do this. Don't let anyone take me out of the water, no matter what. Disney's Young Woman and the sea now streaming on disney plus show's over bye good great show jeremy thanks again dude you're too kind thanks brother too too kind beautiful kids congratulations thank you uh it's because it's uh bruce wayne says it's bruce i i thought you but bruce you got kicked off the show what are you doing can't you can't comment anymore okay i guess that time it just kicked me off it didn't even go to audio first ah but it's nice it's nice um okay so so number one uh no no drinking calories number Number two, you need to just start eating your meals.

Like snacking is now not part of your – and is that doable? Is that – Again, I think if you want it, yes. Again, we've done two things that are going to drastically change your lifestyle and caloric intake, and we haven't even talked about your meals yet. So – oh, right. I like that. So one of the things that my friends who have been like 100 pounds overweight have told me is that eating is it becomes a different kind of art form. If you know your wife's making a dinner and it's going to be ready in an hour, you tell her you're going to go out to the store and get something for her, like some milk. But you stop at McDonald's and get two Big macs so and but you don't tell anyone

yeah or or you um you have a a gallon of ice cream hidden in the back of the freezer somewhere and you eat the whole thing in one sitting like those types of things have to stop yes yes i mean gorging you know is on things is a big thing. Like, did you ever do that? Did you ever gorge? Oh, for sure. There'd be times where, you know, my addiction would run wild and I would put down, you know, multiple pints of ice cream in a night because it's just who knows who knows why. Or like you go, you know, like you mentioned, I'm going to this party. Not sure what kind of what the spread is going to look like. Let me stop by Taco Bell real quick. Like, come on.

But it's all just bullshit. It's all just stories. It's all just stories you're telling yourself. Or that you've heard because a lot of a lot of stuff. And unfortunately, eating eating disorders are a real thing. Don't get me wrong. But but the far more prevalent issue in this country is not anorexia and bulimia. It is obesity, right? But we've, you know, kind of catered a lot of

information sensitively to the people who have these disorders, these eating disorders. And so people think if I miss a meal, I'm unhealthy. If I, I'm, then I'm starving. If I'm starving myself, it's unhealthy. I need to – all these different things, right? And it's all geared towards eating, putting food in your mouth. And at the end of the day, we can miss a meal. Most people can miss a meal or two. could miss a meal most people could miss a meal or two it's um it reminds me also you're of the the cigarette thing again i can remember like if you were traveling for two weeks somewhere and there weren't like this i was going to africa or just wherever i would that was like it's as important as packing clothes like okay i need to have a pack of cigarettes for every day and then a bonus pack in case i lose a pack and what's the plan if i lose all this shit or my luggage and i have to carry the cigarettes with me because what if my luggage doesn't make it because if i don't get nicotine i'm gonna fucking have a meltdown i mean people take food vacations

yeah wow you've heard i've never heard that term oh absolutely people people plan whole vacations around you know areas that have good restaurants and or resorts that are known for that's what cruises are too right that's that's what I noticed most at Disneyland. I was like, oh, this is, I've been on a cruise ship once. This is identical to a cruise ship. Yeah. I've never been on a cruise, but I've, I get what you're saying. And I, yeah, I mean, it's basically people that they know there's multiple, all you can eat options at all times of the day. Yeah. Yes. Correct. And so that's a huge draw for a certain type of people and when you go there it you know the body types reflected yeah it's nuts hey do you have concerns

for like do you see do you do you see the harsh um my internet connection is concerning me, but besides that… I think it's causing people. So you become overweight, you become weak, you become feeble, and you start losing accountability. You start losing personal responsibility. You start relying on other people. You start blaming everyone around you. You start living in this fear mindset. And I just feel like it's this sort of cascade of events that people don't realize, and it's all around just eating. It's this food addict mindset. And it's like, I mean, it's kind of those articles are pretty funny i don't know if you've seen them but there's a

flurry of them have been released now where it's um people who exercise become right wing and maybe that's true i like fuck i posted one of those on my on my IG story, some article that said, you know, right wing, you know, gym people can like some connection. I'm like, right. But but but but I'm starting to think, OK, well, shit, maybe that is. I mean, the problem is the problem is the team. I mean, we got a team. We got a team mentality in this country. It's right wing versus left wing. Right. Right. We're just talking about people trying to get healthy. It has nothing. Right. But it all has to be put into one of these two boxes everything but there is sort of this ideology um at least there's this ideology the way i describe it is this you probably heard it before but a child falls down and the left wing ideology is to go

over and pick the child up and the right wing ideology is a child falls down and it's to make sure the child is safe so that it can stand itself up and there's this benevolence that this this this this famed uh fake benevolence that comes with being left wing because you think that lifting the child up is what's good for the child but 99 of the time that's not true you've actually you've actually hurt the child and so that's what i what I – because they don't do any personal accountability themselves, they're always looking for help or to help someone else. When really if everyone took care of themselves – I mean you and I, because we take care of ourselves, people can't even imagine how much we help people. And I saw a lady, an 84-year-old lady who was stuck with walking sticks at the beach. And she was stuck between a bunch of rocks.

And I was on the phone with a friend. And I go, hey, dude, I got to go. And I just hung up, and I ran over, and I helped the lady. And she had been stuck there for like five minutes. That's a long time for an 84-year-old. And she's probably like 60 pounds overweight. And I help her up through the beach and navigate the rocks. And one reason I did did is it's part of my culture raised armenian like that's what we do you don't ask someone if they're hungry you

don't ask someone if they need help that's just you i was taught by my mom and dad especially my dad you just handle your fucking business um but the other thing is is if i wasn't uh if i was an obese person myself i wouldn't have had this the probably the situational awareness to help her or or the confidence and so it's this it's this cat because i'm so selfish because i take care of myself i was able to jump into action to help someone and those things are just like i i bet you and i and i know it sounds like you want to get away from the from the um you're either left or right, and I so appreciate that. You are so right.

But I bet you if you were to ask right-wing people, how many times did you help an old lady today versus left-wing people to right-wing people, it's fucking 10 to 1. Yeah. They pull over. They help people. They're not scared. They fucking pick up hitchhikers. They do all that shit. You know what I mean?

Yeah. I mean you're you're you're very true personal the issue the issue at hand for me and you you touched on it is is we have a problem in this country i think with personal responsibility and personal accountability right it's probably a better way to word it yeah you know because those other words are just so loaded that i use left and right right and like people get defensive like what do you mean my whole family's there will be cool we're good people yeah And it's just a it's a it's a blanket statement. And I try to just say, you're right. You know, I mean, you know, you're you're you're you're proposed that could be right. But but why even divide it like that?

It's like the same thing when people say black and white, like, hey, yeah, I'm just dividing it like that. You're being racist. I hear you. I 100 percent. That's the exact correlation I believe in. And so maybe the focus is like, hey, if you are obese and you eat like shit, you're not going to think clearly. Yeah. And there's people on, you know, and, you know, the numbers might be skewed one way or the other. But there are for sure people on both sides. Right. God knows there's tons of obese right wing people.

Or people that have personal responsibility issues. For sure. Yes. people or people that have personal responsibility issues personally sure yes they need you know they they go to the grocery store and they're not gonna be able to walk around so they just assume that cart's gonna be there they assume they hope did you ever use the cart no i was young and like i said it kind of well i definitely had to be driven places after my back injury for a while and helped, but that was never like, because of obesity or anything like that. Now, I mean, try to get me to, you know, walk up a couple of flights of stairs without having to take a pause at one

of them. That wasn't happening. I definitely would get out of breath. Super easy. Man, stairs, stairs are a trip. You could be in the best shape of your fucking life and walk up a flight of stairs and you're like, Ooh. Yeah. uh your boy matt fraser always mentioned the stairmaster and get crap for it but i mean it's true it's a heck of a workout my goodness i want one i mean it's basically just one you know it's a half of a single leg squat one after another yeah you know it's it's you own one of those uh no no the the gym one of the gyms i'm at has one um it's funny how powerful someone like matt can be right soon as matt talked

about that i was like i want one yeah i'm sure i'm sure uh you know sales went up if you could track you know just general stairmaster sales somehow and then and then there's the one josh bridges used that jacob's ladder that one's a beast i've only ever used that thing once um i've never used that it is nasty where you go up and down on like the hands and the feet the versa climber that one is tough too i've done that's disgusting yeah it's deceptive you think oh you're just moving around staying in place a little bit no it's anytime your full body is moving for a constant you know thing you know running don't go wrong running is hard and stuff but it's just your legs when you add in like arms and legs going the cardiovascular output

just intensifies even more what do you think about this comment here um this one here uh counting calories macros e equals eating disorder nowadays i don't know if she's saying that that's like the stigma but what do you think do you count um i have a general thing i think that what maybe what she's getting into is where maybe you can get lost in the details you can get uh you know a little bit neurotic about different things, but I would much rather people be neurotic and addicted to counting their macros than eating Krispy Kremes and Taco Bell. In the long run, that person, the other person will live longer. They might not, you know, happiness is important. Don't get me wrong. And ultimately that's why I try, I try to preach too, is like, let's do this in a, I'm not, you know, I'm not giving you some crazy, you know, diet. Like I said, we've talked about so many things. We haven't even talked about

meals yet. Like we haven't even right yet. So I'm not, I'm not, we're not being crazy or anything, but there are lots of issues. And I think the bigger eating disorder is overeating. There's far bigger eating disorder of overeating in this country than people who count macros too diligently to where it becomes a stressor i want to i want to um right right i hear you i i hear you but there are those people what she's talking about there are those people but that's not who we are talking about right now right um now i'm going to swerve way off the subject. So I find all of these women extremely attractive. These are like – Yes. Like these are fucking like really fucking hot women. These are – but they're big women, right?

These are like 200-plus pound women. They're – yeah, they're women. Yes. Yeah. They're not sticks. They're women. They have womanly curves. So – but these women are on the verge of needing medication if they're not on medication already not maybe they're on the verge like look at this one right here do you see this one right here this page six one right okay yeah i can see it yep see if she's not she's not if she's not on the if she's not on medication already she's on track to um to be type

two diabetic yes and i would classify her this she's an attractive girl in this picture yeah me too i think she's fucking awesome but that's where we're talking about where i like i mentioned a couple times i like to talk a little bit more about health and fitness as opposed to just aesthetics and body composition right so it's but now you're kind of fighting this we're're fighting this now, too. There's this whole now conflation, right? Right. Yeah. People body positive.

I mean, things like that. Don't get me wrong. Yes. And we mentioned, the first thing you mentioned was you don't ever want to offend anyone. Anything you say, the goal is not to make somebody feel bad. That's definitely not the goal. Right. Exactly. If it's a byproduct because of their insecurities, we're sorry. say the goal is not to make somebody feel bad. It's not definitely not the goal, right? Exactly.

If it's a by-product because of their insecurities, we're sorry. We're sorry. And it's kind of hard sometimes too, to do that, to like balance that. It's so hard. It's so hard. And that's kind of what, you know, I like to try to, one thing, why I do what I do is because I, I can, I feel like I can be relatable. If, you know, we mentioned the, the goat, Rich Froning, you know, I know he does CrossFit, but let's say he was a, a weight

loss, you know, coach or just a personal trainer at a local gym. He's always probably, he's always been in shape. He's always been shredded. He can't go show someone a picture of when he was a hundred pounds overweight. And it's like, yes, you know, it can be done. People sometimes have a hard time taking advice from somebody who hasn't quite been there, done that. Who taught you this stuff? Just studying. Self-studied a lot. I mean, I had, you know, obviously a couple of good mentors at some of the different gyms I've worked at, other trainers there, especially when I was kind of getting back into it. But I'm just I'm a big fan of it. I mean, I'm a nerd for the science of, you know,

exercise science. And then also with, with, when it comes to weight loss and stuff like that, just researching different things. I watch videos, listen to podcasts all the time. You have these people who, who are the sort of these the people on the Mount Rushmore of fitness, like someone like Greg Glassman. But when push comes to shove, even in front of the largest crowds, he'll say any movement, any diet is a step in the right direction. And he believes big in experimentation. So whether you're doing the zone or you're doing the vegetarian or whether you're doing Atkins, like making progress in that direction or or whether you're doing step class or bar class or bodybuilding or CrossFit, it doesn't matter. But you have to be pushing kind of always in that direction. Correct. The experimentation.

Yeah. You mentioned a good thing that I definitely would love to touch on is like the different diets. And when we're talking about people who are a hundred pounds plus overweight, we've mentioned a lot. Calories is really the name of the game. When you get to a different level and you're already less than 10% body fat, now we're trying to add muscle while we sculpt. Now we're going to get into a whole different realm, which would be great. That's why you have a bodybuilding expert on for that. Right. But what we're talking about is calories and at the end of the day all and sustainable too to use the word you used earlier yes and all these diets work at helping people lose weight because they're eliminating calories if you go vegan you're eliminating a good portion of your your probably your calories you had before whether it be stuff from burgers

or sandwiches meat right if you go intermittent fasting you're cutting out breakfast usually there goes calories if you go carnivore you're cutting out everything but meat there goes calories right all these different things is just eliminating calories and that's why they all work for people there's really not necessarily one that's better than the other it's what would you like to eat and what can be sustainable for you? Right now, I, I believe, you know, people should have protein and meat in their diet, but if people want to eat vegan for ethical reasons, that's fine. You can do it. Yeah. We probably need to like, you just need to be a little more cognizant of your protein

intake. We're going to have to work a little harder to make sure that that stays up, whether it be through beans or lentils or whatever, but you do it no problem and be healthy doing it but people it's they don't realize that they think oh i gotta do this crash thing and that's not sustainable uh and that's sort of the distinction also between getting from 10% to 5% isn't really sustainable either. Like getting maybe like between 10% and 15% is sustainable. And then if you want to dabble and experiment and really fine-tune to get to 5%, party on. But probably that's not the – if that's the diet you're going to start with to get from 300 pounds to 170 pounds, it's not going to be sustainable. No, you're going to have to make changes along the way for sure.

You're going to plateau and things like that. But the, the, those initial changes, the initial start, the initial process, that's what, you know, is it definitely a passion of mine and what I like to work with. And that's what we're talking about here is we're not trying to get somebody who's, you know, already in really good shape, stage ready to go do a bodybuilding show, dry out, lean out. There's all different detailed ways to do that. We're talking big picture, big picture of health and weight loss. And that's what I try to preach to people because they do get lost in the weeds.

Everybody loves to look at their favorite elite athlete, whether it be a CrossFit athlete, a bodybuilder. And they're like, oh, this is what they're doing. This, I want to look like them. Let me do that. It's not going to work. They'll probably quit in a couple of days. It's not. Yeah. Yeah. One day. Right. It took either these people. I've done that a million. I've done that a million times. I still do that. Right. Either these elite athletes have done it their whole life, what they're doing, or if it took them quite a ways to get to that place. All right. We can, they didn't start right there. I I've had the, I, uh, I haven't done it in a while, but I used to have this cockamamie idea that I was only going to eat 200 calories. Um, and I,

and then any, uh, no more than 200 calories at any one time. And then I would set a timer, uh, and I couldn't eat again for two hours. So then I thought if I'm up for – even if I'm up for 12 hours, the most I would eat is 2,400 calories. It was fucking unsustainable cockamamie. Yeah. Fucking batshit crazy. But I bet you learned a few things. I did.

I did. And I did. I did. And it works, but it's just not sustainable. Right. So you learn things and hopefully you can put that into a sustainable way but the problem is people do the crash thing and then yeah immediately go right back to it was before there's no you know i'm going to take a few pieces that i learned here

and apply it right over a lifelong thing right and sorry so so i did the math wrong so then if i ate every two hours and i was only away for 12 hours, that's only 1200 calories or something. Cause you only eat six times. And you hear people like, oh, we had Danielle Brandon on the show and she said she, she was competing. She was performing at the highest level,

trying to consume. I think she said 1200 calories a day. And you're like, holy shit. And that's great. It looks like her. It looks like her ass fucking just needs a thousand calories a day to stay alive. Fucking nuts. But, but then that's the thing. And that's it looks like her it looks like her ass fucking just needs a thousand calories a day to stay alive fucking nuts but but then that's the thing and that's the there are people like

that but then so some people see that and they're like oh i i better not eat you know 1500 calories a day because you know i i don't want to end up on people are calling her unhealthy for doing that it's like no she called herself unhealthy too which was cool she called herself out like hey that was fucking stupid i basically passed out yeah based on her activity level and current body composition at that time it probably was unhealthy but for another person who really is not going to add any activity level a 1500 calorie diet could be healthy um i wouldn't go much less than that though. Now, then you're going to get into starvation mode and things like that,

where your body's just going to grab onto food and store everything they can. So we'll say 1500 is the minimum, but again, depending on the person, right? Everybody's different. And so you got to find what works for you, but there are a few blanket things that we can all agree on are very unhealthy. Right. Did anyone in your weight loss journey to try to talk you out of it? Oh, Zach, it's not good. Zach, you don't look good. You're too thin. Like, did you get any of that shit? Not too much, you know, because I mean, I never got like, real like skinny, I'm still a bigger guy. But it would be certain things like, oh, like that's all you're going to eat. Or, Oh, what about, you know,

you sure you don't want anything, you know, to snack on during the drive. No, I'll be fine. I'll be fine. So it would be things like that almost that, or when you almost kind of learn, you know, the things that you shouldn't be doing and you just see it. It's so, so blatant when you see it in a way. Yeah. Did you, were you with your current girlfriend during this journey? We got together just a bit after I had started losing weight, probably about halfway through the total, like weight loss from that two 90, two 95 to two 25 where I am now. Um, but we, we had known each other for a long, long time before

we started dating. So she, she knew big, big fat Zach, you know? Yeah. Fascinating. And your, and your, and your parents are, were there people around you who were really happy? Like your mom, like, Oh my God, I'm so glad you're taking control of your life and you seem so much healthier. Was there that where you were rewarded? People, people would say like that they were proud for sure um there wasn't as much of like you know like oh my gosh like you you don't realize you know what you've done for yourself you know and you're you're gonna be like your life is so much better now and all like the full-blown congratulations but like little things like oh my gosh you look great but i mean for who, as we talked about before, never got complimented on things like that would get teased about their body.

Even his lightest compliment was like, Oh my God, this is a million bucks. You know what I mean? Yeah. What is the, what is the etiquette on that? One of your homies is a three 20 and now he's two 20. It's okay to say something to him, right? Yeah, for sure. Dude, you look fucking great. Yeah, that or, man, clearly you've been working hard or something like that. Oh, okay. Acknowledging the effort that you know had to go into this.

Because nobody just loses a bunch of weight by doing nothing. You know, they had to. Even if it's not a ton of physical effort, maybe the mental effort to create these changes we talked about, getting over that hurdle is good for you, man. So, yeah, but definitely acknowledging it. I mean, etiquette on that is, at least for me, I was always all for it. I got food poisoning once and I couldn't eat for two days. And then I remember I posted a picture of myself like i was sitting up against a wall i think i was with actually greg glassman in malibu and i and so and i posted the picture and everyone was telling me how great i look

but it's because i fucking hadn't eaten in two days like you assholes yeah but that's the thing is you know when like uh when a person that's already a little bit like you, smaller and thinner and they like to lift and then they get a little thinner already. It's like, no, no, don't say anything to them. You know, don't say anything to them. They want to get bigger, you know. And that is. Well, let me show you this, too. So then you have you have this and this is Sarah Sigmund's daughter.

We all know who she is. Oh, yes. One of the most remarkable fucking male or female bodies to fucking walk the planet. God knows how much fucking hard work she's put in. But I bet you if you stood her – she looks pretty lean in most of these pictures. But I bet you if you put her next to those girls that i that we had shown before she's as big as them yeah yeah like this is this i mean this is a brick shithouse yeah this is like a fucking lot of fucking woman right here correct a lot of a lot of strength training to add that muscle mass to

that frame correct and no and it's kind of just it's just normal muscle mass right it's just like that's just dna expressing itself there's nothing like it doesn't of just it's just normal muscle mass. Right. It's just like that's just DNA expressing itself. There's nothing like it doesn't look like she's sitting around like purposely trying to do this. This is a body that's being used. Correct. And yeah, it's proportionate. She's not shouldn't have huge shoulders, small legs or, you know, a huge butt and skinny thighs. And, you know, and she doesn't have these weird snake veins going up her biceps right natural this is hard work but then you also get people and it's not a ton of people but there are people that would see this that were morbidly obese would see this and be like i don't want i don't

want to look like this so i'm i'm not going to start eating healthy on monday yeah that's crazy you're you're you're so far off here you're so far off this took so much in the way of hard work yeah this body is this body is fucking nuts i understand also being like shocked by this body because you just aren't used to a body uh someone who works this hard in this expression but what's also fascinating is that she is the most popular female crossfitter on the planet yeah probably has the most instagram followers yeah and people just love her i mean her personality is kind of off the charts too yeah that's just kind of the josh bridges of crossfit yeah she's so easy yeah um but i find it fascinating that you would have these two i'm guessing when she's just i have no idea i've never

asked her but i'm guessing when she's just chilling just a regular like she's taking a couple days off she's eating and drinking what she wants that she weighs 175 pounds and and and i'm guessing those other girls weighed 175 pounds too and it's just like it's just it's but and i bet you she's not on any medications no and that's what we talked about is you know with everybody being different her diet she might even eat more do you think maybe she even eats more than those girls? Okay, sorry, go ahead. What I was about to say is that I bet her caloric intake is the same too, but their activity level is vastly different. That's why the first thing when I meet with new people is getting an idea for their lifestyle because it can be very different. Because it could be very different.

And like you mentioned, her genes are expressing themselves in that way because of all the work that she's putting into it. But if you're not putting in that work, you don't need to be probably at the same amount of carbs and calories that I'm sure she consumes. Right. I did a lot of that too in my youth. A workout to eat. Yeah, yeah. That's for sure. I'm going to do one CrossFit workout in the morning, and I really want to go out and just drink a 12-pack of Coors Light tonight, so I'm going to do a second workout before I go out.

Yeah, there was a reason that I kind of got into Strongman, and one of the reasons was eating. Because it's like I like to work out, but I did it in a way pretty much to eat. Yes. What's your, what's your, what's your most, um, uh, your habit you're most proud of? Like a healthy habit now? Yeah. With this new, with this new older, like in the last six years, the Zach habit. I mean, I would say my, like the liquid calorie one is a big one.

I really like on a daily basis, just drink water or black coffee. That's it. No cream ever, huh? Not doing some heavy cream. Good on you. It tastes good. Don't get me wrong. And every now and then, you know, especially because I usually have coffee in the morning.

So I'm fasting. But if I do have like coffee after I've broken my fast, sometimes I'll add a little cream. You know, I don't think, you know, but you got to be careful with the cream, right? We're talking how much sugar is in that cream. Right. cream or is it sugar really at the end of the day even though it's listed as cream it's probably just a sugar drink right and that's and that's another thing that people you know they the big i hear a lot you know kind of getting a little off topic here but people are afraid of fats you You know, they think fats are unhealthy. I mean, fats like cheese, you know, cheese is, yes, it can be an,

anything in excess can be unhealthy, but that's not what's got you a hundred pounds overweight is you sprinkling a little bit of cheese on your chicken. Right. That's not it. It's the, it's the, you know, all the liquid condiments you're pumping on it, the soda you're having with it, all that type of stuff. How disciplined do you see yourself getting more and more disciplined? Like 15 years ago, like I don't even know, 15 years ago, five years ago, if I went out to dinner with a group of people, I may have gotten dessert.

And now I don't even do that. Or even at my own birthday party, I won't even eat a piece of my cake. It's just it's just second nature to me now. Yeah, I also 50, but, but it's just not even a big deal anymore. Yeah. And I like to indulge, don't get me wrong, you know, here and there. But like, I think, you know, being able to control it, you mentioned that's, I'm very proud of that, being able to have a little something once in a while, but that's it, and not letting it snowball into, you know, at the end of the day, if you mess up on one meal, yes, it's, you need to stick to your plan, it's not great, but if it's just one time, and once a month, okay, that's not what's going to kill you, but if you say, ah, I messed up, screw it, off to Taco Bell for the next meal too,

now we're snowballinging we're getting back into the old habits but the other thing that you you know you mentioned is getting that type of stuff i lost my train of thought i had something i was going to say that was good and i forgot it it'll come back to me it'll come back to me um okay in reference to that what you were just saying i've never i've never i've never passed on food and then thought in hindsight i should have eaten that i remember what i was going to say okay go ahead yeah so what i like another thing i like to tell my clients who are talking about you know kind of indulging and you know enjoying life and that's the thing life is balance right and ultimately that's what we want to get you to is to have be able to have that balance but so that's the thing. Life is balance. Right. And ultimately, that's what we want to get you to is to be able to have that balance.

But so that's another big thing is I don't like to people say like they plan their cheat meals every every Saturday night. I mean, I have a cheat meal. It's like, no, don't don't plan to to cheat. But if if you're going out with some friends to a restaurant, you know, you know, and if you've been doing good for a couple of weeks, sure. Go don't sell them. No, it's okay. You can go. And then we're going to obviously train ourselves to know what are some of the better choices we're getting into that healthy versus healthier and some healthier choices at this restaurant. But by all means, go to the restaurant, have a good social life, have friends. You don't need to be a recluse to be healthy unless what if you could leverage i like it when i leverage my ego for things like you could leverage your cheat meal as a reason to not let's say hey on every every other saturday i can go get

ice cream yeah and so you kind of use that as the as the um backstop to stop fucking you don't you don't get the reward if you fuck off right you know what i mean yes but it's the thing that is dangerous with that and it can work but it's like tempting an addict with what they're addicted to in a way right you know we're talking about different types of people here right right there are people that, hey, I'm trying to kind of clean some stuff up, 15 pounds overweight. Once every couple of weeks, I'll have a dessert because I've been good versus the people who are addicted to food. And we need to kind of change some habits in the thinking. Don't get me wrong. I get what you're saying for sure, having that reward system, but I like to do it with other things besides

food. You don't want to reward the heroin addict with some black tar i um the toyota dealership after i have two toyotas and i have to you know every couple every month or two every two months or three months whenever the the maintenances are the the drop-ins i got to take it to uh it's a couple miles from here and i always um it's it's funny how well it works my wife would like do you want me to drive you and i'm like no and i go and the reason why is i want i go there and drop my truck off and i know on the walk home i can pass a starbucks okay and i can get a fucking venti coffee and tell them to put heavy cream in it right right fucking just by the time i get home i'm like i did a line of meth you know what i mean i'm just

jacked out of my breath look at like you even you twitched you twitched a little bit like oh venti with the heavy cream right right uh yeah and i used to do that with my bike too i used to go on this 50 mile bike ride um every single day and i would ride 25 miles to a coffee shop pour in a hot black coffee and then ride 25 miles back but that that it was i'm so reward system based i'm so reward system based right but you are also you're also centering it around a lot of physical activity right right right always yeah yeah that's the big thing for sure and that's the thing i like to tell people too is if you can i mean you know i get it if you can't but if you can after every meal get up take a five get it if you can't, but if you can, after every meal, get up, take a five minute walk.

Wow. Just after every meal, what few things is going to do one, you're adding, let's say you eat three meals, 15 minutes of walking a day. Yeah. That's calories burned, but also that there's a ton of studies these days that are showing how much it helps with the digestion of the meal you just ate to kind of stay moving, bounce around a little bit. So all smart healthy people i know walk oh yeah movement

movement is their walkers yeah walkers people all all smart it seems like they love walking yeah hey do you notice that um ever you have some of your best ideas when you're doing a metabolic work too whether you go for a run or you're on the assault bike or something. It's like, Hey, I used to be like so focused on working out and I didn't want to be interrupted, but now I keep my phone next to me when I'm training, uh, especially anything like cardio shit. And I give myself the leeway to stop and write shit down. Yeah. Not a lot, not a lot of stuff. Yeah.

But man, you come up with some great shit. Yes, for sure. I mean, I've always been a big fan there's such a correlation between the mind and the body even if it's not you know a double blind university study type thing there it's undeniable the connection between the mind and the body and so you know getting that i believe getting the body moving gets the mind moving i mean you know like this morning you know i got up, you know, I got up and, you know, coached a class and,

or two classes actually, and kind of got some movement. I feel so much better than if I had just woken up, you know, 30 minutes before this and not all groggy. Yep. What do you have?

Tell me about what it's like working with you. So if someone, people are going to see this podcast and they want to reach out to Zach, what is, what's that look like? Hey, Zach, I'm, I heard you talking to the seven on podcast and I'm, uh, I'm a hundred, you know, I'm, I'm in a cart. I'm 200 pounds overweight. When I go to Walmart, I have to fucking jump in a cart.

What can you do for me? Absolutely. So, you know, working, work with, if you're in the Denver area, I'd love to work with you in person, you know, but that's a whole different, you know, we'll go down that people message me. I'd love to work with you in person. But that's a whole different. We'll go down that. People message me. I'd love to work with you. But if it's just, I would love to work with everyone.

So virtually, we can do a ton, too. And so the first thing is just we're going to get to know each other a little bit. I'm going to ask you kind of some questions about what a normal day in the life looks like. Or maybe a little more than a day. Probably a normal day in the life looks like, you know, or maybe a little more than a day, probably a normal week in the life, right? And we're going to kind of see activity-wise, you know, dietary-wise, what are some habits that we got, some simple things that we can correct. Simple. So we start with those, right? Because just making a few simple changes is, one, it's going to start the process of, you know, what we want, the weight loss, getting healthier, things like that.

But it's also your mind committing to a change and sticking with it. We're not going to start out with the craziest change. We're going to start out with small changes. But by doing one thing, it leads to another. And you can build it from there. Just getting yourself to make some changes is a hard step for a lot of people. But usually what I like to do is talk to them about some of, you know, the big flaws in their dietary habits.

Don't get too much into like the exact, like, this is what I want you to eat. I'm not a registered dietitian by any means. All my certifications and all that is in the training realm. But we, I know what are huge pitfalls that are going to lead you to be where you are. And so we're going to try to correct some of those things. I'm going to give you a general plan. And hey, we're going to try to make it and let's talk and make it work. So, you know, for instance, I like to eat three meals a day, I like to eat two meals a day. I like to eat two meals a day. Whatever.

Okay, well, let's try to have it be about this much. We'll center it around this type of food. Stick to macro stuff, proteins, carbs, fats, not getting too crazy with it. But again, not trying to change too, too much there. Sorry, not trying to get too, too specific or change too, too much there and not trying to get too, too specific or change too, too much right away. And then we're also going to talk about activity level. What are some things that we can add in to help burn the calories? So the first thing is talking about calories in. Now, then we'll go to calories burned, right? Calories out. So if it's, if we're starting from nothing, all I do every day is, you know, go to work.

Some people don't do that these days. They go to the living room where they work. Right. Okay. This, some people don't even go to their bedroom anymore because it's upstairs. I know what I mean? Like you put on so much weight that you don't go to the upstairs bedroom anymore. And now you just sleep on the couch.

Right. So it's not uncommon. Right. And so let's, let's say for instance, this is a client I'm talking to. Yeah. So we're going to start super simple. Can you walk up the stairs? If you, is it, is it a physical limitation or is it just, it's too hard right now? Right. Right. And if we can walk upstairs, well, let's, let's do that twice a day. Walk up and down the stairs twice a day. Okay. and then i really do try to add in the five minute walks after every meal that's the first thing with people like that that i really try to add in not only just to increase that physical activity but for the you know um

digestion of the food they just ate right um and then but it didn't go from there maybe it's somebody don't eat a box of cereal and then go lay down and go to bed. Yes, correct. And that's one of the habits that I preach on is eating right before bed. There's so many people, the first thing they think of when they wake up is food, and the last thing they think of when they go to bed is food. I've talked to so many people. I've never thought of that before, thinking about food when you go to bed. Well, yeah, because a lot of people, they're thinking about what they just ate or what they're going to have in the morning.

But there's so many studies that have been shown that you don't need to be eating right before you go to bed. You got to look at food as fuel. I never even think about food when I'm fasting. Yeah. I mean, sometimes I get hungry. Don't get me wrong, but it doesn't cause me to think about food but i know a lot of people who do that when they're fasting they start thinking about oh when this is over i'm gonna eat this this and this i never did that i wonder why i don't do that it's it's interesting i mean you know it's just good for you yeah there are a ton of people where it's not the case for sure uh right you know it's if they

have that reward-based system i'm gonna do this but there's an end in sight where, and then I'll be able to, you know, focus on that creme brulee at the end of the week. It's like the cartoons when the two guys are trapped on an Island, like me and you were trapped on an Island. I look over at you and you turn into a chicken. Yeah. That's good. Yeah, exactly. And you know, there's tons of people that that's the case. And, but eating, eating before bed, it just, it just keeps that cycle going. There's a, there's a lot of, you know, I'm a big fan of, I don't know if you're familiar with him. His name is Steve Maxwell. No. But his big thing is, you know, he's big into fasting. There's tons of, there's other people that believe in this and study it too. Probably Paul Saladino's on this. But digestion itself is one of the hardest processes your body will go through on a daily basis.

Right, right, right. So the actual process of digestion. So if your body is just on that constant cycle of always digesting something, all the other stuff, like we talked about hormones, your mood, you know, your mood, you know, skin health, things like that, is all going to be out of whack because your body can't focus on all those other things when it's having to constantly digest. Hey, I was, that's why I started fasting

for like 30 to 40 hours every single week. I just wanted to go a year without eating 52 days of the year. I thought, oh, that's kind of a fucking weird thing to say, right? And I kind of wanted to have that just in my resume. Like, hey, I went one year, I went 50 days without eating,

but now it's been two years. And now my wife says like, thank God I have my, my wife does it with me. That really does help. But, um, yeah, I don't, it's, it's, it's, I always, I always think about that. Wow. I've given my digestive tract such a rest in the last two years. I'm a big fan, you know, for me, at least like, you know, everybody's different, like, and it's probably, you know, to my old food addict ways when I'm not doing anything is kind of, and if I'm fasting, then I'm thinking about food. But if I'm, if I'm kind of moving,

which, you know, you might think that's kind of contraintuitive because you're burning calories too. But if I'm doing stuff, it keeps mind occupied, as we mentioned before. Right. Right. Totally. I totally agree. Yeah. Well, a big thing I like to do is because, you know, I'm a lot more kind of disciplined and diligent during the week on the weekends, you weekends, have some balance, have some fun. But a big thing I like to do is I won't eat on Monday until dinner. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let my body reset after the weekend.

I mean, I had plenty of calories over the weekend. I'll be fine. That's a phrase I've said a few times. I'll be fine. Do you ever get there to the evening and you're like well shit if i don't eat dinner now then i can just go to sleep and i didn't eat because that's why that's why i stopped eating saturday night so that i can get in that sleep and then i don't eat all day sunday and then i get in and then and i go to bed early on sunday

because i'm like i'm done with this bullshit yeah you know what i mean and i'm like i'm going to bed i've done it before i've done what you know you I mean? And I'm like, I'm going to bed. I've done it before. I've done what, you know, you're talking about the 36 hour or like, yeah. Over a full, you know, having a full day where you wake up and go to sleep without eating ever.

Yeah. Cause, cause if you go 24 hours, you might as well, in my opinion, go 36 because all you have to do is just go to sleep now. Yeah. Right.

Some people, though, it's hard to fall asleep on an empty stomach, but it's things you're used to it. Your body is apt to everything. Some people, like, it's hard to fall asleep on an empty stomach, but it's one of the things you're used to. Your body will adapt to everything. Some people, like when I first started doing the intermittent fasting, which we talked about was forced after the back injury. Right. Like I got, you know, at first I would get so hungry, so hungry, but it is what it is.

But your body, your body, it was only took a week or so for my body to adapt and that went away. week or so for my body to adapt and that went away and so you know if you kind of get into a habit of like you're talking about just you know go to sleep your body will get used to it for sure this i think it was nicole carroll one time she's the director of training at crossfit i think one time she did i want to say for 30 days she only ate every other day i kind of always wanted to try that that. That sounds fucking hardcore. Yeah, that's an interesting one. And there's different little things you can do like that for sure, little challenges and stuff. But long term, the sustainability of it is not quite there.

Right, right. That's totally not sustainable, I don't think. But there's still a benefit to it. You're training yourself to kick other habits. You know, people, you know, they, when they detox off of things, you know, it's, they're going to feel real bad at first, but you, you know, you, you, you get over your body copes, you learn new things. Uh, twice, a couple of, uh, twice, not last year, but the year before I did two five day

water fast. And I don't think that for me before, I did two five-day water fasts. And I don't think that – for me personally, I don't think that those were good for me. Meaning like you only had water or you – Yeah, I only had water for five days. Okay. That's not true. The second one, I supplemented with like some potassium or salt because the first one, some weird shit started happening. I bet.

salt because the first one some weird shit started happening but i bet but uh but it was fun i and the reason why i don't think it was good for me when i came back like my metabolism seemed like it was fucked yeah your body definitely can go into a starvation mode um that's for sure um you know that became insatiable for like six months yeah and you know so some people are afraid of fasting you know or even intermittent fasting because they don't want that. But it takes, like you mentioned, it takes a few days for you to get into that mode. But, you know, there are things, especially like there are things that your body can store very easily. So like if you are coming out of fast and, you know, you're not trying to gain a bunch of weight. Don't go eat a bunch of simple sugars or simple carbohydrates. Yeah, I think I went straight to pizza. It was crazy.

Right. And so your body's going to bloat and balloon up and store all of that. Because I might not. This is so much calories. I don't know when I'm going to get calories again. Right. You go into starvation mode. So then that's when you store it all as fat once again.

So that's why we talk about having those more kind of sustainable, a slow, gradual thing for those people that are needing the major weight loss. Yeah. Do you love what you're doing? Oh, I love it. Yeah. I was so much more passionate about this than like the last profession of talking, you know, market trends and finance numbers and stuff like that. This is, this is so much fun helping. I've always loved helping people. It's just kind of been a thing ever since I was a kid. But being able to find it in this lane is very, very rewarding. Yeah. Well, you said you taught two classes this morning.

Where did you do that at? So coach at a couple different gyms. This one's a little bit more like a corporate gym called Choose Fitness up here in Colorado. So teach group classes there part-time. a corporate gym called choose fitness up here in colorado um so teach group classes there part-time um and then train at a or train clients out of another gym up in denver um and it's called a core progression actually kind of a new name but um it's one of the owners on multiple gyms in the area and he wants them all to kind of now have the same name yeah that name kind of came down to the past couple of days.

And it's a cool environment to be in, huh? Yeah. No, and that's the other thing is like being in, you know, being in that energy, being in that healthy culture, surrounding yourself. You know, I mean, it's a cliche as old as time. You know, you are who you surround yourself with. And if you're surrounded by happy, healthy people, it's so much easier to be happy and healthy. So much easier. Is, is the goal to train people out of your house? Ultimately to have my own, yeah. Well, my own gym out of my own house. Yes. Something like that. It wouldn't be like a big, like it would be like almost like a little studio in a

way. I'd probably hopefully have some open gym type stuff. Um, but yeah, ultimately the goal is to have my own place for sure. My, um, it's, it's funny. I always forget this, but my, my wife basically has a, uh, she does CrossFit one day and then does yoga another day. She just has a practice that she goes back and forth and she, and she teaches a couple of yoga and breathing classes a week. And she has picked up a clientele for our garage that she teaches now a couple of times a week. And then, and then this guy I did a podcast with yesterday who I have on, I've had on the show three times now, uh, Andrew Hiller, he's got a gym in his garage. It's fucking nice. Yeah. Um, it's, and it's so clean and it's so cool to see people doing that. Yeah. And that's something that, you know, I've learned a lot more in the past few years,

you know, because as I've gotten more in this industry, I've been doing it steady now for like past six to seven years full time after the mortgage stuff and back in. But, you know, it's like you learn kind of what, you know, you want from your own place. You know, that's mostly always been my goal. So I've always been trying to kind of soak up information. You know, the one thing I've learned is you don't need much. You do not. Right. So, you know, I have been in my goal. So I've always been trying to kind of soak up information. And, you know, the one thing I've learned is you don't need much, you do not. Right. So, you know, I have been in my garage and I do, you know, I do train some people like on the side, I mentioned those two gyms,

but I do have, you know, my own private clients and then also virtual type stuff. But, you know, I just have a set of like nine different weights of kettlebells, a barbell with a couple of things and bands. And we can, we can do anything. Get at it. We can get an amazing workout with that. People like you for accountability. I'm guessing my, um, I had a friend, uh, the guy who helped, uh, that series I did

killing the fat man where Gary lost a hundred pounds. Um, we had a guy at, uh, at CrossFit HQ, Tyson Oldroyd sort of be his point man. And one of the things Tyson had him do is anything you put in your mouth, you have to take a picture of and send to me. Yeah. Yeah. And that fucked with Gary, right?

I mean, sometimes Gary would send like a glass of wine. I mean, Tyson didn't like yell at him and shit, but they had this relationship where all of a sudden, anything this guy put in his mouth, some other dude had to see. And that kind of puts you in check,

right? Yeah. And I don't like to do that like right away but it depends you know and don't be wrong like blank powerful tool right blank statement it's amazing so powerful wait say that again what's amazing say that again that that that that tool that you're mentioning you know that accountability is is amazing and like or like a food log um you know like actually put it down so that you can see like, cause some people don't even realize how much they're eating.

They don't even know. Right. Right. Or to write it down or document it in some way, picture what, you know, whatever. And so that's a, that's a great tool that we use for some people and for people that are like, especially if it's a dire situation or certain people will start them right off the bat with that. Some people will try other you know depending on them we'll try maybe be a little bit more slow into the process but then if we're not getting results like why aren't we getting results you say you think you're eating healthy like well let's document it like let's find out

for sure yeah the photos are awesome uh so jeff asked why my i think my thumbs are that's so funny you say that. You know why? Because I was taking this pen, and I was twisting the tip like this. I was just going back and forth. Oh, yeah, and this is purple. Just working the tip. Very – yeah, just – thank you.

Just working the tip. I really appreciate you coming on. It's always good to know that the work's being done. There's so much. Anyone who wants to get in touch with Zach, please reach out to him, right? It having a professional working relationship, I'll answer questions. I just want to help out, spread the information. Because like I said, there's so much misinformation out there. And just, you know, or there's too much information is sometimes the problem too. Give me an example of that. What do you mean? People get into the details.

They think, you know, oh, I need to, you know, what's my, you know, what's my exact, you know, certain people, you know, what's my exact, you know, eating schedule going to be, you know, 29 protein to 13 carb at 10 AM. I'm going to, you know, this, that, another, and you don't have to go right to that, especially, especially when you're so far away from being in any sort of elite fitness type level. Right. That shit overwhelms me too. And so, yeah, if you go pick up like a men's health or like a women's health or muscle and fitness the information in there is not necessarily

tailored to somebody who's 150 pounds obese right it's it's more for the people trying to dial it in maybe we could say and so there you know you gotta you gotta stick to the basics don't worry too much about you know certain things when you, you need to be concerned with your overall calorie intake versus burned and sugar and especially carbon sugar intake. That's the number one. Carbon sugar intake. Boy, I mean, a thousand times. Have you guys heard that? Zach, thank you. Is there anything else you'd like to close with? No, Siobhan, I really appreciate it, man. I've been a fan ever since the behind-the-scenes docs back in the day. Huge, huge fan, and I appreciate you having me on. I'd love to maybe chat at some point again.

Thank you to everyone that listened, and you're the man. Awesome. Thank you. Stay in touch, brother. Yes, will do. Will do. Take care. Okay.

Ciao. Ciao. And another show. Yesterday in the show, I said something along the lines that no one had ever been. Greg never fired anyone from HQ. And someone sent me a text and was like, well, that's not true. This person and this person got fired, this person, this person. So maybe you're right.

It was very rare. And when I say – so there was – up until 2018, it was so rare to get fired. Like you had to do something like fucking – like there were people on the payroll who didn't fucking – who hadn't done a fucking thing in a year, right? Two years. It was basically like a family. But after 2018, when Greg appointed a new CEO, yeah, there were all sorts of fucking firings. That guy got fired. That CEO guy got fired. So, so that was my, that was my point in the early years. In those first 10 years I was there, I can't remember anyone getting fired unless you just did something absolutely fucking batshit crazy or like you,

or you just didn't work. Like, like literally you just fell off the fucking batshit crazy or like you or you just didn't work like like literally you just fell off the radar no one had heard from you for a year so i um the spirit of what i said was was extremely accurate i think you can find a ton of people who now in hindsight would be like yeah i should have fucking been fired cory leonard Yes, Zach is a good dude. It looks like tomorrow I need to check with Sousa to see what's going on here. I've never called.

I wonder if I can just call Sousa on the hotline. I wonder if he'll even answer. I wonder if he knows this number. Let's see. Go here. Go to the phone number. Punch in. Let me see if I can. let's see go here go uh to the phone number on chin let me see if i can oh maybe i could just send that maybe i'll just send him a link

maybe he'll just uh come in let's see um uh oh where is he Can you come on the show for a minute? It looks like tomorrow we might have the High Rocks winner. I see the young lady's name here. What is it? Chris Roglosky. I wonder if it's the same girl that I saw. She's so pretty. Let's see. Chris Roglosky. I wonder if it's the same girl that I saw. She's so pretty. Let's see.

Chris. Roglosky. Yeah, it's her. Man, I think I think if I read right, she took man, she looks young. I think she took 12th place the year before. Oh, no, no. The champion from think she took 12th place uh the year before oh no no the champion from last year took 12th place this year let's see i'm gonna go to her instagram so it looks like we might be having this young lady on tomorrow uh okay well shit this should be a fucking great show

i'll show you guys her hold on let me pull up her Instagram share screen. This is her right here. Chris Ruglosky. I hope she speaks English. She doesn't look American, right? See this right here. See what's going on here. Bam, there she goes high rocks dallas that finish line feeling is always the best this just might be the best one yet okay and i think that's the one where hunter set the world record

so then this uh young lady was also at the vegas event this last week and she won the world's wow so she's getting at it all right and she writes in english so i'm guessing she speaks speak speak it to english okay awesome holy shit cool all right it's our first it'll be our first female uh high rocks athlete we've only had hunter on so that's tomorrow tomorrow evening, it looks like. And, oh, that's going to be weird. Tomorrow it's going to be a beach day. Oh, it's going to be hot tomorrow. And then on Thursday, it looks like we'll have a live call-in show.

On Friday, we have Dr. Stan. That's going to be a fun one. And then Saturday or Sunday, I need to schedule Yevgeny. It's been a couple of weeks. All right, guys. Thank you everyone for checking in. I will see you guys all very soon.

Bruce, you can come back to the show tomorrow. I've lifted your lifetime ban.