The Sevan Podcast - #672 - Scott Switzer

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

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Scott Schweitzer. What's going on, guys? Yeah, good morning. Thanks for doing this. It's Schweitzer, right, Scott? It is correct. Schweitzer. Oh, good.

Schweitzer. Reading's. Oh, good. Switzer. Reading's not my strong suit. I want to keep calling you Scott Switzer. And Kat sent me a DM or a text slapping me around a little bit. I was like, all right, all right, all right. I'll get it. Yeah, she is the name police on our crew.

Yeah, she's great. She polices me too. I actually get it. Yeah. She is the name police on our crew. Yeah. She's great. She, she polices me too. I actually appreciate it, dude. Uh, first of all, thank you for doing all the, uh, podcasts.

I am a world-class, uh, plagiarizer. And I, uh, love the fact that I can go anytime I want to interview someone, I can go over to Clydesdale podcast and listen. uh,

and it's, it's great, uh, research for me. Fantastic. So cheers to the, to the fellow podcast, man. Uh, 2011, that's when you came into the, to the CrossFit game. That is correct. Yeah. Yeah. No. It was, it was a weird story.

Yeah. I heard it, but I want to hear it again it's so good it's so good hey it's so good so in 2011 i was weighing over 500 pounds i was looking for answers um i'd tried every diet nutrition plan under the sun. And, uh, one day my next door neighbor who I knew was a personal trainer, didn't know what he was involved with, just knew he trained athletes. And I was in my front yard and I basically begged him for help. Um, I'm going to go back a little bit. Um, didn't, wasn't there a gust of wind that blew something from your yard into his yard and you had to go over there and meet him? That is, that is correct. And were you, were you like, wasn't there some, maybe I'm making this up. I'm making it more

romantic than it is, but weren't you like praying for help too at that time? I was. than it is, but weren't you like praying for help too at that time? I was. Yeah. So the gust of wind came, took a gazebo we had attached to our back deck. It ripped it out of the deck and into my neighbor's house and he had just moved in. So that's how we met. Is me out there struggling at 500 plus pounds, trying to move the parts of this gazebo away from his home. And it was raining. It was windy. And he was out there helping me like take all the pieces. My first thought was how much money am I going to owe him for the damage to his house?

And his thought was, I just want to help this guy. Is he still your neighbor so he is not oh did you move or did he move he moved and then how many months after that uh interaction and at that point you realized he was a trainer right his name was marcus from crossfit shed shred shred crossfit shred should have been crossfit gazebo And at that point you realized he was a trainer, right? His name was Marcus from CrossFit Shred. Shred. Shred, CrossFit Shred. Should have been CrossFit Gazebo.

He introduced himself as a trainer during that interaction. Yeah. And that's how I knew that that's what he had done. But it took me a full six to eight months to ask for his help. So that happened in 2010 and then in 2011. Can you tell me about that going over there? Did you go to his house and you're like, knock, knock, knock? Hey, dude. No, literally, he had a great Dane that he walked three or four times a day. I was in the front yard and he was walking his dog home. And I said, Hey, Marcus, I need your help. And he said, you're at 500 pounds at that point. Correct. And he said to me, um, I was praying that you would ask me, dude, what it's, it's such a great story.

Um, for the, I'm going to give you a little back on Scott and Scott, I'll fill in some of this. Scott was, uh, played all, played all the, you know, good sports in high school, football, track and field swimming, and then took swimming to, uh, you know, crazy high level uh made made the national team uh skated uh skated swam for a uh semester at uh ohio university ohio ohio state ohio state and this wasn't like um you weren't you weren't born this way you didn't you didn't get you weren't born like you were an active like today the story is is like holy shit all these kids are sitting around playing video games that you you were the man like you

you could get at it yeah i played a sport every season when i wasn't playing sports i was outside uh doing stuff in i lived in the country so we would run through the woods. We didn't have laser tag or gotcha guns back then. We would throw crab apples at each other to play games in the woods, things like that. It was always active. It's weird. I have all these fruit trees, and I'm disgusted by the fact if I see my kids picking fruit and throwing it, but I know it's the funnest game ever. I'm torn. We always, we always go to my parents' house and get golf clubs out and just whack pears

and apples and shit into the fields next door. It's so much fun. Caleb, Scott, Scott, Caleb. Nice to meet you, Scott. You don't have a Caleb on your podcast, huh? All three of you guys are front and center yeah we actually have four of us oh one of that one of our guys is uh he deals with like the sponsorship stuff um all of that stuff kind of behind the scenes and he can't he has two two very small children so he can't come on air as much yeah caleb is stuck in jail and so he's kind of like this is

the best uh two hours of his day i'm concerned when he gets out of jail if he's still going to be uh this motivated okay so the the crew on the podcast is amy uh radowski yeah amy radowski radowski of course i fucked that up she is the fittest of us all. Charlie Ote. Five kids. Yeah. Wow. And cat.

And cat. And it's cat sheer? Correct. Oh, good. It looks like cat sheer. She always says it's just like beer, only sheer. Sheer. Okay, so 2011, tell me about this approach to him.

When you ask him, and by the way, in the podcast you did with Julie Foucher, there's something you say that you just want to be able to do stuff without being nervous about it. You just want to be able to, you didn't say nervous. You just want to be able to do things and not be afraid to do them. And when I heard that, because I've interviewed so many people who are 300, 400, 500 pounds, this, I think what you mean by that and correct me if I'm wrong is, um, there was this lady I interviewed I was at the CrossFit podcast, and she said she was in a grocery store and she dropped a grapefruit. And she knew it was going to be like crazy to have to pick it up. And she's looking around and she's like, oh shit, some lady just saw me drop that and I have to pick it up. And is that what you mean by not being afraid to do stuff? You want to be able to go to the supermarket and not be tripping on the fact that if you drop a grapefruit, it's going to be an ordeal to pick it up.

That's a great example. That's not what I was thinking at the time. Okay. Definitely, definitely a great example. At the time, I was thinking about like getting on an airplane. You know, the seat's not fitting, the seat, not fitting, asking for a seat belt extender, all the stuff that highlights that I'm not going to, this is not going to go well for me. Or, um, I can't remember his name. I don't know why I always forget his name, but there was the guy I had on my show.

He was like six, seven. He's the guy that hangs out with Sam dancer. He has a heart. That's like this big. He's the nicest guy in the world. Oh yeah. Matt Bickle. Matt Bickle.

Thank you. like this big he's the nicest guy in the world oh yeah matt bickle matt bickle thank you he was saying like every time you sit in a chair you're like looking at the chair and you're like oh shit here we go and you got a stress test every chair yeah or are the arms wide enough for me to be able to sit in this seat properly did you ever go to a cart no no did you ever think about it no and i and what do you mean by cart i'm like those cart let's like they have at disneyland when i was interviewing gary roberts he said that he knew that if he ever went into one of those carts that was the end he would never get out so he always was like fuck that i'm not doing a cart no never went to a cart never went to a cart um and i and honestly i think i think because i was

so active as a kid like i didn't see health problems for the longest time as i gained weight like i could still like walk around pretty good it was just size into size like would i fit in this seat going to disney world wasn't about walking around for me it was about will i fit in the seat on the ride right tell me about that first conversation you had with marcus um as the first do you remember as the first words coming out of your mouth was that that kind of like an out of body experience? What was that like? Were you like, I can't believe I'm saying this or what did it come to? Is it desperation at that point? It would ask him for help. It was desperation. And he said, and it didn't happen in that moment. It was like three days later, we set up an appointment. He came to my house

because he was busy that evening. So my heart is jumping out of my chest. What is he going to tell me? Like, what is he? My biggest fear was he was going to say, I can't help you. Right. I just wanted to know he could. And he really put those, um, he really put those fears to rest pretty quickly. Like he said immediately, like, you are an athlete. Do not think of yourself as not an athlete. That athlete is still there. We just have to get it. And that just fired me up.

Like he believed that we could take this on and win. And so you felt like you had a partner. I did. And how long after that, before you took your first step in the gym? So that was mid July of 2011 when we met and he gave me workouts to do at home and he would work out with me in my garage. Wow. A lot of it was just walking down the street at first. Like, I just want you to get to the end of the street and back, do it five times. And then it was, let's go around the block. Let's this and then i got a y membership he was giving me things to do with the y and then it was veterans day 2011 i walked into the gym

for the first time and saw murph on the board and veterans days in november right didn't we just have that? Yeah. So July, August, September, November. So four or five months later. Yeah. And you walked in and it was Murph? It was Murph. Oh, no. What did you do? I did Murph.

You did? Very, very modified. Very, very modified. But I did Murph. I've never done Murph with the vest. Have you done it? I didn't go to a vest that day. I, well, I had my own vest. It was built in at the time. Right. Um, I was trying to shed that. Um, but basically what he said to me is, all right, I want you to quickly walk, jog, if you can back and forth across the gym. And the first gym we were in was very long

and narrow. And so it was go down, touch the door and go back. I think it was like 10 times and then go over. And I want you to do five ring rows. I want you to do 10 pushups on this bar that I've elevated. And I want you to sit down and get up off this box 15 times. And I want you to do that for 10 rounds. And then when you're done with that, I want you to walk back and forth across the gym as quickly as you can. Try to jog if you can back and forth. And that's what I did that first day. And how much had you lost some of the 500 at that point in those first four or

five months? Yeah, I was, I think I was four, like four 60 at that point. Oh wow. I'd lost probably 50 pounds before stepping in there. When you're 500 pounds and you get down to four 50, do you, do you feel that 50 you lost? Of course. Um, every bit of weight that you lose, um, you feel, uh, there are definitely stages along the path where, oh my gosh, I can do this better now. Oh my gosh, I can do that better now. Like just tying my shoes. Like I could tie my shoes at four 60.

Crazy. And, uh, do you remember how long that took you to do that workout? I still have the book somewhere. I don't remember the time and I don't even know if he had me time it. He just had me do it. And then he was, he would check in on me throughout the process. Like, how do you feel? Is everything feeling good? Hey, maybe drop the ring road down a little bit, make it a little bit harder. And then he, he says that in that moment, he saw the athlete come out of me and the competitiveness.

So he pushed me during that workout a little bit harder than what he initially planned. Um, it's pretty obvious in, uh, if you go to your Instagram account that you're a great mover, I watched a bunch of your lifts yesterday. I mean, your snatch is great. You're clean as all your, all your movements are great. So it's, it's pretty obvious you have, um, great body awareness and there's obviously tons of people out there who are three, 400, 500 pounds who have no body awareness. Um, not that they can't still embark on the journey and be crazy successful, but that must've been a huge help. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, everything you're doing is like symmetrical and beautiful and clean. Yeah.

That's 11 years of really working it. And, you know, over that time I've had injuries where I've had to really focus on technique. How old are you? I'm 52. Damn, you have me by two years. And how old is your daughter? 21. I can't even believe it. You know, I'm on the total other end of you. I got like little ones. Yeah. It's, it's a crazy world being a parent of a 21 year old. Yeah. Uh, and she's, what year is she in college? A senior already. Yeah. Did she skip a grade? She started early. Um, and yeah, is that, is that your yard right there?

That's her yard. Oh, that's awesome. So she goes to school in Athens, Ohio. It's the oldest school in Ohio. It was actually formed before the state. And it's in the middle of the country. And she has deer that live in her backyard. Yeah, that's awesome. That day that you did Murph, was the gym full of people? It must have been crowded.

So it was like an open gym. So people were coming in and leaving. So I met some of my best friends that day. I didn't know they were going to be my best friends, but I met some of my best friends that day. And it's, it's not every day you get to see a 500 pound person workout. It's a scene, right it's like wow it's um what what was it like in in in crossfit shred when they when they approach you and were you freaking out of course i was freaking out i like when i got in there marcus wasn't there yet i saw that workout on the board i almost ran smart healthy if i could if i could have run i would have run right um and everybody was so welcoming but later down the line they tell me like they were worried for me because they had never seen a guy my size walk in and attempt to do what they were doing

and you did it and shred was very young at the time i think it was only a year old as an affiliate and would do you remember seeing anyone around you that looked remotely like you like starting where you were starting oh no way no mostly just just savages all around. Yeah. Yeah. Any sense that you didn't belong or was everyone pretty damn welcoming? I think that everybody that was in my position being that heavy, you're going to feel like you don't belong. Right. Right. Right. But that community surrounded me and loved on me. Like, I could not even imagine.

And it was pretty quick after that, that I knew that this was where I was going to succeed. I was never going to get the support like this anywhere else. Yeah, man. Everyone's first CrossFit gym is, well, I shouldn't say everyone. It's a very typical story that you're sharing. You go into your first gym and you can't even believe it. And I'm sure, how many podcasts have you done? I think with bonus episodes over 500. Crazy crazy and what year did you start that 2019 holy cow okay so you're busy too

when you as you tell this have you heard this story too have you heard people come onto your podcast and tell you the same story you're're like, yep, yep. Yeah, I've heard the story a lot over time. It was pretty quick that Shred used my story on their website and people would come in and want to meet me and talk to me and hear how I did it and tell me how they were struggling the same way that I was. And I met a lot of great people that way, even before the podcast came around. And I think that's where, that's why I started the podcast. I love to hear these stories and I just wanted to hear more.

I love when people overcome something, whether it be weight or something else. There was, um, in, in the podcast you did with julie there was a pretty telling moment where you basically say um and you're not too explicit about it but you basically say you switch gyms and there were uh multiple reasons obviously but one of the ones that i thought was very powerful and poignant and i think extremely valid was the fact that you had lost 200, you dropped, you basically lost half your body. You dropped 235 pounds. So you were walking around at 265 and you didn't necessarily want to be the guy, that guy anymore. You didn't want to be the guy that was like, Hey, I was once the 500 pound guy. And then I dropped down to two 65. You wanted to

be, um, not known as the guy that lost all that weight. You wanted a fresh start kind of free. It sounds like at first, maybe you, you, you, you, uh, embodied that narrative, but then at some point you want it to get away from a narrative and kind of have a new birth. Am I onto something here? So I think you've opened Pandora's box and that's okay. That's okay. Yeah. In 2016, I was doing some lifts and all of a sudden felt a twinge in my back. Went to a doctor. Lower back? Felt it in my lower back. Okay okay end up going to a doctor getting an mri and i have three blown discs in different parts of my back and that is not from crossfit that was from being 500 pounds so with that with that injury i became very limited and what And what was cool about the weight loss when I got in is I was riding the high from 2011 to 2016.

But we had never really addressed why I gained all the weight. So when I got injured and I couldn't work out like I was before, and I lost that community for bits of time, the success started to unravel and I started to put weight back on. When that happened, I was, so I actually became a coach with that gym in 2000, early 15. Wow. When that happened in two, by about 2017, And by about 2017, they benched me as a coach. And what year was that? 2017. Oh, that must have been a crazy conversation.

And I took that really, really hard. Yeah, yeah. And in retrospect, I didn't deal with it the right way. I don't think the owner dealt with it the right way. But we've come to an understanding now where I just could have done, and I needed to take a break from coaching because my body couldn't hold up to coaching and doing the workouts in a day. But what happened is I put on the weight. People were still calling me coach. I'm the guy that lost all the weight, yet I'm gaining weight. So I felt like a hypocrite in that moment. And it got to a point in 2019 where I just stopped going to the gym

because I felt like a failure every time I walked in the door. And as much as people like would reach out to me, Hey, come on in, come in, come in. I still felt like the failure every time I walked in those doors because I wasn't that guy anymore. And so in 2020 is when I decided to go to a different gym. Um, tell what, why, why, why did they stop having you as a coach? Because you started putting on too much weight and you were like, you were losing your mobility or you had a bad attitude or. Well, I think, I think all of that one, I wasn't, I wasn't as good a coach as I could be because I was hurting. Okay. And, and I looked in my head, I went right back to the old Scott who was like, they're benching me cause I'm fat.

back to the old scott who was like they're benching me because i'm fat and i spiraled into a deep depression um it's taking me a long time it's taking me a long time to realize what caused all that in the first place and how to get out of that funk and i'm much better for it today but that was a really tough time in my life. What, what did get you in that funk? What, um, what did get you in that funk? How did you go from, uh, collegiate athlete to start putting on weight? Do you know what it was? So I'm, I am an extrovert who needs to be around people. And what we found out is when I was a kid, some of my better friends were part-time friends. They were my friends when it was convenient for them. But when it wasn't, they went on to other issues. And that really made me fear that people would leave me in my life.

And when that benching occurred in 2017 i felt like everybody was leaving me ah ah how about how about originally how about originally why do you think you put on the weight like so i i'm no psychiatrist but was there something is that like um separation anxiety like you were born and you weren't allowed like like, as anyone said, well, you weren't allowed to breastfeed. So you got separation anxiety and therefore. No, I think, I think it was a part of team sports for most of my life. And when I retired from swimming, I didn't have anything community wise to jump back

into. So working out was a very solitude endeavor, you know, getting on a treadmill or, you know, doing curls or bench or whatever. And I tried different, I tried power lifting. I tried some different things after that and nothing filled that void of being on a team sport. Wow. So, so a huge part of CrossFit for you is the community you you you love the class it is 90 of it yeah that's awesome that is really awesome um do you go to a gym now crossfit gym now i do um do you have anxiety every time you go in like a small tinge of it no none none how about when you do your podcast when your podcast starts up do you get a little

anxiety there like moments before the guest comes on depends on the guest um but i'm pretty comfortable now doing it i get more anxiety doing it this side yes you're in control instead of me for sure i hate i i do not want to go on other podcasts that gives me say but i i never quote unquote quote belong to a gym but i probably have worked out an affiliate i don't know not a lot couple hundred times and every time I have a moment, a small moment of anxiety, even, even at the gym at HQ. And I worked out all the time. I always have this like moment of like, oh shit. And it goes away very quickly. And of course, by the end of class, it's completely gone. It's like, it's not even anywhere in sight, but for you, you're going there. It kind of

reminds me, that's why I like school so much. You're going there to see your friends and then working out is just something you do with your friends. Whereas I kind of go there to work out. And then by the end, I'm like, oh, these are cool people. I start on one end and go to the other. And you go from the friends to the working out. I go from the working out to the friends. Yeah, even though this gym I'm at now is very different. There's

not a lot of time for friends. At least I'm in that community and the little bit of time before and a little bit of time after I get that interaction and that's what I need. Did you, did you meet your wife when you were, when you were a athlete, athlete body? Uh, I wasn't too far off my athlete body. And so she saw you go through this transformation. She saw you go from two 50 up to 500. Yeah. Oh, what is she, what do people close to you say to you? Do people address it when people are close to you? people close to you say to you do people address it when people are close to you um i think the people close to me yeah i mean my family and i address it all the time um because i want my whole family to be healthy um my i gotta say my mom is like

she should be on this podcast actually she lost 150 pounds at like 67. I think she was at the time. She's done like 55 K since then. She, she's done. She ran a 55 kilometer race. No, no,

no. She's done 50, five Ks. Oh, 55 Ks. Yeah. So that is an amazing part of straight you got into crossfit and you drugged your wife and your mom and with you and they each lost over 100 pounds correct all at

crossfit shred well my mom doesn't live here so that's why she she went into she was 67 at the time. She just started doing a 5k a day around her neighborhood. And then she started doing actual races where she would go and get the medals and all that stuff, but never did a single thing like that until she was in her late sixties. How did you get her into that? What did you say? Did you say, Hey mom, I've lost like 50 pounds. You should try moving. Yep. She just, I think she just watched and was inspired and saw us moving. So she wanted to do the same thing. It didn't take a lot of talking to her to get that done. Relative to your own journey and how proud you are of your own journey

are you even more proud of your mom like when i think of my mom working out it i'm just like tickled are you trying to get me to alex kazan cry here i mean i just think it's the greatest gift you can give your your your children is healthy a healthy parent i mean i don't have to worry about my mom my mom goes to a crossfitFit gym. I'm like, Oh, this is great. Yeah. I am so proud of my mom. I mean, she probably put 20 years on her life. She is a completely different person. And, and I, and I mean that in the best way she, She suffered from anxiety, a lot of things that we talked about with me. All of that is gone. My mom moves.

You cannot keep her still now. And in October of last year, your dad passed. Was that last year? Yeah, I think two years ago. Okay, October of two years ago. It two october two years ago it was 2020 were they together they were and and did that how did that affect her uh training i think that affected all of us pretty hard um because my dad was the rock in the family. He was a mach active person naturally because of his job and just do piddling around the house. So he never had a weight problem, um, or anything like that.

And for him to be kind of the healthiest person, our whole life, uh, to lose him and the rock in the family was pretty tough. And what did he have? Did he get cancer? No, just had some lung issues and it just wouldn't go away. And went to the hospital. They thought they could just give him some antibiotics. It would be all right. And next thing we know, we're called home because he only had a couple of days.

Oh, so just completely out of left field. Yeah. Oh, so just completely out of left field. Yeah. Oh, wow. Wow. And that didn't, and yet your mom still stayed on her journey. Yeah.

Yeah. Amazing dude. And, and your wife, how did you get her to come along on the journey? Did she actually go to CrossFit shred with you? She did. Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah. She's, she's going through her own battle now because her knees are just shot. And, um, and so we're working just, we're working to get her surgery approval to have knee replacement. And you had surgery, which was hugely successful. Yes. On my back, I had a lot of procedures done to two of the three bulging discs or ruptured discs. What did they do to them? So it was, they tried a couple of things that didn't work as well, like epidural steroid injections, things like that. The thing that really stuck is they did

a nerve ablation because the ruptured disc was sitting on the sciatic nerve. So they did a nerve ablation so that I don't feel that pain. And it has, it's been a game changer for me completely. And I don't know that word, ablation. Does that mean they just basically kill the nerve? Yeah, they burn it off. No shit, and that's it. And then it stops talking to your brain and you're good to go. And ideally, a new nerve will grow.

And hopefully in a better position than the old nerve was. Okay, so if something's pressing on it, they kill the nerve underneath here. And then hopefully it grows somewhere different and reattaches. Correct. Caleb, do you approve of this? It's interesting. I know, like, I know it works, but it's like you have a sensor in your car and it just is like constantly going off or like a light in your dashboard kind of thing.

And it's like going under the hood and just like ripping the cord out. Like, I know there's some, and so that sensor doesn't go off anymore. I mean, it works. You stop having chronic pain all the time, but you might have some issues with like not feeling things in that area or, I don't know, but if it works. Did you lose any sensation anywhere when they did that? Minimally at first and now everything's back.

Wow, that's awesome. Where did you lose it? Like just like a patch of skin on your chest or your stomach or like on your ass? It was in my right leg. And you just can't feel it for a while? Yeah.

Which is better than being in pain? Yeah. I was sleeping in a recliner for 18 months because I couldn't even lay flat. Wow. The other issue is that it'll, it'll take the place of just constantly taking pain medications too. So I mean, I would probably take that or taking ibuprofen Tylenol and opiates just to

try to alleviate the pain. That'll probably never go away. Did you ever get into pills, Scott? I took my share of ibuprofen during that time, but I have maybe twice taken ibuprofen since the procedure. But no narcotics? You weren't like, okay, I'm an Oxycontin man. Did they ever prescribe you anything like that? They didn't, and I wouldn't have taken it. How come? Just a fear. Like I, I think I have

an addictive personality. Um, and so I don't even want to even attempt to go down that road. Right. What were you going to say, Caleb? Sorry. I just, I remember going to the doctor when i was in high school i had like some some patellar tendonitis or something and they gave me muscle relaxers i remember the first thing my mom said was like you're not taking these after and she like we picked up the prescription and then we just threw them away when i was in the seventh grade i got vicodin what for my ankle my ankle hurt i went to the doctor they couldn't figure it out so they gave me vicodin and my mom gave me all the pills like to take to school to like self-medicate and i remember i started thinking you're gonna say so i used to started thinking of these pills

as gold because whenever i would take one of these pills i felt like i was one of the cool kids like i knew right away i was like wow i'm cool i am so not cool and i'm not fucking chill like this and then i ran out that was it i didn't and then i got into it again a little in college like mixing it with alcohol but nice nothing i would only like if i would went to scott's house i'd look in his medicine cabinet and pop one and drink a beer then i'd go into scott's fridge and drink a beer and be like thanks scott what i i obviously um watch uh everything that you're doing uh and obviously what popped on my radar is that now you are um made this public announcement that you are going to um you set a goal for yourself to lose 100 pounds between what do you know the exact date you made that a declaration uh i made the declaration to

amy uh my co-host on the way home from the games okay so wow wow so so uh basically uh games uh 2022 tell me about that conversation you guys are in madison and you guys are driving back to ohio together you're in madison wisconsin you guys are driving back to ohio together yep that's correct uh we we had just in my opinion killed it uh from a media perspective at the games uh we were the only entity at every single press conference um we were getting great footage from the floor we were doing um everything we wanted to do um and i thought the only thing holding us back was me not looking the part and um and people are saying that right that, that's, I can't think of any specific instance. I've heard that, but I know people, well, I've definitely seen it on the

internet where someone will be like, Hey, how can that guy have been doing CrossFit for not, not about you specifically. I haven't heard it, but I've heard, Hey, how can the, you know, how can that guy have been doing CrossFit for seven years and still be 200 pounds above his ideal weight? And so is that what you mean by not looking the part? Yep. And I hear the trolls. They're in a lot of the posts I make. I made one recently about my 11th year in CrossFit.

And people are like, well, maybe you should try something else because it doesn't seem to be working. Well, they don't know the whole story because I was in a really good place in 2016. I was competing at local competitions. I was doing a lot of great things. And then my whole world changed. Back pain is so debilitating. back pain is so debilitating. Um, I can't even express. And then on top of that, you know, I did, I did that CrossFit documentary and I know that you were a part, you were still at CrossFit when that came out. Um, right after that, I ended up talking about a piece on the journal that I watched again last night, a fantastic piece in the CrossFit journal got published in 2020. If you just type in a Scott Switzer it'll pop up maybe i even have a link to it oh here it is and so

right after that was filmed i ended up having to go on an iv bag of antibiotics for 18 weeks with a port coming out of my body and I wasn't allowed to do any activity. Why did they take a huge chunk of skin out of you or a flesh or something? So it, it dripped the medication into my heart and Caleb can probably, but why did you need antibiotics at that level? I mean, my wife needed that once and it was fucking horrible. I had a leg issue where my legs were infected yeah my wife's was it was my wife's leg too they did surgery on her knee and it caused an infection and they like hey you might have to have your leg amputated and like this thing was so close to my heart every time i'd

bend over i would get lightheaded and almost pass out oh dude hey did you ever uh this is off subject but do you think you ever recovered your i I don't know what the word is, your biome or whatever? Do you think that like your gut health and all that shit ever came back after having that poured in you? Do you think the antibiotics, like obviously that was life-saving to stop the infection, but did you ever have any other issues? Like maybe the antibiotics killed something you need? I never truly thought about it till just now, but I have had some stomach issues since that happened. Yeah. Do you take probiotics? I don't. And I probably need to start taking a probiotic. Feel free to DM my wife.

My wife basically had one of those too. She had surgery on her knee. They had a massive infection on her knee. And they said, hey, we're going to take a shot at getting this infection out. We can't grow it on a culture. We've given you antibiotics. We have no idea what's causing it. And so they, they took a dime or nickel roll size of flesh out from behind her knee of scar tissue that was infected. Her whole knee was turning yellow. And they're like, Hey, if this doesn't work, you might, you might lose your leg. And, uh, and then they put her on one of those ports you're talking about. And she, she said, ever since then, something's not right. She said, all those antibiotics did something to her kind of threw something off a little bit.

That the, the period of time having that poured in was so miserable for me. Um, it was probably the deepest part of my depression. Did you ever get suicidal? I don't like to say that because it triggers my daughter, but there was, there were moments. You said something and I want to get back to the car ride, but you said something that I thought was just,

and I'm a metaphor geek, but you said something so good on Julie Foucher's podcast that really hit me hard. You said you have a plan. You have a plan for yourself and that when you're not on your medication, you can't see the plan. Not that you can't when you're not on medication, but it can happen, right? And so therefore, um, uh, great podcast, by the way, I think that was probably, I've only listened to about a half dozen of podcasts is the best one I ever listened to, by the way. Um, you basically said that, Hey, you're on the medication and I'm not a proponent of medication, but you, you kind of unfucked me a little bit.

You said when you're not on the medication, um, you can't see the plan. And so what the medication does is it lets you stay focused on the plan. And I know that feeling of when your brain is so noisy that you can't get back to what you want to get back to. Yeah, you don't even know what your priorities are. And I said that it's like, I have a game plan. It's in front of me, but it's so damn blurry. I can't figure it out. I can't see it. I can't comprehend it. And I've, and I've just recently been put on these medication, this medication and the, and it was three weeks later, every, the fog lifted

and that plan has become very crystal clear to me. By the way, congratulations. And it's helped the podcast. It's helped my nutrition journey. It's helped me get back to the gym. All of those things. I'm able to prioritize everything in my life. And even I would say from 11 to 16, my priorities were jacked.

I was all CrossFit all the time and my family was second. And this time around, I work out at lunch. I work from home. My gym is three minutes away. I go to the gym at lunch i get my workout and i come home go back to work and then i have the evenings with my wife or the podcast which she is in full support of yeah that's awesome that is really that makes me happy to hear that that that's huge to doing a podcast having people around you

be supportive because man it's it is a time consuming, uh, venture. Okay. Go ahead. When I was, uh, when I was at syndicate and Mac, um, that's where I met Scott actually, um, was your wife with you the whole time? She was in Knoxville the whole time. She did not come to the syndicate.

She only came to the Mac. Oh, sorry. Okay. That's awesome. So Kat was with me at the syndicate she only came to the mac oh sorry okay that's awesome so cat was with me at the syndicate yeah cat came with me to the syndicate and my wife stayed back at the airbnb with the pool and then the next weekend when cat left she came in and helped support me that was awesome that was really cool it's nice to meet you guys there. So you're in the car driving home, and I'm speculating, but you said you killed it.

And I know that feeling, like you were at all the press conferences. You got the footage you want. It's like, wow, we worked hard, and we got what we needed. We did what we needed. But the whole time, I'm guessing, are you suggesting that you weren't able to enjoy yourself because there was this constant little voice? You'd be in the zone filming something or in the zone talking to someone, and then you hear this voice, oh my God, someone's staring at me, or I don't fit in, or I don't look like these people, and it would kind of fuck with your trip, you being in the zone. So what I will say is, it was twofold.

One is, you've been to the the games you've done the behind the scenes we all love those you have to move like things are happening at the games in different places all the time and you have to be able to get there quickly and when you get walking 14 miles every day is would just be the norm correct and when you get there you have to be able to do your job immediately there is no time to take a break you don't eat you just go off of coffee yeah paper street coffee and thank you do your thing because that that is what is in this cup right now. Cheers. And the, on the other side was I was able to do it all. I was able to do that stuff, but it was not comfortable. I was, I was breathing heavy.

I was sweating, trying to get from one spot to the next, but I was able to do it. So I, it gave me the confidence that if I can just get as fit as I possibly can, I know that we can kill this. Plus, I'm a walking billboard for what CrossFit can do. Right. Well, that's the part that I love so much. And we'll get to that. The part that I love so much is we need so many more role models of what is humanly possible out here. It wouldn't be uncommon for me to be kneeling down and filming something and just be having a blast, and I'm staring through my lens, and I'm watching sweat drip off of Rich Froning, and I'm just shallow depth of field, and I'm just like in heaven. And then all of a sudden my mind goes to – there's a thousand people around me is my shirt hanging on me,

showing my love handles. And it would just fuck me up. The whole thing would just be like, I just became self-conscious and the whole thing just goes to shit. It's like this. It's just all ego. As soon as you start thinking about yourself, your life's miserable.

When you're thinking about someone else or something else, your life's great. Like thinking about your kids, everything's good. that that's what that's what i was thinking that probably you would go through just that there's these moments but but it doesn't sound like that you were okay you've accepted you and you feel like you fit in there god i hope yeah i think i fit in um i it's not where i'm the happiest i want to be, I want to be more fit. I want to be smaller than I am today, but I want to do it the right way this time. And that's why like,

I'm doing it differently this time. I'm not so obsessed with everything. I want this to be sustainable. But what, what happened to me is I would, like you said, you get to a spot, you're kneeling, you're getting great footage, great pictures, whatever it is. And then for me, it's holy shit. My back is on fire. Right? Like I am cramping up because you don't even have time to drink or pee or anything at times, right? You're just, you're just flying to the next thing. Yep. Um, and, and you're in the car with cat the car with Kat and you bring it up to her. How does she respond?

It was Amy. Sorry, Amy. You're that close to her? Were you comfortable saying that? So Amy and I's relationship is kind of runs with my journey. She was at my first gym. My family is who got her into CrossFit. Wow. And, and that now she is a coach and she's a level two and doing all the things that she's doing. And when I left

shred, there was definitely, um, a crack in our friendship because I was very angry at the time and she, she was kind of put in a position to kind of take sides and she didn't want to do that. And that trip to the games was just her and I in a car all the way to Madison from Columbus and back. And it repaired a lot of our friendship and we are back to where we were before. And part of that is me admitting now that I was part of the problem and I wasn't willing to do that back when it first happened. So it was a therapy session for the two, for the two of you just for, how long is that car ride? Eight hours each way, each way. Oh man.

So on the way back, how soon, so you get in the car and how soon, and you're driving back to Ohio, and how soon did you just come up with that right away? First stop, you're like, hey. So I think the trip started by listening to some podcasts. We probably listened to you for a little bit. I think we listened to Jason CF, their podcast for a second. And then we started debriefing about what we did over the weekend. And that's when it came up.

And I basically said to her, I need every a hundred percent accountability for everything I do going forward, because I do going forward, because I'm going to lose a hundred pounds by the 23 CrossFit games. And as that came out of your mouth, were you hearing it for the first time too? Or did you think about it before you said it? Or when you heard it, were you like, Oh shit.

No, I think it, that first time I heard it, it wasn't when it came out of my mouth. That's how open our conversation was at that moment. And, and at that time, I think Amy then texted Kat and Charlie and said, all right, we're all in. And Kat, I remember that group text. By the way, Kat, that's an amazing photo of you. You look like, you look like you're at Woodstock.

I hope you're wearing a sunflower dress and you have made daisy uh uh bracelet uh wow and then did you feel the pressure the very next day you put a team around you? You have like a nutritionist now and you have a coach. Yeah. Cheryl Nasso is my nutrition coach. And I went to, I go to CrossFit Polaris and that is owned by Christy O'Connell and her husband, Patrick. Oh, wow. And I went to them and said, listen, I need to be held accountable. I, if I'm not showing up, I want you to call me and bitch me out because I have my why now, and I want to be successful by the next CrossFit Games. How much did you weigh when you went to the CrossFit Games this year?

So that's kind of, we're going to say 346. So 246 would be even how tall are you uh just just under six feet oh wow wow that's an incredible that's an incredible journey yeah and in in the first 11 weeks, you lost 22 pounds. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just over 25 right now. Yeah, that's incredible. So that was – I will say body composition has changed dramatically. What do you mean by –

I'm down almost two shirt sizes. So what is that, like from a 5X to a 3X or a 2X? So I was wearing a 4X at the games, and I can wear a 2X now. It's not probably ideal, but I'm really close to it being ideal. God, isn't it nice fitting into smaller clothes? It is. 6'2", 46, and he'll be a damn linebacker cory leonard uh during during this last four months or five months um have you had any like breakdown moments like oh shit what did i get myself into i'm not up for this. Nope. Full steam ahead. No. And when I have like,

when I have doubts, I have people around me that I can talk to. Um, I, I text with Cheryl probably daily. Um, and when I see Christie and Patrick at the gym, they are very, very supportive. I, I cannot express how amazing they are very very supportive i i cannot express how amazing they are what is what is can you describe you know like some people be like i'm losing weight i'm counting calories i'm losing weight i'm going on paleo or i'm losing weight i'm making myself throw up every night before i go to bed like what what is the can you sum up the scottitzer plan? What is the plan? Give us the secret. The secret, eat right and work out. It's the wise old tale.

Cheryl has me on a calorie count along with a macro breakdown, but I am not 100% compliant on the macro breakdown. I just try to hit around those goals. And the way my body works is I level off for like about a week, week and a half, and then I have a big drop. And then I level off, and then I have a big drop. So that's how it's kind of gone and sarah nasa by the way i went to her instagram account yesterday uh anyone who what a wealth of information her account has it's crazy she's amazing she is a three-time games athlete too yeah crazy and and the way um oh gee i like these people who tinker with their bodies and let you see it. So, hey, and she does – I feel like she does a lot of that. She lets you see just all the tinkering she's doing and experimentation she's doing.

How did you meet her? Why did you choose her? Through Instagram. And you're just like, okay, this is the lady? She started listening to our podcast she reached out to me um i had her on her story is freaking amazing um one of the best stories i think we've had on our my podcast if where she came from to games athlete unbelievable she was uh um she had an eating disorder was in a in a rehab center like six weeks i think it was um had to learn how to eat again had to do all that stuff and uh ends up going to the games yeah that's nuts. By the way, I've been talking to what she,

I read that post yesterday that you just had up and I've just started introducing more fruit and vegetables to my diet. I love fruits and vegetables, but I've been on basically, I was going pretty hardcore carnivore for a long time. And tons of people were telling me this and I should have been listening,

but I basically just completely now cut out processed foods. I lean a lot on sausage and bacon and and deli slices i i stopped all that and i started introducing uh fruit more way more fruits and vegetables to my diet and holy shit i feel so much better well i shouldn't say i feel so much better i'm just performing better and and i yeah it's like yeah yeah yes eat veggies cheryl nasso yeah not that i avoided them i've I just performing better. And I, yeah. So yeah. Yeah. Yes. Eat veggies. Cheryl Nassau. Yeah. Not that I avoided them. I've always loved veggies, but now I've been just like going out of my way to eat them as my go-to instead of like a pack of Turkey meat. Holy shit. I feel better. When, what she's taught me is my body needs carbs to be successful.

Yeah. I think she's right. And, and the evidence, I mean, there's evidence because I track all my food all the time. So we can see, depending on what I'm eating, what my successes and failures are. And I need higher carbs to perform better in the gym so that my success is better. Are you on any diabetes medication now? No, haven't been since probably 2012 so and how long were you on it so that's that was kind of the beginning of the desperation um i was not a diabetic for it was in my family i was not a diabetic i woke up one day and couldn't see oh that that's not um that's typical right that's like that's a i mean by typical i mean

a lot of people have had that experience right that's when they wake up one morning they can't see what is that that's sugar in your in your in the cells in your eye they start to bend your lens or something correct so they call it a my myopic flip where sugar gets into the pores of your eye. And actually what I couldn't see before I could see clear and what I could see, I couldn't see at all. So like up close was blurry and far away was crystal clear. Wow. That must've, was wow that must was that scary so scary i went to the eye doctor um that day i went in there he did like two tests and said you need to get to your family doctor and i said oh when should i make an appointment for next week he goes no like today like you need to get there right now and that's when they tested me and my blood sugar was at,

or my A1C was 13.4, which is way off the charts. Whoa. Hey, is that the highest you've ever heard? I've heard higher. But the people I've heard higher from make me sick that I let myself get to that point. Right. Okay.

I don't even think five points. I mean, and then you had it retested again. I heard you saying you had it below five, which I think is where you want to have it as low as I've had it as low as four, six. Yeah.

That's awesome. Right now I'm about, I'm about five, one. Um, uh, when you, when you have that myopic flip and then that, and once you started eating better, how long before you got your vision back? So it, it wasn't that simple.

Like it took me probably two months, but to ask Marcus for help from the point of the myopic flip to actually getting help. Um, and then I started to see improvement in a lot of things, probably within the first month. Um, so when you go to the doctor and you, and he says, uh, you have diabetes and you're at 13.4, does he actually write a prescription for you right then and there and you go to the pharmacy and you start popping pills? So you get pills, you get a testing kit, you get all that stuff written for you that moment.

And my doctor told me in that moment that diabetes is forever, so just get used to this. And when I came back back whatever it was like a year later and i was at four six he's like you're no longer a diabetic and i'm like you told me diabetes is forever he said i'm just telling you that's what happens with almost all of my patients oh god that breaks my heart to hear that to be fair that is that is pretty reasonable i'm sure he has so many people going into the clinic and they just they're like oh i have all these issues i can't they're like okay well i can't dude why take away the hope

and i don't even think it's you're not well i think it depends on the provider obviously but a lot of providers they just keep seeing it and they're like, hey, here's a solution for it. And they give them the solution and then they don't use it. They just continue to go about their life in a regular, like how they would normally. So then they give up and just go to plan B? Yeah, they're like, oh, well, I have a medication to fix this, so I don't need to change anything. I don't need to change my diet or my habits or anything. They just continue doing what they were doing i don't

it's it's really frustrating when jr said it before it's difficult to help somebody who doesn't actually want to be helped they just want to have like a quick solution to their problem when he told you the diabetes type 2 diabetes was forever um that must have not helped your depression that would no that would fucking break my heart yeah and it like i said it took me another two minute two months to ask for help i was embarrassed um that i'd let myself get to a point where i was a diabetic i swore when i was a kid i saw what it did to me so i had it it is deep in my family my aunt died piece by piece from diabetes like they were doing amputations they took the foot they took the leg did you have any problems i did not that's's good. But again, I was diagnosed and two months later, I did ask for help.

So I was only on the meds probably six to eight months. Wow. Did you know that the doctor was wrong or just were you surprised when you went in too? The second time. So when I was there, I did not know he was wrong. Second time. So when I, when I was there, I did not know he was wrong. And it took me like learning about nutrition a little bit that doctors have no clue about nutrition.

That's not part of their, their education. It's like a day. It's like one class in there and they're like underground or something. It's hilarious. So at that point i was like well maybe he is wrong and let's try to prove him wrong and that's when the competitive side came out of me again where okay let's let's go let's get after this and so you go back in there and and then how do you get off do Do you taper? Nope. Cold turkey. I don't think you have to taper those drugs.

I think you can just, yeah, it's not like an opiate. I think you can just be like, you like check your blood sugar and if it's normal, like on a consistent basis and you're A1C, then you can just. Hey, Scott, if you would have stayed on those drugs with a 4.6, could those drugs hurt you? I think it was because I was actually having moments where my blood sugar was getting super low. There was a day I came down before this was a podcast center. It was my man cave. I put some sports on the TV and I passed out. My wife came down and had to get me awake because my blood sugar was down in the forties. Isn't that interesting? Think about that for a second. They put you on meds that are supposed to make you better, but if you make yourself better,

these meds will fucking kill you. I'm sure I've had that explained to me over the years. I'm sure I've had that explained to me over the years. And I know we're making sweeping generalizations about doctors and we all know here, just so you know, everyone on the show and everyone's listening that the crossfitting doctors are a blessing. We love all you guys. Thank you. Thank you for bringing those two worlds together. Okay. So you get off, you get off that medication and wow. And I guess that's gotta be be a motivator, too.

You never want to do that again. That must suck. Oh, never. Pricking your finger two times a day and doing all that stuff was – it's painful. It's embarrassing. It's like taking care of a shitty dog. Yeah. Wow.

Do you ever have a dog that bites people? Do you have a dog? I do have a dog. Does it bite people? I've never had a dog that bites people. Oh, it sucks. Oh, it sucks. So bad.

But I've learned of the medicines I've been put on and I've been able to get off, I always feel worse on the medicine. Oh. I've been able to get off, I always feel worse on the medicine. Oh. And so I think it, it does prove your point that if you're trying to better yourself, the medicine can actually be counter intuitive. You're in the car. You say that to Amy. She she she wastes no time and sends out a group text. What a friend. And and you start this journey and you get Cheryl Nasso as a nutritionist. You talk to the gym owners, the O'Connells, and now you're on this journey and you're four or five months into it. And is the, is the goal attainable? That is a lot of weight to lose in one year, right? A hundred pounds. And I'll be honest with being totally transparent.

I don't care if I lose the a hundred pounds. If I'm as fit as I can possibly be word, that's just a number, right? If I'm wearing a single X t-shirt and um and i'm at the games running around and i'm not sweating and hurting and all that stuff then it's been a success right well you'll be sweating the second you get out of your car i feel like the second i get there i start sweating you pick up your camera and you're like shit i'm soaked already i kind of look forward to the point when my whole shirt is wet so that they don't see just like the patches. Oh, it's just all wet. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. It is. It has been brutally hot there the last couple of years. I wouldn't know. Um, but I wish I did. Um, tell me about, um, tell me about your family, uh, your, your, your daughter in particular, how does a child, um, perceive the journey you're going through? So that ebbs and flows because at her age, they're pretty self-absorbed at times, right? Sure, of course. They're going through their stuff. And so sometimes my daughter looks at my journey as an inconvenience. Okay. You know, um, but for the

most part she understands and she wants me to be healthy. So I would say that wins out more times, but there are times where it, it comes across from them that I'm being an inconvenience because I don't want to go out to eat at this place or that place. I want to go where I can get like a salad or some chicken or something like that. And do you stay steadfast? I do. Yeah. Because, you know, I'm very confident in saying this, that she's going to remember that when she reflects on it when she's 30 or 40. I mean, I totally can relate to her at 21 or even my son at eight years old. He don't give a shit. So let me tell you this.

When she was eight or nine is when I first went on this journey the first time. And her best friend lived in the house next door. They moved away and that's how Marcus moved in. She came to me a couple months after I started with Marcus and she says, I thought when I lost my best friend, it was the worst thing ever because her best friend moved away. But Marcus and janessa moving in um saved my dad's life okay so she knows she knows yeah kids are brilliant she said that at eight yeah yeah that's cool yeah she's gonna show she'll reflect back also for sure and be like so proud of you i don't i don't even think I thought of my parents between the age of 20 and 15 and 30.

They were just a wallet and a hug. Yeah. I have those moments too. Um, I have my eight year old, I think is getting ready to go into that phase. I'm going to have a, I have a long 20 years. Um, you, when did you take your level one? Uh, 2015. And why did you take it? I wanted to pay it forward. I wanted to coach. Um, I thought that's what I wanted at the time. And I really did enjoy coaching and I really enjoyed getting to know the athletes.

Plus taking that level one was, was life-changing. That's where I met Julie Foucher. Oh, she was the instructor there. She was one of the instructors. Yes. Wow.

And, and does, does she remember you being in that class? Yeah. And how much did you weigh in 2015 when you took that level one? That's probably when I was in that 265 range. What do you think about someone who's never done CrossFit before taking their level one? I think you have to at least know what it is going in there,

or it's going to be like sipping out of a fire hose. It's so much information. What do you think about someone? I agree with you. I still think that they should do it, but you're right. The thing is, it's very interesting what you said, and I've heard this before. If you take it and I don't think a lot of people do this, it's probably less than 1%, but God, I wish more people would do it. Um, take,

take CrossFit, who cares? Take the level one. You've never taken it, but you're right. Um, if you've done it, if you took it then, and then a year later took it again, it would be all, it would seem like you had never taken it because you'll have different eyes that you'll be looking at it with, right? So take it, do CrossFit for a year, and then take it again. Obviously, that's then $2,600 instead of $1,300. What do you think about people taking it who are 100 pounds overweight? Let's say you're supposed to be 200, but you weigh 300. let's say you're supposed to be 200, but you weigh 300.

So I did retake it in 2020. Um, and I was overweight again at that point. Um, I was still able to move. I'm like, you said, like I'm a good mover. So I was able to do all the movements. I mean, I was wiped, uh, wiped out after that, but, and I had to take it online because I actually was signed up for level two. I was signed up for level two, and then the pandemic came, and I kept getting bumped. And eventually, I was going to lose my cert if I didn't just get something to retake it. So I took the level one online to uh keep it active am i off base on

this i have not taken the level one but i speak that i have not taken the level one online but i speak on it um like i have i just can't imagine it it being anywhere near as good as the level one in person. It's, it's probably not. Um, I think you're accurate there. I think as a research of it, it's fine. Um, all of the movements are done in a four hour block instead of over two days. Wow. Okay. It is, it is a lot. Um, so you're going through all those fundamental movements in a short amount of time. And then the book part of it, you're on your own. It's all self-paced. Um, so you have plenty of time for that, but man, that you're on a zoom call doing, um, medicine ball cleans in your living room, getting judged by someone in Dubai.

Right, right. You know, and so you're not getting any of the personal attention or the touch corrections that you get in the in-person online or in-person L1. What about the culture? Like that was the part that I always trip on because I've been to hundreds of L1s, at least 100. And I always blown away. And then obviously I took my own at the culture. The people come in there on like hour one. And by the last hour of the second day, I can tell they're all friends. They're cheering each other on. The old guys, friends with the young girl, the young girls fit with friends with the super fit guy. And it's like, holy cow. And I feel like those seminar trainers are the ones that share that culture, that make it so you're like, oh, wow. That's where the whole cult thing comes from, that culture that they kind of seeps into the class. I will say that on my online one, I stayed friends with a couple of the people.

Oh, wow. Cool. Okay. So it's, you have to remember it's still the same seminar staff running it. Right. And we, we do a lot of talking in between the movements, coming back from breaks and stuff like that. So they do a really good job trying. It just probably falls a little bit short of the in-person. John Clark, a girl at my L1 last week was fresh in the door. Oh, okay. I wonder why. Do you think, I wonder if she was there like with her like husband or boyfriend or girlfriend or something like that. And those are the only people that I've ever seen come in fresh. Like someone, you know, the, the spouse drags the other one in there. Uh, so you take your L one in 2015 and, um, and are, does that really awaken you also? Like you've been doing it since 2011, but in 2015, did that like re-inspire you? You're like,

holy shit. Yeah. So I took it with Marcus, the person he was getting his redone and Amy got hers for the first time that day as well. So the three of us went together, we got split up into different groups right off the bat. So we got to meet all the new people. Um, and it fired me up. I got to watch Marcus be the demo person on a strict muscle up. Um, and he killed it. Um, it just was, it just was so much

fun. And then the little workouts at the end and the community cheering for everybody, because even when I was at my fittest burpees were not my, my strength. And you always do burpees on that first workout and the whole community was cheering me on. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. And then from there you started coaching. Correct. I, we went through a shadowing process with Marcus. Um, so I was coaching at the gym that I first discovered and, and Amy and I were going through that process and became full-time coaches. Well, not full-time, but part-time coaches, uh, probably six weeks after that. Is your wife tripping on you that, or your daughter tripping on you or your friends and family? You go from this guy who weighs 500 pounds and now you're a coach at a gym.

So like everybody was kind of tripping. Um, but like, if I go back to my hometown, Like everybody was kind of tripping. But like, if I go back to my hometown, people knew me as that sports guy anyway. Right. Right. So it kind of fit in. And I was doing what people thought I probably would have been doing anyway. And the friends I really was hanging out with and my true, when I learned what a true friend was, were the people I met at the CrossFit gym.

And why do you say that? It all became natural. Well, we talked earlier that I had friends that were, that I was a convenience, right? The friends I found. What does that mean? Like those are people you drink with, like the people you drink with are a convenience. Like the guy that sits next to you at the bar, your friends, but if you guys both weren't alcoholics, you wouldn't be there. It was more like I had a friend growing up who was supposedly my best friend who would hang out

with me until someone cooler asked him to hang out or a girl would ask him to hang out and when that happened i was left to the side right they. They wouldn't bring you along. Correct. Right. And when the people I met at Shred have become like my best friend in the world, I met at Shred. To this day, that's your best friend in the world. Best friend in the world. Wow. And he actually is at CrossFit Polaris with me now.

Oh, wow. And he is with me lockstep to get me to be the fittest person I can be. Wow. I can see you're glowing. You're all excited just thinking about him. Having friends like that is great. Like he texts me every day, like, are you going today? Let's go.

Like he will not let me miss a day. Why did you start the podcast do you know why i do the simple answer is this is what i was meant to do my whole life when i was a kid i wanted to be a sports broadcaster and gave up on that dream for some reason and ended up going down the corporate route, getting a master's degree in business and doing all that stuff. When I, in 2019, I worked for the state of Ohio, a new governor came in, I was demoted and I realized like, what did you, what did you do for the state, Scott? So at that point I was the head trainer, um, for all of the local operations that go on around the state for reemployment services. Okay. And, um, and I realized that moment that I held

the state up here and they held me down here when I got demoted. And I'm like, I need to do something that I love. And that's something for me. And I was doing the gym podcast at shred for them anyway. And I'm like, doesn't cost me a thing to start one. And I talked to Charlie and Amy and he said, Hey, you want to sit around and talk about CrossFit. So we started doing that. And it was soon after that it pivoted to, we were friends with Saxon pancheck so we went up and worked out with saxon and then interviewed him afterwards and that was kind of what year was that 2019 okay and then we did that with christy o'connell worked out with her interviewed her afterward and then then the pandemic hit and we couldn't

go work out anywhere ah so that was going to be the format work out with someone interview them work out with someone interview them okay so yeah we so we pivoted that moment to become more of like a zoom type podcast and if we're going to do that, we might as well, um, bring on another person who I'd met at the mayhem classic. And that was cat. I actually had her on my show. She was episode 11. Her story was awesome. She actually, her audition was to interview each one of us to do a special thing for our 25th episode. Wow. that and then on that interview amy said that her dream was to interview con con porter cat goddess con porter and then she was she can get anybody she she can go into anyone's dms and get anybody she was very good at it yeah she has she has quite the uh connections you you so

we were on zoom anyway she was in delaware we're in ohio but it didn't matter because we're doing it all virtually anyway and so she just became a part of it and she came in 100% balls to the wall financially with emotional support, everything, and became one of my best friends in the world. And so now it's, it's, um, uh, was the gentleman's name Ote? Charlie Ote. Ote, uh, Charlie, Charlie, um, and Amy and Kat and you, and basically I've seen you all on the podcast. So you rotate. I always see you there. It's always you, right? Yeah, this is my baby.

And then the cast rotates in and out. By the way, I love that. I love having, I love that. I want to do that too. I want my show to be more like Sesame Street where there's like different characters that come and go, you know, Oh, look, there's big bird. Oh, look. Um, and so you did that and you're doing that. And are you just, are you just going through the paces now? You're just staying with it or do you, do you see yourself doing

something different or changing the show or what are your plans for the show? different or changing the show or what are your plans for the show? So we want to kind of move more into like a news media thing on the, along with our athlete interviews. And, um, just to let you know, we are talking to Matt Schengeldecker who you had on your show. Um, he lives about two and a half hours away from me. So we're in talks with him to go up and take your story that you did and expand it a little bit me. So we're in talks with him to go up and take your story that you did and expand a little bit further. We're going to interview some of the kids who have gone through the program. Uh, some of the probation officers that are working out with the kids, uh, just to kind of take that a step further and get some stuff from his business partner.

As much as I love that story, Scott, because it's helping people. But what I really want the world to know is like, if you're an affiliate and you have this in your heart and you're not doing this, you're crazy because there's money here. Yeah. I mean, I've talked to a couple of affiliate owners about and they're like, well, I don't want to get in bed with the state. And I'm like, OK, I'm not going to like twist your arm, but it sounds like it's a very, it sounds like it's fulfilling in every single way. You have great clientele. They're steady. And the people who are going to pay you are going to pay you. It's the state.

What do you think that it's bad to get in bed with the state as an affiliate? Do you want, have you ever thought about opening your own affiliate? I've not, I don't think that's where my heart is yeah my heart's in doing the podcast not in being an affiliate owner yeah but i work for the state um i'm that's why i'm fascinated to talk to matt and debbie a little bit further because i've i've done grant writing i've done all those things in the state. And I'm just, I'm curious to know how they went about it and to see where I might be able to lend a hand just with my experience. In the story, they make it seem, I mean, it seems so smooth. I mean, obviously it's only a two-hour podcast I did with them, but it seems so smooth,

like everything just worked out. Yeah, it did. And that's why I want to dig a little deeper and find out from their experience, how much red tape did they have to go up against? Because I think that's an important factor in if other affiliates can do this as well. Or have they broken down that barrier for other people at this point? When people get, I guess when people see death, knocking on their door, it motivates them to change. And I'm guessing that when you spoke to marcus the first time that that there was some

component of that like oh shit like you're only 40 whatever however old you were you're 40 but then you can see the end of the runway and so you make a change right i mean it's like kind of like running out of money it's like you can see the end of days coming. If you stay on this path, fuck that, that runway just drops off. I would agree. I think that there was a point before I talked to Marcus where I'd given up on myself. Like, let's just ride this out. But riding it out, I didn't factor in what could happen to me along that path. So I think really what woke me up was the fear of living an unhappy life, like living where I'm going to get things amputated, living where I'm not even going to be able to get off the couch at all.

Those, you know, I didn't want to be my 600 pound life. Right. Right. Um, do you think that people have to go that far before they make change? Like, I feel like they do. Unfortunately, I wish there was another answer or I had another perspective, but it seems like so many people have to hit rock bottom like i didn't make the big changes in my life till i hit rock bottom i would i would hope that if i would have learned some things that i've learned now i wouldn't have had to hit rock bottom but maybe i wasn't searching for the answer until i did yeah it's like it's like yeah it's like it's like no one realizes the power of meditation until like uh and and soul searching and reflection until your ego is so big that it's fucking killing you no one you know you know what i mean and the people i feel like who do pick it up along the line before it gets to

that point they quit and i'm not blaming them or poo-pooing that it just seems like that there for us be us as human beings there has to be so much pressure put on us that we see death or or we see like like you're saying a slow death if i would interpret how you're saying a slow miserable death that you're like okay i have two choices here it's either gonna end bad or i can really try to grab the wheel and turn hard. I just don't see people making the changes until it gets there. Yeah. I mean, honestly, in my head, I thought if it's a quick death, I'm ready to just ride it out. But when I realized with that myopic flip, this was not going to be a quick death.

You were going to be tortured on the way out. I was going to be tortured on the way out. That's when it flipped for me. Yeah. And it all comes back to the sickness, wellness, fitness continuum. Right? Early on in my life, I had pushed that needle so far to the one side that it took me forever to get to that point.

On one hand, you're supposed to do this for yourself or for your kids, right? But on the other hand, do you ever feel yourself leveraging your ego and leveraging the peer pressure? And do you think that there's a healthy way to do that? Like, I'm not going to eat this because I want to look good in a shirt. I'm not going to eat this because people are watching. Is there, is there ever a way to leverage the peer pressure so that it's healthy? the peer pressure so that it's healthy? I think I do that every day. Yeah, good.

Me too. And I think that that's why I, I knew for me to be successful. I had to tell Amy that statement. Yeah. I needed her to send that text message and I needed to talk to Cheryl and Christie and Patrick about holding me accountable. It's a little convoluted on me because we know it is we we know it's um that's not the road to success but yet we keep that we keep we let that road kind of come along next to us the ego the whole way trying to leverage it

but hopefully because when you let the ego the ego roads kind of surpass your road that's like when eating disorders and shit like that will start popping in, right? It becomes like by any means necessary. I mean, you got to get to that point first. Like, it's going to take a while to get to that point. To what point? To where it's a problem. you're starting so far on the sickness spectrum and you have to go all the way just to get to even past wellness a little bit you've got a long ways to go before that starts being a problem

right you're using that up until you're healthy again um when hopefully at that point it just becomes habit it just becomes like it just becomes habit and you're not relying on them anymore what what do you have do you know what your healthiest habit is if you had a healthiest habit my healthiest habit it's like when i'm dialed in on nutrition it is like i am i am 100 in what's the hardest part for me is the workout can oh oh interesting wow it's the opposite for me um when you're dialed in a nutrition would you go like a week with perfect nutrition a month months months oh man i struggle with that do you have a food

that you like um what's your favorite food that's not in the in the in the shit pile like do you like oatmeal with bananas in it or do you like a hamburger with just salt nothing else or i i love chicken i love grilled chicken um i love vegetables i love brussels sprouts like i've always been someone who loves good food. I've never been a sweets guy or anything like that. For me, it was just the quantity and knowing what, how much of that could I have. Right. Right. And then you can have as much of the Brussels sprouts as you want and just make sure that the chicken is kind of – Is that your go-to vegetable, Brussels sprouts? Brussels sprouts, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, all those.

Yeah, me too. They're all such a pain in the ass to wash thoroughly. Maybe not the asparagus so much, but I never – whenever I'm washing broccoli, I'm like, I know that I'm eating chemicals on this sucker you should just just drench them and then throw them in a food heater uh with boiled water underneath them and then just let them sit all day and then just fish them out and then eat them that's a really good way to eat your vegetables instead of washing them yeah wait to say that are you joking are you serious i'm joking because that's how you make your vegetables out here they just soak them in water soup yeah yeah and then they just they just let it sit in like a little food heater it's good it's good i'm so bad i can't even get fruit home

like yesterday i bought a basket of blueberries and i don't even wash them i just eat them on the way home and i'm like i'm justing myself. I'm just eating like poison right now, but I just do it anyway. And I love good fruit too. When it's in season. Uh, I really appreciate you coming on. What a journey. Uh, I'm, I'm glad we're both in the same space. I enjoy everything you do. I'm, uh, I think that the planet needs more, uh, people openly taking the journey that you're taking. And I really liked your attitude.

It doesn't matter at the end of the day whether you make that goal. I remember you said the same bit of wisdom I got from Miranda Alcarez. She said, at the end of the day, you just want to change your habits. You want to have habits and passion. There was a third one too. Habits, passion. I forget what the third one was, but you clearly have you. I think you, you, you have that, you know, that you're obviously crazy passionate. No one does a podcast as much as you, who's not passionate. And you understand that you just have to reprogram yourself with the

habits. And so it's going to be fun. It's going to be fun to watch between now and the games. And I appreciate you letting us come along on your journey and watch it. It's really cool. Yeah, thank you for having me on, man. I'm the happiest I've been in a long time. And I feel totally driven to hit this goal. Dope, dude. All right.

Well, I'm glad we got to – this is the first time we formally met, right? I was looking at some of the things you said, and we've been at the same place before. I just don't ever remember meeting. Yeah. I don't think we've ever met. Um, our paths have crossed a few times in history, but I don't think we've formally met. Awesome. Well, good to meet you, dude. If there's anything I can do for you, uh have my phone number text me 24 hours a day same just don't text me as much as cat no i'm joking just you just gotta take all right all right brother have a good day good to see you all right thank you ciao all right see you kale

wild zombie love you scott uh But highest profile dude in the community, you know, there's these people in the community, him, Athena Perez, who take this journey publicly. It's... I would say it's probably helpful. Because you have a built-in support system oh god people are holding people are holding you accountable all the time i i hear you i'm so glad they do it because we need tons of like healthy strong role models who take this journey publicly this is more important than like hey i climb mount everest like fuck you you know like whatever just because i just don't think there's anything functional about it but this is like This is more important than like, hey, I climbed Mount Everest. Like, fuck you. You know, like whatever.

Just because I just don't think there's anything functional about it. But this is like, I guarantee you that all these people who take this journey publicly, but you really think it helps. I think that doing it publicly would give me some sort of other unhealthy issue. some sort of other unhealthy issue. I think if you don't have the habits in place already, it's helpful to have so many people, so many eyes on you. So, you know, if you're not going to do the right thing. He's really public, dude. Like everyone knows him. Yeah. I mean, he's, he's held accountable every day. That's what I mean for him, at least I'm sure it's different for everybody, but for him, at least, it's probably beneficial.

Like, I'm not going to tell everybody everything that I eat every day. Like, I don't want to – I'm not trying to be a games athlete or something, you know. But I even hide the little things. Like, my kids have these – they're like gummy vitamin E or something. They're old. Flintstone vitamins? They're in the – no, not that bad. And at night, I'll eat one of those just to eat something sweet.

And it's like 11 o'clock at night, and I'm trying to hide that shit from my wife. I take a shit with the door open, but I'm hiding. I don't want my wife to see me doing something. And that's what I mean. Food's a weird thing. Yeah, I suppose. But when, when food is your problem, that's the one thing you need to keep track of. Be helpful to have somebody say like, Hey, maybe you shouldn't be eating that or maybe you should eat less of that

portion sizes. I should have asked him about fasting. That would be interesting too, for sure. Cheryl Nasso. So when he told me he wanted to lose 100 pounds, I said, let's do it and document your check-ins live. Wow. I mean, the gift that that is. Are you guys doing that cheryl the gift that is to

humanity is huge i don't think very many people do that and people need to see that right now people need to see i mean even he thought his diabetes was, I think it's like the, um, what was that guy's name? Muscle white. The guy that we had on a while back, he like started documenting that he had lost so much weight after he had lost the weight. So like having, seeing that on a regular basis that somebody is working on such a thing. And so other people like Athena can see what it's like on a day-to-day basis. I think that's really awesome. Do you have Cheryl's Instagram pulled up? No, but I can get it. I want to see. Cheryl, is it on your Instagram account, the check-ins? I don't think I saw anything on there earlier.

I went through all of Scott's Instagram last night. I didn't see it on there. Does that show how poorly I look? He doesn't have a ton of posts. Yeah, I think he pulled a ton of his stuff. Oh, Scott's Instagram. Okay. Oh, okay.

How many hours do you think you sat in that chair this weekend? Oh, I'll send a link. It's in YouTube. Oh, awesome. Okay. Are you going to put it in the chat here? Oh, Clydesdale YouTube, actually. Oh, shit. Let me go there. I think I sat here for the, what was it? At least 10 hours more than that. How about you? My butt was broken. That's the, I mean,

I've flown all around the world over a hundred countries and my body, my butt has never felt the way it felt when I got up on Sunday from this chair. My back has been like, just tweaked. Every time I lean over to pick something up, it's like zinc fucking hurts. Zellos games injured you.

Okay. Okay. Here we go. So that that's, Oh, there it is. So this is, uh,

the Clydesdale media. There it is. Look at, over there, uh,. Fit body shorts fat loss during holiday. Oh, no, that's not it. No, I thought. Is that her? Is that Cheryl Nassau? That's her. But those aren't the check ins, are they? No. Let's see. Maybe go to shorts. No. check-ins are they no let's see maybe go to shorts no it'd be a good place for shorts maybe oh here's one right here week 13 click in the middle somewhere

how come they have all these fancy graphics we don't have any pizza essentially right i actually need the log that it should have been oh rewind that a little bit he's talking about eating a large pizza i wanted to hear that part go back like 10 seconds i'm happy you clicked in a good spot there you go here we go a large pizza essentially oh back a little more this is going to be good she's calling for eating a quarter of a large pizza or yeah okay yeah it was last night so you logged a quarter of a large pizza essentially right yeah i actually need to log that it should have been more than that okay yeah scott you should confess but it should have been half but i'm i'm happy with what you

did i'm gonna be honest because here's the deal is do you have any guilty feelings right now yes no because i have not really done that in a long time so here's the deal i'd never want to meet Cheryl. Oh, dude. I'd crumble. Terrifying. About enjoying food. And they end up hiding it. Okay, I get this. I'll get a person that logs a slice of Domino's pizza for dinner. One slice of Domino's pizza.

Mine, they may have had a milkshake log and, you like a, a cookie or something throughout the day. I know this person is hungry. They're not going to be eating just that. If you guys realize that food is okay. So even if you ate half the pizza and you were at call it 26 or 2,700 calories yesterday, it's not the end of the world, right you sure and this is the beauty of what we teach is that no do i want you eating pizza every single night i had uh six pieces so the the first day we did the zealous games or the second day i didn't eat i just came in here and stayed in here all day and then i took a shower and then i worked out and then i was like oh shit i haven't eaten today and my wife ordered pizza we had a bunch of people over and i ate six pieces oh my god of gluten-free broccoli and

chicken pizza it was nuts yeah that sounds about right i remember whenever i worked like the syndicate and the mac i just like i don't eat anything all day and at the end of the day i'm just smashing so much food. That looks like an incredible series, by the way, that looks like an incredible resource for people. That's awesome. Yeah.

It's a real time feedback. That's super cool. And she's nice. She doesn't fuck around. That's for sure. I wonder if there's any episodes where she gets mad at him. He seems patient enough. Maybe I should watch those and just like have a skit uh where i we just take clips of cheryl just saying smart shit and we laugh

god that could be a pretty funny series if you clipped it down each one of those to two minutes did you have that's such a great i love it when uh scott does that yeah i logged a quarter oh you logged a quarter i should have logged a half not i ate a half i should have logged a half made a bit more scott you're a good dude that's awesome um number 49 from the dao de ching free reading for you guys the master has no mind of her own. She works the mind of the people. She's good to people who are good. She's also good to people who aren't good.

This is true goodness. She trusts people who are trustworthy. She also trusts people who aren't trustworthy. This is true trust. The master's mind is like space. People don't understand her. They look to her and wait. she treats them like her own children it is crazy to me i'm so glad i've matured to a matured to a level where trust isn't an issue for me i don't like like it's not my problem if someone lies to

me it is not my problem i trust you it's fine i trust you if you were to have a piece or a whole pizza i just i just trust you i just it's so it's so um the thing is is that every time we're hurt it is our own ego indulgence we're just a fucking empty bowl of nothing except for the lies and stories you tell sorry lies is too strong Except for the imaginary stories you tell about yourself. So when someone throws something and it hits those stories, you get hurt. Just let the stories go and the rock will just pass through you. Gone. Brandon Waddell, so generous to show me his 125-pound snatch the other day

with a barbell. Dickhead. 35. Ah, but I forgive you for $49.99. World Diabetes Day, great dude to have on today. Great work as always, Seve Beaver. You smell good. Type 1 book is having its biggest month ever.

Thanks, Seve. Oh, okay, let's pull that up. I have that book, by the way. On Amazon, there is a book available for kids with type 1 diabetes. Your mom and dad can read it to you, or if you are old enough, you can read it yourself. Bam.

Oh, Brandon Waddell, the author. I always forget that that was you. Great book. I have it. That's awesome. There's Miss Moneybags herself, Jacqueline Robertson. Oh, then I'm extra sad I missed it.

I would have loved to stir the pot. I'm not sure what you're talking about. Why do I hear your damn voice telling me these things in my regularly scheduled day now? That's good. That's healthy. Sevan is so inspirational. I don't know about that. The thing is, I'll tell you why one of the reasons why I made it so easy and how I cheat.

I live in this really small loop. why one of the reasons why i made it so easy and how i cheat i live in this really small loop so i actually don't have to deal with a lot of shit new shit so i can walk around pretending i'm so wise because because i avoid change and so don't forget that that's uh i keep things super duper crazy simple choose to work with people like caleb who cannot escape me because they're stuck on an island somewhere. And my loop is also very, yeah, your loop is smaller than my loop. Allison, I see my five-year-old cousin just got diagnosed with type one. I'm definitely buying that for him. Thank you. Bam. All right. Uh, tomorrow, uh, we have Sean Ramirez on, Tomorrow, we have Sean Ramirez on.

That's going to be a very interesting podcast. As I recall, Sean Ramirez tested positive for something. I hadn't heard he was gone from the scene after that. By the way, I'd met him a few times. What a nice guy, a gentleman, an amazing father. Say that again? He's a firefighter. Is he a firefighter?

I thought he was, yeah. Maybe I'm wrong. He's a firefighter is he a firefighter i thought he was yeah maybe he's just a he's a great dude uh and i would always see him at the games always had a big smile on his face then he tested positive for something he's been gone for like four years and uh someone recently saw him at the masters collective was it brian someone saw at the masters collective and said hey someone would love to have you on his podcast and he agreed it's going to be fun talking to him uh then on wednesday i'm going to pronounce this name wrong we have paul akaby that might be an affiliate story oh shit we haven't scheduled for two days it's not no he's the guy that uh helped the afghans some of the Afghans get out of Kabul after the Americans decided to leave.

So that'll be a good one. Why do we have him scheduled the 16th and the 17th? Great question. I don't know. Okay. The 18th. Oh, Friday's empty. The 19th, we have Dale Saran coming back on. That is the attorney that's been on here before.

He was the former general counsel of CrossFit Inc. And he is now in a class action suit against the United States government. He represents more than 900 Coast Guard members. Uh, that's going to be fun. Dale's so smart. The feedback we get from those shows is off the hook and we've got to get some people on the schedule. Uh, that's going to be fun. Dale's so smart. The feedback we get from those shows is off the hook and we've got to get some people on the schedule. Uh, Scott Schweitzer, thanks for coming on brother. Uh, you demand, uh, it's cool that it's a national diabetes day or whatever. It's cool

that we got this chat with Cheryl Nasso, um, and, and Brandon Waddell and Scott Schweitzer and and and Brianna Waddell and Scott Schweitzer and Caleb Beaver and all of you okay we'll see you guys tomorrow thanks for everything maybe even tonight maybe we'll do something tonight we're addicted