The Uneducated PT Podcast - Evolve Fitness Sam & Taylah

Episode Date: January 16, 2024

Yeah, you have a, you have a very, like a different dynamic, which I love, the fact that you're in a relationship and use our business partners and use our both kind of the face of the business as well. How does that work for you as in terms of coaching clients and stuff like that? I'll let you answer that one. So when everyone comes into the program, we obviously, you know, we're a big community. I interact with a lot of Sam's clients. They interact with, he interacts with mine. But it is like a one for one. So when they sign into the program, I will, you know, we'll figure out first who we best think they're going to be suited for.

And yeah, it just sort of works like that. But yeah, it's working really well. We'll enjoy it. Yeah, well, you obviously have the same coaching philosophy as well, being partners in business as well as partners in terms of relationship. What type of clients do you work with and what do they struggle with? So very similar niche to you, Carl. people that have been trying to lose weight for a long time,

fallen victim to lots of different other things, lots of diets, fads, quick fixes. But just, yeah, just generally struggling for a long period of time. Maybe a bit of a poor mindset, relationship with food, that sort of thing. And used recently, like you said, used recently when travelling, years were in, was it in Europe for a year, was it? yeah 11 months so here's a question for you so obviously one thing that clients struggle with when they first start off is trying to kind of create balance and feeling like they can't make progress

while obviously living their life as well and that's something that we try to implement that do you know what I mean that it might take a little bit longer but you enjoy the process because you you know can go and do these things as well how did you find trying to you know create that balance and still obviously like youth prioritise fitness it's important aspect of your lives. How did you prioritize traveling for a year and also trying to kind of maintain some sort of a routine with your fitness goals and health as well? Look, it was really challenging. We spent probably three months or even longer in the Balkans. So in Croatia, Montenegro, you know, finding high protein foods, supermarkets and things like that, it's really challenging.

So we did struggle for quite a few months to, you know, have access to our normal foods and stuff like that. But I think we just, you know, we were, we just sat back and went, you know what, this is our situation. We accepted that, you know what? We can't be as perfect as what we would like as we were, if we were back home. We're just going to make the most of this situation. And I think we surprised ourselves and we did a really good job. We ate out more than ever. We drank more than ever. And we came back in a really, really good situation. I think I hadn't really gained any weight. I think you may have put on a couple of extra kilos, because I always give him. my plate once I'm finished dinner.

We finished in Spain. So there was lots of tappas, lots of sangria. And I was just like, yes, give me, give me, give me. Yeah. Well, that's an important aspect even as you spoke about. It's like, okay, you're accepting the situation. You're in. You are eating out a lot.

And it's not going to be perfect. And it's not supposed to be perfect anyway. Yeah, absolutely. One thing we sort of, we talk to our clients a lot about is like, you think about your health and fitness. Most people, when they start something, it's like, I've got to be all in. I want to go 100% right. And I'm going to go to the gym five days a week. I'm going to follow this super strict meal plan. I'm going to cut my friends, cut my family. I'm never going to drink alcohol again. I'm going to start doing saunas and ice baths and journaling and meditating and all this

shit under the sun, right? That zero to 100 thing just never work. So for us, it's like, you know, we think about things like a dial. Sometimes we turn the dial up, but other times we turn the dial down. So for us when we're away, clearly we weren't going to make amazing progress without health and fitness. And that's okay. You know, we were enjoying our time away. So like for us, like I said, turn that dial down, just focus on some basic things like trying to hit a step count each day, trying to get enough protein in, hitting the gym one to two times a week. Which we hadn't done. We were going to gym four, five times a week before we left to overseas. So that was a big shift for us as well. I think, yeah, just a mind.

mindset thing and just accepting that sometimes it's okay to not make incredible progress. Taking those big news. And when you do sort of accept that, it's like, okay, you don't, you know, because a lot of people, I think, feel like, quite, you know, upset with themselves that they're not making amazing progress or whatever it is. But yeah, life's not always going to allow you to do that. Yeah. And like, yeah, it's once, when you're in routine and everything's going well and there's, there's nothing coming up, it's, it's easy to make progress then. It's more so, when life's a little bit hectic or whether it's, you know,

weddings or holidays and stuff like that, that's when it really counts how you kind of react to that and not essentially press the fucker button every time you are going away somewhere or something like that. Yeah, absolutely. Can I ask, because I looked back over both of your transformations

that you said, I'm going to post it into the group straight after this. So how long have both of us being, been training and kind of involved in the fitness industry. Do you want to share your story first and then I'll go second? So how am I now, Tom 27? I think I started going to the gym my first year out of high school. And like most of us, had no idea what the hell to do.

I got to the gym and I would just go from this machine to this machine to this machine. And that's what I would do. I had no idea what I was doing. And I sort of just caught the bug for it, started training more properly, went to university, did exercise science at uni, did an honours degree. Had no idea what the hell was going to do with my life. And then got an opportunity to actually open up a gym.

So then I opened a gym. Taylor worked at that gym. That's kind of where we came from. And then she was the PT there as well. I started doing some coaching. And then we sort of had the business together. So yeah, probably coming up, yeah, eight to nine years for me. Sam, I was looking at your transformation.

And it was an unbelievable transformation. So what do you think were some of the main components to achieve that with you? If you were to give anyone on this program advice who, you know, is looking at body composition changes, looking kind of transformed that way. Like what was your approach? Well, what do you think you did that went well to achieve that? First of foremost, it's not going to solve all your issues like I thought it would. I thought getting, having a six pack and being really lean was going to fix the way that I was feeling within myself and it didn't.

And I think a lot of people figure that out. So do it not to look a certain way, do it to just help you be healthy and, you know, not, again, a massive perfectionist, like I would follow a diet, super strict during the week, go out on the weekend, know that I couldn't stick to it and end up drinking 20 beers and, you know, eating Maccas and KFC and cababs on the way home. And it was just, it was just a really nasty binge restrict sort of cycle that I was in. So just accepting that like, you don't actually have to go 100%. percent, you know, that was a massive one for me. And just sort of, yeah, I think that was the biggest

and just, you know, not doing, working on yourself in other areas and not using the way that you look to try and fix how you're feeling about yourself. How did you come about understanding that, you know, you having a six pack wasn't going to solve your problems or like for someone on this program it might be like they might think, oh, once I lose 10 KG, then I'll be happy. You know, once I've lost this body fat, fat, then I'll be happy. So what was the real? for you? Well, probably just getting to that position and being like, I still feel a bit shit. Yeah. And once you sort of have that realization, it's like, oh, shit. Because like, you know, it's like you can have a million dollars in your bank, but it doesn't necessarily going to make you

happy. So I think, you know, using your health and fitness, obviously it's going to help massively, but don't rely on it to fix everything that's going on. And what about you, Tyler? What about your transformation. I think that was really impressive as well. What do you, what do you think were the changes for you that that helped you to achieve that? Yeah. So my journey was a fairly long one, to be honest. So growing up, I was quite active. I did a lot of dancing growing up five days a week. However, that came to an end when I turned about 18 and I discovered going out, drinking, hanging out with friends. So when I turned 18 from about the ages of 22, 23, I gained a lot of weight because I was going out on the weekends, binge drinking, been a dickhead, eating kebabs on the way home,

and really, really started to feel very unconfident in my skin, did not like the way I was looking, started to impact my mental health. So I decided that I needed to make some changes. However, I didn't make the right changes, unfortunately in the beginning, like most of us here, probably have tried a lot of other things before reaching out to Carl. I was going to a boot camp a few days a week. Running, running, running, I would go to group training classes. Overcare. Two in a day sometimes. And, you know, wasn't watching what I was actually putting into my body, not taking any account for my nutrition.

So I was doing that for quite a few years. But, you know, once I started to discuss social media a bit more and, you know, all this new education was coming out on Instagram. I started to learn a little bit more. And then, yeah, I decided that I absolutely. loved health and fitness and the way that my body was changing, the way that I was feeling, and I wanted to, you know, start to help other people. So then I started PTing, however, lockdown hit. So all my PT that I was doing was outdoors. And then I moved into the gym. And that's how I met

Sam. The sort of people I was working with in the beginning were young females in the gym. And then decided that I wanted to do more than just help people with the the way that they looked because I feel like, you know, as when we're younger, that's all we really care about. There's so much more to it. So decided that I wanted to work with, you know, people that have been struggling for a really long time like myself in the beginning. That had, you know, a lot of issues around mindset and relationships with food and things like that. So, yeah, that is pretty much how my journey has come about that. So what do you think, what actually, what would your, what would your advice be? Because I know

there's a few people in this program that I, that I've had that conversation with as well about overtraining and stuff like that. So what would, what was the, what would be some advice you would give to someone who was making them kind of mistakes that you were making at the start of your journey? I think you need to understand that sometimes less is more. I think once you start to develop that education, you start to understand that, you know, what, it's not actually the exercise itself that's going to help me with my fat loss progress. it is 99.9% you know what you are putting into your body. And yeah, sometimes, you know,

I would feel so guilty for not going to the gym or missing a session. And then that would just send me for the week because I feel like I'd absolutely ruined my progress because, you know, I wasn't training as often as what I should. So yeah. And what do you think are some of the biggest training mistakes that you see your clients make in the gym or you used to making the gym that you advised them to kind of stay away from? I think the biggest one for me would have to be training intensity. You know, going to the gym and just not training hard enough, not finishing those sets looking like, you know,

you're really struggling towards the end. There has to be that intensity. I see so many people, you know, still walking around the gym. And I get it when you're new to the gym and you feel a little bit uneasy, you know, you're a little bit timid. You don't want to go around grunting like all the other. other people in the gym. But, you know, that intensity with your training is so important. That last rep, it needs to be slow. It needs to be aggressive. Otherwise, you know, it's, you're just not

going to be making the progress that you want. Yeah. And I would agree with that. It's like even when you said, like less is more, but it's like people don't need more sessions or more time, but they just need more focus when they're doing them sessions and more focus and more intensity when they're actually in there. And what about you, Sam? What? What? What? what are some of the kind of big training mistakes that you made when you were starting off? Just following really bad advice. Yeah. It's a bit embarrassing.

I actually, when I started training, you know, a lot of guys not making a lot of progress. My body weight was staying the same. I was like 80 kilos for so long. And I'm like, what's going on? I'm training. And da-da-da-da-da-da. And I sort of started to realize it, you know, you're reading your bodybuilding. com articles and stuff.

And it's like, oh, you got to eat lots of food. So I did reach out to some online trainer who gave me a really bad meal plan. I was like 21 at the time. And I was on like, he gave me a meal plan. It was like 5,000 calories. And I was eating this food. I was putting on a kilo a week. And within the space of like three months, I'd gained 25 kilos.

And that wasn't muscle. Right. And in my head, I was actually deluded. I was delusional because, you know, people would say to me, gee whiz, you're looking big and I'm like yeah I'm looking big aren't I thanks thanks for the compliment but like in reality no you're looking you know the wrong kind of big and I was like it wasn't until I got up to it so I'm about 80 kilos now and I got up to 105 and it wasn't in my head I was like yeah I'll get back down to 90 and I'll like be shredded with a six pack I got down to 90 kilos and I was like

holy fuck what have I done to myself and it was at that point I had done to myself and it was at that point I had dawned on me and I realized what I'd actually done and it was um yeah it was a really difficult time ended up losing that other 10 kilos so I within the space of six months I pretty much put on 25 kilos and then lost it all yeah which is and I really didn't have any clue what I was doing got back down to my original weight and I was like what the fuck have I done so that was um so just just don't fall for like you know fat loss and muscle gain and training and health. It's,

it's, the good information is really quite basic. You know, there's no magic to it. It's like, eat some more plants, eat some more lean protein, do some more steps like,

so just, be just being careful of what you, what you buy into. And on social media, it is difficult because you see people and like, they've got big followings and they're saying this and they're saying that and all the comments, you know,

it's a bit of an echo chamber and people agreeing with them and stuff. And it's like, I might be a doctor. Yeah, this sounds, this sounds legit, you know, and you start following it. And yeah, so that was a, that was a pretty big mistake that I made, which kind of pretty embarrassing to talk about. But hey, that's, you know. So when, here's a question for you.

So when did you, how did you go about? Because obviously, you're right. There's a lot of conflicting information out there and people can get overwhelmed. And so especially when you're desperate, you take desperate measures in terms. terms of the approach that you want to take to achieve whatever goals it is. When did you start to understand that you were following poor advice or how did you go about, you know, knowing that you were following better advice and that was going to work for what you wanted?

Well, I think a big one for me, like, because I did, you know, I was at uni for three years doing exercise science and then I did an honours degree after that. And like, you know, everyone in, for anyone who's been to uni, you'd know that like when academics speak. They don't speak like in black and white. This is good. This is bad. It's always very nuanced context dependent. It's more, it's a lot of gray. So like if you see people online saying Rockley is bad or this is bad, like it's probably a big red flag because in reality, experts don't speak like that. No, everything's very. Yeah, look, it's probably not the best. But, you know, it's a lot. So I guess I think, yeah, just under like being able to spot those

sorts of things. People making grand statements like vegetables are bad, you know, really? You know, if it sounds pretty out there, it probably is. Yeah. So I, and I think a lot of people, I don't know, with nutrition and stuff, everyone thinks it's like a big conspiracy theory. Like, you know, the governments hate us. They want to make us fat. They want to kill us. I want to like it. You know, the basic information has been out there for a long time, but we don't want to follow it because even though it's simple advice, it's not always easy to implement. But like simple,

you know, but simple doesn't make money. So, you know, when you got old mate saying, this is bad, this is bad, but hey,

here's my supplements and go buy that. It's like, come on, guys, you know, put the pieces together. Like, it's just,

I think it's a bit of common sense at the end of the day. And I think everyone being on your program probably has that common sense. So, well, I'm not going around telling them that. broccoli makes you fat selling my carnivore supplements.

Can I ask you as a question? So obviously we work with the same type of demographic in terms of people who are struggling with food, struggling with weight gain, maybe come from kind of a yo-yo dining background and stuff like that. What are some of the biggest mistakes that you see your clients make in terms of pursuing their weight loss results?

You had a good one before, didn't you? What did I say? Oh, just yeah, I think again, trying to be perfect. Like a lot of people that come into the program, it's like, I went over my carbs by 10 grams. And they're really like frustrated by it. I'm like 10 grams. It's like, I don't know, nothing, you know, and just trying to do everything perfectly. Like at the end of the day, you don't need to be perfect.

You just need to do something reasonably well consistently for long enough. So don't, don't try and be perfect. If you miss a gym session, who gives a shit? Like, if you don't drink your three liters of water, you're not going to die. It doesn't matter at the end of the day. I mean, if you, let's say you're in a 500 calorie deficit. If you go over those calories by 200, you're still in a calorie deficit. You know what I mean?

And even if, like, even if you have a really bad day and you go over your calories by 1,000, well, maybe just modify them for the rest of the week. Think about your weekly average for your calories and everything's cool. You know, so instead of seeing, you know, is going over your calories by 1,000, is that ideal? Probably not. You know, it's something we'd like to sort of figure out, but it's not the end of the world.

You can always make adjustments. And I guess that's the beauty of being in a program like this, where you are tracking probably lots of different variables. You know, you can really figure things out. So, yeah, not trying to be perfect and just not being so, which is hard. I had a client who messaged me yesterday. She's like, I binged on the weekend.

And I said, okay, so, what did that binge look like she's like she's Sri Lankan and she had two slices of this Sri Lankan dessert. I'm like two slices. Is that a binge? That sounds like a pretty regular sort of sort of day for me. You know, so just being careful with your language and looking at things through the eyes of like instead of looking at the facts rather than how you're feeling, you know, because ultimately like a lot of the times how you're feeling, you know, humans aren't rational, we're emotional, you know, so you might think that the world is ending, but then when you take a step back, deep breath and actually look at the facts, you might be like, oh, it's probably okay.

One thing we like to tell our clients is take your thoughts to court. What would the judge say? Are they facts or are they fiction? And a lot of the time, they are going to be fiction. Yeah, it's so true, isn't it? Sometimes it's like you get caught up in the one incident, whether it's like, okay, you had a meal that you didn't want to have or you over it. And like you're hyper focused on that and you get frustrated at that rather than looking at the whole picture of, oh, at the last, you know, five, six weeks, I've had, you know, numerous meals that were planned

and nutritious and what I wanted to have. Do you think that's one of the biggest obstacles that people face is that? They get so frustrated with that one incident that they end up pressing the fuck a button or they end up quitting and they don't stick at something long enough because their frustration's getting their way? 100% and I think that most people get into that headspace because when you go it alone, you're trying to figure it out on your own, for yourself. So it's going to be naturally more

difficult. This is what people don't understand. Like it's like people, you know, trying to get people onto a coaching program is really difficult, but it's like it's for your own benefit. You're going to make your life so much easier. So anyway, if you're going it alone, you are struggling, you know, every little negative thing that happens, it's just going to set you off. But like for you guys, you've got a great coach who's there to support you through it. So if something doesn't go right, it's all good. Just have a chat with him. He's going to put your mind at ease.

So yeah, like it's, you know, in the big scheme of things, let's just say, you know, there's 52 weeks in a year. Let's just say you had, you know, one meal a week that blew out your calories. Like that's 52 meals out of thousands, potentially throughout the year. like in the big scheme of things it really doesn't matter like i've done diets and i've you know ate way too much on the weekend and you just get on with it the next week and it doesn't matter the lot the longer the longer you give yourself the the the smaller percentage them you know meals that you overdo it become exactly but when you only give yourself two weeks to achieve all

your goals that's not really realistic then that's probably another thing that we we see a bit as like people will come in, lose a bit of weight, and they think that they think that's it. You know, and I would encourage all of you guys to stick with it for as long as you can because the reality is, you know, we see it all the time. People come in, get to their results, lose their 10 kilos or whatever they want to lose, and they think that's it. Losing weight is not the end goal. Keeping that weight off is. So if you lose 10, 20,000, however much weight you want to lose, but if you then don't, you know,

stick with it for X amount of period afterwards, the chances of you regaining that weight is going to be a lot because you don't have that accountability. You don't have the support anymore. So I think a massive thing that people think is like, yep, once I've lost the weight, my job's done. Cool. What could use,

what do you do in your coaching program to help keep like the client motivated after they've essentially lost the weight that they've wanted to lose? Because obviously weight loss shouldn't be the goal forever then. Well, we always set new goals. We usually go into a maintenance phase after a dieting phase. And usually the duration of that is nearly as long as the diet. So during that time, we change the focus. It may be that we make some gym goals.

It could be other goals around mindset, lifestyle, whatever it may be. And yeah, just to keep it exciting because I know like, you know, when people move into maintenance calories or into a building phase even, you know, it's not as exciting because you're not seeing those changes occur within your body every single week or month as when you're in a diet. Yeah. So it can be, can be challenging. It's shifting the focus. Like, you know, there's a bit of research that come out recently that sort of found that like, you know, traditionally we thought that to build muscle you have to eat in a big calorie surplus. It's probably not the case. So if you're, if you go back to maintenance,

you're training hard in the gym. Like there is, you know, and when you've been in a diet for some time, your body's ability to build muscle is going to be a bit more because you have been restricting those calories. So like shifting to a muscle building focus, you know, I don't know,

muscle building might not be on your top priority, but it's going to make your long-term weight loss management easier. Should be, shouldn't it? Yeah, I mean, being stronger. You know, so just always shifting the focus, always having a goal, always having a clear direction that you want to move towards is going to be really,

really important. And just understanding that like, once you've done a diet, it's like 90% of people regain weight after a diet eventually and most of them overshoot it. Like if that's not enough of a reason for you to like stay invested into your maintenance diet afterwards, then, you know, you don't want to regain that weight because you guys have all worked so hard to be losing it in the first place. Yeah. I think that's the, that's the biggest obstacle.

I find is trying to keep people engaged after they lose the way to change the goal to actually be invested in going to the gym and to actually be invested in building muscle and change that mindset around always trying to be in a diet and to restrict them to just focus on getting strong. And that can be a difficult thing when people haven't always felt comfortable in the gym and you're trying to get them in there long enough to start to feel comfortable. I mean like, you know, dieting, dieting sucks. You have to eat less food. You have to watch your calories a lot. You have to be a lot more controlled with things. But if you're back at a maintenance diet or even a little bit of a calorie service, you get to eat more food. You've obviously got more freedom and flexibility with your food.

So you got more energy. You feel good in the gym. Your training's great. Like it feels great. You get to build muscle. You get to build strength. Like there are so many positives to it. But you're right.

You know, everyone gets so. bog down in diet, diet, diet, but we want to break free from that mindset, you know, and see yourself some strength goals. Like, you kind of, like, don't underappreciate, you know, how rewarding it is to go in and get strong, especially as female, like, get strong because that strength is going to carry through with your confidence into your workplace, into your relationship with your family, like, you're going to stand a bit taller, like, I'm fucking strong. You said at the start there about you chasing that, that weight loss goal,

and achieving or getting as lean as you wanted to get and still not feeling content and feeling happy. Did that mindset change when you transition from instead of looking to get as lean as you can and look a certain way to then, you know, focusing on what your body can do versus what it looks like and focusing on performance-based goals in the gym and getting stronger and building confidence that way? Yeah, I think for me, just a bit of a maturity thing. as well. Like when you're a young bloke, you know, few insecurities and stuff, you, um,

you think that, yeah, your body is your vessel to the glory days, I guess, and feeling amazing in yourself, but in reality it is. And so, yeah, just, you know, viewing, you're right, like setting performance-based goals and, and setting strength goals. And, you know, we've started running and stuff now. So we're sort of diversifying and training a little bit more. And, um, yeah, just sort of not getting so attached to the. the weight loss process, but just the feeling good process, the training, the being a healthy process, you know, if you can sort of remove a weight, remove yourself from the number on the scale and focus on the other things, that scale weight is going to come for the ride.

Yeah. Another thing that I wanted to ask you about is obviously a really important aspect would be to get people to enjoy training and to kind of go all in on that. So, you know, that's improving your confidence. It's improving your body image. It's not solely about weight loss. But do you have any advice for, I know I have a couple on the program here who have literally just started and just started their gym routine and their program and stuff like that. For anyone who's kind of struggling with gym anxiety or just not feeling comfortable in a gym setting yet, do you have any advice for any clients that you have in that situation? Well, we actually have a little bit of a four step process that we use with our clients. So the first thing we do is, you know, we don't even assign a program yet.

It's just like, you know what, go to the gym, sign up, walk around, get to know the environment, go walk on the treadmill, even if that's what you want to do for a couple of weeks. That's cool, all right, just so you can start to get used to the field. Step two? Step two would probably, you know, going out into the dumbbell area because you've got dumbbells there, you don't have to move around, you know, so you've acclimatized on the treadmill, and the cardio you've got familiar with the environment, you know, because we always say it's like, you know, you're not worried about doing a bicep curl. Generally, it's the exercises aren't the

issue. It's the environment itself. So the longer, you know, you familiarize itself and then just go into the dumbbell area, very basic exercises, sit on a bench, some shoulder press, some bicep curls, some chest press, whatever it is. And then, you know, do that for a couple of weeks. Once you're confident with that, step three would be, you know, start to experiment with the machines. So looking around the machines, you know, pulling out the adjustments, you know, just starting to familiarize something. And you know what? If you don't know how to use it, that's cool. You know, no one's looking at you, even like we traveled for 11 months, right? So we were in so many different gyms overseas. The amount of equipment that we did not know how to use

or didn't even know what the hell it was for was like crazy. Yeah. And even like we experienced it a little bit. Like I would go into a gym, we went into this massive bodybuilding gym in Spain. And I was like, oh my God, you know. It's a bit scary. It's, you know, all these people there and they're grunting and we're just these two little Australians walking in. So, you know, like everyone experiences, everyone experiences gym anxiety no matter, you know, what level you are.

But just remember, like everyone starts off as a beginner. Everyone walks into the gym for the first time, you know. So just try your absolute best to. not worry about what anyone else is doing around you. Do not judge your chapter one to someone else's chapter 50. Okay. On your own journey. Continue exposure to it is just going to like.

Yeah. I think there's a book Atomic Habits and I think he talks about there's a chapter in the book and he's like trying to get his friend or I can't remember who it was. Maybe it was a client to, you know, form the habit of going to the gym. And so the rule was that for, I think it was, a month, I might have been three months, I can't remember, but he had to go to the gym every day for five minutes and then he had to leave. So he would walk in, stand there for five minutes, then he had to leave.

He wasn't allowed to work out, wasn't allowed to train, just have to walk in and walk out at the gym for the five minutes. Eventually what happened after two weeks was because he kept on showing up and going there for the five minutes. He was like, well, I'm already fucking here, so I might as well spend the 10, 15 minutes train. And he wouldn't tell your man that, oh, he was actually spending half an hour, an hour in the gym, even though the rule was you could only stay there for.

five minutes. And it's because the more times you go in, you start to build a habit and then you start to feel more comfortable in that environment. And you've got a friend that you can take a friend or a family member. If you can go at like the middle of the day or off-peg times, you know, when it's going to be quieter. I mean, maybe don't sign up to a big bodybuilding gym. That's probably you know, even for us, you know, we don't train it.

Our gym is just a regular, just a regular gym. At bodybuilding gyms, we feel uncomfortable. You know, so maybe, you know, take those little steps to, um, to make your life a bit easier, I guess. And, you know, obviously speak to Carl about it. But yeah, I think that would be, that would be our best advice. Okay. What I'm going to do is I'm going to open the floor and I'm going to get some of the clients to ask a few questions. All right. So I'm going to start with Lucy. I think Lucy, you should unmute yourself and ask a question. Oh, thanks to that, Carl. No worries.

Keep you on your toes, Lucy, you know what I'm in? I know, right? Hi, guys. Thank you. I really enjoyed listening to you talk. So I was really interested in what you both said, actually, about mindset. And you said that you lost the weight, but you still weren't happy. And Taylor, I wish I'd written it down because I can't remember quite what you said.

But basically, it made me think about a question of, how do you cope or have? How do you help your clients cope with staying committed, staying on track when they don't, when they actually have sort of self-worthiness issues? Like I don't feel like they deserving or that they can ever meet their goals. Does that make sense? Sorry, I'm not really explaining myself properly, but does, does that make sense? When they're sort of struggling with like self-doubt and self-belief issues, Yeah. And also just self-worthiness, you know, like, you know, you don't committing like, what should I say, that you're never going to be able to meet, meet those goals and you don't deserve them and, you know, that kind of thing.

Yeah. I think, you don't just generate self-belief. You're not just going to feel worthy of yourself. Like it just isn't going to happen like that. It's like motivation. You know, everyone thinks that you have to wake up one morning and feel motivated to be able to do stuff. Motivation comes from taking action. I think you're never going to generate self-belief until you can generate some evidence that you can do whatever you want to do. So it's like if, you know, you have to do that thing and create that evidence that you can actually do it. And I think, you know, a lot of mindsety things, it all just comes down to taking action. I mean, we speak to people all the time like, you know, I've been watching your content for six months. really love it.

And we're like, so what are you been doing for six months? You know, struggling for motivation, then this and that. And then once people, you know, join the program,

take that first step, like you'd be amazed how much your mindset improves. So I think, you know, you just have to do shit. Just have to do it. You just ask yourself,

like, all right, I might not have the motivation now. I might not have the self-belief, but can I still take action without that? Yeah. Probably can.

Okay. You probably can. Yeah. You know, once you start doing that frequently, you go, oh, you know what, I actually can do this. I'm making the progress. I'm seeing the results. You know, and then you really do start to generate that self-believe. I think as well, like make the path you're choosing as easy as possible. You know, so when you, if you are feeling like that, just take small wins, whatever that might look like, you know, again, talking about that dial, don't try and get to the gym five days

a week. Don't try and do 20,000 steps and go for runs and do all that other stuff. Just pick the most smaller sorts of things and, you know, that you know you can achieve. Yeah, and generate a little bit of momentum for yourself as well. Like, you know, it, I guess, yeah, it's always like trying to do things from zero to 100 never work. So just take little steps, generate momentum, provide yourself evidence that, hey, I'm doing it. I can actually do it. Oh, shit. Yeah, I am. And, you know, think back to when you started your journey and measure your progress backwards and see how far you've actually come. And I think that, That's a really big thing as well.

You know, so many people like will be losing weight and they've totally overhauled their diet and their habits and their lifestyle and they still think they're not making any progress. And we'd be like, well, you know, a lot of our clients actually inadvertently lost a bit of weight or maintained over Christmas because just of the habits and stuff. And, you know, if any of them sort of said like, oh, I'm just a bit disappointed and be like, mate, last Christmas or Christmas ago, you would have gained weight and you've actually maintain a lost weight. And, you know, so looking back to where you've come from as well, I think is really, really important too. I think that's a good point about looking back because

I completely understand what you're saying, Lucy, in terms of not feeling like you can achieve what you want to achieve. But that's essentially what grow is. It's like, okay, it's something you haven't achieved yet. So you're thinking to yourself, well, I can't fucking do it. It's like, I'm doing that fucking talk for 120 people on Saturday. And I have this self doubt and anxiety in my stomach. It's like, oh my God, I can't talk in front of 120 people. So I'm like stressing out about it because it's something I haven't done before. But what Sam said there about looking at the evidence looking back, it's like, okay,

well, the evidence I have looking back is that I talk shy every single day online. You know what I'm in? So I have all this little small evidence of doing things that scared me before, but then I achieve them and then I moved on to something else. So can you not say that you have evidence, like in terms of what you want to achieve and what you feel that you don't feel good enough to achieve it, you don't feel confident that you'll achieve it,

like you have evidence looking back that you've done other things that you found difficult or uncomfortable and you still did it. Like you were probably nervous to start this program, but you went through that feeling of uncomfort and you did it. Like if you look back, you can find evidence all the time of things that you did that was difficult for you at the time. But now that you've done them, you don't even think about it.

If you're looking forward the whole time, you're always thinking about what you haven't achieved and how daunting that is. Yeah. I mean, just taking the, committing to a coaching program like this, that's a massive step because there would be thousands of people who are sitting back watching our content, carl's content, thinking about it, but just never taking any action. And you know what? They're going to stay unhealthy. They're going to stay unhappy. So just taking that first step, like that is massive. You're doing something that most other people don't do, you know,

so take confidence in that. I had a conversation with a girl about a month ago who wanted to join, and she was following me for over two years. And she was absolutely terrified to the point of joining because her self-esteem was so low and her confidence was so low. And it was like, like she just wasn't ready to commit something like this. probably terrified that if she committed, she might not be able to achieve it

and then she feel like a failure or whatever it is. And it's like sometimes you need to take baby steps before you can look five steps ahead. And for her, that was five steps ahead. It was looking too far down the line. So all you have to do is look at, okay, you know, I don't feel like I can achieve this goal yet,

but what can I do today to, you know, push the needle. further. You know, am I shown up in the gym now that I wasn't even training in a couple of weeks ago because I felt anxious about joining. Yeah, I've ticked that off the box. You have been to the gym, haven't you? Not today, no. That I wanted the last few weeks you have. Don't be fucking real. I'll be losing. I'll be Lucy for fuck's sake. But I've done with steps. But all right, can you give me, can you give me evidence over over the last two, three months of you achieving things that you didn't think you could achieve? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. One.

well, starting out of the gym. Then I've got massive imposter syndrome. And there's a load of, yeah, you know, these young, young Love Island wannabe boys like runting away. And there's me, you know, trying to figure out how to do a lateral pull down or whatever. And, you know, and I just haven't got a, sorry, a clue. Like, we had our coaching call last week, Carl, and you said, oh, how long are you resting in between sets?

and I was like about a minute and you were like, no, no, you know, I don't have a clue. You know, I've got, I'm such an imposter. Like, I don't, you know. Everyone, seriously, everyone has been there. Like, you know, using ourselves as an example. First time we ever posted a reel talking to the camera, I reckon it took me three hours to do. I was like shaking. What we do is so un-naked.

And I, you know, putting ourselves on social media, it's, it is so hard. You have to show up with a smile on your face every day. You have, ah, life's good. We lives in this great life. And Instagram's bullshit. It is the biggest highlights real ever. We have so much self-doubt, self-belief issues, you know. Do people like us?

Are we doing okay? Do our clients like us? Like, we worry about this shit all the time, you know. There's that little voice going, who do you think you are? You do you think you are post, you know, like. You either do is to listen to it and stay in the same position that you're unhappy with or you can just bulldoze through and just get on with it. And you know what?

There's only one option there that's going to take you to where you want to go. And like, you just, yeah, it's hard. I get it. No, that's really, really helpful. valuable advice, thank you. Yeah. You can know someone else. Someone else can ask a fucking question now.

Well done, Lucy. You did well. Lisa, unmute yourself and ask you a question. Hey there. Okay, my question's a little bit different. I actually think, Taylor, you might have mentioned it. How do you stop the guilt from not being able to get to the gym? Like, for me,

the gym started always like, you know, trying to get strong, trying to build muscle. And then I've been in my gym for years now. and it's more like a social thing. So sometimes I'm like, okay, I won't go to, I won't do the workout, but I'll meet up with the gang, and we'll go for a long, could be 5K, could be 8K, and then there's some days

I'm like, oh, I don't really feel like going, but like, oh, I'm going to miss out. Like I've got like FOMO now, I'm going to miss out, oh, show I'll just turn up, and I could be just really tired, and I won't be doing the workout as what's, as I need to, I want to, but I just have that like, oh, I'm going to miss out. Like, how do you get over that kind of guilt? So how many days awake are you training at the moment?

I'll block your ears. Seven. I deal about five to six days. Seven. And you have guilt about sometimes not showing up to the gym. Sorry? And you have guilt about sometimes not showing up to the gym? Yeah.

Okay. I don't have a message on something. So is it that you're worried about missing out on the social aspect? or is it your training session that you're worried about? Yeah, like, so, like, part of it's a social, and then, like, I can see the workout going off online. I'm like, oh, that actually looks like a nice workday. Like, I would like to do that.

I guess, like, you know, your gym journey, it's going to change, you know. Like, in the beginning for me, I was really invested, and I wanted to do things correctly, train correctly. However, you know, that sort of started to. to drift for me. You know, it wasn't such a priority anymore and I wanted to start, you know, diversifying my training. So, you know, I did for a while feel quite guilty for not training as frequently as what I did. But you just got to remember like you're doing enough, you're doing more than enough. You're doing more than probably what 95% of people do on this planet.

Right. So it's definitely not saying to feel guilty about because like I said, you're doing more than most people that are on this planet. So do you want to be a bodybuilder? No. Probably doesn't matter. You know, there's research as well, like doing one hard set in the gym, like one really, really, really hard set actually grows muscle. Yeah.

You know, again, we often get caught up into thinking we have to do every, like, do so much to get results. But the reality is we don't, you know, and if you miss the day here and there, is it the end of the world? No. Yeah, it's okay to miss. But you have to, you have to accept that it's okay to miss

because like even healthy behaviours taking to extremes are unhealthy behaviours. So if you're training to a point where you're just training because you don't want to be on your own or you don't want to be in your head and it's becoming a behaviour that's actually having more of a negative impact

on your body and your mental. health then a positive benefit well that's something that you need to figure out and I'm saying that from someone who like there's two types of people people who fucking won't train and people who won't stop training. You want to get

the people who won't train to you know push them a little bit further and you want to get the people who won't stop trying to kind of pull them back a little bit and today I went to the gym and I did very heavy squats like my legs were the last set I literally like I must have been pulling all kinds of faces. I could not.

It was, it was tough. Like the last set, I was like, okay, I'm done. And then what did I do? Everyone else was like, oh, let's go for a 5K1. I was like, oh, my legs are dead. But what did I do? I went for the 5K1 straight after it. It's like, yeah.

It sounds like you're using that, you're creating a void between, or you're filling the void between, social connection and training and training and you know it's like I would say to anyone on this program about like you

there's nothing wrong with emotional eating every now and again sometimes like it's the best thing you can do is you know what you feel sad have a pizza I do that all the time but if you're using that as your only coping mechanism to deal with your feelings

not a very healthy behaviour if you're using training as your only source of feeling connected to people maybe in my, if you can find other ways to do that, that it doesn't leave you over training and your body feeling like a fucking sandbag

by the end of the day. That's just me just like, I don't know if that's right or not and that's just what it sounds like a little bit. Do you know why you feel guilty? No, I don't know why. What do you feel like you're missing out on by not training. Like what?

Maybe it's kind of like, oh, like if I just went yesterday, I could have built more muscle then. Like it's that kind of thing that's at me. So it's like the results thing. It's like if I don't do this, what I'm not going to get the results? Okay. Well, like I said,

one hard set in the gym can produce muscle. There was a, might be a little bit off topic here. There was an old bodybuilder back in the, 70s or 80s, Mike Mensa, I don't know, he was famous for low volume training. Like,

we're talking like two sets for a muscle group all week. And he was one of the greatest old school bodybuilders of all time. Like, he did two sets. You know, and you're training five. I think the luck did that.

I think the lucked has something like two really heavy sets and then that's him done. Yeah. So, you know, it's, you're probably not going to miss out of much. I mean,

and this is what I'm talking. talking about like trying to be you know I mentioned before trying to be perfect and like hitting your calories and macros perfectly and following the perfect training program and and doing the perfect technique and the perfect gym session and everything had to be perfect. I was the same. I was like I had to have my pre-workout meal this amount of time before I went to the gym otherwise I, I, on a Friday night I would never go out because if I drank alcohol on a Friday at the same day I trained, God help me. You know, I'm not going to I'm going to what a waste of a session that would be. What a waste of a session and like I was so obsessing over these these results and stuff and like it was just so

unnecessary. I mean, you can make incredible results just like you don't have to be perfect, you know, and if you are, yeah, I think, do you feel like you're not making good progress? Oh no, like I know I am because I've gone up with all my weights and the people in the gym like everyone's spotting each other and they're like, Ollie's. so I think you can go up more and I'm like, yeah, okay, I'll try more. And like, so I'm definitely going up in weights as a lot of stuff, I'm not. What about if you knew that maybe resting a little bit more frequently could actually help with your performance in the gym?

You know, I actually, I think you might, because I didn't go, yes, I went, I missed three days last week. And I think that's why today I was able to do such heavy squats today. I know it means a lot. I know rest is key. I just don't understand. that much. But you can know something and still

like not implementing the behaviour yet sometimes that takes time. It's like it's the exact same with someone. Okay, I know that I should be eating this food because this food is healthy and I know that this food will help with my you know, weight loss calls, fat loss calls but people still don't do it

because it's not an information problem. It's a behaviour and habit problem. So if you can do the thing, get the reward, get the feedback and then that reinforces you to do it more. So if you were like, okay, I know when I rest for two days, I feel really fresh going into this workout. And then I have a fucking great workout. And then you get feedback.

And that reinforces you to maybe do it again. You might not do it all the time, but it reinforces you to do it more and more. Thing is, if you're eating enough protein, if you're progressing your numbers in the gym and you're eating enough calories. Yeah. Like you're growing muscle because, you know, when you first start training, you get. strength, like you get your neural adaptations and you can put on a lot of strength quite quickly. That's not necessarily muscle. But if you're sticking with a program, like if you're doing squats, for example, for six months,

you know, the first month might be a lot of your neural based adaptations. But after that, that has to be muscle gain. There is no other way you are continuing to beat your numbers and progress. So like I said, protein and stuff, you are building muscle. So all you really need to focus on is your training performance. protein calories and you're going to be building muscle. You know, like you can't just get super strong without building muscle, you know what I mean? So as long as you're ticking those boxes, you're making progress.

You really, really are. Nicole. Thank you. Sorry, I was trying to figure out my mute situation. Hi, thank you for sharing your time with us today. Sorry, hold on my radio is on. I'm still at work, my Pacific time over here. I think the thing that in listening and what resonated the most is like how, or my question

would be, how do you keep up motivation like intrinsically? Like, you know, that's what I struggle with. Like, you know, the knowledge part, I know I need to eat well. I know I need to train. I know that. But then it's the follow through. I know I need the accountability. and I'm working on that.

And I have Carl's help. I have, you know, other people's help. But how do I develop the habit of doing it on my own and relying on myself to do that? I think that's the thing I struggle with, like the intrinsic motivation. You're the motivation king. Figuring out your, it sounds a bit cliche, but figuring out your why, why am I doing this? You know, I'm not sure if you guys have done your goal setting with. but like, you know, motivation's going to come and go.

I read this book and he talked about like motivation, you can't rely on it, but you need to be driven. So it's like, he uses an example in this book of like, you know, you're watching a movie, right? And the kid gets kidnapped. And the mother just goes, like, does whatever she can to get the kid back. Because her goal of getting her child back is so, so, so strong and clear in her mind. So if you, you know, if you're doing something and you don't have a super clear reason as to why you're doing it and you're not crystal clear about why I want to achieve this goal, you know, you're probably going to sway from side to side.

When you're motivated, you're going to do it. But when you're not motivated, because you don't really know why you're wanting to do it. You know, so I think getting super, super clear on why you are wanting to go to the gym. Why are you wanting to eat better? like losing weight is not a good enough of an answer if someone says yeah i want to lose weight well okay cool why because da da da da da da da da why and if you just keep asking yourself why you're going to get to the real root of the issue and it's like well i hate leaving the house because i hate the way that i look i hate when i look in the mirror i blah blah blah blah like losing weight is just the surface

level bullshit that we all tell ourselves you need to get to those deep sort of things and i think once you sort of really get down there and think about that stuff, yeah, yeah, you know, you have those realisations in your mind and it's like, I don't need to be motivated anymore because I don't want to leave the house having to wear bag of clothes all the time. I don't want to hate summer because I, you know, I'm not confident in my body, you know. So have you, you know, have you done goal setting and sort of figure that stuff out? I know that we did that last time. I think it was last week, wasn't it, gold setting?

So yes. But maybe I need to like deep dive and really like think about it or or put it. I think put it up like because it could be it's really cute when it's in the little journal on your table. But I think I need to like see it or like I'm more of a visual person. So I think I need like maybe like a visual reminder. because I don't, if I'm not directly looking at it, I'm not thinking about it. Do you need intrinsic motivation to achieve what you want to achieve though? Do you need intrinsic motivation to do the actions that you need to do?

I think that's a trick question because I think like part of the, like you do need motivation. But I think if you developed like the habit and the structure and the discipline and all those other things and if you're going for the goal of trying to save the child, you're, going to do what you need to do, regardless of your level. Well, we know, we know you're intrinsically motivated because you wouldn't have made your way onto the program if you aren't intrinsically motivated. So intrinsic motivation did absolutely get you here. But what I'm asking you is, do you need intrinsic motivation to continue to do the behaviors and actions that essentially will get you what you want?

What's your motivation to go to your job? get that paycheck and payment rent. And what will happen? What will happen if you don't get that paycheck? Then one will be out in the streets. Okay. And what will happen then? It would be more of a struggle.

It would be harder. Life would be harder. And if it was harder, then what would be the ramifications of that? You wouldn't be able to do what you wanted to do. you'd be struggling, you'd be, you know, in poverty or, you know, you'd be, you'd have less options and choices. Okay. Would you say that you wouldn't be making the most out of your life because you're living on the street and you're struggling day to day? Very, quite likely. Okay. When you go to work every day, do you think about that? No. Not specifically. So do you need that intrinsic motivation of being homeless to go to work?

every day? No. Okay. Not specifically. Karina, do you think about being a lot? Karina, do you have a question that you want to ask? Come on, Karina. Oh, yep. Sorry. Hi. Hi. Thanks for to talk so far. I'm your neighbor. I'm in New Zealand. Ah. Um, I, so I've, I'm really, I'm really,

proud of where I've come so far. I've sort of lost in the last two and a bit years. I lost 20 kilos. My fitness has gone. I do have gone up so much. I do CrossFit. I'm, yeah, I'm starting to see changes in my body and everything, but I just can't get past this fucking weight. Like, like at the moment I've gone, I'm now 170. kilos and like so i've put on three kilos in the last three months or something but and it i don't like i'm a yeah so i'm only 161 kilos i'm a i'm a bigger girl but i don't know at what point will i start getting lighter to make things easier you know like i don't know i feel like my having a bigger build and being heavier

holds me back from a lot of things, you know, like, yeah. And what am I doing? Yeah, it's, I don't know. That's the one thing. I wish I didn't think about it like that because I've just done so much. I have been so proud and done so much. But I always come back to that and I see that number and I just think, that says to me that I'm big you know like it's just such a reminder yeah I think like like

you know to lose to lose 20 kilos already that's incredible yeah I put it back on but it's definitely yeah absolutely absolutely and you know I think it probably took a long time to gain that weight, you know, it's going to take a reasonable amount of time to lose it. You don't get to gain weight because you eat too much. Like, well, yeah, technically you do, but there's other reasons underlying things that are going on that are causing you to eat a lot. I mean, this is the thing. It's like, you know, weight loss isn't, you know, just as simple as move more, eat less.

Like, there's so much more to it. And that's sort of what we've figured out coaching a lot of people. There's so much more to it. like your upbringing, your mindset, your, you know, your genetics as well. There's so many things working with you against you. You might have a really slow metabolism, right? Like, you know, I've got a client who I'm pretty sure is a very slow metabolism. And she's 90-something kilos and it's very hard for her to lose weight, very easy to gain weight.

Yeah. No, so I think, yeah, I mean, that that might be a, you know, that might be a consideration. You know, probably if you have been trying to diet, have you been trying to diet like this whole time? Yeah, I want to say I've been perfect, but like I've got my calories. And I don't know if I, because it was something I was actually going to ask how,

like, am I eating the right things at the right, you know, like, because I'm still having carbs and stuff. Like, and I'm excited about that because, you know, I've done so many diets over my life. This is that it's, you know, like I'm eating well and eating a lot. It just doesn't feel right. No, I feel. If you've been dieting, like, you know, over the course of this 20 kilos that you lost,

like you might need an extended maintenance phase to get out of the diet. Yeah. I definitely, yeah. What happens? I did a real detoxy sort of fucking, I think it was 500 calories. Wow. Yeah, it was a 30-day detox, and that took 13 kilos off me. So, like, I've done diets like this since I was 16 years old.

I'm 39. Just a bit of context there, Sam. So, like, Corinna was in a very restrictive mindset in terms of when she came on, that this is the way that I have to lose weight. It's to restrict, to restrict, restrict, to not be allowed to have this. And what I've been trying to push her to do is eat your meals, eat your carbs, go train and, you know, fuel yourself. At the end of the day, it's just calories. Weight loss is.

No, like there is nothing more to it. And I know it doesn't feel like that, but it's literally just controlling your calories. So, you know, as I call said, removing all the labels and stuff that you've had on food and getting out of that restrictive mindset. And, you know, one thing that sort of we talk about is like we, when we have someone join the program, we don't look at what we can take away. We look at what we can add in, you know, instead of, you know, realistically, your meals when you're dieting should be quite large because you're eating lots of fruits and veggies and all that sort of good stuff. So, yeah, getting out of that restrictive mindset. But I think, you know, as well, if you are in that restrictive headspace, doing a long maintenance phase where your calories are sitting at maintenance.

That's what I feel like I'm in now, which is it's been really, it has been really good for me, like, performance-wise at the gym and all that stuff. What are you? What are you? That now? Pardon, calories? How many calories? Is that?

2,200. Okay, yeah. So maybe, I mean, maybe just removing, I'm trying to lose weight. Yeah, that's what I want to get out of my head. I know. And so maybe like, like get out and just, you know, focus on being in a maintenance diet.

I mean, thing is, when you, like when you lose weight for a long period of time, you know, for your, for all of our bodies, like it's an evolutionary sort of protective mechanism.

it's like, well, if your body just sees you're losing weight continuously, it's going to think, hey, this person is going to starve to death, and I'm going to try and stop that. So, you know, your psychology changes, your hunger changes, all these things work against you. Your metabolism goes down. So this is the problem people find when they diet for so long, you know, we call it diet fatigue, you know, all these things are working against you. Your body gets elevated, I guess, and it makes it harder and harder. So, you know, when you diet, you really need to do a really good maintenance phase.

afterwards. So if you diet for 12 weeks, you should probably do a 12 week maintenance phase. And every single time you do that maintenance phase, you're going to, I guess, give your body a break. You're going to readjust to that new lower body weight. You're going to make sure that you don't rebound. And then you can diet again. So maybe without having too much more information, maybe you just need to do three months at maintenance, four months at maintenance and just forgetting about dieting for this period of time, understanding that, you know, I have to set myself up for the next diet, focus on getting super strong in the gym, build some muscle, because that's going to help, you know, push, actually push those calories back up a little bit to sort of, you know,

restore your metabolism a little bit, you know. It's just to sort of give you a, because I can sense that you quite, you know, you're feeling, you know, quite down about it also, sort of just getting out of that dieting headspace for the time being, give your body a break and then jumping back into it in a couple of months time. Yeah. And I don't think anything that Cal is doing with me

works and every time I talk to him I feel so much better. I just get left by myself for a little bit and then then I fucking talk myself into a stupid situation. Like all this time of like dieting and things I've done

all these years. Yeah, my brain gets, I can totally, I'm making that connection now with like my cortisol levels and things like that you know like as soon as it I know that I've got I can't eat a food that just freaks me to fuck out you know like so I can see how that would be slowing things down and if I start thinking like that because even if I have a bit of a big day and then I'm like oh now I can't have much for tea oh fuck and then I'll binge you know like it's yeah it's quite but like Carl said to me eat the fucking meal, you know, don't, don't not eat the meal, still eat your meal.

And then you're going to essentially go less over your calories by doing that than fucking eating biscuits and, you know, like filling that void. And at the end of the day, you know, all that really matters is your weekly calorie average. So let's just say, you know, let's just say, why not you are hungry and you do go over your calories by a bit. I mean, if you needed to, you could just adjust those calories down the next day. And as long as your weekly average is where it needs to be, that's it. That's fine. That's all you need.

I could eat 5,000 calories one day. And as long as I bring my calories down for the rest of the week and my weekly average is it where it needs to be, I'm not suggesting you do that. But like, that's essentially, it's your weekly average calories. So I wouldn't get too caught up into, oh, 2000 calories. I've only got X amount of left. If you want to have a few over, that's cool. Maybe just modify it in the days after.

Yeah. Yeah, I think that's really good advice, especially even bringing your calories up to maintenance and not putting the pressure on yourself to be in a weight loss phase. Because like you said, when you put yourself in a dieting mindset, you feel restricted and that gives you the urge to then ovary because it's like this last chance mindset. This is the last chance I have to eat this delicious fucking meal

before I have to go on my restrictive diet. So I'm going to overindulge on it now. But when you're not in that mindset, when you're in a, you know, food is in abundance. And I can have this whenever I want. You tend to make better healthier food choices anyway, which in a roundabout way is going to give you what you want. So if you don't have the pressure of losing weight

and you're just focus on, like Sam said, lifting weights and getting stronger and enjoying your food and, you know, being in a good routine. Like that's not you being on a diet. That's just you being at maintenance, being focused on health seeking behaviors. But because you're not thinking about it,

you end up probably getting what you want in the long run anyway. I think working on your mindset and psychology first, your relationship with food is going to be the first thing. Like, I think, yeah, having a better relationship with food, taking the restriction away, removing the labels, you know, I think work on that first because if you can get this working with you, this will come with it. But you can't do this without fixing this.

So that's what I really. This is the last part, the last part for me. It's just I just think too, like the thought of going right, I think I'd overdo it if I was in maintenance. Like it's just, I don't know. Yeah, you've got a coach. Like that's why you, you know, you pay him the big bucks. You got a coach to look after you, keep you accountable.

He's on your case every day, you know. He's helping you. So you're not going alone. You don't need to have that fear and that. I'm fucking terrified. It's terrifying. That's what it is. Yeah.

It's a fear. I've got this fear base around it all. It's horrible. Yeah. But again, you've lost 20 kilos. Like, there. In a healthy way. In a healthy long way, you know.

You can do it. You've got evidence there that you've been able to do it really, really well. I mean, a lot of people would never even get close to losing 20 kilos in their whole life. You've done that. So you're in a small minority people that have actually been able to achieve that. That's incredible. No, take a step back, maybe just shift the focus, work on your mindset, relationship with food, get strong in the gym, kill it in the gym, feel good.

you know and don't um if you're worrying about stressing over the calories that you're eating and stuff it's probably a good sign that maybe dieting isn't the right thing for you at this point in time and and shifting that focus yeah yeah okay we're going to go one more question and then i'm going to bed so i am going to call out jess i actually knew you're going to pick me to you know yeah thanks guys for the talk so far it's been like really informative um i just have a question kind of related to food as well similar enough to korena like i would find say if i hate my protein hit my calories and then in the night time i'm just in this like snack sort of mode and it's like i'll literally be like okay i'm not going to have anything because i like feel full and i don't technically

need anything but like i still want that like chocolate or something and i'll just like sitting in front of the cupboard like does it i haven't even bought anything to have so like why am i still like looking for that like, I don't know, something to have instead of just being like satisfied at what I have. I think like being out of routines since Christmas, then I was away and stuff that I'm finding it really hard to like get back into the whole like, I don't know, being like you've had enough now. You don't need to have any more like your own, you know, have you got any advice maybe for how get back into it or something to know. Have you stopped and asked yourself in those situations how you're feeling?

where this trigger might be coming from at all? No, actually, I never would have. Think about it. What happens of a nighttime? It's the one time in your day where you probably just, you've had your dinner, you're chilling out, you're watching some shitty TV, you might be a bit bored, you're not really doing anything.

Like, I think everyone is like, hmm, I'm going to get something to eat. Like, what's wrong with that? what's wrong with having chocolate every night? So Sam and myself, we have a bowl of ice cream every single night. Like that is our one thing that we do not skip every single day. Every single day. I feel like a lot of people feel like, you know, oh, I shouldn't be having dessert because

desserts are bad food. Well, no, it's not because there's no such thing, right? So if you're someone who does want to have a bit of chocolate or a bit of ice cream after dinner, just account for it. Yeah. You can do that. It's why you track your calories to give you that freedom and flexibility. that's the beauty of it. Like when you, when you're tracking your food, you can control it.

You can control those calories. And if that means, yeah. However, if you are still feeling the way you are after doing that and giving yourself that freedom and the flexibility to choose your food, you do need to ask yourself, like, how am I feeling right now? You know, is it, am I bored? You know, is it boredom? What else can I do to fill in my time now? You know, instead of going back and turning to food again, what are some other things that you can do to fill your time in before bed? You know, is it that you read a book? Is it that, I don't know, your phone friend? Or is it that, you know, you're really tired or something like that? Maybe you just need to get to bed nice and early. 70 and bad time. No one. I think, I think just like whatever you want to have, have a dessert.

You know, if you've got like everyone can fit a dessert in, you know, everyone. Everyone, And if you're tracking your calories, like track your dessert in your day first. So you have got room for it. And then just like adjust your calories for the rest of the day. Maybe at lunch instead of having rice, you just have your chicken and veg as an example. And save those carbs, those calories for later for a dessert. Like there's nothing wrong with that. Again, you know, it's the calories at the end of the day that matter the most.

And if the rest of your day is full of fruits and veg and whole grains and leave, lean proteins like and that's the that's the big one that I was got to touch on as like okay you want to have some biscuits or some chocolate in the evening because like it's your downtime and you just want to

you know pick at something and that's absolutely fine but is it a case that you know you're under eating throughout the day and that's why you want to pick at something if that's the case then that's more of a problem in terms of you know not making making sure that you're not nourishing your body

or giving your body enough energy. If you, let's say, have all your meals at the end of day, you get enough protein and fibre and complex carbs and healthy fats. And like you've had a well-balanced diet and you still feel like you want to pick at something, then there's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't. Do you know what I mean? But if you're picking at things just out of like a feast or famine mindset

because you've under it all day, well, it's not that you don't have willpower to put the snack. down it's that your body's screaming for energy because you haven't fed it all day. So like when you said are you in, uh, you haven't got back into routine. Like have you got back into routine in terms of eating a sufficient amount of food, eating a sufficient amount of meals, eating a sufficient amount of protein, eating or drinking a sufficient amount of water? Like are they all ticked off the box? Probably not. No. I don't think I drank enough water in life. Well, then I wouldn't worry about the things that you're having.

I would worry about the things that you're not having. Yeah. Yeah, that's about to look at it. Yeah, there's definitely probably one or two things missing in it. And if it comes to the end of the day, like, and you say that, oh, you know what, I'm dying for a bit of chocolate, but I have missed my meals. It's like, okay, pick what you want and then, you know, add in what you need. So you want the dairy milk, dairy milk chocolate bar. or you want the dairy milk chocolate bar,

but you need to hit your protein. So, you know, can you get some Greek yogurt and some protein powder and crush up the bar and put it in there? That's what I'm going to have a few minutes. Do you know what I mean? So you're having what you want, which is the chocolate, but you're also having what you need,

which is the protein and, you know, whatever else. Okay, I'll do one more and then, and then I'm going to bed. So I'm going to call out Nat. Natalie, give us one question and then we're off. you kind of hit on it already um with the maintenance and i guess like i feel like i'm i can kind of see on near the kind of end of like weight loss in a sense and i'm more worried now about oh my god now if i've lost all the way it's just going to go back on because that's normally what happens um so kind of what would your goals kind of normally look like for you

I suppose for maintenance and I know it is around mindset and stuff and would you actually ease up in the gym more so and just intensify your workout for maintenance. So I guess the first thing about maintenance is like where you land at the end of your diet let's say it's 60 kilos. That's not where you're going to maintain right because when you finish your diet, you're carb depleted, you've got less food. your stomach, you know, you've just got less in you. So like if you get to this low point, you're going to jump up a little bit because you can have more food, more carbs, more water being

stored in your body. Okay, so that's the first thing. Don't freak out when that happens. You know, something that tail often talks about as well is like your maintenance is a range, you know, so it's going to fluctuate up and down a little bit within like maybe. Kilo or two, depending on how heavy you are. Yeah. So that would be the first thing. to, you know, to think about in terms of the gym, train harder. Like you're going to have that food and those carbs back in, you know, coming out of a diet, like when you're restricting, you know, so you're probably not building a lot of muscle, you know, your strength's not going to be as good.

So going into having that extra food available, like you're training so much better. It's so much fun. Like you get pumps in the gym, like your muscles fill up. You look really good. you know, it's a, so yeah, by all means, continue to train really, really hard. Got anything else you want to add? No, that sounds good. I guess like, you know, in terms of your training, like you do what you want to do.

You're going to do what you enjoy at the end of the day. You know, if you want to train five days a week, train five days a week. But if you want to train, you know, twice a week and incorporate some swimming or some running, like that's what you can do as well. At the end of the day, yeah, you really got to enjoy it. I think as well, an important point to make about maintenance is, Like, you know, as we sort of discussed before, you get diet fatigue. So, you know, when you finish a diet, like, I've had, I've been on diets and I've eaten

insane amounts of food. Like, you can, your appetite is so much and food just tastes like, like you put something in your mouth when you've been dieting and you're like, holy fuck, this is like, look at the orgasm, like it's ridiculous, right? So be very careful when you get out of that diet because your hunger's up. your food focus is high, you know, you're thinking about food, food tastes really good, your senses and stuff. So continue to eat the same weight loss diet, but just have bigger portion. So if you go from say 1,500 calories up to 2,000 calories, continue to eat the exact same way

because it's going to be high volume, high protein, it's going to keep you really nice and full, but just increase those serving sizes. So, you know, if you're going to have 100 grams of broccoli, let's have 200 grams of broccoli. As an example, like just have the same things, but just build out those serving sizes because for those first couple of weeks after your diet, you're naturally going to be looking for more food. You're going to be hungry.

And when commonly what people think, it's like, yeah, I finished the diet. I deserve to go out for dinner and I deserve this and I deserve that. And all of a sudden, it's a bit of a slippery slope. So just continue to stick to the same things for like three to four weeks. You know, don't be like, okay, I've got more calories now. I'm going to be eating pizza and burgers and shit. it because you know what, it's not going to fill you up and it's going to taste unbelievable

and it's going to be very hard to sort of keep that in moderation. So like just, yeah, that would be my advice. I think a lot of people also believe like, you know, once I finish a diet, things change when I go to maintenance. Things really shouldn't be changing. You know, this is a lifestyle that you're choosing to live now. You should be choosing to eat fruit and veg and lean protein no matter what phase you're doing, not just your diet through maintenance, through building, whatever it may be.

The only thing that really changes is the total amount of food that you eat is your calories. That's the only thing that should be changing from here on in. And what got you those results is what's going to keep those results for you. And this is why people rebound, like they lose the weight because everyone can restrict calories and change their diet for eight weeks, lose a bit of weight. But it's what happens when you go back out for dinners and you have a bit more lifestyle, freedom and flexibility. You know, instead of eating out once a week, you're now,

two to three times a week, you know, you have to really keep up these sorts of things. You know, and I guess, you know, I've experienced in the past, like going back to maintenance, you know, you are sort of a little bit concerned about because you do get into that mindset where you don't want to gain back weight. But, you know, if you do those things, you will really hold yourself in good stead. And obviously speak to Carl about it. You know, again, it's a beauty of having someone watching over like a bloody hawk, seeing everything that you're doing, you know, because any sort of things that you, like you've got someone,

they're sort of guiding you to it. You're not going it alone, you know, so take confidence in that. Yeah, I would just restate them points. It's like you can't be in a calorie deficit forever. Like it's usually that people stop being in a calorie deficit after a while but they still continue to think they are for some reason. It's like there's no, there,

and this is the whole point of like the type of coaching that I deliver the type of coaching that Sam and Taylor delivers. It's like you're trying to create a lifestyle change for people that, exactly what Taylor said, like you're continuing to eat a high protein diet, you're continuing to get fruit and veg and fibre into your diet, you're continuing to train in the gym and train really fucking hard. So there's,

even though it sounds fancy, you know, calorie deficit maintenance, calorie surplus, there could be the fucking guts of, you know, two cups of rice between what the difference is. Everything else really stays the same. So you're not going to lose all your progress. You're going to continue to do what you're doing.

And like Sam said, it's just going to be a little bit more enjoyable because you're not in this diet and mindset all the time. It's like, okay, this is just who I am. This is my lifestyle. And I'm just going to continue to eat the way I eat now because that's a behavior and a habit. and I'm just going to continue to train really hard because that's a behaviour and a habit

and therefore I'm going to continue to get the results that I've got and even better over time because the longer that I do this the better and better my results are going to become and everything that I do is just going to compound over time

to give you the best result okay I'm going to bed I just want to say big big thank you to Sam and Taylor thank you so much for this I know we've took up your whole morning but I really appreciate it and I know everyone else really appreciates it as well so thank you again for coming on

You're welcome, guys. It's been really good. Thank you for having us. Thank you, Carl. No worries at all. Thanks to be all everyone for joining. Thanks a little. See you. Bye, guys.