0 (1s):
Coming up on the get lean, eat clean podcast.
1 (4s):
And I think that's the problem that people have is like, I hate the way I look. I don't want to look like that. So I'm going to beat myself up until I looked that way. And once I looked that way, then all my problems will go away. And that's a big myth, just like people chasing after money. Once they have this much money, then all my problems will go away. And it's a very similar thing where if you haven't learned how to be fulfilled and happy with where you're at now, even if you get the body, there might be a temporary sense of happiness or fulfillment, but I promise you, it's not going to last. And so you have to eventually do the work, which is really hard work to let go of that, those emotional challenges, whatever they are for you to learn how to be happy fulfilled. Now, even though your body's not perfect, your life, isn't perfect. You don't have the money you want, because if you can do that now, then along the journey of trying to get those things, you're not beating yourself up or, you know, saying you're a failure because you didn't get those things cause you're fulfilled with where you're at now.
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And you're just continuing to work on a better version of yourself.
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Hello and welcome to the gasoline. Eat clean podcast. I'm Brian grin, and I'm here to give you actionable tips to get your body back to what it once was five, 10, even 15 years ago. Each week. I'll give you an in-depth interview with a health expert from around the world to cut through the fluff and get you long-term sustainable results. This week I interviewed health and fitness expert drew Manning. He's a New York times, best seller author of fit to fat, to fit and has for years been the leading voice in the keto diet movement. We discuss the following topics. Drew's fit to fat, to fit journey, his typical eating fasting and workout routine. His strategy of going back to fit from gaining 62 pounds.
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We also discussed this morning ritual, the mental, emotional side of gaining and losing weight and is one tip to get your body back to what it once was. This was a great interview with drew, lots of great tips, and I know you'll enjoy it. So thanks so much for listening and enjoy the interview. All right, welcome to the get lean eat clean podcast. Brian grin here with drew Manning. Welcome to the show, Brian. Thanks for having me. How are you doing great. I'm wondering if I can call you by your name and not call you, you know, fit the fat to fit is like a, your motto. Right?
1 (2m 19s):
Most people know me as no one really knows my name drew, so I don't, I'm used to it.
0 (2m 24s):
Well, I'll call you drew if that's okay. Well, I'm excited to have you on, we got a lot. We're going to talk about before we get into that. If people don't know who you are, maybe just give a little background regarding, you know, how you got into health and then your whole journey. Yeah.
1 (2m 42s):
So most people know me from my first fit to fat to fit experiment back in 2011, where, you know, here was a personal trainer or someone who grew up there in Tyler entire life in shape, never been overweight a day in my life. You know, term personal trainer, trying to help people who had been overweight, the majority of their, and there was an obvious disconnect. And so I couldn't understand why it was so hard for my clients just to eat healthy and exercise and be consistent. And I'm like, it's so easy. It's not that hard you guys, but they would struggle to stay consistent and do the workouts and follow the meal plans that it gave them. And one of them said to me, you know, when I was frustrated with him, he's like, you know, drew, you don't understand how hard it is because for you, you've always been in shape and for you, it's easy.
1 (3m 25s):
But for me, and for people like me, it's really difficult. And I was like, okay, you know what, maybe you're right. Maybe there's something I need to learn. So I started to think of ideas and boom, this idea popped up. Like, what if you got fat on purpose and documented the whole thing? And so I kind of ran with that idea. It kind of felt like a good idea in my mind. So in 2011, I created my own Facebook page, YouTube channel website, all by myself or with the help of my wife at the time. And so we started on this journey. So six months I let myself go, no exercise, eat a standard American diet, put on 75 pounds of pure fat and those six months. And then the next six months I had to walk the walk and put my money where my mouth is and show people how to lose the weight.
1 (4m 6s):
But for me, it was the first time in my life having to, you know, one being be overweight, which was very humbling and taught me a lot of lessons and then to lose that much weight and that amount of time, I've never experienced that before, but I taught, it taught me so much empathy for those that struggle. Whereas before I was probably more judgmental towards my clients that couldn't understand why it was so hard for them, you know, just to eat healthy and exercise. And then here I was after six months of eating that way, struggling to, you know, my body almost fought back against me wanting the high that it had had from those processed foods, the past six months. And so it clicked for me, man, it's way more mental and emotional than people think.
1 (4m 46s):
And that's kind of when I started to change, that's when I started to change my approach, instead of focusing just on the physical side of weight loss, it's a, there's more of a focus on the mental and emotional, and I think that's what people are missing. And so ever since I did that first experiment, you know, I ended up writing a book which became a New York times bestseller. And then the book turned into a TV show on a and E where we had two seasons of fit to fat to fit where we put other trainers through the same process to see if they were more empathetic. And they definitely were. They're very humbled. And it was a good show. Yeah. Since then, I've, I've totally shifted my focus more so helping people on the mental, emotional side of transformation rather than just calories and macros and weight loss and supplements and getting shredded.
1 (5m 28s):
And so that's kinda me in a nutshell, sorry for the long intro.
0 (5m 32s):
No, no, that was good. And quite the journey, what I was just thinking off the top of R D did you have any people who told you when you were going to start doing it, like specifically like your wife, was she like, ah, maybe, you know, not the best idea to do something like that or the people who were like told you not to do it?
1 (5m 49s):
The one that was against it was my mom, because she was worried for my health. You know, this is what a mom does, but my wife at the time was like, no, because I was of a health nut. And so I didn't really have junk food in the house. And so she's like, and she was pregnant too. So she's like, you're going to, you're telling me there's going to be junk food in the house. And I think she had some cravings from pregnant from being pregnant too. So she was for it, you know, cause she could tell it was more judgmental and more strict than I probably needed to be.
0 (6m 16s):
Yeah. And I guess what was more difficult? Like just coming from myself, I've been a trainer for a long time and into health and wellness and taking care of my body and probably in the same boat as you in the sense that I've never really been like overweight per se, I've gone through some fluctuations and body transformations here and there, but nothing like, you know, you'll see perhaps from certain clients. Yeah. What was, what was, was it, you know, what was more difficult, I guess, putting on the weight or taking it off,
1 (6m 48s):
They're both difficult, but for different reasons putting on the weight was difficult because my identity was based on my body image. So in my mind I was drew the fit guy. And so as I became overweight slowly during that process, I kind of freaked out to be totally, I had, I had an identity crisis to be honest with you because I was like, who am I? And so I wanted to go with strangers and explain to them that I wasn't really overweight that this was just an experiment. I wanted to show them my before picture and say, Hey, this is, this is the real me. This is this, isn't the real meat that you're seeing right now because I was so self-conscious and so obsessed about my body image. So gaining the weight was really hard mentally, obviously, you know, eating a ton of food and the food tastes good, but then you feel awful, you know, it could be spikes and blood sugar levels and then the crash.
1 (7m 36s):
And then after that crash, your body wants to spike again. And once the high that it gets from those foods, and then it creates this vicious cycle where you become dependent and that's why it's so hard to break it. It's not, it's just as simple as willpower and your way to eating healthy food. It's like your body is, is, has been trained and programmed for these dopamine hits multiple times throughout the day, eating whatever you want and the food we have here in America. So hyper palatable is so easy to over consume a lot of these processed foods. And man, it was, it was fun, but also so hard. It was very hellish. The, the, the cycle that occurred.
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I could, I can imagine too, just because like, just from, for myself, like if I was going to do something like that, you know, I think you just put so much time into, you know, your body eating, right. You know, when should I meal timing, you know, your macros, this and that. And to go the complete opposite way, just had it been like for me, I, I, I would think it'd be very difficult to do.
1 (8m 36s):
It was very difficult. That's the thing. So it was different and it was, it was hard in a, more of a mental from a mental perspective and emotional too, because it messes with your hormones. Like you, when your hormones shift, you're not sleeping as well throughout the night, you're grumpy or moody or your testosterone drops. So your libido's low, you're more emotional. You're crying during commercials. You're, you know, food is like, your food is like, the thing that makes you feel awful is the thing that makes you feel awful, but also makes you feel good. Like it does both of those things, right? The journey back to fit was hard in the sense that I've kind of compared to, you know, my whole life I've been on top of this mountain, the fitness, like, like a lot of the, you know, like you and people who have always been like in shape and the clients are down here at the bottom, like they'd never been at the top.
1 (9m 21s):
And so for me, for the first time I came down off that mountain and started from the bottom bottom. And then that hike up was way harder than I imagined it would be. And you know, I fell down a couple of times and got back up and kept going. But yeah, that journey back to fit for that first time in 2011 was, was, was way harder than I thought it would be because the emotional connection to food is more powerful than I thought it was going to be. And then it clicked for me, man, this is one of my clients have trouble sticking with a meal plan because I'm expecting them. They've lived this way for decades. They've eaten this junk food. And now I'm saying, okay, we're going to eat chicken and broccoli and vegetables and do an exercise. It's such a huge extreme for them, you know?
1 (10m 2s):
Cause they, they don't know what it feels like to be at the top. They don't know what it feels like yet. So they climb up the first few steps, then fall back down multiple times in their life. And so for me, I have a lot more empathy for those that struggle with body image and, you know, transformation, because it's not as simple as people think.
0 (10m 20s):
Yeah. And going and getting back into shape. I mean, I think maybe the one advantage that you would have is the fact that you were there, you've done it. You sort of know what it takes to get there, which would obviously help you in that journey back to fit. But I'm sure were you counting down the days to start getting back to the fit? Like, okay, I'm done with going, you know, fast food I need to,
1 (10m 44s):
I think yes and no. Yes and no. Yes. Because yeah, I wanted, I went from one extreme health, super healthy to super unhealthy. And I wanted to get back to my norm, which was super healthy. But there towards the end, I was nervous because I was like, man, I see why people get comfortable here because you're living a life of, of comfortability. Like everything is convenient. You can eat whenever you want to, whatever you want. You don't have to go to the gym. You don't have to move any muscles. Like you don't have to feel the soreness, the burn, you don't have to feel hunger ever. And it's kind of a life of comfort. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's hard. Like man, okay, now I have to be disciplined. And that's, what's really hard is like, even for me, I'm like, man, this is going to be a little bit scary.
1 (11m 27s):
But you know, for me, obviously I want to feel healthy more than I want, you know, cinnamon toast crunch and mountain Dew.
0 (11m 34s):
Was that your, was that your favorite? I was going to ask you anyways.
1 (11m 38s):
Yeah. Those were some of my favorite foods. I mean, I eat a ton of stuff like top ramen, hotpockets Mac and cheese, you know, chips, cookies, crackers, Doritos, you know, lots of sugary cereal. Cause that's what we grew up with. Yeah.
0 (11m 51s):
I would imagine you'd have to try really. I'm just thinking, because like, even for myself, you know, we have cheat foods, you know, I have cheap foods and you do that sometimes. And I mean, I used to I'm back in the day I used to eat cereal. I remember I loved cereal. That was like a big thing. But I feel like you almost being that you were fit, you probably had to go even more extreme to lose that weight. You know, like, just because you know, you were metabolically flexible at one time and you could handle carbs. And so you probably had to put, put it into extra gear to put on that weight. I'm assuming.
1 (12m 23s):
Yeah. I, I would probably eat close to. I mean, I'm doing it again a second time, you know, as you, as we'll probably get into, but this time around, I didn't measure my calories back then, but I was eating 6,000 plus calories a day, you know, closer to 7,000 some days just because like the calories add up. It wasn't like I was stuffing my face, every single meal, but I would eat until I was full. Right. And then like two hours later, guess what? I'm hungry again. You know, so yeah. It's interesting how the process food,
0 (12m 53s):
What was more expensive? What's more expensive buying a lot of cheap, a lot of cheap food or being healthy and eating expensive grass, fed, whatever, you know?
1 (13m 2s):
Yeah. That's a really good question. You know, it was very similar. Like I would say maybe slightly cheaper with the process food, but because of the large quantities I was eating because here's the thing. If people ate processed food in a caloric in a responsible way, you know where they're not eating a ton of calories, if they could control themselves, it probably wouldn't be that bad. But dude, I mean, let's be honest when you're eating cinnamon toast crunch for breakfast, you know, you know, he brought peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch and then pasta for dinner. You're not just going to be like, Oh, I'm, I'm full after a few bites of that. Like you get hungry really quickly. It doesn't really satiate you for a long period of time.
1 (13m 43s):
And so yeah, the grocery bill was slightly cheaper, but not, not by a ton. Yeah.
0 (13m 48s):
That's interesting. And did you do a lot of snacking too? I imagine throughout the day,
1 (13m 53s):
Anytime I wanted to, that was, that was like, Oh yeah, I forgot about had this year. Oh, let me have that. And you know, bored, snacking.
0 (14m 1s):
How did it affect you? You know, what were you doing? Were you still training at the time? What were you doing at, I imagine it affected your motivation to do other things.
1 (14m 12s):
Yeah. And I actually, a lot of people don't know this, but it had a full-time job in the medical field during the process. I was a part-time personal trainer. So yeah. So for me, yeah, I would have to work in the hospital sometimes and hospitals are full of junk food. To be honest with you, like there's no healthy food, the doctors and the nurses,
0 (14m 32s):
It's sad that, you know, that it said, you know, they'll tell you to go have like ensure. And I remember my dad bought insure and I look at the label. I go, wow. I go, I can't even do this to you. Yeah. Hospital
1 (14m 44s):
It's bad. It's bad. There's really bad. And that's the thing is like, this is a place of healing, but America really hasn't really grasped that it starts with food or health starts with food. We're all about medicine and prescriptions and putting a bandaid on these issues instead of like, all right, where do these issues STEM from? Oh, diet exercise lifestyle. No one wants to change that though. So we've adopted this culture was like, no one wants to change that. So let's just give them all these pills, but not have them live longer, have them get, you know, into the system where they have to pay, you know, huge medical bills. And, and then there'll be dependent on that for the rest of the life.
1 (15m 25s):
Don't, don't change your eating though. Don't change your lifestyle. Just keep doing that. You know, that's the culture I think that we've adopted, unfortunately. And then you see with the pandemic that we had, you kind of see the effects of that in a sense where it's like, Hey, if you don't take care of your health, you can wear a mask all day. But if not taking care of your health, that's I think that it hasn't really clicked for some people yet. That's what I'm saying. Yeah,
0 (15m 49s):
No, I agree. And you know, I think it's going to take time to get to the point. I mean, I think podcasts like yours and mine and, and you know, books and shows like that you've done. I think it can show people that they probably shouldn't listen to a lot of the government guidelines as to what they should be eating. And they should perhaps maybe do some of their own researcher, you know, because right now there's not, there's, we're not lacking information out there information. And it's just about finding the right sources and then, you know, having a coach, perhaps do you still coach people?
1 (16m 23s):
Not one-on-one most of my programs and my brand is to, you know, kind of impact the masses. And that's the kind of trade-off that ha ha you have to choose, you know, which path you're going to go down as a trainer or, you know, in this industry, do you want to do one-on-one, which is great. And that's probably where you'll make the most impact for that one individual, but you're limited to how many people you can fit in in a day. Right. So, so yeah, so most of my stuff is available online for, for the masses.
0 (16m 53s):
How many times have you gone and done this? I was curious. Yeah.
1 (16m 57s):
So I'm currently on my second time. This is I'm 40. I did it back in the day when I was 31.
0 (17m 2s):
Oh, I thought you've done it. Okay. So this is the second time you've done it. Okay.
1 (17m 6s):
Yeah. I know people on my TV show, I was the creator of the show and so we had trainers come on and I didn't do it with them. They did it themselves. Yeah. Yeah. It's not easy. That's the thing it's like, I didn't think I would ever do it again. After that first time I was like, never again. I told him I'll never again. And then here I am 10 years later, almost 40 years old. Okay. Maybe I think, I think I can do it better. This time. More impactful, more educational with a different message to really make an impact. And
0 (17m 35s):
Was it more difficult to set? Was it more difficult? Easier? I mean, obviously as you get older, probably I would imagine it's more difficult to get back into shape.
1 (17m 43s):
Yeah. So I'm currently three days into the journey back to fit. So I gained 62 pounds of fat in four months, went from 8.4% body fat to 26.2% body fat. Wow. It's so interesting. Is it harder? I'm such a different person than who I was 10 years ago. And back then I was married two kids this time around divorced. My kids are older nine and 11. Now it was different in different ways. It was harder than I thought it was going to be. I went into it a little bit cocky, like, Oh, I've done this before I got this. Like I know what to expect, but that's not, that's not really how it was. I was super humble the summer round with how hard it was, especially emotionally, unfortunately went through a breakup with my girlfriend during the whole process, which sucks.
1 (18m 26s):
And that's, that was, that made it even harder, you know, on top of the emotions and the physical changes that were happening, that, that made it, I think even way harder than I was expecting it to be. But yeah, so many lessons learned though. So I don't have any regrets so far.
0 (18m 43s):
Yeah. And, and now you're getting back into, into, you know, a fit mode. What is, what is your goal like you put on, you said 62 pounds, so yeah. You were at what? 20 it's interesting. I just did a DEXA scan at the end of the year and gosh, yeah. I was like nine point. I think I was like 9.2. Wow. Yeah. I was
1 (19m 5s):
On the DEXA. Dex is hard to get under 10. Like it's really cause people think, Oh, I didn't even, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Dex says Dex is usually higher than other methods. Yeah. There you go.
0 (19m 17s):
Yeah. And yeah. So what is your plan to get into fit, going to be the same as it was back then? Or are you going to go about it differently?
1 (19m 25s):
Oh, totally different. I mean, over the past 10 years have totally upgraded and evolved with my thinking and what works for me. So yeah, I've taken all the things I've learned over the past 10 years and implementing them from biohacking to different diet strategies, different workout protocols, different tools on the mental, emotional side of the event. So that's why I built into this program. Meditation, positive affirmations, gratitude lists, making your bed cold showers, those types of things on top of, you know, eating healthy food, of course, which, you know, that was part of the process and then exercising that's part of the process too. But so yeah, so it's, it's different.
1 (20m 6s):
My approach this summer.
0 (20m 9s):
Are you going to do any type of, time-restricted eating like an ornament of fasting or something like that?
1 (20m 14s):
Yeah. So, so there's different. There's four months on the journey back to fit the first month. I'm not going to do intimate. Fascinating just yet month three, we'll be an intimate fasting month. I figured I'd ease my way into it eventually because I went from eating, you know, so almost 7,000 calories a day from the minute I woke up to the time we went to bed to just jump into, in my fascinating on top of the other lifestyle changes I'm making could be pretty hard for some people. And I'm not saying like it wouldn't work. It definitely would. But yeah. So three meals a day is what I'm doing right now. I'll eventually I'll get into intermit fasting, which that's my default when I get back to fit and I'm kinda maintaining, you know, that's kind of my,
0 (20m 55s):
What does a typical day for you diff when you're in your default, as far as eating and when you fast and work out and things like that.
1 (21m 2s):
Yeah. So in the morning, no, no food. Other than sometimes we'll add some MCT oil powder to my coffee, which technically that'll break the fast for sure. And, and then I usually drink some executives ketones before my workout. You know, my workouts were a mix of lifting heavy sometimes like last year I trained for a hundred miler, which sucks, but I did it and probably never do that again. So, you know, make sure of differently. Sometimes CrossFit I'll jump into CrossFit every now and then. And then lunch was my first meal and then dinner, not a lot of snacking in between, to be honest with you.
1 (21m 43s):
But for me, that's the thing is like, if I did snack, it wasn't that big of a deal. Cause I wasn't too strict with my diet. I could get away with stuff because I was, you know, maintaining and had a lot of muscle mass and was very active. So if I did have a snack, every one once in a while, it would be probably because I really was hungry. Not just cause I'm feeling snacky. Right,
0 (22m 1s):
Right. Okay. Yeah. Well, you know, we're both 40. So we have, we have that the big four, all we have that in common, but what types of workouts? You, you mix it up and you normally work out morning, afternoon or
1 (22m 16s):
A morning time. It's morning. Time is just because with kids it's getting out of the way, first thing in the morning is just so much easier.
0 (22m 23s):
Yeah. Yeah. I'm a big morning ritual guy. And I know you mentioned that that's something you implemented this time around until you're you're you're I guess you're you're back to fit. What, what's your morning ritual? What do you advise?
1 (22m 38s):
So what is it currently right now? Yeah. Yeah. So right now I actually just posted this the other day on social media because I wanted to start over with the new morning routine. So 5:00 AM is my wake-up time right now. We'll see. Cause I don't have my girls right now. So we'll see if that changes, like when I do have them, because you know, there's so many different variables when you have kids, like they don't always go to bed when they're supposed to sometimes or they have a nightmare. Sometimes they need things and you know, there's all kinds of different things. You have to be flexible, but 5:00 AM, wake up time, meditate and use a, a red light therapy juve. They, I have one of their devices, so I'll meditate while that's shining on me. And then from there, all right, now I'm going for like a 30 to 40 minute walk with my dog, even though it's freezing cold here in Utah, getting that out of the way.
1 (23m 27s):
Cause great. And then I'll come back, make myself coffee, you know, take my, my BHBs, you know, do some journaling gratitude list, a meditation or sorry, not meditation, positive affirmations. Oh. And by the way, when I wake up, I make my bed. First thing, that's another mental thing. Yeah. Yep. And then I'll get my workout in and my workouts, that's the thing it's like, people are like, Oh, you're putting in a workout five times a day, you know, get back to fit. Like I was like, no, you guys are working out five days a week, 20 to 45 minutes or my workouts, that's it. Right. You know, and that's all I'm doing for structured workouts other than walking, but that's more for therapy for me.
1 (24m 7s):
And then get back from the gym and have my, have my breakfast and take a cold shower.
0 (24m 14s):
Love it, love the cold therapy. It's something I've really gotten into over the last few years, cold plunging and cold showers. It's just a great way to start today. And I actually don't mind ending it that way too. It's a relaxation sort of a relaxation device for me at the end of the day. Do you do so you do so you have a sauna, you do red light therapy or like
1 (24m 35s):
I don't have a son. I don't have inference on, I just have to relate therapy, which is like a device and you could pin it to the wall and Mount it. Or I kind of just, I just kinda mounted up against the wall and just, yeah, it would probably look weird if someone walked in, I'm like meditating, looking at a red light, like, you know,
0 (24m 57s):
And so my question too is what about like what you're eating, you know, I know obviously you have the, your book complete keto, right? Yep. What, what's a typical meal for you? I mean, I'm pretty low carb as well. You know, occasionally I'll add them in here and there. How does it look?
1 (25m 14s):
Yeah. Right now is I'm, I'm doing more of a Mediterranean style Quito. So not a lot of bacon and steak, you know, like not a lot of red meat and dairy. So for example, for breakfast is these eight puffs, third Greek eight pus with like Turkey and all of them, them and fed a cheese. And then for lunch, I'll have a, have a CBJ salad with shrimp, maybe the shrimp and avocados and cucumbers and onions and tomatoes. It's delicious. And then dinner right now is my chicken chow main recipe. And it's got like, zoodles Turkey, sausage, chicken thighs. You make it in a wok with like some Sesame oil. And what else has been ground ginger and some other spices and herbs.
1 (25m 57s):
And it's everyone loves it. Even if they're not keto. This is like one of my most popular dishes. Cause people have it even when they're not keto and they're like, dude, I need this recipe. It's amazing. So it's, it's that good?
0 (26m 9s):
Is that in the book? Is that recipe in the book? In my book, complete keto. What's the name of the, the dish chicken Charmaine chicken chum man.
1 (26m 17s):
Yeah. It's awesome. It's awesome. Know, Kito actually just put us to my Instagram today so you can go look at the recipe and the, the macros on that.
0 (26m 25s):
Okay. Yeah, I will. I know you talk about like food addictions and withdrawal symptoms. What, what type of withdrawal symptoms did you have? You know, as far as when you were going through this whole process?
1 (26m 41s):
Yeah. So, so like I said, I'm only three days in right. Yesterday was really hard. I went to the grocery store to buy like paper towels and like trash bags and things for the house. And I was starving and I, I drove past like a festival place. I think it was McDonald's I'm like, man, it w like before it was so almost convenient, it was so convenient just to drive through that, drive through and pick up the food and like stuff your face and feel good. And I'm like, man, I can't do that now. Or when I was at the grocery store picking up those foods or picking up those supplies, I like walked past some stuff where I'm like, Oh, you know what? I can buy this, this peanut butter, M and M is right now. And you know, the, the family size, you know, and eat the whole thing because I could eat whatever I wanted to.
1 (27m 22s):
And now I'm like, okay, I can't eat that. I can't eat that. Or when I was meal prepping, I went to the store to buy all the ingredients. I'm like, okay, I gotta find this ingredient and the produce section, and this is all over there versus when you're not really following a plan, it's like, Oh, those donuts look good. Or, Oh man, that pumpkin bread looks awesome. Or, Hey, I've never tried this cereal. Let me try this. Or, you know what I'm saying? Like you just pick all the stuff that you, it looks good to you. There's no planning or prepping. So I understand and can empathize with people that struggle because the way our society is set up, it's so convenient just to gravitate towards the unhealthy foods. That make sense.
0 (27m 55s):
Yeah. No doubt. I mean, you know, the way they set up these grocery stores, right? It's so convenient just to grab everything you need in all, probably the hyper palatable foods are just staring right at you. And I think, like you said, maybe when you're someone who's fit for your whole life and you drive past these drive-throughs, you don't even recognize them. But now, like you said, you went through this process where now you probably notice them all the time and it's just that temptation to just keep going. Yeah. What is going to be your big key to getting back to fit? Obviously I'm assuming not buying these things, but I always say, if you don't buy them, you won't eat them.
0 (28m 35s):
But what do you think is going to be the toughest thing to sort of get you through this second time around this journey?
1 (28m 42s):
Yeah, honestly, it's just, I think it's just the mental discipline of it all. Like I've trained my brain for the past four months to be undisciplined and to the point where I'm like, Oh dude, I don't want to shower today. Or I don't want to work today. Or I don't want to, you know, I don't wanna have to do hard things. And so I trained my brain to just live a life of comfort. And the hard part for me even is to now train my brain to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. So when I'm hungry before, I'd be like, Oh, I'm hungry. I need food. Now. I was like, okay, well I'm trying to stay straight. So I'm going to wait till dinner time. Instead of snack on some, some junk food, like I normally would, or even taking a cold shower, I'm like, Oh man, this is so hard because my brain is like used to taking warm showers, which feels good.
1 (29m 27s):
Right. It feels comfortable or making my bed. I'm like, Oh, I have to do these little things. And so it's retraining my brain in a sense, even for myself, but for other people that have lived this way for decades, it's going to be even harder for them because people burned out eventually in some people just don't have that mental discipline to stay consistent. But if they realize that if they stay consistent, it becomes easier. The diet, the exercise, the making your bed and taking the cold showers. Like those things become easier eventually. But it's that first, you know, month or so that, it's your body's like, what are you doing? Like, why are you doing this? You're not even seeing any results, like why even live this way, go back to eating whatever you want to and living.
1 (30m 9s):
However you want to like instead of this life discipline, because there's that inner voice inside all of us that sometimes wants that life and comfort because it's available and we know it's available and it's just it's we have to have that motivation. You have to have a really strong why about, why do I want to live this way? Right. Am I doing it because it sucks. Am I doing it because I hope I get ripped one day and then people like me, or am I doing it for my health for to set an example for my kids to feel better, to not have to be on medication and go to the hospital all the time and get sick all the time. Why are you doing it? So that's the biggest thing.
0 (30m 45s):
Yeah. And I'm curious, what were the public perception of you? And did you get any responses from people or when you're out and about like when you were overweight and stuff that made you maybe not feel good,
1 (30m 58s):
You mean like haters pretty much. Yeah. Like people not liking the journey.
0 (31m 4s):
Maybe people that don't even know who you are per se, but, but they see you and you maybe get treated differently because you're a certain type or you're overweight.
1 (31m 13s):
Oh. So when I was overweight, yeah. No one treated me unfairly or mean, that's the thing it's like, and people said this to me, like, okay, you're 60 pounds overweight. You look like a normal human, you look like a normal American dad now. Right? Like you don't look obese. And so no one really treated me differently to be totally honest with you. I think women have it harder though. I think women are judged by society even harsher. And so they're judged, you know, a lot harsher based on their bodies. So I think they might get treated differently being overweight, but you know, for me, no one was really mean to me or said anything to me, you know, being, being the overweight guy.
0 (31m 53s):
Well, that's good. I mean, I think also too, just the way, the age that we're in, as far as just like social media with Instagram, everyone looks, you know, the perfect body and thing, like things like that. So this time around getting into shape, what would you say? What would you say? You, you know, you said you learned stuff through the last 10 years that you're gonna apply. What were some of the things that you learned and how are you going to apply them?
1 (32m 20s):
That's a good question. So ever since my first journey of Fitbit to fit, you know, the biggest lessons I learned was how much of transformation has mental and emotional. And so as someone in the fitness industry and which is an industry that focuses a lot on diet exercise, like the new supplement, the new workout program, the new this, that like, yes, that is part of the that's part of the puzzle that people have to do to transform their body. Right? I'm more focused on the mental, emotional transformation first, because I feel like if people can transform from within and shift the perception of what success looks like in this industry, then the physical stuff becomes easier right? Over time, if you can do that.
1 (33m 1s):
But the problem is that you can have to dig deep to figure out what your demons are. What are your things that are holding you back from living a healthy lifestyle? Is it self-worth, is it self sabotage? Is it maybe childhood trauma that you haven't really released yet? And you tend because what happens is for most people we gravitate towards food or other substances to distract us from dealing with those emotional, that emotional pain. And so a lot of people gravitate towards food because it's legal, it's easy to buy. It's cheap. It tastes really good. And that becomes their advice. Other people might gravitate towards alcohol or drugs or porn or sex or movies, TV shows social media.
1 (33m 41s):
We live in a world of these distractions and we program our brain from a very young age, instead of dealing with the emotional stuff. That's really hard. We just distract ourselves and numb ourselves with these substances over and over and over again, whenever we feel that that stress come up or those triggers come up emotionally to where we never deal with that. And then when we go and try and all right, I'm going to cut. I never get any sugar again. I'm going to work out every single day. We haven't really, we haven't really dealt with this stuff on the inside because what's going to happen is we're going to have to use our willpower every single time to try and live a healthy lifestyle. And eventually you're going to get burnt out unless you're, you know, you know, Jocko, Willink or David Goggins or something like that.
1 (34m 21s):
You know, those are like the one percentage of the world. But most people after a few times, they'll be like, this is too hard. And so for me, I like to help and, you know, help people through those mental, emotional issues, and then shifting the perception and get people to focus on the process because they're worth it because they love themselves enough to treat their bodies kindly instead of hating yourself to skinny or hating yourself to get ripped or shredded. And I think that's the problem that people have is like, I hate the way I look. I want to look like that. So I'm going to beat myself up until I looked that way. And once I looked that way, then all my problems will go away. And that's a big myth, just like people chasing after money. Once they have this much money, then all my problems will go away.
1 (35m 1s):
And it's a very similar thing where if you haven't learned how to be fulfilled and happy with where you're at now, even if you get the body, there might be a temporary sense of happiness or fulfillment, but I promise you, it's not going to last. And so you have to eventually do the work, which is really hard work to let go of that, those emotional challenges, whatever they are for you to learn how to be happy fulfilled. Now, even though your body's not perfect, your life, isn't perfect. You don't have the money you want, because if you can do that now, then along the journey of trying to get those things, you're not beating yourself up or, you know, saying you're a failure because you didn't get those things. Cause you're fulfilled with where you're at now. And you're just continuing to work on a better version of yourself. And so it's a shift in perception that they try and teach people how to do through my programs.
1 (35m 45s):
And it takes some time for sure. But I think once people, once it clicks for them, then they're like, Oh, I get to exercise. Or I get to eat real food because it makes me feel good. And I feel better. I feel healthier when I eat these foods. And when I exercise, it feels good to my body to do hard things. And, and I'm just going to keep living this lifestyle because it feels good. Not in hopes that we'll get these results, which will then change my life.
0 (36m 10s):
No, I love that. And it's something that probably doesn't get talked enough about, right. We're always talking about, Oh, what should you eat? When should you eat? And I, you know, I, I'm a victim of that too. Right? Like you just talk about those things. Cause it's sort of easy and it's maybe even a little, you know, it's like surface level things, but really it comes down to is you sort of, you have to address the emotional and sort of the mental side of being in the right place in order to get where you want to go. If you don't get into that place or at least have, like, you mentioned like a, a true, real reason why you're doing this, what's driving you then all that other stuff doesn't really mean anything. Yeah. Very true.
0 (36m 53s):
Wow. Well that's good stuff. And what would you say the key to staying consistent? I, I know what I would think is I'm curious what your answer to that, because obviously, you know, like you talked about getting the emo, the emotional mental side doubt is, is good, but sometimes I'm sure that can sort of fade and people, you know, go through these highs and lows, but, you know, cause for me just being someone who is someone that's been in shape for a long time, consistency is like the number one thing. Like it doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be this three hour workout, but you can stay consistent. What would you say to someone that trying to stay?
0 (37m 33s):
Yeah.
1 (37m 33s):
Yeah. Well, that's, this is the interesting thing that I've learned over the years is you look at different people and certain things in life are priority, you know, and they can be like, they can make that lifestyle consistent for them because they've kind of chosen that path. And for you and I it's fitness, like I'm always going to be consistent at eating healthy and working out, staying in shape. I think for me, it's, I've made it a priority for so long. I don't even have to really think or put a ton of effort into it because I've been doing for so long. And then there's people that are entrepreneurs and, you know, whatever industry they're in, they have these routines where they're consistent at doing these things to make a lot of money and their focus is on finance. They don't really know, they really don't take care of their health, but they're focused on finance and they're successful.
1 (38m 16s):
And then there's people that in religion they're like, Hey, that is my priority. I'm super consistent that where other people are like, ah, I want to go to church. I want to pray, but it's just too busy. So we're also different raw why we're different. And I see a lot of people try and make that jump into the fitness industry. Like I'm going to be consistent at this. Right. I think it has to do with their, of what success looks like. Cause they, I think a lot of people jump in thinking I'm going to be consistent with this, to get this body right. And if you're, if that's your focus, yeah. Some people can do that. Some people can make that shift. And then before, you know, fitness becomes their lifestyle. But I think for other people to stay consistent, you have to retrain your brain to say this, this for me right now, moving forward will become a priority.
1 (38m 60s):
Like if my kid, you know, needed to be picked up from school like this minute and I'm in the business meeting, guess what my priority is to leave that meeting, go pick up my kid because for like whatever it takes to go take care of my, my daughters and it's similar with fitness, like, Hey, I'm going to go to the gym today. I will work around your schedule or I will go on a date with you later. Or I will clean up this later or I will do this later because I have to get this done first. And so, you know, I wish it was a simple thing. Like, Oh, just be consistent. Just go every day. It happens over time with a shift in perception, the power of perception is, is hugely.
1 (39m 41s):
I would say, no one really looks into it or no one really focuses on that. Or no one really talks about that cause they really don't understand it. And so anyways, it's a, it's an individual journey and not, everyone's going to be consistent to the point where like, Hey, my goal is to get ripped. Other people are consistent to be like, Hey, I want to exercise any healthy to live a long life longevity. Right. And so consistent can look different for different people depending on what their goals.
0 (40m 7s):
Right. Right. Also my thought too was, I know you've mentioned in other interviews is having a support system and being accountable. That's why, you know, with your program, I'm sure there's some accountability and some people just need that. I think we all need some type of coaching, whether, whether it's in health or business or whatever it is, I'm all for finding people that maybe you've done things that you want to do and then just sort of follow their lead. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with that a hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's like people ask me if I train a young kid who's going to college and he's like, well, how do I just keep doing this? I'm like, well, find someone else to do it with, you know, find someone who wants to go to the gym and maybe wants it more than you.
0 (40m 51s):
And, and just, you know, there's nothing like having a workout partner to hold you accountable. And I just think that that can run true in a lot of different things.
1 (40m 59s):
Yeah. Accountability, support system are key for anyone, even for me, like I need accountability. And that's why I'm doing this journey back to fit with thousands of other people from all over the world that have signed up to join me. Because to be honest with you, like if it was just me by myself, it would be 10 times harder because you know, I don't like if no one's watching it and I, and if I'm just by myself, like no one's watching, Oh man, I'm craving something. No, one's really gonna know. Right. Or, Oh, you start making excuses. But if I know, Hey there's thousand people doing the same workout right now and it sucks for them and it sucks for me. Like there's something pushes you past those moments,
0 (41m 35s):
You know? Yeah. No, that's so true. How many people signed up for your,
1 (41m 42s):
I think, I think over 6,000 people.
0 (41m 44s):
It's great. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and what you've done as far as transforming your body back in 2011, then doing it again, I give you a lot of credit. It's something I think I would have a tough time doing. And the fact that you're doing that and then going and, you know, just sort of motivating other people to do it. It sort of spreads. I'm curious as you're I never actually saw your show. Is your show still going on?
1 (42m 8s):
No. When they had two seasons it's available. If you just Google it fit two fat, two fit, but the way the show is spelled this fit T O fat T O fit, you know, minds with minds
0 (42m 20s):
For two with the number two. And I noticed on your website, is it fit to fat to 40?
1 (42m 25s):
Oh, so this journey is called fit defective 40. Sorry. Yeah. So this one's called fit to five to 40, cause I turned 40 on December 27th and that was my last day of my, my weight gain journey.
0 (42m 34s):
I gotcha. Okay. Yeah. And I'm curious, I'm going to follow your journey cause I want to see, so just me being 40, like I was happy. Like I put on this past year, I did a DEXA scan at the beginning of the year, made some changes in my life with my workouts and stuff. And also my protein intake. I up that with some good grass fed protein and anyways put on five pounds of muscle lost like three pounds of fat and got my body fat percentage under 10. And I was like, Oh, you know, I sent that out. Not like trying to like brag per se, but just to sort of maybe it'll maybe someone to look at them, but guy he's 40 and he did it. So it's cool. Cool, cool.
0 (43m 14s):
To see that, you know, you're going to go through this transformation again and we're where can people follow your transformation?
1 (43m 21s):
Yeah. So all my social media handles are fit to fat to fit with the number two in between, or they can go to fit. If I had to forty.com to follow like the, the transformation fit to fat to fit.com is also, you know, it's the same website pretty much. So if they want to join me on the journey back to fit, they can sign up at that website and they can also follow along my progress on social media.
0 (43m 46s):
Yeah. The power of social media, where you can, you know, send it out. And then my one last question to you is that I ask all my guests, if you were going to give, and this is sort of what we've been talking about the whole time. But if you were going to give one tip to someone who is middle-aged and wants to get their body back and I'm sure we've hit on it, but if you were going to give one tip to that person, what would you say to them? Yeah,
1 (44m 11s):
I would say to them that you have to realize and believe that you are worth it to fight for your health. You are worth it to fight for your physical health, your mental, emotional health. And, and so that would be the first thing from there, from there. And then after that, like you said, find a coach, find an accountability partner, a support system to help you, you know, figure out the how right. You know, what you want to do. That's your desire, the, how people are going to help you, Google will help you. Like, there's so many things out there to help you, but you have to believe that you're worth it first. And so that would, that's what I would say to them first and foremost, once you believe that you're going to figure out the, how you're going to hire a coach, you're going to hire a trainer. You're going to join a group. You're going to reach out to someone that you know, is into fitness and ask for help if you believe that you're truly worth it.
1 (44m 56s):
And so that's kind of like the first, that's the first one
0 (44m 59s):
First step. Yeah. I love that. Well, drew lot of good information. I really appreciate you coming on. Yeah.
1 (45m 8s):
Well, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
0 (45m 10s):
All right. Well, thanks again. And we'll be in touch. I'm definitely gonna follow your journey.
1 (45m 16s):
Thank you. I appreciate that.
0 (45m 21s):
Thanks for listening to the get lean eat clean podcast. I understand there are millions of other podcasts out there and you've chosen to listen to mine. And I appreciate that. Check out the show notes@briangrin.com for everything that was mentioned in this episode, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend or family member. That's looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again, and have a great day.
