Brian (1s):
Coming up on the GETLEAN E Clean podcast,
Mac (3s):
And we did Intermittent Fasting probably really started it up in the middle of March of 2020. And by Labor Day, you know, six months or so later, I'm down 60 pounds. I go from two 30 to one 70, and I feel great. And some people look at me in this world that we live in and said, are you okay? Yeah. you know, like, you have some kind of a, a sickness or an illness or, you know, God forbid. And I said, no, I, I feel great. you know, and, and So, they asked, how'd you do it? And all this. So I, so I just get into the Intermittent Fasting thing and, and told 'em about it. And most of them gave me the same look that I gave that assistant coach that day, you know, year and a half earlier.
Mac (46s):
But, you know, to me, Brian, I found the Intermittent Fasting thing. It's essentially a, a fountain of youth to this now 63 year old guy who I'm thinking, like, when I'm laying on that, that gurney after my hip replacement, like, I guess this is the end, you know, and all these crazy thoughts that go through your mind. But, you know, I, I, I found it, and, and it, it's like I still do it today. I, I basically eat two meals a day as a general rule of thumb and, and minimize to no snacking in between. Basically eat lunch and dinner. And, and, and I move a lot and I do some resistance training. And at 63, I feel as good now as I did when I was 40
Brian (1m 26s):
Hello. and welcome to the Get Lean Eat Clean podcast. I'm m Brian Gryn and I 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 62 year old Mac McHugh. He lost 50 pounds through Intermittent Fasting whole foods and resistance training. Hopefully Max's story of weight loss and health will inspire you. He weighed 225 pounds in March of 2020, and on September 24th, that same year, the scale read 1 72 Since.
Brian (2m 6s):
then he's been able to maintain his weight between one 70 and 1 75. And he shares all his tips when it comes to getting started with intermittent fasting, his ways to avoid decision fatigue and his daily routine when it comes to exercise and eating whole foods. Really enjoyed my interview with Mac. I know you will too. Thanks so much for listening and enjoy the show. All All. right, Welcome to the Get Lean Eat Clean podcast. My name is Brian Gryn and I have Mac McCue on the podcast. Welcome to the show.
Mac (2m 36s):
Thanks, Brian.
Brian (2m 37s):
Thanks for coming on. And this came about because I sent out an email to my, my email list and just sort of asked individuals or asked everyone if, if they had wanted to come on my podcast and got a decent amount of return from that. And Max, I've been in touch with him through the years, and I thought it would be beneficial to bring him on And, you know, hear his story and maybe this'll inspire you, you know, sort of his health story and, and how he got results and yeah. So I'm, I'm excited to have you on.
Mac (3m 11s):
Appreciate it, Brian. So excited to be here. Yeah.
Brian (3m 14s):
And Mac, where are you coming from?
Mac (3m 17s):
The great state. The great city of Portland, Maine,
Brian (3m 20s):
All. right, okay.
Mac (3m 22s):
Up in the corner.
Brian (3m 24s):
Up in the corner. And perhaps maybe give the audience a little bit background of yourself and sort of how, how you got into health and, you know, I know you, you know, Intermittent Fasting and things like that, that have, that you've done through the years.
Mac (3m 36s):
Yeah, no, I guess I, I look at Intermittent, Fasting Brian as, as a, a lifesaver for me, Al almost. And, and just to go back a, a few years, I'm 63 now. I'll be 64 this fall, but in the fall of 2019, probably about a month or so before my 60th birthday, I had a, had a hip replacement surgery at that time. But I needed to, I needed to get that done, had it done in October of 2019, about a month before my 60th birthday And, you know, I, I had put on some weight and what, what triggered it was I went to my primary care physician, had some, what I thought were back issues.
Mac (4m 18s):
And I, I'm a pretty regular guy over the years of going to a chiropractor. So it wasn't helping this particular issue when they, they, he got me an x-ray and it showed like a, like a bone spur type thing on my right hip, And, you know, today's, in today's world, it's like, you know, we seems like they wanna replace all parts and all that kind of stuff, which in this case they did, you know, and, and in preparation for that, they said, you know, get as, get as light as you can, you know, for the, for the surgery and the, and the post-surgery and the PT and all that because you're gonna be somewhat immobile following the surgery and it'll take a little bit to, to, to get back to back to square one. So I got myself down to about like 215 pounds at the time of the surgery.
Mac (5m 2s):
I was around two 15. My all time high that I remember though, I can tell you that was like 250 pounds back in, around 2016 or so, a few years before that had gotten weighted off. I call it the old fashioned American weight. This diet, that diet, this diet, that diet, put it on, take it off, all that, all that stuff. And anyway, had the surgery done right before the holidays, somewhat immobile because you're doing go through the PT and then the holidays hit. Of course, I've enjoyed my Thanksgiving, I enjoyed my Christmas and all the goodies and all that satisfaction that comes with it and got my weight up to, and I remember this cuz everybody, me weighs themselves on New Year's Day, cuz we all made resolutions to lose weight, right?
Mac (5m 48s):
So it, I I tipped the scales at like two 30, a added 15 pounds from October to, to then, and then of course in 2020, COVID comes along. And I'll always say that, that Covid as, as crazy as this may sound, might have helped save my life in terms of, of the health piece because they closed all the restaurants and, and it was great cuz that kept me outta restaurants. I was never much of a takeout guy. And that was basically all you could do for, but where depending on where you lived, obviously six months, eight months. And my wife and I, the kids were outta the house at this point. They're, they're, they're adults now. and we said, you know, we've gotta do something.
Mac (6m 29s):
We can't let C V I D you know, depress us, put us in a, in a, in a poor state of mind, all this kinda stuff. So, we had a little home gym we put together in the cellar and, and did workouts three or four days a week. And that was great. Feeling a little stronger, feeling a little bit better. But the nutrition piece still wasn't in line, you know, it just, we just wasn't there and, and always struggled with it in the, you know, as we call the standard American diet, it's a great acronym. What can I do now? What's the next trick I can do, you know, to try to try to get the weight off. And I had done some research on Intermittent Fasting and even had a friend that experienced it a couple years prior.
Mac (7m 10s):
I I used to be a high school baseball coach and one of the assistants did it, and we were out at breakfast one day and I said, hell, I'll buy you guys breakfast. We'll, we'll do a little, you know, preseason meeting, talk about the team, all that. And he sat down, he said, I'll have a black coffee. And I said, after that, And, you know, other assistant myself, I ordered a standard breakfast and so did he. And I said, look, I'll buy you breakfast, don't worry about it. He says, no, no coach, I'm, I'm doing Intermittent Fasting. And that was the first I heard about that was like probably in 2018. And I said, well, what's that? Describe that to me. And he did within reason, you know, eating window, Fasting window, you know, this type of stuff. And all he did was sit there and drink black coffee for about an hour and a half. So I got home that night and I'm thinking, geez, that's, that's crazy.
Mac (7m 53s):
you know, do something like that and then fast forward a year later and I'm gonna try it, you know, I'm gonna, I gotta try something. I, I understand the general concept of it. And I sort of did it on my own, Brian, just from, based on research that I did. I I, I've listened to a couple Podcasts, I don't think I I hit your podcast just yet, but there was a couple on, I think it was that Jen Stevens gal that wrote the book and, and on on Intermittent Fasting, there was another gentleman from Australia I think that, that did something So. we, we did our thing and we started doing Intermittent Fasting. My wife's not was an overweight or, but she sort of, you know, she had to help me. And that's a very key thing to do that your, your spouse, your partner, whatever they need to be with you too, I think on this.
Mac (8m 40s):
And anyway, we did Intermittent Fasting probably really started it up in the middle of March of 2020. And by Labor Day, you know, six months or so later, I'm down 60 pounds. I go from two 30 to one 70 and I feel great. And some people look at me in this world that we live in and said, are you okay? Yeah. you know, like you have some kind of a, a sickness or an illness or you know, God forbid. And I said, no, I, I feel great, you know, and, and So they asked, how'd you do it? And all this. So I, so I just get into the Intermittent Fasting thing and, and told 'em about it. And most of them gave me the same look that I gave that assistant coach that day, you know, a year and a half earlier.
Mac (9m 23s):
But, you know, to me, Brian, I found the Intermittent Fasting thing. It's essentially a, a fountain of youth to this now 63 year old guy who I'm thinking like, when I'm laying on that, that gurney after my hip replacement, like I guess this is the end, you know, and all these crazy thoughts that go through your mind. But, you know, I I, I found it and, and it, it's like I still do it today. I, I basically eat two meals a day as a general rule of thumb and, and minimize to no snacking in between. Basically I eat lunch and dinner and, and, and I move a lot and I do some resistance training. And at 63, I feel as good now as I did when I was 40. And, and I, I credit a lot of it to Intermittent Fasting, it gave me a plan to do it and I've been able to execute it and, and live and it's not really, you know, I didn't have to eat it, you know, buy order food in a box and, and eat this at this time.
Mac (10m 18s):
And all it, it's, it's sort of, of a simple thing, sort of levers, different levers that you can work to, to make it work to your schedule to find what can work for you. And, you know, other people saw me and we, we could talk about it a little bit later, but you know, I, I've worked with like four people helping them. The ones that wanted to embrace the concept of Intermittent Fasting and really help some, some people ranging from the age of 23 to a 60 year old getting some weight off. And I'll give you, I wanna, you know, I definitely wanna put the plug in for you cuz I, I, I googled, I better, I said, I better, if people ask me for help, I better have some kind of credibility with this even though I'm, I'm not a doctor. I didn't go to Med medical school and I found you and you have that, that Intermittent Fasting course.
Mac (11m 3s):
And I said, you know what? It, it wasn't, you know, crazy money or anything. And, and I, I just need to be able to speak to it better, understand it, better to understand what I just did. So I took your course as you know, and, and it was, it was good. It was easy. It was, it was very s simple, you know, it was, it was fundamental. It was a lot of fundamental stuff. There's no, you know, deep science to it. It, it, it's just, it was just good fundamental stuff. And I, I've taken it and it just brought me mental credibility to I can work with people on this now. And I'm, I'm actually taking, I'm in the middle of a different course right now at more, I guess more intense health coaching type course, which is something that I may try to do when I retire in a couple more years from my, as I call it, my day job.
Mac (11m 49s):
And just be able to do that is sort of a, a side hustle in a sense, but help people, you know, cause I know how it helped me. I feel like I, I could live to 90 right now. That's how I feel, you know, I just all through Intermittent Fasting. So sorry about the long-winded story about how did we get here, but that's, that's, you know, sort of the, the Reader's Digest version of, of what I've done to this point.
Brian (12m 10s):
No, thank thanks for sharing. And you know, it's interesting when, when you talk about how Covid hit And, you know, you had to sort of decide that you wanted to take action and, and the fact that restaurants closed, I think was, I've seen you're not the first person that has said that because going to restaurants I always say is, is like, especially if it becomes just a habitual thing can really be detrimental to individuals health, even if they feel like they're eating healthy. Because a lot of times, you know what they're cooking it, your food in and what they're putting in it really can just add up over time. So it's interesting that you say that because I'm assuming that, you know, as you started this journey, you just started cooking for yourself.
Brian (12m 51s):
Is that, is that correct?
Mac (12m 54s):
That that that's correct. I should say, I gotta I have to give my wife credit there. She's the better cook than I, but it was funny because it's like I forgot how good of a cook she was until then when we really just got back into much more whole foods and, and that type of stuff. And like, even when you comment and even when the restaurants open back up and like I tell the handful of people I've worked with, if you're gonna go to a restaurant, you can't stop being social. you know, you can't shut yourself off from the world and live in a, live in a cocoon. But it's like, I highly recommend that you, most restaurants you can look at their menu online and, and take a look at it before you go. So you don't have that anxiety when you're looking at the menu to say, oh geez, what can I eat on this thing And, you know?
Mac (13m 37s):
And don't be afraid to ask maybe like, you know, what oil do you cook this in? you know, stuff like that. You may, you, you, you know, back in the day you, you'd like, I don't wanna be that person at the table, but you know what, health is important, you know, and, and, and you can do it, you know, smoothly. I, I think you learn how to do it smoothly. And I think what happens when you don't do that is I, I've, I've heard the term used decision fatigue, right? You just like, I'm looking at this menu, I see, you know, eight things that I'd really like to get, which one's the best one? Or can I tweak one of these to make it really fit my, my nutrition goals and that type of stuff. But I think the best thing you can do from, from a restaurant standpoint is, is no one advance what you're gonna order before you get there.
Mac (14m 20s):
And I think that can save a lot of anxiety and things like that.
Brian (14m 24s):
I love that tip. Yeah, it's fun. It's interesting. My wife and I don't go out to dinner a lot, but you know, obviously you have to be, you know, social sometimes So. we, we, we do that, we do look at those menu before we go probably 90% of the time to see what they have and make sure there's something on there. Now, as you went on this journey, what maybe what type of obstacles did you run into and how did you decide to sort of structure it around your schedule?
Mac (14m 51s):
Well, I mean the, the first thing, you know, and I, I, I mentioned of course with Covid, we were somewhat, you know, contained. Yeah. But I, I think what you need to do is, is like take a really good look at the food you currently have in the house, you know, and, and one of the guys that I, this different, this new course I'm taking, he, he calls the concept, purge the pantry and, and go through and really look at the foods that you currently have in the house because it's like the, it's the temptation factor, you know, if it's in the room, And, you know, it's in the room or in the kitchen, you know, you're going to eventually succumb to it, you know what I mean? And just, no, so, so get it out of the house if you both agree that, you know, we, we shouldn't eat this food, let's, let's get rid of it.
Mac (15m 35s):
You know? And I think that's it. It's setting yourself up to win by doing that versus, you know, just if you know the temptations there, you know, you just eventually you're going to give in. And I don't think any, cuz the, we can talk about willpower and motivation. All those things are temporary. It's, it is, you gotta build a discipline. So you gotta build the environment that, that is gonna give you the best chance for success. So, we really started with, with that approach and then brought more whole foods back into the house, you know, and it, it is just, I forget how good real food tasted, you know, you get to that point, you know, where you just forget like, Jesus, there's nothing like a fresh salad, you know, and or go to the, you know, the farm your local farmer's market or, or go to the, you know, an organic type place.
Mac (16m 20s):
And, and, and that stuff's real to me. I mean, you really, like, you, you, your taste buds really change once you get off that processed food sugar addiction type of a food. Because that stuff, just, once you start eating it, it's like, I don't know that old Lay's potato chips, right? You can't eat just one. You just keep popping 'em, popping 'em, popping 'em, and next thing you know, you're, you know, 50 pounds overweight. So it, it's building that discipline I think coming out the gate and, and knowing and eliminating, like I keep saying that decision fatigue of what are we having for dinner tonight? I mean, Now I know today or tonight as we do this call, I know what I'm having tomorrow. you know, for, for lunch and, and dinner. It is not like, it's, what am I gonna do this morning?
Mac (17m 2s):
Where's the food? What do I do? What are we gonna buy? you know, it's, it's, we're we're good. you know what I mean? We're, we're, we're planning in advance.
Brian (17m 8s):
Yeah. Tho those are great tips. I mean yeah, like you said, like if you don't buy it, you won't eat it. Right. you know. Exactly. Make it difficult. It's like people who And, you know, some people have kids at home, And, you know, there's maybe some junk around and that can be a little bit challenging, but I think if you don't leave it on the counter or maybe put it somewhere where it's more difficult to get to, you know, like you said, it sort of puts, sets you up for success. Right, right off the bat. And then you mentioned whole foods, what's, what, what is like a typical a day of eating for yourself and for your wife?
Brian (17m 51s):
And, and I love how you also mentioned that you planning out the night before or, or, or, you know, or even a couple days before we do the same thing in, in our household. And what, what are, what are sort of the things that you prioritize when you're, when you're planning out your meals?
Mac (18m 7s):
Like we said, the whole foods, I'm, I'm a big, you know, meat eater, I like a good steak. I like, you know, even shaved steak And, you know, I love breakfast as, you know, as we know it is my, is my favorite meal. But So, we just have breakfast for dinner, you know what I mean? We'll have an omelet, we'll have, you know, some kind of a protein with that. Whether it's, it's steak, it's, it's, it's chicken, whatever. Living here in Portland, Maine, we're right on the coast. We have some of the best seafood available. Shrimp's a great option. Low calorie, high protein. It's one of the best. To me, the, the two things are, are, are, are shrimp and, and from a, from a fruit standpoint is like blueberries.
Mac (18m 49s):
Cuz I'm, I'm into like the low glycemic value fruits try to, you know, not that you can't, you know, not the fruits are bad for you, but some are tougher than others on your, from a sugar standpoint. And, and like the berries you focus on berries, berries, berries. I'll tell people, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and, and So, we focus on that end on the fruit. And of course salad. So salad would be maybe a typical lunch with, you know, some kind of protein on it, whether it's shrimp or you know, some, some steak tips or, or or grilled chicken. Just really fundamental stuff. And I think keeping it simple is that is that way. And then the breakfast for dinner approach, you know, with, like I said, omelets or, or ke or, or you know, and the ke the kche is always costless.
Mac (19m 32s):
You can make a, a costless kche to, to minimize the carb intake. So, you know, we, we Lean I don't call it a keto thing per se cuz I don't know what the, the real true definition of keto is by depends, I gotta think who you ask. But you know, it leans toward a lower carb, but good carbs too, not the heavy breads. And the only bread I really eat is aranco Ezekiel, which is, doesn't have any flour in it. And, and really the only good way to have that type of bread is toasted because it sort of falls apart when it's just fresh. You gotta freeze it too, right? To to, to keep it. and we have that occasionally, like maybe whatever poached egg with, with toast and again, you know, bacon and we use, we use the local butcher for our, for our meat and, and not so much the, you know, the typical grocery store stuff.
Mac (20m 21s):
Not that it, it's bad, but you try to find those farmer market type environments. My wife, unfortunately, we eat a lot of eggs and my wife's, one of my wife's coworkers raises their own chicken So. We get, you know, it is funny when you compare like a, a farm fresh egg to a store bought egg, I mean the, the, the density and the color of the yoke is so different. I mean, it just like, really you scratch your head and say, how was that made versus how that was made. It really makes you wonder, you know, how a lot of these mass produced foods are, are done. And, and I think it's a really good, just a good, an example of good eyeopener, but we're sort of all over the board.
Mac (21m 1s):
We try to, you know, keep mixed up a little bit, but in the same sense keep it simple and, and and fundamental, you know.
Brian (21m 9s):
Yeah. Love that. And what would you say, did you, when you started, you know, condensing your eating times, was that something you started with? Right? Cuz a lot of people ask me, well, should I start cleaning up my eating first? Or should I, or should I close my window a little bit? Or do do it the same time? What was your sort of journey through that? How did, how did you
Mac (21m 33s):
I did it at the same time, right? Because I think, I think the sort of the, the fallacy or the, or the failure with intermittent fasting is to think that if you create an eight or six hour eating window that you can eat anything you want. That's, that would be a big mistake. And, and then you might say, well, Intermittent Fasting doesn't work. Well it, it, it does work, but you, that doesn't mean you can have anything you want. So, but when I started up And, you know, I lucky for me, I, I drank my coffee black anyway before I took up Intermittent Fasting. So that made that transition easier. But what I try to do is I'll have black coffee in the morning, but I try, I try to get 20 ounces of water in in me first I'll get a, you know, Poland spring water maiden Poland Spring Maid.
Mac (22m 16s):
So I gotta put a plugin for, for me. There you go. So I'll drink a 20 ounce bottle of, of water, have coffee and then, and, and bring more water into work with me. And I use a product called Element T. It's a, it's a supplement that has sodium, potassium, and magnesium in it. And I had one packet of that to my water. And what I found even early in the game with that was it sort of curbed my cravings, you know, to eat. So I could, you know, I started out with the intention of not eating until 11:00 AM and being done by 7:00 PM in the evening, which usually gave me at least two, two and a half hours before I went to bed. I think that's a very important thing too, to, to really ratchet that that down so that your digestive system isn't cranking when you're crawling into bed at night.
Mac (23m 1s):
So the element t I use that really curved it and then i, I easily probably after 10 days to two weeks of, of starting my Intermittent Fasting, I moved it to 1:00 PM and all of a sudden my eight hour window became six hours and it wasn't for me, it was different. So it, it's not that easy. I won't say that everybody should just do that and it'll work. But that's how it worked for me. That that's how, how how I was successful. And most of the time, and even to this day, I'm, I'm, I'm having lunch around one and I'm done eating dinner by seven. So it's sort of a six hour window. Now, I'm gonna say once a month maybe, maybe even twice a month, something.
Mac (23m 41s):
But I'll do a 36 hour fast where I just won't eat for one day. And basically, you know, just, and, and what I, when I, when I'll do it is I don't like try to schedule it, but if I know I'm gonna take a flight to go see my, one of my sons lives in Omaha, Nebraska, So, we may take a flight and I'm going, you know what, I don't have to, today's a good day not to eat. I know that sounds crazy and people look, you know, look at you not to eat, you know, I, you know, so I'm not gonna eat those bag of peanuts or pretzels on the airplane. I'll just drink my water and have my coffee. And by the time I travel, I get there and I'm almost ready to go to bed or I'll go for a little walk and, and then once I know I go to bed, the toughest part of that 36 hour fast is that dinner, that evening, dinner that, you know, I never have really a problem.
Mac (24m 28s):
I, I can skip lunch sometimes. I only have one meal a day and it's, it'll be the, it'll be dinner, but if I get through that dinner, I can do that 36 hour fast. And that one, just like people, some people say, you're, you're nuts, you're crazy. I said, it's, it's really, I, I have more energy on the morning after the all day of not eating it. It's an amazing thing. And I think people don't understand that about Fasting is that it's a good like, like flushing of the, of the cells, you know what I mean? It's just like, you know, it's, you know, we're gonna rebuild this and you are gonna be stronger when you come back. you know, it sound like a superhero or something, but it's like, it's not that bad. And, and you'd be amazed how good you feel after you do that.
Mac (25m 11s):
you know, it just, it's, it, it is hard for people to grasp, but I think you gotta build up a Fasting muscle, I'll call it, to get to that point. Don't do that on day one. you know, it's, you'll you'll set up for failure. But, you know, so I, I've got that built in too and, and I still do it to these, to these days. I mean, I got to my, I wouldn't even call it a goal weight. I got to the weight that I was comfortable at and I have been there, it'll be, that was, you know, it'll be three years this fall and I haven't changed my life. So I probably ate before 1:11 AM maybe once in those three years. And I don't think anything of it, it's not like I'm white knuckled, you know, all morning waiting for one o'clock to arrive. I don't even think about it. It's just, I think we were so conditioned growing up that it's three meals and then somebody said, let's even add some snacks to that And.
Mac (25m 59s):
now we look and we ask ourselves why are, why is, you know, whatever the number is, believe what, 70, 75% of the United States overweight, you know, we, we eat a lot. That's what we do. So
Brian (26m 12s):
Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. I mean, I think a lot could be learned from, from sort of your journey and, and like you said, I I think you wanna sort of ease your way into it. I know when I first started doing some Fasting, I definitely slowly pushed back that first meal and for, you know, for some people they could just cold Turkey it and do it right, right the next day. But like you said, you want to sort of set yourself up for success. And one way to do that is to sort of ease into it. And also too, I always tell people there's no perfect window. Like if you wanna have breakfast and lunch, you know, and, and that works for you. I think the biggest thing a lot of times for people is when they skip that, let's just say that first meal, a lot of times in that first meal, they're on the run, they're rushing, they're having a lot of, of just processed food in general.
Brian (27m 1s):
You think about a typical standard American diet for breakfast, muffins, croissants, hash browns, you know, things like pancakes. Sure, yeah. So yeah, tho those food, you know, aren't gonna serve you too well. And so I think just eliminating that in in itself can go a long way.
Mac (27m 23s):
No question. No question. I, and like you said, most, most breakfasts happen fast. Yeah. And, and a lot of 'em happen in a drive-through and that's typically not a, not a good option generally speaking.
Brian (27m 35s):
And what would you say if there were any obstacles that came or just like little things that, that you ran into when you first started or were there and, and what'd you do to overcome them?
Mac (27m 50s):
Yeah, I mean, not, you know, probably the only thing Brian, I can really think of, and like I said, again, my, my timing was good in the sense of covid because there weren't a lot of social opportunities. We, we all can't wait for the next covid to come along to start Intermittent Fasting. But it, it's, I think the biggest challenge becomes, you know, most people are social and they're gonna go out And, you know, like one of the things I, you know, have minimal like, like is alcohol. I I, I'll have an occasional glass of wine, that type of thing. Maybe maybe a a a a a Miller Light or, or something like that. But I mean, I don't even think I can handle two drinks now because my body's changed and I'm, I'm one, I'm a little lighter, I'm a little older, all that kind of stuff.
Mac (28m 31s):
But yeah, it is just as I, as I sort of tongue in cheek with people, I says, look, I don't have to have a drink or eat those fried clams or whatever to be a fun guy. I'm still a fun guy. you know what I mean? When you go out and it's just sort of working through that and knowing that you're, you're sort of going against the social norm, you know, and, and, and when, and a when you're in a, you know, restaurant or you're going out with friends or going to a, an event and I don't like, I'll have a, a piece of birthday cake. I, I think that this kind of stuff and these type of programs, if you try to be perfect at it, you'll probably fail. But if you can be consistent at it and And, you know, one of my, probably my favorite book of all time was the book, the, the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.
Mac (29m 20s):
And, and he talks about, you know, changing your habits and, and, and building new habits. And you know, he's the one that said, you know, you gotta get temptations outta the environment. Other people have said it, but that, you know, he read it there And, you know, you talk about, he called it Don't swing and miss twice. So, alright, you have a, maybe you have a bad meal in terms of the amount of carbs or the sugar that's in it. Don't let that ruin your day. Don't let, don't let that roll into tomorrow and you do it again And. you know, you're gonna, you're gonna trip a little bit. you know, it's the 80 20 rule. If you get it right 80% of the time, everything's gonna be fine. Don't try to be perfect. Don't get discouraged if you, if you trip a little bit, it's, it's, it's gonna happen.
Mac (30m 3s):
But just get up quickly and, and regroup and go back to doing what you were doing. And I think when you're, I think the, the best, the strategy that worked for me and what I did with a, with a few people was look, when you're in your, what I'll call transformation portion of this Intermittent Fasting, cuz you're probably doing it in most cases to lose weight. It really has other benefits beyond that. But that's what's gonna get people sort of initiated at it, is that I think you wanna be more disciplined because you wanna see results, you wanna see success. So you know, you're probably gonna be, you should be a little bit more disciplined. And then when you get to that, if you wanna call it a goal weight, I'm not big on the weight itself more than the, the feeling And, you know, if you've, your pants feel better on you, you know, you need to get, you know, you need to drop two sizes down or whatever.
Mac (30m 51s):
The mirror never lies as we know, you know, the really look in the mirror more than to get hung up on the scale. But it, it, it's like get focused during your transformation and when you get there, and I hate to talk about, I don't like moderation, like you can have that in moderation. I, I think that's a little too too loose. But I'd say like, don't be afraid to have a slice of birthday cake if you're at a, you know, but remember it's a slice of birthday cake, not a quarter of the cake. you know, have a slice of birthday cake and learn to understand that. That's it. This was a very special occasion. you know, I hate the comments or, or the, the, I hate the term sheet meal. I think it's, it's very misleading and it can lead you down a bad path.
Mac (31m 34s):
I mean, I, I'd rather think of it as a, as a one-off. It doesn't have to happen every Saturday night, it's my cheat meal. A lot of people sort of approach things that way. I think you're better off, okay, this is a special event. And, and if you, once you've transformed your, your body and the, and your, in your mental state, cuz this really helps your mental, you know, capability as much as it does your physical by getting in good physical shape is, is like, you know, just focused during the transformation. And then be smart during maintenance. you know, when you're, when you're in that range of, of good weight and feeling good because just look at your before picture, just sort of tell people from, just look at your before picture.
Mac (32m 16s):
You don't wanna go back there. You don't. And and that's enough motivation for, for a lot of people, you know, and this stuff can, you know, sort of cascade. And I, I do wanna tell a couple quick stories. My, one of my friends, his son was, was I'm sure by medical definition, morbidly obese. He's 22 years old, went to the University of Maine, of course they shut down during covid. They send all the students home and you, you can work from your bedroom online. And he, he mentioned to my, my friend, he says, geez, Mack looks, how'd he do it? What did he do? He says, I need to, I need to change. So I met with him and, and we, we, we got together and I said, first of all, Luke kid's name is Luke.
Mac (33m 1s):
I said, what? Why are you here? He goes, I've gotta change something or I'm gonna die real young. And, and He weighed at the age of 22, right? He weighed 300 pounds. And it wasn't because he was the offensive lineman for the football team. It was just a lot of poor habits in eating that had built up. And then you threw the covid thing, which negatively affected him because now he's inside, he's in his bedroom, all his glasses are online. It's like he really left the room, you know, it was almost like being a, a hermit. So I, I told I didn't have any great approach to it other than what I did. So I sort of went through what I did and he took this thing like, like an extremist and, and I said, let's focus on getting you down to two meals with minimal to no snacking.
Mac (33m 44s):
We'll, we'll we, I say play the game. We did the 10,000 step thing. I want you to do 10, you know, build yourself up to 10,000 steps a day. Let's shoot for 5,000 to start. He got up, he got up there quickly. It wasn't that he was, he was just carrying a lot of weight. And Brian, I'll tell you, and, and this was in 2022 and I tracked it for him. And I think becoming, like, I look at myself as an accountability person. You wanna work with me, okay, I'm, I'm just gonna make you accountable. You have to be committed. I can't, you know, I can motivate you for a little bit, might work for a day or two, but you've gotta be committed to wanting to change and, and write down all your whys. We always talk about why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? Write him down on paper and hang 'em on the refrigerator or put 'em on your laptop into, you know, tape it to your laptop or what have you.
Mac (34m 28s):
And he lost in six and a half months, he lost a hundred pounds. I mean it was just, and it wasn't in a bad way. And he's maintained it since his life changed. you know, forget the weight, you know, forget the a hundred pounds. His whole life and the way he sees life changed confidence, right? It, it's, it's confidence. And this was a 22 year old and, and I've, I've worked with three or four other people and frankly another, again, and I'd say this in total sincerity, another plug to you. I took that class and what, you know, what you offer in that class is a, an approach, you know, a sort of a documented approach. you know, I, with some of these guys are so technology, all these younger people are all over it, you know, instead of you writing food down in a journal, I introduced them to MyFitnessPal.
Mac (35m 16s):
you know, you can, however you wanna do it, you real, I think, and I don't wanna get people hung up on counting calories cuz that that never lasts. You won't sustain it. But sometimes at first when you're starting out, just start doing it at first so you understand how much you're eating. you know, sometimes I don't think you realize how much you shovel in. You go to a restaurant, of course they, they give you two servings of everything and it's almost like an all you can eat food fest. It's like what? How much are you taking in? Measure it for a while. So you understand that's what he did. And then he got so disciplined, basically he ate almost the same thing for lunch and his same thing for dinner e every day.
Mac (35m 56s):
And as crazy as it sounds, I mean that might be extremist, but he took the decision fatigue out of play. I can tell you that he didn't have to worry about what he was gonna have And, you know, it was like basically his first meal was like around noon. It was basically eggs in some kind of a meat or protein. And then his dinner was like a chicken breast or stuffed chicken breast and, and some vegetables, you know, some greens. And he did that for like six months and it, and it fell right off him. I think that just shows you how, one, how bad he was eating and two, how good you can do when you really dial it in, you know, which is sort of an extreme way of dialing it in. But you know, it worked for him, it worked for him. And, now he's in a maintenance mode where he is probably got a little bit of flexibility in there.
Mac (36m 37s):
I don't, I always said anytime I'll reach out to him like randomly and I'll tell him, send me your weight, you know, just out of the blue. So it's like, it's a surprise. It's not like next Tuesday Max's gonna ask how much I weigh. So I'm gonna do a 36 hour fast or something, make sure I'm at my best number. But it's just that accountability. I think we all need to be held accountable to some degree. you know, it is great that if you're really self disciplined and all that, but most of the world isn't. And, and I think things like health coaches, you know, people like yourself, it, it is just, we just need it. It just, it's, it's better than a doctor as far as I'm concerned. Or it's a nice supplement to a doctor. Lemme say that. Cause I don't wanna, you know, tick off any, any medical professionals.
Mac (37m 21s):
That's not my goal. We, we need 'em. They're important. But I think that, and some of 'em, the younger ones now are finally, I think seeing through this and, and seeing the importance of it And, you know, I'm just, I'm just thrilled about it. I'm excited about it. I love talking about it. You probably get a sense for it. It's just like, let's change the world by improving how, how we eat and what we eat. you know? And it, and it's amazing thing. I will say, the old saying growing up for me was sound mind, sound body. I flip it. Sound body, sound mind. I'd like, you know, I I think when you feel good about yourself, when you like the person that's in the mirror, this changes versus the other way around. I think I really think it, it works that way. At least that's, that's my experience.
Brian (38m 3s):
Yeah, that's quite the story. And I, and I do like how you mentioned that and I agree, I think at the beginning of someone's health journey, recording what they're eating, you know, when they're eating their other habits that, that are going on are, I think are important. It's not like you need to do that for the rest of your life, but at least initially it's good to have an idea. Cuz like you said, a lot of times we eat out of boredom or stress and we don't even realize we're eating half the time and
Mac (38m 31s):
Right. Absolutely. Yeah.
Brian (38m 32s):
Yeah, that's a great, yeah, that's a great thing to do right off the bat. And like you said, there's plenty of apps. you know, for me, I, you know, I I started with more of like a journal like, you know, that, you know, people can utilize along with the, with the course, but any, any type of tool if, if it's just a notebook, whatever it is, it doesn't have to be a fancy journal, but that's a great place to sort of start and get a, at least a baseline of, of caloric intake. So you just know where you're at. True. Now, you know, last piece of this is, you know, eating whole foods, like you mentioned cooking for yourself, creating some type of structure with Fasting and then you got into resistance training.
Brian (39m 19s):
What was your journey regarding that?
Mac (39m 22s):
Well we, we started out, my wife and I And now with Covid. A lot of the gyms were closed obviously at the same time. But we, ours is more, you know, we're not bench pressing 300 pounds or anything. I'm 63. She's 61. So it's lot, most of it's body weight. It, it, you know, it's pushups and, and whether she does them, you know, on her knees or on on on an incline, you know, where, where to take some of the weight off. you know, we utilize the T R X straps, you know, for body weight exercises. We use, use a lot of bands. And then we like, like for squatting and stuff like that, I'm not throwing any weight on my back. But So, we use like a landmine approach where we stick that barbell, you know, in a, in a apparatus that and do our squats with that And, you know, again, like younger you can probably, you probably have more flexibility.
Mac (40m 9s):
You gonna lose some flexibility as you get older. But I'll use like a wedge under my heels when I'm doing the squats. I'm not trying to, I'm just, I want the movement. I want the movement. I'm gonna definitely gonna strengthen the muscles or, or at least keep 'em there because as we know, as we get older, you know, you're gonna lose some muscle. You're gonna lose some tone. And I, I would put, you know, as much as the Fasting and cleaning up the diet is, is is very important. But the resistance training is, i, I think such a key. It is, don't forget about it. Don't like skip it just, well we'd started doing it first when Covid was, we would do like three days where we sort of separated. you know, we did the body parts, we did like chest, shoulders and triceps on one day and then we did back biceps the next day and then legs the third day and then take a day off.
Mac (40m 56s):
We switched that up because that got like almost too much because we basically do it every other day. So, we, we do a workout and we do it, we try to do it in time too cuz we try to do it like 30 minutes really is what we try to knock it out in 30 minutes on, on off days if you will. We're always moving, we're always playing the game of steps and, and making sure we're, we're getting movement all day every day. But the other thing that we, we try to do like every 10 days to two weeks is, is like a, it's like a sprint type workout. And I don't mean sprint necessarily in the sense of literally sprinting. That might be, it might go find a hill and run up a hill four times or whatever, but getting that heart rate up, that high intensity training, the hit training, whatever the terminology is, maybe on a treadmill where you ramp it up to whatever, eight miles an hour, which is a sprint for me or, and, and then bring it back down to, to a walking three and back up And, you know, that up and down thing.
Mac (41m 52s):
The, the Tabata stuff, we do a little bit of that. I just fire up the app, thank god for technology and then hit, hit the start button and And, you know, have like four exercises set up for those, you know, those 22nd periods, I think it's 20, it's 20 10, 20 that then you just do it for like whatever, four minutes and then another set of four minutes and, and just not a lot of that maybe once every 10 days to, for me, you know, being now we're in our sixties, but I think it's good that you can remind your heart that you can get up to that rate and not worry about if you can't do it every day, but you know, you can, right? You can do that, you know, like every 10 days to two weeks.
Mac (42m 32s):
But it's movement, it's resistance training. I'm, I'm on the fence and I know you're a promoted, but I'm not saying on the fence. I just don't know if I wanna dive in that x three, that Variable resistance training with the, with the bands. I've got some bands at home, but I mean I've been, I've been, I think I look at that thing twice a week. Geez, do I wanna buy this? Do I wanna buy this? you know, and it, it's like cuz he makes it look so easy in terms of the 10 minute workout, which is attractive to me and it's portable and you can bring it with you when you travel and And, you know, those kind of things. So that might might be the next thing I dive into. But you know, I, I think bands are, are, you know, when you're younger and you're, you know, in the gym with all the, all the big guys, you know, it's like, geez, if you're using bands, you, you know, I don't know, you know, you sort of looked at differently, but boy you can get a heck of a workout with bands a heck of a workout with bands.
Mac (43m 20s):
And I'm not, I don't care anymore what people think out on
Brian (43m 24s):
His band
Mac (43m 26s):
And then go from there.
Brian (43m 27s):
Yeah, I mean I love how you talk about resistance training and, and I think that finding a routine that's, that's something that you could do weekly, like three days a week I think is a good place to start for most people, even two days a week if you, if you're not doing any lifting at all, easier way into it. But yeah, I mean the band system X three is a great place to start. I mean there's other systems out there. I've had Dr. Jake was on my podcast a few times already, the the developer of it and yeah, I like to mix it up, you know, it, it's something I used when Covid hit. I was using it a lot in my basement and I still do, sometimes I'll do traditional lifting, sometimes I'll go back to, to doing some resistance, Variable resistance with the X three.
Brian (44m 11s):
But you know, they're both great options. I mean, body weight exercises, like you mentioned are a great place to start too.
Mac (44m 18s):
Yeah, absolutely.
Brian (44m 21s):
Yeah, I mean I think that, you know, from, you know, from what you've told us, I mean obviously the changes that you made obviously are awesome. I mean you went from weighing, gosh, well at your most you were two 50 and then right in March of 2020 you were 2 25 And. now you're between, what are you about 1 75, right? Now
Mac (44m 43s):
I, yeah. 1 70, 1 75. you know, I'm just, you know, your body's gonna go five pounds either way cuz of water retention or whatever. But yeah, I'm, I'm right around that area for like, it'll be going on three years this fall and, you know, feel great And, you know, you're locked into it. And you know, what you did to get here from the transformation piece that you just, you know, you, you, you want maintenance and then when you, when you hit this, right? So I I guess you're never too old, I guess is my lesson at the end. Cause I didn't get back into this stuff until I was 60. I mean I played college baseball division three level. I did some coaching. So it wasn't that I wasn't around athletics or I never worked out in the, in the early 2000.
Mac (45m 23s):
I've, I've run four marathons in a six year period in my life. So it wasn't like I would never touch the weight or did any kind of exercise. The nutrition piece was really always like the, it's almost confusing over the years cuz things have changed so much. Eat this, don't eat that, eat this, don't do this, don't do that. And it's just, it's just confusing to people. And I think the simplicity of Intermittent Fasting and eating whole foods is just a very good place to start. And I don't care if you're 60 or if you're 40 or, or whatever age you are, you can reverse things I think quicker than you think, you know, I really think you can. And whether you've been healthy your whole life or you know, in my case, I, I, as I say, I sort of get on the treadmill, the rat race, you know, married three kids, you know, raising kids, traveling a lot in my job, you know, the proverbial rat race and then the, the dust finally settled there.
Mac (46m 17s):
There's gotta be a way. And don't wait until you're 60. If, if you're younger and you're listening to this, don't wait until you're 60. But if you are 60, you can still do it. You can still make changes. you know, I wanna live to be 90. We just had our first grandchild a month, little of a month ago. I wanna play with her and have fun with her and run around with her. you know, that's, that's my motivation, you know, my, my goal for longevity. I don't want to be, you know, sitting in a, a chair or just, you know, being sedentary. It's just, it's never too late. And, and, and it's never too early. I mean, startup, just don't forget the importance of, of your health and your fitness. Cuz it, it changes everything else in your life.
Mac (46m 60s):
And I think when you really put that in your mind, when you really plant that in your mind, it, it makes such a difference. And, and everything in your life changes. Your relationships are better. you know, the way you work is better. You get more energy. It, it's just, you know, it is just, it's just the right place to start as far as I'm concerned.
Brian (47m 19s):
Love that. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that Mac. It's never too late. I like that. And, and I know that you're, you know, you do some, you're doing some coaching, you know, just a little bit on the side. Yeah. And is there a place for people to find you if they wanna learn
Mac (47m 34s):
About you? Well, I mean, I'm, I'm on, I'm on Facebook. If you wanna put my, my email address in, in your show notes, that's fine. Right. If, if people wanna reach out, love to help people, I'm I'm not taking on a lot of people right now, cuz like I said, hopefully my goal one day is to, when I retire from the, I guess I'll call it the real world, is to do the, some, some health coaching with folks. And I don't care if I'm 65 at the time or whatever I plan to be here, it helps motivate me. It, it's that whole thing of motivating each other. It keeps me engaged and, and, and there's no better feeling in the world than helping a person. I mean, I, for me, I mean, I think for a lot of people there, there's such a satisfaction with that.
Mac (48m 17s):
I, I don't need to do it to, to make a million dollars. That's not the goal at all. It, it, it's, it's just helping people knowing how much better I feel after a, after a, an improved, improved journey of tort health. I wanna see other people do the same thing. You don't know what you're missing. I guess that's the best way to put it. You don't know what you're missing and yeah, whatever. If anybody wants to reach out, that's fine. You can, like I said, you can find me on Facebook or shoot me an email and, and we can have a conversation if anyone wants to. But yeah, I mean, I, I love it. Just wanna make the world a healthier place and I know that's exactly what you want to do, Brian. So Yeah,
Brian (48m 51s):
No
Mac (48m 51s):
Wanna join, I wanna join the crowd with you.
Brian (48m 54s):
Yeah, for sure. And I'll definitely put a link in the show notes for, for, to connect with you. People wanna reach out and just chat or, or, or you know Sure. Get some help from yourself. And I, I wanna just say, I appreciate you, you've reached out to me through the years and most recently and I think sometimes when you do things, you know, like a podcast or you send out content, you don't, you don't really know who you're affecting or who's really reading it, right? I mean, sometimes you do, cuz people do respond. You get comments and you do get some emails, but it's few and far between. And, and so the fact that you've been obviously responding back and, and, and sharing your story with me, that to me, that motivates me and, and, and makes me, you know, wanna continue to do the things that I do.
Brian (49m 38s):
So I, I appreciate that.
Mac (49m 41s):
No, definitely Brian, you do, you do a great job with it. And, and again, we're just out there trying to, you know, we, we wanna be the norm, not, not the, you know, the, the, the oddball or whatever you wanna, you know, we wanna be the norm and there's a whole other part of life when you're, when you're as healthy as you can be.
Brian (49m 57s):
Great Mac. Well, thank you for coming on and sharing all your, your knowledge and, and your story.
Mac (50m 3s):
Perfect. I appreciate it. Brian,
Brian (50m 7s):
Thanks for listening to the GETLEAN e 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 at Brian Gryn dot 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.
