Latest / Leave the 99 / Ep. 1 - Intentional Health: Discipline Beyond Quick Fixes with Robert Sikes

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Ep. 1 - Intentional Health: Discipline Beyond Quick Fixes with Robert Sikes · Leave the 99

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: Robert Sice, welcome to the Leading to the 99 podcast.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: Damn it.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me, brother.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: We were on uh your podcast a few weeks ago.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: It was like a month ago or so.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, something like that, about a month ago.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that was a good time.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: I knew.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: So we got initially connected with a doctor that I know, Dr.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: Jenny, from a conference that I had you know been going to for years.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: Which conference was that?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh it's called ICIM, International College of Integrative Medicine.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, it's like the the OGs of the doctor space that were doing functional medicine before it became popular.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: Functional medicine was cool.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I had just been moving from or from Michigan to Arkansas, and she's like, wait, how old are you?
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like 34 to 35 at the time.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: She's like, Oh, you need to talk to this guy.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: He loves the uh he's to, you know, he's into low car, he's into keto, and the next thing, you know, looking you up and like, oh man, I get to gotta get to chat with this guy, and then tune podcast, and then we get to chatting now, brings us here.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I know man, small world.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: You hadn't been when did you move here?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: We've been here since August of 25.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So August 5.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So just over a year, yeah.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And she she and I had met at multiple conferences as well.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: She kept recommending you.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'd reached out to you.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: We had never connected.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: It took us a while to connect, and then like when I finally got you on the podcast, it's like, yeah, we're speaking the same language for sure.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, same thing.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: We're both, you know, Christians, dads, have young kids trying to support our families, all the other good stuff.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: Entrepreneurs, I'm more recently entrepreneur.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: You've been in this phase for a lot longer than I have, but I don't know that I've got it all figured out yet, though.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man, I am uh a work in progress on a day-to-day basis.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: So um, but yeah, happy to have you here.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I think this will be a great conversation.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I want to start.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'll leave us in prayer if you're all right with that.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: And um, we'll get going.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: So Heavenly Father, thank you today for just bringing us together.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: I think that everything happens for a reason.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: I pray that you just bless this conversation, just help us to bring wisdom uh not only to each other, but to the people that are listening.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: And please just watch over our families as we work today and just uh enjoy this life.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: And we pray that every situation, no matter good or bad, just brings us closer to you.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I am uh very interested in how you got into keto because you know there's so many different aspects, and it's particularly how keto kind of blends into optimal health and in your lane bodybuilding.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I came to keto by accident.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was I got into bodybuilding when I was a junior in high school.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was 115 pounds, soaking wet.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was scrawning.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I probably got into lifting.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody in my family really lifted except my uncle.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: He was a big football player, and I worked for him during the summers, and he showed me how to do some bicep curls with some equipment he had laying around, and then I was just hooked, man.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, this is this is more my eye.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is unlike basketball or baseball or football, where it was like a team effort, and my success was wholly dependent on the collective, you know, set of the team.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, okay, this is I reap what I sow here.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like my work put in is what results in my better mentor failure.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that appealed to me.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I just like got bit by the bug and went in hard, man.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was reading every magazine, jumping online, going to bodybuilding.com, all that good stuff.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I was scrawny, so it was like, okay, I got to eat big to get big.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I was eating 6,000 calories a day.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, all this was way before keto.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I just got fat.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: I got muscular too.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was big.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: I bulked up to like 230 pounds.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then I competed uh in my first competition in 2012 when I was a sophomore in college at that point.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: I lost 80 pounds in 12 weeks.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: I got shredded, I won the competition, but I like threw away my health in the process.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, again, losing 80 pounds in 12 weeks is not good.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I lost a bunch of muscle.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then the the day that competition happened after it was over, I went out and had my celebratory meal like everybody does.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Went out to Red Lobster with the family, ate everything.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I put on like 20 pounds that night.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Woke up the next day, looked in the mirror, and I'm like, what the hell?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: I just threw away everything I worked so hard for.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that kind of led to this downward spiral of binging and purging and just eating disorders.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that was with me for like three years.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I was dabbling in all different kinds of diets to figure out what I could sustain, what was healthier, what was allowing me to break free of that disordered eating negative feedback loop.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then I kind of stumbled onto keto.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't remember where I heard about it first.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think Dom Diagostino was on Tim Ferris' podcast back in 2014, I want to say, um, before keto was popular.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he was talking about it.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I was following a program called Carb Backloading developed by uh Dr.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Kiefer, John Kiefer.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's basically keto during the day and then a bunch of high glycemic index carbs at night.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I felt better without the carbs at night.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I just took them out and was doing carb backloading without carbs, uh, which lo and behold is pretty much keto.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I just I got I felt better.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was eating real food.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was eating, you know, fats and proteins, vegetables, no carbs.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And my relationship with food improved, my performance in the gym improved, my inflammation reduced, uh, my energy improved, my mental clarity and cognition got better.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I just stuck with it and I've stuck with it ever since, man.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: So like 11, 12 years now, I guess.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: And all right, so 11, 12 years, have you been in ketosis for that long?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: Or do you find that you're kind of going back and forth, back and forth?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: Because you're doing your training for some of these bodybuilding competitions.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's intense.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Very intense.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but yeah, I've stayed with it.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't check my ketones every single day, so I couldn't tell you, okay, I'm always above 0.5 millimolar, which is technically the definition of being in ketosis, but I have not had a carbohydrate-based meal in that 11-year span, whatever it's been.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I have not broken out of a ketogenic diet in that span.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, and I've been totally fat adaptive that entire time.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, for all intents and purposes, I've been in ketosis that whole time.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's insane.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: That like that's a long time to be doing that.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I I remember in residency, which for me that was 2020, 2018-ish.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's when my wave of keto like came through, and I was like all the into keto, and that's when like I'm 215, 220 now.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_02: And back then I was 195, I was super lean, probably not getting enough calories.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, or maybe I'm just I mean, my body fat hasn't changed as I as I got went to gene, so I've had to put on more muscle, but I only did it for a I did it for a year, but and I was like a full year, and honestly, I felt really good.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: I my body weight stayed the same.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: Body fat didn't change, but it was hard.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like the discipline of doing keto and sticking with it, especially in like nothing around us is keto.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, not nothing around.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, society doesn't make it easy to be keto, so you have to like be intentional with it for sure.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can't just like accidentally really be keto, like you have to be intentional with it.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um now there's I mean, since the popular I think keto peaked in you know, interest, mainstream interest, probably in 2019, I want to say.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um so like since then there's been a lot more keto products and you know, healthy keto swaps, so it's much more efficient now to stay keto.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um but at the end of the day, like you can if you're eating quality, real animal-based foods, like you're pretty much keto, you know.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like as long as you're eating an adequate amount of dietary fat relative to protein.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if I mean, as long as you're not drawn to all the the sugary nonsense that society throws at you and all the festivities and birthday parties and weddings and celebrations, and you find alternatives or just don't partake in that, then you can certainly make it work.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: So so let's backtrack for a second.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: Define what keto really means for the for the average person, because everybody underst has heard the word keto, but there are a million ways to do keto, if you ask the general person.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: So, how how would you define keto ketosis or being keto?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, from a strict definitional standpoint, uh being in ketosis is basically having 0.5 millimolar or greater uh of circulating beta-hydroxate butyrate in your bloodstream.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: What that means, practically speaking, is that you have switched your fuel source from glucose metabolism to ketone metabolism.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: So rather than using carbohydrates and glucose for energy, you're using fat and ketones for energy.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's going to come with varying ketone ranges.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, like once that metabolic pathway is in place and I am, you know, using fat for my fuel substrate, I might be 0.2 millimolar, I might be 2.0 millimolar.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm less concerned about what the actual millimolar reading is as I am, okay, is my body using fat for fuel?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Fat from both dietary fat that I consume and the fat that's stored on my body.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm using that as my primary fuel substrate, then I'm being ketosis.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: And you've said that your whole family does keto, right?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: You live this life.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: No, the whole family does not.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: My whole immediate family does, like yeah, media family does my extended family.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like your wife and kid.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: So what does if I walked into the Sykes house right now, what is in your fridge?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm always curious.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what is in people's fridge and their pantry?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, tell me, tell me what a day in the life of what you guys are doing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, snacking.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: So my nutrition is way more.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when I first started the diet, like I was finding all the the recipes, the keto swaps, you know, like I'd make keto cookies and stuff like that.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now having done it for so long, I just know what I feel well with, I know what's easy.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: I look more at, you know, what is what is what do I eat to fuel my day and my priorities.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So my day is pretty consistent.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty much heavy cream in my coffee in the mornings, a keto brick post-workout in the morning, after, you know, usually around like 10 or noon, somewhere in that window.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then dinner.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean two meals a day.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Dinner is typically a bunch of meat and eggs, uh, steak and eggs, ground beef and eggs, sometimes it's just a bunch of eggs.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like last night I didn't have any meat thoughts, so I ate 13 eggs.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like that's that that was my dinner meal last night.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people hear that and be like, oh, I can never sustain that.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like you don't have to be that simple and minimalist with it.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like my wife and kids, they eat a lot more varieties.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we have like cheesecrackers in the house, like like cheesecrackers just made from you know parmesan cheese, basically.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have um, you know, olives, we have meat sticks, we have like in our fridge right now, we've got about eight quarts of heavy cream.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: We got about uh we got a whole bunch of you know, pork, lamb, beef, salmon.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um they eat a lot more vegetation than me, so there's like, you know, cauliflower.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: My wife does cauliflower rice, uh, we have butter, um, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, things of that nature.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: But just a lot of real food, man.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: No, no TV dinners, no uh, you know, hot pockets, no pop tarts, no cereal, none of that nonsense.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's all junk.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: I have never once heard of uh anybody describe their diet as vegetation.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's uh like a cow.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um but uh that's true.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: So all right, so so so your kids are doing so.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: I wanna being a dad and husband, you know, leaders of the family, like we're you know, trying to teach our family like good habits and whatnot.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: What do you say to you know, your kids uh depriving them of sweets at a birthday party or you know, having this snack that might have grains or seed oils or like how how do you get around how do you personally get around that?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so honestly, like it would be much harder if our kids had grown up in that lifestyle and then we tried to switch them over.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but like they don't have that perspective because they had been keto since birth.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like my wife's been keto nearly as long as me.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: She was keto all throughout her pregnancy.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we breastfed, she breastfed obviously, uh, you know, them until they were weaned.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and like my son, my oldest son, Roger, at least four years old now, um, his first meal after, you know, removing the breast milk was a beef knuckle bone that had been slow roasted all day.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like he was just gnawing on that and he was happy as a clam, you know.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: So like real food for them, and like when they see, like when we go to church and stuff and they've got like the goldfish and everything out there now, Roger just picks it up and throws it in the trash.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's not food, you know.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like, so that's super cool.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: They I mean they want they they're curious, yeah.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but like there's so many alternatives now, like with the popularity of keto, like there are there's so many alternatives, and like Crystal can make really tasty keto desserts.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like she can make these keto cheesecakes, keto cookies, keto everything that you see in the carb.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, she picked up a bunch of ingredients.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have a keto pizza this weekend as a family, so we're gonna have family pizza night, you know, like all the normal things that people do, yeah, but with a different ingredient base, so that it doesn't, you know, derange your metabolism.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: I will say this is your problem.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: They do eat a lot of that, yeah.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't have one of these until you know a couple months ago, the keto brick.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna lie, I looked at this thing, the weight of it alone, I was like, what the heck is in there?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: Then I flip it around to the back.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a huge stickler for ingredients.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm like, all right, it's got everything that I want in it.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then I see this number one zero zero zero.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: I have never seen anything a thousand calories.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: This is wild.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: This bar is a thousand calories, and I eat one of those every day.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people under-eat, a lot of people obviously overeat, but a lot of people under eat.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and like I'm all about fueling for performance.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, for me, like life is a performance.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: I want to live at my fullest capacity, and I gotta have energy to do that.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta fuel yourself to have the energy to do that.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I made that for my own personal consumption back in 2017 before you know it was ever it was never meant to be a product that I sold.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was just something that I made for my own personal use, and then people had interest around it, so we rolled up our sleeves and made it into a product.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: But uh yeah, I eat one of those every day.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: I can tell you, I you know, I usually have one of those at around noon to one o'clock.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like my lunchtime snack.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's not, I can't even call it a snack.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's a thousand calories.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's a meal.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's a meal.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's a meal and it's so good.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: I almost feel guilty eating it.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: This one's called Primal Fudge, but it's got like protein, it's got obviously got fat in it, and I I absolutely love it.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: So well, it's got an organ blend.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of people have trouble getting their organs in, but like you would not eat that and think that you're eating beef, kidney, liver, spleen, pancreas, heart, like it's it's like you're eating fudge.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: It is, it is, and it's really good.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: So well done.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think that's a thing that I struggle with talking to patients and and my clients is uh everybody's looking for something on the go.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it seems like every day, every couple of months, there's a new wave of oh, this protein bar or this supplement or this, you know, and it's 99% of it is junk.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: The thing is, like I'm I mean, I have I own a food company, but I'm gonna be the first to tell people like always prioritize single ingredient, wholesome, natural foods, you know, prepare it as a family and sit down and eat dinner together.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's the that's the gold standard.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm also a realist, like we live in 2026, like no one is going to always be able to do that.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like there are times when convenience is key.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: There are times when efficiency is important.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, like we know that circadian rhythm is important.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: You should like wake up at the sun and go to bed when the sun falls.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how many people are gonna actually put that into practice?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Very few.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, I tried to make something that gets us as close to the gold standard as possible without, you know, jeopardizing our health.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, that's what that solution is.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I can eat that as my lunch meal when I'm running between podcast recordings or between meetings or whatever the case may be.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's efficient, it's there, it's optimal.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: I can have that, check that box, and then dinner rolls around and I can do that dinner with the family scenario, you know.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's my favorite.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: My favorite time of day is sitting with my wife and kids at the dinner table and just kind of chit-chatting.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's like literally my favorite time of the day.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: How old are your kids again?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh two and a half, and I think uh Collins is 18 months.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's 19 months.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: How's your two and a half year old do at dinner?
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's a work in progress.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: We have a very short window of uh dinner where he's like we probably got 15 to 20 minutes where we have his attention, and then he wants to go run around and play.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: And then I find myself with a half-finished meal just sitting there on the table.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'm literally because all he wants to do is run at dad chase, dad chase, and I'm literally like, I feel like I'm swallowing food sometimes or chewing food and holding my daughter and my son because I can't, you know, if I take one, the other one has to come.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: So dinner time is uh a little chaos right now.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's uh I love it.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: I I love it too.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is the best.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's definitely not peaceful necessarily, though.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh, like we got our dinner table and Rigel, he's got all of his blocks and his toys and his like magnetic things on the table.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: He'll have like all these structures built.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, we have to have room to put a plate down and eat.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, well, be careful.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: We'll like slowly move it and then we'll you know put the food down.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And um, he just wants to play instead of eat.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: So like getting him to actually stop playing, not be distracted and eat is like that's that's the hard part right now.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like I uh have to be the king of uh distraction for him.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: So he he kind of ventures off.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, oh, did you see this?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: And be like, Oh, yeah, like it's kind of it's it's funny.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um so so back to your kids, real quick at the dinner table.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: So, what did you what do you find they're reaching for first?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's all they uh it's funny because like Rigel, he's like fixated on vegetables right now, and I don't really eat a lot of vegetables.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, like if I'll like Crystal put you know some carrots, some uh, you know, olive, he loves olives, um, which olives are high in fast, so it's good stuff there.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but like he'll have that on his plate and he'll eat that and then he'll turn to the meat.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: He likes a lot of dairy, so yogurt, cotta cheese.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, um, he likes the bricks, like they'll typically eat you know almost a half a brick or not, sometimes a full brick a day themselves, and they're you know, little bitty kids.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so like they definitely eat all good real stuff.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but like they're he's starting to get picky, like what textures he likes, you know, how cooked it is.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I like a little char on my steak.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want any char on anything, you know.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: So like trying to figure out those little subtleties has been uh what he's taken interest in right now for sure.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, my kids probably their favorite thing is well, it was milk, and they were trying to transition off of milk.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: But when we have a juicy steak, like that's always their first go-to.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: Remember, one of my favorite memory memories from my son was when we transition him from breast milk to real food.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, barely, I don't know, he has like maybe two or three teeth at this point.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's like those like first two in the middle, and I cut out this giant smunk of ribeye, and I give it to him, and he's just going town.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: Going to town on this thing, he's got no shirt on.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's like there was just like oil and the blood of the steak, like all over him.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: He is just loving it.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, this is how the humans were romantic.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I have to get a laugh.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there'll be like you know, an influencer vegan or something, they'll have like a dog or a cat, and then they'll like put a bowl of salad in front of them and a bowl of steak, and they're trying to like show their follower group that hey, they're gonna go for the salad, and they like let them go ahead.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no, they go to the steak.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're like species appropriate diet is key.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, animals know what they should eat.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Humans, for whatever reason, have gotten confused by that.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: I know, I know.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: And obviously, there's I think there's many different ways to get healthy, right?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: And and I think I always go back to the core.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: My two principles that I tell everybody that I talk to: don't drink your calories, like, stick with water, really good water, reverse osmosis, electrolyte water, and be able to tell me every ingredient of that's in your food.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like at that point, you can go vegan, you can go carnivore, you can go paleo, you can go Mediterranean.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: Mediterranean probably hasn't the best data as far as longevity is concerned, but I just think nutrition data in general is just kind of it's tough.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, how are you supposed to control what did you have for dinner yesterday?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: What do you have for dinner?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Last week.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I can certainly tell you because I track it.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: You can because you eat like a dog.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: And that's a good thing, I think.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: Keep it, keep it stable.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: But most people, you know, all these studies are done via, you know, you know, observational and retroactively.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, what did you have a hamburger uh you know the last couple of months?
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like, oh yeah, I did.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you had a heart attack too?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it must be the hamburger caused the heart attack.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's uh it's a pretty muddy landscape in nutritional research.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like, unless there's in a metabolic ward where you're controlling everything, can track it.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you said, all retroactive, observational.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes, you know, red meat gets blamed for what the bun and fries did, so to speak.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's an unfortunate truth, but it is the reality we live in.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, there's a big difference between because we do ground beef a lot.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I've got a half half a cow, which is running low right now.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I need to.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: I've got one hanging right now if you want some more.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: I do.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: I can need to talk after this.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: I need a half a cow.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: But think about ground beef, there's that's a single ingredient food.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: And now, depending on what where you're at with your keto journey, you can choose to have an 8020 or a 90 10.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you can kind of shift your fat in there based on you know your calories and and what you need.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the day, that's just beef.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's just beef in there and fat.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, like, that's a single ingredient food, as opposed to when you get a hamburger.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: Now you're talking about the bone, the high fructose corn syrup ketchup, the the dyes that are in the pickles, and like you're just your ingredient list just exploded, which is it's it's unfair to the to the cows, really.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: Very true.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: I think they're they're very healthy.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: So tell you know, so we define ketosis, keto.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: What do you find like because you're kind of like the master in this space, like you know, before we got in here, like, oh, I'm speaking here and here and here at all these low carb keto conferences.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: So people look to you for advice and how to optimize with this low-carb keto lifestyle.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: So, what what are most people doing wrong in the the keto space or like talk about like a little dirty keto?
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's kind of crazy, man.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're at its core, following a well-formulated ketogenic diet is is pretty simple.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, people overcomplicate things for sure.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't obsess over the little degrees of nuance that people lose sleep on at night.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's an easy way to do things, and a lot of people are overcomplicating things.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many variations and definitions of a keto carnivore diet now that you go blue in the face trying to keep track of it on.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: But where people, where I see a lot of people misstepping is they will, from a ketogenic standpoint, like carnivore, for instance, is really popular right now, and I'm all for carnivore.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people do it as an elimination diet because they've got autoimmune conditions, things of that nature, which makes perfect sense.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: The problem with people oftentimes following a carnivore diet is that they consume, you know, a massive amount of protein, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but not enough dietary fat.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're consuming too much protein relative to dietary fat, protein is very important, but it's not a great substrate for energy.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you're using protein for energy, you're gonna have to inefficiently create glucose through gluconeogenesis, which is not nearly as efficient as just using the ketones directly or the glucose directly.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: So people consume too much protein relative to fat.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: That kind of slows them down.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they'll make the mistake that, hey, if I'm switching, if I'm removing carbs, trying to lose weight, most people start keto because trying to lose weight.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they've heard this misnomer that, hey, if you've got fat on your frame to lose, then you don't need to have very much plate fat.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: So not much dietary fat.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let your body just happen to stored fat, which sounds legitimate enough.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing is if you cut out the carbohydrates and you don't have that energy coming in and your body's not adapted to producing ketones through fat metabolism, then you have no energy coming in.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you're not going to feel well when you make that switch.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: So people will do that, not have enough dietary fat coming in, not have any energy, then find the diet unsustainable and you know, deviate, deviate hard.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so that that kind of acts as a stumbling block for people.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then just honestly having too many variables.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like when you're trying to, if you're eating intuitively, if you are where you want to be compositionally speaking, and your health markers are good, your blood work is all good, then keep eating intuitively.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: But if you are not where you want to be, if you have a goal and you are plateaued and getting there, then treat it like a scientific experiment.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Be the scientist, control for the variables, track things, measure things, know what your consumption is, know what your expenditure is, and get that dialed in or and just control for those question marks.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, people don't want to be a slave to tracking macros, weighing food, stepping on the scale, which I totally get.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: But if you are plateaued, know what the numbers are so that you can know if it can be measured, it can be managed.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people are just flying blind and throwing, you know, stuff on the wall to see what sticks, and they'll change a million things at once and not know what the actual lever is.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: Plateau is something that comes up a lot.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: And you just mentioned it, like somebody is eating a certain way for a week or two, or like it's always too short where people are kind of deviating off the pathway.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: But say they're following a, you know, uh meal plan, and then they're following a workout plan, and then they say they plateau.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what do you what do you think that is actually happening when somebody is plateauing?
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, a lot of times, I mean, they're just simply not applying enough pressure.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, for instance, using myself as an example, when I'm going into a competition prep with the goal of becoming like in 2023, I became the leanest man alive.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like that didn't happen overnight.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: I prepped for 33 weeks for that period.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: But over that 33 week span, I was tracking everything and I was making very small incremental adjustments every single week to keep applying a little bit of pressure so that my body was forced to make continual adaptations.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Adaptation in that sense being the loss of body fat.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if people just, you know, don't track things, first of all, but then don't apply pressure in some form or fashion, their body has no reason to change, and that's why it plateaus.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Or they'll make some drastic manipulation, like people are very guilty of just cutting calories too much too soon, and then they'll see an initial drop in body weight, then their metabolism acclimates to that because their metabolism is incredibly adaptable.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it will downregulate to kind of follow suit with that drop in calories, and then they plateau because everything's just reset at a lower level.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then for them to drop another 500 calories just becomes, you know, not feasible because that they're not eating anything at that point, you know?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like you want to consume as many calories as you can while still getting the response that you're desiring, because that gives you more metabolic caloric runway in which to manipulate.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you're, you know, like a lot of women come to me and they want to lose more body weight, but they're only consuming 900 calories.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like I have no, I have no caloric runway in which to manipulate things.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like you have to reverse diet back up, give yourself more calories to work with, ramp up your metabolic rate and hormonal function, and then your body's gonna be much more responsive to any changes that we make in the future.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that happens a lot.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: A lot.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: My my mother comes to mind when I think of uh a fit, skinny woman, but has a little bit of extra body fat that she wants to lose way under calories, and that's just been like dogma of if you want to lose weight, just lower your calories.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_02: So when you said, hey, I want to increase your metabolism, increase your hormonal activity, what are you, how are you coaching your clients through that?
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to sell as a coach, man.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like when someone comes and they're like, hey, I want to lose weight, but then oftentimes they don't even know what they're eating.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: But when they actually track it, if they're sometimes they're under-reporting what their true consumption is, then we can actually just hit the ground running.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: But oftentimes they have been, you know, just under-eating because they're following every fad diet known to man and they just don't eat enough.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: And at that point, their metabolism is down regulated, their hormones are down regulated, their thyroid function is probably compromised.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd I'd run a battery of tests, figure out their blood work, figure out their panels, figure out what their numbers actually looking like, figure out what their body composition is.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then if they are a candidate for reverse dieting and needing to ramp things back up, we will strategically increase typically their fat and protein and their overall caloric intake in like a stair step fashion.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not just a massive increase all at once, but then we basically increase it slowly, and then their metabolism increases, their hunger, interestingly enough, ramps up because their metabolism is increasing, their energy improves, their sleep quality improves, their hormonal function improves.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then once we stabilize at that higher intake, then we have the ability to actually start from a reasonable baseline and then focus on losing the fat.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: To give you some context, like when I got down to 3.9% body fat.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna ask you, what was the actual number?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 3.9%.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's insane.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Vadexa, you know, so like nine.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like legit.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh like so low.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy low.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like my goal was to be the leanest man alive.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: But at that low body fat, as a male, naturally, my total testosterone, total testosterone was 87.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like that's not healthy, that's not sustainable.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens to people when they're chronically under-eating or getting very lean, or not even getting very lean, but just chronically under eating.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like everything just depresses.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like your body, because like sexual function, obviously, that's not the priority.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Survival is the priority at that point.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: So like everything is depressed in order to survive.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: And people just chronically live in that depressed state, which gives you no tools at your disposal to make progress.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where you plateau at that freaking bottom of the barrel place.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we gotta ramp things back up so that you feel well, your hormone function improves, your thyroid function improves, you've got energy to train, to to create stimuli that your body adapts to, and then you're able to actually see the progress you're looking for.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: 3.9%.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: That's pretty freaking shredded.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, your veins would just be like exploding.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like when you got freaking striations and veins and your glutes, you know, you're pretty dialed in.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, I've never had uh you know, veins and not side of like hemorrhoids, but yeah, it wasn't that um wow.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_02: What what kind of got you to was it was it just an experiment with yourself that you wanted to get that lean, or was it for a competition?
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_02: Or well, it was I did five competitions that year.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like I went pro that year, I competed in Worlds, uh, which is like the most prestigious natural bodybuilding show.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but like the competitions were secondary.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like my goal was simply to be the leanest man alive for that time.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, at that point, the leanest man reportedly alive had been this guy named Helmut Strebel, I believe was his pronunciation.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he was like four percent.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm okay, let's get sub four percent.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's what I did.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: But like my best look at from a bodybuilding standpoint was actually when I was a little bit higher in body fat.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like when you're that lean, like you it it's harder to fill out fully.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's just harder to maintain full glycogen in your muscle tissue.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you don't look as great, you certainly don't feel as great.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'm glad that I pushed that envelope to see how far I could take it.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, from a bodybuilding standpoint, it's honestly not even ideal to get that lean.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: So like I don't think there'll be any necessity for me to go that low again.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: I probably will hang around the four and a half percent uh next competitive season, which is still pretty freaking lean.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's crazy lean.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: And to put it into perspective, like I can see my veins, right?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't do any training that, you know, like true bodybuilding training whatsoever.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_02: I hang around like a 10 to 11 percent body fat on any given day.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like I'm 14 right now, roughly.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's kind of where I hang out the offseason, like 14.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I've got veins bascular, I've got visible abs now.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: I feel great, you know, but it's not like I'm gonna be competing at this body fat, you know.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, to get that low in body fat, obviously we we talked about as like the your testosterone tanks, you know.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_02: For women, a thyroid would tank, you lose your menstrual cycle, you know, we'd start worrying about worrying about osteoporosis.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_02: Women wouldn't get that lean, like that would probably be just just like just getting like trying to get as low as you can from a woman's perspective.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like they we both shut down hormones, both males and females, but they just get wrecked way more.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: They got a lot more hormones really to deal with than for sure than we do.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I say like from a woman's standpoint, you know, like take what the the male perspective is and just add 10%, you know.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like yeah, if like if a guy is hanging out at a healthy range at around like you know, 14-15%, a woman's healthy range should be like 24-25%, roughly.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like just add 10%.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a good, that's a good guess to make it because I don't know a lot of women are like, oh, I want to get low body fat, or you know, we have this, I have this you know thing around my waist.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_02: And classically, you menopause is a huge, that's kind of like my bread and butter age range.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: I would say from 40 to 60 is when most people are seeking out their health.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so I do a ton of hormones, women's hormones, men's hormones.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, first you got to address it, right?
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: You got to get your labs done, and you gotta, you know, actually, you know, address them and see where their baseline is.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_02: But to put it into perspective, for you when you said 87 for your testosterone, normal testosterone, 300 would be the low, yeah, really low testosterone, and then scale goes up to maybe a thousand.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_02: There's a very handful of people that have a natural testosterone touching a thousand.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm normally around probably 700 or so is my norm.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: And weird, like I'm only at like whenever I check my testosterone three to four hundred, and you know, I've played around with the clomaphenes and the testosterone for a very short time.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: And and that's when I found out, like, oh, I can never be a natural bodybuilder because they've got a pretty strict man sepsis list.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's wild, man.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's pretty lengthy, pretty lengthy.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: So let's kind of talk about this for a second because the Mr.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: Olympia would just yeah, this past weekend, right?
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_02: And then you do competitions as well, and you just had one here in Arkansas, yeah, but yours is very different.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, still bodybuilding, still the like sculpted bodies and the I would argue that the natural bodybuilders look even better.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're they're leaner, they have more granularity in the conditioning, like it's a more impressive physique.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's just not nearly as massive a physique.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like the Mr.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: Olympia that won uh Nick Walker, I don't know what his stage weight was.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like, he's I mean, those guys are walking around shredded at 300 pounds, you know.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's but like it's definitely not natural.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's not natural, and that's what people like you think like, you know, you look at us and like we're we look like normal guys that you you know we exercise, right?
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: But that's in like a totally different like you don't look human, you look like a whole that's a different dimension, it's a different dimension, and it's like for anybody listening, like they're on in a lot of insane amount of drugs, yeah.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I from a doctor's perspective, I mean sticker is falling off.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_02: My kids put a sticker on me before I um from a doctor's perspective, a it's not healthy, but I question like where are they getting this stuff from?
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_02: And who's prescribing it, if any, but then I know like there's a whole underground bodybuilding.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, there's a black market for everything.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's a black market for the general population to get like like I had to fail somebody uh at the bodybuilding show that I promoted the other day.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because that we because like with natural bodybuilder, they have to do a polygraph exam.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: Every competitor has to do a polygraph the night before, or two days before.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you win, you get a urinalysis test that's immediately sent off, and you get your title stripped if you fail that, obviously.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but like I had to fail a competitor because uh she failed the polygraph test.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't fail.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: The polygraph failed her.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then I had to talk to her.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to deliver the news.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, you've just been dieting for the past several months, and you're not gonna be able to compete tomorrow because you failed your drug test.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and she had taken Reditrutine one time per her recommendation from the coach that she was working with, and they got it on the internet and you know, injected it, and she, you know, was just leaning into the wisdom of her coach um unknowingly, and it's like, yeah, she can't compete, you know.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_02: So one this is a weak reta tree tide is kind of a very fringe peptide, it's gonna explode.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: Reddit reta is gonna be, you know, you go semiglutide, which everybody knows is ozambic, and all these are peptides, right?
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_02: People don't they think it's a drug, which it is a drug, but it's also a peptide, it's just how you how you look at it.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like Ozambic, Zeppan, we go V Manjarum and all red, right?
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_02: Retta, you know, in the bodybuilding space and in the whole underground space, everybody knows it, Retta or you know, GLP3.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um but she took it one time and she's out.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: All right, so you think that I know you have to be strict from a natural bodybuilder perspective, right?
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: Or you have to be like like zero, like you can't take anything ever.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you fail a polygraph test, like if if she lied about taking it too.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: So like the polygraph test already shows quite a bit of discrepancy because she had tried to hide that she had taken red, she had gotten nervous about it, and then had to take additional questioning.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: So like she's getting several flags on a polygraph test.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: And like the polygraph examiner showed me the screen, and you can kind of see all this like elevated, you know, heartbeat and everything.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: So like had she just said, I took it one time as an accident, like the the federation itself could look at that and be like, okay, that one injection is probably not giving you any competitive advantage whatsoever, and we'll take that into consideration.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: But since she had tried lying about it and the entire test showed elevated biomarker readings, like it just kind of goes, so you can't lie about things, you know, like it never serves you well.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, I mean, they are super strict.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like the WNBF Federation specifically has the longest banned time frame, you know, 10 years.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some things are for life, some things are five years, like CERMS, I think they've got a five-year ban on.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, then like there's some like uh stimulants that they've got like a three-month ban on.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's not all just ten years, but if you're taking like, you know, anabolic agents, like if you're taking testosterone, if you're taking anabolic agents, then yeah, like they they don't mess around with that.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_02: Man, oh man.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's kind of wild because I was like, oh, I'll do a bodybuilding, natural bodybuilding competition.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_02: I hadn't taken anything for two years.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, oh wait, you gotta wait eight more.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_02: Man, every time I think of a polygraph test, I think of uh Meet the Parents when De Niro hooks up Ben Stiller to the Yeah.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's more like favorite movies.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's legit.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've done several of them now.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_02: So, what like what's a question that you ask?
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like, give me an example of like a question you're asking a natural bodybuilder that can't do anything for that amount of time.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: So they'll first they'll get like baseline though.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: So they'll ask you, hey, what is your name?
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, are you sitting down?
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: That way, like the test can see, you know, sure, what does the truth look like?
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then they'll ask you to lie on something like preliminarily, like, hey, like the other, like when I did my last one, they asked you, um, okay, I want you to lie about what four plus four equals or something like that.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I intentionally lie so they can get a baseline reading for what a lie looks like.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then they'll start the actual test, and then they'll ask questions like, Have you read the entire band substance list?
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they'll have you like, they'll have a copy of it there, and you got to read through the whole thing and then like sign that you've read it.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it says like all the peptides and everything on there.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, like if you've taken them and you're reading that, then you know that you've taken it.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then one of the questions like, have you read the entire band substance list?
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: So you can say yes.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then they'll ask, like, have you taken anything that's on that band substance list?
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: And if you try and like lie about it, like it picks up on that, you know.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure there's people that have figured out ways to pass a polygraph uh, you know, dishonestly, but like I got PTSD with that kind of stuff.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't mess around like this is why I don't take anything except like electrolytes of creatine, you know, like I just don't even want to worry about it.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you look at like the scientific name for freaking black pepper, it looks like some banned substance, you know, like it's everything's got their scientific name and root word and everything, and just like, man, I don't if I don't recognize it, I don't even want to play around with it.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that is a that it is just such polar opposites from a bodybuildering, bodybuilding perspective, is you got your natural, which like everything is off limits.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like you just said creatine and electrolytes, yeah.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's like nothing else, like all like your supplements, like peptides, like all the things that everybody is taking.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like you don't really use, you're kind of relying on natural substances.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of crazy, man, because like I get accused of taking steroids all the time.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like the general population will look at my competitive photos, my oh man, you're on a bunch of gear.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I hear that every single day.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm just like scratching my head, I'm like, I literally take less than the like we walked outside right now and just picked five random people off the side of the street.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're Probably taking more stuff than I'm taking, you know?
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like they don't look like me, you know, like it's it's just work and discipline.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: I've been lifting since 2008, you know, like it's just time in the saddle.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a good transition because I think everybody, this whole space that I'm in, the optimization, longevity, practice, everybody's looking for healthy years.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think you and I both know that the good Lord's gonna take us whenever he's gonna take us, and we don't know when that is gonna be, right?
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_02: So you want to live as best as you can every single day because you don't know when your last day is.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a big difference, and I think it's all perspective of like, hey, I want to go natural or I want to optimize.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_02: You know, what's your what's your take?
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_02: And you kind of asked me this at our our podcast too, but what's your take on what is optimization look like as far as you know, does somebody need supplements?
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_02: Does somebody need peptides?
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: Does somebody need hormones?
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a tricky question, man.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be like where each individual draws line that's gonna look different, you know.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like for me as a natural competitor in the WNBF, like if I start leaning on any of those substances, I would not be able to compete, you know, and like what does that look like for women going through menopausal years?
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's enough research now that indicates, hey, you know, you would probably benefit from a bone density standpoint.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, with the inclusion of some of these, you know, exogenous hormones.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to have a better quality of life there?
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to compete?
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like that's a question people have to ask themselves.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I also think, you know, I know a lot of people that I know a lot of elder women that have a ton of muscle.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: They feel great, they they're youthful, they're energetic, they have a vitality about themselves, and they're in their 60s, seven.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there was a competitor at my bodybuilding show that I promoted two weekends ago, 71 years old, freaking abs, rocking it in a natural federation.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: She passed the polygraph test too.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: She's not taking any of this stuff.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: She came to the gym the next day and she was doing pull-ups and L sits and dead hangs and all kinds of stuff.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, so she's rocking it.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: She's got a youthful energy about her, 71 years old, and she didn't take any of stuff.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, you can absolutely go through life and not take that and be totally fine.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think society has said, like, hey, we have these tools at our disposal now.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't take it, you're totally missing out.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily the truth.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: I do feel like you got to be intentional again.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like there's so many environmental toxins, there's so many just habitual toxins that people willingly bring into their lives that makes it more appealing to bring in exogenous substances to bridge the gap and make things more quote unquote optimal.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: But do you need that or do you just need to like go to sleep two hours earlier every night, you know?
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: So there's always that.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, so I my perspective on this is that I think you can do both.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't want to push my opinions on somebody, right?
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_02: I have my I'm pretty set in my ways as far as like how I want to live my life, and you know, I want to, you know, be a great follower of Jesus and a great husband and a great father and friend and you know, all these things.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_02: But when you when you think about it, I I'm when I'm talking to somebody as a patient, I want to know like what drives you.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like, do you need this stuff?
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think you need this stuff?
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like, and we're gonna discuss all the options, all the pros and cons, and I'm gonna let that person make their own decision because at the end of the day, it's their life.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_02: When we leave the conversation, they have to put in the work, they have to take the pill, the supplement, the medication, they have to inject themselves with the peptide.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_02: If you're not comfortable with it, then did we just waste our breath like having this conversation?
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you gotta know where you want to go in life.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_02: That's all big on goals, right?
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta have goals in your life with everything.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and like that's gonna again look different for everybody.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to push my beliefs on anybody, like these people that just won the or just did the Olympia, you know, they're on everything known to man.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Nick Walker, the guy that won, I think he's 32 or 33 years old, something like that.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like he is probably not gonna live to 100.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's I don't know how long he's gonna live, but it's probably not gonna be as long as he could have lived had he not taken all that stuff.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_00: But does that mean he's wrong?
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that was, you know, maybe that's secondary to him.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he just that was his thing, in which case, who am I to say he's wrong for doing it?
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, right, right.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_02: So real, real quick on that, because everybody, uh so many people have come up to me and be like, Dr.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: Us, I'm gonna live to be 120.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, oh, 120.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_02: And what do you plan on doing from 80 to 120?
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_02: What do you plan on?
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how are you gonna live those 40 years?
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then I ask people that are like, uh, oh well, uh, and they're just kind of dumbfounded.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's like and and it's always the people that say, and I don't know why 120 comes up, but I've heard the word the 120 so many times, it's like weird.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_02: But mostly those people that are telling me are the most unhealthy people that I've talked to in the last week, they think that they're gonna live to be 120, yeah, which is is kind of crazy.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_02: But going back to I just want to talk about discipline for a minute.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like the the pillars of health, like, how would you describe like what are your pillars of health for people?
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_02: Because you're you're relying on natural stuff, you're not using these peptides with your clients, you're not using or recommending hormones, you're not recommending these things for for most people.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_02: I think other people are using, you know, doctors and and whatnot.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_02: But what are your pillars of health?
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_02: What are you really focusing on?
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think the the levers that make the biggest monumental change are like the things that you do daily, like the compounding effect of those things over a lifetime is what makes a difference, so to speak.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we're all eating daily, we're all drinking daily, um, we're all sleeping daily.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_00: So like getting those things dialed in is key.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: Getting, you know, I've I've put a lot more emphasis on, you know, light energy, circadian rhythm, sun exposure.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think that it's really abstract, much more so than like macros and sleep duration.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think there is definitely an importance there.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I think probably, I mean, if you look at the blue zones, like the the ones that live the longest, it's not that they were all eating a certain way, so they all had some sense of purpose in life.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like when it all boils down to it, having enthusiasm to wake up and tackle the day and having a sense of purpose and passion and energy about you, that is probably the single best thing.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so many people wake up without any sense of that.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_00: So finding that and doubling down on it alongside eating the right foods, moving your body, being fit and active uh and sleeping, like that's probably the key right there.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_02: I was gonna wait till the end to ask you this, but what what do you think your purpose is on this planet?
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think true fulfillment in life for any and everybody is serving at our highest capacity.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I think of all the different resources out there, time is the most finite.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like there's always going to be more money, there's always gonna be more whatever the case may be, but time is the one thing that there's not just an endless supply.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_00: We've only got so much of it.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: So how we spend our time is basically what dictates whether or not we are in peace with ourselves.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_00: And true fulfillment comes when you are serving others at your highest capacity, your family, your friends, your community, God, like service at the highest capacity is what brings fulfillment in life.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody has a unique gift that they could offer the world.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_00: Mine, I believe, has something to do with, you know, my passions of health, nutrition, fitness, like teaching other people how to optimize that so they can live at their highest capacity.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've got a pyramid structure that I've kind of mapped out basically with it starting as health as the foundation.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you've got your health, you've got a physical vessel that you move through the world with that operates at a higher capacity.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you're super passionate about snowboarding, you love taking people snowboarding and teaching them that skill, it's gonna be a hell of a lot harder to do if you're 300 pounds overweight.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like have health as a baseline, and then everything else is amplified accordingly.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that initial health foundation is where I feel like I can make a meaningful difference in serving others and helping them achieve that themselves.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_02: And in the, you know, when you talk about when somebody signs up, like they want to be a coach or they or they want you to have you, they want you to be their coach, right?
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_02: They they want a doctor, they want like a full medical team.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_02: When you're talking to somebody, like, how do you bring that purpose out on the table?
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like how do you how do you pull that out of somebody?
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think that's the foundation.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like, otherwise, why are you doing this?
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why are you, you know, telling your macros?
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_02: Why are you exercising?
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_02: Why are you watching your circadian rhythm?
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_02: By by the way, all those things are foundational and they work better than every any peptide, any hormone, any supplement.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_02: I always push that.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like, do the basics right.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's how your physiology is going to be optimized.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_02: But if everybody wants to bypass and like, no, just put me on testosterone.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like, hold on a second.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_02: But how do you, how do you motivate somebody?
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_02: How do you pull out their purpose?
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_02: Because I don't think most people don't like, they don't think about that.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_02: They could just kind of like coast through life.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's funny because like there'll be a vanity magic that people initially, you know, shoot for, like they want to see their abs, they want to lose 10 pounds, they want to look great for a wedding or whatever the case may be.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's all fine and dandy, but that's never really going to create the lasting effect that changes their day-to-day habits that leads to long-term success.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got to figure out what makes them tick.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I'm a competitive bodybuilder.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think most people aspire to be a competitive bodybuilder, but we should all be bodybuilders and put those habits routines into practice so that we can live a more fruitful life from a physical wellness standpoint.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_00: But like, let's say your passion and interest, I mean, let's just say you're just hardcore capitalist businessman and you're on the stock market.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you're able to think more sharply, if you're able to, you know, have your wits about you, you're gonna be able to make more, you're gonna be able to execute better trades.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_00: And like if that's like your own desire, like let's say you don't have a wife, you don't have kids, like that's what you want to focus on, you're gonna be able to do that better if you are healthy.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that let that be the motivating factor.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, if you have wife and kids and family and grandkids, like they kind of become your motivating factor.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, if you're 71 years old and you wanna be able to pick your grandkids up off the ground and have many more lasting years of happiness with them, it behooves you to be healthy.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, like having a goal that's bigger than just you is always gonna be the driving factor for sure.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's the servant mentality, too.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's what uh Jesus asked us to do every single day, and that's what he did.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_02: And he led by example, it's like serve others, you know.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that being a dad and being a um husband has taught me how much uh selfishness I have of like how much I was just focused on myself and how, you know, I get true fulfillment when I serve my wife, when I serve my kids, when I serve my my parents, my family, my friends, you know, that's what I think life is all about.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, nobody's gonna be on their deathbed wishing that they had, you know, more money in their account, a fancier, you know, sad mass at or yacht in their backyard.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're gonna want to have people around them that want to be there, not because they feel obligated to be there.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't have anybody that wants to be there unless you've poured into them, you know.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's good.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's like the missing piece.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_02: And honestly, you brought the blue zones.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's the missing piece where people are they're all all focused on all right, what what part of their genetics?
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_02: What are they eating?
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_02: What's their exercise regimen?
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, people are so hyper-focused on their day-to-day when I think the biggest thing is what we just mentioned, like they they have their purpose kind of figured out, they have people, they have their tribe around them that is very similar in the way they think, and their community is just wonderful.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_02: And in this day and age, right now, when we got AI and our phones and and whatnot, it's like you can make I can make friends with Claude right now.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I was talking with Claude on the way here of like, what are good questions I can ask Robert or Tanisco?
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think I've asked you that half of the ones that we talk about.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but it's you can be so just lost in this life that I think you lose your sense of purpose.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where I think most people from like a medical perspective, that's where they lose their their health just starts going down.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_02: You watch our numbers and you would just watch our quality of life metrics, and everything just kind of goes down because they're losing their purpose.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I think it's the community is key for sure.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if you like, you know, wind the clock back 500 years, like community happened as a default.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people were in, you know, communal tribes, and everybody had to lean on the skills and wits and resources of everyone in close proximity to them to survive and thrive.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_00: We don't really have that now.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to, you know, go to your grandmother for some ancient tincture recipe that's been passed down through generations that's going to make your kid feel better.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't have to do that anymore.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you don't have to turn to your father to help you show you how to, you know, cut down trees and build a log cabin for shelter.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't have to do those things anymore.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_00: And because we don't have to do it, we don't.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_00: We just get DoorDash and Uber takeouts and watch Netflix, you know, like that's not the answer.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to we have to be intentional about bringing in self-imposed hardships to keep us sharp.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I love bodybuilding, that's why I love business, like it's a self-imposed hardship that I bring into my life.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_00: But you also have to be intentional about leaning on your fellow human being, providing value to them, and it reciprocates.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't happen as a default anymore.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be, again, intentional about it.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that's uh that's my favorite word.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_02: Intentional?
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_02: Intentional.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like favorite word in the English language is intentional.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_02: And that's that's really what it comes down to because you know, like discipline, I think, is synonymous with intentional.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like you have to have daily things that you're doing that come on over a lifetime, is what you said.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_02: Over a lifetime.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because you can't just like do these things for a week, yeah, or do these things for a month, you have to do them for your life, and there has to be like constant check-ins with yourself, with your spouse, with your family of like, hey, like, where are we going in this life?
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_02: And we've kind of deviated, and we need to bring ourselves back.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I think like for me and my faith, that's huge.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I find when I'm doing really good, my relationship with God is like on point.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'm reading my Bible on a daily basis, we're going to church as a family, you know, we're not worried about getting sick with from the kids going into Sunday school.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_02: Like, it's like everything is like dialed and we're disciplined and we're intentional.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like that a lot of people are just really just kind of coasting throughout life.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I don't it's not, it's not worth living.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_02: And that's that's my opinion on that.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_02: Because to each their own, like some people live for Detroit Lions games on Sundays, right?
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_02: And you don't have to train to uh watch a game on Sunday, right?
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_02: Me, I want to be able to chop wood and use my chainsaw and pull a compound bow back when I'm 80 years old.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_02: The second you put a crossbow in my hand, I'm gonna be upset.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, that's it's true.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_00: That man, I mean, life either happens to you or for you, you know, and I feel like so many people just go through life retroactively, reactively.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's like everything that I do, I want to be able to do it with a sense of purpose, with a sense of passion, with intention.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to be able to do those things for a lifetime.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like every single thing I do now, I genuinely believe I will be doing for the next 50, 60, 70 years.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's no reason I shouldn't be doing them continually going forward.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's where a lot of people misstep with diet.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: They try to do something drastic now that they don't see themselves doing in six months.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, why would you ever expect it to work then?
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, figure out what you can sustain and enjoy and adhere to for a lifetime, let that compounding nature take place, and then you'll win, you know?
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I think, you know, you chose the the keto route.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, some people choose the low-carb route, some people choose the vegan route, right?
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_02: Which we which we are not vegan.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_02: They're probably gonna be using compound bows.
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_01: Crossbows.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, crossbows.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what'd I say?
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_02: Compound bows.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no offense against vegans, but uh yeah.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, there's a lot of different ways that you can be healthy, but you gotta pick one that works for you, right?
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_02: We live in Arkansas on acreage, right?
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_02: We're surrounded by cows, like we're both chicken farmers, right?
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I love eating eggs.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_02: I've never eaten 13 eggs in one sitting, but my daily is about eight eggs every morning, and that kind of raises eyebrows.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_02: So 13 definitely is Have you ever seen the movie Cool Han Luke?
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_00: I can eat 50 eggs.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_00: I have not.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Newman.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's a good one, man.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_00: But like there's a scene there where he eats 50 eggs, and I'm like, man, I should totally recreate that because I'm pretty confident I can do it, you know.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_02: I actually had to look up that movie the other day because that's like a it's a um it's in country songs, they talk about Cool Han Luke, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's a it's a it's a classic, man.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's cool.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, I asked to watch that.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_02: But um, all right, so to kind of wrap this up, to for somebody kind of listening to this, and we've kind of talked about so many different things, and I think we checked for hours about all this stuff, but how does somebody implement this?
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_02: Say we're talking on a weekend conference.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how do I implement this in the office on Monday morning?
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_02: How do I implement this?
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like everything that we just talked about, how do I implement this in my day-to-day going forward?
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_02: What would you what would you tell somebody?
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_00: From the get-go, I would encourage people to just wake up and be with themselves in silence as opposed to just immediately grabbing their phone and watching the news to start with.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_00: They could pray, they could read their Bible, they could read, they can journal about who they are, what they want to become in life.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like start the day with intention there, first and foremost.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then from a nutritional standpoint, like I like training in the morning.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_00: I train in the morning before the day starts and gets ahead of me because the world will throw things at you, and it's easier to get distracted and fight fires if they come your way than not.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so like I like to train before the world wakes up so that I can just get that knocked out first and foremost.
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then from a nutritional standpoint, like again, don't overcomplicate it.
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_00: Eat real food, eat single ingredient foods, a species appropriate diet for human beings is quality animal fats and proteins.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like make that the base and remove the things that are not that so that they're not easily there tempting you.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_00: So get all the nonsense out of the house, out of the break room, out of the pantry, out of the fridge.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like just simply doing that is going to make a world of difference.
• 1:04:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, if you're if you've got kids, if you got family, if you got friends, you got people in your life, just be present with them, you know, like be present with them and uh get some sleep, you know.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_02: That would be a good place to start.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_02: And the thing is with that, like I I'm a doctor and I I I'm saying very similar things to people.
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's not rocket science what we're doing.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_02: We're just really trying to get back to our roots of you know, human beings, Homo sapiens, like we need to get back to the basics.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, eat right, sleep, move your body, get your blood flowing, and have intention, have and purpose with your life.
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_02: Don't let life just kind of coast, right?
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_02: We're in our 30s right now, we're gonna be 70 before we know it.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_02: And you don't want to like wake up one day and just be like, wow, what have I done?
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like, and I must say, like, I I like a lot of the stoic mentality, I like a lot of the you know, momente moid, you know, kind of not doomsday depressing stuff, but like recognizing and being at peace with the fact that life is finite and I will die.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, like I wake up and before I leave the house every single day, I give my wife and my two boys a kiss.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, who's to say I don't get in the car wreck that day and that'd be the last time I see him?
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like as morbid as that sounds, it's like I want to be at peace with my life.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of things that I want to do, a lot of things I aspire to do, but if I was to die today, it wouldn't be with a whole bunch of regret, you know.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I would be at peace with the life that I have lived up to this point.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I want that for everybody.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you don't want to be on your deathbed wishing you had done things different.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I think that happens to a lot of people.
• 1:06:19
  SPEAKER_02: But that's something we take for granted.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we could, you know, we drove here, we could die on our way back home.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I I did the same thing.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_02: I gave my wife and my daughter and my son a kiss before I left.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_02: And obviously, you don't expect to die, you don't want to die, but you do not want to have any regrets, and you want to make sure those people around you know that they are loved by you.
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so there's there's so much to this life, it's just a beautiful life that we're blessed with.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I love your perspective on you know, just life and training, and just it's it's awesome.
• 1:06:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's very refreshing.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's nice to know that like there's other people like me that think very similarly and and apply that to health.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_02: So uh very refreshing.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_02: So, how can uh people find you?
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_02: How can people support your business?
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Keto Brick for the nutrition bar, keto brick.com, keto brick on social for them.
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_00: For my coaching, um, I've got a pretty super comprehensive online course and a membership group.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's all at KetoBodybuilding.com.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and all of my socials are Keto Savage.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_00: So people type that in, they will most definitely find me.
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_00: Savage.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 1:07:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Robert, thanks for coming on.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome to have you.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_02: I want to do this again.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_02: And uh 100%, man.
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's make, I mean, we're both in the same neck of the woods.
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let's like figure out ways.
• 1:07:44
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's lean into that community portion of it, like our local community.
• 1:07:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, let's let's leverage our resources and help people in higher capacity.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_00: So like let's make some things happen, man.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, brother.
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate you.
• 1:07:57
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening to Leave the 99 presented by Black Sheep Health.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_01: I pray that you have an outstanding day and may the Lord bless you with amazing health.
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_01: Please follow us on all social platforms.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're interested in becoming a client, learn more at blacksheephealth.com.