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21:10Sal Di Stefano:So you've got a family friend who's got a son that's put on that kind of weight in that short period of time, and you know the powers and how effective a GLP-1 would be. Yeah, sure. What would you say?

21:23Adam Schafer:Boy, that's tough because they sound depressed. like a 17 year old so this is back since he was 11 right six years ago so from the age of 11 till now yeah has put on 100 pounds i didn't even think about that but yeah yeah he sounds depressed um

21:40Sal Di Stefano:so i don't yeah i mean they use the term he's been medicating with food so i'm assuming that's

21:45Adam Schafer:that's a pretty logical conclusion but the fear with a glp1 of course i could see value in either side like i can see value in using a glp1 in a very uh conservative way with a coach not with without a coach no way yeah but with a good coach uh and a behavioral specialist i could see the value in it potentially my fear is you take away his favorite drug uh because now he loses a craving for it he may find it somewhere else because the root issue isn't solved that would be my one fear especially when you're a kid yeah i don't know i mean i i definitely like having a coach obviously would be the first move and um seeing what kind of progress like what kind of activity they'd even be interested in yeah uh in terms of like just like finding a way towards training first um and then having that sort of in in your pocket is like uh something to kind of add in once we establish some kind of a routine at least like my fear would be you start with the glp1 the exercise still really isn't even a behavior that's uh considered you know with the kids so you know like to me that's the biggest rock to to face first is is really getting the exercise established yeah and maybe to add to that justin a 17 year old is different than a 37 year old uh or a 47 year old like behaviors are really hard to change when you're 47 yeah when you're 17 uh you can make pretty radical changes in uh how you identify with things and your values and your behaviors like you have a window there with a kid that gets smaller as you get older with more responsibilities and stuff so i don't know what they've tried have they tried anything else up until now or is it just like hey we just talked to him uh not that i'm aware of i think i think

23:40Sal Di Stefano:they've tried to encourage him to lift weights and stuff like that but i don't have they tried hiring him like a good coach i don't think they have the means to do that okay because that would

23:48Adam Schafer:be where the first place i would go yeah would be to hire a coach yeah i've worked with kids not 100 pound overweight but i worked with some kids were pretty overweight that were i mean the cost of a glp1 versus a coach i'm gonna lean on a coach personally yeah yeah i mean it was i was

24:03Sal Di Stefano:I was hell no. It was a quick hell no for me. I think that, and maybe because it's closer to home for me right now because I'm watching some, I have quite a few people close to me that I'm watching use it. And I would say a large percentage of people I see using it are using it inappropriately.

24:26Adam Schafer:Meaning. You're right. You could create a behavior with this kid.

24:29Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. With medication. Yeah. Yeah, so basically that's what I said. I absolutely think he can lose the 100 pounds off. Do you want to sign your kid up for a drug, taking a medication for the rest of his life? Because that's pretty much what he's going to have to do to keep that one off. Or rely on medications. Well, that's what he's going to end up having to do because he's at an age right now where he obviously doesn't have a good relationship with food and doesn't get good habits and behaviors, and simply just crushing his appetite isn't solving it temporarily. to lose that but i mean it does he is he mature enough to want to put the discipline in to go like oh i have a bad relationship with food and do i have like so you i mean you're you're his points of course i mean yeah of course if he had some therapy and a trainer and everything all the other absolutely i'd be pro that but that's not realistic people are people what's happening right now is you have a you have a problem like that that you know that your your son or family member is struggling with and everybody is talking about glp ones and the success you could lose it because of this right and so and and and that by itself is just one expense it's just like okay i can afford to go buy this thing and then and that it's helping all these people out and they're saying all this positive stuff but it's like you're not addressing the root cause in that kid

25:47Adam Schafer:by giving him a glp one well here's the hard question because he's 17 he lives at home Yeah. Do they struggle with this stuff? No, they're relatively healthy. And he's at home for how long?

26:01Sal Di Stefano:No, he's not just, I don't know. I don't know the detail of how long he'll be living at home. Is he a sophomore, junior? What, 17?

26:08Adam Schafer:Usually a sophomore, junior, junior. The reason why I ask is I had a woman once come in to train with me, and she had her son with her. He was young, though. He was much younger. He was like 12. And he was eating McDonald's chicken nuggets. and she looks at me and she goes, hey, can you tell my son why these aren't good for him? And I looked at her and I said, you bought them.

26:26Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I mean, we've both shared stories about this. We've both shared. I mean, we've all probably trained people like this.

26:31Adam Schafer:Because if he lives at home and he's not buying food.

26:34Sal Di Stefano:So, I mean, my answer was, and here's the - They have a lot of influence over it. They could just change the way they live. They do, although it's a split family too. So split family. Is the other side not on board? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if the other side is as, I mean, first of all, I said, the best thing that you can do is you guys have to live it and breathe it here at home. That'll change it. That's the, that, that's the food that you, this is, you eat what we eat. We all eat. We all eat these types of foods. You exercise, you stay in shape. Like those are the things that you'll, you'll at least influence 50 % of it.

27:05Adam Schafer:Cause I guarantee this. I've seen this so many times where parents make changes. The kids all get more fit. If all they have at home to eat is fruits, vegetables, meats, like, like just essentially whole natural foods there is nothing else yeah eat as much as you want buddy

27:22Sal Di Stefano:yeah i bet that alone would take half of it off yeah yeah no i agree i mean that that these are the directions though i go before i mean it just everybody jumps to the glp one right now right so it's like there's and even even what we're talking about i don't think is fail-proof or ideal but it's it's the better direction to go with the only case where i because the question was asked is like is there would you ever put a young kid on i said well yeah if no if there was a kid that was uh like diabetic or medically emergency yeah more of emergency like get to it because then i get the weight off and then we can talk about all the stuff that we need to fix and that this isn't this isn't solving long you know the challenges with people with families like this

28:01Adam Schafer:this is what they'll say they'll say we have other kids and they don't struggle with this and we all have the same food in the house which i get but you have a situation here where one of your kids is in dire need of help and if they rely on you to buy the groceries and they live at home if you just if you radically change your pantry and your and your refrigerator and everybody lives by it you'll see just i mean it's it'll be hard for him to stay 100 pounds overweight if the only food he has access to are meats fruits vegetables and well that's i think that's part of the

28:33Sal Di Stefano:challenge that they express is that what he'll do is he'll be a breakfast skipper not eat at home then he goes to grandparents house grandparents house everybody's gonna be on board yeah that's what i'm saying he's got they've got other homes that they're trying to control at the same time their own their own is probably the most well controlled as far as healthy that's tough yeah very tough very very tough but everybody's gonna get on board but i mean the the the main takeaway for or main point i try to make is that the glp one is not the answer no no there's uh it's definitely it may feel like that or you may think that or someone might tell you that because that'll initially knock the weight off of them but you're not solving the problem you're not solving and and in fact you're potentially setting him up with worse problems because what will happen is he'll lose the 50 50 to 80 pounds and his metabolism will be next to nothing and then you'll be faced with uh just keep him on this forever and let him eat 1200 1500 calories every day knowing that you're depriving him of nutrients and develop this like i need this yeah

29:34Adam Schafer:and so i just don't i know adults that took uh just like similar this is similar but who took um certain medications either anxiety or uh like add medications as kids and as adults they struggle getting off because they felt like they couldn't sure like oh my god if i go off this i've been on this for so long how do i deal with uh this anxiety or how do i deal with i mean i grew up with this type of stuff man speaking of the glp i noticed for me a huge benefit from microdosing

30:05Sal Di Stefano:the glp for gut health for me you know you you brought that up to me about doing that again because I haven't taken it in a long time since I did my whole experiment. But there were some definite positive benefits I felt with my psoriasis and stuff. And there's a part of me that wants to go back on for the microdosing of it, for the autoimmune stuff.

30:27Adam Schafer:Yeah, there seems to be an effect. This is speculative at this point. There's not tons of data. Some data suggests this that helps with autoimmune issues. I don't know. I don't think it's with me. It's autoimmune. I think I need slower gastric emptying. Because that's what it does. It lowers or slows down gastric emptying. And my tendency when my gut is off is too quick. So I don't, you know, people with gut issues with either constipation or diarrhea. Mine goes in the direction of too fast. So I think it slows down gastric emptying for me and it helps.

30:59Sal Di Stefano:I mean, I think that it might be similar. Because what I haven't put my finger on is like, is there actually something mechanistically that it's doing to help the autoimmune? or is it really that when I was microdosing it, I'm less likely to drink alcohol. I'm less likely to have that treat. I'm less likely to eat a huge meal. Like I just, I, and that could have, that has a lot to do with my, like I know when I'm just being fasted, I see lots of positive benefits to my autoimmune issues. And so maybe just the slowing down of that keeps me, so like I haven't been able to connect the dots yet if it's one or the other, because technically I know when I eat really low calorie, that's kind of my go-to.

31:43Sal Di Stefano:Whenever my psoriasis really flares up or I just feel like, man, I'm battling, I'll do a quick day fast or a couple of days in a row, really low calorie and just straight meat, maybe rice. That's it, something real basic. And that tends to bring it down pretty quick.

31:59Adam Schafer:Speaking of gut and health and all that stuff, tell me if this is true for you guys because I have a theory. if you have to if you have to poop and you don't poop when you have to poop does it go away or is it like it gets worse sometimes it implodes so do you have a poop window i do i do so i okay so my

32:20Sal Di Stefano:there's been times like that there's been times there's been times when we're where we like we

32:24Adam Schafer:have to do something work-wise so doug making a face here's why i said this i've heard women say this if i don't so my theory was that women have a poop window guys don't like ours is like you don't go to the bathroom you need to go to the bathroom but i've heard women say this if i don't go to the bathroom i need to go to the bathroom then it goes away and then i constipated and hurt right that don't happen to me if i don't go it just makes it constipation it makes me have to go right away i know i've heard that too it's never really been that big issue so you have a poop

32:52Sal Di Stefano:window yeah you don't yeah if it yeah it's not always though there's times where if i have to go to the bathroom i have to go to the bathroom and it doesn't matter how whether i'm waiting that window or four hours later i'm gonna have to go but there's been times before where i feel like and it's typically after i eat something and i think oh i'm gonna go to the bathroom and then it kind of settles and then it passes and then i'm like then i'm okay okay doug do you have a window

33:14Adam Schafer:well if everybody must know i feel like you do i think yours is more than no it depends it depends there are times when you have to go and then you don't and then it kind of disappears you know i'm not like that with that like oh i missed my window do you get uh never really thought about it i've literally heard women say this like if like my kid oh my kids are bothering me oh no i got and i missed it and i'm pissed off now because i missed my window okay so my i think i think that i would love people to write in i feel like women have a window whereas guys maybe don't and and we can kind of just make it happen that's my theory i don't know so what would be the evolutionary reason for oh i don't know doug come on speculate well you're in the middle of a

33:53Sal Di Stefano:hunt and you and you see your kill and you don't and you got to go but you're like no this is you You're not leaving that. You're not leaving that. I don't know. No way. 200 years ago, you're hunting deer, and you've been waiting three hours. And, oh, man, all of a sudden, I've got to go to the bathroom. And then all of a sudden, one crosses your path. You're not tracking that thing. Well, the other thing, too, is you're very vulnerable. Think about how vulnerable you are out in the Serengeti.

34:21Adam Schafer:Yeah. Yeah. And you're squatted down. You know that's why dogs look at you when they poop? Do you guys know that? Yeah. You're very vulnerable. Because they're super vulnerable. You got my back? Yes, they're looking for protection. Hey, bro, watch me right now. There has to be a myth, the one where they circle, because it has something to do with the spinning, the rotation. I don't know. I heard some, like, electromagnetism reason for that. Like, they're trying to find north or something.

34:44Sal Di Stefano:I just thought it was more of that, like they're checking their surroundings really well before they stick. And then they do that little thing.

34:52Adam Schafer:Yeah, totally. The little bad deadlift.

34:55Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I totally think. Isn't that what I mean? That's what I always thought. The reason why a dog circles like three times before they plop down and lay down, it's like checking their surroundings to see. I remember my dogs always liked being under the bed. They like having a wall or a corner. They like to be able to have, so they know nothing can come behind them. Dude, my friend's dog is hilarious about that. He will find a fence or a tree or something and they go right butt up against it and shit on it. On the tree? On the tree or on the fence. That makes sense though. that's like that that makes sense because you know nothing's going to come up from behind you

35:28Adam Schafer:and get you so doug doug safety look so doug looked it up it says primarily due to instinctual ancestral behaviors aimed at creating a comfortable safe yeah and warm doug look up do do comfortable and safe makes sense uh uh it does is does a poop window exist men versus women i have a theory i have a theory around this because i know dudes and dudes are like if i gotta go like it's not like i can make it go away maybe sometimes but i gotta make it happen let's see what this is I feel like constipation is more likely for the 20-minute. A poop window is a non-scientific term for the 20-minute post-urge time frame when the internal anal sphincter opens to allow bowel movement.

36:05Adam Schafer:Missing this window can lead to temporary constipation. Yeah, sphincter says that. While this applies to both, women often have longer colons, leading to slower digestion, greater constipation risk, and more varied stool consistency. They have longer colons? I didn't know that, but it backs up my theory.

36:20Sal Di Stefano:I know, but it implies the opposite is true. That's what I thought.

36:23Adam Schafer:that's my theory my theory is not men have a women do oh that women they gotta go they gotta go there's no men gotta go they gotta go so men generally have faster colonic transit and are less likely to suffer from i know that constipation how much longer is a woman's colon than a man 10 centimeters that's actually if you think about how much shorter women are generally

36:46Sal Di Stefano:proportionally that's a big difference you guys yeah why i mean kind of not really dude listen if the woman is on average how much on average if she was half your height it still would then 20 centimeters yeah that's pretty good I mean that's

37:01Adam Schafer:for your colon

37:02Sal Di Stefano:dude that implies

37:02Adam Schafer:women are different than men dude I'm not

37:05Sal Di Stefano:I'm not all for that at all oh crap you're not on that train huh oh no that ends my theory oops we should back up a little bit

37:14Adam Schafer:speaking of men and women or whatever how many times have you guys used joy mode pre I have pre intimacy question times. Is this like the big reveal podcast? We're supposed to get all vulnerable dirt out. We're supposed to talk about what's your poop window, what's your sex routine? It's a great transition, isn't it? You have a bunch of times.

37:34Sal Di Stefano:At least 20 plus. It works? Yeah, no, it totally does. Yeah, it totally does. It's a pre-sex supplement. I know, I know. We've always, we've always talked about it as a pre-workout. I know that's how you primarily use it. for the pump. But yeah, no, it's a... Wait,

37:49Adam Schafer:you gave it to your brother-in-law?

37:50Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. What did he say? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he was like, I mean, we didn't like talk about it. So how'd it go? How'd it go? Yeah. I assumed it went well because he was like, dude, can I have more? You don't do the do tell? Do tell? No. We didn't like have a little like coffee talk afterwards.

38:08Adam Schafer:Speaking of which, so right now I'm wearing a, it's not a halter monitor. They make them different now. A halter monitor? Do you guys know what a halter monitor is? Kind of like a halter top? No. You guys calm down. Is it a sports bra? Yeah. You wear a man's ear?

38:21Sal Di Stefano:No, I think I'm saying it right. Manzeer? Would you just call it? Manzeer. Seinfeld, dog. You don't know Seinfeld? Oh, bro. Come on.

38:28Adam Schafer:So I'm wearing, so it's a device that is tracking my heart rate. So I had some heart palpitations like a couple weeks ago for like three, four days and it went away. But my wife was like, you got it. You're going to go get it checked. It's only fine. I'll go, whatever. Dude. So I went and so I'm wearing this thing. It's fine, dude. I've had heart palpitations. It's not a big deal. But my wife wants me to. So I'm like, you know what? You never know. So I'll go get it checked out. So I'm wearing this thing right now that measures your heart rate. So I have to wear it for a week. It's actually pretty cool.

38:54Adam Schafer:Back in the day, you used to have to have this monitor. It was a pain in the butt. You can't even see it. It's stuck on me. I guess I'll just keep it on for a week. But it's measuring my heart rate. And what it's doing is if I have any heart palpitations, it'll measure it. And then they get a report. And then they'll be able to see what kind. Is this an HRV? No. Wouldn't our Oura Ring do that? No. not as accurately as this.

39:19Sal Di Stefano:I'm sure not as accurate, but I mean, I would give you an idea that you, like, I'm sure if I saw some sort of...

39:24Adam Schafer:Well, what this is going to pick up are potentially what kind of skipping it'd be, because most of them are benign, not a big deal. There are some that if you have certain ones, you have to be careful. And so that's what they're looking for. Even though I've been caught with them before, doctors measure them, it's not... So do you get any shortness of breath, or have you had any symptoms of that? What happens is I'll get the skipping of the beat thing. And then because I know what's happening, I'll get anxious. And so I'm like, okay, am I feeling that because I know it? Anyway, it's not a big deal, but I'm doing it.

39:57Adam Schafer:So I'm wearing it. But then I realized, like, they're going to see my heart rate go up and down whenever I do anything. So I'm like, so last night, you know, Jessica and I. So I'm like, dang, bro. They're going to see how long we did in the morning. One in the morning? Yeah. Pretty sure they factor that. Don't you remember that? For three minutes, your heart rate went up here. What's going on? Don't you guys remember that when you guys were tracking with clients with the body bug

40:19Sal Di Stefano:and stuff? Yes. No. Yeah, I totally remember that. I had so many of those conversations. What? Big burn calories. Because I used to always sit. One of the things I loved to do with my clients is when that tool first came out, it was so, I mean, come on. It was revolutionary when it first came out. And it would be so, you hadn't seen them in a week. And then we'd sit down. We'd look at every day and throughout the night and all of that. And we'd be like, whoa. The spikes in the charts. Friday night, what are you doing right here at 11 p.m.? And then they'd be like, you know, uncomfortable. You know what I'm saying?

40:48Sal Di Stefano:Well, I just suddenly.

40:49Adam Schafer:Or some would brag, you know. Well, I suddenly felt like.

40:52Sal Di Stefano:And then I'd be like, wow, that was only three minutes. I felt a little self-conscious. You know what I mean? I'm like, damn, baby. We might need to make.

40:58Adam Schafer:I don't want the doctor. Looks like you had a great three minutes there. Why were you running so hard for a minute? What happened there? That's a good deal. So anyway. Jump to the treadmill. Yeah, so I got to wear this thing. Speaking of movement and stuff, I just got to say this out loud. I'm just going to defend myself, everybody, real quick. When we did the skipping on the video, first of all, I wasn't trying real hard. Everybody here was doing their best effort. Number two.

41:26Is there really like a standard for skipping?

41:30Adam Schafer:First of all, skipping isn't supposed to be this massive display. A skip is like what I did. It was a skip.

41:37Sal Di Stefano:No. Nobody thought you did it. Somebody commented on it.

41:41Adam Schafer:This looks like a dresser. trying not to tip over.

41:48Adam Schafer:That's amazing.

41:49Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, a lot of people went back and forth, whether Doug won or I won on that, but you definitely did not do a skip. And Justin definitely did a football high knee drill. That's what skipping is on the field, dude. So it's like, I didn't know I was supposed to be like a little girl skip, you know, like me. Like, I could have done that. Yeah, Adam was a suspect. No, you know what it was? You guys had the hands go to the sides. He's definitely done this. That's why I screwed up.

42:17Adam Schafer:Yeah. Skip it. Skip it. Adam like a wand, you know? Stop it. Stop it. But how do people talk your crap? I wasn't even trying that hard, you guys. Well, you know what's funny? I don't even, yeah.

42:28Sal Di Stefano:What was great was how that came to be for the audience. So our editing team obviously does do these. It was funny. Photo shoot days or whatever. We do all this, a lot of this content. We don't know anything, right? We don't.

42:39Adam Schafer:We literally show up. We don't prepare.

42:40Sal Di Stefano:we don't know what we're shooting many times or what the edit's going to be and we're getting ready to transition over and do some other videos and Danny brings up oh you've seen that thing where have your boss skip or whatever like that and all of us were like oh that's silly or whatever like that like and she's like yeah can you guys skip and we're like oh yeah yeah yeah and then everyone says yeah yeah real quick and then everyone goes like wait a minute wait when was the last time I skipped and then we all started questioning ourselves I mean I think I can skip I'm pretty sure And then Danny was like, well, why don't we do this?

43:11Sal Di Stefano:Let's just do it. But nobody was allowed to try it first. So that was like a true first time everybody tried to skip. And God knows how many years that you've probably done that. And so it ended up being better than what I thought. I started out. I was like, oh, wow, that's hilarious. We did a lot of stuff. It varied so much. It was great.

43:28Adam Schafer:Yeah. They had us do, and they haven't even, they'll be up by the time this comes up. But they had us do a plank, a grip test. Then we did, I like the one where we were insulting each other. although some of those were a bit hmm kind of hit me real hard like man bro these are some of them are mean vicious and i loved it i know buffering was oh buffering or butter face that was

43:53Sal Di Stefano:i don't know what but i was i got slightly i don't know if i'd rather be the douche bag everybody knows i'm the douche bags i'm just saying

44:05Adam Schafer:I got a little insecure though I went out with my wife that night and I looked at her like Am I handsome? Like objectively I was like asking her questions Why are you insecure right now? Somebody wrote in A terrible insult that's why So now I feel like I feel like I'm not handsome It's a muscle that we're I got it so there's a study On diet that just is going viral Right now oh really Yeah but it's so funny It's the stupidest study of all time. So every coach who hears this study is going to go, duh. I'm going to pull it up for you guys right now. And I'll just tell you what the study is. And you guys, then I'd like to have your opinion.

44:47Adam Schafer:But it's flying. It's flying right now. Everybody's like, oh, my God, this is crazy and groundbreaking. So here's the title of an article in Eureka Alert, which we'll write about studies or whatever. and you can read the study, but this is the title of the study. You want to lose weight, try eating the same meals on repeat. So here's what the article says. Sticking to the same meals and eating a consistent number of calories each day may help people lose more weight, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. The study published in the journal Health. So a large pizza every day.

45:22Adam Schafer:Hold on a second. Okay. Found that adults who followed more routine eating patterns, such as repeating the same meals and keeping calorie intake steady over time, lost more weight during a 12-week behavioral weight loss program than those who ate a more varied diet. And it says, yes. Now, this is so ridiculous. Maintaining a healthy diet in today's food environment requires constant effort and self-control, said lead author Charlotte Hagerman, PhD of the Oregon Research Institute. Creating routines around eating may reduce that burden and make healthy choices feel more automatic. So they analyzed detailed real-time food logs from 112 overweight to obese adults who were enrolled in a structured behavioral weight loss program.

46:03Adam Schafer:And the participants were just asked to track everything. And, of course, people ate the same thing every day, lost more weight. Now, everybody's like, wow, this is groundbreaking. It's frustrating.

46:16Sal Di Stefano:It's not. You're disciplined. But what it does go back to, and I think it's interesting to talk about because we came out early on. One of the early myths that we busted or were talking about was, everybody knows now but 11 years ago it wasn't as popular to talk about which is the small meals yeah eaten eat eat small meals frequently throughout the day and and so that's a bunch of bullshit we know that it's calories the same it's all the same metabolically whatever although uh i all i've always advocated for it and and just from personal experience with clients and and doing that for so long man i had the science wrong and explained it absolutely wrong in my 20s, but I had a lot of success with doing that with clients.

46:56Sal Di Stefano:And another, and I think this study kind of points to this, another reason why I think it's so beneficial is it gets clients in this behavior. Like if they're making four to six meals every day, right, and they're eating all these small portion meals, it starts to change what you think a portion size is too. And America has really distorted that. We're the worst country in the world when it comes to portion sizes. I I mean, it's just everything. Our portions are crazy. Our portions are crazy. Go to Cheesecake Factory. Go anywhere else in the country or anywhere else in the world, and they don't serve portions like we serve.

47:30Sal Di Stefano:And so if you're born and raised in that your whole life, you just assume that. And then all of a sudden you start portioning out what a 400 to 600-calorie meal looks like, and it looks like a third of what most plates look like. And so one of the things I found really beneficial with my clients was getting in this habit of every two to three hours eating these little 400 500 calorie meals it really starts to train them to understand like that's a meal you know and so now when you sit then then take that same client who's done that with you for six months or a year to get in shape and they get back reintroduced to the plates when you go out to eat you go like oh shit this is way more than i'm used to eating there's a lot of value to that there is there's so i so here's so

48:12Adam Schafer:here's the study and here's what's happening and it's very basic and i don't know why everybody's getting blown away, but there's, so there's two things that are happening. They're looking at people and they're taking the data and saying, wow, the people that ate the same kind of food or the same meals every day lost more weight. Well, there's two things that are happening. And one of them is way more impactful than the other. Number one, palatability is greatly affected by novelty. Number one, you eat the same thing over and over again. It just doesn't have the same effect on you in terms of palatability, making you want to eat more and more and more.

48:43Adam Schafer:Eat the same food. I don't care how tasty something is. If you eat it all the time, it loses its drug-like effects. That's number one. But here's the big one, you guys. All they're looking at are people that meal prep versus people that don't. That's it. That's the main thing. That is it. There's nothing about this that's revolutionary. It's the discipline of just being consistent. This is what I'm planning. This is what I'm eating. That's it. And that's it. That's it. That's it. We're done. There's no magic formula here that we're looking at and unlocking anything. What you're looking at is a group of people where a much larger percentage of them are meal prepping.

49:18Adam Schafer:They're preparing their food, and this is what they eat, versus people who go about their day and go, uh-oh, I'm hungry. Now let's look at the long-term adherence to that. Totally. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah.

49:28Sal Di Stefano:You know, it's really not that difficult either. I don't know why we make it like it's such a big deal. So I've been posting every Sunday now just to share with the audience what meal prep Sunday looks for me. And it looks a lot different than what it looked like in bodybuild mode where I had to make sure I'm hitting. I don't meal prep like that anymore. I meal prep for that reason. I meal prep so I have a healthy whole food choice always at my disposal. You're not weighing things.

49:58Adam Schafer:No, I'm not.

49:59Sal Di Stefano:It's like leaving it to chance. Yeah. And I'm not leaving it to where I'm hungry here in an hour, and after we get done doing this, I'm going to be hungry, and I have something ready. If I didn't, I would DoorDash it. And then when I go to DoorDash when I'm already hungry, the impulse to go choose something super healthy for myself versus getting something that sounds way more palatable.

50:25Adam Schafer:And novelty kicks in. Like, oh, yesterday I had that. Yes. And I'll try this.

50:29Sal Di Stefano:I have a choice. it's already been made it's done it's like it's not a big deal and and so and again and so what all it looks like is as if i was cooking dinner i'm just making five times the amount and so i have enough and that will get me all the way till about wednesday and then on wednesday katrina and i will cook dinner another big dinner that will get us through the rest of the week and that's just same and it's not exactly i'm not trying to have four meals ready every single day if i've got two meals prepared for myself that like between that and then if i need a shake or a bar if between something like that and then we make dinner every single night it's enough to keep me eating whole foods and not eating out i like that term anchor meals right yeah those two like main uh staple meals that you can consistently provide then it's kind of a little bit of uh you know fluctuation

51:21Adam Schafer:there a little bit of flexibility yeah it makes it was like uh was it max lucavier shared that study he's like whoa breakthrough study and so i waited because i had to look at it and then i sent it back i sent back to him like oh yeah dude we're just looking at people meal prep and he goes oh my yeah you're right oh my god that's totally that's all there's nothing groundbreaking about there's no like magic fat burning effect that's happening you just got a bunch well i mean i you

51:44Sal Di Stefano:know a step even before that i that i think is just is huge is huge that we their studies to show the difference just someone in forget prepping just track what you're eating and see what a difference that makes. Becoming awareness. Yeah, the awareness around, oh shit, I thought that was only this much. I had no idea. So I think you do that first and it opens your eyes of, oh wow, I would have never guessed it.

52:09Adam Schafer:By the way, this extreme novelty we have with food, it didn't exist for mostly human history. You had like two options. You didn't have a million options. We have so much food novelty that it's wild.

52:22Sal Di Stefano:We have so much food novelty that we become snobs about, I can't eat that for breakfast. Yeah. How many times have you heard that before? I can't figure out anything to eat for breakfast. Like it needs a special.

52:37Adam Schafer:Don't you have leftovers for dinner? Yeah, but that's not breakfast.

52:38Sal Di Stefano:Like it needs some sort of special. It has to have some sort of special recipe to be breakfast. It's so hilarious when you think about how ridiculous that is. I know. Our human existence, that wasn't a thing for so long. No. It's only become this. You're going to be the carb and a cartoon character. I mean, God, what a – That's going to carry my breakfast. I mean, how powerful marketing has been, though. I mean, that's just a testament to how good they just trained our entire society.

53:03Adam Schafer:The goal of marketing is to change your perception, your beliefs about the world and yourself. That's what marketing does. Period. End of story. Yeah. And if you think it doesn't affect you, they wouldn't be spending trillions of dollars a year on it. And that's what it does, 100%. So the more you're aware of that, I think the better.

53:21Sal Di Stefano:Well, and it shapes.

53:23Adam Schafer:Because their goal is to get you to buy something.

53:25Sal Di Stefano:And once you've done that for so long, you start to shape your palate into thinking that it needs this like sugary, carby tasting thing. It's like if you just flip it on its head and don't do that for an extended period of time, I promise you ground beef and rice sounds good for breakfast even. It's wild, but it does. It's funny to me.

53:44Adam Schafer:What's funny to me is having a teenage daughter, and now she's born to fitness, so it's a little different. But I remember when she was younger, and even when my son was younger, they'd go to their mom's house and they'd go to my house. My ex-wife isn't super crazy with processed food or anything like that, but it's definitely more than our house. And I remember my kids would be like, there's nothing to eat. I'm hungry, there's nothing to eat. And I'm like, there's tons of food here. Yeah, but I just want to have a snack. It's like, you're not really hungry. If you're really hungry, then you'll go eat.

54:11Adam Schafer:You want a meal. That's right. That's right. 100%. Speaking of diet stuff, you know how a lot of people are using Huel breakfast because of its convenience? Okay. Because it's a meal replacement. Yeah, yeah. So a lot of people are writing in and saying it's a super convenient way to have. Easy to digest. Easy to digest. Proteins, fats, carbs, you know. What's the calorie amount? 400 something, I think. 400, I think. 400, yeah. It's about 35 grams of protein.

54:35Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, it's a complete meal replacement. It's not like a pure low-cal thing. It's like your replacement. You like the coffee one. I do, but it's never in here. So I saw Jackie post it and tag me. I don't know if she's getting it here or where she got it. But in our refrigerator, we have all the other flavors, which I like the other flavors, but the coffee flavor is my favorite, especially if I'm going to - Does it have caffeine in it or is it just coffee flavor? No, I don't think it has caffeine. Do you know if it has caffeine? I don't know. I can look at it. I don't think it does. I think it's just coffee flavored.

55:03Sal Di Stefano:But I do like - I'm going to check. That would be cool. That would be - If it did, I'd be - It's always a happy surprise. I mean, even more like - Because I typically don't do it for breakfast. I like it after a workout. Is that your post-workout? Yes. I like to have something right after I work out, and it's easy to digest. Is it, Doug? I'm looking it up. Oh, sorry. My bad. I thought you already got it.

55:26Adam Schafer:Yeah, see, that would be interesting if it had caffeine. Let me find that one. I don't think it does. No, because that'd be weird. I think if they had that with caffeine, somebody might be - Is that the one? Yeah, iced coffee caramel. Yeah. Because even decaf on some level has a little bit of caffeine. It doesn't have caffeine. Really?

55:44Sal Di Stefano:Is that true?

55:45Adam Schafer:It would say - Decaf has caffeine? It doesn't have a tiny bit? Decaf has a tiny bit. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be like 10 milligrams. Yeah. It just sneaks in there. That's not a little bit. 10 milligrams? I'm sorry? It's not a lot. Decaf has a little bit of caffeine. You know that. Yeah, it does. A little bit. Yeah, a tiny bit. You can't get rid of all of it. You can't get rid of all of it. It's got as much as like a - It's got less than a Coke. I think a Coke has even more. yeah that's why it's not a lot but i avoid actually decaf late at night too well oh i

56:09Sal Di Stefano:hadn't i had really sensitive i will 10 for someone who's really sensitive to caffeine a 20 a pill of caffeine is 25 milligrams so if you're telling me 10 that's half of that hill has 25 most your caffeine pills are 25 milligrams no they're usually 100 no they're not they're

56:23Adam Schafer:normally 25 i've never seen a 25 milligram really i'm a caffeine pill so yes it does have caffeine 65 milligrams per bottle no shit dope party I'm still going to have that after this I did not know that just the coffee flavor one have you had it yet?

56:41Sal Di Stefano:I haven't had it yet that's the best one they're all good they all taste really good I haven't had one that I'm like and you know me but the iced coffee caramel one is the business and what I haven't done which I want to do is like pour it over a cup of ice. Shake it up, pour it over a cup of ice, and then sit on it. And now that I know that it has caffeine in it, I'm for sure going to do it in the morning.

57:04Adam Schafer:Speaking of workouts, I think MAPS PPL has launched, right? It is. It has. So this is a push-pull-leg split. Hurry, we're almost sold out. Yeah, we're running out. We're flying off the shelves. I just wanted to use that one. I know. We're almost sold out. What did I speculate? More females were going to buy it than men. Yeah, so this is the first time we've actually taken a program and programmed it. slightly differently for men and women because women have, they want a little more lower body focus, more glute focus, and upper body wise, more shoulder and back focus, whereas men, you know, more traditional with the breakdown.

57:38Adam Schafer:All arms for men. Yeah, just biceps and chest. Chest change. Just chest change. And by the way, the coaching starts tomorrow. Oh, the coaching starts tomorrow. So if you got it, you get, there's three days of coaching with our coach. Get on it. Cole kills it. But this is, this is, I'd say probably the most consistently requested split. In our history. It's a very popular.

58:01Sal Di Stefano:Is it the most popular split? PPL? I feel like it is. Yes. Just in general. It is. If we did like just this general survey in a commercial gym, I feel like.

58:12Adam Schafer:If you were to say, if you were to say name a split and give it like a quick name. Yeah. I think it's just PPL. I can't think of another. Upper lower would be the other one.

58:20Sal Di Stefano:Oh, yeah. But I think PPL. I always thought like single body part. That's also my, you know, bodybuilder background. Yeah. That sees a lot of that.

58:27Adam Schafer:No, this is the most, this is a very requested split. So I'm sure people are going to love it. Our place makes multifunctional cookware. It replaces lots of different cookware tools. And it's forever chemical free. So nonstick pans without all those crazy chemicals that mess up your hormones and can cause other problems. This stuff is heavy duty. Also, it lasts a long time. It's beautiful. It's easy to clean. The best part, it's healthy. none of those crazy chemicals are found in our place cookware like you find in other cookware even the non-stick stuff even their air fryer none of those crazy chemicals go check them out get 10 off go to fromourplace.com the code mind pump gives you that 10 off discount back to the show our first caller is mike from montana what's up man what's up mike hey how's it going guys How are you doing?

59:23Good. How can we help you? Good, good. Oh man, it's a huge honor to be on. Like everybody says, I've been a huge fan for quite a while, several years. And yeah, thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it. You got it, dude. So right to the question, I emailed in a few weeks ago. I had to reschedule for some issues with work. I couldn't make it to the call. But I was about two weeks into a bulk when I messaged in and I was eating about 3 ,200 calories, hitting my protein targets every day. I've never actually tracked in a lean bulk before. So, um, I was curious to see how I could get my calories up.

59:58And, uh, the first time in my life and growing up chubby kid, you know, I I've since been, you know, pretty fit for about 15 years. I've been consistent in the gym for a long time, but, um, I, uh, still have a little bit of that nagging, like don't want to be a fat kid type mentality. And so, um, I had a hard time kind of letting loose of that and just being like, Just eat, just feel your body and do it how you need to. And so I made myself do it. And I'm now eating upwards of 4 ,000 calories a day and about 550 to 600 grams of carbs, depending on the day. And I am definitely getting stronger.

1:00:37And I weigh the same as I did a month ago, which is really, really wild to me. and I am taking a pretty low dose of epimoralin, but I've been doing that for about a month. And truthfully, I feel like it's not making as big of a difference as I had expected. I just feel like it's the first time I've been super consistent with my diet and actually weighing food for a long period of time. But I guess my question is, I don't know if you, in my email, it said that I do a lot of backcountry bowhunting and a lot of outdoor things in like the September, October timeframe of the year. Um, and this year I wanted to build some muscles so I could lean out and kind of look good for the summer or whatever.

1:01:21Um, and I'm struggling with how to transition into a cut from where I'm at now. So I'm, I'm actually a little ahead of a schedule on maps aesthetic. I'm, I have a two weeks left of phase three. Um, and then I was going to move into a cut starting the end of April. So I'm kind of in a weird transitional phase where I have three weeks left of my, you know, quote unquote bulk, if you will. And then, uh, I was going to move into like a six to eight week cut, but truthfully, like I haven't put on too much body fat. So I'm kind of thinking about just eating maintenance, but I kind of just wanted to get your guys' thoughts on the best route to go.

1:01:56Adam Schafer:Well, what's, what's the goal? Yeah. Why go in the cut? What are you trying to do? Well, truthfully, just, just for my own selfish reasons, just want to look good for the summer, um you know going out on the river and things but uh leading into hunting season i figure like i'm already in pretty good shape like most of the lifts i do obviously following your guys program is very functional the only thing i'm not really doing is cardio and i feel like i can boost that pretty quickly um leading up to archery season which begins in the like the beginning of september um and so performance at that point in the year is my goal but i'm hoping that uh i can kind of chase this aesthetic goal for another month or two and then transition into preparing for the backcountry um and because truthfully i don't really care how i look back there i just want to perform well but um i feel like it's not going to take an overly long time to get ready for that so um i guess aesthetics now and then performance in a couple months well your calories are so high uh yeah i have a couple ideas it'd be easy to it'd be it'd be pretty easy i mean you would just drop your calories and you don't even have to go down that low.

1:03:00Adam Schafer:You're at 4 ,000. You went down to 3 ,300. You'd still be eating a good amount. Um, and you should see some leanness. Um, and then leading into, um, your, your hunting season, I bumped the calories back up alongside with an increase in, in cardiovascular training. Uh, you want to go into something like that. Well-fed I'm assuming you're not going to be eating much when you're out there and moving quite a bit. And so you want to go in there. Well-fed you don't want to be too lean. I know a lot of people think it's a good idea to be really shredded doing that. You don't want to do that. You want to have some body fat on you so you don't, you know, bonk while you're out there.

1:03:34Adam Schafer:But if you're walking around 16 % body fat, something like that, you'll do great.

1:03:39Sal Di Stefano:I mean, I have something even more specific for the next month for you. Where are your steps at right now? Oh, man, I'm an electrician. So I work usually 410s the occasional fifth day. But on my work days, I'm between 10 and 15 K. And then my off days, I'm hovering between like eight and 12, I'd say. Okay. So maybe on those off days, we could pick up like a little bit of like low, low intensity cardio to keep those days high on the off days. And then I would drop you to maps anabolic and then drop your calories all the way down at 3000 to 3 ,200 tops. So pick up the, pick up the activity just a little bit, low steady state, not hard, intense cardio.

1:04:17Sal Di Stefano:just pick up the activity and you could do that on your off days since those are your days that you have let lower steps and then i would drop down to anabolic here you gotta keep in mind when we go to a calorie deficit i'd prefer you on like a program like anabolic because you're not going to build muscle at that point now it's just let's carve carve away and see what you have built and reveal the hard work you've done so you don't want that much volume and intensity so we just want to sustain the muscle you have and so that much volume intensity plus the cut may not be ideal I'd drop you to like MAPS Anabolic, pick up the activity and steps and movement the rest of the time and drop you to like a 3 ,000 to 3 ,200 calories.

1:04:54Sal Di Stefano:Do that for a month and you'll watch yourself lean out nice.

1:04:57Adam Schafer:Do you know where you're sitting at body fat percentage generally, like roughly? I'd say honestly, man, I got my body fat tested a few months ago before I started the bulk and I was at like 11%. I find it difficult to believe that I've gained much more than that. I'm saying I guess probably between like 12 and 13 would be my best guess, but I haven't stepped on an in-body in a few months. So, but I mean, still have abs, like still. You do? I mean, I'm doing, yeah. When I'm doing lateral raises, that shoulder striations are crazy. Like it's interesting eating this much. I didn't think I'd still look like this.

1:05:33That's awesome. Well, if you're already that lean, yeah, you don't need to be aggressive with this.

1:05:36Adam Schafer:Yes, it's perfect.

1:05:38Sal Di Stefano:Drop down, like do exactly what I said. Drop your calories down to 3 ,032 for that month and pick up your walking.

1:05:44Adam Schafer:You'll probably drop 2%.

1:05:46Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, you'll get down single digits for sure. You'll look great. Okay. You'll be shredded. How do you guys feel about performance compared to anabolic, just leading into like a more functional phase? Like obviously I kind of want to still keep like the aesthetic look, so maybe anabolic is the best route and why you guys would suggest that, but just out of curiosity why you chose anabolic over performance. It's just lower volume. It's lower volume. Yeah, I'm looking at – you don't need to do a bunch of training at this point. Like I always coach my competitors, all the real work of what muscle you've built, what you've done is done right now.

1:06:21Sal Di Stefano:And you hitting the body three times a week, lifting is more than enough to keep that muscle. You're not going to lose it. Now where you might sacrifice it is doing too much and doing a cut. And that's where people go wrong is they try and do more and ramp up and also cut calories. It's like, you've done it. You've built the muscle. Now let's just keep that muscle by sending a signal to it, which the anabolic or even a MAPS 15 program. one of those would be the two i'd put you on right now and then just create more activity so stay active so i don't want to i don't want to reduce your activity also so i want your activity up but i don't want you pushing really hard and you don't need to do that at this point just

1:06:58Adam Schafer:active let the diet do the work now if your fear is in losing uh functional ability if you're if you train quite often in that way uh a cycle of maps anabolic is not going to cause uh lots of problems with that. Uh, now if you live in maps anabolic style training, uh, that's different, but if you're like, you love the functional stuff and you're like, Oh man, if I switch to maps anabolic, might I lose a lot of that? No, you'll, you'll be okay. Especially when you jump back into a few months. Yeah. You jump back into your training, uh, for your hunting season, you'll be totally fine. Cool. Well, man, I really appreciate you guys having me on.

1:07:33I, I, uh, can't thank you enough for all you do. Um, you know, it's funny. I've got a couple of nutrition certs and I kind of coach just friends to try and help them out. And, uh, I always tell them to, to listen to your guys' podcast. Cause I've learned more from you guys than I have any of my nutrition certifications. So, um, yeah, I can't, can't thank you enough. Just to encourage anybody that's watching, just to encourage anybody that's listening,

1:07:54Adam Schafer:where were your calories at before you bumped them to 4 ,000? Uh, so I did a pretty aggressive cut. I was living in Vegas for a period of time and, uh, Wanted to be shredded for the pools and everything. And so my calories were sitting, I think around, I was at like 23 to 2400 a day, um, hitting protein targets. And that was in, uh, April. So like mid April. Um, and, uh, and then when I got back, I moved back to Montana, um, started to kind of just eat intuitively, if you will, strength train, um, definitely was pretty lean when I left Vegas. But then I started to climb my calories back up. And when I started the bulk, I honestly was just increasing my calories like 100 to 200 a week and was just like, you know, 205, 205, 205 on the scale, like every week.

1:08:46And strength was going up. Like I felt like, I mean, I'm actually pissed at myself because I didn't take measurements of like arms and shoulders and everything, because I know for a fact, like I've gained a substantial amount of strength. Like, I mean, I can deadlift just as much as I can basically do an anabolic in the off season. And so it's, um, yeah, it's the, the calorie increase for anybody that's listening. It's afraid to put on body fat. If you're strength training the way that these guys teach you to do, I feel like it's a body fat is not going to be an issue most of the time. It's remarkable.

1:09:17Yeah. Awesome, man.

1:09:17Sal Di Stefano:If you, if you follow exactly what I said, you're going to get shredded right then in 30 days. But here's the, here's the thing that's going to mess with you is it, you're going to look flat. And so you won't, you'll go through a period of time in your head where you won't like the, you look better right now. You probably look, what you look right now is a good look, 11, 12%, more muscle. So you're going to deplete all that glycogen and you're going to have what we call that flat look, which will make you think like, oh God, I'm not, I'm losing, you'll be fine. Stick through it all the way through.

1:09:47Sal Di Stefano:And then at the end of that month, feed your body them high 4 ,000 calorie days again and watch what you balloon out and look like.

1:09:54Adam Schafer:Yeah.

1:09:54Sal Di Stefano:I'd love to hear back from you in like 30. Like, send us an update on how you are. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I'll shoot you guys an email or something. All right, appreciate that, Mike. Awesome. Thanks so much, guys. Appreciate it. You got it.

1:10:07Adam Schafer:Yeah, just for people listening. That's so cool. I just want people, you know, because you get people like, one pound of muscle only burns this many extra calories. You don't speed up your metabolism. There is a range of calories that your body will burn with the same lean body mass. Now, of course, building muscle speeds things up. But even with the same lean body mass, his body weight stayed the same, 205, 205, 205, as he was bumping calories. That makes no sense according to the, you know, the, oh, no, the science says. It doesn't work that way. In real life, it doesn't work that way. There are metabolic processes that are very complicated that will increase or decrease what's called efficiency, meaning your body learns to burn less or more.

1:10:48Adam Schafer:and part of that process is eating more, eating high protein and strength training. And you don't have to gain all kinds of crazy muscle to speed up your metabolism, just a little bit. Our next caller is Hope from Illinois. Hi, Hope. Hello. Hi. How can we help you? Well, first off, thanks so much for taking my call and thank you guys so much for putting out all the content that you guys do. It's just, it's been incredible, but I need to talk to you guys because I need help. Yeah, let's go. Okay, so I'm going to read off my phone a little bit, to give you a little bit of background first. So I'm 28 years old.

1:11:21I'm a stay at home mom. I'm about five foot six, 180 pounds. I have no idea what my body fat percentage is. Um, I'm a former college athlete. My husband was, my family has been, so I've been around the health and wellness space for a really long time, but I was never really taught like how to eat anything. Um, and college track pretty much kept that at bay, um, for my entire years there. Um, but about, about a year after college, I got diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome. Long story short, I taught for two and a half years, quit teaching. I'm now a stay-at-home mom full-time with my son.

1:11:55And we live on a homestead. My husband's blue collar, so he works a lot. So I take care of a lot of the stuff. So anyways, my question is, I feel like I should be doing some sort of MAPS 15 program, but I don't really know what to do. Um, because, because I do so much, like I, obviously I'm home with my son. Like I said, my husband works. Um, and I work twice a week for my church. We're 30 minutes from town. My gym is literally in my garage. Um, and I'm struggling with the, like, I want to spend more time than 15 minutes in the gym, but I'm literally not even getting out there right now. So I just don't really know what I should run to like be, I don't know, be happier with how I look and just be a little bit like, I guess, stronger.

1:12:45Stuff like that. So, yeah.

1:12:47Adam Schafer:No, good. You sound busy and you sound like you're doing a great job with your family and everything. Thank you. Tell us about your day because you said you live on a homestead. So explain that. Does that involve a lot of activity? Kind of. So since it's, I live in the Midwest, obviously. So like we're just now kind of getting into spring and stuff. We don't have a ton of animals or anything yet, but basically I take care of the mowing, a lot of the landscaping. Once we get our garden going, you know, I'll take care of that. But my day-to-day mostly is, you know, hanging out with my son. We're outside, we're trying to take walks, you know, do that sort of stuff as the weather's getting nicer.

1:13:23And then basically like the homestead stuff is a lot of just like, you know, plant work, watering the plants, that sort of stuff. So it's not a lot of like super intense, crazy stuff.

1:13:32Adam Schafer:So I'm just going to help you a little bit here because uh you were a college athlete um and this is always this has always been my challenge with uh athletes or i should say ex-athletes meaning they compete competed at a high level and then they got into normal life your idea of activity is very skewed so like your idea of a workout is like training to race and so anything other than that feels like you're not doing anything. But I can guarantee you, the reason why I asked you what it entails is I can guarantee you that you're far more active than the average person. I mean, if you were to track your activity and compare it to the average mom, you're moving a lot.

1:14:16Adam Schafer:I would anticipate you're taking over 10 ,000 steps a day just from doing the stuff in the yard, being with your kid. So you're moving quite a bit. And you also have a lot of things that you're probably managing, which is probably why it's difficult for you to get like, okay, I got to work out more. You're playing that shame game with yourself. I should be doing more, but I'm not doing enough, but I'm also tired because I'm doing all these other things. So first off, you're doing a great job. A MAPS 15 protocol is perfect for you. And then the big, the real big challenge is probably going to be diet.

1:14:49Adam Schafer:First of all, it always is, but it is always especially hard for ex-athletes because again, your idea of eating properly is based off of your years of training really hard. And it was probably like, I just got to fuel myself because if I don't fuel myself, I can't. Yeah. So your portion ideas and how you fed yourself is just based off of that. Uh, so that's going to be the challenge. Um, and then with PCOS, uh, typically women do better on a diet that is lower, definitely low in sugar, but tends to be better, lower in carbohydrates. Have you experimented with any of that to see if it helps with your symptoms?

1:15:30Um, I have done like gluten-free for a little while. Um, like when I first found out I was diagnosed with it and it definitely helped for a little bit. Um, and then I kind of like was able to figure out like how much I was really able to have, but I haven't really tracked like a whole lot else since then. Um, as far as like, if I'm more or less energetic and things like that.

1:15:53Adam Schafer:Okay. So a good structure that I found just through coaching with women with PCOS is a diet that looks kind of paleo style. So eat until you're satisfied and eat when you're hungry. So we don't have to track and go crazy. Try to hit your target body weight and protein. So that's the only thing really. And then really you're just kind of limiting yourself to meats, fruits, and vegetables. Uh, and so you're not eating a lot of, uh, carbohydrates or a lot of starches, but you are eating fruit. Uh, so it's fruit meets, uh, some nuts, vegetables, and just eat when you're hungry. Eat the protein first.

1:16:33Adam Schafer:Eat the protein first. And what'll happen through that with a mass 15 protocol is you're going to have this nice, consistent change to your body and you're going to probably feel really good. Okay.

1:16:45Sal Di Stefano:And then now that the weather's really nice, I just continue to encourage you to keep doing those walks. get out there walk move yeah yeah doesn't need to be intense it's just create activity go for nice long walks um and and then do exactly what salsa just that alone with maps 15 uh and and by the way uh especially since you're at home busy mom uh it doesn't have to be the all the the two actors two exercises a day is what it is they can even be split up there's nothing wrong with you going out in the garage getting a set doing stuff playing with the kid go back do another set like you can spread it out over the entire day.

1:17:20Sal Di Stefano:People have this idea that you have to dedicate this time and that has to be your workout time. No, it doesn't. You can literally sneak away and do a set or two and then come back. Just accomplish what's in MAPS 15 in the day at some point in the day. I don't care how you spread it out, whether you do it in a block, one 15, 20-minute block, or you do it in sets over the entire day. Either way, it's totally fine.

1:17:42Adam Schafer:Yeah, in fact, in my experience, when people spread it out, they actually do better. Way better, yeah. Yeah. Get progress. Yeah. What's, what's the, what are you, what are you finding is the challenge that's preventing you from going out there and doing it? Probably first making, just making it the priority and like knowing, I guess, maybe which program to run, like which maps 15 program to run. Cause I did transform right like eight to 10 months after my son was born. So this was kind of recently like last winter and it worked really, really well, but he also, you know, wasn't very mobile at that point.

1:18:15and you know i could just go out and like do it so it's probably just more like knowing which one to do partially not getting bored if that is like yeah makes sense you know like i just that's the athlete you know because you're setting up stuff in the garage and like i'm you know i'm doing all of it you know there's not a whole lot of like weight racks and you know all that sort of stuff so probably the boredom and just knowing which one to actually do what is that equipment what does it all look like in there for you so we have a squat rack that also has a cable machine on it it's all loaded um so yeah that's that's what we've got you know we've got plate loaded dumbbells

1:18:51Adam Schafer:so there's two ways you could do this you could either uh set it up the night before so you know put put your son to bed and be like all right what's tomorrow's exercises and just kind of set it up take you take you two minutes and then the next day you could this is one way you could actually uh help somebody do this recently she would put uh a chart up and she'd go out and she would just, when she'd do a set, she'd check it. And then she'd go out, do some more stuff. And she's like, oh, I got five minutes. I'll go do this set. And she'd check it. And by the end of the day, she's finished with her six sets or whatever the program calls for.

1:19:22Adam Schafer:So the boredom part, again, this is the athlete mentality. It's like, am I wasting my time? Because I'm not beating the crap out of myself. And so it's a complete shift in your mentality. Now, for the side of you that likes that challenge here and there, that's something you could do occasionally. And I don't know if you're, you said your husband was a college athlete at one point. Yeah, he was. Yeah. I mean, this is great family time. So, you know, on a day off or something like that, you could tell your husband, Hey, do you want to go do, do you want to go do a run or do you want to go, you know, play this?

1:19:54Adam Schafer:Or do you want to go do this thing? And then just for the enjoyment, go out there with your husband, bring your son with you and just have some fun because that's, there's value in that as well. And it will feel boring. The day-to-day stuff is going to feel boring in comparison to how you used to train, but it's very different. What you're doing now is you're not training to be a top athlete. That's not your priority. Your priority is to feel good, have energy, be healthy, be mobile, be happy with the way you look and feel, but also just to be a great mom, great wife, do all that stuff. And so it's really just improving the quality of your life.

1:20:27Adam Schafer:And so you really got to get your mind around that rather than just being this hardcore athlete. It's a totally different mentality. And you'll get great results, Hope. I'm telling you. you will, you will be, you will be blown away. Here's what it'll feel like for you. You're going to think to yourself, I can't believe how little I'm doing. And I'm, and my body's changing. This doesn't make any sense. And when you're saying that to yourself, you're on the right track. Do you, do you make most of your meals? Um, I'm not going to lie to you. I've been having a very hard time trying to make meals with just being exhausted by the time I get to the end of the day.

1:21:01So it's kind of like, okay, what do we have for leftovers? And then it's like, oh, we don't have anything for leftovers because I didn't make anything. So I need to get better about like just actually making stuff. I did this week mostly because I knew I was talking to you guys and I did make all of it. And it's definitely, I mean, it's only Tuesday, but it is definitely made game changer.

1:21:18Sal Di Stefano:Game changer. I would definitely take advantage is the day that your husband is home, that like that becomes a thing where you guys prep a prep, a bunch of meat, at least meat and rice, you know, or meat and potato yams, whatever, just have enough bulk meat ready for yourself. And you can always crack eggs over it in the morning time or mix it with rice and stuff in the afternoon.

1:21:38Adam Schafer:And you have that fruit available, like I said. Yeah. You know, you could just grab it. And just for people listening, another hack, like we think of cooking as a job. But when you do it together, it's great connecting time. My wife and I, when we do this, it's like I'll be outside barbecuing. She's in the kitchen doing stuff. And I'll come in and we'll talk. We got music playing. And I actually start to look forward to it. But if it's like a job, then it sucks. But meal prepping is a total hack. Like if you're consistent with that, the diet part is like, it's like 90 % easier if you just do that.

1:22:10Okay. Huge. Sounds good. Yes. Okay. I've got one other little question for you, if that's okay. Sure. I have like some sort of bulge disc or something in my low back, and I don't really know what it is, but it's made me afraid to like deadlift or deadlift heavy. I've found that when I do like hip exercises, it gets better. I didn't know if you guys had a suggestion on like what I should do to help that low back pain.

1:22:36Adam Schafer:If you feel, if it feels painful to do a traditional deadlift, you can do single leg deadlifts or you could replace it with a hip thrust and that's totally fine. Oh, okay. Totally, totally fine. Perfect. Do you have MAPS 15? I think so. We'll check. We'll check. And if you don't, we'll send it to you. And if you have that one, I'll send you MAPS 15 Muscle Mommy, which is another version. So you have a couple versions of MAPS 15. yeah okay oh one last thing do you take creatine uh not consistently like it's actually it's actually been shown to help women with symptoms of pcos oh really yes oh okay so five to ten grams a day consistent okay i will do that all right all right hope thank you all right thank you so much you got it that uh i know you guys have had this experience where you train like you know i'm a mom now or I'm a dad now I used to compete d1 sports like oh my god we got to rewrite how you experience exercise and like you said I mean it's volume it's it's it's a lot you eat a lot more and it was a lot of carbs and it was like you just didn't really think about it because you're putting it to use I had a woman that I trained she was water polo uh d1 which water polo you guys know water polo like crazy they train like crazy and I remember she's like I'm just eating you know chicken and rice and this and that and i said can you can you weigh the amount of chicken that you're eating just because i need to see and her her her the amount she was supposed to eat for her size and whatever goals like seven eight ounces she's like 16 ounces of chicken yeah i'm like that's a lot of chicken and she's like well that's what i used to eat like yeah you're not i know you're not doing water polo anymore yeah it's not the same now the the make or break here in my opinion is going to be

1:24:17Sal Di Stefano:meal prepping on the weekend with the husband. So hopefully he's bought in to the mission and together they meal prep and they get it because that's what I heard. I heard that's a real challenge. And even if she follows MAP-15, like we're telling her and stuff like that, if she doesn't get a hold of the diet. Body composition-wise, she has to. Yeah, so that's got to be a must. And I think your advice is the way to go. like to make it a thing a fun thing that the family does don't you guys enjoy doing it yeah no no we're super consistent with that on Sundays and it's like a thing that we do and I love doing it and and so hopefully that's just it is that he's bought into supporting and helping it and then together they can do that because that that'll make her far more successful our next caller is Logan from Utah what's up man how you doing Logan hi how's it going guys we're going good dude How can we help you?

1:25:12I'm really grateful that you talked to me. I sent my question not too long ago, so I really appreciate the quick response.

1:25:18Adam Schafer:You got it, man. My question today is about training for your maximum performance potential. I'm joining the Army National Guard here in the next couple months. Actually, I'm a little out of breath because I was just talking to my recruiter. He rode his motorcycle to my company to sign some paperwork. I'm just trying to get my breath back, but I'm signing this Thursday and I could go to basic training anywhere from three weeks to around eight weeks from now. And so I'm just trying to figure out how to maximize strength and conditioning and all of the military requirements and just balance all those training routines.

1:26:05So I'll just go ahead and read my question.

1:26:09Adam Schafer:Before I start, I wanted to just go over the Army fitness test standard of what kind of stuff they're testing us on and what I'm trying to work on. But it's a deadlift and the max is 350 pounds. I'm currently, I just did the test yesterday to see how I measured up and I was doing a 335 pound deadlift for three reps. That's what they test you on is three reps. The two mile run, the 100 % on the two mile run is 13 minutes and 25 seconds. I did it in 14 minutes and 41 seconds. It's a plank. The max is three minutes and 30 seconds. I did it for two minutes and 30 seconds. and then a hands release push-up, kind of like the ones that are in the mobility sessions in Maps Performance.

1:27:00And the max is 62, and I could only do 43. And that's a two-minute timed thing as well. On top of that, there's also a sprint where you, it's called a sprint drag carry, and you sprint 50 yards, and then you, it's a there and back, so it's 25 yards at a time, So it's there and back. Then you grab a sled that has two 45 plates on it and you drag that 50 yards. And then you do a lateral shuffle, side shuffle where your feet can't cross. And that's 50 yards, both sides. And then you do a 40 pound in each hand kettleball carry where you do the 50 yards and then you top it all off with a sprint. And that one was pretty tough.

1:27:45I couldn't even pick my legs up on the last sprint. my feet were dragging. So aside from the fitness tests, I'll also be expected to do high reps of body weight exercises, terrain runs, and obstacle maneuvers with and without weight, potentially to the point of failure on a possibly suboptimal government military diet and poor sleep and occasional sleep deprivation. So it goes against all the things that you guys talk about. but these contrasting goals of strength and conditioning have left me unsure and overwhelmed about where i should start i'm 29 years old i've been following your guys's programs and your advice for about six years and i credit all my success um however i just don't know which program would be best for this kind of goal or be appropriate for this goal all right so i've done

1:28:38Adam Schafer:Oh, go ahead. Sorry. Sorry, Logan. Continue. I've done some like military fitness programs to prepare. Like one is a Jim Jones super bundle, or some of them are just the ones on the government website. And they seem okay, but I really respect your guys' advice. And so I kind of want to know the mind pump approach. So far, I've done the MAPS performance, and I was doing the phase one, the strength, and the phase two, the like intense intensity cardio version and just alternating week by week. I remember you talking about it on the podcast. And that's been pretty good. I've noticed some strength gains.

1:29:19I've gained like six pounds. The endurance is kind of harder because as I'm getting heavier, the cardio is more difficult. But I thought that that was pretty good for what I had to work with. and then

1:29:35Sal Di Stefano:How long have you been doing that for, Logan? Six weeks so if the phases are three weeks, I just barely finished the sixth week last week and so then yesterday I just tried to see how I stood up to the standard so yeah that's just been six weeks and it's been pretty successful, I'd say and then the last point that I just wanted to bring up is past injuries I've injured myself in the past. And so I really like to focus on hip, low back, shoulder and wrist, wrist stability, mobility and strength. I've noticed when I do like ruck marches or whatever, my hip on my right side hurts. I sometimes have shoulder pain on the right side as well.

1:30:23And then I was trying to do like wrist strengthening exercises and I hurt my wrist to where it was just constantly sprained for like two weeks. and I didn't know really how it happened. It didn't happen while I was strength training it. It happened in the kitchen when I was holding a frying pan later and it just like locked up. So it was very odd, but just being able to manage those training goals and then also try to fortify my joints so that I don't get hurt during my basic training and all that kind of stuff. Any advice that you guys have for that pre-basic training, basic training, and then post-basic training, I would appreciate it and I'd follow.

1:30:59Yeah, you got it, dude. Really, really well. I like you guys.

1:31:02Adam Schafer:So I got some questions. So the standards that you gave us are not the minimum to get you accepted, right? No, those are like the maximum. I can get accepted with where I'm at right now. I was like, man, 350. I know. That would exclude like 90 % of people. Why? No, shoot for the moon, man. Okay, so what's your goal? Is it to be accepted or are you trying to get into special forces or something? I'm going into an army infantry unit. And so their standard is higher than like an administration position. But I mean, I'm so close to getting 100 % on that test that I'd like to be able to train for 100%.

1:31:44And if I get there, great. If I don't, it's not a big deal because I do get accepted. But just since that's kind of like the highest standard, I'd like to strive for that standard in a way.

1:31:55Sal Di Stefano:So because you're already, yeah, we're already in, right? You're already in based off your purpose. I accept it and I don't have a problem getting in. Now you're trying to crush it.

1:32:01Adam Schafer:Now, second question. You said you have, what, three to eight weeks? We don't know. Yeah. So the problem is they don't let you know when the basic training things are, like when the dates and the locations are. Maybe for national security reasons. I don't know. So I have to wait until I enlist and actually sign my name on the dotted line before they give me my schedule. And then I can kind of back plan from there. okay because we don't have it it couldn't we don't have a lot of time yeah that's so here's what your mistake's going to be dude is you're going to rush this try to do too much if you rush this you're going to cause problems eight weeks we can see some decent improvements i think in eight weeks uh you can hit the deadlift you could probably hit the two mile run the plank uh the push-ups might be difficult in eight weeks three weeks it's not going to happen

1:32:51Sal Di Stefano:so okay so you're focused on the greatest discrepancy i would do yeah and so i'm going

1:32:55Adam Schafer:to tell you right now if you try to rush this to hit 100 you're going to hurt yourself and then you won't even get accepted yeah that's more practice these movements too and it's less on the intensity of load if that makes yeah i was talking to one of my friends about it and he was saying like the amount of points that you get from doing a 335 deadlift to um 350 is only like three points so if that's really worth risking to hurt yourself yeah he's like i wouldn't do that He's like, I would just do everything to the best of your ability, but don't push it so that you don't injure yourself.

1:33:29Sal Di Stefano:It sounded like the two-mile run and the plank, which, by the way, will help each other. And the push-ups. And those three, to me, would be kind of what we'd go after in that short period of time, because I could improve your two-mile run relatively quick. Sure. And I imagine you'll probably actually drop a little weight trying to improve that time, and so that'll actually make the plank even easier and better. So planking, running, and the pushups are probably the things that I would probably go after in that short period of time.

1:33:56Adam Schafer:Because we have such a short time, your best bet is to practice the test as your workout. That's it. And not do a specific. Now, if you told me you have three months or four months, then it would be a little bit different. But what I would do is, like someone like you, I would probably practice deadlifting once a week. you're going to run a mile four days a week, five days a week you're going to try and get fast at a mile you'll actually get better at two miles faster if you practice getting a fast mile the plank you could practice most days and what it'll look like is sometimes you're just doing it for a minute and a half and sometimes you're actually seeing how long you could go and the push ups you could practice almost daily and I wouldn't go to failure but I would keep it relatively intense and just try to get good.

1:34:49Adam Schafer:And so this is going to look like five days a week of practicing a lot of these things. And then like the sprints, the sled drags, the med ball row, that whole circuit, that's once a week. And so you're just practicing and you're not doing anything additional. The discipline is really to just taper off right before full fatigue. Like you want to just taper off so you still have energy and you carry that into the next day. and the more you practice that and the discipline with that like you're gonna do much better and feel that when you're actually competing yeah what we're trying to do we're improving stamina you can improve that pretty quick but really what we're doing is improving technique yep and uh the i'm gonna tell you right now the thing for you logan is if you rush this you're gonna run the risk of not even being accepted okay so because you only have at most eight weeks but maybe as little as three weeks and there's not much you can do in that short period of time except overdo it so you're just you're just practicing you'll you'll improve that that that mile time in that

1:35:49Sal Di Stefano:time that's fast yeah you'll easily quickly i like if when i look at like what can i easily accomplish with you i it's those three i in three weeks time i can improve that two mile run time i could definitely improve that plank and i can improve those consecutive push-ups just by practicing just by practicing them just by by practicing them and improving them every single day like you can you can get after the and you can get after those three things every daily daily we can practice those things the dead lifting is the only thing that i would probably do

1:36:14Adam Schafer:two or two two times a week maybe once okay but i would yeah i would do two but i wouldn't go heavy

1:36:20Sal Di Stefano:every every time i'd have one i'd have one light day no just pure mechanical technique yeah and then another day another day that is kind of heavy and then it would be literally practicing those other things throughout the day every day yep it's like you'll you'll improve those i mean

1:36:34Adam Schafer:Honestly, if I wanted you to get your deadlift higher in four weeks, what I would have you do is practice pulling 300 pounds, and I would have you do one rep, and I'd have you practice lifting it with speed and control. If you get really good at 300 pounds, 340 will come up. One rep, 300 pounds. Feel easy, but you're going to do one, and then get your technique down, and then try to pull it with good speed, but without being reckless. But again, Logan, I'm going to encourage you again. And if you rush this, that's going to be a problem because we don't have a lot of time. So what you're going to do is just practice the things that you're going to be tested on.

1:37:10Right. Yeah. Actually, I'm glad you said that because those are the things that I actually highlighted was the run, the plank, and the push-ups that I would like to see. You can move that needle.

1:37:20Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. We can move that needle. We can move that needle in a shorter period of time.

1:37:23Adam Schafer:And I'm telling you, if you get really fast at one mile, that your two-mile run will improve better than if you just run a bunch of two-mile runs.

1:37:30Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I mean, would you say every day run that mile as fast as you can, right? Yeah, five, six days a week. Every day get up and try and improve your mile time. You know, shave 10 seconds off every time. Yep. And watch what happens. So I don't have to worry about like staying in zone two or anything like that. No, no, no, no. Just go up and try to. Yeah, get up there, run that mile. And every time you run that mile, shave 10 seconds off that mile.

1:37:54Adam Schafer:And then when you're ready to go push two, you'll see your time go down. Yep. Okay. Well, I know that like my basic training, it's going to be about five and a half months. And they take people that are in much worse shape than me and they get them up to like a higher standard. So they'll be training me as well. The difference is that I'll be spending those five months probably not eating the foods that I want to be, maybe not hitting my protein goal and not having the best sleep. So I'll be doing more almost like training to failure, which is kind of the opposite of what you guys are saying, prep.

1:38:25so should i just hang on during yep basic training and try to yep yeah 90 percent 90 percent of it

1:38:33Adam Schafer:and mobility like 90 of it yeah part of it is getting people in shape or out of shape which is really tough like you get into basic training they just want to see barely you barely make it in you're gonna have a tough time but 90 percent of it's mental yeah they just want to see they're they just want to see they're not you're just gonna be able to do it yeah and so you just kind of make it through try to get sleep when you can try to rest when you can you know stretch in between mobility and just make it and you're already you're already testing at the top tier

1:38:57Sal Di Stefano:so you're gonna be fine you're fine yeah you're gonna be fine i thought originally we were saying those were the standards like when did they move the standards i knew that i knew that i was like

1:39:05Adam Schafer:there's no way that's a standard no no that would exclude like literally 95 percent of people yeah yeah 350 for three is a legit deadlift yeah keep up that yeah i can feel it i've never i haven't really lifted that heavy i kind of stay around the 250 weight yeah and so when i just put all those weight on and i was like let's see if i could do it i had the strength there but like i could feel it on my on my joints and my knees and my hips and i was like man i don't like the way this feels so yeah dude and then and then right now get good sleep yes do not compromise your sleep i don't care if your buddies want to go out your girlfriend wants to stay up late get really good sleep that'll make or break your recovery and sleep and mobility practices continuously that's it especially before yeah before bed we'll improve these though bro you got

1:39:48Sal Di Stefano:this. Um, I do have one question about diet just during the basic training. If you guys don't want to, um, with the, we kind of talked about this, like, I don't know if they've already flipped the food pyramid and basic training like they have on the website, but, um, like, for example, if they don't have, um, enough protein or it's hard for me to get my, my calorie goals with how much work that I'm doing, would it be better to just try to eat all the food that they have, even if it's like, um, like breads and pastas and like things. Yeah. You don't want to limit energy. You don't want to, yeah.

1:40:28You don't want to.

1:40:28Adam Schafer:Don't try to cut bro when you're in basic training. Are you allowed to bring a protein shake or anything? Do they allow you to do that? Um, I don't think during basic training, the way that it's split up is you have your basic combat training that everybody goes through and that's like eight weeks. And then after that I have my individual training for my job and they might be more lenient once i get into individual training where i could go to the px and maybe grab a protein bar or protein shake i would imagine you could you could

1:40:54Sal Di Stefano:i just know that a bunch of protein powder bags in your in your no bro they'll crush you yeah if

1:41:00Adam Schafer:they catch you with anything you're not supposed to have come on dude i know no no no yeah and then i'll have to do more pt if you just fold your bed your sheets wrong pain listen you you eat everything they give you that's it unless it messes your stomach up you just eat everything Eat the protein first.

1:41:15Sal Di Stefano:See if you can get doubles if you can. A lot of calories.

1:41:17Adam Schafer:And if your buddy leaves some food on his plate, eat that too. Yeah. Okay. So just try to eat as much calories as you can. That's right. You can put it to use. That's the thing. That's it. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that was everything that I had. So thank you guys. Go crush it. You got it, man. All right, man. Appreciate your service, dude. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate you guys too. Have a good one. Yeah. Yeah, the - Enlisting at 29 is late, huh? Kind of. It is, right? It's really late. What's wild to me, though, is it's so, you know, he's like, I want to do this, that, this, that, this, that, and I have maybe three weeks.

1:41:54Adam Schafer:Well, when he went first and was telling me that Army fitness standards, and he said,

1:41:57Sal Di Stefano:I'm like, dude, wouldn't they -

1:41:59Adam Schafer:No, that's why I said - Wouldn't they raise that? This is elite. Yeah, yeah. I was like, those are crazy standards. He's trying to get first place, is what he's trying to do. I like his style. Which I get, but what will happen is if he goes, man, I got to chase that. Yeah, yeah. And then he's got four weeks, and he beats the crap, and then he gets hurt.

1:42:15Sal Di Stefano:Well, especially considering how much chasing a PR deadlift while also chasing endurance running. Like pushing all that. Super conflicting. Yeah, yeah. It's not going to work. Especially that short of time. We don't have a lot of time.

1:42:27Adam Schafer:That's right. But for people listening, if you're relatively fit, and you have some kind of a fitness test for military or some other, maybe your emergency services job or something like that, the best thing you can do leading up to the test is practice the test. Practice it. Practice the test. That'll get you better at the test. Our next caller is Mark from Florida. What's up, Mark? What's happening? What is up, guys? Hey. This is really dope. I really appreciate your time for sure. I will jump right into it. So I am 39 years old, and I've been a loyal listener of you guys since 2017. So I'm pushing a decade.

1:43:04Wow.

1:43:05Sal Di Stefano:Wow. So I actually started tuning in two years after I landed my first internship in strength and conditioning for a D1 school in Georgia. Just looking for a way to deepen my knowledge base. I was new to everything. I don't know how much you guys know about strength and conditioning in the southeast. Very competitive. Yes. Very competitive. For sure. I got really lucky. I knew a guy on the inside. He put in a good word for me. I landed the gig. Um, I mean, guys like me really didn't get internships like that. Prior to that, I was a touring musician, like skater guy, um, who just so happened to lift weights.

1:43:45So I got lucky. I'm grateful for it. That internship fricking changed my life. Teaching people how to lift weights is cool. It was fun to like explore Westside barbell and powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting and SAQ, all that fun stuff. but what I loved the most was the mentorship I provided for those athletes for those young men I mean I spent more time with those guys than I spent with my damn roommates at the time right I was there 4 45 a.m to like 5 p.m daily right I waited I did that for free for two and a half years I waited tables on the side to make ends meet I did the things right as that progressed I quickly realized the strength and conditioning, at least at the elite level like that, I don't think it's for me.

1:44:35It offered really no job security. Guys come and go as head coaches come and go. It's just there's no job security. The hours were crazy. It wasn't sustainable or even at that point, it wasn't attractive to me. So that realization kind of pushed me into the corporate side of fitness. So for the last eight years, they relocated me from Georgia to Florida. and I've been the territory sales manager for a company, essentially designing weight rooms and selling like fitness equipment and stuff to like pro teams and colleges, high schools. On paper, this job is freaking awesome. I love my job. Don't get me wrong.

1:45:13I'm super grateful for what I get to do. You know, I make my own schedule. I'm not micromanaged. I'm around this industry that I've come to just fucking love so much. But to be honest with you guys, I'm burnt out, man. like the constant travel, constant sales quota conversations. It's just, it's focused on numbers now more than it used to be than it, than it is the people, right? Like running, running the show. I know that I have a lot more to offer this world. My passion is in coaching, you know, whether that's like a life coach or a strength and conditioning coach or whatever, like I'm just lost on my path forward at this point.

1:45:52I have an associate's degree and a resume of experience. But no current certifications, no really higher education degrees, anything like that. And at this point, I really don't see myself getting back into strength and conditioning at the high school or collegiate level in any capacity. So I'm approaching this crossroads right now. I'm approaching 40 and I'm a little lost. The way that you guys talk about training the general population, it really speaks to me. It really does. Ever since I stepped away from the S &C world, I've kind of felt this void in my heart in a way. And I just feel pulled in that direction.

1:46:37This job has allowed me to save some money. I have a little bit of a cushion. I can kind of step back and pivot. And I'm more struggling with the how. I'm terrified of spending all the money that I've worked really fucking hard to save. and to essentially like kind of start over in a career at 40, right? I have almost 40. Um, and I feel like I've been listening long enough. I feel like I know what you guys are going to say, go to the big box, do the things, get the floor hours, do the certs, do the shit. Um, but given my background, I'm curious of your opinions. If there's a smarter way for me to kind of leverage my experience, um, to get back into coaching at this level without, I guess, completely starting from scratch.

1:47:25I know I'm not meant for a nine-to-five. I'm meant for something fucking more than what I'm doing. I appreciate your consideration. I appreciate your insights. That's what I got.

1:47:35Sal Di Stefano:I'll tell you the cool part about a guy like you, and you're right, at least for me, I'm going to tell you what you think is coming. But I'll tell you good news about someone like you, though. you will you'll move up that really fast compared to the average trainer right so the average 22 year old fresh out of college no experience no cert no background and we say go to the big box gym get all that stuff they're going to take a year two years maybe even three years before they get like really good get some you have so much experience especially sales experience sales experience you've got so much strength and conditioning experience that there's no reason within two months you're like the top guy in that gym just crushing it like you so even though that sounds so beneath you or like oh my god i have this if you come in with the right attitude that it's not beneath you that you're here to prove that i can be the best guy in the gym and kind of have that silent chip on your shoulder of like let me go do the thing you should because like if i hired you and you came work for me like i would anticipate you to be my top guy within a few months because you have the work ethic, the experience, all the things.

1:48:44Sal Di Stefano:And what that will give you, one, it'll give you a nice financial foundation right out the gate so you don't get to be hustling. Because building your own, going off and building your own or go starting in a private where you just go get, like now you're asking yourself to completely pivot, build it, even though it's in the same field, completely new business and all the systems that come with that, the marketing that comes with that, the SEO on the internet and all those. like it's like go somewhere where there's a secure even if it's a shit pay compared to what you're used to making secured pay where they're going to feed you some clients to get going and you know you're there for a year maybe you know and you and you and you build your systems out build all your systems you you and you and you will have you'll look at it from a different perspective too like one of the things i liked when i worked for a big box gym is i didn't just get all the benefits of the trainers and all the things we talk about but i saw the way a billion dollar our business was ran and that I was interested in that.

1:49:38Sal Di Stefano:So I was talking to management, like, what are the P and L's look like? And like, and so be that guy, be hungry to learn all aspects of the business operations. And then also the experience of the other trainers and the systems and all that stuff. But I, yeah, I still would push you in that direction because it'll give you security. And I think relatively quick, you'll move, you'll move up and you'll be out.

1:50:00Adam Schafer:Now I'm going to throw a little bit of a wrench in this, but I have more questions for you, Mark. Do you have a family? You're just on your own? Yes. So I have a fiance. She's got a 14-year-old. So I've been doing, you know, essentially stepdad life for, we've been dating eight years. So once I moved to Florida, so about eight years, we've been paying. And so, yes, I do have others to worry about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that changes things a little bit. So there's a couple directions you could go with this. One is what Adam said. And the other one is this, and sometimes you see this with guys who are in a field like yours, kind of sales driven, you're traveling, you're meeting people.

1:50:41Adam Schafer:If this is all your life is, you'll get burnt out. I'm there. Right. By the way, you see this with sales guys, even in big box gyms, where that's all their life is. And so they're burnt out, but it's not the job. It's the lack of other stuff. It's the lack of meaning outside of that, that makes them feel so burnt out because that's all you're doing. I'm assuming you make good money with what you're doing. I do. And to answer your question, I guess, like I feel so much purpose. Thankfully my job, I do have flexibility. Um, so I, I don't feel like it's lack of purpose necessarily. Like I do, I feel like I get time to spend with my family.

1:51:24um so i've been brought back the story i didn't tell you guys is i did government sales for about a year they brought me back to florida or two years and they brought me back on the florida because the guy they hired previously wasn't doing the things so i've i've inherited this pipeline again that i have and i'm like fuck man i know what i have to do to get the to do the numbers right like i've i've done it i've already done it i took the higher paying gig in government it and then i'm kind of was demoted and i don't look at it that way but it's kind of what it was so i know what it's going to take to build the pipeline at this point and i don't think i'm i don't want to do it again i just don't like now i'm in a different position to where i'm being a stepfather to this kid i'm being a husband and all these things and it's just like i don't want to

1:52:15Adam Schafer:travel fucking three weeks out of the month anymore yeah right like i'm not just not i'm sorry dude. Like I was, that's different. Okay. That makes, so now that makes a lot of sense because, uh, I was thinking a potential perspective shift might need to happen. Cause sometimes what you get with sales guys is they're go, go, go, go, go. And then they start to feel like, I don't want to do this, but really it's just a perspective change that needs to happen that reignites them. But you just said something. I think that's real important. You're traveling three weeks out of the month. And so you're not with your fiance, your step kid, You know, you're going to marry this woman, maybe have more kids and you want to be around, uh, and you have some savings.

1:52:53Adam Schafer:You said that'll give you a little bit of a buffer. Um, in that case, I think what Adam said is on point. And I think what you would do is find a good, be grounded that way. Big box company. Okay. Uh, where you're, where you're at. Um, cause you're in, you said Florida, Florida. Yeah. Jacksonville. Yeah. Okay. So you got a lot of options then you've got some pretty good companies around you that you can work for. And you jump in there, and I agree with Adam. You apply yourself. You probably can get yourself to general manager position within a year in some of these big boxes.

1:53:28Sal Di Stefano:I got such a cool story for you, Mark. In fact, the guy's name was Mark and was a mentor and a good buddy of mine who mentored me early in my early years of fitness. Incredible sales guy, super talented, hard worker. he left the field for years went and chased the real estate game all stuff like that and decided he was missing this he had this passion still for the gym and fitness and he wanted to come back and uh at the time they didn't have a general manager position open for him and he said uh start me at the bottom put me at the counselor position and so he goes counselor assistant sales and then sales manager and then gm so he's like put me in as counselor and he came in behind all these other guys and like it was the coolest thing to watch somebody who I knew was better than anybody inside that gym except I want to be at the bottom so they can all watch watch what I can do that's the attitude I would tell someone like you to come in is just like come in there as a trainer just to to show what you can do prove that to yourself you'll move so fast plus you'll have fun yeah you'll have fun doing it you'll have an income already you ain't getting travel nowhere it's you know pick the gym the big gym that's close by where the family and everything is at and before you know it the opportunity for you to have either upper management or decide to go take it on and do your own you'll it'll it'll happen for you a guy with your talent with your skills your experience and it'll be stable you know you become a general

1:54:53Adam Schafer:manager you're in one location you're making six figures with a lot of different a lot of companies and you've got a stable position, you've got your full benefits, you're in the gym atmosphere, you're training coaches and trainers underneath you. And that's if you stay in that environment. That's right. The other option is you become a trainer and you just crush and then you love it. And then you, now you got, you got the gifts. And then you can go do private type of deal, which will be a little harder, but that's just another option. But I like the, look at the big box companies that Mark Mastroff is part owner of.

1:55:28Adam Schafer:These are the ones that I like the best. So I don't know if you know who Mark Mastroff is, but he's, okay. They got the best culture. They got the best culture. So UFC gyms, I think Crunch Fitness. I know he just took over 24 Fitness. So it might take a while before that culture shifts and others because where you're located, you probably have access to a lot of those different locations. Go ahead. No, I was just agreeing with you. Yeah, dude, you go in there and just crush. and you've got a little bit of a savings. I would give you six months before you're in some kind of a leadership role. Yeah.

1:56:02It'll be so easy for you, dude.

1:56:04Adam Schafer:Yeah. Curious on the leadership position. Is that still like training? You said more it's training trainers. That's right. That's right. Is it still coaching? I want to coach people, right? Like I don't necessarily want to.

1:56:16Sal Di Stefano:Well, that's a cool part about the fitness side. If you stay on the fitness management side, so that's what I did is I always had the flexibility to take, you know, know 15 20 clients on top of teaching trainers which that was the perfect blend for me but you can make it's like but i mean that's up to you yeah i mean you could just crush as a trainer be

1:56:31Adam Schafer:like i love this so much that's what i did then you got your experience you've got the systems you've got the whole deal then you can go into a private studio and build your clientele there if you decide you may just find listen i love training people but managing uh fitness people in a gym and being in a gym around it all was just as rewarding personally uh but you may find that you just hey i just want to love training people in which case cool you crushed uh now you can go work uh privately cool yeah sounds like uh i i'm not afraid of the work and and i agree with you adam like i definitely want to start at the bottom and work my way up i feel like that's how you earn the respect that's right um and i just i have i never really considered the general manager position i don't i didn't think that you could coach people alongside of being the coaching the trainers and xyz so i never really considered that aspect of it so i appreciate that and i will yeah definitely consider what do you got so choose is the big gym for us down here or over here i don't know who they are i'm not familiar with you choose like choose c-h-u-z-e I don't know who they are I don't know who runs or operates them or what their structure looks like but if you go online these days you can figure out

1:57:53Sal Di Stefano:if they got over 10 plus trainers working out of there that's a facility you'll be fine Doug's looking it up right now I've never heard of him I think they're over there by you guys no I've never heard of two interesting locations they have he did he just said there's a San Jose location there is interesting how the hell do i not know what this was it's a cool gym they've got like red light therapy and they have saunas and all the recovery stuff but i will say this i know you you mentioned

1:58:21Adam Schafer:the sales quota thing you can't get away from that so it's gonna it's gonna be in the it's gonna be like that in gyms and if you run your own business you're always gonna hit that yeah that's always a thing so sure and the main problem for me was like The company in its earlier years was focused more on the people that it kind of corporatized. And now it's focused more on the numbers more than anything. And it's like getting hounded every damn week for what are you closing? It's just, it's old quickly. So if I'm going to put my ladder up against another, I feel like my ladder is up against a good wall right now.

1:58:56But it just doesn't fill my heart with the joy that I once felt. so I want to make sure the ladder I put up on the next wall is the wall that's going to sustain me for the rest of my life.

1:59:08Adam Schafer:I feel you dude I feel you. There's a lot of options in fitness especially with your experience and you have the best experience like sales experience you've got the strength and conditioning background but sales experience man that's like that'll give you a huge advantage.

1:59:24Sal Di Stefano:I like this gym. Doug's floating around through it. You'll be fine here. Go to this place. Go crush this. Stay in touch with us too i mean we've got uh several trainers that work underneath us that make six figures plus yep personal training if you live down here you can even apply here but you're way out there so yeah we have we have virtual what if i moved to california well that's that's why i said that i said do that and then stay in touch with me so go do go do this this is a first step go do that stay in touch with me um if you you're if you're top trainer which i think you will be within three months uh you stay in touch with me what's our link is it mindpumpjobs.com is that

1:59:58Adam Schafer:what it is yeah yeah mindpumpjobs.com and i'll have i'll have kyle i'll have kyle communicate

2:00:02Sal Di Stefano:with you but uh stay in touch with me cool will do yeah all right appreciate you guys very much

2:00:07Adam Schafer:all right mark thank you brother have an awesome day guys you got it he's got the right character the right attitude he'll crush experience he goes in as long as he agrees yeah as long as he goes in

2:00:16Sal Di Stefano:with that that right attitude of like just go in there and go prove to yourself that you can be the best guy within hard parts getting humble again yeah yeah that's what i mean you take someone like that you know i get it i listen uh me going to work at orange theory at that point in my career is like the i mean group group training is the is lower than that okay so listen i i know exactly for a purpose that's right that's how i used to look at that's how you had to look that's exactly i didn't look at it as like i'm only this good of a trainer i can get a job at a group training class it's like i have a vision for what i'm trying to do go in and go prove that and that what's great about someone like that they should move really quick through the yeah really quick.

2:00:53Adam Schafer:Look, if you like Mind Pump, come find us on Instagram, Mind Pump Media. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes Maps Anabolic, Maps Performance, and Maps Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price.

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