2879: How to Eat Carbs for Muscle Gains and Fat Loss (The Full Breakdown)

17:51Adam Schafer:I like to be very sensitive to insulin when I eat my carbohydrates. Why? Because my energy feels good. If I eat the same amount of carbs, I'll put it to you this way. If I eat the same amount of carbs at any other time of the day, sometimes I'll get this energy dip 40 minutes after. when I eat it right after I work out you guys see when I come in here I'll have a nice serving of carbohydrates plus some before I get here it doesn't I feel great I have great energy and I think it's because of the insulin sensitivity I love this advice

18:15Sal Di Stefano:and I love this advice regardless of what you consider yourself low carb medium carb or high carb per se I like booking eating around the workouts I like first meal so to start your day because you've come off of being fasted for 8 to 10 hours of sleep so I like a breakfast that's got a good amount of carbohydrates in it and then bookending your workout and then really tapering off regardless of even if you're high so even if you're a high person a bulk of your carbs go around those that time if you're a low person same thing most all the carbs you'll have around that and i find um it i think it manages cravings i think you tend to sleep better at night yeah for most people um your point of the there's not these peaks and valleys i feel like when the body needs the most uh it handles it digestion-wise, everything.

19:01Sal Di Stefano:I just think that this advice has worked really well for me personally and for clients is to teach them to try and prioritize your carbohydrates centered around your workouts, regardless of how high or low your carbohydrates are. Totally.

19:16Adam Schafer:Here's another tip because people are like, well, what carbohydrates should I choose? The most important factor, I think, is to consider how easy they are to digest. The easiest digesting carbohydrates in my experience with my clients and myself tend to be the best. Now, what do they look like typically? Potatoes, rice, sweet potatoes, buckwheat. Tends to be - Fruit. Fruit. Carbohydrates that you eat and you just don't feel bloated. You don't feel like you ate a bunch of food. This seems to work the best. This seems to help with energy the most. This seems to help people feel the best is to choose those really easy to digest carbohydrates.

19:58Adam Schafer:So I would say that's the most important thing. And then from there, you know, avoid things like sugar and stuff like that. But I think really sticking to easy digesting carbs.

20:06Sal Di Stefano:I think this is also great advice. A little more difficult for the average person to read. I think at least my experience with most of my clients are so unaware of how a lot of the carbohydrates they eat are affecting them. because they don't have, because maybe they don't have like a crazy autoimmune or they don't have these severe side effects from it. They think that kind of water retention bloat feeling is almost just like what it feels like every time you eat a bunch of food, period. And they don't know what like really good digesting carbohydrates and how you should feel. This takes a little bit of coaching or awareness or reflecting around how you feel after meals to really hone in.

20:49Sal Di Stefano:Even myself personally, because I think that's why I feel so passionate about this, is even knowing all this, I think that I was really naive to it. It wasn't until the competing days where I was having to track so diligently. Because you would see how it would affect water retention. Oh, yeah. I'm monitoring.

21:06Adam Schafer:Easy digesting carbs don't cause you to hold as much water. That's right. That's right.

21:09Sal Di Stefano:And so I never looked under a microscope like I did during that time. and I quickly realized like, oh, wow, those sandwiches I was eating were affecting me different than I thought. Because I didn't have like diarrhea or constipation. I didn't have like distended gut or anything like that. But I definitely would have this puffiness to me and water retention happening from it. And then I could easily, because I was tracking, compare, oh, what did that big old turkey sandwich feel like? And how did I look and feel afterwards versus when I had that chicken thighs and white rice, oh, there was a clear difference.

21:46Sal Di Stefano:And so if you've never really evaluated that before, pay attention to that and then really let that be the driver of what carbohydrates you choose. Yeah, self-experimenting with that is super valuable. Very, very valuable. I think everybody should really go through a period of at least a little bit of restriction so you can kind of pinpoint how each of those carbs kind of feel and affect you in a certain way.

22:07Adam Schafer:Totally. For me, this is different from person to person, but the easiest to digest carbs for me, buckwheat, then goes sweet potato or white potato and rice is kind of a tie and fruit. But like buckwheat, for whatever reason, if I eat buckwheat, it's like I eat air. That's how it feels in my digestion. That's incredible. Lastly, don't drink carbs. So there's a lot of sweetened drinks. And this is just, it's not empty. I know people say it's empty calories. I get what they're trying to communicate. It's like, why drink calories when you can eat calories? Now, is there value in drinking carbohydrates?

22:43Adam Schafer:Sometimes for people who have really long, hard workouts, it can definitely help quite a bit. You're going to go play pickup basketball for three hours and you don't want to bonk. Having carbohydrates while you're playing can definitely help. If you're a runner, it could help. If you're going to go out and lift weights and you're going to be in the gym for two hours and you're doing a crazy volume workout, it can definitely help. Otherwise, stay away from drinking carbohydrates. it's way better to eat them. Drinking carbohydrates produces almost no satiety. If anything, it stimulates appetite.

23:15Adam Schafer:So it typically kills people to do that. I agree. Anyway, I got to talk to you guys about, I'm going to make a prediction right now because I went down the rabbit hole on research on some compound, on a compound or a class of compounds that I believe over the next five to 10 years will be touted as one of the biggest breakthroughs in longevity for health. What? Okay. Compounds? Like class of medications. Oh, medications. Okay. So these are known as PDE5 inhibitors, otherwise known as boner pills. Viagra, Cialis. I've been reading a lot about that. So these medications, who've been around now for a long time.

23:54Adam Schafer:I think, Doug, how long is Viagra? Has it been around for 20 years already? Yeah, probably longer. Yeah, see when Viagra first hit the market. Because it's been around maybe 30. At least. Okay, so it's been around for a little while.

24:05Sal Di Stefano:Because it was, I can.

24:06Adam Schafer:That was the first one.

24:07Sal Di Stefano:I can remember in high school, when I was in high school, seeing it at the gym on the floor and stuff like that, not knowing. 1998. So is the benefit like avoiding blood clotting and sort of thinning it out?

24:20Adam Schafer:Well, so here's how they work. And what's cool, what's interesting, sometimes Western medicine stumbles upon like a legit breakthrough. And when I say stumble, it's because it's literally what happens. All of a sudden there's a boner. They were investigating compounds that would prevent an enzyme or inhibit an enzyme that degrades what's known as nitric oxide. So nitric oxide has a lot of functions in the body, but one of which is to dilate your blood vessels. It relaxes your blood vessels and opens them up. And so scientists are like, hey, if we can boost nitric oxide by inhibiting this enzyme called PDE5, then this should lower blood pressure.

25:03Adam Schafer:because what they were trying to do is find a blood pressure medication. And so when they did the studies on it, it lowered blood pressure a little bit. It wasn't like a significant amount. So it really wouldn't probably have been a blockbuster for blood pressure at all. But one of the side effects was the subjects had erections and they would report back like, man, I'm getting these great erections. And it was like, oh, Eureka, this is going to be a bazillion dollar product. And it became one, right? So Viagra hits the market and it becomes one of those popular medications of all time. Well, it turns out that boosting nitric oxide has a lot more benefit than just being able to give you better erections.

25:42Adam Schafer:Nitric oxide has lots of health benefits. So I looked up the data on this, and it's actually pretty wild.

25:51Sal Di Stefano:Is there a correlation with clogged arteries and blood clotting and things like that? Yes.

25:58Adam Schafer:So when you look at the data, and they're starting to do controlled trials. So these are all like lots of people using them. Here's what we notice when people use them type of deal. Controlled trials are going to give us much better, more clear data. But it's becoming quite clear, right? What we're seeing in the data is a 30 % to 40 % reduction in all-cause mortality from major cardiovascular events, including stroke. 30 % to 40%.

26:23Sal Di Stefano:Wow.

26:24Adam Schafer:Okay? We're also seeing improvements in things like Alzheimer's. There may be some anti-cancer effects.

26:31Sal Di Stefano:Sal, is this the reason why there has been a major loosening up around? It wasn't that long ago that you had to get a prescription for the doctor.

26:41Adam Schafer:You can go online and get it super easy now. You just fill out a form and they'll send it to you. Yeah.

26:45Sal Di Stefano:Is that part of why the restrictions have gotten loose?

26:48Adam Schafer:No, it's because the demand's high, but also because they're very safe. So they've been around for so long now. That's what I mean. is that like

26:56Sal Di Stefano:we've figured out like wow these are pretty damn safe in fact there's a lot of benefits and so we're like loosening up the regulation around it

27:03Adam Schafer:yeah because they're pretty darn safe we now have like decades of people using them and we're finding lots of positive

27:10Sal Di Stefano:benefits

27:11Adam Schafer:yeah and they're pretty darn safe like one of the potential negatives would be like dizziness or dropping blood pressure something like that and then there's a joke if you have an erection longer than four hours seek your doctor pretty rare but yeah, it's wild. Neuroprotective effects, maybe some anti-cancer effects. Check this out. It may raise testosterone. It may raise testosterone. It seems to boost muscle protein synthesis, build muscle, improve athletic performance and endurance.

27:45Sal Di Stefano:It seems pretty logical that a compound that is going to improve how your blood flows through your body. It's going to flow more freely, right? Would impact a lot of different things. Of course, cardiovascular stuff. Yeah, what would have been harder of the recovery process? Of course, boners, of course. So this random question, do you know, is there a correlation or connection to people that have like clogged arteries and have a problem with erection? Is that a common side effect? Oh, wow.

28:17Adam Schafer:Yes, oh, improve. It also helps with diabetes. So here's what's interesting. Here's where the data will get interesting. What we're looking at, when you're looking at men who are treating erectile dysfunction, oftentimes, not every time, but oftentimes, what you're looking at are a higher percentage of men with hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes. So all three of those will dramatically increase your odds of having erectile dysfunction. My point with that is maybe the benefits go to the people who are unhealthy. In other words, someone who's healthy, I don't know if they'll get health benefits.

28:56Adam Schafer:Got it, got it.

28:57Sal Di Stefano:I see what you're saying.

28:58Adam Schafer:So you've got a bunch of people with bad blood flow. Right. This is why 40 % of them show such a...

29:03Sal Di Stefano:It's like one...

29:04Adam Schafer:They've all got bad blood flow issues, which is why they can't get erections. Right. And so is the 30 % to 40 % relegated to that group of people? Right. Or is this general pop to everybody? Would we benefit? Is there any benefits? Yeah.

29:16Sal Di Stefano:So it would be cool to see studies, though, because it would be really cool to see studies on regular people.

29:21Adam Schafer:Yeah, like if you're a healthy guy without erectile dysfunction issues, will you get this health benefit from taking it? I mean, I would imagine you still would get performance benefits from it. It seems that way. It seems to boost protein synthesis. It seems to improve recovery. There are studies where they induce, they'll put people through. Well, the recovery makes sense.

29:38Sal Di Stefano:More blood flow, more oxygen, more nutrients. It does. It does. Better recovery. It does. I mean, that seems logical to me.

29:44Adam Schafer:Well, I know this. I know anecdotally, bodybuilders and athletes have been using, since Fyre came out, they've been using it. And they like it because of the better pumps.

29:55Sal Di Stefano:I didn't realize how quickly they were using it. I said for sure it was that many years old. But I was in high school in 98. It was right out the gates. Yeah. So right out the gates, they were using it like that. It was the gym I was going.

30:08Adam Schafer:You've got to credit bodybuilders. They're like the best experimenters.

30:11Sal Di Stefano:but like they're like they know the immediate application yeah blood flow muscle i was so curious to like the first the first bodybuilder on the forum who figured it out like did you did you take it though originally to have better sex and then all of a sudden you just happen to get your worry like yeah that was the best work is that how it went down or right you know because

30:30Adam Schafer:some of them took it to have sex and your wife turns you down i mean some of them are

30:34Sal Di Stefano:are work out this energy bodybuilder nerds like you that probably understood the science you know that they're like, wait a second, if it improves that, that makes sense that it would also improve.

30:43Adam Schafer:Well, every pre-workout promises to boost nitric oxide. That's like the point. The point is it improves blood flow. PD5 inhibitors for sure do. That's like they will raise nitric oxide guaranteed. So I think it's really interesting. So I think what we're going to see in the next five to ten years is this is going to be recommended probably to most men over 40 at a low dose. Wasn't there a study recently that there's an uptick in strokes?

31:10Sal Di Stefano:Generally speaking? Generally. I think so. Yeah. I think so. Isn't this the same thing that actually, so the all-cause mortality, the health benefits, the blood flow stuff, isn't this also very similar to what is happening inside the sauna?

31:23Adam Schafer:Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, no. No, absolutely. There's more that's happening in the sauna than this, by the way. Well, there's more. But I mean, that's probably - You are exercising your vascular system in the sauna. You are 100 % exercising. They are dilating. They're opening. your blood pressure is going up to try to pump more blood, for sure you're exercising your vascular system.

31:41Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. Probably, I mean, it feels like this is the generic pill way of doing that. That would be the ideal way. That's the more natural way to create that, right? That's right. But similar to why the benefits are, right?

31:53Adam Schafer:Yeah. No, that's good. And even when you alternate like cold plunge to hot, you're making your blood vessels exercise. Constrict and dilate. Constrict and dilate by going back and forth. But I just think it's really interesting. The data on this is fascinating. Because now they're recommending it. They're starting to recommend it to men at low doses for some of these reasons. This is going to be interesting to see what that daily multivitamin looks like. It's going to have that Viagra and creatine combo. Oh, look at that. Doug brought up the stroke trend going up. You know where it went up the most?

32:29Adam Schafer:Where? Young adults. Young adults, yeah. Why? Really alone. I don't know what happened six years ago that was weird. You're right. Oh, oh. Yeah, you can speculate. Yeah, dude. You know, some intervention that was forced. Yeah. But by the way, boosting, so. Hopefully it helps with that, though. Well, trip off this. If you get sick and let's say you get a virus like COVID. Yeah. PD5 inhibitors are probably beneficial to prevent some of the. I would think. Yeah, the potential issues. Are there some protocols to help with some of the spike proteins that might still be in the body? So PDE5, this is some people on the internet who would call themselves experts, but this is not like, this is not accepted.

33:12Adam Schafer:Mainstream, yeah. But they will say if you have long COVID, taking a PDE5 inhibitor will help because it helps with blood flow. Blood flow, yeah. Interesting. Yeah, I know. Pretty wild, right? Wow, that is wild, dude. Anyway, I want to bring up a super underrated exercise that I've been doing that I used to make fun of. What? I brought up a couple times on the podcast That you made fun of I used to make fun of it back in the day Side bends

33:35Sal Di Stefano:We just talked about that

33:37Adam Schafer:Well no I've been doing them That's why I talked about it So I used to make fun of them because Just like the hip thrust Look at you Where are you taking us out

33:49Sal Di Stefano:Are you putting his workout together Hip thrust, side bends Side bends or not Dog piece next

33:57Adam Schafer:so so my gym was it really so side bends uh i used to make fun of because they were like people doing them for their obliques it's a terrible oblique exercise yeah it but it works your ql really well it does it really works the ql really well and i i don't want to say this like so many people hurt their backs dead lifting and squatting because their ql is what goes out sure it's the ql that goes out and a side bend works it directly so i started doing them yeah because if i squat deadlift and i start to lift heavy i start to feel a little bit of tightness in my low back and it's my ql i don't know doing it doing it two times that pain's gone completely i wonder i wonder

34:34Sal Di Stefano:if that would be better or so i uh dr gabriel lion did a video with a friend of hers i i wish i could shout her out because i choose the one that was um well how about or uh or a a lunge with a distraction so like having like a a cable distraction that's pulling you left or right while you're in the lunge position. Something like that. I think next level would be. Windmill as well. That's it.

34:59Adam Schafer:Bent press windmill, that's like next level. I know. But for your very simplistic, like, hey, let's address this. Simple. It doesn't mean anybody can do it. You don't need great mobility to do it. I can't contest that. You know how people do them when they do them wrong? They're just silly. You know how people do them wrong? What? They'll hold two dumbbells. So they'll do side bands. You have one weight. What are you doing? He's counting the other one. You might as well hold no weight. you have to hold one hand yeah and even like a suitcase carries great but it's still like an isometric focus which you're not really getting that full contraction dude Justin I'm telling you dude it would be my right side would feel a little tight so I started doing side bends and it progressed me I got up to 90 pound dumbbells and I get that gone it's gone do you have like a specific like music theme when you're doing that stop bro I'm just trying to picture this

35:47Sal Di Stefano:Hey, it's been a while since I've shouted out a movie on here. Guy Ritchie just came out with a movie. Oh, you texted us last time. Yes. And not often I do that, right? I only do that when it's like a really good one. And I was trying to go down the rabbit hole with Katrina of like, man, when was the last time I watched a Guy Ritchie that I didn't like? I know. So I guess if you don't like his stuff, then maybe ignore this. But if you like his stuff, I thought this was one of his better ones. He's like action-packed. I love the action. I think it's the way he tells a story, too. Mm-hmm. What's the movie called?

36:20Sal Di Stefano:It's called In the Gray.

36:21Adam Schafer:Okay.

36:21Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, In the Gray. Jake Gyllenhaal is the main character in it. Okay. He's got a few good characters, though, of good actors in it, so good acting. And yeah, very typical kind of plot theme that he would put together, shot the way he would. I think there's something about the way he shoots and writes.

36:36Adam Schafer:I'm trying to think of one of the other movies I've watched from him. The Gentleman.

36:39Sal Di Stefano:The unique cinematography. Give a pull up the list.

36:42Adam Schafer:Wasn't there one on a train that was done by him? No, I thought it was Guy Ritchie.

36:46Sal Di Stefano:Okay, so that's his style. It is his style. That is his style. I totally thought that was Guy Ritchie who did that film too, but it wasn't. The bullet train is what you're thinking of. That's it. I like that movie. But it is a similar kind of style like that. Oh, okay.

36:57Adam Schafer:In the Grey, Fountain of Youth. Those are all his movies right there.

37:00Sal Di Stefano:The Covenant.

37:00Adam Schafer:Have you seen The Covenant? No.

37:01Sal Di Stefano:I haven't seen any of those. The Gentleman. Have you seen The Gentleman? No. I've seen The Gentleman. You haven't seen The Gentleman? I've seen none of those. Yeah. Wrath of Man. Those are all. Okay.

37:08Adam Schafer:And you like them all?

37:09Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. There's more than that though. hey Doug I want you to bring up

37:13Adam Schafer:the typical bag of pretzels because I want to compare it to Chris Power I want to look at the macros and compare it alright check this out a 50 gram serving of salted pretzels delicious, everybody likes pretzels they taste good, about 190 calories to 200 calories 40 grams of carbohydrates 5 grams of protein, 1.5 grams of fat that's a normal pretzel, that's just pretzel pretzels right, Chris Power there are 190 calories too right 210 maybe, it depends on the bag So this is an exact same 50-gram serving. It's 210 calories. It's got, let's see, carbs. We've got 15 grams, but the protein is 25 grams.

37:52Sal Di Stefano:Wow. That's flipped right there.

37:54Adam Schafer:28 grams of carbohydrates, and you're eating pretzels. No, 15. No, no, 28 grams of protein. Protein, sorry. 15 grams of carbs, 28 grams of protein, and you're eating pretzels.

38:06Sal Di Stefano:It's cool because it's - And they taste like pretzels. Well, they literally, because that one's 210, but some of their other bags are one. So it's like 190 to 210. So it's basically the same thing calorie-wise. They literally flipped it on its head. They took a carb food. They made it a protein food. They made it a protein. Protein-heavy, carb-less. And still tastes like pretzels, which is, that's kind of wild when you think about that. Yeah, you can't tell. If you ate these - You took a carb food, you made it a protein food, but then it - If somebody ate this, they would just -

38:31Adam Schafer:Still crunchy. They would think they're eating pretzels that are not like cheese flavor or flaming flavor.

38:36Sal Di Stefano:Don't you guys notice the fascinating part that I find really - Which is why they're blowing up, by the way. What I find super interesting is how satiating they are. Because of the protein. Yes. You eat a bag of that, that's true. That trips me out. I mean, a bag that small of regular pretzels, I will feel unsatisfied. Totally. Same calories. Normally you have those versions of, they're at least this big. Have you seen those pretzels? They're always this big. Did you say they're coming out with a new bag? Yeah. So this is 50 grams, which is 1.75 ounces. they have bags now that are seven ounces.

39:09Adam Schafer:So like big shareable bags basically. Yeah. I mean shareable. So when this airs they can go to the link that we're going to provide. Oh it's live already. Yeah they have a variety pack you can get of large bags. Oh cool. That's awesome. Oh I can't wait to bust that out. Dude I got to tell you guys I had such a great experience last night with my five year old son. It was just you know sometimes everyone have those experiences where you're just like you reflect back and you're like man that was that was so good. That really turned out so well. So I come home from work and he's so excited to show me a gem that he has.

39:41Adam Schafer:He has a gem. But it's like one of those plastic, it's like a plastic gem, you know, fake gem or whatever. And he's psyched about it. Yeah. Now, I didn't know that he thought it was real and that he was going to sell it and make money. That's what he thought. He thought he had an actual gem. And the reason why this started is a couple of days ago, I was on a walk with him and he was asking me random questions. How much money is, you know, is gold worth? How much is a gem worth? And I remember telling him, you know, a really small gem could be worth like, you know, tens of thousands of dollars or whatever.

40:11Adam Schafer:So I come home. He's got this plastic thing. And he's like, look, I got a gem. It's a real gem. Like, no, it's a plastic one. It's plastic. He's like, what do you mean? Like, well, it's not real. He's like, it's not worth any money. I'm like, no. So he's pissed off. So he's walking around the house. And he's like, I'm not going to have any money. I'm not rich. I have nothing. Why are you the only one with money? He's doing this whole thing. Why are you the only one with money? why don't I have any money so I'm like listen I say buddy you are rich you have a family you're healthy but I want money you have money and I don't have so he's this whole thing so I'm listening to him and it just occurs to me because I'm like I'm like what do I say to my kid because he's acting entitled and stuff you know what do I say you know yeah then it occurs to me we have these kids that we sponsor through World Vision this is when I texted you guys yesterday Yeah, yeah.

40:59Adam Schafer:And we have a bunch of them. Yeah. And I did it with the kids. And every once in a while, we'll go on and we'll check on how these kids are doing or whatever. And so I'm like, hey. It's kind of distracting. I'm like, hey, you guys want to check out the kids that we're helping? Oh, this is how it started. Because I said to him, you know, some kids don't even have a toy to play with. And he's like, what do you mean? Like, some kids don't even have a single toy.

41:21Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

41:22Adam Schafer:And he's like, really? I'm like, yeah. And some kids have like one pair of clothes. He's like, no pajamas? I'm like, no. They have the same pair of clothes and that's all they have. And some kids don't have money. So I'm talking about this. Made me think of these kids that we sponsor. So I'm like, hey, you want to check out those kids? So we're looking at the pictures of these kids. And every once in a while, they'll have a picture like holding a soccer ball. One kid had a picture of a soccer ball he made. So it was like, you could tell it was like plastic bottles that was wrapped with twine or whatever.

41:48Adam Schafer:Like, look, he made his own soccer ball. So my son's like, oh my gosh. And then we clicked on the picture and it allows you to offer them like one-time gifts. of money. So I said, Hey, you want to see if we can give this kid an extra gift so he can buy an extra toy, bro. His face lit up so big. We go through and I made it a thing. I made it like, we got to see if it works. I knew it would go through, but I'm like, let's see if it goes through. So I click on it, do the credit card. I hit the button and you know, the little spinning things happening. I'm like, all right, let's see if it goes through.

42:18Adam Schafer:As soon as it says it went through, he gets up and he starts cheering. And so we're doing this for a while and we're just doing and he's so excited about all these kids and it totally flipped his that's great his whole vision or understanding of money and what he has versus what other kids have it was so great and he remembered the kids names he brought them up today to my wife she texted me she's like is there a kid named success we have this one kid named success that's great that's great is there a kid named success i really was talking about it like yeah yeah he's one of the kids so we uh so we've

42:51Sal Di Stefano:been we've been teaching right that's been uh this last year uh trying to teach the the save vest and thing like that and it's been i'd say it's going okay uh one of the things though that has done really well is uh like earning money to get his toys like legos and stuff like that so now when he wants things it's no you know we went we're we're past that four or five age where it's like mommy and daddy just buy it to buy it type of deal uh now it's like i'm surprised how patient your son is with that yeah he's he's crazy he does a good job he does he'll he'll he'll he'll work off like well let's say there's a hundred dollar lego and cleaning the toilets is ten dollars a toilet or something like that like i mean he'll he'll clean it ten times and over the course of weeks amazing uh to build it up to get it and stuff and he keeps track and so uh we this has been going on and it's been working and doing and going well and we're learning the value of money and chores and all the stuff like that and so his birthday is coming up so he's we're less than a month out from his birthday and so now like we're talking about birthday and you know and and lego just released a whole new line of star star wars legos and so there's a whole new line and so he's like going bananas of like oh my gosh there's all these new ones and so he's i want that one and this one he's like and so every every night he's like finding another one and he's telling Katrina he's laying in bed uh this is the other night and he's like man mommy's like I want all these these Legos like I'm gonna have to do a lot of work to get all these Legos right and she starts laughing she goes no hon this is this is for your birthday you don't have to you don't have to work for those ones for your birthday and he was like really he thought he was gonna have to every Lego that he got for his birthday he thought he was gonna do chores off he thought he was gonna have to work him off and do the chores I was like I don't know why you totally We should have told Matt.

44:37Sal Di Stefano:Well, we could have worked that in. Every birthday, you got to work your gifts. Yeah, we could have worked that in. Probably got away for at least five years. Just be alive for another year doesn't earn nothing.

44:45Adam Schafer:You got to work, dude. You like size when he gets a new big present. How much did that cost?

44:50Sal Di Stefano:He's like, man, this is going to be like six months of chores for this one. We should have ran with that. Actually, I was thinking about your son because I knew that you guys were coming up around this age. I was meant to ask you because we haven't talked about it in a long time. Because I remember when Katrina and I went through this phase. Are you guys still on the camera? We do. You are. We still have the camera. Do you talk about that? Is that a - You know - You'd be 16 having a camera still? No, I don't think so. But you know why we have the camera?

45:15Adam Schafer:You know what the benefit is? Well, there's all kinds of benefits. Well, because here's the big benefit. I'll tell you right now. He'll sometimes, we'll put him to bed, and he'll come up 30 minutes later, or he'll come up early in the morning. Yeah. And so it's like a little warning system that, oh, he's coming up. Get dressed. Yeah, whatever. So that's how we're - A little heads up. Yeah, dude. So that's why I'm cool. I don't want to be surprised at the door. No, because this is right around the,

45:41Sal Di Stefano:this is right around, you guys are right at the time where I started, and I'm sure he is at the point, right? He can open all the doors. He can do everything on his own. And I'm like, I'm like, hey, hon. I'm like, is that more for him or for you?

45:53Adam Schafer:Actually, the other night he was mad because Jessica put him to bed and he wanted her to sit by his door. And she said no. So she goes up and we're, she has the camera watching him and he's in his room and he knows she's watching. Of course. So he starts talking bad about her. Oh, what? Yeah, dude. Yes, he does. Psychological warfare. Bro. Looking at the camera. But he does it in a way to where it's like, oh, he's just, is he really talking to us? Like my mommy is so mean. Yes, dude. Oh my God. She's so mean. That's so good. She won't listen to me and gets me to bed. You gotta give him some credit.

46:27Adam Schafer:Bro. You gotta give him some credit. And she's watching it and she's like shaking her head and she's like, this little shit. Man, I'm laughing. I'm trying to laugh because it's kind of hurting her feelings. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

46:36Sal Di Stefano:You got to give it to him. You know what I'm saying? That's just it. See, they start to learn so much. It got to a point where Max was like talking to the camera. Mommy, would you refill my water? Okay. This is not a butler service that we've created now. I'm like, this needs to go.

46:54Adam Schafer:I know, dude. It's great. Hey, I want to talk about Juve's red light for stretch marks. We've had people message us on what they can do for stretch marks or for loose skin or stretch marks in particular. Red light therapy. Why are you people looking at me? Huh? I don't know. You got them on your glutes. You got all those stretch marks on your glutes. I saw that once. I'm just kidding. I've never seen your glutes. I've seen Adam, but I've never seen yours. Adam's mooned me before. You've never been at once.

47:26Sal Di Stefano:You know why? Because he's insecure about the stretch marks. That's it. You made that one comment. That's it. That's so super insecure.

47:32Adam Schafer:I don't want to see his pumpkin-sized baby. Anyway, no, it's one of the only things that has data supporting that it reduces the way they look. It actually helps. Have they done studies around it? Yep, red light therapy works. For stretch marks, it definitely helps. It helps prevent them too. So for people who are, if you're pregnant or losing weight or whatever, because there's shrink marks too, which kind of look like stretch marks, red light therapy works. For sure. It does. It helps. I mean, yeah, Courtney, I don't mean to roll her under the bus or anything here, but yeah, it was like after being pregnant the second time, it's like, it's funny because the one piercing she had for her belly button, it left a mark because of obviously the belly stretching so far.

48:20And then once we got partnered up with Juve, it was adamantly using it. It worked. Yeah. It's wild, right? Yeah.

48:27Adam Schafer:The discoloration, all that kind of went away. So I have stretch marks on my shoulders and under my arms, which I used to be very proud of, by the way, as a kid.

48:35Sal Di Stefano:I remember being proud of that, too. Oh, you too? Oh, 100%. I showed it off. I was if you had to. I was growing. Especially. I want more.

48:42Adam Schafer:But anyway, doing the Juve, they're gone. I don't really have any anymore. I have a couple. You can see a little bit here. Yeah. But the Juve got rid of that. I wonder if that played a role in mine. That's interesting. I never really thought about that. Because yours looked less, too?

48:53Sal Di Stefano:Oh, wait. They were bad. They were like this. Oh, yeah. I had them on my shoulders. And it was totally like a bragging thing. Totally. It was like cauliflower for ears. Cauliflower ear for body movement. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what it was. Check this thing out.

49:04Adam Schafer:Did you guys know in Brazil?

49:06Sal Di Stefano:Tell me my chest hasn't grown. Let me show you. I think it's in Brazil.

49:10Adam Schafer:Maybe somewhere else. But I think it's in Brazil that some men are getting plastic surgery to give themselves cauliflower ear? Stop it. Doug, look it up. Bro, you know how funny that is?

49:20Sal Di Stefano:That's like, I would never want that false signal. No, dude. You know what I'm saying?

49:24Adam Schafer:Some dude calls your bluff. Yes, dude. Yeah.

49:27Sal Di Stefano:Because the guy who decides to fight the guy with Call of Art, you know he's confident. What do we call that? Stolen Valor? That's like the Stolen Valor version of the jiu-jitsu. That is like Stolen Valor stuff. And like I said, the guy who decides to pick a fight with you, you know is going to be a badass. He sees the signal, and he still wants him. So you're going to get your ass wolfed.

49:46Adam Schafer:It's like you pull out a knife. You better be ready to use it. Yeah. If someone calls your bluff. Yes. 100%. Yeah. No, dude. No, Doug, you have to Google plastic surgery to create the appearance of cauliflower ears. I actually saw some posts on this. Because now it's become a thing, right? No, it totally is. I mean, that's the whole neck tattoo thing as well. That's why it looked tough.

50:08Sal Di Stefano:That's really crazy, though. That takes hours and hours and hours of rolling on the mat and getting your ears messed up to get that. It's not like you can't go take a jiu-jitsu class for a year to get that.

50:21Adam Schafer:Men are paying to give themselves cauliflower ear. let me find this out here now are they doing it through plastic surgery that was on vice news or are they just like beating their ears up yeah not everybody gets it by the way I did jujitsu for 6 years I did judo for 2 years I have a tiny bit on my left ear but you can't tell you know you can prevent it I mean you wear head gear well no it's draining it it's from guys not draining it Even if you drain your ears over and over again, some guys get it. You know, even in rugby, they had issues with that. It was funny because all the guys that played my position, they would tape, like electrical tape, like tape your ears like that.

51:06And I thought about that. But I was like, I'm not going to be. It's not like my full-time career or anything, so I didn't do that. But, yeah, a lot of guys actually would get cauliflower. So this is actually in Russia.

51:17Adam Schafer:Oh, in Russia? And there's actually a wait list for this. It's super popular. I don't know why I got kicked off of that page why would you want to display that you could fight and if you don't someone calls that bluff

51:32Sal Di Stefano:that's what I'm saying

51:32Adam Schafer:that's not good dude

51:34Sal Di Stefano:I mean you're really banking on nobody wants to call that bluff

51:39Adam Schafer:that's like pulling out a fake gun I hope they believe it's real it's like wearing a tap out shirt back in the day it's pretty similar

51:51Adam Schafer:yeah you fight dude there's so that curve of when you get into something where when you first i don't know if you guys do this but when i would first get into something like when i first got into jiu-jitsu i was like wearing jiu-jitsu stuff all the time but then when i got good i stopped doing it it was like when i first started doing it yeah yeah you know take the curve of making money too so you first start making money you like let everybody know and then you start making a lot you're like i don't want nobody to know i want nobody to know totally that's funny justin i want to hear your pirate fact yeah you get a pirate he was saying this off air he's like i'm pretty sure you already know because like just the random facts like you usually are pretty privy to this but like so i i heard that actually uh some of the pirates they put um like they would cover one eye with their eye patch oh yeah during the day but then at night they would shift it over uh no it wasn't at night it was to go below deck was it yeah like it's see in the dark so the reason why So you see, so they never have to adjust their eyes.

52:45Adam Schafer:The reason why pirates wore a patch is not because they lost an eye. It's so they could go above deck and below deck and just switch. Oh, it's above deck and below, okay. I thought it was at night, too. Yeah, yeah. It's bright, below deck, you switch, and now you can see real well in the night. That's really the origin of the - You can Google it, Doug, maybe confirm it. That's the origin of the pirate patch? I believe so. This is what I heard on the podcast. I believe so. That's really fascinating. If you guys lost an eye, would you get a fake eye or would you wear a patch? I've thought about this.

53:12Sal Di Stefano:I'd get a fake eye. Really? Yeah, I'd get a patch. Really? Yeah, dude. You'd be like, what's his face? Huh? What's the guy, Texas guy? Oh, the senator. No, I would probably do fake eye. Really? I would do a fake eye. I'd wear a patch. It'd be cool. The technology on it's so good that your fake eye would be probably indistinguishable over your real eye.

53:30Adam Schafer:I don't know. A patch would be like, I just feel like, you know, it's like color flower. Just be like pop eye and just... Not really. You know what I'm saying?

53:36Sal Di Stefano:Color flower you got through fighting and you could have just got your eye poked out. Yeah. It's like there's nothing cool about that.

53:42Adam Schafer:Yeah, it came out because Jessica's dad has a, he was born without one eye and he has a glass eye. He has a glass eye. And I told her. I told you guys my story at summer camp, right? No. I swear I told you. Yeah, you told it. Yeah, I told the podcast. I'll tell it again. You poked someone's eye out? No, it wasn't. Somebody lost it? No, it was like. Oh, yeah, the kid without the, oh. The kid like pranked us. Yeah, in a sense. And so it was me and my brother were in this cabin and like this kid, you know, he was a funny. What I love more than anything is anybody has a disability and they're still like funny about it, you know, and they're like very, you know, not insecure.

54:17It's like he literally like put his glass eyes in his mouth. And then like the first time I even met the kid, he like turns like no eyes, just eye sockets and then opens his mouth like almost like Beetlejuice.

54:30Adam Schafer:Oh, my God. Instant friends. I was like, wow. Yeah, exactly. I was dying laughing. And we were best friends after that. Yeah, dude. I went to school with a girl who was missing an arm at the elbow. And for Halloween, she dressed up as a shark victim. It was amazing. So good. Like, she made it look like it was, like, bloody. And she's like, I love people. And I'm like, dude. I love people like that, dude. That's so great. That's totally what I did. That's how you go with it.

55:01Sal Di Stefano:Turn it into charisma. Did you look up that spider that Justin and I were talking about? I did look it up earlier. Pull it up on the things. You've got to see this thing. What was the name of it again? Oh.

55:13Adam Schafer:I'll take a look.

55:14Sal Di Stefano:You could probably put giant tree spider in. And then oh. Giant tree spider. Omothemus? I didn't even know it was a thing. And I saw it pop up. Where's it found? In Malaysia, I believe. Oh. It's a large tarantula-like spider.

55:33Adam Schafer:Some of them look like they almost had the blue. How big is that? It's huge.

55:38Sal Di Stefano:Where is it? Coloring. You got to do it with something next to it. Yeah, well, you see it one on this guy's hand. Where is that located? Malaysia. Malaysia. Yeah, Malaysia.

55:48Adam Schafer:It's far away from here. Yeah, I know. Thank goodness. I was like, is this coming into the States? You know what's worse? Because that's gross. Gives me the hippie-jeebies. But you know what's worse than that? You ever seen the videos where it almost looks like a furry ball, and then someone touches it, and it's bazillions of spiders going everywhere? That's the worst. Well, yeah. Some of these tarantulas, they'll have all their little babies on their back. Yeah. And so you kind of like poke at them and then it's an explosion of spiders over there. Oh, God. Have you guys ever? Creepy. There's tarantulas up in the hills over here if you go hiking.

56:22Adam Schafer:Yeah. I've seen them on the paths or whatever.

56:25Sal Di Stefano:October's when you'll see them. I've seen them a few times. October's when they breed. And so you'll see them. That's when they come out and you start to see them all over the place is in October. Have you ever captured one? Mm-hmm. See, I knew you guys did. Yeah. Yeah, we used to let them crawl on us and stuff like that.

56:36Adam Schafer:You wouldn't really let it crawl on you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Almost everything is a kid, dude. They don't jump.

56:41Sal Di Stefano:They don't, they just, and they're slow. Tarantulas are not scary to me. Little spiders, way more scared of those. Way more. Like you see, like a little black spider, you know, that I'm not sure if it's a black widow or not. Like that'll freak me out. They're like kind of shiny. Yes, like a shiny black spider is way more creepy to me than a big furry tarantula. Big furry tarantulas, they're slow. they're scared of you they they'll they try to shoot hairs at you that's their defense right that's like what they do and they're yeah they're not they're not scary to me i've never even seen one i've never seen one jump they just they just crawl slow and they're furry they're not i don't my brother is jumping he's gonna hate me saying this but he's like he's i don't know if he's

57:22Adam Schafer:better about this but probably not he's been he's like he does not like spiders like a lot like at all yeah it'll freak him out yeah and uh to the point where i mean as this was a grown adult this was a long time ago but we were adults at this point and he was riding his mountain bike we're at the park big family function and he was riding and he saw a spider on his handlebar and he just he just jumped as a grown man he jumped off his bike jumped off and rolled in the dirt

57:49Sal Di Stefano:there's a spider on the handlebar it's so funny to see that rolled it right into a bunch of other spiders imagine like riding behind him and see that like trying to figure out a moment like that though when i had my window kind of open and i was driving and uh all of a sudden this huge like wasp just like flew in like right on my arm like right on my like shoulder right here i was just

58:09Adam Schafer:like ah hit it and literally like swerved i almost went in a ditch and then came right back i wonder how many accidents happened oh my god probably quite a few came out of nowhere did i did i share

58:20Sal Di Stefano:i didn't share it with you guys i meant to share this uh with you guys i you guys i think i've talked to doug about it for sure maybe justin have you seen the mosquito thing that i have in my backyard the mosquito trap things that i have to they're like commercial use i have to go through all these like red tapes to get it so that's actually a black market i do i gotta i gotta buy it out of state to get like california can't buy it um so why why can't you get it here it's they want the gmo ones to buy come on dude it's so yeah it's a whole thing it's it's ridiculous i'll i'll send it over to you guys so before i forget but i so we used to have a guy we used lost him just recently this is the reason why i'm telling this story and why he died i got no not like that like he no longer worked for the company i think he moved out of state or something and he used to go through all the loophole because you have a license to get it and order it and put it back there and it's made for commercial use and one of these little buckets covers an acre worth of coverage and i have just a half acre lot and i've got five of these suckers in there right it's just overkill for it and all and so i have to get it i finally get it i just put it together and so I'm like, you know, why are these so effective?

59:29Sal Di Stefano:So I went down and I'm like, this stuff is sick, bro. Okay, so it looks like a speaker and it has a mesh tape thing that basically this is the thing that you pay for that you wrap around the thing that's floating on the water and the mosquito comes and it's attracted to whatever, I forget, whatever is on this. So it wants whatever's on it and it makes this like real conducive area for it to land and it wants to lay its eggs. And when it lands, it'll land and the water and what's on the mesh will touch its leg and then it contaminates all the water in there. And then it lays its larva in there.

1:00:08Sal Di Stefano:And once it's contaminated its skin, anywhere that it goes and flies, say it flies inside of an old tire and lands, it contaminates everything. It keeps contaminating everything. And it kills the larva off and then anything else. And so then other mosquitoes that find that other area. Typhoid Mary of mosquitoes. Bro, it is fascinating how well it works. I told you that. So do you see no mosquitoes now? None. And I have a creek behind me. So I'm in, like, behind me is like a forest and a creek. We'll talk off air. I need to get one of those.

1:00:41Adam Schafer:Maybe it's banned in California because then it contaminates the creek. I'm sure it does. Oh, my God. Oh, dude. Oh, my God. Oh, that's messed up, bro. Doug's shaking his head, bro. He's shaking his head, but you know, he's already. Environmental people. He'll be the first one to order it. He's looking it up right now. Yeah, yeah.

1:00:58Sal Di Stefano:I mean, I couldn't believe how effective it was. We had our neighbors come over. Both of us have pools. And I never see them out at their pool. I never hear them in their pool. And they have kids and everything like that. And when they came over, they're like, we hear you guys always in your pool. We never go in our backyard. The mosquitoes are just so bad. And I'm like, we have none. They're like, how do you have none? And I showed it to them. They're like, what? And I'm like, yeah, we have none. We have no mosquitoes in our backyard whatsoever. That's amazing. It is so bad. We don't even use our, they don't even go in their backyard.

1:01:31Sal Di Stefano:You know, they're about to launch a bunch of GMO mosquitoes somewhere. So it made me think of this, and I brought it up because I saw that they're in Google. What did Google have to do with mosquitoes? Maybe like many. Did you see that, Justin? I saw it. Is it Google? I saw a video of a helicopter dropping more ticks. I saw Google. Google is something to do with Google and release. How does Google have anything to do with mosquitoes?

1:01:54Adam Schafer:How arrogant are we? Do we just think that's going to be a good idea and maybe nothing will happen? It's not. Nobody's voting for this. I don't know. I mean, I don't like mosquitoes either, but... It is Google. Why is Google doing it?

1:02:07Sal Di Stefano:See, Google plans to release over 30. Why Google, though? I don't know. Why does a tech company get to release mosquitoes? Exactly. Why is Bill Gates involved in anything health-related?

1:02:15Adam Schafer:Well, that's not Bill Gates. That's not Bill Gates. I know. He's also another example. It's not the same thing. Yeah, dude. I don't know how I feel about this. Yeah, 32 million laboratory-bred mosquitoes to California and Florida. Google's debug project. Yeah, how could that go wrong?

1:02:35Sal Di Stefano:How do they review this properly? Meanwhile, I can't use my mosquito killer. F off, bro.

1:02:40Adam Schafer:No, definitely use it. Stop. Maybe because they don't want you to kill the freaking... That's right, Justin. I told you. They want you to get bit. None of those would be in my backyard. No, dude. Don't they have a bug-killing machine you could buy now that shoots little lasers at bugs? Oh, yeah, Doug?

1:02:57Sal Di Stefano:No, that's illegal in California also, too. Oh, wow. It is. You looked them all up. Yes. You can't use lasers even? You cannot use the electrical ones that pop them and zap them? It's inhumane.

1:03:07Adam Schafer:What's up with this teary? Inhumane?

1:03:09Sal Di Stefano:It's inhumane.

1:03:10Adam Schafer:That's not what you're shut up.

1:03:11Sal Di Stefano:Well, they're not human. Yes, it is. It says inhumane. Well, I don't know if that's exactly the verbiage they use, but that's why.

1:03:17Adam Schafer:It's cruel or something.

1:03:17Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, it's cruel, right? To shoot them with lasers? Dude. They die instantly.

1:03:23Adam Schafer:I'll freaking fry them with a magnifying glass.

1:03:26Sal Di Stefano:Now all those traps are lights that attract them, and then in there there's bait that they eat or get trapped. They have to gently be put to sleep. Yes. Yes. Remember the old school ones? Pop, pop, pop, pop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't get those anymore. You can't get that? No. Those are inhumane? I don't know if they used inhumane.

1:03:42Adam Schafer:So look at this. Look at this. This device uses a laser to shoot down 30 mosquitoes per second, LiDAR-guided. That's so sick. I want one so bad. Yeah. I just want to watch it. What do they call that defense system that's like, you know, for missiles that's like that? Yeah. Dude, that is. Iron Dome or something like that. Iron Dome of bug.

1:04:02Sal Di Stefano:I haven't heard of that. And you can't buy that here, huh? Well, I don't know. I didn't know that's what you were talking about. That's what I'm talking about. I haven't seen that. That's cool. I'll buy that. The only downside, it's only six meter kill zone. What? It doesn't matter. Well, I mean, Adam is like, you know, half acre. An acre. An acre.

1:04:17Adam Schafer:You've got the mass. I've got five acre coverage. You're doing mosquito genocide. Do we have one of those for wasps? Because honestly, dude, why do wasps exist? Yeah, I don't like them. Tell me about it. I don't like them. Yeah. They serve no value. Why do wasps exist, Doug? Okay. Do they do something? Let me tell you why. Bees are cool, dude. Bees, you know, there's a place for you. We need bees, right? We have a complete collapse without bees. Yeah, we need bees. But wasps, they don't pollinate? I always wondered about that because I'm always fighting them. They're the ultimate ecosystem balancers.

1:04:45Adam Schafer:They serve three critical functions. What's that? They provide billions of dollars in natural pest control by hunting, garden-destroying insects. They are vital pollinators. Okay, so they pollinate, bro. They don't pollinate. They act as food for birds and other wildlife. life. Doug has a fig tree.

1:05:00Sal Di Stefano:What do they pollinate? Trees, including figs. And they feed birds, bro. We can't get rid of them. Do you guys like figs? Doug just planted a fig tree. No, I didn't. Oh, it was already there? No, I don't have a fig tree. What? I contemplated it. Oh. But Sal doesn't like them, so I decided to. Don't let him influence you. He's gone full garden. I know. Big time. Old Italian man garden. Did Doug tell you how you organized it all? I'm wearing a wife beater out there. Yes. With AI, he's got like - I was so fascinated with that. Yeah, tell them about it, Doug. Yeah, so I have two planter boxes. They're raised boxes.

1:05:35They're four feet by 16 feet, two feet high. And I had a bunch of vegetables and fruits I wanted to plant. So what I did is I went to Claude. I put in the dimensions of the box, the orientation of the box to the sun, all the plants I wanted to add. and it spit me out graphic showing exactly where I needed the plant, which companion plants work well, which ones don't work well with each other, which should get more sun, which should get less sun. Yeah, and that's how I did it.

1:06:04Sal Di Stefano:I know you're surprised because of his Google skills, like how he'd be able to do that. I know. I was so impressed. I'm probably the world's worst Googler, you know? At least everybody believes that. Maybe you're just a clod guy. I thought it was so cool. I mean, even he was touring me on his thing. even like there's certain things that he planted that they tell you not to plant next to another thing which you wouldn't know unless you were told. That's awesome. Yeah, because it impeached. You could have just done it.

1:06:30Adam Schafer:You could have had my dad come over. He would have figured it out for you. Yeah, well. It's Sicilian. He knows what's happening. I'm sure he does. Yeah, good. Probiotics have been shown in studies to improve gut health, reduce inflammation, even help with things like anxiety and depression in some people. They also can help with fat loss and muscle gain. Here's the problem. most probiotics on the market are garbage. Either the bacteria is dead or they don't use the right strains or the right amounts. Enter seed. This is the world's best probiotic. This is the one we recommend the most, if not the only probiotic we recommend.

1:07:06Adam Schafer:Seed is made by the world's leading researchers on probiotic science. They have a unique delivery system that delivers the bacteria where it needs to go. Far more effective than traditional probiotics. Again, this is the one I use consistently. I've been using them for years. I take a couple before bed. I always have better digestion, better skin, and better mood from using this. You can take this. You can give it to your whole family. They even have probiotics for kids. Go check them out. Go to seed.com forward slash mind pump. Use the code 25mindpump. Get 25 % off your first month's order of their daily symbiotic.

1:07:44Adam Schafer:Back to the show. Our first caller is Jessie from Florida. Hi, Jessie. How you doing, Jessie? Hi, thanks for having me on. You got it. How can we help you? So I'll just read my email to stay on track. So I am a 39-year-old mom, pediatric ICU nurse who started working out about six years ago. I've lost nearly 100-pound strength training and recently have been running anabolic advanced, which has pushed me to lifting heavier. My current two to four rep maxes are squats, 250, deadlift, 280, bench, 150, shoulder press, 125. After being about stuck at the same weight for about a year, I hired a coach several months back to kind of get me over that plateau.

1:08:27During that time, my dad had a serious accident. I spent two months in the ICU with him. And that is when I had found your guys' podcast, which has kind of completely shifted how I started thinking about training. Up until a month a half ago, my coach had me eating 1500 calories, lifting six days a week, doing 20 to 30 minutes of cardio after every session. So I initially lost weight and transitioned like my training from hit CrossFit style to more heavier lifting. But I feel like I've swung like too far the wrong direction now. I'm trying to increase my calories, but the fear of gaining weight is very real.

1:09:05But at the same time, I started getting shoulder pain, elbow pain that I've never had before, hair loss as well. So a little bit more about my lifestyle. In addition to being a PICU nurse, I also work for a medical device company. Have to travel frequently. If there's a critically ill child somewhere, I fly and provide bedside support to the nurses at bedside. so can travel at any moment, but just kind of wondering where I should go with my training now. I paused anabolic last week and kind of just did a cardio week just because my upper body, like my shoulders and elbows were hurting so bad. So just kind of don't know where to go and what to do now.

1:09:47Adam Schafer:Yeah, thanks for calling in. I just wanted just to clarify the initial period of six years of strength training and losing a hundred pounds. You did that on your own? Yes. That's exceptional.

1:09:58Sal Di Stefano:Wow.

1:09:59Adam Schafer:You did a phenomenal job and you're really strong. Do you know how strong you are? No, I don't feel strong. Randomly, people will come up in the gym and be like, did you miscalculate your math? Are you going to be able to lift that? And I'm like, yeah, it's fine. And they're like, oh, yeah, you're fine. Jesse, you're stronger than most women. You're probably in the top five.

1:10:19Sal Di Stefano:I'm not sure I can do 224 for 12 right now. That's a serious squat. It's a serious deadlift. That's impressive.

1:10:27Adam Schafer:Yeah, you're really, really strong. And here's where things went wrong, and I think you know this. You worked with a coach, and you had a bad coach. You cut your calories way down because you were doing everything great. You cut your calories way down, increased your activity too much, the result of which was a stress response, which looks like pain, hair falling out, I don't feel good, that kind of stuff. On top of it, you don't have a low-stress lifestyle. So I've worked with medical professionals, and I've worked with nurses, and you are in one of the more difficult parts of nursing and pediatric.

1:11:05Adam Schafer:That's very difficult, very emotionally. Taxing. Taxing, and you know this. I don't need to tell you this, but just for people listening, it's a very difficult job what you do. Moving forward, what you want to do, Jesse, is you want to focus on building your metabolism, not on cutting things. Cutting things with your stress and exercise is a recipe for disaster. Now, I get the fear of gaining weight, and a little bit might happen through the reverse diet process, but you're not going to blow up. That's not going to happen. That would only happen if you stopped strength training, you ate tons of garbage, and you did it for a while.

1:11:45Adam Schafer:But you've already built your metabolism pretty well, especially considering where you came from. With that strength, you're doing great. I don't think MAPS Anabolic Advanced is appropriate for you. I think traditional MAPS Anabolic would be good. Muscle Mommy might be good. One of our MAPS 15 style programs would be good with your daily activity and stress. And then what you want to do is you want to slowly reverse diet. Are you still tracking? Yes. So I've gotten myself up to like 1 ,700 calories, but I'm not going to lie. Every couple days I'll be like, oh, no, I've been eating too much. I cut back.

1:12:23Adam Schafer:Way too low. Prior to getting my coach, I was like at 2100, but I haven't been there in a bit. Yeah, still too low. So considering what you're doing, your strength, your activity, the steps, it's still really low. And so what your body is really, it's trying to hold on to body fat because the nutrients that you're taking are still barely meeting the demand. And so your body's like, I'm not getting rid of the stored energy. And what's cool, here's some good news. The fact that you're so strong at so low of calories with as much work that you're doing tells me that you actually have really good genetics.

1:13:03Adam Schafer:You got really good muscle. If we feed you properly, you're going to build a metabolism that's going to surprise you. But you got to move up and you probably got to get closer to 3 ,000 calories before we attempt to cut. And I'm pretty confident if we do it right, you're not going to see a lot of weight gain on the scale. You're just going to feel really strong and lots of energy is what it's probably going to look like.

1:13:23Sal Di Stefano:I mean, I'd love to see you either in our Muscle Mommy group or taking on one of our coaches to take you through this process. I think you're a great candidate for somebody like that. Either one, if you want to do it on your own and you just would like the community, I think the Muscle Mommy group is awesome because we have so many women that are reverse dieting going through this. I think you'd be great and it'd be a great inspiration for a lot of women considering where you've already come from. I think you'd be great. Or if you're open to getting coached by one of our trainers, I'd love for one of them to take you through this if you're open to it.

1:13:49Sal Di Stefano:How long did you work with your last coach? Like six, seven months.

1:13:55Adam Schafer:Oh, gosh. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So the reverse. I kind of, I mean, I think halfway through that, I realized I had found you guys and I was like, oh, okay, well, I'll just keep going. But I knew that I wasn't going the right way. Again, I'm going to give you some more encouraging news. You have a really resilient body. Yeah. Like phenomenally so. I think if we work with it, you're going to blow yourself away. Yeah. I would say if you worked with one of our coaches, the reverse diet process will take you about six to nine months. Through that, you're just going to feel really good. There may be some short cuts in between that period.

1:14:29Sal Di Stefano:You'll feel good physically, but psychologically it'll be difficult.

1:14:32Adam Schafer:Yeah, it'll be hard to eat more. But that'll set you up for a cut. And then when you get your metabolic rate where we want it and then we do the cut, it's going to feel way different. Then you'll go down to 2 ,100 calories and just start losing body fat. yeah i was working at like the i guess the concierge thing where it's like once a month because i feel like i'm pretty like i'm disciplined like i get up in the morning and i do like what i'm supposed to do yeah but yeah so i'm not opposed to yeah you're a great candidate for

1:15:00Sal Di Stefano:that you're somebody who's art like you get it uh and it sounds like you're the type of person that if we gave you the instruction go do this this and this you would follow through so i think

1:15:06Adam Schafer:you'd be a great candidate for concierge have you talked to somebody about uh one of our coaches about concierge? How did you know about that? I just from listening to you guys and Googling. Yeah. So no, I haven't talked to anybody. Okay. Let me have someone call you and they'll set you up with that. And you're going to get a program with that, but I think Muscle Mommy would be a good program for you or one of our MAPS 15 programs. But once you meet with the coach, they'll have longer time to talk with you and determine what would be the best option. Great. Sounds good. Thank you guys. I appreciate it.

1:15:34Adam Schafer:You're doing really well and you're really strong, Jesse. That's like crazy. That's a really good strength. So good job.

1:15:41Sal Di Stefano:Thank you.

1:15:42Adam Schafer:You got it.

1:15:44Sal Di Stefano:Those are crazy numbers. Dude, 225 for 12? At that low calorie. I don't think you could do that. I can do it,

1:15:52Adam Schafer:but it sucks. I can do 225 for 12.

1:15:55Sal Di Stefano:It's exhausting.

1:15:55Adam Schafer:I'm going to have you do a video of that when we get out of here.

1:15:58Sal Di Stefano:After Adam does it. No, I admit it. I admit it. I don't know if I can do that right now. I can do it, but it'll suck. That's it. I mean, 225 for 12 is legit.

1:16:07Adam Schafer:But did she say she deadlifts 235 for 12? Yes. That's crazy. Both those are crazy. And that 135 for six bench, she's not just strong. Strength endurance. She's like one of the strongest. Yeah, yeah.

1:16:19Sal Di Stefano:Those are like powerlifting numbers. Now imagine fueling her. She'll really take off.

1:16:25Adam Schafer:Dude, you know what makes me so frustrated? I know you guys feel the same thing. Crappy coaches. It makes me so mad. Here you have a coach who took a woman who lost 100 pounds and it's strong. She was eating 2 ,100 calories. And what do they do? 1 ,500 calories, increased activity. Let's make it feel like... Jump on the cardio machine. How stupid of a... How crappy of a coach are you if that's just what you hit every time? Makes me so upset. Two buttons. Our next caller is Augie from Alabama. What's up, Augie? What's happening, dude? Hey, guys. How are you guys doing? Good, man. How can we help you?

1:16:56Good. Yeah, so my question is... I've been listening to a lot of your podcasts regarding the hybrid training space, trying to find the best solution. I think I ran into the problem that a lot of people do where they overtrain. So I just purchased the PPL program from you guys and I've been running that about three days a week to start phase two, but I want to prepare for like running being the priority towards the end of summer. So I wanted some help with the structure, like how I'm doing the PPL right now and running like 10 miles a week max. How can I, what should I then do next when I make the priority running, but still want to strength train about two, three times a week, if possible, just so I can prepare my body for hopefully doing some races at the end of fall.

1:17:45Sal Di Stefano:Is it 10 miles broken up or is it straight 10 miles? Yeah, no, no, it's broken up. So I'm doing like two easy days of maybe two and a half miles to three, and then I'll do one day where maybe three to four. It's not bad.

1:17:57Adam Schafer:No, you're good. So just to clarify, your goal is performance-based. Yeah, but right now, I think my um going into summer I was like you know what which strength strength hopefully lose a little bit of weight try to uh tone up a little bit and then really hit the running as fall gets closer good no great attitude yeah I was gonna say because if you're if you're gonna tell me program after this yeah if you're gonna tell me I want to get shredded and I want to get good at racing no okay after listening to all the episodes you guys have to prioritize but it's just hard because I think for me the running is more of like a mental like oh I get it like I love it and so the hard part about it, right, doing intervals, I just enjoy it.

1:18:35Adam Schafer:Good. So that's been challenging to prioritize one, but that's my goal heading into the fall to hopefully lean out and maybe be a little bit more effective running. No, you're great, bro. So when you're done with this little season of what you're doing, because I think what you're doing is fine, especially if you feel good, you're getting stronger, you're not losing strength, you feel good, keep going. When you're ready to make the transition to running, one day a week full body is plenty. 45 minute workout compound lifts and then focus on your running focus on what's helping you with your performance and fuel yourself you don't want to go into you don't want to cut your calories while trying to get better at running that'll be very difficult what do you think

1:19:13Sal Di Stefano:like a single day from MAPS performance would be good for him yeah you can do that

1:19:17Adam Schafer:or you can do MAPS 15 he can do that I like giving him

1:19:20Sal Di Stefano:MAPS performance because then he can pull from the mobility days to compliment his running yeah that's good so I would we'll send you MAPS performance if you don't have it and then when you scale down to one day a week, just pick one of the days of the three foundation days. And then what you can use, uh, the mobility days as a way to compliment the running and the training. So if there's other things that you want to do, or you have time, uh, throw some of those mobility days in there also, that'll be good for you for active recovery. Yep. Okay, great. Um, and then another just random one, I looked on your site regarding, you know, the company you guys work with for peptides, just trying to get more information apparently they don't service in alabama do you guys have anyone within this area that you would recommend i don't know anybody uh but you did check with them and they don't service yeah yeah i even i set up like a schedule like consultation and they're just like ah we don't turn south of them but just curious yeah no unfortunately i don't

1:20:15Adam Schafer:know uh of anybody with uh you know fda um that's the hard part is you can go gray market and find

1:20:22Sal Di Stefano:somebody who will send to Alabama, but then like, I don't think any of us want to recommend you like a great market company.

1:20:28Adam Schafer:So, you know, what you would do is you would do a search for longevity clinics in your area. Okay. And you might like little rock might have one or something like that or two. And then I would call them and say, Hey, can I do it? Tell a, can I do telemedicine? And then you might be able to, you know, uh, not little rock. Sorry. That's a different Birmingham. Sorry. Uh, but you would be able to, to find someone in a larger city and see if they do telemedicine. Okay, great. Yep. That's it, man. Well, perfect, man. Thank you guys so much. I appreciate it. You got it, brother. Right on. All right.

1:20:58Adam Schafer:He's got a good attitude. He's going to be fine. Yeah, I know.

1:21:01Sal Di Stefano:I mean, when he said he's breaking up the 10 miles, I'm like, oh, that's not bad at all. Especially when his goal, because his goal is performance.

1:21:06Adam Schafer:When people mess up is they do aesthetic plus performance goal. And then you got to like, yeah, you got to pick one. Yeah, he's segmenting it out. I think it's smart. And yeah, he can just easily transition into that and time it perfectly.

1:21:15Sal Di Stefano:And PBL is a solid program to do that with because it's not a really high volume program. That's right. It's nice moderate volume. Yeah, so it works perfect with somebody who's running 10 miles a week. Our next caller is Kayleen from New York. Hi, Kayleen. How you doing? Hello, hello. Hi, hi.

1:21:28Adam Schafer:How can we help you? So first, I'd just like to say thank you for having me on the show. This is like a dream come true. I've been a fan for a really long time now. Thank you. So I'm honored to be here. Thank you so much. Great. So I've been on my fitness journey for about like six months now, and I'm working with a virtual trainer through the company Kickoff. And his name is Nico, and he's actually the one that introduced me to you guys. Oh, cool. That's great. So shout out, Nico. um um so like i really want to talk uh to adam specifically because i really um can connect with your um struggles and addiction um because i've recently um just i'm coming off of thc i'm like 30 days in right now i'm actually going through a medical detox and um because i was diagnosed with cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome.

1:22:32Adam Schafer:Well, that's where you vomit like crazy. That's rough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been a little wild. So my question there is, was there a point in your sobriety when you knew you wanted to quit, but your mind kept negotiating with you and what made it easier?

1:22:50Sal Di Stefano:Oh, wow. I have a very high tolerance for pain. So like just having CHS like doesn't really deter me from like wanting to go back. Yeah, I'd say I had that for almost three years where I was aware of what I needed to do and then I wouldn't do it. And then I knew it was a problem and I go back. And so I played that game for a really long time. I'll tell you, for me, what was a major motivator was my son. was knowing that at one point, I may have to have this conversation with him. And what I didn't want to have to have is that your dad still struggles with it. I'd much rather have the conversation of this was something I struggled with and this is how I got over it.

1:23:33Sal Di Stefano:And so he was a big motivating factor for me. Probably one of the hardest things I had was that I didn't have a lot of negative symptoms. That was the other thing too was, and I don't know where you're at in the journey with like other things. Like things didn't come crashing down on me. You know, a lot of addicts, it takes the bottom of the barrel before they start to come out of that, right? Where, like, they lose their job or their fiancé breaks up with them or something. Or they get in an accident. They need something, like, tragic to kind of wake them up. That hadn't happened to me. And so that was part of why I kept wrestling and going back and forth was because I didn't have anything that was kind of like life was good.

1:24:09Sal Di Stefano:I felt good. No, it wasn't interfering with anything. And so that was probably the biggest challenge and why I kept talking myself back out of it. But then I kind of flipped that and went, you know what? It's only a matter of time before this does do something in my life that either ruins my relationship, affects my work, or does something. And you know what? The fact that I've gotten away with this for three years and it hasn't, I felt blessed. And so it was just like, it's time. And I knew that I was going to suffer coming off of it, and I knew that I needed to. Because that was going to be the thing that made me feel awful.

1:24:42Sal Di Stefano:I was like, I need to feel awful because something tragic didn't happen to me. this is going to be my thing and that's going to be my story is that I'm going to go through that I'm going to overcome it and then I'm never going to look back and so that was kind of the self-talk that that I had and I watched a lot of stuff of other people um I didn't know I was going to do that I was drawn to other stories of people going through it and and listening to that I think that gave uh me empathy for them it also helped me have solace like it was a big part of me getting through the whole process and then never looked back.

1:25:14Sal Di Stefano:But my son was a big, a big motivator for me for sure. Yeah. And I can relate to what you said about like nothing really tragic has happened because that that's the same with me. Like I still have my career. Um, I'm a youth hockey coach. Um, you know, I'm in a relationship, but life is good really. Um, and I, but that was helpful. And then I guess like a follow-up question that I have about that is like, how do you like pace yourself? Because like, I'm very much a person that like, if I set my mind to something, like I want to go all gas, no brakes. And I'm learning that in fitness and in sobriety, like that's, it's kind of making it tougher.

1:25:56Sal Di Stefano:well which one are we talking because i feel like there's two different conversations there like with the fitness thing uh if you don't pace yourself uh you won't see the results that you want to see and that's the whole point of me going to the gym and doing those things and so if you're full throttle on that uh and you're not going to see results but for me on the sobriety side like i needed to go full throttle i felt like i had to go like this like all or nothing like there's none of this what i had done in the past those three years was the tapering game of like oh i'll taper or down. I'll head that way.

1:26:26Sal Di Stefano:And then I justify going back up because I couldn't get good night's sleep. And then it was like, I kept playing that. So for me, I had to go all in on the sobriety thing and cut and go. That for me, it was the only way. But when it comes to working out and training and diet and stuff like that, like you need small wins. So like, and I still do this to this day. Like I'm not all on, all on or all off on training. That's like, Hey, it's like, Hey, this week I'm going to set a goal for myself. I want to make sure I get to the gym two times or three times. Hey, I just want to make sure that I, you know, my steps have been low, 6 ,000 steps.

1:26:59Sal Di Stefano:I'm going to try and average eight, 8 ,000 this week. And so I give myself like weekly, small, easy wins. And I stack them when it comes to health and fitness. It's just, that's how I approach that. So they're kind of different for me. Like for sobriety stuff, I needed to rip the bandaid off and go all in on that. And, and, and white knuckle it, uh, with fitness, it's different. That approach I don't think is a healthy approach. I think stacking small wins and building momentum and making sure you have a healthy balance of stress and everything else that's going in your life because going all in on that and full throttle on that, either one, ends up you falling off the wagon really hard or two, your body revolts because you have other stress in your life.

1:27:37Sal Di Stefano:You're not feeding yourself properly. You're not sleeping properly. So two different conversations for me.

1:27:43Adam Schafer:Right. Okay. Kayleen, can I ask you a question if you don't mind? Absolutely. So my friend Ben Bueno, he runs a rehab facility. He's a really good guy, really, really good guy. And I had a conversation with him recently about this because I can self-medicate as well. Now, I've never gone so far to where I felt like it was like I'd have to go through crazy withdrawal or anything like that. But I do know my tendency, which is to reach for something to kind of self-medicate. And he asked me a question. I thought that was so powerful. he asked me what it uh what's the driving force or what do i think this is making me better at or what am i medicating and for me it wasn't like i was medicating pain or anxiety i thought it made me better so i thought it made me happier when i'm with my kids or when i'm doing things that i don't want to do and it'll give me energy or you know makes it easier to be present because my mind wants to wander type of deal.

1:28:45Adam Schafer:Um, and that actually helped me a lot because then he asked me, well, is that true? Does it really make you better? And I had to think about that for a second. I don't think it does. I just think it, I just think I like it. Uh, so my question for you is what, what have you examined what it is that, that leads you towards or that led you toward self-medicating?

1:29:07um i think i i just i kind of i kind of just like it and i i know that i have like a pull to it and um i like the way it feels and but i i'm slowly like realizing um that it was becoming a problem because i was i was just doing it so much um and yeah i mean i do have a decent amount of like anxiety and stress that I'm working through but um I think that's a that's a good point is to like really ask myself like why yeah yeah so you actually said something really interesting

1:29:42Adam Schafer:um because you said I like it uh and usually that means uh because it takes me out of something I don't like right and you mentioned anxiety and stress so it's uh it's really difficult to because self-medicating kind of works a little bit, right? Until it doesn't work, right? Until it gets so bad that maybe it causes more anxiety or in your case, you had a pretty extreme reaction with hypermesis. But you have to find other ways to help yourself with those feelings that you don't like to be in because otherwise it's going to feel like such a big contrast that the self-medicating option is always going to feel like a good potential option.

1:30:27Adam Schafer:Have you found anything like that? Like when you're feeling uncomfortable in your own skin or whatever, like alternative ways to help yourself through those things?

1:30:41Not really. Mostly just like self-talk and trying to remind myself that like what I think is not true.

1:30:49Adam Schafer:Okay. That's a great start. So what I would do is try to develop other habits that can replace the one that you've become accustomed to because it gets real uncomfortable over time. I don't need to tell you this. You know this. Like just over time, it's just real uncomfortable. And so see if you can find other ways. And then in the data, when you look at sobriety or success, there's two factors that seem to always come up. One is a transcendent aspect. And so belief in a higher power or God, that's one. The other one is to bring it to light with other people. Because when you do it by yourself, you eventually lose.

1:31:32Adam Schafer:But when you include other people, and you want to find people that give you grace, by the way, because you might stumble. but when you do it with other people, it makes a bit in the data, it shows it makes a big difference, uh, with being able to keep you on that track. Yeah, I'm actually, I'm working with a, an addiction recovery coach, um, that I found on YouTube. Uh, his name, his name is Dr. Frank and, um, he's been great so far. That's awesome. That's phenomenal. And how's exercise helped with all of this? Uh, it has, but, um, like, I, I guess that also leads me into my next question about fitness is like, um, how do I be comfortable with being in a bulk?

1:32:12Like I've always been on the smaller side. Um, I've never really like consistently trained like this because like, I've always been a natural like athlete. So I, I didn't really, that never really hindered my like abilities and sports. Um, I was, I played division three lacrosse and ice hockey. Um, so yeah, I'm just like really, even before like coming off the weed, like I'm really, I was really struggling with like eating a lot of calories. And, um, my trainer like kind of says, uh, like if, if you don't eat, then you're not going to see gains, but it's, it's, it's hard for me to eat a lot of calories.

1:32:52Adam Schafer:So, uh, and by the way, this might also be a side effect of coming off the THC appetite drops a little bit. Uh, so, but so small steps, you're an athlete. so I'm going to speak to you in a way that I think you understand. How do you get comfortable with the pain, the strenuous training, the I'm pushing myself to the limit in a game? How do you get comfortable with that as an athlete?

1:33:19I don't know. I guess I've never really thought about it. It's all drive to succeed and just grit and mental toughness, which I think I have.

1:33:28Adam Schafer:You do, but you probably developed it. in other words uh exposure therapy so it's uncomfortable but you keep doing it enough and you start to get comfortable with it being uncomfortable so that's going to happen with bulking so it's going to be uncomfortable for a while but if the more you do it the longer you do it the longer you connect it to the gains and the feeling good and this is working then the less uh uncomfortable it becomes you got to get used to it set weekly goals and build on it

1:33:58Sal Di Stefano:whatever like whatever that calorie amount or a meal like it could be that simple as that like for example I know when I'm getting back to hitting my protein take it's like oh I need to make sure I get up and have that 40 grams of Greek yogurt first thing in the morning because I know if I don't do that consistently I'm playing the catch-up game all the time so set like a meal goal somewhere in your day something that you right now you go a certain amount of time and you know you don't eat and you probably should set a small goal that is a good high protein good calories two three hundred calorie meal that you're like i'm gonna just that's gonna be my thing now i just always eat that you know high protein greek yogurt that time or whatever the thing is for you and start with that and just and build on it and and like sal said you'll have a time when you're building on it it'll get uncomfortable uh and you'll probably have some days where you miss and you're not so good then get right back on the horse just like you would as an athlete and get back to being consistent again before you know it becomes a habit becomes something that you do on a regular basis you become more comfortable with it but But that's what I meant by like small goals, like set like a small goal.

1:34:59Sal Di Stefano:Don't try and jump someone who's, even though I want to get you to 23, 2400 calories, I don't take somebody who's at 1300, 1500 right there. It's just like we do it through this, through small 200 calorie increments. And we go, hey, this is what we're going to do. Just like at this part of your day, you eat that. And then like just become consistent with that. Pair it with something else that you always do. And you'll get used to it. And then we build on it slowly. Okay. That's helpful. Okay. Yeah.

1:35:25Adam Schafer:you're doing good yeah thank you yeah you're doing really good you want to get back on here in uh

1:35:30Sal Di Stefano:like 40 50 days i'd like to put you in our private forum too if you're not already in there so you can yeah i would love that yeah adam i just i just want you to know that like your youtube on video where um i don't know his last name but i know his first name is doug yeah um that interview that you did with him like i go back and watch that like anytime i feel in low and like It just, it hypes me up. That makes me feel good. Thank you. Awesome. I'm glad that helps. Yeah. Stay connected to us. I'm going to put you in the private forum. And we'll get you, let's get you on again. Let's do, let's do a little update.

1:36:01Sal Di Stefano:You need help or anything like that. You just reach out to us. You're going through anything like that. Let us know and then we'll stay in touch. Absolutely. Thank you so much. All right, Kelly.

1:36:08Adam Schafer:Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Yeah. I got to tell you, Adam, just your process and how you went through that and talked about it, I respect so much. And you could see the impact it's had on other people. and I'm sure that probably strengthens you as well to see.

1:36:22Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, no, you never know. Like a lot of people didn't watch that Doug Boffs interview. I don't know how many, you know, it didn't reach like millions of people. But it reached people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's what I noticed from it was the thousands that did watch it were mostly. Well, I just want to add,

1:36:36Adam Schafer:when somebody listens to you for a long time and you sound, you know, like they look up to you, the vulnerability to honesty is so powerful and, you know, you've already got that authority with someone like her and then she hears he went through something like that, that's got real impact. So, great job.

1:36:53Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, she's doing a good job, though. I mean, it sounds like she's got the right... Hypermesis? I've never heard of that.

1:36:59Adam Schafer:Yeah, so it's more common now because cannabis use is much more common. It's repeated, uncontrollable vomiting. Okay, so explain to me,

1:37:05Sal Di Stefano:because I'm so unfamiliar with this. How does it get to that point? Is it when you come off of it, you get it? Or it's while you're taking it? It's while you're on it. So she's taking it, and she's still vomiting and still doing it.

1:37:14Adam Schafer:Well, that's probably what led her to go. Sure. Like every problem. Yeah, it's the cannabinoid system gets all wacky and you get this hypermesis is i didn't want to ask her put her on the spot but

1:37:24Sal Di Stefano:how high a level do you probably have to get up i don't know i don't know but probably a lot of

1:37:29Adam Schafer:regular use uh and then coming off probably made it worse for a while but that's nasty bro so hypermesis i know this is like a clinical never even heard term for you can't stop vomiting like

1:37:39Sal Di Stefano:you're just constantly nauseous and vomiting and does anything else cause that or is it directly connected to cannabis oh no it's a cannabis condition interesting it is that is so wild to me as much as I've been around cannabis that I have never heard any kind of symptoms.

1:37:51Adam Schafer:It's more common now than it has been. Uh, and it's common enough to where they have a term for it, but it's crazy. And so they'll put you on anti-nausea medication and it's just really bad.

1:38:00Sal Di Stefano:I mean, I see she, the thing that she's connects with me with, which was, I think one of the hardest part is when you believe it or not is when you haven't had something tragic. And she even said like, even the throwing up doesn't stop her. You know, it's like, but that's because she has a job, she has a relationship she has everything going for her and so that was the thing that made it difficult to get off for you're managing it yeah exactly you know but i think the flip was you know what like i should be grateful that yeah i got this let's not wait yeah let's let's because eventually some shit will happen right so it's like that's that to me was the big motivator our next caller is vanessa from the uk hi vanessa hi vanessa oh i'm so happy to see you guys how How are you?

1:38:41Good. How can we help you? Yeah. Okay. So I'm just going to read from my email. Things have changed a little bit since I wrote you, but it might be easier this way. So first of all, I just wanted to say a huge thank you for all the content you've been putting out. I only discovered you guys a few months ago and must have listened to over 80 hours of your podcast since. As a 38-year-old woman, I never thought I'd be anywhere near your target audience, but I'm constantly amazed at how kind, empathetic, compassionate, and supportive you are of everyone on their health and fitness journey.

1:39:14Adam Schafer:Thank you. So, yeah. So, okay. So just a little bit about me. I'm your typical type A overachiever type of person. I have a long history of yo-yo dieting and disordered eating and overexercising. All of it came to a head in 2020 when I was running 21 kilometers a day. I know strength training six days a week, eating 1200 calories, binging on Saturdays, fasting for 38 hours, rinse and repeat. I got some help and spent the last six years doing some deep work healing my relationship with food, myself, my parents, etc, etc. But I did gain quite a bit of weight in the process, all the while still going to the gym regularly.

1:39:52So last fall, I was feeling pretty uncomfortable in my body, and I decided to hire a coach to see if I could lose some weight in a healthy and sustainable way. I'm five foot nine and was probably around 168 pounds at that point. My coach put me on three gym sessions a week, upper, lower, full body, 12 ,000 steps, one 30-minute cardio session, and 1 ,600 calories. I lost some weight, but after a few months, I was getting really grumpy and really weak, so we upped to 2 ,000 calories. I kept losing weight. I upped my steps considerably, averaging about 26 ,000 steps. I got really hungry. So we upped my intake to 2 ,200 cals and then added another 30 minute cardio session and an extra gym session.

1:40:38I was hungry again. So we bumped to 2 ,300 and that's where I was a month ago when I wrote this email. And I was still consistently hungry. And since then I'm now at 2 ,500 calories, which feels more sustainable. So I did realize that I was getting into the overdoing it spiral with my steps. I do live in Europe, so you sneeze and hit 10 ,000 steps, that's like not a problem. But I was starting to notice that I always wanted to beat last week's average. So I've deliberately brought my steps down to 18 ,000. And we have removed the extra 30 minute cardio session. My problem has never been compliance.

1:41:15It's always overdoing it. so now I'm at 139 pounds and since writing this email about six weeks ago the Hume pod has said I've gone down from 17.7 % body fat to 17.2 % body fat with no real muscle gain I don't know how accurate the pod is 17 % feels pretty low to me compared to what I look like but I feel like the trend is probably correct so my question has slightly changed since writing this email I'm seeing some progress in the gym, but it's very slow. I'm happy generally with how my body looks now, but my butt has become considerably flatter. So the added gym session was glute focused. It's been six weeks since adding it and my butt is no rounder.

1:42:02I'm eating 170 grams of protein, 75 grams of fat, and the rest is carbs, most of it from whole foods. And then the other part of it is I'm also worried about lowering my steps more because I don't want to eat less food. So in terms of body recomp, building my butt, staying lean, and mostly sustainability, what would you suggest I do differently?

1:42:24Sal Di Stefano:We're right there. You're doing really good.

1:42:27Adam Schafer:You've come a long way. And I really appreciate how you're identifying things. Like you said, oh, it's spiraling again with my steps. That's a massive step. And I think you're moving in the right direction i'll tell you what needs to happen you might not like it uh but this is what is going to need to happen you're going to need to gain weight and your body fat percentage is

1:42:49Sal Di Stefano:going to need to go up go up right that butt shows up around like uh 20 21 percent it's just

1:42:55Adam Schafer:that's where it sits it's really hard if not almost impossible to build muscle as a female in the in the in the teens of body fat percent just doesn't want to and you're going to need to gained weight at five nine with strength and muscle and the look that you want which is which would make you uncomfortable if you weighed yourself will probably be closer to 150 pounds just so you know yeah okay okay so so but you're moving but you'll look the way you want you're moving in the right direction vanessa yeah so what i so here's the answer it's gonna be very difficult you gotta take your hands off the control so stop tracking your steps now don't trick yourself because you can also do this.

1:43:36Adam Schafer:Sometimes people are like, I'm not tracking my steps, but I'm tracking how far I'm walking. And I'm keeping, literally stop trying, like really work on not paying attention to how much you're walking. And then what you're going to pay attention to is, do I enjoy walking and do I need to walk? Do I need to walk to this place? So you don't want to play that game either where you're like, I think I'll walk extra or I'll go over there or I'll take, okay. So take your eyes off the scale, take your eyes off the body fat percentage and take your eyes off of the steps. and you're going to probably have to eat more which is a good sign.

1:44:09Adam Schafer:This tells me your metabolism wants to be really healthy. Yeah. So I'd increase the calories again and then what you're going to focus on because you have laser focus which we can use is I want you to say how strong can I get? How strong can I actually get? How strong can I get my hip thrust, my deadlift and my squat? That's what's going to build your butt and that's what's going to build your body. Okay. And what would you say is like an average progressive overload? I'm just thinking like I've been doing kind of the same hip thrusts weight for like squats or hip thrusts for like six to eight weeks.

1:44:52And I am going to failure, you know, and I'm like, oh, my God.

1:44:56Adam Schafer:What'll happen when you increase your calories and stop pushing the steps, you're going to see your strength go up. I would also not go to failure you want to stop about one or two reps short failure overdoes it especially when you do it consistently and so people don't get better progress with that we see trends where it tends to move in the opposite direction so I would reduce the intensity a little bit I'm not saying don't work out hard but don't go to failure

1:45:20Sal Di Stefano:I mean I'd love I'd love to send you a program so we have a better idea of exactly what you're doing because right now we're kind of like guessing where you're at where I'd love to put you on muscle mommy I think that's that's a butt focused program butt focused um it'll be we know the volume that's in it we we progressively overload you in there so you just got to follow it the way it's laid out listen to sal's advice you're really close in my opinion like the fact that you're already at the calories you're at uh at the as low body fat is actually a good place it's like and you're and you're you're saying your appetite's still there which is awesome which means 200 more calories lay off the steps a little bit more and we should see this nice start to move in the right direction but you're and then when it plateaus you bump your

1:46:00Adam Schafer:calories again you have a good coach I like what your coach is doing with you yeah and so I would communicate to the coach and I would say hey I'd like to just get strong how'd you find your coach by the way give him some love um yeah I think he's he's very um he's young and he's um I think I was really okay so how about this I was really happy to get a coach because I think it allowed me to um stay accountable and also it was really empowering for me because I was the one to advocate for myself and when we were at 1600 i was like this is not sustainable and i know what not sustainable is and i was like i can't so i did feel like i had to kind of advocate for myself quite a bit um and a lot of the time when i was like oh i'm feeling like really short-tempered and grumpy and weak and he was like no you've got this keep going and i was like oh i don't think

1:46:50Sal Di Stefano:that's right um sounds like you did it really sounds like you did a really good job yeah Yeah. So in a way I'm happy I did it because it allowed me to, it allowed me to kind of empower myself and go actually, you know, getting a coach made me realize that I can do it. I can empower myself and I don't need to give my power away to somebody else to tell me what to do.

1:47:10Adam Schafer:Well, this gives me some clarity then. So you've listened to a lot of our episodes. It sounds like you've kind of had some. Don't. You want a new coach? You want to work with a coach that we hired that's going to help move you in the right direction? They don't have to advocate. I'll have somebody call you. But you're moving in the right direction. What it's going to look like is a bump in calories, reduction in steps, different programming, and you'll see the strength gains. You'll see what you're looking for, for sure. It's going to feel a little uncomfortable because calories are going to keep going up.

1:47:35Adam Schafer:You're going to feel like you're building, which might be like, oh, my God, am I getting bigger? but if you focus on the strength that's going to really move you in the right direction okay okay and this sounds like maybe a little vein or a little I mean I'm sure you get you've had so many callers like me of like oh I don't want to gain fat or anything but um you're so um I think Adam you were saying that at like let's say 150 I would look the way I want to look yes um and does that mean that I'm still going to fit in the clothes that I currently have Probably not.

1:48:09Sal Di Stefano:Probably your ass will be busting out of them, you know? So, I mean, is that a problem? I mean, is that a problem or what? You're going to look good. You're going to look good. But with, like, more shape to your thighs and hamstring come bigger jean sizes. And so, yeah, it'll look different. Don't get hung up on that stuff. You'll look like you're tall. You're 5 '9". So you easily could be 150. You could be 160, 165 and be banging. So it's like you, it's not a number on the scale. You can absolutely have what you want. And it's been a common theme, I feel like, on the show lately where we've been telling people, build into the body you want.

1:48:46Sal Di Stefano:Don't try and cut into the body you want. Cutting into the body you want is not going to give you what you want. Building into the body you want, it will. And you'll be eating more than you've ever ate. You'll be at a healthy body fat percentage. Great energy, great mood, hormones.

1:49:01Adam Schafer:Hormones balance. You'll have the shape.

1:49:03Sal Di Stefano:You'll have it all. You will.

1:49:04Adam Schafer:150 pounds at 21 % body fat will look more sculpted. Okay. So that's the thing about body fat. I mean, yes, you can go too high with body fat, but low 20s is low. When you have muscle, you look sculpted. You've got good shape. Yeah. And it's the look that you're probably aiming for that you're afraid to go towards because it means you might need to gain some weight or go up in terms of body fat percentage. But I'm telling you, at 20, 22 % body fat with more muscle, you're going to look in the mirror and be like, whoa, this looks great.

1:49:35Sal Di Stefano:No, you're going to do great. Yeah. I mean, the fact that you're already advocating for yourself to get this far and where you came from and you're at a good spot. We're close. We get just a little bit of tweaks calorie wise, lay off the steps a tiny bit. We'll set you up the programming.

1:49:48Adam Schafer:I'll have a coach call you and you can determine if you want to work with one of ours, but we hired them ourselves, so we know they're good. Okay. That sounds great. Oh, thank you guys so much. I really appreciate all of what you do. You got it. I'm excited for you. Yeah. Great job. Great job. thank you so much have a great day you too take care bye oh I'm so glad I mentioned the coach because I thought it was him or her or I guess it is a guy but she's like no I had to tell him yeah she's calling all the audibles good for her good for her imagine your client a client tells a coach I feel like garbage I'm tired no no you're fine what oh I've heard that no I need to bump my calories and then she bumps

1:50:24Sal Di Stefano:and then she sees more better yeah dude good for her though good for her I know yeah that's awesome no she's I mean she's really close she was what she had 2400 is where she was at calorie wise she's in a pretty healthy place but you're right her body's responding well 17 % body fat she's just so lean it's just so lean it's hard and when her main focus her goal is to build a butt like it's gonna be and at 5 '9 139 is is very petite like she can no no

1:50:50Adam Schafer:I said 150 to be comfortable you're right 160 165 20 % body fat looks amazing at that height yes if you like Mind Pump come find us on Instagram it's 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.

1:51:30With 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. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. if you enjoy this show please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on itunes and by introducing mind pump to your friends and family we thank you for your support and until next time this is mind pump