2886: The 5 Steps to Becoming the Fittest You've Ever Been (For Life This Time)

18:38Sal Di Stefano:I would go as far as Sal to argue that most are not. I think it's very rare to find somebody who is really, really fit and hasn't allowed it to become most of their life. And they try and make the argument of like, oh, that's just, I get up early every day at five. It's no problem. It's part of mine. but it's still so they're so focused on it that i mean here's like if that person can't take a week off of training and it not mess with them then it is become that it's become that and i think a lot

19:11Adam Schafer:modify it when there's an injury or modify it when there's a challenge that's coming up like lack of sleep or you know and why i think this is such a why it's not a good message for the majority of

19:21Sal Di Stefano:people because i don't think a majority of people connect with that or want that very few normal people like just your average teacher engineer this is why it doesn't work because they follow the advice because yeah they see they see oh what i need to become is this this guy or gal that gets up yeah does this thing every it does this thing every day and and maybe for a period of their time when they're when they're heavily focused or they really or their doctor just gave them crazy news they feel motivated to be that person and then life happens and they realize no i don't like it and then they think that that's what they have to do to maintain a really healthy and it's not.

19:57Sal Di Stefano:And a lot of like, you know, getting back to some of the things that I've, that's really changed for me. A lot that has changed is my relationship with food. I've learned to, you know, really figure out the balance of, you know, being able to allow myself on a, on a weekend like this weekend with Katrina, you know, have a couple of drinks at dinner. But they'd be mindful of, Oh, you know, I was below on protein. I over-consumed alcohol calories. definitely should probably go take for a walk definitely want to be mindful of tomorrow I'm just more aware of that I was very on or off in the past it would be like if I was drinking I'm also ordering dessert and we're putting our feet up tomorrow and eating it was just one extreme to the other and I think a lot of people do that I think a lot of people feel like oh they do that one thing and they effed up and so may as well eff the whole thing up where I'm not like that now I have this I'm more mindful of of those those choices and i and i choose them in moments when i think they really serve me in my pursuit of overall health totally connecting with my life watching live music oh yeah this is one of those times yeah you know yeah uh tuesday watching the the you know the finals you know the spurs play while i'm by myself i don't you know sure a glass of whiskey does sound nice right

21:13Adam Schafer:but it's not that you know i'm saying i'm gonna pass no i remember i had a client um years ago i I was a young trainer. He was a very successful, self-made businessman. He was an entrepreneur, no formal education, just this really cool guy to talk to. And he trained with me because his wife got him training. So it's one of those situations where his wife's like, he needs a workout. I'm going to get him training. I'm going to force him to do this type of deal. So he came in kind of reluctantly. Then he started to like it, mainly because him and I became friends. And then I'll never forget, he came in and he said to me, his name was Jim, and he said to me, Sal, I'm never going to stop.

21:47Adam Schafer:And I was like, why? Why? And he goes, I give better meetings. I give better sales trainings. I'm a better entrepreneur. Because that's something that was really important to him. And what he noticed was when he took time away from work to improve his health, he actually got better at that thing. So step one with this is how is this going to improve my life and the things that I know to be really important? Okay. So that would be step one. Here's the second thing to look at. You're strong. Strength is very important. The most important thing to consider as you get older is frailty. I know we talk about things like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, all very important things to focus on.

22:27Adam Schafer:But those are actually downstream of frailty or loss of strength or loss of mobility or loss of muscle. Strength is a very important pursuit for everybody. Now, can you go extreme with it? Yes, if it becomes your life, then you go extreme in that direction. But what does it look like to have good fitness? you consider strength. Do I have the strength to do things for myself? Do I have the strength to lift things? Do I have the strength to help people? So it's a very important thing to consider.

22:56Sal Di Stefano:I think that's also been something that's evolved and changed for me that is taking a lot of time. Like it's hard when you've done some pretty cool physical feats for yourself, right? All relative to who you are, right? Like to get my squat up to, you know, to over 400, to get my deadlift over 500 to hit these, you know, numbers that were big deals for me to still be attached to those. It took me a while to break free of that too. It's like, cause strength is important, but it's also relative to like, like what you need it for. Right. Like being, being strong enough to, to deadlift 550 is pretty irrelevant to my lifestyle.

23:32Sal Di Stefano:Like there's not anything that that's, there's a point where the returns on the investment are diminished.

23:39Adam Schafer:Will you sacrifice? This is for average person. You talk about there's some people get deadlift 550 without sacrificing a lot but yeah right most of us to pursue that deadlift what other things are you sacrificing to get that right and it's not worth it like for now like now like now when

23:53Sal Di Stefano:like i'm deadlifting and i'm lifting and like i can be and it took me a while to do this because my ego wants everybody else in the gym or that's around to know that i can deadlift more than 315 on there but it's just like 315 serves me it's like it's strong enough that like that keeps me strong, keeps good muscle on me, keeps me capable. Also keeps me away from a lot of risks. Start creeping up over 400 and I start pushing that, like all the injuries start happening and I have stuff. And so it's like, even this is like, understand there's a relationship with this, that it's like strength for the average person.

24:25Sal Di Stefano:Absolutely. Go get as strong as you can. And then there comes a point where it's like, okay, you've now figured that piece out just like the aesthetic piece. Now the, you know, to use your word back, we are balanced. What that looks like is, you know, It's not balancing like I have this perfect pie chart. It's that I understand that I've built good strength. I don't need to be my PR numbers, but keep that level of strength and maintain that for as long as I can. Totally. I feel like it's so philosophical, like strength itself and like to be strong. Like for me, it goes way beyond that. Yes, you build this resiliency towards so many things.

25:03And it's that mental resilience is something I think is so overlooked when you're strong and you're pursuing things and challenges are in front of you and you're overcoming them. And it's giving you these rewards as a result of that. You see there's a way through. And I just think that people that don't physically achieve any bit of this with lifting weights or challenge themselves on that level, I think they really struggle. And I think it's harder as a result because you're just in your mind all the time and you need to get out of your mind.

25:39Adam Schafer:Yeah, I'll never forget as a kid, one summer I was helping my dad and he had this helper. He was like a bodybuilder, looked like a bodybuilder. I don't know how big he was. He was a 14-year-old, though. He looked like this super muscular guy. And I remember him just gassing out doing blue-collar work with a bunch of dudes that were half his size. And me realizing, like, oh, there's a difference here. There's strength, and then there's, like, because here's three and four. I'll give you number three and four real quick. You can move well, and you can play and have fun. So that's quality of life.

26:08Adam Schafer:Like, quality of life is, like, I can move well. You have abilities. I'm not losing abilities. What does that mean to move well? Like I could get up, up, up and ground, you know, down off the ground. If I need to reach up and do something, I can jump. If I want to run and play with my kids or we're at the park and we're climbing or like being able to move well and be able to play and have fun is a massive quality of life improver. And those are, like I said, that's number three and four. And then number five, we talked about aesthetics. What does this look like? And Adam, you kind of mentioned this.

26:38Adam Schafer:It doesn't look like 7 % body fat for a guy or 15 % body fat for a woman. It just doesn't. Now, I know people are going to point out the super rare, crazy genetic anomalies that exist in the world, the one in the millions. And they're out there. There's people out there that just eat Skittles all day and seem to look like they're dedicated to the gym. But 99.999 % of everybody is what it looks like for most people. You look generally muscular, generally lean. You move well and you feel good. Your body fat percentage as a guy is in the teens, somewhere in the teens. for a woman, it's somewhere probably in the 20s, give or take.

27:16Adam Schafer:And you've got, again, you move well, you play well, you look healthy. It's not shredded, everybody. It's not the person that he walks by down the beach and everybody stares at them and goes, oh, my God, that guy looks super crazy. That person doesn't have a relationship with fitness that improves the quality of life. That person's life is fitness and the gym. And I'm going to tell you right now, it's not worth it. It's actually a very unhappy place.

27:39Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, and I don't want to come off like shaming that person either because I think there's tremendous value, similar to Justin's point about strength, I think there's similar value to getting yourself to that at a period of time. But just like it doesn't serve me to be deadlifting 550 all the time, it doesn't serve me to be 5 % body fat all the time. But to pursue that, the mental aspect, the getting strong and the things you're saying, huge value, huge return from that. And also all the muscle that I've built in what I get from muscle memory because of that. Amazing. Same thing goes on the aesthetic side.

28:12Sal Di Stefano:Huge value in proving to yourself you can be disciplined and regiment around your nutrition and your diet and be consistent with your workout routine to be able to get yourself into low percent body fat to see what that looks like, to know what it takes, to know what that, because then I think you do find balance. You see that you find the ends, right? Obviously, most people know what it's like to be out of shape. They've all experienced out of shape at one point in their life. But have you ever been in the best shape of your life and then go, okay, I don't want to be at either ends of this spectrum all the time.

28:41Sal Di Stefano:How do I kind of hover here? I know what this takes. Obviously, I know what that takes, but not a lot, right, to get here. And I know this takes a lot of sacrifice and discipline, and I'm not happier over here. So where is that at to find that middle? So I think there's lots of value.

28:56Adam Schafer:By the way, this feels relaxed. Right. It's a relaxed place to be. Exactly. And when you get to that, when you get to that level, that's why,

29:04Sal Di Stefano:And you touched on it well by saying, like, I don't want, you know, earlier when we're talking about Justin and I having this, like, no structure. Well, we've earned that right to have that ebb and flow because I know what very structured looks like and where it can take me. And I know what completely no structure looks like and not giving a shit. And so what is giving a shit with no structure kind of looks like? Well, it looks like easily hovering in the middle.

29:28Adam Schafer:It's also a never-ending journey because, look, Justin, Adam, and Sal now are not going to be Justin, Adam, and Sal in 20 years. And so fitness is going to be different for us then. What's it going to look like? I can guess, but I don't know for sure. So it is a never-ending journey. But if number one remains number one, is this improving the quality of my life? Then you'll be the fittest in the most real way, and it'll last. It'll be something that you enjoy doing. By the way, the reason why this is top of mind is because this is top of mind for me because this is a constant struggle, like I said earlier.

30:01Adam Schafer:Because you're almost 50? No, not because I'm almost 50. It's creeping up. No, but because it's an idol for me, dude. It's something that I'm dealing with. I try to deal with. I try to work on it. I had a conversation with my wife over the weekend. She totally called me out, too, which I got really mad. I got an argument over. But then I sat in the garage by myself for a while, and I was like, I think she's right, dude. I was like telling her like I'm going to start doing this you know with my workouts I think I'm gonna start running she's like you're just fooling yourself she's like you're just trying to manage this uh this thing I'm like no I'm not I'm actually gonna try you know running I told her running and um she called me out I don't like getting called out I think anybody does especially not from your wife but I sat there with it and I thought about it for a while and I'm like yeah you know she's right dude I gotta really try to make peace with whatever a good relationship with fitness looks like i gotta make peace with that not try to manage the look with the the you know like i'm trying to manage the result that i want with all the little pieces yeah versus like let's just see where it takes me um and so i think i'm actually for sure

31:07Sal Di Stefano:i'm gonna i can say this on the podcast it's hard dude it's really hard i know uh we're all different bro yeah it's really hard because i know and i can relate to you because i know that you also So you're, I mean, you have like Justin and I in you, like you are very obsessed with the strength part of Justin and you're obsessed with the aesthetic part like me. So you kind of have both of our attachments and wrapped into one. And so, uh, it's a lot to, it takes time to do that. It took a long time for me to truly accept and be okay. You see yourself at it, which you have experienced 5 % body fat and see yourself hitting these numbers.

31:41Sal Di Stefano:it's hard to like completely let it go and be like can i really be okay with 10 higher body fat than that or you know 20 or 30 less strong than that guy and be okay uh when you when you

31:56Adam Schafer:when you know you're capable of that something clicked i'm not going to pretend to say it's going to stay clicked uh but something clicked and so i'm actually going to go to jiu-jitsu tomorrow night so i'm actually oh you are i'm going to roll tomorrow night well you do you You have always said that was the best relationship. The healthiest I was mentally was fitness. Yeah. For sure. Because it took me away from body image and from lifting. Yeah, because neither one of those are served there. No.

32:19Sal Di Stefano:Being completely ripped or hella strong where you're PRing stuff, neither one of those serve you in jiu-jitsu. No, not at all.

32:26Adam Schafer:There's a community aspect of it. You know what my fears are? I'll tell you what my fears are. Besides the fact that I'm going to lose gains and all that whatever stupid stuff. I hate saying that on the show because it sounds so dumb. the fears are am I going to get hurt and am I going to have a target on my back because of who you are because you're big because you're jacked

32:43Sal Di Stefano:because you're a big dude coming in oh and I was a purple belt no I'm going in white belt can you do that can you restart

32:50Adam Schafer:I don't care what they tell me I do not deserve it's been 20 years dude I'm not walking in with my purple belt no way

32:57Sal Di Stefano:that would put a target on your back coming as a jack guy with your purple belt would put a target what puts a target

33:02Adam Schafer:is kind of a bigger dude but also, you know, the podcast. If they recognize me, they're like, oh, I'm going to go kick sales. You have a lot of jujitsu fans, I've heard. I'm for sure, like, as soon as I go in, I'm going to my brother-in-law, so he knows the whole deal. And I'm going to tell whoever I go with, like, check it out, dude. I'm going to go super easy, bro. So just please go easy with me. I'm going to step out when I need to and just be real because I don't want to get hurt. Because you're wrestling grown men. I mean, it's not controlled. You're like going in, I have a safe word, you guys.

33:35Adam Schafer:Banana.

33:36Sal Di Stefano:Banana. So, yeah. Dave, did you watch the UFC fights or no?

33:41Adam Schafer:No, dude. You didn't watch any of them? No, man. Dude, what are you doing with you, bro? Bro, this is modern. You can have a skewed opinion about this, dude. Listen, it's modern Rome. So what? You like MMA. You like jiu-jitsu. I can't, dude. I can't. Yeah, I have those same inclines, and it's funny, because I was waiting for Trump to be like, finish it. Somebody feeding him grapes. Bro, but dude, it was, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, dude. All the hate whatever it is, is mute, dude. It was the sickest thing I've ever seen. It was the most amazingly well put together event, dude. And like everything just hit.

34:17Adam Schafer:The parallels with the Roman Empire are so crazy. I know. It's like, for the glory of Rome, you know, you got like the jets flying over, American flag, patriotism. Blue angels with the Thunderbirds together, dude. Every fighter is probably pumping up. Military everywhere was sick. It's so Rome, dude.

34:37Sal Di Stefano:To back your argument, I mean, because let's say this weekend was not just that. I mean, you had the NHL finals. You had the NBA finals. So it was just like this. Yeah, World Cup. Yeah, World Cup. It was like a bonanza of the Rome. You know what I'm saying? It was everywhere. It's all the coliseums going on right now. but of all of them the one that looks the same of like wrapping the patriotism and all that

35:02Adam Schafer:it's in front of the White House

35:03Sal Di Stefano:and it's on his birthday yeah it's like oh my god I know it's like we got

35:09Adam Schafer:we got wars that are going on we're crazy spending this is Rome Rome used to do this they'd expand themselves I know dude put themselves into crazy debt distract the people you guys with crazy news we got UFO stuff get them entertainment and bread yeah don't let them look at the Epstein stuff you guys and then let's just get them excited with violence. This is exactly what Rome did. So I couldn't watch it. But it was awesome. I couldn't watch it.

35:32Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, the sport of it's still so good. You know what I'm saying? I love the sport. Oh, the fight. So I feel like I can do both. Like, I feel like I can be very aware of what I'm being fed. You know what I'm saying? At the same time, enjoy the steak. You know what I'm saying? This is like, I know damn well what I'm being distracted from. Yeah, yeah. But the steak still tastes good. You know what I'm saying? it's fully aware fully aware it's great speaking of which it's like that you know speaking of all

35:59Adam Schafer:this like stuff when you know spacex went uh public right yes yeah you know what breaks something me every single time i don't mean in a good way seeing politicians rail on uh someone who became a trillionaire oh gosh oh inside of me i get this like stirring yeah like elizabeth warren bernie sanders like you know gavin newsom your money i'm like you of all people can't talk about this. You do nothing. You create no value. You've never employed anybody from your own money. You've never innovated anything. How are you a millionaire? You create negative debt for everybody. What's Gavin Newsom's salary?

36:35Adam Schafer:It's like 200 grand a year. How is he a millionaire? How is Elizabeth Warren a millionaire? How is Bernie Sanders a millionaire? It's crazy to see this. And yeah, we got a guy who employs tens of thousands of people, innovates like crazy. I'm not like, I don't know the guy, so I don't know if he's a great guy, but from that perspective, like he's - There's two categories, okay? And I've heard somebody break this down, but there's like creators and there's destroyers. Yes. Yeah. Politicians are destroyers. 100%. They're takers. They're takers. They do nothing. No. Yeah. I mean, you see this with NGOs and everything else.

37:06And so, like, I don't even listen to destroyers. Like, they can go fuck off. Yeah.

37:10Sal Di Stefano:You'll also never hear anybody who's ever built a business and employed people say that about someone like Elon. It's only somebody who clock punches in and gets a wage and has no idea how that company that pays their paycheck every single day got to that place. It's never somebody who knows what it's like to build something from zero, to actually build it to where it has even a handful of employees. Because that's impressive. To go build a business that employs five people is incredibly impressive. It's a very small percentage of people that can do that. And if you actually make it to where you employ hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, there's very few humans that have ever done that.

37:55Sal Di Stefano:And you just discount that, that that shouldn't be rewarded. Come on, stop it. I know. It's crazy. Stop it.

38:00Adam Schafer:Again, I don't know Elon.

38:02Sal Di Stefano:And the guy who does – of all the guys, because there's lots of billionaires and a couple trillionaires. He's the only real official trillionaire now. but of all he's he's the dude that doesn't have super yachts and jets like all the rest of these cats do there's a lot of these guys in his businesses yes dude there's a lot of these guys that have like mega mansions all over all over the country and innovated in ways so again

38:25Adam Schafer:i don't know the guy i don't know if he's a good guy i'm not saying he's like my hero we're not lifting him up like from a business perspective he went into uh businesses that were like nobody would be like that's a good idea i'm gonna get into the car industry you guys one of the most regulated industries and I'm going to make an electric car, crushes it. Then he's like, yeah, I'm going to... Rockets? Rockets. Who builds rockets? Who just decides, hey, I'm going to address rockets? Dude, he reduced the cost of it so significantly through innovation and his own money. It's wild. So it's crazy.

38:57Adam Schafer:Super impressive. I know, I know. Super impressive. But anyway.

39:01Sal Di Stefano:I can't believe you're in for the ride, so you're crazy. I'm sitting back watching. You know what it is? I know. You should see how many times this guy was calling and texting me like every 15 minutes.

39:10Adam Schafer:You know what it is? I'm not, I am very risk averse with investments. I'm super conservative. Business, I'm risky. I'll go on business. You know, you guys know this. We're all well worked together. Yeah. When it comes to money I make, I'm like super conservative. I just don't have good, you know, risk tolerance. But I look at SpaceX and it reminds me of... Railroads. What's his name? Who made the railroads? Rockefeller. Oh, the Rockefeller. Rockefeller made the railroads that the Industrial Revolution needed. Yeah. So you're building businesses. It's an energy complex. So SpaceX, he's creating essentially the modern railroads for the future economy.

39:45Adam Schafer:Everyone's going to have to go through SpaceX to build their businesses. But what's crazy is I bought, they IPO'd, I had to buy at a premium because I bought on E-Trade. So right out the gates, I lost money. I'm not going to say how much, but I texted Adam like, oh my God, I just bought it two seconds later. I lost this money. What the hell just happened? You're in for the ride. I'm in the positive now. I'm okay now.

40:08Sal Di Stefano:But it was a little stressful. You're crazy. You're crazy. I'm like, I can't watch that stuff anymore. I literally feel like I made this great thing that I did two years ago where I committed to, I'm done sports betting, and I'm going to start doing those.

40:24Adam Schafer:As if betting on the stock. I know. You know more about sports. I do.

40:28Sal Di Stefano:I was way better at that. So I'm all in the other direction now. I've sold off on Max's portfolio.

40:36Adam Schafer:Just bet on the economy. Just literally index.

40:39Sal Di Stefano:It's just I'm not going to look. Everything's auto, and I'm just going to be that guy who does that and then just walks away from it because trying to pick in time has just been a nightmare for me. And then I feel more stressed out about it, and I do worse than I did in sports.

40:52Adam Schafer:The only way I can do it, Adam, because I've done a couple of those, but I'm pretty conservative. But the only way I can do it is I have to really believe in the company, like genuinely, because then I can write it. The only other time I did that was what – you guys remember when I bought GW Pharmaceuticals back in the day? They were doing cannabinoid research. I had learned about cannabinoids and how they affect whatever. And I actually bought them on pink sheet, which is even before they hit the market. And then they got orphan drug status for like the epilepsy. And it was only because I knew the science and I believed in the company.

41:21Adam Schafer:And I rode that and did really well with it.

41:24Sal Di Stefano:You know, to that point, there's something I've learned in the real estate investing game. And I feel like the same thing that I've heard in the stock that I think is two big pieces of advice. and I remember going through all this with the real estate thing, going deep down the rabbit hole of, you know, I had all these spreadsheets and, you know, making sure that everything penciled out like amazing. And, you know, when I look back now after almost 10 years, the ones that did the best were the ones that were heart picks, areas that we love this. This is such a desirable place. It's not a great investment, but over time, that ends up being one of the best investments.

41:59Sal Di Stefano:I feel like in the stock world, I've heard this advice before a smart thing to invest in. If you don't know anything about picking companies is where do you spend your, all of your money? Like, are you somebody who has, you know, four Sony TVs in your, in your house and you have all like, and you have a roadie or like a fan. Yeah. Or have you bought every Apple phone? You know, these are probably smart things. If like, if you are, if you consume a lot of that, that company and have consistently probably a good, like you're already putting money towards their company, probably not a bad idea to invest in their company also.

42:31Sal Di Stefano:I think it's kind of a similar type of concept is like if, if it's desirable enough to where you own a bunch of their stuff inside your house and you're constantly buying their products, probably a pretty good, pretty good company. I'm bought in.

42:44Adam Schafer:So up, down, whatever I'll, I'll, I'll stay in there. Yeah. Yeah. I got a stat for you guys that I think is an under, I think it's a low number, but it's still a number that I think people need to hear about. CDC says that over 60 million people in America are infected with parasites. I saw that. But I think that's a low number. I think that's a really low number.

43:04Sal Di Stefano:That's a lot still. Is this reported? These are people. No, this is 60. I think that there's 60 million that are unaware. The CDC says that there's over 60 million that are unaware.

43:16Adam Schafer:Parasites are way more common than people think in modern society. I think we think of third world countries when we think of parasites. But you know what a lot of people do in third world countries is they treat themselves for parasites once a year. Every year they treat themselves. when you live in a modern society, you might not be, obviously you're not exposed to parasites like you would if you were in a third world country. But if you've lived for 20, 30, 40 years, odds are you've been exposed and you've never done anything to deal with it. I mean, they always ask if you traveled someplace, but like, yeah, nobody looks in their backyard.

43:49Like all the opportunities there are for parasites to find their way to you.

43:53Adam Schafer:No, and the side effects of this are like anxiety, skin issues, of course, gastro issues that keep, or hard to, reoccurring SIBO. Like if you treat yourself for SIBO and it keeps coming back, could be a parasite, could be poor motility, constipation. Well, I remember that was a huge unlock for you

44:11Sal Di Stefano:because I mean, you had done all the gut stuff forever and then all of a sudden you do the parasite and the - Fixed. Yeah.

44:17Adam Schafer:Fixed. So we're getting messages because so Organifi has, in my strong opinion, one of the best all natural - Yeah, you just got my setup for that. It's got one of the best all natural parasite products I've ever seen. So, you know, two ways you can treat with parasites. You can go pharmaceutical route or you can go natural. Natural is actually pretty good, everybody. If you look at the data, if it's formulated right, it'll do a pretty good job. And Organifi has a natural parasite product. It comes with two bottles. One is for the parasite. One is to heal your gut. And the messages are rolling in.

44:50Adam Schafer:People are saying, first off, crazy stuff. Like, I can't believe what I saw come out of my body. But a lot of people are getting like really good symptom relief from using it. But I want people to know with parasite cleanses, like the Organifi one, it's probably a good idea to do two rounds of it. Do one round, wait maybe like 15 days. Do another round because you got parasites and you have the eggs that'll hatch. And then once a year, once a year, do something like this.

45:19Sal Di Stefano:Doug just pulled up. Are those the most common ways people get it? Is that what that is? Yeah. So in the, like the U S for example, uh, children, of course, because they are at daycares, preschools, pin words, things like that. Yeah. Uh, sexual practices can do that as well. People with specific sexual practices. Yeah. It's, uh, like butt stuff. All right, Justin, thanks for the clarification. Uh, that's good to know. Uh, can now contaminated food and water. Um, obviously if you eat like sashimi, you could probably.

45:50Adam Schafer:Anything that's not cooked, vegetable salad, even. Yeah. And then, of course, pets. You know, dogs, cats, livestock, things like that.

45:56Sal Di Stefano:I think somewhere that last night you can actually transfer from pets. I didn't know that one. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I didn't know that.

46:02Adam Schafer:But if you're like raw food, like if you eat salad all the time or vegetables or sushi. Yeah. And you do that all the time. Yeah, there's a toxoplasmosis or that one from the cats. Oh, that's a bad one. Yeah, like I guess it gets you really impulsive and like really high risk behavior like after being exposed to that. Is that true? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Is that the one that makes, which is the, there's a parasite that makes mice. The urine. They get attracted to the cat urine. Yeah. It causes a condition to us. Humans can, what are the side effects of that? The symptoms. Wait.

46:34Sal Di Stefano:Mice get it from cats because they're attracted to cats.

46:36Adam Schafer:So mice will get attracted. They get it. And then it brings them like more attracted to the cat. The cat eats it, gets the parasite. It's like the cycle. What? That's wild. Isn't that grease? Yeah. Flu lights like symptoms.

46:48Sal Di Stefano:That's wild that something would, would make you attracted to your predator.

46:52Adam Schafer:Yeah.

46:52Sal Di Stefano:Well, there's one.

46:53Adam Schafer:That's crazy when you think about how that parasite. There's a fungus that does that with bugs where it makes them crawl on top of a branch and position itself and then sit there to be eaten. Yeah. So you get transferred to the. It's like you're a zombie. Isn't that cordyceps? Cordyceps might do it.

47:09Sal Di Stefano:So this weekend, I told you we're hanging out at the pool this weekend. And I'll connect the dots here. I promise. And we have a peach tree in our backyard. And man, the squirrels go to town on my peaches. And it's pissing me off because they're not ripe and ready to completely pull off the tree yet. So I can't just go pull them all off. And so they're just - You should have my dad come over, bro. He's like the arch enemies of the squirrel. Last week, my pellet gun came in. So I've got my pellet gun and scope and everything. I'm all set up. And Katrina's like, what are you doing? And she's like, you're not going to shoot the squirrels.

47:51Sal Di Stefano:I'm like, 100 % I'm going to shoot these squirrels. They're not going to get our peaches anymore. Tree rats. Yeah. So I now, this thing, I keep this thing down when we're at the pool. So it's ready. Ready. Loaded, cocked, everything to go. And you see me jump out of the pool, get it. And so this is the first weekend I've had it. And we're floating around. And sure enough, here comes this squirrel. And we're like, and I try, Katrina doesn't want to see me shoot him. So she's like, ah, ah. She's like screaming to see give him. Trying to warn him. Yeah, I warn him. so he'll run off and I'm already going for the gun, you know, pull the gun.

48:23Sal Di Stefano:That little shit jumps on the tree, rips the peach off. He's got his hands and bro, first shot, just blah. And Max is like, did you get him daddy? And I go, oh yeah, I got him. And Katrina looked at me like freaked out. And you could see her like staring at me, how I'm going to explain this to my son that I killed this squirrel. And it's like, yeah, you know, son, daddy got it. Like I'll clean it up. And he's like, oh my God. And you could tell he was totally fine. I can see my wife freaking out because she's not at country at all. Never seen an animal get shot. Nothing like that. I'm like, honey, it's a rodent.

48:58Sal Di Stefano:It's a really, I know they're furry. It's because it's cute.

49:01Adam Schafer:Yeah, I know. It's like a rat.

49:02Sal Di Stefano:You know that, right?

49:03Adam Schafer:If it was a rat, she wouldn't have a problem. It's a furry rat.

49:05Sal Di Stefano:It's a fluffy, cute rat. All you need is cats. Like they'll display carcasses daily in front of your house. Yeah. They kill everything. Yes. They're awesome. I know. So we have both our neighbors have cats, too. I wish they would keep the squirrels away, but they do not keep the squirrels away.

49:24Adam Schafer:So, Doug, my dad has done everything.

49:27Sal Di Stefano:I have the owl.

49:28Adam Schafer:I have the owl.

49:29Sal Di Stefano:It doesn't stop nothing. Okay, so listen. So I have two of those owls, and I set the owl. I moved it from the peach tree, because we used to be in the bottom of the peach tree, to on the fence where they come in. And for about three days, they were scared.

49:41Adam Schafer:Yeah, and then they figured it out.

49:41Sal Di Stefano:They figured it out, and then I just walk around them. Like, literally walk around them and stuff. but it works for a day or two. Yeah, they're not effective at all.

49:49Adam Schafer:Listen, nobody hates squirrels more than old Sicilian men. My grandfather, my dad, it's like arch enemies. You bring up squirrels to my dad, you see his face change. You see me like that now.

50:03Sal Di Stefano:Katrina's like, she's seen this whole new side of me. I'm so defensive about my peach tree. My cousin - Because it drives me, I'm watching the peaches as they're starting to change colors. I'm like, oh, that one's almost ready. And then I come out the next day, it's fucking gone. and I'm like oh god this squirrel's getting my pizza dude that's so funny dude oh my cousin

50:20Adam Schafer:lived with my grandparents for a little while when he was in his I want to say in his maybe 20s and my grandfather of course he was old school so saying I mean he's just like post you know great depression like and he had these traps out and my cousin's like what are those for no no and he's like for the damn squirrel and he's like what do you mean for the squirrel I get the catch of the squirrel my cousin's like what do you do with them afterwards I kill him my cousin's He's like, you're not going to kill squirrels. He's like, oh, yeah, I'd kill them. So anyway, my cousin was keeping an eye on the traps because he's like, he traps a poor squirrel.

50:48Adam Schafer:I'm going to let him go. He's like an animal lover. And they both saw a squirrel get trapped at the same time. So he ran over it. My grandfather grabbed that thing, and he filled up a bucket because he was going to drown it. And my cousin's like, you're not going to do that. And my grandfather goes, yeah, I hate that the damn squirrel ate all of the fruit. My cousin's like, you're not going to do that. So he threw it in the bucket, and my cousin kicked the bucket over and let the squirrel go out. It was like one of the biggest arguments he ever got. He's like, I've never seen No-No get so mad in my life.

51:18Adam Schafer:Because he just freed one of his enemies.

51:20Sal Di Stefano:I can only imagine him. I don't even have that much pride in my garden like he does. He's got to have a lot of pride. Which is going to be interesting because you planted a lot of stuff. Courtney's been crazy with that. She'll get the gun before even I get it. You know what? This might be illegal.

51:37Adam Schafer:Are we allowed to shoot squirrels where we're at? Is this a problem? Do we need to censor this?

51:42Sal Di Stefano:No, I think so. I mean, Katrina was fascinated because it says, my BB gun on the box says pest control.

51:49Adam Schafer:It is legal to kill certain types of squirrels in California, but the rules depend heavily on the species of squirrel. Okay, how do you know? They all look the same. I checked mine. They're covered. We're good. I got to speak of kids. My son Aurelius is like this little entrepreneur suddenly. What? Yeah, listen. this is so funny we go there's a toy store by our house and every once in a while we'll walk over there and i'll let him pick something or whatever and so jessica took him and he wanted to pick a jewelry making kit now why him and i a while ago had a conversation that about i don't know where he came from he's asking me about gems and how valuable they are so he sees this jewelry making kit so he's like is this valuable and she's like well you could maybe make them and like sell them it's like okay so comes home makes a bunch of bracelets sends a video to family members of course everybody's buying it right so now he wants to keep buying jewelry stuff then he buys this kit where he can do uh like fingernails and toenails and stuff like that because he sees jessica get her nails done why because he wants to paint his little sister's nails because she's got a little bit of money because we give them money sometimes oh my goodness so i see him painting his little sister's nails and she gives him a dollar i'm like bro are you selling your little sister that's so funny you know what's funny is that this is almost the exact figuring out i think this is the exact

53:05Sal Di Stefano:age when Max put together drawing and painting pictures that he could sell to the family members. It's right around that same. Remember when I talked about that on the podcast? Well, so now we're going to have a

53:15Adam Schafer:conversation now on the cost of product because right now it's 100 % margins. He has no idea that dad bought him. So I'm going to try and explain profits to him. Like, okay, now you can buy it. And then if you sell it for this much, then you make money. That's why Ethan's shirt business went under. Oh man, I got to buy all the inventory? and all the ink and the... Yeah, bro. Yeah. You want to figure that out? It's hilarious. I'm going to buy it for you. That's hilarious. Dude, this... How do you guys like the new Olipop flavors? This cherry vanilla one is... Blackberry vanilla is so good.

53:49Sal Di Stefano:I wanted to try this one right here. You did the...

53:51Adam Schafer:I had that one yesterday. The strawberry.

53:52Sal Di Stefano:Not yesterday.

53:53Adam Schafer:Sorry, last week. Super good. Yeah, this is the only one I haven't tried yet.

53:56Sal Di Stefano:Oh, that's good. Isn't it good? What does this taste like? There was a popsicle. Yeah. It's that one, like the push one that's like a sherbet. Oh, the push pop. The push pop. That's what it is. I'm like, I know I've had an ice cream like this. Push pops are great. Boy, they're killing it. 50 calories in the one I have.

54:19Adam Schafer:And it's got eight grams or nine grams of fiber in it. They kill it.

54:24Sal Di Stefano:Did they get bought out? Did they sell? They're everywhere now. I've seen commercials now. Yeah, yeah. And I've seen them in all the big stores. I'm curious. Did they see if they got bought out? I can't remember if someone bought them or not. No.

54:36Adam Schafer:Oh, good. It's independent still.

54:38Sal Di Stefano:That's awesome. Wow, they have a valuation of$1.8 billion. Wow,$400 million in revenue. Beverage industry. Wow. Good job. Wow, crazy.

54:46Adam Schafer:It's a great -

54:47Sal Di Stefano:Oh, so it was their competitor that sold.

54:50Adam Schafer:It's such a great market. People like tasty beverages, but they're full of sugar and just not good for you. This is like 50 calories instead of 150 or 200. Yeah, better option for sure. Almost like no sugar. in this versus, you know, 30 grams.

55:05Sal Di Stefano:It's crazy how popular this category has become. It was not a thing like just five, 10 years ago.

55:13Adam Schafer:Well, people are aware of sugar. They're more aware of like soda has been demonized, I think, for the most part, rightfully so. And so I think people are just, you know, they still like to taste at times. I mean, that's me.

55:25Sal Di Stefano:I fall in that category. Yeah, no, this is why I was such a fan early on of Volleypop when we first started working with them was, I admittedly have that sweet tooth.

55:35Adam Schafer:You know, Olipop was the one that created that market. They were the first ones. Were they first? They were the first ones.

55:39Sal Di Stefano:I know they were one of the first. No, the first ones.

55:41Adam Schafer:Doug just pulled it up.

55:41Sal Di Stefano:Oh, wow. 2018.

55:43Adam Schafer:So they created the market. Isn't that cool? You know when someone does a great job, when they come out with a product, and then copycats. You know what's even cooler I like to think of?

55:51Sal Di Stefano:What? Is that we've been attached to a lot of these. I know. Okay? Viore. Yeah. On the athleisure side for men, for sure. A lot of the metrics. Caldera. Yeah. Olipop. I mean, think of some of these brands that we have found and we've worked with from early on that were leading in their space.

56:07Adam Schafer:Yeah. It's cool, huh? That's really cool. I want to mention a peptide that I started using. Doug, you have experience using the Delta Sleep Inducing Peptide, DSX-T? Yes, I have. Yeah. That works. It does work. It works. For sleep, works. Sick. You know what it does? So what it does is it increases Delta wave, so the kind of deep, restful sleep when you take it. So you take it before you go to bed. I could sleep less hours and wake up and feel like I slept more hours. It's really weird. I feel rested.

56:38Sal Di Stefano:I've experienced with it, and I find the timing of it is very important. So I've made mistakes of taking it and not being, like, ready to go right to bed. Oh. And then you miss the window, and then it actually didn't help. So it's like I got to take it right before I decide. That's what we do. Yeah, right before you lay down. because it's like, I think they suggest like 30 minutes to an hour or like that before. And I've made the mistake of taking it before I like shower, get ready for bed. And then I watch a show or something. And then it's like two hours later or something. And then now I've kind of missed that window.

57:12Sal Di Stefano:I stayed awake when it was trying to bring me down. And so it's smart if you do take something like that. To take it, go like right to bed.

57:19Adam Schafer:I've never had to sleep anything that didn't. There's lots of sleep things that'll help you sleep better or whatever. But sometimes I feel groggy the next day. Not with this, dude. I wake up and I'm like, I feel rested. It's wild how effective it is. Yeah, you guys got to get... Yeah, contact our dudes at MP Hormones. Have them send it over to you. It works. Z-Biotics is a pre-alcohol probiotic drink that breaks down an unwanted alcohol byproduct called acetaldehyde. It really works. It's genetically modified bacteria, by the way, patent pending. You can't find this anywhere else. So here's what you do.

57:55Adam Schafer:You drink your Z-Biotics, then you enjoy yourself with your friends. This probiotic sits in your gut and breaks down something called acetaldehyde. When acetaldehyde is released in the gut, it wreaks havoc on your health. It makes you feel like crap. By the way, the Z-Biotics last for 18 to 24 hours. So you just have one and it lasts all night and a little bit into the next day. It doesn't affect your buzz. It doesn't affect how you feel from the alcohol. But it does, for me, when I use it, I feel way better the next day. I never drink without Z-Biotics. Go check them out. Go to zbiotics.com forward slash MindPump26.

58:35Adam Schafer:That's Z-B-I-O-T-I-C-S dot com forward slash MindPump26. Use the code MindPump26. Get 15 % off if you're a first-time purchaser on either one-time purchases. They're 3, 6, 12-packs or subscriptions. Go check them out. Here comes the show. Our first caller is Daniel from Georgia. What's up, Daniel? How you doing, Daniel? Hey guys Doing great Just wanted to say thank you for having me on Really Listening to some of your podcasts over the last Six months to a year I really appreciate the focus you've had on Kind of having a mature outlook Really focusing on family And a lot of the stuff that's important That's great Awesome Thank you How can we help you?

59:24so I I've kind of had a unique journey I'm sure you guys hear this a lot but uh I've uh had a I've had a long history of weight loss. So in middle school, I was kind of a chunky kid. Lost about 100 pounds before I was in big, before any kind of gastric bypass surgery or anything like that. Just, you know, kind of sweat and cried it all off. and then gotten involved in school sports, wrestling at a low weight class and have basically been on a 1 ,500 to 1 ,600 calorie diet since that time. Got into weights kind of in high school and bulked up a little bit, but still never really been able to get away from that kind of calorie count mentality.

1:00:13And I've been on about every diet that they make from keto to low carb, low fat, all the variations that kind of come through the time. And I'm in my mid 40s now. So looking to kind of make that transition away from trying to be so focused on a calorie count and just maintain my strength. I've got three kids trying to be a good example of what it looks like to be a healthy guy kind of at this point in life. Set a good role model for them, but also be a good dad and show them how to maintain health and fitness in the meantime.

1:00:53Adam Schafer:That's great, man.

1:00:54Sal Di Stefano:So you've been maintaining the 1 ,500 to 1 ,700 calories for most of your adult life, yeah? Yeah. Wow.

1:01:02Adam Schafer:Yeah, I'm reading your question here. Would you mind if I paraphrase it a little bit? Sure. So you've recently, over the last four years, regained about 15 pounds from your lightest, I guess, body weight, which was what, 156? Was that where you were at before? No, my lightest body weight was actually in high school. I'll get down to around 120, 119 is what I wrestled at. I went through a really stressful time kind of through training and work and gained up to 150. Okay. That's about where I'm at right now, 155. So 155 is your weight after you've gained 15 pounds over the last four years. Yes, that's correct.

1:01:43Adam Schafer:Okay, cool. And you're, and you're, and you're five, six, it says. Okay. So 156, five, six and strength training three to five days a week. Um, and eating 15 to 1700 calories and you're, you feel like you've kind of plateaued. That's correct. What does that, what does that mean? What do you mean when you say plateau? What do you mean by that? um i would love to get back to kind of that leaner physique at one point i was down to like eight or nine percent body fat uh right now i'm probably sitting about 18 19 um my strength actually did go up significantly when i gained that weight um which was kind of surprising kind of in your early 40s um but it did happen uh so i'm trying to get kind of a good health healthy balance between the strength and kind of that lean physique, uh, for strength, but also for longevity and overall health.

1:02:36Adam Schafer:Okay. And, um, uh, talk about the energy difference. So when you gain the 15 pounds, any change, cause obviously you're stronger. So I'm assuming you probably felt more energy. Um, I actually had more energy when I was lighter, I think, but that period in time in life was just less stressful too. Got it. Okay. Tell me about the stress that's going on right now is just regular family stuff says you got three kids uh yeah i i work a 50 to 60 hour a week job i have multiple jobs uh three kids high school um middle school that kind of stuff so and you wrestled you wrestled in high school how long did you wrestle for um i wrestled for about three years um i had a shoulder injury um had a posterior shoulder shoulder dislocation, that kind of ended my career.

1:03:25Didn't want to end up having to have shoulder surgery and just decided to continue with the weights, do some rehab, and do the cardio, kind of zone two cardio, and hit training as I could after that.

1:03:38Adam Schafer:Got it. Okay, so what I'd like from you, Daniel, if it's okay, if I can ask you a couple questions. Sure. What does healthy, because you mentioned you want to be a good dad, role model, I'm assuming you want energy to be able to do the things that are important in life, your job, you know, with your kids, you still want to be able to be mobile and strong and feel good. What does healthy mean to you? Let's define that a little bit. So we can get a little deeper. Yeah, that's a great question. Really being able to be physically active, not fall into one of those, I mentioned this in my question, one of those dead bod type things where you're gut sitting on the belly, you know, I was sitting on the couch on the weekends, kind of not setting the best example for the kids, being able to run with them, stay physically active, kind of longer into life and still be strong too.

1:04:33Adam Schafer:Okay, good. And are you able to do that now? Do you feel like you can play with them and do all that stuff now? Most of it. You know, my middle schooler going into high school is kind of a challenge to keep up with. but uh there's the little ones i'm able to do that with now okay so there's a couple conflicting things in uh what you want okay uh eight to nine percent body fat uh in your mid 40s um is not typically healthy so it's not a body fat percentage we can typically sit at and maintain without

1:05:08Sal Di Stefano:sacrificing hormone profile, resilience, energy, and just overall quality of life.

1:05:18Adam Schafer:It requires a level of control and meticulous. Like you basically got to look at everything you're doing all the time with diet and exercise, which really isn't a healthy place to be when you're also trying to be a dad and work and do all that stuff. And to be quite honest, Daniel, when you're in your mid forties, active, healthy, usually, usually that looks like a body fat percentage that's in the mid to high teens. Okay. And so the challenge for people oftentimes, and I asked you about your wrestling because wrestling, especially when you're in a weight class, I don't need to tell you this, but I'm going to say this so people watching understand.

1:05:57Adam Schafer:It's not a very healthy sport from that aspect. I mean, you're making weight and controlling what's going on at a level that I would equate it to like a fashion model. Obviously, it's a different – fashion model is not a sport, but you're like counting everything and looking at everything. Okay. And you also have a history when you were a kid of kind of being overweight. So there's probably a fear, maybe correct me if I'm wrong, that you're going to blow up and balloon up into – okay. That's not going to happen. I'm going to let you know that's not going to happen. Yeah. your calories are way too low for the things you're looking for.

1:06:35Adam Schafer:Now, it's also too low to be able to even maintain 9 % anyway. You can't go around, you can't do what you're doing with your work, life, and then that much activity with exercise and sit at 1 ,500 to 1 ,900 calories as a man. It's not going to happen.

1:06:53Sal Di Stefano:It's going to impact your hormones. It's going to impact quality of life. I'm curious if it hasn't already. Have you checked, have you had blood work done and seen your testosterone levels? No, I have never. I would highly recommend that because I would guess that that low a calorie with his highest stress and work that you do at our age, more than likely your testosterone levels are suppressed. I mean, definitely not optimal.

1:07:19Adam Schafer:Yeah. And if you notice, it says here with your sleep, you have issues with sleep. Is that just, how long has that been going on? My whole life. But especially in the last, I would say, five to 10 years. You know, I have a suggestion. I think if we wanted to improve sleep, if I bumped your calories up 500 and dropped your activity, I bet you'd see an improvement in sleep within the first week. Yeah.

1:07:42Sal Di Stefano:I want to share a little bit about what I'm going through with a client of mine right now, a personal client that I'm helping with reverse dieting. In fact, their calories were similar to where yours are at. And she's experienced the same thing that you did when you increased to 1900, which is this, you know, yeah, I got stronger. And some of these things, but I also feel like I just put body fat on, too. I don't feel like I put a lot of muscle on. And so what will happen and what I've explained to her is that we have to get healthy first before our body will start to respond and build muscle.

1:08:17Sal Di Stefano:The muscle thing kind of comes first. What you'll feel is, in other words, your body needed those calories so bad. It's just like, okay, we're on the right track of getting healthier. The first response that we know we're getting healthier is we see the strength go up in the gym. It's like, oh, wow, we're getting stronger. But it doesn't line up right away like, oh, I'm stronger. Therefore, I should be a bunch more muscle on my body because that's not what's happened for her either. She just put on some body fat, and her body's kind of getting to this healthier place of, well, this is the calories we needed.

1:08:45Sal Di Stefano:This is the body fat we needed. Now let's go build on that. And so muscle will tend to follow that. And it could take months later before you start to see the payoff from that increased calorie and that strength. And what ends up happening psychologically to people like yourself and like her who have that fear of like opening weight is you let yourself go up calorie wise. You don't see the muscle. You just see kind of body fat go on. And even though maybe the strength and some other signs are seeing good, you go back down because you're like, oh shit, I don't like what I look like. And so this is the cycle she's been in for a very long time before she's hired me.

1:09:20Sal Di Stefano:And a lot of the conversation that we have to have is like, stay the course. You're doing good. Like what we see happening in the gym, I know is we're heading the right direction. Just be patient. You've kept yourself so low in calories for so long. Your body isn't comfortable yet there and it'll take some time. And so I think you're in a very similar situation due to how long you've kept low calorie, high stress, a lot of stuff going on. And so, yeah, you had initial bump and you saw strength increase, but then maybe you didn't see the body composition that you wanted right away and probably bailed and went, oh, fuck this, went back down and freaked.

1:09:56Sal Di Stefano:Right. Which is this is very normal with someone who's kind of kept their calories where you're at. But this is what we need to do. my suggestion is because I know how difficult this I know how much work her and I are doing on the psychological level outsourcing this to somebody else would be something extremely valuable to somebody who's got as much on your plate that you trust to take you through that unless you feel confident that you can push through this but if you kind of know yourself like I felt like she did and which is why she because it wasn't a lack of knowledge she's got all the knowledge to do it it was Adam I need someone to just kind of be that voice that reminds me I'm heading the right path and confirm that.

1:10:35Sal Di Stefano:Does that resonate with you or do you feel like that's not you? No, I do think that I probably should get some help in that area. And I definitely, you know, despite all this going on and the kind of the calorie restriction over the years, you know, I think I'm kind of at the limit with what I can do with my own home weight setup that I have basically have, uh, you know, the, the home at home bench and the, in the dumbbells. Um, so I'm really looking at where do I go from here? I max out the weight that I have. I mean, I've done the reps slower and all, all the things that we do to make, make the workouts better.

1:11:14Um, so I think I am ready to kind of level up whatever I'm, I'm doing in terms of a workout. Oh yeah. That's helpful.

1:11:21Adam Schafer:If you've got a rack and a barbell, yeah, yeah, you'd be, It would be better options for that now, too. I don't know if you've explored PRX or anything like that.

1:11:27Sal Di Stefano:Have you seen PRX yet? Oh, it's super cool. All of us, that's what we all have personally at our own homes and inside here. It's a rack that folds into the wall, so it only sticks off the wall six inches. So you can still park your car in the garage and everything, and everything gets mounted on the wall. And you could also, like, they have this thing where you can literally pay it like a gym membership, too. So you can literally finance all of it, pay it like a membership, have it all shipped to your house, basically build an in-home garage gym for what it would cost to get a gym membership.

1:11:59Adam Schafer:We'll send you a link to that. Yeah, yeah.

1:12:01Sal Di Stefano:I'll have Doug send you a link.

1:12:02Adam Schafer:What it looks like, what Adam's explaining, what it generally looks like, and there's always, of course, there's differences in how people respond. But generally what it looks like is you start eating more, you get stronger, start feeling a little better, probably gain some body fat, but you start to feel better. Then you start to build muscle. Then that muscle boosts your metabolic rate. And then we start to see you get leaner. That's what it starts to look like. And I'll let you know, a man with your activity, what you're doing, your calories should be around 26, 2700. At least. At least. So you're well, you're so low, your body's really metabolically adapted.

1:12:39Adam Schafer:It's really learned how to burn as little calories as possible. and it's essentially at this point it's going to try to store extra calories as body fat because you've been for lack of a better term starving yourself for so long um now what a coach would do is walk you through that process ultimately what this looks like daniel uh at the end of this is you you don't track anymore you're not counting everything that goes in your mouth that's not so that that is not a healthy uh way to live uh with diet it's just kind of a stressful another thing you got to manage way to live. And it is very, uh, it is very possible.

1:13:14Adam Schafer:It is plausible. If you do this right, that at the end of this, you don't have to really track every once in a while, you're tracked to see where you're at, but really you just kind of eat in a way that's healthy. You stick to all natural foods, eat high protein. Uh, your metabolic rate adapts in a direction that makes, gives you much more flexibility. You feel good. Uh, you're walking around 13 % body fat, 14, but you feel good. And it's not something you have to like constantly watch and manage. and you don't feel like you're going to swing in one direction if you have a weekend with your wife somewhere or something like that.

1:13:41I think this energy that you have kind of moving towards barbell training is really going to benefit you. Oh, yeah. Just to push you more into just strength, pure strength, focus. You're fueling that. So now you're shuttling all these calories into prioritizing, like building muscle, and it's just going to have that compounding effect where then, yeah, we don't have to prioritize your diet, nutrition, be hyper-obsessed over that so much, and it really will pay off.

1:14:08Sal Di Stefano:That's actually a really, the fact that you shared that with us is exciting. Yeah. That's a huge plus. That's a lot of opportunity there. That you haven't gone and moved to barbell training and you've kind of maxed out your dumbbells at home is a really huge plus because that gives us a lot more to work with. And barbell training will be novel. And just that novel stimulus alone, your body will want to adapt and change. and feeding it properly at the same time will send a really nice signal to your body. And so that's a huge plus.

1:14:35Adam Schafer:Let me do this, Daniel. Do you have any of our programs?

1:14:39Sal Di Stefano:I haven't bought a program yet. I was looking at the – Anabolic? Which – I think it was a strong – Oh, sorry.

1:14:47Adam Schafer:Yeah, so do you like – so that's strongman-inspired training. Power lift would be good. Power lift. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to send you maps anabolic. Okay, great. There's a two-day-a-week and a three-day-a-week version on it. So do the three-day-a-week version. Uh, there's a dumbbell only option in there. Uh, but then of course the full program involves barbells. Once you get the barbells, do that. Uh, so I'll send that to you. Um, we're going to send you a link for PRX cause I think we have a discount, so we'll get you a little bit of a discount. And then I'm going to have a coach call you and you can determine if that is right for you.

1:15:19Adam Schafer:If you want somebody to coach you through a process of, you know, six months or whatever, where they kind of walk you through this process of, of, of reverse dieting. That's essentially what you're going to do. You're going to do what's called a reverse diet. And we're going to get your metabolism to adapt in a direction that's going to make this much more flexible. In other words, you'll be able to eat far more calories without gaining body fat. And that's, it's, it's not just possible. That's plausible. It'll probably happen for sure. If we do this right. And we've done it, we do it all the time with people and your calories are so low.

1:15:49Adam Schafer:I feel super confident that we're going to move in a direction where you're going to be like, wow, this is wild. I I can't believe I'm eating this much and I'm not gaining body fat. This is great.

1:15:57Sal Di Stefano:I'm going to really push you and encourage you to do that with the coach, just to give you some forecasting, what that looks like and what it's been like for her and I for like the last six months together is, you know, I keep trying to work her up on calories. And then when we have to do what we call diet breaks is I can see this, I can see the psychological part with her. And so, and that's really what, that's why it's not as simple as like, Oh, here's this blueprint. Follow this for the next six months is your coach will be in communication with you. And their job is to be able to see that in you.

1:16:23Sal Di Stefano:and you're going like, hey, man, this feels like this and I don't like it. And then it's like, okay, this is what we're going to do. We're going to switch it up. And so they'll be modifying the training. They'll be modifying the diet based off the feedback that you're given as you go through that process. And it looks different for every single person.

1:16:36Adam Schafer:Yeah, they'll modify the MAPS program for you too, so it's much more individualized.

1:16:40Sal Di Stefano:So I highly encourage that. I think it'll be very valuable to you. And then once you've gone through the process, you're going to be good to go.

1:16:48Adam Schafer:So you're going to get the PRX link, MAPS Anabolic for free. I'll have someone reach out to you and let's see if that works out. Thank you so much. Yeah. And you're right. There's a lot of kind of psychological fear around worsening up this. It's been 30 years. Yeah. I've been doing this.

1:17:05Sal Di Stefano:Daniel, I really appreciate you sharing that because I think men are terrible at talking about this. Like we tend to just kind of bury it. We'll figure it out ourselves. And so there's probably thousands of people listening right now that your vulnerability of sharing and talking about it is going to help. And so I just want to commend you for that because not a lot of people do it. Definitely not a lot of men do it. And so you sharing that, this is so common. We've been doing this for so long. I can't tell you how many clients I've had to help through this process. And it's not as simple as just go do these things.

1:17:37Sal Di Stefano:There's a psychological barrier there that a good coach will help somebody work through that. So appreciate you, bro. Lots of opportunity for you on the other side, man. You're going to do great. We got you. We got you. You got it. take it easy Daniel

1:17:49Adam Schafer:thank you yeah he's gotten his body to adapt to really low calories he's actually quite resilient to be able to do it that long seriously that's a wrestler mentality

1:17:59Sal Di Stefano:I know dude totally it's wild but I mean just

1:18:02Adam Schafer:people listening calories can get up quite a bit when you do this right but if you teach your body and train your body to survive on really low calories for long periods of time you gotta get yourself out of that your metabolism adapts

1:18:15Sal Di Stefano:in both directions and part of what you know we're going through right now and that's why I wanted to share that with them is it's a it's it's a long road I had we had a long conversation last night with my client and I was just saying like hey you know what I realize is that this is going to take longer than what we thought you know it's we it's been you've been underfed and over trained for so long I've had

1:18:37Adam Schafer:I had two two clients I trained just like that Adam and I actually had to tell them we're going

1:18:43Sal Di Stefano:and gain body fat first yeah that's actually the goal i mean this is what exactly what i i said to her was like listen you need to get comfortable with possibly 21 23 version of you which is uh so lean yeah which is you've never seen but yeah right but that for this person is like oh my god i've never seen that and it's like you need to get comfortable that and comfortable that for a while because what i'm seeing what i'm noticing is that your body has been in this place for so long it's going to take a while before it says it goes okay i'm safe yeah i can now respond the way and somebody who is 45 and has been eating 1500 to 1700 as a man since he was in high school is in the same boat it's like this isn't like you stream dieted for a year you've been in you've been in an extreme deficit and you've conditioned your body so much that he actually he doesn't even realize he he's he's adapted so well for so long that he doesn't even know that he doesn't feel great yet.

1:19:39Sal Di Stefano:And so it's like, you like wait until you get to this place and you'll feel a whole new version and you go, Oh shit, this is what, and so very similar process that we're going through. And it can be, the longer you have been in that, that place of low calorie and

1:19:55Adam Schafer:over-trained, over-stressed, the longer it takes to get out of it.

1:19:59Sal Di Stefano:And so just, you know, be prepared for that.

1:20:01Adam Schafer:But Hey, on the other side, dude, huge win, double the calories, double the

1:20:06Sal Di Stefano:strength, libido goes up, energy goes up, sleep will improve. Almost everything. Everything. And that is going to be the best example for the kids. Our next caller is Mathilde from Singapore. Hi, Mathilde. How you doing? Hello. It's nice to see you guys. How are you? Good. Good to have you on. You're a champion for staying up for us. Thank you. Thank you. How can we help you? Yeah. So I'm going to read my little email so that I don't lose track. So starting with a big thank you for all of your information. You've truly changed my life for the better. And I'm so grateful for all of you. So my question is about period recovery.

1:20:48I'm 29. I lost my period about two and a half years ago due to, I think, under eating and over exercising. Because at the time, I was doing Pilates every single day and walking 10K steps more every single day. while eating, I believe, less than 1 ,500 calories. So I think it was too much for my body. And since discovering your podcast two years ago, I started strength training and reverse dieting. I'm now following MAP-15. I merged the day together so that I can do four workouts with three exercises each because it's easier for my schedule. And I'm now at 2 ,800 calories from my reverse diet. And I'm continuing reversing.

1:21:39And I also lowered my steps to about 7 ,000 during the week a few months ago. It's often more on the weekends, but less during the week. My sleep is okay about eight hours per night, as well as my stress. So my question is that I feel like I'm doing everything right. my OBGYN also confirmed that nothing is wrong with my hormones I did all different testing so still my period is not back so what would you recommend should I continue my reverse diet yeah I don't know if you have any ideas oh yeah how long have you been doing this for now how long we've been doing the reverse diet it's been about one year consistently at first I was doing I was a bit still scared to gain weight so consistently for one year okay good okay and

1:22:29Adam Schafer:And your OB, you said, checked your hormones. You made sure everything was working okay. Okay. So I got to say this, obviously, we're not doctors, but I am going to speak out of experience. Okay. So I have trained a few women who lost their periods. A few of them gained it back within three to four months. I had one woman that took over a year and a half. I will say this, you seem to be doing everything right. Yeah. You're on the right path for sure. So I want to ask you this. how do you feel now versus before with the increased calories, the more appropriate exercise? How do you feel energy wise?

1:23:04Adam Schafer:How do you feel with everything else? Is there a big difference? Yeah, I feel so great, which is I think the most frustrating part is that I feel so great. I'm like, maybe I'm like stressed about the period not being back and then I over focus on it and It's like kind of a mental block, but that's the only thing I see because otherwise I feel super great. I mean, even workouts, I feel balanced. Good. So if you feel good and based off of what you're doing, it seems that you're doing everything well. Your calories went up significantly, which is phenomenal. I'm sure you're a lot stronger. You're doing everything right.

1:23:44Adam Schafer:And if you've checked your hormones and everything looks good, I think we just need to wait. Now, there may be some medical options to kick things into gear that you might want to check with your doctor if you're really like, look, I want this to happen now. What I don't think you need to do is any radical changes to your exercise or diet. No, definitely not. Yeah, that's all good. I don't think gaining or adding more calories will make it happen necessarily faster. I don't think changing your workouts will make it happen any faster. that's all great if you feel good and based off what you're eating your activity you're all you're doing the stuff that i would uh that my expertise is in you're doing all that stuff right i'm curious

1:24:22Sal Di Stefano:have you um have you had your body fat checked at all during this process the last year like do you know where you were where you're at now like kind of give me an idea what that journey's been i did it at the start i was at 16 and now i'm at 21 okay okay so great so this so So if you started at 16 and you're just now at 21, which means you were probably at 17, then 18. So you probably have only been over 20 % for a little while, right? I don't think you've probably been over 20%. You're just now probably where I would want you. I would want you over 20 % body fat for that to happen. And so give it some time now that you're here.

1:25:03Sal Di Stefano:I feel like you're in a really good place. What you're doing training, what you're doing exercise-wise, where your body fat percentage is. to me like now the clock really starts of like how long it's been till the period come back because i think where you're at now and what you're doing now is perfect but you came all the way from 16 which was so lean your your body needed more body fat well it's also to mention

1:25:23Adam Schafer:matilda if you don't mind me going through your question a little bit if that's okay you mentioned in there that you had uh osteopenia what was that did you have any no that was a different question when you were eating very little calories how long did you do that for I did for a long time, I think, because, yeah, I think more than one year, one year and a half. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I mean, and I'm glad Adam asked you about body fat percentage. And you could look up the data on this, but fertility seems to be best, in my experience with my clients, the women that I've trained, in the mid-20s is typically when things start to – The female body likes to have a little bit of body fat before it says, hey, we can have a baby.

1:26:06Adam Schafer:And you sat at really low body fat percentage for a long time. But you're doing everything right on our end. Yeah. So, I mean, the other conversation would be with your doctor, is there anything medically I could do if you're really in a hurry? But I think if you just stay on this path, I mean, you're doing everything right. Oh, you will.

1:26:21Sal Di Stefano:Because you really only have been over 20 % for probably, I don't know, a few months maybe, right? Maybe three to four. Right. So when we were at 16, way too low still. 17, way too low still. 18, way too low still. 19, we're getting closer. 20, now we're in a good place. 21, doing really good. So you're really just now experiencing kind of where a healthier place. You could still even afford to go up another percent or two to Sal's point. So I think where you're at calorie-wise is great. You'll probably still maybe put a little bit more on. Maybe if you're hungry. I mean, if you're hungry, I'd feed you more.

1:26:54Sal Di Stefano:If you're satisfied, I'd keep you where you're at. So that's kind of how I would advise that is, hey, if you feel like you can eat more, I go ahead and let you eat more because we can afford to put another percent or two of body fat on it.

1:27:04Adam Schafer:Are you taking any supplements? I take creatine and magnesium at night. Okay. I would take a multivitamin. Okay. So they have all of them. And then you could also get your nutrient levels checked. Sometimes suboptimal nutrient levels can cause issues, vitamin D being one of them. And so you can get those all tested. but a multivitamin is a very inexpensive thing to take. It's typically good for most people. I like that you're taking creatine. How much are you taking? Five milligrams. Perfect. You mean five grams, I'm assuming. Yeah, five grams. I would add a multivitamin to what you're doing. Stay the course.

1:27:43Adam Schafer:Yeah, you know. You're doing great. Let me have you back on in three months. Yeah. Okay, great.

1:27:47Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, yeah.

1:27:47Adam Schafer:Keep it going. You're doing great. Yeah, I mean, you're doing everything right. Yeah, yeah. And the fact that you feel so much better is such good news.

1:27:53Sal Di Stefano:And I know it feels like it's been a long time because it's been a year since you've really started this journey, but it's only been a few months since you've been in that really good place. So now be patient. Don't stress about it. It's going to come back. You're going to be fine. Keep going where you're going. You're doing great. Okay. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much.

1:28:10Adam Schafer:We'll have you on again in a few months. Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. It's really frustrating. I can hear and I can tell, and I've worked with people like this where it's like, what's going on? I'm doing everything right. Yeah. So the woman that I had that I trained, where it took, I think it was like a year and a half before her period came back. Now, she was trying to have a baby. She did not want to do fertility stuff. She wanted to see if she could do it. Was she nutrient deficient at all? No, we had to get her body fat percentage up. That's my guess. It was just, we were at a long time.

1:28:39Sal Di Stefano:It's hard to see because she was kind of dark, but I'm like, she looks really lean to me still. And so I'm like, if she's been eating that many calories for the last year, I bet she was really.

1:28:49Adam Schafer:She reversed dieted for a year. I don't think it's been up that whole time.

1:28:52Sal Di Stefano:Well, yeah, but my point is that she's been reverse dieting for a year and gaining. And if she looks that lean right now, I bet that was why I asked. I figured she came from a very lean place. So 16, way too low. 17, way too low. 18, way too low. You know what I'm saying? So she's only probably been experiencing 20%, 21 % body fat for maybe a month or two. So at that point, it's just like, yeah, now give yourself, And I bet you less than a year she gets her. Well,

1:29:22Adam Schafer:the one client I worked with, and again, it's one person. There's such an individual variance when it comes to stuff like this, but I distinctly remember at that point when the frustration was kind of getting there, we're like, Hey, I think we just need to get fatter. Yeah. And I remember the look on her face was like, what? And so let's get fatter. For sure. And I believe we got her body fat percentage up into the mid twenties. And then things started happening. She got pregnant. Yeah. Our next caller is Christina from Missouri. Hi, Christina. Christina. Hello. Wow. Hi. It's mainly a programming question.

1:29:56I'm 51. I've been trying to do this myself. I got a notebook that I write down stuff. I have an arm day, a leg day, a glute day. And I just started listening to you guys about six to nine months ago. And so I started actually writing stuff down. And I'm not progressing for what I'm doing. For what I'm doing, I feel like I should be a lot more.

1:30:36i'm really nervous no worries don't worry don't worry how long you've been doing this programming for yourself uh well this time around uh it's been about a year i had they call it it's it's not a dexta scan but it's sky you or something like that okay does that sound right

1:30:56Adam Schafer:i'm not familiar but if you don't mind christina can i go through your question a little bit that you wrote in yeah it says that you uh you had a broken foot and uh osteopenia so you had some bone density issues yeah and this was how long ago uh probably three years ago i was lifting three to four years ago and i uh i have some stomach issues also so i started doing intermittent and fasting made me feel better. But then I lost all my energy. It went down and then I hurt myself and broke my foot. And then I just quit doing everything for a while. This past, it's been probably about a year now that I bought me a squat rack and a bench and I got a bunch of dumbbells and plates and I started trying to get back at it.

1:31:53and I started listening to you guys. And so I was at 1800 calories. Then I bumped it up to 2000. And then I was at 2100. And now I'm easily 23, 2400 calories a day. And I'm starting to keep track of my steps because where I work at, I sit all day mostly. So every chance I get now, because I'm aware of it, I'm walking around building and I'm hitting about 10 ,000 average steps a day now. Yeah, I don't know if you can see what I do, but like arm day, I've been stuck with the same weights, you know, 15, 20 pound weights. And like then my leg day is I do bar squats and I was doing like five to seven reps, just the bar.

1:32:50Yeah.

1:32:50Adam Schafer:Okay. And so your strength training, how many days a week is that? Well, six days. I do two days of arm, two days of legs, and two days of glute. Okay. And I get up at 4 a.m. Yeah. Monday through Friday because it's easier for me because I have no distractions. You know, there's nobody else's up. And I can easily get up at 4, dedicate an hour, you know, five days a week. weekends come and it's like i sleep in and my son's up and then it's like you know i got things i gotta do around the house and it's like working out it's it's it's really hard on the weekends you're probably doing too much yeah sounds like it yeah an hour five days a week is uh is too much for most people for strength training and in the past with the osteopenia if you were strength training before and you had osteopenia that usually means you were really under eating for a long time?

1:33:50I know I was. I was down to 112 pounds at one, and I'm 5 '11".

1:33:55Adam Schafer:So it's going to take some time to start to reverse the bone density. Bone density takes a little while, but if you get stronger and you eat enough, over time you see the bone density increase like clockwork. But your strength training program is just way too much. I would never have, I would not have you work out in the gym, lifting weights five days a week.

1:34:14Sal Di Stefano:No, if you were in the gym five days a week, we'd have you on MAPS 15 where you do two exercises. That's it. 15, 20 minutes you're out.

1:34:20Adam Schafer:So we got two options for you. If you like to do the longer workouts, I can send you a program that's like three days a week. If you like to do where you get up and do something every day, then I can send you Mass 15, which is two lifts a day. And I think you'll see strength gains right out the gates with that. Well, you know, they say you're supposed to do so many sets a week. How do you do everything? No. Nope. I know what you're referring to. You're referring to the studies that'll say, you know, 12 to 20 sets and X amount of volume. Do you know who those studies are done on?

1:34:49Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. Average college men that are eating 3 ,000 plus calories.

1:34:53Adam Schafer:College aged males. Males. Do you know how many clients I've trained where that was the ideal set range? Just not. Probably like 10%, 5%. Yeah. MAPS 15, if you follow that, keep feeding yourself. I'd like to see you increase your calories a little more. I think you'll see strain gains within the first few weeks. More than 2 ,400. You're at 24 right now? Well, I've been, I was at 21, and then here lately I have been up, and it's about 2 ,400. How long have you been at 24? Maybe a month or two. All right. Let's keep it at 24, 2 ,500, follow MAPS 15. Yep. And I think by week two or three, you'll see your strength go up.

1:35:39I thought about the anabolic, but you don't think that'd be. We could do that, too.

1:35:45Adam Schafer:You could.

1:35:45Sal Di Stefano:The difference is that's only three days in the gym for an hour, and then that's all you do. If you like, like Sal said, getting up every morning, that's kind of your routine, then you would do MAPS 15, but you just do the two exercises. That's it. So it really depends on you. If you prefer just a three-day-a-week routine, we could do anabolic. If you prefer getting up every day.

1:36:05Adam Schafer:You have to just walk or even do some mobility the other days. Pretty much. I honestly like MAPS 15 better for you, Christina. I think that's going to give you better results. Yeah, you got to discipline getting up anyways. I think it'd be good for you. Yep. And I'm telling you right now, by week two or three, you'll see your strength go up. Yep. Okay. Just got to get that recovery. I'm willing to try something different because this ain't working for me. Yeah, no. Let's do it. I'm going to send it to you right now. Okay. And then you know what I want you to go ahead? Rotate different programs and then.

1:36:35Sal Di Stefano:We'll stick to that for now. And then we'll circle back with you.

1:36:38Adam Schafer:Here's what I'm going to do. Mass 15 will take you three. I think it's a three-month program. Yeah, yeah. So follow that. Let me have you back on in three months. We'll touch base again.

1:36:46Sal Di Stefano:That was good. All right. Very good. Thanks for calling in. Yeah. Keep those cows there. Okay. All right. Thank you. See you, Christina.

1:36:56Adam Schafer:You know, this is where studies get people so messed up. Of course. 51-year-old woman. Stuck on that. Trying to work out. Oh, I got to do it. Osteopenia. I got to do 18 sets per body part. She's hitting everything twice a week.

1:37:07Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

1:37:07Adam Schafer:One-hour workouts, five days a week. Way too much.

1:37:09Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

1:37:10Adam Schafer:I'm going to tell you right now. I'm 47. I've been lifting weights forever. I'm on hormones. And five days a week of that kind of routine, I'd have to take breaks a lot because it would be too much for me. I'm sure it was osteopenia that got her really shook. It's where it's like, I got to work out a lot more. Yeah, got to do the right amount. Our next caller is Olivia from Texas. Hi, Olivia. How you doing, Olivia? Hi, guys. Thank you for having me on. Yeah, how can we help you? Of course. So essentially, I want to get one of your guys' workout programs. And I just kind of want your advice and your guidance based on my past and my current goals of which one to get.

1:37:45Right now, I'm kind of between push-pull legs and muscle mommy, but I also want to have the ability to do my workout classes with my friends. I like to do Pilates sometimes, or I play a lot of soccer. I like to swim in the summer, so kind of just finding a good balance between it all, because in the past, I didn't really have much of that balance when it came to workouts and over-exercising, all that. um so i really want to find a routine that i know won't overtrain my body and that will be sustainable long term uh and then i have a couple questions on nutrition and stuff uh maybe let me

1:38:20Sal Di Stefano:you guys yeah let me let me ask you a little bit more about like a like what's a typical week um what how many days would you do like a pilates class play soccer do other things like is it two days every week you're doing something outside of what would be traditional weight training or is it three? Like what's a, what's a normal week look like? Um, I, a normal week I'll do like two leg days in the gym and then I'll do a back and biceps day and a push day. And then I play soccer once on the weekends with friends and then I'll take a Pilates class also somewhere in that week. Um, and then maybe I'll go on a run or like some other, like maybe go for a swim.

1:39:01So So soccer, some other sort of cardio, and then four days of lifting, and then one day of Pilates.

1:39:06Sal Di Stefano:And the run and the swim, is that typically like an hour worth of swimming and running? Is it a pretty act or more? Yeah, I'd say like this morning I was just going to go for a three-mile run, and then I ended up doing eight. So it kind of varies. Okay, that's helpful. But I'd say it's probably about an hour of cardio. Okay, that's helpful.

1:39:24Adam Schafer:And how long do you play soccer for when you play? At least an hour. It's an hour as well. Okay. And what was the sport you played when you were, it says here you played a lot of sports, I'm assuming in college? Yes, I played lacrosse, basketball, soccer, water polo, tennis, all in high school. And then when I got, I just graduated from college. But in college, I also did a bunch of intramural sports. So football, soccer. I was kind of, in college, I was playing probably three to four sports a week. and then I was also running outside of that and lifting and it was a lot but I've been listening to you guys and taking notes and knowing that you know I was just doing too much and it wasn't really beneficial or adding to my life it was kind of just taking away from it so I've started doing a lot of research and scaling down on all the cardio and sports but I I enjoy them that's the hard thing um and I know that I want to maintain muscle build muscle so I'm kind of putting an emphasis on that.

1:40:25Uh, but I still, I don't know. I, I still think back sometimes, like maybe if I am training less that I'm going to lose some of my gains or not be as fit. And I know that that's not what you guys preach at all. So I appreciate everything I've learned from you guys, but I kind of just want to have like a set way of going about it so that I know I'm structuring it the right way. Um, and not kind of going back. If that makes sense.

1:40:51Sal Di Stefano:We have perfect programs for you, but they're not the two that you were looking at. So even that's too much volume for what you want to do. So like one of our MAPS 15 programs, any program in that series. So we have a MAPS 15 Muscle Mommy, so if that appeals to you. But with the three days of kind of sport activity or classes taking, you really don't need that much training. If you're going to do a full hour workout, it'd only be like one day a week. That's all you would need. And you'd build muscle. You'd get strong. And that's enough activity to keep you fit and lean.

1:41:27Adam Schafer:Yeah, there's a difference between what you can tolerate. Because you can obviously tolerate a lot. You've got an athletic background. There's a difference between that and following a program that's going to allow your body room to adapt and build and improve performance. Because right now you obviously can tolerate what you're doing. Like you can do it, but you're looking to improve. And so we've got to scale back a little bit. And the strength training, from what I hear from you, Olivia, like you really like to be active. Yeah. That's the priority. You have fun being active. Otherwise, you wouldn't do it.

1:41:59Adam Schafer:So we don't need to make the strength training the center focus of your life. Compliment it. Yeah, it's going to be complimentary. And so a MAPS 15 program is perfect. Do you have, is gym access easy for you? Because it's like a five-day-a-week routine, but you're doing very little in the gym. Yeah, I live in an apartment complex right now. We have a gym, but it's all the basic things. So I, yeah, just dumbbells and then a couple machines, but, um, yeah, I'm going to send you maps 15 muscle mommy. That's your program. Yep. You should start to see some strength gains. You'll have more energy when you go play soccer and swim.

1:42:33Adam Schafer:Here's what I don't want you to do. I don't want you to get all crazy and ramp up your swimming and you're running suddenly. And then let's talk about your food, your nutrition. I see here in your, in your, uh, email that you're eating about 2 ,400 calories a day. yeah that's when I was I had to track it for one of my nutrition classes and so that was maybe six months ago when I did that but that was when I was also doing a lot more exercise so I was a lot hungrier um and now I haven't tracked it in a while but I think I'm a little bit less than that um but I definitely I always just look at my protein and I I weigh I fluctuate like between 130, 132.

1:43:13So I kind of aim for 135 to 140 grams of protein since I'm trying to build muscle. But yeah, I kind of wanted to know what your guys' thoughts were on that or how I should change my nutrition.

1:43:23Adam Schafer:Yeah. I like what you're doing. Yeah. I think probably around 2 ,500 calories would be great. Yeah.

1:43:28Sal Di Stefano:I would say keep, if you don't want to get crazy into weighing, measuring everything, keep doing what you're doing with the protein. But I would also encourage you if you're hungry to eat because even if you're less than 2 ,400 calories, you're training, lifting weights. It looks like you have a job where you're on your feet probably moving around a lot too. And then you also have those three days activity. That's lower on the calorie end. And so if you feel your appetite increase, I would tell you to feed it. So do what you're doing with the protein.

1:43:55Adam Schafer:Definitely don't try to restrict.

1:43:56Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, don't restrict. Like that's not what, like if you, so do the protein thing. And if you feel hungry, have another one of those high protein meals. Like just eat another meal. Like I would, that would be the advice. Because there's a good chance that if you're only eating 2 ,200 calories, we hit the appropriate amount of strength training with the activity you have, you should feel appetite increase. And I don't want you to restrict from that because that'll keep you from building the muscle you want to build. That's right.

1:44:18Adam Schafer:And here's what you'll feel when you start following Mass 15 Muscle Mommy. You'll have more energy and better performance on the days that you play soccer and swim and run. And you'll also see some strength gains probably within the first couple weeks. Okay. Yeah. And if appetite increases. And how long is this program? Three months. Okay. Because I have, I'm actually going to start training for a Spartan Ultra Marathon in Southern California. So. An ultra?

1:44:46Sal Di Stefano:I'm glad you told us now at the end. An ultra marathon? Yeah. It's a 60K and then also has the Spartan obstacles in it. So I know that I'm going to be upping my running probably after I finish this program. Okay. And so that's just going to add a lot. But I probably, how much should I eat then? A lot more. A lot more. Yeah, a lot more.

1:45:07Adam Schafer:Do you have a training protocol for that? No. Every time I train for a race, I just eat more. But I definitely probably end up overtraining because I don't back down with my lifting ever. I just end up doing more cardio. All right. So here's what I – and this is a Spartan race with the run. Okay. What's the name of our program? OCR. Okay. Here's what I'm going to do. Do Muscle Mommy 15 right now. when you're ready to start training for the Spartan race, right now we're going to send you a discount code for another program that's literally designed for obstacle course racing. Really? Yes. Oh, okay.

1:45:42Adam Schafer:So you could just follow our program. Yes. That's it. Literally designed for Spartan races. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Okay, I'm excited. Yeah, we wrote it with Amelia Boone, who's one of the winningest female athletes in our show. Yeah. So that program, after you're done with Muscle Mommy 15, Doug's going to send a discount code. Just follow MAPS OCR. That's your program for – And don't add anything to it, please.

1:46:03Sal Di Stefano:Only you add is calories. And eat more. Eat more. Like feed your body.

1:46:08Adam Schafer:But I'm curious.

1:46:09Sal Di Stefano:I mean, it'd be exciting to hear how you do through this. Just going to the muscle mommy and feeding yourself and the appropriate amount of strength training. I think you're going to see great results from that alone. Okay. Thank you guys so much. You got it. Yeah, that was kind of. Oh, I just had like an extra question about creatine. I think you guys have said you think good things about creatine. Oh, yeah. Take it. and then any brands in particular

1:46:33Adam Schafer:yeah I like Legion I'll send you their link yeah they got really good source of cray team yep okay awesome that's actually the one I'm taking right now so that's great oh you're set

1:46:43Sal Di Stefano:you're all good at a girl yeah alright alright thank you guys so much you got it thank you good luck alright thank you bye yeah that's good

1:46:53Adam Schafer:she's gonna move in the right direction I think she'll get great results and I'm glad she threw in at the end yeah ultra marathon

1:46:59Sal Di Stefano:she's very sporty oh by the way You know, typical athlete, right? Typical athlete. And you said it really well with, yeah, you can tolerate all that. And so that's the hardest part with an athlete's mindset is they've been conditioned to be able to tolerate a ton. Therefore, they assume that, oh, I can do it. Or maybe I need to do more. That's the athletic mindset. It's like, I'm not doing enough, maybe. It's like even the programs that she was looking at weren't appropriate with three other days of high activity. Like good activity. Yeah, yeah. She's running eight miles. Pilates is not so crazy intense.

1:47:38Sal Di Stefano:But soccer is. But soccer and swimming.

1:47:40Adam Schafer:And I would assume she's not playing, like, she's playing soccer hard. No, and rarely, if you're playing pickup games

1:47:46Sal Di Stefano:on the weekend, rarely it's an hour. Whenever I play pickup basketball, it's normally multiple hours that you're playing for. And so she's probably playing for a minute. There's nothing wrong with, like, you know, that mentality. You just have to corral it by having complimentary training.

1:48:01Adam Schafer:Not to mention when you play a sport, you have seasons. You're in season and off season. When athletes come out of that, playing sports, their mentality is in season all the time. So I'm not saying that Olivia could possibly ramp things up for a season, which she's going to do for OCR. She's going to do it for Spartan Racing. But that's not how she trains all the time. She will burn herself out. Look, if you like this show, 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.

1:48:40The RGB Super Bundle includes MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, and MAPS Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. 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