2941: Are Artificial Sweeteners Bad for You | The Real Problem Nobody Talks About

19:03Sal Di Stefano:I've only had great success with it with my competitors. And that's a completely different category of people. When they are looking for, because they're in this deprived state all the time, and they're looking for some sort of a treat. Right, yeah. And so we use something like, you know, artificially sweetened jelly on rice cakes. Yeah. You know, or we use a Diet Coke or something like that. And it gives them this, you know, rush. A small win. Yeah. And that person, again, they're weighing and tracking everything. And let me tell you, they still went to bed hungry. And they still went to bed under calories.

19:35Sal Di Stefano:So the average person, though, they have that. They go, oh, man, it's so good. Then they have something else. So it's, yeah, it's just never worked well for regular clients.

19:44Adam Schafer:And I'll add this lastly, okay? Yes, although the studies show generally safe, aside from the things that we talked about that affect things like behavior around food and palatability and how your brain adapts to that constant signal of sweetness. Besides all that, yeah, generally safe based on the studies. But here's the deal. And I can make this as 100%. It's a fact. It's not as safe as water. it's just not as like yeah like we don't know what we don't know now i'm not one of those guys that's like hyper fear-mongering like dinner don't ever have any chemical because we never know what we don't know you know i'm more like that with things that are new with things that haven't been studied for decades but this is also a fact we just don't know what we don't know uh we've been drinking water since day one we we know what it does our body's made up of it we will never be able to say a diet soda is as safe as water.

20:38Adam Schafer:And we just don't know what we don't know. We don't know if it affects the microbiome in some way that affects something else. We don't know if it affects fertility a generation later. We don't know if it acts within another chemical that we get from something else. And both of them individually don't seem to cause an issue. But when they seem to combine, we seem to have some problems. We don't know what we don't know. And so the people that are like, it's perfectly safe no you can't possibly say that by the way water is very safe but that's not perfectly safe either you could drink so much water you die so so nothing is in that category but definitely water is water and these zero cal and the reason why i'm saying this is the fitness community especially the the like the aesthetically focused fitness community if something is zero calorie they place it in the same category as other foods or health because it's zero calorie it's a health food which no that's just that's just not true well to the water point um a lot

21:34Sal Di Stefano:so we talk a lot about how protein so many people under consume protein i had a lot of clients that under consume water yeah and more often than not uh somebody who was the three to four zero calorie you know you know drinker that every single day uh were the ones that were underwater they had three or four diet Cokes or artificially sweetened drinks. We're dehydrated. But then drank no water whatsoever to the point you made that like the poor clients like, I just can't stand water by itself. I know. It is wild, but it's also, I mean, I remember when we first started working with Element, it was one of the points that you made.

22:11Sal Di Stefano:What's so great about it is it's so, I mean, it's so good for you as far as the hydration piece to it, but it also tastes so good. You get people who aren't big water drinkers using it.

22:22Adam Schafer:I prefer moving them that direction as well. Although water is water. Let's just go with water. Speaking of Ellen, by the way, I got to tell you guys a little hack that I did with it. So if you're not familiar, Ellen's an electrolyte powder, and it's got about 1 ,000 milligrams of sodium per serving, which is good. Which, by the way, when they first did that was kind of radical because everybody's afraid of sodium. But the truth is if you need electrolytes, you need sodium. You need a decent amount of sodium. So if you need electrolytes, that's what you want. But anyway, little hack is people take a pre-workout before they lift, mix it with Element.

22:54Adam Schafer:You're going to have a big jug of pre-workout with water. Throw Element in the extra sodium with the water. It will give you way better pump. Like way better. In fact, I'm shocked. You've mixed them? I throw them together. It's so good.

23:09Sal Di Stefano:So do you use a pre-workout that's flavorless?

23:11Adam Schafer:No, all flavor. It doesn't matter. Really? Yeah, it's good. Oh, my God. No, it tastes great. Really? Yeah, it tastes great. I don't know if I trust your truth. It is good. Really? But I'll say this. I am shocked.

23:21Sal Di Stefano:Blueberry with wild cherry. Well, I'm shocked. He's definitely the guy when you were kids that did the 10 Slurpee flavors all in one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You still were the Koba Koba. It was way worse than that. Blueberry that mixed all the Slurpee. It never tastes good. There was always that kid who did that, who mixed all the Slurpee flavors. No, it's not good. It looks like poop. Yeah, it does. It comes out of crappy flavor.

23:42Adam Schafer:No, so a lot of water and sodium. 30 minutes before your workout will give you the best pump ever. And we've talked about that for a long time. So I've used Element pre-workout, but just mix it with your pre-workout and you'll get one of the best pumps. In fact, I'm shocked, and I guarantee someone's going to do this now, I don't know why pre-workout companies don't just add 1 ,000 milligrams of sodium to their formula. You know why they should, Justin? Besides the fact that you'll get a better pump, sodium increases palatability. so if a pre-workout company adds sodium to their I wonder what the theory is on that it's salt, sugar, and fat are the main components in palatability

24:22Sal Di Stefano:I know but I wonder what the theory is on why a pre-workout wouldn't have a bunch of sodium

24:28Adam Schafer:like fear maybe I mean that still lingers dude yeah it's interesting there are people that are a little like leery although I tell you what dude the pre-workout formula market I don't think anyone would really care about. I don't think. That's what I'm saying. The amount of milligrams of caffeine.

24:46Sal Di Stefano:If you got hypertension, you shouldn't have. They're not marketing to healthy. No. Yeah, if you have any hypertension. Yeah, if you have hypertension, you shouldn't take a 300 milligram caffeine.

24:54Adam Schafer:It's probably a bad.

24:55Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I wonder what the reason is that. We had.

24:58Adam Schafer:But yeah, sodium is part of palatability. So for pre-workout, added a thousand. Not only would people get a better pump, and it's cheap. It would barely touch their margins.

25:05Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

25:06Adam Schafer:But the flavor would be better without changing anything else.

25:08Sal Di Stefano:I wish I had this when I was playing football. It was just like one of those things. I would always hydrate like really well and make sure that I, you know, I drank, you know, quite a few days before like one of these like big games where I knew I was going to sweat like a ton. But, dude, I wanted to bring this up because there's a guy in our backyard that he's 47 years old. He just signed up and he's on San Jose City College. He just like made it on their like junior college team and he's playing football. 47? At 47 years old. What position? I don't know what position. I think it's defense. Really?

25:43Sal Di Stefano:Yes, I think so. I mean, anything but kicker is probably really impressive at that age. He's playing real football. And, of course, he's making kind of a social media. He's kind of documenting it and stuff. And he's like, dude, and you just look at his fingers all busted up. He's got all these bruises and all this stuff. And I'm just like, wow. He's awesome.

26:01Adam Schafer:That's a year from now. There's such a difference running into something real hard when you're 20.

26:07Sal Di Stefano:yeah that's kind of cool bro it is cool and i applaud him how did you find him or meet him or what happened oh no this was on like a bleacher report uh thing that i i read and then they highlighted him because it was you know it's that's kind of a crazy story to be 47 and like getting after it now he had a huge like he i guess in high school he was like you know a great athlete and then like had all these injuries and it prevented him from playing and so i don't know I guess he got a wild hair. I mean, I think that makes it even crazier, right? Cause most people, you get all those injuries and then you hang it up and then you, you definitely don't come back at 47 and then you're going to play at the competitive collegiate level.

26:47Sal Di Stefano:I mean, that's wild. I was just having, I was just,

26:50Adam Schafer:I was just talking about one of my buddies about this. We were talking about the, you guys, I think you shared one. It's like these short clips on social media where it's like 20 year old guy coming out of the back of his truck and he jumps down and it's like, Oh, 48 year old guy. And you know, he's like, he's like turning around, trying to figure out how you can get down without jumping. He sits on his butt and slides down. Slides down. Still twists his ankle. Yeah. We were talking about that. I was, one of my buddies was like, dude, he goes, I'm working out. You know, I'm starting to feel good.

27:15Adam Schafer:I want you to go play pickleball. He goes, I didn't even get to play. I'm like, what happened? He goes, I bent over to pick up the racket and I turned and popped my back. I had to stop. You're laughing so hard.

27:25Sal Di Stefano:Bro, so embarrassing, the conversations that I feel like we had. So this weekend I had my fantasy football party at my house and stuff like that. my buddies and I, my best friend and I, my best friend is, he's coaching his kids' soccer team now. And he's in good, like, he's a good shape guy. Like, but he's not like a workout guy. Like, he just maintains his weight, eats relatively healthy. He's very active. And so he always maintains, like, good weight. And he probably walks around at 15 % body fat without exercise. Oh, okay. And he's always been, like, athletic. He does outdoorsy stuff and everything like that.

27:57Sal Di Stefano:But he's just not a workout guy. Or he hasn't been for a long time. He used to work out when he used to live with me. and he's motivated to want to get back in the gym and he's telling me that he was coaching the soccer game. He's like, bro, he's like, man, he goes, I picked up the soccer ball and I threw it across the field and he goes, I can't get rid of this pain now in my elbow. I'm like, dude, you can't. Sting power. Yeah, you can't do that stuff. It's something we talk about all the time. We talk about it on the show all the time and it's like you hear it.

28:21Adam Schafer:It's like the last thing you want to do

28:23Sal Di Stefano:is throw or do anything remotely explosive at that age when you haven't trained for it. You just can't do it anymore, dude, or else absolutely shoulder elbows done. I almost want to go to one of those games, dude. I would totally. You're not just like watching. I mean, you got to keep us updated because I would love to follow. I mean, that's an interesting story to me. Yeah, I will. To be able to, at 47 years old, and to play at that level, too. This isn't like rec ball. No, I mean, in junior college, they're really trying, you know,

28:49Adam Schafer:to prove themselves because, you know, obviously they're trying to get like into another college. Think of the respect he's going to get with all the other players on the team. They'll probably be like, let's go, dude. Yeah.

28:58Sal Di Stefano:I mean, maybe, yeah. Or do they all call them unk?

29:02Adam Schafer:I'm sure they call them unk, but.

29:04Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I know. It's funny because that actually was the college I used to, like I was trying so hard to get my speed to increase and get my 40 time better. And I worked with their track and field team. And so I remember that exclusively. I was like, I was doing everything, all the parachutes. I was like running in their pool, everything I could do just to shave that little bit of time off. And oh my God, dude. It's one of those realizations you're like, dude, I can only get so far. So more power to this guy if he thinks he still has it. I mean, making the team at that age would be impressive. I mean, just him being a little.

29:42Sal Di Stefano:I can't believe it. Yeah. I mean, that's impressive in itself, regardless if he gets that much playing.

29:47Adam Schafer:I had one of those realizations again recently because I've told you guys about my brother. It doesn't work out. It just doesn't work out. He went to the gym. I finally did a workout. as I did 12 reps of 225 on the bench. Oh, my God. Get out of here, bro. Why'd you get all the genetics? All the genetics. He got all the genetics. Just shows up and just starts cranking up. Yeah, whatever, dude. I'm just going to crush it.

30:09Sal Di Stefano:Do you ever think, though, because I think about this, that's why I'm grateful for all of my childhood. It's just that I believe I am who I am today because all the— Of course. Right? Of course. And so would you have been him? You know what I'm saying? Like no drive to really lift because it's like, yeah, I could go lift whenever I want to.

30:27Adam Schafer:I don't know, but I just know what's the potential. Of course. Of course. And I don't know how to, I was like telling them like, because we did, we made sauce this weekend. So you know my family every year.

30:34Sal Di Stefano:Oh, you guys did that? Yeah, we made sauce. Oh, you guys did that this year? Yeah, yeah, we did that. Oh, I thought you were thinking about not doing it.

30:39Adam Schafer:We did it last year. We didn't do it, but this year we did it. And so we were all there. Who hosted it? My mom. Your mom. It's always my mom's house. Okay, it always is. And so we were all together. Can we steal some? No, what are you going to bring us? I want to try this, dude. I just forget.

30:49Sal Di Stefano:I've never got a jar of sauce, bro. I just forget. Never. I'm sorry. What is the point of having Italian friends who bottles his sauce by the hundreds? There's other benefits. I brought you guys, Courtney, to sourdough. Having an Italian friend aside from sauce.

31:02Adam Schafer:You guys call me in the middle of the night and need some help with something. You know who to call it. But anyway, we were all hanging out. I was just, I'm like motivating my brother. And so my buddy shows up and I'm like, this guy got all the genetics. And I'm telling him, he's like, you don't even work out when you do that? He's like, no. And then my brother's trying to talk crap. You know, he's like, oh, my brother Sal is like a four-cylinder twin quad turbo. He's like, I'm a VA. You know, he loves to say that. And I'm like, dude, if you just, can you just do what I tell you for like, just for like six months, bro?

31:26Adam Schafer:Yeah. I just want to see what would happen for like six months. Experiment, yeah. He's like, nah, I'm all right. Oh, God, come on, dude. Doesn't care.

31:33Sal Di Stefano:Come on, guys. Doesn't care enough.

31:34Adam Schafer:Doesn't care, dude.

31:35Sal Di Stefano:Oh, my God. It's painful, dude.

31:37Adam Schafer:But we did 1 ,000 pounds of tomatoes. 1 ,000 pounds. Whoa. Those Roma tomatoes? Yes. Yeah. So my dad picked them all up and then - Where do you guys get them from? He goes down. It's like, it's on the way to Sacramento. I forgot the town.

31:53Sal Di Stefano:Is there a, I would think that there's like a place that you always go to?

31:57Adam Schafer:So we used to, so the tradition was, and this is not just my family. A lot of Italian families do this every year that make sauce. But originally when my mom was a kid and they did it, they would go to farms and pick the tomatoes themselves. Wow. So they'd pick the tomatoes, then bring them back, and then they'd do the whole process. Now we just go and buy the boxes. So my dad went, I don't remember what town it was, but he went and picked up 1 ,000 pounds of tomatoes, brings them back. And then it's like an assembly line. And I always do the same thing. I'm always the guy that washes and cuts the tomatoes.

32:29Adam Schafer:So we have these huge barrels that we fill with water, and you move them in each barrel of water so it gets successively cleaner. And then you've got to cut them in half. Then you bring them inside, and we have this machine that you stuff the tomato. that oh no then they cook the tomatoes then you take the cooked tomatoes and you put them in a machine and the machine spits out the the skin and the seeds and spits out the sauce and then they there's some other stuff that they do with the jars i never i was never been involved with that so i'm not quite sure but then they put the sauce that's usually the women are doing that part seriously so we're all we all compartmentalized yeah it is and then they and then what they do is they put the sauce in the jars and then boil the jars and it seals them and then yeah we have like tons and tons of jars of tomato sauce.

33:10Adam Schafer:Wow. The best part is always at night after we're all done, we have fresh pasta with sauce. Oh, yeah. That's cool. That's so good. Amazing.

33:18Sal Di Stefano:Do you feel like, can you, do you think you can tell or can your family tell like when you go to different farms? Like, is it like, is there, is it very clear on like, oh, this was a good season? Like, can you tell or is it just? I don't know.

33:32Adam Schafer:Good question. I don't know. I just cut the tomatoes.

33:34Sal Di Stefano:I mean, I feel like there's a part of it. it's kind of like good wine, right? Like, I mean, part of what makes great wine is the grapes, is where you get the grapes.

33:42Adam Schafer:Well, the good news is we're in California, and so this is like some of the best growing for anything is around here, luckily. Because if you're in another part of the country, that's a good question. I wonder where families in other parts of the country, because Italians do this every year.

33:56Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I wonder if they ship them in or something.

33:57Adam Schafer:They might, right? If you're on the East Coast, where are you getting your tomatoes from?

34:00Sal Di Stefano:I don't know. We're not far from one of the, like, ag capitals ever. Salinas is known for all of that. I think it's one of the best year-round climates for growing tomatoes and forget what else, but I've looked it up before. Artichokes for sure. Yeah, that too.

34:16Adam Schafer:So you know San Jose. In fact, I just watched this video about the history of San Jose. San Jose was – this was like all farmland and they grew some of the best fruits and vegetables here for I think the military base in San Francisco and other parts of the state. in San Jose was like, and it was known for its very fertile land. It was all farmland here. And then, of course, they discovered Silicon and then came Silicon Valley. Forget that. But this is supposed to be some of the most fertile land in the world.

34:46Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, is it more the soils or more the climate? All of it. Yeah, I always thought it was like the climate makes...

34:52Adam Schafer:The soil and the climate supposedly are really good.

34:54Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, it'd be interesting to hear from somebody who obviously pays more attention to that because you don't. Is there a huge difference. I would think so. Of course. I would think you get a great season of tomatoes and it's like, oh, this is the best sauce we've ever had. How long does, do you know this? How long does a sauce say good once you've canned it? Oh, a jar?

35:14Adam Schafer:It could last two, three years. It can. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Sick. So it's like you go to my parents' house and they have a cabinet for us. Just jars of sauce, bro. That's sick. I know, it's so exciting. It's so awesome. Hey, have you guys

35:27Sal Di Stefano:seen, did any of you guys watch the Grand Theft Auto on Netflix yet. No. Oh, no. I saw the trailer for that, but I didn't get to watch it yet. Did you watch it on Netflix? Just the trailer, yeah. That's what I mean. There's a 25-minute trailer. Oh, I didn't watch the whole video game? For the video game? The clip of it started running. Yes. Can you pull Netflix up on here or no?

35:47Adam Schafer:Boy, I don't know. I have to log in.

35:49Sal Di Stefano:So it is...

35:50Adam Schafer:You can't find the trailer on YouTube?

35:51Sal Di Stefano:You know what they spent building this game? It's been working for... They've been building it for years, right? I don't know how much.

35:56Adam Schafer:How many times have they delayed? It's been like a few years of delay.

35:59Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, because of everything. between one and two billion dollars for a video game for a video game that's crazy it's the most expensive by far that's crazy nothing even close to it so uh you know we've there's it's been real quiet uh the talk about metaverse for a while now right it's pretty much that was like a flop for facebook and everybody else that was kind of pushing the direction this has the highest potential in my opinion of what they were trying to do metaverse wiles now i don't think i don't think you're gonna you're not gonna wear goggles you're still gonna be playing it on a video game and tv but they're making it to where you can get paid to play you're gonna have real interactive stores and things that you can buy in the role and if you watch the trailer on this like even like just the first three minutes of it you feel like you're watching a real movie with real people and you're obviously controlling it stuff like that but it's it looks i knew i've heard about it forever but to see it okay and i'll go wow i'm like i've been so out of the video game world for so long but it's like this is gonna be yeah because i remember hearing they really the the detail of being able to go inside all the buildings and like be able to like yeah run a business and do all

37:08Adam Schafer:these like crazy things inside yes do you guys think if all video games disappeared today that world that the society would get better or worse worse make no change you think all video games

37:19Sal Di Stefano:disappear today get worse well like if you like rip the band-aid off worse or you mean if like it

37:23Adam Schafer:didn't exist and then people had to figure out what i mean i guess we could get all uh like because it's like thinking about this way generally speaking because well the way my brain went

37:31Sal Di Stefano:when you said that everyone's addiction exactly it's like riots no seriously i mean like now you'd have all this energy no 100 like so so besides that besides that i think yeah you're right because that would be that would be wild yeah it's like me it's like you asking like if if uh you know a dress name a drug that's highly addictive didn't exist i just think generally

37:50Adam Schafer:besides that generally you'd see a lot more people socializing i think you'd see a lot more people going out yeah and hanging out with each other doug if you were to went if you would have went

37:59Sal Di Stefano:just to netflix the streaming service like literally right on the front page of netflix is yeah i don't know what's going on where they sent me but it's okay i mean you guys can watch it another time but you guys literally i mean i just wanted you to see that first two or three minutes on it if you go to the home page of netflix you'll see it that it's being it's obviously being promoted right there you go top left there you go oh and so let's just play it and then you can so does this mean they're close to launching i believe so i don't know if the boys know if dylan or or oh is it november is when they're yeah that makes sense i'll put the uh i mean it doesn't feel like a video game at all it feels like you're the whole i watch like the first 10 minutes of it it feels like you're you're watching a whole movie yeah with a plot that's like so interchangeable and stuff.

38:41Sal Di Stefano:That's wild.

38:42Adam Schafer:I'm going to change the subject and talk about a commonly used medication that helps with hair loss and some of the crazy side effects that it produces. So finasteride, have you guys ever heard of finasteride? Yeah, super popular. Dutasteride, finasteride. Okay. So they both prevent the conversion of testosterone to DHT and DHT is a hormone that the male body has. And I don't know if the female body has it, I think also, and it has some roles. It's androgenic, so it's very androgenic, but it also can play a role in hair loss. And so reducing DHT in many cases can stop hair loss or maybe even reverse a little bit.

39:21Adam Schafer:But I don't know if you guys are familiar with some of the side effects of finasteride, but it's not one that I would mess with. I'd be much better off being bald. And I know most guys don't experience these side effects, but if they do, whoa. It was like erectile dysfunction kind of stuff or what? Permanent, right? like permanent numbness in your penis what permanent like some some guys will get like their sex drive is gone then they go off and it doesn't come back sometimes it takes a year to come back sometimes it doesn't yeah uh suicide increased risk of depression and suicide from

39:55Sal Di Stefano:this drug now these are not huge is this going viral right now is this like a there was an article uh that was posted i just saw a clip literally before we got on this it was in my feed is uh

40:06Adam Schafer:So the New York Post just did an article about this healthy 26-year-old who had penis numbness, orgasm problems, and it was a year and a half after he stopped taking it. Still stuck around. Man. But you could look up, Doug, you could Google finasteride and suicide, finasteride and depression, and it's like all in pursuit of just like not losing your hair. Now, it's not a huge risk, so of course I'm going to be clear. It's not like it's like this massive risk, but it's still a risk. and it's pretty crazy.

40:37Sal Di Stefano:This must be what the... So I saw that... What's that kid's name? Clavicle? Yeah, Clavicular. Clavicular. Clavicle. I talk about him all the time. I knew it was some other stupid name. It popped in my feed and Logan Paul was interviewing him and he made... Obviously, it's going viral, this clip right now. He made this bold statement of I'd rather... And they must have been... They must... What I didn't see and it makes sense now this is in New York Times and you're bringing it up and like why this even popped in my feet that uh you know he would rather uh not be able to use his dick be numb than to be bald and so what I'm assuming is because he takes all this stuff right yeah he does all this stuff takes all this stuff he's probably taking that and I'm assuming that Logan Paul was asking him what about what they what's come out recently about this and he made the point that he would rather be what are you doing yeah i think that's crazy crazy yeah what are we doing what are we worshiping here well some people are just really uh i i i didn't realize it until i started shaving my head on the podcast um how many people opened up to me about uh like how much they struggle with that and it was really tough for me because i really did i can't i couldn't relate i mean i can relate to going bald but i couldn't relate to caring you know your identity was a little rap and i think it's kind of wild because I got like psoriasis spots and everything.

42:01Sal Di Stefano:So I like, I'm not like, that's not the most like, uh, you know, awesome situation for me. It's like, I'm not only do it. Did I go shave that, but it's also areas where I have my psoriasis. So it's like, you know, I'm sure there's insecurities and I don't like it, but it doesn't, it doesn't phase me. Like it phases some people, some people, it's boy, it really, uh, scared to death of it. And it's to where they're doing all these things preventatively before they are even going bald or, or they have gone bald. and it just is crushing their confidence. And like Atwood was asking me how I dealt with, I was like, man, I wish I had something good to say that I had to work through to get there.

42:39Sal Di Stefano:I was trying to shave my head sooner.

42:41Adam Schafer:You know, there's something you could do about it. Because, okay, you can't like, I guess you can't just will your hair to not fall out or the things you could do lifestyle-wise, probably not much, but you could get jacked. Like jacked and bald is a thing, dude. Yeah, I know. It's a thing, you guys. Like if you really feel bad about it, not to mention getting jacked requires work and discipline and consistency that builds confidence like crazy. That also shows prospective mates that you're that you've got some drive. It creates that within you. Just be bold and jacked.

43:14Sal Di Stefano:I mean, I think this I actually think that's a really good point, because even though it seems so it seems different because it's like but it's like your physical appearance. I think, I would think, but maybe we're not the right people to ask, but the opposite sex would prefer a bald jacked dude than a dude with all his hair and sloppy.

43:33Adam Schafer:Yeah.

43:34Sal Di Stefano:Like, I just don't. Sure. I mean, I would think that you would go that. I would think. You know what I'm saying? But that's.

43:39Adam Schafer:Dude, we have a buddy. I don't have to say too much because he gets offended. But we have a buddy who's bald who recently just got jacked. Dude, he looks way different. Oh, yeah. He looks way different. Oh, yeah. Bro. I just saw him the other day, and I'm like, what are you doing, bro?

43:52Sal Di Stefano:I mean, he was at my house this weekend. He looks incredible. He's at my house this weekend. And I'm telling you,

43:56Adam Schafer:bald and jacked actually looks good. It kind of goes together a little bit. It does?

44:02Sal Di Stefano:No, it does. And he was getting compliments nonstop all this weekend because it was like a pool party. So he's walking around with his shirt off. Was he really? Oh, yeah. Everybody's like, dude, you're crazy, jacked. I've never seen you like this. Ain't nobody talking about his bald head. No, no. Nobody said nothing about that, but you're bald. No one said that. I don't know. I don't know what that is. How much is that? Because I've seen somebody like, I think it was Jujimufu actually. He went and did the plant. Well, in Turkey now, they got the... Yeah, there's a whole business around that. Oh, yeah.

44:38Adam Schafer:How much do you think that costs? It's expensive. No, it's not. Well, I don't know how much it is in Turkey. No, no, look it up.

44:42Sal Di Stefano:You'll get up. Turkey, bald, whatever. I don't know what you would do. Hair transplant. Hair transplant. Thank you. Hey, Doug, I've been bald turkey. You can tell how many times I've Googled it, right? I have no idea. Don't type in ball turkey. I had a buddy of mine, one of my buddies who is, like, hey, bro, let's go. Let's go to Turkey. And I'm like, dude, I don't care, bro. You're like, why, dude?

45:02Adam Schafer:So it's between$2 ,000 to$4 ,000, but then you got to fly there. Oh, okay. You got to fly there, stay there. Bro, it used to be like a 40, 60.

45:10Sal Di Stefano:If that's your main crisis and concern. It used to be$40 ,000 plus, and it used to not be as good. Like, now, like, it's.

45:16Adam Schafer:In the U.S., it's$8 ,000 to$18 ,000. I have a buddy who did it, and he took a picture of his head the day after. Oh, yeah. You're messed up for a while. It traumatized me, dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. His head looked like a mushroom. Oh, it just... The trauma. Yeah. It looked like a mushroom. Yeah, you're inflamed.

45:33Sal Di Stefano:I was traumatized. You're inflamed for a few days. You just got to hide. You look pretty rough for like a week or two. It takes, I think, a solid...

45:40Adam Schafer:Can you lose the hair again? You can, right? I don't know. Can you? Yeah. I don't think so. If you lost it the first time.

45:45Sal Di Stefano:Is that a money-back guarantee?

45:47Adam Schafer:Yeah, it's like real hair. It's your real hair, dude. So you're just replanting it. Yeah, no, dude. I'll just. Yeah, it's wild.

45:54Sal Di Stefano:There's a lot of fitness people that have seen. I mean, it works. I just don't care. Yeah. You know why you don't care? You know what? I care about as much as I care about my calves. Yeah, you know why you don't care? It's like a new lawn that they're shaping.

46:10Adam Schafer:And you know why you don't care, bro? Because you're jacked. I'm telling you. You guys, listen to me. Go lift weights. Your hair's falling out. Go lift weights, dude. It fixes it. Totally fixes it. Yeah, rock whatever you got. Or get rich, you know what I'm saying?

46:23Sal Di Stefano:Make a lot of money.

46:24Adam Schafer:There are two things you could do that will negate it. For sure. Go make some money or go lift some weight. Heaven forbid you do both. If you're rich and jack.

46:32Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, if you're a fit and you are successful, come on.

46:35Adam Schafer:Bold head, sexy suddenly.

46:39Sal Di Stefano:Suddenly it's attractive. Yeah, yeah. It's a head turner, dude.

46:42Adam Schafer:I pulled up some studies on exogenous ketones, just to change the subject here. and pretty consistently improves cognitive performance in healthy people. Sometimes the criticism is that the ketones help when people have metabolic dysfunction, which is true. But in healthy people, consistently shows cognitive improvement, which is funny that we need to study for this. Just try it and see for yourself. Yeah, right. I take two a day, especially when we podcast. Two of the ketone IQs when we podcast. It's been my favorite thing to add now to,

47:14Sal Di Stefano:like because I'm a caffeine drinker is the back half it's like my go-to back half of the day yeah dude it's like front load caffeine early mental sharpness stimulate hardcore and then like keep it going yeah totally dude I think it's anybody who loves coffee or energy drinks for the morning for work and you haven't done ketone IQ like I urge you to try that try doing that like start your day with your normal caffeine like you do and then once it wears off and then yeah wear off midday take the ketone IQ yeah dude perfect Yeah, it feels great. Dude, I have this idea, okay? Okay, so I saw the store.

47:50Sal Di Stefano:I don't know where it is. I think it might be in Asia somewhere. But there's this, like, rock climbing store. And they made it so it's basically a seven-story rock you have to climb just to get into the store. So it totally eliminates posers. That's kind of cool. Which is great. And so if you get there, you actually get the gear, you know? And so if you're wearing it, people are like, oh, okay. You actually had to go climb to get it.

48:15Adam Schafer:So in order to get in, you have to climb. Yes. Can you show me a picture of that? By the way, Asia.

48:18Sal Di Stefano:Can you imagine us doing that for fitness? I mean, we would get so much backlash for that. Oh, you want to come to the gym? Squat 350. Super exclusive.

48:25Adam Schafer:No. By the way, Asia has a lot of countries. Well, somewhere in Asia. It's in Korea. It looks like Seoul. The continent. There's this place on Earth.

48:35Sal Di Stefano:There's this place on Earth I want to go to. You said Asia. I'm like, damn, bro. There's this really cool place on Earth I want to go to. It's right there in the middle, you guys. Broad, broad swipe of the brush. Did you find it, Doug? It is. It's in Seoul, South Korea. Yeah, Asia. See, I was right. You guys fact-checking me. That's why I go broad. Oh, wow. So it's not like a rock climbing wall. It's a rock. It's a rock. No, it's a bunch of stuff. Look at it. It's just one rock, and then you got to go over. Get through layers of the building. Yeah, yeah. Just to get up. Yeah, bro. I think that's cool.

49:05Sal Di Stefano:It's a cool concept. I wonder how well they do. I wonder what their insurance has to be to do something like that.

49:12Adam Schafer:Asia is different there. Yeah, they don't have any restrictions on that. You know, it is smart. It is a smart marketing kind of because I'm sure people show up just to try it.

49:25Sal Di Stefano:So you know what I think is interesting about this? I think that we're seeing the pendulum swing. We went so hard one way. I feel like we're going to come back the other way. One of the things that we went, everything's all inclusive. I think exclusivity is going to be like a big move I see that coming back I totally think more private only these people I think that's going to become more popular again because we went so hard the other way and this is an example to me of that not everybody can come shop here can't climb the rock can't come in and I bet we see more stuff like this

49:59Adam Schafer:do you know who started that well it's been around for a long time but wasn't Studio 54 known for that where they would walk up to the door and the you have to be like hot the guy at the door would be like no you can't come in oh that's still today that still happens Abercrombie got like

50:14Sal Di Stefano:in trouble for that right really

50:16Adam Schafer:because yeah do you know that

50:17Sal Di Stefano:do you know that a lot of and this still happens how would a hit to the ego do you know that you wait in line

50:22Adam Schafer:you go up to the front the guy looks like nah can't come in bro this is what they do this is still a strategy today

50:26Sal Di Stefano:is nightclubs downtown will everybody you always see these crazy lines when you drive by will they have plenty of room to fit the people in will restrict people coming in so other you see how crazy popping it is because the line sure it's marked so it looks like there's exactly it's marketing for them and then they'll go and they'll handpick the people yeah so you're you're next in line you know but you're goofy looking so they walk right past you you know i'm saying and 10 people back oh your ears are too big it's two or three cute girls it's like come on in

50:54Adam Schafer:and so you move move the hot girls in and you you know i never understood the appeal of nightclubs i just never did you go in there i know you're smashed you can't hear anything because everything Nothing's so loud. It's dark. You basically have to get drunk. Yeah. Otherwise, you're anxious. There's no other way. I'm just anxious in here, and I'm tight with everybody, and what's going on?

51:14Sal Di Stefano:You didn't go through a nightclub? No. I guess you were married at 12. That's why. Yeah. 12 years old. I mean, I was in Chicago, so I did my share of nightclubs. Yeah, I did. I like lounges. I did, too. But nightclubs are like packed. Well, yeah, you sound like an old married man. You sound like a guy. Did you like nightclubs? Yeah, it was cool. I mean, at an age, at a certain point in my life, but not now. New girls are going to be there. Yeah, but we were like, I like to dance. I like to drink. You really like to dance? Yeah, yeah. As bad as I am, I still like it. You really like it? Yeah, bro.

51:44Sal Di Stefano:Bring it on. Yeah. I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed of that. I'm not ashamed of my bald head. Let's go. Let's go.

51:51Adam Schafer:Stop, dude.

51:52Sal Di Stefano:I didn't know you liked to dance. Well, no. Katrina will tell you that she can always tell how many drinks I've had by how many. She's like, she goes, she's like, under four, he's embarrassing to be with. Six, all of a sudden, he's like, everybody's watching him dance.

52:04Adam Schafer:That's what she claims to do.

52:07Sal Di Stefano:It unlocks something. And I'm not sober enough to know what it is to be able to put it together, but something happens. That's what she says.

52:14Adam Schafer:I feel like Justin does the splits. No. Yeah, he did. I used to do like the worm. I knew it. He doesn't fight people. That's what Justin does. Well, yeah. It turns into fights when I have too many.

52:26Sal Di Stefano:There's a tolerance.

52:27Adam Schafer:What's the number?

52:28Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, you never went through the nightclubs,

52:32Adam Schafer:Vegas scene, any of that stuff? I did it a couple times, but I just never understood. Like, I did nightclubs where we had, like, table service where you're roped off. That's so different. But when you're in with everybody, you're just slammed, smashed together, and it's just not, I don't know. I would hate to be a woman in that by having dudes all up against you and it's just uncomfortable. Yeah, it's kind of weird to me that you'd see groups and they didn't want anybody to interact with them, and it's like, what are you doing here?

53:00Sal Di Stefano:You know this is going to happen. I mean, I'm so pro that versus where the society has gone the last 10, 15 years. I agree.

53:08Adam Schafer:I think at least it's social. Yeah. Even though it's not great.

53:11Sal Di Stefano:This, like, stay home and swipe right. No, you're right. You know what I'm saying? That's way worse. That is weird. Who cares? Let's go out and get sardines in a club and maybe meet someone.

53:21Adam Schafer:Get rejected a bunch of times and then one time and get lucky.

53:24Sal Di Stefano:And learn the hard way. They look different when the lights come on later on. You know what I'm saying? That's all part of growing up. That's all part of growing up. when the house lights come on oh my god oh shit they really optimized the lighting in that bar oh my god I saw a video of this dude everybody has to have that experience once in their life it's a part of growing up man so yeah I'm way more it's a part of growing up I don't like it now in my 20s that was the thing

53:56Adam Schafer:you're right it's better than what's happening now nobody goes out Yeah. Did you guys remember when there was a thing where there were these, they were like nightclubs, but you wore headphones? It's still a thing. You listen to your own music? So dumb. Why? Why are you here to be alone? Dude, well. What do we do? I just saw. The ones I've seen, they have like different colors. Yeah, yeah. So you know that person.

54:15Sal Di Stefano:You connect with the person that's vibing to that color. Still think it's dumb.

54:17Adam Schafer:I just feel it's too. It's dumb. Yeah. It's dumb. I was just somewhere.

54:22Sal Di Stefano:Where was I at?

54:22Adam Schafer:It kind of defeats the purpose. It's like, can I be alone while being around people? Yeah.

54:27Sal Di Stefano:I forget what they call them, but they're silent dance parties. And you're right. Everyone's got these headphones on. They normally have two or three different songs playing, and they're at the different colors. We're trying to just cater to introverts. I'm not a fan. A silent dance party.

54:42Adam Schafer:Yeah.

54:44Sal Di Stefano:A social gathering where you're not social. Imagine you just walk in, you don't know. Everybody's just like, yeah. One of the best reasons to walk away and get a one-on-one talk is because it's too loud in here. It's too loud. Yeah. I can't hear you. You're dancing with someone, you're vibing, and you're like,

54:56Adam Schafer:hey let's get out of here I can't hear anything what

54:58Sal Di Stefano:she's like yeah yeah cool let's go outside

55:01Adam Schafer:versus you're in there as soon as everybody can hear you're like trying to talk to her start whispering yes oh you guys got my text last week how I chipped my tooth it's fixed though let's see fixed tooth emergency dentist So I chipped my tooth. Making out with a guy with a tongue ring. That's 100 % not what happened. That's his theory. That's not what he said in the text. It was way worse than that. No, don't say it. I know. I was not going to say it. It's a little less PC. It was way more PC, but it also involved the piercing. So anyway. Some gauge. Yeah. Thanks, Justin. No problem. No, I chipped my tooth and I felt it.

55:36Adam Schafer:And I'm like, no. Because my dentist doesn't work on Fridays. And it happened Thursday at 5 p.m. Most dentists don't. When he closed. So I was like, what am I going to do? So I'm looking around. So I found a dentist that was like emergency, and I went in there, and they fixed it up. They also fixed the other one that was kind of chipped that everybody makes fun of. How did you chip both teeth? What were you doing? The other tooth chipped a long time ago. I forgot what I was doing. This one, I was literally biting my nails, and my teeth came together real hard. Oh. And I chipped a little. This happened to me before.

56:02Sal Di Stefano:It was so awkward. But I have caps, and so I had one that was just a temporary, and it was on the very front. And over the weekend, I was eating something, and then I was out in public. And I ended up eating the cap, and I just had, like, one little fang right here. Oh, my God. I'm like, hey. Oh, my God. I had no idea. No, you didn't. The Courtney's like, oh. I was like, what? What's wrong? And I go to the bathroom. I'm like, oh, no. Is there regular maintenance for veneers? Do you have to, like, regularly go, like, get them maintenance? I'm sure there is. I'm going to have to look into that. Because, yeah, I'm sure they only last, like, I'm sure it's, like, a decade or so.

56:40Sal Di Stefano:Really? Yeah, you have to, like. You have to get them done again? I think so. Not all the way. I bet it's just like you get - Well, just like - Yeah, I don't - Re-seal them or something like that? Not sure, yeah, because the technology you have now - I mean, they're like permanent dentures is basically what they are, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what veneers basically are, right?

56:54Adam Schafer:I mean, they're super durable. Yeah. They're more so than even enamel, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're supposed to last for a long time. I think maybe forever. Maybe. Until you're - Let's see. Oh, 10 to 15 years, Justin. Maybe last 20 to 30 years. Oh, okay. Well, that's what made me concerned. I was like, dude, really? am I going to have to go back in?

57:11Sal Di Stefano:Oh, you would think that that would be part of the deal. It's like you get them and then it's not. I wouldn't think it would be as much to keep them. You get a warranty.

57:18Adam Schafer:Yeah, like me.

57:19Sal Di Stefano:100 ,000 miles.

57:19Adam Schafer:Just polish them up and buff them out. Yeah, yeah. No, I got mine done.

57:23Sal Di Stefano:So if you go, let's see here. 20, 30. If you get 30 years out of me, you just might chuck it. I'm just going to F it. Yeah. Yeah. If you only get 10 or 15, you're going to have to redo that. But if you're like, what is that? That's going to put you. If you go 30. I'll be honest. 75. 75, bro? this is my this is my scare all the kids your teeth if i just have the spikes oh man i couldn't

57:44Adam Schafer:rock that oh yeah but they can fix that yeah yeah even if you're scary even if you were jacked it wouldn't look good that doesn't fix it yeah that doesn't fix it hey you gotta have good teeth the dentist she was doing mine and she's like uh so what do you what do you why do you need these done so quickly because i call them like listen it's emergency i'm like i work in media you know So of course I started a conversation. Yeah. And so she's like, Hey, uh, after, you know, now that we're done, cause I liked him. I said, Oh, you did a good job. She goes, well, you can give me a shout out. I'm like, you don't even know what media I work for.

58:16Adam Schafer:You don't even recognize me. So you don't get anything. Her assistant's like, Oh, I was being serious. You don't listen to my puppy. You get no shout out. Sorry, lady. I paid the bill. That's what you get. You got to love that. Right. Somebody's like, they don't even hook me up. Give me a shout out. Yeah, I know. You don't listen to my show. Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. Here's your bill. Shout me out, too. She was really good. She did a really good job. But then she was telling me about Pilates afterwards. I'm like, you definitely don't listen to my show. I don't want to get bulky, so I just do Pilates that sculpt.

58:44Sal Di Stefano:I'm like, dude, how often is this? If you only knew who you were talking to. Oh, bro. I don't even get engaged in those conversations. I don't even like. I don't say nothing because then it's a whole conversation. That's too much.

58:53Adam Schafer:And I don't want to discourage someone from doing something better than nothing.

58:56Sal Di Stefano:I'm the same way, too, because then it turns into a long old thing. It's just like, you know, just go listen to the podcast sometime.

59:03Adam Schafer:Tell me more about your reform. You know, my business partner thinks dentists are all fraud.

59:07Sal Di Stefano:I'll see you later. Yeah. And dinosaurs don't exist.

59:10Adam Schafer:I'm just going to drop that. See you later. If you guys know how much I paid to fix the chip to you, bro. Oh, yeah. And emergency time, too? Yeah. It was a nice chunk.

59:21Sal Di Stefano:I don't even want to know what that stuff is up to now, dude.

59:24Adam Schafer:You weren't about to show up on the podcast with that. No, bro. First of all, I don't care that much, but you guys would just, the whole episode, you guys would be making fun of me. I mean, it would have been amazing. Yeah, we would have fun with that. No, everything is ridiculously inflated right now, dude.

59:37Sal Di Stefano:I was just texting my buddy where he had to go get his oil changed. We have the same car. And it's only been one year since he had been there. And I was telling him how much it cost me. And he's like, damn, dude, you got to go over to my place. He's like, it costs half that. I'm like, I don't know, bro. I'm like, I don't think it had anything. I said, I think the guy hooked me up too. And then he goes, no. He's like, bro, I've never paid more than this. And he's telling me his number. And I'm like, all right. I said, well, it's 1995. Well, no, it was just a year ago. It was just a year ago when he went.

1:00:04Sal Di Stefano:He went yesterday. And I said, yeah, what's your bill? And it was$300 more than mine. Wow. And I'm like, and he's just like, dude. He's like, I tell you what. He goes, I might just handle this myself going forward.

1:00:15Adam Schafer:You know, along those lines, Costco has predicted, since they've been in business, every recession based off of spending habits of their consumers. Do you know what it is? Interesting. You want to know what it is? Yeah. And it's happening right now. Oh, tell me. Consumers, when they switch from beef to chicken, and then from chicken to tuna and canned meats. When those switches start happening, it predicts a recession. And it's happening right now. So Costco just put out a report.

1:00:39Sal Di Stefano:What a fascinating topic.

1:00:41Adam Schafer:Yeah, people move away from beef. Then they go to cheaper, like chicken. And then away from that to the canned meats. And that's what they're noticing right now is a big swing. Interesting. That makes sense. Yeah. Because beef prices went up another 17%. Sure. No, it's nuts.

1:00:56Sal Di Stefano:Everything is nuts, what the prices are right now. And it's not getting any better. Everything is.

1:01:01Adam Schafer:Dude, I just went to the arcade down with the boys.

1:01:05Sal Di Stefano:I had them by myself this weekend. And I was like, ah, I got to get out of the house and let's go. We went down there. And most games were like a dollar. Yeah, one game. Yeah, one game. You know that game where you just shoot targets?

1:01:19Adam Schafer:Yeah. And it has all those lit up targets? The little red. You know how much that was? No. Five bucks. To shoot just to do that? I'm so like, I, I, and like kids are like, get over it, dad. I'm like, I can't get over this. It's$5.

1:01:32Sal Di Stefano:Well, not only Debbie. It's outrageous. You start to do the math. You're like, shit, I'll just go buy this thing for home. You guys use it three times in the next year. We've already made our money out of it. That's ridiculous. I was like over in the old school section with like Qbert and, you know,

1:01:44Adam Schafer:I'm playing stuff for like 50 cents. Do they still have the arm wrestling machine there? No, I don't, I didn't see that, but they had a guitar hero, set up and I was like, oh, I want to get one of these for my house. They used to have a really good arm wrestling machine on the boardwalk. A really good one. And it looked like a pro wrestler with the big arm and he'd talk crap to you if you couldn't beat him. And it was actually difficult. I remember as a kid, we would do it every year we went and I was 16 when I could finally beat it. That's funny, dude.

1:02:11Sal Di Stefano:It's wild to think that in just our lifetime a game like that is$5. My grandmother used to drop me off here in San Jose when I was a kid at the nickel arcade and leave me with$5 and I will play for hours. Yeah. Hours. I played off of five, five, five bucks to think that you get one game. You're done.

1:02:30Adam Schafer:Nuts, dude. Yeah.

1:02:32Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. That long ago. We did one. Yeah. That long ago. That was like a kid playing arcade games. That's Doug was a kid.

1:02:39Adam Schafer:It was a shekel. We had pong. Yeah. Treating shells. It was a string. We just shook the script.

1:02:50Sal Di Stefano:Did you guys see the pickleball video I shared on my Instagram story? No. It was like one of the greatest rallies or whatever. I shared it. I bet a lot of people didn't pick up on it, though, because I shared it because of the comments. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. You'll enjoy it. I'll check it out. It was like a great rally. It definitely was. But the game is so easy. You know what I'm saying? It's like minimal movement. Yeah. Very, very minimal movement for this long rally. And the comment section was just, oh, diabolical, bro. I was dying. So I shared it. But then I thought after I shared it, I was like, oh, I bet a bunch of people think I'm sharing this because I've been openly talking about how I love pickleball now.

1:03:28Sal Di Stefano:I think it's like, check it out. This is sick. I showed some memes talking trash. But it's funny because I would play and make fun of it at the same time. That's exactly me right now. I'm exactly like, I'm all in. Love it. I think it's great. At the same time, too, I know it's ridiculous.

1:03:43Adam Schafer:Yeah. Don't try and hype it up.

1:03:45Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, no, yeah. It's the coolest thing ever. No, not at all.

1:03:49Adam Schafer:Joy Mode is a pre-sex supplement. That's right, you take it before intercourse for better performance. It's also good pre-workout. It's not a stimulant-based product. All it does, and it does this effectively, is increase blood flow in a big way. So this product was created because the ones on the market were terrible, and prescriptions come with all sorts of side effects. You don't want to get those. You don't want to get those side effects. Joy mode is simple. It's easy. It's natural. And it really works. It's backed by data. Here's what you do. You tear open the packet. You pour it into six to eight ounces of water.

1:04:23Adam Schafer:You drink it. And 45 minutes to four hours later, you perform much better. Again, you can also use it as a pre-workout. It's also good for endothelial health. So increased blood flow is good for your vascular system. So this also can be a health supplement. That's how I use it. Go check them out. Go to tryjoymode.com slash mind pump. Use the code mind pump. Get 20 % off. Back to the show.

1:04:50Sal Di Stefano:Our first caller is Julie from Illinois. Hi, Julie. Hi, Julie. Hi, guys. Thanks so much for having me on. I really appreciate it.

1:04:58Adam Schafer:You got it. How can we help you? First of all, I just want to say thanks. You guys have been a welcome routine to my morning, and I really appreciate all you're doing for everyone in the personal training space and the fitness industry to try and get people to be more knowledgeable and be able to take care of themselves in a good way for life. Thank you. So I did send you guys a recent update. I'm going to try and kind of summarize my initial email because I know I'm a little bit wordy. So initially when I reached out to you guys, I wanted some assistance with knowing what type of program selection I should utilize to help with improving bone mineral density and strength because my initial DEXA scan showed some osteopenia.

1:05:43At the time I was 46, now I'm 47, 5 '4", and have been 115 pounds most of my life until recently. I am currently up to 130 after starting a reverse diet. I think my osteopenia stems from years of excessive cardio, insufficient nutrition, and genetic factors, petite frame Caucasian, with the goal of trying to improve my bone density before going fully into menopause. Initially, I wanted to know what ideal weight I should be targeting for. I did change my macros. I went initially, I was consuming about 2 ,300 calories. I bumped all the way up to about 3 ,200 calories a day. My macro tracking currently is about 120 to 160 for protein, 90 to 120 for fat, and about 250 to 300 carbs.

1:06:36I am fully vegan because of a lipoprotein A abnormality that's genetic. And I started that in December of 2022. With my recent update that I sent you guys, I initially did your free 30 days of training when I first found your podcast. Then did MAPS Strong, MAPS Performance, MAPS Anabolic, and I'm currently in phase three of MAPS Aesthetic, but I'm not doing the volume that's recommended in the program. So if it says like four or five sets, I'm usually doing three. On the focus days, I am doing mobility or more like a recovery day. Although I had a strength training background before starting your programming, I was not consistently doing movements such as deadlifts, bench press, barbell back squats, and overhead press.

1:07:26Initially, I saw good strength gains with my reverse diet, but I feel like my progress has plateaued for a while. I've not been able to increase the amount of weight I can lift since finishing MAPS Stronger MAPS Performance, and no changes occurred with MAPS Anabolic and a calorie surplus. At the same time, my weight has increased, and I feel noticeably fluffier around my abdomen and thighs. The number on the scale itself doesn't really bother me. It's more that my legs and my stomach are larger, and I can't fit into some of the clothes that I was able to wear. last summer, even like around January.

1:07:59I was at the 3 ,000 to 3 ,200 calories per day until starting MAPS Aesthetic. Since then, I've reduced my intake a little bit, averaging about 2 ,700 calories per day. I typically eat closer to 3 ,000 on the lifting days and 25 to 26 on mobility or walking only days. My workout has also changed recently from 7.45 a.m. to 5 a.m. on work days and later on non-work days because of the earlier time I don't feel as awake or as strong during my workouts and I expect that this will need to factor on how I approach my training going forward. I've also had some health changes since I initially wrote to you guys.

1:08:39I started HRT and thyroid medication back in November with my levothyroxine and progesterone being bumped up and then was given an estradiol patch in April. I've also been suffering some from elevated fasting glucose since August of 25. And I just talked to Vitabella and started a GLP-1 medication at a microdose to try and get my fasting blood glucose closer to being below 100 because it's been running about 100 to 110, 120 sometimes. I also did a repeat DEXA scan in January that showed normal bone density for someone my age using a T-score rather than a Z-score that was used on my initial test.

1:09:24The scan did show a discrepancy between my hips, and I did tear my meniscus on the left side at 30, although my in-body scans in the past and unilateral strength work does not show a discrepancy. So I guess other things you should be aware of, I typically get about 6.5 to seven hours of sleep on nights that I have to work, eight to nine on weekends, Friday through Sunday. My walking is initially about or has been consistent, so somewhere between 8 ,000 and 12 ,000 steps. Lately, sometimes I hit about 15 ,000, but it's usually because I'm trying to do a post-lunch walk for about 10 minutes. I'm also trying to rest approximately 90 seconds to two and a half minutes between sets, but sometimes I will pair exercises to make my workouts more efficient.

1:10:11For example, deadlifts with overhead press and bench press with rows. Current goals at this time are bone health, improving glucose control, maintaining or reducing my current abdominal and thigh size so I don't have to continue to buy larger clothes, continuing to build or maintain strength without adding unnecessary body mass. So with that, I want to know how should I be approaching my nutrition? How should I structure my strength training given my current plateau, earlier workout time, and slight calorie deficit? Should I continue with three lifting days per week or would you recommend a different training frequency?

1:10:46And what would you recommend at best programming? The best programming approach would be for my next year to prioritize bone health, glucose control strength and maintaining my current body size. Yeah.

1:10:57Adam Schafer:Awesome. Thank you so much for very thorough, Julia. I'm sorry. Like I told you, it's probably everything you want. And then some, and I could tell you listen to the podcast, which is great. Doing a great job. So how since starting the microdose of terseptide, has that, has that had any impact on your fasting glucose? I've only taken two doses. It's been 98 to a hundred. So nothing like significant because I check it every morning. What tell me a little bit about your diet. I know you're vegan and you're consuming between 25 to 2700 calories. What does that look like? What makes up your diet? So breakfast is oatmeal with mixed nuts, a Brazil nut for selenium, a fourth a cup of mulberries, some soy milk, and then two scoops of a plant-based protein powder that has no added sugar or anything.

1:11:51Lunch is a very large salad that is two cups of lettuce, a bunch of vegetables, half an avocado, homemade dressing. What else do we throw in there? It's usually about a 700 to 900 calorie salad, including a cup of chickpeas that I air fry, sometimes prunes sometimes like a homemade muffin i make um peanut butter like something along those lines dinner is a lot of vegetables um at least one or two servings or two at least two cups of that and then some sort of um i'm trying to think like this week we made i made sweet potato burgers So I do a homemade bun and then I did a lentil salad and braised cabbage with apples and an energy protein bite that's made out of peanut butter, some protein powder, almond flour, flaxseed.

1:12:47So we make pretty much everything, but I'm hitting between 30 and 60 grams of protein per meal. Okay.

1:12:56Adam Schafer:And you had said that you don't eat animal proteins and it's because it affects your blood lipid levels and they start to get a little haywire? So I have lipoprotein A. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it. So it's a genetic cholesterol that our liver makes that then contributes to arterial plaque formation. So I had a carotid. So even though I've been healthy for most of my life, my carotid ultrasound has my arterial age at 67. Okay. So because of that, I went to see a preventative cardiologist who then recommended a vegan diet to try and mitigate the risks that can come potentially with having higher cholesterol that is not genetic.

1:13:39We're going to say that. And then he's got me on some supplements and I do a repeat carotid. I did it two years ago. I have a repeat carotid that I have to do this fall to then see if it's either halted or potentially reversed with some of the supplements I'm on. And so if that makes sense. So I started tracking, like I wasn't food tracking until I went vegan with my husband because I wanted to make sure we were hitting all of our nutrition targets. So we use Cronometer. I don't know if you know that app. So it's very specific. It'll break down fiber. It breaks down all your amino acids. So, you know, like we're out of the park for pretty much everything.

1:14:17So make sure we're getting all the nutrition with what we're eating.

1:14:21Adam Schafer:Okay. That's great. And then since switching to the diet, I know you haven't checked your carotid to see if there's any changes or improvements. Have you noticed any changes in energy, vitality, strength, sleep, or is it all? You sound like you've planned it pretty well. So I'm curious to see if there's any changes, positive or negative. Initially, I felt like I had more energy. I don't feel like the energy has been, you know, this is now going on a few years. I think the energy changes that I've had have been more related to thyroid because when they started me on the thyroid meds, things felt better.

1:14:58And then when things started to go off again, and when they bought my thyroid meds again, recently, I think it was April or May. I told her like, I was starting to feel tired. I would do not get tired in the afternoons. I was starting to feel tired in the afternoons. I was freezing. Like my hands and my feet were cold all the time. It just seems like, you know, constipation was worse, like all these different things that I felt like were more thyroid driven. So I don't think it's dietary related, if that makes sense.

1:15:26Adam Schafer:Yeah, it does. And are you supplementing with like essential amino acids, creatine, your, your, maybe your B vitamins, some of the things that sometimes people can become deficient and even with a well-planned vegan diet? Yeah, I get, I get regular blood work. So all that's good, but I do do, uh, B12. I do a super B complex. I do vitamin D. I do, um, omega threes. I do 10 grams of creatine daily. Awesome. Um, so I think all those bases are covered. Yes, they are. That's, that's great. Um, and then just a kind of a personal question, are you enjoying this process? Uh, because there's so, it sounds like you're, you're managing so many different things and you're counting so many things and I want to make sure it's not an additional stress on you.

1:16:15Um, I like the meal planning. I actually don't mind the tracking. Like that's not a big deal. Um, the supplements, I feel like we had it down. Um, I've worked out since I was 13 in some capacity. So the fitness thing isn't something that's going anywhere. Um, like that's part of my life. I think if anything, if that's the one thing I would never want anybody to take away from me, if that makes sense. It does. I mean, I know you guys are all along those lines. So, you know, kind of nutty, like really like going to the gym every day, even if it is just stretching or doing something like that.

1:16:47Adam Schafer:Good. So the one objective metric that I would pay closest attention to only because it's most strongly correlated with what you're most interested in, which is bone density and blood glucose would be strength. So it's harder to be objective with muscle gains. You can do DEXA scans, but sometimes you can be more hydrated, less hydrated, and simple muscle mass isn't as great of a predictor for those things as actual strength. So that's the objective we want to pay closest attention to. Like if you're getting stronger, you're probably doing a lot of things right and if that continues on bone density moves in that same direction and as you get stronger you gain muscle which is great uh for blood glucose one

1:17:37Sal Di Stefano:of the best ways to and or maintaining her strength while she's in some sort of a cut because one of the things you've done really good too is been able to reverse diet and get your calories up to a very healthy place so the one of the things i hear too is you know wanting to sounds like reduce a little bit of body fat or you know inches around the waist or whatever so being able to reduce calories and be able to maintain maintain strength would actually be a

1:18:00Adam Schafer:really good win for us yeah now maps aesthetic is a lot of volume yeah even with the reduction

1:18:06Sal Di Stefano:i like i like maps 15 right you like going to the gym every day you said it already i would put you on a map yeah i go every day well and i figured you guys are probably going to put me on a 15 so the only reason i did maps aesthetic is because i bought your your bundle and i already i had already done maps performance and then i did maps i mean you did the right thing with it by the way you did incredible obviously you listen to the podcast you could tell because of how you modified it on your own without any coaching from us is great but just to kind of break it down for you

1:18:33Adam Schafer:so you know i'm trying to recall maps aesthetics is typically like three exercises per large body part even if you cut down the sets to three you're doing nine sets three days a week per body part which is still high volume or even, uh, you know, six, three times a week would be high volume, uh, per body part, um, for most people. So, so that's even with the reduction in volume now going, uh, to maps 15, what you'll probably notice with no other changes. So no other changes in diet, no other changes, anything else. Well, you'll probably notice is by the second week strength increases. And if that happens, we're on the right track.

1:19:10Adam Schafer:And I think that's probably what's going to happen. And I think, I guess I was, you know, I really looked forward to anabolic and then to not see any strength gains over that. I was kind of surprised because I, again, I was reverse dieting. I was eating the 3000 to 3 ,200 calories and I just, I had never done full body days. That was my first program doing, um, like everything. I've always done some sort of split or something a little bit different. Um, so I'm not quite sure why, unless that's more that hormonal piece.

1:19:43Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I would guess going through the thyroid thing, change of time, and also going through that a second time.

1:19:50Adam Schafer:Well, let me ask you the difference between phase – what was the difference for you between phase one and, let's say, phase three? Because they're very different. Did you notice any changes between the two? Strength? Yeah, either strength or energy. Phase three is much more volume than phase one. So just out of curiosity. um i don't remember okay this was back in like march or april maybe may i'm trying to remember exactly because i'm on phase three of anabolic right now but now with the volume i'm doing like the full workout i cut into two so like there's the three workouts a week i'm doing like half of a workout and then the next day i'll do a half workout then i take a day off you get what i I mean, but I don't remember.

1:20:35So with anabolic, I know my least favorite is probably the five by fives. I don't know if that's part of anabolic or just in general, because it's not a way that I was accustomed to training before you guys. So I really have to wrap my head around being safe, I guess, as I do it or feeling comfortable so that I don't get hurt. That's kind of in the back of my mind. So like the one program, maybe it was anabolic. Instead of doing a barbell back squat, I just modified it to a back squat. That's fine. Because then I felt like I had enough control where if I don't, I would just sit down. It's not a big deal.

1:21:12Adam Schafer:Perfectly fine. I'd like to send you Mass 15, and I'd like to see how you respond to that. And just follow it as it's laid out. And like I said, if by week two or three you're getting stronger, we're moving in the right direction.

1:21:24Sal Di Stefano:And a good goal would be, based off of your annual goals since you asked that, setting up would be to not manipulate diet yet stick with the way you're eating just change the program if all things go well and we start to see strength and then you still feel like you want to see some body composition change you're in a healthy enough calories that we could just put you in a calorie reduction for a little while while staying on maps 15 um and then remember when we do something like that really the goal is just to maintain strength if we maintain strength in a calorie deficit that's a huge win i wouldn't expect strength gains to continue to progress while I'm also putting you in a deficit, which is why also I think keeping the diet where it is now gets reaped some benefits from added strength if the programming was the right program for you.

1:22:07Sal Di Stefano:And then if it only then if you start and maybe you'll see body composition change just from that, which I wouldn't manipulate calories. But if let's say we've continued through mass 15, you did build some strength, but you still have that. I wish I had a couple. I want to inch off my way still. I wish I was a little bit leaner. Then I'd put you in a calorie deficit with the goal of trying to maintain strength. Then what calories should I be keeping at this point? I think stay where you're at. The 2 ,700 where you're at right now is what you're doing. I love, I love too, how you're undulating it.

1:22:37Sal Di Stefano:I know now you'll be in the gym every day. Uh, and so, you know, you can, but undulating the way you are is perfectly fine.

1:22:44Adam Schafer:Um, yeah, so you can kind of So just a little more. So aim for 25 to 2 ,700. Yes. Okay. Yep. And then if, so I keep going, at what point during the strength gains would I decide to then go on a cut? Like how much would I, would I run the whole program? And then the second time I run the whole program.

1:23:07Sal Di Stefano:In fact, if appetite increases and strength increases during the program, I actually might bump your calories again. So if. Yeah. And play the reverse diet. So if you're seeing strength gains and appetite, you feel increase feed that. Um, that's what, and then at the end of the program, I'd say, then let's go into a cut. Cause then we're cutting from an even higher place, which would be even more advantageous. And what would I cut to?

1:23:33Adam Schafer:If you're, if you're averaging 2 ,600 calories, 2 ,200 calories would be a sufficient cut. Yeah. For how long for a whole program for a month? Yeah, I think a whole program would work just fine. These are great questions, by the way, Julie. I think I can, yeah, this is great. So yeah, I would go a whole cycle of MAPS-15 and then follow a different MAPS-15 if it worked and you got stronger. We have a lot of MAPS-15 versions. So we have like MAPS-15 muscle mommy and strong. And then follow it again in a cut if everything worked well and you got stronger.

1:24:06Sal Di Stefano:Where that would look different is if you actually reverse diet during this process right now. So if we see strength and appetite increase and I get you back up to say 29, 3000 calories, then you could pull all the way down to say 25 to 500 calorie deficit and you're eating more and we'll see some of those results. So really aiming for that 300 to 500 calorie deficit after we've gone through 15, trying to build strength and trying to reverse diet.

1:24:31Adam Schafer:Are you, by the way, Julie, are you, are you wearing a CGM for the glucose? No, I had a, my provider gave me a CGM. I had two, so I did it twice. I didn't really learn that much. Okay. It just seems to be the fasting that's primarily the biggest piece is where I'm having issues. It would be also like if I eat bananas or oranges. Okay. Or if I don't move after lunch. So that's why I try and do a little bit of some activity for five to ten minutes after lunch. Because then I would see my numbers start to go up to like 160. Instead of if I move right away, it's like 120. Okay. was where I would peak at and maybe one 30 and then it would go back down.

1:25:17I'm not quite sure. Cause I'm on a super low dose GLP. I don't know if they're going to titrate it up. If they want to see like, how long am I going to be with this? I don't know if that's going to influence my appetite.

1:25:30Adam Schafer:A micro dose might in a way that's kind of imperceptible. But I would be very careful with someone like you who is trying to improve bone density to go at a high dose of a glp well and that's not the goal i told you i tried to i mean i put it off for a year and now it's just kind of like nothing's working um and i don't know how to fix that piece and just not wanting to trip to being diabetic as i look into try and get all this hormone stuff and under control look into berberine if you are if you have already on berberine how's that helping is that helped anything okay all right let's see what happens with the strength training.

1:26:08Adam Schafer:What I want to do, Julie, is I want you all back on in 30 days. I was just going to ask her.

1:26:11Sal Di Stefano:Julie, are you familiar with our concierge program? I've heard you guys talk about it. It's just we're in the process of buying a house, and then some of the medical stuff that I've had going on lately has escalated the bills a little bit. So the concierge is not good right now. No worries. But it would be something I would be interested in. Yeah, I know. I was just listening to you. I'm like, you're such a good candidate for this. You come with so many great questions like you're the type of person who i think we don't always talk to people about it uh because i think most people need a lot more detailed coaching and more hand-holding um you're so thorough detailed that you know checking in once a month with the coach who's just kind of overseeing what you're doing and making those tweaks uh you're just a great candidate for now are you yeah are you able to progressively overload like i know you're a little bit nervous about like the five by five protocol and like adding weight is adding weight something you were able to kind of like gradually progressively do or is that something still you're a little nervous about um it kind of depends on the day so um so like for my five by fives the highest i can get is a 45 plate on each side for the box squat that's great that's that's really good that's really good yeah no i mean i guess because i've worked out for so long and um it depends like during map strong i was doing overhead press or clean and press i have to remember because this was a while ago with 60 and like today i did an aesthetic or because i'm doing the you do that and then you pair it with the rear delt yeah i just did 30s this morning or just a 30 yeah overhead press regular because i was like and part of it's too it's it's 5 a.m yeah um i don't know how you start 5 a.m early but like even working out at 7 30 compared to five is completely totally you just yeah you just said something that gives a little more context to this conversation too and i think the reason why justin was asking because he's just curious to like are you like barely putting any weight on yeah you're you're you're pretty strong already too so that's good weight uh you know squatting 135 is very good weight uh for any female client of mine and so that's also something to consider too is uh not i don't necessarily think that you're at peak strength but you've already got a lot of those beginner gains that you know people who just get started so seeing continued increase like expecting you're just gonna keep seeing increase on the on a squat like that i mean us being able to maintain 135 is a very very huge win too well and i guess because it's not full range then i i kind of just credit it a little bit that's still true that's still good when i do that's still good if i'm having a good regular day and i'm doing like an eight to 12 rep range it would be 35 on each side yeah that's if i'm having a good day that's still 25 on each side is good yeah julie that's good weight that's really good yeah 130 pounds yes you're doing that you're getting after it i had no idea you were lifting that i would i would have guessed just a lower just based on this conversation uh that's that's good weight that's you're strong here's what we're gonna do i'm gonna have you

1:29:09Adam Schafer:back on in 30 days if that's okay i want to see how you do in four weeks on maps 15 okay all right and then based off of that a little bit because my work schedule but that's fine that's okay more time is better for us within yeah 30 to 45 days something like that whatever but we'll have you back on check back in and make any changes if we need to okay i appreciate it you got it thank you all right thanks so much guys you got it doing what you do thanks bye-bye that was good thorough and I'll tell you what, for people listening right now, these are fun clients. Why is it fun? Because the answer isn't so obvious.

1:29:46Adam Schafer:Although I do feel the reduction in volume is going to give her the strength that she gains because she's got so many things covered. This is one of those clients where it's like let's test this and see what happens because it's a little bit more of a challenge.

1:30:01Sal Di Stefano:We've experienced this personally. We've experienced a lot of clients too. And I think this just highlights the fact that she's as strong as she is also kind of points to this too, in my opinion, she's already kind of reaching kind of, so her volume is, is higher than what you would think 130 pound girl, her age would be doing because she's actually probably moving some good weight. Yeah. So I bet math 15, similar to how we all experience even mass 15 for ourselves, like, Oh my God, I got stronger in mass 15. Well, yeah, because at the, at this point when you've been lifting that long and you've already reaped a lot of the benefits, just adding more volume is the opposite of what you probably need to do.

1:30:35Sal Di Stefano:And so, yeah, I think she's going to see great benefits from that. Our next caller is Dave from Georgia. What's up, Dave? How you doing, Dave? What's happening? Hey, how's it going, guys? Good, man. How can we help you? Man, you know, I wish I could remember exactly what I typed in as my question request when I made it. I pretty much know the gist of it. Can I give you a little bit of background? Yeah, yeah. Wing it. So I'm 50. I just turned 50 this past May. And I grew up an athlete. and then when I got to high school, started down the wrong path with some drugs and alcohol, kind of went a different direction with it.

1:31:10Sal Di Stefano:Things got out of control. I got cleaned up and finished college when I was 22, got back in shape. Everything was going really well. Some life things happened, life events, kind of went back down that wrong road and started drinking quite a bit again. Got married, had four kids, and in 2019, I woke up weighing 350 pounds and was really unhappy, depressed, anxiety through the roof, just not being the husband, father, and human I wanted to be and that I knew that I could be. Had some help with some friends and found a gym, local gym on Facebook that was, you know, first 20 men to respond, kind of get a free shot to interview and go for a weight loss challenge.

1:31:55Sal Di Stefano:I entered that, just figured I might as well give it a shot. I've tried everything else. And for some reason, some of the folks that I met at this gym really kind of clicked with me and everything kind of went from there. I wound up losing 100 pounds over the next three years. And after that kind of got in a position where my friend who ran the gym, who became my friend, he ran the gym, he left the gym and we're now workout buddies. So we work out three, four times a week, strength training. Recently listening to your podcast over the last couple of years, kind of thinking about some different things, got a DEXA scan done.

1:32:32Sal Di Stefano:I'm in a pretty good place, guys. I really am. I'm happy with myself for the first time in a really long time. Coached my son in football, coached my son in baseball. My daughter plays softball for high school. And so I'm kind of where I need to be as a husband and a father again, good employee, successful at work, just happy with who I am. But it's time for me, I think, to take it to the next level. So what I've been thinking about were items that you talk about, like your VO2 max, things of that nature, spoke to, spoke about that with the guy who did the DEXA scan, kind of opened my eyes to a few different things and visceral fat and how I get rid of that kind of stuff.

1:33:10Sal Di Stefano:And in a place right now where I'm six foot tall, 255 pounds, body fat was 26%. Muscle mass is, you know, I think you said top 80, top 85, top 90 % men my age. so again in a good spot but really want to take it to the next level and I hate cardio I love lifting weights I love being strong I've always been a bigger guy um have kind of toyed with the idea of you know quote unquote becoming a runner uh just not for me and uh really just wanted to kind of hear what you guys had to say about maybe some suggestions I've listened to the reverse dieting part and not really quite have my my head wrapped around that just yet and I think I know the answers guys to be clear like in terms of you know dialing in my diet being more strict or at least more making a concerted effort towards my diet and getting some more cardio worked in but I love the way that you guys really attack issues when callers bring them up and was just really excited to get on the show and hear what you guys might have to say and maybe inject a little bit more life into my current uh plan and maybe give me a little bit more life to take a couple couple

1:34:14Adam Schafer:steps forward yeah thanks Dave thanks for calling in man um I like I like that your goal is to increase your VO2 max. I like that a lot because it's a performance goal. Performance goals tend to be better overall than aesthetic goals. Performance goals can contribute to better aesthetics, but oftentimes when we chase aesthetics, we sacrifice things like performance and sometimes health. So I like that you said that. I heard that you don't like to run and you don't like to do cardio. I feel you. But an easy way to increase your VO2 max would be to do some form of activity that gets you to breathe hard but do it do something you enjoy doing like play

1:34:51Sal Di Stefano:something pickleball yeah what do you got i'm a big pickleball fan bro now if you haven't done it i did i tried to pick a ball this summer and i didn't mind it i mean that would be the that

1:35:04Adam Schafer:would be the key right there you like lifting weights something fun you got a workout partner uh do something that involves um a little community uh friendship or your kids or your kids so you're not counting you know i'm doing 30 minutes of this exercise you're just going out and you're just moving your body you're more likely to be consistent you're more likely to get better results doing that you're more likely to forget that you're working out when you're doing that that'd be it man once a week once a week something that gets you to move that you enjoy uh with people that you enjoy being around would be the only thing i would say you could add you could

1:35:39Sal Di Stefano:also there's there's there's there's ways to improve this too in in shorter bouts that are paired with your i i loved um post this is i use this a lot when i was competing um and it also had the benefits on the vo2 max it also had benefits on leaning out losing body fat post workout i would get uh do 12 minutes of hit cardio and what that looked like is uh i'd pick you know stairmaster elliptical treadmill whatever and for literally 15 to 20 seconds i get after it my and let my And my heart rate goes basically as hard as I can. You work up to that, so don't go full-on sprinting. I like things like an elliptical or a stairmaster to start with so you don't pull a muscle trying to do something crazy or a bike.

1:36:23Sal Di Stefano:But you go after it as hard as you can for 15 seconds and then allow that heart rate to come all the way back down. It'll probably take you, when you first start doing this, a minute to two minutes, maybe in a little bit longer, to feel your heart rate come all the way back down and then do it again. And you only just do 12-minute blocks of that. a couple times a week paired with what sal's doing some play on the weekend with your kids or something like pickleball or something you like doing and you'll really improve that yeah you'll you'll make you'll make big headway uh on that vo2 max by doing that and then the other thing i would it sounds like you've already kind of aware of it like tightening up the diet uh would be and i know if you've listened to the show you've probably heard us the easiest thing man is i just with someone like you i just think we're just going to track protein and my first rule to you is you hit that you eat that first and always do that first and that seems to take care of a lot of the things uh and then if there's anything egregious that you're aware of that you do like if you're uh you know a couple times a week you pound the ice cream late at night or there's you know a treat that you always do that's mine that's why i call that one out uh so whatever if there's something major and egregious then probably tapering off of that but then really just focusing on the protein, I think takes care of a lot of the problems.

1:37:37Yeah.

1:37:37Sal Di Stefano:I love what you guys said about the aesthetics. Cause I think I'm not, I'm not a psychiatrist, but I kind of feel like that might be what got me into a little bit of a lull in my training is, you know, going from 350 pounds to 250 pounds was a huge improvement, right. And just being miserable with, you know, how I felt and how I looked and then getting to a place where, man, I, I really liked the way I look and, and being 50, I'm assuming, you know, I think this is the second part of the question that I had originally sent in the elasticity, right? Like, so I've lost a ton of weight and I've got kind of loose skin going on that I don't know how to get rid of.

1:38:15Sal Di Stefano:I don't know if, you know, eventually surgery is the only option or if there's other ways to kind of tighten that up. But yeah, like again, looking in the mirror, I went from 350 to 250 and I feel great about myself and love what I see in the mirror. Well then over the next year to two years of kind of seeing that same thing. It's kind of put me back and well, now I'm not so happy with what I see. And I lose sight of where I came from and what I've gotten to. And I've kind of lost sight of that. And I look at, I just, I want to take it to the next step, but you're right. Like for me, the aesthetic part is really what gets me in trouble because I start to get depressed or I don't really like the way that I look again.

1:38:50Sal Di Stefano:But the aesthetic part is it's what I focus on, but it's not what motivates me. I don't know if that makes sense or not. It's good. I, what I, I, what we currently do is we do a push pull legs, uh, method at the gym. So we'll have a push day, a pull day, and then a leg day. And then the, you know, the fourth day is some kind of, some kind of fill in, whether it's just a deadlift day or, you know, something like that. But I've, I liked what I heard recently with the, uh, upper lower breakdown that you guys do. So just wondering if you guys would mix up what I'm doing strength training wise. I would, I would love to give that to you.

1:39:23Sal Di Stefano:I think if you haven't followed one of our programs, this also could be a really nice thing for you. We all tend to do this when we create our own programs, including us, okay, with all of our experience. You kind of get in this lull of doing the same kind of things all the time. And one of the best things to kind of spark change and strength and progress is just simply following a routine that you didn't write or didn't create. And so I think the upper-lower split would be great for you. Yeah, or, I mean, because you brought up VO2 max as your goal, like either a performance or strong has like a conditioning element to it, which, again, maybe programming it in there would help mentally you be able to tackle some of that conditioning and kind of get into it.

1:40:13Sal Di Stefano:But really just shaking it up and doing something completely different a lot of times will help the psyche. I love that, Justin. if what I said doesn't resonate with you where you're like, I'm not going to go get on that thing 12 minutes after my workouts and I don't want to play pickleball, but I'll follow a program, then I would lean towards Justin. But if what I said about just making a habit a couple times out of the week to do the 12 minutes to hit afterwards and then what Sal said, pick a day up with the kids of doing physical activity or play pickleball once, if that resonates with you, then I think you could do an upper-lower split with that paired with it would do really well if you know yourself and you're like i'm probably not going to do that shit then i would take justin's advice and just follow like a performance because it's built into that yep yeah yeah okay well man guys again i really appreciate you having me on the show i love listening to you it's it's been it's been really good for me especially over the last year to kind of get back moving in the right direction so love your messages love what you share and just love love love everything about it so thank you for helping me be a part of it Dave, let us send you one of those programs of the two, what upper, lower, or performance, which one resonates more with where you want to go?

1:41:27Sal Di Stefano:Well, I think based off of what you were talking about, I think that throwing in a weekly day of pickleball and or jumping on that Stairmaster elliptical for 10 to 15 minutes after a workout, I think I can do that. I've done that in the past. Cool. So we'll send you upper, lower then. Upper. Yeah, we'll send you upper, lower, all that, add that, and then go kiss that wife for sticking by you that whole time. Yeah, hey, she just got me a whoop too for my birthday. So that's where this whole VO2 Max is coming into play because now I get to see every day with how I'm tracking and I need to make some changes.

1:41:59Sal Di Stefano:Nice, man.

1:42:00Adam Schafer:All right, bro. Thanks. Thanks, Dave. Hey, thanks, guys. Take care. You got it. You know, I think if more people just went to have fun and played, you really wouldn't have to worry so much about. Yeah. And the sustainability of that is so much higher. You're there to see your friends. You're hanging out. You're having a good time. And before you know it, you did it for an hour. You don't even realize with the work you put in. That's right. That's right. Our next caller is Alyssa from Michigan. Hey, welcome back. How you doing, Alyssa? How you doing? How you doing? I'm good. Give us an update. What's happening?

1:42:34Okay. So previously, you guys told me to focus strictly on strength. Since then, I've been following MAPS 15 Powerlift and have improved. I want to preface that I was in Italy for about a month. So my training and eating were basically just pasta and no training, just walking.

1:42:50Sal Di Stefano:Which is even more impressive that we saw a gains, which is great. I know. As of July 19th, my one rep maxes are for bench 160, deadlift 225, and squat 205.

1:43:02Adam Schafer:Why? Nice. I'm confident I was in a bit of a surplus during that time. And my body probably needed the rest. So I guess it kind of makes sense. I don't know. But I'm extremely excited to keep following this program as I did. And this past week I redid these one rep maxes and currently for bench, they're 165 deadlift, 225 and squat or deadlift, 255 and squat to 25. I'm eating about 25 to 3000 calories, 2 ,500, sorry a day and maintaining 10 ,000 steps a day. I do still run a little bit, but it's down to like below 10 miles a week. And when I first started, And it was like 25 miles a week. So I'm so happy.

1:43:45You guys changed my life. You feel better, don't you?

1:43:48Sal Di Stefano:By the way, to see increases in all three main lifts is amazing. Typically, when I'm training somebody, I'm like, we're trying to focus on just one of those lifts going up. To see across the board is awesome. And it says there you feel amazing.

1:44:03Adam Schafer:You feel a lot better, huh? I do, yeah. I like being able to eat food and not think about it constantly because that's kind of how I was in the beginning. I also started pursuing a little bit of personal training on the side. I'm halfway through the ISSA program. I don't know. I feel like I got the bug. Like I couldn't stop thinking about it. It's been great so far. I'm so excited to read about it. That's exciting. You've changed my life. Alyssa, what's your main job? What do you do for it? What's your main, how do you get your, how do you pay your bills? Well, I'm 21. I don't really pay bills, but I'm studying construction management.

1:44:39I'm going to graduate in December and I'm currently an intern at a construction company as a project engineer.

1:44:46Adam Schafer:Okay, good. Part time. Cool. But you like my hours. But you like fitness. Yeah, I do. All right. Listen, keep us in mind. We love hiring new trainers. I know. I was looking at your website and I was kind of like, oh, I could film a video of myself. I like film videos. Well, possibility. Stay the course. I think you're on the perfect routine. I think the mass 15, uh, style workouts are great. Keep doing it. I think in combination with a little bit of running, you're doing diet and everything. I think you're doing phenomenal and then keep studying. And if you love fitness and you want to be a trainer, this is one of the best places to work.

1:45:21Adam Schafer:And if you need them, if you're a huge fan of the show and you know, our culture, those are the kinds of people we like to hire.

1:45:27Sal Di Stefano:Have you been, have you found the trainer podcast we have with our trainers? No, but I know it's called Elite Training, right? Yeah, Elite Trainer Podcast on YouTube. And you'll hear our coaches talking all about personal training. So if you're into it and you're liking it, you'll like that content too. So listen, check that out. Yeah, I'm definitely going to dive into that. Yeah, yeah. Awesome. I love it. It's been amazing. Awesome. I'm excited for you.

1:45:51Adam Schafer:Yeah, so which MAPS 15 did we give you to do? Was it MAPS 15 Powerlift? Do you remember?

1:45:55Sal Di Stefano:It was Powerlift.

1:45:56Adam Schafer:All right. You're almost done with it, aren't you?

1:45:59Sal Di Stefano:Yeah.

1:45:59Adam Schafer:All right. I'll send you another one. Let's go 15 muscle mommy. Thank you so much. You got another 15 to follow. You got it. And then you just keep in touch with us. Okay. I will. Hey, you never know.

1:46:11Sal Di Stefano:Exactly. I hope I catch a video from you soon. I do too. All right. All right. All right, Alyssa. Thank you for everything. My dad says hi, by the way. Okay. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Great job. Great job.

1:46:24Adam Schafer:Thank you, Alyssa. Great news. Yeah. Great news. She was running a lot. She was doing a lot of training. She was walking a lot, and her calories are low.

1:46:34Sal Di Stefano:And she was worried about hormones.

1:46:37Adam Schafer:If I recall, maybe I'm wrong, but if I recall, she had issues with being regular with her period, maybe.

1:46:43Sal Di Stefano:I don't know if that was part of her story.

1:46:45Adam Schafer:But she was like, what's going on? Why do I feel this way? And she was just over.

1:46:49Sal Di Stefano:I mean, 90-day check-in, 30 days of that was traveling, not working out, and eating. So it's really 60 days. So 60 days of just following match 15. She really did need rest. And by the way, too, already a very strong person. Yeah. So consistently lifting, already strong. See an increase across all three major lifts. Huge. Yeah. Huge win.

1:47:10Adam Schafer:Our next caller is Amber from Michigan. Hi, Amber. Hello. Hi, guys. How you doing? Good. How can we help you? Oh, my gosh. This is crazy. I've been listening to you guys for like nine years. Wow. Wow. Oh, man. You guys have been through a lot with me.

1:47:27Sal Di Stefano:Oh, thank you. That's awesome. We made it. Yeah. So basically, I'm just feeling really frustrated because I have been working out for so long. I started getting your guys' programs probably about seven years ago. So I just don't feel like I look like all the effort that I put in. For some context, I right now, I own a cleaning business for six years now. So I clean two to three houses a day. With it being summer here in Michigan, I'm playing beach volleyball three to four times a week. and I have a hard time even keeping up with like maps 15. So I go back and forth on like, am I doing too much?

1:48:19Am I not doing enough? Am I eating too much? Or am I not eating enough? And I put in all this effort, but feel like I don't look like I should with all the effort I put in. All right.

1:48:31Adam Schafer:Good question. So I'm going to read through some of the stuff in your email, if that's okay? Yeah, sure. Okay. So, uh, you're okay. You mentioned you're clean to two, three houses a day, plus playing beach volleyball three to four days a week. I'm assuming you're out there for a couple hours when you do that. Yeah. Okay. And you got two teenage daughters. Oh yeah. And it says your life is very full and demanding. Uh huh. And now it says, and I want to correct, I don't know if this is accurate. If we got the right email, it says you're 47, 37, 37. I was say i'm like you don't look 47 holy cow well i hope not so first off you do look like you work out uh but you're doing a lot yeah you're doing a lot so cleaning houses is if you took let me ask you a question if you took one of your friends that works an office job to work with you for one day yeah well they die how do you feel so yeah what you're doing is akin to a workout that's your job then you're playing volleyball three to four days a week yeah that's intense yeah yeah so you're you're you're redlining and i don't even i haven't even asked you about your sleep which uh i'd actually let me ask you that how is your sleep how consistent is it how many hours a night you're getting um it's typically pretty good seven or eight hours okay okay i also i want to take a

1:49:46Sal Di Stefano:guess at diet stuff because this is just just taking a shot in the dark this is what happens sometimes when somebody's got a lot like this and they feel like they do put a lot of work and effort is they are eating really clean or really low calorie and then they have these off the rails and then they really clean really off the rails and inconsistencies with the diet how would you rate your diet actually i don't go off the rails really because i enjoy eating healthy and eating clean just because i like to feel good and being with my work like i can't go to work feeling like shit so i really take pride in eating healthy and i enjoy eating healthy so my you know the rule 80 20.

1:50:24Mine's more like 90 10. It's not super strict. Like if I want something, I'll take a couple of bites, but that's really all I need is a couple of bites and I'm good. So I don't really go off the rails.

1:50:33Sal Di Stefano:That's good. That's really good. How about tracking like protein? Do you, are you aware of what you're consuming? So tracking's not really good for me. Um, I actually had eating disorders for like 15 years and you guys helped me get through that. So thank you. Um, but I did try to track. Um, and I know that I get plenty of protein. Like I can literally snack on chicken breast, so it's not an issue. Um, but tracking is just not good for me. Would you say you, because of your past, you have a tendency then to maybe eat on the lower calorie side, or are you, would you think you eat a good, a good amount of calories?

1:51:16um i don't restrict myself like i eat when i'm hungry so it's just hard to know if it's enough

1:51:24Adam Schafer:okay or too much okay okay but we uh but you're eating high protein you're not restricting yeah you're getting decent sleep uh you're just really active yeah you're really active yeah bring it down a little bit more yeah so and it sounds like your beach volleyball with your friends is something you really enjoy doing yeah yeah i wouldn't want to cut that down your your work we're not going to cut down because that's your job yeah even maps 15 is a lot of volume when you add it to all that stuff spread out on a consistent basis yeah i recently a couple weeks ago switched to anabolic because i finished 15 um and i'm not doing the trigger shot sessions because I just usually don't have the energy to do it.

1:52:09I'm dead. And I'm fitting in one full body a day, which is the one day off I get a week because in summer it's crazy. Like even Saturdays I'm working right now because I have Airbnbs and stuff, but. Okay.

1:52:25Adam Schafer:And so you're doing one full body workout a week. Yeah. How's that feel? It's been okay so far. I just. That's probably what we put you on. I know. There's two options I would recommend. Either one full body workout a week, one exercise per body part, three sets each, or MAPS 15 two or three days a week. That's it. MAPS 15, but like two days a week or three days a week. And that's it. And base it off of how you feel. You don't need a ton of strength training. You really don't. Especially when you're doing so much activity. Just for muscle preservation.

1:53:00Sal Di Stefano:Amber, can you recall for me what yesterday's full day of eating was? Like just run me through breakfast, lunch, dinner or what you ate? Sure, I would love to. So for breakfast, I'm usually eating Dave's Killer Bread, two slices, three eggs and two sausage links. And then being on the go for work, I'm usually eating a banana, RX bar, a pack of nuts. And then I'll get home around two or three, eat a meal, which is usually like a chicken vegetable and maybe some quinoa. then I have dinner which is also some kind of form of chicken and carbon veggie and then when I get home from volleyball which is usually like nine or ten o 'clock at night I'm eating like a yogurt cup with some stuff in it okay you're just cleaning that out yeah I'm just doing it in my head real quick and it's not it's uh I thought it would be lower it's not bad no yeah yeah see that's where I'm struggling like I feel like it's a decent amount but yeah you're just right honey

1:53:56Adam Schafer:you're just you're literally redlining you're redlining yeah so let me put it this way three to four days a week for just a mom who works a desk job of beach volleyball because that's very active you're playing with friends competitive that's a lot by itself yeah now you add on top of that your job which is activity you're doing a ton yeah so you can't add that much strength training to your routine. Literally, it would be MAPS 15, maybe two a week. Or, like I said, one full body workout, one exercise per body part where you're doing kind of compound lifts and that's it. Those are kind of your two options.

1:54:34Adam Schafer:If you already have MAPS 15, the way I would do it, because you've got it laid out in front of you, is you would do two workouts so you'd follow the two in a row, then the following week you'd move to the next two. Then the following week you'd move to the next two. And that's it. And if you start to see strength gains and you feel good, we're moving in the right direction okay that's your gauge do you think anabolic one day a week is okay maybe phase one uh maybe phase two phase three would probably be too much yeah yeah okay yeah but i i think you should try 15 two workouts a week yeah and i think if you did that you'll probably notice more energy and strength okay yeah again let me again let me just paint the context you took a friend of yours who works a desk job who's same age as you and they followed you around and did your job for one day they would be dead and sore after one day of work yeah not including

1:55:27Sal Di Stefano:take care of the kids not including the kids in the volleyball and my own house and all that

1:55:32Adam Schafer:that's right so you're just you're just doing a lot just factor it all i know you're just doing a lot a lot hun and i think adding a bunch adding strength training is just you're just overflowing with the amount of stress you're putting on on your body so a little bit of strength training is going to go a long way for you.

1:55:46Sal Di Stefano:Do you know what?

1:55:47Adam Schafer:Make your body recover.

1:55:48Sal Di Stefano:I'm curious. Have you ever used it? I'm just curious on your total steps. You probably do a ton of steps in a day. Oh, probably, but I don't have a way to track them. Yeah. It's probably a good 20. Yeah. That would be my guess would be 20 ,000, especially on volleyball days.

1:56:04Adam Schafer:Amber, I've trained people with similar activity levels, typically blue-collar workers. Yeah. And the amount of volume that got them results was so shockingly low. And I had to keep scaling back. I remember when I first became a trainer and I would get these clients and I'd scale back, scale back, scale back, scale back. And it was very minimal before they started to see any progress. And it was just because they were just moving all the time. And they were so used to moving all the time that to them, they're like, oh, I'm just normal. This is just what I do. And I had to scale it way down. so yeah it's also my my mental therapy go you know working out too so yeah so i get it i literally well you do a lot of activity already yeah i don't think you need more no i know you might need i'm gonna i'm gonna you know forgive me for saying this you might need some time to not do anything and kind of sit quietly massage or something which you probably don't ever do yeah i don't got time for that.

1:57:06Adam Schafer:Let's try maps 15, do two workouts a week, uh, by week two or three, you'll probably see some strength gains. Okay. Okay. All right. I would love to try it. Let's do it. You want to get, you want to get back on in 60 days so we can talk to you and see what happened. Oh, I would love that. We'll get you back on. Yeah. All right. Cool. You got it. And great. Congratulations on the success of your business. It sounds like you're doing well. Thank you. Appreciate that. Bye. Bye. yeah and just just for people listening if the average person uh who works out two or three days a week went to play beach volleyball for two hours in those houses and three four days a week so this

1:57:47Sal Di Stefano:this becomes uh exponentially tricky too because of a past eating disorder and what that could trigger to have her tracking wing or doing those things but i'm she rattled that off fast i was do the math really quick in my head but i'm i'm i'm guesstimating in the low 2000s so it's not bad but with her activity that's why i'm asking 20 000 steps okay that house working out volleyball two kids that is a lot and even even more so in the context of moderate to low calories someone like that at her she's still young someone that could be eating 3 000 plus calories easy and i know that wasn't 3 000 plus calories so uh you know that this is uh either either one well both is probably what needs to happen we probably need to see a reduction of volume training and have a slight bump in calories hard to say guarantee that without getting a little bit more granular with the diet but based on what she says it doesn't sound like egregious to the average person but she is not the average person 20 000 steps or more a day yeah it's crazy uh is a lot of activity and the physical demanding activity.

1:58:58Sal Di Stefano:Cleaning a house. I watched two cars this weekend. My low back was sore for like two days. I'm like, come on. She's doing that every day. Every day. Yeah, every day, that kind of bending over, reaching. It's taxing, even on somebody who considers themselves fit and strong. And so I think she's under eating. Under eating and over training. Yeah, and over training. And so I think a little bit of both would be ideal. Yeah, probably right.

1:59:26Adam Schafer:Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. It's Mind Pump Media. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump.

1:59:31Sal Di Stefano:If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance,

1:59:38Adam Schafer:check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, and MAPS Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin

1:59:54Sal Di Stefano: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.

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