The 2 Rules That Let You Eat More and Stay Lean | Mind Pump 2763

There are just two rules that, if you follow them, you can eat as much as you want and you won't get fat. In fact, here's the magic to it: those of you that need to gain weight will gain doing this, and those of you that need to get leaner will get leaner doing this. Both of you can eat as much as you want. I'm serious. We're going to talk about the two rules that will make this happen for the vast majority of you. Let's get to it.

I feel like my hook was better. I don't remember what I told you, but it was better than that. I forgot. And that's what I was like, "I know I told you as much as you want, don't get fat." I said something like that. That's, I think that's what it was. "Eat as much as you want, don't get fat," I think is what you said. Yeah, that's what it was. Yes.

So, you know what's okay, so here's where this is coming from, right? We talk to callers all the time, right? So, if you listen to the podcast, you know about four people will call in, and typically it's at the end of the episode, and we'll coach them and help them. There's a range of people that we'll talk to, but just for argument's sake, people who want to lose weight and people who want to gain weight, we'll just put them in those two categories. We often give them different but similar advice, and often times the advice is actually remarkably similar because eating this way, your body will start to tell you what it needs.

In other words, if you're somebody that needs to gain, you need to gain muscle, maybe even gain body fat. And it's true, some people do need to gain body fat. Like if you're a woman and you've been tracking your food for too long and you're walking around at 14% body fat, you can't figure out why you're not getting stronger or why you maybe have symptoms of hormone imbalance, you need to gain a little body fat, right? And then, of course, people who need to lose body fat. If these people followed these same two rules and ate until they were satisfied when they were hungry, they ate, and of course, in combination with strength training, what's cool about this is your body will guide you, and you'll build and lose and build and lose, and over time end up in this really nice place. And what I like about this is they're basic, simple, black and white rules. Follow them. By the way, that doesn't mean they're easy. They're simple, but they're still...

Well, I think that's the point to be made here. Yeah, I just recently had a conversation with a buddy of mine who's not really into lifting weights and stuff like that, but he was wanting advice, right? We're hitting golf balls, and you could tell he was like, "Um, you know, I don't want to bug you because I know this is what you do all the time." I'm like, "No, go ahead." He's like, and so he starts asking me about, you know, "I've been working out in the garage," and you could tell, you know, he thought I was going to come out with this elaborate plan and, you know, what to do with his diet and his training and all that. And I basically gave him those two basic rules.

And then I said, "Just consistently do that. Target the protein, right? And do that consistently." And then if you're just, even though I heard what he was doing in his garage, and I'm like, "There's so many things I could have him do better," it didn't matter because I'm like, "We can tweak that later." He is sending a signal to get stronger and build muscle, even if it's not the best one or there's a better way to do it.

Glad he said that. I'm like, "Listen, if you just do these things, that will move the needle the most." And why I've distilled it down to those things is I realize that, to your point, they're very simple as far as the advice, but very difficult to do consistently. Yeah, they're still hard. And so, and that will move the needle the most. And so instead of like telling the client or telling my friend like, "Well, you could change this, do this exercise, you could also do this, and then on these days do that," and then like giving him like 10 different things to go do that he's most likely going to fail at a majority of them and stuff. It's like, let's give him the two biggest things that he can focus on. Show him what change can happen just by being consistent with that, and then I can build on that.

Let me give the two rules real quick, and we'll break them down. But I'll give the two rules real quick since people are probably like, "What are you talking about?" So, rule one: hit your target body weight of protein. Prioritize that. Eat it first. And we'll break down why that helps. And then two: eat just whole foods. Yeah. Just those two things.

Now, here's what happens when you do that. Okay, so there's this widely believed myth that if you're around food as humans, you're just going to be overweight. If there's food, we're just going to eat it. We're like eating machines. This is actually not true. No, it's only true in modern societies because we've engineered food so expertly with crazy science. It overrides a lot of our natural signals. It makes you overeat. That's what it's designed to do. It's designed to make you... it actually has drug-like effects on the brain. This is not a natural effect. So it's like hyper-novelty and hyper-palatability is what ends up happening.

But if you get rid of that and you avoid processed foods, it's only whole natural foods, and you eat protein, here's what will happen to the vast... Now, this is not everybody, but most people, 80 to 85% of everybody, this is what would happen to you. For men, you're going to fall right around somewhere in the vicinity, so give or take 3% of about 15% body fat. This will happen over time. So for men, 15% body fat. Of course, you've got to be strength training along with this and be relatively active throughout the day with steps, but 15% is a fit, healthy body fat percent. Now, you're not shredded. You don't have a six-pack, but your midsection's flat. You're fit. This is considered an athletic body fat percentage. For women, it's going to be around 20-21%, give or take 3% or so up or down, because there's where you get the genetics. Some people are a little higher, some people are a little lower.

But when you hit the protein and avoid heavily processed foods and strength train, your body will... your hunger will go up when it wants to build. When body fat percentage gets above the numbers that I kind of gave you, again, give or take depending on a person's genetics, you'll eat a little less. This is just naturally what happens. And so you end up going through these natural periods of building, cutting, building, cutting by kind of following these rules, and you don't get these drastic quick changes overnight, but they're sustainable and they result in this really fit, healthy body that's not stressful, right? It's not as stressful. Those two rules, although challenging, are not so stressful like macro counting and measuring everything and "I can't eat outside of this thing or that thing." If you just follow those two things, it's pretty miraculous.

It's always funny to me because it's like we come back full circle to more of these hippie, crunchy ideas that are just very basic and brings you back into that natural harmony where if you think about it, like most of these foods that are like hyper-concentrated, they're trying to get you to overly taste something, to, you know, experience more of the crunch or something more to really stimulate more of that appetite to kind of get your ghrelin to get, like, you know, roaring and to get a lot of these other like natural, you know, hormone signals to basically like force that to a degree where it's like, "I'm just going to keep, you know, feeding my face." Whereas these whole foods, they're tapered off, they have fiber, they have...

It satiates you. It replenishes, nourishes you. Same thing with artificial light. It's like, it's crazy to me. It's like all this artificial light is just hijacking our natural rhythms where we wake up with the sun, we go to bed with the sun, and it's like it's just a natural regulator. And like we're telling people all this advice with all these devices and all these different... it's such... like if you just remove all this stuff and get back to like really basic things, you'd be doing really well. I actually think the number that Sal said is really conservative. It is. I've seen people get way better shape just from that. Yeah. Like if I... I would argue the next layer or thing that I tell people with those tips that I... because one of the... one of the, if you think about the general pop, one of the pushbacks that the average person gives when you give advice with that, they're like...

"Well, every day, I mean, what about if a glass of wine or what if I..." And they're like, "Do I have to eat like this forever? I can't have these." It's like, "Okay, well, here's the thing. I'm not going to tell you you can't have that glass of wine every once in a while. I'm not going to tell you you can't go out to dinner with your wife and enjoy whatever." All I'm going to say is do that first, and then, and that tends to actually land where you're saying percentage-wise. I think the people that actually take this and go, "Okay, I'm going to only eat whole foods and hit protein first," you're going to get... you're going to get ripped. Fantastic results. You're going to get... Yeah. And you're strength training, you're going to get in incredible shape. That's right.

I think the people that at least have the rule of, "Hey, I can still have that treat, that dessert, that occasional glass of wine, that thing, so long as I get my strength training in, I do, I hit my protein intake through whole foods first, and then I'll allow my..." Because what I have found is giving them that permission takes that pressure of "I can't" off, right? That psychological game that you're kind of playing allows them to have a little bit of flexibility. The fact that they're still strength training, the couple extra hundred additional calories, a lot of those end up getting partitioned over to building muscle anyways. And so it ends up working out to the people that actually take that advice and really stick to it. I think get really... Yeah. And those food groups like end up out-competing, like your palate changes in that direction over time. So it's a totally valid way to do it.

Yeah, it's a game. Just so you know, this is not a... because again, this is... I always get annoyed by the comments around like that we're for only beginners, something like that. I play this game still. I play this game still. I still... I just did this the other night. Like literally, it's late night. I know I'm a little... I'm a little under my protein. I already had dinner, and Katrina and I are relaxing. We're watching Christmas movies, and I'm like, "Oh man, I want... I'm going to make some popcorn right now." And I'm like, "You know what? I haven't hit my protein yet." And I know I'm like, "Okay." So, I went down and I had two things of cottage cheese and pineapple. And guess what? After that, I didn't feel like the popcorn anymore. So, and I didn't tell myself I can't have the popcorn. It's like, "You know what? I'm still under my protein. So, if I'm still if I still have an appetite to where I'm craving popcorn, at least go down, go have the cottage cheese first." And then, well, what do you know what happened?

No, if you saved those times that you're going to eat out and maybe not eat the whole natural foods or what, if you saved it for like vacations, dinner out with your wife, holidays, you're fine. You're totally fine. The problem is that becomes the norm, right? Where every day that becomes a thing, and that's where it's an issue. But if you follow this rule and then, "Hey, you know, hey honey, let's go out Friday night. That's our date night. We're going to go out and have dinner." Okay, don't stick to the rules that one, you know, that night or you're going to take out your kid for their birthday. It's important. Or it's Christmas dinner, whatever. You know, it's not that big of a deal. But what I'm saying here works so well, everybody. It is literally miraculous. If you just did this, you wouldn't have to do anything else.

And just so people understand, like, I'll use... there are genetic differences, but I'll use myself and Justin as an example because both of us are different genetically when it comes to some of this. But when him and I eat this way, the difference in body fat percentage between him and I is about 4%. That's it. We're both fit, both lean, most athletic. My body holds a little leaner, his holds a little heavier. Neither one of us is outside of the range of healthy, and it's not stressful, and we're just eating the way that we're talking about.

Now, why does high protein work so well? Well, the data shows very clearly when you have two identical calorie diets. One of them is high protein, one gram of protein per pound of target body weight. So, that's very high protein. The other one is half or less. Okay? Even though they're both identical with calories, if it's a muscle-building diet, the higher protein group builds a lot more muscle and gains a lot less body fat. If it's a cutting diet, calorie deficit, the high protein group loses more body fat and preserves more muscle. That's the difference that protein makes.

Now, why the avoidance of heavily processed foods? It's you have to track if you eat heavily processed foods. If that makes it into your diet on a daily basis, you have to count calories and track. You can't listen to your body. It's impossible because they make you want to eat. They make you overeat. And those food scientists are way smarter than you listening to your body and saying, "Well..." It's naive to think that they're not just sitting there obsessing on how to figure out how to get you to buy more product.

Look, Doug, look up how many... look up a large bag of Lay's potato chips. Confirm how many large potato or how many potatoes are in that bag and give me that number. I think it's six. It is four to five or something like that. I think it's a great example of, you know, kind of what we're talking about. But, you know, I stumbled upon this as a trainer way later. Like way later, you guys. This took me a decade. Yeah. Before I really figured this out. And I overheard one of my other trainers in my studio communicating this, and the way she explained it, and then I thought about it myself, and I said, "This is interesting." So I told my clients, "Hey, eat as much as you want, just..." I didn't even do the high protein part. I was just like, "Just avoid ultra-processed foods," and people started losing weight.

It just reminds me when we were talking to Paul Chek when I first met him, and you talk about a guy who has like the ultimate knowledge and wisdom from so many different directions, and him just like breaking it down, like the more you understand and your understanding gets deeper, the more simplistic you really get to. It's like we all get back to these very simplistic methods that have worked and are the most effective. Totally.

What does it say there, Doug? Today's giveaway is Maps Powerlift. If you want to win, you have to leave a comment below this video, the first 24 hours that we drop it, subscribe to this channel, and turn on notifications. If you win, we'll notify you in the comments section. Also, Maps 15 Symmetry is out. If you like Map Symmetry and you want the 15-minute a day version, well, now you have it, and it's half off. Go to 15secsymmetry.com, use the code December50 for the discount. Back to the show.

So again, it depends on the size of the potato. It's like a family-size bag is what I'm looking at. Okay. Family size. Why didn't I put that in? About four medium potatoes. Okay. So one pound of chips needs four pounds of potatoes. Okay. Okay. So a family-size bag. Is that what that is? Well, I'll have to see how big the family. I think a family size is about five. But just let me just paint the picture. Everybody, you're listening to this right now, and I took five potatoes and I boiled them and I put them in front of you. Plain boiled. Good luck. Right in front of you. Good luck eating two. Eat all of them right now. I'll give you 30 minutes. You're going to gag after two with nothing on it, just potato. Even even salted and buttered up, you'd still have a challenge. You'd still have a tough time. Now, if I put a family-sized bag of potato chips in front of you and I said, "Here, eat this in 30 minutes." No problem. I could do that after being full. You could have eaten a bunch of food and then eat that whole bag of chips. And that's... And by the way, people think calories are what induce satiety. Calories play somewhat of a role, but they're not the main role because the bag of chips has higher calories than the four or five plain potatoes. They're fried in oil, and yet...

You want to eat more of them in just total volume and everything. I mean, that analogy works so well, too, with sugar. That's why I always bring up the sugarcane thing where it's just like, I mean, look at a little bag of Sour Patch Kids, how many calories and how many grams of sugar that is. If you try to eat that in nature the way it is, it would... you wouldn't be able to... you wouldn't even be able to consume that much. Not to mention the amount of extra... the extra calories. No, if you're strength training consistently two or three days a week, if you're hitting, you know, 6 to 8,000 steps a day, maybe 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day, just moving, you're not going to be overweight eating steak, rice, fruit, vegetables, potatoes, like chicken, fish. It's just not going to happen. No, it's just not going to happen.

Now, I know there are those outliers out there that can make anything happen, but the vast majority of people, if that's all you did, you guys, and here's the challenge. There was a... this message in the health and fitness space got twisted a while ago. It used to be in health and fitness you avoided quote unquote unhealthy foods. Like, "Well, why are you eating that? That's unhealthy. That's unhealthy. Eat that. It's healthy. It's healthy." And then the message came out that, "Well," and I learned this message, "the foods aren't making you overweight. It's that you're eating too many calories." So what it did is it made all food go into one category, and it's just you're overeating. And I remember learning this in my first certification. I remember my instructor, I'm a young kid getting certified for the first time, and they said, "It's just calories. You could eat. Can you gain body fat on a healthy diet? Yes, if you eat too much." I remember thinking like, I thought it was mind-blowing. "Oh, it's just calories." But then as you train people, you realize how that's actually quite rare. If there are foods that are healthy and unhealthy, theoretically it's possible, but I have never seen it.

If you've been listening to us long enough, you know, we came out early on on "if it fits your macros." Really popular when we first started the podcast. There were pages dedicated to people that were on social media posting about, you know, all the junk food they were eating, but they were still lean with abs and everything. And it's just all of us had already at that time obviously been trainers for a long time and thought this is a terrible message to send to the general pop because you introduce all these foods and you, you know, like Sal always likes to say, "You're playing the game on hard mode." Like, why would you do that to yourself? It's like, it's a way better strategy to say, "Hey, I can eat whatever I want when I'm hungry so long as I eat from these food groups," which whole foods, there is a huge group of foods. You're not saying you can't have fruit, you can't have vegetables, can't have meat, can't have high-fat meat, you can have all kinds of things in that. Just eat whole foods and you'll be okay. Especially if you target protein first, and it's just a much better strategy.

Not to mention too, I mean, I remember first time in my life how much it changed my palate eating this way. I had been a processed food, fast food eater at this point, it was a majority of my life, and grew up on all that stuff and didn't realize how much it had changed the way I felt about fruit and vegetables. Like just it didn't... I didn't think they tasted that good until I went eating nothing but whole foods, and then those things, it changed how desirable and how good they were. So the best example that I... one example, not the best, but one example I could give is like the comparison of pornography to, you know, regular normal sexual intercourse with, let's say, your spouse. Okay, pornography, you see young men having things like erectile dysfunction because of the way pornography is, the novelty, the stimulus, the way that it shapes and changes the brain. Suddenly, regular person in front of you, now it can't... you... these guys can't get an erection.

With processed foods, it shapes your brain because of the way it hits the brain with dopamine and all these chemical signals. Your brain starts to morph and model itself this way so that when you go eat normal food, it just doesn't do anything for you. In fact, it tastes bland and boring, and I need that excitement from that heavily engineered food. But once you move away from it, your brain will mold itself in the other way as well. Yeah, you can get it back, and I experienced that firsthand, and it has made... Katrina and I were so funny. We were just... Yeah, this was yesterday. We were driving. We're taking like a back road, and then at the end corner of it was a Carl's Jr. in our town, and I'm like, "You know, it's so crazy to think like I've never been to... we live in this... the town we live in now. We've lived here now for a little over four years where we're at, and I'm like, I've never been to any of the fast food restaurants. None of them. I've never been to the McDonald's. Never been to the Taco Bell. Never." And I... and yet at one point in my life when her and I first met, that was still... that was at the tail end of me getting rid of like that in my life. It was just a part, even as a trainer, I still found a way to still be fit and active and do all things but have those types of foods in there.

And a lot of that had to do with I grew up on processed foods. I craved that. I wanted that, and regular whole foods were very bland for me in all food categories. And it wasn't until I eliminated that for a long enough period of time in my life did all of a sudden fruit and vegetables and just meat and just plain those things all of a sudden became... and now it's like it's not even... it's not even a thought. It's not... it's not like I have to think about not going there. My body doesn't want that. My body wants the whole foods. In fact, eating some of those ultra-processed foods right now would feel overwhelming. Terrible. I... you have to condition yourself. I remember after it was... it was gone for a while, us trying like, "You know, we should... let's see how..." and just feeling awful from it and going like, "Wow, I had conditioned myself for so long that that tasted normal, that was..." And so for the audience that's listening, you absolutely can change that. You can change that through consistently eating the whole foods, and then all of a sudden it makes all those things so much more desirable. And when they're so much more desirable, it's that much... it's... yeah, that's why it's... that's why that decision last night to pass up like something, let's say like popcorn and butter and something salty like that and go have cottage cheese and pineapple wasn't that hard of a decision. Ask me to do that when I'm 25 when I'm eating junk food, candy, all these things. It's like, "Chill." Yeah. It doesn't... It's like I couldn't even imagine myself doing that. So, it is an exciting thing for somebody if you're listening and you're like, "Man, I just don't like any of those foods." You can change that.

25, when I'm eating junk food, candy, all these things. It's like, "Chill." Yeah, it's like I couldn't even imagine myself doing that. So, it is an exciting thing for somebody if you're listening and you're like, "Man, I just don't like any of those foods," you can change that.

Just so people know, when I would work with people, there is a withdrawal period. So, I want to set people up. If you're listening to this and you're like, "Okay, I'm going to make this step," the first 30 days is difficult. The first week is the hardest because you literally go through withdrawal. As your brain starts to remodel itself, it's not getting the same stimulation because you're not eating fast food, processed food, you know, boxed-type stuff. There is a withdrawal period, so it will feel kind of difficult. After 30 days, it gets significantly easier. If you can maintain it for 90 days, it's easy in comparison. So, I just want to encourage people, if you're going to try this, get through that first 30 days, and you're going to see it just gets easier and easier and easier.

Yeah, I think 30 is what Whole30 modeled themselves after. Yeah, I think 30 is really the mark. It's like four weeks. Yeah, I think after that, it just gets easier and easier and easier. And then I think 60 to 90 days is a good guess for when I was craving healthy food.

Totally. All right, I've got to share something so disturbing with you guys. Have you heard of these people on social media? They're calling themselves "doll moms." Doll moms. Doll moms. Is this worse than like the pageant moms? Dude, sounds like it's the same thing. This is so bad, dude. It makes me so sad. So, Doug, you can look this up, and I don't know if you can find a YouTube video on this. These are women, typically single and middle-aged, and they buy these lifelike toddler dolls and they treat them like real children. This is depressing. And they document themselves like, "Oh, they go in the bed, they go in the bedroom and wake up my kid," and then they dress them and they feed them and then they play with them.

Prepare them for maybe adopting or having like, is there like, or is this just a... This is it. This is it. So, what I think is worse than that... Makes me so sad. What's worse than that is that there's enough people that would follow and watch that. Yeah, yeah. It's one thing if maybe you do something like that, which I think is... I think people are watching because they're sad maybe, or they think it's disturbing, but you should hear these women talking, who are these doll moms, and how they walk through their day, and it's... I didn't think about that, like in terms of robots and companions for women. That's the direction. Little kid robot. That's the direction I was going because we've talked a lot on this podcast. We talk about the sex robot. Yes. That's where our male brain goes because we know what's going to happen there, right? What an interesting topic. I didn't think about that. I never... you said a point of our male brain. That's where we went, obviously, to the side.

So, I'm sure there's going to be women that are going to have sex robots too, blah, blah. But it's going to be a male market, right? But there will be a female market. There's going to be a female market for children, companionship, little children robots that are, you know, realistic. Really? I guarantee it. I guarantee it. This is so interesting to me. I didn't know this. Where did you come across this, bro? Was there some news watching to see? No, it was on my feed on X, and people were talking about these, and they're making communities where they have their... Can you help Doug Google? They're... I think he found, he's trying to connect to Doug. He's pushing buttons. So... Doug has, there's a lot of buttons. I don't... Hey, with his beard, I don't want to mess. I know, yeah. He'll bite you. Look, he does a little way more, a little more. Hey, off air, Doug told us he gets more respect. That's what he said. Yeah, I wasn't getting any respect before. Still not here. That was, that's why, back, I take that back. My favorite. Are you able to find him, Doug? Well, this is a YouTube short, and for some reason, it's not casting. Yeah, no worries. No worries. But it's really sad. We can imagine it. Yeah, they show the small, you know, "I wake up in the morning and then I go wake up," you know, whatever. Does it have like a big following? There's a lot of these moms that are coming together. I mean, it's the internet, so you know, you could find anybody. Well, but they're moms, or they're not moms? They're not moms. They call themselves doll moms, and they buy these hyperrealistic... They're make-believe. Like, they're pretending. Yeah, dude. It makes me really sad. Yeah. But that's exactly where I went, is I thought, "Man, we're going to have these realistic AI robots," and I bet you there's going to be... So, what I'm curious about... feeling a biological urge, you know? Of course. So, what I'm curious about is like, how big is the following? Because if it's some novel, random, weird thing that you found that's like a one-off, there's one of everything on the internet. Sure. But if it's got like a following... Yeah, where there's like, you know, hundreds of thousands or a million people following and watching and into it, it makes your case for sure that that's a viable thing that will happen. I mean, I guess that's a... So, okay. So, I mean, here's a twist to that. Uh... Is it if you have somebody who is depressed and sad and now, and that helps them... That's how they're going to sell it. Of course. That's the same way they're going to sell sex robots. Of course. So, well, yeah, they will companion. I mean, they'll use it, sell it however they want. So, how... There you go. Look at her. Okay. See, she goes in the morning, takes out her little fake doll. She goes and gets her dressed and ready. Like, treats it like it's a real child. Posts this like every day. And... Yeah, dude. Look, she's got another one in there. It's a little older looking. And it just, it breaks my heart, dude. You know, I would love to just give this woman a hug, and it just makes me so sad.

It just goes to show, too. I don't know. Like, I had brought up a long time ago, I was surprised in the world. Yeah, dude. Like the different algorithms we all have, you know? Like it's just so vast. Yeah. Well, she's even got like tons of bottles and everything. This is so... What are people looking at, you know? Because there was one, like there's these Mormon moms that I told you about that got it, got like distorted, but they're like influencers just showing how they mother their children, how they discipline, all this just, and people, I understand because it's like you kind of want to, you know, look and see how people are handling certain issues and whatnot, but it like this is like a whole another layer. You think she gets maternity leave? Terrible. That's terrible, bro. You think she could do this? I mean, emotional support dogs have made on, you know, that's an animal alive, though. Can you imagine going over someone's house and they've got realistic dolls like yell at you? How long do you stay at? Because the baby's sleeping fast. Hey, hey, hey. Do you just do your Italian voice? A complete like baby's sleeping, dude. How fast would you get out of? I'd be like, "Oh, hi. Oh, that's your kid. Okay. Anyways, I hear my mom calling." I'm out of here. Yeah. Yeah. See, she's got several kids, several dolls, I should say. I know. It's really sad.

Along these lines, I heard a quote yesterday from this expert. I thought it was brilliant. She said that masculinity has always been more fragile than femininity. Don't interrupt me yet. She didn't mean it in the sense of like how people think. Yeah, I know. Proof. Yeah. Hurt my feelings. No, what she said was that she was making the case that girls, you know, girls grow up into women, and how do you determine if a girl becomes a woman? She becomes fertile. Typically, that's like the rite of passage. Mhm. Boys, the way you become a man is by adopting responsibility. This is how you have to become a man. Otherwise, you never become a man. So, a boy who grows up with no real responsibility... That's where the Peter Pan, that's where... And she said that's why it's so fragile is because throughout all of history, there's been rites of passage and responsibility that has taken boys and turned them into men. And when you eliminate those, that's just, you just don't, you just don't ever grow. So, we need our elders. We need, you know, that's what I don't like about Western society is we kind of push away a lot of like old wisdom. Yep. And it's, we need that more than ever is like the old wisdom to come in.

You know, speaking of wisdom, I saw an Arthur Brooks clip today that I've listened to so much of his stuff, and I always share him with him. It's rare that I come across something that I haven't already consumed of his, and it was totally new. He was talking to Rich Roll, which now makes me want to go back and listen to that episode because I thought I'd listened to everything that he said, and he gave this rule. He's in his Harvard class where he teaches happiness, right? He gave them this task of all the time, like every time, to write down all the times you've been disappointed, frustrated, or like a failure, a failure, a struggle in your life when those things happen, right? To actually list them, to write them down. And when you write them down, to leave two lines, so two spaces underneath it. And then he goes, "Then you come back in 30 days, and you write down on the first line what you learned." Yeah. From that mistake. And then you go, I think he said 30 or 60 days out from that. And then you come back, and then you write what good came of that mistake or failure. And he goes, "If you keep this habit up of doing this every time you have these mistakes and failures in your life, before long, you have this, you know, book of all these things that you've been through that's not only a list of failures, but also what you learn from them and then the good thing that actually came from that." And he goes, "It will reframe as, and if you once you, you'll train the brain to, okay, now I, this huge tragic thing happens in my life or mistake, and almost this ability to go, 'Oh, well, some growth is going to happen from this, and something good will come from this,' versus dwelling on, 'Oh my God, this was tragic, it was a horrible mistake, oh this sucks, oh poor me.'" It's like, if you train yourself, I'm like, what a great, great idea to put a practice this in like that because there, you know, I talk a lot to like myself, I have my, my, my younger cousin over, and he's quite a bit younger than me, and kind of mentoring him and sharing some of that, and it's like, you know, there's a lot of things that I've learned just trial by fire, and it's like, I don't, I don't have a lot of these like cool, I wish somebody would have given that to me like as a like a task like that. I just can imagine how fast that would have developed that skill. Like, I've, I've, I've learned to do that skill. I've talked about the self-awareness of me reflecting on the days where I'd look at the highs and lows and lean more into that. It's like, man, what a cool exercise to teach like our kids is like, "Hey, like write it down." You know what I'm saying? It happened, and then we'll revisit this in 30 days, and we'll talk about what you learn from, you know, you know what it points to? So, you guys have heard of post-traumatic stress. There's post-traumatic growth. So, they're both real. So, post-traumatic stress, especially disorder, is you have something terrible happen, something traumatic, small T, big T, the negative byproduct from, and then it causes these negatives, right? A fear response, anxiety, "I never want to do that again, I never want to whatever." Post-traumatic growth is same similar trauma, same trauma, but afterwards, it's growth. Yes, it's something different, something got better, something, you know, changed. So, a good example would be, you know, you go through a divorce, and you could come out and be like, "I'll never get married again, never will I go through that again." That would be like the stress response, like, "Never again, never going to partner with anyone, never going to whatever." The a growth side of that might be, "Boy, I know what mistakes happened there. I know what I did wrong. I know what happened. But there's so much value in finding a mate and a partner, and so now I'm a different person, and I know who to look for this time," type of deal. That's just one similar example, but post-traumatic growth is a real thing. And that's what he's pointing to. He's literally taking all your failures and showing you how they make you grow, which in a sense is your best teacher anyways is failure.

This is one of those things, and it's hard to always stress that, especially to kids. But I think this would be a great practice because then it's like they can come back, revisit, "Oh, that was really tough. Wow, this did teach me something," and "I can learn," and also, "a positive thing happened as a result," you know, to reframe it. So that way they can look for that earlier as they go along. I mean, I couldn't help but think about that when Max gets to that age where we can kind of start to do something like this. I mean, I think within five failures, I'm picking up on that lesson. Yeah. I mean, literally four or five in a row of seeing, "Oh, same thing. I learned this from this." Same subject. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So, it's like, it, that's so cool. Well, I mean, it took me a really long time, and one of the things I was sharing with my cousin is like, I, I started to realize and attach this through years of all these failures, mistakes, and stuff and hardships is that the harder it was, the better it was on the other side. So, like little hiccups in my life, little setbacks was like, "Oh, the other side of it, there was growth, I learned something, it was, and it was better." But it was actually the, the more traumatic, the harder the thing, the, the better the win was on the other side. Mhm. And so that really helped reframe when I was going through, especially if it was something that I considered, "This is a tough, this is a really tough thing." It was like, "Okay, well, if I really feel this deep in me, this is tough and this is hard, and I'm in that, that, that means, man, when I get through this, the other side is so much better." Then maybe that little struggle I had last week that was like, "Oh, that was a, a bummer or hard, but it wasn't that hard." Like, it's like the harder the thing, the better it is on the other side. But again, that was something that I didn't document and figure, just enough repetition was like, "Okay, it's starting to click now where I think an exercise like that is."

If you don't do that, then what you remember is the hard thing. Yep. You don't remember the thing I learned. Maybe you did learn something and grow, but you might not even be that aware. And you didn't attach it to that. That's right. And so the story, because the stories we, the stories we tell ourselves, are create a narrative. And if the story is this terrible thing happened, and that's it, well, that's a story, right? But if the story is this terrible thing happened, man, here's what I learned from it. Oh, here's how I'm a better person because of it. Now the story is more complete and different. Now we have a different narrative that you can live your life by. But it has to be, I definitely think it's a practice. I don't think it's a natural, unless you just, I mean, I don't think it's a natural thing. I think you have to work on it for sure. No, I, I agree. That's what I, I can't help but think like, man, if someone had taught me that tool, like, valuable, maybe, maybe a decade I'd save. Maybe a decade of learning the, the long way, you know what I'm saying? So, I, I just love that. I just, he's got so much valuable, great stuff, and that was a, that was a new one that I hadn't heard him ever say, and I'm like, I'm so going to implement that with my son.

I'm still going to punch this in. So, I ran across this image that freaked me out, and it was a frog that had this like mutation I've never seen in my life. And I had to like cross-check this a bunch of different websites and articles and scientific articles about it because I was like, "There's no way this is real." I'm still unsure. I'm pretty sure it's real. But the mutation causes the eyes to be inside its mouth. What? Yeah, yeah. And it's real. I've never heard of that. Never. Can you imagine that picture like in nature, like a frog just, you know, on a lily pad, and all of a sudden it just opens its mouth and it's... Doesn't that feel like a... Feels like Beetlejuice or something? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. That's wild. Isn't that weird? Like, weird, dude. What is there any other animal that does that? Like, I was thinking about that. It's a developmental anomaly often called a macromutation. I mean, obviously, it's, they have a name for it. It happens enough that you, they've seen it enough times to name it something. I think it's real, but I've never, yeah. You know, there's a fish that has like human-looking teeth. Have you seen this fish? Oh, I've heard about this one. Like, if you like, they'll, they'll, you'll catch it, and it's got like teeth, bro. No, like a person, like molars. Look at fish with human-like teeth. Look at the, look at the picture of this one. Yeah, it's got, it's, oh, look at, oh my God, that's freaky. That's hilarious. Yeah, dude. Oh my God. It's called, what's called a sheephead. Yes. Sheep's head. Sheep's head. Where do you catch that kind of fish? Dude, I want to, I want to taxidermy that thing. Oh my God. Make it into the new bass. Remember those bass ones you hang on? Where are they found? Are they, they're obviously, look at that. Look at all the teeth they have in there. Scare the hell out of me. That really does look human. That is freaky. That scared me. Oh my gosh, that's so funny. Doug, I'm going to ask you now, now you look this up. Where's it? Where's it in Florida? Of course. Is it Florida? It says Florida. Everything. Hey, you know what? No, but you know, Doug, you know what we're doing different today? Well, that's what I was going to ask him. Oh, you are? He's got that big mystery box for... We haven't done an unboxing from our place in a long time. These are always fun back there. It's a big box. You might have to come around for that right there. Oh, he's ripping it. He's, he's doing it beard style. Yeah. So, so they sent us, what did they send us from our place? Okay. There's two boxes. I pulled up my mic here. Two boxes inside of the one box. Okay. All right, all right. I probably should have prepared that. No, no, it's good. No, this is a part of the excitement. Yeah, I know. Now, is this for us to take, Doug? Is this us? Do we have this? All right. Okay, let's see. My wife loves... Dude, our place is the best. So, I call dibs. I know. All right, I got to pots and pans, and we got that air fryer is amazing. We have, we have a whole set at home. I, what I can't understand, and maybe, and maybe we can get to that, you can explain the how it feels better than like to clean than Teflon, but it's not Teflon that's on there. Like, what, what is that, that, how they do that? But I know they don't use any of the those... Yeah. No chemical, no forever chemicals. But the cleaning on them is, is incredible. Oh yeah, I, I have that pan. Yep. Yeah. That's a cast iron pan. It's got, what is that? Ceram, what is that on the... It's almost like a ceramic on it, but it's super easy to clean. Easy to clean it, but it's cast. You can cook eggs on it. I have that exact. And it comes with a lid and a wooden spoon. And the wooden spoon, by the way, is designed to a hole, and there's a little peg on the, on the handle. And yeah, so when you're cooking, you can just set your spoon like that. Oh, that's cool. And you don't lose it. So, that's pretty cool, dude. By the way, cast iron pans are so heavy. Remember cartoons when they blast someone in the head with those? You would kill someone if you hit them with a cast iron pan. Remember we were talking about post-stress? So, I have a little bit with the wooden spoon. Me, too. That kind of... Yeah. Kept it in my mom's purse, and she... My mom used to hang it, used to hang in the, in the kitchen. Yeah. Yeah. I used to hang in the kitchen. Your mom's weren't even Italian. You got hit with a spoon. Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah. My mom thought... I don't think back in the 80s, you didn't have to be Italian to get... Yeah. Yeah. She just... I don't know why, I don't know why you think... Well, I mean, the spoon... My mom's redhead, so that explains everything. But just the spoon part of it. So, that's the, what's the... Okay. This is actually a nonstick pan. So, the cast iron is a ceramic pan, I believe. And this has the nonstick surface on it. So, I have that one and the cast iron. I have a smaller version of this one. Me, too. I want the big one. I know you want the big one. We're going to have to... Well, yeah. It's either me or Doug, because I think Doug wants to cook. So, you guys don't, you guys get vetoed out on this. I mean, my wife cooks, but she, she'd appreciate it. It's super lightweight, too. Is it? Yeah. The cast iron obviously is very heavy. So, what, what is, what is that, though? That it's better. It's like easier to, if you ever clean. Well, the reason why everyone loves Teflon is because how easy it is to clean, right? It, those are easier to clean than a Teflon pan is, but it doesn't have any... They don't scratch. Yeah. I mean, they're super durable. I wouldn't use steel tools on those. No, no, no. You don't want a steel tool. You don't use... It's more durable than Teflon. And it's not Teflon. I don't know exactly what it is. By the way, the forever chemicals, they've already connected them to hormone disruption, cancers, heart disease, developmental issues with children. They've now connected them to MS, dude. Multiple sclerosis. Not good. Yes. And they're called forever chemicals because they're very hard to get rid of. They just build up in your system. Mhm. So, now, one of the, one of the best ways, and I mean, let's just say somebody is like, they did for a long time. Now you're making the switch over to things like our place. Would you say one of the best things would be regular sauna use? Sauna and exercise. Yeah.

**Speaker 5:** Dude.

**Speaker 4:** Multiple sclerosis. Not good.

**Speaker 5:** Yes. And they're called forever chemicals because they're very hard to get rid of. They just build up in your system.

**Speaker 4:** Mhm. So now, one of the best ways, and I mean, let's just say somebody is like they did for a long time. Now you're making the switch over to things like our place. Would you say one of the best things would be regular sauna use?

**Speaker 5:** Sauna and exercise.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. Well, of course, everybody listening to this podcast does exercise, right?

**Speaker 5:** Sauna helps accelerate it.

**Speaker 4:** I was going to say I would think sauna would be something that would be like one of the better things.

**Speaker 5:** And I told you guys what I learned about psyllium husk, right? It's a great way to get rid of microplastics.

**Speaker 4:** Yes. Me and Courtney have both been taking it for that specific reason, because I'm like paranoid it's in my brain.

**Speaker 5:** Yeah. So, anything in my brain, I'm like, I can't handle.

**Speaker 4:** Why are you so worried about your brain all the time?

**Speaker 5:** Because I'm the one that's hit it the most.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah, you have. But we've been working with you for 10 years. You have not...

**Speaker 5:** Hey, have you talked about how nervous...?

**Speaker 4:** Because I'm working on it.

**Speaker 5:** I know. We're all a little bit.

**Speaker 4:** Oh, our MRI.

**Speaker 5:** Yeah. Oh, I'm nervous about what do you call those? It's not a traditional MRI. That was like a super body. Yeah, it's a full body MRI, and they looked at every organ preventative.

**Speaker 4:** Your arteries, your spine. It's preventative. They can find cancers way before you'd have symptoms. They could find issues way before...

**Speaker 5:** You'd have symptoms. They and they looked at the brain, too. So, you're worried what they're going to find?

**Speaker 4:** I don't, you know, like I'm not even a hypochondriac or anything. Like, I just I'm very dismissive of that stuff. But, you know, when you're actually putting me in a freaking tube and you're scanning me everywhere...

**Speaker 5:** You guys all do. I think there's something we didn't really talk about how everybody did.

**Speaker 4:** I, you know, well, let me touch on this first. Justin, your brain's fine. It's your esophagus, bro. That's what we got to look at.

**Speaker 5:** Well, yeah. Stuff. Yeah. The one thing you're avoiding.

**Speaker 4:** We'll see.

**Speaker 5:** You just avoid it like crazy.

**Speaker 4:** Well, I knew I was going to do the scan, so I was like, I'm not just going to a doctor and have him like shove things down my throat.

**Speaker 5:** Oh, no thanks.

**Speaker 4:** Not again.

**Speaker 5:** Well, and there, stuff like that should pop up for him, too, though.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah, they'll look at it. Yeah, they'll if there's I don't know how much they can see in the esophagus with that. I think...

**Speaker 5:** I don't know. There was a form in the beginning that like kind of highlighted that area. So hopefully they'll give me some feedback.

**Speaker 4:** Um, bro, laying down still for a 50-minute MRI is not that easy.

**Speaker 5:** And strapped in.

**Speaker 4:** Not that easy.

**Speaker 5:** I don't know that strapped in. She straight like strapped everything.

**Speaker 4:** I didn't get strapped.

**Speaker 5:** I was fine. Oh wow.

**Speaker 4:** They laid something on top of me.

**Speaker 5:** You fit nice. She's like, "You can move around." You guys look like, uh, you guys look like you're sleeping in a coffin. Hey, she's like, "You just don't do too many backflips in there." So, the rest of us big guys, she's like, "Listen, don't move." Couple foam boots.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. You move, you move one inch, you can cut your arm off. She's like, "That's why I'm going to put these things." She tells Doug, "You move. You can move. They didn't put the thing on you with the straps around it. So, your arms didn't come out. They didn't lock you in. I didn't get strapped down per se. They had something on top of me, but not like..."

**Speaker 5:** She she bolt strapped in because my arms wanted to come out.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My lats were so big.

**Speaker 5:** His lats were too big. Yeah.

**Speaker 4:** Anyway, I can't. I was getting a bit numb for sure. But yeah, you know, right when she had finished everything that and she's like, "Are you okay?" And I'm like, "I got to scratch my face."

**Speaker 5:** So she right here.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. Like so she undid one side like scratched my face. One more kind like, "Okay, I think I'm good. All right, let's go." You know, but do a little bit of that, but they let you watch TV.

**Speaker 5:** That part was cool.

**Speaker 4:** Helped a lot. I wasn't, um, so, I haven't done a full MRI that way. I've I've done they did MRIs on, uh, I think, uh, my leg before. I'm trying to think. I But I've never been...

**Speaker 5:** Like full body.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah, full body like that. And so she's like, "Are you are you claustrophobic?" And I'm like, "I don't know. We'll find out. We'll find out." But the fact that you could that it felt like I was watching through a tunnel this the the movie. Unless they'll offer you they offer you a volume if you need it.

**Speaker 5:** So, which I was kind of like I should have lied. She's like, "Do you need a volume?" I joked with her. I'm like, "Well, save it if you want to give it."

**Speaker 4:** Oh, dude. You know what I was thinking the whole time?

**Speaker 5:** If you get paranoid or or anxious, they'll give you...

**Speaker 4:** Oh, yeah. They'll give you a sedative. But, uh, like Avatar, I was thinking the whole time, you know, how they put them like in one of those, it was like the same machine. I felt like...

**Speaker 5:** What did everybody watch?

**Speaker 4:** Maybe I could be a watcher.

**Speaker 5:** I watched the first episode of Stranger Things. Yeah, I watched Stranger Things.

**Speaker 4:** No, you both did. You...

**Speaker 5:** He mentioned it and I was like, "Yeah, I might as well."

**Speaker 4:** What'd you watch?

**Speaker 5:** That new George Clooney movie. I forget the name of it. Something...

**Speaker 4:** Kelly.

**Speaker 5:** Oh, was that any good?

**Speaker 4:** It was pretty pretty good, actually.

**Speaker 5:** That was Yeah, I ended up watching it at home, the rest of it.

**Speaker 4:** So, I watched, uh, David Letterman's interview of Adam Sandler and then he talked about that and...

**Speaker 5:** It's a sad movie, honestly.

**Speaker 4:** Oh, really?

**Speaker 5:** It's about this guy. I don't want to...

**Speaker 4:** It's based on a true story.

**Speaker 5:** Oh, is it? Okay. He's like the agent of like an actor or something like that.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. An aging movie star. He has some kids, but he's been on the road so much. He didn't really develop a relationship with his children.

**Speaker 5:** I mean, would you watch it again or recommend it?

**Speaker 4:** I wouldn't watch it again. No. I mean, recommending it, I think if you want a sentimental type of movie, one that makes you kind of sad, then it's a good one for that.

**Speaker 5:** Yeah. I I I just felt I felt sad because...

**Speaker 4:** Seriously, I mean, you know, having this all this fame and adoration yet no relationship with your kids. Yeah.

**Speaker 5:** And all the regrets. And he's he's very he's with a lot of people, but he's very alone.

**Speaker 4:** I mean, I think that's a very real story. I think it's a very real story. I, uh, I have a friend who did one of those full body scans and they saw I can't remember what it what it was. Something in her spine. Nothing to worry about. But now that she knows, she can monitor it.

**Speaker 5:** And so now that she monitors it, she can see if it But she would have never known had she...

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. I have this weird, um, I'm excited, nervous feeling about it.

**Speaker 5:** Yeah. Like what if it's something that just now is just going to make me stressed out?

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. Yeah. We're going to keep an eye on this one thing right here. So, I'm like, "Cool."

**Speaker 5:** Wish you didn't tell me.

**Speaker 4:** No, I'm super. But everyone that I've talked to this like it's like the this is like really cool technology like the the fact that they can see things that...

**Speaker 5:** Well, here's where I see the huge value, uh, because I have experience, uh, with cancer. I've had some family members with it and and there's a lot of cancers that are terminal mainly because...

**Speaker 4:** They started way earlier.

**Speaker 5:** You just you you just you don't feel symptoms until it's stage four. You know, if you have stomach cancer, you're not going to notice anything until it's like, you know, stage three, stage four, pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer. Like, there's a lot of cancers that by the time you get symptoms and they find it, they're like, "Oh, it's spread." But if you see it early, very treatable. It's just you just don't feel anything at those points. So, a scan like this would catch...

**Speaker 4:** Yeah.

**Speaker 5:** All of those things. And they're they're not expensive. I think it's like...

**Speaker 4:** Well, for what we for what they did...

**Speaker 5:** Well, ours the ones we did was four.

**Speaker 4:** No. No. Doug said it was 2500.

**Speaker 5:** No, no, no. Well, it was four. It was what we did was a $4,900 one.

**Speaker 4:** Oh, it was.

**Speaker 5:** Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I looked. I looked.

**Speaker 4:** But I think you can use an H health savings account, right?

**Speaker 5:** Yeah, I'm sure you can.

**Speaker 4:** So, if people have that, they can use that for...

**Speaker 5:** I'm sure. I'm sure. I believe we're going to So, when we get our tests, I believe we're having them come on and talk to us all.

**Speaker 4:** No, I don't want my test revealed on the show.

**Speaker 5:** Oh, yeah. No, we're definitely going to talk about you.

**Speaker 4:** Suck. What if they find something?

**Speaker 5:** That was part of the deal.

**Speaker 4:** A terrible episode.

**Speaker 5:** That was part of the deal. That's exactly what we're do. What are you talking about? We're...

**Speaker 4:** On air.

**Speaker 5:** Well, maybe we start a Patreon to help you out. Why is it me?

**Speaker 4:** Because most of you stress it out.

**Speaker 5:** They're like, man, there was there's way too many peptides and chemicals in here for us to see anything through this. That sucks, bro.

**Speaker 4:** Stop scaring me. Yeah. Justin, we brought we talked about your brain earlier. I got to ask you, have you been consistent with trying to hit the higher limits of creatine, the 10, 15, 20 grams a day? Uh, have you been trying that?

**Speaker 5:** Yeah, I have. Um, I haven't, uh, as I haven't been successful. No, I did I did do, um, you know, the higher doses and I had to spread it out, uh, throughout the day like five milligrams a piece, um...

**Speaker 4:** Five grams a piece maybe.

**Speaker 5:** That's what I mean grams. Um, obviously not working. Yeah, but have to double it up more, bro. Yeah. No, but it it does it does make an impact and it's, um, I I did feel the difference when I'm doing that. I did it for like two weeks and then I I fell off a bit. But yeah, the data on it is pretty pretty rad, dude. Uh, I think the issue is taking it, um, is is people can't do 15 grams all at once.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah, I definitely had like stomach cramp and like kind of...

**Speaker 5:** But if you five grams with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you're hitting the right around what you're what they're showing is effective for the brain. Um, and I like that like Organifi, you get up to 20 or what would you get?

**Speaker 4:** I'm I'm trying to get between 10 to 15 a day. Uh, but the the cherry chews from Organifi are good for that because they taste good and it's like after you eat lunch, you eat a few of those better way to do it. And then the tart cherry in there, I am noticing some anti-inflammatory effects from that's what tart cherry does. So it's got anti-inflammatory.

**Speaker 5:** Had you ever had you because I think you I remember when they first brought those to us, um, and you you got all excited like oh had you taken that by itself before?

**Speaker 4:** Yes, tart cherry there's very few things that you'll take that you'll see you'll feel a significant difference in inflammation that's natural. One of them is omega-3s. So for a lot of people, if you take a high EPA fish oil at relatively high doses, you'll notice a reduction in inflammation. Another one's bromelain on an empty stomach, it's got a really powerful anti-inflammatory effect.

**Speaker 5:** Slowing down a lot.

**Speaker 4:** And then tart cherry is the other one.

**Speaker 5:** What about turmeric?

**Speaker 4:** Uh, turmeric, yes, but turmeric has got this kind of systemic effect. And you know, I've I've noticed some turmeric, but it's not like pronounced like tart cherry, bromelain, fish oil. Do it for a week and you you'll notice it's like you're taking ibuprofen.

**Speaker 5:** Interesting.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. It's got a really really power. It's like what I tell my parents, my dad, I have him take it regularly because he's got lots of, you know, aches and pains. Huge difference.

**Speaker 5:** Oh, interesting. Okay.

**Speaker 4:** But yeah, but but, uh, and it's got that in their in their cherry chews. It's got both.

**Speaker 5:** Is there anywhere where that's found, um, in nature where you would like where...?

**Speaker 4:** Cherry?

**Speaker 5:** Oh, so it's already naturally. So if you ate cherries, you would get you would you get...?

**Speaker 4:** A certain type of cherries, you'd have to eat a lot of them.

**Speaker 5:** Oh, okay.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. To get this concentrated real tart ones. Yeah. Tastes just different.

**Speaker 5:** He's on fire, dude.

**Speaker 4:** Yes, he is. Hey, I got I got a new I got something that, um, I found might make a difference for the pump. Glycerol.

**Speaker 5:** What? Have you guys ever used glycerol before your workout? Is that nitroglycerol?

**Speaker 4:** Isn't that like in gummies and things like that? So, glycerol, uh, it's an osmolite, so it draws fluid into your tissues and you'll see some performance changes and and improvements. And I and I I was hearing reports of, you know, bodybuilders have used glycerol on, off for better pumps. And so I started experimenting with it. And I'll I'll let you guys know as I continue messing with it because there's so many things that affect the pump. But so far, I think I noticed a difference.

**Speaker 5:** Huh.

**Speaker 4:** From taking it.

**Speaker 5:** Wow. Justin still stuck. You heard of a Nar gum?

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. Yeah, I knew they stuck.

**Speaker 5:** Which one?

**Speaker 4:** Nar gum.

**Speaker 5:** Nar or guar?

**Speaker 4:** Guar.

**Speaker 5:** Okay. I'm just trying to like list off random like ingredients that are in every sub. He like takes them and pulls them apart. He's like, "Have you guys ever heard of this?"

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. It was like listed in the thousands of other. You take it in like massive. Yeah. Uh, these are compounds that draw fluid in. So creatine would be considered one. Yeah. Glycine is another one. I think I'm saying it right. Is it osmolalite, Doug? Am I saying it right? Look the term up. Make sure I didn't just make something up.

**Speaker 5:** Yeah, I think I've been like a superhero group. I thought there was somebody from, uh, Lord of the Rings. It sounded like...

**Speaker 4:** The Osmolites. It sounds sounds like like something you'd read in the Old Testament. The Menanites and the Osmalites. Yeah. Worshiping the pagan god of Is that right?

**Speaker 5:** Yes. So osmolytes small organic molecules cells used to manage water balance and survive stress.

**Speaker 4:** There you go.

**Speaker 5:** Oh wow.

**Speaker 4:** There you go. So glycerol. Give it a shot.

**Speaker 5:** Glycerol by itself.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. Take it 30 minutes before you work out with some water.

**Speaker 5:** Interesting.

**Speaker 4:** And it's like crazy pumps. It's like I drink way more water because you know I work work out early in the morning. Sometimes I just...

**Speaker 5:** Are you taking it in a powder or clear in a pill form?

**Speaker 4:** No, it's in like a powder.

**Speaker 5:** Is it tasteless?

**Speaker 4:** Um, yeah.

**Speaker 5:** Because I'm trying to think like mixing that with like element or something like that. So it's like just throw it in there with it. Mhm. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Take my xylitol.

**Speaker 4:** Troscriptions has some pretty amazing products. One of them is just blue. This is methylene blue. I know you've heard of methylene blue. This will wake you up. It's not really a stimulant, but it gets your brain firing in all cylinders. It enhances mitochondrial function, gives you energy, anti-inflammatory. It's pretty amazing stuff. Everybody's trying it out. Well, Troscriptions is the best brand for methylene blue. In fact, you put it between your gums, uh, and it absorbs so fast. 15 minutes later, you feel it. You can also just swallow it if you want it to take a little longer. Anyway, go check them out. We have a discount for you. Go to troscriptions.com/mindpump. That's t r o s c r i p t io ns.com/mindpump. The code mindpump will get you 10% off. All right, here comes the show.

**Speaker 4:** First question is from Brad Barber. I want to build muscle but also start BJJ this year as a 41-year-old. Is it possible? If so, how should I program?

**Speaker 5:** Yeah, it's possible. I mean, but jiu-jitsu is pretty intensive. And if you're just getting started, that's probably going to be about as much stress as your body can handle in the beginning. Uh, but once you get going, if you're doing jiu-jitsu, most people who do it consistently do it two maybe three days a week.

**Speaker 4:** Mhm.

**Speaker 5:** Uh, you're looking at one day a week of minimal strength training or like a MAPS 15 protocol. More than that, you're just going to most people overtrain.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. Teetering into overdoing. Most jiu-jitsu classes are a couple hours long, long warm up and workout, then you're wrestling with men at full speed. Like, uh, it's it's it'll it'll burn you out.

**Speaker 5:** You go max intensity in those sessions for sure.

**Speaker 4:** It'll burn you out.

**Speaker 5:** Well, I mean, listen, MAPS the MAPS 15 protocol by itself is a great program for someone to build muscle on and build strength on. And if you are doing something like BJJ, that is obviously a lot more stress. And so I would say that's at the you're you're already teetering right there. So and the average person would think that they can do more or want to do more. And so it's mass 15. I would even say, uh, maps 15 when you when you can or on off days like I definitely wouldn't run a mass 15 and then also do a BJJ class. I would be like if you're going two or three days a week of, uh, BJJ then I would be doing two or three days a week of Mass 15. And that's a that's plenty enough of a protocol to still build muscle and then and still get in great shape.

**Speaker 4:** Working a bunch of mobility though. I know this from trying BJJ right away. It's like you definitely got to work on that hip mobility and ankles.

**Speaker 5:** Now, do they do is that kind of part of the warm-up, I would think. I don't know.

**Speaker 4:** It is probably in a good school. Yeah. It is. And and if you're if you're smart about, uh, when you roll with other people, so you have to check your ego out the door because if you go real hard, especially as a beginner, you don't know how to move your body, injury is really common. But if you go kind of easy, you tap out quick, tap out easy. Uh, don't go full boore all the time. Kind of flow, you know, and and when I say check your egos because you're going to get your butt kicked and you got to be okay with that. Your body will will will start to learn and acclimate. You'll build up mobility. But if you go in, they're like, especially as a beginner, like I need to win.

**Speaker 5:** Yeah.

**Speaker 4:** And then they're they're...

**Speaker 5:** Tense up and you're going to hurt yourself.

**Speaker 4:** You Yeah. And you just don't know how to turn. You don't know how to move. You end up spinning in the wrong direction. And you go with it. Yeah. Totally. Uh, but look, I was in my 20s when I did jiu-jitsu. I was eating good. I was consistent. And when I was doing jiu-jitsu three days a week consistently, especially if I did it four, one day a week, three lifts was it.

**Speaker 5:** Yeah.

**Speaker 4:** And if I did more than that, I would go backwards with my performance. Uh, and I didn't start that way. I thought I could just keep lifting and it just was getting burnt out. It wasn't until I scaled way down that I start to I started to see my body progress. And that was in my 20s. I wasn't in my 40s. Next question is from JD Williams 1570. What are some recommended movements and or routines for joint instability?

**Speaker 5:** So strength training is the best for joint instability. Uh, the key is to get stronger and to do it in a controlled manner. So if you feel unstable in your hips, uh, a lunge or a squat with good controlled technique and form...

**Speaker 4:** Yeah.

**Speaker 5:** Is going to build. So instability comes from weakness.

**Speaker 4:** Strength. Yes.

**Speaker 5:** It's weakness. By the way, this can mask this can look like tightness. So a lot of people think tightness is not weakness. No. No. When something's unstable, the CNS tightens the muscles around it to limit range of motion to prevent injury. That's what your body's trying to do. So it's really a weakness thing. So as you slowly get stronger, you feel much more stable. Well, and I think too just like top of mind in these positions that you're about to place yourself in before the exercise is to really reinforce those positions with isometric tension. And so I would take an extra like five 10 seconds of me like really driving that muscle contraction, you know, solidifying position, anchoring myself into position before I even started moving. Uh, just to reinforce that signal that hey my my joints are secure and everything is accounted for and now I can actually add load and you know the more you do that the more naturally you're going to build up that stability. If I had to give a couple of exercises I think are just generic but that that address what we're talking about right now it's like I think of a a long stride, uh, lunge and I think of the Z press. So I think lower body I think of an exercise like long long strided walking lunges, uh, for that the the stability, range of motion, control, strength and then I think of the upper body I think of a Z press as just with with an emphasis on the you know stabilizing holding the bar above your head. Like...

**Speaker 4:** Those are great.

**Speaker 5:** Those two movements, uh, if performed well and you get strong at them, uh, you're going to you're going to hit a lot of the basis, uh, right there in those two movements.

**Speaker 4:** Next question is from Morgan B. Peterson, at what age did you realize you no longer needed to hit PRs?

**Speaker 5:** You know, this is a cool question. I are 25, 26. Sal hasn't figured it out.

**Speaker 4:** So, this is a great just discount my YouTube series.

**Speaker 5:** Oh, yeah. That's right. I do that. Just me.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah, Adam never.

**Speaker 5:** Yeah. You know what's Okay, so, uh, I have numbers actually for this for myself. So, okay. In the deadlift, I saw great progress in my body and how I felt, muscle development, uh, up until I hit about 500 lb. And the closer I got to 500, the the more that the diminishing returns are. Past 500, I've gotten up to 600 lb. Past 500, the risk wasn't worse was was not worth the reward. It's like between five and 600 lb, which is 100 pounds on my deadlift. What's the difference in the way my physique looks and feels? It's not. In fact, I hurt a little more at the higher weight. With squats, once I got up to like 350, there was really really diminishing return. With bench, it was around 300.

**Speaker 4:** That's so interesting because I I totally agree with this. And like it that's, uh, right around 500 in the deadlift. Everything beyond that, minimal gains, lots of injury risk. I got hurt a bunch of times beyond that. And squatting, as long as I can, I'd say 315. When I'm 315 strong, like the difference between three and 400 with your squat, no difference.

**Speaker 5:** No difference except risk of injury.

**Speaker 4:** Yes. Yes. And when the the times I was over 400 were the times that I'm getting hurt or having chronic issues and stuff like that, I would say very very similar numbers. I would say almost right. Exactly. That's interesting.

**Speaker 5:** And it's going to be different from person to person. Uh, some exercises you're more naturally I guess strong at 450 on deadlift and I was like I'm done.

**Speaker 4:** But your bench you got up to 405. Yeah, I got 405. When did you start to see diminishing returns with your with your bench? Was it around 350 also? Like...

**Speaker 5:** Oh, yeah. Diminishing return wise. Yeah, probably like 3. Yeah, 3.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. See, I would put myself at 200. I would say like 250 275 and after that it wasn't that big.

**Speaker 5:** I'm like this that's plenty dude for me.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. Uh, it's going to be different from person to person, but we end up finding is at some point, uh, you get these great returns for every time you gain strength and then it starts to kind of level out and you just end up hurting more and it's just a number, uh, on the bar. And so what do you do at that point? Well, at that point it's about technique, form, feel.

me point, you get these great returns for every time you gain strength, and then it starts to kind of level out, and you just end up hurting more, and it's just a number on the bar. So what do you do at that point? Well, at that point, it's about technique, form, feel. I get much better results if I do a bench press today and instead of going up to 300 lbs, staying at 225 and feeling every rep, getting the stretch, getting the squeeze, controlling the weight. Again, this is going to be different from person to person, but you kind of figure this out. But in the beginning, the context being doing everything right, good technique, good form, good programming, hitting PRs is a great way to see progress. Hitting stronger is a great way to see progress.

I have such a reverse relationship with this because I was the guy who never did PR lifting for the first like 10-15 years of my life. And then it wasn't really until we all got introduced to it where I started like, "Okay, let me see what I can do strength-wise." And then I reaped a lot of benefits in my 30s of building muscle and built a lot. And then I dealt with all the other issues. So I kind of had all of, up until that point though, I didn't have, when I wasn't chasing PRs, I didn't have a lot of injuries. I didn't have a lot. You didn't chase PRs, but it wasn't like you didn't pay attention to the weight. You got stronger. Yeah. Yeah. So you still got stronger. Yeah, yeah, but I wasn't. You weren't focused on it. I was never, I never did anything less than five reps. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I mean, so I could never, when someone asked me, "How much do you bench? How much do you squat?" my answer would be like, "I don't know." I mean, I work out with this weight, and that weight always increased over my in my 20s, but I never challenged like a single, double, or triple until literally I started hanging out with you guys. And then I did get to reap the benefits late, and I saw, "Wow, I, that, that what you like you said, those numbers, my zero to 500 journey," I'd say, you know, that I watched my physique change and build and build and build and build. And then after that, it was like kind of diminishing returns, and but I was also now a little addicted to seeing how strong I could get. And then now here comes all the stuff. And so it's like trying to figure that out for somebody who's going, it's like there's some obvious benefits to training that way and getting lifting heavy and pushing those limits. But then there comes a point where the return is not worth the.

It's so funny. You start to learn yourself. For the last, I'd say, two and a half months, I've never made, well, I have in the past, but this is really consistent. I've consistently made a target to hit 220 grams of protein at least every single day. Always. Before that, I was probably falling around 160 to 170. Still high, but not 220. I've noticed incredible gains in the gym. But here's what happens: if I get stronger, stronger, stronger, if I don't slow the reps down and just feel the weight, you know, feel it and make it harder, if I just add weight, I start to hurt. Yeah. I start to hurt. So now I know my weight is, I know if my, like my incline, I know if I go above 225, I'm just. You're not as connected to it. Not as connected. So if I feel stronger, I just make the weight feel heavier rather than trying to. I've noticed that too because I think there's a momentum component to that, you know, and you're just trying to explode through it instead of feeling it. I've had to learn how to do that.

Next question is from JJVW Bug. What are some helpful tips to stay focused and motivated? Have fun. I mean, this is the number one thing we. Well, I mean, I would correct this first. I stay focused is good, but and motivated is you're not going to be motivated all the time. Yeah, there's a discipline component. And so, I think. Good point. Part of the things that you need to reframe or tell yourself is like, I'm not going to be motivated all the time, but I go to the gym this many times a week. And then the next layer to that that I'd add that's helped me through this process is giving myself permission that I might just do a lift, but I'm a guy who goes to the gym this many times, right? So telling yourself, I go to the gym at this time or these days, whatever. And then totally realizing or recognizing that there's going to be a lot of those days I'm not motivated. And so when those days come, you go like, "Oh man, I just, I do not feel like going to the gym today and I got this and I, but you know what? I'm going to go." And you know what? Maybe I'll just do two or three sets of squats, or maybe sometimes I've even said things like, "I'll just go there and walk on the treadmill and listen to my audiobook." And so I've allowed myself this permission of I show up or I just go there or I do movement or I do something. And a lot of times what happens is I get motivated. The music starts going in my ears or whatever, and then it's like, "You know what? I think I will go to that squat rack and go hit something." Or maybe I say, "I'm just going to squat." After that squat goes, now I've got a little bit of a pump. I'm sweating a little bit. But now I'm like, "You know what? I want to finish this workout." And so that would be my big advice to this is one, stop thinking you're going to be motivated all the time because that's setting yourself up for failure. And then two, give yourself permission that sometimes it looks like an hour walk on the treadmill, sometimes it looks like a set of squats and that's it. And be okay with that.

Yeah, no, that's great advice. I think generally that's 100% true. The part that the place I was going, if you, when you meet people who've been very consistent with their workouts, like really consistent, you know, 15, 20, 30 years, they all have one thing in common, and that's that they, yes, they're disciplined, but they also love the workout. They love what they're doing. And so I like to encourage people, you know, because on the show we often talk about effective workout programming and this is what works and do it this way, and it's all true. But the most important thing is that you're consistent so long as you're not hurting yourself and doing something that's inappropriate. And so you, if there's something you like and it's fun and it's not the perfect routine, but you enjoy doing it, that's probably going to be better for you because it's going to help develop this relationship with fitness where you always do it. Like some of the healthiest people I've ever known in fitness, these were members of gyms that I managed that were just consistent. They always seem happy. They would come in. These were people that just loved, they just loved to move and they would strength train. Sometimes they would do cardio. Other times I wouldn't see them. They come back. "Where were you?" "Oh, I did this hiking trip or I go surfing." Like that's the key to longevity with this is to, is to really learn how to enjoy it and enjoy the process and then you won't, you know, want to stop doing that. But that means A, learn how to enjoy it. And B, also don't think that because I have to do this perfect routine, I can't do this other thing I enjoy. Go ahead and do the thing that you, that you enjoy. I've never, you know, discouraged someone who says, "Hey, I like salsa dancing. Can I do that as part of my workout?" Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Have fun. Do it. Cha cha away, buddy.

Alright, I know you like that episode. If you did, check this one out. How strong should you be? Ever wonder if you're actually strong or at least compared to people like yourself? Today's episode, we're going to talk about that and we're going to help you determine how strong you should be and also talk about the steps to getting strong as fast as possible. In fact, we're going to talk about the fastest way to get bigger and stronger all at the same time. Say Adam, look at night. Yes, it does actually. And I know that you wrote a really complex episode here, but I think Justin's metric has been the.