Unlock the secrets of peak performance with Albert Matheny, the ingenious founder of PROMIX, as he unravels the intricate relationship between athlete nutrition and the U.S. food industry's shortcomings. This episode isn't just a deep dive; it's a full-scale expedition into the personal transformation of an endurance athlete turned visionary CEO, revealing the flawed one-size-fits-all dietary standards and how small, consistent changes can revolutionize athletic prowess. Join us for a journey through the rocky terrain of outdated nutritional advice and discover a path to a more truthful food system.

Navigating the murky waters of the nutrition and medical world can be daunting, but together with Albert, we cast a light on the archaic dietary guidelines that fail to meet the needs of athletes thirsty for peak performance. From a disciplined sports career to acquiring expertise in food science and dietetics, our conversation exposes the significant gaps in current dietary guidelines and the nutritional needs of active individuals. We also share valuable lessons from athletics, such as the importance of adaptability, whether you're training for a triathlon or running your own company, and how these skills are transferable to life beyond sports.

As we wrap up, we delve into the complexities of creating authentic, clean nutrition products and the power of simplifying one's approach to health and wellness. Albert shares his passion for formulating supplements that genuinely meet the needs of the health-conscious, and together, we discuss the importance of resilience – not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good when it comes to diet and fitness routines. If you're seeking to optimize your health, performance, or simply want to feel your best, this episode with Albert Matheny offers a wealth of insights and practical tips for anyone ready to take their wellness to the next level.

Resources:
Albert's LinkedIN
Albert@promixnutrition.com
My favorite PROMIX product
Focus formula I took before the podcast, maybe it made me too fast! 😂🤣
What I'm ordering

LEORÊVER COMPRESSION AND ACTIVEWEAR
Get 10% off Loerêver Balanced Compression and Activewear to elevate your confidence and performance

8 EIGHT SLEEP
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Albert: 0:00

I started to try a lot of different things and again kind of like learning the traditional dietetics side of things. I wanted to know and speak from person experience on you know, what about a vegan diet? Or like, try all that stuff out, because I don't want to say without having some kind of knowledge base in that. So I've tried all those things and certainly did not work for me. I think a lot of different nutrition strategies I don't even say diets, because a lot of people struggle with that word, you know it has like a double meaning to it those things are always relative to whatever your baseline is.

Albert: 0:33

I think that's a common issue where people go oh my God, I feel amazing eating vegan or something and I'm like, well, if you were eating french fries and soda and all that, you probably do feel better, assuming that you're eating healthier, maybe just more fruits and vegetables and you know, take even.

Albert: 0:49

It's almost like a removal thing where maybe you just remove something that was just really not working for you. But those are not long term nutrition strategies for like optimal health and I think people do have a lot of individual differences but foundationally everyone needs protein, everyone needs fat and then I think carbohydrates. Very much depends on one, on your genetics, but two on your activity level hugely. If you're not very active, you don't need to find carbohydrates and your body is very adaptable, but you can't adapt around not having enough protein and fat in a in a healthful way. I don't think. There's three things I always think about when I think about food and the food industry, at least at scale and kind of the big companies in the space. They love to sell water, air and sugar because they're all very cheap, and so that's what you see a lot in things.

Klara: 1:41

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, happy new year and welcome to the Grand Slam Journey podcast, where we discuss various topics related to finding our passion, purpose, maximizing our potential, sports, life after sports, and transitioning from one chapter of our lives to the next, growing our skills and leadership in whatever we decide to put our minds into. For my guest today,Albert Matheny , the founder and CEO of Promix, is helping enrich people's lives with nutrition. Albert has made athlete nutrition his whole career. As a track and field athlete at the University of Florida and with USA Triathlon, albert earned a master's of science in exercise physiology and dual bachelor's in food science and human nutrition and human performance. Albert is also a registered dietitian, consulting with everyone from Olympic gold medalists to high school athletes. In 2011, albert founded Promix after being unable to find products that matched his standards for ingredient quality, science-backed performance and safety for his athletes. In 2013, albert co-founded Soho Strength Lab in New York City, which was named 2013 2015 Best New Independent Gym by Men's Health. In 2020, albert co-founded Arena to make strength training available anytime, anywhere. In a nutshell, albert has been an athlete himself and has been around athletes, helping people maximize their human potential and athletic performance his whole life, and that is, from all perspectives, whether it is coaching or nutrition, or whether it is translating biomarkers into high performance outcomes through holistic health insights, or by being an exercise and fitness consultant himself.

Klara: 4:05

I love this conversation for so many reasons. If I would have to name them all, they would be probably a whole separate podcast. In many ways, it is easy to laugh, something that you also highly believe in. I found so many similarities between what Albert had gone through as an endurance athlete and the challenges that I had faced when I came to the US and competed at tennis. If you're someone who knows me well, you probably know how picky I am about nutrition, and one of my colleagues called me autistic when I got really passionate about how broken the food pyramid is in the US. Well, I'm not autistic or if I am, I don't know about it but I'm certainly passionate about nutrition and I have strong feelings about how broken the food industry is in the US, mainly because I believe if I was smarter and knew how to eat better, I could have been a much better athlete. But back to Albert.

Klara: 5:17

In this episode we cover so many things, including his journey to running track, specifically cross country, and then from there becoming USA triathlon Olympic development program athlete, what it takes to train and the frustration with poor nutrition advice and his own digestive issues that were in clash of his aspirations to become the best athlete he could be, which drove him into diving into nutrition deeper and understanding how broken the healthcare and nutrition system is in the US. One of the things that this conversation reminded me is that sometimes you may think you want something, but you don't truly know whether you really want it until you try it. Albert was aspiring to become doctor in dietitian and after diving deeper into the system, he understood how broken it is and decided to take a different path and focus more on proactiveness. We talk about how slowly these industries change and how not progressive dietitians typically are. I was impressed by Albert's ability to go so deep into the details and understanding some of the smallest things, doing the research to make sense of things and make them simple for others. I find this ability alone is an exceptional skill that athletes typically possess, or great athletes. We talk about consistency, discipline, volume, game, the pros and cons of training too hard, developing a skill of understanding when to push yourself hard versus when to rest, the importance of mindset and how that connects to motivation, balancing routine with adaptability, time management, efficiency, how to use frustration to solve problems, extreme accountability, the importance of attention to detail, humility, doing small things consistently, how much protein you should eat, and sometimes you can achieve the biggest impact by making the smallest changes.

Klara: 7:48

Well, that's not all. We've covered a whole bunch of things about nutrition, and throughout my life in athletic journey as well as now just being an average civilian I believe that you can't really outperform your diet. If there is one thing you want to do right this year is that understanding what you eat and how you eat is important, and I have big distressed in the US nutrition system and the food industry that is serving you things that mostly aren't great for you. So how do you make sense of all the messages that come in at you and are often conflicting? I believe this conversation may help you to do just that. If you enjoyed this conversation, please share it with someone you believe may enjoy this. Well, consider leaving a review on Apple Podcast and Spotify, and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. This is your host, clara Agoshova. Thank you for tuning in, and now I bring you Albert Mathini. Enjoy the listen. Hello Albert, so great to have you on Grants on Journey Podcast. Welcome, how are you?

Albert: 9:10

Doing great. Clara, Thanks for having me.

Klara: 9:12

I am so excited to dive into all that you do in your background in sports nutrition and actually starting Promix, which I feel like is such a crowded space for supplements and nutrition, and I love your product. I've been using it for several months now, so hopefully I can share some of my experience and look forward to hearing what's ahead. I actually had your focus formula right before the podcast, so I wonder if my performance will be better than in some of the other episodes. But before we do dive into many of those topics, I know you're the CEO of Promix, but you're much more in. Your background is so vast through different experiences, so I want to give you an opportunity to introduce yourself to the listeners, please.

Albert: 9:59

Yeah, thank you. I'm going to start from the beginning and try to hit some fun bits. I grew up in Gainesville, florida. I think people know Gainesville for University of Florida Gators that's where Gatorade was from and that was actually both of those things were a big part of my early life. It was a super active place, so many people who run there, and that's kind of what I got into. So I ended up running Track and Field at the University of Florida.

Albert: 10:24

In high school I'd written a paper on Dr Cade, who was the first scientist to make Gatorade, and his invention really transformed Florida football. That was one of the things that really kicked off the whole kind of sports nutrition thing. Before that it was, there wasn't that field. People thought it was weak to drink water during practice and stuff which you don't want to take too many water breaks. But yeah, water definitely helps. So just being around that environment was very cool.

Albert: 10:54

When I was at the University of Florida we had access to a lot of Gatorade products and a lot of new stuff that hadn't come out yet and it was neat to see. I understood, physiologically and from a food science perspective, the ingredients chosen and everything like that, but I also understood. It was a big company and it had costed ingredients down and you make changes as you get to a certain size, I think, and the original formulations were not kind of the same. And as an athlete using all those products and things, it basically kind of just piqued my interest because they didn't make me always feel the best. I was drinking probably a gallon of Gatorade at least every day, so you have headaches and different things like that. My teeth were kind of for just a lot of sugar really. And there's three things I always think about when I think about food and the food industry, at least at scale, and kind of the big companies in the space. They love to sell water, air and sugar because they're all very cheap, and so that's what you see a lot in things From just the athletic perspective. When you're training as a runner, especially distance, you have a high volume of training, high volume of calorie consumption.

Albert: 12:02

And then I got recruited into USA Trafflon and that's even more. It's like now you, after running practice, you have swimming practice and cycling and all that. So that even pushed me farther into trying to figure out what worked best for nutrition for me, and through that process I tried a lot of different things and it eventually led me to making my own products. And it was kind of before the time when there was V2C was even really a word. It was still very old school. Aside from Gatorade, it was still Power Bar and that kind of brand that I think most people nowadays don't even remember. It was a long time ago. A whole different ball game and, like you said, it's crowded now kind of and there's smaller brands and things, but back then there was only a couple big brands. So when I started it was kind of wide open and I was trying to do something different. So that's kind of like a little bit of a background.

Klara: 12:54

Yeah, I love that. That's a great overview and I want to dive into a number of segments of what you had mentioned Just to share. I 100% agree with the nutrition and every time nutrition comes up, I think a lot of people that I talk, even colleagues at work, they say oh my gosh, clara, you're like obnoxious, because I really have this hate against American nutrition and the pyramid. Being an athlete, I've experienced it myself. When I came from the Czech Republic, looking at the US as the world's economic and thought power, I just thought America has nutrition figured out and I would argue it's been, or at least it's getting better actually I would argue now. But when I started college I felt like it was probably one of the worst, like low fat but awful of sugar. You don't know what you're eating.

Klara: 13:43

I 100% resonate, being an athlete in Tennessee, to a lot of running. I wish I knew how many miles and how many calories I actually burned. We didn't have very good monitoring Back then. I used my Apple Watch religiously now, obviously just to track what my body needs when it comes to what my exhaustion and move calories are, and I just my diet based on that. I never drink Gatorade anymore and I would never eat some of those bars that were, oh, this is good for you.

Klara: 14:15

During changeovers I feel like those were the worst. That probably caused a lot of just gastro issues and I've suffered in college and probably even weight gain because I thought I'm eating healthy and it's like full of sugar to make you eat and drink more of it. So that's why I love all you do and just the detail around prom eggs that you really go down to understand all the things that go into proper supplements but also kind of where they come from and the nutrition. And so, going back to your background, you mentioned you were around load of runners, so that sort of inspired you into cross country, but was there someone who really influenced you? How did you find your passion in it?

Albert: 15:00

From the running side of it, it was kind of just growing up like my dad would run and I would run with him and then it was kind of just you kind of start to do more of what you're good at. So I really love soccer. I swam, I played soccer throughout high school. I like to work out, but running was just I was better at running. So everyone's like, yeah, so you just kind of do it. People like running was it can be fun, but it's also usually it's the punishment and other sports. You know you have to go do suicides or running like that. So it was good it. Running teaches you a lot. I think all sports kind of give you like perseverance and discipline. The running is like extra with that. And then from the nutrition side, a lot of it came, like you said, just from personal frustration more than anything where, like I think we're probably in a similar cohort of age and college and everything, and every dietitian I talked to said low fat, high carb, don't worry too much about protein, more pasta, and it doesn't work great. You know, it does lead to a bunch of digestive issues, it doesn't support your hormones and all that kind of stuff. It would have been nice if everything worked out perfect and the nutrition was perfect, because it probably wouldn't have pushed me to try to figure it out myself because I was having, you know, digestive issues and different things and you know you always look for where can you perform better and you definitely understand nutrition plays a huge part. So that was always part of it too is just trying to be a better athlete, and the school aspect was similar to the frustration around the kind of like food Business in America is. The medical system is also equally frustrating. You have injuries and things and I had a hip injury in college and the trainer said, well, you could stop running or we could do the surgery, and then you probably couldn't run. It's like neither of those are good option. So that led me down a whole different path and I'm getting a repair and then I came back and continue to run.

Albert: 16:57

But my undergrad was originally pre-med and so pre-med all through my undergrad until I started working and kind of shadowing in hospitals and, aside from orthopedic surgery, which I still think is really interesting, I didn't find a love for most of medicine and then even within orthopedics it's. It's just such a long journey and for me at that time I got more and more into the nutrition side of it. So I Did a second. I did my graduate degree in human performance. My thesis was actually on post-exercise carbohydrate consumption and kind of performance and recovery from exercise. But at the same time I wanted to understand kind of the full stack of nutrition. So While I was doing my master's I did a second bachelor's in food science, in human nutrition, with the specialization and diethetics, so I could go on to be a dietitian.

Albert: 17:48

Even at that time I think most people would know this Most dietitians are not very progressive with their ideas. Even the dietitians who would say they're not kind of cutting edge, even when I was learning the information, said we know this information is outdated, but you just have to learn it for the test. And we would have co-co-coa come in and they would sponsor things. I went to a free LA factory. You know it's just business and it wasn't, certainly not for optimal health.

Albert: 18:17

And the basis even and the framework when you think about nutrition in In the US is the guidelines are given around preventing disease rather than Optimal health or performance, and so if you're an athlete you know you're trying to perform up here. The nutrition guidelines are here. Therefore, the average person, what you need not to get sick. You know it's like I don't study for a test to. Here's the study guys, so you maybe passed the test. I want to give me the best study guy.

Albert: 18:46

So that was interesting and actually really helpful because, even knowing that, I wanted to understand the messaging that was coming from the traditional side, because that's the message in people here, and so you have to talk to them from that side and say I understand that side and here's the other side and try to get them to understand and kind of progress through what they hear. And I think your podcast and so many people who are in the health and fitness and nutrition space Are getting the message out more that a lot of things you were told for many years low-fat, all that stuff is not it's not what helpful and you can see it in your own performance, but you can also. Now there's a lot more research and everything supporting that type of stuff, but it's still for the most of America it's they're not aware of it. So there's a lot, a lot of work to do still.

Klara: 19:37

Yes, and I agree and I love thank you for describing the experience of you actually wanting to become part of health care Early on and realizing how broken that system is, and actually one of my questions I had in mind because you were on the path of potentially become dietitian and studying pretty much the nutritional role.

Klara: 19:56

I have number of friends who are dietitians and I was like I don't really trust them. So can you drill in a little bit deeper into that experience and what that's like is number of my friends actually have Some gastro issues. I think there's now becoming a lot of or a lot of some new studies about the connection of the gut and Brain and the microbiome and how important it is to have a health gut for a bunch of autoimmune diseases and my friends go to normal dietitians that I'm actually worried for them because I find the only way Unfortunately, I guess it's conversations like this one with you or number of thought leaders kind of like you that are speaking up, but it's still not as big. I think most of the time you need to do your own research In order to really conclude what's right for you, because if you go through the normal system it's just a red hole of getting you more on meds or things that actually I believe from that perspective don't work well.

Albert: 20:59

Yeah, that's true, you know I became a dietitian and went through that whole process, but I just knew what I needed to know for the test and it's slow, you know. I mean, that's part of it. You see it again like in the medical system. I think it's more clear to people where you look at even Europe which sometimes is also slow, but they have a lot more progressive surgeries and different things than America. There's at least a 10 year, probably more like 20 year, lag of what happens. Even if we know it from research, then it actually gets Put through kind of government and then comes out in like a public recommendation. So it's kind of like if you never use the internet and you just watched the news channels for information, you have a very filtered view of what's happening. And the dietitians are the same where, if they only read the Dietitian journals and they go to the conferences, all the money is From just like government is just big lobby groups that pay for everything, and so if there's a conflict of interest and the incentives to sell more of whatever they're selling or whatever industry it is, food is just like anything people get mad about. That you know, military, industrial complex or anything. There's the same thing, exact same thing. Include the corn soybeans, gary, you know, whatever it is. They all have their own lobby groups and so most dietitians just receive information that's heavily filtered. You don't get to see kind of the full picture and hear other viewpoints, and then it's just a parrot to whatever they are saying.

Albert: 22:31

And, unfortunately, america again tied to the health care system. It's not a preventative system, it's a let me fix it once there's a problem and so there's not a bunch of money in People like if you're healthy, most people aren't going to someone to help them with their nutrition. So a lot of times you're going to someone when you're at the point of having all these bowel issues or different things like that, and the digestion have been conditioned by different food and drug groups to Recommend certain things. Rather than we could have fixed this earlier, we could have given you something. We could have done some diagnostics and that's what I saw in medicine too, was let's try to get before you need the surgery. Could we have done other stuff? Maybe change your training or change your weight or change your nutrition to avoid that? So I think the preventative approach is a lot better. You know, invest in your health and fitness and everything earlier on just Untold that. That's kind of what I saw.

Klara: 23:25

Yeah, thanks for that. And so it seems like you've had your own struggles early on with cross-country nutrition. Obviously that probably impacted some of your injuries and Recovery and training. I can resonate with all of those. But then you ended up qualifying and being part of the US triathlon development program. So I wonder how that half went, and I've heard you even on other podcasts and you mentioned Training for three disciplines. It's even more challenging and time-consuming. So I'm curious how that looked like and if you could give us a little bit of you. What is the day of being the USA triathlon Olympic development program athlete?

Albert: 24:06

Kind of came out of in college because I did have some injuries, particularly with my hip. I would cross train and so I had swam in high school. I had cycled, actually worked. This was after college, but I ended up living in Stekra in the Czech Republic and actually Leading cycling tours from Chesky, bujibut, the lintz, but I love cycling. Swimming was fun, but I would get injured and then I would go to the pool instead of the track and so I would just swim in the pool where I would cycle.

Albert: 24:36

And as an endurance athlete I certainly wasn't necessarily built. I have like a pretty decent frame compared to a lot of distance athletes, and so I had a good cardiovascular system and so you can apply that as long as you get technique and swimming. You know there's some technique to cycling. For sure I was able to apply that and I don't follow the sport like I used to, but I think the top, a lot of top people in Triathlon now come from running background and that was. A number of friends at Florida also competed in triathlon and so there was just kind of a draw for that and Florida's got an amazing Facilities and everything like that. So it was really just easy and I had a good work ethic and I think I think about triathlon at times, as you just have to get really good at exercising.

Albert: 25:21

It's really what it is. It's just, it's a volume game and so I was going to put in the work. I could have trained smarter, but again, I didn't really know any better. But continue with that. And so my schedule went from I had many years of running probably close to 100 miles every week. That dropped down to maybe 60 Ish or so miles, but you add on the. I was swimming probably on average 5k a day in the pool and then probably cycling maybe 300 miles a week or something like that.

Albert: 25:52

So I didn't enjoy it because it it takes all your energy and all your time. You know it's your, your training and your covering and then your training and your covering. But obviously the nutrition part of it becomes more and more important because you have to train again, and I'll talk to people about nutrition now, especially around sports nutrition the Intro workout, like during new, during the workout, nutrition before and after. It's much, much more important. If you're trying to train twice in one day, you know if you have two matches or something, it matters a lot more. If you have a day between, you get to sleep Like you have a lot more leeway, especially if unless you're trying to compete at a super high level, but that became a big part of it and further kind of I would say, almost like Exacerbated issues that I had before. You know, like you just running you get some recovery and things like that. Maybe the nutrition doesn't have to be perfect or maybe you can get by. But as I trained more and hadn't adopted until later, like the idea of I Need a lot of calories but also need not just from carbs, you know I need a lot of protein and a lot of fat. I think even then in college I don't think dietitians really thought about or messaged you know we would work out in the weight room room with football players protein, protein, protein and endurance athlete even if I only weighed, you know, 150 pounds when I was running like you need a lot of protein, like because you're just turning through and you're breaking down your muscles so often and just that volume of training Could need as much as a 250 pound football player. But that was never the idea. It was you eat pasta and here's a little piece of chicken, so that clearly just didn't work. I think.

Albert: 27:30

Not uncommon, especially with any type of endurance sport where when you're exercising all the blood flow goes to your extremities and then your stomach doesn't have that so you're not trying to digest food. So if you have food, you're already like not digesting well. In different things it's kind of exacerbated. So always had this upset stomach, sensitive stomach, and it took a while to once I stopped training at that high level to just change my nutrition and Also, like mentally you have to get over the fact you've been told for 25 years Don't eat fat and then you start to eat fat and you are actually full, you're not thinking about food all the time, you feel better, your recovery is better, you're putting on muscle. Like it was quite a journey. So Once you kind of break through that and kind of Open that door that you've changed your foundation that you thought you had around how nutrition works and how it works for you, I started to try a lot of different things and again kind of like learning the Traditional dietetics side of things, I wanted to know and speak from personal experience on you know, what about a vegan diet? Or like, try all that stuff out, because I don't want to say Without having some kind of knowledge base in that, so I've tried all those things and certainly did not work for me.

Albert: 28:49

I think, a lot of different nutrition strategies.

Albert: 28:53

I don't even say diets, because a lot of people struggle with that word, you know it has like a double meaning to it. Those things are always relative to whatever your baseline is. I think that's a common issue where people go oh my god, I feel amazing Eating vegan or something, and I'm like, well, if you were eating French fries and soda and all that, you probably do feel better, assuming that you're eating healthier, maybe just more fruits and vegetables and you know, take even. It's almost like a removal thing where maybe you just remove something that was just really not working for you. But those are not long-term nutrition strategies for like optimal health, and I think people do have a lot of individual differences. But Foundationally everyone needs protein, everyone needs fat. And then I think carbohydrates very much depend on one on your genetics, but two on your activity level hugely. If you're not very active, you don't need to some carbohydrates and your body is very adaptable, but you can't adapt around not having enough protein and fat in a in a helpful way.

Klara: 29:52

I don't think yeah, I agree in something I have found as well and still Experimenting, I've been same as you is on all sides of the spectrum. You know, and now I'm trying to figure out well, carbs and sugars not a complete enemy If you know how and when to use it and when your body needs it and craves it. And though the journey, at least for me, has been helpful because I think I'm now more aware when I truly need those things. Because, as you, I say, clean up your diet and people don't like the word sometimes, clean up, but I think it's the easiest way like to kind of understand what you're putting in your body and where the ingredients come from.

Klara: 30:30

And I think if you get to that state of Really eating clean, then you understand a little bit more about what your body truly craves. And I actually trust my instincts now more than I used to back in the day because I know, if you know, my body needs a little bit more fruit that day or week. It's probably just needs a bit more for recovery. So I'm curious. It seems like your personal journey has been kind of similar to that. And then, even looking back at your past, it seems like really nutrition was a key aspect you would categorize as a thing you would have changed as you reflect on and knowing what you know now which I know is kind of mean question to ask, we cannot really be as smart as we are now. You know 10, 15 years ago, but knowing what you know now, what are some of the key pillars you would have changed?

Albert: 31:21

looking back at your athletic career, I'm trying to add them all up. There's certainly a lot Um I One, like I would say a really big one is how hard you push yourself every day. You know I have now, after pushing myself for so many years, I have some little nicks and things like that injury wise that I'm very aware of and I can't go 95%, 100% or you're going to risk re-injuring something. I have better results for my training now than I ever had just because of that, because meeting your body up every day doesn't really pay dividends and I think some of the best athletes are inherently lazy stuff. You know, I'm sure a lot of my teammates who are the best were I don't want to train, you know, and like they would kind of show up for game day or for competition. That's almost a better mindset. If you're kind of driven, you want the most. Like it's hard to temper that you have to have really strong coaches that really know what they're doing to manage that. So that's one aspect of like the training and that's kind of for everything. You know it's like with nutrition 80, 20 kind of active, just like training, 80% If you get it 80% right. Pushing beyond that is not really going to change much and maybe it has an impact on your happiness or your mental health or whatever it might be.

Albert: 32:36

From a nutrition standpoint, I would say protein and fat, you know, were the number one things. Like it was just what that era thought was correct was Icarb, low fat. If you're anything other than like a big, strong kind of strength based athlete, that's just what you did and it wasn't a good idea. Basically, it's tough on your digestive system to have that kind of thing. Like one of the best parts of having fat is just the caloric density. I would literally go home and take the entire box of pasta and make a pound of pasta. I needed carbs. You know I was training a lot but I could have had probably a half pound of pasta and had some cheese or butter or something.

Albert: 33:19

I mean it would have had the same benefit, but I felt terrible. After eating that much pasta every single day, I felt terrible. I would eat and then I would lay on the couch and I don't feel like that.

Klara: 33:28

Sorry, I'm having deja vu because it seems like you're describing my exact experience, and then I would feel so crappy and wouldn't know why.

Albert: 33:37

I'm kind of passionate about that now with so many people is just, they don't know that they can feel better, because we had a lot of years where we just did what we were told and didn't feel good a lot, but I thought that was normal. I remember very much growing up we eat healthy growing up but I remember I thought you're supposed to have milk and you have orange juice every meal. Now I have both of those. If you ever try to drink those together it doesn't make your stomach feel good, but I just thought that's what you're supposed to do.

Klara: 34:05

There wasn't a Czech Republic thing I didn't do that, but it's certainly interesting.

Albert: 34:11

After every breakfast I would feel sick and I just thought, oh, that's how you feel after you eat breakfast, and I think a lot of people do that. They go, I go through the drive-through and then I really get sleepy and I don't feel good and it's like your body is telling you that you don't feel good. That's a signal. So yeah, going back, it would be a fat and protein, not pushing myself every day as hard, even though I love that. I would have directed it in other areas. I think kind of connected like a general nutrition thing that I found People don't talk about it specifically, but I believe it where people obviously have very specific diets, like people are carnivore, they just eat red meat or whatever. There's some elements of that which are you don't need a ton of variety.

Albert: 34:58

You think about only 50, some years ago, when most people it was less consolidated food and people lived on farms and different things. You probably just ate what was available, maybe in your town or at your farm, and you might eat the same thing a lot and also based on season. Maybe you had potatoes one season and then you have squash another season and you may have eaten squash every day for three months because that was what you had at your house, and so the idea of variety and eating all these different things and I need to eat peppers for this and I need this for that is not correct. So just a lot of it was kind of like programming that figure out what works for you and listen to your body. It's important to look inside a lot more than asking other people, I think, and be realistic about how your performance is, to see what ties, what did I eat and how do I feel and how did I perform?

Klara: 35:54

Yeah, and it's so clear, at least to me, listening to you and observing how those frustrations have fueled your passion In that area, to then kind of turn around and obviously even prioritization and time management, that anybody who's been an athlete and had to study sort of knows how important time is. And you have certainly packed so much into the years you have experienced and you've been around some of the most amazing athletes and obviously obsessed, seems like to me, with human performance and pushing our human potential. You know whatever that means in physical as well as mental aspect. I mean turning that question around, what do you think are some of those best things you have taken from your athletic world that you're now applying being CEO of Promix? And I know you have many more projects you're taking on, and so the time management seems like definitely one. What else?

Albert: 36:51

Yeah, time management. Number one thing I learned from college, especially when I did my masters and I did a study, and I did my masters and I did a second bachelor's and I said, can I do this? And they're like, well, you kind of have to get an exception to be able to take this many courses at the same time. And I said, okay, no problem. And I got very efficient. You know you use the word frustration. That works for me for like fueling me very frustrated with things, and it just gives me energy to try to solve problems and shape what I think the way things should be Track and that type of thing. I would say accountability is super important. You know a lot of people I like kind of have the I don't know if it's the right word extreme accountability. I view everything as my fault. You know, in terms of business and any type of thing, it's maybe not always the case, but if you approach things like that, you do everything you can to make sure things go correctly and it is really just kind of high attention to detail. If we're working on a product or something and something's delayed, it's still my fault that somebody maybe didn't see an email or didn't read what I wrote about a specific thing that had to happen. It's my job to check that and follow up and make sure it happens and carry the ball all the way to the finish line. You see that with running like I mean tennis is the same you win or lose because of yourself and running there's not a lucky race really at all. Are you faster than the other person? Yes, and it's a tough sport. From that, like, I'm very realistic. I know I was not the best runner. I know who was better, I know who was worse and businesses like that. You know it's kind of a numbers game. You can see the numbers and that speaks to you know there's other aspects to it, I think humility and the understanding where you fit, like just that idea of like it's you who decide if you have success or not. I think that's a big thing. You're not going to get anywhere if you blame other people. That's kind of one of the big things I like that. It's very black and white. I can't tell you oh, I was a great runner. People would go what was your time? That's all you need to know and that's kind of cool. It's really like confronting and I think people need to have that. I think I'm able to talk to a lot of people different people and things because I think I have a lot of humility around certain things like that. I don't think I'm better than I am. I think I know what I can do and I know what I can't do and I'll ask for help if I need help and if not, I'm going to you know, work really hard and do it myself, kind of thing. Those are probably the big lessons.

Albert: 39:27

Teamwork is really important. Positive attitude that really matters. Even if you're an individual sport, you're still part of like a bigger team. I've seen that my partner in ProMix Devin fantastic guy and just super positive, super positive, always positive, and that energy goes a long way. You know you've turned around a tennis match or something that wasn't going well and you just have to tell yourself I can do this, be positive, keep showing up and keep working. So I think all those things that you, the struggles you have, the ups and downs in sports, you get hurt it's the same as a truck missed this thing and now this isn't happening. You have to figure out how to make it work. Anyway, it's all the same kind of stuff. It's just like a battle or sport.

Klara: 40:10

Yes, I love how you described it, I think very holistically and I think for the reason, as I talked to more and more former athletes, there's a number of reasons for me starting the podcast, including, you know, curiosity around what do former athletes do after their athletic career is over and how they transition through life.

Klara: 40:28

I actually find, I think more and more, that athletes perhaps on average I have about 16 interviews, so I don't know if I have statistical sample, maybe not yet but through those interviews I feel like they're more driven to actually more of the entrepreneurial mindset.

Klara: 40:44

Because all of those things that you had mentioned and I think that accountability and, you know, willingness to create and build something, but also knowing there is a big risk and you can fail, but working through that and that process, I think I find it the same, if not completely identical, to what athletes journey is like and just the willingness to grind. And you didn't mention the mental aspect of it. And I was asked recently by some other colleagues like what do I think about mindset and the importance of staying positive? I'm curious about that. You mentioned it but I feel like, because we know through athletic journey that negatively doesn't help you got to learn to create a way to push your brain through the negative thoughts that are positive way more. And especially because your cross country or even triathlon, you're alone a lot of the time, I feel like those sports, or individual sports, gives us a little bit of advantage of understanding our mind a bit more because you're alone. So much.

Klara: 41:47

And so you spend a lot of time alone with your own head, and so you got to learn how to navigate it. What do you think?

Albert: 41:54

Yes, yeah, I don't know Days, I wouldn't really talk to anyone.

Albert: 41:58

You're just training. It's weird. I like people, I like talking to people, but I would say I, you know, I like to be hard on myself. That's what I respond to. Well, from like coaches. I'm sure you had tough coaches. I responded to that.

Albert: 42:15

I think it always might take it into business where you show up to practice and you do your job. I don't care what else is happening, and that's kind of how I approach it. Where things can happen in business and a bad thing happens, a good thing happens, I don't care, I'm gonna still do my job. I think that kind of focus is really important, where I don't get emotional about oh my gosh, this happened, this whole order got canceled or whatever it might be. Or oh my gosh, we had such a good day, everyone's so excited, we have a new athlete.

Albert: 42:46

I just still am like, okay, what is the next thing I have to do? So staying focused, staying like it's not too high or too low and, yeah, being tough with myself. You hold yourself to a high standard. That's the main thing is like you have a goal and you just kind of keep pushing and pushing and know that there's gonna be up and down, but I'm pretty honest and direct with myself and you gotta always push yourself. I think it's good, I think it makes you tough and at the end of the day, like, yeah, you wanna feel like you tried hard, yeah.

Klara: 43:17

One more question about athletics and then we should transition a little bit to promics, because I think we can talk about this topic forever. But through your athletic career, as was actually after, if you wanna mention a little bit you've had some very interesting experiences after college and your US Triathlon Olympic Development Program. What do you see differentiates the good from the great when you look at some of those best athletes you have been around?

Albert: 43:44

A lot of times it's ability. Yeah, once you get higher up that they upper ended ability. That's, I think, a good lesson for people to learn too, is you can want something really bad, but some people have more skills than you. Some people are faster too bad. You know, I had guys on my team that were I could train every day. They can be nothing and it would be faster than me, I would say, in terms of the most consistent things that I would see outside of, kind of just genetic ability is consistency is really important. You know, the really special athletes pair the genetic ability with consistent work ethic and then also, like we talked about earlier, like having a coach that's really good and works with you.

Albert: 44:30

I would put different coaches and different athletes work well with different coaches. You know, it's really almost physiological, as it is mental, where certain people they need to be pushed more and they respond better physically and mentally to that, and some people you can't push them too much. That's what works for them and their body. Like the variance and training of what people need is surprising, I think, and similar to nutrition, where people say even people who I respect and stuff a lot of them will say, well, this is the best way that you should be eating or training or whatever. And it's part of like sales, to be honest, you know it's just if you have a brand, you kind of have to say, well, this works. Honestly, with ProMix or my own self, when I talk to people, my goal is always to change as little about what they do to give them the most impact.

Albert: 45:21

Train is the same way. We had again athletes that they did great with high volume. That's just. They were built for it. They have a big cardiovascular engine, just push them. And then other people that took longer to recover, they you know different musculature or whatever and you know, to give them minimum dose training, just what they need to like you just get there enough endurance training and then just let them be their thing.

Albert: 45:43

So I think, like individualization and, like you said with your Apple watch and things, like people get more data on that now and before. Like my coach could say, training's like throwing spaghetti at a wall. You just throw everybody at the wall and some people stick and I'm like, okay, that's interesting. Yeah, it was interesting, it was. You know, everyone's gonna go, everyone go run really hard. Whoever makes it back those guys, you continue. So it was kind of a tough way to go because obviously certain people running at a certain time that's 95% effort for them, certain people that's a nice 80% and that's where you need to be. So it's a combination of things and that's the tough part of like a lot of athletics is you have to be in the right place at the right time with the right coach and the right teammates, and all that to kind of maximize yourself.

Klara: 46:34

Yeah, I agree. And so your journey, from being a triathlete, what was the decision to end? How did you realize I don't have a future there? And then transitioning to the next chapter of your life, which I find is always so challenging for us.

Albert: 46:51

Yeah, there were two parts. I almost didn't want to run in college. It's not that much fun a lot of the time, but I felt obligated a bit. You know I put a lot of time in. People liked it. I liked my team. You know that kind of thing. I liked to push myself. There were two parts.

Albert: 47:08

One was one of my friends. He was a track athlete but he went actually into another sport. I won't get too specific but he ended up winning a gold medal. But it took from, I think, 24 to 32. And after that that was kind of it.

Albert: 47:29

You know, like there's silence, like that's a lot of time to put in. And you know there's certain sports where, if you're I really don't even know like a bigger, like Olympic athletes, just are not thought of that much. Yes, and the career prospects are not that great and it's so much time and commitment. Some people love the sport so much and it certainly if you win a gold medal, you can definitely go coach somewhere, you can definitely go and talk to people that are in that sport and you can show up at things. I certainly was not passionate like that about triathlon. It just kind of happened and I had other friends that stayed in it and there were some elements that were cool that you travel the world and all that. You have cool access. People think it's really cool to talk to you or whatever. That's a luring but also knew my head state around and especially with the training schedule. I'm not enjoying those places. Triathlon has amazing events in Hawaii and, you know, asia, wherever but even if I could go there, I wouldn't do anything I would be worried about. Am I going to get sick from the food? What am I eating? I need to sleep. I don't like this bed. I need to train and I would just live in this teeny little world that could be anywhere, so I didn't like that part. So those two parts of one. Also realizing again, like how I said, I was a good runner by certain measures, but certainly not elite, and so understanding that like I knew that I could probably get very good at triathlon, but I don't know if I would have ever been number one. I was like I can't name the number one triathlete, I can't name the number you know. So like it wasn't there for me and I wasn't passionate about the sport itself and it is so much to sacrifice. I just remember being so tired all the time and I wanted to do other things. I had a curious mind about stuff and so it was just really like that equation. I also had like a cycling accident which kind of pushed it, but I was already there.

Albert: 49:24

You think about again the gold medal, like that's the most you can achieve. Yes, the top it's everyone's dream and I saw the get achieved and then there was just wasn't anything after that, and so that's really hard. I think you get a lot of self-satisfaction about it, but still it's just. You think about what most people have to give up. There's certain sports where you don't have to change your whole lifestyle maybe, but I would say if you're winning a gold, you probably committed your life and you made. You chose not to see friends, you chose this. That it just didn't make sense. To me, that was the main thing, not even to say I could have that's privileged to say that, but it just didn't make any sense.

Klara: 50:02

I love that you had that awareness. I actually have gratitude now, I think, for maybe the past few years actually gained gratitude for failing in tennis so early on, because, exactly what you mentioned it allows you to start something else faster and sooner and create skills and other things. But I'm just impressed in your awareness and actually recognizing that and having the courage to dive into new things. So, talking about the new things, maybe, if you could describe it and I know you had a long journey actually to being the CEO of Promix and many different experiences but looking at that to where you are now, what are some of the main things you want to highlight? That kind of helped you get the skill set and experience to then start your company and lead your company.

Albert: 50:52

It took a long period of time. It was really back to the nutrition things. When I started studying nutrition I started to see, like I said about you understood the business behind nutrition and I started. Actually going to trade shows was the first thing and it simplified everything where I could pick up anything Like here's my dog's treat, it's like kangaroo and it's in this bag and I could make this product. Because you just kind of understand the framework, like oh, there's farms that produce something and then they're sold to someone and then somebody packages those things. So kind of like just breaking down the whole framework of the food system and understanding that allowed me to understand how that functioned. And then it really started from a very basic level of I really started with the basics.

Albert: 51:44

For me it was my first product I wanted to make was just a really good, clean protein. So finding what I thought was kind of the best farm, the best producers of this protein and setting up my own handling facility to actually package the protein, doing all kind of certifications and paperwork to do all that. So, starting on a very, very fundamental level, and I think the most important thing there was you learn all the steps. It's kind of like you want to run a McDonald's one day. It's very important to work in all the different roles. That's very unique in terms of not most people that are in the nutrition space or any kind of like consumer product. Most people don't do that. They kind of come at it from.

Albert: 52:25

I have an idea, I go to someone, they make the product, I give them some inputs and then we sell it and I was making the product and it was only until a couple of years ago where I really started to engage and try and do a better job with marketing and running like a team and organization, because for me I really like to make products and I want to make the best products and I love the formulation aspect and the sourcing of ingredients and working with the best suppliers and everything.

Albert: 52:56

So the selling of things was much later in my business. I've been doing Chromex for 10 years. The first six years was just kind of me trying to make good products and then it became I have to make a good business. So that was a journey. Again, I think that's part of the differentiation and, like what makes the brand work is that I understand on the base level I do formulate everything, I buy all the ingredients, all that kind of stuff which is unique, and then you can offer a better product and a word differentiated product. And you know, if you said I don't like this, I want this, I want this, I can change every parameter I can change.

Albert: 53:32

I do all the packaging so like we can change every part of it, which is cool, and so you're not just kind of like and then, or another product, yes, hopefully that was helpful. Yeah.

Klara: 53:43

It's impressive that you actually have full control about everything, including the choosing your own ingredients and packaging. I think that's rather rare and just to say I really love your protein. I have to say I'm the worst person when it comes to supplements and I always quit because they typically don't taste great and they have a whole bunch of other things in them that I don't want. There are some things now. They're cleaner, but I love especially the things about your protein. It is so clean, it has really good ingredients and it is it's so smooth. After I drink it after work at normally, like if I do heavy lift a day, I would allow myself to have something sweet or sugar for recovery. I actually look forward to have your protein. It's a treat that I look forward to, which is a rare coming from a person who just finished eating multivitamins. That was a 30 day pack that I had ordered a year ago.

Klara: 54:40

And so it's just impressive. So how did you come up with that formula? What is the thought process around it, or even just that idea of I really want to start my supplement company and, as you mentioned, scaling it to consumers? That's like a whole nother challenge. Once you figure out even oh, this state's great, I really believe it. How do you now let everybody know how awesome it is?

Albert: 55:03

Yeah, the first part around kind of like formulation stuff was the word that comes to mind is just like too much stimulus or you know, everything is too sweet or too it's too flavorful and all that, and I never wanted that. I think that's the stuff that you get tired of it and you're like I can't like. Everyone probably has in their mind some cold medicine or something they took when they were a kid and they can taste the flavor and it's just you hate it. It makes you feel weird. I wanted to make products that just were clean and smooth and easy to drink and you know a little bit of flavor, but not too much and wouldn't upset your stomach or anything like that. Those are the main things, and simple and trying to use ingredients that were like as close to a whole food as you could get those were the driving motivators for it. Then the kind of the business side of it came mainly with.

Albert: 55:59

I mentioned my partner, devin, who's very positive. He's great on social media and he believes in what we do, in the products. You grew up on a farm in New Hampshire and so he shares like a similar value around. Like foods today are just they're too intense. You're playing with kind of like I think about it like excitatory fences and trying to spark certain things in your mind and all that when you eat certain foods, and that's how foods are designed. So to kind of like turn that dial down and just taste the ingredients really is kind of like the goal. So he came in and started talking about the products. He has a really authentic message and audience. He's a phenomenal athlete, does adventures all the time, kind of just lives, very like positive, striving, kind of lifestyle, so building a community around that. It's interesting now like it shifted a lot where still not mainstream but there's so many people who are maybe not athletes or maybe weren't even athletes, but they want to perform in different areas of their life and they apply kind of the ideas of athletes Like so many people.

Albert: 57:02

You I'm sure you get very tired of people talking about cold buns and sauna. What do you think? And those are all athletic things but they're good for everyone. You know they can help you and so I think people look at that with the nutrition. You know, maybe even if they don't even run, but they know that having more protein makes them not sleepy in the afternoon at work because they didn't have a big pasta salad or something like that. So and I care a lot about those people too I didn't want to make a product just for 1% of people. I really want people who are eating not in the best way to find something that they say. I think it is a compliment when people say it kind of tastes healthy. Some customers don't like it because they want to Oreo milkshake and I'm like what I have. There's a lot of other places.

Albert: 57:48

You can many other companies pick anything off Amazon or whatever and you can probably get something that tastes you like wow, this kind of tastes like candy and if that's what you want, okay. But like I want someone to make a positive change and I think deep down people know what good, healthy food tastes like If you cook at home or something like that, and I want the supplement should be more feeling like that to you. You should feel like, okay, this is like I can tell this was a dairy product or like there's pea protein or something. Like you can taste the flavors and that keeps you honest with the ingredients too. Like what I realized from the big business side of things.

Albert: 58:24

You can cut your ingredient costs. You can use very low quality ingredients if you basically sprinkle a bunch of flavors and different things on top because you can't even taste what you're eating. You just taste the flavors or the sugars or the sweetness. So that's the other part of it. It's crazy. If you ever take those things away and you'd have like a different protein, you'd be like, oh my God, it tastes terrible as covering all that, but once it gets inside you obviously like your body can develop the difference and all those other things. So many people tell me I can't have dairy in different things and some people can't, but a lot of people is just the other things in a dairy protein that are bothering you. It's your alcohol or it's a gum or it's a sweetener or whatever, and it's not the actual protein.

Klara: 59:07

Right, I agree. I think a lot of times people confuse the additional things that are in the protein because they don't look deeply into what other things are there that may be bothering them. They let's say the pure way that is, from grass-fed and really high quality ingredients. So I recognize all my tastes and actually I have a snobby dog. My dog recognizes it. We order grass-fed, regenerative farm meat and you just wouldn't eat the steak or meat if it's not from that farm. So I think there's a difference you can recognize, even in a taste, once you start eating, what is a good meat, and I think the same, like the quality of ingredients, so matters when it comes to nutrition. So I think you're doing a fantastic job. I have a question here.

Klara: 59:54

My partner wanted me to ask is again based on the things that we're both. Actually he's a little bit better than I am, but we both kind of lazy on supplements, so the more things I can pack into just one serving, the less likely I am to forget.

Albert: 1:00:10

I need to take something.

Klara: 1:00:12

But I was wondering how do you look at maybe a formula that combines I know you have creatine separate, I know you have protein separate, you have recovery protein and you also have a wide scale of other supplements and vitamins but thinking about for recovery, like combining a formula for some sort of creatine way, maybe D3, with some K2 and sort of packaging, kind of holistic wellness and just one serving that we can easily take after or before lifting or recovery, but with some more holistic supplements. What are your thoughts on that? Or do you have something in the works already? Albert, it seems like you're smiling.

Albert: 1:00:52

It's a good idea and you know, vitamins are really interesting. Part of what you said is the absolute truth with when it comes to nutrition, and it's also part of many things that it's easier to sell to people if they don't know the answer themselves. They don't understand. It's confusing and that's what nutrition does in America. Oh, I heard broccoli is good for me. I heard broccoli is bad for me. Should I eat steak? No, steak. I should eat peas, I should. And it's just if you listen to all that, it's completely oppositionally message. You have no idea what you're supposed to do and that's what people go. I don't know, I guess I'll just eat this. I always try to do the minimalist thing and, like I said, like I want to change this, give you one recommendation. If I can give you one thing that is going to make a big difference, that's all I want to do. Or give you one thing and then you see a difference and then you're like, hey, I feel better and I want to make a change and it kind of usually snowball is.

Albert: 1:01:46

We're releasing a blood test and I wanted to keep it simple. So we're starting with a blood test and I wanted to focus on three of the most important things personally and what I've seen. You know, I train people for 10 plus years at my gym in New York and working with people and I saw vitamin D like you mentioned B12 and iron as being three of the most important things, especially women, athletes and things as well. So we're releasing a blood test for that and then you get results and, again, like we said, most nutrition recommendations are not for someone like yourself who's trying to be the healthiest they can be, therefore average person, trying not to get sick. And so I took all the usual parameters for analyzing your blood values for vitamin D, b12 and iron and looked at all the most recent studies and looked at athletic populations and said where should the actual parameters be and change the parameters. And so when you get the blood test, you say here's the optimal range that we think you should be in and here are your levels and if you need the vitamins, we have them and we have, I think, the best forms like. To be frank, you know you can't really vitamin D3. It's vitamin D3. There's not a big difference in things. K2, getting the right ratio of vitamin D to K2 is important and the form of K2 is important. So we did, you know, did a good amount of research and I put in the right ratio that I believe, and the right form of K2 and all these different things.

Albert: 1:03:11

B12, there's basically a methyl copalamin and cyanocopalamin. From people who are more, I would say, holistic, they're always methyl copalamins, the better form. I always use methyl copalamin, but then, the more and more I got into it, I finally found some studies where it showed that they actually use methyl copalamin versus cyanocopalamin and in terms of like you mentioned earlier gut health, the cyanocopalamin actually promoted more of negative bacteria than methyl copalamin and so there was like a clear link which no one ever talks about, that ever. It was very frustrating and that's the hard part of researching this. Like I'll go into scientific papers, every result that comes up, no difference. Every hospital recommends cyanocopalamin and that's a cost thing. It's just based on cost. It's much, much more expensive to buy methyl copalamin. And then the iron you've probably taken. Iron usually not good, really messes up your stomach.

Albert: 1:04:06

It tastes bad, makes you feel bad. So there's a form of iron that we're using that's actually extracted from. You can either extract it from cow or pig blood and they actually spin it down and they pull out. It's called heme iron polypeptide, and so it's much more digestible. It doesn't interfere with calcium, doesn't get affected by tea. You can take it whenever it doesn't upset your stomach. It's literally like eating a steak. You know it's that way.

Albert: 1:04:33

So I'm so excited about that because that was a huge issue for me in college, because I would have low iron and you know I wasn't supposed to eat too much protein or too much, you know, and so I was taking iron pills and I felt terrible and they kind of worked. So those are the three things I want to focus on, because when I look at the testing environment, there's so many tests and it's overwhelming. I studied the stuff and I still am like I don't know I should take all these things. The other part, too, is like I wanted things that you can actually test in the blood, because if you're ever taken, if you're serious, if you've ever taken diagnostic tests, there's a lot of things you have to do, you have to be fast and you can't have this. You have to test over time, and so I wanted to start with something that was much more consistent. You know your vitamin D or iron is not going to go up or down quickly, so it's measurable, it can be improved by supplementation and it's, you know, not too expensive. It's pretty straightforward. So I wanted people to like it's just getting them some success, because if you give them a giant blood test with 15 parameters and oh you're, this level is up and this level is down, it should take zinc with copper Like it's too confusing. So really simplifying and trying to give like the most impact. So that's kind of tied into your partner's question.

Albert: 1:05:45

But I've been trying to figure out too after that, like thinking how could you make like a kind of you know people love, like the all in one, which is kind of what you're saying, and finding that right balance would be really cool to try to think of. Like creatine obviously is there's so much interest in that now because it's not just athletics and I think people have gotten out of oh, it's going to make me bulky, it does help your training, but it doesn't make you bulky on its own and there's all these cognitive, neuroprotective benefits and things. So I think it would be really fun to try to combine some of that stuff into something and you know, speaking of other brands, at least from a selling perspective something like Athletic Greens they do great job marketing that all in one daily nutrition, everything in one scoop, like that's America's love. You know most people love that message.

Albert: 1:06:33

I just want to take one thing and I'm covered. But hopefully we can do a better job of that and giving people a little bit of information through a blood test and making it also not so expensive and all that. So that's kind of like it's in the works, but I like what your partner's idea. It's a good idea.

Klara: 1:06:48

Right, if you need someone to volunteer and test some of your mixture as you coming up with you. You know we're volunteer, we always like to experiment on new things. Yeah, where should we go next? And we test based a lot on the nutrition, on the products. Actually, curious, what's your favorite supplement? Do you have a favorite one from the things that you sell? Or what is your routine like?

Albert: 1:07:14

It's definitely like kind of different seasons of your life. You know, like when I was training a lot it would be like the recovery protein. That was one of the first things I came out with One of our products that we sell sell because there's some people that like it, but you know, most people are not looking for more carbs. It's a small market. It's like endurance athletes or people are training a lot, but I really wanted to make like an organic version of Gatorade. That was like the first product I came out with and I think it's great. But it's just a small market and it's not really what we do too much. But when I was training a lot it was fantastic, didn't bother my stomach, it hydrated me, it gave me energy.

Albert: 1:07:51

But the proteins, that's always been like my personal thing, because when I work with people, really a lot of it came down to initially if I was running between track and the pool and biking out of backpack and my scooter and you can usually have like you could keep, like fruits and stuff you could keep, maybe if you want, nuts or like eating cheese, but you couldn't keep protein. I couldn't put a piece of chicken or salmon or beef in my bag and have it there all day in Florida in the sun and pull it out and eat it. That would not go well. And so it was protein. How do I take protein with me and I couldn't find a protein that I like, so for me, like just an unflavored protein or vanilla, something that's very light, is still my favorite.

Albert: 1:08:34

For me, I think the liver pills like that's something that has been cool for people Like. I think it's almost like opening that framework that maybe I should have, you know, incorporate liver or different things like that into my nutrition. That's been super helpful and we've had amazing results from like what people think about that, because I think it does help. It's super nutrient dense, like when you think of like vitamins, and it's unbelievable.

Albert: 1:08:59

Like you know, there's this whole I would call it propaganda around people talking about like oh, spinach has 10 times the iron and eat this bean as this and then you look at like the actual nutrient density and you're like, okay, yeah, if I eat four pounds of beans, or this many, like you know whatever, it is like oh, 7,000 carats that I get the beta carotene, which will convert it like 0.1% to vitamin A. And then it's like, or you could literally eat like three ounces of liver and you're getting like 100% of your vitamins for the day. You know, and especially, it's literally the things that people are deficient in, like vitamin A, iron, b12, like these things that are like the most common nutrition deficiencies in America. Most of them would be fixed if people ate more liver, maybe some dairy products and things like eggs, you know, like it's some of the most basic stuff. So that's been cool. I think that's like a growing thing and to me it's like a door for people to look at outside of supplements, because, honestly, supplements are supplements and that's where you gotta meet people in the middle is. If I could ever have everyone have their own cow and their farm and grow some vegetables and the fruits or whatever, like that's the best, that's the best. You don't even need supplements. But the reality is one, not everyone wants to do that.

Albert: 1:10:10

Two, it's partially motivation too, and, like you said, like I remember going up and going to the gym having protein shake out for my workout, I was like, oh yeah, you know like it's motivating. So it's kind of like it's a mental thing too and that's really important. You know how it is like we were talking about being positive. You can be in great shape and if your mindset's not right it's not going anywhere, or you can be oh my God, I had a red eye fight and whatever and I have a match, and if you're in the right mindset you're gonna win, you know.

Albert: 1:10:41

And so I think that's whatever gets people motivated. I think that's what's cool about what we're trying to build is like positivity around that stuff. We give you stuff that's gonna be positive for you. And these people where they are some people yeah, they're not gonna take the time to make a good breakfast in the morning and if you're not gonna have protein, so whatever time of the day, like probably gonna feel better if you had a protein shake in the morning. And so there's that the reality of kind of convenience that supplements help with and they kind of give you things when you need them.

Klara: 1:11:08

Love it. I know we're kind of right on time. Do you have time for maybe three more quick questions, Albert?

Albert: 1:11:14

Yeah, sure.

Klara: 1:11:15

So one I'm curious, actually even what you have found out for yourself that works the best when it comes to diet and nutrition, because you've shared, you've tried it all and I've also heard you kind of gravitate to five, six things that you really enjoy. So what has your food nutrition looks like now, or what do you subscribe to the most that works for you?

Albert: 1:11:34

I have to like preface this a little bit, because it's kind of like people who you probably know, people like this, where they have a routine in the morning. Oh okay, I wake up after I've stopped eight hours and my eight sleep. I've been meditating. My room is completely dark and then I meditate for 20 minutes, I do my breath work, I go in the sauna, I cold plunge, and if any of those things don't happen, they're like a wreck and it's terrible and I like my day's ruined. I can't do this, I can't work today, and it's like that's not like the goal. Like you want to be resilient and so you want to have, like I got to travel, I don't have my food, that I have, maybe I don't eat for a couple of hours, like that's kind of, I think, more a good sign of health. Your body's adaptable. You shouldn't have to have everything perfect all the time, so I think that's also something you have to kind of break out of. I think you know you get so regimented as an athlete, but being able to have a body that can be resilient and can adapt to different things and still feel good, that's kind of the goal and I think that's a little bit of like. Have you gotten to a spot of like you're truly healthy, where one day of something different isn't going to throw you completely off? Certain people have you know medical things at different points in your journey, but there's that aspect.

Albert: 1:12:42

But for me, I feel the best if I have a lot of protein and fat and that means usually like meat, it can be fish. I'm not a big chicken person. A lot of it is. Also, I have this framework around what's accessible, because I remember at one point trying to make everything perfect and it was like too much you can try to over optimize. You're like oh, I got to go to this grocery store for this and I like this at this grocery store, and if you can just have a couple of things that you can kind of find anywhere is really helpful.

Albert: 1:13:13

In America it's harder to find good chicken than it is to find good beef. That's one thing for sure. There's a lot of people who are still growing grass-fed beef and things like that, but to find really good chicken it's difficult and also cost wise, like I live in Texas now and there's a ton of good beef here and so making that just kind of practical choice and beef is great. And if you love chicken, if you can find good chicken, great. Or if you love fish, whatever it is. So for me I'll have like on average I eat two pounds of beef a day. I drink a lot of water. I have some milk there's like great raw milk, dairy around here. I eat berries. I love like blueberries, blackberries, that type of thing and then I have like 20% or more of like mixed stuff. I'll have like ice cream and things like that. But there's also a difference there too of like that's like a whole nuanced conversation.

Albert: 1:14:04

But there's a big difference between eating ice cream or having like low-fat frozen yogurt or having like skittles. One has like a bunch of fat and it's not going to spike your blood sugar a bunch and everything like that Actually going to make you full, whereas just having sugar is just going to make you potentially more hungry. And then things even like a low pizza, but there's like don't know pizza. And then there's like if you go to Italy and you have a fresh pizza, it's completely different. It's like, oh my gosh, lots of great mozzarella and the bread is fermented and all this stuff. So there's a bunch of nuance there.

Albert: 1:14:38

So it's hard for me to talk to people if I say, ok, I have pizza a couple of nights a week and I have ice cream. What kind of pizza? What kind of ice cream? No, foods are totally off limits, but there is nuance to what is in those foods. Because I tell people I love hamburgers. There's a huge difference between a really good quality burger. Maybe I don't even have the bun some of the time, so it depends on my activity, that kind of thing. So that's for me A lot of high protein, moderate amount of fat, carbs based on activity. If I do a heavy lift day a lot of times. The next day I'm much hungrier, so I eat a bit more. If I'm traveling, I don't eat really, because I've been on a plane for six hours like not that hungry. That's really good too is like, yeah, learning what your body needs and varying it, not being so rigid.

Albert: 1:15:22

You have to have this every day, because your day changes.

Klara: 1:15:25

Yeah, I love that, and you mentioned the adaptability and flexibility. I think that's something I'm still finding and as an athlete I think in tennis and probably you too, you're kind of, I think, I cling towards a straight regimen and routine. That's my nature and I have realized I can go too much overboard with it to where, as you mentioned, is not productive. So finding I love even you mentioned earlier the 80% If you get 80% right and the remaining 20 is not such a big deal, so if you do the key things correctly, I love that message. On that note, it's end of 2023. People may be reflecting on the year and hopefully thinking about how they want to start the new year, 2024. What would you want to inspire them to be doing more of?

Albert: 1:16:13

for myself, the classic thing that kind of comes to mind we briefly mentioned at the beginning before we started, just about how people are resolution based and it's like it has to be this big thing. It doesn't have to be that big thing. It's like I go for a walk in the morning with my dogs and stuff. That's really helpful. And so I would say small things done consistently, are really more important. So many people I worked with training wise are very off and on. They're like I want to train five days a week and I have to do it. It has to be this long and I want to push myself really hard and I'm like I'd rather have you train three days a week and just show up every day and do something. So I think just doing small things consistently is the best thing. People are very intense. They go no drinking, no. This for all of January. I'm going to be super intense and it's too much. It's like maybe that doesn't work for you or maybe that's not where you're at right now. And that's again the whole idea of a blood test. That sounds overwhelming. Even just that thing that seems overwhelming to you. Oh, I don't know. It seems like I don't want to worry about blood or tests, but keep it really simple. So, suggesting people just change one thing no, it's the stupidest thing you've heard for years. But I can choose to walk and go get a coffee or I can drive there. Just go walk there.

Albert: 1:17:34

If you're trying to basically get started in fitness, it's a lot of the simple things. There's no magic stuff. That's really the truth. You know how training is. Kettlebells Kettlebells are great. They can be technically hard for people and there's a lot of prerequisites and you have to have some coordination. You have to get proper coaching to do it right. If you just walk on a stair mill and your main goal is to lose weight, you're going to get pretty far that way. It doesn't have to be so complicated. So that's really like. Even with nutrition it can be very simple. If you just again with protein that's my main goal with people and again I simplify it and it's going to be 80 plus percent right.

Albert: 1:18:09

If I talk to someone and I say I'm very specific with like the words, because I've talked to people so many times it's like what's your ideal body weight? And you think about that number I just say, have one gram per pound of body weight as your goal. Maybe you don't get there. It's probably a little bit higher than most people need, but it's also a good goal for them to shoot towards. And I also am positive that if you weight that much protein, you're not going to have much hunger for other stuff. That isn't going to be as good.

Albert: 1:18:39

And so if somebody is kind of partway there, if they actually follow that recommendation, it's hugely helpful, and it's the one thing that they have to change. It's not like, oh, do I have to remember something? And they go OK, I wanted to weigh this much, that's one to one. And now if I go out to eat breakfast or something, maybe, ok, I'll have eggs with breakfast, or I think I need to eat a sweet green or whatever it is Like, at least get protein with it. So as simple as possible is always my goal, because unless you're an elite athlete, it just doesn't matter. It really doesn't. When I try to make the perfect diet and we could talk 30 days from now and you wouldn't be able to tell, you'd be like I don't know, you kind of look the same.

Klara: 1:19:16

Yes, I agree, and so true. Even for myself, being a former athlete, it takes a lot of dignity, even within myself, to recognize it doesn't really matter that much anymore. You're not going to be anything special when it comes to athletics, so it's a lot of. Even my only goal in playing with it Like getting the 80% right is fine, and I love the advice of starting with protein and always putting protein first. Actually, one of the things when I did my CGM, I did the 90 day, one of the continuous glucose thing If you eat protein first, any and every single meal, you're in a better state of balance of adding anything else after carbs, but protein first for every single meal and that will help you balance your glucose level and spikes. I don't know that everybody subscribes and glucose spikes are good or bad. They need to test it for themselves.

Albert: 1:20:09

But yeah, please. So there's literally two things that I always tell people. It's the protein thing, and the other one is they're like oh, what should I worry about? What biomarker is? Whatever I go, if you have to pick one, it's hemoglobin A1C. It's like what is your glucose control over a period of time that has the most things tied to it as far as disease, health complications, anything. It's like how well is your blood sugar maintained? And it's not crazy spiky. There's nothing else that relates more to health outcomes than that period.

Klara: 1:20:42

Love it.

Albert: 1:20:43

And so I agree with you 100%. It's just simple If you solve for that, 80% of everything else takes care of itself.

Klara: 1:20:49

Great, and then I highly suggest your protein. Again, this is not a sponsored podcast. I'm just a 100% fan because I love and enjoy it. I have struggled finding the thing that I enjoy and is pure and clean, so thank you, Albert, for creating it. I'm going to try your liver pale. Actually, I've been thinking about them and I'm going to order it, and if you want to experiment on someone with your new formulas again, I will offer anybody else who wants to get in touch. Follow you. What's the best way?

Albert: 1:21:18

I'm not very active on Instagram. I repost things. You can always email me. I appreciate emails because they take some kind of effort. But, albert, at ChromexNutritioncom, I do read all my emails every day, so I'm there and, yeah, I really appreciate it. Kara, it was wonderful talking to you. Thank you. Well, since you were an Austin, when the time settles they would help me greatly.

Klara: 1:21:41

I hope you're over for some good stay. Please consider leaving a review on every podcast, spotify or any other podcasting platform that you used to listen to. This episode Two please share this podcast with a friend who you believe might enjoy it as well. It is a great way to remind someone you care about them by sharing a conversation they might be interested in. Thank you for listening.

Grand Slam Journey

63. Albert Matheny: PROMIX Founder and CEO︱The Journey to Superior Health, Fitness, and Human Performance with Nutritional Innovator

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