Dayron, my guest for today's episode, has some fascinating insights to unfold. Navigating through the highs and lows of his journey, he talks about the importance of being versatile, the challenges he faced, and the beauty of overcoming adversity. His incessant hunger for growth and success will undoubtedly spark your inspiration!
Imagine getting out of your comfort zone, challenging your limits, and experiencing exponential personal growth! Understanding the benefits of functional and longevity training, we delve into various aspects of staying active. Additionally, we talk about the unique vibe of Long Beach, the complexities of opening a new fitness studio, and the sheer power of group fitness classes. Your mind and body will thank you for tuning in!
Have you considered transitioning to a plant-based diet, but are concerned about the taste? Let us debunk that myth for you! Hear from our guest about their transition, the improvement in strength, and the mouthwatering deliciousness of plant-based food. We also dig into the profound influence of family traditions on our health regime, the significance of accountability, and the merits of fasting. Plus, we chat about celebrity brands, the challenges of opening a fitness studio, and much more. So prepare for an episode packed full of insights, personal experiences, and health revelations!
Dayron, my guest for today's episode, has some fascinating insights to unfold. Navigating through the highs and lows of his journey, he talks about the importance of being versatile, the challenges he faced, and the beauty of overcoming adversity. His incessant hunger for growth and success will undoubtedly spark your inspiration!
Imagine getting out of your comfort zone, challenging your limits, and experiencing exponential personal growth! Understanding the benefits of functional and longevity training, we delve into various aspects of staying active. Additionally, we talk about the unique vibe of Long Beach, the complexities of opening a new fitness studio, and the sheer power of group fitness classes. Your mind and body will thank you for tuning in!
Have you considered transitioning to a plant-based diet, but are concerned about the taste? Let us debunk that myth for you! Hear from our guest about their transition, the improvement in strength, and the mouthwatering deliciousness of plant-based food. We also dig into the profound influence of family traditions on our health regime, the significance of accountability, and the merits of fasting. Plus, we chat about celebrity brands, the challenges of opening a fitness studio, and much more. So prepare for an episode packed full of insights, personal experiences, and health revelations!
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So good mic etiquette is you're going to be up on the mic like that, Just kind of right here. You'll hear yourself the best, because I used to. I always tell people I used to have it. Where I would, I would have no headphones for a long time. And then the issue was everybody would start getting relaxed in the podcast because it's a relaxing environment. Man, we out here, we just have it. Yeah, it's a vibe bro.
Speaker 1:We're just hanging out having a good time and all of a sudden maybe like back here talking and you can hear him say oh man get on the mic.
Speaker 1:Man, I got tired of yelling at everybody. So I said I fucking I got to get them, I got to get the amplifier again, I got to get the headphones and the little holders and make it look all good and shit, I mean make it look sleek, that's it, that's it. But like you were saying when you first came through, you know, you, you you get one piece of gear and you start looking at the other pieces of gear and you start looking and looking and I don't know if it's you're just never satisfied because you just you know that hunger just keeps going. It's like you're not. I don't want to say that it's like a, it's not like a spoiled mentality, it's more of like I just I see the next piece and, oh, I could utilize that for that shoot. I could utilize that for that shoot. But I think, as I've gone on in my career, I've kind of had the thought process that I could have rented a lot of this shit that I bought Hundred percent, hundred percent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I could have rented a lot of the stuff that I bought, but you know, there's most of what I've purchased I've used I mean I on a daily basis. I find that the cameras obviously having a lot of having all of these different cameras is fantastic. The lighting that these lights. Before the podcast, I used to use these for, you know, mainly just interviews, so it would be in a big case, I'd bring it with me places, I'd do a whole interview, and that was kind of the way that I did all that. And then, like I said, I, if you don't do photos and video nowadays, you kind of get left in the in the dust. So yeah, yeah, so you got to be able to be a little bit of a hybrid shooter. Yeah, you have to be able to, like, do a little bit of everything. There you go. So I bought photography lights and this and that Can't say those have been used a lot.
Speaker 2:I mean you got it just in case you, you know, start to dive more deeper into it. Yeah, you got it all set up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I could. I could definitely save that band. I could have saved that band. I could have saved that. Yeah, gone towards something else. And yeah, you know what it adds up. And you look at it. You're like I think that's the curse of the entrepreneurship. Though you look at it like, oh, fuck it, it's a write off. It's a write off. Oh yeah, oh, $3,000 for this camera, $4,000 for this one, that's a write off. It's okay. And just like, slow it down, slow it down Like we're writing it off.
Speaker 2:but let's just slow the brakes on a little bit.
Speaker 1:Oh man, well, listen, daron, which I just found that out now and we're all part of the cool club.
Speaker 2:Now I want everyone to know that no real name. No real name, not just hybrid.
Speaker 1:Not just hybrid. Yeah, yeah, I want to thank you for coming through.
Speaker 2:Oh man, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, coming through chopping it up, it's my pleasure you had hit me and just said there's a lot of people in our network that we're saying, yeah, we got to, we got to mash it up, we got to talk about just life and this and that, and I'm just, I'm happy to sit down with everybody that's got cool stories, cool journeys and whatnot.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent you know cause your journey can inspire others. You know you've had your own roadblocks throughout, throughout life and I I find that there's a, there's a select people that look at others and they just think that everyone has been fed a golden spoon and it don't matter where you come from. Man, you could, you could have been fed a golden spoon, but you still had your own trials and bad shit. That's gone on and you know whether you've overcome it in a positive way or you've sunk into a bad method and and overcome it in a negative way and then kind of dug your own hole and had to come out from that. From the other side, you know every everyone deals with shit. So life's fucking tough and and you have to just you have to do tough things to consistently level up.
Speaker 2:You got to be able to just take adversity and literally just punch around the stomach, just be like fuck you, yeah, pretty pretty much Like I can only imagine like me sitting down and looking in the past and how I got to here. It's, it's insane. Like you, you, you go forward, take a step back, forward, back, and when you're in it it's not like you're happy. You know it takes you down the road and then when you look back, you're like you know what? I'm happy. I went through all of that stuff Cause now it made me into the person I am now and that, that, that hunger that you get just to do more and more, just like with your equipment, like you just want more, yeah, and you're, you're, you're never satisfied until you know, I feel like, until I start breathing. That's when my journey has been completed, which I think is a good thing in some ways, because that just keeps us going.
Speaker 1:Because otherwise, if you start becoming satisfied and full and just kind of like, whatever I'm, I'm good on this, you, you miss the consistent level up period.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they get complacent. You don't want to thrive anymore, you're just going with the motions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you're just it's life, it's just like okay, whatever. And then you get stuck in the monotony of things. You know I get I get super upset when life feels monotonous. I get super just like I got to change shit up, like that was why I started jujitsu, that's why I went to OG, Like these are.
Speaker 2:So that I was. I was following on, so you started getting deeper into the jujitsu. I fucking love it, dude. Oh it's all.
Speaker 1:I can't. I talk about every podcast. I sound like such a little fanboy. I mean, if you love it, you love it. That's like it looks cool, it's a lot of fun, it's um, I've had a couple of friends come through and just try it out and this and that, listen, I, I get it. It's not for everybody, but I've had, I've had friends come through and they just, oh well, I'm nervous about getting hurt or this, and that I'm about. It's not a sport where you know you're not going to not get injured.
Speaker 1:You're you're going to get injured.
Speaker 2:That's what it is, yeah it just is what it is Like.
Speaker 1:I you know, I've told my mom I I bumps and bruises and TMJ now from getting cracked in my jaw a couple of times, like just from a rogue leg or something like that, and you know you shoulder elbows feel like they're going to explode and someone's like laying and all their weight on you. But it's just you. You go into these things, you understand that. And just like Jiu-Jitsu, there's risks. When you weight train, I mean, there's always a risk that something's going to potentially happen. So you have to mitigate the risk by doing things safely and smart and taking the proper recovery and making sure that your body is rested, which I'm very bad at. Yeah, we all are.
Speaker 2:Oh, I got to force myself to chill out.
Speaker 1:Holy shit, man, I do not take rest days easily. Fomo, oh dude, I see everybody training and I'm just like man, I'm getting left behind, especially in Jiu-Jitsu. I'm like, oh man, you're getting better than me.
Speaker 2:I could have learned some new today, but I'm sitting here just trying to get a you know a day break.
Speaker 1:but I hear that I'm going to go to the white belt class again and they're going to beat me up because I didn't learn that sweep.
Speaker 1:God damn it For real. Yeah, so it's um it it's. It's especially true with the uh competition class. I do the comp class on Sundays, okay, and I'm beat up. Man, be beat up. I mean, these are bad dudes that I roll with, like I'm very fortunate that they don't just rip my arms off. They're really, they're really good dudes and they're very respectful and they're cool as shit and everyone's very cool with each other Everyone's. That's the thing that it's like. Everyone's respectful, so you don't got to worry about that, that doggery type shit where you're just going to try to overdo it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, would you get that? You get that a lot in the white. Any injury I've gotten isn't in the white belt class. I roll mixed class all the time. I roll at the comp class. I mean tweaks here and there, but like nothing like dude, you get another white belt. That's just going to fucking hair. This is his. This is his Rose Bowl.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's coming down the tunnel.
Speaker 1:He's coming down the tunnel like this is what we play for. It's like oh man, chill out bro, it's sex, it's one round, so it's um. But going back to like why I wanted to do that, I just I want to do something different. I did bodybuilding shit for so long and, just being able to switch up my training style, I feel healthy now. I feel athletic. You know I don't lift as much by any stretch of the measure, but it's like I feel like I'm functional and I can do things and that's the key feeling functional and like mobile, yeah, feeling good on the inside, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's time to get you know. You've been in the fitness industry for how long now?
Speaker 2:I mean seven eight years now and um for those years it's been coaching with that 45. And once I dove deep into the functional and longevity type of training forget about it, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just. It's just who I am now and I feel like I'll. I'll do a 45 class, do a little bit of cardio outside of that, but nothing crazy lifting anymore. I used to do the you know the regular in the gym for two hours hammering in the body up, and then that was just 45 minutes. I'm gonna go forward running afternoon and then it's just way more convenient on my body, especially all the injuries I had on my knees.
Speaker 2:you know I did track and football and stuff, so that's what I was going to ask.
Speaker 1:What did you? What was your specialty? You know what sports what. What was the training style like? What did you enjoy doing?
Speaker 2:originally I would say track. I feel like if I had to stop anything at a little, I'll just keep the track, because it was just a different type of discipline, you just getting faster. I did the hundred meters, 200 meters, four by one, relays and stuff like that, and they're trying to get faster. So then you have to stay consistent with practice. The form, practice, the starts cause a hundred meters. You, you messed up your start, you, you already lost the race, so you got to just go from the beginning, from the jump hammered when that gun goes off, and it's just so much adrenaline going on, especially right before the race.
Speaker 2:But once you complete the race, it's like all right, I did that. I did that, even if you come in second. Third, you're competing with the top people on the island. So if you come in third, you're like you're still doing your thing and I didn't take it to college. Um, I got a regular job right out of the high school and then that's when I tended to veer off away from the working out and staying active, pretty much gained.
Speaker 2:I would say, like what are you doing? To 50 pounds from when I graduated high school. And then I would hang out with the friends and some of the guys would be like hey man, like I remember you in high school used to have like the crazy body, like what happened? Like oh damn, that's a dig. They started digging deep on me and at first, like I first cuts deep, oh, it's crazy. Cause at first you don't see it. When you're just walking around regular you look in the mirror but you don't recognize. Like yo, I'm letting myself go. You don't see it until somebody close to you comes and like yo, bro, you got to like I'm worried, man, he starts getting puffy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just, and that's the first name, is the first face blows up and you have. But we and I don't know if it's cause we just see each other like yourself every single day, so you're just looking in the mirror, so you don't see these little changes. That's a small gradual change, but dude that chin starts coming up and you're just like what? When you actually look back and you drop the weight, you feel good and you're just looking back at that was me a year ago, man, a year ago I saw that.
Speaker 1:Dude, I thought I was in good shape. I like not, I thought I was okay. I was like I'm like, oh yeah, I'm good, I just do a little cardio and I'll be good. Look back, I'm like God damn pump your head the fuck was up with that, bro. You were walking around with a face like that For real.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. I asked my boy I was like you, let me, you let me do this. He was like man. I was trying to tell you you wasn't listening. I ordered the extra pot stickers.
Speaker 1:You said that's good you paid for that for me.
Speaker 2:Oh man, but that's like. But it's good that we have like close people like that Cause some people won't say anything, but you know he's probably going through something like let him rock. But it's good that the close friends it's like they care about you, like listen man, like you're probably are going to do something, but you still got to keep your mental and your physical health up there.
Speaker 2:And once I've got told that by one of my closest friends and my mom told me I was like all right, it's time to dive deep into it. And so I started going to the gym you know regular stuff, and I think I lost about 20. And a coach that came up to me a trainer and then she was like are you a trainer at a different studio or a gym? And like no, I'm not a fitness trainer. She was like you should be. It's like you know, not too long you get certified a couple of months and you know it's a nice little career to have. I'm like I look into it. So I ended up getting certified. But once I got certified I didn't dive into training yet. I was certified for two years and didn't do nothing, just wanted to learn more about that anatomy of the body and everything like that. And then first job was at New York Sports Club, one-on-one personal training.
Speaker 1:I feel like everybody starts a New York Sports Club. My boy, gabe, was a trainer there. I feel like everybody starts there.
Speaker 2:It's a good home stopping ground to start off at, you know. But the one thing that I hated was you have to go out there and get your own clients. Like they'll give you floor hours, but during those four hours you're growing up to people on the treadmill. So the weirdest thing about me is like, say, you got your headphones on and you're on the treadmill and I got to come up to you, tap you interrupt, Like I don't want nobody interrupting me when I'm on the treadmill, my headphones on, I'm in the zone, so it's like that made me a little bit uncomfortable. So did that for a couple of months and then went to LA different studios.
Speaker 2:It's just once you just brand one, it just goes right into the next. So what?
Speaker 1:is that? Is it like you start at the commercial gyms, build up your client base and then potentially just like jump and start doing your own thing? Is that what you, that what most trainers go for?
Speaker 2:That's what most trainers go for, but I didn't take my clients with me when I left each gym. It wasn't until I went into this place called lifestyle and I was in plain view One on one. I was there for two weeks. The guy ended up selling the building to somebody that was making a franchise, was making the F-45.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So I knew nothing about it. Four years ago there was only one F-45 on the island and this was the second one I was going to be made, so nobody knew anything about it. So when this guy came in he was like yeah, I'm about to build the F-45 here to do a franchise Mark Wahlberg is a big ambassador for it. And once he said it was classes. That's when I was like no, I'm not, I'm not, I'm, I can't see myself on the mic talking in front of 20 to 30 people. Like no, I'm, I'm, I'm kind of shy.
Speaker 2:So I was like me, dealing with one person at a time is it's my thing. And they're like, no, I don't worry about it, like well, we'll gradually get you there. Like we really want you to, you know, work with us. So my boy, who was uh, he was my friend and then became the studio manager of the of the um, of the studio. So one year in, uh, I started to get used to it. You know, it took me a while to to to really get used to being on the mic and just running a class. That's what I was going to ask. What?
Speaker 1:was? That was actually what I was jotting down. What? What actually helped you? Was it just the repetitiveness of just getting comfortable on the mic, or what? What got you in the rhythm of just feeling comfortable with talking in front of the larger groups of fitness uh classes?
Speaker 2:Um, I would say, like you said, the repetitive, just practice and practicing and doing a lot of classes. But what really made me calm down with the, the, the nervousness and anxiety, was excepting messing up. So like knowing that I can hop on that mic, mess up a word, mess up a little part of the intro, and it'll still be okay. That's when I start to be like all right, it's not that bad, Cause you know, we all want everything to be perfect. Anything we do or touch is like I want perfection, but nobody's perfect. Everything can't be perfect, so you're gonna have mess ups and hiccups. So once I realized that, that's when I really started to put myself and my personality into that, into that coaching and my style. And once I was in playing for two years, ended up getting opportunity to go to Long Beach to be a studio manager in Long Beach. That's cool. Went there such a vibe. I've knew nothing about Long Beach.
Speaker 1:Long Beach is cool. I dated a chick from Long Beach for a little while she was. She was cool. Yeah, it's a very interesting thing down there because it's like it's its own like civilization. Yes, yeah, everybody's, just if you're in Long Beach you're in Long Beach.
Speaker 1:Generally you stay in Long Beach and you go to the city, maybe for work, and that's pretty much it. Everyone just kind of just hovers around that area. Yeah, you can just everyone's just hovering around there, and I just remember when we were dating, I just have to drive down there. I was like fuck, why is it so far? Just it feels like I'm driving to Jersey.
Speaker 2:Why does it feel like I'm driving to Jersey Because you take so much time on that parkway?
Speaker 1:It's like yeah all the way down the loop, the loop parkway, everything, I'm just like, oh my God. And then sometimes the drawbridge would be up during the summer because boats are coming through. Get about it. I'm like what is going on here? I'm about to jump this thing, my GTA, the fuck out of here. I've been talking about that a couple times. This boat going.
Speaker 2:For real though, but it's yeah. When I went there I was like yo, I've never knew about Long Beach, but, like you said, it's its own thing. Once you're in there, nobody wants to come where I was, Like Farmingdale, nobody's driving 30, 35 minutes to come to the bars over here. So when I made friends at Long Beach, oh yeah, everything was in the long beach. I gotta drive all the way to Long Beach to come hang out and stuff, so but-.
Speaker 2:I gotta get back, and then I gotta get back. Everybody wants to get drunk and get wild. I'm like you know. I still got a 30, 35 minute drive to get back.
Speaker 1:And then I had state troopers on the parking lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I can't even go fast. I gotta keep that minimum speed.
Speaker 1:All right, we're just gonna hug the elbows, keep the fingers like this. So we got the lines and we're good For real man.
Speaker 2:But that was a good time being there for about a year and then came back, started working in Melville, which, I'm not gonna lie, this studio is phenomenal, not just like how nice it is, it's the people, like the community there is just you're not gonna get anywhere else and you feel those vibe differences when you go to these different studios.
Speaker 1:huh, Even though it's the same training style, it's just the people that are changing the environment, instant, once you go in.
Speaker 2:My first day of doing a intro in Melville, I was not nervous not one bit, because these people were so welcoming. It was like there's no need to be nervous, like I can mess up the whole entire intro and it'll still hug me at the end of it. So, but the sad thing about it, it's Melville's temporary for me. They want me to open up a brand new studio in Jericho. Oh, good for you, dude. Yeah, so it's like I was just there until Jericho opens, which is gonna be beginning of February, and I started to get attached. I'm telling my boss. I'm like hey, man, is it any way I can stay here? He's like nah, man, if you wanna grow up, I highly suggest you open up a studio from Fresh.
Speaker 2:There's just no other feeling as in like he's like pre-sales gonna suck, but you getting all these people signed up and then when you open, and all these people walk through that door and you're like I did that.
Speaker 1:He's like there's no other feeling.
Speaker 2:for that you got to.
Speaker 1:Do you think any of your Melville people will come over? Probably not. Nah, jericho is not too far, though. Where is it though? Where's the new?
Speaker 2:studio. Do you know where Whole Foods is? Yeah, it's in that shopping center right next to Marshall's.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's a couple if you get down to the LIE, which you're not that far from your current studio.
Speaker 2:If you get down to the LIE.
Speaker 1:It's only like three exits. It's a 10 minute drive. Yeah, 10 minute drive, it's not that bad.
Speaker 2:I'll probably have people visit, but for them to transfer, nah, I want that community to stay in Melville. You know what I mean. Like I build my own and I'll visit. Like that's the one thing that are you gonna visit? I'm like, yeah, once the studio's up and going and I got a good flow, I'll come by and visit, take some classes and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's crazy how I've formed a lot of friends that have fallen into the group fitness space as coaches, as just people that you never would have thought would be involved with it and they get into it my buddy, vinny him and his fiance Layla down in North Carolina. Vinny was a coach up here for Orange Theory for a long time.
Speaker 1:And then he went down to North Carolina with you know, met Layla and she owned an ISI. I don't know if you ever heard of that. Yeah, it's kind of like a little bit more intense than what Orange Theory is and this and that, and I've never done F-45, so I don't know anything about it.
Speaker 2:Oh, we're gonna have you come.
Speaker 1:I'll come through. I'll come through. Yeah, I just. I mean, the intro to group fitness that I had was OG, so that's kind of where it was.
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna lie. I've been to OG for about I was there for a consistent two years and the competitivism is just like. I love that energy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's good stuff, man. I love Taylor.
Speaker 2:Taylor's my man, both good guys, yeah.
Speaker 1:Taylor's my man. I love Taylor.
Speaker 2:Real fresh. Yeah, dude, that's the home.
Speaker 1:He's great dude. He's such a fucking savage. He's rushing through some shoots tomorrow and Taylor's just next level man and he's low key, he's humble.
Speaker 2:So that's the thing that.
Speaker 1:I was laughing at is like when I first got there, I was there because of Evan. So I came through because everybody was talking to me kind of like how our network has brought us together, my network and Evan's network brought us together, and so he's like yo come through, come train before I come on the pod. I was like sure. So I came through. I was like, oh shit, this is good because it's an hour, I'm done.
Speaker 2:I'm done in an hour. I'm gonna drag it.
Speaker 1:I'm so tired of going to the gym and it's two and a half hours and I hit like two exercises. I'm like what Cause people were coming up to me Like I just I can't do it anymore. I just and it's not even because my time is so important, like I don't want to seem like that, but it's like I just I want to be done. Like I love fitness, but I don't love it as much as when I was younger and I could sit there for three hours and just bullshit, exactly.
Speaker 1:So I went through a train there and then when I saw Taylor coaching there not that I thought that he was like a mean dude or a bad dude, but he was just quiet. So I was like I'm looking and he's like he looked mad serious. I was just like I can't catch a vibe from this dude. Yeah, I don't know anything, like I don't know, and he's training, he's quiet, he's training. And then when he came, when I told him I said come on the pod, bro, he's like okay, cool, I got him to sit here and talk for three hours.
Speaker 2:And Evan was like yo, you did the impossible. You did the impossible Cause you hear him talking consistently for three.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, and then, since then they were just been tight. And he's just, he's a good dude. He's been putting feta on all of his food lately. Now I call him big feta.
Speaker 2:I go, yo big feta, Yo, he's funny and he's hilarious.
Speaker 1:So it's cool. You get to meet really cool people in the space and it's definitely different than your normal gym goers that you see going to these group fitness stuff.
Speaker 2:Yes it is.
Speaker 1:It's just you either see more competitive and serious people that are really trying to push themselves and maybe hit a high rocks, maybe hit more CrossFit type stuff, and then this is a supplementary for them for their CrossFit training, or you get the people that are like me that yeah, I want to feel more athletic, I want to do things and I just I don't want to go to the regular. I think this is the first time. I've said this on a couple of podcasts Now I think it's the first time in like it's gotta be like 10 years that I'm not going to renew my membership at Bev's. Like I'm a Bev Francis powerhouse guy. I've been since 2011, 2012. It's probably the first time I'm not going to renew my membership. I'm good on it, man. I just I can't. I can't do it anymore. I can't do the, the, the bodybuilding splits and this and that. Like I think it's.
Speaker 1:I think it's cool, like when I get my own house, I have all of this equipment that I purchased during COVID crazy rogue monster rack and all these like calibrated powerlifting plates. I mean they're fucking awesome A1 equipment, but it's like I I don't want to go to my mom's garage little tiny garage that we were forced to work out of for a while. I don't want to go there and force a workout. I'd like to have that space and maybe put some mats down when I have my own house, some jiu-jitsu mats to be able to practice and drill. Put the weights down sandbags I want to get into like that. I want to continue down this path of functional fitness because I feel better training like this versus just like oh. Wow, I hammered my shoulders for three hours, great, and it's like oh.
Speaker 2:I can't use them for three days. Yeah, whoa, what is it?
Speaker 1:Back day tomorrow. Oh, sick, like you know, just, you're not excited to train here. It's just like oh shit, okay, we're doing a pull day, we're doing a push day, and it's just, it's dynamic, we're in it, we're doing shit, and then you're done and you're like wow, I'm like yeah, I'm like yeah, so I'm like yeah, so I'm like yeah, and my day is just starting, great.
Speaker 2:Now I get to go and actually do other shit.
Speaker 2:So you'll definitely love F45, it's the same vibe. We got different days, we focus on different things, you know cardio days, resistance days and stuff like that. And then, funny enough, hybrid days is where I got my name hybrid from, because I love doing both. So I was like you know what? I'm just gonna name myself hybrid. And it only stuck when I went to a gym and somebody was following me on Instagram and then saw me in the gym, walked past me and goes, hey, hybrid. I'm like, okay, I guess this is gonna stick. And then I was just like now it's just history, not everybody's just gonna call me hybrid and just keep it at that.
Speaker 1:When the nicknames come organically.
Speaker 2:That's when it it's the best. It's the best. That was Rizzles for me, my boy couldn't get my attention.
Speaker 1:He just kept calling me Rizzle, nick, nikki, rizzles, and then all of a sudden that was like what? And he just goes yeah, is that your new nickname? I said I fucking guess.
Speaker 2:I thought he was old, he was old with it.
Speaker 1:I fucked with him and I made it my license plate Cause like back then I was looking at the vanity plates, I was like I wouldn't know what I would get anyway, so I just got Rizzles on my license plate and then after that that was it. I was like everyone started calling me Rizzles and I was like, okay, I guess this is. This is the thing now.
Speaker 2:And that's how you dove into Rizzology. That's how I dove into Rizzology.
Speaker 1:Years and years later it was Rizzles. It's Rizzles productions, my company name. So it's like oh, it's Rizzles production, okay, yeah, so it's just, you know, it's cool when little things stick and you actually get the nickname authentically, as opposed to like. You make it up yourself and you force in people. Call me Black Hawk now it's like I'm the superhero around here. You're a superhero? Fuck, I'm not calling you that.
Speaker 1:For real, though that's so true, yeah, so it's all good vibes. I actually wanted to go back to the track and field. Okay, cause I'm interested in that, cause I find that I don't talk to a lot of track and field athletes yeah, what was training like for stuff like that? Ah, so, and what would you specialize in? Was it a specific run Did you do? Was it track and field where you did, did you do like a shot put and all that other stuff, or was it just track for you?
Speaker 2:It was just track. So all of the sprints and the dashes, so like I was forced to do the 300 meter, but the worst ever, yeah, when I'm doing my 200, 100, four by one, 50 meters, any of those were like the best and the training for those. If we're training for the 200, we'll do 200 repeats. So like you run a 200 meter, try to get under a certain amount of time and then you'll walk the other side of the track, which is another 200 meters.
Speaker 2:And then you take off again. So repeats on those which I hated. And then, once we dove deep into the 100 meters and the 50 meters, it was all about starts, so we would literally have for the practice, practice coming out of the blocks.
Speaker 1:Those are the stirrup looking things that you put your feet in. Where you start, you put the spikes in you dig them deep into there.
Speaker 2:And have you ever ran in spikes before? No, bro, I didn't start doing track at so funny until like 10th, 11th grade, and once I put the spikes on I kid you not you really dig your feet into the ground and it feels like you're pulling the track behind you. Oh really, and that's how you can pick up so much speed, because you have so much grip into the track. Wait a minute.
Speaker 1:So the shoes that you wear, you have just in that starting position. It just moves that like when do you have spikes in the shoes? All the time, All the time, oh really. So they're not just regular shoes, that you guys wear.
Speaker 2:No, no so what's your-.
Speaker 1:Oh, I thought that it was just like maybe in the starting position, when you just have that block or whatever that stirrup pieces, not so that's the spike that keeps it from moving when you kick off.
Speaker 2:No, so we have our boys. Like my boy would stand on the block so it doesn't move Like he'd stand on the end.
Speaker 2:So when I take off it doesn't push back and make me slip, but the spikes are. It's like having cleats, but they're sharp metal, pointy, like spikes, damn. And yeah, I've. He was doing a four by one at one time and you can't look back when you're doing a four by one because it'll slow you down. So if I'm running and I'm handing it off to you, I have to say go, that's when you start taking off and I'll say patan. So this is where you reach back and grab it.
Speaker 2:But one of my friends he didn't take off fast enough and I caught the side of his shoe, ripped through the shoe and sliced his side of his foot, like that's how sharp these spikes are Damn Like they're sharp. But yeah, once you're coming out the blocks then it's like you have your gears. So it was like that first coming out, you stay low, you just try to get the feel and then you gradually pick your head up and start picking up your strides and stuff like that. But you practice, you practice until you're in that, that game day, and it's like all that goes down the window. Now it was like I got to just run fast and then the people that's next to me yeah, rzecz setzt allt Visit. It was just repeats on practicing your, your starts, your starts, your starts. If you didn't have form then we would practice form. But once you're deeper into it and you have your form already, you're already getting good times. Now it was just perfecting that, that start at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:And I know you were younger. But like what was the nutrition? Like pre and post for a track meet, what Well, we was in high school, so it was like well, what would what now? Looking back now, as more of a coach and an athlete, what should it be?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I would, instead of just eating to feel full, I would fuel, actually look into the things that I'm eating to fuel the body, cause I can only imagine, if we ate the correct things, how more efficient your body would feel during that, during that run. Like you know, a lot of people get like hamstring pulls and like cramps and stuff like that, especially when we was in high school, cause we didn't know where we were eating. We would just eat the school lunch and then pop tarts and pop them like right after class and then go run a track meet, so like that's GMO central.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, we was running on GMO, oh my.
Speaker 2:God, that's what it was Fueled by GMO, fueled by GMO. That's so funny, but yeah, now to look back. Well, now it's totally different. I'm plant based, so like-.
Speaker 1:That's what I had written down, because it's very interesting to hear when someone's plant based and just I want to get your you know whole spiel and run down of what that was, what that transition for, why you did it, how you feel stuff like that, Cause it's interesting.
Speaker 2:It's very interesting. So one of my boys, my closest friend, he's been plant based for about, I would say, five to six years now and every day we're chilling. I'm like, yo, I want to go to checkers, I want to go to McDonald's. And he's like, bro, come on, man, like you know better, you like especially that you're working out and you're still eating like this, like man, fuck it. Like, as long as I'm hitting my calorie count and I can like, stay whatever, I'm gonna just eat this, I'm gonna just eat this.
Speaker 2:And it got until one day where we both was off of work the next day and we said, yo, we just gonna spend the whole day tomorrow like together and just chill. And when you're with my boy, you gotta not do what he does, but you can't steer him in a different direction. So if he wants to go to this place that he likes to eat at, I can be like, but I want to go here, and he'll be like all right, so stay home, like, I'll go, I'll go find myself Like you drive where you want to go and I'll drive where I want to go.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll see you tomorrow, see you tomorrow and how many times I said that I still had five when we're done eating. But this day I was like you know what. Let me just listen to you for once. I was reaching a plateau. I was just up and down cause I would have clean meals one day through Friday. Cheap meals Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 1:What's clean meals?
Speaker 2:for you. So before I went plant-based it was the regular grilled chicken, rice and some vegetables and just having that same type of portion milled throughout the day, and sometimes I would throw steak in there or some like 95% ground beef and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Were you tracking macros, or were you just kind of just blindly throwing shit into a Tupperware?
Speaker 2:I wasn't tracking macros too crazy Loosely. Yeah, I was like I kind of knew I got to a point where, like I can eye it and know like all right, this might be too much, and especially if I wake up the next day and I feel a little blow with it or something like that, let me cut back on the little bit of cards or stuff like that. So it was just that roller coaster, it's like by the time I got back to Monday, it'll take me all the way until Wednesday and Thursday to feel normal again after the weekend, and then it's Friday again. So now I'm back to the cheat meals. So it was just too up and down. What were you eating?
Speaker 2:I don't mean to cut you up, but what were you eating? Oh what? Oh man, five guys Shake, shack pizza wings like that.
Speaker 1:Do you think that maybe it was just too much cheat meal?
Speaker 2:Oh, 100% 100%, but I always looked forward to it. Like during the week I was just always like chicken again I just can't wait until Friday. I can't wait until Friday. So it was that me not accepting eating clean and just always waiting for the cheat meal was like messing me up. I'm like I can't be dreaming about pizza when I'm trying to work out and eat clean and stuff. So I told him I was like all right, I'm gonna drive with you today, Forget about it. Like we're gonna eat what you eat, and he's been doing it for a while so he knows how different things taste and stuff like that. So he was like I feel like you would like this, so he will order it, we'll pay for it and we've had the whole day. I'm eating plant-based whole day and ended the day. He's like yo bro how do you?
Speaker 2:feel and I'm like one day I'm like it's, I feel all right, like I still want pizza and shit. Like he stood in, like knocked that out and then, just so, an ad for a deep dish. Yeah, as he's telling me on Instagram like Wingstop, I'm like all right, man, that looks good. Like can we go here tomorrow? Like went to sleep, woke up and he's like yo get it, bro, let's do it again. Like do another day of plant-based. And I'm like, oh God, I'm like all right, whatever.
Speaker 2:Before I knew it, a week passed a month passed and now I'm like a year and like two months in. I don't crave meat anymore and I didn't. After that week had passed, I didn't have cravings, like that was the main thing for me. Me always, like I said, me just always dreaming about what can I eat and what can I eat. Now it's just, I eat to fuel and I don't look forward to eating as much as I was before. It was like my whole day was just revolving around food food when I eat for lunch, when I eat for dinner, when I eat for breakfast. Now it was just all right, I got to work out at 12. Let me go fuel my body with some, you know, quinoa and some chickpeas and stuff like that. Eat in and go work out so I do eat less.
Speaker 2:I did drop probably 30 pounds within that, within six months of doing it. It just dropped off. But I didn't lose strength. Okay, that's good and that was the big thing for me. I was like I don't want to lose strength, don't want to lose strength. And he's telling me he's like nah, bro, as long as you eat the right things and you make sure you get your you know that protein in and stuff like that, you're going to be fine, like you're going to be good. So when six months passed, I was like I'm actually going to stronger, like I started to actually focus more on like pull-ups and I started like adding weight to my pull-ups. And that's when I was like all right, now I'm like functionally strong. Like now I'm just like pure strength. So now it's just like I said, I'm a year in and it's I love it man.
Speaker 2:Like, especially when you're trying to find a big variety of different things to eat. And you'll be surprised, like Thanksgiving, everybody's eating all of this good stuff the stuffing, mac and cheese and you know, turkey and stuff, and I love it. And my boy, he has a girl where she loves to cook so he got her to be plant-based as well. But when you get a cooker to be plant-based it's different, cause now they're actually making home cooked meals where you don't got to go out and find plant-based things. And Thanksgiving, I already know what I'm eating. I got I love Cava, so I got Cava the day before. I'm like I'm going to just pack this in the fridge. I know what I'm eating for tomorrow. Things giving my boys and young people.
Speaker 2:It's like yo, my girl cooked for me and her, but I told her to make you a plate too. When over got the plate, it looks exactly like Thanksgiving food. She had mac and cheese, but it was made out of cashew cheese. She had fried chicken, but it wasn't chicken, it was made out of mushrooms. She had wild rice and like potato yeah, it was just. It tasted exactly the same. And I'm like there's no reason for me to even miss Thanksgiving food, cause it's. If I put it in front of you and didn't tell you it was all plant-based, you would have been thinking it was just regular food and just ate it. I was like, wow, this shit is good. Yeah, so it's. I feel like that's the big thing. If you do want to go plant-based, you have to know the variety of things that you can eat. And also, if you love the texture of chicken and the taste of chicken, there is things out there that can give you that texture.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the mushrooms is pretty cool because it does sometimes taste like meat. If you cook it the right way, it's very, it's very cool how that actually can. I thought it was weird Trick you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, almost trick you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not against plant-based diets or vegan diets or anything like that. I think everybody should eat the way that you want and if you feel good doing it, then that's amazing. Then you should just rock with it. Yeah, exactly, that's great, cause everybody's gonna have different biology and everyone's gonna have different stomachs and different. You know genetics and whatnot and you know the way that you've eaten for, let's say, 30 years. Maybe that doesn't suit you anymore because your stomach changes.
Speaker 1:I've started having issues with dairy. I never had issues with dairy, ever. I got like iron stomach bro. I could eat fucking anything, not have a stomach ache. Totally fine, isn't that? Now I'm 32, man Body starts to change. Dairy starts fucking me up, dude, it's crazy. And then I'm just like go to the bathroom, go to the bathroom, go to the bathroom. So now I actually started cutting back the dairy and I'm adding kimchi in a lot of kimchi, the kimchi with the probiotics, everything like that. My stomach feels great when I throw the kimchi in there. So I'll put rice in a bowl, I'll put some kimchi, I'll cut it with a scissors so it's nice and shredded instead of the long kimchi cabbage leaves and then I'll just like I'll throw chicken in, or I'll throw steak, or I'll do that and I'll just mix it all up. I got myself a little bowl, like it's perfect.
Speaker 1:I find it interesting because I have a very wide spectrum of people that come through and chop it up on the podcast. A lot of people I know have switched, not necessarily to carnivore but to animal-based diets and say the exact same thing that you're saying about plant-based they feel great, the bloating was gone, all this stuff. So I think that there has to be some type of an understanding of maybe what's living in the middle of both of those diets. That's dairy, all the processed bullshit that I eat it, a lot of carbs, the gluten, Gluten, everything that's just sitting in the middle of both of these diets. That we're playing an elimination game, which is great, but, like you have people that are eating strictly meat and people that are eating strictly plants and everyone says that they feel great and everything's awesome. So it's like what did we cut out? Don't say that they're doing it wrong for plant-based. Don't say that the carnivores are doing it wrong. They're both feeling good.
Speaker 1:They're both feeling great, and they look great and they're performing at high levels a lot of the time. So it's like what did they cut out? Let's look at that. And let's look at who's producing that and let's look at why they're producing it and what type of fucking money they're making off of that and who's funding those companies. Let's take a deep dive into that shit. And why most of the food at the grocery stores especially, is poison. And it's not because of the meat, it's not because of the vegetables and the plants, it's because of the outliers in the middle. But that we just kind of like, we just look over and we look at the others like nope, that's you, it's you, it's you.
Speaker 1:I eat more animal-based as of late. I follow Dave Asprey. Have you ever heard of Dave Asprey? No, I have to give you his Instagram Very, very knowledgeable dude.
Speaker 1:He's a biohacker. A lot of really good tips that he gives you on the daily. He went vegan for I want to say it was like two years and his health started crazy declining, like crazy declining. He felt great for a little while and then his health started taking a fucking shit and it was horrible. Now he's animal-based more, so talks about rib-eyes and stagings and that he's like I'll never go back to veganism ever again and he talks about a lot of the plants and a lot of the things, like the ingredients or the cellular stuff that happens at that lower level that we don't see, obviously, and he was saying how that was breaking down stuff in his body and causing this and that, and a lot of vegans have problems with this over time or whatever.
Speaker 1:But then you have another guy like Dr Mark Hyman pharmacy podcast, really knowledgeable fucking guy For a long time and he talks about the polyphenols and all the really amazing benefits that fruits and vegetables have. And the polyphenols are basically the defense mechanisms that these plant-based foods and these vegetables and these fruits that they have against things like animals and whatnot trying to eat them or other invading species the defense mechanisms. But the gut microbiome loves it, they love that and they feed off of that. So it's like he says, eat based on the rainbow, like eat based on rainbow colored foods, all spectrums of color, because it'll give you all different types of polyphenols and help strengthen your gut microbiome and give you energy at a cellular level and that. So it's always very interesting when I hear all sides of the spectrum, because then you sit there as a consumer of knowledge and information from multiple sources and a consumer of food and you go well, what's the right answer? And theoretically you don't know until you try it and your way could work for you, but it may not work for exhibit B over here, or exhibit C, but exhibit D may go. Oh shit, like I feel great, since I listened and I tried out plant based and whatever.
Speaker 1:So I guess my first question is you went cold turkey, you just went cold turkey. So that first day of plant based eating, what was it like? What did you consume that day? Because you said start to finish, you just you started eating. So what was the day like for you?
Speaker 2:So we had started off getting. I forgot what it was called. It's like a vegetable. It's a vegetable from Jamaica. So, instead of Not hickama, no, it looks like eggs. When you cook it, it literally looks like eggs. The vegetable looks like eggs. Yes, it's wild. Like when he cooked it the first time I'm like you sure this is a vegetable and it was yellow. He put a seasoning in it. I was like, took a bite. I'm like, why does it taste like hot food? Like it's Not sour-sop?
Speaker 1:No, not sour-sop. I don't think you cook sour-sop. No, you can't cook sour-sop. Yeah, you can't cook sour-sop.
Speaker 2:But besides the-, oh it'll probably come to me later on but so instead of having a beef patty, we took that vegetable and put it inside the patty and then we had that, which was tasted like crazy, tasted good. And then we went to one of his favorite spots where falafel. So he was very like I'm big on falafel now too but that was like his go-to for like the protein and like the fiber and like it's so dense that you can have three of them and it's not even a hundred calories and you feel good yeah, you feel full. So we went there, we had some falafel with quinoa on the side and then at night, um, I think we had quinoa again, but then we had some type of mushroom. It wasn't fried or anything like that, it was just like sauteed and just regular with a little bit of seasoning on it. But it was the flavor that kept me like all right, this is good, like it's not like but that's because it was seasoned properly and done right.
Speaker 2:Seasoned properly. If I was just eating salads all day yeah, you'd be tired. I don't know what the hell is this Fuck?
Speaker 1:this. Where's the?
Speaker 2:local pizza hut. For real, though, it's the fact that he made sure it's easy to my liking, because he knows what this shit I like, so he made sure to taste it like it and Buffalo cauliflower because he knew.
Speaker 2:I love the wings. So he was like I got this for you. Like eat that, so everything that I liked, like my five guys. He would bring me a mushroom black bean burger with like cashew cheese for the cheese and stuff and I'm just like yo, it tastes good. Like as long as you can keep mimicking the regular stuff that you liked, you won't go back. Like it'll keep you strong in the long run.
Speaker 1:Were you worried about muscle loss at any time?
Speaker 2:Yes, so when I was worried about losing strength and losing muscle, duffy was worried about that, but then it started to go deeper until I started to feel so like I had. I used to get a lot of stomach aches, headaches and everything like that, and he would always tell me he was like you, got a headache again today Like again like, come on, man, like you got to, you got to switch it up, Like your stomach hurts too, Like it's every day, it's every day.
Speaker 2:And then once I started doing that for a week, two weeks, all of that went away. There was no more stomach, no more headaches, not tired Like sometimes I got to wake up at 340 to get to the studio about 430. Now I just get up Like I'm I'll wake up 10 minutes before my alarm even goes off and I'm like ready to go. Even my members are like how are you this energetic at 4.59?
Speaker 2:in the morning and I'm just like I'm ready to go, like when they say, like he said, taste the rainbow more colorful, more vibrant. You feel, you see, more vibrant, like when I step, when I step outside now, like I'm now accepting, like nature for more than what it is, cause it's just something about eating stuff that comes from the ground and from the earth. It just makes you just tap in more. And that's when I started to tap in more but the mental and the mindset stuff and started reading more stuff on that and I feel like, yes, I care about how I look on the outside, but I care so much more on how I look on the inside. Now and, like me, just looking shredded is just a byproduct, it's just a cherry on top. It's not something that I'm like I want to be shredded. I want to be shredded. I want to eat clean, work out efficiently and feel good. The aesthetic part is just what comes with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's. The inside versus outside debate is something that I bring up a lot lately because I came from the bodybuilding background. And when I say I came from the bodybuilding background, I you know I wasn't some fucking champion bodybuilder. I wasn't somebody that was like had the craziest, most impressive physique ever. You know, I was a fat kid in high school up until 11th grade. I was 270. I was pre-diabetic and I, just I, just it was. It was a. I was a byproduct of a divorced household and my mom always was big on organic and natural. She was always big on that. Oh, okay. But when I went with my dad to dad's house to visit, he didn't give a fuck. So it was like bull's a pasta it was.
Speaker 1:You know, I look back at what I consumed when I would go to his house and my dad has MS. I can't use it as an excuse because he was well enough to walk at that time. Not well, but enough to walk. He's in a wheelchair now. Oh, sorry for that. Oh, it's okay.
Speaker 1:Man, I appreciate the. You know that whenever somebody says that, I do appreciate it. But you know I don't know him any other way. I don't. I never knew my dad without MS. I just knew, you know and I knew. And just because you have some, you know, you know you have somebody that's a sick member of your family, you know that they're going to decline at a certain rate. So you know that, okay, they can't walk as well Like they're, they're lifting.
Speaker 1:He used to lift his leg to hit the brake pedal on the car when he would drive with me. I mean, listen, very risky with a young kid in the car, that's fucking crazy. But like there's a guy who didn't want to give up at the time and he wasn't ready to hang up the coat, you know per se. So it's like you know I can't put blame on him, but I can in some ways because, like, if you can't physically exercise with your son and you can't do these things, like as a kid man, it's great. I get to play video games all weekend and not do shit. I don't have to go outside, I don't gotta do nothing. I'm playing Halo with my boys, like it's great, I don't have to do anything. But on top of the inactivity portion of things, now I'm just eating and I'm just stuffing my face and he'd make linguine white clam sauce. He would make. Yeah, dude, he would make, just fucking, just like he was cooking.
Speaker 2:He was cooking, he was cooking everything.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know egg sandwiches for breakfast. You know we every Friday was like I'm like a tradition and listen, it was cool. You look back on it, it's a sweet tradition. I don't have very many with my dad, so it's like it's a nice tradition. But it almost puts a different shade on it. Now that you look back on it you're like oh man, you will just set me up for fucking failure.
Speaker 2:Set me up for failure.
Speaker 1:Set me up to get bullied and not get any ass. That's crazy.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. You know I would. He'd pick me up on a Friday, pick me up, we would go and get sushi and then, while we're waiting for the sushi to be made I mean we're talking like a tray of sushi and while we're waiting for the sushi to be made, getting a pint of Ben and Jerry's or two sometimes. Yeah, bro, Now you look back at that 1100 calories, a pint off the bat. You just row what. So eat all the sushi, eat my pint, play Xbox or whatever he'd pass out out cold.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you'd be out 10, 11 o'clock. Man, I'm up, I'm up to sugar, sugar rush. I'm up to like two in the morning, three in the morning, playing video games. Then I'm going into the cabinet three, four hot pockets. Then I meet more, then I meet more ice cream. Then he'd have an Entomans cake, sometimes on the counter. I'd be like that, oh man.
Speaker 1:Bro, like this is. You know, you, you, you? People always wonder how did I get in this situation where people look at somebody that's super overweight and they go how did I get in this situation? How did they get in that situation? What, yo, it's a progressive thing. It doesn't just happen overnight.
Speaker 2:Does it happen?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it happens in days, weeks, months, like everything, and it just eventually you shit hits the wall and you're just, you're at your heaviest and you, you know you don't see it because, like we said earlier, you're just looking in the mirror every day and you see yourself, but the outside world sees it and your clothes see it. So, like as them clothes, get snug you're just like, just like.
Speaker 1:oh, man, I guess I got a size up, getting big and you know, not now, not back then, but like getting big in the gym, man, you know I'm getting these gains, bro.
Speaker 2:You getting fat, son Getting fat, bro. I mean, you probably know about this because you, you, you was a little overweight as well, like you, remember that feeling like pulling your shirt. Oh yeah, like you know, I.
Speaker 1:I yo phones over there. I don't know if you saw my story. I posted a picture of me in 10th grade. Did you see that you posted yesterday?
Speaker 2:right, yeah, yeah, I saw it yeah.
Speaker 1:So wild. So I you know people take everything at face value when they see it. They like when I put clips out I'm guilty man, I had a little sensationalism to them.
Speaker 1:You know, sometimes there's no rhyme or reason like that. We just start to clip for where it starts, but sometimes it just starts off like gunshot. Here we go and like people. Just they get so emotional that they they don't go and listen to the episode and they don't hear what you have to actually say.
Speaker 1:So we were talking, my buddy Sam and I. We were talking about overweight medical professionals and overweight trainers and I said you lose merit. Essentially, what I was saying was you lose merit in my eyes where, if you're going to sit here like, let's say, I have a medical professional especially that says I'm plant-based, you should be plant-based. And I look at him and I'm like dog, you're like 40 pounds overweight. I don't want to be plant-based. You've lost credibility in my eyes. I don't care if you're the foremost expert in that chosen field. And then you know I have people that debate and they're just like oh well, just because they, you know, are overweight doesn't mean they don't, they're not knowledgeable. I said I get that. I look at that as you are supposed to be following these guidelines that you're giving out to me and you're not.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Well, just so fucking accountable. You're supposed to be in a healthcare, you're supposed to be in a fitness type of environment and giving out information and giving out tips and tricks on how to be healthy and stay healthy, and you look like that no shot. But of course, now you get all the people that are getting emotional and they start commenting. They start commenting like, well, what is a trainer supposed to look like? And it's just like you already have it made up in your mind that, no matter what, I say I'm wrong.
Speaker 1:So I just hit people with okays, I just go. Okay, right, yeah, whatever you want to believe, and truth be told, like I was talking to my friend, dr Shahada he was on the podcast a while back. He's a gastro, he works in the hospital, he does fucking rotations. He does 12, 16, 18 hours of clips, sometimes in the hospital. My man's got his meals, my man goes and hits the gym when he's done. My man is shredded. He holds himself accountable, he is not fucking around and he works all these hours but still make sure he gets it in. So my response, which I didn't put because I just didn't feel like at some point I have to save my thumbs I got to save my thumbs because it's just not worth the back and forth.
Speaker 2:It's not, don't entertain it.
Speaker 1:And it's not worth you know. I just let the comment sit there. I don't know if you know Andre Ferguson, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:A lucky Libra. So Andre's on the podcast a lot and one of the gems that he always drops is I leave a comment there because, that said, there's more about that person than anything I could even say or do. So I'll leave it right there, go ahead. So this, this, one of these, one of these people was saying like you know, I'm 40 pounds overweight, but I'm a coach. It's not like yo, you didn't get 40 pounds overweight just by having, like health issues. No, no, no, you didn't put the fork down Like that's a problem. And as somebody that was really heavy at one point, I'm comfortable saying that you fucked up and it's okay, we all fuck up.
Speaker 1:Just a year ago, I was 35, 40 pounds overweight. It happened. It was a slow increase and it was a. I wasn't holding myself accountable. I knew what I had to do to drop weights. I knew what I, but I just didn't feel like fucking doing it. It was easier to just eat when I want to and just fucking fuck off and just do whatever. You know, is it easier to just sit here and point fingers at like why? Oh yeah, it's the GMOs and the food. Oh yeah, it's the. You know the gym's too far. Oh, yeah, it's this, it's that.
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't have enough time, isn't that, bro? I get up at, you know this is obviously I'm not sipping the U specifically, but like I get up at 445, walk the dog and I go to OG by 615. Then I do jujitsu, sometimes midday noon class. If I don't have a podcast or I don't have anything else, I do the noon class, or I do the six o'clock class. At night I'm wrestling grown humans for an hour. Okay, nothing easy about that. Nothing easy. And that's to keep myself in check, along with tracking my macros, like my macro tracker. I think I'm on like day two, like 240 to something of tracked macros. That didn't just happen.
Speaker 2:The food.
Speaker 1:I didn't eat the food and then it magically just like got logged in my app. It was like yo, this is a, this takes a conscious effort to keep yourself held accountable. So back to like my dad and stuff like that. It's super tough to like see where you came from sometimes and like the setting the setting up a failure for yourself. But it also teaches you a lot about how we have to dig ourselves out of the hole that we dug ourselves into. There you go. So it's like you got to claw your way out tooth and nail sometimes.
Speaker 1:I mean I went from 270 down to 190 in one summer and then, yeah, dude, I was crazy, that's a drop. Yeah, it's crazy, crazy. I came back that following year. You know, for the people that have heard it before, I sound like a broken record, but like I came back that following year, at 11th grade, every kid that bullied me, every kid that bullied me, I was like leaned up, I was playing handball all summer. The kid was trimmed up and I just go over there. I'm like, yeah, a lot to say when I was fat, right, what's up? Mm? Hmm, she'll say now you don't got nothing to say Nothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was it Not out of breath talking to you now. I got you. Now what's up? Say something.
Speaker 1:Like you know I was, I had a chip on my shoulder. But then, over the course of the next four years, started dating a girl, went up to 240. We went away to college. She went to a different school, I went to a different school. We'll break up within a month. I mean, we're talking like four year relationship, just month done. And I was just like, oh man, what do I do? And I looked in the mirror. I'm like, wow, you're fat, bro, like it's, it's time. And I went to 240, down to 150 in a year for my first bodybuilding show.
Speaker 1:So I've done some shit, man, and I I've done it. I've done the crash course diets. I've done. I've done the tracking macros. I've done keto without realizing it was keto. I've, you know, just eating rollups for ham and cheese, rollups for lunch, or turkey and cheese rollups, alpine, half pound alpine lace Swiss and a pound of Turkey, lean Turkey, deli meat. You know before, you know nitrates and all the bullshit and stuff like that. You know you learn these are, these are just like stepping stones to get us to where we are. But I mean, it's not. It's not an easy process for anybody, no matter what your dieting methods are. It's just it's tough. You know I didn't do any steroids when I did the bodybuilding. I took nothing, no test, no clean nothing. I wanted it to be as clean as possible and it was fucking hell and that's hard, as as is Dude. It was hard, man, and I know it's hard for people that take juice.
Speaker 1:I tell I talk to all my boys that take I.
Speaker 2:Still gotta put the work in.
Speaker 1:You gotta put the work in. You're not going to just wake up and be on it.
Speaker 2:It doesn't work like that. It don't work like that, not at all.
Speaker 1:It'd be nice if it did, but it doesn't work like that. Is it going to give you a little bit easier of a time in certain areas? Without question, but now you're going to deal with the other side of things. You know trend, cough and all this different shit, it's like. God, you really want to fucking deal with that shit, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Do it. Naturally, I'm going to worry about bullshit like that. I'm good on it. I'm paranoid enough. I got to go to the doctor for blood tests.
Speaker 2:I don't need to fucking be in there, because I can shit up and whatnot.
Speaker 1:I'm good on it. So you know, I say all this to say the journey. And you know, one of my favorite experience, one of my favorite quotes from a movie Ever seen what is it? Kingsman, yes, yeah, Kingsman. Experiences make the man. I love that quote. Oh my God, experiences make the man it does. It's so true, dude, it does, I mean.
Speaker 1:Think about, let's just think about a two-year span. Think about two years ago. How much of a different human being were you two years ago. Oh my God, what did you know back then? Or think you knew? Well, like what did you believe with things that you knew and that you were an expert in? That you look back at, you're like I didn't know shit. And that was only two years. Think about five and then 10. It's crazy, dude, and it's just.
Speaker 1:My buddy Stone posted a photo recently on his Instagram. He posted a photo of him in high school, versus him now and huge improvements in his physique, huge. And he said we forget, sometimes, like I forget, you don't see the advancements that are happening as you're doing it, you just like, just like when you're getting fat. You don't see it. You're so stuck in, like, the ways of like how you have to do things and your process of going to the gym, eating your nutrition. You know, I don't want to lose strength. I don't want to do this. I want to keep this consistent. I want to get better. You don't realize that you are getting better. It's just baby steps instead. Baby steps one foot in front of the next Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So it's just it's kind of it's kind of crazy how that works. I, the inside versus outside, is kind of where that, where that was going and the way that that started was. I have this conversation piece a lot now because you could look like a Greek god on the outside but that insight could be rotting and there's a lot of guys I know that are having issues from steroids over the years.
Speaker 1:A lot of guys I know that are having issues with just like improper diets and shutting down systems and just feeling like shit and this and that, and I think, in large, a lot of the benefits that you were feeling, such as just being more vibrant and energetic and happy. I think a lot of that had to do with just getting a lot of that filler and processed shit out of your system. I'm not gonna say it's not all the vegetables and all the plant-based, because I would be remiss to tell you that I'm an expert in that field. I'm not and I don't know at the cellular level if that is 100% of what it is and I can't comment on it, but what I can say is cutting out all that filler, cutting out all that extra bullshit. Without question, your body was thanking you instantly from the get go, because when I have cheat meals and I was gonna ask you about fasting, I don't know if you've ever done any fasting.
Speaker 2:I love fasting, okay.
Speaker 1:So, especially because you said you were having gastro issues and you were having stomach issues, you know, when I used to have a cheat meal, it would take me far too long to recover. So I'd have a cheat meal just on one day too. I wouldn't have like a whole weekend. I would have a cheat meal on Sunday. I'd eat my cheat meal, I'd go to fucking town, go to town, and then it would take me two, three days to recover and get back to a baseline. But what I've found since incorporating fasting into my lifestyle and I'm not religious with it, I'm very. You know, yesterday I did 24 hour fast. I just wanted to do like 18. And then all of a sudden I was just like, yeah, I feel good, I'm just gonna keep going.
Speaker 1:And then I broke the fast because I had to go to Jiu-Jitsu and I wanted a little something in my system. Make sense. Some of the dudes were like, nick, what's up? Man, you're like really dragging ass. I'm like, yeah, I just did 24 hour fast, give me my body a second.
Speaker 2:I got no fuel Like, give me my body a second.
Speaker 1:I had a shake. I had a thousand calories before I got here and it's just. It's not hitting me. But you when I fast after my cheat meals on a Sunday. So if I go to towns now I'll go get ramen, maybe a little ice cream, whatever. I'll stop eating at five o'clock. I will not eat until maybe two, three PM the next day. Waits back to where it was Sunday morning and no bloat, no issues, no gastro like coming out. I feel good, I feel clean, I feel like I'm not bloated and I feel like I'm trimmed up again.
Speaker 2:You know I and that makes total sense. Yeah, Give your body a good window to work on the stuff that it has in its body. When you just constant eating, eating, eating, your body doesn't have time to break that stuff down the American way, and that's when the bloat comes from the gluttony just consistently consuming the sticks in there and it just stays.
Speaker 2:And that fasting thing is something that I've definitely looked more into, cause there is so many benefits from it, like how you start fasting, your body builds new cells and breaks down the old ones, cause and I've heard that you get better sleep as well. That's why they say you're supposed to stop eating at a certain time before you go to bed.
Speaker 2:Now imagine you didn't eat the entire day and then you go to sleep. Now your body can actually work on itself, rather than trying to chop down food and the digestive system and stuff like that. So definitely, I do love fasting, it's a vibe. What's the longest you've done a fast for?
Speaker 1:I did one for three days, three days damn, three days and I had problems sleeping, for we did a 48 hour fast. I had problems sleeping after the first day, so 24 hours that was totally fine, but after that oh, the first day is the worst. No, first day it felt good. Oh, you did, it felt fine. It was the second night's sleep. I was like, oh, this is kind of drag and ass. I just I didn't love it. Yeah, I don't know if you've had that same experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it wasn't until the third day, like I felt horrible first day, horrible second day. And then it was the third day when I woke up and I'm like I don't need to eat, I'm not hungry, I'm energetic, I'm up, I'm ready to go. So I feel like you do hit that wall and you got to get on the other side, which is after that 24 hour, three days, and I got no people that do seven days and I'm just like and like you said, you can't look at it from that point of view one step in front of the other. You just do the first day, see how you feel, do the second day, like you said you was doing the 18 hours, ended up doing 24. So you just got to go with the flow and just keep going, cause your mind does play tricks on you when you look at it from a far point of view.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I would say it's very weird feeling, experiencing your stomach actually empty, actually empty.
Speaker 2:I can't explain the feeling.
Speaker 1:Actually just feels like a pancake inside your chest, like your stomach is touching your back. They finally meet. You're like what is this on my spine? Why is that so? Why do I feel so thinned up? Down there right now, it's just and then you drink something and you actually feel it just go like right through.
Speaker 1:You feel it oh it went right to my right, to my memory. Crazy, you're filtering. That's crazy, nothing. And so my buddy Tyler and I we're going to put out a podcast episode short one, about fasting because we did the 48 hour episode. We did the 48 hour fast together and we're going to do an episode because we're going to do another 48 hour. I'd love for you to join us.
Speaker 2:Oh, let y'all, we're doing it after Christmas day.
Speaker 1:So Christmas day, whatever your last meal is like when you're done binging or whatever you're going to eat for Christmas day and Christmas. You know, christmas Eve, your free game. Christmas day, whatever that last meal for Christmas day is, we're going to start 48 hours and we're going to do another one because we did it after Thanksgiving. This last one. Okay, I felt great after eating all that shit for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2:Oh, 100%. I felt great.
Speaker 1:Two days later I'm like God damn, are we less? I didn't eat nothing, like I never have it.
Speaker 2:He said hmm, my bone broth, let's go, let's go.
Speaker 1:So if you're interested, man, we got a group of like 20 something people. Yo, I'm down. Yeah, we're all just going to have like a little little like discord of just all of us just hanging out talking just support group. Yeah, you need it. Don't go to food network page, don't do it.
Speaker 2:Don't even, don't even open your phone today. Don't even do it. Everything is everything shows food. Yeah, if you on Instagram TikTok, it's always somebody eating food or making food and it's like.
Speaker 1:It's so hard to like it's going to be like when you do. I never see red cars and then, all of a sudden, every car that passed red.
Speaker 2:it's going to be like different color types of reds and you're like what I never see any cookie recipes.
Speaker 1:It's like ah now it's everywhere, so yeah. So if you're interested and you want to come through and and join our little group and hang out with us, and talk about it. All that would be awesome. I wanted to ask you also water and electrolytes. Like is that with, with the plant based prior you were saying that you were getting headaches. What was your water consumption like? Were you just drinking straight filtered water? Were you drinking remineralized water? What were you doing?
Speaker 2:I was drinking like pulling spring. Okay, like I'm like I'm drinking like a lot of pulling spring, but I don't think I was getting enough. Yeah, I would probably drink one of these and be like oh yeah, I used to bug out, like yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It it. Water was one. Ah, man, see, that's like I got to get something like that Cause that will help me.
Speaker 1:Bro, you work right by public lands and dicks right over there I do.
Speaker 2:I walk past every time, Every time I get my Nike headbands and Nike socks, I'm like oh, go get a Yeti man.
Speaker 1:Yeti send the check, bro. I'm waiting for this endorsement.
Speaker 1:I just went yesterday, I got this little pint of 25% off. Look at me selling Yetis right now. I was like man, this is perfect for my coffee, I'll get it, I'll get it, I'll get it. You know what it goes back to, like knowledge and how we learn more over the years. So I used to just drink filtered water, just like everybody you. Just you drink filtered water. You assume that it's okay for you and this, and that Then you start learning about different things like estrogenics and the amount of birth control that's in the water supply. Yeah, so if you're drinking this filtered water from your main, you know source of water. Let's say you know the Huntington village is where I'm getting my water supply from. It's like if I'm just filtering it and I'm not using a zero water filter, something like that, you're still getting some of that fluoride. All these PFAS what are they called? Vcos or VOs or something like that Something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I forget what that particular like acronym or whatever it is is. And then you're getting all these estrogenics which there's an actually interesting book. I'd be lying if I said I finished it. I'm the worst with books, man. I read a little bit, then I grab and then I you have another one, I have another one on sale.
Speaker 1:I'm like, well, fuck, I got to learn about that. And then I just I'm like, well, should I read the book or play Xbox? I kind of want to just play Xbox. So that's my own little mental issue that I got to get over.
Speaker 1:But there's a book called Estrogenation and it's basically a guy that specializes in these estrogenics and what foods and what different categories he puts them in. Like there are higher levels of estrogenics in certain foods and certain waters and certain different things that if you want these out of your system and out of your body, there's like different stages to like get it out. Like different filtrations that he recommends different, like flax seeds Flax seeds are super high in estrogenics. Would never think that, yeah. Then you have birth control in the water supply. So birth control in the water supply raises the estrogen. And then you have all these GMOs from all of these companies that people are just consuming these things and we're wondering why estrogen is so high in males nowadays and why it's so high in women. Although it affects women, it doesn't affect them nearly as much as a man that doesn't need that much estrogen. Oh, 100%. Now we have dad bars, we got man boobs. All this bullshit and it's like I'm not saying that it has just nothing to do with them, just like their exercise routine and this and that, but like that plays a fucking part. So the learning portion of things and the learning portion of fitness and water and nutrition I would just filter my water or buy pole and spring whatever and call it a day. But then you start learning about TDS, total Dissolved Solids, and the amount of TDS levels inside of different waters and how it correlates to magnesium, potassium and all these different minerals that you need. But then I have zero water filter and it takes everything out. And when you drink filtered water that takes everything out it starts to strip your body of minerals and nutrients as it goes through you. So you become deficient in specific minerals that you necessarily weren't deficient in prior, just because you're trying to do the right thing and filter your water and get clean water. So like there's now, you have to remineralize it with trace mineral drops. Never fucking knew that Like what. So I'm looking for a new filter because I have the zero water filter and I'm getting deep into like reverse osmosis filtering, where it basically takes the water filters. It puts it through another filter. There's three to four stages of water filters in the reverse osmosis. So if you put a gallon of water in, it will yield a half gallon of clean water and there's a half gallon of dirty water that you just dump out. So it really gets rid of everything. But there's also an extra filter in there that in the one that I'm looking at at least, not every brand does this, but there's an extra filter in there that remineralizes your water, adds it back and gets the pH to be a little bit more alkalized. So it's pretty interesting when you start learning about these different things biohacking that's really what it's called Biohacking. Biohacking just different things that are gonna get you to feel better, different nutrients that you might be deficient in.
Speaker 1:Gary Brecca some people are either all four I don't know if you follow Gary Brecca if you've heard of him he's the guy that basically turned Dana White's health around completely 180. Oh, wow, 360, I guess you're just saying 180. We have so 360 degrees turned his health around. Basically, he's a big believer of fasting. He's a big believer of just keeping everything organic Grass fed grass, finished beef if you're gonna eat it. All these different things and these different methods of doing things. He talks a lot about the fasting. He talks a lot about all these different categories of feeling better, and I think one of the pointers that I saw recently is if you're feeling anxiety or depression, he starts talking about how well.
Speaker 1:I ask people do you feel it all the time? And they go no, and he goes okay. Well, do you know, is there a trigger for when you feel it? And they're like no? So he goes. So, and I don't know if he's correct in this, but there's a lot of people that say he is, that have tried the method out. He said they're more than likely deficient in methylated folate, a mineral, and people start supplementing with methylated folate and they start feeling better and not as fucked up with the anxiety and depression.
Speaker 1:Damn. So like these little tidbits and tricks. This is the side of social media I love. Oh, this is the side I love. This is always a good side. I hate mainstream news. I hate politics. I hate all that bullshit. I just want to feel and live my best life. I don't care what any of you motherfuckers say. I just wanna get tips and tricks on how to perform better, feel better and live longer, not live longer unhealthily. I just stretch it out as far as we can. No, no, no. I wanna live a happy, healthy life while I can perform. I wanna be that 80-year-old in the gym.
Speaker 2:That's out there just doing shit.
Speaker 1:Feeling good and doing his damn thing. So it's pretty cool how you get these different like little things and tidbits and whatnot. You should probably. When's the last time you got blood work done? Oh, it's been a while. I'd be interested to see what your blood work looks like if you have all of your, because you're eating mostly plant-based Well, not mostly, you are plant-based. I would be interested to see if all of your vitamin levels are exactly where they need to be, because you're getting it from the foods that you're consuming, more so than, like when I eat steak and rice, I don't really get a lot of the extra stuff that I need, maybe from the vegetables, the fiber content or some of the micronutrients that we forget about. We're always focused on macro. We don't forget about the micro, exactly. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I gotta get some blood work done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, you know what this is. I'll give you the labs that my guy James has me run whenever I get blood work done and it pretty much hits all the markers. It's good. I mean it just A to Z, draw the blood, send it out and you get a really good base level of everything that you need to focus on as overall health on Jevity wise yeah, which is good.
Speaker 1:So I want to go back to this real quick. You originally said you know you were younger. You started gaining weight after high school. Yeah, was it during college or post college?
Speaker 2:So it was. I didn't go to college for like a lot probably one for a year Just to play football. And then I was like I'm just going to play football, so I'm not, I have no type of goal for a degree or like you know. So I'm like I'm like I'm just go to school just to go school and, just you know, get it dead for no reason.
Speaker 1:Good for you. And then people just go because they feel like they have to.
Speaker 2:They have to. And when I went there first years because my mom, like you know, she's like you got to go to college, you got to go to college, you don't want to be a bum I'm like all right, all right, I'll go. And then, but the girl I was dating, she went to college and I would visit her. Since I'm not in college, I'll just work Monday through Friday and I'm off on the weekends. So after she had did a year in Albany, did she go to Stony Brook. So I used to go to Stony Brook every weekend, so Domino's every single weekend. Every time I got there, I'm just ordering Domino's, ordering Domino's.
Speaker 2:She was with it too, like she loved Domino's herself. So it wasn't like nobody can tell me like all right, let's not get Domino's this weekend, nope, like we're getting Domino's this weekend. Yeah, I already got it all set up, we're good. So it was just-, missouri loves company. Like join me, join me. It was insane. And knowing that she was my girl and didn't let me know, because she was with me the whole time I was in. I was in a 11, 12 year relationship. So, yeah, bro, I was from ninth grade all the way until like a couple of years ago, like it was. It was so. When you're in it, time flies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just you guys had a reign like the king and queen in England. Oh my God, it just flew. So our relationships are more like science infections lately. Yeah, month hair.
Speaker 2:Yo, cause there's no, there's no consistency now, and what you said about the media is so much distractions. Now it's like it's hard for people to stay in a relationship and accept what they have because there's always more out there. Let me oh, I can see this Like oh, it's a cuter girl, or?
Speaker 1:it's like.
Speaker 2:So it's just like the grass is greener effect.
Speaker 1:There's always something better out there and listen, you're not wrong. There is, theoretically, there is always something better, but that's going to be the downfall of it all. You're never going to be content with what you have then Exactly. You know it. Man, relationships is so strange. I was on my buddy's podcast yesterday, but he we were talking about, he's like what's your type or do you like dating? I'm like no, I fucking hate dating. I hate it. I hate it and I don't know if I used to really enjoy it.
Speaker 1:I used to be so excited, I used to be so excited to take a girl out and this and that. But after you know, I'm 32 years old, after on and off dating for 10 years, 11 years, 12 years, it gets old, man, like I don't want to just keep paying for meals. I started going oh, you want to go out, let's go for a hike Jump for real. I'm not out here. I'm not out here, dude, I used to take the stops out, man. I used to bring flowers for the girl and the mom. We had that shivery. Oh, man, I used to get a car detail. I would take them to Toku. I would take them everywhere. The fanciest of fancy.
Speaker 2:Oh man.
Speaker 1:Bryant and Cooper for dinner for the first date. My man, what were you doing? What were you doing?
Speaker 2:Trying to impress.
Speaker 1:I was trying, I was trying to do hard man. It's like you got to. Just you know. I just thought you had to act a certain way.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know it goes back to then. All of a sudden you get ghosted. You're like the fuck just happened. Like I, it was going great.
Speaker 2:I thought I just you know I treated her like a queen. I thought I should have. I had money. I got a car to go to nice spots.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, kids, my age didn't have outies, I hate to ask myself that's another. Yeah, so it was crazy I was ready to go and it just, I think, after each, not failed attempt, but each, just each time, you just get a little bit more. I can't even I hate to use the word jaded, but you, just, you start going. You start going, man, like Another one. You start tall and then you start the talking stage again and you're just like oh man, I'm so again with this fucking shit, it's like playing a game.
Speaker 1:I own my own production company. I run a podcast. He's just like, okay, here we go.
Speaker 2:It's like going on interviews repeatedly and just not fully keeping the job.
Speaker 1:And then you know, you go on the dating apps and the dating apps are just fucking trash. And he's just because the girls are getting hit up by at least 20, 30.
Speaker 2:It's the option thing. Again, they have options, so it's like who's going to be the?
Speaker 1:most fun this weekend. I wonder this dude's offering me a boat in Miami. He's like fuck this dude, who's just you want to come over and watch a movie Like actually watch a movie, no Netflix and chill man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, fuck out of my house. I actually like movies. I actually like movies.
Speaker 1:You talk during the movie, we're going to have a problem. You're leaving. I don't play that shit. I'll tell you funny story. I haven't told the story in a while I'm in college. I hate when people assume something of me and they say like, oh, you're going to act like this or you're going to do this.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's just so offy how you look and just like you know you don't know me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what? So this girl's talking to me and she goes what do you want to do tonight? I said why don't you come to the dorm and watch a movie? I genuinely meant we'll watch a movie. She goes oh yeah, we're going to watch a movie. I went. What she came through? I made her watch training day. Oh man, we sat there for two some hours. She's like looking around the room. I kept nudging. I'm like are you watching? Do you not understand? Denzel's a bad cop, like he's a dirty cop. You don't get this because you're not watching. I walked her ass out. I'm like all right, peace, shut the door. All my boys like yo did you guys know we watched a movie. No one's going to come in here and tell me what I'm doing. Don't do that shit. They're like you're out of your mind. I go, I may be, I may be no one's going to tell me what I'm doing or not doing.
Speaker 1:Fuck that noise. So yeah, man, I'm just, I'm so tired of just the constant and it's just a. If I understand, I don't want to talk every five seconds. I'm past that point. I got, I'm busy. You got things to do. You're busy, you got jobs. But at the same time, it's like I don't want to see you once every three months, two months. It's like then it's the first date. Every single time I hang out with you.
Speaker 1:We're not building any rapport or anything special, exactly so. There just seems to be no happy medium with like nowadays dating and it's just been. It's just been a dog shit ride. To be honest with you, I'd rather podcast with good people. I'd rather work on my business. I'd rather hang out with the dog, play Xbox, read, do anything else besides have to just like deal with another. Yeah, oh yeah, I do. This is what we do. It's just not exciting to me anymore, maybe because I haven't met the right one who the fuck knows, but it's just like it's been a drag. Anyway, sorry, that was my rant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we just, we pick a topic here on, we just appear on our golf course, that's usually how it goes.
Speaker 1:That's usually how it goes. But you were saying but the 20 pounds and the gaining fee.
Speaker 2:That's what we started. Yeah, it was just the dominoes every weekend, every weekend. And if my girl's not saying I don't look good anymore, like this is the goal I'm going to get. She said I look good, I'm good. So I think that that's what kept me gaining more weight, because she's not telling me I'm gaining weight. She's not saying anything. You know, love is a love can make you blind. When they say that like that is so true, she couldn't see it. And then I told you when my mom she was there when my mom told me and she was still in shock she's like no, I think you look fine. The girl that knew me from ninth grade, so she knew how I was.
Speaker 1:So, looking at her, you saw looking at mom Like who's right here, like who's right here, who's keeping it real, mom's keeping it real.
Speaker 2:And it was when my friend told me I was like, all right, my girl is just trying to love me too much and not trying to hurt my feelings, but like it was, it was it was time and like you said it just it just packs on, packs on like a pound a week, like, and it's just before you know it. It's just, it's so much on you and I do feel for people that are overweight and start their journey.
Speaker 1:It fucking sucks in the beginning what sucks to?
Speaker 2:start over, oh my God. And no matter how many times you start over, you always think like this this was going to be faster because I know what I'm doing now. Nope, it's going to take the same amount of effort and discipline, and it's just more because you're getting older.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, it takes more time for you to just and it's, yeah, it's wild. That's why now, if I gain five pounds, nope, turn around. We're going back, because we're not doing this over again, because I'm doing a four week fast.
Speaker 2:Like literally like I am not eating today. It's just not happening. I saw a TikTok video. To do was like I got the secret to losing weight, like better than a magic pill. He's like I want you to just take your head, turn this way, turn that way and then say no. He's like no food. Stop, stop, put the fork down, stop just accepting every and it is hard for people to not eat whatever because you have friends I'm going to go out a lot. You have family that cooks good home meals, so you're just so much distractions. But it is hard just to stay in that tunnel vision and just nah, I'm good, I'm not eating that. Like no, I'm eating this today, I'm eating this today. It takes a while for that to really get embedded into your mind, to keep it consistent, because you could be motivated. But motivation doesn't keep you. It's the discipline that just keeps you going and going and going.
Speaker 1:So I was going to say Bedros Coolion says that all the time. Big Bedros fan, I post him a lot on my story, super dope dude. I just he constantly says motivation is fleeting, it comes and it goes, but the discipline is what's going to get you up in the morning to get to the gym every single day. Exactly so to keep that nutrition on track. And you know, one of my favorite quotes that I've, you know, I've coined, my mom has coined. Just we've always said it to each other when I was heavy, when I was dropping weight, is nothing tastes as good as the feeling when your clothing just fits, when everything just fits, and we're not having that that that, that hate that oh man, yeah man, and just feeling like the love handles and just like your chest is just like a little puffy on the bottom, so it's like you look like you got titties.
Speaker 1:So it's like you know you, just you feel off. It's like nothing feels as good as when you're just in shape and you're able to just wear it and you're just. You know, your pants are maybe a little bit bigger because they're they're fitting pants, but like you getting you getting trimmed up so they're not snug and not squeezing the waistband You're like, oh, this feels great, like that I fit in everything and I can go out and buy real clothes, but I wind up wearing gym clothes anyway. Yeah, at the end of the day, my mom always goes. Why don't you start wearing like really nice clothes on the podcast?
Speaker 2:and this and that I go. I'm just comfortable in gym clothes.
Speaker 1:I just like it.
Speaker 2:Like it's especially gym struggle. But that's the one thing I'll always, always wear, and I'll probably wear like a nice little jaggy or hat over it, but the base layer is going to be gym gear at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:I actually got to meet the gym shark CEO from when I was with Kai out in LA event. Super nice guy. Yeah, seems chill, really nice guy. I mean I never I don't really buy gym shark stuff. I'm big on VQ. Okay, I like Vanquish Tyler, my buddy. He's very friendly and close with the owner, ollie, yeah, and they make really nice shit. My buddy, jose over, who works over here at Best Buy. He's got a brand called reset lift. He just completely renovated his whole line local dude. He's got really nice clothes too, very comfortable, nice material now. So he's kind of up in his game and getting into, trying to get into that next level category too. A lot of options, man, I like. I like fab lettics. Fab lettics is comfortable. I heard about fab legs.
Speaker 2:I got, I got to try that out.
Speaker 1:I always saw Kevin Hart bigging them up and I was just kind of like wow whatever, he's just getting a bag whatever. Nah, man, they like really comfortable. Oh, I got to try that out. And then Mark Mark Wahlberg has his brand. What is it? Municipal, municipal, and I heard good stuff about them too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they. He pushed that off of like it's like a F45 type of, because he has like F45 logo on it in some spots and then they'll say municipal but it looks like good. Well, mark likes to stay fly, he likes to stay looking good. So I'm pretty sure his clothes that he's pushing is going to.
Speaker 1:I fucks with Mark. I like Mark.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know what he's like? A sadistic, Hollywood type shit and he's, and he's, he's been more you know he'll say like pray, stay, pray it up, yeah, yeah, Like he's just. He's become more of like a regular. Not that he wasn't a regular dude to begin with, but he's become more just like even keeled. I like seeing that. I like seeing people that are just normal, because we all are celebrities are fucking. They're just people. They're not fucking these false gods.
Speaker 2:People that can sing, people that can act Like you got something, too, that special yeah.
Speaker 1:I constantly tell people stop bigging these people up. Like stop like looking at these people like they're gods, because they're not. No, like stop the Taylor Swift.
Speaker 1:I'm so tired of fucking Taylor Swift. Every time a Kansas City game is on, I'm like I don't give a fuck. Like who Don't care about her? Her music is mid. I don't care. Like, leave me alone. Like it's just, I can. Okay, she's a good artist for, like what she does, great, like, okay, if I have to see her more than once on a, on a on the TV and on a football game, yeah, she's not a football, I'm moving.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Why am I seeing this dumbass chick in the middle of a fucking box seat sitting there celebrating Great? She's fucking one of the dudes on the field. Awesome, whoa, that was all the time. Like nothing, mind blown. I can't stand the celebrity like. Oh my God, they're amazing. My cousins were where. I was at my cousin's house last night for his birthday and my, his sister, my cousin Diana and my aunt they're watching Dancing with the Stars. I'm like I haven't watched mainstream TV. I don't know how long.
Speaker 2:It's a minute, I'm looking.
Speaker 1:Why are we watching this? This is like dog shit TV. They're tuned in.
Speaker 2:Oh, when they're tuned in, I can't say nothing.
Speaker 1:Locked in Like, oh, this guy can't stand this guy. I go who the fuck is this guy? Like, you don't even know him. I'm like, who the fuck is this guy? Like, stop watching him. My man's got like the nipple shirt on. He's like see through. I'm like, oh, my man's out here. Yep, cool, do you, baby Do?
Speaker 2:you. Well, though that's so funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, um, I wanted to ask you. So, like, now that you're getting your own studio and it's in the process of things like what is that? You said, the, the member enrollment and stuff like that what's that process like? You have to get more salesy now and and and bring people in.
Speaker 2:So when I was managing Long Beach and like co-managing Melville, it's easier to have a walk in or a trial or come in, try my class, out, end of the class. Try to get them to form a membership. I'm in person and they, they also just tried the product Like they. They, you know, they tried the program, they know the coaching is good, you know, but we're there for them, everything like that. Now I have nothing to show them. We're not open yet. So now I'm just calling, texting, telling these people like yo, F-45 is the best ever. 50% of them, oh, I've heard of it, I know people that go to it. Other 50, never heard of it. So trying to have people lock in on a membership when they're not seeing the product or trying it, I think that is the hardest thing.
Speaker 1:And so how do you combat that? How did you come at it from a diff? Is there a way to come at it from a different angle and try to get new people? Cause I feel I've seen the the, the re, the renaissance of group fitness just popping up left and right. There's a new spot in Melville that just opened up BFT. Yeah, there's a new spot in Melville that just opened up. There's, you know, you just see these shits just popping up everywhere, eight wells up here in Huntington. I haven't gone there, I don't know the guys from there, but there's a couple of people that I know. I'm sure my network's going to collapse and I'm going to meet them eventually. So there's, there's a lot of people that are opening their studio. So when you get an, when you're in a franchise spot right, cause that's really what it is, yeah, so when you're in a franchise spot, like, are you able to put different spins on it to to make it more your style of reeling people in?
Speaker 2:So, yes, I would say one thing about my boss now great guy, um, actually one of my close friends now. Um, he lets me do what I feel is going to work. So it's, you know, you have like a lot of micromanaging and stuff like that Like I think you should do it this way. He lets me, you know, takes my training moves off, like that. Do you think, if you think it works out better that way, do it like that. Um, I feel like the best thing that works with cold calling and all of this extra stuff.
Speaker 2:Um, especially when I'm sending a text out, don't sound robotic, sound like somebody that's actually trying to see them and actually trying to help with their, with their, with their goals and stuff. So like when I reach out, say, I'll get a lead. Um, I reach out through texts first. Uh, my message would be hey, my name is Dearon that I'm opening up at 45, jericho, I heard that you were interested. Uh, from the jump, what are your goals? What do you do now for fitness and stuff like that? So that way their next message is already telling me what their activity is and what their goal is. So now I can just feed off of that and just build that conversation, build the rapport.
Speaker 2:I can build rapport rather than just first message oh, make this deposit, uh, membership up. No, calm down, like we'll get there. So I feel like me doing that. So many people answer and even my boy said he was like you got all these people. He's like I'm reading the messages. He's like they're excited and they don't know what they're doing. But you got them excited and I'm like, cause, that's what it is. If you're, if you're going to sell me on something you, you got to make me, see, make it seem like I'm going to enjoy this more than just me reaching my goals. Like, all right, we're going to work out, we all know that already. But are we going to have fun? Are we going to do different things to reach that goal? So I feel like that worked out so so well for me. Um, and we're at a good spot. Now we're at a good spot. I've been in pre-sales for about a month and a half now we're about to reach a hundred.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:We're opening in February, so I feel like we'll, we'll be opening at a good, good number count. And then he also asked me this when he was like so what are your goals for the new years? Like studio wise, uh, personal wise, and one of my goals for the studio or two to go to the studio was to open at a certain amount, and the second was trying to retain those members.
Speaker 2:Cause, yes, you can open and get all of these members, but once they start to try it out, it's a honeymoon phase, month in two months, in. I mean, I don't want something different, start to cancel, start to cancel. So my goal is to find things to help keep these people involved, cause of course, I'm going to get more members in and people tend to forget about the members that they already have. Cause it just, it's just numbers. Now what do you get? More and more and more and that's how your retention goes down and it's just like it's not good. But that's one thing. I'm just hoping and like just pray. I stay consistent with you know that retention and keeping the people that I do have Cause you know, the day one, especially the people that just signed up, that doesn't anything.
Speaker 1:I've found it, no physical spot yet.
Speaker 2:And they're always just there's just fucking with you. Already they're like yeah, let's do it, that's your day ones. Like, always make sure that they get treated Like. They will get treated equally, but like they, they, they have a special place in your heart because they, they, they trusted you before even seeing anything. So I'm I'm actually very excited for for this, cause it's a. It's a first thing. Like I've managed plenty of studios, but opening from the scratch and actually saying, like you know, putting my name on it, like, yeah, that's a, that's day one studio. Like he he's actually like made that from scratch. Like all of the members in there, he got the trainers that he hired like their energy just feeds off his energy. So I'm very excited for that. It's amazing, dude, yeah.
Speaker 1:So people that potentially are in the Jericho area that may listen. How can they get in touch with you to get the pre-sale while it is a pre-sale price lower than what normally would be? Okay, so like what? What has it worked out? So they don't have to get prices, I just yeah, yeah 100%.
Speaker 2:You can either go to the Instagram, which is a F 45 underdash F 45 underdash training under Jericho New York, or you can go to the website, which is just F 45 training Jericho. That way you'll see either a foundation If you go to the website it'll be a foundation button put your name, your number and that'll be my lead. It'll just come right to me and I'll probably reach out to you to text or number or you can just shoot a DM on the Instagram.
Speaker 1:Fire. Yeah, and while we're going to wrap real quick, I want to ask you I've done this a couple of times, I have to stay more consistent with it what is one thing that you wish you knew 10 years ago that you know now? Hot seat. Okay, take your time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's like a, that's a big one.
Speaker 1:Take your time.
Speaker 2:I wish I knew staying authentic is what really matters at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:Like, yes, you could fake this, act like this, want to be somebody else, but you are the only you. You're one of one. So you just being the best version of you will just always be the better outcome than trying to be something else. You're not. So I wish 10 years ago I wasn't always just trying to follow the new thing and just like follow everybody else that's doing this and doing that. There is a quote that I do Like. I probably say it every day to myself because it's just it's just a good quote. Just because it's common doesn't mean it's normal.
Speaker 2:So like, just because everybody's doing it doesn't mean that's the normal way or the right way to do it. So I just wish I knew 10 years ago Stay authentic, be yourself and just keep perfecting you.
Speaker 1:Dude, absolute pleasure. Haven't you come down and chop it open me, hang out, we'll have you in again.
Speaker 2:Oh, 100%, man, you come down here, I might down a block. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying you come through your hangout and I'm wishing you a ton of success at the new location. You're going to kill it, you're going to smash it out the park. Yeah, I appreciate it. You got a lot of love, a lot of drive, a lot of passion for it so you could tell and listen. This is our first interaction, first time even meeting.
Speaker 2:Our first time meeting, so it's this is what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So it's just you're a person we'll do, you're really easy to talk to, you're just good soul man. You could just tell you get to tell a good soul.
Speaker 2:And I appreciate you. You're doing great things. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1:I want to put the spotlight on good people. That's really where it comes down to good people. I don't need famous people, I don't need nothing. There's good people. We're all people at the end of the day, right, like we just said about celebrities, we're all fucking people. You know, there's people that hit me up and they're like I'd love to come on the pod. I have XYZ as a background or this and that, but you know I don't have a million followers, as in that ago. I don't fuck about that. I don't need famous people, I don't care about that shit. I want real people, real people. You know, you're literally the embodiment of that and I'm glad that we were got linked up and obviously, just I'm excited to see the journey continue for you. 100%, you too, man.
Speaker 1:On that note, I think this is episode 78. 77 or 78. I keep. I got to get my boy Manimal his episode out. I skipped over because I had to edit some of it and I haven't had the time to like sit there and just follow through. So this is 77 or 78. Don't quote me, You'll see once you see the number.
Speaker 1:But please share like subscribe, if you saw stuff that you enjoyed in this and that you think somebody else can get some useful information out of. Please don't hold back. It helps the algorithm, it helps us grow, it helps me to continue doing this with my man, dairon, and other amazing guests, and it does every single thumbs up, every single subscribe. It really does matter. It's important. So, on that note, I appreciate you all for fucking with us. Peace Bye.