Navigating the labyrinth of dog behavior can be as mystifying as it is entertaining, but it's the non-verbal cues that truly speak volumes. This week, we chew over the quirks and complexities of our canine companions, diving tail-first into a story where a four-legged friend met a rather raucous new acquaintance. Alongside our special guest, Florent, we honor our 84th episode by sharing stories of personal recovery and the hurdles of re-embracing fitness post-trauma. We're peeling back the layers on everything from fitness industry pressures to the societal expectations that leave us panting for authenticity.
The world might spin faster thanks to the internet, but we're hitting the pause button to honor those who've served. My neighbor Jeff's experience not only sheds light on the challenges faced by veterans but ignites a wider conversation on immigration and its ripple effects on community and country. As we navigate these waters, we're also unplugging from the digital tether of social media, confronting the addiction and comparison it breeds, and crafting strategies for a balanced life—one where you can smell the roses without first having to post them online.
In the spirit of personal growth, join us as we reflect on the milestones and missteps on the road to fulfillment. We lace up the gloves to spar with topics like self-defense ethics, pet intuition during recovery, and the mind-bending allure of internet fame. With a toast to those who've grappled with life's curveballs, we wrap up with a candid dialogue about our digital diets, the seductive pull of algorithmic applause, and the quest for a life that isn't measured by likes or follows, but by moments that truly matter. So, unleash your curiosity, and let's embark on this journey together—no leashes required.
Navigating the labyrinth of dog behavior can be as mystifying as it is entertaining, but it's the non-verbal cues that truly speak volumes. This week, we chew over the quirks and complexities of our canine companions, diving tail-first into a story where a four-legged friend met a rather raucous new acquaintance. Alongside our special guest, Florent, we honor our 84th episode by sharing stories of personal recovery and the hurdles of re-embracing fitness post-trauma. We're peeling back the layers on everything from fitness industry pressures to the societal expectations that leave us panting for authenticity.
The world might spin faster thanks to the internet, but we're hitting the pause button to honor those who've served. My neighbor Jeff's experience not only sheds light on the challenges faced by veterans but ignites a wider conversation on immigration and its ripple effects on community and country. As we navigate these waters, we're also unplugging from the digital tether of social media, confronting the addiction and comparison it breeds, and crafting strategies for a balanced life—one where you can smell the roses without first having to post them online.
In the spirit of personal growth, join us as we reflect on the milestones and missteps on the road to fulfillment. We lace up the gloves to spar with topics like self-defense ethics, pet intuition during recovery, and the mind-bending allure of internet fame. With a toast to those who've grappled with life's curveballs, we wrap up with a candid dialogue about our digital diets, the seductive pull of algorithmic applause, and the quest for a life that isn't measured by likes or follows, but by moments that truly matter. So, unleash your curiosity, and let's embark on this journey together—no leashes required.
He's an interesting little dog man. He's not short on personality, that's for sure, and he it's like weird, because you have to, you have to watch him. Let me put my phone into another stirb because I already know. Yeah, all I'm gonna hear is boop boop, boop boop. You have to watch him around new people especially. I can't stand this dude who keeps sending me his podcast stories. It's like he spams, so he'll send you his story so he gets more views on it. I see, like bro, relax, dude, it's not that serious. Anywho, flo, pay attention, we're over here. I can't get over his paws.
Speaker 2:Shadow has different colored ones. What do you mean? She like you see how his are all black.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Hers are. Some of them are lighter, some of them are.
Speaker 1:Well, they're all pink. When they're little puppies, yeah, they're all pink, and then as they grow up it becomes black usually, but some dogs, even with the nose I've seen on TikTok and other sites sometimes the nose stays pink or it turns pink in the winter. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's pretty cool. But anyway you gotta watch him with people because you know he's got just like I said. You said you look into his eyes. You look into his eyes, you can see he's figuring shit out. People don't understand how big he is until they're around him. You know, even the guys at Jiu-Jitsu. They're like, oh, they'll talk to me about him. You're like, oh, yeah, dog's awesome this and that. You know how big is he? He's almost 90 pounds. They're like yo, he's way big. And then people come to the show and they sit down and they do it and they go yo, he's way bigger than we thought. And I go, yeah, I mean he is, he's friggin' huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and as beautiful as he is, he's very intimidating.
Speaker 1:He can be, man, I mean. But that's the point. The point is like you have to be careful with him because he's a creature that's making judgment calls on his own, although he's trained, he's relaxed, trained. He's not some Nazi soldier sitting there goose stepping and like, oh, anything, like a Malinois, anything you say, like that's not what he's doing, he's figuring things out in his mind. He's like, okay, well, dad likes this guy, or you know, like I dap you up, right, right, when you came to the house, came outside and hugged you. So the first thing I want him to see is like hugging, good vibes, and then he'll be chill. Not that he would just run out and grab you, but there's been a lot of instances, even with my buddy Gabe recently. Gabe is very loud. I love Gabe, but Gabe is very loud and boisterous and like just very animated. So I love you, gabe.
Speaker 1:But when he came over one morning early, kenji was about to eat his food and Kenji doesn't like disruptions in our schedule. So Gabe came over and Gabe was knocking on the front door, banging on the front door, and you can see from my bedroom window it's the porch to the front door. You can see him standing there. So Kenji starts going crazy, even though he knows Gabe and he loves Gabe. Once Gabe came in, he kept walking over to him and get super stiff and just like that at him. So I had to keep grabbing by the face and whether that's right or wrong, it is what it is. I have to let him know that that's not cool and I'm like yo, enough, stop growling at him and I have to move him away. Then, anytime Gabe stood up or started getting close to the kitchen where Kenji was eating, you just hear him. So you got to watch him.
Speaker 1:Man, he's an animal. That's the biggest thing that I can convey to people is like you don't know all the time what the animals are gonna do. You don't know what they're thinking. Even if you have the friendliest dog in the world, if your dog ever exhibits certain behaviors, you have to remember those behaviors because they could surface at any point again. And he's territorial. That's really what it is. He's territorial. He does not like people that he doesn't like in his space. Loves Tyler, loves my mom, goes crazy over my mom, loves my mom. She's one of the only few, I think, just me and her. Honestly, I can do anything we want to him you mush his face.
Speaker 2:That's like shadow.
Speaker 1:Fuck with him. Yeah, just do anything we want my mom and I. Yeah, yeah, but if you're anybody else, just like I told you just now, don't lean over him. He thinks of that as intimidation. He thinks like you're trying to big him up, big up on him, and he doesn't like that shit. It's such a crazy thing to kind of control and do and this and that and then you get the morons that they just go.
Speaker 1:Oh, my dog, he's okay with other dogs. It's like mine isn't. That's why I'm walking across the street. Please stop following me, go somewhere else. Why can't you understand that? Maybe it's not your dog that I'm worried about. Maybe it's my own dog, yeah, but he's good. Oh well, here you go. And if he mols your dog, then it is what it is, cause your dog is good with other dogs, right? Anyway, floorhawk, and how do you say the last name? Syla, syla, is that Sela? What's the best way to pronounce it? I want this open forum right now to let all these Jim Dummy people know how they need to pronounce your last name.
Speaker 2:So there's different ways between the Albanian, the English, but Sula Syla.
Speaker 1:Okay, I like that. All right, so now everybody knows, and there's no excuses yes, bump your gain up just a little bit. Just a little bit. You're soft-spoken, You're not as loud as me, I am yeah, yeah, you're not as loud as me. It's okay. Welcome to the show, dude. It's been a minute since we sat down. When was the last time? Was it the Voice in Rizzles or was it Rizal, did you no?
Speaker 2:you never did an episode with this. Yeah, it was the Voice in Rizzles it was. Maybe it's gotta be four or five years now, Damn.
Speaker 1:Isn't that crazy how fast it goes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and then I also think about it. I mean, I feel like we were both different people then.
Speaker 1:Man, I've changed so much. I think I'm having, like I look at myself sometimes and I go am I having like a mid-life crisis? What is this? I don't understand why. I feel like there are things that consume my brain that never consumed my brain before. There are different things that I'm doing in my day-to-day life that I would never have thought I would be doing and I thought that I would be forever a bodybuilder, or quote-on-quote bodybuilder. I competed twice, so it's like I thought that I would be a forever that type of a human being.
Speaker 2:Or we'd be able to play video games, but now we're getting old and we don't even have the energy to do that. Okay, I get so bored.
Speaker 1:I get so bored with video games now it's such a bad thing because they have all those. Maybe, actually maybe, I'll reverse that. Maybe it's not a bad thing, but they'll have those sales for the holidays and I bought probably like three or four games, I don't know. Combined. I've maybe played them all a couple of hours. If that I'd rather. It's crazy because I'd rather just sit there and scroll on my phone than play video games or, like you've been doing recently, just playing, watching Netflix and hanging out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, ice cream and Netflix, that's what it's been for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know what it is. I just I see these new games that come out and these trailers that they put out for them. I was just watching a couple before you came here. A couple came up on TikTok and I look at them and I just go I'm just not interested at all in this. Like these dudes are frosting at the mouth over these things. And I just look and I go, wow, I just couldn't care less anymore. That is so crazy, cause I used to love to play video games. I used to love to play video games.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I used to be up all night, yeah, video games Up all night, just go to sleep, look forward to playing it the next day. I don't know if it's a priority shift, I don't know if you know, just life, life dulls you out. It was kind of the same thing with Christmas this year. Christmas didn't feel like Christmas this year and I just couldn't give two shits less. I really couldn't. It was like whatever. It was another day for me. I don't know if that's part of getting older as well.
Speaker 1:We start looking at the days as like well, whatever, it's just another day. You know, like back in the day used to get a week off of school. Oh my God, it's so exciting. And that week felt like it lasted a month and it didn't. Now a days you have days that feel like they last for an hour. It's so crazy, bro. What do I say?
Speaker 1:Yesterday we played a few rounds during lunch. For me, I just like took a couple of minutes for lunch. An hour. We played a few rounds of that video game. And then we tried. We started talking on the phone like six, seven hours later, yep, and I said think about how fast that six, seven hours went by just now. Snap of a finger and that dude.
Speaker 1:That is anxiety inducing, truthfully. Truthfully, man, it's so stressful. You start thinking about just all the shit that you have to do. There are days where I know I have to get edits done, I know I have to get certain things done, and the day just kind of drags and I just don't feel like doing anything. I'm just not in the mood and that's really a time where I should buckle down, double down and really just get the shit done and not allow myself to procrastinate. But I'm a human and I fall into that pit. And then I look. You know, last time I checked it was 9 am. I had the day in front of me. It's 637 o'clock at night. Yep, it's crazy, man. I got flow. I got flow reflecting on life right now, just sitting there just thinking into the cosmos. Yeah, it's like a deep thought type of perspective when you start really realizing how quickly things are flying by.
Speaker 1:I mean, jack sent me a text message this morning. Where's it? Last night? Probably last night, thinking about how time goes. Let me see. Yeah, it was last night. Jack sent me a text last night and it was when he stayed over my house during one of the snowstorms, when we were training regularly at Bev's together, and he stayed at my house because it was so bad. But during snowstorms I had the S5 still, so it was too low to the ground and Jack had the Hummer, so he would drive from Huntington Village, come pick me up in Plainview and then we'd drive to Bev's Cause. The Hummer just basically got there, everything Yep. And so he sent me eight years ago oh wow, eight years ago, man the post on Facebook. That was me flipping the bird and I said to you, fuck you to mother nature. We still got here in the Hummer and then he stayed over.
Speaker 2:But eight years? That is so crazy, eight years go by. Now more than ever. It's really hitting me, nikki, because this year I'll be my dirty 30.
Speaker 1:So Wow, dirty 30. Join in the club. Man Answering a new decade yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I gotta be honest with you. 30s have been better than my 20s, yeah, but I've been dealing with more health issues in my 30s. So it's like did the clock just strike and that was it. It's like all right, though it's like the warranty at the BMW dealership Right when your warranty is up, it's like well, okay, now he needs a new control arm and now he needs this. Now he needs that, now he's gotta get checked out regularly. It just it feels like that's kind of what's going on. But 30s have been great so far.
Speaker 1:I mean, I feel good, I'm in the best shape of my life. Yeah, you are. I just I appreciate that. I'm just in the best shape of my life. I'm feeling good.
Speaker 1:There's a couple of little like lingering health stuff, that booty problems that I've been having on and off and just digestive stuff, and it's obviously all connected and I'm trying to weed out and figure out what's actually going on, cause I stopped drinking alcohol. I don't do drugs, I haven't drank alcohol almost a year, so I'm sitting here, I'm just like all right, I don't need sugar regularly. I don't really drink anything Like. I really just drink black coffee here and there and sparkling water and water. Yeah, that's pretty much it. And why am I having trouble? Why am I having GI flare ups? There shouldn't be. So I'm just trying to weed out and figure out what's actually going on with myself. That, I think, is the most challenging thing that I've dealt with so far in terms of just being 32. Now, like all the random little health things, your body's changing. So and you've gone through it. Enough shit where you know you've I mean your body has changed number of times, numerous times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You want to talk about that? You're being very quiet. I need you to talk about it. What's going on, dude?
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, I guess part of me, I don't know. I don't know if it's that I'm shy or nervous or what. I don't be nervous, it's just me and you. Yeah, I'm warming up. I'm slowly warming up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't be nervous, man, it's just me and you. I'm just like God. I need my man to talk a little bit. This is our episode. This ain't just me out here. I did have you know every. So I'll start with this. I'll start.
Speaker 1:I don't want to just jump right into into your injury that you had sustained a couple of years ago. I did want to just take a moment to shout out my man, jeff, because if y'all saw the post that I put up recently talking about Jeff, my neighbor, who I didn't even realize that his, his girl, follows me, I had no idea that she was following me on Instagram and I just had shouted him out and said that he was having issues with his shoulder. The VA was kind of just being the VA and not helping him out and the government just doing what they do with veterans and ignoring them after they're done working for them, essentially, and he it took them over two, two months to even try to schedule an MRI for him and I just found that to be bullshit. I put that post up, just putting it up, just to bring some awareness and a lot of people that are veterans of mine, friends of mine and people I didn't know that are veterans actually commented and shared.
Speaker 1:It actually got a lot more traction than I thought it was going to and basically last night he came to my house and he said I want to give you this little Marine coin. He goes because I appreciate what you did, dude. He's like I appreciate you bringing awareness to something like that. That meant a lot to me to hear that you were just talking about that and you just want to see the best for me and veterans and this and that, and that meant a lot to me. So I told him it is going right here on the desk. We are displaying the Marine coin right next to my war Thanos, my guy right there. But shout out to Jeff, stuff like that man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, shout out to Jeff and all the veterans.
Speaker 1:That's when you feel like you're making a difference, even if it's even if, like, I don't have that big of a voice. But everybody that knows me is opinionated and I get my opinion across and I'm cool with other people having opinions, but when it comes down to it it's like I kind of just say how it is. I'm really not into sugarcoating things. I can't. It's never been in my code, my DNA, so I can't pretend I can't do it.
Speaker 1:So when I see people that serve for our country, when I see people that laid their lives down for this country, put it all on the line for us to do a podcast on a Tuesday, a Wednesday, tuesday, wednesday, wednesday, on a Wednesday see, fucking, you just go by like that.
Speaker 1:For us to be able to just sit here at 11 o'clock in the morning on a Wednesday and do a podcast and not have to worry about mortar fire around us, that means something. And the fact that their government that they fought for and their people that they fought for generally turn their backs on them after they're done, that's disgusting and I don't like that. And if you are like, well, whatever about it, then you're part of the fucking problem. And as I get a larger and larger voice. I have to figure out the proper channels to go through, to give back and to help them out and to give them more of a voice. I would love to have every veteran in a 20 mile radius come on and talk about things that they've gone through, things that they have gone through during and after deployments, because it doesn't just end when you put the gun down and that's a scary, scary thing to have to deal with to then not have your back when you get back stateside.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then ask them about their experiences with health care and the government and all those things.
Speaker 1:I mean, most of the time it's just disastrous. It's just, it's a horrible situation. They don't get any help. They're just like oh yeah, wait in line, do this, do that, Fill out this paperwork.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I had posted a little bit on. I had posted a little bit on the post about my thoughts on illegal immigration and I'm very pro immigration because and I feel like you have to say that because otherwise they'll clip it and oh, you're a, you're a hater of people and all this bullshit and these sensational headlines not that I'm anybody that would require a headline, I'm not a big fish yet yeah. So I'm very pro legal immigration, but ill legal immigration. When you start seeing all these stories that come to fruition of they're able to fly around now without IDs, well that's scary, because Very scary. How do we know you're not a terrorist?
Speaker 1:And there was already a terrorist sighting at the border of an Iran. Yeah, that's how you pronounce it, because they get super tight if you say Iran, iran, iranian terrorist, whatever you want to call him. Like he's, he came through the border and he was taunting people. He was like yo, if you don't know who I am, you're too stupid to know he's like, but you will know at some point. Great, you let that fucking guy in. Awesome, I mean, I don't see how people don't see that. That's a problem. So if you sit there and then the bus loads, that come into all the major cities and then they're kicking the regular students out because there's too many of them. They're kicking them out of schools because they need the schooling systems to house them now. And so now the regular American citizens they get put out.
Speaker 1:Oh hey, hold on one second, do me a favor, sit and wait over there. We got to take care of them. Why, like Andy, for sell us that dude. It's not like the biggest fanboy bitch. I really do. But, like Andy said, I'm tired of pretending to care about all these other people and all these other conflicts and issues and this and that there's too much to care about. I care about us, I care about my people, I care about you, I care about this country. I can't pretend to care about everybody else. I really can't. It's just that it's too much. It's too much overload on your brain. It's too much overload on, just like, the negativity of the world. And it was a different thing when, years and years ago, we didn't have to worry about the spread of news. The second that it happens, the second an earthquake happens, everybody knows about it. Now, back in the day, it took hours, they had to run presses, they had to do things. It wasn't so. Oh my God, all day you're getting blasted on every social angle.
Speaker 2:I was once an immigrant. I moved to the States when I was five or six. I'm not a natural born citizen. Get out Imagine. Get out my family and I. We say the same. It's just so different now. Yeah man.
Speaker 1:It's very different and you got to worry about shit. It's a much different world than years and years ago. My grandfather was. I'm third generation, so both of my great grandparents came from Italy over on the boats Cool man, like that's awesome. But they did the proper channels, they did all the things, all the steps that they needed to do to become citizens and do all that.
Speaker 1:And there's a lot of people that I know that are waiting for green cards, that are waiting to doing the proper channels, that apply for visas, that do it all this way and then you see the floodgates open up and then our politicians most of the politicians just turn their backs up whatever it's not whatever man, because now we have to deal with all that overflow coming into all the other cities. It's cultural shock. I'm not worried about them taking jobs. Take jobs, bro. Most of the time they're taking jobs that most people don't want to do. And that's cool, bro. Dude, every job site I've been on and I've been on a lot of job sites like construction sites every job site I've been on probably had mostly illegal Mexican workers. And guess what? They are some of the hardest working motherfuckers ever. So I'm not saying that I don't like these people. What I am saying, though, is you've got to do it the right way, and whether they're taking free resources from the state or they're kicking your kids out of the schooling systems and now they have to learn from home. We all know how COVID went with learning from home. We already know how, developmentally, most of the United States is behind on those age groups that had to stay at home for those schooling, so it's like what are we doing? Why are we putting everybody else first before ourselves? Is it like this? It was like that South Park episode, the pandiverse. Are we just really pandering to everybody? Is that really what we've become as a country? Just sit here because we don't want to be blamed to be racist or anything like that. It's like yo. I'm tired of hearing this shit. I really am Like yo.
Speaker 1:The real racists are the ones that are the quiet you know what I'm saying Like they're the ones that you got to watch those motherfuckers, and you know it. You know the real racist people. You know them, but because you care about your country and you want your country first, that doesn't make you racist. That doesn't make you a nationalist. It makes you like somebody that wants to see your country and your area thrive, Going on a rant, but regardless. That's really the way that I feel about all of this. It goes back to if our veterans can't get an MRI scan that's really what all this came out. If our veterans can't get a simple MRI scan Two months, two months, took over two months, honestly he can't get a simple MRI scan for his shoulder, but we can pack out schools and put our citizens second class because we have to house the people that crossed over our border illegally. I don't know. Make it make sense. Why is that OK?
Speaker 2:Meanwhile, Jeff and all the other veterans should have been given white glove service.
Speaker 1:White glove service. They should have everything taken care of. They shouldn't have to the top of the top. They shouldn't have to struggle for anything, anything.
Speaker 1:I don't care where you served. If you decided that you were going to serve our country, salute our flag and put your life potentially on the line. Even if I had Tim in here, tim didn't do a tour. I don't care, he's still signed up, bro. I don't care that you didn't do a tour. That's bulls, bro. I didn't sign up. You know what I'm saying. I got a lot of respect for people that signed up. So kudos, regardless if you did a tour or not, you still did something and helped out.
Speaker 1:And it just goes to show you that the country, the promises, all of the campaign slogans they don't actually mean anything because nothing actually gets done. And it's tough man. It's really tough Politics. Yeah, it's tough man and I've tried for years to not bring politics up on the show. I really have.
Speaker 1:I've tried for years, but at the end of the day, I believe that we have sat the majority of people and this isn't a red or a blue thing I always have to say that we have sat here and allowed the mentally insane to run the asylum. That's really what's gone on. Because we didn't wanna hurt people's feelings, because we didn't wanna speak out and bully people, and it didn't mean that we were gonna go and razz them or haze them and be mean to them, but because their belief system was so opposite of ours and we just said, ah, it's cool, let them believe what they wanna believe, believe whatever it is. They gained more and more traction and that allowed their voice to grow in their small group. But because the major group never spoke up, the small group seems a lot bigger than it actually is.
Speaker 2:Couldn't agree more. We've all just sat settled and said oh okay.
Speaker 1:Belly up dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Belly up. I'm done, man, I'm done. You know, my cousin is very political and she leans a certain way. Whatever, I don't care. Anytime anything is brought up, she got the nastiest shit to say I just go, I don't care, you don't care about this. No, I don't give a fuck, I don't care. Look at my face, I don't care, I don't care. If it comes onto my home soil, I care. But until then I can't pretend to care. I don't care anymore. There's too much to care about. I care about Kenji, I care about work, I care about my mom, I care about my friends, I care about my country. I don't care about all these satellite wars that are going on that are mostly bullshit. I'm good on it, dude.
Speaker 1:We've been shown this year after year. Why is it? Can somebody explain to me why an election year requires the craziest outbreak of fucking lunatics on every side? Why Can we all recognize patterns? Is that too much to ask that we can't recognize patterns? Right and just go? Well, they're gonna act like fucking lunatics, so we can't believe anything. They say that's what you have to do. But instead, most of the people, they lean into it. They wanna watch more. They get oh, they get riled up. They're sitting in their living room. I'm so angry. Well, you've done that to yourself, bro.
Speaker 2:They're all in the matrix and watching all these news and things and these events happening. I feel like it's all a part of a big calculation to just brainwash them all yeah.
Speaker 1:I think everything is a move to just keep us all subservient and low thinking and not able to actually break out of that mentality of, honestly, modern day slavery. Yeah, taxes, working every day to pay the man you gotta pay the man. Why, why, why am I taxed on my income? Why am I taxed on the gas that I buy, the car that I buy, the food that I buy, the food that I buy the items that I buy the car? When I sell it, I'm taxed. I sell it, I'm taxed on that. Yeah, why am I taxed on every fart? But the IRS can't pass an audit, the Pentagon can't pass an audit? Okay, and we just sit here Once again, belly up, okay, just don't be mad at me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then we come across an article that says oh, the Pentagon can track $3 trillion?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, they can't pass an audit. That's fucking insane. Yeah, if you or I couldn't pass an audit jail.
Speaker 2:Yes, we're a very big fine.
Speaker 1:Why are they above that? Yeah, man, that's the problem that I have. So reform is like the biggest thing in the world For me, now that I'm seeing more and more of reform of the world. Tired of all this shit, I'm tired of being told things that aren't true. I'm tired of caring about your war, you sitting at the head of the table but because you and your business deals went bad, now there's tensions in a certain area.
Speaker 1:I'm done with that, dude. I wanna put all these motherfuckers in a cage together. Yo y'all, go fight, go fight. You guys, go fight each other. Leave all the nukes out of it, leave the people out of it, leave everything like that. That'll be the biggest UFC fucking payment ever. That'll be the biggest pay-per-view in the world. All right, bro Biden, go fight. You got such a problem with Putin. Go fight him in a cage. We're gonna have to find a new president real quick, because there's no way Biden is beating Putin. But let's just be real. Okay, that's the way that these conflicts should be solved. Stop putting regular people in danger. Stop doing all this shit. I'm tired of seeing it, I really am, and we're just overloaded by it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Now more than ever, I feel like society myself, everyone, we're all just ants.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you mentioned that yesterday when we were talking. It does feel like that. You know, if you're not part of the elite class, say it like that. It's like to make it seem like they're just douches because they are elite. You know you're not part of this group where everybody jerks each other off in the same room. You know you don't play the game. It's the same way that you know other people on Instagram and all these social sites. They play into the algorithms, they play into, like, the roles that you're supposed to do, the collaborations, all the stuff, just to get clout.
Speaker 2:Or even the modern day jobs, corporate America being one of them. Yep.
Speaker 1:How many palms can you grease? How many asses can you kiss on your way up to the top? How many people's necks can you step on on your way up? It's fucked up, man, and there's plenty of people that do not have the same moral compass of do North and be good and try not to do any harm or evil and this and that. There are plenty of people that are super okay with that, and the more you see these people in the light, the more you just go you flabbergasted at how many there are. Yeah, I'm amazed at how many people are just cool would just be in disgusting nasty human beings.
Speaker 1:It was like a gun control thing. A long time ago I was speaking to forget who I was speaking to, speaking to somebody and we were talking back and forth. They didn't agree with guns and this and that, and I just said listen, at the end of the day, criminals and people that are gonna do harm are always gonna find a way to get a gun and they're always gonna find a way to cause harm. And, unfortunately, whether you believe in guns, knives, whatever you wanna believe in, evil has to be met with evil. So there's only so long that we can all. Just sit down and just be chill and cool. But, like, if the evil presents itself, am I gonna hold its hand? Hey, come here, let's sit down, let's talk this out. Nah, bro, I'm gonna get shot in the face. That's what's gonna happen. This is gonna happen. I'm gonna get shot in the face or I'm gonna get my ass kicked and then I have to watch as my family gets killed, Because to them it's a game.
Speaker 1:So to me, you have to be humble, a good human good. To your fellow neighbor, Andy, for cello, again, God sounds such a fanboy. Personal excellence like these are all things that you have to do to keep yourself in check. But if that evil comes to you, what's the golden quote? You'd rather be a warrior, I'd rather be a warrior. Well that. And you'd rather be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.
Speaker 1:Cool man, I got the training. I know what I'm doing. It's cool. I'm not a master jiu-jitsu artist, but I'm learning things Way more than I thought I would. I've taken a very high interest in firearms, but the right way, the proper way. I paid for training. I went to the range. It's locked up properly. The shells aren't with the gun. That owner Like this is what I'm saying, these are all things. But once again, a criminal doesn't care about that and with I'm all over the place. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:But with response times of up to 10 minutes, 12 minutes, Are y'all ready to not you particularly, but anybody listening are you ready to fight for 10 to 12 minutes, to the death, Not fighting? This isn't a jiu-jitsu match where you tap and you let go. No man, this person's coming in your home. This person's trying to do harm to you. This person's doing XYZ. They're trying to harm your family, your dog, whatever your cats, name it, whatever you care about. Are you ready to fight for 10 to 12 minutes? That's a long time, man. Six minute rounds in jiu-jitsu feel like eternities and all I have to do is go and I get out of the choke and I'm like like Tim Kennedy said he was doing a presentation and he said we're doing five minute rounds in an air conditioned building on mats. Are you ready to fight to protect everybody in your home? That's a question you gotta ask yourself, man.
Speaker 2:That's it. Y'all got anything to say? No, no, I didn't agree more.
Speaker 1:All right, man bodybuilding Jesus.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't come here to talk about bodybuilding. Oh, you didn't come here to talk.
Speaker 1:And if you want, so what did you come here to talk about? I want you to lead the conversation. Well listen, you're the one with the notebook. No man, is it really like you lead the conversation? I need you to talk.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:You're too shy right now, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. It's not even that I'm shy. I just feel like you know certain things in your life. When you start really delving into them or you wanna speak about them, you get that uneasy feeling in your stomach.
Speaker 1:I mean, I talked about my ass surgery, so I mean, it is what it is, man, we talk. If you wanna talk about things, you talk about things. You don't wanna talk about things, you don't talk about things All right.
Speaker 2:where do you want me to start the TBI?
Speaker 1:You don't have to start the TBI, but I would say, because people listen to the voice and if they listen to the voice and risels, which most are different viewers. Now, I believe that you know, starting at your fitness journey, and you started fitness and you decided to pull back for a little bit, yeah, and then you, you know, you were met with the first challenge, which was the TBI.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so going back to that, that's really. I already had years under my belt in the fitness journey and then I had just started like getting into the whole competing aspect and the dieting and training and whatnot. The gear too, pds, If you guys don't know what gear I said.
Speaker 1:I said that to people before and they're just like what's gear? Oh guys, I have to slang in the industry, my bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think about myself as a person. I yeah, I've definitely evolved since then. You know, I was someone I didn't realize it at the time but I was looking for this validation, like Instagram and people liking the way I looked and all this stuff. And then I, you know, after some time I took a step back and I realized I was like, why am I here in the first place? It's because I love fitness and I love bodybuilding, and that's it. I don't care about anything else, like all the stuff on Instagram and whatnot. I could care less about it.
Speaker 2:Now, fast forward to COVID happens. You know, I was trying to compete and I couldn't compete. All the shows got canceled and then after that, my life just had its ups and downs. That's it, just like everybody, yeah. So then, june of 2021, I had a motorcycle accident. Not to get into specifics or anything, but I had to get revived on the scene. I was intubated, rushed to the hospital, I was in a coma and I had a TBI traumatic brain injury. So the result of that was I lost the use of the right side of my body, the part of my brain, and everything that was injured. Basically, it handled motor control, balance and, lastly and most importantly, the whole right side of my body. So everything atrophied, including my face and everything.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you this yeah, what was the? Without saying obviously, parties or anything like that? How did the motorcycle accident happen? Were you hit from the side, the front, the?
Speaker 2:back that. Unfortunately I can't get into, nick, you can. Okay, that's okay, that's okay. What do you remember last? I don't everything that's happened my mind put in a box and threw it in the middle of the ocean. I can tell you things that the doctors and the ones around me have said to me. But yeah, with the TBI also, memory was just erased.
Speaker 1:And what was the memory erased? Everything prior. No, no, Just around that incident Around that incident, so it's almost like fuzzy.
Speaker 2:Yes, very fuzzy.
Speaker 1:Okay, and what was the first thing you remember getting like coming back? I guess you could say just waking up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so sorry if I get a little emotional. By the way, Dude, I expect you to right, it's a tough thing, man.
Speaker 1:I don't expect you to you know, Like I'm not. When I say I expect you to, I don't mean like I expect you to get so upset and I just expect it to be an emotional thing. Man, it's tough.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's tough.
Speaker 1:That's a chunk of your life that is really difficult, that a lot of people would have trouble clawing their cells out of, and a lot of people would just slip in and allow themselves to get further depressed. And I speak, obviously, from the third party looking in. I don't know how I would handle shit like that. That's tough, bro, and how long were you in the coma Few days.
Speaker 2:So I remember waking up finally, and you know I had my family in my circle, by my side and I gotta say this. So waking up the first thing I asked for. Can you guess what it was?
Speaker 1:What did you ask for? I can't even guess. I would assume a dumbbell.
Speaker 2:No, it was my laptop, because I really had to send out emails. Ooh, and that's when my mom realized, like this is not right.
Speaker 1:That says a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just work culture and what we go through, yeah, and how much I was slaving away at my eight to five, yeah, yeah, so continuing on this. So I remember waking up and my sister did a great thing for me throughout our childhood, which amazes me, because she remembered everything. The neurologist and the doctor said it'd be best to get everything you can that'll jog his memories and stuff. So she brought me Yu-Gi-Oh cards, pokemon cards, and one of my favorite shows growing up was Naruto Shippuden. I'm a huge Naruto lover, so it was day one and my brother he sorry, okay.
Speaker 1:It's okay, man, take your time, dude, yeah.
Speaker 2:No, I so. And then before and then I was watching the show and this was day one. So all good vibes there. I remember them waking me up. They're like you should get up shower. And I remember my mom and my brother taking me to the bathroom. And you know, I finally get off the bed and I'm just like what's going on and like I can't pick up my right leg, I can't move the right side of my body, and so they're just there with me, they're dragging me to the bathroom and I'm like, oh, this is bad.
Speaker 1:The doctors know that already? Did they know that and let you know already?
Speaker 2:So they, the neurologists and the doctors they didn't know the extremity of the injury, right? They finally did the MRI and they saw all those pieces lighting up on the on my brain scan and they said, hey, listen, he might wake up. And they basically said we don't know when I did wake up. I only spoke Albanian, I was in speaking English for a few days, so I had no communication with the doctors, it was only through my mom and then she relayed. So, yeah, yeah, no-transcript.
Speaker 1:Where was I? You said you were going to the bathroom.
Speaker 2:Yes. So I finally did that. The great thing was my family, those around me, you know, they never like cried in front of me, no matter how bad it was. They just smiled and kept me going.
Speaker 2:So then, the next step in all this by the way, I do want to stop here in this story, this emotional story for me, and say, you know, I had a TBI and all this stuff, and their main concern was getting me vaccinated for COVID-19. Jesus Christ, and I was actually supposed to go to a rehab facility after you know, I got all settled in the hospital and stuff and they said, hey, listen, he can't go because if he goes he needs to quarantine for COVID-19 because he's not vaccinated and whatnot. And I'm so happy that I had my mom and those around me there to say, like, do not vaccinate, he's leaving alone. They wanted to push it onto me so bad. And I really am so happy because those of us that have, you know, taken PEDs and whatnot, I'm sorry to say, but I think there's a direct correlation with those of us that have taken PEDs and gotten vaccinated. I'll leave it at that.
Speaker 1:We've seen a lot of coincidences to be not a coincidence at some point, and the unfortunate truth and I'll speak about this the unfortunate truth is whether you believe that everyone should be vaccinated or you believe that everyone shouldn't be, it doesn't matter. Everyone's own personal belief is what really matters in the end. And just because somebody questions something and says I don't know where this just came from, out of nowhere, I'm not going to just put something in my body that I, you know, and then they'll say, oh well, you'll put steroids in your body or you'll eat junk food or you'll do that it's like, regardless, I don't know what this particular thing is and I just want to take my time and do my due diligence. It was the same thing with my mom and I. My entire family, was pressuring us to get the vaccine Non-stop.
Speaker 1:It was non-stop. You can't come to family dinner for Christmas. You can't come to Thanksgiving. You can't do that if you guys aren't. Okay, well, we're waiting to see what happens. If we decide in a year to get it, we can get it, but if things go south, we can't get it. We can't un-get it Like we got it already. So I don't blame anybody, like I don't. I think that if you felt the need to get it, that was your choice. If you felt the need to get the latest booster, that's still your choice. But you should probably wise up a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what kills me is what's the worst that can happen. We should be encouraging that. We should all ask questions on everything.
Speaker 1:Well, you're not allowed to. You're not allowed to ask questions because that makes you anti-XYZ. And you're not allowed to ask questions and if you do, you're a hater or you're somebody that's not knowledgeable or not. This not that there's too many labels, it's not that serious. I can ask questions on any fucking thing on this planet. I've said this the last couple of episodes and I'll say it again the people that say that the Flat Earthers are wrong. You just believe that the world is a sphere because you've been told it. Okay, You've ever been to space. You know what it looks like up there. You've ever been out on the spacewalk with, like, the astronauts? You ever done that? You ever done that? No, oh okay.
Speaker 1:So you don't know what it looks like? You just you're told what it looks like, yeah, okay. Well, we've seen how much our government lies to us. I'm not saying the word is flat, not saying it's a sphere, not saying I'm not saying space isn't real and I'm not saying it is real. I have no fucking idea, I don't know. But I'm okay to question things. Why can't I, why shouldn't I? That's how we evolve as human beings. In civilizations, we question things, we ask questions. The second, we stop asking questions, questions that we line up like fucking sheep. That's the problem.
Speaker 1:Our government right now is acting like a monarch. They're acting like a king and queen, with like the lineage of everyone trying to just continue to get into office. Bro, that's not how this works. Get the fuck out, pack your bags, you're out, go, doesn't matter, you're out, don't matter. Go, your time is up. You did what you did for four years, eight years, whatever it is. I don't want to see you fucking face in politics again. Go somewhere else, go do other things, go buy a fucking ice cream and go eat over there. So once again, we went back into politics. It's not supposed to be political, but regardless, it just goes to show you like the message is I don't care what you do with your body. But to me, I try to just keep things as natural as possible. I'm super sensitive to just like everything. So it's like I just I want to just see how things play out.
Speaker 1:And the fact that even to this day, like there are still people that will die on that hill and say that you need to get vaccinated, you need to do this, you need to do that, I mean I, I looked at I'm really open to big worms right now. I looked at the vaccination list for children. I'm not an anti-vaxxer, I'm not for vaccines, I'm kind of just in the middle, just hanging out. It's a scary list. I mean, did we all take that much shit when we were little? I don't think so. I don't know. I mean it's, it's, it's scary.
Speaker 1:Then you look at the rates of autism, but the rates of everything else. Why can't I ask questions? I don't know. It doesn't seem right. There's there seemed to be some pieces missing. To me that doesn't make any sense. But once again, I'm a videographer and a and a a semi successful, quarter of the time podcaster. What do I know? Okay, anyway, as you were saying you were going to the rehab or you weren't allowed to go to the rehab because of the lack of vaccination running through your blood.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so so there was this whole debate on that. So after eight days, uh, my mom and my family, they ended up just taking me home, which I'm really happy that they did. I needed nothing more than just to be under my roof and then see shadow again. That that was a lot for me.
Speaker 1:Um, she was happy to see you, I assume? Yeah, yeah, it was like I thought you left me.
Speaker 2:I thought you ditched me. You know, while I was in the hospital, shadows never done this. She's going to be six next month, but uh, she's never went in my house or anything. And my mom said well, my mom wasn't there cause she was at the hospital, but shadow would go in front of my room every night to make sure she was doing that, to make sure that I find my way back home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you. Thank you, shadow, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, it's like. It's like they know when something's going on in our lives. Oh, they know.
Speaker 1:They know when I'm, when I, every time I'm sick, he knows, he knows what's up. Still bullies me to take them out. But you know, they know. They're very intuitive creatures, more so than us, I would say.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and those that no shadow, she, she pulls on her leash, no matter what. I've done all the training and everything.
Speaker 1:He's horrible too Not as bad as her, I don't think, but he's bad.
Speaker 2:When I would try to walk her after my accident, she never pulled on the leash. Really, that's awesome Always walked.
Speaker 1:Isn't that crazy. It's almost like when you see the older guy walking his little dog. He's in late stage, like you just tell dude, has a couple of years left maybe, but the dog is just shuffling next to him, going mad slow. Okay, man, I'll keep up with your pace. No, not this guy behind you, bro. That dude will rip my rotator cuff clean out of the socket he's like oh, he's like oh man, I want to piss on that, that, that, that it's like chill dude.
Speaker 1:He's like a ping pong going back and forth on the street. So you go home and you know, therapy kind of starts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, this isn't allowed to go upstairs, downstairs. Didn't have the motor control at balance for that. Were you doing wheelchair crutches? No, no, just had the assistance. And then it got to the point where I was like fuck this, I'm sorry, I just cursed.
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't care.
Speaker 2:You're gonna curse like 30 times already I was like I'm going to do this but I will not, to get too TMI for you guys. But my first time when I was home, I finally went to the bathroom by myself and I was like holy shit. My mom came in there and she helped me clean up and everything and I'll never forget she along with the others in my circle. They just helped me. It wasn't even just to be positive, it was like it's all right. They kind of like almost like blew it off and like you got this.
Speaker 1:It's cool. We're going to do it together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, little by little, every day, I just got stronger. My mom, she would yell at me every time I wasn't using my right side, because I basically became ambidextrous.
Speaker 1:So that's what I was going to ask. Were you primarily a righty but higher?
Speaker 2:Yes, I was a righty. And then it got to the point where I was like, hey, I can write with my left hand.
Speaker 1:Now do you feel like that activated another area of your brain? No, yeah, I mean, that's what they say Left, left, you know lefties and left side thinking versus right side. It actually unlocks different things with your brain. So I don't know, maybe your brain went through a lot, so maybe, maybe not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah. Then therapy begins, both physical, mental. I would do these like brain games. I would. You know, I did a lot of therapy, a lot of acupuncture. Did you find the acupuncture to help? Yes, yes, I actually went to. I don't know if you know him, but Kenny from Smithtown Acupuncture, yeah, no.
Speaker 1:I know Marina does acupuncture. She's been trying to stick me for years and I'm just like I don't like it.
Speaker 2:No, you should do it, nikki. Yeah, I probably need to. You haven't tried it. Try it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I may go and get a session with Marina, because I definitely have some lingering things that probably would get helped out by that, even mental.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, at least it was life changing, so I definitely am grateful for that.
Speaker 1:If you don't mind me probing real quick what was the mental therapy like? Is that very tough?
Speaker 2:So I'm trying to think of the best way to explain this for you. But can you imagine like seeing something so simple as like a dot on a screen and when it lights up green, you're supposed to touch it. But then, as you're going to touch it, you're like why can't I do this faster?
Speaker 1:Or like Was it just the limbs moving too slow?
Speaker 2:It wasn't even the physical aspect of the limb moving too slow. It was like why can't my brain do this quicker? Signal disruption. Yes, yeah, it was tough, man. It was really tough and I'll tell you, throughout my recovery I had every reason and I was some days in like the darkest places of my mind. It was like I can't live life like this. This cannot be the new norm for me. No, so yeah, it's okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I understand that. Yeah, it's tough, dude, it's not easy, man, life isn't easy. And then you know you're dealt with challenges like this that make it even exponentially more difficult. So you know, we've all gone through obstacles. Your obstacles a little different, a little harder in certain ways than other people's, and others deal with other things that are the same. You know what I'm saying. Like we all deal with different things. I will say though Nikki, handle it with grace, though from the outside.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you really did. It was an obstacle, and this time in my life it truly was one of the biggest blessings in disguise for me. And why do you believe that? As much as it changed me as a person physically, mentally, it did as well. I think I finally like stopped in my life and I'm, by any means necessary. I'm enjoying this present moment and I'm not living in the past or the future.
Speaker 1:Which we spoke about last night on the phone. A little bit yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's a big thing, that's a big thing.
Speaker 1:I was watching Queen. I wrote it down. I was watching Queen, the movie about the band yeah, and one of the guys asked Freddie Mercury. He said, oh, your friends have left and they've gone. He's like they all left. And his response was they're not my friends, they're just a distraction. And his response was from what? And Freddie Mercury in the movie. I don't know if this actually happened, but it was a very deep quote. He said the in-between moments. I suppose I find them intolerable. All of the darkness you thought you left behind comes creeping back in. So living in the moment and why it's important, that kind of sparked our little conversation that we had on the phone last night. It's tough when you're friends with people and you talk to them before a podcast, because you're listening to you speaking on the phone with them and you're just like, oh man, this is perfect for the cast yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we kind of dove into it a little bit and I'm very guilty of it. I've been guilty of it for years, I still am and I don't really live so much in the past. I think I romanticized some of my past more so than it was romantic and it was awesome, not necessarily with exes, but at certain points of my life.
Speaker 2:I'm on that boat with you now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not really with my exes so much, but like, or past lovers, whatever you would fucking call them, but more so on the terms of like a point where I was at my dad's house for the weekend and we got a ton of food and it was just a nice time. There was nothing going on. But then you start thinking about, oh, then that Monday came and you were stressed about school again. It's like, oh, no, no, no, that's not the memory you want to remember. And then you start like remembering different times that you were happy or was like stand out points, and then you go back to that quote of, well, what's all the in between? You know, you have these pivotal moments, these night out with friends, these days going to the gym, the jujitsu, going on vacations, signing a big client, getting a big shoot, money hitting your account and all the other areas in between.
Speaker 1:It's just kind of like nothing really going on and that could bring somebody down. So it's it goes back to I think is important of just appreciating every moment, even the low points, and what I have to get better at, which is turning all the devices off in my home, like turning everything off the computer, the TV, the Wi-Fi fucking, turn my phone off and just be able to just sit not necessarily read, but just be able to sit and chill. There's so much stimuli and stimulus on a constant basis, just hitting us at all angles, and you wonder why you wake up tired still. Or you wonder why your brain feels tired. My brain feels tired all the time, and that's actually something that I wanted to talk about. Like, my brain feels tired all the time when I'm on my phone constantly.
Speaker 2:It seems impossible these days, and I myself. I mean, can we even go a day without our phones?
Speaker 1:I get nervous that Kenji's going to have an episode or something's going to happen or my mom something's going to have a mom or grandma or something like that, and because I was selfishly turning my phone off, they couldn't get through to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or they worried because they couldn't get a hold of me, and I just want to go back to those moments, quote one more time no, please, please, please.
Speaker 2:There's the past, and then I also think about the future, like this year I'll be 30. And I think about, I get these anxieties and I tell myself, like you're about to be 30. Are you where you want to be in your life? And then this is the biggest thing, this social media and technology and all this stuff has a play into it, where it influences your thoughts and it gives you comparison, and comparison is the thief of joy. You know, I tell myself, oh, maybe you should have this much money, or maybe you should already have a family, because you're constantly seeing these highlight reels of other people's lives, like you know, and uh, what?
Speaker 1:we say last night stories, every story I put up. Yeah, truth be told, I don't want to do it. I don't want to. I want to leave my phone off. I haven't really posted the last couple of days. I just put up random memes and gifts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good for business, though it's not good for business. Maybe Nick doesn't have any projects. No, no, no, I got a lot of projects. I just I don't post everything I do anymore, and I think it's good and bad because obviously I can't show off some of my work, but at the same time, I just I got to stay off of this fucking thing I really do. I really got to stay off of these, off of the social media stuff. I really have to.
Speaker 1:When my timer is up every day because I put a time limit on it, when that time limit is up, I have to stop hitting Add another 15 minutes, add another 15 minutes. Ignore. For the rest of the day, ignore. I have to be able to turn it off like, just leave it. Be. If I blew through my time for the day, which is like I think it's an hour, an hour and a half, that I gave myself fucking far too much time. I need to be able to just stop doing that. I actually put Instagram and all my social sites. I actually put them on the second page. Oh, wow, so I have my calendar, my time tracking app and my to-dos on the first page. I just I'm trying anything I can to break the addiction, because the more that I'm on that, the less I'm living. In the moment I'm watching everybody else's life through a fucking script Dude, take that out of my hand that I'm looking at it like this.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's nothing there. There's nothing there. It's stupid. Think about how many hours we sit here. I'm going to take it out of the case.
Speaker 2:Well, you might do an hour a day or an hour and a half. There's a lot of other people that do more. There's people that do 10 hours. I myself am guilty of what? Five, six hours maybe.
Speaker 1:Oh, I could be. I'll look up my screen time right now. But like, even like this, I took the phone out. How stupid do I look, looking at this for an hour a day? I'm going to take it out of the case. I'm going to look up my screen time right now. I look dumb, I look really stupid and it's dumb. It's dumb to allow this little anxiety box to just take advantage of our lives at all given times.
Speaker 2:I think about social media like I mean, when I was growing up I had like my space and stuff. That's when it just started out and that's when it was at its best.
Speaker 1:After that, it just started going downhill. Let's see what's my screen time at. Yeah, dude, you know what man? My screen time. And now it's tough because my screen time is factored in between my iPad, my phone and my laptop. I believe it's at 12 hours and 19 minutes. Out of that, an hour and a half is social, 10 minutes is games, 24 minutes is information and reading. My most used categories are TikTok, instagram Messages, reddit, safari and then Marvel Snap, which is a phenomenal game. It's like a little card game, but you're looking at that and you're trying to live in the moment and you're trying to appreciate everything that's around you, the limited time that we have with our dogs.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, kedji's a healthy dog but he's got issues. So it's like is he going to live to 12? Is he going to live to 15? I don't know, might only live another year, we don't know. It's like every time he wants to go, oh, you too, I can't fucking say he's laying on the floor. I know I got to spell it out. Every time he wants to, it's like I get irritated sometimes. It's like, man, I just want to lay on the couch, bro. Yeah, I got to remind myself. It's like you're laying on the couch, you're scrolling through nonsense, meaningless shit. It's stopping you from getting your work done. It's creating mental blockades and creativity blocks in your psyche and your mind and we willingly just sit there and go fuck it. We allow it. Yeah, it's truly troubling. It really is, because it could be a great force of good and it could be a really big, big force of evil.
Speaker 2:Couldn't agree more yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you have time limits set on yours? No, oh man, bring out your phone. What's your screen time? It's Go, get that. It's bad. I need to know it. I want to know it right now. He just goes. It's bad. You know how to go to it, of course you do.
Speaker 2:I'm just going to. I think you forget I worked in tech.
Speaker 1:I know I know he just talks shit and he doesn't know where it is.
Speaker 2:No, I'm here, but it says my zero.
Speaker 1:No one's beating that I better update this phone. I'll tell you that much. There it is All right. Six hours and 48 minutes is your activity.
Speaker 2:And I'll tell you right now For the week that's the rough average for the week. The top thing is tell me if I'm right, it's definitely Instagram. Yeah, by a long shot. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you know, for the Probably all of my.
Speaker 2:Do you know, for the week since Sunday, the time you've spent on Instagram, just so the viewers know I'm hearing this as well for the first time.
Speaker 1:For the week. Yeah, I have to go to mine too and check mine, because that's pretty, that's a lot, yeah, yeah, by the week. Yeah, my daily average by the week is 12 hours and 19 minutes. All right, yeah, mine's nowhere near yours, thank God, I was going to get nervous there, so you're doing good then. What's your? What's your? You're from Sunday to now Wednesday. What is your average time? Your most used is Instagram. How much time have you spent on it A day? No less than a day? 15 hours and 42 minutes, and I'm at five hours. Yeah, thank God.
Speaker 2:That's still not great, but thank God, yeah, because that is Now it goes to show you I can't do it anymore, man, yeah, I can't do it.
Speaker 1:It's all the same shit anyway. You know what the newest thing is? What have I been, what have I been seeing? The newest thing is you just see one person do one type of a template type.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then you just copy it, oh everybody copies it.
Speaker 1:Everyone's doing the same thing. No one, no one's creative anymore. They're all just ripping each other. One person comes, one person gets a little creative. They come up with a different way of doing something or showing something or making a skit, and then everybody follows it. And then you get 50 of them on your page. It's like, oh my God, oh, just get it away from me. The same trending sound, the same. It's like, oh my God, my eyes are bleeding.
Speaker 2:I actually had a conversation with someone and I was saying I really want to get into like posting more and content. And they're like just find the trending real and just copy it.
Speaker 1:I was like it's corny, bro, it's corny, it's corny. It's the same shit over and over again.
Speaker 2:So that's why I rarely want to be that dude I rarely ever post and I just post on my story, like what I'm eating at the gym and stuff.
Speaker 1:Whatever dude people want to follow, they follow. If they don't, they don't. You know itself. Because I want to get the podcast out there and I want to. I'm not looking for fame, I'm looking to make money on this. Yeah, be transparent, I want to make money on this, but it doesn't have to be like Joe Rogan money right out of the gate. I'm looking for that. I'm not looking for a hundred million dollar deal or or anything else is shit. No, bro, like you know, I got, I got a couple things lined up with some potential sponsors and this and that, which is great, that's awesome. But that's what this is for. That's what I want to do this. But like I'm going to put my stuff out there and I'm going to make it authentic to me, like it's going to be me, yeah, I'm not going to just copy these other fucking people. I can't do it. It goes back to what we said in the beginning it's not my code, I can't fake shit, I can't be a copier and then sit here and like, yeah, I did that. No, you didn't do that. The dude down the road did that. You just copied it multiple times Like the new, the new trends going to be farting on salads, and then everyone's going to be just farting on salads all over TikTok.
Speaker 1:You'll be like why is one farting on salads? A hundred thousand views? Dude, just fart on the salad. It's like what? Why am I watching this? It's so fucking stupid.
Speaker 1:The people that get that do pranks and all this stuff. It's like why are you doing this? You really got nothing else going on. This is what you think is going to make you famous. And even still, you believe that Bobby Schmurder and all these dudes lost all their fame and they actually made music and they actually did things. You are just doing skits that copy other people. What do you think is going to happen to you, bro? You think you're going to be famous forever? Okay, nah, you're famous of one. Real, no one cares about you.
Speaker 1:You know I've said this a bunch of times to friends I got 53,000 followers on TikTok. Ooh, it doesn't mean shit, hasn't meant shit to the show. It hasn't meant shit to my numbers. All it is is people that like my stuff on TikTok. They see a couple of clips, they like it, they swipe away. So all it means doesn't mean anything to my bottom line. I don't look at it like it's going to mean anything to my bottom line.
Speaker 1:Whatever Cool 53,000 followers, Yay. Whatever Am I loaded? Nope, not loaded yet. From the podcast Not loaded yet? Nope, you know, everything paid off of mom's mortgage. From the 53,000 followers I got on TikTok? Nope, it's okay, don't worry about it One day. So I believe, with all of that being said, I think we allow these things to just overtake our life and, as I was trying to say earlier, the more that I stare at this screen, I don't know if I really. I don't know if it's the 5G, I don't know if it's the antennas, I don't know what it is. You know, I see some people wear the necklaces that are EMF blockers.
Speaker 2:I don't know if this is real.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 200 hours for a fucking thing that hangs around my neck. Maybe it helps your brain out feeling a little bit better. Whatever it might be, I don't know, but all I know is the more that I look at that screen all day, the more unhappy I am. Yeah, truthfully, it doesn't even matter what I'm watching, I'm just unhappy, I'm just irritated because I'm watching things that irritate my stance on life or stance on things. I don't know what it's doing. It shows me shit that I want. It shows me shit that's going to round me up and just even if I'm just playing games on there mentally, you just get your eyes, your brain, everything gets fatigued. And then I take a break from that to play video games, or I take a break from that to edit.
Speaker 2:But even when you and I are playing video games, for example.
Speaker 1:I'm pulling it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're constantly checking our phones.
Speaker 1:I hear your shit. Yeah, I hear your shit going on in the background. My shit's going on in the background. I'm constantly getting dinged, so it's like do we really ever get a break? Is there really the question that we need to ask ourselves at that point? Do we actually ever sit there with nothing, like I had said earlier, to be able to sit there with nothing and be present and be in the moment? Truthfully? That's honestly why I like Jiu Jitsu yeah, my phone's not with me, like with Bevs and all these other Not OG either, but with Bevs my phone's always in my pocket.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Every set, every set. I'm taking my phone out and I'm changing a song. Yeah, even if I love the song, I'm sitting there fucking, just going crazy. Impulse. I need something else. I can't think that that's good for our brains, that we're just constantly looking for the next hit, next hit, dopamine, you know the buzzwords. I need the next hit, next hit. And then I'm checking social media, or at least I used to when I was training at Bevs. I'm checking social. In between, I'm taking pictures of me in the mirror. I'm like fucking around with people. You don't, you're there to work out bro.
Speaker 2:So that's one rule I've given myself is when I'm training now I can only change the song, or if my mom calls, I answer that Anyone else calls no, but yeah, and I think about it like being present in the moment. How much time each day do I actually Am I actually present in the moment?
Speaker 1:I think about it, even when I walk shadow, or when you walk, kenji, I check my phone sometimes, yep, unless I leave it at home, which I did for a long time I would leave it at home and I would wear my Apple Watch, which I turned all the notifications off on the Apple Watch and it has cell phone connection just in case there's an emergency and my mom is the only one that gets through on that too, but it does forward all my calls from my phone to the watch. But, honestly, I felt great when I left it at home. I did, you know, even still you're saying how present are we when we walk the dogs, bro, a lot of times I got headphones like this on, yeah, and I'm listening to a podcast or I have it playing in my pocket, loud blasting. Once again, it's like, dude, you don't get a break, man, our brains don't get a break.
Speaker 1:And then I sit here and I wonder why I feel cloudy, why I've got brain fog, why I've got this, why I've got that. I don't know. Bro, you don't ever like just chill. You think you chill, but you don't actually chill. You're actually in the most rested version of like actively doing things passively. That's really what it winds up being. You're passively doing these things. I'm not on my phone, but it's still on and playing things and I can hear it. I'm not paying attention to it. Now, does that contribute to my lack of focus too?
Speaker 2:It's honestly scary what it's done to society as a whole.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're amazing things. These are amazing pieces of technology in our pockets, on our desks, anywhere that they are. They're amazing pieces of technology, but I do believe that the negatives far outweigh the positives, because we don't use them for what they're meant for.
Speaker 2:I've spent a lot of time in Europe, but whenever I'm there I find it amazing, because whether we're out in a social setting or whatever it may be, one people could care less about asking you oh, what do you do for work? Sure, if I meet someone new, right away they ask me what do you do? But there you see so much more connection and you see people talking to each other and whatnot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the food is better, the air is better. There was a guy that I saw on TikTok yesterday sent it to my mom. He was talking about the food in the US. He used to live in the US and now he's moving his family to France yeah, moving them to Nice, france, south of France, which Nice is beautiful. He's moving to the south of France. He said not only is it cheaper out here, but the food he's like we could eat all weekend. Stuff our faces, baguettes, every meal, dessert, everything. People will argue and say, ah, you're walking more. He's like we're not, because at home I was getting 20,000 steps. He said what are they putting in our food in the US? Because the second I get back I'm gaining weight, I'm puffy, I'm bloated, I'm inflamed.
Speaker 2:In Europe, Nikki, I could eat twice the amount that I would eat here, and I have nowhere near the amount of weight gain inflammation.
Speaker 1:Any of that, Specifically body fat, when you say weight gain, because I know some people could well muscle too no, no, no, we're talking fat and also not for nothing.
Speaker 2:When you eat a piece of grilled chicken there, not only is it half the size, but to me it tastes completely different. Since coming back from Europe, I haven't been eating chicken as much.
Speaker 1:So it's tough. I'm on the fence. I've been doing animal based and the second that I don't my. I have, like I don't have IBS. I'm supposed to go for a colonoscopy next Friday. I just want to figure out, make sure everything's good down there. I just want to figure out what's going on Because if I have IBS, ibd, animal based slash carnivore is the best way to eat. However, I also have hemochromatosis with the high iron levels. So I'm eating a lot of red meat so I'm sure my iron levels are going back up again. So I need to go donate blood again to get the iron out, which I last time I went was in September, october, so I'm due.
Speaker 1:But you start to think about how the chicken and turkey. Panetti actually said he stopped eating chicken Because, even though the organic, they still pumped the birds up with shit. He said he switched to turkey. I don't know how much organic turkey. First off, I've never seen organic turkey, have you? I've never seen organic turkey on labels? Yeah, no, all natural, but that doesn't mean shit. I've never seen organic turkey. So he says he found organic turkey. I have to ask him where. But he's been eating a lot of turkey and he eats a lot of red meat. So now we go back to the point of like I want to just eat red meat but I can't First off cardiologists have a heart attack.
Speaker 1:But I'm the best shape I've ever been in my life. I feel great. Generally, I get some mental fogginess here and there. I believe that has more to do with just like my. If I wake up in a mood and I don't address it right at the root cause and I'm just like yo, we're going to have a great day, I do chill out, everything's cool and the overthinking of everything else that goes on with life. So I think that that is probably some of my, some of the stuff that I'm experiencing in that. But you start to like.
Speaker 1:When I was in Germany, I definitely wasn't holding back on food, but I wasn't going crazy. This was last March. I just started my fitness journey, like really started. I was fucking. I don't gain any weight. I don't think I don't gain any weight. I was eating pizzas. I wasn't drinking at all, but I was eating pizza, burgers, everything Didn't gain any weight. So what are they putting in our food? Why is that? Okay, oh, but I shouldn't ask questions. My bad, my bad, shouldn't ask questions. Fuck it Right, let. Why is our country just dying at an exponential rate of just heart disease and just inflamed bodies and Alzheimer's and dementia and all of these things? Can we look at the root cause?
Speaker 2:Can we just start thinking like maybe it doesn't have to be a vaccine thing, it doesn't have to be a medical system thing, maybe what we're consuming on a daily basis, yeah, and then it just kills me to be walking somewhere and I'm not saying that anybody needs to be like some type of fitness connoisseur bodybuilder, any of that but you know it kills me when I see people that have just flat out let themselves go.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, just giving up you know, hands up.
Speaker 2:Why give up? Why just say, why just settle for that you?
Speaker 1:know it could be a number of things. I think it could be a mental fortitude thing, yeah, cause it's tough, just like you pulling yourself out from that darkest place. A lot of people couldn't do that.
Speaker 2:Well, speaking on that, you know and this is nothing against anyone but it amazes me when I, when I have certain people come to me in the gym and and right away they start addressing their, their obstacles and why they can't do something or why they can't reach something because of their obstacle. And and I think about it, you know, even after my TBI, even after my recovery, and starting with five pound dumbbells, I never went up to someone and said anything about my injury.
Speaker 1:Well, people probably want a sympathy card.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know they want to. They want to have some type of acknowledgement that their, that their path isn't easy. I've caught myself not doing that, but I've caught myself when people talked to me about Kenji me bringing up his epilepsy, and sometimes I actually walk away and I go. Why did I bring that up? Why did I tell? Why did I tell a random person that he has epilepsy? Who gives a fuck? They were just complimenting how nice he looked and we were talking about the dog and I just was like, yeah, you know he has epilepsy, so we deal with that. Very good point.
Speaker 1:I don't, I don't, I don't really know why I bring that up. I don't think it's for sympathy. I think it's just to to show that and this is probably like my subconscious really bringing it out I think it's more so to show that, yeah, he's a beautiful dog, but we deal with a lot. And I know it's not that I need for people to feel bad for him or me or I, but it's like it's not rainbows, it's not every Instagram story. You see, it's a lot of hard times and there's been a lot of crying and a lot of just dealing with some tough shit. You know, until you have to hold your seizing dog in your hands and wait it out as you're crying, and if it lasts more than a certain amount of time, that you now have to bring him to the emergency room. You know, yeah, he's a beautiful dog, he is, he's amazing. Just, we deal with that.
Speaker 1:So say I could, I could. I could think similar to why they probably say it to you. They want to not necessarily compare, but there are some people on that. There are some people that actually do like to have pity parties and, oh, your life is bad like that. Well, I used to have to walk up a mountain to get to school. I was like, okay, but you know, my dad used to beat me. Your dad used to beat you. My entire family used to line up to beat me. It's like okay, bro, you win, you get the suffering award, it's cool. So there are people like that, but I would assume that they just want to. They want to just bring it out that their path hasn't been a straight arrow and the lie that they tell themselves that they're not going to be able to continue doing that or they're not going to be able to do X, y, z because of this. You know, unless it's debilitating where you can't. You know, you're like Stephen Hawking. Yeah, it's not a which fuck that guy? He's a perv.
Speaker 2:It's not a straight arrow for any of us, no, but we're led the duty of life.
Speaker 1:But we're led to believe that, from these little anxiety boxes, we are led to believe that the path to mental, physical enlightenment and wealth beyond belief just goes like this Straight right to the point. But it doesn't, man. There's days where you're going to feel like shit, there's days where you're going to have more challenges than others. There's days that are going to go perfect, and then those shitty days are going to make the perfect days look even better. So I think there's a lot that gets served up to us on a plate on a minute by minute basis I can't even say daily minute by minute basis.
Speaker 2:Yup.
Speaker 1:It's crazy man, this conversation got deep. Yeah, it did. This conversation got deep, bro, and I feel like I've been talking 99% of the time. Well, I feel bad and erupting. You're not gonna fucking interrupt me. Tell me to shut up. Be like yo, Nick.
Speaker 2:Shut the hell up, Especially if it's not good to look.
Speaker 1:Listen, man, I had a lot of this stuff written down on. Honestly, ultimate happiness and everything like that, what's our next topic? There's really no topics, there's just things that I just had in my thing to cover with the TBI and everything like that. Ultimate happiness was a thing your job in tech. I think that's an interesting point of why you just you know, you came out of the coma and you wanted to just shoot emails out. That's something that I think about with being self-employed. It's like, oh, it's all on me, man, and if that train stops with me, then I don't have the means to take care of the dog, I don't take the means to take care of myself. So it's like you try to put yourself first, but work is always there.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I think that's another outcome that I got out of the accident was I truly I started realizing how much of my life I've spent, you know, slaving away for, don't get me wrong, it's a great job with great people and everything. But I think about it. I'm like, okay, I've just spent almost 10 years of my life in corporate America. I've spent almost 10 years in corporate America and I've done a lot of reflecting the past, not even year, but two, three years, whatever since my accident. And you know, when you just get that feeling in your heart and soul like, hey, you don't belong here and I got that, but for some time I was ignoring it, I was settling and, you know, I was just staying in my comfort zone.
Speaker 2:Now and that's one of my big things for this year is I'm trying to find something every day, this being one of them. What makes you uncomfortable and I do it or I try to do it, whether it's, you know, like have you ever been in a social setting and you're like, oh, don't talk to that person? Or like, do you know who that is? Or this cute girl, or whatever? No, I'm gonna go do it. What's the worst that can happen? They say no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have stopped myself on a lot of things in a lot of settings where I've seen girls and I've just been like, damn, I have to go talk to them and I just don't wanna be labeled a creep. So I don't even go say hi, I don't even do nothing. Yeah, that'll be one of hey dad, what's your regret in life? Here you go, sit down, junior, let me talk to you real quick. I'm gonna tell you exactly how it is, bro, fuck all these people, their opinions don't matter, and if they don't wanna chill with you, then you don't wanna chill with them, it's cool.
Speaker 1:So I've had that same problem over the years and I still battle with them. Man, I still wanna be labeled a creep. Everyone's so quick to label. If you wanna talk to a girl, oh, you thirsty, you thirsty. What the fuck else is supposed to happen? When am I supposed to like, scan her brain and be like, wow, she's got a lot of interest that I like? Okay, no, I'm supposed to go based on attractiveness of me saying, yeah, she's pretty, I wanna go talk to her, exactly, but you get into all the issues with societies today.
Speaker 2:No, that's just society. Fuck them, yeah, fuck them, that's it. I just thought she was pretty and I just went up to her and said she's pretty, that's all it has to be.
Speaker 1:So Gunther and I almost got into a fight years ago because he told the girl that she had pretty hair. Really Not from her. Her brother got out of the car. What did you say to my sister? And Gunther just goes. This is like two in the morning. This is like we just left the club and we were waiting for the car.
Speaker 2:Maybe he was drinking or something.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, not maybe, but he was plastered. Oh, that's probably what it was. And I'm telling you, gunther was towering over this dude. I was just like, and the dude just goes the fuck, did you say to my sister. And Gunther just looks at me and goes. I said she had nice hair. And then the dude just goes yo you what? I just looked at him. I said yo, bro. I was like I'm saving you. I said please get back in that car.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you, dude, it's not your night. If you think that's gonna be like that, it's not. You're not gonna be like the white night. What are you trying to fuck your sister? Like what is that weird? Like he just said she had nice hair. Wouldn't you, as a brother, go? Thank you, man, or just shut your mouth and not say anything? Then his boy got out of the car, started yelling at me and I was like man, are we about to knock these two out? This is gonna be crazy. And I looked on the edge and everybody had their phones out. I was like, oh, I'm gonna knock this fucking kid out and I'm gonna get put in jail tomorrow. I was like dude, they ran back in the car and they ran away.
Speaker 2:I was like okay, god's given us eyes for a reason. I mean, when I'm with my sister and a guy wants to compliment her, that's it. He wants to compliment her. Hey, you never know, maybe she wants his number, or maybe that'll be her soulmate.
Speaker 1:Well, back when you had the long hair, he walked up to it and he just says hey, I just wanna let you know you have beautiful hair. She's like thanks, and he goes. I was talking about him. I was talking about you.
Speaker 2:I kinda miss the long hair.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you do. You've missed it since you cut it. Stop pretending, don't pretend you miss that hair.
Speaker 2:That's the one thing about PEDs man, is you just don't get that hair growth anymore, Is that?
Speaker 1:really what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is that why your hair hasn't grown that long?
Speaker 2:since. No, that's only because I cut it a lot, because obviously it does grow. But I don't care what anyone says. Of course it affects it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Could it grow as it once did? No, I don't think so. That's okay. And again, there's a lot of factors. You look gorgeous with the short hair, it's okay. Yeah, I try to be a pretty boy. I try to find that happy medium of being a mead head and then a pretty boy. Pretty boy swag. Pretty boy swag.
Speaker 1:All right. So let's talk about you getting back into bodybuilding. So now you're back into bodybuilding recovery. You know you recovered, you feel good. You're still dealing. You still deal with a couple of little things here and there. You know it hasn't been Scott Free Road. It's like you deal with things. Remember you talking to me about some of the issues you were having with the extensions of your arms because of the bone growth and whatnot? So it's like you're still dealing with things. But you recovered, you're able to put size on and you competed and now your goals currently are.
Speaker 2:I want to turn pro. I'm saying it publicly I want my pro card and I'm gonna get my pro card.
Speaker 1:Now can I just interject, Even though I've interjected the entire conversation. I find that interesting. And the reason I find that interesting is because the last episode that we did before your accident, you were so over bodybuilding yes, I will tell you why you knew that was gonna come back out. It's waiting for you.
Speaker 2:Bodybuilding. The fitness industry is a whole. I'm sorry to say, guys, but Let me start. We are in one of the most toxic and just messed up industries. Like it just kills me. I can keep talking, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:I can keep talking. I just grabbed my water.
Speaker 2:It just kills me that we don't all you know. When I walk into that gym, I don't care to see someone who's massive or someone who's overweight. I look at everyone there and I'm like they're here to better themselves and that's it. But the industry as a whole? It can suck you up and just garble you out. I got trapped in that man Last time we had spoken on the voice and rizzles. I got trapped into the whole Instagram thing. Get fake followers, seek validation, do this, do that, and I'm just like wait a second Now I don't care. I don't even take my hoodie off when I train.
Speaker 1:How are you supposed to know how good you look?
Speaker 2:So there's that. I don't know if you have any specific questions on it.
Speaker 1:No, I mean, you know it's a tough subject because I was once very deep in the fitness industry mentally and I wanted my ProCard and I was filming almost exclusively in the fitness industry and now not so much. My rain stuff is the most fitness stuff that I do. I'm actually gonna start doing Jiu Jitsu videos. I'm actually gonna start filming some guys at the Jiu Jitsu schools. I'm gonna start doing some cool shit with that. I'm just interested in different things now and I believe that every industry has toxicity in it, no matter what.
Speaker 1:I think that there are toxic people in Jiu Jitsu. I agree there are competitors that you obviously don't know, but I see a lot now from social media because it's showing me all Jiu Jitsu that intentionally hurt people in competitions and they intentionally rip shit to the wrong way to try to be a fucking dick and grab us quick submission, and that could be the same thing as the toxic people in the bodybuilding and the fitness industry. My main issue with the fitness industry is we've been fed lies our entire life. We've been fed lies that this protein powder, this energy drink, this, that, this, that they're all gonna be the magic sauce. But really the magic sauce is just the hard work. That's really what it is. They're all complimentary. They really are the reins, everything like that. They're not. I'm not saying that they're bad, I'm not saying they're good, but they're just. They're complimentary to what the actual work is. The drugs are overused by a milestone, Like not my milestone by a mile.
Speaker 2:I mean, up until now, I was under this whole impression of cycling off. I spent five months off and then, I'm like to myself, I came to the conclusion nobody cycles off.
Speaker 1:Generally, they don't. No, they act like they most of the people act like they do.
Speaker 2:Why did I come off? Yeah, there's that and then. So I'm also training a good friend of mine, Sebastian, shout out to Sebastian.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Sebastian.
Speaker 2:He just started his fitness journey. He's young and he sees me and then he goes to pick up heavyweight and do the same thing. I'm like, and I pulled him aside. He said dude, I've been training for almost 15 years now. There's so many factors that come into play. Just try to not look at anything but yourself. Do what works for you and nobody else.
Speaker 1:I used to get that a lot when people would train with me. I'd be like, oh, I can't lift the same weight as you. Okay, just mad weight at the gym. What are you talking about? What do you think I'm gonna force you to do the exact same weight that I'm doing? Come on, bro, you can't lift a 90 pound dumbbell. You can't shoulder press back. When I was shoulder pressing, Dude, shoulder pressing the 130s, 140s, I feel like a tank.
Speaker 2:I don't think I've ever even done 130s.
Speaker 1:I did the 150s I have the videos fucking insane. I was doing the 150s for like three reps with a spotter helping me not like forcing my arm, but they were helping a little bit just to get me out of the low point. Oh, dude, I was lifting like a maniac 140s on shoulders. I was doing the 120s to 150s for incline presses. I was deadlifts in 500. I felt like fucking tank. But it's like all for what. It didn't do anything for me. All it did really was just potentially get me injured, because the times that I would tweak something.
Speaker 2:And this is another thing that I wanna touch on, man, and this is going back to technology and social media's comparison. You know, especially our younger generation, we have all these kids looking at like Chris Bumstead and stuff, and while I appreciate it and I watched the Olympia and I love Chris Bumstead it may be another 100 years before we have another Chris Bumstead, just like the same thing with Arnold Schwarzenegger. But now it's like if I go into a commercial gym, if I don't train at Bevs, and I go into like any commercial gym, and you literally have like 17 or 18 year olds come up to you and ask you for PEDs, for drugs, and I look at them and I go, first of all, I'm not a drug dealer and, second of all, not to be your mom or anything but dude. I trained for like 10 or 11 years before I even took PEDs, you know, and I did it because I wanna compete, I wanna get my pro card and unfortunately that's the one drawback, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, you're doing it because that guy's doing it and that guy's gonna show up to that show and you're gonna compete against that guy. Generally, I mean, I really believe that if they outlawed in IFBB, if they outlawed the use of PEDs which, let's be honest, they're not going to yeah, I don't think that would ever happen. No, it would never happen. But if they did, I believe more people wouldn't take them. They just simply wouldn't care enough.
Speaker 2:But I do like that the IFBB now is bringing in more natural shows into play and stuff. Are they? I don't even know? Yeah, they are apparently so yeah.
Speaker 1:The dudes will cycle off five months before the fucking, before the show, and they'll look like Hulk. Is that you? I didn't realize that you were competing in the natural division. And then you'll have the dudes that are jerking themselves off like I've been a natty athlete my whole life. It's like all right, bro, we get it. Man, you use test a couple of times Like you're not natty, just chill out.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Dude, I really never, I really never took anything and I just didn't want to take anything because I just didn't want. It just didn't serve me the way I wanted it to. I just I saw the side effects of things and I just didn't want to deal with it.
Speaker 2:There's this whole complex behind it, and I don't care what anyone says, I do think it's mind-altering and all that. I think people have developed addictions to it too, and just like any other drug and the addition to the actual use of the drug. And yeah, I've even had guys to me say, oh, I'm natural right now. I never say I'm natural right now, even though I've just been off for five months or whatever. No, I've done PEDs. My body will never be natural again. Like I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:It's a weird people act so fucking strange about them. It's like the oh, don't talk about it, bro. I know you're on shit Like I'm literally looking at you. Your neck veins are bulging out by the thousands. There's like a million of them in there. I didn't even know there were that many veins in the body and they're all hanging out Same with up, and your skin is paper thin. No, it must be the tilapia that you're eating, cause that fish spins the skin. Fucking Jerkoffs. They're so stupid. They say the dumbest shit in that fucking industry. You know what, pinedi? I was talking to Pinedi the other night and he literally said to me he's like yo, dude, he goes. I'm really happy for you. He goes, I really am. He goes because not a lot of people get out of the fitness industry. They just stay in that rut of just the same shit over and over again. I couldn't do it anymore, bro. I couldn't do it. It's the first time I haven't had a BEVS membership since I signed up in 2011.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's crazy. I have no intents. My first year there was 2017, maybe. Yeah, see, I'm an old man dude, I'm the old school bro.
Speaker 1:I remember that gym when it was like dude, the abs were in the. The abs weren't like they were in the back, like they were now, but that was Derek's spot, it was all abs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's changed a lot.
Speaker 1:It's changed a lot. Listen to great gym. The times that I've gone there I've seen some people like people that are there, like the new crowd. Don't love the new crowd that goes there, very cunty, they just seem cunty and I'm just like okay on that. And, truth be told, I can't justify sitting there for two hours anymore. I can't do it. Yeah, no, I'm in and out Dude. I can't do it. Man, hour bro, hour and a half tops. I want. I hate having to even think about oh shit, I hit the weights for X amount of time. Now I gotta hit cardio. Just that thought is anxiety inducing from when I used to have to. Oh great, another 45 minutes for cardio. Mom's calling me where are you. Oh, I got another half hour on the step mill. Fuck, dad, bro. That's why I like these hit classes at OG. It's why I like Jiu Jitsu. Hour bro, I'm sweating, I'm drenched, I'm done, I don't have, I don't want my pro card.
Speaker 2:And training harder than ever.
Speaker 1:Training harder than ever. Dude, exactly Training harder than ever. It's different, though, because I can't lift the same shit that I was lifting back in the day. I can't, like I, grab a hundred pound dumbbells for chest presses. My body's not used to pressing that anymore. It really isn't. It's used to doing a lot of more functional movements now. Yeah, lateral type stuff instead of Something much more useful. Yeah, something much more useful. It really is. It's crazy. My body has shrunk but stayed good size in certain areas because I'm using it and I'm using other things my legs have from pulling guard on dudes in Jiu Jitsu. It's been great dude.
Speaker 2:I'm also at the point that certain people may even think that I'm rude in the gym because I don't say hello or something. But guys, I swear to God, I'm not. I just want to get in there, I want to train and I want to leave. It's not a social setting Like Dude. It's so tough bro.
Speaker 1:The people. Just, I was there filming a couple months ago, December. I was filming in December. I'm flattered when people want to talk to me. I am that you want to stop your workout to come talk to me. I appreciate that I do, but I'm trying to film and get the fuck out.
Speaker 2:I think I saw you that one day. You did. I think you were filming Carreth and Max and all like-.
Speaker 1:No, that's an old, old one. Oh my God, that was like way last year. No, I was filming my buddy, taylor from OG. Oh God, I was filming him and, dude, it's just like four or five people came up to me to just start talking to me. Oh, my guys, I'm shooting a video. Like you got to just give me some space. Like I know you're trying to be nice and I know you just haven't seen me in a long time and I appreciate it. I really do, like I want to talk to you, but now is not the time. I was supposed to be in and out in an hour. I was there for two and a half hours.
Speaker 1:I was like why am I still here? I want to fucking leave this gym. That's how I used to feel when I used to film there and then work out there. Everyone wanted to talk. I can't talk. I can't talk, leave me alone. All right, truthfully, we got like 10 minutes, maybe five, 10 minutes because I have to go to the booty doctor. I need my man to go look at my, look at my crumb and let me know everything's good. And then I got my colonoscopy next Friday, so hopefully he buys me dinner afterwards. I want to end on. I want to end on you. How you're feeling? I know you don't look too much into the future, but you have. We're human beings. We obviously do. I want to know what you think the future holds for you, how you're feeling about the future. Just how's life for flow?
Speaker 2:man Life.
Speaker 1:Next time you come on, you better be chatty. I swear to God, I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna get you high off some tea and I'm just gonna get you to go on ranch like I do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm really sorry about that.
Speaker 1:Do not apologize. I'm busting your balls. Do not apologize.
Speaker 2:Next time I won't be such a drag.
Speaker 1:I hope people aren't listening. They're just be like man. Nick bullied him the entire conversation. He didn't let him talk at all.
Speaker 2:No, it's okay, I'm easy to bully. Life, life, life is good. All the glory to God. You know I've had a lot of change the past month, the past two months, between my job, personal things, all that stuff. So I'm definitely fully out of my comfort zone. You know I have a lot of days where I'm anxious and I want to show this side of me because you know people will see my stories and see like I almost portray or give off this like invincible. Look, you all do. And it's not like that, guys. You know I miss a lot of meals because I, from certain anxieties and stuff, I get like uneasy and I just can't keep food down. That's why I'm not where I want to be in terms of starting my off season. But life, life is good. I feel really good and I think that everything happens for a reason and you know I'll leave it at that.
Speaker 1:That's okay. Yeah, everything does happen for a reason. Trials, tribulations everything that we go through Happens for specific reasons. Challenges Just gotta roll with the punches, play the cards that you're dealt and just keep moving forward. That's really what it comes down to.
Speaker 2:Nope, even the smallest steps. Just keep moving forward.
Speaker 1:And then I'm gonna eventually get you to come back to Jiu-Jitsu and hang out and roll around.
Speaker 2:That was stepping out of my comfort zone.
Speaker 1:You were good, though you had fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I did. It's fun, man. It's a good time, dude, it really is a fun time. I had Tyler come, you came.
Speaker 2:I was in a room with everyone that could kick my ass if we can't throw punches.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's dude, it's Ripple Lim. Man. It's crazy, dude, how fast some of those dudes will submit you when they really want to. You're just like oh God, I thought I knew something. I don't know shit. That's okay, man, we're gonna do some cool stuff this year. It's early in the year, first month almost down, so shows how much time, how quickly time goes by. But first month almost down. We got the rest of the year to continue conquering as usual. Give them your Instagram handle if they want to follow the journey.
Speaker 2:It's lioncyla underscore the lion slayer.
Speaker 1:I swear, I thought that was your Instagram handle. I was like lion slayer, huh, all right, cool man. Yeah, do your thing, do your thing, king. So lion say it again.
Speaker 2:Lioncyla. Underscore, under score, under score. Great Cause, I've been trying to make it without the underscore, but Instagram won't let me. Cause of my old Instagram, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Can you deactivate the old?
Speaker 2:Instagram. I tried it, but then it still wouldn't.
Speaker 1:Maybe change the old Instagrams. Can you log into the old Instagram?
Speaker 2:You changed the name of it.
Speaker 1:Still didn't work.
Speaker 2:There's some type of naming conflict.
Speaker 1:That's why I'm so worried to ever change Nicky Rizzo. I'm like nope, never, never changing it. That's it continuity staying the same everywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Big episode, big episode 84 with my man, flo 84, I like that. I appreciate you, I appreciate your time. Thank you for coming down, chopping it up with me hanging out me and Keenj laying on the floor behind you Everybody else. If you got something out of this and we provoked some thought or you felt a certain way about it, please comment below. I'm open to all feedback. Share it like the actual show, subscribe to the YouTube channel. It helps the numbers and it helps me to continue doing what I do with amazing people like Flo and, on that note, I appreciate all y'all for fucking with us.
Speaker 2:Peace, peace.