Talking Nutrition
Welcome to the Talking Nutrition podcast, where every week we dive deep into relevant nutrition, fitness, mindset, and health-related topics. Hosted by Johan Vesters, brought to you by Odyssey Coaching Systems.
Talking Nutrition
#146 - Losing 30kgs and PROVING Yourself That ANY Goal is Achievable
In this episode of Talking Nutrition, Johan celebrates reaching 25,000 downloads and reflects on his personal 30kg weight loss journey that was the catalyst for what ultimately became OCS. You'll learn about the importance of committing to your goals and taking messy action, mastering your mindset, and how to navigate the Wild West of nutritional (mis)information.
Stay tuned for Monday....
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https://www.odysseycoachingsystems.co/e-book/
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Celebrating 25,000 downloads!
(5:24) Johan's personal 30kg weight loss journey
(16:53) Becoming a coach
(23:18) Download the FREE e-book
Watch this episode on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/YeGS3q037Ug
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What's up and welcome back to Talk Nutrition episode 146 and we are celebrating a new milestone of 25 ,000 downloads, which is huge. And I can't believe it. Honestly, that's a huge number and I'm stoked, honestly. So let me start off by thanking you for tuning in. If this is your very first episode with us, welcome. I'm honestly very stoked to have you because for some reason you found this little podcast and you're okay. Let me check this out, right? Let me promise you one thing here. We don't do bullshit, the fluffy, right? The misleading stuff, the click baity, you know, every single episode, I try to do my best to give you something right to apply to, to think about maybe sometimes going to be more mindset training, nutrition, whatever it is, sleep stress, we're gonna talk about everything you need to know to master your health, longevity, and clear up a lot of stuff to you. Because let's be honest, there's even a whole point of this podcast, like, And we'll talk about this today. In 2012, when I was at the very beginning of my fitness journey, I was so confused and it's no different these days. You go online, how to lose weight, and then you find keto, intermittent fasting, and then you got to do this and that, then it's vegan, then it's carnivore. And then there's all the influencers who are shirtless in the supermarket. There's all the supplement companies, which I will say there's some really good ones out there. Don't get me wrong. But there's a lot of misleading stuff too. And they're really good at marketing. They're really good at getting to you. Make sense? My promise to you is to clear as much up as possible to actually give you something applicable, practical that you can walk away with and apply today, tomorrow, right? As soon as possible. Now, make sense? So thank you. Now, of course, if you've been here for a while, you've listened to a few podcasts. you know what? If you've been here, especially since the beginning in 2022, So we're almost exactly, I think it was June, 2022, almost exactly two years now. Thank you for sticking with us. I hope you've enjoyed these episodes. I hope you enjoyed the guest episodes. I'm trying to bring on experts and really educate you on like everything you need to know. So thank you. It's crazy to think that we're now 25 ,000 downloads in people from all over the world. And I'm just very grateful because as I'm going to share with you today, I was in a place where I was confused. I didn't know what to do. I was in a place where I was unfit, unhealthy. I felt like crap. I looks like crap and I didn't know what to do about it. Yet at some point I figured things out. Took me a while. A lot of trial and error, messy action, but we got there. And I want to share a little bit about that. Now before we do so, I know you hear this all the time. Every podcast you tune into, you'll hear this like, you know, drop is a quick five star rating and I will be asking you to do so. Because here's the thing, I'm standing here sitting every single week, twice a week, you know, delivering free, helpful content. And that's a passion of mine, right? I'm going to keep doing it anyway, whether you drop me a rating or not. Right? I will keep doing that. It's twice a week. I made that commitment to myself twice a week, every week for all of 2024. And we're still on schedule. So. With that promise, right? Would it be cool to ask you for a quick rating? Because here's the thing, and by the way, you don't even have to pause this episode. You can let you go to Apple or Spotify and do it right now. It takes a few seconds. We have 25 ,000 downloads and currently 68 ratings. Honestly, I couldn't even care less if it's not a five star. If you think it's a five star rating, amazing. I would love to see that one, of course. I'm not gonna lie. And hey, if it's a three, four, okay, cool. But what I'm going to ask you then is leave that three or four star rating, right? DM me on Instagram with why that is so that I can give you more of what you want to learn more about and do better. Cause here's the thing. We'll talk about messy action today, but when we started, we just, we just hit record. We didn't know what to do. I'm like a very introvert person as well. So I'm like, you know, even just speaking into a microphone, like getting used to that and being on camera, those kinds of things. It's taken me years to get. a little bit more confident with that, you see? So let me know, honestly, like, that's what I want to see, like honest feedback. But long story short, if you want to support the show, this is the number one way you can do so. Quick rating, of course, a five star would be amazing. I'm not gonna lie, you know, if it's a four, cool. Let me know, what can we do better to make it a five? Make sense? And I really mean it, like DMing on Instagram is linked in the show notes. And then now I want to dive into my personal journey. 30 kilos, which is like 65 pounds or something. I lost a lot of weight if I think about it. And it's also been a long time ago already. But let me take you back to the starting point, the exact moment, something clicked in my head. I was like, I got to do something. It was not something life threatening, scary, whatever. It was really just, I was unhappy with the way I looked. felt. I had zero confidence that was already the case. But this being overweight and unhealthy like that kind of made it worse. And I was confused. I didn't know what to do. You know, already back then and this has always been the case, but misleading information, conflicting diet camps. And then there was the documentaries and the different, you know, the magazine and the forums back then. Very confusing. You go online, right? Google, of course, was already around 2012. Instagram was just starting out. TikTok was definitely nothing. YouTube was kind of like early stages. But I mean, same thing online. How to lose weight, how to build muscle, fat loss. And you get a million different things and you just end up being more confused. And that might even be the case. I mean, there's definitely even more of the case right now with all the podcasts and the YouTubes and the TikToks and Instagram and all this stuff. and the marketing and the supplement, the MLM schemes, they're still around, believe it or not. Yes, they are. Unfortunately, also very big in Norway, but that's a different story. But hey, let's talk a little bit about that because that was already the case in 2012 and way before that, of course, too. You would think that with all the information and resources available by now, we would be doing better, but that's not really the case. But let me take you back because here I was. I always have been the skinny kid. I could eat whatever I wanted. Literally, like I was like the kid with the fast metabolism, you know? I was always active playing outside, which I'm very grateful to for, by the way, because these days, you know, you see people just sitting inside, kids, right? Only behind their screen. I'm not gonna lie. I played a lot of video games, but at least I still had also a lot of time outside, which I'm very grateful for. But okay, at some point... That little, you know, that's that skinny kid who could always eat anything. Got fat. Let's just call it what it is. 110 kilos. Not muscle because I was not working out at all. When we would do these gym tests at school, we would have this, I forgot what it's called. I think it's a Cooper test or at least in Holland where I'm from. And you run around the field a couple of times. I was always below the girls average. Like for years in a row. Not something I'm proud of saying, you know. or back then, you know. Now I don't give a shit, but like that's how unfit I was. And there was a few other tests, but I was out of shape. Years of just unhealthy eating, a lot of alcohol and smoking cigarettes. I was just not in a great spot. And then we got to a point where in 2012, I'm like just over 110 kilos. I'm on tour with a band I had just started playing in, First Blood. And we flew to Brazil for a few shows. And I remember vividly, like I was getting ready to get on stage. The band before us was just about to be done playing. I had changed my strings. I was getting ready and put my guitar around my neck and I turned around and there's like this big bear on the wall, right? Like a door size mirror. And I just see myself and I see myself and I didn't recognize myself anymore. I saw someone who was just, you could see that I had like no energy. You know what I mean? You could see that I felt like crap. It was that whole energy, basically. I was overweight. I really didn't like it, you know? So there was something about that moment where I was like, it's enough. I gotta do something. So we finished that tour. We go home. The very next day, grab my bike, over to the next town, sign up to the gym. I remember there was this big old school printer, like the big, you know, the huge machine. and it printed out my first ever workout program. And that was a start for me. I also started running and I recently found my Nike running app log again. It was five minutes and 36 seconds. I'm not kidding you. Five minutes and 36 seconds. That was my first ever run. I was totally, I mean, first ever that I actually, you know, I was totally just dead. That's how unfit I was. But you know what? It didn't matter because that was, something that I, it was that action, right? I just took action. I started, I started working out, lifting weights, running. That was beginning of my fitness journey. But the training was the exciting part. The activity side, that was, you know, that was kind of cool. Now the eating side of things, they get a little confusing. The eating side of things came with a lot of trial and error and different diets and, you know, try and cut out all the carbs and then sugar and then... my fitness pedal, which gave me, right, 110 kilo human, 1200 calories. Because I thought two kilos per weight, or sorry, per week weight loss. Let's go. Of course, I was like, hey, I'm gonna lose weight. The sooner the better. Of course, that was terrible, right? 1200 calories, didn't last. I did a bunch of like fasting, some juice stuff. And at one point I had this whole supplement stack that didn't do shit for me at the time, but like. I had like the protein powder, which I will say I'm a fan of protein powders, of course. I had the pre -workout, I had a different protein powder for the evening. I had creatine, I had another supplement. I think it was glucosamine or whatever. I then also had a fat burner, something else, I forgot what it was, but like a whole bunch of stuff, like a multivitamin, a few other things. yet I wasn't losing the weight or at least I didn't keep it off, right? I tried a whole bunch of things and it was like, it never really stuck. Now one day, I remember this too, because I finally, because I was looking online, right? I heard about this thing called CrossFit and I looked online and I knew there was a few, you know, 30, 60 minutes away, but not really, you know, cycling distance. And then one day I remember like there was finally one that opened up like a 20 minute bike ride from my home. I was like, hell yeah, let me sign up. So I signed up for CrossFit. So I met my coach at the time, Frank. And Frank was a person who, he was the coach who just knew everything. You know what I mean? He was kind of like that, that mentor that, that guide for me at that time, not only with the CrossFit, but with the, the basic nutrition information he gave me. And I remember also, right. I didn't even believe how basic it was. You know what I mean? He would give me things because I was like, okay, what, what about healthy fats or what about carbs? And he was like, okay, for your fats, right. nuts and seeds, olive oil. And in my head, I'm like trying to overcomplicate, but I'm like, is it really that simple? Is it really just nuts and seeds and olive oil? Like I almost didn't believe it. But it is those basic things. When it comes to your carbs, right? It is really those basic things like your rice, potatoes, your whole grains, your whole grain products, legumes, beans, et cetera. Eating fruits and vegetables. Everyone kind of knows that, right? But do you do it consistently? Of course, I knew you're supposed to eat fruits and veggies, right? Did I do it a lot? No. But also there, he kind of gave me that information. Hey, protein, you roughly want to get about this, just about this much. And with that basic information over time, it started to click. I tracked for a long time. And then over time, right? It really just started like that momentum just kept going. And I kept taking action, kept taking action, a lot of messy action. Just how, by the way, going back to this podcast, like, A lot of messy action, especially in the beginning, right? A lot of re -recording, editing, whatever, tripping over my words or getting nervous. It's a lot better now. It can still be better, you know, always room for improvement, but a lot of messy action. But that messy action then turned into not so messy action and then pretty consistently good action to where I was now creating results. And by the end of 2013, New Year's Eve, I had lost a whole bunch of weight, just about 30 kilos. And I looked in the mirror and I saw a different person. And I will say, right, I lifted my shirt up a little and I was very proud of myself. This was the first time I actually felt confident. And even like on the way to the bathroom, I heard my friend be on my back. I didn't respond, but they were like, did you notice like how much weight you went lost? And it kind of made me think, because I don't think I gave myself credit. But then I did, I looked in the mirror, I was like, hell yeah. So I know what that's like to go from feeling like absolute crap to feeling like, hey, you know, I look pretty good right now. Like I'm stoked. That's a really cool feeling. So not only did I reach that goal, but I showed myself that I could do something if I put my mind to it. If I say, hey, I'm going to do this thing. I'm going to take action. It doesn't matter how perfect or imperfect I'm going to do it. I'm going to keep working. Of course I had the ups and downs. You know what I mean? Plenty. At the same time, I just started touring a lot more with bands. So I was on the go a lot. A lot of messy action, like I said, but I did it. I showed myself that I could set that goal and fucking make it happen. You know what I mean? And that fires me up still to this day. And that's ultimately what led me also to becoming a coach and starting this company years ago now, right? Because I found that passion for... for self -improvement, for nutrition, for health, and just continuing to level up. Then I started getting into muscle gain and those kind of things. But over the years, as much as I mostly focus on music for a while, over the years, I saw so many people around me struggle with the same stuff. People falling into the supplement schemes, friends, family, right? People in bands I played and toured with. And you see that so many people have the same kind of issues. And you're listening to right, I can imagine you've probably tried a bunch of diets. You've tried the fasting, the keto is the low carbs, cutting sugar and you were not able to lose the weight and or keep it off. Or maybe you work out a lot and you don't look like you work out. You still think you got to do all the cardio to lose the weight, right? So many things that were somehow like we end up with all this misinformation. I don't even know why that that's the common knowledge that's going around, right? burning calories at the gym, fat burning workouts, those kinds of things. But like, that's the stuff that we think and it never fucking works. Now fast forward, right? Because I don't want to bore you with my whole life story, but that's where I started. I always wanted to become a coach since then, but I was, like I said, very insecure. I never really shared this with anyone until 2018, 19. But I always had this idea. I knew about the CrossFit level one course. I knew I wanted to do it, but I always kind of put it off because I was focused on music. I had that main goal other than course I have my own health, but that main goal of touring the world, traveling, being just full time in music. And I made that happen as well. And through that, I kind of grew as a person. I had to put myself out there. I was more and more social, able to have conversation to where before I was like, just quiet and you know, so I had to open up. So this was even part of the journey as well. So I want you to think here, right? Because you might be in a spot where, you know, you're not where you want to be. You have this big ambitious goal. Understand that there's a long period of growth that happens in between that. And that you might just be, you know, focusing on a few character traits, habits at once, but that over time you can create huge growth, also on a personal level. Because all the things that you do when you move into this health and fitness, the fat loss, the muscle gain, whatever, all the things that you do to reach those goals, those are the things that allow you to level up mentally. And just like I did, right, show yourself that you can do this shit. So, tour traveled the world for 10 years almost. And I ended up moving to Norway. Very spontaneous, random decision. Got a guiding job. I was in Northern Lights God for a while. And then this opportunity showed up where I could start coaching CrossFit at the local gym. I was like, hell yeah. Let me go for that. Let me finally take... That step because I had put it off for so long, the opportunity showed itself. Meant to be maybe, right? But I took action once again. Also there a lot of messy action, but you can learn, right? I don't want this. I don't even want this podcast to be too much about me, but I want you to see how these kind of things, right? You can literally do whatever the hell you want. If you put your mind to it and you figure it out, you get better and you're open to learning and growing. I had to do a lot to be honest with you. Even just the fact that I'm talking into a microphone camera right now, if you would have told me this, you know, 10 years ago, hell no, you know, not even like a chance. I would literally call you crazy, you know? But okay, I come across the coach and at the gym too. You see the same people who are trying to do the cardio for the fat loss. You see people trying to, you know, the different diets, no carbs, you know, Keto's, the fasting, the... The juices, the fucking MLM shakes and all the trash, you know, the juice cleanses, the skinny teas. And that's same, same stuff. And it's been like that for decades. So also there, I'm seeing this, right? This disconnect between what people should do because the training side is exciting when you do CrossFit, right? But the nutrition, right? That's one thing. So there's a huge difference between what people should do and actually understand about nutrition. Huge problem. So that drove me to then be like, hey, you know, like I think I should, because for me, the nutrition side was always more interesting. So I was like, I should pursue that more. because of the interest that I had in it and because I noticed how much of an impact it can have on your life. Because to be honest with you, the workout stuff, like that's the exciting part. The habits, the nutrition, the going to bed on time, the managing your stress, like that's the hard part. That's the stuff that takes time and effort and continuously just showing up for yourself, failing, failing, failing it in, but failing well because you want to learn from your failures, right? So that's when... In 2020, I started this company. Now we'll dive into this more, but it's been such a cool journey the last four years now, coaching hundreds of people all over the world, reach our goals, helping them get healthy, build that confidence and get to a spot where after coaching, they're just kind of good. People stay for a long time. We have clients for more than two years. It's like people stay on because they like the guidance, the accountability, the, Hey, I've showed myself I can reach this goal. What about this goal? Can we now do some muscle gain? Hey, now I want to do a marathon. Now I want to do competitions. Hey, you know what? I actually have more to lose. OK, let's do another round. People see that change that people truly turn into different identities, right? And that's so -called a witness as a coach. That's what drives me. That's why we created the team. We're three people now, which is amazing. This was just me in the beginning, you know? with my first few clients, like struggling to like get this thing off the ground. A lot of messy action once again, but then learning over time. And it's been such a cool journey. But I want you to know, cause you might be new here or maybe you haven't heard this story yet, but I want you to know that it started with my 30 kilo weight loss journey. That I started with me trying to figure out my own stuff and having no idea what I was doing when it comes to nutrition and training, making all the mistakes in the book, but then still getting to that place. And I want you to know, like, I'm not special by any means. Absolutely not. I'm imperfect as hell. But I take action. So I want you to listen to this podcast and think, Hey, you know what, like, I can do this too, because you can absolutely. Everything is figure outable. It just might take some time figuring. You're going to have to be patient. Like in the last episode, we talked about this, right? Patience, effort, time that goes into it. It takes a long time to build habits. So we could spend a lot of time here on this podcast speaking to five ways to get your protein and those kinds of things. And you know what? I will be bringing the basics back as well. Cause I think a lot of people have not gone through the basics and I think there's a lot of misconceptions and misinformation around even the basics. Cause people still think that protein is going to make you fat. People still think that carbs are going to make you fat and then fats. And then people say the fruits and veggies are bad for you. It's like, it's crazy right now. It's such a mess. So that's why I do this podcast to show you that it is possible to give you something to walk away with every single episode, whether it's something practical, whether that's maybe challenging you, maybe giving you a little bit of tough love, calling you out on your shit. which by the way, if I speak in that setting, right, I'm usually talking to my past self. So I want you to understand that it's coming from a good place. It's coming from a place of, I need to push you a little bit, you know, I need to get you to a better spot. So once again, whether this is your very first time listening to the show, your fifth, 10th, or maybe you've been here for two years now. Thank you for being here. I hope this story kind of gave you a little bit inside of the, I guess the origin story of, you know, Odyssey Coaching Systems. for years, I messed around with my own stuff. Then over the last four years, we got to create the systems and the routines and the protocols for our clients and refine them over time and just get better and better, right? And it's just so cool to help so many people. So thank you. As a thank you, I want to give you one little gift to wrap today off with, up with, sorry. I wanted to give you my ebook, absolutely for free. All you gotta do is just go to the show notes. You're gonna see the description and then it's gonna say ebook link right there. So all you gotta do, quick email, that's it. It's my gift to you. This one is way more educational information heavy. So it might even feel like a little bit of information overload, but take one chapter at a time, right? One chapter this week, maybe another one maybe next week. It's like almost 80 or 90 pages I think it is, packed with information. But that's of course the more like the learning side of things. Then when you come to this podcast again on Monday, we'll have a little bit of a surprise, but it's a different story. I'm not going to say what it is. But what we talk about here is the application is the mindset stuff. It's helping you every single week show up for yourself, for your goals. So go ahead, grab that ebook. If you don't have it yet, right in the show notes, you're going to see the description with the link podcast or sorry, ebook link. And once again, I do have a little surprise on Monday. I'm not going to say what this you're going to have to stay tuned. So I will talk to you then have a great rest of your week. Thanks again for listening. I'll talk to you then.
