#030: Alcohol, Aussie Culture & the Real Cost to Health - Andre Obradovic

Australian drinking culture is loud, normalised - and expensive. In this straight-talking episode, men’s health coach Andre Obradovic breaks down why Aussie men drink (stress relief, identity, belonging, avoidance), how “I only drink socially” often becomes a pattern, and why alcohol quietly sabotages the results most men want: fat loss, recovery, sleep quality, and testosterone.

We unpack the hidden costs beyond “extra calories”: the sleep disruption that drives cravings and poor decisions, the hormone hit that slows progress, and the way weekend drinking can wipe out a week of training and nutrition. Andre also calls out the fitness industry’s “cheat day + cardio” trap, shares practical scripts for handling social pressure without being weird or preachy, and gives a simple, measurable 30-day minimum effective plan that actually moves the needle.

Andre is known for his no-nonsense approach to nutrition, mindset, and performance. Since 2016, he’s coached everyone from everyday men to executives and athletes - helping them reduce stress, improve sleep, and drop stubborn body fat with clear systems that remove decision fatigue.

What we cover

• The real reasons men drink: stress relief, identity, belonging, permission, avoidance
• When “social drinking” becomes a habit (and how to test it)
• Work functions, judgement, and behaviour: the executive drinking problem
• Alcohol’s big hits: testosterone, sleep, fat loss, and recovery
• Why cheat days keep people stuck (and why the industry loves them)
• “No thanks” scripts for mates and social pressure (truth + “white lie” options)
• Parenting + leadership: what you model at home matters
• The 30-day plan: alcohol rules, food rules, sleep rules, steps, and structure

Key takeaways

• Weekend drinking can stall fat loss and recovery for days.
• Alcohol isn’t just calories - it changes hormones, sleep quality, and decision-making.
• If your mates mock your health goals, they’re passengers, not partners.
• Most men don’t need more cardio - they need better food, better sleep, and daily walking.
• You don’t wing health: plan dinners, cook extra protein, portion leftovers.

Connect with Andre

• Website: www.andreobradovic.com
• LinkedIn: (11) Andre Obradovic | LinkedIn
• Article: The Truth About Alcohol and Performance | Andre Obradovic

About your host
I’m Sally-Anne Kearns, Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and host of Nutrition Gateway. I help women calm anxiety, clear brain fog, and stabilise energy through simple, stackable micro-habits grounded in nutrition and lifestyle foundations.

Book here for a complimentary health audit phone call, we will run through what may be missing in your toolkit to optimise your health.

Check out the Lifewave X39 Light Signaling Patches 

Transcript

Sally-Anne Kearns  0:00  
A note taker recording, okay? And that just helps the the Sure. All right, beautiful. I'm going to start with your bio. I will read it, because we don't sort of edit the videos. It's just all in one. I'm just going to enlarge that, and that's a perfect size bio, which is great, so awesome. Do you have any questions before we hit record? Record? No.

Andre  0:26  
And if it needs to go more than 45 minutes, I'm okay with it's up to you. Is probably a good timeline?

Sally-Anne Kearns  0:36  
Yeah, I think most people can put it on 1.5 and, you know, make it happen in half an hour. But for those that are in your steady audience, they might love to see the longer version of you. So we'll just flow and see what, what sort of comes of Sure, excellent. Now, just quickly when I pronounce your family name. Obradovic. Obradovic, Obradovic, Obradovic, okay, beautiful. Thank you, awesome. All right. Welcome, welcome. Welcome. Today. I am here with Andre. How are you today?

Andre  1:09  
Good, thanks. Sally,

Sally-Anne Kearns  1:11  
amazing. So just if it's okay, just going to share your bio, because you've got some really exciting things here, and I think it's important that the audience really understand just your your breadth of practice, and the length that you've been kind of serving the health and wellness space, and so when it comes to optimizing overall health and performance, Andre is backed with extensive knowledge and experience since 2016 he's helped hundreds of people around the world with his no nonsense, straight talking approach to nutrition mindset and overall well being. Andre works with everyday people right through to high level execs and elite athletes. He's built a strong reputation for transforming the areas of people's lives that matter most, stress, drastic improving sleep to shedding stubborn kilos. Andre draws upon mentors, research and his own success story to give people the results they've always wanted. Coach, globally recognized. Trioft, one level, one certified. The list is huge. ICS, leadership, PPC, level coach, low carb, healthy fat coach, and top 10 climate health coach. So we've got this huge, extensive knowledge piece of not only what you've implemented, but what you've served clients on one on ones, and tailored coaching. So if you tried everything and needs someone, he'll make sure that you stay on track. This is your man, and today I'm brought to Andre through the nutritional therapy Association. There was a article you wrote, and it really sort of hit home and opened up, I guess, a layer of curiosity for me, and the big, heavy hitting topic, and it's probably appropriate this time of year, is, how is alcohol affecting us? And I just wanted to really, I guess, hear from you, you're working mainly with men. And I guess, what do you see the main reason, or the real reason that Australian men drink? Is it stress relief, identity, belonging, or is it an avoidance strategy?

Andre  3:07  
Yeah. Well, look Sally, thanks for the intro and yeah, I mainly work with men. If women come to me, I might do a call with them and give them some general advice. But then, you know, I don't work with them one on one, I just work with men. So I think it's all of those things, the number of times I talk to men, because before I suddenly have a questionnaire, and it talks about the questions are, you know, do you drink alcohol? And how often? And you know what? What is that about? And 90% of the time, it says to relax. So that equates to me with stress relief. But then another big part of it is, once you get talking to men, is, you know, from an early age, you know, this is common. Nearly every single guy I work with, and I've worked with over 850 is they didn't realize that it drinking alcohol has become normalized as a normal thing socially from when they were a young child. And that comes from obviously many, many people listening may understand this, but I just want to re emphasize it that we, we If our parents, when friends come over, our parents always have alcohol. Whenever there's a function, there's always alcohol. Our parents go and buy alcohol because we're going to party. Alcohol becomes the norm. And as a young child, seeing our parents having alcohol or doing different things, it's not just alcohol, but saying we're talking about alcohol, that's where these beliefs and and the neural pathways build in our is a normal thing, and to be a good host and to be a good Australian and to be a good family, we we need to supply alcohol, because everyone likes alcohol as part of our celebrations. So a lot of these men fail to understand initially why they resist not drinking when there's a function on. So that's part of identity, and then when they're just with men, it's part of, I guess, belonging. You know that? Well, we're going to the football, we're going to the cricket, we're going to the pub. All my mates are going to have a beer or a wine or a drink. I'm going to have some too. And I think until you start questioning this belief and this habit or this pattern, you don't really understand about the negative consequence to yourself. And a lot of men talk about being judged by their friends. And I sort of say to them, well, there's a whole lot of strategies I have with dealing with that, which we can talk about later, but I just say to them, Well, do you think your friends actually care if you don't drink? So that's where it becomes an excuse. Yeah, I'm going out with my mates. So that gives me an excuse or permission to drink, because they're all going to be drinking. So I think the biggest thing is, initially, they say it's to relax, you know, they got whinging kids. They might be having arguments with their wives, you know, they might have had a bad day at work. They might be worried about money. Okay, so you're worried about money, but you're spending all this money on alcohol. I'll give you one example. I interviewed a possible client who said that this was really important to them and they really had to do this, and and they were spending about $350 a week on alcohol. Wow. And he's like, Yeah, I need to do this. And then I said, Well, it's $4,000 to work with me for 16 weeks, and I guarantee your results, and you'll absolutely lose 12 plus kilos. He said, That's really expensive. I'm like, oh, what? $250 a week on your health, when you're spending $350 on alcohol, and I'm going to be getting you to stop alcohol. So you're actually it's gonna make you save money. You're gonna save the dollars a week, and you're gonna lose 12 plus kilos, and I guarantee that. So I didn't work with the guy. I basically said, Well, he said, It's too expensive. I said, Fine, go to a gym and try and lose your weight and keep drinking alcohol.

Sally-Anne Kearns  7:15  
So just not even being able to make that relationship change between what alcohol is costing, you know, not only financially, but to productivity and a whole bunch of other things. For women, you're right, you know, you've got kids. If you semi stay at home, mother, you know, it's wind down. Mom, juice become it's kind of normalized and but it's still alcohol, right? And it has consequences. So, so curious. When a man says to you, you know, I only drink socially. So those same men that you talked about, they're going out and the meeting with their friends. What questions do you ask to, I guess, reveal or help them see as as the client like, Is this actually a habit? Is it more than a social labeling? It? How do you get into that headspace with people.

Andre  8:04  
Well, I asked them, what do they get out of what do you get out of drinking socially when you're telling me you want to lose 20 kilos and you're not sleeping well, and they say, Oh, I like to have a beer. I like the taste, or I like to have a wine. I like the taste. And I think that if they say, Well, I only drink Friday or Saturday, I only drink Saturday Sunday, that is absolutely a habit. So I don't drink all week, which is actually quite good for some. Most of the guys I talk to drink five nights a week, at least, even if it's one glass or two glasses, but they're drinking, and that's that's a sign of, in my opinion, alcoholism. I believe if someone has to drink five times a week, and they can't not do that, they've got a problem with alcohol. But I think that people that say I only drink socially, it's probably more a habit, or it's they don't want to be judged about being at a function and not drinking.

Sally-Anne Kearns  9:10  
Yeah, yeah. I remember when I was in my corporate career in real estate, you know, stealing commercial property and male dominated industry, and it was just normal, like, you know, as part of the thing, like, you're out, you're entertaining, you're meeting clients. And it was just, was very much an unhealthy environment. Are you seeing that in the executive arena? Like, is this culturally for work? Inverted comments?

Andre  9:35  
Well, yeah. Well, when I had my big corporate job, we had an expense account. You had to entertain clients. It was all paid for, and it was expected, like, I'd go to Taiwan or Singapore or overseas with clients, and like the sales team would say, you have to have a drink. And in those days, I said, Well, I'm only going to have a little bit because I've got to be at the gym and run in the morning. So I was just like the men that I coach now, because I was 80 kilos, I was like fat, right? I was 15 kilos heavier. But even now, like I was executive coaching a very, very senior guy from one of the biggest banks in America, and his problem was he was drinking every time he went to a function, and one day we did a call, and he said, Hey, Andre, I had a real learning last last week, and I'll tell me. And he says, Well, I've been on medication, and my doctor said I can't drink with this medication. I had to go to a big, important work function. Like this guy had a private jet, he was loaded, right? And he's like, who's really good? I didn't drink, and I saw how stupid people are when they have a couple of drinks and they Gob off, they complain about their colleagues. So he said, I just went in and I soaked it all up, and I found out things that I would not have found out if I didn't drink. I mean, if I drank,

Sally-Anne Kearns  11:02  
if you drank, yeah.

Andre  11:03  
And he said, From now on, I'm not drinking. I'm going to have a glass of wine once in a while at home, but when I go to work functions, I am not going to drink. And he said his whole work environment changed. He realized who were good people, who were people that he needed to watch out for. What was going on?

Sally-Anne Kearns  11:24  
Well, yeah, so it gave him a whole new layer, I guess, of perception.

Andre  11:28  
But until, until then, his argument was, while I'm entertaining clients, you know, they'll think it's weird if I'm not drinking, you know, I know we're going to get to those sort of responses and how to deal with that later, but for him, it was a big change. And he would, he would, he said to me, if I have a few drinks, I really have to turn the filters on and be careful what I say. But he wasn't. He never made the change without the issue of going to a function and not drinking because he his doctor told him not to drink. Yeah.

Sally-Anne Kearns  12:00  
Wow. How interesting it's again, that external reference of you can't, you know, as opposed to that internal check of, how's this making me feel? Is this affecting my life, etc. So it surprises me that in Australia, the guideline is no more than 10 drinks a week. I think,

Andre  12:18  
totally ridiculous,

Sally-Anne Kearns  12:20  
you know? And then I think to myself, and no more than four in a day. And in all honesty, like I've, I've come from a family of alcoholics, so this is something that runs very, very deep. It's something that I've, you know, I've been aware of and kind of wrestled with my entire adult life. And what I think is really interesting is most women don't count standard drinks like they're just like home, pause, you know, the bigger the glass, whereas if you actually look at a standard drink measurement, it's, it's quite a small portion of alcohol. So we're, we're essentially thinking, you know, that we're drinking four standard drinks in one sitting, but we're not, we're probably no idea. And so it's just happiness. You know, having a measured glass could be helpful for people, as opposed to just free pouring. So, but what do you think you mentioned before? So when you were overseas and you knew I had to get up the next day, I have to train, what would you say the quickest way that alcohol underman undermines a male's training and recovery, so even if he's not sort of getting smashed, you know, he's not wrecking himself, so to speak, but even just small, small amounts, all the all the recommended safe amounts,

Andre  13:30  
the biggest thing is it totally destroys testosterone. Yeah, that's the biggest issue. And for men, for men, our hormone and women, but it's even worse for women, we'll talk about that later too, if you want. But for men, it totally trashes our testosterone, and once we get to 2122 our testosterone drops by about 1% a year, right? So even for me, I rarely drink up. I might have 10 drinks a year, and I had low testosterone until I started doing transdermal cream with a endocrinologist, and my testosterone has now doubled, right? So even though I have I'm in bed at 930 every night, I have good sleep. I might have one drink a month. I do appropriate training. I don't do a lot of cardio, and I eat a lot of carb diet. My testosterone was quite well, right? So if you think about it, like most of the guys I talk to, one of the questions I ask is, what's their libido like, and does everything work, right? Without going into details, and nearly all of them are like not nothing happens. It doesn't work. I don't have any desire. And as soon as they stop drinking, and they lose, you know, 20 kilos, some of that changes. So testosterone is the big thing. The other thing is, obviously it ruins your sleep. So testosterone is one, sleep is the other, and then you will never lose weight if you drink alcohol. And most people, see most guys and probably women, just think about calories. It's got, as you know, it's got nothing to do with calories. And you could talk more about the damage to our liver and our body and the endocrine disruption that happens from alcohol than me, but alcohol is poison, and you can never lose weight when you drink alcohol, even for three or four days, it stops fat burning and and the guys I work with are like, but there's low it's low calorie. And then I'm like, Dude, it's got nothing to do with the calories. So yeah, that's what I feel about it anyway.

Sally-Anne Kearns  15:48  
And so can I ask just your personal journey? This the biggest changes for you as a man? Because I don't know that a lot of men even know that they have low testosterone, and even if they're moderately healthy, like, what is, how did you feel? Low tester, own version of Andre versus normal, better. You know, elevated testosterone. What changed for you in terms of physiology and mood?

Andre  16:13  
Okay, well, it all started. The understanding of male hormones started for me when I had a pituitary tumor removed probably 15, 1215, years ago, and because my pituitary gland was squashed, so my hormones, once they did the operation, my hormones went terrible. So that's when I started understanding about the importance of cortisol, testosterone, you know, all estrogen, progesterone, all those other hormones. So then we monitored my testosterone and other bloods every six months. I've got a Google spreadsheet for 15 years, and it has every single thing done, homocysteine, insulin, everything, right? But what I what I sort of found, was I was doing 18 hours a week of training when I was doing half Iron Man, so a lot of cardio. I had a little bit of I had, I wasn't very muscular. So the first thing I noticed was I was like, I wasn't fat, but I had a little bit of fat around my tummy. I probably had about 1816, 18% body fat. But I was tired a lot, and I would say I was depressed in the mornings, didn't want to get out of bed. Some mornings, I had bad seasonal affective disorder when it was cold or cloudy and I wasn't all that motivated to do things okay. And although it's interesting, my libido was fine, right? And things worked fine. It was more motivation, slight depression and not wanting to do stuff. They were the sort of things. And then once I stopped doing half Ironmans and stopped doing as much cardio, and started lifting like now, what I do is I do four days a week lifting heavy, heavy weights with a proper program, and I do minimal cardio and put on a lot more muscle. I'm down to, like, 14% body fat. For someone that's 60. I'm pretty ripped, and I've got strong, big muscle, but motivation is high. You know, I still don't enjoy cold, rainy days, but it's not as bad as it was. And now I just get up at when I wake up in the morning, at whatever time it is. I don't need an alarm clock. I just wake up at six or 530 and the first thing I do is grab my bag and go and lift in the gym. So that's what's changed for me, and my testosterone is pretty much doubled. Now. It's amazing.

Sally-Anne Kearns  18:58  
It's incredible. And I think you know, so many men could relate to that, you know, like, not seasonal Saturdays, just feeling like, Man, I'm drunk, not wanting to kind of do what you know they need to do. And like, you know, not everybody loves their job. Let's not sugar coating it, but just the zest, I guess, for life is, you know, that other element so,

Andre  19:19  
you know, yeah, well, men normal, like when I was overweight, I normalized it just like alcohol. I thought, well, I'm 38 or 40 or however old I was. Everyone in the office is a little bit chunky. There's a couple of skinny guys. And I'm like, God, I never want to look like that. Well, he's really skinny. He needs to eat more or whatever, but you just normalize it. Oh, it's normal. I'm getting old, put away. I get sick. I'm tired. Every single guy I talk to says, well, all my mates like this. And I'm like, yeah, we'll do you don't have to be like that. I'm 60. Look at me, and they're like, Yeah, well, and I said, I'm no different to you. I just have realized I don't want to be like that. But they normalize it by the environment, the situation, the people they hang out with. You know, if you hang out with people who are fit and eat, well, that's what you become. Do you hang out with slobs who don't exercise and eat rubbish and get on a piss all the time? Well, that's what you're going to be like, yeah. So it's a habits, it's knowledge. So firstly, it's about understanding the reality of the situation. So how is this? How is my sleep apnea? How is my 30 kilos overweight? How is my no testosterone affecting me? So that you got to understand that first, the next thing is like education and understanding that going to a dietitian and a doctor isn't going to actually help me get healthy because they work in the sickness industry. Then Then number three is actually a process and a system to understand how to actually get your health back on track. And then it's the motivation and discipline which you build through realizing where you want to go and what's the impact in the future. So one of the best questions I ask guys is, how old is your youngest child? And I've got a client now, his daughter, when she's 25 he's going to be 70. I'm like, Okay, I want you to close your eyes and picture you standing walking your daughter up the aisle in 25 years from now, when you're 70, and if you don't make a change now, how are you going to be and often they start crying, yeah, because that's that thing about what's your life going to be like? Yeah. So that's sort of the process that I ask people to think about, is, what's the impact of what you're doing, actually understanding what you need to change, then having a plan and having the knowledge and having a system? Yeah?

Sally-Anne Kearns  22:00  
Yeah. That's powerful. And it's, you know, we don't, I don't think a lot of us dwell in that space where, you know, 20 years from now, you know, how do we want to be decrepit? Do we want to be walking with a walking stick? Do we want to be moaning and groaning? So I know, for women with with alcohol consumption, particularly for perimenopause, you know, they'll say, oh, nothing's changed. And as they're transitioning into menopause, alcohol consumption is just like a loaded gun, like it just changes sweats and sleep, and then the whole all the wheels fall off, and the women say, well, haven't changed anything. And it's like, well, no, you haven't. What your body's actually communicating with you is that your habits are no longer serving you. And as you say, like, if you know they're all, there's, it's always, always comes out as weight. Most women, and perhaps men, most women, are very, very mindful of that, but they're looking at the way. They're not thinking about the liver detoxification strategy, the hormone balancing, the blood sugar swings, the breath,

Andre  22:59  
oh, like, why am I waking up at three o'clock? Oh, that's just my hormones not only detoxifying itself, you clown like you know, why am I exhausted all the time? Why have I got high cortisol? Why? Why is my progesterone and estrogen all screwed up? It's because of the alcohol and you know, for women, the risk of breast cancer is so much higher when they drink alcohol, even one drink a day can really increase the risk of breast cancer.

Sally-Anne Kearns  23:27  
That statistic really didn't, you know, alarm me. When I started to look into it, I was like, wow, this is, this is a big conversation piece. It's like, if you, you know, we talk about genes a lot, you know, if it's in the family, etc. But essentially, by drinking alcohol, as you say, we're sort of really loading the gun for potentially activating these risks. So if you had to pick one health consequence for men that they underestimate the most, particularly when it comes to alcohol, what would you say it would be? And do

Andre  24:03  
they you can't lose weight when you drink alcohol, okay? Yeah, it stops. It's my thing. Would be, you're gonna you can eat perfectly five days of the week, low carb, fasting, no alcohol, and you'll lose a kilo. And then if you drink on the weekend, you're going to stop losing weight until Tuesday. And that I can see the numbers in chronometer, this app I use. I can see, because people track their food if they have alcohol, and I can see they're losing weight all week that they get to, you know, 105 on Friday, and then Monday, they're 106 because they drank on the weekend, and then it takes them another four days to get back to get back to 105 so then they only lose half a kilo that week. Instead of a kilo, I got this great client is a really great guy, an accountant. He'd be perfect during the week. Italian background, lovely man, hard working man. We I love talking to him, but he's he's found it very hard, but, in fact, he's done a great job, but he still finds it hard on the weekend to not have alcohol and not eat the kids leftover food and things like that. So great progress during the week, but then with a bit of alcohol and maybe not. And if you have alcohol, it helps you to make stupid decisions about food as well. Not saying he's stupid, but in general, you know, you drink and then you're like Arts, All right, I'll have a sausage roll, or I'll have a meat pie or whatever. But, yeah, I'd say the biggest thing they underestimate is you can be perfect all week, but if you drink on the weekend, you're not going to lose weight for three or four days, so you're basically ruining the whole five days of being really good. Yeah, and that's this, this whole thing with people talk about cheat days, that's just total BS, total rubbish. It's just an excuse for undisciplined and lazy people. Now I know there's probably more women listening to this, so please don't take offense, but I I'm very blunt, and this is how I talk to guys, and this is how you should be talking to your husbands or partners as well. And no bullshit statement. It's just excuses and it's just lazy and it's this whole cheat day thing started in the fitness industry because they want to give you what you want, not what you need. Yeah. Well, do you want to explain that more?

Sally-Anne Kearns  26:31  
Please go. Go there.

Andre  26:33  
I used to before covid. I worked in five gyms. I was teaching cycle, I was doing personal training, and what I saw was overweight people every day doing cycle classes and on the treadmills, doing cardio, endless cardio, and trainers encouraging them to do that, being in a calorie deficit so they could, as long as they were exercising like hell, they could eat whatever they want, sweets, cakes, pancakes, milkshakes, whatever, because they're in a calorie deficit. Because the fitness industry wants people to come back and they want to keep them happy, so they do all this crazy cardio, these crazy cycle classes where they're killing themselves from Les mill, they're high fiving at the end that they burnt 2000 calories, because then they're in a deficit. But you know what? Every year, the same people come there and they're still overweight?

Sally-Anne Kearns  27:30  
Yeah, true.

Andre  27:32  
So, so I used to teach a class where it was based on using the power meters on the bike. It was nothing about calories, nothing about high heart rate. It was about nasal breathing. It was about having tension on the legs to build muscle. And a few people will this guy easy and they left. But then I ended up having a class full every single time I taught a class, and the other trainers actually complained about me because I was I was teaching people like, don't go and do endless cardio, lift weights and just eat properly. You don't need to go and do these bullshit circle clock circuit classes where you're doing killing yourself. And here's the other thing I tell the women listening, if you're doing F 45 and rubbish like that, or Les Mills, you know, box fit or whatever, and you're trying to lose weight, you're just crazy. You just need to get up in the morning, not have a coffee, not take your stupid phone with you, or don't look at social media crap, and just go for a walk and look at the sun, because the sun's not going to hurt you. We actually need the sun. And then once you've lost your weight, then go and lift weights. You don't need to do endless cardio, so that that's the sort of conversation around men, but also a little bit about women too.

Sally-Anne Kearns  28:49  
I'm so glad you say that. I'm saying I've always hated cardio, but, you know, doing a set of weights or martial arts or something intentional, where it's a little bit of fun, a little bit of coordination, but diet has been the biggest influencer in how my body responds to life, and I get it like, you know, I'm not a very disciplined person, so it's really taking me a lot of habit stacking to get to where I am. But I think once you get there and it becomes a lifestyle, it becomes effortless, and then the choices aren't so hard, and it doesn't feel so big, you're just like, No thanks, and you don't even want the things that you formerly wanted or need them, because your your nutrient profile, you are nourished. And I think a lot of people you know get stuck in the trap. And I know I was always thinking that I would have to go and do those things at the gym, and I hated it. Hated it.

Andre  29:42  
So don't get me wrong, I like running, but I only run for like 30 minutes Monday, when I do as a warm up for squats, and then Thursday, as a warm up for deadlifts, and then on a Saturday, I'll often do a park run, and in that I'm killing myself, but it's like 22 minutes. And I always win my age group, but that's one run a week.

Sally-Anne Kearns  30:03  
Yeah? So social too. It's really, yeah, it's social.

Andre  30:07  
But then I don't do any other cardio. I just lift weights. Yeah?

Sally-Anne Kearns  30:11  
Definitely awesome. And so what would you say for men, okay, they're ready to kind of make some changes, and they want to be able to feel empowered to handle the social pressure. What would you say to them without being weird or preachy? What are some things that they could how can they respond?

Andre  30:27  
Okay, so let's pretend you're one of my clients. Okay, and your name is Sam. I'd say, Hey, Sam, you've told me you got this function on the weekend, and you know, you're a bit nervous. You don't know what to say, you know, because you're trying to lose weight, and I've suggested you probably it wouldn't serve you to drink alcohol, and they're like, I don't really know what to do. I said, Okay, well, here's a couple of things. Do you want to be truthful? Or do you want to lie? Want to be truthful? Yeah, you want to be truthful. Okay? So what you could do is say, before the function, you could text your mates and say, Hey guys, I'm trying to lose some weight. I've decided not to drink, or I've had my bloods done. The doctor says my liver function is not the best. I'm not going to drink, or alcohol's poison. I've decided to get healthy. I'm not going to drink. That may be less likely, because that then might show some judgment to his mates. So the first two are probably the best if, if it was telling a lie, then it might be something different, like, I've got to get up really early and go somewhere, so I want to be clear in the head, or whatever. You know, the same thing with bread and other foods like another. Another great example is an Italian guy that's got an Italian mother, and they gotta they go there every Saturday for meals. The mother always makes pasta. The last thing the guy needs to say is, Mum, I'm trying to lose weight, because she'll be like, Oh, darling. You're beautiful. You don't need to lose weight, right? You say, Mom, I've been to the doctor. I've had some stomach cramps and stomach pains. So this is a bit of a lie. But who, you know? Who cares? A white lie, right? You know, the doctors asked me to stop eating wheat so I can't eat. I'm not going to eat pasta for a while to see how that affects my tummy. I'll bring a salad and some meat. Or would you mind cooking up a steak for me? I'll bring a salad. You have that discussion, because then your mother's gonna be like, Oh, sure, whatever you need. In fact, just like your mates, like if I said to my mates if I was a drinker and I decided to stop drinking and I said to my mates, Hey guys, I'm not drinking because it's really screwing my sleep up. I feel really shit. My testosterone is tanked, and the doctors told me not to drink for six months to see what happens. Like if they said to me, mate, you're an idiot or you're a pussy or whatever, then they're not mates. They're idiots. And that's the conversation I have a lot with men is and you know, half the time when the men think about it, they're like, actually, yeah, they're not going to give a shit. That's what they say. Yeah, they won't care. I'm like, great. Then what's stopping you from saying it? So you have that whole coaching discussion around you know what's stopping you from not drinking? And if they're your mates, it's easier with mates than people you don't know, maybe, whereas I find it, I don't care what people think. So I just say, well, alcohol is poison, so I'm not drinking. I don't care. You drink if you want, I say, obviously Life's too short. You want to live shorter, yeah, just like idiots that smoke and vape like in fact, that's the other thing I find ludicrous about our country and our culture, is we put all these warnings on cigarette packets. I honestly believe alcohol has far more of a negative impact on our health and our society than cigarettes do, like cigarettes will kill you when you're 60 or 70, but alcohol destroys families. Domestic violence ruins children's understanding of what's normal, car accidents, money, debt, gambling has a far more bigger impact. However, any politician that ever wanted to put big health warnings on alcohol would be voted out of office because Australians are so stupid and they've embedded this alcohol country culture into our society.

Sally-Anne Kearns  34:41  
Yeah, it's very much. Yeah, we're not. Whenever I think about this, I'm like, who stands to gain? Like, where do you know exactly right? Who stands to gain? Like, we're the highest tax country when it comes to alcohol. But then I think to myself, what, what cost is that having because we're not being transparent with the people around giving them informed consent about what this is actually doing to their body. And you have to actually dive pretty deep to figure out how problematic this stuff is, and you don't want to see it, then you're not going to, obviously, and it's not until you engage a health coach like you, where you're actually starting to really give them some facts you touched on that, and you touched on that around the the changes in family units, and you, you actually touched on When children grow up and they see that these are normal party sort of fun behaviors, they're starting to build that neurological connection as a man that's servicing men that are supporting and being, you know, the man of the household, right? Like there's, there's a place for every man in his home where he's leading his family. What do you think men could be doing differently to start to educate the kids?

Andre  35:57  
Well, that that's exactly a point. A very good point is that I know it might sound old fashioned, and I'm not trying to offend anyone, but as a 60 year old man, my job as a man is to protect the family at all costs, even take a bullet for them. Make sure family has a house, make sure the family has food, and make sure you look after people and set the example. So your children are set for life, beautiful, right? And to me, that's about having courageous discussions and setting the example. So both of our kids are great adults. They love cooking. They know how to cook, because, you know, my wife has done a great job at teaching them how to cook. Both of them lived in the gym. Both of them have a focus on health. My daughter and son both drink alcohol, but I don't think it's not like they go and get drunk or anything. I'd prefer they didn't drink alcohol, but that you know, they're good kids or good adults. But I think setting the example is a key around a couple of things, food behaviors, the way we talk, use of phones and not having phones on the whole so one of the big things I teach my guys is like, I asked them this question, do you have your phone in the bedroom? And I say, yeah. I'm like, why would you need a phone in the bedroom? I'm like, like, why? Oh, what's my alarm? I'm like, Do you have a Garmin watch? And they're like, Yeah, well, that has an alarm clock on it. And half the time they don't even know. And then I say, do you actually turn your phone off? And they go, Yeah, I put it on, do not disturb. And I'm like, That's not off mate or airline. I said, you can actually turn your phone off.

Sally-Anne Kearns  37:52  
Yeah, there's an off switch.

Andre  37:54  
So I say them, you know. So once they start doing that, I'm like, you and your missus, or you and your wife, should actually say to the kids, hey, we're leaving our phones in the kitchen on charges overnight. We're not taking them to the bedroom, because obviously they let their kids take their phones to the bedroom, which I think is ludicrous. So setting those examples around, you know, food, around alcohol. So I was coaching almost a whole family who were in a church, a church that's not a normal, mainstream church, lovely people. And I've been working with the Father for a while, and I started working with two of his daughters, and they were like 19 and 21 and they were both basically alcoholics. And it came down to the fact that the father and mother, every night, when he came home from work would open a bottle of wine and drink wine while they were making dinner. Every single function they had was all centered around alcohol and rubbish food, and the daughters didn't even realize they had a drinking problem. But then, you know, some of the ludicrous things their friends would say is, oh, you're more fun when you drink. Oh, I'm going to go out on Friday night and get smashed and then binge Well, I'm only drinking on the weekend. And that all came from the parents setting that example a bad example. So I think as a as a father and a husband and as a man, our job is to set the right example, have discussions with kids around food, behaviors, sleep, appropriate, exercise, alcohol, drugs, all of those types of things,

Sally-Anne Kearns  39:39  
absolutely, definitely things that were never modeled in my upbringing,

Andre  39:43  
but we have to model them.

Sally-Anne Kearns  39:45  
Yeah, and I think this is it right, like, when you come onto the planet and you're in you're becoming an evolved soul, you start to ask yourself, Where did this belief come from? And do I have subconscious attachments that I don't understand, to behaviors that are no longer serving me. And you know, this podcast isn't about a judgment around what people are doing. It's more of an invitation to say, hey, what's working for you, and is this an issue for you? And do you, Are you even aware of it? And if you'd like to change, then seek some help. Help get Andre in the mix. You know, get make 2026, your best year yet. And and have a coach, have someone actually mentor you through this process, so that they can see your blind spots and help help give you some tips around how to change. So with that, I'd love to so let's just say we've got a listener here that wants to change. And of course, January being the main month for

Andre  40:41  
Japan to start two weeks.

Sally-Anne Kearns  40:47  
Yeah, so let's, let's play with that. Let's Okay. So let's say, would they want a minimum effective plan? And what would you say? 30? Would you give them a 30 day strategy and say, right? Would you stick to this, or could you do this? What? What would be your strategy? If someone said, Look, I'm ready for change on Dragon.

Andre  41:09  
So here's what I do. I interview them and ask them about their typical day. What time they wake up, when they have their first coffee? Does it have milk? Yuck or not? You know, when do they exercise? When do they eat? What do they When do they sleep? When do they drink? When do they go to bed? What are their email and phone habits? And then I'd say them, well, if you want to make a change, if you want to work with me, or even if you want to work with me for 30 days, or you want to plan out of all of that stuff, you told me, these are the five or six things you need to stop straight away. And this is why. So I'd give them that reality check, then I then I'd harp into the, you know, like, What's your main pain points? And they might say, Well, I'm 10 kilos overweight, and I'm like, bro, no man knows how much you're 15 at least, because, you know, they don't know. No man has ever said to me the right weight that they need to lose, right? So then it'd be like, Well, okay, you said saying to me, you'll lose 15 kilos, right? Then I'd be like, Okay, if you don't, what's the impact in a year, in five years? So set that fear about what's going to happen if they don't. And then I would say, if you are ready to change, these are the sort of like five things you need to do. Firstly, alcohol needs to be totally reduced or gone or minimal. And we'd agree on that. So I had one guy, Paul fail, who's lost 33 kilos. He worked with me for 12 weeks. He lost 20 and 28 weeks ago, he stopped, and he's now down to 33 kilos. We had an agreement that he could have one beer on a Friday night. That's it. And he's lost 33 kilos, right? So it would be alcohol first, then it would be no white food apart from eggs and cauliflower. So I go through and explain to people. I say, What color are all of these foods are bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, sweets, cakes, you know, pizzas. And they go, Oh, white or brown like good. So if you ever see white or brown foods and you're about to dish them on your plate, they're all rubbish, except for eggs and cauliflower, your eggs and cauliflower, there might be one or two others, right? So I say that's what you need to eliminate from your diet, and you need to just have three good meals a day, no snacking. So the first process is, get rid of the understand what the crap is. I give them a list, and I say only eat from this list, and have three meals a day, and I try and get them to eat one and a half to two grams net protein per kilo of body weight. And then I say to them, in two to three weeks, you'll wake up one morning and you'll be like, Oh, I didn't have lunch. I'm like, great, because you're not hungry, because you're not hungry, because the proteins filling you up, your blood sugar levels are stabilized. Then I say, okay, it part of the plan would be for the next, you know, 30 days. Try two or three days a week, where you only have two meals a day, but no snacking, because I explained the issue with blood sugar and insulin coming in and having that gap of food intake, then it would be sleep. You need to be in bed, you know, 10 o'clock up at six, no phone in the bedroom, no having phone in the room, reading a book, meditating and just going to sleep. And then it would be 15,000 steps a day, in the morning, when you wake up, that's it.

Sally-Anne Kearns  44:42  
That's, I mean, that seems really doable. So I guess the difference with having a coach is when they're not, you know, when they do sleep, or they're finding the mindset issues. They can have you on the phone and be like, Andre I'm struggling to need some help. You know, I'm not able to do this, or this feels harder. I'm feeling unmotivated, etc, and you can be the straight shooter that really kind of guides them well.

Andre  45:02  
I'll often go to them before they even see it, because I look every morning after gym, I look in coronometer, if they haven't tracked their food yesterday, or they've put rubbish in, I'll just go to them straight like this morning, I sent someone a text saying, no food tracking two days. Are you okay? Do you need to talk? Yep. You know another guy had, he's a diabetic. His blood sugar's already come down, but he had apricots as a snack. And I'm like, Dude, there's no protein in apricots. It's one of the highest sugar dried foods you can eat. Try and avoid them. So apart from that 30 day plan, it's also then about them understand they've got to have a process and a system, because people can know what to do, but if they don't actually have the food, and they haven't allocated time to cook and prepare, and they don't know, like, one scary thing for me is they reckon about 90% of Australians don't even know what's for dinner until about five o'clock at night. I find that fascinating, because get down with a sheet of paper. Get with your wife or your partner or your dog or your cat or your boyfriend or whatever, right? Get a sheet of paper and just go Monday, Sunday, work out with whoever in your family. When do you have to take kids to sport. When are you working late? Who's out at night? Chalk that in and then if you're needing to take leftovers to work because you want to save money and eat properly, you need to just have a double serve of protein in the plant. So lunch at work Tuesday means roast chicken. Monday night, make sure there's enough after dinner. Dish it up in your own glass bowl straight away, so the kids don't steal it, and you're taking your lunch to work on Tuesday, and that sets you up for success. So it's not just knowing what to eat, but it's about the process and the system of working with whoever you live with in your family, so that if you're making spag bowl to the kids that want spaghetti, you make sure there's zucchini or cauliflower rice to have with it for you. So they're the sort of, that's sort of like the 30 day plan. So it's like, sort out your alcohol, no white foods, you know, eat three good meals a day, then move that to two meals a day, eight hours sleep a night, and 15,000 steps a day.

Sally-Anne Kearns  47:20  
Yeah, perfect. I mean, I think you've made, you know, that's an incredible outline. The difference is having your accountability piece is going to be, what will be the difference to really moving a needle. And I appreciate your insights on these topics. I think, you know, Australia is a She'll be right mate culture. And you look around and I'm mortified at what people are prepared to live with in themselves, and the threshold seems to be that's just normal aging. Well, it's not, and we can reverse the clock and we can feel better, and we can set incredible examples for our children's children's children. And I just thank you for your time today. I think it's really important that we have men that are not only leaders in their own household, but leaders in their community where they're strengthening, they've already walked the path. They've done, they've sowing their own seeds, in the sense of they've got the fruit of the outcome. And you can see that in you, you're passionate, you're excited, you look healthy and vibrant. And it's an inspiration to other men that want to kind of cross the path and sort of have that healthy aging so thank you for your time. Kudos to your wife, which we love in the community, the NTA community, and thanks today, and we'll share this on the relevant channels. And so how do people get in contact with you?

Andre  48:32  
Andre sure they just look me up. Andre bredovic, you'll see me all over the internet. My website's just been redone. It's it's really nice. There's podcasts on there. I'm on Instagram, but I don't have it on my phone. I have no social media on my phone, apart from LinkedIn. I don't even have a Facebook account. So I'm on Instagram, but I don't post anything. The best way is to, if you have a LinkedIn account, to follow me on LinkedIn, because that's my main posting area. My website has all my details. If any of your listeners have men in their lives that want help. If the men want to make a change happen, I'd love to help them, and I'll look after them in terms of pricing as well as a bit of a Christmas gift, but they really want to have to do it, not be pushed into it.

Sally-Anne Kearns  49:26  
Yeah, yeah. So really, really be ready

Andre  49:29  
and and for all your women that are listening, if you're having trouble sleeping and you put on a bit of weight, listen to Sally and don't drink, because it'll totally change your life the last thing eat for purpose, not for pleasure.

Sally-Anne Kearns  49:46  
It's beautiful, awesome. All right, amazing. Thanks for your time. Thanks, awesome. That's, that's great. Thank you so much. That was, that was great. So I'll shoot you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai