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TESTOSTERONE Talks and FITNESS Walks - The OSMARI Project

• OSMARI • Episode 4

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Embark on a transformative journey with Craig Adams, a personal trainer who's cracked the code on keeping fit amidst the whirlwind of professional and family life. This episode is a goldmine for anyone battling the scales of work, wellness, and the joy of a good meal, offering wisdom that extends far beyond the gym. We tackle the intricacies of family meals, unpacking how they reflect our love and care even when time is scarce, and how these gatherings are crucial battlegrounds for teaching children about healthy eating habits and the tough reality that we can't always have what we want.

Fuel your soul with insights on striking that elusive balance between a delicious diet and maintaining a trim waistline in an era where food temptations lurk around every corner. As we unravel my wife's transition to healthier living and the gentle nudges from loved ones that rekindled my own fitness flame, you'll see how even the smallest lifestyle tweaks can leave a lasting impact. Plus, we dissect the age-specific strategies for staying active, from the fiery vigor of youth to the considered pace of our senior years, celebrating a 76-year-old who can plank for an astonishing three minutes.

Through the lens of testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), we examine the nuanced dance of hormones and health, discussing how TRT can rejuvenate a person's zest for life and what it means for long-term wellbeing when supervised by a medical professional. Rounding off, the episode touches on the symbiosis of homeschooling, healthful living, and leveraging personal expertise in navigating the challenges and triumphs of educating children at home. Join us for an episode packed with straightforward, actionable advice, whether you're juggling life's many responsibilities or simply looking to thrive in your prime.


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Arian:

Hey there, everybody, welcome to the Asmari project and in today's episode I'm going to be interviewing a personal trainer. Unfortunately, we did have some technical difficulties toward the end, so it's going to be an abrupt cutoff of the interview. However, we are going to have a part two for this interview and we're going to actually dig a little deeper with this particular visitor for the Asmari project. So stay tuned and I hope you enjoyed the interview. Hey everybody, welcome to the Asmari project, episode four. Today I have Craig. So, craig, please introduce yourself and what you do.

Craig:

Sure, hi everybody. I'm Craig Adams. I'm a personal trainer and online coach, so I basically work with a lot of people and they're fitness and nutrition, lifestyle habits, and it's primarily a lot of men. Actually, I work with a lot of men, but I do have some female clients as well. Tend to be those sort of busy professional type that you know don't really have a lot of time to spend on their own and they need a little bit of guidance.

Arian:

You know, along the way, and I guess the question is well, you mentioned a portion of your demographics, so can you go into a little bit more detail, because I've seen what you've written in your profile and such. So can you expand on the demographics of people that you train on?

Craig:

Yeah, so at this point you know some of I have some in-person clients I still see, because that's been my business for the last 17 years primarily has been working online or in person, and then about five years ago I started introducing online and then online I thought I wanted to start focusing primarily on men. Now. Men didn't necessarily have to have a particular age group, but I'm coming up on 40 and I try and recommend my age a little bit older, mainly because I understand where they're at in their life right, like they tend to be busy. They've got bigger jobs they have when they're 25, they might have a wife, they might have a husband, they might have kids. They've got these extra stresses that have sort of taken them away from where they used to be when they were younger.

Craig:

So at this point it's sort of like my little motto when I go for is I want to help guys lose fat, get stronger, while still having some drinks with the guys, and I think and the reason that that's my sort of my mandate is I put that in there even though I'm not a drinker myself, as I told you before like I put that in there because a lot of people can believe it's either, you know, all in or all out, and I think for like, a regular, regular person who's working, they need to understand that there's an ebb and flow to this and that there needs to be some enjoyment and there still needs to be some social and some entertainment that you know that comes with it.

Craig:

And so it's trying to help people learn, like, how can I get to my goals while still actually enjoying some time with my wife or some time with my, my friends, and but how do I do it strategically so that it's not damaging as I try and progress?

Arian:

yeah, and I and I kind of understand that when, um, well, first of all, I'm single, I'm not married, no kids, um, and I'm actually over 40, I'm 41, turning 42, um, and uh, essentially, uh, I, I have the luxury of not having bad influences as, as you know, coming from a significant other, or the children's dietary needs and all that stuff.

Arian:

So I know that that can be quite difficult, um, and you know, my mom lives in this house too. I bought this big house for only two people just so we each have our privacy. But, um, uh, essentially, I have the luxury where, you know, I'm still eating healthy, um, but it's like only one meal a week where I go absolutely crazy. I'll tell you about my cheap meal later. I actually bought it for tomorrow but, uh, when it comes to, like, the kids and the wife, I would imagine, or the husband, I would imagine, that that puts, um, I guess, an obstacle, uh, when it comes to the dietary um requirements in order to obtain optimal nutrition and fitness, um, so, can you, can you kind of expand, uh, expand upon that a little bit and what you've encountered as a trainer?

Craig:

sure, yeah, the thing I tend to encounter the most is that the impact of the partner and the impact of the kids is is quite high and and generally it's because I well, to be fair, I think generally it's quite. It's quite high because nobody wants to be making two, three meals for everybody to sit down at the same time, right? So you have to look at it from a perspective of, like, sitting down as a family or as a couple and you know, whoever is the meal creator that day, they don't want to have to make a separate meal for their husbands or their partner, and, and so I understand that aspect of it, the.

Craig:

The unfortunate reality that comes with that is that not everybody's body obviously, uh, sort of fits along the same dietary needs and dairy dietary requirements, um, and then obviously not everybody's goals, you know, fit to the to the same dietary requirements as well, and this is why, like when I'm working with men, uh, a lot of the men I work with, they don't tend to be the, the primary, you know, food maker in the house, and it's a difficult conversation to approach their partner to say, like I, I need to make a change.

Craig:

You know, I, I need your assistance in this, in this period, in this matter, and I'm sorry that it might create a little more work for us, but, like I, it's, and I believe that that that can be difficult for either sex to disclose, I believe, but I do really think it's hard, for for a lot of men, they come home from work, they've been away from the family for a long time, and it can be difficult for them to say like, hey, honey, I need something different, um, and so that's that's something I try to address a lot of people, because I do have a wife. I do have children myself, um we luckily eat quite healthy as a whole, as a family.

Craig:

Um, there are certain ways that I eat that are different than my kids, for example. Um, and that's because, like, we still want them to enjoy some ice cream or they're gonna have, you know, brownies when it, when it's brownie time, whereas I maybe I'm not going to participate in that and what. What we basically do then as a family because I have an understanding wife and great kids is that they can just understand like, hey, daddy doesn't eat that, but that's okay. Like, I'm glad that you're eating, I'm glad you're enjoying it, and I know that this is we're getting kind of esoteric here, but I say that because it's very difficult for a lot of people to separate themselves from. It's okay, if you don't participate, you can still enjoy the enjoyment of others participating in it, and that that your presence is what's most important in that matter and not your consumption of the food or the drink so, um, let me ask you this question about your kids.

Arian:

So have your kids enjoyed any, any sort of sweets or treats, um, that they really, really enjoyed like you mentioned, brownies or ice cream or whatever, um, and they try to give you a piece of it and you said no, and then they give you that sort of sad, pouty face that you don't love them anymore or something like that. I think that's a, that's a question I'd like to have the answer to.

Craig:

I think that's, I think that's a common fear that's actually going to put it. That's never happened. And I say it's never happened because I to sort of further this along I believe part of the problem in a lot of families can be that there's no conversation around food and what it, what it means to each other. And so for me because I eat very different from the second, that my kids, you know, could start to understand some semblance of logic, you know as they got older, it was saying to them like, hey, so daddy doesn't eat this way, but it doesn't mean that it's bad to eat that way, you know.

Craig:

To try and educate them, so when, so when they do have a cookie, they might say to me like, oh, dad, if you could have this cookie, you'd really like it. And I say, like that's, that's great, I probably would. And I think that that it comes back to the emotional side of the the father in this case, that we're talking about being able to talk to your children, talk through to your children to explain to them like, hey, it's okay that I'm not participating, right? You giving me a gift and me having to turn it down is nothing other than not. It's not for daddy today, or it's not for daddy right now.

Arian:

You know, and some people probably haven't that happened and it's a good lesson for them, a secondary lesson, if you will, kind of teaching them that you don't always get what you want. So you want daddy to have the cookie. He doesn't want it, so you don't always get anything, everything that you want. So it's a nice little lesson in that. And I guess I want to ask about you know if you don't mind me getting personal with your family dynamic when it comes to eating. So do you all eat together and and do you follow? Do you all have the same meals together or or minus the little treats that you just talked about?

Craig:

sure, that's a great question and I and I think it's a great question because we actually eat very few meals where I'm eating at the same time as them. So my, my children, my wife is going to imagine the breakfast, lunch, dinner. They probably have a couple snacks during the day. Like like regular folks, I tend to eat on a little more frequent. You know intake pattern and I tend to eat a lot more food. So it's not necessarily always gonna be the same food as them, but like a sort of traditional family, I make sure that at lunch time because I'll explain how I can be here at lunch but at lunch time I'll sit down with my kids, they'll eat their lunch and they're eating their lunch with me even though I'm not eating. And then summertime we sit down as a whole family and I'll be present as well.

Craig:

And again it's it's coming back to when we, when we do that, it's the kids are now aware, because they're older and they obviously have grown up a little bit. But I know for the people who are looking for help out there, the the idea is is like there's nothing wrong with you not consuming the food at the same time. There's but you. But you need to explain to them why that's happening and if you can do that, kids are way brighter than we give them credit for often, and so for us, like I, don't eat the same meal as them almost every single day, but that doesn't mean that we don't spend meal time together.

Arian:

And I could give you a little perspective from a different point of view. I grew up in an immigrant household and basically when my parents and I, when we came here, we started from nothing I mean my parents both worked all the time and I had babysitters, daycare and all that stuff and to the point where my parents got divorced when I was fairly young. But I was living with my mom and my mom was working a lot. My mom was working two jobs going to school, raising me and it was just normal for us not to eat together. We ate when we could and essentially what she would do is well, I didn't eat during the school day, but she would come home during her lunch, she would make a meal for me, set it on top of the stove and just let it sit there. When I come home, put it on the plate, put it in the microwave and I would eat something.

Arian:

And that's kind of how we worked and how we functioned. So the family dynamic where you sit together and eat all the time. I don't think it's necessarily required, but it's kind of like a bonus, it's nice quality time. However, it's not really realistic in a lot of different families because people have things to do, so it's just something to be considered about.

Craig:

Yeah absolutely and your mom demonstrated her love and care for you by making that meal at lunchtime and even though you might have been young and you wouldn't interpret that as mom demonstrating love when you're young but you know that now you can look back and go she gave me the love I needed at meal time by coming home at her time and prepping. And I think that when I get, when I'm speaking to people who are either just have a wife or husband or they have kids, is that they need to step back and take a grander view of what meal time means, what meals mean versus. How am I expressing love through this connection with food and the events around?

Arian:

Absolutely, and again, I mean, as I mentioned, we didn't have that much money growing up, so we did what we could when it came to nutrition and, unfortunately, when I was younger, we didn't really have that luxury of healthy eating, because it's cheaper to eat foods that aren't, I guess, well-balanced fuel. It was balanced, but not as well-balanced as I would have liked, knowing what I know now. But we did what we could and we made it work. But it's good that at least one person in your household has the knowledge that you have in order to assist in allowing the kids to have what they want to have, but still maintaining, I guess, somewhat of a well-balanced nutrition.

Craig:

Yeah, yeah, because we're not here to restrict our kids from enjoying some of the frivolities of youth, but my job is to ensure and teach them that they understand that treats are treats for a reason and if you eat them every day, they're no longer treats, they now just become staple in your diet and so you can't do that when you're kids, two or three. There are certain times you have to say no, like we're not having that tonight or no. But as they get older you can explain to them and they learn very quickly that you're right. If I do have ice cream every single day, kind of my belly starts to hurt sometimes, or if I do have brownies a few days in a row, by the end it's not as special, because kids use words like special, like that, and I think for us as adults we start to interpret things like.

Craig:

There's a term that I like and I hate, which is when people say everything in moderation, oh, everything in moderation, and you'll be just fine. And I often say to people well, that was true when my grandmother was young, because my grandma probably got to eat a pie once every three weeks. It was 1937. There would not have been access to pies yesterday, every single day, but now we say everything in moderation. We buy a pie and then we have one piece of pie for six consecutive days and you go. That's not moderation in any way, in any shape or form, and so that to me is what I'm trying to help my kids navigate.

Arian:

And I'm trying to help my wife my friends, my clients.

Craig:

Of course, I'm trying to help them navigate the idea that, hey, at one point everything in moderation was true, but we have to realize that moderation has changed Because we live in such a world of food abundance you and I, we're very lucky people right, the people who are watching this, the people who are my clients. They're incredibly fortunate people, which means we live in a world of abundance and we need to find a way to get back into a bit of a smaller box so we can control ourselves.

Arian:

And where we live in the West, where it's a lot of processed foods and mass production and a lot of things that we do have to take into consideration which aren't in other parts of the world with respect to I always think about. I have family in Germany and when I compare how they eat there to how Americans eat, it is apples to oranges, it is just so different. I mean fruits, vegetables, well-portioned, I mean even their school lunches. I mean it was fantastic and here it's. You know, I'm not even going to talk about the school lunches in the US, but I'm sure you're aware, and I'm sure that people who are listening to this are aware, they are very much processed.

Arian:

So, even though we live in this and I'm grateful for living here, but it has its items that we need to keep an eye on when it comes to what to watch out for. And luckily we have that sort of knowledge, or I've at least gained some more knowledge in the last five years in that respect. And I guess the next question is and you have a wife, so is she as fit as you? Is she as knowledgeable as you as it comes to fitness and health and nutrition?

Craig:

Yeah, so it's very interesting to say that. So my wife is very fit in terms of she eats like a champ. She eats very, very clean. She's not an overeater Like she has all of those characteristics. But what is, I think, funny is she exercises not at all. No exercise.

Craig:

And I'm constantly like babe, babe, you look great like imagine.

Craig:

But she has some stresses, she has things that do prevent her not from doing it but from taking that extra step to getting back into it.

Craig:

She used to exercise years ago when we were young no kids, easier jobs, those types of things but luckily she, like you know, shortly after we got together she was sort of a non-nutrition person before, just your regular Joe eating. And then when we got together, she just started picking up bit by bit and making a little bit of changes on her own, like not through my guidance or direction, and she started to notice like, oh, I feel better in this way, or the acne in my back is going away, like things that can become noticeable outside of the sphere of having to lose weight, you know. And then, as we move forward and we've progressed, and now here we are, we're together for almost 20 years now. Well, in those 20 years, like we were actually speaking last night which is hilarious, we're talking about it today I was saying last night, as you remember, you know, like when you would have a bowl of cereal before bed time, and now, like that would never cross your mind, and that's because of that growth and progression and knowledge that she's gained. And now I'm just I'm constantly picking at her, trying to get her back in the gym, you know, but in time it will happen and that's what I speak about in a lot of my videos or in a lot of the things that I write and I'm trying to

Craig:

save it. People. It's about taking these small steps to try and move forward. It's not always about these giant leaps that have to occur. So when she gets on the treadmill randomly and, you know, does a run on the treadmill in the house like, I'm happy for that, because one of these days she's going to run on the treadmill and it's going to catch, and then she'll be on it the next day or two days later, and so that's. I think that some people to come back to the all or nothing attitude, some people need to cut themselves a little bit of slack and realize that, hey, like one time on the treadmill, even in a month, is better than zero, and hope that that one becomes two and two becomes five.

Arian:

you know there was some, yeah, so that's my way there was another influencer that I'm I had a conversation with yesterday and I saw some of his stuff, but he had a paper towel analogy where you know you rip off one paper towel and you accomplish this, but the whole rules looks the same, but you keep on tearing through that paper towel role for each fitness task or each nutritional task that you accomplish and it will still look the same, but it will gradually get smaller, smaller, better and better and slimmer. So that's kind of like the analogy that you're kind of portraying as well, which I agree with. And, trust me, you know it's almost two years since I started working out again. I started working out again a few months before I turned 40, and I've said this in another episode of the podcast because my mom called me a fat ass and that's what motivated me and we had that sort of relationship and I always say that if people love you, they'll always tell you the truth, no matter how blunt it is, and that's how I prefer it. But yeah, she called me a fat ass. And then I got a trainer and now you know, I've been working with two different trainers these past two years, but now one of them has become a friend where I go to the gym with him in the morning at the ass crack of dawn. Today I woke up at four and I'm not a morning person at all and today we did. We did an incline treadmill workout for like 20, 25 minutes and then we did arms and I think, yeah, we did. We did arms today, so it, and we kind of blasted them really, really hard to the point where I couldn't do anything anymore.

Arian:

So I, I'm the type of person where I can't work out by myself, because when, if I work out by myself, I'm the type that thinks a lot about various other things with me, with my friend, and I, I mean, we just do it and we just have offensive conversations throughout the time that we're there and just just have a blast.

Arian:

So I think that's sort of like the atmosphere that I like working in, especially since he knows what he's doing and I'm kind of like I'm kind of shadowing him and I kind of imagine myself. You know, people ask me when I'm going to date or when I'm going to start seeing people again or what have you. I really feel like I need to date somebody who's a complete opposite of me I'm more of an academic intellectual, but somebody who's an artist but who's also very, very fitness focused, because that will sort of push me and and maintain that sort of direction that I want to be. Because I think that's very, very important, because if I was by myself and just having to do it by myself, I don't think I I would enjoy it as much as I do it with with my friend.

Craig:

I understand that. I really understand that some people it's the camaraderie for some people that you need that other person there as a motivator, as an accountability partner, and then when you're there, you have fun, and if you're having fun we can be talking about going in groceries or going to the gym if you're having fun, you're going to want to do it Like that's really what it comes down to, and so I love that you're doing that like and if that's your method, do it and stick with it.

Arian:

And again, like I said, I'm not a morning person, but he stopped. He was a personal trainer. He was, he was a freelance personal trainer, but then he started teaching. So he teaches elementary school. So now he has a regular job. So the only time that he can really do it is early in the morning. And then he also has a wife and he has two step kids that he deals with I guess that's the right word, I don't know how, what else to call it that he has and they take care of each other and spend time together and all that good stuff. But that's the only time that he has available.

Arian:

So I tweaked and sucked it up to the point where I'm waking up in a not so great mood and takes me about 4045 minutes to actually get up, but, but, but doing it in the morning and I and I guess I want to ask you this question because you mentioned the age thing before and I kind of want to bring it, bring it back to that so let's, let's take out the family dynamic aspect of it. So let's say, all things being equal, you know, say all the men are single, you know no children, nothing. And I guess I want to at least pick your brain on. What do people in their 40s or 50s have to do in comparison to people in their 20s, like, what are the pros and cons and what needs to be done and how should they do it, what should they address, what to look for and what when it comes to training, and what have you encountered? Sure?

Craig:

The best sort of analogy I can start off with is like when you're in your 20s, you're it's 1967 and you're a Corvette Right, so that thing is fresh, it is fast, it is powerful and you can put it away wet, it doesn't matter. The 50s is 1997 and you're in 1967. Corvette engines the same, it has the capability, but it requires more input. Right, it requires harder work. It might require better oil. Maybe now you're putting premium gas into it. When you put it away, you better wipe that thing down. You know you better be ready to go, because it's going to be going to take a lot more work to fix it up. And I think that's where a lot of people they become mistaken. They remember being 20.

Craig:

They remember what they did in their 20s and they're like oh yeah, when I was 20 years old, I did this and that and so on, and I'm like that is awesome, like that is really great that you have that experience. But now that you're 50 or now that you're 47 years old, I don't really care what happened when you were 27. Like, I'm glad to know it and I do have injuries, of course I want to know it. But when you're 47 years old, you can go in, you can still kick some serious ass, right. But you have to know how to rest better, recover better, relax better, probably stretch better, eat better. All of these inputs that are going to allow you to go back the next day and not feel mangled, right.

Craig:

And so that's number one the biggest difference is when you're younger you can pretty much get away with no sleep. You slam in the booze, have a great workout. The next day you put into that 47, 50, 60 range that deteriorates quite quickly. The second you have some booze, bad sleep. You hit the gym and before you know it you either have an injury or you're down with a cold because your body just can't handle that pressure. So, number one, it's almost like you need a holistic overview when you're a little bit older to ensure that you can have those great, powerful, intense workouts without it actually like deteriorating or being deleterious to your body or to your makeup, you know.

Craig:

But a lot of people that I see right from the jump, they say things to me like well, I'm 45, now I guess I can. I'm like that's often that that, but I'm like there's no, I can't, it's that you can, but we have to do it in the right way, the right sequence. We need to lay the right foundation again so that you can progress. And so I've had clients. I have a couple clients, one client actually, I'll give you. He's older than that. When I started training him he was 60. And so now he's 76 years old. Okay, when he was 60, retiring lawyer, so he'd been very busy job, never really had been active in terms of any sort of resistance training and so on and so forth.

Craig:

And so I was like, okay, let's start it out. At 76 years old he's doing the same or more weight in some exercises because he's been able to increase his strength through the years and then we've been able to maintain it. That's important number one. But number two like we're making adjustments to the other areas of his life. So he eats better. Of course he's been eating better now for probably 12 years and he does cardiovascular activity on his home elliptical.

Craig:

And then for his 75th birthday, which was this past November, we worked up to a three minute plank. Now a three minute plank maybe isn't earth shattering but for a 75 year old you know previous non-athletes to do a three minute plank on his 75th birthday, I think that's a huge victory. And, to be fair, like I think a lot of people who I speak to who are 45 to 55, they would sit there and go like, oh, I'm 54 now and I'm like, dude, I got a 75 year old who's looking to win kid, like that's not that old, but we have to make sure the inputs are lined up.

Arian:

And I kind of get that. One of the people I talked with was a ballet dancer a male ballet dancer and one of the things that I've lost over the years I was very, very flexible when I was younger, like into my teens, I was very, very flexible. All that flexibility is gone. Now I'm trying to get it back and it's hard only because you know we talked about how when you're younger, your bones and your muscles and all that they're a little bit softer, so you're able to get that flexibility easy when you're younger. But I was flexible up until I was 13, 14, then I got busy. But all of that flexibility that I've had is now gone and I'm slowly trying to get it back. But it's one of the most difficult things that I think I'm having to accomplish. And I think you know, with the training, one of the things that I noticed now that I'm in my 40s, I mean it's very, very easy for me to lose weight and gain weight. I mean I can lose and gain 30 pounds within a six month period.

Arian:

I mean it's you know go down 30 pounds and go up 30 pounds in a six month period. It's that easy for me. But the thing with me was I was I'm kind of like Gumby where, like you know, skinny fat and all that stuff. So at one point I was in, you know, fairly decent shape. I had a trainer when I was in my mid 20s Very, very easy for me to get in shape. You know I ate right.

Arian:

I took the creatine and the glutamine and you know I followed his nutrition plan and was doing the workouts and in six months, I mean, it was a complete 180. Of course I lost it. But then now I'm slowly getting it back. But it's now much more difficult now that I'm in my 40s. But you know, at least I've obtained, you know I've gotten some muscle, some of the muscle that I'm trying to get. But also I'm educating myself to the point where you know if you're trying to build muscle and bulk, if you want to call it that you know you're also going to gain some fat and then you're going to have to sort of cut it.

Arian:

And you know it's sort of like that. It's sort of like a. It's a game. It's some sort of game that you're playing with your body and I'm learning about that more and more and I think it's just, like you know, candy crush, level 700 and something. That's what I'm comparing it to when it comes to aging and working out.

Arian:

And it kind of brings me to my next topic and it's been kind of in my head because I've been hearing about it from various people. I mean, 40 is a significant age where men are supposed to focus on their health even more. You know certain tests, you know colonoscopies, all that stuff. But one of the things that I've heard about is testosterone replacement therapy, so, and that's usually something that may assist in people training over 40. So I kind of want to get your perspective as to how testosterone replacement therapy is utilized currently between the various age ranges. What are the benefits of that, what are the cons of that and the right way to do it if we were to go to that approach, and is this something that you have done before?

Craig:

Yes. So testosterone replacement therapy for anybody who may not know what it is really I said we have a range of testosterone. When you're measuring blood work, there's a range of testosterone that they want men to fall within. In America I'm pretty sure it's something like 250 to 1100 or 300 to 1100. If you fall within that range, even though it's a giant range, generally your doctor will say you're fine, you know no problem at all. But you can be in that lower range and feel like crap. And you feel like crap because you might be the kind of person who is optimal at 600 or 700. Or you may be the kind of person who's below, like below, that range and be assigned what's called testosterone replacement therapy. So generally, testosterone replacement therapy is you're prescribed some form of a what's called an exogenous testosterone. So we make endogenous testosterone from our testicles through a little.

Craig:

you know some communication comes from our brain to make that happen, of course. But somewhere along the line as you get older, you can be making less. And if you're making less and you're below that level and your doctor prescribes you to testosterone replacement therapy, what they're generally trying to do is get your numbers back up into a range where you feel good, all your health markers continue to, like, look as good as they know as they can, and you'll be a little more vital. You'll have a little more, you know, virility. You know your libido might go up, you might see a little muscle tissue gain, like there's.

Craig:

There's certainly lots of advantages of just to having like a more mid range to optimal level of testosterone, optimal being different for everybody, of course. I think that there in some people they, you know, see dramatic results when they go on to testosterone replacement therapy and oftentimes that's because they might have been below the levels for a very long time and living sort of sub par. There are lots of people who get on to testosterone replacement therapy after they actually use testosterone and other steroids to, you know, to get sort of dramatic performance enhancement, whether that be athletically or in the gym, and then afterwards their body can no longer produce an ample amount of endogenous testosterone to allow them to have that sort of optimal range. So then they end up on testosterone replacement therapy. You asked another question which was oh sorry, so there was like obviously the benefits are actually numerous and I wish I could list them all. But, realistically, one of my favorite quotes is from Dr Andrew Schuberman, who's a guy who's now quite popular on Instagram, he has a podcast and so on and he said testosterone testosterone at a physiological level makes effort feel good, and that's probably the best way that I can describe testosterone as well is that if you have ample levels of testosterone, when you have to go and complete a task or it could be a physical task, a mental task there's less stress behind, less feeling of stress behind it and then often a better recovery. You know, from from actual physical activity. There can be downfalls, you know.

Craig:

Primarily the biggest downfall is that if you, you know, are injecting or using the patch, for example, testosterone, into your body for a period of time where your own body stops production entirely, so then you become reliant entirely on the prescription that you have and if you're the kind of person who's, you know, every day you've woken up for the last 20 years taking your multivitamin and, you know, gone after work, then it might be something that you're totally fine with.

Craig:

But for a lot of people, adherence and then you know, having that consistency, that longevity of adherence can be tough, and three, four or five years down the road you may find like man, I'm kind of tired of sticking this needle in my leg every two, every three days, or my butt every three days, and so that's generally sort of the baseline lifestyle. What are the disadvantages is that once you're on it, you may have to be on it forever. You can come off of it. You can still come off of it, and your, your, your, your HPTA and your testicles will start reproduction, but they may not be able to bring that level back up to anything that is a semblance of optimal. So there is that there can be health impacts. They're not necessarily like mortal, like they're not like they know. It's not going to say they're going to kill you, but they could. Over the long though, somebody might take testosterone replacement therapy and they might notice that their liver markers or that their cholesterol numbers can change, and then that's why you're working with a doctor, right?

Craig:

That's why you go to your doctor's prescription. You work with a doctor. They're going to adjust your dosing to try and make sure all those markers are there, but it is something to be wary of or to be, you know, knowledgeable in, in that there can be changes in some of your health markers. And the last, the last question is it was you're asking about me, and I've used testosterone replacement therapy for probably just about four years now, and the reason that I started with it was when I was in my early thirties. I had a really high testosterone level, just naturally, and I felt, and I felt great. You know, I felt very, very good. Obviously I was. I was young, I was a young guy and everything.

Craig:

But then, between like running a business that had me waking up at three thirty in the morning every day for 10 years, having two kids, raising two kids, you know all of these things Physically I started to deteriorate and that's actually noticeable.

Craig:

I know you're on my Instagram. I made a post in a day showing, like, what I look like in 2018 versus 2023, you know, and I made some dramatic changes and the testosterone replacement therapy was one of them. It's certainly I don't think was actually the biggest one, and there's gonna be people who listen to this and people who watch this who are going to disagree with me. They're going to think like, well, testosterone makes you huge, it makes you whatever, but it's like, legitimately, the biggest change I had to make in that time was realized how fucking stressed I was and how much it was damn near killing me and that the only way out of it was I had to acknowledge it and then make a change in my life, and one of those changes was going to the doctor getting my blood test done, seeing that my testosterone in seven years had plummeted and had to work our way back up into like a healthy level.

Arian:

Yeah, so that's one of one of the challenges that that I'm encountering. Well, you know that I'm going through this, this lawsuit thing right now, and I'm not working. One of the things the issues about not working is not being insured, so I can't. I can't go to the doctor, have the appropriate test and, you know, do all this up. I want to make sure that if I decide to do this, I want to do it the right way. So I'm trying to research the avenues that I can take in order to still obtain what I would need to, in order to have the right testing mechanisms, the right the right doctors, the right, you know, just the right tests in general, to ensure that I do this the right way. The optimal way would be, you know, to be insured and then go to you know Real health care provider that you know and trust and all that stuff. But I'm having to maneuver Through various avenues to see what I can do but also be as safe as possible while doing it. Like one of the things I I'm not sure if you, if you heard of prep, but it's like hiv prevention and all that stuff, and I and I never really took it, but there's this company called hey mister, and you know they they test you for hiv, gonorrhea and chlamydia and they send you this kiss kit to Do testing at home by yourself and you. You send the items back to them and you know when it when. One of the benefits of that is, you know, great, I mean, I don't really have sex that often or but, but you know it's good to know. But one of the little metrics that they they have is that creatinine levels, so that's like the additional level that I like to keep an eye on and and that's a that's a free test right there. So now I'm trying to figure out all the free mechanisms and testings that I can do to get my cholesterol tested. My, I have. I have a fit bit right now that I'm testing, uh and keeping track of.

Arian:

So I'm, I'm utilizing every tool that I can in order to Uh, you know, do things correctly and keep an eye on, on everything. And plus, you know, like I said, I train with my friend and you know he's a trainer. The other thing that I I love about training with him is, you know, I'm the I'm, I'm the type of person that, um, you know, I don't get offended very, very easily and it takes it takes a lot to piss me off. I'm I'm pretty easy going, but I'm the type where, if I'm doing something wrong, he could like slap me in the back of the head and say, stop fucking up, do it this way, and then you know, uh, I'll get it, um, but, but that's that's sort of the reason why I I try to have all these people who are knowledgeable in the fitness industry To have these chats with, but also to get different perspectives, um, as to you know what to do, what to look for and also why, why people are doing the things that they're doing in the way that that they're doing it.

Arian:

But also, I think it's important for, you know, you have a family, um, and the people that I've chatted with before you know they're, they're younger, they're still, you know, in their early 20s, um, but they don't have to worry about kids, thankfully, you know, uh, and, and not just yet, but, um, I think it's very, very important to have, um, you know, somebody like you who is, you know, working for themselves but also maintaining, uh, a healthy lifestyle, training, training clients, but also Having that family dynamic that is necessary and and and kind of Getting an idea as to how you work and I I think you know. As I talk about this, I think the next question is um and uh, may I? May I ask how old your kids are?

Craig:

Yeah, sure, my. I have a 10 year old son and a seven-year-old.

Arian:

So, um, I guess my question is how are you instilling your knowledge as it comes to health and fitness? I already I kind of figure out, I'm figuring out what you do for nutrition and I and I think I have a good stance on that, but I I kind of want to gauge as to how you are instilling the knowledge of health and fitness to your kids. Yeah, you know, I'm so lucky.

Craig:

I'm lucky for lots of reasons but, like, one of the reasons I'm lucky is that we actually homeschool our kids. So I spend a lot of time with my kids. That not everybody has, you know, the freedom, freedom to do Um, and then with that I also have all of my my.

Craig:

I have a gym at home, I have my full gym here, so my children get to see me exercising, because they get to come in the gym while I'm doing my thing. So number one is like, just by example you know I'm just by example my children could be present. Um, while I'm doing things, I let them lift the weights or pull in the cables and do some little things that are, you know, sort of safe and light, so they can get movement in, and we'll talk about it sometimes during those periods. But it's something that's actually brought up quite often in our Conversations. The same way that we might talk about math, we're going to talk about movements, right the same way that we might talk, that we might talk about like them learning french.

Craig:

We're going to talk about nutrition, and so it's like it's trying to instill all the like curriculum based education we have to put into them, while at the same time trying to fill them with these like this, like life knowledge, and so I try and express, especially like fitness, like exercise, as a sort of prerequisite to life, that like exercising is something that you do and the kids love to laugh and say like, oh, we got to get mummy exercising.

Craig:

They're gonna get mummy exercising, you know, and and it's like they're doing that, not there's some sort of thing to shame her, it's that they're like, oh yeah, exercise is something you do, the same as you brush your teeth and you floss your teeth, and and that's how I try and present it to them Is that it's a fun activity. You can find whatever Sports or or movement, you know, opportunity that you like it doesn't have to be lifting weights necessarily, but you must do something to move. And so we we do that with like recreational sports as well, like, hey, you know, maybe soccer isn't your favorite sport, but like this summer we got to pick a sport for you to do because you've got to do something and then hopefully one time, right, they'll find something and it catches and then they'll be off to the race, yeah, and um With.

Arian:

With the homeschooling thing, I'm kind of in agreement with you. If I, if I do have I plan on having kids before I'm 50, or at least one kid before I'm 50. Um, I'm too selfish right now and I have other things going on, but, uh, I I'd imagine that I would homeschool them. Uh, only for for a plethora of reasons based on what I'm seeing right now, and I'm not even going to get into that discussion, but, um, when it, when it comes to um me, I'm a math and science guy. I I can, I can teach that and even go into advanced stuff with them. Uh, and I I'd imagine I had had this conversation with my friend. I said you know um these kids and their technology, playing video games all the time on their phone, all the time, you know, on their iPad. I, I would limit that to to such an extent, um, and and try to ensure that you know they're doing all these different activities, whether it be outside a sport or music, art. You know something. You know just just just something um that, that that you know, I never really got to have when I was a kid.

Arian:

I, I was a violinist growing up too and I had to beg my mom. We couldn't afford it, but I had to beg my mom uh to to um start violin. But I it turned out that I was very, very good at it played all through college and um, and you know, as we, as she progressed in her career and you know she was making more money I was able to, you know, do more stuff. So I did swimming, I did, you know, track, just to try different things out, but it was so late for me. I was doing this in this high school.

Arian:

So I would imagine that, you know, when I have kids, I would try to get them in there as early as possible so that they can sample All these little different, uh, different cuisines and athletics and and arts and all that stuff, to kind of uh, pick out what they want. But the homeschooling thing, I mean it's, I think, honestly, anybody who, who has the benefit of teaching their kids at home. I mean that that's just fantastic and For so many reasons and this is not a political discussion so I'm not touching it but but, but I I think it's it's very, very necessary these days to to uh Install certain values that you want to instill in your kids, um, especially when it comes to fitness, um and health, and I'm not even sure if, if Health and fitness is a requirement in the homeschooling curriculum, and maybe you can answer that question.

Craig:

So the homeschooling curriculum Excuse me is different sort of all across the us, it's different all across canada.

Craig:

So where we live there's actually no like we're not, we're not prescribed any curriculum at all, and then we basically pick and choose various curriculums that are available To maximize the different subjects that we want our kids obviously to, you know, learn, um, given the age and grades that they are supposed to be in, and then we can have this extracurricular, basically you know, educational piece which would be like the health, the fitness, the nutrition, the wellness, like those are things that are important to us and those are core family values for us. So we have the core family values and then we have the actual stuff we need to make sure that they know and learn and become good at, to become fully functional, like, you know, adults in society. And so we're lucky. We're lucky where we are because we don't have to have this massive oversight which would limit our ability to teach in the way we want to. So all of the regular subjects, you know, we teach probably the way that they're taught anywhere else, and then we get to have this freedom on the other side where we can teach our kids art and music and language In a way that fits like our life and the life in the area that we live, and so, yeah, we're very, very lucky. Yeah, it's not. It's obviously not for everybody. We actually don't do it for any sort of Religious, are political reasons.

Craig:

We made a decision Early, basically right when the pandemic started, because kids were out of school, and I just said to my wife, said, look, I said the whole year is fucked, so why don't we try something new?

Craig:

Why don't we experiment with something you know?

Craig:

And my wife is like this incredibly smart and bright and capable person, so she like she deep-dived into it and Every year we just say that, okay, we're gonna do it next year, like we just go one year at a time.

Craig:

We get the question a lot like how long you gonna do with this for, and I always like I don't know the ants, like the kids will tell us, like we will know. And we do ask our kids, like this fall, like, do you want to go to school? Do you want to go to school and be with you know, be with other kids? And as it stands now, they enjoyed the formula we have and we actually, because we live in a rural community and there's quite a few people who actually homeschool, so we have like a large group of families and other kids that we get to, you know, be with every day or every couple days to have that connection with other you know, other people obviously Along with, like recreational sports, and because all this socialization that's occurring and at the end of the day it does feel good to have a little more control.

Arian:

But with control comes a responsibility that that is intense and takes right and you know with me, you know, I'm not sure if you know this, but I'm finishing up my PhD in computational math. So that, that's that yeah that's my background.

Arian:

So my background is in the math, behind artificial intelligence so, and I deal with a lot of images and videos and all that stuff and that's kind that's kind of how my brand was founded, because certain shapes and images they kind of related to my PhD research. So I made that, that correlation there. But you know, when, when we talk about Math and science, I mean if I have kids, I would be geeking out with them on on that. But the physical fitness stuff, I mean, if I had to, I would, I would hire trainers for them. If they wanted it, I would. I would, you know, let them do whatever sport that they want to, because I think it's very, very important to, again, I have that sort of interaction with students, with kids that are, you know, not related to you, only only by relation all the time, or just the neighbors.

Arian:

I think it's very, very important to have that sort of Diverse experience that you get from socialization by doing various activities, and that was that's kind of like one of the regrets, that that it's not really a regret, but it's something that I wished for when I was younger, that I really wasn't privy to, and I think you know, if, if you know, we had certain benefits when I was a kid, you know, I think I would have probably had a more healthier lifestyle. I would have been, you know, training, you know growing up and and and and caring about Caring about those sort of things. But unfortunately that that wasn't the case. But at least, you know, now I'm at a certain level in my my career, in my education, where I am able to slowly transition my mental state into that, that sort of Healthy sort of mentality and plus, you know, hitting 40, that's sort of like a midlife crisis age, almost so. So it so it kind of works out.

Arian:

But I think it's very, very important to when it comes to Health and fitness and and you know, seeing what I missed when I was a kid, I think it's it's it's great to introduce it to the kids as early as possible, because I think it instills not only just being healthy but but it gives you a sort of discipline. That that I think is is not really taught in any other way unless you were kind of focused on it. You know, if you, if you want to get good at something, you have to practice at it. So I think, adding that sort of physical activity, whether it just be bodybuilding, weightlifting, but or a sport. I think it is a nice little fun challenge For for any kid to have and, however it's taught, and whenever it's taught while they're young, I think it's a great benefit. So if you enjoyed the part one of this interview and like to see the next part, feel free to like, subscribe, comment on this video. We are on Spotify as well as Apple podcast and we hope to see on the next one, cheers.