The Masters Athlete Survival Guide
We explore thriving as an athlete after 40. Each episode, we’ll dive into tips, hacks, and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes and our personal experience. Whether you’re a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook for staying fit, strong, and motivated
The Masters Athlete Survival Guide
Part 1 Coach Dan John on Creating a "Life Made Simple"
Listen to Coach Dan John's Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/6iQUODyzsCIKcLKkzWUG9z?si=1cca00deeec44f9a
Check out Dan John University for highly customized workouts and a myriad of resources (including Mass Made Simple) with a discount for our listeners using code ESPEN
https://danjohnuniversity.com/
Alongside the legendary Coach Dan John, we unpack the joys and challenges of training as a Masters athlete, especially for those of us over 40. Our conversation flows from the rigors of training through Buffalo winters to the transformative impact of Dan’s program, "Mass Made Simple," which reignited John's athletic fire.
We’re joined by a remarkable guest whose life story is as compelling as it is inspiring. Growing up as the youngest in a military family, he found his calling in weightlifting, spurred on by his older brothers. His journey led him to excel in discus throwing, earn a Fulbright scholarship, and become a professor in both religious studies and strength and conditioning. Now, at 68, he continues to compete and coach, instilling young athletes with a passion for the sport. His reflections on family, community, and legacy are not just stories but a testament to a life driven by purpose and resilience.
Our discussion ventures into the evolution of storytelling within the fitness industry and the complexities of nutrition. We challenge the oversimplified "calories in, calories out" model, offering insights from experts like John Barban and Brad Pilon. We emphasize the critical role height plays in dietary needs and share practical strategies for maintaining a balanced diet. As we close this episode, Coach Dan John leaves us with his three pillars of fitness: fat loss, muscle gain, and a touch of Irish whiskey. Subscribe and join us for part two, where we continue to explore these essential themes and more.
@masters_athlete_survival_guide on IG
New episodes come out every other Thursday!
Hey everybody, this is John and welcome to part one of our two-part conversation with Coach Dan John. It was a long one, but you know you get a bunch of old men together talking about training in Irish whiskey and things go off the rails. Don't forget to listen to part two as well, as at the end, coach Dan John shares some discount codes for his content, which is invaluable as you train and go forward as a Masters athlete. Enjoy this episode. Welcome to the Masters Athlete Survival Guide, where we explore the secrets to thriving in sports after 40. I'm John Katalinas and, along with Scott Fyke, we'll dive into training tips, nutrition hacks and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes who defy age limits. Whether you're a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook for staying fit, strong and motivated. Let's get started and we're back. Hi, I'm John, I'm Scott and we have my favorite super extra special guest today Coach Dan John.
Speaker 2:Hi Coach, Hi guys, how are we doing tonight?
Speaker 3:We are well, we're doing all right. It's a little cold here in Buffalo. It's like teens, it's in the teens, so walking into the studio was a rather quick walk instead of the leisurely stroll.
Speaker 2:I mean to hear that. I mean honestly, I'm shocked to hear that no.
Speaker 1:Buffalo, new York has snow all right, and I know Utah is what 80 and sunny today, I'm assuming.
Speaker 2:No, actually. Yeah, Boy, we're not getting a ton of snow this year, but boy, we're getting the cold. Yeah, today was a cold. Yeah, today was a cold day. Cold, I mean outside cold, like are you kidding me? Cold, you know. Yeah, you know, when you go out to do something you're out there like a minute Like I have no interest. I don't even remember why I'm out here. You know it's kind of cold, no interest in, I don't even remember why I'm out here.
Speaker 1:You know it's kind of cold. Yeah, but is that because we're not 20 years old wearing shorts like we? Did at some point.
Speaker 2:Probably true.
Speaker 1:I mean, I did a lot of my collegiate track practices like we threw weight outside in the snow and I'm reasonably sure I would have quit the sport if I had to do that right now.
Speaker 2:That British guy, pickering and I were talking about that online. Yeah, oh, probably 20 years ago we're at a track meet in idaho state and they they said we're gonna have the weight, okay, so we're doing the weight. Yeah, they cleaned off the shot put ring and so they had the. So, if you can imagine the, the tow board is facing north, so we like through east oh, yeah, I've been there, yep, and outside shot put ring and God only knows and we were just throwing into a snow bank. It was like, yeah, I really hope this was worth it.
Speaker 1:It typically wasn't, and there was always a little salt on the ground, so it made it like grip extra better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, but here we are. We all survived yeah.
Speaker 1:So I have to tell my. I have to tell my dan john story. I'm so excited I've been vibrating all day to tell my dan john story that you don't remember, but as was actually like you are like my spiritual great-grandfather in my master's athletics. So flashback to, let's call it, 2008. Although I'm horrible with years, sure, I am going through a horrible divorce. I am living in a squalid like one bedroom apartment with a bunch of other divorce guys in the building and out of nowhere I uh, an alumni from my 15 years, younger than I said, calls me hey, you turned 40.
Speaker 1:You used to be good at track. Why don't you go to a track meet with me? And I'm like no, I have no money. I don't have the money for gas. I don't own throwing shoes anymore. I haven't touched anything since 26. He's like come on, come on, come on, throw. And he would not leave me alone. So I went and I threw and I qualified for the new york state um conference meet and I'm like, oh, my god, I can still throw the weight. So I'll throw the weight. Yeah, that was very exciting. But so then he goes okay, you're still good at this. Do you know that there's a thing called masters nationals. I'm like I do not know that. So he basically cajoles me to go to Masters Nationals up at the Reggie, whatever stadium in Boston. I can't think.
Speaker 3:Reggie.
Speaker 2:Lewis, reggie Lewis, I threw oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I threw and I didn't know anybody and I had been so disconnected from the sport Because I'm basically like Mr Magoo, I fell into winning a national championship and I'm like, oh my God, I'm still okay at this. So I come back to my office one day and I now realize I'm reasonably talented in track, but I'd like to get better.
Speaker 3:Reasonably talented is the way to describe John for a lot of things, coach, I got to tell you.
Speaker 1:So my friend tim miller hands me mass made simple and he's like tim miller, you, you, uh, from where? From denver? No, he's, he's a track coach in texas. Um, okay, sure he, yeah, no, no problem he. So he hands me mass made simple. He's like do this, just do this.
Speaker 1:Because I, you know, I, I think the only reference I had back in my day and in my days and is back as yours, but, uh, you know the encyclopedia of bodybuilding by arnold arnold schwarzenegger, yeah, yeah. So I mean, there was nothing, you know, pre-internet, I, my only thing for shop put was a flip book of perry o'brien. Um, but, anyway, gives me mass made simple. And I started doing it. And I like to get this out of the way now that I kind of hate you when it comes to, like, picking up a barbell and not setting it down until it basically has done a, an arc across your body. Um, so what do I do? Because I, I'm training mass made simple and it's just not going well. I'm struggling, I'm unfocused, I'm not improving, I'm working out alone in the corner of the sad gold's gym. What do I do? I'm going to send Dan John an email. Dear Coach John, my name is John. I am depressed. I've lost the spark. I'd like to get better. Blah, blah, blah. A paragraph of how sad and horrible I am depressed. I've lost the spark. I'd like to get better. Blah, blah, blah. A paragraph of how sad and horrible I am. I click send.
Speaker 1:11 milliseconds later, my cell phone rings Because my cell phone number is in the signature of my email From Utah and I turn into a 12-year-old girl. I stare at my phone and I watch it ring and I let it go to voicemail and on my voicemail is Dan John going. John, you really need to answer because your problems are not unsolvable. All you need is and you went into this whole paragraph of what I needed and I never called you back and I never did anything about it. But you are my spiritual grandfather. And all this because I think I've made it a bit of my mission in my master's career to be that guy for others All right Now I'm going to jump in here for a hot minute.
Speaker 1:Oh boy.
Speaker 3:Coach, this is the first time John's ever told me this story.
Speaker 1:I don't think I've ever told anybody this story.
Speaker 3:John and I have known each other for about six, seven years or so. John is on the board of my gym, he's on the board of my foundation. We're very good friends. I've never heard that. For him to say something like that, that you put him on that path that's big. Thank you for that, because one of the things he does for me, when I'm sort of depressed because the weight isn't moving or I'm not moving as fast as I should be, he does that for me. So for me, and we've never met before.
Speaker 1:thank you so that's kind of awesome. Thank you, you know. So that's kind of awesome. Oh yeah, so when you're making all this content um it it matters if you ever wonder, before you close your eyes, at the end of the day, if what you're doing has any impact. It has significant impact in ways you don't even realize well, I really I do, I really really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:I mean more than you know. I mean I mean I've gone through some rocky periods, you know in the last. You know I've gone through some tough times, you know in the last, with you know we could talk all you want about it, I'm fine, I just. But you know, I'm glad I was there for some, because I mean I would not. I mean some of the stuff I've gone through I would wish it on someone I don't like, and you know, and I just I'm glad I could be there for you.
Speaker 1:No, I appreciate that and, like I said you, the impact you made on me has. I mean, I have a squad of guys that I will go to battle for to keep them from getting anywhere near where I was in that moment. Yeah, yeah, and that's really that that, that kind of what makes all this worthwhile, Right? I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Well, I appreciate it. Yeah, Much appreciated I yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I basically then cyber stalked you for a long time. Um, I got Dave Draper to sign a uh muscular development magazine. Um, because of your wandering weights uh newsletter. I sent it to, I sent to Larry and she, uh, she got Dave to sign it. So I've got a copy with Lou Frigno signed to the back as his picture and dave signing the front with his picture.
Speaker 1:So that was an oh really, yeah, that's pretty cool that's pretty cool and and again and this was kind of near the end for dave and he still, he wrote me, you know, a page of, yeah, thanks for caring, thanks for remembering me, and I'm like, oh, you know the best people are just the best people yeah, he's, he was such a great man.
Speaker 2:I, you know, I, I is such a great man. Just there's you. Just, you can't, you can't even uh, yeah, just, I have a picture of him, him and I are doing squats together and, uh, he asked me it was interesting, you know, when mr universe asked you to teach him how to squat, it's, it's pretty high praise. Yeah right, yeah, no kidding, tell me what I'm doing wrong. And so, honestly, it was cool because I felt like he was one of the best listeners I'd ever worked with. Hyper focused. Oh, really, I, hyper focused. I can't emphasize that enough. Yeah, great man. Yeah, well, let's get, uh, let's get kicking off after all these wonderful things.
Speaker 3:Uh, my, my mom and dad would be proud, all right coach, I mean I I've heard your name before. I'm not a complete neophyte when it comes to who you are and what you're doing now, and I am a fan of it. But a lot of the folks that John and I interact with, a lot of the folks that are listening to our podcast, may not know who you are quite as well as we do, so could you give us that thumbnail sketch of who you are, where you're at and some of your accolades, please.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, I think it's really important to my life story is that I'm the youngest of six kids, military family, five brothers and a girl, five brothers and a sister. And I grew up chasing much older brothers. Rich is 12 years older, ray is 11 years older, so I played sports, always thinking I was horrible. We're a military family. Three brothers went to nam uh, two are disabled from the war. Uh, and that, uh, that helped me. They all went on. After that, went on, competed in college. You know, uh, mom and dad were depression era. You know they met at a uso dance in world war ii. And if you don't, if you don't put that in a lot of it doesn't make sense, because I always think what I do is a blessing. And then my brother ray just got home. He's been home from nom for a while but our aunt arnie died and she left, for she left the six of us 500 bucks. So they went over seals sears and bought the ted williams 110 barbell set.
Speaker 3:I know that set. Scott may still have that set actually, yeah it might be at the compound, you know.
Speaker 2:So I'm eight years old seven years old, maybe eight, I think, and I still have the booklet downstairs and I fell in love with the logic of weightlifting, progressive resistance exercise. If you do this thing, you put more plates on over time, and I had this goal that one day I'd put the bar and the tens on the outside. And so I started lifting then off and on, but mostly on and started reading Strength and Health. And then I read a book called seven days to sunday and on wednesday. It talks about a guy named kenny avery and he threw the. He threw the shot discus and ran the hurdles in the spring. So that's what I did and I I was a hurdler all through high school but I just stuck to the discus and I learned how to. When everyone else was standing throwing, I was turning. When they turned, I had throwing shoes. When they got throwing shoes, I was lifting more than them. When they started lifting, I was Olympic lifting.
Speaker 2:Since then I've got a bunch of master's degrees. I've been a professor at three different universities and two different fields religious studies and strength and conditioning. I was a Fulbright scholar. I went to the Middle East with that Gosh. I'm 68. I'm still competing as a weightlifter. I had to retire from throwing. Just the years of turning just did the damage. But I haven't competed in the nationals. But every time I I break all the national records, which is always funny. Uh, so some utah state records are heavier than the national records.
Speaker 2:Uh, which is always kind of funny, oh yeah you know, um, I just had another granddaughter back in august. Her name's ellen, and then congratulations. And then, in, uh, april, uh, or before that, my daughter, daughter Kelly, will have Daisy and we're excited. So I have five grandchildren, two daughters, five grandchildren. If you know my story, we lost Tiffany a couple years ago, right, but that was not all good, I understand. And then I mostly volunteer now, and then I mostly volunteer.
Speaker 2:Now I'm the throws coach at Westminster, here in Salt Lake City, a small little oh, I don't even know what division we are Division 39 or 40 maybe and I love coaching and I still coach Any kid who wants to throw farther. I will coach for free and stick with it. I travel a lot, I go to Europe a lot to do workshops. Yeah, I think I've written. I sent in my 22nd book this afternoon. I should say, yeah, and I like writing. I like our house is based on a concept called UGA, which is coziness and I work hard. But I'm also, you know, I lift weights hard three days a week. I exercise six days a week. I, you know, I try to really be a role model for the younger generation about things. Yeah, and I do my best, you know.
Speaker 1:No, and you're doing well. And again, since I sort of was mass-made, simple, easy strength kind of guy, I didn't realize you were 22 books in at this point.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I hate to be this way and I hope you sell 22 more books. But mass made simple, pretty much solved everything for me and while I don't follow it religiously anymore, the principles within no you should. Yeah, yeah, it just that, that is. That is a core foundation of how I, how my mentality goes when it comes to training.
Speaker 2:Well, that's great. So for the listeners who don't know, mass made simple. It was interesting that. So you know, I was getting a lot of success at the high school level with, you know, american football, and a lot of the dads, especially the firefighter dads, started asking me all these questions about.
Speaker 1:So what are?
Speaker 2:you doing, what are you doing in the weight room for my son and I would share it with them. And all of a sudden I realized that. And so easy strength my, that was the big book I wrote with Pavel. I've got a new, new one called easy strength, omni book, which I think I think it's a little clear about some things. You know, it's uh, but uh, it was getting delayed in printing and I got bored. So I said you know, let's, let's turn this into a book and see what happens. You know, yeah, and uh, it sold. I mean it sold really well and I guess all my I mean I'm bragging, but my books sell well, you know.
Speaker 3:I guess all my I mean I'm bragging, but my books sell well. You know, I got to say from what I've seen, because I've looked at some of them and gone through them they're easy reads and I think that's too often people get too bogged down in the minutia. And I've got to prove that I'm more intelligent than you and you know all of that I work in. I'm a college registrar and I deal with it on a daily basis and I'll tell people just make it simple. If you can have a conversation with somebody, you're going to hold their interest, You're going to deal with them on a much more personable level and you're going to have better results and a better relationship. That's what I've seen in your books, coach, and I've got to tell you from my humble opinion that's where it's at.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, you know, uh, when I was a long time ago as an administrator, had a whole bunch of people under me and I was starting to write, we had a proofreader, uh, at the newspaper that was affiliated with us. His name was jack Schrader. Jack Schrader knew John F Kennedy. He was that guy, wow Jeez. And he became the editor of the Salt Lake Trib. And I understand it now. When I first met him I was like gosh well, he volunteered as a proofreader for this little kind of throwaway newspaper and he just took me under his wing to help me as a writer. And he told me something one time and it's basically what GK Chesterton said.
Speaker 2:You know, people love stories about people and you know I try to. You know, if I'm writing a book and there's not stories in them, I mean, I got a book called Armor Building Formula. It's two workouts. You alternate them A, b. Okay, all right, you're done. Welcome, I'm glad you spent the money. But how is that going to? How is that going to? There's no story there. Why, if something comes up, you got to solve it yourself, or why isn't it? You know, you know why isn't it eight hours a day versus half an hour? You know you have to answer those questions, you have to talk to your reader. You have to, you have to. You have to make sure your reader feels good about what was what was learned, and that that's what I focus on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah well, as a lifelong scientist, I will praise both you and Scott, because you're both the same person when it comes to the fact. You're great communicators because you know your content very well. Anybody that knows what they're talking about, to the highest highs and the lowest lows, can speak to the uninitiated like myself in a clear and concise manner yeah, that's where that comes from well, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so 22 books. Um, yeah, have you found that like is there between those, between the lines of the books, do you see yourself growing and evolving and changing, and is there anything that, like book one, dan john, wouldn't, like you know, be able?
Speaker 2:to understand from book 22 dan john or have you has your voice been pretty consistent my voice, I'm much less sarcastic really, as you age, wow yeah, I'm much, I'm much kinder.
Speaker 1:I truly am yeah.
Speaker 2:You know when I first. Well, the problem is you're not writing books anymore, you're writing to an online environment. It's online first. Yep, if I write a book today and I put it on a PDF, it's free online within 12 minutes. And so you have to you.
Speaker 2:You know, when I first got on, I felt like I was at war. I mean, you know these. It was funny because I'm always amazed that readers can't figure out that these influencers and and many of the people in our field, they're serious drug abusers. I'm talking serious drug abusers in all of its forms. Yeah, and you're no offense, little billy. You know zit face, 14 year old boy from nebraska, that I got that from alan cosgrove, I guess. Yeah, somebody was attacking him online and he somehow was able to find their ip address and and he found out that I did. Now, if I, if I got the story wrong, I apologize. So I always use it based the farm boy and they think that you know if they take this supplement and you know if they rest 37 seconds. You know that.
Speaker 2:Look, you know, and it's just not true, and to the point that it's. I'm not trying to be cruel about it, but it's so. I used to fight. I used to go and be kind of attacked, very aggressive. And then you know, I know a lot of the ghost writers for a lot of these people online and you know, and I actually met a lot of the famous figures and when you meet them in real life, it's like, you know, this one guy kept going well, you were like an athlete. Well, you were like an athlete, not, I'm like. And when you meet them extremely, let's just say, you're unimpressed in real life, when you meet some of these people, oh, I get it, it's all show and it's all show. And uh, yeah, yeah, see, scott.
Speaker 1:Scott and I met through highland games and um, yeah and uh. We've transitioned into strongman and grip and we've competed at like the Arnold in grip and the microcosm of humanity that you see there and sort of being able to look a little behind the curtain. I get what you're saying for sure.
Speaker 2:It can be a little weird. I mean, and I think we'll be a nice when we say it can be a little weird.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know in the same vein. You know, it can be weird, but we've met some truly incredible people and I think that's sort of what pushed John and I to starting the Masters Athlete Survival Guide was talking to those folks and you know, hey, this is what I'm doing. You know we we've got in in our little band of merry men for lack of a better term. You know we've got folks who are in their late forties up into their late fifties and it's what we try to do is just, you know, like you're doing, make it personal for people, make it so it's relevant to them. So I mean, that's really where we started going with this and some of the things that have people that have reached out to us that's what we're hearing from them is hey, you know, you said this the other day. Like one of the very first things that John said at one point was you know, we're trying to get people off the couch and not eating Cheetos. So that's kind of that step that we looked at. You know, we want people to live longer, we want them to enjoy. You know I mean, okay, you're in your 50s, what are you doing? You know you want to do stuff with your kids. You want to do stuff with your grandkids, you want to do stuff with a significant other or friends, or, or, or. So that's where we kind of go. So I guess that leads to a question I have for you.
Speaker 3:Joe, he was high school star, he was college star. He's now 50-something and really hasn't done a lot. Or maybe he's a bowling you know type of guy and bowling's a sport. I'm not I'm not trying to bash bowling whatsoever what. What advice would you have to them? You know, just joe schmoe off the street that says hey, coach, I want to get back into doing something I'm not happy with. Where I'm at, I'm sitting way way too much. I'm, you know, I'm in an office job, so I'm in a chair all the time. How should I start?
Speaker 2:Well, you mean the first off. I mean, let's, let's, let's make three buckets and, if you don't mind, we'll go from there, please. The number one issue I deal with almost with every everybody is the sleep issue. Okay, but let's, let's, let's move the bucket before that, because I think it's going to be, we're going to. I'm going to talk about body composition. It's going to take me a minute to get there, though. Okay, that's fine.
Speaker 2:So, at you know, I was at a workshop one time and I got a major, and there were a lot of strength coaches there. Ok, I mean a lot, ok, and I was the only one who wasn't on a sleep apnea machine, but I was also 20 years older than the second oldest person, ok, yeah, and I began to realize that night that, even though some of these guys are great lifters, and some of them are former this and former that, that the clock she was ticking on their mortality because of sleep issues. And so for me now, there's two ways to go on this. We can start with sleep or we can start with nutrition. It doesn't matter, because there's two schools of thought.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to start with nutrition, because that's kind of where I don't know. That's where there's where I'm at right now Sounds good. So I think one of the biggest mistakes we've made in nutrition for a long time, especially with when we're talking you're talking about master athletes, so a lot of nutritionists will give you information based on your current body weight, and I think that's a mistake. So I'm a believer and there's some other people who believe this too is that when we start with nutrition and caloric intake and hey, listen, I hate calories in, calories out. I also think the insulin model is correct. I also think you know ultra processed foods are going to. You know that my Instagram feed you know my took my grandkids out the other day. They bought a regular fries.
Speaker 3:I saw that 1,000 calories.
Speaker 2:Well, you tell me, you tell me how you're going to. I mean, I don't know, I know this, that's more than you can burn off in a marathon. I know that you can't burn off that one meal, probably in a marathon. So so my point, and I have one let's just stick with calories in, calories out, but instead let's start looking at this thing that guys like john uh barbin and uh uh pylon, brad pylon, up in uh canada, is. They look at height, and that was illuminating for me. I just looked at it. So if, if you're looking at somebody who's six foot four, how tall are you?
Speaker 1:guys, I'm six one, six, six, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay. So and you? You, you put your weight in, you're going to get this interesting number. But the truth is, I think we've been ignoring and also in hypertrophy studies I think we ignore height At six. Six, if I put you on three sets of three and I have a guy who's five six, put him on three sets of three at the end of two months and, oh, we're going to throw in one more thing. I'm going to put fairy dust on you. You're going to make much better progress than the 5'6 guy. Why? Because it's I mean, I was going to say physics, but it's biomechanics. If you put on a millimeter around your arms at 6'6, that length is just so much more volume. You're going to have more lean body mass. So you're going to win the war. So first thing I do with most people when I talk to them, I go, yeah, calories in, calories out is true, but here's the thing, man, you got to look at your height. So if, by doing that, I found out that I was good, I'm about 28. I should have about 20 at my height. I'm only six foot, I'm a shrimp.
Speaker 2:2,800 calories to 2,900 calories Okay, all right, you should have about. You know, we probably everyone in this conversation should be in probably low, low hundreds for protein every day. Okay, so if you're eating 2,800 calories a day, okay, that's about. Let's just say it was spitball. Let's call it 500 calories, cause that's a convenient number of today. So that for me puts me down to 2,300 calories. Okay, good, so everything else I have to eat is 2,300 calories. Okay, I'm just a shot of Irish whiskey is a shot is 70 calories. That means I can also toss in seven shots of iris whiskey. Now, no, I'm not gonna I like the dan john diet let's talk more about this coach so.
Speaker 2:So I'm at a thousand calories. With all that protein, all that protein and all that whiskey, I'm at a thousand calories. Or I can take you to the mall and we could have that one serving of regular fries.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the amount of calories you can get easily at one sitting is astounding. And then if you start to get into liquid calories, like a you know, a full sugar soda or something, or a milkshake.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then so I. I, even though I say eat vegetables and protein and drink water, I'm much more. I didn't realize this until I started doing basic accounting. I eat massive amounts of fruit every day. Now, listen, so, yeah, how did you get so fat? Oh, I ate a lot of berries. Said no, ever. You know, how did you get so fat? Oh, my God, I, you know, I ate 12 pounds of blackberries and three and a half pounds of salmon every day. Really, yeah, no, it's impossible, you can't do it.
Speaker 2:So, one of the things I always try to get people across I feel like I make people feel better when I talk about what we're saying right here. I'm telling you to eat a lot of protein and I'm telling you, whatever it is in your world, whatever that, whatever, if, if you just have to have that, I don't care, I don't care what your, your cheap food is. That's fine. Because now in our conversation, at 2,800, I've done the minus 1,000. I have 1,800 calories to mess with A cup of berries. I get the. There's a frozen berry thing I get from Costco. Each cup is 70 calories and it's about oh gosh, it's blackberry, blueberry, strawberry thing strawberry thing okay, okay, I think I've seen that okay yeah, so I buy.
Speaker 2:I mean I buy like 10 plus bags every time I go because it's cheaper than buying them, uh, from the other stores. I go to, uh, you know, like, uh, normal berries, you know the basket. They don't rot on me, which is a big thing. So if I I'm eating, let's do it. So I have a protein shake. My protein shake has. I'm not doing folks, please, I know I'm boring you with the numbers, just follow me.
Speaker 1:You're not boring us, you're instructing the heck out of us.
Speaker 2:So the protein shake I drink has 160 calories and 30 grams of protein, and then a cup of berries on top of it has 70. 230, that's 230 calories but 30 grams of protein, and enough polyphenols and antioxidants to keep everything away from me. So once you start looking, okay, so you're going to start your day with that berry protein smoothie. I just said how many of those can you have in a day? You can have four of those. You could have another. Well, and just think now your protein is going to be 200 grams. But just stick with me, you can have practically what two, three steaks.
Speaker 2:You can have seven shots of Irish whiskey. Well, okay, now what? Just pay attention. I got one last thing I want to say. We've already done the French fry thing, so I bought a bag of a store brand Mexican chip. I got to be careful.
Speaker 1:I don't want to give any, I understand.
Speaker 2:Okay, it has. The bag has 17 servings. Each serving is 17 calories. If you take the bag and you play like you're a blackjack dealer and serve out 17 servings, you will realize that 170 calories in ultra processed food barely if you have a big paw you might it. All the chips might not even touch it in your hand.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, and we all, and that's the restraint we all show. Right, we only eat three chips at a sitting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's all I would do, I mean I always joke if, like I tell, I tell my athletes I say if ever see me eating bean burritos past six o'clock, grab my keys. I'm drunk. If you see me, if I'm watching a football game, you put Fritos in front of me. They will disappear in real time. Yeah, so the first thing most what I try to do with men anyway is I try to talk to them a couple things. Try not to drink your calories so like for me. I drink a lot of coffee and I drink a lot of tea and I drink a lot of water, I'll drink Crystal Light and I'll drink diet drinks too.
Speaker 2:If I'm going to drink calories, it's going to be Irish whiskey. I mean the Irish whiskey thing. I'm probably overdoing, but you know I don't drink many calories. I go protein. So it's water and no-calorie liquids. First it's protein, it's whatever that cheap thing I have, it's fruit and then I can just sit back and some days I'll be like, because you know, salads and most vegetables really don't count for calories. They really don't know. Now it's potatoes and yams and a few. But even then I challenge you, get fat, eat nothing but potatoes. I challenge you. Yeah, uh. So so for me, what most men I work with need to understand is that very often we get bad calorie numbers because they don't usually use height.
Speaker 1:Yeah, can we circle back to the height thing? How did you make the leap from height to caloric intake? Is that a calculation that I don't know about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that Brad Pilon had.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I only talk to really good nutritionists. I'm good friends with Lyle McDonald. He's a protein-first guy. Lyle's a genius. Now I know some people. I'll tell you one thing if you're going to BS, don't BS with Lyle in the room.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, he's one of those people that'll just call you on it.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, but he has been very helpful throughout my whole career. He gave a talk one time to my athletes about nutrition and I know this I would say a bunch of the stuff he said went way over their head. But for weeks after the kids had such a better uh, let shield and sword against stupidity and nutrition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. Now you were a pretty elite-level Highland gamer for a while. Did you not get fat? I mean, I thought that was a requirement to sit under the tent and have a whiskey and eat.
Speaker 2:One of the problems I had is I leaned down to 206. And then I really struggled with the weights. So I bulked back up to win the Pleasanton Highland Games twice in a row.
Speaker 1:Oh, you won Pleasanton. Oh wow, that's very impressive. We have a couple friends that have gone. Wait, did you turn that caber? Oh wow.
Speaker 2:Go to YouTube and type in Dan John Pleasanton caber. You'll see it.
Speaker 3:Yeah wow, we'll definitely be doing that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because Pleasanton for those that don't know, I would say that other you know, and I don't even know that world championships have the same cachet as Pleasanton. It's a super old, super revered, well attended. The creme, the creme de la creme, are invited and you know what the reason?
Speaker 2:I'm tired too from that. Well, I still do the small family ones, but uh, but, uh, yeah, in my family we have a full highland games as part of our rehearsal dinners before a wedding.
Speaker 1:What.
Speaker 3:That is absolutely awesome.
Speaker 1:Do you? Yeah, I should have married into that family. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we all get in fact. I've got the trig in the backyard, I've got my caber, I've got all the weights for distance. And then one thing we do kind of fun is that the official stone has to come from the field that we're at. Oh, so you go out looking for this wow, yeah wow you send out a couple of you know, bored, yeah, bored little cousin girls and boys, and you just say go get, go get around go get around rock.
Speaker 1:Wow, I love that. That is the weirdest, coolest tradition I think I've ever heard and uh, yeah, I flipped the.
Speaker 2:In fact, uh, on my youtube, some of my channels, you'll see me flipping the caber at my daughter's uh, at my daughter uh, lindsey's wedding, who just had out. Oh okay, so okay, just to try to get back to the answer, the question I feel like I'm real long no, it's, you know what it's.
Speaker 1:It's no longer uh eight track tape. We have unlimited digital storage.
Speaker 2:Knock yourself so the the first thing is even if you just even if you get what you think, oh, here's the biggest problem we do have too, is a lot of people cut calories but they don't cut them from it, they. So if you need 22,000 calories a day and you're ingesting 5,000 calories a day, going on a diet where you drop 200 calories a day isn't gonna help. So you do have to have at some level. You have to figure out you know where you need to be. Why am I talking about calories? I'm talking about calories because a lot of the men I know they will. There is a I was told this, whether it's true or not, I don't know the average american eats 8 000 calories on super bowl sunday.
Speaker 2:Okay, I feel like I've seen that I feel like I've seen that number somewhere, that that's a thing just in sort of grazing all day long yeah, and it's more than thanksgiving and, by the way and thanksgiving actually isn't bad because there's so many vegetables but and don't forget, that means there's somebody like me out there. Only 3 000 good points at 14? Okay. So one of the things I do this, especially when I'm working with men is to give them the power to think and go, wait a second, I can eat a lot of protein. Right, you can eat a lot of protein, I can eat. I mean, I don't like a lot of vegetables. Do you like fruit? Yeah, eat a lot of fruit. What vegetables do you like? Okay, these, that's fine. Those are fine. You don't have to become.
Speaker 2:You know some crazy 1960s, you know macro diet, you know hippie on a love farm, and I think that's one of the things we haven't done a good job on the diet side. Here's the interesting thing as you lose body weight, most men improve their sleep. Now, I'm not. I use one big number to find out whether or not you need to lose weight. Okay, you ready Body weight. Your waistline should be half your height. So if you're 72 inches tall, your waistline should be 36.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:And if it's more, then I. Now, if you're competing, you're an NFL offensive line, yeah, yeah, exactly yeah. If you're making money as a Highland game athlete, then that's different, if you're, then that's different. But at the same time you've got to do what I do with my left wrist, my left elbow, my right shoulder, both hips, my right knee, my right ankle, my abdominal hernias those all had surgeries, okay, okay, including my feet. Myself, too, because of football, I got those injuries. But my daughters, they went to Catholic high schools Catholic elementary and high school here in Utah. They both have master's degrees and they've never paid a nickel for education. So what I'm trying to say is this I have all those injuries because of my athletic career, but my athletic career paid for my daughter's education yeah, I get it a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Well, it's funny. When you were talking about the caloric thing, all I could think is that a lot of people struggle with that just because of the mindset of scarcity. And then you dovetailed it into like sort of a risk reward thing. I mean, you put your body on the line and you know you created generational success. Hi folks, john, again, just a quick reminder that that brings us to the end of part one, but not the end of the conversation. Subscribe so that you see part two as soon as it comes out, where we'll follow up with more of Coach Dan John's three pillars of fat loss, muscle gain, and I'm sure there's going to be sprinkled some Irish whiskey in there as well. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe.