Episode #4 JT Tanner OCB Bodybuilding Pro

In this episode we break down navigating bodybuilding, fatherhood, running a PT business and trying to juggle all of them well. JT talks with us about his journey and how he became a full time PT and Natural Pro Bodybuilder. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey guys, welcome back to episode three of the NLF Coaching Podcast. This is Coach Nate. This is Coach Will. Today we have a special guest. It is none other than JT Tanner, one of the personal trainers here at No Limits Fitness. JT, give us a little introduction and uh talk to us a little bit about what you do.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Uh yeah, uh thanks for having me on. Um, it's gonna be an awesome experience today. Uh, I am a personal trainer full-time at No Limits Fitness. That's my job. I transform and help people change their lives through fitness.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Awesome. So uh tell us a little bit about what you've done career-wise and how you got into personal training.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Uh training's been a part of my life for a long time. Uh I started in high school and really fell in love with it there. Um, didn't know it could be a career, but I I got into personal training. Uh, after 10 years of being a mechanic, I got kind of wore out and and really uh just stressed over the job in mechanic world and met Will at No Limits Fitness actually in the year of COVID. And uh walking through the gym one day, we just got to know everybody, and uh Will said you should try personal training. He said, I think you'd be good at it, and never knew it could actually be a full-time career. Uh just thought it was something that you know you kind of do as a starter job or something like that, or uh along those lines. And I uh sat down, talked to Will about it, and we kind of discussed how it goes and numbers, and I dove head first, just quit my job as a full-time mechanic, and uh went straight into full-time personal training and have it look back.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

I love it, and you touch on a great point there, is you know, I've heard it a million times, and Nate's heard it a million times, you have as well, is that when are you gonna get a real job, right? People don't see personal training as a real job because they think we just stand there and count reps and just add a little bit of weight here and there. But yeah, we're really what bridges the gap between people being unhealthy and going straight to the doctors or whatever, right? We're we're a preventative measure for people, and people view personal training as a luxury, whereas I think it's a necessity, you know, it holds people accountable, uh, makes sure they're working on being healthy, fit, strong. And then that also, to me, it's a return on investment for people of the fact that they're more efficient in everything they do in life, they're better in their career, they're better at home with their spouse or their kids or whatever it is. And um, yeah, so I love the fact that you brought that up because it it can be a great career, but like anything, you get out what you put in. And if you don't view it as a career, then it definitely won't become one. You've gotta you've gotta treat it like a business, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Yeah, I agree. I think it's definitely one of those things you you see hand in hand successful people also take care of their health. So I think the stuff that people are doing inside the gym sets a foundation for them to be successful outside of the gym and other aspects of life and business. Um I'll attest to that. JTC, you also uh you also do natural bodybuilding, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:14

Yes, yep. Turn pro this year.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Let's go! Yes, sir. So talk to us a little bit about um that component of your fitness journey and kind of how you got started there and what that's looked like over the past few years. I know that's something that um to big accomplishment turning pro. So congratulations to you on that. Um really excited to see or hear about how kind of you got started in the bodybuilding stuff and what that experience and journeys looked like for you over the past couple years in your pursuit of turn turning pro.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Yeah, uh ProCard kind of came along as uh you know, I started with you guys, and uh I was becoming a personal trainer, and I always like you know, leading by example is a really good way of leading at any point in time in any job. So uh I didn't know really the ins and outs of any personal training. I haven't ever been personal trained, so hiring, I hired Nate on as a personal trainer for me, so I could be programmed and and I needed something to push me, right? I got into fitness, and in the first 10 years of fitness that I was in, I never was consistent because I didn't know really what I was doing. You know, I was reading muscle magazines and I was listening to YouTube and I, you know, all the bodybuilders, and everybody said something different, so I didn't really know where to go. I didn't know what was right and what was wrong. I just knew I need to lift heavy and I need to try to get as big as I can, and it involved a lot of eating too. I mean, eating's eating was part of my lifestyle, and I didn't know exactly anything about nutrition. So um, when I became a bodybuilder, uh I started doing the routines, I hired a coach, I followed macros, I started diving into the macro plans, and that gave me something to achieve, right? So becoming a pro was like a it's not like my identity, it was a challenge for me to say, okay, this is gonna be hard, and it's something not a lot of people can do, not even, you know, not a lot of people can complete even the prep. So I jumped into it and said, let's let's give it a shot. You know, I like bodybuilding, I like seeing people on stage doing the bodybuilding. I love the the fact that your physique says a lot about you just by having a physique. It's the one thing that people can't take away from you, and one thing you have to work really hard for. So um that's where I started going. And it took uh took five years, and it took a lot of time, a lot of hard work, a lot of training, a lot of consistency, um, a lot of no matter what to get to that pro status, but achieving that was a big deal. Now it's you know on to competing with some of these big guys, and I'm I'm excited. You know, I'm excited. It kind of pushes me even more to say, okay, you're ready to take this to the next level. You got to really work even harder into the next couple years, and that's another goal of mine working into those pro shows. Um, and that's that's what bodybuilding is for me. It's not a status or a personality or anything like that. It's it's it's something that I can control and be a part of my lifestyle to keep me healthy, even though we know prep's not healthy in a sense, it's it's a short period of time of the bodybuilding, but bodybuilding in itself can build so much character in a person, and that's a lot of what I like about it. It it really takes a lot more than just I'm gonna go lift weights for an hour and then I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna have a meal. It develops a person over time.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

There's a couple of things you mentioned there that I want to pick up on. Is the first was um one of our core values at No Limits Fitness is to be inspiring because you know, for someone to actually seek you out as a coach, as a trainer, um, you've got to be an inspiring person. You know, why would they work with you rather than work with someone else that maybe is doing something inspiring? I think it's while they may not necessarily have the same goal as you, they can see that you're striving towards something. So I love the fact that you brought that up. The second thing is you talked about it taking five years, and I know we're gonna have a lot of listeners that are looking at getting into bodybuilding. Maybe some people have been bodybuilding for a couple of years and they're getting they're losing motivation, they think, Oh, I should have won a pro card already. And I think you know, I it took me four shows, I believe, and I even changed categories to to actually that to go into the category that suited me better. So going from men's physique to bodybuilding. So, you know, you've got people coming through that expect to win a pro card at their first show, and from a coaching standpoint, it's really hard to manage that with people and tell them, look, that that's not the expectation or the standard. It's not saying that it doesn't happen, but the likelihood of you winning a pro card at your very first show, it doesn't happen very often. So I love the fact that you talk about it taking you five years to get there.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

Yeah, yeah. I definitely I want to uh encourage even some of my clients that I I prep that that's it's not it's not what we're shooting for. It's definitely something that's in the headway, and that's that's the goal. But let's not have very high expectations, right? I mean, the the biggest achievements was you look at your transformation, look where you started and look where you are now. Look how much discipline that's you've developed over time, look how much um just the body transformations, the the mentality, look how much stronger mentally you are at you handled a full bodybuilding prep, and you can mentally take that. And you come out of it and you can mentally take other things too, because it's not just developing a hardness in just prep, but the hardness outwardly expresses in other places too. So and the pro card's not the end-all be all, like it, yeah, it's an achievement, but it's definitely not gonna for some, like you said, it will happen for some the first go around, but it's not the standard, it's not what I'm expecting from clients at all.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Yeah, so one thing I like that you said is the the um the process and and the habits you kind of learned along the way. And that's like when people ask me like, why do you put yourself through this bodybuilding stuff that it doesn't directly pay your bills or add a ton of value to your life? Well, my argument is it does add a ton of value to your life. Like I look at the the healthy things, yeah. Sure, there's things I made a post about this the other day. There's things in content spread that can be unhealthy, of course, when you're dying to that level of leanness. Sure, there's there's some bad habits, um, but I think some of the really good routine lifestyle habits you can pick up from bodybuilding are extremely beneficial to other areas of your life. But physically, mentally, um just pushing yourself to a high level um is something that I think is massively beneficial and has has made a huge impact on my life. And that's why I love the sport of natural bodybuilding and why I love helping other people navigate and support themselves. I think you guys could probably share some similar experiences there.

SPEAKER_04 10:19

Yeah, I mean, I think we we're we live in a society now that's so conditioned to comfort, you know, everything is about convenience, everything is about comfort, and it leads to a level of softness, if you like. You know, people don't want to be uncomfortable, they don't want to do hard things, and then we have to actively seek hard things to challenge ourselves, to go through the adversity, to grow as individuals. And prep is basically just a means to do that. Now, that doesn't mean anyone listening should just say, Oh, I'm gonna do something hard, I'm gonna jump into prep, right? Like there's a whole process, you've got to actually have a passion for bodybuilding for that to be the thing. But if you do have a passion for bodybuilding, and I and I've seen other people say this, everybody at least once in their life should just try and get lean. It doesn't mean stage lean, but like get really, really lean and see what it takes to get there, the discipline, the mental fortitude, the sacrifices you have to make. And it doesn't mean you have to stay there, but use those lessons to take you to other areas of your life, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Yeah, it definitely teaches you a lot.

SPEAKER_04 11:24

So, with that being said, you know, JT, you're a family man. Um, you have four kids, obviously your wife. Um, what is it like for you prepping and managing family through that process? Because a lot of our listeners are probably gonna have kids, or one day they will have kids. So, what advice could you give on how to manage a prep as a father that's very involved?

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Oh man, uh communication was huge. There's without the communication aspect, uh, it would be there would be more fights than there should be. Uh it was every day. I still do it now. Um, every day I get off work, I get in my truck, and the first thing I do is call my wife. I put up, I put out feelers. It's what I do. And that's Jess knows this. She, you know, I call her. How was your day? How are the kids? Was it a crazy day? What's going on at home? Did somebody get in trouble? Is there something I need to handle? Is there is there anything that I can do before I get home that can help the day? You know, it's it's communication before I get home to know what I'm walking into. And I got 10 minutes of a drive to mentally prepare myself to be like, okay, I got this going on, I need to get home and get this done. I need a helper in this way. Um, I mean, it's it's the first half of prep was always easy. You always feel great about it, but it's that second half where your mental starts taking a toll, your energy starts dipping low, your brain fog is really heavy, you get these brain frog and the pep prep brain that happens, all those things start coming into play. The first prep, you don't really know how to handle it because you don't know when it's coming in. But that second prep, you know, you can you can tell, like, okay, it's starting to sneak in, I can start handling it better. And that was the biggest thing was that communication. Uh, that's all I can really say is communication, but have routines set in place uh every time this is what happens, this is what I do, this is what the kids are doing, and just communicate. I mean, you just gotta talk. If something's going bad, I'd even tell her, like, hey, today's a good day. I'm I'm having a good day. Um, my energy is a little higher today. If there's if I got more energy, I need to use it. I need to get out, I need to get home and use the energy that I got. But there was days where I'd come home, I'd I'd call her and tell her, like, hey, today's a today's rough. My mental struggles, I can't get with it, my my brain's running off track, I got really low energy, and we would be on the same page every time. So that's a huge one is communication.

SPEAKER_04 14:01

Yeah, that's a great point. Because I think for me, when you get to that, like you said, the beginning of prep is pretty easy. You're like, I feel amazing. If you if you could bottle up the way you feel in the beginning of prep and just feel like that forever, you you would do it. You know, you would sell that for millions, right? On the flip side, the last eight to ten weeks, you couldn't sell that, you couldn't even give it away, you know. No, I would say to my wife too, you know, look, I'm I'm is I'm starting to struggle now, I'm gonna need some help, you know. And I think it's like fortunately for me, and and I believe so for both of you, we have wives that have seen us go through the process, they understand what it takes, and when that time comes around, then they're more than willing to actually step in. And then, you know, as natural bodybuilders, our testosterone levels are dropping significantly through PrEP as well, which also means there is a significant drop in libido. So even communicating that so that your spouse doesn't take it personally, right? No, that's another big thing to communicate. Look, it's it's not you, it's me. This is where I'm at, this is what's happening. So I think that's just like great actionable advice that people can take. And and yeah, 100%, I think communication is everything. Great point.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Yeah, I think that's like an underrated aspect of the whole process, is like the significance of a support partner because like bodybuilding in itself, like the contest property, it's a it's a very selfish isolating sport. So having somebody that understands where you're at, at least on like the mental side of things, they might not kind of know exactly what it feels like to be that lean and that tired, but it's like they they understand like the grind of what you're doing, trying to operate your business, be a present spouse and parent, and also pour into this this goal you have of getting on stage. It's it's a lot of things to juggle. So having somebody in your corner that that gets it and that's understanding is like it's a it's a blessing. It's it's it's underrated for sure. Like if yeah, you have somebody in your corner that's that's backing and supportive, it's a game changer for sure.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Yeah. I think that's a a huge I think my probably my second word of advice is a lot of people are like, okay, they they map out their prep without preparing anything else for prep, right? Because prep affects all aspects of your life. It doesn't just, you know, it doesn't just affect these like your body and your mind. It's not it's it's selfish in a way, but it also affects everybody around you. So I like to like pre-prep everything for prep. What have I got going on in this month? How many things do I have between now and then? Is this a good time for us? Um, if our um, you know, making sure relationships are in a really good spot. Relationships go through dips in preps, you know, it's hard for the wife. And and that's that's a big one for me, also, is making sure, like, hey, I want to go through a prep. Are you okay with that? Are we in a good spot? Are we, you know, are we prepared together to go through something like this? Because, like you said, you brought up a good point of like they step up pretty heavy to the plate to take over some things towards the end of that prep where I mean we we struggle to get out of the car to walk into the house some evenings. That it's it's digging every ounce of energy out of our body just to do that. And that's that's huge for me is to make sure she's ready for that and the home and the kids, you know. I want to make this as good of an experience for them to make sure they're having fun as much as I am. And I I asked them a lot of those questions, like, are you ready to see dad on stage? You want to see me do that again? And a lot of them, uh Noah Allie, my oldest two, they said yes, and they were they were excited towards the end of prep to see that. So I feel like we handled prep really well to have the kids not have a negative attitude towards it, where oh man, dad's going through prep again. This is going to suck. You know, that's I I want to try to avoid that as much as possible, also. So making sure everybody's on board and everybody's on the same page. Like, all right, JT's about to go through a prep, we know what's about to happen.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Yeah, I think I think that was like for me, like going down to your show in Tampa, and like your whole family came down, your kids were like excited and engaged with the whole process, and you made them feel a part of it. I thought that was like really, really cool. Because for me as a new dad, I have a one-year-old, and it's like, and seeing you guys how you've involved your kids in your bodybuilding has been really cool for me. It's something that I'm excited to share with my son as he gets older. He's uh just turned 15 months, so like obviously we're not doing a whole lot yet, but he's come into the gym and hung out with me while I lifted a couple weekend workouts and things like that. It's exciting to be able to show like the disciplines and the structure of what I love about bodybuilding and teaching that to him. Like, that's something that definitely excites me. Um, so it's been cool to see you guys um keep your kids involved and engaged in the support of natural bodybuilding for sure.

SPEAKER_04 18:59

I I think you hit the nail on the head, it's just keep everyone involved, you know, because it is a selfish endeavor, but everyone else has to do it with you because if you're going through it, they're gonna feel the ramifications. And I think you can still date your wife, you can still take your kids to the park, to the movies. It's not like you have to become a hermit that doesn't do anything, you just gotta have systems in place where you know I will I'll go out to a restaurant if my wife wants to go out to eat and I'll take my meal with me. And yeah, I'm happy to look like the weirdo in the restaurant that's eating my meal prep. You know, it's kind of being willing to do those things, but they're still getting some of the experiences and the time with you that they need, and you're still meeting that, right? But I think it's also in natural bodybuilding, we often promote taking longer off seasons, and and there's a few reasons. One of the reasons is that if you if your feedback is that you need to grow, that takes time, that cannot be accomplished in three to six months. You've also got the post-show where it probably takes you anywhere from four to six months for your body to actually get back to a like homeostasis when your hormones are back to a solid point where you're then able to really push performance and actually in a growing phase. And then on top of that, if you've got a family, it's like, okay, I've done my prep. Now is dedicated time to them, right? I'm gonna take some time away so that I can enjoy experiences with them. I'm not continuously in the cycle of prepping, not prepping, prepping, like every six months. And um, with that said, what does your off season look like? Because you won your program in December, so you're you're really pretty fresh out of prep. So, what is the what does the next year or so look like for you, JT?

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Um, we got some good plans this year. So, the main reason why we did it the prep last year, because this year is a you know a wedding year, several weddings coming up. I got a lot of plans going on there, but as far as the bodybuilding thing goes, um it, you know, it it's like you said, it still feels right now where I have days where it feels like my hormones are still off. Like it, it's not fully recovered. It it feels like it's really close. Um sleep's kind of erratic. There's you know, there's days where my mood's up, my mood's down. It's everything's coming back to normal. But as we go, I'm looking at two to three years to I know I want I won't be the 45-year-old bodybuilding competitor that I can be because I gotta wait till I'm 45. Like I I'm not gonna look like I will then, like I will in three years. So I want to take at least two to three years to put on as much size as I can, and I want to do some comparisons, see how much I can put on in that amount of time span, and um and really just I guess you're right in the Sense of you know it does take a while coming out of prep uh to get to that performance stage before you really start putting muscle on. And that's that's where I'm at right now is I'm finally getting to where I'm pushing weight and really get digging into the the grind of the the lift and I'm motivated and I'm disciplined and everything's just checking boxes and I that's what I feel like probably two to three years of full growth trying to be competitive as much as possible to go through another prep and step on stage with the big guys and see what I can do. The end goal there is just to get on stage with some of these big boys.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Yeah. I think based on kind of like what Will said and going off of that a little bit too it's like I know for me um the one of the biggest like I would call this like a maturing as a bodybuilder thought processes over the past few years going from where I was wanting to compete when I first started as oh let me let me do a prep as soon as I get done with another prep you know like kind of competing back to back and not really being focused on the long-term output. I think you have like this mindset shift as as you progress into different seasons of life. Like when I started competing I like I was a senior guy and then my wife and I started dating. So like it was those were pretty simple times. We weren't married didn't have kids so like bodybuilding could really be my main focus. But as like my life's changed I've gotten married I have a kid now my career's kind of taking off a little bit more more more time demands there. It's like your mindset naturally shifts where you you value that time off in between contest preps and like your identity is less wrapped up around you as a bodybuilder more is like how does this fit into my life and what when should I compete and taking the time to make sure that it's it's it's the right time for for you as a as an athlete but also for your family for your business. There's so many more things that I know I take into account now than versus four years ago when I was competing at 24 25 as a 30 year old man I I view bodybuilding from a much different lens than I did when I first got started.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Family's really important right now that's a huge one family's really important right now like that's a big one right now for the next two or three years. It's just you know six months doesn't seem like a long time but in a prep where you're you know six months is a a solid amount of time to go through a prep and it feels like a lifetime and you finally get out and you just feel like you missed a lot but you really didn't I mean it's six months out of the years but you feel like you missed a lot. So feeling like you try to gain some of that time back with family and and and really trying to that's another thing in prep making sure you're not missing things just because you're in prep like prepare yourself go through the struggle hustle and grind be there for your family no matter what and that's a big one right now is like two to three years I get with my family and I get to go enjoy and have more energy in doing the things that we do.

SPEAKER_04 25:01

Yeah and I I think the key is in the name you know it it's called body building which means there has to be extended periods of time spent actually building the body and I think people don't really look at timelines realistically because let's just say you train every week right you never have a week off so you've got 52 sessions um sorry 52 times of hitting that session that year right that's not a lot you know it's like you've done if you're doing a push pull X okay I've done 52 push sessions this year. It's not a lot and especially when you've been training for a long time you're now having to train super smart super hard to make the smallest amount of progress because obviously you you're way past newbie gains and that's something as well you see if someone was to take an in-body scan or a DEXA a couple months after show that oh I've gained all this muscle no you've gained back what you lost right that's the difference you look a lot bigger you look a lot fuller because you've got a lot more food and you you've gained a lot of the weight back but it doesn't mean that you've built a bunch of new muscle you've gained a lot back and then once you get all of that back now you're getting into like now we're building new tissue and if we're at the phase now where we're lucky to gain what like one to three pounds a year yeah yeah which sounds super unmotivating but if you step on stage and you've gained one to three pounds it's going to show it will then even then everyone thinks they're gonna be six pounds heavier on stage there's a good chance you're actually lighter on stage right because you get you get better at getting leaner.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

Yeah exactly you just you just step on stage with a different body composition at the same weight so you're leaner with a little bit bigger and it's basically rinse repeat until you your genetics are going to take you as far as your genetics are going to take you and that's the conversation a lot of people don't want to have with bodybuilding that it's a very genetically dominated sport you know your your insertions your structure um the way that you look so you obviously when you're pro card in bodybuilding did you ever have any ideas of competing in any other category or was it always I want to be a bodybuilder this is where I want to be uh that's where I wanted to be I didn't have any other thoughts of going anywhere else that's I mean the big thing for me personally is my structure fits bodybuilding like I I I couldn't go anywhere else I don't I don't have a small waist in any form or fashion I'm blocky I'm not very tall I don't have that slender figure or anything like that I don't I'm just blocky I'm just I'm just big everywhere so I it one I just fit the category better and two yes bodybuilding was what I liked more I liked all the poses I liked the how really I really enjoyed the challenge like in the moment like into prep I'm like okay I'm not enjoying this anymore but it in the long term the long run of things I I do enjoy it because as I look back it's like man I did that I killed it like I got leaner than I did last time um and I didn't give up on myself I always pushed it so bodybuilding was just that spot uh it's it's the challenge and the the physique everything fit so I think you found that you've got a little bit leaner easier every time you've prepped yes yeah yeah every time you prep you get leaner it's like the first time getting that lean is is most people don't actually get there the first time it's it's almost like no matter how hard they push or whatever it's like they're not gonna get unless they're that like genetic freak that just stays super leaning around or whatever it it and then every time you prep after that it's like oh you notice some new lines come through a bit faster than they did before.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Yep it's yeah it's definitely every time you prep that's what you see it it never fails like the first time prepping it's gonna be a struggle you're gonna grind hard the calorie is going to get super low you're gonna have to get a lot of steps in like the next time you do it you'll probably do the same thing but you'll see all those lines come in so much quicker and it gets it doesn't get easier right it just it comes in quicker and it gets farther past than where you did the first time yeah I think the skill of training um and the skill of prepping are very similar like with with training it's a it's a skill like you learn to push harder in the gym um and actually movements better with repetition it's very similar with like bodybuilding prep you learn to manage the fatigue and the training intensity and the recovery components of of a contest prep every time you compete you get a little bit better at those skills um of the all those things that are wrapped up into what it entails to compete and get stage lean like you get better at all those individual things so every time you do it it's not that it's it's not that it's easier I mean no it's always hard but it sucks you just you just become better at those things and more resilient right it's like it's a struggle but it builds resiliency and every time you go to do it again it's like you kind of know what to expect your body's kind of in the spirit oh I felt this before and your management of all those stress factors just improves I think over the course of your body weight career.

SPEAKER_04 30:32

Yeah and I think you learn as well that the basics always win you know when you get first time competitors and they get refeeds and they're they're trying to make all these fancy pancakes and you know all this different tasty stuff which is it's fine but yeah you've got to keep in mind what that's going to do to you in the long term and then you're gonna crave those foods and it's kind of out of sight out of mind if you just stay on the basics and continue to execute that's probably where you're gonna end up by your second third fourth prep anyway you're eventually going to listen to your coaches because they've had the experience is telling you look these are the things you should be eating because these fill you up the most they you know they might be bland but you signed up for a bodybuilding show. It is what it is you might as well do the work rather than trying to work around it and make it as easy as you possibly can it's just embrace the challenge and lean into it that's that's always what I say it's like lean into it you signed up for a bodybuilding show it's gonna be tough. We've prepared you for everything you're gonna feel and now it's punching you in the mouth what are you going to do you know are you going to dig in are you going to are you going to be proud of yourself when you step off stage because you gave it everything you got or will you step off stage with regret because you think back to those times when you when you slipped up you know yep that's a hundred percent true I mean that you can't get any better than that that's it I think most people I would say the major majority of people who do a bodybuilding prep that's how they do it they want to dodge the hunger they want to dodge the cravings and they're trying to work with them instead of just ignoring them.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

And it's it is hard like you're gonna have those cravings when you first get that prep prep first starts and you've been having those sweet treats or those late night snacks and stuff like that it's it's hard to kick for the first month but once you get past that first month and just ignoring it and saying no it gets easier. By the end of it you're in the most you know bland diet and you're doing it because I have I have a place to be I got a stage to step on I'm not doing this because uh you know I'm gonna go get on the beach you know beach body lean is like halfway through prep the the rest of the prep where you're getting lean you got to really like you said lean into it that's where it's the same meals every day no matter what I got same breakfast same lunch same five meals every day six meals it doesn't matter how many meals you have it's the same once it never fails but it's also we do that because I don't have to think about it. I don't have to count the different macros of different foods and every week's different meals like I I don't it doesn't can't it doesn't matter I don't care like I I eat the same exact thing. So every week it's the exact same routine I go to sleep the exact same time I train every day the same time like you just got to lean into that and deal with it.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Suck it up and get after it yeah that's a good point I think I think and going into like the routine the monotonous of that like final stretch of prep when you have like the prep brain and the brain fog like you just want to keep things as simple as possible. I think I think a lot of first time competitors like you said try to make foods like highly palatable and all this enjoyment and it just adds like stress as you get further in and your your brain just can't comprehend things the same way. It's like all right what what what is satiating for me like what's getting the job done aiding performance recovery as best as possible and like keeping things running as smoothly as possible. I think I think your first time competing like you you take things like so super super serious and you try to like hack your way through all these different components of prep but it's like the more you do it the more you realize like all right I just need to find what works trust the process and understand that it's a long slow process.

SPEAKER_04 34:21

It's a it's a long game and getting to stage conditioning just requires you to stick to your processes and and ride it out consistently it's not about like one massive week of progression it's it's just seeing the consistency more long term and just buying into that that whole process of of going through prep yeah it's funny I remember I think it was probably like my second prep or something and I would get a refeed and uh you know I I love Cheerios we all love Cheerios bodybuilders like bodybuilders just love Cheerios that's something and I remember I would have just the regular Cheerios and then I would have a box of like the uh chocolate Cheerios and with the chocolate Cheerios you get less volume you know there's more calories for the same amount and so it was always weighing up the decision of okay do I want more volume or do I want the flavor and either one I was disappointed right like if I did ones I was like when I finished it I was like man that was a waste because I would have had another couple of regular ones regular ones I was like I want the flavor of the chocolate ones now I'm just gonna have more potatoes or or more rice more of the same things that I'm already eating so I don't even have to worry about those decisions you know yeah nope leave the decision making out of it's less decisions you have to make the better that prep stress is going to stay down the better prep's gonna go in general that's a hundred final question for you JT what was your post what was your what was your celebratory meal when you won your pro card oh oh man dude I ate everything I mean it's like a dead pro meal right it's like it's like it's your final meal on this oh I knew there was this one I got it what the beginning of prep went great and then towards the end of prep just all those meals started popping up on my reels and I was like golly here it goes again so I scrolled past and stopped at this guy made a banana banana pudding is my weakness a hundred percent my weakness i i can't be around banana pudding and not have at least a bite of it dieting or not like I have to stay away from it completely well he made it with nutter butters and that was like one thing I looked forward to was that and then Buckeye brownies of course popped up on my feed in Instagram was like yep I spent a hundred dollars on freaking brownies dude a hundred dollars on brownies just to have some brownies and I I they were good don't get me wrong I I 100% support buckeye that's I'm not affiliated and I'm not supporting buckeye brownies I'm not trying to sell it guys but that was my like post show is sitting in my cooler backstage um and then I kind of just had everything that I wanted we had uh we went to Takara that night sushi and abachi that was the meal so I had brownies takara had sushi and ibachi and then when I got home I made homemade banana pudding I like it so I think steak a good steak and some sushi good sushi like kosher you can't eat it well we ended we went to a Brazilian steakhouse on drop magical keep coming and ate them up the guy's like stop coming to our table more yeah exactly it is well we were of the mindset that like look if we're gonna if we're gonna binge a little bit it might as well be protein right which probably wasn't good as we got but um I don't think any of it is I think all of it's gonna ruin your gut honestly once you get 400 grams of protein probably 500 grams of and then the homily so we probably have to regret no all of them nope I don't regret any of it I did have that steak Nate allowed me to have a steak after the Tampa show and that was man that steak food uh it was a whole some like Jeffries or something or I don't know it's some a guy's name some of the biggest steaks I've ever seen in my life yeah it was when it's got a name Jeffries it's gonna be class don't you it's like I don't know when it's got somebody's name attached to it you're like yeah it's yeah oh it was like it was like a it was like straight out of the 80s old school diner so yeah I researched it the whole day before like I was searching all the places he said I got like decision anxiety I think we wanted to me and they should have shared a hotel room the night of the Yorton Cup and we could not decide like where we were going to go it was like it was like an absurd we we rarely argue but it was like it was like I want to go here I want to go here I can't decide yeah and then the place that we actually wanted to go to ended up not being able to see us for about three hours after the show there was no point even thinking about the decision then we ended up at the Brazilian Steakhouse I don't want to talk about it bring me food now well JT you've been awesome man um I really look forward to seeing you know this offseason for you and then whenever you make your pro debut seeing the improvements that you've made uh yeah thanks for coming on the show man if you have any last thoughts you want to share with the audience any words of wisdom hey uh I I appreciate y'all having me on the show it was a good I loved it I love talking about bodybuilding um I don't have any really last thoughts dude and I think that was a great show talked a lot about the good bodybuilding side of things and the bad so yeah I appreciate it I look forward to seeing you guys on the next pro stage and as hopefully one day we all compete and get on the same stage maybe I don't know maybe stars aligned let's run it yeah we appreciate you brother super proud of you for everything you've done in the in the in your career in the fitness industry and what you've done with bodybuilding recently so thanks again for jumping on with us and uh we'll talk to you soon brother yes sir appreciate you guys peace thanks again