 Happy Thanksgiving! It's a good time to remind you that health and fitness isn't just about eating perfect and exercising consistently. Exercise is important, eating right is important, but so is quality of life. Alright, what does that mean? Well, things that improve your quality of life are good for you. So that means sometimes eating off your diet is good for you. That means sometimes skipping the gym is good for you. That means that glass of alcohol or wine with your friends is sometimes good for you. Quality of life is also a facet of health. So don't be so perfect that you ignore that. In fact, it's probably bad for you. Gobble gobble. I thought for sure Justin was gonna do that when he started going. I saw it. I saw it. I'm usually the noise guy. I'll take that. Okay, so this is such a cool topic because I 100% agree. But also a really hard one to I think communicate because not everybody knows how to have that balance. Most people are already skewed, way on the eating the bad food, on the drinking all the time, the skipping the workout. These habits are very new and they're just really trying to stick with them. Yeah, so what does that conversation kind of look like when you're communicating this message to a client? Do you wait until one of these what they would consider mess ups happen and then you communicate that to them or do you tell them ahead of time? How does that normally come out when you're talking to somebody? You're right. It's super hard. The best way that I've ever heard it communicated was how would you be with your children? In other words, if your kids ask you for candy every day, you wouldn't say yes every day. Most of the time you'd say no. You can't have candy every single day. But you also wouldn't say no every single time. You would let them have candy every once in a while, right? And that's that balance because you love them so much, you care for them. So there's a natural balance that happens there. If you could flip that on yourself, I think you're more likely to make balanced choices. And you got to be honest with yourself, by the way, because people will be like, I enjoy binging and binge drinking and going crazy. Well, do you really? Like is it really enjoyment or is it more distraction? Is it more harming yourself? Because I've eaten meals where I've gorged and if I was honest with myself, I wasn't enjoying it. It was more of a self-harm thing. And then there's the meals you have and share with friends where you're actually savoring the flavors and enjoying the company. So I do think it's a practice though. The balance is not so evident right out the gates, right? So I found this most effective when it happens. Like when they say, oh, this happened? Yeah, so the way I kind of like to do it is like, okay, obviously we're setting all these goals and I'm trying to get my client to be consistent and show discipline and sacrifice, knowing that the inevitable is going to happen, right? And if I did a really good job, they're bought into it and we're hopefully putting at least some weeks behind us of consistency before we have our first conversation like this. And then like when they, and if I did a good job, they normally come to me and they're like, oh, Adam, we went out to eat. Super calming. Right, right. And then they come to you like, you know, feeling like they need to confess. Or shameful. Yeah, shameful, right. And then that gives me the opportunity to get them to like peer more into this and go like, okay, well, tell me about this. Something, do you get to go to dinner that often with your, you know, brother-in-law who was in town? Like, is that a common thing? Oh no, he comes like once a year, we get to see him. And so it was so great. I got so caught up in the conversation and it's like, okay, well, you know, did you binge and do this and this on top of that? Or did you just have the couple glasses of wine and enjoy? And so I'll really start to peer into that situation. And then with them decide if like, was this like a one-off occasion where you were having a great time with family and friends and it's not like a habitual thing. It was like a, it just happened to land on our third week of getting disciplined and dialed in. Hey, let's understand that this isn't a habit of yours. You see him once a year. You didn't go have dessert on top of that too. You had a couple glasses of wine and you had great, and so that's a part of it. So then I go into that conversation and that way too, let them understand that like not to beat themselves up over this. Totally. Here we are today. We're right back on it again. In the real world, when we've gotten to your goal, I want you to be able to have these nights. I want you to be able to have a guilt-free, incredible evening with your spouse or your brother-in-law and have a couple of drinks and you will be okay. So I like to wait until, cause I, you know. Of course. It's cause it happens. Yeah. And if you did a good job of motivating your client to be inspired to be, you know. Especially if you're vulnerable and then they can come and be honest with you. Yes. That's super important. Exactly. And then I think that opens the door to have that conversation. There's a big difference like, okay. And I think people watching listening to this has probably experienced this before where you go off the diet versus when you go off quote unquote the diet but you do it in a more healthy way. So the unhealthy way it's almost like you can't get the food in fast enough and you're not really enjoying what's in your mouth. You're thinking about the one that's on the fork, the bite that's on the fork or the chip that's in your hand. And so it's more of this impulsive like I got to eat this and just get as much as I can versus when you go off in a healthy way you savor it. Like you eat the meal and you're like, oh God, this is so good and I'm really enjoying the flavor of this and it's not this like fast impulsive thing. Then the other example I think of is what does drinking alcohol look like in your early 20s versus when you get your 30s? Right. Okay. Remember that when you first started drinking you go out with your friends. There's a race to get drunk. Oh, it was always let's just go as hard as we can and everyone's going to get sick and black out. Right. And then when you're like your 30s and you've already experienced enough times and know that that's not fun then you know what your limits are. You have a few drinks. You hang out with your friends. You enjoy yourself. Well, that's totally different. I think taking the air out of it the pressure off of it. Like I think, you know, as I went further in my career and I didn't train a lot of competitors so I had a little bit of different perspective on nutrition in terms of like the rigidity that I was establishing from the very beginning would just categorize like foods and like educate their way through. Like these are the preferential foods is what's going to do best for your goals. You know, this is where we're getting in sort of like, you know, a little bit less ideal than this is like very, very sparingly. Like this is something like a special occasion comes up. Like, you know, these holiday events come over you're hanging out with your family you know, you kind of got to account for these situations and not go full ham. Like it's just about like, you know, keeping like these established habits that you've been working on but being able to also enjoy and realize that these food groups and these alcoholic drinks and you know, some of these social situations are going to occur. And for me it was just like less, less like I'm going to hammer them. That wasn't like a sense that I was trying to convey to my clients. There's also, you can also be like, you know if you start to create balance around this you can be smarter about the things that you do when you are doing the things that are off, let's say. Right, there's wins probably within that night. Right, so like, I don't drink that much, right? But if I do, I don't like to do it too late at night. Why? Because then it interrupts my sleep and it just, it's more damaging. It's just more damaging. So I'll start earlier like 5 p.m. and then I'll stop by like 7 or 8 p.m. because I'll go to bed by 10, 11 and I feel okay and I won't go past a certain point. I'll use a product like Zebaotics. Zebaotics makes a big difference with how I feel the next day. I also won't combine it with a bunch of foods that also tend to bother me. So I won't stack things on top of each other because there's a balance there, right? Like there's a, like one glass of wine is still not ideal. But it's, but if I throw that on top of things that bother my gut on top of the fact that I'm eating it late and I'm getting poor sleep, well now the scale is not so much enjoying myself. Now the negative effects are going to outweigh it. And you want to get satiated from the quality foods first. I mean, that's the thing. And then it's like it doesn't, the natural tendency isn't to go over a kill with the indulgent foods because it's like you're already pretty much satisfied. Now it's just a little bit of a treat. I feel like that, what ends up happening in those real life situations where the client comes back and they express this guilt or shame for what they did, there's always tends to be, if I've been doing a good job as a coach and trainer on like how we talk about eating your protein first and avoiding the bread and chips when it comes to the, like if I did a good job there, there's normally wins within this dinner that we were talking about too. Where they're like, oh Adam, I had these glasses of wine and we were having all this fun. It's like, okay, well, what was the meal? But oh no, I made a good choice. I still had steak and I passed on the bread when the tables were, listen, we're moving in the right direction still. And this stuff all adds up. If for the first 35, 40 years of your life, you weren't even aware of these better decisions you could be making. And here you have this one off, you see this relative who came in town and you guys had some glasses of wine, you enjoyed yourself and you already passed on the bread which you normally would have done. You didn't have the dessert like you normally had done. You ate a good sized portion of protein and then you had some glasses of wine. And guess what? You're back up here again today and we're back on your training. And like, that's actually a huge win and we're moving in the right direction. And you just having that self-awareness that you're not justifying a behavior that you do every weekend. That's a different conversation, right? Yes, for sure. If this was something that you, every weekend you're making an excuse to me like, oh, well, we're having fun. It was just all friends. Or they're like, hey, I drank a bottle of wine by myself. You know, I was at home just crying. That's really another discussion. Yeah, there might be another problem. It's color therapy. I do wish, God, I went, you know, I work with a lot of partners and stuff. Man, I wish I had Z-Botics as a trainer back in the day. Oh, yeah. Because, you know, I mean, I selfishly wish. Well, not just for me, but for my client. I had a lot of clients that enjoyed wine. Yeah. And even when they had a little bit, I had some clients that would still get, especially red wine. I don't know what it is about red wine. Some people say it's a Tannins. You know, Yeah, it gives me some pretty substantial hangovers. You get it too. It's brutal, yeah. Yeah, you get it too. Mainly wine, yeah. So Jessica's like that. If she drinks, you guys drink cheap wine. Jessica drinks red wine. She'll get a migraine almost every time. Is there a difference between? Yes. Fancy wine and cheap wine makes a big difference. Yeah, I don't know why, but there is a difference. You're not drinking callow. What is it called? Yeah. The big jug. It has something to do with the, I mean, maybe Andrew can look it up or what that, but it has something to do with the sugars and stuff and the way it's distilled. And I like, there is a reason why nicer wines tend to not give people as much of a hangover as cheaper wine. Have you guys ever seen that? There was a, I don't know, it wasn't a study, but they took a bunch of expensive red wines and then they took, I think Trader Joe's has this cheaper wine that's like a blender or whatever. Two buck Chuck, you mean? Yeah, and they poured them and they had a bunch of like experts or whatever. Samoliers. Yeah, and they're like, oh, this one's definitely, you know, and they were wrong. Well, remember there was a big thing that happened with the two buck Chuck was a divorce to happen, right? And then she got all the wine and so she discounted it super cheap. What? So yeah, it was really, yeah. So it was expensive wine she made cheap? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's it. Was it as a way to get back at him? What was two buck Chuck? What was it? I mean, it's Charles Shaw, the name of the company. It was two bucks at one point. Now it's, I think, three dollars at Trader Joe's. But they've done actually well at various events where they've compared the wines and it's actually won in some cases. So there's a story behind it there? There is a story. Yeah, there was a divorce or something happened. I didn't know the details about that. And like she inherited like all this wine and then so that she put it out for like something like that. I don't know the exact, it was a long time ago when I remember that happened. Yeah. I just, I just wish I had Zeba Otis to give my clients because I had a lot of them that were just, they would just deal with the after effects. They loved it so much. It was such an important thing for them to have, you know, once a week with their spouse. It's like a thing. Well, the audience that has been listening for since the beginning of the podcast knows my journey. If you go back far enough, you hear me saying like, I never drank. Me too. Yeah. I used to talk about. Like hanging on alcohol best of all. Yeah. I'd be like, I never drink. Truly my influence. Once or twice. Yeah. But vice versa. You guys and me and Edibles. It's definitely not the case now. I definitely drink a lot more than I used to. In moderation though too. Like I'm not the type of person. You're not even weekly. You don't even have a drink. Yeah, me neither. Katrina does, but I don't. Yeah. I don't have a weekly like that. Yeah. I won't have, I'll have a, I never, I almost never drink, but in London we did quite a bit because of the public. Yeah. So I mean, I let the lid off out there. Like we had drinks almost every night, which is like, that is unbelievably rare. Me too. So before that could have went like a month and a half and I didn't have one drink. And so in a situation like that, and again, there's an example, right? Here we are. I mean, we've been on a nine year journey together, building this business. What a memorable, we're invited out to ARC with George Peterson. Yeah. You think I'm not going to go experience the pulp culture in London? You're crazy. Yeah. I mean, there was nights. We're good. I know. Right. So we had that. I was even there with you. Remember we were, we were walking and we were like, I'm good man. We've, we've drank the last couple of nights. Let's, let's, let's be chill tonight. Let's just, let's just have a dinner and call it. And then we ran into fans. Yeah. So we ran into a couple of fans. It's like, hey, you know what I'm saying? Like, yeah. And honestly it was at that point, it was like, I wanted to experience that with them more than I even cared myself. And so yeah, I think there's, there's times and places for that stuff and a way to have balance. Today's giveaway is the super bundle. Here's how you can win it. Leave a comment below this video in the first 24 hours that we drop it, subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications. If you win, we'll let you know in the comment section. Also, we got a huge sale. Black Friday starts right now. Check this out. 60% off everything. And I mean everything. Every maps program, every maps program bundle. Those are already discounted. Taking additional 60% off. If you're interested, take advantage now. Click on the link at the top of the description below. All right. Back to the show. I got to tell you guys, this is so cute, right? So my daughter's almost one. God, it's already one already. I know, I know. Don't remind me, because I looked at, in fact, Jessica shared pictures with me from last, when she was like two months old. It wasn't that long ago, but they look so different. And I'm just like, oh my God. The birthmark seems to be staying strong still too, right? Typically the- What do they say? What do they call it as a strawberry birthmark? I don't remember the call, but it goes away typically by three or four. It's like 97% of them go away. I hope it stays. So do I. I like it. It's so cute. It gives her character. I love it. If it stays, I mean, the story is that the angel kissed her on the cheek. That's how she has it. But anyway, she's now starting to actively engage and play games with me. Like certain games, right? So she knows how cars operate. By the way, she's super into cars like her brother, which is cool, because he's got all these cars. So now she goes and gets them. And as long as he doesn't notice, she's okay. Otherwise he'll come pull the car out of her hand and all like, let your sister play with some cars. But anyway, we have this, this rock climbing wall thing that you can hook up and kids can climb on it. But the other side of it is smooth. So I put it on this low incline. So on some pillows, right? And I put it up there because my son was riding his cars off of it. So first she kind of like army crawls herself over there with a car and she knows to put it on the top to bring it down. So I'm like, oh, that's cool. She understands. So she's doing that. She goes around and she tries to climb it and it's really, it's really slippery. But this little kid, she's got this grip on her mask. So she grabs the sides and like pulls herself up, pulls herself up, holds onto the top. And then I noticed that she was kind of sliding down. So I'm like, is she doing this on purpose or is she accidentally sliding down? So then I go and I sit in front of her and she excitedly comes up, she looks at me and I'll share the video with you guys. She holds onto it and then she does this with her hands. She lets go and she watches me. She knows that she's sliding. So she climbs up, she does it again and then she puts her hands like this and just lets herself figure it out. Like a little seal. She just slides backwards on the thing. Now, do you have a favorite? Obviously we've said this before that every phase presents you know, different cool things about each. But do you all have like a year like that like ages one to two, zero to one? I know that's so generic to answer that though. You got to have so, I can answer. I've only had Max for four years and I think that the age, the four to six range. Yeah, I think five. Is the coolest. It's so fun. Yeah, he's so cool right now. Like he's, I mean, we're like buddies and we can actually have like real conversation and like, you know, it's like, and he's independent enough or he can kind of do some things. So even if dad wants a break, like there's so many like cool parts about that phase, I feel like. Well, 10 to, I feel like it's, they, I mean, they know a lot more and they can communicate a lot more but at the same time they're still like a little kid at heart. Yeah. You know, so it's like they're on the cusp of like transitioning into like a teenage kind of stuff, preteen stuff. But still just like have those like, oh, like we'll come, you know, cuddle up on you on the couch and we'll still like have those little kid moments but you can like really pick their brain like what's their favorite music, like what they're into. And it's really interesting to see them start develop their own individual kind of thoughts. I loved it when my oldest, he's 18 now, but right around the age of 14, we would have some good debates. I really enjoyed that because. That's where Ethan's at right now. Yeah. Although he's, you know, he's 14. So he's obviously limited with his wisdom and stuff like that. You know, I could see where he's going and he can make compelling arguments. You know, little kids don't really make compelling arguments. They'll say that they want something. That could be like an awesome thing and an annoying thing at the same time. Well, I can't be annoyed by it because it's mean. Yeah. But he'll make these like really good, compelling arguments. You know, even now, now he's 18 and him and I will get into discussions and this shit will, his little shit will share studies with me. I'm like, you're going like I am. Oh, no, actually, this study showed this and then I'll be like, well, but did you see the study? The length of time wasn't good and the sample size was good. Well, I got this one then. Then I'll share one back and him and I will just like study battle back and forth. But I love it because it's stimulating, you know? Yeah. I mean, and it's got it, obviously it's you, right? Yeah, totally. That's probably one of the strongest characteristics about him that's like you would say. Oh, totally. Yeah, that's got to be pretty clear. I like the baby stage too because they're just so cute, you know, from like six months to a year. That's my least favorite. They're just like little chubby. I feel like that's my least favorite. Little, really? Yeah. Of course there's moments. I love the sleeping on my chest and I'm not saying that I didn't like it at all. I love that. I did. But it doesn't even come close to like how I feel right now with him. Like he's so, and I still feel like you get those emotional love parts even at this age. Yeah. Last night I'm tucking him in. I put him down last night and he was just in a funny mood and wanted to stay up. He could tell he didn't want to go. He was wide awake still and I'm like, all right, I'm going to lay here for two more minutes and Daddy's leaving. Okay. So I go to, finally after a two minutes pass or whatever I go, okay, Daddy's leaving. Kiss him on the forehead and I go to get up. He goes, wait, wait, you forgot something. And I said, what? He goes, he goes, you need to hug me and kiss me. And then he gets out of his sheet, stands up, you know, arms up real big and then wants to kiss me on the mouth and he's reaching up to do it. And Daddy, you're getting tall. You're getting tall. Same height, bro. Same height. Thanks, buddy. Yeah. He just, you know what I'm saying? He just wants to talk more is all it is. You find something to have conversation about because he's already got it. I really still Jessica, whenever she like, because she's out, she's home, right? So she'll wear her, you know, her sweats or whatever. But if we go out on a date she'll come out and you go, wow, mama, you're beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Dude, I remember the first time actually that Katrina was like game over right there. So she's like trained him to say that too. Like, is, is mommy pretty? Is mommy? No, no way. Yeah. So he definitely, she razzed me too. Cause she's like, she's like, you know, I'm going to train my son to give it to me more. You know what, you know what's hilarious though? That's a shot, man. You know what's hilarious though? Because Jessica and I, if we get in a little spats, she's the one that's more likely to, like you could, like he'll tell more with her than with me. Out of my voice doesn't get raised. I'm pretty controlled. Yeah. Whereas Jessica will get, she's more emotional. She'll get loud or whatever. So if a radius is anywhere with an ear shot, he'll come in and he'll take my side. Not because, not because I'm right, but because she sounds angry. So he'll come in and be like, mama, stop being mad. Yeah. Stop being mean to papa. That's not nice. Take a break. You're being mean. They're like, they're like, he's got a new thing right now. That's really funny. It's a little honoring of him when he does it, but I have told you guys before, he's learning to play this back and forth of asking mom. And so she's in the kitchen. I'm right there in the living room. So we're like right there next to each other. And I hear him talking to her and she's like, no, no, no, we've already, we've already done enough of that today. We're going to do this now like that. And then he comes and climbing next to me. Daddy over there. And then you can hear her max. You've already liked it. I'm talking to daddy. Yeah. He tells her to shush. I'm like, oh my God. Dude, I was at the restaurant and I was talking with like the boys. And one new thing that like Everett's doing right now is he's learned that he can, he's basically like the, the, the implementer of chaos. So he will, he knows how to push like Ethan's buttons now to like, cause he thinks it's funny. So he'll, he'll say something that we get to react and mad. And then he sits there and dies laughing. And I'm like, look, buddy, this is going to blow up in your face. Like I get that, like, you know, you've figured this out and this is kind of a new thing, but I'm, I'm like, I'm not going to be there. Like there's going to be times where you guys need to sort this out and, and, you know, regulated amongst yourselves. I'm like, if you're going to pester him, you know, like he's got rain to correct you on that. And so, I mean, I talk, and so I'm now I'm like checking him. I'm like, stop pestering him. I'm like, you know, things are going to happen as a result of that. And like, so he's going through that right now. He's like, he's cause he, he's the little, little mischievous little jokester right now. Like, and he's really like trying to like figure out like what he can get away with. Oh, great. You know, what you're saying, I think is actually a really interesting and important kind of conversation around like the challenges of having like, you know, two kids that close in age and, and especially boys that are going to be really testing each other like that because, and I know people hate when you give the, use an example of, you know, animals and you're talking about kids, but I've shared before like the big mistake that I made with the two bulldogs. Remember like how you over corrected so much over corrected so much on protecting the younger one that was weaker. When he was weaker, that when he got to be a teenager, he would just punk the bigger, older, stronger one. And it was just unfair to a point away. It would be hurting the other one. And the other one was so afraid of me that he wouldn't do anything. And I'm like, oh, that's so bad. I did that with my older too. Cause my daughter's obviously a girl. So I told my oldest like, you can't, you can't touch her. Don't touch her. Well, now my daughter terrorizes him. She'll beat the shit out of him. And he won't do anything. I'm like, maybe I should have let him when they were younger. Now he's a little too old to do that. But, you know, maybe when they were younger. So this reminds me actually of the, of the talk we had with Jordan Peterson. So we had Jordan. So we haven't aired the episode. I don't think we'll air it before this one. Right, Doug? What do you think? It'll be right around. It may go before this. It may. All right. So maybe you heard it, maybe not, but the conversation was around social media. And at one point I asked him a question. I've been thinking about his answer ever since. Oh, especially Twitter. Yeah. I said, yeah, because we talked about how in the real world there's checks and balances to what you say. Because if you say something to someone in person, there's always the threat of violence or they know who you are. They see what you look like or what are people going to say? Or, but on social media. Consequences. And in the real world, I could say something. It'll reach two people, three people, right? On social media, I could reach everybody. The algorithm will amplify it. And there's no like real world consequences. And so what it's done is it's actually created or encouraged this very strange breed of narcissistic person who, who their value is shown through their expressed outrage. They're expressed, their virtue is expressed by what they write, not their actions. So it's just what I write. Their comments. Oh, I'm so angry. Oh, I hate this person. And then what's really interesting is that they will band together to essentially execute anybody who doesn't even want to say anything. So not even say anything. Oh, you didn't put the black square. Oh, you didn't say something about this. You must be on the side of, you know, X or whatever. Really crazy. But he, but my question to him was, how do we fix this? And he said, I don't think we can because you asked him about Twitter. Or did you ask? Yeah, I did. So like, how do we fix this? It's like, wait, this is my question. It's so clear. Yeah. Well, the point was that the question was, how do we fix this? No, no, no, you're right. No, 100%. And he's like, I don't think we can because never in human history has this ever happened. Yeah. It originated because I was. So what I've been thinking about a lot is this like, okay, there's this huge debate about Elon taking over X. And is he going to make it into this healthier version of social media? That's right. And so I was like, It's salvageable. And honestly, until we had that conversation, I really believe that. I really believe like, oh, Elon Musk is going to save the day. His speech is going to win. We're going to have this, like he says town square and it's going to be like, it's going to be like it's supposed to be. And when we position that question and asked him what he thinks the future of that looks like. And then he went on to explain what you just explained. And it was like, oh, shit. I never thought of it like that. Like it couldn't, no matter who runs it, it'll never be this, this ideal place because it fosters these behaviors that only in the digital world can you get away with. Because in real life. It just don't exist. If you acted like that, people would would ostracize you or you get punched in the face or you wouldn't even be able to talk to people because they would ignore you because you are crazy. But in this platform, you know, crazy outlandish absurd psychopathic people get a lot of attention. In fact, sometimes get highlighted or get the most attention. And so no matter who is running it and setting the rules or not, it really, and I think all of us had that same feeling of, oh, shit, like there's no hope. There's no way to communicate in a civil manner where it's like, yes, it's not going to revert back to like interactions in person. Like it doesn't, it's not going to reflect that at all. No, think about it. In the real world, imagine that person that when something happened around the world came out and just was just, just outrage. But then every time something happened in the world, they did that. After two or three times, you would know this person's fake. Like, wait a minute, you did nothing. All you do is scream and shout. You haven't said anything about this, right? Yeah, but you actually don't ever do anything. Or imagine this, your group of friends and there's a friend that comes over and talks about how much they care about things. Oh my God, this is so terrible. I was crying yesterday. Shame on you for not caring. The first time you heard it, you'd be like, wow, this person really cares. After the fifth time, you'd be like, you're full of shit. They just talk about all this stuff. They never actually do anything. This person's totally fake. They're just a narcissist, right? Or imagine this in the real world. People walking up to you going, hey, what do you think about this topic? I don't really want to talk about it. Oh, you must be on the, let's get him. He doesn't want to say anything. It's all virtue and shame. It's like those two like moving levers, like the whole interaction. They're disgusting behaviors that in the real world would get washed out. But on social media, get celebrated and amplified. And it just so crazy. I mean, we probably all did the same thing, right? That kind of like blew our minds and then we probably all sat and thought, wait, is there an answer or is it? No. It's not. It's like after he said that, I thought, you know what, this is so true. Like I don't care who's running it. I don't care if you think the most perfect person with all the answers. There's better and worse, but there's nothing. Yeah, exactly. There's sure. And I do believe that what Elon's doing will be a better version. But it also goes back to what I told you guys originally when we first started talking about all this stuff that a lot of these guys, Jack Dorsey's and the Zuckerbergs, most of them are like libertarian type of guys anyways. They weren't trying to be socialist. It's like, but now, and it makes me feel that way even more now that they just got put in these situations like, oh, I guess we should do this or we should block that. Or like, you know, it's a good example. It's like they built the playground and then they're like, oh, you guys can just interact how you're going to interact. That's right. And then they interact it and it's like everybody's got the worst behavior you could imagine. Oh, it's true. And then they got, then you have a certain maybe side like, you know, extreme left people that are in your ears. You need to make these rules. You need to make those rules. And you're like, oh, okay, we need to do something. And the government's like, oh, this is powerful. Right. We probably should get our hands in this as well. Yeah. You know, it's a great example of doomed. You know, it's a great example of what we're talking about. Okay. Think of the profile picture on social media, which is your picture. It's your face, right? Mm-hmm. If somebody is posting a profile picture wearing a mask. Okay. So that says something immediately. Immediately. You know what you are. And if this is you, then this is you. You are 100% a virtue signaling narcissist. There's no reason to take a picture. Nobody's in the room. You don't need to wear a mask. Why are you showing a picture wearing a mask? Because you want everybody to know how much you care or how much you side with or what you think. Or a MAGA hat or whatever. Yeah. You know, it's like it's an immediate response you're trying to get from people. But a mask is even funnier because I'm literally covering my face. You don't even see what I look like. It makes no sense. All you see is this fake thing that I want you so badly to think I care about. Yeah. It's crazy. It's wild. So when he said that, I was just, man, I've been thinking about it for the last couple of days. And even myself, it even induces, here's the thing that, and this is the other thing that he talked about is that these traits are within all of us. So it's not like, you know, someone's good, someone's bad. All of us have the potential to do this kind of stuff. And I think about myself and how it brings that out in me even, you know, and how I like, oh shit, I got to control that. So that's why I think the thing still survives, right? Like I don't, like as much as I like, I think it's doomed for being a good place ever, but it still survives because it's in all of us, that bad side. It'd be kind of like going to like, like needing real therapy for your relationship and you choose to do it on Jerry Springer. Like seriously, like that, like, like, the thought of, right, the thought of like Twitter ever being a healthy good place is the same thought of like, oh, let's go to Jerry Springer to try and fix this cheating that we got going on in our relationship. Like just come on, like this is impossible. Like it's already set to not be successful, even though that's how it's positioned on the show. Like, oh, come on the show and talk about your problems. So let's talk about this then. What do you guys think? Great visual. What is social media good for, if anything? And then how would you use it in a way to, I guess, maximize the good, minimize the bad? So first off, do you think that there's good to social media? Sure. I mean, we, I think for business reasons. Yeah. Education-wise, if you actually have valid, valuable information that you want to promote, you can get a lot more people in front of you. Or that you want to reach. You can absolutely. Scalability-wise. The algorithm can work in your favor or not. Totally. For the type of content you want. I mean, I've actually intentionally messed with this just to see what happens. And I joke about like, whatever I'm currently into, like my Explorer page looks just like that. I mean, it can swing from very dramatically different looking imagery just based off of that. And obviously I haven't gone through and really try to curate my stuff and unfollow everybody and then only follow the positive stuff or whatever I want. But you could absolutely do that. You know what's interesting about that is I've, and I've talked to some people who've done that where they've done experience where they just like follow like little kitty, you know, videos and they get like, their whole feed is like nature and like positives. But it only lasts so long. Like it's like a month or it's two months and they're just like, you know, yeah, I'm like just following these certain pages and then all of a sudden like something gets like put in their feed and it starts like, it gets their attention. They start looking at it too long. Cause it's not just. The algorithm shifts. So it's like, it's, I don't know. The algorithm doesn't just pick up. That would be odds or against you. It also picks up how long you hover on it, how long you scroll or don't scroll. Whether you comment or not. So it'll literally like modify itself. What a cool like study though. It would be kind of, that'd be a cool thing to like have people that intentionally curated it, you know, what a difference it made in their life, everything from doing stress, paying attention to their stress level, cortisol levels, things like that. Relationships. Their relationship, how long were they able to sustain just looking at kitty photos or whatever it was for a certain period of time. And then how quickly did they go back and what percentage of people stayed that way? That would be a really actually interesting. Cause opportunities there, I feel, you know, like I feel like, but it's, you know, it doesn't benefit the company because they want your attention. And so it's like, you'll, I think after a while, I would assume that, you know, after you're like looking at all these positive things, it's not really grabbing you as much. And so you're like less likely to pull. I think that it'll just, something will be there and it'll pick up the fact that it caught your attention a little bit. And the algorithm changes, you know? I think the most challenging is for like, your, your guys is actually all three of you, cause of Brie too. That generation that grew up as a social norm has to be the most challenging. Like for me, it's very easy to see. It's very easy to discipline myself to disconnect because I didn't turn it on until I had the intention to build a business. Not just that, but you're more self-aware of what's good, what's good, what's bad, what's affecting you positively or negatively. It's like giving a kid, you know, here's the cabinet full of candy and healthy stuff. You make the choice. You choose whatever you want. Like you wouldn't do that to a kid. Now an adult, you know, still has a challenge with it. I had a friend like that. His parents did that. Really? Yeah. He just had a drawer and a head. Yeah. Diabetes. Yeah. Really? Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, of course, right? Of course. I wonder though, even being older and self-aware like you're saying I am, if I was born into it, would I still, would I find a way to justify the good of it? You know what I'm saying? Probably. Like I would be self-aware and I'd be like, oh yeah, no, it could be bad, but I mean, it's also, here's all the good things about it. And so I would find a way to still justify why it's a necessity or whatever you know. No, I think it's good for finding new information because there's just a little endless supply of interesting articles and topics and discussions, but you have to be very conscious about how the platform you use and the algorithm and how you're setting that up. I think that's important. I think groups, I've said this before very valuable. So you can find groups on Facebook with people who are very interested in similar topics or experts and they can really tailor your learning. Like I go on groups that I have no expertise in whatsoever, but that I'm interested in, like neurobiology, but these are all neurobiologists or students and then they'll discuss studies and stuff and it's really cool. It's an easy way to learn. So there's that. Building a business, but I mean, the whole like just doom scrolling and it's just so powerful. It's like, literally it's like processed foods, but even worse. Now you have access to this hyper palatable digital experience. Do you have the wherewithal, the discipline? Do you have the strength to prevent yourself from going in the wrong direction? You know what I like? So casinos have been around longer than like smartphones and watching people just on the slot machines and like the engineering and technology and science that went in to be able to give somebody reward, just enough reward and then also like scramble enough so there's variety guarantee they just like looked in that direction first and then all those same features are on the phone now. Oh, I'm pretty sure in the movie or documentary or whatever on social dilemma, I think they actually make that. Do they? I think they make that comparison. I wonder, yeah. Maybe that's where I saw it. I think they do. I mean, it's just like video games, right? They figured that out too. Like when they first came out yesterday, Max and I were playing Mario and it's like, it's such a crazy thing to watch you guys. I mean, I don't know how many times now we've played that game together. The original? The original, right? So I had the original Nintendo and it trips me out how easy it is to let it go. To let it go? Yeah. Like there is no push, never. There's never, oh, no, wait, one more time. It's like literally, okay, that's it. And then he like pops up, no big deal. If he is on his iPad playing anything, I don't care. I don't give a shit if it's puzzles. I don't care. Even if it's a good game, it is crazy how much the new apps, the new games, they have learned that reward system. Even in the good games that are beneficial, they've learned that so well that that small mind of this young mind isn't aware enough of it. And it's different pulling that away from him, getting him to stop doing that versus before we had that kind of understanding of the addictive properties. There's a different end goal that was engineered in there. Totally. They've hyper focused on keeping them on the platform. Part of the training when it comes to, let's say diet, because I'll bring it to diet. Part of the training with diet, especially in the early years, is to not have the temptation there. So in other words, if you're learning how to develop a good relationship with food, you're learning how to enjoy healthy foods and pursue healthy foods and really avoid the stuff that's not good for you. One of the first stages that lasts for a long time is I'm just not going to have it in my house because I don't have the discipline and the skill yet, because you eventually can develop it, but I don't have the discipline and skill yet to say no when I'm supposed to because the temptation is there. With children, and I did not understand this with my older kids, but with children, that's essentially what you're doing when you're giving them this limitless access, is you're saying to yourself, my child has the discipline and skill to know when to stop. They don't. They don't. So it's like somebody who's dealing with obesity, and you're like, yeah, you can have all this food in your house. You can have all the crazy stuff in your house. You just know when not to eat it or what. Yeah, good luck. And the hardest part for parents that are listening right now, especially if they're young, is once you break the seal, that's when it gets difficult. Well, now you've got to hold it. You're dealing with an addict. The discipline it takes as a parent to resist breaking the seal is the easy part. That's the easier, even though that takes discipline still on the parents and mindfulness of those opportunities when you want to give it to them or let them have it. But it's very much so. And your analogy with the sugar is the same thing. That's what it took consistency early on from Katrina and I to be disciplined around that. But we already laid a solid enough foundation that I can see the relationship that he has with it. It's amazing. Can let him have a candy or treat. And now that people have listened to me talk about that journey, he went from never having any of that stuff to where my son can communicate now and ask for those things. And I could give him in moderation these types of things. And it's not like this. Kids want deliberate boundaries. Yeah, you've never had this free reign. And so it's not weird for dad to open a small fun pack of candy. And you get one, I get two, you get one, I get two. Oh, the bag's empty. And he's okay with it. And he's okay. And that's it. That's all you got, bro. That is like such a reward and treat and enjoyment for him. And I don't think he feels deprived at all because he's not even asking for anymore. But that had everything to do with the setting the table first. And I feel the same is going to go for the iPad and the phone. That really is right now with him. I have to lay that now. Totally. I wanted to bring up one of our sponsors because I've had a few DMs about Caldera improving people's skin or whatever. But I've also had a few where people said it actually helped with my acne. Okay. And I forgot about them until we were talking today about this episode that we're going to do. We thought about the skin. Doug brought up acne. And then I realized something that I haven't never brought up on the show. So acne is largely, there's lots of factors, but a large part of it is, I don't know, we can loosely label it an imbalance of the microbiome on the skin. So I don't know if you guys know this, but one of the strongest acne medications is an antibiotic. It's a very, very powerful antibiotic that essentially nukes the bacteria on your skin and then gets rid of an acne. But of course you have to deal with all the negative effects of the antibiotic. Caldera's face serum, the oil, the compounds in there encourage balanced microbiome. Okay. So it's anti-bad bacteria, pro-good bacteria, and it encourages balance. It's not going to wipe it all out. It's not going to encourage this or that. It's literally helping balance out the microbiome in the skin, which is why dry skin people. I was going to say dry and oily. And oily. So I have oily skin. You have dry skin. Both of us use the same product. Both of us end up with the same good result. Based off of that theory then, would it be smart or beneficial for you to have like, let's say like Alessia, who's coming up into those years, like she's probably the next couple of years is when pimples is already using it. Yeah. Oh wow. Yeah. Interesting. And I already do have a review stuff that helps. Oh, okay. Yeah. I was going to say that's good. If it's balancing out the microbiome of the skin, like I would think that that would be a smarter. Like traditional acne treatment. So if like a clear cell or, you know, what is that? That's benzoa peroxide or salicylic acid, which is the wipes. Those are all antibacterial. Those are all to kill all the bacteria. And that's how they get rid of pimples. Which is why too, once people start using it, they feel like they have to continue. Or it dries out the skin and causes other, you know, side effects. Oh wow. Interesting. Yeah. So Caldera, the botanical, it's all natural. There's no chemicals and it's all natural extracts. They were all picked and put in proportion to balance out microbiome. Do you guys, do you guys remember like, like a really embarrassing zit that you had that like you had to go to school and you were just dying inside? I mean that happened all the time when I was like a junior. I only had like a few of it. Oh really? I didn't really have a lot of it. Oh, I had a bad acne year. Oh really? I had a bad acne year. Really? Yeah, my junior year. Yeah. On your face? What's crazy though, I guess. I don't know. Maybe I've just been, I had crooked teeth. I was the poor kid. I had fucking doc. So maybe I was just like, what are you doing? Because I know it didn't traumatize me. You know what I'm saying? I actually looked back as a dog. I go, fuck. I had that. I looked that bad. That was rough. Yeah. Or maybe just because I had so many of my friends, we all kind of had it or what that. I actually, because I know that could be traumatizing for some kids. Oh yeah. Some kids like it is. Totally. Especially if it's really bad. Yeah. And I guess I just didn't bother me as much as I probably should have because I looked back at the pictures and go like, damn, I didn't know I was that bad. I just had one distinctive one and it was like, it was before like the junior high dance. And I was, I guess it was because you know, stress or whatever, like it exaggerated it. It started out and I'm like, oh, it kind of felt it kind of forming. And then it just got bigger and bigger and bigger. And it was like right here on the nose. So it was like, so somebody thought that I was trying to get my nose pierced and it had like got affected. Everybody's making fun of me because like they thought I had like a nose piercing. Did you try doing anything to it to get rid of it? Did you try? Oh, I was like. Yeah. Yeah. Like, dude, just like, yeah. Just, I mean, it works. It grew bigger because I was messing with it. Did you guys ever hear the, the, I don't know. It's not an old wives tale. I don't know what it is. What you would call it the, whatever. But toothpaste, you guys ever heard of that? A little bit of toothpaste on a zit. Let it dry. I said, dries it out. Yeah. I heard kids talking about that. No. I mean, I know toothpaste works on scratch CDs. So that's really good. What? Yeah. I didn't know that. How? Yeah. So if you ever had a CD, this doesn't matter anymore. So this isn't a great dishwasher tip. It was impossible. This would have been a killer tip for you all for like 15 years ago or whatever. But if your steam engine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You would get scratched and it would, it would suck, right? It would skip that part of the song. Or you buff it with. Yeah. You actually, you use toothpaste to fill it in and then buff it out and then it would fix that. What? Yeah, yeah. And it worked? Yeah. Did you look the sub-dog? Yeah. Well, I was just getting the answer about toothpaste on pimples. Oh yeah. So it was a thing. It is a thing. Look up toothpaste on CDs for scratch CDs. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. And you just use your finger? Yeah. I hated that. I wish I had known that. I was like rocking one of those Discman and then you'd have like that one CD you love. There's all scratch. You can use toothpaste to buff out minor scratches on a CD. Choose a mildly abrasive toothpaste. Apply it to the scratch area with a small amount of water. And then gently rub the mixture with a clean cloth over the scratch surface. Great toothpaste. That's so bizarre. Brilliant. Adam. It would have been more brilliant if it was 15, 20 years ago. That would have been just as good as your dishwasher. I feel like it is that good. But I mean, there's no, you're never using a CD anymore, right? No. Is there ever a CD? No. You know what kids are buying now? What? Records. Yeah. That's never going to go out of style. Do you know why though? The original sound. No. That's not why they're buying them. Why? Some kids do. DJs? No. They hang them up on the wall. Oh, it's decor? Yeah. If you go to like these places that sell like, you know, like clothes to teens or whatever, they'll have a record section all of a sudden. And then they'll follow like their whole thing is to, they're trying to bring it back because it's like an underground, like everybody wants to kind of like, to be the, what do they call them? Like a hipster kind of guy where it's like, you know, I'm all into the sound and like, you know, it vibrates and you know, whatever. So like. They do pour over coffee to you in a special like coffee. And there's all these like hipstery kind of furniture now for record players. I'm totally going to get one and be that guy. And so I have like the listening room set up in my house. But yeah, I've been, I've been silently collecting as many like records as I can because that's totally going to be the move. I miss like physical things, you know, that you can kind of, it does give, it puts off a different, different feel, different sound. It is a different sound. And I totally would do the same thing too. If I had a room that was dedicated to like listening and a good sound room like that, I would totally have. Do you have one of those record players with horn? Was that called? Phonograph. Phonograph, yeah. Speaking of weird. You wind it up. Speaking of weird shit, that's like, you were the one that showed me this, Justin. Did you know people are tattooing freckles? Oh, I was going to bring that. Yeah. On their face. That's what I was like. Is this a new trend or is this something just popped up in my feet? Because I was like tripping out on that. Because when I was a kid, that was. You want to get rid of freckles? Oh my God. I was insecure about that. Like, because I was just like like, like just all over, especially like across the nose and here. And that's when I saw them getting tattooed. It was like all the way across. That was the trend. So girls have done like the single mole like Cindy Crawford thing for a long time. So that's been like one. That's been a thing for a long time. Freckles and tattoo. Yeah. Lots of freckles is kind of like, that's interesting. Don't they know styles come and go? What are they going to do? What's so interesting about that is that I mean, kids like that were, a lot of kids were insecure about that. Didn't like them when they were little. So it's interesting that's now come into style. Yeah. I was so happy when they started fading out of it. I had like three distinctively like dark ones. Did you do the lemon juice to try to get them to come out? No. I just was like, fuck. I know these styles come and go like Jessica, like remember that it was the 90s, early 2000s, really thin eyebrows were in. Remember? Yeah. And she plucked the shit out of her eyebrows so that they didn't grow back and all of a sudden thick eyebrows. Now she's pissed off. I used to have thick eyebrows. Really thick is popular. Now that's the thing. Groucho Marx. Yeah. All my people are excited about that. Yeah. I'm not a fan. I got huge eyebrows. The tarantula eyebrows. Really? Not a good little eyebrows. Oh, I think they look good either way. I mean, for dudes, maybe. Who's wearing them? I want to, for our shout out, I want to make a goal for our audience to support and help us. It's pretty ambitious, I think, to get 5,000 trainers listening to your three-day trainer course, I think, would be epic. And so, you know, leading up to that, I really want to make a hard push to... You got to sign up at... This is the focus. It's mindpumptrainer.com, and then I'll be doing it starting January 15th. Absolutely free. Three days. Absolutely free. It's going to be valuable. You're a gym owner, or you have a chain of gym. We have friends that listen that have a chain of gyms. Get the sales team, because there's going to be all kinds of stuff in there. It's sales team in there. Get trainers in there. Get everybody in there. The goal is to have 5,000 attendants I know we'll get that sign up, like people say, but to have... I would love to see 5,000 people live will be really cool. We'll be talking trash to you, for sure. Let's do it. All right, look, there's a company called Aidsleep that has the most technologically advanced sleep system around. Literally, it sits on your bed, and it warms or cools your bed based off of your sleeping habits. It uses AI technology to figure out the perfect temperatures, not just once, but rather throughout the night and how to wake you up. And right now, they're having their Black Friday, Cyber Monday sale. By the way, they also ship to Canada and the UK, and of course, throughout the entire US. So check them out. Huge discount, up to $500 off for Mind Pump listeners. Go to Aidsleep.com. That's AidspellItOut. E-I-G-H-T Sleep.com forward slash Mind Pump. And that's where you'll get the massive discount. All right, back to the show. First question is from Cassandra Sieg. What is the best way to quit sugar? I feel like it has such a hold on me. Please help. This is a great question. And I like it because there's those people out there like, sugar's not addictive. Yeah. Okay, anyway. It can be because it can be super palatable. And some people have way more challenges with this than others. There's two approaches that I have seen work. Unfortunately, they're super opposed to each other. They're both very, very different. One approach is... Eat so much till you throw up. No, yeah. Take the cigarette for you. No, one of them is the gradual approach. I would say probably 50% of my clients did better with this, where rather than cutting sugar out, we would reduce it slowly over time and they seemed to do better with that. And it was typically like we would track, we would get their total sugar content and then cut it down by a quarter. And every week we cut it down by a quarter. After four weeks it was out of their diet. The other approach was cold turkey and that worked well for the other 50%. Because some people, the gradual reduction, just triggered them to want to eat more and they needed to just get rid of it and deal with the wanting it so bad for a few days or a week and then do better with it afterwards. I do better with the quit approach, the cold turkey. But it's really weird how some people do well with one and not the other. It's pretty split. Yeah. Now you're the most addicted. Yeah. I don't know if I'm an authority on this, but I definitely have dealt. Because of ice cream. I've dealt with this probably the most of us just because I've admitted having a serious sweet tooth and I've struggled with sugar. You know what was of all the things and I've tried everything that you just named with the cold turkey to coming off a little bit to making the things that are low sugar, no sugar treats that give me that same thing. You know the biggest thing that has ever helped me was actually this is the one positive thing, the most positive thing I felt about the ketogenic diet. Oh, killed it, huh? Yes. And it was... Because not only did you have no carbs, no sugar. Yes. I was surprised at how much I did not crave sugar. It really blew my mind. It was only when I allowed it and reintroduced it to the diet. You think it was like a reset of your palate, in a sense? You know, I don't know. It might be the satiety, right? From the fat and protein because it really kills your appetite. I don't know what mechanism it was that really caused it, but I remember when we all went on ketogenic diet and we talked about all... I remember you saying that. It was... You didn't crave sugar at all? At all. In fact, it was so beneficial to me that it actually has forever changed my relationship with it. It's... As much as I talk about the times where I'll have candy or ice cream or things like that, pre-ketogenic, running ketogenic diet to post, total different relationships to this day. Wow. I have a much better hold of my sweet tooth than I ever did before. And even though I will allow those things in the diet here and there, it's nowhere near what it was pre-doing that with the ketogenic diet. Now, the thing that changed pre-ketogenic is I used to be a very carb-heavy diet person. I remember back in the days. 400, 450 grams. Yeah, up to 600, right? So 400 to 600 grams of carbs was very regular for me. Now, remember, I'm talking about when I'm training seven days a week and I'm 230 plus, right? So total different place in my life than I am right now, but I could eat that many carbohydrates and stay lean. And so... But when I was eating that many carbohydrates, it was really hard to not allow 100 to 200 grams of those coming from sugar and stuff. And so... And I would a lot of times. When I went keto, it killed that craving so much. And then when I came off of keto, I now became this person who only ate about 200 to 250 grams of carbs. That would be considered a higher day. Maybe on a crazy high would be 300 grams of carbs is what I would consider now a really high carb day for me. And because I eat less carbs, which means I intake more of my calories from protein and fats, it tends to keep the cravings down a lot. I can get carried away with sugar as well. And I noticed with myself, the more I have, the more I want. The more regular I am with candy or sugar, the more often I want it. The snowball effect. Yeah, and I think that's true with almost anything that you'll have a challenge with. It's probably better to avoid it if that's you. And with me and candy, the longer I go without it, the less I want it. Actually, not recently. It's been months now. But I developed this habit of ordering door-dash ice cream. And it started out as like, oh, we're only going to do this once. And then it became like, oh, I'm going to do this all the time. And Baskin Robbins has this dairy-free ice cream and I'll have gummy bears on it. And then my son and I will eat it together and watch it. It says a 16-year-old, right? I know. It's daiquiri. My bubble gum ice cream. It's literally blue-colored. It's called daiquiri ice or iced daiquiri flavor. It's so funny. But since I started doing that, now I'll want candy from the gas station or candy when we travel or whatever. Because the more I get it, the more I want it. And I've noticed that with clients too. They're better off. If there's something that's a trigger for you, it's harder to moderate it. It's probably better to avoid it. For me, it was always like the end of the night, right? Were you the biggest candy person ever? No, not a candy, but more of like chocolate, peanut butter, alcohol. Alcohol. I mean, that's really the vice. Yeah, for sure. It's whiskey. Yeah, it's not as much candy. It's a jolly rancher in it. So your chocolate and peanut butter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was always the thing. You're like a PMS woman. You like the chocolate. I do. I have cramps sometimes. This really helps. Do you really like chocolate chocolate? Do you always have to be a peanut butter? Yeah, I like chocolate. But yeah, that was one thing. I'd go slightly more bitter as I would go. And I'm Doug. I think I took that from Doug. That's actually a hack from Doug that I got too. Totally. He goes really dark. Yeah, really dark chocolate gives me a bit of that satisfaction of like I'm eating a treat, but then I don't even like a whole dark chocolate bar. No, just a piece. Yeah, I could just break off pieces. How dark is it, Doug, that you go? I like 85%. 85%. Yeah. Because it's got some bitterness to it. What's the one you get? There's one that you get that's got really low sugar. You had me eat it sometime. Didn't you get it from Trader Joe? Anything that's 85% is pretty low sugar. The one I like the most is Alter Eco. Oh, that's the one. Yes, I think they call it black outer. I can't remember the exact name of the bar, but it's super creamy and smooth. And you always have it on you? Not always, no. Every time we travel. I usually buy it. Yeah, even if you buy it when we're out. I mean, there's various brands. But I never used to do that. So I got that from Doug. It's actually pretty good because I can do that too. I now tend to keep a dark chocolate big bar too in my freezer. And if I have moments where I really want something chocolate like that and I've been good, let's say, not having it, I'll go have that. And I noticed that I only need a few pieces of it. Give me like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup or something like that. I'll eat a whole bag or something like that. Yeah, Halloween just recently. Oh, yeah. Here's a strategy too. And this is a little harder to do, but if you can do it, it works pretty damn well. If you're like, oh my God, I want to eat that candy or that sugar treat, say you can eat it so long as you have a protein snack before it. And this tends to work because protein is very satiating. Now I know people think like, I don't want to do that because I don't want the candy anymore. That's the point. That is exactly. Yeah, you'll eat like 15 grams of protein with a jerky or something that's got protein in it or a little bit of chicken or something. That's also a really good hack. That's something I've also utilized too, right? I give myself the permission to have the candy sweet, but I say, oh, you know what though, I still haven't hit my protein goal today. Let me go and get that first. And then if I still want that treat, I'll have it. And I'd say at least 50% of the time or more, I end up not having it. A high protein food will kill most cravings because it's so satiety producing. In fact, it's so effective. You will find yourself saying, I don't want to do that because I know I won't want that thing anymore. And that's the point. That's the whole point with it. Question is from Irons Street, Jim and WA. What is the best replacement exercise for squat and Romanian deadlifts? Oh, all right. Split stance exercises are great as a replacement for squats. You're still getting that squat motion with the front leg. It puts you in a split stance with, which for a lot of people, by the way, I wish I knew why they were replacing squats and deadlifts because I'd be able to give a much better answer. So I'm going to give a generic one, but the split stance tends to be easier when people have issues with their back, when people have issues with a knee or a hip, split stance exercises. So like Bulgarian split stance squats or lunges are really good. And then for Romanian deadlifts, I like hip thrusts. Hip thrusts will get that. Yeah, hip thrusts. It's a safe option, too, if there's any kind of, I don't know, some kind of imbalance or some kind of pain involved with why you're deterring from squatting are doing Romanian deadlifts because those are very staple movements that you want to include in your programming. So the squat, it's really, it's like it's the variations of squats at that point, right? Like if you're looking to avoid a back-loaded squat, you know, there's so many other options with ways of your squats, goblet doing cossack squat, even something that's a little, you know, going to require a little bit more of a different muscle recruitment pattern. But yeah, split stance, I love split stance just because you also work on stabilizing the joint and you get a lot of benefit from that. Definitely don't give up on fundamental foundational exercises, though. By the way, if there's any exercise that you do that's relatively common that you find you can't do, there's an opportunity there to identify imbalances of weaknesses in your body. Okay, so like, oh, I can't do an overhead press. I can't do a bench press. I can't do a row. Like fundamental exercises. Don't give up and say, I'm not going to do the exercise because it bothers me. Figure out why it bothers you because those are foundational movements. So if you can't squat and you can't hip hinge, like a Romanian deadlift, that's fine. Find alternatives. But then figure out why and fix the problem. There's something there and you'll get tremendous benefit from solving that issue because squatting is such a basic human movement that there's something there. There's something that you should fix. Yeah, my guess, I mean, I didn't pick this question, but my guess is by the handle, right? Iron Street Gym that maybe this is someone who owns a gym or they have lots of trainers that work underneath them and then they're maybe asking us if you had to replace these, what would be your top exercise to replace those? Which I think we all... And looking at both exercises, it sounds like a back issue because if you can't squat or Romanian deadlift, it's probably back. That's why if you're laying on a bench and you're doing like a hip thrust it'd probably be the safest if there's restriction. Yeah. Well, now you guys are speculating even further that I wasn't going to go that far because it does matter. If you start... If it's injury reasons or pain related or whatever that, then it's like, okay, well, what is the pain? What's specifically going on? And let's address it, unpack it and then figure that out. But a generic answer to me is like Bulgarians put squat to replace the squat and a single leg deadlift or hip thrust to replace the RDL. I will say this, one of the safest in terms of injury risk yet effective exercises for the lower body is a sled. Oh yeah. Period end of story. Period end of story. If you're a trainer or a coach and you have a client who has issues with lower body exercises, they will probably be able to push a sled and you'll probably be able to slowly scale up the resistance on the sled to the point where you'll be able to get them to do other exercises. The sled is like the best. I like that. Next question is from Alana B40301. Is it bad to fully lock out your arms when extending in a bench press or overhead press? Are you supposed to leave your elbow soft during the lockout? No. You need to go fully extended. But here's the difference. Okay. If I fully extend my elbow and I relax so that the weight is sitting on the joint. So if your elbow hypo extends a little bit. That's the problem. That's where the problem is. Then the joint is supporting the weight. That's a problem. If I fully extend but keep extending and stay tense, that's good. The reason why you'll hear some coaches say things like, leave your knees soft at the top of a squat or leave your elbow soft. Don't fully extend. It's because people have a habit of pressing up and then letting the weight rest on their joints. That's not a good idea. That can cause a lot of problems. You always want to stay tense. So when you press the bar up, even though you fully extend, continue to press out. Continue to generate that outward force so that everything's staying tense and it's not the joint that's supporting the weight. It's the muscles. So did you guys do this when I was a trainer earlier, especially the first five or so, I trained short of full range of motion because of this. This is an area where we're saying, keep tension on the muscle. That's kind of a tough thing to do. It's a tough thing to convey. Yes. You could say that a bunch of times to a client and try and explain it to them. That's those hard, yeah. But the natural thing that a lot of clients will do is lock out. That's right. The lock out in the squat, the lock out in the bench press, and the rest on the joints as the default. And so, yes, I would want to train my client to go full range of motion and keep tension on the muscle. But if I see them resting on the joint repeatedly, then I actually will train just short of full range of motion until they can do it. Until they learn it. Yeah, until they learn and they're more experienced. And so, depending on who's asking this question, what I used to say to clients was keep pushing the weight out. And they'll say, what do you want me to do, roll my shoulder forward? No, no, no. Just keep that outward tension. Like you're pushing the bar up, or like at the squat, like you're still trying to stand up real tall. And that cue tends to work really well. Well, that's why anchoring the shoulder blade is so important. Yeah. And that too, like packing the shoulder for overhead press, especially to learning how to do that and keep tension there, supporting the joint. I mean, I had the same issue for a long time as a new trainer, but being able to really be intentional about that from the very beginning and teach that technique and stay there quite a bit until I felt like they had that control where they would stay tense in the muscle to put anything overhead. I was prerequisite before any of that. I also think this is where the value of isometrics and learning how to connect and flex a muscle. 100%. Because once you, if you could have no resistance, and this is a good goal for all people to have, is to be able to flex every single muscle on your body. Yeah. Like without any weights right now is like, can you flex your shoulder? Can you flex your bicep? Can you flex your tricep? Can you flex your quad? Can you flex your hamstring? If you can learn to flex all those muscles without any sort of real resistance, then just adding resistance and then being able to cue the client, like keep your chest flexed through the whole movement. Like don't let it rest. Like keep it flexed even as you fully extend. That will also keep that client the tension in the muscle instead of resting on the joint. Next question is from Animal Marie Fit. You guys always insist that trainers have your programs. How do you recommend that we use them with clients? Are we using them as examples for effective training or actually using them with clients? I think if you're an experienced trainer, you use them as a blueprint that you work off of. So if you know your client well, you could follow our programming and then make modifications based off of the individual that you're training. If you're a newer trainer... It's scaffolding for your program. Yes. If you're a newer trainer, follow it as it's laid out because we did a pretty good job. But a good trainer will always know what modifications they need to make to make a program effective for their clients. But I would use them 100% scaffolding. I would make the case to follow it pretty damn close to a T unless you're a really experienced trainer. I feel like really experienced a bunch of national certifications lots of years under your belt of training. Like, okay, do your thing. You write your own programs. You're really confident. You can look at our program and you can see, oh, I see exactly what they're trying to do here or what's going on. Then by all means, then move around things or whatever, take out something and replace it with something else because your client has a very specific need or want for whatever it is that they're doing. But there's a ton of value with if your client is capable of doing all the movements that we've programmed in there is literally following it to a T and learning why it's programmed that way. Because one of the mistakes I've seen and I've seen trainers do this that we've helped and we've coached and they take it and then, oh, a client wants something else and so they just add to it. They just add to the program other things that this client also wants. When we wrote those, we're considering that this is their strength training. All of their strength training is right here. And if I'm going to do anything else for that client strength training wise, I'm going to adjust that and unless you feel the volume and everything. That's right. So unless you feel really confident on, oh, my client also wants to get really good at jump rope or always also wants to get really good at box jumps. And so I'm going to program that in there. You don't just slap it on and add it to everything we have and then fall. It's like you have to know what to pull out and what to replace it with. Or where to put it. Yeah. So, you know, I would recommend as coaches and trainers to follow, use these things. Yeah. Most people listening and watching right now follow them as they're laid out, I would say. Your training is in when they're doing the exercises, their form, their techniques, their control, how they connect to the muscles. That's where the training comes into play. But workout programming is so much more complex than new trainers even will begin to understand. You really don't get and understand workout programming until like 10 years. Yeah. Don't let your ego get in the way here. I feel like that's the thing that you, like, I got to stress because all of us trainers, all of us including myself, okay, we all have these egos of like, oh, I don't need them. I could program myself. It's like, but why? If there's somebody who's been doing this for a lot longer than you have that took into consideration all the challenges you're going to come across, like, use that. Like you'd be silly not to. And it's in the, yeah. And if you own them already and you have it, it's like for sure do that. So yeah, even as a reference, I mean, like all the different avatars, we literally have like communicated this between the three of us like over and over. Like who are we not addressing? What need is out there that we still haven't fit? And so it's really like each one of our program intentionally is trying to address very specific type of client that's out there. That's right. And that's another reason why I say follow to a tee because if you think your client is special for some reason, they have a different want, desire, need. There's probably a different program that we wrote that would address that need. Yeah. If you're like, oh, maps anabolic is a little too advanced from, oh, we have maps resistance. Oh, that's still a little too. Okay. Maps starter. They have mobility issues. Okay. Well, let's do prime pro and prime or, you know, they're athletic. They like the functional. So, okay, let's go maps performance. That's why we have so many damn programs and more and more to come because there's always an avatar out there that could use a program that's more tailored for them. Look, if you love the show, head over to mindpumpfree.com and check out all of our free fitness guides. They're free. They can help you. You can get all of them. You can also find all of us on social media. Justin is on Instagram at Mind Pump Justin. I'm on Instagram at Mind Pump DeStefano and Adam is on Instagram at Mind Pump Adam.