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So I Had a I got a DM yesterday that I Wanted to bring up this this conversation that I probably had with I don't know at least at least half if not most of my clients over the years of training and It was something that I had just recently implemented myself and I thought you know I don't think we've discussed this in detail On the podcast and the question that the client had or the the person that DM me was I just went on vacation and You know, I ate a ton And put on like 15 pounds and he goes I know you guys Are not you know, that's a good vacation Well, it's very realistic though, right? I mean, I know I've done it. I've done it for sure He goes, I know you guys don't advocate for crash dieting He goes, but you know, my my hips are hurting my back is hurting. I feel inflamed. I don't I don't feel good You know, what what do you suggest? And I said, you know, that's interesting You asked that right now because I too I'm going through some so and I didn't just go on a vacation Where I gained 15 pounds But I have been on a pretty aggressive bulk ever since I started the testosterone therapy and my theory on that was like Okay, I've got the extra testosterone. I'm gonna build some muscle right now. I'm boosting these calories up I'm lifting more consistently. And so I've been really enjoying this bulk. I've been putting on I've been putting on size very well I'm getting stronger like I like the way I've been looking but this last couple weeks man, my my hips started hurting again, my joints are just they're talking to me right now and So I made a quick adjustment just this last week and a half and I went on like a and I forget What they call it when you do this, but it's it's not exactly a fast, right? Nothing But I'm only eating 500 calories Mm-hmm and I'm doing it for a short period of time and then I'll go back to eating a more moderate amount of calories And what I like about that is the way my body responds from being on really high calories for an extended period of time and So I suggested this to him now This isn't for everybody But this also can be a great way to kickstart somebody who may be in the same situation Yeah, we need to tread carefully, right because There's so many crappy Bad, you know diets and crappy, you know Clickbaity advice out there that's saying stuff like you know, you know six days to whatever or you know five five ways You can crash get your body in shape quick or lose 15 pounds fast or whatever so we need to be very careful because That is not a great strategy for for a lot of people in fact It's a terrible strategy for most people because most people don't go in with the Understanding of what they're gonna get out of it and what they should need to focus on right and how they should navigate after going through Yes, because there is a great way to to utilize what you're talking about Adam as a reset But rather it's more of a behavioral reset. It's more of a getting going in a new direction and People do operate very well in the short term and this is a short-term thing, right? It's not something gonna be doing long-term. No, no, I mean context matters a lot here So if that guy DM me and his question and if he said right ask the same thing, right? He wanted he had put let's say he had had put on 15 pounds Over over the last course of who knows how long ago but if he said something like Adam I've been trying to lose weight for a really long time and you know I just my body is not dropping off this weight I have all my I have all these aches and pains all the same stuff But that he has been trying to lose weight for a significant period of time and his and his body is not responding He's not losing weight I wouldn't advise this because the first thing is with my experience that goes through my head if that's the case Is he's probably got a pretty slow metabolism and that's part of the reason why he's not seeing the results because he's been In some sort of a calorie deficit that he's been trying to lose and he's unsuccessful and me giving him the advice of oh Go eat 500 calories every single day I think would be terrible advice to that person because that person already has a very slow metabolism But he didn't say that what he said was I went on vacation I ate like an asshole admittedly, you know drank eight had a great time put on 15 pounds and now I'm here What would you suggest I do which is more similar to my scenario where I've been in a surplus Eating a lot of extra calories for several and I've been over a month now of doing that and Feeling the same way that I need to drop some weight and I'm using the I think even more important is the mindset Understanding of what you're doing and what position you're coming from it's like fasting, right? If you're if you have Issues with restricting yourself with food if you've had food Related, you know relationship issues eating disorders, whatever fasting is terrible terrible idea Yeah, you're starving yourself, and it's just gonna make things much worse So it's very important we talk about who this is for who this is not for and it's also very important We talk about what the real benefit is of an approach like this because if you go in it the right way the right understanding You can come out of this very well and also understanding. This is a short-term Process you need to have a long-term system for afterwards now Here's something that is very true with human psychology and you know You learn this as a trainer training people for for decades That people do very very well in the short term with clear cut rules and guidelines This is why diet books that are very basic and simple that say things like Only eat these four foods or you can't eat carbs or only drink celery juice or whatever Are so successful because in the short term it's easy. I know what I need to do. It's three things It's two steps. Here we go terrible long-term approach But in the short term there is some there is some some noticeable effect But again, you have to go in with the right understanding and the right attitude And of course Adam, you're the perfect person for this. You're very self-aware You've been you know, you you understand how to feed your body You're not dealing with all these crazy food issues or insecurities And so this is a great and dare I say kickstart for someone like you the healthy foundations have to be established first And I think that's why on the show, especially we're always like reiterating what the long-term strategy is what the healthiest practices With these things to get towards, uh, you know, healthy fat loss and healthy, uh, you know muscle gain Um, but you know, there are things where there's interruptions There's there's ways to sort of break cycles of pattern And I think this is one of those opportunities if you have a healthy metabolism and you know, you're looking to You know sort of get like a new stimulus that you can then Benefit from this could be a strategy. Well, I like I saw I mean, I love that you pointed out It's a be mostly a behavior thing because the truth is had I been doing a very, uh, Modest bulk or doing what we recommend most of the time, which is a bulk then cut bulk them These short periods of time. I probably wouldn't be in the situation. I am but the truth is I was enjoying the bulk so much that it was easy to pile on the burger and fries every now and then It's like I'm getting strength gains in the gym. My body's packing on muscle because I have this extra testosterone in my body So I was happy with what was going on for most of the part as far as results So it was really easy for me to allow like, I know that I'm only supposed to be eating about 300 to 500 more calories, but what's the thousand today? Right? Right a thousand the next day What ends up happening because I'm seeing these results in the gym muscles coming on I'm my body's changing the way I like. Oh, okay. I'm just going to keep going keep going And it's that's those are bad behaviors that even I being as aware and as experienced as I am started to do You needed a pattern interrupter. Yes, what you needed a behavior and pattern Interrupter and if you go into this understanding, that's what's happening Then you're going to be okay. If you go into this thinking I want to lose weight This is going to be the best way to lose weight fast. I got to lose weight fast because in two weeks I'm going to be going to the beach or I'm going to this party Terrible approach. Everybody's done that. We all know what happens. You gain the weight back and then some or you do these wild swings where you go extreme restriction to back to binge type behavior So you have to have the right attitude and understand what you're looking to accomplish for example I'll give you an example. Okay. Fasting is a great example If I go into fasting, let's say I want to do a 48 hour fast I'm not eating anything at all for 48 hours and I go into it thinking I'm going to lose five pounds in two days This is going to be awesome. It's a great way to lose fat real fast Terrible approach and it will fail and it'll cause bad behaviors and bad relationship to food if I go into the fast thinking I'm going to detach From using food as a way to medicate self medicate. I'm going to work inward I'm going to focus on how I deal with stress because normally I reach for food and for snacks I'm going to not distract myself so much I'm going to reset my relationship to food and I'm going into it from a healthy standpoint In other words, I'm not going into it having dealt with anorexia or restrict type eating behaviors in the past Then fasting this is why fasting is a spiritual practice fasting is present in every major Religion in the world not for the weight loss, but rather for the detachment And fasting works on lots of things. It's not just food. You could do this with electronics or whatever So it's all about that. So if you do this the right way what we're about to talk about Then you can see some benefits if you're the right person and you do this the right way With the right mindset if you go into this and then you're wrong person with the wrong mindset You're going to come out of this way worse off than you were before Well to add to your your short term point is you have to resist the temptation to keep doing this Right because which is very hard. It's very hard to do because I saw great results in the last seven days Well, what what did I actually really see in the last seven days the scale dropped 10 pounds? I mean and if you were somebody who's put on 15 pounds or you've been carrying lots of extra weight for a long period of time That can be like whoa game changer. This is this. Yeah, this is it. I just gotta do this for a few more weeks And I'll be there but what I know is that first of all a majority that was water weight Which is great because I know that's also going to help with my joints inflammation water Yeah, inflammation is going to help with me feeling better as which is the main reason what triggered this for me to start doing this And so that's great. I already feel a lot better But I also know that my body didn't lose 10 pounds of just body fat in this last week Sure, I might have shredded a couple pounds along the way But I also know that I'm already sending a signal to my body to get adapted to this new low calorie intake And I know that I don't want to be here long term because you bet your ass I went to bed every night this last week hungry as fuck So I don't want to be here for the rest of my life It'll be a miserable way to live and so you have to resist the temptation To want to stay this low for a really long time because you're setting yourself up for a really slow metabolism And eventually for the way to all come back on so you need to have a a post You know strategy, right? So it's short term. You give yourself a time frame a week. I think is a good time frame So I'm going to do this for a week after that Don't just say it's going to be over after a week because if you don't have a strategy for after Then you may actually go in the opposite direction You say to yourself, uh, here's what i'm doing for this week And then after that here is my strategy for afterwards because you need a long term strategy Otherwise, this will fail you will fail miserably if you try doing something like this without that kind of a strategy But yeah in that short and I do this too adam and very similarly if I want to You know get myself going and work on those behaviors and detach from certain types of behaviors and learn how to You know deal with certain feelings without reaching for food or whatever Um, I'll do that. Uh, it's some you know similar. I'll do something like that similar Well, I do something very very short and I do notice Reduced inflammation. That's the number one thing when you drop your calories significantly You do get this kind of anti inflammatory effect in the body Yeah, well you mentioned fasting and for me some of the biggest breakthroughs were just to be able to Get beyond the cravings that I felt so compelled to and so drawn towards, you know, like if it was later at night or You know, I just had this moment where I just had a little bit of the hunger growls And I just was immediately drawn to having to shove my face with something and I know I'm not alone I know there's a lot of people out there that uh, you know, once they feel that sort of Sensation they'll pull their car over and just try to find whatever is available At the moment and so to break free from that and be able to kind of ride it out and wait till I get like, you know Better meal options was a big deal You know as well as just, you know, just breaking free of just all the very specific meals I had to have at very specific times, right? So number one understand that the benefit of this is to modify your behavior And for some detachment from ways that you were, you know, treating food or using food To medicate or to numb or to distract It's this is a behavior shift That's the mindset that you're going this with you are not going in trying to lose a certain amount of weight You're not going in trying to look a certain way at the end of this Go in with the right mindset. It's very very important I think fasting is a very important part of this because fasting is literally that detachment aspect of it Well, it's step one of the five steps, right? So, you know, I like to organize this in a way where We give somebody kind of like the five steps and you guys can add or take away However, you guys feel but of what I kind of go through when I when I put myself in this this position, right? So I know I'm going to go extremely low calorie And so I set several goals for myself for the for the period of time that I'm going to be doing this And then I'm also mindful of post and putting something together to make sure that I come at this because here's another thing I think the most challenging part is not The staying super low calorie for seven days while the results are coming on It's knowing that I can't stay there for a long time And when I reintroduce more calories the temptation to want to go crazy because you get hungry I mean every night I'm going to bed hungry then watch I also know that once I start giving myself more calories Which I'm doing today and I started yesterday That my body is going to be like totally more more more and I got to really reign that in and While that's happening. Guess what happens It's starting to fill all my muscle bellies in and I'm lifting weights heavy And so I see start to justify exactly I start to justify the added calories because it's looking good on my physique But I have to understand what's going on Physiologically with my body when I do this and resist the temptation to keep going crazy So a plan is important. Definitely first one the first step with you said so intermittent fasting So I I don't like giving it a name, but we can give it the intermittent fasting name for me It's just I meal skip. I know that I'm only gonna allow myself 500 calories a day So that's really really low for me. I could easily eat that in one meal It's or it's two kind of small small meals So I I quote unquote intermittent fast. I just say I skip the first like meal or two That's what I do and I mean, I know we've marked people have marketed it wrote books around this But the truth is the only reason why I'm doing it. I'm not I don't actually go to the point where I'm like Oh, I'm going to follow the warrior diet during this time and I'm going to hour 12 Yes, yeah, I'm not going I'm going to stop at this time or at this time I just know that I can only eat 500 calories So that's really tough to just spread out over three or four meals So I got to get rid of some meals So it doesn't really matter if it's meal one and meal four or it's meal one and two or whatever Now I'm glad you said that because a lot of the fasting advocates When they talk about the health benefits of fasting a lot of stuff They'll recommend that people fast and later in the day, right? So eat in the morning Don't eat at night now from a behavioral standpoint. I like the opposite I don't think I don't get I would prefer to fast in the morning in the afternoon and then eat at night Going to bed Without any food is way more is rough way more challenging for me Then being up during the day to keep being busy and dealing with my feelings during the day, right? So, you know by the time noon comes around I'm getting hungry. I haven't eaten anything in the morning Okay, I know for the next seven days or whatever. I'm not going to eat until you know dinner time or I have one meal Let me just deal with these feelings. Uh, what are these feelings saying to me now for me? It's literally just getting comfortable with feeling hungry It's a feeling like any other feeling and believe it or not You can start to feel comfortable with the feeling of Craving or whatever by the way, it's not true hunger true hunger kicks in much later But it's more of a I'm used to eating at this time or I have a craving for food That's a good feeling to deal with and to be okay with to sit with Maybe you are somebody that starts to feel anxious Or stressed or maybe you're upset and normally the way you numb yourself or distract yourself is by feeding yourself But now since you're fasting for most of the day Now you got to sit with those feelings. What can I do instead of eat? That's usually what comes up for me All right. I'm not going to eat. It's new normally. I take 30 minutes to have lunch or whatever I'm not going to eat. What can I do instead? I'm going to go for a walk Or I'm going to read something or I'm going to do some mobility work or something like that So I prefer like you adam. I'll do it. I'll skip the first few meals And then I'll have something in the evening and you're saying focus on about 500 calories I think that's a pretty good target. Yeah, and by the way, I mean, it's just some arbitrary number I just know that 500 calories is really really low for me my body probably I just so you have the Some context here. So the listener knows I was eating closer to 33,000 to 3,500 calories That's a big drop. Yeah. So it's it's a big drop for me. So it's a significant drop If you're somebody who and this is why to again the context matters if you're somebody who is on a 900 to 1,300 calorie diet you hear this podcast and you think there's a good strategy for you You're not the person for this Reducing down to 500 when you're already down to 900 to 1,300 One you're gonna see minimal to no results from it And all you're really going to do is slow your metabolism down any more Yeah, if you've been restricting for a while, yes And you're gonna and this do you think this is great to like Justin said It's a great for pattern interruption if I have been on a bulk for a long period of time There's a great way to reset that reset my behaviors reset my metabolism a bit cut cut out all the calories lower inflammation and then restart what would be a great diet or Somebody who just came off a vacation where they drank an eight and had a massive surplus of calories for consistent seven days Those are the people that I think are great for this and to your point Sal I love the the skipping in the morning stuff because that's when my day is busy And it's it is easier when I got things going on because every once in a while I would get this. Oh, I'm kind of hungry right now But I have to go do this and I have to go do that and then I stop thinking about it It's easier for for time to go by and mean not to be thinking about my cravings when I'm busy doing stuff It's much more difficult for me when I get home at 4 or 5 o'clock at night Kind of play with max and I'm kind of sitting there. I'm sitting there. I'm watching tv I'm doing so that I want to have at least one of my meals at least 200 or 300 my calories to be consumed around that time for behavioral Yeah, and the while you're doing that I want to ask you Adam because for me when I do something like this similarly the first I'd say two to three days are where I get the most challenged after that. I start to kind of get into this Very solid rhythm and it becomes much easier But it's the first like two to three days that I tend to be the most challenged. How was it for you? Yeah, no, I would actually say it was really only the first day the first day is the hardest day I mean, it really is you just came off of like telling your body that maybe the second expecting lots of food Yeah, yeah lots of food lots of calories and then you dramatically go down to 500 It gives your body goes, huh, you know and you feel that But then after about the second or third day to your point It does start to adapt it realizes that you may not be getting calories for a long period of time Which is this is the reason why this isn't good long term Yeah Because already in the first few days you already feel that adaptation process happening You already feel how smart the body is and starting to figure things out you want to stay ahead of that So also, you know to to that point. So you're you're eliminating it down to 500 calories, right? That would be like the second step now if we focused on macronutrients like where would you sort of steer towards great great question So and again, there's different strategies to this and this isn't like it has to be this way I find the most benefits for it with Targeting protein first and then fibrous foods or vegetables. So that's where I I want to Carbs carbs are going to stimulate appetite. They're going to fill me up. I'm not I'm also I'm trying to Maintain and as much muscle mass as I can so I want to feed the muscles what it needs I know I'm not going to get my daily Protein intake as it is and you're going to get some fats from the protein You're getting from natural sources exactly So protein and fiber are the main sources that I want to target for that for these these 500 calories Now what I would do is I would have a small piece of meat steak Chicken thigh something like that and then I'd have a big serving of well-cooked vegetables Yeah, like brussels sprouts or broccoli big and honestly, so you're the one that Got me on doing this. I never until we met I've never I've actually never seen somebody sit down and eat like that Giant bowl of vegetables before a salad bowl. Yeah, and you you were the one that and And you do like a little bit of butter or you do olive oil You do something on there to give it a little bit of flavor and stuff or season it up however you want I'd never done that before and it's actually very satisfying especially when you're doing something like this So yeah, I'll cook up a big old bowl of that and protein and fiber are the most satiating things You can eat fat is relatively satiating as well But protein in particular very very satiating and then fiber also helps as well. So you're more likely to be successful Doing something like this by having that protein and then lots of you know fiber Meal from those from those vegetables. Otherwise, it's gonna be a much more challenge And I don't and I don't overthink this right? So and I know the audience and people like to be like totally exactly like what to eat But it's like listen if you're staying around and by the way around it doesn't have to be exact I'm not even going exactly 500 calories estimating right. I'm estimating right around 500 I know that anything around 500 is dramatically less than 3000. It's I'm going to get the benefits I'm looking for from that So some days it might I might be making choices where there's you know pork involved It might be steak another day. It might be chicken thighs or chicken breast another day So I'm not uh, I'm not worried about Exactly what meats I'm choosing and I'm not counting calories that point one one day might have been 575 and another day 490 and then another day 600 It doesn't matter like that to me if you got seven days in a row of that low of calories You're going to deplete everything inflammation is going to come down water's going to come off all those things are going to happen Yeah, and to the inflammation point what I like about like focusing like specifically just on the protein and vegetables for myself noticing too with You know some autoimmune type, you know in like yeah I'm just like certain foods don't agree with me like they used to and it really helps to highlight that when you go through a process Like yeah, by the way So our reasons for doing stuff like this can be a little bit different, right? But it's all resetting Kind of behaviors for me, you know I typically do this is when my gut health Is starting to go south and the reason why it's going south is because I let things in my diet That tend to bother my gut and I start to go down that Snow I get that snowball effect and then I'm like oh my gosh my gut is just I got to do something It's really hard for me to do this slowly I need to do kind of a reset and so that's when I start to do something like this And like you said Justin the well cooked vegetables and proteins And the low calories and the fasting it really works well on my gut after about the third to fourth day My gut is feeling almost like there's no problem So you got repaired now the fourth step or strategy that I do is is another hard one to communicate to clients and get them to understand because Imagine you're like this guy who gained 15 pounds over the week or you're somebody who wants to lose body fat or wants to kick start Your fat loss journey or whatever You at that moment a lot of times we're very motivated. We tell me what I need to do coach whatever I'll do whatever And that thought process you apply to weight the way you train And the the way I want to think this week is completely opposite of that Yes, because going into your workouts super hard and super intense Is going in with the mindset of I need to lose weight. Yes going in the mindset of resetting Behaviors means you're going to work out in a very different way not to mention I'm not feeding my but body the building blocks. I need to build a bunch of muscles So why am I going to go in the gym and hammer the weights in hopes that I'm going to build a bunch of muscle It's not going to happen or get on the trip Why would I get on a treadmill and try and burn tons of calories when I'm already super low calorie So if I'm doing any sort of activity or exercise, it's more inward or it's more low low moderate intensity So it looks like mobility It looks like walking if I'm strength training. It's of easy workout practicing. Yeah, exactly I'm practicing the movement. I'm doing things that I've probably neglected and I haven't done in a while Trying to work on the mechanics or addressing imbalances like this is a time for me to kind of I'm resetting a lot of things I'm not trying to make gains. I'm not going to make gains on 500 calories So why would I push my body? I'm and if you do you're only making it more difficult for yourself in the coming weeks You are all you're doing is you're feeding bad behaviors If if you're going into this and you're restricting and hammering yourself in the gym You're actually treating this the wrong way and like we said in the earlier in the episode You are going to come out Much worse go into your workouts with a lower intensity Practice your exercises because again, you're resetting. So why not treat the workouts the same way? Now physiologically speaking like adam said makes perfect sense your calories are so low It doesn't make physiological sense to go in the gym and beat yourself up. You're not going to make gains Doing it that way and in fact if you go crazy with the calorie burn with the low calorie You're going to get a very strong metabolic adaptation in a direction that you don't necessarily want In other words, you're going to slow your metabolism down quite a bit And believe it or not your body can actually adapt quite quickly in just a week instead Go into your workouts or your activity In a way where you're kind of taking care of yourself. You're practicing exercises Since i'm resetting myself with nutrition. Why not reset myself with technique and form right? Why not go into the gym and say okay, normally I'm pushing the weight You know, I'm getting a pump. Why not go into the gym and perfect my form Focus on my mobility work on my flexibility Actually goes great together or anything like that too being you know Like like eliminating a lot of the inflammation from your diet too And then working through that is a great opportunity for you to then like, you know fortify those joints Well, I also know that so for myself why the thought this thought process is I was on the bulk I was adding calories more than I should have I was training intensely loving the gains come on So I need to break that I need to break that cycle in that mindset for the guy who just Put on 15 pounds and for over vacation who probably didn't exercise The the reverse is true for him too This is he doesn't need to do very much to see his body start to make change anyways Because he hasn't been doing anything for exercise wise for a week So why go super intense right now when he's already really low calorie? So the advice is the same even though we have two different situations that we're coming from He put 15 pounds on from a week of drinking and eating bad and no exercise I put it on from overtraining overeating for several weeks or months in a row Both of us same protocol. Yeah, and it's funny because it's it sounds counterintuitive. Oh, I'm going to do this thing Why am I not working out real hard? Well, that's that right there is a clue that tells you that you're not going into this with the right mindset And you shouldn't do something like this again. You're going into your workouts and you're treating them as a way to Modify behavior in a good way. What does that usually mean? It usually means you're going easy perfect form Mobility when I do stuff like this. In fact, I often don't even lift weights at all Now the reason why I don't lift weights is because it's not because there's something wrong with lifting weights But rather I know my own behavior enough. I never miss workouts. I never miss weight training workouts So for me, it's a good time to detach from weights So I actually don't lift weights on purpose when I do something like this And what do I focus on all the shit that I tend to neglect? So I tend to do lots of stretching I tend to do lots of walking and I tend to do more mobility stuff Again mindset is everything when you go into this speaking of which Let's talk more about mindset. How are you? How are you framing this whole thing? Well, I mean One of the ways I'm framing it is I'm thinking about I'm working inward First of all, like I'm thinking of all the things that I haven't been addressing I'm not worried about the strength training the aesthetics. It's not that at all So it's I'm looking for the health benefits that are coming from this And I'm already kind of thinking about When I come out of this the things that I'll need to start to do right away Like how will I reintroduce calories? How will I know how much should I reintroduce? I'm already thinking in that mindset going in or coming out of this seven days below because once you've got Okay, here's my goals 500 calories eat protein all the things that we talked about. Okay, great I'm gonna hit that for a week. Okay now What do I do and how do I not just totally diminish everything that I worked? I just did that seven days for yes, there's a big difference between working out And working in okay, so I'll give you some examples of ways that you could kind of get yourself Working more in so let's use the example of a squat Typically when you do a barbell squat You'll breathe in brace go down to the bottom and then breathe out with the tight core And with good force to give yourself maximal strength And leverage and you know cns activation and that's the way you should squat when you're lifting heavy to build muscle But what if I'm squatting in a way to work inward? Here's a nice tip reverse the breath So what do I mean by that? Breathe in as you go up from the squat now I know that sounds weird, but you're not going heavy anyway And what it does is it forces you to slow down and treat the squat very differently So you're at the bottom of squat breathe in as you come up from the squat breathe out as you And reverse the breath and you'll find that it makes you work more inward rather than outward There's also there's lots of things that we can go on over like through this right So another strategy and will you keep on the squat thing right? This is also and I've talked about this on the podcast before where I like to have a session like this where I will go squat very very light like you're saying and then I will break down my squat I'll either video myself or I'm watching in the mirror and on every little and I'll look at every detail You know is my is my my left foot which is in my case is what will happen My left foot slightly externally rotating when I get at the very bottom of that Do I feel my hips kind of shifting when I do that? Do I struggle to keep one knee more out than the other knee from collapsing in like I start looking at all the Am I able to really retract my shoulders and keep my chest upright when I when I drop down into the squat? I start nitpicking all the parts of my squat and then I take a break I do the set and then I go over and I do a bunch of priming and mobility stuff And then that might be 10 15 minutes long and then I come back to the squat again And I do it again and I see how those things that I just did Did it improve those things that I was looking at and then I do that set and then I go back and do more of it And I pay attention to how that's improved. I find this to be a great opportunity to for self-improvement So because I'm already in that mindset. I start to focus on Spiritual health. I start to focus on maybe not being on electronics as much. I'm going to start reading things That are about making myself a better person because I'm already in that mindset and because I'm again working on those behaviors It just makes sense for me to do all that. How it can be a better partner How it can be a better dad, you know those kinds of things like how it can be more like pay better attention be more present You know things it kind of forces that right you have to be present because like you're You're battling a lot of these feelings of you know hunger and like need to You know consume something And it really is it's a good challenge for you to go through that And for me like physically you guys mentioned a few of those techniques for me I like to then take myself through a lot of like You know these unconventional type movements like you know your Turkish get-ups and your Windmills and things like that for me to then really express different types of movement that my joints could really benefit from Yeah, now here's here's some clues and hints that you've done this the right way Big one is how you feel after you're done If you finish this process at the end of the week and you can't wait To eat a burger or you are just oh my god. I'm so done with all that Just anxiety it caused so much stress. I'm done. Let's go enjoy ourselves. Oh my god It's over that seven week. Excuse me that seven day period or whatever is over You had the wrong mindset and you treated it the wrong way. Here's how you should feel coming out of this You should feel calm Focused and at peace. That's how you know that you did this the right way. You should feel good coming out of it Ready to move with the next phase, which is the long-term approach in a very calm focused way It should not feel stressful. It should not feel obsessive It should not feel like you're ready to go in the opposite direction if that happens again You did this totally the wrong way. Yeah, you know an added benefit too that you'll see that, you know I have psoriasis. I've talked about that. That's an autoimmune. It was it's been the best. It's been In a long time. You gave your gut a break. Yeah, and and boy did it it made a huge difference on that And I mean I use all the tools like I talk about the benefits that I've used from juve And I know when I've got my vitamin d up all those things help it soft water Boy the fast man are going this low calorie for seven days Probably did more than anything else that I've ever seen just by doing that alone So if somebody and it doesn't have to be psoriasis if you have an autoimmune issue Pay attention to it during this seven days. You'll probably see some serious benefits. Yeah Oh one more thing a little tip make sure you drink enough water And you may want to add a little sodium to your water or have some electrolytes because sometimes when your calories are low Your electrolytes get thrown off because you're not eating food. Maybe you're not eating with a lot of sodium You can actually start to get headaches and feel light headed, right? So sodium helps quite a bit I'll I'll drink the you know our element which we get you know from wall wolf's company Now I'll do something like that. That's a good point because I was doing that I didn't mention that and that's like a no calorie thing, right? So I can totally drink that with my water gives me a little bit of flavor in my water makes me feel satisfied For a little bit. I do feel the energy boost from it after I do it Especially when on this lower calorie. So I I like the idea too during this time We didn't touch on this of addressing water and tank because you can't have any calories or anything else It's a really good time to pay attention to like how much water were you drinking before And now this is keeping your mouth busy by drinking all day long and keeping that up a lot of times Some of the benefits you'll feel is just simply from that. It's also increasing water One thing I used to do is I would get uh like sandpilla greener, right the the What is it the fizzy mineral water? So I'd get like a glass bottle of that Then I would add a piece of lime in it and I and then I'd take sea salt And I'd sprinkle it around the rim and sprinkle some inside and just because I wanted the sodium I want a little bit of flavor and then because it's fizzy water or whatever it it's it's more fun to drink fake margarita It basically it's like it's like a corona light light. It's like It's like water that was thinking of being a beer at one point, but it's still it's still water Okay, so now you're done with this process. So you've done the seven day or whatever process How you come out is extremely important. So let's start with that adam How did you come out of just jump back to what you were doing before? No, because before I said I was somewhere between 3,000 and 3,500 calories. I'm more like 2,500 to 2,800 now So I came back lower than you were before. Yeah, because I know that I wasn't at maintenance before So I had to again you have to be aware and and and very um, you know You have to be very honest with yourself on was my maintenance calories that I was at before or was I probably Overeating yeah, was I overeating quite a bit so and by the way and I want to make this clear because this is what has always made You know coaching and and the fact that we there's a massive individual variance on everybody So when I give numbers and say things like this, you know, all that could be changed You could be completely different even if we have the same weight. These are adam's numbers Yeah, these are my numbers and my numbers I I say these numbers like 25 to 2,800 because I give myself room to kind of play with that and pay attention to What I notice over the next couple of days So 2,500 to 2,800 is about where I'm I'm at now, right? So that's kind of where I'm watching and so what I'm watching is is my weight. How quick Do I start to put the weight on now? I know right away when you go from eating 500 calories a day I increase up to 25 to 28 right away I'm going to see a little bit of initial weight gain a pound or two real quick water Yes, right away. You increase you increase sodium you increase your carbs carbohydrate intake carbs pair with water That I'm going to hold more water. Plus I have more calories. It's not fat I didn't all of a sudden get fat. So don't let that scare you and go. Oh shit. I got to go back down low calorie again It's okay. It's totally normal. It's part of the process From there after I got those first couple pounds that is that now I'm really trying to see them Can I hover around that weight? Am I going down? Am I staying the same and I kind of want to hover I don't want to go up or down. I want to stay right around in that range I'm not trying to aggressively cut right now All I'm trying trying to do is reset and I want to be in a place That's probably a healthier place of calories for myself. So that's the goals 25 28 So you basically you need to give yourself a target when you're done Don't leave it loose because you might swing really hard in the opposite direction So give yourself a target kind of stick to that target pay attention to how you feel right? You're going to gain some water weight. That's totally normal. My body, you know, everybody's different by the way My body can fluctuate in water like you have no it's insane I mean I could go seven eight pounds and water within a few days So I know when I come out of it. Oh my weight went up, you know, four pounds on the scale It's water. You didn't gain gain or lose body fat. That's right. I also like to either one Start a strength phase. Yeah, I was going to say that right now Or if I was a strength athlete or somebody who trains a lot in the strength phase most of the time Or I was just currently before this I like to switch whatever type of you know phase I was in so For me, uh, I typically lean more towards the bodybuilder hypertrophy 12 15 rep type of stuff Um, I I always tend to gravitate back to there. And so I'm I do that more often So this is great. So I come out of this and now I'm going to go to heavy lifting kind of strength focus more maps anabolic ish Right, so that's what I'll go to right now If you're somebody I would say that's like probably sal or justin who lean towards strength, you know I would recommend going to something different like hypertrophy type training the the idea is that I'm sending a new signal that my body is less used to So any additional calories say I'm off on my 2500 or 2100 Maybe I'm actually eating three to 500 more calories and I probably even really need that's okay Because guess what I'm sending a new signal to my body that it's not used to by training differently than what I'm used to And so the theory is that I'm hoping that those additional calories If I am eating additional calories get partitioned over to building muscle right now Here's why I like the strength phase for a lot of people is because training for strength You could also do this with mobility by the way Takes your focus off of the mirror and off of how you look and it's more focused on performance in the gym Now why is this a good thing for some people even if you go on the right mindset You still may be challenged by the fact that you lost a lot of weight And you don't want to gain it back and if you get too focused on the mirror You may find yourself swinging too Up and down maybe you're restricting even longer now because you like the fact that you look leaner because you lost All this water when you're focusing on performance, whether it's strength or mobility It's it's more it's measurable. It's objective. It's not the mirror. So you don't have those insecurities creeping in Um, and so I like that for a lot of people But like you said adam if that's what you're always in it makes more sense Change the stimuli. Let's get the body to want to build muscle When you're when you're coming out of that Yeah, and then you're just and then you're watching the scale or watching the scale and I'm using the mirror Like and I'm using and I'm not I'm not married to either one of those things Okay, I'm not watching the scale because I'm freaking out if it goes up or down a pound I'm just using it as a tool to kind of monitor that. I'm not seeing huge fluctuations I don't care if I see one or two pounds north or south What I care about is if I saw a pound go down the next day of down down down Then that tells me I need more calories. I'm not eating enough. I need to get it up there I'm not trying to go down that fast at all And the the opposite is true if I see I'm put every time I get on the scale. Oh, I'm up another round Oh, I'm another pound. It's like, okay. That I'm adding too many calories I need to come down from where I was calorie wise So I'm using the and then of course I'm being objective by using the mirror too and saying, okay I noticed that I looks like I'm building muscle. I'm not putting body fat on That's how you use these things as a tool and not something that you Allow to really shift like the direction that you're going as far as your training It's not something that I'm married to very good Look, if you like this episode and you want more great information Fitness related information from mind pump go to mind pump free calm and check out all of our free guides We had a lot on there and you can get all of them and they cost you nothing You can also find all of us on instagram. You can find Justin at mind pump Justin Me at mind pump sal and adam at mind pump adam Here's what we need to worry about. Okay, if you're going to drink Have your meals planned out for yourself because that's where people really screw up the most You can add up all the calories from the drinks It usually doesn't even come close to the calories that they have from the food That comes along with the drinks and that was a game changer for me and well, especially when you and I remember when I pieced this together