 Cravings, one of the most challenging things to deal with when you're trying to get leaner. Everybody hates cravings. Well, here's something you can do to help alleviate them or at least blunt them. This is proven by study. It sounds weird, but it's true. Take a high quality probiotic. No joke, the microbes in your gut actually drive some of your cravings and healthy probiotics tend to reduce cravings for things like sugar and fast food and chemicals that produce those kind of short-term highs. So probiotics is one of your tools in the fight against cravings. Get some better bacteria. I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. Have you, I mean, you're the most consistent with taking seed. Is that something that you notice is like a side effect? You know, I'm so disciplined, it doesn't even matter. I didn't even notice cravings, I'm just kidding. You know what I noticed with that? Have you ever noticed that? That's not like something that I've ever paid attention to. Although I've just been completely transparent. I've never been very consistent with taking my probiotic over. That it curbs your cravings? Yeah, that's enough to motivate me, though, to test that to see, because I do have sugar cravings and that's something that I've always had to work on. Yeah, it's interesting. I don't know if I paid attention to that, but I'm sure it plays a factor in there. Probiotics, we do lead to that. The studies on them are weird because 20 years ago, you would have never guessed that they would be connected to all these different things. There's studies that show that probiotic administration reduces anxiety, depression, that it helps with fat loss, it helps with muscle growth, cognitive performance, sleep, skin, moods and behaviors, including cravings. This is why it's called the second brain, right? Yeah, you know why they call it that? Well, you guys know that, why they call it that. So what's interesting is obviously the brain has the most serotonin receptors in the body. So receptors where serotonin attaches to. The second highest concentration of serotonin receptors is in the gut. The gut actually produces a majority of serotonin. The heart is the third. How weird is that? I know, this is what the old wisdom, right? That's what trips me out. What trips me out is nobody knew this thousands of years ago, but yet they referred to knowing things in the mind, in the heart. Right, I feel it in my gut. My heart tells me to. Yeah, my heart's leading me there, yeah. It's so crazy how we totally ignore intuition now, even though there's some truth there. But anyway, yeah, probiotics can definitely help influence you in the positive. At the very least, if your gut health is not so great, you're just not going to feel as good. And this has been proven in studies many, many times that we tend to reach for foods that produce the kind of that short term, I don't know, good feeling. So these are usually foods that are hyper palatable. Because it's not a long term feeling you get from eating super healthy. Excuse me, short term feeling from eating super healthy, it's more of a long term. The short term comes from like eating hyper palatable. While you're eating candy, you feel good in the moment. And when you feel kind of crappy, those are the foods you tend to go towards. And so probiotics for sure improve gut health. Now seed, obviously the company we work with, by far the best one I've ever used. Hands down, not even close. All the feedback is the same, I always get that. Not even close. There isn't one that I've ever used. Even with the good probiotics I used in the past, after a while I'd have to switch out or go off or do something different. Seed has been consistent every single night. We'll get ready to be talking about them more. They're up for renewal and I think they want to pick up their cadence because of how much great feedback they've gotten from our audience. Really? Yeah, yeah. Awesome. I know that we're one of their best partners and I know they're coming up for resigning. I know if Katrina told me that, they want to pick up the cadence and they're already, I think, a two time a month sponsor already. Wow. Did you know probiotics also help prevent UTIs and stuff like that for when? Do you guys know that? Yeah. Natural way to help prevent, because of microbiome, obviously there's a microbiome. It's out of balances when that really occurs, right? Correct. And good bacteria, think of them as soldiers that prevent bad bacteria from taking over or help promoting balance. So when you get an infection like that, it's the imbalance of bad to good bacteria. I keep tripping out on how much, well, obviously bacteria, you can kind of see how much it affects your behaviors and the way that you think and operate and also the inflammation, the excess inflammation factor in the brain. Yes. And so it's like between those two factors alone, I mean, obviously we talk all about the exterior things like exercise and like sleep and all, but what's going on inside your body in terms of like addressing those two things would be huge. They now have connections to the gut microbiome and multiple sclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, autism. There's a distinct connection. They don't know exactly what's going on or how they could use that. But it's way more than we think. It's crazy when we were kids, they weren't really aware of this so much. They used to prescribe antibiotics to us like it was candy. I remember I'd go in there. It hasn't even been that long actually since they've like got away from that. Dude. Yeah, now that the pediatrician now is a little bit more like, let's wait this out and see what happens. I remember when I was a kid, I just had to walk in. Here you go, take this and you're done. You get the sniffles, here you go. I used to take antibiotics all the time. Today's program giveaway is MAPS PowerLift. Here's how you can win it. Leave a comment below this video in the first 24 hours that we drop it here. Subscribe to this channel and turn on notifications. If you win, we'll let you know in the comments section. We're also running a sale on some workout programs. Our beginner strength training program, MAPS Starter is 50% off. And then we have a bundle that includes MAPS Centabolic and MAPS Prime. That's called the starter bundle. That's also 50% off. If you're interested, just click on the link at the top of the description below. All right, back to the show. You guys said something that made me think about, do you think we have traded the wisdom of behavior and psychology for science? Totally. Like, do you think we were actually smarter of hundreds of years ago around psychology and behavior? And we've traded that out because we're so much smarter in science. We traded information and knowledge and wisdom. We've traded the two. So we had a lot more wisdom in the past and more trust in our own intuition. Yeah. Today we have more knowledge of things. I think the combination of the two is always where you're going to find the best. Yeah, no, I agree. I think that we all agree on that, that I think that instead of like, you know, it's not an either or, it's like comparing the deadlift in the squad or like certain exercises, it's like, why would you limit to just one? But to your point, like, I think we did throw the baby out of the bathwater, right? So we did sort of like abandon a lot of our intuition and, yeah, listening to some of that old wisdom of like, you know, to really be in tune with those signals of your body. Yeah. And it's, you know, again, we're so arrogant, right? We look at our technology now. All we've did, by the way, all we did to bring us where we are today is we discovered a tool and humans are, I mean, this is what we're known for. This is what really separates us, right? From animals is we're exceptional tool makers, like exceptional. Okay. And we figured out a tool essentially, which is science, the scientific method, which is extremely valuable. It's allowed us to invent and innovate at rates that are just incredible. Obviously, the way we live today versus just 200 years ago, like profound differences. But so that makes us look back in time and think that people who existed, you know, 500 years ago, 1,000 years ago, 2,000, 5,000 years ago were just stupid. But the truth is they didn't have the same knowledge and understanding necessarily of, let's say, the material world or how things worked from that, from the scientific standpoint. But they observed things and commented and recorded on them for thousands of years. Thousands and thousands of years talking about human nature, human behavior. This is why, for example, the seven deadly sins are just as relevant today as they were 2,000 years ago, even though the world's vastly different. I think we discredit a lot of, you know, the ability that a lot of the ancients and all that had to master their crafts in certain directions because they were so focused, hyper-focused, and they could get like masses of people all on board on the same exact focus to accomplish, you know, a goal together versus now we're just so fragmented and we think we're, we know everything. So along the lines of the seven deadly sins, it kind of falls in the spiritual wisdom realm. And I was going through our questions on our main IG and one of the most popular or most liked questions that we didn't answer, we probably wouldn't answer. Typically, we look for the most popular health and fitness questions that are asked, that's how we determine like what we're going to answer for the quas. But somebody asked a personal question and I thought, you know, OK, this is not maybe a quaw type of question, but curious. And I'm curious myself. For somebody who was such a staunch atheist for so long, how, how did you move from that to to believing in something that you believe so strongly to not be true? That's a question asked and a lot of people wanted to hear how you responded. Oh, wow, really? So that was popular question. Well, OK, so I think if you're. Because I was a I was a legit atheist. And what I mean by that is I thought about it like a well read one. Like I thought about it, right? Because a lot of people you've said something before. So that's how to cut you off. But I was actually like never really dawned on me that the truth behind this is that a lot of atheists are more well read around spirituality and religion sometimes because they're trying to dismantle. Yes, because they are they're searching for all the holes. And so there's a lot of times they know more than the person who's trying to defend it. Listen, I'll make this argument that like true atheism, meaning that the curiosity to study and learn and, you know, discover the nature of the world and break things down like you're really interested because there's people who just don't think about it. That's different. People don't think about it. That person is, you know, they're just kind of, I guess, floating in whatever. Right. They're just they're not really anywhere. I feel like you fall more agnostic when you're like that. Yeah. Wouldn't you say that? Yeah, I think like a true atheist to your point is like you're in search to prove it wrong. Yeah, you're searching is what it is. I think an atheist is closer to becoming a believer than the typical person doesn't think about anything because that's my experience. So I was searching. I was constantly trying to search and learn because just because, you know, I, okay, fine, I'm an atheist. I don't think God exists. Well, I still am curious on the nature of things and what's going on. So I was always searching. I was always looking, meaning, and that also kind of made me open. So that's, that's, that was the starting point. I moved away from that when the more that I searched, the more mysterious things seem to be. And then I remember I had a conversation by that. Are you talking about like things like quantum physics or kind of, or like as the deeper you went, you realized like, oh, we actually don't have a definitive answer for this or kind of. I had a conversation with a friend of mine and he said, well, don't you feel like you're cause I said something like, oh, religious people are so arrogant. And so what do you mean? So, well, you know, they're sitting there telling me they know that God exists and that he's real. I said, well, aren't you kind of the same thing? I said, what do you mean? He said, you're telling me you know for sure that God doesn't exist. I'm like, well, the burden of proof is on the person claiming. He goes, okay, but still, don't you feel like you might be a little nice? And I remember I thought about that a lot. I was like, oh, shit, like, I don't know everything. And I guess I am, that doesn't mean I think there is a God, but I guess I am being a little arrogant. So it kind of moved me away from like this definitive, like for sure there's nothing to like, well, I don't know. Yeah. Type of deal. And then the next thing that kind of opened my, I guess my mind to a little bit was the wisdom that was in spiritual practices. And the first thing that had so the first thing that had me peer into that was I this is when I was I learned about fasting and its potential behavioral benefits. Because back then for the listeners, I mean, you know, we've all been in fitness for two and a half decades. Fasting or going without food for more than two or three hours. So a bit no, no in our in our space years ago. It's like, oh, you can't do that. You're going to lose muscle, whatever. It was all bullshit, but this is what we thought. And I remember looking into fasting and its potential behavioral benefits, trying it and realizing those benefits for someone like me who was so tied to food every two or three hours. And then I read about fasting. I'm like, oh, my God, this is a practice that's been done. And like pretty much every spiritual practice. And the reason why they practice it is for the behavioral benefits that I noticed, I'm like, I wonder what else is in the spiritual practice. I mean, they lasted for thousands of years. They passed the evolution of ideas, meaning, you know, an idea has to if it lasts for thousands of years, it's because it stands a test of time. Otherwise, it ain't going to last. Eventually it's going to not going to work. So I said, I wonder what other wisdoms are in there. And so then I kind of opened my mind a little bit to just the wisdom aspect of it. Like, okay, these exist for thousands of years. There's got to be some, some spiritual truth or some wisdom. So I kind of opened up a little more. Then we met Bishop Barron and his team. And I felt, and this is just the best I could describe. I just felt moved and kind of connected. And I remember I call, I, I contacted Arthur Brooks at the time. And I said, this is kind of weird, but I'm having a tough time making the leap. And he goes, well, that's where the faith comes in. At some point you have to like, you have to decide. Like, whether you have faith or not. Yeah. And I said, I feel really pulled to it. And he goes, well, once, once he's after, he's after you. And like all kinds of weird stuff that kept happening. And I mean, I just, I took the leap and then from there, more things opened up. And I felt a different sense of calm. And that leap, that leap is always a leap. You know, there's always going to be a leap. And I recommend to atheists, if, or, or whatever, if you're curious, C.S. Lewis has near Christianity, Christianity is a phenomenal book. He's very analytical and he speaks to the intellect. So if that's the kind of thinker you are, it's a, it'll, at the very least it'll get you thinking. Yeah. It's a really, really good read. So. Yeah, no, I mean, that's, it's interesting. I always like love hearing how people kind of try to make sense and figure out like the bigger questions and seek that out, you know, because I came from like the opposite experience of that, which was more like, I never lost my faith, but at the same time was like, getting tested all the time by atheists. And then like, I was trying to like see if I could arm myself with better material and like ask deeper questions and philosophical questions. And I was just wasn't getting that from my preachers and from, you know, church in itself. And so I had to go a little bit further and get a little more academic with some of that material stuff and came across science of God, which was a, you know, a pretty decent book in terms of like trying to come up with some answers to some of these hard questions in terms of like, if, if you were to put some kind of science behind like a universal clock, like they, they, they made some, some bits of references of how to explain it wasn't perfect and like, I'm, but it's still like, gets you in that thought process of like, we don't really know everything scientifically. We have some good thoughts, but, you know, there's just so much there that is, it's pretty much impossible. You do have to take a leap. Yeah. And I think it's a huge, just service to us as humans to deduce everything down to scientific explanations and chemicals. Like you'll find people who are maybe non-believers or whatever, and then they'll have an experience, like a near death experience or their child is born or they fall in love. And all of a sudden they open up to possibility that there may be a God. And then you got people on the other end are like, oh, that's just serotonin and dopamine and chemicals. And like, I think that that is really, really, it's doing us a disservice to boil everything down to like, oh, it's chemicals. It's a trick. It's an illusion type of deal. I mean, I don't know, you know, you might think I'm wrong, but believing that, you know, loving your child is a bunch of just chemical tricks in your brain. Doesn't that kind of like, I mean, aren't you taking the experience and really, you know, kind of bringing it down to something that it's not? I mean, how can you say that, right? When you experience that, like, does that really explain it? I don't think so. So, I don't know. So it's interesting, but I do love, I do love the discussions. And in my opinion, atheists are open for discussion. They want to talk about this kind of stuff. People also love those series with Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, and then they would really just try to like hash it out. I'm like, I just wish more people would, obviously we're so busy and consumed with our day to day, you know, survival and bills and all these kinds of things. It's like, you know, philosophy is a lost thing. Like we used to sit and just ponder and ask bigger questions. It's always fun for me if people actually like take time to do that. Yeah. And look at the world, man. We got more shit than ever. We've got more food and shelter and whatever. And people are like, they're more anxious and not happy. I mean, there's, there's other answers out there. I don't think it's more stuff. I don't think it's like buying more shit or more drugs. You know, we've kind of hit that, that tipping point. I think we've got all the stuff and we got all the knowledge. We're really close, man. We really are. Yeah. I mean, I think in our lifetime, we'll see everybody will be able to pretty much have what they want. You know, they're going to be hooked up with materialistic things. Right. Yeah. Whether that's in a virtual world that feels real or actually be able to 3D print it. I don't know exactly what that will look like, but I don't think we're far off from getting everything you could imagine. I mean, I bet you if you would ask somebody 300 years ago, the, to look at somebody's life, who's poor, right? Or like in, you know, lower middle class, all the things they had, is that more than they could either, could even have fathomed back then, you know, of things like they have all the things and some. So yeah, I don't think we're far from that. I remember my dad, my dad would have these conversations with me a lot because he, he was poor in Sicily, really poor, right? I never asked you where, where does your family fall on that? Like your parents? Are they? Catholic. So are they? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. We, we were like, but you guys didn't have, no, we were holiday church goers, like Eastern Christmas. Right, right. We didn't go every Sunday. I would say if you ask them, they'll say that they, you know, that they're religious and they believe and they pray, but it wasn't like a big thing in my household growing up. Wasn't talked about or practiced or no, maybe more so, definitely more so my mom, my grandma, very devout, very like she'll do the rosary. Yeah. You know, if like you're having a baby, she'll do the rosary while you're in labor. And, you know, if you're trying to get a job or something, she does that stuff. So it's, it's kind of cool. But I remember my dad telling me, you know, cause you grew up very poor. Um, and when I say poor by, you know, different standards and we consider poor, like people now are like, oh, you don't have, you know, a car, like, you know, he didn't have like a bathroom. Like they were really poor when he was real young. And, um, he, he told me, he goes, you know, it's weird. He goes, I was happy though. I'm like, what do you mean? He goes, well, we were all together and I was with my family and, um, I don't remember people being too depressed or anxious. And he goes, and then here we got all these big houses and I got this house and, you know, I come home from work and you guys say hi to me and then you go in your rooms. I don't see you guys anymore. He goes, well, I was a kid, we didn't have rooms. We all just did a kid all the time on top of each other, but we were happy. And he used to explain this to me, like you guys have all this stuff. And he goes, I didn't have anything. He told me the toys he played with when he was a kid. I thought he was bullshitting me. You know, he's like, I got, he goes, I got a tire from the, from the garbage, from the dump once. And then that was my toy for like years. You know, I thought he was making it up. He's like, but it was so fun. He said, you got all these video games. You guys are bored all the time. So I mean, it's, uh, I don't know. It's interesting stuff. So along those lines of, you know, uh, kind of along those lines, I think, uh, I'm going to be, I know Justin, you had signed up to get a vasectomy at some point. Whoa. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to go, I got to go, I got to go sign up. I'm just, yeah. Cause you know, having kids. Okay. So the first step is making the appointment. Right. Yeah. Uh, the second step is confirming the appointment. The third step is actually showing up, which I didn't do. So I'm a little reluctant to tell you guys this. I might not have told you guys this or not, but, um, I remember reading this, this was years ago. Maybe it was the first time I ever heard Sal say he was going to do this, that made me think of this. Um, there's like a popular time to do that, that men do this. And it's during, uh, the March Madness week. Really? Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, it's like, cause you're going to watch TV anyway. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, you're going to be late. You're going to be laid up for several days. Anyways. Get the ball of doughnut. Yeah. And so you and your boys go get your vasectomies together and then you watch March Madness. So if I were to do it, that's how I would do it. Well, you definitely need a buddy. Yeah. You need somebody to do, like be in the trenches with the, uh, you know, cause for that point, like you want to hang out cause you're just going to be the old, your wife's not going to care about your ball problems. Are you, are you, what prevent you from going? Is it just like the, oh shit, they're going to cut open my, you know, unfortunately I started to ask questions to some of my friends who had the procedure done and then they're all like kind of positive about it. But then they would mention their brother who had it, who, uh, still got his wife pregnant. And then, uh, uh, uh, somebody else they knew that actually like had to reverse it and like all these, I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And what's the statistics on that? And then that sort of got me a little bit like, I'm going to look a little further into this. Cause I'm like, you're going to go through all that. You want to, to happen what you came in there to do. Yeah. Like it's just like, but there's a potential that it's not going to work out. Yeah. It's also like, what if the world needs you? Like, yeah, what if you're like Elon Musk and you have to like, it's for Mars, you guys, you know what I'm saying? I just, uh, I don't know. I feel like it's such a vulnerable people. I think I was such a, you such a pussy, but, uh, I don't know. I mean, you're sitting there and you got a, it's such an irrational thought. Like, I think I'm going to lose my manhood a little bit. You know, I obviously have talked about it. Right. When we decided that, like we for sure don't want to have any more. And it's like done. And she's like, Oh yeah, you'll just go do that. I'm like, uh, no. So I respond, uh, no, she's like, why? It's not a big deal. It's like, okay, for you maybe. It's like, it reminds me the same thing when they told me to go do the whole jerking off in the bathroom. Like everyone just down plays. Like it's no big deal to get your sperm check to me. That is, that is such a weird thing. It's so funny how other people just, are you almost done in there? It's still, it's no big deal. I know. Like, how do you do? So I gotta, that's the thing. Like, how do you do that when everybody knows that's what you're doing? But when you go in the bathroom, you got nurses, your wife, doctors, you know, it turned into like a big old thing right between Katrina and the doctors. They were all talking about my, like she's like, Hey, my husband just doesn't really want to come in here and do this. And she's like, is there something wrong with the room? We just remodeled it and did this and said, it's not the fucking room. Yeah. It's like, no, I don't, I don't need any more magazines and like videos. Round up the entire staff and have them applause when I come out of the door and then I do it. It just highlights so that like people think that we're like men are just like these jerk off machines. She's like, we're running around jerking off on everything all the time. Yeah. Immediately just have sex with everything, jerk off on everything. So why is it a big deal? We throw you some nudie magazines and give you a dark room. You should be fine. Right? It's like, Jesus, I mean, buy me some dinner. Maybe when I was 17, you know what I'm saying? Maybe when I like, like the wind blew when I got excited, you know what I'm saying? But it's a little different now. I don't know. I feel like I'd have to make a deal and be like, can I sneak in so nobody knows and I'll let you guys know when I'm done. Oh, I told you what we ended up, we ended up doing the second time was I did home and then drove it. You have to be within 30 minutes. So that's the, that's part of why they want you to come in and do that. I'm like, whatever, I'll drive then. Like, and even that was awkward. The fact that I'm on the clock, you know, it's like, you know, go get the plastic. Like we're about to fool around, right? It's like, go get the plastic thing. It's like, okay, we got, we live 15 minutes from the hospital. So it's like, dude, even that was like, at least it was with my wife at my house. So it was a little bit better, but it still is just not. It's, I don't know. You have to do it yourself or is your wife allowed to do it for you? No, you have to do it yourself. You have to do it yourself. You can't use any lotions or anything like that too. Like you can't, you know, you don't want to get. Yeah, I mean, why not include somebody? They can't, like she can't do anything orally to you can't do anything like that. So there's like rules and there's like, I got to do it. And so it's like, I don't know. It was lame. I was, I was so clinical. I always think of like a, like a skit where like you're walking in, you know, and you drop it. Oh, yeah. I just, just kill me. Have you guys seen, have you guys ever seen any of these rooms? You guys have never, no one here has experienced any of this. Yeah, no, I just envision almost like one of those like weird, like, you know how in New York they used to have these like, like, like, brothels where like, oh, you pay like money and then all of a sudden it opened up and because somebody's like stripping for you. Oh yeah, those are real. It's like a little cube. I remember on a Madonna video, what's it called? There's like an old 80s video when she's in that. Okay. In other countries, in other countries, they still have things like that. Don't they? I don't know. So it's, it's even more awkward than that because there's like a whole process and procedure, right? You walk, just like the doctors off, you walk up to the normal thing, you fill out, you sign up and then. I'm here to jerk off. Yeah, it's literally what it is. It's like, yeah, I'm here to do that. You look in the eyes. And you know, everybody knows, everybody there now knows what you're doing. You know what I'm saying? Hand you the little cup and stuff and then they tell you, and then when you go in there, it's not done. Like she comes in and then it's like, you have to hear, they have like a red tape on the floor. You stand behind this line and when you're, when you're done, you, you fill out these things. You push this button. Make sure you wash your hands here. You clean up here. You do like, there's like all this stuff. It's not just like thousands of guys before you've done this. Yes. I am not in the mood. Like I didn't want to hear that. Yeah, I am not in the mood to know, man. It was like, wow, sure. Awful. And then, you know, and I thought maybe you feel ashamed when you left, you know, I feel like, you guys all know what happened. I feel like, like I under perform. That's what I feel like, because I'm there to give a bunch of sperm, right? That's what I'm there for. And so I feel like, I feel like I feel like I, I feel like I hand them the cup. And I'm like, listen, I could, I could do a lot better than that if I didn't, if I didn't have to. That's what I feel like. Yeah. It was like, really put me on the spot here. You look at it and you're like, that's it. You know what I'm saying? Like, way, way better at home, dude. Way better at home. How do you get to the nurse? Yeah. I had the nurse and she was just like, you know, hey, you know, it was tough. I missed it. Listen, yeah, it's all about, it's all about the, the ponesuit, okay? Yeah. It's like, it's like those, it's like a tide pod. It's like, way less fluid, but it's way, it cleans the whole. Oh, man. Anyway, sorry. But I mean, I'm sorry. We took a left on that conversation, but it reminded that people just expect that men, it's no big deal. Is the room like, is it like a couch? Is it nice at all? It's about, it's about half this size. No, they have like a, they have a leather lazy boy chair in there, you know, and it has like a, like a dog pee thing on there that you can sit so you can put your naked ass cheeks on it and stuff like that. And there's a TV in front and it's got mood lighting in it. And like, I mean, the room is not, not nice, but it's like Justin said, it's like, you 100% know the last person in here was jerking off and he was sitting on that thing too. Like it's just, I don't know, it kills it for me. Oh, God. I don't know. Yeah, it kills. I didn't even think about that, but putting myself in that mental space, yeah, that wouldn't work out so well. I mean, and everybody thinks I'm like, I'm weird. And I think the same thing, because this is how I feel about the vasectomy thing when people, when people say that I'm like, no, I don't really, and I have to explain myself. Where do they cut exactly? It's no, it's no big deal. It's under the, it's in the bonch area, right? Is that where they cut you? Like under the, I think so, right? It's not at the top, like. Or is it at the top? I think it's, I don't know, Doug, look it up. But don't pull up pictures, please. Yeah, because I'm already, exactly, see, then this is going to delay your appointment. Well, you know, and Jessica, she's now encouraging it. You got it, Andrew. Where's it at? Yeah, I mean, you said you don't want to see a picture? No, just tell me where. Yeah, describe it. There's a tube that comes from the testicles up through, you know, to the penis. So they cut under the bolt. Call the duct as fast difference and that gets snipped. Did you, did you do this, Andrew? Are you still planning on having more kids? I'm not doing it. Huh? I'm not planning on having more kids, but I'm also not planning on cutting it. Oh, okay. Yeah, so you're like us, then. See, now I, right now I have Jessica now encouraging me and I know she's got that, you know, at some point she'll like, listen, you either do that or now I'm like, fuck, let me do now. I guess. Yeah. So I got to contact the doc and let him know. Well, if you actually go through that I'll be there by your side, dude. You hold my hand the whole time? Yeah, I should hold. If you can hold out for a little bit longer. We'll be snip brothers, dude. We'll be snip brothers. We'll get a two for one. Yeah. You guys ever discounted? I'll bring my friend. You'll get a deal. That's hilarious. I had to post the picture. Just to really encourage you. Thank you, Doug. I'm encouraging you to do this. It's a drawing. That's fine. That's no big deal. She's the tube, you guys. You know, flaccid penis drawings are always so sad. Anyway. I could have tried to find direct ones. No, no, we don't need that. You know what else is? He's already got the tab open. Just click on your other tab, Doug. It will pull it right up. You know what else is sad is those board apes that everybody bought about that. Bro, did you see the price drop? Remind us all about the controversy with those in the beginning, because I'm like. Well, so I don't even know what happened with that, right? I mean, remember, we went down the rabbit hole video that basically it's a huge, like huge, like racist prank. You know what I'm saying? Oh, there was that. Yeah. But it was a whole NFT thing and blah, blah, blah on celebrities bought it. Well, like, for example, there's one that Justin Bieber owned. I think it was worth almost $2 million. Right now it'll sell for 50 grand. $50,000. That's so much. That's, by the way, what they think. I bet if you tried to sell it, it'd be for less. Yeah, who's going to buy it? Like that'd be interesting to see. How crazy is how inflated we can make the price of something just through hysteria? Yeah. You know, do you remember all the NFT talk? It's like no talk about it at all anymore. None. I haven't heard. I haven't seen it. Oh, here it is right there. Like 88% from its peak. Wow, dude. Well, I mean. Shame on you. Shame on you. You're all not like. In the first place though, you know what I'm saying? Shame on you. Like to think that something like that was going to be that amazing and worth that much money. You're selling an idea and a vision of an imaginary thing. So it's like, it's not even tangible. That's a really tough sell. Again, it just highlights too how much, God, I'm a sheep we are, bro. The hype train was like, so everybody was so hyped up. And you know what feeds that is that there's people that we're getting in and making money. Because if you catch it on the way up with the hype. Yeah, yeah. So if you're one of the early adopters and you bought NFTs early and then you turned right around and sold it six months later, so you do that and then you tell everybody how much money you made and you hype it up to them and then they're still early enough that they go do it and it's just like it compounds and then sooner or later, it's going to bust. You know, this is just. Digital snake oil. It just goes, hey, it just goes to show you. Historically, by the way. Historically, there have been many markets that have done this and crashed. So this is nothing new. I think the challenge is we always think it's different this time. Oh, no, no. This is, what do you mean? This is, these are electronic. This is totally different. No, it follows the same. I've brought this up before. I think it was the tulip. I want to say the tulip inflation where at one point they were so valued that the price of skyrocket and then it crashed once people were like, wait, why would we win? This is tulips. Yeah, this is stupid. Why are we spending so much money? I do see that, you know, Bitcoin is still hanging on though. Like it's big. Bitcoin has some utility though, right? But anyway, it's not nearest. Well, I still stand by what I said originally, right? I mean, I think that the most utility is the black market. I mean, that's where it's, and there's, and guess what? The black market is big enough, is big enough to prop that sucker up to where it's at right now. Like, and maybe we do move to these coins at one point, but the idea that the government's not going to get their hands in the universal currency that we're all going to use. No, they'll have their own version. Come on. Come on. No, they have the guns. Therefore, they'll make the rules. They've already talked about it. I think the Fed already said that they have a digital currency that they're going to use. So what does that do to Bitcoin when that happens? I mean, that's just going to plummet it because then it's going to be purely just for black market use, right? Unless, you guys heard the theory that it was the intelligence agencies that created Bitcoin in the first place to over time be able to track what's happening kind of behind the scenes. So much for each other. Did you know that part of Elon's strategy of Twitter, what that is, like eventually making it like an all-in-one social platform where you can exchange currency and everything on it? Like that's the future of that like in the next year or two. I heard him say on the interview with Zuby that that was like the deciding factor for Twitter was that he had already planned to build this platform that blends like the Venmo social aspect all together. Like China has one, right? I don't know. I forget what China's platform. Do you know what it is, Doug? The one that actually you can basically- WeChat. What? Pretty sure it's called WeChat. WeChat. Oh, WeChat. Yeah, so he already had that vision to build that anyways and acquiring Twitter would accelerate that by like three to four years. And so that's kind of how he looked at that. Like I know a lot of people are like, oh, you know, he's gonna try and bring it back and it's gonna be this. And now everybody's talking about how Threads is competing with Twitter. And it's like, I don't think any of that matters to him. I think it's like, it's already got a built-in audience. And all he had to do was come in and make it to where it's not losing money which was- Yeah, the other, I mean, again, I've heard people speculate on his motivations behind it. Well, another one was all of the data from everybody's tweets and like the way they think and all that and the human element there that you could use that data to then use for his neural link or the open AI. And so that would help to kind of feed to that. I mean, I would not bet against him. He's the most successful entrepreneur of all time, period. I mean, nobody comes close. He's built how many billion dollar companies? Four? More than that, I think. Five? Crazy. Just doing one alone puts you in history, right? And he's done more than anybody else and innovated him. Yeah. The guy- He's all been gangbusters. Yeah, so I would not vote against him in the decisions he makes. A lot of times it sounds crazy. Remember when Tesla sounded crazy? Yeah. Yeah, he's gonna make a new car in one of the hardest markets and not go through dealership. He completely created a new market. And make it electric and have to innovate and create all these platforms just so that it could work. So I wouldn't bet. Speaking of Elon, did you see, you were the one that showed Zuck training? Oh, yeah, yeah. With what's his name? Audisana and I forget who else he's training with right now. He's fair. You know, the interesting part about what I thought was funny about that clip was we literally just got off air doing our live callers. And you were sharing with someone who's doing jiu-jitsu up here about, because he's near the coast, right? He's in Santa Cruz, about surfing and being told that surfing is a great sport or skill to do that has carry over into jiu-jitsu. And you were asking if there's any truth to that. Literally, I opened up my Instagram five minutes after that and a video of Zuck with Audisana and a couple of the other MMA guys and he's wake surfing. Yeah. I thought, oh, it's kind of funny, but dude, Zuck looks good. He looks fit. Bro, he looks fit. He looks athletic. Like, he looks good right now. I mean, and he's a lot smaller than Elon. So if that fight really goes down, Elon better hope that he's not just counting on being 30 pounds heavier to win this fight because Zuck looks like he's actually trained. He does. The thing about Zuck is he looks like a dork, you know? But if you watch him move and do this stuff, you realize he's fit. Yeah, and don't be fooled for that in that being like the chip that he'll probably have on his shoulder or motivated, right? Totally. Is that he's known as the like this that he does. So underneath, I love the internet is the best sometimes. Like that video of him surfing, like one of the number one comments that's underneath it says, this reminds me of when they showed the robots could jump, you know? Ever when, what was that big robot company that the- Boston Dynamics. Yeah, Boston Dynamics showed all the jumping robots. Everybody lost their mind. You're like, oh my God, look at the robots could jump now. Dude, that can do crazy stuff now though, man. That's like it's such a good- My favorite video of Zuckerberg, by the way, I empathize with him. I'm making fun of him, but if I were sitting in there, I'd probably be him drinking the water. Way more awkward. He was in Congress. He's a kid. Everybody forgets how young the dude is. Yeah. Two-handed like- They're grilling him. He's like sweating, you know? Yes. He's like- He's so nervous. He's like forgot how to drink water. Oh yeah, this is what I must do to drink. And I'm like, and people made fun of him like, imagine if you were sitting there and Congress was grilling you at his age. I know, I know. He's still, how young is he now? He's at early 30s? 39. Oh, he's 39 now. He's close to our age? I thought he was younger. Much younger than us. 39? Well, I mean, for what he does, he's young, man. Yeah, he's big. So that post, you showed that, you have seen, who was that post of that poster of like that they're trying to- Oh, I don't think that's a real format. I don't think it's a real post. What did you see? What did you see? Chail sewn in. Oh, Chail sewn in. Posted a poster with like Zuck and Elon on it. Oh, it made it- Yeah, okay, yeah. It made it look like it was like they're gonna incorporate it as like part of a UFC event. Oh, I saw that. Well, weren't they in talks with Dana White though? I think he said so. I think, I mean, it'd be hilarious that like that, that would be, that would blow up. Like people would be all over that. I mean, the way things are going with all these celebrity boxy matches and things like that, like it's not weird to me at all. I mean, it's- You know what, Jake, Jake Paul hasn't jumped all over this. You know what though? See, this is a lot of people- He's fighting next to him too. Is he? Yeah. So people don't know this. Like when you watch two people fight, who don't know how to fight, it's not fun to watch. It's not fun to watch. It looks- And then you start to feel bad. He's like cringe. Yeah, it's just not great. So like UFC fans who know what fighting looks like, and they're gonna see two guys just- Remember those, what were those matches that they used to do? Were they used to do that? Tough man. Yeah, tough man. Yes, those were like so painful to watch. Every once in a while you got a guy, but I guarantee it was somebody who had some sort of a background and he would always whoop the shit out of the other guy. You know what I'm saying? Because he had some sort of training. Where did Butterbean come from? That's tough man. Yeah, right? Like I feel like he went through that and it was like whoa. Yeah, there's always like the guy who has that, who can throw hands that has some sort of, whether he got it from street fighting or he actually trained a little bit, that would go in there and just dominate fools because most of them were just regular ass dudes that were trying to box. I know, I know. Anyway, so I just read something that's really interesting. Did you- So there's an animal, there's one animal. Don't look at the notes because you guys will see the answer. There's one animal that has confused like crime scene specialists before. In other words, they'll go in, they'll check the crime scene, find fingerprints, and they get baffled. And it was the culprit was an animal. Okay. And I'll give you a hint, their fingerprints of this animal closely resemble humans to the point where it's hard to tell unless you're like really an expert. What? It's a chimps? Koala. A koala has fingerprints? I actually was going to see a raccoon. Yeah, koala, okay. Koala. You guys know that? Koala has fingerprints? Yeah, if you look up koala fingerprints to human fingerprints, they're so similar and this has actually happened in crime scenes before. Because they have claws, right? And it's just- You know, this is something, whenever we talk about like what animals were closest like, this stuff always comes out and it's like we're so close to this. I told you guys about the pig digestive system and it's just like- It's so funny when they're skin they use all the time. Back to our science conversation earlier about how like ever since science it's like we try and attach like oh we're just like these apes. This is the ones where because we do this one thing in common and then it's like yeah, but then we have nothing like this. Look at that. On the left is a koala, on the right is a human. Oh wow. Right? Is that left and right right there? That's crime. Yeah, look at that. You can't tell, I mean unless you're trained, you know, and it's so it's actually happened with crime scenes where there was a real case where they went in and they're like uh... The koala killer. Yeah. I'm gonna get a koala as a pet, dude, that's a good insurance. I heard they're vicious. I heard they're vicious and they have high rates of chlamydia. Can we get- What? Is that true? Yeah, koalas have high rates of chlamydia. So don't have unprotected sex, huh? Only wear a condom with a koala. It's only legal in some states anyway. For sure. But yeah, you probably can't own one of those here, right? A koala? I mean California has all kinds of laws about it. I bet you can't in Texas. Don't they own people in like lions and shit over there? Is that right? Dude, they have so many random exotic animals in Texas. Yeah, remember when we watched the Tiger King? Was he in Texas? I think that was Texas or somewhere in the south. Florida? I think it was Florida. Oh, was it? Let me check. Yeah, I think it moved actually to like Oklahoma or something. Is it Texas? Yeah, because I believe Texas has the largest place of tigers in the world. It has the like- Yeah, high in captivity for sure. Now Mike Tyson owned Tigers. He did. Was he in California? No, he was in Nevada. He was in Vegas, yeah. But I think he got him from somewhere in Texas. How do you get a tiger? The Tiger King was Oklahoma, but very close to the internet. You get anything from the internet? Boom. But no, no. What I mean is how do you like- Do you have to go like just get a permit? Like how do you get a tiger? Yeah, there is permits for it. So there's- I think I haven't shared this before. You want to get a tiger? No, not a tiger. I look in stupid as I had a condo when I was looking at doing that. Of all of us, you would be the most adamant of a tiger. I looked for- No, it was not a tiger. I was looking at like small like cats, like you know, bobcats and stuff like that. Or like the serval, really called serval? Is that the name of it? The African cat that's big and cool again? Yeah. And it was Nevada that had a lot of the like looser laws and you still have to get a permit right for it. Like so you can go get it. And the permit, basically all they look for is there's a certain amount of space that you have to have for like the cage or what like that. So like I couldn't, I've obviously quickly learned that having a condo, I couldn't have any sort of crazy wild animals sitting there. It's goldfish. Yeah, it's a bunch of koi fishes. It's about as crazy as it got. No, I had a shark. You know, I had a shark for a while. Dude, hold on. That's what they check. You got enough space. They don't check to see if you're crazy or whatever. Well, I don't know the whole entire thing. I do remember though, I looked up on them. Have you seen these people that own them? Yeah, they are crazy. Yeah. I looked, I looked up, you know, and I remember the per- like looking out that you have to have a permit. And if I recall, the main thing was just the space that you needed to have. I don't know, maybe Doug can fact check me or whatever, but and I do know that Nevada has like some of the loosest laws in regards to like the wild animals. You imagine a burglar like breaking in the house. Well, that's exactly why I thought about that. How cool would it be to have like an animal like that in your house and like someone break in and be like, Guard cat, get the fuck out of here. Bro, have you ever seen one in person? A what? I think it's Doug, look it up. I think it's a serval. I think that's the name of it. I had a friend who had a friend who had one and they took a video of them going in the house and petting and shit. So I got to see like in context of the person. So it was a links that I looked up. That's what it was, links. Those are cool. Well, look at this. Okay, that I think that's it. Full grown. Bro, it looks like a little mini cheetah. Wow, it does. It's actually a bit, it is a serval. Doug, look up serval with a human or person. It's like a, I mean, they're tall. There was a YouTube video right there. I feel like John Jones had one of those. Yeah, they're, yeah, look at it. That's a big ass. Oh, they look just like those, what are the, starts with an M. What's one of those big cats that are, that are legal that you can have over here? That starts with an M? Yeah, fuck, what is it? I don't know, does it say buggy? Just throw names out there, man. Mankoon? Yes, Mankoon, thank you. Mankoon. Mankoon or Mankoon? What if Mankoon? Have you never seen those? You made up that name. No, there is. They're actually huge. No, look at them. And they look just kind of like that cat right there. They're, they're giant house cat. Well, people make them house cats. See? Oh, wow. Look at that, look at that picture. Oh, wow. Yeah, they're huge. They're more fluffy. And you can actually get one of those. So, and they're legal. Wow. That was a fat cat. That one looks more magical, doesn't he? Looks like he's going to give you like a wish or something like that. My family had Mankoon. What? Your family had one? Yeah. Really? He just passed, though. Oh, wow. Very, are they nice? Are they, like, what are they? Uh, more aggressive than regular cats. They're nice, but they're not as friendly, much more vicious when you have, like, food around. And they're bringing lots of rats. I was just saying, they'll bring in big rodents. They're always out. They're always out and about. Yeah, they'll attack, like, big-ass rodents. Wow. But look how big some of those suckers are. Wow. Where I live, because I'm up against the foothills, there's a bobcat that always comes up on the face. Yeah, we get those run through. We also get cougars run through, too. Have you seen them? Yeah. You've seen them? Yeah, on our nest camera. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's crazy, man. Like, they're there, but it's like, they're usually just passing through. And one of my neighbors, though, he's seen it, like, multiple times. So it is alarming, because, like, you want to pay attention to their patterns. If I have, like, a little dog, it's like, that's total, like, fair game for them. I don't want to help you. He was back in the day, he was a cougar expert. So he explains. I was waiting for that, Joe. Like, patterns and stuff. Different types. What to look for. Different types. What to look out for. This is hilarious. Just leaving crumbs for those cougars. Anyway, I want to bring something up that I thought was amazing that maybe you would be excited about. I don't know, Justin. Did you guys see the cheeseburger in, I think it's Thailand? Yeah. Burger King has a meatless cheeseburger. Okay, okay, pretend that the cheese thing comes out and I don't get tagged. Right? Yeah, pretend. I know I can never bring any cheese news to him anymore. It's a pretty literally. We've ruined his DM. 85 slices of cheese between bread. Is it real? I thought that was being funny. I thought it was like. It looks like it's real. I thought it was like in Thailand. I mean, so I don't know. I can't really confirm. Let's fact check this. I thought it was like a joke towards the like anti-meat movement. Oh. That's what I thought it was. You might be right. But I don't know. Is it? 20 slices of cheese in between of two buns. You know what it makes me think? It's real cheesy. At that point. Okay, it reminds me of what you would do if you were 14 at home. Mom and dad at home. You're hungry for help. I'm like, no, there's no meat. Yeah. All right. All right. Just put a ton of cheese between the bread. I'm going to eat that all out of it. What do you guys got for us over there? It is. Yeah. It seems to be real. Wow. 20 slices of American cheese between a bun. Dude. Okay. So I need some people to kind of give us feedback. Like from Thailand. Like, dude, are they that into cheese over there? Because that's a damn shock. I feel, I'm not. I feel like these fast food restaurant. This has been the trend, I think, for like the last decade plus is you come out with this like radical sandwich or burger. And it doesn't even matter if they sell. It's that it gets publicity. You're right. And now we're talking about it. Look at it, bro. Yeah. They sell 10 of them, right? And then, and then, you know, but everyone's talking about how ridiculous it is or what are with that. And so then it drives traffic. Did it, was it Burger King that came out? Oh, no, it was KFC, never mind. They did the burger. It was like a chicken. It was like a bacon burger, but the buns was fried chicken. Yeah, that was KFC. Yeah, yeah. That was actually kind of awesome. They did something with like black buns or whatever. Just ended up looking like it was like molded bread. And so it didn't do well. Oh, they did that? It was for Halloween. Yes. It was for Halloween. Yeah. Black ketchup. You guys remember that? Black ketchup, too. Yeah. You guys remember that? Yeah. Hines did that? Nobody bought that. Clear Pepsi. Any ketchup that's not red is suspect. Disgusting. It would actually be fun to go through like some of the best and worst like marketing ideas for companies like that, that things that like hit a home run that you would have, one, never expected or stuff that like totally bombed or hurt the business. Dude, I gotta tell you guys, I had a funny experience the other day at a family event. My, I think this happened to you too, Adam. My cousin brings her boyfriend and I hadn't really met him before and so we're all hanging out and stuff. And she's like, come on, you can tell him. You can tell him. So I'm like, I'm like, oh, he must recognize me for my purpose. So he comes up to me and goes, I've seen you on like Viori ads. Like how do you, do you work with Viori? I'm like, okay, bro. I thought he was going to talk about my pub. Those are going everywhere right now. Everybody sees me on the Viori ads. I know, I get Viori and Caldera. Those are the two ads that are like getting a lot of traction and I get, I have more often than not in my family. That's how much they've grown. You know what I mean? Where it's like a big deal. I mean, you figure Viori is a bigger company than we are, right? So they're probably pumping those ads out pretty hard. So it's funny though that people, how people attach like fame and stuff. I'll get it like, oh my God, I can't believe how famous you are. I was like, huh? And they're like, yeah. So you're on this Viori commercial. So I'm famous now. That's what makes me famous. Dude, I don't use Facebook except for like the forum and that's literally it, right? And it was the same thing. It was like, all of a sudden now I get like a cousin that lives in Minnesota. I was like, whoa, I just, look, you're doing huge things. I'm like, this is what you think I'm doing. That's like a huge thing. Like that's cool. But like, you know, there's not even paying 10, because I don't post anything on there. And I don't blame them or anything, but it's just kind of funny that that's the thing. Justin's an athleisure wear model. Hey, on top of all those last night, literally last night, I'm giving Max a bath and I get a text from my dad and he starts it with like, oh my God. So I'm so proud of you, right? And then he tells me, he's like, I'm getting a colonoscopy today, right? He's like, okay, where's this going, right? And of course bragging about you like I always do to the doctor and a nurse overhears me. He goes, oh my God, are you talking about mine pump? My husband and I absolutely love them. We listen to them every single day. Well, I've been in colonoscopy. Yeah, like nurse colonoscopy. I need another finger. I'm glad I could be a bright spot in your day on the dad show. Hey, yeah. Oh yeah. Adam, now imagine if that was you getting a colonoscopy. You know what I mean? The doctor's like and the nurse comes like, hey, are you? Yeah, I am. Anyway, so proud. Yeah, so proud. That's so that's nice. Looks like you're still in the junk food. No, no, it's great. It's great that you know, I'm sure that for him, that's amazing, right? Is that why your colon looks so good? You take their products. That's awkward. So Justin, I know you're super into UFOs, so I want to show you something cool. I am. It's a past time. I know. You're like a guy that knows this kind of stuff. Dude, you know how it's like a thing where like, this is a big thing with UFO people. What do they call them? Ufologists? I don't know. Don't put me in that category. Ain't like old paintings and drawings and cave paintings, all showing what looked to be like UFOs and aliens and stuff and all looking similar with cultures that didn't communicate with each other. So it's not like it was like they learned from someone else. It was their own experience. Dude, I found a 200-year-old drawing or painting and it tells a story that happened in Japan in the Hitachi province. Apparently this disc or object washed ashore and a woman who wore strange fabric and spoke an unknown language came out and talked to the people and had a small box and the person there drew it and it's a freaking UFO, dude. Look, that's a 200-year-old. Oh, look at that. How weird is that? Like this is before anybody in Japan would have been like, that's what a UFO looks like. When you keep seeing stuff like that, oh, there it is. Look, that's so weird. I don't know if it's not Chichen Itza, but it's one of those step pyramids down in South America. But we're not quasicol. I forget the name, but it's like one of their Aztec gods that they have like hatched in there and it looks like he's like operating a helicopter. No, not the helicopter one, but that one's interesting too. This one's like a rocket and he literally has his hand on like a, like he's pulling a lever and his foot's like on a pedal and it's, so and they try to like explain it. Like it's like some, some vessel to the afterlife or something, but it's just like, it's so trippy to say the least. Yeah, it's all weird stuff. Like there's, I've heard people say that people, that humans will hallucinate similarly. And that could explain it, but then why would we all hallucinate in very similar, you know, strange ways? Well, you know what sucks about this is that if that's true, and it's like 200 years ago they were showing this stuff, it just shows that like, like what makes us think that we're going to get any closer to finding out. Like, I don't know, you know, that's maybe that we've been, they're observing us like they, like we're like zoo animals and that's just, just a few that over the last 100 years that have crashed and they have this invisible technology and that's just malfunctioned on a couple of them that ended up crashing and so somebody saw them. Yeah, and this cover up and suppression of information, it just makes the whole thing, it builds way more mystery around. It's like, you know, there's pyramids and things they found in China that like they've flown over it and then the next time they fly over it, it's like all buried again. And so it's like, it's just weird, you know, it's like in some, in some things that they find and then certain cultures, like people come in, they just destroy it right away and it's like, oh my God, there was probably a wealth of knowledge there. So that fascinates me more is like, like I didn't know. Like potential lost knowledge. Yes, I'm like more fascinated by, I mean, the other day, I didn't even know this. We just, I just heard for the first time, I didn't even know there was pyramids in Antarctica. So like you have these pyramids in like Antarctica, Mexico, Egypt, like in these, like, you know, they all, they all line up with two constellations or constellations. Yeah, so, so like here we are, these random places all over the world where obviously we didn't have planes in ways to get over or communication back and forth. Yet we were able to come up with these incredibly complex buildings back then without any of these crazy tools that we actually- And they all look similar. Yeah. Like that to me is wild. Yeah. Like that, that I'm, and that's something we can see that's tangible today. So like the UFO thing is like, oh, it could be hallucination, it could be like whatever. Like we don't have anything tangible. That is tangible and weird enough for me that like that fascinates me. Yeah. I don't know, it's strange because the accounts are so similar in all these different cultures. Like it looks like you're looking at this 200 year old drawing. It looks like a UFO you would draw today. Yeah, and you're talking about like the Renaissance era where they've done paintings and you see like these gold. And then they've tried to say it's like, I don't know if it's like angelic light that they're trying to depict or like halos or whatever, but it really looks like little UFOs that are right behind them. So it's just strange that it's, and it's kind of too like when you start to kind of really look for something, like you start seeing it more and things. Yeah, right, right. You find like that phenomenon. Yeah. So I'm not like, you know, you're typical kind of all- What is that phenomenon called? There's a name for that, right? Isn't it the same name that like when you get the car that all of a sudden you see? They're the same car. Yeah, yeah. There's the same shoes. Is there a term for that, Doug? I think there's something called the reticular activator or something like that that's involved with that. It might be right. Oh, yeah. You just pulled that right out. He does have the computer right in front of him. So I don't care. I do, right here. All right, this is, here's a shout out. It's just pure humor, some of it inappropriate, some of it weird. It's just funny. It's a page on Instagram. Trashcan Paul. Uh, it's hilarious. I follow that one. Yeah, I just, we just died laughing. Sometimes Justin and I will share memes and stuff from there. So check them out. Paleo Valley makes grass-fed meat sticks that have great macronutrient profile. So great in protein. Of course, they're grass-fed. So they're healthy. They taste amazing. They're not dry. And you can take them with you anywhere. And they have lots of different types. Go check them out. If you want to be healthy and you want protein on the go, it's one of the best options. Go to paleo valley.com forward slash mine pump. Use the code mine pump 15 for 15% off. All right. Back to the show. Our first caller is LaTrell from Oklahoma. What's up LaTrell? How can we help you? All right. Um, so I'm a little bit nervous right now. I'm just going to get that out there. And I've written down everything I wanted to say beforehand, just so I don't mess up. And then first off, thank you for taking my call and hopefully I can get some answers and just some guidance on some of the issues I've been dealing with. Okay. All right. Let's hear it. All right. So I'm 23 years old. And in the year 2017, I began training in professional wrestling. In 2018, I had a match and a few times in the match, I took a move called the pedigree in which my hands were behind my back and I spiked myself on top of my head. The third time I felt a pinch in the left side of my neck and tingling down my left arm. The next day I noticed my bicep atrophy quite a bit on the left side. I would also feel tingling down my left arm during the day. And my bicep would even turn purple when I performed bicep exercises. I did not get looked at and continued to wrestle until late 2020. Mid 2020, I began to have sciatica in my lower back down on my hamstrings on occasion until it eventually went away. But now I have little feeling in my hamstrings. For over a year now, I listened to countless episodes of your show. In January this year, I attended a PT workshop and was evaluated on my overhead squad. After I did the overhead squad, the PT instructor said he was scared for me and the look on his face even scared me. He told me to be very careful when training. Since then, I've been hyper focused on mobility, my protein targets, sleep, the relationships with the people around me, creatine, Wimtoff's breathing technique, and a lot of big factors when they're trying to increase the range of motion of major joints and connections to muscles when lifting. Lifting based off of form and technique rather than the weight and mostly corrective exercises and or priming following MaxPrimePro, Prime, anabolic and performance. My ranges of motion have improved, huge appetite increase from a typical hard gainer, but I don't feel like I'm inside my body, especially my posterior chain. PrimePro movements that target the neck aren't getting me any more connected as I know they should be. For example, my girlfriend loves handcuffs with reputation, but I don't feel connected to my shoulders, the radix spine, and sometimes those sensations in my lower back. I lack a lot of grip strength, even struggling to pick up smaller objects. All in all, I cannot feel my own body. I'm constantly practicing Zone 1 wall test, even at my serving job during down times. A couple weeks ago, I consumed cannabis in an mobility session when it's a Zone 1 wall test, while simultaneously holding a resistance band and doing an isometric bicep pro. I felt my entire body's range of motion, connection and my overall strength was boosted in an instant. Basically, I felt like I was carrying my own body again all at once. This connection lasted a couple days and I haven't been able to find a sense. I'm confused on whether it's something I'm not doing, am I not trusting the process, or am I go about correcting my spinal issues the wrong way? Maybe even a combination of all of them. I would appreciate any guidance on this as you were the only source of fitness knowledge I truly trust. Moral of the story, marijuana is a miracle drug. Yeah. Smoke more weed. All right, thanks for calling it. No, listen. I'll ask you to buy big cannabis. There's a couple things here that are going on. So the improved connection through cannabis is more of a subjective thing with a single dose. In some cases with nerve issues, there's limited studies, but there could be improvement with certain neural connections. But that's kind of, I don't know, it's a little cloudy. I would say it's more of a subjective thing because even somebody with no nerve damage would sometimes experience or say the experience the same thing. So that's more, that's kind of down there. So let's cut that out for a second and let's talk about what might be going on. First off, all the stuff you're doing is not wrong or bad, but you need to see an expert. An neurologist, somebody. You need to see an expert and get your potential nerve damage evaluated because An actual neurologist, not like a general practitioner. No, no, no. So yeah, somebody who's an expert who can test you for any potential nerve damage. If you have impingement on a nerve, a lot of times you can improve it significantly. Sometimes nerve damage is so bad that all you can do is work with what you have and there's only so far you can go. There's no way for me to comment on what's going on with you because, number one, I can't assess you. Number two, I'm not an expert on nerve damage. I would, if you were my client, I would send you to somebody to get that all tested. So telling me that you don't have feeling in your hamstring, tingling on one side, weakness on one side, that all speaks to some nerve damage that might need to be identified. And if you don't, here's the risk, okay? The risk is potentially making it worse with exercises that would otherwise be innocuous because of your individual situation. So you need to go see someone. You need to go get assessed to kind of see what's going on. Especially if it's persisting, right? It's something that you're noticing it hasn't improved much. I mean, because you are doing a lot of things that naturally would help to kind of benefit the connectivity aspect. But I mean, if you're not noticing that, and two, that's just one of those areas that you really need to get somebody that knows specifically how to address nerve damage. Yeah, I want to point out that the stuff that you are doing, so if this would happen to me, like I probably would have went the same route you did. Like all these things that you're doing, I think are not bad. Like this would be how I would start to troubleshoot this. But if I was still having issues, like then that's where this would work. At this point, this is where I would go, okay, I need to go see somebody because I'm doing all my mobility stuff. I'm trying to adjust my neck stuff. I'm trying to address all this posture. I'm trying to address all the things that I know how to address that I can potentially help this. And I'm still feeling this. It's now beyond my scope. Like now it's time for me to go and actually have like, again, a neurologist. If you go see like a GP, you go see like a trainer, you go see someone who is not a specialist in nerves, like they're not gonna be able to help you like they can. Yeah, so how long ago did this happen? So this was about five years ago. Okay, so here, look, okay. Here's where I'm empathetic. I'm looking at your age, you're 23. Look, even now I have trouble with going to see a professional when I need to. Okay, I even am super reluctant now. My wife gets on my case all the time. But let me ask you this. Why haven't you gone to see somebody? Why don't you go see an expert and say, hey, my biceps turning colors. I can't feel my arm, my hamstring. Like why didn't you see somebody? So the turning colors and the tingling hasn't happened since that year. The reason I didn't go and see someone is because literally a month after that it happened, I was going to Japan to wrestle. And so I didn't want them to tell me, you know, oh, it's not a good idea to wrestle. So understandable. That makes sense. Just being young and dumb. Yeah, so let's stop that now and go see somebody. Yeah, you're well beyond the point of, you know, this is a strength issue or you could fix this on your own or whatever. Now, look, here's a deal. Let's say you go and they're like, okay, you have some nerve damage. There's not much we can do aside from surgery. Then you got to do a little evaluation. Five years later, I would say surgery in some cases is appropriate. Most cases probably not, in which case you're working with what you can work with and strengthening is always a good thing. It's going to get better than it would. Had you not done those things, but you may be limited by damage. And sometimes nerve damage is, you know, oftentimes if it's really bad damage, it doesn't come back. But that doesn't mean you can't make yourself a lot better than had you not, you know, done this work that you're doing now. But to get a proper diagnosis and get some clarity as to, you know, what your limitations might be, you know, and that way you can kind of work around and kind of build up some strength to support that. But I just, yeah, I totally understand that. I mean, I'm like, I'm speaking like that. Like I struggle with the same thing in terms of like going to, you know, get evaluated and go in and see, you know, a doctor. So, you know, I empathize with that. But yeah, it's at that point where that's literally the only advice. I mean, this is what I would have done. I would have done the same thing. So, I mean, kudos to you for that, right? I mean, you hammered yourself for being stubborn or young and dumb by not going to see a specialist. Yeah, who is it, right? Right, but being honest, like if I had some issue like this, I would first try and figure it out myself. This is actually not bad, because most guys of your age would have been like, ignore it. Yeah, walk it off totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was on some tests. And we might find out that the stuff that you are doing is what is going to be necessary going forward is like that's what you do to not have gotten worse. Maybe you would have gotten worse had you not done some. Oh, for sure you would have gotten worse. Yeah. For sure, based off what you're saying. Right, and that was the big reason that I didn't go and see someone is because I didn't, that's why I'm really glad I called because I didn't even know who I would go see. I'm like, okay, do I go see a physical therapist, a personal trainer and neurologist? I had no idea which direction I should go. And I accidentally, I actually didn't even know that I was dealing with this issue as much as I was until there was a day that I consumed cannabis again. I went into a mobility session. I was like, I'm not feeling my body. And so down now I'm here. Well, look, that could be related to nerve stuff. It could also just be psychological. Like to be quite honest, Latrell, to be a high level athlete, especially to be young, it's a skill set, but it's also a detriment to be able to disconnect from pain in your body. And let's be honest, being a pro wrestler, like if you sit there and feel... You get a high tolerance. Yeah, if you sit there and feel every damn bump, like you ain't gonna do that. That's like, people don't realize just how painful, like just because it's scripted, we know who's gonna win, who's gonna lose. It don't mean you come out feeling okay. I don't think there's a single match you come out where you don't have some kind of injury. So you kind of had, you had to learn that. So I don't know if cannabis, if it's more of a psychological thing. So I would, if I were you, I would just cut that out for a second, just don't even consider that. I would actually go see a good physical therapist first. And here's why. A physical therapist knows when to refer to somebody who is a nerve specialist. A nerve specialist, they're gonna look at everything through a kind of a deep limited scope. Right, they could potentially just send you away and go like, oh, I don't see anything. Surgery. No, they could just like, yeah, we're gonna operate, right? Whereas a physical therapist might be like, well, yeah, let's see if this movement might help. And let's start with that first, or let me work with a nerve specialist. So I would go to a physical therapist, let them know what's going on and how you want to see someone. And then working with a, you know, a nerve specialist plus a physical therapist would probably be the best approach. But look, not just to motivate you further, because I know you're young. You got lots of energy, probably very motivated to just power through things. Go get this looked at because if you do the wrong thing, this would go real bad, real fast. Right, exactly. That's what I don't want to do. That's why I've been mainly focused on the mobility. And Naughty, I really haven't even been lifting for strength. I've purely just been lifting for a range of motion and trying to just get my body to be able to be applicable or just have that movement. Okay, good. That's good. All right, good. Yeah, go see someone. I'm gonna have Doug put you in our private forum that way we can keep an eye on you and talk to you. Plus, we actually have our good buddy Dr. Brink in there. I think Shallow's in there. So we have some guys that have some PT backgrounds that may be able to point you in the direction because I know you're in Oklahoma. So maybe we can find somebody that's a referral from us out there that would be a good specialist. Yeah, that would be great too because even being a personal trainer, I was like, okay, there's a lot of... They might be in the field, but I don't need even knowing like, you know, it's they might not know as well. So even having like some referral would be great as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll have Doug send you access to that. So hop in there and then make sure you stay in touch with us. Yep. All right. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. All right, man. All right, man. Boy, typical guy, right? Well, I would do the same thing. I know, especially his age. I would even do it now. I would just by just being straight up. Like if I had some shit that's like felt that I'd be like, okay, let me see if I can... See if I can work through it. Yeah, let me see if I can... I mean, for five years? Yeah, yeah, maybe not five years. For a long time. Five years, I got some shit bought from you. Especially nerve, dude. Like that's different, right? Yeah. There's different, there's difference between like, you know, like a nagging chronic pain or something that flares up or down or inflammation or some of that. And then there's like, not feeling your body. Yeah, but that's pretty alarming. That would probably have turned purple. Yeah, that would probably freak me out. It's like the typical like, oh, this hurts. Go eat some grass and go for a walk. You'll feel better, you know? You know what, though? Like, you know... It's like you do it for a dog, you know? You know, you get why he did it, right? I know, totally. I mean, he's trying to make a career out of wrestling and... This is one of the reasons, by the way. One of the factors, there's other factors too, but one of the reasons why men tend to die earlier is they wait so long. Yeah. Like, the late-stage terminal diagnosis with men is higher than it is with women. Of course it is, yeah. Because a little of the doctor, and the doctor would be like, you're like... I'm so glad you came. You should have died any day now. How long have you been noticing this? Well, it's been happening for like five years, I thought. Yeah, we're the worst at seeking help. Terrible. Yeah. Our next caller is Taylor from California. Taylor, what's happening? How can we help you? Not much. Thank you so much for having me on. Hi, family guys. Late last year, when I started work from home, I needed something to kind of fill the void of being alone at home working and stuff. So I've been really enjoying the whole backlog of podcasts and everything. So I appreciate it. Cool. So for the past six months, I've been running a six-day pull of push legs beginner strength routine. I've been more seriously lifting for about a year now. Though back in high school, I did waterfall and swim, so weightlifting wasn't a foreign concept to me. After about a few months, the beginner gains began to taper off. And ever since then, I've really stalled out on the four primary list bench squat, deadlift, overhead press. During this time, I was also running two and a half miles a day and with an hour walk after work as well. I've gradually increased my calories from 2,200 up to about 2,500 right now to try and remedy the plateau. And I still haven't really seen any increases in strength. Oh wait. And so I've been hovering at right around 155 pounds and I'm five foot 10. And at the end of every workout, I'm definitely fatigued, tired and everything. So I know it's not a case of not going hard enough during workouts. And more recently, I've been experiencing really low libido, low motivational workout, and general fatigue. I got my testosterone tested and I come to find out that it's in the teens actually. And me being 27 year old male, that's pretty shocking. My primary goal has been to increase size and strength with minimal fat gain, hence all the cardio and everything. I'm trying to do a lean bulking approach. And my question for you guys is the lack of progress likely more due to low testosterone, overtraining likely some combination of both. And when I do start TRT, what can I expect as far as gym performance and just general equality of life improvements? I have started on it actually a couple of weeks ago. And I've noticed a little bit of mood improvement, things like that. Thus wanting to get your opinion on what else to expect as I continue therapy, increase calories further, revamp my workouts. What do you think? Yeah, Taylor, you've been listening to our show for a little while. I have. What do you think we're going to say? Prediction, here we go. Overtraining for sure. All the above, though. I want to get this clear. Teens, you were in the low teens. Is that what you said? That's what it said. Yeah, low teens, even like double digits is pretty concerning. So overtraining, overstress will hammer testosterone. So your lack of gains. Is it coming from low testosterone? I mean, yeah, some of it, but what's the low testosterone coming from? You're beating the shit out of yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so you're. Six days a week. You're doing it. All the cardio. It's a beginner, beginner strength training program, six days a week. That doesn't sound like a beginner program. What beginner program is this? Yeah, exactly. So I found it on Reddit. It's a pretty popular one. It's just called Reddit six day pull-up push lengths. I will mention that I did definitely add extra exercises and extra sets, especially for. It's not that one in honest, too. Okay, Taylor. Yeah, bro. Taylor, this is, let me. Okay. So here's the deal with. Add calories, map 15, and then you're. I would actually like to get a hold of you before the TRT because I would like to see what I could have done first. Because I think that simply reducing the intensity and or volume of training, bumping your calories, dropping the running, putting you on a program more like a map 15 or a map Santa Bolic. I think we could, and then focusing on things like sleep, make sure we got a good balance, make sure you're getting good healthy fats. Sun, yeah, like there's a lot of things that I would have liked to have done with you first, just to see what I could have done. But it sounds like your TRT was in the, you know, your testosterone was in the floor, so. So let's, okay, we gotta dive a little deeper here. So you're like, oh my God, I feel like crap. I'm going to bump my calories 300. Why did you only bump your calories up 300? Why not more? I'm minimizing fat gain. Last year I did a pretty aggressive crash diet. Where, and you guys are going to hate you for this. I was down to like 1500 calories and like running twice as much as I'm doing right now. I did that for a few months and I just felt so lousy. So I stopped doing that. So I'm kind of thinking that really killed my testosterone and then I just never really checked up on it. That's right, that's right. And you're right, this is where this started and then you just have not tried to truly recover. You think you did something to recover, but you didn't. Here's the second question. So question one was why did you only bump at 300? I'm afraid of gaining body fat. Second part of the question. Why haven't you cut the volume and intensity of all your workouts? I like to work hard. Why? It's not for results obviously because you're not getting any. So why do you like to work hard? To feel like I'm doing something right. Okay, so this goes a lot deeper than what you're asking. Okay, so you're abusing exercise and diet. So you got to look a little deeper because I'm going to give you advice. It's not going to help you though, until you realize what you're doing with your workouts and your diet. Okay, because it's not for results. That's not why you're doing it because you're not getting good results. It's not to feel good because I feel like shit. So this is an abusive relationship that you have with exercise and diet. You're abusing it like a drug, like when someone's an alcoholic and they're dying, but they won't stop drinking. This is what's happening with you in exercise. Obviously not to that extreme, but you're not touching those things because you have a poor, this is a dysfunctional relationship. So now I need you to look at that very closely and pay attention to it because what needs to happen is this. First off, going on testosterone replacement therapy with everything that's going on, it's like your house is on fire and then you get a squirt gun and you start squirting water at the house. Is testosterone going to help you feel better? A little bit. It ain't going to save you. I promise you that. You're still going to drive yourself. In fact, you're going to be worse. Yeah, because it's going to mass some of the symptoms and you're going to continue to probably do things that you shouldn't do. Yeah, if you were my client, there's two ways I would approach this. One would be this real gradual approach because I need you to be consistent and I know psychologically it'll be really hard to do what you need to do. The second way would be, okay, if I know you're going to do what I'm going to tell you, this is what I'm going to tell you to do. You're going to take two weeks off completely. You're going to bump your calories up to about 2800 calories. When you go back to working out, you're going to lift weights twice a week and you're going to keep your calories about 2800 calories and you stay there until you start to feel freaking strong and amazing. And then we'll add another day of strength training and then we're going to stay there for like a year. That's it. Now you can walk. That's fine. I'm not going to have you run. I'm not going to have you do anything else. You want to walk? Fine. Go for a leisurely walk. Your walks should not be workouts. They should be just leisurely. And that's it. That's where I keep you for like a year is where I keep you to allow your body to heal. Now, do you think you're able to do that or do you think that's going to be too challenging for you psychologically? That might be kind of challenging for me psychologically because I'm also a pretty competitive person and I have a few friends that also work out a lot that are also really into weightlifting and stuff. And they're always like sending me snapchats of, oh, I got a new PR. Oh, I got this and that. That's awesome. Are they real friends? Are they just like, you know what I mean by like, do they really care about your well-being? Are they supportive? Or are they just like friends you made through working out where you just try and push each other? No, we've been buddies for years. We used to go backpacking all the time and everything. So it's coming from good place. I'm just reading way too much into it. And I want to be able to keep up and be competitive with them because that's fun. You will be. You will be if we do this right. Yeah, Taylor, so send them this episode when it airs. And I'm going to talk to your friends right now. Taylor needs your support and he's going to get triggered with the competitive stuff. He's abusing exercise and hurting his body. So he needs your support. He's going to be working out way less. He needs to eat more. He needs to get himself better. So if these are really good friends, then they're going to help do that for you because I know how triggering that can be when you're watching other people do. Well, you think you should be able to do and it's not working for you. Do you want to send him MAPS Anabolic or MAPS 15? Oh, you know, I like MAPS Anabolic. Yeah. Like two times a week? Yep. Because I know it'll happen if we give him MAPS 15. It'll turn into MAPS 16. Exactly. So it's so many days a week. Yeah. MAPS Anabolic do the two days a week foundational workouts, bump your calories. And I suggest you work with somebody on the root reasons as to why you're abusing exercise the way you are. Therapists would be a good idea. But I think that'll really help you quite a bit. Otherwise, you're going to go, this is going to be a, like your body's going to get, the signals are going to get louder. Did you, did I hear you say when we first started talking that you really have only been like consistent training for the last year or two years? Is that when, when did you get into like fitness? The past year, I would say, I started off at my like crappy apartment gym. And then eventually I moved over to plant fitness for a couple of months. I realized that was horrible. And I found an actual gym with like, actual equipment and stuff. So since last October, I've been doing proper barbell training. Yeah. And you said before that, you played water polo, right? Yeah. How many years did you have for? Back in high school. So that was only four years. Okay. Well, what was the catalyst to, to motivate you to go and start working out? I mean, what was there something physically that you wanted to change? Was there a competition that came up? Was there, what made you go, I'm going to start working out. So it started off with me, like just kind of wanting to challenge myself to like, see if I could lose weight because I've never really deliberately tried losing weight before. So it was like, okay, screw it. I'll try it too. See if I can do it. Then I got down from 170 pounds down to like 150 and I was like, okay, now I got to build myself back up because I'm just too small, too scrawny. That's when I picked up weightlifting because I was wanting to actually put on some size and strength. Yeah. Yeah. This is going to be a, this, the challenge for you is not the same challenge that most people have. Most people's challenges, consistency and how do I stick with this and all that stuff. Your challenge is going to be, how do I not abuse this? How do I keep, how do I create a relationship where this is beneficial and not destructive? So you're going to, I mean, I would have to pull you back constantly if you're my client, which is the opposite of what I tend to have to do. The truth is though, if you do, if you listen to exactly the, what you, what Sal said as far as the two days a week, bump the calories all the way up, cut out the running and stick to that, you should actually feel and see a difference like within weeks, like you'll start to feel better and look better all the above. Here, I'll, I'll trip you out right now, Taylor. So I'm going to make a prediction that I'll bet money on. You take two weeks off completely. Okay. You just started TRT, what, a couple of weeks ago? Yeah. Okay. You take two weeks off completely. When you go back to working out, you're going to have significant strength gains from taking two weeks off. You're going to go back, you'll do a couple of exercises and you're going to be stronger. Okay. Okay. And when that happens, so long as you feed yourself, so don't starve yourself, when that happens, there's your hand, there's your clue like, oh shit, I've been really overdoing it. We didn't, we didn't get into your macros at all or anything like that, but did you, did you dramatically cut any single macro? Did you like reduce fat like really low or do anything like that? Or did you just go buy calories? Definitely prioritize protein this entire time. It's been at least one gram per pound of body weight. And the like dietary fats, no less than 50 grams this entire time than the rest, which is carbs up and down. Oh bro, you got to get your fats up, start having sources of protein, start getting steak. If your fat was that low, what you're saying, did you get your nutrients tested like vitamin D, your fat soluble vitamins? No, vitamin D wasn't a part of the blood panel. Wow. All like the lipids and everything, we're fine. That doesn't matter. They didn't give you, they give you testosterone with testing your D without testing your vitamin D? Nope. Wow. Yeah, dude, you're, I would guess because your fat is so low with some of your symptoms. I would guess, now I'd say guess because I still want to get this tested. By the way, that's where I want you to bump your calories. Yeah. Bump it in fat. Go get your, go get your, go get your, your, your nutrients tested. Iron, D, magnesium. Those are the most important ones right now. I would say zinc. See if you can get those tested because if those are low, your testosterone is going to be on the floor as well. You'll have anxiety, depression, low recovery, all that stuff from having, I mean, going from low vitamin D to adequate feels like you just took anabolic steroids. I guess it's a, it's a huge difference. And just so you know, 50 or less is low for my female clients. With that. And who are doing proper, proper amounts of weight training? So that's really fucking low. Okay. So for my situation, what would be over a hundred, hit a hundred plus. Yes. 100 grams plus minimum a day. And so when Sal told you to bump calories, bump it all from fat. So if you're a, a chicken and fish guy, become a steak guy, you know, start at, add olive oil to when you're cooking. Like you need to, you need to bump your fat. Okay. Sounds good. Yup. That's something I've been like, kind of avoiding in the past because I'm someone that loves volume eating. I like need to eat a lot of food to be able to like, keep me full and everything. Go to town on vegetables. So it's primarily a like pile of vegetables and like chicken stuff like that. You know why though? That's okay. Eat the chicken thighs, put the olive oil on the vegetables. Yeah. So those are two easy ways right there. We can compromise your client of mine. You tell me that. Okay, cool. Eat your big ass bowl of vegetables, pour olive oil on it. Instead of having chicken breast, have chicken thighs, add in some steak. Like there's a way to compromise. We can, we can. By the way, when a clue that one of your essential macronutrients is too low is that you need lots of volume to feel satiated. Okay. Nutrient deficiencies will do that. In fact, if a nutrient deficiency gets bad enough, no amount of volume will start to feel like it's satisfying you. Yeah. That's one of the beauties of good fats. Like good fats will satiate you. You'll feel better on it. So let's do that. I'm going to have Doug put you also in the private form because I want to be able to keep an eye on it as we go through this process. So we're going to send you over to MapCentabolic. That's the program after your two weeks off that Sal's recommending. I want you in the forum. Go get those tested like Sal was saying and then let us know in the forum and then we're going to keep an eye on you. We're going to fix this shit. Yep. That sounds perfect. Thank you so much. You got it, man. All right, Tyler. Good luck. All right. I got this, man. Thank you. See ya. You know, I don't know why I didn't think to ask his macros when we were from God. I figured it was a good question because Duh, if he's doing all this other stuff. Well, he wasn't terrible. He wasn't, I mean, he's low, right? And obviously when he was 1500, that would have been an obvious thing. But then I was like, you know what? Maybe he's like one of those guys who eats all fucking fish and chicken and is like avoiding fat like crazy. And that'll make you, that'll drop testosterone like that. That'll make you feel like that, too. I want people watching and listening to this, too. Like, you know, it sounds obvious on the outside. Like, well, Duh, like you're overdoing this and that. When you have a dysfunctional relationship with something, it's not. So it's easy to judge, but I'm pretty sure everybody watching right now does something that is not good for them that they really, if they thought about it, they know, but they ignore it and they continue doing it anyway. It's no different. And fitness can be abused just as well. And that's what he's experiencing. Listen, it could also, it could also not be coming from a place of pure dysfunction, just unaware. You're unaware that you're unaware. It just crept up on him. I mean, I mean, I was, we were both kind of prodding for like some psychological thing that he's. Well, even being a weight train is so new to him, too. Yeah. And being that unaware is of. It's a dysfunction. Correct. It is. But I mean, like, it's not like, when you say that, like sometime, like the thing that I thought I was searching for that I thought I was going to hear from was like, uh, trauma, trauma, trauma, trauma. I quit, I quit drinking or smoking. And now I went this way. It doesn't have to be. Yeah. And then that's what I mean by that. Like some people will think that dysfunction automatically means you have like this crazy trauma or something like that. But you could have this dysfunctional relationship with exercise and food. And it kind of just crept up on you and you don't even realize it. Just because you think you're doing the right thing by cutting these calories and cutting these fats. You think you're doing the right thing by pushing the lifting weights because I need to build muscle because I'm too skinny. Like he's thinking it's out for me. It sounds like he's thinking like he's doing the right things. Yeah. I bet you look that's, that's for him to figure out with somebody. And we're not going to be able to get that. Yeah. In this conversation. Right. Right. But it's obvious that the, that the relationship he has with, with exercise is not helping him at all. So that's why I wanted to make that point. I tell you what though, you, what you, if he bumps his calories from fat, he takes those two weeks off. Oh my God. He comes back with just two days. He's going to get 10 pounds of muscle on accident. I hope he really like pays attention to how he feels. And he's on TRT right now. Yeah. He'll gain 10 pounds of muscle literally on accident. Yeah. He'll be like, what happened? His body's starving. I hope he follows up with this because he will be, he will be a great person to talk to three to six months from now if he listened to what we gave him. Our next caller is Cody from Iowa. Cody, what's happening? How can we help you? Hey guys, how you doing today? Good. Good. We love to hear that. Just want to start off by saying thank you for having me today. I appreciate you guys choosing my question. Kind of feels a little surreal to actually be on the show today. It's awesome. I want to thank you guys for everything that it is you do in this space. Been listening for about a year and a half now and you guys blow my mind every single day. So I really appreciate everything you guys do for this space. Right on. What you got for us? So question is, I think the email said why can't I lean out? So to basically start off, I started like actually lifting in, I think it was March or April of 22 last year. I started with anabolic and I wasn't really consistent with it for a while because it was new and I was starting to just get into the fitness space. After anabolic, I went to symmetry then hit back to anabolic and then went to aesthetic and then I tried to split a few months ago. I started bulking in 22. I think I was around 175 to 185. My fiance, she had me in a 3000 calorie surplus. So I bulked up to about 200 pounds and that was in February. From that point forward, when I hit that 200 calorie mark, we cut me. We cut my calories from 3000 to 26. 26 to 23 and then 23 to 2200. And I've been cutting ever since and I've seen, I've seen the find myself in this spot where I'm not really moving much. I've seen a six pound loss. Just this morning I weighed in at 189.8 and it's been this fluctuation between 190 to 194 since like I would put, since like May. I haven't seen much results. And my body fat percentage, we did it the other day. I was around 14 to 15%. I did get smaller in size because my wedding is coming up in about a month and my suit measurements changed. So it just hasn't been really seemed to work out for me and I wanted to know if you guys hadn't any answers. Yeah. Well, congratulations on your upcoming wedding. I appreciate that. That's awesome. Which, how long have you been consistent with your workouts? For the first two to three months it was very like lackluster. I'll probably go in two or three days a week. And then I want to say around June of last year is when I really started being consistent with it. I was going just about every single day for about 45 minutes to an hour. Okay, you're, okay. So by the way, you mentioned your, I guess your girlfriend or fiance. Is she a trainer? She is a trainer. Sorry about that. Yeah, no worries. Okay, so I would say this. If you were my client, I would have you focus on getting stronger more than anything. And I'm going to guess that you're probably overdoing it with your workouts. I'm looking at the workouts that you're following of ours and some of them are really, really high volume. Some of them are more appropriate for most people. And I would probably guess of all of our programs, Anabolic. You probably got the best strength gains with maps. Anabolic, am I hitting the nail on the head? You'd be right. Perfect. Yep. Yeah. You're overdoing it. You're just overtraining. You're, I don't, I'm probably not blatantly overtraining. Yeah, I want to point out too, the fact that you're, you're seeing, you're only 14, 15% body fat range, which by the way is a healthy, decent range to be at. I mean, I know you're motivated to get probably shredded for your wedding or whatever like that, but one, you're in a pretty good place. And if you're eating a sufficient amount of calories, you've only been really consistent for a little less than a year. Some of that too could be. And I, we didn't ask about how consistent you are with the diet. Like if you're, like training is one piece of this, right? Making sure that you're very consistent with your lifting. I mean, how dialed are you with this diet? Like how, how much do you track? How much do you make your own food versus going out? Like how, what's the consistency around that look like? So I actually track every single day. My calories pretty much, I, I either hit them or I like, I'm just 100 calories below what I'm supposed to be at. I have the luck of a fiance that meal preps every single week. So we have our, like our lunch is made perfectly for the entire week. And then she also schedules dinners throughout the week. So everything's homemade. We don't go out that often. We probably go out like once every one or two months. So I, I'm always hitting at least my body weight and protein, if not more. How's, how's your strength in the big lifts? Like what do you, what do you squat? What do you deadlift? What do you, tell me your, tell me your lifts. So when I first started, the strongest, I guess I could say I got was I was able to do a 205 squat for three, a deadlift. I was able to do about 285 for three. And then my bench was at 140 for three. And then I think it was like a few weeks ago, all those exercises took about a 20 pound drop off. So you're over doing it. Yeah. That's easy. And you got plenty of room to get strong. Here's what I'll have. Here's what you should do. Okay. Yeah, plenty of room. Adam's right because you've only been doing this kind of consistently for a year. For the next three to five years, your primary goal should be to get stronger and eat a healthy diet. Okay. But that's going to guide you better than any other goal, including pure aesthetic goals, especially over pure aesthetic goals. Okay. So perform it because at some point you can't just keep getting stronger. So at some point you need to stop focusing on that. But for the first like five years of your work, especially at your age, it's, it's, it's a great, it's a better guide than almost anything else. Yeah. And you'll actually lean out. It's weird to think this that if, you know, Sal's saying, hey, go bump your calories, go back in more of a bulk, focus on getting stronger, follow like a maps anabolic protocol. And it will be a slow process, but you'll actually, you should see yourself get stronger and also kind of lean out at the same time. Yeah. And what maybe if you were a client of mine, what I'd let you do while we're in this process is interrupt our, our really strength, focus with like one week cuts. Like, like one, I like one week, I let you cut your calories for that week. Then I go right back to feeding you and focus on strength. And then we'd go like that for a solid month, month and a half. And I'd say, all right, another week, we're going to go low calorie for a week. And then, and I just do, and doing that, every time I'd reduce the calories, you'd probably lean out a tiny bit. Every time I bump the calories back up, you'd feel stronger and get stronger. Like that kind of, that's what it would look like for the first couple of years of us training, you've got a lot of room to get a lot stronger and build a lot more muscle, which is only going to help you in the getting lean, getting shredded process. Yeah, don't fall into this trap, Cody, because this is an easy trap to fall into. Oh man, like that person's able to work out that much and get that results. Why is it too much for me? Or what, don't worry about that. It's all about what's going to work best for you. And finding the right amount is the most important thing, not how much you can tolerate. That who cares about that, right? Unless your goal is to be able to tolerate a lot of work. That doesn't matter. Maps Anabolic is a great program for you. Maps Symmetry is a good program for you. Maps Performance is a good program for you. Maps Power Lift is a good program for you. And then Maps Split is a good program. But here's what I want you to do with a lot of these programs, except for, let's say Maps Anabolic and probably Maps Symmetry. With all the other programs that I mentioned, cut the volume down by a third. So if you go Maps Split, take the total sets, cut them down by a third. So some of our more high volume program, cut the volume way down and start there. Maps Anabolic should be your base. And that's probably where you're going to see your best, most consistent gains. And then as far as cardio and all that stuff that's concerning me, if you like doing that stuff, that's great. Walk. Otherwise just walk. Yeah, walk. Yeah, just go on walks. Yeah, I'm glad you guys brought that up because I work an an office job, if you will. So I'm probably averaging like 5,000 to 7,500 steps a day. So me and my fiance, we've been definitely trying to fit walks in a lot more to definitely raise those steps. I'm not a big cardio person, but she thinks maybe increasing my steps would at least be a little beneficial. Oh, yeah. I think that's great advice. And I do want to commend you for not falling in the trap of just cutting your calories to 1,500 calories and running every day because that would lose weight initially. If we all of a sudden said, hey, let's run 1,500 calories. Let's run for an hour every single day. Like you would lose weight, but you would just be setting yourself up for like a harder time down the road and you'd end up putting all the weight on and some. So you're not far. Little tweaks, like what Sal is suggesting right now. And then a lot of it is psychological, is being patient. You know, building muscle and shredding body fat and or simultaneously trying to do that is a slow process. And you're young, man. You're young and you have a ton of potential and you got a lot of great stuff ahead of you. So just be patient and trust the process. At the steps is a good if you're that sedentary where you're 3,000. It's just going to be healthy. Yeah, it'll help out. It'll help that between that and getting and focusing on getting strong. I think you I think you and increasing calories. I actually think that you will see yourself get stronger and slowly lean out at the same time. Okay. Awesome. All right, man. Do you have now you have those programs that mentioned because it looks like you already ran them. Can you name them off again? I like MAP, Centabolic, Symmetry. Do you have mass performance? I don't. All right. Let me send that over to you. And then let me do this also. Let me send you MAP's Prime Pro just because your girlfriend might find that or your fiance might find that valuable in what she does as a trainer. I think and I think you'll find it valuable as well, but it'll be something you can share. Okay, awesome. You got it, man. All right, Cody. Thanks for coming in. All right. I appreciate you guys. Thank you. You got it. Yeah, I like it when they're easy. The answer is that's classic, right? Classic over doing it. Yeah. And he's young. Yeah. He's only 22. Yeah. And he's only been lifting consistently for a year. Yeah. Yeah. And he's not in a bad place 14, 15% body fat. It's so crazy. No. And look, this is this is this is Instagram world. I know. And this isn't this isn't a perfect answer results quickly. This isn't perfect. But if everybody who started working out for the first three years just tried to get stronger, if they made that the primary goal, most people will be far better off. Just that. I don't care if you want to lose way on a game way, you want to build whatever. So true. If you just did that, that would guide you so much better than almost anything else just by trying to get even if you're 50 plus pounds overweight, which seems crazy to say that. Like if you just focused on eating a good amount of calories, maybe even increasing them and constantly focusing on getting strong, how much that will serve you in the long run. Our next caller is Corrine from Winnipeg. Hi, Corrine. How can we help you? Hi, I love the show. I listened to it all day. I was wondering if you could give me some advice for someone that has an absent bum. It's not showing up, huh? All right. So what's the deal? I'm assuming you're talking about yourself. Yeah, actually, unfortunately, it's kind of runs in the family. Yeah. So what is your workouts look like? And what are you doing for this? And how's your diet? Workout sporadic. I'm a 40-year-old mother and I try to work out. But sometimes I injure myself and that gives me setbacks. My energy is kind of low after workouts. I'd say my diet is kind of, you know, could use more protein, probably, because I'm a pescatarian. So probably could use more protein. Corrine, I got some good news for you. The answer is going to be really easy. Yeah. Yeah. Eat your body weight in protein. You got to eat more calories. And let's get you to lift some weights consistently to build some muscle. Do you think you could, can you get to a gym two days a week or do you need something more convenient? Because you said you're a mom and I know what it's like to have kids and how busy that is. So is two days, go ahead. I can totally go to a gym two days a week. We have most of the things I think I need downstairs though. So I really don't have any excuse. You have squat rack and barbell? We have a barbell. We could get a squat rack. We've been talking about it for years. Yeah. Oh, Corrine, I'm going to give you MAPS anabolic and what you want to do is start tracking your protein intake and do this. What's your body weight? I'm like 113, 115. Okay. Beautiful. So eat, I would have you eat about 40 grams of protein with breakfast, with lunch and with dinner. Okay. So figure that out, prioritize that. Start there. I know it sounds like a lot, but that'll give you about 120 grams. If you fall short a little bit, you're still okay. If it's hard to do that in the single meals, there's nothing wrong with going four or five meals just so you know. Yeah. So like if you're like, oh man, I can only do 20 grams of lunch because I'll just eat more meals. You could have another 20 grams, something or throw a shake in there. Protein shake is a real easy way to kind of help that out. And then I'd follow MAPS anabolic, do the two day a week foundational workouts, and your butt will grow for sure. Doing something like that. Now, is this a connectivity issue at all? Like do you feel like when you do squats or lunges or anything, like you feel a lot in your quads versus like, you don't get a lot of activity in your glutes or is this like more just, you know, you haven't really put that kind of work in weight training wise? I think you're right. Yeah, I'm actually injured right now from doing too many squats and jumps and my hips got sore and then that threw out my lower back. So I just feel like I try to make progress that I give myself these setbacks. So once my back feels better, I want to, you're right, activate my glutes. What were you doing that you were jumping? I tried Apple fitness workouts that hit. I went like all in for a few days and then I was perfect. How long, how long you've been with us? How long have you been listening to the show? Six months. Okay, good. Yeah, okay. You get a pass then. We're going to come. You get a pass. We're going to come save the day. Stop listening to anybody else. Don't follow any other workouts. Please. I should go better. We got you. We'll take care of your bow. We will not have you jumping around for your goals at all. I am glad you brought that up because here's a common mistake when we give advice like this for maps and a ball for a female that wants to build her butt is you're going to have the temptation to want to teach or train the routine in like this circuit manner where you low rest periods. Rest. The idea, rest and add weight. Rest and add weight. Your goal is to get strong. You do not care about getting a sweat. You do not care about making it burn more or being out of breath. A good strength to build your butt is no different than it is for the guy who says I want to build my biceps. Like it's a muscle. And so we got to feed it properly and we got a strength train and get lift heavy at it to build it. Right. So that's the goal. Make sure you're deliberate with your range of motion in terms of depth of your squats. So you're nice and slow and you're in your focus. Control. Increase yes and to make sure you have that tension and control of your muscles. So when we send you maps at a ball like I want you to follow the pre-phase for about four weeks before you move into phase one. Okay. And then to kind of add to what Adam said earlier, if you start sweating a lot during your workout, you're moving too fast. Okay. We're not trying to burn calories. We're not trying to... We want to build. So if you're sweating, you're burning, you're all that stuff, you're going too fast right now. Later on, your volume will increase and all that stuff. But you're just getting started. The goal is to get stronger. That's it. Who cares about anything else? Am I getting stronger? Yes. I'm in the right... I'm moving in the right direction. Okay. So pre-phase for four weeks, then move into phase one. Do the two-day week foundational workout when you move into phase one. And if you feed yourself properly, you're going to see some gains. You're going to see your buck run. I want to add to what he just said right there. It's very important you understand too that in order for this muscle to build and grow, you have to feed it in a caloric surplus. We cannot be dieting. Yeah. You got to feed yourself. You got to give extra calories. Otherwise, your body, you're going to send the signal by lifting properly. And then after you send that signal, the body is going to go look for the nutrients to go build the muscle. And if it's not there, you're not going to build it. And it's only going to be there if you give the body a surplus of calories. If you're training and you're cutting and you're in a deficit, you're going to feel a burn in your butt and you're going to exercise and whatever, but you're not going to grow the butt, which is what our goal is. I have two supplements. I think that would probably benefit you. I would find a good protein powder that you can digest well. You said you're a pescatarian. Do you avoid dairy? No, I have it. Does dairy bother you or does it digest okay? Usually bothers me if I have. Like I would never eat ice cream really. What about Paleo Valley's? Yeah, so do you avoid beef products for any reason or is it for health? I avoid beef usually, but I eat quite a bit of salmon, like meat salmon. Okay, so I would go with a vegan protein organ. If I make a good one, I was going to advise collagen, but that comes from Cal. So they make a good one. So protein powder is good. And then I would take creatine every day, five grams. Five grams of creatine every single day will help you. Just it'll help your health. Anyway, it's good for you. You'll notice more energy. You'll notice you're probably going to help with your moods and all that stuff, but it's really good for building muscle, really, really good for. So those two supplements, I think will help you alongside everything else we did. And if you do what we said, it's going to work. You're going to build muscle, I promise you. This is not a hard thing to solve right now. Okay. Yeah, I think you said on a previous podcast, you said back and butt to work out if you want to look good, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. Yeah, but because you're getting started and because this is new, you're going to train everything. That's going to give you the best result. So Maps on a Ball, it's a perfect program for you. Okay. And then after you run through that, circle back with us and then we'll guide you from there because we have even more specific stuff for building. Start laser focusing. Yeah, that's the foundation. After that. Is to start there. That's going to really start moving you in the right direction. And then we have even more specific programs when you want to continue to grow the butt. So that'd be great. Yeah, so this is exciting. I can do this. Awesome. Thanks for calling in and thanks for listening to the show. Thanks so much guys. You got it. This was, you know, how many times you get clients like this, you know? Oh, it's so easy. And you would do like two things and they'd be like, oh my God, what is happening to my body? I mean, hardest part would be adherence, right? So, I mean, the food, but we hit the big things, right? Yeah, I could, she looked, she's very lean, right? You could tell she's lean. So she probably has no problem reducing calories and staying low calorie. She's going to have a problem with eating in a surplus. And you got to understand, you could do all the best butt exercises in the world if you don't feed the body in a surplus. The muscle's not going to grow. No different than the dude who wants to build a big chest or shoulders or arms. It's the same thing. Yep, yep. So, good luck with that. Look, if you like the show, you can find us on Instagram, Mind Pump Media. In fact, we create workouts for our followers every week for less than $5 a month. You get a workout every single week, Mind Pump Media. You can also find all of us on Instagram individually. Justin is at Mind Pump. Justin, I'm at Mind Pump to Stefano. And Adam is at Mind Pump, Adam.