 Our next caller is Cliff from Georgia. Hey Cliff, how can we help you? Hey, yeah, I was just... I started working out back in August, 41 years old. I dropped 35 pounds and now I'm just kind of stuck and I was thinking about beginning like a cutting and bulking phase and I have no idea where to start with that. Which way do I go? How do I know which one's the right step? How do I change my workout with cutting and bulking? Oh, good question. And first off, congratulations on losing 35 pounds. How long did that take you to do? I just... I weighed in last week. So I started at 246, I was at 211.5 last week. So what, six months or so I guess? Okay, so it sounds like you've already been cutting because you've lost 35 pounds in about six months, which is a relatively... that's a pretty good pace. So I don't think you should keep cutting if you found you're at a plateau. I would do a slight reverse, okay? So I would increase your calories a little bit, not a ton, a little bit. And then I would focus on building strength and muscle. You said you just started working out in August. What does your routine look like? What do your workouts typically look like per week? I've been doing a full body type deal four to five times a week. I go early in the morning, so if I wake up and I'm tired, I don't have a rest day set in stone. If I'm just not... I just let my body tell me. If it's not feeling it, then I use that as a rest day and go to the next day. Okay, well, that's actually not a bad strategy. Any cardio or just the strength training? I've just been doing strength training. Oh, good. That's actually really good to have dropped that kind of weight and you haven't been doing any cardio whatsoever right now. Yeah, I would say... Cliff, I would say maps anabolic is made... I mean, it's perfect for someone like you. And I would start in pre-phase. I would do the foundational workouts three days a week since you've already been working out because you can choose between two to three days a week. And then I would do the trigger sessions on the off days. I think that would be the perfect workout routine for you, but as far as diet is concerned, I would definitely go on a bulk, but I would do it very slowly. So you want to take your average calories that you're consuming on a daily basis and bump them by two to 300 calories and stay there for a few weeks, see how you feel, and then do it again. And then continue to go up unless you see too much of a rapid weight gain, in which case I would stop adding calories, maybe do a little bit of a cut and then back into the bulk. You're ready to go into the gaining portion now of training because for six months you've already been cutting. Cliff, have you tracked calories? Do you have any idea where you're at? No, I haven't really been tracking calories. I've just been trying to make better decisions and I made up my rule of two. So I get two restaurants, two beers, and two sodas every two weeks. I like that. You're on to something that worked for me. You're on to something, Cliff. I think so. I should probably copyright that. Yeah, I was going to say, I think you've got a diet book waiting. The rule of two. Drop a decent item. Yeah, like I said, it wasn't nothing intentional. It's just something I did. So I wouldn't like force myself into a situation where I knew I would fail. You know, I mean, I just didn't want to kill everything and be crazy about it because I knew that if I decided to have a beer, I would have 12 and not two, you know what I mean? No, that's brilliant. And it just highlights that you've been able to do that, no cardio, and you still lost a lot of weight in a short period of time, which is probably why Sal's pushing you in the direction of a bulk. It means that you probably actually, just by doing that and cutting out a lot of other things, you've probably reduced calories pretty significantly to what you were doing before and the body's probably ready to be fed. So I would increase calories, good calories, right? So that doesn't mean we get to have the rule of four now instead of the rule of two. Start adding in a little bit of maybe an extra healthy meal a day in there. That's a good balance of protein, carbs, and fat, and see where your body responds. And I'd probably do that pretty consistently for about four weeks or so before I probably reduce back down a little bit and see how your body responds. I have to warn you though, because if you've been training four to five days a week and then you jump into the pre-phase of anabolic like Sal's suggesting, it will seem like very little at first. And I think that's one of the hardest things for people that have already been training for a little while is they see the program and they think, oh man, I can do so much more than this, but if you trust the process and follow the entire program through the way it's laid out, I think you'll see great results. Yeah, and I got to echo too. I was going to jump in about like starting to kind of dial in and dial in like what you're actually consuming and start tracking a bit. I know it's a bit of a pain in the ass, but like what you did initially is brilliant to get you, you know, some progress and be really aware of your own habits. But now once you hit that plateau, it's like we got to sort of like peer into that a bit further and see what that actually looks like. So you can just make little micro tweaks. So this isn't like big adjustments out of your daily routine. It's just, this is what my tendencies are. Now I'm going to tighten it up a little bit. And a great place to start because I think that's great advice from Justin. The great place to start is actually, if you haven't done this already, is just start tracking protein. Just start tracking protein and make sure you hit your protein intake while you're also following the MAPS anabolic program. That should do you pretty well. Yeah, and we're going to send that to you by the way. So when we hang up here, Doug is going to send over MAPS anabolic so you'll have access. Awesome, I appreciate that fellas. I really do. And like I said, this was just like my beginning phase. It's pretty general. I mean, the hardest part is getting there. And now I'm like, well, what do I do now? What direction do I go in? Because I'm kind of flat line. Now, Cliff, I'm going to say this to you. So I've been training people for a long time. And I can usually tell right out the gates if someone has the right attitude or the wrong attitude and most of my training was dedicated to getting people in the right mindset. You're almost all the way there. In fact, what you're saying right now oftentimes takes me years to get people to start with. So everything you're saying is you're on the right track. I think you have a very, very good chance of long-term success. Well, I hope so. And I appreciate it. Y'all have helped me out quite a bit, just kind of keeping me focused and keeping me going in the right direction and being able to pluck things out that I can put into my own routine. Good deal, man. Thanks for calling. Yeah, awesome, Cliff. Thanks, I appreciate it, y'all. That's an ideal client. Oh, yeah, I know. That's exactly it. He's killing it right out of the gate. I mean, what he said about, I wanted to start with something I knew I wouldn't fail. So self-aware, so perfect, right? A very simple, easy rule that was realistic for him. Very, very, very, made a lot of sense. And it just highlights that he can still have this balance of eating out, having occasional beers with that no cardio, and 35 pounds in six months is almost too fast. Substantial, right, right. It's plenty fast. In fact, he probably reduced a lot of things that he was eating that was not ideal so much that he dropped more than he even needed to in that short period of time. So he's on the right track. His body's probably wanting more calories right now. And I think that's the perfect thing for him is to increase, but increase with good choices and go through like a strength-faced type of programming and his body's going to respond great. And what he said about, you know, when my body's tired, I take a break. I mean, listening to your body, you know, hard that is to get people to do. You know, I mean, you could program it all day, but if you're not paying attention to what your body signals are, like good luck. Yeah, in fact, if you're listening right now, that's the attitude you want. Even though he's a beginner and he doesn't probably have a lot of knowledge, he's got the right attitude and that's way more important than the actual knowledge. Absolutely.