 Our next caller is Dan from Australia. Dan, how's it going, man? Thanks for calling. How can we help you? Hey boys, thanks for taking my call. My question is, it's double barreled. So basically, I'm training in nutrition with a young family. So I'm 39 this year. I'm in pretty decent shape, but I've followed anabolic and aesthetic previously. I've dabbled in a little bit of split, but not really for me. I like the full body stuff. And I guess, you know, thinking about training where to next after following things like that, I tend to go back and forth. The other one, and it's probably more important to me, is the nutrition and how I can take better control of my diet, particularly with a young family and a fairly busy job as a middle management teacher, like an assistant principal. I really don't deprive myself, and I think I resonate with that and with the sugar battle. And although I train regularly and run, I just carry that extra body weight that I just feel like is just grown over time. All right, so the question is essentially how to kind of get a little bit of a better handle over your diet, and in particular, sugar type foods. Now, some of the best strategies that I've ever found to work with clients in this regard is the simple practice of putting barriers in between you and the types of foods that you tend to find that trigger you. These are like trigger foods for you, right? So for you, it's sugar for someone else that might be, you know, a salty type of snack like a potato chip. So that's for me, right? Potato chips, for me, that can be a problem. If they're in the house, it's just this, it's in the back of my mind, and it's a struggle, and I find myself heading over to the pantry and having, you know, chips every other hour or whatever. So put some barriers between you and these foods. So step number one, don't have them in the house. But don't tell yourself you can't have them. So what I mean by that is you don't have them in the house, but if you really want it, then you'll go and buy yourself a single serving of whatever you want. So if you want candy, you go to the store, don't get the big bag of candy, you get the one single serving of candy. Now what that barrier is going to do is it gives you enough time to pause and kind of think about what you're doing because trigger foods tend to create this kind of impulsive action, right, where you grab it, you eat it, and you're not really thinking about it. Telling yourself that you can have it, but you got to drive all the way to the store to get it might give you, and it usually works, gives you enough time to actually say to yourself, do I really want that? Maybe I should have something else instead. And more often than not, or at least more often than now, you'll find yourself not, you know, engaging that behavior. I have two questions to kind of ask in terms of like, are you getting a good amount of sleep? Like, do you feel like you're tired throughout the day? Generally, yeah, even though I sleep pretty well. Today might be a battle being 3.30am down here in the land of Oz, but yeah, generally I feel alright. Yeah, I really resonate with that if it's mindless. Yeah, I'm just asking because too, I noticed when I was really, you know, like lacking sleep and having kids and I was a lot more prone to a lot of those types of foods and that kind of found its way into my diet. I had cravings. So that was something that I had to look into further how I could improve my quality of sleep. So about four years ago, I don't know if you've been listening that long, Dan or not, but four years ago, the ketogenic diet was getting really popular. And right at that time, I was just coming out of the peak of bodybuilding and loving the fact that I was a monster. I was 235 pounds. I was lean. I could eat about 400 to 500 grams of carbohydrates every day, which allowed me to keep my sweets and things in there and still look alright. And I remember all of us talking about it. We all talked off air and I think Sal was the first one to say, I think I'm going to run this ketogenic diet for a while. And I was like, why the fuck would I do that? I was like, I love the amount of carbs I can consume and get away with. I don't want to do something like that. Well, the self awareness that I have, I caught myself saying that I thought, okay, well, that's the exact reason why I should do it is because I don't want to do it. And let's see how my body will react and respond to it. So I did. And one of the things that came out of that more than anything else, one, I'm not a fan of running the ketogenic diet for a long period of time, because I think it's just limits the amount of like food choices that you have. Like I got really tired of macadamia nuts, avocado and just meat butter and butter, right? It just got really lame for a diet. But what happened because that is a, you know, essentially no carb diet, my body got really used to eating higher amounts of fats that I had never in my life up until that point had a macro profile like that where it was really high fat and then moderate protein and then minimal carbohydrates. And it actually changed the way that I crave carbohydrates. And what I found was I didn't have the sweet cravings that I used to have all the time while I was on that diet. Now, when I decided to come out of that diet, and I was no longer running ketogenic, what I what I noticed was as long as I kept my macro profile with this kind of higher fat and targeting protein first, and then carbohydrates become kind of an afterthought for me, it really minimized the cravings. And today, that's really how I eat. I eat this higher fat and protein type of diet. I still eat carbohydrates, but now my carbohydrate taking is like 150 to 200 grams, which is significantly lower than what I was. And I noticed that it keeps the cravings down. Now, are there times when I eat it well above that? Yeah, there's times when I do that. And a lot of times it's like we just alluded to with the sleep, I find myself craving those things. And then I allow more carbs in. And when I noticed it's like this vicious cycle, if I allow the additional carbs, it kicks up that appetite in the cravings. And then I want the sweets again. So one of the things that helped me out, and I don't know if you've ever tried that or not, but maybe change your macro profile to where you're eating higher fats, proteins, and then really minimize the type of amount of carbohydrates and see if that changes your cravings. Excellent. Awesome. All right, Dan. And also, Dan, you said you're followed anabolic aesthetic. And I know you're calling from Australia, so it's like you said 330 in the morning, you got two small kids. I'd like to give you a free program, okay? So pick a program and we'll send it to you for free. Boys and legends. Yeah, let us know which one do you want. Tell us right now so Doug can send that over to you. Let's get strong. All right. Good choice. Strong coming your way. Thanks for calling. Geez, boys, thanks. No problem. Man, father or two calls at 330. What a savage champion. I love the guy. We have, you know, we have a huge audience in Australia and I think every single one I've met. You know what it is? It's our Sarcadas. It's our Sarcadas. I think they get us. I think they definitely get us. We're a little inappropriate for California. Maybe. Maybe. I think we're a rare breed for here. I think we have less California people that listen to us. People that understand us in our own state. But, you know, I tell you what, man, this is just, if you put those barriers between you and that food, but don't tell yourself you can't have it, you'll find that you'll start to pause and you'll start to, your, your, your behaviors will start to change because look, I'm in the fitness space is what I do for a living. If I have potato chips in the house, it's like either I eat them or I don't, and it's this constant battle. I don't want to live like that. Just don't have them in the house. So then if I really want them, I'll get in the car and go drive and get myself a small bag. You know how many times I do that? Almost never because it's almost never worth it for me to get in the car or drive to the store to do that. It's inconvenient. That's right. Well, to me, that's the kind of the first step, right? I mean, that's the, to me, it's a no brainer. Like if you're, it's like, it's like being a recovering alcoholic and hanging out in bars all the time. Right. It's like probably not a good idea. Yeah. And maybe there's people that do that. Like I've heard of bartenders that are recovering alcoholics and they're fine with that. Maybe that small percentage of people are fine. Not a good strategy for somebody who struggles with those types of cravings. But I, you know, it's been a while since we brought something like this up and talked about this. I haven't shared this on the podcast in a long time, but time, but that was our game changer for me. The, the, when we went to the kid, yeah, that's right. Switch. Thank you, Justin. No problem. That was when I went through the ketogenic diet, as much as I didn't like it, because of what it limited my choices of food, what I did love from it is it forever changed my relationship with carbohydrates. I have not gone back to anywhere near what I was eating before. And I've noticed that I don't have the same type of cravings. And now I can have ice cream, chips, or things like that in my house. And I don't feel the same urge as I had before, unless I allow myself to go down that path. Like I said, where I start consuming it all the time. But you know, I brought up what a month ago where I told you guys, I remember I ordered that, that cookie, that cookie pie. So that's ice cream pie. So that's still in my freezer. Five years ago, that would have never happened. How much of his left in your freezer? Like a third of it still. Oh, wow. That much? Yeah. So you have a third of that delicious cookie pie. Just do like a spoon of it every now and then? No, I mean, I was, you know, maybe. Now that you're talking about it, watching it. I know, right? Because I brought it up. You forgot. I did kind of forget about it. I did kind of forget about it. Tonight I'm having it. No, I'm still. No, I really though, I think a lot of it has to do with the rest of the day. When I was eating a lot of carbs, where I was, I mean, before I used to try it. It happens to me, when I eat carbs, I want more of them for whatever reason. Yes, it kicks that craving up where when I fill up on the fats and proteins, it I don't seem to crave it. Yeah, I agree.