 Next question is from Elsa Vasquez, does eating a rice crispy treat before a workout give you a good pump? You know where this comes from? The bodybuilding, bro. This is the bodybuilding community right here at Pop Tarts, and I did all this stuff, by the way, too. It's less about the rice crispy treat or the gummy bears or the Pop Tarts, and it's more that you're shuttling, you know, 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrates right before your workout. And this is especially true with somebody that's in a calorie deficit or runs lower carbohydrates on a regular basis, and then all of a sudden you take in 50 to 90 grams of carbohydrates 30 minutes to an hour before a workout, and yeah, no, you're definitely going to get a nice pump from that. It is. Now, the theory behind this... Pair that with lots of water, too. Oh, man. Let me tell you something right now. Water was a bigger game changer for me for a pump than carbs ever were, and then add some sodium to that, and it's like, remember, the pump is mostly water anyway. Carbohydrates can help with that, which is probably why people feel with the carbs, and of course carbs will increase performance. That's what studies show. So why the heck are they recommending rice crispy treats? Well, there's two reasons. One is it sounds crazy, so it's going to get you a lot of attention. You know, oh, so-and-so bodybuilders jacked, and he said he, you know, gummy bears or rice crispy treats. Who doesn't like rice crispy treats? This must be a secret. You know, in the 70s and 80s, what was kind of this underground secret was to have a little alcohol, because it gave you a better... It gave you more vascularity before going on stage. It has all to do with how fast it converts into sugar and gets in your system. Alcohol is the fastest, so that's probably where that came from. But would that be a good idea before your workout? I don't think so. You might feel like it while you're doing the workout. Oh, this is a great, wearable idea to me. A terrible idea. So why do they say rice crispy treats? Okay, rice crispies are made out of rice, so it's a fast acting type of carbohydrate, and then you make it with marshmallows and lots of sugar. So, oh, fast acting carbs, this is going to be the best. Honestly, just the bowl of rice will be just as effective at giving you carbohydrates, better for you, not going to develop some weird relationship with food, or give yourself an excuse to eat garbage. You want to eat a rice crispy treat, go ahead and do it, but don't create this weird justification that I'm doing this for fitness. Like the whole reason why I'm eating gummy bears, it's not because I'm eating gummy bears, because I like them. So many of these things, like donuts and deadlifts, and there's just like a whole movement around trying to figure out how to entice people through these types of foods that are somewhat taboo, right? It's like, oh, well, we can use them here because we're shuttling it in right before the workout, which gives us a performance boost. It's all about justifying, and this is problem with a lot of the mainstream or popular, I should say fitness industry, is what they do a good job of, which is terrible, is they justify bad behaviors and cloak it. They kind of cover it in this like sheath of, this is for fitness, performance, and health, right? So I played with all this stuff, right? So I did a lot of this when I was competing. I was tracking everything, and you already, you hit it perfectly, which is if you, it's really about the fast acting carbs and the amount of carbs before the workout that's giving you this feeling. So if you just take out that, and instead of having 70 grams of carbs from rice, crispy treats, and you have 70 grams from rice, you don't get the exact same feeling from that. And the reason why I didn't like, and I did, I did the pop tarts, I tried the donuts, I did all these things like messing around with it. And what I don't like about that is that now I would crave that stuff more. Totally. So if I was on a really strict diet like I was, and then I'm like, oh, you know what, I have 70 grams of carbs and 500 calories allotted right now, I'm gonna go crush a couple pop tarts right now before I workout. Oh, amazing. Oh, great workout. But fuck, now I'm craving pop tarts, you know, four hours later the next day and now I want it. And I found myself having a hard time resisting those foods outside of what I was just using it for. So that's what you got to be careful with this stuff is that, okay, yeah, sure, you could definitely do a donut. Yeah, you could do a rice crispy treat. Yeah, you could do the whole gummy bear thing. But you could also do that same, get that same effect by eating good whole foods and doing it, timing it maybe a little bit sooner than the faster acting carbohydrate. Get the same pump and benefits from it, and then now you're not craving this hyper-palatable food that was engineered for you to want more. Yeah, or creating this false connection between health performance and foods that are unhealthy. You know what this reminds me of? I had a client once, very smart person, by the way, intelligent people are the best at fooling themselves. I'm just gonna say that right now. Yeah, justifying things. Oh, they're really good. I had a client, she was a scientist, very intelligent, and she would have two glasses of wine every single night. So at one point, she wanted to track and do all the stuff, and so I said, okay, we could track, and I'd see the wine on there, and I'd say, well, you know, if we cut the wine out, actually, we'll give you more room here. And this is what she would tell me. You know, Sal, I drink the wine because I show, there's studies that show that wine has got some antioxidant benefits and some reservoir control. So it is a handful of grapes. Get the fuck out of here. I'm thinking about my longevity here, Sal. That is not why you're drinking the wine. You're drinking the wine because you like the wine, and now you're justifying it with health. It's like people who fast for health, but the reality is they just don't want to eat for long periods of time, and now they're making themselves feel better by saying their studies at support fasting. It's the same thing with this kind of advice right here. So if I hear a fitness person who's saying that they're eating crappy food because it's good for performance and health, I want to slap them in the face. That's not why you're eating gummy bears and rice crepes. You're eating them because you like them. They taste good, and now you're finding a way to justify it. Just be honest, I like rice crispy treats. And it gives me some carbs, so cool. I get to have a treat and get some carbs. And trust me, take into consideration the behavioral aspect of this. Totally. Because I mean, I did it, and I got in phenomenal shape doing all those things I just said, but then what I found I struggled with was that, man, now I want it all the time. By the way, this is some advice I'll give most of you who want to try this. Don't do this right before your workout. One of the worst things for a workout is poor digestion or feeling bloated. You want to do whatever you do with your carbs about an hour or two before your workout, and a lot of these, like you said, doughnuts, I've seen that too, right? People will do doughnuts and then get digestive issues. That's going to give you a terrible workout. So plain white rice is easier to digest for most people than a rice crispy treat. So consider that as well. So you want to not cause inflammation in your gut. You want to have good digestion and get those carbs. You're still probably better off grabbing just plain white rice instead of the crispy treat.