← Live Wild with Remi Warren
Live Wild with Remi Warren
Ep. 163 | 8 ways to live ready in 2025
00:53:17
Remi is joined by Dustin Diefenderfer of MTNTOUGH Fitness Labs as he breaks down 8 way to live ready. These simple rules will change your fitness level and life! It is a must listen for those wanting to live in better shape.
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- [00:00]
Remy Warren
Foreign I'm Remy Warren and I've lived my life in the wild as a professional guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days perfecting my craft. I want to give that knowledge to you. In this podcast, we relive some of my past adventures as I give you practical hunting tips to make you more successful. Whether you're just getting started or a lifelong hunter, this podcast will bring you along on the hunt and teach you how to live wild. This podcast is brought to you by Mountain Tough and Yeti. A lot of the tactics I talk about here require you to be in top physical shape. So I partnered with Mountain Tough to help get you ready for the mountain with their science based hunter specific training app. You'll get in shape and mentally tough able to tackle any hunt. Because we really believe this will help you be more successful as a listener to this podcast, we're giving you six free weeks to get you started. Just use code livewild. Well, everyone, welcome back to the Live Wild podcast and Happy New Year. You know, with a new year comes a new upcoming hunting season. And here on the Live Wild podcast, I just always strive to help you guys find that edge. So this week I'm joined by Dustin Diefenderfer of Mountain Tough Fitness Labs. We're gonna talk about Living Ready and the eight week Mountain Tough Live Ready challenge that's coming up. So the goal is gonna be to build sustainable habits and and leave you guys energized and living stronger and healthier by combining nutrition, fitness and lifestyle. So today, Dustin's gonna help us break down the eight rules that work together to make you better. Well, Dustin, man, thanks for joining me again. I know it's. Our listeners always enjoy it when you come on here because it's a great way for them to kind of understand ways to get ready for the hunt this coming season. And I guess, first of all, Happy New Year and thanks for joining me at the beginning of the year. And also, this is when a lot of people really start to think about fitness. So one of the things that I wanted to do this week with you is kind of dive into the eight week challenge. Coming up, Stay Ready Challenge and some of the things that you guys put into that and some of the things that our listeners can kind of start thinking about when it comes to prepping and living ready for the hunt this upcoming fall.
- [02:27]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Yeah, I'm stoked, man. And Happy New Year to you. I think that, you know, like, New Year, New me gets a bad rap because it is such a. It is a Major movement. I learned that early on in Mountain Tough history because everyone in the country is going to talk about resolutions and resolution people. And it's. It's common in the gym industry where someone's going to say, oh, the, you know, the gym gets so crowded in January, February, March, but then it dies back off. So there's. There's definitely a resolution thing, a New Year, New Me thing. And it does have a bad reputation of people quitting early, but there's also so many powerful things in it. If you think about it from, like, a positive light, the. The positives of it are so substantial. Like, right now is your time to set that roadmap and set that standard and set your goals and what you accomplish in 2025. And that's a huge opportunity for everyone. And I've seen it work incredibly well for people outside of fitness also. So if someone decides who they want to be and what they want to pursue, and you kind of set that plan in January, it does make a major difference of what folks are going to accomplish this year. So I think it's important for people to think about the New Year New Me. The resolution craze is a significant movement, and it does have a bad reputation, but we should pull as many positive attributes out of it as we can, because sometimes the right setup of your year, it's actually going to change, you know, the next 10 years of your life, not just this year, if you do it appropriately. So I'm excited to dive into this because these kinds of things can really revolutionize kind of how someone's going to feel not only in 2025, but, you know, the next 10, 15, 20 years, because it's these kinds of Kickstarters that kickstart a lot of people into gear. And that's going to lead to, you know, a better hunting season for sure, but it's also going to lead into, like, being a better father, being a better boss, being a better friend. All these things add up.
- [04:56]
Remy Warren
It is one of those things. It gets that, like, it's just like a timeline and we're going to make these resolutions that I think the hardest part is people, like, make a resolution, but they just don't know how to sustain it. Right. Because it's like your. Your resolution is going to be whatever it is, whether it's working out, like, oh, I'm going to be in better shape. Okay. Well, it's almost like if you set that resolution as I'm going to create the lifestyle that allows me to live in better shape as Opposed to just being like, I'm going to. I'm just going to start working out, like, not having that roadmap and that. That way to kind of stick to something no matter what it is. I mean, for me personally, you know, the calendar year, it's like you. We look back and we do live very chronologically. It's like year to year, you know, especially in hunting, right. You've got your seasons. And I talked about last week, like, this past season, 2024 was one of the best seasons I've ever had and one. One that will go down in history for. In my history for, like, myself. Last year, 2023 was like a hard. It was hard earned. Like, it was just. It sucked, to be honest. Like, it just sucked, you know, and it was like, all right, last year I was like, I'm setting like this. I can't do another 2023. Like, 2024 has got to be different. All right, what are we going to do to make it. Make it different? And I think that like, even just whether it's personal stuff, fitness, lifestyle, what have you, once that calendar year sets over, I mean, also too, you're kind of coming off of a previous season or whatever, you've got the holidays, and then it's like, all right, everything's just ahead of us at this point. So it is a good time to kind of reset and focus on. One of the things that you guys do real well is kind of teach people how to live that. That better lifestyle, how to make it this goal sustainable. How are we going to do this for not just a couple weeks, but for the entire year, for the rest of our lives? And that's the thing that I think is most interesting and the thing that is worth diving into is like, what are some of the things not just working out, not just eating right, but kind of that whole. That whole changing that whole mindset and getting into that habit of making this a lifestyle.
- [07:11]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Yeah, And I think that's really important to talk about because I think most individuals listening to this right now that are going to dive into the Live Ready challenge are thinking of themselves as beginners in, or beginner or intermediate in fitness and nutrition. And the really awesome, like, example of how important that is to kind of realize where each individual is at is because, like, we're all beginners at something, and we all started as beginners in any journey that we might be great at now. So people always use the guitar example. So if I handed myself a guitar right now, I'm gonna. I'm gonna be awful. I'm gonna be terrible. I can't play any musical notes. I'm terrible at instruments. I've never played the guitar at all. So it's gonna take me quite some time to learn how to play that thing. And if you compare that to someone who is an expert at guitar, that expert usually almost always has that 10,000 hour rule behind them. So the expert has 10,000 hours of practice at a minimum to get to that kind of level that you see a master guitar player at. And that 10,000 hour principle is usually true, is easily going to be true in every single category of life, whether that is guitar or piano. But it also is going to be the same principle we're going to see accurate in hunting and mountain hunting. And also that is going to ring true when we get into fitness. So someone, someone in their 30s, 40s, or 50s that is fit and fit for their age and fit compared to their peers almost every single time is going to have the 10,000 hour principle. The reason that that is super interesting is when we start something, it, it's terrible, it's embarrassing, it's difficult, and it's not a habit. But if you kind of remember that guitar analogy, anything we start is going to feel like that. The key to getting out of that feeling is consistency. And that's usually where the wheels start to fall off the bus. And so if I pick up that guitar and I'm embarrassed and I can't get any rhythm going, if, if I put that guitar down and never try it again, then certainly I'm never going to be great at it and I'm never going to hit that 10,000 hour rule. And the key to breaking that is consistency. If I consistently pick that thing up and learn a little bit each day, then eventually I'm going to get that positive snowball where I put some notes together, put a song together and then start to build that habit. The same thing is happening in our lives in hunting, and it's definitely happening in physical fitness and mental toughness. So the, the really exciting thing about the new year is so many people make this pursuit to having a better year. And usually that is physically and nutritionally. The thing that I'm really excited about is the live Ready challenge gives you kind of a gateway to getting through that consistency hump. And that consistency hump is really the key to long term success. And so most people are going to have that guitar feeling when they, when they, when they want to change their diet or their workout habits. So they're gonna Hit the gym, it's gonna be embarrassing, uncomfortable and they're going to be sore, they're going to be tired and so they're going to want to pack up and never go back. And that's what's creating, you know, the resolutioners is because they're having a difficult time getting through that consistent kind of 21 day timeframe that creates the habit. So what we've known at Mountain Tough for a long time is consistency is king. And I'm, I'm a really big believer in that. And even with us owning mountain Tough, I still don't think it matters that much what people consistently do for their training. I think if someone were to run several times a week, if someone were to swim several times a week, if someone were to bike several times a week, it could be a boot camp class, it could be a yoga class. That as I've gotten older, I don't think it matters. I think what matters most is the consistent practice of that thing. So if someone wants to be in incredible shape, they really should just pick something that they love because that love of that thing is going to lead to that consistency and it's really consistency that's leading to the fitness. So that could be racquetball, basketball, pickle, pickleball, or it could be mountain Tough. But I think the important thing for people to realize is the people that are fit for their age a hundred percent of the time it's going to be consistency. And we've known that at Mountain Tough for a while. And the, the million dollar question is how do you breed consistency? And that is the difficult thing. The big movement that went across the country a few years ago was this movement that came from Andy Frisella. And Andy Frisella has a, a big network media empire and he also has the supplement company First Form. But what Andy did was he launched a challenge to his community and it was the 75 hard challenge. The 75 hard challenge is, is famous now for being one of the most viral challenges to ever sweep the United States. And the reason it swept the United States was because of its simplicity. And also the simplicity led to consistency. So it's very well known for creating drastic life change. So what we wanted to do was modeling off the success we saw sweep the country of 75 hard. We've always wanted our own Mountain Tough version of that. And the Mountain Tough version is brand new this year. It's the first time we've ever done it. And that is the live ready challenge.
- [13:47]
Remy Warren
That's awesome. So like for the live Ready Challenge, if you don't mind, let's kind of dive into it and, like, what can we expect and what are some of the things that you've thought about and included in this challenge? So, I mean, obviously it's going to contain fitness. It's going to contain food and diet stuff. I'm assuming, like, what. What else is in there? And some of the things that maybe the listeners can kind of think about of, like, oh, this is. This is what this is going to entail, and this is why this. This should work.
- [14:19]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Yeah. I'll go through the eight rules of it here so that everyone knows the rules, and then I can go through the why behind each rule, because the why really makes a lot of these rules stick. So we did team up with Kyle Camp on the live Ready Challenge, and we teamed up with Kyle because of his nutrition expertise. So he's always been a phenomenal resource for us on the nutrition realm, and he's extra special in that area for Mountain Tough because he focuses on nutrition much of the time for the backcountry mountain hunter. But because this is certainly a physical and nutritional breakthrough concept for a lot of people, we wanted to make sure we used Kyle's help. So the. The eight rules. This one has eight rules. And the way the Live Ready Challenge works is we were. We are going to transform your habits in eight weeks by you practicing these eight rules every single day. So we wanted to keep it as simple as possible. So it's eight weeks, eight rules, and the whole Mountain Tough community is going to be going through this together, including the staff, including our MGD community, everyone in the app. We're all going through this together. And we're starting on January 6th. So that is an important component, is doing these types of things in a community with accountability and camaraderie makes a big difference. But the eight rules are, rule number one is protein at every meal. Rule number two is no calorie intake outside of meal times. Number three is include produce with every meal. Number four is carbohydrates from whole foods. And then five is hydrate between meals. Number six is limit eating out. Seven is minimize your screen time. And eight is commit to Mountain Tough workouts five days per week.
- [16:23]
Remy Warren
Awesome. Yeah, I mean, that's like, really. It's not that difficult when you really think about it. Like, oh, yeah, that's stuff I should like when you. When you go through it, I'm like, yeah, that's stuff that we should be doing every day.
- [16:37]
Dustin Diefenderfer
It's easy. Yeah. It's really, it really is simple. And, you know, the simplicity does lead to consistency. And consistency is what we are all after. And I love that. That's kind of how Kyle helped us put this together. And there are, there are a lot of very simple rules in this that people don't apply to their lives at times because they don't understand the why behind them. That's also why I love going through the why. For example, the first one, protein at every meal. So that sounds really simple when you hear it. But there are millions and millions of Americans that are gonna like wake up any cereal for breakfast. So cereal is a common breakfast food. You're gonna get a tiny, tiny little amount of protein from the milk, but then the cereal is gonna be complex carbohydrates that are loaded with sugar. So essentially you're getting no protein and you're getting a sugar high that is gonna crash an hour or so later. So protein at every meal all of a sudden starts making this massive, massive, massive difference in people's lives. Especially if you think about, if you have a man that's around 40, they need, they need around 1 gram of body weight of protein to repair and sustain and gain any muscle mass. So if you have a 180 pound male, they need 180 grams of protein per day to keep and grow muscle. So if you're skipping protein at breakfast, that's going to be hard to get even close to 180 grams. And that's the reality of most people's lives, is they're going to be low on that number. And low on that number is going to make you super hungry before you even get to lunch. And then your muscles are not rebuilding and so you're going to be tired and fatigued. So if you look across a lot of the symptoms we see in America right now, it is a lot of people that are tired and fatigued and low on energy. And something as easy as adding protein at every meal starts to fix that problem. So it's really simple, but the why behind it is making kind of revolutionary impacts in people's lives. They add that protein now, they start hitting their daily number, their muscles are rebuilding. So any workout they're doing is seeing its greatest benefit. And then the biggest thing we see with protein at every meal is you're not hungry between meals. And when you're not hungry between meals, you're not consuming extra calories just because you're hungry. And that's usually what leads to weight gain.
- [19:30]
Remy Warren
That's awesome. Yeah. No That's a, I mean, that's a great thing to live by. And, and I know a lot of people get caught up in that of, hey, I'm eating, or you maybe you don't feel like you're eating bad, but it's not the right things at the right time. And I know that that goes a long ways. That, that's awesome. And then what's number two?
- [19:50]
Dustin Diefenderfer
So number two is going to be no calorie intake between meals. This one's super cool. So when you dive into the live ready challenge, you can, you can decide what your meal times are, and that doesn't matter. So you could be a three person a day individual, you could be a four meal a day individual, you could be a five meal a day individual. That doesn't matter at all to the challenge. What matters is once you decide your meal structure, we don't want you to have any other calories in between that meal structure. So if you say, I'm a three meal a day guy, I do breakfast at eight, lunch at noon, dinner at five, then when you dive into the live ready challenge, you're not going to consume any other calories that day between 8 noon and 5. You could also add that fourth meal or that fifth meal. But what this rule does is it eliminates all this snacking in the day in between meals. And that snacking is what is leading to high sugar content foods and a ton of excess calories that's leading people to weight gain. So this is a very simple rule, but the simplicity of it cuts out all these excess calories throughout the day that are causing a lot of problems. And it also is adding this whole mental layer. And the mental layer is saying, hey, if I eat at 8 breakfast, I don't eat again until noon. And mentally, I need to hold myself accountable to that. So it's kind of hitting the nutritional and the mental at the same time.
- [21:33]
Remy Warren
That's awesome. Yeah, no, that's a great one. Our whole team's doing it as well. We're all jumping in and gonna do the live ready challenge. And I think for me, the one thing is like, I've got like the, the worst eating schedule. I'm like a two meal a day guy, but I like, don't eat. You know, you get busy and then I don't eat till noon and then I'm tired. You know, you're tired early and all this. Or I don't eat till three and then I'll eat later or whatever. So actually just being more scheduled and regimented and like, eat. I think that for me personally, that's going to help a lot.
- [22:04]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Yeah, yeah, that one helps. That one helps a lot. I think for a lot of different reasons. Like, you. You have your structure, you have your discipline. Your meals, if they're structured out, allows you to kind of hit the recommended macros that you should get. Especially someone who's hiking hard or training hard. The. The biggest thing we see from this rule is this one is a complete game change. People that are trying to cut some weight. So someone who's trying to lose weight or lose some body fat. I'd say that this is probably one of the most powerful principles you see. Make a change in individuals right away. Because most people are carrying some excess pounds, not because of the meals that they're eating. It's usually this snack food that's kind of surrounding most Americans 24 7. So you have like the office cookies, the office cake, you got chips. When you walk in the house, once that is eliminated out of a lot of people's lives, you see people start dropping pounds like crazy.
- [23:12]
Remy Warren
Yeah, I think that that's. That's a good thought to have. And. And also it kind of. It leads to the. My thing is, like, if you don't buy the snacks, you don't eat the snacks, right? Yeah. That's the easiest, like, method for me is like, oh, I just don't buy it. Right. But then I do have all those, like, snacks route hunting. And I just. At the end of the season, I just get rid of them. I'm like, I can't have these around. These are dangerous.
- [23:36]
Dustin Diefenderfer
I know. That's how I see it too. There's like, there's how I eat in hunting season and how I eat the rest of the year. And hunting season, you're just, like, looking for every snack possible.
- [23:49]
Remy Warren
Yeah. And then it's like, it's the off season. It's like, I literally, yesterday I was just like, you know what? I gotta get. I don't either donate these or throw them away, but we don't. I don't want these in the house because this is like, not. You know, I find myself, like, walking by that fig bar. Gone. Yeah, I could. I could down a fig bar right now. 1:00 in the afternoon. Like, no, I'll just get rid of these things.
- [24:10]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Yeah, yeah. It's like out of sight, out of mind. All right, so recapping. So one protein at every meal, two, no calorie intake outside of meal times. Then we get into number three. Three is Include produce with every meal. So super simple but often overlooked. Produce is where we're getting most of our vitamins. And our vitamins are what is keeping us strong, our cognitive function strong, our immune system strong. And for a lot of guys, that one is easy to overlook. Where they're going to eat a lot of meat, a lot of carbohydrates, but they're kind of always pushing the vegetables off their plate. We need to add those back on because the vitamins are what is giving us full absorption of all our other nutrients and that protein. And that one is super simple. It doesn't matter what it is. It just needs to be produce. So that can be your vegetables, your lettuce, your apples. We just want that added at every single meal.
- [25:18]
Remy Warren
Awesome. Yeah. I mean, super simple. And that's. It's good to think about. I mean, I definitely fall into that category of like. Well, what do I have for dinner? Steak. Right. What'd you have for breakfast? Eggs. Right. That's all I eat, eggs and steak. But you're right, like the vitamins and that's a big thing. I mean, I also take a little bit of a multivitamin too, or what have you. Like, random things here and there, but I don't even know if I'm consistent with that. And I try to be better about eating that produce and what have you. And there's some great stuff out there. And yeah, you're right. The allowing your body to function at its optimal in its prime is. Is. I mean, it's key. Like, it's. I notice when I do things the right way, like what I should do, how much better I feel. Yeah, it's like night and day difference. Really?
- [26:10]
Dustin Diefenderfer
It's night and day. Yeah. When you make these changes and start feeling better, you're like, man, where did I get all this energy? Where did I get all this kind of like, drive and that. That changes people really fast. It's amazing.
- [26:22]
Remy Warren
No, for sure. Yeah. And that, I mean, just getting those right vitamins is key, too. I know. Like, for building that immune system. The other thing about the beginning part of the year, one of the reasons that it's, like, good to do this stuff, this is when all the. Everybody gets sick last year. I mean, I've got little kids now and I didn't. I've never been sick in my life. And then I was sick for four months straight. Like, I thought I was going to die. I know I've been to the doctor in 25 years and then was going like every other Week, because it was like I went from COVID to RSV to this and that, and I'm like, dude, I got to figure something out here. I mean, I'm not gonna.
- [26:58]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Everything home.
- [26:59]
Remy Warren
Yeah. I was also drinking a lot of arsenic in my water, which I found out doesn't good for you, but less arsenic, more vitamins, and I feel great, you know, Like, I haven't been sick since.
- [27:11]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Was arsenic coming from your well?
- [27:13]
Remy Warren
Yeah, it was. I was like, this is bad. You know, I drink a lot of water. Like, I just. I'm big on staying hydrated. And yeah, I think my. My arsenic intake was not a. Not inappropriate levels, so. Found that out.
- [27:31]
Dustin Diefenderfer
I'm glad you found that out.
- [27:32]
Remy Warren
Yeah, me too. I was like, why am I sick all the time? I was like, it's got to be. I was like, I live pretty dang healthy, man. Like, why all of a sudden? I was like, you know, I'm gonna do another well test. Yeah, 100 times the normal limit or something like that. But yeah, that's. That's a. That's a sidebar. What?
- [27:49]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Hey, test your water, too, and test your water.
- [27:53]
Remy Warren
Yeah, exactly.
- [27:54]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Everyone should test their.
- [27:54]
Remy Warren
Their water.
- [27:56]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Cool. I'll keep going down the list. So we're going to do protein at every meal. We're going to do no calories between our set meal times. We're going to add produce in with every meal. And then we get to number four, which is you have to watch your carbohydrates and make sure they're from Whole Foods. So that means we're going to eat a bunch of potatoes, a bunch of sweet potatoes, a bunch of yams for that carb. But we need to avoid all these high sugar, complex carbs that are kind of spiking the insulin response and everyone. So that is going to be. You're going to not eat white bread. You're not going to eat the white rice. You're going to go for the brown rice. And what that one is really doing is when you switch and start focusing on whole food. Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates have a bad rap. So because of the keto and low carb diet craze over the last decade, carbs did get a bad rap. But what we know as people that train hard, we do need carbs. And carbs are great for anyone who's hiking hard or working out hard or training hard. Carbs are very, very important for our whole energy system to work the bad rap. And then the ones we need to watch out for Are the complex carbs not from whole foods? And so what those do is it spikes everyone's insulin response, just like sugar. And that's going to create that. You're going to feel great for an hour and then you're going to crash. And so we're avoiding complex carbs, but at every meal we do want carbs, but they need to be from a whole food. So for the next eight weeks, we want everyone to think about like those potatoes and those sweet potatoes with their meal.
- [29:48]
Remy Warren
Awesome.
- [29:49]
Dustin Diefenderfer
All right, five, diving into five. You're gonna like this one. So five, we're gonna hydrate between meals. So the, the big one here is that most people are dehydrated. Almost every single client that walks into the mountain tough lab, we find out that they're not drinking enough water. Like 70% of Americans are dehydrated. And so we're recommending hydrate between meals. 75 hard did the gallon of water per day, and that was to boost everyone's water intake up greatly. When I talked to Kyle Camp about this one, he said the best way to think about this one for re for realistic, consistent approach is a 16 ounce Nalgene. So that's your standard size Nalgene, not the tall ones, your normal Nalgene. Think about drinking three of those per day. So we're going to do one between breakfast and lunch, one between lunch and dinner, and then one in the evening. That's going to get us three of those 16 ounce nalgenes. If we're on that track and we're hydrating between those meals, then we're going to get out of this feeling of being dehydrated all the time. And dehydration is causing a couple things that is going to really change the way people feel when they fix that. So dehydration, the one thing that they'll notice right away is when you are drinking enough water, your cognitive function goes way up. So if you're dehydrated, thinking clearly, articulating clearly is difficult. But when you get that hydration up, that cognitive function comes up and then you are going to be able to start pursuing your goals with a lot more passion. So that's an awesome benefit of hydrating. And then also just like the protein, just like the produce, just like picking the right carbs, we are trying to say stay full in between meals. And so by eating the right things and drinking enough water, you're also not hungry all the time. And when you're not hungry all the time, you're eliminating those Calories in between meals and. And you're staying in keeping with these consistent habits.
- [32:05]
Remy Warren
That's awesome. Yeah, that's great. I always like to joke around, like someone asked how much water I had today. I'm like three or four cups of coffee worth.
- [32:14]
Dustin Diefenderfer
There's water and coffee, right?
- [32:15]
Remy Warren
Yeah, no, that's just a curious question. I don't know if Kyle had mentioned does it matter? Like, yeah, I'm more of a, like, when it comes to hydrating, I just chug what and then I'm done. Right. Or is it better to like slow amount, like just kind of drink it over the course of, let's say that whole now gene. Like I'm the type person, like get a Nalgene and water, drink the whole now gene water right in ones. Or is it better to like let it go for a few hours in between the meals? Or does it even matter?
- [32:47]
Dustin Diefenderfer
I think, I think splitting it out throughout the day is helpful with like that the, the full feeling and the digestion feeling.
- [32:55]
Remy Warren
Right.
- [32:56]
Dustin Diefenderfer
And then I think when I did ask Kyle about that, we did talk a little bit about the workouts and what time your workout is going to be in the day. So he wants you to. To make sure you're going into these workouts hydrated and then replenishing yourself as quickly as you can post workout. Because we're going to sweat so much and lose a lot of that water. But other than that, I think it's just. I think it's kind of this pursuit of getting a lot of water every day.
- [33:24]
Remy Warren
Perfect. That's awesome.
- [33:27]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Cool diving in. I'll do another recap. So protein every meal. No calorie outside of meal times. Produce every meal. Carbs need to come from whole foods. Now we are hydrating between meals. Think about that 16 ounce Nalgene three times a day. Then we get into rule number six. This one is going to be the hardest one for me. Number six is limit eating out to once per month. So this one was super interesting working with Kyle and putting this on here. So limit eating out once per month. There was two big components of this one that had Kyle include it in the live ready challenge. The first one, the statistic kind of blew my mind. But the reason that this one is so powerful is because of how bad and how high calorie food is when we eat out at a restaurant. So eating out at a restaurant, calories per plate are going to at least be 20% higher than if you ate that same meal per home at home. So eating out same meal at your home versus at a restaurant. At a restaurant, that calorie count on that plate is going to be 20% higher. So what Kyle is indicating here is that it's super hard to lose weight and maintain that optimal weight if you're eating out all the time. For sure.
- [35:03]
Remy Warren
Yeah. I mean, you just feel different when you eat at home versus eating out. And we all get caught. I mean, a lot of people get caught up in that, myself included, like, hey, I'm on the road or this, that and the other thing, this is what we're going to do. Because the foresight of like meal prepping for, especially if you travel a lot or travel for work, that's the hardest part in my opinion. Like, you're bringing it all with you, which I've actually gotten a lot better at. What I've been doing lately is I make the meals, I vacuum seal them and then I bring like freeze them and then I bring it with me and I can just throw that vacuum bagged meal in like boiling water and it's so easy. Like I do that on our hunts. I do that and it's just been like, I've got a chamber vac sealer so I can like even vacuum seal liquid stuff. Like I could make a, you know, I could make a venison shank or something, you know. Oh yeah. Boom. Just vacuum sealant. And the way that it reheats too, it's not like it tastes just like you cooked it right then, which is nice. But yeah, I just started kind of implementing that this last year and it's been way better. Like just feel better, you know, on those, all those days away where you're just like, I, I'm eating, eating what I would eat at home, but I'm not at home. Whether it's on a hunt or somewhere else, it's been, it's been awesome.
- [36:17]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Yeah. That's a game changing pro tip. I, I remember last year Kyle worked with Randy Newberg through show season and Kyle just told Randy to pack snacks everywhere he went. Everything should be like pre packed at home, you know, like string cheese yogurt, pre made meals and do that through show season instead of eating out all the time. And it was like a substantial difference how he felt just making that simple tweak. So it's, it's like not about how many calories we're consuming every day. It's about what's behind those calories and often eating out. The reason that we always feel like death after eating out, even if it's A. A great balanced meal is because, you know, restaurants have different oils that they're using to cook these foods. They're putting sugar in foods that we normally wouldn't at home. And they're doing all of this because they want things to taste amazing when you eat out, which they often do. But because of that, we're getting a lot of extra substances in our body that we normally wouldn't at home. And then just a lot more calories at the same time, for sure.
- [37:34]
Remy Warren
No, that's great.
- [37:36]
Dustin Diefenderfer
The other cool thing about that one is how much money we can spend eating out.
- [37:42]
Remy Warren
It's funny you mentioned that. I just thought about that. I was like, okay, I could probably. That's like an extra elk tag a year.
- [37:50]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Yeah. In terms of budgeting, cutting out, limiting eating out to once per month, that is like an extra elk tag per year for sure.
- [37:59]
Remy Warren
That's cool.
- [38:01]
Dustin Diefenderfer
All right, then we get into seven. So seven is when we get more into, like, the mental, spiritual, emotional side of the live ready challenge. So I'll do a recap again. Protein every meal, no calories outside of meal times. Produce every meal, carbs from whole foods, hydrate between meals, limit eating out to once per month. And then we get into seven, which is minimize screen time. So the big one here that we were going for is Mountain Tough's philosophy and ethos and focus around being present, being better fathers, better mothers, better husbands, better spouses, the minimizing screen time. What we are challenging people to do for this next eight weeks is when you get home from work and it's five o'clock and you walk in the door and, you know, maybe you have kids at the house, maybe you don't, but we want you to put that phone away, try to shut off the distraction of the day and really think about your goals, your objectives. What else could you be working on in the evening? And then if you do have kids at home, am I present with my kids? Is my phone put somewhere else? Am I being active? Am I being engaged with my family members?
- [39:31]
Remy Warren
That's awesome. I mean, I've been a big proponent of that for a very long time, and it makes a life change for sure. I think one of the things people ask a question to me a lot is like, oh, how do you. You're gone a lot. How do you get that time? Or whatever. And that's the thing that I've always recommended is, like, when you're home, be 100% present. Put your phone away. You don't like, I'm terrible. Like, If. If I'm on group text. Sorry, I probably didn't read it because I'm not. I'm not, like, tied to that point. I'll get to it when I get to it. Right? But, like, because it's not important. Like, I'm pretty sure whatever is on there isn't that important. As important as the stuff that's going on around when I'm at home. And. And man, like, kids especially, too, if you've got family, even whether you got kids or not, just being present and the things that you can do, you know, when you have kids, it changes, like, what you get to do. Before I was married, it was like my wife and I would, like, play cribbage or something a lot. You know, like, you find something to do with kids, there's no lack of things to do, but at least you're there present in, like, you know, that time that you do spend with them is quality time, not just time. It makes a big difference.
- [40:42]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Yeah, it's huge. And, you know, life is just a bunch of these little moments, and if we're not present in them, then we're just kind of blowing by life without soaking it all in. And then not only is this one super important, like you mentioned with kids, because kids are gonna know that you're not paying attention to them while they're talking, because you're on your phone, even though you might be listening, you're still not present. But the. The big life change I've seen in this one also for sure is when people eliminate that phone at home after work, or when they eliminate that Netflix at home after work. You see a lot of people create these great, phenomenal second projects in their life because now they have all this free time after work. And so even without kids, you'll see someone start that second business or they're building a bow, shooting a bow, building a rifle, shooting a rifle. It gives them all this free time that they've always had in between work hours. But that free time used to be so soaked up by the phone or the tv, and when that's eliminated, it's like they have a whole second career or a whole second passion that they're able to go after.
- [42:04]
Remy Warren
That's awesome.
- [42:06]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Cool. Diving in to the last one. So we're on Rule 8 here of the Live Ready Challenge. Rule 8 is commit to mountain tough workouts five days a week. And so we put this one in here, and I'm really stoked about this one because the whole mountain tough community is going through the Live Ready Challenge together. And so there's tens of thousands of mountain toughers that'll be going through this eight week challenge together. And they'll also be doing these workouts together. So that makes it powerful because like Sarah in her minimal gear dailies will be talking about the live ready Challenge daily. Nick in his gym daily will be talking about the live ready challenge all the time. So in terms of camaraderie and accountability, this is an excellent, excellent option for people adding this eighth rule. And then like we started the whole podcast today, the huge key to fitness is consistency. And so we want people to consistently be training every single day. And with Mountain Tough now, there are several beginner programs, several intermediate, intermediate programs, several elite programs. There's body weight, there's heavy pack, there's weight vest, there's sandbag, there's full gym programs with squat racks, machines and everything. So regardless of who you are, it should be no problem at all picking a program for rule number eight and committing to that program for five days per week. So weekends off on this one because we do want you to recover, but we want you training with us and training together as a community for the next eight weeks.
- [44:02]
Remy Warren
Awesome, man. No, that's a, I mean, that's a great way to kind of get everybody geared up and just kind of focused in on prepping and really living ready for this next season. I mean, I think it's a great idea and you've kind of put in a lot of stuff that, you know, people struggle with and myself included, you know, we all, it's at some point have one, one of these eight things that were like, yeah, I can definitely do that better, which, which is awesome. And I think it's like, good to kind of refocus on that, especially this time of year and, and, and honestly, like it, you know, it sounds simple, but I think like the biggest key is like you said, the consistency. Doing anything over and over isn't that simple. So by keeping those simple like it, it gives people achievable goals that I think are easy to remember and, and sounds, I mean, it sounds awesome. We're, we're all jumping in on it. I'm jumping in with you guys and doing it and looking forward to it. It's going to be a, it's going to be a fun time and it's just a good time of year to kind of get your mind right and think about all the other things that you want to accomplish this year and, and kind of dive into it.
- [45:10]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Thanks. Yeah, I'm really excited for everyone to jump in and for, for your community to jump in. These are the kinds of things that even though it's an eight week challenge, these are the type of things that if you do them right and stick with it, can change the next eight years of your life. And so we've talked about this on past recordings that you and I have done, but all this stuff is kind of operating off this positive snowball concept. And so when people start eating better, they start feeling better. When they start feeling better, they start training better. When they start training better, they start sleeping better, when they start sleeping better, they're better the next day at work or in the field. And so that's the same exact thing that happens when people stick with this for a while. Even though that first week might be super difficult, where you know, we're going to be craving going out to that restaurant or we're going to be sore from training every day that first week. But we just have to fight through that hump. Usually that soreness and that change of lifestyle is going to start going away, that feeling of it around day 14. And then day 21 is when habits are formed. So I, I'm excited. It's going to be a big, big year for this many people going through this at once. And just remember that like it's going to be uncomfortable and awkward for a lot of individuals at first making these changes. But you have to push and you have to fight for that 21 day mark because that's when we go from it being new to it being more of a lifestyle. And when it's more of a lifestyle, that's when we really kind of start hitting these thresholds of consistency.
- [47:00]
Remy Warren
Awesome, man. Well, I appreciate it. It's a, it's a great program and I'm looking forward to diving in with you guys. Oh, I want to do also mention for the listeners because there's probably quite a few people that are like thinking, oh this sounds awesome, you know, I want to jump in. How do I do that? And there's a, I know you guys are offering essentially a pretty sweet discount for those that are, are thinking about jumping in this year for the first time. What's the code for that again?
- [47:30]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Yeah, so the, the code's half off, which is a killer deal. It'll be on the mountain. Tough annual subscription. The code gets you half off for the year. So 50% discounted for the live ready challenge for kicking off 2025. Right. And so everyone can just do that@mountaintough.com and then you click Start free trial. And then when it asks for your promo code on start free trial, it's the word half off. So spelled out all one word, H, A, L, F, O, F, F. And that gets you 50 off mountain tough for the full year.
- [48:09]
Remy Warren
Sweet. Well, that's cool. I appreciate you guys doing that. That's nice to be able to get, get people in and, and kind of set on the right path and, and I mean, look, if you're in, if you got aspirations for an elk tag, maybe you're applying for draws for maybe something that might be a once in a lifetime hunt or whatever, like this is the time to start so you can make the most out of what's coming up this season. You know, I mean, like as a, as a hunter, whenever I do something like this, it's like all that's in my mind is getting on the mountain, you know, and it's all worth it for sure. So appreciate you guys. Thanks so much, Dustin. And it's always, always a pleasure to have you on the podcast. I know our listeners really enjoy it and like I was looking back last podcast covering some of the, the top podcasts here, the top 10 podcasts, and I think you guys landed, you were like in three of them. So the listeners really enjoy you coming on and, and we really appreciate you having here. So thanks again. And until next week, I'm just gonna say stay ready and catch you guys later.
- [49:18]
Dustin Diefenderfer
Stay ready.
- [49:22]
Remy Warren
Man. I hope you guys really enjoyed that podcast. It's always awesome being able to sit down with Dustin and just glean that knowledge from him. It's one of the reasons that I work with Mountain Tough because I know that like I say in the beginning of the podcast, a lot of the tips and tactics, you just have to be in the, a certain amount of physical shape to take advantage of the tactics that we talk about. And honestly, that's their specialty. You know, it's awesome to be able to lean on those guys for that and have a program where you can jump on and say, well, what should I do? And this is, this lays it out perfectly. And if you're, you know, planning on getting started or what have you, this eight week challenge I think is definitely going to be beneficial and I'm going to be jumping on and doing it with everyone. I'm going to do this same eight week challenge. So I'm really looking forward to it and it's going to be awesome. One of the other things that I wanted to remind you guys about, the Wild Sheep foundation has Its national convention coming up January 16th, 17th and 18th in Reno, Nevada. One of my favorite conservation expos to go to every year. There's a lot of awesome things going on. There's a lot of of ways to win sheep hunts and one of those ways, Friday the 17th, the tough sheep workout. There's only 500 participants, so if you've signed up for it. Awesome. There might be a couple spots available. I'm not really sure, but somebody's going to go home with a sheep hunt. You have to sign up and complete the workout and then you're entered to win. So there's also outside of that daily raffles, plenty opportunity to win. There's a less than one club for people that have never hunted wild sheep. It's a way to win a sheep hunt. Super cool. It's a really awesome event. And then also for listeners of the podcast or anybody, I'm doing a live Q and A in one of the seminar rooms on Friday. So if you're there for the workout or you're in town for it, come by 1.30pm I've got a seminar going. It's going to be a live Q and A that will air for this podcast. Those are always fun. So if you've made it to the to the workout, come by, swing by. I also have a few things to throw out into the audience as well. After I like to to do a little bit of a giveaway with all my Q and A's. So that'll be there. And then. Yeah, just so you guys know, so it's open. I mean the show's open to the public. Day passes are 25 and you can save $5 by just picking up like a discount coupon. They have them at several retail sporting goods store. So you can always swing by a sporting goods store and get a $5 off. That'll be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to that. And then also just so you guys know, I'll have a booth there as well for my Live Wild brand. So I'll be hanging out at the booth here and there, bouncing around between the podcast and all the other events. But stop by man, if there's any Live Wild gear that you guys want. We'll have a lot of our stuff available there. It's kind of like a Live Wild pop up store, our spices and other stuff. So if you're there, swing on by. It'd be awesome to say hey and thank you guys for the support. Also, if you're going to be ramping up your fitness this year. And as you prep, I just want to remind everyone too that you can always use code livewild. With Wilderness Athlete, you get some great discounts, not only on hydrate and recover energy and focus, but they've got meal replacement, vitamins, bars, all the stuff to help refuel you, prepare you for the mountain. Some incredible products. It's stuff that I've used for a long time and continue to use in my day to day life. So let's just, you know, help you guys out with that. And for those of you getting ready for upcoming hunting season, you know, I'm just going to say until next week, stay ready and we'll catch you guys later.