2513: Our Top 5 Favorite Fitness Snacks (Listener Coaching)

Summary

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth
Episode: 2513: Our Top 5 Favorite Fitness Snacks (Listener Coaching)
Release Date: January 17, 2025
Hosts: Sal DiStefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, Produced by Doug Egge

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Introduction to Fitness Snacking

In this episode, the Mind Pump team delves into the often overlooked topic of fitness snacks, exploring the impact of snacking on obesity and outlining their top five favorite snacks that enhance performance without adding unwanted fat.

Sal DiStefano ([04:16]):

"Snacking is probably responsible for most people's obesity. Eating in between meals, eating all the time, eating convenient foods. This can be a huge challenge."

The hosts agree that while snacking is commonly viewed negatively, strategic choices can turn it into an asset for fitness enthusiasts.

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Top 5 Favorite Fitness Snacks

1. Beef Jerky or Meat Sticks

Sal DiStefano ([07:12]):

"Number one has to be beef jerky or meat sticks. It's got to be the minimally processed kind of healthier versions, like the grass-fed versions."

Justin Andrews ([06:58]):

"Bars and shakes are essentially pre-digested. Whole foods start the digestive process, enhancing satiety more effectively."

Key Points:

• High Protein: Approximately 20 grams of protein per serving.
• Convenience: Long shelf life, non-perishable, and easy to carry.
• Minimal Processing: Prefer grass-fed and minimally seasoned options to avoid excessive additives.

2. Greek Yogurt

Justin Andrews ([10:38]):

"Now a lot of these companies are boosting the protein in Greek yogurt. You have two little cups with 40 grams of protein, plus some fruit or granola."

Sal DiStefano ([11:14]):

"If you can tolerate dairy, Greek yogurt is a go-to snack for clients to boost protein intake between meals."

Key Points:

• Protein-Rich: Enhanced protein content makes it excellent for muscle maintenance.
• Versatile: Can be paired with fruits or granola for added flavor and nutrients.
• Digestibility: Some may find Greek yogurt easier to digest compared to other dairy products.

3. Hard-Boiled Eggs

Sal DiStefano ([13:25]):

"Eggs are amazing. They’re so healthy. High-quality protein and nutrient-dense."

Key Points:

• Nutrient-Dense: Provides essential nutrients like vitamins and cholesterol beneficial for muscle synthesis.
• Portability: Easily transportable and don’t require refrigeration for short durations.
• High Protein: Approximately 6 grams of protein per egg.

4. Cottage Cheese

Sal DiStefano ([14:27]):

"Cottage cheese was a bodybuilding staple and is making a comeback. It’s excellent protein."

Justin Andrews ([14:21]):

"Cottage cheese with pineapple slices is a classic favorite."

Key Points:

• High Protein Content: Ideal for muscle building and maintenance.
• Flavor Options: Can be mixed with fruits for enhanced taste.
• Low Fat Options Available: Suitable for various dietary needs.

5. Deli Meats (Turkey Slices)

Justin Andrews ([14:29]):

"Turkey slices are an easy way to snack on protein, especially when you're on the go."

Key Points:

• Convenient Protein Source: Easy to pack and consume during travels.
• Lean Options: Opt for low-sodium and less processed varieties to maximize health benefits.
• Versatile Use: Can be paired with whole-grain crackers or vegetables.

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The Impact of Snacking on Appetite and Performance

Justin Andrews ([02:57]):

"Carbohydrate-based snacks often fail to contribute to protein intake and can stimulate appetite, leading to increased cravings."

Sal DiStefano ([07:34]):

"If you're going to snack, have it contribute to your protein intake since that's hard to hit anyway. Protein produces more satiety."

Key Insights:

• Protein vs. Carbs: High-protein snacks are more effective in controlling appetite and reducing cravings compared to carbohydrate-heavy options.
• Satiety Factor: Protein enhances feelings of fullness, thereby assisting in better meal planning and calorie control.

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Listener Questions and Coaching Insights

After discussing their favorite snacks, the hosts transition to answering listener questions, providing expert coaching insights on various fitness-related topics.

Q1: Differences Between High Protein Diets from Whole Foods vs. Protein Supplements

Listener: Becca Fit

Sal DiStefano ([57:31]):

"Whole natural foods provide a superior satiety effect because they require more digestion, enhancing appetite control compared to pre-digested protein powders."

Justin Andrews ([59:19]):

"Processed foods contain dyes and chemicals that may cause inflammation and affect how macros are absorbed, impacting body composition."

Key Points:

• Satiety and Digestion: Whole foods require more mechanical digestion, leading to better appetite control.
• Nutrient Profile: Whole foods offer a broader range of nutrients without artificial additives found in some protein supplements.
• Practical Observations: Clients using whole foods report better visual and physiological outcomes compared to those relying heavily on supplements.

Q2: Preferred Variation of Shrugs (Hands Front, Sides, Behind Back)

Listener: Matt Roberts

Sal DiStefano ([63:32]):

"Hands in front attach better to lifts like deadlifts and cleans, translating more effectively to overall strength."

Justin Andrews ([64:37]):

"As a coach, I rarely train shrugs in isolation, focusing instead on compound movements that naturally engage the traps."

Key Points:

• Functional Integration: Hands-in-front shrugs align better with compound lifts, enhancing practical strength.
• Bodybuilding vs. Functional Training: Bodybuilders may prefer hands-to-sides for muscle isolation, whereas functional trainers integrate traps into broader movements.

Q3: Training Abs with Weights and Waist Thickness

Listener: Morgel12

Sal DiStefano ([66:27]):

"Proper technique is crucial. Weighted ab exercises can strengthen the core without unnecessarily increasing waist circumference."

Justin Andrews ([67:26]):

"A defined and muscular waist looks better and is more functional than a thinner waist without muscle development."

Key Points:

• Technique Matters: Incorrect form can lead to imbalanced muscle engagement, turning ab workouts into ineffective hip flexor exercises.
• Aesthetic vs. Functionality: Building abdominal muscles enhances both the appearance and functional strength of the core.

Q4: Best Time to Ask Clients to Get Their Hormones Checked

Listener: getfitwithyas

Sal DiStefano ([69:24]):

"Check hormones at the beginning of the training program and reassess three to six months later to monitor changes and address any imbalances."

Justin Andrews ([70:30]):

"Early hormone testing allows trainers to customize programs effectively and ensure clients are progressing healthily."

Key Points:

• Initial Assessment: Establish a baseline for hormonal health to tailor fitness and nutrition strategies.
• Ongoing Monitoring: Regular reassessments help in tracking progress and making necessary adjustments to training programs.

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Social Interaction, Loneliness, and Health

Beyond fitness snacks, the hosts explore the profound impact of social interactions on overall health, referencing a study from the University of Cambridge linking loneliness to increased risks of heart disease, stroke, and infections.

Sal DiStefano ([22:23]):

"Loneliness doesn't just suck; it can also make you die earlier. It's crucial to be around people for both mental and physical health."

Adam Schaefer ([19:16]):

"Loneliness affects everyone differently, but prolonged isolation can have severe health consequences."

Key Insights:

• Biological Effects: Social isolation triggers specific proteins that negatively impact health.
• Modern Challenges: Despite technological advancements, modern society experiences increased loneliness, particularly among youth.
• Holistic Health: Emphasizing the importance of face-to-face interactions to achieve complete emotional and physiological well-being.

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Personal Anecdotes and Community Building

The episode is peppered with personal stories and light-hearted banter, fostering a sense of community among listeners. The hosts share embarrassing school photos, discuss trends like "butthole lips" in makeup, and reminisce about past experiences, making the content relatable and engaging.

Justin Andrews ([46:26]):

"I have a fifth-grade photo with a mullet and a wave hairstyle—looks like a Backstreet Boy!"

Sal DiStefano ([47:41]):

"I also have a fifth-grade picture with spiked hair and a bowl-cut—looking like Sonic the Hedgehog."

Key Points:

• Relatability: Sharing personal stories helps listeners connect with the hosts on a human level.
• Community Engagement: These anecdotes encourage a friendly and open listening environment, reinforcing the podcast’s supportive community ethos.

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Closing Remarks and Resources

The episode concludes with the hosts promoting their coaching courses and training protocols, emphasizing their commitment to providing science-backed fitness solutions.

Sal DiStefano ([50:46]):

"If you're a trainer or fitness coach, our Mind Pump Fitness Coaching Course now counts towards your education with NASM approval."

Justin Andrews ([71:36]):

"If you like the show, find us on Instagram and explore our discounted RGB Super Bundle for comprehensive training programs."

Key Points:

• Educational Advancement: Offering accredited courses to help fitness professionals enhance their credentials.
• Comprehensive Programs: Providing structured workout blueprints and extensive video resources to support diverse fitness goals.

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Notable Quotes:

• Sal DiStefano ([07:12]):
  "Number one has to be beef jerky or meat sticks. It's got to be the minimally processed kind of healthier versions."

• Justin Andrews ([12:59]):
  "Greek yogurt with pineapple slices is a classic favorite."

• Sal DiStefano ([63:32]):
  "Hands in front attach better to lifts like deadlifts and cleans, translating more effectively to overall strength."

• Justin Andrews ([67:26]):
  "A waist that is defined and muscular looks better and is more functional than a thinner waist without muscle development."

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Conclusion

Episode 2513 of Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth offers valuable insights into selecting the right fitness snacks to support muscular development and performance. The hosts emphasize the importance of high-protein, minimally processed options while addressing broader topics like social health and effective training strategies through listener questions. With a blend of expert advice and personal stories, the episode serves as a comprehensive guide for fitness enthusiasts aiming to optimize their nutrition and overall well-being.

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Connect with Mind Pump:

• Instagram: @mindpumpmedia, @mindpumpsal, @mindpumpadam, @mindpumpjustin, @mindpumpdoug
• Website: mindpumppodcast.com
• Training Protocols: mapsfitnessproducts.com

Transcript

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[Sal DiStefano]

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump. Mind Pump. With your hosts Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews, you just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump, right? In today's episode, we answered listeners questions. We picked questions from our Instagram page, indpump Media and we answer them. We help people out. But this was after our intro portion. The Intro today was 54 minutes long. In the intro we talk about our lives, current events, fitness studies. It's a really good time. Again, if you want to post a question that we might pick, go to Instagram mindpumpmedia Now. This episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Brain fm. Brain FM plays sounds and music that induce different states of mind, different brain wave states. In other words, you listen to Brain FM Focus, you become more focused. You listen to Brain FM sleep, you go to sleep. It works. It really works. It's patented technology. Go to Brain FM mindpump. Get 30 days for free. Try it out for yourself. See for yourself. Again, it really does work. This episode is also brought to you by Caldera Lab. They make skincare products that are all natural, super effective. In fact, studies have shown that over 90% of the people that use Caldera Lab notice dramatic improvements in the appearance and health of their skin. Go check them out. Go to calderalab.com mindpump Use the code mindpump20. Get 20% off your first order. We also have some workout program bundles this month. By the way, each of these bundles, okay, includes multiple programs and each one is over $300 off massive, massive sale. Here they are, the new to Weightlifting Bundle, the Body Transformation Bundle, the New Year Extreme Intensity Bundle, and the body transformation bundle 2.0. All of them on sale and you can find all of them@maps January.com all right, here comes the show snacking. It's probably responsible for most people's obesity. Eating in between meals, eating all the time, eating convenient foods. This can be a huge challenge. Let's talk about the top five fitness snacks. Snacks are there things you can eat on the go that will contribute to your performance, your fitness and your physicality make you look better instead of making you look fat.

[Justin Andrews]

I used to tell clients that snacks were not real. They're a made up word. There's only complete and incomplete meals.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, I did the same thing.

[Justin Andrews]

And so it's a bunch of incomplete meals. But I do think that there are some strategies around picking snacks. I think the first thing that has to be the, the first major qualifier is it needs to be a higher protein choice, since this is where snacking gets at it. Because like, even someone who makes a good choice, like say like a health, what they consider healthy choice, you know, carrots or celery or berries or something like that, that would fall in the category of healthy. It's calories without any protein. And protein is always.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's the most challenging thing to get.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes. And so that's where I think snacking really gets out of hand.

[Sal DiStefano]

I agree. It's funny you said that. It's made up. The snack food market was invented.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

This wasn't a category of food that humans traditionally like. You had foods you would take on long trips with you when you're on your horse and you're going across the plains and you need some food with you. I know the Mongolians used to take like cheese with them and stuff. But the snack food market was a, a food industry creation to try to circumvent breakfast, lunch and dinner. And I think it started with like TV meals. TV dinners, dude.

[Adam Schaefer]

I still know people that can't leave the house if they go in a car. They have to have the snack to go with them. My blood sugar, I'm like, really? It's like, it's so ingrained in our culture.

[Justin Andrews]

It's always a non diabetic person that says that too. Like they need to control their blood sugar.

[Adam Schaefer]

Exactly.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. No. You know, now I do understand the, the, the perceived value of snacks. Convenience, you know, it's got a longer shelf life. I will imbibe in some of these snacks when I'm traveling on a long road trip. And I don't necessarily have a good place to stop to eat. I don't necessarily want to stop to eat on the place off the side of the freeway, but I do want to eat, eat, and maybe Help myself, hit some protein targets. So there are things you could pick that are better than others. And I love what you're saying about protein, Adam. I think if you're gonna snack, at least have it contribute to your protein intake, since that's hard to hit anyway. And also protein does produce more satiety. Other, you know, macronutrients, carbohydrates in particular, tend to not contribute that much to satiety. And you may actually find that some of them actually stimulate appetite. So you might have experienced this yourself. You're in the back of the car and people are like, hey, do you want to get snacks? You're like, no, they get some, then you have some of theirs, and all of a sudden you're like, yeah, I think I want some. Yeah, yeah, I think I want some snacks.

[Adam Schaefer]

Especially chips.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yes, that's a big one.

[Adam Schaefer]

A million of them.

[Sal DiStefano]

So number one has to be beef jerky or meat sticks. That's got to be up there. Kind of the minimally processed kind of healthier versions, like the grass fed versions. Paleo Valley company we work with, they have great meat sticks here. You've got meat, you've just got meat and it's dried. And the minimally processed versions of this, I mean, you could get jerky and eat 20 grams of protein in a serving, which with, you know, somewhat minimal calories, a lot. Some of the jerky is very lean.

[Justin Andrews]

So that's what makes it, I think, so good, is that, I mean, it's almost eating pure protein. I mean, that's pretty much what you're consuming when you have beef jerky. So there's not. That's why it's a good one for number one is there's not a lot of snacks that calorie. For calorie that you're getting, it's all coming and derived from protein. So that makes it incredibly valuable and probably at the top of my list because as it goes down in protein for me, even if it falls under the whole food or healthy category, it becomes less valuable to me at least. Coming from a coach's perspective, teaching a client to make better food choices, because it's always an uphill battle for me to get my clients to hit the protein intake. And if they start filling those that calorie budget up with healthy snacks that are carbohydrate based, we find ourselves at the end of the day behind on protein.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. And this, the other value of jerky is that it's very easy to find. Now gas stations have stores. Well, yeah. Yes, it lasts a long time.

[Adam Schaefer]

Comes in higher quality now. Not just Slim Jim.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Airport doesn't need to be refrigerated. You don't need utensils for it. I mean, it's a.

[Sal DiStefano]

There's a lot of reasons why it makes super convenient. In fact, this is my number one type of thing. I'll eat when I'm flying to do other podcasts, and I don't have time necessarily to stop to go eat somewhere. I'll either fast or I'll grab jerky and I can find it anywhere. Airport, gas station, almost anywhere you'll find any kind of a snack you're now going to find.

[Justin Andrews]

And I do want to point out, because I know you said the gas station thing and I know you're going to have some of the. The super crunchy health nuts that'll be like, oh, my God, that's got this and that. It's just like, there's a. There's a hierarchy here.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, of course.

[Justin Andrews]

Of, like, choices. I would much rather a client eat, you know, a steak. Well, no, I mean, like. I mean, I'd rather them pick the gas station beef jerky than choose something that is like a pure carbohydrate snack, you know, or like some granola bar or something like that. It's like, I would way rather that, even if the other one is more natural, that to me, the protein thing is, is the big thing is getting enough protein and not getting a bunch of calories where you don't get that is what.

[Sal DiStefano]

You know, speaking of which, by the way, have you guys ever made your jerky, you know, with those dehydrators?

[Justin Andrews]

I've never been.

[Sal DiStefano]

No. Oh, yeah, I'm sure, Doug, you probably have. I'm sure you have.

[Justin Andrews]

Do you have a dehydrator?

[Doug]

I can use a smoker.

[Sal DiStefano]

Actually. The.

[Doug]

The Traeger works.

[Sal DiStefano]

Really?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I can make beef jerky in my Traeger.

[Doug]

Sure, why not?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Really?

[Sal DiStefano]

Of course.

[Justin Andrews]

I thought.

[Doug]

I haven't actually done it with the Traeger, but I've had a smoker in the past and I've used it.

[Justin Andrews]

I didn't know that. I thought you would have to use.

[Sal DiStefano]

You get some lean meat. You don't even have to get lean meat. You. You cut it thin, you season it, and you dry it, and it's got crazy shelf life. My uncle used to make his own jerky and we would take it Traeger recipe. He used to have a motorhome and we would go on like, camping trips with my Cousin. And he would make his own. He was very, you know, he's a. He's a herbalist, and so he's very into health. And he would make his own, and we would bring it, and he would also dry fruit, and we'd bring that with us.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

One of my friends would go hunting and bring venison.

[Justin Andrews]

Dude, I'm doing.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, yeah, you got to do it. And if you season it well, it's. It's amazing, huh? And it's minimally processed. It's literally. You'll add your own. You know, typically it's soy sauce and salt.

[Justin Andrews]

Is this, like, one of those dumb aha moments I'm having right now? Yeah, I've always wanted it. I just thought you had to have, like, a actual machine to do it.

[Sal DiStefano]

No.

[Justin Andrews]

And I know I could do that.

[Sal DiStefano]

Even if you bought a dehydrator super cheap. You could buy a dehydrator on Amazon and just put it out there, and.

[Justin Andrews]

It'S saying it only takes four hours.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Wow.

[Justin Andrews]

I've got the cherry pellets and all this stuff.

[Sal DiStefano]

And then, you know, you do. You get.

[Justin Andrews]

You.

[Sal DiStefano]

You bag it, and if you really want it to last a long time, you get one of those vacuum bags.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

And you pack a bunch of those, bro. That'll last you a.

[Justin Andrews]

Now, is there. Is there any types of cuts that do better? Do you know, by chance, I'm pretty.

[Doug]

Sure you can probably use most anything.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, you can do anything. So rib eye is going to be a little more tender, a little fatter. I mean, you do the lean ones. They last a long time.

[Doug]

They recommend flank steak.

[Sal DiStefano]

Flank.

[Justin Andrews]

Okay. Wow. I'm so going to do this.

[Sal DiStefano]

Isn't that interesting?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Next up, Greek yogurt. Great source of protein. Very healthy. It tastes good. You could add a little bit of fruit to it if you want. And most grocery stores will have this. And you'll find grocery stores now are pretty easy for most people to find. And I've even seen Greek yogurt in gas stations these days.

[Justin Andrews]

So my favorite part about Greek yogurt, and this has happened in just the last, like, five years. And I don't know if this is because somebody. Somebody, One of these big companies did some research and found how popular Greek yogurt is in the fitness community. But now they're starting to boost the protein in them.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yep.

[Justin Andrews]

So now a lot. Now a lot of these companies are. Got 15 to 20 grams of protein in a small cup. You have two of those little cups, and you got 40 grams of protein, throw a little bit of blueberries or granola over the top of it. I mean, this has become my go to snack at night.

[Sal DiStefano]

You eat every day?

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, every day I eat Greek yogurt. I either eat it in the morning time as one of like my meals where I double it up and throw some granola and blueberries in it, or it's my evening snack when I'm still hungry post dinner and I want something kind of cold to curb that ice cream craving that I've always had go to for me.

[Sal DiStefano]

This was a go to for me with my clients. If you can tolerate dairy, you don't have an issue with dairy. Greek yogurt was my go to snack for clients. In between meal boost protein. Here you go.

[Justin Andrews]

Any idea, Sal? Why? So I have a mild intolerance to dairy. I've talked about it before. If I have multiple things in a day, for some reason, Greek yogurt just agrees with me on a whole nother level. Like if I, if I do like vitamin D, whole milk or something like that, like I can only tolerate so much of that with. And then also on top of that, let's say like a whey protein shake, that will bother me more than certain.

[Adam Schaefer]

Cheeses like that too.

[Justin Andrews]

Is that, I mean, is it just something to do with what it's derived with the Greek yogurt?

[Sal DiStefano]

No, not necessarily. Now, the cheese is maybe lower protein content. So it's the protein people tend to be. If you're intolerant to dairy, besides the lactose. So forget lactose. Some people just lactose intolerant. They take a lactose enzyme. They can have any dairy. But if you have an intolerance to dairy, it's usually the dairy protein. Some cheeses are low in proteins, higher in fats, so they'll do better with them. Like I could do butter, which is from dairy. Doesn't bother me at all. But it has no, almost no, you know, dairy protein. It may have to do with the probiotics in there. It may have to do with the.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I've always wondered why that is. Why? I mean, I feel like I can eat as much Greek yogurt as I want. And it does, it doesn't disrupt me in the slightest bit. Where I think I can tip over a little bit with other dairy products.

[Sal DiStefano]

It might be because of that. So yeah, the pro body. But I've heard other people say, I had clients like that where they, they were like iffy. But Greek yogurt or yogurt in general, fine, totally fine.

[Justin Andrews]

Interesting.

[Sal DiStefano]

Next up, hard boiled eggs. Now what? This is a trend I love in the food space. You used to not be able to. Oh, it's got less lactose than milk. There you go. Thanks.

[Justin Andrews]

So maybe it's the lactose that's bothering me more than anything.

[Sal DiStefano]

It might be. It might be you used to have to make your own hard boiled eggs. Now you can go to a gas station. Gas stations?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Grocery stores for sure.

[Justin Andrews]

Starbucks too.

[Sal DiStefano]

And Starbucks, they'll sell three, two or three.

[Justin Andrews]

Airports are doing it now. I see it all the time now. It's interesting. Is that recent? Right?

[Sal DiStefano]

That isn't always like the last few years maybe.

[Justin Andrews]

Last year I was at just one of my last flights that we took. There was actually an airport that sold four of them. That's right, yeah. In a package of four.

[Sal DiStefano]

Eggs are amazing. They're so healthy. Such high quality protein. Very nutrient dense. You get brain nutrients in there. You get anabolic cholesterol. That's not bad for you. Everybody says it's bad. We know now it's good for you. It is great for stimulating muscle protein synthesis. It's one of the best natural proteins you can eat for fitness and for muscle building. And now you can buy hard boiled eggs and you just take them with you, put them in a little cooler or not if you're going to eat them that day and you're totally fine. And it's like 6 grams of protein. Add a little bit of salt and you're good to go.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I love that one.

[Sal DiStefano]

Next up, cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is up there. Now. Cottage cheese is funny because that was a bodybuilding staple for so long. Fell out of favor for a little while. Now it's coming back. Everybody's all of a sudden starting to discover cottage cheese again. But it's like a bowl of cottage, like full fat cottage cheese. Delicious. And it's like excellent protein.

[Justin Andrews]

Cottage cheese with pineapple slices. I don't know what it is about the pineapple and cottage cheese, but the combination of the two of those, that's.

[Sal DiStefano]

Like, that's a classic.

[Justin Andrews]

That's my favorite. That's my favorite.

[Sal DiStefano]

Go to classic one. And then lastly, deli meats, turkey slices. One of my favorites, of course. Not ideal because it's somewhat of a processed meat, but you get, you can get the less processed kind of deli slices, but you get yourself a nice little stack of deli meats. I mean, it's an easy way to, you know, snack on protein in the car, on a drive.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. But to your point, and I want to make this clear. I know we're always in it. We always get weird pushback from some people like that. The bullet process. It's like, first of all, okay, I'm always trying to tell my clients, if, if you're hungry, eat a full meal. That. I mean like, because it'd be like, well, what do you do when you're hungry? And it's this time we'll eat a meal, eat a full meal. But not everybody has that luxury of they're carrying their Tupperware around or they have access to a complete meal. And so if you are going to snack, this is kind of the hierarchy of that. Like, of course there is better choices than beef jerky or that meal. But the point is, if I'm trying to make something as convenient and as easy as possible for my clients, that will help us stay on track with their goals. That's where turkey slice, delegate them to.

[Adam Schaefer]

Slice it up for you. Yeah, I mean, instead of getting the ultra processed version of it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yep, totally. I got a study that's really interesting. It's, it's, it's not going to blow you guys away, but it's another study just showing how impactful social interaction is for human health. We are the most social animals or creatures on earth. We know. I don't think anybody's going to argue that, you know, social relationships, relationships in general are important for our mental health, very important for our physical health as well. And another study came out, University of Cambridge shows that loneliness is linked to higher risk of heart disease and stroke and susceptibility to infection. So just another study to show that being lonely, it doesn't just suck, it also will make you die earlier. It's very important to be around people. And they've identified certain proteins associated with loneliness and though in social isolation.

[Justin Andrews]

What's your theory on how much of that is nature and how much of that is nurture? Like, obviously that we all have some of that to some capacity. But I've always thought it so interesting how I can't help but think back to when I was a child and I'm this way for sure. But my sister didn't bother her as much. Like we would get in trouble when we were little and we'd be sent to our room. Right, you're grounded for the day. Go to your room. And me going to my room and having to sit in my room on my bed for four or five, it was torture. I mean, I would cry, I would do. I mean, I would just anything to get Attention. I would actually do shit that would piss my mom off to bring her in. So she would be mad at you. To get engagement where my sister would go to a room and just play with her dolls all day long and just.

[Adam Schaefer]

My brother just read and he's fine and content.

[Justin Andrews]

So what is it? And we grew up in the same house. Right. So there. So obviously it's not. I mean, what is it?

[Sal DiStefano]

No, there's a. There's a. I mean, the data will show there's obviously a varying degree between individual and individual, but at the. At our core, we're social. So you take somebody like your sister who doesn't mind being alone sometimes, but isolate her for long enough for two.

[Justin Andrews]

Years, it'll even bother.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, it's torture.

[Justin Andrews]

And I'm. She would say that too. I'm sure she would admit that being.

[Sal DiStefano]

Alone, totally alone, is absolute torture. I mean, it's.

[Justin Andrews]

But it does make sense why she can do what she does for our company. That's kind of what she does. Right. So she's kind of all by herself on an island and doing all.

[Adam Schaefer]

Handling all this outliers that moved to Alaska and pretty much like build a whole life around sustainable living and like hunting by themselves for the whole rest of their life. You know what's crazy?

[Justin Andrews]

There's got to be a major individual variant that's very rare.

[Sal DiStefano]

I mean, super rare. And I would even bet that there's a. There's a. There's a.

[Adam Schaefer]

There's a dysfunction there.

[Sal DiStefano]

Something.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Sal DiStefano]

Trauma or something like that.

[Justin Andrews]

Right.

[Sal DiStefano]

And I'm out of here.

[Justin Andrews]

And you had. You'd have to ask yourself, would they be healthier and better if they had companionship and more people?

[Sal DiStefano]

Maybe just one person?

[Adam Schaefer]

No doubt they could be. Yeah, I would bet on that.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, no, Loneliness is, Is a, Is a, an absolute killer. And what's crazy about this, this study is when you look at the data on modern societies, we are more connected than ever, and there's more people than ever, and we're lonelier than ever. We've actually created all these ways of connecting. And what it's done is it's made us more isolated. And so loneliness. In fact, there's the, the, the demographic that we're seeing that's most alarming, that is seeing an increase in loneliness, is a demographic that never experienced loneliness in the past, which is the youth.

[Adam Schaefer]

Now, are they testing their oxytocin level and all that chemically in terms of like, you know, is that a factor? Because I heard in proximity you only get that if you're like close physical touch.

[Justin Andrews]

Right. You have to touch for a certain, even a certain amount of time, isn't it?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. So, so like if you FaceTime somebody, Arthur Brooks told us this. I think he said on one of our podcasts with him. He said if you FaceTime someone, you get the dopamine, but you don't get the oxytocin.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

So it's like a processed food version trick. It's like processed food versus real food.

[Justin Andrews]

It's such a great way of saying it because you still get some calories from just not the best ones for you.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Like if you're in a jail cell by yourself all day, like FaceTime's gonna be better than nothing.

[Justin Andrews]

Right.

[Sal DiStefano]

But you know, you want to be around and in front of people. And again, like technology is created, it's made it so. Because here's the other part of it that is probably valuable. It's probably one of the reasons why being around people is healthy. Besides the stuff that we already know about the connection, the love, the empathy, the bouncing ideas off people, the mirroring each other, that kind of stuff, there's also the benefit of the challenge that comes from meeting people, talking to people, going up to people. There's value in that and we've made it so easy to avoid that because it's scary, especially when you're a kid. This is one of my, my theories around, you know, youth isolation. I remember as a teenage boy, especially as a, you know, 14, 15 year old, like, going out and talking to new people is a scary thing to do, right? Somewhat. It's more scary for some people than others. I was relatively social, I'm somewhat of an extrovert, but still there was a bit of a fear, like, especially talking to a girl, like, I'm gonna go talk to that girl. It's gonna take some courage. But if I could just stay at home and just, you know, text people or go online, I can avoid that completely. And I think that there's some health benefits to that.

[Justin Andrews]

You know, I mean, we, we even see it on the, the business side. You see that, you know, a lot of your experts will say that the future, you know, is in, in person, community driven type business. We went through this kind of Trend the last 10 years, the Zoom era, where, you know, everybody was hopping on, like moving online and going digital and, and Jeff Zoom towns and this, this, this whole new kind of genre grew and everybody was kind of gravitating towards it. But it does feel like we're moving Back to this direction of like, people want that in person connection. And so if you're an entrepreneur, you know, operating a business and trying to forecast the future, doing more things that are in person, that you get to collaborate with people. Touch. See, I think is going to be the future because we need it. Because we. Yeah, this other thing was cool and neat and new and novel. And so we all kind of went that direction for a while. But over a period of, say a decade of that we were realizing like, oh God, we're missing this.

[Sal DiStefano]

All these companies now, a lot of these companies are like employees come back because they're seeing, you know, it's interesting too. And God, how easy, how quickly do we disregard human behavior and what we know to be true? Because we just look at numbers. Like you. If you look at the numbers like, oh, it makes sense. Companies have to rent as much space. Yeah, they could save money. They grow their margins. People get to be at home, their schedule is more flexible, they don't have to commute. It makes perfect sense on paper. But we disregard the, that we need to be social. And if we're building something, working on something together, we should be around each other.

[Justin Andrews]

It's funny too you say that because it's like we do know and anybody who's ever worked in an environment or a job that you really enjoyed or loved or hated you. You very much so know that. Like, I mean, sometimes you'll, you'll stay in. I mean I did. I stood for four years, probably longer than I should have in an environment that I wasn't growing, I wasn't progressing. It wasn't what was best for me because I actually liked the environment so much because I liked the culture, I liked being around people all. It was so easy for me to justify. Like, ah, I know I should value in that. Yeah. Because there's a lot of value in that. I mean there. I got offers to work for other people and other businesses that, that were even a little bit more money. But it was like a little bit more money. That's not enough to get me to jump ship and leave. What I like doing with all these people.

[Sal DiStefano]

Totally. I got, I got a cool hack for you guys. Well, I'm sure you guys have done this already, but man, I, this got me into such a. I don't know about you guys, but I love actually, I know you guys do this. You guys do this too. I love doing certain activities and then getting into really deep thought. It's just so stimulating, so expansive. It's just really Great. It's like better than. It's. It's not meditating. It's like deep thought flow. It's flow.

[Justin Andrews]

That's flow. You feel.

[Sal DiStefano]

Go on a walk by yourself, put brain fm. Focus on. Five minutes in, five minutes in. You're just like, oh my God, the ideas, the thoughts. I'm taking notes, I'm writing things down. I love. So with focus. The way I've used focus in the past is I'll use it when I'm doing a specific task like I'm writing a blog or writing content. But this was one of the first times I just put it on and then just let my mind go. Yeah, it was awesome.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, Justin is the one that really got me to use that. I, I've always used it for the, the sleep side, but the focus side, I'd never really messed with that much. I actually noticed, so I've talked about before on the podcast that a lot of the content that I consume is audio version. So I do a lot of audio books just. And I listen to it a little bit faster speed if I find that I can concentrate and focus, believe it or not, at a faster speed than a slower speed. And that's one of the ways that I can intake all the books that I go through. But I, I played with that with reading actual book focus with focus on. So I actually it helps me concentrate because one of the reasons why I don't like to read normal books and I'd rather do audio is I drift. I'm the guy who reads a page and ah, I gotta read that page again because my, my brain drifts. But when I have focus playing in the background while I read it, for some reason I stay more concentrated on the book and I don't have to do that.

[Sal DiStefano]

Well, for people who don't understand how this works, it's. These are sounds that they've engineered that'll induce states of mind that we know and that through brainwaves. Right. So we know there's certain brainwave patterns that are associated with focusing or meditation or sleeping. And they've identified, and this is patented, certain sound combinations and patterns that will induce that. And so when you're trying to stay focused, it'll induce that focus state of mind, making it easier.

[Justin Andrews]

It's so interesting because it's so counterintuitive.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

You wouldn't think that. Oh, putting on some distract. You would. Yeah, you would think it would distract me more. So I had never thought about using it that way until Justin really got me to Use it. Use it for, like, working and focusing. And I realized, wow, dude, this does help me really get into the thing that I'm working on. I wonder, what if I played this in the background while I'm trying to read a book? Sure should.

[Sal DiStefano]

I haven't done that with reading it. Are you guys reading anything right now? Are you reading any books in particular?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah, I just started. I'm doing the audiobook thing too, and I haven't actually done the. The increase the speed. I'm gonna have to play around with that because I. I think you're right. I think that does help kind of keep you focused.

[Justin Andrews]

That was a Tom Bilyeu hack that I didn't believe also. And my theory, one and a half times. No, I get all the way up to two and a half, but I had to work up to that. You have to progress to it. You can't just go from regular speed to two and a half. You have to go like a half faster than one, then one and a half. So anyways, not to cut you off just on your story, but I'm so fascinated by how this played out for me because it was like a huge hack to be able to go through so many books and to actually be able to retain it. My thought process, or what I think is happening, is that because it's moving so fast, I have to focus.

[Sal DiStefano]

Right.

[Justin Andrews]

Just to even pick it up.

[Sal DiStefano]

Keeps you engaged.

[Justin Andrews]

It keeps me engaged. Whereas if it's a slow cadence, it almost rocks my brain to sleep.

[Sal DiStefano]

Like, it lulls you.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes, it lulls me.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's like going fast. Like even going down a hill snowboarding, you're like, oh, I got like.

[Justin Andrews]

I'm a. I'm a better driver at higher speeds than I'm. I can be distract. I mean. I mean, I'm. I'm like. I'm way more. If I'm driving fast, faster than I probably should have. I'm way alert. I'm. Hands are in. Hands are in the correct spot. I'm checking all mirrors. I'm. I'm thinking way ahead. Like, if I'm, like, just cruising, I'm on my phone talking. I'm listening.

[Adam Schaefer]

I'm lazy to be distracted.

[Justin Andrews]

So I think that when I'm move at a higher speed on the audiobook, it forces me to engage more. Because what I would notice is, like, holy. I'm actually retaining more than I was.

[Sal DiStefano]

In a sore speed, I believe. All right, tell me about this book. You talked about it for a. I.

[Adam Schaefer]

Briefly mentioned it's the Devil's Chessboard. It's. I don't remember the author's name, but I've just. Ever since kind of like a follow up to the last book that we were reading, Chaos, it just kind of goes in deeper into actually the deep state and like the CIA, the FBI and like the whole formation of it. And like, who is the head of it, like, their background, a lot of their involvement with, you know, Nazis and. And like this dude, it's. It. I got really angry. The first, like, chapter, like, makes you a little bit angry, like just listening to, like, how, you know, intertwined we were with a lot of these characters that came from World War II. And so anyways, I'm just getting into it, so I don't have a whole lot of details yet, but it's like very heavy. It's like factual. It's like, I thought it was going to be more of like a narrated kind of story that kind of brought you in, but it's like this person is responsible for this and this is their position. And you like that.

[Sal DiStefano]

Stressful, man. It's true.

[Adam Schaefer]

But, but like, I want to know because, listen, they don't teach this stuff. They don't want you to like, investigate and, and look at the history. And this is just. This is just history. This is facts.

[Sal DiStefano]

That happened to me. When I read the Creature from Jekyll island, man, when I read that, the creation of the Fed, same experience. It's all true. I was like, this, wait, this is real. I'm like, like cross referencing, like, oh my God, it's real. How come I didn't know?

[Adam Schaefer]

It's interesting because it's just like we're built on top of that, you know, And I just find it weird that we don't talk about it more often. It's like we just go about our day and it's like there's this whole underlying, you know, unaccounted for sort of faction of our power structure.

[Sal DiStefano]

I'm reading who wrote this book, the. It's called the Prodigal God. And it's about. I mean, the cornerstone of it. I think his name is. What was his name? Timothy Keller. And it's about. Well, it starts off with the parable of the Prodigal son, but really it's called the Two Sons. And it blew me away because he's explaining this story, this parable. Everybody knows this parable, right? You get the two sons, the older brother, the younger brother, younger brother goes up to his dad, hey, give me my inheritance. I want it now. Dad gives it to him, he takes off, spends it on prostitutes and whatever and finds himself destitute. It's like, my God, I gotta go back and ask for my dad's forgiveness. Comes back, dad rushes to him, forgives him right away, brings him in, and that's the story everybody knows. But this talks about how important the older brother is in that story as well. Because the older brother did everything right. Did everything right. He followed all the rules, but he. It was not from a good heart. It was because.

[Justin Andrews]

Resentment.

[Sal DiStefano]

Because it wasn't just resentment. It was. It's like somebody false, self righteous, sort of. It's like every. It's like somebody doing. It's like me doing things that are good to you, like I'm doing. Being nice to you, because I want something in return, right?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

And so as I'm learning, I'm like, oh, my God, this older brother archetype, this older brother who is righteous and looks down on others is. And it talks about this in the book. This is the mistake a lot of people, a lot of Christians make when they're so righteous and they look down on others and they're like, well, I deserve this and I'm good and you're bad type of deal. And it turns people off. And it's not at all the message of the gospel. So it's a really fascinating. I'd say it's blowing my mind.

[Justin Andrews]

It's my biggest personal critique on a lot of church communities, unfortunately.

[Sal DiStefano]

A lot of older brothers.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, it's a lot. Unfortunately there's a lot of people that, you know, like there is anything where it becomes a measuring or contest of whose walk with God is better, you know, and like, you almost feel more judged by that. It's unfortunate. You have the opposite, too. You have other people that I think are unbelievably warm and welcoming. So they get it. But there's a percentage of them that are that way. And it's just like. It's just. It's such a turnoff and unfortunate because. Because I think it turns more people off than on.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. He opens by explaining the context and he's like, oh, Jesus was talking to tax collectors and prostitutes. And then he was also talking to the Pharisees. And it was the Pharisees that got really mad with the story because they knew he was talking about them.

[Adam Schaefer]

We're doing everything right.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, I thought I deserve.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, I deserve this.

[Justin Andrews]

I thought for sure you're going to bring a different study today. I thought. Yeah, I thought after the interview we just did with Alex. I thought you would be all right on your phone right away and look it up the. The tendon and.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, I thought that was fascinating. It makes perfect sense. He said there's of showing how effective isometrics are for strengthening tendons.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

And it makes growing tendons perfect, perfect, perfect sense. And he brought up some great examples.

[Adam Schaefer]

Of, I knew, end range strength and like how that carries over, like a 20 degree carryover or so. 15 to 20 degree. But I didn't realize, you know, tendons were. I mean, of course. It just makes logical sense.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. Because the constant tension on the tendon would cause it to thicken and strengthen more than your traditional. All of it will strengthen. Right. With all type of strength training. But then he used the idea the. The example of blue collar workers. And every time I've ever, you know, wrestled with a construction worker or it's like my dad or his, you know, people who work blue collar, it's their isometric strength. That's ridiculous. It's like they're just. They're holding. They don't move. It's like, what am I. I feel like I'm grabbing the wall. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

With jaws of life. Just.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. And I'll outlift them in the gym all day long. But it was that isometric strength that know that they were demonstrating, so. I know. Really cool. There's a new. I don't know if I want to. I don't know if I want Doug to look this up. There's a new makeup trend that I.

[Adam Schaefer]

Saw social wow coming in with the. The makeup.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

How did you.

[Justin Andrews]

How did you get that? Come by that?

[Sal DiStefano]

So it popped up.

[Adam Schaefer]

You've been on Tik Tok again.

[Sal DiStefano]

It popped up. And it's a. It's. It's literally called. It's. It's. It's a way that you make your lips look okay for lipstick with.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, with lipstick.

[Sal DiStefano]

With lipstick and liner and stuff. And so if you go to an expert, a makeup artist, you ask for this and it's called butthole lips.

[Justin Andrews]

No, it's not. It's called butthole lips.

[Sal DiStefano]

Butthole lips. Doug.

[Justin Andrews]

Look up, Doug. Gotta Google it, Doug.

[Sal DiStefano]

Just don't click on images.

[Justin Andrews]

I don't know.

[Sal DiStefano]

It'll pop up, but it literally.

[Adam Schaefer]

You have to constantly make.

[Justin Andrews]

Is that like the. The look where the girls, like, pierce their lips like this?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, dude. And there's a way. Yeah. And it's like a way that they apply makeup and whatever. And it's. It's. They. It's what they call it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Imagine it can't be like what the girls called it. This has.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, they can't.

[Sal DiStefano]

There it is right there. And there's a way that they do it. You know what makes me sad about this is. Oh, like, what, how many, like, people? Everybody's like, why are people calling it this?

[Justin Andrews]

Well, because it looks like it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, I know.

[Justin Andrews]

That definitely looks like it. I'm not even sure if those are lips.

[Sal DiStefano]

I told Jessica this and she's like, ew, shut up. And I'm like, no, no, no, watch. And there's like all these like butthole lips. Like, oh, this is how you give yourself butthole lips. And this is the technique for butthole lips or whatever.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, my God.

[Adam Schaefer]

Can you even believe you learn something new every day?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

They start whispering or whistling, I should say.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's a technique. I know.

[Adam Schaefer]

Fantastic.

[Sal DiStefano]

Asking for this, I mean, what is the.

[Justin Andrews]

Okay, what's the psychology behind, like, obviously if girls are doing that, it's working on us, right? It's obviously where that's what creates these trends. Right? If one girl did butthole lips and it didn't do anything. And it didn't. It was.

[Sal DiStefano]

I just think it looks. Someone said it looks good. Somebody else said, oh, it looks like butthole lips. And then that became popular because it sounds funny.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, you don't think there's some Freudian.

[Sal DiStefano]

Thing behind lips in general that they would say that?

[Justin Andrews]

You don't think that we're like, like the, the butt whole thing, we're gravitating towards a vis. There's gotta be some Freudian thing going on.

[Sal DiStefano]

I mean, you could try to make those connections. I think the proliferation of pornography is why they're calling it, you know, what do you say? Bad breath. That's gross.

[Adam Schaefer]

I mean. Sorry, Doug, your face.

[Sal DiStefano]

Sorry, Doug. We're going, we're going hard here.

[Justin Andrews]

He did it. Sal did it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Hey, it's a thing. I couldn't believe it though. I saw this. I'm like, girls are actually posting this and saying that this is the look that they want. Wow. You going to go tell your parents?

[Adam Schaefer]

It's almost as bad. Thank God there's a transition for this. I've been waiting. I get it. This is painting, right? And it's like beautiful painting of, of the Christ. And it's like, I don't know how old it is. Very old. And you know how like certain curators, they, they want to do touch ups and kind of revise it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[Adam Schaefer]

So I don't remember the name of it, it's kind of ECC Something Christ painting. But this lady literally just butchered it.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, wait a minute.

[Adam Schaefer]

So it's.

[Sal DiStefano]

It.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's not. I can't even. You have to see it because I can't even describe how bad of a job is she. Like a toddler that, like, recreated.

[Sal DiStefano]

The bottom one was her restoration.

[Adam Schaefer]

The bottom one is the restoration of it.

[Sal DiStefano]

What?

[Justin Andrews]

It's not a joke. It's not like a joke.

[Adam Schaefer]

No, this really happened.

[Sal DiStefano]

Like, that's like, if I would do a better job, it looks like.

[Justin Andrews]

I think too, so my son could have done a better job when it's something like that. Those people that are doing this, are they being hired to do that or.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yes.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, from the museum. Usually they go in and they touch it up and to bring it back to life. I'm surprised nobody was like, over her shoulder, like, ah, yeah, this is not.

[Sal DiStefano]

Going in a good direction.

[Adam Schaefer]

What the hell are you doing, lady? You're ruining a priceless piece of art.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, I've seen that before. That was done what, 2012?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah, somebody showed me that the other day. I was on the floor, dude. I was like. They're like. I couldn't believe how bad it was. Like, how like, you hired this.

[Sal DiStefano]

Have you ever seen. Have you ever seen. Sometimes people will post these. It's like. Like medieval paintings, but they're funny. So, like, there's like, like, obviously this person has never seen a horse before because they'll paint the horses like human eyes and a. Have you ever seen some. Oh, bro. There's some funny. Or like, there's like a baby, but it just looks like a small adult. And some of these, you know, these.

[Justin Andrews]

You know, since you're bringing up. Since you're bringing up old news, I did have an old topic that I had seen it once before, and I don't think I ever brought it up on the show. And so I wanted to ask you guys if you. There's a. This is so. It's old, right? This is older news. I think this happened, like, I want to say 20 years ago, so it's been a long time, but I just. I don't know if we can still do this or. It happens, but the. I believe the FBI was the one that put this sting operation on. And what they were trying to do was get all of these parents that were not paying child support for, like, years and years and years that outstanding debt to. For child support. And so they. They drafted, like this crazy, like, lottery to win these Like super bowl tickets or something like that and that they tricked, like, so they had, like, literally like hundreds of arrests in. In at one time. And they. I mean, the whole thing's video documented. You can Google, look up, look dirty. Yeah, that's the same thing too.

[Sal DiStefano]

And you.

[Justin Andrews]

They have. There's, like, footage of this. There's, like, footage of them coming out. Even put, like, fake news reporters that are going, like, so you won. Are you excited?

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

They're all there to get their thing, and then they come in to get their tickets that they thought they win. And the cops tell them why they're there and then arrest them right there. And I mean, there's line. A line of them just waiting to.

[Adam Schaefer]

Come in and get rid of the paddy wagon.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I thought that was so crazy. I was like, can we still do that? Is that entrapment? I mean, can you.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, you're not entrapped. Entrapment, I think, is when you're. When you're really encouraging them to break the law.

[Justin Andrews]

Right.

[Sal DiStefano]

To catch.

[Justin Andrews]

That's what I thought, too.

[Sal DiStefano]

They didn't. They're not breaking the law, so you.

[Justin Andrews]

Could technically do that.

[Sal DiStefano]

They're showing up to win a fake prize.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes. Yes. You arrest like 100. 100 people. Find it. Doug.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Said police sent super bowl tickets to criminals to arrest them when they show. Show up.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, that is.

[Doug]

But I don't know if that's exactly the same thing.

[Justin Andrews]

That's.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's, I think, See, that's when like, like you're. It's fun to be a cop. I feel like I'm looking at the calendar. I'm like, bro, next week we're gonna have all the fake super bowl winners. Be so fun.

[Justin Andrews]

I feel like that's the same thing.

[Sal DiStefano]

They're showing up and they're.

[Adam Schaefer]

Their face all painted.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, you could tell. So the one that I. That I saw, I mean, I mean, they really got into it. I mean, they hired a fake news crew to do the whole thing. And lady with a Michael, like, all right, what are you gonna do? You know, how excited? Who you gonna take?

[Adam Schaefer]

I'm going to Disneyland.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

It's like that, and they're all, like, all excited. Then the next clip is them inside the room and they're getting handcuffed. And you can just see how pissed.

[Sal DiStefano]

Deadbeat. Did I tell you? I didn't tell you guys that last night I was hanging out with Jessica, and then my daughter, my 15 year old's hanging out and we're talking and And Jessica's like, oh, you know, I was listening to your 10 year anniversary episode and we were talking about it and my daughter goes, oh, you have a 10 year anniversary episode? She's like, what are you guys doing? I'm like, oh, we talk all about how the company started and all the memories. And she's like, I want to watch that. So my daughter showed some interest in my.

[Justin Andrews]

Did she watch it?

[Sal DiStefano]

We watched 30 minutes of it and then she kind of like, she's like, she lost interest. But it's my 15 year old daughter and she was. And she was kind of laughing a little bit and some of it was embarrassing. She's like, did you really have episodes called Sparkly Taints? And like, yeah, I'm sorry, honey, you.

[Justin Andrews]

Don'T need to listen to those words.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, that's fine. Don't go find them. But she was, she's, she was like getting into it a little bit, which is kind of cool.

[Justin Andrews]

There it is right there. It is right there. That's the one.

[Doug]

Operation flagship. Yep. 1985. Oh, they arrested 101 people.

[Justin Andrews]

101 people got arrested on that day. That's so great.

[Sal DiStefano]

Even better. I would love to watch a 19.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, there it is. Free tickets, watches and Redskins. That was the one.

[Adam Schaefer]

Can we do that for child predators?

[Sal DiStefano]

No.

[Doug]

So what do you use as bait?

[Justin Andrews]

Justin? Dude, don't even go there. I know there.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, I'm not gonna say. Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Who brought up the fire? Someone said that we got fires going on right now.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, yeah. In Southern California.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh yeah.

[Doug]

It's horrible.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, it's bad. Like, so again, this is. And it just, it screams suspect for me because they, they were talking about like all of the fire hydrants, like they didn't have water. And there's this, all this mismanagement going on. Like, here's the thing, if it's predictable, it's preventable. I heard somebody say that. That resonated with me. It's been so many times, it's so frequent in this state. Like we've seen these, these fires just come about and there's just this mismanagement. There's a lot of debris that could have got cleared out. They could have done a better job. Like it's just in. The mayor is conveniently in another country. Just like in Maui. It's like it screams the same exact kind of situation.

[Justin Andrews]

So weird.

[Adam Schaefer]

I mean, we did have crazy winds. And, and so, you know, there's this, the, the fires obviously took off because the winds like moved them. But yeah, people's houses are getting.

[Sal DiStefano]

We. We know this about California consumed. Yeah. We used to clear out the, the forest and, and do controlled burns and stuff like that. They stopped doing it for the environment, what they did, and ended up causing more problems. Yeah, you know, I brought, I brought.

[Justin Andrews]

It up because I actually had in my notes the related. I didn't even know about the fires going on, but I had come across. Dude, this is so cool. Have you guys seen the. The drones for fires?

[Sal DiStefano]

They have drones for fires?

[Justin Andrews]

Yes. Look it up, Doug. Now this seems so cool. Imagine one how quick you could deploy all these different drones. Yeah, like, I don't know why that, like, I never thought of like, dude, why do we not have that already? Yes, they're. That's exactly what they are. And I mean, I mean we could put light shows together with hundreds and thousands of drones. Imagine hundreds of drones going straight to a place that's on fire or fire retarded. Yes.

[Sal DiStefano]

Foam or whatever.

[Justin Andrews]

Did you Google it, Doug?

[Doug]

Yeah, I found something here.

[Sal DiStefano]

Wow.

[Justin Andrews]

Show the. Show the guys. They're cool. I thought, oh, man, what a great invention. And I obviously haven't seen anything.

[Adam Schaefer]

I've seen the opposite. I've seen a flame throwing drone and that was pretty gnarly.

[Sal DiStefano]

Is that the one where the guy there was. It was like a hornet's nest or something?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah. They got rid of and he went.

[Sal DiStefano]

Out there and flew a drone and. Yeah. Burned him up.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, really?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes. That's the kind of content I like, kill those wasps.

[Sal DiStefano]

Have you ever been stung by a wasp?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, a million times. Like you're my arch enemy, dude.

[Sal DiStefano]

Really?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, I have to. I've stepped.

[Justin Andrews]

You've never been somewhere?

[Sal DiStefano]

No, these. I've only got these things, but never.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, dude, I've. We've had our run and of course too, like, I've, you know, I've messed with them and deserved it a few times, but like, I just, I was fixated on that as a kid.

[Justin Andrews]

It was like me versus a documentary dog on it.

[Doug]

Yeah, it's way too long.

[Justin Andrews]

I just wanted the guys to see them because I think that I'm like, dude, that is cool.

[Sal DiStefano]

That makes sense.

[Justin Andrews]

And imagine how many firefighter lives that's going to save and how, you know, you could send them directly right into the heart of everything. Like, that's got to change. That's got to totally change the way we fight fires in the future, right?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, that'll be cool.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Dude, I told you about the. It was my fourth grade picture where I had a wasp stung me right before a picture day and my whole eye swollen up. And so I did a side profile like this. You can see like this, like, huge, swollen glamour shot. Yeah.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

We've had our run ins.

[Sal DiStefano]

Is that okay? So what are your worst school? I have a picture. I don't know what I was thinking. I let my mom. I never. You know, I don't really care about doing my hair when I was in, you know, probably up until seventh grade, right? And I don't know what happened. I got a haircut from one of my cousins, and my mom's like, oh, let's. Let's spike your hair. She put mousse in my hair? Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And go like this.

[Sal DiStefano]

But it was like static. But it was, like, spiked everywhere. So I look like Sonic the Hedgehog. And then she gave me spiked bangs.

[Justin Andrews]

Please tell me you can find that photo.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, I can, and I will never show you guys. Come on.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, look at. See this? There they are. Finally dug out. Look how sick that is.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, that is.

[Adam Schaefer]

Whoa, dude.

[Justin Andrews]

Isn't that cool?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, that is very cool.

[Adam Schaefer]

We need those.

[Sal DiStefano]

That makes a lot of sense.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, and it's like the future is, like, mostly that, right? Why. Why would you. Why would you send any firefighters or anything else but that?

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And to go handle all that stuff. Let's even control. Isn't that cool? Okay, so I had downward.

[Sal DiStefano]

I had spiked bangs that were, like, stuck to my head because it was with moose. And then. And then. And there's a picture of me, like, you know, smiling like this, with this hair. And my mom had it up forever. She recently took it down. But people would come over and they'd look at it. Everybody who walked. Because my mom's hallway. He's got pictures of us when we were kids, you know, and everybody would always stop there and go like that.

[Adam Schaefer]

We're looking a Backstreet Boy.

[Sal DiStefano]

What?

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, yeah, bro. I had this stupid, like, mushroom top, you know, like, kind of curly hair thing. And then I. I don't know, dude. I think it was like, fifth, sixth grade, something like that. But I had, like, you know, Bugle boy.

[Sal DiStefano]

Remember those?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, I had one of those. And so I thought it was all like, you know, I'm sharp, you know, I'm, like, really, like, dressed up. And I had, like, this gold, like, cross chain and everything. So not my style at all. Like, now, like, looking back, I'm like, who is this imposter? I look literally like, we got to.

[Justin Andrews]

Bring them all in and get, like, A vote from the staff on, like, which. Whose is the worst? So I have a fifth grade. Mine's a fifth grade. I totally.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's always that age. That's when you're trying to figure out who you are.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Do you guys remember when this was the style to wear your hat? So I've got a wave that went like, I have a fifth grader. I've got the wave.

[Adam Schaefer]

Why are we the same?

[Justin Andrews]

Touches the bill. I got a mullet. Okay, so I've got. I've got a mullet with, like, the wave hair going and wearing the hat up like this. And I got my front two teeth are, like, turned in and crooked. It is like the.

[Adam Schaefer]

Wow. You might win.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, that's amazing.

[Justin Andrews]

You guys. Look at me.

[Sal DiStefano]

I want to hear.

[Justin Andrews]

I want to see.

[Adam Schaefer]

Hedgehog.

[Sal DiStefano]

I want to say it might have been when we came back from Italy that year. So I'm extra dark. So I'm like really dark with my psychia.

[Justin Andrews]

What grade again? Was it fifth also for you?

[Sal DiStefano]

It might have been fifth grade. Wow.

[Justin Andrews]

That would be. What would be a trip. As if all of us were a fifth grade. That would be. Cuz I know for sure mine's fifth grade. I distinctly remember that photo. I like.

[Sal DiStefano]

You know what?

[Adam Schaefer]

I'm pretty sure it's close to that.

[Sal DiStefano]

It would be great to put them together and make that like a. Like a. Like a shirt or something like that. And it has our kids pictures.

[Adam Schaefer]

That'll be our new bio pictures.

[Sal DiStefano]

It could be. I. I like that better than some of the other pictures we took. They're all mostly good, but some of them.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, I like it better.

[Sal DiStefano]

I look like a predator on one of them. I'm like, smiling all creepy. I'm like, what am I doing?

[Adam Schaefer]

Like, I don't even know what's happening.

[Sal DiStefano]

There's that one of you, Adam, where I don't know what the angle. Your head looks way bigger than the rest of you. Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Right after I did that. I did it right after that. Oh, that was zipping challenge face in my.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, man.

[Sal DiStefano]

Doug, do you have a fifth grade picture?

[Doug]

I do, but nothing too exciting.

[Justin Andrews]

Black and white back then?

[Doug]

Yeah, it was chiseled in stone.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, man.

[Adam Schaefer]

You didn't have like, a little rascal's haircut?

[Doug]

No, I did not.

[Justin Andrews]

You didn't have any real bad haircuts, you remember?

[Doug]

No, man. My parents, they policed my haircuts.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, wow, look at you. You were taken care of. They took care of you.

[Sal DiStefano]

You look like Leave it to Beaver.

[Justin Andrews]

We Used to. Yeah, pretty much in high school. I mean, my parents didn't do have anything to do with my haircuts. We. By the time I was in high school, we used to put the bowls on your head.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

You put a bowl, your buddy would.

[Sal DiStefano]

Wait a minute.

[Justin Andrews]

That's where that came from. That.

[Sal DiStefano]

I don't know that people actually did that. Oh, yeah, that was a term.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, no. We literally took a bowl that we was standard. That we all use that you're. Then one of us would. The other guy. Yeah, that's what we.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, my God. Now I know what just. I could 100% guess. 100%. I know I'm going to be right.

[Justin Andrews]

Military.

[Sal DiStefano]

The haircut you had for most of your life was a flat top.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes, Flat top. Military. Not only that, but he carried the. The, The. The. The comb that you put your finger through. Yeah, it's all the spikes.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

He walked around the halls with do rules. His backpack. He had the wax. He had the super stiff wax. You know, between periods, you do this.

[Adam Schaefer]

I mean, I did have a really short hair. I did have the crew cut for a while, so it was very close to that. I had shaved head for most of it, which I just didn't like hair. I was like, no, get. Get off me. And so I did the shaved head a lot.

[Sal DiStefano]

And then, ironically, the guy is never going to lose his hair.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's it. Like it. Later on, I grew it long, and I did, like, the pompadour thing. And I just. I hated curly hair, so I just. Any way I could make it straight like I would.

[Sal DiStefano]

The second most embarrassing picture of me. I was £235, terrible bulk. I was heavy boy. And my hair was down to here, but it was like. Do you guys remember Sylvester Stallone from Rock from Rambo when his hair is curly? Yeah, when the one where he shoots. Yeah, that was hair, bro. Came down to hearing it was all curly.

[Adam Schaefer]

Did you wear a hair?

[Justin Andrews]

I say, you probably did put a headband on.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, no, I shouldn't. Flexing my arms on the mirror. Try to look cool.

[Adam Schaefer]

Drinking raw eggs.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, I did do that. I still do that. Hey, I got to tell you, you know what? I tried that. I haven't used a lot of, but I. I think I actually might like it as their best product. The base layer from Caldera Lab, that's my favorite. I think I like that. That's my favorite. I was always using the oil, which I like, but I think I like the base.

[Justin Andrews]

I like the bait fresh out of the shower. And I know. I'm pretty sure I don't do the order correctly of what they. What they recommend or whatever. Fresh out of the shower. I like the base layer.

[Sal DiStefano]

You're supposed to use them both, right?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I use both. I use. I use both and I like both. I mean, those are like. Those two products are like the staple part. That and the soap are the staple products that I use of Caldera Labs. The. But I. The. The base layer is what I like most. I like the base layer the most. And then the serum. I feel like I use that like in, like when I get to work is when I'll. When I'll put that on.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's awesome. Hey, by the way, we talked about this before, but again, I. Last night I got home after we got the news that our trainer course was approved for CEUs through NASM and. Who else?

[Justin Andrews]

And Alpha. Right now. Just right now.

[Sal DiStefano]

I mean, but NASM is the gold standard.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, I.

[Sal DiStefano]

If once you get that.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I know Anne's working on that. And once you have that, all the rest of them kind of fall in line.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's 1.9 CEUs, meaning you don't have to get anything else. Just your cpr and that'll. That'll maintain your certification.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, right.

[Sal DiStefano]

Because you need two. Two CUs. But the. It's. It's just crazy. I was driving home thinking about it, and I'm like, man, we created formal education.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's kind of cool.

[Sal DiStefano]

It's pretty rad.

[Adam Schaefer]

Bunch of informal guys.

[Justin Andrews]

Couple guys. A couple guys that couldn't finish school.

[Sal DiStefano]

Well, thanks.

[Adam Schaefer]

Just speak for yourself. Justin did it begrudgingly.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, but it's, you know, if you're a trainer, you get our course. This now counts towards your education.

[Justin Andrews]

It is a really cool. It's funny because, you know, I think that we just did our 10 year and. And so there's been a lot of like, you know, processing and thinking back to all the stories and the milestones. And, you know, I would actually count this as probably one of the biggest, coolest milestones. Even though it doesn't do anything for downloads for us. The revenue didn't all sudden change. It isn't like this crazy thing that shifted. But just the fact that we did that is kind of. And it wasn't like something we were pursuing or really wanted. I thought was.

[Sal DiStefano]

Well, first, I mean, we have someone on our team, Ann. She's absolutely exceptional. She's an incredible educator. She's very good at the things that we're not Necessarily good at, super organized and just. She's just. Just an animal. So she's really helped that process. But for me, there's a personal thing around it for a long time. And, you know, if you listen to the podcast, you know this. I don't have a lot of formal education. I mean, I, at a high school was training clients. I had some certifications, but most of what I know was through experience and mentorship, working for some really brilliant people, learning myself, training clients. And what you hear on the podcast is, is that's where I got most of my. My knowledge or my education or whatever came from that. And for a long time as a trainer, it was an insecurity of mine when I would train clients, you know, because a lot of the clients I trained were executives. And then they'd ask me, oh, where'd you go to school? I remember feeling a little bit of like, oh, well, I didn't. You know, I didn't. I don't have formal education now. Later in my career, I wasn't so insecure anymore about that actually became something I was, like, proud of to say. But it's. I think there's still a little hint of it. So the fact that we have a course that we created that is now recognized as formal education.

[Justin Andrews]

It's accredited.

[Sal DiStefano]

Oh, it's a credit.

[Justin Andrews]

So, yeah, you know, it's. I, I mean, I. You and I are very similar in that that was a major. Being young and not having my degree in our field for a long time was a major driver. You know, you. You have to ask yourself, though, did that. Is that insecurity? What drove you to be so great?

[Sal DiStefano]

I don't know.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, I'm pretty sure it is.

[Sal DiStefano]

I think a lot of insecurities.

[Justin Andrews]

I'm pretty. I'm pretty sure a big portion of my, you know, career early on was driven and motivated by. I don't have this degree, and I've got to prove myself to these people that do have them.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, you're probably right.

[Justin Andrews]

And so I'm on a mission to prove I'm as smart or smarter. Therefore, I got to do all this other outside learning, reading, mentoring, all the other things to get to that level. And probably even when I had caught up equally in level, it still wasn't enough because, oh, you don't have your degree. Oh, you know, so then you felt like you had to do so much more. So I, I wonder if I would have went through a, you know, traditional route if I would have not got to the same level as we are now, or I have been. So you ever think about that? Like, that insecurity probably drove you in.

[Adam Schaefer]

A different path, for sure.

[Sal DiStefano]

Probably. I think you're right.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, similar to the physique insecurity, right? It's like you have this insecurity about being a small, weak guy, so you got obsessed about building muscle and getting strong. Would you ever. If you were this totally secure kid with your physique, you might not have ever. You might not even cared about it. No.

[Sal DiStefano]

I remember one. One time in particular, I had a client who was. What was. He was an anesthesiologist. Really, really smart guy. And I was training him, and this was like six months into training him, and he loved what I did. And we'd have these great conversations, and he's like. And we're talking, and I don't remember what word I said. We were talking about something not related to fitness. And I said this. I said something. And he looks at me and he goes, I can tell that you've. You've read that word and you've never heard it. I said, what do you mean? He goes, well, you're not pronouncing it the way it's supposed to. And I immediately became insecure, like, oh. And he goes. And he told me. He goes, it's a compliment. He goes, you. You. I said. He goes, do you have a formal education? I said, no. He goes, I wouldn't have known that. He goes, but I could tell you, like, to read a lot on your own. And that was a little bit of a turning point where I felt a little bit more confident. But when he first said it, I was like, oh, I almost wanted to lie to him. Like, yeah, I went to the university.

[Adam Schaefer]

Such a condescending way that most people, like, weaponize that, you know, if they point that out on somebody, totally. And it's just like, yeah, to me, I never got that. Like, you're just gonna try and make this person feel shitty about how they're pronouncing a word. That's so weird to me.

[Sal DiStefano]

No, he. But he was good about that. He wasn't coming from a bad place. I still talk to him now as a super, super good friend of mine. But I remember when he first said it, I, like, was faced, like, I.

[Justin Andrews]

Mean, you know, that's true about that. That's been a trip of mine forever. I can't pronounce anything right. So. Yeah, at one point, I just thought you owned that. Yeah, I did at one point. I did at one point. I got to the place of like, man, like, it would. It would get me feeling insecure. It would stop me in my tracks. And I thought, man, I just. It's too much energy and effort. Why I'm just gonna own it.

[Sal DiStefano]

I get hammered. Do you guys ever see when I say creatine how much people hate in the comments? It's. Okay, fine, creatine. That's how you're supposed to say it. But you know why I say creatine. When I first read and learned about it, this is how I heard some other experts talk about it. So for whatever reason, it stuck in my head. But on our podcast, every time we talk about creatine and I say creatine or whatever, the comments are hilarious. So I'll say it right.

[Justin Andrews]

I get it all the time. I have a lazy.

[Sal DiStefano]

Whatever.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, whatever.

[Sal DiStefano]

You know more about it.

[Justin Andrews]

I'm a lazy tongue, can't keep up with my brain. That's how I'm. I'm so smart. My tongue can't keep up with it.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's too slow.

[Sal DiStefano]

That's hilarious. Anyway, it's good stuff. Hey, real quick. If you're a trainer or a fitness coach or thinking about becoming one, we have a coaching course. It's mind Pumps Fitness coaching course. We teach you how to build your business, how to be more effective. These are things you will learn nowhere else. Taught by myself, Adam and Justin, by the way, it is now approved by NASM and AFAA for CEUs. With NASM, you get 1.9 CEUs. With our course, it's legit. Build your business, become successful. Go to mindpumpfitnesscoaching.com all right, back to the show.

[Doug]

First question is from Becca Fit. What is the biggest differences you guys see with someone who eats a high protein diet containing protein powders, bars, shakes, versus someone who eats high protein 100% through whole natural foods.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, I wish we had some really good, like, studies to prove and show what I know I've seen.

[Adam Schaefer]

There's anecdotally you've known the difference.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, well, so. So I'll go through. I'll. I'll mention the one that is shown by study. And then I'd love your commentary on what you experienced because you really track this. You really played with this. So. So here's the scenario, by the way. The scenario that I'm about to mention is rare because it's very rare for everything to be exactly the same. Although Adam was able to do this because he measured and tracked everything as a professional bodybuilder okay, so nonetheless, let's just imagine two identical diets from a macro perspective. Exact same fat, exact same protein, exact same carbs. But one of them gets a lot of the protein from bars and shakes and powders. The other one gets their protein all from whole natural foods. Here's what the data will show. The data will show that the satiety effect from whole natural foods is superior, meaning the protein that you get from whole natural foods is going to be more effective at helping you control your appetite or reduce cravings. Now the reason for this is that bars, but especially shakes and powders are essentially pre digested. When I'm eating a steak, I got to chew on it, which actually starts the satiety process happening. Bars will do this to an extent as well, but definitely food. So it starts the digestive process, then the food goes through my body and my body has to break it down a lot more than especially a protein powder. Protein powder is essentially pre digested. You drink it, that process is bypassed in the mouth and then it goes through the gut and it getsit gets digested and absorbed much faster. So you don't get that same satiety effect. So that's what the data will show. However, anecdotally, I think there's a lot.

[Justin Andrews]

More and I'll go, okay, so there's some other things that we know too for sure. How it's affecting me or why is it affecting me that way, way visually. Obviously in a lot of processed foods you've got a lot of other things too. Dyes and other chemicals that aren't in a whole steak or chicken. And it's like, okay, so is that affecting my body a little different? Is that making me a little more inflamed? Is that slowing down the digestive process? So something is there also the other thing to consider when eating packaged and boxed foods is that the FDA allows it to be up to 20% off. So even though I think the macros are exactly and identical, how do I know for sure when I'm dealing with a lot of packaged and processed foods? Where I know if I take a steak or a chicken breast or rice and I measured on it, like that's the, those are the macros. That's what it is, that's where the calories are where, when I'm dealing with processed or packaged foods. So I may even think that, oh, my macro. Because I, that's what I don't know. What I know is I saw the difference, right? I've told the story before. I Ran a prep where I discipline myself to do nothing but whole foods. For the entire prep, macros were all accounted for. The next prep, I did the exact same thing, macros and everything. But then I allowed myself to do shakes and bars and packaged food to hit my macros. And for me, there was a very clear visual difference now from a body fat percentage. It was relatively the same, but I could see and I felt a difference. The cravings, I definitely totally noticed. I found myself craving way more when I was eating bars and Shakespeare, but I even noticed a visual difference.

[Sal DiStefano]

What do you look like? Just less inflammation.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, just. I didn't look as good. I looked better on whole foods and. But what I don't know is, like I said, is it related to all the other things that are in processed foods and then my body's reaction to that and my digestion to that, or was it related to. I thought my macros were exactly the same. But they. If every one of those food products that I was eating that was packaged could be up to 20 off, maybe I really wasn't. Maybe I was eating a little bit more of a surplus than I thought. So that affected the body fat percentage and the way I looked. That's what I don't know for sure. But I do know that there is a difference and I just think that it's probably a better, safer route to it. Now what I typically tell clients is like our goal is always to go whole foods a hundred percent. The reality is I know how difficult it is. I know you'll end up having to use a shake or a bar here and there. And so that's not a bad thing. But I think that bars and shakes have been advertised and promoted to us so heavily and strong that when my family members would tell me they're starting a diet, they would just go buy the shakes and bars because they think it's a healthy food and that you're, you have to go do that stuff. And I'd be like, well, why did you buy the bars? Well, it's, it's healthy for me. Right? It's like, well, no, that's not exactly. I mean, I guess it's better than you driving through McDonald's and getting a six piece nugget. But I mean it's not, it's not a better choice than 4 ounces of, of chicken with half a cup of rice. That would be a better choice. So I think that there we've been, we've been promoted by the fitness and health space so heavily around these, you know, healthy, processed foods that people actually think it's a better alternative than Whole Foods, and it's not. So the goal is always, can we get this diet 100 through whole foods? If we absolutely have to. In a case of emergency, or because I can't get my protein intake, then I go that route.

[Sal DiStefano]

Super well said. I will say this. There are some potential advantages to bars and shakes or protein powders. One of them is convenience. So they're very convenient. I could take a baggie full of protein powder, and if I miss my protein, I could do it. It's easy to consume, and if you're trying to bulk and gain and your appetite is just. It's like, oh, my God, it's hard for me to hit my protein, and I can't eat any more food. And you have a performance goal, you know, hard gainers. I love shakes and stuff for hard gainers because, you know, here you got a kid with a super fast metabolism. He's already eating 3,500 calories. He needs eating another 50 grams of protein, and he can't. Well, a shake. A shake will do that, and that'll make it easy. Those are the. Those are the times where I think that they really do have the advantage.

[Doug]

Next question is from Matt Roberts. 84. Which variation of shrugs do you all prefer? Hands in front, to the sides, or behind the back?

[Sal DiStefano]

You know, I like them all. I will say the one, and I bet Justin will agree with me because he did most. He did more Olympic lifting than all of us. Hands in the front. Shrugs tends to translate better to other lifts.

[Adam Schaefer]

Right.

[Sal DiStefano]

Because this is when you're cursor. Yeah. You're gonna deadlift, you're gonna clean. So, you know, hands in the front with the barbell. I love the way it translates. Bodybuilders love them to the sides. Behind the back is tough.

[Adam Schaefer]

Those are for the special people.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

You know, you never see that. And I like it for its novelty, but I'm with you. I like it, you know, in the front because of the fact that I can actually translate that to a front squat or something like that.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah. And it's. And you make it explosive. I've seen, you know, how athletes do these, and it's an explosive bar to the front because it translates to a clean.

[Justin Andrews]

I feel like I. I'm. I'm not qualified to answer this. It falls in the same category as kind of forearms. For me. I don't ever train shrugs by themselves. I just don't. I've. I've found that the best my traps and ever looked was when I was doing cleans and heavy deadlifting. That built them.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

By themselves. It's a stabilizer muscle for so many upper body movements that if you properly program and, and cycle through phases of training, like heavy and different movements, there's so many great movements that incorporate the traps that develop them enough that I never felt like it was underdeveloped to my shoulders and my back and the rest of my body. So I just don't, I don't mess with it. Same thing with my forearms. If I'm heavy lifting, dead lifting. And so my forearms come up if I do heavy loaded pull ups and I do deadlifting. Really heavy. Like the forearms come right up too. So I don't know. I'm not. I think that as a young kid I did a lot of this stuff. When I was a young kid I did a lot of forearm and shrugging and things like that. Where I feel like it's such a waste of time in my programming. I know it's in maps, anabolic. It's one of the number one questions. Why is there so many shrugs in there? That's because Sal wrote that when he was 16 years old.

[Sal DiStefano]

Top selling program. You know, I like shrugs when I'm getting people to strengthen their shoulder girdle, helping them become better deadlifters. And if you're trying to become explosive with triple extension, it's actually the beginning. It's part of the beginning, part of that lift. And so it's a movement pattern that can be very important to train. Now if you're just working out for a while and you want to add a little volume to your traps training, then then I'd say go for it. I still do shrugs. I don't do a lot of them. I still do them. But admittedly, Adam, it wasn't an exercise I often do with my clients unless I was like getting them good at deadlifts and I would kind of throw.

[Adam Schaefer]

The high pool, the hang clean to clean to all the rest of the Olympic lifts. Yeah, it's kind of a nice progression that way.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah, but you're right. I mean if you do like a high pole, more technical. But a high pole is going to blow up your traps more.

[Doug]

Next question is from Morgel12. Is it true if you train abs with weights, it makes you grow a thick waist?

[Sal DiStefano]

Do you know how much you'd have to build your core muscles to develop a thick waist? You'd have to really hypertrophy the hell out of them by the Way muscle growth in the abs is what you're trying to do. When you train your abs, if you want them to be visible, you want to have abs that you can see that are built. They have to build a little bit. And strengthening them with weights is not a bad thing. Now, here's the kicker or here's the caveat. You better have good technique. Most people who think that they can train with resistance with their abs actually has crappy technique. I've taken so many people who do weighted this, that, and the other, and I have them do a physio ball crunch, lock their hips into place, do spinal, you know, lumbar flexion and extension, and all of a sudden they can only do seven reps. Right. So you can use weight with perfect form, otherwise it becomes a hip flexor exercise.

[Justin Andrews]

I'll also say this. A waist that is one inch bigger with pronounced abs looks better than a waist that's one inch smaller without visible abs.

[Sal DiStefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

So I think this is like one of those things that's just so silly that people get caught up in is that, let me tell you, if you're at, like, if your abs are visible because you train heavy and load and do your abs and they're pronounced awesome, your waist will look better. I don't care if it's 3 inches bigger, it'll look better than the waist that's 3 inches smaller without visible abs. So it's like, I mean, grow your shoulders, grow your back in the, in the, in the, the body sculpting world, which this is. Questions around that people like sometimes. Well, and they get focused on the, on the wrong things. It's like the squeams instead of wearing, you know, they do that so they can bring their, their waistline in. It's just like. Yeah. But a, A waistline that is defined and muscular, even if it's an inch or two bigger, looks better than this waist that has atrophied all the muscle around. Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Why create an unfunctional body just for a look? You know, it's. You could do both. You can be very functional, very strong. I just don't. I don't get the whole, like, look of that in general, too. It looks really good when you're muscular, and if you need to get a little leaner, then focus on that. I mean, that's, that's, that's it.

[Sal DiStefano]

I. So, I mean, not to go off on a tangent, but bodybuilding took muscular development, which was a side effect of physical performance, and made the look the primary thing and because of that, things got really distorted and weird. So a small waist, wide shoulders, what that signifies is leanness, high testosterone, strength, athletic performance. But then bodybuilding went extreme with it. You know what happens in sports if you have a 20 inch waist and super wide shoulders. You'll break your back the second you turn too fast.

[Adam Schaefer]

They target you and friggin it's ridiculous.

[Sal DiStefano]

So you know what you want is a lean waist, that's what you want. And a lean waist is a nice looking waist. But don't try to not develop muscles because you're looking for a particular look. That's silly.

[Doug]

Next question is from getfitwithyas. When is the best time to ask a client to get their hormones checked?

[Justin Andrews]

Right away?

[Sal DiStefano]

Right in the beginning.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, sooner the better.

[Sal DiStefano]

See where you're at, see where you're at and then check them again three or six months later and see what's happening. Are we seeing any changes, any improvements in your hormone profile now that we've started exercising and changing your diet? I would throw in, you know, blood sugar levels with that IGF1, testosterone, DHEA, you know, estrogen, you know, I would look at all the hormones at the beginning and then maybe six months later, test again and see if there's any changes.

[Justin Andrews]

It's like any other assessment. You want to do it right away and it really doesn't matter per se what it, what it says as much as it matters where we go from there. Right. So it's like testing the body fat percentage. I'm going to tell a client we're doing it on day one right away. I don't care if it's 35, 20, all I care about is where it's at now because I'm about to lay out a program and plan for you. And then what does that plan do do? Does it, do we improve the blood markers or they get worse is important. And so the sooner the better. You want them to do that so you can measure and make sure that we're heading down the right road.

[Sal DiStefano]

Totally. And if you see something that's off and you're, you know, six months later and you're doing kind of everything right and everything looking good and, and there's still something off. Like hormone replacement therapy. Sometimes, not all, obviously most of the time it shouldn't be, but sometimes is necessary and it's life changing. Like you have somebody with low thyroid or testosterone, especially somebody you know over age of 40 and they start to change their lifestyle, things are healthier and they're just like, why is my thyroid still low and they can't figure it out. And then they supplement, you know, with, with medication, get that right. Life changing.

[Justin Andrews]

One of the most difficult things to do when I was a trainer was to help somebody with an imbalance hormonally. When someone's imbalanced hormonally, I don't care if they're on a perfect diet. You a lot of times they won't see the results that they should be seeing. And so I want to find that out before we hit that because that's what becomes challenging as a trainer's like, man, I know, I know. She's got a good diet, doing all the right things. Yeah, we're doing all the right things. I don't understand why I say, well, we're not seeing results because her hormones are out of whack.

[Sal DiStefano]

Totally. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. Justin is at Mind Pump. Justin, I'm at mind pump. DiStefano Adam's at mind Pump.

[Doug]

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build shape your body dramatically, improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB super [e-mail] the RGB Super Bundle includes maps, Anabolic maps, performance and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs with detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos. The RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30 day money back guarantee and you can get it now. Plus other valuable free [e-mail] if you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review on itunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.

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