2811: This Food Item IS NOT As Healthy as You Think

Summary

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth

Episode 2811 - This Food Item IS NOT As Healthy as You Think

Release Date: March 10, 2026
Hosts: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, Doug Egge

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Episode Overview

This episode of Mind Pump dives into the misconceptions surrounding the health value of fruit smoothies—a breakfast staple many believe is inherently healthy. The hosts, Sal, Adam, Justin, and Doug, break down why fruit smoothies may be counterproductive for fat loss, explore modern breakfast myths, tackle the psychology of food choices, and coach live callers on individualized fitness, nutrition, and recovery strategies. The conversation is rich in personal anecdotes, science-backed commentary, and humorous tangents, making for a relatable and informative discussion.

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1. Fruit Smoothies: Debunking the Health Halo

[03:31] - [08:17]

Key Points

• Sal sets the tone: "If you have a fruit smoothie every morning for breakfast, it's probably going to make you fat. It's one of the worst things you can have. It's not a health food." (Sal, 03:31)
• Fruit smoothies vs. whole fruit:
  • You consume more fruit calories via smoothies than whole fruit.
  • Blending increases surface area, spikes glycemic index, and reduces satiety.
• Adam and Justin push back & clarify:
  • Smoothies can have a place for bulking phases or those needing extra calories, but not optimal for fat loss due to hunger rebound and low fullness.
  • Juicing is even more problematic due to the removal of fiber and concentrated sugars.
• Sal drives home the risk:
  • “The real danger is that people think it’s a health food. There are far better options.” (Sal, 06:26)

Memorable Quote

"You blend the hell out of it...you've now made it essentially...not the same. I know it's not like a soda, but you've essentially made it a sugar bomb."
— Sal Di Stefano, 04:17

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2. The Breakfast Myth & Food Psychology

[08:17] - [15:59]

Key Points

• Breakfast marketing tragedy:
  • “We’ve been convinced we have no time for breakfast, so it’s always this rush.” (Sal, 08:17)
  • Quick breakfast “health” foods (cereal, bagels, fruit smoothies) are calorie-dense, low-satiety, and high-sugar.
• Rethinking breakfast food:
  • Adam describes reinventing breakfast by using leftovers with eggs: “Most dinners I have, if you crack eggs over it in the morning, it's amazing.” (Adam, 10:38)
  • Foods shouldn’t be pigeonholed by time of day: “Why can't you eat eggs for dinner or for lunch?" (Sal, 11:16)
• Relationship with food:
  • Challenge breakfast indoctrination—“Why can't I eat these foods at different times?” (Sal, 13:22)
  • Notional aversions are often just habit, not preference.

Notable Segment

"If I gave you a glass of orange juice with dinner, you'd be like, Ew. But breakfast? Oh yeah." (Sal, 13:14)

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3. Changing Food Relationships & Satiety

[16:00] - [22:00]

Key Points

• Comprehensive food relationship:
  • Many judge food mainly by timing and palatability, not true impact on digestion, energy, or performance.
  • Personal anecdote: Sal’s family member only realized oat milk lattes were causing stomach issues after eliminating them for 30 days.
• Long-term success:
  • “The key to long-term success with diet is changing your relationship to food.” (Sal, 16:19)

Memorable Quote

"You have to have a complete relationship with food. If you grew up in a modern society...it's likely this really narrow relationship..."
— Sal, 16:20

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4. Playful Tangent: Chimps, Grass, and Breakfast Culture

[22:00] - [33:00]

Key Points

• Animal “fashion”:
  • Sal shares a quirky story about chimps putting blades of grass up their butt for fashion—a riff on human fashion fads.
• Breakfast in other cultures/historical context:
  • Egyptians prized bald heads, wigs started as a cover for syphilis.
  • Japanese women historically blackened their teeth to signal wealth.
• Humor and relatability:
  • The hosts jokingly compare animal behaviors with human trends, making a point about social constructs and arbitrary cultural food norms.

Funniest Moment

"Did you know chimps are being observed putting blades of grass up their butt? Scientists are like, I think it's a style."
— Sal, 21:55

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5. Real-Life Anecdotes & Habits

[33:00] - [41:00]

Key Points

• Training, meal prep, and relationship with routine:
  • Sal and Adam discuss the value in simple, repeatable meals—less focus on pleasure, more on results and feeling good.
  • Adam promotes prepping dinners for easy, high-protein breakfasts (e.g., reheated turkey enchiladas with eggs).
• Personal progress:
  • Sal shares that shifting workout routines positively impacts his mindset, even if it’s a struggle to reduce weight training volume.

Notable Quote

“Changing your relationship to food...that’s really what it boils down to.” — Sal, 16:19

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6. Coaching Callers: Listener Q&A

[63:46] - [111:59]

6.1 Charles (New Jersey): Filling Gaps in Training Programs

[63:46 – 68:06]

• Gained 15 lbs of muscle on MAPS Strong.
• Wants year-round program structure.
• Advice: Add MAPS Symmetry or Performance to address unilateral and athletic gaps.

“If you want more of an athletic lean, you would go with Performance. If you want more still kind of that strength training, bodybuilding lean, then you would go symmetry.” — Sal, 65:28

6.2 Rob (New Jersey/Florida): Breaking Through in Physique Competitions

[69:06 – 84:39]

• Perpetual 2nd place—but wants to win.
• Hard time putting on size; fears body fat gain.
• Advice:
  • Gain muscle in the off-season. Eat more (up to 3,500 kcals+), reduce training volume (MAPS Anabolic Advanced), and accept temporary fat gain.
  • Adam: "Shows are won in the off-season, not when you're cutting."
• Coaching offered: Mind Pump will provide coaching and MAPS Anabolic Advanced.

“You have the tools to get [body fat] back anytime you want. So you’re not going to get fat, okay?” — Adam, 83:29

6.3 Lucy (Virginia): Training After a Third Hip Replacement

[86:54 – 94:35]

• Recent posterior approach hip replacement = year-long movement restrictions.
• Working through MAPS Band & Suspension.
• Advice:
  • MAPS Starter and isometrics recommended, with strict adherence to movement restrictions.
  • Sal: “Stay within the range of motion...these joints are not made to do [what natural hips can].” (91:32)
  • Lucy working with Dr. Brink; confirmed to be in expert hands.

6.4 Sarah (California): Exercise Addiction & Orthorexia

[95:11 – 109:47]

• History of heavy daily training: “Basically all my free time I'm training...” (Sarah, 96:54)
• Recognizes a compulsive edge; fears scaling down will lose results.
• Advice:
  • The team stresses she could maintain (and possibly improve) her physique with less volume.
  • Suggest gradual reduction or coaching for accountability.
  • Sal: “You look as fit as you do in spite of all the wrong stuff that you're doing." (102:56)
  • Adam: “You will absolutely keep your body—and likely improve—the moment you let go.” (102:31)
• Sarah is contemplating making a change; open to professional help, may train at their studio.

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7. Additional Memorable Moments

• Funny asides:

  • Animal “fashion” and powdered wigs (for syphilis!) expose the absurdities and patterns in human behavior.
  • The guys riff on hard manual labor, the pain of adult responsibilities, and using chores as teachable moments for kids.

• Sage practical advice:

  • Make use of leftovers for high-protein, hearty breakfasts.
  • Rethink and personalize traditional meal “time slots.”
  • True health is about flexibility, self-awareness, and enjoying (not obsessing) over improvement.

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8. Notable Quotes

On Fruit Smoothies

• “You think it's a health food. That's where the damage is really quick.” — Sal, 05:23

On Food Categories

• “It's so funny how we put foods in these weird categories...Why not? Why is it not breakfast? Yeah, eat it in the morning.” — Sal, 11:16

On Food & Emotional States

• “There are foods you navigate towards when you're stressed, upset, or happy...Pizza did a great job of marketing itself as a breakfast food: cold pizza in the morning." — Sal, 13:22

On Change & Self-Awareness

• “You have to have a complete relationship with food.” — Sal, 16:20

On Training Obsession

• “You look as fit as you do in spite of all the wrong stuff that you're doing.” — Sal, 102:56

On Progression & Letting Go

• “Let go of the jacked look. You can go get that anytime you want.” — Adam, 107:06

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9. Timestamps for Key Segments

• Fruit Smoothie Myth — 03:31-08:17
• Breakfast Marketing & Food Norms — 08:17-15:59
• Changing Food Relationships — 16:00-22:00
• Cultural Trends Tangent — 22:00-33:00
• Meal Prep, Habits, & Personal Stories — 33:00-41:00
• Coaching Callers: Live Q&A — 63:46-111:59

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Summary & Takeaways

• Fruit smoothies are not universally “healthy”—especially for fat loss. They’re highly palatable, calorically dense, spike blood sugar, and are less filling than whole fruit meals.
• Cultural norms and food marketing have warped American ideas about nutrition, especially at breakfast. Redefine what “breakfast foods” mean for your goals.
• Developing a healthier, broader relationship with food and exercise is essential for real, lasting change. Examine your biases and habits. Satiety, energy, digestion, and personal fulfillment matter as much as calorie counts or athletic vanity.
• Progress is personal and often psychological. Whether you’re struggling to gain muscle, rehabbing an injury, or breaking free of exercise addiction, compassionate, science-based coaching and awareness are powerful tools.
• Change often must start before you’re 'forced to.' Start examining dependency and develop flexibility before injury or circumstance makes it a must.

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“The key to long-term success with diet is changing your relationship to food.”
— Sal Di Stefano

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Transcript

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[Doug]

If you want to p and expand your mind, there's only one place to go.

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Mind Pump Mind Pump with your hosts

[Adam Schafer]

Sal Destefano, Adam Schafer and Justin Andrews,

[Sal Di Stefano]

you just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. In today's episode we had callers call in, ask us questions about their health and fitness and we got to coach them live on air. But this was after our intro. Today's Intro is about 60 minutes long. In the intro we talk about fitness, fat loss, muscle gain, current events, family life, always a good time. If you want to be on an episode like this, here's what you do. Submit your question to mplifecaller.com now. This episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Vuori. You know who they are. This is the best athleisure wear you'll find anywhere. It's high class. It looks good, it lasts a long time. It's incredible. Feels good to wear. We have the biggest discount you'll find anywhere. Okay, if you like Vuoric and you want to save, here's what you do. Go to vuoriclothing.com mindpump that's v u o r I dashlothing.com mindpump THAT link will get you 20% off. This episode is also brought to you by mphormones.com the medical professional there not a salesperson will meet with you and talk with you about hormone therapy. Is it right for you? They also work with peptides. Not the gray market research stuff, but peptides made in a real compound pharmacy. FDA regulated compound pharmacy. Go to Mphormones.com and see if it's right for you. By the way, you'll get some of the best prices you'll find anywhere because they don't have salespeople. No fluff. It's the best. [e-mail], when you work with our partners there. If you use the code mindpump365, you can pay a year in advance, save $150 plus get your free your essential lab for free. The first lab totally free. So one more time, mphormones.com, the code mindpump365. Also, we have a brand new bundle for this month. It's called the spring bundle. It's Maps symmetry, Maps prime, and the advanced training techniques guide. All of that together over 50% off.147. It can see all of that. Go check it out. Go to mapsmarch.com Here comes the show T shirt time.

[Doug]

And it's T shirt time.

[Adam Schafer]

Ah, shit, Doug. You know it's my favorite time of the week.

[Doug]

Two winners this week, one for Apple podcasts, one for Facebook. The Apple podcast winner is Charlotte bg And for Facebook, we have Sarah George. Both of you are winners. Send the name I just read to itunesindpumpmedia.com include your shirt size and your shipping address and we'll get that shirt right out to you.

[Sal Di Stefano]

All right, real quick.

[Justin Andrews]

If you love us like we love you, why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, mugs or training gear [e-mail] I'm talking right now. Hit pause, head on over to my pumpstore.com. that's it. Enjoy the rest of the show.

[Sal Di Stefano]

If you have a fruit smoothie every morning for breakfast, it's probably going to make you fat. It's one of the worst things you can have. It's not a health food we're going to talk about. Let's go.

[Adam Schafer]

That is a hot thing. I don't know if I agree with that fruit smoothie. Well, I mean, do I get to put protein powder in it?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Sure. Here's the thing. I'll tell you why I'm bringing this up.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay. I mean, Jamba Juice for sure.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, I remember.

[Adam Schafer]

You guys remember. Hey, I know we all had to go through this because when it was new, like, I remember going and getting a peanut butter smoothie, a Jamba Juice almost every post workout. And then I remember when they actually started to put the, the nutrition books in there and the Rita was like, yeah, of course it didn't stop me

[Justin Andrews]

because I was cream in it.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, they put ice cream. I didn't even know. Well, I'll tell you why it's so good.

[Adam Schafer]

I was 180 grams of sugar in one shot.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So here's why this came, I was watching a show and the guy is, in the morning, he's being depicted as like, he's not a health fitness guy, but he's obviously concerned about his health. He's a health conscious person. And like a lot of people, he has his breakfast in his hand and it's a cup, a clear cup and it's a fruit smoothie. And a lot of people have been led to believe that this is like a wonderful health food. Now I want to be clear. Fruit is not bad for you, but if you blend the hell out of it up and you add it all, first off, you can have way more fruit as a smoothie than you would ever eat. Number two, when you blend it up, you've changed it. So now the glycemic index goes through the roof. So whatever. However slowly you digest it through eating it, you've blended it up and you've now made it essentially not the same. I know it's not like a soda, but you've essentially made it a sugar bomb. And it's typically very high calorie. Even if you add protein, you've got yourself this kind of really high calorie, low satiety producing glycemic index bomb that you're going to have. And you think it's a health food. That's where the damage is really quick.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I mean you're kind of bypassing that whole process your body has of like slowly digesting it and releasing it and timing wise so it just like immediately hits your bloodstream.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, this juicers are really bad.

[Justin Andrews]

There you go.

[Adam Schafer]

Because if you, the amount of fiber, the amount of apples and like that, you need to like make a, like a cup of juice or like whatever fruit you're using in there is a, is a lot. So that really concentrate like a juicer, a blended smoothie though, like if, if it's predominantly like almond milk or water and then you know, and then like a fruit, a piece of fruit in

[Sal Di Stefano]

there or like who does that?

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, like, I mean I. A spinach, blueberry, banana smoothie, a protein smoothie would be a very common smoothie. I would do so. But I mean, to your point, I think everybody should at least one time in their life weigh the bananas they eat. Because what is considered a large banana in like the nutrition guidebooks are not the large bananas you get at the grocery store.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Also the way it hits you, you know, when you blend food up, you change its surface, the surface of it to the total volume, making it very quickly absorbing and so you know, if I ate an apple, it has a different impact on me than if I blended an apple and drank it has a different impact on my blood sugar. Not to mention the amount of fruit that you can consume in a short period of time through a smoothie. But that's not the danger. Here's the real danger is that people think it's a health food. Like, this is a healthy food. There's far better options.

[Adam Schafer]

Here's where I'll defend what you're saying. I think is because I definitely think, I actually think it's a great option for somebody who's trying to build or bulk.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Like, you're not. You can't get enough calories.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, sure. Because the other point to your argument is that you have that and you digest it really quick and then you're hungry again.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That's right.

[Adam Schafer]

In like an hour.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That's why I think it's terrible for.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, exactly. So to your point that I can get behind that, like, if you're doing a smoothie for breakfast and your goal is weight loss, I do agree that's a bad strategy. I think if you were at maintenance and you're happy with where your weight is at and it works for your lifestyle, totally fine. But if your goal was weight loss and so I guess maybe that's how I would have, would have positioned. I like how you positioned it, though. But I, I, I would have said something like, it's, you're encouraging me to

[Sal Di Stefano]

get people's attention, trying to approach.

[Adam Schafer]

I do. I like it. I appreciate that. That's what I was saying. I appreciate that because it made me think about it, like, okay, well, I mean, I totally think I do that all the time. And I've had clients. But you're right. I would never tell a weight loss client who's trying to lose body fat you should blend a fruit smoothie up in the morning.

[Justin Andrews]

There's better options.

[Adam Schafer]

Is really, there's way, there's way better.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Way better options. And one of the travesties with our diet is this myth or this belief or these beliefs around breakfast in particular. So we've been convinced that we should have no time for breakfast. So it's always this rush. So that's.

[Justin Andrews]

Number one, muffins aren't cake.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That's right. Number two, because of that, breakfast foods, or foods we would label as breakfast foods in the context of I need it to be quick are all terrible. Started with breakfast cereals. Then you got bagels and muffins and, you know, pastries, and then the health side is like, oh, here, this is healthy. Blend up a bunch of fruit and if you add protein, it's fine. Well, no, if you're trying to lose body fat, first of all, it's going to produce very little satiety. It's great for bulking, not good for losing body fat. You'll be hungry. You're going to get many people, not everybody, but you could test this with a blood sugar regulator. You're going to get a spike in blood sugar that you wouldn't normally get. Especially if you ate the fruit and ate the protein from a whole food source. It would be very different. Why don't you want or why are we avoiding these sharp rises in blood sugar? We can make the metabolic argument it's not good for your body, cause insulin resistance, blah, blah, blah. I'm not even going there. Sharp rises and drops in blood sugar. They just tend to encourage not great behaviors. You tend to feel not so good later, appetite starts to spike. It doesn't bode well for long term behaviors around eating in a way that's appropriate, especially for fat loss.

[Adam Schafer]

You know what, I'm, I don't subscribe to this. There's not a lot of great options for breakfast for high protein anymore. So I'm traveling. I was traveling this last weekend, right. And I went and stayed at a cabin with my, my cousin and was kind of at the mercy of whatever. She, she was the one cooking for the weekend. And so it is what it is now. She's health conscious. So she, my cousin Stephanie.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Oh yeah, right.

[Adam Schafer]

Love her. So she made for dinner the first night that we were there these like healthy Grant ground turkey enchilada dish, you know, so it was, it still enchiladas but it's like a healthier version and stuff like that and made with ground turkey and this like lactose free cheese. And it was, it was really, it was really good. And then she made a huge. There's tons of us, so tons of bulk. So there was leftovers. Man, four eggs cracked over that in the morning. So. Amazing.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Most dinners that I have, I'm trying to think the last time I had a dinner where it's like cracking a couple eggs over it in the morning time reheated is not amazing. I think it's so good.

[Sal Di Stefano]

It is, it's just not what someone would consider a like breakfast.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, exactly. It's just, that's all marketing, 100%. We've been marketed to so well. That breakfast is this waffle pancake which is cake Cake and cereal for breakfast is like what, staples and then just eggs. And we know that one or two eggs is not a lot of protein, but it's like you crack four eggs over top of a dinner dish for the night before and you got a really high, really good tasting and makes me feel like I'm eating breakfast even

[Sal Di Stefano]

to add to that eggs. Right. We think of it as for breakfast. Why can't you eat eggs for dinner or for lunch? Like, it's so funny how we put foods in these weird categories. And so then people are like, oh, you want me to eat like some chicken and some rice for breakfast? That's not breakfast. Why not? Why is it at breakfast? Yeah, eat it in the morning. And so that's my point with this, is that the fruit smoothie has been so strongly sold as this healthy option in the morning. And most people who are doing it are not doing it for bulking. Most people who are doing it are like, okay, I want to lose weight, I want to get healthy. And it's not going to be a great option for you. It's not going to help.

[Adam Schafer]

You know what, Sal? You're making me think now. Okay, so how much of that, the fact that that is a fruit smoothie for breakfast is more popular than cracking a couple eggs over dinner is. And I wonder if it's because so much of what has been sold to us, pancakes, waffles, cereal, pop tarts, as like the breakfast or donuts. Right. These are what people eat for so high sugar. That seems more like because of the high sugar in the fruit. Because what is it that makes you go that, that thing that you love for dinner, you don't love for breakfast?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Think about that for a second. Because of the time of the day, that's, that's all cravings and habit shit. That has nothing to do even with what you like or not like, because you liked it at 8 or 6pm Market.

[Justin Andrews]

It goes back to even the. The food pyramid. You know, it's like it, it's in that category of like, we got all the whole grains and balanced meal. You know, breakfast, it's all freaking carbs.

[Adam Schafer]

I think it's like recondition yourself to start eating the stuff that you already love for dinner.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Which, by the way, you know what this points to and this is a conversation is it points to the complexity around our relationship around food. Yes. We're not even aware of half of these things. You know, if I, if I gave you a glass of orange juice with dinner, you'd be like, Ew. Yeah. Breakfast. Oh, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Glass of orange juice if I gave you turkey stuffing.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

We're only eating it one day.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That's right. A year. That's right. So. So. And this is a good thing to examine with yourself because it also goes further than that. Right. There's foods that you tend to navigate towards when you're stressed out or when you're upset or when you're happy. You know, a good example, by the way, I think pizza did a great job of marketing themselves as a breakfast food. It's just cold.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

People have cold slice of pizza in the morning because it was left over from the night before, and that even became a thing. But it's a really good thing to examine with your diet because oftentimes with. Not. This isn't the big thing that's holding you back, but it's part of it is like, why can't I eat these foods at different times? What are my beliefs around food? What's my relationship like with certain meals to where when I think of breakfast? Because that's one of the most challenging meals for clients. Wouldn't you guys agree? It's always breakfast. Right? It's this most challenging one. And the big challenge around it is exactly this. It's like, what's a breakfast food? Yeah. And. Oh, and I don't have any time. My favorite one is I'm rushed in the morning. Scrambling eggs takes a grand total of eight minutes. If that. Maybe if that. But it's weird that we're, like, convinced that it's like, no, no, I got. I have to eat while I'm running out of time.

[Adam Schafer]

By the time. This is what. This is why it's such bs the thing. The enchilada or the chicken and rice or the ground beef and rice, whatever you had for dinner thing. By time, you. And to make this easy, too, by the way, I don't know if people do this or not, but I make the big. We make the big dinner. And then I. When I'm cleaning the kitchen, I'm portioning it out in Tupperware.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So now it's fast.

[Adam Schafer]

So it's already set. I literally throw it in my glass thing in the. In the microwave. I hit 230, I crack the eggs over. By the time that thing is done microwaving, the eggs are ready to get thrown on top of that, it is not long at all. So that. That idea, you know, a hack for somebody who can't wrap their brain around doing this or with a. With a client. What I would do. This is another way I love to use this tool. You fast somebody for 24 to 48 hours and then they're.

[Sal Di Stefano]

They're start to realize and then their

[Adam Schafer]

first meal they get to have is. Is the breakfast dinner. Is the eggs over? Yeah. Name that. Whatever it is. Watch how good that tastes. When you haven't had something for that long and it's like you need to recondition that or change that relationship with food. There you go. That's how you start doing that is. And if it. That's so hard for you to. To wrap your brain around and then after you've. You've conditioned yourself which I've been doing this long enough now that I actually crave that. Like that sounds so much better than a bowl of cereal or waffles or pancake pancakes do for breakfast is having. So having one of those dinners with some eggs cracked over.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I'm just thinking of so many things are like toast. Like when would you eat toast aside from breakfast? Yeah. When would you have. You wouldn't. A slice of toast with butter. I mean it's really good thing to think about and understand because I think the key I know this. The key to long term success with diet is changing relationship to food. That's really what it boils down.

[Adam Schafer]

That's all this is because when you

[Sal Di Stefano]

have a first off you have to have a complete relationship with food. What I mean by that is if you grew up in a modern society which if you're listening to this podcast, the odds are you did your relationship with food is very narrow. Likely. It's likely this really narrow relationship where it really boils down to is it the right time to eat this food and is it palatable? That's it. It's really about it. That's how you judge what you need to eat for the most part is am I going to enjoy eating this thing? You don't have a complete relationship. Like how does this affect my digestion or athletic performance or energy? You don't have a complete relationship with it. And I know this because I've trained so many people that when I would have people start paying attention, they started to realize that certain foods that they ate all the time made them feel crummy. I didn't even realize that the energy crash I had was because I had a bagel every morning. Once I took that out, I felt better. So one of my family members is doing this with diet and she has eliminated a lot of things out of her diet and then recently had an oat Milk latte from Starbucks. And she texted us and she's like, this kills my stomach. She's like, I didn't realize I always had stomach issues. And it was probably this thing I had every day. I just had to take it out for 30 days before I realized it. But once you have a complete relationship, here's the selling point now. So I'm gonna sell to everybody. As your relationship with food becomes more complete, it gets easier to eat healthy.

[Adam Schafer]

Way easier.

[Sal Di Stefano]

It's not like this struggle all the time because you have this better relationship with it.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, I think it's just, I think it's hilarious that something that you admit that you like at 6pm at night, you don't at 7. Like that should make you want to inspect that relationship. It's like, that's strange. It's not like I'm asking you to eat something that you don't like. I'm like, all I'm saying is the thing that you ate at seven o' clock that you love to eat, throw four eggs over it in the morning time. And it's life changing and it's just like. And then just do that for a while, Recondition, like how you what you eat in the morning. Like that and holy, look at this. And it's like, it's so time saving because you're, you're already making dinner. Is the one that I feel like most people, everybody, but most people consistently make, right?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, if they're going to cook anything. If you're going to.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, if you're. Because I mean, obviously there's people out there like I don't cook anything. I get that too.

[Sal Di Stefano]

But the one meal you like.

[Adam Schafer]

But yeah, the one meal you cook dinner. Okay, so stop cooking just for dinner and start double the recipe, like double or triple the recipe. And then while you're cleaning the kitchen up, which we all do, we have to do, section it off in thethe cup of rice, the six to eight ounces of meat in your Tupperware, put it in the fridge. And then in the morning when you get up and you're in such a hurry, take the 2 minutes, 30 seconds to put in the microwave and throw the four eggs on.

[Sal Di Stefano]

And it's so funny, I was just having this conversation something like along those lines with my wife, because I did. I grilled a bunch of chicken thighs yesterday. So I did like meal prep sometimes make a bunch of chicken thighs. So I have a bunch of ready meals that I can have, you know, when I come to work or whatever. And so she's putting them in Tupperware for me and she's like, you're gonna eat the same thing. Like, don't you get sick of this? I said, no. I said, first off, I like the taste. It's not bad. It's not like as good as like pizza or something like that, but it's not bad. But it makes me feel good to eat this way. So I enjoy eating it now. It's not the only thing I eat. I don't just eat these meals because she makes dinner. So I have something different for dinner. Sometimes I'll have something different for breakfast. But it's my relationship with it is. It's enjoyable because it doesn't taste bad, but I like the way it makes me feel. I was just came back from LA for a podcast circuit and I'm very aware I've been doing this for mind pump for a while now where I go and I'll fly somewhere and do like three or four shows in a day, which requires a lot of energy, not physical energy, but you have to be mentally sharp and you go from one place to another, get on, you got to do your thing and you know, so I'm really, really conscious of how I feel mentally. I'm very aware of which foods I should eat when I'm doing that. And it typically looks like lower carb, higher protein, and I'll have some fiber. So breakfast normally what I would have, let's say steak, eggs and potatoes. I'll have just some steak and some berries. And then for lunch it's going to be like some kind of vegetable and some kind of protein. I don't normally eat like that regularly, but I know I feel more mentally sharp to be able to do four shows from 8am to 3pm and so I'm just aware. And so what does this mean when I eat it? Do I hate it? No, I enjoy it because I know what it's going to produce. So the relationship with it is fine. Doesn't bother me.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, you know, I mean, I actually prefer it. I think it's great. I also think too, I mean, you can't, you don't do dairy. But the dishes that I'm giving examples of too.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Throw some cheese on it.

[Adam Schafer]

Throw some cheese.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I wish I could do it.

[Adam Schafer]

One to two ounces of cheese on top of that too.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I mean is, you could throw that

[Adam Schafer]

on anything is amazing.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I do.

[Adam Schafer]

And let me tell you, one to two ounces of cheese on a dish like that is not what's keeping you Fat or not fat? No, like that. You're talking about a couple hundred calories in the morning time over a healthy dish. That's not the difference of you being in shape or not shape. So it doesn't have to be. So it doesn't have to be dry chicken. Chicken breasts and white rice and pouring eggs like. No, I'm. I've got cheese and salsa and like.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Oh, it's, it's a. Salsa's another good one.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, it's amazing.

[Sal Di Stefano]

All right, I gotta bring this up. I can'. Hold it in any longer, Justin, because you're gonna die, bro. Over there. So remember how I brought up how they, killer whales have been observed putting dead salmon on their heads?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

And it's like a style. It's like they're showing off their new style. Did you know chimps are being observed putting blades of grass up their butt?

[Doug]

What?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, duckling. They'll walk around and they'll have long blades of grass sticking out of their butt. And to the best of the scientists ability, they're like this. I think it's a style.

[Adam Schafer]

Or they ate something. Or they ate something that made their butt itch instead of trying to fry it.

[Sal Di Stefano]

No, they're literally. This is like a phenomena that's been well observed.

[Justin Andrews]

It's not like shaking it around.

[Sal Di Stefano]

No, you gotta see the pictures, dude. Let's see if Doug can find some of these pictures. They're walking around. It's like long grades of blades.

[Justin Andrews]

What's the best long blades?

[Sal Di Stefano]

It's non functional and pointless.

[Adam Schafer]

A fashion trend of sticky.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You got to find the pictures of it. Because I was, I was cracking. Yes.

[Doug]

Grassy.

[Sal Di Stefano]

But yeah, look at that guy on the left.

[Justin Andrews]

They're so, they're so hot right now.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Look at that, dude. But you know, makes me think of too. Like we laugh at that. We think they're so ridiculous. Like, come on. Everything we wear is ridiculous.

[Adam Schafer]

I was gonna say this is them. Yes. They see like women walking around, skirts are like, this is their version or

[Sal Di Stefano]

super long, you know, super high heels that hurt your feet or whatever.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Wow.

[Sal Di Stefano]

The first chimp to do that was

[Justin Andrews]

the nice little accessory.

[Adam Schafer]

Right? And then everybody, everybody decided he's the trendsetter.

[Sal Di Stefano]

How much grass he has up his.

[Justin Andrews]

Hey, look at Dave, dude. He's got, he's got something, something shiny over.

[Sal Di Stefano]

As soon as the female chimps were attracted to it, all the other dudes

[Adam Schafer]

were like, that is so weird.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I know.

[Adam Schafer]

Is it possible there's some sort of nutrient that's in the grass that Is getting absorbed, I don't think.

[Justin Andrews]

Or was this like a prank and they're like, you know, like farting it over one of them or something.

[Sal Di Stefano]

And then it just.

[Adam Schafer]

Did you go. Did you go down the rabbit hole? Read some theories or. They just go.

[Sal Di Stefano]

They literally trend the best fashion. That's it. It's. It's some kind of.

[Adam Schafer]

As soon. As soon as Doug googled it, the first thing that came up was trend

[Justin Andrews]

was like, it just accidentally like, you know, was trying to like wipe or something and stuck it in there. And I was just walking around.

[Doug]

They're like, oh, man, there's a.

[Justin Andrews]

He's on to something.

[Doug]

12 year old chimp named Juma who started it all in 2023. Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, dude.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, it's like, this is a dude. Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

And you got those.

[Doug]

And so once Juma did it. So once Juma did it, five. Five other chimps did the same thing within a few weeks.

[Sal Di Stefano]

What?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Then they just like grab one and do that blade thing.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Juma is a trendsetter, dude. Yeah, you got them Jumas, dude.

[Justin Andrews]

Weird.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Speaking of like revelation and stuff. So I'm in la, right? I gotta share this because it's just, you know, for the aging dudes listening right now. So I'm in the hotel and in the hotel room, the bathroom has the. Your mirror, but it has one of those side mirrors that kind of unfolds, folds out, the little mirror.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

And I wake up, you know, do my thing, take a shower. I'm trying to like, get my hair to look halfway decent, whatever. So I use the little mirror and I go like this. I see my head, bro. From this angle right here, bro. I think every hair loss is Every really.

[Adam Schafer]

I think every. Every.

[Justin Andrews]

It's happening.

[Adam Schafer]

Every man that went bald has that story.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That one time.

[Adam Schafer]

That time. I know the like, like, like. No, you were never in denial that, you know, I was never in denial. But there is that. There's a. There's. There's a very clear moment in time. And I remember when mine was. It was when we were shooting Content Early Days out in the front and Rachel still worked for us. And I think her and Drew were behind the camera back then. And she's doing cuts, you know, and then she'd come over and she'd be like. And between cuts, I was down on my phone working. And that was when we had all them soft lights up there, bright lights. And so. So she's like, you know, what do you think of this edit she's going through? And Then you see me put my head down, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, what's happening?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Nobody told me it was, like, that bad, you know?

[Adam Schafer]

It's like, I knew. Of course I knew. Like, but I didn't know, like, that. Like, And I was just. That was it. I lit. Next day, I was shaved off, dude. And then I never looked back.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Well, so I'm like, I'm not as brave as you are. So I was telling my wife, because my wife's been slowly, like, encouraging me, cut your hair shorter. Like, let's slowly transition. So I text her. I'm like, babe. I'm like, it's really bad. She's like, it's not. I'm like, honey, you're short. You don't see the top. Like. Like, you know, because you see me from.

[Adam Schafer]

That's how I feel. Katrina was. Katrina's like, oh, it's fine.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I'm like, you don't see the top? Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

You don't see the angle?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. So. So she's. She's like, this what you're going to do. She goes, when Vicky cuts your hair. So. So today it's shorter every week. Get it A little shorter. A little shorter, and then eventually you'll be all the way down.

[Adam Schafer]

This is an interesting strategy. Yeah, I'm not against it. I think it's. I think it's interesting.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I'm more of a rip the bandaid,

[Justin Andrews]

so you get, like, the crew cut going.

[Adam Schafer]

Because I'm trying to think if I, Like, I'm looking at it right now, and I'm like, if I grew mine back out, I think I might be

[Sal Di Stefano]

like, would it be like this?

[Adam Schafer]

Well, who knows, though? It's been a while. So I, like. Because I was. I was already committed before that.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

You're thin enough now. Where I was. I was. That was enough for me. That was. That the white light hitting, like, the experience you just had was enough for me to go, like. But I also. You know, because. And you'll see. Watch when you get all these messages,

[Sal Di Stefano]

because there's a bunch of dudes.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I. As a kid, we. I shaved my head intentionally, like, all the time.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So did I. Oh, you did.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Okay.

[Adam Schafer]

So that shouldn't be a big deal for you. Yeah, yeah. That's how I feel. Like, if you.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Honestly, if we weren't on camera all the time, I wouldn't care less. I just shave it. But I just. I'm waiting for the comments, you know? I mean. Oh, he shaved his head. Where to go?

[Adam Schafer]

You know, maybe become a beanie guy.

[Sal Di Stefano]

A beanie guy?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. You're not really a hat guy. No.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You guys have good hat faces. I know the beak thing. Justin is.

[Adam Schafer]

Justin is the one that makes me the most angry. He has this gorgeous hair, and he wears a hat all the time. It's, like, disrespectful. Yeah, it's like disrespectful to guys that don't have hair. I don't like to see a guy wear a ball cap all the time, bro.

[Justin Andrews]

I did. It's just not my thing, man.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, yeah, Whatever it is. Whatever, bro.

[Adam Schafer]

Disrespectful.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Sorry.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You know, back in the day, bald heads were prized and.

[Adam Schafer]

Really?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yes.

[Adam Schafer]

I love that. You could always back up.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yes. And men used to shave their heads in different cultures.

[Adam Schafer]

He never brought this up when I was. When I was bald.

[Justin Andrews]

I think that was because of syphilis.

[Sal Di Stefano]

As soon as he starts going bald, he starts fighting.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. He comes out with the science to support why this makes him a superior man.

[Justin Andrews]

That was syphilis. And they got wigs as a result. Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Well, no, there's other.

[Adam Schafer]

Is that how the. Is that how the wig thing started?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, yeah. Powdered wigs, like.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

The odd syphilis.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. Wow. I didn't know, like, I know in Japanese culture, men would shave the top. I know that for a long time. Not. Not recent, but a while ago, if you were gray or especially balding, it was considered, like, wisdom. You know, you were considered more wise.

[Justin Andrews]

That's great.

[Adam Schafer]

I know that about.

[Sal Di Stefano]

No, really, it was.

[Justin Andrews]

You had to have the really long.

[Sal Di Stefano]

No, not that. Yeah, whatever, dude.

[Justin Andrews]

Mustachios go with it.

[Adam Schafer]

Are you searching for us, Doug?

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Egypt.

[Doug]

Apparently, it was a big thing. Bald heads.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, there you go.

[Doug]

That's a long time ago, though.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Egypt.

[Adam Schafer]

Things have changed.

[Justin Andrews]

Bu Brer.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Look. Whatever, dude.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, I know. Fact check. Simplest thing. I'm going h. That.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, yeah, no, I know. I'm on point.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Across various cultures.

[Adam Schafer]

Shaving, racist. History of hair loss.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Huh?

[Justin Andrews]

Racist.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Look at the top. Racist history.

[Adam Schafer]

The hidden racist.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Everything's racist. That's so stupid. Racist. See, right there in some. What's that? Symbol of wisdom. Historically, in some context, baldness was associated with maturity, wisdom, and nurturing, and it was treated with neutrality and art rather than as a flaw.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, just look up powdered wigs and syphilis.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, I feel like. I feel like the wisdom part is that because it's just like, if you like. Like, for example, Doug with his all his hair and his good looks could pass as a very young man still.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

There. When you're bald, there's no passing as a yellow. As soon as I became, like, fully bald, I never got carded again.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Really?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Never.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Oh, wow.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Once that happened, it was just like, wow.

[Justin Andrews]

It's not that, like, athletic, you know, there's no.

[Adam Schafer]

Like, maybe he's 17. No.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Like, he's for sure of age. Yeah. See, look at that. Powdered wigs were heavily associated with the syphilis epidemic that plagued Europe starting.

[Adam Schafer]

Thank you.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Wow. Popular, fashionable, and necessary way to conceal the symptoms of the disease. Yeah. Which included patch.

[Adam Schafer]

So this is like the big white ones, like the judges.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Powdered wigs.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, that's what those are called. Powdered wigs.

[Justin Andrews]

Crazy, too.

[Adam Schafer]

What do you mean by that? What do you mean?

[Sal Di Stefano]

They would have a wig, and I don't know if it was human hair or horse hair, I think was horse hair. And they would powder them with white powder to make them white. So they're called powdered wigs.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, so those aren't. Those would be colored normally, but because horse hair.

[Sal Di Stefano]

They would use horse hair.

[Adam Schafer]

No kidding.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. I didn't know that. And they'd be braided or whatever. Have you ever seen pictures of, like, Parliament English? Parliament. And they'll wear them.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, I feel like I've seen that, but I didn't know that. I didn't realize they were powders.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I had no idea.

[Justin Andrews]

Weird. That men were into that.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You know what's weird, though? Well, if you had syphilis, you were just screwed. Huh. How did it go away back then? It didn't.

[Justin Andrews]

I don't think it went away.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Wow.

[Justin Andrews]

Like, suffered through it until it, like, took you out.

[Sal Di Stefano]

What does it say? Yeah.

[Doug]

So the wigs were made out of human hair, horse hair, and goat hair,

[Sal Di Stefano]

depending on how rich you were.

[Doug]

So I suppose.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. Goat hair was. Was, like, cheap. Yeah. And horses. Yeah. Yak hair is yak hair. Wow. I don't know.

[Adam Schafer]

And then they. And then they put powder. It doesn't look like it had powder all over.

[Doug]

They look like they're white.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. Yeah. But that's. That's because they're painting things. Didn't have your picture, but it was.

[Adam Schafer]

It was powder, I guess That's a good point.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. You want to know? It's a weird trend that they did in Japan. I think it's Japan. The women would blacken their teeth. Did you guys.

[Doug]

Oh, yeah, that's true.

[Justin Andrews]

With, like, charcoal or what?

[Sal Di Stefano]

I don't know what they would use, but because you'll still see old paintings.

[Adam Schafer]

They use charcoal to brush your teeth back.

[Sal Di Stefano]

No, no, no. This was like. They would stain their teeth black. And this is like. Wealthy women would do this.

[Justin Andrews]

That is weird.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I just picture it, and I'm like. That will look dysfunctional.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. No. And you can see old Japanese paintings with these.

[Adam Schafer]

What. What was the theory on. I don't know exactly, other than to signal wealth. Right.

[Sal Di Stefano]

It was a jack. Okay, so here we go. It was called. How do you say that, Doug?

[Doug]

Ohagudo Guru.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Okay. It was a Japanese cosmetic custom primarily practiced from the heian.

[Adam Schafer]

It's a long time. It was practiced for.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So from 794 to 8 to.

[Adam Schafer]

Wow.

[Sal Di Stefano]

1868 period, where women and some men dyed their teeth black using a sol. Iron fillings, and vinegar. It signified beauty, maturity, marital status, and social status. Also acting as a dental sealant to prevent tooth decay. Wow. Huh? Isn't it? Look at that. And you'll see pictures of or paintings.

[Adam Schafer]

I've never heard of that.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Black teeth, though. Yeah, that doesn't look that good. Yeah, see, look. See right there? Wow.

[Justin Andrews]

Looks like you don't have teeth.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. Yeah, dude. People are weird, dude. So blades of grass up your butt's not that big of a deal.

[Adam Schafer]

I.

[Justin Andrews]

Apparently it's, you know, par for the course.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

That's kind of. That's fascinating. Where did you come from? Where did you come across that one?

[Sal Di Stefano]

I read it a long time ago. Japanese culture, to me, has always been very interesting. That's what Doug and I have talked about this.

[Adam Schafer]

Did you know that one, Doug?

[Doug]

I'd heard it before.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, you. So you did.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Okay, so Doug and I have talked about this before because when we started Maps, which we still haven't done, we said there was a number. We said, once we hit this number, we're gonna go to Japan. We never did. We never went to Japan. But I've always wanted.

[Adam Schafer]

I'm sure you passed that number way past.

[Doug]

Oh, yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Long time ago.

[Adam Schafer]

Do you remember. Do you guys remember what the number was?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, I do. I'll tell you off it. We passed it, of course. Month two. No, no. We launched. That's hilarious. Yeah, but it.

[Doug]

But I'm still waiting to go.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I want. Japan has always been an interesting culture to me because I did judo. I find it fascinating. I love the culture. I love how polite they are.

[Justin Andrews]

I want to watch a sumo match.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I love the. I think the food is interesting. I've always wanted to go to sumo match. I want to go to judo.

[Adam Schafer]

Did you. You know, the sumo match when they come over here is really cool. I know it's obviously not, you know, there or whatever like that, but it's. That was like, really cool.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Sumo wrestlers over there are like, major

[Adam Schafer]

sumo match over here. Yeah.

[Doug]

That's cool.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Celebrities, huh?

[Sal Di Stefano]

They're major celebrities over there. And I think they have, like, a big celebration. We turn 40, if I'm not mistaken. It's like a huge birthday.

[Justin Andrews]

It's, like, crazy to watch the amount of food they can consume.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

In one city.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Really?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Where'd you see that?

[Justin Andrews]

I've seen the videos.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. It's a lot.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That's awesome.

[Adam Schafer]

What does it say about us every time we. We. We do this all the time, you know, that you. You and Doug started. Maybe it's your fault. Well, there are. There's been a lot of milestones that we said we were gonna do a thing.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, we just bypass.

[Adam Schafer]

Ah, yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I don't think we've ever followed through.

[Justin Andrews]

I don't think I've written any of these.

[Doug]

I think some of them are good to skip.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, yeah, there's a couple.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I'm glad we did. We don't need to go any further.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, there's a couple crazy ones.

[Sal Di Stefano]

We won't talk about it. Maybe that's probably why we didn't do those. Those.

[Adam Schafer]

But there's been a lot. There's been a lot of other ones besides that. Like, if traveling somewhere or buy this thing or do a thing. Like, we've. We've set a lot of.

[Sal Di Stefano]

And we've.

[Adam Schafer]

I don't think we've done any of them.

[Sal Di Stefano]

None of them. None of them.

[Adam Schafer]

So what does that say?

[Justin Andrews]

We're busy.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I think we're just.

[Justin Andrews]

We just keep going.

[Sal Di Stefano]

A trip to Japan would take. We'd have to go for at least two weeks.

[Doug]

That's why I think 10 days, you can do a lot.

[Adam Schafer]

Have you done.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Who would stop that?

[Adam Schafer]

I have. You've done Singapore.

[Justin Andrews]

Long, long time ago.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You know, there's one of us in here. That would stop the Japanese trip because it takes too long away from the business. Pretty sure everybody else would be okay.

[Doug]

I think we could work 10 days out.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah,

[Adam Schafer]

there's one of us.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, one of us has a problem every time I take a day off. Hey, speaking of eating a lot, dude, I had to go up a size in viori pants. Oh, bro.

[Adam Schafer]

Are you up to double xls?

[Sal Di Stefano]

No, the pants. Pants.

[Adam Schafer]

I wear the double xl.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Not these, not these. The. Which ones are the ones that look like slacks. Is that. Is that what it is? Love Meta. I usually wear 34 and it fits my waist, but my wife's been making fun of me because they're too tight around my legs.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So I went and got 36s, so we'll see how that works. The legs are a little tight

[Adam Schafer]

instead of.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Just get smaller.

[Justin Andrews]

So that cardio is really coming in.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yes.

[Adam Schafer]

How's those cardio. It's only.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Hey, I just started it. You guys give it some time. This is.

[Adam Schafer]

This is this week again, right?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, so last week. So I'll just be straight up. So this is just. It's. It's a. Obviously a struggle. It's a small step forward for me, but there's, you know, on the cardio weeks, I'll still touch the weights a tiny bit. Because you still haven't done just a tiny bit. It's just a tiny bit.

[Adam Schafer]

Jessica. Dude, come on.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Just a tiny guy.

[Adam Schafer]

Shame him way more.

[Sal Di Stefano]

No, no, no, no. Listen.

[Justin Andrews]

You got like, ankle weights.

[Sal Di Stefano]

No, I'll do like. I'll do like a couple sets and then.

[Adam Schafer]

You are hilarious.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I know. Okay. It sucks. But anyway, I'm, I'm just. Just cardio. Just cardio. And then the other week is just strength training. It's actually making the strength training weeks really enjoyable because I miss it and I don't not like walking on the treadmill. I love listening to books.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Really enjoy listening to books.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, the part, to me that's interesting to me is that you allow yourself to still do this little thing where it's just, like, why not just rip the band aid all the way off?

[Sal Di Stefano]

I'm not.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, wouldn't that, Wouldn't that be the part that sounds so logical? I know, I know. But I mean, like, that. Wouldn't that be what you would at least just coach someone to do? No, no, no, no. I know you.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I'll just keep.

[Adam Schafer]

But I mean, like, so how do you. How do you do this? So when I, I, I set goals, whether nutrition exercise goals with that, like, so in my, in my head. And I'm just curious of how you frame it for yourself. Like, it's not a successful weekend or week until I've done that, until I've proven I can just do cardio. No weight, nothing like that. Do you say that to yourself or are you more like, like. Like this is. I'm easing my way into this trainer. That's a good job. And like, so is this, like, how do you. What's the self talk through that process?

[Sal Di Stefano]

I want. I want to be able to do it in a way I'm not. Listen, here's the. I'm trying. I'm. I'm taking small steps because I think if I take too big, which is actually still a big step for me. Okay, so, well, obviously just doing a few sets, you know, a few times a week.

[Justin Andrews]

Has it been scaling down, though?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Way down. Way down. Because on the weeks I do cardio, I'll do maybe a of weeks, couple for the whole week. A grand total of six sets. That's not even one workout for me. That's like a quarter of a workout normally. So it's still a big scale down. And it's early. I'm early in it. Okay. So I'm just taking it one little step at a time because I think, well, I know this. I know this about myself. If I go too far, I'll revert back and bounce back.

[Adam Schafer]

So, I mean, so again, so is that like the goal? Like, okay, I'm still progressing next week. Maybe I'll try even less sets or no sets. Are you saying that to yourself?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, what I'm doing is I'm actually really starting to enjoy the weeks that I don't lift that much and just listen to a book. So I think the more I do that, the more I enjoy it, then the less I should be able to do, is what I think. But we'll see, dude. We'll see. It's a son of a gun, man. It's a. Everybody has their thing. This is mine. Yeah, no, it's really making me. I'll tell you what, dude, it makes me so empathetic to when we have callers who have challenges around nutrition and workouts. It's like, man, I get it, dude. It's. It's a weird, strange. Everybody has their thing. Some people, it's, you know, things that are, like, real obvious. Alcohol, drugs, whatever. You know, fitness is a good thing. So it could be even harder to tackle because it's supposed to be a good thing, right? Yeah, it's like a work addiction. Work is a good thing. What do you mean?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So. But I totally get it. So when I talk to people, I'm like, all right. And I've been coaching people like this for a long time where we'll take one little step at a time because you push too hard, either yourself or someone else, you just go in the opposite direction.

[Adam Schafer]

Now, do you consider this connected also with the nutrition piece Are you handling those separately? Are you trying to handle those at the same time?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Oh, you know, diet has never been a huge, big thing. So I'm not stuffing myself, so I'm not trying to eat a ton of food. I just have a high appetite, so that's not an issue. That's not going to be a problem for me. It's the workout. The big thing is the workout. It's the lifting. You know, I got to go lift. I got to get a pump.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay, so you're not trying to, like, you know what? I need to really also probably cut back on some calories, too?

[Sal Di Stefano]

No, I mean, not really. That's not really a big thing for me. It's. It's the workouts for sure. I could change the diet all day long. You know what will happen if I change the diet? I'll just try to get shredded.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, I mean, I almost feel like if you don't, you're. You just can't keep. Because this break, I don't think is going to revert in any less muscle at all. I think you're going to just get more muscle. If you keep your eating the way it's eating you're eating right now, and you scale back on that, you're just getting.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Well, here's the deal. If I do this to try to get smaller, it's not going to work. I have to do this to break the cycle and enjoy it, and then the side effect will probably be less muscle. But if I'm trying to force this result, I. I could.

[Adam Schafer]

That's where I. That's where I don't agree. I think you're gonna.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Well, it's like somebody.

[Adam Schafer]

I think you're gonna build more muscle.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I mean. Okay, so it's like somebody who's like, I really want to, you know, I really want to get in shape. And what do we. You know, I'm really concerned about the way I look. And we just say look. Just. Just try to chase performance, and then let's see how you look. Yeah. Yeah. So if I just go and. And try to kind of break the cycle, break the addiction a little bit, break the connection. Yeah. Then however I look is however I look. But if I'm like, I'm gonna make myself lose muscle, you know, easily, I could twist that into getting shredded. Then it becomes a, like, I'm gonna get down to 4% body fat type of thing.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So. And I know myself.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

It's interesting.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I know.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, we have. Today's a big day, too. I get I get Corinne's DEXA scan since we started, so. Oh, yeah. So I'm really interested.

[Sal Di Stefano]

What's your. What's your. What do you think? You know, her calories, she's increased them quite a bit.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, yeah, A lot. So this is. What's. This is what, Will. I wish that I was out there with her right now because I'd want to communicate to her and so she'll get to listen to this afterwards. No matter what is. No matter what the results are, I'm. I'm already happy with where we're at, so I'm. I'm praying that they come back and they don't alarm her in any way. Right. Because no matter what, I. I knew I wanted to go here and.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Because.

[Adam Schafer]

And last week was a tough week heading into this week, and, you know, one of the things that we. You know, we saw a new number on the scale again with that we've never seen. And one of the things that I let her know, I said, hey, just so you know, you know, we're heading the Dexa. I actually had already before when we first started this, I had a number in my head. I wanted to push you all the way up to. And you're still under that. And so. And she was like, oh, wow.

[Justin Andrews]

Really?

[Adam Schafer]

And I'm like, yeah. I said, so, you're doing great.

[Sal Di Stefano]

She's inspiring me, dude.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, she's. She's very courageous. I've been so, you know, impressed with all the things that she's juggling right now, too. We have a. She does a lot for the business, and she's got a lot of stuff going on and, you know, moving all the way across the country to be over here and then to also be doing this is like, she's very strong. Very, very strong and tough. And we have not. I anticipated a lot more hard conversations that we would have to have and so kind of setbacks and, like, okay, like, let's get back on the horse type of con. She's been like, whatever. I tell her, she's, wow. And I've really. And I've continued, like, I just keep challenging her challenger, and I keep waiting for her to like, have that kind of like, okay, it's okay.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Let's. We'll go.

[Adam Schafer]

Go. But she's been.

[Sal Di Stefano]

She looks so healthy, too. She looks so good. Very fit, very healthy.

[Adam Schafer]

She looks so good right now.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

And everybody keeps coming up and telling me. I'm like, like, you should tell her that, because I don't know if you guys are telling her that. Because I think so too.

[Sal Di Stefano]

She just needs to hear that. I'm trying not to say anything about her appearance because I know other people are. And I don't want to add more focus on, you know, how she looks. Yeah. But I see that she's strong. That's it.

[Adam Schafer]

You know, it's.

[Sal Di Stefano]

And she's inspiring me. That's what I'm communicating to her. Because really, she was one of the. You know, there's a lot of things that have inspired me, but to see her do that, it's like, okay, I gotta. I gotta. I gotta tackle this.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm so. I'm curious. So my. My guess is, I mean, I, you know, I. I hope we. We put on a solid four, maybe five pounds of muscle.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You know, would be really.

[Adam Schafer]

Would be really nice how long it's been. What would you. What would you say?

[Sal Di Stefano]

What was your last desk?

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, I'll know when I see the dates, but I don't know, 45 days.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That sounds about right. Sounds about right. It sounds. Man, that'd be great.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Yeah, I think. I think so. You got to know right away that there's. I mean, you jump the calories. We've jumped. There's a lot of water going on right now. Right. So with this actual scale. But yeah, I think. I think we could have put four pounds of muscle on. I mean, she's hit PR after PR after pr and so, so. And, you know, and so this is good to talk about because, you know, what if it didn't come back? That. What if it doesn't come back? We've only put one pound of muscle on or something.

[Sal Di Stefano]

She still has to go this direction.

[Adam Schafer]

Right, Exactly. And we talk about this on the show a lot too, because it comes in with these weird waves. Like sometimes it's. Then all of a sudden, two weeks will go by and she'll put on

[Sal Di Stefano]

four or five pounds.

[Adam Schafer]

It's not like you add like this perfect. There's this perfect mathematical equation of, like, being a calorie surplus quarter pound every

[Sal Di Stefano]

three days or whatever.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, yeah. And. And she. But we know we're doing the right things because she's hitting pr. She's strong in her workouts. She's like, muscle bellies are getting filled out like. Like all is good. But I hope for the sake, for the. The psychological part as she's going, building and doing this, that she gets to see great results.

[Sal Di Stefano]

She get her hormones tested. I would be surprised if her hormones didn't just get More optimized from feeding herself.

[Adam Schafer]

You know what? I'll ask her the last time she did blood work, we didn't do blood work together. God, I wish I.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Because hormones are so strongly affected by. If you're constantly trying to eat minimal or, you know, in a deficit, that'll make your hormones not look well even

[Adam Schafer]

without seeing the blood work. I think that's a testament to why we're hitting PRs and everything right there for sure. You know what I'm saying?

[Sal Di Stefano]

That's part of it.

[Adam Schafer]

Like. Yeah, so part of it is like,

[Sal Di Stefano]

you ain't gonna build a bunch of get really strong and have your hormone profile get worse. It almost always is getting better.

[Adam Schafer]

Which again, back to circling back. Like, what could happen is we don't see as much muscle as I would have liked to, which would mean that the scale is going to read higher body fat percentage and things like that, that would. Would normally spin somebody out. And why I'm saying is like, that still wouldn't even spin me out as a coach. It's that these things are starting to organize and get better and the. The pop. Even more positive results could end up piling on down the road. Which just highlights again how this happens to people sometimes. Where they can get really discouraged is like, like, you know, you're doing the work, you're putting it in.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Your.

[Adam Schafer]

Your body's just starting to get healthy and then you go test again to see where you're at and then you don't see the results that you want. You're like, oh, f this it's not working. It's like, no, you were just starting to really. And so I.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Good point.

[Adam Schafer]

And this is really common with especially my. My female clients that I've trained before is like, you know, we first have to really feed that body and, and get healthy and then it'll start doing the things you want. I. E. Burning body faster, building muscle easier. Yeah, it gets. Becomes easier. And so, you know, don't bail just because your first test isn't amazing or whatever like that. But I. I feel pretty good. I think we're gonna. I mean, from what I. When I see from way she looks and the. Her. What I'm seeing her do PR wise.

[Sal Di Stefano]

She's doing it right now. The Dexa.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So we'll find out.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Like literally.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Oh, cool.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, we'll know.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You should do a story about it. Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, well, we'll see. Like, we'll. No matter what, we'll. Obviously I'll talk about it and I'M sure she'll talk about it, but I'm excited to see what kind of progress.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Speaking of hard work, Justin, I know you did something this weekend. Yeah. What did you. So what was that picture?

[Adam Schafer]

You missed the whole.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, well, I'm. So I'm trying to list my house, and there's some things that I just was coerced into doing. So that way, too, we could kind of maximize the potential and I could, like, you know, get more profit out of this and. And do some of the work myself.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So what do you do? It's.

[Justin Andrews]

Dude.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So.

[Justin Andrews]

So, you know, whenever you get your septic inspected, you need to dig it out. Oh, so you. Okay. So he doesn't know any of this stuff.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

I'm gonna educate you here.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Okay. That's where the poop.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, the poo poo goes in the tanks.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Okay.

[Justin Andrews]

So there's lids and then a lot like, mine had, like, one was like six foot down, the other was like four foot. And the thing is, you base this off of a plan which is like, like, drawn up. It was like, hand drawn. You can go to, like, city records, all this kind of stuff, and we're trying to find, like, better plans for this. And, like, there's literally just like a hand drawn. Like, here's the box, like, arbitrary box here. There's no, like, measurements to go off of based off of, like, where the house is in proximity to the drainage to this.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So you're like a treasure hunt?

[Justin Andrews]

Is that like a treasure hunt, dude? Is exactly what.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Did you.

[Adam Schafer]

Did you flip that in your head like that to make it. I didn't even think about that.

[Justin Andrews]

I didn't think treasure hunt was not.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Didn't feel like you have a crappy map. You gotta go find the treasure, dude.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

X marks this.

[Adam Schafer]

I bet somebody exits that. They. I bet he wishes that someone would have framed it that way. So it's like, let's have some fun with this kid.

[Justin Andrews]

And I'm like, my whole thing, before I even got started, I'm like, these.

[Sal Di Stefano]

These.

[Justin Andrews]

These guys, like, obviously they're deferring because they charge, like, premiums to come dig. And I was like, that's absurd. How much money they're trying to charge to just dig this out.

[Adam Schafer]

Out.

[Justin Andrews]

I'm like, fine, well, you know, fine, we'll do it. And now I know why they charge, like, premiums. Like, because it's.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You. You don't know. Like, and.

[Justin Andrews]

And I'm like, they have to have some kind of, like, hack or whatever. And I'm trying to, like, ask around. Nobody's helped me out. So we. The first day, we're just digging, you know, like, okay, based off of this, I'm like, trying to.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You just start digging.

[Justin Andrews]

Start digging. And then I look, I'm like, a smart contractor would probably have, like, written like, on the house somewhere. Like, like, you know it directionally, like this distance away, like, or, you know, like. So I was looking on, you know, the post that was like, holding up our. Our deck. And I'm like, I saw some numbers on there. I'm like, oh, maybe this is it, you guys. We're going off of this theory. And it led us nowhere, you know, absolutely nowhere. And like, I'll show you pics. But, like, we literally started in one place, had to go all the way over here. Combined both of it with deeper. Like, I have. There's layers. I hit all kinds of different typing. Just shovels, bro.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Oh, my gosh.

[Adam Schafer]

In our group thread, if you see

[Sal Di Stefano]

our group, I don't have the picture.

[Justin Andrews]

So we don't. So here's the thing. Like, this was all low tech, like, everything because I can't fit heavy machinery in my backyard. There's like, no real, like, access point. Like, I would love to had like, you know, I could have rented and, you know, dug it out and had fun with it. But no. So I was doing that. I literally felt like chain gain. And we were like, we were digging. I had like a little like, headlamp on and. And we were digging till it was like 8 o' clock at night the first day. And I was like, just completely beat. And it's weird, dude. Like, I have this weird. Whenever my body gets, like, overworked, I get. It switches into this, like, adrenaline response. And so I woke up just like, like energized. Crazy. Get back after it. We're digging again and we have to. Then now we have to get rid of these, like, huge redwood stumps. And so I'm like, well, I have a guy I know that was like a friend of mine. He's. He actually works at the wood shop. He teaches wood shop at the local high school and also used to be a lumberjack. And I'm like, well, this guy can help me out, you know. And so it. It, you know, costs a bunch of thousands of dollars to get rid of all this stuff. And he's like, ah, dude, just give me a couple hundred bucks. Like, dude, rad. Come on. He comes down, he has this huge chainsaw that was like, for me to. You, like, like blade Wise. And I'm helping him kind of like, move these huge rounds and lift it. And we're like, up substantial height, you know, like 10, 12ft up. And we're just. We're sawing these, like, like hundreds of pounds rounds. And I'm trying to chuck it so it doesn't roll all the way down the hill and, like, go into my. My neighbor's, like, house. So we're trying to stabilize it.

[Sal Di Stefano]

And.

[Justin Andrews]

And anyways, like, it was just. It was madness. It was crazy, like, the work we were doing. And, like, I ended up, like, losing control of one of them, and it, like, went over the side and actually smashed my fence and, like, broke the fence. So I gotta fix the fence. And so we.

[Sal Di Stefano]

We.

[Justin Andrews]

Anyway, he left. He had to go. And so I had to get rid of these rounds. So the only thing I have was like, I had a mall, like an ax mall. I don't have, like, a working chainsaw I borrowed from my dad. And I'm trying to, like, get through it. And it. He gives me one that's just, like, totally shot. And I'm like, trying to look how to fix it. I'm like. The kids are, like, really involved, digging and chopping and, like, moving and, like, hauling. And so it.

[Sal Di Stefano]

The.

[Justin Andrews]

The benefit of all of this stuff. And it just. I could go on and on, but it was like. It was just mad, crazy, hard, grueling work. I haven't done that in, like. I can't even tell you how long it's been. And it just reminds you, like, oh, my God. This is, like, where I started. And then I just knew, like, I can't, like, sustain this. Like, this was unsustainable, you know, and the kids have never done anything that hard. So they were like, like, yeah, like, they're getting, like, amped about taking their shirts off. They're like, you know, hitting as hard as they can, getting nowhere, you know. Dad, look what I did.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, buddy.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, every now and they get one. And actually Ethan, he's got a little more mass. So he was like, you know, getting through whatever it was, getting frustrated because he's. I'm like, dude, you're. You're shredded. You don't have mass yet. You know, that's. It's gonna be different. Trust me. But he was doing a great job digging. And.

[Sal Di Stefano]

And did you find it?

[Justin Andrews]

So we found one lid. We didn't find the other one. So that's still, you know, up in the air. I have, like, four rounds left. We split, like, 12 rounds or so,

[Sal Di Stefano]

bro, can I just say what a good friend you are because you didn't ask Adam or Doug to help you. I know better. I know better. You're like, oh, I gotta go help Justin. But you didn't. You know what I mean, bro? What a nice guy.

[Justin Andrews]

The worst part is I go, like, I borrow things from people, and it's just been this. The same process. Like, I should just bought it. Like, I end up getting, like, faulty things, and then it, like, takes away from, like, daylight. Like, daylight is. Is the. The currency.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Like, I needed more.

[Justin Andrews]

I need one more day to really complete and finish. So we're gonna have to delay the pictures because my backyard looks like a war zone. Dude, it's just sawdust. Like, you guys would have died. Dude, I was like, stabilizing, and my friend was cutting and like, like, so because it's such a big saw, like, the amount of volume of, of sawdust was just cocky.

[Adam Schafer]

My face,

[Justin Andrews]

It was insane, dude. I was so dirty and just, like, just. And I loved it, dude. This weird part of me, I just loved it.

[Sal Di Stefano]

And Dylan's back there.

[Adam Schafer]

You're sadistic, bro.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

But now I'm, you know, now I'm like, oh, my God, I'm so exhausted.

[Adam Schafer]

I would have, I would have.

[Sal Di Stefano]

How much money did you save?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, 10 grand.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, it better be.

[Justin Andrews]

It better be 20, 30 range.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, you think 20, 30? I think so. No, dude, come on. Okay, so I saw the work, but there's like, okay, 10 for just the

[Justin Andrews]

removal of these huge.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay, that's fair.

[Justin Andrews]

And then it's at least five to six for, like, the digging part. So. Yeah, you're right. It's probably less than I was hoping, but worth it for the lesson to give. I, I again, I'm reframing this. Yeah, you have to have to reframe this. Like, this is. I wanted them to, you know, I'm looking, always looking for an opportunity for them.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

100.

[Adam Schafer]

Having two boys, even, even. I would probably consider something like this just for that. Have two teenage boys. This is a good lesson. I don't want to do this. I can afford to go pay someone to this, but I'm gonna go do this because it's a. I think I could see my. I would do that. I would do that.

[Justin Andrews]

And I kind of did that as I was going because I was, like, very tempted to just, like, call some people. I'm just like, dude, we need some reinforcement.

[Adam Schafer]

And then if I didn't have boy or if I like, if I had to do that, like, right now, because my boy's too little to do anything like that. I would call you guys and I'd tell you, listen, this thing's gonna cost me this much. I need you guys help to come over here, because then I know Sal would just cut a check.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. So fast.

[Adam Schafer]

So fast.

[Sal Di Stefano]

How much? How much is it?

[Adam Schafer]

I'd be like, hey, I love you, bro. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I love you. I'll just pay for it.

[Adam Schafer]

Y. Exactly. That's how.

[Sal Di Stefano]

If you were smart, you would have framed.

[Adam Schafer]

Like, you would be like, hey, guys, trying to save about 10 grand I got. Yeah. Yeah. It was like, I really need your help. You know, I never ask you anything like that. So then Sal would feel hella guilty they asked you. And he's like, hey, bro, I tell you what. You know what? I. I'll just. Just tell me how much it is. I'm gonna pay some 100%.

[Justin Andrews]

That's the move.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That is the. That's the move. Oh, my God. That's brutal, dude. I bet you were sore.

[Justin Andrews]

So sore. But then I got up and I sprung. It was so weird, dude. I can't even, like, explain it completely, because it was just like, I. I have this bolt of energy even right now. I'm, like, very energetic.

[Adam Schafer]

I wish.

[Justin Andrews]

I think it's all gonna go away.

[Adam Schafer]

This is where I wish you wore, like, aura rings and things like that, because it'd be kind of cool to, like, see. See one. What?

[Justin Andrews]

You burned, dude.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, but it's crazy how hard you slept because of that. I mean, you felt it.

[Justin Andrews]

I think that's why. Because I slept deep and hard.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, deep and hard.

[Justin Andrews]

And. And that's the other thing, too. It's like, you always missed, like, I do have two modes, you know, and, like, I really like hard work. Like, I want to do something really hard. Otherwise, I'm like, yeah, like, you know, the maintenance stuff is, like, so unmotivating.

[Adam Schafer]

I'm, you know, part. You know, I've, you know, been on this, like, sleep journey thing. Part of my theory on, like, I know the sleep routine, all the stuff like that.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I.

[Adam Schafer]

The why I think it's become.

[Caller Charles]

Because it was.

[Adam Schafer]

It never felt like it was that important to me before. And we've, you know, we've kind of gone back and forth is that just because we were young, resilient. I also think there's another layer to that, and Justin's touching on it right now that the amount that I used to physically exhaust my body, even. Even, like, a good, hard workout Today is still nothing compared to what it was in my mid-20s or even, like. Yeah, exactly. I would not only train hard, I was moving heavy stuff all day. Like, you even. Like, you just being in the sun. Yeah. Physically exhausted myself.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

Because it was sunny on a more regular basis. And I think that has a lot to do because I've already connected already. Like, man, I got to do at least that 8, 10,000 steps. And I need to get that good, hard workout in to even think I'm going to get close to decent sleep if I don't do that. And so I think a lot has to be with. Like, that's part of why I'm not. And it's tough to get it. I bet you if I did something like that with you, I would be just, you know.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You know what messes me up? Planes. Planes. If I'm on a plane even for an hour, oh, I just feel like. Like crap.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I don't know why, but what's his name? Scott. When we talked to Scott, he said, I guess the oxygen concentration on the planes is really low. And so he explained that. But I don't know.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, I hope I hold. I am still right now. Last night, I couldn't even get my aura ring off because of how much water I was holding from flying. When I. When I fly, I definitely get all. And that's how I can tell is my ordering.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Did you try the compression socks?

[Adam Schafer]

Varicose face.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Hey, Doug, I gotta ask you. You were the first one out of us to do the appointment with Vita Bella.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, you did yours?

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

How'd it go?

[Sal Di Stefano]

It went well.

[Doug]

Yeah. I mean, I spoke to the medical professional and basically I was just getting some of the things I already had.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

And that was on, I think the 19th is when I had that.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So the reviews are coming in from. From people who are going through them, and they're all good reviews, like, super good service. So was it fast? Easy?

[Doug]

It was super fast. So I, of course, I kind of knew what I needed and wanted. And I already had my labs. And so it was 19th, which was a Thursday, and everything was shipped out right afterwards and arrived on Tuesday.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Wow.

[Justin Andrews]

That quite.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Wow.

[Adam Schafer]

By the way, that's a nice change. By the time this goes live, California should be all set now. Oh, yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So you can go to mphormones.com and get set up and then you'll be

[Justin Andrews]

able to do California.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, so. So California. That. I mean. And by the way, like, he had to move. Move, you know, heaven and Earth to try and get. Get all the good. Get through all the red tape of California. This is why obviously he did before, but did it just because of our show and because we have such a large listener base in California.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So just for people to know what's the. What is it monthly is like 100. Is it 29, 147?

[Adam Schafer]

139. It's 139. Includes.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That includes your testosterone, whether you're a man or a woman. So your testosterone replacement or in Clomiphene or B12.

[Adam Schafer]

Yes.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. And then if you prepay for the year, you save 10. 10. And then they'll give you your first lab panel for.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. And even if you. If you don't do the prepay for the year, so you prepay. You save that money. Even if you just go to the monthly. Their blood panels are only 89 bucks.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That's it.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. And if you have already done blood panels within the last six months, they can use those.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Right.

[Adam Schafer]

So you have to do new ones.

[Caller Rob]

No.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Super, super, super nice, Doug. Are we gonna get you on testosterone finally, or you just keep sticking?

[Doug]

I mean, I don't see a reason to do.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Convinced. That's true.

[Adam Schafer]

You don't? You're not curious about what 205 Doug looks like?

[Doug]

I'm curious for sure. I mean, I. I think I would love it, you know, but again, I'm also not wanting to interrupt my own production.

[Adam Schafer]

He's got like.

[Sal Di Stefano]

He's got like, high trt. Natural level now.

[Adam Schafer]

Have you told yourself, if and like, let's say in the next eight years it were to dip down, would you then.

[Doug]

Yeah, totally. Consider. For sure.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So he could go down to half and he'd have high testosterone from.

[Adam Schafer]

I know. That's what I mean, though. What if it. Because, you know, you've monitored now consistently for a long time. Half. Half would make. If he went down.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Half.

[Adam Schafer]

He would feel like, lower.

[Sal Di Stefano]

He would feel it.

[Doug]

Yeah, I don't. I don't know. I mean, last blood Test was like 1600, and that's his total.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Dude.

[Doug]

And my. I can't remember.

[Adam Schafer]

My free was good too, right?

[Doug]

My free was good too.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Doug]

That was my big concern. I was really working to get my free up.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

And so as of now, I do feel good. I mean, I'm not getting as jacked maybe as I potentially could if I was taking.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Are you just horny all the time with that much as possible?

[Adam Schafer]

Do you really want to know?

[Sal Di Stefano]

I can only imagine. It took a turn, remember, for his Birthday. Everybody's talking about that. Nice things about Doug.

[Adam Schafer]

He's such a great lover.

[Sal Di Stefano]

His girlfriend, everyone said such nice things about Doug. He's a great man, he's a good father. It gets to her. She's like, like, he's a great lover. Oh my God. Okay.

[Doug]

It could be worse things, I guess.

[Adam Schafer]

Exactly. There could have been worse things. I mean, if you're a dude, I mean, that's kind of not the bad thing for get around you. Everyone was.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Now everyone knows Doug. We put on the podcast, so they call him Doug the judge. Butcher Box delivers high quality meats to your door at incredible prices. Grass fed meat, heritage pork wild caught fish. If you like protein, you want the good stuff, you want the healthiest stuff and you want to save money, you go to Butcherbox. By the way, they have a mind pump box. The mind pump box is our favorite cuts of meat, which includes rib eyes, bone in chicken thighs, premium steak tips, baby back ribs, the gluten free chicken nuggets. Those are amazing. And flat iron steaks. If you go to butcherbox.com mindpump you'll get yourself a hookup. New users will get their choice between free chicken breasts for a year or shrimp for a year or ground beef for life. All of that. Butcherbox.com mindpump Our first caller is Charles from New Jersey.

[Caller Charles]

I'm glad to be on here. I really appreciate all you guys do. I know you guys hear that all the time, but, you know, there was kind of a screenshot of like in 2022. I was like in the throes of active addiction and alcoholism and God came and Jesus came and saved me out of that. And ever since then my life has just gone in the right direction. And I appreciate you guys having rock recovery on and stuff like that because it ties together like this faith fellowship type of vibe that you guys have, which I think separates you from any other podcast out there that speaks about fitness. So I really appreciate that.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Thanks, man.

[Adam Schafer]

Appreciate that. That's awesome.

[Sal Di Stefano]

How can we help you, brother?

[Adam Schafer]

Awesome.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So.

[Caller Charles]

So right now, so I'm working out with. He's actually the pastor of my, of my, of my church and we work out at my house in the mornings. I have a little gym set up. I have a squat rack. I have a. It's all Olympic like proper year, a dip bar. Anyway, so we're doing. You gave me strong last time I was on so that. I really appreciate that. So we do strong in the winter time to bulk and then we do anabolic in the Fall, and then we do aesthetic in the spring into the summer.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Okay.

[Caller Charles]

So my. So my question is, like, where do I go to kind of fill in that gap between the three? Like, there's kind of looking at it like almost quarterly, like, knockout. Run this program, Run this program, Run this program. Which one should I squeeze in there now to kind of fulfill, like, close the circle?

[Adam Schafer]

Symmetry or performance?

[Sal Di Stefano]

That's it.

[Adam Schafer]

Symmetry or performance.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Either one of those would be perfect, perfect additions. They would be very complementary. What you have with strong. Strong's got some. Some decent functionality, but it is somewhat sagittal plane focused. Maps, anabolic. Very sagittal plane aesthetic, very bodybuilder focused. And so symmetry or performance would help fill the gaps. It would help with lateral stability, unilateral strength. It would really help bolster your joints. So if you. If you want more of an athletic lean, you would go with performance. If you want more still kind of that strength training, bodybuilding lean, then you would go symmetry. But either one of them would be a great addition. So you. You pick. I'll send you which one you want, bro. Heck, yeah.

[Caller Charles]

Symmetry would be awesome. I really appreciate that. Yeah, no, the

[Justin Andrews]

whole

[Caller Charles]

program, like, has really given me a lot of, like in my life. It's given me the structure that I was lacking. And I feel like the MAPS programs give that structure and that, the videos and all those things. So, you know, you guys do a great job and I truly appreciate all that you guys do.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. Charles, I'm reading in your question too here it says you gained 15 pounds of muscle using map strong. Tell me about that.

[Caller Charles]

Yeah, so, yeah, so I went from so strong, I really bulked. I was eating a lot of whole foods, tons of protein, tons of carbs and protein calories. And then I went from. I was like on a bench. Like, I was benching. Like, I could do 225, like three times. And then after strong, I was knocking it out for like 10 or 12.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That's great, dude.

[Adam Schafer]

Wow.

[Caller Charles]

You know. Yeah, it's like, I used to always do the bro workout. So, like, I go to the gym and they'd be like, let me guess, buys and chess and. And now because of, like, you know, the programs, I have really, like, well round, it's well rounded me like in my fitness journey, so that's awesome. Yeah. So symmetry sounds great.

[Adam Schafer]

That's like a bro that. That year of programming.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, you're set, dude.

[Adam Schafer]

It's such a beautiful mix of training.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You're set. Yeah. Yeah. You get really good results with that. Combination.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, for sure.

[Caller Charles]

Awesome. Well, I appreciate you guys having me on. Thank you so much for everything you guys do again. And I'll, I'll get, I'll look out for symmetry and then I'll get working on that and I'll let you know how it goes.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You got it, man.

[Adam Schafer]

Charles?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. I appreciate you calling in, bro.

[Caller Rob]

Updated.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Thank you, dude.

[Caller Charles]

Awesome. Thanks guys.

[Adam Schafer]

Take a day.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That's great. Oh, that's a lot of strength and

[Adam Schafer]

muscle especially, I mean he's not a 20 year old kid who just started lifting, you know, probably been lifting most of his life and to.

[Sal Di Stefano]

And by the way, when you, I mean he said a little bit on his question, but when he has, he sends in an email. So people send an email and you can read, you know, as I'm reading his email, I mean he's a recovering addict. Yeah. He had really bad issues with alcohol and now here he is like working out sober, turned it all around. You know, he's got a strong faith. Just incredible transformation. And I just want to, you know, give. Fitness is such a great vehicle. Yeah. For growth for, yeah, it's so, it's such a great way to get to help someone move away from some, you know, some of those unhealthy addictions you could always do, you know, fitness wrong too. But as a vehicle for improving your mental health, for giving you discipline and structure your physical health. Health.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, it's the core of everything.

[Sal Di Stefano]

It's amazing. Yeah.

[Doug]

Our next caller is Rob from New Jersey.

[Sal Di Stefano]

What's up, Rob? How you doing? Robin in. Hey.

[Caller Rob]

Hey guys. How's it going?

[Adam Schafer]

Good man.

[Sal Di Stefano]

How can we help you?

[Caller Rob]

Well, new location. I'm in Florida now. But anyway, thanks for taking the call and I appreciate it. I listen to you guys every week, more than once a week. Actually probably every other day. But I just wanted to, you know, you guys are the experts in this and I know a couple of you guys did some physique competition. So I'll give you a little background on myself and then what, what, you know, I'm looking for some advice on. Always worked out my whole life except for like a three short year, three year span when my wife got pregnant. I decided to get pregnant with her about 20 years. 23 years ago with my daughter. So during that time, it was the only time I was kind of a little out of shape, but then got back into it again. I got heavily into triathlons, Ironman distance. I did a bunch of Iron Man, a bunch of half ironman, about 40 marathons. I don't know how many there were, but I did all that kind of endurance sport activity until 2023. And at that time I had a herniated disc. I went to get surgery and had some real major complications during surgery. Caused paralysis in my left leg, couldn't walk. I started to gain, you know, heavy recovery and a lot of rehab. Worked my ass off for that and was able to get most of the function back in my legs and just have, like, weakness now in, in like the support muscles of the leg, like the ankle area. So if I run and I'm on an uneven surface, I could fall over. So I decided to obviously stop doing triathlon and marathons and got into physique. Physique training for. For, you know, shows. And I also on the side do Brazilian jiu jitsu. I know I. I don't remember which one of you guys do it, but I know one of you guys do it, so I do that as well. I've been doing that for 20 years. I'm should be a black belt by now, but with all my injuries and stop a couple of times, so I'm a brown belt and so I do that. And I. I'm training for shows. I did about six shows. And this is where my issue is. I am very tight on my diet, very, very disciplined on my workouts. I don't miss a day. Probably even I don't follow my own guidance to people because I do some personal training and coaching on the side myself. I never take any days off, but I take muscle parts off, muscle groups off. My diet's really tight for the shows. Last show, I went in with a really, really good package. I was 2.8% body fat. I did it on three in body machines. It was like point one plus or minus. And I was 168 pounds off season. I'm about 185. I have a coach, my coach. I had a coach in New Jersey when I was there. I'm trying to find a coach in Florida, which I think I found. He wants me to get up to like £200 and get to like 185 for my next show. But my issue is I can't get out away from second place. I'm 51 and I'm in the. So I'm in the 50 and older group. I go down in the 40 and older group too. So I do both. And I do like, usually a novice or an open or something like that. The last show I was in, I had a pretty stacked 40 and over group. It was like 15 guys in there and I came in second and then the 50 and older I came in second again. And the shows I did before that, I'm like, like third, second, whatever. Somewhere in that ballpark. My problem is I think I'm fit. I had the fitness that the show is requiring, but I don't have the size and I'm struggling with putting size on and I, I have enough awareness to know that I have a little bit dysmorphia when it comes down to getting a little belly fat when you're trying to put on size. But I just wanted to get your guys input on, you know, maybe a, maybe I should change up my program. I guess every coach needs a coach, right? So I, maybe I should change my program. Maybe I, I need to do something a little different with my diet and I just wanted to get your insight on that.

[Adam Schafer]

I have, I have a lot of thoughts. First of all, taking second is incredible. Okay. So that's first and foremost amongst everything that you do, right? I mean you're full time work, kicking ass, jiu jitsu and you still have the ability to get up on stage and finish in the top five is impressive as shit. Second, you have to know by now if you've been doing this enough times, there's a lot of politics and shows too. So it's not always the best physique technically takes first place. A lot of times it's the guy who's being coached by the guy who sponsors the show and gives the most money to make sure that show keeps operating. So. So there's a lot of bullshit in politics in bodybuilding as you probably know, if you don't know there is so. And if, if you're not part of the clique, it's tough to take first place no matter how great of a physique you present. So that all aside, cause I do agree with your coach, I tell what I tell always all of my competitors shows are one. In the off season what you bring to the stage, it's, it isn't where it wins the show. That's what reveals the hard work from the off season. And so I do kind of agree with it whether the, the poundage that he's saying is exactly right. But you got to gain. We gotta we if we're gonna show up with a bigger full. Especially if the judges that's their feedback is you're a little smaller than the other guy and we need to put so in, in that. And that is all done in the off season is can you put enough size on in the off season that when we get ready to cut for the show, we have the, the biggest version of you to reveal. It's not done and it's not your cut. It's not a lack of your diet, it's not a lack of your discipline to get down to 2, 3%, which you obviously can do all that. It's can you work through the mental part of putting on and you're gonna have to carry a little bit of body fat to put on that kind of size like you could. Staying lean and putting 20 pounds of muscle on is nearly impossible. So you're gonna have to eat to get big and most likely not move as much as you move in order to kind of put that size on. And it's, that's where the show is won. The show is won. And what you can do in the off season to get ready for the next show or you kind of just keep kicking ass like you are too. I mean, if you're my client, you and I are having a little bit of this back and forth conversation and I'm going, rob, like, is it that important to win first? Like if you want to really win first above all things, then, then we start to shift your whole life around bodybuilding and it starts thinking that way. But it sounds like you're pretty goddamn impressive with everything that you, that you already kind of do. And, and that was kind of my attitude on competing was like, like I'm competitive as shit. Like, getting to the pro level was a, was the big major accomplishment for me. I never placed above sixth place at the pro level and I never cared enough because I have a career and it was always about building that and have other things that were important to me. And I, and I proved to myself that I could, I could show up with a better package every single show. And I got a handful of trophies to show that. And it's cool, but it's like if I really wanted to make a career out of this and try and make it to Olympia or be first place as a pro, man, it's, it's a lot of politics. It's a lot of sacrificing everything else in your life and I don't know. Sounds like you're kicking ass pretty good, dude. So that's, that's kind of all my thoughts. So I'd like to hear what you think from hearing that.

[Caller Rob]

No, I appreciate that. I mean, look, I, I have a full time job. This is definitely not my job. I'm an executive in A med tech company. So I'm traveling all over the place. And, and it's really as you can imagine. I mean, you did shows, so you know what it's like prepping and being out on hotels like every week basically, and eating, eating out and doing what you need to do. I'm weighing food in front of customers. It's hysterical, but it actually makes for good conversation too. But nevertheless, I, you know, my goal because I'm a very obviously very competitive person. I've been in competitions my whole life. I'm looking to get first so I could get a pro call card and I'm not going to Olympia and I'm not looking to even probably go into a pro show. I just want to, you know, get a pro card. And that's my goal. Just like getting a black belt in jiu jitsu is. The question that I have is, do you think there's a program that I should be doing, training differently than I'm training now? I, I guess.

[Adam Schafer]

Yes. Yes.

[Caller Rob]

Food wise?

[Adam Schafer]

Yes. Yes. So, like what? Just hearing kind of your breakdown of who you are, like, and obviously if we were coaching, I would get even more detailed.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So.

[Adam Schafer]

But I, I would probably have to scale back your amount of activity and volume and really feed you. So it looked more like a MAPS anabolic type of protocol. Less days in the gym, hitting it hard and heavy when we do, trying to gain and build and more food. So I would, I would re, I would push the calories and I'd have you on a program like a MAPS anabolic type of a program, which I bet is way less volume and days in the gym than you. It's a three day a week full body routine. And I bet you're more of a five to seven day a week type of guy who trains and probably hour, hour and a half doctor. Yeah, so. And, and that's gonna seem counterintuitive because it's not a lack of you need to push more, you need to let your body grow. And in order to let your body grow, you probably gotta pull back on the volume a little bit. Focus on getting strong with mafs. Anabolic. Feed your body more food than it's ever been fed before. And that's that, that is, that's the way we're gonna get to the pro carb.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Rob, do you train naturally or are you enhanced or you train naturally?

[Caller Rob]

No, I'm natural, man. I'm not. Well, that's the other problem I have. Yeah, I take, I take. Well, I, I wouldn't say natural. Totally I'm, I had very, very low testosterone levels when I was doing triathlon because I was a fanatic about eating fats. So I just ate a lot of carbs and protein and then I did, I mean, 20 plus hours a week on a bike. And I think it kind of damaged my, my, my goods down there a little bit. And I had, when I went to go get my testosterone, everyone checked it was 160.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Caller Rob]

So, so I was on, I've been on TRT since I was 35.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay.

[Caller Rob]

Regular levels, like, I think I just got it tested. I'm like. Or 50, 480, something like that. So it's not like I'm pumping in 1200 on my, my teeth, my test. But I go into these shows and these dudes are, no question, because I can't go into a natural show being on testosterone. These guys are definitely enhanced.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. The reason why I asked you that, Rob, is gaining because, because if you go from you compete at 168 to come back at 182, that's a lot of lean body mass to gain, which is tough to do with TRT levels of testosterone and your age and all that stuff. Now I do agree with Adam. Reducing the volume, increasing calories, that's the protocol. Now here's the other thing though. You probably have an incredible recovery ability and tolerance considering your background, to be able to compete in as many Ironmans and half marathon and half Ironmans for people aren't aware an Ironman is a marathon plus, plus a lot of, a lot of cycling, a lot of swimming. So if to be able to do that as often as you did, you probably have a really exceptional ability to recover. So the program that I think would do that you would do well with would be Maps Anabolic Advanced. So it's higher than Maps Anabolic. You're in the gym about four days a week. It alternates high intensity, low volume with higher volume, lower intensity. And I think someone like you would probably respond well to that. And it's probably, I can pretty much guarantee it's less volume than what you're currently doing. So it's definitely gonna cut the volume. It's not as low as a traditional Maps Anabolic, which might actually be too low a volume for someone like you. And bump the calories and you'll know it's working because you're gonna get stronger. But gaining 12 to 15 pounds of lean body mass at this stage, that's, that's a big, that's a big, that's A big one. Well, it's just, I think we could put on five to six pounds of lean body mass by the time you hit stage.

[Adam Schafer]

It's just going to take us some time. It's going to take, it takes us what, what you don't want to do. And I don't know if you've already done this or not, but like I tell my competitors, like, we don't, we don't pick a show yet. Like, we go in the off season, let's go build. Let's go, let's go, folks, because this could take three months, could take six months, could take nine months. But let's agree that we're going to go build and put some size on you that you've never seen before. And then we're going to, then we'll get, then we'll, then we'll nail down a show. What a mistake. A lot of competitors do is they go, oh, this works in my calendar. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to train. I'm going to take that show August 16th. And then you start trying to put it all together. Now it's like, no, let's go focus on your off season. Let's go build. And that could, you know, depending on how well you can get them calories up, how well you respond to maps, Anabolic advance. That will dictate if I was coaching you on when we decided to take a show to get cut.

[Sal Di Stefano]

What's your, what are your, what are your calories look like in the off season?

[Caller Rob]

So I'm supposed to be at 3, 300 a day right now and I'm barely getting in 2500.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. No way.

[Caller Rob]

Just because, yeah, just because my, I'm just like all over the damn place. But everything I eat is clean as a whistle. Like, I don't change what I eat from prep to show. I mean, from prep, prep to off season. Rather, I, I just eat more volume. Off season. Yeah, maybe I'll throw in like a couple of pretzels here or there, but I don't, I don't do anything like, out of the ordinary. Maybe I'm a little bit tighter on the condiments too, during prep, but overall I'm just not getting enough calories in. And part of it is because you guys know how this is, man. You, like, I get a little belly fat and I lose my mind. You know what I mean? And it's trying to put on some, some mass at the same time. And then I go to the gym and I'm like, all right, well, maybe I'll do more. 10 more minutes of StairMaster just to make sure I don't put that belly fat on in addition to my. My half hour that I did prior to my workout and cardio and then do my workout, and I do that every freaking day. So I might battle on this in my head. But mind you, when I give the advice like you're giving to clients, I say the exact thing that you're saying.

[Adam Schafer]

So, I mean, would you want to coach? I mean, it sounds like you have one over there. We virtual coach over here. If. Do you. Do you think that would help having somebody who's kind of just staying on top of the diet and kind of steering it for you?

[Caller Rob]

I mean, yeah, yeah, I wouldn't mind. Especially somebody that's been doing this kind of stuff before that knows how to deal with, you know, somebody that has

[Sal Di Stefano]

a little bit of a mental struggle,

[Caller Rob]

like me with this.

[Sal Di Stefano]

All right, all right, we'll have somebody call you. But, you know, maps anabolic advanced. Hit consistent calorie targets. You'll gain. You'll gain muscle on that. Yeah, for sure. But without. I mean, 2,500 calories. Guy like you, you're gonna. You're just gonna maintain.

[Adam Schafer]

The hard part's gonna be the mental part. Rob, I can tell already you're disciplined guy. You have. You have the work ethic and all that stuff like that. It's gon go. The body fat percentage going up a little bit. You know, you have the tools to get it back anytime you want. So you're not gonna get fat. Okay. You're gonna go. You're gonna go up to 12, maybe 13, you know, percent body fat. That's not crazy. You can get right back down easily. But you. It. That will bode well with building. If you're too lean, it's really hard to put on just lean body mass. Like, you're. You're.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

So you. You. You gotta let yourself soften up a little bit to put on some good size. And again, I don't know if I agreed exactly with the number the guy threw at you, but. But the show's one in the off season. Can you and I go and go put on, you know, 20 pounds on the scale, be okay with a couple percent body fat going up, but then look at each other and go like, oh, yeah, you're eating 3,500 calories.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You're strong.

[Adam Schafer]

You. You see PRs in the gym. You're hitting like, that's what I'm looking for before you and I go, let's get ready for a cut for, for the show. So.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Okay.

[Caller Rob]

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, I, I'll have someone call you and, and see if we can help you out through this process. But. And we'll also send over an anabolic advance for you, bro.

[Caller Rob]

That'll be awesome, man. Thank you guys. You guys do great work. I appreciate it.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Enjoy listening.

[Adam Schafer]

Thanks Rob.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Take it easy. Do you. So for people listening because how many Iron Man. He did five. He did five Iron Mans. I don't know. Have you guys ever trained Iron man athlete?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Okay. He did five Iron Mans. Fifteen half.

[Justin Andrews]

That's insane.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Iron Man. Yeah. This is what an Iron man competition is. I had to remember, I had to look it up just to be sure. It's a 2.0, 2.4 mile swim plus a 112, 112 mile bike ride. And then you run a marathon. And then you run a marathon. That's the competition.

[Justin Andrews]

A lot of cheaping.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. So now in order to be able to do all that crazy training, consistency, diet, there's a level of genetics there. I think the guy probably recovers really, really well. Yeah. Which is why I had him do. Yeah. Something with higher volume. But I can guarantee you right now the amount of volume that he's probably training is probably insane.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, I knew, I knew right away. I can just tell. I mean this is, this is. I mean, he's mean. He's also runs a what, a Fortune 50 company. He's a Jiu Jitsu. He's a killer in business. He's a killer on the Jiu Jitsu mat. He's. I mean I. Without even see. Because I can't see him. Right. I like we can't see a picture of what he looks like and stuff like that. I just know this dude is way over trained. Way over does all of it. And that's going to be the hardest part for him. I mean telling him to come down to a maps anabolic or even an anabolic advance is going to feel like a quarter of the workouts that he does. Then telling him that he's at 2500 calories, you need to be more like 3500 plus calories is going to feel so extreme and different. But it's the only path. And again, repeat what I said to him. Shows are one in the off season. It is not the prep, it is not the getting ready for stage. Like everybody thinks it's what you build and what you do in the off season, all the getting the prep is, is revealing the work. You don't build no muscle in prep.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

You literally just, you carve away the body fat and you show what you did in the off season. And if you always keep your body fat percentage low and you stay training this high of volume and your calories that low, you aren't building anything.

[Sal Di Stefano]

No.

[Adam Schafer]

You're maintaining a strong fit, ripped physique. So when you get into prep, you just get a little bit leaner and you present the same physique.

[Sal Di Stefano]

It's just keep showing up the same, same way.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Our next caller is Lucy from Virginia.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Hi, Lucy.

[Justin Andrews]

Hi.

[Caller Lucy]

Thank you guys so much for taking my call. I really appreciate it.

[Sal Di Stefano]

How can we help you?

[Caller Lucy]

I think I have a programming question.

[Adam Schafer]

Okay.

[Caller Lucy]

Four months ago, November 2025, I had my third total hip replacement surgery. For reasons that are now very obvious to me, I was overdoing it with my yoga and in May of 2025, almost dislocated and ultimately ended up cracking my hip replacement during yoga class. Because the surgery was a repair of an existing replacement, they had to use posterior entry rather than anterior, which my first two were anterior and with a posterior approach. My surgeon has me on a one year limitation of movement, which would include no more than a 90 degree hip like trunk to leg angle, no crossing my legs and no picking up anything over £20. So starting in December, I ran your Map span program all the way through and loved it. I'm now running map suspension and also love that those are both perfect because I don't have to pick up anything over £20, but I'm still getting great resistance. I'm actually making progress.

[Adam Schafer]

All right, great job.

[Caller Lucy]

I'm sore from yesterday, but my question is, what's next? I have until November, so about nine months of these limitations. Should I just cycle back and forth in between these two programs? Is there another program or style of programming that you would recommend, like Isometrics or maybe run a traditional program like Anabolic with light weights for context. I will be 50 years old later this year. 5 foot 3, 120 pounds, and a former professional ballerina, runner and competitive yoga athlete. All of which led to the three total hip replacements. I promise I'm now off of all of that because I can't do it anymore, physically or mentally. Really. As you know, sometimes God whispers and sometimes she shouts. This was as loud of a shout as I possibly could have heard without doing any detrimental harm. So I'm so thankful I was finally forced to listen Any help would be great. You can shout at me now.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, no shouting.

[Adam Schafer]

I thought you were in your 20s, by the way.

[Sal Di Stefano]

We're all tripping out on that right now. So, Lucy. So here's what's gonna happen. If you do everything right, you're gonna reach a point where you feel like you could start doing going way beyond. And you have to fight that. That because of the hip replacement. Keep your range of motion within the realms of what they recommend and you can strengthen within there. And don't push outside of that. You could totally strengthen within there. I think Map Starter is a good program. Isometrics are also great. Our program map symmetry has two weeks of isometrics. The two weeks of isometrics I think would be beneficial even right now. Now. But Starter would be the next program that you could totally do.

[Adam Schafer]

You can also.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, sorry. Yes. The starter has like reps detention. So like really take advantage of that with the timing and the tempo and then emphasize those moments where you're squeezing at the top of the rep. So you do. Can't. You can infuse a bit of more isometric focus in that program. Because I know the weights are going to be a little lighter than you know, because we got to keep it under control.

[Adam Schafer]

That's the direction I was going to go actually with your original is. Should I just rotate to those two? You can start to create isometrics in those two pro in the bands in the suspension trainer too. So, like, nothing stops you from like, hold. Like, let's say you're doing a. A suspension pushup, holding at the bottom for two or three seconds or holding just with your elbow slightly bent for like. So you can kind of create. To create like a new stimulus because you've already ran through it. The next time you run through it, you can do things like that and that'll help build strength also. So run it the way it's laid out, but then add an isometric component it to each set, which would be a great way to kind of manipulate that program a little bit. So that's also an option. So you can play with the suspension in the bands also. I think Starter is a great. And like Sal said, that's the. The biggest key is going to be because at one point you'll be cleared of like, hey, you're good to go. You're going to be tempted to want to do too much so long as you stay in that range of motion. And I've had clients where that we. We. We don't squat past 90 degrees but we've gotten really strong within that 90 degrees. And squats are great for, built a lot of great lower body muscle and feel great. And so, yeah, no, you're on the right track.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. When you look at the, when you look at hip replacement, artificial hip, artificial joints, they're limited in the range of motion, so it's different than your, what your natural hip would be. And so you probably have really good extensibility through your yoga ballet. And so your tendency is going to be to challenge ranges of motion, because that's what you know, know. But these joints are not made to do that. What happens when you challenge the range of motion is now it rests on this artificial joint and they're just not made to be able to do that. And so you, regardless of how you feel, stay within. When it comes to the lower body, stay within the range of motion, and you'll do plenty great with that. You'll gain good strength, you'll feel good. You're not going to feel limited. But if you start to try to push the range of motion like you normally would, that's when you run into.

[Justin Andrews]

It's all about recruiting. So just think about that slow and just recruit as much muscle fiber and infuse that as much as possible.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Do you have starter?

[Caller Lucy]

I don't, no.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I'll send that to you. Yep.

[Caller Lucy]

Thank you so much. I should say, also, I'm working with Dr. Brink through all of this.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Wonderful.

[Adam Schafer]

Awesome.

[Caller Lucy]

Well, you're in good hands, like you said, for that very reason. Because one year isn't some magical number. I assume so. It's not like at one year I'm all of a sudden now I'm able to squat to the floor. So I, I, he's helping me kind of get the PT part discharged. I was discharged from PT and I just wasn't ready. So I wanted to work with him, and he's just great. I want everyone to work with him.

[Sal Di Stefano]

He's the best.

[Adam Schafer]

You're in the best.

[Justin Andrews]

Glad you are.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Well, now that you're working with him, I'm like, just do what he tells you.

[Justin Andrews]

Go ahead and step out.

[Caller Sarah]

No, no, no.

[Sal Di Stefano]

He's the best.

[Doug]

Not at all.

[Caller Sarah]

No.

[Caller Lucy]

I want all of you on my team.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, you got all of us. I mean that. And he knows all the programs too. So if you tell him that the guys gave me starter and you use that with what he's doing with you, you're, you're good. You're in the best hands you can be.

[Justin Andrews]

Totally.

[Adam Schafer]

So, in fact, I'd Love to hear back from you a while down there. Let's check back in with us a few months down the road. I'd love to hear where you're at.

[Caller Lucy]

I will. Thank you for the isometrics. I seem to remember you guys talking about that they stop working after, like, two or three weeks. Is that.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That.

[Caller Lucy]

Is there a reason to do the two weeks and then come back to it?

[Sal Di Stefano]

No, no, no. So when we talk about that, what we're talking about are the strength gains are really rapid in two weeks, but you continue to get results from isometrics, especially when you put them in a program that includes traditional repetitions. So it's not like they're a waste of time. They're great. But when we look at the mentally

[Justin Andrews]

challenging for people to do them for a long period of time, I think for the most part.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. But isometrics are wonderful for you, will

[Adam Schafer]

always be wonderful for you.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

You can progressively get more strength, you know, by continuing it, for sure.

[Caller Lucy]

Okay, terrific.

[Caller Sarah]

Well, I'm.

[Caller Lucy]

Everything right now is wonderful. So I'll do them. I'll do them for the next nine months. So as long as. Yeah, this is a very. I'm trying to rebuild physically and mentally from this injury. So this. This is very, very.

[Caller Sarah]

It's. Yeah.

[Caller Lucy]

So I'll use isometrics. As long as they're productive.

[Adam Schafer]

You're in great hands.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah.

[Caller Lucy]

Okay, great.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, you got it. All right.

[Caller Lucy]

All right. Bye.

[Caller Sarah]

Bye.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I wish he opened with them with Brink. He's better than we are.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, he's a champion.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, he's the best when it comes to this kind of stuff. But, you know, I've worked with people with hip replacements, and you have to. You look at the actual product. Yeah. It is limited. Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

That's the limitation.

[Sal Di Stefano]

So you can't push beyond what it's made for like you would a normal joint. Otherwise, the product itself starts to become damaged and you start to get issues.

[Doug]

Our next caller is Sarah from California.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Hi, Sarah.

[Adam Schafer]

How are you doing, Sarah? Hi. Hi, guys.

[Caller Sarah]

Oh, my God. I'm so pumped to be talking to you. This is crazy. I'm so inspired by everything you've been doing. It's so clear how much you want to help people. So you guys have actually inspired me to go through the NASM certification and consider, like, a career change or a side gig and personal training down the line. So thank you so much for everything you do.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, thank you. How can we help you?

[Caller Sarah]

You okay? So my question. I'll just read it here. So I've been working out since I was 14, when I got my first gym membership at a 24 Hour Fitness here in the Bay. I'm 43 now. I know that I'm a bit orthorexic and I definitely have an addiction to exercise, but I both look and feel great. I look better, I think now, and I'm more fit now than when I was in my 20s or 30s. And I just never have felt like I look the way that I do before. And I also just really love training and movement outside running, cycling, hiking, walking, you name it. But I definitely overdo it. So my question is, is this going to for sure bite me in the ass at some point or do you guys think that I continue as is as long as I'm feeling great? And I guess I should also mention that I've been using a variety of peptides for several years, which I know help me train better and recover better and faster. So I guess my hope is that the addition of these tools to my toolbox means I can do more and push a bit harder without the same repercussions. But I'm curious what you guys think and I would love your thoughts.

[Adam Schafer]

Let's, let's peer a little into what the training looks like. How much training volume are you tracking steps? What's it look like for a week?

[Caller Sarah]

Yeah, I mean, it's like basically all of my free time I'm training or a lot of it is outdoors. But five days a week, I'm doing like an hour to an hour and a half of strength training is pretty intense. And then like anywhere from three to five hours of just cycling or running or hiking, like it's a lot. I mean, when I say it out loud, it actually sounds totally ridiculous. But like, I love it too. You know, I just love being outdoors and I, I just think mentally it helps my mental health a lot too. And I just feel like I have a lot of my, my best thoughts and ideas while I'm outside. So there's that, but there's also just a compulsion too, right?

[Adam Schafer]

Which I mean, I love, I love walking and hiking outside. That's awesome. Cycling and running can be okay. Can get intense though, really quickly. So. But hiking and walking outside for mental clarity, being outside, I'm all pro. That, that. So doing that strength training five days a week could be okay. But if you say it's really intense in an hour and a half, that, that's, that's a lot. Yeah, that's overkill. Way overdoing it.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I'm so by the way you answer this question will help me determine if I can help with this. So why do you think there's some orthorexia or compulsion?

[Caller Sarah]

Because I can't remember the last day. I didn't do, like, at least a few hours of activity. And if I don't get that in, like, I don't feel normal.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Okay, and how do you feel about that?

[Caller Sarah]

I mean, right now, I'm at a point in my life where it. It's okay. Like, I'm single right now, so I don't have a partner I need to be giving time to. I don't have kids. But, like, what if that. You know, what if that happens soon or I've switched jobs and I just literally can't do it. I think I'm going to just feel awful. And, like, that's not healthy, you know, to, like, not feel good or be freaked out on a day where I, you know, don't work out a lot. Like, that's just. That's not healthy. Like, that's dependence.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yes. So you feel like it's controlling you?

[Caller Sarah]

Yeah, a little bit. And I think for a long time, I really convinced myself, no, it's just that I love it. But I'm like, Especially actually, since I've been listening to you guys, I've kind of been realizing, yeah, this isn't just that I love it. There's a little bit more to it.

[Adam Schafer]

Good for you.

[Sal Di Stefano]

A lot of people do.

[Adam Schafer]

That's what people continue to say.

[Sal Di Stefano]

And look, just, you know, forgive me for my brevity, but alcoholics love their alcohol, and so they say they like it, they enjoy it. And I think you're getting a little bit of awareness that this thing is controlling you. But it doesn't sound like you're at the place where you could change it yet, because you're also saying, I love it, I like it. It's like my favorite thing.

[Adam Schafer]

I look great, I feel great.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I feel great. But then you're like, it's controlling me. This may be an issue. So, I mean, I could tell you from the outside, it definitely is an issue, and you're doing way too much. The question is, can you change it?

[Adam Schafer]

Do you want to change it bad enough?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, like, that's right.

[Adam Schafer]

Because eventually how you started this question is right. Eventually, you'll be forced to. It's going to bite you eventually. Hormonal bone stuff, you know, you'll. That. That starts.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Life is gonna happen.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Yeah. And so the answer is yes. Eventually your body will force you to. It's a question of do you have the motivation to change it right now, Especially when you like the way you look, to, like, the way you feel and you. And you say you enjoy all those things that let's. To Sal's point, that's really tough.

[Sal Di Stefano]

It's. It really sucks to be forced to change it when something happens. Happens. That sucks. Yeah. To change it ahead of time is hard, but is way better.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, it's better.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. Because what will happen at some point is something's going to happen and you can't do all that stuff or something's going to happen physically or mentally, and then you're going to be like, oh, my God, some breaking. I have to come out of it. But it could be a number of different things. But at some point, this thing that's controlling you that you're kind of like, oh, I think it's controlling me. At some point, it's. You're going to be forced to have to make a decision, and then that's the wor. That's the hardest. That's hard when it's like, in your face. Where you're at now is actually an easier place to make those changes. So it really is up to how. And you really have to talk about it in a way to yourself that's honest. Because what I hear. And I know I hear this because I talk this way. Okay. Because I know what you. I know what you feel like. Okay. You are me. Okay. In this. In this regard.

[Caller Sarah]

I know I've heard a lot of, yeah, yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

As it's coming out of your mouth, you're trying to give yourself escape. Like, oh, it's this thing that's controlling, but I love it. Oh, it might not be so good for me, but I can do it. Oh, but I look good and I feel good. And so it's like you're afraid to say to yourself, this is a problem and it needs to get fixed. Because if you say that, then you have to change it. So you're like, maybe not. So that's kind of where you're at with it right now.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, are you at a place where you'd be open to even outsourcing it? In other words, hiring a coach to tell you what you need to do

[Sal Di Stefano]

and then following it, just doing what they tell you.

[Caller Sarah]

Yeah. I mean, here's another thing. Like, so I haven't always been as fit and looked as good, and so being at a point where I finally feel like I'm like, I love my body now, and this was not Always the case, you know? And so I've been through different iterations of my body, and so, you know, would I be willing to totally scale back on exercise?

[Adam Schafer]

Yes.

[Caller Sarah]

If I was able to, like, mostly keep the body that I now have?

[Adam Schafer]

You absolutely can. You absolutely can. You absolutely can.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You'll give.

[Adam Schafer]

That would actually be. So If I was coaching. That's the easiest part. You've built the physique you like, and you're like, adam, I like the way I look. It's, like, cool. Let me show you a way, easier way to maintain that look.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. If anything, you'll improve.

[Adam Schafer]

You will. You. You. It's. It does not rest the markers. Five days, an hour and a half of training.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Let me put it to you this way. You look as fit as you do in spite of all the wrong stuff that you're doing.

[Adam Schafer]

Right, right, right.

[Sal Di Stefano]

And you're putting a lot of peptide bandages and stuff like that on it to keep the ball rolling. You'll actually look better. Yeah. So if that's what you're afraid of. Yeah. It's not. It's. Don't worry.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. Yeah. No, Yeah.

[Caller Sarah]

I mean, that is what I'm afraid of for. For sure. Right. Because, like, I've been 25 pounds heavier and, like, didn't get looks or compliments, and now I'm like. I'm at the gym, and I'm like, that crazy chick who's, like, busting her ass, but I get complimented. You know, I get women complimenting me on my arms, which is awesome. And I used to hate my arms. So, like, if I can keep all that and do way less. Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I'm definitely, like, at a. Sarah, Sarah, you're totally. Sal.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Sarah. Sarah, listen to me, please. No, I don't do it. I don't do it for compliment.

[Adam Schafer]

I get no compliment.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Sarah.

[Adam Schafer]

That's why he wears that wife beater in the chimney.

[Caller Sarah]

It was like, a wife. So you changed the name of it recently.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, Wife pleaser, which sounds just as bad. Sarah, you're.

[Doug]

You're.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You're. You're already a valuable person. Yeah. You're already worthwhile. Yeah. Yeah. All that outside, whatever is. It's meaningless. Yeah, You're. You're already. You're already worthwhile. You're already great. And you don't need all that. You really don't. In fact, it's keeping you trapped. But if you want. Look, here's the deal, okay? Because we'll answer your question. Are you gonna, like, suddenly your body's gonna change in a negative no, it's not gonna happen. You'll get as great or better results with way less work. But I also don't want you to focus on that because that's also gonna steer you in the wrong direction. So, I mean, a coach would really be helpful, but you've got to be in a place to where you're okay with that, where you'll. Where you're going to let go and be like, okay, this is really a problem I want to address. If you're not there yet, then it wouldn't help you.

[Caller Sarah]

Yeah, I think I'm in that contemplation stage of change still, but I feel like I'm getting closer to having a mindset of readiness.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You know what you could do? Try this. This is what I'm doing right now. So. Because I've been on and off with this forever, sometimes better, sometimes worse. So I started doing where every other week. I don't do any. So this is for me. This wouldn't look like it for you, but for me, every other week I do zero to no.

[Adam Schafer]

Almost.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Almost no strength training. And I just do cardio, because that's the thing for me is walking.

[Adam Schafer]

You should say, he doesn't do cardio.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I just do walking. Okay, so maybe it looks like this for you instead of what you do every single day. Maybe it's like, okay, on Wednesday and Friday, I'm cutting it way down. And then wait and then see what happens. And then slowly step ladder yourself towards doing less. Maybe it's one day. Maybe it could be like, all right, Fridays, instead of doing an hour and a half of strength training and all this cardio, maybe it's like, I'm gonna do nothing or I'm gonna just go for a hike or something like that and keep. Keep it light. Because you could also turn that into, you know, crazy and just step ladder yourself. For me, it's every other week because that seems to be what I can do right now.

[Caller Sarah]

How is your thought process and your mental health as you go through this?

[Adam Schafer]

He sucks at it. So I don't know why he's talking about. No, no, no. I just started. It's a coach. You need a coach.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I just started it. And so this is week two. So I'm just. I just got into it. It. But what helped me was on the week, I'm not strength training. I'm listening to books that I'm really interested in. So I look forward to that. So I walk on the treadmill and I listen to a book because just doing nothing is too big of a bite for me. So I'm like, okay, so every other week I'm just. So maybe there's something else that you're really interested in that you really like to do, whether it's a book or you go, you know, it might. It's just something that's not exercise and you. And because not doing something is hard, but doing something else in replace of it is easier. So maybe it's. Maybe it's yin yoga. Yin yoga would be great for someone like that.

[Adam Schafer]

The hardest part, Sarah, if I was coaching you, the hardest part is I'm going to tell you that I absolutely can keep the body or even better if you wanted, but I also simultaneously need you to let go of that at the same time. That's the hard part. So it's like, I could guarantee you as the coach, I could say, hey, hey, don't worry, I'll. I'll keep this body the way it is or maybe even improve it. But I also need you to just trust me and let it go while we do this. And so that part, that letting go process, that's the hard part and that's the part that you have to. To separate from, that's what this guy is still struggling with, is completely letting go of that and going a total different direction. He's easing himself in with the walking stuff. But so what my journey looked like years ago is like part of the, like getting into a whole different modality. Like let go of the jacked. Look, I. Look, I, I can go get that anytime I want. And you can too. You've. Look at. You've already proven that. You've proven you have the ability to go get that. So now try and train yourself. Can I let it go? It doesn't mean be unhealthy. And I'm saying get fat. I'm just saying let that focus go and focus something on something else for a while and know that you got that in your back pocket if you ever need to.

[Sal Di Stefano]

To.

[Adam Schafer]

That's the, that's the growth part right here on your journey that you need to get through. And that on the other side of that is a healthier version of you, a fitter version of you, and way less control and effort towards it.

[Sal Di Stefano]

All right, Sarah, how do you. How's your social life with friendships and stuff, or does all revolve around the gym?

[Caller Charles]

I.

[Caller Sarah]

Right now? Yeah, it's. There's not much, but I just got back to the Bay after living abroad for a couple of years. And also. So, like I went to burning man for 10 years, and so my previous life was like a bit of a partier. And all my friends love to party, and I want nothing to do with that. So I think I've just kind of shifted that all and all my energy into, like, health and fitness. But now I've overdone it, you know?

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's another thing that could help is seek out kind of social community. Yeah, social community. For me, it's my church. That's actually helped me quite a bit. And that's the other thing too, because otherwise you have all this time on your hands and you're like, yeah, I'm gonna go to the gym. Because I like doing that.

[Caller Sarah]

I know.

[Adam Schafer]

I'd love to see. I'd love to see you get coached. I know you say you're contemplating right now, but a good coach for a good. Okay.

[Caller Lucy]

Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Okay. All right, well, if you ever. If. If you're like, okay, I'm ready to do that, you let us know. We got some great coaches here. You're not far from us either, by the way, so you can. You could even do personal training here on occasion, like once a week or once every other week and actually come into the studio and work with one of our trainers.

[Caller Sarah]

Oh, that'd be awesome. I love that.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Would you. You want somebody to call you?

[Caller Sarah]

Yeah, you know, why not? Yes.

[Sal Di Stefano]

All right, let's do that. And we'll see you. Because we're here.

[Adam Schafer]

Get you down here, Sarah.

[Caller Sarah]

Awesome. All right, guys, well, thank you so much for your time and for everything you do. I appreciate it.

[Sal Di Stefano]

You got it. Thanks.

[Caller Sarah]

Okay, bye. Cheers.

[Sal Di Stefano]

She also works for the Enhanced Games. Did you see that?

[Adam Schafer]

I did.

[Justin Andrews]

She does. She sees out talent shot up for the marketing.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, that's cool. She. Oh, that's good. I hope she comes down here then.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Which also makes it more difficult because you're working. I enhance this.

[Justin Andrews]

It's kind of a skewed environment.

[Adam Schafer]

I mean, she's.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I know. Listen, if I. If I didn't have kids and a wife and all that stuff, I. I mean that I. I know, exactly. That's what I would do all the time. Yeah. Cuz you got to find other things that you can replace it with.

[Adam Schafer]

What are you talking about? You still already do.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I don't go. I'm not. Three hours.

[Adam Schafer]

Well, no, okay.

[Sal Di Stefano]

I'm saying if I had.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, but you'd never miss.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Yeah, but it's. My point is, I'd be three hours a day if I didn't have. You'd be even worse. Exactly.

[Adam Schafer]

Even more crazy.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That's right. Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

No, it's. I mean, still at that place where this is where it's hard when again, and I think this is the exact same challenge that you feel with it is you're healthy, you're fit, you look good. You know what I'm saying? So it's really tough to tell somebody to break that when they have all these. These positive things that they have felt from it and their body's not screaming at them. That's right. And telling them they can't do that. But there's also other sides of this sometimes too. It's not just dysfunction on that side. It can become dysfunctional in your social and your.

[Sal Di Stefano]

That's why I asked her.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Because she probably doesn't have like this. You can't work out that much and not have. I mean, if you don't have that and you feel kind of lonely and

[Adam Schafer]

what happens is that person ends up that type of person, lots of friends and been close to like this. You either don't or you find another person with the same issue, of course. And then you both obsess over it together. And that's why we see so many people in the fitness space that are both bikini competitor and bodybuilder, you know, together because they. They share this addiction together because they can't date anybody else. That as at all balance because doesn't work. So they have and no idea. And they tell themselves they're so in love and they have all this in common when it's like, yeah, you have this unhealthy relationship with exercise that's in common. And so gotta break free of that or you'll have a really hard time connecting to somebody who doesn't want to take three hours of walk a day, an hour and a half training sessions every single day and measure every food they eat.

[Sal Di Stefano]

Totally. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. Mind Pump Media.

[Doug]

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and 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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