Mark Bell: How to Lose 100+ lbs. | Planet Tyrus

Summary

Planet Tyrus: Mark Bell – How to Lose 100+ lbs Episode Date: March 10, 2026
Host: Tyrus
Guest: Mark Bell

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Episode Overview

This high-energy episode centers on transformation—physical, mental, and emotional—through the lens of strength sports and personal accountability. Tyrus, a former pro wrestler and comedian, welcomes powerlifter, entrepreneur, and fitness innovator Mark Bell for an open discussion about losing massive amounts of weight, reshaping lifestyles, inventing the Slingshot, and translating hard-won lessons into impactful tools for the everyday person. The episode mixes sharp humor, candid confessions, and actionable fitness advice.

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Key Themes and Discussion Points

1. Shared Origins: Being the “Big Guy”

• Both Tyrus and Mark discuss growing up large, being picked first for sports but also being awkward and clumsy.
  Tyrus: “I had the Marmaduke thing going on… But because I was so giant, I was always the first guy picked.” (04:04)
• Early gym stories highlight how size and strength were double-edged swords, conferring both opportunity and challenge.

[Memorable Quote | 07:44]

Mark Bell: “You got the monster speech… you can’t use your strength like that.”

2. Powerlifting Culture and Brotherhood

• Reflections on learning to lift, gym camaraderie, and “meathead math.”
• Influence of wrestler role models (Ultimate Warrior, Big John Stud, Lou Ferrigno) and the evolution of gym culture, especially in iconic places like Gold’s Gym.

[Quote | 11:00]

Mark Bell: “We called him the mayor…always going around.” (On his late brother, Chris Bell, a gym fixture and documentary filmmaker)

3. Innovation: The Slingshot and Sharing Knowledge

• Mark’s journey from keeping training secrets to sharing everything as both a teacher and entrepreneur.
• The origin of the Slingshot as a response to shoulder pain and a desire to help lifters stay in the game longer.
• Early hesitance to advise others (“imposter syndrome”) until major milestone (900 lb. squat).
  Mark: “[It] happened the first time I squat 900 pounds… before that time, I felt like an imposter.” (17:32)

4. The True Power of Gym Life

• Tyrus and Mark on gym dynamics: trash talk, rivalry, and the irreplaceable therapy of heavy lifting and locker room banter.
• Anecdotes: Bench press rivalries, PR battles, training with other wrestlers and athletes (Ryback, John Cena, Big E). Tyrus: “Those rivalries, I will live to the day I die.” (27:45)

[Quote | 21:41]

Mark Bell: “People say crazy stuff in the gym…but because he said it in here, it’s a safe spot.”

5. Aging, Identity, and Losing Weight

• Tyrus recounts hitting 400+ lbs., health scares, and watching his son gain weight as wake-up calls.
• Both men reflect on the psychological challenge of letting go of a strength-based identity. Tyrus: “People look at you and like, oh, look at the size of that guy… it’s like a shield.”

[Transformational Moment | 35:26]

Tyrus: “I started, I saw this…and when I saw you used organs and you, you know, everything you list in here, I’m like, this is the real deal.”

6. Diet, Cravings, and the Steak Shake

• Mark discusses formulating the Steak Shake/Total Carnivore Shake: combining high-quality protein sources (whey, egg, beef, collagen) and organ nutrients.
• Importance of micronutrients, taste, and satiety.
  Mark: “When those things are full, then it’s just easier to get everything else done.” (38:44)
• Tyrus credits adopting this product and approach for helping both himself and his son lose substantial weight and curb cravings.

7. Small Sustainable Habits Over Hacks

• Walking: “Three 10-minute walks a day can really change someone’s life… beat Metformin.” (42:16)
• Lightweights, high reps, fun cardio (hitting heavy bag, walking, playing catch).
• “Front-loading” with healthy food before social events to prevent overeating.

[Quote | 53:15]

Mark Bell: “Protein leveraging…when you eat more protein, it will drive down your hunger levels.”

8. Openness and Mindset in Transformation

• The struggle with perfectionism, “cheat meals”, and learning not to spiral after minor lapses.
• The critical role of transparency, self-forgiveness, and talking openly about struggles.
• Communicating family dietary changes, supporting each other’s goals, and leading by example.

[Quote | 73:34]

Mark Bell: “Exercise helps tremendously with weight loss, but only over a really long period of time…”

9. Legacy, Impact, and Paying It Forward

• Mark’s family culture of coaching and sharing; ripple effects through people they helped (John Cena, other wrestlers).
• The power of improving oneself to indirectly impact many others, especially family. Mark: “Fix yourself… the best way to love your family is to continually improve yourself.” (101:10)
• Tyrus credits Mark with changing his and his son’s lives, modeling the importance of humility and service.

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Notable Quotes & Time Stamps

• Tyrus (00:00): “You’re [a] super humble guy, but you personally changed my life forever.”
• Mark Bell (07:44): “You got the monster speech… I’m just really disappointed. You can’t use your strength like that.”
• Tyrus (27:45): “Those rivalries, I will live to the day I die.”
• Mark Bell (38:44): “The steak shake is like a multivitamin, souped-up because liver is like God’s gift to us as a multivitamin.”
• Mark Bell (42:16): “Three 10 minute walks a day… can have a huge impact on your blood glucose, your blood pressure, your circulation. It even beat Metformin.”
• Mark Bell (53:15): “Protein leveraging…eating a little extra protein is not going to contribute to you gaining a lot more fat.”
• Mark Bell (73:34): “Exercise helps with weight loss, but only over a really long period of time.”
• Mark Bell (101:10): “The best way to love your family is to continually improve yourself.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00 – 02:43: Tyrus and Mark’s early bond, gym stories, origin anecdotes
• 07:44: Lessons in strength, using power responsibly
• 15:00 – 19:52: Family legacy, sharing, beginning of Slingshot
• 21:41 – 30:24: Gym camaraderie & rivalries, physical and mental benefits
• 35:26 – 46:53: Diet change; the steak shake, transformations, cravings
• 53:15 – 61:50: Practical nutrition habits and “protein leveraging”
• 73:34 – 87:00: Making change stick, hack vs. habit, family communication
• 97:50 – end: Legacy, impact, coaching, paying it forward to others

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Further Resources & Where to Find Mark Bell

• Products & Programs: markbellslingshot.com (Slingshot gear, Steak Shake, etc.)
• Supplements: withinyoubrand.com
• Social Media/Contact: Instagram @MarkSmellyBell (DMs open, prefers voice messages)
• YouTube: Super Training 06; Mark Smelly Bell
• Podcast: Mark Bell’s Power Project

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Episode Takeaway

This episode stands out for its genuine, no-BS account of what real lifestyle change looks and feels like from inside the “big man’s” experience. Mark Bell and Tyrus debunk fitness media myths, share actionable strategies (from walking to eating more protein to changing your mindset), and reinforce that the most powerful transformations—physical and personal—are built on humility, peer support, and consistency over time.

“Improve yourself for yourself and prove yourself to yourself. That’s some of the most important things we can ever do in this lifetime.” (Mark Bell, 101:26)

Transcript

[Tyrus]

You're absolute super humble guy, but you personally changed my life forever.

[Mark Bell]

So I actually remember it happened the first time I squat. I had to squat 900 pounds.

[Tyrus]

But then when you're looking at the pictures you're like, damn, like, that wasn't me. I wasn't me. I was done. That couldn't have been me. They have a cheeseburger now with four different cheeses and it comes dipped in cheese.

[Mark Bell]

And I just, I didn't know what to. I don't know how to fight or anything. So I just like grabbed the kid by the, by his shirt and I flung him around and when I let go of him, he went flying into the, into the soccer posts.

[Tyrus]

You know, I have. This is crazy that we've never met, but you have been in my life probably since 2006. It's. No, even before that with your brother Chris, because Chris basically discovered me at a golden gym working out and he was just like, you know, he's like the official wrestling pimp, you know what I'm saying? He'll see some and he'll just come up to you like, hey kid, you know, and, and then from there on, and then your late brother, you did my taxes for me. So I've been connected to the family. And then in the craziest situation and again, life is funny. I'm at Hard Knock south where I'm. When I signed, re. Signed with the WWE and I started training with Rob at Hard Knock south where, which is Cena's official thing. And he opened. A lot of people don't, you know, people talk a lot of shit about Cena, but he opened up an Olympic sized gym with a world class trainer to the boys. He didn't have to, he never had to do that. He was literally giving everyone the same equal playing field that he had to compete. And I still think that's something that no one ever talks about, but in that this little thing called a slingshot came across our way and we were banned from using it because we were cheating with it.

[Mark Bell]

So you see how spray would be against it. That's McIntyre over there. He was probably like, he didn't want you guys bouncing it off your chest, right?

[Tyrus]

Well, yeah, well, you know what it is when we fatigue, right, because we would train so hard and then if a guy had a sore shoulder, the, the tremendous. But before we even get to that, your origin story, because you're an athlete, power lifter, you're a professional wrestler, you were a big guy. You were what I call one of the Trap brothers. We were. We cut our shirts to show off our traps and guns. And it took the eyes off our belly.

[Mark Bell]

That's right.

[Tyrus]

Yeah. So just. Just a little bit. The Mark Bell origin story. How did you. Because you have. You are, I would say, the face of. Of like, real men fitness.

[Mark Bell]

I dig that. I'll take that. That's awesome. I think, you know, maybe kind of how it came to be was like being that bigger guy, you know, I think, like, big guys need to see other big guys do stuff. And then they're like, oh, I could do that. And they don't think it's as awkward or as gay or whatever the word is you're going to associate with.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Mark Bell]

You know, type. Certain types of fitness and things like that, that. That are going to be uncomfortable for them, but when they see other people do it, they're like, oh, you know, maybe I should. Maybe I should think about, you know, doing some of that. Powerlifting is something that really. Just lends itself really nicely to a bigger person. You know, if you're 10, 11, 12 years old and you're bigger, you're bigger than your friends, might get teased, might get picked on here and there. But whenever it came to arm wrestling, right, Whenever it came to, you know, grappling with. With your friends, wrestling around with your friends, all that kind of stuff, everybody wanted you on their side, you know. And when you played football and stuff, you had to learn, like. And especially at your size because you're so tall as well, you had to learn, like, hey, you can't really use all that strength all the time.

[Tyrus]

No. And you know what used to happen? I used to move around a lot, right? We'd probably move like every six months or so. So it'd be a new school, new neighborhood, you know, this is when everybody played outside. And it was always the same thing. When I. And I was a little. I hadn't quite grown into my. I had the Marmaduke thing going on where, like, the legs and the hips and the arms, I would think one way, but I was just real clumsy. But because I was so giant, I was always the first guy picked. And I remember I got picked for kickball in, like the third grade. Cause I was, you know, a foot taller than everybody else. And the first pitch came and it was a swing and a miss. And I'm telling you right now, Charlie Brown had nothing on. In terms of how long I felt I hung in the air there. And it was like, what? You know, and it was just years of that. Of like, oh, man, yeah, he's big, but man, he's clumsy, you know. And then it just kind of, one day it just kind of. But you're right. But when it came to like wrestling in the backyard and stuff, being clumsy there helped because you were so heavy handed. I just snatch a guy up and he'd be like, all right, you win. So, yeah, and then when it came

[Mark Bell]

to like lifting and I was just like lifting with a couple of my friends, as you do when you're, you know, starting to be like a teenager and just mess around with the weights. And I was just a little bit stronger than them. And I had two older brothers that showed me lifting and they were like, no, you don't, you don't lift with like a mirror. You don't like do curls in front of the mirror. Like, that's stupid. You lift heavy, you know, like the Road warriors. You know, you bend over rows and military presses and benches and squats and deadlifts. And then I saw reinforcement of that from, you know, the Ultimate Warrior and from, you know, various, various wrestlers over the years.

[Tyrus]

Orndorff, Big John Stud, Remember he was deadlifting on his debut.

[Mark Bell]

Big John Stud was huge.

[Tyrus]

Yes. And a gentleman. Like, he's like the nicest guy in the world, I felt. I hear all the horror stories about Andre being mad at him because Vince kept saying, you know, making him say he was the Giant, but he was like, really nice guy, but he was, for a tall guy, his, his powerlifting was unbelievable. He had some, you know, Ken Patera, I mean, Lou Ferrigno. Remember the. I'd be watching the World's Strongest Men competitions on espn and that was just like, oh, I want to be like those guys.

[Mark Bell]

And I was just, I just kind of got driven towards that. I mean, all the movies, I mean, when you watch bigger, stronger, faster.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, great.

[Mark Bell]

Kind of shows you. It shows you the origin story. It shows you that we were exposed to Arnold, we were exposed to Stallone, professional wrestling. And you know, kids are exposed to something completely different now. I'm not going to say it's better or worse. It's just so different. I can't understand what it would be like to grow up in this environment. But I grew up in that environment where strength was an important attribute. And I remember this one time I was already lifting for like maybe four or five years or maybe three or four years, and I got into like an altercation with somebody in gym class and I just, I didn't know what to. I don't know how to fight or anything. So I just like grabbed the kid by. By a shirt and I flung him around. And when I let go of him, he went flying into the, into the soccer posts, you know, the goal post for soccer. And he like hit his side. He went, oh. And he made this like crazy noise. And when I let go, I was like, oh, my God, like, what did I just do? Like, that kid probably weighs like, I don't know, £90. And I just chucked him. And I probably weighed 220. You know, I was already. I was already pretty big and I was already pretty strong. And when I got home, I was like, oh, man, my parents going to find out and I'm going to, you know, get punished and this and that. And my dad just explained to me, he's like, he's like, hey, all that lifting. You, you, you're. You can't do that. You're way.

[Tyrus]

You got this. You got the speech. Yes.

[Mark Bell]

You got the monster speech, you know, and he's just like, I'm just really disappointed. He's like, you can't use your strength like that.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, I went through the.

[Mark Bell]

Oh,

[Tyrus]

I went through the same thing. I was. I was playing, I was at school and after school program, and this kid just wouldn't stop, man. He was just, you know, and I had. They were making fun of me because they said I look like Lou Ferrigno, but like, not in a positive way. You know what I'm saying? Like, they said you have a big giant forehead like Andre the Giant, and you have a forehead like the Lou Ferrigno was the whole.

[Mark Bell]

Was it true?

[Tyrus]

It was true. They were accurate. It's a point of pride now, but back then it was not so much. And I just remember being fed up and he just kept teasing me and wouldn't stop. And finally I just charged at him and he. I guess he thought he could get away. And when I hit him, I just ran through him. I just basically just. It was like a monster shoulder tackle. I just ran through him. And when he hit the ground, he dislocated his shoulder.

[Mark Bell]

Oh.

[Tyrus]

And like the, the collarbone was like up against the skin. And he's screaming, and I'm screaming now because, like, it's not, you know, it was like once you did it, you didn't realize that, you know. And then he had. The ambulance, had to come to school. And it was like the whole thing. And I thought. And I was sitting there with the principal and I'm thinking, I'm going to, you know, when you're a kid, like, I'm gonna go to prison. They're gonna send me to prison. You know, like, I'm. And I remember my mom came in and she. We're driving in the car, and, you know, I was crying because, you know, I was basically, I didn't, you know, I wasn't happy that, you know, I dislocated. Apparently, I dislocated his shoulder and broke his upper arm. So when he came back to school, he had the pole with the arm thing on it.

[Mark Bell]

Oh, my God.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, it was bad. It was awkward. It was an awkward. It would be awkward at lunch, at the table because he would have a hard time opening his lunchbox and I'd just be sitting across, like I told, you know, But. But I remember that speech. Like, you. I know it's hard for you, but, like, you. You're not. You can't fight other kids. When you hit people, you hurt them, and so you can't do that. So I went through this whole thing, and then once my brother, my younger brother got hip to that I was getting tested. It was worse than the. When the. The Tom and Jerry cartoons, when the dog signs a deal that he won't hit the cat. And he would just walk around and provoke me and, like, you hit me, you get in trouble. You hit me and get in trouble. So. But that, that is a. That is a. A weird time in your life because you're so awkward and everything you do is wrong.

[Mark Bell]

Right. And luckily for me, though, I, I, you know, did find a spot to put my energy into. And my brother Chris was already powerlifting. And my brother Chris, for people that don't know, you know, he's the director of Bigger, Stronger, Faster.

[Tyrus]

He's done a few award winning, won the Academy Award for Bigger Strongers.

[Mark Bell]

Yeah, he's a beast. Not an Academy Award, but he was nominated. He got several accolades for that.

[Tyrus]

Yeah. And he had a great documentary on painkillers, too. Like, he's always got everything he does and strong as hell.

[Mark Bell]

He's still strong.

[Tyrus]

He's still strong. I mean, he's like. He's like you. He's a body guy now, but, you know, but he was always thick as. I mean, I would always walk into Gold's Gym and I could always know. He would always be on the StairMaster. That's where he did his warmup. And he'd be there, and that's where he kind of overlooked. He was like the governor of Gold's Gym in Venice. And he just kind of.

[Mark Bell]

I used to always call him. Yeah, call him the mayor, because he was always going around.

[Tyrus]

I called him governor. He knew everybody. It didn't matter who was in there. You know, he would just pass and. But you know what? He had an awesome way of doing it because he was not a chatty caddy, which is the worst thing a dude could be labeled. That's like, worse than the Scarlet Letter. If you're the guy that comes over when someone's working out and you don't shut up. There's. There's certain rules. It's just high and by. You just. You see him on the thing. I walk over, hey, what's going on? And then we do a workout. But that. Hey, what's going on? Means chicken wings. Afterwards. We established that there would be a. After the workout, we'll meet at the front. But it was never, ever. And I always. I always love that, because I can't. That's the worst. And I'm a guy who likes to talk, trust me, but. But the weight room, to me was always church, where you go to do work. And actually, I don't know. When Chris was first, he was handing out the DVD because that's how old we are to bigger, stronger, faster. And I was doing. I had just got let go from the WWE the first time, and I had made tv. I didn't even make TV that time. And some. Every time you get released from wrestling, all these wrestling agents come out of the woodwork, and they booked me on a celebrity wrestling reality TV show where Dennis Rodman won it. But it was like all the, you know, Danny Bonaduce and. And the dude, the guy from Different Strokes. I forget his name anyway, the older brother. And it was all these different celebrities. And Chris came, I think the Nasty. Yeah, the Nasty Boys were there and all these other people. Hogan was there, and Bischoff was there. And I told him I was over there. He's like, hey, I would like to give a copy to Eric Bischoff and Hogan so they can see, you know, that I'm. I'm not trashing them or anything like that. You know, it wasn't a. It was a. I thought it was a very positive spin, Very unbiased spin. Make your own decision. Is it a good choice? Is it a bad choice? Here's the facts, and I think I wish we had more things like that today, where you just tell the story and let the audience decide what's right and what's wrong. And I'll never forget. Him and I were walking up there and we're both marks for, you know, like, this is Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan. And I'm supposed to just be over with the other, you know, the. I was a character on the show or whatever, but I was like, we found out where his trailer was, and Chris came to see me. So we were like. We went in there. It was like, it. You know what I'm saying? Like, what's the worst that can happen? And we knock on the door, and Eric Bischoff comes. The door. Hogan doesn't even get up. Rest his soul. And Chris and I both were supposed to say hello, but neither one of us. Nothing really came out. And then Chris basically was like, hey, I made this documentary. And he handed it to Bischoff, and Hogan came over, and the two of them looked at us and looked at the thing, and he was like. And they just threw it at him, Threw it back at him and closed the door. And I was like. I looked at him and he was like. And I was pissed because I was like, no, the hell with that. Like, they don't get to do that. So I started going back towards the door like, these guys, like, you know, I'm fired anyways. You know what I'm saying? So I don't. I don't. You know, and he's like, no, no, no, it's cool, bro. Let's. Cool, let's go, you know, and we left or whatever. And I was like, you know, he was like, no, no, no, man. I did my part. He's like, I did my part. And then once it came out and it was this smash hit, then there was all this support. But I always remember, but for that day on, him and I, we were always bonded, you know, it could be 10 years go by. Doesn't matter. He's just. He's just one of those guys that no matter what's going on in my life, it's one text or one weird Instagram meme away from checking on each other. And I've always appreciated that about your brother. He's always been a cool, cool, very cool dude to me.

[Mark Bell]

Start your day with Quaker Protein Instant Oatmeal. The instant oatmeal. Ready to help you tackle whatever your day brings. Like wrangling your toddler into their car seat. That was fun. Coaching your sixth grader soccer team.

[Tyrus]

Go, girls.

[Mark Bell]

And carrying all the groceries in one trip. Try Quaker Protein Instant Oatmeal Granola and Bars. Great taste and a good source of protein. Quaker, bring out the good. Yeah. And you look at where like TRT is now and all that kind of stuff and how approved it is. You know, it's because of that movie.

[Tyrus]

Yeah. That it changed a lot of it changed the perspective, I think, for a lot of people. And what's crazy is, is that he in. In families, typically it's like one, you know, it's very, you know, one or two. But all of you have had your. All three of your brothers, you have all had success in entertainment, you've all had success in mainstream, and you in the fitness industry. At what point, given your size and your powerlifting, you put up some amazing numbers. When did the switch happen to where you started thinking about things like the slingshot? When did. When did the, like going from. You know, because those secrets typically most people would keep to themselves to give them an edge in training. When did you decide, like, hey, I'm going to share this stuff,

[Mark Bell]

you know, I think that sharing stuff is like, been in our family for a long time. Um, somebody mentioned to me, I think it was like, Bobby Lashley or something. He's like, your whole family's like teachers and coaches and stuff. It's like, oh, wow. I never really thought about it. But Bobby, without even knowing, he doesn't know that my aunts and uncles are coaches and they are teachers. So it's, I think it's like in our nature somewhere. It's in our blood to want to share stuff. So I, When I was powerlifting in the beginning, I was like, you know what, there's something cool about this. I know that maybe not everyone will want to power lift, but I know that everyone is somewhat interested in like, what's someone's max squat? What's someone's max deadlift, what's someone's max bench? And also, what does it look like to get there? So we might not want to do, you know, we might want to climb the stuff that Alex Honnold has climbed. But it's fascinating, right? And then it's kind of cool, like, oh, I just want to like, look up. How does he. How's he trained for that? A little bit, you know, and you watch a couple videos and with powerlifting, what Louis Simmons said. Louis Simmons is my mentor and he had the strongest gym ever, Westside barbell. And what he said is, this is a sport for the rest of us. Meaning, like, we're delinquents. We weren't really great at anything else. I mean, a lot of us were pretty good at stuff, but we weren't good enough to make that our thing.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Mark Bell]

But when we got to strength, when it got to strength and we started lifting, we were a little stronger than other people. And I always thought that that was something that once I started to really learn it, I wanted to share it. So I actually remember it happened the first time I squat. I had to squat 900 pounds. Think about how funny that is. I had to squat 900 pounds before I really started to come out of my shell and communicate a lot about all the different findings and all the different things I've been doing with training. Because before that time I felt like an imposter. You know, I was super nervous.

[Tyrus]

I completely relate to that.

[Mark Bell]

And it was very hard for me to even put a sentence together to share with anybody. But once I did the 900 and once I started competing more often and actually putting up, I call it points on the scoreboard. You put up points on the scoreboard of life and now it feels like, hey, I can talk about how I put those points up. I think other people would be interested in that too. And the last thing I'll kind of finish on, what really flipped a switch for me was when we would film workouts. If you go back and you just look at Super Training 06, the YouTube channel that's been around for like nearly 20 years, you'll see videos in there where we didn't just film the set, we filmed after the set. We filmed before the set. We filmed the trash talking beforehand. Oh, I bet you can't do this. Oh, I bet I can F you this and that back and forth. And then the guy does it or the guy misses it and then everyone like gives him crap about it or rallies around them.

[Tyrus]

Is there's a camaraderie, it's, it's the greatest hard knocks out of the nose

[Mark Bell]

and just how extreme it can be, right? And then also these girls, there was girls in there squatting six, seven hundred pounds. And so I just thought to myself, people are gonna be fascinated by this. And let's just make sure that the camera keeps rolling so that they see all the weirdness and all the funny interactions that were not just a bunch of meatheads that were not just, you know, hardcore tattooed, bald headed people with a goatee that just, you know, get fired up with, you know, devil worship music on. We are actually, we're actually very similar to a lot of the people that are watching. And we just are trying to improve our life. We're trying to get better. And that's our expression of how to do it. And I noticed that people really enjoyed that the comments started coming and the views started going up. And that's what made me really want to share even more is once I saw that happen.

[Tyrus]

Well, because one of the things that people miss is that there is to be a great power lifter, you also have to be a mathematician a little bit. And there's a lot of knowledge that goes into the technique of lifting and. And brute strength can only take you so far. And that's a lesson I learned very quickly at Hard Knock south, especially when you get a little fatigue. You can go from, oh, I can walk in the gym and I can throw five or five up for once, but then I'm the rest of the day and I really didn't do much, you know, so there's a. There's a level, you know, there's levels to the game. But I always thought about the mental aspect of things because we used to play speed chess before our workouts and after, you know what I'm saying? And it's amazing how you think when you're exhausted, like, you leave it all out there and then you got to do speed. We were missing, like making the move one time. I think I hit the clock, didn't make the move like the. You'll see like how much. And then it's during those times when your body, when you're mentally fatigued, that's when you start watching the film study. Because whatever you're retaining during that time is going to stay with you. And that's the one thing with the film. We made so many, we call them. We can never show anybody outside these walls, but we probably have at least, I would say 700 hours of footage of just ridiculousness, unfiltered, just men stuff, you know what I'm saying? Just breaking balls and just. It was a great place to get it. I think that was one of the things that gym life or I remember when I used to train in Golds in Venice, you know, whether you're a gym rat or a gym guy, but it's the camaraderie. It's also like you work out your. In there. It's the greatest psychologist in the world. I think in therapy is because there's that battle and you get your ass kicked more than you win in powerlifting.

[Mark Bell]

People say crazy stuff in the gym too, that, you know, outside the gym it's, you know, there's a lot of locker room talk, a lot of like, vulgar talk, a lot of racial jokes, a lot of, like, stuff where you're like, man, if, if that guy said it outside the gym, he probably have a problem. But because he said it in here, it's like, this is a safe spot for that kind of stuff.

[Tyrus]

I remember because we, you know, we'd say all kinds of stuff. And I remember one time I was. I was getting hung up on. I think it was like I was moving up on deadlifting and I was getting to him and I was. I was exhausted. I was exhausted and I'm going to pull. And my arch. My arch nemesis in the gym for a while was Ryback. And he. He came in and he. He looked. He looked at me and I just, you know, it was just an instant. As soon as he walked into the thing, everything changed. And it was just a stare down. He didn't say a word. He just looked down at the weight and smirked. That's all he did. He just gave me. He just went like, oh, that's it. And I was just. I felt the snap, you know what I'm saying? And it was just. I saw the picture. I just. I almost curled the. Almost probably would have blown my bicep as well. I wasn't having the good. Having good form, just getting that lockout in. But that's the difference. It's those little, little things. And many years from now, like, when we're old, we'll still be talking about our rivalry with the Bench, you know, And I think I still have the meanest. Our feud ended as only it should be in the. We were so. We work in hard Knock south and Rob, when you work for your PR day, it is an event. Like you bust your ass for the six weeks training and you're getting up and there's no cheating. There's no, you know, because you have those good days. You're like, you're at your 75% of your bench and you're like, hey, man, let's put another play. That's. That's not the plan. That's not the plan, you know, and then there was a big showdown. We had big because you got to go up on the board now. And being on the board at, at any gym is a big deal. Now where I was in contention at was Bench until Big E came in. But before Big E, I was. It was right back in me one and two. And that was the one thing that we had a pretty significant lead over Cena on was. Was bench. Now squat, deadlift and clean and jerk. Good luck. He's not human. He is. He's not human. Him and his brother, they are not human when it comes to those lifts. And for him to be able to do it for as long as he's been able to do it for as well he's been able to do it is just unbelievable. But bench, we could bully him around. Cause I think he was like around 4. I think he was around 425 or 445 at the time. Time, again, that's nothing new. You, like, hide in shame from like, hi, guys. I only bench. But when you're on that, when you're in that £500 club, there is a difference. And that's the one thing you can kind of like give them the look. And I was up on there for Farmers Walk, and I was up on there for that and combined total lifts. I was in the, I was in the, the one ton. I was in the conversation. But again, those of people who have never seen big E etor bench press, it's just not fair. And with your slingshot, it should be illegal. Like, it's just not. It's just not. You haven't lived to see the guy just throw 575 pounds up and just do it like it was nothing. And it was. And then when he, he only had to do one rep because no one was catching him. I was second with 505. But the reason, oh, no. Yeah, I'm 505. So Ryback was at 502 pounds on his max. Big deal. Six weeks to get there. He comes in, he's got his collar up, he's playing his favorite song. He's got, he's, I, I, I begged. I think he might have been oiled up as well. I think he had the Gl. I think he was there to make a statement because he was going to go from 495 to over 500 and move into the lead, into second place, which Silver. Just not bad. And he did it. And when he did it, he hopped up and he did the same shit again. He gave me the smirk. Now, I was not scheduled that. I was not scheduled that day to bench press. I was there to do overhead. And I had finished my overhead. And I was just kind of waiting to. Because we usually would hang out for hours after the workout, you know, blow fireworks up in the back or what, whatever. Stupid shit, you know, we were trying to do and solve the world problems. Tell no one, you know, our stuff. And I just got up and said, rob, can you put two and a half on there? And Rob was like, no warmup. And I was like, no, I'm good. I warmed up, I did this, and I did it. So where I was two and a half pounds above Ryback, and I still have the video. I tried to inspire my son, but that's a whole other thing. And one shot, boom, up. Done. Did it, Ed. I sat up and looked at him, and I gave him the smirk. Ryback stands up and says, I will never come back here again. I'm done. I'm done. You've walked into my home, you sat at my dinner table, you kissed my wife on the forehead, and you started raising my children under your moral code. I'm out of here. I will never return. And he got to the door, and it was Etor and myself and Rob, we're all laughing like, come on, man. It's cool. It's cool. And he's like, I'm still the strongest white man in here of all time. And he walked out of there, and we were like. And we could not stop laughing. And Ryback is the salt of the earth. He's one of the greatest dudes ever. But those rivalries, I will live to the day I die. Now, here's the thing. Was I the top guy in the thing? No. Because then Biggie got on there and did it for three reps. So you know what I'm saying? You never. That's the thing about the jungle. You're never the lord of it. But those. Those. The way you push each other in there for that extra step and that competition, sometimes you can't. This is the one place where anybody could do that. You know, any group of guys can get together or ladies and work out and train together. You don't have to put up £700. And you can literally be who you guys are all doing 145. But whoever did 146, like, that's the one thing about this, that it. You don't have to be a genetic freak to do it.

[Mark Bell]

And there's, you know, there's tons of genetic freaks.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, that will be. Yeah, that will let you know.

[Mark Bell]

But you're. You're right. And that's what makes powerlifting special. I mean, you know, if someone just continues to make progress and even. Let's just say that someone just holds onto their strength. So let's just. Let's just say you're talking about a female and we're talking about a girl being able to deadlift, say, 275. Right. And over time, let's say they make. Well, 275. Deadlift is awesome for a female. That's amazing. For, for powerlifting terms and like winning like a powerful championship. You're not going to win any Power Championships deadlifting 275 as a FEMA. But if you just hold on to that strength and you hold on to that strength when you're 40 and you hold on to that strength when you're 50. Now we're really starting to talk about something. If you deadlift £300 and you're a 50 year old female. Holy.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Mark Bell]

Or what about, what about if you're a dude and you're 50 and you're still able to deadlift 500 pounds? Even just having the capacity to do some of these things, and I'm not even saying that the average person needs to even really worry about those bigger numbers, but I'm just saying like the, the weights, we get desensitized to the weights because we listen to and hear from some of the absolute strongest monsters, really put a lot of time into it for the most part. But there's. If you just think about, you know, if you think 100 pounds isn't that heavy, then just think about 100 pound dumbbell. You know, if you, if you think about like £100 on a bar, you're thinking, yeah, I've seen a lot of people move £100 on a bar like a bunch of different ways. But as soon as you put it in dumbbell form now it's pretty heavy. Or as soon, as soon as you put it into like a sandbag. 100 pound. How about a 200 pound? A 200 pound sandbag?

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Mark Bell]

Somebody starts moving around a two or 300 pound sandbag. I mean we're, you start moving around 300 pound sandbag and you're really talking about somebody that's unique and somebody that definitely possesses a lot of strength. And so there's so many different ways to lift and there's so many different things to enjoy that I think that if you throw in a little, if you do a little bit of bodybuilding, you do a little bit of powerlifting and you have some movement practices that keep you young and that kind of keep you in the realm of being an athlete and being able to still kind of move sort of quickly for you, whatever that means, I think you're onto something. I think you nailed down most of, most of what you need to kind of live out. Because what happens is there's a lot of people that are living out the rest of their life and they're not able to do a lot of things they enjoy, right? Like, oh, I'm fine. But then, you know, you just heard them a few minutes earlier talk about how they can't play tennis anymore.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Mark Bell]

And you're like, you love tennis for 20 years. Now you can't play anymore. Now you can't even play pickleball because your shoulder or because your knee, you're like, man, that. It'd be cool if you could get back to that. And just by doing some of what I just mentioned, I think you can get back there. I have created the most advanced AI soldier.

[Tyrus]

The wait is over. Tron Air now streaming on Disney plus.

[Mark Bell]

We are looking for something, something you've discovered.

[Tyrus]

Give me something to believe.

[Mark Bell]

And some of us will stop at nothing to get it ready.

[Tyrus]

The countdown is complete.

[Mark Bell]

There's no going back.

[Tyrus]

Our directive is clear. Hang on. Tron Ares now streaming on Disney plus. Rated PG 13. Now I want one of the things you said 50. And that sticks out to me because. And I don't, you know, and I. You, you're super. People don't know you're a super humble guy. Like you're absolute super humble guy. But you personally changed my life forever. And one of the reasons why I was been so excited about having you on is I want to talk to you about steak and shake because, oh yeah, you, this, this changed my life. And I'm telling you right now, I hate whey. I hate protein shakes. I've always hated them. I could build a small castle with canisters of half used protein. And when I was going through, I guess I was actively depressed. I'm just working, grinding and not really taking care of myself in terms of I'd still go in the gym and I was lifting heavy, but I was always hurting afterwards or you know, it's just. And I'm gaining weight and, and I was not doing enough to burn anything. Now I still had the strength, but I had no real. I started having health issues with being out of breath all the time, back hurt all the time. Real lethargic in the gym, started finding excuses. I pull up in the parking lot, there'd be two extra cars in there and I'd be like, it's crowded. I'll just, you know, come back tomorrow. You know, I started realizing that like I was not happy. The, the weight was starting to just. I wasn't able to just burn the weight anymore. I lost a step as an athlete, maybe two. And it was just a real moment of, well, I'm just not gonna lift anymore because I'm not going to be in there with with five pound dumbbells. You know what I'm saying? I'm not working out like them. My whole life I'm, I'm, I intimidated those guys in the gym. I don't want to be like them. I'm not going to, you know, ride the bike for an hour and stuff like that. And I watched your transformation and you know, it was like simple things like walking and hitting the heavy bag and lots of reps and talking about the diet. But the biggest thing was you talked about it openly. And a lot of people don't realize they see these big strong guys, but we're insecure about some stuff. And one of the things is losing a step, afraid of that strength. Losing that strength because that strength is your identity. People look at you and like, oh, look at him. Look at the size of that guy. He's just. It's almost like a, it's like a shield, you know. And now they don't know that like you're in the gym and you no longer can do the reps you used to do or the pain that came afterwards. So I had, and the weight I was up to, I think it was 400. And I sneaked, snuck up back to 400, around 47 pounds. I also noticed that my, my son was gaining a lot of weight and I was like, I have to do something about this. And I had two friends had died from heart issues. One from the bodyguard world and he was, he was obese and one from the wrestling world and he was shredded. But ironically their, their weight difference was only about £20, you know, and that was like. And I realized that like both heaviness still hurts your heart, so there has to be something. And diets didn't really work after the COVID vaccine. I won't take another shot again, you know, because all the ozempic was out. And I'm like, well that's a quick fix. It's not going to change what my problem is. And I started, I saw this and when I saw that you used organs and you, you know, the, the count organs and the, and the, the, everything you list in here because you're, you have integrity. So everything you list on here, I, I'm like, this is, this is the real deal. Because we know way pretty much all whey is the same, comes from the same place, pretty much has got a lock on it. Not only did this taste delicious, which a lot of people will be like, why is that a big deal? It is a big deal when you, when one of your issues is Food. So if something tastes good and reminds you of something like this tastes like chocolate. It tastes like chocolate milk. Basically. It's a. There's no aftertaste.

[Mark Bell]

So is that a steak shake or is that the total carnivore shake?

[Tyrus]

This one's. This one's total carnivore. Yeah, but it's the steak. Yeah. Total carnivore. I just adore it. There's no other way. So I've probably. And you've. Because I have like three subscriptions. I have one for my son, one for me and one for my house. But one of the things. And I'm gonna send you, I think I've sent you before, which take a picture every morning doing our shakes together. And we've probably been doing it now for almost. I want to say it's getting on around, getting close to two years. My son, who plays baseball and stuff, when he started, he was around, I think it was 300 and he had got. He was like £340. And he's well under that 300 pound mark now, but awesome. I'm noticing his. In his workout and he's training and he's on the. He's on the grasshopper end of powerlifting. But because of, of what I've learned from watching you, we've incorporated some of the little stuff, you know, so it's like, it's like where I took the information and I'm passing it forward, but I go through, I think every 10 days a new bag. So. And one of the things. And I'm literally. I love taking a picture of the empty bag and sending it to my son. Because when I, when people ask me, like, listen, I will tell you right now, it is hard to stay committed to something when the other pressures from the easier way are always there. I don't. One of the nice things about being on this for so long, I really don't have much of a. A craving that crave, you know, that

[Mark Bell]

bowl of cereal, sweet tooth kind of thing.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, I like. And I didn't. And I didn't realize when it happened. It wasn't until I went. I took my kids to the movies maybe a few weeks ago and I went in there and I hadn't been in the movies in forever. And my go to was I used to get a giant. The, the slushie, the frozen Junior Mints and Red Vines. That's my go to. I got a bottle of water. Didn't even think about it, you know. And like halfway through the movie, I, I just instinctively were watching Avatar and it was longish. It was just. It was one of those things were like, man, I'm getting hungry in here. But as I have nothing for me to eat there, so I'm good. But what made you come up with this? Because you really thought outside of the box with this.

[Mark Bell]

Yeah, everything. Everything I've ever made is a byproduct of me picking up stuff along the way. The Slingshot is very similar. The original steak shake, which has whey protein, egg protein, collagen and beef protein, that was a byproduct of me picking up some information along the way that the most biologically available amino acids come from whey protein. And then the second most bioavailable is egg, and the third most is. Is. Is beef. And I was like, when I have a supplement company, someday I'm going to throw all that stuff together because I don't see anybody else doing it. And it's going to make a big difference. It's going to be really helpful. And then also along the way, I learned about liver, kidney, heart, spleen, pancreas. I've learned a lot of things about. And people, people think this is garbage and they don't think that this is true. But I actually do think that it's very true. I think that, like, helps, like, I think stuff for your heart helps your heart.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Mark Bell]

There's some evidence of this. The Indians used to kind of believe in this CoQ10 like it's in your heart and it happens to be very healthy for your heart. Anyway, that aside, when I wanted to make a protein shake, I was like, I want to throw in these micronutrients because the micronutrients are just as important as the macronutrients. So if you think about every single day you're kind of filling up these cups. One cup that you need to fill up too is to be outside. Another cup is probably some form of exercise, right? So you have like four or five cups that you have to fill up. And if these cups aren't full, you're going to feel exhausted, you're going to feel overwhelmed, you're going to feel stressed, you're going to end up stress eating, you're going to end up doing all these things. And you need your macronutrient cup full and your micronutrient cup full. When those things are full, then it's just easier to get everything else done. The steak shake basically has. It basically is like a multivitamin. It's a souped up multivitamin because liver is Like God's gift to us as a multivitamin, but that has other organs titrated in there as well. And now what I need to be transparent about is I wasn't able to, like, put in, you know, giant amounts of it because it's just going to taste horrific, right? It's going to taste awful. And I'm actually glad that it worked out that way, because titrating those nutrients into your diet, I think is better anyway. And as I started learning more stuff along the way, I was like, oh, my God. And the same thing happens with the slingshot a lot where I'm like, man, that darn thing just ended up being a really, really good idea.

[Tyrus]

It is that I go to gyms across the country and it's there, and I'm like, you know? And I'm like, I know that guy, you know, and it's. It's. It's. It's really cool. It's cool, you know, and for those people who have never experienced, basically, it takes all the. The slingshot takes all the pressure off your shoulders and back. And I know as I got older, in. In terms of muscle, just wear and tear, I was having horrible pains in my shoulders after benching. And a lot of times I. I stopped, like, lifting, like, the bench, because I'd be like, once I get around 470, I'm, like, feeling a pinch here, I'm feeling a pinch here, and I'm just, you know, and it's. And it's. It's the point where you're like. And then afterwards, you know, you. You're just sore as shit for two days. So I started to tap out from lifting that way instead of trying to find another way. And then, literally, because you had gifted me a few years back a bunch of slingshots and stuff, I had found them in a box, and I started using the slingshot again when I was lifting, and instantly just the. The wear and tear. But then eventually whatever was clicking down there healed up. And then I had to deal with some flexibility issues, which I was working on. But I started watching a lot of your stuff, and, like, one of the. You. You were making walking fun. You were, like, hitting the heavy bag. You were working out with lightweights, high intensity. And I was like, well, if. And I swear, it's as silly as that. Well, if. If Mark's doing it, then I can do it. You know, like, if he's. If he's going to do it, then it's okay if I do it, you know, because you're you're, you were a big, physical guy. And what'd you get to your heaviest?

[Mark Bell]

My heaviest was 330 pounds and my heaviest, strongest weights that I lifted, I squatted 1080.

[Tyrus]

Yep.

[Mark Bell]

I bench pressed 854 and I deadlifted 766. All those numbers were done with powerlifting gear. So I wore like a bench shirt. I wore a squat suit. So that's why those numbers are as high, as high as they are. But one thing I want to mention there, I feel like I was put on this earth. Like, you try to, you try to figure out your life's purpose. As we age, you kind of try to figure out, like, why the hell am I here? Type thing and why are we here? And all I could come up with is that, you know, I feel like I'm put on this earth to make the world a better place to lift. That's a quote that my brother actually came up with. But when he and I talk about that and I start to think about that a little bit more, making the world a better place to lift. I'm trying to make things easier for everybody. And when I learn information about how three 10 minute walks a day can really change someone's life, it can literally, whether you agree or disagree, I mean, from a scientific standpoint, it can literally have huge impact on your blood glucose levels, on your blood pressure, on your circulation. It even beat Metformin, I believe, which is one of the most prescribed pharmaceuticals for people that have diabetes. It even beat that. In terms three ten minute walks versus Metformin. The three ten minute walks were more effective. And so that's how powerful some of these things are. And I'm like, I need to share this with people. Some of this stuff is so simple to do that there's no reason to at least try it.

[Tyrus]

Right?

[Mark Bell]

And when it comes to something like hitting a heavy bag, you know, you don't have to be Mike Tyson, but

[Tyrus]

just, it's just a movie.

[Mark Bell]

Left, right, left, right, oh, two left, two rights. You know, just mix it up, have some fun. If you don't, if you don't like that, if you, if you're like, I'm not going to go hit a heavy bag, go shoot some hoops, grab a basketball, you know, throw a basketball up in the air. You think you don't want to do that, Grab some tennis balls and start trying to juggle them outside or something

[Tyrus]

like catch with your kid with baseball.

[Mark Bell]

Yeah, 100%. Find some stuff. Yeah, go, go.

[Tyrus]

And that stuff is free. And most People who are in the industry are not going to give you things to do that don't cost anything. They'd be like, it would be something like you got to do three 10 minute walks, but you got to monitor it with this awesome bracelet. This bracelet is retailed at 1995. You know what I'm saying? Like, there's. And this is just. I do this and like, I. That's the thing. I, I think I'm respect about you the most. I've never seen you push something that you don't do.

[Mark Bell]

Right. I feel that I've been blessed, too. I feel like I, you know, started out on the track of life. I grew up with amazing parents. We. We grew up in a religious household. I, I feel like, I just feel like I grew up ahead. I feel like I grew up blessed, and I feel like I'm in a position to share with people. And not everything I say has to be about money. Of course I want people to buy the steak shake. Of course I want to make more money just like anybody else. It's great to make money and to have conveniences and all those things, but I also want people to experience the steak shake because it tastes so damn good. And we make a lot of different flavors of it, and I really believe in it. And something that helps me, I drink it twice every single day. And I've been drinking protein shakes. I mean, I started lifting when I was like about 12, started drinking protein shakes at like 14. So I've been counting protein shakes for like 30 years. It's been part of my routine anyway. And then when I had the opportunity to make one, and that one right there that you're holding, the Total Carnivore Steak Shake, it actually has beef protein isolate and collagen in it. And we removed the reason why there's no egg in it, and the reason why there's no whey in there is we removed all of the potential allergens that someone might have because people are allergic to all kinds of stuff. But sometimes people have an issue with egg, sometimes people have an issue with dairy. And so we just pulled everything out of there all the way to the point where some people are like, hey, what's up with these natural flavors? Hey, what's up with. Well, I can't make something taste good. I can't make something out of nothing. So there's not all the ingredients in there may be 100% compliant to everyone's diet all the time, but. But we also do make ones that are unflavored as well. And then you can pick whatever you feel is like the best option for you with. Some people are like, I don't like stevia or I don't like monk fruit or whatever. And they can kind of do whatever they want with it. But I just want to provide people with stuff that makes things easier. That's what the slingshot does. That's what my knee sleeves do. That's what the steak.

[Tyrus]

I. I do not function without my knee and elbow sleeves. I could. I could. So. And when you came out with the short ones, man, Raw sleeves. Yeah. Oh, man. Just. I wrestled in them. Like, I. My entire career. I had slingshots on. I won. When I won my first title, the big elbow drop had the slingshot elbow drop on it. And I think it's nice to see somebody that you in the same circle continue to grow. But your stuff has really helped a lot of, I think more so towards the twilight of your career, extending it and also extending your athletic life after competition.

[Mark Bell]

That's why I still do this stuff. Because I. To some. To some, I love it. Right? I do. I do love it. I love sharing the information, but to some extent, I hate it. You know, I made a post the other day and someone blew up on me, like, you didn't tag me. So I contact the guy and we go back and forth. And anyway, I'm just like, you know what? I'm doing this. This is a service to other people, and I'm trying to put a spotlight. It wasn't like I tried to steal the guy's information. I showed the guy on the screen. I showed, like, who it was.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Mark Bell]

I just simply forgot to tag, like, the actual content creator, which was my bad in some ways. But at the same time, so many people tagged him in the comment section, so he won. Anyway, things went to him anyway. And again, what I'm trying to do is I feel like I've been provided some really great things. I've been. I've had some amazing opportunities, and I feel like whatever light is shining on me, I'm just trying to be a little bit like the moon. I'm just trying to reflect it right, you know, back to other people and to try to put a little spotlight on other people. Because there's a lot of great people have a lot of great information, and there's a lot that we can gather. And if we only hear it from, you know, one white dude that grew up in New York that thought he was dumb, then that's only going to give us so many people that are going to want to do it, right? We need to hear from someone who's black. We need to hear from someone who's Chinese. We need to hear from somebody, somebody that maybe looks a little bit more like whatever person is that needs to be inspired. Because we know that all the guy podcasts and all that, right? Podcasts have been real popular for men for many, many years, and it took like maybe 15 years or so for women to now have really popular podcasts. But the women aren't gonna. Women do look up to Joe Rogan, but they're gonna look up to other women, right? We're going to look at people that look like us, they represent us in a particular way. And so that's what my mission is, is to kind of ping pong this stuff around and give as many people credit as I can possibly do.

[Tyrus]

So now that you have encompassed in a completely different lifestyle and your body has completely changed, how has it been, has it been difficult to maintain?

[Mark Bell]

You know, it's, it is like spinning a lot of plates. You know, maintaining, like being very, very lean can be pretty hard. Like right now I'm like, very hungry and I still have like another workout that I want to do in a little bit, so it can be annoying. But if I think back to when I was fat, I was hungry anyway. And that's why I tell a lot of guys that are big. I'm like, dude, you're 300 pounds right now, or you're 400 pounds right now. How hungry are you? They're like, oh, dude, I'm hungry all the time. You can be hungry at 200 or you can be hungry at 400, you know?

[Tyrus]

Yeah, you know, it's just. And. But at least when you're hungry at 200, you're not going with all the medical stuff that happens. And, and you know what? And it's not easy to say when you're have the, when you're squatting a thousand pounds to call yourself fat. That's not an easy thing to say because at the time when you were doing it, if somebody said that there was a good chance they could end up going through a window, you know.

[Mark Bell]

Yeah, but I was also just. I was also very unhealthy, you know, and that's. And I was aware, like, I knew, I knew that, like, I knew I went too far, you know, Getting up to 250, 262, I realized that like 270 isn't good for like my blood pressure, you know what I mean? And I realized that I did push it to an extreme. And for me personally, the good thing about the way that I did it was that I realized this has a timeline and you. You better get out of it. But the heart, it was hard to get out of it. It was really hard. It's not like I was like, oh, I got knowledge on bodybuilding and I'm just gonna start dieting tomorrow and I'm gonna be. Took me like 10 years to really not not only, like, lose the weight, but to sort of. It took me longer than that, actually. It took me more like. It took me until like, modern day.

[Tyrus]

Because it. It's a mindset.

[Mark Bell]

Change, slay the dragon. I couldn't kill off. I couldn't kill off the bad habits. I still would eat in the middle of the night and all kinds of stuff.

[Tyrus]

Take us, like, just for people who are. What's a typical workout day, food day for you?

[Mark Bell]

Like, I. I'm a big believer in something called protein leveraging.

[Tyrus]

Okay.

[Mark Bell]

Because when you. So you hear people, protein, protein. But when you do eat more protein, it will drive down your hunger levels. Remember I talked about those cups being full earlier? All your macronutrients are important. So it's not like protein's the only important one. But being protein focused will cost you less. Meaning, like, eating a little extra protein is not going to contribute to you gaining a lot more fat. Something that people might not know because sometimes we get a little carb phobic. The same thing is kind of true with carbohydrates. A big problem is when we overdo fat and carbohydrates, especially if we do them together, because then it kind of overrides your hunger signals. So to answer your question more directly, every morning I have a steak shake, and every evening I have a steak shake. And that makes. That kind of sets up the rest of the day and makes everything so much easier because I have those two kind of pillars. This morning, this morning I had a banana in the steak shake as well. So sometimes it will be more than just the steak shake. Sometimes it'll be like, I do that too.

[Tyrus]

I'll throw a banana. And like, if I know I got a long day and so I'll pop. I'll throw the banana in there. Yep.

[Mark Bell]

Yeah. A little extra energy. And then, you know what I'll have, you know, I'll eat maybe two or three sort of more foolish meals. And those meals are, they're fairly protein heavy. Maybe 50 grams of protein. 50, 60 grams of protein. And maybe 50 or 60 grams of carbohydrates, and that's usually about it. And then I. I just like yourself and just like a lot of people listening. I love sweets and I love stuff. I love food. I love real food. I love steak. I love ground beef. I love fish. I love all that stuff. But I also love a bunch of. That's not real food.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Mark Bell]

So, like, I like the food pyramid. Yeah. I still eat, like legendary foods. They have like, those donuts. I try to make room for stuff like that because it makes. It makes getting through the day and it gives me something to look forward to. It just makes it so much easier. So I literally take legendary donuts and I dip them in the steak shake, and it's like, it's a meal.

[Tyrus]

Have you had. I'm sure you have, but I've made steak shake. Ice cream.

[Mark Bell]

Yeah, exactly.

[Tyrus]

I mean, that's me and my son's things. We make a shake and it's not a shake in the terms of like, if you went to Baskin Robbins, because it's just ice water. I will take a. A half teaspoon of peanut butter and a half banana. Throw it in there. Two scoops. Blend it up. Straw. Phenomenal. Like, phenomenal. Like, Sonic's ain't got on our. And then the whole time we're having the shake in my. The difference. And my son looks at it like, I'm get having something that's sweet, but it's also good for me at the same time. So I'm winning. So our game is, is this good for me? So when something like, oh, hey, you want a Snickers bar? Is that good for me right now? You know, and. Or, you know, a bunch of going out to a restaurant and understanding that an appetizer is a meal.

[Mark Bell]

Well, how cool is it that you can go to just about any. You can go to any convenience store now and again, these are still highly processed foods, but you go to any convenience store now, and instead of the Snickers bar, you can get a Quest bar. Yeah, like, whatever bar. You know, like, fine, maybe. Maybe you don't love all the different ones there that are there. But, like, you'll probably find one that you like.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, Quest bar for me is the lemon one. Like, I keep one in my bag for emergencies. Especially like when you're in situations where you know it's going to be bad food. And one thing about being fat is you're an expert on the whereabouts of bad food. You know what I'm saying? It's like you're turning against the community, you know, because you're leaving the fat community. But you know all the tricks of the trade. So you're like an expert. Like, I would never, you know, ask somebody who's, who's been fit their whole life, like, what do you do to keep losing weight? No, no, you. Whatever reason you were genetically engineered, without the, the, the burden of overeating or retaining or just so I always. When you know what it is, it's a lot easier to fight it.

[Mark Bell]

And you mentioned, you mentioned something earlier about fatigue and how, like, you know, you can bench, you know, over 500 pounds, but you're fatigued.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Mark Bell]

It takes the, that top end off. Right. And we need to do that with our hunger. So if you're a big guy, you know where all the in and outs are and you know where jack and box is and you know where all these things are. But in order to be less fat, as I like to call it, have an orange in your bag, have a protein bar in your bag, carry around some protein powder, carry around a shaker cup.

[Tyrus]

I have your little travel bags. They saved me this tour because I finished my bag on tour and I had two days and I was like, wait. And I went into my suitcase and I looked in the back and I was like, ha, ha. I got my little portables, so the little tiny ones, so. But again, that goes. The same planning I used to use in sneak eating, I now use to be healthy. I use the same powers I. Because I used to do things like, I don't know, hide a lemon meringue pie in the back of the fridge, you know, and, you know, or whatever, or accidentally order an extra two or three quarts of daiquiri ice ice cream from Baskin Robbins. But it's daiquiri ice. There's no milk in there. So it's fine to eat the entire thing while I watch Oak Island. No, it's fine. It's absolutely fine.

[Mark Bell]

On that same note, though, you know, when someone does, when someone is thinking about, like, doordash and some of these things, I realize that there's no replacement for you ordering cookies at like 2 in the morning. I get it.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Mark Bell]

You're going to have to try to have yourself not be awake at 2 in the morning. Like, there's certain things you're going to have to probably just try to avoid. But something to keep in mind with something like doordash or something like going to a restaurant when I was really heavy, when I found a restaurant that I liked and I found a meal that I liked that was fairly healthy. Like, it doesn't always have to be, like a hundred percent locked in. Like, this is the healthiest thing ever. Some of the things I was eating, they were. They were over. They were over my calories and stuff like that. You know, I'm not a big calorie counter, but they were definitely calorically dense. But when I went somewhere and I had a really good ribeye, I'd order, like, two of them, right? Sounds. Which sounds like, oh, that's probably not a good idea for a guy that's big. But at least I'm still eating, like, stuff that's, like, more like on my plan right now in a ribeye might be an extreme example just because of the amount of calories in there.

[Tyrus]

But no, it's like, if I go. If I. Like this weekend, when we went to. Because we were on, I was touring. I was in Michigan and Indiana, St. Louis and a couple other places. And a lot of times after the show, you know, some of the guys are hungry. And when it came time to eat, you know, I. Whenever I have certain meals that I've picked out that I know that I can manipulate. Like, it's the fiesta chicken, Fiesta lime chicken, which is a chicken breast. And you just say, no cheese, no rice. Can I just get extra chicken breast and the lime Applebee's, right? Yeah, yeah, Applebee's. Yeah, yeah. Chili's is. Chili's is the fajita. Can't go wrong with the feed. I get the steak, chicken and shrimp fajita.

[Mark Bell]

No, it's the same stuff I used to do. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Tyrus]

And you just. And then, you know, you just like the corn tortilla or the. I don't need it. I'm good. Sour. I'm good. And then you just kind of get into an appetizer. No, I'm good. Because appetizers, the whole meal, like, is what it is. Like, we're programmed to be just to be fat slobs. I mean, I can say it because I did it because we are convinced that the only time you can celebrate your family is around a table of food. The only time you can tell your wife you love her is by taking out the dinner. And what a table of food, you know, it's gonna be harmful.

[Mark Bell]

That'd be harmful food.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, always is. You know, and then you look at some of this stuff, and I was like, there. And they keep coming up with it. Like, I gotta be honest, I thought they'd run out of Bad ideas. But I think it was it Applebee's. Applebee's, yeah, it was Applebee's. Because I was looking at the menu with the stuff I used to dance with. You know, it's like looking at a. You're getting pictures of your old ex girlfriends and when you were with them, you thought they were pretty. But then when you're looking at the pictures, you're like, damn, like, that wasn't me. I wasn't me. I was done. That couldn't have been me. But they have a cheeseburger now with four different cheeses and it comes dipped in cheese.

[Mark Bell]

I saw a commercial for that and

[Tyrus]

I was like, that is the most fat, tacular thing I've ever seen in my life. And I'm glad that I'm not that dude anymore. I mean, he's still there. He obviously recognized it on the menu. So I felt his presence, but he's not making a comeback. The 400 pound gorilla staying in his cage. But I just remember looking, going like, man, I'm disgusted by this. I'm like, look at all this cheese. Like, this is. How is this good for anybody? And I had to catch myself because in the past I'd ordered two.

[Mark Bell]

It's, you know, you got to kind of view all this as like, It's a funny, funny thing to equate it to, but view it all as like masturbation.

[Tyrus]

Yeah. No, no.

[Mark Bell]

What happens after you masturbate? Especially if you're like watching porn, you, like kind of feel guilty and you're like, dirty.

[Tyrus]

Especially if there's a mirror. If there's a mirror anywhere around you when you turn and look, oh, why did I do this to myself? Yeah, 100%, it's the same.

[Mark Bell]

So you need to figure out a way to get rid of that kind of animalistic feeling that you have for that hunger.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, I always go back to dodgeball when he's assaulting himself with pizza. I never got to that point to where I was shoving hot pizza down my crotch to teach me a lesson not to eat. But you do need to be able to openly talk about it. And I think that's the thing for me was in the case of you, and I can remember you were giving me very supportive messages and stuff like. And then you'd be like, hey, I'm a little worried about, you know, you're eating your. Don't go too wild. Like, hey, take times. It's a super. It was a Super Bowl. You said, have some wings. You know, like, have some wings. Don't go nuts, you know, but just have some wings. Be normal, you know? And I was. And I appreciate that because I think I was like, I got my protein shakes and this, that, whatever. And I think I was down like 75 pounds. And you're like, hey, what's going on with your weight? And this, that, whatever. And you're like, do me a favor. This weekend, just eat some wings, you know? Because I was like, yeah, it's a Super Bowl. I don't know what I'm gonna do. And this, that, whatever. Because I got to dinner, I ain't figured out yet. And it was just great, sound advice. And also at the same time was like, you still can be. There's not. One meal is not going to ruin whatever you're trying to do. It's not going to be one thing that sets you back. It's going to be you doing a lot of little things that end up turning you back to where it's like, I'll do. I'll do wings here. And then. Well, he said I could have wings here. So then next Saturday, you know what? I'm going to have wings and I'm going to get the funnel cake, you know, and then just, you know, and then next thing you know, you're sitting at a table at Applebee's with two double dip cheeseburgers with onion rings and chicken fajita. Like, I would just look at all the. Because you. I used to get, like, appetizers for the table. You know, like, you. The overeating, the over mass consumption of just. You're just putting in your mouth, and then you keep half of it and you. The rest out.

[Mark Bell]

It's the same thing with your buddy that wants to just get completely hammered.

[Tyrus]

Yeah. Yeah. It's. Yeah.

[Mark Bell]

Makes no sense, dude. Like, I. Look. Okay, let's have a couple drinks. Yeah, that's great. Have a couple. You know, if you can handle alcohol, you have a couple drinks and puts you in a better spot, puts you in a good mood. Hey, let's go. Let's go to dinner and we'll. We'll eat some. We'll eat a couple things that are, like, not that healthy for us. Like, it's kind of fun, but you turn it into, like, a giant event

[Tyrus]

and you turn it into.

[Mark Bell]

That's hard to overcome. One thing I can tell people about this is you can still eat some junks. Junky stuff like I suggested to you with the. With the wings, but try to, like, try to, like, frontload yourself with some healthy food.

[Tyrus]

Before. Yeah.

[Mark Bell]

You go to barbecue before you go to whatever thing. That way it's like, okay, you tried to only eat like, like six wings, but you're a big guy. You're not going to ever only eat six wings and you ate 12. So what? You didn't eat 60 of them.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Mark Bell]

You know what I mean? You didn't have the ribs and you didn't eat a bunch of other stuff and you didn't go off the rails because before you got there you had some chicken and some rice.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Mark Bell]

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[Tyrus]

Well, here's the thing, thing about the, the shake, which is if I know I'm going to have a, like a long day, I'll do two scoops in the morning and then I'll either, I'll either. What I've been doing because I'm on, on the road so much here in New York is pretty much I have three meals a day, two or shakes and one solid. And I just try whether it's going to be lunch, it's never breakfast. That's one thing I, and I loved breakfast. No one loves pancakes and all scrambled eggs, almost all more than I do. Giving that up was difficult. But I, I also found that on an empty stomach, I trained better. I was more alert because I'm, my body's looking for something. So. And the, I drink the shake and I wouldn't be hungry. What ended up happening to me was I noticed that everything consumption wise. And I'm curious if you experienced this when you were, when you went from such a large size to a stream to where everything became smaller. Even like beers, like just having a beer at the thing. I wouldn't finish it anymore. You know, I was always, I was a social drinker, but I was never like, never a guy who came home and like did like in the movies where I'd pour, I wish I was that cool to where I have my buddies over and I go over to the bar and pour a giant thing of scotch and sip on it like tap water. I wish I could do that. I would be like oh. Oh, this is. Oh, yeah. And then four hours later, I'd still be holding the glass just to.

[Mark Bell]

Why in the movies, is it always scotch? Like, everything?

[Tyrus]

Yeah. Like, it's always like, who are these people? What do you eat to prepare yourself to drink Scotch? Like water? Because I can't do it. I won't even try anymore. I'll be the first one. Like, look, if you need to put some Diet Coke in that or something, or something twist the lime, something. Because I can't do it. But I just noticed across the board, my consumption on everything just changed. And I don't know if it's that just the. The beef element to it that just makes me. I just have. I don't feel the. The bloating. And a lot of times the protein shakes, like, I was on ISO pure forever. ISO pure was. I never really liked the. The aftertaste always bothered me. But it was like, it's ISO pure. And I would read all the stuff in the back. But, hey, this is about as lean and clean as I can get. Problem was, it never did anything for my hunger. So I would drink an Isopure shake, and then 10 minutes later, I'm starving, you know, and then you're like, well, it was only 150 calories, so I can just go eat something. So now I'm front loading. I'm basically having a protein shake before I go eat and then eat a bunch of shit. So by the time I'm done with my first meal of the day, I'm probably a biscuit under 2,000 calories. And I didn't even started my day yet. You know, I haven't even. I haven't done yet. So I'm already behind the eight ball.

[Mark Bell]

You know, steak shake has fat in it, you know, so it's. Most protein shakes. Well, a lot of protein shakes on the market, they have just, like, fat in them randomly because there's some tiny amount of fat that comes from milk protein. The steak. Steak shake strategically has fat in it. So the actual steak shake and then the one that you drink, the total Carnivore, the total carnivore one has a beef tallow in it. So you're getting beef isolate, you're getting collagen protein. So you're getting again, filling up some of those cups for protein. And remember, protein leveraging protein will assist you when you eat protein on a consistent basis. And you kind of check that box for protein. Our body is actually. This is all living things. All living things are in search of protein. And if you don't get that amount of protein, you're going to just continue to eat. And so you'll never find the amount of protein that you need at the bottom of a bag of Doritos or at the bottom of a thing in Ben and Jerry's. It just doesn't exist. And so you'll continue that a lot over consumption. A lot of times is because your body is searching for the right amount of amino acids. So you get it taken care of with the beef protein isolate and the collagen. But then you're also getting beef tallow in there. And each serving of the steak shake, depending on which flavor and which one you have, probably has about 4 or 5 grams of fat in it, which is not anything to be afraid of. It's actually just a. It's a perfect amount that supplements really well with about the 20 grams of protein that's in there.

[Tyrus]

Yeah. Because that's the one. The one thing I would say is that I'm probably after I have a shake, I have to remind myself at lunchtime, like, hey, hey, you gonna eat now or are you gonna eat, you know, at seven? Which one's it gonna be? And usually I prefer to eat at lunchtime. And then right before I finish my tea, I get done with tv, drink my shake, and I'm good, you know, and. And then I go back to the hotel. And my only rule is that I don't eat in my hotel room. Under no circumstances. You're not allowed to eat in a hotel room. So rules like that are great, you know, but my protein shakes there. So if it's real, if I'm having a bad moment, because I. And I only have a few choice, because I stay in the. The hotel I stay in, I have Golden Girls, Forensic Files or Murder, She Wrote. So if. If anything gets me particularly spiced up, you know, I'll just shake my shake. And then. And then. And I do notice that taking my shake it at night, I do sleep a lot deeper. I don't. Like I said, the biggest thing for me was always cravings. Because cravings would lead to deals I'd make in my head. I'd always be making deals with myself, like, oh, we'll do Taco Bell today, and we'll just won't do anything else this week and I won't eat tomorrow, which will then circumvent the heavy dose of shitty food I'm eating. But all that happens is he's just hungry afterwards. A couple hours. After fast food, you're always Hungry again and, and cutting out the fast food. Another thing I did was I don't have Uber Eats on my phone or Doordash or any of that shit old school. If you want to go get it.

[Mark Bell]

Everyone needs different, everyone needs different rules. You know, each person. Some people are going to be able to have Doordash on their thing with no problem, and other people are going to have to get rid of it. Everyone's going to have to decide, you know, what are these block. And it's hard because there's sometimes they're blind spots.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Mark Bell]

And you're not even really, you're barely thinking about it. I mean, you know that like, you know, ordering a bunch of cookies at like 2 in the morning is not good for you.

[Tyrus]

Yep.

[Mark Bell]

But at the same time, we, we all, you know, we all make mistakes, we all mess up. We all know we know better. And if you think about it, like, how many, how many days do you go through where you're perfect? You were perfect in your relationships?

[Tyrus]

I haven't had one yet.

[Mark Bell]

Yeah, you treated everybody really well. You know, if you're, if you're religious, your relationship with God is perfect. Like, you know, it's hard to be, it's hard to. We're not designed, we're not even designed to be perfect.

[Tyrus]

Right? Yeah.

[Mark Bell]

So you're gonna have duality every single day. And for some people, they're gonna have to have really strict rules about their food. And maybe over time they can, as they understand the rules more, maybe they can learn. Oh, it's okay for them to break the rules because it's a really, you know, if you're gonna go like, no carb, you know, it's, that's a, that's a, that's a good discipline. That's, that's not a bad thing to try for a while. And if you're able to do it and you're able to lose weight and you're able to have continued weight loss, I think then from there it's like, well, how do I eat a little bit more normal? How do I get in? Because I think the low carb diets and stuff, like not low carb, but no carb diet, I think can potentially lead to some, like insulin resistance can lead to some issues. So the main thing is to get the weight off. Figure out how do you get the weight off, whether it be the carnivore diet, paleo diet, bodybuilding style diet, does not matter what diet you choose, intermittent fasting doesn't matter what diet you choose. Choose one, stick to it, lose the weight. Once you made some progress and once you lost some weight, that's when you might want to think about a bunch of other interventions. And one last thing on this is that exercise helps tremendously with weight loss, but it only helps tremendously with weight loss over like a really long period of time.

[Tyrus]

Right. And there's exercising.

[Mark Bell]

Yeah, exercising here. And there isn't gonna. It's not gonna cut it. You actually would be better off just with honing in on for weight loss. Be better off honing in on your diet and walking, or honing in on your diet and riding your bike, or there's something really super casual. You don't have to try to jog, you don't have to try to lift. You don't have to do anything crazy in the beginning. Figure out a way to walk and. Or use an elliptical or whatever can fit you with where you're at now and to really concentrate on your nutrition.

[Tyrus]

So it's one of the things that my little tricks to trade is I usually. Depending on what day, whether it's a leg day or upper body or back day, I try to get in the gym four days a week, three guarantees, sometimes travel. But then I got to be, you know, just do weird little things. But the nice thing is if. When you are on tour like I was this week and the only gyms were Holiday Inn gyms. And sometimes, you know, they don't have a whole lot in there. But there was a bike in there, so I rode the bike for an hour. You know, there was a trebly other one, so I walked and they had some freeway, so I did the light. But you can find things. I'm like, look, as long as I'm moving around for the next hour, you know, And I got my little watch what keeps tracks of my steps, you know. So I'm still competing. I'm just competing with myself. And it's a lot of fun. You know, I get my little alarm like, boom, you hit your 7,000. That's my goal right now. 7,000 steps a day. That's. That's my goal. And whenever I travel, I knock it out pretty quick because at the airport, even to the point where they even have the nice little. The little runways where you can take a break. I don't with them anymore. I just keep. It's 30 yards, bro. Just. Just walk. Just walk, you know. And the. The lady comes up. They used to. I can remember when. I remember when I was so heavy how. And I had always been a Highly intelligent guy, but I would use my intelligence to help me maintain my fatness. Like, things. Things like, oh, there's the guy in the cart. And when he comes up, hey, want to write? Oh, why, sure. Absolutely. You know, instead of like, nah, bro, if anyone, you clearly see I need to walk. You know, it's just one of those things where you just, you have to. Once you wreck once, you can openly discuss your deficiencies as casually as you can discuss your successes, you're making the turn. Because before, I would never talk about it. It was just one of those things where if somebody brought it up, one of the nice things about being six, seven and a half and 400 pounds and giant arms and traps and stuff is people don't really bring up your shortcomings very much. If anything, they're like, oh, no, no, you're not fat. Oh, you're not fat. You're different. You're athletic. You got a big frame. You get this, you get that. No, no, I'm fat. I even said, you know, because they made a big deal on tv. I did the protein skit. I think I said it to you, where I ate the chicken on tv. And they were. A few weeks later, someone had come on, and I've been on the show for a while. And they were like, man, you've lost a lot of weight. You look great, you know, but you don't look like a person who lost weight. Like you maintaining your. You still have your muscle and stuff. And I said, well, yeah, but it's, it's not easy. I said, but here's the deal. I lost a hundred and twenty, thirty seven pounds. And every time I walk by the mirror, I'm still fat. So, you know, I got a little work to do. But it was like I, I was like, oh, I appreciate it. Thank you. Where in, in the past I would have heard that, mission accomplished, let's get a Sunday. Like, I can have a cheat day now. Like you would. It's a mental. It's so much more mental than it is physical. It's just. Even if you sit on the bike for the first week and just sit on it, you're not even doing. You're just there. You're making the time. Eventually you're going to make the best of your time. Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do the pedals, but it's just being in the moment and recognizing that I have to be better. And once you, I think once you can internalize and have a conversation like we're having right Now I think that means you. You're. You're on the right path of getting it beat because you can discuss it. I think whenever you can discuss something, it just gives you more power where before it's such a dirty secret. Yeah.

[Mark Bell]

What made you make the change?

[Tyrus]

My son gaining weight. I thought. I felt that was my fault. Another reason I lost buddy of mine. I bodyguarded for years with big strong guy. He. And he left three kids and his wife behind just on the job. Drop dead. Heart attack. And then. And he was. He was. He was a little taller than me. He was a little bigger than me, but not by much in terms of weight. And then the same thing happened in nwa we lost a guy I was very close to, and he was the pit of fitness. Him. Him and his wife, they powerlifted together. Like he was shredded. Absolutely shredded. When you. When you looked at him, you would not think that he had the. The same exact. Literally the same exact heart failure that my buddy did, who was basically six, nine and all stomach, you know. And then you had two different things. And I kind of looked at myself as something in the middle, you know, I could still flex like a Hulk, you know, but I still had a big gut. So I started thinking about my kids and that really scared me that I would not. I'm not gonna be there for them.

[Mark Bell]

And you work out with your son sometimes, right?

[Tyrus]

Yep. Yeah, when I can. Yeah. And. But we also, we. One of the reasons why, and it's from Hard Knock south, and it's from a lot of things that you also did with Slingshot and stuff, is I would post a lot of my videos. And it was a lot for me and the boys to be trying to one up each other. We post our videos and like, you did this. I did this. And then it was like when I started getting into lightweights, I didn't want to post any videos, you know, because of. And I was getting. I was like, oh, wow, that's 12 pound dumbbell. And you're doing your flies and you're this. And I'm doing super sets. And I started doing the inner wave. I think it's a lot of fun. Like, I've become a man. I don't know if you've tried the inner wave or not, but the long bands, it's. It's a lot. It. You just really get a core workout.

[Mark Bell]

It's like a battle rope, but.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, but it's just super crazy. Yeah. And it makes a cool. And it. It sounds like thunder. So I'm like You know, I'm, I'm think I'm, you know, it's just awesome. I like doing it because I'll see people looking. The only, only thing if I said anything is the ropes are really long. So you have to really be clever to where you hook it up. Unless you, you know, if your own personal gym. But it was just doing the movement stuff. And when I started posting that, at first I was especially hitting. I started getting messages from my buddies going, hey man, I appreciate that because I got to change the way I lift too. And when you first, the first six or seven weeks you do it, you don't see real results. You know, you don't. And then a year goes by and I just happen to be looking at videos and pictures because I started our, our journey started right around the time I had interviewed President or I had President Trump on the Gutfeld show. And I look at the pictures of me handing him the belt and I look at me now, it doesn't even look like the same human being because it's, it wasn't just losing weight because if you could, you could take a bunch of water pills, you could do all kinds of shit and for a month you could drop 30, 40 pounds. But you don't look like it's just a complete, like a complete change. You've completely changed. Your entire infrastructure of your body has completely changed. And I'm, I'm getting, I'm getting that morph. Like today before the show, I, I keep a scale in my office now and I only weigh in once a week because it's not, I'm not gonna, I don't want to see early success because early success leads to appetizers. So I just set in my mind we have a weekly weigh in and I stepped on today and I'm right. And I'm frustrated because I'm right at, I'm at 303 pounds. I'm so close to leaving that 300 pound mark. But like, I will not celebrate yet. That's not close. It has to be. I said I got to be 295 before I can say I'm out of the cause. I got to give myself room for error, you know, and then, then we'll reevaluate. But getting to that goal over the last month has been difficult because my weight loss has kind of slowed down a little bit. You know, at one point I was dropping like 5 pounds like every 10 days just because of the training and not eating clean. Eating clean, the fasting, getting, making sure I Get seven to eight hours sleep a night. Huge, huge difference. Turning the TV off. And I just noticed. But my body wasn't. A lot of people who lose weight especially. And again, I'm not against the shot. If you are £600, take the shot. Whatever side effects or whatever you're dealing with is way better than dying in your sleep or suffocating, you know, drowning in your own, in your lungs, fluid. So however you need to get there. But understand this, if you don't change, the shot's not going to make you not gain it back when you get off it, you know? So if you're going to do it, you do it right. But for me, I, like I said, I had some, I had some personal things to where I just, I was just. Even though I had all this success in terms of entertainment and business, I was not a happy person because every time I looked in the mirror, I just saw disappointment, you know? And it's hard for your family to support you because they want to love you no matter what, and you're unhappy with yourselves. But when someone else points it out, you become aggressive to them because you're really mad at yourself with your, with your. Because you, you have a very close family. You're a family guy. When you made that trans, was it a tough adjustment for your family? Because they're, it's one of those things where they mean well and sometimes like, they mean well. You've worked so hard. So I made you a pie. You know what I'm saying? Like, you, you know, and you're like, I don't want to eat the pie. Like, you know, and it's. But she made it with love, so I have to eat the pie and I can't just eat one because that's rude, you know?

[Mark Bell]

You know, I think interesting thing about that is, like, if, if anybody's ever fasted and tried to fast around other people, it makes the other people so uncomfortable.

[Tyrus]

Yes.

[Mark Bell]

Like, oh, man, I'm just gonna have iced tea. And like, you're out to dinner. So you got to kind of, I guess, like, pick and choose your battles and pick and choose. You know how there's, there's ways of doing a diet where you can be more camouflage. There's ways of doing a diet and still participating in family events. Like, just because you're on a particular diet doesn't mean that you don't. Doesn't mean you're like, need to be ostracized from the family.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Mark Bell]

Luckily, in my family, like, everyone gets it. We've all been into, like, lifting and stuff for a long time. My wife is jacked and tan, too. She's. She's in great shape, so she's always been super supportive. In fact, recently she's been making me. We call it monster mash. It's a creation of Stan Efforting. And basically, monster mash is just a bunch of different food mixed up. It's beef, sometimes beef or turkey to try to keep it as lean as possible. So you get, you know, 93, seven lean ground beef. You get, like, you know, two pounds of that. Get two pounds of 99, one lean ground turkey. Cook that up. And you also have potatoes or sweet potatoes, whichever ones you like better, or both. Some rice, maybe some peppers, maybe some onions, like, whatever foods that you like that are kind of in the vegetable category, category. Some arugula. And she just throws it in this, like, giant thing and cooks it up for me. And I have, like, almost like meal prep now. She hasn't been doing that for me, like, all along. That's something that is a little bit newer. But she's very supportive. You know, if I'm on my way home from work or something, I can call and say, hey, could you, you know, throw this on the grill for me? Or something? And she's always down to help in that way. And we try to help each other that way to make everything just, like, a little easier. I'm not the greatest at, like, doing the dishes and stuff, but I try to. I try my best to, like, pick up after myself and try to make things clean so it's easier for her so she can kind of stay on her thing.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Mark Bell]

As well. But a lot of people, yeah, they do have a lot of fear of, like, oh, I'm not. I'm not eating in a particular way, so I'm no longer eating what my wife's making. But then I think you start to get into the question, okay, who else in the household's eating this other stuff?

[Tyrus]

Right?

[Mark Bell]

Is this other stuff? Does this other stuff get a thumbs up or not? Is it good for you? Is a great question. The question I've always asked myself for a lot of things is, how does this help? How does this hurt? And that could be something that you do with your food. You can just kind of say, I don't want to drop an entire bomb on this family, but maybe we shouldn't have lasagna. You know, maybe we should twice a week. Yeah, maybe it's just like, we looked at cutting back, and everyone's like, oh, but the kids are young and it's like, well, none of this excess overeating is good for anybody, right?

[Tyrus]

And if they're young, that's a perfect. Because that's a good way to break the habit before it gets, becomes. Because I always say first time you try to do anything, it's, it's intensity and the adrenaline of trying something new. And then you got it. You get through that consistency. And then if you apply yourself, it becomes routine. And if you continue to apply yourself, that routine becomes habit. And then if you, then eventually your habit becomes your religion. And once you've gotten to the point where what you're doing every day is your religion in terms of not. I'm not throwing any shots at God. I'm saying in terms of your commitment. People rarely change religions. It happens. But most of the time you're born in and you stay in and your belief system. Once you're healthy, I'm going to eat clean. And again, it's not as hard as we think. It's, it's easier. It's. You just cut out what you know is bad and you usually left with pretty good alternatives. It's not. When I hear like, it's so hard because I'm so busy, I'm like, I have three full time careers, I'm an author, I got TV shows, I got tours and I added another podcast. Plus trying to raise kids and, and support everybody, be a decent husband, all that. I had plenty of time to get up to £475, you know, so there's plenty of time to not, you know, it's just, it's just convenience versus do you want to be better?

[Mark Bell]

And I think communication is huge and, and really communicate with your family. Like tell your family like what you're doing with your son. I think it's great. Communicate with everybody and say, hey, you know, the way I've been eating for the last 10 years and what I've been promoting is bad. Like I'm on the wrong, you know, people sometimes say the wrong side of history. I'm on the wrong side of history, you know. Yeah, I, I made a mistake. I was eating these highly processed foods. I got in over my head. And unfortunately, and it might be super emotional, unfortunately, I pulled a lot of you with me.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Mark Bell]

And I think that I want to make some changes. I want to present some of these changes to you guys too. And let's all just talk about like options, like what foods do we. And just like try to do your best to really go over It. But when I. Whenever I talk to people about nutrition and I ask, I start asking people, like, hey, do you like vegetables? They're like, yeah, yeah, a little bit. Like, I don't really like a salad that much. But then you kind of find out they like onions, they like peppers. They can find common ground. Okay, what's some fruit that you like? And then they'll. They'll list out, you know, for, like. It's very rare that I run into anybody who's like, I hate fruit. They usually like an apple. They usually like an orange or grapes or something. Okay, pick a couple fruits that you like. Okay, great. And then meat. You know, I know some people are. They eat differently, but most people like certain types of meat, right? Two or three, you know, two or three different options for meat. Eggs. Most people. Most people like eggs. Most people digest eggs well. So, you know, you start to kind of just think about all these options, cottage cheese, yogurt, and you just end up, you know, you end up putting your fridge, your pantry, which. A pantry is an interesting thing because that's, like, all that would be dead food. Right. The pantry really just shouldn't have anything in it.

[Tyrus]

Right. Yeah. Because. Except maybe I got some crackers.

[Mark Bell]

Yeah, exactly. But. But you got, you know, cottage cheese yogurt. There's a. There's just so many options, too. Like, I. I made a recipe the other day. I just. I didn't have food, and I was like, I'm gonna buy some turkey. And I bought lean. Lean ground turkey is not good. Like, super lean ground turkey. It does not taste good.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Mark Bell]

So you have to do a bunch of stuff to it to make it good. I threw it in a pan. I threw some rice in with it. Already cooked rice. I threw in a fajita mix, which was just a bunch of onions and peppers. I threw a bunch of taco seasoning on there, and then I threw a bunch of pico on there. Like, hot pico de gallo, and bam. It was awesome. It was incredible. And it was, you know, mainly it. Mainly protein and a little bit of carbohydrate from the rice.

[Tyrus]

Also in preparing that food, you're also feeding the old dragon a little bit, you know, because you're. You're still enjoying food, you know, because you're. Everyone's a liar who has had issues with weight. So they didn't enjoy the food. Yes, you did. You were willing to. To have an affair with it, hide it, take it with you everywhere. So obviously it means a lot to you, you know, so Being open about it and talking about it I think is just like, it just changes your, your whole mindset. And I think it's a mindset change. Once that mindset happens, I think you have a really good chance of not going back, but also always having it in the back of your mind that like, this is something that you struggled with for, you know, your 30 of the 50 years you've been on this planet. So you know, be mindful and when you are feeling, because emotion, I think emotional has a lot to do with it, but I think, and your message is like talking about it and sharing ideas and talking to other people about it. And again, you don't have to be an Olympic world class powerlifter or WWE or football guy. You don't have to be any of those things. You could just be just a regular old person who just wants to make a change and you can have the same excess, do the same things. You don't have to put up giant bench numbers, you just got to show up.

[Mark Bell]

I think an unfortunate thing about all this is like if I give a suggestion that is too easy, no one will really do it, right? You know, said, hey, like just go lift once a week. You know, go lift once a week, do that for the rest of the year. But, and let's say currently the person's not lifting at all. It doesn't, it doesn't ingrain a habit. Like it's too few and far between for it to really work. Well, if I just said, hey, you know what, why don't you just kind of cut back on sugar? Like I'm vague, right? I kind of cut back on sugar. Oh, you have a lot of problem with bread. Okay, maybe, just maybe cut out some bread, but you can still have it here and there. Like if I'm wishy washy, which, which would work. It would, it would totally. And if someone was able to follow it, it would totally and completely work. But you mentioned earlier, like you tried a bunch of different diets and they didn't work. And that's interesting wording because all diets work, but for them to work for you, it can be really difficult because the diet isn't. If the diet is saying like, oh, you can eat everything in moderation, that's usually allowing you to be the asshole you were before with your bad eating habits. And it's not to say that everyone that says eating in moderation is giving you the green light to eat like a pig, but in your mind, anytime, and in mine as well, you know, give me an inch. And I want to take.

[Tyrus]

I'll take a foot when it comes to food. Thousand percent.

[Mark Bell]

Yeah, exactly.

[Tyrus]

Thousand percent.

[Mark Bell]

Yep.

[Tyrus]

And like I said, my. My son is. Because. And it's. I look at it. He's. Don't. He's. He's encapsulated this mindset at such a young age to where I'm really excited. And as he continues to melt and lean like, he's fast now, and he really loves to run. Like, he's. He hit a big shot this weekend, and he pitched his. He's. He pitched this weekend, and he has the flexibility to get that leg up there now, you know, And. And then he hit. He had played four games, and he was a little under the weather, but he took a nap. You know, I gave him the choice, you know, hey, hey, you want to sit this one out? You know? And he's like, no, I'm good. I can play. You know? And he did it. But I just remember I was talking to him, I said, because you have so much energy, like, it feels good, doesn't it? You feel like, this is what. This is why we train. Why we train for days like this when we don't have it. And you fall back on your muscle memory, and you fall back on the things that got you to the dance. So even though you weren't 100%, you had prepared yourself because you had a great diet. You train your butt off. You're. You're doing great in school. So when you get that moment where you get hit with a life challenge where you could have. Nobody would have been mad at you for sitting out of the baseball this weekend, for having a sore ankle and a little bit of a sore throat and a runny nose. And you were like, no, because you were prepared. And he was like. And he was very proud of that. He was very. Like, his little chest was kind of sticking out. He's like, yeah, that's why we prepare, dad. So we're. So we're ready. I said, that's why dad doesn't miss work. I prepare myself for when I have days that I'm not 110% because I'm doing the work. I will. My work ethic will carry me through until I'm back to myself, you know? But in the same. And the same token, I was like, but when you're sick, you're sick. There's a difference between under the weather and sick. Which one is it? And. And before, I think, the insecurity of him having to pitch because when you're up there pitching and you're on the chubby side. Every time you move, everyone's looking at you, you know, and so seeing his confidence change, seeing him steal a base, you know, for a long time he didn't never want to run because he was always last, you know, he was always last. Now he's, you know, third to last. And of course the guys are. And I don't make excuses like, hey, they're 14 too. It's not their fault that you're a foot and a half taller than them, you know, and you look, you look like you could debut in the WWE tomorrow until you smiled. But, but I'm just saying, like you, you know, you just, you, you can't. They have their advantages, you have yours. You can't get mad at them for using theirs. You have to catch up, you know. And so he's, this thing is like his goal. I said, look, son, here's the goal. I'm not going to be last. That's the goal when it comes to you running sprints with your teammates. And if you are last is because they beat you, not because you just went through the motions. So let them, make them earn it. Make the little guys earn it, you know, and, and I even told him some things I used to do. And then his trainer and I, we started working on him doing 40 yard sprint get offs. I said, so if you get, if you get a good get off, that'll give you at least two steps and your long legs get going, you might be able to hold off these little, these little who are, you know, faster than lightning, you know, hey, listen, they used to run circles around me, but when I got to college, I could run them down. So it's just, you know, son, it's just one of those things like you're, it's, it's coming. But you. And I always tell him you had something I didn't have at your age. You have an incredible work ethic and there's a fountain of information and you have support and you're relying on the information. You're asking questions, you're understanding what's at stake. And ironically, and it's just been a real testament to watch him, to watch him grow. And I want to thank you personally for just sharing because like I said, you could have been like, hey, no problem. You and your son hook you up, subscription, the memberships, this, that, whatever, you know, you know, this, that, whatever. But it was just basically like, hey, I want you to be better and I'd like you to Be around for a while, Tyrus. So here's what worked for me. If this works for you, great. And if you have any questions, let me know. And I just. I just really wanted to take the opportunity to say, hey, thank you. I don't. I'm sure you hear it all the time, and you're a humble guy, and you've changed a lot of people's lives, not just in the athletic world, but you have made a huge impact of mine, and that's why I rock these wherever I go. And I just want to say thank you.

[Mark Bell]

Yeah, I really appreciate it. And to hear that I impacted you and your son is incredible. And, you know, to that end, you know, you don't know how you're going to impact stuff. You don't know what. You don't know what mark you'll be able to leave. A lot of times it feels like you're not going to be able to really do much of anything, but if you change some of your own habits and you're able to change some of the habits within your own household, that is really, really huge. And I want to tell people something about how huge of an impact somebody can have. So me and my brothers, we met John Cena a long time ago. We encouraged John Cena to get into professional wrestling, and we took him down to see Rick Bassman in Orange County, California.

[Tyrus]

Took me the same trip.

[Mark Bell]

And anyway, John, you know, he. He's. You know him, he. He's. He's. He's an amazing person. He's an absolutely amazing person. But before John Cena was in the wwe, the WWE didn't have the drug policy that they have in place. The WWE didn't have the food that they had in the back. They had food.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, but it was. It was basically like Golden Corral Catering, right?

[Mark Bell]

Yeah, but it changed. It had. It changed massively. And I'm not saying that John was like, hey, you got to make the. All these. He. I don't think he ever did any of that.

[Tyrus]

No, no, he just inspires change.

[Mark Bell]

He inspires change and has a. Has a different lifestyle than what we saw from most previous other wrestlers.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, the entire culture changed in less than a generation to where.

[Mark Bell]

And it's absolutely insane. And so if people that remember bigger, stronger, faster. My brother Mike, you know, who struggled with mental health issues, struggled with drugs, and he was like, you know, I don't know what impact I'll have in this life or this world or whatever, but he's like, I just know. I know that I know, there's something inside that I want to share with the rest of the world. There's something I want to do. I want to do something great. And my brother Mike was one of John Cena's first wrestling coaches. And then John Cena goes and make this. You know. You know, you see what I'm getting out here, like. And that was a smaller interaction between my brother and. And John Cena. And I'm not saying that any of the Bells have anything to do with any of John Cena's success. I would never take credit for the. Like, I understand the amount of work. I was in the wrestling business, too, and I understand the amount of work that he put into it. But just us being around him and us making some of those suggestions and then him taking advantage of some of these opportunities and him pushing the ways he did. Look at how many people he's impacted. It's completely insane to think about. And just to think about my brothers and them showing me powerlifting and them telling me, hey, don't be a. And don't lift that way. Lift this way instead, then it's helped me to impact people like yourself. And then now you have a podcast. You have. You're on TV as well, wearing these shirts. You know, like, it just gets crazier and crazier and crazier the more you kind of peel back the layers of the onion. So if you're. If you're listening this right now and you're not sure how to have, like, an impact on the world, you're going to have a huge impact on the world by improving yourself.

[Tyrus]

Yep.

[Mark Bell]

Fix yourself. And that's the same. The same goes for anybody, like, if you want to. I think it's like a quote from Mother Teresa. She says, the way to change the world is to go home and love your family. But the best way that you can love your family is to continually improve yourself.

[Tyrus]

Yes, sir.

[Mark Bell]

Improve yourself for yourself and prove yourself to yourself. I think it's, like, some of the most important things that we can ever do in this lifetime, you know?

[Tyrus]

And I'll just. I'll say this real quick about Cena and Hard Knock South. I think every champion, the wwe, and every. Pretty much every top guy has walked through that house, and I just think it's a mindset. My thing I was going to get over no matter what. And I remember, you know, the wwe, they allowed me so many great things to do, and it was kind of a point where they were just like, this is your role, you know, And I just didn't. I wanted more, but I had the confidence to bet on myself. And then so when they did release me, you know, I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but I did believe that I had the ability to get in front of a camera and put asses in the seat. It just, I didn't think it was going to be on Fox News, you know. And I went to, I wrestled all over the the world after that and there was a couple opportunities to go back and then once I got here and I never thought I'd be a New York Times bestselling writer. You have no idea what h is going to happen in, in your lifetime. But if you continue to improve and believe in yourself, you would be amazed where you end up, you know, and you will live a lot of lives in terms of different apps, but it's. All the lives are paved with the same road and it's work ethic, believing yourself. And I really think it's being, it's being humble and kind to people along the way because you never know who you're going to pass. And again Cena, I always, like I said everyone knows that they were going to cut my match in Mania and he had to go to the bathroom right before his main event. So I got my seven minutes. So him and me are always going to be cool for that reason. But Also I was 489 pounds when I re signed with the WWE coming off of touring with Snoop for a year and a half and I went for, I remember Rob looked at me on the first day I met Rob. He looked, I was standing there with Tavita, who's Tangalo. He's, he's part of the bloodline now, but he was my partner and Rob looked at me and he was like what are you gonna do in my gym? And even though I mean I can still, I had big bench numbers and stuff but I was just like I said work hard, lose weight. He's like, he literally looked around the room and he was like all right man, I'll, I'll give you a shot. And in the beginning I couldn't even fit behind the spot the benches, the way the benches are hard knocks on. When I first got there, I couldn't get behind and, and I, we worked, we worked our asses off and I remember when I walked in and I stepped on the scale at 354 pounds and, and I could go back behind the thing and we had like a team meeting, you know, like a developmental like all the Guys are there. And we had the big team meeting and Rob's was at this time, he was the, the athletic trainer for the wwe and he was given telling people about work ethic and new things and he stopped the class and he just wanted to say that his team captain for the gym. And he said, me and, and Tavita, he said, they're in there. First one's in, last one's the leave. He's changed his body, he's changed his mindset. And, and that to me was one of the, like, moments where I was like, man, I've arrived. You know, it was just a. Because Rob don't hand out compliments. You got to earn them. Rob isn't. I say he's a Vulcan and people are talking about him, but, like, he's not human. He is not human. Like, I, if I ever cut him, I'm pretty sure he has blue blood. He's just not human. And people like, hopefully one day I can get him to come out of the. The dungeon in the swamp in, in Florida and see if I can get him on to talk to him. Because he's. He really is a secret filmmaker. Like, he only does weightlifting and training just to. Just to supply his French film Finn stuff. He does. And I've, I've been. I've been an actor. I've done a few films for him back in the. Well, we all have. We've all just having fun and, and. But he's just a really good dude and you're just part of a group of really good dudes, man. And I really appreciate that you share so much and you're. Like I said, I knew you were humble. I didn't know it was this humble. I thought Chris was humble. You can give Chris a run for his money. So, man, I appreciate it so much. And hey, for people who are, are trying to. Where can they reach out to you? What's the best way, you know, for people to get information on getting Slingshot stuff? Because you have, you have this official Slingshot website and then you have where you get the food, which is different. Which is where I get the within you brand. Within you brand. Yes. Within you shirts.

[Mark Bell]

Yeah. So the easiest thing to do is for people to go to markbellslingShot.com and you can get everything there. You can get your Slingshot products, you can get your steak shake, you can get everything there. And if for some reason you only want to go to the supplement website that is called withinyoubrand.com if you want to contact me, the easiest thing to do is just to DM me, send me a dm. And I actually like it's, it's almost easier for me to respond to a voice message DM just for time purposes and so on. So yeah, if you have a question and you want to drop one, that's the best way to do it. I do look at my DMs. I, I can't get to all of them, but I do look at them and maybe yours makes it through. And I'm Mark Smelly Bell on Instagram. I have a couple YouTube channels, Mark Smelly Bell is one of them where it's just kind of more recent stuff from me. Then we also have the Super Training 06 which has a lot of powerlifting information and I'm continuing to add more stuff to that all the time. And then I also have a podcast which is called Mark Bell's Power Project. It's. You want to listen to some of that?

[Tyrus]

Yep, I was watching it this morning. So hey man, I appreciate this and hopefully I can have you back and hopefully I can hop on yours sometime. But again, on behalf of me and my family, thank you very much.

[Mark Bell]

Thank you. Appreciate it. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.

[Tyrus]

I don't know if you knew this but anyone can get the same Premium

[Mark Bell]

Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoy enjoying.

[Tyrus]

It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do.

[Mark Bell]

@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to 15 per month required intro rate, first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees, extra fee, full [e-mail].