Hello, ladies and gents Robert Sykes ketose amazon.com.
And today's episode is going to be all about my competition
prep. I've got my lovely wife Crystal
here. She's going to be kind of,
interviewing me going through my prep protocol going through.
My starting stats, going through my competition, plans for 2023,
my prep starts today, April 3rd, and I just kind of wanted to
unveil that talk to you about what my plans are.
In addition to the prep, like the the business plans, the
course launch plans, the conference plans, all the
turmoil and chaos. Chaos that is going to be 23 in
addition and in tandem to the competition prep in which I'm
going to also be going to having when I had some loftier goals
and just simply competing competing is going to be a life
to go in and of itself. But I'm throwing some other
goals in there that are just on top of that.
So, I'm super excited about this podcast episode.
I'm super excited to get this information out and just to have
y'all support through it. Also, thank you all for tuning
in and let's dive into the podcast.
And we are live. Crystal, how are you?
I'm doing, well, how are you doing?
I almost said, Crystal, Faye, love that.
It was the first time since. I've said, my name is still
saved, his crystal, loving my phone, I don't know.
What am I saved in as you're on your phone?
Robert studly, you put that in there, right?
No, I put that in there. Yes, you did.
Like, I don't know, five, six years ago before we were
married. Yeah.
All right. So this conversation Is going to
be about this is going to go live on the third, which is the
official start date of my 2023 competition prep.
So we're going to be talking about that and I figured rather
than me, just talking, I'd bring you on to kind of talk to me, so
it's not just me talking. So talk to me, baby.
Cool. I so excited about your prep, a
excited or crap. I'm gonna let me preface this
prep conversation with the fact that I've got a crazy cough
right now. So if I start hysterically
coughing throughout the middle of this, This, I don't have a
disease or anything. Crystal did not get any sleep
last night because I was coughing all night.
I don't know what's going on. You've been sick on enough.
I don't think I've ever been sick.
Like, I haven't gotten a fever, I just like don't have to have a
fever to be sick Robert things. You have to like be dying and on
your deathbed in order to be sick.
He's been coughing up a lung so bad that he is keeping me up at
night, that is definitely sick. You are sick.
I'm not start sick, I'm not sick.
All right. So yeah, let's talk about the
prep. What do you wanna talk about
first? Where should we start?
We should start about when. Well, you just said you're going
to start the official start date is April 3rd 2023.
I like to start the beginning of the month but I also like to
start on Monday. So third is good enough for me.
So how long of a Preppers is going to be?
What kind of depends we get several tentative competitions
lined up you and I kind of went to the calendar to, you know,
correspond the competition dates with our conference States as
far as like when I'll be speaking at different
conferences, when we have a booth at different conferences,
the only competition that 1000% for sure.
Doing is the one on October 14th, the Washington State,
natural Pro-Am are Norton's show, but I will probably do a
preliminary show before that one as like my test to show.
And then if I win that one, I'll probably compete at Worlds in
November, but I might also compete at to before those, so
anywhere from three to five shows basically.
So how to, for sure five. Initially how many weeks?
It's like six months, right? No it's longer than that.
I think the first show so that was mid-october.
There's one I think the very beginning of October so would
that be April? I don't know my mom's the year
very well, whether we got January March, April May.
June, July August, September, October so, seven months.
Basically, if you did that November 1.
Hmm. So yeah.
So an eight-month prep would be insane having the longest I've
ever gone is 22 weeks. Yeah, for a Up.
That's how long my prep was 20 weeks.
Yeah, so tell me what you're doing to prepare for this one.
That's different than the ones you've done previously.
Well, okay, let's first of all, talk about the last prep that
Robert did was in 2020 and what was 2019 into 2020, and like a
week before, his first competition all the competitions
got canceled. So literally a week before.
Yeah. Just go into like, how you
didn't. Get as lean as maybe you would
have what we did instead of doing the competitions and then
like what you plan on doing like differently maybe this time.
Yeah so my last time competing was in 2017 when I got my Pro
card at the gbo Federation and then I got what was I think?
I got second at the W NB F show in Washington state which is why
I'm going back to kind of like Get first on that one again.
I gotta unfinished business there but in in 2020, I plan on
competing a starter. Prep on November 1st, 2019, and
then prep for 22 weeks with the intention of competing at a
show. I forget where the first show
was but then also that show in Washington and then literally a
week, think a week and a half before that first, show that it
got cancelled because of covid. So I went through with that,
prep, up to that first shows, timing wise and then I got a
photo shoot instead and then I pretty much stopped after that,
but I had planned on communal prepping for another several
weeks. So I didn't get as lean as I
would have gotten had I competed in.
T. So I've been the leanest.
I've been up to this point was in 2017 so I've got to beat that
this go-round. Hmm.
I'm really excited to see how well you do this year.
I mean, I know you're gonna do great but like I feel like it's
been several years since we've seen you lean.
But like, even longer since we've seen me like super
shredded. So I'm super excited to be real.
I'll leaned out and stuff. I got pretty frequently in 2020
we did. I didn't get as lean as I know.
I can't get and there wasn't really any For me getting leaner
because there was no show. So, it's like, I might as well
not risk. Any, you know, wrecking, Havoc
to bimetallic metabolism or hormone?
So, I just kind of get really lazy but then not get the
leanest. Yeah, we did.
Talk about that. You're like, should I keep
going? Should I not?
Like, I don't want to feel like I'm quitting, blah, blah, blah,
and I think that, I think that was, like, the best choice
because then you could like, you reverse dieted, and then you
just went back into building, and that's what has a lot of you
to gain some land mass since then.
Yeah. Like 2020s prep was weird
because I couldn't use a gym, so, like I had no StairMaster.
Like, I had a StairMaster like the first few months of that
prep. But then I lost access to the
gym because of Adam's closed down.
So I started running around the park.
Oh, that's right. Yeah.
Party, which is most certainly not my preferred from the party,
like you deplete muscle glycogen with running you risk injury
more with the running. So it like, there's just so much
more benefit to behind with StairMaster, from a cardio
standpoint. So, I didn't have That
throughout the last half of the prep which I'm excited has to
measure. It's going to be a game changer.
Yeah. How do you feel about your like
stats Now versus when you started in the 2021?
I feel like I'm pretty much on par like my Baseline
maintenance, which I pretty much maintained when I'm not in prep
is around 180 pounds and around. 15% body fat.
I'm pretty sure I was about the same when I started my prep last
time and I'm pretty much the same.
Mmmmm now. So I feel like from a starting
position. I'm pretty much on par with
where I was there. I think I've gotten stronger
since then, and I feel like I've built better shape if I could
get better shape up. My chest has come up since then,
I feel like my hamstrings become up since then my calves have
come up since then. So I feel like I'm a little bit
better from a overall shape, some true proportion standpoint,
but as far as like hard stance, go like wait, haven't got any
taller since then surprise? So all those are pretty well on
par. Some I said about £80 182, 183
is kind of where fluctuate and I'm taking it about three
thousand to thirty three hundred calories.
I think my caloric intake may have been a little bit higher
than, because I'm trying to push it a little bit more with the
calories, but if that my maintenance right now is around
3,000, so I'll probably start my prep at around 3,000.
Cool. And then like, what about like
lab stuff? Like I know.
Well, you're going to get your labs done on the day that you
start prep. Yeah.
So so I'm gonna get all my labs done on the day.
I start prep. One thing I'm super excited
about with this prep that I have not been able to do in preps
prior is s 2017. When I did my first ketogenic
competition prep as you can attest, we were broke as a joke.
So like we didn't have money for anything.
We didn't have money to get blood work, done on a regular
basis. We didn't have money to get dexa
scans, super cool that Robert was going into a deficit because
it means we have to spend less money on groceries.
Yeah, it was, it was not optimal in that regard in 2020, we had
Money to buy those things until I get that data.
But nothing was open to get that data, like I couldn't schedule a
dexa, scan. I couldn't go get random Labs
drawn whenever I wanted to. So this year I'm going to be
able to get all of that data and I'm going to do it, really good
job. Documenting the entire prep week
after week after week on my Instagram account on my YouTube
channel through the podcast. That thing I text you today,
that's working on those little Emoji.
Things like blowing up my phone, I'm like, what do all of these
means? That's kind of what I'm
thinking. Like, as far as a template goes
for my Instagram post every single week, like, I'll have up
their progress pictures, but then having that like template
where I basically give people an update as to what the date is,
how many weeks and I am how many weeks I have left to go, what my
weight is with. My macros are what my body fat
stats are. What my libidos like you like
them. I was like the Imposter for more
info. What my Hunger is like what my
thoughts are like overall with all that stuff, it just
basically. Documenting everything as
clearly as possible. So anybody that's wanting to
follow along or wanting to experiment with a ketogenic
competition prep or fat loss phase would be able to see
exactly what I'm doing and how I'm doing it.
How it's affecting my body. Okay, let's just lean into like
your kind of like protocol for this prep since we're kind of
like already into that, a little bit.
Yeah. So the protocol will be the same
as my prep protocol. So what I've developed through
years of trial and error, what I do with My clients, basically,
it will be all start with a high percentage of calories coming
from dietary fat, probably about 80% of my calories, come from
fat made that call from all started around my maintenance
and take of about 3,000 calories.
That's basically gonna be designed to ramp up my level of
fat metabolism right there at the onset, taking the same
amount of calories, should I shouldn't feel overly hungry,
but I'm up being the fat ratio, so I can just maximize Ketone
production and circulating blood ketones and just overall family.
And then I'll slowly titrate my protein up while simultaneously
dropping my fat down until I find my own unique protein
threshold, which will likely be somewhere around the 59, 60
percent. Total calories coming from
dietary fat. I think, last prep I got my
protein up to 220 grams before I started dropping that down, so
I'll find that threshold. Then I'll start dropping both
fat and protein down. So my overall fat ratio as a
percentage of total calories, will start to increase as we get
into the Second half of the prep and then after about after I'm
get about one month out from the first show.
Also introducing the ketogenic caloric refeeds with an increase
in fat and protein. Start tweaking my sodium a
little bit and just getting dialed into Peak for the show
itself. Okay?
So you're doing this, you created this, you also have a
book that people can purchase and should we go into the next
thing that you're doing there that you're in the process of
the course? Yes.
So the book said like blurred it out and then yeah.
So the book is occasionally bodybuilding natural athletes.
Guide to competitive, Savage, dream, I published in January,
2020, to super proud of that book, that literally details, my
exact prep protocol that I've worked used for myself and all
my clients and then I'm in the process now of building out,
this super intensive online course that You don't have to
have the book to do it. It kind of mirrors, a lot of the
concepts in the books, like the books comprised of seven phases.
The course, is comprised of seven phases, but there's so
much more content in the course because it's going to have like
video tutorials where you can see things that you obviously
can't see in the book, like the book is great.
But as I'm writing in the book about what to look for with
regards to with the refeed, macros and sodium and
applications like what you should be seeing the next day
when you wake up in the mirror, Like, you can't really get that
out of the pages in a book, but you will be able to with the
quarks, I'm gonna be showcasing everything.
There's gonna be a lot of just a additional bonus content in the
course. There's going to be like a
community aspect of the course for anybody that, you know, gets
involved with the course. And that is hopefully going to
launch in May is the goal for that.
So yeah, it's going to be super. It's going to be like, the most
involved course that I'm aware of on the internet, especially
from a body composition standpoint especially from a
ketogenic standpoint. Like it's going to be The
Behemoth of all courses for sure.
Yeah, I think what's cool is that like the book is really
great for just about anyone like you don't have to be doing a
bodybuilding competition. You can just be looking for more
information looking to lose weight things like that.
Whereas the course will be like a step-by-step I think pretty
much anyone could still also do that but that'll be for sure for
you know people who do plan on competing and so and it's cool
to have both options. Ins and I don't know he could
like by the book now and then wait till the course is out and
then you'll already have an idea of like how things are rolling
out. Yeah.
There's not supposed to be salesy.
I was just like, that's how I would do it if I was thinking
about doing yeah, gonna be a lot of carryover between the book
and the course, like some of the stuff in the course, I'm
literally using a teleprompter of my book.
Me reading the book and parts, like some of it is 100% the
exact same because a lot of it is just simply the exact same,
but there's gonna be a lot of additional content in the
course. That wouldn't make sense to
have. The book because you need to
have a visual representation of it.
So yeah, I'm super excited about the course we made like the
deeper state of course, back in 2017 and I'm proud of them.
But that just pales in comparison to what this course
is about to become. Like this thing is going to be,
like I said, a behemoth of course, is for sure.
I think it's gonna be a great resource for people that want to
do a prep, want to do a fat loss phase in the most efficient
effective manner possible with a ketogenic diet.
But then don't want to go the route of one-on-one coaching, or
don't want to just have a bunch of conflicting information.
Going to have everything they need at their fingertips, you
know? With the course for sure.
Yeah. So what do you think?
Like what do you think is going to be?
That your biggest difference between like the preps that
you've done? Previously in this one?
You're about to do I feel like I'm busier than ever been have
this competition prep. I mean like you're supposed to
you're supposed to be for the start to align it to prep
because like there's a lot of, a lot of, you know, demands placed
on you and the stars are definitely not aligning but they
never will. So you just have to pull the
curtain back in the same thing as having kid.
Yes. Like if you wait, for things of
perfectly line, up, your never come out one.
Yeah. But like, like this year 2023,
I'm doing potentially five competitions.
Probably not five, but somewhere between three and five.
I'm doing like I'm speaking and I think five conferences I want
to sound like he remembered like that and they're all at the same
time frame like there's depending on which conferences I
want to actually go to. I may actually be competing one
day and then flying to speak at a conference like the next day.
So that's not really realistic and maybe doesn't make it mean.
It doesn't make any sense to do them and I'm probably going to
prioritize the competitions because I only do those every
three years. Years or so.
But I'm going to try and fit in as much as I can possibly fit in
while not letting anything suffer.
So it's just going to be a like my whole Manifesto for this
year's discipline is Destiny. And I'm just going to double
down on that because if I'm not organised and proactive my life
is going to get away from me for sure.
I feel like everyone knows that like summertime it's just a hard
time anyways because like their vacations are sisters that like
Robert and I don't really do a whole lot of vacations, but we
are like going on a family trip with my family.
Lee. We're going to visit my family
all together, and then we have like the low-carb Crews that
were going on. So like that's going to be a
huge thing and itself like you're going to have a gym but
like they may not have a StairMaster on the ship and we
won't have a squat rack. Yeah, they'll have like probably
a Smith machine and they'll have dumbbells but like the food and
things like that. I think you can bring packaged
Foods as long as it's packaged and sealed, you can't like bring
your own food. I was talking to Kevin about
this earlier. And so I think that's a thing.
So we're just going to have to like, buy a whole bunch of like,
carnivore, cry, carnivore, snacks, and kyudo Bricks.
Like it's at least real food and like pack.
All that for Robert, make sure that he's going to hit his
macros. Luckily it's a Sunday to Sunday,
so, it shouldn't be too crazy. But like, that's a whole nother
level of having to be disciplined.
And then like, all in things like that, like, being
disciplined, with the Is not whatever I'm concerned.
They have never had an issue with that, don't know.
But I think it would be easy to be like, well, you know, I think
the average person like you everyone knows Robert, you're a
Savage but like the average person or like I'm going to go
on a cruise and I'm going to just like do the best I can I'll
just guess at what it is but like we're not just guessing,
you know? Yeah we're not just guessing
everything's gonna be very measured out very specific, very
strategic and like for me whenever I know I'm going to a
prep like the moment like When the third hits, when I put third
when the clock strikes, 12 and April 3rd starts like, the
switch is flipped, like it was go time.
And there will be zero deviation from the macro plans, 0
deviation from anything. Like everything will be
according to plan and I like that rigidity but I think my my
goal for this one is to be able to maintain that rigidity with
like the things that I have complete control over but then
not to get tooth distraught. When I can't maintain the
rigidity for things that I don't have.
They control over. Hmm.
Because when I when I want to be so dialed in that I try and
control everything that oftentimes works until it
doesn't. And for things that I just
simply can't control. Like if I can't control it, then
I I get frustrated in the past and I don't want to get
frustrated this year. So so a whole another level that
are adding to it this year. It's going to be like we have a
son and you never had a competition with a child and
Like as long as he doesn't eat my macros, he didn't reach over
and grab my food. It's all good.
You do. I mean, I feel like you just
tend to be a little bit more tired during a prep like
especially towards the end a little bit more irritable.
I already asked Robert to be home more.
I'm always like you come home early?
Can you you want to like hang out this weekend and not work
like all that. So I think it's going to be
definitely a little bit of a challenge because we're just
adding another level another layer on top of like where
you're putting your time and effort and energy and Yeah, I
don't know. I think I'm gonna send though
will Really keep my focus on what matters and my wife for all
of this stuff. Like if if I start to be
negative towards him or lack patience towards him, that would
be a really apparent moment to check myself because like, he
obviously is not doing anything wrong.
My decision to do a prep as my decision, if I'm miserable, it's
my own fault. So like it's not fair for me to
be. A short with him or being
patient with him. So if I feel like I'm getting
that way with him, then that would be a really just a litmus
test, basically. So I need to check myself.
Yeah, yeah, I could totally see that.
I think I like that. What you said, like, having a
son will actually help keep you in line more because it's so
hard to be upset with him. He's just so cute.
You know, it's like okay I am frustrated because I'm
frustrated, I'm not frustrated because he's done anything, you
know, it's just I don't know but But yeah, it'll be.
It'll be interesting. I feel like you have gotten
better each year like 2017, you are not the nicest person on
prep, like, you are mean, but like, you were just very
shutdown and zoned in like to the max when we, when I was
prepping when was it that I was, I would walk into gold and I'll
just be addicted. People 17, was that not the
entire but that was the year prior.
Are the the prep prior. Maybe it wasn't as shoot.
Now I can't remember is unique because you knew me during my
2015 prep. Yeah we did 15 17 20.
Yeah. Oh darn.
We weren't near as close in 15. No.
Because in 15, I went on a trip to California for like the month
before you did your competition, okay, so I think in 17, is when
it was really hard. So I didn't actually see you at
the very end of your competition until or in 2015.
But in 2017, I was there all the way through and yeah that was a
little bit little bit rough and if like 2020 I was probably a
little short because like like nothing was going our way with
like nothing was going anybody's way with the whole pandemic
stuff. Like there's all these things
that I couldn't control but all these things that were having a
pretty profound impact on the prep itself like the fact that I
couldn't go to a StairMaster That was very frustrating.
I do think that like you said something the other day, you're
like, I think like you because when you're doing a prep, you
almost like allow yourself. Yeah.
That wiggle room. Like explain how you said that
because it was really good. Yes, I feel like like doing a
prep is a very intensive thing. It's a very like body building
is a very selfish sport when it all boils down to it and I feel
like people don't do them very often so that when they do do a
prep they give themselves permission to be an asshole
because they no, they're doing something very hard.
They would like to think that everybody around them should be
understanding of the fact. They're doing something hard.
Yep. And should be very supportive of
that and ideally those people are very supportive of that but
it's like they give themselves permission to be short with
people to have a shorter fuse to be more irritable.
And I think with this prep, my goal is to just simply never
give myself that permission. Like if I don't have the
permission to be a dick to my wife, then I probably won't be,
you know, at least I'll try not to be.
I really hope not. Yeah I mean I'd certainly like I
don't ever do it intentionally and you've done a prep like your
you just a sweet little angel anyways though.
So like you were never that that short with your prep.
I was not I was like totally normal, I like did not allow it
to control me but I think it's probably because I did watch you
those two years prior and like you did at 17.
Yeah, because then I competed in 2018.
Yeah and for me like when I do prep like I take it to a weird
level like I take it to a weird dark place where I like it's
like I'm a masochist when it comes to prep like I want to be
in pain, I want to be miserable, I want to freaking crawl down to
the depths of hell and kick the devil's ass and then look him in
his eye while I'm doing it and they come back up to show people
what I just accomplished. Like I take things.
To an unhealthy extreme and prep and I don't think that's right.
I don't think it's good. I just like doing things that
are very hard for the sake of being very hard, but I don't
think you need to do that. And this is kind of where I've
matured a little bit with this in the past.
I feel like that was necessary in order to get to the level of
conditioning that I wanted to get to.
I don't think that's the case. I feel like if I'm just simply
working, really hard and I'm not stressing about going down there
and kick them kicking the devil's ass.
Simply not stressing, and not having that.
Constant, you know stress State? I'd probably come even leaner
than not. So yeah, making the whole
process more sustainable to go. As you think that that is a big
thing that I think you have matured a lot in just in life as
a man. All those things since your
prior preps and I think I think that definitely will be
different. I feel like every project going
forward is just going to progressively get different and
probably better. But yeah, that's exciting.
And I think also To that, I'm a much more public facing now than
I was previous. Like, I've got people watching
me now. That's true.
You know, like before when it was just me and I've tried to
just prove something to myself, like I didn't know what I was
capable of. I didn't have any perspectives
that fear of the unknown weighs heavily on you and yours have to
push yourself to the limit to figure out what your limit truly
is, whereas now, I know the depths that I can go, if I need
to go there, but I don't feel like I need to go there and it's
not sustainable to go there all the time.
So like I would much rather Showcase the people, how to do
this in a healthier manner, in a sustainable fashion and then
still succeed and Excel even but all the while doing so in a way
that's positive for other people to take part in.
Yeah. Do you think that there will be
a difference in like previously you've competed in the spring
like the only times I've ever been at your competitions?
All three have been in the spring.
Do you think that there's going to be a difference with Not
having to go through winter and like actually going through
summer and like nicer weather and things like that.
You think that will like age you or do you think it won't make a
difference if they want to be super cold for sure?
Towards the end of it? Yeah, you will only access look
at me like November. It doesn't get too cold here,
but like when we go to Washington, it'll be.
Yes, I'll definitely be like, cold other wearing some beanies
for sure, at that point. Yeah, but no, I think I'm
excited about it. You know, I feel like it's just
different. Like, in the past when I started
prep in the fall, You know, a diet through Thanksgiving
Christmas. Where's this time?
I'm pretty much dieting through the summer, but like, I don't,
really ever feel like I'm missing out like when everybody
else is eating barbecue and drinking beer, like, I don't
ever feel like I'm missing out for that, like, I don't mind
bringing my Tupperware to the events and being that weird guy
in the corner, eating out of a tupperware.
Like, I don't care about that. Like, that doesn't really face
me. I just like the sunshine, like,
I feel like that is, like, really helpful because like, if
you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed, or whatever you, You
can just go for a walk, get outside and it's like beautiful.
It's beautiful outside. You know it's just going to me
nice weather whereas going through a prep in the winter.
It's just like come drab and miserable and me.
Yeah. Do you think one thing that I
want to incorporate with this prep?
Like I'll do my StairMaster as my primary form of cardio, but
then like maybe on the weekends, like, go for a hike every
weekend. And that's not really even
something, like, I'm doing, like, for my calculated cardio
standpoint, but just simply getting outside and going for a
hike every weekend, like around Lincoln.
Or something, I think would be good.
Good for my my psyche of nothing else.
Yeah. What about reverse dieting?
So reverse the ending. I'm going to do something a
little bit different. This go-around.
I've done this with a few of my clients and I've been so
impressed with how it's worked for them.
That I'm going to emulate it to myself in the past.
I've been a pretty slow reverse diet like three to four months.
Usually, for a verse that with this one, my plan is to do
pretty much as slow. Reverse diet as the prep itself.
Let me be prepping for months on be reversed adding for seven
months. So as much intensity as is going
to go into the prep itself, the same tense.
He's going to go into the reverse diet because if like the
reverse that is the part where a lot of people slip up they put
on way too much weight, too quickly.
I've done that past. Everybody's competed.
Probably has done that in the past and it's just not worth it.
You did that, you had a really negative rebound, you developed
a bunch of Eating Disorders. I developed a bunch of Eating
Disorders by going incredibly, slow with the reverse diet.
You're going to minimize any unnecessary body fat that, you
know, gain that you could put on.
But then you also going to just, you know, feel really good.
And I've had several clients that like that have done this,
what? I'll reverse diet them so slowly
and they'll continue to lean out as we start increasing calories,
you know, like from a strictly calories in calories out
standpoint that I can make a lot of sense to people.
But what's happening is there were ramping up their metabolic
rate with the influx and calories.
They're likely moving more. They're having more neat
activity. So they are burning more
probably which is why they're experiencing that but certainly
from a metabolic standpoint, They're having all the benefits
that come with eating more food. They're continuing to lean out,
but they feel Fuller. They feel more energized because
they have that influx of food coming in and I just continued
to look better and better. So that's my plans with the
reverse time. What do you think I'll do like
between your competitions? So I think this is interesting
depending on how lean I gets and when I get that lane, I would
like to ideally, stop decreasing calories at either that first
show or that shown Then from there, start to increase in
calories and basically start feeding into the world's
competition. So to paint that into a picture,
like if my competition in mid-october, is the point at,
which I stopped dropping calories, that's the lowest my
cabbage get and then I start increasing calories from there.
So tentatively start my reverse diet there but then continue to
lean out and look better and better and better.
You know, going into Worlds for five weeks later that would be a
good example. I love what that reversing into
the next show. It look like, you know how
people like usually have like a big like post-show meal?
Are you going to do that? Like at each show?
Are you going to just like, go all the way through until you're
completely done? Are you even gonna do like a
post-show meal? Where your you allow yourself to
eat a little bit more. I might make, I'm really
intuitive when it comes to that, like I just kind of see how my
body feels and responds. So if I do, it will be something
simple like a, like a steak, like it.
Like a, like a 16 ounce ribeye steak, and that's probably it,
like, not even any added butter or anything, just like simply a
steak because, like, I'm gonna have the refeed meal the night
before that, the keto refeed meal that fat had pizza that we
do. So that would be Friday's meal.
And then I'll have an increase in calories on Saturday during
the day of the show through like you do bricks and stuff like
that. So if I do a steak celebratory
meal post, so that's going to be two days of higher calories,
which depending on how early Nomads and where my calories
are. That may be totally fine, but if
I still want to get Get even leaner as I go.
I'm a I'm a wave that celebratory meal to after it's
all said and done. Yeah I think that's probably
like where I fell off is like if had I just eaten a normal sized
stake in a normal sized meal. I probably would have been
totally fine but we went and ate at like Fogo de Chao or
something. Yeah, and I ate probably twice
as much as Robert and I had wine and I had then we went back to
the hotel room and I had like a huge Kito Brownie and like
totally passed out on the bed and it was great, but I really
do think like that meal needed to be a little bit more
structured for me, so I like the way your kind of planning to do
this. Yeah, and I probably will do its
kind of crazed there. We don't have any Brazilian
steakhouses in Arkansas. We had one years ago, they
closed down there, making a new one Oklahoma Tulsa, it's not too
far. They're making one in Arkansas
that's going to open in April, so it's can And really starts
when it was that in Rogers. So I'll probably go there but it
won't be until after all the shows are done and then we won't
go there. Oh, you mean you'll go there?
Eventually, I was like, why would we go there before your
know? After all the shows are done.
We'll go there. Yeah, that would be really good.
Like, take the whole crew to that or something.
Yeah, that would get like a good team there something.
Yeah. Yeah.
So yeah, I will do that. And that's kind of plan as far
as the reverse that goes and honestly, I just want to stay
pretty lean. In after this show.
Because I mean, like, it doesn't really benefit you from a muscle
building standpoint, just stay to Tulane.
But like I'll continue to add muscle.
I want to keep adding muscle, but there was a point in my
life, in which I just felt really small.
Like, oh man, I'm way too small to be competitive and I'm still
smaller, like, I'm never gonna be the biggest guy on stage, but
I like the way I look shape and symmetry was like, I don't think
I've got any majorly, lacking body part.
I do definitely have bipartisan to bring up, but But I feel like
I'm at a place where I can be okay.
With not prioritizing, just sheer mass building and just
kind of like enjoy being lean for a little bit and plus from a
business standpoint like that would probably be advantageous
as well. Like spend some time you know
being lean for little while, get some good photos, get some good
video content and it just kind of capitalize on that time frame
from a bunch, of course, videos for a bunch of exercise
tutorials. But then do all of that while
I'm leaner but then post-show so that I've All that content as
well. Yeah, it's kind of crazy.
I'm looking at your face right now and like your face is full
and your cheeks are full. And like in a few months they're
not going to be that way. Like my face fan right now.
Well, you do, you do have a rounder fate like around her
cheeks for sure and so cheeks. Yeah.
When you get lean, like your face definitely can like
definitely gets more like chiseled.
Yeah, and it is interesting because like Like comparing you
now to what you're going to look like it is wild.
But yeah it's weird. Like when you as a natural body
builder when you are lean and you're wearing clothes, like you
don't look like a bodybuilder, looking like a method, like, you
don't look like you have any size to you don't like you have
any muscle to you. When you take the clothes off,
you start flexing, you start seeing all the striations, the
muscle fibers pop in the vascularity.
Then it's obvious that your body butter.
But yeah, it's a I don't I'm just confident enough now.
Like in high school I So self-conscious, but how small I
was, I literally never wore a t-shirt in high school because I
don't want people to see my arms now.
I don't really care. Like I'm never gonna be the
biggest guy on stage and I'm fine with that.
I just want to be the leanest guy on stage.
Yeah. So that what is your like
overall overarching goal of like this entire prep?
Like if you could put something on it like what would be your
your overall like goal. All right, so I was listening to
David Goggins, new book? Never finished.
And he was talking about how he did a bunch of like endurance
events. Obviously he like jacked up his
knees and he's always been jacked up, he Jackson Nia people
more, but he wanted to do, Moab 240, run 240 miles, and I think
there was like eight months time between when he jacked up his
name and was basically told that he would never be able to run
again to him, running up to 14 getting like one of the five
factors fastest times and that like, if you're in the operating
room and the doctors like yeah, your knees, this This, here's
the MRI scan is totally jacked up, you know, going to run again
and saying, like, in that moment, hey, I'm gonna go run
the Moab 240 240 miles. Like, that's a pretty audacious
goal. And for me, I like the idea of
having an audacious goal, I like to do things that excite me and
I've done multiple bodybuilding competitions.
I've won multiple, bodybuilding competitions.
And that's a very hard intensive thing.
Like I can say, hey, I want to win this bodybuilding
competition, and that would be an audacious goal, but it's not
as a daysius enough for my liking so clear my throat for
this one. My goal is to not simply do the
bodybuilding competitions. My goal with this prep is to
literally be the leanest man on planet Earth for that point in
time. Like, that's not figuratively,
that's not a joke, it's not a metaphor.
It's 100% fact. That's what I'm going to do that
as my goal. I don't know idea how you would
test that. Like I don't know if it's
something that Guinness Book of World Records has to come out
and you know put a cow Brownie. I'm not sure how that works.
I think the one of the supposedly nice guys on planet
Earth right now it's like 4% body fat.
I don't know if that's the decks are in body or caliper what but
I forget his name. He's a yeah, the plan to look
him up and forget his name, but my goal with this prep is to
Simply become the leanest man, alive for that point in time.
If I do that, then the competitions are just going to
happen, you know, as a by-product to that endeavor.
And if I'm the leanness count stage, if I'm a ladies, man, the
world. That we're building discount
stage. So for me, having that goal of
being least man alive, it just kind of like.
That's the Pinnacle and then the bodybuilding competition is just
bonus. On top of them.
Yep. So that's my plan.
So that well, I've, uh, how's that?
How's it going to be married to the leanest man alive?
That'll be interesting. If sure will be, it will be
interesting to like, see all your markers and everything at
that point, our doctors office like has like a sweet deal for
us and just in general for labs and stuff.
So I'm really excited to see what all those are.
But I'm just excited to see like how you are mentally
emotionally. What you actually look like
because like you've been so lean before I'm like it's like how
how do you get any more lean? It's like freakish you know and
then just yeah. You're like labs and everything.
I think it'll be it'll be really interesting and I'm not gonna
lie, I like being the leanest man.
Alive is not a healthy, Endeavor, that is not something
it's only for a very short period of time.
Yeah, but that's not something that I would suggest people do.
If they're their primary goal is Health and Longevity.
I think bodybuilding in and of itself can be a very healthy
sport but getting down to, I mean whenever you go sub 5% body
fan like it's not healthy at that point period.
So Roberts gonna do it. Yeah I am most certainly
sacrificing some health to reach that goal but it is for a very
finite period of time and I just I don't mind sacrificing for
that thing that I feel is going to bring me some sense of
satisfaction fulfillment like I do.
Mind, giving something up. IE saving a few years off, my
life, maybe thank do something that I think deserves my most
attention and respect and discipline.
So yeah, that's where I met with him.
Robert and I are two very different people.
Like Robert is like likes. I like hard things too but it's
like you want to be like the best you want to like win.
You want to like all those things.
I'm like I'm just doing it for fun, you know?
Like I do whatever. The result is great.
You like, I'm going to be the leanest, man, in the world.
Yeah. Well, like, it is cool.
We're just very different in that man, is probably a good
thing that were not both. Yeah, that way I can be would be
just competing each other each other but like, I know
Genetically speaking. Like I'm never gonna be the
biggest guy like, I'm just not like, it's not gonna happen.
I'm okay with that, totally okay with that, but there's no excuse
in my mind, as to why I can't be the leanest guy on planet Earth.
So, that's exactly what I'm gonna do and I feel like another
7 plus 8 ohms, 8 billion people on this planet right now.
There's not anybody out there. That's better than me, you know.
Like I don't want to put limits on myself.
I feel like if there's something that I want to achieve, then
I'll damn will achieve it. You know, there's no reason I
can't, there's no reason. I shouldn't there's no reason I
won't as long as I put in the work so damn it time to put in
the work. I do think that like with being
an athlete to it's a little bit different almost no matter what
sport you're being there is a level of elite that if you are
at that level you could you can almost do something a little
unhealthy in any sport that you choose.
Don't for sure. So I feel like this is just that
level like you're choosing to be in that level and bodybuilders
doesn't have to be that but like this is you're like, I'm gonna
I'm gonna go be in that top Elite tier, you know.
Yeah. And the quote Goggins again he's
like he wants to be the uncommon amongst the uncommon you know.
Yeah. Right.
That's what this is like. This is the The point zero, one
percent of the one percent. It's like that's that's where I
want to take things. I don't want to be just another
Elite bodybuilder. I want to be the world's leanest
freaking man, you know. Yeah.
So that's the plan and I'm going to do it that there's a whole
lot of debate right now. It's a totally different
tangent. There's a ton of debate right
now about high protein versus high fat.
And like, there's a lot of benefits to different types of
diet for different people. I mean, I've gotten incredibly
lean with high carb. Herbs and I protein.
But the reason I even went Quito in the first place is because I
did the high-protein thing, I got really lean, but that's what
developed a bunch of Eating Disorders.
Forming, that's what tanked my hormones.
That's what screwed up. My metabolism screwed up.
Everything for me. So I know I'm a supremely
confident in the fact that it well formulated high-fat
ketogenic diet can be extraordinary from a competition
bread by bullying standpoint and that's what I did in 2017.
Like, I don't think my my fat ratio ever got below like 70
percent, total calories, come from fat and oftentimes was 82%.
Total calories come from fat and I'm not villainizing protein at
all. Like proteins, great, it's very
important but this notion that's passing around right now that
you can't lose body fat and Excel from a performance
standpoint. In the context of high fat is
just totally inaccurate. So I kind of want that's how I
did mine too. Yeah.
You know all your one-year show ya all your All my clients
clients, yeah. They at least start off super
high fat and then, you know, you figure out what's going to be
best for their individual body and then you adjust from there.
Yeah. So I just want to document that
process because it does it baffles me that there's still so
much confusion out there. And like there's always going to
confusion, but it baffles me that there's still so much.
There's still so much discussion around.
High-fat not being effective, and it's like, it's obviously
effective. So, I'm just going to Showcase
that one more time. What's this crazy?
Easy to me like again we're on a tangent here is like you could
you could lose body fat by eating fast food like you could
you could lose body fat by eating high carb.
You could lose body fat by eating high protein or I thought
like there isn't one way to do things.
It's just what is most optimal? What do you feel best at and
like what are your lab saying? What like what is your body
telling you based off of how you're doing things?
Which is that why? I think so important that you're
documenting your labs and your hormones and you know, how
you're feeling and your libido and like, all that kinda stuff.
I think it's really important because I feel like a lot of
people don't do that. They're like, man, I feel like
trash today or yeah, you don't get it up when you're at the end
of prep, or whatever. And it was like, yeah, that's
the thing. Like so many people in the
nutrition space, they point to bodybuilders and it's a look,
obviously, high protein high fiber foods is what you want to
do. If you want to get lean look
like, Body butters but what they don't show case is that all
those body builders feel like shit.
Yeah. You know like their hormones or
tanked they literally are in Zombie status and like I'm not
always peaches and cream to be around the last part of a prep.
Don't get me wrong but I feel a hell of a lot better than I did
when I was doing the super high protein, high carb approach.
So so yeah, I think keeping dietary fat wrote, so Bhai is
going to do wonders for stabilizing hormones.
I mean, I know it does, like I've done it before, but now I'm
gonna be able to Showcase all that for people to see.
So I think Be very good. Yeah.
So let's talk about the beginning of your prep in April.
How do you plan on starting off your prep?
So I'm going to do, like, when I do a pretty, I'm pretty much
track and macros Loosely. Now like I went throughout the
majority of my building phase not tracking macro just ensuring
that I was eating enough overall food enough, overall protein the
past couple months I've been a Loosely tracking so that I can
Target three thousand, three hundred calories and they just
kind of hone in on establishing that as my true maintenance.
When the third rows around, I'm tracking everything to the
frickin teeth. Like everything to the G will be
measured and all macros are good kind of for and I'm just going
to remove all the noise from the equation so it comes to food and
removing noise from the equation I like to do pretty much like a
meat and Bricks style approach. I'm not a hardcore carnivore.
I feel like nothing against carnivore.
Like I don't feel like I have any inherent benefits from a
performance standpoint with the inclusion of veggies but I don't
like just pure Carnival for Standpoint because I like a
little more variety and tastes and textures and plus with a
higher fat it's easier to get that in a few allow things like
avocado oil, olive oil, some dairies that some people don't
allow for super straight carnivore.
Depending how straight you want to be coconut yogurt.
For instance is a great source, the keto bricks obviously he one
of those every single day those are not hardcore karna form but
the stearic acid in those is Good from a performance
standpoint for dietary fat. So I'm just going to do straight
up meat and Bricks as the first month.
With of the prep to kind of wipe.
The Slate clean, get all the noise removed from the equation.
Let my body flush out any excess fluid way and just kind of
re-establish a super solid Baseline at the onset of the
prep, so meat and Bricks for me in April.
So with that, like, if people want to join along with you and
you meet in bricks for like a month of April, what do you
consider like meat and bricks? And a last time you did this,
you did eggs. Also like is, are you allowed to
cheese or you allowed yogurt? Like, or is it like, literally
just me. I think just meat and Bricks I
think eggs be totally fine like eggs be fine but yeah like no
yogurts like all that other stuff.
I don't think against the ogre everything against cheese but
like it just adds more complexity to what could be a
very simple situation. So for me meat and Bricks is
just simply one Holbrook a day, plus whatever meat and eggs
makes up for my macro targets for that day and just stop
salts. No sauce or anything.
I could probably like hot sauce. Or something like that.
Like like some sauces, like a primal kitchen salad, dressing
sauce, probably not so much, but like Tabasco sauce, probably
totally fine, seasonings and stuff like that.
I'm totally full all for. So yeah.
Just meet bricks, one brick, a Dame and then whatever meat plus
eggs, would make up your target macros for the day.
That's what I would consider meeting bricks Danny vague and I
did that I don't know two or three years ago and it like kind
of kicked off and hashtag meeting Brooks.
Yeah and like everybody started doing it and they also pretty
good. Success with it because it just
simply removes all the variables, the noise from their
nutritional equation. So yeah, that's how I'm going to
do to kind of kick off my prep, just a month of meat and bricks.
And I pretty much do meet and Bricks, right?
The entirety of the prep, but then I might include more stuff
like yoga or stuff like that. Yeah.
But for the first month, just meeting brick.
So yeah, definitely, I think it's kind of cool when you get a
little Community aspect going. So anybody that wants to do
that, by all means, month of April.
Get you some bricks, get you some meat, hit your Macros, and
let your body, get dialed in optimize that all the Noise in
the equation. Yeah.
Oh show. Where she got babe.
I think that's all I got. That's all you got.
I feel like I feel like that was pretty good.
I feel like we went through a lot of different aspects of
things I'm like, trying to Rack my brain for Anything else?
You feel like I'm missing anything?
That's pretty much it. I'm just excited.
Hit the ground running like I'm excited too.
I've already kind of been doing a lot of stuff to kind of get
geared up. Like, I've been, I got a
membership at Crunch Fitness so I can use your tanning bed and
StairMaster. So I've been tanning these past
couple days because I want to my starting progress pictures for
the prep to reflect a similar skin tone as what my ending
pitchers are going to be just as hard to compare.
So started tanning. Got that kind of dialed in.
I've got my morning routine dialed And I've got my
journaling dialed in. I've got all these things.
I got my cold plunge, dialed in, like, all these things that I
want to make sure that I'm doing throughout the prep.
I'm going to keep doing, like I've already started doing so
it's not like I'm gonna have to change everything drastically
when the prep starts. Like it's pretty much just
coasting right on into it. I feel like you started like
January with what with like making sure that you were doing
all the things. Yeah.
Like attract a macro. Is it started probably in
January cold plunge? You started before January but
like you've been. Yeah, pretty like This is what I
do all the time. I think I'm also going to keep
the full-body split going through my prep, which I was
kind of on the fence about that. Yeah.
So in the past, I did my Eighth Day rotational split like heavy
hypertrophy split and I like that a lot but I've been doing
full body for the past has been about six months ago.
Probably it's been a while. Probably longer than that, we
may be. Yeah, and I feel good with it
and I feel like I don't know if it's the best for building
muscle. But I feel like it's certainly
adequate for preserving muscle and from a psychological
standpoint, I think that the when the calories get really low
and I dread the workouts because that will come.
Yeah. If I it's gonna be easier for
me, to psych, myself up to do. Okay, let's get through, you
know, five sets, six sets of squats.
I'm dumped legs for the day and then I move on to shoulders and
then I move on to back. Then I move on to arms, are do
just for five sets for that. Given by part as opposed to a by
parts, Split in, which it's like, all right, I'm going to
the gym and I've got to do five or six sets for squats and I've
got to do five or six more exercises for legs specifically.
Yeah, that's that's pretty rough mentally.
So I feel like if I go into it with a full body approach, its
to me less mentally exhausting, I can kind of adjust Embrace
that suck a little bit more. Just looking at my calendar 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 12 Days. 12 days until he has kind of Mike.
It's gonna it's like a month and a half away.
Oh, it's like a month away. It's like no, it's in 12 days.
Well, you are my my prep. The proper animal.
Like a t-shirt for you. This is like meal prep queen or
something like that. Master, no print master.
So you do all my meal prep. Oh, I send you the macros for
the week and then I tell you what foods, I want to eat and
then you cook them all. Yep.
I did just buy whole bunch of stuff where though, so yes we
did Vice and about then what do you think about that?
Are you ready for this? All commencing in 12 days, eight
months of milk and like I okay? So you guys think like, oh yeah,
meal prep, like you cook a bunch of ground beef and then you
weigh it and then you separate it know, like I weigh it raw and
then I cook it individually. And then I put it into a
tupperware for one day and then I weigh it raw and then I cook
it and then I put it into a tupperware for day two.
It's like Everything has to be to the tea with Robert, so it's
like, there are no cutting Corners.
There's no cooking everything all at the same time and just
separating it. Like, that's not a thing with
him. There was one week where you
miscalculated, my macros. Remember that?
I did not kiss you. Keep saying that I never did?
Are you sure? I'm pretty sure you like forgot
to add some heavy cream or something.
So I'm pretty sure I didn't like, I am like long time ago.
I ain't trippin, but I'm pretty sure.
I am. I've always been like so.
Good at all of it? Yeah.
Well you're a rockstar. I'm not complaining at all.
Right. Very blessed to have you.
So yeah. It is going to be different
though because like I usually do take care of rigel a lot.
And when you're cooking food and things are popping and things
like that, like he can't be in the kitchen with me, so it'll be
a little bit different but I think he's old enough now when I
just could take him and go somewhere stuck on Sunday when
you meal prep for the coming week.
Like he and I can just load up and go.
Do something. You know, that will be really
nice and he's hit me, he'll be a year and two months.
So he's like almost walking already.
So he's going to be like Adventure, you're on doing all
the different things and hopefully not wanting to be in
the kitchen. What's have to get like a little
baby gate up and yeah, yeah, but it's gonna be good, it'll be
good. It is a lot for me to like, here
we go. You know, because it's like
every week and if we're gone for a conference that week like we
get back. I have to wash everyone's
clothes. I have to do.
Prepping on Monday. Make sure that he has food for
that day. It's a lot like during like the
conferences and things like that honestly though.
I think like we're so busy that thing.
It's actually going to work to our advantage because like I
think with less prep in 2020 we were super busy but we're like
stuck at home. There was any conferences,
everything was canceled and like when it when you're stuck like
you just like your mind starts wandering and to think negative
thoughts we're going to be. So freaking busy with
Conferences with rigel with the prep right?
Have time for - thought like the business alone to keep us that
busy. Yeah the course launched and all
that stuff. So I'm going to be so busy that
I'm not going to have to like allow myself time to be negative
or be short. You're going to be too busy to
complain about anything like like it's going to be go time.
Yeah, it's gonna be go time but it's going to be go time for a
finite period of time. Like we go freaking you know all
the freak out all the Freak Out freak.
And we go with a freak out. We're not going to freak out but
we go all out until it's over which is going to be in
November, you know. Like we can do anything for
eight months, anything like I can do anything for eight
months, I can wall sit with a 45-pound plate on my lap for
eight months. I don't know about that, but I
can do anything for eight months and then obviously, we're going
to the reverse that free strict as well, but then after that
point, like there's not the weight on your shoulders of it
all. So I'm not really worried about
that. But For eight months, we just
freaking put her head down and grind, grind on parenting going
on the course, quite on the prep, around the business going
on groans Peter, breathing whether homesteading Garden.
We're throwing so much into our life right now, like Frances.
Yeah, so much. There's a lot happening in the
next year or so. Yeah, it's gonna be good,
though. I'm excited.
Are you excited? I am excited.
Like I my like not my Manifesto but my like saying my words for
the here is be the calm or like be the piece or you know
whatever and that I really think that because it's going to be
chaos like we did a podcast at the end of last year, the
beginning of this year, whatever we're like this year is going to
be mad and I still feel like that and sometimes I have to
remind myself to like be that piece and be the piece for rigel
and for Robert and like things have already been Been crazy
this year for us and it's like, you just have to really remind
yourself to like, get in that mindset of like, everything's
going to be just fine. You know, we can make it through
anything. So I think your your is going to
be a lot about like discipline and doing the hard things and I
am hopeful that like the house and the home will just be really
peaceful place for you to come and like, just be, but we have
to, like, we get things like very strict and in order in
order for that to be a thing, you think, Marriage is going to
be stronger or Not by the end of this all stronger Stronger.
Yeah. I feel like every prep that we
go through is better and better. Like, I feel like we have deeper
conversations, like, I can get frustrated at you, like, you're
a jerk and you're like, yeah, I know, and just, you know, things
like that, just it'll be fine, it'll be great.
Every Struggle that you go through, always makes you a
better person. Well, if you come out on the
better side of things, yeah makes you a better person, you
know, and Robert. And I don't really allow
ourselves to be negative about things like we can be negative
about it. For about 5 Seconds, get it off
your chest, do the thing? Be sad, cry, whatever you got to
do and then it's like, okay, now it's time to get up and fight.
So I think, yeah, we were always going to be stronger at the end.
Boom, boom. That's a wrap.
I love you baby. Love you too.
Excited for you. Excited for you?
Everybody is not know where to find you, where they go on
Instagram. It's the adult lady does savage
on my website is Lady Savage.com and we also have the lives that
we're going to be doing a lot more home sitting stuff.
Like we just started a garden this past weekend where I get
some chickens going to build the chicken coop.
I think honestly having that like if I can do most of my
training during the week, And then, like, most of my work for
the weeks of the weekends can truly be homesteading weekends,
that will probably help a lot with my prep as well.
I think it's going to help a lot for me with your prep because I
will have something to like look forward to it and like have the
fun things and all that but for our your last preps I always had
to find something. I'm like this is my thing but
like I go and I do and I'm hopeful that it's home setting
type stuff. This should be good.
Should be good. All right, that is live savage
or Instagram live savage on in. G team Savage on Facebook.
Then we have our YouTube, of course.
Yeah. And they will be more info on
the Course once it gets closer. Love you.
Babe, and that's a wrap on the podcast on.
Let's go get little rigel. Okay.