Hello, ladies and gents Robert Sykes ketose a.com.
Today I'm get special guest to Greg Mueller on the line.
Greg is a client of mine. We are coaching him through his
2023 competition prep, he's worked with me in the past.
He's earned his Pro card via a ketogenic prep protocol.
He is also one of the deeper State keto coaches and he's
honestly just a great friend. I had a lot of respect for Greg,
he's an absolute beast in the gym, he's strong, he's been
strict keto for 8 years. Now he knows what he's doing.
He's walking the walk and doing it, right?
So I've got Got no doubt that would take something from this
conversation. We dive into some of his prep
Endeavors. We dive into what we're doing,
nutritionally speaking with his cardio as well.
We talked about some of the things going on right now in the
heat of space we talk about things.
I just ketones a little bit. We talked about all kinds of
things about the holidays, talk about all kinds of good stuff.
So without further Ado, sit back, relax and do a podcast
with my good friend Greg. And we are live.
Greg, how are you brother and good about you?
I'm good ma'am. Before we hit record, you were
talking about how cold it's getting in Minnesota right now.
You said what - 22 degrees? Yeah, we actually hit like 22
below zero. Today are high temp.
For today, is supposed to be below zero like five or six
below zero, and then we've got several days.
Stacked up here on end that are going to be all below zero.
So we got kind of little Arctic snap going on.
Yeah, it's pretty intense man. I was it's getting pretty cold
here Arkansas but it's not near it's still above zero so nothing
nothing that compares to what you got going on there.
Yeah, it's pretty tough. I just, I got this cold plunge,
I got a stock tanks. What I got I got a tuna Dar
stock tank from Tractor Supply Co and I've been feeling that
full of water and just letting the ambient temperature here,
which is pretty freaking cold right now.
It's like 30s. Ali.
So the water temperature is like 40 degrees right now.
I've been jumping in that every single morning and that is
pretty cool man. You want to get that going in
Minnesota. You would not need to add ice.
Yeah. I've been, you know, a lot of
people have been hopping on that and it seems to be pretty
popular a pretty common. Now I'm excited to see what you
think of it. Once you start going because
I've heard it's it's pretty shocking until you start to
acclimate to it. Yeah.
And you can control your breathing and all that there's
definitely a lot of popularity around right now There's a lot
of claims as to how effective, you know, there's a bunch of you
know, just conjecture as to what it's supposed to do.
I've seen studies, I've seen, I've seen people talk about it,
supposedly increasing testosterone count.
Reducing inflammation make sense.
I could totally buy into that one.
I've seen it proposed that it improves, neurological,
function. All this stuff.
I don't know how much of that's true versus just smoke and
mirrors, but one thing that I can attest to and it's 100%
psychological not physiological at all, is that?
When you wake up, first thing in the morning to do something, you
dread doing, it just starts the day off, way better.
So for that reason alone, I think it's huge win.
Sure, sure, you, I suppose you're forcing yourself to adapt
and overcome. Right.
Mmm. And I wake up pretty early, it's
cold. Like, I've got like, I sleep
with it cold. So, I wake up and I've got like
a hoodie on when I roll out of him.
And the last thing I want to do is take my clothes off and jump
into a pool of cold water, but that's what I've been doing.
Crystals been doing it with me. It's like we Like, I'll wake up
a few hours early make, you know, work on my clients, work
on my emails, she'll wake up, and then we'll start making our
french press coffee, which takes like four to eight minutes to,
you know, steep. So we'll go and jump in this
cold plunge during that time. And then we can reward ourselves
with this nice hot cup of coffee which is pretty good way to
start the day. Awesome.
I like it rigel probably not yet, huh.
Yeah, I was like, I wonder what would happen if we cold plunge
with the project but that probably get child protective
services called on us and probably wouldn't be good.
So not To be doing that anytime soon.
Don't worry. I don't do that in public,
definitely not doing that. But yeah man.
It's after there's an acclamation period to it for
sure. But you ought to 100% do it
because you've got you got the space, you just go get like a
200 dollar stock tank stick in your backyard and just let the
Minnesota cold aired, you know, do its work.
Yeah, that's a great idea. We've got some like fleet Fleet
Supply Fleet Farm kind of stuff stores here.
That definitely you could get one of those big tubs.
Mmm, it's all, you know, him So I wanted to get you on a podcast
and dive into a couple of things but you're in a prep right now.
So you are preparing for a competition that we can.
Certainly dive into being talked about macros because talk about
your stance can go super deep down that rabbit hole, which you
probably should. But honestly, we just catch up
on anything and everything, man. Like you've been coaching for a
while. Have to kind of pick your brain
as to how being a coach impacts things.
What what are some common threads or common commonalities?
You're seeing a month clients. What?
With? Let's pick your brain about the
New Year, pick your brain about just anything cuz I mean I
consider us friends more so than working client relationship.
So it's it's always good to chat, man.
Yeah, great. Let's do it wherever you want to
start. Let's start with the prep.
Let me pull up your spreadsheet right now.
So I have a reference there and then, let's see.
Here. The show date is when I'm gonna
see you on the Slate here for May May 13th.
I do believe is first one. Um, the list.
And let's see. and I pull up your old prep spreadsheet to
second, okay, with those to compare to, Yeah.
The first one first one that I'm shooting for is May 13th that is
in Omaha and you're doing that with bin to which I'm excited
about. Yeah yep.
Different divisions in fabulous. Yep.
That's Omaha Heartland classic. That is a natural and am BF.
I don't know if that one's got a pro class or not.
That was May 13th, right? Yeah I know.
It's Pro. It's a Pro Qualifier so that'd
be cool to snatch another Pro card or two there.
What's the one on the May 27th? May 27th is the Mr. And Ms.
Natural Minnesota in the Metro Minnesota area.
And that's a pretty big one. That's that's a pro car or a pro
pro show, natural show. Those are different sentences
there, right? Like, if you won the pro card on
May 13th, you would not be able to compete as a pro on the 27th
or they same Federation. I think they're same Federation.
Yeah, Nan BF + IP. Those are the two amateur versus
Pro nice. Federation's there, while the
yam and if you can, if you can get the pro card on the 13th and
they compete in the Pro class on the But that'd be freaking
awesome. Yeah, and I don't know if I ran
this by you or not mr. Coach.
I've there's also potential of me doing one that Saturday in
between those two Saturdays on the 20th.
I like you did not read that money but I'm putting in the
spreadsheet. Where's that one in Colorado?
It's a brand new show, it's a USB F Federation, the United
States, but bodybuilding Federation, it's all natural and
it's brand-new sure. I think this might actually be
the first year. But I helped out backstage at a
few other USB, F shows recently and kind of brushed shoulders.
With a lot of the head honchos. They're actually it was their
National the main huge Show recently where they gave over
like almost 70,000 dollars in prize money.
So there were some other other show promoters kind of around
the area. While we were there in.
These guys are just starting out, a brand new USB a show in,
I think, Colorado Springs, Colorado, nice.
So happens to be that exact Saturday between the two
Saturday shows. I was planning on and I thought,
well, what the heck? If I'm already and in dialed in,
we might as well stick another one in there, right?
Yeah. I'm all for stacking them as
close together as possible. Like when you get a show that's
like six weeks eight weeks after one that's when it gets really
tricky. So if you can just convince them
all into one one block, that's the way to go in my opinion.
Yeah I agree because you're kind of already there.
You're really just kind of stretching out your peak week or
having three Peak weeks. The backside of trying to print
a cut down for a show and then what do you do in that weird?
Six-week lull between shows like you do you maintain, do you
grow? Do you cut?
What do you do? You know, it's kind of weird.
Yeah, the tricky part about having them close together.
Like that is, it's kind of hard to throw in a bunch of really
heavy training days because you don't want to hold water from
the heavy training before the next show.
So, like, if you were to do the show on Saturday and then you
can lift heavy on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and then just
kind of like, go into Peak Week protocol and then kind of repeat
that, maybe cycle things through based off of what you targeted,
heavy the week prior, just like, makes up a little bit for the
next week on that Sunday Monday Tuesday.
Sure, sure. So, that's, that would be what I
would advocate for there. But, yeah, I think doing, you
know, three shows in three weekends.
Back-to-back-to-back makes all the sense in the world.
Yeah, I know some people that have told me they've done, you
know, 10 or 12 shows in one year in one season, and that's just,
that's crazy. I'm not sure how they let their
body. Bounce back ends up being after
that type of a deficit and that much torture.
Yeah, I mean that's a long time and I had Jen on the podcast not
too long ago and she did something similar to that, not
that many shows, but she had like a weird situation in which
she had to put her first competitive season.
She did the virtual show because it covid and then she had a
pretty good little low between that and First, you know, in
person show, so it wasn't multiple shows, but it's kind of
that same concept of having that much time between, you know,
stepping on stage, and it definitely is tricky when you're
trying to stay down then for extended period of time.
Like then. Yeah, for sure.
You turn to swing the pendulum that many times in a row.
Yeah, definitely definitely definitely.
But I'm super excited about your prep.
You are we started at 220 pounds and thirty-four hundred calories
the last prep that We did in see here started the one the one
prior was starting in March, 20 21.
You were at 210 pounds here. 10 pounds heavier than you were
then 30 or 300 calories. It's a little bit lower on the
intake as well, but I feel like we've got plenty of time.
We started this on November 7th for this, this competitive
season, so I feel like we got plenty of time to get you down,
then, yeah, we've been rocking for about what that five or six
weeks give or take. And so I feel like we've got a
nice long. When we can gradually do things
without being too drastic on the front end and then just kind of
come coasting down in. Yeah, and we've been pretty
aggressive with your drop in calories since we started a
little bit higher like right now where this is the start of the
seventh week actually. Yeah.
So I'm just under 29, 28 to 29 hundred is where I'm at right
now 2825 or galleries and you're about 5 pounds down.
Roughly Yeah, yep. So we'll stay angry.
I was go ahead. Now, what were you saying?
I was just gonna say, I was actually a little bit heavier
than when we first started, I probably peaked at around 225
226, kind of in the offseason. So and then, as of this morning,
I'm coming in right around to 15.8.
So really from the offseason, the top of the curve, I'm down
about 10 pounds, so nice. Yeah, that's has your hunger
right now. 2,800 calories. It's fine.
I was expecting to kind of get some, some hunger pangs here and
there, but it's so far, it's been fine.
So I'm going to just kind of write it out because I know
that's going to change. Yeah, yeah.
I feel like a lot of people when they, when they start cutting,
they'll get like an initial bump in hunger as they start dipping
into a deficit, then their body acclimate some 1000, Slow Down,
slow down a little bit their hunger, pretty much subsides and
then it reared its ugly head. Ferociously once it starts
getting really low but there's like that bounce back period
there and in between it seems yeah, yeah I mean I can I can
you probably do too but I can kind of feel that things are
burning and churning internally but it's not quite a full blown
sensation of hunger. Yeah.
It's just kind of like you can almost feel and sense that your
metabolism is just on fire. Yeah.
You just feel that you're not at a surplus because there's
certainly a It comes with that, right?
Exactly. So I'm excited man like I'm you
know, I'm working with you and working with band.
I'm working with several people that are prepping for a show in
the spring and I'm doing a show in the fall so I haven't started
my prep yet, but I think I'm going to actually start.
I'm going to start prepping in January, not at a caloric
deficit. I'm just going to be incredibly
rigid with my building macros for the first quarter of the
year so I can get that dialed in.
Before I actually start dropping calories.
Sure, makes sense. Because I don't know about you,
but when I'm in the offseason, I honestly don't retract my macros
at all. I did this offseason just kind
of see how much of the envelope I could push as far as how high
I can go with with calories just to kind of see and play around
and experiment with my with my person internally.
And so I was probably creeping up to you know, 4,000 calories a
day somewhere in there at the peak of things, just just kind
of monitor, my weight monitor, my Hunger monitor my lifting but
yeah, I think next off, Reason, I think I'm going to do what
you're doing, just eat intuitively and you know when
you're hungry or when you're hungry, you eat, and when you're
you're not hungry, you don't have to eat.
Yeah. Like all all track my macros,
you know, very strictly throughout the reverse that
portion and I'll kind of go as high as I can, you know, so,
I'll dip into that Surplus for sure.
So I kind of see what that upper threshold is and then I'll back
down from that, let my body regulate and then I pretty much
stopped tracking from that point until I start gearing up for
another prep. Now, during that time, I may do
a couple spot checks and I'll track, you know, a random day or
2 throughout the building phase. But when I'm in the building
phase, the main thing for me is to make sure that I'm training
hard training, heavy eating at a caloric Surplus and consuming
enough protein. And if I'm checking all those
boxes I don't really obsess about what my actual exact macro
intake is sure. Yep.
As long as you're getting enough.
Yep. Yeah.
Which honestly for me is the hard part, like I have a
tendency to under eat if left to my own devices.
So there's opposed to overeat. Yeah, same here.
That's kind of why I started tracking little in the offseason
is just because I wanted to make sure I was getting enough and
not setting myself up for a slowed down metabolism.
Yeah hundred percent but I've been tracking here lately and
I'm steadily over 3,000 calories in my weights.
Holding pretty stable at 180 181, so I feel like I'm in a
good position to start the prep. Wow.
Yeah, you're going to pretty strong metabolism going.
Well, you I mean you were up what Thirty to thirty five
hundred several days in your weight was Holding relatively
stable at that intake, wasn't it?
Yeah. Yeah it was and you can
versatile mean body weight. Yeah.
That's true.
I do have a, you got 40 pounds
on my roughly the rats, right? Yeah.
So you've been able to eat what you're eating.
You got a pretty hardcore Rock and Metabolism.
Yeah, it's those those key to Bricks man.
I can put that one of those a day and I call it good.
And then I have I've been in the one thing I was actually just
having lunch with my crew before we started recording here and
that we will meal prep for the week for In like we'll all pitch
in 25 bucks every week and then we'll Crystal.
Now, go buy a ton of meat at a local Meat Market will cook for
them and they'll just eat that every single day of the week and
one of my employees Josiah. He's all about tracking macros
to and it's crazy man. Like some of these macro
trackers they just there's so much variance like you will go
crazy if you try to like actually get exact numbers
because it's impossible. You can look up a 20 ground beef
which you would think is a pretty Universal measurement.
And you can get vastly different, you know,
recommendations for what. That actually consists of
nutritional was so you really got to just, you know, hit an
average and keep things consistent, and then just stay
on par with that and let those averages work out over time.
Yep, I agree with you but I feel like a lot of people that's
that's oftentimes. A lot of people go ride.
They try and obsess over getting everything so accurate and they
don't eat Foods, consistently like people that change their
food every single day. And they're kind of flying by
the flexible dieting, It Fits your Macros, or poach with
foods. That would be really hard to do
if you're eating real food. Like if you're eating all
packaged foods that have a label on them and they're all weighed
out and measured out relatively consistently.
I can see that being a little bit easier but if you're
consuming you know just single ingredient raw foods in which
case, it kind of depends on the local butcher.
How much fat cap is on your ground beef, our steaks, it's
going to be a lot harder to go by A flexible dining approach if
you're changing your meals every single day.
Yeah, it's, you know, especially with like a cut of steak because
you could have two Ribeyes both 10 ounces apiece and those could
be so far from each other just because of the fat content that
it's not really, it's not a Straight Arrow.
Yeah. 100%. I'm working on this course right
now and I'm filming this section.
It's all about, you know, just staying consistent with foods
and I feel like that's something that that I've always done with
my perhaps. That's something that Do
something that Jen does. And I feel like the more you
just simply throw away the variables, prep your meals, stay
consistent with it, like that single Factor, right?
There is probably the single greatest thing you can do to
solidify success with the cut as opposed to anything else.
I would imagine. Yep.
For sure, in the next thing about Aikido Judo competition
prep is it doesn't really change my food selection at all, is
versus what I mean? In the offseason and what I'm
eating on a prep protocol or a cut, the choices are the same.
It's just the amount of each food.
And also, it's not like you have to completely throw away what
you're used to eating and go for a chicken rice and broccoli, six
meals a day steamed with no seasoning.
It's, you know, I still eat bacon, eggs cheese, Dairy, heavy
cream. It's all the same stuff that I
enjoy eating and it's super easy to stay consistent because it's
literally what works and what I enjoy.
Yeah. I think that's huge, man.
I feel like people they don't Take note of that, very
important factor. Because mean, when you feel like
you're sacrificing something or depriving yourself, it's going
to amplify the likelihood of you deviating and just not finding a
sustainable. If you're literally eating the
exact same Foods in the competition prep, as you are in
the offseason, then you don't feel like you're missing out on
anything and you're much more likely to just stick with it.
That that is so huge to, because I remember just this last season
or even helping out at some shows recently backstage were
all the competitors. Obviously, we're very very
Arrived and very, very cut and dry and what they could eat and
what they couldn't during their prep especially peak week and
there was just tables filled with candy and cupcakes and
cookies and just you know, really terrible Foods just
jammed with sugar and they were drooling over those and going
for them like crazy because, you know, it's that deprivation that
you experience to where you can't have anything that you
enjoy or really satisfy satisfies you during prep.
So you just deviates. Hard after the show and then you
get sick and you have a all this repercussion going on internally
and it's just bad. Yeah, I'm I mean that's what I
did my first show, man. I put on like literally 20
pounds overnight when I did all that and you're absolutely
right. I saw so many I've seen so many
just like backstage screenshots and like Instagram stories of
these, these different venues and they'll have this table with
all these cookies and brownies and cakes and sugary you know,
Foods waiting. For the competitors after show
is over and I don't want to, you know, come across pretentious or
high and mighty your holier-than-thou, but I feel
like that is that's that's just stupid.
Like that is literally like that's not sending the right
message, that's not a healthy message that isn't good for the
competitors, it's not good at all.
So, I feel like that, I mean, I don't know that we'll ever stop
by. It's just kind of like the norm
right now, but I am certainly not a fan of that, that type of,
you know, reward system. Yeah, same here.
I remember when I did some shows, back in 2013, Before I
ever adopt a keto and so I did the traditional prep protocol
and carb cycling in the water depletion and all that, same
exact thing we were bonding, you know, like sugary Jam or honey
and a rice cake backstage and then after the show everyone
went out to eat and you just had just a bunch of garbage food and
I remember I think it was probably 25 or 30 pounds.
I ended up laying that following week and I got so sick that
night after the competition that I was in my hotel room throwing
up. I mean I was at the toilet just
because I overindulge so hard and I don't have any craving to
do that with the ketogenic prep. It's crazy.
Like the only thing that I crave after a show is going out and
getting a nice steak with the hunk of butter on it.
Yeah yeah I feel like you know I think there's certainly some
benefits from a hormonal standpoint.
There's benefits from muscle retention standpoint from a
strength aspect. I think there's so many benefits
that come with a strict containing protocol versus that
of Additional carbohydrate-based, protocols,
but if you were to take all of them, throw it out the window
and just simply approach it from a psychological standpoint when
it comes to the food reward system, dopamine receptors in
your brain, what you find sustainable, what you feel like
you're depriving yourself from that alone, makes the prep
protocol worthwhile in my opinion.
Like if I can go through a prep not feel like I'm sacrificing,
certain food groups and then not feel like I have to over-consume
them afterwards. The likelihood of being trapped
in some form of disordered eating cycle.
After a prep is going to be significantly reduced and I
think that is what people should strive to achieve post-show.
Yep. 100%, big time. That's, that's the winning
ticket right there. But I digress, talking about
your strength and performance so far, man, like you've not
dropped calories. We haven't dropped calories
drastically since you started, but if you noticed any different
performance or strength at all, no actually I've been hitting.
With almost every single workout I do.
So obviously that's the goal is to just train with the intent of
getting PR's or in upping the intensity or the training volume
each time. You're at the gym and it's been
awesome. I'm surprised that things have
been going as well as they have. I know that they want
necessarily stay like that but I'm going to just assume that
they are and I'm just going to strive for it.
So, so far so good. I think you can certainly Expect
PRS for the next. I don't know month.
Probably. And then after that, if you're
able to just simply maintain the the strength and that the way
that you pull and push it now, that's a huge win because like a
lot of people start seeing that drop off quite a bit.
So if you're able to Simply maintain the same level of
intensity you are now then then you're way ahead of the game.
Yep. That's the goal.
Yep, one just preserving. If don't if you don't use it you
lose it. So I'm just going to hit it
hard. 100% what about supplementation, man?
What kind of supplements you taking?
Pretty boring man, just electrolytes every single day,
couple scoops of that when I was in the form of their pre
workout. I use Redmond relight creatine
monohydrate 5 to 8, grams a day, just plain unflavored.
Micronized white powder, creatine and then the occasional
dose of kinetic, but I'll probably, I'll probably start
letting that. It's kind of phase out just
because I don't want to be relying on kinetic as we get
closer. So you feel a difference with
it. Yeah, man.
When I add that to my pre-workout, I can definitely
tell that that helps and your. You feel pretty confident?
Not placebo. I don't think so nice.
That's yeah, yeah. So I'm a huge fan of that.
That's about it really. I'm drinking the Frank from
Quito named Sammy. The snake water.
Have you tried that yet? Oh no yeah he messaged me he was
going to shoot some stuff. My direction I think so I'm not
sure what he's saying but how is it?
It's pretty funny man. Like he made he made it as like
a like as a joke kind of but it's pretty good.
It's called snake water and bring labor right now.
Ketone Esther and nootropics It's inconceivable guaranteed to
actually says the world's most unbelievable brain, drink, drink
snake water to run, two times faster, guaranteed tight, 50%
faster, guaranteed increase IQ by 33 points, hit high scores,
every time, and then it has a little asterisk and says these
are all exaggerated claims are just a joke but it's pretty good
like it's Kat. Let's see here. 26 calories,
it's got ISO, melts your loss, I'm assuming As the sweetening
agent in there but it's got the Conrad water Ketone Beach.
Be 60% Ketone Esther and the 40% dbh be Ketone free acid, but
yeah it's pretty good. It's got Steve Young effort in
there as well. Cool.
So it tastes alright because I know some of those some of those
Keystone Asters and drinks are kind of raunchy tasting.
Yeah this one is not raunch days actually I kind of like it it's
a little too sweet for my liking but it's not like a this is
gross like I was like he's got it in like a carbonated drink to
just sip on as opposed to just taken as a shot.
So whenever I get able to sip on it and not shoot it back then
it's pretty palatable. Oh sure, probably probably a
bigger serving than right? The can.
Yeah, the cane was, it's diluted enough.
I mean, that's probably why it doesn't taste so bad.
It's got sure. What did you say what?
I say, three. I think it's three grams
instead. More here, three grams of BHP
but over the can, which is not sure what the can is just a
12-ounce cans. So little bit more diluted so
yeah, but it's palatable. It's pretty good.
Awesome. Good good, what about the cardio
man? I have.
We been just just going to town the cardio, you'd probably doing
what hour and a half, every single thing that right hour and
a half in the morning and then two hours every evening. 7 days
a week? No, I'm just kidding.
I Yeah, we actually Just added in cardio.
Now like I think just last week just to 10-minute low-intensity
could just kind of get the heart pumping a little bit to 10
minute sessions. And then this week, we up the
intensity to to 10 minute sessions with little bit higher.
Level on the StairMaster. Did you miss most a mesh-like?
Was, it was it just like a family reunions when you get
back on? Yeah, yeah.
We both we both shed a tear when I hop back on it.
Yeah, yeah. But in the off season, I didn't
really do any cardio besides just kind of Is that I enjoyed
doing, you know, getting outside in the summer, doing some hiking
biking, walking that kind of stuff.
I never really did any cardio for the sole reason of
maintaining or losing weight. So it's kind of nice to get back
in. Kind of get my heart moving by
loss, of breath comes quicker than I remember, but that's soon
to improve as we up the intensity week by week.
Yeah, that's that's okey man. Like people like using you and I
as an example, you know, I'm 80 your 220 at the being of the,
the prep and you, and I are both consuming well over 3,000
calories zero cardio, 0 cardio, apart from just like hiking and
doing things. Like I said, just fun things
outdoors. When you take somebody like us
slowly chip away the calories like we are and then gradually
titrate. The cardio up, your body is
going to be so much more responsive to that cardio.
Whereas if you're someone that's doing, you know an hour of
treadmill every single day, 365 days a year.
Like that. Like that's the new base on that
your body just is acclimated to like, it's not going to change
anything by doing that. Like if you can do minimal
cardio and then titrate it up any little incremental
Improvement or increase in time, duration, or frequency is going
to have a pretty profound effect on your body's composition so
you can have much more Runway to scale that up as we go big time.
Yeah, like you said, if you, if you're consistently doing cardio
day in and day out, or every single day, or whatever you like
you said, you're In yourself up to have that as your Baseline.
So if you ever deviate from that amount of cardio or you stop
doing it for a week, your Baseline now just got affected
and you may actually gain weight by not doing the cardio.
So hundred percent so backwards. Yeah.
We don't want to go backwards plus who likes being a slave to
the treadmill. I mean it's just boring.
Like how do they go for a hike on the weekends and call it
good. I mean, you want to maintain
enough cardiovascular health that you're not getting winded
after, you know, three reps of squats.
That's going to negatively impact your strength training
Endeavors, and your ability to put on more lean tissue.
But as long as you're able to still function a high rate with
your strength training, then definitely don't overthink the
cardio in the offseason. Yeah, absolutely Bingo.
What else you got cooking mean you get, what?
What is what is it like in Minnesota right now?
Apart from the weather, you are also home inspector.
Are you pretty is home inspecting season higher are
busier than normal are pretty average in the winter time
compared to the rest of the year.
Yes it's a little bit seasonal kind of just floats with the
real estate market activity. So this time of the year kind of
around the holiday season here it's slows down a little bit
usually just because there's not a whole lot of activity going
on. People are traveling or not
buying houses, Etc. But this month is actually been
pretty busy when I compare it to the last few December's.
So, the market Still rocking and rolling.
Real estate is still alive. That's my primary gig is doing
residential recreational home. Inspections.
So we do around I don't know. Seven to ten Home Inspections a
week and take it happens. I've got to schedule my own
time. What's up?
What's your average Step? Can't with that type of work.
Um actually let me look at my watch.
I did one this morning. Let's see.
I got about 48 hundred steps in that my morning appointment.
So usually I do one of the morning and one of the afternoon
or want just one a day or and just depends on to probably
around. Need is a thousand a day on
average still? Yeah, yeah, probably somewhere
in there. Nice.
Like man. It's pretty cool that you do
that. I used to be in real estate for
a short period of time and at Crystal's Family.
She's got several family members that our inspectors and I feel
that it's a pretty good gig like you're able to Make your own
schedule. Your flexible and regards to,
you know, when you do things works out, well with your
training time, I mean, it just seems like a pretty solid
routine. It really is.
Yeah, it's demanding like, you know, trying to own and operate
your own business, but you've got several of them.
I've just got this one, but, but the reward is worth it.
You set your own schedule. If you need to get out of town,
do something, short, notice, or get out of town, go on a
vacation or spend some time with family, friends, whatever.
Gives you the allows you to do that with the freedom, you know,
being your own boss. So you would about the the
interest rates continually hiking up causing a downplay and
people's desire to purchase home and then that having a
corresponding effect on home, inspections it could I think
there's always going to be people buying and selling houses
and stuff though. So we will just kind of see what
happens. I remember when I first got my
I've got a real estate license as well.
When I first got my license back in 20 2008 2009.
The old-timer agents at the office remembered that when he
first got his license, 20, 30 years prior to that interest
rates, were 17 18 percent. So, I don't think and people
were still buying houses back then, so I don't think we're,
hopefully we're not on part of hit that kind of number, but
people, people still got to live somewhere, so, we'll see.
Ya feel like, I mean, I've got this, I'm subscribe.
I don't read a lot of news letters, but there's one like
business /, Eric /, not know, just current day of Vincent's.
I do that again. I'll read that instead of
watching the news. I don't really watch the news at
all, but there's all this fear mongering in it about interest
rates and what's going to happen and the economy and whether or
not you know, Twitter is going to go kaput because of Elon like
all this just drama and I've got the point out, I just pretty
much like breathe through it super quick because it's just
doesn't, it doesn't, it's not conducive to a healthy
productive day. Like, if you wake up and your
skin and they all this fear, and this is I'd literally do not
ever. Watch the news.
Like, there's just so much negativity out there.
And right now everything's in a flux with the economy and
interest rates and people are worried about the next recession
and you just you're so much less productive in your day and what
you have control over. It's just not worth it.
Yeah, totally agree. If you watch the news and
everything on the news scares you and it just puts you into a
different state of mind. It affects everything in your
entire life. So, like you said, it's not
worth it. It's just go about your business
to what works for you. You and what affects you and
take everything else with a grain of salt plus you're going
to do this next show and then you going to compete that Pro
Show and then you just going to you know make enough from your
pro bodybuilding career that you'll not need to do anything
else. Hey you never know as you watch
the Olympics. What's that?
Do you watch the Olympia this past weekend?
All I. Yeah, custom stuff on online.
Social media. I didn't like streaming or
anything. I would love to go out to an
Olympia out there. One of these years, I just
sebum. He's my favorite of all time.
He's the guy. Yeah, I so it's kind of weird
man. Like there's not I don't watch
sports that. I don't watch football.
I don't watch any sports but I'll watch bodybuilding because
I know these people and not, not personally, but I know of them.
I follow them. I'm I'm kind of seeing what
they're doing with their training, their nutrition and
I'm in the sport myself but like it's kind of wild last year.
They did it. I think they streamed it on
Amazon I believe and then this year they did like it was like
pay-per-view so kind of like boxing tournament so I had to
pay 69 bucks whatever it was to watch the Olympia and man it was
they had it, they added streaming.
So late it started at like 7:00 p.m.
Pacific time and they did the Olympia like the open
bodybuilding, the very end. And so it was like, you know,
1:00 in the morning, I'm like, there's no way I'm gonna be able
to make it so I just went to bed, but I'm watching the next
day. Yeah.
And it's pretty wild and like there's a, there's a bunch of
upsets to it. For sure.
You know, big Romney did not did not, repeat did not get that.
Oh, title again this year. But yeah I think classic
physique and sebum, you know, Chris Bumstead.
I think he is certainly the the more picturesque version of what
I would aspire to look like in body building as opposed to what
you're seeing the open. Bodybuilding classes for sure.
Yeah, for sure he's like, I don't know, it's for me.
Anyways, he's like the optimal package right there.
Yeah, that's that's he just wins in my opinion.
Yeah, I think it's been cool to see classic physique as a
division. Really pick up in popularity and
just, you know, people buy into it because it was I remember
when that was no longer a class or before that was a class.
There was men's physique, then there was just open
bodybuilding. Then they opened up to 12
bodybuilding to kind of cater to the People that were shorter and
coming in lighter and then they opened up classic physique and
it's like, classic physique is more prominent in more popular
now than these open bodybuilding shows, which is, I think that
speaks to The Testament of, you know what the general population
finds, you know, attractive or finds, you know, appealing I
guess. Yeah, yep.
I think the audience is growing for classic.
It's it kind of bridges. The gap between men's physique,
and bodybuilding and it brings back a little bit of the old
school mentality. The old-school look too because
they've got some specific posing in classic that you don't have
in men's physique or in men's body building.
Yeah. Some natural federation's do not
like the idea of incorporating a classic physique division.
Have you run into that at all? Yeah actually I think that that
show that we mentioned or I was talking to you about the one and
that's in between my two other shows, the new one, the u.s.
BF Federation. I do believe they are maybe one
of the federation's that doesn't appeal to the classic.
They they will run a men's physique and immense
bodybuilding but they don't want to have that Center that line
down the middle and I honestly like their reasoning like that.
They at least from the people. I've talked to that at these are
promoters. If you look at natural
bodybuilding and you look at the open bodybuilding class like
that that is a much more realistic representation of what
classic bodybuilding is. It's like natural open
bodybuilding is kind of classic physique.
Anyways, it's just called something different.
So I think I think it makes sense to go there and like
you're not seeing anybody that's natural.
Bodybuilding competing at 300 pounds like you are on the
Olympia stage. Yeah for sure.
I mean the two classes do overlap a bit, it some would
argue to say that they're essentially the same dissipating
on the posing and what kind of trunks you're wearing but I can
see both sides. Yeah, I don't know, man, it is
crazy there. Like I do, I love Of watching
the bodybuilding shows. I love the sport itself, but
then you look at, like, the, like the mr.
Olympia title. You know, hottie took it this
year, I think the prize-winning for first place on that
division. Open bodybuilding was what?
Like four hundred thousand dollars.
You look at the most prestigious natural bodybuilding shows in
the world and it's like a couple Grand.
Yeah, right. It's kind of wild have this
person. Disparity is between those two?
Yeah, that'd be a good payday. Yeah, yeah.
That would be a good Payday, for sure.
I just wish. It's unfortunate to me that the
sport of bodybuilding as much as I love.
It is not really representative of what a truly healthy
individual is, if they're competing at that level, you
know? Yeah, for sure.
It's skewed for the competition. Yeah, people want to pay to see
the freaks, which I totally get, but it's, you know, people look
at that. They look at the magazines and
look at the sport and they Market themselves as being the
ideal picture of health. And And you had, like, all these
bodybuilders dropping dead, this past year, like we do some type
of complications cardiac-related.
And it's like, I don't know, it's just sad that that natural
bodybuilding, which truly I do think is a much more, you know,
much more representative of a truly healthy individual.
That's just not getting near the exposure.
I agree. Yeah, the the totally natural
folks, they're obviously not going to be of that size or of
that caliber, but it's more like you said of a representative
perception of what's healthy and what's ideal, and what's optimal
as far as performance goes, I do think natural.
Bodybuilding is certainly gaining any traction that I feel
like there's more competitors in these shows.
There's more in the certainly more natural shows that you have
as options now than you did five ten years ago.
I mean, you've got one, you get one, Pump It Up in Colorado that
you can think about doing this is the first year doing that
one. Yeah, yeah.
I think so. I think for whatever reason is,
gaining popularity, and traction, and more people are
maybe considering staying the natural route versus the
unnatural route. So it's nice to see because it
kind of, if you're on the same competitor level as other
natural athletes, it's really exciting.
It's really fun because, you know, how just how hard
everybody backstage is working when you're all natural are all
putting in the time, Yeah, and I feel like there's just a lot
more camaraderie to, like, everybody since everybody is not
that the people in the open divisions or not, you know, not
working as hard. You know, the people that are
putting the ifbb, they're certainly putting in the work,
but when you look at the natural federation's, they're just,
there seems to be a lot more camaraderie backstage at least
in the ones I've competed with and say, like, an NPC show
because I don't know, everybody just there to be the best that
they can be. Yep, absolutely.
But I don't know man. I love a sport.
I'm excited to be prepping here soon.
I'm excited for your prep. I'm excited that you and Ben are
doing the same show. I'm going to try and make it a
point to get out there in person, if at all possible.
Do they allow dream tan? That show are they super strict
on what the tanning is. I'm not sure.
I actually haven't even looked up into the info for that one
for registration yet. I'm not sure it's been announced
until maybe first of the year, so we'll see.
Otherwise a lot of times those shows have got a an event tan
That's on site that really everyone just kind of just sets
up with them and they tan the whole works.
Probably at The Host Hotel or wherever they The Event Center
is so we'll just kind of see what the information comes out.
Nice nephew, do those two shows right?
After that one, that means you can't get to, to Wild on that
steak dinner afterwards which is kind of 11 down solid one
downside. That's right.
Yeah. But nope, I won't be having any
sugary candy. Yeah.
Definitely. No sugarcane D and honestly,
shoot me in. Like when Crystal did her show
way back in the day, we went to an all-you-can-eat Brazilian
steakhouse afterwards. And she went to town man, like,
she ate all kinds of meat but she did not have near the
adverse effects. Like I would not be surprised if
she ate an equal caloric intake. As to what, you know, these
competitors that are consuming a bunch of carbs or having
post-show, but like the adverse effects were so minuscule, by
comparison. Sure.
Yeah, blood sugar. Probably just didn't even
barely. Budge.
Mmm. Yeah blood sugar flux was
minimum. I don't remember I think we did
a glucometer test them but it was too far back for me to
remember but yeah not near the adverse effects.
Not near the crazy. High, the Crazy Drop the GI
distress, it's just not any of them.
Not any of that. Well man, talk to me about.
Let's see here, I want to, I want to be respectful of your
time. But what else you got cooking?
As far as 2023 codes. We got this last couple weeks of
2022. You get the prep obviously, but
what else you have on the horizon sketchy excited, I'm
excited to continue to coach. So, I've got some fresh people
that have recently signed up. So we'll get them through the
holiday season and into the first year on the right foot.
So we've got some ketogenic nutritional coaching Watching
going with that. And just probably the other
thing that's going to take the most of my time and the most of
my attention is going to be prep.
So I really, really enjoy being in a prep because it gives you
something to focus on, give you some some value of importance.
Every single day, hit your numbers, hit the gym, and every
week, you just kind of gauge the results and tweak stuff along.
So I love it. I love it.
Has the has the working with clients during this time of
year. Do you get a lot of pushback
from them wanting to indulge in holiday festivities?
It's not too bad. My main my main I guess Point to
stress with them or just make them aware of is just be open
and honest. So like if you end up going to a
holiday party or a family event or something, in the end up kind
of getting off track or having some things that you normally
wouldn't eat or you fall victim to peer pressure or something.
Just tell me about it. You know, it's not that big a
deal where human the goal. Long term is to set yourself up
with something that can be sustainable, and healthy, and
comes as second nature. So, if that takes a little bit
of learning along the way, Way, so be it.
But, you know, maybe take that opportunity to learn why you
deviated, why you ate, what you ate, why you felt like you had
to and then what did you learn from it?
And you know, how did you feel after?
Because that's what kind of sets yourself up for, if you come to
that same decision making spot again, you can think back and
try to remember, you know, did you get sick?
Did you not enjoy the results? Did it throw you off for a few
days? Whatever?
Yeah, feel like simply being honest with it.
Honest with the Challenge with yourself is key.
I mean if like people are going to deviate nobody benefits by
hiding that deviation like you just have to own it and if you
yep own it then you can also own the repercussions of that and if
you owned repercussions of that then you can ideally have enough
self awareness and discipline the next time to have enough
know, with all as to whether or not those repercussions were
worth that deviation to begin with.
Yep. And I actually for many, many
years suffered with, like a Order to eating, where?
If I had an intense feeling of anxiety.
I don't know why. And I know a lot of people do
this but it just would go find something to eat.
It wasn't hungry and it didn't crave anything.
I would just for some reason that was what would satisfy my
anxiety. But then, I always look back on
it. I think.
What the heck that that did nothing.
And now I just over eight, but I was supposed to be eating and
now I have to, you know, just look forward and try not to let
it happen again and try to figure out how to stop that
trigger point or what that trigger point.
Was work through it. The next time.
Yeah. Feel like anything that can, I
don't know. Like human Nature's is a funny
thing man. Like you get stretchers you get
anxieties people. Often times turn to food to fill
that void and I don't know what the primary drivers for that.
I used to do that as well. I don't know why that becomes a
thing to I think because it's easier to justify like it's
easier to justify going for more food than it is to justify, you
know, taking a hit of cocaine like it's smaller bird.
Judge to Gap are smaller Gap bridge.
I suppose, so to speak with just reaching for more food because
just socially acceptable. Yep.
And it's readily available. You do you have food in your
cupboard, food in your fridge, food in the drawer food
everywhere. So, you did something to bridge
that opening, our fill that void that you feel are satisfy that
sweet tooth or whatever gives you that little brain
stimulation. And so you just got to kind of
own up to it. Learn about why it's happening
and figure out how to work through it the next time.
Yeah. But a percent.
I think time. Heels, all sort of speak.
Like when you go long enough without leaning on food to fill
that void, you realize that food is not necessary to fill that
void. Right on.
Yep, I've learned now that if I feel that weird feeling of, you
know, kind of like one of binge or something is wanting me to
walk to the refrigerator. What I don't really need to walk
the refrigerator, I just stopped think about it, have a huge
glass of water and if it's nice outside of just go for a 10
minute walk and that feeling completely.
Appears. Yeah, one thing that I do in a
prep when my calories are really low and it's honestly more, so
just hunger not on me than than psychological aspect of it.
But I'll just simply go for a walk outside for like 20 minutes
before I'm supposed to eat and then that just allows me to be
present so that when I do eat I don't rush through it and
actually enjoy it and then I don't know, I'm satisfied at the
end of it. Yeah, yeah for sure you have a
good few can actually slow down the process of eating to wear
your satisfying yourself. That is huge because sometimes
we're in a rush and we eat too quick and then we're done eating
and everything. I'll dang, I didn't even really
enjoy that it did. We want them doing?
Oh, mad at your last breath. Like that.
We get low enough to where it made sense to do.
Man, I think less prep the lowest ever got was right
around. Was at 1600, calories or so.
So I don't think I ever really did all mad.
I've done all about in the past but we didn't really capitalize
that during a prep. I think I did that on the last
month or so of my prep and I feel Like as counterintuitive as
it may sound, that was actually beneficial to because I didn't
have to, I didn't I when you're that low and you're hungry, you
eat a meal. And you start thinking about
when the next Millie has. Whereas if you just simply have
one meal, you don't have to think about anymore.
It's like it's done that. That's that's it for the day and
then you get a weight and have it the next day, but like you
don't obsess about it as much when you're only having one
meal, it seems. Yeah, that's true, for sure.
If you're doing all mad because you know, if you have a
designated time where you're going to plan on eating your Of
the day and maybe that's in the afternoon early evening or
something it really kind of lets you hone in and stay attentive
to everything else throughout the rest of the day without
having to worry about, when you're going to get that meal
in. What's coming up?
You know, worrying, if you need to plan ahead, we're going to be
to get that meal in, but you already have it already already
chalked up in your mind Bingo. Well, I'm gonna end up with one
parting thought here man, let you have a parting.
Thought here, what have you noticed?
As far as like you're in the keto space your online, your own
social, what have You noticed as one of the Hot Topics as of
late, like for a while. There is the protein, which is
still kind of a Hot Topic. But what are you seeing right
now? Is being like a hot snot,
actually, controversial may be, controversial topic that a lot
people talking about right now Mom.
Gosh, there's just so many. It's kind of just a it's a muddy
space. A little bit right now.
I guess for it for a lot of people that are kind of getting
into it fresh or just thinking about keto or just kind of
getting delved into the information, it's kind of a
muddy space but if you can just simplify it and get back to the
basics, you know, ketogenic way of eating is essentially the
absence of carbs that mean simply put there's a lot of
people who I think want to lean on all the keto labeled marketed
Foods. Think that's one of the biggest
growing Industries with of big food is they're coming up with
all these products, you know, loaves of bread and cookies and
all this sugary snacks and things that are really usually a
junk food item. Yeah.
But they're flipping them flipping the ingredients around,
flipping, the macros around just to make them look like they have
low net carbs and they can slap keto on the packaging.
And it's really I think it's really distracting everybody and
pulling them in the wrong direction.
It's kind of well man. Like you've been, you've been
you've been cute enough for how long it's probably was over
eight years now. Yeah.
So you and I have both been news
for a freaking long time and when we first got into the
space, like yeah, we've learned a ton from since then we've
changed things a little bit since then.
But then the day, there hasn't been a massive need to deviate
too far from what just the traditional Killed rennick died.
That was, like, people try to overcomplicate things.
Yeah, I think it's because big food wants to get their piece of
the pie. You know, they see a market
there where they can use the buzzword keto or low carb low
net carbs, sugar free or whatever, just to try to make a
few extra bucks but in the all reality of things Quito is
there's nothing that has to be labeled keto at the grocery
store to live. Keto, you simply just stay on
the outside of the grocery store.
Meaning you hit all the refrigerated sections in the
store, you know, meat cheese, eggs, dairy, that's you there's
keto right there and none of that stuff has to have keto on
it. So like you said, we've been in
it for a while. Back before there was kilo bread
and keto cookies, and kilo bars and, you know, all that keto
stuff. But think that's it's, it's kind
of disappointing. Because the people that are
looking for something, that's a solution are being pulled in so
many directions that don't have to be there.
Yeah, I agree. I think I think it's important
for, you know, people like you just to be simply showcasing
what's possible without all that stuff.
I mean, shoot, I own food product with key tobruk and I'm
still the first person tell people, hey look, don't feel
like you have to make anything a packaged food order to make this
diet work and be sustainable for.
Like that's just all in addition to not because of so that that
scheme and I mean I feel like when we got into it like you
said there was none of these products available in the first
place and it was just less distraction as a result.
Yeah, for sure, I'm right there with you, man.
We'll shoot brother. I'm super excited about the
prep. I'm excited about what 2023
holds for you, and I'm excited to be working with you again, as
always. And I'm excited for what you
bring to the table as a coach, so where can people go to find
out more about you, man. Instagram is where I am the most
Lively probably Quito Greg, 80 kg 80 on there.
We got a Facebook page as well. That's that's probably the
easiest way to reach out to me. Nice, I'll link.
Get to that and you are a deeper State could have coached.
So anybody that wants to work with, you can do so and your
coaching is available where we can go down the deeper State
keto, Instagram or website a persecutor.com I'm on there,
with Coach Jen. We've both got some different
options as far as coaching goes, even consultations.
And if you've got questions about either of those options,
you can always shoot me a message in advance.
Awesome, awesome. Well Greg, it's always a
pleasure, ma'am. Appreciate what you do, and I'll
be messaging you. You in slack with the macros
this week. So I'll be in touch awesome.
I appreciate a man, as always take care, brother, you too.