March 5, 2025 • 22 mins
Tired of feeling like a zombie despite chugging enough caffeine to power a small city?
Turns out, being a walking Red Bull advertisement isn't the flex we thought it was. Who knew?
In this episode, learn how to stop accidentally sabotaging your health (spoiler alert: that 9 PM pre-workout isn't doing you any favors), discover why feeling like Superman might actually mean you're about to crash harder than a Windows 95 computer, and finally figure out why your "healthy lifestyle" feels more like a punishment than a solution.
Warning: This episode contains actual useful information that might accidentally make you healthy. Side effects may include sleeping better and not hating mornings anymore.
TOPICS DISCUSSED
- Why your relationship with sleep is more toxic than your ex
- The three stages of burnout (spoiler: the first one feels amazing, until it doesn't)
- Why your gut might be plotting against you like a tiny bacterial villain
- Fancy medical tests that actually tell you what's wrong (revolutionary, right?)
- Supplements: Because sometimes eating kale isn't enough
- How to trick yourself into healthy habits without the mental breakdown
- Environmental toxins: Because apparently, everything is trying to kill us
- Breaking up with caffeine (it's not you, it's the adrenal fatigue)
- Inflammation: Your body's way of saying "Stop being an idiot"
- Basic health stuff that actually works (boring but effective, like a Volvo)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Are you tired of feeling like a walking dumpster fire despite doing everything right?
(00:04):
Meet Tommy Barabee, my guest today.
He's a guy who went from human disaster to health expert after years of being his ownworst enemy.
Sound relatable?
in this episode that might actually change your life.
No pressure.
You'll learn why your healthy habits might actually be plotting against you, how to spotburnout before you become a cautionary tale, the truth about why you feel like trash, it's
(00:25):
complicated.
and some actually useful strategies that don't require selling your soul.
and we'll also talk about why sleeping a little better is more useful than your entiresupplement drawer.
So put the phone in your pocket, hang out,
unless of course you enjoy feeling like a zombie your choice no judgment okay maybe alittle
(01:03):
I love a man who practices what he preaches.
I was just looking at what you do on Instagram in terms of some of the advice you give.
Just watched a clip where you're talking about prioritizing sleep by wearing the blueblockers, among other things.
And here we are with the blue blockers.
Tell me why this is important to you.
Obviously, it's nine o'clock at night there for you.
So you've got them on.
But why is this a piece of your routine?
I mean Jeremy I suffered with insomnia from a very very young age and You know it wasn'tuntil I was like 23 24 I've been in so many different jobs right I'd left jobs and quit
(01:37):
jobs and got sapped from jobs like fired because I Couldn't get a proper night's sleep Mybest hours of sleep was between like 4 & 5 a.m.
Until like 10 or 11 a.m.
Yeah, so I was struggling so much for sleep
all throughout my life.
And it wasn't until I was about 25 that I decided to start reading a book in bed withcandles.
(02:03):
That was the first ever thing I'd done and the first ever thing that noticeably improvedmy insomnia.
From there over the next 10 years I did that and little other habits tapped on.
The blue blocking glasses didn't come in until about two years ago.
But.
Over time, as you will know, you learn more things, you start implementing more things,finding what helps and what doesn't, and yeah, eventually got to the Blue Blockers and
(02:29):
they're a big part of it now.
7pm they come on.
Oh nice nice.
Yeah, it is funny how that happens though, right?
Like you do one little thing and see the needle move in the right direction and all of asudden you get really curious about wow if that's all it took what else can I do?
but I think as well what a lot of people don't really see is like, I don't know, theymight try one thing, right, and be like, nah, that doesn't work, that doesn't work, or
(02:53):
they might try a supplement, but actually, what it really needs is to be four or five ofthose little things all together.
That's when you start getting the difference, but too many people will try one thing andjust write it off straight away.
Yeah, because everyone's looking for the magic pill for whatever ailment they're having.
They want that one supplement to suddenly change their life, and odds are that's not good.
(03:18):
So that poor sleep was just one of a number of problems.
You had a couple decades of struggle that led you to where you are now.
Set that up for us.
What was that like?
that was so basically, know, I won't go into it too much because I want to keep itrelevant, but I started off as kid.
I had a birth defect, had three operations by the time I was eight, two on the birthdefects, one to have my tonsils out.
(03:40):
Home life was a bit crazy.
My mum had schizophrenia.
It drove all my family away.
First my dad, then my sister, then my brother.
It was just me left with my mum.
By the age of nine, I couldn't handle it anymore.
I was a very sick kid as well.
The insomnia started.
I was in and out of hospital with breathing issues, constant infections, and to top itall, my mum was the way she was.
(04:02):
And I left home when I was nine to move in with my dad.
And then the chronic illness really started then.
know, eczema, psoriasis, the sleep issues got worse, anxiety.
Just honestly, the long list of symptoms, like it's hard to believe how much was going on.
But I became a personal trainer.
when I was about 23 years old.
(04:23):
and the worst part of it was that I was far from a picture of health.
And I was trying to get my body to look how I thought a personal trainer should look.
But I wasn't sleeping, right?
So how was I training hard and getting these workouts in?
I was using a load of caffeine.
I wasn't sleeping and I was literally living off caffeine.
I was having a Monster Energy drink just to get myself to train a few clients, give thembit of enthusiasm, you know.
(04:48):
And then I was having a pre-workout to train.
you know, I'd do a training session and then I would go sleep in the gym after lunch.
Lunch would put me to sleep.
I'd find somewhere in, because you know as a PT you do a few hours in the morning, in thedaytime you got a bit of free time, and in evening you got all the clients again.
So in that daytime, instead of me going home, I was having lunch in the gym and I wasfinding some, they had sunbeds in the gym.
(05:12):
I was going to sleep on the sunbeds for a while and then training the next lot of clientswhich again I needed another monster energy drink to do.
But as many of you
listening will know is that you know it's like a vicious cycle it's like you can't sleepthen it's the sleep is even worse so yeah becoming a PT you know that was that was the
gateway into me getting myself to a better place health-wise
(05:35):
So then what was the turning point?
went through all of this and it clearly wasn't working.
Yeah, it wasn't.
so you know, I got my body in a place where I was, the only thing I was happy with,Jeremy, was the way my body looked.
But from the head upwards, in fact from the chest upwards, I absolutely hated myselfbecause I was riddled with eczema and psoriasis.
And it was so embarrassing, I'd wake up every morning, I'd look in the mirror, I'd getupset and I'd think, wow, you've got to go in to work to, you know.
(06:04):
potentially be the picture of health to train clients to help them, but you feel awfulabout yourself.
And I guess even though all this other stuff I had going on, I guess that was the onething.
We've all got that one pain point that pushes us far enough that we're ready to dosomething about it.
So it was that for me, yeah.
So what was step one?
(06:24):
What did you do to turn things around?
one, I started with diet.
I thought that only, and I changed my whole diet completely.
And I'd say I got about 5 % better.
But I'm telling you something now, 5 % was absolutely huge to me right then.
The depression lifted, the mood lifted, the skin got a little bit better, but 5 % was hugeto me.
(06:47):
And I went on for a few years like this until 5 % was no longer enough.
You I wanted more.
Why was diet not giving me any more?
Why was I having these flare-ups over and over again?
Why was my sleep still not improving?
Why were all these things still really bad for me?
And obviously by then I'd exhausted all avenues of doctors and specialists anddermatologists and all the ologists, right?
(07:12):
And you know, things just weren't changing for me.
So then I gradually learned more and more and more.
was studying, I was learning off of scientists, doctors, professors, like everything I
I and it became my hobby and lifestyle to learn absolutely everything.
I loved it because I thought, wow, I'm learning this stuff that a lot of people don'treally know.
(07:35):
And I thought, I'm putting all these things into practice.
I'm living this lifestyle.
Why don't I help other people?
If first I can get myself well, I want to help other people overcome similar issues.
I'm delighted to say I got myself well eventually by adding in
just diet, but looking at exercise, looking at stress reduction, looking at environmentaltoxicities, looking at scientifically proven supplementation and fixing my sleep, which
(08:06):
I'm still working on to this day, but always still a work in progress, but yeah, all theselittle pieces just gradually came on, tacked on.
So this became much more than a hobby.
It's now something you're doing for a...
something I do, I help guys overcome similar issues, guys that are dealing with digestiveissues, sleep, weight, libido, all that sort of thing.
(08:31):
And a big piece of it for me as well, Jeremy, and this is what I wanted to talk about aswell on your show, was I was training hard.
I was training hard every day, but my inflammation levels were going up and up and up, andI was thinking, my diet is perfect, or what I would call perfect at the time, right?
never a one size fits all approach, you know.
It's never one diet for everyone, but at the time I was thinking, I'm eating this way andI'm getting worse.
(08:56):
I was training hard, I was training late, and what I didn't know at the time, while I waskeeping myself stuck in that sympathetic branch of the nervous system, that's not a place
of healing.
We need to be able to get into that part of the nervous system to train hard, to respondto stress, but when you're stuck in that fight or flight all the time,
(09:16):
It's not a place where the body can feel safe and heal from these things.
So what's been the most surprising or the most sort game-changing thing you've discovered,either for yourself or maybe a common thread in the guys you've worked with?
Yeah, I mean there's just so many, I guess.
A common thing for guys that I work with is that when they're in what we call stage one ofburnout, they haven't got a clue, they feel like they can do everything.
(09:41):
They need very little sleep.
They're sleeping four hours a night.
They're working till midnight.
They're training at nine o'clock at night.
They're smashing a pre-workout at like eight p.m.
to get through their workout.
They feel like they can do everything, but they don't know.
That's the first stage of burnout.
because that can only last so long until they get into stage two and stage three where theimmune systems start showing signs of wear and tear, things start happening, they get sick
(10:07):
a bit more often, they're in pain a bit more often, they're fatigued and tired a littlebit more often, they've got more brain fog, and yeah, many don't, obviously they don't
come to me in that stage, they come a few stages along, you know, when I work with guys,so and you know, you probably know yourself, it's hard to tell
someone that they need to scale back to get better you know yeah it's not easy
(10:30):
There's a sort of a toxic thing in this space where someone's always trying to sell youwhat you need more of, what you need to add, what you need to make a new part of your
routine.
When often it is like you need to do less, rest more, and focus on the basic.
That's something we talk about here all the time.
It's just like you don't need the million dollar bottle of supplements.
(10:51):
You don't need the crazy gym tool that is
latest and greatest thing.
You just gotta get to bed on time.
You gotta not put trash in your face and drink a little bit of water once in a while andman how much better you'll feel overnight is crazy.
Exactly and you also said in one of your other podcasts that it takes people about 50times of hearing something, you know, so hopefully they're hearing this enough.
(11:14):
Right, maybe this is 49 or 50 today.
So what do you do?
So you work with guys and you try to get to the bottom of it.
You talked about, you know, there's a million different reasons for all these ailmentsthat these guys are dealing with.
What do you do to figure out what a specific need is for a specific client?
(11:35):
Well, with guys I work with, we have the option to use functional medicine lab testing.
So we can use different ways of testing.
We can use stool to look at how well the gut's functioning.
Some guys, their stool is coming back with parasites, right, or bacterial overgrowth,which is then causing them a whole host of other issues, right?
(11:57):
It's just leading to loads of other symptoms.
It could be allergies, it could be brain fog.
It most often is brain fog.
It's low libido, always, because these gut issues are perceived as the body as a stress.
That's one test we might look at.
We might look at especially a hair test, which is gonna show us mineral levels, but alsoheavy metal accumulation.
(12:20):
Again, heavy metals, mercury, arsenic, and lead, they're weighing down the body.
They're causing the body to be in a chronic state of stress.
And as you probably know yourself, stress is just stopping that production of
testosterone.
So guys are dealing with this weight gain that seems to have come out of nowhere orthey're struggling to put muscle on or they're not going to the gym and they feel like
(12:41):
they're blaming it on a lack of motivation when really it's sort of not their fault, theydon't really know they've got this going on and you know it's these things that are
putting them in a chronic state of stress.
So we use different tests depending on the person, depending on the situation to identifywhat's there too much of in the body.
Heavy metals, bacterial overgrowth, parasites, and what's there not enough of?
(13:05):
Vitamin deficiencies, mineral deficiencies, because you know people think of knowcalories, right?
But what we really want to think about is the micronutrients, you know, because those arethe things that really determine how we look, think, feel and function on a day-to-day
basis as well.
And then there's the lifestyle component of it, which you know you will know so well.
It's know, it's diet, but not just diet, it's exercise,
(13:28):
stress reduction, sleep, know, such huge parts, but it's then the coaching part of it isgetting these guys to do these things, Jeremy.
A lot of what you talked about there does fall under, I think, culture, and at least herein North America.
The food is a bit of a nightmare.
It's a bit of a horror show.
So even if you are, in theory, eating the right things, a lot of them have been sprayedwith God knows what and have been treated with God knows what that you're putting in your
(13:53):
body.
And this is where I think a lot of times supplementation comes up.
did mention that earlier that that's sort of part of what you work with folks on.
This is one that is tricky, because as you mentioned, you you take one and you
necessarily feel it.
It's got to be in combination with the better sleep and all these other things.
I know I take a fistful of vitamins every day and I honestly probably couldn't tell youyou know why I do.
(14:15):
There's no noticeable like wow I feel better wow I noticed this when I take this.
I do notice it when I stop taking like if I stop taking magnesium I suddenly don't sleepas well.
If I don't take as much vitamin D, the depression's a little bit harder to fight off,things like that.
So how do you know when you're looking at the endless wall of the many, vitamins, ifyou're just out there on your own, you're not working with a coach or someone like
(14:37):
yourself, how do I figure out which supplements I need and how do I know that they're theright ones?
Yeah, so it's a tough one, like you say, if you're not working with someone and you don'treally know, we've got what we call foundational supplements, which are the things that
the body needs to get on a day-to-day basis.
Vitamin D, zinc, B vitamins, not just B12, but all the B vitamin family, magnesium, thebody needs those things.
(15:00):
But I work with a lot of guys that when they come to me, they're taking all thesedifferent herbs, they're taking ashwagandha, taking, they're using mushrooms, and
mushrooms are
They're a big craze now.
And as great as these things can be, they're a bit like treating symptoms, a bit like whatour conventional medicine care does.
They're just treating symptoms, and while they feel alright on those things, when theycome off them, the problem remains.
(15:25):
So it's the foundational stuff that people should really be looking at.
I'd always say if you don't have a clue where to start, try and go for a goodmultivitamin.
And one rule I'll always say to people is
Never buy your supplements at the same place you buy your toilet roll, you know get get adecent quality supplement Pay a decent price for it because then you know, you're paying
(15:45):
for quality, you know So yeah a multi-vitamin would be a good place to start
though, are you maybe paying for the brand name?
Because a lot of times the brand name is the one that's expensive and I don't know thatthat's necessary.
I mean there are different things to look out for.
I could give you two really top companies right now that I would recommend.
One's Fawn Research and the other is Pure Encapsulations.
(16:09):
Those two I would recommend to anybody.
But yeah, it's not easy right now.
They're coming out of everywhere, supplement companies.
So it's not easy, for sure.
then a wildly unregulated market to so who knows what your yeah we talked about exerciseand something else we talk about here is just you know starting somewhere right like just
(16:30):
getting off the couch going for a walk something simple
colleague of mine was just sharing with me the fitness expert online showing the 18 bestbicep workouts and ranking them and choosing the best and if you're into bodybuilding and
stuff cool the other 99 % of us out here just need to get started.
What do you recommend for folks that are probably feeling sluggish, probably feelingtired, don't feel like they have time, it's not a priority, but they keep hearing, okay,
(16:53):
maybe I should move my ass.
Where do they start?
What's good way to get them going?
Yeah, I mean like you say, know, and maybe some people don't wanna hear it, because it'snot very sexy, but start really, you would have probably said this, and I've heard it as
well, hundreds of times on this show, start small, do a 10 minute walk.
You know, once you've got a 10 minute walk in place every day, you can either increase it,or you can put something else in that slot.
(17:18):
You can put some weights in there, because you've built the habit of that's my 10 minutesevery day.
But what I find with a lot of guys that I work with is if you just tell them to dosomething once a day, but you say, yeah, put it in anywhere you want in the day, the
chances are it might not get done or they might not have time for it.
Whereas you will probably know the power of habit stacking.
(17:39):
If you stack that, you know, if you say, right, now this is what I started doing with mybreath work, yeah?
I always wanted to do breath work, but I didn't really wanna do it, you know?
thought it's gonna benefit me, but I don't really wanna do it.
Okay, I wanna do it every day.
So, as soon as I, every single day, what do I do every single day?
I put veg in the steam, I turn the steamer on, right, so as soon as I've turned thatsteamer on every single day, no matter what, I go and do, I start with two minutes of
(18:06):
breath work every single day.
that turned into a habit, I made it five minutes.
And then it went up and up and up until it was 10 minutes.
So, you know, coming back to the exercise piece, do something small every single day, putit on the end of an existing habit that you're already doing.
This is an option, a great option, a great way to add it in, and it's got more chance ofsticking.
(18:28):
And things just add on to that over time.
And especially if it's something you like and this is something where maybe a 10 minutewalk isn't for you.
Maybe you're losing your mind because you're so bored and need to be pushed more like ifit's not something you enjoy, you're probably going to quit.
Yes.
Why would you keep voluntarily doing something that you don't on some level either feelbetter from doing it or at least have a little bit of fun?
(18:48):
Definitely, definitely.
And you know, if that is the case, because you know, I find walking boring, but if I'mgonna go out and walk, I'm gonna do something like make a phone call or catch up with a
friend that I haven't spoke to for a while, then you don't even realise you're walking.
You're just, you know.
Or the study when you talk about habit stacking, I that's where you listen to amotivational podcast.
That's where you listen to a book that you've been meaning to read forever.
(19:12):
Like, have it read to you while you're taking that walk.
Exactly.
the family, spend some time with your kids, have integrated into the family lifestyle.
So it's not just there's 10 less minutes with dad.
Maybe it's something that they can do with you.
100 % yeah, so you can make it enjoyable.
There's ways of making it enjoyable for sure.
so Tommy, you sent me this great list, sort of five first steps for guys that are verymuch in this situation, trying to figure out how turn things around.
(19:34):
Tell us what's in this guide and how our listeners can.
Yeah, mean, you know, it's the things that, the foundational things, right?
And as we know, they might sound boring, but they're the things that are gonna move theneedle the furthest.
They're the things you need to master before you add in all the other things.
So let me give you an example of sleep, right?
Now, for years I knew I needed to sleep more.
(19:56):
I just couldn't, right?
I didn't know how.
I didn't know about dimming lights at night and stopping eating a few hours before bed.
I was eating right up until bedtime, you know.
I was eating sugar.
and all sorts of things, I was doing all the things that were stopping me from getting aproper sleep.
So in this guide, there's a lot of things that you're probably gonna be like, I didn'tknow that.
(20:17):
They're not the basic, obvious things you're normally hearing about.
They're things that are really scientifically proven to help you get better rest, betternutrition, and some of the supplements that I find that most of the guys that I work with
are deficient in as well.
foundational things that you can take to feel and function at your best.
(20:39):
And where can we find that guy?
You'll find that guide.
You can reach out to me.
I'll get that sent across to you.
can reach out to me on Instagram.
The name is Berabee Healthy.
So it's B-E-R-R-A underscore B-E underscore healthy.
Berabee Healthy.
You can find me on Facebook under Tommy Berabee as well.
(21:00):
So I'm in those places.
we'll throw those links in the show description for this episode as well.
Tommy, thanks so much for your time today.
Any closing thoughts you want to leave us with here?
Nah, think we've covered quite a lot, Jeremy, so I really appreciate you having me on.
And yeah, I hope some of the guys listening can take some of this knowledge, becauseknowledge is power, when implemented, and get to feeling the best.
(21:23):
That is the trick so often, that pesky implementation part.
We've got the consuming content part down, it's the actual implementation.
Awesome, thanks so much for your time and wisdom today, Tommy, appreciate
Thank you.
All right, my thanks to Tommy Barabee for joining us on the show today.
You can learn more about him through the links in the show description for this episode atthe fit mess.com or whatever podcast player you're using.
(21:44):
But that's going to do it for this week.
Thanks so much for listening.
We will be back next week with a huge new announcement about the show and the some bigchanges we're making here.
So make sure you don't miss it.
You can catch it at the fit mess.com or again on that podcast player you're using rightnow.
Hit subscribe, you won't miss the episode.
We will see you in about a week.
Thanks so much for listening.
Are you tired of feeling like a walking dumpster fire despite doing everything right?
(00:04):
Meet Tommy Barabee, my guest today.
He's a guy who went from human disaster to health expert after years of being his ownworst enemy.
Sound relatable?
in this episode that might actually change your life.
No pressure.
You'll learn why your healthy habits might actually be plotting against you, how to spotburnout before you become a cautionary tale, the truth about why you feel like trash, it's
(00:25):
complicated.
and some actually useful strategies that don't require selling your soul.
and we'll also talk about why sleeping a little better is more useful than your entiresupplement drawer.
So put the phone in your pocket, hang out,
unless of course you enjoy feeling like a zombie your choice no judgment okay maybe alittle
(01:03):
I love a man who practices what he preaches.
I was just looking at what you do on Instagram in terms of some of the advice you give.
Just watched a clip where you're talking about prioritizing sleep by wearing the blueblockers, among other things.
And here we are with the blue blockers.
Tell me why this is important to you.
Obviously, it's nine o'clock at night there for you.
So you've got them on.
But why is this a piece of your routine?
I mean Jeremy I suffered with insomnia from a very very young age and You know it wasn'tuntil I was like 23 24 I've been in so many different jobs right I'd left jobs and quit
(01:37):
jobs and got sapped from jobs like fired because I Couldn't get a proper night's sleep Mybest hours of sleep was between like 4 & 5 a.m.
Until like 10 or 11 a.m.
Yeah, so I was struggling so much for sleep
all throughout my life.
And it wasn't until I was about 25 that I decided to start reading a book in bed withcandles.
(02:03):
That was the first ever thing I'd done and the first ever thing that noticeably improvedmy insomnia.
From there over the next 10 years I did that and little other habits tapped on.
The blue blocking glasses didn't come in until about two years ago.
But.
Over time, as you will know, you learn more things, you start implementing more things,finding what helps and what doesn't, and yeah, eventually got to the Blue Blockers and
(02:29):
they're a big part of it now.
7pm they come on.
Oh nice nice.
Yeah, it is funny how that happens though, right?
Like you do one little thing and see the needle move in the right direction and all of asudden you get really curious about wow if that's all it took what else can I do?
but I think as well what a lot of people don't really see is like, I don't know, theymight try one thing, right, and be like, nah, that doesn't work, that doesn't work, or
(02:53):
they might try a supplement, but actually, what it really needs is to be four or five ofthose little things all together.
That's when you start getting the difference, but too many people will try one thing andjust write it off straight away.
Yeah, because everyone's looking for the magic pill for whatever ailment they're having.
They want that one supplement to suddenly change their life, and odds are that's not good.
(03:18):
So that poor sleep was just one of a number of problems.
You had a couple decades of struggle that led you to where you are now.
Set that up for us.
What was that like?
that was so basically, know, I won't go into it too much because I want to keep itrelevant, but I started off as kid.
I had a birth defect, had three operations by the time I was eight, two on the birthdefects, one to have my tonsils out.
(03:40):
Home life was a bit crazy.
My mum had schizophrenia.
It drove all my family away.
First my dad, then my sister, then my brother.
It was just me left with my mum.
By the age of nine, I couldn't handle it anymore.
I was a very sick kid as well.
The insomnia started.
I was in and out of hospital with breathing issues, constant infections, and to top itall, my mum was the way she was.
(04:02):
And I left home when I was nine to move in with my dad.
And then the chronic illness really started then.
know, eczema, psoriasis, the sleep issues got worse, anxiety.
Just honestly, the long list of symptoms, like it's hard to believe how much was going on.
But I became a personal trainer.
when I was about 23 years old.
(04:23):
and the worst part of it was that I was far from a picture of health.
And I was trying to get my body to look how I thought a personal trainer should look.
But I wasn't sleeping, right?
So how was I training hard and getting these workouts in?
I was using a load of caffeine.
I wasn't sleeping and I was literally living off caffeine.
I was having a Monster Energy drink just to get myself to train a few clients, give thembit of enthusiasm, you know.
(04:48):
And then I was having a pre-workout to train.
you know, I'd do a training session and then I would go sleep in the gym after lunch.
Lunch would put me to sleep.
I'd find somewhere in, because you know as a PT you do a few hours in the morning, in thedaytime you got a bit of free time, and in evening you got all the clients again.
So in that daytime, instead of me going home, I was having lunch in the gym and I wasfinding some, they had sunbeds in the gym.
(05:12):
I was going to sleep on the sunbeds for a while and then training the next lot of clientswhich again I needed another monster energy drink to do.
But as many of you
listening will know is that you know it's like a vicious cycle it's like you can't sleepthen it's the sleep is even worse so yeah becoming a PT you know that was that was the
gateway into me getting myself to a better place health-wise
(05:35):
So then what was the turning point?
went through all of this and it clearly wasn't working.
Yeah, it wasn't.
so you know, I got my body in a place where I was, the only thing I was happy with,Jeremy, was the way my body looked.
But from the head upwards, in fact from the chest upwards, I absolutely hated myselfbecause I was riddled with eczema and psoriasis.
And it was so embarrassing, I'd wake up every morning, I'd look in the mirror, I'd getupset and I'd think, wow, you've got to go in to work to, you know.
(06:04):
potentially be the picture of health to train clients to help them, but you feel awfulabout yourself.
And I guess even though all this other stuff I had going on, I guess that was the onething.
We've all got that one pain point that pushes us far enough that we're ready to dosomething about it.
So it was that for me, yeah.
So what was step one?
(06:24):
What did you do to turn things around?
one, I started with diet.
I thought that only, and I changed my whole diet completely.
And I'd say I got about 5 % better.
But I'm telling you something now, 5 % was absolutely huge to me right then.
The depression lifted, the mood lifted, the skin got a little bit better, but 5 % was hugeto me.
(06:47):
And I went on for a few years like this until 5 % was no longer enough.
You I wanted more.
Why was diet not giving me any more?
Why was I having these flare-ups over and over again?
Why was my sleep still not improving?
Why were all these things still really bad for me?
And obviously by then I'd exhausted all avenues of doctors and specialists anddermatologists and all the ologists, right?
(07:12):
And you know, things just weren't changing for me.
So then I gradually learned more and more and more.
was studying, I was learning off of scientists, doctors, professors, like everything I
I and it became my hobby and lifestyle to learn absolutely everything.
I loved it because I thought, wow, I'm learning this stuff that a lot of people don'treally know.
(07:35):
And I thought, I'm putting all these things into practice.
I'm living this lifestyle.
Why don't I help other people?
If first I can get myself well, I want to help other people overcome similar issues.
I'm delighted to say I got myself well eventually by adding in
just diet, but looking at exercise, looking at stress reduction, looking at environmentaltoxicities, looking at scientifically proven supplementation and fixing my sleep, which
(08:06):
I'm still working on to this day, but always still a work in progress, but yeah, all theselittle pieces just gradually came on, tacked on.
So this became much more than a hobby.
It's now something you're doing for a...
something I do, I help guys overcome similar issues, guys that are dealing with digestiveissues, sleep, weight, libido, all that sort of thing.
(08:31):
And a big piece of it for me as well, Jeremy, and this is what I wanted to talk about aswell on your show, was I was training hard.
I was training hard every day, but my inflammation levels were going up and up and up, andI was thinking, my diet is perfect, or what I would call perfect at the time, right?
never a one size fits all approach, you know.
It's never one diet for everyone, but at the time I was thinking, I'm eating this way andI'm getting worse.
(08:56):
I was training hard, I was training late, and what I didn't know at the time, while I waskeeping myself stuck in that sympathetic branch of the nervous system, that's not a place
of healing.
We need to be able to get into that part of the nervous system to train hard, to respondto stress, but when you're stuck in that fight or flight all the time,
(09:16):
It's not a place where the body can feel safe and heal from these things.
So what's been the most surprising or the most sort game-changing thing you've discovered,either for yourself or maybe a common thread in the guys you've worked with?
Yeah, I mean there's just so many, I guess.
A common thing for guys that I work with is that when they're in what we call stage one ofburnout, they haven't got a clue, they feel like they can do everything.
(09:41):
They need very little sleep.
They're sleeping four hours a night.
They're working till midnight.
They're training at nine o'clock at night.
They're smashing a pre-workout at like eight p.m.
to get through their workout.
They feel like they can do everything, but they don't know.
That's the first stage of burnout.
because that can only last so long until they get into stage two and stage three where theimmune systems start showing signs of wear and tear, things start happening, they get sick
(10:07):
a bit more often, they're in pain a bit more often, they're fatigued and tired a littlebit more often, they've got more brain fog, and yeah, many don't, obviously they don't
come to me in that stage, they come a few stages along, you know, when I work with guys,so and you know, you probably know yourself, it's hard to tell
someone that they need to scale back to get better you know yeah it's not easy
(10:30):
There's a sort of a toxic thing in this space where someone's always trying to sell youwhat you need more of, what you need to add, what you need to make a new part of your
routine.
When often it is like you need to do less, rest more, and focus on the basic.
That's something we talk about here all the time.
It's just like you don't need the million dollar bottle of supplements.
(10:51):
You don't need the crazy gym tool that is
latest and greatest thing.
You just gotta get to bed on time.
You gotta not put trash in your face and drink a little bit of water once in a while andman how much better you'll feel overnight is crazy.
Exactly and you also said in one of your other podcasts that it takes people about 50times of hearing something, you know, so hopefully they're hearing this enough.
(11:14):
Right, maybe this is 49 or 50 today.
So what do you do?
So you work with guys and you try to get to the bottom of it.
You talked about, you know, there's a million different reasons for all these ailmentsthat these guys are dealing with.
What do you do to figure out what a specific need is for a specific client?
(11:35):
Well, with guys I work with, we have the option to use functional medicine lab testing.
So we can use different ways of testing.
We can use stool to look at how well the gut's functioning.
Some guys, their stool is coming back with parasites, right, or bacterial overgrowth,which is then causing them a whole host of other issues, right?
(11:57):
It's just leading to loads of other symptoms.
It could be allergies, it could be brain fog.
It most often is brain fog.
It's low libido, always, because these gut issues are perceived as the body as a stress.
That's one test we might look at.
We might look at especially a hair test, which is gonna show us mineral levels, but alsoheavy metal accumulation.
(12:20):
Again, heavy metals, mercury, arsenic, and lead, they're weighing down the body.
They're causing the body to be in a chronic state of stress.
And as you probably know yourself, stress is just stopping that production of
testosterone.
So guys are dealing with this weight gain that seems to have come out of nowhere orthey're struggling to put muscle on or they're not going to the gym and they feel like
(12:41):
they're blaming it on a lack of motivation when really it's sort of not their fault, theydon't really know they've got this going on and you know it's these things that are
putting them in a chronic state of stress.
So we use different tests depending on the person, depending on the situation to identifywhat's there too much of in the body.
Heavy metals, bacterial overgrowth, parasites, and what's there not enough of?
(13:05):
Vitamin deficiencies, mineral deficiencies, because you know people think of knowcalories, right?
But what we really want to think about is the micronutrients, you know, because those arethe things that really determine how we look, think, feel and function on a day-to-day
basis as well.
And then there's the lifestyle component of it, which you know you will know so well.
It's know, it's diet, but not just diet, it's exercise,
(13:28):
stress reduction, sleep, know, such huge parts, but it's then the coaching part of it isgetting these guys to do these things, Jeremy.
A lot of what you talked about there does fall under, I think, culture, and at least herein North America.
The food is a bit of a nightmare.
It's a bit of a horror show.
So even if you are, in theory, eating the right things, a lot of them have been sprayedwith God knows what and have been treated with God knows what that you're putting in your
(13:53):
body.
And this is where I think a lot of times supplementation comes up.
did mention that earlier that that's sort of part of what you work with folks on.
This is one that is tricky, because as you mentioned, you you take one and you
necessarily feel it.
It's got to be in combination with the better sleep and all these other things.
I know I take a fistful of vitamins every day and I honestly probably couldn't tell youyou know why I do.
(14:15):
There's no noticeable like wow I feel better wow I noticed this when I take this.
I do notice it when I stop taking like if I stop taking magnesium I suddenly don't sleepas well.
If I don't take as much vitamin D, the depression's a little bit harder to fight off,things like that.
So how do you know when you're looking at the endless wall of the many, vitamins, ifyou're just out there on your own, you're not working with a coach or someone like
(14:37):
yourself, how do I figure out which supplements I need and how do I know that they're theright ones?
Yeah, so it's a tough one, like you say, if you're not working with someone and you don'treally know, we've got what we call foundational supplements, which are the things that
the body needs to get on a day-to-day basis.
Vitamin D, zinc, B vitamins, not just B12, but all the B vitamin family, magnesium, thebody needs those things.
(15:00):
But I work with a lot of guys that when they come to me, they're taking all thesedifferent herbs, they're taking ashwagandha, taking, they're using mushrooms, and
mushrooms are
They're a big craze now.
And as great as these things can be, they're a bit like treating symptoms, a bit like whatour conventional medicine care does.
They're just treating symptoms, and while they feel alright on those things, when theycome off them, the problem remains.
(15:25):
So it's the foundational stuff that people should really be looking at.
I'd always say if you don't have a clue where to start, try and go for a goodmultivitamin.
And one rule I'll always say to people is
Never buy your supplements at the same place you buy your toilet roll, you know get get adecent quality supplement Pay a decent price for it because then you know, you're paying
(15:45):
for quality, you know So yeah a multi-vitamin would be a good place to start
though, are you maybe paying for the brand name?
Because a lot of times the brand name is the one that's expensive and I don't know thatthat's necessary.
I mean there are different things to look out for.
I could give you two really top companies right now that I would recommend.
One's Fawn Research and the other is Pure Encapsulations.
(16:09):
Those two I would recommend to anybody.
But yeah, it's not easy right now.
They're coming out of everywhere, supplement companies.
So it's not easy, for sure.
then a wildly unregulated market to so who knows what your yeah we talked about exerciseand something else we talk about here is just you know starting somewhere right like just
(16:30):
getting off the couch going for a walk something simple
colleague of mine was just sharing with me the fitness expert online showing the 18 bestbicep workouts and ranking them and choosing the best and if you're into bodybuilding and
stuff cool the other 99 % of us out here just need to get started.
What do you recommend for folks that are probably feeling sluggish, probably feelingtired, don't feel like they have time, it's not a priority, but they keep hearing, okay,
(16:53):
maybe I should move my ass.
Where do they start?
What's good way to get them going?
Yeah, I mean like you say, know, and maybe some people don't wanna hear it, because it'snot very sexy, but start really, you would have probably said this, and I've heard it as
well, hundreds of times on this show, start small, do a 10 minute walk.
You know, once you've got a 10 minute walk in place every day, you can either increase it,or you can put something else in that slot.
(17:18):
You can put some weights in there, because you've built the habit of that's my 10 minutesevery day.
But what I find with a lot of guys that I work with is if you just tell them to dosomething once a day, but you say, yeah, put it in anywhere you want in the day, the
chances are it might not get done or they might not have time for it.
Whereas you will probably know the power of habit stacking.
(17:39):
If you stack that, you know, if you say, right, now this is what I started doing with mybreath work, yeah?
I always wanted to do breath work, but I didn't really wanna do it, you know?
thought it's gonna benefit me, but I don't really wanna do it.
Okay, I wanna do it every day.
So, as soon as I, every single day, what do I do every single day?
I put veg in the steam, I turn the steamer on, right, so as soon as I've turned thatsteamer on every single day, no matter what, I go and do, I start with two minutes of
(18:06):
breath work every single day.
that turned into a habit, I made it five minutes.
And then it went up and up and up until it was 10 minutes.
So, you know, coming back to the exercise piece, do something small every single day, putit on the end of an existing habit that you're already doing.
This is an option, a great option, a great way to add it in, and it's got more chance ofsticking.
(18:28):
And things just add on to that over time.
And especially if it's something you like and this is something where maybe a 10 minutewalk isn't for you.
Maybe you're losing your mind because you're so bored and need to be pushed more like ifit's not something you enjoy, you're probably going to quit.
Yes.
Why would you keep voluntarily doing something that you don't on some level either feelbetter from doing it or at least have a little bit of fun?
(18:48):
Definitely, definitely.
And you know, if that is the case, because you know, I find walking boring, but if I'mgonna go out and walk, I'm gonna do something like make a phone call or catch up with a
friend that I haven't spoke to for a while, then you don't even realise you're walking.
You're just, you know.
Or the study when you talk about habit stacking, I that's where you listen to amotivational podcast.
That's where you listen to a book that you've been meaning to read forever.
(19:12):
Like, have it read to you while you're taking that walk.
Exactly.
the family, spend some time with your kids, have integrated into the family lifestyle.
So it's not just there's 10 less minutes with dad.
Maybe it's something that they can do with you.
100 % yeah, so you can make it enjoyable.
There's ways of making it enjoyable for sure.
so Tommy, you sent me this great list, sort of five first steps for guys that are verymuch in this situation, trying to figure out how turn things around.
(19:34):
Tell us what's in this guide and how our listeners can.
Yeah, mean, you know, it's the things that, the foundational things, right?
And as we know, they might sound boring, but they're the things that are gonna move theneedle the furthest.
They're the things you need to master before you add in all the other things.
So let me give you an example of sleep, right?
Now, for years I knew I needed to sleep more.
(19:56):
I just couldn't, right?
I didn't know how.
I didn't know about dimming lights at night and stopping eating a few hours before bed.
I was eating right up until bedtime, you know.
I was eating sugar.
and all sorts of things, I was doing all the things that were stopping me from getting aproper sleep.
So in this guide, there's a lot of things that you're probably gonna be like, I didn'tknow that.
(20:17):
They're not the basic, obvious things you're normally hearing about.
They're things that are really scientifically proven to help you get better rest, betternutrition, and some of the supplements that I find that most of the guys that I work with
are deficient in as well.
foundational things that you can take to feel and function at your best.
(20:39):
And where can we find that guy?
You'll find that guide.
You can reach out to me.
I'll get that sent across to you.
can reach out to me on Instagram.
The name is Berabee Healthy.
So it's B-E-R-R-A underscore B-E underscore healthy.
Berabee Healthy.
You can find me on Facebook under Tommy Berabee as well.
(21:00):
So I'm in those places.
we'll throw those links in the show description for this episode as well.
Tommy, thanks so much for your time today.
Any closing thoughts you want to leave us with here?
Nah, think we've covered quite a lot, Jeremy, so I really appreciate you having me on.
And yeah, I hope some of the guys listening can take some of this knowledge, becauseknowledge is power, when implemented, and get to feeling the best.
(21:23):
That is the trick so often, that pesky implementation part.
We've got the consuming content part down, it's the actual implementation.
Awesome, thanks so much for your time and wisdom today, Tommy, appreciate
Thank you.
All right, my thanks to Tommy Barabee for joining us on the show today.
You can learn more about him through the links in the show description for this episode atthe fit mess.com or whatever podcast player you're using.
(21:44):
But that's going to do it for this week.
Thanks so much for listening.
We will be back next week with a huge new announcement about the show and the some bigchanges we're making here.
So make sure you don't miss it.
You can catch it at the fit mess.com or again on that podcast player you're using rightnow.
Hit subscribe, you won't miss the episode.
We will see you in about a week.
Thanks so much for listening.
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