139. Aiemann Zahabi: The UFC, New Years Resolutions & Weight Loss

Episode Transcript
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Aaron Pete (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of the bigger
than me podcast.
Here is your host, aaron.
It is the new year.
I am so excited to be kickingthis episode off.
All about how we can improveourselves physically, mentally,
emotionally.
How we can grow as individualsand behave in a way that is
bigger than ourselves.
My guest today is the great amon Zahabi.

(00:23):
I Amon Zahabi, it is such apleasure to sit back down with
you.
It has been so long since wetalked.
Would you mind just brieflyReintroducing yourself for
people who might not beacquainted with your work.

Aiemann Zahabi (00:36):
Yeah, so I'm a month a hobby.
I'm a professional fighter.
I fight in the UFC.
I've had a lot of a lifetimeexperience of training in
martial arts and currently I'mon a three-fight winning streak
with the UFC.

Aaron Pete (00:46):
Last we spoke you were heading into UFC Vancouver
and I was so excited I got tosit there live and watch you
perform, which was such an honor.
Would you mind taking us backgoing into that fight and how
you were feeling?

well leading up to the fight, given my opponents
History like his there's like33 fights or like 32 fights when
he was coming into that fight.
He goes to distance a lot andhe's a hard-nosed fighter and he
has a really good right hand.
So for the two months leadingup my brother was really getting
me ready for war like it'sgonna eat.

(01:19):
He told me it's gonna be 15minutes of hell.
So I prepared myself mentallyfor that.
Like had the guys torturing meand sparring and in wrestling
and in training and jitsu.
And I went to, like this, theMontreal wrestling club which I
get it's home to like a lot ofthe national wrestlers for
Canada.
So they're throwing me aroundthe rule because I heard in one
of the fights, when Eric Langewas fighting, one of the

(01:40):
commentator Said that his dadwas like this is really good
wrestler, so they're okay.
Maybe has that in his mind totake me down because you know,
not too many people have seen meon the ground.
So I was okay, we're preparedfor that as well.
So just getting my whole gameready and then luckily he
finished in a minute.
So it's really happy.
Now you know you prepare forthe worst and you hope for the
best, and this time the besthappened for me.

Aaron Pete (02:00):
That's one area I feel like we don't hear a lot
about is the process of tryingto figure out what your opponent
is preparing for and how theyWant the fight to go, and how
you want the fight to go.
How much time is dedicated totrying to figure out what their
game plan might be and preparingfor contingencies?

You know it's interesting because, like I
always plan for my opponents andI try to stick to that plan
like hardcore, like in my mind,to like not deviate from what
I'm supposed to do.
And Then now, like my lastthree fights, I really realized
that other guys are gameplanning for me just as much as
I want a game plan for them.
So I have to be careful not betoo Stuck on my game plan

(02:39):
because if I come expecting themto do something and they they
change it, I have to be have theflexibility of mine to adapt to
the situation.
So I didn't expect every kill.
I could throw low kicks becauseI thought he'd be worried about
me taking him down because I'mblack belt In jitsu.
So I was like there's no easy tokick my leg, he's gonna wait to

(02:59):
hit me with the right hand,like you see me get knocked out
in the past and he has a reallygood counter right hand and I
thought that was his best way towin was to counter me with his
biggest punch and Instead hecame out kicking.
So you know, I just had toadapt on in the moment and I hit
him with a nice counter.
So I was really happy, you knowbecause you know there's that
maybe there's really famous forsaying this.

(03:20):
He says True, check happens,adapt.
They can adapt to anything youknow.
So like I'm really just tryingto adapt in my fights as much as
possible.

Aaron Pete (03:27):
Yeah.
So you have all of thatgroundwork and then you're going
in and you're kind of open.
You have you kind of what youwant to have happen, but you're
open to what's gonna happen andit ends up sometimes working out
way better.
You're not in the three roundlong, 15 minute war.
You're in a very thick fight.
What was the feelingsafterwards?

Oh, incredible, incredible feelings.
Uh, I was super, super happybecause there is a relief in the
sense that when you don't takethe damage and I had prepared
myself to be ready for lots ofdamage after this fight you know
they call them mongolian murderand you watch his fights they
get, they get very intense.
You know he doesn't usually godown, uh, he, he marks guys up,

(04:06):
he hurts them, he gets hurt likehe is like a barn burner type
fight.
So I prepared myself mentallyto like, end up in the hospital.
You know, in that night.
You know, like, with cuts orsomething, something, I thought
something was gonna happen.
And then, like, when I droppedhim, I put my hands up, like in
my like the way I saw him fall,I knew he was done, but the
referee didn't come in so I hadto jump on him.

(04:27):
But first you get a wave ofrelief that there's no damage
and then you get the, the joy ofwinning.
And then it was really coolbecause, like, when frost came
out and he gave me that hug inthe, in the cage, he told me if
you would have let him up Iwould have slapped you.
I said, yes, I know I finishedthe job, I finished that girl,
top woman, I finished.
It's happened before.
You know, guys, there is theirhands.
I think the guy's done, the guygets up, fight continues.

(04:49):
Would have been veryembarrassing, frost would have
beaten me.

Aaron Pete (04:53):
And then knowing that you were also a part of a
night where all the canadienswon and you got to continue to
see the night go on and thecanadiens take over and show out
on that night.
What was that experience like?
To be a part of a team doingthat, a canadiens doing that
Honestly?

it was an honor because I feel like it's going
to be a historical moment,because it was the first time on
a UFC card All the canadienswon.
You know there's usually oneloses, maybe two, who knows, but
I would say really historicalmoment for canadiens and I feel
like it really helped Bring morefans into it, in from Canada
because, like MMA was dying outin Canada a little bit and I

(05:32):
feel like it gave us aresurgence and now, like I, one
of the UFC staff members wassaying how they might come to
Canada two to four times a yearIn 2024 going forward.
So I feel like that night allsix of us really played a big
hand in that, so I'm happy to bepart of that.

Aaron Pete (05:47):
And do you have a close relationship with the
other fighters going into thatnight?
Are you all on the same page orwhat was that process?
Because we look at it from ourperspective and we see all the
canadiens win, it seems likeyou're all on the same team.

Yeah, Well, internationally for sure, all on
the same team and, like some ofthose guys I've trained with
before, they've come to the gym,they come and try some before
and some of them I hadn't met.
I met them that night but itwas really cool to like go to
the hotel and see them afterbecause you know, like the you
have seen now since COVID, thepolicy is you can, there's no
green room, so they they ask youto believe after the fight.
And so when I was going back tothe hotel after each fight the

(06:20):
Canadians were coming back andwe got to take some pictures
together when with the fans andholding up Canadian flags.
So like that was cool, the verynice moments we got to share.

Aaron Pete (06:28):
What is the process afterwards?
I just started a new job andimmediately my brain starts
going like where do I want to gofrom here?
What do I want to do next?
How do I want to get there?
What are the next big step-upswhere I can continue on my
career but also take care of thefamily?
What is your process once youget that win?
What are you thinking of?

Well, I'm excited to get another fight and
I'm excited to just keep theball rolling.
You know and it was really likefor me had a moment in training
camp.
I had like this mental hurdlewhen I was like, oh man, I want
to in a row already.
Maybe I won't win three in arow.
It's like a big ask to winthree in a row, do you have?
See, I was having a hard timedealing with that and I brought
it up to for us.
I remember I'm like for us, I'mlike man, I'm like I'm like you

(07:08):
think I can win three in a row.
What are you talking about?
Nothing to do with any of thelast two fights.
Each fight is it, it is its own.
There's no such thing.
There's no curses, there's no.
You run out of luck.
There's none of that.
He's like you train your best,you do your best.
Whether you're doing a loserDoesn't matter to us, and just
go out there and do your best,you know.
So just reminded me to just notcare about those things.
Like don't worry about thestatistics.
You know, a lot of timesstatistics they get it wrong.

(07:29):
Right, it's good to look backand you can make the statistics
say whatever you want, but youshouldn't let it affect your,
your mentality, going in.

Aaron Pete (07:40):
Actually, one of my favorite rappers, big Sean, has
a line and he was like I wastrusting statistics more than I
trusted me Talking about, likethe, the rates of black
incarceration and the challengesthey faced, and rather than
trusting your own ability togrow and develop and succeed.

Yeah, because you hear about stats all the
time, especially like from, like, the commentators and the
analysts and the YouTube guysand all those stuff.
They're like oh, this guy'sbeen this many stats, this many
punches per second, so they arethere, this and blah, blah.
But in the end, man, you don'tknow what's gonna happen in
there until it happens.
You know, and there are so manyways to win in MMA and so many
ways to lose that you know it's.
You have to go out there andjust Be yourself and do it and

(08:20):
the outcome will be what it is.
Are you gonna be at UFC Toronto?

Aaron Pete (08:22):
I don't know yet I'm definitely.

I haven't been on the card yet, like I didn't
get a fight or anything yet, butour island is getting ready to
fight on the card and maybe I'llgo to the UFC.
I don't know if you might askme to be in this corner or not,
I don't know, or, if not, Imight just come and watch the
show, like as a fan.
How does it feel to have itright in your backyard now,
traveling, obviously?

Aaron Pete (08:41):
across the country to come to Vancouver.
Oh, it's great.

That's one of the reasons why I want, I want
to kind of fight on the cardbecause, like for the people
from Montreal, it's super easyto get there, like you can leave
Saturday morning and come backSunday.
It's like a one night trip, onenight hotel stay, whereas
Vancouver it's much further Costplane tickets, the hotels are
more expensive and all thosethings.
So I was looking forward totrying to get on the card so
that more fans and family cancome live.

(09:05):
But like now, instead of likewatching me, I guess we're all
going to all support Arnold forsure.
That's fantastic.
And what else has been going onin the past couple of months
since we?

Aaron Pete (09:12):
spoke last.
Anything new?

Well, I took the kids to Florida, actually my
wife and kids my wife had like awork conference out there, so
we decided to go and use it togo to Disney World.
So I had to go to Disney Worldand, uh, use it to go to Disney
World, so I ended up taking mykids there.
I had a beautiful day.
Uh, we went there for one day,15 hours, let me tell you 8, 30
in the morning to 11 30 at night.
I'm done.

(09:36):
I never got to go back.

Aaron Pete (09:39):
We did everything pretty good.
That's fantastic.
You gotta be exhausted afterthat, right.

Yeah, it was glossy, but it was great.
You know, my kids were soldiersthat that day they're five
years old, both of them by theirtwins, and no stroller needed.
They walked all day.
They're happy, they ate well.
They didn't give me a hard time, so I'm really happy with them.

Aaron Pete (09:56):
Yeah, that you should be.
Since we last spoke, I talkedto your twin, ariel Hoani, and
that was such a trip.
Yeah, tell me, what was that?
That's a big fish man.
It was a huge fish.
So I listen to the show all thetime and enjoy getting his
takes on things I try anddevelop and I've learned a lot
through his style ofinterviewing, how he approaches

(10:17):
it and I kind of study what hedoes, because I think he's
really good at interviewingpeople, asking Good questions
and being a good journalist, andso he has the Q and a's at the
end of his Wednesday episodesand I'd put in the odd question
for him and try and make sureit's thoughtful not ask every
week, and over time he startedto notice on twitter.
I'd comment on some of hisstuff and then I thought that's
awesome.

(10:37):
And was like hey, like I getyou're, you're busy, you're
you're being a host of shows, ofDifferent events and stuff, and
so I get you might not have thetime, but it would be an honor
to try and hone my skills andask you questions about how you
interview people.
And he was like let's run it.
And so a few times of trying togo back and forth find times,
and he texted me on the day ofand was like hey, could you do

(10:58):
it at 12 o'clock today?
And it was like in 48 minutes.
So I had to message him and gohey, like are we able to run
this?
Like I haven't prepared, butlike I'd like to do this
interview.
This is a once in a lifetimeopportunity.
Might not get it again.
And we ended up making it work.

That's amazing, man.
Yeah, that's really really cool, especially that you've stayed
so persistent and he noticed man.
That's great, that he gave youa great time, a chance to shine,
you know, to really getsomebody that's like big in our
industry.

Aaron Pete (11:24):
It speaks to the fact that, like people are of
good character.
I know he gets a lot of flakfrom different fighters or from
different individuals within theufc or different promotions,
but it shows that, like, when itcomes down to it giving me the
opportunity I'm not some bigname.
He's not doing it because he'sgonna get 10 million followers
on twitter or something.
He's doing it to show supportand show love for the next
generation of potentialinterviewers.

Yeah, you know, what's funny is that, like,
you're not going to be liked byeveryone, uh, and if you accept
that, you can always be who youare.
You know what I mean.
So like, yeah, I'm sure ifAriel rub some people the wrong
way, that's okay.
I mean, that's life, man, Iprobably rub a lot of people the
wrong way too, and, but I'msure, a lot of people.
He has a huge fan base, youknow.
So he must be doing somethingright to get that big of a fan

(12:08):
base.
And you know, when it comes tothe fighters, like, I don't
follow the drama that he haswith a lot of fighters, but a
lot of fighters seem to like himas well, you know.
So sometimes it's a two-waystreet.
Who knows what happened?
I don't know, I don't followall those stories, but if he's
true to himself, he's gonna havepeople that don't like him, and
if he's gonna have people thatlove him at the same time, you
know that's, that's just part ofbeing an adult.

Aaron Pete (12:28):
Yeah, it's a scaling problem too.
Right when you're dealing withthe people within your family,
like that's not a lot of people.
But then when you start to dealwith a thousand people, 10,000
people, the odds that one personis going to dislike you and
just for no good reason, that'sgoing to scale upwards.
And then when you have peoplewatching your videos and some
million people, the odds thatthere's Going to be a group of
people who don't like you isgoing to be higher.
But I think that that'ssomething our brains aren't

(12:50):
really adapted to, because we'reused to interacting with people
.
You're not used to thosecomments we're now used to being
to take it personally.

Yeah, exactly, and look how social media is not
that old either and a lot ofpeople have haters.
Like, let's say, I don't know,for example, let's say Kim
Kardashian, she's like a megastar on social media.
How many people love her, likeshe has one of the most biggest,
largest following, and how manypeople in the world hate her,
you know.
And then she's just beingherself really, and I feel like
Ariel has millions of fans.
She's gonna have a couplehundred thousand haters, exactly

(13:20):
exactly.
I feel like it comes withhaving a lot of fans.

Aaron Pete (13:24):
Yeah, but I find him super inspirational and the way
that I feel like he interviewsso many fighters is different
than what you get at the pressconferences and it's not that
the press conferences aren'tlike valuable, but his approach
of like really getting to theheart of a person is so much
more genuine and sincere andgets me really invested in
fighters and what's going on.

Yeah, I agree, Like I was starting with you
when you interviewed me lasttime, it's like a breath of
fresh air when you ask mequestions that aren't just so
superficial, you know, and thatyou try to get your fans and my
fans because we're workingtogether to get to know me
beyond just oh, how many fightsdo you have?
Oh, yeah, okay, you won yourlast fight.
Okay, tell us about yourreaction.
Okay, well, what else is goingon in your life?

(14:05):
How do you develop this?
How do you think about thesituation?
You know, you get into mythoughts, and I feel like Ariel
does that really really well too.
I agree.

Aaron Pete (14:12):
That's why he's so big, because he asks the
questions that most regularjournalists don't ask Human
questions, the real questionsthat I feel like we want the
answer to and that's why I wasso interested in sitting down
with you was because I really,like, walked away from our
conversation, being like thisperson has a really strong
philosophy, like something thatgrounds you beyond just the day

(14:33):
to day whatever's new and shiny,the newest iPhone.
Like you have a way of thinkingabout things that grounds you,
and I find that so many peopledon't have that, so that when
they see the new iPhonecommercial, they're like, oh, I
need to get that because that'swhat the commercial is telling
me I need, rather than beingable to zoom out and look at how
you impact your loved ones, howyou impact your community, how

(14:53):
you impact your fans, how you,like you understand the kind of
your role in the world in adifferent way than I find other
people do.

Yeah, and that's why I kind of would like to
talk about different things,like that's my philosophies that
always answer the same basicquestions basically.
So that's why it's interesting.
I love getting on here with you, or Ariel too.
Actually, he always asked mereally in depth questions and he
chose to get a different angleso people get to know me more
personally and what it's like tobe around me.
You know around being myfriends, but even though we're

(15:21):
not close right, so that's it.
I find that that's a betterapproach to interviewing
fighters, and I feel like peoplewho go down the route to
personalize athletes will have abigger following in the end as
well.

Aaron Pete (15:34):
I agree that emotional connection like
watching you fight.
After speaking with you andafter hearing your story I was
way more like my hands weregetting sweaty.
Like I was like oh my gosh,here we go.

And you had to imagine I had imagined my wife.
Man, I imagined my whole life.

Aaron Pete (15:47):
I can't imagine what it's like to be them, to be in
the arena right there andknowing you every single day and
seeing you go into thatcircumstance all by yourself,
like when you talked about thatin the interview and then being
there.
It was like this is so surrealto sit here and know that I
talked to this person and knowthat they're going into a war
and then you won and I was superhappy and grateful that you
didn't take any damage.

But it was such a different experience.
Yeah, I know for sure and youknow what's funny Talking about
like my wife.
Like before COVID she had cometo all my fights, in some like
15 or 16.
But during COVID she wasn'table to come to the Draco fight
because of the rules andwhatever, bob.
But now I'm on a hot streak.
So I told her listen, man,you're coming, that's it, it's
done.
It's done Until this hot streakis broken, Even though we're

(16:30):
not really supposed to believein those things.
But like I did notice that it'sjust like way less stressful for
me to not have her there forfive weeks, because MMA fans in
the arena, they get wasted andthere could be a lot of
aggression in the stands andthings like that.
So, like I used to always stayin the back of my head if she's
okay, if she's all right.
You know what I mean, becauseI'm not just sitting with, like

(16:51):
either my brother, like not forus, but my other brother, and or
like a couple of my friends orwhatever.
But you never know what canhappen in the audience.
Like MMA crowd is still a roughcrowd.
They get rowdy.
You know it's like hardcorefans drink a lot of beer and you
know things happen in there.
So like actually I find it it'smore relaxing that she's at
home, she's safe and she'swatching from TV.

(17:12):
I feel much better about it.

Aaron Pete (17:14):
I don't blame you.
I was there and we were at thepre-fight press conference and
there were some jabronis, if Ican guess yeah, of course
there's gonna be wild cats overthere, man Screaming away and
they were just yelling Dana thewhole time and it was like what
are you like?
Even if you responded to you,what are you going to say after
that?
There's no logic to this.

Nothing.
There's no logic.
There's no logic.
But they're excited and we lovethem.
I'm happy they're there.
You know, I'm really happythey're there.
But you know, when you seefights happening, it feeds that
inner beast, feeds that in youand sometimes you might just
want to put a few hands and it'shappened a lot.
When brawls break out at MMAevents, it happens all the time.
It happens in NFL, happens atthe NHL People, you know they

(17:56):
get into disagreements and youknow MMA it's a spot where it
can happen.

Aaron Pete (18:01):
Or the arena starts to fall apart on the person
walking out.

Oh my God, that was crazy man who was that.
Was that Mike Mallett?
No, yeah, was it Mike?
Yeah, it happened to him.
Yeah, I was nuts.
I was watching it on TV andcouldn't believe it, it was
stunning.

Aaron Pete (18:16):
And then to think that he just walks out and that
he fights and he wins is justsurreal.

His coach almost got crushed.
Yeah, yeah, which was hilarious.
He didn't notice it was behindhim, but it was just so funny.
I was like oh my God, he almostlost your coach there, man, and
you know he zoned in when.
Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly.
It was funny Another time whenI fought in the Apex one of the
guys, when he was supposed towalk out, his opponent was
already in the cage.
Ok, his opponent was already inthe cage, it's his turn to make

(18:42):
the walk out.
I think his back seized up andhe couldn't walk and then they
canceled the fight.
I don't know if you've heardabout that.
No, yeah, yeah, I can'tremember who it was, and the
fight got canceled with hisopponent in the cage.
Wow, it's insane.
Like you never know what'sgoing to happen.
And then they made a telly game, man Stadium's falling apart,
guys getting spasms.
It's a nightmare.

Aaron Pete (19:02):
That's crazy.
I had no idea that's going to besuch a trip to know that the
fight could not happen whileyou're walking out.
While you're walking out, manCrazy Are we able to explore?
We're heading into the new yearand I'm just thinking about how
people best maneuver this.
There's arguments, on the onehand, that new year's
resolutions aren't necessary,that you should start the day

(19:23):
you want to set a goal.
You should start that day.
You shouldn't put it off tosome arbitrary date.
But I do feel like there'svalue in us as a society, all
kind of agreeing that we'regoing to look at where we're
heading in life on this date andwe're going to try and take
real steps.
This isn't I'm going to stophaving chocolate bars tomorrow.
This is more like how do Iimprove myself, level up my life

(19:44):
over the next year and grow asa person this year, and how am I
going to bring this new toolinto my life?
I'm just curious how do youthink about new year's
resolutions?

Well, it depends , like you said, about putting
that date.
I really feel like you don'tneed to wait until a date,
because in the end, the only wayto achieve your goals is if you
make the decision that you'regoing to work at it.
I don't believe in somebodydragging you to the finish line.

(20:19):
Nobody can motivate you.
No date is going to motivateyou, unless, let's say, for me,
fight night, I have to make mygoal wait.
So then it's like a deadline.
A deadline is different than astarting point.
So if I were to try to motivatesomeone and that's what I'd
motivate I'd rather give them adeadline than to give them a

(20:40):
starting point, because itdoesn't matter where you start,
it's how you finish, and theonly way to create urgency is
the deadline, because thestarting point is always going
to get pushed.
Don't find the 15,000 excuses.
That's where the whole problemprocrastination, procrastination
, procrastination.
It's not about starting, it'sabout giving yourself a time

(21:02):
limit, and if the time limitcan't motivate you, then you
don't really want it.
Let's say, for example, let'ssay for women, they want to fit
in a certain dress, in a certainsize.
That wedding date is thedeadline.
And most women.
They're motivated now they'remotivated and they're going to
get to that deadline, no matterwhat it takes, because there are

(21:24):
so many things you can do toachieve your goal.
So let's say you want to loseweight, you can diet for a bit
and then increase your training,and then you can increase the
density of your diet and thenyou could decrease your training
a bit, increase your nutritionlimits even more, and there's
all these different calibrationsyou can do to get to your goal
weight.
But the whole point is to getto that weight by this date.
So like you don't have to startnew years, but pick the day you

(21:49):
want to finish your goal, evenif you start a week after new
years, it doesn't matter.
But let's say you say OK, byJune 1, I'm going to be at this
weight.
Now it's like the stock market,so many things can go right and
wrong up to that date, butyou're going to work your butt
off to make sure that you get itby then and you should give
yourself a repercussion.
I'll give you a funny story.

(22:10):
My brother, every year on hisbirthday he wants to be 9% body
fat on his birthday every year,so that he never gets fat, so he
never gets lazy, so that's hisdeadline.
Every year he's got a deadline.
If he doesn't make the weight,the percentage, the 9%, he owes

(22:33):
his wife $1,000.
But $1,000, I think, has beencumulative.
So since he has admitted thatmoney is going up.
So I don't know if it's beenfive years now, I don't know
when he came up with the idea inthree years.
So if he doesn't make it thisbirthday, he owes her a few
grand.
So he found something that hurtsinside, like it doesn't hurt to

(22:55):
give your wife money, but it'slike oh man, am I going to give
her 4K or should I just makethis weight?
But it's a funny thing thatthey have going again.
She obviously wants him to losethe weight, but she also teases
him oh no, you should have thispiece of cake, you should have
this.
So it's like it keeps therelationship fun.
So I feel like if you have aspouse or whatever and you guys
are working towards goals, itcould be funny to have little

(23:16):
things like that, or it keepsthe relationship funny.
And then in the end let's seeyou lose the wager, your wife,
she doesn't really take yourmoney from one pocket and
putting it in another.
It's not a really big deal, butit's just funny to see who
could make it.

Aaron Pete (23:30):
And it's such a good point because for so many goals
we don't have, if we don'treach it, nobody knows.
It's something just kind of inour heads, which is why I think
they recommend you tell peoplethat you're setting this goal so
that you feel accountable, evenif it's not good enough to be
accountable just to yourself.

And for me, my clients.
Let's say, for example, I takeon a client, I have a very like
burn the ships method.
So if they come on, they haveto lose one ton a week.
If you don't lose one ton aweek, two times you're fired and
you have to owe me $200.
A $200 penalty.
But I can't work with youanymore.
So you have to pay me for theprogram.

(24:09):
Plus, if I train you personally, like with the hours, and if
you fail you owe me more money.
Nobody fails.
Why would they pay me to notlose weight?
Makes no sense.
They should only pay me ifthey're losing the weight.
So they lose the weight becausethey don't want to pay me to
gain weight.
So that's kind of the idea.

(24:31):
And then I give them a deadlineOK, we're going to be this way.
By every week one pound.
There's no ifs or buts.
You don't make that pound, youowe me money, right, because I
can't be more motivated than you, you know.
So that's that's kind of likehow I would work.
I work with my team.

Aaron Pete (24:48):
I think that that's so important because we do like
to like offset ourresponsibilities to other people
so that we don't feel thatweight on our own shoulders.
Yeah, we're going to make mehealthy, right, and like that's
yeah, no, you can, you're theonly one who's gonna control.
Because, like I often thinkabout this, there's like this
discussion around likeoverweight people and Whether or
not they know, whether or notit's it's healthy, whether or

(25:10):
not it looks good, it's nothealthy.
But like, the other piece thatI always think of because I was
like really overweight for aperiod was they know, like when
you go have dinner with somebodyand then you leave and you go
get a burger from McDonald's,you know you're being a fatty.

Tim McAlpine (25:26):
Like there's no.

Aaron Pete (25:27):
There's no part of you that's eating that extra
burger after having dinner andfeeling like, no, this is a
health move.
Like I'm doing this because Icare about myself.
Like you know, you're doing aguilty pleasure and so so much
of that gets left out becauseit's healthy.
People saying like you're beingunhealthy, but as, like someone
who was overweight, I knew inthose moments like no, you
shouldn't get the fries, butI'll get a meal fries as well.

Yeah, exactly exactly like.
For me it comes down to like Iknow the program works, so the
program won't fail you.
You fail the program.
That's kind of the idea.
So let's say you want to, youknow what, lose weight, or you
want to increase that and allyour productivity, or whatever.
You set your goals and you finda way to do it.
There's a million people whocan do a teacher how to do

(26:08):
everything you want on YouTube.
There's so much information onGoogle now the chat GPT.
You can learn basically almostanything for almost free, like
any skill how to do anything,lose weight, lift weights, learn
how to fight, learn how to be ajournalist.
You can learn how to do so manythings on YouTube and Google
and chat GPT that the answersare out there.
It's you who's not performing,you know I.

Aaron Pete (26:32):
Also feel like people sometimes like they set
the goal I want to lose 15pounds, but they they need the
understanding around it as wellto like really get them
motivated.
So one of the things that likestruck me was that if you're
overweight and you have a kidand you pass on the likelihood
that they're going to beoverweight as a consequence of
you being overweight and that'sgenetically passed down and that

(26:53):
blew my mind.
So that's like a piece.
And then you think about likeyou want to be able to play with
your kids, you want to be ableto be healthy, live a long life.
Like all these pieces you'retaking away from it's not just
15 pounds, it's a quality oflife question.

Yeah, well, let me ask you have any kids, aaron
or no?

Aaron Pete (27:08):
Oh, no, no, yeah, I am 28 years old, oh you're a
buck man.

You're a buck.
What is it?
Well, you have kids one day.
What did you want them to be?
Have the have a good mentality,strong, a smart mind, educated,
okay, which one?
To have a good spirit, goodbelief in something, something
bigger than themselves, right?
And what would you want them?
To be?
Healthy, physically healthy, infit.
So why wouldn't you want thatfor yourself?

(27:34):
You know, if you want your kidsto have it, you should have it,
because your kids, you know likethey don't only learn Top-down,
you know they don't only learnwhat you tell them.
They watch your mannerisms,they watch your habits.
Every day they're, they'reasking you questions a little
question and they're watchingyou.
They're seeing how you live andhow you act and how you order

(27:57):
food and what you order and whatyou're doing, and blah, blah,
blah, blah and how you speak.
Self-talk is huge.
You know, son, they'reregistering all this right that
there's subconscious, like asupercomputer.
So if you want them to be goodand all these three facets of
life, okay, you should be takingthat on as well, you know.
So it's very important to workon your mindset, to work on your

(28:17):
health and to work on yourphysicality.
You need to be strong at allthree.
You know I wouldn't want my kidto just be smart and be fat and
have no spirit and like, notcare, not know, not like believe
in anything bigger thanthemselves.
You know they might end upnihilistic, the mind of, super
depressed and on, you know, onhormones and all these things.
I don't want any of that man.

(28:38):
I want them to be strong in allthree facets so they can have a
nice, healthy, beautiful life.
That's kind of like the goalfor the girls, you know.

Aaron Pete (28:46):
I couldn't agree more.
It reminds me of what JordanPeterson talks about when he
talks about this idea that wetake better care of Making sure
our pets take their medication.
Then we do, of making sure wetake care of our own bodies and
make sure we're healthy, that wecan care about something else,
but to give that care toourselves we're not very good at
.

Yeah, exactly, I feel like that's an issue with,
obviously, a lot of parents,for sure, but also team leaders,
you know, so a lot of peopleare bosses, they're not really
leaders.
You know, luckily for me, forus, a really good mentor.
He's a great leader, you know.
He fulfills those three assets,those three aspects of life,
and he also helps Educate theguys to have that going on at

(29:26):
the same time.
And like, for me, it's almostlike I have two lives.
I have my career life and Ihave my family life.
I'm trying to excel at bothParallels same time.
You know, my fight life doesn'ttake away from my family life
and vice versa.
My family life never takes awayfrom the fight life.
But for me, that's what's beingsuccessful is I'm able to do

(29:46):
both.
You know, I didn't have to stopfighting to take care of my
family and I didn't have to, youknow, leave my family to take
care of fighting.
You know I'm not abandoningthem and I'm not abandoning
fighting either.
I'm able to, kind of like,build both up at the same time
and it keeps me very busy, forsure.
And my wife's amazing, mywife's really, really good,
she's doing the same thing andand I feel like.

(30:08):
That's how you got to live.
You can't just focus on onlyone thing.
You need your life and you needto really generate Income right
and you have to have a passion.
I was just like my daughters.
Why don't I tell me I don'tknow what I want to do.
She's five years old.
I don't know what I want to be.
I don't know what I want to be.
I think I'm gonna be a singer.
I think I'm gonna be a doctor.
I don't blah, blah, blah.
Listen, whatever you choose,make sure you love it.
It's you, absolutely love it.

(30:30):
It's something that you want todo, and then you become so good
at it.
Everyone's willing to pay youto do it.
That's it.
You fight, you figure that out.
You'll be fine.
Things are gonna be fine.

Aaron Pete (30:39):
Yeah, that's a really good advice.

Yeah, thanks.

Aaron Pete (30:43):
To wrap up the conversation on physicality Do
you think that it's more usefulpeople are like I want to lose
weight, I want to get healthierthat they set the goal of, like,
getting really good at boxingor trying out Jiu-Jitsu or doing
something where it's not asspecifically about going to the
gym every day, five days a weekor going for a run five days a
week.
Is there tools?
How do people make sure thatthey stay accountable and at

(31:05):
least move in that direction?

it's funny, as I talked to my nutritionist about
this concept a lot, and Onething that I find that's really
important is that you have tounderstand Almost all the
methods work.
Okay, if you want to box, loseweight, you want to jitsu to
lose weight, you want to go tothe fitness room and lift
weights to lose weight.
Or if you want to just onlynutrition you only focus on

(31:30):
nutrition You'll lose weight.
If you want to do the Atkinsdiet, if you want to do the
Dolce diet, if you want to dothe Lockhart diet, if you want
to do Jenny Craig, you want todo whatever, they all work.
The only thing that doesn'twork is you, it's true.
So, basically, the only answeris that you have to find the

(31:50):
plan that you enjoy doing themost so you can sustain it.
You know, like for me in myexperience, that people the
easiest way, that the leastpainful way, is fasting.
Okay, it's the least painfulway.
Is it the only way?
No, the reason why I think it'sthe least painful way is
because me, I work with a lot oflike businessmen and women, you

(32:12):
know, and when they start, whenI introduced fasting to them,
they like it because they wasteless time eating and going out
to eat.
They could spend more timeworking and less time preparing
meals.
Right and point when they fastfor 36 hours or 42 hours, they
only eat once every two days,like now.
There's so much more productiveand their mind is still clear

(32:34):
and they're losing the weight.
So it's like it's hitting a lotof elements at the same time.
So for me, I feel like fastingworks a lot very well for, like
the like, the business realmrealm.
But for some people, if let'ssay, like you want to eat,
you're eating three, four mealsa day, you could still lose
weight.
If you have no access to gym,you could still lose weight.
If you want to not change yourdiet but you want to Lose weight

(32:55):
with fitness, you can findthose a trainer who can help you
do that too, you know.
But find the one that you cando every day happily and enjoy
it.
That way you won't quit.
It's not.
It's not about.
It's not about getting to thegoals, about if you get to the
goal and maintain it forever,you're gonna keep it going, you
know.

Aaron Pete (33:12):
That's the big.
That's the big challenge Ifaced when I was trying to lose
weight was like just hittingthose plateaus and those like if
you hit it, you think you madeit, so you can go back to the
way you were living and youcan't know you can't, you can't.

You have to Make an adjustment, you know.
That's why, like fasting isreally good, because, let's say
you have to.
You get deeper to fasting, likeyou, all of a sudden, like
you're doing, you know, two,three days you don't need to eat
to whatever, blah, blah, blah.
But then, once you've attainedyour goal weight, okay, you
could cycle back the length offasting.
So instead of doing like acouple of days, you can go back

(33:45):
to 18 hour fasts, which is not abig deal.
You basically, you basicallyskip breakfast and you have
lunch, a few, a couple hourslater and then boom, that's 18
hours and you won't put theweight back on really, really
fast.
And then all, if you notice, Igained like three, four pounds.
Oh, you know what?
I'm gonna go on a two-day fast.
But now that you've developedthe skills of fasting in the
mentality, you know that youcould just knock out a two-day

(34:06):
fast.
But if you let it snowball tothe point or it's a hill to
climb to come back, it's aproblem.
You know one of my teammatesokay, I bring into all my fights
every year meals in my corner.
Okay, every time I fight, usingmy corner, every time I fight,
he's motivated to lose weightafter my fights and he goes.
He loses the way, but then bythe time my next fight is fun

(34:27):
again and I keep telling him.
I'm like Neil, it's not, it'snot.
Being in shape is not hard,it's getting in shape, it's the
getting.
But once you're in shape,maintaining it is way easier
than getting in shape.
Getting in shape is hell.
It's so painful.
It's so painful the first fewweeks of being back in the
weight room.
It's, your muscles are sore,but if you never stopped, you

(34:50):
don't get a sore anymore.

Aaron Pete (34:52):
Do you eat anything or do anything?
I don't know if you heard aboutwhat Dana whites doing, and he
has this period of time wherehe's fasting but then he goes.
I think it's 72 hours and thenhe's doing like a bone broth
with it.

I've done it before.
I'm not doing fasting right now, but yes, I've done it.
It's bone broth is amazing.
Gsp is on a huge kick.
I think he just did like athree-day fast right now.
He's someone Instagram, he wasposting about it.
He had like a Huge steak andbone marrow to huge bone marrow
for after three days of noeating, that's the first thing
he ate.
She's pretty cool.
And that's another thing, likewhen you know eat for three days

(35:26):
, when you have supper with yourfamily.
That's like an event.
Yeah, you know, like sometimes,like one of the some of this.
For example, one of thebusiness guys I worked with,
when he got down to not eatingfor three days we don't eat it
two times, two or three, thatbeauty like three times a week I
told him listen because he wasworried about, like, not having
supper with his kids every day.
I said, listen, you know I'msorry with your kids every day,

(35:47):
but those three times they havesupper with them, you make them
special.
You know there's no TV.
You know you, you and your wifecan cook a special meal.
You can order a special meal.
Or on the weekend, as you'reeating, saturday night, you take
your whole family out to dinnerand then he realized after a
month or so of that his kidswere like well, like so nice to

(36:08):
spend time with you.
You're so much much happier, somuch more relaxed, and blah,
blah, blah.
So you know like it paysdividends, you know, but they
all do.
But I'm just saying like that'sanother route.
You know fast things, justsomething I work with a lot.
So like that's my experiences.
But they all can be great.

Aaron Pete (36:24):
That's one area where I do feel like we skip out
a lot In Western culture isthat idea of having a meal
together and making that special.
And I grew up setting the tablein a certain way and like now
it's like I don't need to setthe table, just put the fourth
on the plate.
But there's something to thatrelationship with like we're
going to make this an experience, that this is going to be like
a Connecting moment where we'reenjoying a meal.

(36:47):
I tried something new.
I made this weird lasagna.
We're gonna give that a try.
I did my best on it, so I hopeyou like it.
Like there's an experience totrusting people with food and
sharing that kind of timetogether.

Well, it makes sense because now it's so easy
to get food.
I mean for us, for the Westernculture, it's so easy.
You can eat all day, like mykids, if they wanted it could
snack all day Like the night.
They ain't going starving.
Like we got supermarkets, wegot restaurants and some super
expensive Compared to like backin the day.
You know like, let's see, for myparents generation, my parents
didn't go to restaurants all thetime.

(37:18):
Yeah, you know, my mom cooked alot of home.
My mom will stay at home, mom,and she cooked a lot of time at
home and you know times are hard.
Like my parents were immigrants, they came here with nothing,
so like they're Happy to havethe meal, they're happy to sit
down with the family and be ableto afford the meal.
All right, they came with fromnothing and I just feel like now
, you know, there is kind oflike a really nice standard of

(37:40):
living in the Western culture,you know, and I just feel like
you know it's not as appreciated, which is normal, because now
it's so easy, it's so easy.
But listen, don't eat for threedays and tell me if eating a
meal is something special or not.

Aaron Pete (37:54):
I will do that.
I'll try like it's special.

They don't feel like, wow, this is really nice.

Aaron Pete (37:58):
I'll make you a deal .
I will do that, and the nexttime you come on, I will tell
you what that experience waslike, because I've never done
that.

I've never done it was 72 hours and Record your
reaction to sitting down andeating.
Let me tell you you're gonnafeel bliss.

Aaron Pete (38:15):
I usually do like the one day and like have have
just dinner and then I have need, and then the next day I'm
usually pretty good at that andthere is something to not giving
your body anything Like there'ssomething if you have a granola
bar or something.
It's broken and now yourmetabolism is running and it
wants food and like now you'rehungry, but there's something to
like you've lasted so long andI do feel so much sharper, so I

(38:37):
am actually curious about theresults that that will bring you
should do it because, also,what's interesting about fasting
is your stomach.

It shrinks, you know right.
It gets smaller and smaller andyou get used to eating less
food.
So you get by on less and youcan last longer because your
body is covered in energy.
All those fat stores rightBefore you.
This out years ago, man, thatyour body stores fat for energy
but nobody's using it.
You know it's a funny thing.

(39:04):
We were what?
What are you storing it for,man?
You don't need it.
You know you're charging yourbattery every three, four hours.
You're eating your food.
You know you're putting allthis energy in.
You got to use it, man.
And I'm at 72 hour fast.
You're gonna see, there's gonnabe a huge wave of hunger, but
that huge wave of hunger thatcomes, it's more habit than it
is physical pain.

Aaron Pete (39:21):
Yeah, and if you can believe in that and Trust in
that it's your hunger pains arereally a habit pain and not a
physical pain You'll get to the72 that's what I've heard is
that you start to look at thesigns and you start to look at
the food and you see the ads andyou start to realize how much

(39:42):
you've just acclimated to this.
I have lunch every single day,I have dinner every single day,
I eat food for breakfast everysingle day, and how much slower
you feel when you're doing that.
Like there's this old rule ofthree Meals a day and that's
just hogwash, yeah yeah, there'sa many sense.

Yeah, there's a man.
I mean, it depends.
You know, like me, when I'mgetting ready for a fight, I
don't fast Because I want theenergy for practice.
So I eat Three meals and threesnacks, but they're very small
meals.
But basically the idea for mynutrition plan for, let's say,
fight camp, it's to not spike myinsulin, right?

(40:18):
So I'm just trying to keep myinsulin really, really low the
whole day, right?
That's another way.
Like I'm telling you, there'sso many ways to do it.
I'm not just trying to promotefasting only right, because
fasting is just one way.
I just find it convenient ifyou're very busy and you have a
million things to do in yourlife and you have a family,
business and kids and all thesedifferent things going on.
Generally, on fasting, itactually requires you to do less

(40:40):
work, less cooking, lesscleaning dishes, less spending
time at the restaurants or atthe table.
So I just find it so convenientwhen you could do it in
different ways.

Aaron Pete (40:50):
So if I do this 72 hour fast, should I be doing the
bone broth?
Is that something I should behaving?

No, I mean you know, listen, okay, dr Jason's
phone is a doctor in Toronto andhe's like kind of the guy
pioneering, like bringing allthe science too fast thing to
the Floorfront.
You know, he's like really theguy, the go-to guy, and in one
of his books he talks about youshouldn't have any of the bone

(41:17):
broth Until you have like a fastthat's over 48 hours.
Okay, but it's because you'regonna go for four days, five
days, six days, seven days.
If you're stopping at 72, in myopinion, okay, you don't need
it.

Aaron Pete (41:32):
Yeah, I'm here for doctors.
A hobby right here.
I'm ready for it.
I'll show us your judgment.
Man, you've got that I don'tthink you need it.

I think you got everything you got inside.

Aaron Pete (41:41):
Okay, we're all up here, right.

You got all in there, man, you know and Listen.
You should check this guy out.
Okay, he is very funny.
He's a youtuber.
I Think his YouTube thing iscalled the fasting fat man.
I Don't know if you've heard ofhim.
I have not.
No, okay, he's got a crazyamount of viewers now.

(42:03):
Basically he was like 500 poundsand he had a son and the story
goes something like his son hadjust started crawling and he was
sitting on the couch and hisson was about to crawl down the
stairs like the to go throughthe basement and he wanted to
get up and stop his son fromcrawling into the down the
stairs and fall down.
But he couldn't get off thecouch.

(42:25):
He was struggling, he couldn'tstand up, he couldn't stand up,
he couldn't stand up, hecouldn't, he couldn't, he
couldn't, he couldn't.
Finally he lays down, rolls offthe couch and crawls, bear
crawls, until he grabs his son.
He grabs somebody ankle, savesthem from going on this down the
stairs.
Okay, so he was like I can'tbelieve it.
I'm so fat now that I I can'teven help my own son, you know.

(42:48):
So it motivated him anyways.
So this guy decides to go fast.
He didn't eat for 150 days.
150 days, no food, but he wasbeing followed by a doctor and
he was documenting on youtubethat sometimes he became like
super, super popular, right.

(43:08):
So he's doing like all thesevlogs and these different things
and he's like keeping people upto date on what's going on,
what he feels.
So he was having like somesupplements salt and bold broth,
that's it, but no actual food,and that's okay, because you
need those, you need you needsalt, you need the sodium, you
need some, some proteins, buthe's doing nothing that spikes
his insulin, right, right.

(43:29):
So he's trying to keep hisinsulin really, really low and
fast and he lost something like230 pounds in 150 days.
I can't remember the numbersexactly, but I saw an amazing
amount of weight and when hestopped at 150 days, he just
started scaling down.
So, instead of like not eatingever, he was eating every 24

(43:49):
hours, like now.
I haven't been following himsince, but uh, he's.
He's very inspirational becausehe is Really confident in
himself, that he's able to makejokes about the situation, you
know, and he calls himself thefasting fat man.
I'm not calling him fat, youknow, but he finds a way to make
humor out of it and he's veryrelatable to the average person,

(44:11):
because a lot of people are,are heavier than they want to be
, and this guy was 500 pounds.
Like this guy is on an extreme,a crazy extreme, and he got
down to 200, you know.
So to lose 300 pounds and to dowith a smile and to be joking,
like for me I really feel likehe's an inspiration.

Aaron Pete (44:29):
I couldn't agree more.
And he's, I'm sure, thick bonedright.

That's what I really think yeah, big guy,
really big guy.
Yeah, yeah, very big guy.

Aaron Pete (44:36):
Okay, the other thing I want to accomplish in
2024 is start doing this coldflinch thing.
I want to fit in, I want to trythis cold flinch thing, but it
seems cold and and yeah likethey take it too far.

Like I said, I'm a little princess in the cold.
But what can I tell you?
Like me, I get into that coldplunge at 10 degrees.
I feel like that's like mymagic number, right.
And Some guys they take it toofar.
I don't know why they go colder.
I don't think you need anycolder than that, man.
I think the science is.
In 10 degrees, you know, you'renot gonna get like any
frostbite, you're not gonna getany mental issues, you're not

(45:09):
gonna faint in there, they'regonna have a hard time.
But some of these guys theytake it to like five degrees,
four degrees.
I think it's just a little bittoo cold.
Uh, try 10 and let me know howthat goes.

Aaron Pete (45:20):
What do you use?
Do you have one of those tubs?
How do you approach it?

No, like me, like, let's say, when I have
fight camp Sorry, when I havefight camp I go to this.
There's a spa here Near myhouse, right, and they have like
the jacuzzi, the dry sauna,they have like a steam room and
then they have like these quietrooms and then they also have
ice baths like around thedifferent areas.
So basically me, what I do is,let's say, like Every week

(45:45):
before fight, for eight weeks,every Saturday I go to the spa,
I do 45 minutes in the jacuzzi,then I go 10 minutes in the
sauna, then I do 10 minutes inthe ice, then I do it again,
yeah, and then I'm doing itagain.
That's it done.
But 10 degrees, listen, listen,if you're at 10 degrees, you can
do 10, 10 minutes.

(46:06):
Anything other, 10 degrees,you're not staying there very
long.
So, like I don't know, that'sthe tradeoff for me.
I thought I found thetemperature that it's really
cold, but I could stay in it,sustain, I could sustain it.
Uh, or a lot of guys, what theydo.
They go even colder, say fivedegrees or four degrees, but
they're in and out in 20 seconds.

Aaron Pete (46:26):
Yeah.

So I don't know scientifically what's better,
but for me, for the mentalchallenge, I like sitting in
there and like withstanding thecold for a long period of time.
It just helps me get ready forthe fight, I find.

Aaron Pete (46:39):
That's what I was gonna ask.
Is it more a mental game or isit a physical challenge?
What's what is it more?

like in the 10 degrees, I feel like it's it's a
nice mix of both, whereasanything higher than 10 it's not
cold enough, but anything lowerit's gonna be very hard to stay
a long time and you don't wantto do something that's too hard
that might actually make yourmental game worse, push you down
, like if I go in a two-degreeice bath and I know I can't stay

(47:08):
more than 30 seconds.
I don't feel tough.
Yeah, I don't feel like I'movercoming anything.
I'm yeah, yeah, and I thinkthere are some studies coming
out that you can't be in toocold for too long, right, so you
have to be careful there couldbe some damage in there.
So I don't know how to know allthe science.
I don't know, maybe who's beentalking about it.
I gotta find that.
Yeah, I like.

(47:29):
I like the 10 degrees aspect.

Aaron Pete (47:31):
Okay, my, my next question is around the mental
game.
I find, as I said, you have areally strong philosophy, so I'm
just wondering how can peoplestart on this journey?
I know a lot of goobers thataren't as thoughtful and they
don't think is critically.
Where would you recommendpeople start their journey?
If they're serious aboutgrowing their mental game, being
able to think of things biggerthan themselves, how do they,

(47:52):
how do they move in thatdirection?

How there's a lot of different ways.
You know, and I feel like aLost art in a lot of ways, is
finding a good mentor.
You know, I think it's itthere's more in mentorship.
Then people give way to thesedays.
If you look at back in the day,you know, especially like
during the Renaissance, it wasall about mentorship.

(48:19):
You learn from a master, you goin there and you do details.
You, you know if he's an artist, you're handing him those
paintbrushes, you're cleaning upafter him, you're doing all
these things, but you'rewatching him do the strokes.
He's talking to you, he'stelling you how he's doing the
strokes.
You watch how he lives his life.
You watch and you start to pickup those things like a child
would from their parents.
You know what I mean and it wasfunny because, like I remember I

(48:41):
was having coffee, we're alwaystalking about the kids, okay,
and in my family, like my sideof the family always like, come
up with ideas, like, oh, whatdid you do?
Like how you try to solve thisproblem, like, if this comes up,
and although I'm planning forthe future, planning for the
future Ten years ahead, tenyears ahead, ten years ahead, I
Was okay.
What if my daughters.
You know, when it comes to likethe teenage phase, they start
like giving me issues, right,that's it start becoming like

(49:03):
bad girls or whatever.
I don't know what they get intothe wrong things, or maybe they
get into like friends who dodrugs and I'm worried about them
.
But what am I gonna do?
I was thinking, man, maybe Icould find them, someone that I
know within, like my network,who I think is a great mentor,
who could has the potentialmaybe they're not doing
mentorships but has thepotential to mentor.
Maybe that's somebody I canreach out to and be like hey,

(49:26):
listen, would you take mydaughter on as an apprentice?
You don't have to pay her thisand that.
Blah, blah, blah.
And I'll find Incentives from mydaughters to go along, whether
she wants.
Whether they want like moneyper achievement or whatever.
If they want to like have a carby the age, or if they want to
do a trip or something, I canuse, you know, a carrot To

(49:48):
motivate them through theprocess, and then I'm also gonna
have a stick for it.
If they don't want to, you knowit's got to be like a.
You know you need to have bothright.
So like that for me, I reallyfeel like if I am the people
that are doing it already andEmulating them and learning from
them and there are people inyour network, I don't care who
you are.
You know a friend of a friendwho's doing it, who's making it

(50:08):
happen.
You know, and you could be apart of that.
All you have to is ask.
A lot of the times, if youdon't ask, you don't know
whether or not they would do it.
Just go up there and ask andDoing something for free could
make you a lot more money Thanworking minimum wage, you know.
So mentorship is huge for meand I feel like it's a lost art.

(50:31):
It's really a lost art.

Aaron Pete (50:32):
Man.
I vibe with that so muchbecause one of the reasons I
started this I didn't have a dadgrowing up, and so one of one
of my things was like there areall these things that I don't
know about, and when I wentskiing as a kid, I wore jeans
because I didn't know I neededto wear pants, because I didn't
have that that role model sayingthis is how you gear up, this
is how you set up.
I didn't have somebody whotaught me this is what a healthy

(50:54):
meal looks like, this is howyou eat and you want to make
sure there's vegetables, andit's not just because they taste
bad, it's because it gives youthe nutrients your body needs.
I didn't learn any of that.
So when I started the podcast,the sense was like I want to
know things that I didn't knowbefore, to gain information and
have a deeper understanding,have that philosophy, live a
healthy life and share thesepeople I think are admirable

(51:16):
with other people, so you canfollow their journey and get
inspired by them and maybe takethat step in your own life that
people aren't making and withinmy indigenous community I know
there's.
The biggest challenge is thereisn't that role model next door,
we have reservations, whereeverybody's in the same boat,
everybody's on social assistance, everybody doesn't have a job,
everybody has a piece of crapcar.
They're all in the similar boat.

(51:38):
And if you brought somebodyoutside of that and said, here's
a lawyer, get to know them.
Maybe that's not your thing,maybe we bring in a dentist,
maybe we bring in, yeah, anarchitect and learn from these
people, and maybe that's notyour vibe, but you, seeing them
be passionate, will make youpassionate too, and that's what
I really wanted to make thisplatform all about is inspiring
people to reach for more and tryand make a difference and grow

(51:59):
within themselves in a differentway than I think we get so used
to.
So you saying that reallyresonates with me.

Well, I think you're doing a great job, but
that's awesome.
I didn't know about the nothaving a father, but that's
incredible.
You're really growing up to bea man too.
Right, look at you, you'resuper successfully doing great.
And I do agree with your idea of, let's say, like bringing in
lawyers to the community andlike people you have to bring in
that, like you said, the personthat's passionate, that passion
that can rub off on a youngmind.

(52:25):
But, like you said, if the kidhas no interest in lawyers, okay
, then you bring a dentist andthen you bring in a restaurant
tour.
Like an entrepreneur opens arestaurant.
There's, some guys are amazingat open restaurants, man, some
guys are amazing at doingwhatever.
You have to find the thingsthat motivates the kid, that
that's what he's into already,something he's into.
You know, maybe those kids areamazing at drawing.
Who knows?
You bring in an artist whocould draw and teach it a kids

(52:48):
Class or blah, blah, whatever.
I can remember one of my nephewswas super into graffiti, right,
and my brother found thisschool a lot of school, but like
a lady who teaches kids how todo graffiti and like to pass
their final exam or whatever,and like it was like a summer
program or whatever.
They had to go and the graffiti, a wall that they had and that
to make an art piece andwhatever.
But it's just something tomotivate them and they got to.

(53:09):
He got to be inspired bysomeone who.
That's something they're reallygood at, and I agree with you,
man, and I think that'ssomething that just communities
need more of is more peoplecoming in and inspiring them to
get out of those.

Aaron Pete (53:19):
You know those things and Hopefully more can be
done the other piece that Ifeel like resonated with me or
shaped me was I got to visit myfirst nation community and
Understand what the livingcircumstances were there.
And then I got to go visit myfamily in white rock who lived
in like a $1.3 million home andhad had the really nice

(53:40):
neighborhood.
So I got like a really strongunderstanding of, like what
poverty and what adversity lookslike and what success and
financial Comfort and financialfreedom looks like.
So I just find that I'mconstantly wanting to work on
things and grow things anddevelop things.
And then other people are likeI don't know why you work so
hard, like why don't you justtake a break?
And it's like but there's justpure opportunity.

(54:01):
If you just put in the work, ifyou just put in the effort,
you're going to get so muchfarther than the people who are
sitting on the couches watchinganother rerun of the office or
friends or whatever it is.
You're going to be moving aheadgradually past them and the
doors are limitless to where youcan take your own life.

I agree totally and I like the idea that you
said you had the contrast of thetwo lives.
You know, and it's interestingbecause it's more like in the
United States.
But a lot of millionaires inthe United States come from
nothing.
Something like 71% ofmillionaires in the United
States came from nothing.
With it incredible, and let'ssee if you could do that in one

(54:39):
generation.
As one, you started for yourfamily to become a millionaire
from nothing.
You know, maybe that'ssomething that we should
introduce to kids and probablybe like listen, I know you like
your circumstances aren't thebest, but the you go meet people
who started from similar andyou get that story from the how
did they make it?
What motivated them?
How did they put thingstogether to make it work?

(55:01):
You know, and maybe those smallhabits that those other people
were able to accomplish, if theycan accomplish right, because
if you only see the end Goal andyou don't know the story of
this, the micro Goals, thelittle mini goals that come
compounded on top of each otherto reach millionaires status,
you think that the gym isimpossible.
But really there is 50 steps toit to come to, to attain before

(55:25):
you can even become amillionaire, and those.
That first step is maybepossible.
And then you get the first stepyou double up, you triple up,
you cut you boom, boom, boom,boom.
That could be something reallyreally interesting.
You know that I mean I'm reallyinto the Helping the kids out,
you know because I feel like itis possible for one generation
to turn the whole family around,take them from poverty to to a
high society.
It can happen.

Aaron Pete (55:45):
And that's one of the reasons we love the Connor
McGregor's right is that they'reemblematic of that exact idea.

It was a welfare guy exactly working, was he?

Aaron Pete (55:54):
he wasn't the one cleaning.
Was he a janitor or something?

He was a guy, but the GSB was a garbage man.

Aaron Pete (56:01):
Yeah.

That's just because picking up garbage man
yeah, literally a garbage pickerand he's a multi-millionaire
came from nothing, came fromliterally from nothing, but he
made it work.
You know and there's a lot ofMMA stories like that, for sure,
but also outside of MMA, youknow a lot of businessmen, a lot
of smart guys.
They open just a restaurant.
That was a brilliant idea,that's super well structured,

(56:22):
and all of a sudden they havesix, seven, eight.
I like where I'm from, okay, alot of these, a lot of a lot of
guys, have opened up breakfastchains.
Like breakfast chains are hugein my area.
Okay, let me tell you somethingEvery few years, there's a new
hot spot breakfast place, okay,and there's one place that's
called, like, alamo Coco.
Okay, and they started the oneplace and then they boomed to

(56:47):
like 30 spots, which isincredible.
And these are just a couple ofguys from my neighborhood.
When I was young and I'm goingto see them at the restaurant
they're like oh my god, I'm anice to see you, but I remember
you're five years old, like,yeah, I remember when you were
12 and I was five and you werepoor, and I look at this.
It's incredible.
It's really really cool.
It's really really cool.
So, like you know those guys,they grew up with nothing, but

(57:08):
there are a few friends that gottogether.
They figured they were workingin restaurants yeah, right
through family restaurants andthen they came up with their own
breakfast idea.
Well, they turned it around andthen other guys who worked
under them Open otherrestaurants, competitors, and
those chains started going upand they're competing and then
guys who worked under the newguys got a new restaurant.
Like now, if you come toMontreal, it's crazy how many

(57:31):
amazing, high-end, very nicebreakfast restaurants we have
Very cut throat here.
It's very cut throat.

Aaron Pete (57:38):
Can you guys come out this way, because I feel
like we all got two out in BC.

Yeah, I'm telling you, you guys have
nothing to do us for breakfast,nothing.
This is, this is the spot forbreakfast.

Aaron Pete (57:49):
That's fantastic, yeah.
The other part about workingwith kids is like Putting
yourself out there and lettingyourself be that role model is
something I find, as you said,people are willing to do like
I'm on council for my communityso I get to see the growth going
on in the community, in thedevelopment and the people who
are really putting themselvesout there.
But there's almost thisresponsibility that mentors have

(58:10):
.
People with knowledge have togo and share that wealth of
knowledge and experience withothers.
And again, that's what makesfighters so interesting is
because you're willing to comeon and share your story.
But when I reach out to someprofessors or or some dentists,
it's kind of like no, I don'twant to go out into the
spotlight like I don't want thatrole, but that's kind of
necessary in order for people tofigure out how they fit into

(58:31):
this world.

Yeah, I agree.
And also like if you're amentor, you want to teach them
the real stuff, you want them tobe successful, right?
Why would you waste any money?
It's time, unless you're evil.
So, like it's really importantto then, once you realize you're
a mentor, you have to continuedoing what you're doing and then
also realize what is it thatI'm really doing?
Because a lot of people they'regreat, but they don't even know
why.

(58:53):
One of the small pieces thatmake them great and then they
realize, as they try to you know, articulate it or pass on the
knowledge you know, likesometimes you see a lot of
greats that their kids aren'tgreat.
It happens more often than not.
Yeah, not every great athleteor every great musician or every
great entrepreneur passes thaton.
A lot of times their kids justend up being spoiled and or

(59:15):
whatever, or become drugaddictator.
Like, just because you're asuccess doesn't mean you're
going to be able to pass that on, you know.
So I feel like even to be agood mentor it takes a lot of
deep self-reflection andunderstanding what makes you so
great and not a lot of peoplecan articulate that or pass it
on to anybody else.

Aaron Pete (59:35):
Yeah, there's that difference between, like when I
first learned about old moneyand new money, and how, like,
some people get the money andthen they spend it immediately.
Most people who in the lotteryend up spending it instantly or
misspending it because they'venever known what it's like to
manage that kind of money.
Yeah, they don't end upsucceeding.
But the people who instillvalues in their kids, support
them, teach them how to runbusinesses I don't know if

(59:56):
you've heard of Patrick BetDavid.
He talks a lot about this inhis interview with Chris
Williamson about, like, how do Isupport my kid in facing enough
adversity where they're notlike a spoiled brat, but not so
much as I went through, where,like, I was literally striving
to just keep food in the house.

Aiemann Zahabi (01:00:13):
Yeah, I mean as a parent, there's a very
delicate balance, because Idon't want my kids to think
we're rich so much that theythink that all the problems I
can buy it, and then when theygrow up they can expect me to
solve their problems with money.
I can just throw money on itand buy their problem away.
It doesn't work like that.
I want them to try to.

(01:00:33):
I want them to live without meeventually, like, basically, I
want this bird to fly, I wantthis bird to leave the nest.
That's the goal.
That's why I'm always trying tothink in the future.
Like me and my brother is mycousins.
My cousins are really good too.
We're always giving each otherideas because we're off kids
different ages, so we talk aboutthe experiences of each age and

(01:00:54):
what they did as a solution andwhat they regret, because
sometimes the solutions thatthey came up with ended up
backfiring.
No one's perfect.
There are certain things you'regoing to get wrong.
It's normal.
But we also share it to giveour other cousins a chance with
their younger ones when they getthere.
So we're very open aboutdiscussing that kind of thing,
and it's a very hard problem tosolve, balancing how much you

(01:01:18):
can give them and how much towithhold from them.
But if you withhold too much,you create a resentment and then
you're going to have to supportthem because they refuse to do
anything, or you can give themso much that they're paralyzed
to do anything.
Right, so you have two oppositepitfalls here and you got to

(01:01:39):
escape to the middle man, andit's not easy.
It's not easy, so I'm stillworking on it.
So it's a tough cookie to crack.
I'm just doing my best to keepthem in the middle, but we'll
see how it goes, man.

Aaron Pete (01:01:54):
Beautiful.
My last question and I can'tthank you enough for taking the
time.
I've learned so much and I justenjoyed talking to you.

It's my pleasure to be here.

What's next for 2024 ?
What are you hoping to see?
More fights?

more fights, more money.
I got problems.
I got kids.
No, no, no, definitely that'swhat more fights.
Two fights a year, three fights.
Really excited to just likekeep the ball rolling, keep it
going.
I'm really excited to just showmore of what I can do.
You know, that's really my maingoal for that, like for my
career wise, is to put twofights in a year, three fights

(01:02:29):
in a year.
And in terms of family, youknow I'm doing some rentals in
the house, living space, evennicer and just, you know, taking
some trips with the kidswhenever we can.
A lot of bonding, educatingthem, things like that, and
keeping them on the straight andnarrow man, keeping the kids on
the straight and narrow, youknow, just raising them.

(01:02:49):
Raising them is, you know, it'sone of my favorite things to do
.

I'm so grateful.
It's always such a pleasurechatting with you.
Can you remind people how theycan keep up to date with your
journey?

Yeah, guys, you can follow me at the aerial hole
no kidding At the A-M-A-S-O-Von Instagram and on the MMA hour
every Monday.
I'm there and that's just onInstagram.
And also, guys, if you want tolearn any of our skills, you can
go on jujiclubcom and you candownload some of my brother's
instructional videos.

Can you spell that?

Juji Juji Club.
It's like jujitsu J-U-J-I clubC-L-U-B dot com.

I'm going to sign up .

Yeah Well, it's not a monthly thing, it's like a
per order.
So let's say, I was like I buyone DVD set, let's say about
like leg locks, or you buy oneon like takedowns, one on boxing
.

You know.
So he sells like thesedifferent.
Dvds yeah exactly Because Chriswas you, but I think I could.
Yeah, you're gonna get there,man You're gonna get a nice
footwork.

Actually, my brother teaches some really nice
footwork skills.
It's very important, right,because you can't punch without
feet, yeah, yeah, so you got acorner of your hands and your
feet together, so that'd beinteresting, guys, if anybody's
interested and it's always apleasure to be on here, erin, so
I'm very grateful for you tohave me on- Well, I'm gonna go
start fasting now and get towork on my 72 hour fast.
I'm gonna do the cold plunge andthen Do the cold plunge when

(01:04:07):
you do the 72 hour fast.
Film your reaction to eating.

That's the only one.

And then maybe we can add it in the next
interview after you tell me thatwe can do a little clip, I
would love to see it.

Okay, sounds good, we will run that.
Okay, great, thank you againfor doing this.
Thank you very much.

Tim McAlpine (01:04:24):
I'm just smiling.
The whole time it was amazing,Well done.

Yeah, it was great.
I loved being with you guys.
You guys are the best.
Honestly, it's very refreshing.
It's not always superficialstuff.
You guys give me a chance forpeople to know me better.
You know what I reallyappreciate that.

You're just such a fun person.
You just got this energy.
You got this smile.
You got the energy.

You too, man, you guys are great and also I
always feel welcome and I feelvery relaxed with you guys.
Okay, good, I feel like youwanna get the best out of me.
There's no catch, you know, sothat's what makes me feel good.

Oh, I'm so happy to hear.
That Means a lot coming fromsomeone who's so thoughtful.

Thank you very much.
Mma community is very harsh, soyou guys are great.
Thank you.

Perfect.
Well, enjoy the rest of yourday, Tim.
Do you have anything else youwanna follow up with?

No, I found it amazing.
Interesting thing that twakedfor me is that with business,
you have this built-in deadlineand so you can see your status
or your accumulation as you go.
This month's better than thelast and you come to December if
that's your end, and you havethat deadline built in.

(01:05:33):
And I never thought about thatin comparison to the New Year's
resolution with no deadline andso I mean, I think that Well,
that's the point.

I feel like it's the opposite Don't care about
when you start.

Right.

What's the?
When are we gonna make it?
Let's make it.

You know A good point.

Thank you, sir.

Yeah.

Guys, have a great day and if ever you wanna
do something else, maybe when Ihave a fight or whatever, you
let me know.
Come all years A fight With you.
No, I mean if before one of myfights.

Okay, yeah, no, that sounds great.
I thought he just challengedyou to a fight there.
I'm thinking you're-.

Eric, after the 72-hour fast before your first
meal, we're fighting.
I wanna get you nice and weak,okay, yeah.

I was thinking it's a good thing you're on
opposite ends of the country.
If that's the case.

I'll move up to the Yukon to stay safe.

Yes, All right guys enjoy.
Sounds good, thank you.

See you.
Thank you guys.

That was really really good.

That was fantastic.

Yeah, I was thinking boy, he's already
interviewed him, I wonder whatthey'll talk about.
But it was just amazing, justthe way you kinda kicked it off
from where you left off and thenreally dug into fitness
nutrition.
This whole deep dive intofasting was fascinating.

I learned a lot and it's just motivating when you
know somebody else has done itand I kinda do it and he's
obviously doing it way better.
So motivation for the new year,you know.

Cool for sure.

What's your plan, what are your resolutions, what
are your deadlines?

Well, now I realize I don't need resolutions
.
I just want to take away From apersonal aspect.
Covid did a number on me.
I used to work out regularlyand then got away from it and I
used to walk a ton, and so Iwant to get back to that which
I'm not sure you have a showerin the building, if I'm not

(01:07:26):
mistaken, for all your workouts,right, exactly, and how often
does that thing get used?
Never, often lately, so thatactually allowed me to.
I've read in air quotes morethan 400 audiobooks because I
did that while walking and so Inow have a whole bunch of

(01:07:48):
credits on Audible and haven'tbeen digging into that as much.
So I'm gonna get back to that?

Yeah, it seems like a great idea.
Where do you walk, in the areaor on distances to work?

Typically like a 5K walk around.
I live off of the river on nearKeith Wilson, so I need to get
back to that there you go.

Well, I'll check in with you and we'll find out how
that walk is going in the newyear.

Sounds good.

Remember to like, subscribe, comment.
Do all the things, send it toyour friend.
They need to know about this.

Yeah, this is a definite must listen episode.
Much, much, much, much much.
However, you consume biggerthan me.
Let's go.

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