Episode 58 - Reclaiming Man: Zach Swinney

In episode 58 of the Reclaiming Man podcast, hosts Preston, Brad, and Michael interview guest Zach Swinney. The episode focuses on themes of masculinity, health, and personal growth. Zach, an entrepreneur, discusses the importance of balance in life, criticizing the idea that success requires sacrificing relationships and personal well-being. He shares personal stories, including challenges related to his family and military service, illustrating the cost of extreme commitment to work.

Zach also talks about the dangers of misinformation in health and nutrition, emphasizing the need for consistency, moderation, and a balanced approach rather than extreme diets or lifestyle changes. He critiques the notion that rapid success is essential, advocating instead for a steady, sustainable pace in both personal and professional life.

Overall, the conversation revolves around redefining success to include personal fulfillment and health, rather than just professional achievements. The hosts and guest share insights into overcoming life's challenges through resilience and a balanced perspective on health, family, and work.

Episode Transcript

Preston (00:03):
Hey what's up y'all welcome to episode 58 of
Reclaiming Man.
Tonight you got me, Preston theSouthern Canuck Radomski with
Michael the Mastermind Beckwithand Brad Lieutenant Dawson.
We'll get to more of thatlater., tonight, today, this
afternoon, whenever you'relistening, we are interviewing
our good buddy.

(00:24):
Actually, it's Brad's reallygood buddy that he knows and
goes to his establishment, ZachSwinney.
And we're talking about health,fitness, being a better man in
general.
So stick around.
Great conversations are had andheck yeah.
Episode 58.
Let's go.

Michael (00:45):
Our goal when we have a guest on is to get to know you
as much as possible to know yourstory, what brought you to where
you're at and whether it'sthings that you're doing to be
more mindful or things that it'sdoing that you're doing to build
up the actual strength of yourbody.
And demonstrate some of thevalues that we're hoping to
discuss with this podcast, allof it centered around that

(01:08):
concept of reclaiming freedom,which is what we think, has been
virtually lost over the pastdecade or 2 the, concept that
you can be masculine in apositive way.
Just by being strong, by beinghonest, by being authentic, some
of those types of things.
So by

Zach (01:23):
not being Andrew Tate, got it.

Michael (01:26):
You got it, man.
Yeah.

Preston (01:29):
Yeah.
It's just, a bunch of boystalking about, you know, it's I
think I was telling Brad in ourpolo today.
It's like the whole point, I wassort of initially thought about
this podcast.
It's I was, You listen topodcasts with men who were like
super strong and growing andjust felt like these guys are so
far ahead of me.
But at the same time, I'mgrowing and I'm doing well.
So how can I have a conversationor we can have a conversation

(01:51):
that will help other men thatsometimes those like podcasts
just seem like they seem so outof reach, like a Rogan or
whatever.
It's like, it doesn't feel real.
It doesn't feel real.
It does, but we're just talkingabout like a good week, a bad
week, you know, just interestingstuff.
And like Michael said you know,your stories act, it's like, you
know, you're somewhat of anentrepreneur of sorts, it seems

(02:11):
like, and like just do your ownthing.
Cause people just be like, well,Zach, like how did Zach do?

Zach (02:16):
I was thinking about this earlier, one of the most
misleading terms that I hearwhen it comes to success is
success loves speed.
Like, yeah, success loves speed.
Love speed.
It also loves consistency.
It loves hard work.
Like you don't have to go fastto be successful.
And I've here recently I'vestarted kind of getting rid of a
lot of the people that I wasspending time around with
because in their eyes they werein this sacrifice everything

(02:38):
mindset to where they've almostlost their marriages before to
where they have strugglingrelationships with their kids.
They miss their kids.
And I think that's Cause or oneof them missed her sister's
wedding in the, name of ameeting of a potential client.
I'm like that's, extreme.
I'm not doing that.
And so for some people, well, ifyou don't have a good

(03:01):
relationship with your sister,so for me, you know, the way I
was raised, my father wasn'taround when I was growing up.
He was, in the Navy.
He was gone all the time doinghis own thing.
My mom and him got divorced andmy stepdad, which is not a great
human, very mentally abusive,just not a good thing to be
around.
And I started thinking, youknow, when I raised my children
and I get to the end of my life,do I want to be able to say I

(03:24):
worked hard and made a lot ofmoney, or do I want to say like,
Hey, I had a pretty successfullife and I got to be there with
my kids.
I got to go to my kids firstfootball games.
I got to have healthyrelationships with friends and
families.
I got to say, fuck it, half hotCheetos one night and sit down
and watch movies all nightbecause I didn't have to work.
I chose not to.
And we all have our boundarieswhen it comes to what we're
willing to do for success.

(03:45):
And I think a lot of people onthe different spectrum of
success, hyper successful to notvery successful.
They're very differing opinions.
And a lot of people like to getcaught up in the only way to be
successful is to sacrificeeverybody.
And to me, that's always beenhorseshit.
I've never sacrificed anybody inmy life.
I've never sacrificed familytime with my kid or anybody, and

(04:05):
I've been pretty successful ateverything I've done.
And so that's one of the thingsthat I like to tell people is,
you know, you don't have to dothis.
You don't have to go down thisextremely lonely, stressful,
life shortening road in the nameof making money.
You can make that money andstill, you can have your cake
and eat it too.
The thing that you can't haveyour cake and eat it to is
horseshit.
See, I need to hear

Brad (04:26):
that.
I need to hear that right nowbecause in my world and I, as
Preston I've been, pushingPreston pretty hard because he
wanted to get involved inplaying music downtown.
And it's pretty tough to get in.
And once you're in, you'll havemore work than you know what to
do with, but you feel like youhave to say yes to every gig
because you're like, it's yourlivelihood.

Zach (04:45):
Right.
And there's, the concept of,when you sacrifice everything,
they almost speak as if it's aguarantee that you'll be
successful.
And this is, I'm, this is, Iknow there's a lot of really
successful people.
I've got, there are millionairesin my life that I say this to,
and I swear to God, they want topunch me in the face when I say
it, but I'm like, my biggest petpeeve with hyper successful

(05:06):
people is yes, there's always alot of hard work.
There's a lot of planning.
There's a lot of sacrifice.
The thing none of them like toadmit is sometimes there's a
little bit of luck in there too.

Preston (05:17):
Yeah, luck

Zach (05:17):
has a role in success.
And I think we have toacknowledge the fact that I have
seen people that have the mostrelentless spot on work ethic
I've ever seen in my life.
And they got nowhere.
They sacrifice their time.
They sacrifice everything.
They enjoyed, they busted theirass off.
They did everything right.
Day in, day out, day in, dayout, day in, day out.

(05:39):
Nothing ever happened for them.
They did that for 10 years.
And at the end of it, they'rejust like.
Dude, like it just wasn't meantto be.
And sometimes luck has a role insuccess and sometimes bad luck
has a role when you're notsuccessful too.
And so you have to decide whatdoes success mean for you.
So like for them, success was,Hey, I tried for 10 years and
worked my ass off and decided itjust wasn't for me.

(06:00):
The cars weren't in it for meand I'm much happier now working
a FedEx job for 12 hours.
Like I enjoy this more.
I don't have the stress, theanxiety, all this extra stuff.
And for other people, success islike, Hey, fuck my family.
I just want to be a millionaireor a billionaire.

Preston (06:14):
And

Zach (06:15):
for me, success is having enough money that I can live
comfortably and I can still beat my kids sports games and go
to my freaking sister's wedding.
If I, want to keyword, if I wantto, but it's defining what it
means for you.
Cause it's not the same foreverybody.

Michael (06:33):
Yeah, there's definitely a bit of luck, but
when you own your own company, Ithink you can start to, Generate
your own luck a little bit tosome extent, because you have so
much more, you might have somuch more ability to change it.
So I am really interested inhearing a little bit about what
got you to the, to the edge ofthe decision, building a

(06:55):
company.
It's a highly competitiveindustry based on my brief
understanding of what you'redoing.
Can you share a little bit aboutthat journey for?
Yeah, give

Brad (07:06):
us your background, give us your background, Zach.

Zach (07:08):
I'll give you the whole story from the start.
So back in high school, it'swhere my whole story with all of
this started, it was threesports complete school sports
dominated my entire life.
My whole life goal was, gettingto college football and then
trying to get beyond there.
And that all fell apart.
My senior year of high school,when I got my girlfriend
pregnant, Throughout highschool, I never did, dude, I did

(07:30):
nothing outside of practice,workout.
And play call of duty, nothing.
My senior year, I decided, Hey,I'm going to throw sex into the
mix.
And that's it.
And then immediately fuckedeverything.
So going into the playoffs, mysenior year, I ended up finding
out my girlfriend's pregnantand, I had a, moment where I had

(07:51):
to sit with myself and I'm like,okay, college sports is a job.
And if I decide to go playcollege football, I'm going to
miss four years of my child'slife, and I don't know if I can
live with myself after my dadwas gone for all this time.
I felt like I needed to makesure I was there and I was
present because I didn't want tobe a father like that.
And so I ended up giving upcollege football, which was the

(08:11):
start of a pretty big downhillspiral for me.
I started going to college.
I was going originally forkinesiology.
So like, you know, physicalfitness I was going to go for
some, something in the field ofpersonal training.
And I realized that withoutfootball, I really did not like
going to college.
And so I ended up dropping outand I had to think about what my

(08:31):
next step was going to be totake care of my kids.
So I was like, Hey, you knowwhat?
My dad's been in the Navy allthis time.
It's got good benefits, this andthat I'm going to go ahead and
join the Navy.
And so the girlfriend I had atthe time was notorious for
cheating on me all the time,except I never left her because
we had a kid and I didn't wantto raise my kid in a broken
home.
And when I went to talk to theNavy recruiter, they gave me two

(08:52):
options.
They were like, Hey,, you havetwo choices.
You can't join the military as asingle adult with a dependent.
You either have to sign over therights to your kid.
Or you have to get married andme knowing how she was and like,
okay, I'm going to have to marryher.
And then when she cheats on meagain, we'll have to divorce and
fight for custody.
And I was a hundred percent sureI would win for custody.

(09:12):
So I go through bootcamp as Iwas about to get out of
bootcamp, we go to a placecalled Recruit Heaven where we
can call our family.
So I called my mom and I waslike, Hey, are you guys all set
to come up for graduation?
All this and that.
Are you bringing my best buddyKoda with you?
And she paused for a moment andI was like what, was that?
What happened?
She was like, we're not reallybringing him because we had to
kick him out of your house.
And I was like, okay, cool.,that's weird.

(09:34):
Why'd you have to do that?
And it turns out that my son'smom and him were sleeping
together while I was atbootcamp.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so that whole thing was justlike, dude, that was a mind F
because that guy I grew up withthat guy since first grade.
He had lived with us for spitfor sprints of his life while
his mom was in prison.
And one of those things that youwould never expect from
somebody.
And one of those things that yourealize You never really, truly

(09:56):
know somebody, as best as youcan, but we never know what
people are capable of until theydo something stupid.
And so, you know, that kind ofdestroyed me for a while.
And I was okay.
I need to focus on the nextstep.
I need to focus on fighting forcustody of my kid.
So I fought for custody of mykid for 2 years.
My we had a child psychologistinvolved in this, because his
mother is.
Was incredibly unfit, like tothe extreme.

(10:19):
So the psychologist interviewedme, her and my kid.
He was three years old, fouryears old when he got
interviewed.
And she came to the judge andwas like, here's the deal.
The mother's not fit to even bea functioning adult in society
right now.
I recommend the child go lives.
Like she was brutal.
She said, I recommend the childgoes and lives with the father.
So the judge, you know, rippedinto his mom for a solid hour

(10:40):
because of the stuff that we hadon her, the stuff that she was
doing with him.
And the judge stops and goes,however, and I was like, Oh boy,
cool.
Oklahoma, the mom state, let'shear this.
She said, because you're activeduty military, you're no more
fit to be a parent than she is.
So she's going to retain solephysical custody.
And I was like, so you'retelling me that.
Because I signed my life away tothe United States government.

(11:03):
I'm not fit to be a parent moreso than somebody as psychologist
says is not able to be afunctioning adult.
Like, how does that make sense?
And so that kind of put methrough a downhill spiral.
I spent the rest of my time inthe Navy.
I was pretty depressed.
And when I got, you hear a lotabout that whole 22, the veteran
suicide, you know, there's 22vets a day that killed
themselves.

(11:23):
And the transition going frommilitary to civilian life is
probably the most difficultthing I've ever transitioned
through.
Because you go through thisreally intense structure of they
tell you where to be, how to be,when to be, and everything.
Like, you don't have to, youdon't think they tell you what
to do, period.

Preston (11:38):
That's like getting out of jail, I would imagine.
Yeah.
Same thing.
I talked about that.

Brad (11:42):
Remember we talked about that on the last podcast?
We got into a little bit aboutprison, like, prison, I did some
jail time and stuff.
So, anyway.
I would

Zach (11:48):
say it's very similar because you go from, Having your
life completely structured foryou to the next day, all of a
sudden it's just

Preston (11:56):
wide open.
You're like,

Zach (11:57):
yeah, you don't know how to direct yourself.
So I got really depressed andnutrition and physical fitness
were always a big part of mylife.
And it was always a big thing tome.
But when I got really depressed,I had, I started having suicidal
ideation and I was on the home,I was on the way home one night
and I was driving, there was ahuge ditch on the side of the
road, it's a really dangerousroad, it's called Highway 28A in

(12:19):
Oklahoma and it's a pitch blacksuper hilly road and I started
telling myself just let go ofthe wheel and see what happens
and in that moment I kind of hada like, holy shit, I'm on the
brink of killing myself.
And if I don't change something,then I'm, my kid's going to grow
up without a father.
And so I was like, you knowwhat, I've got to do something.
So I'm going to start with thepeople I'm around, the things I

(12:42):
do, the way I talk to people,the way I interact with people,
the kind of environments I tryto interact with.
And so I started, I went throughmy Facebook and my Instagram.
I deleted everything I had.
From my life before that, likewhen I was doing bodybuilding, I
had my badass BMW, I was doingdumb ass street racing in San
Diego with all the things that Idid that I know had me in a bad

(13:04):
circle.
I deleted all of it.
I deleted and blocked all thefriends that I had from there.
I completely like scorched earthmy life and I started hanging
around people that were justmore uplifting, more positive,
more like, Hey, dude, likeeverything works out like, you
know, we do all these differentthings.
I started to really look at howI can make that a living and the

(13:24):
only way that I really know youcan make a living out of
creating an environment likethat is owning a storefront.
And I was like, you know what?
The fact that I can ownsomething like a nutrition
store, for example, the wholegoal can be, yeah, we're a good,
healthy, fast food type option.
Like you come in, you grab aprotein shake, you grab a
healthier energy drink, grabsome snacks, whatever.

(13:45):
But you walk in a bad mood andyou leave in a good mood.
And that has always kind of beenthe mantra that we try to
maintain with that.

Brad (13:53):
I want to chime in really quick.
I'm sober, so I don't go to thebar and I don't have that kind
of stuff.
I have two places that I go.
I go to Waffle House and I knowall the girls that work there.
And some of them are thecomplete like opposite of who I
am, but they love me.
I tip them really well.
And I have personalrelationships with the Waffle
House ladies.
I helped the lady there one timeget a refrigerator.
She's got five kids.
Her life is incredibly.

(14:15):
Hard.

Preston (14:15):
Redneck.

Brad (14:16):
Anyway, the other place I go, the other place I go is
after the gym, I go to AnchoredNutrition.
And you know what?
Go to that bar, and I know thatZach's going to have a
conversation with me.
I can go in there, and I thinksometimes I feel like, I don't
want to scare your othercustomers away.
You know, like, we were having aconversation the other day, and
one of your customers came in.

(14:37):
I forgot her name.
You know, Zach knows everybody'sname.
He knows everybody personally.
They come in.
I can tell you the fall wallstory about how I got my
nickname there too.
But anyway, I just, I'm not tointerrupt, I just like, I feel
that I can go there and I'm notgoing there to get my peanut
butter pancake smoothie.
Like, I have protein powder atmy house.

(14:57):
Right, yeah.
Like, I don't need to go Butit's like, I go for the hang and
the environment that youcreated.
So I wanted to tell you, you'vesucceeded at that.
I don't know that there's abunch of other people that are
sitting at the bar doing what Ido, but I feel that from you.
And that's why I go to yourstore.
Like that's like the 8 for thefreaking smoothie, because I
want you to be a success.
And like, I love going to seeyou, bro.

(15:19):
Like, that's why I go there.
So anyway, go on.
I just, you've done that for me.
I

Preston (15:24):
appreciate that.
I'll go ahead.

Zach (15:27):
Sorry we, have a lot of people to do that same thing.
You know, we have one guy who isa lot like me.
He's got him on the brink oftaking his own life.
And, you know, I don't want totake credit for turning his life
around because there's a lotmore that goes into it than just
coming to see guys smiling andhaving a conversation with you.
But we've helped people quitdrinking from just creating a
relationship with them.

(15:48):
We've helped people.
You know, get out of that areasof their life.
We felt we've helped people getinto better careers because the
way I talk to people in the waythat, you know, me and my wife
have made our mission is, youknow, we're not there to sell
you something.
Yeah.
Obviously we have to make moneyto make a living, but our goal
is to help you and who you are.
And we have people that comeinto our store and they're like,

(16:10):
Hey, before I do anything, I'mjust letting you know, I'm not
here to buy anything.
I just need to sit and talk.
And we're like, cool, dude.
Like where you're a residenttherapist, like, let's hear
about it.
And we hear some off the wallshit, there's some things people
tell us where I'm like, that'sillegal.
You should not be telling.
We don't have, we

Michael (16:27):
don't have client nutritionist privilege.
Yeah.

Zach (16:32):
No such thing exists.
Do not tell me.
Yeah.
I was like, I can't help youhere.
Please.
God don't repeat that to meagain, we, we made that our
mission for people to leave in abetter mood and they come in and
it's an incredibly, what is theword I'm looking for?
It's it's a very humbling thingbecause we are really successful

(16:52):
at it.
And I don't think we giveourselves enough credit because
to us, it feels like it comesreally easy, honestly.
But it's a lot because thethings that we hear and the
conversations we have it'smentally draining a lot, but And
it, you know, it's come with hischallenges too.
You know we've had a lot ofperiods where we've got a
question, you know, is this whatwe want to do?
Are we where we need to be?

(17:14):
But being able to, I feel like.
Anybody that's been in that deepof depression that was on the
brink, when you see that kind ofdarkness, you don't want other
people to see that too.
And you want to help keep peoplefrom getting there.
And, I've really dug my heelsinto it with nutrition because
these, are actually some reallyinteresting statistics.

(17:34):
The, totality of the picture isthis, right?
So up until about six to eightmonths ago, the number one
reason for suicide wasdepression.
The number one reason forsuicide now is food insecurity.
Which is the, dumbest fuckingthing that could ever be a
reason for people to be killingthemselves.
But we're facing, you know, Idon't use this term loosely, but

(17:56):
it's almost like a pandemic.
We're facing a pandemic ofhorribly misleading information
for people in the world rightnow.
It's causing an identity

Michael (18:06):
crisis.

Zach (18:07):
Right.
A majority of the people thatare killing themselves aren't
people like us that are havingstruggles with food or food
disorders.
A majority of them are parents.
They're killing themselvesbecause they're having issues
properly, feeding their family,or they're having food
insecurities or disorder issuesthemselves because they're
unable to, you know, affordvegetables and salads and

(18:31):
healthier foods, quote unquote,and things like this.
And we're, it's almost like, Idon't know.
The damage that's going to do tothe children, right?
We're also seeing a whole waveof parents that are teaching
their kids.
Well, red dye is bad for you.
Processed foods are bad for you.
Certain fruits and vegetablesare bad for you.
They're giving these kids, thesedisorders at four or five years

(18:51):
old, because they're notteaching them how to have a
balanced, healthy eating habitsand how to treat food with
respect and be like, Hey, if Iwant to sit down and eat hot
Cheetos a once in a while, it'sokay.
That should not dominate mydiet, but it's okay.
And for me, I'm like to imagine.
That people are puttingthemselves on the brink and, or
killing themselves because ofthe things they're hearing when

(19:12):
it comes to nutrition, drives mebatshit crazy.
Have you guys heard ofCarnivoreMD?

Preston (19:18):
No.

Zach (19:19):
Alright, well he's the biggest jackass.
You know what a grifter is?

Michael (19:23):
Yes.
I'm looking him up though.
I'm looking him up.

Zach (19:27):
So a grifter is a horrible scumbag human.
So this man is the biggestgrifter on the planet.
He called himself Carnivore MD.
A lot of people kind of boughtinto the things he would say
because his name was MD, it wasa medical doctor.
He did have a license inpsychology.
He did not have a license inanatomy and cardiovascular
health and dietetics or anythingelse.

(19:47):
It was psychology, so he reallywasn't even qualified to talk
about nutrition.
But he started going aroundtelling people, you know, that
the ideal diet for maximumhealth is a carnivore diet,
which is nothing but meats, Andfruits, no vegetables because he
said, this is biochemical, youbiochemical, you're dying to
kill you because he just pulledshit out of his ass.
People start buying into it.
And what we see when people haveway too much meat in their diet

(20:10):
is high cholesterol, high LVL,cardiovascular disease, and
getting their chest cracked openbecause they're developing, the
widow makers, things like that.
And so this guy would get hisblood done to prove that it was
working.
He would get his blood doneevery six months and it would
always come back.
He had high cholesterol, highLDL, high all this other shit.
He was like, this is the medicalindustrial complex, whatever the

(20:32):
fuck that means, these aremedical industrial complex lying
to you.
High cholesterol is not bad foryou.
It's a sign of health.
In the last six weeks, all ofhis handles from Instagram to
Facebook are no longer saycarnivore MD.
They say his name.
And he's going on podcasts nowand backtracking saying no, I've
never told people that carnivorewas the ideal diet.

(20:55):
I told him that you shouldexperiment, eat things that make
you feel good.
And now I, myself have startedtesting out rice, different
forms of vegetables, all thesedifferent things.
And I'm like, What you're sayingis you were about to die and you
realized you were wrong.
And instead of admitting youwere wrong, your jackass self is
just going to lie.

(21:15):
Because if he admits he waswrong, then he's like, he's open
to law.
He's lost because he was givingout false medical information.
His company was built on that.
And so he could be sued out theass, but we have guys like that,
Spread information that peoplein today's world don't know how
to disseminate this kind ofinformation.
They don't know the proper waysto do nutrition research.

(21:38):
They don't know to find how tofind like the proper sources for
really anything.
So they hear guys like this thatlook pretty good that sound
really confident.
Talk with authority and they'rejust like, well, holy shit.
That guy must be right.
The only thing you need to eatto live is apples.
Fuck everything else like Youjust have to sound confident in
today's world.
And my biggest thing is,especially with a lot of my

(21:58):
clients, is teaching them thatyou can eat whatever the fuck
you want, but your diet needs toconsist, a majority should be
whole foods, but if you want tohave ice cream, Don't do it
every day.
Get off your ass, move a littlebit, eat healthy for the most
part.
So my

Michael (22:14):
sundaes, my ice cream consumption, I can just eat.
Load up,

Zach (22:18):
go crazy, obviously don't eat like a freaking three pound
of ice cream.
But it's, these things where,you know, a lot of my clients, I
tell these things and I getlike, it's an odd to have an aha
moment.
And I'm like, see that rightthere.
The fact you're having an ahamoment is the problem.
This shit should be commonsense, but it's not because the

(22:38):
industry has gotten so dilutedand confused.
Like the people that say, wellif you can't pronounce the
ingredient.
You shouldn't be eating it.
So you're telling me i'm not Ishouldn't eat it or like my
favorite one I saw a tick tockof a guy who said as smug as he
could be about it He's walkingthrough, he's like, no, like a
lot of you guys, I I thoughtthat I was being healthy too by

(23:02):
drinking almond milk, wrong, andlet me show you why.
So he starts reading off theingredients and he starts going,
alpha, D alpha, see I can't evensay that, like, that's garbage,
that shouldn't be in there, andthe thing he was quoting was
alpha D tocopherol, which isfucking vitamin E.
It's essential to your survivaland people I look at the

(23:24):
comments and everybody's onthey're like, oh my god I can't
believe they're putting that inour almond milk.
I'm like You mean something thatnaturally occurs in almonds?
Yeah, it's in your milk and thatyou need for survival and that
surprises you

Brad (23:35):
like what?
Well, and like what you weresaying about confidence like oh,
you just need to be confidentand people isn't yeah or and or
you just need to be extreme is abig one because if you're
extreme that alludes to Youdon't need balance because
balance is hard.
It requires discipline, right?

(23:57):
And that's hard to wrap yourbrain around when you live in
the modern society that wantseverything to be extreme And so
I also wanted to say when wewere talking about you can have
ice cream once a week orwhatever You know, it's funny me
and Abby went and got some icecream.
I was having some ice cream ButI went to the gym today, but
yeah but, I was going to sayreal quick is that I'm an

(24:18):
addict, right?
By just genetic makeup.
I feel like where one, you know,our saying in AA is like one is
too many A thousand is neverenough.
I don't know that ice cream oncea week is Really possible for me
like tomorrow i'm gonna want icecream again, dude like so for me
like Is one bag of hot cheetos?

(24:40):
Okay, because Something happensto me chemically.
And that just comes down toknowing yourself.
I actually do better with a fullon strict diet.
I can adhere to that betterbecause of my personality.
If you give me grace and leewayand I'll spin that around in my
head and be like, well, I canhave Cheetos twice a week.
And before you know it, likethat's what happened when I have

(25:00):
one drink.
Like I have one drink.
Everyone's like, well, what areyou going to do?
Go down to the ghetto and getcocaine.
Well, no, not the first day, butlike the second day, you know
But like, seven months down theroad?

Preston (25:12):
Yeah.

Brad (25:13):
Like, it's gonna, it's gonna progress slowly into this
rationalizing and justifying andminimizing.
Because that's what I can do,right?
My disease of alcoholismactually lives in my thoughts,
right?
It's a disease of my thinking.
So what happens is I have thisdisease of perception.
And I'm a bit, and I'm able tostart like, Justifying and

(25:33):
rationalizing every little stepcloser to killing myself.
And so i'm getting to a pointwhere I feel like I can have ice
cream or whatever, but it'sstill a struggle for me Strict
diets are always better for mebecause I know clear cut what I
can and can't have If you giveme what I can and can't have
then I can i'll never say yes toice cream if it's on the no List
because it's on the no listLike, can't have it, you know,

(25:56):
that's where,

Zach (25:58):
That's where having, like you said, the awareness of how
you are around certain foods.
So for hot cheetos, I have zerocontrol around hot cheetos.
I will go to the Sam's club.
I will, once a month I'll do it.
I'll get the Sam's club size bagand I'll eat it in one sitting.
I do not keep hot cheetos in thehouse because I know if they are
there, I will eat them.

Preston (26:17):
Yeah.

Zach (26:18):
And so it's having that, you know, that.
Talk and being real about howyou are around certain foods and
be like, okay, I can't controlmyself around Oreos.
I'm not gonna keep them in thehouse.
And if I'm gonna have Oreos,right.
And so it's, doing that.
But what you're talking aboutwith the extremism too, that's
the other segue into the issuewe have in the nutrition
industry is the conspiracytheories all around nutrition.

(26:42):
And so people want to distrustscience and they want to
distrust government,specifically conspiracy
theorists.
They want to find a reason tonot trust the industry standard
or what the industry says ishealthy.
And so when we have people likecarnivore MD that are extreme
about these things, people latchonto it because it challenges

(27:04):
the status quo.
And that's exactly what theywant because they think if the
government said this is true.
It must be a lie.
It has to be something else.
It can't be that simple.
It has to be more complicated.
And it just, it's funnels thiswhole thing.
It fucks up the entire industrybecause you have the people that
spread real factual informationand it doesn't get the attention

(27:25):
or the shares that the extremestuff does because it's not
static, it's not challenging thestatus quo and it's not exciting
you.

Brad (27:33):
It's not exactly.

Michael (27:35):
And then you have the non conspiratorial stuff like
the, pharmaceutical companiesthat all contribute to people's
distrust of science because theyhave, mislabeled, misrepresented
what they do as science when itis purely financially motivated,
no outcomes that they careabout.
So I think it, the same thingreally bleeds over into the
nutrition.
Industry broadly, unfortunately,because it's the same sort of

(27:58):
thing It, just is, it's so sadto, to see how big of an impact
that has on those extreme typesof minds.
And, to your point, Zach, youknow, with information being
created so much more quickly,we're as humans really
struggling to filter through it.

Brad (28:16):
I have a theory.
I have a theory that I just kindof was thinking about.
And Zach, you kind of asked methis the other day when we were
talking, you were like, okay, ifthe government's out to get us,
like, what's their motive?
And that's been, and I thinkthat's a great question because
when you're trying to figure outif the conspiracy theory is real
or, whatever, you're If you'retrying to sift through this and
you're trying to use yourdiscernment to like figure your
way through the world with allthis crap coming at you, you

(28:38):
start going, okay, well, if theyare really out to get you, why
are they out to get you?
Right?
Well, here's what I kind of cameup with.
And I think I just came up withit kind of now listening is
like, I think there is, theywant to create the confusion
because if there's confusion,you can't educate yourself.
It's not so much that they wantto kill you.
They just want to keep you fromfiguring out the truth because

(28:59):
then they can continue tomanipulate for profit so I think
profit has taken over greed hastaken over and Individually, I
think they've rationalized it ina corporate capitalist, you
know, a meeting room, you knowIt's like they've got a business
is just geared to growth It'slike Why this quarter do we need

(29:21):
to grow another 20 percent whenwe're pretty successful?
Like at some point, does anybodyraise their hand and go like,
we've grown enough, we're nowdepleting like oxygen from the
air because of all the farmingor whatever, like, I'm not a
scientist.
I don't claim to know any ofthis shit, but it's like, I can
say that I do feel like thereis, if there's a conspiracy,

(29:43):
it's a conspiracy to keep usconfused.
So the agent continued to keepthat.
Yeah.
That kind of control just sothat it's for profit.
And I think sometimes that cancome at the cost of life.

Zach (29:56):
So to your point, there is, there's a portion of that I
agree with because it's not aconspiracy.
We know it's true.
That's what I was going to say.
And there are subsections of,you know, the government, like
the FDA gets a really bad rap.
The F, our FDA is one of thestrictest FDAs in the world.

(30:18):
Or, you know, the our version ofit is one of the strictest in
the world.
And the issue we're seeing is itso much what they're doing to
our food.
The issue is the in access tothe foods that we need for lower
income communities.
And the fact they make.
You know, hyper palatable, ultraprocessed foods, extremely

(30:40):
affordable.
Hot Cheetos

Brad (30:42):
are more affordable than freaking vegetables.

Zach (30:45):
Right.
McDonald's is more affordablethan going and getting, you
know, the grocery store.
And so the problem we have isthese companies, it's not a
government level thing.
It's a corporation level thing.
And the government doesn't help.
The fact that we have lobbyiststhat exist that can kind of help
push legislation, things likethat doesn't help.
But it comes down to, like yousaid, the corporations are

(31:06):
exploiting people for money.
And, you know, when you look at,I can go buy a Giorno pizza in
the frozen section, and I canget my calories and all the
stuff I need to eat out of thatand be pretty full most of the
day.
Versus, you know, that's 9.
I know that because I get it.
It's the self crust pepperoniDiGiorno pizza.
It's fucking incredible.
Don't need it all the time, butI could eat that or I could go

(31:29):
get, you know, fresh basil, someavocado.
I could get all the things tomake really solid.
Overall, good, nutritious tacosat home, and that's gonna cost
me 30 bucks.
And if I have a family of fourkids, which option am I going to
go with?
Am I going to go with the 9 perperson pizza?
Or am I going to go spend 80bucks for one dinner?
And so, and that's, it's kind ofhappened with organic, for

(31:51):
instance.
You know, there's this wholething.
There's a belief that organic isbetter for you than non organic.
It's not.
Or the only difference betweenorganic and non organic is
organic used.
Organic approved pesticides,which have far less research on
them than the current pesticideswe use, thus making it slightly
riskier to consume and slightlymore exposure to pesticides than

(32:13):
you get from non organic.
However, it is cheaper forcompanies to label things and
test them and use organicpesticides.
Then it is for them to do it theway the FDA regulates it.
And so when you see an avocadohere for 3 from the company, and
then the same company is sellingyou an organic avocado for 9
because it's organic, they'realso using that to confuse and

(32:36):
take advantage of people becausepeople are so paranoid about
their health, and they'll spendmore on the organic thing, even
though it's the same fuckingthing, and it's cheaper for them
to make, but they charge threetimes the price.
And so the, issue comes down toprivatized healthcare,
privatized insurance, thecorporations having made giant,
like monopolies in the UnitedStates are illegal.

(32:58):
Yeah.
We have companies like Kellogg'sthat have monopolized the market

Preston (33:01):
and that only

Zach (33:02):
happens because of shit like lobbyists, they can go to
the government and push forlegislation that allows them to
do this kind of shit.

Preston (33:09):
And

Zach (33:09):
so it's, I don't fully trust the government either.
Nope.
We should always have a healthydistrust for our government.
We should always have a healthydistrust for our government,

Preston (33:19):
but

Zach (33:19):
it's the corporations.
The corporations have a freakingchokehold on all of our food
supply and where the healthyoptions go and who can afford
it.
And

Brad (33:28):
it's

Zach (33:29):
a huge issue.

Brad (33:31):
Yeah, man, it's good stuff.
All good stuff, man.

Zach (33:35):
But it's you know, it's interesting too when people talk
about nutrition and likestudies.
So a meta study is a compositestudy of, you know, for
instance, there are meta studiesabout red dye and it's done from
70 different countries and it's300 different studies and it's
like 30 million people in totaland it looks at all of the
studies from all over the worldthat Kind of point towards the

(33:57):
same thing.
It's like, Hey, we've done allthese studies on millions of
people across differentcountries, different viewpoints,
different worlds, and all of thedata we collected point to the
exact same answer.
It's fine to consume.
That's where, you know, we cantrust science more than people
realize we can, because it's notjust the U.
S.
that we get these studies from.
It's all over the entire world.
But that's an area where I'malso very fortunate.

(34:19):
So my brother is a scientist

Preston (34:21):
and

Zach (34:22):
I know that he has access to all kinds of shit that, it's
going to take me like multipledifferent kind of search cues
through Google to get to.
Hey, I should be like, Hey, I'mlooking for the studies on this.
Can you help me out here?
And he can find them in half asecond, send you to me.
But we have people morequalified than us, like, when we
start looking at, virologists,for instance, people that have

(34:44):
been studying viruses for 50years.
Am I going to trust the guy whostudied virology for 50 years,
or am I going to trust Brad onFacebook who did three hours of
Google research?
Trust me.
You should trust me, dude.
He was like, Hey, so just so youknow, I was on Google for three
hours and this is why they'refucking lying to you, bro.
What?

(35:04):
Like, why should I trust youover a guy with three different
master's degrees?
It's been doing this his entirelife.

Brad (35:09):
Well, but the problem is that the regular person doesn't
have the time or the wherewithalto like access that they don't
know, which they don't know.
Brad from doctor, whoever who's,or the chemist or whoever
they're doing these studies thatthey, like, they don't know.
They just, Listen to the feedthat's piped into their
Instagram.

Zach (35:28):
That's the scary part.
It's like you talk about,corporations being corrupt and
all these things too, but youalso see these creators that
make these Super extreme videosabout things and they're making
money off of it too, becausethey're getting views and view
time.
And I'm like, you're paying themto say bad things and confuse
people.
And then

Michael (35:49):
it just feeds to the problem because that's like
clicks and ads.
And it is again, coming back tohow corporate America is
influencing things.
And it's purely based on, shock.
And some of those other types ofthey're very successful
campaigns.
I know this because my 11 yearold wants to.
To spend 50 or 60 on cosmetics.
And she's 11.

(36:10):
And it's just like, well, theonly reason that exists is
because of social media.
And some very smart marketingexecutive was like, Hey, all we
need to do is this send some ofour products for free to a bunch
of these people who have atleast 100, 000 followers on
social media.
And we can capture whateverdemographic we want.

Preston (36:30):
Yeah,

Michael (36:31):
this is a, please review this.
And if you do, maybe we'll sendyou some more free stuff too.
Yeah, maybe

Zach (36:37):
this this is makes for another interesting topic.
Capitalism.
Good or bad?

Brad (36:44):
Well, the rewarding, okay.
This system of rewarding youthrough, you know, success or
pay, you know, through views andlikes.
Oh my gosh, what a horrible.
What a horrible pace, like scaleor whatever the word is like, Oh
my gosh.
I definitely want to watchpeople fight on my Instagram

(37:05):
more than I want to watch morethan I want to watch, like more
than I want to watch, JordanPeterson talk about like the
migration issue, you know, likeI just, things that I should be
watching are being edged out inthe algorithm by things that it
knows.
That I'm weak for, you know,I've got all these half naked

(37:27):
young girls on my Instagram.
I don't know how they got there.
And, here's the thing is like,how can we take what we just
talked about?
And we can think about applyingit.
And I'll use an example rightnow.
I was sitting at dinner tonight.
My son's 11 Brixton, Abby cookedstir fry, pretty healthy dinner.
Right now, sometimes he'll haveChick fil A sometimes he'll get

(37:47):
a different dinner than we get.
And we've created this monster,but tonight he was stir fried.
He was just going to have todeal with the stir fry.
Well, he couldn't eat it.
And he got halfway through andhe, and I was like, it's not
bad.
He's like, it's just bland.
And in my mind is telling methat I can't eat this because it
doesn't have any flavor.
And so, I was like, okay.

(38:08):
And I was like, but you can'tjust eat, you know, snacks all
the time.
And then he goes, well, why doyou buy them?
If they're unhealthy and I waslike, Abby, why do we buy this?
And I said, well, you know,we're trying to teach you
balance.
It's like, but he brought up agreat point.
He's like, I said, well, maybewe should just get rid of all
your fun snacks then.
And we'll just start to have thestir fry and stuff like this
every night, you know, and I'mpulling my dad stuff.

(38:31):
And, the dad comes out of methat I never thought would,
like, I hear myself say that andI'm like, did I just say that?
Such a dad, but like, it's justlike, but how do we So how do we
apply this stuff?
Like in general I'm sure there'sa lot of different ways, like,
Yeah.
I just want to hear from you,Zach.
Like, what do you do?
I think I've worked out with,you know, a plan with my family

(38:53):
to the best that I can, and I'malways a work in progress.
I don't execute this perfectly.
You just heard the story.
I just, so anyway, just tryingto figure out what do we do for
the person listening?
That's like really strugglingwith this.
Yeah.

Zach (39:06):
So I think the biggest thing here is.
You said something there aboutprogress.
The goal is progress.
It's not perfection.
I teach that to all my clients.
You're trying to progressivelyincrease the things for yourself
and your health that you knowyou should be doing that you
don't currently do, that youdon't expect yourself to be
perfect.
Like, sometimes I'll have hotcheetos twice a week and it just

(39:26):
is what it fucking is.
Like I'm going to do it.
It's going to happen.
It's not perfect, but I'mconscious of it and I make
progress towards not doing thosekinds of things.
The big step is, you know, eatthings that make you feel good.
So if you eat, you know, Idon't, I know there's not a
person on the planet that eats aDiGiorno pizza and feels great
afterwards.
And so start listening more soto your body.

(39:48):
Start introducing things likefruits and vegetables.
You know, there's a good sayingwhere if you don't like
vegetables, like I don't likebroccoli, but if I put cheese on
broccoli, I like broccoli.
That's a net positive becauseI'm getting, yeah, I'm adding a
little extra calories, a littleextra fat and dairy into it, but
the positive that I'm gettingvegetables in my diet that I
don't typically get in my dietis a net positive overall, and

(40:12):
it's finding ways to introducethings into your diet that
improve your overall health andgive you more nutrient density.
And so start small, like all ofmy clients, the first month that
I have a client, the goal isyou're drinking enough water,
you're getting enoughelectrolytes, you're upping your
protein intake.
That's all you're worrying aboutfor the first month.
And then as you start toprogress and go on, you start

(40:32):
dialing it down, you startfocusing, you know, you
establish those things as ahabit.
Like I hit a gallon a day ofwater, half of my gallon has
electrolytes in it.
I'm hitting, you know, 180 gramsof protein a day.
And I've done that consistently.
Now it's become kind of mydefault.
So, we always fall to the levelof our habits.
So, if you set that up as ahabit, after 30 days or so,

(40:53):
like, you're just gonna do that.
And even when you're stressedout in life and you're
struggling, you kind of defaultand still fall to that same
level.
And overall, you're, you justbecome the person that does
that.
Just like how I was raised towork out and I just became the
person that worked out like itdoesn't matter what's going on
in my life.
I'm gonna work out.
It's creating those kinds ofhabits.
So like in month 2, the goal is,okay, now we're going to focus

(41:16):
on certain type of movements orworkouts for this month.
And we're going to work onintroducing different kinds of
fruits into your diet moreconsistently.
And it's just, it's.
Taking baby steps, really,because it doesn't you don't
have to overhaul your dietovernight.
You don't have to completelychange up and, you know, wake up
at 4am every day so you can getyour workout in like you don't
have to do all these crazy offthe wall things.

(41:37):
You just have to make smallsteps in the right direction.
Because there's nothing we cando in the short term that is
going to destroy our health.
And You know, minus the personwho's 400 pounds because they've
been eating like shit theentirety of their life You know,
if you guys are eating like shithere and there it's not going to
destroy your health in a coupleof days Right just like eating
healthy is not going to fix yourhealth in a couple of days So

(41:59):
you have time to kind of figureout an experiment and see what
makes you operate better Whatmakes you feel better?
What makes you more, you knowclear headed and all that and so
it's just the small things manIt's just focus on little baby
steps

Brad (42:13):
Yeah, and those like DiGiorno, that DiGiorno pizza
will make you feel good ifthat's what your addiction is,
right?
Like, you need that amount ofcarbs to feel good because
you've now established thataddiction, you know?
It's like, and the obese person,the morbidly obese person I,
Abby's cool with me talkingabout it, but her sister's one
of them.

(42:34):
She's got every excuse under thebook, man, that her joints are
messed up and whatever, and it'slike, well, your joints are
messed up because you're 400pounds.
Like, it's like, they mightregenerate themselves.
Like, there are exercises.
She can't even get started.
Abby's made her plans.
She is convinced that.
She eats healthy, and I'm like,man, I would love to see her in
the middle of the night.
Yeah.
Because, like, that's when thebig obese people usually do

(42:55):
their thing, when nobody seesthem.
She always eats salads,whatever, I'm like But anyway,
for that person, it's like, howdo they start, man?
How do they even get I'm I don'teven know how I did it.
I was brought to my knees withaddiction.
Like, how did I quit all thisdrugs and alcohol?
Well, I'm I always tell peopleI'm grateful that, I hit a
bottom.
I'm grateful, I'm so lucky thatI'm an alcoholic.
And drug addict that those drugstore me down so much they got I

(43:18):
didn't die But enough to pull myhead out of my ass like It took
that for me to have a moment ofclarity and I always talk about
that It was like the desperationthe gift of desperation Was so
real because I finally Mythinking I had this moment where
like all that crap I couldrationalize and justify I had to
throw out the window and I waslike, dude, I have to change my

(43:39):
life and I'm and it just You AndI did that three or four times.
I, I didn't just have onemoment.
I got sober for a year and wentback.
Two years went back.
Now I've got 10.
I don't have this thing masteredat all.
Something happened.
You know, like somethinghappened with all of that, that
got me set in the rightdirection.
And I've learned when I make amistake now, I don't throw it

(44:01):
all away.
If I eat one bag of Cheetos andI do the little thing now, or I
ate the ice cream or whatever Ido, I go, Hey, it's all good.
Just don't do that tomorrow,

Zach (44:11):
That's usually what we see.
There's, you know, a couple ofways that people end up making
this changes in their life.
And one of the most common waysthat encourage people or kind of
forces them into change is likea diagnosis.

Preston (44:23):
It's

Zach (44:23):
like, Hey, you have type two diabetes.
Your thyroid is failing.
You're going to be dead in thenext five years if you don't
change it.
It creates that sense ofurgency.
And that's why, man, for mostpeople, that's not reality.
That's not as common as peopleare thinking it is.
Even for clients I've had thatare morbidly obese.
A lot of the times, theirnumbers are still pretty

(44:44):
healthy.
It takes a long time being in astate like that for your body to
start falling apart.
So, people have time to correctthese things.
The problem is a lot of people,when they start trying to
correct these things, they takethe entire picture all at once.
And try to make everythinghappen that day.
They're like, okay, startingtoday, I work out an hour a day.
I go walk a mile a day.

(45:05):
I drink a water, a gallon ofwater.
I eat 200 grams of protein.
I have all these fruits, allthese vegetables.
And they, try to cram so muchinto it.
That, you know, like talkingabout your brain, it's not
sustainable.
Like you talk about your brainand, you know, addiction, all
these different things.
Our brains are wired forcomfort, which is why I talk
about, you know, you're tryingto create these slow steps into

(45:27):
habits because once your brainis comfortable at that level,
that's what your brain resortsto.
Like it's going to look forthat, whether you're thinking
about it or not.
And when you start doing allthese things after about a week,
you're stressed the F outbecause everything is so
different.
It's taking a lot more work, alot more effort, and your brain
starts trying to pull you backto the habits you have, because
that's what it knows.

(45:48):
That's what it's comfortable in.
That's where it likes to operatein your brain's job is to keep
you in a period of homeostasiswhere you're balanced and you're
doing things you've always donebecause it feels safe.

Preston (45:58):
Yeah.

Zach (45:58):
And so it's, like you're fixing like your alcoholism.
Like that's, you're still fightthat.
And that's something with food,people that have food issues,
you will always fight that.
But you take the necessary stepsover time or you get a diagnosis
and you're like, well, should Ido it or die?
Those are the only two options.

Preston (46:17):
And

Zach (46:18):
people think it's almost like people think that if you're
inching towards getting to whereyou're trying to go, you're not
making progress because you haveto be full sprinting.
And it's almost like the samething with business and success.
People think if you're not,success loves speed.
If you're not going fast, you'renot successful.
That's not true.
Like, you can fucking crawl.
If you can't crawl, dragyourself.

(46:38):
Like, you don't have to go fast.

Brad (46:40):
And I can't help but think this, when it comes to the first
thing that you can do, whetheryou're in anything, whether
you're trying to build abusiness, or you're trying to
lose weight, or you're trying tobe spiritual, or whatever, or
stop drinking, or anything, anyailment, anything you want to
do, I feel like the first thingyou need to do is maybe even no

(47:02):
change right away is firstobserve, try to remove yourself
and observe what you're doinghonestly.
So don't make any changes yetand just go, I'm going to step
back and almost my, old sponsorused to say this, he goes, just
sit above, kind of removeyourself and watch yourself go
through the day, right?
This could be like, take rightdown everything that you eat.

(47:23):
Don't change anything thatyou're eating.
I tell, Abby tells clients thisand stuff too, like just
observe, if you're able to juststart to observe what you're
doing, oh my gosh, I ate twobags of, you know, can you
remove, can, the first step isjust, you know what, nothing,
I'm not going to ask you tochange anything, say you're
coming to my first consult andI'm a nutritionist and a fitness
coach and all this stuff, firstthing I'm going to tell you is,

(47:44):
go home and just keep track ofwhat you ate, you know, can you
honestly cause, the delusionwith her sister is so And the
enablers around her.
The family is scared to tell herthat she's morbidly obese.
Like, they're, like, they'reenabling the problem.
They're help killing her, youknow?
Alcoholics have this problem alot too.
Wives that go to Al Anon, a lotof times they're helping their

(48:07):
husband to stay drunk becausethey have this issue of taking
care of them and it's like,they're scared to talk about it.
And if this person can just pullthemselves away and look down at
themselves and go, Hey, What amI actually doing and just
beginning to observe.
And that's where the inventoryis really good.
And the 12 steps is like, youjust take an inventory, you
know, a business can't succeedwithout inventory.

(48:29):
You at your business, you got tolook at what you have in stock.
And if you have this pile ofprotein that you're not selling,
I can't keep ordering thisprotein.
Like it's not selling, like wegot to do something.
Maybe it's not protein, but it'ssomething that isn't like we got
these BCAAs and nobody's buyingthe BCAAs, but we keep spending
a thousand dollars a week onBCAAs.
Like you would never do that.
Like if you're dying, you're notgoing to keep eating.

(48:51):
French fries

Zach (48:53):
You're gonna be like, oh shit.
Maybe I should just eat a potatoinstead,

Brad (48:56):
you know, like you can't so anyway I feel like that's
what i've come up with is likethe first step is like can you
just step back and even get?
Honest with yourself, you know,can you even get honest with
yourself about your situation?
So that's what i'm taking fromthis, you know in a lot of ways
is like do we even know what theproblem is?

Zach (49:14):
And that's a huge first step because like you said, a
lot of people are verydisillusioned by how they eat
and by how they live their lifeand by their level of perceived
physical activity.

Brad (49:24):
It's just acceptable.
It's just acceptable behavior toeat like this.
So

Zach (49:29):
yeah, I've had clients before that they gave me the
spiel, you know, I've had oneclient about two years ago in
particular.
She was 320 ish pounds.
She was so heavy that she couldhave eaten about 2800 calories a
day and she would still belosing a significant amount of
body weight pretty quicklybecause of just her overall size
and after about a month she hadlost nothing and I was just

(49:52):
like, okay, walk me through youreating because your logs have
been kind of in this isinconsistent.
She's like, well, you know, Iwake up, I have a chicken breast
go to lunch.
I have a salad and a chickenbreast.
You know, I go to dinner and Ihave a salad before bed.
I have a chicken breast.
I'm like, I was not bornyesterday.
Zero chance.

(50:13):
That's what, are you eating?
And then that's where she wouldcome out.
She'd be like, okay, well.
On Sundays, me and my husbandlike to go to a Mexican
restaurant.
And I was like, Oh shit, here wego.
She's like, usually I'll havelike five baskets of chips by
myself.
And I'm like, what?
Are you serious?

(50:33):
I'm

Preston (50:34):
like, yeah,

Zach (50:35):
I'm like, and when we get in, once she was honest with
herself about it and really satthere and was like, okay.
I do eat a lot more than Ireally should and I don't want
to fix it.
So she dropped out being aclient and decided she's not
gonna lose weight.
I'm like, all right, like, Iguess I'll see you at your
funeral.
Like, I don't know, dude.

Preston (50:55):
I'm not gonna lie.
I'm guilty of the chip game at aMexican restaurants to it's
dude, it's

Zach (51:01):
hard.
I'll, eat two on my own afterthat.
I started getting pretty fullthat

Brad (51:06):
Kate, that case.
So dude, it's like, Oh, it'srough.

Michael (51:11):
What's with chips at Mexican restaurants?
They are.
Okay.
Impossible.

Brad (51:15):
There's a chemical you can't pronounce.
There's a chemical you can'tpronounce in them that makes you
eat a ton of them.
It's called He is correct.
It's called It's correct.
Salt?

Zach (51:25):
Yeah, the government's sprinkling it in there to make
you fat and kill you faster,

Michael (51:28):
so

Zach (51:30):
Nice.

Michael (51:31):
this was a, this was an awesome conversation and,
testament to that we're justscratching the surface.
I'm sure should should bring youback on to hear a little bit
more about how things are goingwith the nutrition shop and dig
a little bit more into thepracticalities of it too,
because like to Brad's point,the goal is to have some things
that people can walk away withand maybe it's, it is finding

(51:54):
the path outside of thecorporate America that.
Preston and I are both stilltrying to figure out keeping one
foot heavily and despite ourbest desires to try to get out.
So appreciate the inspirationand yeah, conversation in
general, man.
Just tell them

Brad (52:10):
about Anchored Nutrition.
I don't know if you have awebsite or if you have any other
coaching that you do, or whatelse tell us.
For anybody,

Zach (52:17):
yeah, so I do, we have our website, not website.
We have Instagram and Facebook.
We pretty much just doeverything off of there.
I do nutrition, coaching,virtual and in person, just the
nutrition club.
And we have links inside of thebio for Instagram for all.
People can ask questions, getjust a consult and see if I'm a
fit.
For some people I'm not a fitbecause some people want to go

(52:39):
the more like all out, holistic,crazy route.
And some people want to hear thetruth.
So if you're somebody that wantsto hear the truth, I'm going to
give it to you and I'll baby youfor about the first month.
And then after that shit's goingto

Preston (52:51):
get

Zach (52:52):
real.
We're gonna start calling shitout after that.
Cause once we know each other,the gloves come off.
I'm like, all right, let's behonest about this shit.

Preston (52:59):
Yeah.

Zach (52:59):
So yeah.
And anytime you guys want tohave me on dude I, love talking
about this stuff.
I talk about it pretty much atthe shop 24 seven.
I'm probably talking about alittle too much cause I just get
going, but you guys want to haveme on.
I'm always in.

Brad (53:13):
What's your Instagram.
You just got to tell us what itis.
Oh yeah.

Zach (53:16):
The Instagram is just anchored A N C H O R E D
nutrition T N.
And then Facebook is justanchored nutrition and you'll
see a picture of me and my wife.
She's the better looking one.
So

Brad (53:26):
you'll

Zach (53:27):
know.

Brad (53:27):
We love Sam.

Michael (53:28):
Yeah, I guess that wraps episode 58.
Awesome, man.
I appreciate you guys having

Brad (53:32):
me on

Zach (53:34):
man.

Brad (53:34):
Dude.
Thanks for getting vulnerableand telling us the truth about
your story.
Cause that's something that I'vehad, I've do and share with my
story.
And I think it helps people togo, Oh my gosh, like I can
identify with this guy's storyfor the other vets who were out
there or somebody that struggledwith suicidal ideation or
whatever.
They can go, Hey, this guy has abusiness now.
Like.
I'm a recovering addict and, I'ma successful musician and own a

(53:56):
house.
People weren't even trusting meto go in their house at one
point.
So it can happen.
You don't have to be gifted somespecial, you know talents to, to
push through this thing and tomake change in your life.
So I just want to thank you fordoing that, man.
And bring it coming on here.
It was fun to get to know youmore.
I didn't know some of thosethings about you.
So

Zach (54:15):
I appreciate it, man.
No matter how dark it gets,there's always a shimmer of
light somewhere.
You just got to look for it, youknow?
Yeah.

Brad (54:20):
Nice.
Dude.
Anchor Nutrition's awesome.
I love it.
Hey, I appreciate it, brother.
I appreciate it.
I'll probably see you in a dayor two.
Hey, I'll be

Zach (54:27):
there.
Right away.