You’re Doing Everything Right… So Why Is Your Body Stuck? (Adam Badger) | Ep 304 - Wits & Weights | Fat Loss, Nutrition, & Strength Training for Lifters

Episode Transcript
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Philip Pape (00:01):
let's say you're doing all the right things,
you're tracking your macros,going to the gym consistently
and checking off all thenutrition and training boxes,
but you're still not getting theresults.
Well, your problem might not bewhat you think it is.
Today, my guest, adam Badger,reveals why something invisible
might be sabotaging even themost disciplined approach to

(00:21):
health and fitness.
You'll discover why your bodycan override even the best
nutrition, how emotionalpatterns silently block progress
and real strategies to breakthrough plateaus, when
white-knuckling it withwillpower is not cutting it.
Stop blaming yourself for lackof discipline when the real
culprit might be hiding in plainsight.
Welcome to Wits and Weights,the show that helps you build a

(00:51):
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering and
efficiency.
I'm your host, philip Pape, andtoday we're going to look at why
even the most disciplinednutrition and training plans can
sometimes fail, despite yourbest efforts, despite doing all
the things, checking all theboxes.
And my guest today to talkabout this is Adam Badger.

(01:11):
He is a fitness coach.
He's a buddy of mine, he's hadme on his show as well.
He's got over a decade ofexperience helping everyday
people transform physically andmentally, and I think the mental
side is super important here.
Since founding Badger Strengthin 2018, adam has guided
hundreds of clients maybethousands to exceptional results
by simplifying nutrition andtraining, while emphasizing the

(01:34):
critical role of mindset.
His approach to sustainablefitness, which we love here as
well, focuses on addressing boththe physical and emotional
aspects of health.
So today you're going to learnwhy there might be some hidden
barriers to your progress thathave nothing to do with your
knowledge, with your discipline,how emotional patterns can
override even the perfect plan,and some tips to get over the

(01:55):
hump and start getting results.
Adam, my man, welcome to theshow.

Adam Badger (01:58):
Well, thank you, man.
That was a great introduction,very, very, very flattering and
also super professional.
I'm jealous.

I just always try to cultivate that radio voice
you know.

No, no, it was perfect.
It was perfect.
I also.
I know no one's watching onvideo, but I don't.
Normally.
I'm wearing a tank top rightnow and I'm not normally like
douchey like this.
It's just really hot in myoffice.
No, I thought you were justtrying to show off the gun, so
it's good I did just work out,so I was feeling a little more
confident than normal.

A little pumped.
I hear you, man.
I hear you man, you know ittakes some courage to do that.
So you know, and we lovetraining, we love nutrition, we
love talking about this stuffall the time, and you and I were
, I guess, not joking because wedon't want to take this.
We want to take this stuffseriously, but how?
And you've talked about clientsas well, and people who reach
out that say I really am doingeverything you talk about, adam,

(02:45):
like I'm eating the protein, Iam tracking, I am training, I'm
like getting enough sleep,something is still off and I've
got the knowledge.
You know, it's not like I'm thenoob that doesn't even know I
need to track my food.
What's the real reason, then,that people fail to transform
despite doing everything right,or thinking they're doing
everything right, that peoplefail to?

transform despite doing everything right or
thinking they're doingeverything right.
So I used to say that it wasone of the two I's and I've kind
of updated that to be it, tosay that it's one of the three
I's.
So generally, what I found inmy experience that it's usually
comes down to impatience,improvement or intervention,
right?
So if you're checking all theboxes and you're doing

(03:28):
everything and you feel like youknow you're not seeing progress
, are you being just impatient?
Do you have unrealisticexpectations of how quickly
you're going to see results?
That seems to be a very commonone, right?
So for some people, let'sassume that they're no one's
100%.
So let's assume they're 90%consistent.

(03:50):
Their stress is not much morethan normal, right?
Like they have a pretty normallife, little stressors here and
there and they're being superconsistent.
Then it's usually justimpatience, like you just need
to have a more realistictimeline around how quickly your
body can actually change.
Then there's improvement.
This is the person who saysthey're doing everything 90%,

(04:11):
but really maybe it's only 60 or70%, right?
That's when you're trackingMonday through Thursday and you
feel like, well, that should beenough, and then Friday night
through Sunday night is justdumpster fire and you don't
really know how many caloriesyou're intaking.
Or maybe you are going to thegym four days a week but you
haven't progressed weights, youhaven't gotten better at
technique, you haven't actuallygotten any stronger, you're just

(04:33):
kind of breaking a sweat.
Okay, that person needsimprovement.
They need to improve theirconsistency, they need to learn
more about how to train properly.
But then there's also the stepof intervention about how to
train properly.
But then there's also the stepof intervention.
So let's assume someone hasbeen relatively patient, they've
been consistent for six months.
They're just not noticing muchchange at all.

(04:53):
So they're not being superimpatient.
Let's assume that, across theboard, they are checking all
their boxes.
They're in that 80 to 90%consistent range.
They are progressing in the gym, they're just not seeing it.
That's when we can take thestep of being like okay, we have
to intervene here.
This is like the interventionstep and not intervention, like
we have to have a gum to Jesus,talk with you, but just, we

(05:14):
gotta, we gotta do someinvestigation and go okay,
what's what's going on here?
Now that can kind of shift intowhat our main topic was, was
probably going to be, which iswell, what is likely going on
with that person and those arethe people where there's likely
a lot of chronic stress and theyare unaware of how that's

(05:37):
affecting their body.
So they're they're not fully.
They're not fully connectingtheir mental health or their
emotional health and theirphysical health.
And I always stress that Idon't mean this in like a hippie
woo-woo way, because I'm notlike that at all.
I'm just talking about howchronic stress affects you

(05:58):
physically and mentally and itmakes results much harder to
achieve and it really extendsthe timeline.
So that means you have to bevery, very consistent for much,
much longer to see a little bitof progress, or you can actually
get in there and address yourlevels of chronic stress, what's

(06:20):
stressing you out, how yourbody's responding to stress, and
it doesn't always mean you gotto do like blood work and stuff
like that.
So anyway that I said a lot.

No, no, you didn't.
Actually, that was perfect.
Like we could literally bottleup that as a clip because the
three eyes.
I love frameworks and I thinkthat was one of the best ways
I've ever heard this.
I'll call it a sequentialprocess of self-reflection of
are you doing this?
And actually it is contact.
It's good context for thisepisode, because I think what
we're talking about here is youfeel stuck and you think you're

(06:49):
doing the right things.
Well, check off.
These are other boxes to checkthat you might not be checking.
And impatience is amazingbecause I did a podcast about it
recently, because I do get alot of clients who start with me
and not usually not one-on-oneclients so much.
Well, you know them too.
Every client who, like you know, we're trying to set up their
diet, we're trying to set uptheir training.

(07:10):
They're open, they're committedto it, they're doing the things
.
And then after three weeks, whyam I not losing weight?
I'm so frustrated Like what'sgoing on.
And there's a lot ofopportunity there for reframing,
support, accountability aroundpatients, which is a skill.
It's a skill because I'm animpatient guy, trust me.
I used to speed all the timebecause I'm impatient.

Me too.
I'm extremely Listen.
I always like to tell myclients I'm extremely impatient.
I'm not a patient person.
I want results as fast aspossible too.
I get it.
You're never going to meetsomeone who's like, no, I prefer
to have slower results.
Of course, if, if all thingsconsidered, you could get

(07:51):
results faster without anynegative side effects, who's not
gonna choose that?
Like everyone's gonna choosethat, probably again with the,
with the caveat that there's notgonna be negative side effects
to that.
So if you're like, hey, listen,you listen, you could do this a
sustainable diet, a sustainableworkout program but you'll get
results in three months versussix months, which you're going
to choose, most people are goingto choose three months.
Why wouldn't you?

(08:12):
But the patience part is soimportant because and I think
this is where we can get intothe mindset and talking about
human behavior I get it.
I get, when you take the leapand you invest in yourself and
you hire a coach, or you investin yourself by going to a gym or
invest the time and energy intoa program, you have this

(08:32):
impulsive or instinctual desireto see a return on that.
And when you're not seeing areturn on that, yeah, you're
going to start gettinginquisitive and going, oh,
what's going on?
I don't know why I'm.
What's the point?
So for those people, let's justsay it is an impatience thing.
You got to start looking at.
Well, why am I actually evendoing this in the first place?

(08:53):
Like, why do I want to lose 20pounds?
Why do I want to get leaner,why do I want to get stronger?
Because if you can get to theroot of that which can tie into,
like the stress management,that which can tie into, like
the stress management, thechronic stress and all that
stuff, but if you get to theroot of that, you can then start
looking at your results beyondjust the scale and body comp,
like are you sleeping better?
Are you feeling better?
Are you getting stronger?
All that stuff.

And do you think there are some.
I'll call them simple hacks, orthe way that we frame, we call
it periodization, right, but forthose who don't know, it's just
having phases and having, whichsometimes are tied.
We tie them to timelines,sometimes incorrectly, I'll say.
But, for example, I only domonthly plans for my coaching.
Now, just recently switched tothat, mainly because I found

(09:35):
that some of the impatiencecomes from the pressure of the
clock, the pressure of like Ipaid for six months and I have
four months out of that for fatloss and I'm one month in and
I'm not quite where I thought weshould be based on that pretty
graph you showed me which maybethat's my mistake of like here's
the ideal trajectory and andit's like, oh geez, you know
they feel like their money andtime are locked Right.

(09:57):
So are there just again, beforewe move into the other eyes and
then eventually stress like nothaving a timeframe or not
having a target weight.
What is your approach to that?

Just as a very simple thing people can do right
now we're trying to say losefat, I would say it's a good
question.
Uh, cause?
I'm trying to think of a simpleanswer?
Because, because, because Iwould say the the easiest thing
you could do upfront is to starttracking progress by the
completion of the tasks and notby the scale and body

(10:28):
measurements.

That's good, right, that's good.

So I would be like yeah, start and start just going
.
Hey, I want to hit you know,let's say you're doing four
workouts a week.
Okay, I want to do at least 15,16 workouts this month.
Check those boxes.
I want to do at least fivewalks a week.
Check those boxes.
I want to hit my calories andprotein at least six out of
seven days.
Check those boxes and startgetting like enjoyment out of

(10:52):
that.
And if you're not enjoying that, understand that maybe.
Then there's something you needto address in terms of your
personal process, the routineyou're building.
So if I'm looking at if I'mlooking at building a routine or
building a lifestyle, it's notthat, like every little thing we
do to lose 20 pounds, you haveto do for the rest of your life

(11:13):
Because, as you know, losingweight by nature is a temporary
process.
It's not something you shoulddo.
But the habits you build alongthe way should be relatively
sustainable.
They just the dial gets turneddown a bit once you're in
maintenance.
So, are you eating foods thatyou enjoy?
Are you noticing you have moreenergy?
Are you getting better sleep?
Are you making improvements asa human being?

(11:33):
Is your quality of life gettingbetter, like?
These are all things that Iunderstand when you're trying to
lose weight.
It's very emotional.
You want to.
I always describe it.
It's like climbing, or I thinkI might've used this analogy
with you.
It's like climbing a ricketyladder and you're you're almost
at the top.
You want to just get onto theroof right, cause you just want

(11:54):
to feel that stability of going.
Oh God, I reached my goalweight, or I reached my goal
pant size.
Now I feel safe, but at the endof the day, like you're still
the same, you're like you stillhave to figure out how to live
in that, in that, in that place.
So people are trying to latchon to some like emotional
security, and I feel like that'swhat a lot of coaches don't
talk about.
They're just talking aboutpatience and we'll track your

(12:17):
progress, enjoy the process.
But you have to understand thatthis person.
They're trying to latch on to asense of security because they
think when they have thatsecurity and they feel
comfortable in their body, thatit's going to fill some void,
and usually it's not.

Yeah, so there's a lot of great stuff, a lot of
gold there, man, because I wasthinking of a movie I think it's
on Hulu called Fall.
Have you seen this?
No?

I haven't.

Okay, you talk about the rickety ladder.
Well, this is a.
In this movie, these two girls,women, whatever, uh decide to
climb a radio tower.
That's like force tall, talleststructure in the world and all
the way up there some disastersoccur.
Let's just leave it at that.
I don't want to spoil the movie, it's really good and but it
reminds me of like they'rebarely getting there there
stability.
It's kind of like rock climbingfor the first time without any

(13:03):
guidance, right?
You just don't know if thecarabiner and the thing that
goes in the rock I don't knowwhat it's called is going to
hold.
Okay, and like you said, whatif you want to go back down the
ladder?
Well, now it's rickety, right.
Some rungs are going to falland the whole thing might fall
off.
I like that analogy and also thechecking the boxes, because
people get hung up on thequantities or when they think of
consistency, they think I'malways hitting the target, as

(13:24):
opposed to I'm doing the thing,which may or may not hit the
target all the time.
But like per habit theory,james, clear atomic habits,
compounding all that fun stuff.
You just got to do it multipletimes to put it in place and
then you can start to optimize,maybe the quantities and the
numbers you hit.
I mean, at least that's whatcomes to mind for me.
So that's impatience, man, andthen improvement.

(13:45):
We could just gloss over that alittle.
I think I'm not gonna say it'sobvious, but there definitely is
a gap from like I'm doing thething to now I'm improving the
thing and then I've improved toa point where I should be
getting the result and I'm stillnot getting the result.
That takes us to okay.
Something else is going on.
So, adam, what could the thingsbe on that list before we get

(14:07):
to chronic stress?
Or another way to look at it,is the excuses people make.
That's not chronic stress.
Do you know what I mean?
Like hormones?
Hormones come to mind.

Yeah, I think so.
I think what people forget isthat, when it comes to and I
want to just like let everyoneknow, like I'm not a hormone
expert or a thyroid expert or byany means I'm not an
endocrinologist I've had clients, but I can count on less than
one hand the amount of clientsI've had where the reason why
they weren't seeing results wasa legitimate hormonal issue.

Exactly, it's a small percentage, but it's real.
We're not gaslighting anybodyhere, yeah.

I had one client who was specifically and this is
an interesting story.
I won't go into the whole thing, but basically her not seeing
results almost saved her lifebecause she was doing everything
, Everything was on track, shewas checking all the boxes and
we worked together for likeeight months and she's like I
just am not seeing like anychanges.

(15:07):
So then that led to gettingtesting and she found out she
had like a, a potentiallycancerous growth on her thyroid
and then she got it surgicallyremoved and now she's great.

Did you take that personally, Like how did that
make you feel through theprocess?
I think people want to know,because we're humans too as
coaches and I tend to take thesethings a little bit personally,
like I'm not able to help youwhat's going on?

Yeah, I always get.
I will always turn the fingerat myself first before I go, or
the clients, like you know,lying, or whatever.
I was like, oh man, like andand yeah, I'm a human too.
So I was like, do I suck atthis?
Like, what am I doing wrong?
I could have 29 clients alldoing good.
I have one client that's not.
I'm like, oh, maybe I just suck, maybe I'm not as good as I

(15:51):
think I am and I would rack mybrain and we would do
maintenance breaks, we would doform check videos, we would do a
little bit more of anaggressive diet.
And there was, there was likevery, very slow progress and she
wasn't someone who wasoverweight.
She was like you know, you're a, a mom, busy, and she was in a
healthy weight range, but shejust wanted to be more.
She wanted to look like sheworked out and she felt like she

(16:11):
didn't.
And once we discovered that, Iwas like, okay, this makes sense
.
And I was honestly just more,you know, happy for her that she
was getting answers and she was.
And then it was more about justtalking to her about how she
was emotionally feeling dealingwith this.
She had a daughter and now shemight have cancer, like it was a
whole thing, of course.
But then on the flip side ofthat, I've had other clients who
were hitting plateaus, and Iremember one client specifically

(16:35):
this is someone who is more oflike a hybrid client.
So they were doing in-personcoaching and also doing
nutrition coaching and she camein one day and she was like in
tears, she nutrition coaching.
And she came in one day and shewas like in tears.
She's like I just don'tunderstand.
I am tracking and I just am notlosing it.
She dropped like 10 pounds andjust like plateaued out.
I go, just do me one favortomorrow.
I don't care what it is,anything that enters your mouth,

(16:56):
just track it, just just.
Maybe there's something thatwe're not seeing.
Turns out, she was and I willlaugh at this and I don't mean
to be mean about it, but it wasjust.
It was just.
This is where knowledge comesin.
She was drinking apple juice atevery day and just was like, oh
, it's apple juice, like itwasn't even like tracking it.

Oh, it's a fruit, it's a vegetable.
Those don't have any calories.

And I was like how much are you drinking?
She's like I don't know like afew glasses.
So she was drinking like 600calories of apple juice a day
and wasn't tracking it.
And then she stopped that andstarted losing weight.
So I was like, okay, there wasimprovement.

And I had another client recently who you know,
hold on hold the thought on theother client, just just so
people know like this is a thing.
You may not be doing it onpurpose, you may be misinformed
or you could be tracking chorizoas like lean pork, you know,
and like it could be as simpleas that You're 400 calories off
or you're copying and pasting anerror you made months ago,
perpetually Right, so anywaycontinue, way, continue.

No, it's a, it's a real thing and I've had that
happen several times.
I had a client recently who'syou know kind of uh, same deals,
like a little not as emotionalabout it, but it's like I just
feel like I'm in this plateauand I said okay, and I said
let's, let do me a favor, likeyou're, start sending me some
form, more form, check videos.
You were being consistent withthat in the beginning, when you
kind of laid off that and thenwhen I just realized, oh yeah,
you know like you're, she'sworking on her home, she's

(18:13):
working out at home, she's gotdumbbells, I'm like you're,
you're lifting your heaviestdumbbells Like they're nothing.

Now so you need heavy.

You need heavier weights, so like she.
But now she's like an A plusclient, so she goes okay and
she's ordering more weights.

So she was like barely maintaining her muscle
when she was trying to build.

Right, yeah, so she had like dropped like 15 pounds
and then it was like it likesteadied out and I'm like, okay,
so basically what's happeningis now your, your calories are
pretty consistent, but yourcalorie output is just plateaued
.
Yeah, so instead of us droppingyour calories, let's ramp up
your, your workouts a bit.
And it's like oh yeah, theweights that you're using are

(18:51):
just too light for you.
Now you gotta, you gotta, bumpit up.
So there is definitely a causefor improvement.
As far as the next thing we'regoing to talk about,
intervention, there is just avery small amount of people who
it's like oh, you have thisunderlying thyroid issue.
Generally, even if you did havean underlying thyroid issue or
hashimoto's, or hormonal orperimenopause, any of that stuff

(19:13):
, I always like to really stressto people it doesn't really
change the protocols that much.
Like, let's say, you go, I havethis thyroid issue or I like
save for something where itrequires surgery, like my
thyroid is slow or I havehashimoto's or I have autoimmune
, yeah, all that stuff is beingaffected because you're in a
chronic state of fight or flightand your body's like shutting

(19:34):
down and it's not going toprioritize muscle building and
fat loss.
And I always like to stresspeople because you know, we know
, starvation mode is not a thing.
We live in 2025, modern dayAmerica and you're paying for.
You're paying for one-on-onecoaching, which means, like you
know, you're probably doing wellfinancially.
You have access to high calorie, palatable foods.
So there's probably some holes,like when you're stressed out

(19:59):
and your calorie output goesdown.
Not only does that does thataffect the you know, obviously
your calorie balance, butthere's probably times
throughout the month, throughoutthe week, throughout the
quarter, where you are giving inand those are just having a
bigger impact because you're notable to push it in the gym.

Do you find, before we go too down this rabbit hole
, do you find that individualsin that demographic which most
people listening to podcasts areprobably in that realm who,
let's say, they have a stressfuljob, they have some chronic
life stress, like we all do, andthen they start doing the
things right, they startdeveloping the systems and
habits that you work with themon, that we talk about here as
well, and a few months in, doyou see some marked improvement

(20:42):
despite all the stress, and thatthe stress is just kind of a
plateau point?
Or do you find that right offthe bat it's a problem?

That's a good point .
So I hope this answers yourquestion, because this is where
my mind went when you asked methat, and this is where my mind
went when you asked me that, andthis is something that I talk
about with clients a lot, and itcan really help really change
your life.
Your perception of stress iswhat causes the negative side
effects, not the stress itself,so the example I use with people

(21:12):
is if you're, I'm a pretty,there's certain things in life
that I stress about that if Itold people, they'd be like
you're, you're crazy, andthere's other things in life
that don't bother me, that seemto really like rile other people
up.
The example that I always use,though, is like if you're
driving in the in the fast laneon the highway and someone cuts

(21:34):
you off fast lane on the highwayand someone cuts you off let's
say, me and Steven are both inthat same situation I get cut
off and I roll my eyes.
Steven gets cut off and hestarts cursing at the other
driver, and he's got a vein inhis neck and he's red in the
face.
He's clenching the steeringwheel.

(21:55):
We experienced the samestressor, but his perception of
that, which we can go into.
Why that's like like the rootof that, why that bothered him,
which is another step.
But his reaction to that stress, his perception of that stress,
the fact that he felt maybeemasculated or scared in the
moment, is causing all thenegative side effects.

(22:17):
Now you take that one littletiny incident but multiply that
a thousands of times a year.
If you're perceiving yourchronic stress as this life or
death situation, physiologicallyyou're going to handle stress
way worse and it's going to havea more impactful effect on your
body.
So if you can, if all of yourstressors in life stay the same

(22:39):
but you learn to work on howyou're perceiving them, you can
have the same stressors and notas many negative side effects.
And I've seen that one clientthat I use as an example all the
time.
She started with me about ayear ago she worked with me for
six months total.
Over the course of six monthsshe lost 25 pounds.
She went from working out zerotimes a week to four times a
week, slowly, because it startedwith two.

(23:01):
She went from saying she wasn'ta gym person and had no time
for the gym to being a fourtimes a week gym person.
She didn't track food, said shehad absolutely no time to eat,
was eating three to four meals aday, started getting her steps
in, went from 2,000 steps to8,000 steps over time.
But nothing about her lifechanged in terms of her
stressors.
She had the same job.
In fact, her job got morestressful because she took on

(23:26):
more responsibility.
She had the same two kids withthe same amount of afterschool
activities, the same husband,the same social life, same
amount of travel.
Nothing changed, but herperception of her life changed
and her habits changed.
And I'm not trying to go off ontoo many tangents, but I
basically break it down for myclients that do you have your
proactive habits and yourreactive solutions.
Your proactive habits are thethings you do regularly,

(23:47):
consistently, whether you'restressed or not, and your
reactive stuff is when stressdoes tend to hit you and you
start and you do get triggered.
These are the kind of thingsyou can implement in the moment
to pull yourself out of that andperceive your stress
differently.
So that's kind of how I breakit down for clients is really
building these core proactivehabits that build like an armor

(24:09):
so that you're able to handlestress better, and then reactive
tactics so that when you dospike your stress or your stress
gets spiked by life.
You can then handle it in themoment and not let it spiral.

This hits so hard, man.
I'm smiling for those that arenot watching the video, because
what Adam's saying is it'sprofound, it really is, and I
don't mean that in a light wayeither, because we talk about
stress in a nebulous form.
Sometimes we tie it to ourhormones, like cortisol.
We also talk about all theselittle hacks to mitigate stress,
and breath work and yoga andall that, but the idea that

(24:43):
stress is going to happen, whatdo you do?
It's not just about likemeditating, right, it's.
Do you even perceive the stressin a way that's going to
internalize it for you in thefirst place?
The reason I resonate this withAdam is because, again, I could
see.
The road rage used to be a thingfor me until I had kids and

(25:04):
then realized how dangerous itwas in a car to allow yourself
to react to that initial emotionthat comes in.
So you start to find thatdeeper.
Why which ties to what you saidearlier why are you doing this
the fitness thing?
Well, why am I acting this way?
And why am I even driving a carwith my kids while I'm trying
to get them from one place tothe other?
Cause I protect them and I'mkeeping them safe.

(25:26):
And so you get to the point atleast I did, where you know I
wasn't speeding, I kind of brushoff.
I don't get into fights.
If people want to instigate, Ijust let them go, let them merge
and the stress you're just likethe burden is just totally off.
And you know, adam, likeworking with clients, if a
client messages you, maybe theywant to cancel, maybe they're
frustrated because they're notgetting the result, like that
stresses me out because I feellike I'm letting them down.

(25:49):
But if I have to do a billionthings and have a lot of people
depending on me, like I rollwith it, man, like to me that's
super low pressure.
I can handle emotion, people'semotional stress coming at me.
So we all have different things, like you're saying, that
stress us more than others.
So, having said that, I thinkthat's it sounds like the thing
we should be focusing on today,because people can take control
of that.

(26:10):
Like I feel like today, withstuff you're going to share,
they can have a few steps toempower them to change their
perceived stress, and I wonderwhat those are.

So, so the way I walk people through it is, uh, I
like to break it down into uh,four steps and uh, step one is
identifying your chronicstressors.
So this is obviously veryindividual, but you have to.
I mean, you can make a mentalnote of it, but like it would
helpful to write it down and andjust kind of take stock of what

(26:40):
are the things in your lifecurrently that are consistently
causing you stress, right, notlike little incidences over time
, but like what are the thingsthat are causing the chronic
stress in your life?
So that's step one is you gotto create that list that could
probably take you 10 minutes,right, like, like, actually like
nail that down.
You can even take it a stepfurther and nail it down to like
the top five, whatever it is,but you got to really like be

(27:03):
aware of it, cause if you'reaware of the things that are
stressing you out, guess what?
Like now you know when they'repopping up you can be more
prepared for it, right?

Just like with your three big three or four that
most people have.

I mean, I would say , obviously it's very individual
, but generally speaking, whenwe're talking about and this is
a I mean, this is probably astep prior to that, but it's
just understanding that stresskind of basically can be put
into three buckets, right, it'slike your psychological stress,
your physical stress, metabolicstress, right?
So psychological stress, that'sprobably the most common one,

(27:37):
right, that covers, like youknow, sadness, depression,
anxiety, overworked, overload,over consuming information, like
all that falls in that bucket.
Then there's like physicalstress.
That's like the type ofworkouts you're doing or the
type of workouts that you're notdoing, like, right, if you're
sedentary, that's physicallystressful, the type of, you know

(27:58):
, if you've had injuries,nagging pains, things like that,
that's your physical stress.
And then your metabolic stressis like the underlying stuff
that we were kind of talkingabout.
So if you have thyroid issues,digestive issues, that's also
stress on the body.
So all of these things are.
These are three differentstress buckets.
I would say, for most people,what you have to understand is
your psychological stress, likesaving for, like, let's say,

(28:18):
you're you're completelyovertraining or you're
completely sedentary, or youhave like some really bad injury
.
Obviously that's a physicalstress, but for most people,
psychological stress is the bigone and that's what's trickling
into the other areas, right?
So I like to have people reallymostly focused on psychological
stress, because that's usuallythe thing that they need to
tackle, whereas because ifyou're overtraining, I could

(28:39):
tell you to train less.
That's a pretty easy fix, butpsychological stress is a little
deeper, cool man.

So that's identify your stressors.
They're psychological, physical, metabolic, and there's a whole
potential list there that maybe appropriate to you.

And for most people it's a psychological one, and
that tends to be things likekids career self-doubt, things
like that, and that leads intostep two.
So step one is identify yourchronic stressors.
Step two is the big one.
That requires the deeper workand this is the work that most

(29:15):
people I don't want to saythey're unwilling to do, but you
really have to commit, you know, you really have to like commit
to I'm going to do this deeperwork and that's identifying your
root cause.
Why are these things in yourlife actually causing stress?
Again, perception right.
So it's like I like to alwaysbe nuanced.
You could not get too down therabbit hole on step two and

(29:40):
still probably fix your chronicstress.
But going down the rabbit holeon step two and actually
committing to doing that workand not putting a timeline on it
and doing it over time, are youallowed to curse on this
podcast?

Go for it.

It can fucking change your life, not only
physically, but we're talkingabout your relationships, your
finances, finances how you'reshowing up in the world.
Step number two is like like Icould get emotional talking
about how deep I've gotten intostep number two and it literally
it can change your fucking life, but you have to be willing to

(30:12):
do the work.
It's identifying root causeslike why are these things
stressing you out?
And it comes down to whatunderlying subconscious beliefs
are you holding on to that areshowing up in your life that is
affecting everything.
So, for example, if work is achronic stressor for you and you

(30:32):
dig a little bit into that, whyis work stressful?
Oh well, I'm overworked, I'mtaking on too much, I feel like
I have too much on my plate,okay, well, why is that?
Why do you see that behaviorshowing up in your life?
And if you go down that rabbithole enough it could it could
come all the way back down tolike well, when I was a kid, my

(31:00):
parents got divorced and Ididn't see my dad as much and
that made me feel unworthy and Ifelt like if I was successful
in life, like this isn't mypersonal story, but like and
that, why now in life I'mconstantly trying to overachieve
, overdo things.
I'm, you know I'm aperfectionist.
I'm all or nothing.
I've never felt good enough.
That's the stuff you need towork on, because, if you're
aware of that, I like to compareit to an analogy that I use
with my clients.
It's like Haley Jo Osment in theSixth Sense.
He can see dead people.

(31:20):
When he first sees dead people,the whole first 75%, 80% of the
movie is him freaking the fuckout about seeing dead people and
trying to fix it.
And then, when he accepts thatthey're there and he's always
going to see them, he now iscalm about it and handles it
better.
That's what your underlyingsubconscious beliefs are.
Once you see them, you're likeyou're going to be like oh, I
don't want to see that.

(31:41):
It's going to freak you out.
You're like I don't want to, Idon't want to think about that,
like that's scary.
But now you're aware of show upas a different parent, a
different spouse, a differentemployee, employer, like you're
going to show up differently inall areas.
So to start doing the work onthat is you have to start.

(32:02):
I would start by looking at you.
Know what is the trend in yourlife?
Like some common ones that Isee are overachievers.
Right, that's like a verycommon one.
perfectionist perfectionistanother one is like that people
don't really think of is like Icall it life of the party
someone who's always, who'snever opening up, right, they're

(32:23):
always cracking jokes,self-deprecating everything's
lighthearted.
They never.
You can't have a deepconversation with them.
That person might be thinkingwell, no one cares about my
feelings, they're bottling upall their negative emotions.
They don't ever feel safe toexpress them.
What do you think that leads to?
Chronic stress?
Right, chronic psychologicalstress?
Yes, the yes man or yes womanright Over committing saying yes

(32:46):
to everything never settingboundaries.
These are some very common ones.
You can even even another.
One is like an underachiever,someone who's so afraid of
failure that they never take achance on themselves, they never
actually push themselves, theynever actually go for that
promotion or ask that person outbecause they're so afraid of
getting shot down.
When you start to recognizethese patterns in your life,

(33:06):
it's going to open up a lot ofdoors for you that are actually
going to be very, very impactfulin how you're showing up in the
world.

Then steps three and four oh, hold on, hold on,
hold on.
You don't get to go on here.
I can talk about that all day.
I just, I, just I want to siton things because, like, we're
not just providing information,I think if you're listening to
this, this could unlockeverything for you.
And I will admit, like Adam isan expert in this stuff.
I can just tell he talks aboutit in his show, talking fit, all

(33:33):
the time time and I think he'sunderselling himself on how
important this is.
Because when you saididentifying root cause, I bet a
lot of people went to all, right, I want to identify the root
cause of what the stressor is.
No, you're saying why does thatstressor cause you stress Again
, going back to perceived stress, that is an important, profound
distinction.
It really is.

(33:54):
It's super important, adam,important profound distinction.

Tony (33:59):
It really is.
It's super important, adam.
My name is Tony.
I'm a strength lifter in myforties.
Thank you to Phil and his witsand weights community for
helping me learn more aboutnutrition and how to implement
better ideas into my strengthtraining.
Phil has a very, very goodunderstanding of macros and
chemical compounds and hormonesand all that and he's
continuously learning.
That's what I like about Phil.
He's got a great sense of humor.

(34:19):
He's very relaxed, very easy totalk to.
One of the greatest thingsabout Phil, in my view, is that
he practices what he preaches.
He also works out with barbells.
He trains heavy not as heavy asme, but he trains heavy.
So if you talk with him aboutgetting in better shape, eating
better, he's probably going togive you some good advice and I
would strongly recommend youtalk with him and he'll help you

(34:39):
out.

Well, here's one that I missed.
I'm excited about it becauseit's so helpful.
This is a big one that I missed.
It's a common category peoplefall into too is a victim, and
when I say victim, I always wantto explain this to people,
because people, when they firsthear that one, they're like well
, that one's not me, like itmight be you, because a victim
is not someone who just walksaround feeling sorry for

(35:03):
themselves.
That's not what I'm talkingabout.
Right Again.
That's like kind of like I hatesocial media.
Like that's the messaging thatpeople go oh, you got to stop
being a victim or stop feelingsorry for yourself, right, no
excuses.

Yeah, it's like this oversimplification.

Victim mindset is not about feeling sorry for
yourself.
A victim mindset means youdon't trust your own ability to
save yourself, so you're alwayslooking for someone else or
something else to come fix yourproblem.
And it actually took me to dosome deeper work to realize that

(35:36):
that was one that I had, andwasn't willing to admit that I
had, because I always used tothink well, because I'm someone
who honestly is, I'm resilient,I am very, I have a good work
ethic, like I'm a hard worker.
So I was always like I'm anoverachiever.
I'm an overachiever, dig, dig,dig, dig, dig, dig.
For a couple of years not likethree days to realize like, oh,

(35:57):
I keep falling into this victimmindset.
Well, where does that come from?
Oh well, I had a relativelytraumatic childhood and as a kid
I couldn't depend on the peopleI was supposed to depend on.
So I always used to have thesethoughts when I was a kid that
something or someone was goingto come in and like save the day
.
And I used to have this thoughtlike, oh, if we just won the

(36:19):
lottery or if this one thingjust happened.
And when I started to do is, Istarted to try to.
Once I realized that nothing washappening.
I then put that pressure onmyself.
I've got to be the one to savemy family and that was the hard
wiring.
Again, subconscious is notsomething that you're thinking
of every day.
It's under the surface.
It's not something you'renecessarily even aware of.
That hardwiring and thatpressure was running my life,

(36:44):
for I'm 34 right now, so I don'tknow.
33 and a half years of justthis pressure and it was
draining my nutrients.
I was chronically stressed,highly anxious.
I didn't even realize I hadanxiety until I was in my 30s
because I just thought that'sjust how I am so realizing that

(37:04):
can be very powerful becauseonce you realize it, you have
control over it.
When you have control over it,you can control it right, you
can manage it.

Yeah, yeah, and it sounds like it would express
itself in many ways that peoplelabel things from imposter
syndrome to, like you said,being a victim to self-doubt and
all of these maybe to a lack ofconfidence, because I could see
how that would cause that aswell.
So does some of that continueto linger for you?
I'm just curious, and also Idon't know if we want to take a
quick tangent into alife-changing experience you had

(37:34):
recently and how that hasevolved your personal
perspective on any of this,including yourself.

Yeah.
So the one thing I always coachmy clients on is if you expect
that these things are going togo away, then you're always
going to be discouraged.
So they never go away.
You get better at managing it.
It's like your relationshipwith food.
If you're someone who used to,you know be afraid of carbs,
you're kind of always going tobe afraid of carbs to a certain

(38:00):
degree, but you get better andbetter at managing it.
But if you expect, if you'rewaiting for the day where you're
just gonna wake up and you'reall these things are going to go
away, then you're always gonnabe discouraged, because every
time you feel down or you feelinsecure, you feel lack of
confidence, you're like, oh man,this isn't working.
Back to the impatience and theimprovement Right?
So for me to answer yourquestion yes, it shows up every
single day, every single day.

(38:21):
There are multiple times a daywhere there's something that
just triggers those thoughts andI have to actively and
intentionally reroute.
So make to make sure that I'mnot, I'm not showing up as that
version of myself for my wifeand my kids, and that sounds way

(38:41):
oversimplified and it's not aseasy as I made it sound.
But that's the work they haveto do, and you're not going to
be batting 1000 on it either.
There's going to be days whereyou feel like you're trying so
hard to reroute your brain andreroute the way you're thinking
and you're just going to becaught up in that thought
pattern and you just get betterand better at managing it.

And just to not let it go, something happened to
you recently right, yeah, yeah.

So I got in a really bad car accident.
It's March, it's mid-Marchright now we're recording this.
So it was February 1st.
I went to the gym on a Saturdaymorning this you know, I was
just.
I went to the gym on a saturdaymorning.
Uh, was driving home.
I came to like a blinking red.
I slowed up to a stop it wasit's six o'clock on 6 30 in the
morning on a saturday no one'son the road.

(39:25):
So I slowed up to a stop at theblinking red and then pursued
forward like you do.
That's, that's how a blinky redwords it it's stop sign, the,
the, the uh intersecting uh laneis like a 55 mile an hour uh,
highway, uh, and the personwho's coming down didn't slow up

(39:48):
for their blinking yellow um, Iknow this because the distance
between the two lights.
If they had split up even alittle bit, it would have been a
fender bender, um, and I can'treally remember, but I'm like
98% sure they didn't have theirheadlights on because the, the
road is so like you couldliterally see like a mile down
the road, like I would have seenheadlights coming.

(40:08):
So it wrecked me, man, likelike the, like I still like have
like my neck.
I, my neck is like super tight,my shoulder, my collarbones
messed up.
But anyway, long story short, Ia half a second later it would
have been way, way worse.
Uh, and I have two kids, like Ihad to like take my.
Luckily they weren't in the car, but I remember taking my

(40:28):
daughter's car seat out of mycar and being like wow, she
could have been in the car withme.
Like scary, scary.
Now the sexy Instagram storywould be oh, this was like a
life changing moment.
And then I immediately switchedmy mindset and like now, like I
have this new zest for life.
Life's not that simple, right?
So like it started withimmediate like anger and slight

(40:53):
depression, I would say Cause Iwas like that happened.
But then nothing about yourlife changes really.
And I was back to work on Mondaywith all this pain and slight
concussion, but I had thatunderlying self-belief of like
well, I can't take time off ofwork because if I take time off
work, I'm not providing for myfamily.

(41:13):
So I just kind of went backinto those old thought patterns
and then I kind of came out ofthem and kind of found like
that's when I started like youknow really going like what am I
doing?
Like what are the things inlife that I'm doing that I don't
enjoy that I'm spending so muchtime doing?
And then I started to go off onthat and like start to focus
more on things I enjoy.
And then that then I'm a humantoo, so then got impatient with

(41:37):
that, so that that wasn't reallylike converting in quotes right
to like new clients andopportunities.
We got frustrated again, gotmad again, got it.
So it's like impatience,impatience exactly so then, but
now I've come I kind of come toa place where, like, I feel like
I'm much more clear and I'mstarting to really take back a

(41:58):
lot of ownership over my careerand my life that I was giving up
to things and people that Ithought could quote unquote,
like save me, which which soundsextreme, because I've been in
the same career for 11 years,I've made a really good living,
I provide for my family.
Realistically, on paper, mylife is better than I thought it

(42:21):
was going to turn out, butthere was something inside of me
that kept saying it wasn't goodenough.
It's because of theseexpectations and pressure that I
was putting on myself and thenI kept giving up authority to
like, oh, this business coach,this person, this resource could
help me get to the next level.

Like program hopping for business.

Yeah, program hopping for business.
And then it was like I'mchasing something that I don't
even necessarily enjoy doing andthe truth is I love what I do.
I was just packaging it in away that wasn't aligned with me
because I thought that's what Ihad to do, again, giving up
ownership.
And now I'm at a place whereI'm like I could continue to do
something that wasn't workingand that I wasn't enjoyable, and

(43:04):
it could end up with me gettinghit by a car.
So why not try doing stuff thatI do enjoy in a way that I
enjoy doing it and feel alignedwith?
Because I could still get hitby a car, but now I have a
pickup truck so I'm less likelyto get railed like that.

Hey, that's part of the solution.
So I wanted people tounderstand this right, because,
again, being human and dealingwith things that are stressors,
those are stressors too, and youjust talked about some tools
and active, proactive behaviorsfor that.
I know we're running short ontime and there's more steps
beyond the identifying rootcause, like how to deal with it.
Well, actually, you justmentioned them.

So steps three and four are proactive habits and
reactive tactics.
Oh, cool, and you mentionedthose.
Yeah, Okay, yeah, yeah.
So so just to give quickcontext for people, cause it's
um, proactive habits areliterally the stuff that Philip
and me talk about all the timeit's are you eating nutrient?
Are you eating nourishing,balanced meals and getting

(43:57):
adequate fuel every day?
Notice, I didn't say on a diet,I didn't say cutting carbs or
being in a deficit, Like steplike you got to make sure you're
eating enough.
Because when your body is underfueled guess what, that is
Stress.
And when your body is underfueled, that's when, like,
appetite signaling shuts downand it's cool if I'm a little
bit late for my next callbecause I really feel like this
and when your body is underfueled, that's when, like,
appetite signaling shuts down.
And and if it's cool if I'm alittle bit late for my next call

(44:18):
because I really feel like thiscould be useful you have to
understand that, like when yourbody is in fight or flight, it
does not know the differencebetween road rage, work, stress
and someone trying to kill you.
If someone was trying to killyou, your appetite signaling
would shut down All of your.

(44:41):
You would get that tunnelvision.
Your limbs would kind of go andkind of get like the blood
would flow from your limbs toyour gut and like you would get
heightened senses.
That's why when people fastthey're like I feel so alert
yeah, Cause you're fucking infight or flight Like.
So your, your body is likewe're starved.
We got to find food.
We can zone in on something.
So if you're nourished and youstop three to four times a day
to sit down and eat a balancedmeal, what do you think that

(45:02):
signals to your body?
It signals to your body thatyou're safe, because if someone
was trying to kill you youwouldn't be able to stop and eat
a balanced meal.
So, eating balanced meals,getting regular exercise two to
four times a week I recommendthe best way to do that is
resistance training, as I'm sureyou've talked about a million
times.
But the best form of exerciseyou can do I would say secondary
to that would be walking.

(45:23):
And then next is like some sortof mindset practice that you
feel aligned with.
It doesn't have to be anythingspecific.
It could be like if you enjoymeditation, if you enjoy breath
work I'm not religious, but ifyou are religious, prayer, going
to church, like that's a formof mindset work, doing something

(45:43):
regularly that is giving you.
Whether it's three minutes or60 minutes doesn't matter, where
you're just focusing on yourmental health.
And if you don't I heard thisquote from Tony Robbins if you
don't have like 10 minutes a dayto prioritize your life, then
you don't have a life.
So if you can't find threeminutes in your schedule to do
some breath work or meditate orwhatever, then you don't really

(46:05):
have a life because you're justa slave to your schedule.
But those are kind of like theproactive stuff.
And then reactive is prettymuch just like a three question
sequence, is like no-transcriptemail or having a conversation

(46:39):
that you've been avoiding right.
But it gets you into a mindfulplace where you can move to the
next logical step, as opposed toruminating in the stress which
prolongs the stress.
And that's where people go intopoor stress coping mechanisms,
where they drink alcohol, theyoverindulge, which then just
prolongs the stress, right.
So if you can identify thestress, acknowledge why it's

(47:03):
causing you stress in the firstplace and then reroute and do
something productive to pull youaway from it not avoid it, but
pull towards a solution then itmakes it.

That's your reactive tactic.
So good man, so many mic dropmoments in there seriously.
And I want to chat with youlater on because I know you're
going to have to go to a callsoon about all of this.
I want people listening anyonelistening who follows my show
here, who trusts me in any wayreach out to Adam.
I'm going to include hiscontact information and I know
we also have what can we sendthem to.
That's like the best, next best, thing to learn about, to go

(47:36):
down this beautiful rabbit holeof learning about this.

So if you want a little bit more details on like,
you know, if you're justhearing me for the first time,
you might not care, but episode183 of my podcast is about, like
my mindset shift after the caraccident that I had, about like
my mindset shift after the caraccident that I had um, but I

(48:00):
also I also will say um, I knowthat I know that this isn't
probably the most efficient uhway to like, like, encourage
people to get in contact with me, but there's no, there's no
like strings attached here,because, as we're having this
conversation, I realized like,oh, this, this is a good idea to
send people.
This is I did a workshopbasically breaking down those
four steps and getting deeperinto each of them.

(48:21):
It's a little bit of a watch.
It's probably like it's over anhour, but if you want that,
I'll send it to you for free, soyou can contact me through my
Instagram page or you can emailme.
It's a badger at badgerstrengthcom, but no strings
attached.
I'll just send you therecording of that because it
literally just walks you throughme talking about the underlying
health issues that I had thatwere related to stress, and then

(48:44):
talking about the four steps,the stress buckets.
It really is just like alecture on everything we talked
about, but actually just kind oflaid out and a little bit more
consumable.

Yeah, dude, I want to send people your way because,
again, Adam's a great guy, heknows what he's talking about.
This is probably the clearestframing of this that I've I've
ever heard personally, and I'vewatched and listened to a lot of
content.
Man and you and I know eachother and I still haven't heard
it expressed so eloquently andarticulately and helpfully.
So, everyone, I'm going toinclude the exact link to get
you that workshop, because Ithink that'll be the most
powerful thing, but then we'llinclude some secondary links to

(49:22):
direct access as well.
Adam man, thank you for takingyour time coming on the show.
This was a blast.
I'm really glad we had you onto talk about chronic stress,
because ultimately it's going tohelp people unlock what might
be holding them back.

Thank you, man.
I really appreciate theopportunity and once we started
talking like getting into theflow of it, it was really cool.
So I appreciate the opportunitya lot.

Yeah, man, so we're going to be in touch and hope
you have an awesome weekend.

Thank you, man, you too.

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You’re Doing Everything Right… So Why Is Your Body Stuck? (Adam Badger) | Ep 304

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}You’re Doing Everything Right… So Why Is Your Body Stuck? (Adam Badger) | Ep 304