Keep Moving 4 Fun: Overcoming Health Challenges with Chris Holt

Welcome to the Amberly Lago Show, stories of true grit and grace. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Amberly Lago Show. I have somebody with a remarkable story of resilience on the show today, and we have actually been— I think it's been almost 2 years we've been waiting to get him on the show. I have Chris Holt. He is A former architect turned nutritional coach. You might know him on social media as Beyond the Tats. And if you don't, I suggest you head over there right now because you will thank me later. You'll start bingeing his content. He makes you laugh. He teaches you things. He teaches you important lessons about everything from nutrition to health to really living a sustainable lifestyle. So I'm so happy to have him on here with us today. to talk about how to have a sustainable lifestyle, if I can say that word, and much, much more, and to share his amazing story. So, Chris, thank you so much for being on the show.

Super excited about this because I know this has been kind of in the making for a while.

It has. It's so crazy. So we get on here to record, and I can't believe this is the first time we've actually talked face-to-face or on Zoom. And we've talked through DMs, and I've been a major stalker of your account for a long time. And I just love all that you do and that you share. Before we get into sharing some amazing tips about everything from mental health to physical health to spiritual health, all the things, I would love to go back and talk about a little bit how you grew up, because You have— you're an identical triplet, and you traveled all over the world for a long time growing up. And I didn't realize that you went to high school in Texas.

Yeah.

What part of Texas?

Houston. Small town. It's kind of near The Woodlands. So it's a small town called Montgomery, Texas. So yeah.

Okay. How long were you in Texas?

It was our last 2 years of high school. And so my parents still work because my dad worked for ExxonMobil. So that's obviously a big oil town. So we spent our last 2 years of high school there and then my parents still live there. So people ask me where I'm from and I just say wherever my parents are currently living. So I'll just say I'm from Texas just to make it easy.

Yeah.

But yeah, I mean, for— so yes, my brothers and I are identical triplets and actually something that we didn't know until we were in our 30s. Because we had never done a zygosity test, which I guess we didn't really care about. But one of my sister-in-law or ex-sister-in-law got us a zygosity test for our birthday one year, and it came back saying that we're monozygotic, which means we're identical. And then looked up the rarity of that, especially in the '80s, because people— there was no IVF or, you know, any of this stuff. So it is pretty rare. I think it's like 1 in 100 million or something like that. I don't know how true that is. But yeah, so we were born in Seoul, Korea. Our parents adopted us. My dad's from Pennsylvania, my mom's from New York. So they adopted all 3 of us. We flew over from Seoul to JFK.

Wow.

We were 17 months, 15 to 17 months old by the time we came to the States. Because I know after, for a little bit, like, Jeremy was separated from me and Justin when we were born, so we were in 2 different foster homes.

Oh, wow.

So got to JFK or the States. We lived in New Jersey for a little bit, and then my dad took his first overseas assignment. Not first, but like with us. And so we moved overseas. So before, like before kindergarten, we were in Sicily. Kindergarten to 5th grade, we were in Singapore. 6th grade to the middle of 7th, we were in London. Middle of 7th to 10th grade, we were in Norway. And then the last 2 years of high school, we're in Texas.

Wow. So how many languages do you speak? I—

okay, look, so you would think—

I was thinking you're gonna— oh, I speak Italian, Korean. See, like, that's one. I can barely speak English, so hey.

Exactly. So like, all my friends speak multiple languages, and I'm just— my brothers and I, we're just not It never picked it up easily. And more importantly, being an expat, you're always in kind of a bubble. You're in an American community, right? And most countries we lived in, pretty much all of them, everyone spoke English, right? So you never—

Ooh.

Forced to speak the language. I could understand a little Norwegian when I lived there. Singapore, it's like Mandarin, Cantonese Chinese, which is super, super difficult. Obviously England is English. And so Italy, I don't really remember too much because we were so young. But yeah, I remember we were moving to London and because my parents would always do the same thing, they'd say, hey, family meeting. And that meant like code for we're moving. And they would always take us to the living room in whatever house we were living in and they would have pamphlets of the school we were going to and then the country we were moving to. And that all sounds super exciting. But as a kid, it was problematic. It was, in fact, we hated it. I mean, you know, you move somewhere, It's not just moving to another state, right? You're moving to another country, culture, customs, language, climate. You know, I mean, it's very jarring. So I just remember, you know, when they said we were moving to London, I got excited because I thought, oh man, by the time we leave London, I'm going to have a British accent. It's going to be amazing. Yeah.

So, um, well, I can imagine that would be So hard. I mean, look, I just moved back to Texas. Actually, next month it'll be 2 years ago that I moved back to Texas. I was in Los Angeles for 31 years.

Okay.

And it has been a big change. And you did a post re— I don't know if it was how recent it was, but you did a post talking about how you moved to Salt Lake City and it was a really hard move for you. And you were like, I don't know if this was the right thing for me to do. And you just shared, like, what you were feeling and how hard it was and how being in nature really helped you. And I think that's what I miss about LA is I would really fill my cup. I would connect to my higher power, who I call God, in nature, in the mountains. If I was ever stressed or if I was anxious or sad or anything, I would just go for a hike, even if I had a 45-minute break. I could literally drive 5 miles down the road, do a quick hike up and over, and be back and just feel better. And Utah, Salt Lake City, are you in Utah or Salt Lake City?

Salt Lake City. Yes.

Okay. It's beautiful there. Yeah.

I always say that if I could choose the mountains or the water, I would choose the water. But being like living in Miami for 17 years, I mean, dealing with hurricanes, it's just like, that's not That's not my jam. And then if you want to get to the water on the West Coast, you know, like California, I love California, but it's just so expensive and the taxes, these other things. So there's other factors there. So I said, well, the mountains, I feel like Salt Lake City is a diamond in the rough, which people are now kind of discovering.

It's— yeah, a lot of people have moved. One of my— actually, one of my really good friends just moved there to open his business there. But yeah, I've always said, my husband and I have always said, like, we would love, you know, I need to have at least the mountains or the water. And we moved to Texas and there's a lake, but it's no ocean and it is flat. And I just had no idea just how much that I would miss the mountains.

Like, what part of Texas are you in?

Dallas.

And I love Dallas-Fort Worth. I love that area. I think It's not as hot and humid. It can't— obviously it is, but not as much as like Houston.

Yeah.

You know, it kind of stays cooler a little longer. But what I like about Salt Lake is that it's 4 seasons. And so for me, it's— I didn't realize how much weather affected my mood and mental state until I left Miami, moved to Salt Lake, and then left Salt Lake. And then I realized, whoa, Texas is not my jam. As much as I love, obviously, my friends and my family, I just— there's nothing about the state itself that I'm like, yeah, this is awesome. So yeah.

I mean, I tell you what, it's not like this is the first year we're doing the holidays at my house. We've always done— celebrated. I've flown here and we go to my grandmother's and everybody's coming to our place for the holidays. And so it's that that I love, that I get to see family. And there's so much opportunity here. Like, there is so—

I mean, I think in terms of business, small business owners, you know, there's no state tax. I mean, there's a lot of people are coming to— I mean, Austin, you look at every comedian that I follow, they're all in Austin, right? And it's just a— I think it's a— from a business standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. And I forgot that I moved. And then my accountant said, oh, by the way, you know, you're gonna have to start Uh, paying state tax because of Utah. I'm like, oh man.

Yeah, those little things, right? But then there's other things that, you know, like the property taxes here in Texas are a lot more than—

Oh yeah, the houses. I mean, everything. Yeah. What you can get in Texas now, you, I mean, LA, you get like a studio apartment, you know? It's like—

Well, I look at what our house is in LA because we kept our house in LA. And I said, Hunt, we're, you know, we've thought about moving back when my daughter graduates. And I'm like, I don't know, after living in the house we're at now, because you can get so much more for your money house-wise, I'm like, it's going to be hard to move back to California and live in— like, we'll be empty nesters, but it's going to be a big change. But I'm gonna love those mountains.

Oh yeah. What part of LA were you living in, or is your house?

Calabasas, Woodland Hills, like right off of Topanga.

Okay, okay. I was in LA 2 weekends ago. Um, I was in downtown and I'm— it's scary, like downtown.

Well, that's one of the reasons we left, because the homelessness has gotten out of control.

I was walking around downtown in the middle of the day and I was like, I feel very unsafe. And the only—

And y'all, just if you aren't watching this on YouTube and you're listening, um, if you see him, like, he looks like one tough mama jama. I mean, he's like tatted up all the way to like up his neck, around his ears, like big buff Dude, like, you don't look like anybody would want to mess with you.

Well, that's the only thing that I kept on telling myself. I'm like, okay, I look the part, but I'm, you know, not like that at all. So, I mean, last night I was watching Love Actually. I mean, like, I'm that kind of person. But yeah, LA was scary. It was really scary. And then I went out near, like, Orange County, Irvine. I went to Thousand Oaks, and I'm like, okay, I get it. I would live in these areas for sure.

Yeah, yeah.

Today is just— it's, it's, it's, it just feels like a wasteland.

Well, I love it here because it's so clean and it's so safe, and my daughter is thriving in school. And so next time you go visit your parents, you'll have to make a plan to come on out to Dallas.

Oh my gosh, I love Dallas-Fort Worth. My ex-fiancée is from, um, Cleburne, which is south of Fort Worth. Very small town. So we would go to Fort Worth, Dallas all the time. And I was like, man, I— if I were to live in Texas, it would have to be there. I would never live in Houston. I mean, I love Galveston, but like, it's Galveston, you know? And so, yeah, I mean, look, it's a beach, it's water, you know, but it's not— it's not pretty.

Now, do your brother— where do your brothers live?

So there's— okay, there's like I should kind of back zoom out. There's technically 8 siblings in my family. So my dad had 2 sons when he was first married. My older 2 brothers, who— long story— I didn't know about them until I got to college. And that's a long story. But one of them lives here in Utah. So I became close with him when I moved out here. Then I have an older brother and sister who are my dad's 2 kids from his second marriage. So my older sister is a partner at an immigration law firm in Miami. My older brother is a chief resident and professor at Yale University. So—

oh, my daughter goes to Yale.

Oh, yeah. So he's internal medicine.

I bet. Okay. What is his name? I'm going to ask her.

Yeah. Stephen Holt.

Okay. Because she is studying medicine.

Oh, then she would most likely know who he is.

Okay. I can't wait to Message her.

He's a professor there as well. So, and then my triplet brothers, Justin lives in Montreal. He used to be a texture painter for movies. So he did work for Industrial Light and Magic, Sony. So he worked on like, his first movie was like Happy Feet, then he worked on Incredible Hulk, some of the Marvel films, Chappie, Elysium, like he did a lot of stuff. And then he left the movies because even though, you know, the people that make these movies They really don't make a lot of money. Now he runs textures for Epic International. So it's Epic Games that created Fortnite.

So— Wow.

And then my brother Jeremy is— sorry, sibling. He's non-binary. I keep on messing that up. My sibling Jeremy, he lives in New York and he's a comic book writer.

Oh, wow. Lots of success.

Yeah. My younger sister is a teacher in San Antonio.

Wow. Wow. Well, so I want to get into a little bit of how you went from being an architect to a health coach. I mean, from what I understand, you were always into health and wellness. It sounds like we were a lot alike in drinking Ripped Fuel.

Oh, yeah.

And looking at the magazines and all that. And it's like, oh, I don't do that anymore. But how long ago was your surgery? I want you to get into that, like when you found out you needed surgery. And how long ago was that?

My heart surgery was June 12th, so about 6 months ago.

Wow. You made a miraculous transformation from— and that just shows your hard work, dedication, and muscle memory because I saw you when you were in the hospital and afterwards. And how much weight did you lose?

It was actually— didn't lose a ton of weight. I lost like 15, 20 pounds.

But that's a lot because you're like 3% body fat. So that was all muscle. So you shrink pretty quick when you stop working out, when you're used to working out all the time. I mean, I lost 20 pounds in the hospital. Like, I just could— all the muscles were withering away. The good thing is you do have that muscle memory. But did you always know that something was going on with your heart, or how did you discover that?

Yeah, so kind of, uh, to kind of go from the beginning, so, um, I'd already always known that I had like a heart murmur, and I remember that as a young kid. And first it was misdiagnosed many times. First they said it was a mitral valve prolapse, and then they said it was a bicuspid aortic valve, and all these things that went back and forth. But eventually they said it's a bicuspid aortic valve. So if you don't know, the aortic valve has 3 leaflets that open and close. I was born with technically 2, or some people are born with like 2 of them kind of fused together. So there's basically an opening. So your heart is working overtime just to compensate for that. So what happens for most people like myself— and this is the most common congenital heart defect there is. Schwarzenegger had one. So what happened with my valve is that my body started to create calcification around the opening to close it, and then that creates stenosis and atrophy of the valve, and then eventually that will fail. So I was asymptomatic, so I had no symptoms. And my cardiologist said, look, we don't understand how you've sustained the level of exercise you have for 15-plus years, but somehow your body's figured it out because— From what we're looking at, your body's only getting about 60% of the normal oxygen and blood to your brain and body than a normal human. Wow.

And I mean, y'all, he owned his own CrossFit gym. I mean, he's like, talk about insane intense workouts. I mean, we're not talking about just a little jog on the treadmill. You were like going hard. And so your body did adapt. It's amazing how the body can.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've known about the heart stuff for a while, but when I was younger, I was about 16, and I had my first lung collapse. And so then I had lung surgery.

How did your lung collapse?

So the physicians say that I was born— again, just a condition I was born with. They're called blebs, which doesn't sound very medical to me, or it's just like They're basically the way they described it. They're blisters on my lungs. If there's too much pressure in my chest cavity, then they rupture and then my lung collapses. So the first one—

Could that still happen now?

No. So based on the procedures they've done, they've tried to mitigate that. So the first one, I was 16. I was living in Norway and they had to insert a chest tube. And in Norway, they don't give you anesthesia, so you're fully conscious and awake while they shove this tube into your chest cavity. So they give you Novocaine for the incision, but that only works to a certain level.

Yeah.

So at 16, it was like the longest 30 minutes of my life because as soon as that chest tube separated my intercostal muscles, I could feel every millimeter that they— oh, I mean, this up into my chest cavity, and that was terrible. Um, so then they suck out the air My lung reinflates and it should heal itself. So that was the first procedure. Obviously, I have more blebs, so that right lung collapsed a second time. They went in, they did a pleurodesis where basically they rough up the lung wall and the chest wall with like a Brillo pad, and then they throw in like this talc-like powder and it acts as an adhesive. So it sticks your lung wall to your chest wall so your lung can't collapse.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. So I had that done on the right side, and then, I don't know, a year or two later, my left lung collapsed. Because of my history, they did it right away. It was done incorrectly, so that lung collapsed, partially collapsed. I think it was a 50% collapse. So then they had to redo the procedure. And I remember this was in Texas at the time, and we're at Texas Children's in Houston. And the surgeon says, look, we have 2 options. You can go through your sternum or go through your back. I'm like, if you go through my sternum, do you have to break my sternum? They said yes. I said, you go through my back, you don't have to break any bones? They're like, correct. I said, go through the back. And he says, The back is a way longer recovery. I'm like, why? He says, it just is because we have to move a lot of things.

Oh.

Like, no, just go through the back. And what they did, they— I have a massive incision on my back. The surgeon takes his hand, puts it into my chest cavity, pulls my lung off the wall that it is attached to redo the whole procedure and then close it up. And I was like leaning like this for like 4 months. I couldn't use any of these muscles. And it was a very— lung surgery is way worse in terms of recovery than heart surgery. So then, so yeah, so I've had 4 surgeries prior to my heart surgery. And then, you know, I think because of the trauma from those experiences, because I basically lived in a hospital for such a long time, and then after I was kind of out of the woods, I fell asleep driving, rolled my car down a hill, and then I was back in the hospital. I had a huge piece of windshield on my head. I, you know, I couldn't sleep lying down for 4 or 5 months because of the head trauma. So that was like some dark times in my life. But because of that, I just put off the heart surgery. I was just like, I don't have symptoms. I'm good. I'm good. And then finally, you know, one of the most recent checkups I had with my cardiologist says, look, this is going to have to happen. So you need to come to terms with this. You either do it now or you do it later, but you're young, you're healthy, you'll recover faster. But at this point you could work out, have a heart arrhythmia and just die.

Mm-hmm.

So like, do you want to risk that? And then I bought Peter Attia's book, Outlive, and it was just talking about, you know, number one cause of mortality in the United States for men and women is heart disease and heart issues. And it's just talking about longevity. And then I was reading a book called 4K Weeks, which is talking about your life in weeks and, you know, You know, if you live to 80, you know, you have roughly, you know, you have 4,000 weeks of life. And so I have a calendar right here that maps out my life in weeks. So I can physically see on a calendar that I'm already more than halfway through my life and the second half isn't guaranteed. So it makes me hyper-conscious of like, how am I spending my time and what am I— you know, I need to be very intentional.

Oh, you know what? It's so interesting you're saying that because just this morning So I'm having a big event in Dallas in April. You should come, but I'd love to see you. But I just got a message from my event planner this morning, and I had not thought of it in this way. She's like, "Okay, we officially have 21 weeks until your event," and so you really have to think about every single podcast that you're putting out there, every bit of information. Like you've got that many, and when you look at your life in weeks. And then I had somebody else on the show, and they have something called 18 Summers. And they talked about you only have 18 summers with your children before they're off. And and who knows if they'll ever be back to hang out with you in the summer? Like 18—that's all you get. And so it really shifts your perspective. But wow, I I love that. You, like, looking at the amount of weeks that you have. And I think something else, I think this heart surgery changed a lot at how you started to go after things because I haven't talked to you in a while. And when we first got on, I was like, Chris, you are blowing up. Like, I just see you doing things differently and it's beautiful to see, like, you taking action. And there was even one post that you did where you were like, I just, I have to be transparent with y'all. You know, I keep it real here. And you were struggling, like, with some depression, and you got on there and you were like, and, you know, I really didn't even feel like making this video, but I'm all about keeping it real because so many people suffer in silence. Do you think that out of all your surgeries, this heart surgery really changed the way that you approach things in life?

I would say 100%, because what I've realized is that In my life at this point, my brothers and I are going to be 41 next month. I always want to choose the harder thing. I think opting to do the surgery, which was essentially an elective surgery, it wasn't like I needed it at the moment, that was the harder choice. After I got the valve replaced and adjusting to a mechanical valve is a little jarring because I can hear the ticking all the time and it sounds like I swallowed a clock. It's weird.

Wow. You can actually, like, hear that all the time?

If you, if you watch some of my videos of me just talking, watch my stories if I'm talking, because on my videos I put music to it because I put the music so you don't hear the ticking because that can be very distracting. But everyone that I talk to on FaceTime or friends or see in person, like I just saw a friend in LA and we were just having dinner, and she's sitting there in a restaurant, and she's like, I can hear it. I was like, what? I'm like, really? She's like, yeah. So yes.

Is that something that they said that you will eventually kind of get used to?

That's what they said. Yeah. And I think to some degree, yes, I have kind of drowned it out. But in the beginning, I couldn't sleep.

Oh, wow.

noise-canceling headphones on, then the ticking goes up into the center of my head and it sounds more like a chirp, like a smoke detector that needs a battery.

Oh gosh.

Yes, it's maddening. It's like, oh my God. But that's— I'm like, that's a small price to pay to have a brand new valve, right? And the mechanical valve I went with over a biological valve because biological valves need to be replaced every 10 to 15 years. And based on my age, I don't want to do this again. So the only downside with a mechanical valve, which lasts forever, is that I have to be on blood thinners forever.

You do?

Yeah. So I'm on warfarin. So, yeah.

So do you have to be careful? Like, if you cut yourself, is it, like, really hard to stop bleeding?

Yes. Certain cuts, yes. I think I cut my leg moving and it took, like, 6 hours to stop.

Oh, my God.

But it's weird because with tattooing I'm fine. So like, I don't know how that works. It's, I guess, with tattoo needles, it doesn't go as deep as maybe a cut might. But, but yeah.

So what about bruises? Do you bruise easily?

Really easily. Yeah.

Because you should see me right now. I tripped. We had moved some furniture around to put some holiday decorations up and the Christmas tree and stuff. And I— it was dark. It was early in the morning and it was still dark out. And I'd gotten up and I was getting up to turn the tea kettle off, and we had moved this big wooden block end table, and I hit that thing. Oh, my gosh. You should see how bruised my foot and my leg is. It's bad. And so do you bruise easily? And I'm not on blood thinners, so I can only imagine what something like that would do to you.

I bruise very easily, and I have to do blood testing every 2 weeks. So every time I—

You have to go to the doctor.

So we need to test my INR, which is your blood clotting ability. So all human beings are born with a blood clotting ability of 1. So just as a human, you're evaluated at 1. So based on my mechanical valve, which is a more— I don't want to say advanced, but it's just a newer valve. It can withstand a lower INR than necessary. Like, most people have mechanical valves need to be 2 to 3 times thinner than an average person. So a value of 2 to 3. I can be at a 1.5, um, based on this new valve, because you need to be on blood thinners because you don't want clotting around the mechanical valve because your body understands it's a foreign piece of material, right?

Yeah.

Oh, um, so I do— I have a home kit. It's kind of like testing blood glucose or ketones. Um, you just prick your finger, it's a strip, you test it. So, but I know when I prick my finger, I bruise instantly, and that's just pricking my finger. So there have been times where I look and I'm like, why am I like— I don't even— when did I hit myself like that? Why is it?

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, that when, when you talk about a sustainable lifestyle, I can understand why you're inspired to make a bigger difference With people's, their lives because of yours is like you had to make that decision to have the heart surgery and now to sustain that. It's not like, okay, I did this and I'm done. It's like every 2 weeks you have to test your— you have to be on blood thinners. You have to do testing every couple of weeks. Did this change the way that you eat at all? Because I know that obviously it looks like you eat very well, very healthy. But like, I know after my accident, I thought I ate really healthy. Healthy before. But when I was diagnosed with this nerve disease, I completely changed my eating. First of all, I'm on a medication, and the main side effect is weight gain and suicidal thoughts. And I remember going to my psychiatrist and saying, I don't want to take this medication because the side effect— forget the suicidal thoughts. I was all conscious. I was like, weight gain? I don't want to gain weight. And he goes, well, that's up to you. He goes, that's up to you and what you put in your mouth. He goes, if this slows your metabolism down a little bit, then you just eat a little less. And I was like, wow, that really instantly put me back in the driver's seat. And I felt like I had a little bit of control over something that felt so out of control, you know?

Yes.

And so that really helped. How has this affected you, first of all, how you eat? And is it also one of the things that really inspired you to become a nutritional coach?

Well, it didn't really. The only change that I had to make after the surgery and being on blood thinners is I have to stay away from foods that are rich in vitamin K because vitamin K is a blood clotting vitamin. So like things that are basically dark leafy greens, which sucks because those are all the things I love, right?

Oh, yeah.

Spinach and, and kale and like all those things that I like, even broccoli, I think. So I can have it in like little spurts, but I can't be regular anymore. So that's the only thing that changed. But what caused me to get into becoming a nutritional coach was just because of my, my kind of origin story of being an architect. I've wanted to be an architect since I was in 7th grade. Went to the University of Miami in Florida, 5-year architecture degree, graduated in '06, worked for a firm downtown. They're called Swanky Hayden Connell Architects. And this company, when I started with them in 2006, they had just turned— 2006, 2007, they had just turned 100 years old as a company. Wow. So they'd been around a long time. They did the restoration for the Statue of Liberty. They, I mean, offices all over the world. They now no longer exist after 2008. So when the housing crisis happened and the economy crashed, they just went under. And so I remember once I got into architecture, I realized I hated it. Like, I just— the idea of an architect is nice, and I think people put architects on the same pedestal as like a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer. But the big difference is that you don't go into a doctor's office, a lawyer's office, and say, I'm not going to pay that for that surgery. I'm not paying that for that legal fee. It is what it is. In architecture, things can be value engineered. So if someone doesn't like it, they're like, look, I'll go find someone else that can build it cheaper. So architects make no money. Like, no money.

Really?

Oh, it's, it's shocking for the amount of schooling and testing that we have to go through. You don't even— I would say that Like, my sister probably makes— my starting salary in 2007 as an architect was $32,000 a year.

Wow.

Yeah. And my boss, who had been a partner— or no, she was an associate principal, wasn't a part— like a principal yet, which is like a partner. She had been with the company for 10 years and she wasn't making 6 figures. So like—

Oh my gosh. So you're like, you know what, I'm gonna take my chances as an entrepreneur and start my own business. Yeah.

So I, once I got let go in 2008, they did offer me a position up in the New York office, but I thought, man, I'd be, I'll be the last one in, first one out. Like, it just feels like building is stopping. Uh, the economy is just not great. And I was doing CrossFit at the time for, you know, a few years. And so I was like, I didn't think anything of it. And then I had one of my older brother's friends, uh, saw on Facebook. that I was doing CrossFit and he was doing CrossFit in Virginia. And at the time there were no affiliates in Miami. And he said, he sent me a message. He's like, hey, you should open a CrossFit gym. I'm like, I don't know anything about owning a gym or a business. And he was a lawyer. He's like, dude, I can help you with all the LLC stuff and the paperwork. It's pretty easy. And more importantly, it's a gym. You don't have inventory. You buy equipment and it lasts a long time. It's not like a restaurant or something like that. This is, you could be one of the first affiliates. And that, as you know, CrossFit is growing.

And I was like, oh, it's grown a lot now. Do you still own that gym?

No, no, no, no. I, I sold my portion of that in 2018.

Yeah. Yeah.

So, so yeah, I, I opened at the time, we got our paperwork in late, so we're, we were officially the second affiliate, which still bothers me to this day. But, but yeah, so I opened that gym with 2 business partners in 2008. We bought one of my partners out around like 2013, I think. And then Tony and I owned that gym from 2008 to 2018. And now unfortunately it's closed. It doesn't exist anymore. So they closed maybe a year or 2 ago. But, but yeah, so what got me into nutrition was that CrossFit was the first program that really had the conversation about nutrition. It's like, look, you can crush yourself in the gym, but if you wanna really perform, it's just like a car. If you piss in your car's gas tank, it's not gonna run. So you need to be fueling it with optimal fuel.

Yeah. And that's what I don't think a lot of people understand. I mean, I was a fitness trainer for 26 years, and people would say, well, what ab exercises do I do for a 6-pack? And I was like, abs are made in the kitchen. Like, you can do crunches all day long, but if you are taking in more calories than you're burning off, those abs are going to be hidden. Yes. With what we used to call with a winter coat.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing is, I think we see that all the time. You see millions of people go in and out of 24 Hour Fitness, Gold's Gym, you know, whatever, and they look the same, you know? And so for me, I realized, you know, going through the ebbs and flows of, of wanting to look a certain way and trying to find shortcuts when I was in college, which obviously didn't work. But I really started getting the physique I wanted, not by focusing on the exercises, it was focusing on what I was eating. And then, because as we know, it's just body fat, right? Like the less body fat you have, the more you can see. And then I always say, like I, I've always said abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym. And I do believe that. I think, you know, to make it a little more accurate, I always say the kitchen allows you to see abs, but you can build abs in the gym, right? Like build the muscle. I, I would say that I have very overdeveloped abs just because I I do a ton of GHD sit-ups and toes-to-bar and a lot of core work, but you have to, like you said, consume less calories than you're expending.

Yeah, for sure. And I want to give people some tips on some of the things they can do that you would suggest for people that are addicted to sugar. How would you suggest somebody break their habit? Well, and I know you say people are addicted to dopamine, and a lot of times that sugar is what gets that dopamine going. How do you break that cycle?

I would say, first off, you need to just be aware of those things. Secondly, swap it out with something else. It's not going to be perfect every single time, but you can get dopamine in other ways, right? So I say, Go for a walk, read a book, listen to music, watch a movie, spend time with friends, call a friend, you know, just do something that replaces food with, or, you know, with something else, right? Because the food is really the coping mechanism. And typically that boils back down to a stressor. People cope with food to deal with stress.

Mm-hmm.

So we need to come up with better stress management tools. So box breathing, cold exposure, heat exposure, getting out and getting sun, like all these different things can help, you know, relieve stress, right? And so that's really what it is. I think people, I always say it's not the food, right? Like, yes, there are addictive properties to sugar and processed foods and stuff like that, but I, I don't wanna demonize those things. I don't think sugar is bad. I don't think there's such thing as good, bad, healthy, or unhealthy. I think it's okay to treat yourself with processed sugar once in a while. But the problem is people have it too often. So that's what I want to try to change people's relationship with food, because as soon as we start labeling these things as good or bad, that creates their perpetual cycle that we live in, right? That we've all been instilled in us, myself included. So what I do my best with my clients is to help them reframe those things. And it's not about, you know, sometimes like I had a client today that, you know, was hiding food. You know, didn't tell me about some candy she ate. And I'm like, okay, that's fine. But you do understand candy is not the problem, right? You not telling me and hiding it, you are applying a negative connotation to that candy. And then that's the vicious cycle, right?

It's so true. I mean, look, I remember years ago, and this is like before I only had social media to like check to see what my oldest daughter was up to. You know, I didn't really hardly post anything. I was like living on the gym floor. All my clients were through word of mouth, and I was working with a young girl and her food. I didn't go to school for nutrition, but I knew enough about it where I could make suggestions.

Yeah.

And I had a client that really wanted to lean out, and she would tell me, I'm eating really healthy. I don't know why I'm not losing weight. And I'm like, dude, I just saw you posted a picture of, like, a steak the size of your head and a huge schooner of beer and mashed potatoes and gravy. I was like, what? Portions. It's about portions. Steak isn't bad if it's— but I will say with sugar, and I know you just said sugar is not bad, I can immediately tell if I have sugar, it will flare the nerve disease up that I, that I was diagnosed with.

Oh, 100%.

It will completely— once you cut that out and you have a little, immediately And I can go and it makes me crash, you know? So I just try to stay—

Well, I think cut out sugar for so long, processed sugar, you're hypersensitive to it, right? So me, I was in a restaurant. I was going to treat myself with some sweet potato fries. So I remember taking one and I was like, oh my God, there's sugar all over this. Yeah. And I go to the waiter, I'm like, hey, there's sugar on this. And he's like, no, there's not. I said, I promise you there's sugar on here. He's like, why would they put sugar on fries? I said, that's— I don't know.

You can tell when you haven't had sugar, you immediately can taste it.

This waiter insisted. He's like, sir, there is no sugar on those fries. I said, okay, just humor me. Can you just ask the chef? And he comes back, he says, wow, I owe you an apology. Uh, he totally puts sugar on the fries. I was like— he says, why would he do that? I'm like, it's a salty savory thing, or sweet savory thing. Like, plus it's addictive. Like, You know, like, that's why food companies put it in food, right? Because it's not regulated, it has addictive properties. So they're about profit margins, you know, their shareholders. Hey, if we can freely put this in here and it's not regulated, we make lots of money. And that's unfortunately the, the system we live in. So—

Well, how do you— what would you do to suggest for people to not overindulge, especially when they love those sugary fries? Like, what are some tips to not overindulge?

I think you need to get to a point where you have control. I think that that's the biggest thing, is that you need to go without it for a little bit to regulate and kind of reset everything. And then, you know, get to a point where if you decide to treat yourself with food, it's a conscious choice you're making and it's not an emotion or food making the choice for you, which is typically what happens, right? I get stressed, I eat this. Someone said something to me and it upset me. I ate this. I got in a fight with my spouse. My dog died. And it's just like there's always a reason, right? So I just suggest to people, look, you need to go without it for a while so that you can gain control. And then when you— the goal here is to get to a point where you do reintroduce it. It's nothing about feelings of guilt. It's more like, oh, I don't feel good. You know, that's the aha moment. You know, it's like, oh, that hurt me enough. I just don't wanna do that again for a while. But too often people have it so much. I always use the analogy of like soda drinkers. They don't realize how sweet it is because they have it every day and you cut it out for 30 days and they reintroduce it, they can't finish a can. So like, oh man, this is so, it tastes like syrup. I'm like, well, it is syrup, but like you wouldn't know that because you're so used to it. So you need to go without it for a while. But again, you get the withdrawal symptoms, right?

Yeah.

And then that's, that's the hard part because of the properties of these foods. Because look, let's look at it. You have coca leaves, you have poppy plants, you have wheat, and you have sugarcane. And those 4 raw substances, physically impossible to get addicted to those. Like, you can eat poppy plants all day, you just won't pass a drug test. You can eat coca leaves to numb your cheek and altitude sickness and all those things. You're not gonna get addicted to coca leaves. You could chew on wheat, not gonna taste very good. You can chew on sugarcane, it's not that sweet. As soon as you refine these down to a fine powder, eat them, ingest them, snort them, or drink them, they're highly, highly addictive. So that's the difference. It's like, look, it's not— it's just the form of it, right? You know, you're just— it's so concentrated. So, you know, helping people understand that, um, is one thing, but again, applying it is just a completely different beast because emotions and psychology and feelings are so closely linked to food, you know, in all cultures. And I know that just—

Mm-hmm.

So that's why most people can't do it. It's just hard to do on your own without accountability.

Um, so, so is that one of the things that you offer is like accountability for your clients?

Yeah, all our clients, uh, send 3 food pictures a day. So making you hyper-conscious of your choices. Uh, we, we try to focus on 3 balanced meals in the beginning, avoid snacking because snacking is ultimately what gets people into trouble. But as long as you're getting 3 balanced meals, meaning there's a source of protein, carbs, and fat from a whole food list, this is a good jumping off point. Now, nothing's set in stone. Everyone's so different. Everyone's starting place is different. Everyone's lifestyles are different. Activity levels are different. So it's just a jumping off point. So from there, we will dial in portions, dial in, you know, timing of when you have your meals or whatever it is. But just keeping it at 3 balanced meals a day is a great place to start. And then we kind of adjust course from there. And by focusing on real whole foods, you don't really need to weigh and measure food and track macros and count calories and stuff like that.

Yeah, it's the quality of the food, which I— that's one thing I really, really, really miss about California because I used to shop at Whole Foods and Erewhon and Trader Joe's. And where I live, those— well, they don't have Erewhon out here, but The nearest market that's Whole Foods is like a 30-minute drive for me and Trader Joe's. And so I get my insulated bags and make a trip to go so I can find healthier foods than what I— that's what, right around where we live. And that's an excuse that I hear a lot from people, even from a close family member who I know their health would change drastically if they just ate. Whole foods, like even if they had, you know, I know you can't always get organic, but there are so many ways that you can order food. Do you suggest people because there now I always just did all my shopping, but now I actually order food from like Thrive Market and places like that. Do you do you find that's an excuse that you hear from people as well? I I can't afford healthy food, or there's just no place to shop around me because I feel like you can order it online, and yes, it's a little. bit more expensive, but the amount of money we spend on other things— and our health is the most important thing we have. Without it, we have nothing else really matters.

Yeah, I think there's 2 parts to this. I think, yes, that is one thing I always hear is that, oh, eating healthy is expensive. And honestly, there are no legitimate studies showing that organic is better than non-organic, right, at this point. Maybe 15 years ago, fine, but everything is marketed as organic. And yes, okay, free-range, yes, you're going to see the color of the yolk be a little more darker and richer. Yes, there's more nutrients in those things, but there are no studies showing that buying regular eggs at, you know, WinCo or some, you know, dumpy supermarket is gonna hurt— affect you in a negative way. So I tell a lot of people, look, go to Walmart. Walmart has great produce, they have great meats, they have everything.

Walmart does?

Walmart. Yeah. Wow.

Okay, Walmart shoppers, let's go.

Yeah. And it's— you can even buy organic and free-range and grass-fed in Walmart if you want to go that route. But if you're on a budget, you don't even have to do that. Just get the regular ground beef, the ground chicken, get regular eggs. You can get almond milk there. You can get—

You don't think that there's like hormones pumped into all that meat when it's like you're buying meat from Walmart and it's just a regular old package of meat?

Like I said, it's yes, most likely. But for me, again, I haven't seen any studies showing long-term negative effects by doing that. But more importantly, if it's getting someone to just eat whole foods, I'd rather them do that.

That's a starting point.

Yeah. You know, it's, it's always going back to the lesser of the evils. I mean, do you want to just get regular ground beef from Walmart or do you want to go eat Taco Bell. It's like, I'd rather you get regular beef from Walmart, you know? Um, and then with regards to, um, trying to remember that second part I wanted to say.

Um, ordering, ordering food from different—

Yeah, I mean, honestly, I shop at Walmart. I, I go to different grocery stores. I don't always go to Whole Foods because it does, you know, Whole Foods is really expensive.

Yeah, it's nicknamed Whole Paycheck.

Yeah, exactly. So I think that's the one thing that most people do talk about is, is this kind of excuse of, oh, I can't afford that. But, you know, if you really look at it, it's like, well, you're buying $6 coffees and you're doing this and you're doing that. It's like, okay, well, um, there's budget, you know, we just need to reallocate things. Um, and Yeah, I mean, but the tough part, I think, for most people is the, like I said, the accountability. Because left to your own devices, you're gonna do whatever you want, right? Like, you're gonna choose the easier route, you're gonna choose the easier option, the more convenient option. Uh, and I think that all of us do that, myself included, you know.

Oh my goodness. I look for— after my motorcycle accident, I started drinking every day to help numb out the pain. And I got addicted. I became a full-blown alcoholic. And I tried to stop on my own. And I just, I couldn't do it. I have a sponsor, I have sober sisters, I go to recovery meetings. It's the only way that I know how to stay sober. And it's that accountability. And also, it's the people that you hang around, even, you know, if you're hanging out with somebody who's constantly eating fast food, before long, you're going to pick up a pizza, You know, that sugary French fry or the pizza or start drinking soda, like, before long. But if you're around somebody who eats healthy and they've— I think of food now, like, as fuel. Like, I really look at it as fuel and the way it makes you feel. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think going back to this idea of getting older and being more intentional about everything in my life, I also think about who do I surround myself with, you know? And if someone isn't adding to my life or is just taking, taking, taking, they're going to get purged because life is too short. And I think, you know, I have some clients that are in— that have friendships, right, with people for 20-plus years, and they're not, in my opinion, great. They're not even friendships to begin with. They're just someone that just mooches off of them emotionally, spiritually, physically. monetarily, you know, it's like, this is not a friend, you know. I think, you know, and then you create— that person creates guilt because it's like, oh, I feel bad. And it's like, look, life is too short to be doing this, right? You know, some people come into your life for reasons. I believe that. But it's really up to you to decide who you want, you know, that circle of people to be.

Yeah. And I think that knowing your values helps that— with that really helps you to decide Um, who, you know, if there's somebody that doesn't have the same values as you at all, it's, it's, you have to really look and evaluate that friendship, which is hard. Well, well, we are running out of time. I just want, uh, one more question for you. Um, and I know you've talked a lot about bouts of depression. Um, I think that it's hard. There's a lot of people struggling right now and they're suffering. Silently, they're they don't want to share that they are depressed or and I mean I know for me I've definitely you know been diagnosed with depression and they wanted to put me on all these different kinds of antidepressants and what really helped me get through that was moving my body and I know that if I don't move I start to get a little blue especially like today is a rainy. cold day outside and it kind of is gloomy. Um, what are some things that you have done that help you when you have had depression or you can feel yourself starting to sink down into like a little bit of sadness? What are some things that you could do that are— that you do and that you could offer for others that might be struggling a little bit?

Yeah. Um, first and foremost, anyone that struggles with any type of mental illness, We all have hopefully have come to terms with the fact that it's not going away. This is something that's just not going to disappear one day. Doesn't matter how much therapy you do. It's chemical imbalances. It's just the way your brain and body is wired. Trauma. Like, there's lots of different reasons. But for me, I never wanted to be dependent on pharmaceutical interventions. I believe that they are suitable for some people and that some people really do need them. But food is medicine, movement is medicine. So for me, it's getting movement, even if it's just like walking, just go for a walk. Walking is low-hanging fruit. It's a great way to burn fat. It's low intensity, low impact. Walk, get steps in. And then for me, you know, obviously what I fuel my body with. I think that there are lots of studies showing how poor food, poor quality food can make mental illness feel worse.

Mm-hmm.

And then, you know, I think things like meditation, breathwork, you know, just down to cold exposure. I think cold exposure is one of those one things that I didn't, I was like, oh, like why is everyone cold plunging?

Mm-hmm.

And even heat exposure for longevity. This, The data is there. The studies have been done, you know, but it's going back to choosing the harder thing, right? What's harder, just staying in bed or getting up and getting a cold shower or jumping in a cold body of water? Do the harder thing, right? Because I've noticed my anxiety has dramatically decreased the more I do cold exposure.

So it's also proving to yourself that you can do hard things and you can make a promise to yourself and stick with it. And there are a lot of people, even like For me, when I was stuck in the hospital bed, I mean, I couldn't even get up to walk. I couldn't. I was completely bedbound. And so I had a friend of mine that you know bring me some dumbbells. I had the doctors install a pull-up bar over my hospital bed because I knew I could at least do some sort of movement even though I was stuck in the bed, and that made me feel like I was moving in the right direction. But yeah, you're when you move, it releases those endorphins which make you feel good. It combats pain, and so there. days when I'm like, I don't feel like going to the gym. I feel like laying on this couch and watching Netflix and checking out.

Yeah, there are so many days where I— and people think that I'm always motivated, and I don't believe in motivation. Motivation is this fallacy. I think there are more days where I don't feel motivated, but it's about consistency. And like I said, it goes back— It's so funny, Chris.

Just this morning, I did a post about this, and I was like, yes, motivation can be a spark. But discipline is the fire. It's the— it's— and it takes discipline. I completely agree.

You have to consider— and it's like everything that I said to help with mental health. You can't just do it once and then— that's like saying, oh, I, I did 10 sit-ups, why don't I have abs? It's like, it doesn't work like that. You have to consistently do it day in and day out. So choosing the thing that you don't want to do and honestly set yourself— like, that's how I, I get myself to do it, is that I always think, And it's kind of an elitist approach in my head where I'm like, you know what? I'm not just a faceless head in the crowd. I'm not just a num— a number. I'm not a lemming. You know, I am gonna do something that most people aren't willing to do, and that's what sets me apart. I'm not special. I wasn't genetically gifted. I mean, look at all the health problems I was born with, you know? But I choose to do the thing that most people aren't willing to do, and that's all it is. You know, if you can do that, then honestly, consistency outworks Motivation every single day of the week.

So it sure does. It really does. And I mean, I think that's how, you know, our podcast is top 1% podcast globally. And that's not because I'm the best podcaster. It's because I have been consistent. So it's that way whether you're doing a podcast or whether it's with your workouts or your food. It's just staying consistent. And it's kind of like the marathon of life and sticking with it.

Absolutely.

Well, thank you so much for being on and sharing your story and all that you have overcome and continue to just rise above. What's the best way for people if they are like, okay, I'm ready to have an account, some accountability, I am going to be open, share my food because I'm majorly— I need some nutritional advice. Where's the best place for people to find you?

Uh, yeah, it's just my handle. You can go to beyondthetats.com. You can go to Instagram or TikTok @beyondthetats. Uh, because, you know, I always say most people are always taking pictures of their food anyway. So it's like, look, your phone eats first, so why not just take advantage of something that you're kind of already doing, and then let's apply some, some structure to that. So you can definitely check out those, those platforms on that website.

Well, thank you. Yeah, y'all definitely will want to watch some of his videos because you said earlier that you follow a lot of I'm like, you could be a comedian.

Someone said that to me, and I'm like, that would be terrifying to me. It'd be up in front, like, I don't know. And they said, well, that's part of it. Like, you'll get better at it. I said, I don't know. I think I'll just stick to my lip-syncing reels or whatever. I don't know.

Yeah. Did you know that lawyers and comedians, usually when tested— they've done tests— have the highest levels of testosterone? Really? Because it takes so much, like, courage and just—

oh yeah, I know that comedians are hyper intelligent. I mean, there's a level of intelligence that people don't really understand, and I mean, they're all very, very smart.

Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. But well, Chris, thank you so much for being on the show and sharing your wisdom. Thank you for all that you continue to do to help people live a sustainable life and a healthy life. Thank you for tuning in to the Amberly. Lago Show. And you know what? I love when you share this. Take a screenshot, either if you're listening on Spotify, Apple, or maybe this is on YouTube, and just tag me @AmberlyLagoMotivation and Chris @BeyondTheTats on Instagram. And when I see that, I always share it in my story. But thank you for tuning in, and it's because of you that we have a top 1% podcast. So I appreciate you being here to listen. And Chris, thank you again for being on the show.

Thank you so much for having me. This was awesome. That hour went by really quickly.

Yes, it did. I feel like I could talk to you all day. And thank y'all for tuning in. We will see you next week.