ERF 935: How to Make Fat Loss 10X Easier (No Willpower Required)

If you wanna make fat loss easier than ever before, then this podcast is gonna be for you. What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Eric Roberts Fitness Podcast. I hope you're having a great day thus far. If you're watching on YouTube, hello, how are you? We're back with another episode and yeah, we're gonna have some fun. We're with obviously the best co-hosts in the podcast game, hands down. Not even a competition. We got Soph in the building. What's going on, Soph?

Thank you for the compliment. Appreciate it. How are you?

As always, I'm doing great. Hey, I have a new— I have a new rule that I think everybody should follow.

What is it?

Okay, not everybody should follow this, but I'm following this and it's, it's been really helpful. What is it? So dude, I, I think this will— so like, all joking aside, I think this will be good for people who wake up and want to be very productive with work, with creativity stuff, with, you know, cuz I wake up and I immediately go to emails.

Yeah.

Content, uh, brainstorming, uh, coming up with YouTube Lives, coming up with podcasts, like those sort of things. Right.

Yeah.

So what I started to notice was zero consuming, zero. No scrolling, of course, but also no podcast, no audiobooks, no nothing. I used to do podcasts in the morning and I felt like it put me in a different headspace because I was consuming versus creating. So now all I do is listen to that, whatever. I posted that on my story. It's been the biggest game changer for me.

That's fun.

For real. Like, I don't know what it is. Like there might be some crack in there. But I listen to that and I do no podcasts, no, no consuming until nighttime. That's the only time I'll consume anything, podcast, YouTube, anything. And it's been working. So that's my new rule.

I actually really like that rule. I might implement it with you. I feel like I've been kind of doing that a little bit. Like I just don't wanna go on Instagram for like the first 3 hours of the day. Like if I can do that, that'd be great. But I did put, I, I started putting my phone, I outside my bedroom. So I'm waking up to my Hatch. And so that's been helping a lot, just not looking at my phone in the morning. But no, I think that's a great strategy. Is it like brown noise? White noise?

Do you know what it is? I have no clue what it is.

What does it sound like? Is it instrumental? If you had to describe it, is it instrumental?

I'll play it right now. No, I can't. I have no— I can't describe it. I don't know how to describe it. It's not. It's it's I mean the best way I could describe it is like productivity beats. Like it's just this over and over. That's all it is.

That's instrumental. I feel like okay. This sounds like a spa.

It's the same thing. It does.

I like that. That's definitely not white noise or brown noise.

No, no.

Yeah, I like it. Maybe I'll try it. Yeah, yeah. Awesome.

So yeah, and I know like if if some people wake up and they go work out or something, like maybe it's not. Like maybe that's not your best thing. 'Cause like you go listen to your pod, go listen to this podcast, your favorite podcast. But, um, yeah, if you're somebody who wakes up and has to get into work right away, I've seen super, super productive.

So. Yeah, no, I mean, I, I like that strategy. I've noticed like sometimes if I text you, like last night I texted you really late and I was like, Eric's probably not gonna get back to me till like 9:00 AM 'cause he does not get back to me anymore. Like I feel like you used to respond at 6:00 AM and it's not. So I've definitely, I've noticed.

Dude, I have to try to— no, I'm serious, man. Because I had like an intervention with myself like a couple, maybe 2 weeks ago, a week ago. And I'm like, bro, I have a problem. Stop fucking multitasking. Like stop being a million places at like you have to. It's funny if I turn my camera. So I got this little like whiteboard on my wall right here and I track things every single day now. And one of them is like how many deep work blocks that I have uninterrupted. Uninterrupted, no phone, no nothing, just deep work. And that's how, that's how I came up with the quiz that I showed you. That's how I come up with the quiz. So yeah, man, I had to have a talk with myself.

I think I'm gonna try that. I think I'm gonna try that. Although for me, I prefer a very relaxing morning routine. I feel happiest when I have my 10-minute skincare routine and like when I shower in the morning and I'm just chilling. It's great. Awesome. I love that. So yeah, I couldn't be you, but I know there's a lot A lot of people like you, you just like start working. I'm like, great.

Get after it, man. Yeah, yeah, get the fuck after it.

I might start tracking work hours. I like that.

Yeah. Also, on a side note to that flip side, I'm also not like— I mean, sometimes I'm working at like 9 PM, but also like I'm starting to like wind down at 8 PM, whereas like I feel like you're still just grinding, man.

Like, I, I don't know what to do about that. Like, I, I need to, I need to cut myself. Look at Bruno, he's just I know. Wants to be on the podcast. Um, I know I have a problem. Like, I literally was thinking that last night. I was like, I have to cut myself off. Uh, it's just really hard. Like, I feel like on the days that I need to post the podcast, those are harder for me because I'm like up and like I work till 6. Like, I have a very demanding job too. So that's the thing. But I, it's a problem. I need to work on it. I feel like maybe I need to devote my more time on the weekends and not so much during the weekday. So I don't know, something needs to change because yeah, I know I can't be working.

You can schedule, we can schedule the pods a bit more. No, that's crazy. You could schedule them.

No, this is fine. No, this is yeah. That's what I'm saying. I need to get on a better rhythm of yeah.

Yeah.

I gotta work on that. I have a problem. Cool.

Wait.

I was thinking about it. I was like damn. Like last night or the other day, I was working till 1 a.m. I'm like I can't do this.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Yeah. Anyways.

Cool, dude.

But yeah, I like that, dude. That's awesome.

Yeah, man. What's up with you? Anything new? Anything fun? Anything crazy? Any wild things going on?

Nothing I can share on the podcast today, unfortunately.

Anything not for the podcast? Is it too bad?

No, there's things that are not shared on the podcast. No, I went to the gym today. It was a great gym session. Yeah. It's funny, like, it sounds so simple probably to you, like, oh, you had a good day at the gym, but I really treasure those because I don't come across those a lot. So whenever I have a good workout, I'm really proud of myself. So nice, dude. It's a good one this morning. Yeah.

Congrats. What'd you do?

Skinny, uh, upper body day. There's a lot of pulling movements. I started doing chest press again. You know, those are my favorites. So Yeah, correct. It's going good. You're correct, right?

Um, yeah, no, that's good, dude. You know what you should do? You know what, you know what I think we don't do enough of? We as in like just humans in general. Homo sapiens, is that what we're called? I think that's what we're called. Um, I don't think we do enough of— I don't think we do enough of like reflecting on when things are good. I was thinking about this because Monday and Tuesday were really good days for me. Today's been a pretty good day too. And I'm like, okay, why has it been so good? What did I do? And so I'm, I'm like trying to reflect on what made it so good. And you know what? Like the deep work blocks, the, the productivity. Like, so I'm, I'm thinking of these things, but like, you know, for yourself, like maybe you can think about, well, shit, why was this so good? Did I sleep really good last night?

Yeah.

Is it a certain, is it a certain couple of exercises in the workout? How, what was my routine? What was my nighttime routine? Like, I don't know, maybe just reflect a bit and see what was so good that you can like replicate.

I can speak on that actually. I had a great night. I slept great last night, even though I went to sleep late. I still did like maybe an hour of winding down. So I read my book, I did my skincare, I did my stretches, and I had, I just like slept great last night. And I truly think it's because I had the 45 minutes of just not being on my phone. And I'm just like, I just gotta keep doing this. It was great.

Why don't— why do you— okay, so that's what we're gonna check in on next week. We're gonna see, we're gonna see if you did it.

Yeah. Yeah. What are you checking in on? Because it's always me. Like, what are you doing? It's always me doing something. Like, what are you doing?

Um, I mean, I guess the— I guess what I said, I guess the productivity stuff, because that's really started this. I would say it started on Start on Monday, probably. Um, so I guess that we'll check in on that.

It's funny hearing you say that because you almost sound— oh my God, there's someone kayaking in the lake in front of my house. Whoa. Sorry, there's literally someone kayaking.

Is that even legal? Are they allowed to do that?

I, I've never seen anyone. That's crazy. If that's the case, I'm getting a kayak. But anyways, um, I was gonna say you sound like you're not productive, so I'm just like, I don't like when you say things like that. I'm just like, what are you talking about? You're always productive. Like, I don't know. I feel you work hard. You work really hard all the time. So I'm just like, what are you talking about?

Okay. So this is actually a good, and we'll get into the pod here in a second for sure. But this, this is actually a good thing to bring up. Um, number one, there's always levels to this game, right? And all of life in general is a game. To me. So I'm always trying to be like, how can I get better? I don't care how good I was or how good— like, how can I get better? And I've absolutely gotten better. And even these, like, I would say the past year, like, if I look back on the past year, I've gotten better. So, but yeah, I'm always trying to get better. And number 2, remember, you don't always see everybody's entire day. Like, yeah, you guys might think I work hard, but trust me, I would say in the past like 1 or 2 months, there's been a lot of just like during the day. Yeah, I mean, I'm getting shit done, but like, I, you know how like you're cool, you're doing stuff, but you're also like spending 15, 10 minutes scrolling TikTok here and there, and then you're just kind of like not really doing anything for 10 to 15 minutes. So I'm like, I need to stop doing that and start being more productive and start like creating things. And that was one more thing. that I found myself— I was having my best days when I'm creating something. Like, I'm fucking talking to Claude, which, by the way, I got to talk to you about Claude. That's crazy. Crazy.

I— why don't you— yeah, why don't you tell me about that before I just started using it?

I know, I know. Um, so we'll, we'll talk about that. But, um, but yeah, like, I'm fucking creating shit and I'm like, dude, it's 8:47 PM, my eyes are hurting because I've been staring at a screen for 17 hours today. But like, I'm loving it. Like, I'm fucking stoked. So, you know, I, I, there's always things that we can be better at and there's always, there's always ways to get better. And I think that's, I think that's the true definition of humble, by the way. Like, humble is not like not having a fucking Lamborghini. Like, no, I'm gonna have my fucking Lamborghini and I can still be fucking humble. Or I can be really successful and have a great business or be in shape and still be humble because the people who are humble understand, number one, they're there because of the work. And number two, the work never stops. You have to wake up the next day and go at it again even harder. Harder than you did before. So rant, but—

No, that actually makes a lot of sense. Um, I started using Claude, by the way. I like it so much better than ChatGPT. I'm like, why hasn't Eric ever— you need to tell me every time you start using a new tool, you have to tell me.

I just found it, dude. I just found it on Monday. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. One of my, one of my buddies, shout out Corey. He's, he's big into AI and, um, he does a lot of AI for work. He works for Amazon and he's like, bro, If you're not using Claude, what the fuck are you doing? And I'm like, I don't even know Claude. I know what it is, but I've never used it.

Yeah.

Crazy.

Yeah. And it's kind of like, well, I don't know. I've only started using it today, but it kind of seems like ChatGPT, but better.

Way better.

Way, way better. Way better. So everyone go try Claude. It's free. Yeah. I can't wait for our reflection podcast that we'll do before the end of the year. You can talk more about that.

Love it. There you go.

Awesome. All right. All right. You wanna tell the people what we're talking about today? Yeah. So we are— It was your idea, I think.

Yeah. So we're talking about how to make fat loss as easy as possible, how to make fat loss seem simple, how to— the lazy way to lose weight. All of these things that we could say that are synonyms, how to make fat loss easy. So that's what we'll talk about today.

Awesome. Love it. So I'm gonna ask you 2 questions and then I was thinking we can—

Before, before, really quickly beforehand, if you're watching, if you're not watching on YouTube, just know we're on YouTube now. So you can go to Eric Roberts Fitness Podcast on YouTube if you like seeing Soph and I. Soph is much more visually appealing than I am. I'm kind of ugly. So you can watch Soph if you'd like. But no, for real, if you wanna, if you wanna see, if you wanna watch, you can go to YouTube and like, subscribe, do all the whole fun stuff there as well.

You need to get a Christmas tree so you can put it behind you.

Yeah, there won't be a tree here, but I mean, nonetheless, I'm still there in spirit.

Anyway, so I was saying, I will ask you a couple of questions and then I was thinking we can go back and forth with our top tips and then we finish off with a couple of scenarios that I wanna know what you would say as a coach that you would do for that person. Sounds good. All right, so question number 1, why do you think fat loss feels so hard for most people?

Couple of reasons. Number 1, they're trying to do very hard things. So they're trying to cut out all of their favorite foods that they enjoy eating and only eat foods that they hate. No matter what, as humans, we can only do things that we hate for a finite short amount of time. So that's why it feels so hard. You hate eating brown rice, but you eat brown rice. That's fucking, that's difficult. That's not very easy. If you like eating white rice, it's not gonna feel hard to eat white rice or just even cookies, which by the way, I saw something today that Oreo's coming out with a zero sugar cookie or, or a zero sugar, sugar or something. So be on the lookout for that. But, um, Yeah. So they're, they're trying to do hard, or you're trying to work out 6 days a week for an hour and a half each time when realistically you have 30 minutes, 3 times a week to work out. I'm sure for a lot of you listening right now, if I said go work out 3 times a week for 30 minutes, that probably wouldn't feel that hard to you. It wouldn't feel that difficult, that challenging, that much friction. You'd be like, of course I can. That's too easy. So you'll actually be consistent with it. So that's, that's the first part. The second part is inevitably you're not gonna be able to get around that. It is gonna be a little bit difficult. Why? Because we're choosing against instant gratification. A lot of times we're choosing against overindulging on food. We're choosing against Overindulging on alcohol. We're choosing against staying in bed and sleeping in versus getting up and getting our workouts. And so there is gonna be an element that fat loss is difficult. But number one, when you accept that as the reality, it then becomes less difficult. And then number two, when you combine that with what we just talked about, not Doing things that are so difficult and so hard for you to stick with and maintain and follow, and not doing things that you completely hate. Those 2 things paired together make it much easier. It's not gonna never be difficult and you'll never struggle or never have challenges, but it does become much less friction at that point.

Yeah, no, I, I like the point of It also depends on what strategy they're using for fat loss. Are they using the most optimal strategy, or are they just trying to make all of these aggressive changes, which ultimately make it really difficult and not sustainable? I feel like it all comes back to just changing your habits. Like, I feel like that's what made it really hard for me. It's just, it felt like a complete life change. Like, all of a sudden now I'm working out. Now I'm tracking my calories. It's just like I'm becoming a whole different person, and it's so hard to just kind of transition into this new lifestyle. And so sticking through it and actually doing it, I feel like making that change is what's hardest, or what was hardest for me at least.

And yeah, I think you bring up a great point of changing your identity. There's Some people will go through their life in elementary school, middle school, high school, college. And for example, they're just the fat funny kid, or they're the fat funny friend in their group. And like, that's just kind of like the running joke. And you grow up with that and you attach yourself to your identity to that. Well, then when you are no longer that person, that's kind of scary. That's kind of like, well, this is like me going into a tunnel and not seeing the other side of it. Like, what, what is this? And that is very scary. Like, I use the analogy sometimes of if I were to tell you to like, go run, and you'd be like, okay, I can run, but like, like how long? Like a mile? No, no, no, just go run. Okay, well, like, should I run to the pole and back? Or like, how fast should I run? Just go run. It's like, okay, fuck that. I'm not doing that because I have no— that like, there's no end in sight. It's scary. I have no clue. So for a lot of people changing their identity into the unknown, even if In the back of their head, they know they're going to lead down a healthier, better path for themselves. It's still a path of unknown. It's not what you know. So there's confusion. There's, there's not seeing exactly what's going to play out. Whereas even though you fucking hate where you're at right now, you at least know what it is. And that for some people, there's comfort in knowing what it is. So that's also why I think There's a, there's a component of mentally why fat loss is, is so hard for people.

Yeah. And I think people sometimes do that without really thinking about it. Like, it's not like you're sitting there and you're thinking like, this is familiar, so this is what I'm going to choose, right? You're kind of doing it in an up— like subconscious way without necessarily knowing that you're doing that. I think—

I'm sorry. And, and one more thing, like sometimes it takes someone to to kind of like show you that. So perfect example. I don't do this a lot with people, but I have one, I have one guy that I coach on, coach with for business. I coach him on his business. And he was texting me last night. And this is like funny because we are very similar. It was like 7 PM. And he's like, hey man, like right now, like I got all my shit done today. But like, I can still go until 10 PM. Like, what should I do? And I'm like, I know, I get it. So we were talking about that. But But he was like, should I make more content? Should I do this? And I was like, well, wait a minute, man. Like, you've already done all those things. Like, why don't you brainstorm into the 2026? Like, why don't you look ahead and say, well, how can I improve my systems in my business? How can I improve my client retention? How can I improve content? Not just like doing more work, but like kind of like mentally planning ahead. And he was like, I never even fucking thought of that. Like legit never came into my mind. And he was like, wow, like if you never would've told me that, I never would've even seen that. And so sometimes just, it takes someone else, AKA coaching, sign up for coaching, link in the show notes of the podcast or the description below. But it takes someone else to kind of show you that, which is really valuable.

Plug in the coaching. Love it. What do you think are the biggest obstacles to staying consistent with Fat loss habits.

Biggest obstacles to staying consistent with fat loss habits. Well, I think one of them is what we talked about, fighting against the instant gratification, fighting against old habits, 'cause we all have habits. It's just, are they serving us or are they not serving us? Are they beneficial for us? Are they not beneficial? So fighting against instant gratification, fighting against old habits, fighting against Ourselves, our minds, all or nothing mindset. I, I, I fucked everything up, so I might as well keep going. Now I feel really guilty. Now I should just wait until Monday to restart when it's Wednesday. You had 4 days you could be on track and you just throw all of them away to restart on Monday. Clean slate. I'm gonna wait till the perfect time. You know, when this podcast is gonna come out on December 12th, a lot of fuckers listening to this are gonna wait until January 1st. Why can't you start something now, even if it's not perfect? So that, and of course you have the, you have the routines or the schedules or, but like, people are busier than you and they make it work. People have more shit going on than you and they make it work. So it's possible. And then people are gonna say, well, Eric, what about perimenopause? What about genetics? What about those things? Of course, those things also play a role. I'm not saying they don't play a role, Which by the way, complete side note to this, this just, I don't know. I just don't like people like this. I'll be honest with you. This sounds really harsh, but I'm just gonna be real. I wrote an email one time, it's probably 2 weeks ago, 3 weeks ago. And it was like, what the fuck did it say? It said something about like, here's why you're still fat. And I was like, it's not your genetics. It's not your income level. It's not these things. And in the email, I was like, Those things may make it harder for sure. I said it in the email and this lady responds to me and she's like, you're a fucking unempathetic piece of shit. Like all these things, like, I can't believe I'm unfollowing you. And I'm like, I said it in the fucking email. Like, but again, it's not that these things don't make it harder, but it doesn't make it impossible. So no matter where you're at, what I have found with clients is it's more of the mental, what goes on in between your ears. than anything else, than time, schedule, routine, kids, no kids, married, no married, who your friends are. Like, 'cause if you can win the war in your mind, nothing else is gonna stop you. And I've said this multiple times on this podcast. If you can truly be confident that no matter what, you'll figure it out, no matter what, you're gonna work hard, no matter what, you're gonna keep going, there's not anything that can stop you. It might take you longer to get there. For example, maybe somebody who's not in perimenopause versus Versus somebody who is. It may take the person who is in perimenopause longer. We can maybe, we can maybe agree to that, maybe, because there's some people that we have coached who it hasn't. But let's just say it's yes. Okay, that's fine. It takes longer, but you can still get there and you still will get there if you put the work in, if you have a good plan, if you don't quit, if you win the war in your mind, if you keep showing up, if you do the tracking, if you do the workouts, get the sleep. So yeah.

No, it makes sense. And I just think it's hard for people who are stuck in that mindset of, like, I think there's some of them that truly believe that, right? And so they don't realize, they don't, like, it's really hard to get through them and then make them change their mindset. And then I think some people do use it as an excuse, but they just maybe aren't like willing to admit it, if that makes sense. But for me being short, um, obviously it was harder for me to lose weight. Um, But I don't feel like I used it as an excuse. I feel like I had to be familiar with the content too, which assuming everyone that's here listening, they already are familiar with your content. So we're hoping that they know.

Yeah. And I think that's why we focus so much on education in my content or our coaching is because education when applied and implemented is knowledge. It's actually interesting. So I just did it before this, did a podcast with our one-on-one online coaching client Wes and our amazing coach Irene. And Wes was kind of talking about how he knew he should have high protein, but he didn't really know how to implement the having high protein. He knew fiber was important, but for him specifically, it was like, how do I implement this? He knew he should lift weights, but didn't really know how to implement that. So Education and knowledge is power when implemented. And that's also something that we do in our coaching program is everybody's life, even like your and I lives are very different. Like you have the job and like you, like you just like doing different things. You just said your morning routine is different than mine. So like the way that you're gonna implement something is gonna be different than the way I implement something. And this is also an obstacle for people when it comes to their fat loss habits, which is How do I figure out what's gonna work for me and my lifestyle and what I like to do? Because there is a way. We've done it with tens of thousands of people. There is a way. It's just, it's kind of like a, it's a Tetris game sometimes. Like we have the core fundamentals, protein, calorie deficit, lift weights, steps, but figuring out how to make that all come together in one cohesive Plan that's gonna fit around your lifestyle, kind of like in a plug-and-play fashion. That's also an obstacle. Now, that's an obstacle you could not have to overcome because we could take care of that for you, but that is an obstacle. Link in the show notes of the podcast.

You know what? I've never worried about fiber. I feel like I've never in my life thought about fiber. You carry a lot. Do I? Well, do I? I don't eat a lot of it though.

Maybe it would be interesting to track and see.

Yeah, I don't know. Maybe I, I'm sure, doesn't the app already track it? I just gotta see what it is. I should check it.

Of course.

Okay, let's go on to tips. So now that we've talked about everything that makes fat loss hard, let's talk about ways that we both think we can make it easier. So go first.

My first tip would be to front load. As much as possible. So steps, water, protein. So right now I'm on my calorie deficit, by the way, down like 8.5 pounds. It's no big deal.

Yeah. Where are the updates, Eric? Come on now.

Oh, YouTube Live on Thursday. There's gonna be a YouTube Live. I am loving YouTube Live, dude. Dude, I absolutely, I absolutely ripped a YouTube Live yesterday. I thought it was one of my best videos ever. So people should go watch. Actually, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I meant to text you this. I'm gonna turn it into a podcast. So it'll be in the podcast this upcoming week. I love it. Yeah, so it'll be an update there. But yeah, so I'm in my calorie deficit and I have to front load as much as I can. Like we talked about in a previous episode where I just bitched the entire time, I look out my window and it's about to be pitch black and it's 4:45 PM and I just wanna get hit by a bus. And so I don't wanna go get 6,000 steps right now. Like, I'm gonna go do it if I have to, But I don't wanna have it be, that's what I have to do. That's, that's the position I put myself in. So you front load your day with steps to make sure you don't have to get 8,000 at night. You front load your day with protein so you're not as hungry at night. Again, the podcast that I just recorded, that'll come out next week with Wes, him and Irene talk about how he used to always over-snack and overeat at night, but then he actually started to eat breakfast and protein at breakfast, and then he stopped snacking at night. So front load your protein, front load your fiber. Dude, in my— so I'm going to tell you my breakfast here, here, here, because I track in my Clubhouse app for all of those you're watching. My breakfast, 811 calories.

Wow.

82, 82 grams of protein. Oh my God. 36 grams of fat. About 18 grams of fiber. And yeah, so it's eggs, blackberries, avocado, chia seeds, egg whites, Greek yogurt, raspberries, ground beef. That's my breakfast. I get 82 grams of protein at fucking breakfast. And I get the majority of my fiber. I think it's like, again, somewhere between 15 and 18 grams. But that way, the rest of the day, I'm not like, oh, I get to dinner and I have 6 grams of fiber. Now I gotta have a meal that's 30 fucking grams in fiber. Like, it's not gonna be realistic for me. So as, and same thing with water. When I wake up, I'll do 20 ounces of water with ju— just straight water, put some salt in it, and then I'll do some sort of caffeinated drink, and then I'll do some sort of 20 ounce of water again. So you're trying to front load everything to make your day as easy as possible so you're not playing catch up. The more you're trying to play catch up, the, the worse it's gonna be.

Dude, you just reminded me of, I wanted to ask you about the day that you had 3 energy drinks, or I don't know what you did, but you had a lot of energy. You just reminded me because you talked about nothing.

Yeah, nothing happened. I, I felt nothing.

That's absolutely insane. Um, no, but I actually, you know, I can struggle with this and I know it to be true. Like, I know that what you're saying works and it's like I have to prove it to myself every time I fail on my steps or my water intake. I would say for me, those are the two that I, I'm always like, damn. Like, cuz to your point, if you get to 6:00 PM and you only have 1,000 steps, 6,000 steps sounds very unattainable. Like nobody wants to walk an hour at 6 PM. So it's, it's like, you're almost like you're not even going to do it because if you're lying to yourself, you say that you're going to do it, but then you won't. So it makes more sense to like start your day with an early win. Um, I've done really good with my breakfast and my protein. Like I always do a protein shake with my coffee and that has worked really well for me. Um, and with my water, I started now filling up my water the night before. So that's been, that's been helping because like I usually will go, if I'm not thinking about it, I'll go till 3 PM and I'm like, shit, where's my water bottle? I haven't had any water today.

Okay.

Do not look at me with those judging eyes.

Jeez.

But it can happen. I feel like water for me is really hard. Um, and I find that the days that I fill up my water bottle before, The night before that. That works for me. So yeah, dude.

Yeah. Um, completely random. This is completely random. Like, not, not really, but, uh, my physical therapist Jenna, uh, she's moving to Orlando. So there you go.

No.

Yeah.

Shut up. Are you serious?

Or I don't know if it works, but yeah.

I'm totally gonna message her. I've been totally meaning to message her because I didn't realize she works with dancers. So I was like, See, I just haven't because I'm still committed to my current PT, but I have plans of reaching out to her. That's so cool. That's awesome. Um, cool. Love it. All right. Well, I will give my first one, which I feel like it's kind of related to what you already said in the beginning of the podcast, but I think, I think you have to watch what you think as well, because I think if you're going into Your calorie deficit fat loss journey, saying that it's going to be so freaking hard and it's going to be miserable. I feel like that's what's going to happen, and that's what you're going to see. And I feel like at the end of the day, like our reality is what we think our reality is. So I feel like we have to be a little bit more positive, and I think we we can get into the habit of being really negative and seeing all of our obstacles and all of our the things that we want to do as hard. But like, why do we have to see it that way? Why can't we go into it saying like, no, this is easy. This is totally doable. And then I think that the more that you think that way, the more that your brain is going to look for solutions in, you know, figuring out how to do things. And this is something that I'm trying to implement right now in my life, not with fat loss, but with just like trying to get all the things that I'm trying to do and like learning more. Like I'm trying to tell myself, no, this is, this is easy. Like I get to do this. I think it makes a Like all the difference, honestly. And to like, I'm, I'm gonna say something. It's gonna, people are not gonna like it, but I actually feel like losing weight, for me at least, it wasn't that hard. It was hard when I had to go out to eat, things like that. But like, it's not that hard to follow your calorie deficit. Like if you're staying at home every single day or just, that's just like the way that I thought about it. Like I remember having conversations with friends where I'd be like, it's not that difficult. And I don't know, maybe you can say maybe I didn't have it as hard, or maybe it's just the way that I thought about things. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't— I think once you just— I think you said it, like, once you commit to doing it, like, for me, working 17 hours a day is not hard. This is just like, this is just what the fuck I do. This is what I— this is what I am going to do. I will do whatever it takes. If that's 17 hours a day, 26 hours a day, like, doesn't matter. But that's because I've just That's what I've put my mind to and it's committed. And so I think when it's hard, when you're not in that mindset, and again, it's not like, yeah, it might be difficult when you go out to eat sometimes. That's not what we're saying. But like, once you get into the mindset of I'm doing this come hell or high water, I don't fucking care, then no, it becomes less hard. And it's funny because what you said in the beginning, which is like, watch what you think, it's like, Yeah. Like people tell themselves like, oh, this is gonna be so hard, or this is gonna be this. And you know what? Like you can tell yourself that, but then on the same note, you, you have to say, but it's gonna be worth it.

Yeah.

Everything that's, that I'm gonna do, it's all gonna be worth it. So then in reality, it's not that bad. Right? And, and one more kind of just little thing I'll add to this. I was listening to a podcast last night about business and somebody asked the guy, they were like, How do I set better boundaries? My clients will text me at 8:00 PM on a Saturday. And the guy was like, do you want to fucking win or do you not? It was Andy Frisella. He was like, do you want to fucking win or do you not? And then he said, it's a blessing they're texting you at 8:00 PM on a Saturday. Imagine if you had no fucking customers. And I was like, goddamn, that's so true. Just the way you— and to your point, the way you think about it, what's a worse problem? And I tell this to our coaches sometimes. I'm like, what's the worst problem? Like kind of being overwhelmed with how many clients you have or like what we have to do or like, you know, helping solve people's problems or having fucking nobody who wants our help. Like what's the worst fucking problem to have? So it is, it's, it's, it's a lot about how you think about it. It's a lot about how you approach it. It's a lot about the story you tell yourself. The story you tell yourself does become your reality. And I've never seen The Matrix, but like apparently The Matrix is like it's all just like a computer simulation or something like that. And it's like sometimes you gotta just imagine your life is that. Like whatever you think, it's gonna pop up and come to reality. I know I have something in my garage that proves that to be true. I'm serious.

But it's true. Well, Eric's back in a new camera, so. Yep.

Yep. This has just been a. But this is a great story of perseverance. This is a great story of things aren't always going to go your way. You got to be able to adapt. You got to be able to make it work.

Yeah, dude. I don't know. I just, I really truly believe that mindset is half the battle. And like, I really, I, I know that we're, we're gonna talk about some more tactical tips as well, but I just think, I don't know. I feel like if this is the biggest thing that people have to get through, it's just the way that they think about things. And like, if they can get through that and like they can truly figure out, or sorry, think that they can, or believe that they can get through anything, then they're good. They're gonna figure it out. Yeah.

Yep. Couldn't agree more, dude.

Okey-dokes. What's your second one?

The second tip to make fat loss as easy as possible is, it's kind of what we said earlier, but you have to create a plan that feels easy. And that seems like very duh, but again, especially going into the new year, so many people will create these plans where they're like 10,000 steps per day. 5 times a week workouts, only eating protein and veggies, no going out with friends for the first month. It's like, that is— that doesn't feel easy. Okay? And the reason people don't do plans that feel easy is because they don't think it's gonna be good enough to see progress. Trust me when I say you doing an easy plan that you can actually be consistent with over the long run Will yield more results than you doing fucking nothing, because that's what you're doing right now. You're doing nothing because you start, it's too fucking hard, and then you stop. And then you stop for 3 days, 5 days, 3 months, and you do nothing. That is not going to get you anywhere closer to your goals. So picking a plan that feels doable— again, I just said this, but we just got done the podcast, and so it's fresh in my mind. Wes, Wes has lost like, I think over 25 pounds. He's lost over 10 inches on his waist, which is crazy. And he started with 3 times a week, 15-minute workouts. That's it. 3 times a week, 15-minute workouts. And he started with 5,000 steps. But guess what? Now he's worked up to like 40-minute workouts. Now he's worked up to 7,500 steps per day, but he started with something that felt easy. So for everybody out there, you pick something that feels easy for you to actually be consistent with.

Yeah, dude, I feel like people think it has to be so hard and they have to suffer. It's so funny, but I feel like I've had the struggle, like, or I've struggled with this too. Like when I first started working with Tara, like I just kept giving myself very unrealistic goals. And like, you gotta understand, when I started working with Tara, like I was like very much like, falling off my workouts. Like, I just like was struggling with a lot of different things I told you. And I was like, oh, I'm gonna start and I'm gonna do like 10,000 steps and I'm gonna track every single day and I'm gonna eat like— it didn't work out. And it's been a very slow progression. And like, I'm always like, it's funny, I'm like, damn, like slow wins the race. See, like, uh, it's just— and then also like if you set up small realistic goals, like you tell yourself, oh, I have to walk 5,000 steps, or I'm only tracking my calories today, I'm not gonna worry about like clean foods or whatever, you start Like stacking up your wins and then it gives you more momentum for the future. So yeah.

But what gives you more confidence? It gives you more confidence you can do the things you say you're going to do. Because right now, right, most people have none. When most people say, I'm gonna do this, they don't have the confidence they're actually gonna do it, which is bad, which is not a good thing because then you won't do it because something will come up and you'll come at a crossroads and say, Fuck this. I'm not doing this. Like, I've never stuck to this before. I can't stick to this now. I don't have the confidence or belief or faith or trust in myself. And you just don't do it. So you gotta build the confidence and you gotta build them one win at a time. Every win, it truly does all stack up.

You know what I feel like it is too, is having too many things that you're trying to work on all at once. I think you and I talked about this in one of our meetings. Like, people might wanna be trying to work on like 10 different aspects of their lives. And maybe that's just not gonna work. Like maybe for a phase of your life, you're just gonna focus on losing weight and getting to the gym. And maybe in the next phase, you're gonna focus on eating cleaner foods or like eating more protein. And maybe like after that, maybe you can incorporate more cardio and incorporate like more strength training. Like maybe you go from 3 days to 5 days, but I just feel like if you're trying to become an expert in 10 different things, That's me all the time. It's just not gonna work. I like shade myself in this podcast. I bully myself.

Yeah, you, you can't, um, you know, it's like the, the jack of all trades, master of none. So you have to pick something to really go after and really kind of dive into, sink your teeth into. And it's not to say you can't do the other things, but They just won't progress as fast as the other thing. Like in business, I have dedicated my last 10 years of my life to business, to becoming the best coach I can be, to running the best, to running the best business I can, to doing the best podcast. Like this is what I've dedicated my life to. And who knows when I'm 40, they might be dedicating myself to fucking sit on the beach all day. Who knows? But like, this is the, this is the life that I'm in right now. So you make the, you, you, you go hard at it.

Yeah. No. And my next one kind of is related to what you just talked about. So I had picking convenience at all costs possible. So what I mean by that is like, rather than believing that everything needs to be hard, it's just trying to make everything easier, specifically in the decisions that are difficult for you. For example, I hate vegetables and I will not cut, I will not chop, like I will not do that. That is Too much work. So I buy a lot of frozen vegetables and a lot of meals that are already prepared because I also don't really like the taste of vegetables. So, but I can eat a fried rice from Trader Joe's, like no problem with that. That's convenience for me. It's more expensive, but to me it's worth the investment. Um, so I think figuring out what are the things that, and I think I borrowed this idea from you. So sorry. I feel like I steal all of your ideas, but I mean, also I listen to you. So like. You know what else? I'm like, I'm like an Eric child. Like I'm a copy. Um, but yeah, so I think making everything possible or sorry, making everything easier for you. I also remember that when I first started doing my deficit, I had a really hard time hitting my protein. So I would have 2 protein shakes a day. That's convenience. But like, I remember I felt that that was wrong. And I remember having a conversation with you like, oh, I can't just have 2. protein shakes. That doesn't make any sense. And you're like, why not? That makes it easier for you. So any obstacle that you have, you just got to figure out what can I do to make that easier? Oh, you hate water and like you don't drink water like me? Just fill up your water bottle the day before and now it's filled. Oh, you hate going on walks in the morning? Set up your shoes, put your socks outside so it's already set up outside, right? So like figuring out all of these little things that will make it easier for you to To— or if maybe even like hiring someone to clean your house, like maybe you do that so that you have more time to go to the gym. Like there's so many different things that you can do.

I remember that exact conversation. It's funny you bring that up, um, because I was like— you're like, oh my God, I'm doing 2 protein shakes a day. And I was like, uh, little, little Sophie, like, it's fucking fine, man. And you're like, what? I'm like, yeah, it's fucking fine.

Or even the frozen things, dude. I know I've asked you that even on this podcast. I'm like, Are you sure this is fine? Are you sure?

And, and one thing I think may be helpful for people is like thinking about it like on a spectrum. It's like worst to best. It's like you're— you don't have to be on the best part of the spectrum every single time. Like you, you might fall in the middle and that's okay because it's not the fucking worst. And sometimes you might even pick the worst and that's okay. But like, as opposed to right, wrong, Good, bad. It's the same concept I talk about with like the, the light switch dimmer. It's like you turn the dimmer down or you turn the brightness up. It's not an on and off switch. It's just like from, from, from worse to bad to okay to good to great. Like 2 protein shakes a day, in the grand scheme of things, that's probably on the good side. If you don't do that and you eat fucking bullshit, like which of those 2 is the lesser evil? It's like just have some fucking protein shakes.

Right.

So Yeah. And I think that that goes with convenience. It's when you pick something that is more convenient, it's not like you're, it's not like it's bad. It's just, it's a little bit, a little bit less optimal and okay. Not everything is gonna be optimal all the time. Right. To the max degree every single time.

Right. And maybe you don't need it. Maybe you have all the time in the world and you can make all the harder decisions. Like, you know, that's not me. But you know, maybe it's not me either. It's funny, I feel like I'm gonna like come back and listen to this podcast in January because I told you I'm starting a deficit, so I'm gonna need all of this content. Yeah, there you go. Um, what's your next one? Number 3?

Uh, number 3 would be to get some accountability. Like, like we all know is very, very helpful. It's just you're, you're not meant to do this on your own. You're not meant to do this alone. You're not meant to figure it all out on your own. That's not— it's just, it's, it's a fallacy. It's, it's a lie. that you tell yourself. And, you know, I've learned this the hard way, especially in, in the business aspects. You know, I thought I had to do everything on my own. But I quickly learned— not quickly, slowly learned— but I don't have to do everything all on my own all the time. There are things that I do that I'm going to be really good at. But like, there's also things that other people are really good at, and you help make them help you and have them help you and you guys help each other and you build something great. So it's like the same thing with your fitness journey. It's like, I would think of your fitness journey just because I'm— business is what I do all day. But like, I would think of your body like your business. You like, you delegate some things, you delegate accountability, you delegate having somebody clean your house so you can go to the gym during that time and you take some stress off yourself. And when you're less stressed and there's less things to do, like you have more time to cook and you have more time to go get your workouts in. So you're not supposed to do it alone. And it's okay. It doesn't make you weak. It doesn't make you less of a person to ask and/or need help and accountability. And that's one thing I think people think, like they think it makes them weak. No, what's actually weak is you having too big of an ego or be too afraid to ask for help so you stay where you're at.

Right.

That, that would be like, that would be the real loss. That would be losing. That would be failure. So don't do that. Just fucking ask for help.

Yeah. And I feel like, at least for me, it's not just the accountability. It's also everything that comes with it. Like, for example, when you are tracking every single day and I— and you know that your coach is going to look at your sheet and he's going to, or she or he is going to look at what you tracked, there's a level of like, shit, I gotta get my shit together versus If you don't have that, there's just not nothing keeping you from just like, oh, I'm just gonna take 5 days off, whatever. You know what I mean? So I feel like for me it was also the, the tracking component. Still is the tracking component actually.

It makes you aware. It forces you to be aware. There's a reason I started tracking my calories again. It forces you to be aware.

Dude, I've been pretty good about tracking my calories lately actually. I'm really proud of myself. Finally I got back to that. But I'm, I'm insane. I track everything. Like, I track my sleep, my water, like if I took my medication that day, like how many steps, if I went dancing. It's a lot.

Never works.

But I, it's great. Yeah, it's great.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, oh, fuck it. If it works for you, hell yeah.

Uh, yeah. So my last one is being boring. And what I mean by that is just figuring out what things work for you and just keep doing those things rather than trying to change it. Oh, you're about to yawn. You held that yawn, bro. That was so funny. You're like holding it and you're like, dude, like you can yawn. Like it's okay.

Bro, I've been just sitting at this desk for 2 hours now.

Yeah, dude.

No, it's all good. Sorry.

You have a standing desk, right? You have a standing desk?

I do, but I was trying to use the camera. It's all good.

It's all No, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. Uh, so anyways, so yeah, being really boring, eating the same foods. I remember I used to talk to, like, when I was, when I first did my first deficit, I had a lot of chats with my best friend who was also trying to lose weight at the time. And she's like, she would always tell me, oh, there's no way I could eat the same foods. Absolutely not. I'm like, why not? What's wrong with that? I don't, I don't understand. So I'm very big on just eating the same things. Like following the same routines, literally whatever it is that works out for you. Like, this is gonna sound crazy, but I have my top 4 gym outfits and I just repeat them.

Mm-hmm.

And that sounds crazy, a crazy tip, but like, I just love it because I feel great in my outfits and I just keep wearing the same outfits. Something as simple as that, just figuring out maybe you did something the night before, like for example, me like having my night routine and maybe that made me feel great. And so now I can replicate it the following day. So. Stop trying to do different things and just stick to whatever it is that is working for you. And I remember I also had a lot of conversations with you about this because I would try to find something to fix even though things were going good. And you would always tell me, it's okay, just keep doing what you're doing. You're doing great. So yeah, but I don't know. I think people struggle with that a little bit. Like they need novelty, they need new things. So they have a hard time even though it's already working. You know what I mean? Yeah.

100%. Yeah. The, the novel, you hit it like the novelty. That's what people like, you know? And, and yeah, it's, it's, it, it's the monotony of just the same thing over and over and over, day in and day out. Right? Like that's what gets a lot of people, whether it's the meals or the routine or the working out or making content every single day. So like, you know, it's just, it's the monotony of it sometimes and it, and it's hard, you know, like Never heard that word before. Monotony?

Monotony? How do you— I can't say that.

You just said it. Monotony.

I can't repeat it. That just sounds too difficult. I feel like I'm saying it wrong.

You said it fine. No, you said it great. I can't roll my Rs. So we have, you know, I have that and you have that. So there we go.

Anyways, sorry, Katina, I cut you off.

No, no, I think that was basically it. It's just, yeah, the monotony of it all. People get, you know, it's hard. It's hard to keep showing up and doing the same thing. But it's also when you do it, it becomes easier, right? Again, like I wake, I wake up, I write my emails every single day. I try to write a script for that day for social media. I brainstorm or I do something else with some content. I have breakfast, I film content. Like it's just, you have your thing and you just roll with it.

And isn't it funny how I feel like I always think that that's not going to work out? Like this is like a daily thought I have where I'm like, this routine where I do a lot of things all day, like it's not gonna work. But then I do it and it's always the days that I feel best. But I feel like people think like the work's not gonna make them happy, but it does. You feel so accomplished after like a great productive day where you did all the things that you had to do. Yeah.

Yeah, dude. I mean, uh, Monday night I slept like shit. I woke up at like 3:30 and I just like, I tried to go back to sleep and it was like 4:00 AM. I'm like, nope, I'm just gonna get up.

Oh my.

So, um, Yeah, I just didn't sleep well at all, but I had a fuck ton to do on yesterday, on Tuesday. Uh, this podcast would be out Friday, but yeah, and I, I, I did it all and I got done by the end of the day and I was like, oh, I feel great. Like, am I tired? Like, yeah, I guess kind of, but like I did all my shit today and it was like a lot of stuff. And so I got it all done. And you do, you always feel better after the work.

You know what I kind of struggle with is outside of things that I need to do for work, it's like I always, so I always do my to-do list and I don't feel like work stuff is enough. So I always feel the need to add additional things. And then it's like I have a battle, a mental battle with myself every morning because I'm just like, what do I want to accomplish today outside of work? It is just, I never feel like I do enough, if that makes sense. Like the other day I was like, I need to set up my Christmas tree and I need to set up my curtains. And like, I just, I just end up doing like a million. I don't know if you struggle with this or if you're just work. But yeah, or I'm always like, oh, I gotta clean the bathroom, or I gotta clean the desk, or I gotta vacuum the floor. So I never— I always struggle with what to put on.

No, I, I have work and that's it. I don't give a fuck about anything else.

Okay, great.

I'm just being honest.

Well, I also feel like you probably are a lot like— do you— I struggle just keeping my apartment like tidy, and I also struggle with laundry. Now I'm getting off track here, but Like, I just want to have someone come into my house every single week and do my laundry.

People do that. Why don't you do it?

I just— this is too expensive.

Why?

How? How? I feel like that would be like $100 every single time, and that'll be $400 in a month. That's, that's a lot, Eric. We don't all make limbo money.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Timeout. Timeout. Our, our one-on-one coaching is $100 a week. So you're saying it's really expensive and not worth it?

Eric, that is, you know that that's not, no, no, no. Do not flip that on me. Hey, hey, hey, that is different. That is different.

Think about, think about the investment you would get. It's not a, it's not about, it's not about the money. It's about what are you getting back from the money? Like money is just a tool. Yeah. Money is, this is a different conversation for a different day, but it's just a tool. Like you would get back what, 4, How much time per week would you get back if you hired someone to do that? Realistically.

It's not even the time. It's just the mental.

Answer.

Okay.

So, so answer both mentally.

I don't know.

And time.

An hour every week, maybe.

So an hour a week and how much mentally would that get back to you? A fuck ton.

That's all I— yeah.

So how much, how much more, so how much more productive would you be with the hour, but also everything else in your day? Because now that's taken off of your plate. I'm being serious.

Why are you like closing me right now? Like this feels like a sales dude.

Fucking Wes! Oh my God, this guy! Hey, I've done this a time or two. No, on the podcast he goes, "Yeah, I'll be honest, man. Like I talked on the phone with Eric and like not in a bad way, but he was like he gave me the used car salesman pitch." And I'm like, "Whoa! Like what do you mean, bro?" He's like, "No, no, like in a good way." He was like. You just had so much suave to you. And like, I got to the end of the call and I, there's no way I was saying no. And I was like, hey bro, come on, man. You know how it is.

Like, you know, and I implement that spin selling, you know.

There you go, man. So, but no, for real, like, I mean, I mean, it's just, yeah. So all that to be said, you should hire the lady. All right, let's move on.

We'll see. We'll see. Okay. Um, all right. I think, did you say your third tip? Yeah, I think you did. You did. Okay, awesome. So let's go through a couple of, A couple of scenarios. Sometimes I think I need to enunciate my words better. Um, so I'll tell you a couple of scenarios and then you'll tell me what you would do if you were this, this person, um, to make it easier or what you'd say as their coach. Okay. So number one, we have a busy mom of 3 that doesn't have time to cook breakfast every day and often grabs whatever is fast.

I would say keep doing that and just change what you're grabbing that's fast. So as opposed to grabbing a blueberry scone, You should grab a pre-made protein shake that's already in a, in a pre-made container and a banana. That's those, both of those 2 things take the same amount of time to grab. So this is where, again, going back to like, how do you change things easily that could fit into your life? I'm not saying go cook. I'm not even saying prep something the night before. You could, but I'm saying just change what you grab.

Mm-hmm.

A, a pre-made protein shake and a piece of fruit. On with your day. Like you wanna change the least amount and have the biggest impact. And that's where my head goes when I coach people. That's exactly what I would do. And that would be the same thing.

Yeah, no. And like, I feel like there's also things that you could, back to the convenience thing that I was talking about. Like for example, I always buy these oatmeal packets. I'm sure you've seen them. All I have to do is like throw them in the Jason Jason jar, and then I just put them in the microwave. And you can even do like overnight oats if you wanted to, but that's something that would be like really easy to just, you know, grab as you're going.

Um, yeah. Um, there, there's a, it's a, it's a Jason jar or a Mason jar? Is it?

What did I say? What did I say?

You said Jason jar.

Did I really? Oh my God. That's so embarrassing. It's Mason jar. Oh my God. Mason jar. You know, it's funny cuz I said that and I was like, I think I'm saying this wrong. I was like, I think I'm saying this wrong. Like, I knew and the word just wasn't coming. Like, dude, it's like, what the fuck? I get like brain farts sometimes. Like, I just forget the words. No, but I say the wrong words all the time. It's so annoying.

I thought there was like a special jar. I thought, I thought you had a special jar.

No. Oh, you just wanted to embarrass me, didn't you?

Anyways.

Okay. So number 2, we have a college student on a tight budget. Their struggle is that they live on ramen and fast food because they don't have time or money for fresh meals. And, but they want to lose fat. This was me in college too. Yeah.

You don't need, um, fresh meals to lose fat. So first off, like you can lose fat with ramen and fast food. So I, again, I would say what's the least that we could change? And I would just be like, okay, you're eating ramen. How much, what's the portion sizes? How much are you eating? Okay. You're eating fast food. Where, where are we going to fast food? What are we ordering? How many calories is it? Can you switch from, you know, going to Taco Bell to go to Chipotle or Chick-fil-A and where they have maybe some different lower calorie, higher protein options? Like change the least, but have the biggest impact. So cool. Still live on ramen. And by the way, like I started working when I was 16 to pay my own fucking groceries. So like, Yeah, I have a Lamborghini, but like, I didn't fucking come from money. So like, I, I, I get this. Like, there was this thing back in the day, it was called Huge on $100. That's what it was. It was like a series and people would go on YouTube, people would go to the grocery store and they would get a week's worth of food for under $100 for like bulking for people who were bulking. And so that's, that's what I did. I was like, I need to spend $60 a week. Like, that's all I had after gas, after my phone bill. I had $60 a week when I was 16, 17, 18 to go fucking buy some groceries, but I wanted to get jacked. But I had— so I had to make it work. So I bought all the store brand stuff. I went and bought the chicken that was on sale because it was gonna fucking expire tomorrow so I could cook it that day. Like, don't— this is one thing I don't, I don't have much patience for, is excuses for this kind of shit, because like, I've been there, man, and you fucking make it work. But that's what I would tell somebody.

Well, I think people Hold on, but people think that they need to eat all of the organic foods and like all the vegetables. That's what we're saying. Like, there are cheap alternatives that are better than, you know, maybe eating something that's not— doesn't have any nutritional value. So I think they just don't know that. But yeah, no, I, I agree. But—

Understood. No, no, no, no, no, that's, that's a fair point. I get, I get riled up sometimes, but I guess, I, I guess I'm under the assumption So like I said, I, like I said earlier, I was under the assumption you don't need fresh meals to lose weight.

Right.

But like, that's the, that's kind of what we talked about earlier, the spectrum of like bad or like worse, bad, okay, good, best. It's like, you're not gonna fall, like when I was 16 paying for my groceries, $60 a week, I wasn't probably getting the most, like the most healthy or the most, or I definitely wasn't getting the most organic, but like I was making it work. So sometimes you just gotta make it work.

Yeah, dude. No, that— I'm laughing because that was me in college because I lived in the dorms and I was just eating so much ramen and some— but I would buy sometimes, I remember I would buy chicken and I would just cook it in the microwave. And there's certain things like, I feel like you can buy the ready rice and like you can buy the chicken that's like already ready and you can just put it in the microwave. And like, I feel like there are things that you can do.

Totally.

Um, but also like Maybe add some chicken to your ramen. I don't know.

Yeah, I agree.

Ramen's great. I haven't had ramen in like a really long time.

I know, me either. Gotta get some of that again.

It's like too, it's too triggering. The thought of eating ramen, like, and I'm talking about like the, the store ramen, right?

Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I can go to a restaurant and have really nice ramen, but the store one is triggering.

Yep.

Okay. We have an overworked office worker who sits for 9 to 10 hours a day and barely has energy to exercise.

Number 1, work out on the weekends. Use Saturday and Sunday as your workout days. So that way you only have to get 1 workout during the week, easier than getting 3 workouts during the week. Number 2, you sit for 9 to 10 hours a day. Um, unless you're like in some malpractice office that we should like report to the police or something, you can get up and take 5-minute walks here and there. Like, I know you may not want to, it may not be It may be easier just to sit down all day, but like just getting up, if you work 10 hours a day and you walk 5 minutes, 2 to 5 times a day, it all adds up. So you'll have better energy because you're not just sitting there like, I had to hold my yawn in. I've been sitting in this desk for 2 and a half hours at this point. So I want to get up and move. So, you know, but that's the point. Like you can do that in, you know, even like realistically, I could have gotten up and moved my desk up and do the standing desk, right? Like I could have done those things. I just chose not to. Um, but yeah, so I would say tho— those are the 2 biggest things I would say. And then exercise before work, number 3.

Yeah. And I mean, obviously this is a, uh, fictional person. Like we don't know, this is not a real person, but I'm thinking, so back when I was in college, I had an internship and it was an in-office job. Um, and I remember it was, um, I don't know, it was this company and they had at the, on the first floor they had a gym. So I'm not saying like, obviously not every, you know, office building has a gym, but I also think potentially going during your lunch breaks if you can. Um, but yeah, I mean, this is going to take, I feel like a person in this scenario, I feel for them because they have to be a little bit more on point. Like maybe you do need to go to the gym in the morning. So maybe you like don't have, like, for example, the flexibility that I have since I work from home of just like going whenever, like maybe you do need to get your sleep on check so that you can go at 6:00 AM before. You go to work.

So, mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree.

Okay. Next one is a new dad with sleep deprivation. This is my sister's husband currently. Um, they barely get 5 hours of sleep every night and that's killing their progress.

Yeah. So again, I would, number one, adjust your workout routine. Uh, I would, I'd keep talking about Wes, but like, you know, he did 3 times a week, 15-minute workouts. So if that's all you can muster right now, do the 2 or 3 times a week for 15-minute workouts. It's better than nothing. It'll make you feel better. You'll maintain muscle, you'll maintain routine. So that's number one. Number 2, if you know less sleep you're getting usually leads to higher cravings and higher hunger. So being even more on point with like in the morning, like I talked about front loading, you gotta make sure to front load your day. You gotta get that protein, you gotta get your hydration, you gotta get your fiber. So Front loading as much as humanly possible would be number 2. And then number 3, just kind of breaking it up into, I don't know, sometimes I look at my days this way. I literally just break it up to like, all right, this is what I'm doing until breakfast. And I can like eat, like, especially on my deficit. I'm like, all right, I got breakfast. And then it's like, okay, from breakfast, I'm gonna eat lunch at 2. All right. That's all I'm looking at is from 10 AM to 2 PM. And then I eat lunch at 2, like earlier I ate lunch at whatever it is, 1:30, 2 o'clock. I'm like, all right, I got from this block now until about 5:30. when I'm done my last podcast. So I'll, I'll have dinner then, and then I'll go until my 8:30, 9 PM, then I'll go the fuck to sleep. And I just kind of keep doing that. So sometimes just breaking it up into these smaller chunks throughout the day can mentally make it less overwhelming.

Yeah, no, dude, I, I love that. I would say the same thing. Also, I, I will say, I don't know, it's just hard, like a new dad or a new mom, like it's just like there's just no fixing their sleep. So it's It's just gonna be hard. I feel like it's a hard time to lose weight too. But like, yeah, I think it just goes without saying that it's just gonna be like 10 times harder for them, like being sleep deprived. And like, I'm seeing it with my sister that that girl's not gonna sleep. And I'm like very worried for her. I'm like, oh my God, this is crazy. But yeah, it's, it's hard.

I know. So if, and people are like, have kids, I'm like, Jesus Christ.

Uh, I know, and we're both over here like, yeah, I don't know. Every time my mom is always like, but are you sure? I'm like, I, I think I'm pretty sure. Like, I don't know. It's honestly like, if I could hire a nanny that watches my kid every single night, I would do it. But then what's the point of having a kid? Like, I should be there for them, you know what I mean? Then I just feel like that's not the same.

Yeah, dude, people are gonna give a shit for that one. I know, but oh well, that is what it is.

Well, shit. I mean, I feel like at least we're responsible. Like what the wrong thing to do would be to have children, even though, you know, you don't want children.

Correct. Although some people will argue with that too. So it's, you're not gonna make people happy with this topic.

Right. You're right. You're right. Anyways. Okay. Moving on. Okay. We have a shift worker night owl. Um, I work nights. My schedule is all over the place and I can't stick to regular workout times.

We coach a lot of people like this. And again, we just take it week by week. Like some days they'll work out Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Other days they work out Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday. Other days they know they're gonna have a crazy 7 shifts in a row. So we do the week before, we do 2 or 3 extra workouts so they don't have to do the workouts during the week the next week. So this one is, it's very person dependent, but that's okay. You don't have to stick to regular workout times. They can be variable. And as long as you're getting it done over the course of the week and over the course of the month, like we legit have somebody who I think she works like 10 days in a row and then 10 days off and then 10 days on, 10 days off. And so like during those 10 days on, she only gets like maybe one workout and she does all the other ones the rest of the time. And like, that's okay.

Yeah.

'Cause that's what works for her. So.

Yeah. You know, this just reminded me a time I was listening to Jordan's podcast. I feel like I've been meaning to ask you this and I never did, but he was saying how you don't necessarily have to do like 4 workouts per week, right? Okay, why did I— I did mention this to you? I don't remember.

No, no, I've heard him say this before.

Oh, okay, because he, he said like, okay, well, instead of doing it by the day, just go by like what you're supposed to do next. So like maybe you get 3 workouts every single week, but on week 1 you do 2 upper body, 1 lower body, and then the following week you do 2 lower and then 1 upper. So I don't know, maybe they could do that. I don't know if you agree with that point, but it's not that I agree or disagree really.

It's just, I don't know, to, like, to me personally, that just confuses the fuck out of me. I'm like, I, I need to get my workouts done. Yeah. And that's the thing. Like, if that works, like, that's awesome. But yeah, so for just for me personally, I've never really followed that. But yeah, he, I know he says that a lot and I think a lot of people do get a lot of value from that.

Well, I think you probably don't like it because I feel like you're very much about routines. And so I feel like someone that follows this has to be very flexible and be okay with things not staying the same every week.

So, yeah.

Okay. Last one. We have another college student. They struggle with eating clean and healthy foods.

I mean, I guess I would say the same thing as I said earlier, like you don't have to eat Clean, healthy foods. You want to try to work towards getting nutrient-dense whole foods, right? But it doesn't have to be all or— again, not going to be all or nothing. Like, if you're eating no vegetables, like, how about we start eating vegetables twice a week? If you're eating no fruits, how about we start eating fruits twice a week? If you're eating whole sugar soda, go to zero calorie, zero sugar soda. So it's just Just talking about small changes that they would make to improve, because what would normally happen is change through addition. Like so many people try to take away and change, but if you add in a zero-calorie soda versus a regular soda, you'll probably feel better and you'll have less sugar spikes and insulin spikes and you'll have more energy and you'll be like, well, shit, I feel better. Like, all right, I, I do have more willpower and more motivation to Drink more water now, or cook that extra protein sources, or have a vegetable with my dinner. So I would try to change things through simple addition, easy changes through addition.

Yeah. And I think also figuring out ways that like you can enjoy it. So I really love everything that Trader Joe's does, and it's the best way to get veggies in because it's so yummy. So even for someone like me that doesn't like vegetables, I love Trader Joe's. So I don't know, just figuring out what ways to actually enjoy it rather than like always suffering and pushing through when you don't like it. I think it's like, it's like such like, I feel like I sound like a kid. Like whenever I'm just like, I hate vegetables. It's, it's my parents' fault though. It's not my fault.

Yeah. You probably got some good food growing up though. I was freaking, I'm so jealous.

Um, definitely. You know what it is, is that my grandma— my mom was a single mom and my grandma did a lot of the raising. Not like my mom didn't raise me, my grandma raised me like, and my mom like at the same time. But my mom had to work all day so then my grandma would be the one to cook. So obviously I always wanted fries and chicken nuggets. So that's what I always got.

Yeah, sounds good to me.

She, she said yes. So yeah, that's funny. Awesome. That is the pod for today.

Cool. Well, I'm glad we got through that one because that was a struggle there for a little bit. So, um, camera, camera went out 17 times, but we got it done. That's the perseverance that, uh, that we talk about often on the pod. So yeah, man. Well, listen guys, um, we did this podcast because you guys left some reviews because there was no reviews, dude. I mean, dude, sometimes you gotta scare people. No, fuck that. That's the only thing that makes it work apparently. Like, goddamn guys, why do I gotta threaten to not do them and not do the pods with Soph anymore for you guys to leave a review?

But thank you for all the reviews, guys. We appreciate you. No, no, no, we appreciate it. I actually meant to say this at the beginning and then I forgot. I had a couple people message me and they were like, I don't know how to submit a pod, like a review. Can you please explain it?

That's why I say on the podcast— no, okay, so I'm gonna walk through it, especially on Apple. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, you go on—

Wait, can I just hold on? Before you keep talking, whenever I used to listen, or I used to listen as just, you know, your, um, a listener, um, I would always be like, what the fuck is Eric talking about? Now that I see the downloads, I'm like, oh, I see what he's talking about. There's way more people that listen than leave a review. Sorry, continue, continue.

Yeah, that's my point. So if you're in Apple, go to the show, click on the show, and then just scroll down past the episodes. So there's going to be about maybe 7 episodes. Scroll down and then there's ratings and reviews. So you can tap to rate, 5-star review. And if you scroll down a little bit farther, there's bottom left-hand corner, there's write a review. Just write a review. Just say, you know what, Eric sucks. Sophie's awesome. That's great. That's fine. Fine by me. I don't care as long as you leave the review. What is it?

So yeah, I know people leave comments, but that doesn't count as a review. No, the comments on Spotify.

On Spotify. I mean, I guess those— I feel like those would count as on Spotify, but no, this doesn't count as a review. No.

Okay. Yeah, we had a couple of those too last week.

Let's go.

I love those. I always read them.

Yeah, that's good. Well, yeah, leave those too, guys. Well, listen guys, we appreciate it, and now you can leave a comment on YouTube. So if you're watching on YouTube, you can leave a comment in the comment section below. And, uh, we'd love to read those as well. Maybe we can start reading some of those off on the show. So yeah, guys, uh, okay.

Put up a Christmas tree.

Yeah, no, no tree, but that's okay. I still love you guys and Merry Christmas. So, um, uh, great podcast today, guys. Thank you for listening and we will chat with you next week.