Why You Binge Eat (& How To Stop!) - Ep 874

Yeah, let's talk about it.

I fucking ate like so fucking much. Like, I would say that was like a binge. I ate a lot of cookie dough. I ate a lot of chips. I ate just, you know, after it all happened, I was like, well, that just happened. Interesting. Why did I just do that? I never do that. And then the next day I got my periods and I was like, see, I was not— that was not me. It was my period. So that's what happened. But I ate so much, Eric.

Well, dude, I mean, I mean, quite frankly, it sounds like the perfect storm. Like, let's— okay, let's back up and like just process what you just said. What is going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Eric Roberts Fitness Podcast. I hope you're having a great day thus far, and maybe welcome to the YouTube channel. Who knows? Not sure. Guess we'll find out. But we're back with the best pod episode of the week with co-host Sophie. What's going on, Soph?

Hello. I forgot we were like on camera.

We might be. I might be uploading this. This Friday. We'll see. We'll see.

We'll see.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll see. We're going, we're going ham on, on the YouTube and the podcast in the upcoming month of August, everybody. So we're doing 5 podcasts a week, 5 YouTube videos a week. And when I say that, I mean we already do 3 podcasts. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take the videos I put on YouTube, extract the audio, put it on the podcast, because I know some of you guys don't watch the YouTube videos because you don't have time, you want to listen to it, fine. But on the same note, I know some of you guys also want to watch the podcast. And so now our 3 podcasts weekly will be uploaded on my YouTube channel. Try it for the month of August, see if you guys like it, see if you don't, and then we'll take it from there. But we're excited about it.

Love it.

We're excited.

You have a new background behind you, Eric. I do.

Put all my Legion products up there. I like it. Why not? I gotta fill up the space.

I feel like you could like— oh my gosh, you have a YouTube thing. Yeah, I've never noticed that. That's so cool.

How the fuck have you never noticed that? Jesus. It's okay.

I'm still— I'm waiting for you, your like orange light to be in the background. I'm waiting for all these things to happen. I know, like you never did it.

I know, I know.

How's it going, dude?

Dude, it's going great. Um, yeah, I don't know, things are going great. Been a good week thus far. Been a pretty productive day, which I'm happy about. Uh, recently had not been having very productive days, I feel like. So back on some productive day trend, which is good.

What are your not productive days? I feel like your not productive days are not like my non-productive days.

I don't know, you know, I, I just feel like I know, I know there's a difference between when I do like Productive, deep, creative, moving the needle forward work versus just like getting it done. Like I feel like those are two different things. So okay, yeah. So that's that's the biggest difference for me.

Gotcha. I just like I remember I was like there was something I wanted to ask Eric. Is this freaking did you buy a bed? I saw in your stories.

Yeah, dude. We'll talk. Yeah, we'll talk about it later. That's that's or we have a question about that. We have a question in the Q&A about that, don't we?

Oh yeah, you're right. You're right.

Okay.

We'll talk about—

Talk about it later. You're like ruining the surprise, man.

Well, because as soon as I saw it, you know, like, I mean, I am like very big on anything that will help me sleep better or improve my back.

So I was like, oh my God, Eric. We'll talk about it.

We'll talk about it.

We'll talk about it. Don't you worry.

Speaking of furniture, I think I'm gonna buy like a new couch and a new chair because I I'm, I'm looking for like, what is fucking up my back further? So like, I'm like, oh dude, I feel like this couch is really hard. So like, I'm wondering if like— no, like, is that—

How do you, how do you sleep? How do you sleep? We talked about this before, haven't we?

On my side.

No good.

Oh, we've— no, that, that's literally— no, I feel like that has nothing to do with it.

Coming from somebody who had very bad back pain, when I started sleeping on my back, that helped me. How do you like that? Because, dude, when you're sleeping on your side— OK, this is my experience. When you're sleeping on your side, one of your hips has to be over the other, so your pelvis is not gonna be neutral. Your hips are gonna be tight as fuck when you wake up. All of that pressure and gravity is going downwards. So when I started— and it didn't matter what side I was on. So when I started sleeping on my back, I noticed a lot less back pain when I'd wake up in the morning, because I'm not twisted. My spine isn't twisted. My hips aren't, like— Getting that gravity pushed down on it the entire night made a big difference for me.

How do you force your body, though, to not? That's like I feel like I do it, and like I don't even mean to do it.

I put two big pillows right like it's this is I don't know why actually yeah this is what I do. I put two big pillows like by my side, and I put my arms like underneath the pillows. That's what I do.

Okay, you know what? This is all coming back to me. I do remember there was like a period of time when you were saying that, and like I feel like Miranda and I talked about this, and you were like no fuck that we're still gonna sleep. I did buy a special pillow that did help. It helped a lot. So I will say that, like, I could send you the link if you're looking for a new pillow.

I'm not. You're the one asking for help with your back.

Okay.

Anyhow, you should try it. At least you— I'm telling you, it might make a difference.

Oh, sleeping on my— yeah. Okay.

I'll try it.

I'll try it. I'll try tonight. Yeah. I'll let you know. I mean, like I said, I'll do anything. So I'm open. I'm open for that. I'm open to that.

Yeah.

Cool. Cool.

Sweet. Anything else you want to hit on or? Yeah, let's rock.

I don't have any updates for you. I don't think.

Cold plunging still?

Cold plunging still. I told you I did 2 minutes last week.

Right, right. Yeah. You can go one. How many times can you go? Once a week or once a month?

I can go twice a week is what I can do up until the moment that I leave the gym. So twice a week. Yeah, twice a week.

Okay. Nice.

I'll keep doing that. Cold showers.

Cold showers and cold plunges. They're good.

Keep you posted on that.

Yeah, for sure.

Awesome. All right.

Well, we got something Sophie wanted to bring up and chat about that happened this past weekend. And then we have some questions and answers. Why are you looking like you don't know what we're talking about?

Oh, because we already talked about what happened on the weekend. What do you mean?

You said you wanted to talk about boredom eating.

Oh.

Oh my God.

Oh my God. Wait, let me tell you. I forgot about— well, okay. When I texted that to you, I— hold on, stop. When I texted you that, I meant like as a topic to do the whole podcast, but I'm happy to tell you what happened.

Yeah, I'm fucking ready.

I fucking ate like so fucking much. Like I would say that was like a binge episode. It's not funny. No, it's not funny. It's just like I literally never do it because I take ADHD medication and like I'm literally never hungry. Like I have to force myself to eat sometimes. And this weekend, like number one, I didn't take my medication. That's probably why. And then number two, um, dude, I was just like eating and it's because we had like a girls night. So 2 of my friends spent the night and we just bought a lot of like food that I never buy. And I just ate So much. I ate a lot of cookie though. I ate a lot of chips. I ate just, you know.

So that is way different than boredom eating. I would not classify that as boredom eating though.

Well, no, I would, because after they left, I continued. Like, I kept going. So, and then also in the same quantity, dude, I ate a lot. Like, it was a lot, honestly, to the point where I was like, maybe we should do a pod on this. But, but Then I was like, I literally, after it all happened, I was like, well, that just happened. Interesting. Why did I just do that? I never do that. And then the next day I got my period. So then I was like, see, I was not— that was not me. It was my period. So that's what happened. But I ate so much, Eric.

Well, dude, I mean, I mean, quite frankly, it sounds like the perfect storm. Like, let's— okay, let's back up and like just process what you just said. Number one, day before your period, gonna be hungrier automatically. Like off rip, gonna be hungrier. Number one. Number 2, didn't take the ADHD medication that usually suppresses your appetite, so even hungrier. So that's number 2. Number 3, said you bought all this good-tasting food that you don't normally have. So, like, of course that happened. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I mean, but I think it's important because it's like, I, I don't really think you, like, fix that, or I don't think it's like something that's like bad. It's like, well, those are just the reasons why that happened.

No, seriously.

Like, okay, next time, like, and we, we did this before when we were coaching together. I'd be like, okay, well, like, what did we learn and what are we gonna do differently? So in my head as a coach, I'm like, okay, what do we learn? What do we do differently? How do we change our behavior? I guess take your fucking meds, you crazy psycho. No, literally.

But no, I mean, that, that plays a role. I'm literally walking around on medication.

But... so, like, take— it would be like, OK, you would take your medication. You would... before your period, I mean, there's not much you can do about that. I mean, maybe you take an extra 500 calories you're gonna eat and already know that, so maybe it's less of a restriction thing. And then number 3, you would maybe just, OK, cool, I have all this yummy, amazing food, but I'm gonna still practice some sort of moderation. I'm gonna, at the very least, kinda track out what I would eat and how much I'll eat.

Yeah.

I don't know that you need to make a big... Like, I don't think you need to change a bunch of things. Yeah.

It's fine, and it hasn't happened again. I just feel like I was like a monster. Like, I was like, just... I just was like, what the fuck?

But I think this is— no, I'm glad we brought this up, because people need to understand, like, there's just causes. Like, there was 3 main causes for you. OK, cool. Those are 3 reasons why it happened. You just understand it, and then you move on.

Well, and I think, I don't know, like, I honestly never buy chips. I never buy like this kind of ice cream. I never buy chocolate. Like, I just never buy these items. So I think like, because I'm not used to them. So I was like, oh, maybe like I should buy more chips or like more chips. But like, I really don't feel the need to do that. But it was just like, I just ran with it. And yeah, no, I agree. Like, it's the medication. It was the period. But like, I don't usually— this does not happen to me when I get my period. Like, I don't— Do that. Uh, but I think it was like a mix of the fact that my friends were here too, so we bought a lot of food. But anyways, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dude, it just sounds like the perfect storm, honestly. That's really all it is. And, you know, and I like— I'll be honest with you too, there are times when I just like make the conscious decision to just fucking overeat. Like, I'll be honest with you, I'm like, I know this is overeating and I'm choosing to do this. Like, it just is what the fuck it is, and that's okay.

Okay.

Yeah, dude. Yeah, I'm trying to think of a recent time.

It happens.

Yeah, it, it, dude, it definitely happened. Where was I? It was— I feel like it was just this past weekend, or maybe it was 2 weekends ago. I don't know. I was out somewhere at a restaurant and I was like, this is gonna be a day where I go over my calories, over my maintenance calories pretty significantly. And I'm like, I don't care.

We're okay with it.

It's just what it is.

We're okay with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. Like, it's not like we do— we don't do this every day. Like, it's okay.

No.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. Well, that was, that was my, that was what I wanted to discuss.

Wow, I prepped, I prepped a whole thing for like boredom eating and binge eating and now I'm not even gonna fucking use it. All right, well, let's move on to the next one then. Let's go.

Yeah, let's just do the, let's do the Q&A.

Okay. I was like, I was ready. I was prepped, man.

I mean, you can go. Do you want to go?

No, actually, yes, really quickly.

Because, okay, go ahead. I just want to clarify that when I brought that up, I was thinking let's either, let's do this like topic. And then you said, let's do a Q&A. So I said, let's do the Q&A. And when I said let's do both, I meant Q&A plus IG Live. That's what I meant.

Oh, we were on the wrong page.

Our miscommunication.

Miscommunication, which is fine. You know, this happens amongst teammates. Yeah, this happens. This happens.

Cool.

Well, yeah, the only thing I'll say on, on the next topic, let's just say of boredom eating. But I think this The reason I wanna talk about this really quickly is 'cause it's something I'm trying to be very conscious about. Not necessarily boredom eating, 'cause I don't really do that. It's more just being bored and trying to get out of that as quickly as possible.

Yeah.

So, like, even when I'm— and this is, like, sounds terrible, but this is, I think, where we are as a society. As an example, in the mornings, first thing I do, I wake up, I take my blood pressure now, and then I go write my emails for— that I send out daily emails. If you wanna get them, there'll be a link in the description of the video/podcast, whichever one you're watching and/or listening. But even when I'm thinking about my next line in the email, I go to the side and just tap my phone because it's like the phone screen is black. And I'm like, I just tap it and look at it and I go back and I'm like, I didn't need to fucking do that. Why am I doing that?

Mm-hmm.

I had a half second of boredom or like, Didn't— wasn't actively doing something. And I felt the need to like get this quick dopamine hit. And I think just where we are as a society, that's— it's a very rampant thing. I think so many people are not okay with sitting in boredom and they're not— and one of the ways that this manifests is by eating food, like snacking. I'm going to grab this and snack. I'm going to grab that and snack. I'm going to have a little bit of treats here because it gives you that quick Dopamine hit, which is the same thing your phone does. It's the same, like, it's, it's everything, right? So I think we just need to be mindful about trying to practice. And trust me, it's a skill and it's hard. And I'm trying to work on it. I'm trying to be very mindful of it myself. We have to practice being okay with like sitting in a little bit of boredom, not trying to numb it because food, the phone, we— it's, it's like getting out of that discomfort as quickly as possible and trying to numb that feeling as quickly as possible. I think we have to consciously train ourselves to be okay with, okay, there's a little bit of boredom going on. There's a little bit of like, maybe I'm not having the best day. And this goes into emotional eating, right? But like these emotions that we feel, we can't just look for the quick out. And I think a lot of people do that with foods. You know, just something I wanted to kind of touch on. And I think it's like, I feel like boredom eating is scratching an itch that like never stops. Like you have to stop scratching it for it to stop. like wanting to scratch it, so to speak, right? So we have to be very just cognizant of it, and it's something you're gonna have to work very hard at, like I do and everybody else is with the world that we live in. I signed up a lady today for coaching. Shout out Suzanne. Um, she was 69 years old, and she was just kind of like, Eric, I don't do the whole social media, like phone technology. I'm like, Suzanne, I wish I was you. Jesus Christ, you sound like you live a great life. Um, but yeah, so board of meeting, that's what I want to bring up. Um, and You know, just some strategies I think are, like you said, trying to keep like snacks that, you know, are very like trigger foods for you out of the house. Just don't make it harder than it has to be. Get up and go earn your dopamine, whether it's a walk, whether it's a workout, whether it's, you know, this is going to sound stupid, but like, like cleaning the counter of your kitchen space, right? Or your workspace. If you feel very like cluttered, sometimes like cleaning your shit up can make you feel a little bit better. So, you know, trying to find ways and like, for example, the 20-minute rule, that's one as well where set a 20-minute timer before you go and eat. Do fucking anything during that 20 minutes other than eat. Try to get out of the kitchen. And if you still feel the urge to eat after 20 minutes, then cool, you can go have something to eat. But usually that feeling of boredom or emotion subsides and you're like, I don't need to eat. It's not going to fix my problem. And if you do eat, It is what it is, but at the very least, give yourself some mindful tactics. So, yeah.

Suzanne, how did she find you? If she doesn't use social media.

YouTube.

Did you ask her? YouTube? Okay. So she's like a YouTuber. Okay. Like, I like it. Yeah. I feel like I have that problem, especially like, I feel like I'll multitask, which I try not to do. Even this weekend, I was like watching TV and eating chips. And so I feel like because I was doing that, like I'm not as aware, you know? of like what I'm eating. And so like it's, and, and yeah, I guess like it's something to be more mindful of, like getting yourself out of the habit. But like to your point of like the phone and the dopamine, I, I just think we have to be aware that we're doing these things so that we can work on it. 'Cause like it's, I think it's legit an addiction of checking your phone. I have the same problem.

100%.

I'll check my phone and like sometimes I'll, I'll try to challenge myself like, okay, put your phone away for 2 hours in the morning. And that's hard for me, not looking at my phone for 2 hours. But the more that I try to do it, the better I get at like, at doing that, so I feel like—

Do you feel better?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's just hard, though, because you are getting dopamine through your phone. It's, like, legit hard. I know, dude. You have to retrain your brain to not always do that, you know?

I— dude, I— and this is obviously— we're going on a tangent here, but I— so, like, what I will have to do is I will have to put my phone in a different room, like, in a drawer or something. And I'm telling you, like, let's say I did 2 hours of like deep work where I got— I was working on something, got something done. I get out of those 2 hours and I'm like, I feel fucking like a superhero. I'm like, I feel great. Like, I feel refreshed, recharged, high energy. Versus like, if I did that same 2 hours like checking my phone constantly, or if I did 2 hours of scrolling TikTok or whatever it is, I get done that and I'm like, oh my God, I feel like shit.

Yeah, yeah.

That's what I was talking about earlier with my productive— like I said earlier, like my productive days. That's what I'm talking about. Like I need that time to feel good and like it's hard, dude.

Yeah, I love to— I love talking about Huberman here, but I'll say he— I remember there was an episode he did where he talked about like how to have like a really good morning and he talked about like not having your phone like first thing in the morning because you don't want to like hit that dopamine like right when you wake up. And then he said like something having a 90-minute work session where you put your phone away and like how like Doing that consistently will get you more used to it. But anyways, like just reminded me of that podcast.

That's a good one. Yeah.

Yeah. Love it.

Cool.

Well, sweet. It's been like a really random podcast. Now we're going to.

Now we're. It's okay.

We'll move on to the Q&A now.

Ready? Q&A. Yep. Yep. We're ready. Let's hit it.

Okay.

These questions, by the way, these questions are coming from my Instagram story. So if you don't follow me on Instagram, it's just @ericrobertsfitness. I do Q&As. all the time throughout the week. So if you ask a question and I'll answer it on my Instagram Q&A, possibility it'll come up on the podcast.

Some are coming from the ERF page too, Eric, like, come on.

Some are coming from the— oh God. Some are coming from the @ERFClubhouse. There you go. Ask your questions there as well.

All right, do not— I would like to apologize in advance because I don't know how to say any of these usernames. Just saying.

It's all good.

From @sizevanillax, is stretching important?

Is stretching important? Um, I think most people stretch because they think they should, but I think there is a better way. So instead of stretching, I often promote 2 main things, which is number one, doing the exercises, like doing a Bulgarian split squat, doing an RDL, doing a shoulder press, a chest press, a row, doing the exercises in a full range of motion under load is going to yield the results that you want stretching to yield. Like, people stretch because they think, oh, I'm gonna like loosen my muscles, or I'm gonna get a bigger range of motion, when in reality stretching is a very short-term fix. That's why you have to like keep stretching over and over, and if you don't, you don't feel any better because it's short-term. There's a short-term adaptation that happens. But if you don't cement that short-term change by then taking— so when you stretch, you get a new range of motion. If you don't strengthen that new range of motion, that range of motion will not stay. So you have to cement that range of motion by doing exercises and taking your muscles through that full range of motion under load to then strengthen that range of motion. But you don't need fucking stretching to do that. You just need to do the exercise properly and There is one form of progressive overload is increasing your range of motion. So sometimes people are like, oh, I gotta keep adding weight, adding weight. It's like, well, no, what you can do is slowly over time work on your range of motion. We've had so many coaching clients where let's say they're doing a lunge or a Bulgarian split squat and they can't get their knee all the way to the ground yet. What we focus on is getting their knee all the way to the ground, and over time they get stronger and they build muscle and they improve the range of motion. So that, in my opinion, is what you should be focusing on as the first part of it, because it actually strengthens and cements it. The second part would be what we call like mobility training. And there's a difference between flexibility and mobility, because mobility is once more, you're strengthening your joints, your tendons, your ligaments, that range of motion, whereas the flexibility is passive. So mobility is active range of motion. What can you actually control? So think about if you were lying on your back and you, with your legs straight, you rose— raised? Rose? Rose your leg up, which I don't even know what grammar that is. I'm a moron. I'm just gonna say rose. You rose your leg up.

Rose, I think.

I think so. From the girl whose English is second language. I think it's reverse. I don't know. You rose your leg up and you pulled it back with your arm to get that extra range of motion. That is passive range of motion because you can't access that range of motion unless you had help. Whereas the active range of motion is however high you could bring your leg without using anything to help you. That is your active range of motion. So mobility is working on active range. Flexibility is working on passive range. I believe we should be working on active range because that actually translates to your life, to your exercises, to your strength. So you can focus on mobility training over stretching. And when we talk about the key areas that matter the most to mobility training, usually it's shoulders, hips, ankles, and thoracic spine. Those are the 4 main types of mobility training you should be working with. And, you know, again, whether you're in our clubhouse or whether you're a client of ours, you know, we, we work with these. We usually throw exercises into the warm-up of our workouts to work on these areas. So let's say we're doing a lower body workout, we're typically going to throw in some hip mobility, some, uh, some ankle mobility. If it's an upper body workout, we're throwing in shoulder mobility, thoracic spine mobility. So you're doing these in the warm-ups of your exercises, and that's what I would focus on instead of Static stretching. I think the times when static stretching could be helpful is like maybe athletes who are like pushing their bodies to extreme ranges of motion, like somebody, you know, I don't know, an NFL player, like, you know, when they get tackled or something, their leg like really, really stretches. But even then, a lot of NFL players, they will stretch, but then they will do mobility right after because it's not just about, again, having that initial range of motion in the short term. It's about being strong in that extra range of motion. So that's number one, but maybe number two, some like post, like rehab situations or stuff like that might be, uh, might be beneficial. But yeah, I feel like stretching is just like, like you're shining a car without actually fixing the engine, whereas mobility training actually keeps the car running. You're like, you're actually changing the engine, you're upgrading the engine of your car. So, and that's why, again, you know, I think it's really important to be on a good weightlifting program that incorporates this stuff. By the way, I— there's a guy that I know on the internet. His name's Eric Roberts Fitness. Check him out if you want to. He's got a really good coaching program. So, you know, I'm just saying I've heard some really good stuff about him and his team. Check the guy out if you want.

Not me, like, waiting, like, who's he? I was like, who, Eric? Um, Dude, okay, I'm gonna be so honest right now that I feel like I didn't know any of that. Like, I feel like I'm just learning all of this, and I don't know that I understood all of that.

But— So what questions do you have? Throw the questions.

So, okay, from what I remember, like, tell me if I'm wrong, but is stretching bad before? Because I have that— I don't know where I got that from, but like, could it be considered bad? Like, if you do it before you exercise?

So the reason people say that is because, uh, there's— there was some research that showed static stretching before a weightlifting workout decreased your potential force output, like how strong you were able to be, how much power you were able to do. So that's why people said it's bad. Um, I mean, unless you're like Coach Mary, who is, you know, doing a powerlifting meet and like you have to be at the top of the top of the top performance, I don't think it's necessarily bad. I just don't think it's a— it's not the best use of your time because you could do the mobility training instead, get all the benefits that you would get plus some, for example, without the drawback. So you like mobility training before you work out, as long as you're not doing like intense, like intense mobility training, right? Like some hip activation or ankle mobility or shoulder, like thoracic mobility. That stuff is not taking away from your performance. And it's going to kind of get you that range of motion and potentially increase your range of motion. So as opposed to static stretching, that's why you would do that.

Okay, because I'm— okay, because I'm thinking like when you do yoga, like when you're stretching, like, is that— but you're not like doing anything with weight, like, is there a benefit?

Okay, so yoga— well, so a benefit from what angle? So okay, a couple things here.

True.

Number one, there's different— there's different types of yoga. So like, I know, like, for example, you might have to hold a pose in yoga where, yes, you're stretching, but you're actually activating your muscle at the same time. So that might be considered some sort of like mobility training. Um, but there are some forms of yoga where it's like it's just stretching, and that's why I had a lot of clients when I trained in person, because we were at the gym, they would like come to my training. And then like, because they had a yoga class, they would go to yoga class. Like, I went to yoga class to like help my back. And like, they would do it for 5 weeks. Like, my back doesn't feel any better. I'm like, you don't like that. You're just stretching. Like, you're not getting like, you're not improving mobility. So that, and then again, like benefits, the main benefits from yoga, maybe I don't know if I say main, but the In my opinion, the main benefit from yoga would be more about turning on your parasympathetic nervous system as opposed to increasing range of motion mobility. And I know, I know there's going to be fuckers in the comments who are like, fuck this guy, Eric. He knows nothing about yoga. I'm a certified yoga instructor. I'm going to set this guy straight. And I'll be honest with you, I have never done yoga. I know about yoga. I know of yoga. I am not an expert. expert in yoga, so you're more than welcome to lend your 2 cents. Don't get mad in the comments. There's no reason for that. It's okay. Take a chill pill, take a deep breath, touch some grass, walk outside. Um, but yeah, so that's yoga.

Yeah, no, that's what I was gonna say, because I, I think it's about like holding the position and like being able to like, like hold it in the pain, right? Which is like teaching, like, I think it's like good for like your nervous system to like learning how to like hold the position and like not be like freaking out about it. So yeah, Okay, I have one more question because this is so interesting to me. I feel like we could do an entire pod on this. Um, so when you think about like someone that's like trying to increase their ankle mobility, right? So like I do a lot of like stretches where I'm just like stretching forward, like where it kind of hurts a little bit, but like I'll hold it. So like, is that technically good? Like, for increasing, or is that mobility?

That would be more mobility. So Oh. So, okay, let's say you're doing the ankle mobilization, right? What you would then immediately do after that, if you want the most optimal way to go about this, what you would immediately do after that is you would go into a heel elevated lunge hold. So let's say your front heel is elevated, you hold maybe a 5 or a 10-pound weight, nothing crazy. But you go down in the lunge, you really let your knee forward over your toe. You hold that position for 5 to 10 seconds, come back up, and you do, let's say, 5 reps of that. If you do the ankle mobility first, that's kind of like increasing that range of motion, kind of working on it. And then you pair it with something where you're now using that extra range of motion to then strengthen and solidify and concrete that extra range of motion. Those 2 back to back, that's the best way to increase range of motion.

Okay, interesting. Yeah, there you go. Like, I guess you don't necessarily need like a dumbbell in order to— yeah.

No, I mean, over like over time, I mean, you can use a kettlebell, dumbbell, I mean, but like over time, you might want to add some weight. But again, the whole point of this is you don't need a lot of weight, it would be like a 5 or a 10-pounder, maybe a 15 or a 20 max, like you don't need a lot because You're trying to get that new range of motion and make it stay. You're not trying to like build your quads or your glutes. Your quads and your glutes need a heavier load, whereas like the muscles in your calf, the muscle in your tibia, that sort of stuff, like that is smaller muscles, more stabilizer muscles, don't need that much load to increase that range of motion along with the joints, like connective tissue, ligaments, tendons, those sort of things.

Well, that was a great first question, Eric. We're out here, like, you're out here, like, teaching us. I love it. Spreading the knowledge. Yeah.

Side note, you know what, you know what I was thinking as I, I just came out of my trance? Um, sometimes I just go, like, uh, sometimes I just go in. But dude, this is like, honestly, I feel like sometimes, like, this is the truth about, like, I'm not trying to gas myself up. It's just true. Like, being an expert in a, like, I feel like I just, like, that stuff, Like, that just came— like, that was like nothing to me. And it's like, I just— I've forgotten more than most people know about fitness. I'm not saying that in a bragging way, because I'm sure that, like, people are obviously experts in their own fields. But like, this is just what I've dedicated my entire life to. And yeah.

You can brag. It's okay. Yeah, no, I mean, even me, like, I feel like I educate myself a lot, and I'm like, what the— I feel like I don't know anything about this.

Most people don't. Most people don't. So.

Yeah. All right. Question number 2. Okay. This one has like a really funny username. I exercise for french fries. Same. That's funny. How can I approach progressive overload when my priority is no longer muscle growth?

Well, you could progressively overload your range of motion like we were just talking about. Um, no, for real though, like, you could, you could overload like your range of motion, you could overload your, your tendons, your joints, your ligaments. Like, uh, my good buddy Jordan Syatt, uh, you know, he was really obsessed about getting his splits. And so like the way he was progressively overloading was in fact doing that, like increasing his elasticity, increasing his range of motion with splits, like, you know, increasing his hip mobility. So you could look at it from— That angle. Number 2, you could look at it from— you can still progressively overload without building muscle. I know that sounds weird, but as long as you're not going very close to failure with your exercises, you're not going to build muscle. So you can progressively overload, but like, that doesn't mean you're going to automatically build muscle. Yes, it's something that's definitely going to help, but you have to pair that with going close to failure. So So if let's say, for example, last week you did 105 pounds, but you were 5 reps shy of failure, you could do 110 pounds next week. And if you're still 5 reps shy of failure, you're not going to build a ton of muscle. You'll build strength. You won't build a ton of muscle because muscle is a physiological response adaptation. Strength is a neurological adaptation. So you can still progressively overload without building muscle. Just don't go close to failure.

What if you want to train close to failure, but you don't wanna grow muscle? Is that— can you— is there any way to do that?

Mm... You would... probably just do less volume. So you would maybe do, like, one— so let's say you have 3 sets of an exercise. Instead of doing all 3 sets close to failure, you would do 1 set close to failure, 2 sets, like 5 to 7 reps shy of failure. So that's an option. Number 2, just like make sure you're not eating a lot of calories because the less calories— and when I say not eating a lot, I mean like not eating in a calorie surplus. So you're probably eating more around like just maintenance calories because the more calories you eat, the more likely you are to build more muscle. So that would be number 2. But I mean, those are really— unless my mind's drawing a blank, those are really the only 2 main ways where you can train Consistent. I mean, I guess you just don't fucking get any sleep. Like, I mean, don't get any sleep. Um, don't eat a lot of protein. Yeah. But like all those things you should be doing. So.

Yeah. Like when I read this question, I just thought it was interesting and almost like, I, I just like, I can't see myself. Like, I just know like growing muscle is so hard that I'm like, if you don't wanna grow muscle, like you're probably like already not training hard enough. Like it's so fucking hard. And that's why I asked the question of like, well, what if you really like to train to failure? 'Cause like maybe that's her case. I just, I don't know. I don't see a scenario where that would happen to me. You know what I mean? And then I'm also like, why would I not? I mean, I get it, but I'm just like, why would I not want to continue to grow muscle, especially when like it doesn't grow the same way or like it doesn't look the same way as like it looks on a man? So I don't know. I just like thought that was, I guess like I can't see like in what scenario I would ever ask that.

But yeah, I mean, so this is where Somebody on my YouTube fucking made a comment. So, like, okay, side note, but it'll come back around, I promise. On YouTube, I pretty much start almost every video and I'm like, and I've coached over 25,000 people in the last 8 years. And some guy commented, it was like, one thing about Eric, he's gonna let you know he's coached over 25,000 people in the last 8 years. I'm like, bro, I need to show my credibility. But for real, like, YouTube is like, there's just so much bullshit, you need to show your credibility. But that being said, that to say, because I've coached so many people, I know this. Like, truthfully, some girls— I mean, some guys too, but like, girls will get to a stage where they don't want to get bigger shoulders, or they don't want to get bigger traps, or they don't want to get bigger arms or quads or even glutes to a degree. And so I get it. And also—

So it does happen. You've seen it. It's so interesting.

Yeah, I've seen it. But Everybody's different. Like, what's— what, for example, what one girl thinks is like too big of shoulders, you might be like, fuck no, I want that and more. So it's just like a personal preference. And that's where, again, as, as coaches, like, I've coached people and I've, you know, some of the— I can think about some of the coaches our coaches have coached. I'm sorry, some of the clients our coaches have coached who have been like, hey, like, she doesn't want to build any more muscle, like, what do we do? And I'm like, yeah, like, that's, that's what she wants. Like, so you make a program built around that. You advise her on Don't going as— don't go as close to failure. You advise like you don't put as much volume. You don't put as much volume on her shoulders. Maybe you don't do any, like maybe you do one bicep exercise just to like maintain like good bicep strength, right? So yeah, I mean, it's, it's definitely a thing and, you know, everybody's different, so I respect it, but it is hard to build muscle for sure.

Yeah, no, I guess, no, that, that makes sense. I guess in my head I'm like, how does that ever happen? But that, that makes sense. And okay, one more question on this. Am I correct in saying that like once you have the muscle, like you don't really need, it doesn't take that much volume to just maintain it, right? Yeah. So like even if I'm not training like close to failure, like not like below close to failure, like is it, does it take that little to just keep it?

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Okay, cool. Makes sense.

Yep.

Awesome. Next question, Silverback J underscore. What is the best way to stay in a calorie deficit without counting macros?

Yeah, as I was prepping for this question, I, I can take it one of two ways. I'll take it both ways, but there is going to be some tough love in this question, so I'll just say that right now. Okay, here's, here's what I— here's, here's a strategy that you could use, and there's a couple different ones I'll talk about, Number one, you could track your calorie— you could figure out your calorie deficit, and you could track your food for 7 days straight. Then just eat the same fucking things. And you don't have to worry about being in a calorie deficit because you know it's— you already know you're— so you don't have to track it because you already know what it is because you already tracked it. But I can hear it right now. I don't want to eat the same thing every day, Eric. Okay, so you don't want to fucking track. You don't want to eat the same fucking thing every day. Like, fuck me, man. Like, what, what do you want to do? Everybody, everybody wants it their way. Your way got you to where you are, so you can't keep doing it your fucking way. You have, like, you have to do it a different way. So, you know, tracking your calories is the best way to ensure you're in a calorie deficit. If you as an adult want to take the stance of, I know this is the highest likelihood and the best way that I'm gonna achieve my goal. I'm gonna choose not to do that and do something else. That's fine. Just don't be upset when you're not seeing progress as fast as you want to. Don't be upset when your scale isn't going down because you are choosing to not take the most efficient strategy. Now again, you can choose that, and I'm not saying you can't still see progress because you can, but that's the first part of it. So either you have to just— and by the way, like, let's be honest, literally tracking your calories 5 to 10 minutes a day. If you say anything more, you're a fucking liar. And I know it because I've done this for years and years and years. Like, you're not bullshitting me. I fucking know. I do it to this day. I track my calories. So it doesn't take more than 10 minutes in total in a day. If you're not willing to put in 10 fucking minutes into your nutrition, do not bitch to me when you are not seeing progress. Okay? So all that being said, track your fucking calories. But if you really don't want to, we talked about track for 7 days. And then just eat the same shit. The second strategy is I would just load the fuck up on high protein meals. Just have like 3 to 4 super high protein meals per day because you're going to be full, you're going to be satisfied, you'll have a high thermic effect of food calorie burn. So number 2, number 3 is just, you know, 3 plates and 2— 3 plates, 3 meals and 2 snacks method. I've talked about this before. Every single meal, 3 meals a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner. Every single meal has to fit on one plate. Half the plate has to be veggies, a fourth of the plate— half the plate or pro— um, half the plate veggies or protein. I'm talking so fucking fast. Half the plate veggies or protein, then one fourth of the plate will be more hopefully protein or veggies, and then one fourth will be some sort of carbohydrates. So that would be the meals and the snacks. At least one of the snacks has to be a protein and try to make the other snack a fruit, a veggie, or a protein. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, those are the, you know, those are the strategies, but I just can't, I can't wrap my head around, like, if I want to reach a goal, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to reach that goal, knowing you're not going to track your calories forever. I wrote an email on this earlier this morning. It's gonna go out on Thursday. If you read the emails, you'll read it Thursday. But I feel like people think about their fitness— that's like saying, okay, I'm going on vacation to Orlando to see Sophie. I'm not gonna rent a car though, because I'm not gonna drive the car forever. It's like, what the fuck? Like, you did— yeah, that's the point. You use it when you're there, and when you don't need it, you stop using it. Like tracking calories is the same thing. I don't expect you to track your calories forever. I still do because I like seeing how much protein am I eating, how many calories can I eat. Like today, for example, I'm a little bit under my calories and so now I know like, all right, cool, I want to make sure I got to eat a little bit more food tonight at dinner to hit my calories for the day so I can go into my workout tomorrow fueled up and make sure I'm hitting my protein goal, my carb goal, those sort of things. I like doing that, but you don't have to do that. But just because, like, you're not gonna do it forever doesn't mean you shouldn't do it for a brief period of time, because you'll build the habits, you'll build the education about nutrition that will then get you the results, that will then allow you to maintain those results because you've built the habits. Silverback ape gorilla, Jay.

How do you remember that? I marked, um, I marked minute 41 is when I need to quiet you down, cuz that's when you were yelling. So I have it written down.

You don't need to quiet anything down. It's fucking fine.

No, I, I like that you gave a little bit of tough love. I actually like the first, uh, strategy where you eat the same and you track it for that week. Cuz I feel like that's like, that's pretty good. Like if you, if you actually eat the same foods, um, and I feel like that's a better strategy than the third option, which was like, 3 plates or whatever, because I'm like, okay, you can do that, but you don't know. Like, and then it can be frustrating if you do that. And imagine as a person, right, you're eating healthy, quote unquote, what you think is healthy, um, but you're not losing weight. And like, you could still not be in a calorie deficit, and that's the whole point of like tracking your calories. And I remember, I don't know if you did this analogy or like someone else, but like the same way that you would look at a recipe to make a chocolate cake It's the same for this. Like, if you don't, if you don't look at the recipe, like, your cake might taste like shit. Like, you can't complain, you didn't use the recipe. Like, it's the same thing. Um, yeah, I mean, I, I agree. Like, that's what I did. Like, I fucking put in the work and like I tracked all my shit and I, and like not only tracking but also weigh your food, right? Like, that's important as well. Um, but okay. I, I wanna say something. It's gonna, I feel like I'm gonna like get some like Hate for this, but I've known so many people that like it's like they'll they'll use the calorie tracking thing as like an eating disorder. And I'm not saying it doesn't turn into an eating disorder. Like I'm sure there are people out there where it happens, but I just think it's like overly used as a reason to like not do it. And I think it's bullshit. One of my friends, like she goes to therapy and like her therapist is like whenever she talks about weight loss, right? Like her therapist will be like, oh, like you know maybe don't track your calories because like that. that can like be bad for you. And I'm like, dude, like when do we stop giving that kind of advice? And when do, when do we give the advice of like, no, you gotta put in the work and it's gonna be hard and like you gotta just do it. You know what I mean? Like it's like we're encouraging people by like, no, it's okay. Like it's okay. Like, you know, like that can be bad for you for like your mental health. And I'm like, I call bullshit. You know what I mean?

Mm-hmm.

Like I'm, I'm not saying for everyone, but like I do think there's a lot of people that just use that as an excuse. And then guess what? You end up fucking yourself cuz you're not getting your goals. Like, you know what I mean?

I mean, yeah, dude. So there's a lot— there's a lot there. I think, like— so, OK. How do I articulate this? Um, I think you're right. I think there are a lot of people who— and you've brought this up before. I just don't see this as much, and so maybe that's why I don't really even think about it that much. But I do think there are people who are like, oh, well, that's gonna cause an eating disorder. Don't do that. Okay, and like, you're gonna, I don't know, cut all your carbs instead, or you're gonna just stay like unhealthy and overweight and that's better for you? Like, I think the reasoning— now again, I've worked with people who like the numbers. So this is where I see this happen. The numbers for a lot of people can be like triggering for them where they're like, fucking like that, like anything with numbers. So I've seen that and like, and I get it, like, cool, so on and so forth.

Yeah.

I think what Sophie is referring to and kind of like what I believe as well, it's like there's a difference between being empathetic and being enabling bad behavior. And what I mean by bad behavior is like, I don't really want to track my calories. Like, it takes a lot of time. Like, I don't have to do that. Like, I don't want to do that. It's hard. I don't know how to do it. And then just being like, oh, well, it's okay because like you don't have to do that. And like, At some point, we— there's a line between being empathetic and being enabling. And it's— at some point, we do have to draw this line of like, I'm not going to enable you to keep doing this. And I'm not saying, you know, people who say, oh, I have an eating disorder from tracking calories, I'm not saying everybody who says like, yes, you do, or who says that has like— is enabling. It's not what I'm saying. But Sophie, I think Sophie is right. There's a line where And I was gonna say this, and I don't know that I should word it this way, but—

Oh.

I'm— the way that I think— okay, I'm gonna use the person who says like, tracking calories is hard, I don't have the time for that. Where my head goes for that person is, how fucking soft and how good of a life do you have that like, You think taking ten minutes a day to track your calories is too much? Like, let's be real, dude. Like, come on. Like, if that's the worst part of your day, and that's like the most, like, come on, dude. Like, we, like, that's just it's because it's it's not like I initially and and I've and we've done countless number of podcasts with our clients on this. Initially, it's hard. Fuck yeah. Everything is hard when you first start something. But if you actually stick with it and don't just quit because it's difficult. You're quitting because it's difficult. You're quitting because you suck at it at first. Everybody sucks at first. So if you actually get through that part of it, 2 weeks in, 3 weeks in, 4 weeks in, 5 weeks in, guess what? It becomes fucking easy. Just like there are so many people out there in their professions, like whether you're an accountant, whether you're a lawyer, whether you're a plumber, whether you're a hairstylist, like whatever you do, I'm sure when you first started in that job, you were kind of like, fuck, like, how do I do all this? Like, where does this go? What does this do? What's the system for this? How do I put this in. And now you're 6 months, 12 months, 20 years in and you're like, this is fucking easy. But if I walked into your job today, like if I walked in doing what Sophie's doing right now in her job, I'd be like, what do I— what the fuck do I do? Who do I contact? Where do I go? What systems do I follow? If I like was an accountant today, I'd be like, I don't know what the fuck to do. I would figure it out, but it's going to take some time to figure it out and I'm not going to like it at first because I suck at it at first. But as you get better, you're not gonna hate it as much, and it's not that daunting for you. But you have to go through that period of time. If you never let yourself go through that period of time, you're gonna stay stuck where you are forever. So which one's fucking worse? Going through the period of time of you sucking or staying where you are forever?

Yeah. No, I think you put that better than I did. I agree. That's what I meant. Because like, I, I'm sure there are people that like, it's genuinely like an eating disorder. Like, I understand.

There are.

But like, I get that. I get that. And that's not who I'm talking about. I do think also like where this is where I think for me coaching was helpful just because I know that there were times when you and I would talk and I'd be like, oh, like I'm, I like, I'm doing something. I'm like scared to not track. And like you would take that opportunity to be like, okay, so don't track.

Right.

Like, don't like feel like you need to track 100% or otherwise like the world's ending type of a thing. Right. So I think it's like how you view it as well when you are tracking. So It's your relationship with tracking. Correct. Yeah, exactly. Like, you don't have to track like every single fucking day. You should, but like, it's also like the world's not ending if you, you know. And I feel like for the people that do think that way and never take a break and view it that way, of course they're gonna have a really fucking hard time not tracking afterwards.

But that's the same thing with fitness. When people like, I can't, I can't miss a workout, like, I can't miss a day's worth of workouts.

There's this—

those are the same people who in fitness, they work out 7 days a week and like like they ruin the rest of their life because they got to get their, their, their 15,000 steps per day. It's like, bro, chill the fuck out, brother. Like, no, for real. But I think that's—

Yeah.

A lot of times people will come to us and they're like, they know that our clients track calories. And when they sign up for coaching with us, you know, some people will be like, hey, like, I don't really love tracking calories. And I'm like, do you not love tracking calories or Do you not love tracking calories, eating 1,200 calories a day, not being allowed to go out to eat, having to take your Tupperware with you when you go on fucking vacations? Like, do you not love that? And like, yeah, I fucking hate that. I'm like, we don't make you do that. Like, but that's where people's minds, when they think about tracking or something, that's where people go. Because maybe it's what they thought they're supposed to do. It's what someone made them do in the past, right? Like, you know, again, somebody just signed up for Coach with a shout out, uh, Jenica. Um, you know, she was talking about like, hey, with nutrition, I, I like— yes, I'm open to nutrition advice, but she was like, I like— I'm not gonna be super fucking restrictive. And I'm like, that's good, because that's not what the fuck we do. Like, we're gonna focus on protein, overall calorie intake. And she's like, I love baking stuff. I'm like, still fucking bake stuff. I'm jealous I don't get any, but like, that's awesome. So it's, it's really the relationship with it. And to your point, when people are like, well, I, I get anxious if I don't track, I'm like, So the answer isn't to just not track, in my opinion, depending on the person, because everything is contextual. In a situation like that, like Sophie said, it's not about like, if something makes you anxious, you need to do it. Because that's the way you overcome it. We talked in previous podcasts about like exposure therapy. It's a way of exposure therapy. If you are very, very, very anxious about not tracking, you need to not track for A day when you go out to eat with your friends because you're going to wake up the next day and this is where having a coach is helpful. You're gonna wake up the next day, you're going to realize not everything is burned to the ground and you woke up and you're still fine. And then that's going to help you a little bit more. Like I remember in one of the podcasts recently, uh, Coach Irene and her client, she was talking about her client where her client was so afraid to go over in calories and for the first like 3 weeks she didn't. And then she did, and the client was like, "Fuck! I ruined everything. Fucking oh my God!" And Irene's like, "Look, that just happened, and you're fine. Like you gained a couple of pounds of water weight, but you're already back on track, and everything's okay." And her client was like, "Oh, I guess you're right." And so it's like it's it's the relationship with it.

From Fat and Bra Fat and D. Brahim, I think. If I'm early menopausal, does that affect my fat loss journey? I've been working out since November. Yeah.

So again, we have coached thousands of women through perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause. And the reality is, and by the way, if you want us to help you in your journey and you're a perimenopausal, menopausal woman, link in the show notes, link in the description down below. So feel free to check out our link for coaching. But there are, there are some hormonal shifts that are going on that are causing worse sleep, that are causing fatigue, cravings, inflammation, higher cortisol. So the answer is yes, it can affect your fat loss. It can make your fat loss harder. I think the trap that most women fall into is either one of two things. Number one is consuming content around you're broken, you can't lose weight in menopause, this is just how you are, just accept it. Because once you believe that, then you're like, why the fuck would I track my calories? Why would I go get my extra steps? Why would I go work out? I might as well just drink a bunch of fucking wine and eat a bunch of sweets and not get sleep. Like, I can't help it anyway. So what, what's the big deal? What's Why would I even try? And that's the issue with that style of content that assholes on the internet use to prey on people who are emotionally vulnerable. Like, you can still make progress. By the way, I don't know anybody on planet Earth who has more client testimonial podcasts than ours. Go listen to the podcasts that we've done with our clients who talk about going through menopause and seeing progress. You want to break a fucking belief really quickly? Go there. Just type in Eric Roberts Fitness Podcast menopause. Every single podcast that we've done will come up with our clients who have lost weight in menopause, perimenopause, postmenopause. So it's possible, and you need to understand that it's possible so that you can actually do the shit that's necessary to see progress. Because the reality is it is going to be harder for you, and you are going to have to push harder. It's just the truth. You're going to have to be more mindful of your calories, drink less alcohol, try to get more sleep. Like, it's It's harder, but it's possible. And I think so the second part that women, the trap that women fall into is you think it's about doing more, more workouts, less food, more intensity, more high results, more, more, more high intensity cardio. You think it's going to lead to more results. It doesn't. It leads to more stress, more cortisol, less recovery, worse sleep, more cravings. And it's this vicious cycle of You think you get to do more, so you start doing more and it gets worse. But then you're like, well, shit, this isn't like— I obviously need to work harder. Because I'll be honest with you, especially women, most women work incredibly fucking hard. It's actually scary. Like, you guys will run yourself into the fucking ground. It's like, I need to work harder. I'm like, it's actually not fucking correct. So, but because it's not getting better, they're like, do more, do more, do more. Another spin class, another high-intensity cardio class. Let me throw in running. Take my calories. Let me try to take my calories lower. Like, that's not the answer. You need smart programming. For example, the amount of clients that we have coached through, you know, perimenopause, menopause, where they come to us working out 5, 6 days a week and we take them down to 3 days a week and they automatically feel better. They have less belly fat, they have less bloating, they have better sleep, better recovery, more energy. We take a recovery-focused approach with nutrition, for example. It's like, But as opposed to trying to run yourself into the ground, you know, eating 1,200, 1,300 calories— I hear this all the time, I eat 1,300 calories and I can't lose weight. You eat 1,300 calories a couple of days of the week. By Thursday or Friday, you go off track. You go out to eat, you drink, you do all these things, and you're not eating 1,300 calories per day. So what we'll do is like, hey, fuck trying to eat 1,300, just eat 1,600 throughout the entire week. You'll recover better, you'll have more energy, you won't feel the need to binge and go off track. So we focus on these things, we focus on dialing in your sleep. It's so important to have a proper, smart, scientific-based program behind your efforts. Because if you don't, you're gonna just run yourself into the ground. And you're gonna just be in this vicious cycle of not seeing any progress, getting upset over it, getting discouraged over it. And then you just kind of throw your hands up and say, well, I guess this is how I'm supposed to be. It's not how you're supposed to be. It's not how you have to be. So all of that. And then, you know, kind of the last caveat I would kind of throw in there, I mean, not a caveat, but just, you know, you know, look into potentially HRT and things of that nature. Again, people have their own opinions on this. Talk with your doctor, see what's right, see what's not right. I just know we have coached women who have taken HRT, have not taken HRT, and some people say it really does change their life. And so it could be potentially looking into taking some HRT. I think one of our clients, Maureen. She was on the podcast. She talked about going through perimenopause. Fucking go listen to it. But she talked about how HRT was right for her, and it really did help her, and it made her, you know, have more energy, and it helped her sleep better. So yeah, I mean, but this is where again, man, like coaching, like, you know, what the fuck? I just wish that like sometimes you guys— yeah, that's what I'm saying. You're listening to the right coach. That's what I'm saying. Like, holy shit, if you guys only knew how much time, energy, effort, passion I put into all of this fucking shit. Like, if there's one podcast that pushes you to sign up for fucking coaching, make it this one. Like, what the fuck, man? We work so hard. We're gonna go to bat for you every single fucking day. We want to help you make more progress than you do at times for your own self. Fuck, we want to help you.

Fuck. Someone said last week they want me as a coach. So Eric, I think you need to hire me as a coach now.

I know. Shout out Sophie.

Um, no, like the first thing I thought was what you said, like self-fulfilling prophecy. Like, and I know that that's just like a thing. Like the more you think about it, the more your brain is gonna think about it and like the more it's gonna manifest.

Yeah.

What you said, it's just gonna be harder. It's the same way that I'm 4'11. It's harder for me. Like my calorie deficits fucking suck and like it is what it is. Like I can't imagine like when I'm like freaking 70, like what's gonna happen then, Eric?

You're not gonna need to watch Netflix so much. You're gonna be in shape. You're gonna be hot. You're gonna be high muscle mass. You're gonna be high lean mass. Let's go. You're gonna be getting them steps.

There really isn't much to say here other than like, go listen to the podcast and like, look at all the testimonials. That's really it. If you gotta see it to believe it, then there you go.

And like I said, it's harder. I don't like— there's no way around that. It's gonna be more challenging. It's gonna be more difficult. difficult for you. And like, yes, like you got the short end of the stick for that. Okay, like, I don't know what to tell you. But you know, there are— it, you know, I didn't fucking come from money to build this fucking business. You know, it's funny. One of my friends right across the street, they're both very, very, very successful entrepreneurs, made a fuck ton of money, great, great, great, whatever. And they asked me, they were like, why have you never like taken investments from people? And I'm like, what are you fucking talking about? I'm like, I don't even know what that means. They're like, why did you never have somebody give you money to like grow your business faster? And I'm like, I don't even know. Like, I have— all I know is how to work hard. Like, nobody gave me fucking anything. Nobody handed me shit. Nobody paid for a fucking thing of mine. So when I say this, it's like we all have challenging things that we have to work through. And so whether it's menopause, whether it's like starting from zero and building a business from nothing, whether it's, you know, you're going through school right now and it's like maybe you have ADHD ADHD and it's not the best for you. Like, we all have shit. What are we gonna do? We're gonna sit around and be like, ah, well, I have it harder than this person because of this, or this person has it harder because of me. Nobody cares. I do care. I want you to win. I love you. But like, nobody cares about how hard you have it. We care about how do you overcome that. And this is a rule we have for a lot of our clients. We will let our clients vent. We'll let them quote unquote bitch. Like, we— like, whatever. Like, get those feelings out. And we want to be there But when you finish that session, you have to end with, and here's what I'm going to do to overcome it. Here's what I'm going to do to keep moving forward. Here's what I'm going to do to make it better. You can have all the emotions, but you have to end with, here's what I'm going to do to improve it.

Yep. Agreed. I love that you brought up like last point of ADHD, dude. When I started with you, I feel like that's how I like was so on point because I like was hyperfixated. Right? That's like a talent from ADHD. And now that I'm not hyperfixated, it's so fucking hard. So hard. But it is what it is. Like, it's just so much harder to do everything now that's like fitness related. It is what it is. So like, whatever. Yeah.

But also it's, it's harder to be that hyperfixated, but you don't need to be that hyperfixated anymore. You don't need to be.

True. I don't.

Yeah. Fact. So that's the point. So like, you're good.

Yeah. Okay. Last question. From Dr. Personatally, I think. What is something you are really excited about recently? I'm so excited for this. Go ahead.

Really? So, yeah. So, no promos on the podcast, but I will say this. Um, I'll say what it is, but I don't— I have not tried it yet, so I can't say if it's good or not.

I'll take the money. Like, just take it.

I'll take it.

No.

We need to pay Sophie more. So I bought today, this morning, I bought an Eight Sleep. So if you don't know what that is, you can look it up. It's basically, it's not a bed. It's a, it's like a cooling heating mattress cover for your bed. So essentially you put it— Is that a new bed? No, you put it over your bed, your current bed, you put it over your current bed. And essentially what it's supposed to do is it's supposed to regulate your temperature based on what you want and based on what's going to get you the highest quality sleep. And so a little bit of backstory. James Smith, one of my friends in Australia, James Smith, he bought one of these like 2 years ago. And he did like a YouTube video on it. And he was like, this thing is like fucking changed my sleep game forever. He's like, it feels so much better, so much better energy, so much better sleep quality. And so, I messaged him yesterday and I was like, hey, bro, is the Eight Sleep still a thing, still good? And he was like, he said, brother, next line, if I had to choose between having the ability to call 911 or keep my Eight Sleep, I would keep my Eight Sleep. I was like, damn.

Oh my God.

That's a pretty strong statement, brother. He was like, bro, it's life-changing. And I was like, all right, fuck it. I'll try it. Because again, I'm, I'm somebody who I really try to optimize my sleep as best I can. Like, I keep my room cold, I have the blackout curtains, I have sleep masks, you know, I try to do all these things. I go to sleep at a very decent time, like legit 8:30, 9 o'clock, 9:30 at the latest I go to sleep, you know, and I'll let myself sleep until really whenever I wake up, which is somewhere around 5 or 6 usually. But I find, even though I sleep a long time, I don't necessarily get a lot of restful sleep. I don't get a lot of like REM sleep, like deep sleep. I don't, I don't feel refreshed. Like even sleeping, if I slept 9 hours a night, I'd wake up and still be like, oh my God, I'm fucking tired. So I'm wondering, and I do sometimes wake up throughout the night. Like a couple nights ago, I was fucking sweating my ass off and I was like, my, my house is 64 degrees. I'm like, why am I like, why am I so fucking hot right now? So I'm really wondering if this is going to help me improve my sleep quality, because I'll tell you, like, because this is how crazy it is. I distinctly remember the nights of sleep that I got that were like so high quality because my, like, the next day my creative output was through the fucking roof. My like energy was crazy and I'm a pretty high energy guy as it is, but it was even crazier. Like I was super focused. super productive. And so I'm like, could I have that every day? Like, is that a possibility? Because if so, that would be fucking great. And that's, you know, that's kind of what I'm hoping for. So we'll see. Again, it's like you have to— so you get like this pod, you put it next to your bed. And you gotta like fill it with water every night to like do the whole like cooling cycle or whatnot. I don't really know. I just bought it. And I'm gonna obviously learn about it when I get it. I'm gonna do a review though on my YouTube. I'm gonna do a whole review. I'm gonna do like a full set 7 nights of sleep. So I'll do, like, night 1, night 2, see how it goes. It tracks, like, your sleep score. I think, obviously, people track their sleep score with, like, Whoop or Fitbit or whatever it is. And so I'm excited to kinda see how that goes, see how much, you know, deep sleep, REM sleep, see the change. So, yeah, I really am excited about that. Like, that's how you know I'm an old motherfucker. I get excited about, like, my 8th sleep aid.

I would get excited about that.

I know.

How much was it?

I mean, it was pretty— it was pretty— all in, it was like $3,800.

Oh my God. Well, the fact that it's like not even a bed, I was like, I thought it was like the mattress. No, actually, I think you're gonna like it. You know who talks about it a lot?

Huberman.

Huberman.

Yeah, he's, he's the owner of it.

Yeah, he is. He's the owner.

He's like a— he's one of—

he promotes it.

No, no, he's one of the investors in it.

Oh well, I trust in Huberman, so I'm sure like it's great. So I don't think it's just about the money. No, no, no, he—it's not just the money.

Like, I'm sure it's gonna be great. He also—he also promotes athletic greens, so I don't need that.

Yeah, so right. He does promote that. Damn. Okay.

No, but I mean, Sophie, I—I know—I know everything. Okay. Yeah, but no, I'm—I'm excited about it. So, like I said, I'm gonna do a whole—like when it gets here from like day one, I'm gonna do a full seven days of sleep. And honestly, I'm not bullshitting, I have never returned anything in my life. I'm not— by the way, I'm not that kind of person. Like, if I don't like something, I'll just eat the fucking money. You wanna hear a story? This was in 2019. There's a gym near me called The Shop. It's where Coach Mary goes. I went there one day because I wanted to— it was new, I wanted to try it out. And I was like, I just like walked in and, and, uh, it was like a very like it's kind of like a very chill— it's not like a big box gym. It's kind of like a, you know, hey, like whatever, people come work out. So I went in there and I was like, hey, like, you know, uh, can I work out? And they're like, yeah, it's like, you know, $60 day pass or whatever, which is crazy honestly. But, um, I was like, all right, cool, like my wallet is actually in the car, like can I just give it to you afterwards? And they're like, yeah, that's fucking fine, who cares? And me, like I was, I was gonna do it, I'm fine, right? So, um, I worked out and like I left because there was no— I, I couldn't find a motherfucker anywhere. Like there was no employee staff anywhere. And like where the How do I pay? And I'm like, fuck this. Like, I'm just gonna— I'm just gonna leave. Like, I can't— I gotta go. I gotta go back to work. So I leave, and then like I get back in my car and I see the guy run out, and I'm like, I should just leave. But I'm like, no, I gotta go fucking pay for this. And so, uh, yeah. But like, that's the kind of person I am. Like, I'll just fucking eat it. Like, if I don't like it, I don't care. Like, I'm just gonna eat the money. I don't give a fuck. Like, I'm not gonna ask for my money back. It's just not what I do. This fucking thing though, If I don't fucking like this thing, I'm fucking sending this goddamn thing back and getting my money back, bro. That is like— that is no joke amount of money for me to not see a—

That is a lot of money.

If I don't see a visible fucking improvement in my sleep, bro, this is gonna be the first time.

Yeah, no, I, I was gonna say that's like— sounds so fitting with your personality that you wouldn't return things. Never.

I've— I literally have never done that, bro. Never. I really don't want to, so I'm hoping.

When does it come in? You know, when is it gonna deliver?

It ships. It ships in the next couple days, so I would imagine by like mid next week, probably have it.

I hope. Maybe. I'm excited for you. Okay, cool. I'll be asking. I'll be checking in next week. So I know. Yeah, I know.

Excited. I'm hoping. I'm hoping it's good.

It'd be sweet. Yeah, I love it. What are you excited about, dude? Um, I'm excited to move. Yeah, it took me some time because I'm like, I'm like grieving this apartment and this area as well. It's weird, but I'm also excited. August 26th. Yeah, so I'm excited for that. I think it's going to be a good change for me. Yeah. Yeah.

Cool. That's fun. Hiring movers. Being smart.

I did hire a mover. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, I know. Being smart. Cool. Well, listen, guys, that was the pod for today and or YouTube video for today. If we end up putting this on YouTube, who knows, we will see. But either way, we appreciate you. Again, if you are interested in coaching, please click the link below to apply for our one-on-one online coaching program. We would love to be able to help you out. This is what we dedicate our entire lives to. And yeah, we just take it very seriously. And I'm super confident that if you give us a shot, we'll be able to help you out. So thank you guys for listening as always, and we will chat next time.

Bye.