This YouTube interview (recorded Jan 5, 2021) features Josh Trent and guest Drew Manning discussing the primacy of self-love and mindset for sustainable physical transformation. They critique appearance-focused definitions of success (e.g., celebrity/Instagram ideals) and argue that operating from self-love — not scarcity or self-hate — leads people to adopt healthy behaviors for intrinsic reasons; when the process is loved, results follow. The conversation also references COVID as a catalyst for inward reflection and promotes Drew Manning’s Fit2Fat2Fit/back2fit program (fit2fat2fit.com) as a vehicle for the mindset shift.
Chapters
You don't, like, lose the weight and then become happy. Let's dig into this. You actually do the work for inner peace and happiness, including emotional intelligence, having healthy empathy for others. It's an inside job first. And then the weight gain comes. It's kind of like, how do I make money from a place of struggle instead of a place of openness? Right. Scarcity versus love. So can you unpack that a little bit more? For people that haven't heard this concept of, like, happiness and weight gain, happiness.
And weight loss, 100%. This is thethe biggest thing I'm trying to do, is shift people's perception of what success looks like in the health and fitness industry. Because we've been, you know, programmed to think, okay, success is this body of an Instagram model or this athlete or this celebrity of getting skinny, lean, 5% body fat. And we think, okay, once I get there, once I get the body, then all my problems will go away. Then I'll be happy, you know, and that's the way we look at it. So we're like, okay, I want these results. Therefore, I'm gonna put up with this process, which for a lot of people, they're like, oh, their perception of the process. Process is, oh, man, this sucks. Like, I have to. You have to be in a caloric deficit. I have to eat healthy food. I have to work out. Okay, I'll do that. But hopefully I'll get these, these results. And then once I do, then I then'll be happy. People will love me, people will respect me, I'll respect myself. And if you haven't seen the movie the Nutty professor, that's a great example of how temporarily you're like, oh, yeah, man, spandex all day. Do you remember that movie with Eddie Murphy?
Sure.
When he goes from morbidly obese to, like, skinny, like overnight with a pill. And it's, it's a, it's a temporary thing for sure. But if you're not fulfilled on the inside, first and foremost, I promise you, once you get the body, you're still going to be missing something. And just like people who chase after money, we know that's a myth. People who think, okay, If I have $5 million or $10 million, maybe one of these things, one of these outside things in this world will fix my brokenness, my quote unquote brokenness. And that's what I'm trying to do, is help shift people's perception to learn how to operate out of a place of self love instead of self hate. And once you operate out of a place of self love, then you're like, okay, I like the way I feel when I eat real food. Like, it makes me feel good. And I'm worth it now to treat my body kindly by giving it real food, by moving it in a way that feels good to me and my body. And I'm not doing it for the results anymore. The results kind of take a backseat for a second, and then from there, we learn to fall in love with the process. We do the process because we actually love ourselves and we deserve to be, to feel good, to feel healthy. And then what happens over time is once people flip that switch, then the results actually end up taking care of themselves over time because you start to live that lifestyle consistently because you're operating out of a place of self love, you fall in love with the process, and then, boom, the results automatically come. And so shifting people's perception is really hard to do. But that's what I'm trying to do on my fit to fat to 40 journey. And that's why I want people to join me come January to learn how to do that, so that this isn't just another diet that people go on. It's a huge mindset shift that needs to happen for people to shift their perception. And that's why there's going to be so much more focus on the mental, emotional side of fitness than just the physical side.
But what you're doing, man, that I love and appreciate so much. And this is why I'm stoked to have this be the very first show of 2020. If we are not clean and loving in our conduit where we live, you know, like our temple, like where we reside, if our house is dirty, internally, mentally, how are we supposed to even begin to fix the world's problems, to fix our societal problems? I mean, I'm getting chills just talking to you about it. Everyone's looking for world peace.
Everyone's looking.
Everybody's looking for an outside fix, for an inside problem. And Covid is here to make us look in the mirror even more at how we're treating each other and how we're treating ourselves. Did you even think that this would be something that would shift people into meeting the demands of COVID and meeting the demands of their lives? Like, this is a major deal that you're teaching people about their physical health because that's where the root of everything begins.
Yeah, no, that's a good question. And I had hope that it would become that for people, where people would See it as, okay, 2020 sucked, right? 2021. I'm gonna start off on the right foot. I'm gonna make some changes. I'm gonna do some good in my life. And what a better way, or there's not really a better way than to take care of your physical health. But. But you could go do any program out there, you could do any diet, take any supplement. That's not what's gonna fix it, right? You said outside, outside fix for an inside problem. So I'll give people the physical stuff, like the physical tools that we need to make those changes. But the biggest thing that has to happen is that mindset shift. And that's where people don't really understand or know how to do that because they look at physical transformation as just physical. And yes, if you break it down, yes, you eat less calories, you work out, that changes your body. But it's so much more of an emotional journey for people. And that's what derails them, is because when it gets too hard, when doing that process that we talked about, like we talked about gets too hard for them, then they're like, you know what? This isn't worth it. Or they find a way to escape and say, no, this is too hard for me. I'm not seeing the results I want, so I'm just gonna go back to my old ways. And that's the key to making a true lifestyle change, is helping people shift their perception, make that mindset shift so that they don't see this as a punishment. They don't see this as a chore that they have to do to get this result to be happy. Does that make sense?
Man, it's crystal clear. Because I think so many people, when they even look at the word diet, right? D I E is people feel like they're gonna die when they do a diet. And by the way, what we're talking about is fit2fat2fit.com back2fit so fit to fat2fit.com backto fit. That's the conversation we're having. So go there. If you're watching this on YouTube, if you. You've been lacking in your spiritual development, you've been knowing that for years, you're not loving your wife or your husband. You've been looking down at your belly and you've been seeing it screaming out to you for attention. If you don't take control of this now with all the onslaught of the additional stress that 2021 is going to bring, you are basically saying that you don't Care and apathy is one of the lowest human emotions. So everyone please take a deep breath. It's okay. I'm not saying that you need to shame yourself. What I'm saying is wake the fuck up here. And that's not coming from my ego. That's coming from my heart. Like, now is the time to take a breath, pull back from the veil and see things for how they really are. Because we have been lied to in the fitness industry. We have been lied to by our parents, and we love them because they did the best they could. We have been lied to by college. We have been lied to. Drew. So thank you for bringing in this narrative of truth. And how do you believe this will Guide us in 2021 with everything you're doing with this journey, this back to fit like you said, thank you for letting me speak.
No, and that's perfect because it ties in with my message of empathy. Mike. I'm on a mission to disrupt the fitness industry by leading with empathy first and a better understanding on the mental, emotional side so that people don't view physical transformation as this chore, this punishment that they have to go through because society accepts this belief or this myth that you have to look a certain way to be loved. My hope is that people will wake up. And I feel like we can do that by leading with empathy first, but empathy with boundaries, and some of those boundaries are going to be a kick in the butt every once in a while. And so I feel like there has to be that balance. It can't just be all one sided. It can't just be all mercy, no justice. There has to be a balance of both, in my opinion, to make that change. But it's gonna be, it's gonna happen with love. Like, we want people to take care of their physical health, not to look a certain way, not to get 5% body fat and to be skinny and lean. But for me, it helps people with their mental, emotional, spiritual well being. And for me, it's. It's about that, the feeling of being healthy. That's what I miss the most right now, Josh, is the feeling of being physically healthy. Because I know that carries over into my mental health, emotional health, and spiritual health as well. And if people could just experience that for even five minutes, you know, I think they would get a taste of it and be like, okay, that's what I'm missing. It's not about the body, it's about the feeling of being healthy. Like your, your mind is sharp and clear all day long. You have good digestion. You're able to play with your kids, your grandkids, you're able to go on a hike and see this beautiful world. You're able to travel without aches and pains. Like there are so many benefits to taking care of your physical health outside of the looks. And so that's what my hope is, is people will join me on the journey back to FIT to learn just how to do this and operate out of a place of self love versus self hate. Because we all know after 2020, this world needs more of that. If people love themselves and had empathy, we would not have the divisiveness that we have today. It.
