Andre โDr. Dreโ Obradovic is a one-of-kind Australian national treasure and you will love his spicy, sporty positive disposition and no-nonsense approach to goal-setting, lifestyle optimization, and holding yourself accountable for both your attitude and behavior.
In this lively show, we cover the benefits of micro-workouts and how to protect against overtraining, and how to stay focused and motivated when your routine is disrupted by quarantine. Andre admits that laziness got in the way of his twice-daily yoga routine, and shares how he quickly made it a habit again within just three days. He also gives some seriously great tips for productivity and explains why he doesnโt even turn his iPhone on until after heโs done training and/or has finished at least a โbig chunkโ of work.
Then we delve into the important topic of how to stave off the accumulation of the unhealthy visceral fat (belly fat) that has inflammatory properties and creates a slippery slope whereby the accumulation of a little belly fat begets the accumulation of more fat. We discuss the ideal sources of motivation and accountability. For example LGN – is it silly, or a great motivator? Should we be more honest and direct with our buddies and training partners to keep each other accountable?
Andre is a recovering corporate executive who endured a mid-life crisis and an awakening that led him to become a life coach, endurance training coach, and accomplished amateur triathlete in the 50+ division of half-ironman racing. You will love his no nonsense, no excuses, highly quantified approach but one thatโs dispensed with kindness and sensitivity. Learn more about Andreโs coaching offerings and interesting fitness App at https://andreobradovic.com/
TIMESTAMPS:
One of the topics of this discussion is LGN (Look Good Naked)! [03:38]
Andre talks about how he converted his garage into a gym during the quarantine. [08:32]
Micro workouts are a real asset to have around the home. It comes without risk. [10:58]
It is important to make a real habit of sticking to an exercise routine. [14:04]
Keep the phone charging in your workout area, so when you go to get it, you will be prompted to do a mini-workout. [16:27]
Donโt get sore. Sprints should last no longer than 20 seconds. [19:50]
When preparing for a race, you donโt need to work at that race pace. [22:33]
People in the fifty plus age group need to talk about visceral fat (belly fat). It is inflammatory.ย [26:20]
In the Framingham Study, they discovered that obesity is contagious. [30:35]
What holds guys back from getting in better shape? [33:19]
How important is it to weigh every day?ย [40:15]
It is great to talk straight. Health is a choice. [45:08]
Exercising is great but it is the diet that needs your attention. [50:38]
Checking knowledge, not bullshit, and acknowledging your situation is the goal. [52:27]
Calories in and Calories outโฆโฆ.Itโs a myth. [55:05]
It takes four to five weeks to see results. [58:54]
What do you do if you have tried everything we have suggested here and see no results? [01:01:19]
Is wanting to look good naked a good motivator? [01:06:09
LINKS:
- Bradโs Shopping Page
- Andre Obradovic
- Keto Cooking for Cool Dudes
- Bradโs morning routine
- Framingham Study
- The Fatty Popcorn Boy Saga
LISTEN:
Get Over Yourself Podcast
Brad (00:03:38):
I am so pleased to introduce My Main Man from down under his name is Andre. Obradovic. He is a life coach and a multi-sport triathlon training coach, as well as an accomplished amateur triathlete. He competes in the half Ironman, 70.3 division in the 50 plus kicking some butt and living this wonderful, healthy, balanced life. And I think you’re going to love his message because he has a really nice blend of focus and precision and accountability, but also this wonderful Ausie sense of humor.
Brad (00:04:13):
And he was a featured a contributor to our book, Keto Cooking for Cool Dudes because he made up the term of the Muppet. What’s a Muppet? Let me read from you. Page two of Keto Cooking for Cool Dudes. Muppet is a derogatory term appropriated by Australian cool dude, life coach, and elite amateur triathlete, Andre Obradovic. It describes someone who just goes along with the pack in life content to be mediocre or even a jerk at times, instead of striving for peak performance. There’s parking lot Muppets who block traffic waiting for a close spot instead of just effing walking from a distance spot. There’s elevator Muppets who should be sprinting up the stairs instead. There’s husband Muppets who hear their wives talking, but don’t really listen. There’s boyfriend Muppets. “Oops. I spaced on your birthday. Sorry, babe”. There’s workplace Muppets who say, try, sorry. And hindsight all the time.
Brad (00:05:12):
In hindsight, I should have finished the proposal on time, et cetera, et cetera. So the Muppet has entered into the lexicon, thanks to this guy, Andre. And in this show, we have some nice topics to hit, uh, starting with micro workouts and my tremendous fascination for these short duration workouts, where you can kind of perform under the radar without eliciting that stress response and talking about how timely it is when a lot of us are forced to be working out at the home gym. So we can minimize training stress, get a lot of work done, have a great cumulative fitness benefit from the micro workouts. And then we get into the hot topic of the middle aged male Muppet belly fat issue, and how to stave off the gradual steady decline in fitness, in health accelerated aging with this slippery slope effect that occurs when you add a little bit of belly fat because of its inflammatory nature, it begets the accumulation of more belly fat.
Brad (00:06:16):
An important topic to listen to how to get this thing handled before it gets out of hand. Andre has an interesting background. He was a corporate executive of some repute down there in Australia. He was rising up the ladder, but he was overworked overstressed. And then he had sort of an awakening, a midlife crisis, and a calling that led him to his current career of being a coach. And you’re going to love his no nonsense, no excuses approach, no bullshit. He’s been a huge help to me to make me more accountable, to stay focused on my most prominent goals. Let’s say of finishing a book on deadline and not getting distracted and pulled away. So enjoy the show and we will get your belly fat issue handled. If you’re concerned about that with some proper, proper motivation and accountability, we’re going to talk about the motivator of LGN yeah. It stands for looking good naked. Is that silly or is it actually a great motivator?
Brad (00:07:17):
Now let’s get to the bottom of this and set things up that are going to work for you. And at the end of the show, as surprise, if you’re watching on YouTube, we have the YouTube challenge to see if these two talkers are walking their talk and trying to keep that belly fat off. So fun times, if you want to go look at the video of the show, Andre, Obradovic. Enjoy.
Brad (00:07:45):
Good day listeners. We are connected across the globe to my main man down under dr. Dr. Andre. Obradovic. Thank you for joining us again. You’re a popular guest on the show. We have some memorable quips and quotes. Like don’t be a fricking Muppet and you’re always a pleasure to catch up to. We said, it’s, you know, it’s been awhile. We caught up a little bit before we hit record, but then I said, this guy is so full of juice. We’re just going right into it. So welcome back to the show, Andre.
Andre (00:08:20):
Thanks, Brad. Great to see you. And, uh, really good to be on the, on the call again today and we’re doing it on video. So he might have some surprises for people, uh, towards, uh, different parts of the show, maybe.
Brad (00:08:32):
So you were pretty excited talking about how you have managed with the, uh, the quarantine and the, uh, um, the shutdown orders. And so what happened in your garage, in the meanwhile?
Andre (00:08:45):
Well, um, because all the gyms were closed and as you know, having a hex bar in the backyard like you do as well, which you talk about often was important to me. Before the gym’s closed, (I knew they were going to close). Uh, I rang this big commercial supply place and you know, they supply to gyms and I went and I bought a commercial treadmill. I bought a hex bar. I bought a normal straight Olympic bar. I bought a Smith Rack Machine, and a squat thing and, and Smith’s machine and all this stuff for the garage, rubber matting, we pushed the cars out of the garage cause it would only have one car. But so the car is out of the garage and the garage is now a gym and it’s amazing. So I never have to go to a flipping gym again. And it’s been, it’s been like really calming and great because you know, when you go to the gym, you’ve got to drive there, you’ve got to park, you know, you’ve got to get in there, you’ve got to Dick around with muscle heads, hogging the machines, people being on wasteful on the machine, thinking they’re exercising, doing Instagram photos of themselves.
Andre (00:09:55):
And now I can simply walk down to the gym and my jocks, cause I’ve got all my training gear down there. My runners, my socks, my shoes, and my visors. And it’s sorta like, I leave the house with intention to do my workout in the gym.,Do my workout. And it saves me probably half an hour and I’ve just got a whiteboard and I write the exercises I’m going to do based on my intuitive connection with how my training’s going and how I’m feeling. And it’s just fantastic. And, and one of the other good things is we’ve got a really steep driveway, so I can do walking lunges with big kettlebells up the driveway. It’s just, yeah, it’s really good. So for me, the covert thing has been more about being grateful for what I have and, and finding a way to do things in a different way and not getting all shitty that I can’t go to the gym. Sure. I can’t swim. I’ve been going to the beach to swim, but it’s freezing once in a while, but I’ve just been doing other things instead.
Brad (00:10:58):
Oh, that’s wonderful. And another attribute that I’ve discovered about having a home base set up is this concept that’s really become a fascination of mine. Uh, the micro workouts and the, uh, putting in, uh, explosive, you know, bouts of physical effort, uh, sort of in a, under the radar manner as my friend Dude Spelling says. And what I mean is that you do, let’s say the single set of hex bar deadlifts when I’m throwing the garbage out that I reference often. And one set of six reps is, you know, neither here nor there, but if this becomes part of my lifestyle and I have the mini bands and the heavy straps in my living room, now I have the cords, the stretch cords hanging from the ceiling. Uh, people have seen my, my, my getup on Instagram fooling around with all this stuff. But if it’s sitting there in my eyesight particularly all day long, and I know it’s important to take breaks from typing away at the computer or doing those peak cognitive tasks to keep my cognitive energy high.
Brad (00:12:03):
And it’s just been so wonderful because it’s been wonderful because the cumulative effect is fantastic and it comes without the risk of breakdown, burnout, illness, and injury. That happens when you get too pumped up. When you’re heading over to the CrossFit box again for the fourth workout of the week and all the energy’s there. And everyone’s clapping for you as you exceed your previous personal best and not to discount that stuff. I mean, it’s all good to have the group energy and going out on the, uh, on the master swim workout and having the coach put you in another lane over. So you’re going faster than ever, but it’s really easy to tip over the edge, especially for dudes at our age, when you’re thrust into these high energy long duration workouts that are typical in group exercise and in a team sports and things like that.
Andre (00:12:59):
I think I’m actually going to, I’ve just highlighted that in my notebook, cause I’m actually going to do that as well. Now I think I’m going to take your lead and actually stopped doing that. Cause there’s no excuse Because it’s like two minutes to the garage. I’ve got all my gear there. I’m going to start doing that next week during the day, I’m going to go down there three or four times and just do it.
Brad (00:13:23):
And listeners, viewers that you are talking to a straight up dude here, he really means it. And you have had a great impact on my life because I was whining and complaining, uh, two years ago probably now that I get so distracted when I’m trying to write my book and it’s really hard cause there’s email and social media and you encouraged me to just effing do it first thing in the morning and shut out all distractions. And then my, uh, my admonition after that was to send you an email that said on the subject line, no need to type anything in, in the content. Just the subject line that said, I effing did it, mate. And it’s as simple as that. So good. A good comeback. But yeah, I’m such a, I’m such a big fan.
New Speaker (00:14:04):
Cause you know, I have this morning routine that used to be, I thought it was a five minute stretching, core exercise ritual, and then I filmed it for YouTube and it turned out it was 12 minutes. So what I thought was five was 12 because I just love to wake up and hit the deck right away before I do anything else before I reach for my phone. And that 12 minute routine that you can see on YouTube is now up to about 30 or 40 minutes of sequential movements and exercises that I’m doing every single day without fail. It’s pretty difficult. It’s not easy, but it’s not wiping me out and it’s not compromising my plans for an official workout. Sometimes I’ll do the sequence and then I’ll go out and do a really tough high jump workout. But the fact that I’ve established this baseline without even thinking about It, it’s, it’s pure Andre because, uh, you know, to, to form the habit and have that repetition and endurance applied so that I don’t even think anything about it. I think I was going off on this because it’s the same thing. When you have your steep driveway and you tell yourself I’m going to sprint up there at least one, one time per day, maybe two and, boy, what does it take 20 seconds to get up your driveway or something that’s insignificant, but after 365 days, it’s going to be huge.
Andre (00:15:21):
Yeah, absolutely. You know, one of the, I love some of that. One of the other things I’ve done is I was getting lazy, lazy about doing yoga in the morning and at night or yoga practice. So I, this week I’ve done it three days in a row morning and night, and now it’s already baked in as a habit. What I’ve done was I took the yoga mat down to the bedroom when I went to bed and I would go to like on boring. I go to bed at nine 15 at night cause to me slips and I don’t want to watch bullshit on TV. So I do that. And then when I wake up, I take them out to the lounge room in the morning and I do the yoga in the lounge and it’s only like 10 or 15 minutes. The other thing I’ve done, which might help some people is I’ve got an old iPhone that has no SIM card in it. So if I’m training at 8:00 AM or 7:00 AM, I don’t even touch my normal phone that has a SIM card until I’ve done my training. And when I’m doing my training, I don’t have my phone there cause I don’t want to be distracted or interrupted.
Andre (00:16:27):
I was finding during the recoveries of a set, I’d be looking at texts, looking at emails and the garment. I’d go click over to do the next set. And I’d, wouldn’t be on the target because you know, I like to hit some targets. So I said, screw it. My daughter had an old iPhone and now I leave my phone with a SIM card in the garage where the gym is charging overnight. So I don’t even have it in their house. I have the iPhone, I walked down to the garage after I’d done my yoga. I don’t touch my phone. I get the iPhone out, which is connected to my addicts for training. And I have a rule. I don’t turn my connected mobile phone on until after I’ve done my training. Or if it’s a morning where I’m doing something like this, I won’t turn my phone on till after I’ve done a big chunk of work. Cause I train every morning at seven o’clock.
Brad (00:17:16):
Oh, so the phone without the SIM card is for referencing your workouts and data that you need. I see. Yeah.
Andre (00:17:24):
So it has no apps on it. It just has my training app on it. It’s not connected. Like I don’t have Facebook anymore. I’ve deactivated Facebook. I haven’t been on Instagram for four months, so it has no social media on it. It just has my training app on it and Garmin. And that’s it.
Brad (00:17:42):
Yeah. What do you think about all that, man? I’m trying to weigh the pros and cons myself of maintaining A social media presence. We’re pretty much obligated to do it as content creators and as an author and as a podcast host. Uh, and I feel like, um, you know, I’m trying really hard to put something up a value, uh, but the, you know, the collective energy of seeing all this content up every single day, even if it’s awesome, uh, it’s so easy to get distracted and maybe have a, a net negative, but I, I don’t want to hear, um, you know, the, these, these irresponsible quips that this is the, the terrible thing and it’s the doomsday of society. I’m not going to buy into that. I enjoy connecting with my family. We have weekly zoom meetings where we’re seeing each other’s pictures. Uh, so I guess it’s all about responsible use and that’s, uh, you know, your idea of plugging the phone in, in your garage, first of all, it’s away from you at bedtime. Second of all, you’ve got to go show up in the garage to grab your phone. Guess what’s their freaking deadline. You should plug the phone in underneath the hex bar. Yeah,
Andre (00:18:49):
Yeah, yeah. So for me it was more about, I was finding personally I was being very distracted and I wasn’t being productive enough doing my work. And it did start to affect me in the head a bit anxiety a little bit. Um, and, and the other thing is I wasn’t getting any clients or any business by being on Facebook. All of my clients come through word of mouth pretty much. And through your podcast and reference re you know, things like that. Um, so I wanted to try it and it’s really helped me. So I’m not saying it’s bad, but for me personally, I was finding it too overwhelming and distracting. So I just use LinkedIn. I use LinkedIn and Twitter because there’s less back and forward and less for me, anxiety around those platforms, then Facebook or Instagram. So that’s just my personal take on it being open and transparent.
Brad (00:19:50):
Love it, man. Love it. Uh, so I mentioned the micro workouts. That’s been a big fascination of mine lately, and I’m also hearing numerous experts, kind of this collective energy happening, where there’s a suggestion to, uh, pursue a kinder, gentler approach to fitness. Um, I just heard this guy, uh, Firas Zahabi on Joe Rogan’s podcast. He’s a famed MMA trainer from Toronto and he said, I don’t want my athletes ever getting sore in training. And I said, WTF, I get sore and free time. And I’m, you know, raising my hand right now because I get so excited when I’m doing, uh, you know, a big workout, a peak performance session where I’m high jumping or I’m timing my speed golf or whatever it is, and I’m sore frequently. Uh, and it just feels like it always has been that way back when I was training for triathlon and everything else.
Speaker 1 (00:20:47):
Um, Dr. Craig marker says the same. He says, uh, you know, your, your sprints should last no more than 20 seconds. And they should have really long recovery intervals in between them. And I’m like, ah, you know, I don’t, I don’t need that recovery time cause I have that endurance base and I can sprint again after, you know, a short rest. Uh, but the cumulative effect of having these workouts that are slightly too stressful, as evidenced by getting sore is that you sort of lose some consistency. You have an extended recovery time. And at the end of the year, or at the end of three years, you’re possibly behind that person who can always regulate their competitive intensity a little bit to walk away from the track before they’re smashed, which you know, we all know that, that wonderful feeling of having an awesome workout, you rode with the pack for four hours and they whipped you, but you stayed with them on the final climb. Uh, but the, the recovery time and the consequences at a cellular level are now being second guessed by the great leaders. Phil Maffetone says the same thing he says, don’t get sore. And I’m like, gosh, darn.
Andre (00:21:50):
Yeah, it’s the same when you, I think, what do you think about this? You know, there’s a traditional periodization approach where people build, build, build for three weeks and then I have week four is recovery week. What I’ve, I don’t use that approach. I insert recovery in the weeks and just have like three key focus days say, Oh, is that a Joe Rogan calling? He wants to study a podcast to you, uh, to, uh, to Spotify to get ready for Dr. Jay’s podcast. What do you think about, cause I find what people happens is they train and train and train for three weeks. So by the time they get to week three, they’re already in that exhausted state and they can’t hit the targets.
Andre (00:22:33):
And then they have a whole week where they’re totally shed at cortisol through the roof. They’re sore. So they waste a week. So one week out of four, they’re wasting. Whereas what I like to do is say to people, you know, I’ve got like, I have three key days of by training Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday, the other days are sort of like easier days and they’re more optional and they’re, they include recovery processes and risks. And that works really well for me. What do you think about that process?
Brad (00:22:59):
Oh my goodness. I, you know, after so many decades of being around the endurance scene and going through the motions myself and learning from the greatest athletes of all time, like Mark Allen and Paula Newby Frazier, um, I started to see a tremendous influence of intuition in the training patterns of the greatest athletes out there. And they could not be, uh, sort of put into a certain box where they could state that they did a three week on one week off pattern. That’s how they won the Ironman. And so I think it’s really important to get a good coach, uh, work through things, set up a plan, have a strategy for the season and then, uh, be okay with it being subject to change at a moment’s notice. And I write about this in Primal Endurance and some other books where I finally had to develop this, um, this, this strength of mind and discipline to head, head off on a plan, a hundred mile bike ride. And if I’d get to mile 18, which was the Phillips station before we were going off into the mountains and there was no more water. And I had assessed the condition of my legs at that point. And over time, it turned out that somewhere around 33% of the time, I bailed on this super duper important workout. I’d invite other books to the workout they’d drop out.
Brad (00:24:24):
And I would literally hand them map. This is the old days before we, I remember you saying this and say, you know what, man, I’m out, I’m going home. I’m going to, I’m going to take a nap. And, uh, by the time, you know, my nap and my lunch is over and my, my ride home for another hour and some, uh, there, they are coming back from the hundred, but when I was able to pull the plug on those times, when it just wasn’t quite right, I was able to achieve higher highs on those days when I felt fantastic. And I think especially in an extreme sport, like a long distance event, you have to approximate the challenge of the race in the training, uh, in the training environment. And if you’d never do, because you’re always a little bit stiff in the lower back and your shoulders, always a little bit achy because you can’t miss a day of swimming or you can’t miss a week, then you’re never going to have a chance to have those breakthrough workouts that give you the confidence as well as the physical preparation for race day.
Brad (00:25:20):
So, yeah, I’m big on that. Um, sort of a variation and you know, they call it polarized training now where yeah, you shouldn’t be going in that medium speed. I had, um, the Ironman Jordan Rapp on, I think he’s won some global Ironmans and had a good career on the circuit. And he said that, um, as an Ironman triathlete, he’d never trained at ironman pace or man race pace. He trained at half ironman race, pace and hammer a 56 mile ride in preparation for that one 12 and then running 26 off the bike, or he’ll go do a one 12, but it’s much slower than race pace because that stress of doing what you do on race day. You don’t have to keep doing that every week in training. That’s that’s um, I wanted to clarify my comment that you approximate the challenge of race day once in a while, and perhaps in different ways where you’re coming at it from different directions. Hmm.
Andre (00:26:14):
Yeah. Well, 80% of my training’s lower than 130 beats a minute and it’s as comfortable as hell.
Brad (00:26:20):
It’s cause he’s an old guy now, listeners, if you’re in that 50 plus category, you don’t get too many beats and you might not be going too fast until, until it’s time to turn on the jets on race day and you have that reserved cause you took care of your body,
Andre (00:26:34):
But that’s okay because if you’re all in your lane, which is what we should talk about, those beliefs about old men and belly fat, not being and thinking They have to smash themselves at the gym and they can go and eat shit instead of actually eating real food and looking in the mirror at themselves. We should talk about that a bit. What do you think?
Brad (00:26:53):
I think this is the essence of the podcast. I think it’s the most important item on the agenda, especially for people of our age. And if we sit back and observe what’s happening in society, uh, all these great attributes that we leveraged when we were 18, 28 and 37, uh, now they’re starting to slip away. And so what we see is this steady and reliable accumulation of abdominal fat, the most, the most dangerous kind of fat, they call it visceral fat. And there’s a huge distinction between extra body fat with your, your little chunky in the butt or wherever versus the collection of this special kind of fat around the abdominal organs.
Brad (00:27:34):
Uh, and the visceral fat is inflammatory by nature. So it’s actually been described as its own independent organ because it releases these chemicals called inflammatory cytokines and they go into your bloodstream and put you in this inflamed state. And it also hampers regular fat metabolism. Your ability to burn body fat is hampered when you have this spare tire thing. And so what this is is a slippery slope, because if you get a little bit of inflammatory visceral fat, you are predisposed to adding more and more of this inflammatory visceral fat because you’re in the inflamed, poor fat burning state. And that’s why when you’re 41, you take your picture for the, the high school reunion. Then you’re 51. Then you’re 61. You see this accumulation, despite as you say, devoted efforts to remain fit and watch what we’re eating and all that kind of thing. So this is the thing that if men can tackle this challenge and try to reclaim that six pack or that semblance of six pack, uh, we can kind of reverse the aging process and be the best we can be for for many years.
Andre (00:28:46):
But I think part of the problem is, and we’ve talked about this on many of our podcasts is we are taught, you know, we live in a society where we are taught and we see that everyone around us, every, all the blokes around us, as we get old, put on a bit of a tummy and we normalize it, we have this belief that it’s normal. You know, we normalize, Oh, it’s okay. I’m getting older. I look like everyone else. I’m putting on a bit of chump. Oh, and it’s harder for me to go running. We normalize it and we just accept it, which is total BS. And that, that’s what happened to me. You know, as you know, eight years ago I was 80 kilos. I was in an office. Everyone was a bit Tubby. I didn’t think I was fat.
Brad (00:29:30):
No, you are the fit guy in the office.
Andre (00:29:32):
I was doing marathons and yeah, that’s right. And, and there were all these lean guys who I thought looked sick, you know, like you think, Oh shit, they’ve got cancer or something, you know, like, but now I might know them. Right. But it was the thing that changed it for me. And this is what we really need to get guys to do is get your gear off and look in the mirror, but actually take your glasses off. In fact, hang on. I’ve got something. Hang on. Okay. Those watching on the video Andre’s left his seat, uh, visible in the background is a huge stack of Ironman metals. You’ve got to take these glasses off now. They’re the Muppets. They’re the Muppet glasses. Oh, I’m looking in the mirror. Oh, I look normal. Like all my friends. It’s okay. It’s normal. Take the flipping glasses off and really look in the mirror and accept what you see and then realize that it’s not healthy and, and ask yourself questions. You know, what example are you setting to your kids?
Brad (00:30:35):
Well, that environmental aspect is huge that you mentioned, I’m thinking of the Framingham study, one of the longest and most respected studies of, uh, lifestyle affecting health. Uh, the identified this concept called clusters, and this is the social aspect of disease, risk and lifestyle patterns. And so they discovered that, uh, obesity is contagious because the clusters of social networks, uh, have obesity to the third degree. In other words, if, if you, uh, let’s say the subject is obese, uh, their friend and their friend’s friend are more likely to be obese than if you’re in a cluster, a social network of people who are healthy, active, and fit. Um, they also found in the Framingham studies is extracted from Framingham study data. That happiness is contagious to three degrees as well. So if you’re around positive high energy people, and you make a point to socialize with those people and kind of steer clear of negative energy in your life, you, by doing that yourself, you’re setting the example for your kids, your partner, and your friends.
Brad (00:31:47):
And it’s such interesting insight, especially as applied to your health and fitness practices. And when we get that a hall pass from our friends, from our buddies to sag back a little bit and just watch Aussie rules football on TV, instead of go out there and have a little scrimmage like you did back in the day, um, then it becomes the norm poof, and then it’s hard to extract, man. You don’t even notice listeners, didn’t see his goofy, uh, uh, slinky eyeglasses if you’re just listening on podcasts, but we used to call it a beer goggles right. In the, in the college scene, when you, you drink too much. And then, uh, the, the prospect in front of you, either male or female, it looks, you know, it looks like a 10, uh, because of the circumstances around.
Andre (00:32:31):
So, and you wake up in the morning and they are there, too and you chew your arm off.
Brad (00:32:39):
So I think your stunt with the glasses is to get real about this and perhaps even set up some high standards that might be going counter to the cultural norms where we accept, you know, the, the average as, um, as outstanding. Jay Leno said, you know, his new year’s resolution, um, was to get in better shape. And then he read the statistics that, uh, the average American, 70% of Americans are classified as overweight or obese. And he says, Oh, I’ve already met my new year’s resolution. Cause he wanted to be, you know, average.
Andre (00:33:19):
Well, what, so, so what do you think, what do you think are the things that hold guys back from? You’ve got my thoughts, but you’re, you’re the master, right? What, what are your thoughts about what holds guys back from putting the real glasses on and seeing what’s real?
Brad (00:33:41):
Whew, that’s a good question, man. Um, I’m thinking of this book, I just read from Mark Manson, you know, the mega bestselling off of The Subtle Art of Not giving a Fuck in his new book. Um, everything is Fucked, a book about hope. And he said that, um, you know, the research shows that we are in general, extremely unlikely to change our minds or change our beliefs. So this idea that you can launch a persuasive argument to your buddy and try to get them to change their mind about politics, about, uh, health practices, dietary dogma. If you’re talking to a whole foods, plant based person, and you’re advocating for the carnivore diet, you’re pretty much wasting your energy until the person is open and receptive and willing to re examine beliefs and change them. And so if we’re starting from that point and spending again, this is Manson referencing that we spend the rest of our lives seeking confirmation bias to validate our beliefs. So we’re, we’re locked in a tunnel. And I think that answers your question, that if you know, you’re, you’re sort of stuck on a self image that might be an artificial creation, but you want to think highly of yourself or back in the day you were an athlete. We know lots of people like that, that once an athlete, always an athlete in the mind, but not necessarily with the spare tire. These are places where you have to open up a can of worms and go, GEEZ man. Am I really being honest with myself? Or am I creating this false image to protect my ego on the same question?
Andre (00:35:22):
Well, um, I think something, well, I think there’s about four or five things. Firstly socially people might be comfortable with who they are and what they do and the friends they have. And they might be uncomfortable about making changes to some of their habits cause it may not make their friends happy. If you ate popcorn once in a while or drink alcohol on a Friday night after work and you stopped doing that because you know, you need to stop doing that because it’s a stupid thing to do if you’re overweight, especially. I’m not going to lose my friends. So I lost a lot of friends cause I stopped drinking alcohol. So that could be one thing. The other thing is, is it’s just a habit. You know, it’s a habit to have pizza on Friday night with the family. I’ve got a client here in Australia who I’ve been working with for weeks. He’s lost some good weight and he’s training, but he was having pizza on Friday night cause it was a habit. And I said, man, have a steak, Put it in your diary. Buy steak on the way home from the office because you always put a kilo on two pounds on over the weekend cause you have pizza and beer on Friday night, he’s done it for two weeks and he doesn’t have pizza anymore. He has steak cause he doesn’t, he’s continuing to lose weight. So habits, I think the other two things that time and people don’t make it a priority. So, you know, I’ve got, I’ve got another client I met yesterday for the first time he’s insulin resistant, he’s on cholesterol medications. He Is a little bit overweight and he gets up at 5:30 in the morning, goes to the gym, goes to work. The food eats is it’s like, he thinks he’s eating Keto, but he’s eating hardly any vegetables. Cause he thought vegetables are too high in carbs.
Andre (00:37:05):
So I’m going to explain why we did a meal. And I said, well, you can have all this broccoli. You can have cauliflower and our beans look at all of this. It’s still under 50 grams of carbs and you’ve got this much protein. Oh wow. Like that for him. It’s like, it’s time. He’s so busy at work, but they don’t. I said, cook your meal at night for the next day and put it in a container, a glass container. And you’ve already got your lunch made or your first meal. If you’re doing this time restricted eating window. Hadn’t thought about that. But I think so time’s a big one because everyone’s so busy, but the other thing could be priorities. You know, where do we place our health as a priority in life? And I challenge every person on this call, especially the guys to grab a photo of you when you graduated from university or college or the military, or when you used to wear Speedos at the beach, you know, to go water skiing or playing with your mates.grab that photo. And if you’re 55 or 60 or, or you’re young and you’re 45, there is nothing stopping you from having a body like that again, except yourself and your beliefs because you probably look better than you did when you were 20. I definitely do. But you are a superhero. Sports star Brad. Not me and heaps of guys I’ve coached have gotten back to their weight when they graduated from military college or high school, just in 12 weeks.
Andre (00:38:36):
So, you know, if you, here’s what I say to people, if you do what Brad says and follow Brad’s books and the information from Primal Endurance and educate yourself, you could lose 30 years of weight in 12, 12 weeks, six months, 12 months, depending on how overweight you are. You just got to have the motivation to do it because it is possible and who wouldn’t pay lots of money or give almost anything to look as good as you did apart from maybe your head, but your body. When you graduated from high school, if you were like people can’t come to grips with that, but it’s absolutely possible.
Brad (00:39:22):
Well I’m inspired myself, man. Um, I’m, uh, I’m working hard on the, on the program and I have published some shows about how easy it is to slip and then sort of build some momentum in the opposite direction. Uh, you can go reference the, uh, the show. I think I titled it, The Fatty Popcorn Boy where I just, all of a sudden stepped on a scale one day and it said 172. And I’m like, no, no, I weight one 65. It says right here on my driver’s license, but that seven or eight pounds just drifted on there really easily because of our accessibility and momentum and modern life. And so putting that insight together with, I just had Dr. Ron Sinha on the show author of the South Asian Health Solution. He takes care of, uh, the, the most fluent working population on the planet in California, Silicon Valley, their income is 2.5 times the national average of already the most affluent nation.
Brad (00:40:15):
So these are people that are making loads of money, like you know, about from working at Cisco and being the executive guy. Uh, but they have all kinds of health problems and lack of awareness, lack of time, lack of prioritization. And so he’s urging these people to use that same fantastic brain power that makes them the best software programmers and developing, working for the biggest tech companies in the world to apply those weapons, to the challenge of being healthy. And one thing that he said during my show that just really struck me, was to weigh yourself every single day. And we hear the opposite so much. Don’t get on that scale. The scale is the enemy. Um, your, your weight fluctuates to the tune of five pounds a day from, um, inflammation, glycogen retention, uh, hydration level. And I have said this myself for years and years, not only to my clients, but as a personal choice, I haven’t owned a scale ever in my life. And I haven’t used one in years and years. Uh, but I thought about what Dr. Ron said, and he says, Oh yeah, you know, I even weigh myself to the extent that if I’m up a few pounds, I realized that I’m a fully glycogen loaded and I got to go bang out a workout to kind of get back to what his normal baseline weight.
Brad (00:41:34):
And so, uh, after the show, I popped on Amazon for a scale for the first time, you know, since however long, or maybe when I was a teenager trying to gain weight, to see if I could grow, not be the smallest guy in the class. But if you have a somewhat healthy mentality about weight and you don’t have eating disorders and things that could lead to a slippery slope downward, um, it seems like an interesting suggestion to ponder, to be super accountable rather than try to withstand the, the negative pressures and things that can come with a obsessive approach to eating or exercising.
Andre (00:42:09):
Yeah, I think that’s great. I think that’s a great idea that, you know, I think you’ve got to use scales and subjective, so there’s objective data and then there’s subjective intuition, right? So I, I can pick my, like I can pick my heart rate within one or two beats any minute of the day, pretty much. And I can almost pick my weight by feeling my body. So I knew this morning, normally on Saturday morning, I’m a fatty I put on about a kilo and a half from Friday morning. I don’t know why till Saturday by the end of Saturday morning, but this morning I woke up and I thought I just rubbed my tummy. And I’m like, now I reckon I’m under 64 and I was 63.8. Right. But I can lose two kilos in a workout in three hours. So I weigh myself after workouts and before workouts because I test my hydration to make sure I’m hydrating enough. Right. But I think there’s a balance and guys should think about this between scales and looking in the mirror and how tight your pants are. So, you know, I’ve got these pants look like they have True Legion jeans, right. They’ll lose says, but I’m not going to throw them out.
Andre (00:43:30):
Cause they’re like expensive jeans. So I just wear a belt, but you know, how do your clothes fit? How do you feel in the morning, rub your tummy and look at the scales. And there’s a blending of those three things. And eventually just like being able to pick your heart, right? You won’t need to jump on the scales as often, but you know, if you’re overweight and you want to be in control without causing mental health problems about being obsessed by it, you should be getting on the scales and weighing yourself, but got to think, have you had a bowel movement? Have you drunk a lot of water and you’ve got to be consistent when you do it. So for me, I do it as soon as I get out of bed. Cause I go to the toilet, I have a bowel movement within 10 minutes of waking up every morning and then I weigh myself. But you know, as you say, your weight changes and fluctuates, so it could be half a kilo or a pound more if you haven’t moved your bowels. So you’ve got to think about that and not just get too crazy about it.
Brad (00:44:26):
Yeah. I think bringing it into heightened awareness and prioritizing, and then back the social aspect, especially as, you know, a lot of this conversation is referencing here. We are two dudes in our fifties talking to other dudes, of course, females listening. Hopefully we’ll get a lot of value out of the show, but in terms of the cultural aspects, I think it’s sort of a taboo subject to, uh, you know, provide critical feedback or honest feedback to your mates or especially when it comes to, uh, your partner or the males talking to the females. It’s sort of like a no win situation. It’s like, you know, the one question you never ask anyone ever in life is when are you due?
Brad (00:45:06):
Yes, you might be wrong.
Brad (00:45:08):
You know, uh, if we got into the, um, uh, the realm of having, you know, eeky guy, that’s the term that they use in the blue zones for the, uh, the lifelong bonds of friendship that we’ve seen in the Island of Okinawa, uh, Japanese culture, um, and having, having these resources where you can be completely honest and blunt and even talk trash or however the dynamic is, but to keep each other accountable, you said accountability partner early in the show. But I think taking that to the level of, uh, you know, throwing in some healthy, competitive intensity, that’s what I love about the Aussies too. I feel like it’s more embedded in your culture than it is in America, where we’re doing these exercises and false modesty and especially on social media, nothing, I hate more than someone who says I’m deeply humbled by reaching my 2 million follower or being on the bestseller list for another week.
Brad (00:46:04):
And it’s like, come on, man, why don’t you just say, Hey, I’m still kicking ass. Why don’t you buy my book right now? And so I can make more money. I’d rather see someone say that then all this, this graceful nonsense and where I’m going with this point is, uh, I hired a, a private high jump coach. Uh, who’s based in my area. And Oh my gosh, what a wonderful thing to find this guy on the internet. He’s a former Russian Olympic triple jumper. Victor Sotnikov. He took ninth place in Atlanta Olympics. And one of the, you know, great achievements, 56 foot triple jumper, um, very friendly guy and very strict. And to the point, as you might expect from a Russian, uh, track and field coach, and, you know, we, we met at the track for our first, uh, first encounter in person. And about one minute into our conversation, he says, uh, so are you, are you going to reduce your weight? I’m like, it is second man. I’m I’m, I’m Brad Kearns, former number three, world athlete, podcast host. And I just did a show on fatty popcorn by boy going from 172 down to, down to 165. I think I was back up around one 70 at that time. Cause maybe more popcorn was leaking in or whatever was going on. I just been traveling or something, but it was so refreshing to have this guy in an athletic realm. Right. We’re in an athletic stadium. So it’s perfectly,
Brad (00:47:31):
Uh, customary. It’s not like walking by somebody in the office who’s, you know, another work colleague. Uh, but it was just like so straight into the point that I, I basically said, well, yeah, I guess so, you know, and then he goes, all right, let me see you do some approaches and some this and that. And then we got into the coaching aspect and a boy to have those people in your life that can set you straight. It’s a great, a great blessing rather than people who were false, false cheerleaders and all the other nonsense that we traffic in,
Andre (00:48:01):
I would have said, you know,
Brad (00:48:03):
just don’t try it on your third date or anything that.
Andre (00:48:07):
I would have said, if let’s say someone’s got love handles, right? I’d be saying, Hey mate, you like a little love don’t you, but what are you talking about? It’s fucking love handles, buddy. Get rid of them. You know, you’re fat, you’re an FF. That’s like, you know, you want to die? You know, you’re going to, I say to people who come to me, who not wanting to acknowledge the need to change. If they’ve got high blood sugar and stuff, I say to them, I said, you got grandkids. Yeah. How old? This old? I said, okay. So all you have, you got kids that’s even worse. And they say, yeah, I say so when they’re eight, when they’re 24 or 25, how old are you going to be? And I’ll say I was 65 or whatever. And I’m like, how do you think you’re going to look at the wedding? Are you going to be in a wheelchair? Cause you’ve got diabetes with one leg. That’s what I say. I said, it’s your choice. Health is a choice, man.
Andre (00:49:00):
Health is a choice. Keep doing what you’re doing and that’s what will happen. So if you want that great walk out, I won’t work with you. But you know, it’s a health is a flipping choice. It’s a lifestyle choice in most cases. Sure. Some genetics play into it, but sometimes you gotta be brutally honest with people and give them that feedback. You know? And sometimes it brings tears. Most times it brings change. But people don’t talk to people like that. And you’ve got to do it out of kindness, wanting to help people. But some people just don’t get it. You know?
Brad (00:49:37):
So in your coaching practice with real life, people who are busy and have an assortment of life, challenges, excuses, rationalizations, um, how do these conversations go? And what are your, what are some of the other strategies besides, uh, you know, saying something with loving kindness, that might be a critical feedback.
Andre (00:50:00):
Um, well you got to sort of lock out. The guy I had yesterday is a South African guy. So he loves Tim Noakes and you know, he’s, he’s, he follows all of your stuff as well. And um, I just said to him, do you want me to be blunt? Or do you want me to be nice and fluff around? He goes any South African accent. He goes, no, ma’am I just want, Oh, that’s English. I’m trying to do an English accent. Like you did that Manchester one the other week. That was hilarious. My goodness.
Brad (00:50:29):
I’d love to hear an Australian, uh, try to try to get a South African accent going all of us here in the United States are eagerly awaiting the intent.
Andre (00:50:38):
I’ll do an English accent. That’s better. And he got, he basically goes, no, give it to me. I’m like mate, the food you’re eating shit. It’s like, what? Two drumsticks? 300 grams of lamb chops. Where’s the broccoli. Where’s the cauliflower. And what’s this Ryvita biscuits. And um, protein bars. I said, it’s process shit, food. It’s got grains. I said, no wonder you’ve got thyroid issues. Like he didn’t even, his doctors had never told him why his thyroid, he was on thyroid medication. Like he’s a great guy, but doc, he just said, I don’t know. Well, they’ve given me the tablets and it’s because it grinds and dairy and stress and you know, like that causes it. Have you ever had your iodine levels checked? No. Well you need iodine for your authority to work properly, but yeah. So I think you’ve got to sort of like for some people you got to work out, what do they want? What do they need? And he wanted it upfront. And he sent me a tech staff who would say now really excited to work with you on this.
Andre (00:51:34):
Cause he’d been for 12 months. We’d been talking once in a while at the gym about doing triathlon coaching. And I said, mate, I’m not going to triathlon coach you. You got to lose your weight first. You know, it’s like, because you know this belief that everyone has, you got to exercise to lose weight, exercise by having a flipping meal plan. What are we eating for the next three days? Have we got it in the fridge? That’s where people screw up. They go and get the pizza base or the pasta cause it’s easy. What’s the meal plan. It’s also I think about it’s about acknowledging I’m not healthy and overweight. So acknowledging that. So the reality check, take the glasses off. Then it’s about having the knowledge. And if they’re following you and to a lesser extent me, then they get the right knowledge of how to actually what the good foods are and what food does to us.
Andre (00:52:27):
And then it’s about putting that into a process. So it’s reality, checking knowledge, not bullshit, you know, and then actually how to do it. And that’s about get a sheet of paper out with your wife or your boyfriend or your partner or whatever, whoever it is and work out, what are we eating for the week and when are we shopping and who’s going to cook and when am I going to make my leftovers for my first meal the next day? And that’s all you have to flip- ping do you don’t have to go and exercise, lose your weight and then do appropriate exercise or movement, which you talk about your micro workouts, your math trainings and yoga, a sauna or a hot spa or whatever. But until you acknowledge, there’s a problem and learn what to do. And here’s a hint. Most of the information isn’t free, you’ve got to actually, you know, because you get what you pay for, right? So they’re buying your books, you’ve got to pay for a book, you learn the right information. Instead of following all these people that are professionals on Facebook or give you all his bullshit free advice that often doesn’t work. And then you got to implement it with some process and planning, but you’ve got to have time to do that. So yeah, that’s sort of what I went through with this guy yesterday. The reality check was first,
Brad (00:53:40):
Well that middle, uh, attribute of having the, uh, the knowledge and the correct approach. I think there’s a lot of people stuck on that one. Cause you see so many type A highly motivated goal oriented people willing to do whatever it takes to get the weight off or to move up in the, uh, the competitive ranks to get on the podium. Uh, but there’s so much misdirected energy, thanks to a lot of the crappy advice out there. And then also thanks to, um, you know, I, I guess some, uh, resistance with, um, belief systems, ego, uh, you know, close mindedness things I mentioned earlier where, um, you know, I remember coaching people, uh, accepting payment, gladly dispensing my heart and soul and all my life experience to them. And then having a checkup call a month later or, you know, even, even better being in person and, and having a stronger relationship and the information was just, uh, not, you know, not adhered to or blatantly disregarded because the habit patterns were stronger than the new empowering information.
Andre (00:54:50):
Hmm. Well, well, you know, it makes sense, doesn’t it that, you know, there’s two things that make sense that if you eat fat, you’re going to get fat. And it also makes sense
Brad (00:55:02):
Logic. It was simple logic, right?
Andre (00:55:05):
And then the other one is the Thermo dynamic energy expenditure model of calories in calories out. So if I want to lose weight, I’ve got to exercise and people think personal trainers working at a gym, you know, want people to lose weight. If, well, if I was working at a gym, I get paid by people coming and training with me because if they lose weight, maybe they might stop training. So I know I’m being disparaging, but in general, I’m just saying it’s, it makes sense. Exercise in calories, in calories out, I’m going to lose weight. And as long as I can eat donuts with all that sugar, then as long as I’m under my killer calorie count for the day, those two things are the biggest two stupid things in the world that I’ve ever heard of.
Brad (00:55:52):
Yeah. It’s now finally coming to be exposed as a disaster, the traditional approach to weight loss, fitness calories in calories out Jason Fung published a great book called the Obesity Code and he titled this, the calorie deception and he made this contention backed by some good research that, um, 95% of your body composition success or failure is associated with your level of insulin production in the diet. And on, in regard to the exercise element, um, he argued that and research showing that when you train and put in those hours, you get a corresponding increase in appetite, as well as a decrease in general, everyday activity level, metabolic rate, uh, more greater sense of laziness, uh, all those, all those parameters. Uh, so you, you wash out the calories you burn eating.
Brad (00:56:51):
And boy, that’s a pretty heavy statement to say 95% .Mark Sisson has long said that body composition is 80% diet, 20% lifestyle, exercise, sleep, stress management. Uh, but what do you think about, uh, kind of that concept that it’s so far apart from calories in calories out that we need to wake up to the idea that your gym sessions are doing almost nothing for your, for your six pack.
Andre (00:57:13):
I totally agree. I tell, like I told this guy yesterday, he asked me four or five times over two weeks before he signed up. What about my exercise program? I’m like, mate, you’re going to walk the dog and do yoga, but I want to do exercise. Then go and work with someone else. What else? I said, it’s all about your insulin levels and you’ll get a cortisol spike. I said, as you say, Brad, we have enough stress everyday going to the work office in the taxi or in the car, in the transport, working with idiots emails on all day.
Andre (00:57:42):
And we’re getting up at five 30 in the morning to go to the gym to get more cortisol coming into our body. And that stops the fat burning, but people don’t understand that. So that’s, that’s the conversation I have with people when we first started, because everyone says, I need to exercise. And I’m like, no, prepare food. The gym, the gym is the kitchen, not the gym, it’s the kitchen. And you know, when you got to explain how cortisol comes out and you explain about all this stuff that we’ve learned in the primal health coach in course, and stuff about being chased by animals and what happens, you know, people don’t understand how we evolved. So you’ve got to sort of teach them that. And then it sort of makes sense a bit, but it’s hard for people to overcome that when they’ve been dealt this belief for 20 or 30 or 40 years, that you’ve got to exercise to lose weight, like, you know, Gatorade and Coca Cola and low, low sugar, this and that. And it’s about the calories it’s like total BS. And I just say, I just say to people has what you’ve been doing worked? And they say, no, I’m like, okay. So change up here. Cause this is what it’s about.
Brad (00:58:54):
Okay. So if we can embrace the proper approach where we’re optimizing the diet, we’re eating those nutrient dense, low insulin, stimulating foods, banking some fast and hours, not over-training, which is the kiss of death for a weight loss goal, because then you get into that fight or flight cortisol mode, which shuts off fat burning as you described quickly. But I think everyone should really appreciate that. That the more stressed you are in life, the more, the less likely you are to be burning, stored body fat. And instead you’re either making your own sugar from a fight or fight process known as gluconeogenesis or you’re craving sugar and your appetite spiking out of control because your workday is so stressful. Okay. So if we can, uh, sort of, uh, theoretically get those things lined up. I know the big one for you is that, um, that, that mindset and prioritization and the other things you mentioned. So, uh, what’s the, what’s the breakthrough to the next level look like where you’re going to be set up for success for longterm?
Andre (00:59:56):
I think, I think the breakthrough is actually starting to see results. So once people. it takes, I reckon it takes about four to five weeks. So one thing is seeing some results, but the other thing is doing it with your partner maybe at the same time and not, not really worrying or thinking about what other people think. But, uh, I think part of it is having a coach and having accountability. But the first thing is saying those are the results. So if you can stick to this sort of process for three or four or five weeks and see results and then realize that where you want to get to is possible.
Andre (01:00:47):
And so having that photo of you as a 20 year old at a university on your mirror and saying, that’s where I want to get to and getting some results in the first four or five weeks. That’s a big step because you might lose more weight than you have lost in 12 months by smashing yourself at the gym. So losing that weight by focusing on food, without killing yourself at the gym, is, is the thing that can launch people to getting to that image or goal of where they want to be. Does that, is that what you were sort of asking?
Brad (01:01:19):
Yeah, that’s a great point that we, we gotta give them a little, a little incentive going there and you get, you know, the tears come and we’ve had this at our live retreats when someone approaches Mark Sisson with great bravery after his talk and says, you know, I got your book, I’ve done everything you said. And here I am a year later and I haven’t lost any fat. And then the tears come down because they’ve done everything they can and they put their heart and soul in, counted on trusted the process and something’s blocked there. Uh, and so, yeah, I mean, that’s, you gotta have some results. So, you know, um, what do you say about that? I think sometimes you can uncover further and see that they really haven’t done everything possible. Um, there’s some research that we cited in our upcoming book that, uh, people underestimate their energy expenditure by 30%. No, they overestimate their energy expenditure by 30% and underestimate their caloric intake every day by like 50%. So eat about 2000 to 2,500 calories a day. Oh, really? Did you remember that, uh, that Jamba Juice bake bar that you had after your spin class? Oh yeah, that too.
Brad (01:02:37):
Like I just put a post on Instagram. Uh, what was it yesterday? The day before, uh, bragging that I, uh, my breakfast was at 5:30 PM. I was fasting until then and writing this whole thing about, Hey, I don’t do this very often. Especially if I’m working out, I get hungry. I honor my appetite, but today I was busy working. I didn’t notice the time and here I am. And then like an hour later, I realized that I was over at my friend’s house and I had this big old hunk of tri tip and a few spoonfuls of my, uh, of this world, famous chocolate mousse recipe and a total. I totally blanked on that, uh, that you know, that passing through the kitchen incident at 11:00 AM. So I really didn’t fast till five 30 close enough, but, uh, you know what I mean? Like, boy, we can tell ourselves a story that
Andre (01:03:22):
Wait, we can, and that’s why I say to everyone. Sure. You can have some app get a notebook.
Brad (01:03:29):
Mm. An ordinary fashion notebook,
Andre (01:03:32):
Old fashion. And this is a pencil. Right. And actually, yeah, you are right. So I would say to people, and when I start with people, I say, you know, if someone’s really overweight and they tell me they’re eating perfectly and they lose weight, I say, great, just keep doing what you’re doing. But if you’re not getting results, the first thing we need to do, I say to them is right. You need to track your food. So you need to just write down what you’re eating with weights and the food for a week. And let’s see what happens. Now, what they might do is they might write it down, but they’re not weighing the food. So, you know, first is write down what you’re eating. Every single thing you’re putting in your mouth, how much sleep you’re getting, what exercise you’re doing. And then if that doesn’t happen, then I actually want to see photos.
Andre (01:04:20):
So send me a photo of your plate. And generally it’ll be like all of this meat, like far too much meat. And I know you love carnivore. And a lot of people do, but I like to restrict protein a bit and have good vegetables. That’s my approach. Right? But low carb, I’ll say, send me photos of your meals. And then you’ll see that there’s either too much meat or there’s one Brussels sprout and three beans. And they’re saying they’re eating lots of vegetables or a big salad. And the salads, like three lettuce lays in a tiny bit of beetroot and a tiny bit of carrot. And I’m like, that’s not a salad. Where’s the olive oil. Where’s the tomatoes?. Where’s the avocado. So there’s people don’t pay enough attention. And then they don’t track things. But that doesn’t mean like I don’t track a shit.
Andre (01:05:03):
I don’t track anything apart from when I go to the toilet, like, I mean, once you’ve been doing this and you drop your weight, it becomes totally intuitive. But at the start you need help. So yeah, people underestimate, they overestimate and they need to write things down or track things to see what’s happening. How’s their stress level? Have they had a bowel movement? Have they drunk milk and had a runny bowel movement? Well, that means they’ve got leaky gut. Are they constipated? Maybe they haven’t drunk enough water. So that’s part of that learning process to become that intuitive connectedness, not just about their training, but about their body and their food. And I think that’s an important part that the first four or five weeks of doing this, instead of just thinking they’re eating low carb or keto or, and firstly, do they know what low carb or keto or paleo is? Do they know what it is? What definition are they using? And then if they’re implementing it, how do they know they’re implementing it, right? If they’re not maybe tracking or writing things down.
Brad (01:06:09):
Yeah. And then like how you describe your you’re in the groove now. So you’re not wedded to your calorie app, the rest of your life, but we do have to take those baby steps to get there. And, um, yeah. Then, then you can graduate to the intuitive approach. But if you’re diluted at the start, you’re going to have a difficult time. I wonder if there’s, I know we got to, um, we don’t want to hit people too much with this, uh, before we wrap up, but I wonder if there’s a final, uh, unspoken element that’s often, uh, relevant, but not talked about enough. And that is the, uh, the sense of, uh, being deserving enough to carry around that body of your dreams. And we joke on the, uh, emails back and forth when we were strategizing the show and the importance of being motivated by looking good naked.
Brad (01:06:58):
It’s one of the most powerful motivators. Sisson made up that term a long time ago. And people chuckle when he says it, uh, during, uh, a live lecture. Uh, but if you, if you think that’s a silly superficial beneath your high ideals, um, you know, we have the body positive movement now. So there’s like a backlash about, uh, you know, showing off your six pack on social media. And so if this noise is running around in your mind, um, maybe you’re building in some rationalizations and, uh, you don’t want to take a picture of yourself naked cause you think it’s stupid.
Andre (01:07:34):
Yeah. I think you different people will have different things working for them. I don’t think it’s ego. I think, I think we should be proud and I’m pleased that a good looking body naked or in Speedos is a sign of health and fitness because I don’t no matter what all these Muppets say, I don’t believe you are healthy. If you are overweight, you might be a lovely person and a beautiful person and you can look beautiful, but you’re not healthy. And people bullshit to themselves too much. So for me, it works for me and I try and encourage guys to and girls to, you know, use that. But, uh, I think we need to push back on this whole bullshit in social media saying why, you know, people shouldn’t be looking in the mirror and, you know, appreciating their body. We don’t see many Roman sculptures. Like you look at the Roman sculptures, they’re all of men, men warriors in six packs, you know, well, the, uh,
Brad (01:08:40):
the advertising in the magazines and the billboards, um, you know, these things sell product and for better, or for worse, you know, deep down they’re tapping into our, uh, our fears or anxieties, our fantasies and all those things that are beneath the surface. So I think what we’re talking about here is like bringing this stuff out to the open and signing up for the goal of LGN (looking good naked )and then proceeding with an open mind and open heart. And I think starting from a position of gratitude for wherever you are, um, I had a guest on the show, Luke Story, the lifestyle is podcast, great guy, and he’s deep into spirituality as well as biohacking. And we were talking about the, uh, the practice of manifesting and usually use that term in terms of manifesting wealth or manifesting the man of your dreams.
Brad (01:09:29):
And he’s got a six pack and he drives a Ferrari and he’s got a private jet and you start to envision these things and create a vision board. And a lot of people scoff at the entire movement as ridiculous. Uh, but it’s become increasingly interesting to me because when you hear people explain it properly and Luke did a great job saying that, you know, you have to start from a position of gratitude for where you are now. So whatever state your body’s in, however many pounds of excess body fat you have now, at least you can watch or listen to the show and make decisions and go and turn the corner tomorrow and do something better for yourself. So rather than feeling insecure, envious FOMO, because you don’t have the six pack that is on your social media feed. You kind of twist that to say, Hey, this is a goal that I’m going to envision for myself, that I feel deserving of, and then go after it with a clear headed, rather than this, that noise talking and talking you out of it every time you have a chance to reach for a tub of Ben and Jerry’s.
Andre (01:10:33):
and it’s health, right? You will live longer. As long as you don’t kill yourself on your phone in your car or taking drugs or some other stupid, as you say Brad, doing stuff, Stupid things, you will live longer. Health is a choice. You may not be there today, but if you want to be healthy, change some things you do. It’s in your hands and mouth.
Brad (01:10:57):
I love it, man. That’s a nice little conclusion there. And, uh, it’s great to catch up. I think we should check back at regular intervals to make sure people are, are still on board. And, you know, at one point you mentioned with great sincerity that this is a tough battle and getting, uh, accountability and professional help can be a huge benefit. So tell us where we can find you and how to get started, uh, at whatever level we’re comfortable with, uh, going beyond watching, uh, shouting YouTube videos about getting, getting cut in six weeks. Well, look, you know, um, Andre Obradovic I’ve got a website, it has a whole lot of information there. Um, I have a health and wellness app, which is free, which has Brad, your in it a lot with some of your podcasts, but there’s podcasts videos on the health and wellness app. If you’re interested in working with me, you can book a meeting with me via my website for 30 minutes and we can chew the fat so to speak. Um, yeah, and I work with people all around the world. I love working with clients in the U S have a great time and uh, Oh, look at your abs Brad,. Okay.
Brad (01:12:12):
Hang on. I’m working on it, man. So I think you have to talk to be seen on, on YouTube. So I’m talking right now, my abs work in progress, trying to get to that high jump elite level. And now it’s turned to talk.
Andre (01:12:27):
Oh, well, there’s mine. So I’ve got funky trunks on. So these are my Speedos. And see, look at that. They’re called your interior serratus there, but this is all from eating properly. Not from training. A little bit. I like to say, lose the fat get lane and then tune the body by exercise.
Brad (01:12:48):
Oh, fantastic. Love it. Yeah. So start out with that, uh, get that diet handled and then we’ll think about refining the training. Andre Obradovic another great show. Thank you, man. Greetings to everyone be safe down under everybody and have a good, I guess winter’s coming, even though you’re wearing your surfing shorts, you had your, your hoodie on and in the morning. So I did. Yeah, whatever it is, keep doing what you’re doing.
Brad (01:13:17):
Thank you for listening to the show. We would love your feedback at getoveryourselfpodcast@gmail.com. And we would also love if you could leave a rating and a review on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts, I know it’s a hassle. You have to go to desktop iTunes, click on the tab that says ratings and reviews, and then click to rate the show anywhere from five to five stars. And it really helps spread the word so more people can find the show and get over themselves because they need to thanks for doing it.
