In the Grand Scheme Of Fitness With Justin and Ethan

Cleanse and Detox Myths: Sustainable Health Beyond Quick Fixes

• Justin Schollard • Season 1 • Episode 42

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Could your shortcut to health be paving the way for long-term setbacks? This episode of Coach's Corner examines the allure of detoxes, fasting, and cleanses, providing a reality check on their effectiveness and sustainability. We dissect why these quick fixes often captivate those caught in the "when-then" fallacy, offering tempting but temporary paths to health. With our expertise as nutritionists and fitness experts, we parallel these methods with the disciplined habits of those who maintain consistent fitness. We explore the psychological appeal of symbolic starts and hard resets, emphasizing the necessity of embedding new habits to ensure enduring success post-detox.

Diet fads and their charming promises—especially those marketed at women—are under the microscope next. We scrutinize the packaging and promises that make these health cleanses irresistible, while also acknowledging the skepticism surrounding their longevity. Are these flashy solutions merely mirages, evaporating without lasting lifestyle changes? Listen as we compare them to steady practices like calorie tracking and debate the role of education in diet decisions. From keto to calorie counting, we stress the importance of informed choices and sustainable approaches to health and wellness.

Finally, we draw a parallel between the journey of healthy lifestyle changes and financial recovery. Just as climbing out of debt requires long-term commitment, so does maintaining weight loss and fitness. We discuss how small, consistent changes—like choosing low-calorie alternatives—can lead to significant, lasting results. Our conversation also touches on the societal challenges that complicate weight management, reminding us of the personal responsibility and self-awareness needed to navigate these waters. As we celebrate our 42nd episode, we thank you for your support and look forward to continuing this journey with you.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Coach's Corner, episode 42.

Speaker 1:

I am your host, justin Scolard, and I am Ethan Wolfe, and today, folks, we're going to be talking about a subject near and dear to many people's hearts out there, and that is detoxes, fasting and cleanses.

Speaker 1:

We have, we have our opinion on this kind of thing, as you can imagine, and so what we're going to do today is just kind of like digging a little bit deeper into, like, I think, the psychology of it, of just like why one what would have to happen leading up to doing some sort of like a juice cleanse or a detox, like the idea of what you're going to get from that detox or cleanse, and then just kind kind of comparing and contrasting that with you know what people actually do who have already accomplished that level of fitness that these folks are trying to achieve, and sort of maybe trying to bridge that gap a little bit, to find some way to find balance and keep perspective and all that good stuff. So anyways, in case you don't know who we are, we have been nutritionists, trainers, fitness experts for the last 20 years each I currently own a business online where we help people lose weight, get organized, get accountability and structure.

Speaker 1:

Ethan has a facility in person here in Los Angeles where he does similar stuff, and so we come together on this podcast to just, you know, basically just have like a real honest chat with two professionals in the industry to like help distill some of these myths and confusions and just kind of keep you guys in the right path.

Speaker 2:

And so distilled is such a good word.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so today, you know we're chatting about these popular cleanses and detoxes that seem prevalent in our society especially those that are kind of in that realm a little bit of paying attention to health and fitness.

Speaker 2:

You know, some people just don't do it at all, but I think there's kind of like this I find this very middle ground where people pay attention to their health. Maybe they exercise, get to a certain place and then they're like, oh, this will be an answer.

Speaker 1:

Like job's done, mission accomplished. Yep.

Speaker 2:

I just got my five days of bone broth in.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, just got to get that five-day bone broth cleanse in and then like I'm good, yeah know, the common denominator between people who struggle is just this fit and start, sort of when then? Fallacy, like well, when I have more time then I'll get around to it. When I have more money, then I'll pay for a program when I you name your thing right, and that's just the trap. You're going to start next week when of course we know that that's probably not going to happen.

Speaker 1:

So I think that's what's really appealing about these like detoxes and juice cleanse or whatever is because it's such a short period of time that promises so much result that it almost like accesses this type of person who is seeking, who may be stuck in that. When then fallacy. But like this seems like a very low bar entry point to start something, and there's like satisfaction on just starting, of course, but then of course, like how does that actually integrate into any sort of long-term sustainable program? And I think that's really the big thing, you know, like what happens after it's over.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I would agree with that. It's, you know, it's rather than kind of picking apart what's happening to get you to the place where you feel like you need to make a change. You just kind of go into this very stark contrast. But you know, and for the people I talk to about it it's very I ask them always like okay, what's the deal afterwards? Like you know that, just business as usual? Is there any paying attention to what you might do differently afterwards? So it is interesting and I, you know, and again I don't, I think we both honored kind of the emotional mental components of like a hard reset, almost like new year's, right, like obviously new year's is just kind of the emotional mental components of like a hard reset, almost like New Year's, right, like obviously New Year's is just kind of this cultural swing into doing something different. But there is some type of power in the whole country of the Western American world being like now's the time to get fit right.

Speaker 2:

There is kind of like a wave I think you can catch and I think that kind of microcosms macrocosms that like yeah, like a hard reset can help shift your mental gears, create a little discipline. So it's not like there's no value in terms of just behavior modification or maybe getting you started on a path, but most of the time the follow-up isn't anything different than what was happening before.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's also like the people who tend to do these type of things. It's not like this, their first time with this stuff. It tends to be like repeat customers with these like juice cleanses and detoxes and stuff, and it's like I don't know. I just think that it's just an idea that somehow, some way, this is going to fundamentally shift this like psychological pattern that I've been in for how many years? And this time might be different. And, to your point, like there might be some value in having like the symbolic start right. Well, I'm committing to this 10 days and the hope is that that 10 days will then translate to like a real habit now and like real lifestyle shift.

Speaker 1:

But, of course, a problem with that approach is that when you start something extreme, there's no runway. Where do you go from there? And to like regress back down to just like counting calories almost feels like you're taking a step back, right. It's like I find that it's the opposite, where, instead of starting at a 10, meaning like you're doing Whole30 and you've cut out dairy, you've cut out wheat, you've cut out sugar, you've cut out everything and you're journaling every morning and doing all these crazy things Instead of starting at a 10 and then burning out after a month down to a 1 because you go.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's not sustainable and it just creates this like very volatile sort of duality in your mind, where it's like the only way I know how to see result is through these really extreme efforts and there's no middle ground, where it's like either I'm eating like whatever's around or I'm just quote unquote trying to make good food choices, but like the numbers don't lie and I'm gaining weight every year.

Speaker 1:

I'm just quote unquote trying to make good food choices but like the numbers don't lie and I'm gaining weight every year. Or I do these like crazy extreme detoxes and cleanses where, yeah, I lose, you know, five or 10 pounds of like undigested food in my stomach and water weight, but there's no like reintegration and like normalcy of just like what is? What does that actually look like for you? Indefinitely now, though, yeah, and so it just sends me the same kind of people that just keep repeating this. It's almost like analogous to like um, you know people who like, like, maybe like serial monogamous or something, like people who just like kind of rush into relationships too fast and like it's the same person you're dating.

Speaker 1:

It's a different reincarnation of the same person. Like you didn't learn your lesson the first time right Right.

Speaker 2:

And I think a lot of it is going to be based around intent. I think we're coming from again a perspective of weight loss and fitness, and so I think particularly in weight loss is where I see most of this and I honor that. Fasting has tremendous benefit and value on a physiological level. There's no doubt about it. Whether that's long-term calorie restriction or 24 hour fast, like, there are benefits. It's good for the body, you can reset your gut biome, which can help with mental states, and just you know there there is a slew of benefit, I think, to doing a fast. I think it's been part of our human physiology for almost as long as we've been around until recently. So it's one of those things.

Speaker 2:

For me. A lot of it's like what is the intent? Because I have a lot of respect for fasting. I think it's awesome, I think it has tremendous benefit. I'm not necessarily throwing the baby out with the bathwater. For me of just like fasting is just stupid or has no value, but I think again, it's like what is the intent? Why are you doing the fasting? And I think that from the perspective of losing weight or changing your body composition or losing fat, it's just really not the best way to go no-transcript, being like oh, I have 30 pounds to lose, so I'm going to choose fasting as a route of losing 30 pounds. That's when I'm kind of like like what you know, that might not be the best path forward like, why do you yeah, exactly why do you think that that's going to help?

Speaker 2:

And I think fasting is interesting.

Speaker 1:

Or cleanses Fasting almost feels more, I guess, like spiritual or something than it does weight loss oriented. I think there's like practicing restraint, denying yourself of your comforts just to keep yourself grounded. You know, I think there's a lot of value in that. I mean like there's, there's you know, that's been around for a long time just as like a mental exercise. No, but I think that like, specifically, we live, we just live in this day and age where there's just this like really polished, branded industry around you know these like detoxes, cleanses, and I think that's where it starts to become like what do you think you're cleansing exactly here? Right, like case in point? Right, we have friends, they're, they're no strangers, these things and the packaging on this stuff is insane.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean like they, they really went to like world-class marketers and like just the most beautiful design whole story of you know the founder and how they, you know, said all this journey of self-discovery through. Like their this, this specific cleanse, and like it's all you know, if it's targeted towards women, it's like the right language and the fonts and the colors and the bot and the unboxing of it all, and each day is like you know, bone broth or whatever it might be, is like has like a little story and a symbol behind it, and you're like damn that is very, that is very attractive.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's like you just get bought in this belief that, after this many days of the teas and the and the powders and the bone broth or whatever that like that's going to make some fundamental shift in your health, that you're going to be able to like carry on indefinitely. And I just think that, like, I'm just so not a believer in that. Like I look at it, I'm just like, but of course, and it's like the archetype of like, the person who would buy that. It's like god, I hate to sound judgmental, but of course, you're the one that like is gonna buy that right, like but this isn't the first time, you know, and it's like gosh, come on, like I get it.

Speaker 1:

It's, it sounds perfect. It's like the. It's like is this the magic pill that I've been looking for my whole life, right? Or is just this another version of me looking for a quick fix versus like doing the, doing the one thing that I actually probably haven't done long enough to see noticeable change, which is track your calories, just yes, pay attention to what you eat in some fundamental way.

Speaker 2:

and again, there you know the infinite shades of gray in the world, like somebody who I think there's 50, 50, yeah, I, yeah, I guess that's right.

Speaker 1:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but I think you know, in the grand scheme of things, somebody who doesn't pay attention to what they're eating in a general sense and does a five-day bone broth cleanse every two months, I still think is going to be better off than somebody who does nothing. I do think in some capacity there's at least some form of calorie restriction which is going to have benefits to the body, whether or not it actually changes the needle on their composition over a year's period of time. I do think I'd rather somebody do a five-day bone broth cleanse every two or three months than do nothing. I guess you know I still think there's value there, there is.

Speaker 1:

I mean I don't know, I don't know, I just I, because it's like but that's also but that's also assuming like the person just gets back to eating the same amount of food they were beforehand. When typically what we find is that without like a real conscious effort, then our bodies have a great way of refeeding whatever deficit we've created in the previous week.

Speaker 2:

I just think it's like anything's better than nothing, I guess is the man is some kind of mentality like I'd rather somebody take a walk once a week than never walk at all.

Speaker 1:

I say I say let's let the numbers tell us what's actually happening. And like if, if, if let's just say case study a or subject a in this example, like maybe every two months they did a five-day juice cleanse or detox or whatever and like over the course of a year they were down five pounds. I'd be on board that okay. So they found a way to lose like a half a pound a month by you know these something and that'd be cool.

Speaker 1:

But typically that's not the case. Typically it's like you know, these people who every quarter have a panic attack and they look in the mirror, they see pictures themselves out. The group of friends are like, ah, that's it, this is it, I gotta all right. And then the next thing they find is the next juice cleanse or whatever. And they do it for a week or whatever, but the year after year it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse, and it statistically people who are just doing these things aren't getting better every year, I think there's.

Speaker 1:

So I don't know. That's where I guess I tend to disagree, just because I don't know. I just have so many calls with people and I'll always ask them what have you done? And so many of them it's that it's like I did that and I'll always ask them what have you done? And so many of them it's that it's like ah, I did that and I did this. And it's all these like diets, like the Stanford diet or the EKG diet or these one-off kind of yeah, they're all like they're all some, you know the same package in different wrappers.

Speaker 2:

Right, well, and that's I think. I think almost every. I mean outside of something like or or carnivore, where you're eliminating a complete food group as some type of route of intent. I think that most of the diets are fundamentally barking up the same tree of just like healthy food choices. Yeah, you know, I mean every. Every diet is just like balanced food eat a fruit, eat a vegetable, no Complex carbohydrates that's stupid.

Speaker 1:

Whole grains. I can just get a colonic and then I'll just juice cleanse for a week and then finish it out with a nice colonic and then back to some.

Speaker 2:

Dave's Hot Chicken.

Speaker 1:

Boom and that fucking Dave's. Hot Chicken and some chicken and waffles?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I think I guess for me like that's what I was kind of saying with intent of you know, I don't think keto is bad. I think keto can have health benefits for, again, resetting gut biome and helping with certain things. If you're doing it for that reason, like there has been, there is studies showing that keto can have health benefits for how your body operates and certain things. But again, for body composition, I just don't see keto as a good answer because it's not sustainable and all of the reasons. And I think, again, it's like the intent for me of almost like education, because if people were going to say to me I'm doing keto because I feel like I have SIBO small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and I need to remove all carbohydrate from my diet in order to, like, rebalance my gut health, it's a real thing Like SIBO is a legitimate thing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, basically it's like Never heard of it. C-po is a legitimate thing. Yeah, basically it's like Never heard of it. Yeah, it's basically where, like, basically, there is an imbalance in the bacterial overgrowth and then that bacterial overgrowth goes up the colon and into the small intestine and not your mouth and not your mouth.

Speaker 2:

And it's where a lot of people will get like bloating if they eat carbohydrates and you see, like the big distended belly and like this, like unnatural, like gas production and stuff like that, and a lot of time it also is treated with antibiotics and you kind of can get in the swing because then that disrupts the biome and it's this whole thing. And so it's like for somebody came to me and said I have sebo, which is a documented, legitimate thing, and they're like I'm going to do keto for 30 days to reset my gut biome so that I can eat carbohydrates and not be in pain, and something like that. Like I'm like, okay, cool, if that makes sense to me, there's proper intent, but you know, if you're choosing to go on carnivore to lose 50 pounds, it's just.

Speaker 1:

It's just a very silly route to me how I mean, what percentage of people who do keto is because they got diagnosed with SIBO, like you know what I mean. Like that, that's like a fraction of a percent of it is very small people are, just like you know.

Speaker 2:

That's what I'm saying it's uneducated decision making for a goal that isn't going to be fulfilled by the path they're taking, but they think it is. And it's just to me that's where I get crushed, because there's just, there's just even. There's just even no plan, like if you wanted to do keto or do a whole 30, and, as you're doing that, you're formulating a plan for normal behavior modification, using the big reset to kind of create the discipline and create the restriction, so that taking the step forward into being able to eat more food or different foods than you're eating, but just in some type of controlled fashion, like so be it, but people, just, there is no plan afterwards. It's just, it's this, it's the, it's the blanket that gets pulled over. Yeah, and again it's.

Speaker 2:

You know, I went out to a friend's birthday and her brother was there and we were eating Thai food and he was on keto or he's on carnivore carnivore, yeah, which, again, it's like. Carnivore is like such a new thing, it's such a fad, it's such a little like identity cult, like, oh, I'm going to, oh, I can only eat the meats, and it's great, you know. And he's talking about eating like a half stick of butter and a steak for a meal.

Speaker 2:

It was Atkins, then it was Paleo, then it was Keto and now it's carnivore, you know and it's just like, and I'm just like, you're not like what happens when you've, let's say, you do lose 30 pounds on carnivore and then like what?

Speaker 2:

then? It's almost like it's going to bite you in the ass, because now you're used to eating fatty meats and half a pound of bacon in a sitting and butter, and then, well, now I don't have to, now I'm coming off of it and I'm used to these crazy fatty meats and practices, but now I'm going to let rice and tortillas or bread back in, you know, and it's almost like the odds of continuing some food behaviors that won't serve you when you just add more calories behaviors that won't serve you.

Speaker 1:

When you just add more calories, you know way like the only reason why you would lose 30 pounds. After, of course, you just lose all your water weight from removing carbohydrate. But once you've removed all your water and glycogen levels and everything, yeah, let's just say of the 30 pounds you lost, maybe 10 of it, 15 of it was fat. The rest was some form of water weight or glycogen a little muscle because you're not eating carbs.

Speaker 1:

Then you know, at the end of the day, the only reason why you would actually lose that fat was because, by removing the carbohydrate, you were able to put yourself into a calorie deficit.

Speaker 2:

Calorie deficit yeah.

Speaker 1:

But you know if you're eating ribeyes and half sticks of butter, you know the average person only burns 2,500 calories a day. One ribeye, one like regular, regular size, one pound ribeye, is a thousand calories easy, yeah, and so you know, and that could be one meal for a guy, yeah, so you have, you have. You know that with some butter and bacon and eggs and all this shit, I mean you're you're at 3000 calories in a fucking blink of an eye. Yeah, 100%.

Speaker 1:

And you're in a calorie surplus and so, even though you've removed carbohydrates, you've eaten 500 calories more than what your body can burn in that scenario, and you multiply that by 365 days, well, guess what dude Like you're 40 pounds up at the end of the year, you know.

Speaker 2:

And I think it really just comes down to the the truth of the psychology of behavior modification. Like it's, it's hard to be a different person.

Speaker 1:

And this is exactly, and this is why I like these, these, these, these juice cleanses. And I'm thinking it's like it's so attractive because it's like, oh, maybe I can get rich quick If I just invest in all this like stocks, I just buy this like stock bundle, I'll get rich, or if I just do the juice cleanse, I'll lose weight. It's like the same psychology, but there's no behavior modification. In fact, what you're doing is you're reinforcing this, this, this conditioned response where, right, you do a 10-day detox and you go back to eating normal again. You, whatever progress you might have made over the 10 days, you then lose it, of course, over the next 20, and then a month or two, two later, you see a picture of yourself with friends. You get called to a beach party. You're like, oh God, I need to do something, and then this just vicious pattern and cycle just keeps repeating, where it's like one extreme to the other. Then what behavior modification is there? Like there is nothing.

Speaker 2:

And I think that it's the hard thing, because, I mean, it's where I think the psychology comes in so strong of just it's pretty straightforward to to to lose the weight, you have to eat less food, you have to eat some protein, you got to get a little physical activity and you know that's just how it goes. But you know, when given these kinds of simple parameters not necessarily easy, but this is what we're talking about it's these simple parameters, but people still don't make this decision. There's some type of mental, emotional thing that's happening outside of the decision making. You know and I think that can be applied to so many things in life, like saving money or just whatever it is is it's that the thing you're supposed to do is often quite straightforward and it can be laid out in front of you but it's, but it takes time, it takes time.

Speaker 1:

It's super straightforward, just. It just takes time and effort but that's the thing is to do that repeatedly is is a challenging thing.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. We have our identities and food. Food is just so tricky. I mean we've talked about it before Like food is just associated with our cultures Super emotional components. I think yeah identity Like oh, my grandmother's recipes.

Speaker 2:

Commiserate celebrate, you know. Celebrate, yeah, exactly, it's all those things and it's just it definitely hits the dopamine response. I mean, I know I can have emotional, I do have emotional relationships with food. You know, both from joy of like wanting to cook and chef it up and be a foodie, to just you know, when you're down and out, that food will always kind of make you feel a little better. And so there's a lot of, there's a lot of like quicksand that can like fill in around you when you're trying to make behavior change around food.

Speaker 2:

That, I do think, makes it extra tricky. You know, it's like kind of like going for a walk every day. We'll take discipline and make you have to make a decision you weren't doing before. Carve out some time, take half your lunch, but like food is a tricky little beast, I think, and I think that's why it stumps so many people and why these absolutes are like the golden ticket, because it's like we've talked about intermittent fasting, it's just that hard line in the sand where, if I just know I can't eat out of this window.

Speaker 2:

It removes all thinking for me in a way, even if I suffer through those time periods of being really hungry, right or crash or hangry or anything, it's just I did, it's just this very hard line that removes the nuance and the dance, so to speak yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, and I think the thing is is that it's like these people will spend, who do these types of things right, like because of that reason, because it's like there's an identity they don't want to necessarily give up, but there's something attractive about.

Speaker 1:

Well, maybe if it was like just a really short period of time, like 10 days, then you know that might trigger something new inside of me. Yeah, it's, but it is a version of kind of like getting fit quick or looking for a quicker solution, or you know the yeah, just not wanting to have to actually put in like the leg work, to like stretch it out, and you just compare that and contrast that with like anybody who's accomplished the goals that the said person is trying to accomplish. Like what? Like they've done probably the opposite. Like very few people have, like, I think, achieved like really really high levels of fitness over the course of their lifetime because have, like, I think, achieved like really really high levels of fitness over the course of their lifetime because of like these 10-day cleanses and detoxes like nobody who's nobody, who's like really serious about fitness and like takes it seriously.

Speaker 1:

Does that?

Speaker 2:

shit like one 12-week boot camp just gets you into shape right like yeah, it's great. It's good that you did it. You're gonna be better off than when you started, but like it's not you have to do. It's just some of those.

Speaker 1:

It's just one of those things where yeah, it's like people will spend their entire life. This is the mind fuck. People will spend their entire life looking for the, looking for the quick fix, yeah, or. Or, to put another way, they would. They'll spend their entire life jumping from one quick fix to the other, yeah. And then they say nothing works for me. Right, but it's like, actually, you know, had we just started the process of like getting control, of putting awareness on how many calories, reading, capping it off, reintegrating, and then like finding ways to make your favorite foods work into your calorie ceiling, that whole?

Speaker 1:

thing that 10 years would go by and you're going to be in insane shape and like actually have something sustainable. So, like just to give the audience some perspective, like what we do at carbon is we go into through there's three main phases and the first month is what we call typically in every it's case by case, because some people have a higher tolerance to adherence than other people do. Some people just they just need to be. We need to lower the bar for them and that's okay. But some people, if we get the sense that like hey, they're ready, they can probably handle like the real deal. This is how we would like to approach most people, right?

Speaker 1:

the first month you're with us. We call elimination phase and that is going to be similar to like what a whole 30 would be like, or like a you know, fodmap light, where we just give you a very straightforward list of foods that we know in general for most populations don't cause inflammation, gas, bloat, that kind of thing right.

Speaker 1:

Just like good old-fashioned single ingredient whole foods, fruits, veggies, complex carbs, lean proteins, that kind of thing. And so we go into month one, which is just elimination. Elimination means If it's not on that list, we're eliminating it. And you're going to do your best for one whole month to just keep your food choice simple while we get you comfortable tracking, because it's much more. It's much easier to track food accurately when it's single ingredient food. If you're already eating tacos and burritos and burgers, it's like it's very hard if you don't know how to track food.

Speaker 2:

What is this?

Speaker 1:

And this is why most people are almost 100% wrong on their food tracking is because they don't start with a simple list of foods, they start with just their normal stuff and then they don't know how to do it. But if it's just like a chicken breast, like most people could probably figure out how to track accurately what a chicken breast is, you know, and even if they're 10 or 20% wrong, it's so low calorie that it's still fine. And so month one is elimination, where we just basically have you drop that food list, get you comfortable with your calorie targets, move you into a protein ceiling and then just kind of really lock in your ability to accurately track and assess how many calories you're eating.

Speaker 2:

So the intent is really the tracking.

Speaker 1:

The intent is to remove all unnecessary complications Right but to grease the tone for this behavior modification that is so vital because it's way easier it's to only do it's way easier to like stack your legos together when you only have five legos right but if I dump like an, entire bucket of all these shapes and size and I say, now build me a castle.

Speaker 1:

Oh my god. But if we just go now put the blue one on top of the red one, it's like, yay, we did it, you. And so we just like, we just get people just comfortable and in momentum. Now month two is what we call the reintegration phase, and this is where a whole 30 stops, and if you worked with a good coach, this is where you would eventually ascend. So then month two is the reintegration phase. And so, after we've kind of got that really good foundation, you've cleaned yourself out, a true cleanse, because you've actually eaten single ingredient foods for a month of, aka, you know, detoxing, if you ever, if you guys want to truly cleanse, do that anyways.

Speaker 1:

Reintegration now we have your calories. We know your protein targets. You've been tracking food for a month now, so you're really comfortable with it. Now we go into reintegration. Now let's start to like go out to dinner, have a drink, have a glass of wine, have a dessert, eat that bag of chips. What are the things that we want, that we enjoy? The funny thing is, after a month of restraint, all of a sudden, the things that you thought you wanted. You're not really interested in anymore.

Speaker 1:

You kind of lose the taste. You're like, well, maybe I really don't want my chips and shit. I was just in the momentum of it, but I really don't care. So momentum of it, but I really don't care. So month two is reintegration. Order your lunch in and let's and now. But the the the thing is with month two is we want to now see you bring these foods in now that are not on the list. We get rid of the food list. We bring the foods in now, but your goal, your, your, your task is to make sure that it still fits your calorie ceilings and your protein targets. And so that's month two, right, reintegrating.

Speaker 1:

And then month three is called autonomy phase, and that's essentially where it's like.

Speaker 1:

You've built your repertoire of food choices, you've built your network of cafes and restaurants that you want to go to, and you have your you know dozen or so options wherever you are in your little sphere, in your little world, that you can then easily plug and play.

Speaker 1:

You know how to practice some restraint if you're never going to have dinner that evening to look at the menu ahead of time, right, yeah, just, you have some whole bag on your breakfast. We got strategies, we got systems, and so that's the three part process that we bring our clients through to really create this identity and lifestyle. And I think that, yeah, listen, what I just described is 90 fucking days and that for most people are like I don't have 90 days, even though you just spent nine years hopping from one get fit quick to the next, and it's like, or we could just squash this in three months and have you just a fighter jet stealth mode, able to like, navigate whatever scenario you find yourself in without a problem, because even the three months is still just like a start, yeah, start, yeah, right, because that's still just a start to your life.

Speaker 2:

Like many three months will pass by in your life, hopefully, and you know it is just even that I see as just setting up a system and a tool belt and all these things to then like apply it for a very long time period. You know, it's like, because even that is just, it's almost like the three months is still just the beginning.

Speaker 1:

Yep, you know it's just getting started, yeah, and then it's, and then, and then it's accepting that there's no going back well, that's the thing it's like like you know what the other side looks like, you know, you know you would just try. You've been trying to escape that for 10, 20 years. So we don't just do 90 days and then it's like okay, back to no, no, no. It's like this is you now?

Speaker 2:

this is you, well, and it is the whole thing. And I, you know, I have a buddy. He's a good friend of mine and he has severe sleep apnea, to the point where it's like ruining his life. You know he's he, you know, because true sleep apnea is where you'll end up like choking right. It's not just like a bad snore, you'll kind of have that, yeah yeah, it happens to me sometimes, yeah and he, basically he went and did a study and he was.

Speaker 2:

It was happening to him 15 times an hour, an hour an hour he was. So he was losing full breathing and waking up 15 times an hour. So his depth of sleep was just always surface level. I mean, you gotta imagine you wake up, go back to sleep. Wake up, go back to sleep 15 times an hour.

Speaker 2:

So he's just just waking up with deep fatigue, brain fog, no matter how much he sleeps. It's like hard for him to get out of bed. It's like ruining his life, and this has happened to him once before and the only other time that it got better was when he lost all this weight through this like kind of like a fasting esque diet, almost like intermittent fasting. It was the lightest he's ever been and that basically solved, or really was the primary thing that helped, his sleep apnea. And so he's kind of back on this where he's like I don't care, I'll do whatever I want or whatever I need to do, like my life is being ruined right now. So I was like I'll just eat fucking lettuce, I don't give a shit, like, but he's a very big food motivated person in the sense that and he's not like you look at him. He's not like fat, like you don't. You would not say that he's like height weight where's he?

Speaker 2:

he so he's probably like five, six, five, seven, and I don't know what his weight was. I'm trying to remember, if you told me during this conversation, I just talked at that height over 200.

Speaker 1:

You're probably. Yeah, I don't even think he's over 200.

Speaker 2:

You look at him, he doesn't look over right. He might have like a little belly, but like you would not. He lost weight in the past. He has right now. He's kind of back to a place where you know, obviously losing some weight would be beneficial, yeah, but he's. He's very. He loves to cook. He does all these sous vide things. He's definitely a foodie and you know we were kind of having this conversation of one how to like integrate foods that you like with better food options and just skimming a little bit here Low fat cheese instead of regular cheese.

Speaker 2:

This, this, this, that whole conversation.

Speaker 1:

But I was also kind of going on.

Speaker 2:

The saying of like this is you can't go back, and I think again it goes back to education of like people, people don't understand that it's just about calories in, calories out, unfortunately, fortunately, however you want to look at it, and it's kind of a bitch like it's not necessarily easy to have to add this whole other thing into your life where you have to pay attention and get nitty gritty with it.

Speaker 2:

You have to take more responsibility on for self autonomy, and it's challenging, you know, and I think that's the thing. But I think if you're at least educated, you don't get to bullshit yourself anymore, right, and you don't get to live in this fantasy land of well, if I do the five day bone broth cleanse, that's what's going to fix me, you know, or at least own that you're going to not do it. It's like a thing I've said before at least you know, don't be in denial, right, you know, but it was this kind of conversation of like look, dude, like this, this, you have to take responsibility for this, like you have to take responsibility for what you eat and how much of it, and the food choices, because it's just thermodynamic, physiological truth that you have to incorporate into your sphere of awareness. You have to make different decisions, yeah, and it's just not going to change otherwise and and it's.

Speaker 1:

It's like you said. It's like that identity has to be integrated forever because, again, if you go back, what got you there in the first place? That little gremlin is lurking. They want you to lure you back to the dark side, you know everyone understands it with with when you speak of it like, in terms of like finance, for example 100 yep because, like there's real harsh, harsh ramifications when it comes to financial, where, when it's just your weight and you could be 400 pounds and society will still, you know, embrace you.

Speaker 2:

Life goes on. Life goes on. You might not have a metabolic disease yet, or whatever.

Speaker 1:

But like, if you think of it like, let's say that you just, you know, were like just had a shopping addiction and you just got yourself in like insane amounts of consumer debt and credit card debt and you were just drowning, and it's like maybe you file bankruptcy and you, you know, a year later you finally like go through the therapy and you clean it up. Just because you got back to the water level, you got back to zero. Right, dude, there's no going back. Yeah, you have to keep doing the thing. Doing that got you out of that hole.

Speaker 1:

yeah, unfortunately, and it's like imagine if you're just like okay, I did it.

Speaker 1:

Going back to the old ways, it's like shoes and we get some baseball cards, you know and so it's like, it's like that with calories, and you know, it is sometimes that cut and dry where it's like listen, like if you've done everything under the sun and maybe you have some success, maybe you lose a little bit of weight. It's like that's your life now, and I think that's the big identity shift. It's like can you accept that? This is your life now? Right, like you are the person you didn't just do 12-week challenge once in your life now. Like you are the person you didn't just do 12 week challenge once in your life. But you are the person now who weighs their food out, who thinks ahead of time If we're gonna have dinner tonight, I probably should have a smaller lunch and breakfast. These little things low fat sour cream, low fats cheeses, low fat mayonnaise 50 calories here, 50 calories here, 50 calories here 50 calories here that's 200 calories less that day One bite of the appetizer.

Speaker 1:

Zero sugar soda. Now we're at 340 calories less for that one day, yeah, and the list goes on, where every day you can probably make a slightly better choice, five or six different times and shave 300 to 500 calories off of your total daily intake. Five or six different times and shave three to 500 calories off of your total daily intake, which could very well be the margin of whether you're in a deficit or a surplus, meaning that over the course of that 12 month period, that could the difference between you losing five pounds or putting another five pounds on Yep. 10 years later, you're down 50 pounds, you're up 50 pounds, and it all extrapolates down to the moment to moment. Choice of like. Like did, I did. I. Am I just unconsciously reacting and just going through life, you know, responding to whatever stimulus is happening immediately, or am I pausing, putting a little bit of awareness and thinking what, what?

Speaker 2:

choice could I make right now? What is the better choice? What is the better choice right now?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, participation and life is always come at you and be like oh, but you're busy and you're volunteering and all these like virtuous things you're doing for everyone else and because of all this virtuosity, there's no time left to pay attention to my own health. Oh no, so I better just order a pizza, because who has time for anything?

Speaker 1:

else, yeah, yeah, that would make me feel good, that's the fucking gremlin, that's the trap, that's the tripwire. Yeah, you feel so virtuous of all these things and I just had a conversation the other day. It was this exact thing and I was like uh-huh, uh-huh, bullshit, dude, because that's just you. You're telling yourself to justify not having to pay attention and participate with your own health and fitness. But let me ask you, man, what good are you to all these volunteer operations if you come down to diabetes or you?

Speaker 2:

have a stroke. Yeah, I mean, it's so crazy. So yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1:

So juice cleanses I just started one today. You know, learn for yourself if you have to, but take it from us. You know there's symbolic and spiritual reasons that practicing some form of restraint and deprivation can be beneficial for just self-discipline. But if we're, if we're just looking for weight loss here and we're looking to just create a new lifestyle, you know, be be wary of the get fit quicks.

Speaker 1:

And then, man, they come in really beautiful packaging and they're sold by doctors with little white coats and stethoscopes on their shoulders and we recommend our patients do uh see through that shit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because I think everybody can understand that the, the get quick, anything isn't well if you frame it that way.

Speaker 1:

But but then it's packaged in a way where it doesn't look like it.

Speaker 2:

But it's, you know. But yeah, it's just when, when I think so often it's like, oh, like, get rich quick well, I already got my finances on lock like that's all bullshit, but when it comes to something you actually want or need, that's out of your grasp. Yeah, exactly there's pain, the shiny, the shiny little object is like actually, maybe that will work for me for this situation. Yeah, yeah, episode 42 boom hopefully that helps you traverse the path of your health a little better.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, in uh 10 more weeks we'll be at a full year of this stuff. It's pretty incredible it is pretty cool yeah, so that was coach's corner episode 42. Thank you, guys, so much for joining us um hopefully. Hopefully you found some value in this episode. We'd love to hear from you If you wanted to drop a comment. Let us know what you thought and we will catch you all next time. Peace out Peace.