Episode 007 – Weight Lifting and Strict Dieting

Suburban Folk 0:00
This is the Suburban Folk podcast, Episode Seven weightlifting and strict dieting.

Looking forward to having some real talk with some real, folks, hey, this is Greg with the Suburban Folk podcast. My guest today is Brian, Brian, how you doing?

Unknown Speaker 0:20
Doing? Well, thanks so much for having me.

Suburban Folk 0:22
But I was trying to decide how I wanted to do your intro and I think you’re the type of guy that you may read it work or just out and about that makes everybody else feel really guilty or sad about their lack of exercise regimen, and eating habits. And I know that when we first met, you know, comparing notes, I think maybe the first thing that I remember is consistency with your lunch, the items that you have and just they were pretty healthy from everything that I remembered. So from there, I think we started chatting about what types of exercises you do versus For me, I know at the time was really into certain durance type of things like like running, what is your background been from around High School and on as far as whether it’s sports or overall gym workouts? How did you get into sort of what your regimen is now?

Unknown Speaker 1:17
It’s kind of weird. You say that. For years baseball was my thing. And the older I got playing, the more and more I wanted to build strength. And the first thing I noticed is that the gym is where it’s at. And I started around 1516 years old in putting sort of baseball to the side and really put a lot of focus on working out and it just became a lifestyle. You know, for years growing up, I was I would bike I would play baseball, I would play basketball, but I never really put emphasis on the gym side of it, but When I turned 1516, it just kind of changed. And I just started enjoying it and working out from that perspective and it became my sport. More so than baseball basketball Did,

Suburban Folk 2:13
did you find motivation in seeing gains from working out, like, you know, increasing your weight reps, different types of things that you can do or from the gains that he gave you in baseball or other activities that you were doing what was sort of the first motivating factor?

Unknown Speaker 2:32
It was definitely the gains from the parents and the strength from the gym itself. I mean, I looked up when I was somewhat young, to these wrestlers, you know, someone like Hulk Hogan or maybe bill Goldberg, and how great they looked. And I’m like, I’ve got to be like this. And as soon as I started getting in, I was surprised at how quickly I was able to make the gains that I did, and It within a few months, I noticed changes in, in my body and itself. And not just the shape of it, but obviously the string. And that in itself was a huge motivation, and really drove me to making this sort of lifestyle.

Suburban Folk 3:17
See, I’m learning something already. I had no idea that you were a wrestling fan growing up, but do you still watch?

Unknown Speaker 3:25
No, I haven’t probably watched it in man, probably 1015 years. But yeah, during the 90s I guess the hay day, late 80s or mainly 90s. I was really into it.

Suburban Folk 3:38
But yeah, I used to watch some and we actually finished our episode on comics, I made a joke that a teacher of mine compared comics to being a soap opera. And I think I’ve heard similar comparisons for wrestling. So even though I didn’t really watch it much, but I feel like the wrestling fans get insulted in the same way that you know if you We’ll talk about the stories and what is this? Why is there so much storyline rather than the rather than the actual wrestling but you know, they gotta keep it fresh?

Unknown Speaker 4:07
Yeah, even the wrestler was a real

Suburban Folk 4:09
no yeah. That’s that’s what my dad to keep me from watching it at least. No, I’m just

Unknown Speaker 4:18
invested Yeah, you’re absolutely right.

Unknown Speaker 4:21
The drama of the show is what kept me in tune. I mean, but for years in the 90s every single Monday, every single Thursday I was watching

Suburban Folk 4:31
like I said, I got I got to watch a bit but didn’t never never got quite as hooked on that as you know, comics and other other things like that. So, so into college, and I know that you are at least good enough at baseball that you were considering playing in college and then again, continue with the workout regimen. Was it the same balance? When did you get out of organized sports and then it was official. Let’s say there’s an Whether focus other than that gym exercise regimen.

Unknown Speaker 5:04
Yeah, so it kind of started out as a 11th grade when I was sort of moving up into the college world and trying to prepare for playing baseball in college. But at the same time, I was also working out almost every single day. And I really found it difficult to find time to play baseball, versus working out when that balance just wasn’t there. And I would come home, and I would focus on trying to play baseball for hour, an hour and a half. But then I wanted to go to the gym. And it got more and more to where I was kind of putting baseball on the back burner. And really put the gym was my main focus. And when I did play two years at a junior college, and I just got to the point where I love working out more so than playing the game and I just said you know what, I just just kind of want to make this my full time exercise regimen, you might say and just say baseball and just stay on hold. Gotcha.

Suburban Folk 6:07
Continuing with the history from the eating perspectives, I’ll say for myself that, let’s say all the way through college like the freshman 15. Yeah, I definitely hit that and had no nothing that I was doing to watch what I eat in any way. And I feel like I’m probably not alone in that path. It’s only when you get into, you know, much later after college that because you let yourself go a little too far and then try to watch what you eat a little bit more. And like I said, I know for you in particular, I want to say, you know, I noticed like grilled chicken a lot. You know, when we first met, it’s like, hey, that’s really good. And I used to do that when I had to cook for myself because I’m a terrible cook. But, you know, sometimes that can get a little bit boring. So was that at the same time that you really watch what you ate, along with? exercise plan or did you kind of come into that later as an additional lever to pull to get even better at the types of exercises you’re doing?

Unknown Speaker 7:08
So the diet in terms of grilled chicken and green beans twice a day, I’m actually still doing that today. It that actually started in 2011. I remember in our marriage like I was on my honeymoon and I’m like, I kind of want to just go with a new diet and it’s consistent lunch plan. Yeah, I was working all the time, and I wanted to come up with something that was easy. Now, prior to all that when I was in college, I just focused on calories in and it was not always a clean meal. I remember that it was a couple buddies of mine, we would go to McDonald’s, I kid you not. And there were times I’d have three double cheeseburgers, a large fry and a sweetie and then go straight to the gym. And I didn’t put on any fat Yeah, which was unbelievable to me. But I was also young testosterone was high. And I was really making up for the weight that I was lifting in the gym.

Suburban Folk 8:08
That’s what I would imagine is for knock on wood. Hopefully most college students, you’re burning those calories for whatever reason is the case much faster when you’re younger, so you don’t have to focus on it as much. So it sounds pretty standard for a college diet, but it sounds like you turn it to a different diet pretty quickly, certainly quicker than I did, admittedly. So jumping right into the regimen itself. So you talked about at one point that it was every single day, are you still doing every single day?

Unknown Speaker 8:40
It’s five days a week, always there are times where I’m doing six days and seven days. But seven days is rare. Six days is sometimes five days is every single month, every single week, every single month. I mean, I rarely ever go below five days a week?

Suburban Folk 9:03
And what do those workouts look like? I’m sure there is some rotation. Obviously, you’re not going to work out the same right part of your body every single day. What does that rotation look like?

Unknown Speaker 9:14
Yeah, so it’s normally on a Monday, for instance, I’ll go in and I’ll do abs. On Tuesday, I might do chest and tries, Wednesday or Thursday, because sometimes I’ll take the middle of the week off one of those days, I’ll probably have a leg day with an arm day. Friday would be chest day, and then Saturday would be a shoulder day with maybe arms again. So it definitely is on a rotational basis. And then sometimes I switch it up and I do legs twice in a week might do ABS twice a week. I don’t really necessarily keep a consistent plan on Oh, I did. Legs today. I need to make sure I do chest Tomorrow, but for the most part, I still try to at least hit the main muscle groups at least once a week,

Suburban Folk 10:07
diving deeper into those. So when you say ABS or when you say arms, what types of exercises are we talking about?

Unknown Speaker 10:13
Yeah, so when let’s just look at arms, for instance. So for the most part, what I try to do is stick with free weight more so than the resistant bands. I mean, they’re, they’re all they’re both are great. So it doesn’t really matter which one you use. I prefer the free weight for the most part. But let’s just say that I try and spend 20 minutes a day on biceps. So what I’ll do is I’ll pick out four or five different exercises that are bicep routine, and then I will go through a three set interval but I try not to stop I try to make it keep it fast phase and continue through and then the next I may switch it in between If I’m doing a form day, I might do buys. And then I’ll go straight to try to tries and go right back to buys all within that three set repertoires, I usually try to keep it between eight and 12. Sometimes I’ll change it to where I’ll do a slower rep, where I’ll really hold the form and stay tight as I can on the muscle. And then some days I’ll switch it over, I’ll just be super heavy, and very difficult. But the key that I always try to make sure is that the form is 100%. spot on,

Suburban Folk 11:38
and even breaking it down further. So when you’re saying buys, we’re talking curls, yes, biceps. Yeah. What do you do for tries hideout, I’ll admit I use not like the straight machines, but there’s a different term for it, but like almost like the more free machines where where it doesn’t limit your motion, but it’s not the free weights. So what What do you do for tries for the freeways.

Unknown Speaker 12:01
So, you know, for thinking about the freeway, the key is getting that back arm extension. And a lot of times what I’ll do is I’ll put the curl bar, and I’ll put 25, whatever it is the way you want to put it on each side, and you’ll lay down on your bench, and you’ll do an extension with your elbows sort of locked in. And then just like doing a fulcrum movement between your elbow all the way up to the ceiling, and just keeping that same static motion. That’s one thing you can do. You can also take a dumbbell, say a 70 pound dumbbell, put that sort of behind your head and then lifted up sort of over it, but you got to be careful doing that because if you go too far back you could end up injuring your shoulder and then there’s even the what’s called kickbacks. I don’t know if you’ve heard of those, but it’s it’s the opposite. A bicep curl. So instead of going forward, you kind of kick your arm back in that motion, if that makes sense.

Suburban Folk 13:08
I think so. I assume you maybe don’t get quite as range

Unknown Speaker 13:12
of motion just because correct? Yeah, you’re sort of,

Suburban Folk 13:16
and also gravity’s working with you rather than against you when you’re sitting down. So maybe that’s on the lighter days, I’m guessing. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 13:25
Yeah.

Suburban Folk 13:26
Yeah. It depends on how much weight you grab.

Unknown Speaker 13:28
Yeah, exactly.

Suburban Folk 13:30
How about for ABS because this is one for me. That’s always interesting. And like I said, I come at most exercise from an endurance standpoint and then are using running as my go to, there is a certain amount of AB exercise you’re getting just by naturally holding your abs in when you’re running or doing other things like that. And most folks say the obvious you wouldn’t just do sit up so what what other exercises are you including for an average

Unknown Speaker 14:00
So this might not sound like the answer you’re looking for. But I will say ABS for the most part, they really start in the kitchen. I mean, that really is where it begins at. But if we’re looking for specific exercises, you’re you’re right. It’s not necessarily that you’re just going to sit on the floor and do your normal setups. But the key is that you try to make sure that every exercise you do with ABS has some sort of resistance. For instance, I’ll do, I don’t know, the tricep rope. I don’t know if you know exactly what I’m talking about there. But I’ll grab that and put that behind my head and I’ll do a crunch or resistance crunch. And then I may go straight into what’s called a leg lift. hold that for a minute, two minutes, and then I’m a flip it around and then go back to that crunch. And then there’s also the side to side motions that you can use with dumbbells to sort of hit your oblique, where you’re, you’re really leaning towards one side while holding the dumbbell on your other hands. If you’re doing it from the left side, you’re going to hold the dumbbell on your left arm and then kind of crunch through with the right side motion. So that I mean that that’s a handful of exercises that can be done. You know, the biggest thing though it is the kitchen is that’s where the main focuses you to your point that you could do crunches all day long. But if the diet isn’t there, it’s going to be difficult.

Suburban Folk 15:44
Yeah, that’s right. Every everybody’s got a six pack. It’s just depends on how much of a layer it’s covering it. No, I hear ya. I hear you for that. And just to test my knowledge, when you’re saying like the rope, do you mean the one that attaches to the machine that has its source? of splits out into a why and then the two ends on it. Okay. You know, didn’t know what you’re talking about it continuing to cycle through those two shoulders I’m assuming is your presses, Bench Press shoulder press. Sad looks is another shoulder exercise I don’t base where you get dumbbells and you put up to your side and then literally lift up to this where your shoulder is staying sort at a straight line after the lift. So you started your sad, straight line afterwards. Oh, yeah, those are, I know what you’re talking about. Those are painful.

Unknown Speaker 16:36
They’re not fun. But for your traps, they’re the best and part of your shoulder is that trap muscle which is the one that connects sort of your neck down to your shoulder blade. Well,

Suburban Folk 16:46
how do you feel about I’m going to get the wrong term but real world exercises is the best way I can describe it. So for example, and I will do this sometimes walking around with kettlebells Okay, if I’m walking, you know, having to carry a heavy item that would be equivalent to that, or I think the battle ropes seem to be kind of trendy almost even but you see those, you know, for people’s workouts? And do you subscribe to those types of dynamic exercises as well either in between your standard raps or where do they fit in, if at all,

Unknown Speaker 17:23
the cattle kettlebell carries, I definitely use I do that often. Actually, I think they’re very good exercises because you got resistance and it’s so important for the shoulder to be able to hold up, especially, you know, using something simple like carrying groceries. Right? You know, you it’s a it’s an everyday routine that you’re doing and you can actually strengthen it and really help over time muscle fatigue. Some of them I’m not the biggest fan on not saying that not a benefit because they can be depending on where you’re at and your exercise regimen, but They have these I think they’re called rope slings. I don’t even know really the true exercise where it looks like you’re slinging ropes right in front of you. I know it’s a, it’s a huge popular exercise at the gym that I’m currently at. But I don’t know how much of a benefit that has versus just doing straight front lists of dumbbells. I don’t see the same

Suburban Folk 18:26
if I’m following you that I thought they were called battle ropes for something that may be what it’s called. Yeah. And I feel like you see them everywhere. Now.

Unknown Speaker 18:34
You know,

Suburban Folk 18:36
any video of I don’t know a professional athlete yet rehabbing. You inevitably see that, you know, among some of the other exercises, so, yeah, I’ve wondered if that’s just to get in a little bit of cardio while you’re working your arms is the idea. I haven’t tried those. I’m sort of afraid that I can’t keep the rope going.

Unknown Speaker 18:57
It is not that difficult.

Suburban Folk 18:59
Or I’ll just go with the smaller version of them so I can work my way up. Um, what about four leg exercises and that’s another one for me that I feel like most endurance type of things I do riding a bike for example, trying to swim you get some amount of legs so I have very little focus on squats lunges, do you do that type of stuff and do you do it with certain amount of weights or even just without weights,

Unknown Speaker 19:27
so squats that kind of changed my routine recently, I’ve been doing extremely slow going down squats. So I’ll put a lighter weight on the bar, but I’ll go down basically at the low below the knee angle as slow and that come back as slow as I can. And it has been probably the most difficult leg exercise I’ve ever done, but it’s very fulfilling. I spent A lot more time on lunges. So that’s the one leg routine out where you got one leg out, you know, you’re going to do your bend down, then go out and do your other leg, and so forth. But more so in a walking motion. And I spent a lot of time doing lunges and of all the leg exercises is probably my favorite. For me. I’ve, I love squats at one time, but I’ve gotten as I’ve gotten older, I just, I don’t find as much enjoyment in doing squats versus lunges and then obviously, the leg press machine, which has been great. I’m a huge fan of that. And then leg curls, hamstring curls, calf raises.

Suburban Folk 20:47
Yeah, all the stuff that I avoid. I mean, I know one of the big benefits and I think why a lot of exercise plans really focused on the legs because that’s where the real big money are so the idea is that if you beat those up when they’re recovering, they’re burning more calories than other parts of you. So, I mean, the logic makes sense. That’s the reason why it’s part of the regimen. It’s just like you said, when you’re describing the slow down and the slow backup, it makes me think of when you have to sit down at almost like 90 degrees on a wall and just stay there. Wall squats, I think is what they’re called. And that’s just awful. Like a couple minutes doing that. You could barely stand up afterwards. But yeah, you’re right. Once it’s over. You feel great.

Unknown Speaker 21:35
Yeah, yes. But that’s English the next day.

Suburban Folk 21:38
Yeah, for sure. of the leg days in between. Well, and do you in between sets? Do you just stay static or do you do some cardio while while your muscles are recuperating?

Unknown Speaker 21:53
Normally once I’m hitting the weights, in between sets, I’ll kind of do like a walk around. Sort of around the area, not very far out like a few steps here there. I’m usually not sitting down. So that’s no, that’s my normal routine. But for most days, I try to do at least two exercises together. Like to your point with the wall squats, like one of my exercises is going from leg press to wall squats. And that in itself is already a killer, and then it to go straight back to leg press after doing all the squats is impossible. And so what I’ll do is I’ll just kind of take a 20 to 30 seconds just pacing back and forth until it’s time to start the next set.

Suburban Folk 22:44
And is that because you find that doing any cardio before or in between takes away from the next set? Or is there any other logic? I just I just

Unknown Speaker 22:56
think it does. It helps you prepare for the next one because you’re muscles are already so fatigued just by doing the exercises that you just did. And you really need to give it that sort of wake up and rest that it needs before hitting the neck.

Suburban Folk 23:10
And so going back to the timing, so you’re saying least five days a week for you? Do you feel like your goals are in line with the general public or if you had to give advice to somebody that’s wanting to have a weight lifting regimen? What is the days a week that you would suggest

Unknown Speaker 23:30
at a minimum three days is plenty. I just think that once you make this a habit and a lifestyle, you’ll find yourself wanting to go more than three days. And that that’s what I find that if I don’t go it’s just more of a psychological thing. I just don’t feel as good and it’s it’s, it makes me feel a beat. And I think we’re going to maybe talk about in a few minutes but you know, the whole I work out in the mornings and I have to do this before I go to work, it feels so much better to go to work, knowing that I have already worked out and it’s just, it’s just a habit, a lifestyle. But if I had to talk to anyone new or someone that’s just getting into the exercise routine, I would definitely say three days is plenty starting out. Okay,

Suburban Folk 24:22
that’s, that’s probably a good good goal to start with, especially for somebody that’s new to these types of exercises. And yeah, what may go into it. Yeah, so hit this with the big reveal. So what time are you getting to the gym?

Unknown Speaker 24:35
So it thankfully has changed slightly. For years. I was getting up at 345 and getting to the gym by 415. I did that private for 10 years. That’s

Suburban Folk 24:49
earlier than I thought unless that started to slip. I first met or

Unknown Speaker 24:54
I’m just forgetting. No, actually it changed probably within the past two years before. most part it was always I would not be nine days out of 100 hours in the gym starting my workout before for fitting. Now, today I’m usually in the gym probably around five 515. So that that’s what me getting up around 445 and then getting ready about 515. So but hour later,

Suburban Folk 25:27
like you mentioned getting up and doing it early in the morning, I think nearly any research you do from you know people online or even to local gym will suggest that that really is the ideal thing to do is start your day with the exercise. The good news is like to some extent you can switch off your brain for you know, the other things that are going on and like this is the thing you have to do you know you have to do it, just go do it right, it takes right take sort of a thought out of it. And then once it’s done, hopefully it makes its way into how the rest of the day is going to go and how long I your workouts typically

Unknown Speaker 26:01
will. And actually, before I get to that piece, you know, one thing to think about too is that, you know, working out in the morning is means you got it done. For those that try to work out at night, or after work, you’re so brain tired that it just gets difficult to want to go to the jet. So last thing you want to do, so doing any morning, knocks it out, and you don’t have to worry about the rest of the day. Now, Tom, was it no less than an hour and 10 minutes there. Rarely, I’ll do less than hour. But I mean, that is hardly ever. I mean, if I had to go back and look at how long I worked out over the past five years, it’s always at least an hour and 10 minutes. There are some days where I’ll do an hour and 20 hour and a half, and that’s nine times out of 10. That’s a Monday or Tuesday and usually time coming off a weekend. Not necessarily that I may have had a meal or two that I shouldn’t have had on Sunday that’s outside of this diet regimen that I’m on. So I’ll burn a few extra calories on a Monday or Tuesday.

Suburban Folk 27:11
That’s not too bad I actually thought you were gonna say long sparks Oh, you read so I think an hour to an hour and a half is a reasonable for folks to expect to spend time on how about injuries? It can you give me Top of Mind things that you face that have set you back and what you’ve done to work through an injury or if that kept you out of the gym for certain amount of time and and what you had to do from there.

Unknown Speaker 27:37
Yeah, so the biggest thing that’s really happened to me over the past few years is a shoulder injury. I end up hurting it at the gym, trying to actually rack some weight back on the chest press. And for probably two or three months, I wasn’t able to really do any type of press exercises. I had to actually go to a physical therapist to get some testing done to make sure nothing was really messed up and did the physical therapy just through some stretching and exercises they provided through me there I’ve been in turn took that with me to the gym. So for probably, I would say three or four months, I was going into the gym. And the only weight exercises I really did was legs. All the other time I was actually working on stretching, getting my shoulder better and worked out it was just too risky to do any type of weight exercises at the time. And so it really kept me down for about three or four months from truly doing any weight exercises.

Suburban Folk 28:48
Any advice that you can learn from trying to do a little bit too much or I assume it wasn’t a form thing, to for people to stay away from to avoid. I assume joints and stuff like that. is probably the most common.

Unknown Speaker 29:01
Yeah, that’s exactly right. And actually, in that case that day, it actually was form. I was rushing the exercise because I wanted to get it done. And I had no idea why but I never wrecked the weight in the way that I did. And it in essence, pop the shoulder. And it thankfully wasn’t a rotator cuff tear. It was a severe strain to my late room, but eventually tilled up and it feels way better now, but to your point, the the key is the form but then the weight that you’re doing, you do got to be careful. And that when you’re over exerting yourself and you’re putting too much weight on your joints, then you need to sort of take a step back, and you need to think about a year if you’re 150 pounds, it’s going to be extremely difficult to lift 300 pounds, so to Through that as you’re waiting to try to lift that you’re going to end up exerting yourself and ultimately causing injury and making it worse for yourself for really the next several years, they even attempt to go and work out.

Suburban Folk 30:12
Yeah, well, and there’s also a cost element as well, depending on how bad it is. And you know how many doctors you maybe you have to go see that most of the time when you’re talking about these things, it’s good costing because you’re keeping yourself healthy, but don’t don’t be a detriment to that to that overall goal as well. So the other jumping back to the scheduling big reveal is up to this point. Brian has been able to only worry about himself, let’s say schedule wise, but he’s got a baby on the way so for folks that listen to this, I’ll say most have kids or in some age range. So speaking to their scheduling and having some of those needs and you mentioned you know your schedule changing a bit in the last While Do you have any idea what that’s going to look like once the baby’s here?

Unknown Speaker 31:07
Yeah, so the first couple weeks, it’s gonna be hard. I may end up just setting the first two weeks aside, as I’m taking a break from the gym for two weeks. I just know it’s going to be difficult with almost being up 24 seven, right, I can’t see myself necessarily working out my normal time schedule is probably gonna be sporadic if I do. And I sort of put an expectation on myself though we’re when the baby’s here what I like to do is be the one that stays up throughout the night. And being that the workouts kind of wake me up considering maybe working out around 10 1030 at night, and then coming back around midnight and then basically just be up the rest of the night and taking care of the baby of whatever from that perspective, but A total guests right now. And I kind of did the math you like my work schedule and health and when I’ll be back full time and office, which looks to be more so you know, for those that don’t know, the baby’s gonna be born in middle of December, full time where schedule will be back probably February. So within the middle of December to the end of January, the schedule is going to be completely different and to try to plan it right now has been scared to think about and not sure if I can put it on paper.

Suburban Folk 32:37
Yeah, well, every day will be different I’m sure as you’re well aware, the best laid plans, you know, who knows what will happen as you guys get into your routine, so we’ll have to do an update on this. But let’s say six months or maybe nine months from now to see how the schedule has changed in some way to to account For your family change that’s going on so so for folks that already have kids don’t feel too bad when you’re hearing how regimented Brian is with his schedule, because he’s gonna have that challenge coming soon to see see how well he can do with it?

Unknown Speaker 33:13
Well, I just hope the title is inadequate a dead back onto a regimen.

Suburban Folk 33:20
You know what, if that happens, then you can be the one to trailblaze Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 33:23
there you go.

Suburban Folk 33:26
So moving over to eating and of course, we’ve hit it. I said that for your intro, again, something that I always noticed for you. And the other thing that you mentioned that I really identify with is keeping it simple. You know, there are folks that definitely can struggle with not having variety in their food, I tend to not be that type, especially if I have to cook because I’m so bad that you might as well just keep it very, very simple and keep it to a calorie count and you know, keep Salt down, keep the sugar down. Do you? Is that where your philosophy is for eating? What does your diet plan look at like right now?

Unknown Speaker 34:09
Yeah, so it’s very basic. And

Unknown Speaker 34:14
my wife is surprised that I’m still able to eat this food the same basically every single day. And then, in essence, doing doing it for almost 10 years. Pretty much the same diet. I mean, I have thrown some variety in here, here, there. But for the most part, if I had to look at my schedule, and what I eat, and I do track it, I track every day, the food that I intake, but if I had to look for breakfast, it’s going to be a protein shake. And then I’m going to have two egg whites. A slice of turkey bacon. That’s it. So it’s a small breakfast. Within breakfast and lunch, I’ll have a quarter cup of almonds When lunch comes, I’m going to have and I waited away the food. I’m gonna have two and a half ounces of chicken, a cup of green beans, and then a couple grapes. It’s not a lot of food that I’m in taking here, but I’m eating often. And then towards dinner or in between dinner, I have a variety sometimes I’ll have a fruit of either like an apple or banana. Sometimes I may even have like, one slice of whole wheat toast with a layer of all natural peanut butter. So that kind of varies daily. And then at night, it’s the same thing in terms of pretty much what I had for dinner and it’s two and a half ounces of chicken, a cup of carrots, and either some other fruit more likely than not it’s going to be grapes again, not always though. And then before I go Bed Believe it or not, I’ll have a cup of coffee with a quarter cup of creamer.

Suburban Folk 36:07
Wow. regular coffee.

Unknown Speaker 36:09
regular coffee, huh?

Suburban Folk 36:11
Yeah, that wouldn’t go well for me. But I so I didn’t realize that the same amount of chickens you do that for lunch and dinner,

Unknown Speaker 36:21
lunch and dinner. Yeah.

Suburban Folk 36:22
And how’s that prepare just grilled or?

Unknown Speaker 36:26
Yep, grilled. Some seasonings on it like salt and pepper but it’s pretty much just grilled just regular grilled chicken.

Suburban Folk 36:36
Is there certain like I mentioned you talked about the calorie count when you were younger? Is that the same? General focus is just total calories in total calories out how much do you pay attention for me right now is a maybe I’m watching too many documentaries but you see all this stuff about sugar like oh, it’s everywhere. Some things you have no idea and they make you so paranoid, but then they never bother to Tell you what to eat. Right? Yes. be paranoid about sugar everywhere, but we’re going to leave the what you should do in the unknown. carbs, of course is always a thing you hear about simple carbs, okay? The complex carbs not okay, stay away from processed foods. Right? Do you have all those considerations? Or again, is it really just the calories in and out?

Unknown Speaker 37:24
I mean, for the most part, it’s, I do consider those. But there are days where I’ll go out and I’ll have you know, a burger and fries. It’s, but that’s a every two or three week thing if I were to ever do it in a month, and that’s if I’m meeting friends or something to go, I don’t want to be that person that brings my chicken along and

Suburban Folk 37:53
you’ll get the same jokes that like the vegans get.

Unknown Speaker 37:55
Yeah, exactly. I don’t I’m not looking for that. But I do. For the most part, I care about the amount of calories I men taking every day more so than and what the calories are made up of. You know, for someone who’s trying to maintain, let’s just say you’re trying to maintain 150 pound frame. And if you’re not working out, you could easily manage your lifestyle, which is having 1500 calories a day, it sounds light, but it’s actually not you’d be surprised at what 1500 calories can be make it made up of if it’s healthy, it’s green, and it’s slim. It could you can have a lot of food to make up that amount of calories for myself,

Suburban Folk 38:39
for example, working from home makes it easier when you’re right by the snack closet to just grab something in there and get into the mindless eating and so I’m trying to make a conscious effort of all right, can we just have some broccoli ready to go or been seeing what all you can do with cauliflower? Different ways, you know. So that’s for sure. And when you look at that, it’s like, okay, you can have this gigantic bowl, that’s 60 calories, you know, and a lot of lot of vitamins and minerals and those versus the processed foods that they they add up real quick.

Unknown Speaker 39:15
Yeah. And you don’t have to take it to the extreme, though, I mean, that there are those that will take it beyond what I would ever consider to be a healthy mind, way mindset of eating, and you can enjoy a pizza pizza every once in a while. The problem is, is that if you’re having pizza every single day, twice a day, that’s a bad eating healthy lifestyle, and you may not see it now. But when you’re in your 40s and 50s, and you got arteries that are tied up, it’s it’s going to cause issues and you’re going to put yourself in early grave.

Suburban Folk 39:54
Yeah. And one other thing that you didn’t mention, but again, I know is you You do not drink your calories. As far as soft drinks, right alcoholic beverages, which I imagine also goes a long way for calorie count. You don’t have those empty calories either, which I think is a big pitfall. For a lot of folks.

Unknown Speaker 40:14
That’s very true. And it’s funny you mentioned that outside of the that protein shake and the protein shake is that I take is only eight ounces. So it’s very small. And that little creamer that I have a coffee. Other than that the only thing I’m drinking daily is water. I really don’t take any other type of fluids.

Suburban Folk 40:35
Yeah, which is good. I get again, I know I hear people say that they need some variety. They can’t just do that. But as much as people can stick to water throughout their day, I would definitely recommend that I what I do is a cup of coffee in the morning to get started and then try to switch over to water from there now. Dinner times its own story. But at least through the day, I’ve tried to try it

Unknown Speaker 41:00
hydrated. So it’s not just us a lot of folks.

Suburban Folk 41:02
Yeah, you know, you get can’t go too overboard. So the last question I think I have for you is, talk to me a little bit about the community aspect. So as your history we’ve talked about, you’re getting up really, really early. So I would imagine the gyms not all that crowded, but have you found a niche group of folks to whether it’s spotters or just people that you see regularly that you say hello to that you can compare notes with what what does that look like from a community standpoint?

Unknown Speaker 41:34
Yeah, so you’re right about one thing is that going early, it’s it’s not like it’s a jam packed gym, but you’d be surprised how often the same amount of people you’ll see every single day and, you know, I’m not really at the place now where I really look for a spot or anything to sort of help out with my workout routine. I’m the type of person where it’s just easier for me to put my headphones in and just sort of do my own workout but On. That being said, I will find myself conversation with a lot of the same people every single day. There’s a couple guys that I’m friends with. And Matter of fact, one guy actually goes to church with me every so often that I met at the gym. And it’s, it’s, it’s crazy to think that some of the people you meet at the gym could end up becoming friends and so forth after the fact and we don’t necessarily work out together. It’s just, Hey, I see your face every day. So I’m just going to say to you, and then you just get closer over time and you Next thing you know, you know the person’s name and your conversating outside of the gym. That that is what it really looks like from my perspective. And now there are some that I do see that didn’t meet at the gym, and then they do hang out and they do work out at the gym in itself. But currently, I don’t do it from that perspective. But it is nice to see that familiar faces every single day. You know, nobody needs to be afraid of the

Suburban Folk 43:09
who’s who has the commercials at 24 Hour Fitness the I lift things up, I put them down. Or they’re saying, you know, I get judged basically is that they’re trying to get at. Yeah, is that it is so yeah, there’s friendly folks at the gym, you know, you don’t gotta worry about that.

Unknown Speaker 43:25
Yeah, exactly no matter where you go. So with that was the questions that I had for you. Before we end up closing out this podcast, I did want to say on the diet exercise for any of the users out there listeners that are struggling and really having a hard time about working out and the diet, the key is started plan and just come up with some sort of daily habit that you enjoy doing, and just start it. And once you get started, I’m telling you, you won’t be discouraged. You’ll find more encouragement, and you’ll enjoy doing

Suburban Folk 44:01
Yeah, agreed. I think that’s good advice for anything people are trying to pick up is the first step is the hardest. And then from there, it only gets easier. Yeah. All right. Well, I appreciate it.

Unknown Speaker 44:13
And I will catch up with you later. Alrighty, sounds good.

Suburban Folk 44:17
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai