How A Busy Dad Lost 15 Pounds & Transformed His Life

0:00Welcome back to the Rooted and Resilience podcast. Surprise, there's no Ashley today, but I am joined by very exciting guests in this Transform Testimonial podcast. We've got Tyler, Kathleen, and our transformer, Steven. So today we're just gonna go over Steven's experience in the Transform program. And without further ado, I wanna kick it off to you, Steven. Can you tell us a little bit about what led you to joining us in Transform? Yeah, so my wife has followed you guys for a long time. And she did a program a long time ago that it was like trying to fix her metabolism and whatnot, but she's, you know, I've got a freezer full of nourish foods and like, she's just been doing that forever. And so I was, I had been up and down with my weight and I just never really did anything that was,

1:03that would last. I did a bunch of calorie cut diets and lost a bunch of weight, but never did, you know, I gained it all back pretty quick after that. So I just kind of came up to like earlier this year. I had been in the gym for like six months and just wasn't really feeling progress. Like I wasn't, wasn't noticing any progress or losing any weight or anything like that. And it just felt like I was kind of wasting my time. And then my wife, I just got an email one morning that said, welcome to the Transform program. And I was like, well, what is this? And she signed me up for it. So your wife, we have your wife to think. Correct. That's so funny. Okay, so I've never heard anybody's entry to transform quite like that. Shout out to Steven's wife. Before we touch on any of that, I just want to thank you for your support at NERSH too. That's really awesome. And that we really, really appreciate that. So it sounds like, you know, you've dabbled here and there.

2:05You did some, you know, calorie cuts to potentially lose weight in the past. What have you found and transformed to be the biggest, like game changer per se for your result to actually stick? And also before we even say that, do you want to tell us a little bit about your results and where you are in the program right now? Cause it is a six month program. So obviously you've been through different phases. So it'd be helpful if we knew where you're at within that and what you've experienced so far. Yeah, so I'm in my last week, like this, I'm in week 24. So and I'm actually rolling into the fall transform. I was just talking to Tyler about that. So I obviously had a, I've had the game changer for me the game changer for me has just been like realizing that you actually can eat. Like you don't have to, you don't have to starve yourself to get in better shape. You know, even when we went into the cut, I was still 400 calories higher than I was

3:08in the in the calorie cutting program. So like the cut really kind of crazily wasn't all that hard for me. It wasn't that big of a deal. But yeah, it's, it's, you know, week 24, I've, what have I lost? I think 15, I think I'm sitting steady, steady right about 15 pounds out of the cut. But my muscle mass, like when I first, like the, I remember the first workout I did, it was the alternating neutral grip chest press, laying on your back. It was like, okay, and I'm like struggling to put 45s up like alternating and out of curiosity. I mean, I haven't done that in, you know, since before the cut, but out of curiosity, I, I checked it last week because we've still been doing a lot of, you know, still doing a lot of lifting. And I did the same amount of reps with 65 pounds as I did with 45 pounds.

4:11Like 65 pound dumbbells, as I did with 45 pound dumbbells 24 weeks ago. So the strength, the increase in strength, the ability to, to keep the strength that I'm working for has been the probably the biggest game changer overall. That's awesome. Yeah. You, you've lost like a good amount of weight, but you haven't lost an insane amount of weight, but I think the biggest changes for you have just been, you saw so much muscle come back on. And that's honestly probably part of the reason Kathleen might have more interest and validation here, but then I think you probably haven't lost more as much weight as we may have predicted you would from the start, just because you have put so much muscle on in the interim. Yeah, exactly. Looking at your, your progress pictures and how, you know, your body, fat percentage of changes like that, I think that's the biggest thing that you see is that not only, have you lost some fat mass, but you've also put on a proportionally more amount of muscle mass. And so because of that, the weight on the scale isn't necessarily, you know, at the lower points, like 20 pounds down,

5:1130 pounds down, whatever. But it's because your by fat percentage is improving over time because you're lean mass is improving, which is amazing. That's what we're looking for. We always tell people that like your end weight goal is probably way higher than you expect is going to be because of the muscle mass piece of it. And you know, that's why things like the free fat mass index calculator can be really helpful to kind of like reset our ideals of like, where our weight should actually be. But I do have a question going back. Like, so when you saw the email come through, you know, from the program and you're like, okay, I'm signed up for this program and stuff. Like, what were you just like, I'll just give this a try and see like what happens and we'll just go with it and stuff or were you kind of like hesitant to do it at first or were you like, what is this? You know, anything there, I would love to hear that. No, I just, I kind of jumped into it and started doing research because I was like, okay, what is this? And obviously, you know, I trust my wife's, her judgment on whether she thinks something's in a work or not and she's significantly smarter than I am.

6:11So she, you know, if she thinks it's going to work, I'm just going to believe her. And so I just, basically I just, I didn't research on what it's going to be and how it's going to go and like geared myself up for it before we just, before I just jumped in. You know, I think like that first week of, of transform when you're, when you're just eating normal. I think that's kind of the hard, honestly, that's the hardest week is not, not like in the back of your head saying somebody's looking at the food that I'm eating. So I'm not going to eat like an idiot. So that kind of, that kind of slowed my production, or like slowed my results from the beginning, I think, because I think Tyler and I figured out that my maintenance was significantly higher than I thought it was, but it was because I was not eating enough during that, you know, that first week where we were getting that baseline. Cause I, I dropped like six pounds in the first two weeks to transform, which I'm sure a lot of it was waterway too,

7:12but I, you know, I slowly got back up to kind of a good, good baseline, like, you know, pretty steady baseline. But yeah, it was just a, it was just a, all right, let's go. I'm good. Yeah, the Hawthorne effect is really challenging for people to overcome because it's like they're, you know, they're paying attention to things. They know that we're paying attention to things, but like you said, we really want people when they first come in to just eat how they normally do during that first week. And then the other thing too is that it can be somewhat challenging to track. Like if you're someone that's a grazer or you tend to eat a bunch of different things, it can be really hard to track. There's things at first. And so people are like, forget this. I'm not tracking all these things. I'm going to really simplify things, which have, and you know, the long run really helps to kind of simplify things. But I very much understand. I just really want to go back to your muscle mass, you know, and your lifts and stuff like because so many people, I think know us as like a nutrition program. When really the nutrition and training does go together. And so I would love for you to kind of talk about your experience with them going together. And, you know, any thoughts you have generally about the nutrition side and going with the training side

8:14and transform. Yeah. So I never, I don't know. I guess my brain never, ever thought of food as fuel. Like, and I think that's the, I think that's the biggest switch that has happened is like, I'm eating two lift more. Like, I'm eating to perform better in the gym. Like I, I have simple carbs that are in my gym bag so that I eat them immediately after I'm done lifting. And I make sure I have 30 to 50 grams of protein before I go into lift and like, it's just, yeah, just just the whole, the whole point of eating is not to just enjoy food like it used to, you know, it was a comfort thing. Now it's, now it's, I feel a difference. Like how I feel every day depends on how I eat the day before. So that's probably the biggest change for me. Yeah, there's this concept in Spanish where there's two words for eating and one is cometta,

9:16which means as they would say like tealé a cow, hope, which is just, you know, eat for pleasure, eat for whatever you want. And there's allimentar, which means to nourish. Essentially, we don't really use it in English. And I think a lot of people really just kind of feed themselves like they would feed a cow, I just like whatever's laying around, whatever they're craving, whatever seems good, without any intention or purpose as to what that food will yield me later on. And I think coming into transform and realizing that, hey, there's a difference in these two types of eating. Not that you can't ever, you know, eat cake or cookies or all these things that you, we really only for pleasure. I don't think anyone's eating KFC for its nutritional value, but it is delicious. But you can do both, right? And if you want to have certain vesicles, most likely you're going to need to allimentar a lot more than you're going to need to eat a cow, cometta. So I think it's a really interesting concept and putting these things in the language is so helpful

10:16as you just illustrated. Yeah, I think when you start adjusting your motivations for what you're eating and why you're eating, like I've even caught myself, or it's like, okay, I've got plenty of room in my macros to have this, right? Like I can't even, it's been so long since I did it, but like I remember going and like seeing like a piece of chocolate chip like banana bread, like this Hawaiian company makes it and I was like, oh, that looks good and I've got plenty of room, you know, the macros aren't too terribly bad. Then I like took a bite and I was like, it's not good enough to not be full after eating that many calories. So I just stopped and I was like, all right, well, way the rest of it. So I know how much to take out of my macros and yeah, it's just been a big adjustment of just how I approach food. I also think though that like people might hear this

11:18and think, so I can't have my favorite foods, but it sounds like what you just described is you've kind of learned to understand yourself and what you actually crave and desire and what is satisfying. And that's how you form a nutrition. And would you say that your day-to-day food that you do eat, you enjoy it, like you feel satisfied and you don't have cravings for other things like KFC. Tyler, where did you pull that out? That was last time you read KFC. So far, so long. Now I might go to you. That's hilarious. But I mean, yeah, we never want somebody to feel restricted. So I love the example you gave you measured out, you know, a piece of Hawaiian banana bread situation. And this wasn't worth it to you. And I found myself in that situation many times too, where it's like, oh, this dessert seems appetizing, but like I actually am like, ooh, that didn't do it for me. Because my taste buds have changed over time. So your day-to-day food, are you enjoying that? What does that look like for you? Could you walk us through what you're eating to get the results that you received?

12:20So being that I have a family, and I'm not always the one cooking, or maybe they want to go out to dinner or something like that, I, I, I backload my macros. So like I save the majority of my fat and my carbs for the end of the day, so that there is, so that I don't really have to worry about, oh, hey, sorry, I gotta eat some, you know, I gotta cook chicken because I don't have enough fat left in my macros for, for whatever dinner is. Like for example, we're going to an appointment this afternoon, so Tyler, I won't be on the, the men's call today. But we, we have an appointment this afternoon, and it's in Phoenix, so we're like, it's gonna take, you know, it's an hour and 15 minutes away, so we're probably just gonna go grab dinner afterwards. So breakfast this morning was fat-free yogurt with some syrup, like some, some maple syrup in it, and then like 120 grams of sourdough,

13:21so I think it was like 46 grams of protein, but no fat, you know, maybe maybe a few grams of fat in the bread, but yeah, I, I love toast, I love yogurt, and so like I've just gotten used to eating it, so if you would have asked me what my favorite breakfast was before this, it definitely wasn't gonna be yogurt and toast, but now that I know that it's the most attainable one, like it's the one that's going to satisfy me, and it's gonna get me the nourishment that I need for the morning, that's pretty much my go-to. If I know I'm not gonna have a fatty dinner, like if I look on the calendar and something is gonna be made with chicken at the end of the day, I'll have eggs in the morning, because that's like I'd rather have eggs than yogurt, but normally I just cut the yogurt and half and add eggs in, and then just have a little more fat with breakfast. Do you find with kind of having the repeat meals, and basically lower decision fatigue that you now have time more for yourself and for your family, and so like the quality of your relationship, not only with yourself, but with others,

14:22has really increased as well. Yeah, yeah, it definitely makes it easier if you just eat on repeat. You know, it can get monotonous there for a little bit, but once you get through that, it's, again, it's that mentality shift of like, I'm not eating this because I want to, like of course everybody wants to enjoy what they eat, but I'm not eating this purely for enjoyment, like I'm eating this because I need to eat, you know? And so like, yeah, it's cool. You know, I just gotta be a little bit more prepared so that I can weigh out, you know, everyone else is just dishin' out, so I got away everything before we sit down for dinner, so I just gotta be prepared for that, or, you know, but yeah, it's definitely a lot easier if you, just keep doing the same thing. Yeah, not only Stephen, you know, working full-time job has two kids, but he has a very pregnant wife, if we're allowed to share that. Yeah, yes, so. Do we need to call that out? No, no, you're good.

15:22You're good. Okay, congratulations, Chef for family. And so he has been kind of going through the ringer as far as just being busy. How, you know, how have you been able to navigate after that? You went through the cut, you've been training, you've been dialed in probably the most dialed and we had everyone in the program, close to it. How has it been navigating everything you have going on? I keep a scale in my truck. That's like, because I know that there's gonna be days where like I leave the house with every intention to be backed by 1130 or noon to eat lunch, and it just doesn't gonna happen. So I've had it where, you know, like, I loved to pull it up before I started transform, but now like Chipotle, you can stop and they get really annoyed with you, but you can get a bowl completely separate in side cups and then you can weigh everything individually. So it's just been, that's really been the biggest adjustment is just figuring out where I can go in a pinch

16:25that isn't going to throw everything off for the rest of the day. Like it would be a similar meal as what I had at home. And then again, that's something that Tyler and I had to work out was where can I avoid sodium? Because I started noticing if I was going out, I'd always carry water weight the next two or three days. So just trying to avoid that extra sodium for no reason. So, but yeah, just being adaptable, that's really all it is. It's just figuring out a way to make it happen. So you played baseball in college, and were you training much before transform? Yeah, so I was, I started getting back into the gym like September of 2025. Just trying to go two, three times a week, had no real direction. It's funny that I looked back at what I was doing then versus now. The like I did basically two weeks, two lifts in a cardio

17:27when I was doing it before transform, but it just had no, there was no rhyme or reason to what I was doing. I used to train a lot when I played baseball, but we had, you know, we had trainers that were making us do stuff. There was no thinking involved. So that's pretty much what I like about the most thing I like the most about transform workouts is that it's just like, all right, don't think, just do it. What's it been like any back into the gym and being a little bit more rigorous with it? Addicting? Hey. Like, you know, like I told you, I don't know what I did last Thursday or something. I, you know, I've been putting a lot more weight on back workouts than I used to, but my, I carry all of my attention and stress in my neck. So sometimes if I overdo my back, it like locks my neck up pretty bad and I get a pretty bad headache.

18:28And I did that Thursday, but like I told, I texted, I messaged Tyler yesterday, I was like, hey, I'm gonna take a couple of days off this week just to make sure I'm good before I go back in and lift again. And like yesterday, I felt okay and I was like, should I go? Like I want to go. Okay. So it's just like fighting an internal battle of like, no, let your body recover. And, but like just that, that high of going in and getting a good heavy lift in is, it's pretty up there now. Tyler, can I impact some things here? Because he's said so much that's just like so gold, especially knowing that you've already got kids, your wife's pregnant, like you work full time. This isn't, this isn't your full time job to go to the gym and like, you know, post on Instagram. So like, there are so many people in your position who feel like they don't have the time. And you've already provided us with so many helpful tools. You have a scale in your car. I really appreciate that you look at the dinner in advance.

19:30And then that's how you plan out your day of food. That's like so smart because you're still able to eat with your family, which I think is so important, especially if you've got young kids, you want to be able to sit down and eat with them. And then also, it sounds like you found a way to fit the gym into your, into your schedule. I'd love to hear what your schedule looks like, like how you're making this work with family time too. And then also, how has it been on your family with you making these changes? Is this something that has been pretty seamless or was it initially a struggle? And it just started to over time make sense. So I do have a, even though I do work, yeah, I work full time. I own my own business. So, and I'm a general contractor. So I can limit my work to what I want it to be. I can take as much as I need, which gives me the ability to determine what I need to do that day. So more often than not, I get up, do breakfast, get the kids ready for school, take them to school.

20:32And if it's a, if it's a workout day, I just go straight to the gym after dropping them off. And then I start work after the gym. If it's a day where I know I have something to do in the morning, but it's a gym day, then I generally hit the gym somewhere between noon and hand one and you know, got to be done by 230 to get back and pick them up from school. But yeah, it's, I do have a lot of freedom. So, you know, it is a little bit easier for me than it is for someone with a quote unquote full time job that they have to be somewhere for 40 hours a week. And that's where they have to be. Luckily, I can be wherever I want to be and go to the gym. So like if I'm in Gilbert, I can just hit a mountainside fitness in Gilbert. If I'm in Maricopa, I can hit the mountainside fitness in Maricopa. Like it just, you know, but that also goes into like planning your, like planning the program ahead of time. If you only plan on doing home workouts, that's gonna be tough.

21:33Like flexibility is the, like creating that flexibility is the easiest way to stay dialed in on the program. Knowing that you can go get a lift in between appointments because you have 30 gyms across Phoenix that you can go to is a whole lot easier than being 30 minutes away from home and knowing that you're not gonna get to lift until after dinner, you know, because that's gonna change the motivation. That's gonna change your ability to go and do it effectively, I think. Yeah, you really made it work for you. Like that. I know some gyms that around here where you can have multiple memberships and, you know, go to different locations. That's actually also a really helpful tip for people who might be on the road or, you know, might have to travel for their job to look into that type of service. But you, you kind of talked yourself down. You're like, well, you know, I'm a, my own boss. So it's not as like, it's not as demanding. That's not true at all. I mean, you, that, that comes with its own responsibilities and stressors. And so something that's continuously kind of come back to me

22:37and everything you've said is just motivation and energy. And you're still finding like you described and you're wrapping your kids off. You know, you've already thought about your dinner. You're doing your work and then you're going to gym. Can you describe how your energy has changed since you before the program and where you're at now and how you are suddenly somebody who's addicted to the gym? Like that's, that's a whole personality change. That's incredible. Um, I mean, I can't really explain it. It's, it's high, I mean, it's hard to explain that. It's, it's just what do you want? Like, if this is what's like I'm, I'm not someone who, who's very good at getting into something if I'm not going to go 110%. Like, um, I also don't cannot do any, I don't know, call it ADHD or whatever you want to call it. I can't do anything unless I understand it. But once I understand it, I can, I can go all in like in, and, and, and give it everything I have.

23:39So that's really what it was. It's just committing, um, you know, it was really hard in the beginning of the program to do that commitment, um, because I started the program and then right in the middle of the build, we were like, kids were getting out of school. We were going on vacation. I spent like a week in, um, spent a week in Dana point which like food was like, I just wasn't going to take my scale into every restaurant on vacation. So I came back and I knew I had work to do, but I think that's probably when I locked in the most is when we got back from, from that trip, I had about a month before the, a month before the cut was starting. And I was like, all right, I really need to lock in if I want the results that, you know, obviously I'm paying for this. I, I should probably want results from it. So, um, yeah, it's just being honest with yourself and are you doing it just because or are you doing it because you actually want results? You guys also, you drove a Colorado in the middle of that too, right? Or is that Dana point? No, we were going to go to Colorado.

24:41And then we couldn't cause, um, so my wife is pregnant, but she's, it's not just pregnant. She's pregnant with twins. Yeah. So, yeah, we're, we, we talked to the midwives and they're like, oh, that's a little risky going up to 10,000 feet because we're going to go camping for a week at like 10,500 feet at this family camping spot. And they're like, yeah, you shouldn't do that. So we ended up just going up to the, the last, right, is actually the first, the first week of the cut I spent on vacation. And that was, I ended up, what I, I drove 50 miles one day to go to the gym, like 50 miles each way to go to the gym. And then Tyler's like, dude, just, just don't, like, you don't need to go to the gym this week, um, cause it, you know, it stuck me to playing at fitness and I was mad and I didn't like it. So, yeah, that was a fun call. But yeah, it's because we were on the, we were on the men's call while I was lifting, huh? Yeah.

25:42Steven, you said that, um, you don't really lock in until you kind of have the understanding and the why behind things. How did you find the kind of educational modules that we have in transform and basically like the education of transform and the why and, you know, things like the men's call and stuff like that, were they helpful with that? Yeah, how did you find them? Yeah, they, they definitely are motivating. Um, it works really well when there's more guys on in, you can hear different perspectives. I thought it was really cool that it wasn't just the guys in my program that were on the call. It was like we had, when we started, we had guys that were just starting to cut. We had guys that were just about done with the cut or, you know, whatever it was like, did we saw, we got their perspective from different, different, uh, stages of the program. So that was really helpful. Um, they had just, just bounce an idea off of each other and, um, you know, the modules, the educational modules, like, luckily my wife is very, um, nutrition minded. So I've known pretty much everything that was taught for a long time.

26:46It was just didn't follow it. You know, it was, it was definitely, it was definitely taught to me. I just didn't, I didn't, you know, give it as much, um, credence as I, I should have. Um, so, but it did make those, that's why I didn't struggle going into the program. Yeah. I would love to hear one of the biggest things I have found in my experience as a formal, former, very mid high school athlete is a lot of high school athletes see they struggle to continue with their, let's say, physique fitness journey. As a result of like, they don't have a team anymore. That's like, there's practice. There's all these things that are holding them accountable. You obviously have that for a long time. You see the same thing with college athletes too, right? As soon as they don't have that accountability, like the show up to practice, they kind of fall off. How did you find the community aspect in transform? And I would love to hear if you have any thoughts how we could work on improving that. Um, I, I liked it. Uh, I mean, I, I fall into that category where my, I had the physique issues

27:46after baseball was done. Um, I, when I look back on mine, I feel like it was more pain related than, um, then, you know, motivation to show up to practice related. I just, I, I, I, you know, I beat my into, you know, I beat my shoulders up. I beat my knees up. I, everything was just so tired and sore all the time. I was like, oh, wait, I don't have to do that anymore. Like it was, you know, it was good. But then obviously that's a slippery slope. So, um, but yeah, having the community in transform, having other guys going through it with you, you know, watching form checks, answering questions like, you know, again, my brain wraps around things a little bit faster than some. So I, I try to get in and, and answer questions for guys, because, you know, I see it pretty quick or whatever. Um, but it just, I, I, yeah, I mean, it was, it was nice knowing I wasn't doing it alone. Um, it would have been cool if more guys got involved. Cause I know based on the very first call, how many guys were on there versus

28:50how many were on the subsequent ones. I was just like, okay, not many people are able to make these calls, which kind of kind of sucked. But yeah, I don't know how as a team, you could change that. Yeah, hopefully we'll get this word out there. Get some more guys in the program, get some more people in the call. Well, you gotta get them out of that. Always show up in the women's call. So hopefully if we just, you know, just slow, instead of the grow, we'll see more people on the call, more consistently. So you lived in two days a week for pretty much most of the program. And you just switched over the three days for weeks. That's correct. Yeah. And I still didn't live three days last week because that's when my back tightened up. And so I was supposed to live Saturday and I just had a headache. So I was like, no, I'm not. Okay. So I really want to emphasize that. So like you've seen amazing results just lifting two days per week. And then the one cardio day per week as well. Because I think a lot of people, it, you know, they think that they have to live four or five, six days per week. And that's really what gets that stops them from starting. And it's like, no, you can be highly successful.

29:52Just two lists per week, really giving it your all during those two lists. And if anything, I almost think that that helps with the addictive nature of the lifting and like, why you feel so addicted to lift because you're like, yeah, I go in only twice per week. And so every single time you go in, you just like send it and stuff. And then at the same time, you send it, but not in such a way that you like destroy your shoulders, your knees, et cetera, in the process. And so you kind of like lift to lift again, which is something that Tyler has talked about before and you know, lifting to feel good and stuff. So yeah, I would love to hear, you know, some of your thoughts about that. How did you feel? You know, did you do the prehab work that we have at the beginning of the lifts? How did you find those things? Um, anything, any feedback there would be really, really great. Yes. So prehab, I always do my lifting prehab. I cannot get myself to skip and pull both through the gym. I'm sorry. But on cardio, like I'm just not, it's just not happening. I, I was like, I can't do it. Um, and I live in Arizona. So it's like 175 degrees here. So I'm not doing it outside before I go in the gym because I'm just trying

30:53to get inside as fast as I can. Um, but yeah, lifting prehab, I, you know, I just remember reading it the first time. These are not supposed, like it's your warm up, but it says these are not supposed to be easy. And that's like it is the hardest part of my lift is trying to loosen up my hips or loosen up my shoulders. Like it is the hardest part of the whole thing. So yeah, it's definitely important. Have you found them helpful at all for maybe some previous, I know that you've talked about like how your neck and stuff will get locked up if you do a little bit too much upper back work and everything. But have you found kind of the generalized prehab work just helpful for, like past injuries or kind of little things that don't necessarily feel that great as you're getting older? Yes. Yeah. My hips for one, um, my, my hips were very, very tight, like forever. Even when I played baseball, I remember having tight hips and I was 19, 20 years old. Um, so that definitely helped. I definitely have more mobility now, um, for, you know, it's something that,

31:56that it did solve. One thing that I would add to prehab that was a game changer for me. Then I think I, I think I messaged Tyler about it. I was like, if I would have known dead hanging fixes your shoulders 15 years ago, I would have been dead hanging for the last 15 years. Like, um, so I literally went and bought, you know, wrist straps with the metal hooks in them so I could just hang for as long as I possibly could. And I start every, whether it's cardio, anything, no matter what workout it is, I start with at least two minutes of dead hanging. Awesome. It's all about finding what works for you, right? That we just essentially take approach to help you find what works for you and giving you a broad pool of options to choose from. And then obviously some things are just going to click like this. Like hanging did for you, whereas other things will click for other people and figuring out essentially, we're all trying to go in the same direction, but it's a lot of ways to choose from to get there the fastest. Right. Yeah. Part of, I think part of the motivation of going to the gym comes from feeling

32:59like you're getting stronger or feeling strong while you're there. Like if you go into the gym and the guys that you're working out next to are always lifting three times as much as you. It's kind of hard to stay motivated. Um, so what I did. So like I was always a big squat guy. Like I always tried to try to get my squats and get my squats in. But then I started to realize like my back just hurt. Like it just, it was not conducive because I wasn't able to actually do what my legs can accomplish because my back hurt or because something else was bothering me. So, um, that's what I liked about having the choices in, in the workouts. It's like I always will choose leg press over a squat any day of the week now. Um, and then obviously, you know, my leg presses like I love going in and doing leg press because people just kind of look at me and they're like, wait, what? That's a huge misconception of people in the training aspect of things. They always think that to get the lower body, they've got to do squats. But I would say none of us here are doing just like barbell back squats anymore.

34:01It's been years for me. Tyler, I saw you doing half squat the other day. Kathleen, I don't think you are roll back squat. I don't think it's necessary. It's often a very intimidating exercise for people. And generally they do have issues, whether it's they can't get the form down, they've got pain in some area. So it's not that's so important. I love that you mentioned there's options for the exercises. We really shouldn't look at something and be like, well, I can't do that because I can't do what I see on paper. But there's always an alternative. And that's something that's so great about Kathleen's training too is, is not only does she have all this prehab stuff. She's got all the warm up so you're properly fired up when you go into your actual lift. But she gives you options and she's aware of how the body works. So we're not just thinking, but to get the most quad gains, we got to go in there and squat as heavy as we can. Because no, like you are still getting that stimulus with your leg press, you're confident, you're happy. You feel good doing that movement. And that's how you're ultimately going to progress and feel excited about your lift. Instead of, you know, if you knew you had to go in there every week, get under the barbell and do

35:03heavy back squats, you'd probably, you wouldn't be as obsessed with this gym at this point. So it's, it's important for people to realize that, especially, you know, I don't know who's going to be listening to this, but a lot of women feel that gym intimidation, they get intimidated to even step foot in the gym for that reason. They think, I can't do that. So, you know, I don't belong in there, but it's just so not true. There's always, you know, first off, nobody's watching what you're doing. Besides the people who are admiring your leg press, but that's a good thing, right? Like they're celebrating you. There's never really the alternative inside the gym. There's never really somebody who's, you know, looking down on you or something. So I love that you're feeling that. I think one of the funniest ones, because obviously, like you're saying, like, pick the workouts that work for you. And second or third week, I got my first set of workouts. And I try, it was a lying side tricep push up. And I texted, I messaged Tyler and I was like, I don't think this is designed for guys,

36:08because this is not possible. And he was like, no, sometimes the, the, you know, Kathleen puts them in there and they're more designed for the ladies. So just do something else that's, you know, try, because it didn't have an option to change that one. So I was like, all right, I'll go in there and adjust that. And I think, Kathleen, I think you ended up going and taking that one out of my workout and putting a different tricep workout in. But I was just like, it just made me laugh. I was like, nope, definitely not doing that because I looked, I looked like an idiot at the gym when I tried it. It's always like those, sorry to cut you off. But it's like those videos where you see like the on Instagram or whatever where the, the wife is like, yeah, I can get off the floor like this. And then the husband tries to repeat it again and they can't get off the floor. And it's just because of different in leverages and help us shape and all that stuff. So yeah, I completely understand. But, you know, the big thing we always talk about, like, you know, we want to transform to be the kind of the last program that you need because you learn so much about yourself and like what you objectively do best with and kind of the patterns to look forward in yourself and stuff. And the same thing on the training side, like with the training we try to, you know, mix up the,

37:11the pre-hab movements and then the actual like hypertrophy movements every single mezzo. So we do the two mezzos per, you know, transform block. And the whole point of that though is that like, okay, at the end of the day, like, it's a vertical push, a vertical pull, you know, horizontal push pull, like a hinge pattern, a squat pattern, you know, calf raise, biceps, triceps, like shoulders, like, you know, the major things. But it's like, we can have slightly different, you know, machines versus barbells versus dumbbells, like slightly different movements. And then you basically figure out like, okay, I get the most from these movements. So back to the discussion on, you know, squats versus leg press versus hax squat, you know, etc. It's like, I get the most from this movement. And so I'm now, I can now take the movements that I got the most out of from the program and basically create my own mezzo and just like run that into, you know, into the future for as long as you can continue to progress it and stuff. And that's, that's exactly what we want for everyone. Is that you can literally just now take these things and just take it yourself and stuff. But we also love that you're, you know, joining us for fall, of course. And we love when people stay, but we don't want people to feel like they have to stay, basically.

38:14No, and yeah, it was like, there were times where I did, like, even before I added a third lift, I would go into a third lift. But yeah, it made that third lift way easier because I just took pieces of the first two lifts as long as I had a rest day in between and I wasn't trying to, you know, trying to kill that same muscle group, which I always do. I don't, I don't ever lift on back-to-back days. So, um, but yeah, it made it a lot easier. And just, just the knowledge you gain and like just doing it repeatedly, you start to figure out what your body wants and what your body feels good doing and what to avoid because, you know, again, like Tyler was saying, like, lift so you can lift tomorrow or lift for, you know, lift for the next lift. Because if, you know, if you just do things that hurt, like, you're not going to keep going back. Lift to live another day. That's, that's the same. Oh, that's great. If we can go back to your family life before we, I don't know how much time

39:18you've got, are you still good to keep going a little bit? Okay. Okay, so you've got two kids, two kids on the way. How has this, the training and the lifestyle changes? How have they allowed you to show up in your kids life? Has there been any changes? Have you found that you're able to be more active? Is there anything that you would like to talk about there? Yeah, so one of the, one of the big reasons, um, my, my kids are, my kids are big. Like my, my son's six, my daughter's eight, my son is, it's six years old is like 72 pounds. Like, he's a big kid. Um, but he's still a six year old and wants to be able to jump off the bed and have dad catch him. And so I, I just remember before, uh, transform like he would do that and he wasn't even as heavy as he is now. Um, and, and I would, no, dude, don't do that. Don't, cause my shoulders would hurt or I would just feel like

40:20I wasn't going to be able to catch him. And that is probably one of the biggest driving factors for me was making sure that I could still because eventually he's going to get to that point where I can't, but that's not today. It's not, I'm not going to let it be today. Awesome. I just got chills. I love that. That, that's exactly a big motivator for me for lifting, because my, my son, Harrison, he just turned eight and he's like, he's getting close. He's like at my chin level. I, I'm only five feet tall. So, you know, he's, he's almost as tall as I am, but I'm like, I'm going to carry, I'm going to be able to carry you for as long as possible. Sorry, go ahead. No, I said, I'm not much taller. I'm like five. Okay. So, and then four or five five five five five five five. Oh, I was like, you're shorter than Kathleen. No way. And then with, um, so with your general contract teamwork, that can be quite, that can use a lot of like, uh, you know, muscle mass, right? Like how has, how is your training,

41:22transforming, etc. Helped with your, your job and what you do for your job for your profession? I had, honestly, not nothing physically, because I don't, I don't self-perform anymore. So, I basically just run big scale projects, um, and essentially at this point, just tell people what to do. Um, but it has changed the clarity and focus that I'm able to bring every day. Uh, it's, it's, you know, just, I don't know, just, just having that, I don't know if you want to call it a runner's higher or lifters high, but just, just having that, that meant that, that mindset of, of feeling better, uh, just makes work easier. That's amazing. And then with your two little ones on the way, do you feel like, you know, you're still going to be able to continue forward with what you've been doing and that you, you feel like it's pretty well integrated into your life and stuff that you, you don't really feel concerned about losing how much you've gained so far. Yeah. So like I said, I jumped into the fall

42:27transform, um, and we, Tyler and I already went over dates like, hey, is this going to work? Because I, at first, I was just going to do like a six month maintenance and then start again in the, the winter or spring, uh, transform and, and go for another round, but he knew that I, I didn't get the amount, you know, quote unquote, weight loss that I was looking for. Um, I, well, I didn't, I wanted to get down to like 190 and I didn't get there. Um, obviously I know why and that's fine. I'm, I'm good with, I'm good with how it worked because obviously I saw how well it worked. Um, but I know like the dates that are corresponding with the next transform puts my cut starting right when these kids are due. So like, I'm trying to mentally lock in for that right now. If it makes it feel better, we had two guys in the last round before you start, both have, have kids during the cut and they both fared very well. Um, I don't know how I don't know if I

43:31could do it, but they did, they crushed it. So I, I think it's because it like really gives you a grounding, a foundation when like, I mean, you know, having a, a newborn in the house can be kind of quite all over the place in seven, especially until you learn like who they are and what they have they are and all of that stuff. And so, you know, having these kind of like external factors where it's like, okay, I'm going to show up and I'm going to at least do these things every day. I think can be like really helpful and grounding like not only for dads, you know, new dads, but also new moms as well. Obviously moms taking more time to like heal post, you know, postpartum and stuff like that, but but still same, same, just slightly different. From a woman's perspective too. And I'm all, I'm like kind of at the same stage as your wife right now in my pregnancy. It's actually really also probably helpful for her to know that her husband's going to be able to take care of himself when she is going to be taking care of an infant. Because it sounds like you've got all your ducks in a row, like you're thinking about your own nutrition

44:31and your own training. I mean, we're all like, you know, Kathleen's got a husband. I've got a husband. That's always something in the back of my mind is always having some amount of concern for their health too. One,ing them to feel great. One,ing them to be, you know, at their best. And how can I be that person for them? So like you showing up for yourself is such a weight off her shoulders. Like not to speak for her, but just from my perspective, I think that that is a huge gift you could give to her and to your family to be that person in their life who's like being that example. Yeah, she's been asking me, I mean, we've been married. We just crossed over 10 years and it's pretty in together for 13. And it's been pretty much all 13 of those years. She's been like, you need to get it, like you need, you need to get on track. Like, and I would always again, just start a program, start a diet, cut, just go into it basically straight into a cut,

45:31not eat anything, lose a bunch of weight. I'm like, oh, okay, I'm good. I can go, you know, I can start eating again. And then it's like, oh, hey, I came back in three months. And it would just, it would always progress a little bit further. Like I'd always get heavier than I was last time. And then I'd get heavier the next time. And it just, you know, I didn't deal with stress very well. I used food to compensate. When I was stressed out, I tried to try to get dopamine hits from food instead of figuring out how to run a business when I should have, you know, I just, it just, yeah, I definitely can tell a difference in that aspect as well. Now that there's not that concern for her. What did you find about Transform that you believe will create lasting results compared to what you've done the best? That I know how to eat without gaining weight. Like I, like that's the biggest thing is, you know, if you're, if you're just going to come and do Transform and then

46:34think you're going to go back to eating 150 grams of fat a day, you're not like, there's no possible way you're not going to gain weight. But if you learn how to fit your lifestyle or what you want to do into your, your macros and your, I just, you know, I don't see any time in the foreseeable future that I like, we've had this week. How to stop tracking. Like that's, that's been a big thing. How do you stop tracking? I don't think I'm going to. Like even if I wasn't going to Transform, I probably wouldn't stop tracking because it gives me that clarity of where I'm at. And it makes me more aware when I make bad decisions. So that's probably the biggest thing going forward is just staying, staying true to what, what has happened or what, what I've learned through the time. And one thing I'll add to that is, really, you only learn from bad decisions. You only learn from the losses. That's my belief and experience. And I think you've done,

47:37and all the people that do well and transform do a great job of when they mess up, which happens, like all I mess up sometimes, you know, Kathleen doesn't mess up, but that's a don't the story. Hey, uh, you know, they say, okay, how could I have done better in this regard next time? And you did a great job of that of like, all right, let me fix this. I learned from it. You didn't just screw it going back to everything or opening the freezer, having four tubs of hogging us. Like you really did a good job of, let's go. Take pride in that. It's the idea of like not missing twice, basically, and just like getting right back to it. And the idea of like, you know, using 10% for kind of those things, and then like 90% like mentally processed whole foods and all of that stuff. So. Yeah. My wife just came and reminded me, the biggest thing is intuitively, like I know intuitively how to eat. Like I'm not, I'm not striving to eat negatively anymore.

48:38Like it's not a, it's not a badge of honor, like I used to wear it. Did you find like that kind of basically food freedom that it just came from focusing on being at maintenance and eating enough at maintenance and feeling yourself and, you know, kind of loosely paying attention to the micronutrients and stuff like that? Or did you have to do anything like kind of more in the psych emotional side of things like specifically to get there? No, um, it was, it was all pretty natural. Uh, I think I noticed that the foods that I enjoy eating are a lot more enjoyable when you don't have them all the time. And it's kind of, you know, I've heard, I've heard Tyler say it a hundred times like, if you're gonna have pizza, okay, great, have pizza, everybody loves pizza. But when you have that second slice, take a walk before the third one. Like you're not gonna get, you're not gonna get any more enjoyment out of the third, fourth, fifth or sixth slice as you did out of the first two. And it's not necessary. Like you, you, you satiated that, that craving or, or that, that need to eat something that

49:43isn't quite healthy, but you don't need to take it so far. You don't need to, you don't need to run with it in ruin. I mean, one pizza can ruin a whole week. Like, like it did, it really, like that's one thing that you learn too is how the decisions you make today will affect Friday. You know, like I will still be carrying water weight and I will be mad every morning that I step on the scale. And I'm going to sit in the sauna and that sucks. Like I'm gonna do everything I can to make up for it. But I'm gonna have to punish myself to make up for making a bad food. Decision today. But yeah, the issue is that you have this, this thing where people spike their way. And then it never has enough time to level back off again before it spikes again. And so because of that, you don't know like what's going on in the background. It's like, are you actually at maintenance? Are you actually in a slight surplus or a slight deficit or whatever, but you just don't know because of swings and water weight, fecal matter like all of that. And so I think it's really great that you started to notice those patterns about yourself and then basically decide like,

50:47okay, I can do this or I can go this route and not see that. And then slowly over time, increase my calories, bring my maintenance up higher. Like that's exactly what we're looking for and transform and the focus on like everyone knows how to go into a fat loss phase. Like everyone knows how to lose weight. But like you said, every single time after your fat loss phase, you would gain back more. And in general, the way that people tend to go through fat loss phases, they lose, you know, muscle mass in the process. And so not only do gain back more fat mass, but you also end up with a lower amount of muscle mass. And so over time, like your body fat percentage, like really gets worse and worse and worse because of this like this cyclical pattern. And so like our big focus and goal and transform is like to teach you like, this is how you eat at maintenance. And this is how you stay at maintenance. And you can eat a good amount of food and increase, you know, increase that maintenance target that threshold over time so that you feel great at maintenance. And you know that, okay, I can change this slight input in order to keep my weight here or to see it, you know, go into a lean bulk or a deficit for a cut and stuff. So I love hearing

51:49that. That's exactly what we're going for. So it really makes you feel good when that's what you all are taking away from it. Yeah. And Tyler can attest to this. I literally messaged him like a week before the cut. And it was like, I can't wait for the cut. Like you get to the point if you're trying to build your calories, you're just like, I don't want to eat anymore. Like I am so tired. I'm full and you're not gaining weight like everything's staying the same, but you're like 3200 calories a day. And like that's a lot of food. Like if you're not eating pizza or big max or whatever, 3200 calories a day is a lot of food. So yeah, we hear that all the time. Sorry, Sarah. I don't know. I was just say like that. That's probably something I hear all the time. And everybody's like, Oh, I can't wait for the cut because they're having the same experiences. You like can't cram in any amount of whole foods in their body anymore. I always I said the same thing at the era. At a certain point, when Kathleen took me through Transform a few years ago, I said something

52:52similar and she like pinned it to the top of our chat. Like you'll remember this when you're deep in your gut. And it's just something I always think back to you because like, what was your experience in the cut? Did you like was it difficult? Were you were you hungry suddenly? Like, what was the significant change there? So the first week was really hard to not snack because my meals just got so much smaller. Plus again, we were out of town. You know, we were we were at our our my wife's dad's cabin family all sorts of stuff. But I do remember like the third week of the cut. We were I was talking to Tyler about the the four day refeed. And I got excited about it. And he goes, I thought you were I thought you wanted to cut like a you know, just kind of calling me out like member, member a couple of weeks ago when you told me you wanted to cut now you can't wait to get some more carbs in you. I would. So it was it was it was cool. But yeah, it like I said, the cut wasn't that hard for me. Definitely was hungry. Like there is there's no ifans or butts

53:56about it. Eating is a sleeping is a little harder during the cut because you're going to bed hungry. That's that's always a little tough. But eventually I got used to it and you know, it just it's just a it's just an adjustment and it only lasts for six weeks. It'll you'll trust me. You'll get back to eating a lot pretty quick. How did you find the increased cardio and steps during the cut were they pretty manageable overall? Yeah, sure. Love it. Can't tell. I'm sarcastic. No, it wasn't that bad. Um, it wasn't it wasn't that bad. I would have rather been life thing. But yeah, I understand I would rather be lifting than doing cardio and stuff too. But yeah, during the cut, we're just focused to the focus on like, can we get maybe a smidge of out of games? What really would just focus on like, maintaining as much as possible? And then, you know, trying to drive a little bit more expenditure with the steps and the cardio. But I hear you. I'm not a cardio person either. I think that's why the first week of my cut though was so

55:00aggressive because I think it was I think I lost like eight or nine pounds in the first week and then leveled off like six the rest of the time. But we were again, we were out of town. So I wasn't able to lift. So I did focus mostly on the cardio. We were at 7,000 feet. So it's 7,000 feet, 10,000 steps is a lot different than 10,000 steps at 1100 feet plus chasing my kids around at a cabin, running around with all the other kids going, we went golfing. I mean, I was averaging like 22 to 25,000 steps a day at elevation. And I'm pretty sure that's why my I had such a steep dive in the beginning. And then it leveled off when I got home and that it was frustrating. Don't you get it was very frustrating when it leveled off. I was texting Tyler like, can I cut further? Can I take less can I do less calories? And he's like, nope, don't do it. Yeah. But you you do see that pattern sometimes where people lose an immense amount of water weights at the beginning of the cut,

56:03especially when you're going from kind of closer to sea level to altitude. You see that as well. But then you're as you get back down to sea level, back to normal and all that stuff, you're basically like now back filling that. And so now you're actually seeing the true fat mass loss where before you were just seeing the water weight loss. But it can't like really mess with us mentally because we get used to like, oh my goodness, I just lost, you know, eight pounds in one week. And then it's like, I lose nothing for like two, maybe even three weeks. And then you see the drop again. So like the different bush patterns that people have are just always amazing to see because every single person has a slightly different, you know, they they're they fall into big categories, but they're slightly different depending on the person. So that's good for you to know though, maybe your next cut won't be exactly the same because you won't be going up to altitude and stuff. But it's good for you to know because then you can like watch for that and just know that like, okay, this just happens to be how my body responds to this. And I just know that. And so I just continue on and stuff, you know, definitely very, very different outlook on

57:04everything. Yeah. So I spoke to you a lot of people's fat loss patterns shift too. So I have I think you're going to do very well the next cut. It's my prediction. But we shall see. If we did ask one more question, what made you decide to pull the trigger on doing the next round? Accountability. Like just I mean, I like working with you that's I mean, I've had other trainers in the past that are just like I don't like you. So it makes it hard to makes it hard to do it you're told when you don't like the person telling you to do it. But so I like working with you. I like that just the the rapport that we built over the last 24 weeks and just see approach like just the way the way the the way the transform goes about the whole process is different. You know, like I said, part of me wanted to go into a six month build and try to get my calories to like, you know, 4,000 and then do a cut and then do a huge weight loss. But you know, that would

58:09who knows? I'm looking for I'm looking for the reduction faster than that. I guess, you know, instead of starting starting a cut in April or whatever of next year. Now I get to do another one in January and then I can do another one in July or whatever it may be, you know. So I, you know, as long as everything goes as goes well, I'll probably go into a third round of it if you know, if everything works out. So it's been awesome working with you too. Appreciate everything. Appreciate how dialed and you've been. So it's been awesome to see the last six months and I'm excited for the next few. One thing I noticed though, you on my last check in your response was easy as always. And I think that comes like it's always about the cravings. It's always about the hunger. It's always like I feel like if you dial in, if you just commit to it, those top three questions that you have in your weekly check in are not a problem anymore. Like the cravings, the hunger, weight situations, all the steps. Like if you lock in and you do it, you don't have to worry about them

59:13anymore. Um, steps is huge, especially like if you aren't feeling great and you can't go lift, you gotta still get your steps in. Like that's it's it's crazy how big of a difference that makes on your daily maintenance or your daily, you know, surplus or you're going to end up in a surplus if you're not, if you're not getting that activity in. I think that is really what is the difference between people that are long term successful is the people that adopt this is like this is just, I got to make this easy. This is gotta become habitual versus the people that leave their steps every day to the end. They don't track all day until the end and they make it this big, you know, huge weight they're bearing versus you're just like, yeah, this is it. I'm kind of used to it now. This is how we roll and we're going to continue to roll down this way. Yeah, and I think really just emphasizing that the new, like you would not get the same results if you just did the nutrition, right? Like the nutrition, the steps, the lifting, like all of those

1:00:13things go together that complements each other and stuff because sometimes we have people ask us like, oh, can I just do the nutrition side? And it's like not really because you wouldn't be successful in the cut, for example, if you just did the nutrition side of the cut and stuff. So I really love that you said that and that it really shows in your life as well. Yeah, and I really think people could benefit from a nutrition only, but you're gonna have a certain amount of expectations if you do that. Like you're gonna say, oh, I'm gonna cut, I'm gonna lose a bunch of weight and you're just not gonna get the same results. So you probably would lose weight if you cut from 2500 to 1700 calories for six weeks, you're going to lose weight. But you're going to also lose a lot of muscle too and you're gonna, like you're not going to look like you lost weight because you're going to, it just be skinny fat at that point. Yeah, you may not like the way you look at the end of it. And then Kathleen already talked about this, but then you're kind of in the cycle of those in muscle mass. And then you're gonna lose, you know, you're just becoming a little bit more

1:01:13skinny fat each round. So so important, like Tyler said, the biggest difference to people who find the long term success are those who make this a lifestyle. And so like you already recognize if you are not going to be able to get your lift in, you should get your steps in. Like there's always something you could be doing. It's not all or nothing. That's a huge flaw people tend to make is I couldn't do my lift this week. So you know what, screw it, I'm not going to get my steps and you know, my nutrition's out the window too. It's not how it is at all. There's so many things we could be doing. So we're past an hour. I think this was such an awesome conversation. I love to see the little bro love between Tyler as well, like coach and client and really excited to see what happens in the next round for you. Also, please keep us posted on your wife. Really, really excited for that. I'm going to have to look you guys up and find something for her to congratulate you guys. Twins. Awesome. Big big news. Yeah, this was a great conversation and I'm going to wrap it up

1:02:13here. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining us Tyler Kathleen on the Root and Resilience podcast. Steven, it was a pleasure. And until next time, I believe Ashley says stay stay Root and Resilience is that what she says? Something like that. All right.