The Long Game

A 155-pound weight loss doesn’t happen because you “finally got disciplined.” It happens when you build a system you can live with on your worst Tuesday, not your best Monday. We sit down with our friend Nolan Taylor (briefly rebranded as Nolan DeLorean) to talk through the unglamorous, repeatable steps that took him from nearly 400 pounds to the low 200s and into a new phase of chasing performance and body fat percentage goals.

Nolan breaks down the real timeline: years of posting workouts and “going through the motions,” then a hard pivot on February 3, 2022 when he publicly committed to closing his Apple Watch rings every day. From there it’s the fundamentals done consistently: calorie tracking with MyFitnessPal, better hydration, taking sleep seriously, and building a daily running habit that became his outlet when life got heavy. We talk about what actually makes habits stick, why extreme fitness culture sells insecurity, and how small food swaps and moderation can beat any all-or-nothing plan.

The most important thread is mindset. We get into emotional eating, shame loops, therapy, and why “calories in, calories out” might be biologically true while still being emotionally incomplete. If the scale number wrecks your headspace, we also share better ways to measure progress: trends over time, energy, clothes fit, strength PRs, and the ability to do more without hating the process.

If you want sustainable weight loss, a healthier relationship with food, and a plan that doesn’t require misery, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review with the one daily “brick” you’re putting down this week.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

The other thing I have to say is now that Liam is officially sponsored by Beans, Big Bean. All the uh all the people uh that um send emails into the in moderation support uh email thing, look, we we love hearing your stories. If it's a story, if it's your success story, like I will take a I will take a scre I'm the one that gets all these emails. I will take a screenshot of that and I'll show it to the guys. But anything that should be a comment on Liam's videos, please stop sending those.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Oh I get lots of those in my emails too. People send me also I'm like, this is more of a comment than it is needed for an email, but okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Especially after you got this bean thing. All of a sudden, uh my phones I just started going dressing. I wouldn't expect that. What are they what they just want to talk about, me and beans? Uh somebody was talking about oops, dropped my phone. He can no longer receive email. Will you guys make a video with Rowan Atkinson? I mean, he is still Mr. Bean. Apparently, people really want Mr. Bean on. Oh, Mr.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Bean. Well, I guess I'll just call him. Let's just yeah, let's call Rowan and I'll tell him I am I um Count Bean would like your attention. I would love to get you on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Are we able to talk any comment or any email I get that is that should have been a comment on Liam's videos? He will not see because I will just delete that.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

Yeah, Rob, so docs is probably for anger and complaints. If you're mad.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Tell him your failures. Yeah, forget the success stories. It's just for failures and or DeLorean-related content. That's also vibe.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

All those emails that we got that were pissed at Mike about not mentioning DeLorean's other valid.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

That's totally valid. That's where you that is where you send those.

SPEAKER_03 2:10

You send Rob a picture of a mole that you're concerned about. If it's shaped like a DeLorean, that's a bonus. It's Rob can't do anything about medical adjoints.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

That's all we give here.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

There's no extradition clause between the U.S. and Canada, right? We can't get you.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Speaking of DeLoreans, that's why I brought my friend Nolan on, because you're an expert in DeLoreans, right? That's why I have. So tell us about all your DeLoreans and which ones do you like the most.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

I like the the DeLorean DeLorean that came out recently. That's my favorite.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Oh, that's the that expensive one? We've been looking at that, but we we can't afford the$250,000 it costs for one car. I can't imagine. Listen, I don't care how much money I make ever. I can't imagine dropping a quarter million dollars on four wheels and some things attached and a thing attached to them.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Am I crazy? No, no, that's that's perfectly reasonable to not want to do that. It's like you could do that, or you could like buy a house.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

$250,000 around here won't get much, but you get my point. It's like, unless I'm living in that car, I'm there's no point. I$250,000 is so much money.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Especially for a car that's three horsepower, eight.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That is the Ultimorean. The new one has 14 horsepower, and we all know that. Everybody. What's a cylinder? What's yes? Maybe, depending on what that is. That's why it's a new one. Is that what a V8 refers to? Is it like eight cylinders? I believe so. I have no idea. I don't ask me about cars. I only want cars for a funny bit. I don't know how they work or anything.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Cars, how do they work?

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Cars, yeah, like fucking magnets. How do they work? Oh, that's one of my favorite songs ever. Fucking what's it? Insane clown posse. Miracles. If you have not listened to Insane Clown Posse Miracles, stop listening to this. Go to YouTube and type insane ICP Miracles. Listen to that shit. It's a it'll blow your mind in a way you don't expect.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

You also learn how magnets work too.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

And I don't want to talk to a scientist because those motherfuckers lying and getting me pissed. Like it's such a good thing. Those are bars. Those are bars. Love it. But anyway. They probably have some shit. Like they what did don't they sell FAGO? Or they just drink Fago whatever we have.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Saladino is adding vegetables back into his diet. I saw that.

SPEAKER_03 4:58

Every couple of years his doctor's like, God please, see your blood pressure through your eyeballs.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

He's like, hey, here's something. Okay, so every time you told me you've introduced another plant food, your health has gotten better. So I have an idea. That's what that's his checkup every year before his diet is just a well-rounded one. He's the plants have defense chemicals and they don't want to be eaten. But and and fruits are the part that you want to get eaten because then you eat them and you poop out the seeds and then they they grow somewhere, and that's why they want to be eaten, so you're supposed to eat those. It all makes perfect sense, really. Why people will go on the internet and just tell lies? Why would they have to do it? Well, it's it's the day the internet was invented that was pretty pretty much half, it was like half porn, and then like the other half is like the other half was made up of like two-thirds lies, and then some people trying to like give useful information. And then cat videos, I kind of forgot about those, but otherwise. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

That's that's the that's the origin. But anyway.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

I don't believe the only half porn, because the internet is for porn.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

It's it's porn, cat videos. It's like animal video. Animal videos makes up like a good portion. And don't don't do the Venn diagram between porn and animal videos. That's a bad that's that's a bad Venn diagram. They're definitely there's two separate things. Animals, and then yeah, and then there's just a bunch of other random stuff. That's the internet.

SPEAKER_03 6:23

Nolan, our guest eventually will allow you to talk some more time.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

I was just about to say, like, we're gonna talk like six minutes is not bad for like introducing our guests. Usually it goes quite a bit longer than that. We have to we do house cleaning things. But anyway, Nolan, how you doing? I'm good. I'm doing well. I'm glad to be on the pod. Thank you for the invite. Yes, Nolan, I brought you on because I mean we were friends back in like high school, which was what, like 1987 or something? Like, I honestly so many years ago, I have no idea, but it was like forever ago.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

And so somewhere around the time of DeLoreans.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Uh I don't 1981. 1981, yes.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

Yes, 81 to 83.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

I actually remember that. I feel pretty, I feel pretty uh yeah, Nolan. I actually don't know your last name that I think about it. Is it DeLorean? Uh uh it's Taylor, but you know. Can we say, can we call can we go with DeLorean? Yeah, we'll hyphenated Nolan DeLorean. That's yeah, I like it. So, Mr. DeLorean. So, no, the reason I brought you on is because I remember like so like years after that, I saw you posting your like workouts. And I saw it like at first, I was like, I saw you pursued your workouts like on the treadmill or whatever. Like, I ran this many miles, this many things, or whatever. And you know, I there's always that like, okay, this is awesome, but like, how is it gonna last? Are they gonna keep doing this? Are they how you know are they gonna keep this up? And then I really saw it like literally like every day for years. I don't even know how many years it like was, but it was like it. I pretty much saw it basically every day you post your workout for years, and it just kept going. And I was very impressed by the way you were able to stick with it. So I wanted to bring you on and definitely talk about that a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Um yeah, um, I could go into background kind of.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Yeah, I want to so like when you start. So I'm kind of curious, like when you started, was it something that was it like uh a one-day thing where you're like, oh no, yeah, this is the day, or was it just kind of over time like that?

SPEAKER_00 8:18

What time did you start fangirling over Mike?

SPEAKER_02 8:21

Yeah, did Mike before we recorded this, he's like, Oh, Mike, he's here, and we're like, Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

I'll be happy to bring him in. So uh pretty much what happened, if I could be so vain, like I was in my young 20s, I was a heavier set guy, and honestly, like I was trying to like date and try to get girls' attention, and I was like a bigger guy, and it's like it's kind of hard sometimes to be like confident and be bigger, and I just got rejected by another girl. I'm like, you know what? This is dumb. I gotta, I gotta actually change. Like, I gotta get this together because I'm like the quiet part out loud is like if I was you know a little bit more healthier, they'd be more interested because they're like, Oh, I like you as a as a friend or whatever. And I'm like, I get that, which is nice. I I'm not trying to be on some incel shit, be like, you know, being friends with women. I have plenty of women friends, but like you kind of want to like have a friend.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

Yeah, you want to date. I mean, yeah, you're trying to date, you're young, you're like, I want to, yeah, like I totally get it.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Yeah, so I was like, all right, I'm gonna go and just start working out, and I don't know what the hell I'm doing, but I'm just gonna start doing it. And then for and that's when you saw me just posting my workouts, um, and I did that from like 2015 to like 2022, and I was just going through the motions, but I really wasn't locking in. Like, I would literally, I would literally go work out for an hour and then like eat shitty afterwards. And I and like I didn't understand, like, you just ate the calories you just burnt. And I'm like, why am I not losing weight? Is because like I wasn't really fully doing the work.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

Right. I think a lot of people when they start, they think like weight loss is is like mostly like, oh, I'll just exercise and then I'll lose weight. Not really so like diet is the pro as a larger factor when it comes to losing weight, right? So when you went in to work out, you were just like, did you just like like oh treadmill? I've seen people use that. That's what I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Correct, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Okay, I didn't know that's part of it.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Okay, all right. You know, you know those go uh girls' gyms videos where you just see people go in here for the first time and you look crazy, like that was more or less me. Okay, glad they didn't record me. Um, but I was just working out and I was just trying to figure out what it was, and then I just got to a point, and I'll never forget, it was February 3rd, 2022. And I just got to the point where I I got done going through the emotions because like I was posting and I was working out, and I really wasn't like moving weight, like at my heaviest, I was like at 378. And I I'm pretty sure I was closer to four, but I didn't like stepping on the scale because there was a that number was high, and I'm like, there's a sense of like learned helplessness, like, oh like I'm so fucked, like I am so in the deep end. So I was probably closer to four, but the last measure was like 378, and I'm like, okay, this is like this, this has to stop. Like, okay, I'm not gonna go through the motions. And um, if you have like an Apple product or whatever, like an Apple Watch, there's like these rings, and there's like three of them. There's movement, there's stand, and there's exercise. And I said publicly on my Facebook, like, I will close out every single ring for the rest of the year. Hold me accountable. And I posted that, and then every month after that, I would recap like I closed my rings, I closed my rings, I closed my rings, and then from February uh 3rd of 2022 to that December 30th, 31st of 2022, close out all my rings. And I was like, perfect, cool, I did that, and I started to see the consistency because I would work out every single day. And then I um I want to say 2023, I got invited by a friend, her name's Danielle, to start doing like um to do like the Tor Troy turkey trot, because I live in upstate New York, and it's like a 5k slash a 10K. And during the pandemic, um when the gym shut down in New York, um, I was like doing like home workouts, but I also would run because like it's the perfect social distance activity, right? Because like I'm literally moving away from you. You run away from people, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

If you see someone, you can just run the other direction.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Exactly that. So like I started to use that for fitness.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Were you so were you focusing on your diet during that time, that 2022, where you would change your diet, where you're just like, I'm doing these three right? Like, and these are my three things, that's what I'm doing, I'm not worried about anything else.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Um, yeah, I did because I started to realize like I can't eat the way that I'm eating and then also lose weight. Because like I started putting two, two, two and two together. So um I I I bought like an Apple Watch, I bought my FitnessPal, like the premium. I started tracking my calories.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Okay, so you're doing cash tracking at that point.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Yeah, I was making sure I hydrate properly. I was I know that you uh did um you you went to school for like sleep medicine, right? Yeah, I originally went for sleep medicine, yep. Yeah, yeah. So I I started to look into that because I'm like, I'm chronically underslept, and I'm like, that's also not helping me either. So like once I started to lock in on everything, um, I started to to drop the weight, and I would run like every day. Like, I'm gonna say from like uh what was it, April of 2023 up until literally today. I was like, I'm gonna run every single day. Every single day.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Because that's more than I I will do. I I've said publicly I'd rather sandpaper my taint than go for a run. I hate that.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're we're trying to get you to a cycling class.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

I yeah, I know, like, oh, cardio, fun. I love that. I'm so sick. Sorry. Can't make it so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

So I said I'm gonna just run every single day, and I ran like I want to say three to four miles every single day, and consistently, and then I started to take my workout seriously, and I started to post like on social media, like, hey, I lost this amount of pounds, and like this is my next weight goal, right? And I just kept working out, I kept um, I kept working out, I kept um my sleep patterns together, and I think the most important thing is I really um healed my relationship with food because I think one of the primary things, and the one thing I really hate about the fitness space is it's the whole calories in, calories out, and that just being it versus there are so many core morbidities that are attached to it. Like um, a lot of people emotionally eat. So, like, if right rather than like use food for fuel, I was using food to not feel things, or I was using food to entertain myself, but it's like those calories count. It was like, oh, it's the weekend, calories don't count. Like, no, every single thing I put into my body, my body is going to use. So I had to heal my relationship with food and like, okay, if you want to eat these certain things, the show we're on in moderation. You can have it in moderation, maybe you can have it a meal once a week or something like that. But I needed to make sure that the foods I were eating supported the outcome that I was looking to get.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

So when you were doing that, were you looking how I'm kind of wondering how you went about it? Were you like, okay, so I'm gonna just try and eat more of these foods, I'm gonna try and cut out those foods? Was it just like a little bit of both? Like, how did you go about being like, okay, I'm gonna try and eat a little bit healthier?

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Um, so what I did is um I just started to swap things out. So I tried to figure out what I liked. I'm like, how could I still eat this but have it better? Or how can I have this button? Correct, yeah. Because I figured that if I just went cold turkey and just like, I'm just gonna do a big giant swap, that's gonna shock me, and I'm not gonna stick with it. So I was like, okay, maybe if I'm doing like if I want to have like a hamburger, like maybe I could do like a turkey burger or like a chicken burger, something a little bit more leaner. Yeah. Or if I want soda, maybe going from uh a soda to a diet soda, which I guess the internet hates diet because do you hate or love? It's one of the two.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

It's definitely one of the two. We yeah, no, we we're with the diet soda fanatics over here. People don't people, but a lot of people, yeah, they don't like it. You know, like aspartame. Ooh. Well, but the aspartame.

SPEAKER_03 17:00

Just because it's a word that has three syllables and they're scared of that.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

They should have just named it something else and it would have been fine.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

Beef. Should have named it beef. They would have been fine with eating it raw then.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

It's called liver. We're changing the name to just liver. Okay, so okay, so you did, so you were kind of just doing swaps at that time, and then you had like these three things, you're like, okay, I'm gonna fill out each one of these. I'm gonna walk this much, I'm gonna do this much, and then you just kind of stuck with that for like the better part of a year.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Yeah, and then I really started to like drop the weight, and it's it's I didn't really realize it because like when you're in the forest, you don't necessarily notice the trees. Right. But when someone else comes towards the forest, you're like, whoa, there's all these trees. And I'll never forget it. I went to our our moot our mutual friend's birthday party, and I just showed up, and I guess like I was so used to working, like just I was so locked into working out that my body changed and like my old clothes looked baggy on me. So, like, but I wasn't paying attention to it, so I went to the party like bro, like, what's going on? And like, what? Like, you're like these clothes are big on you. Like, did you lose weight? I was like, I guess I did. And um at that point, I was like, okay, um, I want to say from 2023 to 2024, I lost like 50 pounds in that year.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Damn.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

And then thank you. And then 2024 to 2025, I lost like another 55. And then 2025 to 2026, I lost another 55. So I ended up losing like 155 pounds. Yeah, so like 50 pounds a year.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

Yeah. What's left at this point? Or are you like what what are you doing now?

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Uh so right now I'm trying to um get to a certain body fat percentage. So like right now, this morning I weighed in at like 229. I'm trying to get to 210, and I want to get my body fat percentage to like either 13 or 14 percent. I'm like at 17 now. So how tall are you? Now I'm 6'2.

SPEAKER_03 19:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Got it. Yep. That makes sense. So I don't know how that's going to look on me, but like I feel like I've I've worked so hard. I want to see like what my body is capable of. Now that like I'm down all this weight, I'm like, okay, let me see how how fit I can get. Like, what can I actually do?

SPEAKER_02 19:30

You're trying to test the limits now. Now you're just like, okay, I've done like the big things. Let me see how far I can take this DeLorean right now.

SPEAKER_03 19:38

It is exactly that all former bigger guys have is that once we get here, we're never just satisfied with like, hey, I won. Like, we have to do something else.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Yeah, and I'm glad that you said that, Mike, because like towards like the the last 55, like I came across your content on Instagram, and it helped me a lot. It really did, because it's like it's like because that's what I was at. Yeah, it was really at the mindset and just like the being like kind to yourself, because there's a bit of guilt of like feeling bad that you got to that point, and like, man, like that should have never happened, and oh, that's so bad. But then this, like Mike would say all the time is like, well, you show yourself love by just showing up for yourself and exercising and taking care of yourself.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

That's such a nice thing to say.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

And I think it's I think it's where like a lot of the people who don't like our content kind of get into this, like, oh, they're telling people their bad habits are okay. Like, we get that a lot. Like, I definitely get that a lot. Like, you're enabling people's bad habits. And it's like, what we're trying to do is not punish people for eating food and living their life. Like you're trying to get people to realize that it's okay to do that as long as it matters what you do most of the time, not like this one time, you know, that you you did this thing that was bad.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

Like people who were never heavy, something they don't understand is that a lot of us that had you know a three-digit amount of weight to lose got there through shame. And we used food as a coping mechanism and something that gave us comfort or gave us control in a life that was very uncomfortable and out of our control. And so uh shame might work for somebody who's you know just got a little bit of fluff to trim, but for someone whose only thing uh was food for a long time. Like uh, you know, you don't have 150 pounds to lose without being a uh a serial emotional eater. You can't shame somebody you can't give them the thing that made them gain weight to try to make them take it off.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

Like going back to what Nolan said was just like, yeah, you're eating food for comfort, right? Like, you know, things in your life are maybe aren't going the way you want, and you return to food for comfort. So if you try and shame someone for eating and they want to go to their comfort place, where are they going to go at that point? Back to the food. So you're doing the thing that is caused that's gonna have the exact opposite effect. So what's better to try and take down some of those walls and be like, it's okay. And and I and allow, like you said, to heal your relationship. Relationship with food that way. And then you won't, hopefully, in the future, when you have a rough day, you won't return to whatever food you were eating for comfort that you know that was called that was causing the issue.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

Yeah, it's it's not like it's it's not a matter of excusing it, it's a matter of forgiving it. Like it's you didn't do anything wrong. You did the best you could with what you had, but here's more here's what you can do next. Uh you don't have to hate where you are to want better or more for yourself. And I think that's the idea is like if if you're okay with yourself now, you'll never change. But it I I would almost stretch to argue that if you're okay with where you are now, wouldn't you be even more inclined to want to build something better for yourself? Yeah. You've got the motivation, you've got the the belief in yourself. Nothing can stop you at that point. That's what we do, like in in my community. I'm I'm working with a whole crop of people that are going to lose, and some of them have already been losing, a lot of weight through a lens that I never did. Right. And getting to see them dealing with the issues that come their way in a really positive and constructive way is like it's it's healing for me, right? To get to see this because I was I tortured the hell out of myself. Nolan, did you torture yourself on this thing?

SPEAKER_01 23:38

So so many times, so many times. Um it was a terrible feedback loop where I would work out and then I feel good about it, and then life would happen, and I'd immediately run back to food, and then I ended up like staying suck, or even getting a little bit further from where I wanted to, which would cause me to eat more, and then makes me not want to work out, and it's like it's the fact that I'm attaching an emotional state to food, and not understanding that that's taking me further from where I want to be. So I had to realize like you could feel these feelings, you could feel these emotions, they're big and they're valid, but like you have to start removing food away from like resolving that. You have to either go through therapy, which is what I did, or just find a different mechanism. Like for me, I trained, I literally trained my brain to be like every time you feel upset, go and run, go move, go exercise, like tire yourself out so like you're not feeling all this raw emotion and you don't have another mechanism to deal with it.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

So, like so you need to kind of like you needed somewhere else to put that emotion.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Correct, because I I told myself, if I kept eating every time I felt bad, I'm never gonna get out of this. So I was like, all right, well, if I'm gonna feel something, let me go out there and like take that feeling and put it into running. Like, okay, I'm going to run to prove to the people who may have said terrible things. Like, I'll never forget. I will never forget. It was like I was in high school, and I was like a bigger guy. And I was on the treadmill and I was running, and my assistant coach is like, Boy, why are you on that treadmill? You know you're too big for that. Get off that. You're not a runner. And I was like, and it is crazy to, and I was like a teenager, and like this is a grown man telling me like I'm not a runner and that I can't be in a treadmill. Mind you, I just did my 12th race Saturday. So how am I not a runner? Like, but it's it's you don't look like a runner, you know, so they're gonna judge you on your ability based on what they they see.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

Right, that whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

Yeah, but it's it's just it's just it's just interesting. Um, and and I'm glad that Mike is just on the internet and he he does what he does. I'm glad that you're on the internet too, Liam. And like you guys are just like fantastic for the space. Because you really do have like grifters that come in and just sell the body type quizzes and all of that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 26:21

Yeah, you're an amezo, you're an ectomorph, so do this.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Do this or do that. Yeah, it's it's it's dumb. It's like for me, I think it's heal heal your relationship with food.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Right. Um, which you talked about therapy, very underrated, I think. You know, obviously like it's something that's an expense and some people can't afford and that's a problem, so like you totally want to acknowledge that. But if you have the ability, therapy can be, you know, a wonderful thing.

SPEAKER_03 26:47

And it's like if we've got a naysayer out there who is some for whatever reason listening to this a half hour in, yes, the biological process by which weight loss happens is calories in, calories out, thermodynamics. But the brain is what made me fat. This is the organ that made me fat. It wasn't anything else. So if I don't cure this, you know, by just doing a bunch of plans that are neck-down approaches, treating the symptom rather than the cause, I'm always going to be chasing the symptom. And it's that's what these people who, you know, they get up on the internet and they're either grifting or lying or bullying don't understand is that this thing, yeah, you can strap somebody to a table and have them on an IV of you know 2,000 calories a day, they will lose weight. But you've got a person in pain who as soon as they're out of there, they're gonna want to eat something else because we didn't address the underlying causes.

SPEAKER_02 27:40

And I think that's why we get a lot of people, you know, people just email me or whatever, be like, I just want a meal plan, just plan, just give me all the foods that I that I that I should eat. It's like I could tell you what to eat, and then you would lose weight if you only ate this, but it are you gonna do that? Are you do that forever? Is that for the rest of your life? I don't think you're gonna do that. So I mean, what just for short term? You want to just try and lose weight for like a week or two and then go right back and maybe have it be worse and yo-yo diet? That's not super helpful, you know. So stick I think like what you said, Nolan, was super important where it's like, okay, let me just start with something where like I can add a thing in. We're like, okay, I need to run more, right? Like, I of course I'll never do that. Fuck, get me out of there. But like you have this thing that you're like, okay, I kind of I like this, so let me do this and let me like fill up this ring. Like, I have this thing. This is a thing that I can do every day that I can achieve, that I can check off. And then also I have uh when it comes to my diet, I can go, okay, I'm still eating the things I like. I'm just making some changes. I think those two things together can be just the biggest that can help so many people without feeling like they're like killing themselves, right? It's like, oh, I have this activity I like where I move and also I'm still eating things I like, but I'm making a few swaps. Those together, is that gonna put you on Mr. Olympia, the stage of Mr. Olympia? No, but it's gonna get you uh a lot closer to your goals than yes, just trying to shame yourself into never eating sweets again or cutting out sugar for 30 days because oh my god, you're gonna look like a look looks maxer or whatever after that time or some bullshit, right?

SPEAKER_03 29:16

We're seeing how that looks maxer out there, who I won't name, is is doing right now.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

Yeah, I did I've heard headheadlines, but I don't know. I know it's not good, but I don't know much.

SPEAKER_03 29:26

Yeah, it's I hope he gets the help he needs.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 29:29

He's he's clearly suffering.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Yeah, and it is interesting because it's like I think that's the opposite. It's like we're not gonna say the guy's name, but we know who we're talking about. But it's it's just sad because um it's not healthy, it's not coming from a place, it's coming from a place if I have to psychoanalyze him, not qualified to do that, but from deep insecurity. And it's like if you just address the underlying situation, I think he would be a lot better. But it's like a lot of these influencers are like deeply insecure, and they need like gratification from like the internet, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

Yeah, outwards, they need gratification from other people, but it's an interesting balance, though, because we talked about like you talked about like you wanted to lose weight because you were trying to date, right? And you wanted to look a little bit better. That's totally understandable, right? Like you want to look better to the opposite sex, you're right, exactly. You want to you want to date, that's totally understandable. These people are just taking it to the fucking Mount Everest of extremes, right? They're like, I want to bang all these ladies and I want to just look as good as possible, so I'm gonna be injecting all sorts of things that I will, if I say right now, we're gonna get those flags that we all always do. We get listed for when we post our podcast. Oh, talks about drugs, oh, talks about this.

SPEAKER_03 30:46

Or organizations about animals will be messaging. I don't even want to say it in case they've got like an AI scrubber email us again.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

So, like, yeah, but they take it to the extreme. They take it to the absolute extreme, and and that's always when problems arise. And that's why we started doing this podcast, right? Because it's like take all of those extremes, get rid of them. What's left right here in the middle? Like, we're gonna sit here, we're gonna try and move our bodies, we're gonna exercise, and we're gonna buy a DeLorean. We're doing all the normal things that keep us healthy. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 31:16

If any of that shit was available when I was losing weight, I would have been on all of the Chinese research chemicals. I would have been on the GLP ones. What's that?

SPEAKER_02 31:25

I don't know what it is. Fine, get it in me.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

For real, that's the thing, though. Is they're not like there's no centralized, like, you can't go to Walgreens and pick this stuff up. It's they're just it's anybody can say that this is BPC 157 enjoying it.

SPEAKER_02 31:42

Let's go for it.

SPEAKER_03 31:43

Is it supposed to cause necrotic sores? Yes, yeah, that's part of it. And then eventually the skin comes off and it's replaced with muscle. I would have taken all of that back then because it's like I desperately wanted to be different. But it's at the time, like obviously there were some sketchy things like the you know, the oxy shred commercials that would come on at three in the morning and they'd be like, you know, just take this and you'll lose weight. But and they were basically just sugar pills, but now it's so much more sinister.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

It's kind of I feel like we've had this uh curve because like if you go back further, you go back decades, there was like over-the-counter fat burners that actually worked because they would like increase your temperature in your body. Like that's what you know, that's what calories are is a measurement of energy, of heat energy, right? So they would just like, well, the way it worked, it was just crank up your heat, like that's your body with the amount of heat your body would release. And there was people that died because they took too many of them. And then the FDA was like, oh bro, like that's not cool. So we should get rid of these. And then so then it kind of came back down and we didn't have any things. And now, because it's the internet, we're going back up, and we have all this science to be like, whoa, we made uh Q84732. We don't know what that is, but it might help. You should try it, you know. Like, so now I feel it's kind of up and down this roller coaster.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

I'm actually kind of glad that that wasn't around because, like Mike said, I probably would have did it, and I think there's something like for me, I think there's a magic of just my story in particular taking it as long because I built the base down deep. So, like now I'm I've fluctuated with my weight, but I I'm so locked in that I'm never gonna get back over 300 pounds. Probably never gonna get back over 250 pounds. And that's because like I went through the process and I dug out the trenches and I worked really hard. And I think that people greatly underestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate greatly overestimate what they can do in like a week or a month, and severely underestimate what they can do in a year.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

It's hard to look that far out, right? Like when you're looking in January and you're like, by December, what? That's forever. There's no way.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Yeah, and so the way that it worked with me is I had to be urgent in the daily and then patient in the long run. And what I mean by that is urgent, like I need to make sure that I do something to push the ball forward to move the needle, but patient enough to understand that no individual day is going to get me all the way there. It's like if you think about building a house and you have, and if I told you if I you could have your dream house, but you have to put down exactly one brick every single day for the next 365 days, putting down two bricks invalidates the deal. So every single day you have to put down one brick, but you also have to understand that you have to put down the brick, but if you put down enough bricks over time, you will get the house. And I think people don't understand that they want like the immediate fix, they want the short-term um gratification of like losing the weight, but like if you don't build the the trenches in your brain, literally, to like establish that, you're gonna lose it. You're not gonna, it's not gonna be sustainable. So be patient in the long run, but be urgent in what you can do daily. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:11

I I see why you brought Nolan here. He's clearly here to replace me.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

Yeah, and he's doing a damn good job. Mike needs a job. Mike's Mike's out of a plan. Mike needs a new plan.

SPEAKER_03 35:22

Mike needs a new plans. That that's so solid. That's that's such a solid analogy. Uh it's that well when you see the two bricks and validates the whole thing. It's like, have you seen those videos where they'll test like a two-year-old and they'll say, Hey, so I will give you one marshmallow now. Yeah, but if you wait two minutes, uh I will give you two more marshmallows, and then you can have three marshmallows. And then the kid will just immediately grab for the first one because they're like, Well, I get a marshmallow now? Yeah, that's awesome. And it's it's like some sort of cognitive thing. I think honestly, on a bad day, I might even grab the one marshmallow first. So I get it, kids. Yeah, two minutes. It's that's that's an eternity. But yeah, it's like as a weight loss coach, I operate in chunks of months now. Like there are people that are looking at the scale day by day and like, oh, is it going in the up direction, the down direction? You can't. Like, I've gained weight during this podcast by drinking water. Uh you need much more data to really determine where you're going. And day by day, even week by week isn't enough.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

Yeah, like for the person, some people want to some people are okay weighing themselves every day and looking at trends, you know. Yep. They're that's okay. They can look at the overall trends. Other people, it just gets in their headspace. They're they see that they're up a pound the next day because they had a bunch of salt, they had some freaking, you know, ramen or whatever it is, and then they're like, oh no, that's it. This day is ruined, then screw it, I'm just gonna go for it anyway. Other people, like, you know, then so for those people, they might be able to weigh themselves once a week, but I also feel like that's a problem because, like, you know, once a week that number could be up or down because of different reasons. So it's weighing yourself, I feel like, can really get in people's headspace and can make it worse. Now, a lot of people are totally fine with it. I think like taking just generally having like pictures of yourself or or going off of like what you can do or what you're able to accomplish, it's uh a good metric that can generally yeah, goes up if you're looking at like what you can do physically. That's something that's you know can be a little bit more positive than going up and down with a scale. Did you weigh yourself every day? I'm kind of curious. Did you weigh yourself every day, or was it just like once in a you're like once in a while, I'll check it out.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

So, what happened with me is I did weigh myself once a week. Um, and then I realized that I, like I said, there's there's too much variance throughout the entire week. So, like I could have done everything right, um, had water retention and add like two pounds, and it's like, oh, I but you don't catch that because like it's water retention and it's not real fat loss. So what I end up doing is just weighing myself three times a week. Oh and I decided to go and buy like a um our smart scale. So like I get they're like 20 bucks or whatever, like you yeah, they're not bad, yeah. So it tells me um just different variants, and and I think it's just important to not give too much credence to the actual number on the scale because it's just one component. It's like what is your energy levels? Like what look at look at your how do your clothes fit on you? Like, how do you feel? Like are are your are your PRs going up? Are you able to do a little bit more? I think people get really in their head about looking at the scale and having that number be the entirety of their worth as a human being. And I think that's a trap. I think it's important to have a multiple variable um approach when it comes to look looking at the scale. It's like, okay, the scale is one thing. How am I sleeping? Am I getting enough sleep? Am I hydrating enough?

SPEAKER_04 38:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

Um, how do I feel about my confidence? Am I am I executing daily? Checking in weekly on my plan. Exactly that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:05

Yeah, I think that's what that's what's important. See kind of take uh take note of where you're at. I wonder, so like, was your form, did you just like post every day and that was kind of your form of journaling? Or did you have anything else besides that that you're kind of taking for yourself, like videos or pictures? Were you recording yourself like in the gym or anything? Was it just like, I'm just gonna post this, my workouts every day?

SPEAKER_01 39:25

Yeah, so what I did is after I did the public, I'm gonna close my rings out, I post it essentially every single day, and I did that to hold myself accountable, and then eventually people would like check it. It was the coolest thing. Like, what I would do is I would just run outside locally, and I was like bigger at the time, and then people saw me lose weight, and it's it I'm telling you, like towards the end of my journey, I would get stopped every other day by people. I I have no idea who this man or woman is, and they're like, I'm sorry, I know you're running. Uh, I just wanted to let you know, I saw you when you were heavier and you lost so much weight, and that's so cool. I started walking, or me and my kids go for a walk, and I'm like, What? I'm just like trying to better my life, and like people that I don't know approach me a lot. Like, I I I went to um I went to like our price shopper, and this guy walked up to me with his son, and he's like, I just want to let you know me and my son see you every single day running through. And um, you know, he's like, Dad, if he can do it, why can't you do it? I'm like, Oh, that's an awkward conversation. So, like, yeah, so now I'm going to the gym and I'm taking care of myself, and I just want to thank you for just you inspire people by just being out there, yeah. And it's like, I I'm not paying it, I have my ear pods in, I'm just running, I'm trying not to die through the workout, and it's cool, like when you just show up authentically, people really respond to it in a really positive way. But sometimes people just need to see the first mover out there, and then it's like, oh, okay, well, he is bigger and he could do it. Why can't I? I remember, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:12

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Yeah, no, go ahead. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 41:13

I was gonna say, I when I lived back in Columbus, I remember I saw a guy out walking one day, and then I saw him the next day, and the next day, and the next day for a year, every single day. It was snowing, it was winter. The dude was out there just walking. I'm like, that's awesome! Like, you know, he's always walking. Then he he clearly dropped some weight, and then he started running a little bit, and then running more and more, and it was like three years of that. And eventually, uh, before I left, before I moved, I saw him walking a stroller with I'm assuming his wife and child. And I was like, that's you know, that's really cool to see like this guy's like evolution. He's he's like going along the way, and now like his calves are way bigger than mine, and like it's insane much, but you know, like he he put some work in this dude. I was I was impressed.

SPEAKER_03 41:56

So yeah, like every time you see him, you're like, fuck that guy. How dare you do it?

SPEAKER_02 42:00

He's showing me up. He's showing me up. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:05

I um three years ago, I posted a video of me taking my shirt off at the beach for the first time. Oh, you saw that too, Nolan. Okay, yeah, that's how me and Liam met because you stitched that video, I believe, Liam. And uh yeah, it's I did that, and then after that happened, there were like hundreds of people that would stitch my video and they would take their shirts off at the beach.

SPEAKER_02 42:31

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 42:32

And these are people who I had already lost all the weight. These are people who had not lost the weight yet. And so they're or you know, maybe some people who had, but it was a lot of people who were heavier, and they were like, fuck it, I'm not waiting. And they did it, and it's just it started this movement for a little while. And I just like you said, and all of like sometimes it takes just one person to show everybody that like fucking monkey see monkey do, man.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

That's all we're we're just monkeys. We see like, oh, look at that. I listen, okay, so I'm addicted on this. There's like Wired is like a YouTube channel, and they're like expert answers questions about blank, and it's always some weird fucking about witches or some shit. And I'm like, all right, I guess I'm learning about witches. I don't fucking know. But this one was about like marine biology, and this and this marine biologist was like, Yeah, so orcas have fashion. There was one time uh an orca wore a dead fish as a hat, and then all the other orcas started wearing dead fish as hat, and then other pods, which are like what the orcas swim in, started wearing them as well. Like other orcas saw it. It's just I'm like, we're just like we're fucking animals, right? You see someone do something, and you're like, Yeah, I'm doing this too. And that's why I think when it can be tough when, you know, like people are like, I want to lose weight, but my none of my family wants to lose weight, you know. So I'm kind of doing this on my own, and like that's when it became become really difficult when you don't have that support group around you. I'm kind of wondering, like, Nolan, did you was it just you? Was it like, did you have family members? Was there people, were people supportive? Were you just like, I'm doing this on my own? Like kind of how that works.

SPEAKER_01 43:59

Um Yeah, so I had one, so I have a friend that I go to the gym with. Um, he's my accountability partner. Um, but he he he just shows up to the gym. Not just, I don't want to say that. He's he just shows up and he sits there and he doesn't do anything. No, he's gonna watch it, so let me not do that. Um, but he he shows up. And no, he's my workout partner. He spots me. We have a good time. And it's cool because like I was bigger at the time and I was working out. And then he literally asked me, Hey, can we hang out? I'm like, Oh, I'm at the gym right now. It was like, oh, I want to go to the gym. There you go. Because I used to live during school, and then I stopped. I'm like, well, come on by, we'll get you a gym membership. And then he's like, I literally stopped working out until you invited me to the gym. And now he got himself together. And uh yeah, it so it's primarily like I did the bulk of the workout, like the cardio, and then he would show up to the gym with me, and that's that's cool. Um but um I I think the coolest thing, so I did so I went on this journey primarily because I wanted my dad, because my dad is pretty heavy, and I wanted him to see me lose weight, because I I figured no one in our joke, no one in my family runs. Well, I'm gonna be the person in my family that runs. And unfortunately, I wasn't able to inspire him, but my best friend saw me lose weight, and then she was like, Well, if no one can do it, I can do it. And then she the thing about her is she is super fucking competitive. Like, she like whatever she does either 0% or 100. That's that's her. And so she ended up watching me uh lose weight, and then she reached out to me. She's like, What are you doing? Do do the this and that, and I said, like, what workout should I do? I said, the most important workout you can do is the one you're gonna do tomorrow.

SPEAKER_04 45:59

Right.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

The one you're gonna do today, the one you're gonna do tomorrow. So whatever movement brings you joy, do that. So she's like, Oh, cool. Like, I like biking, so I'm like, do that every single day if that brings you joy. She did that, she lost 50 pounds. Um, the winter came, so she couldn't like bike anymore. So she hired a personal trainer, lost another 55 pounds. Uh, so she lost like a hundred and ten, nearly 120 pounds in a year. She ended up becoming a spin instructor. She just she absolutely changed her life. And the crazy thing is, I never talked to her about her weight. I never talked about this. She just saw me like doing it and got inspired, asked me questions, and now she changed her life, and then now she's a spin instructor, and she's helping other people lose weight. And I say this to say that to say that change yourself, go through this process because you have no idea, A, who's watching you, and B, what type of impact you can make if you just go yourself. I was not trying to inspire this person. I I loved her just the way she was. I never talked to her about it, but she was watching intently, changed her life. And now I get to brag, like I changed like 50, if not hundreds of people's lives because she became a spin instructor because she had the courage to start. And it's like you could be that person and your community and your family, like right now, today, but you have to like start and and and have that conviction to like see it all the way through. Like people say, Oh, well, it's gonna take a year. I'm like, oh, okay, well, are you gonna be dead in a year? Is a year gonna pass anyway? Like, well, I guess oh well, if you're gonna die in a year, fuck it, do what you want. It doesn't matter if you're gonna die, but if you're gonna be here in a year, why not do the effort to approach that year with a different perspective, with a different body, with a different like don't repeat the same year over and over and over again.

SPEAKER_02 47:58

So um, like you said, patient in the long run. Like you gotta be urgent short term, right? Like in the long term, you gotta be a little bit more patient.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

Yeah, yeah. Just get give yourself if it takes 10, it probably took you 10 years to get big, it might take you five years to get smaller. And that and you and that's still incredible time. That's like twice as fast to reverse it. But if it takes longer, it takes longer. Be urgent in the daily and be patient in the long run, and you'll win. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

Urgent in the day, I entered this podcast to announce that I fucking hate no shows.

SPEAKER_02 48:32

You've been someone's not there the whole time, you've been gone though. What have you been doing? You better be looking up information on DeLoreans at least or something.

SPEAKER_03 48:40

He's probably waddling back into the room because he's just straight raw dog in a glass of milk right now. What kind of serial killer? Look at that. He's just drinking milk.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

Next thing's gonna tell us he doesn't have bananas and he eats them all the time.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

Say what you want, Mike. He has very strong bones, okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:01

It's actually raw milk. My bones are gonna have tuberculosis, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_03 49:05

My bones are brittle and can shatter with a light enough breeze. Rob, you get hit with a hammer. The the jaw hammer would never work on you, Rob. Oh no. Because your bones are too strong.

SPEAKER_02 49:16

Listen, all right.

SPEAKER_03 49:18

I hate no show. You were the no-show. You were gone for a half hour. What the fuck are you talking about?

SPEAKER_02 49:23

We solved no show. We solved everyone's problems while you were gone. We figured out everything. We told them what to do, and that's it. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 49:29

Well, then I'm not nearly. Roland replaced me as the third on Inmoderation. This is my last episode. I'm out. He's really good, dude. When you listen back to this, you gotta hear it.

SPEAKER_00 49:39

That's okay because according to Google's AI, Joey's actually the uh most different things.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

That's pretty funny. Uh Mike needs a glass of milk.

SPEAKER_03 49:50

I don't know if I can make it to my refrigerator without my knees shattering. I I reject calcium.

SPEAKER_02 49:56

Strap them to your back. You probably fly around if they're that light. That's what that's how birds are able to fly around, right?

SPEAKER_03 50:03

My birds are all and I have no fiber, so I've uh I'm laying eggs all the time. Just solid heaps of this has been in moderation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:12

Oh, and before you go, everyone, check out um this like taki seasoning. I just picked it up for a Vitali.

SPEAKER_03 50:18

Take seasoning.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

Yeah, it's like talkie seasoning.

SPEAKER_03 50:20

Is that official or is that black market?

SPEAKER_02 50:22

It's probably both. Um, but something bold. I don't know. But like, look up taki seasoning. It's bro, it's like zero calories. I mean, it's mostly red 40, but like it's got um like MSG and like stuff like that, and it makes it taste really good. So I tried for a video and I put it on a bunch of like uh I guess what kiwi, but I put it on a bunch of like fruit uh vegetables, like carrots and peppers and shit. I was like, this is really good. Like lime juice and like talkie seasoning on veggies. It's like this actually makes it taste a lot better. Not just like raw dogging my veggies. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 50:55

There you go. There you go. Nolan, where can we find you? Where are you on social media? Are you do you make videos like because you should be making them more than I should?

SPEAKER_01 51:05

Right now, I don't have any really public. I I guess if you want to follow me on Instagram, I'm lan uh underscore gram L-A-N underscram underscore G-R-A-M. Um, I really don't make content online. I'm just a guy just living life. But I you know what? Who knows? Like maybe I should enter this space. I promise you, Mike, I'm not trying to take your job. Job security.

SPEAKER_03 51:32

I'm offering it here. Take it.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

You're good for the cause.

SPEAKER_03 51:35

Yeah, but um.

SPEAKER_01 51:37

Oh, appreciate that. Oh, that would make my day. Um Lynn undergram on Instagram. Um yeah, I really don't have too many. Oh, yeah, right there.

SPEAKER_03 51:50

Yeah, that's you if if you want help setting things up or if you want to do a collab or something, I I would I'm super behind you because you you've got a great message. You talk about this in a fantastic way. Um, I you you've made incredible progress through your journey. I I people have got uh they stand to learn a lot from you here.

SPEAKER_01 52:12

You know, yeah. Let me yeah, let me let me definitely look into that. Um, because if my story helps people on this podcast that listen to it, you know what? Maybe I should continue to share my story and see the good that can do in the world. We we definitely need more positive voices because Lord knows the assholes won't shut up.

SPEAKER_02 52:31

And I need more of this chocolate season. It's got that MSG like kind of savoriness, but also like hot and spicy. Shit's addictive.

SPEAKER_01 52:43

You definitely got that from some guy in a back alley.

SPEAKER_02 52:46

I technically got it from TikTok shop, but that TikTok shop now is basically a guy in a back alley at this point.

SPEAKER_00 52:51

The internet's version of a guy in a back alley, yep.

SPEAKER_02 52:53

Exactly.