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In this episode, I interview Geoff, who’s 34 years old, and used my Bigger Leaner Stronger program to completely transform his physique.
In this interview, we talk about how he found his way to me and my work, including what he had tried previously, how things changed after he started implementing the advice in my books, articles, and podcasts.
As with everything, nothing ever goes exactly as planned, and learning to adjust and adapt to conditions is an important part of the fitness game, which is something Geoff experienced firsthand.
He ran into a number of roadblocks along the way that most of us can relate to, including issues with workout and meal scheduling, hunger and cravings, dietary temptations, and more, and in our chat, Geoff shares what has helped him navigate these barriers skillfully and prevent them from getting in his way.
So, if you like hearing motivational stories about how people have changed their bodies and lives, and if you want to pick up a few tips that may help you along in your personal journey, then this episode is for you.
TIME STAMPS
4:42 – What were your diet and exercise habits before BLS?
5:38 – Why did you gain the weight back?
6:44 – Where are you at now with your diet and training?
8:26 – How do you fit training into your busy lifestyle?
10:29 – Did you always have an ‘all in’ mentality?
13:53 – How did you find my work?
15:28 – How did your body respond to the BLS program?
23:08 – How has getting in shape affect other areas in your life?
29:10 – What would you like to achieve moving forward in your training?
What did you think of this episode? Have anything else to share? Let me know in the comments below!
Transcript:
Geoff: You really want to be a success story. If you really want to do this and do it right, then you got to buy into it. A hundred percent. Just go for it. What do you have to lose? Really give it a shot, a good, honest shot. And I think you’d be happy.
Mike: This is where I would normally plug a sponsor to pay the bills, but I’m not big on promoting stuff that I don’t personally use and believe in. So instead I’m just going to quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my newest book, the little black book of workout motivation. Now, this book was fun to write because it really is my personal and 100 percent practical and hands on blueprint for transformation, both inside and outside of the gym.
And I promise you that it will provide you with new and valuable knowledge and skills that you will use for the rest of your life. In short, I wrote this book to help you fix the things that are most holding you back from doing and achieving the things you care most about. So if you want to learn how to overcome the mental blocks that are making you unmotivated, unhappy, and unhealthy.
Then the little black book of workout motivation is for you and you can find it on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. And I should also mention that you can get the audio book 100 percent free when you sign up for an Audible account. Which I highly recommend that you do if you’re not currently listening to audiobooks.
I love them myself because they let me make the time that I spend commuting, prepping food, walking my dog, and so forth more valuable and productive. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my audiobook for free, simply go to www. workoutmotivationbook. com slash Audio book, click the sign up today and save button, create your account.
And voila, you get to listen to my little black book for free. All righty. That is enough shameless plugging for now. At least let’s get to the show. Hey, Jeff, thanks for taking the time to come on the show.
Geoff: Thank you for allowing me to to be on the podcast.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah. I’m excited for you to share your story because it’s impressive.
And, I know firsthand from hearing from a lot of people, they like these episodes just because they’re inspiring and it’s fun to listen to how other people have succeeded and also to get into some of the nitty gritty details because it’s good to learn. I try to through really everything through my books, articles, podcasts, videos, whatever, try to give the best one size fits all advice that I can, but ultimately everybody ends up customizing things to one degree or another, whether it’s diet or training or supplementation or all of the above.
So it’s also nice for people to hear specifically, what are some of the hurdles that you had to get over and how did you take what you learned from me and really make it work for you? Your lifestyle, your circumstances and so forth. So why don’t we start with a snapshot of your before and after.
So where were you before you found me, found my work and started doing bigger, leaner, stronger and so forth?
Geoff: So I I started around 260 pounds. I’m six foot, three inches tall. So I was a big boy, really no fitness of of any kind. I did venture out when my first child was born. For a short period of time and lost an insane amount of weight, 50 pounds ish, but did it extremely fast and knowing what I know now very wrong and it didn’t last.
I wasn’t able to sustain that. So that’s where I was at. It’s not a healthy guy. I’m in construction, just the lifestyle there, very hectic and. We worked a lot, but we also played hard and, a lot of late night pizza and late night fast food and, just eating what you eat.
So that’s really where I started with this entire thing.
Mike: Interesting. And what happened previously? So you lost a bunch of weight and you eventually put it back on knowing what, now what happened there? Cause obviously that’s a lot of people go through that. That’s a very common thing.
Geoff: So I was the quintessential salad eater. I cut my calories just a ton, did a ton of cardio, no hit. So all solid state cardio ran quite a bit and it did wonderful for me to drop a lot of weight quickly. And I did that, but as soon as I went on a vacation with a family, ate a little bit, not so great that taste of
Mike: the forbidden fruit.
Geoff: That’s exactly right. And that just started to spiral for me. And because of the. Just how fast I did it, knowing what I know now, it just wasn’t anything sustainable for me. And that wasn’t as I like to call it with people. It wasn’t real weight that I lost. It was just this immediate satisfaction of something that I was going through that I wasn’t going to be able to maintain.
So in 2008, that’s when that happened. I put all the weight back on by 2009. And I lived that way from 2009 until 2017, when I decided to
Mike: Hey, quickly before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it.
It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say it. Thank you. You can find me on Instagram at muscle for life fitness, Twitter at muscle for life and Facebook at muscle for life fitness. So where are you at
Geoff: now? So right now today I weigh 179 pounds.
I’m probably right around the 11, 12 percent body fat. Yeah, I’ve been following your program religiously for the last, I would say 15 months. So yeah, I’ve been extremely excited and and that’s excitement still is going on today. It’s something that I value a lot. I look, look at myself.
I look at my lifts. I look at the progress, my diet how it’s evolved. It’s been it’s been pretty incredible.
Mike: Yeah, that’s amazing. 80 plus pounds. And also I have some numbers here. So like previously your deadlift was this is what I have in front of me. It was around 185 pounds. Now it’s 335 pounds.
I’m assuming that’s for reps. Your squat went from 145 to 235, your bench from 95 to 185, your OHP from. 65 to 135. So you’ve also gained a ton of strength, which means you’ve also gained a significant amount of muscle. You can’t gain that much strength without gaining a significant amount of muscle. So you’ve dropped a ton of fat while, while adding quite a bit of muscle, right?
Geoff: Yes, sir. And it’s those numbers have gone up just a little bit since then. So I’m still able to make progress and kind of the way your book is written in all of your information is my life pattern has followed that where today, it’s not walk into the gym and I just, because I walked through the door, I’m gaining muscle.
I have to work at it and make sure that I’m doing things the correct way and form the correct way. And just really been buckling down on that here, the last
Mike: Yeah. That makes sense. Are there any modifications that you’ve made or any things that were specific to you and your situation that, how do you make it work?
Because you have kids, you, it sounds like you work a lot, a lot of, I hear from a lot of people that struggle, at least in the beginning to figure out, Oh, how am I going to find the time to do this? Or how am I going to even fit this into my schedule? How does that look for you? Yeah, absolutely.
Geoff: Yeah, I want to be really clear with everybody on this that it is a commitment and if you’re not willing to make that commitment, I tell people all the time that what I do may not work for you. So the way that I make it work is I don’t sacrifice anything that you had in your information. I am the 100 percent bought in.
Guy. Let’s say I’m traveling for work. I have thermoses and I have lunch boxes that carry enough food for me for the day to eat it. When I’m supposed to eat it, I am insanely annoying to some people because I will pause things to go get my meal in and eat this. When it comes to my training, I don’t sacrifice anything on the training.
I’m still on bigger, leaner, stronger at this point. I haven’t just because your recommendations to go through that for two years before you jump. To be on bigger, leaner, stronger. So I’m still with bigger, leaner, stronger. And I follow that program and I do the deload weeks. And so for me, what I did was made an insane commitment and I worked my schedule around my family.
So my family is important to me. I have commitments with them. I put my youngest to sleep at night. I get done with everything. I give everybody a kiss and I go to the gym and I get my workout in, I come home, I sleep, I get up, I like to do my hit cardio training three days a week.
I do it Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays with some guys in the neighborhood. Two of my best friends run with me and we do that, we wake up at four 45, we’re out the door by five 15. We get our run in, we come back and we get our day started. For me, I just, I work. Your entire program into the lifestyle that I have so that I don’t affect the people that I love and I don’t affect my job, but yet I’m still able to get everything in.
And that’s been a huge commitment, but it’s been something that I’m extremely committed to.
Mike: That’s obviously a common thread among all of the. Success stories that get are featured on the website is the people figure out a way to make it work. And more often than not are all in on it. Is that something, is that how you’ve always been as a person or previously?
Was that something that, did you develop that discipline? Cause I can hear some people listening just going, wow that’s great for you, but I don’t think I could do that. What do you say to those people?
Geoff: So you absolutely can do it. I am wired that way. When I decide and put my mind to doing something, that is what I’m going to do.
And I’ve always been that way from when I was young. And I think that there are great things about that. I also think that there are times where that can be not so great, but. In this respect yeah, I went all in and anybody can do it with a little bit of planning and forethought, my food and my diet is not that big of a deal today.
It was at the beginning, just trying to figure it all out. But a year into it, you have all that worked out, where you’re at, where you’re. TDEE is, what you need to do for where you’re at. If you’re still cutting, you know what to be with the 20 to 25 percent below.
And you know what you need to be with the 10 percent above. And I weigh myself at the exact same time every morning and I got a Bluetooth scale, so it’s not data entry for me. It just all is done automatically. And there are things. Things that if you’re committed to this, that you can do in order to make this fit your lifestyle better.
Mike: Yeah, I totally agree. And it’s that point of necessity, right? I actually have an article coming out in a couple of days. It’s going to be, I guess on, it was going to be this Monday or next Monday. And I also, I’m turning it into a podcast, like for the motivation Monday. On that topic of necessity, if it means enough to you, you can figure it out.
And there’s also something that just comes to mind when you’re saying these things is it’s the attention to detail and it’s doing all of the little things, that, from the outside, looking in most people, they don’t, they’re not seeing anything you’re doing really. They just see that you’re in shape and if they’ve been witnessing your transformation, they’ve seen that your body has been changing.
It can, in some ways look it can be mystifying to some people. How is it possible that, in a year, you not only lose 80 pounds, but you pretty much completely flip your body composition around. And what is behind that though? And I think that, and you see this if you read about any of like even great achievers or geniuses throughout history, What appears to be supernatural, whether it’s in talent or results, often just comes down to a lot of hard work and a lot of attention to detail and a lot of grinding.
That’s what produces in the end, whether it’s a body or A body of work or a life that seems outstanding, or maybe even just inconceivable to a lot of people when you really break it down, it comes down to just that it’s all the little things that are done right. And they’re done consistently, and that I believe anybody can bring themselves to do.
And I think that’s more encouraging than viewing the results as. The product of just a person who’s just wired a certain way or who just has it as opposed to, eh, really what they have is they just have the willingness to continue grinding.
Geoff: Yeah. I can’t agree. I can’t agree more.
Mike: So now walk us through you finding me finding, my work and finding bigger, leaner, stronger and how that differed.
Geoff: So I, I really got into a little bit of health issues, nothing crazy. I like to go to the doctor and feel good. And I went to the doctor and he was like, Hey, you really should check. This and that. So I was like, all right, I need to lose weight and I need to do it right this time. I went back to a diet again this time, but not I didn’t do the all salad diet.
I just I looked at a few things and just ate a lot better than what I had, which, it really isn’t hard when you’re that overweight. You just start eating a little bit better. And I noticed as I was losing weight, which I was losing weight at an okay pace that I just had no muscle mass whatsoever.
So I started researching. What do I need to do in the gym? And really that’s how I came across bigger, leaner, stronger and your website. So I really spent a good week going through articles on your website and really just love the information. It made a lot of sense to me. I’m a researcher, so you know, you’re backing with all of your information that you had and all your research you had done and being able to see it and touch it and feel it was really made me comfortable, so I bought bigger, leaner, stronger.
I listened to it quickly, downloaded the PDF that came on the back of the book and really from that point started my bigger, leaner, stronger journey completely. And that was from diet to weightlifting, the entire thing. That’s awesome.
Mike: And how was your training in the beginning? Cause you’re obviously in a deficit.
And I’m sure it’s quite different than your previous experience, but did you see your body responding? How did your body respond
Geoff: in the beginning? My body responded great. It was doing all the things that it should do. I was absolutely felt fatigued being in a deficit, not having trained seriously before ever.
And I’d been in gyms before, but nothing of any huge consequence. So I could definitely feel the fatigue, but as I started to go through and again, I would read articles on how to do this right and how to do that. And as I got in there and really focused on all of those things and you knew, just start seeing your slow progression.
And I’m not one that when it came to this in my life, I can be very instant gratification driven. But in this, I was very sensitive. settled to, Hey, I want to work the process. I want to work the program. And I really want to do it right. So I was really okay and comfortable with, if I gained one rep a week, that was great for me, and it may be one rep on one set a week.
And then the next week you may add 10 pounds and just going through that every day that I went into the gym, I was just trying to beat that one rep. The last week, and keep going. So for me, I never had any training before and I never had done anything like this before. So to see the results that I was getting right away and how it was going with the diet and the training, I just got excited about it.
And I’ve been that way ever since I still, to this day, feel the same way when I go into the gym five days a week,
Mike: I understand. I feel the same way after years and years now. Not just, I’ve started training when I was younger, but didn’t know what I was doing for the first seven years or so.
So it’s been a number of years and it’s still fun to progress is slower. It’s a lot less linear. I’ll have exercises that stick. Like my bench is stuck right now. It’s because I’m probably not benching enough, so I’m not too concerned about it. Not that I even really care. I honestly don’t really want more size in my chest.
I just think it would be cool maybe one day to be able to bench. 315 for reps, but to get there for me with my absurdly long arms, I probably have to gain a noticeable amount of size in my chest. Cause the best I’ve ever done is 295 for a couple. And that was on a lean bulk, blah, blah, blah. But yeah, it’s fun to see progress, even if it’s.
Slow progress, especially when you understand mechanically what’s going on in your body. And when you’ve adjusted your expectations, which is something that you brought up that’s a good point that I think should actually be highlighted, which is, this is something from the beginning for me that I wanted to, what I wanted to focus on in terms of a target market for my work.
I wanted to try to go as wide as possible. I didn’t want to cater just to bodybuilders or fitness enthusiasts, but at the same time, there are a lot of people out there that are still looking for the magic bullet. They still think that there is some great shortcut or biohack or whatever that can get them to where they want to be.
And that can be losing 20, 30 pounds in 30 days or gaining 20, 30 pounds of muscle in a couple months or whatever it is. And there are plenty of people, plenty of products and services out there that cater to those people. And I guess cater is the wrong word, more like prey upon those people. And eventually and I know this firsthand having spoken and worked with so many people over the years, eventually those people they get their fill of the quick fixes and they finally realized that quick fixes just don’t work.
Even when they seem to work over the short term, they really don’t work over the longterm. And. That’s where now that person is ready for me and my work really is okay, so you’ve tried, let’s look at it this way. If you, as a person, if you hear someone say, Hey, you can lose 30 pounds in 30 days by taking this supplement and following my little diet, and you can also gain muscle and you’re never going to be hungry and, paint this utopian picture of how it’s going to play out a person that is inclined to believe that.
I can’t compete with that. Cause then I’m over here saying let’s go for max 1 percent of your body weight per week. And, oh, you can’t necessarily eat everything you want to eat. You’re going to have to watch your food intake. You’re gonna have to work hard in the gym. It’s much less sexy, but the person that, that goes for the shiny stuff.
One, and then it doesn’t work and then maybe they try another shiny object that doesn’t work. Eventually that person becomes skeptical and jaded and goes, okay, the next time they see a shiny thing, it actually repels them. And then I’m out there saying, okay, so I’ve been saying here’s the real sustainable way to do it.
There is some instant gratification, but it’s more of a longterm play. It’s more of a lifestyle. And I would like to be able to help more people just skip that. If they’re in that newbie phase in terms of market awareness, where they think they don’t know, Hey, who knows? Maybe you can, lose 30 pounds of fat in 30 days and gain muscle.
Why not? I would like to help more people understand that you could just skip all that beginning, all the churn and just get to reality. And that’s what I, try to do
Geoff: with my work. Absolutely. And eventually your program does become. Sexy to people like me. And what I mean by that is you’re very right.
There’s a lot of flowery things out there that sound wonderful. But when you get into the trenches of this program and you abide by what it is that you’re supposed to do, you understand it, you live it. And at that point, you start seeing all of your success, your personal success. And again, I have this saying that I stay in my lane.
I have my lane. When I go into the gym, I’m not ego lifting against anybody else. I don’t, I have my numbers. I have my diet. I have my setup that is then developed through this bigger, leaner, stronger program, and that’s my lane. And now that I’m in my lane and I have your program. To me, it’s completely sexy, right?
It’s exactly what I want. It’s the lifestyle that I want. It’s something that I want to maintain for a long period of time. I didn’t do this until I was 34 years old. So for me, here I am at 35 years old, and I’m in the best shape of my life. And I plan on keeping that, forever, as long as I can go.
And having that it. And being able to look back at that, it is sexy for me. So these people will, they’ll get it eventually. I think you’re exactly right.
Mike: Yeah. That’s that really is once you’re, I guess you could say your expectations become a bit more realigned to reality. Then it is that slow, steady progress that becomes encouraging because then you realize.
All I have to do is just keep doing this and eventually I’ll be where I want to be. And along the way, I’ll probably learn some things that will speed it up, but it’s never going to get as quick as some people would want me to believe. For the most part, it’s just keep on working these things and I will get there.
That’s, I think that’s very motivating, not just in fitness, but in anything.
Geoff: Yeah. And you’re in all of your motivation stuff, the motivation Mondays, the things that come out, people need to really get entrenched in all of this because there’s certain things that you’ve said and look, I never in a million years would have thought that one of my successes that I would tell people is that I gained a half a pound last week, right?
Like I was dead on my number last week and I did it right. And so maybe not all of my successes are gym related. And, I know last week I pulled 365 or 375. And I was feeling great about it and the week before that, I gained 0. 4 pounds and I was just excited about that. So it just changes for me all the time.
And that’s what’s so exciting about that, about my entire program for sure.
Mike: Yeah. Tell us about that. How has getting into great shape impacted other areas
Geoff: of your life? Man, keeping up with my kids. I have a six year old and a 10 year old at home and they’re full of energy. And just doing life with them and my wife.
And really, I don’t know that anybody fully understands the impact of being as overweight as I was again, starting at 260 pounds, you get tired quick there’s things that I like to do around the house and then just certain. Other hobbies or activities that wanting to be a part of, I know one that sticks out in my head is my sister’s family had a party at a a local gymnastics place and inside of there, all the kids were running around and they had the American ninja warrior courses and they had the rope climbs and the pull up bars and the warped wall and all that, and I remember doing it.
Three or four years ago. And I couldn’t get up the warp wall. I couldn’t do this. And it was just embarrassing. And I went back maybe six months ago and I was tearing it up, doing everything. I felt like a 10 year old all over again. And it’s just little things like that, that, you go through life and you just don’t realize that there’s some of those things that are just enjoyable.
And it’s fun to see other people say, man, look, this guy, two, three years ago, couldn’t do this. And now look at him. He’s, Running around with his kids and doing all that. So it is just from my life, from scoop to nuts. And I’m a very regimented, organized guy who I love structure. I make 19 or 20 meals on Sunday and I have them all ready to go.
I know what, where my numbers are. I know what I’m eating that week. I, I. Bought a Bluetooth scale and weigh myself every morning at the exact same time. It goes straight to my phone. I track it all the time. I know what’s going on. I am as devoted to this program as you can possibly be.
And it’s one of the things that I tell people, if you really want to be a success story, if you really want to do this and do it right, then you got to buy into it a hundred percent, just go for it. What do you have to lose really in the long run? Nothing else has worked. So give it a shot, a good, honest shot.
And I think you’d be happy.
Mike: I totally agree. And, sometimes I’ll be emailing with people that are struggling to get going with, and it seems a bit overwhelming to them because this is all new, right? So these are people who have sure. They’ve heard of calories before, but they never really understood it.
And they’d never, of course, never understood. Energy balance or counting calories, tracking calories, or really anything that’s discussed in the books or in articles, podcasts, whatever. And sometimes also what I’ll tell those people is, okay, so let’s start with something simple. Let’s start with, it’s often the training, right?
So let’s start with the workouts. Let’s get that going. And if you want to, if you want to play with your diet, let’s say if we could quote unquote, clean it up a little bit. That’s about it. And I’ll just leave that up to you. Maybe if you, for different people, it’s different things, right? So sometimes it’s, let’s try to eat a little bit less sugar or let’s try to eat a little bit less refined carbs and a little bit more if they don’t really eat any vegetables or any fruit, let’s just try to make your diet a little bit more nutritious, but let’s really focus like what you’re talking about.
It’s really dial in the training. Let’s get that established as a habit. You’re going to be in the gym. Let’s say it’s three days a week. Okay. So we’ll follow a simple push, pull legs and you’re really tracking everything. And you are grooved in and all the exercises you’re making progress until that feels like it’s on automatic and then we’ll start looking at the diet or sometimes it’s the other way around sometimes I particularly with people have a lot of weight to lose.
And again, if they feel a bit overwhelmed, I’ll say, okay, let’s get into the nitty gritty on your diet. Let’s make your meal plan. Let’s make sure you know what you’re gonna be doing for your meal prep and make sure you can follow this to the T and on the exercise side of things. Let’s just keep it simple.
What can you do? Can you go for. Some walks can, could you walk like five hours a week, depending on their circumstances, it could be go on the treadmill or go on the elliptical or go on the bike. And once your diet is totally grooved in and you feel like it’s on automatic, then let’s do the same thing for your training.
Let’s really dial in your workouts and it’s really, make sure that you have a very specific program that you’re following and you understand progression and blah, blah, blah. I thought I should also just throw it out there for people who might be feeling a bit overwhelmed, listening to you, Jeff, explain all that.
You don’t necessarily have to try to tackle it all in one go. If you feel up to it, do it. If that is a problem and has been a problem, then You can make it more bite sized.
Geoff: Sure. And I think for me I have two very good friends who live in my neighborhood. They started with me, one’s a great runner.
The other one is a chiropractor who was in good shape. And they started with me with just, they came down to my level. They would walk with me a little bit and then we would run and then walk and then run, and we just built it from there. That’s how my running training started with them.
And then I refined that with them the more I got into your program. But you’re really right. Just cleaning up, bite size pieces is good. This is not, and I don’t want to take anything away from what you do. Cause what you do is extraordinary. But for normal people like me this is not rocket science.
You have done everything for. People like me. So if they buy into this and they do bite off the little pieces, it doesn’t take long to download my fitness pal and go through and calculate your macros with the sheets that you have and all of the articles that you have to do it and break that down. Once you get used to that, man, once you’ve done it for two, three months, become second nature to me.
I can. These things in my mind, just, I go through them. It’s quick. I can refine my diet. I’m one of those guys who eats a lot of the same things for an extended period of time, and then I get tired of them. So I switch it up, just doing things like that. The training same way. You’re right. I started with three days a week.
I went to four days a week. I’m at five days a week now. I enjoy five days a week training now, just where my body’s at and how I’m responding to it and a little extra attention to the different places. But three days a week worked perfect for me at the beginning. So you are really right. Bite sized pieces are great for people who can’t dive into that, in two weeks, try to have it all figured out.
Mike: Totally. So what are your plans from here? What would you like to achieve going forward in your training?
Geoff: Oh, the sky’s the limit for me. I’m nowhere near. The end of my story. I’m still feel like I’m at the beginning of it. I did great. I cut the weight, cut down to 10 percent body fat.
Like you talked about in your books, got there. It felt great. Took a little bit of ridiculing from people because I was small compared to what I used to be. And so I, and again, I stay in my lane. So all those people I just laugh. Yeah I’m okay. Are you sick? No, I’m not sick. Everything’s good.
And it gives me opportunity to talk to people. But that’s a bit
Mike: extreme. Are you sick at 10%?
Geoff: Really?
Mike: Wait, are you mad? That’s my question.
Geoff: Yeah, I’m thinking the question is that, yeah, 6%. I could see
Mike: it. Yeah. There’s a point where you start to look gone. I wouldn’t say you look sick, but depending on your face, you can start looking pretty gaunt where then people are like, Whoa, what’s going on?
Geoff: And most people don’t see me without my shirt on and, after I work out and all those things. It just, anyways, with all of that being said, my, my journey’s just beginning, so I’m at 178 pounds right now. I would love to be in the high one nineties, probably even close to 200.
I’m six foot three inches tall. I think we’re similar in height, so I’d love to be in that, in the one 90 to 200 range. Very lean at. 10%, maybe a little bit below. So for me, I’m just going to keep working the system right now. I’m in a clean bulk. I’m trying to go between a quarter of a pound and half a pound a week.
I did a little bit more of a serious bulk last year. When I got down to 10%, I bulked at about a pound a week. And that to me was I got up to where I was eating 4, 000, 4, 200 calories a day. It was just extreme for me. And I didn’t enjoy that a lot. So
Mike: yeah, I’ve been there too. I like food to as much as the next person, but yeah, after a couple months of having to do 4, 000 plus a day, I was so ready to cut just so I didn’t have to eat food.
Like I was. Ready to just cut my calories in half.
Geoff: You’re exactly right. And right now I’m sitting at that sweet spot. I’m probably at 3, 100 calories. I enjoy that amount of food. I enjoy what I eat every day. Don’t ever feel crazy full, able to keep my training going, progressing. Great. So I’m going to bulk here for a little while and then.
I’ll cut down and then bulk back up and then we’ll do the normal right before summer thing for me, get real good shape for summertime. And for the next two or three or four years, I think I’m just going to continue on that path. I have beyond bigger, leaner, stronger. I have not read it yet.
I started to read it, but once you had that line in the book, where if you haven’t been through bigger, leaner, stronger for two years and lift these numbers, You should stay with bigger, leaner, stronger. So I just shelved that for right now. I’m going to stay with bigger, leaner, stronger for one more year.
Really work on getting to those numbers. And and I will, I’ll get them this year. No problem. And we’ll move on to beyond bigger, leaner, stronger, and just keep with the program and nothing special, just, I’m going to do it because I enjoy it, I enjoy the way I look, I enjoy the way I feel.
And yeah, I’m just going to keep on getting it as long as I can.
Mike: That’s awesome, man. That’s so cool. Those are all the questions that I had for you. Is there anything anything else you’d like to share with everybody listening?
Geoff: Other than just, really buy into the program. If you’re going to do this, just buy into it.
Trust it. It is a great program. I can’t thank you enough for what you do. And again, the content that you continue to put out, it helps me continuously. It’s not been a bigger, leaner, stronger, and that’s all type situation. I definitely I’m glad Subscribe to your podcast. I listened to it the new book, I’m excited.
I’m getting ready to get into that. Really dive into it, do it, and you can be in the same place for sure. You can do it.
Mike: That’s awesome. Thanks so much, man. I appreciate it. And there’s a lot more good stuff coming. I have I think, I don’t know if I told you, I don’t think I’ve mentioned it so far in the podcast, but maybe we spoke about it before, but I have updated third editions of bigger than a stronger and thinner than you’re stronger coming out, which I’m super excited about because I’ve pretty much rewritten them from scratch.
The fundamentals are what they are. But at this point, I wrote those second editions four years ago. I’m a better writer. Now I’ve researched a lot. I’ve written a lot. I’ve also gotten a lot of really good feedback from people to really narrow down what should be in the book and what doesn’t necessarily need to be in the book, right?
Currently the book has a lot of information, a lot of things, and it’s great. I didn’t want it to get bigger. I actually wanted it. The books get a little bit smaller, if anything, and to get maximum value out of those words. Words though, it’s been very helpful to get a lot of feedback from people. So I’m excited to get those books out.
You’ll have, so you have the audio book, you’ll get it free. You’ll get a, it’s going to be a free update for anybody who has the, at least that’s how it works through Amazon. I’m assuming iTunes and Google play probably worked the same way where if new files are uploaded, basically everybody who downloaded them previously gets the new ones for free.
So you’ll get that. And then the audio book is the same thing. And I recorded the audio book myself, which the guy who recorded previously did a great job, but I think it’s the best person to record. It is the author. If their voice works, basically, if you don’t have a horrible voice, I think it’s best for the author to.
To record it. So yeah, we got that coming. I’m going to do a second edition of beyond bigger than you’re stronger. That’s gonna be one of the next projects I’m going to work on, which I’m excited about a lot of good feedback from readers on that, a new cookbook. And it’s fun. I like being just similar.
It’s like the training grind. I have my content grind that it’s something I just, I enjoy doing. I enjoy getting it out there. I enjoy getting the feedback. So it’s a virtuous cycle.
Geoff: Yeah. And for us that follow you, we really appreciate that. Cause it’s good stuff for us.
Mike: Thanks man. Yeah, I really appreciate you taking the time, Jeff.
Thank you. No problem at all. Thank you. Hey there it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don’t mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick Review of it on iTunes or wherever you’re listening from.
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soon. Oh, and if you liked this episode, then you are going to love my newest book, the little black book of workout motivation. You should definitely check it out because this book is my personal and 100 percent practical and hands on blueprint. for transformation both inside and outside of the gym. I promise that this book will provide you with new and valuable knowledge and skills that you will use for the rest of your life.
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