Ep. #937: How Jose Lost 120 Pounds, Overcame an Eating Disorder, and Got Healthy

Mike: Hey there, I am Mike Matthews. This is Muscle for Life. Thank you for joining me today for a success story interview I did with Jose, who lost 120 pounds and overcame a rather serious eating disorder and started to live a much healthier and more enjoyable life. And although he did all of the work, of course, I was able to help by giving him good information.

Jose used the information that he learned in my articles and my podcasts and my book, Muscle for Life, to go from 300 plus pounds and very unhealthy physically and mentally, so much so that he was even hospitalized at one point, to under 200 pounds and fit and healthy. And what’s even more exciting for Jose is he finally understood that he could reach his goals and he did not have to continue to struggle with his weight and his body composition and his relationship with food.

That those things were truly under his control and could remain under his control for the rest of his life. And so I wanted to bring Jose onto the show to share his story because it is inspiring and also because he has struggled with an eating disorder. And that’s something that men don’t usually want to talk about.

Although statistically it’s more common among women. women, there are many men out there who also have eating disorders and who are too shy or embarrassed to want to talk about it and even seek help. Before we begin, one of the easiest ways to increase muscle and strength gain is to eat enough protein and to eat enough high quality protein.

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Hey, Jose, thanks for taking the time to do this. 

Jose: Hi, Mike. Thank you for the chance. 

Mike: Yeah, absolutely. So why don’t we start this discussion with maybe you can share with us a brief snapshot, maybe of your before and after your transformation so far, and we’re always working on the next goal and the next thing.

I understand that, but just to give people listening an idea of where you were before you started to figure this stuff out and how it works. Versus where you are now. 

Jose: Sure. Sure. Yeah. Like you said, my name is Jose. I was born and raised in Mexico. I moved to the U S nine years ago to go to grad school.

Initially it was just supposed to be just two years, I ended up finding work here, so it’s been almost nine, so I’m pretty much, used to the American way of life, 

Mike: We’ve stolen you from from Mexico. 

Jose: Yeah, and since last April, I’m officially one of American residents, so I guess that’s one step closer so yeah, pretty much, I I’ve I’ve struggled with being overweight for most of my life, actually, funny story, when I was a kid, like a kid, like maybe, five years or so, I was very skinny, But then one summer, everything changed.

I literally blew up. I gained a ton of weight when I was like around nine or 10 and it just, I couldn’t control it. There was no, no way for me to stop it. And then my parents took me to the doctor because my mom was worried because she has she has hypothyroidism. So she was worried about, me having that.

And it turns out that I do have it. Okay. So I’ve been having, being treated since so from then on, I struggled to, to lose weight. I’ve always tried to, to control or to go back to quote, unquote, normal weight. I was just a kid, like I said, 9, 10 years old. And to be honest I never could.

My mom, bless her, of course we didn’t know better. So we tried all kinds of, diets and whatnot. But when I say all, all of them, like I, I remember I, I tried keto before it was a thing back in like the, late nineties, early 2000s. 

Mike: That’s when it was just just a medical thing.

Jose: Exactly. And I was just a kid and I did the hardcore one, the ones that, you know, in those, the first two weeks, you’re not allowed to eat anything, just like drink water and like tomatoes or like celery or something like that. And doing that as like a 10, 11 year old was hard, man. So I tried, several things.

Up and down, and I can never grasp the concept around it, and it was funny because my dad, he was really into fitness and exercise. He was an avid jogger and then he would just walk as he aged, but he also was really into the gym and he could never really got me interested into that, not even when I started, my teams and all that.

I just. I wasn’t interested. I did play soccer all my life, but I could get away with being a little bit chubby, a little bit overweight. It didn’t, it didn’t really matter. But, I never could go back to normal or at least regular weight. You can say that, I didn’t.

I didn’t notice this until I was way older, but I started developing really not so healthy behaviors around food. Since really young, pretty much, just overeating, maybe even binging and encouraging and didn’t have the best relationship with that. I try to, look for help online. I don’t know.

I get to those deep parts of the internet in which instead of getting help, you get more and more sucked into the Eating disorder culture, and I just felt really, I don’t know, lost for many years. Fast forward to 2013, when I moved to the U. S., I was 22 years old. I moved here, this was the first time that I was living on my own.

No supervision, nothing from any Adult, even though I was 22, so I was technically an adult, but like no separation from anyone. And I noticed that it got worse before that. I controlled it. I had episodes, but I was still, somehow going through life. In a relatively normal fashion, but over here, it got really, it got worse.

I guess the, homesick, excuse me, stress at the time. And I know that played a huge role, but I started noticing more and more episodes of those behaviors. And I tried to, again look for help online, but I felt even more Lost something that I think is really important is that behaviors around food, like eating disorders amongst men are not very.

Outspoken, I would say, so all the reference that I could find was regarding to mostly females, which it’s fine. A disease is a disease regardless, but, when I think when we deal with things like these that affect also like your mental health and such relatability is something that, it’s really important and I couldn’t find any of that. So I was lost, right? And even then, when you start looking into people with eating disorders, you usually see certain archetypes of said person, right? Really thin malnourished and, all those things. And I didn’t look like that.

So I was physically, so I was like, I don’t know. I was just very confused. And again I kept trying to get, my stuff together, but I hit a really bad episode around 2014, which I basically, I had a couple of days of binging and bridging and it got bad enough that I ended up at the hospital for three days, luckily or unluckily or unlucky.

I don’t know. I like the eating disorder portion of it didn’t make its way through the doctors. They just treat me for something on my stomach or digestive tract or whatnot. And I got released three days later, but it really put things into perspective for me. So I finally talked to my parents about this.

I was like, okay, I’m not good. So I might need some help. So they flew me back to Mexico for two weeks to go to therapy. That was the first time I went to therapy for anything, but unfortunately I think that I didn’t click with the therapist that I saw over there and I just, I, after, one or two sessions, I was like, nah, this is not for me.

And I just, spend the rest of my time over there, just relaxing and being, enjoy the company of my parents and all that. And I flew back with a little bit of a better mindset, but still. It wasn’t the best and I kept fighting through it. Then I had another, few more gruesome episodes.

You’re trying things that I saw online that weren’t the best. Like I remember I saw on a Reddit forum saying that, okay, if you really want to tackle this with your mindset, you need to be hardcore on yourself, show yourself some tough love. And they say, when you have those episodes of when you want to eat and binge and all that, try to eat in front of a mirror, naked and see what you think.

Man, it was the worst idea. He could have, it really destroyed me. So again, I was not in a good place, but even then. I did not find my way through to fix my life. And then fast forward to 2017 actually a couple months before that I have two younger cousins that I’m really close to, and they were also Chubby when growing up, but they did lose weight when they hit their late teens and they were really into the YouTube fitness and they introduced me to those videos, but like the really early ones, like Chris Jones and the Hodge twins and Matt August and all those guys.

So I started looking at those, but just as an entertainment, just nothing. But then browsing through those videos, I found a couple of channels, mainly One of our, acquaintance, Omar Asaf, and he has really good information and also like that humor that he uses.

So I really like his videos and I like watch a lot of those. It showed me something that it was like, okay maybe I can do this, but again, I saw on those videos that I couldn’t relate to them because they were talking mostly from skinny guys becoming muscular or big, but not the other way around.

So I was like, maybe this is not possible. Maybe I’m just, this is what it is, even though I like, I literally dreamt about being fit, being thin, having muscles and all those things, I dreamt about those things. I really I really wanted to get those, but maybe I was like, maybe this is not possible.

I haven’t seen anyone do it, do this, so maybe it’s not possible. And one day, again, now in 2017, I was just, doing nothing. Just browsing YouTube and I found a channel of one guy who was one of your athletes back then, Danny Navely, in which he, documented his whole transformation since day one and that really opened my eyes because I saw him transform before my eyes and I was okay.

So then this is possible. And one day I just decided to give it a try. And I started reading articles, watching videos, getting myself pretty much obsessed with information. I read, books from like Lane Norton. And I went and binge watched Eric Helms and Team 3D MJ videos and all that.

And I was like, okay maybe I can do these. So I started lifting and I getting my nutrition and tracking April of 2017. At that time, I weighted, I think the highest number I saw on the scale was 275 pounds. Bear in mind, I’m 5’7 so it’s not I’m the tallest guy, so 200, almost 300 pounds on me looks really different than on a taller guy.

But I think I weighed more than that. I think I was on the 290s or something like that. So I started, tracking my progress and by November, December of that year, yeah, for my birthday, I was down to the 200s already. So I was like, okay, this is possible. And that’s when Danny started, I think, working with you or maybe in 2018.

So that’s when I heard of Legion. So I went to your site and I saw the articles that you put there and I read those and I was like, man, this is so cool. I’ve never seen someone like the owner of the CEO of a company being so open and, actually hands on. I. I didn’t see that very often and you were there putting, articles and information and I started reading those and I said, okay, that’s cool.

And I, at the time, I hadn’t paid attention to any supplements or what not, because I had the misconception that those things were, just there to either, You know, take money from me or just, would make me unhealthy or kidney stones, all the things that you hear about those things, 

Mike: which is on the whole is more right than wrong, but yeah, not always the case 

Jose: exactly, but I started looking those.

I like all the science y stuff that you guys use. I’m an engineer, so I like facts. I like information. So I, yeah. I, and I think I understand somehow, those concepts. So it was so cool to see that. And then I kept on working. And by I think about the beginning of 2018, around February, I had lost almost 80 pounds, really close to the 80, 85 pounds, 90 pounds.

And I started noticing I’ll stall on my progress both at the gym like lifting the weights I was lifting and on the weight loss side of things that I really had on my mind that I really wanted to get down to 170 pounds. So I was 270 to 75. Until 170, so it was maybe the 100 pound mark that should be cool.

I could number my milestone, whatnot. So I had that on my mind. I think I need a little bit of help from someone else, because I, at the time I already understood nutrition. I think pretty good. I did my own macros, calories, and I just did. And even though I like, because of how I am on my Past with the behaviors around food I put myself some rules on these process when I started doing it, especially to not over obsess on things.

I said, okay, one of the rules I remember was I won’t isolate myself. From social gatherings, if any I won’t let food or me dieting make me avoid certain things, which happened before one of the other things I was living with a roommate at the time who was actually trying to do the opposite that I was doing, he was trying to gain weight.

I was starting to lose weight, so I was okay, maybe once a week, we will try to go out and eat and have dinner at a fast food place and I’ll make it work. And I did that. And the other thing was like, okay, I’ll put a cap on how low my calories would be. So I said, I won’t. Get any lower than 1800 and I did that and I was able to, maintain those things, respect my own boundaries, my own rules, but then that’s when the stall happened.

And I try to manipulate on my own some of the variables, but it still was not able to do much. So I found a personal trainer here in the area. Her name is Miranda Cohen, and I reached out to her because I thought it was a good idea because of two things. One, of course, the progress in the gym she’s very strong, she would post videos and all that, and she was, she looked amazing and really impressive, and she trained hard, she trains hard really hard, and I like that, and the other thing is was, I also have a little bit of a social anxiety thing going on and I struggle talking to people especially talking to the opposite sex.

So I said, okay, maybe that could be, I could I could do two things at once. Since she’s a female trainer, I can, start. Working with her on the fitness stuff and also in my social stuff, just, polish some things up. And I started working with her since 2018 and haven’t stopped.

We’ve been working together for four years now. And it basically, it changed everything. Yes. I did most of the work myself with the help of people like you and your products and your knowledge. Also I read your book muscle for life as well. Yeah. While I was doing all my stuff, I was, Oh this really makes sense.

This is what I’m doing. So it really aligns with what I did. And by working with her by the end of that year of 2018, not only I had, reached my goal weight of 270 pounds, but I also look completely different. I increased my lifts in the gym. I fell in love with the gym. So one thing I like to say is that lifting saved my life.

To be honest, I wasn’t enjoying living. I was just surviving just coasting through life pretty much. Although I had, a ton of I would say academic goals or whatnot, and I can, and I could reach them. With relatively ease there were other things that I wasn’t doing that I really want to do or wanted to do, but I couldn’t because my mindset mostly.

And then my weight, of course, was putting a stop to those things. So by conquering that really sticking to the, to, to the plan, to, to the routine. Being tuned with myself, it changed my life completely. I’ve done things that I never thought I would have done. Like I, I went to the Arnold in 20, 20, 19, and that’s where I met miles, actually.

He was just walking around the expo with a couple of other guys. I think it was Chris or someone. And I, and I met him. I, I. Because I was looking for a booth for you guys, but I didn’t see it, but I recognized because he was wearing the black shirt with the legion logo, I was like, Oh, okay, he’s legion.

And I started talking to him that I went to a gym later that day, and I found one of your athletes there and I spoke with him and I was like, man, this is so cool. And then I think at the time I was. I was experimenting with supplements, mainly with protein powder, because I have a sensitive stomach.

You posted something on Instagram and I asked you hey, I’ve tried your, the old vegan blend that you guys had. And I was like, yeah I did like it, but I don’t know why the texture wasn’t very good, but I’m worried because I want to try way, but I’m lactose doesn’t do well with me. And you said, no, but you can try weight loss.

This is good lactose free and it’s okay. Maybe I’ll give it a try. And I did it and I liked it a lot, no upset stomach great taste makes very well with everything. So I was like, Oh man, this is good. And I said, okay, maybe. Yeah. Maybe I’ll keep, using your stuff. And then in, I think it was January of last year when I reached out to Miles again.

I think I, and I think also to you and I actually became an ambassador for you guys since, since Jan January of last year. And, I love it, man. I love it. I think technically I’m speaking with my boss right now, . No but no, but really one of the things that I always say is that the online fitness community helped me a lot.

Like I said, it helped me take my life back. It saved my life. So I’ve been doing, now I’ve been lifting and doing the fitness thing for five years now, almost. A little bit over five years. And I’m nowhere where I want to be. Since this community gave me so much, I just want to give back in any way I can, whatever that is, keeping posting on social media, helping my family, helping friends, or just, Being there.

So that’s was one of the reasons that I wanted to talk to you. I’ve also spoken to one of our friends, mutual friends, Jordan Sayet as well. He was so kind to, to have me on his podcast as well last year. So that was so fun. And just give back, man, just like you guys do. Whatever I can because.

It’s priceless what fitness has brought to my life, all the ways it’s just, being able to shop for clothes that I really like all the way to. To finding love actually was funny because through, being open on social media I met my now my ex girlfriend, but I met her through that.

And we shared a lot because of it. And like I said, he, he has brought me so much men not only the health stuff, like when I was pre diabetic, high blood pressure. Two times I had to have surgery for kidney stones. I had a high uric acid, all those things, none of these, none of those things is, is, I was able to reverse all of those things, I, as healthy as I can.

And, it’s price, it’s priceless. 

Mike: How has your relationship with food changed? I’m curious. Obviously it’s changed a lot, but I’m curious as to some of the specifics and just your experience of what food was to you before versus now. And 

Jose: so I think to be honest, I saw even though I wasn’t formally ever diagnosed or admitted for a, an eating disorder.

I do think I, I do have 1, of course, and I see I speak in present tense because I don’t think we can ever get completely cured. You’re always on treatment or recovery quote, unquote. And like I said, I don’t think I, I will ever be 100%. For example, if you put in front of me a bucket of fries and a bucket of cucumbers, I’ll eat them both.

No problem. But I do know where to stop for sure. Before that I hadn’t, I did have a concept from all of those things that I tried before. I knew what protein was, what fat was, what carbs was, but I don’t know, for some reason, the science or the biology or the chemistry of those things.

And actually seeing that in a, I don’t know, in a piece of chicken or whatever, I, I didn’t connect them in my head until now. So now that completely changed the game because some people say you can use food as fuel instead of for taste. I don’t think so. Because at least in my culture. Food is something that is really important and a lot of things, revolve around food, but just understanding what it’s made for and, does to your body is amazing.

But particular examples. I do eat everything that I want. Yes. I understand the portion control. That’s huge. I wouldn’t say moderation that much because again, like I said, if you put in front of me a bag of chips, I will eat them all. No, no problem. But I also know how I will feel after that physically and how that will affect my workout.

And I care more about, about, about that more than the immediate pain. Reward of having the entire bag of chips, for example, 

Mike: That sounds like all of us. Really? Yeah, exactly. Nobody wants to only eat a few Doritos. Everybody wants to eat the whole bag. 

Jose: Exactly. But no, I haven’t had an episode of binging and purging and, or purging since, I don’t know, four years now.

That’s something that I think it’s, under control for sure. I was I won’t say scared by worried because of some, how I would handle certain things, certain life events that happen, for example, in 2019, my, my father passed away. So I was worried that how would that affect me?

Because, when life gets hard, sometimes we fall back into old habits that maybe are not the healthiest ones. But no, I was actually able to use it as a, to, to use fitness as a way of coping with that, as an aid to keep me moving. Keep my mind occupied. And again, I was very very lucky to have the support from my coaches from Miranda and, to keep going, keep pushing and remembering that, one of the things my dad always wanted was for me to lose weight.

And it was such, such a great thing that he was able to see me still when I, I’ve already accomplished that goal. So I just, it just, feel the fire to keep going, right? Same now when my relationship ended as well, right? I’m still working through it. It happened, it just ended a couple of months ago, but I haven’t stopped working out.

I haven’t, gave up on, on all those habits that I’ve built throughout these five years. And I think that’s the key of why this time I’m able to, I was able to stick with it because the foundation is really solid and by focusing on, on, on that I guess one thing I recently, reflect upon was that like.

We always chase that, those immediate results, right? Of course, seeing the scale go down, if you’re trying to lose weight, that’s a great feeling, right? Seeing, lifting more weights, hitting PRs, all that thing is so much fun. But at one point, The progress will slow down, right?

It’s part of what it is. 

Mike: You’re preaching to the choir there. If I put five pounds on a big lift in six to eight months of training, I’m actually happy. That’s a good day. I’m when I’m like, wow, I’m squatting. Five more pounds than I was then six months ago, eight months ago. And I’m doing it while keeping my body composition where I like it to be.

And not just getting fat in the process, which makes you stronger. But I also like to just keep a certain type of look and aesthetic, and it also funny enough, it. It ties into my work a little bit too, because I don’t have the body to ever be super strong. So it’s I’m going to impress anybody because I can maybe work my way up to a 405 squat.

That’s yeah, whatever dude. Good for you, dude. And so I can’t even go, I can’t even go in that direction and be like if I put on 20 to 30 pounds, I, I’ll be I’ll be fluffy as they say, but I’ll be really strong. No, not really. So I’m like, whatever, I’ll just keep a certain kind of look and be strong ish for my body weight.

Jose: Yeah, exactly. That’s similar to what happens with me. For example I usually hover around 180, 185 pounds. Yeah. That’s where my body likes to be either on the way down or on the way up when I was losing weight, breaking that 185 pound mark was hard and when I was trying to gain weight, also gaining, going beyond that, it was hard for me.

I needed to really pound in the food to get, to break that point. So I usually stay there, but I notice even if I get. A little bit heavier for example, like how I am right now, a tiny bit heavier. I, sometimes I feel strong on a few lifts, but like your leverage changes. So sometimes, for example, if I’m a bit heavier, my deadlift stalls.

It’s weird. I don’t know why like maybe I cannot reach all the way down for the bar. I don’t know. But bench goes up, right? But it’s like a give and take, like you said, you just need to work with what you have and focus on the journey. That’s what I think.

That’s what I like. People like you that have been lifting for, I don’t know, 10, 15, whatever, I don’t know, 

Mike: 20 years now for me. Yeah. 

Jose: 20 years that, you know. You’ve been doing that for so long because you like it because you like the process, of course, the PRs and the muscles and all that.

That’s almost like side effects, right? It happens just because it happens, but having that foundation of good habits. I think that’s the key. And that’s what I’ve been discovering for these past five years or so. 

Mike: It’s hard to think of another activity that you could invest that time into that would affect your life in as many positive ways.

I think, maybe there are, you could think of a couple of things that are up there, there may be in the same tier, but I would argue that. fitness. It doesn’t have to be weightlifting per se, but training some sort of fitness. And of course I advocate heavily for strength training, but fitness is probably at the top of my list, at least in terms of the return on investment, right?

For every unit of time that we invest in that. And yes, you can get to a point of diminishing returns. If you’re training three hours a day, you’re certainly not getting three times the benefits of one hour a day. But, most of us, and I’m sure most people listening are not training three hours a day.

We’re all in there, an hour or so per workout, and we’re doing three to five workouts per week. And maybe we have some activity outside of the strength training as well. And that’s something I’ve just, I wouldn’t even say remind just. Kept top of mind as I’ve gotten older and have kids and businesses and there are more things that I could allow to pull away from fitness and so I’ve been conscious about keeping that in because Everything else as you’ve said in so many ways everything else It’s just better when you have that habit in place.

Jose: Yeah, of course. And everything else that follows, right? Like myself that I struggle with self confidence, right? I, for example, for so many years, I didn’t feel comfortable wearing a tank top, right? By working with my coaches with be feeling more confident in the gym and all that. I was able to do so and at the time I was training and at this old school like rustic gym with full of like bodybuilders, like those big guys.

And I was like, man, those guys are huge. And this is just me with, fluffy arms with man boobs and all that, all those little things, I don’t know. I remember when I was training on my own. I used to go to this, this gym that I would drive maybe 15 minutes away from, it was 15 minutes away from my house just so I can find anyone.

I would go late at night just so I could be, there’d be less people and all that. And one day, one guy that I would always see there, he was a really big guy, Jack with tattoos all over. He fist bumped me and he was like, yeah, you’re doing a good job, man. I see you here every single day.

Yeah. Working your butt off and I was like, man, this feels so cool. It feels so cool. So from, even though I moved houses, I, sometimes I go to that gym from time to time used to, remember because, in that gym, that’s where I lost almost a hundred pounds. So it’s just, it brings me like memories and all that.

And seeing people there and I don’t know, I get, especially when I see like overweight people, lifting weights, I really get excited because it’s I was at one point I was walking those shoes. So it feels really cool to see more and more people lifting and I think, getting healthier.

And I think a lot of that it’s because of you guys, people like you, like Eric, like Omar like my coaches, Miranda, like you guys put the work like on the reality of what it is to adopt this lifestyle and not only the good things, but also the not so good things like progress tallying and all that fitness is, it’s just priceless.

What is, what has brought to my life? Like I said, always, I’ve said this a couple of times, fitness or lifting saved my life. 

Mike: Hey there, if you are hearing this, you are still listening, which is awesome, thank you. And if you are enjoying this podcast, or if you just like my podcast in general, and you are getting at least something out of it, would you mind sharing it with a friend, or a loved one, or a not so loved one even?

Who might want to learn something new word of mouth helps really bigly in growing the show So if you think of someone who might like this episode or another one, please do tell them about it You mentioned earlier that so you were plateaued and then you started working with miranda. I believe you said her name was i’m curious What changed to get the needle moving?

Again, I think most people listening probably know, okay, mechanically, obviously, if you’re not losing any more weight or any more fat, there is a problem with energy intake. Of course, we understand that but I’m curious specifically, what did you work out and what changes did you make to break? I think you, you said you were around 200 pounds at that time.

Yeah. 

Jose: So it was funny because at the time when I was working with her, she was only doing, Personal training, like no nutrition advice, like the nutrition coaching because at the time she works, she has another partner, Lucas as well. They both of them they are the company at the time Lucas was working, getting his nutrition certification going.

So they were not doing that, but just by, by working with them and having someone else to be accountable for my own nutrition, because I was doing my nutrition on my own, right? But I was sending them. Screenshots of my logs on my fitness power, right? Just by doing that and by changing the way I worked out, I, cause I downloaded a bunch of the workouts over the day.

I was doing like six days a week, push, pull legs. And I did a upper lower and all that. But just the way they structure the workouts that I love how they structure the workouts, prioritizing strength. That’s something that I really like like you always preach, prioritize your compound lifts and then.

Due to the isolation stuff, but still pushing yourself. 

Mike: One of the reasons for that is I and most people find that more fun and that counts for a lot when you’re having fun in the gym versus just pushing yourself every day to do workouts. You don’t really like and getting strong as fun doing, doing a bunch of high rep.

Sets of isolation exercises and everything hurts and burns. It’s not very fun. You can do some of it, but if that’s all you’re doing, I wouldn’t enjoy that very much. 

Jose: Yeah, exactly. And just by doing that, sometimes I think you just need that kind of like change, or like I was saying, having that that accountability, especially for nutrition is, I already knew what I was doing, but just having someone else.

Just look or watch what I was doing, made me more conscious and maybe corrected some of the mistakes that I was doing. And then eventually, they started offering nutrition coaching. So I was like, okay, maybe, I’ll have hand them the, the steering wheel for my nutrition and it’s, one less stress, the stressor for me.

I know what I need to do. I know what needs to happen. I’ll wait to adjust. But if someone else handles that for me. That’s even better and just doing that. And I think also one huge thing that I’m grateful for the coaches is the change in mindset on myself because, besides pushing me inside the gym, they push myself mentally outside the gym.

Try to be more confident and to talk more at work be more assertive. And that I think translates to whatever you’re doing. And that case was lifting more weights because for example I stuck, I have wonky shoulders, so I’ve always, would take the 15 pound dumbbells to do my shoulder movements, like presses and all that.

And I stayed there since I started lifting until I met them. I almost for a year and I said, no, you can do more. And I look, you maybe and yeah, I started working my way up and not only on weight, but also on confidence and mindset, knowing that, I can do more. And even till this day, I really struggle with gauging my working weight on sets sometimes tend to undershoot.

For example, I don’t know, you’re doing a lot pull down and just reps 10 to 12. I know I could do maybe probably the one 40. For example but I, sometimes I tend to go, Oh, maybe not. Maybe I’ll do just the hundreds. No, trust yourself, those things, those little things. I think they’ve made a big difference and started moving.

Like you said, moving the needle, everything, the wages. And then I started working my way up again, like Recomp, and I’ve been I stopped dieting in 2000 I think around 2000 at the end of 2018, that’s when I stopped being in a deficit. And I’ve been in, I’ve been in maintenance pretty much since until now.

And I’m starting my first fat loss phase in three years just to brush off my dieting skills. We’ll see how that goes 

Mike: and what’s your goal with that. What do you, if you could have it your way, what do you, what’s the result? 

Jose: I would like to go down to one 77, one 80, but much more different.

I would say that before, like more muscular, more defined, but besides aesthetics I really want to increase my lifts. I, my all time PR in deadlifts is 425 pounds. No 420. But then I got COVID last year and I haven’t been able to go beyond four plates in a while. 

Mike: As a consequence of COVID? 

Jose: I don’t know.

So I had COVID. And I lost a ton of weight, like in those two weeks that I was quarantined, I think I lost like 20, 25 pounds or some, even though I was, I kept eating, even though I had no taste or smell, I kept eating, but I lost a ton of weight. 

Mike: Were you mostly just like lying around? Were you very inactive?

Jose: I, at the time I had just, bought a puppy. I right away, got sick. So I was just spending time with her on my backyard. 

Mike: So you were out moving around? 

Jose: Yeah, but for some reason I lost a ton of weight. 

Mike: Because I, the reason I asked that is I can, I actually was just writing about this other day.

I can recall some research on people who are bedridden and, There’s where you see the general rule of thumb is you can stop working out for up to probably three weeks without losing any actual lean muscle tissue. Your muscles are going to shrink some because intramuscular water and glycogen is going to decline, but you’re not learning.

You’re not losing. actual contractile tissue until probably about three weeks. If you do just engage in kind of day to day activity, then that holds true. But if you were to just lie in bed all day, every day then you can start losing muscle within probably a week or so. So it’s just interesting that you were still moving around and doing things, but you lost a lot of weight very quickly and assuming that you weren’t like heavily restricting calories or 

Jose: No, nothing.

It was just very strange. And, but yeah, I haven’t been able to go back to that strength. I do feel, for example, my endurance has, I am not at the same level I was prior to COVID, but I don’t know if that has something to do with it or not. 

Mike: It’s a strange virus. It’s just so strange that how it affects people in many different ways.

There are obviously statistical trends and people like us who don’t exercise and stay healthy generally are not greatly affected by it. But it’s just interesting, even among different cohorts, how individual the responses because, I had it at least once. I think I recently got it again. I think it just went around my little community again because I was mildly congested for a few days and that’s what it was the first time.

I really only noticed it at night and it was just, a lot of congestion. It was so annoying. I’d have to sit and spit out mucus for an hour just to get it out of my throat enough to fall asleep. You’re right. And so I just went through it again and I felt sick one day and then I was just basically better and that’s the end of it.

And yeah, it’s just interesting. 

Jose: Yeah, sure. No I had it that time in April of last year and I had it, I had all the symptoms. I, it wasn’t bad. I was still, a functional human being, but of course I had two or three days in which I. I had bad headaches and all that, but besides that, I was fine.

Then in December of last year, I think I got it. It was, my mom was visiting one of my cousins and both of them started feeling sick and both of them tested positive and I tested negative, but I had one day much, I had really bad symptoms like a fever and all that. And then I was okay, but yeah, it’s strange.

Like you said but yeah, I have a ton of gym goals, Go back to the mid 400s and deadlifts bench two plates as well. It’s one of one goal that I have in mind, hopefully by the end of this year, that happens and go back and squat three plates. So we’ll see, that’s where like my. My mind is set, not all not that much on how I look 

Mike: the two, three, four two plates on the bench, three on the squat, four on the deadlift.

That’s a fun milestone to work toward. 

Jose: Yeah, exactly. And I know it’s going to take time. Of course, but like for so many years, so I cannot barbell squat back squat cause I, I, my shoulder mobility is very bad and I have a hunchback and I’m working, to correct that, but still I’m not able to reach all the way back.

So I use a safety bar squat but I love it, man. 

Mike: Yeah. Safety bar squat is great. I rec I’ve recommended it many times. It’s a feels probably more like a front squat, at least to me than a back squat. Yeah. 

Jose: Yeah, for sure. 

Mike: Have you front squatted? 

Jose: Yes. Yes. I have, but I don’t know. It also felt weird.

I cannot do it with the front rack position because again, my mobility. So I did it with the thing over here, like these on the, the clavicles. I felt strange, so I, when I squat, I either goblet squat or I do the safety bar squat. I do want to at least maybe one day do a barbell back squat.

I hope one day I’ll be able to get my mobility, ready to hold the bar on the back, on my back and try to. To do that also, my body is not doesn’t really want to squat that much because of playing soccer and being overweight while playing soccer, my ankles and my knees are not the, the healthiest.

So I really need to work on, on my ankle and stability and mobility to be just prepared to do a leg workout. So I know there’s a long way, but that’s a goal that I have on my horizon to at least one day marble back 

Mike: squat. And if you haven’t come across Ben Patrick, he has a lot of people who swear by his protocol for improving knee function and health and reducing pain.

I’d recommend checking that out. I think he, he produces some content on other stuff related to like body composition and training in general. And I haven’t looked at it recently. Generally though, I know him personally, he’s a great guy. And, but what I know for a fact is, he’s helped tens of thousands of people at this point overcome all kinds of knee issues.

And so that, that might be helpful. And the protocol is actually very simple. So worth checking out. 

Jose: Cool. Yeah, no, for sure. Because When I was like 17 or so, I had a really bad injury while playing soccer, and I didn’t listen to the doctors. So I didn’t first of all, I. They don’t want to get surgery.

So I just did the PT route, but even then I didn’t go to all the sessions. And I kept playing and that wasn’t the best choice. 

Mike: One of the, it sounds like one of the guys who works with me did basically the same thing. He messed his knee up playing football. Didn’t want to get surgery. Didn’t really want to do PT, kept playing football, then playing soccer then, and he’s re injured it a number of times.

Jose: Yeah, no, exactly. Cause I had that weird that big dream of still being able to play pro soccer. So I was like, no, because if I could surgery, I will miss this tryouts and all that never happened. But I didn’t even go to the tryouts. Nothing happened on that end. I’m not, I’m left with a funky knee and right ankle.

But also one of the things that I found through you guys is that you can. Work your way around some of your injuries, right? You can, you don’t need to stop lifting. You can just work around. 

Mike: And we all, unless we’re like 20 years old, we all have something like my right shoulder is just always been, I’ve aggravated it, weightlifting a few times.

And so for example, something I won’t do is heavy overhead dumbbell pressing just because this shoulder doesn’t like it. Like I’ve pissed it off a number of times and it’s just not worth it to me, but a barbell pressing, no problem. Different type of machine or plate loaded. Like my gym has a Viking press is what it’s called and Viking press.

Great. And all right, fine. I’ll do Arnold presses with dumbbells because it’s less weight, but I. have no desire to try to overhead press. I maybe got up to 95 or 100 pounds in the past and I hurt my shoulder a couple of times that way. And so that’s just something similar to what you were saying with the barbell back squat for me.

I don’t see a scenario where I’m ever going to try to overhead press a dumbbell press large amounts of weight. It’s just not worth it. I’ll do other things. 

Jose: Yeah, it’s for example, I have a really hard time connected with my biceps in any bicep movement. I always get a huge. Forearm pump, but nothing on my biceps.

So I think it has to do with my shoulder stuff because I feel a lot of stress on especially my left shoulder, but I don’t know. But I noticed that certain machines, especially cables do work. 

Mike: Side raises too. That’s another tip for you and people listening. If dumbbell side raises, if you just also don’t really feel that mind muscle connection, you don’t feel the side lats.

Working. You don’t really notice much of a pump. Go try it on a cable set up for example. 

Jose: The leaning one, right? Yeah. 

Mike: Yep. You can do it that way or try what’s the machine called? It might just be called like a side race machine, but there’s also, at least in my gym, there’s a machine option too, where you’re holding handles.

That are right here out in front of you and you’re just, I did it today and you’re side raising. So I, I do the dumbbell side race, but I like to alternate. I’ll do that for a couple of months and then I’ll go do some cable side raises for a couple of months and I’ll go do some machine side raises.

Jose: Exactly. And again, that’s the, that’s like the thing that I come back to, like the, that information that you guys put out there, because a bunch of people think, okay, if you want to get big legs, you need to back squat. 

Mike: Yeah. And if you can’t do that, just give up. 

Jose: Exactly. And having the information from you, from working with a coach, I think that’s also really important either online or in person or whatever.

But someone like. That align with, your values and, you, you have trust in them, that’s huge. And having all those options again, man, like I cannot thank you guys enough for all the information that you guys put out there, all those articles that you, I don’t know if you still put them on the website.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. I still have a presence there. I’m not, there was a time when I personally was writing probably two or three, like long form articles per week. And now I actually, I still spend a lot of time producing content. It’s just that time is now divvied up between the next book. I’m always working on the next book and then there’s the podcast.

And then, but I still do have a presence on the blog. And now I have a couple of other people who also they don’t write. Under their own names, but together, we’re a little content creation team. And there are several articles that go up on the blog every week.

Jose: I think I was telling Damien, like I, I never met, someone that represents a company that starts with a message saying that, Hey, by the way, the things that I sell. They’re not needed. I was like, man, you always start your podcast with like that. And that’s so fun, but funny, but also like very honest.

And that’s, I don’t know. That’s why I said, one of the many reasons I decided to, to contact you guys, contact Miles and see if I could, work with you on that end, because I don’t know, I think especially. In the, on the weight loss community from the fitness world, I don’t know, it’s really easy to fall into several scams and traps and all that.

So if you know someone or that, those are, I think, why not try to, align with them and, represent what you also stand for. So that’s great. 

Mike: Yeah, I know. I really appreciate the support. I’m flattered. Lots more good stuff to come more books and more articles, more podcasts.

Jose: And now I have my family back in Mexico, like international shipping Legion stuff from Amazon or from whatever. Yeah. 

Mike: Yeah. And that’s something also we’ll be working on. We’ll be working on getting international distribution set up officially properly. It’s just one thing at a time.

There’s certainly an opportunity there. It’s just something that you have to make sure you do right. And it requires a fair amount of resources to do right. But it will happen. And we’re starting with we’re starting with UK and with Europe just because there’s the most demand in those areas.

But, and it’s fairly easy to set up because Amazon has a presence really. So like getting set up on Amazon UK allows us to then fulfill orders into Europe a lot more cost effectively than currently, but there’s Mexico, there’s Canada, there are many others, Australia, there are many other.

Places even individual countries in Europe that it would probably make sense to serve more directly and we’ll get there 

Jose: in the meantime. I’m doing the middleman work. Every time I go over there for Christmas or something, I’ll bring I’ll always carry my. My top of recharge and one type of, or Ziploc bags of way.

But sometimes he gets, especially if I do like the vanilla one or the birthday cake ones, it is white and it’s in a Ziploc bag. Sometimes you get funky looks. 

Mike: They’d have to think though. There’s no way this dude, he’s making it this easy. This can’t be what. You might think it is like at this point they have to assume like it’s protein powder guaranteed.

Jose: Yeah, exactly. So it was so fun again, just trying to give back to, to whomever listens. I remember I also was telling Damien, I listened to the podcast the other day with you had with the, I can’t remember the name of the kid who spoke about his anorexia journey. 

Mike: Yeah. 

Jose: Jake. Yeah.

Having that kind of information out there. It’s huge because I don’t know, like it would have made my. My process much more easier if I could find another guy speaking, out loud, dealing with this kind of stuff. So I know that the more we speak about the better, because that would mean that less people will suffer in silence.

Mike: It’s like you said, right? Just see if all it takes is that moment where that person, they see themselves in somebody else. And then they think if Jose did it, maybe I can do it too. 

Jose: Exactly. That’s all it takes. 

Mike: That’s the beginning. 

Jose: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. The more information we can put more stories like these, all the stuff that you guys do, the Q and A’s when you have people over all those things, it’s just, priceless and free information for everyone.

Mike: Hey, this was a great interview. Jose. Thank you again for taking the time. For people who want to check you out, you mentioned that you’re on social media. Where can they find you? 

Jose: Yeah I relatively, I’m relatively active on Instagram. I, one of my other goals is to be more active on that.

But you can find me there, jose. gomez. 13, the number one, three, that’s where you can find me, but, otherwise I’ll refer them to you, Muscle for Life. 

Mike: Thanks again. Thanks again for doing this. I love the story. Keep up the good work. Thank you for the support. And I look forward to Hearing an update from you.

If you want to email me at any time, of course, reach out and let me know how this next cut goes. 

Jose: Sure. Of course. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity and just, keep doing what you’re doing because it’s amazing. It’s priceless, man. Thank you. 

Mike: Thank you. I hope you liked this episode. I hope you found it helpful.

And if you did, Subscribe to the show because it makes sure that you don’t miss new episodes. And it also helps me because it increases the rankings of the show a little bit, which of course then makes it a little bit more easily found by other people who may like it just as much as you. And if you didn’t like something about this episode or about the show in general, or if you have ideas or suggestions or just Feedback to share, shoot me an email, Mike at muscle for life.

com. Muscle F O R life. com and let me know what I could do better or just what your thoughts are about maybe what you’d like to see me do in the future. I read everything myself. I’m always looking for new ideas and constructive feedback. So thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon.

Hey there, I am Mike Matthews. This is Muscle for Life. Thank you for joining me today for a success story interview I did with Jose, who lost 120 pounds and overcame a rather serious eating disorder and started to live a much healthier and more enjoyable life. And although he did all of the work, of course, I was able to help by giving him good information.

Jose used the information that he learned in my articles and my podcasts and my book, Muscle for Life, to go from 300 plus pounds and very unhealthy physically and mentally, so much so that he was even hospitalized at one point, to under 200 pounds and fit and healthy. And what’s even more exciting for Jose is he finally understood that he could reach his goals and he did not have to continue to struggle with his weight and his body composition and his relationship with food.

That those things were truly under his control and could remain under his control for the rest of his life. And so I wanted to bring Jose onto the show to share his story because it is inspiring and also because he has struggled with an eating disorder. And that’s something that men don’t usually want to talk about.

Although statistically it’s more common among women. women, there are many men out there who also have eating disorders and who are too shy or embarrassed to want to talk about it and even seek help. Before we begin, one of the easiest ways to increase muscle and strength gain is to eat enough protein and to eat enough high quality protein.

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Hey, Jose, thanks for taking the time to do this. Hi, Mike. Thank you for the chance. Yeah, absolutely. So why don’t we start this discussion with maybe you can share with us a brief snapshot, maybe of your before and after your transformation so far, and we’re always working on the next goal and the next thing.

I understand that, but just to give people listening an idea of where you were before you started to figure this stuff out and how it works. Versus where you are now. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Like you said, my name is Jose. I was born and raised in Mexico. I moved to the U S nine years ago to go to grad school.

Initially it was just supposed to be just two years, I ended up finding work here, so it’s been almost nine, so I’m pretty much, used to the American way of life, we’ve stolen you from from Mexico. Yeah, and since last April, I’m officially one of American residents, so I guess that’s one step closer so yeah, pretty much, I I’ve I’ve struggled with being overweight for most of my life, actually, funny story, when I was a kid, like a kid, like maybe, five years or so, I was very skinny, But then one summer, everything changed.

I literally blew up. I gained a ton of weight when I was like around nine or 10 and it just, I couldn’t control it. There was no, no way for me to stop it. And then my parents took me to the doctor because my mom was worried because she has she has hypothyroidism. So she was worried about, me having that.

And it turns out that I do have it. Okay. So I’ve been having, being treated since so from then on, I struggled to, to lose weight. I’ve always tried to, to control or to go back to quote, unquote, normal weight. I was just a kid, like I said, 9, 10 years old. And to be honest I never could.

My mom, bless her, of course we didn’t know better. So we tried all kinds of, diets and whatnot. But when I say all, all of them, like I, I remember I, I tried keto before it was a thing back in like the, late nineties, early 2000s. That’s when it was just just a medical thing.

Exactly. And I was just a kid and I did the hardcore one, the ones that, you know, in those, the first two weeks, you’re not allowed to eat anything, just like drink water and like tomatoes or like celery or something like that. And doing that as like a 10, 11 year old was hard, man. So I tried, several things.

Up and down, and I can never grasp the concept around it, and it was funny because my dad, he was really into fitness and exercise. He was an avid jogger and then he would just walk as he aged, but he also was really into the gym and he could never really got me interested into that, not even when I started, my teams and all that.

I just. I wasn’t interested. I did play soccer all my life, but I could get away with being a little bit chubby, a little bit overweight. It didn’t, it didn’t really matter. But, I never could go back to normal or at least regular weight. You can say that, I didn’t.

I didn’t notice this until I was way older, but I started developing really not so healthy behaviors around food. Since really young, pretty much, just overeating, maybe even binging and encouraging and didn’t have the best relationship with that. I try to, look for help online. I don’t know.

I get to those deep parts of the internet in which instead of getting help, you get more and more sucked into the Eating disorder culture, and I just felt really, I don’t know, lost for many years. Fast forward to 2013, when I moved to the U. S., I was 22 years old. I moved here, this was the first time that I was living on my own.

No supervision, nothing from any Adult, even though I was 22, so I was technically an adult, but like no separation from anyone. And I noticed that it got worse before that. I controlled it. I had episodes, but I was still, somehow going through life. In a relatively normal fashion, but over here, it got really, it got worse.

I guess the, homesick, excuse me, stress at the time. And I know that played a huge role, but I started noticing more and more episodes of those behaviors. And I tried to, again look for help online, but I felt even more Lost something that I think is really important is that behaviors around food, like eating disorders amongst men are not very.

Outspoken, I would say, so all the reference that I could find was regarding to mostly females, which it’s fine. A disease is a disease regardless, but, when I think when we deal with things like these that affect also like your mental health and such relatability is something that, it’s really important and I couldn’t find any of that. So I was lost, right? And even then, when you start looking into people with eating disorders, you usually see certain archetypes of said person, right? Really thin malnourished and, all those things. And I didn’t look like that.

So I was physically, so I was like, I don’t know. I was just very confused. And again I kept trying to get, my stuff together, but I hit a really bad episode around 2014, which I basically, I had a couple of days of binging and bridging and it got bad enough that I ended up at the hospital for three days, luckily or unluckily or unlucky.

I don’t know. I like the eating disorder portion of it didn’t make its way through the doctors. They just treat me for something on my stomach or digestive tract or whatnot. And I got released three days later, but it really put things into perspective for me. So I finally talked to my parents about this.

I was like, okay, I’m not good. So I might need some help. So they flew me back to Mexico for two weeks to go to therapy. That was the first time I went to therapy for anything, but unfortunately I think that I didn’t click with the therapist that I saw over there and I just, I, after, one or two sessions, I was like, nah, this is not for me.

And I just, spend the rest of my time over there, just relaxing and being, enjoy the company of my parents and all that. And I flew back with a little bit of a better mindset, but still. It wasn’t the best and I kept fighting through it. Then I had another, few more gruesome episodes.

You’re trying things that I saw online that weren’t the best. Like I remember I saw on a Reddit forum saying that, okay, if you really want to tackle this with your mindset, you need to be hardcore on yourself, show yourself some tough love. And they say, when you have those episodes of when you want to eat and binge and all that, try to eat in front of a mirror, naked and see what you think.

Man, it was the worst idea. He could have, it really destroyed me. So again, I was not in a good place, but even then. I did not find my way through to fix my life. And then fast forward to 2017 actually a couple months before that I have two younger cousins that I’m really close to, and they were also Chubby when growing up, but they did lose weight when they hit their late teens and they were really into the YouTube fitness and they introduced me to those videos, but like the really early ones, like Chris Jones and the Hodge twins and Matt August and all those guys.

So I started looking at those, but just as an entertainment, just nothing. But then browsing through those videos, I found a couple of channels, mainly One of our, acquaintance, Omar Asaf, and he has really good information and also like that humor that he uses.

So I really like his videos and I like watch a lot of those. It showed me something that it was like, okay maybe I can do this, but again, I saw on those videos that I couldn’t relate to them because they were talking mostly from skinny guys becoming muscular or big, but not the other way around.

So I was like, maybe this is not possible. Maybe I’m just, this is what it is, even though I like, I literally dreamt about being fit, being thin, having muscles and all those things, I dreamt about those things. I really I really wanted to get those, but maybe I was like, maybe this is not possible.

I haven’t seen anyone do it, do this, so maybe it’s not possible. And one day, again, now in 2017, I was just, doing nothing. Just browsing YouTube and I found a channel of one guy who was one of your athletes back then, Danny Navely, in which he, documented his whole transformation since day one and that really opened my eyes because I saw him transform before my eyes and I was okay.

So then this is possible. And one day I just decided to give it a try. And I started reading articles, watching videos, getting myself pretty much obsessed with information. I read, books from like Lane Norton. And I went and binge watched Eric Helms and Team 3D MJ videos and all that.

And I was like, okay maybe I can do these. So I started lifting and I getting my nutrition and tracking April of 2017. At that time, I weighted, I think the highest number I saw on the scale was 275 pounds. Bear in mind, I’m 5’7 so it’s not I’m the tallest guy, so 200, almost 300 pounds on me looks really different than on a taller guy.

But I think I weighed more than that. I think I was on the 290s or something like that. So I started, tracking my progress and by November, December of that year, yeah, for my birthday, I was down to the 200s already. So I was like, okay, this is possible. And that’s when Danny started, I think, working with you or maybe in 2018.

So that’s when I heard of Legion. So I went to your site and I saw the articles that you put there and I read those and I was like, man, this is so cool. I’ve never seen someone like the owner of the CEO of a company being so open and, actually hands on. I. I didn’t see that very often and you were there putting, articles and information and I started reading those and I said, okay, that’s cool.

And I, at the time, I hadn’t paid attention to any supplements or what not, because I had the misconception that those things were, just there to either, You know, take money from me or just, would make me unhealthy or kidney stones, all the things that you hear about those things, which is on the whole is more right than wrong, but yeah, not always the case exactly, but I started looking those.

I like all the science y stuff that you guys use. I’m an engineer, so I like facts. I like information. So I, yeah. I, and I think I understand somehow, those concepts. So it was so cool to see that. And then I kept on working. And by I think about the beginning of 2018, around February, I had lost almost 80 pounds, really close to the 80, 85 pounds, 90 pounds.

And I started noticing I’ll stall on my progress both at the gym like lifting the weights I was lifting and on the weight loss side of things that I really had on my mind that I really wanted to get down to 170 pounds. So I was 270 to 75. Until 170, so it was maybe the 100 pound mark that should be cool.

I could number my milestone, whatnot. So I had that on my mind. I think I need a little bit of help from someone else, because I, at the time I already understood nutrition. I think pretty good. I did my own macros, calories, and I just did. And even though I like, because of how I am on my Past with the behaviors around food I put myself some rules on these process when I started doing it, especially to not over obsess on things.

I said, okay, one of the rules I remember was I won’t isolate myself. From social gatherings, if any I won’t let food or me dieting make me avoid certain things, which happened before one of the other things I was living with a roommate at the time who was actually trying to do the opposite that I was doing, he was trying to gain weight.

I was starting to lose weight, so I was okay, maybe once a week, we will try to go out and eat and have dinner at a fast food place and I’ll make it work. And I did that. And the other thing was like, okay, I’ll put a cap on how low my calories would be. So I said, I won’t. Get any lower than 1800 and I did that and I was able to, maintain those things, respect my own boundaries, my own rules, but then that’s when the stall happened.

And I try to manipulate on my own some of the variables, but it still was not able to do much. So I found a personal trainer here in the area. Her name is Miranda Cohen, and I reached out to her because I thought it was a good idea because of two things. One, of course, the progress in the gym she’s very strong, she would post videos and all that, and she was, she looked amazing and really impressive, and she trained hard, she trains hard really hard, and I like that, and the other thing is was, I also have a little bit of a social anxiety thing going on and I struggle talking to people especially talking to the opposite sex.

So I said, okay, maybe that could be, I could I could do two things at once. Since she’s a female trainer, I can, start. Working with her on the fitness stuff and also in my social stuff, just, polish some things up. And I started working with her since 2018 and haven’t stopped.

We’ve been working together for four years now. And it basically, it changed everything. Yes. I did most of the work myself with the help of people like you and your products and your knowledge. Also I read your book muscle for life as well. Yeah. While I was doing all my stuff, I was, Oh this really makes sense.

This is what I’m doing. So it really aligns with what I did. And by working with her by the end of that year of 2018, not only I had, reached my goal weight of 270 pounds, but I also look completely different. I increased my lifts in the gym. I fell in love with the gym. So one thing I like to say is that lifting saved my life.

To be honest, I wasn’t enjoying living. I was just surviving just coasting through life pretty much. Although I had, a ton of I would say academic goals or whatnot, and I can, and I could reach them. With relatively ease there were other things that I wasn’t doing that I really want to do or wanted to do, but I couldn’t because my mindset mostly.

And then my weight, of course, was putting a stop to those things. So by conquering that really sticking to the, to, to the plan, to, to the routine. Being tuned with myself, it changed my life completely. I’ve done things that I never thought I would have done. Like I, I went to the Arnold in 20, 20, 19, and that’s where I met miles, actually.

He was just walking around the expo with a couple of other guys. I think it was Chris or someone. And I, and I met him. I, I. Because I was looking for a booth for you guys, but I didn’t see it, but I recognized because he was wearing the black shirt with the legion logo, I was like, Oh, okay, he’s legion.

And I started talking to him that I went to a gym later that day, and I found one of your athletes there and I spoke with him and I was like, man, this is so cool. And then I think at the time I was. I was experimenting with supplements, mainly with protein powder, because I have a sensitive stomach.

You posted something on Instagram and I asked you hey, I’ve tried your, the old vegan blend that you guys had. And I was like, yeah I did like it, but I don’t know why the texture wasn’t very good, but I’m worried because I want to try way, but I’m lactose doesn’t do well with me. And you said, no, but you can try weight loss.

This is good lactose free and it’s okay. Maybe I’ll give it a try. And I did it and I liked it a lot, no upset stomach great taste makes very well with everything. So I was like, Oh man, this is good. And I said, okay, maybe. Yeah. Maybe I’ll keep, using your stuff. And then in, I think it was January of last year when I reached out to Miles again.

I think I, and I think also to you and I actually became an ambassador for you guys since, since Jan January of last year. And, I love it, man. I love it. I think technically I’m speaking with my boss right now, . No but no, but really one of the things that I always say is that the online fitness community helped me a lot.

Like I said, it helped me take my life back. It saved my life. So I’ve been doing, now I’ve been lifting and doing the fitness thing for five years now, almost. A little bit over five years. And I’m nowhere where I want to be. Since this community gave me so much, I just want to give back in any way I can, whatever that is, keeping posting on social media, helping my family, helping friends, or just, Being there.

So that’s was one of the reasons that I wanted to talk to you. I’ve also spoken to one of our friends, mutual friends, Jordan Sayet as well. He was so kind to, to have me on his podcast as well last year. So that was so fun. And just give back, man, just like you guys do. Whatever I can because.

It’s priceless what fitness has brought to my life, all the ways it’s just, being able to shop for clothes that I really like all the way to. To finding love actually was funny because through, being open on social media I met my now my ex girlfriend, but I met her through that.

And we shared a lot because of it. And like I said, he, he has brought me so much men not only the health stuff, like when I was pre diabetic, high blood pressure. Two times I had to have surgery for kidney stones. I had a high uric acid, all those things, none of these, none of those things is, is, I was able to reverse all of those things, I, as healthy as I can.

And, it’s price, it’s priceless. How has your relationship with food changed? I’m curious. Obviously it’s changed a lot, but I’m curious as to some of the specifics and just your experience of what food was to you before versus now. And so I think to be honest, I saw even though I wasn’t formally ever diagnosed or admitted for a, an eating disorder.

I do think I, I do have 1, of course, and I see I speak in present tense because I don’t think we can ever get completely cured. You’re always on treatment or recovery quote, unquote. And like I said, I don’t think I, I will ever be 100%. For example, if you put in front of me a bucket of fries and a bucket of cucumbers, I’ll eat them both.

No problem. But I do know where to stop for sure. Before that I hadn’t, I did have a concept from all of those things that I tried before. I knew what protein was, what fat was, what carbs was, but I don’t know, for some reason, the science or the biology or the chemistry of those things.

And actually seeing that in a, I don’t know, in a piece of chicken or whatever, I, I didn’t connect them in my head until now. So now that completely changed the game because some people say you can use food as fuel instead of for taste. I don’t think so. Because at least in my culture. Food is something that is really important and a lot of things, revolve around food, but just understanding what it’s made for and, does to your body is amazing.

But particular examples. I do eat everything that I want. Yes. I understand the portion control. That’s huge. I wouldn’t say moderation that much because again, like I said, if you put in front of me a bag of chips, I will eat them all. No, no problem. But I also know how I will feel after that physically and how that will affect my workout.

And I care more about, about, about that more than the immediate pain. Reward of having the entire bag of chips, for example, that sounds like all of us. Really? Yeah, exactly. Nobody wants to only eat a few Doritos. Everybody wants to eat the whole bag. Exactly. But no, I haven’t had an episode of binging and purging and, or purging since, I don’t know, four years now.

That’s something that I think it’s, under control for sure. I was I won’t say scared by worried because of some, how I would handle certain things, certain life events that happen, for example, in 2019, my, my father passed away. So I was worried that how would that affect me?

Because, when life gets hard, sometimes we fall back into old habits that maybe are not the healthiest ones. But no, I was actually able to use it as a, to, to use fitness as a way of coping with that, as an aid to keep me moving. Keep my mind occupied. And again, I was very very lucky to have the support from my coaches from Miranda and, to keep going, keep pushing and remembering that, one of the things my dad always wanted was for me to lose weight.

And it was such, such a great thing that he was able to see me still when I, I’ve already accomplished that goal. So I just, it just, feel the fire to keep going, right? Same now when my relationship ended as well, right? I’m still working through it. It happened, it just ended a couple of months ago, but I haven’t stopped working out.

I haven’t, gave up on, on all those habits that I’ve built throughout these five years. And I think that’s the key of why this time I’m able to, I was able to stick with it because the foundation is really solid and by focusing on, on, on that I guess one thing I recently, reflect upon was that like.

We always chase that, those immediate results, right? Of course, seeing the scale go down, if you’re trying to lose weight, that’s a great feeling, right? Seeing, lifting more weights, hitting PRs, all that thing is so much fun. But at one point, The progress will slow down, right?

It’s part of what it is. You’re preaching to the choir there. If I put five pounds on a big lift in six to eight months of training, I’m actually happy. That’s a good day. I’m when I’m like, wow, I’m squatting. Five more pounds than I was then six months ago, eight months ago. And I’m doing it while keeping my body composition where I like it to be.

And not just getting fat in the process, which makes you stronger. But I also like to just keep a certain type of look and aesthetic, and it also funny enough, it. It ties into my work a little bit too, because I don’t have the body to ever be super strong. So it’s I’m going to impress anybody because I can maybe work my way up to a 405 squat.

That’s yeah, whatever dude. Good for you, dude. And so I can’t even go, I can’t even go in that direction and be like if I put on 20 to 30 pounds, I, I’ll be I’ll be fluffy as they say, but I’ll be really strong. No, not really. So I’m like, whatever, I’ll just keep a certain kind of look and be strong ish for my body weight.

Yeah, exactly. That’s similar to what happens with me. For example I usually hover around 180, 185 pounds. Yeah. That’s where my body likes to be either on the way down or on the way up when I was losing weight, breaking that 185 pound mark was hard and when I was trying to gain weight, also gaining, going beyond that, it was hard for me.

I needed to really pound in the food to get, to break that point. So I usually stay there, but I notice even if I get. A little bit heavier for example, like how I am right now, a tiny bit heavier. I, sometimes I feel strong on a few lifts, but like your leverage changes. So sometimes, for example, if I’m a bit heavier, my deadlift stalls.

It’s weird. I don’t know why like maybe I cannot reach all the way down for the bar. I don’t know. But bench goes up, right? But it’s like a give and take, like you said, you just need to work with what you have and focus on the journey. That’s what I think.

That’s what I like. People like you that have been lifting for, I don’t know, 10, 15, whatever, I don’t know, 20 years now for me. Yeah. 20 years that, you know. You’ve been doing that for so long because you like it because you like the process, of course, the PRs and the muscles and all that.

That’s almost like side effects, right? It happens just because it happens, but having that foundation of good habits. I think that’s the key. And that’s what I’ve been discovering for these past five years or so. It’s hard to think of another activity that you could invest that time into that would affect your life in as many positive ways.

I think, maybe there are, you could think of a couple of things that are up there, there may be in the same tier, but I would argue that. fitness. It doesn’t have to be weightlifting per se, but training some sort of fitness. And of course I advocate heavily for strength training, but fitness is probably at the top of my list, at least in terms of the return on investment, right?

For every unit of time that we invest in that. And yes, you can get to a point of diminishing returns. If you’re training three hours a day, you’re certainly not getting three times the benefits of one hour a day. But, most of us, and I’m sure most people listening are not training three hours a day.

We’re all in there, an hour or so per workout, and we’re doing three to five workouts per week. And maybe we have some activity outside of the strength training as well. And that’s something I’ve just, I wouldn’t even say remind just. Kept top of mind as I’ve gotten older and have kids and businesses and there are more things that I could allow to pull away from fitness and so I’ve been conscious about keeping that in because Everything else as you’ve said in so many ways everything else It’s just better when you have that habit in place.

Yeah, of course. And everything else that follows, right? Like myself that I struggle with self confidence, right? I, for example, for so many years, I didn’t feel comfortable wearing a tank top, right? By working with my coaches with be feeling more confident in the gym and all that. I was able to do so and at the time I was training and at this old school like rustic gym with full of like bodybuilders, like those big guys.

And I was like, man, those guys are huge. And this is just me with, fluffy arms with man boobs and all that, all those little things, I don’t know. I remember when I was training on my own. I used to go to this, this gym that I would drive maybe 15 minutes away from, it was 15 minutes away from my house just so I can find anyone.

I would go late at night just so I could be, there’d be less people and all that. And one day, one guy that I would always see there, he was a really big guy, Jack with tattoos all over. He fist bumped me and he was like, yeah, you’re doing a good job, man. I see you here every single day.

Yeah. Working your butt off and I was like, man, this feels so cool. It feels so cool. So from, even though I moved houses, I, sometimes I go to that gym from time to time used to, remember because, in that gym, that’s where I lost almost a hundred pounds. So it’s just, it brings me like memories and all that.

And seeing people there and I don’t know, I get, especially when I see like overweight people, lifting weights, I really get excited because it’s I was at one point I was walking those shoes. So it feels really cool to see more and more people lifting and I think, getting healthier.

And I think a lot of that it’s because of you guys, people like you, like Eric, like Omar like my coaches, Miranda, like you guys put the work like on the reality of what it is to adopt this lifestyle and not only the good things, but also the not so good things like progress tallying and all that fitness is, it’s just priceless.

What is, what has brought to my life? Like I said, always, I’ve said this a couple of times, fitness or lifting saved my life. Hey there, if you are hearing this, you are still listening, which is awesome, thank you. And if you are enjoying this podcast, or if you just like my podcast in general, and you are getting at least something out of it, would you mind sharing it with a friend, or a loved one, or a not so loved one even?

Who might want to learn something new word of mouth helps really bigly in growing the show So if you think of someone who might like this episode or another one, please do tell them about it You mentioned earlier that so you were plateaued and then you started working with miranda. I believe you said her name was i’m curious What changed to get the needle moving?

Again, I think most people listening probably know, okay, mechanically, obviously, if you’re not losing any more weight or any more fat, there is a problem with energy intake. Of course, we understand that but I’m curious specifically, what did you work out and what changes did you make to break? I think you, you said you were around 200 pounds at that time.

Yeah. So it was funny because at the time when I was working with her, she was only doing, Personal training, like no nutrition advice, like the nutrition coaching because at the time she works, she has another partner, Lucas as well. They both of them they are the company at the time Lucas was working, getting his nutrition certification going.

So they were not doing that, but just by, by working with them and having someone else to be accountable for my own nutrition, because I was doing my nutrition on my own, right? But I was sending them. Screenshots of my logs on my fitness power, right? Just by doing that and by changing the way I worked out, I, cause I downloaded a bunch of the workouts over the day.

I was doing like six days a week, push, pull legs. And I did a upper lower and all that. But just the way they structure the workouts that I love how they structure the workouts, prioritizing strength. That’s something that I really like like you always preach, prioritize your compound lifts and then.

Due to the isolation stuff, but still pushing yourself. One of the reasons for that is I and most people find that more fun and that counts for a lot when you’re having fun in the gym versus just pushing yourself every day to do workouts. You don’t really like and getting strong as fun doing, doing a bunch of high rep.

Sets of isolation exercises and everything hurts and burns. It’s not very fun. You can do some of it, but if that’s all you’re doing, I wouldn’t enjoy that very much. Yeah, exactly. And just by doing that, sometimes I think you just need that kind of like change, or like I was saying, having that that accountability, especially for nutrition is, I already knew what I was doing, but just having someone else.

Just look or watch what I was doing, made me more conscious and maybe corrected some of the mistakes that I was doing. And then eventually, they started offering nutrition coaching. So I was like, okay, maybe, I’ll have hand them the, the steering wheel for my nutrition and it’s, one less stress, the stressor for me.

I know what I need to do. I know what needs to happen. I’ll wait to adjust. But if someone else handles that for me. That’s even better and just doing that. And I think also one huge thing that I’m grateful for the coaches is the change in mindset on myself because, besides pushing me inside the gym, they push myself mentally outside the gym.

Try to be more confident and to talk more at work be more assertive. And that I think translates to whatever you’re doing. And that case was lifting more weights because for example I stuck, I have wonky shoulders, so I’ve always, would take the 15 pound dumbbells to do my shoulder movements, like presses and all that.

And I stayed there since I started lifting until I met them. I almost for a year and I said, no, you can do more. And I look, you maybe and yeah, I started working my way up and not only on weight, but also on confidence and mindset, knowing that, I can do more. And even till this day, I really struggle with gauging my working weight on sets sometimes tend to undershoot.

For example, I don’t know, you’re doing a lot pull down and just reps 10 to 12. I know I could do maybe probably the one 40. For example but I, sometimes I tend to go, Oh, maybe not. Maybe I’ll do just the hundreds. No, trust yourself, those things, those little things. I think they’ve made a big difference and started moving.

Like you said, moving the needle, everything, the wages. And then I started working my way up again, like Recomp, and I’ve been I stopped dieting in 2000 I think around 2000 at the end of 2018, that’s when I stopped being in a deficit. And I’ve been in, I’ve been in maintenance pretty much since until now.

And I’m starting my first fat loss phase in three years just to brush off my dieting skills. We’ll see how that goes and what’s your goal with that. What do you, if you could have it your way, what do you, what’s the result? I would like to go down to one 77, one 80, but much more different.

I would say that before, like more muscular, more defined, but besides aesthetics I really want to increase my lifts. I, my all time PR in deadlifts is 425 pounds. No 420. But then I got COVID last year and I haven’t been able to go beyond four plates in a while. As a consequence of COVID? I don’t know.

So I had COVID. And I lost a ton of weight, like in those two weeks that I was quarantined, I think I lost like 20, 25 pounds or some, even though I was, I kept eating, even though I had no taste or smell, I kept eating, but I lost a ton of weight. Were you mostly just like lying around? Were you very inactive?

I, at the time I had just, bought a puppy. I right away, got sick. So I was just spending time with her on my backyard. So you were out moving around? Yeah, but for some reason I lost a ton of weight. Because I, the reason I asked that is I can, I actually was just writing about this other day.

I can recall some research on people who are bedridden and, There’s where you see the general rule of thumb is you can stop working out for up to probably three weeks without losing any actual lean muscle tissue. Your muscles are going to shrink some because intramuscular water and glycogen is going to decline, but you’re not learning.

You’re not losing. actual contractile tissue until probably about three weeks. If you do just engage in kind of day to day activity, then that holds true. But if you were to just lie in bed all day, every day then you can start losing muscle within probably a week or so. So it’s just interesting that you were still moving around and doing things, but you lost a lot of weight very quickly and assuming that you weren’t like heavily restricting calories or no, nothing.

It was just very strange. And, but yeah, I haven’t been able to go back to that strength. I do feel, for example, my endurance has, I am not at the same level I was prior to COVID, but I don’t know if that has something to do with it or not. It’s a strange virus. It’s just so strange that how it affects people in many different ways.

There are obviously statistical trends and people like us who don’t exercise and stay healthy generally are not greatly affected by it. But it’s just interesting, even among different cohorts, how individual the responses because, I had it at least once. I think I recently got it again. I think it just went around my little community again because I was mildly congested for a few days and that’s what it was the first time.

I really only noticed it at night and it was just, a lot of congestion. It was so annoying. I’d have to sit and spit out mucus for an hour just to get it out of my throat enough to fall asleep. You’re right. And so I just went through it again and I felt sick one day and then I was just basically better and that’s the end of it.

And yeah, it’s just interesting. Yeah, sure. No I had it that time in April of last year and I had it, I had all the symptoms. I, it wasn’t bad. I was still, a functional human being, but of course I had two or three days in which I. I had bad headaches and all that, but besides that, I was fine.

Then in December of last year, I think I got it. It was, my mom was visiting one of my cousins and both of them started feeling sick and both of them tested positive and I tested negative, but I had one day much, I had really bad symptoms like a fever and all that. And then I was okay, but yeah, it’s strange.

Like you said but yeah, I have a ton of gym goals, Go back to the mid 400s and deadlifts bench two plates as well. It’s one of one goal that I have in mind, hopefully by the end of this year, that happens and go back and squat three plates. So we’ll see, that’s where like my. My mind is set, not all not that much on how I look the two, three, four two plates on the bench, three on the squat, four on the deadlift.

That’s a fun milestone to work toward. Yeah, exactly. And I know it’s going to take time. Of course, but like for so many years, so I cannot barbell squat back squat cause I, I, my shoulder mobility is very bad and I have a hunchback and I’m working, to correct that, but still I’m not able to reach all the way back.

So I use a safety bar squat but I love it, man. Yeah. Safety bar squat is great. I rec I’ve recommended it many times. It’s a feels probably more like a front squat, at least to me than a back squat. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Have you front squatted? Yes. Yes. I have, but I don’t know. It also felt weird.

I cannot do it with the front rack position because again, my mobility. So I did it with the thing over here, like these on the, the clavicles. I felt strange, so I, when I squat, I either goblet squat or I do the safety bar squat. I do want to at least maybe one day do a barbell back squat.

I hope one day I’ll be able to get my mobility, ready to hold the bar on the back, on my back and try to. To do that also, my body is not doesn’t really want to squat that much because of playing soccer and being overweight while playing soccer, my ankles and my knees are not the, the healthiest.

So I really need to work on, on my ankle and stability and mobility to be just prepared to do a leg workout. So I know there’s a long way, but that’s a goal that I have on my horizon to at least one day marble back squat. And if you haven’t come across Ben Patrick, he has a lot of people who swear by his protocol for improving knee function and health and reducing pain.

I’d recommend checking that out. I think he, he produces some content on other stuff related to like body composition and training in general. And I haven’t looked at it recently. Generally though, I know him personally, he’s a great guy. And, but what I know for a fact is, he’s helped tens of thousands of people at this point overcome all kinds of knee issues.

And so that, that might be helpful. And the protocol is actually very simple. So worth checking out. Cool. Yeah, no, for sure. Because When I was like 17 or so, I had a really bad injury while playing soccer, and I didn’t listen to the doctors. So I didn’t first of all, I. They don’t want to get surgery.

So I just did the PT route, but even then I didn’t go to all the sessions. And I kept playing and that wasn’t the best choice. One of the, it sounds like one of the guys who works with me did basically the same thing. He messed his knee up playing football. Didn’t want to get surgery. Didn’t really want to do PT, kept playing football, then playing soccer then, and he’s re injured it a number of times.

Yeah, no, exactly. Cause I had that weird that big dream of still being able to play pro soccer. So I was like, no, because if I get surgery, I will miss this tryouts and all that. Never happened. But I didn’t even go to the tryouts. Nothing happened on that end. I’m left with a funky knee and right ankle.

But also one of the things that I found through you guys is that you can, Work your way around some of your injuries, right? You can, you don’t need to stop lifting. You can just work around. And we all, unless we’re like 20 years old, we all have something like my right shoulder is just always been, I’ve aggravated it, weightlifting a few times.

And so for example, something I won’t do is heavy overhead dumbbell pressing just because this shoulder doesn’t like it. Like I’ve pissed it off a number of times and it’s just not worth it to me, but a barbell pressing, no problem. Different type of machine or plate loaded. Like my gym has a Viking press is what it’s called and Viking press.

Great. And all right, fine. I’ll do Arnold presses with dumbbells because it’s less weight, but I. have no desire to try to overhead press. I maybe got up to 95 or 100 pounds in the past and I hurt my shoulder a couple of times that way. And so that’s just something similar to what you were saying with the barbell back squat for me.

I don’t see a scenario where I’m ever going to try to overhead press a dumbbell press large amounts of weight. It’s just not worth it. I’ll do other things. Yeah, it’s for example, I have a really hard time connected with my biceps in any bicep movement. I always get a huge. Forearm pump, but nothing on my biceps.

So I think it has to do with my shoulder stuff because I feel a lot of stress on especially my left shoulder, but I don’t know. But I noticed that certain machines, especially cables do work. Side raises too. That’s another tip for you and people listening. If dumbbell side raises, if you just also don’t really feel that mind muscle connection, you don’t feel the side lats.

Working. You don’t really notice much of a pump. Go try it on a cable set up for example. The leaning one, right? Yeah. Yep. You can do it that way or try what’s the machine called? It might just be called like a side race machine, but there’s also, at least in my gym, there’s a machine option too, where you’re holding handles.

That are right here out in front of you and you’re just, I did it today and you’re side raising. So I, I do the dumbbell side race, but I like to alternate. I’ll do that for a couple of months and then I’ll go do some cable side raises for a couple of months and I’ll go do some machine side raises.

Exactly. And again, that’s the, that’s like the thing that I come back to, like the, that information that you guys put out there, because a bunch of people think, okay, if you want to get big legs, you need to back squat. Yeah. And if you can’t do that, just give up. Exactly. And having the information from you, from working with a coach, I think that’s also really important either online or in person or whatever.

But someone like. That align with, your values and, you, you have trust in them, that’s huge. And having all those options again, man, like I cannot thank you guys enough for all the information that you guys put out there, all those articles that you, I don’t know if you still put them on the website.

Yeah. Yeah. I still have a presence there. I’m not, there was a time when I personally was writing probably two or three, like long form articles per week. And now I actually, I still spend a lot of time producing content. It’s just that time is now divvied up between the next book. I’m always working on the next book and then there’s the podcast.

And then, but I still do have a presence on the blog. And now I have a couple of other people who also they don’t write. Under their own names, but together, we’re a little content creation team. And there are several articles that go up on the blog every week.

I think I was telling Damien, like I, I never met, someone that represents a company that starts with a message saying that, Hey, by the way, the things that I sell. They’re not needed. I was like, man, you always start your podcast with like that. And that’s so fun, but funny, but also like very honest.

And that’s, I don’t know. That’s why I said, one of the many reasons I decided to, to contact you guys, contact Miles and see if I could, work with you on that end, because I don’t know, I think especially. In the, on the weight loss community from the fitness world, I don’t know, it’s really easy to fall into several scams and traps and all that.

So if you know someone or that, those are, I think, why not try to, align with them and, represent what you also stand for. So that’s great. Yeah, I know. I really appreciate the support. I’m flattered. Lots more good stuff to come more books and more articles, more podcasts.

And now I have my family back in Mexico, like international shipping Legion stuff from Amazon or from whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s something also we’ll be working on. We’ll be working on getting international distribution set up officially properly. It’s just one thing at a time.

There’s certainly an opportunity there. It’s just something that you have to make sure you do right. And it requires a fair amount of resources to do right. But it will happen. And we’re starting with we’re starting with UK and with Europe just because there’s the most demand in those areas.

But, and it’s fairly easy to set up because Amazon has a presence really. So like getting set up on Amazon UK allows us to then fulfill orders into Europe a lot more cost effectively than currently, but there’s Mexico, there’s Canada, there are many others, Australia, there are many other.

Places even individual countries in Europe that it would probably make sense to serve more directly and we’ll get there in the meantime. I’m doing the middleman work. Every time I go over there for Christmas or something, I’ll bring I’ll always carry my. My top of recharge and one type of, or Ziploc bags of way.

But sometimes he gets, especially if I do like the vanilla one or the birthday cake ones, it is white and it’s in a Ziploc bag. Sometimes you get funky looks. They’d have to think though. There’s no way this dude, he’s making it this easy. This can’t be what. You might think it is like at this point they have to assume like it’s protein powder guaranteed.

Yeah, exactly. So it was so fun again, just trying to give back to, to whomever listens. I remember I also was telling Damien, I listened to the podcast the other day with you had with the, I can’t remember the name of the kid who spoke about his anorexia journey. Yeah. Jake. Yeah.

Having that kind of information out there. It’s huge because I don’t know, like it would have made my. My process much more easier if I could find another guy speaking, out loud, dealing with this kind of stuff. So I know that the more we speak about the better, because that would mean that less people will suffer in silence.

It’s like you said, right? Just see if all it takes is that moment where that person, they see themselves in somebody else. And then they think if Jose did it, maybe I can do it too. Exactly. That’s all it takes. That’s the beginning. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. The more information we can put more stories like these, all the stuff that you guys do, the Q and A’s when you have people over all those things, it’s just, priceless and free information for everyone.

Hey, this was a great interview. Jose. Thank you again for taking the time. For people who want to check you out, you mentioned that you’re on social media. Where can they find you? Yeah I relatively, I’m relatively active on Instagram. I, one of my other goals is to be more active on that.

But you can find me there, jose. gomez. 13, the number one, three, that’s where you can find me, but, otherwise I’ll refer them to you, Muscle for Life. Thanks again. Thanks again for doing this. I love the story. Keep up the good work. Thank you for the support. And I look forward to Hearing an update from you.

If you want to email me at any time, of course, reach out and let me know how this next cut goes. Sure. Of course. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity and just, keep doing what you’re doing because it’s amazing. It’s priceless, man. Thank you. Thank you. I hope you liked this episode. I hope you found it helpful.

And if you did, Subscribe to the show because it makes sure that you don’t miss new episodes. And it also helps me because it increases the rankings of the show a little bit, which of course then makes it a little bit more easily found by other people who may like it just as much as you. And if you didn’t like something about this episode or about the show in general, or if you have ideas or suggestions or just Feedback to share, shoot me an email, Mike at muscle for life.

com. Muscle F O R life. com and let me know what I could do better or just what your thoughts are about maybe what you’d like to see me do in the future. I read everything myself. I’m always looking for new ideas and constructive feedback. So thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon.