Straight Outta The Lair with Flex Lewis
7x Mr. Olympia 212 Champion Flex Lewis presents Straight Outta The Lair, the podcast that aims to bring you vital information for your life's ambitions, providing valuable insight from interviews of the many many different faces that walk through our doors at The Dragon's Lair Las Vegas and a few from the man himself.
Straight Outta The Lair with Flex Lewis
600 Pounds to Competitive Bodybuilder | Anthony Lopez | Straight Outta The Lair Podcast Ep. 80
Imagine carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, then envision the courage it takes to lift it off, piece by piece. This episode is a testament to such bravery as our guest, Anthony Lopez, takes us through his journey of shedding an astonishing 350 pounds to step on the bodybuilding stage, a testament to human resilience and the power of transformation. Anthony's candid stories, from battling obesity and depression to overcoming grief, are bound to resonate with anyone who knows that change isn't just about the outside; it's an inside job.
Throughout our conversation, Anthony uncovers the milestones and hurdles of his transformation. With raw honesty, he shares insights on how humor became his shield and how the decision to undergo gastric sleeve surgery was a turning point in reclaiming his life. We traverse the path from pain to empowerment, with Anthony's experiences serving as a beacon for those navigating their own dark tunnels, underscoring the vital role of mindset and accountability in personal revolutions.
Join us as we celebrate the power of perseverance through Anthony's eyes, highlighting his philosophy that our past does not have to dictate our future. From the poignant realization of self-worth during the first grueling weeks at the gym, to the joy of living anew, unrestricted by his former self. This episode isn't just about the awe-inspiring transformation of one man; it's an invitation to believe in the potential that lies within us all, to rewrite our narratives, and to inspire through action. Anthony Lopez's story is a vivid portrayal of the beauty in embracing one's true self and the profound impact of life transformations.
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----- Content -----
00:00:00 - Intro
00:03:59 - Overcoming Obesity and Grief
00:14:51 - Overcoming Depression and Transformation Through Fitness
00:18:56 - Weight Loss Journey and Surgery
00:25:20 - Overcoming Challenges and Finding Strength
00:30:03 - Overcoming Challenges and Achieving Personal Transformation
00:42:48 - Weight Loss Journey
00:47:54 - Fast Food's Impact on Personal Transformation
00:53:49 - Transformation Journey and Embracing Self
01:02:11 - The Power of Life Transformations
01:11:33 - Learn Nutrition and Better Habits
01:16:10 -Achieving Transformation and Inspiring Other
I knew that this was my time to really show people it doesn't matter what goes on your life, it's not the situation, it's how you handle it.
Speaker 2:Straight over there, joined today by somebody you guys and girls may have seen for his incredible transformation 600 pounds down to doing a bodybuilding show.
Speaker 1:What's up?
Speaker 2:incredible story that we will be diving into today. Anthony Lopez, nice to meet you, man modified the heavy on Instagram. Pleasure to have you in the studio.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited to be here, bro. This is you ever. This is not even like a dream come true, because it didn't wasn't on the list, you know. I mean it was like it's just insane to be sitting here, to be talking with you and be talking off without the cameras on it's stuff, like that. You didn't know more about you and see everything you guys do it. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to inspire someone, inspired to motivate someone and Just tell my story.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and that's what we're gonna be doing today. We're gonna dive into some deep memories along with what you've achieved recently, as I mentioned, you just competed in a bodybuilding show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, october 8th. Yeah, over October 8th, I did a transformation class in summer, shredding in Texas. Man, so much respect for what you do, bro. I prepped for nine months. My coach said he didn't care if I was getting on stage for transformation or doing Olympia. So you're gonna do it, you're gonna do it right. And so it was nine months of my first move. I just moved it to Vegas, that's right, you're a fan, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then so I moved here in socially January, officially January, and that's when I started prepping for the show. So I feel like this is my first year now living in Vegas, because you know exactly what it is to do. Prep it was, was the eating, it was the cardio, was lifting, it was everything was to a tee. It taught me so much more than I ever thought I'll learn about a weight loss journey. Yeah, that was a whole different ballgame. Like losing weight, calorie deficit, working hard is. You can't compare to step chart, to working the stepping on stage, and it was a best feeling. It was the best five seconds in my life as well. It felt like five seconds.
Speaker 1:What show is this? It was a summer shredding, so it was a transformation class. So they have a 50 plus, yeah, and a hundred plus how much weight you lost? Yeah, so I've lost about 350 pounds. That's right. Just um, yeah, so it's.
Speaker 1:It was insane. It was. You know it was a. It was really. It's hard to explain it's.
Speaker 1:It was surreal. It was like I took everything in, even though I'm looking at everyone looking at me and cheering me on. Show my abs. I called the tit lift because I have a lot of loose skin so I have to lift my tit. But it just showed my abs. But have abs and yes, I do have four pack.
Speaker 1:And even though I'm looking at them, looking at me, like in my head I was just thinking of everything it took. That makes sense, like everything flash, like in a like second, even though I got I hear it was in the I hear the audience, I hear my mom, hear everyone, my girlfriend Shearing everyone, my morsola's, a little, everything with yes, 100%. But everything was like muzzled in a way and I just was like, even though I was doing one thing, I was actually focusing on them. Wow, I can't even explain it. It was just so very surreal. To our golf stage, like it started crying and just took everything in for a second, like I didn't even talk to my girlfriend or my mom, and then for 20 minutes, like I just did, I just want to be my Myself, like it's very, something like came over me where I was like, damn, like this is me now you done, this is what I've done, this is you know. I mean like.
Speaker 2:I was a bodybuilder.
Speaker 1:I know, yeah, I'm a bodybuilder as I said, off and you called me, they called me a body. I was like, are you sure about that? It just didn't to really take everything in and to know that my life could have went one way. If I, you know, chose it to let it to keep going that way and to be able to get on stage and to inspire and to motivate people, just by me changing my life around, it made everything I've went through over the last five years so much, so worth it.
Speaker 2:I want a journey. Yeah, that is being. It's been a, it's been a complete life change. Let's talk about the beginnings and how you started the early days of life. We always a kid.
Speaker 1:I've been overweight my since I came out the womb but honestly, since I came out the woman. I was a big baby and to my mom, was a single mom, so fast food was a staple in our household. My whole entire family is overweight. I was the heaviest. I said the bar. I said the bar of that of the way of my family, but didn't really know portion control, didn't really have any type of nutrition knowledge. My mom did the best that she could do but elementary school heaviest kid. Junior high the heaviest kid.
Speaker 2:High school the heaviest kid Always how heavy we are if you're masking.
Speaker 1:I feel like I never. I feel like I went from. I was like just remember being 200, 300, 400, 500, 600. So wow, yeah, I was probably well over a hundred pounds, probably 100 and something pounds in an elementary school like. By the time I left elementary school I was definitely about 50 to 50 to 60 pounds heavier than the kids in the class we believe at all.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, they called me names. They called me nutty. They used to for short for nutty professor. Shout out to all them appreciate that one, you know. I mean, obviously, when it comes into asking girls to dances in sixth grade wasn't really the number one pick. Also, wasn't the number one pick for dodgeball either, stuff like that. But I didn't really let it affect me, for didn't really let it affect me. I guess I was just known for being big AJ, fat AJ or whatever it might be. But yeah, no, I had my share of people bullying me, a lot of tits lapping, you know me, a lot of making fun of and stuff like that. So my whole entire life I had to become funny because I knew what you're gonna say about me. So I had already prepared myself to say what I'm gonna, where I'm gonna hit you, where it hurts, because I know I can't call you fat, you already.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna crash back.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I'm ready to go. I need people always crack up because now in social media people make fun of them. Oh, let's do it, so I'll say something back and it will go back and forth, but it's all fun. I've been over my whole life, so I've been defending myself my whole entire life. The first thing people say is that season I was overweight, so it's the first thing they go for. They try to punch me in the gut, but after a while it's used being funny as a coping mechanism and then I just act like I was okay with being overweight until I wasn't. And Then and that's when I started my journey- and let's talk about that moment.
Speaker 2:What was it that kind of clicked for you that started off this year, that that got me eyeballs on you?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So this is gonna be a tough one. I don't talk about this a lot, it just is very difficult to. I'll get this down one day. Okay, I think we're good. It's very difficult.
Speaker 1:I lost my grand-grandfather cancer. She was hard, it was hard. So within that six months of the doctor giving him to live, dropped everything, stop working. I'd stop caring about anything me, my girlfriend, in a relationship for 11 years. At that time it was a couple years ago, but at the time it was like eight years.
Speaker 1:Whatever was, I didn't care about my relationship, I didn't care about my, my, my work. I didn't care about anything. He didn't want a whole bunch of nurses to take care of him and clean him and stuff like that. He's my best friend, stopped everything, man, I was like already at that time, like 500, five something, and I'm not a big drinker, not a big partier, none that stuff. So food was my coping mechanism and I'm Mexican and black. So, bro, we nothing but food, man. So you would come over every single day and the doctor gave him six months, but you would think he had till tomorrow, the way the food was already sitting there and we would just eat and we would just Hang out with them. The sleeping schedule was off. I was very depressed. I hit it because I didn't want to be sad in front of him and during that time I took care of him, did everything me. My uncle, my whole family was there and it was very difficult to watch someone there was.
Speaker 1:He was like a hero and then watch cancer take over him. It was very difficult, everything you need to do. He actually had cancer sticking out of his stomach. So I'm very terrified of like blood for some reason and every single day I had no problem and no problem cleaning it out every single day, like four times a day. Did everything got to hang out with them. He was super funny. It sounds weird, it sounds morbid, but it was funny because you know he started taking morphine so started like, say, the weird stuff. But like these are the fun memories. Like I wasn't building new memories with him. Man, I've had a whole lifetime memories of them. We would just make sure he's was good. For the last five or months we're he was here.
Speaker 1:He ended up passing away and like Easily from, for I was there for about four months, four and a half months in my grandma's house by, say, there for almost a year. I was there for 11 months and that 11 months I gained over 100 pounds. Like I was constantly eating. I just I was just so down, I just was unhappy, I was just. I had a lot of questions. I've lost is my second person that I've looked up to. I've lost to cancer and man it. It just put me in this very bad place.
Speaker 1:I ended up coming home after 11 months. I was staying my grandma's house and going home and I was depressed man, I was depressed I'll suicidal. I was over 600 pounds. I felt like I just I was done like like I was done, like I wanted to give up, like I would didn't want to become a burden to my family and they were gonna bury me next if I kept on going so far. They're gonna bury me next by my choice of eating. Then why not bury me because of my choice of me leaving the earth when I want to? That that wasn't my headspace. That's what I thought of you know me. Because now I feel like it's now, it's bro, it's. It's hard to walk upstairs, it's hard to put my own shoes, my girls playing my socks on. For me that's already. That's hard breaking. Oh.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:Life was just, it was just coming too much, man. It was just it wasn't been fun anymore. You know, I mean, I was done. I had so many masks put it up and I had to get it together. But I, my sister, she has a learning disability. So I had a dream one time and I had a dream. This was like literally before I started getting everything together. I had a dream, though I was in my, I was in the hospital, so I felt like I was in my death bed. This is a dream and my sister was at the end and I was thinking in my head Wait, where's everyone at? And I was thinking like, fuck, if I'm about to die, who's gonna watch my sister? She has a learning disability. And the next day I woke up, man, and I called someone who I knew owned a gym and I started working, bro, like I wasn't ready to go.
Speaker 1:My grandpa taught me something before he left is that life is too short. It doesn't matter how much you messed up, it's your choice to fix it. You know, I mean, and at then the day, like my cancer was eating. My cancer was obesity. My cancer was not post-control, they're lack of discipline, lack of consistency. That was my cancer, but his cancer you couldn't get rid of.
Speaker 1:My cancer I could is just was gonna take a lot of fucking work, a lot of work. Five years of it, you know, I mean, and that's what started the journey. I lost well over a hundred pounds and I was looking into the gastric sleeve and I decided that was gonna be the best thing for me, because even though I've lost over a hundred pounds I was 650, say, still at 550. I think I could have woken up and are not right, I can, I'm not woken up, you know, I mean, and it was time for me just to continue to change my life around. That's what I did and fast forward. I decided that I needed to. I wanted, if I was gonna do this, I was gonna do this right. I was gonna build, I was gonna build a body that wanted a junior high like for all the girls to like it, stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's not my heaviest man. That was me, that's not my heaviest right there, that's, you know.
Speaker 1:I mean my heaviest I think was like around, like the airplane photo or the waxing of the video. One is actually we're probably you have my head he heaviest. That's one of them right there. You know, I mean, and yeah, that's my tattoo right there, but yeah, that right, there is around 650 pounds right there.
Speaker 2:You could see that I was missy, I was struggling.
Speaker 1:I was miserable man. I was like even my file smiles. If you look at it now and you could look at one of my smiles from this podcast, you could just see the how fake that thing is, you know? I mean, you're not happy at that size man, you're not happy at all.
Speaker 2:You mentioned. Obviously you couldn't put your shoes on your song. No what other things are you struggling with?
Speaker 1:everything. Wiping my ass was difficult, putting my shoes, my socks on, walking upstairs, fitting in a car there's no see. I was at that point. I was wearing no seatbelts because I couldn't put a seatbelt on. Now I drove a Jeep and I literally broke the center console Because my thighs were so big and when I get in I was scoot to the side so I broke the center console. You know, I mean I don't know what we talk about here, but sex is difficult to at that way, if anyone ever.
Speaker 1:A lot of things normal day-to-day lifestyle was difficult and there was no such thing as flying at that size anymore, not comfortably, everything that we do want to, just to be a normal human being. It was becoming harder and harder, to a point where there's why even do it? Hygiene sucks Right because you have no discipline to work on yourself. What it cares about brushing your teeth, you know, I mean so it just a lot of things that went against how I was raised. I was now adapt, accepting as my lifestyle now because of my bad choice of eating, wow so that was six or pounds.
Speaker 2:You decided then to drive yourself to the gym.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:First couple of weeks in the gym, obviously, I know you said for a whole year prior to getting the gastric bypassed sleeve, yeah, the sleeve. You lost a hundred pounds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, over a hundred pounds, like a hundred and fifteen, so talk about that was like honest.
Speaker 1:I did them three, like for four or five months. Yeah, because when you're that heavy, your body doesn't want to be that big. Yeah, I could be in the slight 500 calorie deficit every single day. I was eating almost 10,000 calories and I know that for a fact because when we sat down and we tracked all the food I was eating around that time my grandpa was sick and it came out to 10,000 calories. Wow, from McDonald's breakfast and number one extra burger with two hash browns and a large drink, all that stuff, man it was. I came up to 10,000 calories every day. Pretty much I would. Maybe some days was six.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, but really mostly most part will say yeah, I was ten. I mean because I was out of control, man, like I was hurt. I was hurt. I. It's still hard for me to talk about that like it's very difficult and I don't. Hopefully one day it becomes Easier to speak about, but it's. There's a lot of motion behind that story because that's what got me to get here. So not only did I lose my best friend, but then I changed my life because of it. So it's more. It's not just losing my grandpa. It's like the start of someone new, like someone I lost, someone I love, but I gained also someone who I loved and this is a fourth of your.
Speaker 2:Grant you new ground. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'll probably like I don't know, was that like five or six, maybe on the boat? Yeah, it's like, oh, like six. Look at that. I got titties there too. Oh man, everything like all my memories is all my memories have my grandparents in it, my mom, my grandparents in it, but it was hard, dude. It's still hard. I know it's been since 2018, like the tattoo, but it's just. It feels like it was Yesterday, but there's so much emotion behind that. Like that was my buddy, that was my rock.
Speaker 2:I know losing any loved one is tough, but how do you think your grandfather and I would react to seeing you and what you've gone through?
Speaker 1:He'll be happy. He's always telling me and I used to get so pissed off, but it makes so much sense, he's me. I was like you gotta always gotta be honest, you eat two people, you're gonna look like two people. I was shit grandpa, then I guess I ate four, all you mean. But he always wanted to get my life together. And they always say don't have any regrets. Yeah, you know. I mean I don't really believe in that, because the one regret I do have regret, and it's not doing this Earlier to show him that I was gonna get it done but listen, that's a story, right?
Speaker 2:I think everybody can have the what it should I could. We spoke of the mr Olympia. Yeah, the decision I faced by Continuing on and not being happy if I gone that route For selfish reasons. But then in your case, for whatever reason, if you hadn't done the route You've gone, maybe you wouldn't have stuck to the transformation you've gone through that's very true trauma powers that made me so much stronger that I gotta say that that is that for I'll say, the whole year.
Speaker 1:But from getting the news until everything and I moved back home and I went through my own depression. Now I'm not sort of like clinically depressed Not that I went through my own version of I was oppressed but I'm not a depressed person yeah, you know me by the time I was, but everything I've had one through that made me stronger as a human and that really taught me a lot About myself and it taught me what I could really put my mind through. And this is before the journey, right, this is just what I was trying to take. I was trying to find some type of positive right, because it's a very negative situation. And if I found that now as I speak and I talk about the stories now, it's if you could, if you can find positive in any situation, you're always gonna win and it's very difficult. Sometimes you got a squint right. But if I didn't go through that, if I didn't go through of my depression, if I didn't go through losing my grandpa, if I didn't go through Obesity, that I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing today and I'll crazy. This is that I went through my own version depression. Before I started with losing weight, I didn't believe in depression. I'm like what are you depressed about? You know how, as big as me what are you depressed about? You're just being a wimp. You're just whatever might be right, fast forward.
Speaker 1:I went through my depression. I started working on myself. About a year and a half later, my best friend started going through depression. I was there to help him through through it. So I feel like everything happens for a reason. You just really have to pay attention to bigger picture and I just focus on all the Negativity, because that's all we do is. We focus on the negative of everything, and sometimes you just need a squint to find the positive. What did you learn from it? Would you take from it? Did you fail? Okay, that's fine. Would you learn from that? Because then you didn't feel. If you learn from it.
Speaker 2:I know that you have a big training online platform along with helping so many different people, but I don't want to get into that just yet. You mentioned, obviously you've helping your friends and stuff, but I want to put a pin in that. I want to take us back to that first week in the gym and what you went through emotionally, mentally, physically. Was it any pushback where members roughed you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was a mentally beat up. I was emotionally beat up. I had no faith in myself. I couldn't. Oh, I've only did like maybe eight minutes of the boxing class. There wasn't.
Speaker 1:So at that weight there's not a lot of machine to use. If anything, there's not machine to use and the machines that you can use at over 600 pounds you can't really use them because you're too wide, right, like I was too wise. So try to go bench press, but I'm wide, so it's, I'm like I have to be down right, it's not comfortable. Yeah, so at that weight I was just all boxing, air, shadow boxing and in boxing classes and dumbbells, you mean, that was it, that was all I was doing. But yeah, I ended up going to gym to someone that graduated high school with owned Okay. So for the first time in, say, two years right, for some people, two years They've never seen me. So they walk in oh, aj, but it's really not like big eye open. Oh, aj, it's more of a fuck. You pull, like you put, yeah, and that's a heaviest I've ever. Like it's not normal to see, it's not normal to see a 600 pound plus pound person. You know, it's really not in the gym at least.
Speaker 1:And yeah, man, what I was going through mentally was so much I'm gonna fell again. Is this gonna be my last time? You know I mean, people are looking at me, people making fun of me. I couldn't do you at that way. You can even do a treadmill, because you're so heavy. When the treadmill is going towards you, you walk, you're so heavy, you slide it forward, so it goes. It makes like a sound. Wow, you know I mean. So I just did it.
Speaker 1:I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed. There's been plenty of times where I got out of the trainees, boxing class and stuff like that and I would just cry. You know I mean because I just felt I'm like I was a odd one out there. You know I mean. But also, at the same time, I was tired of being the odd one out. I was tired of being the biggest person in the room. I was tired of being the center of attention, of what not to do with your life. You know I mean.
Speaker 1:So, as much as I was Feeling a certain way by myself, I can, I gotta be honest to say this is the last time I was gonna look that way, so that every single day I woke up. I was like this is the last time I'm gonna look like this, is the last time I'm gonna feel like this. This is the last time I'm gonna look like this. And I told my time. I still tell myself this now. I didn't stop been doing it for five plus years now. It's the last time I'm gonna look like this, the last time I'm gonna feel like this. And I just kept going, but Mentally it was a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a lot, and my joints hurt as at that weight. You have to go through pain in order to fix yourself because, think about it, you have 600 pounds on your joints. I'm punching, I'm throwing stuff, I mean throwing punches, I'm flipping tires. When I got to the point of doing that my joints, my legs I got the point where Francine would have to like massage my legs for 20 minutes before I got out of bed. You know I mean so it's like you had. I had to hurt myself Technically wasn't really called hurt. I was a like sore and stuff like that, but I had to go through pain just in order to lose weight.
Speaker 2:That must be very mentally tough for you. Be like wow, I wasn't in this much pain when I was my biggest.
Speaker 1:No, I know, I never had back problems, leg problem, knee problems. The worst thing, I was a pre-diabetic. I had a big black dot on my big black on my forehead and it was coming to me. I was pre-diabetic, but other than that, no, I didn't wasn't. I was always tired, I was always out of shape also, but I wasn't in pain. But it's, I had to go through pain to become a warrior, you know I mean honestly.
Speaker 2:So how long was the fastest weight drop you? And then to get to that whole year? You said you lost 100, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had the surgery. Yeah, it was yeah, about four or five months took me, lose over a hundred and I wanted to have the surgery. I want to met to go. I ended up going with the gastric sleeve. I didn't want the other one because I didn't want to take vitamins and stuff like that plus my age. I was young, I was in my 20s, so therefore I decided to get that done. I learned everything about it. Can you explain what the gastric sleeve?
Speaker 1:so the gastric sleeve will take your stomach about a hundred percent and brings it down to about 30.
Speaker 1:Or 40 depends on whatever they do, and what that does is that it restricts you from eating so much Stokey, whatever you want, but you just restrict you right, a little faster. I feel a lot faster and so, looking there, I did my research for a couple months while I was dropping the weight and getting prepared for it and stuff like that. I want to take the serious. I started losing nutrition. I started learning about portion control. I started learning about tracking your food, everything like that, because I was gonna be successful. I didn't have insurance at the time, so I came out of cash. I was out of pocket it's $5,800 and I knew what I'm actually. I went to bed to go into TJ for it and, honestly, one of the best tools you ever could get. Now fast forward about a year into a month to a year. I decided that, obviously, being such a big deficit, I was not getting muscle. I was not. I was more of loose skin than anything, but that's part of it. Over 600 pounds, there's no avoiding loose skin. Yeah, I decided I want to go different route. I just I work. I was working nutrition. I was taking YouTube classes. I was going to YouTube school. It was I did. I didn't want to go back anymore. Yeah, like I've already lost a hundred pounds during COVID, my tiktok, it went crazy like one. I think the video now has a hundred and eighty, a hundred eighty million views or hundred eight million views, and that's when I started Posting my journey on there and stuff like that, and I didn't want to fail. I didn't want to fail. I didn't want to let my family down. I don't want my grandpa down, I don't want my girlfriend down, I don't want myself down. I know my brothers and sisters down, you know I mean. So I didn't want to fail.
Speaker 1:Fast forward. I had the surgery, obviously in a very big calorie deficit. Learning nutrition, I decided I want to put on muscle. I decided that it wasn't gonna be possible with eating 900 calories a day. So I decided to eat more and I decided. I knew that I was going to be able to stick to this because I built discipline Right. But I also knew there's a certain look I wanted to go for. And so the code that my trainer at the time was like well, look, if you want to put on muscle, you want to. You're not eating up. There's no way you're gonna be eating 30 40 grams of protein a day and put muscle on, and so I made decisions, start eating more and stretch my stomach out over time.
Speaker 1:Now I keep what I want, literally you exactly where I. It's been proven a couple times already. You know I keep what I want. But it was a great tool for me because, at the end of the day, I needed something that was going to help me with portion control because, visit, there's a so many years I didn't do it and with the knowledge from you to everything you need to be successful is out there already. You already know what you need to be successful. Everything was out there for you. Everything is out there. So verbs to be successful. The hardest thing, I think, is like us taking action in it. Someone's gonna listen to this story and be motivated, but only one percent is gonna take action.
Speaker 2:How do you get thought to the point of actually going for the gastric sleeve?
Speaker 1:I just I needed help. I was so scared of dying after. When you go from depression to suicidal and you make your, you dig yourself out of that hole right. No medicine, no, anything. I just kept lying to myself that I'm gonna do this right. Once you do that, I Was. Even though I was still over 600 pounds, I started cherish life a lot more. The fact that I was possibly could have not been here today, the fact that I was ready. I had a game plan on what I was gonna do. This wasn't just a talk. This is not just social media. Let me post this for the views and stuff. This was. I was ready to go. I was.
Speaker 1:I felt like I was just a nuisance to my family. I was getting worse and worse. I didn't know where to start. I was at the lowest of low, and when you think of low, I was lower than that in my own personal head. And on top of that, I had to lose over 300 pounds to look like a normal human being. I Walked through a door with a slant because I was so big. When you go through your, my, your version of rock bottom, and Then you dig yourself out of that hole I Respect. I started respect life a lot more. That makes sense. I really cherished everything, even though I was miserable at the way that I was at. I was like you know what, like I got brothers. I'm like my grandpa's gone. I have a girlfriend. I'm a mom. My family members look up to me. I need to get it together.
Speaker 2:So you started looking at what you have, yeah.
Speaker 1:I start exactly. I started focused on things I could change and not things I couldn't, because it will spend our whole entire life focusing on things we can't fix. Because it's easier to focus on things that you can fix, because the things you can fix is up to you to get together. Things you can't fix, you complain about it all day. It's never gonna change Right. So now I was like you know what? This is gonna be a good tool, this is gonna be what I need. This is it. So I met with the doctors and she. No one approved in my family, no one wanted me to do it, but I wasn't asking for anyone's opinion. I got it done, but I made sure that I was gonna learn everything about my body, everything about nutrition. I can't, so I could be successful.
Speaker 2:I've seen all the scare stories about going over the board and again there's all yeah it's like how did you eliminate that From all these horror stories? You're going over the T1 and stuff think about it.
Speaker 1:I was ready to take my own life. So if I was gonna die on the table trying to fix myself, and that's what the that's what God had written for me, you like, honestly, I was ready, like that's just how I looked at it was. What about this? I didn't. So no one knew that I was suicidal until they heard Andy's podcast. Wow, my whole family didn't know Mike. No one knew. No one knew who just me, and I could have talked to him. But I Was more like embarrassed. Like I had a very blessed life. I had amazing mom, grandparents, family relationship and For me to be that low to just be able to want to take my life, I was embarrassed.
Speaker 2:We use in human as a crutch to get you through a lot of these situations doing. Say it again we use in human and oh yeah, comedy to get you through all this percent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, laugh it off, it's all right, just hold bunch of band-aids man I had. So I had so many band-aids to where I was just embarrassed. There's so many people now looking at it from talking to old version of anthelopus about I was the new version to have, about the old. I had so much positive in my life that, like I was just like I Was embarrassed to tell anyone of what I was going through mentally and I try to dig myself out of that hole. So the only way I could do it is Keep on smiling, keep on working. And as I kept on working on myself, I started believing myself more. You know I mean. And once I obviously did that decision and go get the surgery, like I said, what was the worst? That's gonna happen? I was ready to take my own life. So if it's well, if I'm gonna pass away on the table for trying to fix myself and use a tool to become better, then that that's the book that was written for me already a long time ago.
Speaker 2:Wow wait.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You're good bro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, this is. I'm gonna talk about a lot of this stuff. I'm gonna talk about this on my own podcast but it's difficult man. You know I mean it's. It's hard to explain man, it just there's a lot of Emotion. You know I mean good and bad, but at the end a good because I got to learn from all this stuff. Yeah, and you know it made me look where I'm at right now.
Speaker 2:That's right, just really your journey of where you started and going through all this. There's been so many different chapters and, more than anything else, I think you are the post-it ball. You've never given up.
Speaker 1:No, don't like. Honestly, I don't care if you're trying to lose weight, game way, put on size, put on muscle, get abs. Don't give up. You're the only person's gonna stop you for being successful. Right Like it's not. I'm not successful because my parents who gives a shit? If your parents are not successful? You don't have to live like them. Your parents are overweight. You don't have to be overweight. If your parents are broke, you don't have to be broke, right like. You just need to be put in the work. That's going to help you become the version of yourself and stop talking about it, because that's all I did my whole entire life.
Speaker 1:This whole entire life, as we're talking about just weight loss, I was I've only had two real jobs in my life to two real jobs. I worked at skate depot and I got a check from them. I said I made more money for my grandma in the lawn, so I quit that job and I was a manager at a vape store. Other than that, I've owned my own businesses. We had taco business and mini pancake business. It's whole entire time, you know, I mean, and None of that changed because I had to work on myself. It didn't get easier because I had a was I decided to lose weight like I still had to go through normal life stuff. Yeah, you know, I mean to the point where, even through the bodybuilding show and the bodybuilding show this is crazy, because I don't know if you feel this way, but my boy, big John, told me bro, every time I did bodybuilding show, something do in the middle, prep happened were just like what the actual every?
Speaker 2:show. Okay, every show is a storyline with me.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I got a storyline for my own storyline. Then I get a call about three months before my bodybuilding show for my grandma. Two months for a bodybuilding show For my grandma. It's 11 something at night, bro. She lives in California, I live in Vegas. There's no reason for her call me. She's asleep by seven, you know, I mean. And she's crying and she's tells me your dad was murdered.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:And I was like what? Like I freaked out. Now I gotta be honest, I wasn't the closest with him by close with my grandma, with his mom, and that was us. I started crying, I started for panicking because, like I'm four hours away from my grandma she's I'm the only family member she has out there. So I was like we got to go. So I'm like freaking out, panicking. I have I still have zoom calls booked for the next day. I had a set of messages on my clients and letting know what happened and Thank God for my girlfriend man, I was like you know what, just go shower and we'll get it together. Look, you're okay, just go get it. So I remember just crying. The shower, just what the hell, what's next? You know, I mean what's going on just everywhere. So I'm calling my grandma again and check up on her. So obviously I want to cry, let her know I was crying.
Speaker 1:And so during two months before bodybuilding show, I end up being in California for a whole month while I'm prep, away from my house, away from my normal day, cardio and stuff like that. And on top of that, my father was stabbed to death and Going through this time right now and it's crazy from like said losing my grandpa made me stronger. Going through the weight loss journey Made me stronger. Seeing all the negative comments made me stronger. See all the positive comments made stronger. I Knew that this was my time to Really show people it doesn't matter what goes on your life, it's still, it's not the situation. Until you handle it and I know the old version myself would have that I use as an excuse and started to eat what I want, not to the bodybuilding show. Everyone understand. Right now I had of a. Not only do I have a funeral plan for my dad, but I have to be there for my grandma. On top of that, after now we have a whole bunch of court dates because now it's, you know, there's for the next five years, pretty much you know.
Speaker 1:I mean, and I looked at my girlfriend and I looked at it. I was like I'm not doing this bodybuilding show. I Was like I'm gonna tell you right now we haven't made it to California and I tell her I'm not doing this bodybuilding show. I was like this is a test and I'm going to pass this and I'm going to do this show and I'm going to still work. I'm gonna take a couple days off and I'm still I still, dad a group zoom call with all my clients. They're at shock balls, like you know. This is my time to show people.
Speaker 1:Doesn't matter what goes on Like, life does not stop and get easier for you because you're becoming better. Life is still gonna go. You're gonna have family problems or late ship problems, regular problems, hell problem, whatever. It is right, but it's still up to you to stick to who you need to become. And you got to shovel through that stuff. You know, I mean and that was very difficult decision for me to make, but I knew it was a right decision and I kept prepping for the bodybuilding show, like I kept doing. I kept, I talked about it. I didn't talk about a lot of social media. This is actually the first time I brought it up. I brought it up for a second on my own, the podcast, that's it. But you know, to me is just what's actually stopping. You know, what are you using for excuse? What's your excuse?
Speaker 2:Well, I listen what we spoke about situations happening. No, I've not gone through anything like that. That is a massive blow to anybody, regardless how close you are to your dad. Still, that is fine to hear is very, what's very.
Speaker 1:You see it on TV people pass away, people die all the time. But it's very weird because I wasn't the closest with him. But nothing feels more Uncomfortable knowing that His life was taken away from someone else's hands. And now that never gave me the opportunity to say what I needed to say.
Speaker 2:What would you say? You had the chance. I.
Speaker 1:Got to be honest? It would probably be. I forgive them Because the only thing that's told the most about that was that For my grandma we said before I pass away, I want you guys to be good. I was promised her, we would promise her, and I just think I hold my key, my promises. I don't ever hate him. I didn't hate him at all. My family raised me correctly. You don't don't hate anybody. You need to be. Everyone has a good in them. Sometimes it just takes a little longer for them to come out, and that's like the one that's things the most. It is now her last wish. She's still here. Obviously. Her last wish was taken away from. Some asshole decided that stopped me. Someone was good that day, you know I mean. So that's where it's the most.
Speaker 2:I know that I don't know, obviously, the issues and you know what transcended, but I'm sure if your dad know, can see you and he went you going through that transformation and where we are today. I'm sure that he's looking down and he's proud of you. You're wrong with your grandfather.
Speaker 1:Got a couple of angels up there now.
Speaker 2:Absolutely my man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man. So going through this stuff and the motion behind it just making me stronger, like I know I'm sitting here crying, but crying doesn't make you weak, it just this is what I do now. You know I mean like this shit is like what gets me fighting every day. Yeah, you know, I mean I don't ever want to go back to that actual miserable life. I was living a restricted life. There's not a lot you could do, even at 400 pounds. Can't skydive, can't you? Very uncomfortable? You could dirt bike ride, but every lot of things I do now I couldn't do snowboard every weekend, a dirt bike ride, a mountain bike ride.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say, if you look at his social media, if you're not following him, heavy, heavy to modify, to modify. Yeah, heavy to modify. I will put that in the link below. But this guy is on dirt bikes, he's riding mountain bikes. Yup, I'm everywhere man, he's doing more stuff than me, because it's.
Speaker 1:I just took all that stuff for granted, man, and that's all stuff I wanted to do. Yeah, I didn't change who I was because I lost weight. I started to do who I wanted to. I started to do what I actually want to do in my whole entire life. I just wasn't willing to work for it.
Speaker 2:Because I seen a couple of clips that you posted that you'd go on vacation. Sometimes your friends and you wouldn't be able to do some of the things because you're way, I couldn't do any of them.
Speaker 1:I couldn't do it. On top of that, the photo that you guys have of me on the in the airplane, if you notice there's a. There's the armrest that's up halfway. It was supposed to go all the way up, but it didn't. So I was traveling for six hours, very uncomfortable, but I wasn't mad at anyone. This one, yeah, there's a armrest where my elbow is at and is driving into my. I had a bruise on the side of my moves. My men, my men, it's over here for three days, right, and I was, you know. One thing, though, and it's like something I want to bring up it might be off topic, but really on topic is like I blame no one there. People blame the airline for that shit, I blame myself. Then securities I had on that plane was not the airlines follows myself, and that person there was not happy. That person was not comfortable, but that person brought everything on himself. It took accountability to change that person's life.
Speaker 2:I'm sure when you were boarding the airplane everybody was like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:No, I got it first. We paid the extra to get on, get on first. I was not going to, I was oh my gosh man, it's so embarrassing. Airplanes are already difficult, right? So when you're walking down, I'm walking down the hall, I run up down the aisle, I'm going like rocking back and forth, there's no way. So we paid to get on first. It was very degrading, but it was no one's fault, but mine.
Speaker 2:You got so much fuel to your family man.
Speaker 1:Man, I'm hungry man. The right way. The right way.
Speaker 2:Listen, to put yourself through a bodybuilding prep, just changing the the tone. I know what mentally I have to switch to do that. We transformation in itself are difficult and that's how you and I started speaking Just seeing what you've done and what you've achieved from your biggest way to before stepping on a bodybuilding stage. Yeah, then so to tell the story of how we connected I was flying back from the UK where I spent family, my Christmas, christmas, my family and I was going through my Instagram feed and, as I said, off air you've popped up on my feed a few times just the transformation stuff. Maybe you know Instagram talking about your or whatever the story is. See this guy to this. But at that point in time, you hadn't done a bodybuilding show. It was just the incredible transformation of you being in the gym working out and in fact, I'd seen you at the Dragon's Lair training. I was like, wow, I seen your Instagram page on this particular explore. I don't even think it was your page and I went and done a deep dive.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And scrolling through, I started seeing some incredible photos, some transformations from your biggest, some of the photos that we've already put up on the screen and some videos that we'll probably post in post. But I then seen something that really hit home, and that was you on stage. I was like wow.
Speaker 1:Man.
Speaker 2:This guy and I instantaneously then hit you up.
Speaker 1:That was crazy. So I was with my best friend and her boyfriend down from New York and I was like shocked with my girlfriend, I got a bad text and I just showed her. I was like it was insane. It's insane, but it just proof. How do I put this in words?
Speaker 1:This conversation we're having right now is because I kept working on myself, right, like I lost the weight. That was good. Right, you loved it, you probably seen it, you're proud of me. But then I kept pushing. I wanted more for myself. I stepped on stage and now it put me here Like you're, like there's always something you could do better and you could keep pushing yourself to be the next best version, yourself, next best version.
Speaker 1:So that's why I keep going. We're like I don't know anyone that's gave something 100% has never been successful, absolutely. I mean, at one point in my life I was driving Uber Between me and my own girl, my girlfriend. We probably had no more than $200 in our bank account. We were both overweight. We're both depressed in our own ways.
Speaker 1:And now I'm here and I get to help people and I get to share my story and I have people that not only look up to me but look to me for advice and it's life, is my life changed because I was willing to put in the work and I'm no different than anyone. I just shared my story about that of losing family members, losing my own dad, being made fun of bully nicknames, girls making fun of me, guys making fun of me, like I'm no different. The only thing is that I decided to take action. The only reason why I'm sitting here is because I took action on the things that I needed to do to become the best version of myself. And I'm not even done. But at the end of the day, I'm not stopping. I'm not. I don't know what I'm going to do next. I know I'm doing next.
Speaker 2:I can see what you're going to be doing next and that's inspiring Many people, included myself, is why I reached out. For me, I've got an abundance of different friends in different circles and I love transformations, people who have literally changed their lives. I love weight transformations and then to see you going from, like I said, that picture of your heaviest, to then hitting the stage, hit you up. Then I found out you were a Vegas resident. I actually didn't find out after the fact. I invited you to the podcast.
Speaker 2:I said, bro, we have got to get you on the podcast.
Speaker 1:I was like, I'm like where?
Speaker 2:do you live in and he's like I moved to Vegas so I was like, ok, bro, this is meant to be, but we've also referenced several times during this podcast, I think, somebody that's been the backbone to your transformation, and this is your lovely wife, girlfriend.
Speaker 1:Girlfriend.
Speaker 2:We'll say wifey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, her wife is wifey, yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2:But she has also been on her own transformation. Welcome to the show, thanks, thanks. And she didn't know that she was going to have a camera. No, no.
Speaker 2:But when we started talking off air and we started talking about how much weight she's lost, I was like me and Tyus, the producer, said listen, we've got to put you on air. So I know you're coming all the way from the Amazon jungle over there and for people who are listening on Spotify, she's sitting in front of our newest studio with a jungle background. But welcome to the show, Thank you for having me. This is cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, but you have been on your own transformation. Obviously, you guys have kept each other accountable. How much weight have you lost to this day?
Speaker 3:Close to 130.
Speaker 2:Incredible, how big were you at your heaviest 318. Was that our last recorded weight. Incredible yeah.
Speaker 3:Incredible. What has been the struggles for you personally.
Speaker 3:Mentally, my relationship with food has always been unhealthy and I didn't realize that because that's just how I was born, like, not born, but how I was raised, so that was normal to me. So, realizing that, if, when that I had to pay attention of when the hunger was coming where it's, I'm really stressed, I'm not really hungry, I'm bored, I'm not hungry, I'm sad, I'm not hungry, learning to really pay attention to your hunger cues instead of being, oh, I'm hungry, or because I'm bored or because I'm watching TV, that's been very hard, but I'm getting there. I think you're far from getting there.
Speaker 2:I still struggle. It's still a struggle every day. There's struggles in everything you do in life, but it's how you're able to realize that and get ahead around certain things. Even for myself and everybody, there's not a person on this earth that doesn't have struggles, whether it's with food, whether it's with whatever it is you have already conquered, knowing the fact that you're something. Something now is triggering the fact you want to eat, and you've already got ahead of that. Did you guys start your transformation together or was he in front?
Speaker 3:of you. No, actually I started mine because he was already down maybe 150, 175. And as a joke he put on my pajama pants and they fit him and this was in the right before the pandemic. Then we got shut down and I said I don't care, I'm going to go get surgery too. I've never had surgery a day in my life. But because he was and I was proud of him, but in a sense I was a little jealous but I couldn't really put the words together in my mind. But I said I don't care, I'm going to go get surgery. And then I looked up his doctor, I paid what I needed to pay and he said you're crazy, like we're shut down, and they canceled my surgery. And I said I don't care. And I said and I would send an email every single day.
Speaker 1:Bro, she's really glad.
Speaker 3:I know she was I could have applied it to better things, but I was relentless here. You need to book my surgery, I think July. They said OK. They responded we can get you in the hospital, even though all elective surgeries are against the law right now, but you have to come by yourself. And again, that's in Mexico, also psych. And I said, ok, I'm coming. And I told him, hey, on the 17th of a month, a week from now, I'm getting surgery, and he's and, but I hadn't told him those, but going to be by myself. And I'm like, oh, also, you can't even enter the hospital and he's absolutely not. So we had to pull some strings and they're like, ok, he's coming, ok, but you can't post about it, but we'll let him in and it could have been bad. Thankfully, everything went great, but I was negligent, I was playing with my life.
Speaker 2:But at that point in time you were just all in, Without life change, haven't seen what he done.
Speaker 3:I was desperate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have a different side of it. We have a big, we have. I think that's what makes this relationship so unique is that we have two different stories about weight loss. We have the same, the outcome is the same, but how we started is completely different.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I only I was supposed to go on this. There's a pre-op diet that you have to do before you do the surgery, for mine was two weeks where you have to eat a certain it's an actual diet Four days before only clear liquids. I was so negligent that I didn't even listen to that. I only did clear liquids the last day, but I didn't care. I'm like I need the surgery because that's going to fix everything for me. That's going to be the magical pill because it's the easy way out, because that's what I was going for and it sold me. But it's painful truth that it's very hard even after you have surgery. The first couple months it's a breeze physically because you get full with anything, but mentally you're still very hungry. So you're going to push those limits. So after about, I want to say six months, I started gaining weight.
Speaker 2:You stretch your stomach out.
Speaker 3:Not necessarily, because even though, say, you're able to eat half a cup of something, I could still eat a half a cup of something every 30 minutes if I wanted to. So the frequency you can have, even though the amount in that moment is still restricted.
Speaker 1:Then a lot of high process stuff from the protein, because you know what they do is like when you have the surgery. They like to stay away from protein because it takes a while their stomach. So they go to what's called a slider food, so like chips, popcorn, cheese candy stuff like that.
Speaker 1:They rather have that because that's more fulfilling for them mentally than it is for the taking a lot of space in their stomach. You can have four big handfuls of cheez-its and only take up this much space in your stomach. You know what I mean. Our chips are whatever. Or you go to get a McDonald's cheeseburger and cut it in half and eat half of it and the other half later and I was doing that and that's what she was doing.
Speaker 1:And I didn't find out about this until we started talking more about this because, think about it, I've been overweight my whole entire life. She's been overweight her entire life. So when we got together, we were both two unhealthy people making it work, right. So we built a relationship off of food. That was our date nights. We're around food. We didn't go laser tag on our date nights. We went to restaurants, right, uber eats All you can eat.
Speaker 1:restaurants All you can eat restaurants, cream barbecue three times a week. We were broke but we were at cream barbecue three times a week. That's $60 every single time we went. But we were broke. We'd have money Right. And so fast forward of her having the surgery. We had a retrainer. We had to relearn if we even worked for each other, if we even liked each other, if we even knew who the, if we got along, because food was energy for me, and then she had to hop on the back wagon of wait. You're right, what do we have in common? What do we do? So our date nights aren't just dinner, our dinners and fast food it's go stuff. We do amusement parks now because we can ride on stuff like that now. But there was a relationship, a hard conversation that we talked about, that we had. I had to have with there is because at one point she started to go back into her old ways because she thought the surgery this was after surgery.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she thought her surgery was a fix-all and I warned her. I told her so much like you need to learn, you need to learn Like. I know you don't want to listen to me, so just here's the YouTube videos I watch. I saved the whole history of them. Watch this, do this. She's like no, I got it. I was like, all right, whatever it might be. So put fast forward about a couple months after surgery, maybe about six months, seven months, yeah.
Speaker 3:I had to sit down with her.
Speaker 1:I'm like, look it, this is after my social media. I've done some cool things right Weight loss and stuff like that. Uh, no muscles yet. And I said, hey, this is a brand that we're growing and this is, you know, now, a lifestyle for me and I want to continue this and I don't ever want to go back to being to where I was. Like, I'm not going to force you to change who you are. I want you to. I want you to want this. I was like, but if you don't want to be healthy, if you want to eat hot cheetos and eat fast food, I'm not going to judge you. Like that's what you, you deserve to be happy. Like I deserve to be happy. But if that's what you want, then we're not going to work out anymore.
Speaker 2:You know nutrition and plays a critical role in everything and everything. How hard and challenging was it for both of you guys after surgery? Obviously, you've said tidbits, but you went back to eating somewhat similar lifestyle. Yeah, when you converted over to more portion sizes. And did you see and did you feel instantaneous? Is there anything that hit home by cleaning up your diet and not eating the way you used to eat?
Speaker 3:Yes, the energy levels is the biggest thing. Energy and also sleeping is better, like the quality of life is just better. It's just hard to explain Like cause. It's like my new little things that you really have to pay attention to. Oh shoot, like even going upstairs same weight. But if I'm eating bad for a couple of days and I'm still the same weight, but then I clean it up, even just go walking upstairs, I'm just not like whoo.
Speaker 1:Out of breath.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 1:That stuff is horrible. You know what I mean. Fast food is just. I don't know what's. We know what's in it. It's a whole bunch of crap, right, but I could go two weeks without.
Speaker 3:And then, if that's our mood, oh, 100%.
Speaker 1:I could go two weeks of not following my plan but eating homemade stuff right, high protein, making my homemade pizza, whatever it is. But once I have fast food for a couple of days like even three times like my weight goes up 10 pounds. I have a lot of loose skin so I do hold a lot more water but my weight will go up 10, 15 pounds. But I go two weeks not go up anything. Once I bring fast food in, it goes up. So that's what we're feeding ourselves and people do that. We were doing that every day, every single day, we would eat fast food.
Speaker 3:So feeling like shit was normal to us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's something you would. This is my new, this is my normal. We waking up tired is normal. Headaches are normal. Pissing highlighter yellow without taking vitamins is normal, because you're not on a different, like you don't know, no different.
Speaker 1:You don't know how it is to feel good, you don't know how it is to experience life until you put in the work like how we have done. And now I'm here, we're telling people, like, look at, I get, you're at where you're at right now, but that is not life. Like you were, you could lie to yourself and say that you're happy, but we're not happy.
Speaker 2:The fact that you guys have done it together. Sorry meant to interrupt you. The fact you guys have done it together, obviously, regardless of who started before who, together you are now on this transformation and one of the things that I applaud is you have documented this from day one.
Speaker 2:Day one and I wasn't going to how crazy is that Because myself and Tyus, my producer, were talking about this, but probably going on air the fact that you had a camera in front of you and you knew that this was just starting point, you already said yourself in Maya is that I am going to change and the world is going to see this transformation one day.
Speaker 1:Hey, it's last time I've ever going to look like this, last time I ever going to feel like this. And I didn't want to. I was. So I started off on YouTube years ago and I would have a car channel. I have a Camaro. Well, it's like a full race car. I don't even touch that thing. It's at home, it's in my garage. That was the biggest, most expensive bandaid I've ever had, god damn. But it's one of those things that that's not who I really wanted to be. It was just like I rather be the fat guy with a fast car, a loud car, than just be the fat guy. So I was doing YouTube and stuff like that. And then when I got into the weight loss part my everyone's you need to post this Like why stop now when you already have? I was like it's embarrassing, like like people didn't realize I was fat because I had the Camaro. Oh, he's not Fatty, just has a Camaro.
Speaker 1:But my pride and my ego was so high because I was so terrified. I've always been an outgoing person, but I was terrified of the judgment. I was terrified. I was tired of people making fun of me, right. So I stopped doing YouTube for a while before my weight loss journey, because people were, were, would always talk about my weight and that's how I knew I was getting to a bad place, because I was always so confident and after a while, it started hurting more and more as I kept. Because I kept believing it too, because it's true, to be honest, the thing that hurt you the most is most likely true. And yeah, so I was just becoming a person who I don't want to be and I was just terrified of posting it. But I was like I went on TikTok it was during COVID 2020 or maybe a little before.
Speaker 1:That actually made it to late 2019. And I posted a video. My phone was at 100% when I went to sleep. I woke up. My phone was dead. It was vibrating all night. I guess I didn't hear it. So I woke up. That video had like over 100,000 views the next day and then I had like 100,000 followers also. So I actually know I had way more than 100,000 views. I know I had like a 3 million views.
Speaker 1:When I woke up the next day and I was like my buddy Daniel called me for a scene. What's going on? What did my phone turn on? Because I didn't turn off notifications. I didn't expect to get a hold.
Speaker 1:I made a couple of comments, whatever it is, and I looked at my girlfriend. I was like this is what I get known for. I was like I'm a race, camaro, street racing, all this crazy crap, and this is what I'm known for. But did I know it was the best thing I ever could have did for my life? So much there's a lot of hateful comments and they feed me too. Thank you everyone for those.
Speaker 1:But so much positive too, because this is the time where we're locked down, people are at home. People have to realize they have to be with their self. Now People are gaining some weight from the COVID-19 20, right, and I just kept documenting, I just kept sharing everything, and the thing that I've learned the most is like being who you are will allow you to really resonate with people, as long as you don't change up for it. You be just. I'm just myself. Man, I share. I have a lot of things. I share my emotions.
Speaker 1:I just cried twice already. I cried three times, three times, Three times. Thanks for counting. You know what I mean. But at the end of the day, before I would be so embarrassed, right? I would like maybe say can we cut that out?
Speaker 1:But I realized, man, we all have stories, man, we all have pain, we all have traumas, but at the end of the day, it's those that really decide to work on and take action and try to correct those. You're going to be able to really experience happiness. You know what I mean. And you're going to be able really to touch someone. You don't have to have the big following, you don't have to have a YouTube channel, a podcast, whatever it is, to help someone. By us, just change ourselves.
Speaker 1:We could actually help our brothers or say our kids are going to be overweight. My hope are both of our families are overweight. We're breaking that gap. We are breaking that. Our kids are not going to be overweight. So that means our kids are going to be overweight and there, because that means the next 10 years, 20 or whatever it is, whatever it is, the Lopez and Viscars will not be overweight family, it may be in shape. You know what I mean. And we, because we started that, we worked on ourselves. The only way to lead is by example and by the front from the front, yeah from the front.
Speaker 2:You mentioned social media and there's social media Media pros and social media cons. How are you able to navigate through some of these hurtful comments that you mentioned?
Speaker 1:I've learned that everything is positive. If you call me fat, I'm going to turn that into positivity, because I'm going to work my ass off in that gym. You say it look good. That makes me feel good. I'm going to work hard. I'm going to keep coming better Right. I want to keep bringing knowledge to you. You know what I've learned, though? The biggest thing I've learned is that no one that is doing better than you mentally, physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually is going to hate on you. You've never left the hateful comment on my post. You've seen my post before, and he's never done it. Plenty of other people have followed me. He's never done it, and those are the people I aspire to be like. So if you guys aren't saying that, then why am I going to pay attention to someone that doesn't have their shit together?
Speaker 2:It truly blows my mind when somebody goes out of the way to leave a comment on somebody's page, you clearly is trying to battle their life.
Speaker 1:That was me. Though my Instagram, I used to always talk about people. He used to comment on their cars and say I got v6, or whack, and make fun of people and talk about when I see transformation. I said, oh, you had surgery. Oh, that must be nice. I have rich parents Like I. There's comments, they're floating out there that I'm surprised that it came up from the surface. So that was you, that was me.
Speaker 1:I was a hater because I was unhappy with myself. So when you're unhappy with yourself, what do they say? Misery loves company. Yeah, man. So I only had negative shit to say because I was felt negatively about myself.
Speaker 1:So now, how I look at it is I feel good. I have nothing but good to say about anyone, whether they like me, love me, hate me, wish death on me, whatever it is, I like them. I want them to win right Because, at the end of the day, I'm happy with who Anthony Lopez is. I'm blessed with this lifestyle that I've created for myself. I'm blessed that I'm still here today. I'm blessed for all the trials and tribulations I've been through. I'm blessed because I went through all that. So I have no hate on anybody. I don't have time to hate anyone. If you don't hate me, that's completely fine. I don't have a space in my heart to do it, because I need to keep pouring into myself to help porn other people.
Speaker 1:So when I see hateful comment, if it's a good one, I'll like it, I'll pin it. Sometimes the couple one that got the best one I get is man, this guy looks like melted ice cream. Oh my gosh, I thought it was hilarious. I pinned it. I was like bro, that's actually funny. That's the first time I heard it. Now, when I hear it, it's okay, all right, I need something new now. But it's one of those things where it's I'm okay. I was a hater too. I was unhappy with myself where I had to bring negative energy to other people. So I get where you're coming from. Hopefully you work on yourself, because I was once there.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that you've done. You own what you look like right now, and you've been quoted in some of the things that I followed and watched prior to coming on this podcast that you won't be having any of your loose skin cut until you hit a benchmark. Why is that and why is it that you have truly embraced this look?
Speaker 1:Because we all do a little bit of work and then we want all the result. I wasn't done, but as I've lost 100 pounds yes, I lost 200. Less, I lost 300, but I still didn't have the body that I wanted. So why am I going to treat myself? Why am I going to lose 10 pounds and then go have fast fooder than the week? And I feel like that's what we do as a society we do a little bit of work and then we go out there and celebrate and then we end up fucking it up, and that's not what I wanted to do. So if I was going to do this weight loss journey, I was going to show people what's possible. I was going to do it the right way. I was going to keep growing and growing and growing and building myself and becoming better. Thank, you.
Speaker 2:You're a stunt.
Speaker 1:And it's one of those things where it's like people wanted me to get it so much because that's what a normal person would do. They lose 100, 200 pounds and then have the surgery. But then they have the skin surgery. I wasn't done. I wanted to help more people. I wanted to build a better physique. I want to do this, but, as I'm talking about this, I didn't know what it was I was looking at. I didn't have. I already hit a number goal 260 pounds. So I got to the 258 pounds. I didn't know what I was looking for, but I knew that. I knew God would have talked to me. You get, we'll, let me know. And I got that call. I got that conversation when I was on stage Wow Soon.
Speaker 1:As I got off stage, I went through my moment and something just in my head is like it's time for surgery. It's time for surgery. Like I'm ready now, like I've done what I need to do with the skin. I've proven to not only myself but other people it doesn't matter what the hell they say about you, doesn't matter how you look, it doesn't matter how much mess, how much you messed up, it doesn't matter. It's not the situation, it's how you handle it. It is your choice to build yourself, to be better or remain, to remain to say the same.
Speaker 1:And when I got off stage, I was on cloud nine. I told you, like I said I had to take it in for 20 minutes. They were looking for me. I was hiding from everyone. It's don't talk to me, let me take it in. And that's when I was ready. So I'll be getting skin removal surgery this year. Now it's 2024. Right, yeah, it is. I'll be getting some skin removal surgery this year because I felt like I've done everything I needed to do for Anthony Lopez, not for my social media, not for my family, not for my client, for Anthony Lopez. I feel like I'm ready for the next step now. I feel that now I'm ready to document every single thing, from being over 600 pounds to now removing the skin. And then I got. I plan on stepping on stage 2025 or 2026 again, with no loose skin.
Speaker 2:So you're going to go back to I got to do. I didn't place at all.
Speaker 1:I didn't place, I got. I don't mind losing, but I don't like losing.
Speaker 2:I'm going to correct you right there. Regardless that, when you've come down from 600 pounds, place in is relevant. Yeah, Lose in. You got to get rid of that fucking word. I'll tell you this from somebody's been on the biggest stage in his life that there was no such thing as losing what you've done. You've already won me. The fact that you stepped out, put your toe on stage. I say it again Every thing's that a bodybuilder, but they're not until they stepped on stage. Like me, me calling myself. I shoot a couple of hoops. Oh man, I'm, I'm. I've been there. Whatever NBA, I'm not a basketball player, but, you know, a bodybuilder.
Speaker 1:That's crazy here from you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm straight up, you are. You are now a bodybuilder. You can put that feather in your heart too, along with the journey that you both have gone through. But you talked about this twice now, and I just want to speak about this before we land the plane. On the podcast Backstage, you said you had a moment, 20 minutes. Yeah, I was going through your mind down. What were you talking to yourself about?
Speaker 1:everything. I was pacing back and forth. I was talking to myself, like I was like telling my. I was talking to my grandpa, right Then the tears came out. You see how that goes. And then I was like everything I've been through I lost my dad, was murder. I was like my family had a client drive five hours to come to the show. My girlfriend was here. She's lost. I was just as much as I was like worked up. I was so grateful because I was here. I stayed here. I put in the work. I kept stuck to what I wanted to do. I didn't give up on myself. I didn't take myself out Like I. I was just so grateful and so much emotion to like chills, shaking tears, nervous, everything where I was just on cloud, I didn't just. There's no better feeling than that, because I felt successful.
Speaker 2:We're going to pop up by the video of you on stage. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I don't think that's a video. I have the video. Actually, I thought I sent it to you. I might pull there. That's the titty lift right there the titty lift to the abs. Hey, we got to change that?
Speaker 2:The VH two.
Speaker 1:I know, I know, I love it. Oh, yes, yes, no bodybuilder bro.
Speaker 2:Okay, sorry, chests, there's no man boobs, there's no tits, there's none of that shit.
Speaker 1:I'm going to get on his ass about this stuff.
Speaker 2:I'm learning lingo now, you and no bodybuilder. That is your chest, okay, okay. And then things under your chest the cofuckin abs, man, which are made in the kitchen. Yes, you can train your ass off to get them, but if you haven't dieted, they're not going to be there.
Speaker 1:That is respect my man, that is insane. You know what I mean and, like I said, I took all that in. I took it all in and I knew that I officially not saying I haven't felt proud of myself before, but it's like a different. It was the next chapter of proud Right, how we're becoming the next version of ourselves. That's my grandpa right there. I'm holding my grandpa Right and actually got heavier than that photo. So that was when he passed away. I was at my grandma's house having McDonald's every single day for six, seven months straight, every day.
Speaker 2:How many McDonald's do you have going into the right photo? How many McDonald's do you touch going into that? None, yeah, I knew that answer who I asked None, but that's the lifetime change and that's the mental change you have gone through now in that process of five years. That is a different human being. Yeah, could you probably fit yourself in both pant legs there's a photo I don't know.
Speaker 1:I should have sent you that I should have my dirt bike pants. You know what I'm talking? Right now I'm going to send you this so you can pop it up. So this right here is my dirt bike pants. So I'm going to show you a photo. I'm just going to screenshot it from my Instagram because it's going to be a lot easier to get it over to you than find the actual photo. But this is what I used to be. Is your airdrop still on?
Speaker 2:Let me see, let's see. All right, tyus, anything you want to add to this? Well, what a great both of these guys, what a great transformation from both these guys. I do want to pop up a photo.
Speaker 1:I just airdropped right there, so that's my dirt bike pants. So actually I take it back. Those are my quad pants.
Speaker 2:Let me go, I'll see if I can.
Speaker 1:That, yeah, so those. So if you see in the middle there's different material, my mom shout out to my mom. She made sure that her son was going to be looking different.
Speaker 2:So they had to stitch.
Speaker 1:All that is different material that we had to do, so I could fit in those bad boys right there.
Speaker 2:So, you can see this? Yeah, I was shocked.
Speaker 1:She saved, we saved all this stuff. She's always you should.
Speaker 2:I wish you brought this in. Actually, I would have held it up next time I got you, I see you in the drawings. Let me know you ain't escaping me, both of you guys.
Speaker 1:No, we're not done, we're not done and like that stuff that I remember, like it's just like that 20 minutes felt like 20 years and I was on cloud nine. I was just happy, I was proud of myself, I was happy I was here, I was grateful for the opportunity I have, like I get to help people change their life. I get to show people, with the mistakes that I've made with my body, with my loose skin, that it's possible to change your life. It's hard but it's the best thing you do.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about that. You have, as I mentioned earlier in the podcast, you have an incredible clientele. A lot of people were on that transformation themselves that can look at you both you guys and say there's no better person to follow, there's no better coach to hire than yourself, because you are a product of what you've done and what you achieved. So let's talk about your clientele and what that means to you.
Speaker 1:Everything. We were talking the other day and we got so many text messages from our clients on New Year's and talking about how life changing working with me is. And let me just say I'm not sitting here in my life. My program's not gonna change your life if you don't work. You're not gonna change your life if you don't work. But it's so good to know that we're doing the right thing and I know that I do. I feel good when I get paid.
Speaker 1:I'm not the scumbag coach who sends you a cliche workout plan and meal plan and says I'm gonna change your life for our own. No, I have Zoom calls with my clients every week. I probably have about 10, 15 text messages right now to give back to. I've had clients call me crying in a fast food line, not understanding why they're do this to theirself. I talk to them. I've had couple calls, one call particularly. They really broke me down that he was ready to take his self and the only person he's only been on my program for about a month, the only person he thought he could talk to at that time was me, not his friends, not his family.
Speaker 1:Like you understand how it's powerful right, and I know that I do this the right way and all those transformation I post and all those, everything I talk about. I know that I'm doing it. I'm playing the long-term game. I'm losing out a lot of money 100% but at least I know what I'm doing is right now, because I wanna focus on a long-term game. I wanna be the person that I needed when I started. I don't wanna be the person that throws all the supplements down your throat and the fat burners and the teas and crap like that. I wanna help mentally.
Speaker 1:I wanna really help Really help, not just this bullshit Psychologically. Yeah, that's why I'm going. So I'm, I have ADHD and I'm dyslexic.
Speaker 2:I'm going to sleep, you and I both.
Speaker 1:That's it and I'm going, I'm finishing up my life coaching classes, because this is a life change and it's not just the physical, it's not just eating, it's a mental game, the understanding that, like these are habits we've built over our course of our life. But we're not stuck with those habits, we just need to work on changing them. And that's what even Francine had to go through. Right, she thought that literally I was right in front of her and she thought the only thing she raised it, why she thought I was losing weight, is because that's surgery and she had to figure out she was wrong.
Speaker 2:I'm sure there's a lot of people watching this podcast. That'll say the same thing about you both.
Speaker 1:Oh, 100%, 100%. Oh, it was only surgery. Okay go ahead, go ahead and do what I did, that's the mentality I had going in.
Speaker 3:I'm like, oh, it's the easy way out, let's do it.
Speaker 1:And she started. So she thought that was just a surgery for me. I was like, do you don't seem to go to the gym five, six days a week and do what I need to do? But then the day she had to figure that out, and I'm glad that happened with her, because guess what? Now that's another experience of weight loss we get to talk about and that's another mindset, another insight on the surgery and stuff like that. But I'll tell you right now there's nothing out there that doesn't work for yourself. The surgery, the fat burner pills, the ozampic, all that crap, it's going to be hard work, no matter what. Unless you're going to get out and go and get the fat sucked out of your stomach every couple of months, you're still going to be overweight because in a couple of months you're going to gain weight back because you didn't feel the old type of you might put on more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you didn't know how to break the bad habits. You need to learn how to break your bad habits. Replace them in better habits. There's no easy way out. There's no cheating the system. It's irrelevant what you think. It's irrelevant how you feel about the surgery. It's irrelevant how you lost weight. It's all hard work, no matter what. And if you think it's easy because you got the surgery, then go do what I did and say it was easy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and also I should have actually prefaced this in the beginning of the podcast. One of the reasons why I love weight transformations because they're life transformations. Bodybuilders, that's a commitment You're going in with an end goal of winning something. This is truly changing your life, truly saving your life.
Speaker 2:I helped a friend out when I was in the equivalent of high school. He was all 300 pounds and he got that size through. Again. Parents, uneducated, just feeding him whatever he wanted when he wanted. It was easier to give him kind of candy and again crap. Yeah, one, it was cheaper and plus it was just easy to access and indulgence is such an easy thing for us to know. In life, everything is accessible. And for him back then he got big fast, used to play rugby, stopped playing rugby and then gained that weight fast because he was burning a lot of calories up whilst playing on the rugby field, got big and for whatever reason. He came to me I was like the Jack the Lord. I again just a prefaces to. I was very well liked in school. I was. I hated with a passion bullies. I was a bully hunter. Let's go.
Speaker 2:You fucked around with people like that and I disliked you and this kid used to get a lot of bullying for unnecessary reasons. So I helped him change his life and he got down. He lost 100 pounds. Now it's in high school too. Again, we were doing it with very little. My knowledge came from Flax Magazine back then, and whatever I found on the Internet it was just through books. And I helped him change his life, his eating habits. He lost a significant amount of weight and then this kid became the man you see him out and about. He always had this charm and everything else, but then it was a front. It was a front. So how were you, was you were talking about? You always had this confidence around everybody, always. But then his true confidence came out when he lost that weight to the extent of him being like a ladies guy.
Speaker 2:Honestly he lost so much weight that he went the complete opposite. But I always remember him being the biggest and unpopular in a sense, but then becoming very popular when he left school because he felt like he reinvented himself to a new audience that really didn't know him from his past.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And yeah, and still in this day now he's doing very well in business. His mind is mindset change through, stick into a process, being commitment, committed to the craft and all the daily days. The first steps forward are all the things that he then integrated into his business. And so, as I've mentioned many times on this podcast, what bodybuilding taught me in the journey of me going through all these different preps? Because, again, there's every excuse to cheat because nobody's going to see you when the doors are closed and the lights are off, you can snack away at the fridge. Same for you guys, but the results are seen then on stage. So that's the difference between first and last place. I can tell you straight up, looking you guys, and never miss the cardio session, never missed any meal and never give myself any extra portions that I should have done. My coach gave me a plan and I stuck it, stuck to it to the fullest and with yourselves.
Speaker 2:Obviously, you talk very openly about the lifestyle change. You're not doing a bodybuilding prep. Yes, you've done one, but in general, you guys are talking about lifestyle change and also failure, which I commend you both, because I talk about failure too. Failure is just a much of a badge of honor for me as the accolades of the trophies out on the wall, because had I not failed and not talking cheat day or anything like that, I'm talking about failure, going through adversity and coming through the other side I'm like I'm so glad that happened. Now, looking back because had it not been, I wouldn't have used this for fuel for my fire. And you have these stories and again I commend you guys about talking about this on your podcast, which give a shadow to your podcast to modify your life podcast.
Speaker 1:It's yeah, that's just one thing, like I was thinking, what you're talking right now and the only way you it's not bad if you feel because that means you tried You're. I mean, if you never try, they never experienced failure, but that means you never tried something and that's not a life.
Speaker 3:You're not living.
Speaker 1:So you're not really living it. You know what I mean. And so we talk about that stuff because this is like, this is real life, this is what we do. This is the real life. This stuff is difficult. It's hard. We had to retrain our mindset. We had to retrain our, rebuild our relationship right, realize that food wasn't our only the reason, what we had in common, and anyone out there listening you could do that. You could do the same thing.
Speaker 2:And this is a photo of you guys together. Yeah, water transformation, hefty people right there yeah incredible. I'm looking at both of you guys now and it's who are you now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's a it's a blessing man. It's a blessing and my goal is to continue to pour into people, continue to pour into myself so I can pour into people and share my share. Share my mistakes, but show that it's correctable. You know what I mean and I love doing stuff like this. I never thought in my life, if you would ask me four or five years ago if I was going to motivate people for weight loss, I think it's safe to say anyone would have laughed, right, let alone be a personal trainer, online coach or step on stage of a bodybuilding show, right. But life is crazy. When you decide to put in the work In London, there's playing.
Speaker 2:I have one last question and you both can answer it if you like, but this has come from from my fans and this is for someone starting at the beginning of the transformation journey. What advice would you give them to find and sustain the motivation needed for long term success?
Speaker 1:Stop looking for motivation right and just get out there and find something that's going to be sustainable for you, right. So right now we're in a time where you're going to hear new year, new me. You're going to hear take this, lose 10 pounds in 10 days, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'll tell you right now you won't lose 10 pounds in 10 days. It's not that difficult. If you're four or five, 600 pounds, that's definitely not hard. That's going to be a lot of water what you're going to lose. Find something that's going to be sustainable for you. Learn nutrition. Learn how to track your food. Learn why protein is important. Learn why carbs are important. Learn why fats are important.
Speaker 1:Stop being so scared of this stuff and learn it. And how I explain it like this when you started your job the first job you've ever had you probably sucked. You're probably about right up for doing something. Your boss probably got pissed off. You maybe broke something, you maybe lost something and didn't write the put it code in right, whatever it is. But what did you do? You learned that job. You learned from the mistake and kept going and kept going. And now if your boss hire someone new, they're going to say hey, can you show this person how to do, how to do this job, cause you're really good at it. Now, right, because you learned it. Why? Because there's a financial backing to that. You get paid every single week.
Speaker 1:So treat this, your weight loss, the same way. You're going to suck right away. You're going to get way too much information. You're going to want the easy way out. You're going to try to find the good way, get a lose weight fast type crap. Stop doing that. We keep repeating yourself. Stop saying new years, new me, and focus on new year, same you, better habits.
Speaker 1:Find something sustainable, something you could do consistent day in and day out. And when I mean that is like working yourself day and not going to gym seven days a week. Right, I don't believe you have to do that. And then don't expect instant gratification, just let it happen. You don't wake up every single day like, oh shit, today's the second. I gained three pounds this week. Hell yeah, let's go. No, you don't do that.
Speaker 1:So why are you going to deal with your weight loss If you're putting the work, the skills going to show you and sometimes the scales not going to show you, depending on where your size of weight is, but you keep working and when you don't see change, keep working. Figure out what you do better. Stop looking for instant gratification. You didn't gain the weight overnight, so why are you going to lose overnight? And stop looking for motivation? Cause when you put in the work, the motivation will come from the hard work. When you get on the scale, that's motivation to work again harder and you work again. Next week I'll do it again. We're getting, but then once you stop losing, motivations most likely cause you're slowing down somewhere.
Speaker 3:It's in God for me it would be not to overcomplicate it and work with what you got. So if right now, you're eating out every single meal, it's going to be unrealistic to say I'm going to cook every single meal at home. Start little, or maybe aren't that great of a cook. Grab a rotisserie chicken and mix it up with things that you do enjoy.
Speaker 3:I don't believe in like treating yourself cause we're not dogs like with food, but, um, incorporating as much protein as you can, even if it is like eating out, even if it means throwing another patty of something. But if we're going to throw in another patty of like for the burger, that's already has a lot of fat. So maybe we don't do the fries or we do a size smaller. So it's little things. It's not going to get you to lose 100 pounds right now, but it's little things that once you can master that, then you can be Okay, now let me try to cook at least my breakfast to then. Okay, now I'm going to cook both breakfast and lunch, and to the point where you're cooking all your meals.
Speaker 2:So it doesn't happen immediately. You're talking about nothing. A lot of people will go drastic zero to January, as you mentioned New Year's resolutions. They will start their new years and be like okay, tomorrow I'm going to change all this, I'm going to start running, and then by January 3rd they're like fuck this because they didn't prep theirself.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they're just like wow, and it's starting. You guys are basically saying start small, make changes to your life. It doesn't have to be drastic, but over a long period of time. Start then cutting more and more off out because you're going to see the change and you're going to see, you're going to feel the change.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how are you going to change your life around, lose weight and stop smoking cigarettes and all this stuff when your room's dirty, when your car is dirty, when you don't wipe your ass correctly, right, when you don't have no type of discipline to things you've already need to do in front of you brush your teeth every single day, being a good dad, being a good mother? How are you going to change everything else when you can't do the things that are right in front of you when you step over trash to the other, trash away? So what it is that you already have 10 things you need to accomplish and now, january 1st, you're going to add 10 more things. You're never going to make it that way.
Speaker 1:Get your shit together. That's in front of you right now. Go put that light in that restroom. Everyone has that light in their restroom with that beeping little thing. Go put good to get that together. Get your garage situated, clean your car up right, put your clothes away, pick up the trash from the floor, whatever it might be, whatever your crutches are. And then you start adding to that because you need to be able to build a discipline at home. So you're building outside, and without discipline, you'll never have success. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:In ending this podcast, is there anything that you want to talk about promote? I want to give a shout out to our mutual friends. Auntie Frisale I love her was one of your sponsors.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, honestly, just first forming Andy. Andy was the first one that gave you my shot, man. It was, you know, and that's the only brand I work with. I've never changed up. I've turned down a lot of different things and, you know, having to modify brand will always only work with people that fall in line with our goals and our morals and never become like the scumbags that we see out there. Um, and that's it, man. Shout out to everyone that supported me, everyone that's listening to the podcast Thank you to you. And this is like a dream come true, to the point where I didn't have it on a goal list. You know what I mean, but at the same time, I also didn't have Andy.
Speaker 3:I didn't have Andy on a goal list.
Speaker 1:I didn't have it, so he. It's similar story. How mean him and Matt and anyone out there that's struggling mentally, physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually? Take the baby Steps to get your life together and your life is going to change. Your life is only going to change on when you change it.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think I've said it many times already on this podcast, but I'm blown away by the transformation, as are probably many watching this podcast. What you've done has motivated me, both of you guys and, as you, my wife said to you earlier. It's incredible to see the starting point and how you both have documented this and the mindset in knowing that this was going to be a journey, it was going to be captured and you were going to talk about it through all this ups and downs. So every viewer out there, even if they're just finding out about you, get deep into the Instagram, get into the podcast. You get to see a lot of things where you're talking about portion control, there's a lot of tips, there's a lot of side by side, credible side by sides, and a lot of great information.
Speaker 1:And YouTube is everything is heavy to modify, so heavy and then T, o and then modified, not the number two, but everything is heavy to modify to all platforms. And we're just looking to help, looking to teach, just becoming the. We're going to become the friends that you need your circle to win.
Speaker 2:I love you, our boards of controls, everything, and now that you guys are fellow Vegas residents which obviously I just found out about yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing the further chapters that are going to be now done and look forward to seeing you both here at the Dragons. So, for me to you, thank you so much for coming on. The show is being a great podcast, one that, as I said, has motivated me, so this is straight out there. We are out.
