Hello and welcome everybody to the fit to fat to fit experience podcast. I’m your host, drew Manning and today we have an awesome show that we have for you with Kevin Curry from fitment, cook.com it’s going to be such a great episode and we’ll get into the details of what we’re going to talk about, but first our show sponsor quest, nutrition.com you guys, we couldn’t be happier with quest nutrition as our show sponsor. Why? Because we already use their product and we actually love their product
and it’s so appropriate to cause. Kevin Curry actually uses their products as well. He travels around with them sometimes to their events. He loves their products as much as we do.
Exactly and it’s appropriate also because listening to this episode, you’re guaranteed to be hungry afterwards, so it’s a perfect time for a quest bar. The biggest thing that we love about them is the convenience and the taste. Right? They’re so convenient. You can bring them with you anywhere when you travel, when you’re taking your kids to school, you know if you’re a man or a woman. It’s so convenient. But also it’s tasty. Like their chocolate chip cookie dough, cookies and cream, mint chocolate, a white chocolate raspberry, coconut cashew, you know, peanut butter and jelly. There’s so many different flavors and they all taste good and their macronutrient split is great. Right. Low net carbs, you know, 20 grams of high quality protein and we’d love that. There’s not a lot of junk ingredients in them. Um, and so that’s why we love [inaudible].
Yeah. And one of the way I get around not putting chips in my daughter’s school lunch cause she wants to be like all of her friends is that I can use the protein chips and she loves them. I’ll put those in her lunch instead.
Yeah. And they don’t know any difference either. They’re like, Oh, these are chips. But they’re, you know, protein chip.
Yeah. They’re healthy and they’re okay.
Yeah, they taste good. So thank you to quest nutrition for sponsoring this show. Okay. Our episode today with Kevin Curry, you guys, uh, we cover a lot of different topics with him, who he is. For those of you who don’t know who he is, we talk about his fitness routine. We talk about, you know, his, his nutrition routine as well. We even talk about his experience in Ecuador as a hip hop instructor, which is so funny. You guys are gonna love this episode. I get to know him a little bit better. His brand and how his brand can help
yeah. On living this healthy lifestyle. And one of my favorite things that he talks about in this episode is about making healthy eating affordable. His tips and viewpoints on that.
That’s great. So let’s go hang out with Kevin. You guys alright everybody. Welcome to the fit to fat to fit experience. We are here with the amazing Kevin Curry from fit men, cook.com. And for those of you who don’t know who Kevin Curry is, which by the way, Kevin, do most people know you as like the fit men cook guy or do they actually know your, your Kevin Curry like your name?
No, they actually call me the, um, the whole fit cook guy. I’ve been called that fit chef guy. It’s very rarely. Exactly. It’s very rarely, and I totally get that too, cause they were like, who’s drew Manning? And I’m like, Oh. I’m like, yeah, some people say fit to fat. I’m like, there was a to fit at the end there that you missed out. Right,
exactly.
Yeah. I feel a little sheepish because drew is like, don’t forget that we’re going to be recording, you know with Kevin. I’m like, Oh yeah, Kevin Cook and he’s like, you mean Kevin Curry? Yeah, yeah. Fit this guy.
So really quick, for those of you who don’t know who Kevin Curry is, he’s a successful online entrepreneur. I’m a very successful YouTube channel. We can actually call him a YouTube celebrity over 175,000 subscribers on YouTube, over 1 million followers on Instagram. An author of a book, no, no cheats needed and a very successful online entrepreneur, a YouTube celebrity. We’re so grateful to have him on. Now, Kevin, the first question I want to get into man, because my show, the fit to fat to fit experience is kind of a unique twist on fitness. And I want to talk about, you know, what I learned from my fit to fat to fit journey but also have people on that have a similar experience and you have your own fit to fat to fit experience. Could you tell us about, I mean you didn’t gain the weight on purpose, but you, you were overweight at a point in time and I kind of want to talk about that story of your past and kind of what you learned from it and where you are now.
Absolutely. Well first off, thanks so much just for having me and it’s so funny. Um, and really it’s a great moment for me because I remember where I was at that time when I was really, really low and I was overweight and I actually saw you on TV and they were talking about you. I said, yeah, that guy’s rip. What is it? You want to get fat? And I was like, no,
that funny.
Kind of have things to kind of come like full circle and be doing something within this industry and talking to people like you who I truly admire from the very get go. So, um, thanks so much for having me. So my fit to fat, actually it’s, you know, it’s that to fit. Um, I just went through these periods of like weight cycling, which I would be like really skinny in an overweight, skinny and overweight. And what that would just mean, it was just like, um, I just could not master the whole diet piece and I would hire a personal trainer and they would help me lose weight. And then I’m from the South man, so I just love food. I love the way food tastes. I love the texture of it. I love everything about food. So I get like a piece of good food and I just, Oh my God.
And all of a sudden the weight would just come right back again. Um, and so it got to a point where I just got really tired of it. Um, and also I had a wake up call. Um, my doctor was saying, you know, that I’m, I had high, higher blood pressure than normal. And then somebody, this was back in the day before Facebook added all those different consoles, but somebody tagged me in this Facebook photo from a wedding and I went online to go look at the photo and I was like, who is this person? They just tagged in this photo. It can’t be me. And it was me and I had to tag myself immediately. But that was a wake up to say, Hey, you know what, take a critical look at my health. So, um, I went to a personal trainer and they were going to charge me like a whole lot of money.
Um, and I said, you know what, if he can figure it out, then maybe so can I. So I went to half price books, I bought every single book they had there about nutrition and what not. And then I just began just to like devour the content. Um, and then I just went into the kitchen with no with no like training at all and just started to like do the experiment. So I started up my blog in this way. Um, I’ve gotta be honest. It was not necessarily to help everybody else. It was to help me. I had this bright idea that I was wanting to crowdsource my diet, right? So I said, all right, if I post every single meal that I’m eating online, then people like drew out there will see it, Hey, can I stop eating that, eat more of this? Yeah.
The reverse happened and I had no idea that there are so many people out there just like me who are hungry for different and new and fresh ideas. I put all the macros, all the steps out there, and people love the content. And I didn’t know that before all that content was gated. And so I was able to transform my life physique and then the blog we’re going to take off. And then I said, you know what? This passion of mine to be healthy and fit has become something much larger. And I really want to continue it to show people that you know that you can lose the weight, but it starts in the kitchen and then it’s easy, healthy, practical and it tastes.
That’s what I, that’s what I love about you man. And that’s right in line with our philosophy as well. You know, if it does, if you want to see results, it comes mostly from the nutrition. And I think you are very similar to a lot of Americans that have the exercise part down. Right? We can do P90X, we can go to the gym, you know, do some bench press, do some curls. But the tough part is, is in the kitchen because like you said, you know, a lot of us love food and not only because it tastes good, but because of the experience we eat our emotions. Lynn, Lynn,
I was going to say I, I, I’m with you on that. And like the thing for me has always been food as well because there’s not a ton of people that focus on healthy food that also tastes good. And of course now my motto has always been it’s not nutritious if it doesn’t get eaten and I’m not gonna eat it just because it’s healthy, you know? And so yeah, every time I’m on Instagram though and I’m scrolling through like I always stop at your food and I drew a little bit on my screen and I, and I just think, I wish this food could come through and could just be in our kitchen all the time. Dude, come in with us, push play and just move in with
sushi man. Hey. Uh, so it’s the reason I ask about your fit, your fat to fit experience or whatever you want to call this. Because I feel like people that have been down that road where they’ve been overweight, they’ve struggled. I feel like they have a different perception on people that struggle and people that are overweight. Would you say that having experience, you look on people that are obese differently than say someone who’s been in shape their whole life and if so, how? Like how so?
Absolutely. You know, when were the cool experience that I had was I was able to go to this conference and it was a conference just for trainers and they asked me to come and they, and they asked me to present on like fit men cook, but also the reason why I quote unquote failed with a trainer. And I listened to their conversations and one of the main things that they were talking about, you know, I always tell my clients, you know, it’s, you know, just portion control and we’ll just stop eating. You’ve had to stop eating and I have to show like that before. Have you ever been overweight? And he’s like, no, you know, I played sports, I played this. I said, all right, well then just listen to me for a second. You don’t understand the actual addiction of food. Um, and there was something psychological there as well. And so I, um, I do see it as like one of the, you know, like the biggest, you know, epidemics of our time. And so yes, there was a, um, like sympathy there. Now, even though there’s actually sympathy just because I actually made it out, I know that it is possible. So, so there is some responsibility the people have to actually have, but I know it’s possible but it is not just a cookie cutter response.
Yeah. And I totally agree with that and that’s, that’s one of the things I struggled with before I did fit two fat two fit was why is it so hard just to stop drinking soda? Like it can’t be that hard, just don’t do it man. Like why is this so hard? Um, until I went through it and then tried to get off of it and it was absolute hell. One of the hardest things I went through during my fit to fat to fit journey was trying to get off of the cinnamon toast crunch and the mountain Dew. And I finally realized this is so much more of an emotional connection that I ever imagined. And so I feel like it gave me a whole new understanding, a better perspective. And people that have been overweight understand that side of it, the psychological side where someone who’s been in shape their whole life, not saying they can’t understand, but I’m saying a lot of people struggle with that understanding. And when someone that’s overweight is trying to lose weight and they feel like their trainer doesn’t understand, I feel like it’s hard for them to trust them, relate to them and have that motivation to continue on their journey. You know? So
cause they feel deflated by that because it’s almost like you’re minimizing it because they don’t understand. Yeah. Excellent point.
One of the philosophies that are quotes I love is, um, which has helped me as a trainer is, you know, nobody cares how much, you know until they know how much you care. You know? And so you could have all the knowledge in the world as a trainer of knowing the science behind helping people lose weight. But if you don’t know, if you don’t, if the person doesn’t feel like you care about them, then it doesn’t matter how much you know. And so that’s one of the philosophies I try and get across to other trainers, not saying they have to do a fit to fat to fit experience, but if they can live by that and know, letting the person know that you actually care about them, um, and that’ll help you become more relatable. But anyways. Yeah, that’s a great point. Yeah, man. Thanks for sharing your story about that.
And, um, so has your, this, I thought this was interesting. You haven’t been overweight and now you’re fit your motivation at one point in time. If I remember, if I remember correctly reading about your story, your whole goal was to, you know, get a six pack and, and be inched in, um, what’s the, what’s the term fitness model shape for a photo shoot, you know, but then after you got fit, that’s not, that’s not your motivation or that’s not your goal nowadays. How has that changed over the years? Uh, your perception of, you know, quote unquote being fit,
you know, like you’re spot on with that. You know, like when I, um, sometimes I just scroll back through some of my photos and my old blog on tumbler just kind of read the stuff. And I remember one of my earlier posts was it was, um, it was about, and I have to go back and change it because it really bothered me and it was my profile for Google plus, it was also for tumbler and it was about um, fit men cook building the physique or something of your dreams and whatnot. And it bothered me that I wrote that, you know, so long ago. But that’s the way that I felt because I think that when people think about being fit, they look at it in terms of like what’s presented to them and what’s presented to them. You know, at the time for me it was people like you.
So I was like, yeah, I want to just light through. That’s all my, yeah. Yeah. And so, absolutely, I went on so many of these like bodybuilding diets, you know, like, which are not bad. And I was able to lose the weight and get cut up and shred it up and whatnot for the industry. And then it dawned on me, one [inaudible] diamond and I made a post about this. I said, you know, I’m sitting here, you know, not really enjoying the food that I would really want to eat because there’s so much more food out there and I’m preparing for this photo shoot that’s never even going to come. Yeah. So I had to look at what was the real motivation before behind what got me to be fit. Right. And that was my doctor’s note. And also I wanted to feel better about myself. So I don’t have to look like a cover model for those two things to happen.
Oh, absolutely. And I think a lot of people initially, of course, when they decide to change their lifestyle initially, they usually grasp for some type of goal that is physical. You know, the women think the same thing. Like, Oh, I want to be a size four. And the guys are like, I want a six pack abs. The thing is, is those goals never push you longterm. You know, I, I always try to work with clients to explain to them it’s okay that you want that. And again, I think it, I usually say let’s peel back the onion. Like let the layer behind that as you want to feel better about you. It’s not that you want to be a size four. If you are a size 12 and you felt amazing about yourself, you wouldn’t care. Correct. But a lot of times we needed to just redirect that focus. And I’m glad that you, you know, you point that out to your followers and you focus more on just like healthy eating, enjoying that experience, putting nutritious things into your body. Cause that’s something that can sustain longterm, you know, versus short.
That’s a longterm happiness right there. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So I think this is really interesting about your brand man, is that you speak Spanish, which is so unique in the industry. Here you are for your firm. You live in Texas, right? Yeah. So there’s a lot of people that speak Spanish. What’s your connect? What’s your connection to the Hispanic community? You don’t look Hispanic, bro. I’m just saying
get Dominican like all the time. No, when I lived in college, I, I, um, I had this idea, you know, that I want to just to delay the real world. So I turned down the offer in corporate America and I went abroad to live in Ecuador and I loved it. And I did so many things when I was over there. I went and I worked inside of the restaurant. I taught hip hop dance classes.
The coolest thing, I didn’t know that was awesome, man. I was the biggest scam artist ever
at all.
But because I wasn’t from America, they believe walking around, probably doing these crazy hip hop there
because I told
you’re like teaching them the mocker Reyna. And you’re like, that is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard, man. That is,
but that’s where I actually learned Spanish. Um, I started it in college and also high school, but when I went abroad to live, um, and, and do some like work, it just kinda came together. And so when I came back, my perspective had, had totally changed and I went to go work in Mexico. I worked for a house of representatives for a little while and then I had to go back to the quote unquote like real world. And so I went back to corporate America and did some product abroad and like consulting and then it, so it was just something that was always, you know, really like, you know, like I felt connected to. And so when I, um, and I hadn’t spoken Spanish in like forever. So one day, um, uh, a few years ago, and this is when nobody was actually doing Spanish and also English, I made this comment and I said, Hey, you know what?
I wish someone was here to enjoy this meal with me, but I said it in Spanish. And I had a flood of people who spoke Spanish just coming and say, Oh my God, like these big Spanish. And so I just tried it out and started to do everything in Spanish and also English. And it’s just been great. And I also like it as well because, um, the prevalence of like diabetes and heart disease 10 we have much higher rates in the black and Brown communities. And so it’s really important to me that the content that I am I’m sharing out is actually reaching those, those, those communities who are really like in need. And the Spanish speaking community is one as well. I’ve gotten so many emails and comments saying, Hey, you know what, thanks so much for your videos because now I um, cause now I can show them to my mom and I, and my mom actually makes your recipes because she didn’t speak any English. So it was great. Hear those have the stories to so how, just like here in Texas, just making up a quick Chile, somebody in Mexico is making it as well.
I love that cause didn’t they say, didn’t Mexico pass us as far as the [inaudible] thing? I think Mexico is now the number one obese nation in the world surpassed the USA. So now we’re in second place. Alright, we’re in second. Yeah. Like you said, I love that you’re reaching out to those that need it most. Yeah, I think, I think that’s so cool man. And honestly you probably look back on your days in Ecuador and Mexico and you have no regrets going to a third world country and just kind of, you know, even though you’re teaching hip hop classes, you know, not even being a real instructor, you probably have no regrets. And I, you know, I can relate to that. Cause I went to [inaudible]
Brazil back in 2000 to 2002 and had an amazing experience down in a third world country. I wish every young American could go to a third world country to see what life is like outside of the United States. We live in this bubble and we take so many things for granted and you appreciate so much more of what you have once you’re out of that environment. And so I think every, I wish every high school kid that spoiled in this country could go, you know, serve like a, like a mission of some type and it third world country to kind of experience life. And what it’s like, but I think that’s so cool and it’s so unique, uh, something you bring to the table where you speak Spanish and you can reach those communities and teach them about health and fitness. Um, and I think that’s, that’s really powerful, man. So I have a lot of respect for you. Yep.
Yeah. You know, and the coolest thing was, is that w, you know, when I first started doing it, there weren’t any like accounts out there doing it at the time. And I got like a lot of, you know, surprisingly a lot of flack from some people saying that, you know, that I was doing too much. Um, and it’s funny now
helping so many people do it too much
and they’ll say, and people now are doing the same thing. And, and it’s, and it’s great too, because when brands come, comes to like work with me, you know, the first thing that we say to them, I was like, all right, the content has to be bilingual though. And they’re like, uh, okay, we’ll deal. So it’s, it’s great to see the landscape changing and people are embracing that.
Exactly man. So, um, I have kind of a unique question for you, Kevin and you, I know you did a video on this where you kind of took people through a day in the life of kind of what you go through. I was wondering if you could kind of, uh, kind of summarize that for us and maybe see how it’s changed since you made that video. What a typical day looks like for you. Maybe as far as as food goes and like maybe your current goals. Um, and like any kind of routines, like if you do meditation or if you wake up at a certain time or, and if you, if you have a production schedule, I know this is all a kind of complex question, but just I want people to be able to get to know you and see exactly kind of what you go through on a day to day basis because, um, they see your videos. But it’d be cool to kind of see what goes on behind the scenes as far as you, the real person, Kevin Curry, what he goes through on a typical day.
Yeah. So I’ll, I’ll try some is that, so the first thing we should know is that I make all my videos. Um, and that’s something that I’m really trying to transition very, very, very soon. Uh, I love the creative process, but I, it just takes up a lot of time. And so when it comes time between, like I can’t experiment as much like in the kitchen because, because the video editing process then I know it’s now time for a change. And so I’m looking to exit transition that role. So, um, I get up every morning, um, about six, six 30, um, you know, go and like walk the dog, get ready for the day. And I’m usually just checking email and just trying to clear out the inbox. And then that I have breakfast, I go to the gym, I mean with my workout partner. Um, and that’s like, that’s my only, kind of like me time for the day.
And then when I get back from the gym, it’s usually, um, I gotta hop on some conference calls. Um, if I have them, um, which I generally do. And then I will set like my schedule from like maybe from two to 6:00 PM for filming. The thing about my videos too is that, um, I’m not a photographer, I don’t have any background in like video editing and lighting, so I can only shoot during, during, uh, during my daylight. So I have a very small window. So summers are great because it extends my actual work. Period. Winters are super bad because I literally only have about three hours to actually film. Um, and one recipe video, even though it’s a, so let’s say for the, for, um, for like a 20 minute meal, it could take maybe two hours just to film. Oh man, that’s tough. Just because the set up and you’ve gotta you know, place things, it has to look appetizing.
And so you gotta do like beauty shots and whatnot. And two hours is actually pretty, pretty generous. You know, usually it takes about three to four hours. Um, and then, um, from that I’ve got to do, who am I, voiceover and voiceover. It takes about 30, 30 minutes or so. And then my intros, mantras are actually pretty short and sweet now, so I can get those done too. And within about 30 minutes. And then the video editing process is what takes up the majority of my time. So one 15 second video, um, that probably equates to in terms of video editing equates to about three hours worth of work, uh, on one minute video equates to about five hours worth of work because you also got to put in the, you know, the subtitles and the captions and things like that, plus the transitions and then edit it so that the colors are actually okay in that muted. Um, and then does that kind of the blog posts cause it’s gotta be in English. So I’ve been able now to get someone onto my team that actually helps out with translation. So I will send those to her so I can just kind of streamline that process and shave off at least two hours of my time and then get the blog posts ready and then put everything together and then blast it out in social media. So one recipe video, um, generally at least about 12 hours worth of work.
Oh man, people better appreciate these people if you’re listening. Yeah, you better appreciate. Seriously man, that’s so much work. And so people don’t see that, you know, people don’t see what goes on behind the scenes and how much work you put into this. And I actually had no idea you were your own team. I thought you had a full crew of people doing editing, doing the lighting and doing the voiceovers and helping you with all of that. I had no idea it was just you. So even more respect to you man. Cause I, I understand a little bit of how hard that is and how time consuming that is. Um, so I can only imagine, uh, one other quick question and then I know Lynn has some questions. She’s, she’s like looking at me like, is it my turn? So I kinda want, I’m just going to ask you a specific question about your day. Can you give people what a typical pre-workout meal looks like an a postworkout meal looks like for you on a typical day? Just to give my followers like, okay, this is what Kevin Currie eats pre-workout and post-workout.
Sure. Uh, I’ll give you two. So in my early days, um, w one of my favorite ones was in Ezekiel tortilla wrap with some nut butter, um, cottage cheese and some berries. Um, and then I had like a little protein shake and a protein shake was always an isolate whey protein with Joe grams, carbs, zero grams of sugar, zero grams fat. I say it was very lean and I can digest it pretty quickly before the workout, but the complex carbs inside the tortilla and then the fat would actually give me lasting energy to really go to go pretty long. I’m in the workout today. It’s kind of transitioned just because I do like a lot more than meal prep stuff. Um, so you know, my typical pre-workout meal is excellent in the morning time, but I’ll give you one in case you’re not doing. Um, in case I didn’t do that, it would be like a chicken breast with some keenwah or some Brown rice.
And of course you need the doctor up your keen when Brown rice y’all have, please don’t go out and eat and eat, just steamed Brown rice and just think that’s okay. No, you can put some veggies in there, put some bell pepper, send their doctorate up for yourself. Um, and then an avocado. Okay. Half enough. Okay. And that’d be something like that. And that’s your pre-workout? Yeah. So, so that would be a meal that you know, that I would eat about an hour owl. And so, um, both are fine. You know, it takes, I feel like may, some guys can eat like 30 minutes and then go work out. I actually kinda liked that needs either man. It just, you know, it’s just like too much. I’d like to have almost like a really flat feeling stomach, but not too far out. So maybe like at least an hour out I’ll, I’ll go to the gym.
And so by the time I hit the gym, it’s about an hour and a half and I can, I can, um, go, go look pretty hard. Propose looking out my, my all time favorite one would be a sweet potato with some very lean chili. I like bison. Bison is actually pretty lean if you can get it. Um, um, and then you know, and I salad that is my all time favorite one. It’s an easy one that you can make and it’s a big sweet potato and if you can’t find that or you want to get some or like you want to do something else and you can try. I’m planting. Planting is also for the good one. Um, to add that. Good, good, good muscle weight on you.
Yeah. And then do you add a protein shake to that as well for your post workout?
Okay, so immediately after working out, immediately after working out, I will have an isolet whey protein shake with zero grams, carbs, sugar and fat. Um, and then about 30 to 45 minutes later, that’s when I have my meal.
Okay. Gotcha. That’s, that sounds good, man. And Stacy. Yeah. Oh is it my turn down to Kevin? Oh my gosh. It’s amazing. Now actually you just going through how long it takes you for videos made me feel, Oh, I felt a little bit bad for you, but it actually made me feel a little bit good. Cause honestly I scroll through, I watch your videos or look at your food and then I look at my food and then I look at your food and I look at my food and I always just think, why doesn’t my food look good? Like his food looks so makes it feel better. I didn’t realize how much work went into that. So. Okay. So my biggest question for you, the reason why I love your page, well for many reasons, but the reason why I love your recipes and everything is because I am a foodie. Um, but I am obviously in the fitness industry and I feel like sometimes those things clash and a lot of what I see is just this boring chicken and broccoli, which I cannot choke down. Like I just can’t do it. Um, but the biggest complaint that I get from my clients is that eating healthy is just too expensive. And I have, I have my answers to that, but I would love to hear what you tell people when they approach you with that as a barrier to them eating healthier.
I always ask them why or like how, you know? Um, and usually they’re talking about some type of like prepackaged liked meal. They’ll talk about like, you know, like a, a green juice that costs $9. They’ll talk about a salad that costs this much. And I’m like, well that’s because you’re buying it from the store, you know, but if you buy like, you know, process stuff from the story is going to be cheaper just because it’s not even like real food. You aren’t buying real food. So they can’t charge you real food prices
to show,
you know, when people talk about expensive, is that what I’m hearing? Or like what I’ve come to learn is that they mean that in, in time that it costs them too much time actually go ahead and do it. But, um, so, so my main goal was actually a lot of times showing people how quick, easy and practical it is. So it’s not, um, too, too costly to eat healthy. It’s actually cheaper for you. You just have to know how to go ahead and prepare foods, um, in better ways, but also simultaneously so that way you can save off the time, like in the kitchen.
Yeah. I love that. And I, I mean, I know for me, and it, you mentioned briefly about meal prep. I know for me, I can show that when I prep my food in bulk, you know, making larger portion, maybe meat to use throughout the next several days and different things actually save money versus especially versus eating out even when eating out can be really cheap, but you could save a lot of money. Yeah.
You know, one thing that you know, that I don’t talk about is that, um, when I went off to grad school, um, I lost my job in 2008 so I had to move back home and live with my parents. And it was just one of those really trying times. And it was one of the times too where I just began to start gaining weight and whatnot. So I was really trying to get my diet together and I had, and I literally went up there to go get financial assistance because I could qualify for it and got my food stamps. So I have a food stamps because I had zero job, you know, at the time. Um, and if I could make it work,
yeah, yeah.
60 bucks a week going up and just kind of being creative and making those choices and going to Costco and Sam’s clubs and Walmart market, you know, and whatnot. Then people can too. I think what the problem is also is that, and you know, there’s some, there is some truth to that to this, um, is that the whole marketing behind healthy eating is about organic and non GMO, yada yada. And so when the marketing is behind that, they put a premium price tag on there. So people are like, should I Kevin, you know, can I, can I still eat healthy if I don’t buy organic? Let me tell them, yes, you can. You don’t. To always buy that type of stuff, you know? Um, and so then it is much more like affordable to them. But I’ll tell you this, I’ve made $60 work over at whole foods.
Wow. Really? At whole foods. So like you bought two things or,
Oh and I had the video about it too, but I never let released it. So maybe like in the future I will.
You should. I love that.
That’s over at whole foods.
Okay. Well they had, since the nickname for whole foods is we know his whole paycheck. I got to see that video.
Yeah. Yeah. You got to send it. You gotta send out as that video. Cause I was watching your videos yesterday and I saw the one where you did $75 meal prep for five days, five meals for five days or 75 bucks. Right. And you have, you have the whole grocery list, you have all the recipes to make for it. And I loved, I love that. And that’s actually one of your most popular videos, right? Yeah. Yeah. People love that. Cause that kind of shows them that it doesn’t have to be expensive. You don’t have to go to whole foods if you don’t want to and buy the organic, non GMO gluten free, you know, all these fancy things. I’m eating this food. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that’s great what you do and that’s a great answer.
Yeah, I love that you focused on that too. Cause we get that question a lot about non-GMO organic foods and we like to focus on and telling our clients, you know, do the best you can with what you have. You know, and a lot of times if it’s not within your budget to buy organic or non-GMO, that’s okay. Tell you the truth. I don’t normally buy that. Normally I look at, you know, normally I look at the dirty dozen and the clean 15 which is just a list of the fruits and vegetables that are the cleanest or the dirtiest as far as pesticides. And if possible, I try to buy organic when it comes to the, the dirty dozen. But again, it’s, it’s doing the best with what you can. And another really great tip that I want to leave with the listeners on this subject is I remember, cause I’m such a foodie that I even used that excuse one time. You know, eating healthy is just too expensive and I can’t remember who it was, but a friend looked at me and laughed and she’s like, you know what, at least once a week you’ll go out to eat at a restaurant with you and your spouse and you’ll blow at least $60 on a really good meal. And yet you can’t spend $100 for a whole week of groceries and skip eating out that one night in order to be healthy. And I just like looked at them like, Ugh.
Yeah. [inaudible] the truth, the truth hurts sometimes,
you know? And another thing that I think is hard in this industry, so going into my next question about food is I felt like when I first came into this industry, I was so confused because there are so many diets, like people saying you have to be vegan, you have to be paleo, you have to be akin. And what would you consider if somebody were to ask, do your recipes fall into a certain type of eating such as like paleo or vegan or Adkin? What do you think your recipes fall into? Do you follow a certain diet regimen?
No. No I don’t. And actually that’s pretty deliberate. Um, I want the people who, who follow paleo to make the recipe paleo. I want the people who are vegan to make it vegan. I want the people who are trying to do like vegetarian do that so and so. Um, I just put out generic ideas. That’s the main thing that I always tell my partners too when I work with them is that like, you know, if you walk away from here and just think that I’m giving you your recipes, then you’re missing the bigger picture. What I am trying to do to, um, with like fit men cook is to give people ideas in the healthy practical ideas so that way they can have some, have a sustained living because their recipe has a shelf life. It’ll go away. But if I can teach you just the way they kind of put foods together and to pair them, then you can live on for the rest of your life.
So really don’t try to make things like paleo or vegan Atkins yet. Well sometimes vegan just because I had to reach out to that community and, but plus if you’re out there and you are struggling to define healthy recipes and whatnot, I say go get yourself a vegan cookbook and here’s the reason why vegan cooking is some of the most creative cooking on, on the planet. Cause they kind of be hella creative. So, so if you want to find out how to pair foods together, get a vegan cookbook and then just slap a chicken breast on top of it.
Yeah, that’s actually a very good point man. That’s so true. Because we’ve been to some vegan restaurants before and like these chefs are creating these things you’ve never heard of with different combinations because there’s no meat to work.
But then I laugh because I, I’m totally with Kevin on this. Cause I remember one time I was like, Oh this is actually pretty good. I wish I had a stake on it. No, I love that you, yeah, I love that you show more balanced type of foods too. Cause I know for me for example, I found that cutting out anything specifically, you know, people like you can’t have gluten or you can’t have meat or you can’t have, you know, you can’t have carbs, you can’t have bread. But for me at least if I cut out a specific food group, I go crazy and I do awful. So I like how you show that you don’t necessarily have to cut anything out and you could still create healthy balanced meals. So I really look like that about your site. I’m so fit men cook. So I’m guessing you have a lot of male followers. I only work with women because I’m a woman’s fitness specialist. How do you try to appeal to women for your brand and your blog? Or do you feel like because it’s recipes you naturally appeal to women?
The ladder? I naturally like a bit of a woman.
Yup.
Here’s the thing about the, um, you know, what we’ve learned is that, um, it’s about 60, 40, 60% male, 40% female, but males by and large, we will consume content but not engage. All right? Females actually are like the number one driver
fit men cook community because y’all are tagging people. You’re chatting with your girlfriends, we’re gonna make this for girls night
sagging your husbands and your boyfriends, everybody and you’re telling people. So women actually helped to drive the momentum behind the blog
when it gets stuff done.
I love the, yeah. Now I have just a random question. What do your workouts look like? I mean, all you do is post food, but do you, you mentioned that after you eat breakfast and you have your pre-workout or whatever, you have a fitness buddy, what do you do for your workouts?
Yeah, it’s, it’s much more of a traditional kind of like bodybuilding, like routine in terms of like, we focused on body parts, um, for every day. So we work about five times a week, actually about four, four times a week. Actually, um, and we’ll focus on like a different body part, but we’ve actually got the tough Mudder coming up and so I’m going back to my [inaudible]
Oh
really? In shape and I was doing a lot of these hit routines from like from like my MMA training days. And so I think I’m going to start going more like into debt because I do not want to end up as one of those means on the internet
because I slipped on water slide or something crazy like that. Wait, I didn’t know you had a background in MMA.
Oh no, no I don’t. I was one of those things, you know, I would like watch the videos and then I would also go to like little training exams and get tips and tricks here and there myself. But mixed martial artists is because the people that actually do it, they would,
I get it. No, I totally understand man. That’s interesting. You all you’ll have to show, you have to post some and pictures
of the tough Mudder out. We’ve done one before and actually enjoyed it. It was actually pretty cool. But you do have to,
I didn’t really enjoy it. No, you did the Spartan, she didn’t really get this far ahead and I, I probably am on some type of portable meme and I backed down. Yeah.
Think I don’t want to have, I don’t want to.
Yeah.
Yeah. So I mean for that, I remember having to implement some running again, you know, just cause it, is it 12 miles? Is that how long the tough Mudder is?
Oh God, I hope not
because ours is, ours is 12 miles is 12
it should only be about like a, like a five K or so.
Nope. No, I think that’s the warrior dash. I’ll look it up. I mean mine was 12 miles. Yeah. Yeah. Canceled. Just kidding.
That’s funny dude. Um, so, so a really quick, Kevin, we had some other quick questions we wanted to ask you, which we do to all of our people we have on this show and there’s,
we basically do a lightning round of mini questions that really have no relevance that we want to know and we give you no time to think about it. You have to answer as quickly as possible and they may be a little bit uncomfortable or something like that. Exactly. Are you are, are you ready? Yes. Okay. Does being such a good cook help you with the ladies? Yes. How so? Do you do like come over to my house and I’ll cook you a nice dinner? Is that like a pickup line you use? Tell me the truth
state. I wish there were more, much more like in state or in here, in Dallas. But I’m, all my relationships have actually happened out of state, which I do not like at all.
Oh dang. I’m gonna just don’t like this.
So yeah. So put that out there in Dallas. Hit me up
ladies. Ladies. Kevin is good looking and he can cook. Signed him on his page. Mentioned this podcast. All right. What’s your most embarrassing moment? And be honest and be honest. I don’t want you thinking, which embarrassing moment am I willing to tell. I want you to really answer this.
So I went to this conference and I got really touched and it was running like 500 people and Oh God. You know, I can’t even talk about it now.
You got it? Yeah.
They’re part of this auditorium. They asked me to go up on stage and just see like a few words of what the conference actually meant and I cried in front of them on the mic in front of 500 people.
Awe can live this down and to this day,
that moment back, no, but it wasn’t like one of those like treats and stuff. It was like, Hey,
is that on YouTube somewhere like a video record
as a core to that, please post that video
if, if somebody has recorded that, please send me the link so that we can put it in the show notes. Thank you.
If we’re going to be looking for that online now. Hey everybody, ugly cries at some point in time, man, just not always in front of 500 people. Girls like that. Not even an embarrassing moment.
Sure. I didn’t get one date after that. Yeah.
Okay. That’s messed up. That’s messed up. You must have had like a lot of snot or something. I don’t know. That’s just abnormal.
All right, next, next question. Favorite cheat meal, favorite dessert, cheap mail or
it’d probably be, um, waffles. But, you know, I’m, I’m a huge, like I used to go to, you know, I hop a lot and on Saturdays and get like the really, you know, big ones with like the cream and the chocolate chips, um, and then put the syrup on top. So that’s one of them. The other one would be in really greasy burger with some very, very, very salty.
Yeah. We want to throw in a couple of more questions because this kind of brought up some other questions. Do you feel like there’s a lot of pressure for you to eat a certain way out in public?
Uh, yes.
Like, like you’re worried, Oh, that’s the fit men cook guy. Look, he’s eating a greasy burger and fries and let me take a picture.
Yeah. You know, that it’s actually happened, um, a few times here in Dallas and I’ve just had to just, you know, whatever. Um, but you know, now it doesn’t bother me as much as because I’m actually happy people kind of see me out doing my own thing just because, um, I am a human being and I do enjoy like my treatment goes. And I think again, just like my blog, there is a balance in life. Yeah. I was out at the bar with a buddy of mine having this fat-free, natural organic non GMO cocktail.
Yeah.
They could send the house at the bar to get on Twitter with me. So you know, but it was fine. It didn’t really bother me just because, you know what, again, it’s all about balance. I’m not getting out here and going wasted and you know, overdoing it. But I’m going to enjoy my life and I want you to enjoy yours and you can have a healthy balanced lifestyle. Again. You remember I am far removed from the day of, of becoming a fitness model of what being healthy is.
Well it’s good because your us are more relatable. Honestly, when I see people like that cause it’s, it’s more rare to see somebody well known in the fitness industry that does go out for cocktails here and there and that is eating, you know, waffles with syrup on it. I love it cause I’m like look, they can be healthy and in good shape and eat like a normal human being.
Yes. Some of my most popular posts are when I post like a cheap meat eating a cheat meal. That’s what people love immediately. I like those. Exactly. Okay. Next couple of questions. What’s the biggest complaint or flack you get from your followers that um, that your followers kinda tell you about my content? Yeah, but your content about your videos, about anything, what’s the biggest complaint? Flack or um, criticism.
There’s not one singular one actually right now and it’s actually about my app and it’s from the Android community. So you know, we launched the app back in may and it’s doing very well. It did very well. It’s been the number one app in food and drink is, is number one and one countries and says number two in the overall app store. So it’s doing very, very well. But we haven’t been able to take it over to Android. So I get like an like a nasty email, um, or like comment about every other day now about the darn Android app and when it’s coming out, um, before people would, um, before you know what people always ask me what’s in it, which is a really weird and odd question. Like what’s it like, where’s the recipe? Um, Oh well we’ll look at the photo, but they’ll never read.
Wow. I love that comment. When he posted full recipe and people are like, can you please share the recipe? And you’re like, please read.
Like leave me alone. You don’t know how long this took.
Think for the recipe, your blood.
I was going to say like my favorite thing is when I see awesome recipes like yours and then somebody comments and you have, you know, like over a million followers and somebody comments like, my name is Suzy and I am allergic to gluten and dairy and I am a vegan and I’m an all naturalist and I only eat organic. Can you tell me how to alter this recipe in a sit mind? That’d be great.
Okay. Last, last question Kevin, and we’ll let you go. Boxers or briefs? No. If, if someone were to pay you, would you ever do a fit to fat to fit journey on purpose? If someone were to pay you and what and what would that dollar amount have to be? Just curious to do 75 pounds on purpose.
It would have to be pretty high. Um, only because of the place where I’m in right now. Like it would be hard, like my fit man quickly recipe blog, that’s like actually like my lifestyle, right? So people are actually getting the recipes that I’m eating on a weekly basis and so to, to, to shut it down for that period of time and to make, to do that, they would just be it, it’d be kind of hard to go ahead and do. Um, but gosh, you know what man, I, I just admire you so much for that. It’s like I told you when I first met you, I was so angry. I was so angry. You were because you looked great and you look great now of course. But when you said that you were going to do that, I’m like, why would he want to go and look like me right now? You know, like why? And I was so angry, but I was still watching along, but I wasn’t hater from outside this guy, this guy, this guy. But then we started losing weight. I would go back and do exactly like what you were doing because they’re just so like anxiety there. And so even though I know that algorithm for me to actually go and lose weight and to get shred it up, it’s funny, I still have a lot of anxiety and going back to that.
Yeah, yeah. No, and that’s the thing. I don’t ask people on a serious level, but I think it’s interesting to see if someone do think you could really do it. And I’ve asked Chris Powell, Heidi Powell, and all of them said, no, so you’re not any different than anybody else. I was like, ah, hell no. So somebody gave me $1 million, I would do $1 million. Yeah.
And, and the boxer briefs and my belly hanging out.
And you can change your brand. You could change your brand. Exactly. Exactly. Then you share all these cheat meal recipes for six months and the people, you’ll get 5 million viewers, you’ll be like, this is how to gain weight, French toast. Yeah. This is how to gain weight. This is how to gain fat. Um, yeah. It’s interesting. Well, cool. Kevin, thank you so much for being on the show. Can you tell everybody where to follow you? Uh, the name of the app, the name of your book, everything about you just kinda sh tell people, point them in the right direction.
Sure. You know what, my, um, my largest platform is going to be Instagram, so they can go to instagram.com/fit men cook. But really you can find me anywhere and just type in fit. Men cook and my recipes are there. Like on the blog I fit men, cook.com. I’ve got my YouTube channel that men cook Twitter. And you know what, Snapchat, I really love Snapchat because I don’t just [inaudible] on Snapchat. I love,
Oh, I’ve got to start following you man. Oh yeah, I tagged you before we started on my Snapchat. I did well, I just put, I’m about to snap with at fit men cook, so hopefully that’s your Snapchat.
I love Snapchat. Um, because I’m able to actually share stuff that’s just not just food, just like my everyday life. Um, and then the app get the app. If you have an iPhone or an iPad or the Apple watch, you can download it from the Apple store. And we’re actually coming out with a version 2.0 in November, that is going to be game changing. And Apple is so about the app. Oh they’re so excited about it because the day that it launched it like they were like who, who and what in the world is fit? Men cook because it was taking over literally the entire like at school and it just goes to show that there are so many people out there that are excited about healthy eating because it wasn’t just our community, it was like the general public. So, um, it’s a, it’s a really good app and I’m very proud of it actually. Um, so go to the Apple store if you can and download it and version 2.0 coming, um, in November you’ll want to get one before that version comes out. Um, and then my book is my recipe book. Those are some of the most popular recipes that I shared in 2014. It’s called no cheats needed. And you can go to amazon.com to get that.
So that’s awesome. And it just really quick. I, I love your app so much, dude, and thank you so much for hooking us up with that. What was funny though is as we promoted it to our followers because it’s so convenient, I love, like one of the best features about it, and I talked about this, was, was being able to pick a recipe and have it download to your shopping cart. That specific recipe would go to your shopping list, your shopping list. It would show what the shopping list was. And I thought that was like the coolest feature I’ve ever seen. But then my followers are like, wow, thanks drew for this. Like I, they were like, I don’t need you anymore. Like Kevin. And I’m like, come on people. I like, don’t, you know, you can still love both of us, you know? But people loved it so much, you know?
And so I can’t wait for the new, um, the new version of come you said November. Right. Okay. And I’m gonna start following you on Snapchat too, by the way. I just, I just, Oh yeah. I just learned it like two weeks ago, three weeks ago. I think after moving here to Hawaii and at first I’m like, I don’t know what I’m doing, you know, but now I actually enjoy it. They’re doing on Snapchat and that’s why it’s so easy to do. You can just post anything. So yeah, there’s no filter. There’s no filters or editing, you know, so. Great. Um, well thanks so much Kevin for being a part of the show. Uh, we’ll have to have you back on as well in the near future man and uh, go check out fit men, cook.com everybody and we’ll, we’ll catch you guys next time. We’ll see you, Kevin. Thank you guys so much for listening to today’s episode. We really hope that you will subscribe to our newsletters on fit to fat to fit.com and two fit@home.com to keep in touch with us to know the latest about where, where we’re at, what we’re doing these days and to stay in touch to know what the latest things going on in our lives are
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