What’s up everybody and welcome to the fit to fat to fit experience podcast. It’s Lynn and drew Manning here, your host of the show, broadcasting from Kona, Hawaii, the big Island. We’re so grateful that you’re part of the show today. We have a great guest, the one and only Bruce pitcher from season three of extreme weight loss. If you guys don’t know the his story, it will blow your mind. It’s, it’s probably one of the most remarkable episodes on the history of the TV show. In my opinion. Bruce is an amazing guy. For those of you who don’t know who, who he is. So he was on season three of extreme weight loss, has a remarkable story. He, uh, currently works with destination bootcamp, which is related to the show and actually flies out to Colorado at that and shoots health and wellness center. I’m not sure if I pronounced that right. It’s a German name. But anyways, it’s where people from all over the world can come and be a part of the same training that the clients on the show go through. And so he’s a part of that. He’s one of the speakers because he’s lost over 200 pounds, kept it off since season three of the show. So for two years now. And so he’s a great example of not just weight loss or transformation in general, but maintaining that kind of weight loss as well.
Yeah, and you guys in the show, it goes through so many amazing inspiring key components to not only changing your, your health and wellness, but also changing your life. You know, we talk about his attempted suicide, we talk about sexual abuse that he endured and some other hardships that he had and turning his life around. Um, overcoming this adversity. Really, really inspiring stuff. You guys will not want to miss this up.
Yeah. And we also dive into the specifics of what he did during the show to lose the weight and the specifics of the things he does now to maintain that weight loss. And we even talk about his naked squat routine, which is very interesting. You have to stay tuned for that. And his best impersonation of Chris Powell is hilarious. It’s so funny. So make sure I listen to that. At the end of the episode, but first, today’s episode is brought to you guys by quest nutrition. Now, for those of you who’ve been listening, you know that we have a long history with quest nutrition. We’re big fans of their protein bars and their protein chips and they have protein powder. Now they have so many great products and the thing that we love about quest is that they make healthy tastes good, like all of their protein bars are delicious in my opinion. Even though Lynn doesn’t really like the lemon,
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All right, so let’s head over and chat with [inaudible].
Bruce, thank you so much for joining us today here on the fit to fat to fit podcast. It’s an honor, honestly to have you. So thank you so much. Thank you for having me. It’s an honor to be on it. Yeah, I do. So, so for those of you who don’t know, Bruce and I have a little bit of history, we know each other from the TV show, extreme weight loss and I’m just gonna uh, you know, give people a little bit of behind the scenes of how we met each other. Bruce, and you can kind of chime in, but basically, so I was on an episode of season three extreme weight loss and then Bruce was on season four and bruises from Utah and uh, his episode was mind blowing first of all, like one of the most inspiring episodes in the history of the show. And I had the opportunity to meet Bruce at his 90 day after his 90 day weigh in and it was at Orem high school out in Utah and Matt [inaudible] who was on the show a couple episodes back, uh, had me meet Bruce and, uh, I got to be there with Chris and Heidi and see Bruce’s 90 day transformation.
But it was really cool to meet you in person at that time because you had already lost what, like 120 pounds at that point. Yeah. 121. Wow. Which is amazing dude. And then, and then we started working with each other in the morning and I remember Heidi was checking in with me, like texting me every day, the cows Bruce doing like, and, but the problem was that you had had a concussion from playing football, which got you in trouble a little bit, right? Yup. Yup.
And so, uh, yeah, so Heidi was like, you know, Bruce has been dizzy a little bit, this and that. So like maybe she stopped working with them. And so I kinda just, uh, you know, listened to Heidi of course, cause she’s obviously in control and I don’t want to even try to debate with her. And so, yeah. So, um, that’s how I met Bruce and we kind of kept in touch since then. And, uh, honestly, Bruce, like I still use part of your story when I do speaking engagements because it really is inspiring and remarkable to share. So, um, with that being said, I would actually love for you to share your story, um, with my following, cause I, I’m sure some of some of the people out there have heard of your story, but for those who don’t, it’s well worth hearing again and it’s well worth hearing for the first time. So give us a little bit of your background and a little bit of your story if that’s okay.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Um, my story, of course it starts with, uh, me and my dad and, um, he was a football coach and I thought he was, uh, you know, the best dad in the world. I thought I had the best dad in the world and of course you always do as a, as a kid, you know, and I thought I could. And all the football, he, uh, coached football and all the kids used to tell me how awesome he was as a coach and as just a person to them was always nice to them. And um, he, he handwritten Christmas cards to every single player on our team. And, and for their birthdays, you would always go the extra mile for their birthday. They would have sleepovers and everything out of our house. And he’d make a specialty dessert like this milkshake, the people just loved.
And, and the parents would always be like, you know what? Oh, he’s the best and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And it got so big that they actually nominated him for, um, coach of the year and that, and that nomination you get, you get to go to the Superbowl if you win. And he was so close to winning that and I just remember that I thought I had the greatest dad in the world. And I just remember one day it all changed when I got called down to the office my sophomore year in high school. And I remember walking down the office and I’m wondering why I’m going down there. And standing there was a police officer and he was just, he asked me to take a ride with him. So I got in the car, we drove off and we came up to this house down in, um, South Provo here in Utah.
It looks just like a normal house. It looked like a normal house in the neighborhood. It was then cause there the other houses were just normal around it. The only difference was there was just kind of a bigger parking lot in it. And I’ll never forget the green door that was on it. And I remember walking in there and he walked me into a room. I remember there was a white table in the middle and then there was a green couch and then Teddy bears in the corner. And I was like, what is going on here? And I remember him reaching into his pocket and pulling out a tape recorder and hitting play. And I just will never forget the question that he asked me when he asked, when he asked, has your dad ever touched you inappropriately? And I just remember, I’ve never been so like wide-eyed in my ever in my life.
And I was just sat there and I just looked at him and I just remember thinking, I have the greatest dad in the world. And I don’t know why, but I held him a secret that day and I lied to the police officer that day. And I said no. And he continued to ask me questions that went along and then I just kept saying, no, I don’t know anything about anything. And, and um, he said, thank you and, and took me back to school and I went to the school and I called home and I told my mom what had just happened. And what she replied to me back was, is your dad just got taken off to jail. And, and it was just like an unbelievable experience. And I remember the moment I got home, there was trucks of every media outlet that there was over there.
The newspapers were all at our house filming across the street, uh, interviewing people that, cause there was an elementary school across that were just like, I’m talking to people. And then the next day I went back to school and I remember kids brought the newspaper article to school and I was just like, Oh my gosh, what is going on? And it was, they were passing it around. And then somebody actually deprecated in my backpack and I was just like, what the heck? Yeah. So I didn’t know that. Yeah. And it was just, it was an unbelievable experience. And then I just remember it was the football team because of football and, and, and this is why I love football so much is it basically saved my life is the football team. And the football coach stepped in and they were the ones that that said, all right, enough of this is enough.
And I remember the players all gathered around and were like, this is, this is done. Nobody’s going to be bringing it up. We’re going to support Bruce dah, dah, dah, dah. And it was just, it was great. I just will never, I can never thank those guys enough or ever show them a much of appreciation for everything they did for me and how important football was to me in my life. And I made it through the rest of my high school years. And you know, it was an emotional roller coaster, but I hadn’t still never come out with my dad’s stuff. And I was supposed to go on a LDS mission and people that know about missions is you got to go with a clear mind when you’re going on mission cause you’re already going to be under a lot of like press pressure and adversity as it is when you’re out there.
And, and I, I couldn’t make it. So I came home early, nobody knew why I came home early and I got scrutinized for that and I just remembered I was so lost, I didn’t know where to go. And I went up and visited my dad at prison and I remember, and the prison just sucks to go to because the doors, the way they slam in the barbwire fence, the guards look down on you like, why the heck would you even be here visiting this, this person? And he comes out and he’s in his white jumpsuit and he sits down and I tell him like, dad, I don’t know what to do. Duh. And he just replies back with, well now the family’s not going to receive the blessings that we need and I’m not going to get outta here. And it’s your fault. I’m in here.
And I was just like, Oh man. So I came home that day and found the biggest bottle of booze that I could find, drink it as fast as I could. And I, and I tried to kill myself that day and lucky enough to belt bro. And, and I came back to the earth and I went into the hospital and then I started meeting with therapists. And that’s when I came out with all my dad’s stuff and everything about it. And, and I’ll never forget what on the last therapy session, what he told me is he said, Bruce, you can go home and you can play the poor me card and nobody’s going to fault you for that or anything like that. Or you can go home and, and not do that and not, and, and not be the victim. And, and just battle through adversity and not let your dad have anything on you anymore.
And that’s exactly, um, what I did. I took that and I was like, you know what? He’s right. There’s somebody out there that hasn’t worse than this. There’s somebody out there that’s been through just what I’ve been through or eight or 10 times worse. So like you can either live life to the fullest or you can play the victim card, the poor me card and I’ll never forget that. And then that’s, you know, of course as time went on, obviously I still need, had a lot of things going on and put on a lot of weight. Hadn’t ever confronted him, didn’t get over all that stuff. And of course that’s when extreme weight loss came into play. And, and Chris taught me about integrity, Chris and ID and keep my promises. And I think that’s what really, really finally pulled it all together. All my stuffs, steps of my attitude and, and being a tough person in life.
And then the one ingredient I was missing of course was integrity and keeping my promises. And I think that’s now what I do more than ever now. So how much, how were you overweight before all this went down in high school? Um, I gradually started to put it on. I think the only reason that I was just talking to my friend the other day before it all went down. I got up as soon as I graduated. I got all the way to two 95 before I was even on getting ready to go on my mission. So can we just started piling on quickly before all that went down? What did you get up to at your heavy? My heaviest was 410 pounds. Wow.
Yeah. You know, I, and I don’t want to have our show focus too much on this. I want to get into some of the, obviously the amazing, you know, transformation in your life that happened. And the part of why your show has to date been my most favorite on extreme weight loss is because of your amazing energy, your charisma, your positive attitude. I love what you said about, you know, you left that therapy session and they said, yeah, you’ve had a hard life. You could easily be down and depressed about it or you can choose to change. But that is something that’s hard. And you know, so many people in America suffer from depression and anxiety and uh, you know, get to that same point that you are at where, you know, attempted suicide or suicide, you know, food addiction. And a lot of that actually is from exact experiences like you had with sexual abuse. In fact, you know, studies show that one in three women and one in seven men have reported, and this is only, you know, how many people maybe don’t report it, um, go through some form of sexual abuse in their lifetime. You know, for somebody listening to the episode, since that’s obviously a large audience of who’s listening probably has been through that, what are some of the key factors that you really feel helped you to overcome that situation and change your life?
Um, I think, cause of course I confronted my dad on episode, which is amazing that how that all all happened. I mean there was a higher being that had an influence on that because I had tried out for extreme weight loss three other times and biggest loser seven and I happened to get selected the year and my dad’s parole hearing. So that’s just unbelievable. Wow. But, um, I think it was just getting the confidence in myself and believing in myself that I didn’t need to. Um, M I didn’t need to be anybody but myself. I didn’t need to please my dad anymore. And I think that’s finally what got me over that hump because I remember when they first asked me to confront him, I was like, you gotta be kidding me. Are we really going to go there? And I was just like, and I remember I went to my therapist and my therapist actually behind the scenes called them and said, you will never bring this up ever again.
And so it was just like, if you do, you’re going to be at this and this and this. So Matt had to actually back off and everything and it just kind of slowly, gradually over time though, as I was losing the way, found out about integrity, keeping my promises and really feeling the love from so many people from that I met from the show and everything all around a behind the scenes stuff that really got me to that point of like, you know what this is, this is a, this is a bigger purpose than just me confronting my dad. I have an opportunity to confront him and I think that’s what, you know, gave me the confidence and everything to do it. And I always say people that have been abused and stuff and there’s nothing you can really say to them. All they want is a big old hug.
Like every motivational speech that, that I usually give, there’s at least two or three people that will come up to me and it had similar experience. And I don’t say like, you know what? This is what you should. I just give him a big old hug because there’s nothing to, there’s nothing really to be talked about except that you know what, I love you right now and, and I know what it’s what you went through. And there’s so many people that do, and that’s really the biggest thing that they need is just a big old hug to let somebody know that they love them. And that’s the biggest thing.
Oh man, it’s so powerful. It really, it really is, man. It’s remarkable to me and a great example, whether you’ve been sexually abused or just had some kind of crazy, immense trial in your life that you feel like this is too much to overcome to see your story and how far you’ve come from that is inspiring. No matter who you are. Like anybody can listen to this episode and be taken away and say, you know what? I could play the victim card the rest of my life, or, you know, and no one’s going to fault you for that. People were like, you know what? I totally understand. Or, you know, you can make the most out of your life. And I love that message. It’s not for us to judge someone if they are playing the victim card in my opinion, uh, or like, Hey, that person’s making the most of their life. But to know that someone can choose, you know, a positive outlook on their life, no matter what their past is, is, is awesome. And I love hearing that. Brucellosis. Thank you so much. So I kind of want to transition over to talking about extreme weight. Tell us about your experience of what Chris said to you on that first day and how that changed your perspective. Uh, once you were on the show with him.
Um, I just remember the first talk of integrity talk when there was no cameras rolling and cause he, he basically said, you know what, you’re going to have no problem working out the meal prepping and stuff. But he said, I remember when he told me he’s all, you have no integrity. And I was like, what are you talking about dude? Like I have tons of very, I have, I bless my blood for the football team. I do this. And he said, bingo, you have no integrity to yourself. You know, and you don’t keep your promises to yourself at all. And when you sit back and you think about it, you’re like, Oh my gosh, he’s exactly right. Always. I was like, yeah, 2012 is going to be my year, all this stuff. And heck, it always went by and it was still wasn’t my year except for the only thing that was my year as I got bigger on the scale, you know, it just kept going on. So I mean, or I want a couple eating contests, you know, that was about it. So, but yeah, that, that was the biggest thing.
Yeah. It’s going to say, I think that’s it. A huge thing that everyone needs to hear when they start their own health health journey. Um, I don’t want to say weight loss cause it’s not always about weight loss for people. It’s really just about your health. But I think the biggest thing is, is, you know, we put everyone else first. You know, we put, like you said, you put your football team first, you probably put your family first. I know almost all the women I work with, you know, they put their family and their kids and their career and their friends and everyone first. And the biggest thing that I always say to clients is very similar to what Chris said is I just say, would you treat your best friend? Those same way you’re treating yourself? Would you say the things about yourself that you’re saying right now about being fat or ugly or not good enough? Or you just can’t do it? Would you say that to your best friend? You know? And it just has them step back and think. And of course it’s like, no, I would never say that to my best friend. And it’s like, exactly. And you are your best friend, you know? And that’s why integrity to yourself is one of, in my opinion, that the most important key elements and overall success in, in reaching your goals.
Uh, no, that’s so true. And I, I second that what Lynn said, uh, you know, having integrity to yourself and keeping promises to yourself and this, this goes for anything in life, not just weight loss transformation in general. It really does. Keeping promises to yourself, you’ll be a lot happier person. Um, getting back to your episode a little bit, I, I’m not sure if most people know this, but you know, obviously Chris Powell doesn’t live with you the entire year and train you the entire year. Who was your trainer during the show? When, can you talk about the things they did to help you on your journey, um, to getting fit throughout the year? Yeah. Um, of course you are a little bit drew, I’ll give you some credit on there. We were, we weren’t gonna have it. Yeah. So, and the, in my basement, I remember that dude. Yeah. We had a good, a good little while doing that until Heidi gave me the acts. So get me to Arizona.
Um, yeah. Yeah. And then the other guy that helped me big time was, um, Tommy, Tommy Hackenberg was my trainer at home. He was like, I mean, if anybody knows anything about CrossFit, he’s, he’s a CrossFit legend. He’s a, he’s a freak. I mean he, you know, they have God gift for like basketball and football and stuff and he’s a, he’s a God. He’s been gifted for a CrossFit. There’s no doubt about it. That guy can do amazing things. I mean for as big as he is do as well as he doesn’t cross. That’s pretty amazing. Yeah. So [inaudible]
so, so he had you doing CrossFit throughout or what kind of stuff did you do?
We did a lot of CrossFit stuff and of course we didn’t do as much Olympic lifting, but you know like, I mean we did a lot of like a rowing assault bike stuff, you know, like all that kind of stuff. But I did CrossFit at five days a week and, and, and we lifted and, and people that, cause it always is funny to me cause people are like, especially on a show are always like, I can’t list, I can’t lift. I got all this weight. And I’m like, dude, this the whole time, like even when we run into people at destination bootcamp that we do, they’re always like, I can’t leave. I gotta lose weight. And it’s like, really? You can live and lose weight at the same time. It’s very efficient actually because the muscles start eating the fat. You can get really in shape. And there’s a big difference I think between, you know, cause how many people are skinny fat out there where if they go get their obese check, they’re skinny but they go get a jump on a bod pod, they’re obese, you know? And it’s like, yeah, it’s crazy to me.
Yeah, no, I think that’s really good advice. And a lot of people have that misconception like, Oh, I don’t want to get too big or too bulky because muscle weighs more than fat. You know, people say that all the time. It’s like, look, you know, it’s all about your metabolism, right? And the more, the more muscle you have, the more fat you burn, right. The more calories that you burn throughout the day. And so that’s, that’s great for people to learn from. Someone like you who’s been on the show has lost 200 plus pounds. You can lift weights and still lose weight. It’s the most efficient way of doing it. It’s not that you didn’t do cardio, you still did that, but, um, I think that’s, that’s great. Yeah.
Yeah. And it’s important for people to realize, you know, that’s a great fitness tip to take from this podcast is everybody should be lifting weight. And I always tell women that too, especially women, like you said, a lot of times a client will jump into a bod pod and she’ll be what anyone would consider thin and she is then, but based on her, you know, composition of her lean mass versus her fat mass she showing as obese because she doesn’t have muscle mass because she doesn’t lift weights. And I always tell clients that I’m like, you know, muscle tr like training your muscles and building muscle is the way for you to be. It. It’s easier for you to maintain. A lot of people just do cardio when they’re obese and they lose weight. And then what happens is their resting metabolic rate actually goes down because every pound of fat that you have burns about six calories for you a day.
So if you lose, you know, 60 to a hundred pounds, your resting metabolic rate is actually lower. So in order to maintain or lose, you have to eat even less. But if instead, you’re also building muscle, one pound of muscle burns 10 times that 60 calories for you on average for a pound of muscle. And so if you could replace all of that fat with even five, 10 pounds of muscle, your resting metabolic rate is going to be higher. It’s going to be easier for you to maintain your weight or continue to see results. So that’s important for you.
Yeah, man. So, so you were doing CrossFit five days a week, was that just one wad a day or what were you doing?
So I would do like one water day, you know, we’d get in there and we’d do some lifting thing and then, and then do like, you know, and, and of course the wads were more of um, the, you weren’t your two minute watch, you know, they’re more of a 15 minute AMRAP as many people don’t know, that’s as many rounds as possible of any different kinds of movements and then, you know, those kinds of things. And, and so that was good and, and I really enjoyed it. And of course we still did cardio in the mornings. You know, like we, I would go do um, bleachers or you know, go for a run or some kind of train track, workout word, sprint, you know, are there stuff like that for my cardio, mainly on my cardio that I would do. Cool. So you were working out twice a day? Yeah, twice a day, five days a week, five, five days a week. We work out on Saturdays about an hour and a half on Saturdays. So Sundays for my season where the Wayne days every week we had to spin in a way. And,
okay, cool. Yeah. I just want to give people a, um, you know, a little bit of a show them what it’s like, like [inaudible] this is something realistic that people can do, cause it’s not like you went off to, you know, a bootcamp like you would for the biggest loser for the entire year and all your meals were fed to you and six hours a day of training. Yeah. Now I just wanted to show people like it, it can be attained like it is possible for people to do with their normal schedules. Right. Um, um, so you’ve, you’ve had an N a remarkable story cause you know, season four has come and gone. You lost over 200 pounds. And here we are. Fast forward, what, two years later, two and half years later, what have you done to keep the weight off? Because the statistics show, uh, that most people gain the weight back after biggest loser or extreme weight loss. A lot of these people,
all of it. So let’s clarify, not necessarily all the way back, but most people gain at least a good one.
Yeah. What’s your opinion as Bruce on what’s helped you maintain that weight loss and why do some people gain a lot of the weight back sometimes? Um,
my opinion is like I think for what I’ve done is I’ve completely changed my lifestyle. Of course then when people say it’s a lifestyle change, it’s exactly that. I mean that’s the bottom line. And of course you’ve got to always remember keeping your integrity, keeping your promises. And then the other thing is is knowing your, like your external why and your internal why, why are you doing this? You know, you got to peel that onion back and you’ve got to know what is going to keep you going, what’s going to wake you up at five in the morning that’s going to help, that’s going to get you to do that every single day. And that why has got to be so important to you that it strikes a core inside you that you’re almost afraid to tell people your why. Because you get so emotional about it and it almost brings you to tears and a lot of people, it does bring the tears and that’s, I think that’s, and your why will change over time.
And I think that’s what helps me really get going is it’s my why I focus on, I’m always thinking about why am I doing this? Why do I want to stay fit? Why do I want to keep this going? You know, why? What is it that isn’t so important to me that it helps me keep going? And then you change your whole career. I think you need to change. I mean because your environment before wasn’t working so you got to change it all the way around. I mean when you say transformation, it’s not just the, a few things you need to change. I mean people on the show, if you look at it, people that have been successful and the people that haven’t have changed their whole entire lifestyle and what they do. I mean, ones that go back to what they do before is I think is one of the hardest struggles because they get, it’s so easy to fall back into your old patterns, you know, and, and go back to just, Oh, this is what I know.
This is, this is easy. Nobody’s, you know, nobody’s watching me anymore and I don’t have to worry about a weekly when I don’t have to worry about being on national television, you know, like all this stuff. So you’re like, well, a little bit here won’t hurt a little bit here. I need a week off. One week turns into two, next thing you know, it’s a month. The next thing you know, Oh no, the scale is jumped back up. So yeah, I mean you gotta just, it’s got to stay the rest of your life. You can’t ever take off a week. You can’t ever, I mean, it’s just sometimes it sucks. I mean, I hate it sometimes. So
yeah, sometimes we all, I think there’s this weird misconception of people that, and now Bruce works in this industry now, so I think he probably hears this too. I think there’s this weird misconception that people that are fit, like love to eat healthy all the time and love to exercise all the time. And it’s, it’s so funny sometimes when I say something like, Oh, I just want a donut, or Oh, I don’t want to work out. People are like, really? And it’s like, yeah, we’re human too. I like pizza. I like donuts. And sometimes I don’t want to get my ass off the couch. I want to sit and I want to Netflix and chill, you know? And like people laugh and they’re like, wow. But I mean, I think, like you said, the key is, is a lot of times w, you know, we think of our why, you know, why are we doing this?
And, and you know, why does it feel good to eat healthier? And so that’s why, you know, we do it more often than not that I don’t eat donuts. Everyone knows I do. But that’s why I don’t eat them every day, you know? And so I think, like you said, having that why and making sure that why isn’t physical? Because that’s always going to fizzle. Just saying, Oh, I want to look good or I want to look good in a bikini or I want to look good for my trip to Hawaii. Like that type of why is never going to sustain you through all the bumpy roads and through the years. So I love that tip.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it’s gotta be, I mean, I think of my why now, I mean if I want to, the best career for my family and, and not to have the life that I had when growing up is that this is what, this is my best opportunity to supply for them. So that’s my why and my why is to be loved. I mean, I feel loved and appreciated being like this, you know, and then it’s, and it’s the best feeling in the world. So why wouldn’t I have it? I mean, not to speak to you guys, but like you stay as fit as possible so you can do podcast and you guys can keep inspiring so many people. And doing the things you do, you know, I mean, if you gain the weight back, if I gained this weight back, if I had gained this way back, we wouldn’t be on this podcast right now.
You know, these kind of opportunities wouldn’t ever come my way. So like that, it just, that means more to me than anything. And plus we were given a lottery. I mean, we’re on the show, it’s given, we won the, we won the lottery being on the show and given the end, because there are so many people that sit home and say, man, why, if that was me, I would kill it. You know? And, and I believe a lot of those people that sit in that chair, they would, if they had that opportunity. So it would be a slap in the face to all those people out there if we gained this weight back and we don’t keep going and we don’t, and we don’t keep helping as many people as we can. You know, Chris and Heidi, you would, that’s a disservice to them, you know, for their message not to be shared what they’ve taught us.
Yeah. Yeah. That’s powerful. And one thing I’ve noticed, cause I have a lot of friends from extreme weight loss, uh, and on the biggest loser, the ones that stay accountable to their following because no matter who you are on, if you’re on the show, you’re going to get a following. People are going to want to know what you did, how you did it, you know, and you’re their inspiration. And I’ve noticed the ones that are able to keep the weight off and maintain are the ones that continually stay active on social media, for example, and are always posting things and updates and progress. And I don’t care if it’s food pictures or them weighing in or doing selfies, I’ll all that, you know, that doesn’t matter to me. It just matters that they’re staying accountable and they’re continuing to inspire and paint, paying it forward to people. And that’s one thing I’ve noticed, you know, with you Bruce, is you’re always doing these awesome Bruce isms photos. Like let’s get bumped. Yeah.
[inaudible] it’s like contagious Bruce. His energy is contagious. Every time I see one of his posts or one of his videos, I immediately am smiling and you immediately smile and you just, you feel pumped. You do. I’m like, I, I’m pumped. I’m bluffing out.
I appreciate your post, Bruce. Yeah. So what are some of the daily routines that you have been able to maintain that help you keep the weight off? Like throughout the, um, throughout the years after this? Like what are some of your daily routines? Like I know you do your naked squat thing.
[inaudible] tell, please tell people about the naked
Watson. Yeah, cause one day I got up and I strained my groin cause I wasn’t [inaudible]
so it’s more of like the motivational speech
in front of the mirror, you know, flex tell people there’s nobody better looking than you and just like how you’re going to conquer the day, you know, so I get up because instead of stead of dragging when your alarm goes off, I’ve, I’ve really worked on just freaking jumping out of bed and running into the bathroom as fast as we can. And I just always used to say they could just cause, you know,
Hey, you know,
great, you are, you know, if it’s right. So you know, you get it just to get fired up on the day and then it’s amazing how that just pumps you up and then you try to get intense, uh, three positive comments by 10:00 AM. So that’s could be anything of like just saying hello to a random person because you don’t know what they’re going through and just smiling at them and just being like, Hey, how’s it going? You know, that’s just positive, positive affirmation all around you. And it helps you through your day of not being all depressed and sad and like worry about the stresses of the world, you know? And, and, and like, uh, I mean it’s just, that’s kind of what I do. And, and also the biggest thing for me is meal prep. And I mean it at the end of the day, if you want to be successful in any, if you want to be successful in weight loss and maintenance and everything, it starts with meal prepping because the biggest predicaments and I get in and talking to other people is when they’re like, what am I going to eat? You know, what am I going to do? So they end up like, you know what? I can go to this restaurant, I’m going to order something healthy. And it’s like, you think you’re ordering healthy? Like I remember I went to cheesecake factory and I ordered a Cobb salad.
I was like, Oh, this is like 1700 calories was 900 calories. I was like, what
the world? What just happened? You know? So yeah. So that, that happens. So like, um, that’s, that’s another thing that, um, that’s just some of my rituals. I do. So I meal prep every Sunday and get all my meals ready and, and everything like that. So that’s kinda my little routine.
Cool. And that’s, I think that’s important for people to realize. There are daily routines of little things you can do that you make habits that help push you in the right direction. It’s not, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. It can just be one small change like you know, wake up, do some naked squats, you know, three or five of that. And then that’s just one small change or run to the mirror and say three positive affirmations about yourself or you know, doing those, those things that are non scale related. You know what I’m saying? Yeah. That helps set your mind for, for the rest of the day and helps you know who you are.
Yeah. And I think, uh, and I think a big thing is to remind people it doesn’t necessarily always come at once. You know, a lot of times for me, you know, I’ll, I talk to my clients about positive affirmations too cause I think positivity and saying kind things to yourself is such a huge step. Your transformation. And maybe that’s all they do for a week. And then they add in, you know, fitting in a little exercise in the morning and maybe they add in a week or two later, you know, drinking enough water and then maybe a couple of weeks later they add in adding more vegetables. So it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You’re creating these healthy habits and this daily routine over time by just doing like one thing at a time.
Yes, exactly. Because you try and fix everything at once. It’s not going to happen and you’re going to be too overwhelmed. You’re gonna be frustrated and you’re going to quit. So yeah. Yeah. I love that.
Yeah. That’s so true, man. Okay. So, um, I know you get asked this a lot probably. Um, you know, I know that you worked your butt off to lose the way and you still work your butt off to, to maintain it. So we know that the workouts there, we know you eat healthy, you meal prep, that’s, that’s important too. But I know people always want to know. Okay, so what, did you take any supplements and if you did, did any of them help? And if you can talk a little bit about that. Cause I, in my opinion, supplements aren’t the key. Right. Supplements aren’t what helps you lose the weight. It’s not like you took a magic pill, you lost the 200 pounds. Um, I do feel like they can be a small piece of the puzzle in some cases. Um, so yeah, I just kind of want to get your opinion on any supplements you took during the show to help you lose the weight and any that you take now or what’s your opinion on supplements?
Um, I actually took no supplements the entire time. Um, and, and I can speak for a lot of them that we don’t take anything, you know, it’s just, it’s simple eating calories in, calories out, you know, just, I mean, at the end of the day and, and, and so, yeah, I mean, and what I believe in like supplements now is, is taking some to like, like creatine or something to help you get stronger, you know, a little bit of stuff like that. Natural stuff like that. I’ve kind of looked into. I, I love pre-workout now. I don’t know why I never took three work when I was on the show. That ticks me off. I never, I don’t know why I couldn’t. It’s just amazing how much I didn’t know my entire year of fitness and now being around it more, it’s like I’m a two year old, she’s still learning all this stuff.
It’s like Holy cow. I didn’t even know that through my whole year cause I’m still learning so much about fitness. It’s unbelievable. So like my biggest thing now is pre-workout. I love it. So that’s cool. Which one do you take? Um, I took, I take this one from this, uh, my buddy started a company, so I was taking this one called surge. It was pretty good. And then, um, um, I ordered this, I had ordered this new one. I can’t even remember what it’s from, but I really liked that one cause it doesn’t get me to, I drink a lot of, I’m always amped up as it is. So sometimes when I get too much people like you, what is wrong? And I’m like, my pre-workout just kicked in and it’s like going so
makes you laugh at the good. Did you go see the Instagram post from Heidi where it’s like when your prerecord kicks in and it’s like this car that literally drives up the side of a wall in order to fit in a parking spot and the person like jumps through the trunk cause they’re like I got this.
Yeah you gotta take some
God really understand that joke. But I remember that post I was laughing.
That is funny man. Yeah I, I’m not, I used to take pre-workout, I kinda like off and on like I really don’t take it that much cause I’m like you, I’m already pretty much as it is. And so if I take it too much then my heart’s beating. I’m sweating for no reason and I’m just like, I’m talking so fast and people are like, I don’t even understand you man. But it can’t help out for a great CrossFit workout. You know what I’m saying? But if it’s like,
plus now the fatal 40, you don’t want to take any pre-workout because all of a sudden your hearts can be up and you like look up at the clock and you got 30 more minutes left in this workout and you’re like, Oh my gosh, my heart was beating like a miles per hour.
Oh man, I hate it.
That sounds awesome. So let me ask you this. You still do CrossFit? Yup. Okay.
And, uh, you know, and, and trying to work on some goals to I, my biggest goal is, is this next year in the open to make sure that it’s not anything they throw out in the open that I can do and I’ll be able to get a pretty decent score. So that’s going to be my biggest, that’s my goal this year. And I’ve been working really hard this, um, this, this right now because now’s the time to freaking work your butt off to get, get into that and some day. And, and I want to make a regional team and, and I feel like, um, people are like, Oh, it’s so hard to do that. And I’m just like, well, you know what, it is going to be hard, but I’m going to do it. I’m going to prove people wrong and I’m going to fricking do it.
Yeah, man. So, uh, do you, with you being into CrossFit and Chris and Heidi, obviously, would you say that’s the majority of the, of most people’s routine on the show? Does, is everybody on the show doing CrossFit now or is it a modified?
Yeah, it’s a modified, I don’t think, not everybody does it. Um, there’s a few of us that do, there’s a few of us that don’t, you know, like, you know, a lot of people like the orange theory philosophy and know of like 60 minutes of just circuit training, just going through stuff, you know, and some love to bike, some love to swim, some love to do Zoomba, you know, in, in, in, so like, whatever, whatever you love to do, I mean that, that’s what you gotta do. If you don’t love it, you’re not going to do it. You know? So like, um, majority of us, you know, there was some of us the whole year that hated CrossFit, you know, but I loved it. I loved it being in the competitiveness. I love the goals that you can hit of like for yourself. You know, the, the time workout. You want to try to beat your time. And if you don’t, don’t focus on what everybody else is doing, just focus on what you’re doing. And it’s just, it’s just fun and that it’s a good environment to be around.
Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I love CrossFit too, and I’m pretty sure Lynne does not like CrossFit.
I don’t love CrossFit. I can be, I can be the lone person in this conversation that says, not only do I not enjoy CrossFit, I don’t enjoy everyone talking to me about CrossFit, which is what CrossFit people do. So, you know, when people, you know, like to talk about Fran and Cindy and Lynn and all the other, you know, people are like, what are they talking about? Women know they’re talking about workouts way less exciting. And yeah, I mean, that’s fine. But I mean, I, I’m, I’m all for people doing what inspires them. And I like what Bruce just said. You know, there’s people that enjoy biking and hiking and Zoomba and yoga. And I think the key is it’s not if you’re doing CrossFit or not, you’re going to lose weight. It’s are you doing something that you love that you’re going to be able to maintain and sustain because it is,
you know, lifestyle change. Exactly. My girlfriend hates CrossFit too. So love your girlfriend. I love your girlfriend. Yeah. Like, so even more. I like her now. I mean, she was already so cute.
I already liked her from looking at her on Instagram, but now her and I are even better friends. So,
and I told the respect that, but you’ve got to find what works for you. And if it feels like a chore, then obviously it’s gonna you’re going to get burnt out. Exactly. So, well, cool. Um, we appreciate you, uh, kind of given some, some people out there that are listening, some tips along the way and some motivation as well. Definitely this, this podcast been full of motivation and inspiration. Bruce, which is what you are, you are an inspiration to so many people. But now like you know, to end the podcast, we have to have a lightning round.
Yeah. Welcome to the lightning round. No, just kidding. But anyone that doesn’t know what the lightning round is is if this is the first time you’re listening to our show at the very end of the show, we like to ask the people that we have on random questions that really mean nothing and have no importance and they have no idea what they’re going to be. The key is, is you have to respond as quickly as you can with the first thing that comes to mind. Are you ready for the lightning round? Okay. What is the most embarrassing thing that happened on your episode or during that year that maybe didn’t make it on air?
Hmm. Geez. I don’t know. That’s a good question. Um, I don’t know. Um, let me, I don’t know. I guess I’m not doing very good. Right.
All right. Since I know you love CrossFit, I decided to add this in here for you. If it was required to be a vegetarian in order to CrossFit, would you give up bacon?
No, I wouldn’t. Ah, yes. Bruce, you’ve saved yourself a, that’s funny. I love that. That was too easy. Okay. Your favorite, your favorite cheat meal or dessert over, actually, it doesn’t have to be dessert. It could be any type of cheap mail. Well, okay, I love to go get some cheese fries as an appetizer with bacon on top of Iggy’s and then I love to get a such Chicago stab deep dish pizza for my dinner. And then for dessert there’s nothing better with going to frozen yogurt and putting all the toppings on it. So there’s a good Epic
ah, yeah. Yeah.
That’s awesome, man. I think it’s important for people to, that you do have these reset days, right? Oh dang. Right. You got, Oh yeah. Yup. Okay. So the next one isn’t really a question, but I want you to do your best imitation of Chris pow when Chris Powell isms of him training. Yeah. Okay.
The one where he always says, step on the scale and this comes up and you go, what happened?
Ah, yeah. Okay, dude, now you got to do the same thing, but for Heidi [inaudible].
Alrighty. Kay. Heidi ism.
Yeah. Invitation the kids. The best thing for Heidi, you know, Bruce, I love this in the best way, but yeah,
he’s just been eating too much, but it’s okay. You know, like you gotta work harder, but Hey, it’s okay. It’s, you know, she’s the best way of breaking like bad news in a positive way. The hard way.
I love that. It’s like, you know, you’re screwing up, but it’s okay. It’s okay. We can fix this. I mean, you could stop screwing up, but it’s okay.
Oh, that is true.
Okay. No, I’m just kidding. I love it man. Okay. But seriously, you sounded like Chris when he did his ism that made me laugh.
Chris. Chris is going to love it when he hears that.
Okay. If you have response, if you don’t have an embarrassing moment on the show, then I need your most embarrassing moment in general.
Okay. My most embarrassing moment on the show probably was, I came out with some, um, spiked up hair thinking that was the way to go. And Matt sent me [inaudible]
and made me like, cause I thought I was looking fly walking through the day. Actually you’re going to be our 45 day wait. And I remember I came in, I’m like yeah, I’m looking good. And I remember Matt was like that hair. I think that’s one of the reasons it didn’t make the cut. So
I thought it was looking fly and little did I know that was not happening at all.
So, so
funny. That is hilarious man. Okay, really quick just to wrap it up, what’s your, uh, we gotta talk about it cause CrossFit. Yup. Uh, Fran time. What’s your best friend? Time?
Best one that I ever did was five 29.
Dude. That is, that is good. And was that RX?
No, not quite RX. That’s the only cat. Most just a little bit off. So I need to get my RX pull-ups. Yeah, it was the first day. Um, it was, the poets were a little bit difficult for me, but I was able to do them kipping so I was good
dude. That’s good man though. That’s really good, dude. That’s, that’s legit. I think that was my first time and the first time I did Fran was around five minutes to be honest with you. Uh, and uh, I haven’t done it a long time. I didn’t even want to know what it is now, but it’s probably past 60
for those of you that don’t know what friend is, join the club. Okay. It’s a workout to workout. I know it has pull ups in there. I know it has pull ups in there and I know that it’s hard and that’s what I know.
It’s hard. It’s fast, very fast and it’s tired and it’s very tiring. It’s a 2115 nine of thrusters, which is basically a front squat to a push press all in one movement. Right? So you squat down and then as you come back up you push the bar over your head. It’s 95 lbs for men, 65 for women. I can’t remember what the weight is for women, but it’s 95 pounds. So you do 21 of those 21 pull ups, 15 thrusters, 15 pull-ups, nine. The rest of those nine pull-ups. Sounds easy, but man, it is. It is very difficult. Especially it’s like a sprint. I yes, I totally,
well you survived the lightning round Bruce for flying car colors. Good job, good job. And for people that want to know where to find you or what you’re up to, why don’t you tell everybody, where can they find you on social media or what are you up to these days?
I just [inaudible] picture on Instagram and then Bruce pitcher, extreme weight loss on Facebook and then, and then what I’m doing now is just doing bootcamps. Um, do one here in Utah. We’re thinking of starting another one up in either Colorado or Utah. So if you’re out in that area, you can message me on Facebook and we can get you set up. And then I do destination bootcamp, which it’s from the show. People come in and I’m from all over the world. We’ve had people from Switzerland, Italy, all over come in and do a year long journey as well and lose your weight and work on the mindset of peace. And I’m coaching football as a hobby for fun and just loving life.
That’s awesome. You guys will put all the information in the show notes so that you guys can find Bruce on social media and that way as well. The next time he does a new bootcamp you can find out the details
but want to hire you to be a motivational speaker. What’s the best way to get ahold of you, Bruce?
Um, they can just either email me or message me on Facebook or um, on Instagram those messages. That’s the best way to do it.
Okay. Yep. We’ll put that in the show notes because I know that you are a great motivational speaker and I love doing that. Yeah, I love to see you get on stage a lot more. Um, so I definitely recommend hiring Bruce for that. Um, once again, Bruce, thank you so much for coming on and do it. We will definitely have to have you on again in the future cause there’s a lot more things that we weren’t able to get to in this episode that we’d love to talk to you about. So thank you so much for being a part of the fit, fit, fit experience podcast.
We love you Bruce guys, thank you so much to keep up all the good work you guys are doing. Awesome.
So much for listening to today’s episode with Bruce pitcher. We really, really hope you enjoyed it and we really do hope that you will share it with your friends and family. Some of that can benefit from listening to Bruce’s story. If you’d like today’s episode, please, please leave us a review on iTunes and leave a comment there as well and please subscribe to the show and that way you’re always updated when new episodes come out.
Yeah, and if you guys want to find us and follow us on our social media outlets, you can find me at to fit app home and I’m on almost every social media network there. And also my site is the number two fit@home.com you can subscribe to my newsletter.
Yup. And mine is fit to fat to fit.com and all my social media handles are at fit to fat to fit. Thank you guys so much and we’ll see you back here next week.
[inaudible].
