Hello everybody and welcome to the fit to fat to fit experience podcast. I’m your host drew Manning. Now Lynn unfortunately is over in Thailand. I know poor her right and it, which means I’m stuck here in Hawaii doing the podcast by myself, but hopefully you guys don’t mind that. Hopefully you still will listen to this episode today. I sit down with Abel James AKA the fat burning man. Uh, for those of you who don’t know who Abel is, Abel James is the bestselling author of the wild diet. He’s an entrepreneur and a real food Crusader as the number one rated health podcast in 80 plus countries. April’s award-winning web series fat burning man has helped millions reclaimed their health with cutting edge science, outdoor workouts, and outrageously good food. When his debut cooking app, caveman feast bested the food network and Martha Stewart with more than 1005 star reviews in 48 hours, April became the first independent publisher to hold Apple’s number one food app and number one podcast at the same time, he’s a leading voice in new media.
April was named as one of the 100 most influential people in health and fitness along with Michael Polen. Dr Andrew whale are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Deepak Chopra. April started on ABC and been featured in people magazine entertainment tonight, NPR, Forbes, many more. Also a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. April has toured internationally and won several awards for vocal performance. Hailing from the frosty back was of New Hampshire. Abel lives with his wife and rambunctious yellow lab in the mountains of while there, Tennessee from the South. Y’all, um, April’s a good guy. Uh, I was on his podcast a while back, so I’m so stoked to have him on today. We cover a lot of fun topics that we talk about intermittent fasting. We talk about the difference between paleo and his wild diet. Um, and he talks about how it’s paleo ish. Um, we also talk about intermittent fasting for kids.
Not a lot of people out there talking about this for kids. Is it safe? Is it good for kids to do this type of, uh, lifestyle? Uh, we talk about the details of that and we talked about his TV show. So for those of you who don’t know him, I had Sean T on a while ago and he told me about his TV show. My diet is better than yours. Well, April’s one of the trainers on the show. Um, uh, promoting his wild diet and uh, he talks about the details of how we got picked for the TV show and, and, and how he’s liking it and what kind of feedback he’s gotten, uh, about his, uh, his wild diet. So stay tuned for an awesome episode, but before we jump in to the episode, today’s episode is brought to you by dollar workout club.com now dollar workout club.com.
For those of you who don’t know yet is an online program that MI Lynn and Natalie Hodson created together. It’s an online platform where you, the consumer gets access to five at home workout videos, five new healthy recipe videos and five new motivational videos every single week. Absolutely new content. Now you pay just $1 per week to subscribe to this online platform. Now the workouts, which is what most people use it for, are all based at home. Minimal equipment. You don’t need fancy dumbbells or pull up bars or yoga mats or anything like that. You can use things around the house chairs, you know, water bottles, big fruits, things like that. And all the workouts are only eight to 20 minutes long. You guys, they’re not 60 minutes by any means or 45 minutes. Uh, our philosophy is working out smarter, not longer, so they’re fast, efficient and all you really need is 10 to 20 minutes and they’re for all fitness levels, beginner, intermediate, and advanced.
No matter what level you’re at, you’re going to get a kick butt workout and you’re really gonna enjoy working out with me, Lynn and Natalie, you’ll see the type of humor in the videos that we, that we have. So anyways, check it out. It work on club.com we appreciate them being a sponsor of the show. And let’s jump in to talking with April, April. James, thank you so much for joining us here on the fit to fat to fit experience podcast. How you doing today? I’m doing awesome. Thanks so much for having me, drew. Yeah, no, I appreciate it man. I, I’ve wanted to have you on for some time to be honest with you and, but I know you’re super busy and, uh, I’m glad that we finally made this happen. So thanks again. Me too.
It was ah, you know what, four years ago when we first met and, uh, I’ve been seeing you bouncing around the internet or web
for a while, so it’s great to reconnect yet. Yeah, no, and for the, for all my listeners who don’t know, I was on Abel James podcasts about four years ago and that was like one of your first dozen or two podcasts, right? It was, yeah, it was like in the, in the first few weeks. Well, I’m glad that we connected, man. And uh, there’s so much that I want to try and fit into this 45 minute episode with you. So I’m going to try, I’m just gonna jump right in if that’s okay. Hit it, kid. The first thing I want to talk to you about is your, is the wild diet. Let my listeners know kind of what the specifics are, because I think a lot of people, even me at first was like, okay, how is this different than paleo? Can you kind of talk to that first?
Yeah, absolutely. So the wild diet is basically about getting your food to the best quality you possibly can. It’s all about making sure that you have 100 100% control over the food that goes in your mouth and making sure that it’s always fresh. And if you’re, so if you’re eating animal foods, you want to go for pasture raised, like foods or animals that were raised on their natural diet, the way that nature intended in the wild world.
Okay, so does that mean organic? Does that mean people, if people go, they have to go to like a whole foods to buy these types of meats or what does that mean specifically?
That’s where it gets useful to kind of talk about the paleo lens, to see the world view, to see the world through. So, for instance, if you’re looking at a, at a steak, you want to make sure that it’s not the junk processed factory farm steak from a sick cow that was raised on corn as opposed to its natural diet of grass. So, uh, so yeah, we’re definitely talking about food quality there. And we’re also talking about avoiding highly inflammatory foods. Uh, specifically most grains, especially modern gluten grant AINS like wheat, they can be really problematic for a lot of people and you might think that you’re eating it and not really having a problem or gaining fat. But a lot of times that can be happening beneath the surface. So getting rid of the inflammatory modern types of foods that we’ve only been eating for a few decades as opposed to thousands of years is what we’re going after. But I think a lot of people when they first hit your paleo, they think back to caveman days and kind of like modern day Atkins and just going to McDonald’s and order ordering, you know, three patties without fun. And I just want to be very clear with people that that’s not what I’m talking about. In fact, most of the plate is made up of fresh green and leafy and colorful veggies. So it’s a very plant based approach,
which is great because I love that approach because that’s kind of so much or how I eat and I teach my fellows to eat as well as is. I don’t really consider myself 100% paleo or 100% vegan, but kind of a best of both worlds, if you will, where you take as many nutrient dense vegetables as you can, but then also you’re getting high quality meats and it sounds like you’re kind of talking up the same alley there, right? Yeah, absolutely.
Because I, you know, eating nose to tail and eating, uh, animal foods in particular, it’s something that’s really contentious for a lot of people. In fact, I used to be a vegetarian. Um, that said, you know, when you look at the, the quality of the great meats that we’ve been eating for a long time, um, there are so many nutrients in there that are difficult to get from other foods. But the problem is if you’re going for factory farm me the junk, the processed meat that you feed, you see in most like fast food restaurants that doesn’t have the same nutrients in it. And in fact it has a lot of things that could hurt you. And so that’s, that’s why it’s so important that people kind of see this as a tool to view fueling your body, you know, and less about a particular diet. It’s like you deserve the highest quality food. And it all starts with knowing about what you’re up against when you walk into a supermarket because it can be intimidate.
Yeah. And I think that’s where there’s some confusion. It’s like, okay, this meat that I’m looking at here at Walmart doesn’t say factory farm farm on it. Right. It’s hard to tell. And so what are some two or three things that people can do to educate themselves on the labeling? What to look for, what, what not to get those kinds of things?
Yeah, that’s a great question. Well, there are a few buzzwords that mean absolutely nothing. Okay. All right.
Sure. Yup. [inaudible]
nonfat a lot of times those products are targeted at people who are eating a low fat diet and often of processed foods. And that’s what happened to me when I, you know, I accidentally put on fat as opposed to you. I was in my early twenties, basically by following that, the low fat advice. And so the problem there is that oftentimes there are added sugars. So no matter what you’re eating, you want to stay firm, stay away from a few things. And that’s a added sugars. Also, GMOs, uh, could be in the form of high fructose corn syrup. There are a lot of different buzzwords there. You don’t have to worry about that as much because if you buy organic foods, those are all uh, without GMOs. Uh, also MSG motto, sewer, monosodium glutamate. That’s something that is actually an appetite enhancer. And they use it in labs to induce obesity in lab rats. Uh, it’s, it’s that powerful. So staying away from that will make you less hungry so you can fill up on less. But all in all, you know, it doesn’t have to be organic, but what you want is to get fresh food that hopefully comes from somewhere close to you. So going to farmer’s markets is something that a lot of people don’t really do in their day to day life. But when you go there and you meet your farmer, completely changes your relationship with.
Okay. So let’s talk about meat specifically. Uh, eggs, chicken, beef. What are some words that people should look for on the packaging of their meat if they buy that at grocery store them that they should educate themselves about, like what’s higher quality for beef, chicken and eggs? Cause I think those are the three most common, you know, force, uh, forms of animal protein that people buy.
That’s right. Yes. So when you’re looking at meat, um, you’ll want to go for something that is, sometimes it’ll say pasture raised or raised on pasture, so that, that you could find in butter cream. There’s, there are a few brands that do that. Organic Valley is one Colona supernaturals Kerry gold. They have some great ones that are, that are out there that are pasture raised or grass fed for dairy and cows. Um, one step kind of low that but could mean the same thing is free range. So you might find that for, for bison or for other ruminant animals or maybe for chickens as well. Uh, it’s better to have pastured boasts both beef and chicken, but free range is also pretty good. Um, if it doesn’t say anything or if it says, you know, raised without hormones. A lot of times that’s kind of a code word for we’re, we’re trying to sugarcoat this, but basically this is just run of the mill stuff, uh, because it’s illegal to put a lot of those, uh, you know, hormones into animals.
Um, at the same time you want antibiotic free because it’s shocking what they do to animals in, in factories, uh, but they do pump them full of antibiotics in some cases hormones, uh, with chicken they even add are sick. Uh, so there are a lot of things that you want to stay away from and we feed our dog this way as well. So we’re, uh, finding high quality meat is something that’s usually best done at a, at a local, local farmer’s market or somewhere that that raises their own cattle. And in a lot of parts of the country you can find that people are surprised that it’s around them. Uh, also just going to your local health food store, they’ve been doing this for a long time. There’s nothing new about finding, you know, high quality meats. Some people have always been accurate, so, so that’s a big one. Organic is also very useful because it means they weren’t fed GMO feed. So you don’t want to eat animals that were eating GMOs, uh, either. So organic can be very useful.
No, I think that’s great. That’s great information for people out there. Because I think a lot of people go into the supermarket still and have no idea. Okay, what kind of meat should I get? Like, Oh, this chicken, chicken breast is on sale. It’s super cheap, but there it says all natural on it, that means it’s healthy. And so I think there’s still some confusion there. Maybe there’s some things that can be done with labeling that can help people out. And then also there’s some trust issues, right? You have to trust that this labeling from this company is, you know, they’re telling the truth about how their animals were raised. Am I right?
That’s absolutely right. And that’s just another reason we love, um, really getting into the food culture wherever we are. You know, we’ve been traveling the world for about the past two years, so we’ve, we haven’t been staying in one spot for more than like a few weeks at a time, generally speaking. But even in doing that, we’re, you know, the first thing we do is search out like the best foodie places that have delicious food. Cause we’re just foodies after all, you know, like we love living this way and it’s, it’s the best. And so when you see it as a hobby and a calling and something that you know is truly a gift for your family and your friends feeding yourselves great food, um, it’s amazing the things that pop up because so many people just have, you know, backyard chickens, just a couple of neighbors over and you might not realize that, but they’re trying to sell off their eggs or whatever. And there’s something just so, so powerful and meaningful about that. And I bet you’re probably getting into it in an interesting way over in Hawaii.
Yeah. And that’s what I was going to say. It’s so cool out here cause people, yeah, we’ll raise chickens or, or their own cattle on their own land and then they’ll sell it, you know, on the side of the road sometimes or at farmer’s markets. And it’s great to have access to that out here. But I know not everybody has access to that, but if you do, definitely take advantage of it. Um, so before we switch gears, is the wild diet, would you consider it paleo or, or is it, are there some things about it that make it, you know, quote unquote, you know, not 100% paleo. It’s paleo ish ish.
If it Mark Sisson of Mark’s daily Apple and, and primal blueprint. He’s a good friend of mine and it’s closer to primal than it is paleo. So people know those communities, they know what I’m talking about. But if you don’t, then it means that you can include things like pastured dairy if you tolerate it well. Some people don’t, but I like, you know, heavy whipping cream in my coffee. I like butter, which, you know, technically wouldn’t be paleo. There are other things like, uh, caffeine and coffee. I don’t really take offense to that. I love a good cup of coffee. Um, and you know, in traveling the world we really realized how some cultures are able to eat a lot of starch. Um, and a lot of starts in particular from things like rice, which, you know, on a traditional Palio diet would be absolutely excluded because it’s a grain. Um, but we’ve
been eating rice as kind of like a, a safe starch for, uh, for many years at this point. We never really stopped. W w we never went totally paleo. Um, so there are other little things like that where it’s basically just like get the highest quality food. You can, uh, stay away from modern and refined grains and focus on the quality of your food. And we’re all, you know, even when you, when you compare Rob vegan to paleo, sometimes there’s a lot of overlap there. So I like talking about the things that a lot of these diets share as opposed to the strict differences, you know, cause we all have to find our own disk, our own answer to what works with our own bodies. And that’s kind of what I love about you and your podcast and your message. It’s not like black or white. Hey, if you’re not paleo, get outta here. You know, I wouldn’t even listen to you. You’ve had like, um, uh, w w you’ve had like ritual on your podcast and you had, um, what’s his name, eat to live. Uh, dr Ferman, dr Ferman, I forgot his name for a second interview. I remember that.
Yup. Uh, yeah, I remember that episode. But it’s cool because I think if you can take good from, from each, you know, category out there and find what works for you, that’s what it’s all about. Rather than saying, Hey, you’re wrong. If you don’t think the way I think, I’m so glad you brought that up because you know, I’ve, I’ve interviewed over 200 people at this point, you know, experts from all different walks of life and uh, they disagree about almost everything. And in fact, the things that they disagree about oftentimes are used by the media to sell their books to like use as cooks and all this other stuff. But at the end of the day, they’re all eating pretty much the same thing for lunch. And that’s a lot of nutrients in generally, uh, veggies. So I like to make, I like to start there. Gotcha. I think that’s a great, that’s a great, uh, uh, piece of advice right there for anybody.
Just wanting to get started with living a healthier lifestyle. Add more vegetables into your day, that’s can’t go wrong there. Um, kind of shifting gears here, able. So intermittent fasting has been around for for years, right? A long time. Um, but I would say it’s become a little bit more mainstream over the past couple of years and that’s kind of where it was first introduced to. It was kind of listening to your podcast back in the day. Um, let’s say there’s somebody listening right now that has no idea what intermittent fasting is, but they’re looking for a new plan to follow. It’s the new year they want to try something out. What are some things you would say to someone that that kind of doesn’t know a whole lot about it, that wants to get started and wants to give this a try? What are some things you would tell a beginner on how to get started?
So one thing I’ll say is that you kind of have to have your lifestyle in line if you want to get success from fasting. So a lot of people, they’ll be, you know, weekend warriors, not getting any sleep, hitting the gym super hard and being like, I bet I can not eat and it will make everything better. Um, so I don’t want people to start there now if you are getting good sleep, if you’re in relatively good shape and you have a solid eating plan that’s basically going to prevent bingeing and things like that, then considering and can be awesome.
It works really well for a lot of men. And for some women it works. For some women it doesn’t work. So it’s all about kind of making, uh, making sure that you’re eating right for your own body, type for your own activity and really trusting your gut when it comes to this being like, if I’m really hungry, I’m going to eat no matter what. So you don’t want to push fasting too much, but at the same time, if you do get started with it, there are so many benefits to fasting for a lot of people experience increased energy during the day. And basically that just comes from skipping breakfast. So for me, uh, I’ve been doing interviews all day, it’s about two o’clock. And, uh, I won’t eat my first meal until generally like 3:00 PM or 6:00 PM, but I have, uh, some fat in my coffee. I have some whipping cream, sometimes I’ll take fish oil.
Uh, I had a bit of bone broth earlier, so I don’t really count those things as eating cause it’s not a sit down meal. Um, so you’re going most of the day kind of under eating and then, and you save, uh, you’re eating for kind of a compressed eating window is what they sometimes call it. So if you’re fasting, uh, in something called like a 16 eight Dru, which I know you tried, that means that you’re fasting for 16 hours a day and your eating window is about eight. So if for me, if I started eating at noon today, which I do sometimes, especially if I’m not going and working all day, um, then that means I start with lunch and then I might have a snack in between and then I’ll finish with dinner. Um, stop eating it at eight. So, you know, it sounds kind of radical at first, but then when you look at it, it’s basically just pushing your breakfast until, uh, until a little bit later in the day.
And that can increase growth hormone, improves fat burning for a lot of people cause you’re, you’re learning how to adapt to burning fat as your main source of fuel as opposed to sugar. And that’s something we can talk about later too. Um, but yeah, so it’s, it’s something that’s really fun to experiment with. I’ve been doing it for years at this point and at first people think, well, won’t all your muscles fall off? Yeah, I thought that too. So I had to try it myself and realize that I actually put on like seven or eight pounds of lean mass while I first started fasting. And, uh, it was, uh, it was a powerful feeling because you can, sometimes you can feel the growth hormone starting to kick in, in your body by doing the right things.
Okay. So, so would that type of a schedule, when, when would it be the optimal time to get a workout in? Would it be while you’re fascinating or would it be after you have a meal around three o’clock and then go work out? What’s the optimal time to work out on that type of a lifestyle?
There are a lot of gurus who argue about this for sure. What I’ll say is that the best time to save a big feast or start that, that eating window would be right after a workout. So, you know, sometimes I’ll be traveling or whatever and um, I’ll realize the only time I can eat is in the morning and the only time I can, you know, hit the weights or whatever is in the morning. So you basically just want to be eating the same time as that big workout, especially if you’re, you know, lifting heavy or something like that or doing really intense exercise. That’s the best hormonal benefits. So for me, uh, in a lot of cases I’ll work out in the afternoon or in the evening, especially if I’m doing weight-based stuff or, or strength-based workouts. So, uh, you might have a small meal before that you might work out fasted. I do that all the time. I did it this morning with a AI interval based workout. So working out fast, it has a lot of benefits too. It’s all about, you know, at the end of the day when make sure that you get your workout in. Don’t worry too much about what it is,
you know what I mean? Yeah. I always tell people the best, the best workout is, is any workout that happened. Right. So it doesn’t matter when it happens, but as long as you get in some type of a workout. So that’s great. Now what about, this might seem controversial, but what about kids with intimate fascinating. Is it not to good idea to get your kids to skip breakfast? Uh, what’s the science behind that if you’ve seen any science on that? Yeah,
that is such an awesome question. No one ever asks that question. Um,
well I do because I have kids and [inaudible]
that people really don’t, uh, think about that, cause I, I’ve think about this all the time when it comes to kids. Um, they need to eat when they’re hungry. Absolutely. Intermittent fasting is especially useful for adults. If you’re busy, if you don’t have time to cook three to six meals a day or something like that, it’s basically giving you the freedom to not have to eat all day long for kids though they’re growing. And more importantly than that, their brains are growing. So even if they have a weight problem or they’re carrying a little bit of extra weight as they’re growing up, focus on really instilling those healthy habits of making sure that they’re eating the right foods, especially their veggie. So you want to make sure that they’re getting lots of the fiber from veggies, plenty of healthy fats for their brain and their body to help them grow and recover. And then of course carbs too. You don’t want to like restrict any part of their diet, um, aside making sure that they’re dodging junk food for the most, for the most part. Anyway.
Yeah, I know. And thank you for answering that question because I don’t really hear a lot of people talk about, uh, you know, kids nutrition so much on the popular podcast. Cause I think, you know, most people that are listening are adults, but a lot of people out there have families and kids and it’s like, okay, well what did we do for our kids? They eat what we eat, but does that mean they have to follow this theme, this same lifestyle, whether it’s paleo or vegan or intimate fasting or you know, ketosis. It’s like, what do we do for our kids? It’s like, you know, we w w I feel like they are at an advantage where we’re more educated as parents now. Whereas back in the day when my growing up in my family and my parents had 11 kids and my mom just made food to try and feed 11 kids and it wasn’t always the healthiest food, but it was like, okay, you guys need calories. So peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It is like, you know, three of those a day. Yeah,
yeah, exactly. Well, I had a great conversation with dr John Berardi at precision precision nutrition, who’s just a great dude knows his stuff, but he was doing an intermittent fasting experiment and we talked about this like what do you do with your family? And it’s not like you can just say at the end of the day, okay, I’m going to, we’re all gonna pound 8,000 calories at dinner. Is that okay with you kids? It doesn’t work like that.
Exactly. And that’s what I feel like it’s hard for me to, to implement like an intermittent fascinating type of lifestyle for the longterm where cause going out, you know, having breakfast with my kids is an experiment. It’s a, it’s a memory. It’s like, you know, it’s Sunday morning, we’re going to have a breakfast as a family, then we’re going to the beach. I know, I don’t want to be that dad where I’m like, sorry kids, you know, I’m doing my diet. You guys have to go without me. So I think that’s a great, you know, balance that parents need to learn. So, but thanks for talking about that. Really appreciate that. Yeah, of course. Um, okay. Shifting gears again here. Um, my diet is better than yours, this TV show you gotta tell me the story of how you either tried out for this or, or got pulled into it. What was the story behind you getting on this TV show? Like what was the, you gotta tell me the background. I’m, I’m so curious.
Yeah. You know, I, I never thought that I’d be a reality TV star. [inaudible] something that was in my life plan at all, but it was, it was cool the way that it happened because we’d been traveling around for a while. I’m always doing weird new projects and I’m just trying to follow the breadcrumbs, breadcrumbs, you know, just like those interesting, weird things that you’ve never done before. I like just doing them to see the way that the world works with the sausage is made, you know? So, so it was actually someone tweeted at me, they’re just like, Hey, you’d be perfect for this, this show. And, uh, it was like a casting company. I’m like, what is this? And it said, um, no screaming trainers, no ridiculous stunts. Uh, and it was going to be like a, a weight loss and health competition and they wanted it to be fundamentally different from the biggest loser and way more positive.
And I’m like, that sounds kind of interesting actually. Uh, and so I just, you know, put in my information and then they kept calling me back and, um, I did like a Skype interview and they’re just like, okay, I like this wild diet guy. He’s a little crazy. And you realize, especially when you see it on TV, it’s like, Oh yeah, they were definitely from the casting department. I get it now. You know, it’s like, it’s so interesting how it all plays out, but uh, but yeah, I just kind of went back and forth with them and it didn’t come down to the, to the night before until I realized, man, we’re going to film this thing. Uh, it was all just so last minute and kind of thrown together and then all of a sudden I was filming a reality show competition the next day. And, uh, it came out really good.
You know, it’s, it’s been a pleasure to work on that. Not easy. Um, but, but pretty cool. Yeah. So the season premiered on January 7th, correct? Yeah. January 7th. Yep. And Shaunti’s the host and so is it’s one episode a week. So the next episode would be January 14th, right? Yeah. And technically I guess it’s two episodes cause it’s like a two hour event type thing. Um, but you can also watch it like on abc.com and Hulu, I, it’ll be out there for awhile. Okay. And how has the response been so far? It’s been so cool. I mean, yeah. Um, it was crazy because I was watching my, my website, like how many people were on the website through Google analytics when, um, when the wild diet one the first week and uh, Kurt lost 16 pounds, people saw that on the scale and all of a sudden the amount of people on my website, I was hoping the server would, would handle, it went from like 200 all the way up to like two thousand four thousand, 6,000, 8,000.
It keeps climbing. I’m like, Oh crap. And I’m an Amazon sold out of my book the one time in like the first hour and I’m just like, this is so surreal. Um, but people really I think responded to the fact that they’re seeing seeing this on TV, right? Because we’ve been in our little corner of the internet for a while, talking about, you know, eating, eating butter and eating bacon and delicious things again, and we know that it works. Um, but for people who haven’t seen that before, to see it on T is, is powerful for them. And I love that new people are, it’s starting to peak their interest because what I want people to take away is that you can change your life by eating real food. It doesn’t matter what type of diet you follow, but if, if you commit to doing it, it’s something that is absolutely in your power. So I know by the time that the, the whole finale airs and all of that, you’ll see that in action. And so I’m really excited.
Yeah, I can just see people now like asking the, you know their Starbucks person, can you put butter in my coffee? You know like at a restaurant, like just throw a ton of butter in there. It’s totally healthy. That’s what I heard. So I think that’s awesome. And even Shanti did a little call with you, which I thought was hilarious on his Facebook page where he called you up and had you talked about the science behind it, which was funny because he totally posted your phone number, right. Phone number to take it down. But then we put it back up at like a lower resolution. But I’m like, when I started getting lit up in the middle of this like live thing, I’m like, Oh, but shot.
Oh my God, we’ve become good friends. He’s such a ham bone. I love that guy. Yeah,
we didn’t get any stalkers from that calling you or you had to change your number from that bus. That’s great. No. What’s interesting with you talking about that, and I’ve kind of learned this from my own TV show fit fat to fit is it’s a whole nother world out there. This reality TV show casting companies and what goes on behind the scenes of what actually makes the episodes. There’s so much editing that goes on and all the producers that, that play a part in this and it’s a totally different world that you don’t know exists unless you’ve been a part of it. And you’re kind of realizing that and there’s good things and there’s bad things, right? It’s, it’s reality TV people, it’s all about ratings. But at the same time, if you can keep your integrity to what the show is about and at the end of the day, look, we’re trying to help as many people as possible.
Cause I feel like TV shows like the loser sometimes we’ll get a lot of, you know, negativity because it’s, uh, you know, they’re pushing people too hard or you know, it’s all about how much weight you can lose as quickly as possible. Sometimes it’s not realistic. But at the end of the day, I feel like you’re inspiring people. You’re motivating people to push them in the right direction. You know what I’m saying? So at the end of the day, I’m a big supporter of you doing this, and I love that you’re doing this. Um, obviously, you know, I have my TV shows. Well, and, um, yeah, I’m sure there’s going to be some negativity, but then in the day, you know, I can rest easy knowing that there’s people that are going to be inspired and motivated by this. Even though there’s, you know, even though there’s, there’s a little bit of negativity and there’s some criticism out there, there’s always going to be haters, right? There’s going to be people telling you you’re going to kill people by giving them, you know, having them eat chunks of butter in their coffee. You know what I’m saying? There’s always going to be haters out there. So I appreciate, I appreciate what you’re doing, able and, uh, you know, educating people on something that’s new, but I think a lot of people are, um, you know, what’s the word I’m looking forward to? They’re coming to this place where they, they’re open to knowing what’s out there and the new science that’s out there. So,
yeah, absolutely. And I hope that’s what they’ll take away from this because you’re right. I mean it’s, it’s so funny watching it happen on TV because you know that like it’s one 50th of the things that happened chopped up in a very specific way. And so it’s, it’s funny to see like people react to that on the other end and knowing how big of a story it is on the other end. You know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah. I know, I totally get that man. And so, uh, yeah, it’s really interesting. Like for example, with my TV show fit too, I had to fit, they, they filmed eight months worth of, of footage condensed into a 45 minute episode. It’s like there’s always going to be things that are, that aren’t going to be displayed or portrayed the way that you would want it to. But you gotta you have to understand that going into it like, Hey, they said this, that means that that means, you know, or they’ll take one piece of what you said and kind of totally, you know, throw everything else out the window. So
I’ll tell you what, it’s definitely a danger zone when you go to show, because it’s, it’s difficult not to come off as a crazy person. And hopefully, you know, despite me being dressed in a full bowl body, bacon costume at the beginning, I hope people realize that there is some sanity behind all of this. And you don’t, you know, you don’t want to take it too seriously. It’s, you don’t go to a TV show for the full story necessarily. You’d go for the story that you can watch and keep up with. And then the promise of all of this is that, you know, drew, you have an awesome website, you have books. People can get the full story. And hopefully that will, you know, watch you on TV. We’ll just help people get there. Yeah,
no, I totally agree. Um, before we, we kind of wrap up here, a book kind of wants you to talk about any, any other plans coming up for 2016 that you want to announce, um, to let my followers know, uh, anything they should be watching out for you for other than the TV show. Yeah, of course.
So, um, the wild diet is the name of my book that’s available anywhere books are sold. We just put out a new edition of that, uh, at fat burning man. I share all of my ventures. You know, I just put out an album with some of the guys from the Tim Gras band, which is like, uh, original music. So, uh, I’m doing some music stuff that’s called swamp thing. You can find that anywhere, uh, music is sold. Um, as far as new projects go, I’m always kind of improvising and seeing what the next weird thing is. So I know after this TV show there are going to be a lot more adventures. So you can always follow the, uh, the details and get the behind the scenes, uh, on my blog, which is fat burning man.com.
Okay. Now before, before we wrap up, I have a few questions that I want to ask you that are just kind of, you know, easygoing, uh, lighthearted. You know, we kind of do a lightning round at the end of our episode and, and Lynn unfortunately is not here. She’s all the way over in Thailand right now. So it’s me by myself. She usually does this portion of the show. I know, uh, I will be jealous if I wasn’t in Hawaii, but I’m not too jealous. Um, it could be worse. Uh, but anyways, uh, she usually does this portion of the show, so she’d be very disappointed in me if I didn’t deliver. Um, so this is just kind of a lightning round. A few questions, um, that I’m curious about. Uh, and you just kind of answer as fast as possible. Abel, what brand of toothpaste do you use? I bet you’ve never been asked that, right?
Uh, no I haven’t. I think it’s Jason, right? Peppermint or something. It’s one of those hippy dippy ones.
A brand of deodorant,
top brand. I’m not good on the brand thing. I can tell you what it looks like.
Is it another hippy dippy one from the [inaudible]?
Yeah, I mean you find out at health food stores, it doesn’t have any aluminum in it. It doesn’t have any artificial fragrances in it. There are usually like a three random ones that I have and never get again because I buy them.
That’s a cool thing though. Let me just say, when you started
eating right, you really don’t smell nearly as bad as you’d expect.
What that’s so true. When I first moved to out here to Hawaii did kind of another weird experiment where I stopped using deodorant for about, you know, four weeks and I just used kind of essential oils and it was nice because I um, you know, don’t have to wear a lot of clothes out here. So pretty much I’m sure lists all the time. Yeah. But it was great because I noticed after a couple of weeks that you know, that boo smell went away and I did not smell a nearly as bad as I did when I use deodorant. You know, right now I still use deodorant now was kind of a experiment cause I noticed when I would go to business meetings or travel for speaking engagements, you know, I couldn’t be on stage with these sweaty, sweaty pits. It just didn’t work out. And I’m like, okay, I gotta find, I gotta find, I know I gotta find a balance, but when I’m out here near the beach and I have nothing going on, I definitely tried to limit my deodorant use or use a safer one. But it’s totally paleo dude. Yeah. Ah, that’s hilarious. Okay, next question. Favorite movie? Uh, the usual suspects. Ooh, Todd. Oh that are the fugitives. Such a great one, man. That was Epic. Epic though. Harrison Ford was great in that movie. Uh, favorite band of all time.
Oh man. I like the wood brothers. Okay. Not too familiar with the Woodbridge [inaudible]. They play it like Bonnaroo and stuff like that. It’s a standup bass player and his brother and they just howl out these old like rockin Americana, bluegrass funk tunes.
Gotcha. Okay. Most embarrassing moment ever being on national television, full body bacon costume. Probably, you know, the first time I saw myself on TV was that, so my Lord, I’ve made it. I, uh, I totally understand the feeling is mutual. When I see myself on TV, I just cringe. I’m like, Oh, why did I say that? Or why do I look so weird? Or why do I sound so weird? Yeah. It is funny. A little so I can totally relate to that. Okay. I think I know the answer to this, but would you ever do fit to fat to fit?
It would be a tough sell. Let me just tell you that. It would be, it would be a tough sell. I totally understand. Like I said, I accidentally kinda did it. I didn’t gain as much fat as you, but, uh, having been there, I never want to be there again. You know what I mean? Gotcha.
Yeah, no, I totally understand. I’m just wondering for season two, I’m taking people’s names down. I’ll let you know. I change my mind in case there’s a season two a Fitbit to fill it. I’ll let you know, but I think it’s awesome. You know, for me, I’m not trying to push it on people, but obviously there’s, there’s people out there, trainers that are doing it and they’re definitely seeing some benefits from putting themselves in their client’s shoes for a short period of time. I don’t think, I’m not saying that’s one thing I’m trying to get across to people is I don’t feel like every single person that’s never been overweight needs to do what I did. But yeah, I think a lot of people out there can gain a better understanding by doing this. And so, yeah, I don’t want to say, you know, you have to do this to understand. I think for some people they can gain a better understanding.
You have to, I think it needs to come from a place of being there of true struggle, right? Like so many people who really make it, I’m using air quotes in health, come from a place of passion because they almost died, right? It could be the thyroid, it could be ms. a lot of autoimmune issues. For me, I’m allergic to like every antibiotic out there. So like being healthy is something that I have to do. Um, and so I think you’ll see that a lot in the health industry, in the good people and like, like you knowing the struggle is something that is so powerful for you being, you know, if you’re a trainer, you’re a coach or whatever and you’ve never been sick really, you’ve never really been overweight, you don’t understand where they are. It’s hard to relate. So having that experience is so powerful. Drew. I totally agree.
Yeah. No, and it’s great. You know, I think it’s a lot of people, the negative stuff comes from people that say, well, you know, for example, the cancer, you don’t need to have cancer to understand what a cancer patient’s going through. I totally get that. And I’m, you know, I’m never going to argue to something like that, but this kind of experiment that’s in a con, in a controlled environment, you know, you have a doctor monitoring you. It’s not like you’re going to die. Um, but at the same time, uh, it does give you a different perspective. So yeah, it does. Anyways. Okay. I asked, I asked you a little bit when I was on your podcast, if you wouldn’t mind singing for us just a little ten second blurb of something like swamp thing. Can you give us a little ten second blurb from, from swamp thing?
Sure. Down in Louisiana, Dow where the bull frog saying that’s awesome. That’s awesome man. Hey and I was going to tell you this, um, which is kinda funny, I told Shawn Stevenson who from the model health show, he’s got the number one, the number one voice in podcasting in my opinion. You are a close number two though. Thank you man. I appreciate that. Yeah, Sean is, he’s a great dude. I love Sean. He is. And, uh, but with that singing, that might bump you up to number one off to let him know you haven’t heard me sing bluegrass yet. I haven’t met and I want to hear you with your parents too cause they had done, you guys kind of jammed together sometimes. Yeah, we play at the farmer’s market every time I go down there. They live in st Augustine, Florida. So uh, we all get together and help out some old bluegrass tunes.
It’s the best. That’s awesome man. Well April I’ll let you go, but thank you so much for joining us here on the fit to fat to fit experience podcast. I loved having you on. Thanks for having me drew anytime, man. Okay. And we’ll see you on TV soon. So yeah, see what else you got to do. What are the funny stuff they make you do on reality TV? Oh Lord. Yup. Okay. Abel, thanks again for coming on. Thank you. Alright, you guys, thank you for another great episode. We’re so glad that you guys listen to this. If you enjoy our podcast, please, please share it to please go on iTunes, subscribe to our podcasts, give it a five star rating, leave a review. We’d definitely appreciate that. And also if you want to help the podcast go further, we would love if you guys would be open to donating to our podcast.
It does cost money to continue this. Uh, but we want to keep it available for you guys cause we think it’s a great Avenue to spread good quality knowledge about health and nutrition and fitness. And if you guys love it, then you can go to my website fit to fat to fit.com for slash podcasts. There’s a donate button on there, but we also appreciate you guys spreading the word. You can follow me on social media at fit two fat two fit on all on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Reach out to me with your questions, comments, people you want to have on, you want us to have on the show or topics you want us to cover. Uh, we’re, we’re open. We’re doing this for you guys. Lens, since she’s not here. Uh, her website is to fit@home.com. She has a newsletter on there as well as I do. And her social media handles are at the number two F I T a T H. O M. E, to fit at home on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. We love you guys. We appreciate you. Thank you so much for joining us. And we will be back here with another episode, another amazing episode on the fit to fat to fit experience podcast.
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