Hello. Hi everybody, and welcome to the fit to fat to fit experience podcast. It’s me, drew Manny coming at you guys from Kona, Hawaii. This is where we live. Um, it’s going to be me today just flying solo. Um, Lynn will be back next week, but today we have an amazing episode with you, uh, for you guys with kitty maca, Mateo from last night’s episode of fit to fat to fit on a and D. uh, today we get to dive in and get to know them a little bit more on a personal level, just like we’ve done the past five weeks with all the other trainers, clients from the show. Um, we get to know, uh, Mack and her story and why she struggled so much and why she hitted me. She’ll talk about that. Uh, we dive into Mateo and his journey of, you know, how serious has gout was a and w and why he thinks they’re a dynamic was so unique with him being a chef and Katie not really even caring about food and why that was such an interesting dynamic on the show.
Um, and we talked about how Mateo helped Mack kind of get out of her funk on her journey back to fit. We talked about their diet and exercise routine that they used, uh, on their journey to fit and some of the things that material’s learned with maintaining this lifestyle. Cause he’s a chef. I mean, let’s face it, he is in the food industry. He has a love for food, uh, that is totally different and foreign than Mack and her approach to food. So we talked about their exercise routine and, and how he’s, where he’s at today and how he’s been maintaining this lifestyle and some of the things that, you know, Mack regretted doing this journey. Like why, like what shifted her mentality during this episode. We dive into all of this. You guys will stick around. It’s going to be a great episode. Before we dive into the episode though, our show sponsor is dollar workout club.com now dollar workout club.com as you guys know, if you’ve been listening for a while is a program created by me, Lynn and Natalie Hodson who’s a mom of two who works in the fitness industry.
We created this online program because we felt like the other options out there weren’t as affordable and didn’t deliver, um, all the content that that people need. So what it is, it’s an online program where people can get access to at home workouts that are between 10 to 20 minutes long. They can get access to healthy recipe videos and motivational videos. Those three things are like no other in this industry. Most people have subscription programs to, you know, just online workouts that you can do or sometimes they have online workouts with, uh, you know, recipes. But ours has all three. So you have the, the dollar workout club workouts, the healthy recipes and the motivational videos that are created by us for you guys and you all, you pay just $1 a week. So all this quality content for just a buck you guys per week is, is why we feel a dollar workout club is so valuable and different than anything else that’s out there.
Um, you get five new workout videos every single week, five new healthy recipe videos every single week and five new motivational videos every single week. Um, we very, very rarely, uh, repeat any of the content. You’ll see that and we think it’s, it’s very, very valuable. High quality content for an affordable price. If you go to dollar workout club.com you can get all the details of how it works. There’s no contracts, no hidden fees. All it is is a buck a week you guys and we feel like it’s a, it’s definitely at least worth a try. So check it out. Dollar workout club.com. Our next sponsor you guys is highly, uh, highly is a performance apparel company that I’ve been working with for years now. I’ve fallen in love with their brand of clothes because a highly is a mix between a hybrid and the athlete. And so basically you can use their a workout gear for all different types of sports.
So from CrossFit to swimming to run into hiking, to biking, to sleeping in to Zoomba, no matter what, you can use their performance apparel for anything you guys in. It’s the highest quality content. I mean, think Lulu lemon with a really great styling and a lot more affordable prices to be honest with you. The, the shorts are my favorite piece of clothing. You guys, um, you, if you go to [inaudible] dot com forward slash fit to fat to fit, you will get up to 50% off on their exclusive member pricing. So all my followers that go to that URL, uh, highly to.com for such fit, fit, fit, that’s H Y L E T e.com and you can receive up to 50% off on their performance apparel. Go check out their USA shorts, which are some of my favorite. Um, and uh, I’ve been using them for years and I love them. Very good quality apparel, uh, that lasts forever and it has great style than you guys. All right. Those are our show sponsors and let’s go hang out with Mack and Mateo.
[inaudible].
All right, Mack and Mateo. Thank you guys so much for joining me here on the fit different to fit experience podcast. How are you guys doing doing out there in New York?
Yo yo, it was so good.
Crush me and he has always
killing it
now. Now is it snowing out there in New York is a cold right now? What’s the weather like?
Well we had a conversation with the weatherman and we told them that we were sick with a cold weather. So today it’s a little better.
Okay, like 40 degrees. Is that better than
got thirties it’s not. You’re coveting the sun over there so
I know I try, I’m trying not to rub it in. It is sunny and 75 right now.
All good. And probably just got off of the coldest Valentine that I can remember and it was about minus whatever it was and I think a lot of people were not able to make it out, at least not to, to see me at my place of business. But some of them, yes, some people trooped out and they got some good food and they got some roses and they got some chocolate. But a lot of, uh, I think a lot of ladies out there are upset that their man chicken down in the state home because it was a little too cold for them. Ah, that’s it. It’s a
bummer to hear. Um, so great episode last night. You guys. Fantastic. You guys are a unique, what I mean by that is Mateo, you’re a chef. You love, love, love food. I put three lesson in there by the way, and because it has an emotion for you. Whereas Mac, your background with food is like, you know, I, uh, I don’t do to live. I live to eat. Yeah. So you guys had, so when you guys first met each other, what would you guys find your, um, your, your duo, your, um, you know, you guys set up a little bit interesting, unique, like, okay, this is going to be a challenge. Like what, what was your guys’ first thoughts when you met each other?
Well, I instantly loved Mateo. I’d be like, it’s like how a mother falls in love with the baby. I fell in love with Mateo the moment I saw him.
So you’re the mother and he’s the baby. Okay. Gotcha. Donna had her child. Gotcha. Okay. Madonna and her child.
And it has to do with the fact that just Mateo has one of the best energies that could ever be given off. I mean he just exudes this warmth that, I mean, what Mateo, cover your ears, but he is, he’s just the kindest, warmest person and he’s super energetic. And he also like without even meaning to like was there for me, like he wanted to show up for me. So it was um, it was even casting in the very beginning. They said to me, um, you have to do this project cause you’re going to meet the person that’s going to change your life. And they had already picked Mateo out. It was my understanding. And they were right. They were absolutely right.
That is so cool. And Mateo, what did you think of Mac?
Well, I w I want to say the same thing. Um, I don’t know if I love this first site cause Michelle would be really mad
and uh, w with her presence or her hearing it, but either way, um, I just thought instantly there was a, a magical connection and it didn’t really matter that she had a different food philosophy than I did. Uh, that didn’t seem to get in the way. I mean there were a couple of moments where I like, I really don’t get, you know, what she’s thinking and she probably thought the same thing with me. But honestly that was such a small part of our relationship. It didn’t, that didn’t really matter because basically I wanted to get to know her. She wanted to get to know me, we wanted to help each other and we were on board since day one and that was the most important thing. So, yeah. Yeah. So, so I really was impressed with whoever got us together. They probably have a side business of putting people together if that person wants to, you know, branch out.
I think also because our like instant care for each other. Like it wasn’t even just instantly instant likeability. But instant care. I think also because of the circumstances of the show sort of pushes that, um, or the experiment pushes that. But um, it allowed the conversations on these two extremes, like me not necessarily caring that much about food and him caring instead of us like butting heads. I was willing to listen to his point of view and I think he was willing to like consider mine. So instead of it just being like, you don’t what you’re talking about, it’s like, Oh, like care about you. So I kind of want to listen to why you feel that way. Does that make sense? So I think that helps a lot.
Yeah. It came from a place of extremes were aware. Katie was extreme one way and I was extreme in either way and both of them were not really working out for either one of us. And so we both decided, Hey, you know, maybe this person’s got a little something that will help us be less extreme and on that premise, but not even saying what we’re saying now. We’re saying it now, but without saying that stuff, that’s sort of how we developed a relationship day in and day out. Yeah, that is. So that is so cool. Now I’m gonna tell, have you ever worked with a personal trainer before? Not on a regular basis. I was actually in the health club business in my teenage years,
about six professions just to throw that out there.
Okay. I didn’t know that, but my first job was at a health club. Uh, ironically and you know, I worked a couple of sessions with people there but, but nothing in this level, in this kind of intensity. No. Yeah. So I was asking you what was your perception on [inaudible] with personal trainers in general? Like what, what, what did you think of personal train of before you met Mack and working with her? Uh, I didn’t get to be totally honest. Judgmental, if you want to, they’d go for personal. I didn’t, um, I didn’t really think about it. I was always a self motivated person. And you know, I’ve been doing martial arts for over 20 years, almost 25 years. And I always wanted to get myself to do things. Um, and I thought that a personal training was like a luxury, actually personal with a lot of money.
You can get a personal trainer, people who look really fit, they must start personal trainers. So that might’ve been a little bit of what my idea was. But having been in that, in the health club business when I was younger, I knew that there were a lot of competent people, a lot of passionate people, a lot of people who cared. I would say that Katie is, you know, that Mack is more than normal in that her amount of her level of care goes above and beyond. And that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who do that as well. But that’s not something that I thought of when I thought of a personal trainer, that someone would be that into every aspect of my life in terms of helping me and, and you know, certainly should do that for me. So you didn’t have any preconceived notions about trainers going into this, like, Oh, nothing.
She won’t be able to understand. I didn’t have any negative preconceived notions. I just thought that, you know, people in Hollywood had personal trainers and people who could afford Harrison. That was pretty much it. But no, but, and in terms of personally I thought, you know, I was a person, always did things myself. If I wanted to do something, I needed to motivate myself. I didn’t want somebody to help me. Um, but now with so much information out there and nutrition and types of exercise and, and physical therapy and all this sort of stuff, obviously people who are very talented, like Mack, who have a lot of certification, a lot of experience with people, this is a really important thing. It’s a really big deal. Yeah. Now, Mac, have you worked with someone like Mateo, a chef that you know, has this love for food? Like he did?
Well, I’ve never worked at the chef, so I thought that [inaudible] really excited about it. And actually when I found that out it was, I was excited because one of the things I run into, especially in New York city is the Grubhubs syndrome where people refuse. And this like really like indignant way refuse to take ownership of their food or to like, you know, to, to buy it, to chop it up, to cook it and then to play it. I mean all that four steps are like the, you try to suggest to somebody who has a busy lifestyle here and they will go into a coma. And so to meet somebody who not only takes ownership of food but has more knowledge about food than anyone I’ve ever met, um, and a love of food in that way. We just sort of spun it just a little bit. Like I didn’t have to do a three 60, we did like, I don’t know, like a quarter turn and we sort of changed the relationship that he had to food a little bit. But you know, I, I have worked with people or I have worked with other clients that are Mateo size before.
Okay. Yeah, no, that was just curious about that because yeah, I mean you guys are an interesting dynamic and I thought it was so cool. They paired you guys together and you guys at the end of the day, I think we’re perfect for each other cause you both changed each other’s lives for the better. Um, now, Katie getting into your fit to fat experiment to say you struggled would be an understatement. I mean, I know how hard it was for you because here’s the thing is a lot of people hearing this don’t know that we Skyped once a month and we talked throughout the process and you know, a lot of that didn’t show on the episode. Um, at what point, at what point, and you can be totally honest here, what, at what point did you hit me the most and why do you think it was so hard for you? Why do you think this is so hard for you?
After about six weeks, um, there’s like a, there’s an a gigantic poster board of your face and there’s, your eyes are scratched out and hollered, you M um, there’s little pieces of paper ripped off. Um, I got to the point where I, you know, the, the thing that was so hard for me was the fact that anything that’s so extreme has to do with one, a lifestyle change. There was that, but too, I, you know, went from, you know, eating anywhere between like 14 to 2000 calories depending on kind of what activity I was doing a day two, trying to eat 4,000 calories to 5,000 calories a day. And my system just was not, I’m in the, I’m in like a really strong habit of not getting too full. And like always, I do not like getting too full. It’s very uncomfortable to me. Um, and I felt like every single day was things like Thanksgiving competition.
Like I’m sitting with my family trying to see you could eat the last piece of pie, but that was every, almost every meal and every day. And I had created a lifestyle where I move a lot. And, um, imagine trying to, you know, you know, after your Thanksgiving meal and like fighting other people for the last piece, even when you didn’t it. And then trying to go, you know, show people, demonstrate people how to demonstrate to people how to do exercises. Um, that’s the last thing you want to do. The only thing you want to do is just to lay down to give yourself some relief. Um, and I’m used to being uncomfortable. That’s like part of my practice I think as a trainer, putting my body in an uncomfortable situation. So that is familiar, but it was just, it, I, there was no reprieve. That was the hardest thing for me.
Uh, I never didn’t feel full. So it’s kind of like, I mean, do you equate that to like training? Imagine if you never had a moment where you weren’t so sore that you were like walking, you know, like a stick figure, you know, like it would be super, super hard to train. And it was then that’s not to say that one couldn’t, and it’s not to say that I, you know, didn’t keep trying and probably, you know, could have tried harder. But, um, I got to the point where I started to get, after six weeks, I started to get, um, sick, like so sick that I, uh, like couldn’t sit on the train without my head between my legs. I started to throw up when I was eating, I had to go to the ER twice to get antinausea medication put into my veins. I, uh, couldn’t train anymore.
And I, I, uh, I, I felt like I was drunk all the time, which I thought would be awesome, but like I wasn’t drunk, I wasn’t too drunk. Um, and I, and then I couldn’t watch TV. I mean, cause everything was like spinning all the time. And then I started to get, and then like the, the cap of that is because I hated that feeling so much. I started to become afraid of eating. That was the end of the project. Me the last month, every time I had to eat, you would think I was about to go dead lift like 350 pounds cause I was amping up to eat.
Yeah. And here’s, yeah, it goes, goes against, it goes against the framework of the show. But when I had heard about a little bit about what Mac’s struggles were from B, I said, well, you know, she’s going about it the wrong way and she’s eating the wrong foods to be, she’s not enjoying herself. And it’s becoming like a chore. And I think a lot of what we’ve seen in previous episodes is some of the trainers were like, yeah, I can do this. I’ve done this before. I’m down with you, give me like six burgers, you know, whatever. And they, you could see that their relationship to food was a little bit different than max was. And I thought that it would be helpful if I could just take her out on a night and slowly introduced her to 10,000 calories if that’s, if that’s such a thing my way, which is you know, to roll, you know, really know how to roll. Like go out and go to six bars and go to six restaurants and that’s how I roll and you don’t feel like you’re having 10,000 calories but at the end of the day it’s, that’s been 10,000 calories. So I just felt like, cause she didn’t know how to do that, that that
was like not, you know, not as productive.
Like I needed a personal trainer to teach me how to [inaudible].
Yeah, you guys. Yeah, that is such a good idea. That is a really cool, I’m actually, I think that would be make for a great episode of Mateo. Got a train back, but that would be so cool. I should say I should take all the trainers out on one night, start off at like 6:00 PM we’ll find out, we’ll find a happy hour at four. Get them home at 4:00 PM or 4:00 AM would be to shut shutoff at Fort. They have to hang with me until 4:00 AM and just bring them on. Let’s do a little podcast on that. That’d be introduced the introducing them to your world. I see what you’re saying man. That is actually a great idea and I totally see it cause here’s the thing I need that people need to understand is, you know, some people were like, Oh you know, overweight people don’t eat this way.
Like this is ridiculous. These trainers, you know, don’t, you know that’s not how I, how I eat and, and that’s true, right. I mean th that is reality TV show. There was pressure from the producers. I mean you remember Mack like there was pressure for you to, Hey you got to finish this, you got to eat this, you got to gain weight. Yes. I know. I remember how mad you were and I totally get it. Cause my, my experience was different. I didn’t have producers watching it. I had six months to gain weight. And, uh, I, you know, I did push myself once a week doing a food challenge. But I can imagine if I had to do that food challenge every meal of every day for four months, I could see how sick of it you would get. So we’re trying to,
I do think that there’s a big difference between four months and six months. I mean, I just, I would be curious to see, not, not necessarily that I would want the whole thing to last long, but I think I would have maybe figured it out a little bit because I did start, I wanted to like the foods, you know, it’s not like I was like, I wasn’t like, Oh man, I’m better than Pringles. I was like, Oh cool. I get to eat Pringles, but I can only eat a quarter of a can of Pringles normally, you know, so I can’t, but I would force myself to eat a whole can, you know? And instead of eating one piece of pizza, I would have three pieces of pizza or I would try, you know, and so it because it, because it was so extreme. So I mean I, I, I, it’s, I, I appreciate you saying that your experience was different and that you were able to enjoy it a little bit. And I know that obviously you had a hard time too. I mean I know you had a really hard time, but there’s something about the time limit of it and then I’ll let you set it. The pressure that weighed on me
and it is reality TV cause that’s the thing. It’s like, okay, if you only gained 15 pounds in four months and you had a good time with it, there’s the people that would say, well you just not even noticeable 15 pounds. You know, I could poop that out. You know what I’m saying? Like people say that. So there’s always going to be complainer’s both ways is what I’m saying. And there’s no perfect formula. Four months, six months, you know, for speed yourself. Like there’s no perfect way of doing it. The, the idea, and that’s not what the show is all about. It’s just to get you to see things from a different perspective and hopefully at the end of the day, come out of it. A better trainer. A better understanding, more empathy, more respect for what your client goes through. I mean, not what Mateo lives, like if retail live that way. Yeah. Shoot. Who wouldn’t change their lifestyle if you felt miserable all the time eating those foods. So I just wanted to let people know that now
record, I never felt miserable eating any of my foods. It doesn’t sound like it. Especially, you know, if it’s not good enough to eat, I won’t eat it. So jump doesn’t really enter. I mean, there was, that’s not true. I mean, I have put junk in my body. There are certainly things I shouldn’t eat that I do, but for the most part, it’s the pursuit of everything delicious and it’s gotta be great. And that’s why I travel and that’s why I cook and that’s why I go out as much as I do.
Yeah, I know. So that’s awesome. Um, okay, so really quick Mac at the SAC about the emotional part because you know, I hopefully you’re okay with talking about some of the behind the scenes stuff, but I remember at one point you just saying you don’t even know if you want to be a trainer anymore. You don’t even know if you want to do this. Like you obviously did not like the experiment because of how hellish it was for you. Talk to us about the emotional part that, that you went through and how you were able to overcome that at the end or what your perception was of the whole thing. Now that it’s over.
So I’m the type of person that needs a little. So I think, I think a lot of us are emotionally attached to our food. I think that’s not like a, people might find that surprising, but you start to talk to people about their food and they get really, you know, precious about it. And I was precious about the types of foods that I ate. I knew they made me feel good and I liked them. So that part of control in my life was taken away. Then the other thing I could control, cause there’s only things, so many things you can control in a day, right? I can’t control the subway system. I can’t control, you know, the little kid who runs into me and spill something on me. I can’t, you know, there’s so many things I can’t control, but the things I can, like my food and the amount of time I spend working out, those things were taken away from me.
Um, and I had this like weird hope that during the time that was spent focusing on food or focusing on diet and exercise, I would feel with some other passion and I was too tired to find another, basically self-esteem thing to replace that. So I, you know, I tried to, you know, I’m artsy-fartsy so I tried to, you know, do more writing. I tried to, you know, work on, uh, you know, some of my acting stuff. I tried to read more. I tried to just even just watch, like, you know, all like the godfathers, like, you know, some of the classics. Like I tried to do things where I would be able to have some self esteem and I wasn’t able to do any of that. I felt awful the whole time. And so that continued to feed back into myself and my self esteem and what I thought about myself.
And this is completely separate entity. So I thought it would be a lot more vain in this project. And I did not care how I looked because I felt so bad. Um, and I got to the point where I was in, my training was starting to suffer and I wasn’t necessarily like called out for it in the very beginning, but I lost clients during this journey. People I really care about. Um, and so I deserved that. Um, so I wasn’t doing a good job at the one thing that I was really proud of and I had no other, you know, pieces of the table to keep me up. So I went home every day, uh, much earlier than I ever would have. So I went from like, you know, a solid, you know, 10 to 12 hour day of working to, you know, really the bare minimum, like five sessions a day.
And then I’d go home and I would sleep and I’d wake up and I’d eat and I’d set alarms and I’d eat. So my quality of life is diminished so quickly to the point where I wasn’t as sure what I was able to do anymore. I doubted myself. I doubted my abilities. Um, I couldn’t stay awake. So, uh, like I couldn’t find a way you’ll feel good about myself and I will got to the point where I was feeling incredibly suicidal. And I don’t actually say that lightly. I was kind of like, really? I was like, well, what’s the point of anything? Um, and I’m somebody who has struggled in the past with, you know, self-esteem, mental health issues, body image issues, just like everybody else. Y’all don’t play y’all crazy. Okay. But this brought out every single act to this. Like it just brought it to the surface to the point where I, you know, I felt like I had nothing.
It was crazy. I was losing money. I was getting, I felt, um, I got, I remember one day I was so uncomfortable and I don’t know why I couldn’t lay down. I couldn’t stand up. I couldn’t sit down, I couldn’t take a shower. And I found one cool portion of my, of my apartment, um, which is a hardwood floor and it was the old NFI S if I got in like this, like weird fetal position with my legs underneath the pillow was the only time my body didn’t hurt. It was like the weirdest. Oh man. It was like I couldn’t explain the amount of pain. And um, I, it was, I and I couldn’t. And again, the thing that was so frustrating for me is I thought I was going through this experience so I could feel how Mateo felt and I, the Mateo definitely didn’t feel this way and that nobody that are, none of my clients had ever felt this type of uncomfortable. This is like weird pain, constant pain. If they had, I would hope they would have shared that with me. So, so yeah, I mean, things got dark, our pay lights out. I was ready to quit. I thought about quitting. And the only lab at the end of the model was Maceio. That was it. Matteo was deep. He’s in. And my only reason for continuing to do this,
that’s what I remember. I remember talking to you about that. And I knew that this was turning South really quick because your experience was a lot different than mine and other trainers experience, uh, experiences. There was a couple of other trainers on the show that, you know, got to a dark place as well. But yours I could tell was like, okay, something’s gone wrong here. Like this is affecting her, you know, her emotional stability and she does seem like very depressed. I’m like, this is, this is too. And so honestly, I didn’t, we didn’t, you know, foresee that happening. And I don’t think that, uh, anyone intended it to be that way for you. And so, but like how did, so how did you, okay, so once you started training and eating healthy again, at what point did you be like, you know what, I know what my purpose is again and I feel better. Like at what point of the, during the journey was that, did that happen for you?
Well, I would say that it still took, it took a solid month for me not to still be afraid of food. I was still very, very, very afraid of food and like she was afraid of food almost until the end. Yeah, almost. I think you’re probably right. Um, I tried to mask a little bit from a Teo but you know, PCs through me
material. Are you able to help her, do you think on a deal or help her with a relationship with food on the journey back to fit and if so, how?
I don’t think so exactly. Um, I don’t think exactly was able to help her with
that portion of it. I think him being a person,
I think emotionally, I mean obviously look, she was physically ill, right? And she was physically ill.
how embarrassing is this? I got sick from eating too much food. Like, I mean I can’t even, I’m so embarrassed that that was my experience. She didn’t train,
train, she didn’t train for it. Like I’ve been training my whole life eating. So she tried to train her whole life. You know when people say you lose, you know, uh, how much weight are you going to lose in four months? I’m like, look, look me 46 years to put on this weight, I should give myself a little bit of time and take it off. So we meet to try to take it off in four months is not respecting what I’ve done for 46 years. No disrespect to my respect and my 46 years. What I’m saying, what I’m saying by Mack is that she was so physically ill and it was so traumatizing to be that physically ill and not in control of many aspects of your life.
It sounds so silly, but I was so sick. I mean, it just feels so silly to talk about
if you think about it, even if the, the, the dichotomy, the different poles that the North pole and the South pole to this is very funny. Um, ironically funny in that when a person is trying to gain a lot of weight or when a person’s trying to lose a lot of weight and when a person’s trying under extreme pressures for goals or you know, under the scrutiny of a camera, all these sort of things that occur, it’s really the same thing.
It really is, came to so many parallels. You can
say it so harder than the other. It’s not really, it’s a lot of parallels. And what I’m saying again is because she didn’t train, uh, to, to, to eat this way and she had to eat. So that was really a shock to her system. But what I’m saying is that for me to concentrate on like, why don’t you like food? We should eat food would have just been more poisoned pill. I mean, she was already had a bad relationship with food. It was already like a damaged relationship. And for that she had a relationship where she didn’t really, she enjoyed what she enjoyed, but it was only a certain amount of what she wanted to enjoy. And then to have this, this former process go on and then not at it really be like food is the enemy, you know? So for me it wasn’t about food therapy.
We got to that at the about like how you can enjoy things in a different way. But I think that’s when she taught me that I can have one cocktail as opposed to 15 and still enjoy the one cocktail and be satisfied with that. That was like another parallel where it’s like, well you could also enjoy nine course meal by having nine very small bites as opposed to saying, I’m not going to have any of this at all. So that’s that. So we get, we met, we met in the middle of that way and that was really interesting because again, it’s a parallel, but it worked for us on both sides. But I would just say emotionally, look, I had a person with me, we were on a journey. She was trying to help me and I felt like I was trying to help her and and you know, w how do you help people just by, by caring and actually showing that you care and by being around when a person needs you.
And you know, when I had a lot of moments that I needed a lot of help, I would text her and when she had a lot of moments she would text me. And a lot of times when we met in trained, it was really, you know, as much as she tried to get me to train, I was like, no, we have a lot of things to talk about until repair, emotional training. You actually have to address these things first. And a lot of our sessions ended up that way without, you know, rhyme or reason. But it’s like you, I know you can’t go on like this and I know you. And I knew she couldn’t go on like that. So we ended up passionate a lot of stuff out and Warren tried to solve each other’s problems with just trying to be there for one of them, which I think we did a good job.
Now Mateo, um, looking back since max experience wasn’t what I mean it was intended to be or it didn’t go as perfectly because some of the trainers had a good time with it. You know, they’re like, Oh, this is easy. Like Adonis, like you know, from the Bronx and who used to be overweight. He’s like, Aw man, I’m loving. This is actually fun. Like I’ve been here before, I know what I’m doing.
Joyous. I like so jealous.
I know. So he had a great, a great experience, but the same time it, it was more so of what like the show’s intended to do. So since max experience was different when she told you she was going to gain the weight and then lose it with you, what were your thoughts at that moment and then now having, now that the show’s done, did you see value for you as a client and her doing this to her body? And her mind, like if a opposed to if she had never been overweight before and were just another, you know, trainer that you know, who had always been in shape. Like what, what value was there in this for you as a client, if any?
Initially there wasn’t really much value. Okay. Um, meaning that, I mean, how fast was she going to get? Yeah, I was like,
even Mateo looked at me in the very beginning and I didn’t end up reaching what my ultimate weight goal was. And he looked at me and he’s kind, kinda like, yeah, okay. Like you’d still look like a normal person. So okay,
Michelle and I are like, yeah, but she’s like, Mateo, she doesn’t look fat. And I’m like, no. But then, but then when I got to know her and got to know what she could do and what she couldn’t do, um, things started to start to reveal itself to me more that, you know, she, she really made a sacrifice and she did a big deal. So what I want to say is, in the beginning I was just like, yeah, whatever. You know, she got, you know, okay, she put on a couple of pounds, like big deal, hang out with me for two months, you’ll gain 10 pounds at a time. So I wasn’t that impressed with that to tell you the truth.
I even notice I gained weight. It must be a big reveal.
Cause she was so funny. She was like, look, I got boobs now. It’s like, let me tell you something. Michelle has moved
and one of the most was like a quintessential perfect woman. She’s like, okay, but she’s, she, she has a rack. Like I’ve ever, never,
I sleep very well shoveling where Michelle are talking about her rack on the [inaudible]. She’s going to hate me, but that’s okay. Other reasons? No. And so, um, I, I got off topic, which I was, I don’t know. Oh, Oh, let’s, let’s get towards the end. Towards the end. Um, you know, we both sort of hit a wall in terms of like what we wanted our goals and we and we, you know, we had to talk our way through that and had she not had to try to lose the weight under, you know, the same time the strength that I had, uh, we had a different bond as well. Not that we needed, not that we needed more bonds, but like I found myself one day, I remember this really cause cause map was rarely ever uh, snippy with me at all. But she got snippy with me twice.
I remember both times the first time it’s because I told her that she looked good or something and she was just like, you know, don’t tell me that. Oh no, you look thin. I said, sounds like either thin or whatever it was. That’s just like, don’t tell me that. I don’t want to hear that, you know, whatever. Cause in her mind, if she wasn’t hurting 23 pound body of, of what she used to be beautiful, then it’s not possible for her to look theatre to look good. So she got snippy with me and then I was like, Oh, I’ll never say how she looks that way again. I remember that. I do remember that. And the second time she got really snippy with me. Um, I lost my train of thought. Um Oh no. And I, when I gave her a tip on how to lose weight, she was like, I’m the trainer.
You don’t have to tell me, Oh my God. Cause she was stuck for, you know, like, like again, I’m a male, I’m a male, I’m a female. She was stuck for a month where it was like she would run a half marathon, cut down it’s 800 calories and not gain a pound and a gain a pound. And I’m looking at her like, this scale is evil, this scale is red. I can’t believe she hasn’t smashed it yet. She’s going triple the effort that I am and I’m getting on a scale. I’m losing eight pounds as losing a pack, gaining a pound after like totally doing all this sort of stuff. So I was just like, wow. She’s trying everything poly humanly possible within a repertoire. So let me just give her some other advice. I was just like, maybe you should eat. And she’s like, don’t give me any advice about what to do. If
he was right, I was hurting my metabolism. So I had really hard my towels was. But because of the pressure of everything I was, so I was scared last month I went against
a lot of things that I would do for other people. A lot of things I would do for myself. I still tried to give him good advice. Yeah, but you, it’s this weird, yeah. The, the, the three weeks of losing weight was awesome. We were awesome and I would totally sane. And then the last month I started to do things, I started to change up my program and do that.
Right, right, right. So, so yeah. So drew, so the magazine is three months for three months. You know, I had other issues with that for three months. We really were like on a good program modifying my behaviors, getting me to think differently about food, getting me to think differently about training. You know, we were having, our sessions were all having positive results, you know, she got me to realize the numbers, just a number on a scale. Don’t worry about the number, how do you feel, how do you feel you want to feel fit. And we were on the same page and really got me over to thinking about it. You know, I have my trust in her right away was not an issue of like fighting her on all those things. Like I was speaking, like I was saying so many mechanisms, you know, with like being activated and feeling fit and all these words that I would never use.
And then at the end when it was like, well you’ve got a month left, you need to hit this number and we’re getting a lot of hell in. And then it became like a chore and it also became unreasonable because our bodies both went into like symbiotic stall mode, you know? It’s like, Oh all the women who work in the office at the same time have the same menstruation period. It’s like the same job. We had the same period where like my body was like, no, I don’t care what you do, you are not going to make the goal. You’re not going to do that. That stress really just freaked us out. And then it took like three weeks, like a week left and, and, and I broke the ice by saying, we’re just going to come over to my place and I got to make a couple of cocktails and we’re going to be flying high because we are not used to drinking that much and, and I, and I’m not going to care. I’m going to eat what I want to eat. I’m not, you know, I’m not going to blow it, but I’m going to be like a normal person. I’m just going to like live, eat, drink the way I normally like to do. And Maxim did the same thing and both of us hit the scale. And the result was like, that was much better
once we were able to just to, we took, we took back ownership because we lost ownership with this pressure of this time limit, you know, and it became somebody else’s agenda that we cared about versus our own. And so it wasn’t, it was like strange. It was one of the more stressful things. And I’ve gone through a lot of periods in my life of wanting to change my body and how it looks and what it’s able to do. And I’ve never felt, and I’ve always been able to hit my goals because I stay the course and I wasn’t able, I wasn’t able to stay the course because I felt this like weird pressure where it’s like this weird thing I think.
And it was, and it was not fun. It was not where we had fun working out. I had fun changing my diet. I had fun with the Blendtec make it, you know, I don’t know if I saw, I don’t know if you saw any of my posts, you know, my, my diary cam stuff. But yeah, I had a lot of fun with all this stuff that I was doing, but that last month was not fun. It really was not fun. We, we suffered a lot and, and that’s not what it’s about. You know,
and that’s not what, and that’s, it’s hard for hard for me to watch Mateo go through that because that’s not my belief of weight loss. And it was hard for me to go through because that’s again, like I just don’t, I never ask anybody to go through that.
Max stuffing herself for four months in the manner that she did, did not make her love food more and that last month of extreme weight loss and not make me want to continue to do weight to lose weight. So when you get to the question, which we’ll get to in a minute, what, how am I now? We’ll get to that when you want to. But, but that’s a perfect segue for how, how we ended up, which was jubilant on the scale, but emotionally and physically,
we didn’t even talk for two weeks after that.
Just like so bad at everything at the mad, at the show and mad or whatever. And that took a lot of preparation, uh, along with preparation along the repairing period.
Yeah, no and I totally get that. And that’s what I’m thinking, like kind of what I said before, like it’s the realities of the reality TV show world. You know, you have a four month window. I mean, yeah, if we can make it to your show out of this and follow your, your moderate progress. I mean, yes, that’s more realistic, but obviously, you know, Hey, four months of gaining weight, four months of losing weight, we’ve got to package this up, put it into a 45 minute episode and deliver it something that’s good that people love and people love the show. But yeah, I mean if we can make it a two hour episode or three or episode to show more of the journey, that would be fantastic. But, but here’s the thing and this is what people need to realize. They compare themselves sometimes to what the results they see on TV and they think, Oh well I only lost 0.2 pounds.
They lost like 12 pounds. I’m doing something wrong like I, I’m a failure. And so that’s one thing people need to realize. Watching shows like, you know, this isn’t always, this doesn’t reflect reality even though it’s a reality TV show and you guys kind of make some good points in there and Mack your experience, I mean as a, as a trainer who’s struggling to lose the weight and you start freaking out, you’re like, okay, I’m doubting myself. What am I doing wrong? I’m a trainer, I have the knowledge, why isn’t this working? It’s great to go through that experience cause I went through with that as well. And it just makes you so much more relatable to your clients versus like some of the trainers and a lot of people out there with good metabolisms who have only been overweight for a few months, you know, for them it’s, it looks easy.
It appears easy. Like, Oh, they know how to do it. Of course it’s easy for them, but to see you struggle as a trainer just makes you more human, more relatable. And it’s something that we all go through, whether you’re a trainer or client and it’s a valuable lesson because now you can relate to Mateo who has struggled. There are people who are overweight who are like, you know what? I promise I’m falling in the meal plans, I’m doing the exercises you gave me, but I just, you know, for whatever reason I’m not seeing the results on the skill and like you can make, you know what, I understand where you’re coming from versus a normal trainer and this was me before fit to have to fit would’ve been like, well, you’re probably lying about something or you’re not pushing hard enough. Like, you know, there’s something going on here. You know what I’m saying? So it’s, it just makes you more relatable.
No, I think that is a good point. I mean that thing where that call out where it might
like that same thing. Like I give my clients homework, they’re send me their meal plan, stuff like that. I mean this is slightly different than my experience, Mateo, but like it just kind of in real life, especially when people have like, um, you know, event goals like weddings or you know, or you know, uh, reunions and stuff like that. And they’re, they’re in that last two weeks where they’re, you know, my first thought is you’re probably lying about something or was, you’re probably lying about something. And that’s just not my thought anymore. Look at the program again. Let’s brainstorm some things and let’s make one tiny adjustment, but then let’s stay the course, you know?
Yeah, that is, that is great. Okay. So let’s shift gears here a little bit. You guys get so many people want to know. Okay. What was the you nutrition program, you and Mateo followed and then what was the exercise routines or programs that you guys followed during the journey back to fit? Cause people want to know the specifics. And of course in the episode they just don’t show all that. Right. There’s not enough time. But like, you know, talk about the specifics if that’s okay about those two things.
So for me, my, when I was allowed to stop the project, I went for a walk. Okay. It was the best walk I’ve ever been on. I actually left the city and went to beacon, New York and just walked. And then I rented a bike and I biked and it was the most glorious thing ever to move my body in that way. And I just, I didn’t, you know, I, I sort of set a time limit where I was like, I’m going to walk a minimum of an hour. Okay. And so that was like how everything began. I didn’t lift weights I think until two weeks after because I had to start to fall in love. I said to start feeling better and start to fall in love with moving again. And I moved. I liked it immediately, but I didn’t want to do anything too extreme.
So that was like my end. And then for me, some sensory things came back. Like being in like my, like the gym is my happy place. I love the gym, I love the jerks and the gym. I loved old people in the gym. I love gyms. I just think they’re great seeing microcosm. And, and then I got, then I went to like, you know, basic compound movements. Um, different types of squats, different types of deadlifts, um, you know, pull down some sort of like, and then I like a handful of stable machines and I came up with a really basic program where the first thing I for the first two weeks was weights that I knew I could do. Um, you know, sets of 10 to 12 on that weren’t too extreme. I’d go through like a five compound exercise, um, a series, and then I would repeat it three times and then the next week I’d repeat it four times. And then the next week, five times that would like it. Just a really simple bull, um, progression. And then things started to change, adding weight, adding more exercises. And then sort of the things I did in between were stuff for myself,
fixing stuff with my hip, fixing stuff with my shoulder, making sure that I was injury free because I feel like that is the number one thing that gets people off track. You know, their, their shoulder starts to tweak, their knee starts to tweak and then they’re done. So keeping my, you know, range of motion intact, making sure that I was able to, um, you know, keep my body feeling good and I didn’t push for the first month. I just focused on what I ate and um, and keeping with a program, not an extensive program. Yeah.
So how many times were you working out a day during those four months?
Oh, I, I mean, let’s see, that’s a difference. Uh, let’s call. I don’t know. So for me it’s, it’s hard for me to call, you know, walking an hour and a half to three hours a day working out. But that would be in addition, you know, to my, an hour to two hour gym time. So, and for me, I, I like to play the game. Can I do this? And so like if there’s a set of, there’s a flight of subway stairs and there’s an escalator, the question is can I take the stairs? And the answer is 99.9% of the time. Yes. Like am I too tired or am I too sore or whatever. So I play that game constantly. Can I like say, Oh, I don’t want to go grocery shopping, I should go grocery shopping. And at first it’s like I should go grocery shopping so I can get my steps in today so I can have never movement and then it becomes part of my habit. So I wanted to make that distinction because it wasn’t necessarily just me in the gym. It was, I think things, especially for the first month, things were easier to lose weight because I just made myself do more things. Instead of going to the Starbucks that was three blocks away, I went to the Starbucks that was 10 blocks away and making that conscious effort and just choosing that. Does that make sense?
Yeah, no it totally does. And that’s one thing I think people are curious about is, okay, she’s a trainer. You know, of course she has the time to do all this. Like how does she fit it in? What did she do? Um, and that’s what people want to know. Now, Mateo though, for you, you, you know, you’re not a personal trainer full time. You have a, you’ve kept your job. You didn’t go to some boot camp somewhere for, you know, four months and work out six times a day and, and have a nutritionist make your foods for you. What, how did you do this, this journey with your busy lifestyle? How did you fit it in? If so, how, like how many times a day do you work out for how long? What was your routine
on the exercise, on the journey back to fit? I had some simple goals. Um, you know, Mack and I talked about it. [inaudible] first of all, I had a really hard time with basic movement just because my weight and some injuries that were lingering and the weight causes a lot of stress on these injuries
and change his movement patterns a lot.
So I mean I did not, I was the opposite, you know, well how can I get on an escalator? You know, Michelle laughs at me because we were in Paris with the Metro system. I was always looking for the Metro system. Where’s the exit with the escalator so I don’t have to go upstairs. So it was a, when it would be out of order, she would laugh the whole way cause I’d have to climb the stairs in agony, but she would laugh. So I depend on how to sit, stand, walk, go upstairs. Everything caused a lot of pain for me. Um, which is part of the reason for signing up for this, you know, signing up for some help because I really couldn’t do it on my own. And then, uh, Mac focused on that stuff, you know, let’s start with sitting. Let’s start with standing.
Let’s start with one using one leg, building, one leg strength, another leg strength. And that, um, was goal just to change my lifestyle so that I can say I’m going to go walk 20 blocks just because of, not just for a trader’s mindset, which is I’m going to walk through the 10th Starbucks, not this one, but the one that people locks away. Now I can walk to this coffee shop because it’s 30 blocks out of the way, not just because it’s three blocks out of the way, but also because they make the best coffee. So I have some walking to the best coffee shop. Uh, that was the first goal. The second goal is I wanted to continue to practice judo, judo the way I used to when I was younger and I was unable to practice any good judo and to get into that kind of shape required a lot of effort.
I knew that would be a long haul. So she wasn’t really down with that, but I told her as soon as I can get on the mat, I would be practicing judo again, which I tried to do. So, uh, those were the goals. Uh, and that’s month. And that’s what we work towards. You know, that’s what I would try to do. And once I got to do that, I was able to fit it into my, my lifestyle. You know, when you don’t, when you don’t create the time to, uh, to get healthy, then you just stay unhealthy. And since I’m that a priority and, and you know, she helped me to it, I’m meeting you today. I don’t care if he can’t walk and you’re going to come in and we’re going to do something cause there’s always something you can do, cause you can always blow it off.
And so I didn’t blow it off, uh, partly because I didn’t wanna let her down and partly cause I didn’t want myself down because I, you know, I said, we’re gonna do this, so let’s do it. So I committed to that and that was, that was helpful. So I was able to work, there was a lot of stress, you know, with work and with family issues and, and the, and the interesting thing is, uh, my body broke down. You know, this whole process I have really, you know, I’ve had the ACL repairs, I was 315 pounds. You know, when you just make somebody who’s that heavy who hasn’t worked out, go from zero to 60, uh, you’re going to have break down problems. And you know, Mack was very careful with me and I don’t think she was making me do things that put me in any kind of parallel or whatever. But once one thing went bad, another thing went bad and another thing went bad. And like my whole right leg just gave out. And there were just days that I was having a lot of trouble working out or even getting out of bed. And then of course I, you know, I had got issues and gout is, um, an overproduction of uric acid, inability to get rid of it and it causes painful swelling in the joints.
Now this Mateo gave up every single thing, every single food that he loves that produces or that has uric acid in it. He gave it up and Kenny has a gout attack and attack. So, I mean, talk about staying the course under like the most unfair circumstances. He did everything right. Right. And we talked about like, you must’ve done something wrong. He did everything right.
I couldn’t even look at a piece of package or bacon. I mean, it was just crazy and all and all these foods where you were, you were all upset with me. You know, they didn’t get the memo that there was a divorce. They wanted to know why I didn’t. I fell out of love with them. Why I didn’t court them anymore. Talk, why would you dance? I didn’t ride nothing. They’re all mad at me. I’m all my pets. And the truth is, yeah, I got a massive gout attack. It was like one of the worst ever. I was crying in bed and I knew that I couldn’t get up to get out of bed and like do a one leg, you know, hop to the gym. So literally a good 35% of the time, I was just like in pain. Nothing was working. I was down. And so, yeah,
no, I was going to say this. There’s some parallels to both of your journeys, whereas Mack, on her journey beginning the weight was in so much pain from, you know, from something different, but still very similar, but that she didn’t give up. She didn’t, you know, um, she, she kept pushing through to try and gain as much weight as possible. Right. For this experiment, here you are with these painful gout attacks, but you didn’t give up. You could have, you could have been like, you know, I just can’t, like, I can’t, uh, you know, hop my way to the gym. So it would be so easy just to quit right now, but you found a way to do it and you end up losing what, 70 pounds in four months, right?
Yeah. I think a lot of people with will who are very heavy, obese people. You look at them, I look at them now, you know, not that I’m like, so like I’m a smelter, you know, whatever. But I look at them now and I’m like, wow, how hard is it for this person to go up these stairs right now?
Yeah, you can relate to that. Right.
And, but, but you know what, and they do it. They figure out a way to get their body to work somehow. They use whatever mechanisms and they do, they do it and they suffer. And it’s just a quiet suffering. And I know that I was that person too, so I know what it’s like. And you just do it because you have to, you know, I have to get to the hospital to help my brother. So it doesn’t matter how badly I feel today, how hard it is to get up the stairs, how hard it is to breathe. I, this is my goal and this is what I’ve got to do. And that’s, that’s never changed. And that’s really an interesting part. So I think a lot of people were like, Oh, you know, this person is obese. They can make choices. They can do this.
Yeah. You know, there’s a lot of things that they can do, but also give them credit for being strong in that they’re still going on with their lives doing what they’re doing now. If they’re just sitting around doing nothing, that’s a different thing. But a lot of people who are obese, who are really have a lot of trouble and don’t have a way out or don’t have a way, you know, to figure out how to change their lives. They still go on and doing what they’re doing and it’s really impressive. It’s really impressive. It’s really hard. You know, as I told her when she tried to make me plank for the first time, I said, do you know how hard it is for someone my size to do this? Like it’s really not easy to hold up all this weight and this ridiculous position. Yeah, yeah. Then she told me, of course they wouldn’t be, if it’s called working out, it’s supposed to be hard. I’ll never forget that. That, that’s funny. Oh, working out.
It’s supposed to be hard.
Lastly, what I would say is so after the whole, so yeah, no. So after the whole experience, I was really exhausted and I don’t believe in obstacles. So we had Thanksgiving coming up and I had a trip to Argentina and I had Christmas and new year’s. So I knew I had a lot of partying and celebrating and doing whatever and I had to be very careful not to slide. And so I kept up some workouts in November and I was going to the dojo as well. But ultimately I knew December where to take off and that I would start again in January. And not as a new year’s resolution thing, but just that the timing of it was in January. In January, I had no plans and I just needed a break from all this stuff. So I kinda took a break. I think I put 15 pounds back on during that two month, two and a half months span.
And then once I said, I’m going to pick a gym that I like and joined the gym, uh, that’s what I’ve done. And I’ve taken off a good seven or eight from that that I initially gained. And I’m doing things like a normal person and going to the gym and enjoying it and doing different classes that I wouldn’t do normally. You know, for example, for my birthday, which is on February 1st I took a spin class, a a yoga class, a Feldon Christ class, and then I had a massage and that’s how I started my day. And that’s like the first birthday I’ve ever had like started in such a healthy fashion. But that’s, and I had two soft boil eggs and a banana and a piece of bacon of two pieces of bacon, of course. And my coffee, which is my breakfast of champions. And it’s just not something that I would have done in the past in the last 10 years. But that’s part of my life now. And I know it. And now I feel, you know, I feel good, I feel fit. I have other goals and I want to get to in terms of fitness, but I can do that at a really normal life pace that fits in with my lifestyle.
Yeah. And that’s what, that’s what people want to know. Yeah. And that’s what people want to know is the details of like, okay, during the four months of course you’re in kind of like, you know, turbo mode, trying to get as much way to off as quickly as possible. And I think people you know, get that and they think, well that’s not realistic. And you know, I don’t know if it is, I mean for some people they can make it work. It’s just a matter of it being a priority. But now that the cameras are gone and here you are, you’re still a chef, you still have to live life. There’s still holiday parties you have to go to and, and be, you know, quote unquote normal like you’re saying is people want to know, okay, so how do you exercise now versus when you were during the four months and how do you eat now versus then how do you maintain this lifestyle? You know, cause some people don’t know, they know how to do these CrashCourse diets, but then they’re like, okay, well how do I live like a normal person again? And find that balance.
Yeah. Well, I mean, listen, every person is different and so sad
and that’s so important matter what? Like, like every, every single person is different. So you try to follow Kim Kardashian diet. You’re not Kim Kardashian. You don’t have to do the Jillian Michaels diet, you’re not dealing Michael everbody. You have to figure it out on your own. You
don’t have her body, you don’t have her genes, you don’t have her money, you don’t have a trainer, you don’t have her. It’s her stress levels. There are so many factors. It’s crazy. And when Mac was worried was tweaking how I looked at my diet and what I was doing with my food intake and my plans. I’ll give you a perfect example. I plan all of my shit. Basically 90% of Michelle’s meals and I get up and I make her breakfast and I pack her lunch and I usually shop for her for her dinners and we go out of course together. But I make sure she eats as healthy as possible cause she wants to. And then she one day was just like, well, why don’t you do that for yourself? And I was just like, I was like, Oh, Oh
actually he actually was speechless for the first time I was living with in his life.
Well, okay, you’re right. So, so, um, what works for me will not work for everyone, but there are some things to be taken from it. Number one was if you have a bad meal or a bad day, it doesn’t have to become a bender.
Yeah. So easy to do, right?
If I have a 4,000 calorie meal, then you know what my nutrition needs to be spot on for the rest of the week. Yeah. So that’s one, that’s one technique. And the second technique is what’s the balance of the nutrition? Um, you know, if you’re putting in a, if you’re just going to have, you know, a big pasta meal and there are no fats involved and there is no this involved, there’s no that involved. Your body doesn’t process the foods in that way. It doesn’t take it out that way. So that was important. And then, and then ultimately listen to diet. Your diet has to be sustainable, you have to enjoy it and it has to be and it has to be good for you. So, uh, the other thing is, yeah, so it’s like don’t go on a bender, don’t have good nutrition. And I still have conversations with myself with everything that I eat and I pick out to do, do I need this? What can I substitute this with? Do I really want this? And I ended up winning that battle more often, the not, and it’s a battle that will continue for the rest of my life where I sit there and say, I’m having this coffee now. Do I want the twice a month as well? Well, did I deserve it to, I earn it. Is it a treat? There are other ways to treat myself, you know,
mindlessly getting,
yeah, just like just like, Oh, I have to get it because then I’m getting this burger. Do I need the fries? I don’t eat the fries. I might want the fries, but I don’t need the fries. So she tripped. Max showed me a lot of bit with language and a lot of good things. The word need, you don’t need stuff, you want stuff. And we don’t have everything that we want. These are all tools that are a big toolbox with all these things that I have for myself and developed myself. And also that max helped me develop. And also it suggested to me and all those things become a plan that every day you just try to follow it the best that you can. And not every day is a victory in that. Every day is a defeat and you just try to have more victories and defeats and ultimately, if it’s not sustainable to you, it never be sustainable. Um, I also, well that’s
the, that’s the thing about Mateo’s take on this and his constant conversation with it versus somebody who, you know, if I had said to Mateo, great, we’re going to start weighing all your food. He would have thrown me out the door so fast. Like where to start to look at, you know, we did look at how many calories, but just kind of only vaguely. Just wondering what’s the tidy, we talked. Yeah. And then like, you know, he’s a smart boy. He knows what’s good for him and what’s not good for him. You know, like, and this is general stuff. If Mateo wants to become a, you know, a bikini model, then we’re going to have to like, you know, then we’re going to have to start talking about like macros and calories and you know, that kind of stuff and other supplements. But he’s a real person so we don’t need to sit here and waste stuff and you know, uh, you know, poor percentages of Mackinac macros and he can like be like, Oh, this is a handful or that’s cool. That’s sustainable to him. This, this guy’s too busy for any of that. Yeah.
I kind of liked that control over my food, but I would never, I would never ask Mateo to do that, especially at this point. Does that make sense?
No, it totally does. Cause some people, for them counting calories, counting macros is what they need at that point in time in their lives. Once they get to the point where they understand, okay, that’s about, you know, 20 grams of protein right there, that’s about six ounces of this. Like they can calculate things in their head. Right. But I mean for some people they, you know, they, they don’t, different things work for different people. I totally see what you guys were saying and it makes perfect sense. So if you could like a Mack, what, what type of diet or what kind of restrictions of foods he couldn’t eat and could eat? Like what? Like did you follow some guidelines? Would you say it’s more paleo, more vegan, more uh, Atkins more, you know, key though? Or what was it like?
Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. That’s a great question. It’s just for me, it’s, and this is, this is what I’ve experimented with. So I went through process throughout my life where I would try something for about six weeks or four weeks, four weeks was my minimum. And I would stick to that and see how I felt. So, and so there are certain things that just don’t work in my body. Like, it feels silly, but soy makes my joint, her joints hurt. I mean, it just does. I don’t eat soy. Not because I don’t think you should not eat soy. I don’t eat soy because I don’t like the way it makes you feel. I don’t eat almost any dairy because it just, I’m like, I just don’t, my Tommy don’t like it. Okay. You don’t want me to eat dairy. Trust me, I’m like, I’ve discovered that I function really, really well on a, like almost 50% fat diet.
Um, and then it’s anywhere between like 40 and 50% high fat and then, uh, about 30 to 35% protein and then, you know, 20% carbohydrates. And my carbohydrates mostly come from vegetables and fruits and I almost eat no packaged things. Um, you know, I every once in a while do I do, I don’t do protein bars. I, I do do protein drinks every once in a while. Um, I don’t do supplements and, uh, I like the way it feels and I don’t like the cause. I like to eat my food. I like to, I like to chew things. Um, and so, so there’s that. And my, I function really, and I’m like a cardio person. I like to run, I like to lift heavy, but a, you would think that especially with that type, that I would need a bunch of carbohydrates and I don’t, I don’t need it. And it keeps me super even keel too in terms of mentally.
What about Mateo? Was he on the same thing? Did you have him on the same thing or do you switch it up for him? Okay.
Josh sugar, low sugar, no packet,
a lot of little sugar. I dropped the Coca-Cola, which was a big problem and I still have issues with that in terms of always looking for a soft drink. But I dropped it, I dropped it, I switched to bubbly water, which was good. And, um, I also, because of the gout situation, I basically had to abandon all things meat and high uric acid. So that’s a long, long time. So I went from a 90% meat, 10% everything else to reverse, 90% vegetable and carbohydrates, 10% 10% meat. So it’s like salmon, nuts, you know, eggs all the time. One strip or two strips of bacon, tomatoes, bananas, coffee, you know. Yeah. Shakes. I mean, you know, I was introducing kale into the diet and carrots and cauliflower.
I could’ve never brought over like protein powder, retails house. So like he does shakes. He does like all fruit shakes, but he doesn’t like put supplements in it.
No. Okay. Yeah. But that was a big deal for me to be 100% carnivores to switch to go completely the other direction that like diets more towards, it’s more 50, 50. But it was really, it was really 90 10, um, meat, meat and then whatever, and then switched to 90 vegetable, 10% meat, fish. And now it’s like, you know, more of a 50, 50 diet. So. And how’s your gout now? I haven’t had an attack, uh, since June. Oh wow. That’s a long time, man. And I’m on no medication and I haven’t had a problem with whatever I’ve been eating or handling. And I’m very, um, I’m very pleased about that.
Even over the holidays with all traveling. And, uh, you know,
Tina, which is a meat carnivores paradise and I tasted about 500 wines during that 10 day trip a day. No issues, none. Awesome. That is so cool.
I think it’s important to highlight that, you know, especially because of Mateo’s relationship with food. I really didn’t want to impose a lot of what the fitness industry says that we need. Yeah. And I think that we as a culture, as a fitness culture, and again, like what works for you works for you. Like don’t get me wrong, like a quest bar and a microwave is totally dope. Like I love that. But um, you know, I, I tend to, you know, especially with Mateo, I didn’t even put any of that in his vocabulary because he just wouldn’t resonate with it.
Yeah. I mean being a chef, it’s like what is this? Like it’s coming in a package. Like I could go cut up on pig and show you what tastes better than this. Right. You know, so that’s
cause he has the best cuts of meat in the world.
I know I saw on the episode, I’m like, this is making me so hungry. So the next time I’m out there, I’m going to take, I’m going to take you up on this, uh, Mateo. The next time I’m out there I’m going to let you take me on a 10,000 calorie, 4:00 PM to 4:00 AM
you can come to you. So dope, so much fun. You should do tours. You know the 4:00 PM to 4:00 AM 10,000 calorie rendezvous with secret. It was half cocktails cause they are loaded in Calgary,
loaded in calories.
It tastes great. It’s about standing up and making sure you can walk out of the bar
and then we did that one. Tidy waves get completely messed up anyway. Yeah.
Okay. So man, you guys are so awesome. I really appreciate you guys come on the show. What I want to do now is go through a really quick lightning round because this is the fun part of the show. And then afterwards I’m going to have you guys, you know, a mixture and give everybody where they can find you and stuff like that. But the lightning round is kind of fun, lighthearted. I mean just have a good time. You guys are the perfect personalities for this. So I’m not worried at all about this part, but it’s, I think it can be hilarious and fun if you guys are okay with it. Cool. Yeah. Okay. So I’ll ask a question and it’ll be for both of you and I’ll kind of say who goes first and things like that.
Okay, good. First question, Mac. Yeah.
What was your most embarrassing moment during the eight months of filming?
Um, I like on camera. On camera or off camera? I do. I get to include my diary cam? Yes. Uh, producers weren’t sure if I was trying hard enough. So I started throwing up on camera and pooping on camera.
I have to talked to Beatrice about where this footage is cause that should be the bloopers.
Wow.
They need us. Never like, I don’t think you’re trying, you’re trying hard now. It’s like not topped up. I was like, okay.
Okay. Well I know you can’t top that, but what was yours for you? [inaudible] what was yours?
Just being a cripple in bed and crying like a baby because I had the worst gout attack of my life and I was just like, Oh, woe is me and I couldn’t, you know, just just feeling like completely helpless. It was really embarrassing to be there to let myself get to that state was an embarrassment to me and embarrassment for myself and you know, I caught it on camera. So that was good.
Yeah. What was that? Okay. So back to you Mateo then. What was the, what was the funniest thing that happened then during your eight months of filming? On or off camera?
The funniest thing that happened. Oh, I’ll try to make sure that I was wearing clothing during my diary cam. I like to walk around sort of half cock. Really. I think Michelle one day was like, I think I caught something I wasn’t supposed to catch. I was like, don’t submit that. That’s what press grace, that’s between us. Okay. I figured that, but that’s, yeah, I don’t know if that’s the funniest moment Michelle was catching it was thought it was funny.
That’s funny. Mac
during my wake. And this is a secret during my, Oh man, I’m gonna I can’t get fired, I guess I’m okay. So during my weekend I was so miserable. We did an interview with my best friend Samantha. She brought us a cup of coffee that was filled with wine cause she was trying to, so the whole episode or the whole interview, we’re giggling cause we think it’s really funny cause we’re children and she were drinking wine instead of interviewing, but it’s a coffee cup. It’s like no. Yeah. Nobody else knew except for us. So and again, because it’s our little secret and we’re children. I had been so miserable and I’m like crying cause I’ve been crying for like, you know, literally my whole, my whole weekend I’m just, I just cried the whole time. Um, we decided, she brought me wine in the coffee mug. Okay. What was the most bad? I didn’t think of that. I know, right.
Okay. Mac, for you, what was the most disgusting thing you had to eat on your weight gain journey that you will never eat again? That you’re just like, so turned off by now.
Uh, okay. Not my idea. Can I just say this? The first thing was my, uh, uh, food first indulgence, uh, with the food trucks and trucks, the worst food trucks in New York city. Like they took me to the one they told me the worst food trucks. I just gotta say that it was bad business people, food trucks. It was like foreign food trucks. That’s all those crutches were nasty.
Ah, that is so funny. People see people are gonna love this cause they then like during it, it looks enjoyable. You know, it looks like, okay. But I see what you’re saying. That, that makes sense. Mateo, for you, what was the most disgusting thing you had to eat on your journey back to fit? That you’re like, what is this? Like why would I ever eat this at use like a health food for example?
Uh, the most disgusting thing I would say,
okay.
Was literally trying to, I, I mainly spend one day trying to drink my coffee without sugar,
teaspoons of sugar in this coffee.
I would rash it my, my coffee. It was like, do you want some coffee with that sugar? But nah, and then one day I said, I’m going to have none of it and see what happens and that’s, I spit that right out. It was just not good,
but it’s so funny. But that’s, I mean that’s how I drink my coffee, but I think it just takes a while to get used to do. How do you drink your coffee now with eight tablespoons of sugar?
No, now I drew one and a half,
one and a half. Okay, got you. But you don’t, you won’t ever go black like he won’t ever drink black coffee.
I know. I don’t, I won’t say never. I may get to that point, but right now I want and a half works for me.
Okay. Okay. Interesting. That’s funny. Okay. A Mac for you, what was the, have you eaten that Mateo’s restaurant? Yes. What was the food that you enjoyed that, what’s your favorite food there at his restaurant?
I have to say my favorite thing is, so his question on the same spot, the negative and my, my favorite thing was, was trying to slice slices of pig and the way that it’s, because the way that Mateo talks about the history of the food and the way that he cuts it, and the presentation, I swear to you, I’ve never tasted anything so delicious in my life. Um, it was, it was truly incredible.
Yeah. There’s story and there’s history behind it, right?
Yeah. And I’ve never been presented food that way. I mean I literally, I literally eat my food while I’m walking between appointments. I almost never sit down. I don’t have a kitchen table cause there’s no point. Um, and that was, it was, um, it’s still, it’s to this day, one of my favorite memories of eating. I mean
that is, but that’s just a, you don’t get the same thing with like box macaroni and cheese, you know, Kraft macaroni cheese. Like it’s like, Hey here, this was made in a factory. Here’s the story of it. Isn’t that amazing? It’s not the same thing. Like there’s so much more emotional connection to food that people have that, I mean this, there’s this world that exists out there so that, that is perfect. Okay. What’s one thing that you’ve had either at his restaurant or something that, that Mateo told you? Like, Oh, this is so good. You’re gonna love this, that you’re like, Oh, okay. And you try it and you’re like, okay, this is now. This is not very good. Have you had that experience?
Uh, I mean, yeah, soda is disgusting. It’s mostly, and now every time I drink it, I like, I make the space almost like I have a seizure. I don’t understand how y’all drink. That is terrible. Put that shit down. It’s good. It’s not good. I don’t care what anybody says.
Here’s the thing. Here’s the thing for me, I didn’t like it either in the beginning, but I force myself to drink it every day because my clients told me that that was the hardest thing to give up. I’m like, okay, I’m going to see,
and you had shared that and I thought that was like super impressive and I tried that.
You didn’t, it didn’t work. Yeah. You get, you get a better buzz out of that versus I might as well be drunk. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. Would you ever do it again Mac? I just had to get your reaction. I had to get your reaction.
Um, dry can say it’s pretty much certainty. A hundred percent thousand certainty. The answer is absolutely not.
What, how much would it cost? How much would it cost? No money amount. $5 million. $10 million.
So he gained 50 pounds right now that’s a piece of cake. No, no money would ever make me do this again. I’m a professional. Should anybody, no. I mean, I like, I can’t say that I need, but can I share, I mean, JJ, I got to meet JJ and Ray and a dad. Been a hundred people. My little family. I love my family. Um, J J asked me and I had been asked the same question and then my final interview, they said, do you regret this? And I said yes. And then J J asked me three months later and I said, no, I don’t.
You changed your mind. You changed your mind?
I changed my mind and I can say, I do not regret doing this.
Thank you so much. That means a lot to me. Honestly Matt, cause you had me up at night. Like I was like, man, I feel so bad for her. This isn’t the way it was supposed to be. Like as a supposed to be a good experience, like come out as a better person. And I just, I felt, I honestly felt so guilty. I’m like, this isn’t what was supposed to happen. I mean, why isn’t this working for her? So that means a lot to me. Thank you very much. And I’m sure for those that are watching, I mean it really, I, that makes me grateful. Like I’m glad that there’s a happy ending to the story cause I’m like, and she’s going to hate me for the rest of her life. Like she was so miserable. She’s like, I don’t even know. Like this is stupid. Like I’m like, ah, this is not what I wanted for her. So thank you.
No, I mean I couldn’t, you couldn’t have told me otherwise. I was really stubborn night and I, I just, it’s, I just have never felt that awful in my life for such a long period of time. But you know, even now, I mean I do have more perspective and I have more balance in my life because of this. And you know, for me there was a little bit of a, can I do the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I did it kind of, I did it. Um, and then also I, you know, the thing that was super, you know, to tend to you to say the reason why I’m grateful that I did it is because I, I mean the whole process is, it was so lonely. And to meet the other trainers and to hear their experiences and to see them and hear their testimonials, I can’t explain to you the amount of catharsis I personally have watching them do that. I, if any, if any one of them asked me to do anything for them and I’ve never, and I’ve only met a few of them, I would drop anything. I mean, I just, these people went through hell and back. I mean in different versions of it, give themselves an opportunity, put themselves through something that most people will never do. And so yeah, I mean that’s finding this community for me is has paid off.
Gotcha. That is so cool. And I’m going to be calling you up on it on season two. If there’s a trainer that’s struggling like you were in like, okay, you got to talk to Mac cause she’ll talk, she’ll talk you through it.
Send them my way.
Yeah. Uh, last question, Mateo, what’s the one exercise the maca made you do that you hate the worst now that you just like loathe doing?
Uh, you know, I still don’t like planking. So what,
you don’t just love getting down and doing three minutes of plank. Yeah.
No, I don’t understand it at all. It has no, you know, it’s like when you’re in school and it’s to a bunch of electric and almond tree and stuff and you say, what does this have to do with real life? Yeah. That’s what I, why when I’m doing a plank, it’s like why would I be in a position that I’m just not letting all my weight fall down on the floor or whoever I’m on top of and why would I keep myself up off the ground all this time? You know, what is, what is our better spikes? I’m going to fall into this mixed. There’s no practical application to this.
Uh, that is great. I love your, your answer to that. Thank you guys so much. Um, really quick you guys, before we wrap up, Mack, where can people find you on social media? I know that you just recently joined social media. Thank you for doing that. Where can people find you if they want to get in touch with you?
Well, I currently have a budding Facebook profile and I, it’s public to everyone. You can find me at Katie Mac on Facebook. You can find me on Instagram. Macker’s NYC, M a C K, E R S N, Y, C. and then there’ll be a website very soon cause I’m trying to be a human being. Um, that will be posted on my Instagram. That you can check me out. Yo.
Okay, sweet. And Mateo, you, your restaurant, all that. If you want people to get in touch with you.
Yeah, you can come down and see me at pots and Negra. I’m at 12th street between first and second www. [inaudible] Negra topless.com. And if you want to follow me around, I’m at Chez C H E Z at chef Mateo. Um, that’s my Twitter handle. That’s my Instagram handle. Oh my Instagram handle is mr Fuji, Psalm two, one two. And that’s because that’s a little bit of a different handle but that’s okay. And then, um, I’m on Facebook as well so anybody can all hit me up on that as well. And
from me, I love new friends.
Yes, you guys will get a lot of friends. I’m pretty sure after this, after your guys episode, you’ll get a lot of friends so people will be listening to this episode. Uh, cause it’s cool cause like I said, eight months of filming into a 45 minute episode, people don’t really know a lot, a lot about you guys until this is a great way of doing the podcast to let people know more about you, more your view, your emotions, what you thought of the experience and I think that’s going to be great for people to connect with you guys. So thank you guys so much for coming on the fit fed fit experience podcast. You guys are awesome and uh, definitely stay in touch and uh, we definitely want to hear back from you guys. So
yeah, drew, we love you. We’ll talk to you soon man.
Thank you guys. Thank you guys. Love you too.
[inaudible]
thank you guys so much for listening to another great episode of the fit fit experience podcast. If you’d like today’s episode, please go leave us a review on iTunes. We really appreciate hearing from you guys and hearing what you guys have to say about the podcast and listening to your ideas about future guests and future topics you want to hear his talk about. Uh, please subscribe to us on iTunes as well so that you don’t miss any episodes. You guys, um, and uh, feel free to reach out to us on social media. My social media handle is at fit two fat to fit with a number two on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, all of it. It’s at fit, fit, fit. I’m even on Snapchat and my website fit to Pratt to fit.com. Uh, you can send it for the newsletter there. You can also check out my six months of meal plans and workouts that I used on my journey from fat to fit during my fit to fat to fit journey.
All that is accessible there and my book, which is on Amazon or iTunes, you can find it anywhere. It’s called fit to fat to fit the unexpected lessons of gaining and losing 75 pounds on purpose. Uh, check that book out in New York time bestseller. So I think it’s pretty good. Uh, Lynn’s website is to fit@homethenumbertoitathome.com. You can sign up for her newsletter there. It’s, uh, it’s, it’s focused mostly on women. So all you moms out there, for example, would love her content, love her programs. Uh, she’s on all social media at to fit at home as well. And we’d love to hear from you guys. We answer everybody’s emails, we respond, everybody’s tweets and messages on Instagram. And we, we love and appreciate you guys and all the support you’ve shown us. Uh, so we hope to, we hope to have you guys back on, uh, the, sorry, let me say that again. We hope that you guys will tune in next week for another great episode of the fit to fit, fit, experience con. Uh, we hope you guys will tune in next week to another great episode of the fit to fat to fit experience podcast as we try and deliver you guys great content each week. We’ll see you guys back here
next week. [inaudible].
