What’s up, everybody. Welcome back to the fit to fat to fit experience podcast. It’s Drew Manning, your host back here with another great episode. And thank you guys so much for tuning in today. Today, we have a special treat to people on the episode today. I normally don’t have more than one person. Sometimes I do, and we’re having a power couple Danielle and Darren now, Tony, um, fit and funky is her handle on social media. His is Darren and I, Tony. And it was some of you guys might know these, these two beautiful people. Um, they are, um, two of the top, uh, beach body coaches out there. And I met them at a mastermind event at Jim Quick’s house, who I had on the podcast a while ago with other people like Aubrey Marcus and Sean Stevenson, um, among a ton of other people. Anyways, I had them on the podcast and if you guys don’t know them, you need to go check them out on social media.
They have a very, very interesting story. They are a, the, the insanity former expert, uh, or format expert for beach body. So they are the ones that create the format of some of these online programs that Beachbody puts out. Uh, they’ve worked specifically with Shawn T a for years now, Shante actually married them. Um, and I was super impressed with their story, their background. So we get into the background. Yeah, Darren used to be a DEA agent. Uh, Danielle came from, um, um, elementary education background. So she was a teacher for a long time and they’ve created an empire and, uh, very, very successful, very, very healthy and fit. And we dive into some of the personal stories, like what they learn, how they’ve evolved over the years to philosophies on nutrition and fitness. Um, and then also we actually get into a more personal subject, their blended family, you know, she was married previously with two kids, came into, um, this marriage with Darren, um, and they have a blended family.
And I of course, was very interested in that. So it kind of dive into that as well. So a lot of gyms in this episode, you guys thank you so much for every week tuning into this podcast. I hope you guys really get a lot of value out of this. Um, I know I do as a host, but please let me know how you guys like this. Um, if you guys want me to have certain people on, please reach out to me on social media, you know where to get ahold of me at Fitbit fit. I appreciate all your guys’ feedback. All right, before we jump into the episode, the first thing is first. Um, my fat to fit six month complete transformation program has been relaunched. So I know you might’ve heard about this on the past couple episodes, but I want to put it out there a couple more times because, um, you can sign up for it.
Now it’s at transform.fit to fat to fit.com. You can go there. It’s a six month program that I used to get back to fit that I lost 75 pounds in six months doing this program that I created. And not only did I lose weight, but thousands of other people around the world embrace this healthier lifestyle change. And you can see there a before and after photos on my website, [inaudible] dot com. Just go to the link, a transformed at fit to fat, to fit.com for a complete six month transformation. I’m talking about everything with the meal plans, the workouts, a private Facebook group, where I coach you and help you customize this program to your needs. Um, you, you definitely need to go check this out if you’re, if you’re very serious about, um, a complete physical, mental and emotional transformation. And it’s mostly, I would say for, uh, beginners or those who are more advanced, you can still, um, do this program, but what I can do is help customize it to you.
So you jumped to a different month, but the starting point is for those who haven’t worked out in awhile, but it, I can tailor it to your guys’ needs. So super excited about it. It’s my baby. I’m super proud of it. And I want you guys to go check it out, cause it, like I said, it’s a complete transformation package. All right, let’s give a shout out to our show sponsors. This week show sponsors our quest quito.com. Quest Quito is a full lineup of ketogenic food. So high fat, moderate protein, low carb foods that taste freaking delicious, um, quest kito.com. They do, you know, obviously quest bars. Uh, they do an amazing job of making a healthy food tastes good. And so they’ve applied that into the keto world of foods that are high in fat. And so they have a lot of delicious frozen meals like pizzas and bacon, egg, and cheese, uh, sausage biscuits.
Um, they do, um, let’s see, uh, bacon cheddar tomato bisque. Um, let’s see. Cinnamon rolls. These foods are frozen. They’re delicious though, and they’re convenient. So we are a society of convenience and quest keto does a great job of making these, these, uh, healthy foods that fit into a ketogenic lifestyle, very convenient and very tasty. And you can check them out. Quest quito.com. The next show sponsor is drop an F bomb.com. What is this you’re asking? What is dropping F bomb? A F bomb stands for a fat bomb. And so basically this company is a smaller company. They reached out to me. They love what I do. I connected with them. I love their message and their single serving pouches of high quality fats come in. Very, very handy for me. So when I travel or I’m on the go, I can put these in my pocket.
I can take with them on the airplane and it can have them anywhere if I need to get in fast. Cause when you travel and I’m trying to eat keto, for example, you, it’s hard to get in enough fats, right? When you’re on the road, especially high quality fats. And you know, you could go to a restaurant, they’ll add some type of oil. You don’t know what oil it is to some of the foods to bump up your fat. But this stuff is, you know, a 100%, um, organic it’s coconut oil, it’s avocado oil, it’s olive oil, it’s macadamia, nut oil. They have nut butters that macadamia nut butter. They have chocolate macadamia, nut butter as well, and to come and single serving pouches that you can’t puncture that are super easy. You rip open, you can just Chuck it down and get that fat.
Or you can add it to your coffee when you’re on the road or I’m a salad when you’re at a restaurant. So they make eating Quito easy, check them out. I drop an F bomb.com. Use my code 10% off. You get 10% off by using my code for test fit. And you also help support this podcast so we can continue to have a weekly episode. So shout out to our show sponsors, go show them some love you guys. We appreciate them because without them, we wouldn’t have this podcast. And I appreciate you because without you, I wouldn’t have this podcast. So thank you guys for tuning in each and every week. Um, all right, let’s go hang out with Danielle and Darren, Danielle and Darren. Welcome to the show. How are you guys doing today?
Hey, we’re doing great.
Thanks for having us. Hey, my pleasure. It’s been a, you know, I’ve been, I wanted to have you guys on it ever since I met you guys at the mastermind event and I just haven’t right. The holidays came and stuff like that, but I’m finally glad that we were able to get both of you on. Um, and I want to introduce both of you guys to my audience and let’s start with, first of all, let’s start with how you two met. I love hearing those stories. Everybody loves to hear those stories. Cause I don’t, it’s not very often that I have a couple on it’s usually just one individual. So let’s, let’s start with how you two met.
Sure. I’ll start because that’ll be the flow cause I tend to overstate. So we actually met for the first time, just like at a convention, I guess you could say. And we, he, he asked a question or somebody asked a question and I spoke up and answered the question and he thought I was annoying. And then that was kind of it. And fast forward to, um, the insanity infomercial. So I did the original insanity program, submitted my results. I went from fit to fit her and got asked to be an infomercial at the time I had never really traveled anywhere and I was super nervous and I saw on an email thread, his name that he was going to be there. So meeting him that one meeting, I just kind of reached out to him and said, Hey, I’m going to this infomercial shoot. I see.
You’re going to be there. I’m super nervous about traveling, you know, can you just kind of be my friend? So he said, sure. So that’s where we first became friends. But even at that, at that shoot, um, it was really more of just like acquaintances fast forward. I don’t know, a couple of years after that, I began to work for Sean T the creator of insanity. He also worked for Sean T and so we developed a work relationship during that work relationship. Then we realized that we were more than just friends. So if you want it to like play one of those games on Facebook, where it’s like, where did you meet your spouse? I kind of always joke and say, we met on the set of the insanity infomercial, and that were truly the insanity love story. But that’s basically where, where we met.
I would say that the set of the infomercial, that’s kind of the day that sparked everything as far as actually knowing her beyond there, annoying answer,
She gave it that convention. Well, that’s good that you, you somewhat agree with her version of the story. There’s nothing you need to change about that, but it’s a, it’s funny how it took a couple of years. You said after you guys first met, and then it was a work relationship and then you finally knew, okay, were we actually like each other? Well, yeah, that, that’s the beauty of it. And we like to kinda talk about that sometimes. Just how meeting someone from that perspective where you’re just getting to know that person as a friend, like you just like, we work together all day long. I was in Hawaii at the time she was in Dallas. So it was just over the internet basically. And we were just constantly working, coming up, brainstorming, you know, helping Sean grow social media, his business, all this stuff. So it really was the perfect way to get to know somebody from a personal perspective, a professional standpoint. And then in time when she came off limits so to speak, then we kind of realized, Hey, look, this is,
Yeah, we always say we fell into friendship first. And even in our wedding vows, he said, you know, I think you said that I fell into friendship with you. And then I fell in love and we honestly feel like that’s one of the keys to our success is because it wasn’t about physical or, you know, we really became each other’s best friends. And then when we knew we were in love with each other, from that moment on, we’ve been the same ever since.
Yeah. Okay. Cause I was going to ask you Darren, like when she reached out to the via email, when she said, Hey, are you going to be at this thing? I’m nervous. Will you be my friend? Were you kind of thinking, okay, I think she likes me, but you didn’t get that vibe. No, not at all. So when she reached out, I just responded, Hey. Yeah. You know, I’m happy to take you around or kind of take you under my wing. I had, I was familiar with everybody at the time, so I kind of knew everybody on set. I’ve been involved with that a little longer than she had. And I was already friends with Sean. And so the cast and crew. And so it wasn’t a brand new experience for me. So I was happy to be there for her, but it was just that, you know, and she’s, you know, an, obviously an attractive looking woman, but she’s off limits, you know, at the time.
And that’s just that, I mean, there’s just nothing past that. It was just okay, cool. Yeah, you can hang with me. Okay. Okay. Cool. That makes sense. No, it’s a, I love that though. I love that. And I know we’re going to get into the whole beach body thing and you guys connection to that. But before that, let’s back up to before you guys met, um, I know that you guys have some unique backgrounds and unique set of skills that I want to, uh, get across to my audience. So let’s start with you Dara, and then we’ll go to Danielle. Sure.
You want to talk about a lot of backgrounds? Nope. Everybody’s ready.
A fairly eclectic background. When I first, I guess we got to flip it back many, many years. So my very first job ever was a snowboard terrain park rain, or so basically I got paid to build the hats, test the pipe. We launched the train park there in North Idaho. So it was the, basically the dream gig for like a 16 year old kid. And at that time we did these Friday night, five competitions and a DJ set up one night with turntables two technics, 12 hundreds. And I was just like, and Namor with this man. Like I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen in my life. And so I saved up everything I made working there and bought myself some turntables and a mixer and started investing in vinyl and just basically learning how to DJ, because I thought this is the greatest thing ever.
So from there kind of gotten that, you know, the high school dances and all that stuff. And then fast forward into college, it kind of became my side business. I was going to school for business, but I was more like into building my own business. And so I really took after the DJ and I got after it and best word to after college, that’s what I did. I ended up making music, producing it. You can presale, you can get a lot of bit on Crooklyn, clans vault. And so kind of getting above with that industry. I ended up touring around the country, playing clubs and all this fun stuff. So just kind of just had a blast doing that. Like I love music. I love doing that around this time though. I was always in the studio. And so I wasn’t getting exercise. You know, I’d grown up playing soccer, my whole life being outdoors, being active.
But for a long time, I just been in the studio, making music at the computer, that kind of stuff. So one night I was sitting there eating a four by four from in and out on the couch. And on comes the in Sandy infomercial, it was brand new at the time. It was like, just come out. This was, I think, 2009. And I thought, well, shoot, I need to do do something. And they’re telling me, this is the hardest work I’ve ever put on DVD. Well, I can do that. So I ordered it and dude, I thought I was dying the first time I hit play on that thing, but I kept doing it at data. And during the 60 day period, like physically, it transformed me, but mentally, it just took me to a whole new place. So that was really my introduction to fitness.
And from there I just became obsessed with it. Just like anything I, I get into, do I want to become not the best, but my best at it. So I just kept researching and getting involved with it and becoming a trainer and all the, everything I could do in fitness and health, I just did. But along the same time, I was also pursuing another career that I’d wanted to do since I was a little kid. And that was becoming a federal agent. And I had been in the process for like four years, uh, with DEA going through the hiring process, there’s hiring freezes at the time. And so just wasn’t sure if it was going to happen. So I said, Hey, you know what? I’m getting older. I’m reaching that age cutoff where you gotta gotta pull the trigger. You don’t know if you’re going get in the DEA.
So I went down to the Navy recruiter to do the other thing I’d always wanted to, which is become a Navy seal. It sounds like you got a lot on your list. Yeah. So I ended up getting a civilian, a CEO contract and depth, and I was ready to go. I was about three months from shipping out to have a very different life with the Navy, you know, to go to boot camp and then onto buds. And I got the call from DEA. So I ended up taking that and becoming an agent and enjoyed that. But then, you know, fast forward a while I got a call from Shawn Shante and he said, Hey, look, I’m going to be building out my company. I’m going to be kind of growing this thing. And he knew my background just in tech and music and design and everything.
And he said, I really could use somebody to kind of do all my technology on my branding, on my marketing and stuff. So I said, you know what? This is opportunity of a lifetime. And so I left the DEA and came back and started working for him. And that’s where Danielle and I connected. Yeah, that is so cool, man. It’s so awesome to see your passions kind of shift because it sounds like you’re passionate about a lot of things, which is unique. I think a lot of individuals are like passionate about one thing, and then they pursue that. Whereas you, you put all your time and effort into music and then you saw this infomercial and then you put all your time and effort into fitness, you know, and then you’re like, well, I’ve always had these childhood dreams. I better pursue pursue these, which is awesome.
Cause you only live once, man. And it’s cool to have experiences and making memories while you can. So at school you had those experiences and just so everybody knows a funny story at the mastermind event. I remember when you were saying you’re a DEA and Aubrey Marcus from he’s the CEO on it. And it was, you know, he’s very outspoken about plant-based drugs and Iowasca and stuff like medicine they’re called medicine medicines. That’s what he was like, what’s going on here. We get a DEA agent in here. And it was so funny. I remember that. So it’s a, collectic, you know, it’s always hard when somebody asks, you know, so what do you do or what did you do and everything, everything. Because that’s what I believe in ever since I was a little, little kid, I kind of had this philosophy that just kind of guided me throughout life and it’s become our philosophy now as well that we’ve adopted together. And that’s the only way to fail in life is to settle and I just refuse to settle. So whatever it is that peaks my interest, I’m going to get after it. I’m going to go after that direction and try to get as far as I can in that become proficient at it because I don’t like being a novice at something. So that’s really it. I just feel like we have this potential and we got to fulfill it. We got to go after it. We gotta, we gotta do it. So love it, man. Okay, Danielle.
Okay. Well, mine’s not near as interesting.
Well, you’re not an undercover CIA agent or something like that.
Yeah, no, I’m not an undercover agent, but uh, I am really good at karaoke. So anyway, I, uh, I got pregnant early, so I was 22 and got a little accidentally pregnant, but she’s amazing. And she’s almost 16. So I had a, yeah, so I had a fast forward into adulthood, um, pretty quickly. And so after I had her, I had actually, um, just to back up a little bit, I was always like really great in school. I was a dancer. I played the violin. I was a year ahead in college. I was also young for my age. Um, I was 17 for like the first four months of college. So, um, and my parents were super protective. So when I got to college, I, you know, I had a little bit of some wild moments. And during that I wound up quitting college and I actually didn’t go back to get my degree until after Adriana was born.
So when Adriana was born, I was like, Oh my goodness, I need to get my life together. So I began waiting tables at Chili’s and I, you know, waited tables and, you know, got some, you know, federal grants and put myself through college and became an elementary school teacher. So my degree is in elementary education and that’s what I did for 10 years. And actually I did both for quite a while. I was an elementary school teacher by day and by night or on the weekend, I either waited tables or I was a bartender at Chili’s just to make the payments for daycare. So I’ve always been a hustler. That’s like, I I’m just like a workhorse. So I, you know, cause I put myself through college, became an elementary school teacher. I taught, um, I was certified to teach kindergarten through sixth grade, but kindergarten wasn’t my jam.
And the older kids really were and I wound up departmentalizing. So I was really a fifth grade math teacher for the bulk of my career. And I love it, loved it. I really did. I was good at it. My forte was, I used to create songs to go along with the curriculum. So back then my big vision was that I was going to have this like book of songs and raps for, you know, math curriculum. And I really just thought that that’s what I was going to forever do, but I was always into fitness. I grew up a dancer. I danced all the way through high school. I danced in college for the university of central Florida. I danced for some semi pro um, you know, football teams. So dance and fitness were always part of my gig. And because I got pregnant early, I said to myself that I was not going to be the woman who had like a 10 year old and was like, Oh, but I just had a baby.
And that’s why I’m overweight. So I couldn’t afford a gym membership. So I don’t know if anyone remembers Denise Austin, but she used to have like these free workout shows on lifetime. And uh, so I would, you know, breastfeed the baby and then I would do Denise Austin in my living room. And that’s kinda how I got interested in fitness. So even before beach buddy came along, I was always the girl that went to the gym. I eventually, once I became a teacher, the first thing I made sure I could afford was the gym membership. And I would go every day after work because that was my one hour of me time. And you know, that was my one time that I knew that I was doing something good for me and my body. So I always liked fitness, even I found beach body, but honestly how I wound up, you know, transforming from a fifth grade math teacher to a full time fitness professional was just that I needed a second job.
And I had decided at one point to stop bartending and waiting tables and found myself needing a second job, again, really couldn’t make ends meet because when you get pregnant and married young, you sometimes make a lot of bad financial decisions. So wasn’t able to make ends meet. And I thought, Oh, well, you know, I just don’t want to go back to waiting tables. And group exercise instructors are really cute and fun. I bet you, they make a lot of money. I had no idea. And so I wound up getting certified to teach a class called turbo kick. And that kind of was the segue into, you know, me just going into fitness. But before I ever started, I didn’t have any social media followings. I didn’t have a background in anything. I always joke that my degree is in, you know, fractions and coloring. And, but I’ve always just had like a hustle mindset, like kind of like him, I’m going to be the best at everything I do. So whether it was a teacher or whether it was transitioning from fractions to fitness, um, I was just going to kind of go for it with the mentality of like, okay, we’re going to rock at this. So anyway, that’s kind of my background, um, as to where I came from,
I think you should change your Instagram name to, from fractions to fitness.
That’s my tagline that I use, um, through, you know, what I’ve created, um, with beach buddy is, um, from fractions to fitness, I’m still a teacher. My audience is just different. So that’s really my philosophy.
I love it. I love it. That is so cool to see here, both of you guys’ stories and your backgrounds and your passions and how it’s evolved into what it is today. Um, I kind of want to make that connection a little bit to beach body. Um, Darren, you kind of, you know, you both kind of alluded to, you know, how you got into it, right? Like, you know, you’re both, I guess it started out with your own transformations, right? Darren was sitting on the couch eating a four by four for men. And now Danielle, did you have a similar experience where you’re like, you know, I, I mean, cause you were already in shape.
I know that that’s not. Yeah, I know that’s not something women want to hear. It makes them want to slap me in the face, but I’ve always been fit. I’m a smaller framed person. I’ve gotten fitter over the years, but there’s never really been a moment in my life where I’ve struggled with weight or body image. Um, I’ve just been healthy, but I’m getting healthier as I’m getting older for me, I actually came into it more for the business opportunity side of it. I needed a second job. The woman that introduced each buddy to me told me about this coaching opportunity, um, where, you know, all the programs and products are sold through coaches. And for whatever reason, I just believed her. She had this amazing big blonde hair and a sweet voice. And I thought, okay, if she can do it, I can do it.
And so that’s honestly how it started and because I needed to make it work, I just did. And I jumped all in. And so I knew that one of the things that would make it work is what we call becoming proof, the products work. And so I looked at the programs that we had at the time and I thought, I don’t know who this crazy black guy is with all these apps, but that looks hard and I’m going to try that. So that’s honestly how it started. Um, from there though, I was also teaching group exercise. I got certified in a bunch of different formats and that filled such a, I don’t want to say avoid, but maybe, you know, because I am an educator at heart. So it really put into place. A lot of the things I loved fitness teaching presenting, I’ve always felt like I was meant to be some kind of, you know, personality, so to speak.
So it gave me those, those opportunities. So within that, you know, beach body eventually added on what’s called the live component where we now take the ad home products, we bring them to gyms. And so I’ve, you know, became a master trainer for that. I actually, um, what’s called the insanity live format expert, which means I create all the programming for all the insanity classes that are taught worldwide. So it really opened up just a lot of interesting doors for me, but it all started because I thought, okay, if I’m going to make this work, I truly have to bleed Beachbody blue. And I was awarded this summer actually, uh, the CEO award of the company for that very reason because basically I just, when I came into it, I went all in. So that’s how it started.
Yeah. I actually didn’t know they had that coaching program around, um, because I know that they had the infomercials and the DVDs, but I don’t remember when the coaching program actually started where people could become coaches and, you know, sign up other coaches. Um, so yeah, I didn’t know that they had that in place. Darren, when you joined with, was that something they had in place or was it just the infomercials and the DVDs? Yeah. So back then they didn’t have much. Right. And I think P90X had kind of come out and kind of transform people’s concept of home fitness and then shortly after that and sanity launched. And so when I found insanity, this was relatively new. It only been a couple years that they had had that. And so, you know, I just wanted to get more involved because after I did the program, literally I was going around and I was just telling everybody about it.
I’m like, you got to do this and you know, everybody’s asking me like, what’d you do? And so I would just tell him about it all the time. No different than like you go to the movies. And then you tell everybody about that movie that you saw. And so I was doing that and I realized, man, I should like at least get paid to do this. You know? So I ended up becoming a coach and just getting involved as I could in it, because it just was natural. It wasn’t something that I was trying to do for any reason, other than I genuinely wanted people to feel that same sort of enthusiasm and get those same results. It’s so attainable.
Like all I did was play, press play for like 60 days of my life. And then, you know, it was a totally different life. So I just wanted to help people do that. And so we got involved with that and then, you know, it’s so funny because I think about it now. And I look back on the power of a single decision and sitting there that night on the couch, I got to watch that infomercial and just kept on eating the burger or whatever. But that decision literally had me end up in that same infomercial on TV with my 63 year old dad at the time he ended up in the infomercial too. And then, you know, just the snowball effect
And now your sister would then my assistant
Commercial, you know, I ended up meeting that guy, you know, the creator of the program, Sean ended up marrying us on a clip and Maui together. I mean, it’s just so funny how that one decision it got me a whole new life. It found me my, you know, my dream girl. And it’s just, it’s incredible. Like so many people, I think underestimate the power of a simple decision and that simple decision legitimately can change everything about your life. Yeah. And it’s so funny because people are afraid to make that decision or to go down that road. But if you only knew what was ahead, you would totally have made that decision, but you got to take that risk. You gotta have that faith that this could lead to something great. You know, whether it’s one month or one year or 10 years from now, you have no idea. But unless you make that decision, you know, you’ll never know that’s such a cool story. We believe too that sometimes I’m going to screw this quote up.
I’ve never written a quote a long time ago and it always stuck with me actually cut it out of the magazine. It was like Maxim magazine or something at the time. And it was like the creator town nightclub there in Vegas. And he said something to the effect of you, can’t be afraid to leave something good for the potential of great. And it just always stuck for me. And that’s something that I had to, you know, say to myself numerous times, because like when I was in an agent with DEA, I thought I was going to be doing that. You know, I went in thinking I’m going to do this the next 20 years, the rest of my life. But I had to ask myself, you know, is this, you know exactly what I am supposed to be doing. And so I had to make that tough decision to leave me something awesome for the potential of something even better.
And if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be here today talking to you. I wouldn’t be married to this person. I mean, it’s, it’s just incredible. It’s incredible. Yeah. No, I, I love that, man. That’s a great quote to live by him. So back to your story, Darren, um, what was it? So did you become a coach too? And then how did the initial, how did Shante like, just call you up and say, Hey, I know about your skills. Like how did it lead to that? Yeah. So after I did the program or insanity, the first time I was getting ready to do it again, and I was looking into Shakeology and stuff, and I was like, shoot, I kinda want to discount. I’m already talking about this. So I ended up calling the coach had been assigned to at the time. Cause when you sign up for the,
When you get the products, they connect you with a coach to help you, you know, through the program and I’d never reached out to him. And so I just called her up, saw she was in Vegas, you know, it was a local number and I just got on the phone and said, Hey, what’s up? What’s the deal with this? Is this like a scam? What is this? And so it ended up being perfect. I signed up that day to be a coach and I just started helping people. Like I didn’t care about like the business side. I was actually the opposite of Danielle, where she got into it for the business. And I just got into it to connect people to insanity at the time because I thought it had the potential to change their lives. And so I ended up signing up for Facebook. I hadn’t been on Facebook ban. And so I created a Facebook account, uploaded my pictures and I happened to tag Sean and he responded to one of them and said, Hey, look, you should submit your results to beach. Body ended up doing that. And each year we have what’s called a coach summit where all coaches gathered together. And back then it was so small. It was like my percent of 2010. It was like a thousand people.
So overwhelming now
It’s like 30,000 people or something. But I remember it was a small room. It was like Sean. And all those people who had just graduated in Sandy since it was a new program, we’re allowed to like come up in the front and we all worked out together. And so through that, I just remember thinking my, during the workout, wow man, this guy had like, I love his sense of music. And so when I got back to got back to home, I just ended up hitting him back on Facebook and saying, Hey man, I love the music. And we ended up connecting on there. And very shortly after that, we connected on the phone. He kicked, flew out to Vegas to make a mix together. And we started making these mixes. And I mean that first weekend we literally was like finding my long lost brother.
And from that point forward, we had just become best friends. And, and then that way, once we met Danielle, she just fit so perfectly into our whole, you know, mix. And it was just, that was it, you know, again, power over decision. That’s so cool. And you guys connected on something outside of fitness too, which is awesome. I think, uh, instead of just, you know, yeah. Obviously you’re a great fit for the business. So, you know, I’ve had, Shaunti on, I’ve had Tony Horton on and you know, now I have you guys on, um, are you guys just only associated with Shawntee or do you work for all different programs for Beachbody?
No. So, no. Um, we are Beachbody coaches, which means we promote, you know, all the trainers. Um, we have worked exclusive, we work for Sean T’s company outside of beach buddy. So Sean has his own staff, just like I’m sure Tony does. And you know, that’s not beach body related. So we helped him grow that. Um, we, you know, have been in his program Shaunte’s program. So Darren was in, um, in Sandy asylum volume one, I was in insanity, asylum volume two. We both were an insanity max 30, um, you know, we run the insanity live brand, but I also have been really, um, heavily involved in a program for beach body called country heat, um, which is a cardio dance fitness class by a set to country music with the trainer autumn Calibri. So I helped run a test group out here in Dallas and I filmed the live workouts for those videos.
So we don’t just exclusively work for him. He just happens to also be, you know, became a really good friend. So, but you know, we promote all, all beach body programs and all trainers. And then of course, you know, we also promote things that are not Beachbody, right? So we, you know, promote, um, paleo and, you know, he likes this thing called gymnastics bodies. And so the great thing about beach body is you’re, what’s called an independent team beach body coach, which basically means you’re the CEO of your own jam. And you just happen to use beach body programs, you know, to promote and help people change their lives.
And that’s just one small part. So the company, it has a lot of different avenues. So you have the, you know, the infomercial side that many people or most people are familiar with, but then you have the live side that we talked about. And when I left EA, when she was coming out of that, we both helped launch beach body live at the time. So beach body live being the group exercise component of all the formats that people do in homes. So yeah, eventually I was then in Sandy live had master trainer and she’s like she said the format expert. And so we really launched that brand and got it out there in gyms. And so it’s kind of like our baby, so to speak. We were just very passionate about that as well, but there’s different avenues of it. So you can choose to be involved as little as you want, or you can go after it like full bore, like Danielle did and just get involved with every single thing through coaching, into the, you know, the everything. So like country line, dancing, fitness class, whatever. I can’t remember what it’s called. It sounds interesting cancer heat. Sorry.
Um, it was something originally. I was like, Nope, I want no part of that, but I love to dance. And then now it’s my favorite. And it’s so cute that my, I get all the extra 11 and squeeze in from my husband when he watches me do that
Because people think country line dancing and you can actually see a couple of funny videos of us on our social media are on our team or whatever, as a team@mcgee.com. It’s kind of funny cause I was thinking country line dancing and it’s totally not. That’s really cool, but I love watching her move, especially when she teaches it cause Hmm. Yeah, no, that’s cool. And I’m a big fan of gymnastic bodies. Um, I follow them. I can’t do any of it yet. Like I haven’t started to be honest with you, but I just look at it. I’m like, Oh man, I would love to be able to do something like that. It’s so amazing. But uh, that’s, we’ll have to get on that topic a little bit later. Cause I know, I see you do some of those mobility things, right? Darren? Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Like, yeah, we can touch on it later, but I actually went to a seminar a while back in San Diego a couple of years ago and that’s how I connected with coach summer and, and I’ve just, it’s been amazing. I mean he’s awesome, man. Yeah, well, you know, very soon, very soon and that, and the Wim Hof method will do that too. Okay. Um, you know, you guys have been in this business for a long time. I kinda want to, to you guys about how
Your own fitness and nutrition has evolved over the years and kind of talk briefly about where you guys are at today. Like you said, you mentioned paleo, how has that all evolved over the years and where are you guys at now? What’s your, what’s your philosophy now?
Sure. So, you know, I have definitely progressed over the years. I’m a reformed picky eater. So I was, you know, I was an only child and I’m a brat. I’ll admit it. And I’m very stubborn. So growing up, I was kind of, of the notion of my parents said, you’re going to sit here until you eat this. I’m like, no. Okay. And I would just sit there until she made me something else to eat because I was an only child and I was used to self entertaining. So over time what happened was I was not very adventurous with my food. I would just prejudge food based on its color and the way it looked that I didn’t like it. So as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more adventurous as I’ve, you know, do more reading and research. I’m really starting to open up my taste buds and try things that I would have never tried before.
Um, I originally became paleo so to speak. Um, even though I don’t believe in labels, my joke is kind of always like, you know, someone will say, Oh my gosh, you ate X, Y, Z, aren’t you paleo. And I’m always like, no, it’s not taken away my membership card. You know? So, um, but how I got introduced to it, there was a time where I was a CrossFitter and I really loved that it spoke to my competitive nature. And so at the time my CrossFit coach was the one that introduced me to whole 30 and paleo and it just made sense. It just clicked. And from that point on, I basically have followed the paleo guidelines and principles over time. I’ve, you know, really just, I would say, I don’t know when we really introduced like intermittent fasting, but that’s basically, you know, we’re basically a mixture of paleo, um, intermittent fasting and you know, for the most part we just follow a lot of great people on social media.
We do a lot of reading and then we try things and if we feel amazing, we do it. If we don’t feel amazing, we don’t, we basically want to feel a hundred percent all the time. And if something doesn’t make us feel good, then we just stop it. A great example of that would be drinking. Like we’re not, we were never big drinkers to begin with. But then what we realized was is even if we just drank a little bit, we didn’t feel great the next day. So we just made a decision. We’re like, okay, we’re not going to do that anymore. So, you know, our philosophy basically is we will feel optimal, uh, as much as possible, but if you had to kind of like put it into some boxes, it pretty much fits into the paleo intermittent fasting. Am I missing anything?
No. I mean, that’s really, it obviously, it’s kind of like what you touched on when you asked, how has it evolved over the years? That’s exactly what it’s done. It’s evolved over the years. So like when I first got into this whole thing after, you know, doing insanity, I randomly found fit bomb.com at the time, which is the other half of nom nom, paleo. And that’s how I kind of learned about the kind of paleo so to speak lifestyle and it made sense. And so the more reading I did, I thought, wow, this makes a lot of sense. You know, cutting out the grains, they’re lagoons, these are inflammatory. Do I want to be eating these? And so he had mentioned on the blog once that whole nine life was going to be coming out to Las Vegas to do a seminar. And so at the time they didn’t have, they had the whole 30, but you know, Melissa and Dallas Hartwig, they didn’t have like everything that, it was just like the book at the time.
So I ended up going to the seminar and I literally walked out at lunchtime and I called my mom and I was like, I know how to eat for the rest of my life. And I know that sounds weird, but like, up to that point, it was like I got in that short amount of time, all the information that was never taught to me in school. And so I just shipped the way I ate. And that was in 2010. So for like seven years now, we’ve been, you know, quote unquote, paleo, but it’s that term that has kind of evolved for us and that people tend to get hung up on, is it paleo? Is it not? And really the ultimate question is, does it make you healthy or does it make you less healthy? So if it’s going to cause inflammation in the body, we’re not going to put it in our bodies, you know?
And so that’s really how it’s evolved over time. Like I, at first, you know, when you first get into fitness, you subscribed to the whole gut, eat every three hours. Are you going to store fat, like a hibernating bear and all this stuff. And so you get into that kind of bodybuilding fitness mindset. And then over time, as we did more research and learned about grains and all this stuff, I mean it changes. And so it’s been a fun, it’s, it’s actually fun. Like we both get really into the research aspect, but I get really into the research
For sure. But it’s funny, probably the number, especially as a female, the number one question I get asked every single day, how many calories do I eat? How do I count my macros? How do I do this? And so many women just don’t want to listen to me that I’m like, I don’t do any of that. You guys, I have relearned my hunger signals and I eat when I’m hungry and I don’t want, I don’t. And they just, they don’t want to subscribe to that. And it’s so funny because, and I don’t mean this negative because I truly don’t think anyone should aim to look like me. I do believe you should aim to look like the best you possible. Right. But it is funny that all these women are like, I was just wanting to look like you, what am I going to do?
And I, you know, I try to tell them and they’re like, yeah, I know, no, no, but how many calories do I need to eat and how many macros? And it’s just incredible how we’ve like brainwashed society into this, you know? And it’s interesting to see even his sister was struggling for a while with just like, I would call them like these food demons. Like I’m like, imagine how stressful it must be for every meal to stress about how many calories are you eating and is that the right amount of, you know, macros to this, to that, like, that’s like a really stressful way to live life. Whereas just knowing your hunger, hunger signals and what you like. And don’t like, and what feels good and what doesn’t feel good, man. That’s just a far more liberating way to live. So for us, we just also really enjoy this way of eating because I don’t have to eat when I wake up just because society told me I should.
And when I do decide to eat my first meal, it doesn’t have to be eggs because steak works too. You know? So it’s been like a really interesting shift and we enjoy it. Like I think we really have it nailed down. And for us too, I went from a non cooker, like not cooking at all to now. I just, my favorite place to be is in the kitchen. And nothing gives me greater joy than preparing like a healthy meal for us. I’m actually dealing with a lot of skin issues and allergies right now. And I am almost a hundred percent certain it’s related to any time we eat out. I just can’t pinpoint what it is,
Oil, but we live in this very, you know, caloric minded society that is just so hung up on calories. And instead of focusing on calories, we need to focus on quality, the quality of foods you put in your body. And we don’t have to operate according to some arbitrary schedule that was set by somebody that at noon, you eaten it, you know, all these, you know, breakfast, lunch, dinner, like I’ve shifted to where back then I used to eat every three hours. So now I eat once a day or twice a day and I eat a lot in that meal, but I’ve never felt better my entire life from doing that. And so that’s been an evolution though. It took, you know, testing things myself. That’s kind of why we do encourage the whole 30 a lot because it allows people to take 30 days and cut out foods that are, are, tend to be damaging to most people inflammatory to most people, but not everybody, but it allows you to remove those and find out how they affect you by adding them back in individually over time.
And so that’s a great place to start for people. So really at the end of the day, it’s all about developing this relationship with food that is healthy for you mentally, physically, everything that you can sustain for the rest of your life. And that’s really what I love about us is that we support each other in that too. So if one of us can’t have something or whatever, it’s just like, okay, boom. And it’s like, I’ve always, I’m kind of like this have this alien mindset. It doesn’t apply to everybody. But the second that I find out that something isn’t good for me. I just drop it and I never have it again. And so it’s just like, you tell me this isn’t gonna be good for you.
I’m going to have to tell him, I’m like, that’s a little harsh for some people, you know, he’s like, I don’t understand why don’t they just stop? I’m like, because you’re a freak of nature and some people need a little bit more encouragement than that.
Yeah, no, it’s so true. And I can, I can definitely relate to that pre fit to fat, to fit days. That was, that was me too. It was like, look, just don’t do it. Like, why would you do that to yourself? If you want to have results, it’s so easy. Just do it. Um, but what’s so interesting is like, you know, I’m on the same wavelength as you guys, as far as I want people, I want to encourage people to become their own self experimentation, right. Learn to find what’s optimal for you. And the only way to do that is to experiment on your body. Right? And so the only way, and to find out what’s optimal for you is to do it for 30 to 60 days and see how you feel, but also get your blood work done and get your body fat percentage done, you know, uh, you know, track your performance in your workouts, things like that, uh, versus what’s my scale weight, right?
And the hard part is that we’re so set on this diet mentality here in America of what’s the quickest way to lose the most amount of weight with the least amount of effort. And I’ve heard of you, I count calories or count. Macros is black and white. I plug in the formula and then boom, instant results, six pack skin. When in reality, you know, none of that’s going to make you happy, right? Being skinnier, having a six pack, doesn’t bring happiness. You have to understand that you’re in control of your happiness, whether you’re overweight or whether you’re skinny and just because you’re skinny or just because you’re losing weight, doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re becoming healthier. Health is the goal first. And then the looks and weight loss, and that stuff can become a bride product over, over time. But unfortunately we have a reverse where we sacrifice their health to look a certain way and think this is what is going to make me happy when in reality it’s the other way around.
Yeah, dude, it buyers us up. I mean, I get so passionate about it because at the end of the day, people are so concerned with looks when in reality, like fitness is such a small part of the equation. Like first sleep sleep has to be number one. And you know, Sean Stevenson is the go to person for that. So sleep number one that has to be your primary focus and then your nutrition focus on your nutrition. Once you’ve got that dialed in and you’re working on that, then let’s talk about fitness because that is the smallest part. Those other two are going to impact your help a lot more. And I think we do a disservice to people by having all these Instagram accounts out there that, you know, have these shredded bodies and abs and all this stuff. And we don’t know that those people are healthy on the inside, just because you look a certain way on the outside does not imply that you are healthy on the inside.
Well, I’m just lucky. I always joke that I’m like, Oh, this is just like, you know, someone will say, Oh man, how many AB exercises do you do to get your abs? I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t do any of that. Like, and I don’t mean that to be a jerk. It comes across jerky, right? Like, I don’t know. I just look like this, but it really is a byproduct of my sleep and my nutrition and my happiness, because I will tell you this too, as somebody who was in an unhealthy relationship before also your mental wellbeing and the state of where you exist, emotionally matters as well. And so now that I am, you know, I sleep well, I eat well and I’m in a very healthy and loving relationship. It that’s why in turn, okay. Externally my body looks a certain way, but it’s not because, you know, I was eating a certain amount of calories or hitting the gym a certain amount of hours or, you know, spot training, certain part of my body. It’s just that when you are emotionally happy, when you are eating the right things and you’re letting your body repair, then the outside just kind of figures itself.
Wow. And that’s probably to answer your question from earlier, you know, how has your nutrition evolved over the years, but also how is our fitness evolved over the years? That’s probably the biggest thing. People would be shocked at how little I probably work out. Like I really, I, that isn’t my focus. I’m focused on the health of my body and sleep. I make a huge priority, so sleep, but I’m focused on the health of my body and
My mobility. Can it do the things that I want it to do? And you know, what a byproduct of focusing on those things is that it does look, feel, and perform better. So, but if you’re working on the inside, if you’re working on being healthy of help is the goal. You will have everything that you want out of this whole gig. I promise you. Yeah. It’s just, it’s just hard because like you said, that we look at the Instagram accounts or we look at magazines and we think I want to look like that. So I’m going to do what they do when reality, you have to have a bigger, why your, why has to be bigger than just wanting to look good because you’re going to get burned out and you’re going to beat yourself up. If you don’t look that way. So you have to find a bigger why.
And that’s when you know what I’ve seen, that the stuff that lasts is when it’s about health, instead of looks on the outside, um, let’s shift gears here a little bit. Cause we’re, I know we’re running out, uh, running out of time, but we’re talking. No, which is good. You guys, all this stuff you guys are spitting out is really good information and people are going to eat this up. I know I am for sure. Um, and I, you know, kinda wanna get a little bit personal here and talk about you guys’ blended family, how that works. What are some things that have helped you guys over the years from both of your perspectives, right. Darren coming into, uh, uh, marrying Danielle who already had kids and, and what are some things that you guys do to stay tight as a family? Because, you know, just being totally open and honest, I’m a single dad of two divorce over two years now. And I don’t know, like I have fears about being in a relationship because I’m like, okay, what if this happens? What if that happens? You know, how do I navigate through this? And just being totally open on this, this is, I don’t want to turn this into a therapy session, but it’s kind of keeps me from putting myself out there.
Yeah. So first things first is just like with anything else in life, every situation is going to be different. Every kid handles things differently. Um, you know, so all you can do is do your best and you know, hope that it all works out. But just some things that, you know, work for us or didn’t work for us is w I’ll be completely honest. My girls were a little bit older. Adriana is almost 16 now. So she was probably like 11, when this all started to go down and 11 year old girls are super, um, you know, emotional already and, you know, a challenge and she was not all about it in the beginning. And, you know, and no matter how, you know, and Darren has always been great, he’s never tried to be their dad, just another like male positive figure in their life.
Um, because they do still have, um, a dad who’s very involved, but, you know, she was mean to him, you know, boldfaced mean. And so the number one thing I would say there is if you are dealing with a kid who’s a little oppositional to the relationship is that, you know, almost like a, the former first lady said, when, when they go low, you got to go high. And so he basically never, he never let her see his feathers ruffled, you know, and he just had to keep showing up positive every single day. Now they have a really great relationship. The little one on the other hand, you know, they were best friends, you know, from, from the jump street. So, you know, basically he had to just stay the same positive, you know, influenced the entire time. Now, what I will say is that that’s challenging, right. It was hard for me because it’s hard to know that, you know, he doesn’t feel good and she doesn’t feel good and I’m kind of in the middle. Um, but by the same token, no matter how old you are or your feeling still get hurt, especially when you’re just trying to be positive and, and someone doesn’t, you know, respond to that. So I don’t know if you want to jump in there, but
Yeah. So to kind of speak from the other side, for somebody coming in and like in your circumstance. So, you know, obviously I wasn’t like, I didn’t have like a resume. I wasn’t looking for anybody. First of all, like I was just focused on living my life, bettering myself, working on that. And honestly that needs to be your first priority in life before you can ever be with somebody else, you have to be a hundred percent content with yourself or else you will not succeed with another. It won’t happen because you will be bringing baggage to the table that will be detrimental to your relationship. So you have to be in a place that is ready to bring somebody. And when you’re there, you’ll attract that person, just like Danielle and I attracted each other at that point in time. But coming into this, I obviously didn’t have like a checklist.
One of those things was, yeah, make sure she has two kids. You know, that’s not the ideal situation coming into something, but also I never, I never questioned it. You know, I had a lot of people ask me when I first met Danielle. I was like, how, how do you feel about having kids? Like I vividly remember one circumstance where one of my friend’s dads, he asked me, so what’s it like being a stepdad? And I was like, what do you mean? I’m not an economist. I was like, Oh, Holy crap. I’m a stepdad. Like, and I realized at that point that I I’m a stepdad. And you know, if you care deeply enough for the person you’re with that, won’t be an issue. The children won’t even like register on your brain. You won’t realize it until you’re already well into it because you just adapt quickly.
But I will say that it’s what she touched on. Like, even when they’re not being nice to you and they’re just shutting you down and you know, whether it’s years of that, whatever, you just have to be positive. You have to be, be example, always. You can’t show any side of that because you’re in the unfortunate circumstance where you are going to be judged like, well, while your parents might be able to get away with some stuff you won’t be able to. So they will remember that there’ll be like anything you do they’ll remember that. So you have to be like, just another level of making sure that you are just that positive influence and that you are setting the example by treating the mother or the father, how they would want them to be treated. And while it might be hard at the beginning, seeing them with another person that’s not there, you know, mother, father, it’s just sticking through that, being this example and being positive, like one of the things that I do that I’m, I’ve just been since the beginning super about is whenever they come home and they’re like, I’m tired or they made us run at practice or they, you know, I have so much homework.
I’m like, good. That’s awesome. And they’re like, what do you mean? I’m like, that’s awesome. You’re getting better. Like, they’re just a perfect opportunity. Like they’re dreading that. Remember her little one was dreading giving a speech. So we just sat there and I made her go through it and rehearse it. And we went over it and went over it and immediate, like, you be excited about them, like show them that you’re excited about the things they’re doing. Because like a lot of people have, I think it starts at an early age where they think that you’re just like, it’s a bad thing. Like, Oh, I had to work hard. Like, that’s a good thing. Like when you’re, you know, when there’s hard stuff in your life, that that’s amazing because it’s making you better. And so that’s really what I try to convey is like, good. Your coach made you run. Yeah. You’re getting faster.
But I think the piece of that is, is, is like defining your own relationship with them. So their dad has a girlfriend too. I really enjoy her. You know, she’s great. And what’s great about her is same thing. She’s not trying to be their mom. She’s just trying to be a really good female figure in their life. But what’s interesting is, is again, everything’s situational. So the kids, well, my oldest daughter gave him a hard time initially. Right. But they never gave her a hard time. It’s like they didn’t care about my feelings. Right. And so you just never know. So I’m, I think the number one thing is one, it’s all situational and you just both have to do the best that you can do. And seriously, you can only, you know, grunt or, you know, complain in private. So, you know, do we sometimes have to hash it out behind closed doors about what’s going on?
Absolutely. And have we had to have some really uncomfortable conversations with each other about, you know, the situation with the kids? Absolutely. But in front of them, everything is fine. Right. And I think the other piece too is, you know, co-parenting has to happen no matter the situation in the divorce. Um, so our divorce in the beginning, wasn’t the most beautiful. And, but it’s progressed into a very nice co-parenting situation, but no matter what, you will never hear me say, speak anything ill of their father. And just to give you an example, we have very different eating beliefs. And so I know that I’m the unfun household, right. Cause I don’t have the super fund food and mommy, everything. My oldest daughter always jokes. I was like, Oh, is there coconut in this? So, you know, I get it, but I will, you’ll never hear me say something like, Oh, well, you know, that’s the kind of food you’ll get at your father’s.
Right? Like, so I think the other thing is really like, maybe that’s like the number one thing is like, when, when they go low, you go high is that you’ve got to take the moral high road, whether it comes to co-parenting, whether it comes to just letting the kids figure out like where they fit in all of this and how their emotions are in feelings are going to work themselves out. But it will all come around. You know, just even last night we had an amazing dinner as a, you know, together and you know, the girls just now know they have, you know, two separate sets of families and they joke that they have like so many grandparents now they don’t know what to post themselves. And you know, it is a beautiful thing to be a blended family. It just means that there are more people in your kid’s life who love them.
And they’ll say one other thing. And then I’ll let him speak as, as a mom. And maybe even for you, I don’t know, but it can be hard sometimes, you know, to wake up that first Christmas morning and know that they’re not with you and they’re with someone else, especially if there’s another person in the picture, but over time, that changes. And if you take the selfishness out of it, first of all, it’s just a day. There’s no difference between December 25th and March 14th, you know? And your kids love you no matter what. And it doesn’t matter what day you celebrate things with them on, but what you should focus on more is now I just think about man, my kids have so many people in their life that love them, that they get to celebrate so many different occasions with different people, man, how lucky they are versus focusing on how I feel. Just because I’m not with them perhaps on Christmas morning.
Yeah. I’ll go ahead. Yeah. Well, there’s just two things I wanted to touch on real quick is one is exactly what you said. I have to give it up because never once and all these years have I heard a single negative comment about him come, you know, be said to her daughters, it has never happened ever. And while we might talk about situations behind closed doors and really discuss things, never has she bad tend to anybody. And so I got to commender that is so important be, and it kind of reflects on one of the rules that I kind of believe in life is just, you’re not going to like everybody in this world. You’re not, but you will treat everybody with respect. And so they shouldn’t be able to tell whether you like them or not, because you do treat everybody with respect. So you, they just have to see you treating their parents with respect, treating everybody that you talk to with respect, because they’re going to emulate what they see.
They’re going to, you know, pay attention to these things. Whether or not they’re super conscious about it, they will be ingrained in their minds. And so these little things it really does add up. Yeah, man, that’s such great advice. It’s so good. Um, to have you guys, as an example, and you know, I’ve had the Powells on Chris and Heidi Powell and they have a blended family and it’s good to see that it can over time, you know, work out to where, you know, you don’t need to be afraid. And this is all just self-talk because, you know, at the end of the day, we are the stories we create in our mind become our realities. But we have to eventually realize that we have the power to create those stories so we can rewrite them. We can erase them and say, no, this is not what I’m going to believe. And I think if, once people realize that they have the powerful, uh, the power to recreate that story, that’s in their mind, the reality is going to shift. And so
The one thing I will say about that is that, you know, in everything we do, right, we’re trying to emulate the best behavior for our children to shape them into amazing adults. Right? Well, want the same from a relationship standpoint. And so it’s kind of, you know, speaking to all those people out there, and I’m not trying to advocate for divorce or broken families, right. But if you are in a situation where you are simply staying around, because you think it’s better for the kids, you’re wrong, you’re wrong. It’s better for your kids to be in a household where the parents are in a loving relationship. Because the last thing I ever wanted is for my kids to have the wrong impression of what love and marriage looks like. And so the other thing that I really do believe is that if you are going to be in a blended family, then the number one thing that you should be emulating is what love and marriage looks like. And if that means that they now get two different versions of that, Darren and I’s as well as their father and his girlfriend then great. They have two different versions with, from which to pull from. But at least I know one of the versions is not an unhealthy one.
Yeah, man, that is such great stuff. We can, we can make a whole episode just out of this. I know we can’t because I have so many other questions, but I’m just for time sake, let’s go through a quick lightning round and then boy. Yes. It’s very fun. And then we will, um, kind of have you guys point people in the direction of your websites and social media and all that. Alright. Okay. First question for each of you and, uh, you can both answer either or, or just one person at a time. Um, what’s one thing you can’t live without end. I’ll give you an example of something for me, for me, it’s chapstick. I have to have chapstick. What’s what’s something small like that, that you guys can’t live without.
Okay, go ahead. I know yours also. I’ll say yours. Okay. So his is hand sanitizer
And hers is white rice. Oh my gosh. That is so funny. Um, what’s your, what’s your favorite unhealthy desserts. Do you guys, it’s fun answer you guys answering for each other. Let’s do that.
Okay. So you answered mine, but I think ours are the same. Ready? Set. Go. Chocolate chip cookies.
Of course. It’s gluten free though, right? Yes. Not worth the stomach gig now. What’s one bio-hack you’ve implemented recently that you’re loving.
Um, gosh, that’s a challenging one.
Well, I think one of the biggest, it’s super simple, but sleep a sleep mask when it starts to get light in the morning is awesome.
Oh, I know why. I know one, I don’t know how it works, but we have the, Hey Google chicken, our house instead of Alexa. And he has that and he has all our lights to set it to the right temperatures, you know? So I don’t know how you do that.
You have Alexa or, you know, an Amazon echo Google home. I encourage you to look into how to set it up to register basically the right color temperature of the day. So for example, in, during the daytime, our lights are set to daylight, like approximately like 5,600 Calvin. And then at night they’re set to a more yellow tone, kind of like using the app flux on your Mac, wearing an adjusted string temperature to better help with your circadian
Rhythm. So I would definitely say, you know, using bulbs like Phillips hue or stuff like that to kind of mirror the day, so kind of follow the sign and kind of help with your Scotty and rhythm. Huge. Gotcha. Well, that sounds awesome, actually, that we could do a whole episode just on a tech stuff. Cause I know Darren, you can talk about that all day. Um, okay. Can either of you beat Shawn T in a sprint?
Oh, I know the answer to that, so and not, and here’s why, so I’m always the like girl in the group. Right. So we actually did something outside in Arizona once with the four of us, Sean just like gets these wild hairs. And so we basically had like this outdoor like challenge. And so I keep up as best as I can, but you know, I always wind up in last place out of these four, but I hold my own for being the tiny girl in the group.
And I think we’d make a good team in a race. Yeah. Um, I don’t think I could cause he used to run track back in the day right. In college and stuff. So he’s yeah. He’s that sprinter through and through. Yeah man. Okay. Last final question. Would I, and I think I know the answer, but would you, or could you, if you had to, do you think you could do a fit to fat to fit challenge?
Oh, so I think I told you that. So I got a call. I’m assuming it was for your show many years ago, maybe two years ago. And they pitched the idea to me. I don’t know how they found me on social media and they’re like, and I was seriously thinking about it. And he was like, no, you can’t do that. So, um, no. Yeah, but I will tell you this, even if I mentally could, I’ll be honest. I don’t know if I physically could and that’s because I have pretty much for my whole life been this same size, the same weight, um, whether I was trying or not even through both pregnancies, I only gained 25 pounds. I don’t even know if my body is physically capable of gaining that much weight. Um, I will say that mentally. Yes. It would be very hard, especially because so much of who I am is tied into how I look. Um, so I, yeah, I, I,
Yeah, for me, the hardest struggle would be the, the hard part obviously is eating and all this stuff that I know is detrimental to my body and kind of going that route. But you know, when I first didn’t Sandy, I weighed 183 pounds a day. I started the day I ended, I was 164 pounds. So I lost that weight. But today, you know, I’m 185 pounds at my, you know, at one point when I was lifting super heavily back when I used to lift weights and didn’t do body weight, I was like two Oh four or something. So I mean, I’ve fluctuated greatly, but you know, I like where I’m at now. And I just am thankful that there’s people like you out there willing to do it because dude, I gotta be honest that that’s, that’s an amazing thing you did because the mental struggle I think, would be harder than the physical. It really is. It really is honestly. And I’m grateful that there’s other people doing it now instead of me, because I once was enough for me to honest with you. So,
But I’m glad that there’s other trainers on the show now, which by the way, when this episode airs season two should be, uh, let’s see, it should be airing fairly soon. So cause people ask me every day, people ask me every day, when is season two, when a season two, I’m like, it’s coming. We just gotta, you gotta give these trainers time to lose the weight. It’s not like they’re going to lose the weight overnight. Exactly. Okay. So where can people find you guys online, your websites? Um, all that stuff.
So we’re going to make it super easy for everyone this year. We are rebranding fit and funky to be not just me, but both of us together. So, um, yeah, so, um, but for right now, if you want to follow, um, me specifically, all my handles on social media are fit and funky the word. And, um, my website right now is I am fit and funky.com
Beach body related. You can check out team fit and funky.com. Okay. And then for me, I’m Darren to tony.com. So D a R R E N N a T O N I and I’m just Darren and Tony on all my social. Um, but yeah, so it’s pretty straight forward. Yeah.
This year fit and funky will be both of us together.
We’re really excited, covered. So just stand by. Okay. Okay. Well, you guys keep us posted so we can share with her, uh, with our followers too, but thank you guys so much for coming. I really had a blast. I’m glad that we finally made this happen. Uh, super excited for you guys. I know 2017 is going to be a great year. Um, and uh, thank you guys so much once again for coming on. Thanks for having that. Yeah, dude. Thank you. We really appreciate it. Ever since we met you at that mastermind that we just you’ve been a very cool person to have in our lives. So we want to thank you. Thank you guys. Alright man. Well, we will talk to you guys later.
Thank you guys for listening to today’s episode. If you liked it, please leave us a review on iTunes. Give us a five star review if you enjoyed it and let us know what you think of the podcast. Like I said in the beginning, reach out to me if you have questions or if you have suggestions of who you want me to have on the podcast who you want me to interview, and I will do that. I try and deliver the highest quality content, uh, the most value to you guys as possible. And so I’m always open to suggestions. Um, definitely go show our sponsor. Some love dropping the F bomb.com. Use my code fit fit for 10% off your kido.com as well. And thank you guys for tuning in this week. Follow me on social media at fit, touch fit, stay in touch, stay in the know there’s some travel dates coming up that I will be talking about soon on social media or sign up for my newsletter as well on fitbit.com so that you can stay in the know as far as my whereabouts and new, you can do a meet and greet.
Alright, you guys, you guys have a great day. We’ll see you guys back here next week for another awesome episode on the Fit to fat to fit experience podcast.
