SPEAKER_00 0:05

All right, guys, welcome back to The Honest Cut. I'm your host, as you know, Scott Jones, and I'm joined by a dear friend, and I'm just so excited about this. I'm with I'm with Adam Wright. Good to be here. Adam, we we mentioned in the last episode that you would be joining us today. And so we already kind of introed you a little bit to uh to our our friends. I thought I'd bring Adam on because he's really gone through what I feel like is is kind of like the case study of what we're trying to do here. Yeah. You know? And so uh so so I'm really excited about this. I think you're really gonna enjoy this conversation. Adam's just a fantastic guy. In fact, maybe just a little bit of background before I have him introduce himself. Adam and I were friends five or so years ago. Yes, we lived in the same neighborhood. Yeah. Went to church together. And you know, you guys always hear me talk about like, you know, it's been a five-year journey. I did this, I've been doing this for five years, that five-year thing. What's kind of funny is Adam and I and another friend in that in that neighborhood in that church congregation kind of started a little bit of a journey together at that time. Remember that? We sure did. And Adam saw me a while ago and he's like, thanks, God, like you're doing great. That's awesome. Like, how long am I? And I and my comment was I was like, Well, I started when we started back five years ago. That's right. Just tons of respect for for Adam and uh great friend, great person. Um, excited to have you on, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Yeah, I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

So, Adam, I think what I'd like to do is kind of have you wax a little biographical. Okay. Yeah. I want you to take us through kind of your not your whole life, but but your life journey with like health and fitness and athletics and all of that kind of stuff. Take me a little bit into your childhood and and into that, your kind of life situation and and kind of catch us up to where you are today. And and we'll go into your GLP1 journey and and your fitness journey and and uh other things, but maybe just walk me through kind of childhood up to early adult life and and kind of with that context around diet, nutrition, exercise, athletics, and some of those things.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

As a young kid, typical. My my boyhood dreams, I was gonna be a pro-baseball player, pro-basketball player, pro-football player, I was gonna be a forest ranger. You know, I mean, I had my sights set on being an astronaut the whole bit, right? Because I I had so much energy and passion for life. I was a pretty ambitious kid. Like I hope every child is. Awesome, right? Good parents, it sounds like yeah, phenomenal parents. Um, both my parents were were athletic and and you know, I would say we're highly energetic people themselves. Uh, I'm the youngest of eight kids. There's four boys and four girls. I didn't know that. Yeah. That's a huge family. Huge family. And then that's amazing. You know, I later there was, you know, step siblings that were added into the mix, but of the original eight, I'm the youngest.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

And uh, so a lot of the the sports came with battling older brothers. Yeah, you know, yeah. But all through all through growing up, sports is is where I found my identity. Recess time was all about those competitions at recess. Of course. We'd get home, competitions with the siblings and the you know, whiffle ball in the cul-de-sac, you know. I had to beat my older brothers and show them that I could take that, take that wiffle ball yard, you know. And I remember it was cool because my older brothers would always um I was never the last one picked, yeah, even though I was the youngest kid. And I don't it's not because I was the best. I wasn't destined to go to the NBA or anything like that. Yeah, but my older brothers were so cool because they they they knew that they wanted to show that their little brother was cool and that they thought I was awesome, even though they knew I was probably the worst guy out there. But I remember that just kind of elevated me to uh wanted to perform, you know, and wanted to do well.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

That's interesting. I'm a big sports fan like you, and you hear these stories of these athletes and them them coming up. And a lot of the ones that have, you know, made it to the highest level came from a similar background where they were kind of the youngest, they were the runt, they had to work a lot harder than everybody else. Then they had some crazy growth spurt, and you know what I mean? Like so that's that's pretty cool that you had that kind of upbringing.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Rob Gronkowski, it's it's it's kind of fun studying up on his story and his childhood because it's very much similar, like that. Yeah. But uh, you know, middle school, high school did all the sports, was was good enough to make all the all the varsity teams, wasn't great enough to really be considered by any D1 schools or anything like that. But it was it was it was a lot of fun. And projecting my life around my high school years, there was kind of a pivotal moment where I just became so excited to be a husband and father.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

At a young age, I had been impacted greatly by some significant adult leaders in my life. And I just remember thinking, man, it's gonna be so cool to be just a rock star dad and a rock star husband, right? So in high school, I kind of started to think that way. And I would start to imagine how I was gonna be. And how I envisioned it was just a dad that was so incredibly involved that when my kids were wrestling around on the floor, I was gonna be there wrestling right with them. When I was gonna be their sports coaches. If I had girls and they were gonna be involved with dance, I'm gonna be dancing right there with them. Yeah. And a critical component to that, that at that time I probably undervalued was energy and motivation, you know? And so I crafted who I wanted to be based on having a lot of energy with my kids and just being fully present, you know. Then, you know, you graduate and uh college started and all that. My my my eating habits have always been I'm pounding a pack of Oreos at midnight. You know what I mean? Like me and my brothers, we would we would wrestle and be playing basketball and all that kind of stuff with my buddies, and then midnight 1 a.m. would come around and we'd be pounding Oreos, of course, you know, cereal, I mean chips and dips, ramen noodles, I mean, name it pizza runs, yeah, those tostinos, five dollars. They were a dollar back in the day. 100%. Throw those in the in the microwave. We didn't want to waste time in the oven.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

If I look back on the crap that I ate at that phase of life, like wild. It's it's wild, yeah. Just like the volume of it and just like and the quality, right? It's both, but like teenage boys, right? You're you're just live, you're just running. Yeah. And I think, I think our generation was more that way, unfortunately, I think, sure, than than modern generation. We just kind of it's it's like it's like they talk about in the 80s and 90s, it's like you say bye to mom and dad, and they're like be home for dinner, and and that was it. And like, yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

That was it. And luckily back then, we were so active and was so involved with just different sports and weightlifting and all that was always a lot of fun. I never cared about diet because I wasn't seeing the effect. Yeah, I wasn't seeing the effect on my actual body or or my energy levels or my focus levels, my motivation levels, right? And so those habits carried on with me, you know, when I first got married and started and met my wife. Yeah. It was exciting because we had all these ambitious goals and things that we wanted to do together, but those same eating habits continued on. And what did not continue on was my same activity habits, work, W-2s, hitting the grind, working what, 40, 60, 70 hours as uh, you know, like I I started out as a certified nurse assistant because I wanted to go to nursing school.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Um, and going full-time, full-time work, full-time student did not leave a lot of time in my mind to exercise, but it did leave enough time to still binge packages of Oreos at night, watching the office with my wife at midnight. You know, that was our time to bond. Been there, done that. And so health uh my health and energy levels quickly started to to wane.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Probably your metabolism changed with age as well. So that wasn't helping, you know, the situation much, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Exactly. So energy, the the weight started to pile on, the uh the mental focus. I mean, by 6 p.m., it was like I'm ready to be call it a day.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Yeah, you know. That's really typical, I think. Actually, I love what you just described. I I feel like you're describing me in a lot of ways, and I feel like you're describing most of the people that are interested in this topic, actually. And and what's what's really interesting is you probably got as an athlete, you focused on your craft, whether it was baseball or football or basketball or whatever, you focused on the gym. But I I think maybe it was that that era. There wasn't much of a focus on diet, nutrition, and even supplementation and and all of those things. Yeah. It's like you get into adulthood and and you weren't necessarily equipped with that skill set or understanding how that works. At least that was my experience. Yeah. Um, and I think it's I think it's a lot of people's experience. Married life now, starting to have kids, catch me up.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

So first baby girl came, our first, our first, first daughter, and you know, y'all know how it is, your first child that you get, and you just you just want to be present. You know, you hear you hear all the sayings where uh, you know, your child doesn't necessarily care about how much money you make, they just care that dad played with them. Totally. Right. So that it was gonna be a non-negotiable part of my life. And and I can proudly say that to this point, uh, 17 years later, that has not been a uh a negotiable part of my life. I am present, but what the challenge has been, and and if I could be really honest, the honest cut. So please be honest. So I I don't one thing that I don't think is talked about enough is kind of the guilt and shame that that I've carried and and having conversations with other people, my brothers, yourself. There's a level of guilt and shame that you feel when you're just exhausted, right? If it was 7, 8 p.m. and I'm just completely wore out, don't have energy, don't have mental clarity, brain fog, but my kids need me to be present, whether to play or just to to talk and handle their emotions, I'm gonna soldier through it. But man, at the end of the night, hitting hitting my head on that pillow and just just feeling guilty that I'm just so tired. And it's even beyond tired. It's almost just that level of exhaustion, you know? And I was kind of carrying that for so many years where I started to use a lot more energy drinks. I would plan out my energy drink usage. It would come at around 1 p.m. so that I could be present for the last half of work. Yeah. And then on my drive home, I would hit the second one so I could get as much of a ride through the evening time to be present for my kids. So my blood pressure started to go up. Not because of not even talking about anxiety or anything like that, just strictly all that caffeine that I was pounding. My wife, you know, we would have conversations. It's like the classic, why don't you take the trash out? It's like, honey, I'm gonna be real honest. I did not even notice or even care to notice that that trash can was full.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

It is not a lack of desire or just me being like, oh, that's you know, that's I'm not gonna take out the trash. It was literally, I'm so exhausted, I'm so exhausted that my periphery started to get limited. You know, all I could think about was where am I gonna get my energy? Where am I gonna focus all my energy on whatever critical tasks there are? And anything that doesn't fall in line with that critical task is probably not gonna get the attention it deserved.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

That's crazy and so true to form, I I think. Um, first of all, I gotta just say, having known you and and kind of observed your life, you're speaking the truth in terms of your commitment to your family and to your kids. And I just think that's amazing, first of all, and tons of respect for you and and look up to you in so many ways around that priority in your life. So have a lot of respect for that. I don't think everybody's thinking about having energy, you know, uh uh for their for their kids and their family the way that you do. So so super awesome that that that's a priority for you. When was the breaking point? Like, at what point were you like, dude, what what am I doing? Where am I going with this? Like, I had a dad, a lot like you, actually. Um I actually looked a little bit like you, built like you, um, and was very committed to his family like you. And and I don't know if all of you know this, and I'll I'll have to tell this whole story another time. We don't have time today, but I lost my dad when he was 41 years old. I was a missionary for my church out in Washington, DC. My dad had a stroke and complications from the stroke, he he passed away. And and he was uh he was and he was a guy that put his heart and soul into his family and his job and everything else but himself. And I think it contributed to early death. I really do. I I don't know all of the you know clinical reasons why that happened, but but that freaked me out, man. Like that really freaked me out, and it was it was funny, like when I got to the age that my dad was when he died, that was about five years ago. Okay, and and that was part of the motivation and turning point for me was I'm not gonna do that. I'm I'm not gonna do that to my family, I'm not gonna do that to me. I gotta figure this out. Yeah. So so anyway, slight tangent, but it just it reminds me a lot of that experience that I had. So so maybe with that as a little bit of a segue, walk me through maybe the catalyst for you and and what happened.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Yeah, no, I appreciate you sharing that. Um for me, I would I would frame it in two sections. There's kind of a slow buildup where you know there's there's a recognition that something needs to change, and I would, I would dabble in things that would help me change. But then there was there was definitely a moment that was no, I I am all in on whatever it it's gonna take. So the first part of that kind of the dabble section, you know, we can even go back to what you mentioned at the beginning, where me, you, and our other friend, you know, we we set up our accountability weight loss challenge, you know, it was every two weeks we'd have our check-ins. And yeah, if we didn't, there'd be a punishment, you know, like we would run through a field with our shirts off and pelt each other with paintball guns. Which was awesome. Yes. So those kinds of things and and little things here and there where it's like, oh, hey, here's this, here's this keto diet, here's this uh XYZ thing, you know, new fad would come up and there'd be this these Octavia meal plans and whatever else it was. Tried all of them and they worked temporarily for me, but nothing had the staying power because nothing truly was helping me to sustain the discipline or want to maintain the discipline. Because the moment I would pound a package of Oreos or I would get sick and throw you out of that rhythm, it was so hard to get back in. So I kind of went up the did the up and down. You know, I would lose a bunch of weight and then it would all come back.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yo, yo.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

When you and I first did our thing, that was the heaviest weight-wise I'd ever been, but it was also the most tired and exhausted I'd been feeling at that point in my life as well. I got up to, I think, I think at that time it was 238 pounds. You know, my normal was probably I should have been more at 190 type of thing. And doing our thing, it was a quick three months. I was able to drop a lot of weight. You you started lighter than me, if I remember. Yeah. But I I think I got fairly close to you by the time we were done. Yeah. Because I dropped it fast. Long story short, we we we ended up moving to a different part of Utah. And we, you know, we still kind of kept in touch, but it was more just kind of from the periphery. I was starting to gain all my weight back and get back into a bunch of unhealthy habits again. But I had noticed Scott had staying power, right? Yeah. It was a lot of that, but behind it all was that desire that I wanted to be just the best husband and dad that I could and be incredibly present with emotional energy, mental energy, actual physical energy, all the energies. But then probably the more direct part of your question was was there a moment? I remember laying in bed at night, and it was about 8 p.m. And I was thrilled to lay my head at bed. I had had a uh a demanding W-2 job that day. I was exhausted, but it was 8 p.m. And I remember hearing my kids, all four of them, out in the living room, laughing and having a great time, and all I wanted to do was lay in bed and just rest. Yeah. And that same night, two of my teenage girls had an emotional challenge that they were facing, and my son, actually. And uh I remember laying there thinking, oh, this is my moment to be the dad I've always dreamed of being, practiced, being, focused on being, learned of being studying, being, prayed to be. And here I was more desiring to just rest because I was so out of shape and out of energy. I think it was that next day I finally called you. I was like, Scott, I gotta figure out what you're doing because I am not there. I had got to the heaviest I'd ever been to that point. I was 246 pounds now, and and I just knew that was not ever going to be my motivation was rest over being present with my kids.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

I think those moments bring a certain level of clarity to us around like sometimes it requires like a crisis or some kind of event to get someone to finally turn the corner. I liked how you said that there wasn't like this singular aha moment that changed everything and I never looked back because I don't think I don't think that's the case for most people. I think what you described is actually what most people experience. It's like they they sort of iterative iteratively slowly move into wherever they're gonna go. The difference though is I think some people do that forever until they die. They're yo-yoing forever. But you have made a decision to actually do a 180 in course correct. So so that's that's amazing. And that's that's kind of where I want to go with the rest of this conversation. But walk me through what we talked about, walk me through I I guess the the medication component of this, but also kind of the the psychological and mental and emotional and spiritual component of it as well, because they actually all kind of go together, I think. Yeah. Um, so yeah, walk me through some of that.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

I love talking about this, and I am forever grateful that I finally just picked up the phone and just called you.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Scott, my friend, you're doing you're doing something differently than what I am. I I I need and want to know what that is. Yeah. Uh, and you were gracious enough to to kind of talk to me about it. I on the periphery, I knew that there were supplements, medications. I knew that people had started to talk about things like Ozempic and GLP one. I don't even know what that was. Yeah. Right. I'd heard something about semaglutide, something or other. I didn't even know if I could pronounce it right. I had no idea. I had two motivations. It was sure, I want to lose weight, but the real motivation was I just wanted that energy and that vitality for life back. Yeah. Um, and so when I had spoken with you, you made it simple, right? In my mind, I had it worked up that it was some complicated thing where you gotta really figure out all this exact dosing and all this kind of stuff. Because I had I had chat GPT'd some stuff and I was like, what is all this? And I I read everything and I was like, okay, sure, insulin resistance. I I don't know anything about that. Yeah. Metabolic that dysfunction, sure, I don't know what that means. Well, you gotta stack it with this, and maybe you know you might have these side effects and all that. I'm like, ah, what? Yeah. So I called you and uh you and your your medical team, which shout out to your sister, Paige is great. She uh highly qualified, and y'all were just phenomenal at explaining in such simple ways that I could easily understand it and see a clear vision for how that was going to benefit my health. It's probably worth talking a little bit about some of the, I don't know, misconceptions or just some of the reasons why some people might not want to look at it. Because I'm I had them. You know, I was you know, it's cheating. Yep. Okay. So I got older brothers.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Um, and it's it's by the way, that was literally the topic of our entire last episode. Was it really? Was on cheating. Well, um, so perfect, keep going.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

I've got a lot to say about this whole topic. So I'm the youngest of eight. And so it's like, man, if you don't have willpower, then then you're just weak. Yeah. Come on, little bro. You know what I mean? Now, not that my older brothers would actually think that or say that, but that's definitely kind of a culture. You know what I mean? It's like you got you got to toughen up and buck up or somehow. So if you're using meds to help you cheat, okay, well, let's look at that logic. Let's just Pill that back a little bit. If I've got bad blood pressure because of some type of physiologic dysfunction happening inside me, do I use willpower to lower my blood pressure? Or is it sometimes necessary to aid in your physiological functioning by taking blood pressure medication?

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Yeah, dude, uh that's a way better analogy than the one that I used in the episode in our last episode. But uh, I was like, hey Jason, do you like driving cars? Great. Hey Jason, is it cheating to use the internet? Hey Jason, yeah, is it cheating? You know what I'm saying? Every technology that's ever come ever has probably been considered cheating at some point, right? Yeah, and and my my response to him was that's not the right question to ask here. The right question to ask is it safe? Is it safe and is it is it appropriate? Yeah, cheating is is is not really the what we're trying to answer at this point. That was my response. So I love that I love that you thought about this. Yeah, I thought about it too, by the way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

So anyway, I love that. That's that that well, that's a that's kind of the natural progression in my mind. And in and in conversating with people about this, because I can't stop talking about it. Yeah, I I mean, fast forward, I know we're gonna get there, but where I am right now, I've got more energy than when I was 19, 18 years old. I asked my wife last night because I because we knew what it was coming up here. I was like, what if if you had a spot to say something, what would you say? She she says this exact thing. I have never experienced you with as much energy in our entire marriage. And we got married at 23 years old. Yeah. Currently, right now, in the past several months, I am the best virgin that my wife has ever experienced. You know how fun that is? Yeah, that is so awesome. And in the background, my kids overheard the talking and all that. And my son, I'm so proud of this. My 13-year-old son is getting into fitness big time. And he says, Dad, you're locked in. You have not missed a workout in seven months. You know how cool that is to have your son look up to you because of your disciplined habits? It's amazing. So the cheating thing, right? Like to me, I, you know, I once I thought through that, I was like, that's ridiculous. And then to your point, that's the wrong question to ask, okay? So then, well, is it safe? What are the side effects, right? And once you get into that, this is not anabolic steroid use. This is simply naturally acquiring hormones that are that are that are supplementing what we're doing. Now, you're more of the expert than I am. This is just my very basic level understanding, right? But another way to look at that, uh, if you're if you're worried about side effects, I was the heaviest I'd ever been. My blood pressure was skyrocketing, sedentary lifestyle, emotional energy going down, intellectual energy going down. I didn't think spiritual energy because I I consider myself to be pretty conscientious of my spirituality. I'm a pretty spiritual person. But boy, was I wrong. In the past seven months, I've noticed boy, my spirituality levels even increased. Yeah. And that surprised me. But my point is the side effects of my poor health were far more severe and dangerous than any side effects that might come along with this.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

That's a perfect encapsulation of I think like the decision-making process of anybody that's thinking about GLP one. I agree. And yes, there are side effects. And yes, we don't have decades and decades of history with this medication for weight loss, but we do have a lot of history with GLP one and its general safety. And I think it's it's really great. And I think the people that are the most successful on this medication are the ones that that do what you did, and that's educate themselves and know what you're getting yourself into, have a plan for how you're going to approach this. I mean, we have thousands and thousands of patients that have gone through this process, and it's always those ones that are successful. And it's the one the ones that aren't are the ones that think it's a magical pill that they can still eat a bag of potato chips for dinner, lay on the couch and play video games and expect everything to work out. Right. It's not it's not real, man.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

And and so so kudos to you for for approaching this the right way. And I think, I think everything that you described led up to this, right? Like you were ready. And that's that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Another point that it comes to my mind a lot when I talk about this is there's a phrase that I read somewhere. This is not my line. Tools helped, but the discipline is what built this. Right? And so the GLP1s, the testosterone therapy that I'm doing, I've just started um with your team's guidance, the testamorlin peptide. Yeah. Um, there's the uh the lipos C injection that has you know the different L-carnitine and I the vitamin B peptides and all that, or vitamin vitamin Bs. Those are the tools that are helping, but my discipline is the foundation. But here's the thing that's been so cool about it. That is the same thing that's been true before I found these tools, right? Yeah. The prior tool to this was okay, there was some type of a fad diet that could be considered a tool. Sure. There is there was some type of accountability partner, right? You guys were tools, and there was a certain level of success that I experienced that, but it was temporary. Yeah. Now I've been involved with this seven, eight months now. Previously, I didn't really ever make it beyond three or four months. The reason why I know that this is gonna stick, and I've been so much more confident now, is the way that I feel compounds day after day, and it just adds on to each other. It's fun to be disciplined. Whereas before it was like work to be disciplined. Yeah, but it's still work to be disciplined. I do not want to give the wrong message, but the reward for the discipline is so much more amplified now in how I feel the life vitality, the muscle gains, the endurance gains. Last night, for example, okay, I wasn't able to go to bed till one because I had some work demands that I had to take care of. Side note, let me come back to crash studying. Don't let me forget that. Okay, I got a crazy analogy by this. So I was up to one last night and um I had to wake up at 4:30 for other work demands. So I only got three and a half hours of sleep. Did I give up my workout? Absolutely not, because it's become so vital because I can't live without that feeling that it gives me getting that workout in. Right. But here's my point too is before these tools, peptides, GLP1, getting through that workout would have been so miserable that in that moment when my alarm was going off, I was there's no way I'm in the mood to go to get that done. The difference now this morning waking up is yeah, I feel like crap and I'm tired, but I can't wait for an hour and 15 minutes from now because that feeling is gonna be awesome. But then I can't wait for 30 minutes from now when I'm in the middle of my workout. I already know that instead of just dreading that next rep, right? Yeah, it's like, oh man, I'm so tired, I don't want to get this up. But now in the middle of my workouts, the energy and the endurance that you have, it's like, yeah, baby, let's go. You're vibing, let's go. Yeah, you know, you're in that flow state.

SPEAKER_03 29:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

So these these tools have helped me get into that flow state and my workout, my endurance and the results to where the discipline is fun now.

SPEAKER_03 29:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Does that make sense? Dude, yes. So there's a quote. I I'm I'm not gonna attempt to like go verbatim, but it's it's by it's like a it's like a stoic uh philosophy. Okay, and it's basically something to be along the to the effect of it's such a shame for a man to go through his whole life and never experienced his optimal body and and and enjoy it, something like that. And and that to me is what you're describing right now. It's like we were meant to thrive in this physical body that God gave us. Yeah, we were meant to enjoy it. I think, and I not I don't mean to get too spiritual here, but like I think when we were shouting for joy, you know, like they say in the Bible, yeah, I think we were excited to get these bodies. Yeah, we didn't have them, yeah. Like I like we we wanted to have a body to be able to experience it. Yeah, like I really believe that. And so I think what you're experiencing now is ever is is one of the great joys of life that God intended for all of us is to enjoy this body. And so I hear you and I do get it. I look at old pictures of me, I look at like uh I I posted on on his cut um a before and after. I see that guy, and I'm like, I feel so bad for that guy. Yeah, yes, like I just feel bad for him. Yeah, like I almost get kind of emotional thinking about it, like because I love my life now, yeah. And and I and I loved my life then too, and I loved my family and I loved my my work and and God and and all those things, but like all of that's like amplified by a thousand now because I'm not being held back by my body.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Yes, you know what I mean. Oh, you articulated that to perfection. But that that is it. I I fully believe that our bodies are God's gift to us. And before I really became on this, this we'll call this a journey, right? This transformation, there is no way I looked at my body as a blessing. Yeah, there's no way. It it it was, in fact, it was almost the uh opposite, not that it was a curse, I'm not saying that, but it was a it was a hindrance to the life that I knew was available. The condition it was in, the condition it was in was a hindrance. Yeah. Man, you articulated that so well because that's that is exactly how I feel. I mean, I we should bring my wife on at some point or or zoom her in at some point, just just so you can see how beaming she is over. I mean, it's it's a joke, and and I don't necessarily mean it this way because it sounds a little hokey, right? But I honestly feel like what you've got and the system that you guys guide us through and these tools, these, these, these medicines and supplements. I'm just gonna say it. I feel like it's a you found a fountain of youth. That is 100% how it is. Yeah. Um, is it is it the tools? No. Are they tools that help? Tools are helpful, but it's it's it's the discipline that builds. So I remember, oh, I don't know, two months ago, probably around Christmas time, right? My eating habits that week were probably not as stellar. And I just remember starting to go go back that that mental fog and that mental and energy vitality was kind of gone and taken away a little bit. And I just remember thinking, I am not doing this because it has felt so great not being in that mode. That come New Year's, I did not care about whatever party food was there. Yeah, I looked at it and I said, How I feel is way better than the taste of that food right here. Yes. And and temporarily, like the weight scale, you know, certainly paused because I wasn't eating the right stuff. Like, what are you kidding me? Like, this isn't a cheat code. Um, it's just uh it's just a tool that helps me be disciplined and enjoy being disciplined.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

It's interesting too, and maybe you can share a little bit about this, like how the how you you have experienced this, but as you lock in, like your son told you you were doing, and and as you really sort of get really consistent with that discipline, and you're seeing your life change, there's still people around you that remember the old Adam. And and and sometimes they aren't too supportive, whether that's intentional or not, right? Yeah, but my my little brother used to say, you know, the only way that you can be fit is you gotta you gotta be okay being mean to people. Meaning, you know, I have a father-in-law that loves to cook and he loves to like you know, create this big spread that we're all eating, and like that is his pride and joy when he sees his family eating his food. And so, but there there came a time in my journey when I was like, sorry, Dave, no, I'm not not gonna eat that. And and I could tell if he's listening to this, I'm sorry, Dave. Um, I could tell he was offended and like maybe a little upset and maybe a little sad, but I'm like, no, I'm sorry. No, I'm I'm I'm doing something different now. And I had that kind of experience probably a thousand times with coworkers, with family, with with other things that I used to do, with just with my routine, like, no, can't go, can't be there, gotta be here. No, I'm wake, you know what I mean? And and after a while, like, this is me telling you what happened those five years. That's what happened those five years. I just had little battles over and over and over and over again until they weren't battles anymore, until it's just who I was. Do a lot of people think I'm extreme and obsessed? Absolutely. Do I care? Not really. Not really. Am I maybe somewhat obsessed? Absolutely. But the way I look at this man is if I'm gonna be addicted to something, if I'm gonna be obsessed with something, it sure as hell better be something that's gonna be good for me. Yeah, you know what I mean? It's not porn, it's not food, yeah, it's not video games, it's health, fitness, and improvement. Yeah, and that's really what I'm all about.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

And so, so you have to you have to get over that hump a little bit, like socially, yeah. Um, to be able to kind of lock in long term. Maybe walk me through a little bit of have you experienced any of that? Yeah, is some of that happening to you?

SPEAKER_01 35:39

Like, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's man, those are those are such poignant examples that you gave. Um, I had a couple immediately come to mind. So I'm known as the little brother that could eat. Yeah, right? Yeah, so everybody that knows me knows that, oh man, I cannot wait to feed after that.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Because not only am I gonna eat it, but they are gonna know exactly how much I loved every single bite. It was just genuine and I love food, and I would eat it and I would just and they would just I literally would have my mom, my sisters, my friends, um, my my in-laws put a big old pile of food in front of me and then just wait with excitement because they knew what I was gonna react, right? Yeah. Um, so um around gosh, Thanksgiving, actually, one of my sisters has the best mashed potatoes and potato salad that you can ever dream of. And I grew up just devouring it. I mean, she would make one of those big old salad bowls for me alone and then a separate bowl for everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

I got a brother-in-law just like you know what I'm saying, Glenn. This is you.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Yeah. And so my sister probably wants me to call her out by name. Shauna, you know I'm talking about you. And so she would put it in front of me and then just wait for my reaction. And that moment came where I had to disappoint her. And it was my favorite thing to perform with that food, right? Not only did I love eating it, yeah, but I had to eat a lot of it. Now, my family sometimes questions if my reactions are genuine. I'm looking at the camera right now and I'm telling you, they are they are genuine. Loved every bit of it. But I remember, no, no, I'll I'll have a bite, but that's it. Interesting. That's all I want to have.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

And what was the reaction? She was disappointed.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

Yeah, totally supportive, but yet there was still that feeling of, oh, I was looking so forward to just seeing the normal Adam. Yeah. Right. But then they they fully were supportive that I was trying to be healthy. Sure. But to your point, and then we were actually just skiing a couple weekends ago with my sister, my another sister of mine up at uh Snowbird, and she was excited to feed my son and I dinner. So she made this massive, gorgeous, beautiful, beautiful lasagna. And I love lasagna. Love me some lasagna. And so I come up in line and she's just cutting it up and serving everybody. Very sweet of her. And I'm the last one, yeah. And so she's got the whole half of a pan, and she pretty much takes the half a pan and knows that that's my normal, according to the old Adam. Yeah, and starts serving me up. I was like, Oh, no, no, no. I just want I just want a little sliver of that. She's like, What? Yeah, yeah, and she goes, Wow, you are serious, aren't you? I'm like, I love how I feel, yeah, just a little bit. Yeah. So there's things like that. There's another time where um, even at work, where some people were talking about some type of uh kind of like a corporate outing that we were planning on doing. It was all just kind of centered around like some delicious food and some other activities. But I just remember voicing a different type of idea, and everyone was like, That's too healthy. I was like, Well, it's gonna make us feel great, though. You know, Adam, is that you? And everyone just kind of like, what? You know, and then uh, but anyway, the opposite has been definitely true too, and I'm sure we're gonna talk to that. There's definitely people that are noticing um physically, I've changed. I mean, I've lost since we started uh 30 close to 35 pounds now since we've started, but more people are noticing just the vitality that I have, you know, and that's been the fun part. Like we'll go to we'll we'll we'll be out in the evenings and other people are kind of losing steam, and I'm still going strong.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:21

And that is just the coolest thing.

SPEAKER_00 39:22

Let's talk about the energy a little bit, actually. We've we've talked a lot about GLP1, which which, you know, you you're going to have more energy when you're lighter. That there's a physiological, you know, phenomenon there where, yeah, that that's that's part of it. And and even just, you know, managing your blood sugar appropriately and and and those effects. But you did mention hormone replacement therapy as well. And and I've had uh a very similar kind of like night and day experience with energy that I definitely attribute to the TRT. You know, I I was the guy, and and you know, I'm an entrepreneur, I I'm I have a church responsibility, I have a family, I mean, I have a lot going on in my life like you do. And come two or three o'clock in the afternoon, the old me, I would be barely keeping my eyes open. Like I was struggling.

SPEAKER_03 40:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:20

Um, and for good reason, I didn't get a lot of sleep and I was, you know, doing a lot of things. But I just kind of thought that was normal. I kind of thought, like, oh yeah, you get to that age and you start winding down, and it's like the old guy in the recliner, then all the TV commercials and movies, like, I'm gonna be that guy, you know. And and so I started the TRT, and oh my gosh, like how wrong was I about all that? Like it it was such a 180 for me that I almost felt like, am I taking too much? Like, is this is this right? Like, like I was popping up out of bed at five o'clock, and like I'm I'm still like going like like I'm just running circles around everybody. Like, so I get it. Tell me, tell me a little bit about that and and maybe just you know, what what TRT are you doing are you doing and and that experience, a little bit of that.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

Yeah, I'd love to. Uh that's that's that's one of my favorite things to to talk about and and reflect on. That uh the type of of TRT, testosterone replacement therapy that I'm doing is pellets. Yep. Um, and so there's, you know, there's a little little little pocket of pellets that's inserted in a, you know, for me it's it's kind of on my backside around my hip pocket area. Yep. And, you know, they're just long-acting, slow releasing, consistent testosterone that's just slowly released. Um, and the you guys do a great job at monitoring the blood levels to make sure that everything is is all balanced and in line. And if adjustments need to be made, great, we'll make it.

SPEAKER_00 41:54

Were you low when you did your labs? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_01 41:57

Started, no, I wasn't low. I was I was in the normal range, according to what the medical field will tell you, you know. Which we'll talk about in a minute, but okay. Sure, yeah. So I I I don't remember the exact number, but it was in right at like the right at the middle range of normal. And so that's when I started. Side note, because because I do think this is for for me, it's part of my story. I I started the GLP1, the terzepitide first, and then had a follow-up appointment with you guys a couple weeks later to begin the testosterone. For me, since my eating habits were so bad, my blood sugars, I'm I'm not diabetes does not run in my family. Yeah, but my markers, the blood levels for my A1C was closer to the range of pre-diabetics. Interesting. And so I remember that first week, immediately after starting the trzepatite, my energy levels and my alertness skyrocketed just on that alone. And I from what I understand, it's probably probably because my blood sugars were more regular. 100%. Yes. And so that was an immediate benefit of mine. So that first week, I remember that maybe there being a little bit of queasiness, nothing too, nothing too serious, but it was so far outweighed by that initial energy burst that it was amazing. And then I started the testosterone, and then I yeah, so morning person never ever described me ever. Now, yeah, I I can wake up when I need to and I'm I'm good to go now. And that has been a dream come true for me because that's never been part of my part of my existence, really. And I love what you talked about too, about you know, the stereotype that you might see in some TV shows is once you get middle-aged, you get the dad bot, you start sleeping on the couch, right? And and I don't like that that's kind of what is happening, but almost that's the norm. I think it's the norm because people are not focusing on true health. Totally. All these GLPs and peptides and testosterone has kind of corrected my metabolic dysfunction to where I'm starting to reap the benefits of what our bodies are designed to be.

SPEAKER_03 43:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 43:56

And it is so exciting. Yes. Every time I bring up testosterone, One of the first things they talk about is libido. And this is a family show, so I'll keep it clean. All you got to know is I have always been madly in love with my wife, and that has never changed. Yeah. So my libido was always incredibly high. Nothing changed with it. So that wasn't a thing of mine. But I'm sure there are plenty of guys that talk about getting on testosterone therapy, and it's helped that side of them.

SPEAKER_03 44:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:20

Right. Now, side note, my wife is also doing testosterone therapy, and her and her levels were fairly normal. Her libido did notice a change in the upward direction. It's awesome. That's all I'll say about that. Yeah. Um, and so that's not really a thing for me. Yeah. It's it's um it's the energy, it's there's no more brain fog. 3 p.m. comes. I used to just try to figure out I'd go out to my car if I was if I was at in a hospital setting or something. I work in the medical field, and I would go out in my car and take a 10-minute power nap, go right back in and hit the grind. Yeah, I have not needed or wanted or even thought about a power nap really since since since doing all this, and that's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 45:00

It's amazing. No, thank you for sharing that. Definitely I have the libido benefit has been great for me. Um, um, but I would say that the bigger impact for me is also energy levels. Yeah. Yeah. And and you know, to to to kind of bring this full circle and and to kind of close here, I think what you're describing and what I really hope to convey to anyone interested in this is it's almost like you have a new lease on life. Yeah, right. Yes. It's like you've been awakened to what is really possible for the rest of your life and you're just out there loving it. Like, like that's how I feel. That's what I've found for for myself. And and when I talk about all the other elements of my life that aren't physical, that this has benefited, I'm I'm serious about that. Um for one, I don't have the emotional baggage that comes along with feeling like garbage. So that's not there. So because I don't have that baggage, I can be present for my kids. I can be present for my wife, I can be present um serving in my community, I can be present for my company and my employees because that's not holding me back. The way Jason would describe this is like, you know, you're walking around with swag. I don't really see it that way. But you know, you do have confidence that you didn't have before. Yeah. And you go and walk into a room and a boardroom and shake someone's hand, and you're like, you don't say it, but you're like, yeah, I'm a badass. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not gonna say it, but like 100%. But but I know I'm comfortable with who I am in every part of my life. Am I perfect? No, am I working on a lot of things? Yeah, yeah. But but at least the physical part of my life, I'm good. And now I can focus on all the other really important things. Have you have you felt some of that?

SPEAKER_01 47:16

Yeah, I absolutely have. I I certainly have not arrived. And I don't know that there's ever really a point where you you you you should feel like you've arrived. Of course. But what I have noticed is now that my my physical health is more reined in, it has only served as an amplifier to every aspect of my life.

SPEAKER_03 47:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

And it is so fun to be to be the confidence. Let's let's hit that point. And the the emotional baggage. I like that you touched on that because that was something that I had been carrying about. You know, a lot of times you think about when you look back on your life, what are you gonna be proud of? What are you not gonna be proud of? The number one thing to this point in my life was looking back, is Adam, you got unhealthy and your energy levels made it hard for you to show up the way that you know that you wanted to. And and you're proud of yourself for showing up and soldiering through anyway. But imagine who who you could have been with your kids and wife had you had that reined in. Now I'm at that phase where I feel like I'm there with energy levels while I'm still excited about maintaining all these these health habits. Just a couple weeks ago at 11 p.m. at night, normally where I just cannot wait to just crash, my my one of my teenage daughters really needed to have a connection emotional talk. And she just needed her dad. And guess who was fully alert, mentally engaged, mental clarity was this guy.

SPEAKER_03 48:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:51

And that was that was such an amazing moment um for both my daughter and I. But I remember walking up the stairs to go to my room um at night and just thinking, I feel like on cloud nine because of how I was able to be there for. Before, it would have been everything I had to even keep my eyelids open. And and a lot of times at this phase of life, that's when your kids need you as that time because life is so busy, it finally starts winding down at 8:30 or whatever. And if I'm completely spent, then that little pocket of time of that hour of time where I really needed to be present for the longest time, it was so hard. And now, and now I I can. I one thing I did want to mention though, uh, about like the crash or the uh what what do you thought in college? Remember, you would stay up all night just crash studying for a what's that word? You know what I'm talking about. Uh you're cramped. Crap studying. Yeah. Have you thought about if you were to go back to college, would you be able to cram study an all-nighter like you could back in college, right? The longest, I mean, I mean, it's it's like there's no way I would have the mental energy to be able to study and keep up with all those demands. That's how I used to felt. But I'll tell you what, the the past several months, I could absolutely go back to college and crush it, you know, bring it on. Like, you know how cool and empowering it is to have that feeling? Yes. It is so incredibly awesome. I uh I'm just I'm just I couldn't be more thrilled, man. I could not be more thrilled.

SPEAKER_00 50:21

Well, um, this has been a really fun conversation. It has. Um, and let me just just sit tell you that how proud of you I am and how exciting it is to see you thriving and and not to be held back anymore by by what we've described as kind of like you know, the settling, the the dad bod settling. Yeah. Like I'm I'm so I'm so happy for you. Yeah. Um, and I I mean that genuinely because I've seen what it's done for me. Um, I've seen what it's done for other people. And unless you unless you lock in and unless you're committed to it and have faith that these things are gonna play out the way that we say they're gonna play out, you're just not gonna ever get there. And and that's my hope, actually, man, is like is that people will have a little bit of faith in themselves and faith in in science and and what's available to change their life. And so thank you so much for joining us. And I hope to do this again, actually. Like, first of all, this guy knows how to do podcasts because he runs his own podcast. Um, I want to give can you shout out your podcast really quick because it's amazing, and you and your son are awesome.

SPEAKER_01 51:44

You're awesome. Yeah, my uh my 13-year-old son and I we do a sports podcast. Uh, it's called Father. Well, it's between two generations is the name of the podcast, but it's it's it's me and him talking sports. It's so good.

SPEAKER_00 51:56

And thanks, man. His son's almost more impressive than him. Like that kid is going places.

SPEAKER_01 52:03

100%. It was his idea. He comes up with what we talk about, he he gets the ideas, and we just hit play and we talk.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

That's so awesome. And and it was part of my inspiration to do this, by the way. So thanks a lot for you know setting the tone for that. Anyway, thank you, Adam. More to come from you and your journey. I I'd like to have you back soon and and and catch us up on where you're at.

SPEAKER_01 52:24

Thanks for having me. It's been uh it's been a blast. Uh, I would I would be remiss if I did not mention one thing in closing. My wife makes fun of me now a lot because she catches me all the time feeling my upper pecs because I now have upper pecs. Yes, and it is so fun. I've got like that little line right here that you could put a pencil between here, and I go like this now, and it actually holds a pencil and it's firm. And so my wife is always like, You're doing it again. I'm like, I don't even care. Dude, you deserve it. Feel those upper pecs as much as possible. It's it's it's a lot of fun, man. I appreciate you. I shout out to you genuinely. Y'all have made this so easy to follow. You laid it out. Um, you guided me, you're monitoring everything. I I could not be more thrilled. Everything that you told me about was possible, has been. So I genuinely thank you. This this is an inflection point in my life. Thank no doubt about it. And I credit you, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 53:22

Thank you. You're the man. Appreciate it.

unknown 53:24

All right.

SPEAKER_00 53:25

Thanks, guys. See you next week.