416: THROWBACK: Turning the Tables on Obesity (Brian Nichols on Your Better Life Podcast - December, 2019)

Brian Nichols  
is the most wonderful time of the year you know, except all those aches and pains that creep up as the weather gets cooler. God forbid your polar flirt grows while while putting up the lights. But what if there's a way to be able to enjoy the cold weather of the holiday season without the associated bodily aches and pains? While Imagine no further as evil CBD topical freeze gel is here to the rescue. Whether it's to help that nagging shoulder injury from sports ball game of yesteryear or it's to help alleviate those deep aches and pain CBD topical frees you up from evils offers the industry best quality and strength to offer lasting relief from chronic pain and this holiday season. All members of The Brian Nichols Show audience can get that perfect gift of self or stocking stuffer for that fitness fanatic in the family and exclusive discount at checkout using code T V NS again. Use code TS at checkout to get your discount applied to your order wasn't the holidays are especially tough this year. So let's at least not spend them in pain so use code TNS at checkout to see the evils difference today. Faced with an uncertain future many business owners and technology professionals don't have time needed to invest in their business technology strategies and as a result are afraid of their technology getting outdated and putting their company and customers information at risk. The digital future is already here. But with all different choices in the marketplace, it's difficult to know which one will be the best fit for you in your strategic vision. Imagine having the peace of mind that your business is backed by the right technology investments that are tailored for your specific needs. Hi, I'm Brian Nichols and I've helped countless business owners and technology professionals just like you helping you make informed decisions about what technologies are best to invest in for your business voice bandwidth, cybersecurity, business continuity juggling all the aspects of business technology is messy. Let me help at the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash help and sign up for a free one on one consultation with yours truly to dig deep into where you see your company headed and how we can align your business technology towards those goals again, that's

Brian Nichols show.com forward slash help to get your simplified business technology started today. Victor Antonio Welcome to the program

Victor Antonio  
selling is all about really it's we're not selling a product you're not selling a service you're not selling. You're not selling whatever you think you're selling a solution you're selling change

Brian Nichols  
Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show your source for common sense politics on the we are libertarians network as a sales and marketing executive in the greater telecommunications cybersecurity industry. Brian works with C level executives to help them future proof their company's infrastructure for an uncertain future. And in each episode, Brian takes that experience and applies it's the liberty movement. And this is why we talk about being the trusted advisor you should be able to help us that expert guidance and all the opinions that I'm sure that you have and help lead them towards not just a decision but the right decision. Instead of focusing on simply winning arguments or being right we're teaching the basic fundamentals of sales and their application in the world of politics, showing you how to ask better questions, tell better stories and ultimately change people's minds. And now your host, Brian Nichols

so with that, guys, I'm not going to keep you waiting anymore. Onto the show me on Gary Collins's your better life podcast.

Unknown Speaker  
Welcome to your better life with Gary Collins. We all know life is rough. So come get your hard hat. Here's Gary.

Gary Collins  
Hey, everyone, welcome to episode 14 of your better life podcast. I'm your host, Gary Collins, I am the creator of The Simple Life now.com And the simple life book series and my off the grid book series. So with that, also make sure since I don't use social media, really no Facebook, no Instagram, yes, I'm a crazy guy, I hate them both. Go to the simple life now.com forward slash better life sign up, you get some free goodies. And that's how you're going to stay up to date. And I send out all my information through that. So make sure to sign up. And also the thriller series with AC fuller is out. We are on book number four of our Novella series, and it is doing really well. And I'd like to hear if you can figure out what parts I contributed to send me an email. I'd like to hear it if you can figure out what parts I contributed. But we're here today with Brian Nichols of The Brian Nichols Show. I was on his show. What was it a month ago? Oh, yeah. Somewhere in there, like a month? Yeah, I think actually, I think to the day a month ago, actually. Yeah. And it was interesting because Brian has a libertarian show. And wasn't your first guest never to speak politics at the time. Actually under my set my second guest and it's funny because the first guest was literally like three episodes before you.

Brian Nichols  
So the timing actually worked out kind of funny. how close they came together even though I've been doing the show for two years. But no, it was great because it is, you know, my show is a very political show, and to have someone on my show who was overtly non political, but still was able to talk about the concepts and freedoms or the concepts and liberties of discussed on a day to day basis in my show, it was just it was really cool to see those two worlds come together.

Gary Collins  
Well, after like too much spending 20 years in the federal government. Some of the last things I want to talk about our politics to most people, I don't mind doing it. I don't put it in any of my, in any of my writings, any My Teachings, because I just don't feel it's a place for self improvement. And self help and bettering yourself, it just gets cluttered. And it's so divisive. But I don't mind speaking, politics, in certain formats, it really depends in people are pretty shocked by my political views, because everyone, it's funny, I've been on shows and that may be left leaning, they instantly think I'm right leaning. And once they figure out a middle, the road kind of throws them off a little bit. And I have some views that would be considered liberal, some that would be considered right. But most of them fit in the middle. And that's why I loved your show to libertarian show. And it was good. So tell the start before we get to in the weeds, and we will it's this gonna be a good episode, people are gonna really like this one. kind of tell where you came from a little bit of your background. And then we can kind of meld into what you do now on the show just so people understand where you come from.

Brian Nichols  
Yeah, no, absolutely. So I'm really my beginning in politics, I guess I'll kind of start there was when I was born. I was born into a very political family, my dad ran for county legislator for my home, my home district and one it was our legislator for 15 years. So growing up in a very political household getting to meet people that I never thought I'd ever get the chance to meet. And honestly a lot kids never we had the fortunately, I mean, meeting my sitting US senator, sitting US congressmen, you know, sitting assembly person, it just, it was very unique. And in Austin is very exciting to have that opportunity to meet these type of people. And I just got fascinated with the political process, I got very involved in partisan politics working for, I think, at the end of it for campaigns, as you know, basically a full time staff person. And by the end of it, I decided I wanted to explore going into leading campaigns. And then, you know, I was on a congressional campaign, I realized I did not want to do that, because it's just it. I mean, there is no life, like you literally have no life whatsoever. So I decided, you know, instead I wanted to do was kind of go into the private sector and do what I could from the sidelines, supporting candidates, helping raise awareness. And that really inspired me to get involved in trying to elect you, Rand Paul for for President back in 2015. And that was really kind of my first dip in the toe into libertarian politics because I'm, you know, very libertarian at my core. And just seeing that Iran didn't even stand a chance and it's populism that existed in the world. It led me more towards the libertarian camp in terms of the Libertarian Party, but also just libertarian society, the Libertarian groups on Facebook, the, you know, the meetup groups networking groups in you know, that my local city, and for me, it was a chance to get into a different world, and to start to look to see ways I could promote this different world. So I got involved on Austin Peterson's the libertarian Republic as an associate editor. And you did a lot of work over there. He gave me the opportunity to do a podcast myself for his network. I did that for about three or four months. It was more of a weekly new show kind of wrapping up the topics of the week. And then Chris Bangle over it we libertarians had reached out and we are libertarians is one of if not the top libertarian podcasts in America in terms of just the outreach we actually were featured on on iTunes for their their political recommendations. That was pretty cool to see, you know, a show like we are libertarians giving such alternative point of view was being featured as we're one of the top podcasts in the nation for politics. But back to the story is, Chris had reached out to me because he'd really, you know, had the chance to get to know me as he had me appear in a show a few times. And he said, You know, I'm looking at growing a network and we're kind of going in this different direction. I love these things you're doing over at Austin Peterson's. Would you be open to having your own show on my network. I said, Absolutely. I'd love the opportunity. And you back in January 2018. I had my first episode of The Brian Nichols Show, which is a political show, literally for anyone and everyone. I've had people who are hardcore Trump conservatives, all the way too far left Bernie socialists. I've had libertarians, moderates and all those in between and really what we try to do is have conversations with people that accomplish three things educate, enlighten and inform and it has to be about issues people care about otherwise, you know, why would they want to listen? So I really try to address things I know that my audience wants to hear discussed and I really try to ask questions I think would be interesting to hear responses from I don't like the softball questions, because if you're asking a softball question, it's like, what do you expect a softball answer. Right? So so that's kind of where I am with my show. I'm coming up on episode 100 At the end of the year, so a lot of moving pieces. It's been a lot of fun have had some great guests from Gary yourself. To sitting congressman like Justin Amash had Larry Sharpe, who ran for New York City governor and a slew of other you know, economists and political thinkers and you know, titans of industry. So, it's been a great experience to really meet a lot of really cool, interesting people like yourself, and to really build some some great relationships, but also to talk about things that's giving my audience fulfillment, and they're, they're starting to, I think, grow as an audience, which it's exciting for me to see that my mate having these guests on like yourself, and like Tim price, talking about where people can find happiness, right? To see that it's actually helping people that just gave me the goosebumps, to know that it's having an impact and that the message, it is palpable that we can we can spread the message of you know, hard work, perseverance, individual liberty, personal responsibility, and it's going to help people be better in their own lives.

Gary Collins  
Well, I was gonna ask you to define libertarianism, but you just did. Right? My followers, I don't even know the demographic of political affiliation, because I just don't care. To be honest with you, my the way I look at it, what I teach is, it's bad. You never want to write books this way. But I tell it's for everyone. But if you're interested, there's a difference, right? You never want to write a book to the 330 close million people in America, or 8 million people in the world. That's not a demographic. But what I try to do is I try and write things that I think everyone can take a piece from. And I think that's what you've done. And that's what I like about how you do things. His a lot of shows, especially political today are about divisiveness. They want to get people ramped up and yelling at each other. That's how they survive as a show. And that's just, that's not the way to do it. That really is and you're not serving humanity by doing that. And I'm with you. I don't I don't care what side you're from. We all have things to share and points of view that are valuable. And I don't like two parties either. I'm not a fan of two parties. There's more than just two parties views. And that's good, though. And even though we won't get in maybe we will get into a little politics today. Why not? I feel a little goofy got snowed in over the weekend. Maybe we will I told her that I Oh man. I'm so jealous. It's gonna be 90 here tomorrow, just just to give you a heads up here in Philadelphia. Oh, I was just in Pennsylvania a couple of weeks ago. And it was nice and humid. And yeah, it got snow like that bad. It already got about a foot and it's already melted. And we're going back into the 50s. I'm in the mountains. So I usually leave at first sight of snow. I knew it was going to warm up and it would it would go away. But yeah, you never know we let this is for if this may be your first episode, this is an open format as in, there's really nothing that's out of the realm of talking about long as it betters your life. You know, it's not about it doesn't always have to be about fluffy bunny, rabbits and kittens. It's not that it's just long as we can take something out of it, we can learn from it. That's what it's about. So if it goes a little political A, that's fine. And if you decide to tune out because I said something or Brian said something you don't like, well, that's a problem. I would never I don't do that. There's a lot of shows I listen to to the host. I don't believe in their views, all of them. But I still listen. And that's the way it should be because you close off your mind. And let's get into that just real quickly before we get into Brian's weight loss, which is a fantastic story. And that's why he's here in that I'm a health guy too, obviously, and a health guy long time. And what happens when you do that is you tune out the other side of an argument. And one thing that I had a college professor how and in our heads in a great class, I want to say as a political science class, this is 30 years ago, maybe longer said you need to understand both sides. If you don't listen and understand both sides. You are actually misinformed and you're making bad decisions based upon purely biased information. And I go as a 12 year old At wherever I went, you know, that kind of makes sense. You know, and I have followed that ever since I will listen to everyone. You know, I listened to the entire Bernie Sanders podcast with Joe Rogan. It was terrible. It was awful. I thought, but I listened to it anyway. Because, you know, I want to hear I want to hear it. And I think that's what other people should do. I don't know, what are your thoughts on that? Now? I mean, you have a wide range of guests. Yeah. Um, I mean, I think it's important to talk to people outside of your comfort zone, because that's how you grow as a person.

Brian Nichols  
Yeah, and honestly, if you don't, if you don't get used to the fact that things are going to be uncomfortable in life, then that's your, you're never going to progress. I mean, like you said, you're never going to learn it, when you're, if we want to make this you related to fitness, right? Yep, if you're not having small muscle tears, you're not going to grow the size of your muscles like that, you have to be willing to have that short term pain, quite literal pain, in order to repair it and get and get bigger on you, in order to get further in life, whether it's, you know, intellectually, physically, you have to be able to push yourself beyond your comfort zone, maybe get hurt a little bit, but then learn from that and grow from that, and then get better from that. So you know, part of my show, and just part of who I am as a person is I like to have those sometimes difficult conversations with people who I know don't agree with me. And I go into those difficult conversations, not with the intention of trying to persuade someone, which obviously would be a great goal. But I go into the goal of trying to best understand where they're coming from. Because if you can at least understand where the other side is coming from, be whatever that other side may be. And you can truly get a sense of how they got to the conclusions that they have arrived at, then it gives you the chance to figure out, how did you get to where your position was? And is there in those journeys, any similarities? So for example, if someone was, you know, pro gay marriage, because they have a gay family member that they wanted to support? And that's entirely what the reason they did it. And if you were to talk to somebody who was pro gay marriage, I say, but they were from a different perspective, maybe saying government shouldn't be involved in, in marriage in the first place, there's two different sentiments, but they got to the same conclusion. But the opposite can be true, right? We can both recognize a problem and have two different conclusions of how to solve the problem. So some people in the left may say, and we look at poverty in the world, and we say, we need to have government to be there to fix the problem. And I'm thinking the more liberty side, you have people saying, No, the government needs to rein back in, give more the the money that's being taken from the taxpayer, into the taxpayers hands against, and then let them support private charities that have now a vested interest to do a good job in helping these poor people who are in need. So that I think that's why it's so important because you get to see where their differences are, and see, maybe if there's a way we can try to to come to some common ground. Even if we're not walking away, agreeing 100% at least trying to approach a sense of I understand where you're coming from, you're not an evil person, we just have different goals, or, sorry, different goals, we have different means to accomplish our goals. And in our minds, our conclusions are the best in terms of being met by what we're presenting. So if you're from the right, again, like you might look at what the the goals of a social society and think, Oh, that's a, you know, a nice goal to aim for, but you're gonna be using the government to do it. And that is, in essence using force on me as a person. I don't I don't consent to that. I don't like that. And we sometimes attach these negative sentiments to the person who supports that thinking that they have not a desire to help you solve the ills AC in life, but to actually hurt us. So I think that's why it's so important had these conversations with people because then we can really see that no, it's not that we you know, hate each other and that we are fundamentally opposed to each other based on you know, just some deep seated resentment, but rather, we just misunderstand each other and we're talking past each other not talking to each other.

Gary Collins  
Hey, listeners, I have a short but special announcement I think you're gonna like this. I made a free ebook for you called the simple life five principles for success. And a five principles for not you can use as a daily reminder to focus on what matters to live a better life. And heck, that's what it's all about. Right? Your it gets better, though. Better. Plus, you'll receive a 10% off coupon to the supplement store. Gosh, you can't beat that. Get it now by texting better life. Here the instructions are better life all one word, no spaces, don't worry about caps. Text it, you need to text it to the number 33777. The eBook shares the five principles and practices crucial to get more out of your life. Again, text better life. All one word, no spaces 233777. Now back to the great episode. Well, there's, I always have a saying there's many solutions to a single problem. And all in all, I'm gonna do a nice little segue or twist here of, you know, think of the divisiveness, I do this in the health world of vegans and meat eaters, right. And most, and the two sides can be very dogmatic about it. And I choose not to be. I'm a mediator, I am an ancestral health primal guy, I hunt I fish I have been since I was a young kid. But I am surrounded, in certain ways by vegans. Matter of fact, my book is distributed by a company that is primarily vegans. We all get along just fine. We don't argue over dinner we eat, every time we go to a show, we eat together, there are no issues. They don't get on me for ordering what I order. I don't make fun of them for ordering what they order. And that's an example of what we do in politics, though, like vegans are very event that oh, you torture animals, the you know, the meat eaters are all you don't understand the circle of life. It goes around, I go, Hey, if it's working, I'm totally fine with that. I get that vegans don't want to harm animals. I get it. That is fine. Why are you getting so wound up about it? You know, and and then the vegans I, you know, I'll tell them, hey, just because they eat animals, that's what we've done, you can put together any kind of weird facts you want, then the archaeology supports the simple fact that we were hunter gatherers, it there's no it's, you can't, you can't find it. It's It's scientific fact. But that doesn't mean veganism is wrong. And that's how I look at it. And, you know, the health world. It shouldn't be there shouldn't be any divisiveness in trying to be healthy to begin with. You know what I mean? It's, it's something it's a goal that every human being should have. And I've got some problems with where we're at today. And that's why I wanted to bring you on because you've lost a lot of weight. And I want to get into how you did it, the battles and overcoming. But I've been speaking about this a lot. And I don't know if it's come up in any of your shows. But when I do speaking events, almost every time someone will ask me about universal health care. And they go, you know, what do you think of health care? What do you do you know, what kind of insurance do you have this and that. And it always ends up into, I have to tell them, I go, you need to figure this out on your own. I can't guide you. In these decisions. I made life decisions to make sure I had health insurance. I knew that from a very young age, because I grew up without it. I grew up poor, my family. We had it here and there. But we really didn't have health insurance. I definitely didn't have it in college. So college, I was very careful. I made sure I did low risk activities. Most of the time. In my cake stands were limited to to a party and kids. But you know what I mean? And I tell people, you can't that universal health care shouldn't even be in the picture right now. And here's why. We are so unhealthy in this country. And I'm tired of people putting on kid gloves and saying it's people have hormone problems. It's poverty. It's this. It's that. No, it's we make terrible health decisions in general. And is there a lot of outside forces that influence us? Absolutely. Guys, I work for the FDA news department Health and Human Services I saw firsthand. Don't send me nasty emails, I get it. But

in any program that can be instituted specially by the federal government will go bankrupt. That's how sick and fat we are. It is unsustainable with our the level of health that our Americans are at today. It is so good it get universal health right out of your mind. Just ditch it. If we get that if you're waiting for that to fix your problems. You're living in unicorn land. So stop it. What you need to do is figure out how to get healthy and how to acquire affordable health care insurance on your own work at a job that has it I went in the military to get insurance well to serve my country, but part of it was also to have health insurance because like I said, I didn't have it till the day I joined I didn't have health insurance. I needed it. I didn't have dental care. I knew I wanted those things. You have to figure it out. I know it's tricky. But having someone take care of your healthcare needs is a is not the right answer. Be the only time I think it's fair to have universal health care is when as a population, we are trying to be as healthy as we possibly can be. Then we can have the discussion of it sitting on your fat ass, playing video games, drinking Red Bull, and eating friggin bagels or whatever you're eaten and Cheetos and Doritos. I've seen it. I've seen people shopping carts. When I go on the road, I see what people eat. I don't look to me to support you. It's not going to happen. And that's why I teach health so much. And it's so important. I'm not fat shaming, I'm not, I'm not belittling you. I'm giving you some tough love because you need to wake up. And I'd say this because I provide all the information. I give you everything you need to be healthy. In my health book on my blog. I have plenty of information for you. It works. Trust me, I've got 1000s If not 10s of 1000s of people now who have changed their health. So I had to go on a soapbox a little bit, Brian, before we get in a little bit. I'm going to catch some feedback on some of my health angles. But I've just decided to take off the gloves because because the problem in America is we're not just losing the battle. We're getting our up fat ass kicked. I mean, we are so big in this country. People don't understand the second, obesity and ranking of obesity is China. They've got over 1.2 billion people. And they're literally a third a third of China's entire population a fourth? Because well, depending on count. We don't know what the illegal alien population it's little little dicey on those last 10 to 20 million people in the country. But yeah, literally and you go that is ridiculous. We are just a couple pounds. I may have mentioned this on your show. But I mentioned all my my speaking events. People don't know this. Most Americans don't know we are men and women are just a few pounds on average from averaging obesity in this country, we will hit it the next 12 months guarantee. This country will be averaging obesity in the near future in the very near future. I don't even know what to say to that. I don't even know what to say. We are doing something really wrong in so I'm not going to tell you sweet things in your ear and in massage your back and tell you it's not your fault. No, it is your fault. It is you're the one who takes that hand and shovels that food in your mouth. No one else does it. It's all on you. And we'll talk about that because you probably you had to go through all this right?

Brian Nichols  
Oh, not even a question. I mean, I got so my basic health story to start was you know, I grew up in a in a you know morbidly obese childhood. Just because when I was growing up my my grandpa who was the guy to pick me up from from nursery school, whenever we, you know, finished the day we go to Burger King that was like, that was the thing like we finish school and a Burger King Go home, eat my cheeseburger and get my happy toy or you know, the kids toy everyone's from from Burger King. And you know, that was just normal. Um, sighs everyday. I mean, like, yeah, and Agrippa didn't think anything. I mean, he just, she was like, yeah, he's

Gary Collins  
like, yeah, he's great grandpa. Yeah, exactly. And,

Brian Nichols  
you know, of course, I didn't think anything of it. I mean, I'm eating Burger King for lunch every day, pretty much. And that was just normal. And then the, the portions also became a big thing, because you're eating this, really, it's nutrition, you're lacking food, and you're not getting satiated, you're still so hungry. So I was eating more, but just as empty calories, and it just started to balloon upon itself. And by the time you know, I was in probably fifth grade or so I was already up well over 200 pounds. And ended up I peaked at around, you know, 17 at 385 pounds. Um, and it was it was one of those things I didn't really realize how how heavy I was because we I mean, first and foremost, I'm six five, so I I carry the weight very air quotes relatively well. And whatever, you know, tell I would tell almost nobody how much I weighed. But you know, I had a few close friends who I tell is a really like, No way. I was like, Yeah, three 3d Five, or like, I would think you're maybe 315 329 No, I'm just I'm a big guy. But yeah, I was you know, morbidly obese quite, quite literally. So it really The thing that that hit me was, I had a doctor's appointment, I was sitting there, for my physical health when I was 17, I was still 17. And this was, this is actually the heavyset guy, a 3d five that it was because of this conversation. I was, I was sitting there and I was getting my physical getting ready to get to go do college applications. And she, she walks in she goes, so I have good news and bad news. She's like, the good news is, you're right now your blood pressure, everything, it looks fine. Like, the bad news is if you keep eating like this, and you don't lose some weight, you're gonna die. Like soon, like, just cuz your body's not been able to handle the excess of weight for prolonged periods of time. And I was, like, you know, you're 17, you don't really think about death, that that's not something that's ever really at the forefront of your mind. So for me, it was kind of like, okay, that's a scary, like, I don't want to even have to consider, you know, my, my impending doom. So let's do something about it. So I was very, very self conscious. And I didn't want to go to the gym, I still felt like, you know, I just didn't have the physique that I needed. So I ended up I started to my family, it was a little farming family, and we have an old barn at our house. And every night, from like, seven o'clock at night, until around nine, I would literally just walk up and down the empty walkway in the barn, which is you know, 200 feet each way, I would probably go back and forth well over, you know, 200 times or so and I just walking back and forth that night. And that's how I initially lost the first you know, 20 to 30 pounds, just doing that every night for a couple of months. And then I started walking the back roads in Northern New York, which were very rural so you didn't really worry about worry about cars and stuff and from that point ended up dropping down to around like 315 or so. And that's when I got involved playing football. Until I hurt my knee I hyper extended my knee my senior year. You know, I got involved in football it was great and I started to lose more weight so by time I got ready to go to college I was down to around I'll say like 262 65 and pretty much always doing Gary was just cardio I wasn't doing weightlifting. I wasn't really doing any I mean I was I knew that I should I was like I should probably get into you know lifting some weights and getting some muscle mass and stuff more than I have. But it just didn't really be it wasn't me I was really interested in doing is just to me very bro culture. I was very anti bro culture man is in theater and I was in band and in such and I wouldn't get into like the quote unquote, bro culture. And so I played football and even still, I was like, This is not me, like I'm not a bro, I'm

Gary Collins  
gonna turn on the aggression and go smash someone. Oh, don't

Brian Nichols  
get me wrong. I did. And I very, very well, nose tackle it was great, because I was being blocked by guys who were quite literally like half my size. So but no, it was just I didn't like the going to the gym. And you know, just the lifting of the way just just felt too much. But, you know, I was like, I had to get to doing this at some point. So I ended up I want to talk a little bit, right?

Gary Collins  
Yeah, I want to stop, right, because there's some couple really good important points. First one is, how did you modify your diet? Did you modify your diet during this timeframe? Oh, I

Brian Nichols  
did. Yeah. And that's one thing I actually should have addressed. The diet is, is probably the most important part versus the professional activity. Yeah, I mean, that was that was really hard for me to because I had to then start to really focus on the scaling down that not only that, what I was eating, but the portions of what I was eating. And it it almost made me embarrassed when I realized, you know, oh, I used to eat that entire, you know, whole sub and not think twice and you know, maybe have a bag of chips or that I was like okay, now I'm having maybe a quarter of this, this sub and I'm, you know, maybe having a few chips and like to realize that you were putting that much food into your body that time. I mean, one of my favorite pastimes, I'll sit down my fiancee and we'll watch my 600 pound life on TLC and I sit there I'm like, you know, I marvel at how much food that they can put down and I'm like, but at the same point in time, I was uh, you know about you just shy under 40 pounds. I was I was shoveling down food pretty darn good to me a two liter bottle of soda. It wasn't anything that was you know, too much of a feat. And that's that's a evening playing Halo on, you know, on the Xbox with the friends. Um, so changing the fact Yeah, I wasn't gonna eat the, you know, just the wasteful carbs. You know, the carbs such as your pizza pockets or your white bread. I tried to avoid pasta and focus more on just nutritionally dense foods, having salads and having vegetables, good berries and having nuts and I'm just getting into a different type of diet and I actually didn't really change it to the point of where I am now. But even just that small modification you need such as we've seen results? Yeah.

Gary Collins  
I think that's where people get wrapped around the axle as they think they need to make drastic, drastic changes. And that's how bail, I always tell people a step at a time, a little something is better than nothing. And the, that's, you know, principle number five of the simple life. And number number four and number five is take action today and every day, you know, it's, it's the small habits add up, and you got to put them together. And you're slowly shifting your metabolism, you got to, you got to shift your mindset. In with the pro culture, I find that I find that funny. And I don't mean that in a derogatory way, because we're two we're very different generations. You know, I'm, I'm almost 50 And I believe you're in your 20s or 30s. I'm 2727. That's how I thought and the, you know, I'm old enough to be your dad, and then some, but, you know, it's different, you know, cuz the millennials grew up with a lot more touchy feely, you know, more, don't show your aggression. You know, like you said, the bro culture and all that, and it's a problem. And I think you would admit to that now that, oh, it was actually hampering you from doing the things you needed to do to be healthy. Yep. And that's insanity. To me. We've gotten so soft and gushy, literally and figuratively, that we're actually mocking people for trying to do the right things. I know you're 100% Right? Yeah, that's crazy.

Brian Nichols  
I actually, I wrote an article back about, I think, a year and a half or so ago for the libertarian public and it was about, you know, the fact that fat shaming isn't a means of trying to make someone feel bad. It's not it's not even trying to fat shame. It's trying to actually help someone. Um, you know, when you are morbidly obese, I mean, yes, you can, you can go through the well, you know, I'm beautiful on the inside, it's what I feel on the inside. That's all well and good, you're still physically biologically not safe, you're not healthy, your body is hurting and putting so much excessive strain in your body, it's so important to take care of your body because, as we discussed in my show, back when you were on Geary, like your health is one of the most important fundamental pillars of just maintaining your sense of self. And and when people let their health get worse, not only does it impact their physical health, but it does have a negative manual. Everything was it's a domino effect.

Gary Collins  
Yeah. And not only that, was the fat shaming, you know, obviously, someone created that term. I remember the first time I heard it, I went what is that? And, you know, in I found out very quickly, I I called someone out on their weight who deserved it. And I got instantly called a fat shamer and lit it up and I went, I don't get it. I went. I have a simple saying, If I'm digging a hole of stupidity, please take the shovel out of my hand slap me before so I stopped digging deeper and deeper. I'm a little bit I don't think I was different as a human being I don't think I am. I think there's a lot of people out there say same thing. I'm one of those people if I'm doing something really stupid. Let me know. You know. I mean, tell me I want to stop I if I can't figure it out, tell me and let me know. In in, there's a way to go about it. You just don't walk up to someone go, Hey, badass. Why don't you eat less? No, that's not the way to go about it. But some people do need that as well. Because you're like, hey, obviously, you've been doing this for decades, and you're not listening to anyone. But it's more of I look at it in a sense of you're being selfish to, you're being selfish to yourself, in a way, obviously. But you're being selfish to all the other people now that have to support the burden of you not taking care of yourself. And people have a real difficult time, kind of wrapping their arms around this concept that I talk about. I go but you have to look at it this way. It would be there's no difference. Then if I went out in society as a drunk driver, I'm an alcoholic. I've chosen to be an alcoholic. No. Disease. Yeah, that's an argument. That's a rough one. I don't think it's any different than overeating, and habitually overeating all the time eating terrible food. It is somewhat of an addiction, but it's a self induced addiction. Right? There's some chemical wiring that goes on some other things, but it's mental as well. You know, there's mental and physical, but I go, that alcoholic and that drunk driver who goes out and kills someone is a burden. Pon society. So how are you separating yourself by being obese and causing, you know, you, you show up to work less often you're sick more often you go to the doctor more often, you know, you you you use more resources. As far as you know, I hate to be graphic but you know, plumbing. I mean, there's a whole host of things that you're doing that I consider selfish. And I hate to be that way. I don't want to be that negative, but it's true. And I don't want people who are overweight to think they're a burden. You're not a burden. There's a whole host of things that go into this. We have some serious issues in corporate America, drug America, pharmaceutical, America, medical America, that definitely helps this along. But what I tell people, we still we're in the luckiest country in the world. I've been to a lot of crappy places. And trust me, it's pretty good here. We got our problems. Oh, yeah. But we have free will. Right? I mean, we do. And that's why we say that doughnut doesn't get on it in your mouth on its own. That's the thing I want people understand. We're trying to help. That's why you're on the show. I want you, I want you to lose the weight, I want you to be healthy. That's why I'm so passionate about it. I know, people get offended at some of the things I say, I don't do it for shock value. It's all based upon trying to help you and I'm trying to give you the facts and bring in bring Brian on because Brian is pretty straightforward with his his weight issues.

Brian Nichols  
Yeah, I mean, you have to be like, I mean, that's, that's the thing, too, it's part of, it's part of my story. And it's part of you know why I believe what I believe because, you know, it's, it's really easy to have this woe is me, it's everybody else's fault mentality. But when you know, when push comes to shove, and you know, your doctors tells you, you need to lose weight, or you will die, like at a very young age. And that's just reality, then you're facing your hardest competition, that is the man in the mirror. And you have to realize that regardless of all the good feelings that people try to spread towards you in the body positivity, that's great, but it doesn't change the ticking time bomb that's still inside you. If you actually want to see tangible physical results from you, your body changing in a positive way, quite literally a positive way, then it requires the hard work. And it requires the hard choices. And that includes, you know, doing the the right thing versus doing the easy thing. It means going into the store and spending time to build a shopping list and buying healthy foods to bring home and cook versus, you know, picking up your phone and putting an order to Domino's on a smartphone app. Like sure that's easier. But it's so much more detrimental to your health. And it's so much more detrimental, you know, to just your livelihood, you're spending extra money on food every single week just because you're having it delivered to your door. Or you know, you're spending your time and energy in the future and money in the future on having to deal with the health consequences that will inevitably come from you eating the way you're eating today. It's you know, what do you what are you trying to rob Peter to pay Paul? Now you're trying to pay today, but you're the pain tomorrow as well? What's What's the the real goal of what you're doing? Is it that you're just looking for that short term? Fix the quick puff of the cigarette almost? Or, you know, are you really trying to consider what's this going to do for my long term future, you know, and then it comes to the point of saying, okay, oh, I have to take some responsibility, you have to do something yourself in order to change otherwise, everything's going to remain the same. You know, going back to that show, my 600 pound life, that's one of the the reoccurring themes with the people who either fail versus those who succeed. Those who succeed are people who say, I got myself to this point, I really messed up. Now I have to do my part to get myself out of this. And they're all on board. Or it's the people who Woe is me. This was all because of my childhood. All these, you know, these issues I had in my life are all the circumstances I found myself in. And now I can't get better because these people aren't helping me or I'm not getting the attention I need whatever it may be, and you'll see those people will fail. It happens probably 80% of the shows to be quite honest, Gary, because it's easy to think that it's somebody else's fault. victimhood is 100% of victimhood and that if you refuse to take that self ownership and take that responsibility upon your shoulders and say okay, I goofed I now I have to do my part to uncouth if you're gonna remain where you are so that's why it's so important to you live in while it's a you know living a libertarian lifestyle you know, you you get in life what you put into life, if you Yeah, if you sit on your your body Playing video games all day, and you eating Cheetos in your mom's basement and then complain that you don't have enough money to move out your your mom's basement, instead of spending time, you know, maybe looking for for bettering your skills out of the online classes or you're trying to pick up a trade, or you're trying to do something to better yourself, right? Then, then you're it's your fault. And and, you know, it's easy again to blame like, oh, well, you know, we need to do we need to tax the tax the rich people to pay for this, this and this, like, No Get Get off her ass and do something like actually put something make an investment into yourself. And that investment is going to be a short term pain because you're giving the money away. But what you're gonna get in return in the long run is so much more beneficial to your overall longevity. And that's something that people need to start to grasp.

Gary Collins  
Well, and that's what I talk about. I mean, we're on the road to ruin, health wise, I mean, we're pushing a point, or we're gonna cross and we're not, we're not gonna be able to get back. I mean, because it's, it's, it will bankrupt this country at some point. That's how bad it is. Because you become so unproductive as well. And, you know, what we hear is getting well, I am we're gonna have to pay people a living wage. You know, here we go again, you know, we make plenty of money in this country, we just blow it. And we don't save. And that's part of going back to that too. I wrote a whole chapter on my financial freedom book. It's available people on Amazon, it's doing well, by many of them. I wrote a chapter the first one of the first chapters is on your health and how much it costs you over your lifetime. By eating out in in not preparing your own meals. And I didn't even get into the health care cost. It's a lot of money, people a lot of money, I if I would have thrown in lack or lost productivity on top of it. It would have been astounding amounts of money. And what do people complain about the things most, I want to be healthier, yet they make no effort. They say I want more money, the again, don't make any effort. And they don't have enough time. And those are all three things that I prove we waste. It's all on us. But if you improve your health first it's like the first stumbling block because everything else just stacks up after that to become much easier. You get your health in order well guess what? You end up being more productive, you feel better. You actually can communicate with people you can remember things that was the first thing I found when I changed my health. I was never overweight but I was the you know the I was the kind of the genesis of the Velveeta and white bread sandwiches and and miracle what mayonnaise I ate a ton of those as a kid I probably it bowls of Froot Loops and Captain Crunch to say, Man, many sandwiches were like a go to staple for you know, the oh, we needed to have dinner and we didn't get a chance to go to the grocery store. So I completely understand we you know, my generation was the real price heavily processed foods. Yep. But the difference was with my generation is we were outside. We were free ranch kids big time. I mean, there was no my parents didn't know where I was probably about 80% of my life growing up, and no one did. No one had a clue where their kids were half the time, we're just out running around. So we were able to burn off those excess empty calories. We were still really unhealthy. But we're just skinny unhealthy, is what it was in. That's kind of what's changed now is now we have that perfect storm of lack of activity. And a poor diet and people would be blown away by how much money is spent on and acids and irritable bowel syndrome, drugs and over the counter things to deal with digestive issues. It's a huge industry in this country. And I'm gonna tell you, one of the things that goes away is that you start to feel better. And the productivity when my memory I couldn't believe it because I wasn't technically overweight. I was I was in ideal weight. But I didn't feel good. I was wrecked. My health was at wit's end at the end of my 30s. And so I finally went into ancestral health and I had kind of been dabbling in it, but I didn't quite understand it. I was an athlete, I was following. You know, drink Gatorade, eat a bunch of carbs and just exercise yourself to death. That's what I was taught. And it was killing me. It was slowly killing me. Well, the first thing that came back my mental acuity, I mean, drastically, I went holy shit. I can actually think I want I'm not. And what was amazing is I as I noticed as I start feeling worse and worse, my decisions became worse and worse. I would make these strange Almost a lack of control it really the instant gratification kicked into overdrive during that timeframe. I mean habitual buying things I would buy shit that I didn't need for a second but I couldn't control myself and borrow was consumer nation but part of it was I just couldn't make a good decision half the time and that's what I mean you keep your health in order all this stuff just starts to solve itself it just falls in line What's that rule? Or that same from platoon It was what uh

what was it get your point your head in the right direction in your ass will follow? Yeah, I think it's a I was I might be butchering it, but it's true, you get your health in order, and your ass will follow. It just goes, it just starts to ripple talk about that as you went through this metamorphosis, how your emotional well being, and how a whole host of things kind of fell together for you.

Brian Nichols  
Oh, I mean, it's it, it's not even close, I mean, compared to where I was to where it ended up. So you know, the end of my weight loss entirely, I got down to 205. So it was 205. And then I actually ended up having excess skin surgery. And I had, well, it's actually called my skin baby, where I had the the last, you know, a little bit taken off, and I got down to around 200 solid for my weight. And, you know, it was it was amazing. I just feel it's hard to explain Gary, like, there's just this, this different sense of like, being yourself when you're not super self conscious, like 24/7. Like, the the best way I can say is like is anybody's ever suffer with anxiety? Just think of what it feels like to be anxious. But it never turns off, because you're constantly thinking about, is this person judging me? Are they looking at my stomach? Are they looking at my chest? You know, are they thinking, you know, I'm gonna take up too much room in the, you know, the theater, like, there's all these things like you, you, you have to think of, I mean, Gary, the worst thing for me, it's funny like to this day, these these stupid desks still freaked me out, but the desks in high school, or in their tiny desk, and like, I remember, there was one desk I in it like to this day, and mortified me is that I couldn't sit in the desk. And I remember that, that feeling of just like absolute shame. And I was like, you know that, that, that is something that now I don't have to think about but like, you know, go to a restaurant, right? Like, you'd go to the restaurant and your family no, like, you have to make sure you're not sitting at a booth with the table doesn't move because if the tables is, you know, in place, you can't necessarily sit all the tables. Um, so that was a, you know, a big thing just to feel better about yourself and, and honestly, like, you know, feeling more confident in yourself, you know, I definitely noticed, I started putting my shoulders back some and saying, okay, you know, I'm not, I'm not, you know, having to just so much slouch and hide my finger, right? It's okay, like, you know, I went from being a triple XL T down to a medium. And, and that was just doing cardio. Right. And that was it. I went from a 46 Almost 48 inch waist down to a 3432 inch waist. Um, it was just like, you know, the difference in how I felt and just knowing that I accomplished this massive feat, but also that with the health benefits, I just genuinely felt better, I had more energy, there was more optimism, you know, everything had a potential I mean, I started picking up sports that I would never have thought of playing like I used to play basketball pickup games back in college, and I would never have done that otherwise you know, just because I would never been able to keep up so it was just so exciting to be able to do these new things and it just really it it really exponentially I increase just myself self sense of worth and a purpose and also it's funny in I know that was on accident but it goes right into step three of your your chair pillar or your pillar of the chair right is is that sense of purpose and it's like feeling that okay, I I've been I've accomplished my health goals and you know, when you're in college financial goals aren't really something you were too concerned about. But you know, definitely I started to work I got a couple jobs I was doing like tour guides on campus and working in a video store which believe it or not, there were still video stores out there and I was in college like Yeah, I know right? Um, but being able to you know, start to accumulate some some money to like start tackling some debt and then again that self of purpose that sense of purpose of self purpose it was so it was so interesting to see how each of those kind of you know, dominoes started to fall on each other once you got the first one going. Yeah, all three fell in right because now he could how much less money you're spending on food. No, not even. Not even I was in 1000s of dollars a year on So it's funny like one of my my first jobs after I graduated was I went into fitness sales, I became the director of marketing for a Gold's Gym. And one of the things we do before we'd sell personal training sessions was we do like a fitness assessment. And whenever you get the objections, and I would train the team, how to do this, you know, get the objections, okay, well, here, we're gonna go through, you know, how much how much do you spend on coffee per day and how much you spend on alcohol per week, and,

you know, all these questions just like, say, Okay, well, here, here, you know, you're, you're just kind of one cup of coffee a day, and that, you know, they have the Gold's Gym thing to do. So we did it. But, um, but then I actually started to think it's like, wow, you know, back when I was morbidly obese, I was, you know, going out to eat probably five times a week, you know, going to the deli and grabbing a set, I guess, sobbing, you know, a soda. And that might have been $11 times five days a week, 75 bucks a week, you know, times, four weeks in a month, that's, you know, we'll say, just for math sake, that's 400 bucks, or, yeah, four, no, 200 bucks a month, times 12 months, right? That's awesome. It's like, oh, wow, times, you know, how many? How many years? Was I doing this? And times, you know, how many years would I be doing this, and you can start to see, like, it all really adds up so fast. And then you can direct that money towards other things that are actually you know, fruitful, whether it's putting it into investments or you know, something that's good, like, a positive purchase for yourself, you know, like, almost a reward, like, you know, Hey, you want to go buy that new jacket that you've been wanting, because now you can actually fit into it, and I don't like the reward mentality, but like, hey, that's something that you can actually look back and say, because I didn't do this, I had this money now that I wouldn't have had otherwise, I can use for a different purpose. And if that's, you know, a consequence of me, you know, not gain weight and actually losing weight, that's, you know, hey, go ahead, I like to be able to do those kinds of things. So, think of

Gary Collins  
it this way, you gave yourself a pay raise, and you didn't make an extra dime. It's, I talk about this a lot too, with people I go, you do not have to make more money to be financially successful. I go, you you gave yourself a raise in all you did was cut things out, which gave you and I always talk about money equals freedom. You know, we I think we discussed this on your show, I use it all the time, you know that the more money you have, the more potential freedom you can acquire, the more freedom you have, the less money it takes to maintain that level of freedom. Yep, exactly. And I just, I wish people would let that sink in, because you just gave the perfect example. And you did it on a simple concept of changing your health by tweaking your diet, and it saved you 20 At least bare minimum $2,400 a year, bare minimum a week. I'm sure there's a whole lot of other stuff in there that you missed.

Brian Nichols  
But don't even think anything about like the health costs, right? Like, that's your costs like that. That's the part right there that, that I'm looking at now. I'm like, wow, I just imagine if I had stayed at 385 pounds for you know, the past 10 years? Where would I be currently health wise, you know, what health issues would I be facing, that I'm not facing now just because it was going to be an obesity, obesity related illness, you know, when I be, you know, at risk for stroke, when I'd be having issues with diabetes, they all these things that people really don't think about. But you know, there's a real cost to it. I mean, the prescriptions, the the doctor visits, you know, the co pays, the deductibles, your premiums, like there's so much that goes into your health, especially as you're older. So that's why it's so important, especially when you're younger. And I actually did this, when I graduated, I actually did a health circuit for my local gym, to these different schools, talking to kids and saying, you know, you're at an age where you're going to go from being the three sport athlete, senior year, you know, basically doing something physically active every single month, regardless of the time of year. But you're going to go to college, if you're only playing one sport, you know, you're going to have to do something to pick up that middle time or that extra time that you're not working out. Because now you're not using all that energy all the time. But also now you're not necessarily eating some of the healthier foods, maybe your parents were getting you now you have the chance to go to the you know, the the campus center and get your french fries and chicken tenders every single night now, is could you do that as a cheap? Yeah. But at the same point in time, are you going to have that freshmen 15 or freshmen? 50? Well, that can happen to it. You know, it happens quite a bit. That's why I tried to teach kids like it was so important to focus on the health now and focus on what you're doing as soon as you have the chance to because otherwise you're going to be setting yourself up for failure in the future. And it sounds so far away. But you know, when that time comes, you're gonna say oh my god, thank goodness, I did that in the past. Your your future self will most definitely thank your past self for sure. Well,

Gary Collins  
here's a good example that I've noticed recently and I wonder if you notice as well you made when I was growing up, it wasn't uncommon for offensive and defensive linemen who played pro football to die pretty shortly after they retired or in their 40s, late 50s. I've seen a big trend in the last five to 10 years, maybe five, where these guys get out of the game, and they're unrecognizable. Because so skinny, him he

Brian Nichols  
lost like 70 pounds, and he was one of the best left tackles in the NFL. And like when I first saw him if he was on barstool, I was like, Who is this? And then like, I was Joe Thomas. Like he used to weigh 300. And probably, I think, like 25 pounds. And granted, a lot of it was muscle. But he ended up I think he's down to like 240 or 230. And you he looks unrecognized. I mean, you wouldn't know it was the same person.

Gary Collins  
Yeah, even Gronkowski. He's shortly he lost. Oh, yeah, he looks completely different. Yes. And what's happening is these these guys realize, because they've got the best of the best. Now, when I was growing up, these the nutritionist went to Best in pro football. And they were jacking them up with all kinds of good stuff. Not to say that that's gone away. But these guys now realize, and I think a lot of it does have to do with their nutrition. They're saying, Hey, man, when you're out of this game, you got to change your habits. And not only that, but learning learning how to eat, right, that's the biggest thing. And we eat on a schedule in this country. And I always tell people, the human body is developed to not eat on a schedule. It's, it's, it's designed to eat when you're hungry, or hormones are are geared towards that. That's what they're for. That's how they interact. And I go, what we've done is, if you don't change your thought process on eating that you must eat breakfast at this time. You must eat lunch, you got to have your snack. I did it. I know this all too well. I ate on a schedule. For most of my life. I haven't eaten on a schedule for a decade now. And it's totally different like today. Have I eaten? Oh, yeah, I did. I had a small salad had to think. And I forget, I just because I don't think about eating. I my body tells me when it's time to eat, and I eat today. I'm a smaller guy. I'm not, I'm not six, five, I'm half you. I'm like five, six. And I weigh 143 pounds, I weigh almost the same weight I weighed in high school. But my natural weight is in the 130s. If I was just to not lift at my body's homeostasis would and that would be typical. If you were to go out into a hunter gatherer culture, I probably would weigh high 120s, mid 130s At the most, because our bodies are geared that way because they need to be efficient. The more weight we put on, the more resources we need. Right? If you got to eat more, well guess what in nature, food doesn't just drop on your front door and cooked. You got to go get it. And it's pretty rare. It's not around all the time. And in doing that, and learning how to eat, you know, when you're when you're just when you're hungry. And people kind of misconstrue that to the music of Allah hungry all the time I go, you won't be if you do this, right, you do it correctly, your body will tell you because you will be primarily about fat burner. Now there's this whole ketogenic thing. And, God, I hate all these trends, I've made some enemies because it's just stupid. You can't be in ketosis all the time, people it doesn't work that way, your body does not work that way. Just a side note. But you are built to be a fat burner, because that's why we can store unlimited fat but yet we can't store unlimited glucose in this in the form of glycogen. If we did our livers, everything would be huge. I mean, like in our muscles, because glycogen would just keep store in store and store and store and well, we don't. Because we don't need that much blood glucose in that form. There's a reason for it. But fat we can start unlimited because it's a survival mechanism. Well, evolution our you know, our our genetics didn't know that we were going to have access to you know, 10 bag pounds of sugar at any given point either. So that was built in. And mother and mother is so smart. You know? I mean, why would it turn off fat storage? Well, you can't get fat in nature. It's pretty hard to do. Really hard to do. Yep, no, it's true. And the fatter you get natured, you just become a slow, tasty morsel for a predator. We are not apex predators on this planet. I hate to break it to people. There are many animals that will eat you very easily in nature. You have no chance. If you don't have a gun, and all you got to stick you're getting eaten again. Aren't it? If they're hungry, you're done. You're not going to make it. It just that with it. What did you realize once you start to change things, did you notice that that those cravings, and that cycle of eating on a schedule, did it go away for you? Yeah,

Brian Nichols  
I mean, I, it's kind of funny, because I was very busy back in college. And now I was in, you know, just name the extracurricular, what have you. So, I really, I was only eating when I could, but I found that when I could, wasn't necessarily when I was hungry. So, I would sometimes eat only once a day, and, you know, maybe a protein shake, but that was fine for what I was doing. I didn't really focus on, you know, having to, you know, make it a point to, you know, go get food because it was lunchtime, or or what have you. But I will say that I started to get more into weightlifting. And then I definitely started to eat more just because my body was you know, it demanded more food. And you know, that that was one thing I had to mentally change a little bit was, is okay to eat more food now. Because my body, my body needs it in order to grow. Which I will tell you, it was a weird thing to start seeing the numbers and scale go up. But be it a good thing. It was it was a little scary at first because like oh my god, I'm to 10 again, like what I do wrong, I'm like, No, I'm getting stronger. And getting, you know, more muscular, my body mass is increasing, just from the sheer fact I'm lifting weights. Finally, and I'm doing things that are different to my body, I'm getting mass. So that was when I really had to make it more of a point to to start eating more. But even still, like the energy levels were still through the roof because I was still doing more low carb necessarily like no carb, but definitely lower in carb. And I noticed that I felt better, just because I was doing the lower carbs. And then you know, I have a sandwich every now and then. Which you know, was whatever what it was It wasn't anything that I really thought too badly. Excel is very active still. So, I mean, long story short, is I even to this day, I still do a I call a Keto esque diet, which I know you don't like keto, which you know, I like

Gary Collins  
keto I like to die. I just I hate the way people define it and turn it into a trend. I teach keto low carb, high protein, Paleo primal into my mix, I mix them all. Because those concepts and all I need to do an episode I do it during my live speaking I talk about it. Those are all good elements. The keto is a great element. But what it's been teach taught or being taught now is a lifestyle. The human body doesn't work that way. Our body is in ebbs and flows of energy, energy storage and energy utilization. It's so so that's why I say eat when you're hungry. Well, the more you exercise, the hungrier you get. That's part of the deal. It's how the body works, you need to replace those calories back in. And low carb, you could spend a day low carb Naturally, there could be days when you would be high fat, there would be days when you would eat nothing but carbs, it flows because our energy flows so days that I don't do anything I don't work out, which is very rarely I get exercise pretty much every single day, just not high impact. I don't eat that much that day, I might eat 1000 calories, maybe. Honestly, that's how low it is. And you thought a bit about that when you do it. Like do you do you know, like, I have no idea. I didn't know what I was doing in because I don't I've never I don't count count. I've never counted calories. Because I don't need to. I go by feel I am a I'm a I'm a hunter gatherer guy. I'm a out in the woods guy. I let my body tell me what it needs to do. And calorie wise I just didn't analyze it. I once I kind of dialed everything in years ago, I kind of went Oh God, I didn't eat that much today. I wonder how many calories that is. And most the time it was under 1000 calories. Now but there could be days when you could eat three 4000 calories. That's what I mean it and your the way your energy systems kick in. In your metabolism. People always think it's either up or down. Just straight up and downs. It's not it's it's a wave. You go through these waves, and your body will click in to Okay, I need I need a blood glucose. Now I need it right now. Well, that's your high energy system. That's your glycogen. That's the glucose that's already in your blood system. That's your quick burn your fat a slow burn, protein and fat can be turned into glucose through gluconeogenesis most people do not understand this concept. Even dieticians. I've heard him say it completely wrong on numerous shows. That means your body has the ability to convert protein and fat into glucose. Hmm Interesting. So what does that mean? Technically, you do not need any carbohydrates, because fat and protein are the only food sources you need to survive. Do I recommend that? Well, no, do you don't have to go to that extreme, people who have high sensitivities to, they have high food intolerances, the carnivore diet works really well for him because you eliminate most of the things that are going to affect you. But that's, that's, that's the that's the exception, not the rule. So I tell people, your daily and in a hunter gather would eat seasonally, you know, naturally, humans anywhere where there was four seasons for winter, you would bulk up, you would eat you would try and bulk up just like a bear does. Bears look for berries? When they're trying to put on weight? They're looking for berries, because fructose is instant fat storage. Fructose is fat storage on steroids. That's what it does. It's like I think it can store fat at 40 times the rate of glucose or sucrose. When I wait sucrose, no glucose, I'm sorry, I had a mix up. Sucrose is glucose and fructose. And so you have to look at it that way people like everything black or white, in nutrition. And in physical activity. Your body is a crazy chemistry experiment going on at all times. The one thing it always wants to try to get back to his homeostasis though, equilibrium, it's always trying to do that. It's a survival mechanism. If you have these crazy spikes up crazy spikes down, that that is actually harmful. And that is the American diet and sedentary lifestyle we're in today, it's shoot up and sugar, blood sugar, shoot down in blood sugar, that is going to shorten your life. They've done studies, the more the more insulin that your body produces over a lifetime, the shorter that life will be.

Pretty simple, guys. I mean, it's pretty straightforward. And that's what I'm known for. I don't know, if you've researched a whole lot of my stuff, but I'm known as the simple guy. That's why I call it the simple life. We we clutter up health and wellness so badly. I always say just put yourself in nature, what would you have access to? That's it. And people Oh, I can't be that simple. I need Gatorade. I need my goo I need my gels. And no, you don't know you don't. Gatorade is the biggest scam that has ever been created in the health industry. It is a useless product does nothing besides inject you with sugar and chemicals. That's about it. I'm probably going to get sued by Gatorade now. But it's honest, I'm being truthful. That is the Gatorade of nature is Springwater it's all there. Everything you need, right there. And I'm lucky I have a well, you know, my well is I'm in the top of a mountain my water is pristine. I noticed the difference. I grew up in the mountains. I grew up on a well, you know, there's a huge difference between well water and tap water in most municipalities, it I can taste it instantly. I can smell it. I can smell the difference. It's just that kind of stuff. You know, it's as simple things and I think that's what you were learning. Right? You were learning as this was going that by being overweight and having to go follow this. It was far more complicated than being healthy and being a proper weight. Right. Would you agree with that? Or did yeah, no. put words in your mouth but no, yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, at the end of the day, I'm like I think it's important just Oh, sorry. So sorry. My computer's to give me a heads up. I have 15 minutes of battery life. So I forgot my charger. That works. That's my bed. I'm sorry. What was the question? Gary? I'm sorry. They caught me off guard. Oh, no problem. The well I got my eye on my clock here. We'll give her more minutes. And we'll we'll call her wraps because people are getting sick of us anyway. Sorry about that, too. By the way. I forgot like where my charger goes out as I was answering the question like Oh, I think I left it at work. Oh, no problem. Well, what I was saying is what is it your life far less complicated? Being in shape at a proper weight than it was a when you were overweight in always worrying about food? Um, I don't know. It's, it's different to say the least for me. For me. Yeah. It well. So when you're when you're constantly thinking about food,

Brian Nichols  
there's there's still this sense of when I have the food, it's going to give me this dopamine rush so it's like you almost rewarding yourself every time so you didn't really care so much about the having to think about it. because, like the thinking about it was almost like, you know, like, Oh, I'm gonna get to have that wonderful thing today. And just like all the time, so it's like this constant feeling of just this rush almost. Yeah. Yeah. Versus like I will say, it's like, you definitely have to be more conscientious when you're, if you're eating more clean on me like thinking, Oh, my office, somebody comes in and they bring in doughnuts. Like, it's really easy in our, like, our culture and society to go into there. Just say, Hey, I'm going to have a doughnut. But like, you know, for me, that's, that's something it's almost like a trigger where I'm like, Ah, I was so good. And they're like, oh, you know, one more doesn't hurt. Anyone were

Gary Collins  
hurt. Oh, it's a sugar works. Exactly. So

Brian Nichols  
I mean, for me, I have to be much more conscious of saying, you know, but I mean, first of all, I have celiac. So I can't really have any way more. But you know, just to say like, I you know, I shouldn't do this, because I know, it's going to make me want to have more, or, you know, I just won't feel good afterwards. So, um, you know, I find myself thinking more now versus when I was before, but not necessarily a bad way. Because it's, I know, it's still positive for my overall health. So it's not like a negative thing. It's just a, just keep keep the you know, the spidey senses tingling, just in case.

Gary Collins  
Well, and that's a good example, because people think I'm perfect, too. And you get a donuts around me, all the three, four of those bad boys no problem. The key is, I don't buy that stuff. I don't never let it in my house. You know, I know better. And people go, Well, why if if we're so inclined to be healthy, and Mother Nature, whatever you want to call it puts this into us? Why do I crave all this stuff? I go because it doesn't exist in nature. Bodies are efficient, your body only turns things off, or on that are necessary. If it doesn't think that you know, if you're not going to have access to sugar in nature, because go find I tell people I go, you go Rome for four or five miles, and you told me how much sugar you go by nothing. And if you're in the winter, I guarantee it will be a big zero, there will be none of it. So having access to sugar, our bodies wouldn't turn off that craving. Because why would it you need that craving? Because it's a survival mechanism? And what I mean by that is, you when you find it, you we would and they've done this with indigenous cultures that they gorge themselves. So if they find a beehive, yes, hey, lose their shit. They will take the bee stings, they got all kinds of procedures and techniques to get that honey away their pros. While they don't have access to it every day, I mean, literally, I saw a video and there's bellies were all distended, and they're just all ah, and they're so happy. But that's it, they're not going to get that for a long time. So that that our bodies know that, okay, I got this, now I store it, I use it, I utilize it, because later on, I'm going to be starving more than likely, I'm going to need this. So that's why we're hardwired. That if we see it, we want it and we're gonna eat it. So that's always tell people, you just don't go around it. And they're all that sounds so simple. I go. It is. Don't bring it home. It's so true. And if you want if you're going to have a dessert, you have to go get fresh ingredients, and you make it and that's it. It's gone. There you make enough to where you get that one sitting. No leftovers, it's over. Done. It works. It sounds really, really simple. And with that, what advice would you give someone who's battling obesity in order to be successful first hand knowledge because I was never obese. So I don't I sound like an idiot. Some? I don't know. Yeah,

Brian Nichols  
so I say the first thing is, don't worry about what other people think. Like when you're going to the gym like that. That is the number one thing I do not. And also, I would say is to not worry about, like keeping it to yourself about you know, you're doing a diet like Don't be ashamed that you're, you're doing something to better yourself. Don't be ashamed if you're overweight about going to the gym. Yeah, I was. I wish I hadn't been because I think it would have only helped me lose weight faster. Hmm, I'm confident it would have helped me lose weight faster. But also like, don't be don't be worried about like the whole diet thing. Like, you don't have to tell people to sell you're on a diet, but just say, Hey, I'm just trying to eat healthier. That's all I'm trying to say. Just say that.

Gary Collins  
And just own it. Exactly what I know. I'm big. And I'm fixing it. If you come in with that attitude, and you come to me, and you walk up to me and go hey, man, I know you're in shape because I've been in the health industry forever. And you go you know what, man? I'm motivated by you. I'm motivated by all these skinny people in here. I'm owning that I did this. You're gonna be far more successful. Guaranteed. And you know what? You're going to get the support because I'm fired up for people like that. I want you to succeed. I'm there. I'm all with you. Yeah, don't go in there worried about anything else but accomplishing your mission calls you fat. You know, the old saying was, well, you're ugly and I can lose weight.

Brian Nichols  
But you know, and that's the thing, I think it's a good thing to leave I'd like to end with this is that, you know, people aren't gonna do that, like, you know, like, and that's the thing, like, it's the biggest fear that I had is that people are going to like point and laugh or they're gonna snicker at me like, that doesn't happen. Like when you're at the gym, people are by and large focus on their thing. Like, I mean, people, it's like your own kind of like little oasis, like your own mental Oasis, when I'm at the gym, like I am deep in thought, or listening to podcasts, or listening to music on the treadmill, whatever it may be. And I'm not thinking like, you just don't get distracted. It's it's like you're, you're focused on what you're doing there. So don't think that people are staring at what you're doing and that kind of stuff. Because there's not the end point is nobody, everyone's there for the same. Yes, exactly like, and that's the thing, too, is like, there are people there who I can almost guarantee were in your shoes, like you know, five months ago, 10 months ago, five years ago, and they see what you're doing, like good for you. Like there are people who are cheering you on, that's the, that's the fundamental thing to know is that people aren't going to make fun of you for doing things that are good for you. People are going to support you, they're going to encourage you, and they're going to be there to help you. So if you need a hand, or you need somebody to lean on, then then tell people that don't don't try keep it to yourself and try do it yourself. Like people are there to make sure that they're your support system, take advantage of and actually utilize it. It will help you get your results faster. It will help you hold yourself accountable to your goals, because now there's somebody else who's helping you hold yourself accountable as well, because they care about you they care about your success.

Gary Collins  
Well, absolutely. Not only that, but it you have to develop a thicker skin too, in general. Everyone, I don't give a shit what anyone thinks half the time, I don't care. And you know what I mean? I don't mean it to let where I let my myself go where I do things that are detrimental to me or others. It's more of, I know what I need to do. I own everything that I do wrong, and I fix it. Every problem can be fixed. And that's how you have to look at it. You're just trying to better yourself. And I always look up to people to motivate me. So I look for people who are better than me at what I do. And it took me a while to figure this one out in life. But that's where my motivation lies. I always look up to some what are they doing? How are they doing it better? Okay, I need to pick that piece from them. I need to pick up that piece. And do that go in there with the attitude of I'm just gonna see what other people are doing. And if you struggle, struggle, get help. Get a personal trainer. Yes. And don't pick the overweight one just like you. I've seen people do that. Yes, he just 100% in shape. They need to practice what they preach. They will get your ass in line. I was literally I was literally just literally just thinking about this today. That's why I'm laughing. times I know there was over a personal trainer. I'm like, Who is going to take advice from an overweight personal trainer. Like it just it doesn't make any sense at all. I was like, How can I can like compare these like, you know, compared to who does a person who does not want to succeed? Now you're 100% Right? Yep, they they're taking the easiest route. And then that can be the excuse that can be the reason why they didn't lose weight. Well, my personal trainer wasn't good enough. No, it will be I went to a personal trainer, I went to gym, they're never going to tell you that if their personal trainer was overweight, too. They're just gonna gloss it over. And that's I mean, you need to find someone who can motivate you and, and pushes you, you know, not someone who's just gonna say, you know, we'll do a little cardio today. Oh, this and that's chit chat. It's business when me and my clients got together well, their high end athletes, but we would chit chat while we were working out. And I used it as an exercise because it's harder to breathe and talk and work out at the same time. So it's actually additional stress. And it actually helps your conditioning that much more. I believe it. Yeah. Because in the military, we would be taught to reason you would march and you would keep cadences because and you would have to, you know, verbalize it is it's more of a workout to have to speak or yell or verbalize while you're doing cardio at the same time. It's far harder. It's when I say

Brian Nichols  
and that's why I you know, I will never, never understand people who like assume people in theater aren't like athletic and like go go try to do a musical dance number and sing and dance or you know, an hour and a half to two hours onstage in make heavy clothes you know it's it's your under the lights. It's so hot on stage. And oh yeah, you have to do it and pretty much nonstop like good good luck and skill. No it's a is a skill. I mean I live love it I did back when I was in college I was in three musicals I loved every second of it, but like, you know, that's that was it was it's hard like it's it's a very difficult thing to do all that at once. Physically. I mean it people don't realize what really what it does to you.

Gary Collins  
Hey, arts, a beautiful thing is and people misconstrue that about me, too. They don't understand I have a very, very artistic side. And it's a balance, you know, it's an artistic side is the creative side. And that's where creativity comes from. So no way would I ever say dancers don't have skill, they have a ton of skill, and anything and that's it's a perfect segue to the very end to do what you enjoy. That is the 100% Easiest way to stay motivated for exercise. If you're were a dancer and you love to dance, dance for your exercise. Yep, no, do what you enjoy, and you will stick with it that much more. And that doesn't mean sitting on the couch, picking your nose. That's not exercise. But anything like I ride bikes, you know, I love the mountain bike, I love the road bike, I hike me and my dog, you know, those are things I enjoy. And

Brian Nichols  
I've gotten to it I've gotten to love lifting weights. And that's that's what I find passionate like I've been like the the go into the gym just like that feeling. Just love it. So like for me, I mean, I'm now finally at a point where I feel very confident my body now and more comfortable. I'm at 260. You know, I love lifting. It's just it's something that I find enjoyable. So right there, like it doesn't feel like you're going to the gym to go work out you're going to the gym that you would like to do in my case. But yeah, like find that thing, whatever it is play basketball, no Zumba, whatever, you know, a personal training class with, you know, group instructor wherever it may be, find the thing that is going to clip to

Gary Collins  
you. Well, and simply, humans were meant to lift heavy things. That's what we did not all the time. But that's what we're geared for. I'd be those shelters didn't build themselves. So yeah, it's a great, great way to leave off. We'll do it for your battery completely croaks building, we'll do a part two. Love that. I have some more questions in there that I wanted to bring up. So we'll do a part two to this. Because more of what you're doing today. We've gone through the past, and we've kind of gotten to how you lost the weight. So let everyone know where they can reach you. And the best way to get a hold of you. And for sure want to share.

Brian Nichols  
Yeah, absolutely. So and Gary, again, thank you so much for number one come in my show. But give me the chance to come on yours. And I hope that you know this is a part of my story that people who are longtime listeners, even for my show, they really haven't heard the details of it in terms of my weight loss. So hopefully this is inspiring to some people just to help get them going. But as for me, if you enjoyed hearing my story, but maybe you want to hear some more of the politics that I'd like to discuss, you can find me over on my show, which is The Brian Nichols Show. You can find it anywhere you find podcasts. So, you know Apple, podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, you know, right now we actually are ranked in iTunes on the we're libertarians network as one of the top political shows will come up in their search algorithms and stuff now for on their main page. That was very exciting. So again, thank you to just the audience in general, who's been listening to us. Yeah, it's it's so cool to see that that we're having that much of an impact. And we're actually bringing a very needed alternative voice to the political fray. Now, as for me on social media, I can be found over on Twitter and on Facebook, both at B Nichols liberty. I do a lot of my social, or my political commentary over on Twitter. And I do a lot of fun memes and articles and such over on Facebook. So you get a nice little bit of back and forth, both from the comedy but also more of my political insight over on Twitter. But no, if people want to get in touch with me, otherwise, you can go ahead and email me at Brian at Brian Nichols. show.com. You can find all the episodes for my show The Brian Nichols Show at Brian Nichols. show.com We have I think we're on 85 now. Great episodes, Gary, you being one of them.

Gary Collins  
You know as one got you ranked on iTunes, right? Yeah, that's the one

Brian Nichols  
of course. But I mean, I've had a lot of great guests. You know, Gary, yourself. Justin Amash, Jeffrey Tucker, from the American Institute for Economic Research. Larry Sharpe, who again I mentioned ran for New York State Governor and a slew of other great great minds. So it's it's a great chance to, you know, hopefully test your political boundaries, we might hear a different point of view that maybe you have gone to consider in the past or you just wanting to hear a lot of really interesting people telling their stories or their their, you know, entrepreneurial adventures, their their your history and politics or maybe it's a great time. Show to really, you know, here's some some fun, educational enlightening conversations and hopefully you walk away feeling a little bit informed as well.

Gary Collins  
It can is your Twitter and Facebook connected to your web page? They are yes, they can find it. I don't even put. I don't use social media normally. So I forget. But I figured I always put their main webpage because I figured because it's always it's always there. Yeah, you can find everything on my my main page, Brian Nichols. show.com. Okay. And that's where we'll, we'll send everyone go everyone, make sure to hit that subscribe button for my show, and Brian's and leave reviews. That's how we spread the word. That's what people look for. They read those things. So make sure to leave reviews. And like said, we'll do a part two. And I think we'll talk about what you do now and how you're maintained. And I think that will be relevant. So thanks for coming on. And I shall chat with you later. All right, Gary. Thanks so much. Looking forward talking again.

Unknown Speaker  
Thanks for listening to The Brian Nichols Show. Find more episodes at the Brian Nichols show.com.

Brian Nichols  
If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe. Want to help us reach more people? Give the show a five star review and tell your friends to subscribe to find us at Brian Nichols show.com and download the show on Apple podcast, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow me on social media at V. Nichols liberty and consider donating to the show at the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash support. The Brian Nichols Show is supported by viewers like you. Thank you to our patrons Darryl Schmitz, Maura Stanley, Miko, Lima, Mitchell megabits, Cody, John's, Fred de caster, and the we're libertarians network. trust the experts we're all in this together if it saves one life, raise your hand if you heard any of those tiresome phrases over the past year and a half. I know my hand is currently raised millions of people across dozens of industries are labeled on essential and forced the lockdown with livelihoods in futures crushed in an instant and as government has continued to expand its power and leverage fear to turn neighbor against neighbor a group of filmmakers have taken a stand and are determined to help set the record straight on the importance of following the actual science of the pandemic follow the science on lockdowns and liberty from the sound mind trader group is a brand new Docu series highlighting the stories of those negatively impacted over the past year and a half by ineffective government policies enacted in the name of following the science with noted experts like Nick Hudson from Panda the pandemic data analytics organization healthcare policy advisors like Scott Atlas and telling stories of business owners families and just your average everyday person harmed by these government mandates follow the science on lockdowns and liberty is giving us a chance to make sure the true stories of the pandemic are told. So please help us at The Brian Nichols Show in supporting the sound mind creative group with noted figures in the liberty movement like Dr. Tom Woods donating 1000s of their own dollars to this project. You know just how important this project is. So head the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash follow the science to donate and catch their brand new trailer to the Docu series one more time. That's Brian Nichols show.com forward slash follow the science

Transcribed by https://otter.ai