Episode 244: Drew Manning's Life Beyond Fit2Fat2Fit
With Drew Manning
Ashley:
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Cellular Healing TV. I’m Ashley Smith. Today we welcome special guest Drew Manning, who is here to chat about the mental and emotional side of transforming your body and mind. He and Dr. Pompa will discuss Drew’s self-experiment of intentionally gaining an unhealthy amount weight as a super-fit personal trainer to then have to lose it so he could truly understand the health and fitness struggles of his clients. He will also share how fasting and the keto diet have been integral in his personal growth throughout that process.
Before we jump in, though, I’d like to tell you a bit more about Drew. Drew Manning is the New York Times bestselling author of the book, Fit2Fat2Fit and is best known for his self-experiment of the same name. Since then, Drew has become known as a leading expert of the keto diet. Because of his message of living a vulnerable and authentic life, Drew empowered thousands of people to live a healthy lifestyle and completely transform their lives. You guys are going to love to hear Drew’s story. Also, to the practitioners out there who cannot make it to our sold out Live It to Lead It event in Las Vegas, you can still join us by subscribing to our livestream and virtually attend our three-day workshop that will give you the latest in cutting-edge treatments and strategies to build your practice. Please go to hcfevents.com for livestream access, and you can use the code CHTV to take 10% off the price. That’s hcfevents.com with the code CHTV. Hope you can join us.
Let’s get started and welcome Dr. Pompa and Drew Manning to the show dedicated to self-experimentation and personal growth. This is Cellular Healing TV.
Dr. Pompa:
Welcome to CellTV.
Drew:
Dr. Pompa, thank you so much for having me on. It’s my pleasure to be here.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, well, actually, we live in the same territory. We’ve been to several dinners together, and actually, the first time that we met was on a boat, right?
Drew:
Yes, we did meet on a boat in a very embarrassing situation for me because I couldn’t get up on the little surfboard.
Dr. Pompa:
Oh, right, the wakeboarding. Actually, we both were beginners at that, so I can’t say—I might’ve gone out, but I’m sure that it wasn’t like it should’ve been. Put it that way. I remember heading exactly towards the boat. It’s got a ski. I’m a water-skier, and that’s probably the only reason I was able to get up. There was some transition from waterskiing, but other than that, it was new to me as well.
Drew:
Yeah, but that was really fun. I’m glad we connected. I had heard about you. Utah, it’s amazing. It surprised me how many people that are in this space are here in Utah.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I remember we were at a dinner once too, and it was like, I mean, oh, my gosh, we knew everyone. I think Garrett was there. Of course, Warren was there, maybe Jeff Hayes. We had a whole group. We all just know each other. This is a massive growing health mecca here.
I remember, on the boat, I was like—we met each other for the first time, and I’m sure we both heard of each other. I really didn’t know your story, right? It’s like you hear, but we have so many people that we hear about. I don’t know. My audience may or may not know your story, so let’s tell it. I mean, you got—it was just a great idea, Fit2Fat2Fit. I mean, tell the story. It’s a book. We’ll make sure that people know where to get the book. It reminds me of the whole—the thing the guy did with McDonald’s, right?
Drew:
Super Size Me.
Dr. Pompa:
He did all the tests of McDonald’s, and he realized he was dying. He had to break it and go back to stopping McDonald’s. You had a very unique idea. Tell the story, how you got the idea, and tell them actually what this book is about.
Drew:
Basically, it started back when I—I grew up my entire life in shape. I grew up in a family of 11 brothers and sisters. I played football and wrestling from a very young age, and so for me, all I knew was that, hey, it’s easy to be in shape. All you do is eat healthy and exercise, and boom, you look like this. Then that carried over into 2009 when I became a personal trainer, and I was training clients who were overweight mostly, right? I couldn’t understand why it was so hard for them just to follow the meal plans, follow the workouts. I’m like here’s exactly what you do, and you just do it, and there should be no excuses. They’d be like, oh, Drew, I had a stressful weekend, and I had cereal or soda, even though you told me not to, or I didn’t get to the gym because I was sore, or I was tired.
I would get frustrated. Why don’t you just—it’s not that hard. For me, it seems simple. All you do is you just do it, and you put down the soda. Put down the junk food. You go to the gym. I could tell there’s a disconnect. Then they would say, Drew, you don’t understand what it’s like. For you, you’ve always been in shape. You don’t understand how hard it is.
I’m like, you know what? You’re right. I don’t understand. This led me to thinking of some ideas of how can I connect better with my clients? It was the weirdest thing, Dr. Pompa. This thought came up into my head, and it was like what if you got fat on purpose? I know that sounds crazy to 99.9% of people out there, but it made sense in my mind. This felt like it was my calling. I needed to do this, and so I was calling friends and family. I’m like I have this crazy idea. What do you think?
Dr. Pompa:
It would be funny if you actually hired a trainer to actually get fat, right? I mean, it’s like I literally don’t know how to do this.
Drew:
Exactly, but everybody was onboard. They were like you should totally do it, except for my mom. She was the only wise one. She’s like I’m concerned for your health. You shouldn’t do it, but I did it anyways. The idea in that show was for six months to completely stop exercising, eat whatever I wanted to, and just totally let myself go. My goal was to gain 50 or 60 pounds. Then the next six months, I put my money where my mouth is. I walked the walk and showed people, hey, this is how you lose the weight.
This whole time I’m thinking, oh, this is going to be a big physical transformation. I’ll get fat. I’ll get fit. Boom, they’ll be this interesting thing. Maybe the local news here in Utah will pick it up or something, and that was all my expectations at the time. I didn’t have marketing strategy or media connections to get on Dr. Oz and Jay Leno and Good Morning America and all these TV shows that I had the privilege of going on. I just rolled with it, and it was fun at first, I’ll be totally honest with you, to skip the gym, skip the produce section, and go down the cereal aisle. I mean, it’s like a kid in a candy store. We have hundreds of options here in America for all of the…
Dr. Pompa:
Did you get addicted? I mean, did you get addicted when you broke it? I’m sure you’re getting there. Was it tough? Did you want the Frosted Flakes or whatever the heck you were eating?
Drew:
It was Cinnamon Toast Crunch, which is really good, by the way. Addicted, I won’t say I got addicted. One of the biggest lessons I learned was how powerful the emotional connection to food really is whereas before I didn’t understand it. I’m like, look, you just willpower your way through it, and you just put the food down. Once I did this, even though it was only for six months, I remember letting go of that food. My body was going through these withdrawal symptoms as if I was addicted to a drug. It was really powerful for me to experience that because then I could—I remember my clients telling me, Drew, I’m trying to follow meal plans. It’s hard because I can’t get this up or that up.
I finally understood how powerful that emotional connection to food can be, and I do believe some people really do get addicted. If you eat that food every single day of your life from 0 years old to 30 or 40 years old, it’s hard to change that. For me, I could empathize more and have that respect, and understand more of what people are going through when they struggle giving up these types of foods.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I mean, honestly, I have to ask. What was the transition? I mean, how long did it take you to start feeling like crap?
Drew:
Yeah, that’s a great question.
Dr. Pompa:
Then tell me some of the symptoms, aches and pains. What would you sleep like, hormonally?
Drew:
I would say it took about a month for me to notice a big difference, and I think one of the first things I noticed was walking up the stairs, being out of breath, like really out of breath. My cardio was the first thing to go. Yeah, I was gaining some fat around the midsection, but not too much. It wasn’t noticeable. People were like, oh, you look normal, but for me, I noticed it. Then I started snoring about a month in, which affected my sleep, which affected my energy levels throughout the day, which affected my mood, which affected my personality. That was one of the—the second the things that I noticed, and then I wouldn’t say I had aches and pains. I would say I would get really tired really quick, so I would have a huge bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and a glass of juice. I remember as a kid in the 80s, there were TV commercials saying, hey, this is a complete American breakfast, and it was cereal, toast, and juice. I remember that engrained in my head as a kid, these TV commercials, and so those were the types of foods that I ate.
I would eat that for breakfast. An hour later, I would just be exhausted, and I’d be starving, absolutely famished. I needed something fast, otherwise I was going to—I felt like I was going to die. Every one to two hours I was starving, eating more and more of these processed carbohydrates and refined sugars. Like I said, they did taste good, and they make you feel good for a moment. Then month one, month two, month three, it became a lot harder where I just felt miserable all the time, lethargic all the time, and just wanting to take naps throughout the day. Chaffing became an issue for me. I had no idea that would happen. That was super uncomfortable.
The biggest thing, Dr. Pompa, out of—these are all physical things that happened to me. The biggest surprise was how it affected me mentally and emotionally. If you think about it, I grew up my entire life in shape, and that was what my identity was based on was what my body looked like. Once I lost my six-pack, I freaked out. I wanted to go up to complete strangers and tell them, hey, I’m not really overweight, you guys. Here’s my before picture. Just go to this website. This is just an experiment. I had no idea how much this would affect me mentally and emotionally, my self-esteem, my confidence.
I remember I was married at the time. I would step out of the shower, and I covered up in front of my wife because I was so embarrassed. I didn’t want her to see me naked. I didn’t want to see myself naked, so it really affected me more so mentally and emotionally than physically.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I want to go there. People look at you and think you’re not a real spiritual, emotional thing about health, just physical, but you really are. I have to ask this. You’ve seen the people put the fat suit on, and they walk through public. They say that the looks are different. Meaning that they notice how people approach them is different. Did you notice that, or maybe with you—I mean, I saw pictures before and after. I mean, it was—I mean, somewhere around the four or five month mark, you definitely were noticeably physically not the same guy. How did that affect you, and did you notice any difference from what people—how they approached you?
Drew:
That’s a great question. Yeah, I mean, I gained 75 pounds. You can’t hide that no matter who you are. It was very noticeable. Here’s the thing that I learned about our society is they’re a lot more judgmental towards I think women that are overweight because no one said anything rude to me or mean to me that hurt my feelings. I will say this, though. I did feel judged more, which could’ve been in my head. I remember one time specifically. I was at a grocery store, and my shopping cart was full of soda and granola bars and chips and cookies. I was checking out, and there were these three women behind me. I could just tell that they were looking at my belly, looking at the food that I was putting on the conveyer belt, and they’re back and forth.
Dr. Pompa:
No, look. This is what I really look like.
Drew:
Yeah, I’m like, hey, ladies, I usually eat spinach and kale. It was really hard for me to go through that. I could feel the judgement, but that could’ve just been in my head. No one said anything mean or rude to me, but I do think that women are judged more harshly in public because I’ve heard stories of other women, like the looks that they get and the things that are said to them sometimes.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, no, it’s true. Even when they did those fat suit things, I think that was part of the outcome. Women definitely were judged differently. I think just from what you learned from an emotional—I don’t know if I could do it. I mean, I have to hand it to you, honestly. Like I said, it’s not that my physical body was ever my identity, but I still identify with myself a certain way, especially even the way I feel. It’s like I don’t—I got to hand it to you. I mean, it was not only a clever idea. Man, again, I take my hat off to you, man. It was quite the talent.
Drew:
Thank you. An interesting story, I mean, I’m not surprised by that. Dr. Oz, I went on his show at my heaviest, and he said the same thing. His producers actually challenged him to do something similar that I was doing for 30 days, and then do an episode on what he felt and experienced. He fought with them. He said I’m not going to do this. I can’t. As a doctor, I know exactly this will be hell. There’s no way I could do the show if I had to do what I was doing, and so I don’t blame you at all. It was way harder than I thought it would be, and like I said, it was more so of a mental and emotional struggle than just physical for me.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, do doubt. Did you run any bloodwork, anything like that? Tell us about that.
Drew:
Yeah, so I had a doctor monitor me once a month just to make sure I wasn’t going to die. Obviously, you mentioned Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock, who did almost die. I don’t have all of the numbers at the top of my head, but the ones that stick out to me are blood pressure, 167/113.
Dr. Pompa:
What, in that short of time? That’s incredible.
Drew:
I did develop a fatty liver. He did a sonogram on my liver. I had developed a fatty liver, and that’s the thing; he said I had nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which I wasn’t drinking alcohol at the time. It was just soda. The amount of soda that I was drinking, the damage that it does to our bodies, we don’t realize it. Here’s the thing. I tell people this all the time. It’s not like you drink a Mountain Dew and your liver or you kidney instantly hurts, right? It builds up over time, and I was heading towards cirrhosis, Dr. Oz was saying.
All my numbers were in the red. My HDL, LDL, fasting glucose, triglycerides were all in the red. I just don’t know the exact numbers off the top of my head. Yeah, I did have a doctor monitor me throughout, luckily.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, wow! All right, so let’s talk a little about when you broke it. I want to go into some of the emotionally, spiritual stuff about what you do because I think it came out of this whole thing. Talk about breaking it, the transition. When did you feel good? How hard was it?
Drew:
Yeah, that’s a great question. This was something, like I said, that I learned really—a powerful lesson was that transition. I went cold turkey, my last meal. Then the next day, boom, I went from about 5,000 calories a day of processed foods, like I said, sugary cereals, granola bars, chips, cookies, crackers, Pop Pockets, macaroni and cheese, to the next day eating 2,000 calories of real whole food. I spread it out over five meals. The first two weeks were hell. They sucked so bad.
Here I was, a personal trainer, proponent of health, eating all these healthy foods, but I felt awful inside. I never felt that awful before. I was moody. I was grumpy. I had headaches, lack of energy. I was always starving, and I didn’t sugar coat it. I talked about this on my YouTube channel. Telling people, look, I get now while people struggle with eating a certain way for 30, 40 years, and then all of a sudden you try and put them on a meal plan of eating real whole food. They don’t instantly feel great. My body was missing the high of those foods that I was feeding it.
At first, sometimes people have those withdrawal symptoms. It’s an emotional struggle. It’s not just a physical thing. It’s an emotional attachment to those foods, and so it took about a good two weeks for those feelings to go away that the cravings became more manageable over time. I mean, I was definitely craving Cinnamon Toast Crunch and some Mountain Dew. I willpower my way through it because I knew people were following me. That’s what kept me accountable was I knew that the audience saw me on these TV shows and were like, all right, can Drew do it? I had to put myself through that no matter what. About two weeks later, it did become more manageable. I started to feel better. The energy was going up.
I didn’t do any exercise, by the way in month. I just changed my diet. I wanted to show people how powerful nutrition is when it comes to overall health and seeing results, and so I lost 19 pounds. All my bloodwork had gone back to normal levels. I remember my testosterone, which was in the low 200’s at my heaviest, had more than doubled in just 1 month of just changing my diet. No exercise yet but just changing my diet. It went from low 200’s to 450 in just 1 month, so that was good. I was feeling better. Then I still had 50 plus pounds to lose, and I had 5 months to do it in.
Dr. Pompa:
Did you worry at all? Did you worry ever like, oh, my God, what if it doesn’t come off? What if some sticks? Did it ever come to your mind?
Drew:
One hundred percent because I’ve never been this overweight and I was like what if it doesn’t work? What if I am stuck this way? That was something that I had to—that was a risk I was willing to take, and I had that conversation with myself. I’m like, if I don’t lose the weight, I’m stuck like this. I probably will regret it. What did I do? Why did I do this? I’m like you know what? I’m just going to do the best I can. I know that the process works, and I’m just going to do the best I can in six months.
Six months of gaining weight. Six months of losing weight. To make a long story short, yes, I did get back to fit, everybody. That’s why my book is called Fit2Fat2Fit and not fit to fat and stuck or something. I did get back to fit, but it was so humbling. It was way harder than I thought it would be. My whole life, I’ve always been in shape. When you’ve always been in shape, it’s easy to maintain that. I wouldn’t say easy, but you know what I mean. To lose all your strength and endurance and stamina and start from the bottom again was really humbling. I think every personal trainer and coach should experience that to some extent or not as far as knowing what it’s like to start from the bottom because it helps you relate to those that struggle that are making that transition.
Dr. Pompa:
Drew, my audience is different than yours in that I have a bunch of health seekers, right? It’s like I would never be able to relate to them if I didn’t get sick. Unlike you, I didn’t go, okay, I’m going to ingest some mercury here -inaudible-. I guess I could say I was blessed enough to get sick. I was blessed enough to be healed. Bottom line is I hear it from a different perspective, as you know. I would never know what I know today. I could never relate to the people, my clients that I take on if I didn’t go through it, honestly, what it’s like not to sleep, what it’s like—I got skinny fat. I lost muscle and gained fat eating the right diet. It’s so frustrating. Anyway, how long did it take you to where you were like, okay, I’m back?
Drew:
Yeah, it was about six months. I set a date.
Dr. Pompa:
That’s amazing, six months.
Drew:
I set a date and said, okay, here’s my ending date, and then I did get back to my original weight, which was 193 pounds. Yeah, on the outside I looked the same, but on the inside I was a changed man. My perspective of how I viewed transformation was totally different. The way I viewed it before—and everyone asked me this. How did it change you? I used to focus so much on the physical. When someone was struggling with weight loss and transformation, I’d be like, all right, let’s change up your macros; change up your calories. Let’s work out harder, the intensity. All that’s cool and, yeah, it’s an important piece of the puzzle, but it’s not the biggest piece. I think people are missing the mental and emotional part.
For me, I try and help out on the mental and emotional side first. The physical stuff, we’ll figure that out over time, finding some tweaks, but it’s the mental and emotional piece, especially that emotional attachment to food. How do we get people off of that? I think that’s where the true transformation happens. I could give someone the best meal plans and best workouts and the best science for them. I think that’s not what people struggle with the most. It’s not a lack of knowledge. It’s how to make it a lifestyle change and not just, okay, I’m going to do this diet for 30 days.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, no, exactly and that’s what transformed you. Like I said, I would say most people, like yourself, it’s all about the physical because that’s where their interest is. You said it definitely opened you up to the emotional and the spiritual side of things. What does that look like today now, and what do you do? I mean, do you still have clients? How did it transform the way you approach somebody?
Drew:
Yeah, so that’s a great question. Like I said, I focus a lot more on the mental and emotional side. Yes, I do give people meal plans and workouts, which I said is the piece of the puzzle , but with that, give them tools on the mental and emotional side. I think accountability is one of the most important things when it comes to transforming your life, change your lifestyle. Whether it’s physical goals, or financial goals, or spiritual goals, having some type of accountability is essential no matter who you are and a support system to provide a safe space to share your struggles, your failures, your successes where people can build you up, and you can actually pay it forward by helping other people during their journey and their transformation. What I do is I have—the way my business works, I don’t really train clients one-on-one anymore but I have digital content that I sell, and then from there, we put people in a private Facebook group, for example, where people can post their meals, their weigh-ins, their successes. We have little competitions, and we have people who pay it forward and will help other—help answer each other’s questions.
It’s a safe space for people, and I think that’s essential. All of my programs include that so that people have help on the mental and emotional side. It’s not just a simple—like I said, as far as here’s meal plans, you do it, and your life is transformed. If that was the case, we would all be skinny and fit by now.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, there’s doubt. Go ahead and give your website and where to get the book. I’m sure people want to get the book.
Drew:
Yeah, so it’s super simple. My brand, by podcast, my book, my website, my social media handle is all Fit-number 2-Fat-number 2-Fit, so Fit2Fat2Fit is my brand. Now, there is a TV show called Fit-T-O-Fat-T-O-Fit. I created that with the help of a production team, and it was on A&E.
That’s a different brand, but that’s still my story but Fit-number 2-Fat-number 2-Fit.
Dr. Pompa:
Got it, yeah. Oh, I didn’t know about the A&E show. Can you watch it?
Drew:
Yeah, so it’s online. Basically, instead of me doing this over and over again—I can only do it once. What we did is we took the concept of Fit2Fat2Fit, and we brought other trainers through this from across the country. For four months, they have to do what I did. I coach them through that process. Like you mentioned, you should have someone coach you through that process of getting fat, right? I coached them through that process, and for four months, they have to gain weight. Then the next four months, they have to lose the weight with their client. Now, as a fat trainer, they have to go through what their clients are going through, and together as a team they lose the weight.
It’s so powerful because you see the trainers come out of it more empathetic, more respect, and a better understanding, and that’s what my brand really is about. It’s not just about physical transformations. It’s about bringing empathy to the health and fitness industry. I see this divide sometimes between people who are overweight and people who are really skinny and fit, and sometimes there’s a lot of judgement and misunderstanding on both sides. People think, oh, this is all you do, and it’s simple. You’re just being lazy. People over here are like you don’t understand.
I feel like if we can bring empathy to the health and fitness industry, it can really change people’s lives. I think people don’t really care what you know or how much you know until they know how much you care. I think that’s a powerful component that I’m trying to bring to the health and fitness industry, which is mostly just about, hey, you’re only cool or you only have value if you have a six-pack or you’re skinny.
Dr. Pompa:
Wow! Both of our stories, that’s what I got out of it too. Meaning that it was the empathy that I have for somebody that’s sick that I could never—you can’t study it.
Drew:
Yeah, you can’t.
Dr. Pompa:
You can’t learn. You can’t just wake up one morning and be like I’m going to be more empathetic, no, man, going through it. It doesn’t surprise me that you gained empathy, and that’s part of your brand. It’s like you would never—one of my questions was what do you think the number one thing you gained from it? You just answered the question.
Drew:
Yeah, seriously, empathy and I think empathy is a powerful tool. Whether it’s in the health and fitness industry or not, just being able to try and get down on someone’s level to understand where they’re coming from first before judging them and just putting them into a category or a box of—whether it’s religion or politics, we do that as humans, and I think it’s unfair. We’re so individual. Rather than just categorizing people and, oh, you’re in this category over here; you’re in that category over here and constant division, I think empathy is something that can really, honestly, change the world. I’m just trying to do it with a health and fitness approach.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, it’s so true. When people are sick, with a lot of people that suffered the way I did, you’re looked at as crazy. It’s like I know what that was like. I know. I hid it from people. I always said I wanted to have cancer just because people would at least feel sorry for me, and I knew what I was fighting against. That’s no way belittling cancer or somebody with cancer by any means. That was just my thought process at the time. How I would understand that unless I went through it?
All right, talk a little bit about some of your solutions, right? You’re a big keto guy. Matter of fact, your next book you could talk about is coming out, and it’s all about ketosis. Then some of even the exercise stuff. You touched on some of the emotional stuff, but touch on some of those subjects.
Drew:
Yeah, so I first got into keto after listening to Tim Ferriss’s podcast with Dr. Dom D’Agostino because I didn’t realize how much…
Dr. Pompa:
We’ve had him on the show a couple times.
Drew:
Yeah, he’s awesome, and what I took from that episode was I had no idea there was so much scientific research being done on the ketogenic diet. Especially in the health and fitness industry, we just hear about, oh, this diet’s working for weight loss, but I had no idea there was so much research being done. For me, I’m like, okay, here I am, a self-experimenter. Why not experiment on my body and try the keto diet? This is about three or four years ago. I did it, and I absolutely loved it.
The thing that I loved wasn’t what people think. I didn’t lose fat. I didn’t gain all this muscle or my performance increase significantly in the gym. I was already really lean to begin with. For me, I saw it more so as nutrition for my brain and the mental clarity, the improvement cognitive function, the focus that—and not being a slave to food. I was your typical six to seven meals a day, Tupperware container. You have each meal. I set my alarm for every three hours.
For me, this was awesome because I could get the performance in the gym that I wanted. I could maintain the body mass, the lean body mass that I had, and I had the mental clarity with only eating once or twice a day. I’m like, man, I could get so much more done throughout the day. For me, that’s why I fell in love with it. From there, had the opportunity to go on The Dr. Oz Show to talk about the benefits of the ketogenic diet and got propped up as a keto coach now. For me, I’m a huge proponent of it, but it’s evolved over the years. Probably like for you, the way I do keto now is not the same way I did keto the first time I tried it.
Dr. Pompa:
Me too, matter of fact, I purposely even move in and out of it. I intermittent fast. I do other fasts. When you’re in that fat adapted state, it’s really a cool place to be.
Drew:
Yeah, my whole goal to keto is to—here’s the problem that I see is people take it. They do it. They feel awesome, and they become almost dogmatic about it. This is going to save everyone else’s lives, and this is the only way because this is what worked for me. It almost becomes their religion where they start preaching about it, and they start looking down on other people.
Dr. Pompa:
I would say that about the vegetarians, the vegans, the paleo. I would say that about every darn diet. My principal is diet variation. There’s beauty in all of them. Moving in and out is actually where the magic is, but anyways, that’s my philosophy. Go ahead.
Drew:
I agree with that 100%. It’s hard because people get so attached to it, and they think what works for them today will work for them five, ten years from now. Then they develop an unhealthy relationship with food where they look at certain food as a sin or feel guilty or ashamed if they eat a carbohydrate.
Dr. Pompa:
So true.
Drew:
Yeah, so that’s where I’ve evolved to with the ketogenic diet is helping people have a healthier relationship with what it is and when to use it and how to use it rather than, hey, this is the end-all-be-all, you guys. This is the last diet you need to do. I think if you look at—just from an ancestral point of view, there was moments of feast and famine, and so there was probably periods of time where we were in and out of ketosis.
Dr. Pompa:
I’m smiling because that’s my principle. My diet variation, it’s “feast-famine cycling.” We do that with our clients. My doctors, we literally get it to shut off autoimmune. Every ancient culture was forced in and out of these states on different diets, and the feat-famine cycle, actually, there’s where the magic is. It basically drives hormone optimization, so Drew, you said it. I have two books coming out on the principle.
Drew:
I love it, man, and I’ll probably take that book and spread the message to help people understand exactly how it works. Obviously, you have the knowledge of how to do that, and so I’m excited. I’m excited for that.
Dr. Pompa:
When’s the keto book come out?
Drew:
Yeah, it’s called Complete Keto. It’ll come out in February of 2019. Basically, what I did is take all the things I’ve learned from Fit2Fat2Fit on the mental, emotional, and spiritual side, and plug that into a ketogenic approach, a 30-day ketogenic approach to really complete transformation. Not just a physical transformation but adding in those mental, emotional, and spiritual components. The things that I’ve learned over the years through personal development and self-help books and interviewing other authors that have really transformed my life and helped me see health and fitness from a different perspective. I think my issue even though I’m in the health and fitness industry is that a perception is, hey, I need to look like the Instagram models. I need to be skinny to be healthy. When in reality, your version of healthy looks different on your body than my version of healthy. That’s what Complete Keto does, obviously, with a ketogenic approach but also with steps to how to have a health balance with carbohydrates afterwards, when to use them, how to use them so that it’s not just keto for the rest of your life and that’s it.
Dr. Pompa:
I love it. It goes really well with what I do and what I teach, Drew. We have to get together on some energy on promotion on that. One of my books will be coming out around the same time.
Drew:
Perfect.
Dr. Pompa:
A guy looks like you. People are going to ask the question. Okay, so what do I do with exercise? I believe in exercise variation too. What about exercise would you say is really different about your approach?
Drew:
Yeah, that’s a great question. This is very similar to how nutrition has evolved over the years. Where before, coming from a football, wrestling background, I was so focused on exercise is punishment, right? You exercise. You punish your body. You’re sore for days afterwards. Then you’re like, yeah, high five, man. We killed that workout. That was my mentality for years and years until, now that I’m 37 years old, I’m getting older now.
I used to do—so here’s a little bit about my background, my story. I used to do CrossFit for, literally, five to six days a week for about two years straight, and I got so burnt out on it. My testosterone dropped significantly. I was experiencing some things.
Dr. Pompa:
I’m not a believer in it as well.
Drew:
Yeah, I was experiencing adrenal fatigue, symptoms of that, and I knew something had to change. I looked great on the outside. That’s the problem is people are like, oh, Drew, you look great. What’s wrong? You shouldn’t be complaining about anything. I knew something was going on, and so I started to shift my approach to exercise as far as, instead of a place of punishment, it’s a place of self-love. How do we exercise coming from a place of self-love? I think it comes from asking your body what you want to do that’s functional, that’s not a punishment. It doesn’t have to be three sets of ten of bench press or three sets of ten of squats or deadlifts. I think, for me, it’s adding in exercise variation, like what you mentioned, and just being open to new things.
For me now, my exercise does not look like what you would think it does. People are like, oh, yeah, Drew probably works out five, six days a week, two hours at a time. That’s how you get jacked. That’s how you get ripped. In reality, that’s not true. I will exercise maybe hardcore high-intensity interval training two days a week. I’ll go hiking two days a week, and then I’ll add in maybe every once in a while yoga or just a walk. For me, I used to—I think exercise had to be this hardcore thing, but for me, just walking for an hour, yes, there’s a little bit of physical benefits. Does it give me a six pack, (probably not)? The mental and emotional benefits and spiritual benefits I get from just walking and opening up my mind far surpasses doing a CrossFit workout, in my opinion.
Dr. Pompa:
Man, I’ll tell you, my week looks the same. I mean, honestly, I do such different things different days. I really mix it up. Just like you said, for me, emotionally it just makes a big difference. It’s like, if I had to wake up every day and know I had to slave in the gym and if people look like—would look at us and say, oh, yeah, you slave in the gym, absolutely not. I hear people tell my wife the same thing. It’s like, no, not really. It’s putting it all together, man, I mean, honestly.
If I had to say one thing, we do vary our exercise, which gives you a hormone optimization just like the diet. It’s with the diet, with everything that we do, our spiritual beliefs, and we start our day in prayer. Put it all together; that’s the package, honestly. You nailed it, man. You nailed it. Yeah, no, listen, I can’t wait to read your book.
Drew:
Thank you.
Dr. Pompa:
You really have a really balanced approach, man. People would look at you, and they would think that you don’t have a balanced approach. Most people that look like you don’t have a balanced approach, and their life’s not balanced. Drew, I definitely congratulate you on that.
Drew:
Thank you, Dr. Pompa. We’ll have to grab dinner or go wakeboarding sometimes soon.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, absolutely, if there’s one piece of advice that you would give our listeners and our viewers, what would it be for success? I mean, there’s different struggles out there but one.
Drew:
One piece of advice for success, well, here’s a…
Dr. Pompa:
I nailed you on that.
Drew:
That’s a hard one. Here’s a quote that sticks in my mind when I hear the word success, and that’s from Tony Robbins. That’s “success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure.” You could have all the success in the world, but if you’re not fulfilled, then what is that, and what does that matter? You could have the perfect body, the perfect health. You could have the perfect house, the right amount of money. If you can’t find fulfillment in this life, then, in my opinion, none of that success is really success, right? For me, find what brings you fulfillment, and then let that be your focus. Then let the success be a byproduct of following that dream of yours that brings that fulfillment rather than focusing on success and hoping that you’re fulfilled after you make a lot of money, or after you have this job, or after you get the body that you want. Learn to love yourself now versus one day, when I get this, then I’ll learn to love myself.
Dr. Pompa:
That was a great answer because it’s so true. I heard an interview of guy. His whole thing was—it was a money thing. He thought that was going to be it, and then it was this level, right? It was his first million, and then I’ll be a success. Then it was like that did nothing. It must be ten million. Then it must be—well, I must be a multimillionaire. Then that would be hundred. It’s like then there he was realizing that his life was absolutely empty, and then he realized that his relationships, his health, all of these other things literally completely fell apart. It’s such a balance, man.
You know what? You’re right. If you can love yourself where you’re at, imagine. Your identity is not in any of that stuff, is it?
Drew:
Yeah, it’s true. I loved it, man.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, well said. Listen, we’ll put all your stuff that you mentioned in the show notes, folks, great resources, Drew.
Drew:
Thank you.
Dr. Pompa:
I mean, really good stuff so thank you for what you’re doing to humanity. Thanks for being on CellTV. It was great, great show.
Drew:
Appreciate it.
Ashley:
That’s it for this week. We hope you enjoyed today’s episode. Practitioners, just a reminder that it’s not too late to join us in Vegas from November 2 to the 4th, and you don’t even have to travel. We are offering tickets to the livestream of our Live It to Lead It event. You can go to hcfevents.com for more information, and you can use the promo code CHTV to take 10% off. We would love to have you join us.
We’ll be back next week and every Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern. We truly appreciate your support. You can always find us at podcast.drpompa.com, and please remember to spread the love by liking, subscribing, giving an iTunes review, and sharing the show with anyone you think may benefit from the information heard here. As always, thanks for listening.
