Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Now, you never know how God will use you and what kind of impact you will make in the world. Your job is just to be open and responsive to the calling. And when you're responsive, I guarantee God will fulfill your dreams. Just like Adam Gray, once a 400 pound man who is now a lean, mean machine, coaching and showing others how to do the same thing with nutrition, along with some workouts, of course.
But I know one thing. God is moving in Adam's life, and he could do the same in yours. So let's get into this conversation with Adam. Why not you?
All right. Ladies and gentlemen, this is your host, D. Wells. But why not you? And today I am joined by Mister Adam Gray. This man, I mean, I tell you, he's doing nutrition, he's doing fitness training, developing mock meals for people. He's coaching them just to get their. Their health together, man, so they can actually live that best life. And, man, I just want to thank you for coming on.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Thanks, man. I'm happy to be here. I appreciate you having me on. I can't wait.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: I'm excited, so just make it. You actually look like an athlete, man. Did you play sports?
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Sorry. I played a bunch of sports growing up.
Played soccer, hockey, baseball. I skied in my later high school years. I played some lacrosse. I was all over the place, a little bit of everything.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: That out of. Out of all the sports that you did play, what do you think is your. Or what would you say is your favorite?
[00:01:34] Speaker B: So, my favorite is actually soccer, which might sound kind of surprising if you saw me. I'm a pretty big guy. I used to be pretty. I used to be even bigger in a not so fantastic way. But I always loved soccer growing up. I still do. I still play. Um, so, yeah, I love all those other sports, but that's probably my favorite. That's the one I enjoy the most.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Now, man, I did have an opportunity, man. I was just kind of going through your. Your social media, man, and saw some of the pictures that you had, and I was like, man, this is straight transformation. This was just kind of reminded me of, like, when you see old pics. Pics of, um, like. Like David Goggins, who everybody knows and familiar with, right? And you see the. The before and after, man, I was like, man, that. That seemed like that was you at one point.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I was a big guy at one point. I've told this story a little bit on my social media, but at one point, I was close to 400 pounds. I'm about 245 ish at the moment got all the way down to 216 at one point.
I don't know exactly what I got up to, because when I hit about 300. 3340, I was so embarrassed looking at the number that I used to step up on the scale backwards, the doctor's office, because I didn't want to see that number anymore.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: So, um. And I know that, you know, I had to have gone another good 40, 50, 60 pounds from there, so.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: Yeah, man.
So were you always, like, into the physical fitness?
[00:03:06] Speaker B: So sort of. Um, when I was younger, I just, like I said, I loved sports, so as I started to look into, like, what I was going to do for college and stuff, but I generally went in that direction just because I loved. I loved playing all the sports. Right. So it started off looking a little bit more sports management. I didn't really enjoy the business part of it, so I took the turn and went towards a. It was exercise physiology, but more sports medicine related. Okay. And fell in love with it there. And since then, kind of. I finished school with a bachelor's degree in exercise physiology. I got nationally certified, and I've kind of been working at honing my craft since then. And that was 2013.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Wow.
Now, with that kind of degree, I mean, could you actually go and work for a professional sports team if you wanted to?
[00:03:57] Speaker B: So with that degree in, coupled with my background, my nationwide certification, I could. Most teams are looking for, like, master's degrees and things like that, and there's a lot of networking involved, too. But theoretically, could I work my way through the system and get to that? Yeah, I could. You can use that. That degree is kind of like an in between. Like, some people go, like, cardiac rehab, some people go physical therapy, some people go strength and conditioning. It's kind of one of those that can go in a lot of different directions.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: Got it, man. So what do you think was, like, one of those defining moments for you to be like, you know what? I need to get my stuff together. I need to make some changes in my personal life. Otherwise, man, it's going to be a long road ahead.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: Yeah. So I kind of just hit, I don't know, there wasn't, like, this one defining moment. A lot of people have, like, that one thing. Like, they woke up, they just. But for me, it was. It was a lot of years of just, like, looking in the mirror and for lack of a less dramatic way to put it, kind of hating what I saw, looking back at me. Yeah.
And dealing with some stuff that was going on in the background and everything. I guess I finally got to a point where I had healed enough that I could start looking outward. I started doing some. Some walking, some basic. You know, I started doing some lifting. I'd been lifting for a lot of years, but more in the vein of trying to drop body fat rather than what I was doing before, which is basically just going, and, hey, it's Monday, let's bench.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: Yeah, Tuesday.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: You know what? Let's bench again Wednesday. You know, so much more, you know, whole body, whole health focused. And from that point, it was just making small steps. And the more I learned, the more it compounded, the more I was able to lose and just took time.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Now, do you think a lot of people, man? Cause I know, like, just when I used to think about how. How it was back in the day when I was working out, I would say kind of like the same thing. Okay, it's gonna be bench on this day, back legs on this day, maybe a day arrest and then hit up shoulders or something like that. But it seems like you reactually, I mean, you need a plan to actually follow, and you have to have some type of goal that you actually want to achieve, so.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: How hard was that for you, just like, in the beginning, or was that something that you already kind of had planned out if. I mean, you know, just since you've actually wanted to go this route and, like, okay, I do need to make this change.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So before I got my. Because this kind of job is very much like a. You go to school, you get certified, but you really learn a heck of a lot more once you actually get into the career field. A little bit more once you get into the job. So when I was trying to lose that weight, it was very, very basic, you know, seeing a program here from, like, men's health and fitness and seeing, you know, this exercise over here, this exercise a buddy told me about, you know, my coach is making me run in practice. Like, your entire knowledge base is based around what happened in sports and what this buddy told you and you saw in that article over here. I worked at GNC for a couple years, so you'd have people coming in talking about this, that, and the other thing. So you just picked up little tidbits. But once I got into it more, I learned about programming, how to write an effective program that doesn't take you 3 hours to do, how to strengthen different portions of your body, rather than just, like, thinking chest back by tries a little bit more full body over the course of a shorter workout. So, like, more efficient.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: Less time taken it just from there, it just compounded. And I learned, continue to learn more and continue to hone from that point forward, man.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Now, how big do you think just discipline is?
Just to maintain, right? Because I know there could be days when you're like, you know what, man? I've done enough. I've done enough for the day or I've done enough for the week. I need a break.
[00:08:07] Speaker B: It's huge. It is. Discipline and consistency are the two biggest, and I will, there are people out there that will, you know, fight for keto and intermittent fasting and this type of exercise and that type. But it all boils down to discipline and consistency.
The biggest issue people have, or the biggest difficulty most people have is that they want to lose whatever, 1020, 30, 40, 50 pounds, and they look at, how can I get there the quickest? Like, how is the fastest way to get me from here to there? And that's why they burn out. They lose 20 pounds in a couple weeks. They've been, they've had to exercise, you know, six times a week. They're doing six, seven workouts a week. They're barely sleeping, they're eating nothing, and then they burn out and they got nothing left. You can't be consistent. You can't have discipline when you got nothing in the tank. So it's so huge to find a plan that you can be consistent and be disciplined in.
[00:09:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I can only imagine if you're working out that much because that's one of the things you need the most, is rest also, just to allow your body to recoup and then eating the right kind of foods, because I know a lot of people think, oh, I'm just going to work out or I'm not going to eat. So now you have nothing to sustain the body.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: Right, right, exactly. To just cut the food, increase the exercise, and I'll get there. And that works for a time, but not long.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: So what made you go into, like, the coaching aspect of it?
[00:09:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I just, I found that a lot of people, through my own life experiences, and I just enjoyed helping people with, with their health. Right. So, like, for me, it was always through the lens of a lot of people were coming to me to want to drop body fat, feel better, have more energy, be stronger.
Most of my career, with the exception of, like, a little bit of interning at the very, very beginning, has been working with, you know, everyday people. So it's not d one athletes, it's not professional athletes. It's, you know, moms and dads who just want to feel a little bit better, who want to be, who maybe want to drop a little bit of body weight. But the most important thing is, like, how are they able to show up for their kids? How are they able to show up for their jobs, their coworkers, their family? Like, they're not worried about as much about how much did I bench. They're worried about, can I pick up my son or daughter who's six years old and weighs 60, 70 pounds? You know what I mean? Like, can they do that?
So, yeah, so I just found that I identified with those people that weren't necessarily the high end athletes. I mean, some of them were very athletic and, you know, had those kind of goals, but, like, just wanted to feel better, you know, be stronger, be more mobile, be more independent, just. And so the longer I've been in that, and those are the people that, like, are really stoked when they get to the end result, right? Like, an athlete is stoked if they pull, you know, a half second off of 40 time, obviously. But it's nothing compared to, you know, the mom who's been trying to get more energy and hasn't been able to for years, and then you're able to help them feel so much better, feel better in their skin, feel. It's just the. It's so much more rewarding.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And I know, like, just as you're talking, it just makes me think about, like, you know, one, the thought process that. That people have to have in order just to.
Or you have a vision, you know, what you need to do. But, like, it kind of goes back to earlier also the discipline and not really. Not really worrying about the next day. And I think that's one of the things that I just love about, like, just coaching in general, when, you know, when we have an opportunity to work with somebody and somebody who wants to get from point a to g or whatever it is, there are steps and increments to actually get there. And sometimes people do get. They get overwhelmed with the vision because they might feel like, well, I'm not on track or I'm not seeing this immediate progress. And then all of a sudden, they start to lose focus or they might cheat or something. They might start deviating.
And instead of just maintaining in the present, that is so huge. So what are some of the ways that you actually keep people in a present and not allow them to drift off and be like, hey, don't worry about tomorrow. Don't worry.
Just focus on today, dog.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. A lot of it comes down to just reframing. So, like, somebody will come to me and say, like, I had a bad weekend. Okay, what was a bad weekend? Well, Saturday went all right. You know, I ate pretty well, and Sunday happened. And Sunday morning I had good breakfast, and then we went out on the boat, you know, for lunch, and we had, I had a couple of beers and we had some hot dogs and some hamburgers. And I'm just, I'm like, I just. I feel so bad. I failed. I screwed it up. And then, like. So it's like, okay, hold on. Let's pause a second. Let's take a look at this. Overall, we know you struggle with weekends.
How'd you do on Saturday? I did great. I had a great breakfast, a great lunch, a great dinner. I got my workout in. I went for a walk, you know. Okay, how did Sunday morning go? Okay. I had a great break. Okay. How did Sunday night go? Well, after, like, after the lunch, I kind of got back into it. I really wasn't that hungry. I wasn't feeling that great. So I just kind of, like, got a good night's sleep. Okay, so what you're telling me is that of the two weekend days that we know you struggle with, right. You had one meal that was like, if you want to call it off track, like, compared to when I started talking to you. And. And every weekend was a free for all. It was just chaos. Right, right. So a lot of it is just, it's just reframing what they're doing. It's. It's extending the timelines. It's making sure that people understand that. Yeah. We've been doing this for a week. You shouldn't see ten pounds in a week. Ten pounds drop in a week. Right. If you. If you do, then something else is happening and we don't. That's too fast. It's not real. It's not sustainable. We don't want that. Or we. We have to know that it's probably going to go the other direction afterwards. Right.
Because then what happens if we don't frame that? So they drop ten pounds and then the next week it goes back up eight? They don't see, that's a two pound loss. That person on the other end sees. I lost ten pounds and I screwed up and I gained eight back.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: You know what I mean? It's just, it's a lot of reframing. It's lengthening the timelines. It's. It's a lot more on the mental side than you might, isn't it?
[00:15:17] Speaker A: That's one of the things, you know, I love just, you know, even when you think about, like, meditation, and I'm not sure, like, if you actually incorporate meditation, but that's just one of the things I'm just, like, a huge component a fan of is just being in a place where.
Okay, I know where I don't want to be.
Right. But, you know, focusing on what I do want, getting rid of those disbeliefs, whatever site, if they're limiting beliefs or other people's opinions, because, I mean, be honest, there's some people out there who just don't want us to succeed no matter what. They rather just hold us back. They rather pull that coattail and keep us from progressing. But also being in a place, man, where we actually, like, start visualizing what it is that we want and attaching some type of emotion to that, man, that's huge.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: It's just.
It's just reminding people that, like, the goal is to feel. The goal is like, yes, you want to get. Maybe you want to drop. Maybe you come and talk to me. You want to drop 20 pounds, right? But what you really want is to be able to walk by the mirror without hating the reflection there.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: Right. Like, yeah, it's just. It's finding that, like, spot of kind of, like, acting as if. Like, what if this works? Like, what if losing 20 pounds in 20 days is not the way to go? What if a longer timeline helps you get there? Like, it. Yeah, it's.
Yeah.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: Do you. Do you ever find. I mean, because I just thought about this as you were just talking about, as you mentioned, timeline, because I know sometimes you might have, like, 30, 60, 90, however many days it could be, and I'm not sure. It just kind of depends on that person's habits, their eating style, and the willingness to actually just go full steam, and they just want it bad and so they're willing to do whatever, but when somebody gets to a place just, like, you know, what you just shared, where they. It's almost like a breaking point where they feel like, oh, I'm just done. I'm no good because it happens. Do you.
Are you able to, like, share, like, personal references or stories that you might have had just to be like, listen, I was once there kind of thing, and this is such and such, and this is what I did, or this is what I've done to overcome it.
[00:17:51] Speaker B: Yeah. So when I lost all the weight initially, I did not realize at the time. So I lost the good chunk of that weight back in about 2015, 2016, and I didn't realize at the time that that fast weight loss and that huge weight loss had set me up for all kinds of mental issues from that point forward. Yeah, it just, I, you know, and it's not so much like the fact that I lost the weight fast per se. It was the mindset of, like, totally cutting out carbs and doing this extreme exercise and doing a, you know, I did a, uh, a nutrition plan where it was four protein shakes and one meal a day for, uh, I think it was like two months straight, you know, like extreme stuff like that. And I came out of it with this kind of mental difficulty where I would look in the mirror and I would see the guy that was 300, 5400 pounds, even though I weighed, you know, whatever, 200, 2225 time. And it took me years to get out of that, to stop seeing that. It took me working with nutrition coaches and mindset coaches and people that could again reframe what I was seeing and what the expectation was. So a lot of the time, that's what I'm drawing from is when I talk to someone and they're like, I don't understand why I'm still beating myself up over this.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: You told me that you've been struggling with on and off dieting for five years. We've been working together for two months.
Neural pathways happen, right? You've been. Every single time that you've fallen off a diet over the last five years, you've beaten yourself up and you've tortured yourself by the ingesting all the things that you had decided were no more. Right? It's just an endless cycle.
You got to give it more than two months to fully recover from that. Because those neural pathways, those mindsets, they don't just flip. They take time, and they take continual conscious effort to reframe that, to reconnect different pathways, to get to the point where you don't feel like you failed because you had a cookie.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: You know, it just, it takes time. You got to give it time.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: You do.
Man, the mindset is so powerful, and I know somebody, we just beat ourselves up.
And whenever I think about the mind, for whatever reason, I always go back to the Bible, and it's just the story of Moses, you know, freeing the, the Israelites from the Egyptians. And even though they're free at this point and they experience miracle after miracle, God still can't change their mind. And it's like, it's, no matter what somebody actually goes, that person just has to go through it on their own. They have to, they have to work it out somehow. But I know without, without having some resources or a coach or somebody to actually talk them and walk them through it. And it could be a difficult, long process.
[00:21:17] Speaker B: It definitely can be. I mean, when you come down to it, coaching is basically, it's, it's efficiency, it's. I can't think of the right word, but basically you're just, you're taking time, all the time that it took me to learn these lessons. It took me years to learn these lessons. And because of that, I'm able to help you in months. You know, it's just, it's getting you further ahead, faster. It's making you feel more content, more energy, more whatever it is, because I can give you the plan. You know what I mean? You don't have to figure it out. You don't have to spend years listening to your friend who does Pilates and then the other friend who says that you have to run and then the other friend that says, well, it's all about doing ten to twelve reps per set. You know, you come to one place and have one person create one individual plan for you. And that's what I do.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: Have you ever come across or just like met anybody who. It's like they, they are, they know that you're a good person, they know that you're a good coach.
Then all of a sudden they get online and then they might see something else that might be a more appealing or it just looks appealing and they think that, oh, this, this person right here is going to take me to the promised land a whole lot quicker. So let me go this route instead of just sticking with one person.
That kills me sometimes.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. That is, that is the fitness industry 101. It is shiny for, you know, it sounds a little derivative, but shiny object syndrome. It's because what I am very much and it's difficult because you get online and there are people that are preaching that take this supplement that I sell and you'll lose 30 pounds in the next 30 days. This meal plan that costs you whatever amount in the next 30 days, you'll lose 30 pounds. And I'm getting on there saying, listen, I want you to feel better, I want you to lose a little bit of weight, but we want to do it in a way that's consistent so that you keep it off. You feel better every day and like for the rest of your life you feel better.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:37] Speaker B: Now for you and I talking back and forth, who knows some of the pitfalls and that kind of thing.
That sounds like a pretty good plan.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Right.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: But for the person that's been dealing with that 30 pounds for five years, it's real easy sometimes for that person to say, well, yeah, but, like, 30. 30 days right there. Like, no months, no years? No. 30. 30 days right there. 30 pounds, 30 days. I'm in. I'm in. Take me now. You know, so it is a constant thing. It happens. Um, yeah. And again, it just comes back to, you know, building trust with the person I'm working with and continually reframing the, like, you've lost 30 pounds in. In 30 days before.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: Right.
[00:24:24] Speaker B: But. But we're working together now, so, like, it didn't stick. There was some other things in the background, so it. Yeah, it definitely happens.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Now, what do you do? Like, to, like, just to kind of vent, I guess, people out as far as you know, because I know not everybody's a good fit or perfect fit for you just based on maybe their personality, maybe it's their needs, maybe they want you to, you know, perform the biggest miracle ever.
Do you have, like, some type of assessment that you actually do just to kind of find out maybe. I mean, we can work together or maybe we can't work together.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: Yeah. So first of all, when it comes back to, if you, like, you checked into some of my social media stuff. If you check into any of my stuff, none of it is ever, you know, this person lost 30 pounds in 30 days. I don't know why 30, for some reason is off top of my head so much, but I keep using the same example. But regardless, everything is based around, like, real consistent weight loss, if that's what you're looking for. More energy, more independence. So most of the people that are reaching out to me or I'm having conversations with have seen that I'm not pushing fast weight loss methods in that way or, you know, intense, crazy exercise routine. So a lot of people that I'm talking to who have seen my stuff kind of know that I'm not going in that direction anyways. So a lot of times it's not a real big surprise when they get on the call with me and I, you know, and that's the next step, is I get on the call with them and I go over the process and kind of remind them that, you know, this isn't something that's meant to be overnight. You may not lose weight or inches every week. And because if you did, then that wouldn't be sustainable. Cause that's not real. That's not the way the human body functions.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: That's.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: So by the time we've gotten to the end of that call and after they've seen all my stuff, they kind of know what the deal is. I have.
I have yet to run into a situation where anybody's been like, yeah, that all sounds great, but I want you to put me on x amount of calories and whatever. And if that did happen, then it would be a conversation of, like, okay, maybe I'm not the right fit for you, because I don't. That's not what I believe in. And that's. Okay, maybe we're not a good fit coach and client. And because I want anybody that comes to work with me to get real, long lasting results and to get what they're looking for. Right. It does me no good as a coach. If I tell you you're gonna lose 30 pounds in 30 days, and I come in and I trash you and you feel worse than when you started.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: Right.
[00:27:14] Speaker B: That's not good for me. And it's not good for you.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: So you've usually gotten to the point where they're not asking quite that.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
Hey, man, have you. Have you seen that. That documentary on Netflix, game changers?
[00:27:30] Speaker B: No, I need. It's on my. It's been on my watch list few months. I just keep not getting to it.
[00:27:39] Speaker A: So, you know, there. Are you familiar with it, though, as.
[00:27:42] Speaker B: Far as, like, the premise that the premises, that's. That's the plant based. That's talking about the chain, the plant based lifters and. And that kind of thing? Correct.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:27:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: Right. I was going to ask. I mean, because I know people.
You know, there's. You just think about the food that we're eating nowadays has so many preservatives and different things. I mean, we probably don't even know everything that they put into the foods, but. But just, like, how big is just, you know, sticking to the produce side more? So the meat side.
[00:28:18] Speaker B: Yeah. So the produce compared to the meat side.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: Yeah. As far as, like, nutritional value and that kind of stuff. I know, like, the meats, they have, of course, like, more protein.
It's more. It fills you up more also, whereas, you know, the produce, you can almost. You feel like you're just eating at a chinese restaurant most time where the food is relatively light and then, you know, it increases your metabolism, it seems like.
But I just know that that green side, man, is. Is an area where a lot of people avoid, but there's a lot of nutrients. Nose.
[00:28:58] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. No, both sides are extremely important. Like, the pro, if you're somebody that's plant based and that kind of thing, then obviously you're going to be more in the produce side. And if you're somebody that eats a little bit of everything, it really depends on the person. There are some people that do fantastic on plant based. I've done plant based, and I felt great when I did it.
I ended up going back just because it was a little bit difficult to, to keep up with the schedule. And some people have specific reasons they do it. Compared to me, who was just kind of doing an experiment to see how I felt. Eating plant based, they're both so important.
The protein, finding good sources of meat and chicken and all that sort of stuff is really important. But also finding a. That produce side of it is really important, too. And a lot of the things that they're finding now is a lot of the things that, you know, the, some of the things that get broken down when, when you're eating a lot of meat, a lot of the stuff on the produce side negates some of that. So some of the nitrogen when you break down meat. And so they. It's just very cohesive. You know, we developed as beings that were meant to eat. We're omnivores. We eat meat. We eat produce. We can make the choice now because we have the availability to eat whatever we want.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: Right.
[00:30:26] Speaker B: But our body uses both those things, and they work together to keep us healthy.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: Mm hmm. Man. I mean, I just might think about that kind of stuff, but also think about, like, how. How often when people actually take a bite of food, are they chewing it the right amount of size? Right. To, like, really digest this properly? It's like the last thing you want to do is just chew a few times and then swallow whole.
Now you have, like, this big gut. People wonder why, man, why have such a big gut?
[00:31:09] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, when we, like, we as a society now, everything's a rush, right? We're shoveling food down as fast as possible. We either do one of two things. Most. Most of the time, we either don't eat or we're shoving food down as fast as we possibly can.
[00:31:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:27] Speaker B: And the faster we're eating, the less efficient the digestion, because we're always stressed. We're chronically stressed. And so the worse the digestion is going to be, the less of the nutrients you get, the less relaxed you feel and the less satisfied you feel. That's why eating slow makes you feel satisfied. Eating fast, you're just like, okay, where's the next thing.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:53] Speaker B: Right.
[00:31:56] Speaker A: So, man, what really kind of, you know, provoked you or inspired you to actually go on this, this transformation journey and actually share with other people to. To help them get their lives together?
[00:32:08] Speaker B: I just.
At the end of the day, I like.
I think it's partially. I like helping people. It's what I've always enjoyed doing.
Whatever the topic is, if I can help somebody through, I just. I've moved that through health and fitness, but whenever I can sit there and somebody has something that they're struggling with and I can help them get past that. Yeah, I've always really enjoyed that between that and I also think I'm just somebody that likes to problem solve. I like puzzles.
It's a little bit of. I love to help people. And the reason I think I've gone in this direction of more online coaching where I can work with people that have all kinds of different schedules and need something here and something there, I need a different meal plan because they never can eat breakfast or whatever it is, is because then I can help them solve that puzzle that they've been, they've been trying to figure out, right. Their only.
Their only way that they've seen exercise or dieting is to try and find 25 extra hours in the week in order to lose weight. And, like, that's just not realistic. For most people who have full time careers, kids, you know, family that count on them, they have maybe an extra four or 5 hours a week, you know, at first, unless they're, like, really digging in and, like, I'm going to make this a priority. So it's, how can I help them and how can I solve this for them or with them? Because obviously they have to be part of the process, right?
So that they then can live a happier, healthier life, man.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: And I know, I mean, you have so many people who have these nine to five jobs, whatever they might have, and they doing, they're doing a lot of sitting down. And I'm thankful that, you know, nowadays they got these, these, these desks that you can actually raise.
When I'm at work on my nine to five, man, I, I'll crank that puppy up just so I'm standing. So I'm not always sitting, but also the significance of just taking time to walk.
Everybody thinks that they need to run, but walking is just as important. How important is that? Or, I mean, just physical activity, other, other than, like, just lifting weights can actually help your body.
[00:34:46] Speaker B: It's massive. It is maybe the biggest thing. There are all kinds of fantastic things that come from weightlifting and. And all that sort of stuff. But what most people don't realize is they're looking for.
You hear people talk a lot about, my metabolism is lower. Right. My wish that I could eat whatever I wanted like I did when I was in high school, and. But what most people don't realize is that the biggest difference is how active they are, just outright. Like, when we're in school, we are, you know, we sit behind a desk. But realistically, every, you know, when class ends, you're getting up, you're walking, you're going outside. If you're a kid, you're in recess or you're, you know, going out doing this, that.
A little bit less so now, but when we were kids, right, you were always active. Like, you were out running around. You were doing stuff. You were bugging the heck out of your parents, running around inside the house. Right. You were constantly moving.
[00:35:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:48] Speaker B: And then we become adults, and we become sedentary. We sit behind a desk, get drained from that job, you know, just from the constant need to be focused on a screen or whatever it may be. We go home, and the last thing we want to do is then create more energy to go and do x, y, and z, do some kind of crazy workout or whatever it may be. So then we sit more to try and restore and recover from the rest. And recover. Well, I shouldn't say recovering the seat we were while we were working, but it still creates a mental fatigue. Right.
[00:36:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: The second that you start moving more and you getting those, I mean, that is the biggest difference. You can have somebody that works out five days a week and only walks a thousand steps a day will not get as good of results as somebody that works out 1 hour a week and get seven to 10,000 steps a day. It just. It's so huge.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: Yeah, man, I know. That's one thing, man. I just, like, really kind of been focusing on. Focusing on myself. It just doing more walking, even though I have, uh, what do you call that bike? I got that, uh, the air assault bike. Yeah, I'll hit that every once in a while. But still, it's not. It's not like walking, like, just getting the fresh air.
[00:37:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:08] Speaker A: You know, there's a huge difference. Just being out and getting some sun and not being confined to a garage, because that's my bike is.
[00:37:17] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, because the other thing we don't think about, too, is, like, the stress piece that you mentioned, like, get outside, feel the air. I mean, maybe not when it's 115 degrees, but you know what? Like, the fresh air, the. The sun, the. You know, the sounds that. It's meditative. It's. It's not staring at led lights and hearing your voice reverberate off the walls the whole time. Oh, it's. It's just. It's different. You talked earlier about that, like, being in the moment. Like, a lot easier to do that when you're out on a walk than when you're sitting behind a computer screen or you're scrolling on your phone or. It's just. It's so huge.
[00:37:59] Speaker A: It is. And I find it, man, just. Just going on walks. It just.
I don't even have to be listening to something, like. Because most of them. I mean, just in the past, I would always have, like, some kind of music on or something like that, but now it's more like just some kind of relaxing tone where it allows me to reflect and possibly, you know, just kind of think about what I have going on, ways that I can actually add value to somebody else or. Oh, I had this conversation with such and such, and, man, I just started thinking about some of the highlights from that conversation just so much. It is a lot that you actually get away from that you can actually take away from walking, especially in those moments. Yeah.
So when you're actually, like, working with somebody, what is, like, your main objective with that particular client?
[00:39:00] Speaker B: So my main objective with everybody is getting the thing. It sounds so easy.
Maybe easy into the right word. So simple.
[00:39:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: But my main objectives are to get them moving, to get them walking, to get that active movement in.
[00:39:17] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[00:39:18] Speaker B: To get them to sleep, to get them to eat good, solid foods and not beat themselves up when they have something that they enjoy, because this is real life. Like, you can have a beer, you can have a cookie. You can have a piece of cake. It's okay.
And to have them strength training so that they can be independent. They can do all the things that they need. So those are the big four rocks that are. That I really focus on.
[00:39:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:45] Speaker B: Um, and then, you know, once people have that solidified, we can get into more individual things. You know, if somebody needs more help with sleep or more help with nutrition or whatever, then the plan changes depending on the person. But those are the big things, is just get 7 hours of sleep.
[00:40:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:05] Speaker B: Work out three to four days a week, sometimes two to three, depending on the person. I work with a lot of, um, almost exclusively with moms. Uh, so two to three is usually a good sweet spot. Um, much more than that. Tends to get a little hectic. Um, and just eating good, solid food that makes you feel full. Feel good.
[00:40:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:28] Speaker B: Gives you the energy you need. It's just.
[00:40:30] Speaker A: Yeah, that's good. That's good. Yeah. I know, man. When I'm working with people, sometimes it's just allowing getting them to a place where, when they're kind of self aware of what it is that they want to accomplish and if it's realistic.
But definitely. But definitely, man, just helping them break through those. Those barriers that they impose on themselves sometimes.
I mean, it's not easy all the time, but it's.
I think it just kind of comes down to, like, you know, how bad do you want it? And making something realistic because it's not hard when kind of what you were talking about earlier, just simplifying it.
And I'll never forget, man, I heard this. This guy and what's his name? I think it's the Jarian. I can't remember his last name, but he talked about making your old hard, your new easy.
And, man, it's just. It's just a mindset shift, big time.
[00:41:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it's.
Yeah.
[00:41:47] Speaker A: And I know you hit on it earlier, just, you know, with. With eating and being able to. To have some of those cheat meals, because I know what that's like, man.
I like sweets, but at the same time, it's like I got. I gotten away from. From having a lot of sweets. But every once in a while, man, I might indulge, you know, red vines is my thing. I like red.
Sometimes when I think about it, I was like, why am I eating this. This. This reverie, plastic substance?
But, you know, everybody has something.
[00:42:30] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think it's unreal. I mean, you. You see, the more you see, people try to make it so that, you know, every. They want everybody to look at fuel. Excuse me, food as fuel. Right? Like, you know, you go to a party and you shouldn't be focused on what you should like, what food is there. You should be focused on, like, the people and this and that and, well, I believe in that partially.
In what culture is togetherness and bonding and family not at some point, gathered around the dinner table. We gather for Thanksgiving. We gather for Christmas. We, in other cultures, they gather for meals. Right? Food is so often at the center of celebration of, you know, happiness, of sadness. Like, for people to believe that those things have to be completely separated and that you should look at it only as fuel and not as part of togetherness or cultural understanding or whatever it may be. I mean, we have a phrase. It's breaking bread with someone else. Right. It's not having carbs for fuel with someone else there. No. You're breaking bread with someone. Right.
[00:43:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:54] Speaker B: So the expectation that, you know, you can't celebrate, you can't have food you enjoy, because if you do, you're bad. Right. You know, you use the word cheat, and I'm not like, that's one that I really try and pull back because, like, I cheat is such a negative connotation. But we do. Doesn't it describe the way we eat? I cheated. Like, you're putting. You're putting the fact that you had red vines on the same level as, like, what they say you do if you, like, have an affair with another partner. Like, it.
[00:44:29] Speaker A: Right.
[00:44:29] Speaker B: Like, I. It just. You didn't do anything wrong. You enjoyed something. And now the next step is just like, okay, so have a solid dinner. You know what I mean?
[00:44:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yeah. I think sometimes people just. They beat themselves up. I mean, even.
I'm not even gonna go there because I don't know who's gonna watch. But you just think about some of the people who.
They say they wanna change, but for whatever reason, they just don't. They don't have that willpower to tell themselves no.
And that's. And that's. That's. That's kind of. That's one of those heart wrenching type of things because at the same time, you start feeling bad for the person and you know that, man, all it takes is just for you to change a couple things here and there to start off small and then constantly, then evolve. Right. To the. To the. To the more bigger things and. And changing for good. But in the meantime, man. Yeah, just start small. Sorry, you can. Yeah.
[00:45:36] Speaker B: We think that everything has to be super complicated. Yeah.
Technology is complicated. What we have to do every day is complicated. Our jobs are complicated. So being healthy couldn't possibly be easy. Right, right.
[00:45:50] Speaker A: And it kind of goes back to what you said initially, that you like to solve things and solving this problem. Stop making it complicated. Let's. Let's. Let's find a solution for this and make it easy. Yeah.
So what. What are some of the challenges that you often see just with, within your clients that you.
[00:46:12] Speaker B: The biggest one I tend to see, again, like I said, I work with a lot of moms, so there are a couple things that I specifically see very often. Um, the first is falling back into that beating yourself up cycle.
When we have our planning call with my clients, it's very much. This is not meant to be an all or nothing.
Here are some amounts of sweets and things like that. We set some boundaries, but we go into it with the mindset of, I'm not expecting you to cut all this stuff out. I wouldn't ask you to do that. We want to create something for you for years after this, but it very much starts out as a. I cut it all out. Like, I'll tell somebody who is having wine four or five nights a week, like, no, you can still have wine a couple of nights a week. We're just cutting back a little bit. And then they'll come to me and say, like, I haven't had wine in three weeks. I'm like, okay, that's great. And then they have one weekend where they have wine, and they're like, I finished four bottles. Like, okay, see? So that's why we want to. We don't want to be all or nothing. We want to. I'm not telling you you have to drink wine, but I'm telling you, don't try to cut everything out.
[00:47:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:32] Speaker B: So there's that. And then the second one that I always run into is they start putting themselves on the back burner.
Eventually, when they're reaching out to me, it's because they've reached a point where they're. They've decided that their health needs to be a priority.
[00:47:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:49] Speaker B: And for the first few weeks, that may work out really well.
And then the kids start getting busy. One of the kids is sick. They have a sick family member. Before you know it, they've put themselves 3456 rungs down on the priority list, and then it's kind of pulling back. Okay, let's. When are you going to work out? What time of day? What day? When are you going to meal prep? When are you going to do a little bit of this? It's just, it's then pulling, helping them, I should say. Yeah, create that priority again. Those are the two biggest things I think I often see.
[00:48:26] Speaker A: Wow, man.
So it seems like, I mean, just.
Cause I know in order to really be successful, I mean, nobody's going to be as great as the systems that they actually implement. So if you have, like, a good system just to, whether it's track or just to.
To follow, you know, as far as, like, eating plan wise, man, that goes a long way. And I know that you actually have to have a good system in place, even if you want to achieve some type of goal and then have tasks associated with those goals so bad. Everything that you're saying, man, is just making me think, and I dig it. I love it. I love it. Um, but, you know, at, at this, at this phase in your life and with what you're doing right now, I mean, how would you, um, how would you define success?
[00:49:24] Speaker B: So, success for me is how I can change the view of the person I'm working with, whether it can be, if I am working with someone and they make, because I don't, I don't like attributing it directly to weight. I mean, somebody may lose 50 pounds, lose inches, and they're really stoked. And I'm happy for them because I know that how hard it takes, how much work it takes to get there.
[00:49:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:50] Speaker B: But realistically, some of the fate, some of my favorite things are the ones who, I have clients that will say, like, you know, it was real easy to get up and down off the floor with my grandkids or with my kids. Like, I had no trouble. I was able to, you know, I've had a couple moms that'll say, like, my daughter got tired of running around before I did. You know, like, things like that. Just like the little things that show that they are, that they've changed their mindset to the point where they're going to have a better outlook on their health moving forward, where they've. They've found a way to work it into their life in a way that is sustainable long after they stop working with me. That is success to me.
[00:50:36] Speaker A: Dang. Yeah, I like that. Absolutely. It's all about the other person helping them grow. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Amen. Before I let you go, though, I mean, just, just when you think about those people who they. They want to change, they want to transform into becoming somebody great.
Um, but they just lack, you know, confidence. They may lack, um, resources, or they just not. They just don't have a good environment to actually thrive in. And what, what can you say to that person just to uplift them and encourage them?
[00:51:16] Speaker B: Start small.
[00:51:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:18] Speaker B: Confidence comes from repeated. I can't. What's the, what's the phrase conference comes from repeated. It's not repeated, victory, but I'm blanking on the actual quote. Confidence comes from repeatedly completing a task that you set out to do over time.
The harder you make it, the harder it is to build confidence. I've heard stories of people that I've worked with who. Not with me personally, but other clients who have come to me after they've, you know, they started out going to the gym for ten minutes. They walked in the door, they did one exercise, they went to the locker room they left. They did that for a couple months. They just. They practiced showing up.
[00:51:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:59] Speaker B: And then before you know it, okay. Showing up. All right, so I can stay for 2030 minutes, and then before you know it, those little things add up. So for somebody who's really struggling with the confidence to. To do these things, or they feel like they've failed so many times in the past that there's no point.
[00:52:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:19] Speaker B: Give yourself time. Start small.
Start with creating a bedtime routine.
Our bodies like consistency. The more consistent we are going to bed doing the same thing, the more restful our sleep is going to be.
[00:52:32] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:52:33] Speaker B: Maybe it's getting up at the same time each day. Doesn't have to be 05:00 a.m. yeah. Seven can be set as. I mean, as long as you can do that with your life, but getting up at the same time, drink water at each meal. Like, start with something that is so easy to accomplish that you can't fall off. Accomplish it. Do it for a month, then move on to the next small thing. Go for a walk for five minutes. Walk to the end of your driveway and come back.
[00:53:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:02] Speaker B: Every day. Then go to the end of the block and come back. It just small steps done over and over and over. And that's how you're going to build your confidence.
[00:53:12] Speaker A: That's great, man. That is some good stuff, Adam.
Yes, sir. Man, I definitely appreciate you coming on. Yeah, this was. This was good. This was good. And for anybody that wants to come in contact with you and just reach you, how would they go about that?
[00:53:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So my best way to get ahold of me is either with my email address, which is coach c o a c h.
Adam. Adam. Athenae gray method training.com or instagram. Adam gray. Underscore coach on Instagram.
[00:53:50] Speaker A: Cool. And I'll be sure to throw those links up there as well, too. Get ready to post. Yeah, this is some good stuff, man.
[00:53:59] Speaker B: I appreciate it. I really enjoyed. I really enjoyed. I'm. I'm super stoked. He had me on. I really enjoyed it.
[00:54:03] Speaker A: Yeah, me, too. Me, too. Bravo. Bravo.
What a great episode we just had with Adam Gray, a top notch nutrition and fitness coach. And I loved it, man. We had the opportunity just to dive into the pitfalls of quick fix solutions that a lot of people have or try to have and implement, but also the importance of sustainable health habits. And I love how Adam shared his journey from going from 400 pounds down to 245 pounds. And his philosophy on just building discipline and consistency was powerful. Now, if you guys are looking to transform your health habits. Definitely connect with Adam on the links below.
He is a good dude, absolutely.
But I definitely want to I just want to thank you all just for watching this video. I'm excited about your growth and your transformation quest to become that person God has created you to be.
Definitely hit the hit the newsletter link. Hit that button so you can actually get this updated content and resources that's available just for you. I guarantee they actually assist you with developing into the person you need to be in your growth. Trust me, I care about your development and success. So please let me know if there's anything that you would like me to teach on or anything, any type of person that you might want to hear from.
I love you all. Hit the subscribe button and remember, we cannot become what we need if what to remain where we are. God bless you. Have a great week.
