What is going on? Y'all Robert Sykes Keto savage.com And in today's episode I've got my lovely wife Crystal Sykes, and this is episode 600. So I figured I'd do it like a little update video with her on everything going on in our life right now. We've got the talk about her powerlifting meet. She just competed in her first ever powerlifting meets. We talked about that. We talked about my competition prep because that is well underway right now.
I've got my first competition coming up in like a week and a half. Talk about the 50 mile March that I'm doing this weekend to raise awareness for veterans. We talked about homesteading, the garden, the chickens, the pigs, the fencing, all the good homesteading stuff to talk about
Rigel, some updates on him. He's 15 months old now, so just want to kind of bring you up to speed on what we're doing from a parenting standpoint there and his growth and what he's been able to accomplish since the last time we spoke. So all kinds of good things. I'm super excited about this episode. 600 is in the books. Y'all, thank you all so very much for listening and I hope you enjoyed this episode.
So without further delay, sit back, relax and enjoy the conversation with my lovely wife Crystal and we are live baby doll. How you doing? I'm. Good. You're so loud in my ears. I know, I know. Episode 600. Let's talk about that for a second. This is episode 600 of the Keto Savage Podcast. That is kind of crazy. That's a pretty big milestone. I'm proud of that. 500 was a big milestone. We did a podcast together then. Have we done one together at every 100th episode?
I can't. Remember, I don't think we have. I think we started at like 4 or five or something like that. This is episode 600. Yeah, it's pretty wild. That's crazy. I've literally. I started the podcast in 2016 and started being consistent with publishing I think twice a week in 2018 at some point. And I've kept that up and it's grown slowly but surely. And my podcasting is probably my favorite platform for communicating with my audience because I bring on interesting
people here. But I don't know how the podcasting, podcasting algorithm works. But people seem to like my podcast which is cool. So all y'all listening right now. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you. How you doing babe? I'm. Great. We have a little hit list of things that we want to cover today on this episode 600. And I want to start off with your powerlifting meet. So you did a powerlifting meet, I guess two weekends ago now, right? Two weekends? Yep. Not us.
Yeah. Yeah, at one week. I mean, it was a week ago, yeah, you just finished your last little deload week post powerlifting meet. So you've been training with the powerlifting structure for the past how many weeks, 20 months? Like 7 or 8 months somewhere in there. I don't know exactly how many weeks, seven or eight months. And you've been working with Connie Nightingale. Connie Bigani, The one and only Connie. Bigani is her Instagram username. Check out the podcast I did with
her a while back. I don't do it over her since since you powerlifted with her, that'd be kind of a cool episode. Yeah, she wants me to get on her podcast. She also has a really great podcast, but she wants me to get on her podcast and talk about like. Mindset shifts and things like that with the powerlifting. So yeah, that'd be kind of cool. So let's dive into powerlifting a little bit.
You last stepped on stage from a competitive endeavor in 2018 when you competed in your figure competition and 1:00 that's when I stepped on stage proposed to you and you said yes. And that was the last time you've competed since this powerlift or up until this powerlifting meet. So that's a quite a quite a big window there. Did you did you get the bug to compete again or what was going on there? What was the mind thought? The mindset? The mind thought.
The mind thought, well, right after our my show in 2018, we got married. Then COVID happened. Then I got pregnant. Then I had a baby. Then I had a little recovery time. And then it was like Rigel was, I don't know, like six months old. And I was like kind of just like sitting in this circle of I don't know what I'm doing with myself, like I'm working out, but like what are my goals?
Like, I want to treat my body well, but I also like, don't need to be the latest person alive because eventually we're going to want to have another kid. And you know, I just, you are literally going for the latest man alive. Just kind of funny that I just said that, but. Yeah, so I just needed like a goal. And I I have always like since I very first started working out, I have kind of always wanted to
do powerlifting. And I actually remember strictly in Spokane when it was still Gold's Gym and I think it was a father and a daughter or a coach and a younger girl. And they came out to me and they're like, have you ever thought about doing powerlifting? And I was like, I literally just started lifting four months ago. So I have not. And they were like, you really should consider it, like with your body weight and like how much you're lifting, like how much we're seeing you left right
now. Like, you should definitely think about doing it. And I think ever since that moment, like it has been in the back of my mind, like that seems like something I would enjoy. And so I just decided to jump in on like and do it. And Connie, I actually reached out to her because she started competing and powerlifting and I just thought, OK, well. You know who do you suggest I follow Is there any like training program that you would suggest blah blah blah blah blah.
And and she was. I said, well, would you actually like, consider coaching me like as a Guinea pig, Like even though I know that's like not what you do do, but like I she does do like workout plans and structured protocols and things like that, which is great, but she I actually want her to. Prepped me for a meat, so it was cool. I was a Guinea pig and now we're just like rocking and rolling. We love it. Well, I've always thought that
you're incredibly strong. You have a very impressive power to weight ratio. I've always said that about you. I mean you're you were deadlifts like 300 pounds you know years ago, which is kind of crazy because you weigh what was your average weight. I mean you've gotten as lean, you got in a 135 for the figure competition. One 27127 What was I thinking 135? And then when you were pregnant, your highest weight was what?
One, Let's see. I was at 160 I think, right 159. 17170 something like that and then post pregnancy you got down and kind of like settled around 1:40. One, it was like, yeah, 145 ish, Yeah, but you're lifting, you know, over your body weight and everything, which is super impressive as a female. But then, like your deadlift, like I said, is more than double your body weight, your squat,
super impressive. So I'm not surprised that you were drawn to powerlifting, but it's cool that you've done a figure competition and a powder to me. I've only done the bodybuilding. I've not done a powder to me. So you've kind of got a taste of both and they're both pretty different from a training in a prep standpoint. So how would you compare the two? They're non comparable. Like, they're just so different. So like bodybuilding, it's like, you know, you go, you hit your
workouts, it's fun. You kind of can do whatever you want. It's not like you're working on the strategic plan per se, Like you can kind of have a little bit of leeway with it. With powerlifting, you're kind of more in like a strength cycle. So you kind of do want to hit certain weights, certain percentages, things like that at a certain times, especially if you're going to like compete. Regularly and I kind of like the structure of that like I like to know like I need to do this
because of XY&Z. This is going to help me with this move well but like I like the technique of all that. Like it seems very orderly and I like order and. About with bodybuilding, I'd say the prep is a lot harder. You're in a prep for a lot longer. In bodybuilding you're you're really stressing your body as far as like trying to become lean. With powerlifting, some people have to cut, which I did not
have to cut. So really you're just trying to like maintain, you're eating plenty to like fuel your body and things like that. So just very different when it comes to like nutrition. Very much the same because like I stayed Keto and all that. But it's very different as far as like what you're doing with your nutrition cardio. There really isn't much with powerlifting, like walks are always encouraged, but like we're not doing anything crazy with cardio. I just it is just very
different. Yeah, it's kind of like polar opposite into the spectrum. Like with bodybuilding, you're trying to build as much muscle in the in the building phase, which is what you're also trying to do with powerlifting, set building, more strength, focus, less high pressure focus. So there is kind of some cross over there. And then with bodybuilding, you're trying to maintain as much muscle as you build and get as lean as possible.
Where's the powerlifting? You're trying to maximize strength, and you're not really paying much attention to composition per se. Yeah, that's exactly it. And with powerlifting, you can compete 123 four times a year. You know, you can compete once every quarter, things like that. Whereas with bodybuilding, you kind of want to compete, especially if you're a natural athlete, you want to compete and
maybe a few shows. In one season and then take a couple of years off while you're, you know, trying to build lane mass with powerlifting, you're, you know, you want to give yourself like a AD load week and things like that around your meet today. But really, you can compete several times per year. So that's kind of like a fun aspect of powerlifting, too. Yeah. And like, from a training standpoint, I trained pretty intuitively as a body. But like I I view that as an
art. Like I'm sculpting lagging body parts. I'm training those specifically in different ways, but I'm not really ever structuring my training routine. You can, but I don't ever really structure my based off of like one Rep maxes or anything like that. Like I don't have a technical training plan In that regard. My nutrition is super technical, my training is more intuitive. With you, the nutrition is more intuitive and your training is more technical.
Yeah, and the I I I do feel like through this training process that I've gone through like. I had no idea what to expect. A lot of people are like all power lifters do, is like 5 by fives, 3 by threes, blah, blah, blah. And that's like total baloney because maybe some of them do. But like I was doing high volume stuff like in the beginning of my strengths cycle, like high volume stuff. And then like we tapered it down little by little.
But like at one point I was doing like nine sets of two reps but these? Two reps are like super heavy. And then you're doing things like heavy holds where you're literally just walking the weight out, holding it for 10 seconds and walking it back in. And it seems like silly stuff. But like when you really start to break it down, it makes
sense, like to do those things. And I never knew what to think about powerlifting and like that as a sport, But having trained the way that I have, I really enjoyed doing it this way. And like I don't see it as like a. All they do is take like 5 minute long breaks. That's that's really not a thing.
Like we're not taking 5-10 minute breaks until maybe the very, very end, right before I meet, you know, on that notice, let's kind of dive into some of the dogma around powerlifting, because there's certainly a lot of dogma in this sport of bodybuilding. There's probably equally as much dogma in the sport of powerlifting, some of which holds true, some of which is certainly not applicable to, you know, you fall on a ketogenic diet, so one of which being like
nutrition. So when we were there, this is kind of funny too because like when I'm backstage with the competitors at the bodybuilding show, everybody's sucking down rice cakes and putting peanut butter and Jelly and honey and stuff on them. And that was pretty much the same case at the powerlifting. Me, like everybody had a like one guy had a massive, like, like wholesale size box of Rice Krispies. He was chowing down on that. Everybody had like the Harbour Hard, Hard, Reboro.
How do you say that candy? Oh yeah, like the little gummy bears, gummy bear things bunch like gushers and stuff like that. And it's like everybody's sucking down. They're doing like one single repetition. They're sucking down all this sugar and you didn't do any that stuff. Like you literally were fueled. You had bacon and eggs that morning and then you had like 1/4 of a keto brick intermittently throughout the day. I tried like you were pretty full your stuff.
Yeah, I had been like, really? Eating a ton like the last month and so and and my nerves got to me on meat day. So I was just like I was trying so hard to eat but it was just like oh I cannot get anything in. When you get that adrenaline pump and your nerves are it's like there's no appetite like you're in sympathetic nervous system. Your body is like not thinking about food. Yeah. So that was interesting to see for sure but it didn't look like
you had any issues with energy. You were a little bit worried about proper you know fueling as because of pre workout. So we started playing around with a few things in the weeks leading up to your meat and we got it dialed into what was, what was the preworkout formula that we concocted for you. So it was L carnitine creatine electrolytes and then a little bit of beta hydroxy butyrate in a ketone Ester mct oil and that's. It pure protein.
Pure Pure Pump Protein Pure Pump is the prework it, yeah. So it was caffeine basically just a caffeine like 200 milligrams or something like that. And that was all you had is a a pre workout concoction and that seemed to work pretty well for you from a feeling standpoint. Yeah, I was super concerned about it before because we had done A1 Rep Max day like where I did squat, bench, deadlift and that's always the order you go in squat, bench, deadlift on
meet day. And like I kind of like bonked when it came to bench. Like, I felt so good with squats and then like all of a sudden with bench, I was like, wow, this was in the weeks leading up to. It, yeah, yeah. And then with my deadlifts I got like the energy back up again. And I was really kind of concerned that my bench wasn't gonna be as good. But then I asked Robert, I'm like, what do I do? Like I need to figure something out.
And he's like you're gonna put, I got, I got a little little concern there's a little tiff action going on there because she was on the fence about man, all these power lifters are recommended. I was coming on the fence. I was just I I You're saying this is what everybody else was doing? Yes. And it's working for them. Is there a reason it wouldn't work for me? Yeah, and and it was like, OK, this is working for everyone else. How do I make it work for me? Like, how?
Do what? Like, what can I do? And Robert's like, you're gonna go eat honey, aren't you? And I'm like, no, I just have zero idea, like, what I can do that would do the same exact thing for me. Because as someone who's been keto for, what, 7 years now, seven years, seven years, it's like, I don't think having something sugary is going to actually benefit me. Like, I may actually not feel, well, like, it might totally throw my body off. So I'm like.
What do I need to do? And Robert was like, you're going to put this and this and this and this and this together and then try it. And like, I went into the gym the next day and I was like, I feel so good. Like everyone needs to this preworkout mix if they're going to do this. Like, I felt so good and like I did that on my meet day and my bench was my best lift.
So it definitely worked. Yeah. See, I like that because I get, I get it all the time like you got to have carbs if you're going to compete at a high level in this sport. Or maybe not that sport, but definitely this sport. I'm like, no, you just got to get deeply fat adapted and they get things dialed in from a fat metabolism standpoint and you are solid and you were solid. So let's talk about the actual meat.
So we get there the day before you check in your gear because you were competing in a natural federation and you were doing it raw, so you had to check in on your gear. They make sure that you're not, you know, hiding some specialty spacesuit science sleeves or something that makes you look twice as much. You have to have like cotton only or polyester only, like undershirt underwear. You have to have a certain type of socks.
You have to have a singlet, but it has to be like the right all the right things. So you have to check everything in. You're checking your belts, your wrist wraps your shoes. Like all that kind of stuff in. So you go in, check it all. Then they like measure your height on like when you're doing squats and when you're doing bench. So that when it's your turn to go out, they can just move it knowing exactly your dimensions of like where you your stuff needs to be set up and then you
do your weigh ins. So I did my weigh ins and then I hit my weigh ins. What was your official weight on show today actually? The day before, I don't remember. I didn't weigh myself at home and I. They did in kilograms. And I was like, whatever, if I as long as I hit it, I don't care what I am, but probably like 145 something. Yeah. And then the day of the meet, let's talk about the lift. So like you said, you did squat first and you get 3 attempts with all lifts.
And then if you get all three lifts, you go for national record, then you can do a fourth attempt. But you were doing squat first. What was your opener? Gosh, don't ask me the numbers. Like, I, like can't even with my brain. All right, we'll just do the, the final rest, the one people care about. What was your final squad? I think it was two 55255. Think so. And you were going low. So like a lot of the power lifters, I mean like to to make it count you gotta get 3 white lights.
They have a judge in front of you and a judge on either side of you to make sure you're hitting depth, all that good stuff. And then you know you have to go parallel. You were going below parallel because they haven't trained. We always go below parallel, which is good because it just ensures that there's no question there. So you were hitting 255 on your last trip for squat, which is awesome. And then bench what you don't bench.
Let's say I did try for a higher squat, my third attempt, and I did fail it. I don't remember what I went for though. I went above what I wanted to. I went above what I thought I could because I wanted to push it a little bit, 275 or. Something. Yeah, something like that, 74 maybe? And I was very close to getting it. I I got down and up and then like right, I just got to a sticking point and I couldn't get it up. So anyways and then bench you go, bench goes next.
And so I did my opener my second and my third was 165, which I had done that previously in the gym. So I really wanted to get a higher weight than that. But I also didn't want to push it too crazy, like I didn't want to like try and do anything and then it not work out too well. But with that one, apparently. It's a pretty good lift for me. So it's a pretty good lift for my weight range in like my whatever my weight range I guess, but you set a state
record. Yeah. So I set a state record in that federation, So it's kind of like a newer federation. So they're kind of like it's NPL. NPL Yeah. Which is National Powerlifting League, I think, yeah. And my goal, my next goal would be is going to be to go into a larger meet, a larger federation. That one was really fun. I'm so glad I did. It was like such a great time. But I think I can be a little bit more challenging to myself if I do one of the other
federation. So I think we're going to lean towards that. Um, but yeah. And then, uh, and then deadlifts. We went and did that. And, uh, I was kind of bummed with my deadlifts. Like I was pretty mad at myself, actually. I felt maybe a little bit, like my adrenaline had kind of dropped a little bit by that point. And it. Was along like there was there was not that many competitors.
There's like 20, yeah. But like everybody's doing 3 attempts for three different lifts and there's like 20 minutes in between each different lift. So I mean, you're literally there all day long. Yeah. And so I was, I think I was just getting to look a little bit worn and which I'm kind of bummed to say. Like that's what I really do feel like what was happening, cuz I I lived at that bar and I was like, well that was really heavy, yeah.
So I did my my opener and then I actually failed my next two lifts, which I was really bummed about, but. I now know that that was maybe too large of a jump and then they used a little bit different bars and different weights and things like that. So I think I just need to account for that next time. And just what was the official lift? The first one or the another one you got, I wanna say it. Was bad that I can't remember these two 7265, Yeah, 265. I think so.
It was 265 or something somewhere around 300 before here lifting, so it is frustrating for sure. It is. But you know, like that's the thing, is like Connie and Joe. Joe Davis is our friend. He lives in Missouri. He actually came down to be my word handler. Handler for my meat. So Connie was actually speaking at a convention the weekend of
my meet. So Joe came down and Handler really just like helps you figure out like what time, like when you need to warm up, what how exactly you need to warm up, when you need to eat, when you need to drink your preworkout, when you're doing bench press, they can actually lift off for you. So he was here doing that with me. And what was it going with that you were talking about the lifts, the lift that you got, like the the weight that you got?
And you're talking about Joe. Yeah, I'm the one in prep right now. What you doing? You're taking enough calories. You shouldn't be fading out like this. Oh my gosh, that's funny. I can't even remember. Yeah, Joe's awesome. Joe's one of my clients. He's also a powerlifter. He did a bodybuilding show with me as a nutrition coach and then he kind of reciprocated. It was like acting as your
handler for this meet. Yeah. So Joe and Connie both like Joe's done powerlifting a lot and Connie obviously has to. And they both were saying, like, your PR in the gym is not even comparable to a PR on a show day. And I will totally agree to that. Like, at first I was like, that's silly. You can lift the weight, you can
lift the weight. But like on show day, you have crazy adrenaline running through your body and you're obviously you're like peaked for it. But you also have 3 judges sitting there watching and making sure that you're doing everything right. If you'll have 3 white lights. If you get 2 red lights, you failed your lift. So you can try that weight again, but you you can't go down. You failed it. Yeah, you can't go down and wait.
I I only over the whole meet. I only got 1 red light which made me super happy and I don't even know why I got the red lights. I forgot to ask them, but except for the two, the three that you failed the ones. I just failed those but I they didn't say like bad technique or anything like that because. But that was really like, I was happy to leave that with just the one red light. But yeah, anyways, but it like it. A PR like the gym PR, like I've gotten 300, I've got 295 several
times. It's like it's frustrating because you know you can do it, but it's just such a different expectation on yourself on a neat day. Like it's it is just different. So people are like, oh, I can look over here than you, but it's like you don't have someone telling you like, yeah bro, you're that's a half, half squad, you know, or whatever. Yeah, this was your first one. So you get like no perspective of it up to this point.
So you you're more nervous, you're more anxious, like all those things are going on. Yeah. So it was pretty cool. Like, it's cool for me. I was, I was handling rides the whole time. That was his handler, but it was cool for me to see you competitive again and just like the excitement that comes with that. So I'm super proud of you. I think you kicked ass and I'm excited to see it again. Thanks. Yeah, that's The thing is I'm
going to be doing it again. I'm super excited about the next time, Yeah. And you're going to do tentatively one in what do we say, what do we say February? January, February. Yeah, January, February. We're not talking about anything after that. All right, so we keep all that under ramps for the time being. But yeah, very proud of you, babe. I think it's you're super impressive. You have most certainly earned the title of Lady Savage.
One of the coolest things I think, about the whole meet was that you would go, you know, beat a state record and bench and then like you would walk over and breastfeed Rigel before you started doing deadlifts. You know, like, that's hardcore right? There. You were keto throughout the whole thing. You know, kicking butt with the lifts, being a mom at the same time. Like pretty impressive stuff.
Pretty impressive stuff. So that's the pound of anything else on the pound of me. Nope, that was it. That was lost. Your Rd. for listening. All right, now let's dive into my prep. All right. My Robert and I have been like polar. I have been eating twice the amount that Robert has. You've definitely been eating and you're like, Oh my gosh, I'm so stuffed, I don't want another bite. And then you like, look over at me like for, you know, confirmation.
And I'm like, yeah, what are you looking at me for? Because that's not the case. Don't know the feeling, but honestly, so this is the time of this recording. This is week 21 that we're in. So I started prep on April 3rd. We're 2121 weeks in at this point. And I feel pretty good about how everything's gone. Like, I am honestly blown away at how smooth this prep has gone this far. This has been the easiest prep for me by far, and I don't feel like I've been an asshole with
anybody. Have I been an asshole? You're gonna be the true judge of character there. You've actually been really good. What did I say the other day? I don't know. Like it. I said something like, I don't remember. I remember you were asking me about that, and I was like, no, you've just been, like, focused. No bullshit. Yeah, yeah. No BS Yeah, I'm definitely focused right now, for sure. Like, I I have a routine. I I've got like a a nighttime
routine, a morning routine. I adhere to it strictly, but I haven't been unpleasant to anybody. Like, I've been super on point with the crew. I don't know. What do you think? Chip chips record this right now. He gives me that. He gives me a thumbs up. Haven't been an asshole to him. I feel like like in the past I vividly recall just being very irritable. Like to the point where if somebody looks at me funky, I just want to like rip their head off.
Yeah, Robert has not gotten on to me about my eating this time. Last time I was eating nuts and like, he was like. You have got to stop eating those. Like, why? She's like, go in the other room and eat them. I'm like, OK, yeah, I had them then. Not this prep. Like it has been totally different and like, I feel so. Busy, But like, you've held it together really well. Yeah. And I feel like like I'm mentally sharp, stuck. I'm still podcasting every single day, multiple podcasts a day.
I'm staying on top of all my business, you know, requirements and responsibilities. I'm just getting everything done really efficiently, really focused, and I'm doing it in a pleasant state of mind, which I think is just liberating for sure. And honestly, like I've enjoyed the workouts, like Chip and our training together every morning. I haven't dreaded the workouts. It's just been. I think, honestly there's a couple things to play here.
One is that this is the first prep I've done during the summer months instead of doing like a spring show and prepping to the winter. So I think I'm much more active, Like my neat activity is way higher because there's more hours of daylight. I'm just much busier, so I'm leaning out more effortlessly, it seems in that regard. And then my nutrition's dialed in like I've got this whole keto thing figured out, so that's been streamlined. My meal preps been super straightforward.
You're prepping all my meals. I've got the macros calculated every single week. We get a routine there and haven't lost any strength whatsoever. So yeah, I feel like 1,000,000 bucks. And this is the first prep that we've done with a kid, you know, And like a lot of people would hear that like, Oh my gosh, it sounds like tornado perfect storm. But honestly, having Rigels made it better, Like, I can have a rough day and they come home and see him smiling.
It's like that's all that matters right here, you know? So it's been positive. That is one thing about both of us. Like I was saying about that the other day, I was like, man, I need to make a post on that because people give you so many excuses. Just wait till this. Just wait till that. Just wait till you have kids. And that was like the most recent one. Just you guys, just wait until you have kids. And it's like, I just competed in powerlifting a year after I had my kid.
Not only did I have him, but I also had a C-section. So it's like I had a I had like a major abdominal surgery and I'm powerlifting, you know? In and then Roberts in the middle of a prep right now and can be the leanest man alive. So it's like I don't think you tell us that, don't tell me I can't do something, I'm a prove you wrong. That's the thing for like me, I'm not out to prove people wrong. I'm just like, I'm going to keep doing my thing and you'll just see that you're wrong.
You know, like maybe that maybe that is the truth for you and but that is not the truth for me. And it like that needs to stop being the narrative like. That that is the truth for everyone. Or people are just gonna start believing it and then think like, oh, once you become a parent, you can't do anything because you have a kid. It's like, no, you can figure it out. And like Rigel doesn't, Rigel's not watched by anyone but me and Robert. So like, right now he's being watched by Ellen.
But that happens on a very rare occasion. Now, yeah, we don't take him to daycare like there's no, you know, we just, we just make it happen. Yeah, we get after it. Like the only limitations you put, the only limitations you have in your life, the ones you put on yourself. Like I set out and said, hey, I'm gonna be looking to spend alive. I'm gonna make it happen. You said you're gonna do a powerlifting meet. You made it happen.
And we're being great parents, keeping up with everything else we have to do in tandem. So yeah. Back to your prep. I didn't want to like no, no, no. Totally fun in seeing how I'm looking now. You feel confident building spent alive. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, there's one other guy that's like, supposed to be the leanest man alive. And, like, he does look really lean. But, like, I mean, I feel like you already got him beat. Yeah, yeah, I'm.
I'm bringing like a whole nother level of conditioning with this go around. One person that always comments on your stuff and it's like you just you can't beat whatever and they like tagged the person then like. Are you not seeing the same guy I'm seeing? Cuz I'm pretty sure he's already done it, you know? Yeah, I'm I'm going broke on this one. Like it's going all that and I'm taking away all the
distractions. I'm literally sleeping in a different room than Crystal. Yeah, that sounds terrible to like everyone else, but it's not. It does sound bad, but a little context here that just recently started and I was not. I don't get very much sleep anyways. Like, I literally, my routine is I wake up at 3:00 in the morning, I come immediately into the warehouse and I start working on things and I don't get to bed until like nine, 9:30. So the sleep quantity is pretty limited.
So I have to maximize sleep quality, and the only way for me to do that was just sleep in a different bed. So that's what we're doing right now. Uh, which is not the greatest for a intimate standpoint, but I. Mean literally when we're sleeping though. Like we're sleeping? Yeah, you do stuff outside of sleep time you don't like. I don't know. Like, people think like, oh, you're sleeping in separate beds. That means like, everything is separate.
It's like, no, we literally sleep in separate beds. Like, yeah, we're doing extra things, like going on a walk to get like, Robert's getting ready for the 50 mile March, which we'll talk about in just a minute. But we've been walking together a lot more, so we're actually getting more time together, doing other things. We don't have to sleep side by side, if that makes sense.
Yeah, and like Rigel's got his own room, he's got his own bed, he's got his own thing going for him, but like if he is fussy or needs a breastfeed or something, we'll bring him into the our room at some point throughout the night. And like he was kicking me and stuff and just like anytime Crystal's moving around to go check on him, I'm waking up my
sleeps getting hindered. So yeah, we started sleeping in separate beds and I literally saw a 2X improvement in my aura and garment sleep data literally overnight. So I just have to keep reminding on like I haven't slept in the night in 15 months. Yeah, no, you're hardcore for sure. But I can't sacrifice sleep. I sacrifice everything else. I gotta. I gotta try and improve sleep quality and the meals have all been super streamlined too. Like, I'm doing one meal a day
right now. You're prepping all those are doing like a souffle kind of thing. So eat one keto brick a day. Plus, this one meal, which is basically at this point in the prep, consists of wild salmon, axis venison, eggs, egg whites and that's it, right? Yeah. So we just bake that into one big Tupperware and I eat that with my brick and I'm like on top of the world after that. So that's been good. We did our first ketogenic caloric refeed last week. So we did the refeed pizza there.
My body soaked that up. The sodium was on point, the macros were on point, the vascularity improved, the muscle fullness improved, everything was markedly improved. So I feel like very confident about that. The only not chink of the armor so to speak with the only big variable question mark that I have right now is this 50 mile March which is taking place this week.
So it is a Tuesday. The time of this recording is gonna go live on Friday, and then I am driving with Crystal and Rigel in our rig to Omaha. We're going to walk 50 miles to raise money and awareness for veterans and then literally the day after the March is peak week. So that's kind of crazy. I don't know any of the competitors doing that. Yeah, it's a I'm a little bit, I'm a little bit worried about them. It's going to be fine, but I am a little worried about them.
It's going to be fine. Let's be the third year that I've done, the 50 mile March, the 1st year I was on crutches for a week, so hopefully that doesn't happen. That's going to really screw up my peak week. Last year I think I was hurting for like 48 hours, but I wasn't on crutches at any point and I felt fine. Now granted, last year I was not in a deficit and I did do a lot more walking in preparation than I have had time to this year. So I'm a little bit worried there.
But that's why we're walking now, trying to get some steps in condition, my feet and see how it goes. But I'm not doing anything different with my nutrition in preparation for this March because I want to keep all that uniform to kind of keep everything, you know, on track for the prep the following week or for the peak week the following week. So we shall see how it goes, but the 50 mile March is awesome. It's not something that I wanted to avoid doing because I was at a prep.
I mean every single year I've done it the past two years I've done it like you Crest that last hill and you get all these people waiting on you and it's like an emotional moment. Like I started crying cuz I mean you're I I don't have any military experience but I know all these people that I'm walking alongside do like people that are cheering us on and waiting for us at the finish line have and it's like you are marching for a cause you're you're we're marching through
the night. We start at 5:00 PM on Saturday. We March until like afternoon on Sunday. It's basically supposed to be 50 miles in 22 hours. The 22 hours symbolizes the 22 veterans that take their life daily and we're just trying to raise money and awareness for them. So it's a cause I feel very good about and I don't know, I just don't. I didn't want to avoid it because of selfish endeavors.
I mean, because the bodybuilding is a selfish sport and I don't want to. That is the priority right now. But I don't want to not do the March because of that. Yeah, I feel like I told Robert so it was like, so I did the March the 1st year. So Robert said it two years. I did the first year and I was actually very, very early pregnant with Rigel at that time. But we the next year I had Rigel and he was just like, I don't
know, 2-3 months old. Yeah. And so obviously didn't do the March because I was breastfeeding and he needed his Mama. And I kind of just committed to, like, I probably won't do anything like this until we're like done having kids and everything everyone's done breastfeeding and like being with me through the night, things like that.
But I told Robert I was like, I literally cried last year because I wanted so badly to be with them and to feel the pain that they were in and like, just and it sounds weird because it's like, why would you want that? But it's like once you've done it, like you know. Like, you are not doing it for your own brain. Like you're not doing it for your own benefit. Like there's no benefit of walking 50 miles. Like it kind of sucks, but you're doing it for a cause. Like you're doing it for a
reason. You're doing it along friends and alongside of veterans and alongside of just like all these people that are band together for A cause. You have people driving by you, honking and waving and waving flags, and at the very end you have. All these people are there to help celebrate and you, all the people have donated the the funds for these veterans and last year we raised over $200,000 for veterans, which is
awesome. Yeah, but it's like so powerful that I like, I cried because I couldn't be a part of it, you know? And it was like, of course I wanted to be with Rigel, but like. It sucks to not be a part of that. And Robert's like, yeah, I do not want to do that. Yeah. Yeah. There's been a couple times where we've been walking and like, I've noticed more inflammation in my knees. It's just like I'm on the like, I'm depleted right now.
I'm in a deficit, you know, Like my body is more susceptible to injury. So from a bodybuilding standpoint, this makes no sense. But from a moral, ethical, you know, cause speaking standpoint, like this makes all the sense. And I just want to be a part of it, you know, and I don't know, like, I like doing things that are hard. Last year, one of the guys that I've corresponded with via e-mail quite a bit, his name's Rich. His his son actually took his own life.
He was in the military. And Rich reached out to me and said, hey man, I really admire you for doing this March. He told me about his son. I marched in honor of his son last year and Rich is actually going to do the March with us this year. And knowing that I can't not March. You know, like I think about Rigel and if something like what if Rigel decided to get the military suffered extreme PTSD took his own life, Like I can't even fathom that. Like that.
I I can't even fathom that. So anything that I can do to move the needle one iota to put things in the right direction like that is a cause worth fighting for, worth suffering for, worth sacrificing for. So I'm proud to be part of the March. This podcast is going live on Friday and I'll put this in the showrooms, but anybody that wants to follow along on the March, I think it's going to be
live streamed. Good portion of it is anyways, there is going to be a link in there to donate if you so choose. But honestly, if you just simply become aware of the issue that's at hand here and let that be on the forefront of your mind as we're marching, that would be my ask there, but yeah. Rachel and I are going to tag along. We're going to meet them at their stops. So we'll hopefully get some clips on some of the socials and things like that.
Kind of keep your eyes up to date on how things are going. Yeah, We're gonna have like a little system in place, like Crystal and Rodger gonna come in the rig, and then they're gonna get my feet doctored up at every stop, make sure I'm hydrated, make sure I've got everything I need. I'll have to figure out my one meal timing at some point during that March. So it's gonna be a little interesting in that regard, but we're gonna make it happen. So it's gonna be good. It's gonna be good.
Fiftymilemarch.org I think is the website for that. All right, next topic of discussion. The first competition, so that I'm doing 5 competitions this year. The first one is the OCB federation, that is the week after the March, the weekend. So we March Saturday to Sunday. The 1st competition is that next Saturday. So literally the March goes into peak week, which is like say kind of crazy. But this will be the first competition of my competitive season. It is in Utah.
It's in Utah. I've got so many things going on, haven't even made it that far. So Crystal's kind of like my secretary at the moment. She's booking all the Airbnb's, getting all the travel coordinated, etcetera, etcetera. But this will be the first competition, this OCB show. I'm doing bodybuilding and it's going to be good. My posing routine is not as polished as I would like to be for this first show. The mandatory poses are dialed in, but the routines a little
bit unrefined. So I'm just working on doing everything I can as I'm able to, but it's going to be great. I'm super excited about it. This is not the main federation I'm trying to really dial in for, so it's kind of like a warm up show, which I don't really recommend. People think of any show as a warm up show because I'm going in with the intent to do some damage and win.
I'm not going in for 2nd place like I'm going in to win, but this is not the federation that I'm really trying to get my pro card status in to really get dialed in, so I hope that it's. He just wanted to cause more craziness for us as a family. Exactly. I hope that doing this show, you know, this is the first time I've competed since 2017 because my 2020 endeavors got dashed with the, you know, pandemic.
So hopefully doing this first show will alleviate any stress, remove some anxiety, just get my feet wet back into the competitive grind, and then set me up for success for all the future shows, of which there will be four more. So I'm doing this first one, then I'm doing one at the end of September, like 24th of September, something like that. That one's in Mass, No, New York, New York, NY we're driving
to that one. And then I've got one of the big shows that I'm really looking forward to that I've done two times in the past in Washington state, the Washington State Natural. And then both of those are I MB FW&BF shows. Then there's another I MB FW&BF show in New York. That's I think the beginning of November. You just set that one November then Washington or New York. New York is in, yeah, September. And then the Washington one in October.
Then the 4th one is in Massachusetts and that's in the beginning of November. Yep. And then the final show is Worlds. That's in Seattle, WA and that's kind of like the Super Bowl of natural bodybuilding. So the I MB FW&BF Federation is probably the strictest, most well respected federation. In fact, it's pretty fair to say that I got like a 10 year ban on
all these substances. Some things, you know, give you a lifetime ban, like they're they're really strict from a natural bodybuilding standpoint and that is the most prestigious natural bodybuilding show in that federation. So it's going to be incredibly stacked competition, but since I'm doing for I MB FW&BF shows, I fully intend to get my pro card before that world show, which means I'll be competing as a pro at that world show if all goes well.
So I'll be doing my pro debut this competitive Season 2 if I go pro prior to that, which is pretty exciting as well. So lots in the pipeline there. We got the refeeds, we got the peak weeks, we got the posing, we got the competitive vibe, we got it all coming. It's going to be crazy, but it's going to be awesome. Like Chris and I were like, man, there's not enough hours in the day. Life is absolutely crazy right now. But this is what we signed up for.
It's all of our own doing and we're just taking it one day at a time and loving every minute of it. But next year we have no plans and we're excited about that too. Like, no one asked Robert to do anything we need a little debrief for sure, so that's super exciting. And with all these competitions, we're flying chip out to film everything. Like we're going to be filming, you know, the the meal prep at the Airbnb. We're going to be filming the
refeed pizza the night before. We're going to be filming the show backstage, the tanning, the posing, the, you know, the lineup, everything, the rewards, everything. All of that's going to be on vlogs. All of that's going to be in the competition prep course that I'm working on. If you listen to this podcast, you've heard me talk about the prep course. I'm making the world's greatest resource for natural bodybuilding or just bodybuilding in general
competitive prep. Like it's going to be the standalone pinnacle for a prep resource. Not sure when it's going to go launch, when it's going to launch, but when it does, it's going to be just, it's going to wipe everything outside of the water. So all this is going to be content that's going to go into that as well. So it's going to be really, really detailed. I'm super excited about it. Now let's talk about some personal home life stuff.
So in light of all this chaos that we're doing, we're still having to keep up with all of our personal life, of which the homesteading has become a pretty big part. So we've got, we got the 15 chickens that we talked about a while back, and then we had a predator and now we're done. 2 chickens we're. Down to 2 chickens, 2 chickens. But after we record this podcast, you and actually going to go pick up eight more chickens.
So we're going to have 10 chickens and I think we've solved the predator problem, so that's good. That we're getting these 8 chickens from the lady that I've actually been purchasing eggs from. So I'm kind of excited cuz it'll it'll be like the same eggs that she takes very good care of her chickens and like all of the animals that she has. So I'm really excited like kind of go and like see what she has going on there and then take her 8 chickens. Yeah, it's gonna be good.
For eight of her chickens. Yeah, eight of her chickens. On top of that, one other thing we've been doing these past few weekends is we have no free weekends. We're literally scheduled and booked out until the end of the year. But we had two weekends that we filled with my parents coming up.
My dad brought his tractor up. We've been literally digging post holes, breaking through rock with a breaker bar because we have two rocks to 1 dirt where we live and some very strenuous physical activity that most competitors are not doing this far into prep. But it is what it is, so that we can build a fence around our entire property for watching my parents dogs when they go sail around the world here shortly in. December, which is crazy, yeah.
So soon they're both retired, they're going to go sail around the world, and we're going to watch their three English setters while they're gone. So we've been fencing in our property for that. But then also because we're going to be getting more livestock ourselves, probably goats initially. I disagree. Hear me out. Hear me out. I. Disagree. So there's we're going to do some cross fencing on our
property. When you get some goats, the goats in to clear all the shrub brush that we don't want, then we're going to eat those goats. Then we're going to get pigs because you want pigs. I say we get pigs, we get goats, then pigs just. Pigs just pick. We'll get something and then I'd love to get some cows, but we don't have enough room for cows, so we'll get goats and pigs, maybe just pigs, maybe even fence in the property at the building because we have several acres here.
We can put some lambs or something out there because I want some room and animals, but the homesteading operation is like taking shape. But we've got fence up, which is cool to see. So proud of that for sure. What other homesteading operations we got going? On we've had the garden and that went like crazy. It was so good. We had a lot of zucchini and then our zucchini plants got some sort of.
Infection. There's like some sort of mold or something like that that took them over and then they just completely died. And with that went our cucumber plant as well because it was like kind of intertwined in there. So that it was really great. And then we went out of town and it was just like totally died by the time we got back. So but our tomatoes and our Peppers are going gang. Oh. My gosh, our tomatoes and our Peppers are going wild and and the strawberries are like hit and miss.
They're here. Yeah, like like a couple. You know, which is totally fine because we really don't eat that many berries and stuff, but it's kind of fun to have them. But there are a few things that I will do differently next year. But it's been a lot of fun and and honestly, like, we've been just so busy. Like my tomato plants are going crazy, like I need to like clean them all up and everything, but I just, I just can't find the time. Man, I don't even know. Like these, these tomato plants
are on some anabolic agents. For sure. Because like, we'll pick all the ripe tomatoes, there'll be no tomatoes in the vine, and then, like the next day, there's more tomatoes on the vine. It's like, what are they doing? Also, we have learned that you don't pick a tomato when it's red. You pick a tomato when it's starting, like when it's kind of like that pinkish color. Yeah, it's like green turning yellowy reddish pinky color. And then it will ripen on your countertop.
If you didn't know that, you buy red tomatoes from the grocery store, but you pick them when they're. Not red. So I feel like that was a good thing I learned, yeah, cuz I feel like by the time they actually turned red there was like cuts and stuff and then
like they were split and split. So if you were wondering on that, it's been pretty cool and I haven't really eaten many veggies, but I got I'll take a pepper and I'll have a pepper with my one meal and it's pretty cool to eat a pepper that I grew you. And I made a thing, a salsa. And Robert loved it. The salsa was the mom diggity. You got to make some more. I've eaten it all. But that on my meal was delicious. And that literally is the best salsa I've ever had.
So they had everything we need to make more salsa. No, but I will. I can make it, Yeah. Let's make some more salsa. That was good. I look forward to my salsa. What else? Let's talk about Rigel. So he is 15 months now, which is crazy. 15 months and he is growing. He's becoming opinionated. He says Dan that all the time, which is the cutest thing in the whole wide world. Love it to pieces, but he is. What are some milestones? So we took him into the dock not too long ago for his, you know,
routine checkup. And he's like in the 99th percentile on the growth charts, growth charts. And the doctor, A doctor is pretty cool. Like he's, he's fit, he's a hunter. Like, he he speaks the same language. You know, he's not keto, but he's like respected the fact that we're keto. He hasn't tried to push anything on us. And then we walked into this last one and he saw how much leaner I was.
Cuz I'm in prep. He's like, so tell me about this keto thing you do. He's like you had to come and speak at a seminar or something that I'm, I'm going to host here for too long. Maybe you can kind of enlighten some people on nutrition, like, yeah man, sign me up. And then Rigel was in like the 99th percentile of all his growth metrics, and Rice was totally Keto. He's like, huh, that sounds pretty interesting as well. So maybe I'm wrong about some of this nutrition stuff.
Maybe I need to be paying a little more attention to Keto. So that was pretty cool for sure. So I'm super excited about that. And then or some other things he's walking like, yeah, he's been walking. Well, I guess maybe on the last podcast he wasn't. But yeah, he's like walking really fast. Like, he's so fast now. Yeah. He is. I mean, he's just, he can point out a whole bunch of body parts, like his head and his eye and his feet and like all that. So that's really fun.
He loves books. I don't know. I, like, can't pull him. He loves he, he loves mimicking us while we're working out. So like, he's watching crystal squat the other day. So then he started squatting. When we pick up something like a deadlift and we make a grunt, he'll pick up something like a white border racer and it be like, you know, so it's pretty cute.
It's the funniest. He loves mowing with me, like I've got a zero turn mower and I'll strap him in and he'll just like, I'll put some big old ear muffs on him and he just like chills out. He loves me, which is pretty cute too. Anytime Robert, like, goes to the garage, he like, darts over to the garage door like we're going to go mowing. It's so funny. Yeah, it's the cutest thing ever. What else with right? What else we do? Still breastfeeding, Going strong, and he is not letting go
of that anytime soon. Yeah, but he's eating a lot of food too. He loves steak. Like he can put down some steak, eats the keto brick like crazy. I made homemade chicken Nuggets that we have on our Yeah Savage website and he's been loving those this week. Yeah, the first time I've ever made chicken Nuggets for him. He likes him a lot. He loves mustard. I put some mustard on his feet one time and that pretty much ruined him. He's a mustard fanatic now.
What else is he doing? That's pretty much. I mean like he he, I don't remember what we talked about him doing last time it recorded. But he's he's just it's the coolest thing ever. Being a dad, being a mom, seeing him grow. And then I'm just so blessed and grateful that we have a life that we've built in which we don't have to take him to a daycare like you pretty much have him all day. Would you come in to work out?
I get to see him at the office here and it's just that's the hell out of my day right there, you know? He's the cutest. He is, like, definitely getting, getting to be opinionated. He's cutting his molars right now, too. Yeah. And he, like, is learning different, like, little things. Like, I will say like, out. Like, OK, let's get out. Let's get out of the bathroom. Out. You know, whatever. And now he says out, out, like,
so funny. Oh my God, if you're trying to give him something he doesn't want, he lets you know he doesn't want to keep. Like no, no, no Not having it. He doesn't say no. It's like, no, no, Yeah, like shake his head like, no, it's pretty awesome. We bought a like a one of those backpack things for him. So I should be honestly wearing that while I'm walking, but that'd be brutal. So we.
Like, not like a carrier. It's like a hiking backpack, which is so nice for the summertime, so like stirrups and stuff. Want it though. He loves getting that. He loves checking on the chickens and like, grabbing the eggs. So I'm excited to get some pigs and go to Lambs or whatever, just like, let him see those too. Like, that's that's going to be good and that's Rigel. That's Rigel's life update. Anything else in our world that we have not yet touched on, babe?
We are just, we knew going into 2023 it was going to be wild and we are in the midst of it right now like it is getting crazy and I'm just trying to. Mark, one thing off at a time, one day at a time, one hour at a time. It's just it's really, it's going to be a busy couple months. November or sorry, September, October, November is just going to be wild. Yeah, The prep is definitely the priority right now, like the different competitions coming up, but we've got some really
exciting things in the pipeline. We get some exciting new flavors that we're working on with Keto Brick. We've been working on one flavor for four years and we're getting that dialed in now. So that's super exciting. It uses a different ingredient base and that's all I'm going to say. So pretty excited about that. We've got some really popular flavors that are going to be relaunching in the near future. I'm sure people are going to be excited about that. We just finished the brick by
brick launch promotion. So everybody that took part in that, we are eternally grateful. That is always super good for us and just kind of honors everyone that helped us make this initial move to the building. So thank you all so much for
jumping on that. And we're still like a lot of behind the scenes stuff like I'm working on getting the website dialed in kind of polished, work on this online course working on. We're going to start really diving into the live Savage component of the brand next year because we don't have everything scheduled. So we're going to start coming out with a lot more content around parenting, homeschooling, homesteading, gardening, livestock management, processing your own food.
Like all that's going to be content that really starts coming to light next year, so I'm super excited about that as well. Yeah, I feel like I've kind of taken a step back from like a lot of the things I've been doing and like just trying to get a big picture of, like, what do I want things to look like going forward. And so I think we're gonna dive into a lot of the live Savage stuff here coming soon. Yeah, it's gonna be good though. Yeah. So yeah, more updates and all
that as it comes. But that's pretty much a wrap and an update on our lives up to this point. Episode 600 is in the books, baby doll. Thank you again for everything you've done for me with this prep, like having you prep my meals and just be that rock in my corner. I'm very, very appreciative of it and I love you with all my heart love. You too, For anybody that does not know where they find you. Instagram it's the dot lady dot savage.
And then Robert and I share a YouTube and Facebook under Teens Teen. Team team, Team Savage on Facebook and Live Savage on YouTube and then my website isladysavage.com and we do have Live Savage Instagram too. Yeah, we're putting stuff on there slowly but surely. And that's going to be, like said, where a lot of this other content starts. So if you guys are not following at Live Savage, go do that. Yeah. All right. That's a wrap. Ladies and gents, thank you all for tuning in.
Thank you, babe, for joining me yet again. I love you, love all y'all listening and watching. We will see you next time.