Well, hello ladies and gents. Robert Sykes, Keto, savage.com. Today I've got special guest Trevor Griffith on the line and we dive into his journey to the carnivore diet and how that's impacted him. He was really in a pretty bad way. I mean, he was on the brink of death there. He was pretty much debilitated, bedridden for three months. He was passing out, had all
kinds of health issues. Doctors couldn't really put a finger as to what the the driving factor was and he started seeing success with a. Animal based diet and then a carnivore diet more specifically. As of late here has been doing carnivore for about a year now and we kind of talk about that journey, how that impacted his life, his marriage, how he recovered from it and is now making strides in his life. He also owns a gym.
So we talked about gym ownership and what that's done for him with the pros, the cons are to that. And honestly, just a little bit about what his goals are in life going forward. I thoroughly enjoy the conversation. I got a lot out of it. I've got no doubt that you will as well. So that further ado, sit back, relax, enjoy the podcast with Trevor and we are live Trevor, How are you brother? I'm doing fantastic brother yourself. I'm good, man. I'm good. So we were chatting.
On social media. And then zoom. I believe you did a zoom call about starting a food product business. You've been doing the carnivore diet. At the time of that e-mail, I think you had written 10 months. I guess it's what about about a year now? Total, right? Yeah, creeping up on a year, I guess in total. I was a animal based a little bit prior to Carnivore, but for some specific issues and we can go into it, I had to kind of stray away from that. And so, yeah, for about a year.
Very cool. Well. I want to kind of get some backstorm man, what got you wanting to go the animal based route and then Carnival in the 1st place like where you stuff from, from any health concerns or what was the what was the origin story. Yes. So I guess the once wasn't there as much as the need, right? And that brings me to my health concerns. So I'm looking back, I was an extremely unhealthy kid, but I just thought my issues kind of started. We'll say two, 2 1/2 years ago
and I thought I was a diabetic. I never, well, outside of being a kid, I never ate extremely terrible when you're a kid. You know, I grew up on Tyson, you know, breaded fried chicken Nuggets and canola oil and stuff like that. So looking back, it wasn't a good diet by any means. But when I started getting into like bodybuilding and modeling and stuff like that, I paid more mind to what I was putting in my body and I was doing you know, the bro diet, the bodybuilding
diet, chicken, rice, etcetera. And I was continuing with this and that was like I said 2 1/2 years ago. And I was really keeping a low fat because I always wanted to be show ready or photo ready. So my fat was probably under 3040 grams forever for three years. It's crazy, low, man. Oh my gosh, dude. Yeah. And there's a story. I can run off with this too, but I would have those insane cheap
meals, right? Like, everybody, Builder thinks, you know, they're extremely healthy and their diet's extremely healthy and there's no, like, there's really no, like, unhealthy mental. Push towards anything if you eat like that. Well, I just thought that I made myself diabetic because my cheat meals were so just extensive. I mean, I would eat a plate of brownies, a large pizza, cereal, ice cream, Like, I would just go overboard, dude, and really let my cravings take over and I lost control.
So extremely unhealthy, right? If you look back. So the diabetic was. The reason I thought I was diabetic was because I was having episodes of like passing out. So I would be doing something like fully functional, you know, like at this time I had, you know, three jobs, plus I owned a business and I was running around. Then all of a sudden I wouldn't necessarily hit the ground, but I couldn't communicate and I couldn't really move it. I became mute and frozen.
And it was like every 15 it would happen for like 15 seconds. And then I'd snap back in and whoever I was around, they were like, what is happening, what's going on? Started really freaking my wife out and like all men, you know, I was stubborn. I was like, no, I got this especially, you know, I was in the military. So I pulled that mentality too. I was just like, Nah, it's whatever. And I'm going to run my body into the ground.
Well, it start happening. Those episodes went from 15 seconds to about 30 minutes in length, and it started happening at work. It started happening when I was driving as well. So thankfully, you know, I didn't kill. I've never killed anybody doing anything like that, or you know, I never got in a wreck. I was able to quickly pull off before it happened, so I really
couldn't drive for a good while. And then it just kind of went into every other symptom that you can, I mean do everything and you can, we can pull from there. And that's really the start of all of it. I don't know if you have any questions at this point, but I can keep going or what. Yeah. Had you ever done any blood testing to see kind of if your sugar was really high or really low or checked your blood pressure or anything like? That so obviously I had.
Gone to the doctor, you know what I mean? Yearly or even every other year and I would have like odd things pop up, liver, kidney function. But when all this started happening, I did start going to the ER. Especially when you know, it was happening at work and when I was driving and there were like weird things like like my light pace was really off in just like small numbers like that.
I guess my the further I went right and the more symptoms, the more testing, the more specialists I did and more things started to be off like my triglycerides, like my my lipid markers were it started to be off. Like I said, my liver, kidney functions were extremely low. Let me think, I'm trying to think what else? Yeah, just like you're in. My white blood cell count was extremely low, like things that it it wasn't. I was in the diseased state, right, because I was outside of
the markers. But it wasn't enough for anyone to be like, oh, let's see what's going on. They just kept telling me I looked healthy, which, you know, as I started learning, it was making me mad because I was like, you guys aren't pointing me in any direction. You're sending me to specialists at this point. And dude, they were just like poking and cutting me. Like I got cut open multiple times for lipoma, moles removed. So two neurologists, I was seeing people from my eyes.
Like I said, my skin, my heart had a whole heart work up. So like I did the POTS test all that stuff and really no one knew and they just wanted to kind of pass me off as depressed. And the main symptoms that you were getting were, were these passing out spells? So no, I guess OK, that was were the first symptoms and then it started going to extreme disassociation like I was losing the feeling and like half of my body, so like the left side of my body would go numb. I.
I had no energy. I had extremely like depressive bipolar type. Just instances, man, where my wife would come home from doing something, I'd be laying on the ground like scream crying like for help. Yeah, I forgot. And I just told this on a couple other podcasts. I literally forgot who my wife was, who my parents were for a little bit. I was bedridden for about 3 months. I just had no energy to do anything.
I pretty much accepted that I was dying at the time and started writing, you know, a letter. Will you call it to my wife and my phone? Because I was just like, all right, I'm dying. Like this is, this is the reality I need to start, you know, kind of chalking it up and planning for her. So I'm not, you know, just leaving her out to dry. And yeah, it it got pretty crazy. And like, what was they weren't really giving you any direction as to what the the the cause was.
What was your mind thinking at this time? Like, did you think it was food related, Lifestyle related? Did you think there's some weird genetic ailment that you had? Like what was your mind thinking? So once I got past complete despair, right and I was praying. Like through this whole time I was praying. For an answer to get healthy. And then I started praying to just be able to die, dude, because I was so just like gone and I had given up and it wasn't
happening. So finally I started digging in. I started learning about functional health. I started studying from naturopathic doctors. I started reading books and I was like and I started doing testing on my own. So I did get certified under a naturopath. Dr. I guess. But he taught me how to retest. So I started doing tests on my own, like my cortisol, my hormones. Then I started doing some gut function tests, like the OAT test, and really just seeing my body was extremely stressed.
There was a bunch of stuff that was extremely off, like bacteria wise, and I just started basically piecing things together. I did do a bunch of protocols. I don't know. If they were beneficial at all really, because when I started this journey I was kind of the medical medium, vegetarian fruititarian approach and it made me sick, made me super sick. I don't know if you've ever heard of medical medium, but it's high and obviously antinutrients, oxalates and
things like that. So it made me super sick before I found the animal based and carnivore diet and it honestly it was just like slowly researching and. My body got to the point of like no return and I I had to. This was the only other option basically. And like what was your like you said you were modeling, so I guess you had put the pause button on pretty much all career pass at that point? Oh, dude, everything. I mean, so me and my wife and we do have a partner.
We own a gym here in Ohio, and I hadn't even walked in it in a year and a half. Like, nothing. No. I didn't talk to anyone. I think I saw my family maybe, and my family. I mean my mom and dad maybe like five times in a year and a half. It was like, I mean, I was basically writing myself off from everywhere. What was the the catalyst that took you from totally embracing death and being at peace with
the fact that you were dying? Or maybe not at peace with it, but just the reality of that association to? Starting to gain hope like what was what was that trajectory? It was actually a friend of mine who is a chiropractor. He was the last I guess like doctor type, right that I had seen. I went to him and me and my wife have seen again at this time so many specialists and. We went in there and we're balling because we can't hold it in. And everyone's turning us away.
And he just looked at me and he said your body can heal because obviously chiropractors stand behind the power that makes the body, heals the body. And he said I'm going to get in the boat with you and I'm not getting out. And that's what shifted everything. I was like, Oh my gosh, there is a light. My body can do this. I just got to, I got to figure it out. What was your wife thinking throughout this whole time? Like, was she? Yeah, I can't imagine what this would be like for her.
Yeah, she it took a toll on her. And she's had to, you know, work with coaches and things to really bring herself back because she had to be my wife. But she had to take care of us financially, what she was able to do. So, and that's an absolute blessing for that. She had to be my counselor, my doctor, you know, she had to be all those things that she should have never had to.
So it took a huge toll on her. And every time I would learn something new is kind of like Eureka moment, you know? So when I was studying the vegetarian lifestyle and all these supplements, all these protocols, I was like, I found the answer And then she would watch me just stay sick or get worse and it was just like, I don't know, she was becoming
numb. Because when you were in the thick of it, I'm assuming you you weren't training all that extensively, so you probably weren't binging near as much. No. Yeah, I I took because I noticed my cortisol was so high, so I was borderline Cushings, but I didn't look, you know the part of Cushings. I didn't have the stretch marks. I wasn't obese like. So I took probably a year off and the only time I would.
Train would be when I would get super like disgruntled and I was like, you know what, I'm going to try to just run my body into the ground. So I would go on like a five mile run, Six Mile run and do they would put me down for like a week, literally in bed for a week because I just couldn't recover and I'm so sick. Know what you know now what do you think, like the, the primary catalyst for all that was, like what do you think the, the mechanism was?
So knowing what I know now, man, I could take it back to, you know, many things that I did when I was a young child, many sicknesses like that I was given antibiotics for, and I didn't really allow my immune system to fight or get over the way I should. Obviously diet, lifestyle, trauma. And then you just build on that,
right. And then you know there there was that stent where I lowered my fat and what what does that do to your cellular function, your brain function, your immune system, you know you're I was kind of taking it. And then that's when genetics, you know, kind of play a role when you're not doing a thing things epigenetically, right, your genetics. Can take over. So Alzheimer's dementia is super high in my family and I do carry the one of the the genes that predisposes me to it.
So that's kind of the avenue I started going down, yeah. That's why, man, I can't imagine 30 grams of fat for three years, you know, on end. I mean, I guess when you were binging that you were having periods, that was higher dietary fat, I would think, right? Yeah, absolutely. But. It was like, you know what I mean? It was never a good source. It was always like Snickers or something like that.
But the story I wanted to branch off and tell you, when I was doing that and I was competing, I was doing cardio twice a day, right, running just off cortisol and a dream. I remember going into the gym, I was working at local gym here to Ohio and I walked in the bathroom and. You know those moments where your your body just kind of takes over and you don't have to really think about it?
Well, that was happening to me and when I did click like my brain clicked back on, I ended up peeing in a trash can in that in that gym that I had worked worked out in like know it very well, could even draw a diagram now of what the bathroom looks like. I was peeing in a trash can. So. My fat had been so low and I was running purely on just like a cortisol spike, that my body was like, no, you can't do this. My brain wasn't operating at
all. Having dietary fat that like I've competed against guys that would go as far as to remove fish oil pills from their diet to get their dietary fat down. You know crazy amounts there at the end and it's like everything tanks like hormonal function totally gone 0 libido. Zero energy, like everything, just totally, completely shuts down on you. I mean, every cell in our body is encapsulated in a lipid bilayer. If you don't have any dietary fat coming in, you are not going
to function as a human should. No, not at all. And it's crazy because if you look at back at babies, that just makes so much sense. I mean, there's so many other angles you could look at, right? But like, if we just did, it's almost like if Phd's, and I'm not like harping on Phd's, but we'll just say like. Education. If it didn't get so involved with just the simple things in life, we'd be so much better, right?
But it's corruption here, shifts here that ultimately lead of us, lead us to this just unhealthy lifestyle that we find ourselves in. Yeah, I'm all for education. I feel like people get so myopic with education, particularly in like the nutrition space with certain studies, that they forget the they forget how to think.
Critical they they just get so myopic towards what a study shows or a small sample size or some you know, obscured data point that they don't know how to think rationally from an objective critical standpoint. And it's crazy cuz like all the stuff that we're now learning about nutrition is the stuff that we were doing by default 500 years ago because it was the sensible thing to do. Yeah. No, I mean, yeah, I completely agree.
It's. There's such a, it's there's such a just disconnection, right. You got people who are maybe studying things and I do believe the intentions are are great, right? But they're the disconnect is like I can study something and now I'm just like regurgitating knowledge or I'm not actually seeing what is happening we'll say out in the real world, right? And there just is an extreme disconnection. Yeah, 100%, man. So, so talk to me about the the recovery short what did that
look like? You, you went to this chiropractor, he gave you hope. And then what? So then I started. Really. I did start to implement some supplements. I was at this point. I was also having extreme histamine reactions to everything, so I was so reactive to everything. Which that's ultimately why it led me to an animalbased diet too, because I couldn't take anything without getting extremely sick. And all of my symptoms related back to like neurological based
issues, right. So ultimately, you know, I would try something and it was like man, I feel a little better, but now this is making me feel awful what's going on. And then I would have to kind of, you know, go back to the drawing board. I would take this out And then one of my buddies he's, you know, good old farm boy, he's a sniper here in Ohio, dude, just a heck of a dude. He was like, well, I've been doing this carnivore thing for a long time and I think you should try it.
So I did try it for two weeks, and then I allowed people to sway my opinion and I didn't research it the way I should have. So I stopped it and then I went to other things and obviously those paths didn't lead me anywhere. And then I eventually came back and I started really studying, listen to podcasts, listen to all of these just really brilliant people. And that's when I got on the animal based approach, right, the Paul Saladino style approach. And you know, I was doing really great.
There was a few hiccups here with, you know, all the organ supplements. I ran into something there. And then with the sugar, I noticed my yeast issues because I had extreme yeast, extreme can can. Candida, Candida in my body, sorry. And it was just growing. So toenail fungus, jock itch and tenea versus collar was just growing all over my body. So I was like, obviously I'm feeding this, you know, Sugar's
feeding this. So then that led me to strict carnivore and you know, started reducing going away. And then I just started feeling phenomenal. My brain started. Functioning at a level that it had never really functioned. I mean, never I went from being. I was never like OCD or anything like that. But I was always like anxious and a little edgy and it was like calming me down. I could think I've now read.
I mean, I was never a big reader, but at this point I think I've read 23 books so far this year and listened to, you know, several more. So my brain is just functioning at a higher rate. My body is healing fast, faster and I don't have to work out as hard. So it's just like been extremely beneficial and I haven't even you know, I've only been doing it for a year, so when you think lifetime, that's not long at all.
Not long at all man. And so when you're doing the the animal based via Saldino's approach was was that he's kind of switched several times is that with all the fruit that he was recommending for the while. Yes, I was trying to keep it, I guess low glycemic, more so like berries and stuff. And I was obviously trying to stay organic, stay away from the pesticides and stuff because I did test for glyphosate and I had a significant amount in my body as well.
So yeah, I was just trying to keep it there. I did like pineapple obviously, you know, that's drastically different than. Berries, but it does have the enzymes, digestive enzymes in it that I was, you know, kind of thinking. But ultimately I just had to pull it all out because as I said, you know, the yeast was becoming a bigger, a bigger issue. Yeah, and you mentioned histamines too.
I've had a few clients that had extreme, you know, histamine responses to the point where, like, they can't just simply eat. You know, carnivore, that they have to go as deep as to where they're sourcing those meats, because if it's age too long, there's gonna be an increase in histamine there they're gonna respond poorly to. Have you had any issues with that? So I did for a little bit and mainly it would come from if I like compiled higher histamine animal based food.
So if I was like consuming like bacon or like hot dogs like even though they were beef. Good to go type hot dogs. If I consumed a significant amount of like packaged meats, I would get a histamine reaction. Now I no longer get any of those, but yeah, I did. I was extreme. So I can relate to those clients. Yeah, that's like next level, man. I've only had two clients all the years I've been coaching that have had that extreme hispan response.
But like when you go so far as to go Carnivore. Like you have as they're, you know, removal of all the noise from the equation. But then you have to take the next level of being just incredibly mindful of where you're sourcing it, because if it's age too long, you're gonna have an increase in histamines there like that. I can't even comprehend that, Like, that's just wild to me. But the clients that have had that had to go that way.
I mean, like you just gain a whole new appreciation for what quality food is. Oh no, absolutely. And that is the cool thing too, man. It's like. There's purpose and pain. So I mean, and I can't, you know, speak for those clients, but for myself, like this journey has made me significantly grateful for where I'm getting my food, the quality of food. You know, this animal had to die
to be on my plate. And you know, I don't want to, I don't want to sound in any way, but like, I'm extremely grateful for that, so. There is a connection that I didn't have before, that I now have because of what I went through and many other things, right? But it's just one of those things.
You can either look back and be like, oh, this is, you know, crappy woes me, or you can be like, you know what, I'm grateful that I get to eat this, even though some may think it's limited, but it's healing to me. You know what I mean? No, I think that's absolutely the right way to look at the way that everybody should look at it like when. I've worked with clients that have had some type of ailment, even if it's something more known, like just diabetics for
instance. Like they don't have the ability to eat all this crap food and still function at a high level. So it's like they're that much more motivated to get things dialed in if the everyday person, the general public that didn't have these ailments, took that type of, you know, priority and focus towards eating their diet better. Or eating food better that they would.
I mean, they would just be on a whole nother level, but because they're able to kind of skate by that, because it didn't have that profound negative impact wing on day-to-day, they just simply sweep it under the rug. Yeah, it's like, how long will they actually skate by, though, You know what I mean? Because everyone gets not everyone, but a lot of people get a scary diagnosis and they're just like, how did this
happen? It's like if you would pull yourself out, you know, third party perspective, take a look at your life. Do you really need to ask that question? Yeah. 100% man So what is the typical day of eating look like for you Now? You're doing the just hardcore strict corner for you didn't mention the e-mail that you will include coffee from this time to time, but you're pretty specific on your coffee.
Yeah, so I, you know, I look into everything I put in my body now, especially because most of the stuff I do recommend, you know what I mean? So I don't want to recommend something that I haven't done my research on or I haven't specifically taken myself. I'm just not that coach. I'm not that guy. So yeah, I do have coffee.
I like, like Life Boost. I've done Danger Coffee before from Dave Asbury. You know, I just really look for like the the mold, free coffee, the regularly rigorously tested coffee companies that kind of stand behind, you know, that stamp. Life with that one. Life boost. Yeah, it's a it's a it's a quality coffee. I don't. Let's check them out. Like, yeah, they're good. They're good to go and it's really good.
Yeah, I've been. I cut coffee out for three months and then I had like my first cup of coffee last weekend after having three months for zero coffee. And I don't know, I'm probably gonna bring coffee back in, but probably be a little more specific as to what coffee I use. Yeah, and ultimately, like, it's one of those things we're gonna here's here's what I started asking and I think everyone needs to kind of just come to grunts with this, like. You're going to die.
It's going to happen. Do you want it to be when you're 8090, a hundred? Absolutely. Everybody you know kind of wishes that, but the you need to enjoy things in life. So the way I started looking at coffee is like it gave me a moment in time with my wife to spend. We do our devotions like that is greater to me than any potential danger that coffee could have from, you know, Oxlitz or anything like that, so. It just the moment weighed more than you know the potential.
You know, not good things, right? Yeah, no, I think that's a really great perspective to have. And I think that's that holds true with a lot of things within the nutrition space and everybody's getting so, you know, dialed in, which is great, but like ethics, like they're majoring in the minors and so many things and there's all this fear mongering around. Every little thing, and I'm all for doing the best you can with
what you got. But like at the same time, if one of the highlights of your day is having a glass of wine with your significant on the porch while you watch the sunset or a cup of coffee with your wife in the morning as you plan the day Like. The benefits of that from like a psychological and emotional standpoint are probably going to significantly outweigh any of the physiological negatives for most people. No 100%, I completely agree.
Completely agree. So apart from the coffee, what what else is your diet typically consists of on a day-to-day basis? Yeah, so you know, my big ones are bacon, eggs, really any style. I've been on this hard boiled egg kick. My wife's been crushing the game with those, so I've been having those. I do burgers, steak. We bought a. Half cow and we actually have another one coming, just stocking up just in case. I'm kind of one of those not preppers, but I like to be ready
for all things, right? So that's, that's really it. I do take Paleo Valley Fish Row, obviously because I don't consume a lot of fish. I live in Ohio. We can't get a lot of quality fish. At least at our local groceries. So I do the fish row brain benefits, right. And I've kind of determined that is beneficial for me. Obviously like circulation type things too that I want from that. But yeah, like today I had. What, 6 or 8 eggs? And I had four Schweidensen burgers.
I say that because they're extremely fatty. I think if you eat four of them, it's like 14 or 1600 calories. Man, they're dense. Schweidensen. Like, Is that like a strain of beef? I've never heard of that. So it's a it's a company. How do you spell that? SCHWEID and then just and Sons. Yeah, it's a company and their burgers are fatty, man. That's why I like them, because I can only, you know, I can eat four of them, plus some eggs. And I'm already at, you know,
2000 calories. How are you consuming all the oils get cooked out of the burgers when you cook them. Say that again, please. Are you grilling or you like putting them on a skillet? Yeah, so we have a black, black stone, black top, basically big, big skillet. And that's how I grill them. And then do you just like try and scoop all that fat that gets cooked off and then drizzle that back on top? Yeah, somewhat a little bit sometimes, you know, I may throw some butter on there as well
still. But yeah, and my meals generally look like that. And maybe I'll throw in some bacon or a steak, but generally they look like that I'm probably consuming 3500 calories on a low end and maybe 5000 higher end. Nice. So you're taking in pretty good deal of food for sure. And what what's your activity like now? I'm assuming you're back in the gym grounding it out there? Yeah. So like I said, I don't have to work out near as hard and I look
just as good. It's kind of crazy and that's one of the benefits of this diet, I do believe. But I probably work out. We'll just average it out at like 45 minutes. I've never been like a. A big rest set kind of guy. So I kind of have 3 workouts, Group 3 workouts together and then go from one to the other and my only break will be when I walk to something else. Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty much the same way, man.
Like, I'm not one of these types that sits on their phone for 5 minutes between sets, just not my jam. No, it's that's boring and I'm in there to get something done and honestly, like, I got so much other stuff going on that. If I take from it, or if I take from spending time with my wife, I'm like, what am I doing? Yeah, totally. Are you doing like a specific body part split or how do you have that structured? So that's kind of crazy. Recently I went to a functional pattern course.
I guess I got certified. Because I wanted to see what it was all about, right? Because we have all these ailments, whether it be low back, maybe a shoulder wing, scapula or whatnot, tight hamstrings. So I wanted to get to the healing side of that without doing workouts that we're done in like a saginal plane, right? So just like your typical deadlift, squat bench, which.
I've always believed in these, you know, my background was football, military, so I've always, you know, competed in some level, especially in the weight room. So I went to this course and we were doing a lot of rotational crossbody cable type workouts. It's very hard to explain, just kind of talking about it, but it basically is based on running form, fighting form, full extension, inflection in areas that need it. And that's what I've been doing
for the past two weeks. And to be honest, like my body feels phenomenal. I don't know at this point, you know, if my squat or my bench has gone down or up, but like as far as movement base, walking base or even jiu jitsu type, you know, I've gotten better. So what does like a? Like if you're doing 3 exercises in a given day, Like what? What would what today's exercise look like by chance? OK, so I did, I did walking lunges. I did have a curl like barbell on my back, you know, like the
ones that come on a rack. And I focused on a like running style movement. So I was twisting my hips, I was leaning down like putting flexion, like hard flexion in my spine, really focusing on the rotation of my hips, right. So. Again, it's hard to kind of explain everything, but maybe that gives you a a good explanation. So I would do that, and I would do that for, let's say 50 meters. And then I would go into a kettlebell swing, but crossbody.
So I would pull it from one shoulder, swing it all the way across both my knees. And obviously still spinal extension, things like that. And then flip it back up. I would do that. And then let's see what else did I add in that I did a I don't know how to explain this. Move it another kettlebell spinal rotation, movement basically where I just again fixed my position, held a kettlebell a straight out in front of me and then I just
rotated, rotated. Keeping my arms straight, my back firm and like pushing the kettlebell to the left horizontally, if that makes sense. So like I wasn't like really swinging. I was using complete muscle contraction to move the kettlebell and then I would bring it down. I can't think of what that's called, but that that for instance, that would be like one set, right? A lot of spinal rotation, a lot of of natural movement, but added with. Strength and posture.
Correction. And you've been doing this. Stop training for how long now, you said? Roughly like 2 weeks. And have you, I'm curious, man, you guys like do like a squat or deadlift or something just to see what the strength carries over? Yeah, no, absolutely. I do know my grip, obviously, because I'm doing a lot of like kettle bell work, right? Or even may spell stuff. My grip is getting a lot stronger. So I will have to do that.
I did do trap bar deadlift today as well but on that I added a little spin. So if you think running form right like 11 arm should be extended in front of the body. So I added a rotation where one of my arms would be in front of my left foot right like I'm rotating the trap bar completely and then I'll lift and rotate. And my left arm would then be in front of my right leg, if that makes sense, right? So there's a rotation to that. Yeah. OK. I'm following you.
Yeah. I would imagine there's a lot of crossover between that and just like lifestyle stuff, like your ability to run up a mountain is probably better now. Oh, for for sure. Just like plain old walking has improved, right? Because I we would call it like swag, but. It goes back to that like nose over toes, like structural and muscular like support. That's kind of what it's based off of too. So everything has improved. Yeah, I have been doing a lot
more mobility stuff myself. Like I've been doing that knees over toes ATG program for the past several months, trying to get more, I don't know, focusing more so on the deflection component than just the extension component. And that's seems to be making a difference for sure, cuz I feel like a lot of. Any of the little nagging injuries I've gotten over the years have been because certain areas of my body are overpowering others and there just needs to be an overall balance.
Yeah. So I was doing that for a little while as well. You know, like the Jefferson Curls, are you doing that stuff and where you're lunging and obviously you're extending the knee, Yeah, that that stuff is extremely beneficial, or at least I believe it is. Are you still doing modeling too, or no? No. So I haven't picked that back up. There have been times where I'm like, man, I wanna kind of get back into this.
But I will say I was hitting a point where modeling in my faith were kind of colliding because I was being asked to do things that I wasn't comfortable with. Gotcha. And risque modeling? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense man. What's your normal go to style of modeling? So. Most of the stuff I did just like photos, working with photographers, but I actually did get the opportunity to walk in the New York Fashion show when I was doing it. That was a pretty cool experience.
Nice, nice. Yeah. I always, for whatever reason, when I was a kid, I always wanted to be a model, that man, it's so cool. People get paid to, like, get their picture taken like that. For whatever reason, that just made a lot of sense to me. But I don't think I've got the look for modeling. So instead I decided to just make my own apparel company and then I could model my own stuff and that would be my way to become a model. But there you go.
I mean that that works out. You you dictate, then no one's telling you what to do. You know, I like that. Exactly. And you still own the gym, right? Yes, we do. So talk to me about that, man. What is gym ownership like? What kind of gym is it? So it's kind of. Encompasses everything. It's not necessarily like a CrossFit gym or anything like that. It's pretty much like a full-fledged facility. You know what I mean? Hall of Heroes. Hall of Heroes, I'm gonna Google it.
Yeah, so like I said, veteran owned gym. That's where you got the theme of it kind of mixes the veteran I deal with a little bit of a little bit of faith makes your clang and bang type gym, you know. Yeah, we've got cardio section free weights. We got you know some some unique style equipment like vertical leg presses, prime based equipment, we got some cool stuff. You had a big facility man. It's like good looking gym. Yeah. It's like 12,000 square feet. Nice.
Nice is owning the gym. Well, how long have you had the gym? So we'll be coming up on six years in August. Nice. Has it been an overall positive for you both, like, you know, psychologically, financially, or is it like owning a gym like this massive headache. I've heard both sides of the spectrum from people have had on the podcast. Some people say it's amazing and other people say this is the worst thing ever. Don't recommend it to anybody.
So I guess we've kind of been. Both sides, right? We didn't take any money from the gym for really the first like five years of owning it. So just recently we started taking money from it because we were dumping it all back into the gym to get it paid off. We had the ability to do so because we were making money outside of it, right? So as far as financial gain, we didn't see a lot of money. That was directly paid to us. Now we do have the ability to you know kind of pay off the gym.
So it's going to be an an an asset like a very good asset, right, to make any moves in the future. It's been a ministry. So that's been extremely beneficial. We've been able to help a lot of people, a lot of families and not to like to our horn by any means, but I think we've donated like. Three cars to people. It's just been kind of crazy.
It's awesome man. And I'm assuming like from a gym standpoint, cuz like your gym, these based off of the the website is not like your traditional corporate gym like a Planet Fitness or Crunch Fitness or LA Fitness. So like with all of those gyms popping up seeming like every corner now like how do you compete with them cuz they're all having these massively low rock bottom prices because
they're all corporate. And they just have the ability to do so. So you can't really compete with them and stand as you got to kind of carve your own niche out basically. Yeah. And that's kind of what we've done. And it's it's crazy that you say that because I would probably say we literally have a Planet Fitness in our our same strip. Like I could probably hit it with a rock. Yeah, and that they haven't taken too many members from you.
No, I mean they took some right, but not our niche down members because. So I've always operated the gym as you know you want to help her people. So that's kind of what we all should do. We want to serve people and then I want to bring in people that want to be here. I don't want to just take your money if you're not going to show up.
So that's kind of how we've always operated and you know that brings like a community and then obviously like word of mouth people are like this is legit gym and our members, you know our members are the ones that come 3456 days a week. Yeah, No, that's what you want, man. I'm assuming the main like startup cost is the facility and then just I guess you're, you know, having to buy all the equipment. So there's like a loan on all the equipment, cuz that stuff ain't cheap either.
No. So yeah, we actually bought an existing or an existing and failing gyms what we did and yeah it wasn't, wasn't cheap and. Yeah, like I said, we're able to pay it off this year. So I basically when I bought it, I went in thinking, okay, if I had to kill myself working, would I be able to pay this loan off? And I was like, but I think I could. So that's what ultimately, you know, I was like okay, let's pull this trigger. Nice. Yeah, I feel like. I don't know, man. Like, I've been.
So I've got my own little facility here that was like our private little gym. But then I'll train in a few local gyms that one of my good friends that I work at was sometime. He owns his own gym. It's like that old school, you know, like Gold's Gym, like an old school Gold's Gym. And there's just like a certain vibe that you get that you can't get anything like a Planet Fitness or LA Fitness. So like in that environment, even if it sucks if you're working nonstop, putting in 17
hour days. Like to be able to wake up, go to the gym, smell the chalk in the ear and the sweat and like, hear the weights clanking, but know that it's all yours. Like, it's easy to kind of get behind that and do whatever you got to do to make it work. No, absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, yeah, the community, the environment, dude, it's like you just, you can't find it. And nowadays even more so because everyone's kind of staying in their homes or. They're doing all this stuff.
So when you do walk in a place like that and you know you're you're talking to these people, you're getting involved in their life and then now you're like let's go get it up. You know, it's it's it's really good. 100% man. Speaking of that, you mentioned people stay in their homes. Like what in the world did y'all do throughout the pandemic? So we did out of fear, I guess we did close down for I think two months and then outside of that we operated normal.
Because a lot of cops in our community or like, we won't shut you down if anything comes down the pipeline. Because you know, our gym is where a lot of cops, military members, all these people come in. So I was like, all right, we're not getting shut down. And ultimately if I have to leave, I'll just leave the doors unlocked and you guys still come in here and get after it.
Yeah, that's awesome, man. That's when you know you got good patrons that, like if they're sticking up for you, they kind of, you know, on that front, like you have to worry about anything. Yeah, yeah, we have. Our our members, man, they're family and they're great. That's awesome, man. Very cool. So talking about this, are you still maybe not limited to say yet? Are you still kind of dabbing on the idea of making your own product as well?
So it's something I I want to see obviously how hard it would be, you know, because I like to, I like to dive in so many things, which sometimes is a very bad thing, right? But I just see an opportunity. And I just want to know kind of the ins and outs and then go from there. Yeah, that's really kind of where I'm at with it. Totally, man. Have you tried the brooks yet? Have I sent you some of those? I can't remember. If I Yes, we actually carry them in our gym. Oh sweet. Very cool man.
Yeah, so carry them in the gym. And this is actually one thing I sent. Sent to you is when I got out of the military, so me. And my, my partner, he's actually a Lieutenant Colonel still in the military, so he's pretty high up there in the Marine Corps. We came out and I was like, man, we've got to do something about these Amber Rees because they're just garbage. Yeah, they're poisoning, you know, our, our people. I was like, we need to figure out how to create a sustainable
meal replacement. That's just not awful. And that is what ultimately, you know, obviously with this Ave. that I kind of find myself on was like, man. These bars are amazing. Heck yeah, man. Well, if there's, I mean if there's anything I can do to help facilitate that, man, let me know. We had the there was a study there on the bricks. I think I sent the link to that. So they're shown from a from a
study standpoint. We're kind of talking about the studies at the beginning of this, but maybe that'll make some people that have the powers to be impressed, I don't know. But yeah man, I think. Because what we're doing right now does not make sense. Like I haven't had an MRE in a long time, but last time I had an MRE like they're typical they they have that like a packet of peanut butter packet of crackers and then like some super heavy rice based or Carbladdin thing.
But honestly not that much protein or quality dictary fat. Any of the fat that is in there is like some processed vegetable fat. So it's. Like. Yeah. From a performance standpoint like if that's what we're giving our guys that are be, they're being asked to. You know, hold the line and be optimized and fight to defend the country. Like I would not be want to be eating that shit on the frontline.
No. And I mean, how long can you sustain it before it's like, you know, we're losing, we're losing effectiveness, right? Yeah, 100%. And yeah, the MREI mean they've probably got that dialed into my cost standpoint when they can produce those things at scale and it cost pains on the dollar, but that's not an area that I would think is worthwhile to skimp on. Regardless of the price like you, I mean, you're only as good as the fuel you're consuming. Not 100% a 100% agree.
So yeah, man, if there's anything I can do to help in any way move that needle forward, by all means, man, let me know, brother. Absolutely, I will. What I'll do is I'll contact him, see any avenues that he might think that he's connected, and then I'll shoot it back over to you. Well, let me. Shoot me a good shipping address for him too, or I can send him to you and you can hook him up. But I'll. I'll get him whatever bricks he needs, man. Okay. For sure.
What else is in the pipeline for you, man? You get they get the potential products you're working on, you get the gym. What else is taking your time that you're all healthy and robust, man. You probably get all the energy to do everything in the world. Yeah. So man, yeah, I'm just, I guess I'm studying more because ultimately. And it's kind of in the works, I guess from the gym. I think I'm going to open start a clinic where I am bringing the functional health side of things.
You know, I want to get involved in peptides and hyperbaric chamber type stuff. So I want to offer that to people because there's nowhere really close that does that
where I'm where I'm from. And I just want to give people, you know, that hope that I found with my chiropractor who actually, you know, there could be a potential partnership there where, you know, people can come say they get diagnosed with whatever, you know, autoimmune or cancer and they can come in, you know, and get a a plan to treat it naturally. You know, that's kind of what I envisioned there. Totally, man. So are you getting pretty regular adjustments from your chiropractor?
So I do once a week still. And you notice a pretty profound positive impact there. Oh 100% And now adding in this like functional pattern movement. It's insane. What kind of chiropractor are you using? Cuz I feel like I'm jaded against chiropractors but I feel like I just because the ones I've gone to like I went to one that was upper cervical.
So all they did was like tap the very upper cervical with like a little bolt gun and that was literally the extent of it, which I would imagine is probably nuts what I needed. Yeah, no. So mine is like Handson. He does, you know, manual manipulations. It's not a a tap style method. I know exactly what you're talking about. Little tap gun, Yeah, yeah, they don't do that. I have to give. Another one, a good shot there. Are you doing anything else from like a like a mobility standpoint?
You get the the, the movements with with the train that you're doing differently. You've got the chiropractor. Are you doing like like like saunotherapy, cold plunge, cryotherapy, stuff like that? No. However, I do plan to purchase a cold plunge soon, and that would also be in the in the clinic. But I do sit in front of a red light. I try to every morning, especially because in Ohio, you know, it's not always sunny. So at least I'm getting some type of light, a little, a
little bit of the spectrum. But outside of that, no, I don't stretch. I just the Cairo and the functional movement. Nice man. 26 books in so far this year. What are you reading right now? So I'm reading a book. It's called Understanding the Heart by Dr. Steven Hussey. He's a man who had a heart attack. Yeah, dude, it's a it's a great book. I'm reading The Silver Chair, which is a Chronicles of Narnia book, so I'm trying to finish
the whole series on that. I'm reading business made simple couple devotionals and then I try to read a little bit of the Bible every day as well. Do you typically read in the morning? In the evening? Throughout the day? When's your go to reading time? In the morning and at night. Nice. Yeah. I'm A at the different times in my life, I'm a more voracious reader than others.
I feel like I've been just stuck on audio books lately, so I'd been listening to audio books a lot while driving, which I do like much more so than listen to music while driving. But I definitely feel like you can't replace the benefit that comes from just reading an oldfashioned book. No, I completely agree. And there's something like I've got a. A bookshelf, man. I've never really had anything like that. So I'm really like, I don't know, connected to my books,
right? And I like looking back and being over, like, let me read that again, see what I need to pick up, do. You journal at all or no? So I've gone through periods of journaling when I was really sick, I I tried to do. So I do write things, you know, like I have two, let's call it planners. So where I'm writing like. Gratitude. Daily affirmations. Like what would make today great? What did I learn today? Highlights of the day, Stuff like that.
I I asked because I've never really been one for journaling either. But I've had a few moments in my life where I actually have been consistent with it, and my nighttime reading routine right now has been rereading some of my 2017 journal, which is when I started the business. Was doing my first ketogenic competition prep and was just like broke out of my mind. So just like not in a good place financially at all, but reading that and it's also when I
started dating. Crystal is my wife now and all the strategies that we were going through, so like reading a journal, like a lot of people journal real time because they're trying to plan out their day. But I feel like the main benefit for me, at least with journaling, is to go back and read where I've come from. To just solidify that I'm on the right trajectory in life based off of where I am now and I feel like that is super valuable.
Oh, absolutely. You're basically talking about being grateful, man, You know what I mean? 100 percent, 100%. So yeah, I'm trying to trying to make that more of a consistent habit for sure for. Sure love that. I love it, man. Well, Trevor, you are an interesting guy. You've got all kinds of cool things in the in the works. I appreciate how far you've come. I'm excited for how far you've come.
I mean, shoot, getting getting your health back and not feeling debilitated, not being on the brink of death, like having that perspective. It just opens doors to like like you'll never have to wonder what would you do if you felt like you had tomorrow. Because now you've got tomorrow. Amen, Sir. That's that's the truth. Yeah, it's wonderful thing. Amen to that. Where do people go to find out more about you, man?
Dive a little deeper. So I'm really just active on my Instagram. I don't know if I'm gonna kind of kick anything else off cuz I like, you know, my space too. I like to put stuff out there, but it's just Trevor Lee 89 is where you can find me. Awesome. Well, we'll definitely get to that. Make it easy for people to find you. Yes, on a podcast, man. Like, I know you want your privacy, but I could totally see you rock in the podcast world. I thought about it, man. And, and maybe I will.
So who knows? Gonna like have a podcast studio like in the office of the gym and then just bring in cool gym patrons, especially since a lot of them are veterans. And then just like pick their brain and they can be like super short 10 minute episodes. But like that would be not too much of A time commitment from you or them. But that would be a really cool, you know list of conversations that I think, I mean I would certainly won't listen to it anyways. Yeah, that would be cool.
That's a really good idea. Yeah. Well shoot, man. Trevor, if there's anything I could ever do for your brother, by all means hit me up, Let me know. Happy to help with anything, anytime. And keep in touch, ma'am. Absolutely. I appreciate you greatly and I would extend the same thing to you. Yes indeed. Take care Trevor. Take care all. Right. See you, brother.