Podcast Transcription: 47-Year Old Successful Broker Stopped Working Hard At The Gym. Here’s How He Lost 20lbs & Was Shocked About What Happened Next To His Business & Family (In An Awesome Way)

Ted Ryce: Hey, what’s up, Trevor? Thanks for coming on the show today and sharing your story.

Trevor: Yeah, no problem.

Ted Ryce: So let’s jump right in. First, can you introduce yourself? Can you talk about the amazing transformation you had, how much weight you lost, what your body fat changed to, anything else that you want to share with people listening, and then we’ll dive into how all that happened.

Trevor: Sure. Quick introduction: Trevor. I live in Portland, Oregon, just have one of those epiphanies where I felt like it was time to get my butt back in shape. And my wife had been listening to your podcast for quite a while, and she turned me on to it. And it took a few months. And I finally got back from a trip and said, you know, it’s time for a change.

And I think at the time, I was right around 200 pounds. I didn’t feel like I was “overweight, but I wasn’t sleeping as well, a lot of stress. I still worked out a lot, and certainly wasn’t seeing the results from all the time I’d put in, in the gym. And so you and I started working together just over four months ago, and went from around 200 pounds down to a low of 176 and a half, about 180 right now. But that’s putting on some muscle back on, like we talked about.

So, in all honesty, it’s a complete body transformation. That’s obviously great. That part of it. But the other part that people don’t probably give enough credit to is just how much better I’m sleeping, how much, I’ll just say, less stress in my life, I’m able to deal with it more. And I just feel better and more productive at work. I’m leaner. I feel great. And that’s probably the best thing I’ve gotten out of it.

Ted Ryce: You feel great. That’s the best thing. Yeah. I mean, we kind of tell a story about oh, well, it’s just the weight, it doesn’t really matter. It’s more superficial. But what would you say to that?

Trevor: Well, yeah, I mean, again, I truly believe that once you go through the process, and if you really stick with it, you will have less stress. Even if you have the same stresses, you just deal with them better. So maybe it’s not less, it’s just the way you deal with them. The other thing is just for me, as you remember, Ted, I wasn’t sleeping very well.

And I think losing as much body fat as I did, has really helped my sleeping. And the nutritional aspects of what we do, yeah, it can be hard at the beginning, but it becomes a lot easier and it becomes kind of your way of life, so to speak. It’s not a chore. It’s sustainable.

And I think that’s one of the big keys as well. I think I went from over 18% body fat down to 12%. And that’s a pretty big change.  And that was only in about two and a half months. And so I’ll be curious to see where I am today. But it’s been a fun transformation.

Ted Ryce: Yeah, we’ve got to…Well, not you, but I have to be a little bit careful in sharing your story, because you had such an amazing transformation. And certainly, some people are capable of it. We’ve got another client—I showed you John’s transformation that was next level. Of course, he had a lot more fat than you to lose. He was not 18% body fat when he started, he was much more than that. But crazy transformation.

But I also love your story, because it’s an example… I feel like you were ready to take action. You were just like, okay, just tell me what to do. I’m going to go do it. I’m going to make it happen. Is that it? Can you share where you were, what your mindset was?

Trevor: I think you make this point on your podcast, is you have to be ready to do it. You can’t go into this thing and—excuse the expression—half ass it, right? You can’t. You’ve got to go in and you have to be ready mentally to go through the change. And luckily, I’ve reached a point where I was ready for a change. And I knew there’s some parts of my life that I wanted to improve.

And that’s actually a very good point. Because if you’re not mentally there, then you’re not going to have success. And then it’s going to be a frustrating experience, as opposed to one that you start seeing results. And you start feeling better about yourself. And yeah, I mean, there’s obviously the vanity part where you look better.

But I keep going back to just how I feel at the end of the day. That is such a big differentiator in the stresses that we’ve all had over the last couple of years. And with the world today, it’s good to have something that you can do for yourself that makes you have a goal and you set out every single day to accomplish something. And that’s been very beneficial for me.

Ted Ryce: Amazing. And let’s talk a little bit about your situation, what you were doing before. So you’ve mentioned that you’re training regularly. You’ve been doing that for a long time. Can you talk a little bit about what you were doing as far as training and maybe some of the other things that you’ve tried to get in shape in the past?

Trevor: And yeah, I mean, I lifted weights at least three days a week, I did the peloton, three days a week, I was high intensity interval training, I was sweating, I felt like I was getting these great workouts. And I mean, it was very kind of strange, either to plateau, or even to put on a few pounds. And I look at my pictures from before and after, and you just kind of go, “Man, that’s crazy.”

And I never thought I ate very poorly. And you make very good point, like if you want a sandwich, have a sandwich, right? But you’ve got to budget it for the day. So you just got to have…And that resonated with me. I can still have a turkey sandwich, but I don’t need to douse it in mayo and I may not have to have the whole sandwich, I can have half and I’m still satisfied at the end of the day like that.

There’s just things like that, that resonated for me, but I was a big snacker, like I would have french fries, and I would eat potato chips. I have three kids and there’s just stuff laying around. And that was a very easy thing for me to kind of give up, is just, you know, I still occasionally have a few potato chips, I occasionally have some french fries.

So I mean, if you deprive yourself of that stuff, I think you won’t be successful. But you can’t just sit there and eat the whole large french fry, or like you and I talked about you, you can’t eat the whole bag of cashews. Eat 15 of them and eat them slow and enjoy it. And I’m doing that more, I’m actually enjoying my food, probably more now, instead of just…I used to call it bored eating or just kind of sitting there throwing stuff in your mouth.

And I always just thought because I was athletic and I played college sports, I could get a workout, and so I could eat whatever I wanted to because I worked out so hard. And that’s just not really the case. And that’s what I found through your program.

Ted Ryce: Yeah, and let’s talk about that a little bit. One of the questions, I don’t get it much anymore, but a question that I’ve been asked so many times when I first started doing the coaching program is like, what are the foods that I’m going to have to eat? Because there’s this perception that it’s like, here are the foods I love to eat, and then here are these healthy foods that I should be eating, but I can’t stand them, they’re boring, or I just feel like I’m giving up my life. Now, you’ve never been on a diet? Is that correct? Like, a strict diet…

Trevor: No, I’ve never dieted in my life, until…And I don’t even call this a diet, by the way. This was just a lifestyle change.

Ted Ryce: A lifestyle change. work through it? I would love for you to give a little bit of a play by play so someone could understand like, what are the things that actually happen? Can you talk about what we did, what the challenges were, how you  It’s not that, hey, you like eating sandwiches? No more sandwiches. You’ve got to eat salad and chicken breasts. So can you share that?

Trevor: Yeah, I mean, you and I talked about this a lot, too. I do a lot of entertaining for my job. I have a lot of work dinners. I travel for business. Those are just things where you just have to be a little bit more disciplined when you go out to eat. I still have a filet mignon every couple of weeks, right? It’s not like I never had a steak anymore.

But am I getting the bone in ribeye? No, I’m not doing the bone in ribeye anymore. And it’s not even that I love those things. It was just, I felt like I could have a 1200 calorie steak and I’d be able to work it off the next day in the gym. Now you eat, you know, call it four to six ounce lean fillet and I have steamed vegetables on the side. If you want some mashed potatoes, have some, but have a small portion.

That’s what I’ve kind of realized through this and what works for me was more portion control. And not getting the spinach sauteed in butter. You get the steamed vegetables. I don’t miss that other stuff. I mean, then maybe that may be tough for some people, like you said, they’re like, “Oh, I’m going to miss all those things.” I don’t miss them.

The other misnomer is, and I know you don’t drink anymore. But a lot of people who go into this thing, they have friends who part of their social life is going out for drinks and cocktails. So yeah, at the beginning, you’re not going to drink, right? You may have a glass of wine once a week or something, but you can still, as long as it fits in your budget, have a glass of wine at night a few times a week or two glasses of wine, like I’ve had when I go out to entertain, and you just don’t over indulge, you don’t wake up hungover.

So you’re able to do your workouts and you’re able to stay on the, I’m not going to say the nutrition path, but on the path to eating correctly. And that helped me a lot. I mean, it’s not, you know, you and I talked about this, it’s not about, if you just tried to abstain from everything and give it all up, you probably won’t be successful if it’s something that you truly enjoy. You’ve just have got to find your times to do it. And you just don’t need to do it like I overindulged in stuff. Not that I was the raging alcoholic, I feel like I’ve more ate too much.

I would sit down and just crush the whole steak. And if I’m full, I’m just going to stop eating and those are things. And I know I’m talking for a while here, but you kind of asked me about this getting started. Getting started with anything is hard, it’s different. If you’ve set your mind to it, and you really focus on it, and you see results, you’ll keep the motivation.

And I think that’s like my best advice to people, is like, you kind of have to just not persevere, but you’ve got to kind of stick with it and be energized, be motivated. At the beginning, when you see the results, I think your motivation continues. And then it’s a lot easier to sustain it.

Ted Ryce: Yeah, and to put what you’re saying in context too, you wanted to get down…You were at 18% body fat, you wanted to get down to veins on your abs lean,

Trevor: Right.

Ted Ryce: And so if you see your photo, it’s super impressive. So for someone listening, thinking, “Oh, man, I liked this spinach sauteed in butter.” You can actually have more of those things. But if you’re 20% body fat, and your goal is to like, I just want to get under 20% body fat to18 or maybe 15.

What Trevor wanted was to get super lean. Someone just told you, Trevor, that you had the nicest body, you had a perfect body. So if you want to get to that level, you’ve got to tighten up your skills, you’ve got to be on top of your moderation. What were you saying there?

Trevor: No, no, I said that. Now you’re embarrassing me on this thing?

Ted Ryce: Hey, yeah, I mean, that’s a great thing when we start getting that feedback. So, Trevor, I wanted to put that in context. Can you talk a little bit about the experience of going out to eat and the vacations that you’ve taken? You weren’t as strict when you do those things? Can you talk a little bit about how you’ve made it work for you?

Trevor: Yeah, I mean, you gave me some great advice at the beginning. Because you knew I had to travel and these things, but I pack the protein with me on every single trip, I bring my bands, I do a hotel workout. I also have the supplements now that were a little further along. So taking the protein powder really helps curb your appetite. So that was easier so I didn’t feel like…

I have sometimes would do that before I went out to eat. So I would just order a chicken Caesar salad without dressing on the side. And when I found dressing on the side, I still dip it and I still enjoy my food. When you douse it in that dressing and the more I’ve gotten into this program, you realize how many calories are in that, you might as well have a cheeseburger, with some of the dressing they put on salads.

So, just kind of changing my train of thought when I go out to eat. I go out with a plan, Ted. So I look at a menu before I go, or I just kind of go in and I say I’m going to have the chicken Caesar tonight. And I mean, I’m telling you, and for everybody out there, when you go out to eat, and you see the cheeseburger come by or you see the ribeye, there are times and you’re gone, “Man, I would really like to order that.”

But then you kind of look at yourself, and you go, “I feel a lot better not eating that,” right? I mean, that’s a big mental change for me. And that’s what happened when I traveled more. Also, when you look at yourself, and you have people tell you how much different you look now… I mean, I don’t see it. I don’t feel like I look different.

But I mean, it’s a daily occurrence for me now. And at the beginning, I didn’t really know what to say. I still kind of flounder and I’m like, “You look great, too.” I don’t really know what to, you know, you’ve lost so much weight. The other thing that Ted doesn’t tell you is that you have to go buy all new clothes. So that’s kind of that.

My wife loves it. She loves to go shopping so she just buy me all this stuff. But that’s a big change, too. I mean, my waist size went from 34 to 31. So obviously, the proof’s in the pudding. And I don’t feel like I’m overly lean. I feel like I’m really in good shape.

Ted Ryce: Amazing. And what I would ask too, is like, you talked about how it’s more than just the vanity change. You look different. But in some ways, you’re like, I don’t feel like I looked at different, right? You just said something to that effect. Of course, when we look, you didn’t have veins on your abs before. But there is something kind of like, it’s more than energetic feeling.

Can you talk about how that’s changed in other areas of your life? Has it impacted your relationship with your wife, Julie, with your children, at work? What would have been some of the things that have happened, the changes that have happened, that maybe you didn’t even expect to happen?

Trevor: Yeah, I think you brought this up to me a few times, just in the our first couple of calls, just more anxious, you know, just a little bit more…Stress and anxiety kind of go hand in hand a little bit. But that’s probably the biggest change, is just the ability to just be more focused.

And I’m telling you, I’m much better at my job now. I’m much better at being present with my kids and my wife than I was before. That was very unexpected. But I think it was more that I just didn’t… I was tired at night, I get home from work and I’m like, “Oh, my God, I’m beat, I’m exhausted,” and then I don’t sleep very well.

And then that pattern kind of continues. Now I’m in a situation where I…Obviously, I am working out a lot, but I love that part of it. But I also love just… I mean, I feel like the end of the day, like by 9:30 or 10, I am tired and ready for bed. But at 6:30 or 7 when I’m having dinner with my family. I’m more present. I feel great. I have energy now that I didn’t have before. And so it’s like it’s sustaining me throughout the whole day. That’s probably the biggest change and the most unexpected.

Ted Ryce: Wow. And you also said that it’s helped you with your business?

Trevor: Yeah.

Ted Ryce: Now, obviously, this is, you know, I’m not a trust fund baby. I have to… It’s a business, right?

Trevor: Yeah.

Ted Ryce: I got to work. So it was an investment? How do you look at the investment and the return on it in terms of what you’re going on to do with the energy that you have, the focus, the present that you have at work?

Trevor: Obviously, it was a four-month program with you. And as I signed on just for just kind of a maintenance for the rest of the year. I want to maintain it, if not improve, over the next seven months. I think the fear that anyone has is they’ve worked so hard to achieve results. You don’t want to lose it, right? I mean, that’s kind of the big thing.

I mean, I want to keep going, I want to make this not just a four month or six month deal. I want to make this like my new way of life. And so far, that’s the way it feels. And that works for me and I wouldn’t encourage everyone to go in with that mindset, it’s the mindset.

And I also love that you’re going to have times in your life when you can’t do 45 minutes in the gym or half hour in the gym, there’s a 20 minute workout, there’s a 40 minute, there’s an hour, dependent upon your time. You’ve got to always figure out how to make the most out of your time that you have. And time is so precious, and we don’t have tons of extra time.

So, you kind of made that very clear in this process, like, you’re going to have times when you can’t do your hour workout, you can do your half hour, and that helps, too. So you still feel like you’re accomplishing something. And for me, that was, again, very beneficial.

Ted Ryce: Yeah, another thing that comes to mind is that when we were working together, this wasn’t…One thing that I feel like, I’ll say this first, one thing that I feel like that we all do, as people—I do this too, I hope I don’t do it as much. But we look at someone, say, someone like you, and we knew you four months ago, and then we see you now, and it’s like, “Oh, man, things must have gotten better for him or it was easy for him to do.”

But you actually had quite a few challenges to navigate, even a career, a bit of a shift happening in your career. Can you talk about how did this program work? How do we work together to make sure that you’re still getting results through that big transition?

Trevor: Yeah, I think without having something like this, during a massive career change would have been hard. This was a great way for me to have something else to think about and to focus on, while I let this other transition occur. That’s never easy. But I think you can resort to eating, you can resort to alcohol, you can resort to other things that you think ease your stress and make your life better, when, in fact, they probably increase your stress, both those things.

So, for me, it was absolutely perfect timing, that this gave me the opportunity to have something else that was such a positive in my life. And something to really focus on. And I mean, I’m probably making it sound harder than it is because I didn’t… It’s a challenge at first, but it’s not like it’s so hard that you can’t do it. You know what I mean? Or that you’re pushing yourself too hard, but certainly fitness, nutrition, I always hear that they go hand in hand, and you need to have nutrition first. And that’s just such a big one for me.

What I find hard now is like, people want to talk a little bit about this, but I don’t know how much they really want to hear. And I’ve watched people in the gym for hours, and they’re grinding, they’re sweating like crazy. I’m like, “Man, you need to start doing some weights.

And you can’t go have the cheeseburger and four beers after you work out. That’s just not going to work, you know? But that’s just a different mindset I have now. I see things a lot differently than I did before. But again, I mean, I hope I answered your question, but the short answer is it helped me tremendously to get through the transition.

Ted Ryce: Yeah, you’re pointing out that hard work is overrated, if it’s not directed properly.

Trevor: Right.

Ted Ryce: Janitors work hard, it’s an honest profession, but you’re not going to reach past a certain level of financial success by the income that you make on that alone without some investment.

Trevor: Right. I can’t stress enough though, that the more… I don’t want to use…The word clarity keeps coming to my mind. But I’m so much more focused and clear in what I’m doing now every single day.

Ted Ryce: Why do you feel that way? Why is that?

Trevor: Well, I just think that, again, I think I’m sleeping better. I have better energy. The confidence is more in how I feel, as opposed to how I look, to be brutally honest. I really think it’s more just, I have this, like, I go in, I feel great. It’s not like I had to go into meetings and talk myself into this, hey, you’ve got this presentation. Let’s be upbeat. Now, I go in, I already feel that way. Does that make sense?

I mean, it’s more of like, you can’t hide that. When someone comes in, they’re like, man, you look good. You’ve got that smile on your face. You just got this kind of glow about you.” And that’s how I feel. And that comes across to other people. Which is why I say, I think it’s helped my business. During my move, my business has thrived. So that’s a huge, huge positive.

Ted Ryce: What would you say was the hardest parts of all this in the past four months.

Trevor: For me, the hardest part was getting started. It was actually signing up. Doing know what I mean? To make the commitment is probably… because like I said, I’ve been listening to you, my wife has been listened to you. She’s like, “I think this guy is the right guy for you.” She’s very into health and wellness.

And she’s like, “I think he can do great things for you. I think he’s the kind of guy that will give it to you straight, which is what you need. You don’t need BS, you need someone who is going to tell you, this is what you need to do. This is how we’re going to get there. Have a roadmap to success.” That’s kind of the way I look. I’m goal oriented. This is how I’m going to get there.

But I think the hardest part is actually just kind of looking inside of yourself and saying, now’s the time, and then committing to it. And I think that’s where a lot of people... I’ve talked to a lot of people who are like, “I’m going to call Ted, and I’m going to call Ted.” And I’m like, “I don’t think you’re going to call Ted.” Because they asked about a coach. If you really want to do it, you’ll do it. And if you have that mental state, you’ll be successful.

Ted Ryce: Right. What would you say to someone who’s maybe been listening for a while and let’s say they’re on the fence about working with me. They’re into the idea of maybe working with a coach, but they’re not sure if I bring the goods. What would you say to them, honestly?

Trevor: Well, I think you definitely bring the goods. I see people in the gym and everybody does and have their personal trainers and whatnot. You’re not at the gym with me working out, right? I’ve got videos, I’ve worked out before, I was probably a little bit ahead of some of your clients, just because I knew how to do a lot of this stuff. But you gave me a lot of exercises I’ve never done.

So, I would say the one thing that people will have to just, you know, I had to ask a few questions of a trainer like hey, what’s the right thing for the isometric lounge? Can show me where the weight belt is? Or if I can’t use the weight belt, is there another way to do that to hold the weight when I do my pull ups or whatever?

So that was easy for me. But that’s the only thing I could see that was the only challenge, was the workouts. The food part is, from day one, you have an app, the world’s on the apps now. That’s how we all live our lives. So it’s very easy for me to follow. And it’s very easy for anyone to see how they’re doing. I think there’s this misnomer that you’ve mentioned this really early on, like drinking a green juice, like, “Oh, God, I’m drinking two green juices today.” But you’ve just had 400 calories.

You can’t do that. It’s counterintuitive. But you think you’re eating healthy, but you’re not. That’s where I think a lot of people miss and where you have this…I use the app as a guide and as a budget, like we talked about to make sure that I’m staying in line. And those are the things that I would tell people that you’ve just got to be ready to do.

Ted Ryce: You’ve got to be ready to do it.  And I’m not there. So what I hear you saying is you’ve got to have some experience for this to go the best. I’ve had some really inexperienced clients, but for the most part, the people who definitely get the best results have more experience.

Trevor: Yeah, I think you can do it with less experience in the gym. And I don’t know a lot of your clients, obviously, but you can start really slow. And the nice thing about it is you can do four months, you can do six months, you can do a year, you know, depending upon your progress. Or if you need, you know, you guys adjust to how people are doing.

And some people may need a little more hand holding. And some people may be able to go on their own earlier that have more experience. But you’re willing to… I remember I took videos off some of the workers I was doing and you were able to say, “Trevor, you’re going a little bit too fast. Let’s try this.”

And once we slowed everything down, I feel is like when I really took it to the next level, in terms of muscle growth, and then the ABs coming in. And those kinds of things. Just being more... I can’t remember the exact, I have it written down, but just mind and muscle.

Ted Ryce: Mind and muscle connection. That’s right.

Trevor: Mind and muscle connection. And when I work out now, that’s what I think about all the time, mind and muscle. I say it to myself when I’m working out.

Ted Ryce: Amazing. Well, Trevor, thanks so much for doing this. One of the things that’s been most requested is I want to hear how someone did this and what their experience was. And that not necessarily just working with me, but what their experience was in transforming their body. What the real challenges were, how they happened. What were the results beside the lost weight? So you did a great job sharing your story today. And thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

Trevor: Of course. Yeah. Thank you, Ted.

Ted Ryce: All right. Well, see you on the next call. And again, thanks for doing this.

Trevor: Yeah, you got it.