Jon's Fitness Journey: July Check in | Men Talking Mindfulness: Mental, Physical, and Emotional Health for Leaders Under Pressure

Description

Jon's Fitness Journey - July Check-in

In this honest conversation, Jon and Will break down what it really takes to transform, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.

Jon opens up about his journey over the past six months: the hard-earned muscle, the silent progress of visceral fat loss, and the surprising data from his latest DEXA scan. But this episode isn’t about hitting numbers. It’s about what those numbers reveal — and what they hide.

Topics include:

Why Jon’s “heavier” now… but healthier
The critical difference between weight loss and fat loss
How body composition scans changed Jon’s approach to fitness
The role of discipline, identity, and emotional honesty in real transformation
Why fitness goals should be about freedom, not punishment

Whether you’re trying to get lean, get healthy, or just get back in the fight — this episode is a reminder that the real journey starts when you stop chasing quick fixes… and start owning your story.

🎧 Hit play and come walk the long road with us.

Timestamps:

00:00 Jon's Fitness Journey Introduction

03:00 Challenges with Diet and Discipline

06:01 Understanding Carbohydrate Needs

09:03 DEXA Scan Results and Body Composition

11:45 Visceral Fat and Health Metrics

14:50 Understanding Visceral Fat and Health Metrics

18:12 The Impact of Weight Loss on Sleep Quality

21:27 Exploring Supplements and Their Effects

25:22 The Importance of Sleep and Recovery

26:57 Tracking Progress and Dietary Adjustments

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Transcription

Speaker #0
Hey folks, John and Will here from Men Talking Mindfulness. It's been a while since we checked in on this and specifically what we're going to be talking about today is my fitness journey. So in November of last year, I committed to trying to work towards a physique competition that was originally going to be next month. That competition is still next month, but I fell off the bandwagon a little bit as far as eating and My working out has been good, but my eating habits have not been great. So Will and I are going to talk a little bit about that. We're going to talk about what it takes, the discipline that it takes to get there, why I fell off, giving myself some grace where I can, but also not letting myself have too much grace. And then talking about some other things that we've got in the near future that have to do with fitness. So Will, good to you my brother
Speaker #1
Good to be back, John. Thanks for, you know, putting yourself out there on this fitness journey. I appreciate you, like, you know, being this guy. It's awesome.
Speaker #0
It's fun. It's a little, you know, it's not a little tough. It's very tough. You know, this weekend, we're coming off the tail end of July 4th weekend. And, you know, we celebrated with the family and there was good food all around. And I definitely had some slips, but I've recommitted as of yesterday. So today is, what, Tuesday, July 8th. The new competition is actually on November
Speaker #1
18th. That was my next question. I'm like, we have one on the schedule, right?
Speaker #0
Yeah, so we do have one on the schedule, November 18th. And we'll see where things go with that. In between now and then, I've got a lot of work to do. A lot of work to do. So we'll talk about that. But yeah.
Speaker #1
Yeah, well, let's jump right into that. What has been slipping you? It's almost like, is it the... Food quality is a sabotage thing. It's cravings. You know what I mean? I know like, I mean, and I say this because we all have the above. Like sugar is definitely something that it just, and the sugar also shows up in fucking hamburger buns or those. Yeah,
Speaker #0
everywhere.
Speaker #1
Gips and stuff like that's absolutely everywhere.
Speaker #0
Coffee. Yeah.
Speaker #1
Coffee. Exactly. So yeah,
Speaker #0
sugar. Sugar is a big one. Carbs. When I, you know, when I cut down carbs to very, very low numbers, I get, I get pretty. agitated i get grumpy um and i get hangry is what it is even though i'm taking in a significant amount of calories yeah i'm not uh getting in the carbs as i need to so what i'm going to be transitioning to for the next few weeks uh so essentially what is it 19 weeks between now and november 18th i'll be um For the first half of that, I'll be kind of mixing some carbs in there, really looking to grow the muscle. And then after that halfway point, then it's on as far as diet, cutting down on carbs significantly. So the idea is that you train your body to burn the carbs by having the carbs in the body and then depleting them and also putting yourself into a calorie deficit. So between... That first halfway point, it's only about a 200-calorie deficit between now and then. And then starting midway between now and then, it's a 500 to 700-calorie deficit.
Speaker #1
And that's all carbs? Yes. All carbs?
Speaker #0
So that's calories just in general that I'll be cutting down on. but I'll be cutting down to next to zero carbs as, as low as I can get, uh, for carbs, uh, for, uh, yeah. about nine weeks, which will, that'll, that'll try me, man. Cause I, I do love my carbs, but it really, what it all boils down to is, is discipline, which we, you know, we've had multiple people on the show in the past couple of months to speak about discipline. And honestly, I. To be completely transparent, I underestimated how difficult the diet would be. Getting the gym is fun. Like, I love getting into the gym. Let me take that back. Once I'm in the gym, I love it.
Speaker #1
I love the gym.
Speaker #0
Getting to the gym is a difficult part. I am not a morning person anymore. I don't wake up at 4.30 like Jocko. I'll wake up at 5.30, but that's normally the start. getting ready for the day and everything else. So when I hit the gym, it's normally after my kids go to sleep. Like I was in the gym last night at eight 45 and I was there until 10 45. Um, and then, and then, uh, that that's when I feel the gym is really calling to me. And once I get there, man, throwing the weight around, getting on the cardio equipment, I love that. But yeah, there's a, there's a gym that I work out in down in Dallas.
Speaker #1
um and it's got the sign up that says congratulations you're here that's the hard part and i thought that's 100 true that's 100 true so i mean we just you know it's all about how many times we talked on the show about just show up show up show up go up and just well i mean how many what that's saying is it's like 80 or 90 of success is just showing up because you put yourself in that situation and you go to the gym it's just like you know not like oh i'm not going to do anything. it's like oh i'm at the fucking gym i'm gonna work out right miles do something and it's like you need you know maybe lethargically and like begrudgingly you do that first thing and just kind of then you get the juice from like oh why i'm starting to feel great i'm gonna do more you know and it's like especially when you have a goal like you're working towards it's just like i mean that's even more of a of a motivation yeah um well let's i know you have a dexa scan but what i want to do um well i know let me what i want to do first it's like i thought it's very interesting to hear. That you get hangry when you don't have carbs. Oh, man. Now, is that, I mean, let me, but also let me just preface that with, you get, so even if you supplement that with protein or something else, you still are fucking hangry.
Speaker #0
Oh, yeah. Really? Oh, yeah, man. I like, I'm taking in a tremendous amount of protein. It's like 250, 240 grams a day of protein. And that's chicken, turkey, tuna, protein shakes. eggs, cottage cheese. So it's primarily fat and protein right now. But again, I forget the numbers. I don't have those in front of me. But between now and the halfway point, so between now and November is the physique competition. Halfway from now, I'll be taking in carbs, basically just to feed my body and then making sure it knows that carbs should be digested. people who are on the keto diet or very low carb diet for a very long term yeah their body forgets how to burn carbs uh yeah it takes a while to relearn that but we want our bodies to know how to burn carbs and then deplete them and that's that's when there's there's fewer carbs uh to be burned that's interesting you bring that up because like i'm very very low carb like very
Speaker #1
very low carb but When I have a high-carb diet or high-carb...
Speaker #0
meal like pasta oh my i'm like ripping farts dude i mean i'm just yeah i'm the same way with protein though protein yeah it messes with my belly i will say that uh yeah the amount of protein that i'm taking in does it definitely does cause gas
Speaker #1
yeah yeah i mean i don't know it's just like every time i eat a lot of carbs i'm like oh my god dude i'm like this is embarrassing i really don't have any gas i mean i'm like you know i mean just My diet, in transparency, is just a lot of protein and veggies. That's basically it. So what I've learned, what I've adapted to is I call it fiber first. So I'm like cheese season in the morning, blueberries, some dates, and that's really it until the afternoon. And then I'll have like, you know, I'm doing like a four and five egg breakfast. You know, it's like I'll throw like sausage and bacon and fucking, I believe, liverwurst now.
Speaker #0
I've eaten some of the food that you cook.
Speaker #1
man oh yeah freaking awesome oh yeah and i will tell you those dates and those blueberries they have a significant amount of sugar in them well i'm right but that's why i'm eating them first yeah because it's like i mean i figured well what i've learned about carbs and sugar is like you know and i've i have a science background and study and understand some of the nutrition behind it it's like anytime you have like a um a carbon chain in your body like a sugar like very available complex carbohydrates are... uh um or and just sugar your it's the easiest for your body to digest so it's the first place it goes so immediately that's why you get like the sugar high it's like oh yeah sugar in my body you know and you get all that uh and then you get that dump right the glucose same thing with like carbohydrates um but uh i'm so i'm like so i eat like the dates has a lot of fucking sugar and so do the blueberries but like i don't know if they i don't know if it's what the glycemic level is meaning like higher glycemic level higher the food doing yeah so but that's what i that's what i've been doing and like i just like my body's just used to like almost zero fucking carbs but yeah anyway like it's interesting that you get so there's definitely a a mood shift difference when you're low carb deficient
Speaker #0
A hundred percent, man. I am. My kids even notice it. They don't say, hey, dad, you need to eat more carbs. But they're like, dad, what's wrong? I'm getting grumpy around the stupidest stuff.
Speaker #1
But yeah. Well, thanks for dropping in there. Maybe if there's anybody out there that knows what that's going on there or something like that. And maybe, John, you're probably talking to people too. It'd be interesting to hear people's thoughts because I've actually never heard that before. Like one particular, you know, like loss in your diet or certain nutrient can really, wow, that's really impressive. Yeah. So. Done.
Speaker #0
Felt that.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Well, how about the DEXA scan, man? Yeah.
Speaker #0
So, you know, I was getting them every month and then kind of along the lines of falling off the bandwagon with the diet, I fell off the bandwagon with the DEXA scans. So the last one I got was May 13th. So, so. Today's July 8th. So what is that? Almost two months, seven weeks or so. So I'm looking at the data here. It compares my January 3rd to May 13th to July 8th. So my first one to the last one to today's. So weight in pounds in January, I was 225 pounds. Last month or sorry, May, I was 205 pounds. And today I was 212. So I've gone up seven pounds. So not huge because I ended up gaining lean muscle. So I've gained six pounds of lean muscle since May, which is good. So that means I'm eating the protein, but I also gained a pound and a half of fat. Not terrible, but that's... heading in the wrong direction in regards to fat. So I ended up, last time I was at 21, so back in January, I was 29.2% fat. Okay. That's pretty high for me. And I put this disclaimer out every time. This is not fat shaming. This is not me saying that in any shape, form, or fashion that people listening need to do the same thing. This is just what makes me comfortable in my skin. And maybe... Maybe I do need to address this myself, but for right now, I'm working on getting lean and getting healthy. And we talked about this last time. Maybe it was two times ago. I feel more capable now, capable of playing with my kids, running with my kids. Heck, I went to Topgolf a couple weeks ago. And, you know, sometimes with Topgolf, I'm all. All out of whack, all out of balance. Like this DEXA scan gives you what your left arm is compared to what your left leg is compared to your right leg. And I was all out of balance. And now I'm in line. My body is symmetrical as far as arms and legs.
Speaker #1
You're talking like mass?
Speaker #0
Yeah, mass. Mass, like lean mass and fat.
Speaker #1
Right. But also bilateral mass, like your balance more left and right.
Speaker #0
Correct. Correct.
Speaker #1
Wow. All right,
Speaker #0
good. And then coming back to... My body fat percentage back in January was 29%. In May, it was 21.2, and now it's 21. So lost a little bit of body fat percentage, not as much as I would like to, but still heading in the right direction. And then the visceral fat that continues.
Speaker #1
Sorry, so the goal on the body fat is what?
Speaker #0
The goal originally was to get to 8%. I checked between now and November. That's probably overly aggressive. If I can get to 10%, I'm most likely not going to win this competition. But the point is to have a goal towards and then do something that's scary, like standing up on stage flexing. That's not something I'm comfortable with, man.
Speaker #1
I'm going to be there, John. Denver is again, this one?
Speaker #0
Yeah, this one's in Denver. I'll be there.
Speaker #1
So you talk about visceral fat then before.
Speaker #0
Yeah, so visceral fat, yeah, it went up last time, but now it's back down. Um, so I started in January with 3.26 pounds of visceral fat. Um, last month I was down to 2.0 and then this month I'm down to 1.88. So I'm training in the right direction there. Bottom line.
Speaker #1
Visceral fat is that belly fat, yeah?
Speaker #0
Visceral fat, no, it's not belly fat. It's the fat around the organs.
Speaker #1
Oh,
Speaker #0
okay, okay, okay. Some of it is around the belly, but it's all around the heart, around the lungs. So we want the visceral fat. Bottom line is I've dropped that from the beginning, not just as far as weight, but cubic inches. I've lost 40 cubic inches. of visceral fat, which is crazy to think about.
Speaker #1
And let me just ask, so good, healthy body, visceral fat, what would that be?
Speaker #0
Yeah, so it's actually a ratio. And I'm going to screw this up. I think it's a ratio of visceral fat to waist and belly size or something. I forget. But there's some magic number that you're trying to get below one. So let's see. What was it?
Speaker #1
I'm doing a little.
Speaker #0
Don't have it in front of me.
Speaker #1
Yeah, that's okay.
Speaker #0
uh but i'm gonna i'm actually gonna keep going keep rolling i got you a perplexity i'm a perplexity oh yeah so yeah yeah so i mean i can this is just a summary of it let me see if i can bring up the actual thing um so visceral fat geez my eyes i'm looking at this on my phone now so visceral fat What is visceral?
Speaker #1
Well, I have right here. I could read it. It's a healthy visceral fat percentage.
Speaker #0
Android to gynoid ratio. So, android fat is concentrated in the lower abdominal region. Gynoid fat is concentrated in the hips, upper thighs, and buttocks. And for optimal distribution, android fat percentage should be less than your total body fat percentage. And your AG ratio should be less than 1. So I went from 1.33 to 1.3. So I'm approaching the healthier ratio.
Speaker #1
Yeah. I think it might be a good little learning tool here for our audience. Yeah, let's hear it. A healthy visceral fat percentage is generally considered to be around 10% of your body fat. There you go. That means that if you know that your body fat percentage... If you know your body fat percentage, you can estimate your visceral fat by taking about 10% of that number. For example, if your total body fat is 25%, a healthy visceral fat amount would be roughly 2.5% of your total body weight. Key points, 10% of your total body fat is the typical healthy threshold for visceral fat in adults. Visceral fat is the fat stored deep in your abdominal cavity, like you mentioned, surrounding your organs. While some is necessary for organ protection, excessive visceral fat increase the risk of serious heart conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. Waist circumference is a practical at-home indicator. Is everyone listening? Waist circumference is a practical at-home indicator for visceral fat risk. For women, 35 inches, which is 88 centimeters, or more, suggests... elevated visceral fat for men 40 inches what just you lost like 40 some inches you said 40 cubic inches yeah okay so for men 40 inch waist this would be um um or is considered high risk and measurement notes precise visceral fat measurement typically requires um yeah imaging like a dexa scan a ct or mri scan these can be returned routinely routinely used for screening more uh home skills and body composition devices estimate visceral fat based on algorithms but um and that's really it maintain visceral fat um near below 10 of your body fat is associated with lower cardiac metabolic risk if you are concerned about your visceral fat consult your health care provider for personalized assessments and guidance there we go there you go there you go i did learn something and and while you were saying that i
Speaker #0
put it into my AI on my side, ChachiBT, and I compared the visceral fat to the total fat, and I'm at 4.02%. So pretty good. So the 10% is healthy, and I'm half of that. So I'm feeling pretty good. And I feel that. It's not just the capable side of things, but I feel better. I sleep better. And I think we've talked about that. Just carrying less weight around requires way less energy every day. So I'm able to get to the gym. So it's kind of this self-fulfilling cycle.
Speaker #1
I'm curious, what is your sleep like these days? I mean, are you tracking it? Because I would imagine as you're getting healthier, as your body isn't in almost a state of crisis because of all this extra fat you have in your body, I'd imagine that there's... you're going to restore more, you're going to sleep better, you're going to, you know, be a little more refreshed. So is that what you're experiencing over the night? Yeah,
Speaker #0
I am for sure. So my sleep is deeper. And, and, you know, I get up in the middle of the night to go use the restroom. And in the past, I would, I would get back to the bed and stew and stay awake. But now I'm physically tired, right? Getting to the gym. Yes, it gives you energy in the day, but it also makes you tired and it makes you sleep better. So it's not just the fact that my body is in better state to sleep. It's also the amount of energy that I'm using. So the, the body needs to recover. So I'm sleeping better. And I mentioned this before. I'm also, I'm, I'm on testosterone. I'm on Tamoraline. which is kind of a thing that helps to promote natural human growth hormone. And I was on something called Terzapotide. And Terzapotide is something that helps to curb your appetite. But I've done some research on that. And for what it is that I'm wanting to do, it's not ideal because it actually can eat into your body muscle. It eats your body muscle. So ultimately, it's not great. But for those who are potentially looking to get a jumpstart to their weight loss, it can be helpful. But I'm certainly no medical professional, but I will say what I've learned through it is that you have to take in even more protein because it is a peptide and therefore kind of substitutes protein in your muscles. So it thinks that it's getting the protein when it's actually not. So you have to take in more protein and do more resistance exercises to maintain the muscle. So, yeah, so I was already doing a lot and already taking a lot of protein, and I was starting to see a decrease in muscle. So I thought, okay, it's time to stop this. But if it is something that you're looking to jumpstart your fat loss or weight loss journey yourself, then it might be something to talk to your doctor about. But, again, that's not me.
Speaker #1
Yeah. I think I've one more question and I think we're pretty good if you feel like we've done. One thing that I've actually seen that, because I mean, I'm still a whoop guy and I've really been very cognizant of my HRV. I want my HRV to go up. And it has. I've actually risen my over six month period. I've taken my HRV from, and HRV is also unique that we're trying to get an expert on. We're trying to get Kristen Holmes calling her out from Woop. Yeah, from Woop. He's just blowing us off. Anyone knows Kristen Woop from, you know, Woop.
Speaker #0
Kristen Holmes.
Speaker #1
Holmes, sorry, Kristen Holmes. Send her our way. But HRV is unique to everybody. So numbers are not like, you know, ubiquitous.
Speaker #0
Comparable.
Speaker #1
Yeah, it's comparable. They're very different or vary. But my numbers, you know, my average six months ago was like 25 or 27. Holy crap. And now it's, well, I know, really low, right? I'm like, what the fuck, dude? Yeah. You know, pride myself on my health and everything. And now it's gone up to almost 32, which is great. I think even a little bit more, which is pretty significant. You know, and what HRV indicates, which I think it's a really good barometer for how you're doing, because if you have a high HRV and maintain a high HRV, that means you're... your body is in a greater state of rest or just kind of out of like more of that reactive mode and into more of like that, you know, more of like present and parasympathetic states. That's like one thing to watch out with HRV. But what I've seen that's really shifted my HRV significantly, and this also goes to my question to you, it's like I stopped eating. I'm going to bed now on an empty stomach. Yeah. So my fucking last meal, and it's tough like to- organize your diet in this way um um is uh my last meal is like at 6 or 6 30 so when i go to bed at like 9 like 9 30 10 like i'm on an empty stomach and i've seen this is how i've made these gains in my hrv but also on this empty stomach not only does my hrv uh increase dramatically which gives me you know that that um more of like a rested state of being but my um my uh deep sleep goes up and so is my um and so does my as i get a deep state of rest which is awesome and that's like you know for everybody anybody out there when you get into that the deep sleep that's when your body's recovering restoring so you're you know it's creating new muscle fibers and repairing joints and you know um
Speaker #0
all these wonderful things that our body does which is critical to growth right very critical i'm looking to grow muscle yeah that's a critical piece is that deep sleep. And yeah, so what I've seen. is the same. However, right now, because I am working out in the evening and I try to get protein in me afterwards, I do do a protein shake before I go to sleep. And what else will wreck your heart rate variability is drinking alcohol before sleep or cannabis before sleep. Too much cannabis, it can really wreck your sleep. But that also not just wrecks your heart rate variability, but also can wreck your deep sleep. So you think that you're resting well, but you're really not.
Speaker #1
Yeah, one thing with the weed and me, and I mean, I'm definitely even evening toker typically, is my heart rate goes up when I smoke weed. Yeah. You know, and it's like, so I could see, you know, my heart rate as I'm resting in bed and like maybe watching something on Netflix or something. It's like, it starts at like 80 because I'll just, I'll like, you know, I'll have like fucking some Indica before I go to sleep and my heart rate goes up and you can just see it start to slowly as I sleep trend down. But also what I've been doing is like instead of smoking, I'll just do a little like five minutes of breath work and really start at a low heart rate. And fuck, dude, it drops you right into a long, deep sleep, into the REM sleep. But it's just, you know, it's like I think what's important for people to know is like protect your sleep. It's not just about burning calories, working out, building muscle, which is really important. But you must honor the dark side, if you will, or like the. You know, of our experience, it's like, you know, instead of energy, energy, energy out, right? What about like, you know, restoring, you know, and refreshing our energy? And that's where sleep is going to come in. So if you, we're going to have Robert Sweetman actually coming on, I think in October or something like that to teach us more about sleep and some great sleep hacks and stuff like that.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Rob's great. He's come on before and he's got some more since then. he's the sleep in it uh former seal medically retired seal who's turned himself into his the sleep genius and and he truly is that he lives and breathes sleep yeah he's a great fucking dude yeah so the other thing real quick before uh we get off is is um hydration um you know we've talked about that on the show before uh having our episode on quench and you know the the water that you take in is important but you also have to take in some type of electrolytes and omega-3 fatty acids. And that's been very helpful with... making sure that I have the energy to go after this. And it also helps you to recover. So yeah, that's, that's where I'm at. So I guess bottom, bottom line is I'm still making progress, not making as quick progress as I had hoped, but we've rescheduled or bumped the physique competition from August, which is next month to November. So I've got some time, but yes, definitely need to rededicate to the discipline and the.
Speaker #1
diet the diet the hard part last question what's going to be different with your diet this time what's like one thing commit to we talk about one thing right one thing principle what's one thing or or a plan that you have in place to i'm forward i'm tracking it a lot more closely again i was then i was like oh this is too much work i'm sure i can just kind of guess at it and not
Speaker #0
not eat as much crap but that's not that's not true uh i'm tracking it
Speaker #1
um in in this macro factor app and that that helps a lot seeing the data seeing the numbers they got a guy and that uh i have to see it so yeah what what is what you what you measure is what you manage yeah i was gonna say if you can't if you don't if you can't manage it if you can't yeah measure it you can't manage it right yeah or if you don't know the metrics then how do you know you know it's like numbers are very important and even in this so thanks for sharing all this john and it's like dude I mean thanks for the vulnerability thanks for like Like, you know, being an example for people, like it's not like, yeah, I think a lot of people when they go on a journey like this, whatever it is, like whether they're trying to develop a meditation practice or take care of something fitness wise or, you know, they're trying to learn a new skill. They just we just believe for whatever, you know, our mind fools us into believing that it's just like this slow, linear upgrade of like, you know, trajectory. Right. We're just like, fuck, dude, it's a total mess. Sometimes you drop down, you fall out. You know, you can't even find the map. You know, and then it's like, but then it's like, we just get back on and keep showing up, like you said. And we'll check back in, you know, late August would be great to hear how's it going. But good to check back. I'm really excited for you. You know, I know our community, I could say, as everyone that's listening is really rooting for you. And lean into me and, hey, you know, the community, you know, let us know we can help support you on this journey because we really appreciate you putting it out there and showing us what's possible.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Amen, brother. Well, thank you for that support to you, Will. Thank you to the community. And yes, I'll keep you updated, and we'll talk again next month.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Peace, everybody. Thank you.
Speaker #0
Take care. Bye-bye.
Speaker #1
Awesome. That was long of a thought.