OoM 053： Going From Fat to Fit with Drew Manning
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
226.0926
Summary
Drew Manning is a New York Times bestselling author of the book, Fit2Fat2Fit. He s best known for his Fit2Fit experience that took the media by storm when the story went viral online. He s been featured on Dr. Oz, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The View, and more. And through his journey, Drew has inspired thousands of men across the world to embrace a healthier lifestyle through some dramatic self-experimentations. This experiment has now turned into a hit TV show, where they document 10 trainers who have deliberately got back into shape so they can get back onto their healthy lifestyle.
Transcript
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If you're anything like the way I used to be, you are ready to get back into shape.
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You know that you want more out of life, and you know that living a healthy lifestyle is a huge component of that.
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That said, it's hard, not only physically, but mentally.
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My guest today, he gained 75 pounds in just six months to learn firsthand
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what his clients experienced as they started towards their journey to a healthy life.
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Drew Manning shares with us his experience, what he learned, and how you can finally go from fat to fit.
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest.
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Embrace your fears and boldly chart your own path.
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When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.
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At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
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Men, what's going on today? My name is Ryan Michler.
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Now, if this is the first time you're joining us, I want to welcome you.
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Here on the show, we talk about all things manly, specifically, we're teaching you and all the men listening today
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how to become better leaders in your family, your business, your community, and your life.
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I competed in a Spartan race over the weekend with some buddies.
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It was not my prettiest race ever, but I did see where I needed some improvements.
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Now, if you guys haven't competed in a Spartan race, I highly, highly recommend it.
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You'll learn a ton about yourself, and I promise you that you will come out a stronger man.
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Now, along those lines, we are going to be talking about health and fitness today
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from a man you're probably familiar with, Mr. Drew Manning, the founder of Fit2Fat2Fit.
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But before I get into that, a lot of you have asked me how you can get more involved with Order of Man.
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And the best way to get involved and get off the sideline of life is to join us in our elite mastermind, The Iron Council.
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Well, 50-plus members strong now, we're talking about relationships, health, wealth, and most importantly, yourself.
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Now, this is not for guys who simply want to learn about or want to talk about being a better man.
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This is for men who actually want to act on the knowledge they have to improve the connections they have with their wife and their children,
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or they want to increase their wealth or start a new business.
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All of the things I know you're interested in because I get messages every single day from men like you
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who are just not satisfied with where they are.
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They feel like it's just mediocrity in their lives.
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So, if that's you, if you're one of the few men of action, I invite you to join me and the rest of the men in the Iron Council.
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You can go to orderofman.com slash ironcouncil to get all the details, and hopefully you'll join us there.
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Remember, as always, you can find the links and the resources at orderofman.com slash 053.
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And also, make sure you join in the conversation we're having with over 2,600 men now on our Facebook group
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He is a New York Times bestselling author of the book Fit2Fat2Fit.
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He's best known for his Fit2Fat2Fit.com experience that took the media by storm when the story went viral online.
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He's been featured on Dr. Oz, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The View, and a ton more.
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And through his Fit2Fat2Fit journey, he has inspired thousands of men across the world to embrace a healthier lifestyle change
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This experiment has now turned into a hit TV show called Fit2Fat2Fit on A&E,
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where they document 10 trainers who have deliberately got out of shape
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so they can get back onto their healthy lifestyle together with their clients.
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Well, tell me a little bit about the premise of your brand and what you're doing and the idea behind Fit2Fat2Fit.
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So basically five years ago, I did this crazy journey called Fit2Fat2Fit, right,
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where I grew up my whole life in shape, never struggled with being overweight,
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and I decided as a personal trainer to let myself go for six months to kind of relate to my clients a little bit better
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or to have a better understanding of where they were coming from.
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I documented the whole thing on my YouTube channel, on my website, and it just went viral, right?
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I gained weight on purpose, and then I showed people how I lost the weight, and it really did humble me,
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and I gained a lot more empathy, and I think that's why people related to it
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is because I wasn't doing it to rub it in people's faces or to say, look how easy it is,
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I did it, and I was truly humbled and was like, this is way harder than I ever imagined,
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and it changed me as a man, and it changed me as a trainer, and then I wrote a book about it,
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Now there's a TV show called Fit to Fat to Fit on A&E where 10 trainers from across the country
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are now doing what I did, so I'm their coach throughout the season, kind of walking them
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through the steps of what it's going to be like from a physical and mental and emotional perspective,
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and so these trainers for four months have to let themselves go, but the twist is that they
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then are teamed up with an obese client after those four months of gaining weight, and together
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as a team, they have to lose the weight together, and so it's a really great twist, and there's
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nothing else like it on TV, to be honest with you, and it really puts these trainers in their
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Not to say that they know exactly what their clients are going through, but I mean, to be
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honest with you, they gain a better understanding.
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They're humbled, they truly see how, kind of how hard it is for their clients, and it
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just motivates their client that much more to push harder for them, and you really see
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this bonding moment between trainer and client.
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Well, and it puts them on the same side of the table, as opposed to working against each
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other, or you have to be like me, it's like, let's do this together, and that team effort
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seems like it would probably be a better approach.
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Yeah, exactly, and that's what you see with the other weight loss shows, which are great,
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Yeah, but at the same time, you see a trainer that's in shape, that's probably been in shape their
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whole life, and it's so easy to say to people, look, just push harder, stop,
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you know, stop quitting, just try harder, it's so easy, just don't eat the junk food,
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Whereas this time, the trainer's going through it, and they're like, oh my gosh, okay, I
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totally see where you're coming from, this is way harder than I thought, but we're going
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to do this together, I'm doing this for you, and this is teaching me some new things, and
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And I love the concept, because you and I were talking about this earlier before we hit
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record on the podcast, I mean, I look at you, and you've got a good physique, and it
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would be easy for me or anybody out there to say, oh yeah, look at Drew, he's had it
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easy, this is just his body, no big deal for him, easy for him to do all this stuff,
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but me, on the other hand, this is different, and so I'm sure, like you said, there's a lot
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more empathy and ability to relate with your clients when you go through the experience
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Yeah, and that's what so many people have reached out to me and said to me that, you
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know, who have been overweight for years, they feel like this trainer that used to be
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on top of this mountain, you know, I'm just kind of illustrating it here, yelling at
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people to climb up the mountain, telling them how easy it is, for the first time they
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feel like I was, you know, climbed down the mountain with them and was able to climb back
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up the mountain along with them, and it gives me a totally different perspective, and at
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the same time, it's more relatable to your average American that's, you know, at the
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So you said 75 pounds in six months, this might be a really weird question, but was it just
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a matter of just letting yourself go, or were there some things that you were doing
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deliberately to make yourself out of shape, if you will?
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So, obviously, deliberately, I mean, I didn't exercise, I did that deliberately, and then
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I ate about 5,000 calories of highly processed, typical American foods.
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Now, most of us have seen Super Size Me, the documentary, you know, where he eats McDonald's
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What I wanted to do was focus on everyday American foods that we grew up on that sometimes
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we think aren't that unhealthy for us, so I ate a lot of white bread, white pasta, sugary
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cereals, sodas, juices, granola bars, chips, cookies, crackers, all those convenient, easy
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foods that taste good at the grocery store that sometimes are marketed to us as, you know,
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oh, you know, multi-grains, or low-fat, or non-fat, or fortified with vitamin A and vitamin
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D, you know, things that are pitched to us as, okay, this isn't that bad, but I ate a lot
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of those foods, and I ended up getting 75 pounds in six months' time.
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I could eat a bag of chips, just pound chips all day long.
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Yeah, Pringles, man, once you pop, you can't stop, right?
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We better stop talking about this, I'm getting hungry.
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I know, I know, we're gonna make everybody hungry here.
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So, okay, so obviously you knew going into it that there's gonna be some health side effects
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to this experiment, but I guess, what were some of those side effects, and were there
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any that were surprising to you that you did not expect?
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I'll talk about this in two different ways, one on the physical side of things, and one
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Physically, I knew I was gonna get some man boobs and a big gut, some love handles, right?
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Some cottage cheese, I knew that was gonna happen.
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The surprising things on the physical side were, for example, bending over and tying my
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shoes, like, or clipping my toenails, I had to hold my breath, you know, like, seconds
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while I'm trying to clip my toenails as fast as I could, come back up for air, and my wife
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at the time would tell me, now you know what it's like to be pregnant, you know, having
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this big belly that gets in the way, and it blocks your airways.
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Snoring, chafing were things that I wasn't prepared for that happened from a physical point
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On the mental and emotional side, I'll be honest with you, this was the hardest part of the
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And this is where my eyes were opened, and I really was able to connect with my clients.
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I had no idea how much of transformation was mental and emotional, so I lost my self-esteem,
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Going out in public, I was worried about what others were thinking of me.
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You know, I was disgusted because I, my whole life, I related who I was with what my body
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And once all that was gone, I didn't know who I was anymore.
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I didn't, you know, that was the hard part for me was going out public and worrying about
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what others were thinking of me the whole time and, and just being so unhappy with who
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I was because I related who I was with what my body looked like my whole life.
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So did this change then your perspective, even now, fast forward to now, change your perspective
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of how you identify yourself currently and who you are today?
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I mean, it's, it's totally redefined the way I look at myself.
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Before I used to relate who I was with my body.
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And so I used to obsess about what I look like, you know, my physique, you know, what
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Whereas now I'm probably around 12% body fat, which is higher than what I was before.
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I was probably around eight, eight or nine, but I'm totally happier with who I am because
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I don't obsess so much about going to the gym every single day and looking a certain
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Like I've learned to, to be happy with who I am, despite what I look like.
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Now that doesn't mean I'm going to let myself go completely because I, I like who I am when
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I feel healthy and I don't focus so much on, you know, how much do I bench and, you know,
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I'm taking my shirt off in public if I, if I haven't worked out in a week, you know,
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I'm embarrassed, but now I just, I, I see everybody, you know, totally everyone is not
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their bodies, you know, even if someone's overweight, like I could care less about that.
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And that's, what's helped me as a trainer now is helping people not focus so much on
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their physical appearance, which is hard for some people to grasp, but in the long run,
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It sounds like you're instead of the outside factors, like the way you look, or like you
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said, the body fat, you're more worried about how you feel.
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I'm, I guess I'm both physically and mentally how you feel as opposed to how you look.
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And that's what I try and get across to people nowadays is, you know, yes, weight loss is
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sexy and yes, look, having a six pack is cool and all, but that's not what makes you happy
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You have to be happy with who you are now and just realize that you're becoming a better
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version of yourself as you become healthier, uh, not so much skinnier or, or less fat on your
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And so I try and get people to focus on, on medical health first and let them realize
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that, Hey, weight loss will be a by-product of living that healthy lifestyle over time.
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If you treat yourself right and you love who you are.
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How do you, let's say somebody is out of shape and they get on this health kick.
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In fact, three years ago, I weighed 50 pounds more than what I weigh today.
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So I've gone through this experience, so I'm, I'm familiar with what it's like.
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How do you not obsess about those things and maintain moderation and balance as opposed
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You know, one of the things that's, that's helped me and a lot of other people is kind
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of in a way, and this sounds hard, but disconnecting from, uh, uh, the social media, uh, atmosphere
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You know, we, we see these fitness models and we compare ourselves and it's just, it's
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really hard to do, but you do need to take a step back, take a break from what's out there
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that's being thrown in your face as far as what you're supposed to look like.
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And one of the things that's helped me honestly is meditation every day.
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Uh, and, and that's helped me to connect with who I am on the inside and focus so much more
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on just, uh, having a healthy day throughout the day instead of focusing on, okay, how many
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calories, how many macros, how many grams of protein, grams of fat, grams of
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But at the end of the day, if you're obsessing about that, I feel like you're just going to
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And if your goals are just about looks, you know, you're going to, you're going to get
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burned out after, you know, 90 days or whatever.
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Um, so meditation has helped me a ton and just taking a step back from the social media
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I love that you take more of a moderate approach because it would be easy for you to get consumed
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and how many calories are in this little piece of whatever and just lose sight of the
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thing that's important, which is at the end of the day, just eat healthy.
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And so people get consumed with, well, what's the exact best workout I should do when in
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Like for example, we recently moved out to Hawaii about six or seven months ago and I
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used to do CrossFit or used to work out in gym.
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And honestly, one of the most satisfying things is every morning I'll do my daily meditation
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for 10 months and then I'll go work out on the beach.
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But when I work out, I just grab a big stone that I find there, you know, I do some squats
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with that, run on the beach, do some body surfing.
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And that's like the most fulfilling workout ever versus anything I do in the gym.
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I might not have the biggest, you know, shoulder muscles or biceps by doing that kind of a workout,
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but it's more, it's more therapy than, than anything else to be honest with you.
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Cause I've just started to get into, into doing some meditation myself, even just over
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And so I'm curious what you do and what maybe you would recommend.
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So this is kind of funny cause I don't consider myself a meditation expert by any mean.
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And I'm, I'm your, your person that came from this kind of jock era of, you know, meditation
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And so I honestly started with just the free headspace app and just the daily guided meditation.
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I honestly use just those 10 free sessions and just go through those over and over again.
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And I've kind of tweaked it to, to my own personal use of it where sometimes I'll do
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seven minutes or eight minutes when I feel like I've gotten to a place of, of, of peace.
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Um, I don't really need the whole 10 minutes anymore, but if you're just new to it, the
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headspace app, I think it's perfect to kind of give you a feel of what it's like and what
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And it's not supposed to be forced, uh, to have that guided meditation, I think is a great
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Now, I mean, I've only been doing this for about eight months, so I'm not perfect at
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I'll make sure I link that up in the show notes so guys can check that out if they're interested.
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So I want to jump back to something you said, cause you talk about building confidence and
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I was actually having this conversation with some guys this morning about what comes first.
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Is it the actions you take to build confidence or is it this mentality of fake it till you
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Let's say somebody is out of shape and I know that they need to get in better shape, but
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they're just not confident in going to the gym or any of that stuff.
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How do you get in the mindset to get going to have at least enough confidence and energy to
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And in my book, I kind of go into this, like, um, some steps you can take to first get
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Even if you're not, you know, you don't have a plan in place or you're not, you don't
00:16:33.580
have anything, you know, uh, perfectly organized before you get started, just declaring, publicly
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So announcing on, on social media or to your friends or family, what your intentions are
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And then that, what that does is that distinguishes who's going to be your support group and who's
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So even if it might be your closest friends or even your family that aren't your support
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group, um, you'll, you discover at least who your support group is because no matter who
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you are, you're going to struggle along the way.
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You're going to have days where you just lose motivation, where you just want to stay in
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bed all day and you don't want to go to the gym.
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And what the support system does for you is gives you a kick in the butt when you need
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it, but also gives you that love and empathy and letting you know that you're worth it
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And so, um, that's why I'm a big proponent of, of a lot of my, uh, followers have started
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blogs or a social media account where they post updates, um, of their progress or, or,
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you know, Hey, I'm going for a walk today or, Hey, I'm drinking more water.
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Those kinds of things are very powerful because it keeps you accountable.
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People are looking, people are, people are looking at you and that, that, that fear is
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Um, and so I've had so many people that have started these blogs and, uh, it just keeps
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them accountable because they know people are looking at it.
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I've become friends with a lot of people from biggest loser and extreme weight loss.
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These TV shows that where they have all this attention on camera and on TV and,
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and I've noticed that a lot of them gain the weight back, but the ones, yeah, of course,
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the ones that have maintained this lifestyle I've noticed are the ones that are the most
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They continue to post inspirational quotes and these are the, and the ones that have
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dropped off that have gained the weight back and fortunately go into hiding.
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Um, and so that's one thing I've noticed is they maintain that accountability after they're
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on the TV show and that's what I try and pass along to people that are just getting started
00:18:37.060
No, this makes a ton of sense because we actually have a elite mastermind group that we have for
00:18:43.720
And somebody said to me just yesterday, they said, Oh, why would I, why would I pay to be
00:18:52.700
But at the end of the day, is it, is it number one packaged in a way that's consumable for
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And number two, are you actually going to do it because it's not a lack of information
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out there drew everything that you teach is available for free.
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It's the fact that you're going to be accountable.
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And I think this goes back to humans thousands of years ago when we were operating in tribes, you
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You weren't worthy of having around because you weren't even carrying your weight.
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And then I think as, as we've developed and evolved in society and we go to this lone
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wolf type thing, we're able to slink in the corner and we're able to hide and we're able
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But when we're in a team, we always work a little bit harder, right?
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Cause so many people can find, you can find this information anywhere, just like you said.
00:19:43.140
But I mean, it's so powerful to be accountable to somebody and that's why people are willing
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to pay thousands of dollars sometimes for a coach that, you know, is going to push them
00:19:50.880
and keep them accountable, you know, just to check in with somebody, you know, people
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pay for that nowadays and, you know, can charge quite a bit of money to be honest with you
00:20:00.680
And so there's cheaper ways to do it, of course, and you just find your, your support
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group and, um, find someone to be accountable to and you'll see just how powerful it is
00:20:10.960
So, so yeah, I guess my question with regards to support group, as you, as you put on this
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weight and you got out of shape and then you decide, okay, now I'm ready.
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Were you surprised at who was in your support group and even surprised at who maybe weren't
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I mean, my situation was a little bit different, right?
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So I had all, I had a ton of accountability and to the point where I was worried if I
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went to the grocery store and I had cinnamon toast crunch or some soda in my cart, I was
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worried if someone saw me, they're like, Hey, aren't you the fit to fit guy?
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So that fear kept me from giving into cravings, for example.
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So obviously my situation was a little bit different, but, um, I did have that, that
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accountability and that support group of, of people, you know, of, uh, people keeping
00:21:04.900
But, you know, I think it's different for each person.
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And I feel like, um, whether you have that or not, there's still ways to do it, to have
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people keep you accountable and not that people are going to know who you are everywhere you
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But I mean, yeah, it's, it's just, it's a necessary step in, in transformation in general.
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Just taking a quick time out to introduce you to my friends and sponsors of the show,
00:21:30.100
It's hard to know what's worthy of actually consuming and what isn't.
00:21:33.620
And that's where me and the art of charm come into play.
00:21:35.540
As you might imagine, I spend a considerable amount of time consuming information on the
00:21:39.980
topic of performance and leadership and relationships so much more.
00:21:43.380
And I can tell you firsthand, these guys are the real deal.
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They're going to teach you a ton about the topics that we just addressed and so much more.
00:21:51.040
And one of the best parts is these guys are well researched.
00:21:53.580
Jordan studied law prior to entering the podcasting world.
00:21:55.940
So you can be sure the man knows how to prepare and research a topic before giving you the
00:22:02.880
So go check them out after you listen to this show at the art of charm.com slash podcast,
00:22:07.080
or you can find them in iTunes or stitcher, wherever you get your fix of podcasts.
00:22:10.420
This is a show about leveling up your life, your relationships, your wealth, your fitness,
00:22:14.020
your business, and you'll walk away with a ton of great information that you can actually
00:22:19.180
Go to the art of charm.com slash podcast, or find the art of charm in iTunes or stitcher
00:22:26.480
We really enjoy the show and we think you will as well.
00:22:32.180
With your clients, what's the hardest part for your clients as they're starting to get
00:22:36.080
into shape and take hold of their, of their health?
00:22:41.940
I do work with a lot of families like couples, and it's one of the toughest things they tell me
00:22:47.600
is what do you do when your spouse isn't supportive?
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You know, like let's say the guy's on, on, on track.
00:22:52.880
He wants to get healthy, but his wife's like, no, let's just Netflix and chill, you know?
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You don't need to say, okay, I can only eat, drink, and be merry, or I have to go live
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in a cave and eat chicken and broccoli for the rest of my life.
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There's an in-between there, you know, and I try and help people discover what that is.
00:23:15.940
But, um, I would say that's the biggest thing people struggle with from a couple's perspective.
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But honestly, the, the number one thing that people struggle with is on the mental and emotional
00:23:25.140
And that's, um, what do they do when they're by themselves and they have cravings or what
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When we win at something, we celebrate, we go eat.
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You know, if there's a party, if there's a holiday, a birthday party, we celebrate with
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That's why being accountable to other people that are doing this with you is, is so powerful.
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And so I can't stress that enough, but that's what it, those are the number one things I
00:24:03.760
I know I struggle the most when it comes to eating when I'm bored.
00:24:06.920
So at the end of the night, when everything's kind of winding down, that is like the biggest
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challenge for me not to eat the whole house down.
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So I either try to find something to do or I just hurry and go to bed.
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I'm going to go back to what you said about not having a spouse on board with this because
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yeah, you can choose your support group and your support group in a way will identify
00:24:33.120
But at the end of the day, when it comes to your spouse, I mean, that's your spouse,
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You love that person and you want to be with that person and you can't just shun them
00:24:40.900
because they're not supportive of your new goal.
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One is it's, it's always, it's so funny because if it comes from the spouse of like, hey, we
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It's like the worst idea causes the most confrontation I've realized in relationships.
00:24:58.100
If a guy says to a girl, hey, you know, we should go to the gym or are you really going
00:25:06.100
But if it comes from someone else outside of that circle, they're like, oh yeah, that's
00:25:11.500
And, you know, we should start eating, you know, more broccoli or more kale in our, in
00:25:15.260
But if it comes from the person they love, it's like, what do you, you know, people get
00:25:21.580
One is to always just be the example instead of verbally telling someone what to do, just
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be the example, the silent, you know, leader in the relationship is the number one thing
00:25:33.320
Another thing you can do, which I love this idea, but it's not easy is the idea of inception.
00:25:38.860
Now I'm not talking about the movie where you go into their dreams and plant the seed,
00:25:42.920
but if you can make them, if you can make them realize that it's their idea instead of you're
00:25:49.440
the one pushing it to them, then that's going to make things a lot easier.
00:25:54.380
So for example, what you can do is say to your spouse, look, I want to lose some weight this
00:26:01.900
I need somebody to help me, to keep me accountable.
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And I'm not saying you need to do this with me, but I just want you to help me along the
00:26:13.600
So all I'm saying is for you to keep me accountable.
00:26:15.860
I'm not saying you have to do this with me, but just push me along the way.
00:26:19.780
And that seems to work for a lot of couples I've worked with because then the spouse is
00:26:24.160
like, okay, I'm here, you know, I'm here to rescue you.
00:26:28.460
And they might not join on board at first, but when they see, you know, how motivated
00:26:34.140
you are and how you're keeping them accountable, it's a, it's very powerful in my opinion.
00:26:38.980
So it's something new to try if you haven't tried it before.
00:26:42.000
So what you're saying is that all the men out there listening should set their wife's iPad
00:26:46.460
or iPhone to the fit to fat to fit podcast and let them discover it from themselves.
00:26:58.920
You know, I'm a financial advisor by trade and I've had this conversation.
00:27:03.840
Or I tend to be pretty structured and pretty regimented with my money because that's my job.
00:27:07.980
Just like you're into fitness and this is what you do.
00:27:10.380
I tell my wife all the time, okay, here's what I want to do.
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And she's never been interested in it and almost fights me on it all the time.
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But one day she came home and she said, hey, you know, Ryan, I really want to start
00:27:25.180
paying off debt and I want to, I want to invest all this money.
00:27:29.240
And I thought to myself, well, this is great, but where is this coming from?
00:27:32.820
And she said, oh, I was listening to Dave Ramsey on the way home.
00:27:35.440
And I'm like, I've been telling you this stuff for a decade, but it takes Dave Ramsey to tell
00:27:42.580
So I totally understand what it is you're saying.
00:27:46.540
I want to ask a question about discipline because I think it's easy for people to start.
00:27:52.920
I don't think that's necessarily that difficult, but it's the same reason we have New Year's
00:27:58.180
And we're done with them by, it's February 5th as we're recording this episode right now.
00:28:02.280
And everybody's done with their New Year's resolutions.
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How do you maintain discipline and commitment to your goals when life is hard and Burger
00:28:09.720
King's way easier than sitting down and eating a salad?
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And it's something that I struggle with as well.
00:28:16.140
I tell people all the time, look, I lose motivation all the time.
00:28:19.340
I get burnt out of doing the same exercises and just going to the gym.
00:28:25.380
And so one of the things I found that helps me and others maintain this healthy lifestyle
00:28:29.740
from a physical point of view is to plan a few competitions, races throughout the year.
00:28:38.640
Because what that does is you put money down for these things.
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And anytime money is involved, you're five times more likely to succeed with your goal
00:28:47.240
So if you put $50 down for, let's say, a 5K or a 10K or a Spartan race or a Tough Mudder
00:28:52.520
or a physique competition or some type of competition where you put money down and you are competing
00:28:58.980
in a way, you, for the most part, aren't going to waste that money by not training for that
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So what I recommend is for people to plan two to three races, put the money down now for
00:29:14.380
And then find a group of people to train with, find some people or friends to sign up for
00:29:20.800
And if you do two to three a year, I mean, it's so powerful in keeping you motivated throughout
00:29:25.540
the year to continue to train and eat healthy because you don't want to show up on race
00:29:29.260
day out of shape and waste your money, especially if you're, you're training with other people.
00:29:36.480
So for example, I mean, let's say Spartan race isn't your thing.
00:29:39.200
And even if you're just getting started signing up for a 5k with your wife or a couple of
00:29:44.500
friends, I think is, is a great way to get started.
00:29:48.200
Because like I said, when you put money down for something, you're not going to waste that
00:29:55.360
So that's a great way to stay motivated throughout the year is, you know, in January, February,
00:30:00.240
even now sign up for two or three races right now, put the money down now instead of saying,
00:30:05.460
well, it's not October, I'll wait till September to sign up for the race, put the money down
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And then you have all year to train and you're not going to waste that money.
00:30:14.720
Find some people to train with, stay accountable to.
00:30:17.900
I actually got really stagnant with my fitness goals last year.
00:30:21.800
And excuse me, I had a friend of mine invite me to a Spartan race in the Bahamas, actually.
00:30:27.280
And I was completely not prepared for the Spartan race, but I said, yeah, let's do it.
00:30:32.540
I was very committed to getting in shape, getting where I needed to be because I didn't
00:30:37.560
want to go embarrass myself in front of my friend on this race.
00:30:40.940
And then I did three Spartan events and you, it sounds like you're familiar with Spartan
00:30:45.680
They have the sprint, which is like three to five miles.
00:30:48.320
And then they have the super, which is seven to 10 or nine miles.
00:30:52.220
And then they have the beast and every race I did, I extended the distance, even though
00:30:57.200
I knew I wasn't adequately prepared at the time that I signed up for the race.
00:31:01.120
But it was easy for me at that point to be motivated, to continue to get in shape.
00:31:07.340
And that's the perfect example of how it can be.
00:31:10.580
You know, you put the money down, you sent you, you train for it and then you do the
00:31:14.600
And another thing that I would recommend as well is we all know habits are very powerful,
00:31:20.260
They're not easy to get rid of old habits, bad habits.
00:31:24.900
But another thing, if you can make meal prepping a habit in your life, it makes eating healthy
00:31:31.700
If you can, the way I teach people is to meal prep twice a week, Sunday night, and then once
00:31:37.780
And if they can repeat that and prep their food and you're only cooking twice a week,
00:31:44.380
And if you have the healthy food already ready to go in your house, like you said, you struggle
00:31:49.840
If all you have is healthy food in your house, yeah, you might give in to eating some, you
00:31:56.540
know, healthier food at night, but that's a lot better than giving in to eating chips
00:32:02.180
So fill your house with healthy food by doing meal prep.
00:32:08.580
So that's another tip that I would recommend for people.
00:32:13.020
We were out of our chips and I had to eat almonds instead last night while I was watching
00:32:17.860
It's like, oh man, which, you know, at the same time, yeah, people are going to say,
00:32:23.320
well, almonds are, people are going to say almonds are high in fat, but at the same time,
00:32:28.360
There's a lot of healthy benefits to eating almonds versus, you know, a can of Pringles.
00:32:36.600
Well, Drew, we're winding down on time a little bit here.
00:32:38.160
I want to ask you a couple of additional questions.
00:32:39.840
I don't know if I even prepared you for this question.
00:32:43.400
And this is a question that I ask every single guest of mine.
00:32:46.300
And that question is, what do you think it means to be a man?
00:32:50.580
For me, I'm 35 years old and I feel like I know nothing in this life.
00:32:55.480
I feel like I've, my 35 years of existence, I've, I've gone through experiments and tests
00:33:02.060
I failed again and again, but all of it happened for me to finally discover who I am and learn
00:33:09.480
As a man, we look at vulnerability as a weakness.
00:33:13.760
Our whole life, we don't talk about our weaknesses.
00:33:18.460
But one of the biggest things I've learned is that being vulnerable is actually a strength.
00:33:22.540
And it's helped me develop a relationship with who I am.
00:33:25.420
And I feel like I, I love, I finally love who I am at 35 years old versus my entire life.
00:33:31.760
I pretended like I love myself on the outside, but on the inside, I struggled with self-confidence
00:33:38.280
And I feel like being vulnerable has helped me develop that relationship with myself, which
00:33:45.960
So I'm a dad now and I feel like I'm a happier, healthier dad.
00:33:51.440
It sounds kind of selfish, but because I love myself first, if you can love yourself first
00:33:56.580
and foremost, you can better love and serve others.
00:33:58.680
And I used to think of it as the opposite, hate yourself, do nothing for yourself and
00:34:04.760
But I feel like I can be a better service loving who I am.
00:34:08.300
And I know that doesn't sound manly, but I promise you it is like, it's taught me so
00:34:13.340
much in my life going through these struggles and tests and, and, and hell.
00:34:18.640
And I've come out a lot stronger, but in a way that society doesn't think is manly, but
00:34:28.420
And I completely agree that the more you take care of yourself, the more you have the
00:34:33.320
capacity to love others, whether it's your children or your wife or your employees or
00:34:39.400
And that's extremely valuable and manly as well.
00:34:44.960
So as we wind down on time, I want to know how we connect with you.
00:34:50.080
How do we connect with you and follow up on some of the things that you've got going
00:34:55.660
So my brand is called fit to fat to fit with the number two in between, whereas the TV
00:35:03.380
Uh, but you can go to my website, fit to fat to fit.com.
00:35:07.800
Um, my podcast is the fit to fat to fit experience.
00:35:12.420
All my handles are at fit to fat to fit with the number two.
00:35:15.600
Um, the TV show is on Tuesday nights on A&E 10, nine central, um, check that out.
00:35:20.400
Uh, but yeah, I'm on all social media handles and I answer everybody's comments and questions
00:35:29.520
I appreciate your time and being on the show today, imparting some of your wisdom.
00:35:35.640
There you have it guys, Mr. Drew Manning with fit to fat to fit, teaching us what it takes
00:35:42.120
Again, if you're one of those few men who are action takers, I personally invite you
00:35:48.360
You're going to get a ton out of this and actually start seeing results in all your relationships,
00:35:54.000
your health, your level of wealth, and most importantly, yourself head to order of man.com
00:36:00.620
Again, all the details for this show can be found at order of man.com slash zero five three.
00:36:04.980
You can also join the conversation we're having about masculinity in our Facebook group at
00:36:08.620
facebook.com slash groups slash order of man guys.
00:36:11.680
I look forward to talking with you next week, but until then take action and become the man
00:36:16.880
Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast.
00:36:19.840
You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.
00:36:23.880
We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.