[MELISSA VOGEL]: The Bomb Mom Podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice podcast network, a family of podcasts that are making the world better. You’ll also probably like the Imperfect Thriving podcast, Beta Male Revolution and Empowered and Unapologetic podcast. Check them out at www.practiceofthepractice.com/network. Hey, what’s up everyone? If you’re looking to be inspired, motivated, educated, and entertained, you have come to the right place. Welcome to the Bomb Mom Podcast, the podcast where we explore your fitness, life, mindsets and actions that help you become unstoppable. You’re worth it and it’s time to finally make changes in your life that will last you the rest of your life. [MELISSA]: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Bomb Mom podcast. I am your host, Melissa Vogel, and we have the most amazing guests today. I want everyone to welcome Adam Schaeuble. No, not, am I right? This is an amazing man and I’m destroying his name. [ADAM SCHAEUBLE]: So, you say Adam and I’ll fill in the blanks. [MELISSA]: Okay. Adam — [ADAM]: Schaeuble. [MELISSA]: Schaeuble. I was so close. Schaeuble — [ADAM]: It’s always easy to pick out telemarketers back in the day. You know what I’m saying? [MELISSA]: So true. Oh my God, Adam Schaeuble. You guys, he is known as the P.H.D. It, that part cracks me up Previously Heavy Dude. How did you come up with that? [ADAM]: There’s a story. We can get into the story. [MELISSA]: Okay, we’ll get into that, but you guys, he hit rock bottom in his life when he weighed 327 pounds and he went on his own hundred pound weight loss journey and he was on this journey and he started to inspire people in his hometown to join him. He started a gym, a boot camp program and helped his hometown lose over 35,000 pounds in five years. Is that true? Seriously? [ADAM]: A hundred percent. [MELISSA]: Oh my God. That is a lot of weight in a short period of time. I know it’s like five years, but like Holy crap, Adam. Holy crap. And I have to say you guys, he is the host of a top ranked health podcast, The Million Pound Mission. So, his goal is to inspire 1 million pounds of healthy results, which, oh my God, it can be tracked on his website millionpoundmission.com. So, make sure you guys check that out, but Adam, I cannot wait to hear about your journey, your story, your transformation. You have to start off with who you used to be like. I want to know about this Previously Heavy Dude, Adam. [ADAM]: Yes. Well, Melissa queen of Bomb Moms, I appreciate you sharing your platform with me. All the bomb moms out there, it’s very exciting for me to be here and share this information with you. But yeah it is over a decade ago now. Back in 2007, I was 327 pounds. I was just kind of in that rock bottom moment in life, I was depressed, I had a ton of debt, I’d made a bunch of really bad decisions and pretty much every area of my life, dealing with like food addiction issues, relationship. I had just fallen in love and then the woman had just told me that she was going to move like an hour away and that was pretty much going to be the end of things. And so, just like every little nook and cranny of my life, I was feeling like I was kind of a bit of a crap magnet and — [MELISSA]: Right, let me pause you. Now, before this, did you grow up, you know, like a heavier child, like, is this something you’ve been all your life? Were you heavy growing up? [ADAM]: Well, no. Actually, you know, being a fellow Midwesterner, I played basketball all through elementary school, junior high, high school. When I graduated high school, but I was playing all day every day, very active, didn’t eat like a typical kid, you know, eating super bad, but not, it was standard American kid diet, a lot of diet Pepsi and chips, like that. So, I in college, well, my senior year of high school, I did an internship with a gym and I fell in love with weightlifting. I talked to my mentor from that gym to be our strength coach, my basketball team, our senior year. It was awesome. I put on like 25 pounds of rock, solid muscle. I graduated high school. I weighed about 185 pounds. I’m six foot three so it kind of stretched out over that frame, a pretty typical athletic kid. Then in college I decided to go to Indiana university. I was studying exercise science. So, I was still kind of following the path. Like I like strength. I like helping athletes and I kind of think I want to be a strength coach. So, things that started off pretty promising there, and then, — [MELISSA]: Yeah, I’m like shocked that that’s your journey. Like, oh my God. Okay. [ADAM]: Yeah. So, then, I quit playing basketball. I focused solely on getting as strong as possible as I was competing in powerlifting, which was okay. Like I was still getting stronger. I was just, you know, I started doing Highland games where they throw the cabers and the stones and wear the kilts and I’m just having a blast. The issue with Highland games is they’re seven events. They start drinking Guinness at about event three. [MELISSA]: Oh my God. [ADAM]: And with that came, you know, eating and then I decided like, “Wow, man, if I really want to compete in this, I need to be bigger.” So, I started eating a lot. That is where food addiction really started to rear its ugly head where once that spark was kind of lit, it was hard to stop and I couldn’t stop it. And every year in college I put on 20 to 25 pounds and you know, I was competing, I was very strong, but I was very unhealthy because I was just consuming all these calories. It turned into like, I couldn’t eat one or two pieces of pizza. I already the whole thing, the whole thing of cookies, the whole thing of yogurt. Anything in front of me, I was just consuming it in the name of like, “Oh, I’m healthy. I’m lifting.”. That was a story I would tell myself. I can bench press 500 pounds. I can deadlift 700 pounds. I can throw these trees across the stadium floor here, but I started having blood pressure issues. My endurance was terrible, you know, my body fat was terrible and I was training athletes. I was helping them get strong. And then that’s all at once I decided like, ”Man, I’m not happy with the way I feel. My energy sucks.” I competed in the Highland games in Estes Park, Colorado at elevation, and I could barely breathe, you know? [MELISSA]: Oh, I bet, Yeah. [ADAM]: I felt like my heart was going to explode. And then I was really unhappy with the direction that my career was taking as well. Like working, at first working with high school athletes was awesome. And, but then it really felt like I was more babysitting and I would come up with these awesome, like Russian conjugate, athletic dynamic strength training sessions for the football team and they would go on the corner and do biceps curls. Like that’s what they would do and I’m sitting there yelling at them for the whole hour. And I was like, “I really hate this.” And didn’t pay super well, you know, every strength coach that goes to college to be a strength coach dreams of working with professional athletes and for most that just doesn’t happen. And that was my case. So, all that had just kind of spiraled, I was kind of circling the drain of life with just being not motivated at all in any way, shape or form. And that’s what led me to the kind of the rock bottom moment where I just decided for things to change, I had to change for things to get better. I had to, I was doing a lot of pointing the finger of blame outward and like all these athletes, all these circumstances, that girl, this job, you know, all that. And I decided to turn that finger around and pointed it directly at me and take personal responsibility. And that’s, people ask me like, what’s the most important exercise that I should be doing. I describe that. I’m like, “You have to take that finger of blame and start to own your situation instead of blaming everybody else, every other circumstance that that’s out there.” And that’s where a lot of great, not only physical transformations, but mental transformations, that’s where they tend to start. And that’s definitely reminded. [MELISSA]: Absolutely. You know, and I have to say, I love that you shared this part of your journey. And like, we back up just a little bit because a lot of my listeners and followers, a lot of the moms, not all but a lot of the moms have a very similar story. They grew up being athletes in college and like really fit and go into the gym all the time. And then like, as life kind of transforms and goes in a different direction, it’s like this happened and that’s when the addiction happened and, you know, blaming the boyfriend and this marriage failed or this relationship failed. And like, I think they can totally relate to your story, male or female. I think people can really relate to that journey in that struggle and that led you to your PHD. [ADAM]: Yes. And we will get to that story. Don’t worry about all that. And it’s good. It kind of encapsulates my personality quite well. So, yeah, I’m in that moment and I remember like the day that my life really hit that U-turn. I was standing in the grocery store. I had my credit card, which was like my 20th of 20 credit cards of like, you know, just, I was in a lot of trouble with debt. And I was like, “Okay, am I going to be able to pay for the food with my card?” I was just feeling super stressed about all that. And I went home and there was a DVD back in the age of DVDs, this is 2007. And there was a DVD on my DVD player and it was called The Secret, the Law of Attraction. And one of my friends had given that to me like a couple of months ago, and I pretended to watch it and I gave it back and I’m like, “I don’t need this mumbo jumbo.” Though I was positive thinking [crosstalk]. So, I pretended to watch it, “Oh, it was awesome.” Gave it back. Then another friend had given it to me and it literally started to collect dust on my DVD player. I just felt like, okay, this thing has showed up in my life again for a reason. Let’s just see what this is about. I got nothing to lose here. Let’s see what this positive thinking stuff’s all about. So, watch it. And it was just like, somebody flipped the light switch. And that was honestly my first ever dose. And I’m 27 at this point. This is my first ever dose of personal growth material ever. [MELISSA]: Interesting. That, the secret, huh? [ADAM]: The Secret, the Law of Attraction. [MELISSA]: Wow. I’ve just seen my kids watch that last month. [ADAM]: It’s so good. And it’s, so I just watched it like three times in a row. And then that night, I mean I stayed up almost all night, I was just so jazzed because I felt like up to that point, I felt out of control. And I know a lot of people out there listening have that feeling, especially about their health and their weight. You feel like you aren’t in control. And that movie empowered me to start believing that I can control my destiny and that I can decide what I want and really go after it. So, that night I mapped out what I wanted to do with my life over the next five years. And I don’t know why I picked five years, but that was the deal. I picked five years. I felt like it was enough time to get some, I needed a little bit of an overhaul. So, I needed, it couldn’t be like a one-month thing. I’m like, “Okay, five years. It’s not, I don’t feel the pressure to do it all right at once, but it’s not 50 years.” So, I went after the five-year deal and I started writing affirmations of what I wanted to achieve. I turned my goals into affirmations, into a positive statement. I teach this to people through my podcast. I call it the Lifestyle Rehabilitation Statement. So, it’s like an affirmation, but like pumped up to the next level. Everything had to be positive. I wouldn’t like, so one of my goals was to get rid of all my debt. I had $40,000 in credit card debt, and I wanted to get rid of it all in five years, but I didn’t allow myself to put the word debt in my affirmation. [MELISSA]: Yes. [ADAM]: I didn’t want to be repeating debt, debt, debt, debt, debt. So, I focused on abundance, you know, lifestyle choices and things like that. So, I had all these statements, all these affirmations written out as if they’ve already occurred. So, I had a deadline of five years. It was July 12th of 2012 as my deadline and I did this July 12th of 2007 and I had rules. I had to read this every morning and every night out loud with energy, sit and feel it like with my weight loss; how I wanted my body to be. I had to sit and feel that and put myself in that place. And then at night, so the morning session was more about like flipping the light switch on, seeing what opportunities were out there that I was looking to connect with and just setting the tone for the day. At night, it was about accountability. I know you’re a big fan of accountability and this was— [MELISSA]: Yes sir. [ADAM]: That was the jam. Like that was the magic bullet for me. And I would hold myself accountable and go, “Okay, I just read this. Did I do anything today to move the needle 1% in any of these directions?” And if the answer is no, I had to do something before I went to sleep, every single day for five years. And in — [MELISSA]: Never missed a day? [ADAM]: Never missed a day. [MELISSA]: Wow. Impressive. [ADAM]: So, with that five years, you know, I think there’s a lot of people out there that set goals, especially with weight loss. They’re like, “I gained a hundred pounds over the last five years. I want to lose it all in one workout.” And then they want to get it all done in one whack or one month or even one year. And instead of the mindset of like, let’s just get 1% better every day. Let’s ship away and let’s see what happens. Let’s take action towards what I want to achieve every single day, no off days, because I’m worth it. So, I did this for five years every morning, every night, take action, do something every day. It could be as simple as a workout, read a blog post, send an email, explore business opportunity, read a book about debt. Any of that. So over that five-year time span, I mean, I lost a hundred pounds, then as I started to lose weight, obviously people start to ask about that. I’m already kind of connected with a lot of athletes. Their parents started asking me if I could help them lose weight because they saw me losing weight. I’m like, “Hmm. Interesting.” So, I fired all my athletes and I started hiring, so working with all their parents and fell in love with it. This is the era of like the biggest loser. I’m like, “I can do something locally.” And I never really liked the biggest loser because of the artificial environment. I’m like, I want to help people that are paying bills, that are dealing with their spouses, that are in the trenches with work. Like I want real life stuff and help them realize scenarios. So, I formed a bootcamp. I convinced 13 of my friends to do it and we lost like 300 something pounds in eight weeks. I was like, “Okay.” And they start going, “Well, when’s the next one?” And then they became a natural recruiting machine for me. So, the next one we didn’t have like 30 something people. The next one had 70, the next one had a hundred, and we did just quarter after quarter. We’d do one per quarter and we have a hundred people in every single one of those for years. And that’s when we did the whole 35,000 pounds thing. I helped 15 people from my hometown lose over a hundred pounds, and just like we had a dry erase board and I eventually started renting space for this. And I had a dry erase board paint all over the walls and it was just full of 30 and 40 and 50 and 60, you know, all these weight loss club members and it was nuts. So, on July 12th, actually it wasn’t July 12th, 2012 it was July 19th, 2012. I was seven days late on my five-year goal of checking the last thing off. I opened up my own 8,000 square foot facility where I wanted to, I had envisioned it five years prior and I had a hundred people there waiting at 6:00 AM for me to teach them. I had never told anybody about my five-year journey in this whole system until that day. And people were like openly, like weeping at 6:00 AM. [MELISSA]: Oh my God, I like that. [ADAM]: This craziness, and you know, I was married to the woman that was going to move away. Her mortgage fell through so she had to move back. She had nowhere to live so she lived with me. We’ve got, you know, now we’re celebrating our 11-year anniversary this year. So, you know, we already had a child by then. I had zero debt. Like all this stuff happened, but the key lesson that I want to get out there to all the Bomb Mom listeners is that I didn’t just sit back and use the law of attraction. You can’t spell attraction without action. And I took action every day. And that was what made the big difference for me. [MELISSA]: Yes, absolutely. Now let me ask you this because it’s not always sunshine, rainbows, sparkles and unicorns. There had been bad days in there, right? Like how did you do it on a day where you’re just like, “Oh, I don’t want to say this tonight.” [ADAM]: Oh yeah, absolutely, there are bad days. I mean, there were so many ups and downs, but like I remember when I had to my first employee. Like, and everything started happening so fast. It was nuts. Like I’m a late 20-year-old, I have employees that are like forties and fifties and I have to look at somebody and I realized that they had a cocaine addiction and they were coming in and teaching. I thought they were just like super excited to teach class, honestly. [MELISSA]: Oh my God. Wow. They’re just so motivated. [ADAM]: So energetic, my God. But sit there and like lecture a 40 something year old, that’s like 20 years older than me about cocaine. I’m like, there is no training for this at all. Like I have no idea what I’m doing. [MELISSA]: Oh my God. [ADAM]: And like having to fire them and deal with unemployment and like all the, I can’t talk about it to the members. So, like a quarter of my members leave because they’re pissed at me and I wanted to be like, “She’s on drugs.” [MELISSA]: It’s not my fault. [ADAM]: Yeah. So, just like stuff, like I had days like that, I had months like that where it’s just, as a business owner, a lot of weird shit. And so, yeah, of course I had to deal with that but just using that affirmation process as kind of my guiding star, my North star and coming back to that and letting that be my center and saying, “Alright, what am I after? Am I still walking towards that or not?” You know, maybe I’m standing still for a day, but you know, I’m not running enthusiastically away from my goals. That’s the key point. [MELISSA]: Right. And we talk about the, no matter what mindset. Like, no matter what, we talk about a bomb mom as being a shark. I don’t know if you know that or not. And we always talk about, “Oh, we’re a shark. We’re a freaking shark.” It’s like what we say all the time like if we stop swimming, we will die. And it’s true because like our environment, our life, our kids will eat us alive if we stopped swimming. And you were like this shark in an ocean for five years and like, “I am not going to stop. I am not going to stop no matter what.” And that brought you to here, like now. Like that is just so motivating and inspiring. And now you have two kids, right? [ADAM]: Yes, I have two kids. [MELISSA]: You said you had one and now you have two. [ADAM]: They’re upstairs getting rowdy right now. I told them, I’m like, “You’ve got to be extra good and extra quiet.” And then of course they’re like, pro-wrestling up there currently. [MELISSA]: Yeah. Like right now it’s the perfect time to jump off our beds. You say it so nice. I’m like, “If you guys even open this door, the ax will fall. Don’t come near mom this morning.” [ADAM]: “No iPad for life.” [MELISSA]: Yeah, “You’re done.” So where are you currently at now? What is life like for Adam Shuable? No, I’m kidding. It’s Schaeuble. Where are you currently at now as Adam Schaeuble? [ADAM]: And that’s why I use the whole PHD thing. Much easier to remember and no one can ever look at my name on social media because they’re like, how did he spell it again? A lot of, I could buy a vow, I know that. [MELISSA]: That’s true. [ADAM]: So, now, kind of the back end of the story, once we had crossed the 35,000 pounds and we were doing all that, people were like, “Oh, you should franchise. This is really going well and you should franchise.” And I realized at that point I had fired enough people to realize that like, I don’t really want to be in charge of a whole lot of adults. You know, it sounded like, that’s not my dream thing, but podcasting started to come around. I’ve always been, you know, really into like storytelling and just, I actually had started doing voice work for commercials and, I call it voice modeling. I’m not a voice actor. I’m more of a voice model. [MELISSA]: Yeah, your voice is like crazy. And being in the acting world, like I’ve done voiceover work and stuff and I’m like, “Oh my God, Adam is so like,” [ADAM]: I’m trying to break through. So, if you’ve got like an agent out there listening, you know — [MELISSA]: Oh, for sure I will hook you up. [ADAM]: I’ve done a little bit but yeah. I joke that I’m like, “I’m more of a voice model than an actor. I just make words sound better. Like you can give me a word like this and I’ll just make it sound better.” [MELISSA]: Yeah, to say it so. [ADAM]: Yeah, exactly. It’s like, if Melissa stands next to your product, she’s going to make your product look better. And I do the same with words. You know what I’m saying? So other than voice modeling, I decided to get into the podcasting space and that’s where The Million Pound Mission was born. And the whole time we’re doing this boot camp thing, all this, the space that I was running, the idea for tracking it all came from the location we were in because we were right across the street from a McDonald’s and you know, the McDonald’s sign is like over a billion blah, blah, blah. [MELISSA]: Shut up. [ADAM]: I was like, you know what, we’re going toe to toe. [MELISSA]: Your space was across the street from McDonald’s. [ADAM]: Yeah. [MELISSA]: Oh my God. [ADAM]: I go toe to toe with Mickey D’s and we would, every thousand pounds, we would update the sign and we’d put it up there. And it was like, people would drive by like you’re catching up to McDonald’s man. So, that’s where it all started and then went to podcast. I was like, “I don’t want to be one of those shows where I’m like, oh, I want to help a billion people smile every day.” I’m like, how in the hell do I track that? [MELISSA]: Right. [ADAM]: I’m very like, it’s accountability again. So, on the website, people can go and donate their weight loss to The Million Pound Mission. They listen to the show, like you just came on my show, somebody is going to get something from that interview. They will implement, they will lose three pounds or seven pounds or whatever, and they can go on the website, donate the weight loss and they see the ticker go right up. And we’re getting close to 57,000 pounds donated from the podcast listeners, which is awesome. And there’s no, you don’t have to give an email or a name or anything. You just enter the weight and ticker goes up. We set protocols in there so you can’t add negative numbers so people can’t like go on there that hate me or something like that instructor that was on cocaine that I fired back in the day like [inaudible 00:23:43] I’m going to get them back. [ADAM]: So, you know, and you can’t put more than 40 pounds in a two-week span. [MELISSA]: Smart. [ADAM]: Like there’s a little bit of [crosstalk] there. So, that’s where I’m at now. So, I’m podcasting. I really enjoy doing online challenges. I’m already, as you know, Melissa I’m recruiting you to do a challenge together because that’s something I love to do; is just add energy. I like being kind of like a circus ringleader, go and add energy, fire people up and then kind of show them next steps and things like that. So, that’s what we’re doing with the show. And I’ve also got a second show about podcasting called Casting the Pod and I just interview podcasters and talk about podcasting tips. So, that’s the space I’m at now. I sold my gym, let’s see, four months ago now. So, I’m a recovering gym owner and it’s nice timing. Timing was good. [MELISSA]: Wow. Dude, I was going to we’re all on lockdown right now. No matter the time you guys are listening to this podcast, but this is quarantine time and wow, that was good timing. [ADAM]: Yeah, that was, I was due for a bit of good timing in my life, I think. And so, that did go well. But you know, so, I’m just kind of out there in the online space, the virtual coaching space. [MELISSA]: I love it. [ADAM]: Yeah, the energy adding space. Now, can I tell the story about PHD? [MELISSA]: Oh my God, please I’d love to hear about PHD. [ADAM]: I couldn’t bring it up until I talked about the podcast. [MELISSA]: Right. [ADAM]: So, this is perfect for you because you’re coming into the podcast and game with way more connections that I had when I started, Melissa. [MELISSA]: Okay, good. [ADAM]: So, you don’t have to do this, but I knew that getting on other people’s shows was the way to help promote my show and grow my audience. [MELISSA]: Absolutely. [ADAM]: But I really like, I was a, nobody. I had no famousness about me and very little social media or any of that, but this is, you know, five years ago now. And I knew, I started listening to certain shows and there was this one show where, I knew it was a big show. It was always like number one and new and noteworthy in the health space. I was like, “I could rock this show, but she only interviews doctors.” So, there was like an application and I wrote about my story and the a hundred pounds and the 35,000 pounds and I signed it, Adam Schaeuble, PHD. [MELISSA]: Oh my God. [ADAM]: And just to kind of get to the gatekeeper, and then I go on the show, I crushed the interview, she invites me back for her New Year’s Day interview — [MELISSA]: Wait a minute. Did you ever tell her? [ADAM]: Right, like on the show, she’s like, I want you to come back. Like, she’s going to interview like Dr. Oz, Deepak Chopra, like all these like major players, but they’re all kind of like dry, you know what I’m saying? Like doctors, aren’t the most exciting. Like we need that information. That’s why I was like, “I can entertain these people and I’ll stand out.” Like the energy will stand out. And so, as she’s wrapping up, she’s like, “I want you to come back for my New Year’s Day edition.” And I was like, “I got a complain.” I’m like, “You know, I’m not a real PhD. I’m a Previously Heavy Dude.” And she just cracked up dying and laughing. And she’s like, “That is awesome.” So, it was all good, but I had to come clean and she still invited me to do her New Year’s Day and we crushed that one. I’ve been back a couple of times since, but, yeah. And then it stuck because she started calling me PHD and then other people started calling PHD. Then I started making clothes with PHD. I got a hat that I always wear and people recognize the hat. I was in Omaha, Nebraska and someone’s like, “PHD.” And I was like, “Oh my God.” [MELISSA]: That is cool. [ADAM]: So, yeah, but I think that’s the only time my wife and kids have ever been impressed with me as a podcaster. [crosstalk] Well, they weren’t with me. That’s about it. We were eating at a steak house in Orlando, Florida, and someone’s was like, “I listened to your show PHD.” I’m like, they’re like, “Let’s do a picture.” I’m like, “This is awesome. Right in front of my wife and kids. Thank you so much.” But then they forgot about it and it’s like, no big deal. [MELISSA]: That is so cool. I can’t, because that could have went so wrong. Like she could have been so pissed at you, but after crushing your interview, like how could you even be mad at you about that? [ADAM]: I delivered and I was like, “Okay, I really hope, I’m going to just put myself out there and be honest, a little moment of honesty.” And I didn’t write it in the thing like, like you typically write PHD, like big P little H big B. I wrote all capitals. So, I was like, I could lean back on that legally if I needed to. [MELISSA]: Absolutely her fault for not catching it. Her fault. Totally her fault. So, right now, tell me like, because you’ve been in this space and on this journey for years now, like what are some transformation danger zones that you’ve seen people fall into, that maybe you’ve fallen into, that you know that our bomb moms are going to fall into? Do you have any tips or pointers on that and identifying things that can help them like avoid those dangers zones? [ADAM]: Yeah. So, I love the word transformation danger zone and — [MELISSA]: Yeah, not my word you guys. That’s Adam’s. That’s not my words. [ADAM]: The longer you hang out with me, Melissa and you are now stuck with me as a friend, so just FYI, you’ll realize that I name things. I create weird things and I name things that will be memorable. So, I’ve got this process that every single person on a weight loss journey will resonate with, I call the black hole of weight loss dome. And it’s this four-step process. So, I want you guys to envision out there in podcast land, a circle interconnected with four arrows. So, the top arrow is when we start something new, like we sign up for Melissa’s program, or we do Weight Watchers, or we hire a personal trainer or we do whole 30, or start Zumba or CrossFit or whatever. We do something new. The next arrow to the right is we get some initial results because it’s a new stimulus. And that happens with our body like new calorie burn, new, clean eating. We get some results. We’re heading in the right direction. The bottom area is when things go awry a little bit. That is when life happens and we’re not ready for it. So, the girlfriend breaks up with you, the job schedule changes, your gym closes, or your personal trainer gets sick or moves away. Like spring break happens, things like that. You’re not ready for it. And the last arrow to connect it back to the top, we crash and burn and go back to where we started. Now, I’m sure a lot of you are like, “Yeah, I’ve been there and done that. The error people make is that they point that finger of blame at the top of the circle, the new program and they start to say, “Oh, CrossFit didn’t work.” [MELISSA]: It didn’t work. [ADAM]: Didn’t work. Weight Watchers didn’t work. And what didn’t work was at the bottom of the circle, and that is our transformation danger zones in that life happens moment. That’s the thing that we weren’t ready for. And a lot of times, you know, we can talk like optimum programs and they’re like, “Oh, this program is more optimum than that program.” That’s a totally different conversation. Most people don’t even get close to that because of the transformation danger zone at the bottom of that diagram. [MELISSA]: Absolutely. [ADAM]: So, what we have to do is focus on those and what I, you know, a little simple process is we have to identify, analyze, and prepare ahead for those. Those are the three steps. So, identify, for a whole lot of people, that, you know, in a normal yearly calendar, spring break is one of those issues that we identify. We have to analyze it and go, “Alright, what is it about spring break that really throws me off track. I’m motivated. I want to look good when I hit the beach, I go and I eat some things that, you know, I have a few beverages that are of the adult variation. And I, you know, I have some more cheat meals or whatever. You know, I eat things I’m not used to eating. Maybe I put on three pounds, five pounds, whatever.” But the real issue that we have to identify and analyze about is what happens after spring break? Do I hit the ground running? Do I get right back to the gym? Usually not. Do I get right back into my coaching and my workouts? Usually not. So, that’s the danger zone that we have to prepare ahead for before the next vacation or spring break. And we’ll do things like, okay, like when I’m coaching somebody, I’m like, “All right, you have to have your game plan written out and committed to before you leave for vacation. That way you walk right back into a plan. You know where you’re going to meal prep, you know when your workouts are, you’ve already booked them, you’ve already paid for them. You’ve already got your coaching lined up. You’ve already got everything figured out because once you hit the ground after vacation, you’ve lost momentum. You know, the cravings are back. So, you have to just be able to, it’s very, very simply low barrier of entry get right back into that plan. So, that’s what I talk about with transformation danger zones. And you can apply that to, you know, just right now, we’re all under quarantine. This is a huge stress danger zone. It’s a shift in our schedule. Any shift in your normal routine is a transformation danger zone. 100%, no doubt. And this is a huge one where a lot of people are sitting back watching Netflix, not working out, they get trapped in that mindset of, “Well, it’s not optimal, so I won’t do anything. It’s not normal. So, I won’t do anything. It’s not any use to even try because that’s not my normal gym plan or nutrition plan.” And the all or nothing mindset, it’s, you know, when we can’t be at our best, we can still do our best. [MELISSA]: Right. [ADAM]: That’s where I want people to focus. [MELISSA]: Right. We call that, I came up, I love that you name things because I do as well. And sometimes it’s not always on purpose, but I call it just pivoting. You have to become like a master pivotor because life’s going to happen. You know, the kids are going to get the flu, everyone’s going to get pink eye, you know, Susie is going to come home with lice and like, things like that are danger zones for moms. You know, like that stuff is huge danger zones because like you said, it’s a shift in our routine. Well, now we’re picking lice out of her head for four hours every night. Like, I don’t know if you’ve ever had to do that, but it is fucking awful, but it’s a danger zone. [ADAM]: I think we can do like full on episode, like The Mom Shit Show. [MELISSA]: Oh my God. [ADAM]: And just like, when it really goes down, like name your worst story when everything was just gone to shit. [MELISSA]: Yeah, exactly. Oh my God. That would be so fun because I got a lot. But we call it pivoting, like, “Okay, that happened. How do you pivot?” And my word, the other day that I came up with was ship it. You guys, we got to shiv it. And I’m like, “What the hell was that just came out of my mouth.” And I was trying to say, we have to shuffle. We have to shuffle things around. We have to pivot. So, we’re like, we’re shiviting today. Everyone’s going to shiv it. [ADAM]: Don’t shiv it your pants. [MELISSA]: Don’t shiv your pants. But it’s true you got to shiv it around those danger zones. But I love that circle. I literally drew the circle out as you were talking. I don’t know if anyone else did, but I hope you did, but I drew it out and that’s, it’s like perfect. And you’re right. That finger always goes back to, “Oh, well the program didn’t work.” [ADAM]: Yeah. [MELISSA]: “Oh yeah, that didn’t work. That didn’t happen. So, it’s that thing’s fault. Not mine.” [ADAM]: And that’s like the bane of our existence as coaches, as personal trainers, as fitness people like, “Ah, I know if you just give me another eight weeks or whatever.” Like a good example, like a sad example before I sold my gym, like towards the end, we had a gentleman that came in and signed up for an eight-week program. And I require people to email their accountability coach every single day with their sample food and fitness report and day three, he’s like, “I don’t have time for this. I don’t have time to send that email every day.” Six weeks later, dead, heart attack. [MELISSA]: No way. [ADAM]: And I was like, I would love, he had kids, wife and kids. He’s in his fifties. I was like, “I would have loved to had a shot at that guy.” Like I’m not saying I would have saved his life. Maybe it was going to happen anyway but I would have loved to give him a little bit more of an advantage against that. And that’s something in the health space, that’s the technology I’m really waiting for, for like when you bomb moms out there to lose 50 pounds with Melissa’s program, and then there’s a technology that says you didn’t have a heart attack. [MELISSA]: Right. [ADAM]: You’re going to be around for another decade with your kids. You’re going to see your grandkids get married. Like that’s the tech I want to see because that’s what’s missing out there. We see all these things that do happen and all this bad stuff, but we don’t see the good to that and the things that we avoid by investing in our health. [MELISSA]: Yeah. We don’t get to see it. And you’re like, “Had I been able to jump in a time machine with you, this is what your life would have looked like had you not done that.” You know, I think that’d be huge for people. So, we talked about quarantine right now and avoiding coming up with game plan, avoiding the danger zones. Do you have any tips right now for people, you know, who we have that major shift right now? Any tips or pointers that you can give to bomb moms to not fall into that danger zone right now? [ADAM]: I think the first step is you have to sit and think like, “Okay, maybe I felt sorry for myself. Maybe I’m kind of stressed out, pissed, confused.” Like we all are, We’re not unique and special in that. Like everybody’s feeling the same thing. But what can I do right now to improve my position with both my nutrition and fitness? It’s not going to be normal. It’s not going to be optimal, but we can’t let that keep us from just being in action. So, that’s the first thing. Like what can you do? You know, maybe your, obviously your gym’s closed down. Okay. Well, what can you do at home? What do you have access to? To ask those questions. There’s an abundance of online things going on that you can plug into, bodyweight stuff. You know, you’ve got a great resource here with this show with Melissa and like, how can you use that to improve your position? Obviously for at home, meal prep, you know, now there’s time, we’ve got time. [MELISSA]: Absolutely. [ADAM]: And like, while you’re working, you can have something in the oven, you have something on the stovetop, you can have something in the oven and the stovetop like I do when I, I’m hot boiling eggs and cooking pot roast and all that stuff at the same time. [MELISSA]: That’s right. [ADAM]: And we have time for that now. So, that would be the first step; is all right, what can I do right now to improve my position with nutrition and fitness? The second step is what do I need to let go of that’s out of my control? Like, what am I stressing about that I just cannot control? And for me, I was really feeling anxiety over this whole thing. And like, I don’t want my kids to get sick. I don’t want my family to be sick. And I was checking CNN like every 15 minutes and I took the app off my phone. I can’t control that. I need to be aware of the general protocol of what I need to be doing to improve the situation. And so, a shameless plug to my friend, Erica Mandy, she’s got, you got to check her show out, Melissa. It’s a 10-minute news show every morning. It’s called The Newsworthy. So, instead of all the CNN, every single, like every 15 minutes, I’ll go 10 minutes in the morning, I listen to Erica’s show, it’s all positive. It’s unbiased. She doesn’t like stoke the fear in your heart. She’ll give you what you need to know. And then I’ll move on. Like, “Okay, now I know what’s going on, what the protocol is. [MELISSA]: Oh, that’s perfect. [ADAM]: So, I could let go of all that anxiety that was out of my control. And then the third step is like, all right, what can we do in the next 24 hours? And that’s my, I always give an implementation alarm challenge. And so, for those of you that are, you know, most of you probably listening on your phone and all phones have some sort of an alarm on it. So, what, no matter what day, what time it is, you’re listening to this, I want you to set an alarm for 24 hours from now. And I want you to implement on something before that alarm goes off. And if it goes off and you kind of forgot about it, that’s your reminder. Just do something just like I did for five years. Like just show up for yourself, chip away, and that’s, you know, we can use all this time to like, do personal growth and begin to be thinking and planning, but a sharp ax doesn’t do us any good if we don’t swing it. [MELISSA]: Right. [ADAM]: So, what are you going to do in the next 24 hours to swing the ax? Just to take some action in the right direction and start getting your mojo back a little bit. So, that’d be a nice little process that I think that people could get some benefit out of. [MELISSA]: Yeah. And it’s easy. It’s easy to do. All three of them are easy to do. Now, you might not want to do them right away, you know, but it’s necessary, it’s easy, and it’s going to help you avoid those danger zones. What was the name of your friend again? Say it again, because you said it really quick and I want people to catch that. [ADAM]: Her name is Erica Mandy and her show is called The Newsworthy. [MELISSA]: Got it. [ADAM]: And she’s great. Like again, unbiased, she’s not going to get wrapped up in the right and left BS political stuff. She’s just, “Here’s what happened.” It’s positive. She even does like positive stories in literally 10 minutes or less every single day. And it’s super, super cool. [MELISSA]: Oh my God. That’s perfect. Thank you again for sharing that. Oh, Adam, I cannot thank you enough for being on the show. This was so much fun. We are definitely doing this again. Absolutely, because we have, I feel like we just were like an iceberg and we can only see the tip right now. There’s so much down below that we could just keep going with and uncovering, but I know you have kids, I have kids and I think we could talk for hours if we let ourselves. So, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your journey, your tips, your process, like everything. I think it was just so beneficial to the bomb moms. [ADAM]: Well, thank you. Again, anytime somebody invites me on to share their platform, that’s an honor. And for all you listening in, if you got out of this, one way that you can kind of honor the effort that Melissa is putting in is make sure you go on Apple podcast, leave a five-star review, make sure you mentioned the PHD as your favorite episode. You know, a little shameless plug there, but it’s like putting a tip jar for Melissa’s efforts with the show and all the content she’s putting out there that you know is helping you. So, go on Apple podcasts and drop that five-star rating review and we’ll both appreciate that. [MELISSA]: Yes. Thank you for saying that and adding that in there because it sounds better coming from you. [ADAM]: I’m a word model. I told you. [MELISSA]: That’s right. Thank you for standing next to my product with your words. [ADAM]: About bomb moms. [MELISSA]: And tell us again how we can find you. How can they be a part of your journey and your process in The Million Pound Mission, everything? How could they find you everywhere? [ADAM]: Yeah, millionpoundmission.com is the hub. That’s where you can go and plug into the podcast. Obviously The Million Pound Mission podcast is everywhere you listen to the podcast; Million Pound Mission on Instagram, that’s where I mainly hang out. I do a lot of videos of my like kids, I guess it was April fool’s day and I put videos of me pranking my kids all day and that’s just kind of personality. [MELISSA]: I saw. That was awesome. [ADAM]: If you guys enjoy Melissa’s stuff and how she shares as an open book, you’ll probably enjoy my stuff as well. I have been inspired to get on TikTok today. I will be on TikTok today. So, I’m going to start messing around on there and having some fun as well. And I’ll be under Million Pound Mission there. Unless it’s already taken, then it will be Adam Sch … blah, blah, blah. You can look that up, but again, I love to interact. If you guys follow me on Instagram, I try to send every single person that follows me a personalized voice message to welcome you to my ecosystem, my universe, just to let you know that I enjoy engagement and there’s a real person on the other side of the equation. So, you can look forward to that. I appreciate all you guys listening in and I hope that you’re able to take action with that little implementation alarm challenge I put out there for you. [MELISSA]: Yes, they will. I know they will. The bomb moms will follow through. Thank you again, Adam. Thank you everyone for listening. Again, make sure you rate and review and comment on this episode. Until next time bomb moms. Thank you for joining and have a safe and healthy week. Everyone, goodbye. If you’re ready to become a bomb mom, join my free course over at www.melissavogelfitness.com/course. This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. This is given with the understanding that neither the host, Practice of the Practice, or the guests are providing legal, mental health, nutritional, or other professional information. If you need a professional, you should find one.