In this episode, Miranda interviews Greg about health, fitness, nutrition, and masculinity, sharing practical insights and personal stories. They explore how tailored training, diet, and understanding hormonal cycles can transform lives, especially for women and men over 40.
Miranda is Greg’s client since November and has lost nearly 7 kilos while gaining 3% muscle in the process through a specialized program of weight training, aerial training and smart eating.
Key Topics:
Impact of short, high-intensity workouts on muscle growth and recovery
How hormonal cycles affect women’s training and health
The importance of managing expectations in fitness journeys
The significance of eating enough calories for women, especially with hormonal issues
The influence of strength training on hormonal balance and inflammation
The misconceptions around calorie counting and macro ratios
The importance of rest and recovery in long-term fitness success
The cultural and societal influences on masculinity and how to teach healthy masculinity
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and guest Greg’s background
02:06 Greg’s move out of the city and lifestyle choices
05:21 Greg’s experience with Anarchopulco and Acapulco
12:46 Greg’s Project Sparta and fitness philosophy
20:39 Calories, macros, and training for women
26:58 Hormonal effects of strength training in women
30:10 Managing inflammation and diet for hormonal health
37:03 The importance of rest and recovery in training
44:34 Overcoming motivation and adherence challenges
56:33 The impact of aging and menopause on training
01:10:24 Managing expectations and long-term progress
01:22:20 The future of supplements and hormonal health
01:28:41 Greg’s creative projects and humor
01:33:10 Living authentically and the importance of integrity
Transcript: Miranda (00:01.356)
Hi, everybody. This is Miranda again with Unraveled Podcast. Today we have a very special guest that I’ll introduce in a minute, but I do want to mention Anarchopulco as they are the first sponsor of this podcast. Anarchopulco is it’s where I work, it’s where my community is, it’s where I found my partner. And it really, in my opinion, is the best place event really to.
meet people of your tribe to actually network and get to know people. Yes, it’s about speeches, but in my opinion it’s always been this way. The speeches at Anarchipulka you can find on YouTube, but what you can’t find is the ability to sit there and hang out with people that you look up to and to connect with people that you didn’t or couldn’t know have existed before. If you want to save 10% on most tickets, use code Lily10.
And I’m gonna use this to segue into my guest today, because my guest is somebody that I know through the Anarchopolco community, and he has become a very important part of my world this year. and I might really, really mispronounce your last name. So sorry in advance, but this is Greg Papanaculus, I think. Papinic Papanicolas. Okay, anyway. He is
Greg (01:17.35)
Patron Nicholas. You were close.
Miranda (01:24.078)
one of a few I guess private internet trainers. You also have in-person clients, but from when I went to do research into who I was gonna work with and having had a conversation with you many years before I actually got my shit together to do it. the reason I went with Greg is because he has a long track record of understanding
how to actually work with women in a way that’s successful. So Greg, thank you for being here despite all of the technology issues that we’ve had to get here. And I just want to start by asking, how are you today?
Greg (02:06.875)
I’m doing great. I’m doing great. The sun is shining. I’m in an area that I love, moved away from the city, so I can’t be any more happy than I am now, especially with just the change in scenery a couple years ago. So it every day is amazing. So today is no different.
Miranda (02:26.433)
What led you out of the city? ‘Cause me personally I like cities, but what led you out of it?
Greg (02:32.309)
being around DC for so long, I I was sort of a I would say a country boy at heart. I I know that that sounds kind of cliche when you were born near the city and or the suburbs in a way, ’cause I’m right outside DC, but where I grew up I’d never felt I fit in with that it was a very private school culture and a and a
Other than a private school culture, it just didn’t feel as though it was going to be the place I stayed. And every time I went up to the farm, the family farm, I felt at home. So there had to be some kind of reason. I felt better there than I do, than I did there when I was living in the city. And when I decided to come out here, pace slowed down, the people were nicer, the traffic was less.
And you really see the value of a relationship out here more because people tend to get away for the almost the same reason. So you find common ground with those people. So when I left, I was like, this is perfect. I’m gonna I’m gonna be in an open area where the dogs can run and I can feel more at home and do the things I wanna do recreationally that I couldn’t do back home and raise my son differently, you know?
Miranda (03:56.744)
Right, right. Yeah, that makes total sense. And yeah, somebody like the it when I when you were talking about that was actually reminding me of for me, th my version of that is the United States versus Mexico. ‘Cause like I I even asked my dad, I like, Dad, are you surprised I live in Mexico? And he was like, Absolutely not. And I was like, What do you mean? He’s like, You were five years old trying to convince me to l to leave the country because we didn’t like the politics. Like
Greg (04:11.651)
Yeah,
Miranda (04:25.869)
I was trying to convince him to go to Canada. I didn’t know any better, right? But yeah, and that’s kinda how I felt as soon as I got to Mexico was, you know, you can exhale, there’s more financial freedom to be able to just do the stuff that’s important to you. like I was thinking last night before I went to bed, if I was living in the US, I would not have
the time to train the way that I have with the amount of work that I do. It just it it would be completely impossible. And so I’m super thankful for that. so I first became aware of you because you were coming to Anarchipulco in I would I would say the pre because Anarchopulco kind of got like reborn in 2020 when we took it over, but you were in I know for sure 2019
if I remember correctly, because I remember seeing posts of you in your tiny little tank top going to gyms, in not the best part of town, but I remember having respect because the majority of the the people that came for anarchopolco in those days, they didn’t leave the princess. And you were there sweating your ass off in the gym. So I wanted to ask you a little bit, like what was your experience with Anarchopulco and with Acapulco at that time?
Greg (05:27.173)
Yeah. Yeah.
Greg (05:37.423)
Yeah.
Greg (05:48.272)
Yeah, and and again, like when you talk about the differences, they were stark when I got down there. I remember when I arrived thinking, Okay, this is what sort of like I talk a lot about Gen X and how to just think on the fly, right? And having to make shit up as you go along. And I’m like, Well, hey, I gotta figure out where I’m gonna find a gym, where I’m gonna eat, because again, at the time the princess had the vegan
you know, restaurants and I was thinking, where do I find meat? So there was that. There were the the factors that were important when arriving of okay, how am I going to structure the the solo time? Because I knew I was going to be able to see everybody, right? But then when I got there, how how was I going to blend in? And when I when I arrived it was sort of it was a little bit of shock just because
Miranda (06:21.997)
Yeah.
Greg (06:47.033)
I had never really been out of the country, sort of a homebody. anytime I would go places, it would just be
like Alaska, you know, places that were still in the within the States. But adjusting to having to think on the fly, speaking the language, and
thinking about the things that aren’t necessarily the spoken barriers, right? Your energy, like how you show up, right? I walk in, you know, with muscles like this, it’s like I I have to be engaging and I have to be kind because people are just gonna either fight me or run away. In that kind of case, or I’m like, let me just make sure that I’m I’m coming with that type of energy where it’s engaging and I’m open and I’m thankful to be here.
Miranda (07:31.801)
Yeah.
Greg (07:42.49)
Which I was anyway, but once I got going, found the gym, had to be escorted out there. and the guy that dropped me off, the cab driver, stayed with me, basically on the outside, sat, you know, on a park bench, waited for me to finish. had to have a little bit of schooling in you know, where I was, ’cause again you were saying that wasn’t y you you
have a opportunity to really educate me on where I was, because I certainly didn’t know how different villages were, how different towns were. So I was just going based off my own instincts and thinking, okay, I gotta be as unassuming as possible. But when you’re gringo and you’re wearing a tank, it you stick out like a sore thumb, but the benefit of being a being a little bit
Being a little bit on the more Mediterranean side, I was able to kind of, you know, not put the the spotlight on me so much. and and sort and sort of get away with it. And then through that I I was able to to put in a pretty good workout at a kind of a I was a kind of a hole in the wall place, but that’s the kind of place that I like. ultimately that’s you know, it it was comforting actually being there, which is strange. and then of course the experience at
Miranda (08:46.667)
Yeah, yeah.
Greg (09:09.857)
in and around the princess was more just kind of walking around, seeing what was around the stores. But I couldn’t stay out there for very long ’cause again I didn’t want to, you know, waste this guy’s time who was kind enough to to stay with me, after he had dropped me off. And I’m sure you could educate me on why he had to stay with me.
Miranda (09:28.727)
Well, I mean, the thing with Acapulco, and I mean this is really true with most cities in Mexico, is you could be on one road and it’s totally safe, and then one road over people are gonna look at you especially as a foreigner. But the other thing that I’ve learned, and I I you know, he’s definitely protective, but something I’ve kind of learned is even in some of the
shadier parts, I guess, of Mexico. Like I’ve been to Tipito in Mexico City, for example, where you can buy literally anything. And I mean anything, right? I just went there just to see what it was like, right? I saw baby tigers for sale and stuff, right? And I’ve been in the Metro in Mexico City, which is the subway system and stuff. And the the fun thing is, ’cause me, I don’t have any hope of ever blending in here. I you know, like you can
Pass as a Mexican if you spoke really good Spanish. But me, absolutely not. But one thing I found in this quick conversation I’ve had with my boyfriend, because he he will not go in the metro in Mexico City, because he’s like, we’re gonna get robbed. I’ve been in the metro many times. I’ve been in the metro with everything I owned on my back moving to where I live now. and I think the reason why I wasn’t harassed is people were just so so stunned I was there.
Greg (10:24.331)
Ha ha
Miranda (10:49.441)
And that I wasn’t like terrified. I was just there, you know, like vibing that they keep the they kept their distance and they left me alone. And I kind of feel the same way about the gym that I’m at now. It is not the fancy gym that they expect the white girls that come to visit to go to. It’s like kind of a dirty, you know, local gym. And I have yet to have anybody try to talk to me there because they’re just so confused. They’re like.
Greg (11:09.067)
Yeah.
Miranda (11:16.309)
Is she a loss? She’s not. She’s lifting. And in some cases, I’m lifting more than the men, but they’re just they’re just confused. And yeah, but especially in Acapulco, there are certain parts like an area called Caleta, which is not where you were, you were more in the Diamante zone. There’s just a lot of poor people there. And if you’re the type of gringo to flash your money and to flash your wealth, you will get robbed, right? But if you’re just a gringo that’s there.
Greg (11:33.979)
Yeah.
Miranda (11:43.298)
That clearly isn’t trying to do that, most of the time you’re gonna be okay. You had a good friend as a taxi driver, but probably you would be okay. most likely, in my opinion. But yeah, I had a lot of respect because yeah, it’s it’s the thing where the majority of people that used to come pre-Arcapulco, and this was different when it when I first got there. When I first got there, it was 2016, and this was in the other side of the bay, and we had this big hotel, and then as soon as the conference would end, people would just go out and go into the city.
but the princess, as you remember, was so isolated. And so you had to walk really far. And then when you got to the main road, it was ugly, and it’s like, where do I even go? Right. So people would just stay there. And it was kind of I mean, that’s really why I created the forgo, was to get people back out into the city. so yeah, yeah, I’m I’m glad that we talked about it. so for those who don’t know.
can you re remind me of the specific business name that you have?
Greg (12:46.105)
Yeah, so I go by Project Sparta as the umbrella. And and that’s essentially what’s underneath that is is essentially the different moving parts of each person I serve. So the, you know, Sparta code is more for men and it’s more cerebral and psychological and a little bit more therapeutic and and with some fitness in there. you know, and and the overarching idea is, you know, trying to maximize
Miranda (12:49.45)
Okay.
Greg (13:16.471)
your level of health, but minimize your time pursuing it. So you’re not spending two or three hours doing the that thing during the day. Like a lot of people used to think more is better. So I try to hone in on maximizing your strength, maximizing your your health while minimizing your time in the gym while also making sure that you eat enough, because again the the factors are that we were raised to eat less and less and less and
My ideas to come around with a lot of people that have already come around to it, which is to eat to fuel your body for that particular activity and it’s necessary. And I think the biggest example of that we saw years and years ago was finding out how much what a what was a swimmer guy, can’t remember the the Olympic swimmer, but he had like seven thousand calories a day and he was this little skinny string bean, but he needed it for the amount of time he was
you know, engaged in whatever activity. So I made sure the Project Sparta focused on more is better in some regards, but less is better in others, and to make that more of a of a principle and a philosophy that that I try to hone in on and have people follow.
Miranda (14:33.119)
Yeah, so there’s a lot of things in there I want to unpack. The first thing I want to touch on is you mentioned that swimmer. And I heard an interesting statistic recently. Basically, they did some testing on like grandmaster chess players to see how much they burn during a tournament. And they’re literally just sitting there thinking and moving pieces, right? And they’re burning thousands and thousands of cal calories just sitting there and
I mean, and I’ve played chess with my partner. He’s way better than I am. I he’s trying to become a master. I am not. And I’ve sat there just sweating. So I know that there’s something to it. You know, it’s not something people think about. the calories thing is interesting because I have this debate with a friend of mine, because she’s like, you are not an incinerator oven, because all of these studies on how many calories foods contain, like
she says it doesn’t line up with reality, but it does to an extent, but it’s not quite in the way that people think, right? have you heard of that whole idea of like we shouldn’t pay attention to calories because we’re not incinerators?
Greg (15:43.676)
Yeah, that’s and and I’ve heard that theory. My whole idea behind the the calorie thing is because it’s use of energy, it needs to be in it has to be important. And they’re finding more and more through more studies, and I can send a bunch to you after this and we can even post them later, that calories are what actually they are the mechanism for building muscle more so than protein.
Miranda (16:10.857)
Interesting. Yeah, and it I mean, I think there’s something to that. There’s studies that show eat after a certain point with protein, the body just like it can’t do anything with that. So if you’re eating three hundred grams of protein a day, 250, like it is your body really processing that, you know. That’s a that’s a whole thing in itself.
Greg (16:29.135)
Yeah, yeah, just synthesizing it. Yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it’s it’s that synthesizing. It’s it’s whether or not it’s actually working for you. Some people are eating it and it’s like you said, they’re not processing it, and digestion is another factor, how your liver functions with it, how your kidneys function with it. Is your body going to accept it the way that other people have accepted, you know, their intake? And sometimes for one person it’s
Miranda (16:35.296)
Yeah.
Greg (17:01.135)
you know, an ungodly amount and they’re a s little tiny thing. And sometimes it’s a four hundred pound man who pushes cars and he needs, you know, the that same amount or whatever, just depending on what they’re what they’re engaged in. Women in bodybuilding are eating upwards of two hundred and fifty when they’re one hundred and fifty pounds, right? and it all depends on, like I said, your goal. So
For me, my goal after quitting competitive lifting and all that and and doing the things that I used to do, it was now I’m doing it because I want it, you know, for satiation, I want to make sure that I’m not as hungry all the time. So I do it just to fulfill that because I know that I’ve built, you know, I’ve built this physique the way I wanted it to.
Now it’s a matter of health for me. So I no longer focus on the things. And I know that you and I have talked about it. Like, yes, it’s a primary thing, protein is primary, but we can’t put it up on a pedestal as if it is the be-all end all. It’s it’s important, but it’s just a piece, right? It’s just a piece of it. And when people are completely canceling out and doing away with some other macros entirely.
I think that becomes more of a problem for your your micronutrient intake than it does your macro, you know. It puts you in a state of not of starvation, but in a in in a lacking focus that is that it you’re not getting the amount of n nutrients that you need from that particular extreme diet or another, you know. I’ve always I’ve always advocated to be wider ranging, you know.
Miranda (18:51.393)
Yeah. You’ve always helped me with that from afar because I mean I was randomly picking your brain on certain things years before I was able to really, you know, I I don’t know subscribe as the word, but really take part in like your whole system, right?
And as you know, I was carnivore for a long time and I thought I couldn’t eat other things. Turns out I just had to quit weed to be able to eat other things, you know, like my pancreas was not producing things. There’s a lot of studies that prove that chronic weed use leads to lower, you know, pancreas function. And if your pancreas isn’t functioning, you can’t digest food, right? and that’s a thing, that’s a big part of
What’s really surprised me about this whole process with you is I was also working with that health coach sort of thing, Christian Nordonov, which I’ve done an interview with him recently about, that sort of stuff. But he gave me an outline which was like 120 grams of protein a day, and then the resting carbs, you know, more or less, and and like less than 60 grams of fat and
That’s against completely everything that I was taught with the carnivore diet. And lo and behold, it’s where I started to have some progress. Cause I tried to do carnivore last year and I got down to about the weight that I am now. But as soon as I would do anything outside of it, I just balloon. And then I balloon more, you know, and it really does impact the the metabolism. And I’m curious as to your thoughts on
on the whole carnivore thing in particular and as far as training, like how how does that work? Because a lot of them claim, yeah, no, I can you know, you have the Sean Bakers, who I I think he’s actually an anomaly. Like, what are your thoughts on that whole thing in terms of carnivore plus training?
Greg (20:39.515)
Yeah.
Greg (20:49.231)
Yeah, I so knowing from my own training and and helping people in the past and seeing other people in in major positions of authority and influence who are generally doing different things with their lives depending on the activity, whatever it is, somebody like a Sean Baker who is who is rowing is doing something that is a long steady state activity that doesn’t require the glycogen that
a sprinter would require or a power lifter would require because that stuff is very speed velocity oriented versus the thing that it’s a very slow, over and over, steady state, methodical, repetitive activity like rowing. So high fat works for that because it’s sustainable. You don’t have the ups and downs during that training with your insulin in the way that you would if you were doing high carb.
or just high sugar in general, right? so with something like a sprinter, with something like a power lifter, with somebody who is doing burst of speed or burst of energy output, something like that requires a lot of that, tends to want to favor the little bit higher carb-based nutrition because of what that accomplishes within that activity. So Sean’s
probably gonna do that for the rest of his life because rowing tends to be his staple. He still lips, right? You can use other means to to supplement if you’re not carbing up, which is just what just means higher fat. And he could probably, you know, eat a bunch of sodium and that really ha you know helps with a lot of the hydrational needs, right? But in the long run
For people who are more
Greg (22:49.399)
le the people that lean a little bit more towards the fast twitch movements, the speed, the acceleration, even the stuff you’re doing with the aerial requires that sort of jerky movement that re that
Almost like it’s almost like you you you benefit better from something that’s fulfilling in higher carbs because you know you’re gonna get a little bit more oomph. It’s it’s just a thing, like it’s an umph that you don’t feel when you’re on carnivore. And when I tried to do that during power lifting, it was miserable and I could not lift. I was tired.
And this was I was two years into carnivore during the like t 2014-2015 time period. And I just it didn’t last because I didn’t have the ump to my lifts. I lost speed on the lifts, I lost velocity, and so I I always favored whatever sport you were looking to engage in, that could also determine what nutrition you favor or your body is going to favor.
Miranda (24:00.885)
Yeah, that’s something I’ve noticed too with myself is even and as you were talking, I was thinking back to my experiences last year on the carnivore diet. And like at first I was like, okay, I feel lighter. I felt physically lighter, right? I had lost a little bit of weight, but you’re right in that I didn’t have the same power. ’cause there really does involve that impulse, especially when you’re doing the straight arm, straight leg inverts that we were working on the whole time I’ve been working with you. That takes
an impulse that I was simply just not able to do before. Like I would try and I just I had to have my arms bent or my legs bent and that was it, right? there is something really to that and there’s also that like drive of it in that carnivore is socially so hard to stick to. And then when you’re also lacking power in the gym, like it makes it
it makes it really difficult to stick to it long term. I I personally believe like unless you’re like a Michaela Peterson, like Jordan Peterson’s daughter, I think that’s her name.
Unless you’re like her and you literally cannot function with these foods in your body, really what you need to do is find a way to get like the rest of you healthy, you know? for me, my big thing was hormones. And that was a big part of why I wanted to work with you is because I was seeing the before and after of women older than me. And I know as it gets older, as you get older it gets harder as a woman. But I
As you remember, I had basically just stopped training altogether because I was in constant pain. I started a bunch of supplements at the same time, and all but one of those supplements, and there were more than a dozen of them, all but more than those supplements did not last for one reason or another. but something I found is and I had heard this before, but I didn’t I didn’t expect it, but I would say through having a sustained lifting.
Miranda (26:04.073)
thing because that’s the main difference from before to now is that because I’ve always eaten kind of high protein is that I’m I’m lifting weights and doing HIIT and the other stuff that you you assign me and now all of a sudden I only have the pain that I was having every single day of the month from endometriosis. I I’m only having that during my cycle for one to two days and then I’m I’m back, you know. do you know why lifting
helps hormones? Like what’s the chemical thing happening there for women? Because it’s it seems to be a thing, especially with women with endometriosis and PCOS, that once they start lifting their inflammation goes down. Which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because I’m sore a lot. Like I’m sore right now from yesterday. I’m just like, damn. But my inflammation is completely different. Like why is that?
Greg (26:58.415)
You know, it’s it’s interesting because they’re never it’s it’s tough to make an association with all the different moving parts as to why that is the case for endometriosis. Like I that we don’t we won’t know. We would have to look into several studies about women who have had it and still have it and are have transitioned into, you know, that type of training. What I know is that in the time that I’ve been involved and people that I’ve helped.
Every time we’ve done free weights, every time we’ve done things with a particular load, especially when it’s above what is your, you know, your your five out of ten, which would be, you know, plenty of reps left in the tank. But if you’re training at a 7 out of 10 or an 8 out of 10, your 70 or 80 percent is doing something different to.
your male hormones and your female hormones at the same time, there’s like a self-correction that happens. It’s a it’s almost like it’s a scale thing that happens when you do that, where things start to move in another direction positively for you. So and this is kind of hilarious, but every person that I’ve talked to that started doing it after they’ve stopped for a long time, when they’re training for a a couple of months, they’re like
You know, my libido is changing. It’s like I’m I’m driven to have more sex with my significant other because I’m lifting more. I’m like, there’s gotta be a thing with hormones there where that starts to click on for you too, because anybody who’s sitting at home not doing a thing is inactive is going it’s gonna have the opposite effect, right? Your your the body is in resting motion or or resting phase the whole time and not in motion.
So it has to turn on both estrogen and testosterone in a way that sort of balances you out a little more. That’s the only thing I can kind of associate that with without going into the minutiae of how the chemicals, you know, interchange inside your body. But I know that it changes hormonally for women and men on a sliding scale when you do more of it.
Miranda (29:18.925)
That’s interesting. I know that endometriosis is often thought of as a excess of estrogen, but I also know that like when I had my estrogen tested when I first got diagnosed, my estrogen wasn’t actually that high. but it would make sense that if the testosterone is li rising my body to level that, I’m gonna have less of those inflammatory responses. Cause like I’m training now more than I ever have, like five days a week, and even right now more
mu obviously much more than when we started. And you would think that I would have a lot of inflammation. And no, my like my muscles are sore, but it’s that like it’s that like I did a good job on my workout sore, not I have brain frog and fog and chronic fatigue and that sort of thing, you know?
Greg (30:10.137)
And there’s particular foods that kind of feed into that because I know you and I talked about it how you know the the bad carbs were a factor in a lot of people having those mornings where they would start to do their training and they would eat poorly and the next day they’d wake up feeling like like they couldn’t move. I mean that it was it’s this build up of inflamm it’s a buildup of inflammation and joint problems from the foods that kind of
you know, negatively affect those things. So the inflammatory things like, you know, pancakes and things like that or cookies, you know, are gonna have more of a a negative effect on you than something that is really, really good for, you know, the joints that’s gonna that has collagen in it or any kind of vegetable that’s gonna help you with, you know, managing managing those symptoms. And even the starches, right? The the the sweet potatoes and
the green and red yellow peppers, the things that are that have such a high punch with micronutrient value, but also reduce those things. You know, they’re they’re they’re I just call them power starches because they’re the things that I can eat in small doses that give me the best, you know, bang for my buck, essentially.
Miranda (31:26.749)
Yeah, on the sweet potatoes thing, and I I wouldn’t say I eat them in small doses because I love. But I I did find that because like I couldn’t really digest them that well before, but I started, and I showed you the photo when I first started doing this. but I learned online that when you roast sweet potatoes and then you let them cool and then you put them in the fridge, and apparently after eight hours in the fridge, a lot of those starches get turned to resistant starch.
Greg (31:31.937)
Ha
Miranda (31:53.74)
And all of a sudden I was able to digest them. I started losing more weight. And it also kind of feels like you’re eating candy for breakfast, which is really, really fucking nice. And it’s kind of changed how I eat, which I I noticed yesterday I came home from the gym and I had two fat golden kiwis and like four apri plums, those like apricot plum combinations. And
like some peaches and I was just like eating it like it was crack, but I was thinking back to me as a kid, like I didn’t I don’t really enjoy fruit, you know? So it’s interesting how your tastes change with these sort of things. and and that kind of leads me into my next question, which is there are a lot of people out there, a lot of these like fitness influencers that say it doesn’t matter what you eat, as long as you
hit your protein and stay within your carb your your calorie goal. I’m curious as to what your thoughts on that. My my experience, as much as I hate to admit it, is I noticed a distinct difference in both my power and the scale when I’m still staying in the calorie goal but eating like Doritos instead of like rice cakes and peanut butter, you know? So like what are your thoughts on that?
Greg (33:12.119)
I honestly I think those those types of fitness influencers are more effectively gunning towards the people that still love to taste something great on their palate and they don’t want to get rid of the foods that they really f enjoy for fun. Like it’s it’s one of those things where people are like, Well, I can’t get rid of, you know, tater tots because I grew up on them, right? It’s like it’s like some people have a love for it that goes beyond
You know, what we what we normally would cast as
normal but I guess for for the most part I think that type of marketing is for the people that like to have a lot of wiggle room in their nutrition and that’s fine, right? I always say like if you want to make a memory with your boyfriend or girlfriend or spouse or child and go out for that ice cream, it’s fine. You know, you have to leave room for the things to enjoy. It’s just as long as it’s in some
bit of moderation where you’re not going overboard with it. And I think that gives most nutritional protocols a little more wiggle room. And I’ve always felt I’ve done enough of that for people where it’s a a a cheat day becomes the or a cheap meal becomes the thing that they grew up on or the thing they’ve always loved that still reminds them of the past or that they’ve always enjoyed. And don’t remove it from them unless they are controlled by it.
So if they’re controlled by it, that’s a completely other factor that you have to dig deep down into psychologically with them to figure out how to manage that, because that’s a totally different space. I think the the foods in large amounts that are, you know, not necessarily the best for you are going to cause those issues later on. you know, either with liver issues, with heart issues, you know, depending on how much you’re eating with fried foods and
Greg (35:16.343)
overly prepared, you know, the seed oils, the you know, like I said, the deep fried things, the things that you would find at a a fast food restaurant. But if you’re having that one to two times a month, it’s not going to have the same effect if somebody’s eating it twice a week, three times a week. and I I always feel like if if you know how to manage that, if you learn how to manage that part of it, and if you’re
nutrition protocol is too boring for you, there is a way to structure it where you feel like you’re getting enough of those prizes. You’re getting enough of those, you know, rewards at the end where you’re like, I can have this protein ice cream, but they label protein now so it sounds better. and you know, in order to to finally get to a point where you feel like you’re getting what you need psychologically out of the enjoyment, you know, of
Miranda (36:02.124)
Yeah.
Greg (36:15.279)
Nutrition.
Miranda (36:17.175)
Yeah, I think there’s something to be said with the intuitive eating thing, ’cause me, I’ve kind of had all the extremes, right? Like I did vegetarian for a while, and then I did carnivore. And the thing I found with carnivore was every time I would like have just a little something off of it, it would be
A binge till I’m sick situation. And for me, that goes back to my childhood. I had a lot of issues with malnutrition. My mom wasn’t feeding us enough. So when I feel like I’m lacking something and I’m not allowed to have something, when I do have it, I go crazy, right? for me in the last like six months working with you, I have found that yeah, it doesn’t really affect too much if I go when I’m on.
you know, on my cycle and eat a crispy cream donut or two and then continue with about my thing. And there’s less of that food noise, which is interesting because a lot of these carnivores, they’re like, and I went carnivore, the food noise stopped and my carb cravings mine never went away. Mine never stopped. If anything, I obsessed more of my day on what I was eating and defending, you know, the carnivore diet. And okay, I do this because it’s healthy, not because I need to.
Greg (37:03.108)
Yeah.
Miranda (37:29.009)
whereas now like you would think, and my friend she asked me about this a lot. She’s like, Well, do you think, you know, the carb noise and the food noise and all that? And it’s like, I don’t really feel the need to binge at this point. You know, I can have like a handful of Doritos and that just be it because I know that it’s not gonna be six months to a year before I allow myself to do something like that again, right? And that right there,
When you’re on a journey for health and fitness and all of these things, what what we need is sustainability. And that’s the thing that I found refreshing about you. You mentioned earlier that you’re not trying to have people in the gym for hours a day. And like I don’t think that’s something I even understood until I started, because remember you remember I was like, I’m not ready, I need more time, I’m dealing with a lot right now, I need more time. but then when I actually started it and you started scheduling me workouts, I’m like
37 minutes? I don’t understand. That’s not enough, you know, like I that doesn’t make sense, but it does, you know, and it does make a big difference. how did you arrive on that? Because yeah, the majority of the world is, especially for women, eat less, move more, cardio, cardio, cardio. You need to spend two hours every day in the gym at five in the morning, or else you’re a failure. Like how do you get beyond that?
to where you are.
Greg (38:54.361)
Yeah. It’s so when I learned from Mike Menzer, who was a bodybuilder in the eighties, he was a competitor against Arnold, guy that pretty much should have won nineteen eighty, but Arnold’s politics got him, you know, the win in that competition. So he was kind of forgotten about because, you know, Arnold beat him and he he stuck around for a little while, but his whole
Premise was that we grow on our off days. That’s when the actual growth is occurring. Why would we want to reduce the amount of that, the growth, and increase the amount that really only requires, you know, if we’re going really, really super hard, how hard can you go for 15 minutes?
versus an hour. If you knew you only had 15 minutes to get the maximum amount of growth out of your training, you would take the 15 minutes. You wouldn’t take the hour. The hour is going to put you in a place where now, if it’s a Monday and you spent let’s let’s just say a really long time, let’s just say an hour and a half or two hours in gym, now you’re going to have to take at least three or four days off
Not just for your muscles to recover, but for your system itself, your CNS to recover mechanically from all of that training. It’s almost like we have to first understand that compensation needs to occur. So the people that go out and they run for hours and hours and hours are not doing it all the time. They’re sitting on the couch. The marathon runners have to sit on the couch for the remainder of their day because of the amount of work.
Compensation has to occur. So then if compensation has to occur, recovery has to recur with it. So we have to understand the growth mechanism doesn’t happen unless we take that time off. And the more time off we take, the better we’ll feel coming back the second time to do that workout three or four days later versus in the twenty-four hours or even the forty-eight hours.
Greg (41:17.241)
I think we can get away with doing the same thing forty-eight hours later if it’s a moderate to light workout. But if we’re testing, we’re constantly pushing and pushing and pushing, laying on that car horn, and then you know, everything seems like you know a a a crash all the time. And and that that should be a signal in our head that now we have to balance recovery.
with how hard we’re training. So the harder I trained, the more time I had to take off. Versus when I was twenty, thinking that I had to do it every day, six days a week. And it’s a philosophy that works for a lot of people, even though some other people do really benefit from that frequency. Some are loving that recovery because they’re like, I can recover in a day. And that just depends on the person. The older we get though, the harder it gets to recover. So the twenty year old is gonna need twenty
Twenty-four hours before they could do the same thing. And go back and hit really hard, hard workouts right afterwards. But a person in their forties and fifties is eventually going to have to take that time, especially if they’re doing something really strenuous like a heavy deadlift day. Sometimes that takes two weeks for a lot of the older generation to recover from because of how much of a taxing that is on the system. So not just
localized recovery with your muscle is is imperative, but systematic recovery is probably imperative even more so because you want to be doing the hard stuff and the hard workouts and the strenuous stuff and your stuff is strenuous too with the aerial, that has to be done in bits and pieces. You wouldn’t feel every day like you could do it. You’d probably, you know, pass out every day at six o’clock.
If you knew you were doing hours and hours of it every day. And so now that you’re minimizing that, your system is recovering from it and realizing I can’t do these really, really heavy, strenuous workouts in between the aerials. I have to do moderate in between the aerials or maybe one heavy day during the week. And then that heavy day is followed by two days of recovery. You know, so there’s always that.
Greg (43:38.259)
cycle of realizing how many days you actually need so that then you get into a rhythm of, well I need forty eight days for that, I need seventy two for this, and I for the light stuff I need twenty four. And it’s a whole system that I try to
really, really propose to most people that have been locked into that whole idea behind more is better, faster is better, less recovery, you know, balls to the wall. And I and I think that’s that needed to change and I’m glad that’s becoming something that people are adjusting to and accepting. So
Miranda (44:15.329)
Yeah, you’ll remember a few days ago I tagged you in a video and I tagged you in it because it was funny, but like it was like, a girl talking to herself, she goes to get out of bed and she’s like, I’m so tired, I don’t want to go to the gym. And it’s like, just take a rest day, and she gets back in the bed. And it’s like, it’s okay, they make clothing for bigger people like you, and then she gets out of the bed, right? and that’s kind of been my biggest struggle, as you know, with this whole process. It is not sticking to the to the protein goals or even the calorie goals.
Greg (44:34.923)
Right.
Miranda (44:45.319)
It is not like finding the motivation to go to the gym. It’s days like last Friday where I wake up and every muscle in my body is sore and I’m like, but it’s Ariel’s day. Okay, I guess I won’t go. But I have had more power this week, you know, so there is something to it. Rest, in my opinion, is the biggest hurdle. I’m curious as to like with your other clients, how
Greg (45:01.016)
Yeah.
Miranda (45:12.097)
How much of it is just reminding them that they need to rest their body? And how much of it is actually motivating them to do it? I’m curious about that.
Greg (45:22.383)
Yeah, that’s the hard part. The balance is, especially at the beginning, convincing the individual that they have to. Especially at the beginning because you don’t want to burn out so fast. The the majority of people that start are always looking to start with a bang. Like they always want to start fast, right? but y it’s something that has to be built toward. And I remember one of my clients said I scheduled a fifteen minute hit, which was
And it was all free weights and it was all heavy. So and it was a woman in her late thirties, and I said, You have to do fifteen to eighteen minutes, and you’re gonna do three exercises total, and they’re only gonna be one or two sets. But you’re gonna take a break in between a longer rest in between the sets, but you’re gonna go all out. Like your life depends on. It’s gonna be the heaviest you’ve ever gone. And obviously I was doing it, you know, when
She was in the middle of her part of the cycle that she could, right? I wasn’t going to do it during luteal or any of that. I was going to save it for when she could and maximize that time. Couple that with, you know, the cardio stuff I was adding to her repertoire. And this was a six-week blitz. Because she wanted to be ready for a major event that had to take place. And I said, How are we going to do this in six weeks? And it was
Here’s what we’re gonna do. So they’re like the opposite of how I would start off somebody long term that was working with me long term. But with her, it was we got six weeks. Here’s what we’re gonna do in those six weeks, and she it just everything just burned right off of her and she looked great. It was her wedding day. So like all of that stuff mattered to her. Trying to blitz it. And for the fact that you had to do all of that stuff that most people are looking at doing when they first start.
You know, which is go balls to wall. It’s like this was a six week blitz. This was different. This was something that had to be done. But the fact that she was done and her husband was still going forty five minutes later. She had to wait for him to finish. She’s sitting there going All right, I guess I’ll just chill at the you know, near the front desk and read a magazine. Right well look at my phone while you’re finishing. But two different
Greg (47:49.798)
factors to different people in different stages of their training. So convincing that person that fifteen minutes was enough, hard to do, but once you r saw the results from it and realized that all of that time in between the the four days that she got as a reward in between of rest, it’s like you earn that because you went all out for fifteen minutes and your system still hasn’t recovered after two days.
So you need that. And she was thankful because again, it’s it’s she got to spend more time with her family and not you know not worried about my god, I’m gonna have to you know, my my kids are gonna be waiting for me, or you know, I don’t want my husband to worry about me either, or I want to get this in. But and after that it was it was a cakewalk because you know, everybody wants more time with their families, with their loved ones. It’s like this is perfect.
It’s the perfect scenario for people who still want to have lives. So that’s essentially what I try to do is is really hone in on, you know, minimizing things and maximizing things depending on what they are.
Miranda (49:00.213)
Yeah, I and I I’ve noticed that and like it’s funny to me because I’ve I’ve gone on vacation a few times and I told you when I started I’m gonna be traveling a lot and so you always have ways for me to be able to work out regardless. And this last trip that I took is just a few days and it’s like nine o’clock, we’re done with our adventuring, and I’m like, Okay, I’m going down to the gym, and he’s like, How are you gonna go train? And I’m like, I’m gonna train for
twenty eight minutes according to this workout is is not that big of a deal, you know, like and and you and I’ve talked about this a little bit. Like my my partner, he didn’t realize because he knew that I was going to the aerial gym and he’s like, it’s pretty, you know, it’s something she does because it’s pretty. And then I go to the regular gym and it’s like, okay, but you’re there for 40 minutes at most, you know, whereas it took until like he went back.
Greg (49:32.655)
Yeah.
Miranda (49:56.91)
To sell his apartment in Serbia and he came home and I look completely different. And he’s like, okay, well, whatever criticisms aside, whatever seems to be working. and while we’re on that, let’s talk about eating more. Cause that was another thing that got me, cause that that
Functional medicine coach Krishna, he had given me like calorie gold of like 1750 calories a day, which is much more than the 1200 that some girls try to do. And I did that for a couple of months, and then I came to you like end of April, early May, like a little panicked. Like I have been plateaued and now my weight’s going up, but I have been sticking to this. Like, you’re like, you need to start eating more. Let’s up you to 1900 calories. And I was like,
What do you mean? And I and I was like, fuck it, you know, I’m gonna try it. And within like two weeks of that the weight started plummeting and I kept doing that for like a month and then the weight star kept plummeting and then you’re like, Okay, let’s try a little bit of a calorie surplus and I was like
Greg (51:04.055)
Or
Miranda (51:05.549)
A calorie surplus is how I got in this situation. But it was a cow you know, eating a lot of random shit plus, you know, emotional stuff plus hormonal stuff. Like what when when was it in like your training of people did you realize or did you always know that you just need to eat more, especially as a woman, to
‘Cause there there’s all these studies, yeah, if you eat more as a woman, your cortisol’s down and so your body lets go with the fat. Which sounds counterintuitive, but it’s actually how it is. Because if we’re stressed out, not getting enough food, our body holds on everything like this might be the end, you know? So, like, when did you realize that? Especially when it comes to women, that they need to just eat more.
Greg (51:56.218)
Yeah, it it I think when I used to read the old magazines before the internet, this is dating me of course, magazines that would tell you to eat less and run more. So they would be the ones that would c try to convince you that if you got on the treadmill and did like an hour but then ate like twelve like we were saying, twelve hundred to thirteen hundred, you’re bound to lose it ’cause it’s less and less and less and more output, more output.
But like you just mentioned, that is what causes your body to hold on to the last bits of things that it can, which is that that fat. It’s the last thing it can hold on to, so it’s gonna store it, not burn it. So there’s a threshold for you, a threshold to meet every time, depending on your goal of where you’re at hormonally, but also where you’re at in your phase, including where you’re at in your training. So if you’re
somebody who’s building to a goal and you’re starting off at, you know, s let’s just say, for the sake of argument, for our sake, 1700. And then now you’re adding more activity to it. Well, the output’s there, but the input isn’t there yet. So now we gotta we gotta input more into you. It really is like a a system, like a computer system of like what you’re putting in, you’re getting out. So as long as you’re getting
A significant amount of energy input to then use that output and expenditure in your activity, you’re meeting that goal because it’s they’re meeting together at a certain point where it’s gonna start to click and work for you and work to your advantage. So the more output you add to it, the more calories you then have to add to your daily routine. So for the people that are and you’ll you’ll see this with any
Instagram before and after of somebody who gets into bodybuilding, especially with the females, where you’re looking at plates of like everything all together and they have like twenty-eight they put like twenty eight hundred calories on there and people are going, How are you doing that? And it’s because of what they are involved in in their day to day routine of constant cardio, right? Interval cardio several times a week, plus really heavy, strenuous workouts with heavy weight
Greg (54:16.811)
And that’s gonna require more than somebody who is walking, starting off just doing walking. So the person that and trust me, I’ve had clients who just walked because they were at a stage in their life where they couldn’t do anything else. They couldn’t physically do anything else. So the calories were based on where they were at body weight wise, but not too far off from that because their activity levels were not high.
They just they weren’t doing much and they couldn’t at the time. Now, for someone in your case who is doing the aerials plus the training, and then you let’s say we keep adding minutes to everything. Now we add minutes, that’s more output. So that earns mathematically, somehow, more calories for you, right? 50 more here, a hundred more there, because of what we’re continuing to compile on top of what our baseline of where we started with.
There’s always somewhere to go. And that’s why I always say it’s it this whole game is evolving. Like your nutrition and your training should be in evolution because if you want to keep seeing the change, different things have to happen along the way depending on where you’re at in your stage of your life or the things that you pick up interest on that are constantly evolving. So you might as well treat it that way instead of you know creating a a
a box around everything and thinking that I’m only gonna do this 1200, 1300 calories, but I’m gonna run more and more and more and more. And then after the next week I’m gonna run more and more after that. It does signal to the body that things are going to start to get taxed. And that is what normally affects thyroid. That’s the thyroid problem that we see so much. It’s the overexertion, especially with women that go through this over exertion of their activity and under-eating. That’s why you have people downgrading
you know, their their T three, T four to T three so often is because that’s occurring. That’s happening more and more now. So once they’ve once they flip that and realize they have to go higher with their calories and rest more, but still train hard as hell for that short period of time during the day, it really will make a difference in their lives all across the board.
Miranda (56:33.087)
Yeah, that’s really interesting because probably a couple months before I started talking to you, maybe a month or so before I started talking to you last year about getting started, I had just been diagnosed with endometriosis. I had like a full panel of blood tests. And the reason I went is because I like I had my last aerial show here locally with my my coach who, you know, he’s a he’s a man who does not understand women at all.
So it’s very much like, you’re on your cycle and you have cramps. Okay, everybody has to do 20 more of these things because sh she stopped for half a second, you know, whereas like that’s so I had, I was like in terrible pain for like two weeks after that show. And then I finally went to the doctor and she’s like, you have endometriosis, and she did a blood test. And I’m curious now. I want to go back and I wanna see my testosterone levels were on the floor at that point. And
my T3 hormones were just barely above being in that deficient range. And I’m curious as to where they would be at now with all of that in mind. Cause yeah, it’s it’s really interesting, especially because like men, like you guys have a 24 hour cycle. You can just train and eat and train and eat and it doesn’t matter. Whereas like not the same as like a woman, you know, like if I’m in my luteal
And I I feel the difference in power and I just it’s part of why I don’t take classes for Ariel right now, is because when I’m in those those five days beforehand, I’m just there stretching and doing pretty things because it’s what I can manage. and
Yeah, that’s that’s the thing that I appreciate about you is you do pay attention to the cycle. Like that was one of the first things you were asking me is like okay, where are you in your cycle right now? And then when I was able to share my my my ad with you, you were like, Ha ha ha, it’s like the Google Maps you know, and but it it does it does really make a difference.
Greg (58:32.815)
Yeah.
Miranda (58:42.571)
I’m curious as to w at what point did you start integrating that knowledge of under because most guys don’t go through the thing of trying to understand a woman’s cycle. Like at what point, what happened to make you realize that that’s something that you really needed to take a lot of care when it comes to your women clients?
Greg (59:00.975)
Yeah, that happened I think probably right around
I wanna say 2020, 2020 or 2021, when I started working with a client who was a flight attendant and she was doing a lot of traveling for her. So she had the the the same type of thing that you had, which was okay, how do I how do I maximize this? Because I’m gonna be traveling a lot. If I have to stay overnight at a hotel and they have a hotel, I got this, okay. We figured that out, we have hotel workouts.
Okay, how’s my eating? And then when she started to to read, and I forget who the author was off the top of my head, but it was somebody who I think they’re they’re pretty popular now, gaining popularity now because of I don’t know if they were the first one to notice this, but and I think this is something that’s been around for a while, but it was it was eating and training around your cycle, a book that was like a manual almost.
So she started reading and it was like, this looks very familiar because somebody had told her about it. And when we we started to implement some of these same things that the person in the book was doing, but then tweaking it to her type of eating that she was doing at the time and her schedule, we were able to maximize her energy during that time period of, hey, if there’s heavy travel going on, but she’s in the right cycle where she can push, then
Okay, now we can change up the tr the training and the eating according to that. But then when you’re resting and she’s off the off the road or off the sky and she’s, you know, resting a lot, you know, recovering, now we can maximize that with the right amount of recovery, eating and stretching at your house because it calls for that. So as soon as I saw that, I was like, well, this has to be.
Greg (01:01:04.101)
cross the board, especially for anybody who isn’t menopausal. So let’s try that. Let’s try that with the next person and then it worked for the next person, but everybody’s was different because of their goals and what what type of training they were doing in that moment. And then for the women that are in menopause, it’s hey, guess what? Like strength training is gonna work for you very well, right? ‘Cause it’s it’s balancing out those hormones again.
So anybody who’s in their 50s who is menopausal, and even pre-menopausal, they are learning that strength training is turning something, a switch on, that most people hadn’t accounted for years ago. And that’s why more women are getting into it, which I love because we want to see more doing that kind of stuff. And there it used to be dominated by men, that whole sport of powerlifting, and now you’re seeing so many.
So they’re realizing the benefits aside from the feeling of the glory of lifting heavyweight. They’re seeing everything that comes with it. And it’s changing their quality of life completely. So knowing that there were two different ways to manage these things for menopausal and people that weren’t even close to menopause, there’s a lot to be done there to, again, like I say, maximize and minimize wherever you were needing to do it.
That’s that’s what needed to happen for these women that were looking to sort of hack everything and feel like they needed to find the needle in the haystack. And sometimes it’s a certain type of training, sometimes it’s a certain amount of nutrition, or it’s a both, or it’s a particular way to to work around your cycle and they find it and it clicks. That’s the the best part is seeing how happy they are.
when they make those changes. Like that’s what gets me. Like when I really think deeply about it. And I like I usually get pretty emotional about it because it’s something that feels so rewarding for me as because I’m seeing their happiness with it and their confidence come back. It’s there’s nothing really like it. There really isn’t, you know.
Miranda (01:03:27.101)
Yeah. Yeah, and I mean for me that’s been a big thing is ’cause I essentially quit birth control at thirty and then everything went crazy. The endometriosis flared up. I started gaining weight for the first time in my life ever. And I was like I felt like I had zero control over my body. And then when I was training, because of the way I was training before, I was ending up like ’cause that coach like he’s he’s good for like young people and for kids and stuff.
But for me, if you s if you stretch me, literally stretch me too far at the wrong point in my cycle, I will feel the tear internally and then I’ll have cramps for a week, you know? And that’s completely unsustainable. And I was really when by the time I was and I was still like on the road and I was but I was just like I stepped on the scale, I realized that my BMI had kissed overweight and I was like, Greg, we need to get started.
yesterday. This is bullshit. You know, I felt completely out of control. And there were points where like I’ve had points where I’m like, is this even worth it? You know, like is it gonna happen? Because we’re all just told women after they get to a certain age, they’re just gonna, you know, fall apart. Like, is this even worth it? But now and I’ve and I tell my partner this a lot, like I know I have a system now. All I have to do is continue to lift weights.
continue to train Ariel, both of which lucky for me I love, ’cause he I told you about that. He we had had the conversation. It’s like, well, you know, we don’t we don’t like to work out, but we have to do what we have to do for your our bodies and like fucking speak for yourself. Like I don’t agree with that. But yeah, I can see where that would be super rewarding in that, especially with women like especially like postpartum women, like you’ve been making great grounds with
Bexley Farnsworth, for example, when you have three children and you’re told by society that women have children, get fat, and then they just stay fat because that’s that’s what postpartum is, and that’s just your reality. Like that is super defeating, right? Or me like taking a few w months off of aerial traveling last year and then getting back onto it and having to start from zero. I was just like, I was so angry, right? But
Miranda (01:05:49.262)
I’m glad now that even when I’m traveling, I can lift weights, I can maintain the strength that I’ve built, you know. And so I do want to express gratitude for that because I know that I was like, wait one more week for like three months. But my only regret for anybody watching this is I wish I would have just started because I might already be to my goal by now, you know, and I’m not far off from it. So thank you. Because
Greg (01:06:03.579)
Course.
Miranda (01:06:18.709)
Now I know I have a system, you know, and I’m I’m I’ve got another, I think, year banked up with you and we’ll see. I might move the goalpost further or I might hit that and be happy, you know. And it’s good to know that I have support. You’re really flexible when it comes to, you know, payments and schedules and timing, and you’ve been very fair with me as to what it costs, and I really appreciate that because
I’m not rich over here. and I also know that like I really like is even when it’s buggy, like yesterday not recording my workout, like fuck you, l you know, silly app. But the workouts, that bank of workouts within that app is so helpful. and it’s cool that, you know, when I do decide to try to fly solo, I’m not gonna be completely solo because I’ll have those years of records and everything.
Greg (01:07:00.333)
Miranda (01:07:16.929)
So we’ve talked about in a sort of way like what the best part of the job is. What is the hardest thing about what you do? What is the most challenging thing?
Greg (01:07:30.971)
I think it’s helping people manage expectations of how long it’s gonna take. That’s been the hardest part for me because I think we’re still thinking that things could happen, we could meet goals in 30 days. And I think that’s advertised a lot, so we assume that it’s gonna happen for everyone because we see the
Miranda (01:07:39.501)
Mm.
Miranda (01:07:59.692)
Yeah, you see the like before and after AI. This took me six weeks. And it’s like, no, it didn’t.
Greg (01:08:02.977)
Airbrush. Right. Right. And before AI, it’s like now it’s air there was airbrushed before and you could like create your abs through like Adobe. But the thing about it is the the managing of that is understanding that this I always constantly say it’s the marathon, not the race, but I learned that myself in powerlifting because I saw the people burning out.
in the sport and then I saw the people that lasted. My problem was I got started too late and then went way too heavy, way too fast, thus creating that learning experience of I what I should have done was start way back in the 90s and done it the way it was supposed to be done, slow, right? Almost like a slow cooker. but because I was managing that at the time, I learned myself through my own training, like
The 17 or 18 years of actually doing it the way I started understand training, because you know, maybe 23 years of doing it, but 18 years of really understanding it, I realized how long that took to get to where I am now. With this size and physique took a long time to build. But people that see that and go, I I think I can do that.
in you know a couple of years. It’s gonna take a lot longer, but I think for a lot of people the expectation of the end result is is really tough too because they think it’s some people think it’s too far off, right? There are others that will say, I’m never gonna get there. Right? And they do. I’ve had people that I’ve worked with who were six hundred pounds.
And now they’re 320 pounds. They knew that it was gonna take some time, but their mindset was, I don’t think this will ever happen for me, right? So managing the expectations of the timetable, I think has been the biggest, the hardest part of this.
Miranda (01:10:24.491)
Yeah, that was something I kind of struggled with a bit too, because you know, spending my whole life like pretty skinny and then all of a sudden ending up overweight, I was like, I need this to happen like right now. and then when we’re in a world of GLP ones, you know, like I don’t necessarily hate on those those, especially because there are a lot of people f with PCOS and endo that are getting infl inflammatory.
relief from using those medications, but they also they come with a lot of side effects. I’m curious as to how many people come to you wanting to incorporate those. Is that a common thing that you’re seeing in your practice recently in terms of the spike of GLP ones?
Greg (01:11:08.965)
Now that’s what’s crazy. Nobody has that has been on it has come to me because I think it’s been more of a case study of they feel like they can solve it that way and and you know be the hare, not the tortoise. And they feel like that’s the end goal. They feel like that’s what’s gonna get them there. But the more we see you know it affect people with muscle loss, the more we’re gonna realize that it’s it’s it should be.
just be for that person who is severely overweight and obese, who has those same type of problems you were talking about, but also it’s gotta be a short-term thing that’s done in very low doses over a long period of time. once you get to doses that are really, really, you know, above the average, that’s when people start to have issues. And it’s just the same as, you know, people that do the
Miranda (01:11:52.663)
Mm-hmm.
Greg (01:12:08.943)
you know, the the liposuction or the st the old stuff they used to do with surgeries for weight loss, everybody ends up having some kind of problem in the end with it. and so the more that people come to me, they’re more of the type that, you know, at least in our community that have said, I don’t want to do that, I I want to swear it off because I don’t think it will help me, but whatever I’m doing now isn’t working. Can you help me?
I feel like that’s that’s gonna happen more and more upcoming because it’s GLP ones are just becoming more common. So I think that’s gonna be something in the future that will be the case, I think, where people will try to use it and realize that they’re losing things at the same time of you know, after losing all that weight that they’re losing a lot of muscle and how to gain that back would be something that would that would have to be done. Plus there are alternatives to that kind of thing.
as far as weight lo supplements that are weight loss friend like they’re there’s they’re friendly to the system even though they do the job. They don’t do the same job because that’s an ex GLPs are an extreme case. But things like green coffee extract and
Miranda (01:13:27.329)
I think berberine, right? Berberine.
Greg (01:13:27.459)
I can never say berberine and glucotamine. I think that’s the way you say it. There’s a couple of the that sound like glucosamine and glutamine that always get confused with. Three little batches of things you can take that help with that, that are much, much, much, much safer. you know, Chinese herbs, all all things you can incorporate that are safer for the body long term. And they’re gonna eventually come out with safer supplements in the future that will
not have so many issues and will will be more of a slow burn for you. Because I know what direction we’re going and people are wanting the the the faster results for whatever reason. I don’t know. But I’m sure that eventually there will be some advances to where you’ll have things come onto the market that will at the start people will hesitate about but will eventually be
pr used in moderation but a lot safer than what we’re getting with the GLP ones. and what I’m thinking about off the top of my head that what was it’s not been advertised yet, but there’s there’s gonna be some coming out soon that have that same effect but don’t have the side effects. Those are gonna be attractive but at the same time with all this comes the muscle loss and that’s where that’s where the problems start. you know at at least on a
Miranda (01:14:52.845)
From my understanding, GLP ones are naturally produced by the body. And when inflammation is high, the body doesn’t produce as much, which is what leads to the insulin resistance and like. Cause I’ve done a lot of research into these things because I find this stuff fascinating. I also have a few friends that are friends that are on GLP ones with varying results, like the one that’s focusing on weight training and eating a lot and eating right and
Protein, she’s having very good results and not very much muscle loss. And then I have another friend who’s a very busy mom and she’s dealing with joint issues, wondering if she has hyper allerg Danlow syndrome because her tendons don’t feel very strong, right? And so it’s really interesting. I’m not judgmental of people that use them, but I do know for me personally, even though they do work well with some of the things that I deal with, I’m like, how do I just stimulate my body to do this?
So I don’t have to depend on some medication, right? And I suspect that’s a big part of why weight training works for women over something like just huge amounts of cardio is probably stimulates that that hormone to be produced by the body.
Greg (01:16:07.577)
Absolutely, absolutely. That’s the key to it, is the more we put into the weight training, the free weights especially, the bigger change that’s gonna make. Somehow it does something completely different to the metabolism and the body than anything else does, you know.
Miranda (01:16:20.305)
Yeah, like flips a switch and everything kind of functions differently and you move differently, like you look completely differently. which yeah, that’s that’s they talk about non-scale victories and stuff, but those do really matter because you might weigh the same but be look completely different because you are
com comprised of different things than you were before.
I my last question is really, well I have two questions actually. My second to last question is how common is eating disorders in your clients and how like how do you combat that? Like ’cause I’ve dealt with the binge and restrict thing, you know, but how common is eating disorders when it comes to people? People think that people who are overweight and wanting help
don’t have those sorts of disorders, but often it’s kind of the opposite. I’m curious as to your experience with that.
Greg (01:17:25.647)
Yeah, very few, maybe one or two from the early days of of working with them. especially with the women, I think i it kind of tagged along with what we were talking about with you know the under-serving of of what your body needed. There were people that I was working with that were eating only 800 calories and everything they was they were eating was like salt free, so everything was very bland.
It was like that, you know, fish, broccoli and chicken diet that bodybuilders get on for Uber restriction when it comes to just sucking as much water out of your body as possible. that was something that we had to combat for a very long time, at least in the it w it took like at least like six to eight months to dial in enough.
of a change in the just I think just in the whole philosophy behind eating better and we went from 800 incrementally finally up to 1850 and it took that long right like it actually took that long to do and and so with that with that being said I think that managing the
expectation at the start of hey, we don’t have to tear the band-aid off. And if you have an eating disorder, I’m not gonna pile on calorie after calorie on you. I’m not gonna make you jump up to immediately to 1500 because this is what you’ve done for the past, you know, five, ten years of your life. So psychologically, how do we manage expectations with how much you’re actually taking in? Because your whole idea behind more is a sore spot. It’s a traumatic response.
And those eight months were probably the hardest I’ve worked with somebody in a long time because it was we were talking every single day, and a lot of it was mental. And then you had to accept the fact that what if I eat this, what’s gonna happen? How you know, and again, that’s why journals are so important. I think the food journals are incredible.
Greg (01:19:54.112)
how they make you feel when you eat them. I think they’re effective. That’s what we ended up doing for the majority of the training and the time that I had with her was what what are the things you’re feeling after you ate that? And and the next time you eat it, is that gonna be the same feeling, the same thing you’re thinking about the next time you eat it? Is that is that a common thread? There were a lot of things that we had to go through psychologically to to
sort of manage that and I’m glad that we got there. But it that’s hard and it takes a long time for someone that’s had that built into their psyche for so incredibly long. but I’m just grateful that those things have changed for those people that were going through and and maybe they still struggle to a degree. I don’t know if if it’s a thing that still goes on for them.
I try to check in as much as possible, but I’m I’m what I’m more happy about is that we got the hardest parts out of the way of the disorder itself. Now it’s okay, what’s the next step? Right? Checking in with them is important because I still check in on people I haven’t worked with just to see how they’re doing. Those are the people that have probably come the longest way, you know. Minus the people that are six hundred pounds. It’s it’s a long term thing that has to be
manage psychologically too. It’s not just a physical thing, obviously. So yeah.
Miranda (01:21:29.665)
Yeah, it’s definitely a thing that I’ve had to work through. And for me it’s mostly just because of the malnutrition I had as a child, there’s that like deep internal fear of lack. And if I feel in scarcity, then I suffer, right? and yeah, I mean
I I do think that the world is going a better way. There’s a lot of these like intuitive food coaches, and I do appreciate what they do because they really are kind of rude. Like and this is a problem with the vegan community, it’s a problem with vegetarian, it’s a problem with carnivore and keto, is we gotta stop demonizing certain foods, you know. Like maybe they should make up most of your diet, but they’re also not evil. They’re food. That’s just what it is, right? and that is something that I found
To be super rewarding and you know, for longevity, like when you’re doing extreme diets and stuff, you kind of lose the oomph for everything else, which makes it so these things don’t last, right? I want to switch gears a little bit. My last, I have one big question, and then I have one kind of silly question. The big question is especially in the recent months, with discussions about, you know.
proper ways to present masculinity in this world. You have a son. How do you how how are you teaching your son healthy masculinity as opposed to this like machista, you know, I’m a man, I do what I want, I, you know, womanizing
bullshit that kind of took the world by storm and is rampant as you know in a lot of parts of our community, how do you combat that and teach your son actual healthy masculine behavior?
Greg (01:23:29.263)
was a big thing for me, especially a couple years back, because of that influence that those men were having on his age group, because that Gen Alpha age group is in that prime age right now of 13, 14, 15, that is hearing different things go in and out of the, you know, their ear hole. And they’re seeing that that is getting rewarded.
somehow, right? In society, somehow, either with material things and if you’re after that, it’s gonna feed that with that sort of the the toxic side that we talk about. And what I always tell my son is follow the people that you see the opposite sex act very comfortable around. If you see that that person is calm around that man.
Miranda (01:23:59.821)
Mm-hmm.
Greg (01:24:28.057)
That’s a sign. If they’re not tense, if they’re not constantly like they’re being led around, you know, by the nose, and you see the way other women react around that person, especially when it’s, you know, one of let’s say it’s one of your coaches, let’s say it’s you know, a teacher, or and and I and I use me as an example. I’m like, you’ve watched me over the years. You know, how do you what do you think about the way I
go about my day and about my energy and and and how I am around people and especially women. And he’s like, well that’s the thing, is like I’m seeing that, but I’m getting this. And I’m like, yeah, the internet is telling you that. The internet is telling you that’s getting rewarded because that is its own Psyop itself. That’s the thing that’s telling you that you’re gonna get all this material, all these material possessions, all this wealth
While treating women this way, they don’t go hand in hand. Successful people don’t have to act like an asshole.
To to become successful. If you really if this is your thing, if you’re really trying to go for finance or whatever you want to do with your life, there is a certain way to conduct yourself in this world that catches more honey. Right? I mean, you draw more honey that way. And whenever I have those sit-down talks with him, it’s always to remind him of.
I go back to the name. I like the Papinicolas name, it’s fucking important. You know, like bring it back to the name and the people that came before me, like your my dad, your your grandfather, they were highly respected people. And they’re Greek. Like, don’t piss them off. It’s the kind of like don’t piss off your elders that I try to hone in on because they built this for you. Like all this trickled down. So listening to some other guy you have no connection to whatsoever.
Miranda (01:26:12.301)
Yeah.
Greg (01:26:37.251)
just because he was told to say something in a video, which most of the time it is not their original thought. It’s something they’re probably being paid to say, or it is and they’re controlled anyway.
Miranda (01:26:49.151)
Or they’re fatherless. There’s a that’s a big thing is like my my my ex, John, that was really the biggest wound that he had and we were in an abusive relationship, as you said, being led by the nose, that was me, you know. And but I knew the whole time
Greg (01:26:51.877)
That moment. Yeah. Yeah, can’t forget that. So
Miranda (01:27:08.381)
You know, his father killed himself three days before his first birthday. He never had a father, and then he had an asshole of a stepfather who is abusive, right? you really that just having the father, and I often say the reason why I’m not totally fucking screwed up on the streets and stuff is because I had a a saint of a dad, you know. I you saw the photos I sent you a few nights ago of me with his him and his cars.
you know, he was the best possible dad I think I personally could have had. So that that like family thread of that healthy masculinity and good fatherhood, it plays a role. And I notice in a lot of these people that are really unhealthy, these same people really they lack that masculine, that proper masculine influence. and I think that’s
I think that’s inspiring because they’re all just thought, okay, you just have to be stronger, you have to fuck as many women as possible, and women don’t matter, they’re just this or that, make me a sandwich, all this bullshit. whereas yeah, there’s there’s it’s really kind of the opposite where, you know, they say happy wife, happy life, and and these guys are like, you’re a simp. No, you you’re not a simp if you actually like who you’re with. You know, that doesn’t make you a simp.
And so the last question I have for you is who is Vince Bartoli?
Greg (01:28:38.235)
I didn’t know this was coming, but that’s great. my god. Okay. That’s awesome. So the story was originally that when they were calling in the this is I can’t believe I’m saying this, in the papers, or I think it was an advertisement somewhere, but it was a physical thing, a physical advertisement of trying to find local
Miranda (01:28:44.331)
I had to ask.
Greg (01:29:06.521)
bodybuilders to be in the Wonder Woman 1984 movie. when I saw that, I was like, snap, I’m gonna try that. I’m gonna get involved in that and actually see if I can like be in the movie. so and I was already doing all the the heavy lifting and all that. I was like, I think I can swing that. So I sent in like all these random pictures of just like I shaved in the end of the stash, the 80s bodybuilder did the stringer.
Found the clothes. My sister is a big sorta hoarder of vintage clothes. So she found all this stuff for me to to to wear for like the photo shoot that I was gonna send in. Well ultimately I didn’t get the the extra position, right? For the bodybuilder. And I watched the movie and was like, Jesus, these guys are you if you see you’re like, What they’re not even they don’t even look like bodybuilders. but so when I thought about it after after
getting kind of denied on that. I was like, why wanna just wake make my own movie? Or just make my own character because I already got bought all the clothes anyway. And I love the idea of the creative outlet for a person because I think that’s so important. and we can always circle back to that another time. But like the the idea was I was going to create this out of touch eighties bodybuilder who was cryogenically frozen, thought out in the modern era, and he doesn’t recognize a damn thing.
He’s pissed off at the world. He’s confused. And he’s from Long Island. He’s Italian. and when I started making the videos, I was like, I gotta make them funny, but I have to make him serious too. So I would do these funny vignettes, but then I would create the the drum dramatic sort of short films with somebody who was a boyfriend of my sister at the time who
Who was a very creative guy who did all the shooting and all the helped me with the story. You know, put put some stuff out. Everybody in the community loved it. And so I’m kind of rebooting him a little bit because he kind of took a break for a little while. and the idea is he’s gonna open up, well, he’s gonna reopen his gym that’s been dusty and and you know unused for a while.
Greg (01:31:32.259)
And so it’s gonna be a lot of banter between me and my son, who’s gonna be the Gen the Gen Z, Gen Alpha meets the Gen X. Just a bunch of conflict with that and hilarious, hilarious shit. So that’s the whole story behind Vince was he was a creation that was based off somebody my dad used to see all the time at his gym in Long Island. These Italian guys who were just over the top nuts.
crazy guys with their muscle cars hanging out at my dad’s gym in Long Island and from the stories he told me I was like I have to create something from that because it’s too good. So
Miranda (01:32:11.723)
Yeah. One thing I learned about you a couple of months ago, you shared an old video of you doing impressions of people. But like they’re like they’re really, really realistic. And I was just like, damn. and I partially asked that question in a way because I don’t know if you read Atlas Shrugged, but the whole thing in Atlas Shrugged is who is John Gull? Who is John Gull? And like Vince almost seems like the eighties
Greg (01:32:34.127)
Yeah.
Miranda (01:32:41.297)
power lifter version of John Gold, like this mythical creature that he’s got his standards, he’s got his, you know, his plan. And this world that he lives in just isn’t it, you know? And I I think it’s I think it’s super creative. I think it’s super cool. yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing the other parts. The little clip you sent me the other night, I was just I was kind of rolling about it. I was like, this is this is great. This is iconic.
Greg (01:32:57.007)
Yeah. Thank you.
Miranda (01:33:10.967)
Cause I think there’s in especially in this movement, there’s this emphasis on being like, I have to be serious, I have to, you know, be philosophically obsessed, and like I am a big person where we are out of the talking heads era of anarchy and we’re into the people that are actually trying to live it in their daily lives. Like, how are you living your life? How are you doing business? Who are you doing business with? How do you treat your customers?
How do you treat your family? How do you treat your wife? All of these things matter more to me than what some guy says on stage. And I think that’s part of why you and I gel really well. we’re coming up on an hour and a half and I wanna say thank you for taking the time twice because it took us an hour of trying last week, I think. I’m glad we got this to work.
Greg (01:33:43.205)
Yeah, yeah.
Greg (01:33:54.288)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Miranda (01:33:59.897)
and I definitely want to do another episode in the future because there’s there’s so much more to talk about, especially as I get more into this stuff and I’m learning a lot more. And you’re also getting into Chinese medicine and all of that, like that all that all matters in terms of like it’s not simply just about lifting heavy things and eating a lot of protein. So Greg, thank you so much for your time.
Greg (01:34:23.835)
Honored. Thank you for this. This this was wonderful. Couldn’t wait for it.
Miranda (01:34:28.524)
Looking forward to the next conversation.
Greg (01:34:31.568)
Yeah, me too.