Coach Jon is a weight loss coach and emotional eating expert who has lost 100lbs. From nanotechnology researcher, to Navy marine engineer, to globetrotting nomad, Coach Jon spent most of his life running from his true calling, until one question changed his life. Now he's on a mission to help others lose weight for good and leave BS diets in the rearview mirror.
With Freedom Nutrition Coaching he marries the Science of Metabolism with the Psychology of Behavior Change and the Compassion of Human Connection to create life-changing transformations with his clients.
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We talk about:
How did you lose 100lbs, and how long did it take?
What do you mean by "Brain-Driven Weight Loss"?
What do you think is the "best" diet for long-term weight loss?
What non-food and non-exercise factors are most crucial in weight loss?
What do you miss about being over 300lbs?
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AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION
(00:00):
Welcome to today's podcast episode. I am interviewing coach John coach. John is a weight loss coach and emotional eating expert who has lost over a hundred pounds from nanotechnology researcher to Navy Marine engineer and a globe Trotty nomad coach. John spent most of his life running from his true calling until one question changed his life. Now he's on a mission to help others lose weight for good, and to leave the BS diets in the rear view mirror with freedom, nutrition, coaching, he marries the science of metabolism with psychological, the psychology of behavior change and the passion of human connection to create life changing transformation for his clients. I know you guys will love this podcast episode. I will see you guys inside. Welcome back to the thriving thyroid podcast. You guys, we have Justin on with me today and we are going to be talking about fitness and recovery. And so I'm really excited. Justin, why don't you give a little intro to yourself?
(01:13):
Absolutely. First of all, thank you for having me on chin. I really appreciate it. My name is Justin. Mcclin talk. I own feel strong fitness, and we specialize in one-on-one fitness programs for people who wanna reach their goals without compromising or wasting time. We spend a lot of time working with people who have a little bit of an active background to some very accomplished athletes. But they've hit some kind of setback. They've had an injury. They feel like they're not performing the way they used to or the way they want to something isn't going the way they want it to. And they, what they really need we believe. And we have a lot of success with it is a customized program built exactly for them and who they are, their schedule, their wants and their needs.
(01:51):
Amazing. And I know before we hit record, you said primarily your, your audience is women. So what kind of injuries are they coming in with?
(02:03):
Well, it certainly varies by person, but I have a, a fair amount of people with chronic pain, chronic injuries with very active people. Sometimes this is something they've, they've learned to live with. Every time I squat my knee hurt. Yeah. That's just what happens when I squat twice a week, my knee hurt, or when I run my back hurts or, you know, these things that have presented and have sort of been accepted as part of life. And especially as people get a little bit older, I found that they there's this thing where people seem to accept that pain has comes as a part of being older. That that's automatic. It's one to one. And I push back really hard against that. I'm not saying you don't have extra wear and tear on your bones. You certainly do, but we can fix your movement and bring you back to a place where you can say yes to all the things you wanna do.
(02:49):
Amazing. So let's dive into the mindset aspect of recovery. I, I feel like with the women that I work with with the thyroid and everything, they're always wondering, am I doing enough? So can you speak into that a little bit?
(03:07):
Absolutely. We try and go for, I think, of, of movement and recovery as the minimum effective dose, usually recovery. Isn't super fun. It's not the sexy stuff that everyone wants to be doing, but it's really important to get us to that place we wanna be. So we try and drill down and what is like the least amount we can accomplish and still be making progress. So it's important. We find ways to measure that progress, but also put people in the mindset that slow progress is progress. Moving forward is always moving forward. And it's probably not going to be super fast, especially if this has been something you've been dealing with for a while, whatever it is if we can move you forward linearly and keep checking and retesting and reassessing and making sure that we're going in the right direction. And if we're not, we adjust, then that can be a really powerful place for people to live and eventually get to their goals.
(03:59):
So you mentioned testing and assessing. So tell me a little bit more about testing and assessing. Obviously you do more fitness. I do more nutrition. So the way that I test people is probably very different than the way that you do, but I'm a huge fan of really looking at that progress that people are making. So I would love to hear your take on, on that.
(04:24):
Absolutely. So let's take, I think I used an example earlier of someone who every time they run their back hurts and either, maybe there's someone who hates running or, and this is sometimes worse. They've just accepted that running is always going to hurt them and they go for a run and then they hurt. That is likely, I would say something to do with a joint in their body. So we would do a head to toe joint assessment which is relatively fast. It sounds like a big thing. We can usually do it in about 20 minutes. And if we find that their ankle doesn't bend up the way that a standard human's ankle will bend up, if they don't have full do deflection, we would call it. Then that, that slamming into the ground several thousand times is going to send a shock load up. And it may well end up in their lower back. So it might be, might not be doing a million back exercises. I mean, it might not be doing a million sit ups, which they've probably already been doing. Cuz someone told them that if your back hurts, just cuz you have a weak core, it might be a little bit of ankle mobilization for three minutes, four times a week, four weeks later, they go for running their back. Doesn't hurt.
(05:23):
Oh, that's so interesting. So I was a dancer. I danced all my life. I did point I did all of these different things and the thought of running. Ugh <laugh> because my body, I just say it doesn't like it. So I prefer cycling or something like that. So if I did a joint assessment maybe you can maybe tell me, would I probably find something from an injury previously from dancing or is running just not for me <laugh>
(05:57):
If, if you wanted to run no, first of all, there's lots of ways to the finish line, right? So yeah, if you like being on a bike, if you like doing other things that may well be perfectly fine for your cardio, but I suspect first of all, dancers, as you well know, are incredibly resilient and there is, there is a culture in dancing of accepting injuries and accepting things like that, which is not always the best, but it is that sometimes that show biz dancers also always start re typically start very, very young. I suspect the same is for you, right? You said all your life.
(06:25):
Yeah. Yep.
(06:27):
So we would do a test if it's a, what we call it an anatomical dysfunction, if there's something and this may, this happens with dancers and people who are athletes when they were younger. If you know, you twisted your ankle seven times before you were in junior high, your bones may have grown slightly differently. So if your ankle, if it's impossible for your ankle to bend that way, then running's probably out. Or we would, we, if you had to run, we would find a very modified way to do it. But I suspect that a little bit in your ankle or a little bit in your hip or a little bit in your knee, we could find something that we could do a little bit of work on to free up and at least make running, not feel bad. I can't make you want to run, but I can make it not, I can make it not hurt to do it.
(07:08):
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That totally makes sense. So diving into how, I guess that kind of brings me to my next point. I personally, don't like to run, like I said, I would rather do yoga or cycle or something like that. But how would someone determine what the right program is for them? Like what or how would you help them determine what their program is gonna look like?
(07:38):
That's a great question. And part of the reason we do one-on-one work is because this is so individualized, we will start with the goals. You know, if someone ends up on the phone with me on a zoom call with me, I'm not the first place they stopped. They don't go to a one-on-one coach. They've tried group classes and YouTubes and other programs, and they've tried other things and haven't gotten there. So first of all, we establish their goals. We establish what they've tried and I always ask people, why do you think that didn't work? And then we can start to really get down to sort of the nitty gritty of what's going on. Once we figure that out and we know what the goals are, we know what the destination is. We can reverse engineer what that's gonna look like with this joint by joint assessment, with a little bit of other sort of strength, movement assessment, having them moving around to determine what the most appropriate, the most effective and efficient program will be for them to go forward.
(08:27):
And then we fold in real life, right? Like your schedule, what kind of equipment do you have access to? Certainly, you know, in lockdown, there were lots of people who are like, I have a dumbbell and a set of stairs and I have this one rubber band from four years ago. Excellent. I'm gonna design a program for one dumbbell and one rubber band and a set of stairs. And it's gonna be just great. Or if you have access to a full gym or now actually post pandemic, lots of people have these amazing gyms in their garage. Yeah. We have more option that we could design things like that. In, in the example, like for you, we wouldn't program running the first week, right? You wouldn't like it. You wouldn't enjoy it. It might hurt you. It wouldn't be effective. It's not an appropriate stimulus for you. And some people, I have people who are working out twice a week. I have, I have people who are doing three hours a day, six times a week, and it's all dependent on their goals, their life, their schedule, their once in their needs.
(09:15):
Okay. That brings me to a really good question. How do you, if somebody's only able to exercise twice a week mm-hmm <affirmative> and they only have 20 minutes or whatever, how do you help them manage their expectations <laugh> in, in terms of their results, because they're not gonna get the same results as someone that can do five days a week and you know, an 90 minute program versus their twice a week, 20 minute program. So how do you help them work on that mindset of your, your making progress, but you know,
(09:48):
How do you help them? First of all? I, yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. And the first thing I do is celebrate their, being able to be consistent, working out twice a week because 95% of the population doesn't do that, or they do it for three weeks and then they kind of fall off cuz the 21 day challenge is over, whatever it is. So if you can build that consistency twice a week, first of all, you are on the road to changing your life. Because now you are someone who moves with intention on a consistent basis. The next thing is looking at those 20 minutes and seeing how valuable we can make it. You know, you've taken these 20 minutes where you can really focus on yourself and in people's busy lives, that's often really hard to do. There's so many things pulling at you that people can actually feel some guilt or feel selfish, taking 20 minutes to just focus on themselves and trying to alleviate that and show how the work you're doing on yourself is helping all of this other stuff.
(10:40):
You know, you move for 20 minutes and focus on you. It is going to make you a better spouse, family member, mother, all of these things for the other 23 hours and 40 minutes that you have to give throughout the day. Then we would start folding in some lifestyle stuff. And, and I think you do some work here too. Like, okay, we aren't going to work out five days a week. Could we walk around the block twice during, you know, between zoom calls? Is that something, could we up your sort of daily activity level, finding little pieces here and there so we can keep raising and raising and raising that bar. But someone who works out twice a week, someone who works out twice a week is much more likely to become someone who eventually works out three times a week. Then someone who's like, well, I can only work out twice a week. So what's the point and why bother starting? Yeah. Now you're someone who doesn't do anything.
(11:25):
Yes. Yeah. I love that. And while you were talking, one of the things that I was thinking of is the way that I structure, cuz I think through the pandemic, a lot of people started working at home or you know, maybe they're going back to work or whatever, but I've always not always. I have found that my productivity has gone up by working 45 minutes and taking a 15 minute break to get up and go get water to walk up this for me to walk up the stairs, change a load of laundry and walk down like I'm incorporating some movement cuz I work from home and I have that flexibility. Or like you said, walk around the block or you know, walk down the road and back or something like that. And I find that that helps me free up my <laugh> my mental space and helps me process through. And sometimes I can stretch it to let's say a 60 minute or a 90 minute work period. And then I'm able to take a 10, 15, sometimes even 20 minute break and get back to it instead of burning myself out mentally. So I love that you, you talk to kind of about incorporating movement into, let's just say your everyday, everyday life.
(12:37):
Yeah. Daily activity is massive. Whenever it's been studied, especially if people are trying to lose weight. And generally, generally when people work with me, aesthetics are at least somewhere on the goal list. It might not be number one. But if we say, tell me all of your goals, tell me everything you wanna change. And they don't say anything about the way they look. I know whether I'm being lied to <laugh> and then we have to dig into that because someone isn't telling it doesn't have to be your number one goal, but it's in there. It's part of it and that's totally okay. And it's normal when people are trying to change their body composition, whatever that means, lose weight, add muscle change the way they look. The daily activity is a massive indicator and huge it changing that far more so than how much cardio you're doing. If you actually move around during the day is a much better indicator of how effective all of this stuff is gonna be.
(13:23):
Yeah. I, and I obviously have a tiny little baby with me. That's why you guys might be hearing some noises. But for me, this pregnancy was massively different than a lot of my other ones. In terms of movement, third trimester, I got COVID. I was down for six weeks. My goodness, just super sick, which thankfully compared to one of my other friends, she was pregnant had liver failure, her and the baby liver failure. So mine was nothing compared to that. I was able to stay home and, and stuff, but it took everything for me to get up out of the bed and walk laps around. So we have stairs and I would walk laps around the stairs and I would get like maybe two in and I'm like, I'm done. Like I can't breathe <laugh> yeah. You know? And so it's been interesting to see my recovery postpartum in terms of like how my body feels and you know, and not that you've had a baby personally, but you might have children.
(14:29):
But your hips afterwards, you know, the muscles, the ligaments, they, they move and they stretch and do all those things that I don't know all the intimate details about, but I can feel a difference between fourth baby and third baby, which yes, fourth baby. <Laugh> but in terms of recovery, like I can just feel that. And I know a big part of that was because the lack of movement in the third trimester and just being able to move my body, you know, and walk for months. And I would tell my husband sitting in the bed or laying in the bed more or less. I'm like, I just feel like I need to walk. You know, my hips are just there. Like they're screaming at me to walk, but physically I wasn't able to breathe well enough. So anyways, I <laugh> would love to hear your opinion on some of that, but
(15:20):
Yeah, that's a, first of all, that sounds like a really challenging pregnancy. So well done on getting through that and thank you. Not everyone can see how adorable this baby is, but I get to I work with lots of postpartum moms, well perinatal and postpartum moms. And as you I'm, I'm, you know, preaching to the choir here, but every pregnancy is different. And how people come back there is really well established evidence now that moving, working, exercising, especially resistance training, strength training during pregnancy is absolutely indicated for a successful pregnancy and for coming back afterwards. But it sounds like you were doing what you could. And I would say, you know, I always try and push people away from feeling guilt about something. It sounds, what you're describing is like you are pushing at 80, 90, a hundred percent effort and that happened to be three laps around the stairs.
(16:04):
Yeah, we can't, we can't ask more than a hundred percent effort. So it is what it is. Another interesting thing that we do a fair amount of work on is breath work. And especially post-pregnancy we found that lung capacity is often significantly diminished because your lungs got pushed up out of the way. So you've been taking these sort of short, shallow breaths and not really engaging your diaphragm because there's a baby in the way. So afterward like doing a little, just, you know, a couple of minutes of a day of breath work, increasing your lung capacity, you can have really significant gains on letting people feel like they have more energy just because they can get a little more oxygen. They become a little more attuned at sort of tolerating carbon dioxide and things like that.
(16:42):
Oh, I love that. And after I haven't done this yet, but cuz I'm only six weeks postpartum at the time of recording this, but with my other kids, I would go get a chiropractic adjustment and I have a really great chiropractor that will adjust my organs and kind of put them back into place and you're right. I can, I was like, I can breathe. My digestive system is much happier. <Laugh>
(17:08):
Yeah. Everything gets pushed around. There's only so much room and your organs will get moved out of the way.
(17:13):
Yes. I was watching a video on what happens when you're pregnant. And I was like, oh, maybe I shouldn't have watched that <laugh> but <laugh>
(17:22):
Human body is fascinating.
(17:24):
It is. It really is. But one of the things that I love about the human body is its ability to recover
(17:32):
Hundred percent. It's absolutely amazing what people are capable
(17:34):
Of. Yeah, I agree. So in terms of success you know, I, you talked about giving a hundred percent or 110% of what you can. And I feel like I did try to do that. I would make myself go outside and you know, walk and it was, oh my goodness. It was 110 degrees outside. So when I was sick I was like, Ugh, this is like miserable to breathe in. But <laugh> but how are you helping people to measure their success and their results? Are you having them do weight and measurements or do you have a different system to measure those types of results?
(18:16):
I will do some of that and I will keep, I keep saying it's individualized and it's super varies person to person. We talk a lot about effort and a lot about how things feel the company's called feel strong on purpose. Like I'm not that interested in whether or not you ever squat 150 pounds, but I am interested in you feeling like you, you are incredibly strong and could do whatever you wanted to whenever you wanted to. So it's that kind of thing. And with what you're describing, like perhaps we would do a walking workout and we would report, you know, report your time, report your distance and how did it feel? And then two months later we might do the exact same walking workout, whatever it is. And we compare the time, compare the distance, how it felt. Now we might over two months. What if it came back exactly the same.
(18:58):
You went out for this and you got two miles and it took 24 minutes and eight weeks later, it was two miles and took 24 minutes. You'd be like, Justin, I didn't get any better. It's like, well, hold on, let's look at this eight weeks ago, you said this almost killed you. And you wanted to stop two different times and you felt awful this time. You really wanted to keep going. And you were sad that there wasn't more work at the end. So that's a huge amount of progress. We've raised your capacity. We've developed the ability to do way more. This time didn't go up. But it's unlikely that we're trying to turn you into a race Walker were trying to build some capacity and allow you to do all of these other things. So measuring that, that progress, that effort, how it feels for me is often more important than like wait on a bar or speed on a track or how long you can hold this or that pose.
(19:45):
Oh, I love that. Yeah. I, I was talking to a friend just yesterday about intrinsic versus extrinsic validation. Right? Mm-hmm <affirmative> and so this would be, I think a good example of that intrinsic and being able to take that step back and be like, oh, I am having progress in terms of like, now it's not hard for me. Yes. The time hasn't changed, but the way that I'm feeling while I'm doing it and afterwards is where the progress is really happening.
(20:24):
Yes. This effort almost killed me. Now this effort feels just like something I would normally do. That's enormous.
(20:30):
Yeah. That's really huge. So let's kind of wrap this up. Justin, what advice would you give to someone who is just wanting to get started?
(20:42):
Just wanting to get started. First of all, listen to Shannon's podcast. Listen to my podcast, go out, consume all the free stuff. There's lots of really useful free stuff out there in this age of content. People are, are purposely giving away. Really good stuff for free and learn a little bit. You don't necessarily have to run to a one-on-one coach right off the bat. See what you like, see what it feels like. Don't be afraid to do tiny little bits, especially if you're trying to build a new habit. If you can give two minutes a day, then give two minutes a day. If you can do that several times, then excellent people get really stuck on it. What am I trying to say? Yeah. People get stuck in feeling like they should be doing well. I can't do five or six days a week for an hour and a half.
(21:24):
So therefore I can't work out. But the person we described earlier, if you can do two minutes 20 minutes rather twice a week, you are on your way to success. And that's enormous. So finding that space where you can focus on yourself and I like the term move with intention, I don't really care what you're doing, but if we move with intention for 20 minutes, two or three times a week, you are absolutely on the road to success. And to being an extremely resilient human being and being someone who can serve and protect and do things for people around you and serve your community and serve your family and be strong, frankly, moving through the world and strength is always an asset.
(22:03):
Yeah. I love that. So two things that stood out to me was number one, moving with intention. I think that's really important. And that is something that <laugh> working from home has been, I would say challenging for me to begin with because I'm like, I just gotta hurry and get this done before the kids get home and, you know, hurry and get this done because now I'm homeschooling and my kids are distance learning and all those things. And then hurry in, get this done because all whatever right. And I had to take that step back and do two things for myself. One I had to say, okay, carve out 45 minute blocks of time and then make yourself go get some water, go to the bathroom, walk up the stairs, switch the laundry. You don't have to fold it, but just moving up the stairs or we have animals.
(22:51):
I live on what I call my mini farms. We have cows and goats and chickens and pigs and turkeys and all of the things. And sometimes it means going out and just feeding them and coming back so that I get in a little bit of that movement where I would normally be sitting, you know, still. So there are, what I'm trying to get at for the listeners is there are ways to move with intention that are not <laugh> dumbbells and bands and all of the things. But the second thing that I really love that you said was consume the free content. I get accused all the time of giving away the farm for free. And I'm like, there's a reason, right? Like I want people to start to take action and have a good experience with implementing what I'm teaching them. And I'm sure you feel the same way. Being a business owner, like start having some wins and start incorporating these things. Because number one, when you come into my program, you are gonna be better equipped when you work with me, cuz this information isn't gonna be new. But two you're already gonna be implementing some of the things, right? You might be drinking water, you might be moving intentionally or things like that. So those are the things that I really, really loved that you mentioned.
(24:09):
Thank you very, very much. I think it's, I think transparency is important. And if you find someone who is gate keeping and won't tell you the magic secret way of exercising or the way of the, the recovery secret that they have, unless you pay them X, Y, and Z, then they probably, aren't actually very, very good at what they do. People who are great at what they do recognize that that's not where the magic is. It's how you put it all together. And frankly, it's in the relationships that you form with these clients. So you can lead them toward their goal. So the best people are giving away all of their stuff for free.
(24:40):
I love that. All right. What else do we need to know about you, Justin? And how can people get to know you listen to your podcast, consume all of your wonderful free content as well.
(24:52):
I would point people to Instagram. That's where I'm most active. And I spend probably slightly too much time. I'm at feel strong, fit on Instagram. So feel strong F I T, and all the links and bio are there. You can find the podcast, a ton of educational content. I try and put stuff out at least once or twice a day. And if you have any questions, I love talking to people. So the DMS are always open. Just don't be a creep.
(25:14):
<Laugh> don't be a creep. I love it. I went ahead and followed you as well. So I will be checking out all of your stuff. So
(25:21):
I appreciate it.
(25:22):
Thank you. And we will see you guys on the next
(25:28):
Way before you go, please subscribe. If you found value in today's episode, leave us review and share on Instagram and please tag us. We love your please.
