Episode 14: Graduating College, Ice Baths, Dolce Diet Certification, MAPS Anabolic Review, My Injured Squirrel Story, Fat Guy Files October 2009

In Episode 14, we talked some health, fitness, and current events. Among the topics discussed:

  • Finally graduating with Master’s degree from Walsh College
  • Dolce Diet Certification October 25-27
  • My initial thoughts on the MAPS Anabolic workout program
  • Fat Guy Files: October 2009 vs October 2019
  • Ice Baths/Cold Showers and their benefits
  • The story behind the injured squirrel in my backyard

All that and much more with some help from my friends Mike Dolce, Dave Chappelle, and Dave Ramsey!

Episode Timestamps

  • Intro: Head over to Wise-Eats.com for every episode of the podcast including the youtube videos, recipes, workouts, fitness tips, and more! Contact me with questions at wiseeatspodcast@gmail.com and Instagram @weswisefitness. (00:00)
  • Hilarious blurb from the Mike Dolce Show 01:15)
  • Episode 14! Summer is over, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still have a good time. (1:20)
  • Plans for after college and Dave Ramsey’s blurb about education (2:00)
  • Taking my knowledge of health & fitness to the next level with the DOLCE DIET CERTIFICATION (2:15)
  • How I found Mike Dolce and The Dolce Diet (2:30)
  • Healing my body with REAL FOOD (3:00)
  • Simple philosophies that will change your life (3:30)
  • Mike Dolce blurb. SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE (4:20)
  • Dolce Diet has helped me and it can help you too (4:30)
  • My current workout program: MAPS ANABOLIC. Initial thoughts on the program (4:50)
  • Comparing Mike Matthews’ Bigger, Leaner, Stronger to MAPS Anabolic (5:20)
  • Love the Mind Pump Podcast (6:20)
  • New recipes coming for Wise Eats! Piledriver Protein Pudding and the Sharpshooter Breakfast Salad. Those will be out soon on The Following Announcement YouTube show (6:25)
  • Fat Guy Files: October 2009 vs October 2019 (7:00)
  • My exact diet from October 2009…NOT GOOD (7:45)
  • Chocolate Shake Recipe Wise-Eats.com/fullycharged (8:15)
  • How I lost weight while still partying and eating junk food. DON’T DO WHAT I DID (8:35)
  • Eat good, healthy, clean food all through the day! (9:30)
  • My exact diet in 2019, much better than 10 years ago! (9:45)
  • Thanks for the help Dave Chappelle! (9:50)
  • Mega Power Potatoes, Favorite Spices, Olde Thompson Everything Bagel Seasoning Wise-Eats.com/MegaPowers (9:55)
  • Mike Dolce wants to make you breakfast! (10:50)
  • One of my favorite snacks/pre-workout: FROZEN FRUIT (11:00)
  • Post-Workout Shake & Wise-Eats.com/MuscleMilk (11:30)
  • Dinner: My 3rd Salad of the Day! Salads are a GAME CHANGER (11:55)
  • “MMM…CHICKEN” Viral Video (12:25)
  • Dessert time! Greek Yogurt, Frozen Mango, Legion Athletics Casein Protein. One of my very favorite healthy desserts  (12:30)
  • My exact macros for the day. Nailed my targets for current weight loss goal! (12:55)
  • I love carbs and another hilarious blurb from Mike Dolce (13:00)
  • Diet and exercise are NON-NEGOTIABLE (13:10)
  • Ice Baths: My experience and their benefits. Horse trough baths 4-life! And a Joe Rogan Experience blurb (14:00)
  • Can’t deal with ice baths? Try a cold shower instead and another Rogan blurb (15:45)
  • I found an injured squirrel in my back yard tonight. Here’s the story (16:15)
  • Why I fetch with my Boston Terrier and Golden Retriever in the front yard (16:35)
  • Raise your hand if you’re an unconditional animal lover. My hand is raised! (17:10)
  • Getting help from my wife, neighbors, and even the POLICE. Remind me of the Half Baked movie  (17:20)
  • I have 3 options for dealing with this squirrel (18:15)
  • What ultimately happened to the squirrel (18:40)
  • Thankful I didn’t have to kill the squirrel and now he’s out there making wise choices! (19:30)
  • Please like, subscribe, comment (19:45)
  • Head over to Wise-Eats.com/Episode14 for the show notes, YouTube video, recipes, pictures, and more, WiseChoiceNation.com for my free newsletter and Wise Eats Approved Foods List (19:45)
  • BLOOPER REEL (20:15)

Recipes Mentioned in This Episode:

Brands/Products Mentioned in This Episode:

  • The Dolce Diet
  • Legion Athletics
  • Mike Matthews’ Bigger, Leaner, Stronger
  • Mind Pump Podcast
  • MAPS Anabolic Workout Program
  • Olde Thompson Everything Bagel Seasoning

Movie Clips: Half Baked, Up, The Mike Dolce Show, The Joe Rogan Experience, “My New Haircut” YouTube Video, “Mmm, Chicken” Viral Video, Squirrels Movie

Well, hello again, Wise Guys and Gals! Welcome to episode 14 of Wise Eats! It’s October and summer is officially over. Yes, I’m super sad about that, but it’s a great day to be alive. I’m thankful for all the amazing things that are happening in my life and thankful to be sitting here chatting with you.

I Finally Graduated!

Recently, I earned my master’s degree in finance from Walsh College out in Troy Michigan. That’s been a long time coming and better late than never. I’m 36 years old and have switched my college major about 18 different times but finally made it to that finish line. So, now what? That’s the big question right? Now, I get to go to school for ME. I’m ready to dive into some things that I’m truly passionate about and obviously one of those things is health and fitness.

Dolce Diet Certification

Later this month, I will be going to the Dolce Diet Certification out in Belmar, New Jersey. For those of you who don’t know, the Dolce Diet is Mike Dolce, a fitness and nutrition mentor and famous UFC personality/fighter. He’s been an influence in my life for many years now. I originally lost 90lbs back in 2009 and didn’t even know who Dolce was at that point.

I simply found a fitness website, got off the junk food, started exercising, and calorie restricted myself down to 180lbs from 270. Long story short, I got super sick after that from just eating junk food all the time and yo-yo dieting. Eventually, I had to turn to eating real food real, natural foods to heal my body, finally start feeling good, and eventually start building muscle. Losing weight had mistakenly been my focus for too long. Now, it was time to start getting strong, healthy, and building a physique that I desired, and Mike Dolce was a huge part of that process.

I found the Dolce Diet years after my initial weight loss and it was a game changer. His philosophies are simple but spot-on. They’re all you need: Eat real food based on your activity levels, get plenty of exercise, stop poisoning yourself, stay hydrated, etc. It’s all just simple stuff that you’re not gonna see sitting on a store shelf or advertised on TV. It’s the basic fundamentals that we should all be doing, and it’s the things that I try to preach on this show episode in and episode out.

So, Dolce does a 3-day certification course later this month that I’m super excited to finally be a part of. I’m gonna meet the man, take his class, and go from there. Afterward, I’ll probably be one of his little minions out here preaching the Dolce diet principles. Dolce is the real deal. I believe in his philosophies wholeheartedly because they 100% worked for me and they would work for you too. He’s been an inspiration for me to start Wise Eats and try to help others, as well.

My Current Workout Regimen

I recently started MAPS Anabolic, which is a weight lifting program from the guys at Mind Pump. I’m in the middle of the program right now and loving it. I would recommend it to anybody and it’s definitely a nice change of pace from what I was doing before which was Mike Matthews’ Bigger Leaner Stronger. BLS was all lower rep work in the 4-6 rep range. Very heavy weight on all the compound lifts. MAPS Anabolic does have that heavy stuff but it goes in phases. You do three weeks of 1-4 reps then you’ll do three weeks of 8-10 reps. Then, they throw in some higher rep sets. They change your workout every three weeks which keeps it fresh. You don’t have to constantly switch up your workout regimen to see results, but it can definitely help to keep you motivated, which always helps progress.

I love the different rep schemes in MAPS Anabolic and it still features the most important compound lifts: Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press, and Overhead Press, which should be a part of every human’s workout program. They also have an awesome podcast too, which is one of my favorites, the Mind Pump Podcast.

New Recipes for Wise Eats!

We just got done shooting two new recipes for The Following Announcement YouTube show. The new season premieres on Saturday, October 26th. Those recipes are the Pile Driver Pudding and the Sharpshooter Breakfast Salad. So, I will keep you posted on when those come out. It’s like I said before…salads for breakfast will change your life! So get on that.

Fat Guy Files – October 2009 vs October 2019

Time to dive into the Fat Guy Files for October 2009. At this time, I had already lost 60 pounds. My original weight loss started in March of 2009, so by October I really had the hang of losing weight. I was still eating very unhealthy but calorie restricting myself in order to keep losing weight. Not the healthy way to go by any means, but it worked.

Here is my exact diet journal entry from 2009:

You can see that I was at about 2,000 calories each day until I hit the weekends where I blew the doors off my diet. This was the vicious cycle I was in each week where I would restrict during the week then go all out on the weekends. Because I averaged a calorie deficit, I still lost weight, but eventually got very sick even though I was getting skinnier.

Now, let’s look at today’s diet:

  • Keep your spice cabinet stocked because it’s a great way to add flavor to your meals without all the added fats from oils, cheeses, butter, etc. Lately, I’ve been using Everything Bagel seasoning from Olde Thompson (we get it at Costco).
  • Canned sardines are amazing. They taste delicious and are really good for you. I’ve been going wild on them lately.
  • Balsamic vinegar has been a staple for my salad prep lately. Amazing as a dressing with some olive oil.
  • My pre-workouts vary depending on the situation but in this case it was a few servings of frozen fruit and a black coffee. My workout was approximately 4pm so I already had two full meals in hours before that and just wanted a little boost with the frozen fruit. Frozen fruit is an amazing snack by the way!
  • Post-workout was a Blueberry-Banana-Raisin Muscle Milk. The original Wise Eats Muscle Milk recipe with spirulina tablets, kale, and raisins added.
  • Jasmine rice is amazing! A staple of my diet. Highly recommended.
  • One of my favorite desserts is plain Greek yogurt with frozen mango, a ½ serving of vanilla casein protein, and cinnamon. WELCOME TO THE GOOD LIFE.

Here were my calories/macros for the day:

Hopefully you can see where I was in 2009 vs where I am today in 2019 and know that it is possible to completely change the course of your life through diet. My diet is not perfect but it is what works for me so maybe it can work for you too. I’ve reached a place in my life where healthy diet and exercise are non-negotiable and hope you can get there too.

Benefits of Ice Baths/Cold Showers

Another thing I’ve been doing quite a bit lately that I’ve been super enjoying and wanted to share our ice baths. I was gifted a horse trough from my in-laws, an idea I got from Kyle Kingsbury on the Onnit Podcast to get a horse trough. It’s an inexpensive means to make an ice bath.

I’ve heard varying opinions about the benefits that ice baths have but I definitely feel like it helped with my muscle recovery for my workouts and helped improve sleep. It was also great at relieving minor joint pain and lowering my core body temperature on those hot summer days. Here are some additional benefits I found courtesy of Citywide Plumbing Pros:

  1. Increase hormone production
  2. Strengthen immune system
  3. Improve circulation
  4. Improve metabolism
  5. Detox
  6. Reduce blood pressure
  7. Improve fertility
  8. Recovery
  9. Reduce aches and pains
  10. Heal and tone skin
  11. Improve kidney function
  12. Improve nervous system
  13. Eliminate toxins
  14. Reduce swelling

Ice baths are extremely uncomfortable when you first get in, but after a minute or so, you almost get used to the water and it’s much more doable. I go for about 10 minutes per session. Even if you’re not really comfortable with the idea of taking ice baths or cold baths, take a cold shower instead. I prefer to start off on cold, but you can run the hot water for a while then turn it on cold at the end. Initially it’s shocking but you get used to it and then you feel like a boss after you get done with that.

My Squirrel Story: Finding an Injured Squirrel in My Back Yard

The night of this recording I ran into a crazy situation that I decided to talk about on the show. I discovered an injured squirrel in my backyard. Appeared to have been hurt from falling out of a tree or something. He appeared to be seriously hurt and very scared. I waited for quite a while to see if he would move, but he didn’t, and when I walked up on him I noticed that he was frantically trying to drag himself across the grass with one arm. Looked like maybe one of his limbs was broken.

Instantly, my heart sank because I’m an unconditional animal lover and now have to deal with this injured squirrel in my backyard! I also had added pressure because his buddies and family were clearly concerned/observing the situation. By the way, we live in the metro Detroit area so this is a small yard right in the heart of downtown Mount Clemens, a suburb of Detroit.

After calling my Boston Terrier and Golden Retriever away from the scene, I asked my neighbor who is fond of squirrels if she had any advice. Her solution was to call the police. Police informed me that they don’t do house calls for wildlife and that I basically had 3 options:

  1. Put the squirrel out of its misery
  2. Find a shelter to take it to
  3. Let nature “run its course”

I located a shelter about 30mins from my house that would accept the squirrel for free, which was a relief. After some serious contemplation, I decided to leave the squirrel alone for a short time while I visited my Dad and explained the situation. Upon returning home about 45mins later, the squirrel was gone.

At the end of the day, nature had taken its course. While I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to deal with the situation any further, I did wonder what actually happened to the squirrel. Was he just stunned and not really hurt? Did he just scurry off once he knew I had left? Did his family and friends come and help him get out of there? Or did some other animal (stray cat, bird) get a nice dinner that night? I’m going to live with the idea that the squirrel lived happily ever after and that he’s out there making wise choices right now!

Submit questions, comments, feedback to WiseEatsPodcast@gmail.com. Thanks for watching, listening, reviewing, liking, subscribing, and sharing. Be good to yourself, be good to others, and make wise choices!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *