Episode 19: Going from Bones to Bulk with Bryan Parady

Posted on by Wes Wise.

Back in 2009, I was 90lbs overweight and decided to make a change to improve my health.

Over the course of the next year, I lost those 90lbs and changed my life forever.

The only problem was, now I was just skinny with all kinds of disordered eating patterns and problem drinking.

I was lighter and somewhat healthier, but was getting sick all the time and feeling miserable.

It wasn’t until I improved my nutrition and developed a consistent weight training program that I began to optimize my health and finally get the athletic body I wanted.

Today, not only do I maintain a healthy weight, but I’m in great physical shape also.

Took many years to get here but I did it! And you can do it too!

So, what I’m trying to get at here is that I went from being big and fat, to sick and skinny, to athletic and fit.

I suppose you could say that I went from skin and bones….to….bulk.

Our guest in Episode 19 is Bryan Parady, creator of BonesToBulk.com. He has an incredible story of going from “skin and bones” to muscular and fit, just like I did. We dish up exactly what inspired him to take control of his health and eventually launch Bones to Bulk along with plenty of other diet/fitness tips!

BonesToBulk.com

If you’re wanting to make a change and start a nutrition/workout program, I recommend checking out his website BonestoBulk.com. His podcast is terrific and he has plenty of free content on his site for you to check out.

While you’re at it, don’t forget to check out Wise-Eats.com, where I have plenty of articles on fat loss, muscle building, workout plans, and more, all completely free!

This is my first-ever remote podcast interview, so I can’t think Bryan enough for taking the time and giving me the opportunity to spread his message of hard work, good health, and wise choices! Thanks as always for watching I hope everyone’s New Year’s resolutions are in full effect. Keep on showing up and keep on making wise choices!

Episode Timestamps

  • Intro! Happy New Year! My New My New Year’s Resolutions of Meditation & Fat Loss (0:20)
  • Headspace Meditation App (0:45)
  • Today’s Guest: Bryan Parady, Creator of BonesToBulk.com (1:40)
  • Check out BonestoBulk.com for a fitness info, motivation, and a great podcast! (2:00)
  • Wise-Eats.com for fat loss, muscle building, healthy recipes, workout programs  (2:20)
  • Interview Begins and Discussing the Bones to Bulk Podcast (2:50)
  • How Bryan first became interested in health/fitness and how it led to Bones to Bulk (3:50)
  • How the Rocky movies inspired him to get fit (4:10)
  • How the backstory of Bones to Bulk compares to Wise Eats (5:30)
  • Bryan’s background as a personal trainer (6:50)
  • How many clients he’s trained (7:30)
  • The biggest mistake among fitness clients (7:55)
  • Advice for aspiring Certified Personal Trainers (8:40)
  • One piece of advice he gives to fitness beginners most often (10:05)
  • One piece of advice he gives to intermediate/advanced most often (11:10)
  • Discussion of the “squeeze method” and how it helps your form & intensity (12:40)
  • Why constantly focusing on lifting heavier weight is wrong (14:00)
  • Bryan’s currently training regimen (15:00)
  • Bryan’s current fitness goals (15:50)
  • How Bryan’s improving his health in 2020 by listening to his body (17:10)
  • What is his WHY for Bones To Bulk (18:20)
  • Being an example to others and to his kids (19:00)
  • How he balances a full-time job with his business, podcast, kids, etc. (20:05)
  • The importance of teamwork in building a business (20:30)
  • Bryan’s weekly meeting with his wife where they work on their businesses (20:55)
  • Bryan’s daily routine (21:55)
  • What a normal diet day looks like for him (24:00)
  • QUICK BITES (26:30)
  • Single biggest factor holding Bryan back from starting his healthy lifestyle? (26:35)
  • Favorite exercise routine/program? (26:55)
  • Favorite specific lift? (27:30)
  • Favorite muscle-building recipe? (27:55)
  • Favorite UN-wise choice? (28:45)
  • Favorite recipe for success (29:05)
  • One food in your kitchen you can’t live without? (29:55)
  • One utensil in your kitchen you can’t live without? (30:15)
  • Favorite source of inspiration? Gary Vaynerchuk (30:40)
  • Bryan recommends the book “Mud, Sweat and Tears” by Bear Grylls (31:20)
  • Favorite thing to listen to when you work out? (31:40)
  • One song you refuse to take off your playlist? (32:30)
  • Healthy food he recommends to clients most often: Quinoa (33:10)
  • One last piece of advice for listeners looking to make a change? (34:15)
  • What is your New Year’s Resolution for 2020? (35:10)
  • Bryan going vegan for the month of January! (36:10)
  • Final thoughts (37:35)
  • Contact Bones to Bulk via Instagram @bonestobulk and BonestoBulk.com (37:45)
  • Bryan says goodbye: YOU’VE GOT THIS! (38:20)
  • Have an amazing 2020 and make wise choices! (38:50)
  • Go to Wise-Eats.com/Episode19 for the show notes, YouTube video, recipes, pictures, and more!
Bryan with Jeff Cavaliere!
Check out the Bones to Bulk podcast! Highly recommended!

Recipes Mentioned in This Episode:

Articles/Brands/Products Mentioned in This Episode:

Bryan and his wife

Website Design Thank You: DoeringDesign.com

Logo Design Thank You’s: @this_show, MGSignsDesign.com

Editing Animations Thank You: Darin Roberts aka Misteredit1 on YouTube

The Wise Eats Podcast is written, filmed, edited, and produced by Wesley Wise, and hopefully shared by YOU. Your support is greatly appreciated!

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

Episode Transcript

Intro: Happy New Year, Wise Guys and Gals, and welcome to another edition of the Wise Eats Podcast. I’m your host and former fat guy Wes Wise. I hope everybody’s 2020 is off to a great start. I’m happy to report that my New Year’s resolutions are going pretty good so far. I started off wanting to meditate daily and haven’t missed a day yet. I’ve been doing about 10 minutes a day and this week just started doing 15 minutes a day so I’m kind of bumping it up as I go along. I’m following along with the Headspace app. You may have heard of that. There’s a lot of different apps out there that you can use but that’s the one that I’m using and I dig it. The narrator has a cool accent. It might be annoying to some people but not me!

My other New Year’s resolution is to drop down to 180 pounds which is actually the lowest weight that I’ve probably ever been in my life. So, that might be too lofty. I started at about close to 195, so I’m trying to get in the 180-185 range. I think I’ll be pretty cut up at that point and feeling really good, so that’s my other New Year’s resolution. That’s also going pretty good. I’ve been cutting down on the overeating which is a struggle coming out of the holidays!

I’ve got some other New Year’s resolutions but we’ll get into that another time. My guest today I’m super excited about. It’s Bryan Parady who is the creator of BonestoBulk.com. He has an inspiring story, he’s a super cool guy and he’s trying to do some really good things in the health and fitness space. if you’re wanting to make a change and start a nutrition and workout program I recommend checking out his website BonestoBulk.com. He’s also got a terrific podcast. Each episode is only 10 minutes, hits you with some good info and it’s some great content for you to check out.

While you’re at it another great resource is Wise-Eats.com. I’ve got a whole bunch of free articles about fat loss, muscle building, healthy recipes, workout programs, a whole bunch more so definitely go check that out also. Now, let’s get right to it. Without further ado I present to you Episode 19 and today’s guest Bryan Parady. It’s time to wise up.

Interview with Bryan Parady of BonesToBulk.com

Wes: So, first of all just wanted to thank you for coming on I know you’re busy guy and I appreciate you taking the time to come on the show.

Bryan: Yeah, appreciate you having me.

Wes: Absolutely. I’ve been excited to have you on because I’ve been enjoying the content that you’re putting out there. Your podcast is awesome.

Bryan: Thank you

Wes: I love the 10-minute format. You get in, you get out, there’s no BS you just deliver the goods right and you get out of there. It’s high-quality stuff.

Bryan: Yeah, I was worried about that at first like is ten minutes enough? Are people gonna like hate that? But it’s what works for me and it seemed to work pretty good.

Wes: Yeah and it’s not a huge time commitment to get into. Over the past few weeks I’ve probably blown through about 50 episodes of it it’s just it’s really high-quality info – it’s a great stuff.

Bryan: I appreciate it.

Wes: So, anyway let’s kind of start at the beginning and tell me about how you originally became passionate about health and fitness and how that led you into creating Bones to Bulk.

Bryan: Sure, okay so I was about 21 years old and not into fitness or health at all. I weighed 118 pounds. I was a tiny dude and somebody recommended I watch the Rocky movies. I’d never seen them and so I watched them and absolutely loved them. I think I binged them all in one week. By the time I was done watching them I was like I want to be buff. I want to look like Sylvester Stallone. So ,the very next day I went out to a sporting goods store bought a bench and some weights and set it up in my house and just went at it!

I did every single thing wrong you can imagine from lifting to nutrition to everything I just had no clue what I was doing. It was probably about six months in where I had been consecutively lifting four or five days a week and saw just absolutely no progress. That’s when it kind of came to a head I was like okay I can either stop and figure out what in the world I’m doing or I can give up and so I was like let’s go all in let’s try to figure this out and that’s when I really started researching and getting into the nutrition side and how to properly lift and it was from that point that I began to start seeing change over the long term. So, that was kind of like my intro to fitness was the Rocky movies.

Wes: How old are you?

Bryan: I am 34

Wes: Okay, I’m 36 and my biggest inspiration was Hulk Hogan. So, Rocky 3, Thunderlips, I

was all about that. So yeah, we’re kind of cut from the same cloth in that aspect.

Bryan: Yeah, for sure.

Wes: You know, we actually we have opposite kind of stories but kind of similar. I was 90 pounds overweight when I first decided to make a change to my health and like you said I kind of was treading water not really knowing what I was doing and found a website that helped me initially. That’s kind of why I appreciate your stuff because it reminds me of what I found 10 years ago that really inspired me to change my health.

Bryan:  Awesome

Wes: That’s why I kind of want to point people towards BonestoBulk.com and say “hey, if you’re getting started with your fitness or you want to put on some muscle this is a great resource to go to” because your content is spot on.

Bryan: I appreciate it. Yeah I mean I feel like we all have that one thing that really kind of pushed us over the edge to really make a change

Wes: Yeah, and it’s different for everybody. Everybody just needs that push. So did you mention before that you’re a personal trainer as well?

Bryan: I am. So, let’s see, I’ve been a certified personal trainer now for about four years. I just kept getting into it. About the same time that I first got certified I was like you know I’d love to do this outside of just me going to the gym and working out for myself I just became more and more passionate about it and so it’s like well let me get that just so it puts a little bit of credentials behind my name. That’s kind of where the process of changing it from just for my own benefit to trying to help others kind of started. So, that process started about four years ago.

Wes: And you’re still actively doing that then right?

Bryan:  I am yes

Wes: Roughly how many clients have you seen in that time?

Bryan: It’s hard to say because a lot of what I do is online and some of it is in group settings so I mean as far as personally trained people kind of one-on-one mentorship I would say around 50. Then more in a group setting it’s been several hundred.

Wes: What’s the biggest mistake that you see among fitness clients?

Bryan: Nutrition is by far the biggest mistake I think especially when you’re trying to gain muscle. I think with weight loss there’s still a lot of misinformation in that realm as well but especially with muscle building. Initially you think all I need is to diet, whereas with building muscle I feel like the majority were like I just need to drink protein shakes and get in the gym and that’s just simply not enough so that’s probably the number one misconception I see.

Wes: I’m actually going for my CPT next month and was wondering if you have any advice for aspiring certified personal trainers out there?

Bryan: Just go into it open-minded ready to learn everything you can. Usually, the agencies provide really good study material as far as getting it and passing it. Then from there it’s really a matter of taking what you know personally and applying it. I feel like most people when they when they start to take their training they’ve gone through the journey themselves, so it’s not so much having a lot of the head knowledge as having that personal touch. You know of what you’ve been through and that’s really gonna draw people to you rather than just the knowledge because I mean honestly you can google just about anything out there but having someone who’s actually lived the journey and walked through what you’re trying to teach others that that adds so much. So, really dive into that aspect of it offer yourself because people are gonna be drawn to your story and your personality and what you have to offer.

Wes: Absolutely, I couldn’t agree more. That’s been one of my selling points of this show is that hey I’m not a personal trainer or an expert but I’ve lost 90 pounds and have gotten in pretty good shape. This is how I did it and if I can do it I know most people could probably do it.

Bryan: Right, yeah and that’s the best thing you can do right there is just stem from that so that’s awesome.

Wes: Is there one piece of advice that you find yourself giving to beginners most frequently?

Bryan: It’s usually in regards to nutrition. A common misconception that I had when I started I you know people said well if you want to you know get bigger just eat more it doesn’t matter what you eat and I ate a TON of junk food.  I would just down sleeves of Oreos at a time, ice cream like you name I had a bad sweet tooth and it didn’t do anything to put muscle on me and it’s just because it’s empty calories. So, that mindset of just “dirty bulk” and just eat whatever you want that really doesn’t do anything. You will struggle to put on weight and muscle because those calories aren’t going to benefit you at all to build muscle they’re just kind of going in and going out and so that’s kind of where I start as far as trying to teach people nutrition. It’s not about just how much you eat but you’ve got to be eating the right things along with the right quantities.

Wes: What about what about an intermediate or advanced people? What kind of advice do you give them?

Bryan: When you start to make progress and get used to things you know your progress slows a little bit. I don’t know if it was the same for you with weight loss but the initial weight comes off quick and then it slows down as you lose more and more. Kind of the same way with building muscle. You kind of hit a point where it starts to slow down and so it’s those fine tweaks. So, learning how to figure out those fine tweaks a lot of what I find as I get to the more intermediate advanced is just small things like adding in extra healthy snacks because usually by that point you know meals are pretty on point. So, it’s making fine tweaks to the nutrition side and really beginning to focus on your form in the gym and nailing that and also slowing way down on your repetitions and kind of doing like a count as you lift and as you lower to make sure that you’re giving that muscle the most time under tension.

Wes: Yeah, I’ve definitely experienced what you were just talking about. I’ve lifted weights consistently for many years now and obviously you get them “gains” heavy in the beginning and then it tapers off and it becomes increasingly more difficult to maintain that and keep progressing. One thing that I’ve taken away from one of your episodes was the “squeeze method”. This method really helps you focus on good form and intensity and enhances the mind-muscle connection.  It really forces you to be more into the exercise that you’re doing.

Bryan: It really does and if you naturally just like if I take my fist and I clench it it’s naturally putting more tension on the muscle and putting more blood flow to the muscle and so as you do that you’re naturally engaging the muscle more. Let’s say you’re doing a barbell curl and you start just squeezing the crap out of that bar especially kind of at the peak contraction point and then slowly lower it’s just again it’s just building that tension up in the muscle that blood flow which is just gonna lead to a better stretch.

Wes: Yeah, I’ve already noticed a huge difference doing that as far as the the range of motion the pump that I get everything it just it’s improved a lot. I’ve had to decrease the weight on some of the movements I’m doing but it’s a cool! You know, sometimes you can go too much up in weight and your form starts to suffer a little bit and then at that point you’re risking an injury and that’s the last thing anybody wants.

Bryan: I feel like we tend to especially once we get more advanced we tend to focus too much on the numbers and hitting a new PR and in reality you know if you lift some absurd amount of weight on a PR but only get one rep out of it you know it’s that’s doing less for you than if you would drop the weights and pump out ten really good form slow reps. That’s just stretching you to the max because it’s again it’s just increasing that time under tension. So, yeah that numbers game I’ve been guilty of it myself in the past of kind of getting caught up and you know how much is on the bar how much of my lifting so it’s kind of a mind shift that we’ve got to go through.

Wes: What does your current training regimen look like?

Bryan: So I recently switched it up beginning in December so I’m only about a month and a half in. I’m doing a push-pull leg split so I do six days a week push-pull legs push-pull legs and I vary my exercises from the first half of the week to the last half so on some of them stay the same but I’m also changing up some of the exercises from the first half of the week to the second half of the week. I found it to be really good overall strength it’s hitting all your muscle groups twice a week I feel like really makes a huge difference so I’m early on in it but so far I’ve really likes the results I’ve gotten from it

Wes: What are your current fitness goals?

Bryan: 2019 was a rough year for me physically. I had several injuries I pulled a bicep tendon, I was recovering from another arm injury, and then I got really sick towards the end of the year so I feel like I finished 2019 in the healthiest state. So, with 2020 I told my wife like I don’t want it to be a repeat of that I want to be much more aware of my body. We kind of talked about getting out of your head a little bit like it’s very easy to get in that mindset “oh I can just push myself a little bit more” and kind of lose sight of that line of how much is too much and still being smart about it. I feel like that line gets harder and harder the more you do this and so this year I really am focusing on my overall health and avoiding injury and just really building back up my strength because dealing with those injuries obviously caused me to have to lower a lot of the weight that I was lifting on a lot of arm exercises so getting back from that point and really building up from there that’s kind of my main goal for 2020

Wes: Is there anything specific you can point to that you’re actually changing to make that improvement to your health?

Bryan: Listening to my body more and I know that sounds strange but again I feel like it’s easy at least for me to just kind of go in automatic mode when I go in the gym I’ve been doing it for so long I just go in there and kind of go through the motions. But really on every single rep okay how am I feeling during this rep? Am I pushing myself enough am I pushing myself too much how is my body responding and really kind of evaluating after I leave the gym you know how I feel because there’s different levels of soreness. Obviously, you’re only sore if you leave the gym or the next day but there’s a level to where okay well this soreness is a little bit beyond what normal muscle soreness is for me so what did i do differently? How can I adjust that that’s kind of what it looks like on a day-to-day basis me evaluating that.

Wes: What is your WHY for doing bones to bulk?

Bryan: When I started when I watch the Rocky movies I didn’t have a why. I thought my why was “I just want to look good” and that can be a motivating factor initially but that kind of fades very quickly. So, for me, at this point my why is kind of multifaceted. I want to be a good example to my audience at this point and kind of represent what I preach so that’s a big motivating why. Another one is I want to be a good example to my kids. I’ve got two daughters they’re seven and three and it’s funny though I have a home gym that I work out in sometimes as well and they’ll come out there and they’ll kind of lift dumbbells and I’ll show them some things and my daughter is very conscious of what she eats my older one anyway. So I want to be a good example to them and try not to force anything on them because it’s important I feel like too for them to make their own decisions at this age. But also to lead a good example and just by leading a good example they’ve at least the older one has made good decisions and in different things so those are probably biggest two why’s. Also, I always say that I want to be one of those 80 year old guys who’s still crushing it in the gym

Wes: Heck yeah, amen!

Bryan: So those three things are my main whys for sure

Wes: Yeah, I think being an example to your kids obviously and to others is huge that’s huge for me also. Speaking of the kids, I’m really impressed with you working a full-time job, putting out this podcast, putting out all kinds of content on Instagram and you know your Facebook groups and all that how do you balance working that job taking care of them kids doing all that stuff?

Bryan: It’s hard. Two things: Very strict time management and a lot of teamwork with my wife. She works remotely for a company so she works from home and she also runs her own business so she’s extremely busy with her own work and then I have my job and my fitness and yeah kids. Then our own personal fitness my wife’s also very into fitness she did like a Half Ironman last year so finding time for that it’s a lot of planning. Every week we sit down and do like an hour meeting. Usually, it’s Saturday mornings we usually have like a family breakfast and then we tell the kids all right go play for a little bit mommy and I have to have our meeting and we hash out the week. Everything from what we have going on to stuff the kids have going on and we kind of mark down everything so we can plan out our entire week. Another thing we do is Saturday nights we put the kids to bed and we work til the wee hours of the morning. We make a lot of coffee and just go at it and work on our businesses rather than just you know binging the show on Netflix or something. It definitely takes sacrificing like we don’t do a lot of fun stuff but for us getting to spend time on our own businesses and stuff is rewarding so it’s challenging I’m not gonna say that it’s always easy but it’s definitely rewarding as well

Wes: Do you have a certain daily routine that you follow?

Bryan: I do. I’m a little bit OCD and I’m a very like disciplined person I like order so yeah my days are usually very much repetitive. It’s exactly this like from what I eat or when I do everything. Our day pretty much starts at 4:00 a.m. Not gonna say that we’re always perfect on that some days the snooze button wins that war but we try to get up early. My wife goes to the gym in the morning and then I spend time reading and having a little bit of personal development time. If I don’t have some quiet time then it’s not gonna happen any other time. As soon as she gets home I leave for work I go to work pretty early and then once I get home it’s really just a matter of I change get ready for the gym. I pick up the kids, take them to the gym with me. The gym I go to has a like a daycare facility there so take them with me and then bring them home and by that time it’s you know the wife and I will get dinner ready and then we spend a couple hours with the girls they go to bed and then we usually have after that maybe we go to bed pretty early since we’re up so early. So we usually have an hour to an hour and a half after they go to bed to either some nights we’re working on stuff or some nights we’ll just be like hey let’s watch an episode of the office or something and just talk a little bit. So, that’s kind of what an average day looks like for us it’s definitely nothing exciting but it’s good.

Wes: Yeah, I like routine. I have kind of a daily routine that I follow. There are certain things that are must first thing in the day every day like water, journaling. Right I just started my New Year’s resolution is to meditate daily so I’ve been doing ten minutes in the morning. Just certain undeniable things like exercise every day obviously. So, certain things don’t change at all I think routine is critical absolutely

Bryan: Absolutely agree.

Wes: One more thing with the routine. I know things are a little bit different for you right now I might get into that later but can you share what a normal diet day looks like for you  on a normal day?

Bryan: Right yeah cuz I I don’t know why but I decided to go vegan for the month of January. That’s been interesting but yeah typical day so breakfast will usually be something like oatmeal or granola with some fruit like a banana. Then maybe some berries mid-morning I’ll have tree nuts so whether that’s almonds or cashews or walnuts pecans something like that and then probably another piece of fruit with it lunchtime is usually pasta and chicken and like a homemade tomato sauce with a little bit of olive oil on it. My lunch is pretty calorie heavy. I also discovered a protein pasta it’s made out of like soy beans so to get even extra protein in with the chicken. My afternoon snack varies quite a bit. Sometimes I’ll do maybe a protein bar or sometimes I’ll do dates with peanut butter spread on them so that kind of varies quite a bit. My afternoon snack I feel like that’s the thing that’s not very consistent it’s just kind of whatever I feel like then I’m usually at the gym and then I have my post-workout shake. Then dinner can be a myriad of things we do a lot of stir fries so you know chicken veggies over rice or quinoa we do a lot of those things like turkey chili we will do tacos with beans corn chicken or turkey whole wheat tortillas and then lots of veggies. Then usually snack is something like maybe toast with peanut butter and some banana slices on it or maybe just a protein shake so that kind of varies as well but that’s kind of like what a typical rundown of my day looks like.

Wes: Okay cool yeah I get questions all the time like “what are you eating?” you know people look at me like an alien or something it’s like “hey I’m just I’m eating real food”.

Bryan: Yeah, it’s nothing like crazy it’s just yeah normal good food.

Wes: Real food is unusual to a lot of people.

Bryan: That’s very true

Wes: But that’s what we’re trying to change right? So, we’re getting low on time so I did want to jump into some rapid-fire quick bites?

Bryan: Awesome.

Wes: What was the single biggest factor holding you back from starting your healthy lifestyle?

Bryan: My mindset. Just the my own self-doubt. I had a lot of self-esteem issues back then and just dealing with a lot of kind of just getting out of my own head started a lot with that

Wes: What is your favorite exercise routine or program?

Bryan: I’m really enjoying the push-pull right now but I also love breaking up muscle groups because I just love chest and triceps day. I feel like if I could do that every day I would but obviously that would work out very well but yeah I don’t know that’s if i had to pick like one you know if I was just going in the gym like hey have a free day I would do chest and triceps hands-down

Wes: Absolutely. What’s your favorite specific lift?

Bryan: I would say bench press is definitely probably number one but I also really enjoy and it’s harder so many I really enjoy Arnold presses and standing overhead presses those are also some favorite ones I have.

Wes: Do you have a favorite either healthy recipe or muscle building recipe?

Bryan:  Something I really enjoy and this is actually a newer one I just discovered but it’s basically like a chicken pasta. So, you cook the spaghetti and then you cook the chicken so that stuff’s kind of ready to go then in a big frying pan mix your pasta sauce in with a cup of humus. I dice grape tomatoes, throw some spinach in there, some garlic and some mushrooms. Mix all that in let it melt a little bit and then mix the pasta and the chicken in there and just let it cook for a few minutes it’s it sounds kind of weird with the hummus but I don’t know it gives it like this creamy it’s really good

Wes: I’m about to steal it and put it on my website. Haha.

Bryan: Yeah, do it and it’s packed with really a lot of protein and a lot of good healthy carbs so it’s really healthy too

Wes: Nice! What is your favorite unwise choice?

Bryan: That would have to be either pizza or like soft baked chocolate chip cookies.

Wes: Do you have a favorite recipe for success? Like a specific habit that keeps you on track or performing at your best?

Bryan: That’s a good one. I would say consistency because it’s so easy to get out of a habit it’s crazy I feel like it takes you know some time to build one but if you get out of a habit just for a few days it can really I feel like it affects your mental state more than anything because you start to be like oh oh you know I I let it go for a couple of days I can let it go for a couple more and before you know it that ball just rolls downhill fast and so just making sure that whatever you’re doing even if you’re starting off small and only doing a few things like maybe you’re just giving up soda or you know maybe you’re just going for a thirty minute walk whatever you’re doing stay consistent with it I think that’s the key to everything.

Wes: What is one item in your kitchen you can’t live without?

Bryan:  I would say food wise whole-wheat pasta like I eat a lot of whole wheat pasta. I’ve my grandfather was full Italian so I don’t know if that’s where I get it from but I love some pasta and then as far as cooking a must T foul pans it’s like T – f al are the most amazing cooking pans like ever they’re nothing sticks to them they cook great they’re not that expensive you can pick them up on Amazon for pretty cheap so definitely my Wow my go-to for cooking cool

Wes: That’s an awesome one. What’s your favorite source of inspiration? Whether it be a book a podcast Instagram page

Bryan: It’s funny I don’t listen to a ton of podcast because I listen to a lot of audiobooks so I feel like that takes the place of that but anything that’s man I would say probably my biggest motivational source especially over the last year has been Gary Vaynerchuk anything he puts out from his books to his YouTube channel I have listened to some of his podcast but yeah he gives me the kick in the pants I need whenever I’m like okay I need some motivation

Wes: Any audiobooks that you recommend?

Bryan: Man, a lot. I really enjoyed Bear Grylls wrote a book called Mud, Sweat and Tears and I

don’t know if you know who he is. He’s kind of like the outdoor survivalist guy he’s like a TV show but just his own personal journey and the demons he had to overcome it’s really inspiring read so I highly recommend that.

Wes: Ok, so what you what’s your favorite thing to listen to when you work out?

Bryan: I’ve got my playlist as always I always say oh I need to listen to podcasts or audiobooks when I work out but it just never happens I always have to go to my music so I think some of the top bands in my playlist right now are imagine dragons they’re always a staple I like red skillet yeah skillet yes iconic or higher there’s so many

Wes: I saw Skillet in concert at DTE out here in Clarkston, Michigan a few years ago.

Bryan: Awesome

Wes: I like Skillet! I feel like I don’t even know anybody else that listens to them, lol. And yeah I’m with you on the I listen to a lot of podcasts. I’ll go into the gym listening to them while I get warmed up and then oh yeah I can’t do it no more I got a switch to the music

Bryan: I’m the same way.

Wes: Is there one song you refuse to take off your list?

Bryan: Yes, it’s Spaz Out by Army of the Pharaohs. I’ve hit probably more personal bests on that

song than any other song ever but I will warn you it does have some explicit language in it but

yeah that’s definitely my I don’t know the one that has never come off my playlist.

Wes: Awesome I’m gonna check that out. Is there a healthy food that you find yourself recommending to clients most often?

Bryan:  I recommend quinoa a lot. I think quinoa is kind of just a very I don’t know it kind of hides in the shadows when it comes to the healthy foods but it’s a great source of complex carbs and protein and it goes with just about anything so that’s one I recommend a lot

Wes: It’s funny that you said that because I’ve always known quinoa as being something healthy that I need to get in but it wasn’t until I listened to your podcast episode where you said to mix it with salsa and something else and I was like you know that’s a good idea! So, I did it and we’ve been eating quinoa every day for the last like 10 days straight! So it’s great I love it now! At first it was like you know odd texture but yeah now we totally we love it and it’s gonna be a staple. Also very nutrient-dense! One last piece of advice for listeners looking to improve their health and fitness?

Bryan: Yeah, don’t feel that you have to have everything together before you start. I know for me personally when I start a project I want everything figured out before I ever start it and that’s usually so detrimental to starting because in all honesty we’re never gonna have it all figured out before we start because we learned so much as we go so take what you do know even if that’s a very limited amount and just start applying that and you’ll be amazed at how once you start things begin the snowball and you’ll begin to learn new things and it will also give you the confidence to just keep growing and keep learning and that’s kind of another thing like don’t ever think you arrived or made it like there’s always more to learn and not only in fitness but in anything.

Wes: Awesome. Very well said! Words of wisdom right there. I guess one last thing what’s your new year’s resolution?

Bryan: My resolutions usually consist a lot of things both are Fitness related and non fitness related so I’ve got a lot of kind of personal things as far as being a you know with my relationship with my wife and my kids and finances and all that and then but but physically again I I really want to finish like I said I

want to feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in at the end of 2020 and for me that means really nailing down my nutrition even more so because I feel like nutrition is the staple to everything so cutting out just even a few of the things that I’ve kept in that aren’t the healthiest getting those to go and then really pushing myself but in a very healthy manner in the gym so that’s kind of my big pushes for 2020 with my fitness

Wes: I thought your new year’s resolution was to go Vegan?

Bryan: Well, that was my short-term resolution, yeah. I did decide to do begin for the month of January and you know I got I was surprised at how much positive feedback I received from that cuz you know I preached all the time that diets don’t work and I don’t like you know all the fads that come out and so I really felt like vegan wasn’t that because you know I can still control all my macros I don’t have to limit anything when it comes to that and I just feel like it’s opened my eyes just in the two weeks I’ve been doing it to be a better trainer to understand it better so if I take nothing else from it it’s to like just expand my own knowledge base and also I’ve learned some cool new recipes to implement as well.

Wes: Awesome I think it’s a great idea. I can’t wait to hear your experience with it because it’s something I’ve thought about it. I think it’s a good thing to try out you know for various reasons. I don’t know about the ideology associated with it. Sometimes people get crazy over it but

I’m definitely wanting to know how it affects your workouts and all that so looking forward to you

sharing that.

Bryan: Yeah, I’ll definitely be doing a recap on that and the beginning of February so I’m looking forward to myself. I’m interested to see all the all the changes so it’ll be good

Wes: Absolutely well hey I’ve kept you long enough I really appreciate you coming on and speaking with us. Do you want to plug your social media, your website and your program?

Bryan: You can find me anywhere at Bones to Bulk – both BonestoBulk.com all my stuff’s on there. Links to all my other platforms but pretty much any social media site you can find me at Bones to Bulk.

Wes: Great! It’s like I said earlier this is exactly the type of content that I found ten years ago that really jump-started my health and fitness journey so I strongly encourage anybody to go check out BonesToBulk.com. Check Bryan Parady out, he’s the man! So, thanks again for coming on!

Bryan: I appreciate it. Thanks for having me, it’s been an honor.

Wes: Oh, maybe you should send them out. I love what you say at the end of your episodes if you don’t mind. If you haven’t forgotten, lol.

Bryan: Yeah, absolutely! No matter what obstacles are in your mind, what things are stressing you out or you feel like you just can’t overcome…you CAN accomplish ANY goal that you set your mind to. You’ve got this!

Wes: YES. And on that note… make wise choices!

Bryan: That’s right I like that!

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