what's up guys this is John Meadows and this is Table Talk so for today's
breakfast menu we have two pieces of sourdough toast
I've already started working on my toast I have a couple organic eggs look at
that nice pretty orange yolk I have a concoction bowl which is cream of rice
a little peanut butter a little sugar free chocolate syrup and I have my cup
of coffee so has your diet changed a good bit since when you first started so when
I first started my goal was to get down as much food as I could for breakfast
that was usually a full cup of oatmeal 6 whole eggs it was a lot of food there was a lot
of calories you know as the years went on my breakfast shrank in size I um I
found that having a really full belly in the morning I just didn't feel good so
many times I would just get so sleepy I would just want to fall back to sleep
which I couldn't do because I worked in the corporate world
you guys know my background so I had to go to work so as the years of went by my
breakfast has actually gotten smaller I just feel a little better and even when
I was competing frequently I still kept a pretty small breakfast I tended I
would tend to schedule more of the calories around training so my meals around
training tended to be a little more robust to give me a little bit more
energy a little bit more recovery and the meals away from training tended to
be not quite as big so for me I wanted the fuel around when I was going to
train now when I was younger I did have a pretty pretty fast metabolism so I
could get away with quite a bit of food so I tried to I like to have meals that
are what feel good for me and like for breakfast this is perfect for me
talking yesterday like you know you working in corporate America you know
for years you think you don't think you need to be a bodybuilder full-time to
make it work so I spent many years working in the corporate world and
competing at the national level in bodybuilding and many of the guys that
were competing said you couldn't have a real job and be a successful bodybuilder
and I always just thought that that was kind of crazy because it actually helped
me stay on schedule structure I would get up I'd eat breakfast I knew at ten
o'clock at work I can make my protein drink I would eat my lunch and then at
three o'clock at work I was gonna have my protein drink then I would get home
I'd have a pre-workout meal I'd go train I'd get home and I'd have a post-workout
meal so I did that I was in that routine for well over a decade and I liked it it
gave me structure you know I just I think most of the people that say that
honestly they're just lazy they just they're just lazy a lot of people like
to talk about how hard of a worker they are because of what they do in the gym I
don't really think that that's that really that I don't think it's that hard
I think it's fun when I go to the gym and I'm pushing really hard which I've
done for over 30 years now I actually enjoy it I get a lot of satisfaction out
of that I don't particularly consider that hard work there are a lot of other
things that qualify as hard work you know having to work 60 hours a week in
a job under stressful conditions you know single mom's been working two jobs
I don't want to go off on the tangent here but I just what I think of as hard
work and what some bodybuilders think of as hard work it's just two different
things so to me I would go to work I would work through the week on Friday I
might take a half day I'd go to the airport I'd fly somewhere I'd weigh in
Friday night for the national show I'd compete Saturday morning Saturday night
I'd fly home on Sunday Monday I would show up at work they'd say how'd the
show go and I'd say oh whatever I got fourth place and they'd say ok back to work that
was it that was it so I was doing all these pro qualifiers
doing pretty well in the bodybuilding world but it was just almost like a
hobby but as long as you're getting your meals in and as long as you're training
hard that's all that matters it doesn't matter what you're doing the other X
amount of hours through the day so I have two twin boys that are now 10 years old been
married for a long time since 2002 and you know for me I've seen a lot of
relationships and families break down in this sport over the years it's kind of a
sad thing to see there's there's a selfishness that comes with trying to be
the best body builder for many people that consumes them being completely
consumed in every aspect of their life they think about nothing but
bodybuilding and I've been there I've been there in my 20s especially
everything I did was is this gonna help me become a better bodybuilder and I
don't think it was necessarily a bad thing I think it was just being
passionate but when you have a family and you know your mindset has to adapt
you have to you have to understand that you're no longer the center of the
universe if you have kids your kids are the center of the universe at least they
should be for you so for me I really wanted to make sure that I didn't become
one of these people that were so self-consumed I forgot about the people
around me and I know a lot of you out there have families and you work a lot
and it's tough and it's it is a balancing act there is no magic way to
do it you just have to prioritize and say I'm gonna do this this and this with my
family and just gotta make it happen you just got to be well-planned
you got to be organized and got to stick to it and be disciplined just like in bodybuilding
kind of go into some of the struggles of prep and getting to that
conditioning because that's what you're known for right well a lot of people ask me about
conditioning and what it takes I've been kind of known through the
years for being one of the competitors that's in better condition low
body fat and still maintaining a lot of muscle and the truth is it's not very
pretty you you really have to suffer and you could be eating 4,000 calories or
1500 calories but when you get down to sub 4 percent body fat it's just painful
you'll have you know periods where you have a little bit of energy and then
it'll fade and the smallest of tasks will seem monumental if you're sitting
on the couch and you're watching TV and you have to use the bathroom the thought
of getting up and walking 20 steps to the bathroom seems like a cardio session
sometimes you get so tired the thought of even talking you know just even
having a conversation seems exhausting and you really don't understand it until
you've lived it but I bet you there are many competitors that are watching this
video that are nodding their head right now going - yup I know exactly what he
means it's it's a brutal place that you have to take yourself I hear people say
you should feel great through a prep through the whole prep and I do agree
with that to a point you should feel great your training should feel awesome you
should feel your training but there is a point near the end if you're looking for
that next level of conditioning where it's going to get painful and at that
point man it's just it's almost like a battle of wills it's like can you can
you just take it can you take the mental anguish can you take them I mean all you
think about is I need to go to sleep I'm so tired and when's my next meal like
that's all you think about it's kind of like Maslow's hierarchy right remember
at the bottom of that pyramid it was food shelter clothing things like that
where you go back to the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy and the only thing
you think about is food like that's all you think about
and it turns you it turns you into a really primitive person but it's tough
it's very tough and not many people can really take themselves to that level and
you know it's a little different now we have you know all kinds of if it fits your macros
diets and flexible dieting which is something that I practice but
people take that stuff as a way to make diets they think it makes a diet easy
but again there's no there's no way to make it easy to get to three point
something percent body fat like it's not easy so if you want to get to that
conditioning you just got to be prepared to suffer alright I appreciate you all
watching thank you very much I hope you enjoyed the conversation and last but
not least don't forget to subscribe below