I hate testimonials and not too be cocky, but I have oodles of 1 month, 2 month, and even 6 month testimonials backlogged, but I just can’t bring myself to put them out on social. The fact is I want testimonials 5, 10, and 15 years later because that’s all I really care about. I only have that kind of data on about 6 humans right now, my favoritest being my mother. I started bugging my mom about her diet and her exercise when I was 19 and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I wanted her to care about lifting weights and eating chicken breasts. She nodded, “I’m glad you are so passionate Ben.” Then she would bake scones. She had zero buy in. She did what she wanted and was incredibly happy doing so. However, her diet has changed gradually over the past decade as my father had to change his way with food because of Celiac Disease.
Then we found out my mom had autoantibodies toward her thyroid gland a little over two years ago. I suspect from symptomatology that she has had these autoimmune tags since I was in 6th grade. Still, by this point she was eating better than 99% of Americans. She had lost some weight, but her blood pressure was still through the roof, and outside looking in she was still far too heavy and was relatively inactive 9 months out of the year.
It’s hard to take on relatives and friends from the past, because sometimes they don’t see you as very knowledgeable. My brother put it best, “I’m proud of you, but I can never think of you as a doctor. You’re the kid who jumped off buildings and purposely lit himself on fire in the driveway.” Touche sir, but my mother has been nothing short of amazing. She saw the gravity of the situation with labs and the explanation and she just got to work. We cried and I said something along the lines of, “Mom, I need you around, please do this. Pretty much everyone in our family has died of some kind of cardiovascular event and you have about every risk factor we know of right now.”
We got started where we all must with the fundamentals. She prioritized sleep, food, and doing more of what she loved.
More than a decade after me pestering her about her diet she does her own thing now. She makes her own decisions. She knows what’s good for her and what’s not. She knows what she thrives on. She knows she has to move every day and we are working on adding in the minimal amount of weight training she needs to maintain bone mass.
Oh and did I mention she has maintained about 50 pounds of weight loss (more than 20%) for over a year and a half and people can’t stop complementing her on how fantastic she looks. She smiles and says, “Ben did it.” She couldn’t be more wrong.
It seems as though she has gone back in time at least a decade.
Thank you mom.
*These are pictures from this morning.
You can feel the weight of that story. Now let’s compare that to this story, which I am incredibly honored to be a part of. Again not better or worse, just different with different styles. I am excited to see what Coach Rascoe and Gil can do in 2, 5, and even 10 years time…
“6 weeks progress from Gil. He’s only been lifting with me for 2 of those weeks, and we haven’t started any crazy workouts. Pretty much just remapping his movement patterns to get close to perfect and breathing for an hour like a weirdo.
When he first came in for a consult a month and a half ago, we made immediate changes to one big thing right away: improved SLEEEEPPPPP.
Then, 30 days ago we spoke to Ben on bloodwork and implemented the health plan covering the big rocks of blood sugar control, upregulating thyroid function, and getting the adrenals to stop freaking out all the time (this is by far Dave’s biggest health issue)…
And BOOM. Science bitches.
Disclaimer: these kind of results are NOT NORMAL
But…
When you’re a 25 year old dude who has been a college athlete and crushing weights for years, simple lifestyle changes focusing harddddd on adrenal regulation and removing immune sensitivity foods can do some epic shit in a short amount of time.
What you see is the result of proper nutrition/lifestyle coaching and functional medicine, as well as postural breathing exercises (hence the ab development).
Honestly I would rather folks take a few months before they ever touch a weight with me to focus on their lifestyle pillars of food, stress, and sleep. This way they can see that what we do in the gym is SUCH a small part of what we are trying to achieve compared to the other 166 hours of their week. It’s fun, and can accelerate results when fundamentals are on board, but will NEVER be able to make up for a lack of them. Lifestyle is just too powerful, and you can always get better at relentlessly mastering the basics.
We are only 2 weeks in on strength training, focusing mostly on position and dialing in movement. If you look close at foot position, belly button angle, and shoulders you can see he’s starting to straighten out and get in a more neutral alignment.”
Amazing progress for both my mother and Gil. I am just honored to be along for the ride.
Short term results are important and keep people motivated. Use them. They are powerful and Dave Rascoe does such a phenomenal job at this, but always remember the long game is the show. That’s where mastery lies for both the coach and the client.
Be Well,
Ben
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