Ever since that first experience, I felt like there needs to be a change in the health and fitness industry because it's all about macros and calories and weight loss and supplements and how to get the body and if you get this body, then all your problems will go away and then then you'll fit into society and then people will love you and then you'll love yourself and I wish that were true. I really do.

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Health Theory. I am here with the fit to fat to fit my stroke himself, Drew Manning, Drew, welcome to the show.

Tom Bill you dude, it's always a pleasure to be on. Thank you for having me back on.

Dude, my pleasure. What the hell though, are you thinking, why are you doing this again?

I have such a good question, so here's the thing Tom, 2020 has been such a year of radical change, right? Whether people like it or not, things are changing, we are changing as a society, as a culture, as a world.

So, fit to fat to fit was my original first journey of gaining weight on purpose back in 2011, I put on 75 pounds in six months and that was the first time I've ever experienced what it's like to be overweight because my whole life I grew up in shape, I played football on a wrestle since I was little and as a personal trainer,

I couldn't connect with my clients in a sense where I couldn't understand why I was so hard for them just to, you know, live a healthy lifestyle. I'm like, you guys, it's so easy for me. Why is it so hard for you?

So anyways, this idea popped up in my mind and so I jumped on it and decided to do it and I put on 75 pounds of fat in six months and it was one of the hardest, most humbling experiences I've ever been through, but I learned so many valuable lessons from it because it shifted my perception of how I viewed transformation.

And then from there, it totally shifted my branding and how I helped people more so on the mental emotional side of transformation versus just the physical side.

And for me, that's where I felt ever since that first experience, I felt like there needs to be a change in the health and fitness industry because it's all about macros and calories and weight loss and supplements and how to get the body and if you get this body, then all your problems will go away and then you'll fit into society and then people will love you and then you'll love yourself.

I wish that were true. I really do. But you know, like I was saying, 2020 is a year of radical change and I feel like I have an opportunity to make it even more impactful, more educational, more inspirational because now people can follow me as it's happening.

Back then, there was no Facebook live. All right, there was no Insta stories. It was just my Facebook post from time to time that was it.

I feel like if I could do this again in 2020 as a 40 year old, my message of empathy, which is what my main thing is about, that's what my brand is about is bringing empathy first to the fitness industry. And then from there, we could talk about diet and exercise and supplements and those kinds of things.

But no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care first. And I truly believe that, especially in this industry. And I feel like if we want to help change people in this industry.

I feel like let's try empathy. Why not this time we need empathy in this world more than ever. And I feel like in the fitness industry, it's an industry that lacks empathy.

People who are larger are judged. They're looked at as lazy or weak or less than they don't have the willpower of the discipline. And I feel like that's just not true. It's not fair.

I feel like this is a vehicle to bring my message of empathy. And then also I turned 40 year advice about fit back to 40 that demographic. We all know you know, she could older people like, oh, my hormones, my metabolism is changing well, let's put that to the test. Let's do this together. I'm going to gain the weight and then come January 2021.

I'm going to hold your hand. We'll do this journey together. So that's those are the reasons in a nutshell. Man, it's so interesting this idea. The idea of empathy is I like that a lot. I want to go back to why there's so much.

I will say inherent shame to being out of shape where even if nobody else were heaping it on you, I think people will heap it on themselves. And one of the things I found interesting about the first time you went on this journey was that you were paranoid about the way people were looking at you without even knowing if they were actually looking at you some kind of way.

And I'm curious why do you think people struggle so much when they're out of shape just in and of themselves. I think it's it's it's our programming from the social media, the movies we watch the TV shows, the magazines.

And I feel like some people have experience being treated differently in society. I think for men, it's a little bit different. It's okay to be a little bit pudgy and to be a little bit bigger. But for women, especially I think women have it way harder than men in our society because maybe someone made a comment. Maybe it's from their mom or from their dad or from their siblings about their body.

And at some point in time, you know, we buy into that myth that I am only a value if my body looks a certain way. And if I don't, then you know, I don't fit in and people make fun of me. And I think it starts from a very young age. I have two daughters that are nine and 11.

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