Fitness By Design

Raw & Uncut w/ Ari Herman - Part 1

• Spencer Gallo • Episode 8

Share episode

Send us a text

In this episode, I sit down with my client Ari, a CFO, father of four, and volunteer firefighter, to discuss his incredible two-year journey inside the Engineered Fitness Blueprint. 

From dropping 15 pounds in just 10 weeks to packing on muscle and redefining his confidence, Ari’s story is proof that you can build the body you want—without overhauling your entire life.


We talk about:
✔️ The mental and physical challenges he faced before starting.
✔️ How sustainable strategies (like flexible nutrition) fit seamlessly into his demanding lifestyle.
✔️ Why trusting the process and having personalized coaching was a game-changer.


If you’ve ever felt like you’re spinning your wheels trying to get fit, this episode is for you.


💡 Ready to take control of your health and fitness?
Click here to book your free call with me: go.gallofitness.com/book-a-call

OR

Message me the word "DESIGN" on Instagram @spencerhgallo for more information about the Engineered Fitness Blueprint.

If this episode hit home, make sure you’re subscribed. This is Fitness by Design, the podcast for high-performing men ready to stop winging it and start leading with their body.

For more stories, strategies, and hard truths:

Follow me on Instagram – @spencerhgallo
Connect with me on LinkedIn – Spencer Gallo
Or shoot me a text, I read every single one.

Let’s keep building your edge, one episode at a time.

Spencer Gallo:

Welcome back to fitness by design. This is the podcast where we engineer optimal health, energy, and confidence for corporate guys, just like you without having to sacrifice any of your career success or your family time. I'm your host coach Spencer. And today we have a special guest and that is my client. Ari. Herman, before we dive in our has been with me for just about two years now and has had an incredible journey and has. the physique to show it. He was able to drop 15 pounds in just our first 10 weeks together. And since then, he's packed on tons of muscle and just keeps grinding every single day. So with that, we're going to get right into it. Ari, welcome to show man. welcome to fitness by design. You've been on here before, but for those of you who don't know in the past, kind of give everybody a little bit of download, like who are you, what's kind of your, you know, reader's digest life journey.

Ari:

Hey, well, first of all, thanks for having me. It's always great to chat. I'm a father of four. I work in corporate job on the CFO at a private equity firm, and I'm also a volunteer firefighter in my free time. As you said, we've been together for just about two years now, and I can't tell you how transformative the journey has been for me. Just. from not knowing a dumbbell from a kettlebell to having never tracked or even thought about nutrition now being able to eyeball a piece of chicken and being like, Oh, that's 125 grams or being like, Hey, today's pull day and just what's going to happen? So like a complete 180 and really all thanks to you.

Spencer Gallo:

Absolutely, man. And that's. I remember like going back to our initial conversations, um, you know, before you joined the program of like kind of where you were. So, you know, just for, you know, you kind of said it as like, I didn't know the equivalent, like, I didn't know my ass from my head type of thing. Um, you know, realistically, like, where were you in terms of your, you know, your life and your fitness before we started working together?

Ari:

Yeah. So my whole life I've been on the skinnier side. I played sports all through high school. So, you know, I had an idea as to, you know, what was needed and things like that. But I would always had someone telling me what to do. So never really did anything on my own. And I never focused on nutrition. Not that, like, I would eat like a trash monkey, but would never have to think, Can I have another slice of pizza? Is this cookie gonna mess me up? I've never even owned a scale until you and I started working together, right? Like, and again, like, that's more of a privilege that I guess I've had, good metabolism, good genes, whatever you want to call it. But I've never really focused on exercise. I love to play a lot of sports, and that really through most of my life kind of kept me in shape. If you will, we fast forward till about 35 or late 30s, maybe even closer to 40 and I started to notice that like, I was still on the thinner side, but you know, a little bit of a gut starting and I, it just felt like clothes were getting a little bit tighter and it wasn't to a point where I was overweight, it wasn't a point that I was. I don't know if you want to call it fat or whatever to call it, but it got to the point where I didn't love taking my shirt off again. Nothing to be embarrassed about, but I just, you know, I was just, I don't know, like a fat skinny kid. I guess if you want to call it, I don't know a better word and I was, I was seeing a therapist at the time because I, you know, focus on mental health. I think that that's extremely important and I realized like I was focusing on my mental health. I was focusing on work, but I wasn't focusing on my physical health, uh, at the time. had a, I had, I've got four kids, as I said, the most recent one at that time was a two year old, and I was like, well, am I gonna be able to run around and jump around with this two year old, you know, until he's done running around with me? Uh, we since had a, my wife and I since had another kid since then, so even more so, like. You know, I've got a kid on the way. Am I going to be able to be that same dad who's, you know, giving piggyback rides and going to practices and, you know, playing on the floor, running around. And, and I wasn't spending any time on my physical health, something that I honestly took for granted for, again, like I said, the first 35 plus years of my life. So I started to reach out and just see, you know, I didn't know where to start. Uh, one advantage I have that, that I think most guys probably don't is being a firefighter in my town, we have a gym in our firehouse. plus Ari has a gym, minus Ari has no idea what to do in the gym, right? So I started reaching out and I guess even taking one more step back is my entire life, at least through, you know, starting in high school. So, you know, my entire adult life for sure. And most of my adolescence, I was intermittent fasting. I was. basically jam packing my classes all day, not really having anything in the morning, going to class, surviving on maybe water or coffee. And then by the time I get home having huge dinners, and that was a lifestyle that worked for me and, and my weight, my body, my metabolism, I started talking to people online. My big checklist, if you will, of like, you know, here's what I'm looking for was I need someone to help me focus on nutrition, like what to eat, you know, I wasn't thinking about protein. I wasn't thinking about anything. I was just eating whatever I could get my hands on, which worked, but, you know, needed to change. I needed someone to guide me in the gym, give me ideas as to what to do, what exercises, what days, when, you know, how to combine reps and things like that to help grow. Cool. And then lastly, I wanted to keep my intermittent fasting, again, when I started it probably wasn't called that, but at this point in, you know, kind of society, intermittent fasting became one of the, you know, new faith, new diet, craze, phase, whatever you want to call it. I wanted to keep that. That was something that worked for me. You know, I wasn't eating during the day. I wasn't hungry during the day. I was really, my body was telling me, Hey, you're hungry. Now's a good time to eat. And that typically only happened at night. I talked to two or three coaches that I, again, randomly found online. And none of them, everyone heard me say, I want to continue intermittent fasting. But then when they put together a plan, they're like, okay, here you go, Ari. Uh, we're going to have you start off by eating five small meals a day. And I was like, wait a minute. Uh, Hey guys, wait a minute. That's not what we chatted about, right? So they were basically trying to get me to fit into their cookie cutter plan. Which I, like in my head, I was like, okay, I guess I'll change if I have to, but there's got to be someone out there that like can help me, you know, can listen and kind of fit me into their plan as opposed to fitting like my lifestyle. Anyway, uh, you and I chatted and you know, we kind of went through the, like right off the bat, we went through the same thing, but the biggest difference is immediately you're like, okay, here's our plan. Uh, here's the number of calories you have to eat. Here's the protein. I don't care when you eat it. You know, so it could be 10 p. m. to midnight. It could be 7 a. m. to 9 a. m. Like, just, here's your calories and your, and the, the protein that you have to hit. immediately there was this, like, weight, this burden just lifted off my shoulders being like, Oh, finally, someone frickin listens to me. Like, someone actually gets what I'm trying to do. Uh, and then we kind of hit the ground running. Like you said, immediately some of that excess fat. And again, by no means was I overweight, but it was, I was weighing more than I wanted to. immediately started to drop off. Like you said, we dropped probably close to 15 pounds. Uh, we put that weight back on, but by

Spencer Gallo:

Okay.

Ari:

weight from lower to upper, like it's just night and day. Uh, and then, you know, like I said, close to two years later, here we are and still, still grinding and still, still moving forward.

Spencer Gallo:

Yeah. And, and that's like, I remember that conversation where you were like, yeah, like I tried these other coaches and they were like, no, you have to eat five meals a day or like you can't lose weight. And I was like, uh, that's dumb. Uh, cause it, it really was like you, you basically came to me and you were like, Hey, this is the lifestyle that I've been living for. I, I want to say at that point, probably 20 years. And really, and you were like, I, and you said exactly that you were like, I can change if I have to, but like, it's been working for how I live for so long and it was never the conversation of like, well, it's working for how I want to look and how I want to feel, but it was the, this is how I've always eaten. Like, this just, it's, that's my lifestyle. It's, you know, no different than somebody saying to me, like, Oh, I, you know, and I've had guys that come through the program that are like, yeah. Like my biggest hesitation is the fact that like, I. You know, my wife and I cook dinner together every night and I, I can't, like, I don't want to have to start eating chicken rice and broccoli and not be able to eat with my wife anymore. And I was like, yeah, okay, cool. Like, no worries. Totally fine. And I feel like it was a very similar conversation when you and I talked where it was like. Okay, cool. That's fine. Like not my personal preference. I don't love doing intermittent fasting. It has its time and place, but for you, it worked and it worked great. And even now, like we still see the results. I think, you know, I think the biggest thing that you probably got to a point where you were like, what the fuck is Spencer doing to me when we were going through your reverse and you were like shoveling 3000 calories down in like two hours before bed. Um. But other than that, I mean, I don't, you know, we never hit a point where you were eating like, you know, rabbit food, like you were constantly fueled, you were eating a lot of food, even at like our lowest calories, like you were still eating a good amount of food.

Ari:

Yeah, no, I think that that's an excellent point. I think the lowest calories I ever got to was. Maybe 18 or 1900 calories a day. Uh, and then like to your point earlier, the most I ever had, I think it was 33 or 3500 calories. And won't lie, at some point you and I had a conversation because I was like, I don't know if I can like physically consume that many calories. And you said, well, you always could start eating during the day if you wanted. And, uh, I, I did, but that wasn't because you were suggesting to not eat. Because of my intermittent fasting wasn't working. That was more so we were trying to focus on Uh, bulking up and getting a little bit more out of the gym. So we wanted to fuel my body with some calories prior to going to the gym. So, you know, I'd grab like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or something, which was a little bit earlier than I would have needed. Maybe, you know, started eating maybe an hour or two, but again, that, that was not a, are you need to change your lifestyle? It was a, Hey, you know, we, we have this goal. Here's a good way to hit it. Um, but by no means was it a dress, like I said, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich prior, you know, call it an hour or so before the gym. So I was starting eating maybe an hour or two before I normally would have, but outside of that, like, you know, packing in calories, it was fun trying to do the mental math. Uh, and I think the other, another piece that I didn't mention is that I think a couple of the coaches immediately wanted to put me on full macros. And for someone who, let's say, has been tracking what they eat for, you know, years or whatever it is, that probably isn't very, very daunting. But for me, when I literally had no idea where to get protein from, where to get fat from, where to get carbs from, like, me, that was extremely intimidating, and the fact that you and I started with, we're just going to look at calories and protein, we're not going to care about anything else, just calories and protein, to me, that was amazing. So much easier of dipping my toe as opposed to kind of being thrown into the deep end and trying to swim That made it so much easier for when we did eventually transition to full macros And we've since transitioned off because you know, there's a time and place for everything But when we did get to that point to transition on that switch was so much easier for me because I already had a lot of the mental gymnastics down whereas would have started with full macros from day one, I probably would have dropped the program in a couple of months because I would have been like, I can't do this or I don't want to do this. It's a lot harder and I don't need to do it. So I think that also was that was a huge key to the success of the program.

Spencer Gallo:

Yeah, and I, I remember like we had that conversation or I think you might have even put it in like a check in and you were like, if I had done full macros when I started, like, I wouldn't be here, like, essentially, like you wouldn't be here on the podcast right now, because you wouldn't still be working with me, you doing like, this is too much, this isn't working, like, screw this, this is just a lot, and we started out realistically just like kind of very basic. And even now, like you said, like we're back on calories and protein, it works. We're seeing great results. So there's, you know, it's the, you know, proverbial, like if it's not broke, don't fix it.

Ari:

Okay.

Spencer Gallo:

Um, you know, to take it back a little bit though, like going back to, you know, before we started working together, like realistically, like what we're. What challenges were you facing? Like you kind of mentioned, like, you know, you weren't feeling the most confident, but like, what, what did you find that you were struggling with when it came to that kind of component and that piece of like trying to stay fit, trying to be healthy, trying to keep up with, you know, with your, you know, at the time, three, now four kids.

Ari:

Yeah, I mean, so, first off, I was wanting to be healthy, but that's kind of where it stopped. I wasn't trying to be healthy, if that makes sense. you know, I said I wanted to be healthy and I wanted to be to lose weight or whatever you wanna call it, but I wasn't doing anything, you know, there were no action items, uh, that followed behind that desire. So, you know, easy for me to say, yeah, it's, I wanna be healthy, you know, nice to say I wanna be rich, but if you're not gonna work like you're not gonna be rich. Like, you're not just gonna sit there and make money. So, like, same thing here. Like, I wanted to be in good shape. I wanted to be strong. I wanted to, to look different, but. to it. Um, so I think that, you know, just actually getting off my ass and starting to do something, what was that was probably, you know, that first step. Uh, but there was like, so a bunch of just unknowns for me, right? So If we take the nutrition and the gym as two separate pieces, nutrition wise, I didn't know what to do. I never tried to lose weight. I never tried to gain weight. I just, I ate to eat, right? Like, something I like to eat, I ordered it. Something I like to eat, I made it. You know, oh, someone's having pizza? I'll have pizza. Someone's eating cake? I'll eat cake. Someone's eating salad? I like salad. I'll have salad. Like, there was nothing that was off limits for me, but like, the eating was more to a purpose of just I'm hungry as opposed to let's focus on what we're eating and making sure what we're putting in our body is helpful. So like that, that's like a huge step. And I didn't know what to do, you know? So even if I wanted to eat in quotes healthier or, you know, I just, you know, it, it didn't, um, it was, I, I didn't know what to do. And I think I had the same problem in the gym. Like, yeah, I want to work out. It's okay. So I go to the gym, I take some dumbbells. I start doing some curls, my arms start to hurt. I'm like, okay, now what? You know, like I just, you know, again, just like have everything in the gym. We have all the machines, we've got all the weights, we've got all, you know, everything you would want, but like, I don't know what to do. you know, so like, if I would go, okay, so I went for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, a half hour, maybe once or twice a year, literally once or twice a year. And, you know, obviously, and then you don't see results, right? And then you're like pissed off. What do you mean? I went to the gym. Why am I not huge? Right? Like, so I think it was just literally not knowing what to do. That lack of knowledge of, you know, where to go, where to be. I think there's a little piece of it where, like, I always considered myself to be fit. But like when you start into the fire service, there's different tools you have to carry or different. You know, exercises we practice and started to see that, like, there are some other guys that are just either lifting things that I couldn't lift or, you know, carry things that I couldn't carry or, you know, even endurance wise, like, you know, I I've done a lot of running prior to you and I kind of teaming up and, you know, marathons and things like that. But Uh, as far as, like, carrying a victim out, like, I'm useless if I can't lift more than, you know, a hundred pounds. Like, who, what victim is a hundred pounds, right? What am I lifting, a small child? Like, the reality is, like, you're never carrying that small child that you could throw over your shoulder. You're carrying, like, the 350 pound person who couldn't get out of their house, right? So, me being able to lift a hundred pounds, like, I'm helping nobody, right? Never mind if I've got to go help a firefighter who fell down. So, like, that too, like, it started to be like, hey, wait a minute, like, this is not just I'm not where I need to be or where I want to be. Um, that sometimes is a pretty frustrating place, right? You know, again, I wasn't necessarily looking to lose weight per se. That was a by product of you and I kind of starting together, but like I would imagine that's pretty frustrating if someone's trying to lose weight and they just don't know what to do. So same thing here. Like I wanted to be stronger, but I didn't know what to do. And like I said, it is frustrating. So, you know, I think chatting with you and just giving me. the basics. And again, day one, I didn't know what to do in the gym. You said, you know, you set up a program for me. We talked through what each day would look like your push, your pull, your legs, your upper, your lower. there were any exercises that I didn't know what to do, we chatted through. There's also videos that you provided of, Hey, here's what it should look like. I also had the ability to send you videos and you'd be like, no idiot, you're doing it wrong. Like that's why, that's why you're not, that's why your arms hurt on leg day. Cause you're doing it wrong. Like, you know what I mean? It's like there's, yeah. it too. Um, and then I thi biggest piece is like rais sometimes it's embarrassing know what to do, but k it feel, you've created t like super open, non judgm And then I, you know, the program as well, but like this safe space if you wil little silly for a bunch You know, a safe space to like, either ask questions, be proud of yourself, whatever it is. So yeah, I guess getting back to your original question, like my biggest barrier to entry was like knowledge, but now like, even with the knowledge, I still like the guidance, you know?

Spencer Gallo:

Yeah. Yeah. And that's, you know, even me, like you've, you've said it out loud. Like I, I'm very open to the fact that like, I have my own coach. Um, and you've even said it in like a group chat is like guys, like the fact that Spencer has his own coach tells you everything that you need to know is like, He's still like, he, he's coaching all of us. He's getting all of us great results, but he's still paying somebody else to coach him. So like, there's that component to it where it's like, you don't know what you don't know. And like, there's always somebody that can help you out or at least guide you. And, and some of it, you know, personally for me. And, and I think probably a little bit for you too, is like, I can do it myself, but like, I don't really want to spend the time to do it, you know?

Ari:

Yeah, I mean, I think there's also a part of, accountability that helps when there's a third party, if you will. Now, whether that's the guys on the chat who keep, uh, keep me honest or whether it's you like the idea that there's someone else watching, you know, again, the ultimate level, I guess, is having your own motivation where like, you know, you're, you're keeping yourself in check, but, you know, there's so many other things that we are doing for ourselves. in our relationships and our families and our work Like it's nice to not have to worry about that one piece that someone else is kind of helping me stay accountable So, you know it it called a crutch whatever you want to call it I don't know but like it's also nice to have you know that accountability to someone else and I think that that's a big part of it, too.

Spencer Gallo:

Yeah, and I mean, obviously, like, you came in, like, we had zero conversation, like, you just randomly, like, Applied on my Instagram bio, like you just found like the link and applied and then I said, and then I sent you a DM like, Hey man, I got your application, like, let's have a conversation. Um, so, you know, given that, like, it wasn't like you had been following me, like you might have probably scrolled through my page and seen like a couple of things have been like, Oh, this guy looks like he might know what he's talking about. Um, or you might've looked at him and like, I don't know, but there's a link in his bio. I don't know. Um. But, you know, at the end of the day, like once we did have that conversation and we were like, okay, yeah, like this makes sense. Let's, let's bring you into the program and get some results. Like, was there anything kind of in that first, I don't know, couple weeks or months, maybe that you were like skeptical or nervous that like, it just wasn't going to do what you wanted it to do.

Ari:

Um, I mean I it's interesting I think I don't know when it hit like at some point during the program think it's much more recently where I looked in the mirror, I was like, Hey, wait, who's that? You know what I mean? Like body wise, like I can see like a huge transformation in my body. So maybe in the first couple months, there was some skepticism because I was definitely initially eating less than I was normally. And it may not have actually been less calories, um, but it was because I was focused on what I was eating. Right. So like I. I don't know, let's say on any given night I had four sandwiches, just, whatever, sandwiches of anything. And now, because like, we were literally measuring calories and protein, I was only having three sandwiches. So it felt like a, a less. But the reality is I probably didn't need four sandwiches, I was probably just board's the wrong word, but just eating. Um, so in the beginning it was probably like, huh, like, is this sustainable? And, don't get me wrong, when we got up to like the 3, 000 plus calories, it went to the flip side, being like, now I'm having five sandwiches, like, is this sustainable? know what I mean? Like, um, But, uh, so maybe in the beginning it was like, like the exercise was definitely, I was sore like on day one, you know what I mean? So like the gym, and I may not have seen results, but like just feeling sore, you know, knowing what it's like to, you know, work out for, uh, Sports team or whatever is like that. I know things are working. We're like feeling sore post gym. That makes sense the calories wise was one that I was like, huh, like is this right like is this gonna work or said differently. Is this sustainable? Because again, I had no idea where we would end up right like so say we started at 2000 calories. I'm just throwing out a number, but like my body was used to eating 2500 or 20 or 1700. I don't know what it is. But if my body was eating just a different number, my first thought is that this is going to be able to continue. Obviously, you know, looking back, it's easy to say it now. Yeah, of course it is two years later, but maybe that was in the beginning. But You know, I, I think for the most part, like there was, was minimal skepticism on my side. Like, I think a, because you listened to what I was asking for and said, yeah, we could do that. I think that that was a huge piece, whereas some of the other trainers, I immediately, I was skeptical because they weren't listening to me. but I think, uh, like I had this desire to try it out. And I, I, you know, I think going into it with an open mind was super helpful too. I recognize this is something that I've never done before. Focusing on food and nutrition, calories, things like that. So that right off the bat is new to me. Um, and, you know, prioritizing going to the gym. So finding time in my schedule to go to the gym. That was also new to me. And it was something that I just, you know, going into it, like committed to myself, Hey, we're going to try this. We're not going to half ass this. We're going to do what we can. And honestly, like the results happened pretty quickly. You know, like two weeks, two, I mean, for sure two months in, but like, even I feel like a month in, I was already starting to drop some weight. And it was like, All in the right places. And so like, that's also super helpful, right? Like, and again, I'm not saying that if I didn't see results, I wouldn't have continued with it, but you know, just to kind of motivate you, like when you see positive results, it, it like reinforces the actions that have been driving those results, you know? Yeah.

Spencer Gallo:

know, the gym and the nutrition. It's like, if you went into the office every single day and just grind your face off, and then, you know, you don't start to see bonuses or raises or promotions coming, you're like, what the fuck am I doing? Like, why am I here? Right. You know, it's the same thing in your corporate career. Like if you went to work every day and you never saw like potential for growth and like a reason to keep Showing up with like more energy and effort every day. Like, what are you doing? And like, I've, I've worked with people that I'm like, why do you come to the, like, why do you come to work every day? Like you have zero aspirations to be better. Like why are you here? You know? And I'm sure that you, you probably shouldn't say it out loud, but like, you probably have the same thing. It's like, there are people that like you work with and it's like, you know, like I have career aspirations. In my nine to five, like in my engineering job, like I have aspirations. I want to, you know, become a department manager and things like that. And like, I'm striving for that. And I go for that every single day, but there are people that I've worked with. Other companies that I'm like, do

Ari:

yeah.

Spencer Gallo:

And I feel like that, like that translates a lot because typically those people are the people that are not the most fit. They're not the happiest. They're just, you know, laissez faire, the life is life. It is what it is. And they don't really have any aspirations. And I, I, it's like, I hate to say it, but it's like, I almost feel bad, you know, like I almost feel bad for people that it's like, if you don't have that. And like, for you, like realistically, like, you know, when we started, you were in a much. Different career position. How much, if at all, do you feel like working together has, has impacted. And by all means, like if the answer is like, I don't think it did at all, like that's totally fine too. I honestly don't know the answer to this question, but like, you know, realistically, like, do you feel like having worked together for the, you know, the time that we have, like, do you feel like that has impacted you in any way, shape, or form in your, your corporate career?

Ari:

Yeah, no, I, it's a good question and I think prior to us working together, there was no need for me to really prioritize or schedule set boundaries for that matter. Everything was kind of just let things happen as they occur, right? So whether that's work events, family events, friend events, uh, you know, schedule was much more chaotic and honestly, a lot less predictable. And, you know, having items that I was now prioritizing and. sure that I was able to do right. So getting to the gym, I think it was originally three days a week. At one point we were up to five days a week. I don't think we ever got to six, but you know, you know, if I'm going to say to myself, Hey, I need to make sure I'm at the gym, call it four days a week, which has probably been our average that doesn't just happen, right? Like you can't just not plan ahead. If I'm going to say, Hey, I need to get 2000. calories in and 150 grams of protein. Well, that doesn't just happen, right? Like I can't get home and be like, huh, what's in the fridge? So it actually, you know, unintentionally, if you will, uh, help me kind of set up my week, right? Like my look ahead, my weekends didn't just become relaxing time, whether with friends or family, my weekends became, again, plenty of time to relax with friends and family, but my weekends became my look ahead for the week, whether it was my shopping list, whether it was setting my schedule to see what nights I was going to go to the gym and what nights I was free for other stuff, whether that was recreational stuff, whether that was going out with colleagues, whether that was firefighter training, but it helped me

Spencer Gallo:

Silence.

Ari:

I, I don't know if that was intentional or not. I don't know, you know, maybe other people can succeed in the program without doing it. I've, I've become this very regimented.

Spencer Gallo:

Silence.

Ari:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Like, it's not like this set, uh, regimented, unflexible schedule. It's quite the contrary. I have the ability to move workouts whenever I want. But I don't plan on Sunday, when I'm going to do my workouts, next thing I know it's Thursday and I've gone to the gym once. And like, that's not. Helpful or that's not going to help me succeed. So, yeah, so I guess to your point, this creating this less chaotic, more organized life definitely been a huge plus.

Spencer Gallo:

Yeah, and that's, you know, like, uh, you kind of steered the ship for me, but it's like, when you talk it, it can sound like, oh my God, like, This program is just like, you know, slave driver. Like you got to show up, you got to do all this work. You got to do all the stuff. If you don't track your workouts, you don't track your nutrition. Like you're never going to see success, but like realistically, like, dude, you have a lot of shit going on. Like you commute into New York city. three, four days a week, um, for work. And then you're doing your firefighter stuff. You're still, you know, you still have two like young kids at home. And then you have to not adult kids, but you know, older kids that, you know, we even talked, I don't know, two, three weeks ago. And you were like, Hey, like, there's a lot of things coming up with my older kids that. Five days really isn't going to work for me anymore. Okay, cool. Let's move to four. And we did, and we just moved your workouts around that. There is that like piece to it where to your point, it's like, it helps you set up your week, but at the same time, there's also that component where it's like, if it's not going to work, you know, and you kind of brought it up a while ago at this point where you said, like, all you're gonna do is raise your hand and just say, Hey, I, I need help. And then. We figured out, you know, like that, like I can't do five days a week because I just, I know that I can't make it to the gym five days because I have all these other things going on in my life between family and colleagues and work and recreation and all of these things. Like I can't.

Ari:

Yeah, I think another piece of it to, kind of going back to your initial piece of, what was some of my barriers to entry. I think the other piece was just not realizing how much time was needed to dedicate to the gym and to doing that. You know, initially, if I'm thinking like, oh, 90 plus minutes, four or five days a week, just thinking about what my schedule looked like, I was like, I don't have this. I think that at this point we've kind of progressed in terms of reps and sets and, and, you know, resting between sets and whatnot, that it's about an hour in the gym. I think it's actually a little bit less, call it 45 to 55 minutes per workout. But initially it wasn't that I think we even started with much closer to half hour in the gym, you know, each time. And again, you know, lighter weights or whatever it was, and you obviously designed the program and adjusted that. But. When we started able to see, oh, it's a half hour or, you know, call 40 minutes. That's so doable. Whereas, you know, when I just was

Spencer Gallo:

very much.

Ari:

macros, I think that You know, having the, you know, less reps or fewer sets or whatever, or even less exercises within a single day, uh, was also super helpful and, and, you know, slowly but surely easing into the longer workouts and again, longer, 45 minutes, 55 minutes, that's not long. I, you know, I know that I've had a time where I've looked out of my phone, look back up and I've been on fricking social media for an hour and that's like a stupid waste of time. So like if I could find time to scroll through whatever. Oh, for 45 minutes. I definitely could find time to, you know, not do that and go to the gym for 45

Spencer Gallo:

Yeah, and I mean, you're basically just like preaching everything that I talk about is like, if you can, if you can sit there and scroll for an Instagram for an hour at night, it's like you could have gone and done a half an hour workout and gotten ready for bed, you know? Um,

Ari:

minutes. By the way, you can also scroll through Instagram at the gym in between sets. Like, if you through Instagram, you also have time to do that in between

Spencer Gallo:

yeah, you have, you have at least a minute between every single set to like to scroll a little bit. Yeah. Um, which I, I, I. I have a bad habit of doing that because I train first thing in the morning. Um, and I'm like working through, like, I have so many things going on between like my career, my coaching, and then like helping out with like business mentorship as well, that like, I have so many plates spinning at all times that like, sometimes I'm, I'm scrolling through Instagram, like Facebook and like answering questions for people. During my rest periods, which I try really like, I'll catch myself doing it where it's like my timer goes off and I'm like, still like writing an answer. And then I'm like, okay, I gotta do not disturb. Like, I gotta put this away because I'm going to sit here for three minutes answering questions between sets. Um, you know, I think that. One question that I always, you know, I, I ask a lot of questions on podcasts that I don't know the answer to. I said this to Adam. I was like, yeah, I'm a, I'm a, I'd be a horrible lawyer because I have no idea what the answer is to these questions. And like, I could like burn my business to the ground by asking it. Um, but do you ever feel like there was a point, like whether it was a workout or a check in or even just like a group chat or a conversation that we had where all of a sudden, it just like, Everything just kind of fell into place and you were like, this is awesome. And I like, nothing is going to be able to stop me from getting where I want to be.

Ari:

No, it never felt like, no, I'm kidding. Of course. Yeah. Um, I don't know the point in time. I wish I, I wish I could look back be like, oh, this all makes sense. so, like, I don't know that there is a point in time. Obviously now it feels. It's almost glaringly obvious, you know what I mean, like it's because again, even like week to week, month to month, year to year, like the, the results are speak for themselves. Um, and like almost to the point where now, even if I didn't track or weigh my food, I'd still be with call it within a hundred or 200 calories of where I need to be, which is mind blowing. Just again, concerning where I started. Uh, so no, I don't know that there was like a point in time. Where I was like, yeah, this is definitely working or this is something, you know, that I want to continue. I don't know when that light bulb hit, but it again, like it's on now. maybe if I give a little thought, I'll get back to you. I can't think of a, like, there wasn't a moment where it was like, Oh shit. Uh, so yeah, no, I, I, but again, the light bulbs on, I just don't know when it turned on. It, I mean, obviously it wasn't day one, right? No one I'd be shocked if anyone was after one day being like, Oh yeah, I'm in. Um, cause that's, uh, I would think unrealistic, but yeah, I don't have like that point in time.

Spencer Gallo:

Yeah, so now the other side of that question, or I guess the other, you know, the other side of the coin is we dropped 14. 9 pounds in the first 10 weeks and you were Um, and then we, you know, like you said, like we, we reversed, like we, we damn near doubled your calories over the course of, I want to say it was probably six, seven months, if not maybe a little bit longer, where I think the lowest we were at was like 1800 maybe, and we pushed you up to like close over 3000 calories at one point doing. Kind of a muscle build phase. Was there a point where the flip side of that you almost were like, I don't know that this is working anymore, or I don't feel like this is the right path and the right system to still be following.

Ari:

It's interesting. So I, I never came to the, I don't think it never came to the point of where I was like, I don't think Spencer knows what he's doing or this is wrong, but I, there was moments of doubt and I'll, I'll tell you. in the initial phase and when you and I talked, I never really talked about like wanting to put on muscle, but you and I definitely talked about me wanting to. Get, you know, a little bit less of that spare tire, right? Like I just kind of Eliminate some of you know, so lose some weight, you know said said very plainly We talked about wanting to lose weight and to your point that you just made first 10 weeks drops Like you said 15 pounds and everything was great And then we started the reverse diet and, you know, initially my metabolism kind of does what it does. Like I said, I've got been blessed with some good genes and a good metabolism. So we would slowly but surely call it every week, maybe add 100 calories or something like that. you know, uh, hold on one second, sorry. Can you put the camera in focus? Yeah, you can, you can do it, sorry. Hey, it looks like you. It is me. Alright, let's back, let's backtrack. So, you want me to start, let me just start from the beginning. Right?

Spencer Gallo:

go ahead. This is raw and uncut, dude. I'm not, I'm not editing anything with these episodes.

Ari:

Oh, really? Oh, shit.

Spencer Gallo:

I, I'm not with you guys. Like I met and this will be in the podcast too. It was like, I, I just want this to be like a rock on, like just pure conversation. Like I'm not cutting anything. I'm not editing anything because it's just one I'm lazy. Um, but two, it's like, I like realistically, like this is just, you know, for people to get to know you and understand who you are, what you've gone through and then ultimately like end of the day, like, Hey, if you want to work together, like just shoot me a fricking message. So

Ari:

Uh,

Spencer Gallo:

yeah, to your point, like, go ahead.

Ari:

He, uh, he just got back from, uh, like an exercise or gym class or whatever it is. So he just wanted to, uh, do a game on my phone. And the agreement was if he goes and does exercise for an hour, he can go have some screen time. Anyway, uh, let's go back. So, um, we had dropped 15 pounds first 10, first 10 weeks, uh, and then, like I said, we started to add about 100 calories a week, or maybe it was 100 every two weeks, whatever the math was, and initially my body was fine, like I was staying at that same, I think I was about 135, 137, somewhere in that range, then slowly but surely, we started to get maybe past the 2000, maybe past the 2500 calorie mark, I started to put on some weight. And that's when, because again, you and I never really talked about like bulking muscle. We talked about, you know, what the idea of a reverse diet was and kind of reestablishing my metabolism and kind of waking up some of the, you know, some of the metabolism that might've been kind of put to sleep by lowering some calories, so on and so forth. But we never really talked about like, you know, kind of, I'll be honest, I never thought I'd look like I look like now. So when I started to put on weight and it wasn't, you know, I, I wasn't seeing like biceps like I, like I feel like I see now or, or, you know, my chest wasn't, it was just, I was putting on weight. It was a number on a scale where, as opposed to how I look, started to be like, huh, like, are we, we're losing some of the momentum. And like, honestly, it was day when I would weigh in and I do weigh in daily, every day

Spencer Gallo:

Um,

Ari:

trust the process moment. And I was just trying to do what I could to say, alright. got me down to 135. He knows what so like that I think was a huge piece, right? Like I'd already started to buy in because you've proven commodity, right? You got me down to where I wanted to be it's a matter of okay. He said what down to 135 trust the process And then let's go ahead and just keep going with it. Um, and then you know slowly but surely got up to Did I ever get to 160? I don't know if I had to want maybe I was uh, 160.

Spencer Gallo:

think you, I, I think you might've got over 160 like one or two days, but it was like, You straight up were like, I ate more or like, there was something like, it wasn't like you actually were one 60. It was like, you had like, you were basically carrying more water for a day or two because of, you know, whatever, but.

Ari:

But so anyway, but let's say I was in the high 150s like, I think you and I started at like 150, 152, 153, something like that. It's like I was weighing more than I, I don't know, like what I, to me, that was not alarming. It was just surprising. It was not what I expected. And this was This was easily, maybe not a year ago, but a decent, you know, call it nine plus months ago. And then, like, when I look back now, it's like, oh, now it all makes sense. Because then we kind of turned down a little bit, and then, like, we were pushing hard in the gym. I remember we were going through like, intense PRs where you were telling me, like, yeah, like, want you to be able to hit the, like, the last set, the last rep, you shouldn't be getting to, like, to what the range was. And, like, so we were pushing hard in the gym also. And then, like, fast forward, we started to cut a little bit, and now it's like, ah, okay. Like, once again, Spencer knows what he's talking about. And, like, you know, again, the results have been, for me, great.

USB Condenser Microphone & FaceTime HD Camera:

This was just the first half of our amazing conversation, raw and uncut with my client, Ari. So if you want to hear the rest of it, just keep listening. The next episode is going to start here and just a minute.