How To Gain Weight As A Skinny Hardgainer

I want to dedicate this Iron Man series to her. I was planning on doing this Iron Man a few weeks ago before everything happened and before my mom's cancer really progressed and she passed away. I want to dedicate this training which is going to be difficult to her. My mom was like a true warrior. That's the best way to describe it. My mom fought until the day that she died. Ever since I saw this clip of these two women crossing an Iron Man finish line in 1997, literally crawling across, I've wanted to do it. World champions, guys that set all-time course records, contemplate dropping out during the race. So in six months I will be doing the Iron Man in Panama City, Florida which is a 2.4 mile swim. There's no bigger race all year for the best in the world. 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile run which is a full marathon. The start of the most challenging day in sports that's ever been dreamed up. I started running like 11 years ago and I fell in love with endurance. Like when I signed up for the Iron Man, I knew it was a triathlon. I knew I had to swim. I knew I had to bike and I knew I had to run. And running was something that was comfortable for me. It was probably the only thing that was comfortable for me. But I realized, okay, I want the people that watch my channels and follow my platforms to realize that there is no mental and physical barrier or caps they place on themselves. When I share these journeys and these series with so many people and these challenges, the people that are watching, the audience, the supporters become part of the journey as well. They are a part of it as much as I am. And if I put in all the work, if I do well, if I perform well and it shows like, hey, all this work resulted in this, well that inspires them to change their life. That inspires them to sign up for a half marathon or a full marathon or a triathlon or maybe even an Iron Man. There's a lot of pressure to perform well to inspire others. Every week, every week there's improvements, whether it's the swim, the bike, the run. Every week there's some sort of improvement. Get better and better. Endurance comes quick. It's not like building muscle where building muscle takes years, months and years, depending on the time you've been doing it. But endurance, man, I'm telling you, it comes quick. You just got to put in the time, but that felt good. 7.26 minute per mile, I'll take it. Obviously, like with something like Iron Man training, with the amount of calories you're expending on a daily basis, like quantity of food is super important, right? So you have to get enough calories in to not only support and sustain what you're currently doing, but also prepare yourself for the next training session. So just getting enough calories in is one, calories on top of hydration, right? But like quality of food sources that you're consuming. So that's what we're going to pick up today. We're going to pick up some voluminous, nutritious, nutrient dense food to prepare, sustain and help recover for training sessions. That's what it's all about. Kerry Gold's butter, pure Irish butter. Doesn't get any better than this right here. This combination right here, it's all you need for the rest of your life. Oral wheat, sourdough, English muffins, Kerry Gold's butter, blackberry preserved by Von Mommen. I'm shooting for majority foods that are super micronutrient, vitamin, mineral dense, because it helps my body perform and recover. So that's kind of my stance on nutrition right now. I have my foods that I come and get to the grocery store and get all the time. And that's full of a lot, lots of meats. I eat a lot of rice and a lot of Gatorade zeroes right now because of Texas heat, just sweating so much. Like I need, I need hydration. I need electrolytes. And every once in a while, Steph and I go get a burger and fries, but it's just the life you live. Like riding bike for me was just like hopping on a BMX bike as a kid and getting from point A to point B, like riding the community pool in my hometown. It was never, Hey, we're going on a cycle. Like we're going to be cycling for miles and miles. So the run I knew how to do, I was comfortable with, but like the bike and the swim that was uncharted territory. Today's workout is a little shorter. So it's only a two hour bike ride directly into a 20 minute run. So I typically, some of the brick workouts I've been doing are like, you know, four to five hours on the bike into an hour or two hours run. But today's a little shorter just because I'm still recovering a little bit from the half Ironman riding for seven hours, 112 miles, and then going directly into a full marathon. That's what I'm prepping for. And that's what our training has to kind of mimic and create. And I'm ready. I'm hungry. I'm hungry for the Ironman. I'm ready to put my body through a bunch of suck and a bunch of hurt, but it's one of those things you learn from, you learn through and you adapt. And, and the lessons I've learned so far in this training, like leading up to this point, the place that pushed my body had been life-changing. I can't wait to see race day, how that, how it all comes together because that training compounds, and when it all compounds to one day, you can test yourself. You see that a hundred percent lies. Biggest thing that I, I not a day of racing. It's a day of conserving energy. And everything that we've tried to set up here for it is all about conserving energy until things get tough. And what I don't want is for our, when things get tough for you to be done. Oh yeah. I know exactly how that feels like. I know where my mind's going to be when it gets hard. I know there's no avoiding it at all, but just when is that going to hit? Yeah. Yeah. Like world champions, like guys that set all time course records, they say the same thing. They're like, I know it's going to get hard and I know it's going to be awful. And like people that have raced the fastest Ironmans in history, contemplate dropping out during the race. Every single one of them. Yeah. Yeah. So that's why we do this. Cause you, you see what you're made of in those last couple hours. Oh yeah. I'm excited. I appreciate it. Yeah. No, I'm excited for this too. So we are two months, 60 days away from Ironman Panama city, massive, I'd say like Jurassic changes from initially six months ago, or I guess six months out from the race four months ago, up until this point, there's not been one day through this entire prep for Ironman that I've needed motivation to train. There's never been a day where I woke up and was like, I don't feel like doing this workout. I don't feel like going on this run. I don't feel like doing this brick. But at the end of that week, in those seven days, I've completed all six of those workouts that I've had to do. Like when you set your mind to something and you go all in and talk about the switch a lot, talk about the switch that people toggle back and forth. Like people will turn on their discipline on and off whenever they feel. It's like when they feel like being healthy, they turn it on, but at night they might turn that back off and just go eat whatever they want. And they feel like getting fit. They might turn on that switch and work out for a few days. They turn that switch back off while I talk about turning that switch on and then breaking it. That for me has been Ironman prep. Like I turned that switch on when I committed to it, going all in, broke the switch. And every day it's not an option of do I want to work out or not? It's like how bad do I want to complete this event to my best ability as possible. For the 2019 Ironman prep. That's right. I'm doing an Ironman. I'm going to start prepping for it, which is very out of my comfort zone because I'm not a swimmer. I'm not a biker. You know, right now, like the goal for the next eight weeks, like leading the race is be as conditioned as possible. Breaking point as far as possible, as fast as possible. Because I know there's going to be that point where like, it is like a train or a car hitting a wall. And then I feel like I'm going to throw up. And you hit that breaking point. Walls hit. Now my mind carries me through it. So in two months, we'll see. And we'll see where we can push that breaking point. My strategy for nutrition moving forward is it's strategic in place. So as long as I follow that plan, it's just, it's pacing myself throughout the race. It is, it's going to make for a successful race. You know, it's, it's not going too hard. It's maintaining heart rate, maintaining zone training, and then it's finishing strong. Super dialed in right now. It's like, there's no distractions on my mind. It's just, it's just this race. It's just this day. My mind couldn't be any more clear for like what I'm about to do. And I don't say this because it's my mom. My mom was one of the best people in this entire world. No exaggeration. She was selfless. She was always helping others in need. She was always putting people ahead of herself and spending time volunteering and just helping people. She was a great, great person. And we're going to miss my mom a lot. What's going on guys. So just finishing up a, uh, a seven mile run and it's middle of August and it's hot. It's like 104 degrees. And I zoned out almost the entire run, which I've been doing for a lot of my runs recently. And one of the questions that was asked today, and the question was, uh, what's my motivation? I'm getting this question forever. And I haven't been able to answer it because there's not many things that motivate me. It's it's discipline. That's that maintains and sustains a consistency over years and years and years. And ever since my mom passed away in June, I've learned a lot about myself and a lot about her and just how similar we are as people. You know, growing up, people always say, man, you and your mom are like the same person. And I thought they just meant by looks and how we, uh, we both see the good in people and we're positive. And we're always looking for opportunities to grow and develop and push ourselves. My mom was that way. And something that will stick with me forever and has changed the way that I live my life is in April, I was visiting home and I was putting together a compilation video of people that submitted answers. And I asked people like, what does embracing suck mean to you? And you know, hundreds of people submitted videos and my mom was watching these. And my mom told me she wanted to tell me what embraces suck means to her. She wanted to be on video, but she wanted to tell me. And she told me that every, every person that goes through cancer or a life-threatening disease truly understands the meaning of embrace the suck to push past and have a positive outlook on life, even though the cards they've been dealt. And even when my mom was diagnosed with cancer and even when she was in hospital, passing away, she still was the most positive person in the room. And when I saw how much she was hurting, but how much she was driving through, I realized for the rest of my life, I can't ever complain about any situation I'm ever in because it will never compare to the suck or the pain or the hurt that she experienced. And that changed my life and everything I do after that for the rest of my life. There's, there's no pain. The pain, the hurt that I will ever experience through anything physical or, or, or business or anything will never compare to what she experienced. We always talked about this day. Like it was going to be when he was like 50 years old and then he just signed up and he did it. He just loves challenging himself and pushing himself. When he sets his eyes on something, pretty much like, you know, he's going to come in and just like, just kill it and everything. And it never comes our way. No matter how hard things get, no matter how difficult and no matter how much they suck and how much, no matter how much they hurt to drive through it, embrace it, to realize that someone else is going through worse. I felt good. I'm under 12. To be honest, I thought it'd be worse. I swear to God. 1128. How'd it feel the whole time? I'll tell you, I was moving on that bike. What can we expect next from me? Well, I'm not exactly sure, but I have like this, this thing I do that I always go one step further. So it's probably going to be one step further than an Ironman. So be prepared. That was his whole motivation and drive behind his Ironman. I knew right away that, you know, he was going to finish it because of her. Every time we saw him along the way, we said, Hey, do it for mom. And it kind of pushed him along and made him finish. And, you know, it was a joy just to see him cross that finish line. Are you proud of your son? I'm very proud. Couldn't be prouder. One of the proudest moments of my life.