Ep 259 – The Fitness & Nutrition Creators We Actually Trust in 2026

Ben and Sawyer begin with a life update covering travel, training structure, and adapting to new environments as a vegan athlete living abroad. Sawyer discusses moving from Spain to Albania, dealing with culture shock, finding vegan food options, and maintaining gym consistency while adjusting to a new lifestyle.

Ben shares updates on training flexibility, managing stress, and maintaining progress through structured but adaptable programming. They also discuss meal prep strategies, including homemade soy milk, tofu, seitan, and high-protein vegan foods, along with the importance of sustainability in long-term physique development.

The main discussion focuses on the creators and educators who have influenced their perspectives on vegan nutrition, bodybuilding, and evidence-based fitness. They highlight a mix of scientists, coaches, communicators, and advocates who bridge research and practical application.

They discuss why these voices stand out, the importance of evidence-based communication, and how different styles of content (long-form podcasts vs short-form videos) serve different learning preferences.

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TRANSCRIPT

Ben (00:00)
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Vegan Proteins and Muscles by Brussels Radio. My name is Ben.

Sawyer (00:05)
Adam Sawyer.

Ben (00:06)
And today we are going to be talking about our favorite content creators. And I thought that this would be a good episode to cover because we sometimes will name drop certain people, certain organizations. And I don’t think that we’ve had a comprehensive episode going over maybe some of the people that we learned from because a lot of people who are tuning into this podcast, they come here to listen to the conversations that we have to learn.

And so I think it would be a nice way to pay it forward for us to kind of promote some of the people that we feel like we’ve learned from. So before we get into that topic for today, Sawyer, I know you’re in Albania now, so you are in Spain. We got to keep the listeners up to date on what the goings on are. Now you’re in Albania. That’s, know, been a big transition for you, a little bit of a culture shock, and you’re still kind of adjusting to this new way of life, I guess you could say.

Sawyer (00:49)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (01:03)
Talk me through that. Let’s hear about the travel and that process. Let’s hear about maybe what your first impressions, what you’re noticing, maybe some of the challenges you’ve had, some unexpected things. Share it all.

Sawyer (01:11)
Mm-hmm.

man. Okay. I’ll try to condense it because it’s a lot. But starting with the travel, was, you know, we left Barcelona Wednesday night on a ferry, got to Italy on Thursday night. It was like a full like 20 hour thing. And, and then we began the process of getting us all our stuff and our dog across Italy to get to the other ferry.

into Albania and so we had to take these trains that we had scheduled. One of them ran late so we had to reschedule another one and was like, you know, having all these heavy bags with our crazy reactive dog was like, it felt like…

We, we compared it like when we were doing it to like the trip to Mordor, was like carrying these heavy things and like, you know, our crazy dog, was like, you know, he’s like smegle or something. don’t know. But anyway, it was like, it was really a lot. after only afterwards were we like, able to kind of start to decompress and like process, like how hard that was. like, you know, it also was a little scary because you’re like, man.

Now I’m here and I realize how hard it is to get back and you know how that process is. So it’s a little bit daunting to, ⁓ you know, you don’t feel as like light, light and movable after something like that. and then, and then we get to here and it was nice to be in one place, right? But then, yeah, we have all this, this culture shock. We don’t speak a single word of the language.

Ben (02:37)
What language do they speak in Albania primarily Albanian, okay

Sawyer (02:39)
Albanian. Yeah,

which sounds like, it sounds pretty like Russian, but then a little bit Middle Eastern as well. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. Yeah.

Ben (02:51)
I was listening to a bodybuilding podcast the other day that I like, these guys from the UK, and one of them was talking about going to a soccer match, or guess they would say football match, and the person next to them, they were talking to the whole time, initially had said that they were German, but then at the end they were like, I’m actually Albanian, and they’re like, wait, why did you say you’re German? It’s like, are kind of scared of Albanians, like that’s what the guy said, who’s from Albania, so I thought that was funny because it’s…

Sawyer (03:12)
UGH

Ben (03:17)
Yeah, I mean it’s not somewhere that I think about a lot, so I just thought that it was funny that that came up in a podcast recently, given your current situation.

Sawyer (03:24)
Yeah.

Yeah. It’s very different. Um, and there’s, you know, it’s developing. It’s not all like nice and pretty. were looking at like the, the buildings that were like, how the heck are these wires up to code? There’s like all these wires, like just like all over the outside of the buildings and stuff. But I don’t know. At the same time, there’s like these marble, um, type, uh, you know, streets, uh, with cobblestone in the middle. And then there’s like palm trees and shopping centers and stuff.

It’s just different. you know, finding vegan food has been a bit of a challenge. So I’m like getting experimental. Like I posted in the vegan proteins app yesterday, the chickpea tofu that I made, just, you know, we’re having to get creative, but, we are going to go check out the capital city in a few weeks and stay there for awhile. So that should be a little bit easier for, for vegan food too. So, yeah, I think that’s pretty much the law.

Ben (04:16)
How close are you to the Capitol?

Sawyer (04:17)
Like a 40 minute drive

Ben (04:19)
Gotcha. And is the public transport decent there?

Sawyer (04:22)
We haven’t really used it there are buses and things but things are pretty much walkable in this this town But yeah, I think it’ll be pretty much walkable except with the exception of getting to the capital, you know,

Ben (04:34)
in

the gym situation? What’s that like?

Sawyer (04:37)
Yeah, that gym that I got is like a 15 minute walk away. It’s at like, I don’t even know what floor of the high rise. And so you can see like the whole port area and some of the city. It’s pretty cool. So I’ll have to show you some pictures later, but yeah, it’s a cool gym, pretty standard and ⁓ just paid for a month. you know, been going there, you know, five times a week.

It’s been cool.

Ben (05:00)
Cool. Are you guys planning to stay in the area that you are right now the whole time that you’re there or might you bounce around a little bit to, you know, within Albania?

Sawyer (05:07)
We have this, so the town we’re in right now is called Durres and that is, we’re here for the first month. We’ve been here a week. So we have a few weeks left of that. And then we’re heading over to Tirana, the capital for the next two months. So we’ve got that one booked out too. just two locations while we’re here. And then we’re going to head back to Spain. Yeah.

Ben (05:29)
Well, I think even when you’re presented with challenges in these situations, and I know we’ve talked about this before on the podcast, I think it makes you more resilient because ultimately the more adversity that you face and the more that you’re able to overcome that and find ways to be creative, when you’re in environments or scenarios where those challenges aren’t present, it just makes it that much more kind of on autopilot for you to be able to do what you need to do. And I think also,

Sawyer (05:44)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (05:53)
you gain a greater appreciation for different places and what the pros and cons are of each place. Like there’s no place that’s perfect. There’s always going to be trade-offs and things that you like about it and things that maybe you wish were different. But I think if you kind of embrace it and you’re like, you know what, this is not exactly what I would be my preference typically, but I’m going to try to find ways to be creative. Maybe it’ll inspire me to try some new things in the kitchen, like you were saying.

Sawyer (05:56)
Mm-hmm.

and

and

Ben (06:19)
I think that’s cool in its own way.

Sawyer (06:19)
Mm hmm.

Yeah, it’s definitely it’s always a ping pong match between being like resilient and, you know, being in your feels a little bit. So it’s definitely challenging. And I also worry that like that I have a short memory or something because I’m like, you know, I was in the I was living in a van for six years before this. So but I don’t really think about that fact that often.

Um, or like how, you know, difficult that was. don’t think every day about like how, you know, we had to go to the gym to use the bathroom a lot of the time and shower there and all that stuff. Um, we just have that now and I think it’s very easy to forget. So I’m kind of like, am I going through adversity just because, cause am I going to forget in a month? Um, but no, I do think there’s some kind of lingering effects, which is that like you become less.

I don’t know, pedantic, little less fussy about things. And, ⁓ and I think that’s a pretty big payoff. It’s just that it’s not always immediately apparent when and how it’s going to show up, you know.

Ben (07:15)
you

Yeah, think it’s, what’s the saying where it’s like the, it’s not like the devil you know, but it’s like the, you know, the thing that you know, it becomes familiar and you get used to maybe dealing with whatever the challenges are around that. And then when you’re put into a new environment, like you said, it’s, you know, you can kind of take for granted the things that you maybe didn’t have before that you have now. And it’s kind of a case of like the grass always being greener. know that we’ve talked about this with like,

Sawyer (07:29)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (07:46)
going through cycles of fat loss phases and then building phases. Like you kind of always reminisce about what you had in the previous phase and then you look forward to a time where you’re going to have the things that you don’t have now. So I think it’s important, I feel, to be present and to lean into the positives of whatever you’re doing as much as you can. Of course, you can still have feelings about your current situation and wish that things were different and let yourself feel those things, but it’s

Sawyer (07:48)
Hmm

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ben (08:13)
It’s also good to remind yourself of like, okay, these are actually some of the things that are great about the situation that I’m in. And I want to make sure that I don’t, you know, push those aside and forget about those.

Sawyer (08:20)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think, I think to like have a bunch of experiences to call back on and be able to say like, yeah, I remember I felt this way, this same way about this other place that I’m now romanticizing. So I should probably chill out with like the grass is always greener stuff because you just kind of know not to trust your own like feelings all the time when you’ve done enough of like moving around because you know that everywhere you go, there’s pros and cons. you were saying.

And so it’s dangerous to lean too hard into those feelings of romanticism of different times and places and phases and things, because you’re just, you’re almost always glossing over all the difficult details of what you’re feeling and doing at those times. So yeah, I think having different experiences helps you like, just get out your own head a little bit with that stuff faster, at least.

Ben (09:11)
And on a fitness front, how are you feeling about where you’re at with your own process and journey? I feel like it’s been a little while since we caught people up ⁓ on how you’ve been doing and what you’ve been working on. We recently changed up, we changed up your training split a couple times to kind of figure out like a system, like lot of the exercises are remaining the same, which I think is important and is a good thing because we’re not completely overhauling your program. It’s more of like a structural.

Sawyer (09:19)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (09:36)
reorganization of what is going where throughout the week. And I mean, we talk about this with clients where it’s like, the most important thing is that everything’s getting done at the end of the week. And the way that you organize it is usually more like a practical constraint. And of course there’s some little like optimalities that you can try to account for when you’re organizing your split. But recently we changed over your split to kind of really just really make sure we’re prioritizing the areas that you care about the most ⁓ and make sure that you have the time and the energy and the attention and the focus to really.

Sawyer (09:36)
Mm-hmm.

and

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (10:05)
you know, give those their due diligence. So, ⁓ you know, you’ve also ⁓ been, you know, doing a good job maintaining, you know, that kind of bottom end of the diet that we went through. So I just want to, you know, hear how you’re feeling about things in general.

Sawyer (10:08)
Yeah.

Yeah, man, eventually we got to talk about you by the way, but to answer your question real quick, the, ⁓ the program is feeling really good. I feel like the emphasis, I really do like this latest iteration we’ve done because it feels like I’m spending an appropriate amount of time on the things I want to emphasize and doing the exercises I like to do for them. And then other things feel very manageable, but still like.

Effective so I am really liking this split right now I’m still figuring out where to put cardio. I did one session today after my my arm day arm and shoulder day and But I do you know really like and I really appreciate the input that you had for me I’m like, okay if we’re gonna approach this from like, you know, if we were gonna do a show or something What would I bring up? What would I focus on? How would I you know, so I appreciated the guidance that you had for me on that and it helped me like

You know, lean into the fact that, okay, maybe I’m not going to work on these muscle groups as much. It’s very hard for me to take things off my plate. As you know, with, ⁓ with training, it’s hard for me to be like, maybe I won’t make as much progress here or there. but having you be like, nah, I wouldn’t worry too much about that. That’s very developed. You know, these things are okay. That was really helpful. So I think that calms some of my demons down that conversation we had and, ⁓

And then on the nutrition side, do you want to talk about the training first before I, you know, do you have any comments?

Ben (11:36)
I was just going

to say, think for yourself, you have body parts that are definitely more important for you to bring up, like your arms and your chest, those are priorities. ⁓ Previously, it was kind of your upper back, which I think is still a priority, but I kind of said to you, like, you know what, based on what I’m seeing, I think your upper back is definitely one of your stronger body parts now, ⁓ now that you’re leaner we can kind of see.

Sawyer (11:44)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Ben (11:58)
you know, the work underneath it. And I think some of it is more structural than it is actually the amount of muscle mass that you have there. Just muscle sits differently on people. Like for example, people always tell me, my God, you’ve got, you know, crazy traps. I’ve never really done like stuff for my traps. I don’t really like do shrugs that much. It’s probably just a combination of my anatomy and maybe the way that I ⁓ pull tends to, you know, bias things more towards, ⁓ you know, upper back development. And so I have to work really hard on.

Sawyer (12:04)
and ⁓

Mm-hmm.

and

Ben (12:25)
you know, trying to prioritize my lats and then, you know, width over the thickness that I kind of naturally have. ⁓ So, you know, reflecting that in our programming changes, bringing down your lower body volume and frequency as well, because, I mean, you care about having nice developed legs, but it’s not your number one priority. And I think just reminding you of that and also understanding this is more than enough to maintain and still make progress actually and be growing on that.

Sawyer (12:31)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (12:50)
And I

think for yourself, even if it’s not a priority, there’s sometimes this fear of missing out or this fear of, I going to regress? But just kind of bringing it back to like, what actually are your priorities and, you know, understanding that, I’m still going to make progress. It’s just not going to be at the same rate as these other body parts. And that’s actually a good thing because that’s what we want to be doing in the first place based on your goals.

Sawyer (12:58)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. And I’ve tried to do the whole thing where you try to make everything progress at the same time. That works for new people in the gym, but as a more advanced lifter, man, you could really burn the candle at both ends if you’re trying to make everything go just as fast, especially if you’re just hammering the volume like I have. So yeah, ⁓ it’s good to have you kind of guiding the…

You know, the journey a little bit, the process, because it’s so easy to be, you know, uh, very demanding of yourself when you’re, you’re, you want this stuff so bad or you, you feel like you can handle more than most people, blah, blah, blah, whatever BS you tell yourself, um, in the moment. So it’s good to have somebody checking on your work and being like, ah, I think we should chill out here or yeah, no, I think you could do more or whatever. So it’s just good to have two bad, two heads are better than one. You know what I mean?

Um, yeah. So the training has been good. I really have liked this new, uh, split. And then on the nutrition side, I, uh, have been, my weights have been up a little bit. My body weight has been up a little bit, but I’m not super mad about that. Cause the conditioning mostly seems to be holding and

This was kind of the goal anyway, was to eventually gain a little bit. So I have to be okay with the fact that that’s happening. It’s not like out of control or anything like that. It’s just, you know, happening. So yeah.

Ben (14:33)
I

mean, you know, think about the fact that we ended the dieting phase like basically in the like start of this year and we’ve been very slow, you know, I forget the exact time. I want to say January, February, somewhere around there. And we’ve kind of just been like slowly reversing out of it. So the fact that, you know, maybe on average you’re actually, I mean, when we kind of started increasing your calories, you actually lost a little bit more. And now it’s kind of coming back up almost to where it was when we had kind of stopped the hard dieting phase.

I think the fact that you’re seeing training progressions even if they’re slow and steady, which is to be expected at this point. And the body weight does eventually have to come up, but it’s something where it’s like, okay, if we look at the past three months, for instance, maybe on average we’re kind of the same where we at the of the diet, maybe up a pound or two. That’s exactly kind of the rate of gain that we’re expecting at this point. And of course, if you are

Again, on the newer side to lifting, that might change what that expectation is in terms of your rate of gain if you are going through a building phase. I think that’s also why it’s important to not just focus on scale weight, to also have obviously training performance, but the visuals as well. sometimes the tape measurements can be useful, I find, in certain scenarios, especially like waist circumference. think that’s probably the most useful one out of all of those. But yeah, man, think as far as I’m concerned, I think it’s been a really successful.

transition and like really successful. That kind of slow build that you’ve been after for a while, kind of your white whale, you know, that you’ve been chasing is like not taking it too far too quickly and you’ve done that. So I think that’s something to be proud of.

Sawyer (16:01)
Mm-hmm. Yeah

that

I’m so grateful for your influence, man. I mean, it’s, funny. You call the white whale. It’s a really good ⁓ analogy because it does feel like I was constantly like slipping and sliding past the rates of, gain that I actually wanted to and needed to be going at, at this stage. my, again, my zeal for all of this kind of got the better of me, I think a lot of times and my fear of regression in terms of strength and muscle.

You know, held me back from doing the real cut that I needed to do to like have the aesthetics that I wanted. So you were able to help me get through that kind of hurdle of, know, Hey, you got to lock in and do this. You’re not going to lose muscle. You also have to be more patient on the way back up. And it’s just been good all around. So yeah, I really do appreciate the, ⁓ the help there. And, ⁓ yeah, you just had a very good way of, of knowing what I needed to hear and when. So yeah, man, it’s been, it’s been a real cool journey so far.

Ben (17:02)
Dope. What do say we get into the ⁓ topic for today?

Sawyer (17:06)
You don’t want to talk about you at all? I am very curious about you. I feel like we haven’t talked about it, you know? At least a few minutes, yeah. So let me know what’s been going on in your world. I know that your girlfriend got a promotion recently. I know that, I don’t think you’ve been spending a ton of time with your parents, but you have been back and forth between Lexington.

Ben (17:09)
Okay. Alright, alright, sure, we can do that first. What do want to know?

Sawyer (17:29)
And and where’s the place you’re called Berlin? No, Burlington’s Vermont. Where are you in? Where’s the place you’re in again?

Ben (17:35)
Brighton is the, I mean, it’s similar to like the boroughs of New York City. It’s like part of Boston proper, so technically Brighton, but sometimes our address is listed as Boston too. So yeah, basically Boston. Yeah, we’ve been a little bit less back and forth the past couple weeks just because ⁓ the work schedule has been definitely pretty hectic for Dana. So there’s been a lot of just kind of hanging out here, hunkering down, working for both of us.

Sawyer (17:37)
Brighten.

Mm-hmm.

Okay. Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm

Mm-hmm.

Ben (18:04)
which

is, it’s, it’s, you know, I think it’s, you kind of have this natural ebb and flow, at least we do, where our work is a little bit more variable. It’s not a consistent nine to five, either of us. You know, there’s some days where she’s working 16 hour days. There’s some days where it’s more, you know, chill like six, seven hours. And it really just, it really just depends on the season. And I’m okay with that. I’ve learned to be a little bit more, you know,

Sawyer (18:11)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Meh.

Ben (18:30)
it’s helped in this kind of progression of me learning to be more flexible for sure, which has been like a continual progression over the time that I have been doing this whole fitness thing and bodybuilding thing. There’s times where I’ve been very rigid with my routine and I think that’s kind of how it started out. And over time, as you get more skilled with something, I’ve made this analogy before, but it’s like the…

Sawyer (18:34)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (18:51)
you know, the basketball player or the musician who is able to kind of improvise once they’ve learned the rules. It’s similar with fitness, I feel, where over time you learn all the different tools and strategies that you have at your disposal and you can implement those when necessary. And you still try to create some semblance of structure where you can, but then you have to be able to be adaptable based on the scenario and understanding that not every day is going to look the same. So in the past, I’ve been very much like, this is the time I go to bed every day. This is the time I wake up every day.

Sawyer (19:03)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

you

Ben (19:18)
This is the time I eat my meals. This is the time I go to the gym. This is the time that I do my work. But now it’s been a little bit more of a, hey, let me look at my schedule for tomorrow. Let me plan out kind of in my head where I think the day is going to go and how it’s going to flow. And it might not exactly go to plan and I have to be okay with that. And I have to be able to adjust accordingly. And you know, even with training, kind of moving things around, finding a split that can be a little bit more flexible. Push pull legs has been really useful because

Sawyer (19:23)
Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Ben (19:46)
you know, my girlfriend and I, like to train together when I can, when we can. And I try to sync up my schedule with her. So like, okay, she might need to take a couple days off because she’s working three doubles in a row or something like that. So then the next time that she can train, you know, what did she do last? What is she going to do next? Okay, so let’s say we, you know, we’re running a push pull legs last time we trained pull together, she’s going to train legs in a couple of days. So I got to kind of back plan and say, okay, what am I going to do these next three days? So that it kind of lines up with her schedule.

Sawyer (19:56)
Yeah.

Hmm,

that’s cool

Ben (20:13)
And that’s forced

me to be more creative with my programming as well. and just understand that, ⁓ you know, it doesn’t have to look the same every day. feel like I have at this point, a really core like roster of exercises that come in and out. ⁓ and occasionally I’ll throw like a new one in there and just kind of see, you know, does this, does this line up with what I’ve been doing? Do I like this more or less than something else that I’ve been doing? and then as injuries pop up, of course you have to kind of manage that, ⁓ appropriately. So yeah, I think it’s just been a continuation of that.

Sawyer (20:16)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (20:40)
We haven’t been going as much. We went down to the Cape for Mother’s Day this Sunday, which was nice. We just drove down for the day. It’s an hour and a half away, so that wasn’t too bad. And that was nice to be able to spend the day down there. My brother was home for the first time since the start of the year because he went to Costa Rica and then he went to Florida for a month. Then he went to LA for a week. And now he’s back in the Boston area. So I saw him for the first time in a while.

Sawyer (20:45)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (21:04)
And I think the next couple of weeks are going to be a little bit more chill. I’m really looking forward to summer and be doing more like beach stuff and hiking and coming out of the winter. just honestly, just being able to go out for walks throughout my day is really nice. it’s May is a great month here because it’s kind of like, it’s like 50s, 60s. You might get the occasional day in the seventies, which I really like. That’s like my, my favorite kind of temperature and a little bit sunnier. So yeah, we’ve got the garden going in. ⁓

Sawyer (21:08)
Thank

Mm-hmm.

and

Ben (21:33)
in Lexington as well, which it’s a little bit of an experiment because the house kind of blocks the shade, kind of blocks the sun and so there’s shade and so there’s not like a perfect spot for the garden to be. So we’ll see, we’ll see what ends up kind of growing and what doesn’t grow. ⁓ And outside of that, yeah, work’s been good. ⁓ I really, you know, I am super fortunate to work with all the people that I work with. I really, you know, I love all my clients and… ⁓

Sawyer (21:34)
Mm-hmm.

and

Mm-hmm.

Mm hmm. Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (21:58)
you know, they’re just a lot of cool people, a lot of people I really enjoy having conversations to. I always look forward actually to, you know, checking my messages and seeing what I’ve got because I just really enjoy like being able to help people and having those conversations and feeling like I’m helping people move forward. So life’s good right now, even though it’s, you know, it gets busy and stressful. And I will say, I will say the past couple of weeks, and I want to say probably the past eight months, maybe I’ll even say the past year.

Sawyer (22:08)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ben (22:26)
I want to say since last fall, I feel like I have let stress get to me a little bit more than I have in the past. And I think part of that is just a new level of stress that I haven’t experienced before with more responsibilities and more variables. But I think it’s good because it’s that, what is that? Hormesis, right? It’s like a positive amount of stress that causes you to kind of grow and adapt and ⁓ become, again, become more resilient and become stronger. And I think that, you know,

Sawyer (22:31)
Hmm, interesting.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Ben (22:52)
At times I’m not always happy with the way that I deal with it. And I’m like, this, this smaller stuff, like it used to not bother me. And I find myself getting frustrated more easily. So one thing that I feel like I’m actively working on right now is understanding that there’s always going to be stuff that needs to get done. There’s always going to be stuff on my plate. it’s, it’s going to get done. I’m going to get it done. Cause I always do. So I need to trust that and stressing about it. Isn’t going to make it happen any faster or get done any better. So there’s trying to like,

Sawyer (22:58)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

You

Ben (23:19)
remind myself I can move at a pace that is efficient but I don’t need to like be in this frantic state of rushing around all the time to get everything done. Like I can trust that it’s going to get done. I’m not going to forget stuff and that I can do it and execute it without kind of creating this mental headspace that I don’t enjoy being in anyways.

Sawyer (23:25)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it’s hard to go from like very regimented to having to be flexible. but I’m glad that you see the, the merits of doing that and taking on these responsibilities. Cause you also get to have these kinds of fulfilling relationships, like with your girlfriend and your cat and your family. And you know, those take maintenance. So it is a lot of moving pieces, but it’s, it’s for a good reason. So, I’m happy that you’re feeling like not.

overwhelmed and that the stress is helping you grow. Cause there’s definitely a level at which it could be like counterproductive for sure. Um, but that’s good to hear. And I’m also lastly, before we jump into the main topic, cause I know it’s been a while we’ve been chatting. Cause it’s been too long since we’ve talked. Um, if anybody can’t tell, uh, that, uh, you’ve been doing a lot of meal prep stuff that I’ve been like, especially here in Albania, where there’s not very many options. like, dude, I wish I could make that. Like, I wish I had those ingredients available.

That’s something I’m really excited to do when I get back to Spain, actually. And we have an oven because we didn’t have an oven last time we were in Spain. So that’s, I’m excited to hear about more about that. Like what you’ve been doing, like a protein bread. You’ve been doing like a seitan and then there was like something else. Oh, you’re doing like your own tofu and stuff sometimes, right?

Ben (24:49)
Yeah, the tofu is a little bit more involved of a process because we bought a bunch of soybeans. So we like, we’re making our own soy milk and doing the whole thing where you, you know, you soak the soybeans, you boil them off, you blend them, you strain them through the cheese cloth, and then you, you know, then you can make it into tofu or yogurt or whatever. It’s pretty, I’m not gonna lie, it’s pretty time and labor intensive. So what I did was I got this machine that can make soy milk essentially, but it’s, you know, there’s ones that will separate out.

Sawyer (25:10)
Yeah.

Ben (25:17)
what’s called the okara, which is like the pulp basically, like the fiber part of the soybean. But I wanted to get one that, this one was very, I spent so much time reviewing all these different soy milk machines to see like what one would serve the purpose. This one blends everything together at a really high speed and it heats up the soybeans so you don’t have to soak them ahead of time. You don’t have to boil them. It boils them and it blends it all together. But if you don’t,

Sawyer (25:20)
Pop.

Nice

Ben (25:42)
Stir it before you use so like you know then I have this big thing of soy milk But it has the pulp and stuff so it’ll get it’ll you know the the pulp will settle at the bottom if you don’t stir it so we have a little Jug that you can use that you bring the thing up and down and it like whirs and it mixes it in the in the container So I drink that for my girlfriend. It’s a little bit. It’s a little bitter and it’s a little gritty for her and I totally get that compared to like the conventional soy milk. I’m a little bit of a

Sawyer (25:51)
Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (26:10)
What’s the word that I want to use? Weirdo, Neanderthal, like I’ll just drink, I’ll just drink whatever. I’m like, I’ll either drink whatever. So it’s like, it’s a lot cheaper. So I’m like, I can put that in my coffee. I don’t notice a difference. I can put that in my cereal. I don’t notice a difference. So I’ll drink that and then I’ll get like the nice store bought stuff for her ⁓ because I probably go through more of it with smoothies and cereals and all that stuff too. So I’ve been making the own soy milk.

Sawyer (26:12)
Weirdo. I’m the same way. Yeah.

Hehehehehe

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (26:37)
And then if we want to make our own yogurt or tofu, either then have to take that and strain it through a cheesecloth or just buy like, you know, soy milk that is just water and soybeans from the store. like Eden soy or ⁓ West soy, one of these brands that’s just like water and soybeans for the ingredients. then you can make it. But yeah, we’ve been doing, I’ve been doing the protein bread. Sorry, go ahead.

Sawyer (26:49)
Mm-hmm.

Okay. Here. Yeah.

I was going to say, I wonder if you have like, if, you could have like the soy milk, but you had like a, you know, have you ever seen like the water boilers? They’ll have like the strainer that when you, when you’re pouring out of the water boiler, like it has a strainer at the, at the top or the spout. So like stuff won’t come out. You can do something like that maybe with the soy milk and have like, get rid of some of the, the

Ben (27:12)
⁓ Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Sawyer (27:20)
You know, fibrous stuff, but I don’t know. That’s cool though. I would definitely do the same thing. Like I’m, I’m not picky either. So I’d be like you too.

Ben (27:21)
Totally, Yeah, no, that’s gonna do.

Yeah, yeah. So

I’ve done that, make the bread. The bread is basically just like, I make it in the bread machine, but it’s just like kind of a mix between it’s half regular flour and half white wheat gluten. And then like the liquid is soy milk. So that adds a little bit of extra protein as well to the bread and gives it almost more of like a brioche kind of feel to it. But it’s kind of just like other standard, like white bread. And then, how

Sawyer (27:39)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

and

Ben (27:51)
I took the, we had leftover, a ton of leftover okara from the first couple of batches of soy milk that we made. So I made some like breads and stuff with that that were also kind of high protein and just meal prepped a bunch of that and sliced it up and put it in the freezer. So yeah, I’m doing a decent amount of meal prep. Seitan we go through so fast. The Seitan recipe that I use is, it’s from Nora Cooks. She has a vegan fried chicken recipe and I just take the base of it without like the breading and the frying and just the base of it with seitan.

Sawyer (27:57)
Mm-hmm.

Cool. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (28:18)
And it’s basically just vital wheat gluten, spices, some like veggie broth and then a little bit of olive oil. And it’s delicious. It’s super tender and moist and juicy. And so I’ll put that on salads. I’ll fry that up and we’ll have that just as a protein on the side with stuff. ⁓ then other stuff I’ve been eating recently, lot of, you know, throwing edamame puffs and stuff. we’ve been eating a lot of the Kite Hill Greek yogurt.

Sawyer (28:23)
Mm-hmm.

Hmm

Mm-hmm.

Ben (28:40)
We want to try to make our

Sawyer (28:40)
Love it.

Ben (28:41)
own yogurt and see if we can get like a better yield from like, okay, if we buy the Eden soy and like make it ourselves in the instant pot, is that more efficient? I think the Eden soy you can get for like cheapest I’ve seen it as like 330 or something, a carton of it. Usually it’s more like $4 or something in the grocery store. But if that, you know, if that quart of soy milk then yields us way more yogurt than, you know, the $5 Kite HIll Greek yogurt, okay. You know, then that’s the case of that might be worth it. So.

Sawyer (28:48)
Mm-hmm

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (29:08)
That’s kind of next on the experimentation. ⁓ Sometimes we get another thing is sometimes she gets free food from her work. So she’ll bring stuff home. It’s not always the most necessarily macro friendly, but it’s usually pretty delicious. So I try to, you know, I work that in to what I’m eating as well. Like that might not be like the whole thing that I’m eating. For example, this past week, she brought home these, these chickpea wraps. they’re like chickpea salad.

Sawyer (29:11)
That’s cool.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

and

Ben (29:32)
wrapped

in like a tomato wrap or whatever and they’re really good. They’re really tasty and they’ve got veggies and chickpeas in there. yeah, there’s like some mayo and stuff, but you know, finding my way, finding a way to incorporate that a little bit. She brought home like a giant watermelon that they had leftover of. That’s obviously super easy because I, I filled like, I kid you not cutting that up, that beast, that was like the biggest watermelon I’ve ever seen or cut up. I probably had like eight Tupperwares full of just cut up watermelon that I’m going to be making my way through and it’s summertime. So, ⁓

Sawyer (29:37)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

No.

Wow. I’m jealous.

Ben (30:00)
Yeah,

I think we’ve kind of like, since we’ve met, obviously it was a little bit chaotic, like finding a place, getting a place, settling into routine. But now we’ve kind of been, we’ve been doing a little bit of a cut together, which has been fun because she’s been wanting to do it too. And she’s been getting really into, I mean, she’s been really like loving training together and getting into the gym together. And like, she’s been making really good progress and, ⁓ you know, seeing her physique change. And that’s been exciting for her and exciting for me too, to see that.

Sawyer (30:12)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Cool.

is

Ben (30:28)
and kind

of just making these small changes, Like changing our sauces and dressings over to like lower sugar, lower fat versions, trying to find more like protein rich versions of the foods that we eat. So these really small changes over time that we’ve been making, but it kind of, you know, it compounds and adds up and you see those. So it’s been like a stress free way to, you know, just work on, you know, being healthier over time. So it’s been fun.

Sawyer (30:35)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

It does.

Cool, man. Well, that’s awesome. Sounds like it’s all trending in the right direction and you guys are enjoying life together, which is what it’s all about, man. So that’s cool. And you know, you mentioned Nora Cooks. I’m wondering, you know, we could use that as a, transition into the topic because yeah, I didn’t even think about all the recipes that I’ve accumulated over the years and where they come from, but that could be a good starting point. Like, do you have a go-to place? she Nora Cooks, like your go-to or do you like?

Where do you go to for most recipes?

Ben (31:21)
I would say so, yeah, Nora Cooks, we’ve probably made the most recipes from her and every time I make a recipe from her, it’s really good. So we made her collard green recipe. We used that when we catered Dani’s birthday and that was a huge hit. Everyone loved those. We’ve done her lentil loaf. We’ve obviously done the seitan. ⁓ Anytime that I want to look up like a recipe for something, I see if she has something similar first to start. ⁓

Sawyer (31:29)
Hmm

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (31:49)
Obviously, vegan proteins, like we have a ton of great recipes here in our app and with our membership. So sometimes I’ll use some of those, but I would say she’s a really good resource for recipes. And I find that we use her recipes a lot.

Sawyer (31:54)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Cool. I, I don’t do as much recipe making. pretty like basic. I’ll just do, you know, random things, but I, I really do hope that when we have a more long-term place that I’m going to be doing more like brat batch prepping things and like cooking things on my own, like doing the breads and the, know, I don’t know if I’m going to make tofu, that’d be kind of cool.

But I will say that, I definitely check vegan proteins a lot. there’s so many recipes that I’m not even aware of. And in the recipe book that we have on the app, it’s really extensive. so I’ve, I’ve pulled that up a few times and they’re like, maybe I’ll try this. another one that I will sometimes use usually around the holidays, cause they’re a little bit less health focused is, ⁓ this blog, called, it doesn’t taste like chicken. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it.

Yeah, she’s awesome. She’s super sweet person, but she has really good tasty recipes that You know, I’ve made a pumpkin pie from there. I’ve made like a soup from there and People are always pretty impressed Even you know the non-vegan so that one that one’s pretty cool Yeah, so that that’s probably my go-to besides vegan proteins for like more holiday type stuff

Ben (33:07)
Yeah.

Something random that I just thought of that might be something I know you’ve been kind of a little bit more limited in your food selection in Albania. I don’t know if you’re familiar with like how you can make vital wheat gluten slash seitan yourself by rinsing like the the loaf that you made and then getting rid of the starch. I wonder if you could do something like that like with the chickpea tofu that you made or like with the because you know

Sawyer (33:14)
Mm-hmm.

⁓

Mmm.

Hmm.

Ben (33:29)
The fava bean tofu, like the soy free tofu from Big Mountain Foods that has like is basically all protein. I’m guessing it’s a similar kind of process where they take the ground bean flour, they add water to it, and then they kind of rinse off all the starch until it’s basically just protein left. Labor intensive, that’s the downside, right? Obviously. you know, hard to know the macros exactly, so to speak, but it’s kind of like the same thing where it’s like, okay, let’s say you cook a Beyond Burger and

Sawyer (33:32)
and

and

I’m open to it. Yeah.

Ben (33:57)
You know, you’re cooking it the pan and some of the fat is coming out of it and you take it off the stove and you’re like, you press it with a paper towel maybe because it’s pretty greasy and you know, fat and you’re getting some of the fat like out of it. Okay, you don’t really know how to track that because you’re kind of taking some of it away, but you’re still at the end of the day, you’re still taking away a little bit of the fat out of it. So it’s like, even if you don’t know it perfectly, you’re still getting kind of the outcome that you want anyways. ⁓ That was a total tangent there.

Sawyer (34:07)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (34:27)
So I didn’t even think about like recipe creation before we came here, but obviously check out the Vegan Proteins YouTube channel. We’ve got a ton of recipes on there. Check out our membership because we have hundreds here. ⁓ In terms of like nutrition,

Sawyer (34:27)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (34:41)
more like educational resources around nutrition. The ones that I have written down here are Simon Hill, The Proof. I think that’s a great podcast and very, I would say more sciencey. it may be like as an introduction, it could be a little perhaps overwhelming to listen to, but I think he does a really great job of keeping the evidence, the evidence and making sure that he’s not too

Sawyer (34:44)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (35:07)
bombastic or too hyperbolic with the claims that he makes. He keeps very evidence-based to the point where, you know, talking about another podcast, Iron Culture, know, Eric Helms talked about him in like one of their most recent episodes. And so like, I think the fact that a plant-based or plant-forward, you know, evidence-based nutrition podcast is getting more mainstream recognition. mean, the proof is huge. think Simon has got like over a million followers or something like that at this point.

Sawyer (35:14)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (35:34)
⁓ I think that’s having a really positive impact. And then this isn’t a podcast, it’s a person, but he’s kind of new and up and coming in terms of like the vegan doctor space. But Dr. Matt Nagra, I think he’s really great. And it would definitely be someone that I would consider following if you’ve never come across him or heard of him. Obviously there’s all the plant-based doctors that people know like.

Sawyer (35:48)
Mm-hmm.

Ben (35:57)
Dr. Greger and Barnard and Ornish and Esselstyn and all that. So I don’t think we even need to go down that direction. I’m trying to look for people who maybe we people haven’t heard of before who are maybe newer to the space, but are doing a really great job. And ⁓ those are two that came up for me in terms of nutrition with Simon Hill, the proof and then Dr. Matthew Nagra.

Sawyer (36:04)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

those are those are two of my favorites as well. And ones that I was going to bring up because I think that as much as I do appreciate the whole food plant based messaging of like the PCRM crowd and those kind of people. I think that at least for my taste, I like having a little more nuanced conversations around nutrition.

And I think that is also helpful for clearing up why, you know, not every dietician is plant based right now and things like that, because they’re also talking about food politics and they’re also talking about, you know, how hard it is to get the science into these, different professions and things like that. And also some, some places where the evidence isn’t all that clear, you know what I mean? So I really like that they dive into those things. It provides for more.

nuanced understanding, I would argue, of nutrition and not so like, like, I think if you stay at that, like, very surface level, you know, kind of understanding of nutrition, you can end up getting pretty frustrated by the fact that like, it just seems so clear that like, we should we should be all ⁓ eating plant based. Now that’s still the case, but at least you could see more

reasoning behind why people are confused and where the misinformation comes along and ⁓ how people get tripped up on like mechanisms as opposed to outcome data and the kind of grifters that are in the space of nutrition now. So I really do like these science communicators because they really break it down in a way that just processes it for you. And like they don’t shy away from especially like

Dr. Nagra, he doesn’t shy away from like calling people out who are spreading misinformation. Whereas I don’t feel like a lot of the other doctors and things will really even address that much controversial stuff. I don’t know if you agree with that or not, but.

Ben (38:00)
Yeah,

think it’s product of the times as well because it’s a different generation. Most of the doctors who’ve kind of more aligned with the whole food plant-based message. think Dr. Manil Patel came on and he’s another ⁓ great, great resource. He came on and talked about how they paved the way for a lot of the now up and coming vegan doctors in terms of doing some of the early research, having the anecdotal experiences with their patients.

Sawyer (38:14)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (38:26)
⁓

and I think that they continue to do a great job of sharing their message and sharing their story. But for those who are maybe younger and newer, like there’s not going to be a lot of, I don’t know, probably not going to be a lot of like teenagers, 20 year olds, 30 year olds, maybe even who are finding that information because the way that social media works these days, you kind of have to play the game of

getting involved a little bit more in debates, in drama, you could call it in reaction videos. That’s how you get people to pay attention. And it’s just not the world that some of the plant-based doctors, I’ll just group them in as that, grew up in. And so they’re not gonna play that game. They’re not gonna, like, cause they’re more worried about actually day-to-day who they’re seeing in the clinics and that sort of stuff. They’re focused on that and maybe giving the talks and speeches every now and then.

Sawyer (38:55)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm

Mm-hmm.

Ben (39:15)
So I think it’s important to have a mixture of these things and a mixture of messages because maybe for folks who are in the older demographic, hey, maybe that message aligns more with them and they don’t wanna listen to the debates and the back and forth and the quick social media quip. So I think it’s important to have a variety in the space and I think that that’s something that ⁓ we should emphasize. Another person that I wanted ⁓ to mention was Dr. Angie Sadeghi who I’m actually gonna interview tomorrow.

Sawyer (39:19)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Totally agree.

I was just gonna say her too.

Yeah. Woo.

Ben (39:43)
I’m going to interview her tomorrow on the podcast.

So I don’t know if this one will be coming out after that one’s been released or before. ⁓ if it’s already come out, go and listen to that. We’re going to be talking about GLP ones. We’re going to be talking about, they cause muscle loss? ⁓ what, well, you know, what’s the truth behind that? Talk a little bit about gut health. That one’s going to be a great episode. So if that hasn’t come out, you can look forward to that. If it has go check it out. and she was another one that I, you know, that came up when I was kind of making my list.

Sawyer (39:49)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I’m excited.

Yeah.

Yeah. No last note on that I think is, unless you have more, is that Angie is one of those science communicators who is not afraid to call out misinformation. But she’s also very focused on the practical and she wants to get people to understand what’s going to actually affect their health and their situation. So I think there are lots of very good science communicators and they always bring it back to

the real and the practical and what are the next steps that you can do. And, she’s definitely in that camp. So that’s really cool too. also last, last, last mention, unless you have any more is, ⁓ Carolina Schneider, her registered dietitian who is such a sweetheart, but also just really, really knowledgeable and very, ⁓ practical as well. And I feel like she, she, know, people that kind of cluster together, like

Dr. Angie and Carolina, they kind of stick together because they have a similar ethos and they bring out the science in a way that I think is very palatable, but also very, just very effective. So I want to shout out both of those two. Yeah.

Ben (41:13)
Yeah, for sure. I’ll try to make sure to put all the people that were mentioning like links to ⁓ their bios and their information in the show notes. So, okay, that was mainly nutrition. Do we want to talk a little bit about maybe evidence-based like fitness and training and more specific to what we’re actually doing in the gym? I think that could be a good place to go. ⁓ Maybe like kind of coaching specifics if you’re self-coached. The first one that I have written down here is 3D muscle journey, 3D MJ.

Sawyer (41:18)
Mm-hmm.

Thanks, man.

Yeah.

Ben (41:41)
And I think that they are a collection of coaches who they’ve, they’ve walked the walk. So they, you know, a lot of them are competitive bodybuilders. I’d say, I think they’re all actually competitive bodybuilders and, power lifters, many of them as well. And they’ve been coaching for, for decades, you know, lots of combined experience, lots of wisdom. They’re sharing practical tips on, um, you know, it’s, it’s a lot of, they, they introduced the principles. Um, Eric Helms has a series of books called the muscle and strength pyramids. And there’s also like a.

Sawyer (42:00)
Mm-hmm.

Ben (42:09)
a diet version of that, a nutrition version of that. Those are really good fundamentals. If you’re not sure where to start, start with those. Those are gonna tell you what’s the most important, where should you put most of your time and energy, what’s less important, what are kind of the smaller pebbles as opposed to the bigger rocks. And it kind of lays it out in a very hierarchical structure that’s easy to understand. And it’s evidence informed. They use their practical experience working with people. They also incorporate the science. It’s a great blend. They have tons of podcast episodes.

Sawyer (42:16)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (42:38)
That’s going to be one of the top ones on my list.

Sawyer (42:38)
And they updated all the time too,

right? As we learn more, they’re constantly updating it, which I really appreciate about them. And I mean, even Dani had us, you had already read it, but she had us read those books before we even, she was just like trying to make us make sure we covered our bases and didn’t have any blind spots before we started coaching people. And I appreciated that she had us do that. Cause you know, even if it was mostly review, there was still some stuff that I learned from those and they were really good reminders too.

of like, what are the most important things to focus on? So yeah, I think, I think those are a good place to start with recommendations.

Ben (43:11)
Uh, some other ones that I have written down here are the revive stronger podcast. Uh, that’s hosted by Steve Hall, who’s a bodybuilder based out of the UK, but he’s been interviewing people in the evidence-based fitness space for about a decade. Um, and he’s got like over 500 episodes, I think at this point with like industry experts. Um, he does a really great job doing his research on the guests, asking them important questions. Oftentimes if there’s a new study that’s come out, um, on hypertrophy research or on nutrition.

Sawyer (43:15)
Mm-hmm

Mm-hmm.

Ben (43:38)
He’s interviewing people, but he also talks to, you know, people, know, bodybuilders who are kind of in the trenches, coaches. So I think that’s a really great resource. The Iron Culture podcast is another one that’s a good blend of like practical. So they’ll interview athletes, know, powerlifters, Olympic weightlifters. They have historians to talk about the history of lifting and where that kind of comes in. it’s, you know, it’s what it sounds like iron culture. It’s everything that is kind of surrounding.

Sawyer (43:47)
Mm-hmm.

Ben (44:03)
lifting strength in physique sports. There’s a good blend of science and humor and evidence-based topics. So that would be another good one. I think they cover some pretty unique topics in that one as well. So those were two more that I had written down.

Sawyer (44:07)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And then on the side of short form content, because I think most of the things we’ve mentioned so far have been podcasts or YouTubes. I think, I know you think, I don’t know how you feel if your opinion on him has changed, but I really like Ben Yanes. I think he’s really good at educating. I think he’s come away from some of the stuff that you’re talking about. Like he maybe had been a little bit too dogmatic at first.

But his knowledge of anatomy is very good. And he also spends a lot of time breaking down and talking about topics that I find really interesting when it comes to just anatomy and physiology stuff mostly. So if you’re interested in that stuff, you want to know about how the body works. If you want to have breakdowns of like why different exercise variations could be better for some people or others, he’s got a lot of good ideas and good content in my opinion.

Ben (45:06)
Yeah, I’d say if you want to nerd out about anatomy and programming and biasing different muscles, that’s a great specific resource to go to. So I would agree with that. And then the last one I have is Jeff Nippard. And Jeff Nippard’s been making YouTube videos for a long time. Again, he’s been around the space for a while. And I think he puts out just good, it’s rare to see a channel that has such a huge following as he does.

Sawyer (45:09)
Yeah.

is

Mm-hmm.

Ben (45:29)
and somebody who he’s competed in natural bodybuilding, he’s competing in powerlifting. he’s again, he’s interviewed a lot of industry experts over the years. He puts out very well edited videos and very easy to follow and understand, but he incorporates, you know, the science in a practical way. and I think that for anyone who’s trying to get like introduced to evidence-based fitness, I think he’s, he’s a great resource. You know, one that actually has.

I think also gotten a lot better over the years, who’s also has a massive audiences, Jeremy Ethier on, on YouTube. Like he used to be somebody who I was like, I don’t really know how I feel about, you know, the content that he’s putting out, but I think he’s gotten a lot better over time. ⁓ it’s kind of similar to Jeff Nippard where it’s like more edited talking about the science of hypertrophy research. ⁓ he actually did a study with, with Kassem Hansen, who’s another person who’s like big in like the biomechanics anatomy space. they did a study comparing.

Sawyer (45:58)
Hmm.

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (46:19)
Basically similar exercises, but they use prime machines. So prime machines are a type of machine where you can change what’s called the resistance profile, which fancy way for saying some exercises are hardest in the stretch. Some are hardest in like the contracted position. So you’d think about like the bicep curl, like you know at the bottom when your biceps stretch versus at the top when you’re squeezing it. And so they took the same exercise and they can use these machines to manipulate at what point in the range of motion is the hardest and they compared the differences.

⁓ So I think he’s somebody who’s gotten better over the years, Jeremy Ethier. But Jeff Nippard was another one that I just wanted to mention because I think he’s done a really great job over the years.

Sawyer (46:50)
Mm-hmm.

Hmm. Yeah. I don’t watch those as much, but I, trust your, your thoughts on that. I really do like the long form content better for the most part, because like the podcasts and the three DMJs and all that stuff, because I mean, you know, this is what I do for a living for one thing, but also it’s just, ⁓ it’s nice to have all the context because I think it’s, you know, if you, if you watch too much short form content, like if you watch, I would argue if you watch too much,

short form content, you might end up with more questions than answers in a lot of cases, like nutrition included. but at the same time, I think there’s so much short form content that it kind of adds up. If you’re paying attention to enough things, like you can kind of get answers to some bigger questions if you’ve kind of been watching and following along for awhile. So yeah, I think it’s just a personal preference thing for the most part, actually, now that I think about it.

Ben (47:42)
Totally.

So for more vegan specific ones, have one that some that are a little bit one that’s a little bit more fun. This YouTube channel that’s I would say pretty unknown. It’s called Totally Forkable. She doesn’t make videos super often, but she covers really interesting topics on like just like positive vegan news about, you know, little little like wins, whether it’s legislature or some company, you know, coming out with a new plant based product or

Sawyer (47:55)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (48:07)
interesting topics like there is the whole vegan Dale thing did you ever hear about that is basically this big like vegan festival and there’s this controversy around it so she’ll cover like different vegan related topics and I think she’s she’s funny like she’s got like a background I think in like acting and comedy so that’s a cool channel that is just a little bit more fun to check out there’s earthling Ed earthling Ed I think is you know one of the

Sawyer (48:11)
and

Mm-hmm.

cool.

He’s the goat, man.

Ben (48:31)
Yeah, I mean, he just knows how to have conversations with people and really get down to what it is that they’re trying to say or express and challenge some of the beliefs that they have in a way that is not confrontational, or at least confrontational as it can be. It’s kind of just meant to get them thinking about what he’s saying in a very logical way. And he’s very well-spoken. Obviously he’s had these conversations so many times that he’s, I envy the fact that it’s like he’s got

Sawyer (48:40)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (48:57)
what I do is like, that’s the perfect response every time. and I’m sure he gets frustrated sometimes and he wishes like, you know, he could have these conversations different way, but he’ll go to different college campuses or, public, public spaces and just have conversations with people about veganism, um, specifically with, you know, the, the ethics, um, the animal ethics. So that’s a great one. And then two that are not necessarily content, but I think are, uh, interesting resources are, uh, phonilytics and animal charity evaluators. And these are companies that look at.

Sawyer (49:10)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Ben (49:26)
the most effective ways to be a vegan advocate. And they look at what are the most effective forms? Is it social media? Is it protests? Is it donations? That’s more phonilytics. And then animal charity evaluators just looks at what it sounds like. It looks at all these different resources, all these different charities that you could give money to and that you could donate to. And it says, where’s your money gonna go the furthest? And this gets talked about, I think, ⁓

Sawyer (49:29)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (49:51)
a decent amount in Robert Cheeke who’s a friend of Vegan Proteins and the podcast. He talks about this in his book, The Impactful Vegan, about where does your money go the furthest and where can you have the most impact. If you’re wondering how can I have more of an impact, if you do want to donate, what does that look like? Those would be some good ⁓ resources I would say. That’s all I have for you.

Sawyer (50:02)
Mm-hmm.

Cool.

Okay. I have some pop that popped into my head. So, and of all the different categories, so I feel bad. This is like a catchall. So I guess on the same topic of being just like a general vegan type resource, Danny Ishay. Danny Ishay is really, really good at, he makes like,

comedy sketch type things, content, also like some, yeah.

Ben (50:34)
His

Instagram username is like LiftingVeganLogic, right? So people can find. He changed it, okay. Okay, interesting.

Sawyer (50:39)
Well, he changed it to Danny Ishay Yeah. To like be less like,

you know, to not shoe as many people away with the vegan name. But ⁓ yeah, yeah. So he’s great because he will just kind of do short form content of like these different arguments that people will…

Ben (50:46)
I got it. Okay. Formerly known as lifting vegan logic. Okay.

Sawyer (51:00)
do give against veganism or these kinds of mental gymnastics that people will do. And so he, kind of really highlights the absurdity, but also, you know, highlights the evidence against some of these arguments.

And then a nutrition one because I really like him because he’s very like relatable.

⁓ is Derek Simnet. he’s yeah, he’s, he’s Canada based. He’s in BC and, ⁓ he’s just, he puts out really good, like relatable content. And, I dunno, I just, he’s, he’s a nutritionist, but he’s not like hitting you over the head with anything. He’s just like, Hey, here’s how I live and here’s how I get my nutrients in. And here’s some recipes you can try. And it’s like kind of like infotainment, I guess you could call it. It’s pretty cool stuff.

Ben (51:42)
He’s got like a super just like positive infectious attitude about him that makes him so fun to watch like he’s just got like a kind of like childlike energy to him that I think is just makes it like you whenever I watch one of his videos I walk away feeling like like I don’t know just like more like happier honestly like I think he’s just got like a really like awesome positive upbeat attitude about everything he doesn’t take himself too seriously he makes like

Sawyer (51:42)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Ben (52:05)
healthy eating and lifestyle look fun and exciting and you want to just get into it. I think some people have this perception of, fitness is this thing I have to do and it’s a drag, but he makes it seem welcoming and inviting and I really appreciate that.

Sawyer (52:10)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, no, I’m totally, totally with you on that. He kind of reminds me of the Watton twins too, who are Canadians as well and lived in BC for a long time. They’re all just such positive people and they always look for the good in every situation and they care deeply about, you know, how they affect the earth and the animals on it. And I just think it’s really cool to see how people live and makes you feel like, I don’t know, I want to be more like them. It’s not like they’re preaching.

They’re not they’re not on their soapbox. They’re just like, hey, here’s how I live. And you’re just like, it’s just very inviting. Definitely. Dang, there was one more that I wanted to say, and I totally forget now. There’s just so many that I forget.

Ben (52:57)
What?

When you remember, you can make a list and then you can drop it down in the comments on this episode and people can find any ones that you saw. I think that was a pretty good list, man. I think between the catch up and some of the quick hits that we had, I think people will have some new people to follow, some new content to consume. And of course, if you’re seeing this video, you should definitely check out our other channel, Vegan Proteins, the main channel if you’re watching this on the podcast channel Muscles by Brussels because we put new videos out there every week talking about nutrition and fitness.

Sawyer (53:02)
Sounds like a good idea. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ben (53:27)
in training and ⁓ I might be biased but I think we do a pretty good job communicating a mixture of practical and ⁓ evidence-based, client-informed content there. So if you’re interested, head over to the Vegan Proteins YouTube channel. You can find more from us on veganproteins.com. If you’re interested in getting help with your own fitness journey, that’s what we do here. We’re coaches, we work with people.

Sawyer (53:37)
Yeah.

Ben (53:49)
We’re the longest operating online vegan fitness coaching company and ⁓ we’d love to help you out and to work with you. We also have a Muscles by Brussels membership. We’ve got a new app that we just rolled out. It’s super snazzy and we’re really excited about. So you can find more about all of that on our website. You can reach out to coach at veganproteins.com if you’re interested in any of the things that I just mentioned. You can find us everywhere, vegan proteins and Muscles by Brussels.

Sawyer (54:03)
Mm-hmm.

Ben (54:14)
⁓ My Instagram is at Ben a Mitchell Sawyers is at soy boy fitness coaching Alice’s is at vegan proteins Alice with that said Thank you guys for listening to another episode of the podcast It always really helps out if you’re watching on YouTube if you can leave a comment or a like just saying you enjoyed the episode Or maybe some topics you want us to cover you can always send us a you know Instagram DM with any questions that you have about anything fitness related Or you know anything related to the podcast?

If you’re listening, definitely reshare and if you tag us, we’ll reshare that forward for you. And we just really appreciate your listenership and being here with us. So thanks for listening to another episode. I’m Ben.

Sawyer (54:51)
I’m Sawyer and I want to know by the way, who are your favorite influencers? Drop in the comments below.

Ben (54:56)
Yeah, we want to learn too. want to know who maybe we some hidden gems that we haven’t that we don’t know about. So yeah, thanks guys. We’ll catch you in next week’s episode. Bye everyone.

Sawyer (55:01)
Yeah. All right. See you guys.