You know us here at mine pump. We really enjoy the podcast space There's some phenomenal podcast out there outside of of course your favorite podcast mine pump And we found a new one that we really really enjoy in fact one of the hosts You and a jada was actually a mine pump fan. I've actually been on their podcast, but it's a it's a done It's a very well done podcast that revolves around food and health It's exceptional in fact one of the recent episode Episodes disordered eating and eating disorders is exceptional. So the podcast is called Food we need to talk the hosts are you and a jada and dr. Eddie Phillips and they talk about you know nutrition and exercise and all Things health it is an NPR podcast. So, you know, it's super high quality great sound great production They have an Instagram page. It's at food. We need to talk I think you're gonna enjoy it. Make sure you go check them out in this episode of mine pump. We talk about Meal plans meal plans are probably the most basic Consistent I would say popular way of trying to lose weight or change body composition Unfortunately meal plans totally suck They just don't work and we explain why in this episode You should never follow a diet that is based off of meal plans So we talk about why people don't stick to them and why when people do stick to them It's still not a good thing. We talk about how it convinces people that healthy eating is not for them how it doesn't set you up for real life and You know, it's like getting the answers without figuring out how to do the work without figuring out the process Now before the episode starts We are in March one of our most popular newest maps programs maps power lift is 50% off Now this is a program that centers around the three main big lifts bench press Deadlift and squat if you want to get really really strong at those amazing exercises This program is exceptional Of course, if you want to compete in powerlifting and you've never done it before or you've only done it once or twice Follow this program along within this program. We also have power lifting Coaching that teaches you about the sport of power lifting But again, if you don't even want to compete you just want to get really strong at those lifts This program will deliver again. It's 50% off. Here's how you get that discount go to maps power lift Com that's MAPS POWER LIFT.com and use the code power 50. That's POW WER 5-0 no space for the discount dude We need to do I still see this happen a lot You know, it's funny. I forgot that this happened a lot until I see certain people posting things and asking questions Mm-hmm. We need to talk about the dietary practice Known as meal plans. Hmm.  So totally. Thank you for it. Well first off I mean, which I think is a controversial statement. Yeah, or unpopular especially coming from it's one of the worst dietary strategies You can have yeah by far. It's so to for the for people listening or don't quite understand what a meal plan is It's not a specific Macro breakdown. It's not a specific dietary Philosophy like keto or vegan or paleo. It can be all of those things what a meal plan is is is like this 8 a.m. I eat one cup of oatmeal two whole eggs three ounces of cheese You know at 10 a.m. My snack consists of one slice of whole wheat bread, you know, two ounces of turkey Almond's it's it's a meal plan is when your food is literally Planned out that way where you follow a specific Meal plan and then the way you you live your life and do your day Revolves around that rigid structure. Yes, you look at the you know, oh, here's my meal for this is my meal for now And it's all set up and I don't even I don't even think you need to Define it That detail. I think that it's just in general.  Tell me what to eat exactly and for trainers. No exactly what we're talking about and for many years And you know, I'm glad we're going this was a Justin's idea with ironically You know, you know, I come on Right, right. But I mean, this is this is a really actually a really good conversation because I think of the things that we talk about on the show a lot of the motivation of What provided all this content was a lot of things that we think that we did wrong Yeah, when in reality we we thought we were helping people and doing the right thing But what we would end up seeing is this Consistent and what I openly shared on this show is you know, I was ranked the top trainer and I was best and had all these trophies of being great and You know five years into my career and I remember reflecting back and going, you know, if I'm so great Why is it that less than 20% of my clients, you know stick to their results? I'm sure I can get I got a lot of people in shape like I you know I definitely did a good job even as a young trainer short term success rate was high, right Like, you know, if I stick to this, here's your meal plan Here's your workout plan motivate you every day to do it push you hard through it, you know And we start at day one and six weeks from there. I made great change in lots of people's Lives and bodies, but what I would realize is that, you know, time would go by Months would pass and those people would put all that weight back on and it was just kind of this vicious cycle and as a young trainer I used to justify it because well, that's what kept my business running and that I'm that valuable. They need me But what I wasn't doing I wasn't fundamentally changing these people and and setting them up for long-term success I was just giving them the answers of what they needed to do to get their body to change instantly But I wasn't changing behavior from a long term standpoint We just were not effective because to be even more clear The three people you're listening to on this podcast right now 100% used meal plans for at least the first few years. Oh, yeah of our careers I leaned on it really hard and the thing is is that you can get people to conform to what Ideas you want them to move towards you can convince them like I mean that's half of it is first thing is like okay selling them on the idea that You know, you could get to a certain place and you could lose this Amount of pounds and you know, whatever goals are coming in with like I have an answer for you And so this is one of those things I have an answer for that and it looks like this and here's here's how I structured it all out for you And but the problem was like you guys are saying it just wasn't a long-term strategy that was effective Right, and here's here is the formula the formula was Here's your workout Here's your meal plan a big chunk of what I did as a personal trainer in the first few years of being a trainer was Creating meal plans for people and it gets even worse Here's the bad part when my client wouldn't Progress or wouldn't get great results. It was the meal plan Oh, you're not doing your meal plan the reason why you're not getting results is you're not doing the meal plan The reason why I did that was because the formula Worked if you just stuck to this formula. Yeah, it was mathematically figured out. That's it If you just stick to this formula, you're gonna get results But then on the other end of that is It's still not working nobody's following it. Why isn't it working? Oh, it's the person's fault Forget the formula that I'm giving them. It's the person's they're just lazy. Yeah, they're lazy They're not motivated enough. They're not serious about their goals. I mean, do you I remember even doing this Like I remember writing a meal plan or you know back then to uh, you know early days I think I don't think 24 had this one Justin came on I know sour remember this but you could write into apex. Oh, yeah, and that spit off a meal plan And you guys remember like how How how weird and ridiculous it would be it would be like four saltine crackers A half an apple, you know saying like three and a half egg whites. Yeah It was I mean it was the it was the the macro nutrients were perfect for what this person needed to get to their results And that it would spit out the food that matched that and you were so About that that ice would spend The first day for sure presenting it and then weeks afterwards of like Convincing that they need to follow this to get to where they want to be one of the first I remember this like it was I remember this because it hit me like a ton of bricks, right? So here I am. I'm training people Giving them meal plans. I'm probably a year and a half two years I don't know early in my career, but long enough to where I'd been trained You know I'd trained enough people and I had this woman that I trained that was I love training her because she was very objective She presented herself very intelligently So she could work around my false Understandings of why people weren't getting results like most clients I'd be like Oh, you're not getting results because you're not following the meal plan You need to be you know you stick to it and they'd be like, okay You know I'll try harder But she was she was really really smart and she presented herself. Well, so here she is working with me Not getting results and I'm giving her the apex meal plan that it would spit out right and the way it would work Is it would literally try to spit out how to You know perfectly match the macros and the calories right have such weird And yeah, and so so I'm talking to I'm like, you know, I'm like, oh, you're just not following your meal plan You're not doing exactly what you're supposed to and she pulled out the meal plan.  I'm like, well, what's and I'm thinking at this point. I'm thinking Food is just a means to an end. It's just calories and macros just do what it says and she goes look I understand That you're counting calories and counting proteins and fats and carbs. She goes but food is also Life it's life.  She says nobody eats like that forever How could this possibly be something that's going to be six?   She's like be honest with me. I was like, no I've done meal plans before and I went off of them because I don't I don't like that way of eating It's unrealistic and it hit me and I remember thinking like Shit, I got to figure this out like what do I do because She's totally right and like what Adam said I am doing I'm I'm okay with short-term results so so long as I could Use my motivational inspirational skills to get the person to stick to what I was But that ran out at some point at some point they became normal people and then it didn't work Well, no doubt the the number one reason why the meal plans suck is because people don't stick to them So what is it about it that you think is that is it the how I didn't learn anything from it? Oh, yeah, that's a big one. But that's the biggest for me. Well, that's a that's a big one But you know when you ask people why don't you stick to this meal plan? Here's the main thing that I would hear right ask yourself this Oh, well life situations. Yeah. Yeah. Ask yourself this. Do you eat? Everything always the same all the time ever No, nobody eats that way. There isn't is you know who eats that way bodybuilders Physique competitors bikini competitors pre-contest They don't even eat that way and neurotic people and very very neurotic people People don't stick to them because sticking to a structured meal plan all the time Turns life into misery it turns It takes food and it boils all down to calories macros and that's it and now life is I also think I also think there's other reasons too. I think it just it requires a whole nother level of discipline to like Man to unnatural discipline. Yeah, exactly like it's You it's already like hard for someone they come in right? Let's take the average person like that is they set a new year's resolution or they come in the gym And they want to lose 20 or 30 pounds Uh, there's a lot of things and behaviors That got them to the place where they're at to have added 30 extra pounds of their body that they now want to lose That as a trainer you're trying to reverse or undo Uh, you know exercising on a regular basis Probably not over binging on food and alcohol or being sedentary Not weight training probably like there's a lot of things they're not doing that they need to do And and obviously a big factor in that is probably not eating the foods They should be eating to get to the where they want to be And then you add in that you're going to give them this very specific Meal plan that they have to also fit into That is extremely difficult and and tough to ask a majority of people to do And then to think that they're going to do it consistently like most people that uh, you know Went to school got a job. They show up every day to work have some level of discipline that they can they can justify on their head like Okay, this is ridiculous I'm gonna have to go to all these weird places to get this food and measure it all out and Plan it a week in advance to make sure I got it all to make this happen But hey, I want to get this I have a wedding coming up where I can do it I can make it happen But the reality is like you don't always have a wedding in three months You don't always have a new year, you know some sort of uh, you know event that's coming up That's really motivated you to do extreme things like this That that is why I think a lot of people just they fall off of because it's such an extreme Measure to get to their results that even if you can do it To get to that point or for a couple months. It's not something you could potentially stick with statistically speaking Um, I would say that between nine to ten out of ten people Don't stick to a meal plan long term. I I can I can almost It's almost impossible right now for me to think of all my years of training The clients and none of them are actually popping up right now that I actually had a meal plan and then stuck to it Long term it's got such a low Success rate that it's if you're a trainer and this is how this is your strategy of nutrition for your clients You are losing an almost 100 fail rate strategy. It's a terrible strategy It's like when you're a trainer you want to find strategies that have a high success rate This one the fail rate is through the roof. It's insane.  Oh, totally 100 and that happens all the time It's trying to fit in Something else that doesn't reflect their current lifestyle And have them completely adopt an entirely new regimen So i'm going to agree with that but i'm also going to defend the trainer right so because I agree with you It is it is a potentially lazy out for a trainer I don't think that I was so much lazy when I was doing is I was more naive To like what I was like I wasn't really asking me the right question like It because like sal was saying earlier like this is this is mathematically if they follow this plan This is what will it'll work get them to the results the fastest So in my head, I really thought that I was giving them the right answer uh But what I've Realized later on in my career and we talk about it at nauseam on this show that Behaviors are so much more important in the the long term of someone holding you know getting their goals and then maintaining it for the rest of Life Then the answer macronutrient wise or the answer weight training wise or the answer cardio wise Like learning to add good behaviors in their life is so much more important Than the exact right answer or the perfect workout or the perfect meal plan I just didn't know that yet as a trainer So I think a lot of trainers don't know better.  I'm not putting myself like above that. I started out like that Yeah, so it's I agree with you. It's a naive Approach this is this is the strategy that the you know, jenny craig and in these those old, you know, diet systems This is what they follow what they say is Eat these pre-planned packaged meals and you'll be totally fine The success rate of those things long term is terrible. Well, actually one of the reasons why I think jenny craig is so massive is because They tried to to actually simplify this Right. They the jenny craig is the point system, right? So they they didn't work weight watchers Oh, is it weight watchers jenny craig isn't the point system? I don't know if they are now meals. I think yeah Packages of the meals. Yeah, one point you would buy frozen meals that were you know, here's your They just eat those then it's weight watchers which has had a Tremendous amount of success too is that they tried to answer this by Yeah, you know not giving you exactly specific foods but categorizing all these foods and giving a point system for people to do it You know But this also reminds me too of a key. So what about the the people that do stick to it? Well, I was just going to say I remember earlier. I was trying to think of people who I know who stuck to A meal plan long term and I did think of a couple people that I trained a while ago And you know what's funny? If you are the kind of person that can stick to a perfect meal plan all the time long term You have disordered eating. Yeah, that's that's think about the anxiety around that. No, no That is that is disorder eating too because You're following the structure all the time. You can't go off of it the stress and anxiety surrounding that The body images that drove that that is a disordered Form of eating very very common in my space.   Yes every single day. I exactly this 100% this food psychologist is gonna say, okay, we got some stuff to work on This is disordered eating not only that sal but there's actually When I think back of the clients that Had some sort of Nutrient deficiency a lot of times it would come from the people that ate like this because oh, they're lacking The body is an amazing thing that I you know A lot of times we do things that we're very unaware of the way we gravitate to certain foods You know like when you when your body is lacking salt, you know A lot of times you'll just you'll gravitate towards a food that has got higher sodium, right?  They're getting an abundance of calories and food multiple sources But what would be common is somebody who was is desperately trying to lose weight in a 900 to a 1500 calorie Restricted diet. So you're already Depriving the body of nutrients and then they're also focusing on a small Variety of foods and they don't realize that they're actually really hurting themselves even more Yeah, and this and sometimes this is where weird food cravings come from So, you know, like what you mentioned Adam was people having these, you know, if your if your body's lacking a particular nutrient oftentimes it will crave flavors or textures that historically have contained That particular nutrient. So if you're really low in vitamin C You may find that you're craving for example the Citrusy sweet flavor now that in modern times may mean you have orange soda or kool-aid or whatever But historically if you found something with that flavor It gave you that whatever in that particular nutrient. There's a disorder if you guys heard of the disorder called pica pica, yeah, they eat a mud or only clay or paint.  Yeah, this is something that it'll sometimes happen in pregnant women and One of the the the causes of it is like an iron deficiency So there they're so deficient in a key nutrient that they're bought. You knew what that was too. Justin. Yeah, I've never even I've never even heard of that Yeah, pica Yeah, pregnancy wise. I we Researched that a bit. Did your mom eat a lot of paint chips?  That's right. It also promotes the Bench restrict.  Yes. Yeah, and that's exactly what I would see with clients They were on the meal plan and when they were off It was it was the it was all rains on they have a great story about that's actually how I met well I didn't meet Courtney through this shoes a client of mine at the time and uh This is where I knew like I liked her even more because uh, just it was a crazy thing, right? So I'm in this space where I'm like, I'm I'm changing lives. Everybody gets a meal plan Everybody's doing my workouts.  I love her like what? Yeah, exactly.   I think she just she just knew better.   Here's what it typically will look like it typically will look like Shitty eating super strict eating shitty eating super strict eating I it is not uncommon to see these people gain. I mean i've seen you know 140 pound Female competitors gained 30 pounds in the weeks after a competition because they had no they didn't understand how to go off A meal plan it was just off and it was completely off And here's the the next big big problem With meal plans because that would happen For people and because as a trainer and I feel really bad for doing this because as a trainer I thought it was all about your dedication your discipline stick to your meal plan When people finally gave up The decision that they made was Healthy eating just isn't for me. Well, this is what I think this is Arguably the number one reason why meal plans suck Is because of what it does to majority.  Yeah, if if if being healthy and in shape means for me I have to You know say no to the girls on sunday.  Yeah, what they all end up doing is like Yeah, it's not for me. I'd rather be a little bit overweight and the and that to me That is the the most dangerous or the most detrimental part of Why meal plans suck is because of how many people it discourages and I really think that's a lot of A lot of the motivation behind what we do and why we are constantly battling Our peers in our space who we think are consistently speaking to the wrong people They're speaking to the fitness fanatics already and we're trying to reach the people That are discouraged about fitness because of this exact reason because Not because they don't want anything to do with fitness because they've probably tried it Several times and this is one of the things that has probably added to that is Following this really strict diet that they can only do for a certain amount of time and then fail and then putting back Wait on that. It's just not worth it. Their confidence goes way down They internalize it like it's all my fault. Like I I can't do this. I just I'm not a healthy person I can't do it. It's so discouraging like it. I've had so many clients like that It's been four or five times.   I'm done. They've made up their mind. This is the association that they have This is the association that people have with eating healthy and it's absolutely true You might even be this you this might be you listening right now or at least you know somebody where you ask them.  I tried that. I tried that so many times just doesn't work for me I don't want to do that and cool.  How many times have you heard that? I just want to live my life. It's gonna be happy and enjoy life. What a crazy Statement for those of us who really understand how to live a healthy life It's such a wrong statement.  And that's what they think being healthy is So screw that I'd rather be unhealthy. Well, setting up a meal plan doesn't set you up for real life Not at all not even close great point. It's it's your it's this isn't real life in real life You're going to have birthdays Go to dinner on Friday nights be at a friend's house be being a hurry from point a to point b Missed your meal time. I mean in real life There are so many variables and scenarios that are always ever changing and moving that If you're real if you rely on a A blueprint that you have to stick to all the time. It's inevitable. It's going to fall apart It's inevitable.   I get older. Sometimes I have more stress. Sometimes I have less stress It's like doing the exact same workout all the time all the time all the time It's going to start real life Changes and so so does your nutrition need to change even if you are the super Motivated anal discipline disorder eating fitness fanatic.  Sometimes I'm pushing an endurance goal Sometimes, you know, I got life is tough and I'm not able to make it to the gym as much Now I'm working out for different reasons other times I'm working out for health of the times I'm working out for muscle Other times I'm working out to get lean things change so much. That's what life is Really the people that success that have the most success at life are not the ones that Have controlled life to the point where it's super hyper predictable every single day. That's impossible The successful people are the ones that adapt. Yeah, and and this is a non adapting form of eating It's actually the least adapting way too rigid It's completely rigid and so what ends up happening is however successful you are in the short term following it at some point Life makes it impossible for you to follow it or life makes whatever you're following Totally ineffective.  Why did the math teacher want you to show the work? Because it's the process of figuring out how to get to the answer is As important or even more important than just having the answer Well meal plans is the answers without any of the work. It's the here's your calories Here's your macros follow this. Well, how do you get to that point? How do I get to knowing how my body needs to fuel itself? How do I get to the point where I know What I need to eat for whatever reason I don't learn any of that as a person, you know Teach a man to fish It's that whole concept of instead of just providing the fish You have to learn how as a coach to teach your clients How to then apply this going forward forever, you know, this is their life you're dealing with Yeah, this was such a huge turning point for me when I first became a trainer. I'm going to be totally honest Part of my goal was to convince my client that they needed me forever Later on in my career, I realized that if I Treated my client and trained them in a way to where my goal was to get them to a point where they didn't need me anymore That's my goal the the irony of that I became far more successful Yeah, my goal as a trainer later on became How can I get this person to the point where they can do all this forever? And they don't need me anymore It's like the the old martial arts movies where the sensei teaches the student and at some point the sensei says This is your last day coach, you know, the kid is like, what do you mean? He's like I've taught you everything the rest you now can do on your own or whatever That's how I approached it and I became far far more successful And the only way you can do that is by teaching the client How to do the work and if you're not a trainer and you're a person listening right now The answers are not What's going to give you success? Okay. It's how you get to the answers that's going to give you success It's the behaviors that there's now the the unfortunate part and I think we're in the challenging part for trainers is that The client thinks that's not what they want the client a lot of times tells the trainer that's why i'm paying you They expect it. That's why you're the coach. That's why you're the teacher Yeah, I don't I don't want to think about this like that's why i'm i'm paying this top dollar is that I want to I want to do my job every day I want to come to you.  I'm in a service-based business and this is what the person who's paying for me is telling me I need to do that was a that was probably a year-long Transition for me to really figure out How do I how do I figure this? How do I address this? How do I get these people to understand that?  I don't want to do stuff I'm paying you to do that That is where most of my growth as a nutrition coach Really happened in that in that year-long process of trying to figure it out and You know we talk a little bit about show and I do want to get into that In this episode because I know we're talking about why meal plans suck. Yeah, what are the alternatives? Well, yeah, I want I want to talk about okay Well, then what does it look like for one of us coaching a client and and how did we evolve to this place? Because we most certainly didn't start there. We agreed that for many years of our career We probably failed lots of people by just putting them on meal plans But at what point did we piece this together and then what were the things that we started to do? To give people long-term success And the first and probably most the the biggest thing that I I realized and it was it was like so counterintuitive Was instead of telling people that they had to follow this plan I I was going to look For one thing about their their their eating habits that I saw a problem with And try and address that one thing and actually do it In a almost reverse psychology way if we have learned by this time telling people they can't promotes the You know a restrict binge then how do I Get them to do what I want them to do without telling them they can't do something else And that that answer was okay What I'm going to do is look at their diet and instead of seeing McDonald's on there talk about and saying they can't have that Which I know I as a trainer. I ideally probably don't want them eating that I'm not going to focus on that yet. I'm going to look at something else in the diet that they're not getting That they're not getting enough of and it's very easy. It's normally lack of protein for my females or healthy fats It's not getting enough fiber You know, so I look at something like that in the diet and I add to it And I go, okay, or enough greens. That's really common too Very few people are eating enough greens on a daily basis. So I look at something in there That they're they're not getting enough of and instead of saying No, you can't have McDonald's. No, you can't have that ice cream. I say listen. Here's our first nutrition goal This is the first thing that I want you to focus on is all I want you to do is Every day I want you to have a big bowl of vegetables and guess what I give them variety It doesn't be specific doesn't have to be always asparagus or always brussel sprouts or always broccoli I want this much vegetables in a meal every single day and then Get them to start implementing that and then coach around that and teach Why I'm having them do that and then Get them to see how that makes them feel because I know that Just getting them to do it is one thing but getting them to connect The way it's making their body feel is what will make them really stick to it. Well step step one As a trainer and coach is realizing that you have a very long hard Job ahead of you and realizing that part of your job is convincing your client that it's a long hard Arduous road ahead of them. That's actually part of your job because you know adam said for example The person will come up to you say I want this. I want a meal plan.  It's a long hard job So part of my job was how do I convince this person that that's not what they actually want? So you got to work on that but but little by little it's the small Realistic steps that that person can take whatever that is and it's a slow process and it may be adding one thing It may be taking one little thing away. It may be Focusing on emotional eating. Let's just focus on that for now or maybe Don't be so obsessive at your about your food just for a little bit One small step at a time that then becomes natural becomes a part of their life and then move from there Yeah, one thing I really assessed was and I know that um, you know adam kind of brought this up a bit in terms of like Being able to understand the client even further by having them track and You know and be able to kind of like focus in on their daily habits. Well That was something that I mean I briefly did in the beginning of my training career and was trying to then You know gather that information quickly So then I could then apply it and spit out this meal plan for them that I thought was like a specific but I learned later to You know just start bringing that up in conversation taking them shopping understanding their habits You know them writing it down. They're gonna not going to tell you everything and that's just that's just the reality They're they're gonna tell you their best day They've ever had eating ever and it's just it's just not reality and like even going into their houses And seeing you know all the different types of foods they have and all that It was very enlightening for me So then I usually I started to tell them like it's gonna probably take like a month for me to even understand You know where you're coming from and like what these habits look like and how I can better coach you in terms of like if you have a question of You know like maybe Definitely we can find out what what you're lacking in you know, whether it's five or whether it's vegetables Where it's one of these things that I could help one thing, you know And then you know even for some clients just snacking all the time And not realizing the amount of calories are getting from all these nuts and and it's like one little hack And it's one thing that we hone in on and we've refined and so Uh, it it's just it's just being able to then you know have them become aware And that's that's the game initially is just like what's that awareness? You know look like for them and how do they get there? Yeah train the behavior. Don't train the solution Okay, so I'll give you an example what that means that sounds easy, but you think well, what does that look like? Okay, I'll give you an example Let's say you have a client. This is different from person to person But let's just say you have a client or you yourself or this person That you find yourself grabbing a snack and eating when you're Doing something mindless like watching tv When you're stressed out, you know, maybe you catch yourself halfway through like oh crap Why am I in the box of chips or why am I snacking on this this food right here? And you stop halfway through to try and catch yourself Maybe so if this is you here's a great way to Train the behavior and not the solution because the solution is don't snack anymore Okay, well obviously no shit, but how do I stop the behavior? Here's what you do Put some barriers between you and the in that habit. That's it. So what's a barrier? Here's an easy barrier don't have the stuff in your house. That's a barrier So the stuff isn't my house So now if I really want to snack I got to go and drive to the store Which gives me enough time to think about what I'm going to do So I'm not saying to myself You can't snack all I'm saying to myself is if you want to snack you got to drive to the store to do this But it gives you enough time to become aware now Again, it sounds simple still not easy because believe it or not you're gonna actually you'll find yourself In this situation Ignoring even the barrier sometimes because you don't want to change That behavior, but it's okay. It's uncomfortable and it's it's creating more awareness And that's what we mean by press pressing the behavior rather than solution. Well along those lines That's what makes a really good coach too is that you are looking you're and this is why it's so individualized This is also why we have avoided doing nutrition Right, this is why not because we lack the knowledge or the ability to help somebody out tremendously when it comes to food Is that we feel like Writing meal plans or diets for people online is doing a disservice to these people I know what it takes To help somebody nutritionally out and I know how individualized that is because everybody has got different behaviors Everybody and this takes a lot of self-awareness on the client and the listener right now is like You have to really start to learn to evaluate Where your bad habits are, you know, do you notice that Anytime this is why like people tips that get mocked in the fitness space like don't eat it Don't eat after 8 8 p.m at night We have all the research to show that it doesn't matter what time you eat If you eat the same amount of calories if you eat it at midnight or yeah But what maybe that that advice came from a good place Maybe that advice came from that a lot of people a majority of people realize that when they eat beyond 8 p.m The choices they make are typically bad. Oh, yeah at late night eating behaviors are very different From you know morning eating behavior, right?  It's the liposuction of fat loss And with that go to mind pump free.com and download all of our guides and books They're all totally free. You can also find the three of us on instagram You can find justin at mind pump justin you can find me at mind pump sal and adam at mind pump adam


Yllyn nhw'n wneud y bod ni eisiau'r platform yn holl gael gael iawn. Chael ei wneud o'r gweithio'r gweithio'n holl gwybodach. Chael eich bydd yn i'ch masddiwch i ddim yn cael ei gael gweithio. Yn y pethau pengriffau rydw i dda ni, mae'n oedd gennych gwaith y t gelw, eich byddai am ddim yn oed yn gweithio'r gefnogiol yma. .. popped, but it's easy to feel as though being less social because actually the engagement is less space to face. Mobile devices have become a very important part of many people's lives. I don't go anywhere without my phone, and I know that it's a huge part of how I stay connected with my parents, family and friends. Having a mobile phone means you can communicate with people in ways you don't never could. Ie dweud o'r ystyried gyda ni, you can arrange to meet people in ways that I certainly never could when I was a child. So in that respect, it's kind of made us more sociable. The internet is just a tool, it's just a place. Does it encourage people to abuse each other? Of course not, of course not. Does it make it easier to do it? Does it spread the effects? Yes it does.  I think also it makes people say things they wouldn't say in the real world, you might feel a whole lot braver because you're hiding behind the technology as it were. And it enables big groups to gather in a way that doesn't really happen offline and that can be fantastic from an activist point of view but also when you're being attacked and bullied online, that could be really awful. So what happened to me was that I ran a successful campaign to get female historical figures on banknotes and that turned very quickly against me as soon as the campaign was won. felly byddwn i'r llwyddoedd fwyaf am ddweudio'r llwyddoedd, dweudio'r llwyddoedd ac yn ystod o'r wych yn ystod o'r hyd yn gweithio'r llwyddoedd i'r wych yn mynd i'r llwyddoedd. Fyddo i'r brofiadol yw sy'n ddechrau'r unrhyw o'r gweithio, mae'n ddweudio'r gweithio a'r gwstydd yn ein gweithio'r unrhyw o'r gwheithio'r gweithio'r gwyddoedd, rwy'n wedi bod yn ddweudio'r unrhyw o'r gwheithio'r gweithio. Y rhaid o bobl yw'r cyffredin, ac os ydych yn mynd i'w cwilio'r materio a'u cyfrwyngau o'r cyfrwyngau, y gallwn ard-dwy'n cyfrwyngau. Rwy'n mynd i ddweud yn cyhoeddfno'r ysgol o'r cyfrwyngau yn holl ymgyrch, sy'n cyflwyno'r ysgolio'r cyfrwyngau a'r cyfrwyngau yn holl ymgyrch. Felly mae'n cyfrwyngau'n cyfrwyngau, oedd mae mae'n cyfrwyngau o'r cyfrwyngau. While thinking these are pretty old, well-established principles and they don't change just because of the wonderful innovation and freedom that comes with the internet. It's a shared responsibility, actually. It's partly a responsibility of the people who are using it, but it's also the responsibility of the services that are online, in exactly the same way that it's the responsibility of people to use the zebra crossing when they're crossing the road, but it's not their responsibility to paint the zebra crossing on the road. I think it is right to say some kinds of content like child sexual abuse images. Clearly it should be criminal to be producing those because you're causing great damage to children in producing them in the first place and in sharing them. I think it becomes more difficult when you move to these areas such as hate speech. The way to deal with that stuff which many people would agree is unpleasant is not to criminalise it but it's actually for other people to answer back to point out why it's wrong to make fun of it and that is more likely to be an effective long term solution. Material should only be criminalised if it's causing real harm, not just offence, that could be child pornography, that could be incitement to violence, not just material that's annoying, offensive, disrespectful. Who can possibly be the arbiter of what is good and bad for everyone in the world? It's generally a bad thing to empower an individual to make decisions on behalf of others what content is good and what content is bad. It's very important to realise that when we create rules for how to act on the internet this should be done in a universal matter. It's very difficult to imagine one person deciding what the code of conduct for how people should act on the internet should be. I think what we would have more success in doing is having these rules and obviously policing them but starting further back rather than telling them once they get online that they're not allowed to. What we actually want to do is stop people from doing it in the first place. You can make a case that countries should be able to set their own rules. I think the harder question comes when countries say look we don't like what this other country is putting online and we want it to stop. But free speech campaigners say no we already have quite enough censorship in the offline world, we shouldn't be reproducing that online. The biggest challenge facing governments online is probably making sure that they've got the balance right between protecting rights like the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly online and also making sure that their citizens are protected and they're protecting their right to life and their right to be living their lives free from violence. It's not necessarily a balance, the two don't necessarily cancel each other out but it's working out in this new horizon that's only been around for a very short amount of time where those boundaries lie and doing it properly. But the much more important aspect is that computers can't make those decisions and when you program a filter you're always taking one individual's interpretation of the subjective judgment and turning it into a fixed law. Making a decision about what's good and bad has to be taken by a human being, it can never be broken down into a sequence of binary steps.


It's time to go gold hunting, baby. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the channel. My name is Seif the Buster. I should know me. We have episodes 166 and 167 of our one-piece watch through the day. Now in the last two We found out a lot about Jaya and our crew was reunited, which feels really good. With that being said, they're planning on going off to find Hopefully the gold that was foretold by no one all those years ago, proving Cricket right hopefully, and the Shandians are still locked in combat with the priests, and I don't know when God Enniru is gonna intervene, but I feel like there's a lot more to unearth here than than what's being shown. We're gonna hop right into it. If you need a chance, I'll drop us up and hit that big blood bell and let's get right into the episodes. I'm honestly kind of shocked that Enniru isn't just like dropping nukes everywhere, bro. I know the priests are locked in combat, but I think he could avoid them with blasts and beams, and yeah, Gunfall still has to recover. I don't really about killing, since there's so gung-ho about this treasure that is gonna be fake, but I mean, to an extent he was already correct about there still being another part of the island missing. I guess we'll find out. Honestly, I do like the design of these priests. Satoru kind of left a sort of bad taste in my mouth to begin with, but they're pretty cool. So are the Shandians though. Bro Nog down an entire tree. Oh my gosh. I know it's one of the smaller ones, like not super deeply rooted, but still. He's just talented. The Shandians have numbers, but the priests have insane power, and they can see what's happening before it even happens. Did that dog eat her or did he just knock her? Okay. What is spilling- Oh, was that- wait, is that worth spilling out? That's what they call it, right, birth? God, thanks, you got the move! Oh, shoot! Hold a second. I'll trigger a second longer, or a second sooner. He was done, though. Although, I don't know if one bolt would've put him down. And he took the hit. Wiper as the leader accurately seems to be the strongest out of all of them. I think he's the most confident, too. Yeah, they have to retreat. So even missing one priest, the priests are still in control. Even with the Shandians' numbers.   Oh, shoot. Can we finally meet him, bro? My goodness. Wait, where are they going? I thought they were gonna wait. What was he collecting? Just food, I'm guessing? I'm kind of more concerned about what they're gonna do with the ship when they want to leave. He's cut its- Luffy, I feel like would be so impatient. He would just grab food that's just raw. I mean, actually, we've seen him eat raw fish, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, he's easy as no patience. I love this concept, though. They're just like chillin' next to sacrificial altos that they're placed on. Not a care in the world. He's so excited that they're contributing. Big stew. I would trust Sonji to make dirt taste good at this point. What? Yeah, what is that? Hasn't Nami ever worn glasses? That'll help for dinner, too. Shopper doing his part. What? He wouldn't just found stuff. Yeah, but they've been through worse. Again. Stone stew? Oh. He's like teaching chopper. He said, I said, you'll let out all the flavor. That's in steam. An entire Skyshark was too tight, but it was a snack. I think it's just because like his powers, like the stretching just burns calories to like an ungodly level. What is he making? Yeah, Usa. Well, this man does not get enough credit for repairing the ship. Dude, the heart carrots are so adorable. Those are carrots, because like the other parts of the carrots are like just shredded. Is that gunfall laying out?  Luffy was stupidly lucky to- Okay, it is carrots to find Sonji. I don't know, man. The way this dude can make a solid meal just anywhere. Let's go over our notes. Again, I don't know if they're gonna find what they're expecting to find. Like this show to pull a fast one on us. So that part of the island was just fixated on the knock-up frame. Just blew the island into the air and it's set up here. Yeah, this forest is insane. But it's possible that- Oh, the scene, the island. I was gonna say just like in a room, however powerful he is. He looks so happy, the bird. Pierre. This thing is Pierre, right? Oh, he's awake? Giant gold bell. South birds. Maybe it'll make more sense now. Skull's right eye. Oh. You cross-examined? It is a skull! Oh, shoot! They look exactly where to go. Now is it the right eye based on the map or the actual right eye? Okay. See, whenever they're this confident about something, it makes me think, like I said, it's not gonna end up exactly how they expected. They're like, oh yeah, surely there has to be gold there, if he said. And finally we found this place that was believed to be gone this entire time. I don't know, just we'll see. All the shandians made it back. Piper's gotta be pissed. Did he live? Oh, good. Kinda sucks that they had that conversation so loudly there. Yeah, I don't know how he was beaten. That's kind of like a crazy occurrence. That doesn't usually happen. We get gold tomorrow. What are they talking about? What? Yeah, you don't know what's gonna find this smoke trail? You also don't know where Inoru has eyes. He could be watching them right now. That sounds like a human. Oh, that is a big ol' wolf. Pashinarter. I had to approach them in a nice manner. Not a nice manner, but instead of just attacking them, I want to sleep. I guess because they said it's their land. Yeah. Bruh, a bond is formed. Just had to alpha them a little bit. I've been getting even more of an idea of how psychotic they are. Okay, that's kind of adorable though. Bro, the wolves teaching them how to make juices? Oh, this is so awesome.  Bro, the wolves are wasted. What? What? What? What? What? The wolves are wasted. They got the little blush lines after drinking. Oh, yeah. Godmother was just watching this. Yeah, for real, in the upper yard. Nah, you saved Chopper.  And the ship, yeah. Yeah, she's okay. They're actually really safe. What, are they out of range of his mantra? I think they said outside of Ennirid's mantra? Bro, they're going to throw Chopper onto the fire on accident. This is so cute. They're lifting his spirits. I have the two serious ones, Zoro and Robin are just kind of watching. Did he deem it or did Ennirid deem it holy ground? Oh. Damn wiper. Damn wiper. Yeah, she obviously feels bad. I have a feeling that's where Ennirid is. This is the right eye of the skull. Oh, Isis. Yeah, it was her. Okay, that's what was going on. I have to understand wiper's perspective though. It's been a little harsh, but I don't know. It's hard to play both. It's probably one side or the other, and that's situation.  That's why it was so important that she bring back birth. I like them switching between those scenes like that. How desperate she was to bring her back. The birth. Yeah. It's even more important than the surface level. It just being dirt. So 400 year old. That means that was there before no one and before the upper yard rose, right? I'm guessing they were there before. I don't know how long Angel Island was there before. I think it would make sense if like the upper yard rose and then maybe the god that was in power Gunfall used the upper yard. I don't know the entire thing with Enniru and the priest is what kind of those are wrenching the things. I'm guessing they came in and just wanted to usurp him. I'm pretty sure they said that they did I think like it was against his will. I guess they just took over upper yard. That's my guess. It was a 167. Let's get it. That's got to be a comfy pillow. Bro, Pierre is spread out. So is Chopper. I didn't Robin and Navi sleeping in like a tent. I was like Usap. Is he? Oh, maybe not. Wait, somebody's working on the boat. It's a ghost. Oh, is it Gunfall? It's got like more uplifting music. I can't see. It keeps showing the same shot, but I Oh, it kind of looks like Gunfall. I don't see a beard though. It is a ghost. Just randomly be working on the ship though. He's got to be losing it. Nightmare. I can't with you, Usap. I cannot. Oh, wait, did he just pass that? Oh, never mind. It was real. He just passed out from seeing it. Oh, wait, that was Oh, wait, that was the priest. Yeah, those were the priest's weapons. Oh, shoot. They're coming back to Seattle. Can we meet him? Is he just nervous? Yeah, these three together are so strong, man. So this is the shrine. So, my prediction that he lives in whatever the gold city or whatever gold they could find doesn't seem to be correct. All that's behind these doors is just a ton of gold. I feel like from what we've seen or like the way he rules he would have a big enough ego to live in a place of gold. Hey, he's kind of blaming in a row.  End up like Saturi. What? Because Saturi got so ego and he lost the fight? Bro, damn! Damn! It makes sense he would have an ego from that. This place looks crazy. The lighting is all different, too. They're all just fighting! They're all just fighting! Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness, gracious. Oh, my goodness! Is this like the gatekeeper? Out of the three of them, it is hard to determine who's stronger. I'd say since he was able to solo Godfall, he's pretty strong. They're probably all around the same, though. So, he just uses his hands to the attacks. I mean, we saw him fight a little bit, but... Put your hands under your elbows. What? What? God, dang, he has a unit! Oh? Is he spawning in? Shoot! Damn, God. Wait, the thing behind him looks sick. Okay, so he knows exactly what happened with Saturi. I don't know if he knows he's, I don't know, not dead, but like, defeated. Or... Okay, so he knows about... Yeah, I figure he knows enough about what's going on. Lousy ball ordeal? I like his design a lot so far. Wait, those are earrings? Oh, my gosh! He's realized the lobes drew all the way down with little earrings on the end. So, he knows Godfall's alive, too. Gold! Does he know that? Oh, he does! Damn! I think it's slowly shifting to help them. And... I don't know. Yeah, I'm not surprised because I feel like people come here and try to find the gold a lot. He doesn't seem worried in the slightest. Oh, shoot. Unrestricted. So they can fight together. It's not like... I don't know.  He's just not showing it. Why would he remove the ordeals? Oh. Completed the maximum. The world of dreams? What's he talking about? Eh? Oh, he finally get to see him and find out a little bit more. He's honestly kind of how I pictured him. Like, the very first thing he says, I am God. Like, you know he's just... But I mean, obviously, it's pretty powerful to have reached where he is now. I think Enoru seems more, like, disappointed in Satori than mad at them for defeating him. Like, Satori was just weak. Too weak. He's not, like, angry about it or anything. So they know where the shrine is. I guess it's just further into the upper yard. The light rises. On a new day. New day dawns. So who, yeah, who is the ghost? Wait, is the ship, like, repaired? Oh, shoot, it is. It's, like, reinforced, too. Damn! Metal and all. It's kind of like a patchwork job, but still, it's all rebuilt. The entire mast is back. Who would just randomly help them? Hire them. So fast. Yeah, dude, the whole mast? You have to think there's other intentions, though. It was one dude. Is it a Shandian? Someone from Angel Island? I don't know. Some random from Angel Island wouldn't just wander in here. I'm too scared of it, too. Doesn't have wings anymore. True. Yeah, because they could have assumed that the wings were originally there. Hmm. He's just swinging? I like Detective Usab thinking this through. Dude, maybe Usab just, like, kind of sleptwalked and imagined it and he actually did, like, in his sleep. Oh, there's no way he would make it across the water like that. In slow motion? Oh, like, wonder why they would help. Wonder why someone's looking at them. I would have originally said Gaunfall, but Gaunfall's with us. Did you check the ship? Someone hiding on board is a common occurrence. Mary keeps a secret. Look at that face. Oh, the crow ship. Oh, they still have it. Nice. I guess it makes sense they would still have it. Lowering. Oh, it's Operation Lower Mary. How are they going about this? He said it in his head. Oh, he just wants responsibility. How do they accomplish this? I'm being relied on, he said. Let's go and cover. I'm going to pull it off? No, wait, does this work? This is not going to work at all. I just know it. It's going to pull Usab off. Oh, they tried. Nice. Is the backup plan just to try again? Oh, attach it to one of them. Oh, that's a good one. Oh, attach it to one of them? Like a harpoon? This is so scuffed, man. This is so scuffed. Bro, he can tell Chopper the way he's going to use him as bait. No. No, I just know it. No. Oh, this is so scuffed, man. Oh, right through the fish. Okay. It seems like it works. Now we just need to fish the shark to slow away. I like Usab devising this plan, though, even if he used Chopper like this. He's still coming up to Chopper. Hold on, Mary. But yeah, they just need to get on the stairs and it'll just slowly float down. Hell, yeah. Dude, that skyscores got finessed. Damn. I was wondering how they were ever going to get it off that platform. No. Chopper. My boy went through it. It's treasure hunting. Even Chopper recognizes it. Thank good. Wait, so we're leaving upper yard? I would love to be out of upper yard, bro. This place makes me anxious. Nice. They don't have any other intentions right now. Just the gold. I feel like one of them would be like, hey, what about, like, conus and all of them? They'd be struggling. Oh, they're splitting up again. I hate when they split up, man. So Gunfall's going with the first team? Is that... Because Pierre was on the first team. Wait, are they waiting for them? Oh my, is this Jack and the Giant Beanstalk, bro? What the... Are they just at separate levels waiting for them to make trials they have to pass? This dude's just set up. The blue sea people. Yeah. And Enoroo just chills back on his little throne and relaxes. The festival. I hate this man in charge. And, like I said, he's kind of about how I expected him to be. Really laid back, very confident in everything that's going on right now in the favor of him. Even though he lost the priest, which I thought was going to be kind of a big deal, I'm guessing he either saw what happened or always knows what's going on. Especially because whenever Conus admitted what she did, he tried to strike her down. So I think it's safe to assume that Conus is so confident right now because he's seen everything that happens and he saw that even Luffy and Sanji and Usopp struggled against Sathuri and seized himself like 50 times what Sathuri is. So if they struggle against Sathuri then they have no chance against him even if they try to challenge him. But he even knows what their plan is or what they're going for and I don't think he would let them just steal gold from upper yard or wherever the gold is. Especially because of how powerful he is. But I guess we'll just find out more as time goes on but finally he's been revealed to us and finally we get to look at who's running the show in terms of the opposition here. But guys that's been it for episodes 166-167 of our One Piece. Watch your dewdrops on the channel if you are new and I'll catch you guys in the next one. Peace, peace.


So let's go ahead and let's pray this morning. I'm excited to share with you this message today about holiness and God discipling a nation. And the talk could really be divided up into snapshots, really. I so appreciated what Scott had to say last night about holiness, what it's not and what it is. And I would like to build on that and to take some snapshots of the progressive growth of holiness in salvation history, but as God is discipling a nation. So let's pray in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord Jesus, we love you and we thank you so much for all that you have given us. We thank you for who you are and you are totally other.  And Lord, we desire you with all of our heart and we know that you thirst for us, that we would thirst for you and that we would become like you in every way. And we thank you, Lord, for the process that you have us in right now and where everybody's at in the stages of their life. Continue, Lord, to encourage them and to draw them with your grace. In Jesus' name, amen. Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. What I'd like to do is I'd like to start back in the Old Testament and kind of look at the foundation of discipleship slash holiness. I really appreciated what Scott had to say last night about what holiness is not because if you don't understand what holiness is, then you could spend your life going after what it's not and acting like it's holy or pursuing something that you think is holy but it's merely a facade and that you missed what was really holy. You missed the Lord. You missed that relationship and that intimacy with the Lord. One of the greatest stories in the Bible, of course, is the Exodus from Egypt. And when Israel has been in Egypt for 400 years, they have picked up an awful lot of strange habits. They have picked up the ways of the Egyptians. And yet God had made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He made a covenant with Abraham and he remembered that covenant. And after the people cried out, they cried out to the Lord, the Lord sent Moses and Moses delivered them with the Lord on eagle's wings from bondage. And there they were. They took three months to go from bondage down to Mount Sinai three months and there they were at Sinai for one year. They stayed at Mount Sinai for one year. Now the scripture tells us that they could have gone up and taken the promised land which was the first of the three promises to Abraham, land, royal dynasty and worldwide blessing but they didn't go up and take the land because they weren't ready. They weren't ready to take the land. The Lord wanted to do something in their life. And so he brought them down to Mount Sinai and it was there at Sinai that God began to fashion and form a people. And so there were three major things at Sinai. He gave them his word, the Torah. He gave them the tabernacle of course and he gave them this new priesthood, Levites. And everything that he gave to them was to reveal himself to them and that they would become like him. Now when I talk about imitating God or becoming like him understand that I'm not talking about a mere imitation. You did this, I'll do that but it's much deeper than that obviously but for many people the beginning steps of holiness is understanding what it looks like in God. God is holy and what does God do? And so here you have all of these people who have been embodied for 400 years and God is going to do a number on them. He is going to teach them. He's gonna reveal himself to them. And in order to do that God comes among them. He tabernacles among them. His presence is among them and he gives them his word. And he says to them in that book that I know if you take your Bible and you hold it up on the sideways like that, that area that's so worn out, Leviticus. That's where this begins. That's where this begins where God says, he says many times, many, many times. He says in Leviticus 11.44, 11.45, 19.2, 27, 20.26 and 21.6. He says, be holy as I am holy. Be holy as I am holy. Be holy as I am holy. Now he says this a number of times, six times and it is in those messages, be holy that I am holy, that they have this call to relationship with the Lord. But you know as well as I do that just because God says be holy as I am holy doesn't mean that you're gonna put the Bible down and say, yeah, I'm gonna do that. In fact, I'm gonna do it this weekend. I'm gonna be holy as he is holy this weekend. The truth is that many of us don't know what to do with that. We don't know how to respond to that. I need help, Lord. I don't know how to be holy as you are holy and the first step is well, you need to get to know me. You need to get to know me. If you're gonna be holy as I am holy, you're gonna have to get to know me and that is why God chose to dwell among them. He was different than the later gods of the Greeks and the Romans who were above the clouds and oftentimes took advantage of the people. Yahweh, the God of Israel, comes among his people to reveal himself in words and deeds and he gives them a way, the liturgy, to come into his presence and he gives them his word to instruct them.  And so for a year, they were in training. For a year, they were learning who is God? What does he do? How does he think and so forth? What does it mean to truly be holy? And so we see that the foundation, one of the foundations of discipleship is imitation. It's imitation and when you look at a baby, a newborn baby, a newborn baby doesn't know all the theological details about becoming like mom and dad. What do they do?  And so God says, be holy as I am holy. And he says something else there in the desert, in the wilderness there. He says, do not obey the commands of the people that you came from nor the people that you're going into, but obey my word. And then he also says that you need to learn to discern between the clean and the unclean, the holy and the unholy. And so God has them on this track to become like him, to become holy. And it's really interesting because even in the tabernacle, there seems to be this beginnings of a transformation of becoming somebody else, becoming the people of God, becoming more like God. And so even in the basin, you know, they have all the furniture of the tabernacle and even in the basin that was made for the priests to wash their hands before the sacrifice, they made that basin in Exodus 38, 8 out of the mirrors of the ladies. They took the mirrors, how many of you ladies have a mirror? Four? They took their mirrors and what's a mirror for?  And God had the ladies hand in their mirrors and that was made into a basin. And it was kind of like an ancient selfie, you know? And I wonder today, if they were to take, instead of mirrors, they would take your smartphone, to take your smartphone and make it into the basin where now you're not so interested in your reflection in your image, but you are interested in God and becoming like God. So we have over and over in the Old Testament this idea that we are to become like God. And so we see in the Old Testament, what is God like? Well, if you wanna look at it carefully, you would see that in Genesis, God is a creator. And we also see that we have the rest in the Sabbath. He arranges weddings. He feeds the hungry. He visits the sick. He respects the elderly. He comforts the bereaved. He buries the dead. And so when we observe God in the Old Testament, we see what he's doing and he's asking us to be like him, to be like him. So God gave Israel the key and the goal of his transformation blueprint by repeating this phrase over and over and over. And then you come to the New Testament. And it's really interesting because you go from the Old Testament where God dwelt among his people and said, obey my word, I will be with you. And then we come to the New Testament where the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, is not just with us, but he is in us. He is in us. And we are changed by the Eucharist. We are changed by his presence. But listen to what it says in the New Testament. We know in the Old Testament that God said, be holy as I am holy. And they were called to imitate God, to treat others the way God treats others. We talked about the Jubilee last night. And then Jesus comes on the scene.  The son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing. For whatever he does, that the son does likewise. For the father loves the son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these, will he show him that you may marvel. For as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the son gives life to whom he will. And so Jesus continues with this. And he says, I don't do anything other than what I'm seeing the father doing. And I don't say anything other than what I'm hearing him say. And so the focus seems to be on the father. And we are called to be holy as God is holy. And so Jesus now is calling us to himself and we can walk with Jesus and he is in us and he will transform us. So you hear things, for example, like we forgive. Why do we forgive? We forgive because he forgave, right? How do we treat our enemies? The way Jesus would treat his enemies. Now, I wanna come back to this because holiness is more than imitating. I wanna come back to this because what we'll see is that when we get to the sacraments, we get to the Eucharist, it's one thing to follow Jesus, it's one thing to walk with Jesus, but it's another thing to have him inside of us transforming us by the Eucharist, by the blood of the Lamb. So I wanna come back to that in just a moment, but I wanna keep moving on. We have in the Old Testament, we have be holy as I am holy and Israel is trying to imitate God. In the New Testament, Jesus says, I don't do anything other than what I see my father doing and say what I hear my father saying. And then after that, we have Paul. And what does Paul say? Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse one, he says, follow me as I follow Christ. Follow me as I follow Christ. So the reason I'm sharing this with you is because not everybody is on the same page as far as well, what do I do? How do I start in this life of holiness? And for many who are just beginning in your baby steps with the Lord, it is following, like Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. Let me show you how to walk this walk in everyday life, in what we say, in what we do, in what we think about and how we deal with ourselves and how we deal with conflict. Because holiness isn't just a static mode of being, but it's active. It participates. It's relational. And that holiness is relational and it gets back to our relationship with that which is holy, which is God. And so if we want to walk in holiness, then we need to be engaged in what Paul was engaged in, what Jesus of course was engaged in and in fact engaged with Jesus. Philippians two, let this mind be in you that was in Christ. The apostle continues the imitation paradigm by saying follow me as I follow Christ and he expands the imitation vocabulary established by Jesus by encouraging the young church to imitate Christ, to imitate Christ in their relationship with one another. How does he do that? Well, Paul writes to the Ephesians and what does he say? He says, husbands, love your wife as Christ loves the church. So how do I walk in holiness as a husband? Love my wife the way Christ loves the church. He said to the Romans in chapter 15 and verse seven, welcome one another therefore, how as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. Ephesians five and verse two, walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us in regard to selfishness Paul said to the Philippians in regard to selfishness, conceit and humility, walk with the mind of Christ. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. A new commandment I give you to love one another. So the end of all of this is intimacy with God and the ultimate goal for us is divinization. It is to become not just like God for but us to be in complete union with Christ where we are transformed, our thinking, our actions, our emotions, our decision making, everything is changed. But just like in the Old Testament it cannot happen without relationship and that's why when Jesus came on the scene he didn't just hold classes. He didn't just hold classes. He didn't do what I do and that is just put together studies. He said to 12 men, he said something that every rabbi said which was in Hebrew, lech achrei, come follow me. Lech achrei, come follow me. Now what does that mean? When a rabbi says come follow me it means what?   He says take my yoke upon you and learn from me. All of this is part of holiness.  What's a yoke? A yoke is a worldview. A yoke is my worldview. And so Jesus is saying I want you to see all of life through my eyes. I want you to participate in life with my yoke. And so when he called the 12 disciples he knew that if they were gonna be transformed, if they were going to become holy, as God is holy, then they would have to be in close proximity. And so he gathers them to himself and he teaches them and they travel with him. And so they must be in close proximity so that he can encourage them, correct them, educate them, warn them, rebuke them, whatever it might be, they need to be in that relationship. So you can see that it'd be very difficult to grow in holiness if you were doing it just over Zoom. I signed up for Holiness 101. I meet once a week. It's not going to work anymore than it would have worked back in the desert in the Old Testament. This is a 24-7 thing. It is a complete giving of ourselves to Jesus from the moment we get up to the moment we go to sleep. Now, there is a level that goes beyond merely following. In fact, if you see the language in the Gospels, you'll see that they followed Jesus. They followed Jesus. But when you get to Paul's epistles, I believe it's only one time he says follow, the rest of the time it's he walks with, he's walking with Jesus because Jesus is inside. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are transformed in our thinking, in our actions. And the fuel for this is the sacraments. It's the sacraments. But one aspect of this intimacy with Christ whereby we are changed is the area of suffering. And I know that Dr. Berksma is gonna be giving a complete talk about suffering, but I wanna mention just a couple things about this when it comes to the transformation of our lives to really know the heart of God, to know the love of God, but not just to know it up here, but to experience it in our life. Jesus, I wanna know what it's like to be you. I want you so bad. I love you.  You know, and that's the way I feel about the Lord.  And you know what we get to do? Just that.  We get to eat, we get to participate. And that's an expression of the deep craving. How many of you have that today? Do you have that desire? Deserve something in you that just wants more and more of God? I'm the same way. Well, suffering is one of those areas as a disciple. We certainly are learning from Jesus. And we learn the word of God. We learn through the sacraments. We learn through the liturgy. We are in relationship with God in the liturgy. But in suffering, there is a union with Christ that is mind boggling. It's mind boggling. And it's one of the most misunderstood things because oftentimes people, when they think about their own life, their goal of their life is happiness. They wanna be happy. And suffering, there's a disconnect. How could I possibly be happy when I'm suffering? Because happiness is when I get my way. Happiness is when I am fed. My needs are met. I'm given credit for something. It makes me happy. I'm in my wheelhouse. But not all of life is like that, is it? The problem is you gotta wake up in the morning and real life hits you in the face. And there are days that are less than ideal in our life, to be sure. And we encounter suffering. Now, one of the greatest sources of learning about suffering in union with Christ is Pope John Paul II. Saint Pope John Paul II. And he writes in Salvifici Dolores. He writes about the meaning of human suffering. And he has so many good things to say in there. He says that there are two types of suffering or two kinds of suffering. There is physical suffering. And all of us have gone through that physical suffering, right? We've gone through physical suffering. But then there is another kind of suffering that he calls moral suffering. And the moral suffering is what? It is the suffering of the heart. You have lost a loved one. Your son passed away. Your spouse left you. You hurt inside. And most people would say I would rather have a broken leg than a broken heart any day, wouldn't you? So we have those two kinds of suffering. And then he says, but we have two types of suffering. We have temporal suffering. 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years on earth. We have temporal suffering. But then he has another category of suffering called definitive suffering. And definitive suffering is suffering forever without God, without love, in darkness, it's hell forever and ever and ever. And Jesus came and he employed physical suffering and the moral suffering and gave his life up completely for us so that we would not experience that definitive suffering. That's love. That's holiness. That is what holiness is. The cross as ugly as it looks to people when they view it and repulsive to some people. That is holiness. That is God loving us. And so the question is for us as modern day disciples, how in the world does our suffering mean anything? And what does it have to do with holiness anyway? What does it have to do with becoming more like Jesus? Because holiness and becoming like Jesus is not just book work and it's not just attending church and attending events but it's what's happening inside of us in the transformation that takes place as we yield our will to his and give ourselves completely to him so that we are divinized, we become Jesus in this world. So what about suffering? Well, Paul said a lot about suffering. So did Peter, said an awful lot about suffering. I'll share a couple of quotes with you here in just a moment. But here's the deal. If you cannot find meaning for your suffering, if you cannot attach meaning to your suffering, then you can go into despair. But if you can attach meaning to your suffering, you can go through anything. You can go through anything. If there is meaning attached to it, you can go through it. Now, Paul said something very strange and I've got to be honest with you. When I was a pastor before coming back to the Catholic church for 12 years, there was one verse that really confounded me and it didn't seem to make sense to me, certainly in the scope of holiness or becoming like God in this world. And that was Colossians 1.24. In Colossians 1.24, Paul said, he says, I rejoice in my suffering for your sake. Now, right there, I didn't quite get that. I rejoice in my suffering for your sake and I fill up in my body that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Now, what could possibly be lacking in the sufferings of Christ? I thought about that long and hard. I even entertained the idea that there was some kind of literary mistake. Maybe that was just the letter and it brought all kinds of new meaning. Maybe it wasn't intended, but it was and there's no mistake. And so I rejoice in my suffering for your sake and I fill up in my body that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. What could be lacking? Did Jesus rise from the dead, sit next to the Father and suddenly say, Oeve, I only got 98%, I don't know how that happened. I missed 2%, it didn't make a mistake the whole time on earth. I have no idea. Of course he didn't, right? Of course he didn't. So what did he mean by that to fill up that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ? And what does that have to do with holiness? St. Augustine answered that question. St. John Paul II answered that question. St. Augustine said, what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ? The sufferings of the mystical body of Christ. That's what's lacking. Your participation, your involvement, your sacrifice, because it's in sacrifice that we truly understand holiness in sacrifice and love and covenant faithfulness. And so St. Augustine said, what is lacking is the suffering of the mystical body of Christ, the church, that's you. Okay, well that's part of it, but St. John Paul II, he also said in his writings, what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ? He said, well, nothing but, and this is so powerful. If you get this, this can change your life and draw you into a deeper level of holiness in relationship with the Lord that you can do anywhere, anytime, any place if you get this. John Paul II said, nothing, but that you may know the love of Christ, that you may know the love of Christ, that you may know the holiness of God. He has made room, he has made room in his suffering for you to participate. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, Lord. I've always learned that I didn't need to suffer because you did on the cross and if you did, then I don't. And he's saying to us in the gospel and in Paul's writings, no, I did and you get to too. And you get to imitate me. You get to do what I do and it's in the doing of what I'm doing in loving and sacrifice that you're going to become like me. Well, I don't know if I want to become like you.  I've only got 70 years. I can't live my life like that. Am I talking a little bit too close to your heart here? And so he wants us to fully realize this and so let me say it again. John Paul II said, nothing is lacking but that you might come to know the love of God, taste the love of God, experience the love of God not just on the page but really come to know the love of God. He is actually giving you an opportunity to suffer, to offer up your suffering, moral suffering, physical suffering, temporal suffering. He's offering you the opportunity to get to know him even more and there's no magical formulation to it. It is by an act of my will, I offer up myself in union with you, your suffering and that's where transformation takes place. Listen to this, what John Paul II said, amazing. He said, this suffering is an extremely important aspect. There's an extremely important aspect of suffering. It is profoundly rooted in the entire revelation of the old and above all the new covenant. Did you hear that? This aspect of suffering, it is profoundly rooted in the Old Testament and above all the New Testament, suffering must serve for conversion. No conversion, no suffering, no conversion. Conversion comes by way of suffering, that is for the rebuilding of goodness in the subject. He also said in the cross of Christ, not only is the redemption accomplished through suffering but also human suffering itself has been redeemed and he said, it is suffering, listen to this, this is pretty powerful, he said it is suffering more than anything else, more than anything else, it is suffering which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls. There is no way to arrive at holiness without suffering. There isn't a way, there is not a way to do it. He also said the springs of divine power gush forth precisely in the midst of human weakness, those who share in the sufferings of Christ preserved in their own sufferings a very special particle of the infinite treasure of the world's redemption and can share this treasure with others. And so I can participate in the sufferings of Christ, I can come to a place where I know him more intimately, I become like him in the cross, I become like him and I can actually share the treasure of this redemptive suffering with others, my children, my parents, my friends, my pastor, and so what I have gained in being united with Christ can be shared when I come to that place of walking in holiness, I can share. But I wanna share this with you, it's something very, very powerful and this is, I mentioned to you earlier about these snapshots, we have the Old Testament, some things we can learn about imitating God with Jesus as a disciple, Paul talks about it. We talk about suffering as a way of understanding holiness and participating in holiness, but you and I now as Christians are not gathering around a tabernacle in the wilderness but we're gathering around a liturgy that is celebrated in heaven and on earth, the lamb supper and we are partaking of drink and food that is transformative and the Eucharist becomes the most transformative thing on earth for us to partake of, you know what I mean? There is nothing greater, no greater source of grace than the Eucharist. Now this coming year there's going to be a Eucharistic revival around the country and with the Eucharistic revival there should be a holiness revival that God's people should become holy in every sense of what's being talked about at this conference, but the Eucharist, the blood of Jesus is the key, the blood of Jesus. Let me tell you a story, Neil Diamond, I don't know if you've ever heard of him, he's a singer. Neil Diamond was playing in Northern Canada in Ontario in the late 60s and after his concert he was interviewed by a local newspaper and as he was talking to this lady who is a reporter, he answered her questions and then he asked her a question, he said is your family from Ontario and she said no, my parents were missionaries and we moved here when I was young and he said what is it like up here in North, these small towns, what is it like to live up here? And she said it's lonely and there's a difference in the numbers of available men and available women. There are only so many available women but there's a lot of men up here and she began to tell how her parents would go on the reservations in Ontario and as I said there seemed to be more men than women and she said when it came to weekends and holidays, when people all got together, the men would get their date and go into town but there were left a lot of men behind and they didn't have anybody to be with and they were alone and they were depressed in the long, dark nights of winter and so the men who didn't have a lady, she told Neil, would go down to the general store and buy a bottle of cracklin' rose wine and they would buy this bottle called cracklin' rose wine and they would say that they would have to, that would have to be their woman for the weekend and they called their women cracklin' rosy and you know the song, oh cracklin' rosy, get on board, you know that song? We're gonna ride till there ain't no more to go takin' it slow and Lord don't you know will have me a time with a poor man's lady hitchin' on a twilight train ain't nothin' here that I care to take along maybe a song to sing when I want no need to say please to no man for a happy tune oh I love my rosy child you got the way to make me happy you and me, we go in style cracklin' rose, you're a store-bought woman but you make me sing like a guitar humming I'm not gonna sing the rest, but my, when I heard Neil tell that story on an interview it really got me to thinking about all the people who are broken in their lives and on the weekend when they don't have someone to love and they don't have someone to hold and someone to give themselves to they will settle for cracklin' rose and they will cuddle up to a bottle and that wine will become their sustenance that wine will become their hope that wine will transform them into a hero for a few hours it's a store-bought woman, cracklin' rose Psalm 104 says you cause the grass to grow for the cattle and plants for people to use to bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the human heart oil to make the face shine and bread to strengthen the human heart our culture is filled with wounded people who are searching for healing, wholeness and purpose they are searching for holiness holiness is what they are ultimately searching for and we as Catholics, as the people of God we understand that we are not satisfied with cracklin' rose but we have the wine that becomes the blood of Christ and the blood of Christ fuels us, changes us it gives us everything that our heart desires, everything we need people, we need people to attend this revival that's gonna take place next year the Eucharistic revival because people are hungry and thirsting for holiness the Holy Spirit opens our hearts before God so that deeper and more specific healing can occur I wanna read something to you as we're getting ready to wind this up Dr. James Keating in his book, Configured to Christ he talks about holiness and he talks about how an encounter is necessary that we must have an encounter with the Lord listen to what he says, he says and I'm thinking of the guy that went out and got a store-bought woman cracklin' rosy sin, sin pathologically clings only to the endless boredom of repetitive daily features of the interior life constant rehearsal of our sinfulness continued recollection of personal inadequacies denigrating thoughts about the imperfections of our neighbors resentment toward the mundane horrarium of each day bathing in negative thoughts and moods existing in cynicism and all mannerisms of interior desires bent on the disorder greed, lust, envy, pride, sloth, anger and gluttony all of these desires weigh us down from within and become the signature upon the letter which is our face the blood of Christ courses through us to heal the mind of its errors and ideologies unless we have simply reduced worship and its content to an ideology itself that we have entered the biblical realm of the hardness of heart if spiritual healing is to occur an encounter must occur we can read about it, we can hear about it we can listen to other people describe it but unless we encounter it, the healing will not occur we must be seized with the presence of God in this presence, in this presence perhaps dramatic at first, perhaps not we appropriate meaning, love and healing at ever expanding levels of integration throughout our life now listen to this, the Eucharist is the encounter the Eucharist is the encounter with he who does not will anything but mercy and healing such an encounter is by its nature ordered toward the healing of interior suffering and at times of physical cure we cannot be in union with Christ at the Eucharist without receiving the effects of his virtue his power to heal, mend and restore we are attracted to so much in these short days of living but the attraction to the Eucharist is the one desire that sets all other attractions within proper proportionality without the desire to have Christ's mysteries lived over again in us by way of the Eucharist the passing age will have more effect upon our interior life than eternity opened up for us in the Paschal Mystery if your life is made up of watching network news at night in the next day sharing with everyone the bad things that are happening the difficult situation that we are in we're gonna miss the boat now more than ever we are not joining the world's dialogue we are separate and we are one with Christ and I just gotta share with you from my heart, from my heart it is the Eucharist that we need and I'm running into more and more people who are in dialogue with the world they have left the gospel and the sacraments to the wayside and the saints and they have picked up new saints and the question isn't what did Saint Augustine say or what did Saint John Paul the Sayer what did Paul say but it's what did Tucker say what did Hannity say what did Laura say do you hear what Don Lemon said and this becomes our conversation and this is what Dr. Keating is talking about is that you're gonna miss the encounter and that encounter is with Jesus the Eucharist, the blood of the Lamb listen to this great prayer you know at St. Ignatius of Loyola Anna McCristi listen to what he says in light of crackling rosy soul of Christ sanctify me body of Christ save me blood of Christ inebriate me water from the side of Christ wash me passion of Christ strengthen me oh good Jesus hear me within thy thoughts hide me separated from thee let me never be from the malignant enemy defend me at the hour of death call me at close and close to thee bid me that with thy saints I may be praising thee for ever and ever amen the inebriation for which we pray is that of which the poets and mystics have written when they said that they were drunk with the love of Christ inebriated with God set reeling with the thought of God's glory and of God's love for them Psalm 47 says Lord you have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and wine abound so I want to leave you with encouragement that with all that is going on in the world today and all the political discussions that are taking place and all of the things that are happening socially we need to turn our eyes to Jesus we need to look to Jesus and pursue Jesus and we need to pray that will be inebriated by Jesus and the Eucharist amen God has called us to holiness Father Son in the Holy Spirit