Ep077 - Boosting baseline energy: A conversation with AJ Kazmierczak
In this episode of the Okayest Cook podcast, host Chris Whonsetler sits down with AJ Kazmierczak, also known as the Coffee Viking. They discuss a range of topics from their personal backgrounds and funny family traditions, to practical insights on boosting daily energy levels. AJ shares his journey as an entrepreneur and outdoorsman and provides valuable advice on maintaining energy through passion, activity, whole foods, and proper supplementation. They touch on the importance of cutting screen time, the potential benefits and pitfalls of caffeine and nicotine, and the recipe for a delicious venison breakfast casserole. This episode is packed with tips for enhancing daily vitality and overall well-being.
Help us keep the episodes coming by shopping our affiliate links. All brands we use and love! happy to chat about our recommendations
CHRIS: I'm ready. You ready?
AJ: Rock and roll baby. Let's do this thing.
Cheers. Cheers, Bella. What do we think there? Happy to be here. Label got in the way.
CHRIS: Yes, sir.
Welcome back to the Okayest Cook podcast. I'm your host, Chris Whonsetler here in the studio coming at you with AJ Kazmierczak.
AJ: My man.
CHRIS: Did I get it? You did it spot on. I told you I'd forget and I did.
AJ: There's a couple of hidden letters in there that don't mean anything but Kazmierczak, you crushed it.
CHRIS: Where's that from?
AJ: Poland. Okay. Yeah. So it's a Pol Polish native. We always joke that the great grandparents, when they came over, a lot of pole locks have ski on the end of it. And so we always joke that they figured Kasak was hard enough. We'll just make it Kasm Z instead of kazaki. So that's the running joke in the family.
CHRIS: Yes. I think I'm German Whonsetler I don't know what else it would be, but they were vagabonds and I haven't done the research.
AJ: Yeah. Yeah, no, I totally get it. I actually I married a Catholic Mormon. Okay. So their last name is Mormon, but they're Catholics and they're German.
And so it just it, it all works out. Yeah. What good food if you are German? Big fan. Big fan.
CHRIS: Yeah. One I'm curious, did when you got married, did the name change become easier or harder?
For the spouse,
AJ: her and I, we had been together. I, she's gonna kill me if I forget this. We had been together for seven to eight years.
Yeah. We both knew it was coming. We, I wanted everything to be perfect, which it was for the proposal, but she already she knew my name. She knew how to spell all 11 letters of it. So it was good. It was a very smooth transition from that regard. Nowadays we've been we've been married for a handful of years.
We've got a little one, we got another one on the way. Nowadays she scoffs at and raises her eyebrows when she gets mail addressed to. Mormon. She's I haven't been Mormon in years. I don't know what this is. So that's always a funny piece to it.
CHRIS: Yes. My wife went from Seaverson to W Atler,
AJ: okay,
CHRIS: gotcha. Not too much challenging.
AJ: Nah. Yeah, I was gonna say, those are both hard to begin with. So what's one hard to another hard. It's
CHRIS: all good. A couple steps behind in the lunch line.
AJ: Yeah. Piece of cake.
CHRIS: That's it. AJ, what you were a man of many hats. Do you wanna give just like a quick introduction?
Just tell the viewers. A little bit who you are and Yeah. And what you do. And then
AJ: Yeah. No, I
would,
CHRIS: We'll try and segue it somehow.
AJ: Yeah. No, I would love to. So my name is AJ Kazak on social media and out and about. A lot of individuals know me as the coffee Viking. One of the reasons being is because I actually co-founded a coffee company back in college with a really good friend.
And we've been running that business now. I believe we're going on six or seven years at this point. Yes. I am an avid outdoorsman, a hunter. I work in the outdoor industry, which is actually the reason I got to come and join you today, which is very exciting. So I work as the media and event director for Lone Wolf Custom Gear.
I also take great pride in my health and wellness and I was very fortunate to be named first form outdoors athlete male outdoors athlete for 2024. Jess Crane, gotta give a shout out to her. She's the female athlete. She's crushing it out west. And then, last not least, and most important, I'm a father and a husband.
So those are like the big pinnacle pieces to myself in my life.
CHRIS: Yeah. Some killer companies there. Like I'm a huge lone wolf fan. Yeah,
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: And first form is crushing it. Like absolutely crushing it. So
AJ: first form is off like a rocket right now,
CHRIS: man. Yes. Yeah.
Huge fan. Love it. And yeah. So you came down for the a TA show. Yeah. Which is happening right now. A couple weeks ago as you're listening to this. Yeah.
AJ: Yeah, no we're excited. So this is actually our first year back at a TA in probably five or six years, I believe. For the longest time, a TA was a business to business show.
We are a direct to consumer company, so it didn't really make sense for us to come back, but this is the first year that it is two days business to business and two days direct to consumer. So they're letting the general public in, they're letting people buy stuff, place orders. It's gonna be very exciting.
For Friday and Saturday. So we came, yeah, super bu today it was a little slower day from a sales side, but it was a great day in terms of quality conversations that were had. We had a bunch of great conversations with potential wholesalers when we get back to that stage. And then we also had enough time that I think we took six or seven YouTube videos for different companies just talking about products and, the gear that we're using and what's exciting about Lone Wolf and things like that.
Although the direct sales don't reflect it, it was a very successful day for us just from a brand building standpoint. So I was very excited.
CHRIS: You could put boots on the ground. Yeah. Meeting new people and
AJ: Yeah. And that's what I love. I love talking to people in person, helping people in any facets.
That's why I am in the coffee industry, the outdoor space. And of course, the health and wellness space is because in all of those facets, I'm able to touch people directly and help them directly, yes. Coffee is something, if you're having absolutely crummy day and you come in and you're greeted with this great warm energy and you have a good cup of coffee, now all of a sudden, somehow your day turned around.
Absolutely. Yeah. If you're out in the deer woods and you know that you had the perfect gear and it's able to help you seal the deal, I would get to be a part of that, not not arbitration. I get to be a part of that because we sold you the gear. And then from the health and wellness side, we're in a day and age where sobriety is up, fitness is up, and supplementation is up.
So for me to be able to recommend things like magnesium or micro factor, which is our daily vitamin, things of that nature, I now know that person is gonna be better for it because of the fact they're gonna get better sleep, they're gonna recover better, they're gonna have more energy. And so in all facets of my life, my job is to help people in whatever they may need.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: So I'm very excited to and blessed to be able to do what I do.
CHRIS: Absolutely. Yeah. I love the fact you just mentioned like. More energy.
Because that's what today is all about. And I just wanna pick your brain.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: On how do I get more energy?
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: Yeah. Before we get into that, have you had any cool notable meals recently?
AJ: Listen. If you guys find yourself in Columbus, Ohio. Okay. There might be more locations, but I went to the one in Columbus, Ohio at Easton Town Center. It's a company called Cut 1 32. Okay. Okay. My wife and I went there. We, in lieu of Christmas presents, we decided to do a mom and dad night out. We're gonna do a nice, so important dinner.
So important. Very important. The sides at cut 31. Cut 1 32. We got brussel sprouts. We got a, I think it was potatoes, grotten, and then we got broccolini. Big broccolini fan. Yes. Love a good broccolini. Yes. Those were great and they paled in comparison to Tomahawk four two. Ooh. So I got two firsts at this location.
So I got my first tomahawk, which was Cook two. Perfection. Yes. My wife at least at the time of recording this is pregnant. So we had to get it cooked. Medium. I normally like my stuff medium rare, and even at Medium, it was amazing. It had a centimeter of crust of just seasoning. The flavor was amazing.
Highly recommend. And then for me, i'm a big whiskey buff. I like good whiskey. They actually offered a cowboy luge, which for those that don't know okay, the first time or the, I've
CHRIS: seen this, but I haven't tried
AJ: it myself. Yeah. So that's the thing, right? You see it all over socials, but hardly anywhere offers it.
So for those that don't know, a cowboy luge is a serving of bone marrow with a kicker or chaser of whiskey. Yes. And what you do is you eat the bone marrow with the bruschetta or whatever bread is served with it. And then from there you get all the good little bits that are left and you basically ho hoist it up and you pour some of the whiskey down.
And so you get. The amazing kind of like gelatin feel, meatiness of the marrow while you get the sweetness and the burn of the whiskey. Yes. So I got my tomahawk, we got the cowboy luge it, oh my word. I, my wife didn't have any of the whiskey. We don't have to worry about that. But she did try the bone marrow and my wife can be finicky with different meats and she thought it was amazing.
So highly recommend if you find yourself in Columbus, Ohio or just anywhere that offers a tomahawk or cowboy luge, cowboy, luge. Make sure you go and snag some
CHRIS: Dude, it sounds phenomenal.
AJ: I love the idea. It was so good. It was so good. We had the carbohydrates, we had the vegetables, we had the meat, like it was a world class.
Experience do that.
CHRIS: Dynamite
AJ: And pretty standard pricing. Okay. I always like to give pricing. Pretty standard pricing for a nicer steakhouse. It is a white tablecloth steakhouse. I think. I think total bill with tip was just under 300.
CHRIS: That's not bad at all.
AJ: Which, excuse me, you think three sides, obviously a la car at a steakhouse.
The tomahawk for two, the cowboy luge. She got a mocktail. I think maybe I had a beer or water beforehand. All in. That you're gonna spend that at 80 for a great
CHRIS: date night. Yeah. Yeah. That's worth, that's money well spent for sure.
AJ: Absolutely. I'm talking about it on a podcast.
That's how good it was.
CHRIS: Yes, sir. Your your cowboy luge got me thinking of something I saw online, and this has nothing to do with my notable meal. It's just a disturbing video I saw, but, oh, hunting related. Okay. This has a couple of hunters had their buck hanging.
AJ: Yep.
CHRIS: They grabbed a beer.
They gutted it. I've seen this. You've seen this. Oh, the gutted the deer.
AJ: Yep.
CHRIS: The guy lays on the ground under the buck's mouth. They pour the beer like, and do the,
AJ: that the luge threw
CHRIS: the deer.
AJ: That's aggressive. And what's funny is, I know for a fact in the comments under this, people are gonna talk about how it's disrespectful to the deer.
Other people are gonna talk about how, oh, I did it twice this year. Something like that to each their own with whatever culture they're building. If that's something you're into and that's a part of your culture. My family, anytime someone shoots their first deer, you shoots their first deer.
You have to take a bite outta the heart, so let's go. It can become a tradition for some folks, other peoples, it might, other people it might not be for you. But it is. It is a spectacle.
CHRIS: It is a spectacle,
AJ: to say the
CHRIS: least. It falls under that taboo umbrella.
AJ: Yes.
CHRIS: Like you said, some people are gonna be okay with it, some people are not.
AJ: Yes. Amen. I would, let's put it this way, I would be fine with doing it. I would never instigate it. Let you know.
CHRIS: I don't think I would ever participate personally. We'll find a different way to drink that beer.
AJ: That's right,
CHRIS: that's right. But we'll celebrate that buck a different way. But
AJ: yeah,
CHRIS: absolutely.
Anyways on a more pleasant note, yes. My notable meal was some broth I made.
AJ: Oh. Homemade
CHRIS: broth or stock,
AJ: I don't know the
CHRIS: difference. Stock, I think, correct me if I'm wrong, stock does not contain meat, but broth.
AJ: But you hear all the does, but you hear all the time about chicken stock.
CHRIS: I use them interchangeably.
AJ: To be honest I always like I, in our kitchen right now, we have chicken broth. And we have beef broth. Yeah. So I see how the stock, that could make sense, but you did it
CHRIS: homemade. I made broth. Let's call it broth.
AJ: Okay.
CHRIS: Yes. So I took the deer feet, like the literal hooves of the deer, basically everything from the shank down.
Recommended by Alan Bergo. We recorded that podcast, gosh, a couple months ago. Maybe longer. And he said, yeah, use the Trotters for your stock. It'll make the most beautiful stock you've ever had. Really. And he is on to the most beautiful thing ever. I took this thing down. Photos are on my Instagram.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: Probably field from field to table and gosh, it was just, it was so silky and just dense. Yeah. And just full of, and
AJ: the nutrients in it.
CHRIS: Oh my gosh. Have to be just, gosh, the amount of collagen
AJ: out, out of this world.
CHRIS: Yes, for sure.
AJ: I
CHRIS: mean, if you like I'm never throwing away the feed again.
AJ: No.
CHRIS: Like after this it just tastes that,
AJ: see, I'm good. I'm a very basic like meat and potatoes, meat and rice kind of guy. But hearing stuff like that, yes. Seeing the stuff that you post on, the from field to table, Instagram and stuff like that. I'm like, I could try that. It's, yeah I would have dedicate some time.
It's a
CHRIS: process.
AJ: That's one thing I always love about pre-done recipes. Yeah. Is they're like, oh, it's 15 minutes of prep and 30 minutes of cooking. Me. I'm like, I'm double, triple checking stuff and I'm like, all right, it's 45 minutes of prep and hour and a half of cooking to make sure that I get this right.
But dude, that sounds cra So did you add any seasonings, herbs? Nothing.
No
AJ: vegetable? Nope.
CHRIS: Kept it pretty
AJ: neutral.
CHRIS: Just
AJ: straight broth.
CHRIS: Straight broth. Yep. And I haven't. Used it yet. I've tasted it, but I haven't used it. But yeah, I don't know what I'm gonna use it with. I've got probably three vax sealed bags, so three different portions.
Okay. And man, just like making rice
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: With the stock instead of water.
AJ: Yeah. That's crazy. Good. All those nutrients, they'll transfer over to the rice. It'll be great. Yes. We're in the heart of sickness season right now. Yes. And so someone is gonna go down in your house
CHRIS: Yep.
AJ: And they're gonna be relying on that broth.
So that's absolutely, I know my wife being pregnant right now, when she had a respiratory infection, she was like drowning in broth because of the fact that you just, it's got all the vital nutrients that you need. Yeah. It's warm, it's soothing. It's comforting road. It's comforting. Yeah. Yeah. It's
CHRIS: ticks all the boxes
AJ: stuff.
It's great. It's great. But that's super interesting. Yes. I'm gonna have to save that.
CHRIS: Save your feet. So I basically, I took the skin off.
AJ: Okay.
CHRIS: And that was an ordeal. A couple of my followers recommended keeping the skin on. So basically just you get the feet, he said, the sooner the better you do this.
AJ: Okay.
CHRIS: Boil the feet straight away.
AJ: Okay.
CHRIS: And that all the hair will just scrape off pretty easy at that point.
AJ: Okay.
CHRIS: And then that'll also take off like the toe nails, like the black hooves. Yeah. Air quotes. I don't know what they're called actually.
AJ: Yeah,
CHRIS: the
AJ: hooves.
CHRIS: They just they fell off in my stock pot.
It's like you scrub 'em down really well. Yeah. If you keep the hooves on. But he said yeah, once you boil it, like the hooves will come off and it'll just be like the insides of the toes. Yeah. Just like pure collagen.
AJ: Which I was gonna say you're already getting the marrow gelatin outta that.
Yeah. Oh dude.
CHRIS: Yeah. We gotta just dice them up and two or three chunks and just let that marrow flow. And
AJ: that's gonna be
CHRIS: worthful. It's worth it. It is.
AJ: Yeah. I'm
CHRIS: saving that for sure. They worth it. And it's a piece of the animal that like. I would say 90 a nine out of a hundred times, I'd say 999 out of a thousand times.
Yeah. It's gonna get left in the woods.
AJ: A hundred percent.
CHRIS: Unless you're gonna make a, I don't know, any, a rack, like a gun holder for it. Nobody keeps the feet,
AJ: dude. I don't know. Any time that I've ever, people keeps feet. Nobody. Nobody. I've done it once. People are going to now,
CHRIS: if you don't keep the feet now you're screwing up.
I'm telling you. 'cause that stock is like 10 outta 10. It's top tier. I'll never throw away the feet. That's how strongly I feel about this stock.
AJ: It's crazy. I'm going over crazy Chris's house after this
CHRIS: podcast. I'll give you a bag.
AJ: No, that's awesome, dude.
CHRIS: Absolutely. So yeah. Notable meals I don't have a good way to segue into how do we get more energy
AJ: roll into it.
CHRIS: That's the topic of tonight. How do we get more energy?
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: And I think you're the perfect man to ask. I appreciate that because of all the things you've got your hands dipped into. Yep. You own a coffee business. You work for an energy company. Yep. You do a ton of working out. I'm assuming you eat well, because that comes with working out.
Yeah. So all of that boils into more energy.
AJ: Yeah,
CHRIS: absolutely. And when you hear somebody saying Hey I've got no energy, or I'm all out of energy, I need to get more energy. What does that typically mean?
AJ: So that,
CHRIS: Let me preface this we're all different people.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: What's gonna work for me is not gonna work for you, vice versa.
So all of this is going to come from AJ's perspective.
AJ: Yeah. And
CHRIS: so this works for,
AJ: and I, me and I try to cover a gambit of individuals, right? Yeah. So everything, the way that I look at it is scalable. Okay? Sure. If you take someone that's extremely sedentary that doesn't work out at all, hangs out on the couch, 450 pounds, things like that.
My recommendation to get more energy for them is gonna be drastically different than my recommendation for someone that's already fit to try to get more energy. That being said, there's a lot of things that dictate energy. Number one is actually completely unrelated to food and nutrition, and that is passion.
I am extremely passionate. Look I just moved my hands off the table because of the fact that I talk with my hands when I get excited. I'm extremely passionate about everything that I do. The coffee business, the health and wellness, the outdoors. Like I lo I love what I do. I'm extremely passionate about my wife and our son and the, our next son that's coming all of that gets me excited. Yeah. So there's your baseline energy, then you take something like that, and I'm also a big believer in that you have to be active to stay active. Yes. You have to. You have to create energy. To have energy. I leave the gym, whether I'm doing just 30 minutes on the StairMaster, whether I'm doing a run, whether I'm doing weight training, I leave the gym more energized and more fulfilled than when I start
CHRIS: college.
Professor told me that.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: When we were studying for finals, when year, Ron Elle, thank you so much. He basically was like, if you're trying to study all night, don't just drink coffee, like you gotta go out and do jumping jacks. Like spending energy, creates energy.
AJ: Yeah. Yeah.
Because what happens is as you're being active. Your body's not the only thing being active. Your brain and your neuro functions are also kicking in and they're like, oh we're up. We're moving. Let's fire off. Like it it's wild how connected everything is.
CHRIS: So connected,
AJ: But then you take that into effect, right?
So you have To be active. To stay active. Once again, going back to the scalable aspect, okay. Someone who's four 50 and someone who's already fit their active level is different.
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: Someone who's four 50 that needs more energy, they may just have to walk to the mailbox a couple of times just to then be able to go do the dishes.
'cause you walk to the mailbox, you stimulate yourself, alright, I already did this. Now what else can I do?
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: Someone who's already active, maybe they need an hour and a half workout in the gym. And, pushing heavy weights, rowing, skier treadmill, whatever it may be. Now all of a sudden they go back home.
They're like, alright, cool. Take the trash out, feed the cat, get the coffee ready. Yeah. Alright. I'm good for the day. And so that aspect of making sure that it's scalable is something very crucial that people have to remember. From there, we then move into Whole Foods, right? So we've got passion, then we've got activity level.
Now we're moving into Whole Foods. Okay. Someone who goes to McDonald's 10 times a week, or someone who goes to raising canes, which is in Ohio. It's a fried chicken place. It's no different than Zaxby's or Yeah. Or KFC or something like that, but it's fried. They're gonna heavy
CHRIS: on the sauce.
AJ: Yeah. Which
CHRIS: we've talked about. We'll kill you.
AJ: Hey, listen. No. Slaw, extra toast. Gimme a sweet tea. We're good to go. I don't I love it. But small doses. Small doses. Okay. You move into Whole Foods aspect. Someone said something. It was a different podcast that really stuck with me, and you may have mentioned it on other podcasts, but Shop from the Edge, no matter what.
CHRIS: Andy talks about that a lot.
AJ: Yeah. No matter what grocery store you go to, all of the healthiest items will be on the edge of the grocery store. Your vegetables, your fruits. Yep. Your meats, your dairy cottage cheese, eggs regular cheese. It's all on the edge. Once you start diving into the middle.
That's when things can get hairy. You're buying pre-made meals. Yeah. You're buying frozen meals. You're, the one thing that I put an asterisk by is pasta and rice. Okay. Because pasta and rice are always in the middle. They're always like smack dab. And then the idea is that with a grocery store you don't know where to go next, so you just go down the next aisle.
True. Now you're stuck
CHRIS: trap. You saw those Oreos in your trap.
AJ: Exactly. The fresher you can buy food, the much more energy you're gonna have throughout the day.
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: So we've talked passion, we've talked fitness, we, activity level, we've talked whole foods. Lastly is the nutri the supplementation side of things.
Okay. That's where guys like me come into play. Okay. We start breaking down. Everything that you've done up to this point, your activity level, your nutrition, how many kids do you have? Do you have a significant other? How many times a week do you go to the gym? All of that stuff that all of those answers bring us to what I feel is gonna promote your energy levels moving forward.
Okay? Yeah. The easy route and the things that I recommend to everyone. Good multivitamin, I work with First form, so I always recommend Micro Factor. I was taking Micro Factor before I had any relationship with First Form. I was just a supporter. I love the product. It comes in a little baggy, which reminds me I need to take my micro factor for today.
It comes in a little baggie with a handful of pills, reds, greens, probiotics, multivitamins, fish oil and COQ 10. And so all of that is in one baggie. You take all of that's gonna give you a lot of the micronutrients that might not get hit with just whole foods alone. Sure. Okay. Another thing that's gonna promote energy is magnesium.
I, I joke that magnesium is the miracle mineral. Okay. Of course, first form does have a magnesium powder. The one thing I love about first form, everything is third party tested. It's all created in a level three facility, which in terms of cleanliness and quality control, the level three facility is the same grade that they make hospital instruments for.
Oh, crazy. Yeah. Wildly focused on the quality aspect. Magnesium I call a miracle mineral because of the fact that it promotes. Rest recovery. You take it at night, it makes you drowsy. You go to sleep faster. The idea is and I could be wrong, but once again, most of us get our information from podcasts.
All of our recovery comes from REM sleep, right? Yeah. And so there's four stages to sleep. I'm calling on my high school knowledge, yo, but there's four stages of sleep, and that's gonna be 1, 2, 3, 4. REM sleep is three and four. The idea behind magnesium is that it gets you to that REM sleep cycle faster.
CHRIS: Okay?
AJ: So if you're in it faster. You're in it longer, and if you're in it longer, you're gonna recover more. Yes. If you recover more, you wake up more energized. Yes. And so that's why it's so drastically important. It's some of the best sleep you'll ever get. Knocks you out cold. You wake up the next morning and you're ready to go.
You're midday form rock and roll, let's do this thing. Yes. Is that
a
CHRIS: daily magnesium that you do or,
AJ: so so it's as needed. Okay. There are, I don't believe there are any studies about any negative effects of long-term magnesium use. I personally use it every single day. It, having a two and a half year old, he might go to bed at six 30, he might go to bed at nine 30.
Then of course, mom and dad have their chill out time. We might not go to bed until 10, 10, 30, 11 whatever it may be. But what I know is that. If I'm taking my magnesium, my sleep quality drastically increases. I just had my buddy the other day, Joe, he posted a story 'cause I recommended the magnesium to him.
He was talking about how amazing it's the best sleep ever. His wife
CHRIS: that's crazy.
AJ: Dmd him and said, yeah, you sleep so good that you're not waking up with the baby. They have a newborn. And so it is great sleep.
CHRIS: Does it cure snoring? That's what I wanna know. That would make my wife really happy.
AJ: That's why I have mouth tape back at the Airbnb. Okay. If you have mouth tape, you can't snore. But that, that's a whole nother thing.
CHRIS: That's a different computation.
AJ: But but yeah, so then you go into supplementation side. We talk about micro factor, we talk about magnesium and then.
Lastly, but the thing that everybody loves to talk about, loves to put on a pedestal, loves to fantasize about is caffeine. Caffeine, I am an equal opportunity caffeine enthusiast. I do highly recommend caffeine for folks. There has been studies done that cognitive ability increases with caffeine intake.
Yeah, it helps make sure that all of your neurons are firing properly. Great stuff. Now let me put a hash in that
CHRIS: Yes,
AJ: The best and most natural caffeine source. You're looking at coffee, you're looking at tea, you're looking at things that,
CHRIS: black tea. Black tea. Green tea.
AJ: Yep.
Yep. You're either one. You're looking at things that come from the earth. Yeah.
CHRIS: Natural,
AJ: right? Yeah. With the energy drink craze that we're going through right now,
CHRIS: yes.
AJ: There's a lot of companies that are adding obnoxious amounts of extra stuff to stimulate perceived energy.
CHRIS: Okay.
AJ: Once again, I was drinking this stuff before I had anything to do with first form, but first form now has a sub-brand called Form Energy. You're gonna start being able to find it everywhere. We just did a big deal with seven 11. It's in Speedway. It's in Wally's it's in a number of different gas stations, but the thing that I like about it is no bs.
You can look at it, I believe it's all natural. But the caffeine is a derivative of either green coffee extract or green tea extract, which I really those
CHRIS: are the best energy drinks.
AJ: Yeah, sure. Yeah. We're getting into the nitty gritties with it, but it's, I it's something, once again, something that I'm passionate about, right?
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: There's no brain fog, there's no crash. It's, you get up, you stay up, and then it's a slow taper and hopefully when you hit. The dip of that taper. It's time for you to take your magnesium anyways. Drop that baby down and we're going right to bed.
CHRIS: Yeah, dude I'm real curious about that drink because I'm not an energy drink guy.
I'm a hundred percent coffee until, let's say one o'clock. Yep. And then just trying to drink water. Yeah. That's my goals. But yeah, like Red Bulls, they just destroy me like in a bad way. Like my heart palpitations just instant headache. Yeah. I can't do it. And pretty much with every energy drink I've tried, it's just not good for me.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: Driving home from a gig one night, it was like a four hour drive or something like that, just crazy late at night roll into the gas station. I buy some Starbucks beverage.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: But very similar Hey, it's caffeine from coffee, green coffee, from tea, from whatever
AJ: might be a cold brew concentrate.
I
CHRIS: don't know what it was, but it wasn't. Quote unquote coffee.
AJ: Okay.
CHRIS: So it was like in Starbucks energy. It was weird. I need to find it. But it was it in
AJ: a can?
I know what you're talking about.
CHRIS: The cleanest like focus I've ever had from any type of canned quote unquote energy drink.
Yeah. There's no headache. Like my heart didn't race. It was just instant alert.
AJ: Yep.
CHRIS: It was smooth. Like I said, the decline was really gentle and just, it got me home.
AJ: Yeah. Yeah. And,
CHRIS: and it was good.
AJ: More than likely, and I'm totally guessing on this, so totally guessing, don't hold me to this. More than likely that drink, because it was refrigerated, it was probably a cold brew or cold brew concentrate.
Okay. And what a lot of folks don't know is that because of the concentration, cold brew is more, has more caffeine than Yeah. Regular hot coffee. Okay. If you take that cold brew caffeine or if you take that cold brew. And then you leave it in its concentrate form, it's then gonna have even more caffeine.
So I believe you guys can check me on this. I believe the average caffeine for a hot coffee is between 70 and 80 milligrams.
CHRIS: That sounds right.
AJ: When you get up to regular cold brew, you're looking at a hundred to 120 milligrams. When you get up to cold brew concentrate, which a lot of restaurants and businesses from our wholesale side, they've started using cold brew concentrate for things like cocktails and things like that.
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: Now you're dabbling into that one 20 to one 50 range. Okay. Outside of that, now you get into energy drinks where you're looking at, I think Monsters one 40 most of them are 200. Yeah. Form Energy is 200. And then you've got some big, energy focused brands that are pumping in 300 milligrams of coffee.
Or just
CHRIS: a
AJ: thought of
CHRIS: 200.
AJ: It is like
CHRIS: making
AJ: me sweat 300 milligrams of of caffeine anyways. It's ridiculous, but yeah. No, it's I should have planned for it. I should have brought you some of the form energy. Obviously we wouldn't drink it tonight, but we can drink it tomorrow. But I'll see you at the show tomorrow, so I'll make sure that you get one.
But it is extremely clean. Yeah. Elevates you, helps with focus. There's no fog, like I said, and it's just it's a great, it's a great option if you feel you need more energy. Yeah. Now, once again, we'll put a hash in that as well. It's a, it is a short term fix for a long term problem if you are consistently.
Lethargic, you are consistently dragging. You need to look at everything I've stated up to this point.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: Before you start diving into two energy drinks a day, pre-workout, extra shots of coffee,
CHRIS: because you're gonna get used to the caffeine.
AJ: Yeah. It's just more and
CHRIS: More
AJ: and
CHRIS: more.
AJ: Yep. It's just if you're taking medicine or things like that, your body will grow accustomed to it.
Yes. Now, all of a sudden you need to bump up. Now all of a sudden you need to bump up. Now all of a sudden you're drinking three energy drinks a day, plus pre-workout, plus coffee, and it becomes a mess. It's
CHRIS: gonna get unhealthy.
AJ: Yeah. Yeah. And so
CHRIS: you mentioned early on moderation.
AJ: Yeah. Yeah. Let's do
CHRIS: that with
AJ: everything.
And the focus needs to be on. Passion activity, nutrition. Yes. Activity and nutrition are so close together, they can almost interchange. Then you get into supplementation, then you get into the energy drink spectrum. Yes. So there, just like with anything there's levels to this stuff.
We were talking earlier about cooking. I'm a beef and rice guy. If I had beef and rice until the day I died, I'd be totally fine.
CHRIS: You sound like Andy,
AJ: You're busy making beef stock or venison stock with hooves of deer. There's levels to all of this.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: But I cannot reiterate enough.
What's your passion? Then go into activity or nutrition, then go into activity or nutrition, whichever you feel is second or third most important. Then you go into supplementation, then you move into the energy drink spectrum. Yes. If you can somehow dial all of those in, you are going to be a completely different person in three to six months.
Not just from a physical standpoint, but from a mental standpoint. Clarity. You're not gonna spend 4, 5, 6 hours on the couch watching shows. You're gonna be trying to do home projects and things of that nature. So that's why that range is so important. And making sure that you have the priority straight.
Yes. If you're just hiding tiredness with. Energy and caffeine. It's great for about a week to two weeks, but like you said, just like with anything else, you're gonna become accustomed to it. And now you might be having two or three energy drinks, they're gonna give you 30 minutes of a boost and no matter what you're taking, it's gonna crash as soon as you have that, that McDonald's Big Mac or whatever it may be.
Yes. So the, yeah. That's why that whole range is so important.
CHRIS: Yeah. I love the fact you just mentioned like when you get your body in the right spot, like you're not gonna be sitting on the couch. 'cause you literally can't.
AJ: Right.
CHRIS: And pre kids, when I was doing a little bit more like cycling and things like that, like I would try and sit at the couch, sit on the couch at the end of the day, like trying to watch a show and my legs would just be like antsy.
Yeah. Like I just can't sit still. Like I need to get up and move. Like it was physically uncomfortable to sit on the couch and do nothing.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: Like you just had to get up and move.
AJ: Bingo.
CHRIS: But since I've had the kids, I've just let things slide. It's very, and like now, sitting on the couch is very easy.
AJ: Yes.
Yeah. It, it is. And I try to with the positivity and the energy that I bring to social media, I try to target new dads or dads in general. Yes. Guys that maybe used to be go-getters and now they're not, or they've taken a step back or whatever it may be, and that now all of a sudden we're back into the passion piece of it.
Yes. You owe it to yourself, you owe it to your kids, you owe it to your wife to be the best version of yourself. Possible. 100%.
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: And so that should then help kickstart the rest of those aspects, yes.
CHRIS: They feed each other really well. Yeah. Said the passion and just the physical because you wanna be on the floor just wrestling with your boys.
Yeah. And you wanna be like, running around and
AJ: Yep.
CHRIS: Teaching 'em how to ride a bike and
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: If you can't run around and wrestle with your kids, like your passion for your family is gonna decline. Yep. Drastically. Yep.
AJ: And it, it's one of those things where oh, where was I going with that? With I am by no means the pinnacle of health and wellness.
You and I are sitting here drinking a beer, recording a podcast. Like I understand there's things I need to work on. However, I would like to see myself as a physically fit individual. One of the things that I love tying back into the passion piece is every night when it's time for bed, we, I Superman.
Where you go, chest area, leg area on the kid and you fly him around in the room and we superman out to grab his milk. Yeah. And then we superman back and then I ask him, I say, alright, how many presses is daddy doing? And he'll give me a number one to 10 'cause that's all he knows. And then while we're in his room, I'll shoulder press him.
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: The number that he chooses. And
CHRIS: he's just dying the whole time.
AJ: Yeah. Yeah. And he's loving it. He's laughing Oh
CHRIS: by where to
AJ: love it. And then we crash into his bed. Dude, if I could replicate that feeling every day until I die, I will be the happiest man on the planet. Yes. But I'm only able to do those things.
Because I take care of the other aspects that are gonna give me the energy to be able to do those things. Yes. And so that's, that kind of all encompassing all the way around with it.
CHRIS: Yes. Not knowing anything about the people who are asking this question, when people say they're lacking energy, what would you assume?
Like the stereotypical American what are they lacking out of all those categories you mentioned? Like
AJ: What's number one, generally speaking, I talked about how important passion is, but generally speaking, people are passionate about something. Yeah. Most of the individuals that I work with, they're passionate about something so we can address that.
If things get hairy normally, if someone says, Hey, I'm lethargic all the time, I don't want to do anything. I, I am seditary, whatever it may be, I'm immediately targeting. Nutrition and activity levels. As soon as I can get a grasp, I'm a big I'm a big cancellation guy from the standpoint of I'm gonna start with everything in play and I'm gonna ask you questions.
And as I ask you questions, my brain mentally is gonna narrow down what the root cause is.
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: So if I ask you questions and you're talking about, oh, I go to the gym five times a week and I'm blogging 30 miles and I'm doing this and this, I clearly can see that activity level is not the issue for your energy.
On the other side of things, if we're talking and you're talking about I eat super clean. It's nothing but beef and chicken and pork in this house, and we have a carbohydrate and a vegetable or fruit with every meal and on. I know that you've got a pretty good handle on that, so we don't have to worry about it too much.
And so then I go and I look at the activity level. So once those are fully addressed, maybe you only work out two times a week. Okay, let's bump that up. Let's do four to five times a week. Let's rope in some cardio based on your goals. This is all questions that I ask people before Yeah.
Before we start working together. Let's talk about cardio. Let's add some weight vest walks in. Maybe add, we've got a baby carrier where I put our son in the backpack and we ruck around with him a little bit. Yes. Let's rope some of that stuff in, see if it makes a difference.
Okay. The issue where people run into, or the issue that people run into is. They might be mid thirties, two kids, mortgage wife bills to pay. And they're looking and thinking that their answer is what a 20 something year old with no other responsibilities is doing. And then they try to implement that and they get burned out.
And yes, it just leads to more tiredness. And so I always take everything on a case by case basis. Every individual is different like we talked about earlier. And so based off of that. Let's get your activity dialed, let's get your nutrition dialed to the, I'm a big fan of the 80 20 rule.
80%. You're dialed 20%. You enjoy yourself. Maybe you go out to eat and you cut loose a little bit with the wife on a date night or something like that, and then you get right back onto the plan.
CHRIS: Sure.
AJ: From there, we then immediately look at supplementation. A big thing we didn't mention earlier is that the majority of folks are not getting enough protein from Yeah.
Whole meals alone. That's where things like Level One, formula One clear, they're all protein powders from first form, 20 to 22 grams of protein, six ingredients very clean. Very pure. I'm a big fan of the Formula One Clear right now, which is sitting around 90 calories.
Like I said, six ingredients, 22 grams of protein. And so your protein is gonna help, make sure your body is running as it should be. So we've got, now we fixed, right? 'cause you're tired. Individual. Now we fixed your activity. Now we fixed your nutrition. Now we're getting your supplementation back on track.
And once those things go, we're gonna run that for a month to two months. Let's talk at that month to two month range. Yeah. Let's see. What's going well for you? What's going bad for you? How can we fix things that are lackluster? And then we go back through the entire thing and we start over.
We talk about activity, we talk about nutrition, we talk about supplementation. I deal with people that take zero energy drinks, zero caffeine. I joke that they're just raw dogging life. 'cause me personally, I love caffeine. I think it's great. One of my favorite studies that was ever done was done by Business Insider.
They said up to eight. Cups of coffee a day has no long-term negative effects on your heart. I
CHRIS: don't wanna say that's about where I'm at.
AJ: They, let's put it this way. They didn't recommend it. Yes. But based off this one study, they said, up to eight cups of coffee a day has no long-term effect on your heart.
Now
CHRIS: I like some coffee too.
AJ: Coffee's great. Coffee actually has more, we're diving down rabbit holes. Coffee actually has more volatile flavors than what wine even offers. Co the coffee spectrum is incredible. But that
CHRIS: get good coffee?
AJ: Yes.
CHRIS: Brew it correctly.
AJ: Yes. Yes. Oh, absolutely.
CHRIS: It's magnificent.
AJ: But once again, that being said, now we're in the last thing that we're worrying about.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: That's still just a blanket coverup for exter. Other external factors.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: And that's why you have to understand going back to my, 30 5-year-old dad and the 20-year-old kid with no responsibilities going back and tying that back in.
That's why you have to understand it as a, as an individual. Everything that we do is a work in progress. Yes. You yourself are a work in progress. Try something for a good amount of time. If you try something for a week and it doesn't work out, it, you may just have not got to that threshold where it starts taking hold and working.
Yeah. You have to give it a good a good try. One to three months is great to at least start seeing some results, whether it be from the nutrition side, the supplementation side, or the activity side. But everybody's different. All the activity levels are different and you have to be dialed on yourself, but you also have to give yourself grace that these things take time.
Yeah. These are not an overnight pill. This is not a quick Yes. Hey, take my pill and lose 15 pounds of belly fat tomorrow. It's none of that stuff. We're doing things the right way. We're addressing the problems in the correct manner, in what I feel is the correct the correct lineup. Yes. And that's why these things take time because it's not a quick fix.
It is going to take you some time to get used to Yeah. And make those necessary changes.
CHRIS: You gotta remind yourself too, it's like comparing yourself to X amount of years ago, like me today versus me like in college.
AJ: Yep.
CHRIS: Like the amount of time it's been like a decade.
Gosh, no.
It's been more than a decade. We're coming up on 20 years. Shoot. I don't wanna think about that.
AJ: We're getting old brother.
CHRIS: But yeah, it's, it took me 20 years to become this.
AJ: Yep.
CHRIS: It's not going to disappear. That's right. In one year.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: I'm not gonna be college, Chris. Yeah. In one year and it's gonna take a little bit more time than that.
AJ: And make no mistake, I'm also a big proponent of goals. I have some buddies that were, that are first form elite athletes and elite trainers. I joke, shout out to White Mike and Black Mike Mike Trotter and Mike Conahan. Some of the best dudes I've ever met in my life as I got started in my early twenties, they were towards their late twenties.
They were at they were at the pinnacle of bodybuilding and training and three hours in the gym and crazy leg days and all of that stuff. And I loved it. I wanted to be just like them. And now we're all coming into. Other I call 'em phases of life sir? White Mike now has a kid. We talk, we share photos back and forth of our kids out having a good time and playing, but I still look up to him because he knew that he had to transition his training a little bit.
Mike Trotter is an elite trainer within first form. He has trained everybody from 20 somethings with no responsibility to 60 somethings getting ready for their first grandkid. Yeah. And everybody in between. And the big similarity to what I'm talking about, to what they're doing is you have to be willing to change.
You have to be willing to be fluid. Otherwise, if you're just. Beef and rice all the time, which I'm a big fan of. If you're just beef and rice all the time, eventually you're gonna come to a phase of life that beef and rice does not serve what you need to be doing.
CHRIS: Your kids probably aren't as big a fans of beef and rice Yeah.
As
CHRIS: you are.
AJ: Exactly. Exactly. And the activity level is the exact same. Yes. If you're someone that is five days a week, weight training, two days a week cardio, and you're just hammering it hard, you're going to come to a phase of life where you cannot do that without sacrificing other parts of your life.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: And that's not to say you can't do it, but I'm telling you that, maybe other spots might suffer your nutrition, might hinder your family time might hinder, which, tying everything back in again, it. It all depends on where your passions lie.
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: And so that's how all of it's interchangeable.
All of it is fluid. You have to be able to adjust, you have to be able to change. And that's what I try to get through to people is Hey we're gonna try X, y, Z for a certain number of time, and then we're going talk. We're gonna reconvene, we're gonna meet, and then we're gonna make changes. So that way your next phase of life, we can be rocking and rolling for that as well.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: All of which requires energy to dedicate to
CHRIS: Yes. Yes. I like that. Yeah. The phases of life is definitely important to think about. Because you don't wanna sacrifice family time, right? That's, to me, that's a deal breaker. Yep. You can't ignore that. But you also need energy.
For that family time. Yeah.
AJ: Yeah there's a great guy, his name's Ed Millet. He's huge in the personal development space. He always talks about whatever your focus on is, whatever your focus is in that moment, dedicate a hundred percent to it.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: If you're hanging with family or you're out on vacation, give him a hundred percent Yes.
If you're in the gym, give it a hundred percent. If you're meal prepping for the week, give it a hundred percent. And that's gonna significantly help make sure that you stay focused on what it is you're supposed to be doing.
CHRIS: Yes. I'm glad I'm hearing what I'm hearing. Yeah. There, there's a lot I need to change in my life.
Yeah. Just to get that energy back.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: My kids, I've got a 5-year-old and twins that are three now.
AJ: You got,
CHRIS: you're outnumbered. So it's, we're outnumbered. And it is, they're all boys, so it's loud, it's chaotic. Yeah. And
AJ: Oh, help your wife.
CHRIS: They are just they're a handful. There's something else.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: And I'm still finding myself like I'm a very selfish individual.
And I'm a night owl.
AJ: Okay.
CHRIS: I just love staying up late. We're
AJ: opposite
CHRIS: in that just doing stuff like at night. Like it's, the house is quiet. Yep. Like it's perfect. That's my time.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: But my kids are not, they wake up at the crack of dawn.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: An hour before the crack of dawn, and I'm finding myself just I'm just not getting the sleep I need. That recovery, that rim. Yeah. Like I'm not hitting it because I make one, two o'clock in the morning. Yep. And they're up at five.
AJ: So this is actually a great example.
I, if you don't mind me prying into it a little bit. Yeah. So this is actually a great example of different scenarios, right? You, yourself are a night owl, you get a lot of work done in the evening. Your kids are your roosters that wake you up.
CHRIS: Yeah,
AJ: absolutely. And so we need to maximize sleep, maximize recovery.
Someone who is sitting down to, like my wife and I, we love to watch NCIS. That's something Yes. She's big on NCIS right now. Me, I'm just happy to be in the room hanging out with her. But at the end of the night, we always sit down, we watch an episode. It might, maybe I'll drink my magnesium a half hour before bed.
Okay. Someone like you, very high strung in the evening. Maybe you take your magnesium an hour and a half before bed, you're still able to get stuff done. Yeah. But you're gonna notice a huge difference when that magnesium kicks in and your body's gonna say, Hey, Chris, might be time for us to, go lay down and you might still be up until 11 or 12 or one getting stuff done, but now all of a sudden when you hit your pillow, it's gonna take you a half.
And these are arbitrary numbers. But now all of a sudden when you hit your pillow, it's gonna take you a half hour to get to REM sleep. Whereas without, you're rocking until 11, 12, then you lay down, then your mind wanders and thinks about everything for an hour and a half. Then you finally fall asleep, then it takes you another hour to get to REM sleep.
And so that's the differences that proper supplementation. Can make for you for the better. Yes. You're in a different phase of life. Someone who is mid forties with kids in high school. Those kids in high school, they know how to get themselves up. They know how to go to bed on their own.
They're now at a phase of life where they can work later and they can, stay asleep while the kids wake up and head off to school. Yeah. So maybe they now go back to what I'm doing, which is, half hour before bed, take your magnesium, and they're still able to get that necessary REM sleep to work into full recovery work, into, bone, joint health, muscle health, things like that.
It's not fair to you to beat yourself up or to compare yourself to someone who's not living in your exact position. Yes. Or who has not lived. Past tense in your exact position. And so that's where I think a lot of people get discouraged quickly, is they try to compare themselves to someone that hasn't done what they're doing or isn't currently what they're doing.
Yeah. And
CHRIS: like you said that Yeah. That's nice to hear.
AJ: Yeah. Yeah. And like I said, you need to be strict on yourself, but you also have to give yourself grace. I just made a post the other day. I live and die in the gray area. Right?
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: Everything nowadays is so polarizing. It's black, it's white, it's right, it's left, it's, everything in between.
But what people fail to realize is two things can be true at the same time. You and I have been friends for a while. I know that right now, in this instance, you are doing the best you can possibly do to be a dad, to be a husband to have your career, things like that. That is a hundred percent true. The other thing that is a hundred percent true is you can take steps to be even better.
CHRIS: Absolutely.
AJ: Yeah. We I am proud of what I have built for myself, but I also know I haven't even scraped the surface of what I can be doing. Of the number of people I can impact. Yes. The level that I can be as a good dad, as a good husband and things like that, two things can be true at the same time. Oh, yeah.
And we're in an era where people think if this is true, then this must not be true. So just, I'm talking to everybody right now. Give yourself grace. Two things can be true at the same time, you can be proud of the nutrition, the activity the life you've built, and you can also realize that you have way more to give.
CHRIS: Can I tell you a story?
AJ: Yeah, I would love to.
CHRIS: Two second story love stories. My, my oldest. Child is named gray
For that exact same reason.
AJ: Oh dude, that's
CHRIS: awesome. We've got a great friend, a mentor to my wife, Larry Mitchell, who basically said there is no black and white. Yeah. You have to be in the gray.
Yep.
AJ: Yeah, no. So I love that. That's killer. I had, and I had no idea that you named your kid gray. Yeah. That's great though. Yes. 'cause of the fact, hopefully they grow up knowing sometimes life might be a dark gray. Yeah. Sometimes life might be a light gray, but it's never true black and white.
It's
CHRIS: true.
AJ: Two things can be true at the same time. It, we can always work on ourselves. We can be proud of ourselves. We can reminisce on the quote unquote good old days while we're creating new good old days. Yes,
CHRIS: yes.
AJ: It just, yeah, I just, that's a story for another time. We could do a whole podcast on living life in the gray 'cause I'm
CHRIS: absolutely.
That'd be cool.
AJ: Add that to the front of my list. That's another thing that I'm super passionate about.
CHRIS: Yes. Love it. Get off topic here. Get off topic. So we're recording this on the 7th of January. New Year's resolutions are abound. Yeah. And I'm, again, I'm glad I'm hearing what I'm hearing because it's ticking all the boxes in my head of either things that I'm doing correctly
Or things that I know that I need to change. Yeah. And one big thing is that we haven't necessarily talked about that doesn't really fit the schematic is just screen time. And my big 2026 resolution is just trying to eliminate the screen time, especially that pre bed screen time.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: Probably my number one downfall is just. Not necessarily doom scrolling on Instagram or TikTok or whatever, but it's just the YouTube black hole.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: I'm a curious individual and like you get shows on like how it's made, like I just down those rabbit holes for hours and hours.
AJ: Yeah. This ties right into the living in the gray.
You can be proud of where you're at and know that you need to do better. That is an area that I drastically need to do better in.
CHRIS: Yes,
AJ: it's tricky. My, like I said, tricky. My wife loves NCIS. I'll find myself scrolling. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube videos.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: We head off to bed. I turn, we, we hug, kiss, goodnight, whatever it is.
I turn over. I'm still
CHRIS: still there.
AJ: And my stuff is a true doom scroll because I. I like looking at like sneaker resell videos. I like I like motivational stuff. Yes. I like looking at comedy stuff. The Kill Tony stuff gets me all the time. Yes. Anytime there's a Joe Rogan clip, I like listening to that.
But,
CHRIS: and that's a rabbit in its itself,
AJ: But wow. Talking about that, I also am coherent with the fact that blue light also kills recovery. Yes. It keeps those neurons firing long after you want them to shut off. Yeah, screen time is huge. I've actually looked into there's a company called Brick.
Okay. And they basically set like a lock or there's apps I'm sure. Yeah. That sets a lock on your social media. Yeah. And basically says, Hey, you can, you set it yourself, but you set it to 9:00 AM I work I'm a media and event director in the outdoor space. I also run media for the coffee company.
So for me, I set media to 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM and outside of that range, it locks me completely out of social media. I
CHRIS: like that.
AJ: I have heavily, he, I have been one step shy of having it in my cart because of the fact that I know that I am a notorious doom scroller, getting ready for bed, things like that.
And maybe I don't need to set it at 6:00 PM I always try to our good range for Lone Wolf custom gear in the outdoor side, we get the most traction. Seven to 8:00 PM Yeah. But maybe I set it to 8:00 PM. So that I force myself to post earlier and then just log off completely. Yes,
CHRIS: sir.
AJ: Be present with my wife, dedicate a hundred percent to my wife.
CHRIS: And dig, dedicate yourself to your rest and recovery.
AJ: Yeah. Absolutely.
CHRIS: I, so I photographed an event and I couldn't even tell you what the event was about. Long-term care type stuff. And there was a speaker who was talking about brains and specifically sleeping brains. And how, like literally just the presence of your phone in the same room?
Yes. Definitely your phone within eyesight, like just gets your brain in work mode.
AJ: Yes.
CHRIS: Little things like just seeing the light turn on your
AJ: body notices it. Yeah.
CHRIS: Yes. Whether it's conscious or not. Like you see your phone light up, you're like, you instantly start thinking about all the things you have to do.
AJ: Yep.
CHRIS: Which kills rem
AJ: Yes. Immediately. Yes. Pulls you right out of it. Yes. I the one thing that I'm good about is I have gotten to, because I use my phone as my alarm, just 99% of people do. Yep. I've now gotten to the point where I'll actually turn my phone face down, primarily because my trail cameras are going off all the time, and so my phone is just Yep.
Lighting up, digging it. But I have heard the same thing that you have heard that even just having it around, having it functioning while you're sleeping. Yep. Yes. So all the things. So that is one area where I'm good at is. Generally I've got folded clothes or clothes that need folded next to me, on the nightstand or whatever it may be.
I'll set my phone face down and I'll set it on those clothes. Yes. So that at least subconsciously I'm telling myself I'm not gonna be able to hear this when it goes off. Yep. That could be total baloney. I don't know how deep that rabbit hole goes, but Yes. A hundred percent screens before bed.
There's a big push for individuals to go full Screenless tv, iPad, video games, phone an hour before bed because
CHRIS: it's I've been trying it the past week.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: And it's been great.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: To be honest, like I'm not missing YouTube at all. Again, I'm trying to minimize the phone, like it's still right next to you.
It's my alarm clock as well.
AJ: And,
CHRIS: and like trying to minimize it as much as possible. Yeah. Like I'm starting to read The Hobbit right now, so just reading until you get too tired to read and then just shut it down.
AJ: Yeah. Yeah. And it's been
CHRIS: real nice
AJ: and this this could dive into the nutrition side of things as well, nutrition side of things, excuse me as well.
But when you detox yourself from those things, from screens and things like that Yes. From fast food,
CHRIS: it is a detox.
AJ: You, you realize that the only reason you're doing it is for convenience. I could care less about the 16. Reels that I see before I head to bed half the time I'm not gonna even remember 'em, it's
CHRIS: an addiction.
Yeah. You're just, you're doing it
because
AJ: it's subconscious. It's, it is no different. And there have been studies done that equate you on your phone to actual addiction habits. Yeah. And I think all of us need to take some self-reflection and look internal and realize I might be a part of this.
You know me a hundred
CHRIS: percent. I
am
AJ: my, my my excuse, which is I'm telling you now, I know that this is a bullshit excuse, is that I work in the space, so my job is, I hear you, is to do media. Yep. So I, it's
CHRIS: research, it,
AJ: it's development. I just stay up to date with it.
CHRIS: Yep, yep.
AJ: And then I lay down my head at night and I'm like, I just watched.
Five photos, five videos about sneaker reselling. I'm not even in the sneaker industry. My nicest pair of shoes are actually cowboy boots. It, and so it totally, it's a lie that we tell ourselves. But yes, that detox and the addictive properties that come with it, once you detox from it, you're like, why was I ever doing this?
You don't miss it in the first place. I don't miss it whatsoever. I'm replacing it with home imp I love home improvement projects. I'm replacing it with home improvement projects. I'm replacing it with quality time spent with the wife. Yes. I'm replacing it with cleaning the kitchen so that dishes aren't overflowing outta the sink.
Yes. And then those are actual gratification things that are then gonna help you. It's gonna give your brain real serotonin, whereas. The doom scrolling, the ig, the TikTok, whatever it may be. That's all just quick hits Yes. Of serotonin. When I go to bed at night, after I clean the kitchen, after I did all the dishes, I walk out, I look back, I'm like, hell yeah.
I did that. And it's something so small.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: Something so small,
CHRIS: but it's real. It's physical.
AJ: You can see it. It's real. I did this.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: Flip that light off. Brain's flooded with serotonin. I go lay with the misses. We hang out, we talk about life. What, whatever it may be.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: Now
CHRIS: let's don't even talk about what we're teaching our children.
AJ: Right.
CHRIS: Just having that phone glued to our face. Yep,
AJ: yep.
CHRIS: The world that we're bringing them into with just screens everywhere.
AJ: Dude, I will tell you this and people can raise their kids however they want. I am not a judge parent or things like that. Do whatever you want with your kids.
That is your prerogative. You brought them into this world that's on you. My wife and I elected to do no screens until I believe Riggs was like two years old. And even now he watches two things. Yeah. 1980s. Curious George cartoons. Yes. And hunting with dad.
CHRIS: Heck yes.
AJ: I firmly believe as a byproduct of that, his motor skills are better.
His cognitive, I agree with you. Discipline is better. He just got done helping me build six shelves in our laundry room. And when I say help, I'm not talking about like hanging out with me. I'm talking, he put the screw on the drill. I started it, handed the drill to him. He drilled it in flush. Yes. The CO And he's
CHRIS: three,
AJ: He's not even three.
He's two and a half. Yeah.
CHRIS: That's awesome.
AJ: He fully comprehends that. My brother went and hunted Africa and when he sees planes, he's big plane, uncle Logan rigs monkeys bow hunt and he wants to go bow hunt monkey. That basically translates to, in, in toddler. He wants to go bow hunt monkeys in Africa with his Uncle Logan, whereas once again, videos all the time about it and stuff like that, trying to detox kids from screens, which you put screens in front of kids, you try to detox 'em from it.
They don't have half the emotional regulation that we have. And that's where temper tantrums and blowups and things like that happen. Yes. So even though we've got the emotional regulation side of things down. Our body is still going through the same detox that those kids are going through. Yeah. That we see on social media and stuff like that.
And yeah. It's funny you it's hilarious you bring that up because this is something that I personally have struggled internally with. 'cause I know what I need to do.
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: I just don't want to, because I get those quick hits of serotonin when a cool sneaker deal is made, or when Joe Rogan's talking about ancient beings and whatever it may be.
But it's hilarious that you bring that up. 'cause you and I struggle with very similar things in the screen regard.
CHRIS: Yes. Yes. And it's killing or sleep. That's all we know.
We gotta find a little tangent there, kids. Hey, raising kids. This is a brand new podcast. How to Raise Your Kids?
No.
AJ: Yeah. We're just segment straight into a new
CHRIS: podcast. We dunno what we're doing here. Dude, honestly, I've got a list of questions here and you answered a lot of 'em. Good. Number one, like why is sleeping not enough to build and maintain energy levels? There's a lot more to it. There's way more.
We talked about that.
AJ: It's all building blocks.
CHRIS: How do we raise baseline energy levels versus temporary boost it, we talked about it.
AJ: Passion.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: Exercise and nutrition. Passion and
CHRIS: exercise
AJ: supplementation. Then dive into the energy drinks.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: Yes. As someone who loves energy drinks.
CHRIS: Yes. Yes. I like that you're saying that.
Yeah. We're not gonna
AJ: I'll throw myself under the bus.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: Wait. I love that you're not saying kill the energy drinks, kill the caffeine. Like we don't. Need to do that? No. That, maybe moderate it a little bit.
AJ: Yes.
CHRIS: But focus on the bigger things. Yeah. Your activity. Yeah.
Your nutrition.
AJ: Once again, I love reading third party studies. There are multiple third party studies that have been done that prove caffeine does increase cognitive function.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: But if you abuse it, like with anything else, you're gonna reap negative side effects.
CHRIS: Gotcha, gotcha.
AJ: So yeah that's my piece with the energy drink side
CHRIS: things.
Yeah. Y nicotine.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: Are you familiar?
AJ: Do you, are you
CHRIS: nicotine user?
AJ: Like I, I've watched the Andrew humor clips and stuff like that. There's a bunch of, nicotine was black labeled for many years. It's bad, it's negative. It's addictive. It's all these other things. Andrew Huberman goes on who is a very prolific individual.
In personal development. And I believe he started promoting the, once again, going back to cognitive abilities. Your energy starts with your brain. Anything that we can do to get an edge on the cognitive side of things. So he then comes out and he talks about the benefits of nicotine. Now you see every celebrity under the sun.
I just saw who was it? Former politician news anchor Tucker Carlson. He has his own nicotine brand. Things like that. I recently got introduced to a company called Set, SETT. They have a nicotine alternative. Okay? So the idea, you read the labels and everything sounds good, whether it's bad for you or not.
But the idea behind set is that they have, what's their pouches have. Theanine L-theanine and sine, which I believe is a, is unique to them. It gives the same effects as nicotine, but it's, it doesn't bind to the addictive receptors. Because that is something that is non-negotiable. Nicotine is 100% addictive.
And so I chatted with the set guys. They sent me some stuff. That's I've got one in right now. And it helps with cognitive function, helps with your neurons firing off, making those brain connections and things of that nature. But then when I pull it out and throw it out, I'm done with it.
I'm good. I don't feel like I need to throw another one in immediately. That being said, there are a lot of people that are now on the pro nicotine train.
CHRIS: Yeah. Yeah.
AJ: That is something, when we talk about energy levels, cognitive function, clarity, things like that, I'm not encouraging anybody to try something addictive.
Yeah. That's not what I'm doing. However, if you in your heart feel that you are dial every single step of the way, passion, nutrition, exercise, supplementation, you're only having, one, maybe two energy drinks or an energy drink and a coffee a day and you're like, man, I just need something to help with focus.
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: Maybe you do some of your own research. Maybe you come to the conclusion that I should give this a whirl.
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: That is, my wife and I are big proponents of it, especially with having kids. We got it from the kids' side, but we've now implemented it into all other areas of our life. Do your own research.
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: There, there are. We have found out that a lot of the big pharma studies are also funded by big pharma to make sure that results are in the favor of whatever the big pharma is.
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: Who's to say that's not being done with all these other avenues. So you need to take a big you need to get a lot of context.
To then be able to make your own decision,
CHRIS: tread lightly,
Moderation.
AJ: Like I, if you listening to this podcast, go out and start trying nicotine or start trying sine or something like that. It's because AJ said, so you have missed the whole point of all of this. You're
CHRIS: not saying that
AJ: we are not saying that.
I am telling you do your own research. There is a growing number of people talking about the benefits of nicotine, but you also have to be aware that nicotine is a v is a addictive property.
CHRIS: Yeah.
I, so I don't know why this is crept up into my head. Yeah. It's the algorithms and it's Yeah. This toxic social platform.
They're all
AJ: watching
CHRIS: us. It's giving me what they want to give me. But like for, there's something in my head that's like it just, I've gotten real curious about just nicotine in general.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: And I've had some cigars in the past, but I've never, done, serious. Like I've never smoked or I've never had like pouches or tobacco, any of that.
Yep. For a lengthy period of time. But I just like, yeah. Something's making me curious about it and I don't know. What if, what's making you curious is
AJ: the fact that it's now in front of your face every time you probably on social media,
CHRIS: because I clicked on one thing and it's just repeating itself,
AJ: yep. Absolutely. It was probably the super viral Andrew Huberman interview that I saw, and it could have been, I don't know. And that a lot of people saw got, millions of views and a hundred thousand likes and all that good stuff. It, once again, going back to you can't just take one person's word for it.
Yeah. This ties everything into what I was saying. A 30 5-year-old dad of two shouldn't be doing what a 20-year-old no other responsibilities is doing. Yeah. You should not be looking at Andrew Huberman as a god. And saying, I'm gonna do exactly what he does. Yeah. You should listen to what he says or other influential people in your life.
You should listen to what they say and then go do your own research. Yeah. Find your own conclusive result and then act accordingly.
CHRIS: Yeah. I'm glad we had this conversation because I think you basically solidified in my head I think the only reason I'm curious about it is just it's a quick fix.
It's easy. Yep. It's accessible.
AJ: It's just like energy drinks and coffee. Yes, it will work really well in the short term.
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: But as you use extent, there's a reason they make two milligram, four milligram, eight milligram, 12 milligram. Yes. And
CHRIS: you're just gonna keep ramping up.
AJ: Exactly.
Exactly. There's a reason they make all of those steps. You start in at the two milligram nicotine works for two weeks. Move up to the four works for two weeks. Yes sir. Move up to the eight works for two weeks. Now all of a sudden you're on 15 milligram pouches. You're three months into it and you're like, how the heck did I get here?
Yes. Why do I need 15 milligrams?
CHRIS: Oh, that's extra money. I don't need to be spending
AJ: right, exactly. And and once again, I'm not telling you should or should not try it. I'm not telling you, you should or should not try, the sine with the set or I believe there's another company ultra, there, there's all these nicotine alternative companies out here.
Yeah. I'm not telling you, you should or shouldn't try any of. What I am telling you is that if you think that it will benefit you, you should do way more research.
CHRIS: Yes, sir.
AJ: Come to your own conclusion. Yes, sir. That's where I think a lot of people are messing up. Yeah. They're hearing it from one person.
They like the way that person looks, or they like what that person says and they say, heck yeah, that's gonna fix everything for me. Yeah. And then they go and start on it.
CHRIS: Yes sir.
AJ: That's, don't do that.
CHRIS: Yeah. Again based on our conversation here, like I knew what I needed to fix and I'm just lazy.
So I need to start, I need to start moving more. That's my big hurdle right now is to, the lack of energy is just 'cause I sit at the desk too much. Yeah. I, editing this, editing that, sitting on and watch TV because I'm tired from editing all day. I just need to start moving more.
AJ: Yeah. And people. Overestimate what it takes to get that brain firing. I promise you. Having an idea about your life, I promise you, if you put a weight vest on, or excuse me, carry a kid, or go for carrying
CHRIS: kids, like we go on bike rides, right? Air quotes all the time, and,
AJ: and you're driving
CHRIS: by
AJ: carrying a bike.
Yeah. But you do something like that.
CHRIS: Yep.
AJ: You're in the middle of a workday. You're like, kids, let's go for a bike ride. Love it. In your heart you're gonna have to carry the bike. Probably gonna have to carry the kid.
CHRIS: Yep.
AJ: But that actually is gonna help you in the long run because of the fact that even if it's only 30 minutes, you're now you're up, you're moving, you're active you're clearing your mind.
I always, not always, but I internally talk about. Walking outside in the middle of a day, and your mind your eyes hurt. Yep. And you rub your eyes a little bit and you're getting that vitamin D and you're moving your body. Now all of a sudden you go back to work, dude, you're locked in.
You know exactly what you need to do. I will frequent. Now, not everybody has this luxury, and I'm very blessed to work in the space that I work in. I will regularly get up from my computer and just walk around, or maybe I'll start a load of laundry or maybe I'll, put my weight vest on and go walk the neighborhood for 30 minutes or something like that.
Not because I'm like, I need a workout, but because of the fact I need a reset. That, and then when you, I like that, get that reset. You go back into the booth, you go back into the studio the computer, whatever you're doing now, all of a sudden you're like, holy smokes. This is like a whole fresh day. I'm locked in from the junk.
And yeah,
CHRIS: that's probably the best tip so far is just, yeah.
AJ: Yeah.
CHRIS: Mini breaks.
AJ: Yeah. You don't, I love it. You don't need to go work out for two hours to reap the benefit of what activity will give you. That's a big thing within the first form outdoors or first form community as well as the first form outdoors community.
'cause we have a lot of individuals that, like on their lunch break, right? They'll go, yeah, they'll eat some food and then they'll start walking and they'll just walk until the end of their lunch break. Not anything crazy. Some of them Lucas and Ashley Dix, there's some very close friends of mine. Lucas and I competed in High Rock Chicago together.
Love these guys. They got two daughters, great individuals. Ashley is always posting about lunch break walks, and they go, they eat together and whatever time they have left. Might be 22 minutes, might be 10 minutes, whatever it may be. We're gonna walk to the halfway point of whatever time we have left, and then we're gonna walk back and we're gonna get back to work.
Nice. And what happens is it your brain kickstart and then it's, it almost recognizes it as a new work day, even though you're right in the heart of it, it almost recognizes it as a new workday, we lock in and let's go.
CHRIS: Yeah, the lunchtime lull just it's it's a thing like you're working, you sit down, you eat, you just crash on the couch, whatever, on the, at the work table.
Yeah. It's just, you don't do anything. You're sedentary, all you're laden with food now and then you try and go back to work. It's impossible.
AJ: And what does everybody do? In that noon to two range.
You scroll, you grab another coffee.
CHRIS: Yeah.
AJ: You grab another energy drink because those are the quick fixes.
Bandaids, those are the bandaids, those are the blankets. Over the bigger problem. Lucas and Ashley have done a great job. Its brilliant of not relying on the blanket and the bandaid. They know, okay, here's where energy drinks are, here's where activity level is. Let me increase my activity level.
Yes. That's a much more important thing to increase. Yeah. Now all of a sudden you're back in the booth and you're rocking the rest of the day.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: And so yeah, you, you don't need a lot to reset it.
CHRIS: Something.
AJ: You just need something.
CHRIS: Andy's talked in the past too, about just digestion in general.
Like just walk after a meal, like that's gonna help you digest all your food. So you're getting more energy, you're helping your digestion.
AJ: There's a reason you feel so much better. After you go out to eat and you walk to the car in the parking garage. I never thought about that. By the time you get to the parking garage you're leaving the restaurant and you're like, oh my God, I'm so stuffed.
I'm full. Take me home. The Cowboy Luge Roll. Roll me out, dude. Listen, we were full from that. I bet. Yo take me home, roll me out to the car, whatever. By the time you actually walk to the car, you're like, oh. I'm a comfy fool Now that's because you've already kickstarted your body Yes. Into doing metabolism is it's supposed to do.
Love it. Exactly. Exactly.
CHRIS: Hell yeah. Dude, we we're at an hour and a half right now,
AJ: so I haven't even thought about it. The conversation has been so good. Dude. We can keep rolling. It's crazy. It's crazy. Yeah. No, this is awesome.
CHRIS: We, we got more we could talk about, but it's late. We both got early mornings tomorrow.
And honestly we've ticked a lot of the boxes here. Where can people find you, I'm assuming would you be cool if people reached out with questions, comments?
AJ: I would be dude, going all the way back. To the passion piece. Yes. I want to help as many. You like some people? Many people as possible.
I love people. Yes. There's a reason I'm the road dog for Lone Wolf. Hell yeah. I like talking with individuals because if I can give you one tidbit, if I can give you a cup of coffee, new tree stand. If I can give you an idea for supplementation. I've done my part. I feel good about myself. I'm filling my cup by helping you.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: So that being said, the easiest way to get ahold of me is at the underscore Coffee Viking on Instagram. If you can figure out how to spell Kass Meza. My Facebook is AJ Kasm. Zach and I will friend you.
CHRIS: We'll put some links below. That'll
AJ: help. Yeah. Give him a little break. And then obviously the brands that I work with at first Form Outdoors at Lone Wolf Custom Gear at Jennings Java.
And in that order nutrition Wellness Outdoors Coffee.
CHRIS: Yes. Yes. A hundred percent. Yeah. My homework is moving more. I think yours should be too. We can all move more.
AJ: A hundred percent.
CHRIS: That's not, that's a good blanket statement you would say, right? Yeah. Moving more is not
AJ: gonna hurt without a doubt in my mind.
Everybody can move more.
CHRIS: Yes. So I'm gonna move more. I'm definitely gonna look into that magnesium. Like I really like the idea of that. Yeah. That on top of cutting the screens Yes. I think is gonna be game changing for my,
AJ: I think if you
CHRIS: recovery cycle at
AJ: night I think if you can pair those together, you're gonna wake up before the kids.
You're gonna be like, cool. Oh man, I, I'm up my, I'm not a night owl, I'm a morning guy. My alarms set for four 30, going to the gym. But then I notice after the gym that I know when I took my magnesium, because when I get after the gym, I'll either come home and want to hang and scroll on the couch or maybe get some work done, or I'll make the coffee, I'll take care of the cat litter, I'll clean some dishes.
Yeah. Maybe I'll get breakfast ready, and there is a noticeable difference. I bet as we talked about with everything, give it some time from the supplementation side, it's a little shorter timeframe. Give any new supplementation a week to two weeks. Let it really kick in.
Take it diligently. Yeah. And I promise you, you will notice a difference.
CHRIS: Yes, sir. Cool. We'll probably link some of your favorite products below, if that's cool too. I would love that. Yeah. Of things to look into. Yeah. Especially that magnesium. Yeah. Different other some of the protein you mentioned earlier
AJ: totally forgot about it.
Magnesium, I have a pregnant wife. Magnesium is great for pregnant women.
CHRIS: Okay.
AJ: Yes. So that is enough.
CHRIS: We knock on wood, I'm praying we're done with all that.
AJ: But your, there's a listener out there. Your listeners and your viewers might not be. Yes. So that being said, I take first form. My wife is a lot more finicky about products, food, just stuff in general than I am.
She is taking Magne first form magnesium peach ring every single night because she knows it's good for the baby. It's good for her.
CHRIS: You said peach rings?
AJ: Peach ring. Yeah. Like the, yeah, like at little league growing up? Yeah.
CHRIS: Oh my gosh. Let's go.
AJ: Yeah, I've got the chocolate sea salt with me. You sold me.
It's if you like warmer drinks to end the night. The chocolate sea salt is the move. Heat up some water. Okay. Heat up some milk. I
CHRIS: know a
AJ: warm chocolate sea salt
CHRIS: featuring could be pretty good.
AJ: Maybe like a melted peach ring. For sure. For sure. Oh man. But yeah, no, I'll send you all the links. You can link 'em however you want.
Let's do it. I just wanna help people, dude.
CHRIS: Yeah,
AJ: that's,
CHRIS: well reach out. Yeah, if you've got questions, reach out to AJ or somebody else in the industry. Somebody you trust, somebody that knows you.
AJ: I, and here's the thing about me that I always pride myself on. If I don't know the answer, I promise you, I know who does know the answer.
And I will give you that back that up. There's no gatekeeping. I wanna see you succeed. I wanna see you be better. I wanna see you have more energy. The whole nine yards,
CHRIS: sir. Love it. Let's wrap this up.
AJ: I'm excited about this next piece.
CHRIS: Yes. The recipe. Yeah. Do you have a cool recipe to share?
AJ: So cool.
From the sense of chefs? No. Cool. From the sense of basic individuals that love beef and rice, or just cooked beef and rice.
CHRIS: Yes. Andy, this is for you,
AJ: very basic people myself. Yes. Okay, let's hear it. So basically what I did was I went my, we were trying to figure out how to get rid of some ground venison.
My wife does not like the taste of venison. I'm like, how can I mask this taste and still get the protein and the nutrients? Yeah. So one thing we found that kept reoccurring is a breakfast casserole. Oh. Very basic, very simple. I'm sold old. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I love it
CHRIS: already.
AJ: Yeah. I'm gonna, I'm gonna read you guys the ingredients.
Shredded hash browns kby jack or Monterey jack cheese or cheddar cheese, whatever you prefer. This says one pound of venison ground venison. I double that. And it's not overpowering. It's still mixes well in the whole casserole. Green onions, that's more so for garnish and things like that.
Eight large eggs, 24 ounces of milk, salt, pepper seasonings of choice, right? Yes, I'm a big kinder's guy. I love kinder seasoning. But the biggest thing from that is, is I like to double the amount of meat. I am a firm believer in the benefits of the nutrient dense meats that, that we can acquire, whether it be hunting, whether it be store-bought, beef is amazing, venison's amazing, whatever.
Yes, sir. Now that being said, this goes back to what we talked to before the podcast. I'm giving you the ingredients, go find the recipe yourself. Just type in venison breakfast casserole, because each one is gonna be a little different in terms of your oven baked times. Sure. There, I've found some that are three 50, some that are 400, some that are four 50.
Obviously that, that shortens or lengthens your cook time. It all depends on, how much time you have. But as a very basic individual that is not a chef, that is not taking the time to do venison foot broth.
CHRIS: Oh god,
AJ: this is a great recipe that even non venison eaters will enjoy.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: And very easy to substitute out for pork sausage or ground beef.
CHRIS: Absolutely. Yeah.
AJ: Super simple.
CHRIS: That, that was my next question. Is it just pure venison or have you added some fat to it when you grind?
AJ: When we're making dinner at night a lot of times we'll do two pounds of ground beef and I'll slip in a pound of venison. I'm a big, seasoned, heavily guy.
Yeah I used to be a salt pepper only guy. My wife's family actually introduced me to seasoning. Now I am hooked on kinders. I've got a, I got, my mom got me a sample pack for Christmas, yes. Seasoned heavily. It really doesn't matter. You can do pork sausage, you can do ground beef, you can do ground venison, whatever you have available.
That is a ground red meat of some sort. Yeah pork red, no pork doesn't count as red meat. A ground meat of some. That's a good question. Throw that in. The macros are amazing. You're getting your carbohydrates, you're getting your protein from the eggs and whatever meat you choose. Yeah. Eh we'll get our we'll get our vegetables and our fruits from our vitamins that we're taking.
It'll be
CHRIS: fine. Have some strawberries on the side.
AJ: Yeah. It'll be good. It'll be good.
CHRIS: It sounds phenomenal.
AJ: I, I love it's, I
CHRIS: I'm toss some red pepper flakes in there myself.
AJ: There you go.
CHRIS: And yeah, kinders a solid fire and smoke society.
AJ: Have you had much of them? I haven't. I've never had 'em. I have heard of them multiple times.
CHRIS: They
AJ: have some dynamite stuff. Have fire and smoke society. I'm
CHRIS: gonna have to check those guys out. Look it up. They have, oh gosh, I'm blanking. I see the label. Sweet preacher.
AJ: I don't know anything about that.
CHRIS: Don't quote me. I will. Sweet preacher.
AJ: I will shout out my local Ohio boys bearded butchers.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: Naturally. I got the beard. Yes, you got the beard. These guys run their own meat. Meat market butcher shop.
CHRIS: We, we all know the beard did butchers.
AJ: Yes. Yes. Yeah. They run their own butcher shop. But what a lot of people don't realize is they do have their own seasonings. Right now at my house, we have the bold, we have the original, and then we got one other one.
Those I actually can attest to. They work great in this breakfast casserole.
CHRIS: Yes.
AJ: Fantastic.
CHRIS: Absolutely. Yeah. Love it.
Aj, thank you so much for the intel. Thank you so much for tuning in. Tuning in, showing up, talking energy.
AJ: Dude, I had a blast.
CHRIS: Yeah, you got me. I got way more homework I need to do.
But you've solidified. A lot of things that I know subconsciously I should have changed. I know I need to change. But yeah it's been a great conversation. Hopefully we inspire some others to scroll less Yeah. And move more.
AJ: And if you need any sort of hype man, get ahold of me.
I want to see you win. Win is the best win. I want to see you do better. I promise you
CHRIS: a hundred percent. You're the guy.
AJ: Wonderful. Thank you man.
CHRIS: Cheers. Thank you so much, sir.
AJ: Cheers, brother.
One of the best podcasts I've done. No. Bullshit. Top three. We've talked about some stuff that, talking about some stuff,
Can't someone coming on a podcast, you can't be like, Hey, listen, I wanna talk about this and this, I want talk about that You.
