159: How to Eat and Train in 2026 | My Philosophies

This episode is all around laying out my 2026 diet + training philosophies. I’m in a caloric surplus, training hard with intention, and choosing food quality over empty volume. We get into running and eating with purpose, and why the goal isn’t a finish line—it’s building a lifestyle you can sustain. I also break down the practical plays to take ownership of your diet: simple meal prep, portion control, 1g protein per pound, and a plan for late-night cravings. If you want to get stronger, leaner, and more consistent this year—try this framework. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction 03:35 Taking Ownership of Your Diet 05:09 Meal Prep and Food Prep Tips 08:59 Appropriate Meal Portions 14:37 Making Protein a Priority 16:30 Late Night Snacking Strategies 20:22 Caloric Surplus Explained 31:18 Training Hard for Strength and Growth 36:00 Avoiding the Easy Run Mindset in the Gym 38:50 Balancing Strength Training and Recovery 44:11 Prioritizing Food Quality Over Quantity 01:02:45 Running with Purpose, Not for Numbers 01:06:13 Maintaining a Healthy Relationship with Food 01:14:44 Training for the Love of the Lifestyle ORDER MY BOOK HERE: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210 FOLLOW: Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 25% off FOR LIFE ⁠ https://www.bareperformancenutrition.com/collections/performance-nutrition IG: ⁠instagram.com/nickbarefitness/⁠ YT: ⁠youtube.com/@nickbarefitness

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Nick Bare?

  We are offering the greatest subscription discount that we have ever offered before. 25% off at bpnsubs.com. When you sign up for a supplement subscription on our website in 2026, you are saving 25% off, which is a crazy offer, something we've never done before. So I would highly encourage you guys to take advantage of this discount, this sale, this promotion, and this opportunity. So you can stay consistent and committed to your goals this year. Now into the episode.

• 0:45Nick Bare?

  Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today's episode is all about my diet and training approach and/or philosophies in 2026. So what I am focusing on this year. And what I'm going to talk about is based off of my personal approach, but also guided by questions that were submitted on Instagram. So earlier this week, as I was planning this episode and in this discussion, I posed the question on one of my Instagram stories, asking, what do you struggle with the most when it comes to diet,

• 1:30Nick Bare?

  nutrition, and food as it is related to your fitness goals? And there were a lot of questions or answers submitted. And I'm going to use those submissions to guide some of the things I'm talking about. Now, before we dive into those approaches, those philosophies.

• 1:54Nick Bare?

  I want to share how you can take ownership of your diet in this next year.

• 2:03Nick Bare?

  And I have these, these four ways you can take ownership of your diet in this next year.

• 2:11Nick Bare?

  And I've, I've come up with these four things because these were the most commonly submitted answers and/or questions based off of that Instagram story prompt.

• 2:24Nick Bare?

  I find that a lot of people struggle with meal prep, meal consistency.

• 2:32Nick Bare?

  A lot of people struggle with meal portions, eating too much, eating too little, under consuming, over consuming.

• 2:42Nick Bare?

  I have found and heard that a lot of people struggle with snacking and not eating enough protein.

• 2:51Nick Bare?

  And the last thing that I heard quite frequently is that late night snacking and consuming and binging even is a problem. So here's four things you can do. Write these down in this next year to take ownership of your diet.

• 3:12Nick Bare?

  The concepts are few, the methods are many. Here are four methods in which you can take complete ownership of your diet, of yourself, of your life in 2026.

• 3:28Nick Bare?

  Number one, meal prep or food prep weekly. Now this sounds like common knowledge and we're going to get into deeper detail in the, throughout this episode.

• 3:45Nick Bare?

  But yeah, if you meal prep and food prep, it will make your life easier. You will have convenient options, you have accessibility to food. But what I hear from a lot of people is I don't have time to meal prep. I don't have time to food prep. My response is if it matters to you, you will make time, you will find time. If it truly matters to you. I consider myself a very...

• 4:16Nick Bare?

  Active individual, I have a full schedule. I am busy. I'm running a business. Leading a team. I have two young kids. My daughter is three and a half. My son is one and a half. I'm married, happily married. Our schedule every single day, from the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep, is very full. But I still find time to meal prep. And I think a lot of people believe that what meal prep looks like is being in your kitchen, Sunday afternoon, for four hours. And you're making all this chicken and ground beef and rice and potatoes and vegetables.

• 4:59Nick Bare?

  And you're putting them all, this bulk food, into individual Tupperware containers. So you have breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner, prepared for Monday through Friday. That is a way to meal prep. It's not the way that I meal prep. So if your response is, "I don't have time to do that," well, neither do I. So my approach to meal prep into food prep is to just find five to 10 minutes here and there throughout the week, doesn't have to be all in one day, to prepare foods and meals. So here's like the rhythm in which I take the approach.

• 5:44Nick Bare?

  Sometimes in the morning, after getting back from my morning run and the kids aren't awake yet, I'll fire up the Traeger and I'll throw some chicken breast on the Traeger. And then maybe at night, once the kids go down, before I hop in the sauna, before going to sleep, I'll throw some rice on the rice cooker and I'll heat that up. And right before I go to bed, I'll take it off the rice cooker when it's done and I'll throw it in the fridge. And then maybe when we're wrapping up dinner at night and we're cleaning up, I'll throw a few packs of ground beef in a pan over the stove and cook up the ground beef as we're cleaning up. And I'll throw the ground beef on there, I'll season it, I'll go start cleaning dishes, throw them in the dishwasher,

• 6:27Nick Bare?

  go back, mix it up, stir it up, clean off the table, go back, mix up the meat, stir it up, clean up the kids, multitasking. So I find these, these moments throughout the day, throughout the week to prepare foods here and there. It's not this bulk amount of time all at once to, to prep. And I make food prep and meal prep part of my daily and weekly rhythms. But I think that's one of the best ways you can set yourself up for success and take ownership of your diet in this next year is to meal and food prep. Have healthy, reliable, accessible options available all the time

• 7:11Nick Bare?

  based off of these rhythms you're building out and incorporating throughout your day and your week.

• 7:18Nick Bare?

  The second thing you can do is to have appropriate meal portions. So I have two tips here. One, weigh your food. I don't track my, my food daily. I'm tracking intuitively. So I, I have a rough estimate and guess of how much and what I'm consuming on a daily basis. And this is really based off of me just eating the same thing pretty much day in and day out with slight variations. But I still weigh my food. I weigh my food for breakfast, I weigh my, my food when I'm preparing my lunches before going to the office.

• 8:03Nick Bare?

  I weigh out the ingredients in my overnight oats. I weigh out my dinner, even though I'm not tracking, I still weigh things for portion control. So when we're making dinner, for example, you know, earlier this week, uh, one of the dinners we made was grilled chicken and grilled steak. We roasted potatoes in the oven. We had broccolini on the side.

• 8:31Nick Bare?

  I threw, you know, a bunch of broccoli on my plate. I didn't weigh that. But I did weigh out the meat and the potatoes. I added 10 ounces of potatoes and nine ounces of meat. It was four ounces of steak and five ounces of chicken. And I do this not so that I can then go back and add the foods and the amounts into my fitness pal or any of the other food tracking apps that you might be using. But I do this for portion control. So I would encourage you, if you struggle with filling your plate. If you are a person whose eyes are much larger than their stomach.

• 9:12Nick Bare?

  Then maybe use a scale and weigh out your, your food. So you have appropriate portions.

• 9:20Nick Bare?

  There are some people, and I used to be this way. By the time dinner comes, I'm starving. And I would load that plate up. I would fill every part of that plate. So you couldn't even see the plate. And I'd pile it high. And in some cases, I probably had 20 ounces of meat. And 20 ounces of potatoes and just loaded it up. And I'd be stuffed and uncomfortable afterwards. So get a food scale. You can get one for $20 at Target. Or probably your local grocery store. And weigh your food. I have multiple food scales. I have one in our pantry.

• 10:05Nick Bare?

  We have one here at the office, in the break room. I have one in the, the main kitchen. I have one that I travel with. I like traveling with a food scale for portion control.

• 10:19Nick Bare?

  And the second tip, when it comes to appropriate meal portions. This is something that I found has been extremely beneficial. So when I eat dinner, I'm a fast eater myself. Maybe you guys can relate, but I sit down, I'm starving. I'm scarfing that food down. Especially because I know my son, who is in a high chair. I gotta eat as fast as possible because he's gonna lose attention and he's gonna be crawling out of that that that chair as quickly as possible. My daughter's gonna eat a little bit and then get distracted and probably be crawling on the table. So I have to get all that food down. So I'm blocking and tackling the kids as they come at me during dinner.

• 11:05Nick Bare?

  But if you eat really quickly, you finish that plate. It sometimes takes a moment for that satiety signal, that hunger signal to be dulled as you're still digesting the food. So weigh out your food, make your plate, get your portion set up. Sit down at the table, eat dinner. First off, if you can, I would encourage you to eat slower. It's gonna be better for digestion. It's gonna be a more enjoyable experience.

• 11:44Nick Bare?

  And your satiety signaling, your hunger signaling will be better regulated. But with that being said, sit down at the table, eat your plate of food. You might be hungry still immediately upon finishing that plate. I know I typically am. Sit there for 10, 15, maybe 20 minutes. Let the food digest. Let your satiety signaling catch up to your stomach and your digestion. And after 10, 15, 20 minutes, if you're still hungry, go back and get seconds. But typically what happens to me is I finish that first plate, I'm still hungry.

• 12:29Nick Bare?

  I sit for 10, 15, 20 minutes. My satiety signaling catches up to my stomach and my digestion. And I realize I don't need a second plate. And if I would have went and got that second plate, I probably would have been overly full if would have done that. So weigh your food and wait after consuming that first plate before assessing if you really do need more.

• 12:55Nick Bare?

  The third thing you can do to take ownership of your diet in 2026 is to make protein a priority.

• 13:05Nick Bare?

  One gram of protein per pound of body weight daily. Build each meal, each plate around protein.

• 13:16Nick Bare?

  And my rule, take it or leave it, is no snacking. I don't snack. I have my first meal and my second meal and my third meal. I have my fourth meal and I have my fifth meal, which is a smaller meal before going to bed at night, which we're about to get into. But a lot of people struggle with snacking. Don't allow yourself to snack. Have your meals structured and set up throughout the day. And I consider a meal, a meal, if it is built around the foundation of the protein source. So for example, my breakfast is built around eggs being the protein source.

• 14:01Nick Bare?

  My second meal is built around either chicken or ground beef. My third meal is built around the foundation of protein powder. My fourth meal is built around the foundation of whatever we're having for dinner. Steak, chicken, fish, salmon.

• 14:18Nick Bare?

  And then my last meal that I ate, which like I said is my smaller meal, is built around the foundation of Greek yogurt being the protein source. So I don't snack. I build my meals around the protein source and I aim for one gram of protein per pound of body weight daily. Make protein a priority.

• 14:40Nick Bare?

  And the fourth thing, last thing you can do to take ownership of your diet

• 14:45Nick Bare?

  is to be prepared and have a plan for your late night snacking and/or meals.

• 14:54Nick Bare?

  So I like to have my go to after dinner before bed meal if I need one. And to be honest, I typically do need one. I personally like to eat before going to bed. Because if I don't, I find myself waking up in the middle of the night, pretty hungry. We eat an earlier dinner. We eat dinner typically at 5:00 PM. I'm starving by 5:00 PM. And then I'll have something around 8:30 or 9:00 PM. And for me, my go to is Greek yogurt topped with raw cacao nibs, a little bit of maple syrup,

• 15:38Nick Bare?

  unsweetened coconut flakes and some honey. And then on the side, I have an avocado. I cut that avocado in half. I eat the whole thing and I sprinkle it with everything but the bagel seasoning, which is delicious. So I get solid protein, some superfoods in there and healthy fats and fiber from the avocado. If I'm extra hungry, I'll add some berries, some raspberry, blackberries, blueberries or strawberries to the Greek yogurt. But I find that a lot of people struggle with late night eating because they don't have a plan. They don't have their go to meals.

• 16:22Nick Bare?

  And they end up vinging or cheating on their diet or their plan because they're just grabbing whatever looks and sounds good at the time. You know, for me, what sounds really great before going to bed at night is sometimes half of a loaf of sourdough, a big old bowl of cereal, which I consumed a lot of during Ironman prep because I was burning so many calories. But right now with my training, I'm not burning as many calories. So the whole bowl of cereal is not preferred. I'd rather stick to protein and fats.

• 17:02Nick Bare?

  But if I just consumed what I wanted to consume and what sounded good every night, it being a bowl of cereal, or a bowl of ice cream, or a half of a jar of peanut butter, or whatever else is around. But I know every night what I'm going to eat right now, and this will change from time to time, but right now, what my go-to is in the evening, is that bowl of Greek yogurt, good source of protein, the superfoods, the cacao nibs, and the unsweetened coconut flakes, and the honey, some berries, fiber, and then the avocado for healthy fats. And that makes me feel really good, it digests well,

• 17:47Nick Bare?

  I can sleep really well after consuming that food. But have your go-to meals at night. Know what you're going to be consuming if and when you get hungry, and that you're not just grabbing whatever sounds good. Set yourself up for success. So those are the four things I wanted to share on how to take ownership of your diet in this next year to see huge transformational progress. With that being said, now we're going to get into my diet and training approach and philosophies for this next year. Okay, the first one is to be in a caloric surplus

• 18:30Nick Bare?

  over a caloric deficit. Let's first define what is a surplus and what is a deficit. So you have your maintenance calories. Your maintenance calories are the amount of calories you need to consume on a daily basis to maintain your current weight. Let's say, for example, my maintenance calories are 3,500, meaning that if I consume 3,500 calories a day, I will maintain my current weight. A surplus is anything over 3,500, and a deficit is technically anything under 3,500.

• 19:13Nick Bare?

  Now, I'm not saying your maintenance calories are 3,500, that's something you have to establish on your own, but a surplus is more, and a deficit is less. Why am I pursuing a caloric surplus for this next year?

• 19:30Nick Bare?

  Well, to be honest, I want to gain size and strength. During my Ironman prep, the back half of 2025, I lost a lot of weight. I lost a lot of muscle. I lost a lot of size. I was consuming a lot of calories, but I was training a lot. I was training anywhere from 18 hours at the minimum to 22 hours per week between the run, the bike, and swimming. And I wasn't strength training much at all. So I lost a lot of weight, lost a lot of size, a lot of strength. I'm rebuilding right now.

• 20:11Nick Bare?

  But throughout 2026, what I want to do is want to pack on size again, want to pack on strength. I want to get stronger. I'm spending more time in the gym. I'm still running, but I'm running less. And I want to be in a caloric surplus to assist in that gaining phase and goal of getting stronger, putting on more muscle, getting bigger, building. I'm in a building phase in this next year. And to be honest, I'm really enjoying it.

• 20:47Nick Bare?

  After the Ironman,

• 20:51Nick Bare?

  you know, right now, at the time of the recording, like I've said, I finished the Ironman about eight weeks ago.

• 20:59Nick Bare?

  That first month after the Ironman, weight came back on pretty quickly. I was still consuming a lot of calories because I was recovering from the prep and the race itself. My training volume decreased significantly, literally overnight, the day after the race was over. So weight started to come back on pretty quickly. And then my weight plateaued, and I'm in a slight surplus. So I'm gaining very slowly. I mean, I might be gaining at this rate.

• 21:33Nick Bare?

  Maybe half a pound a week, half a pound every two weeks. If that, it's a slight surplus. And to be honest, I don't know exactly how much of a slight surplus because I'm not tracking my calories. So maybe asking yourself, Nick, how do you know you're in a slight surplus then? My surplus might be a few hundred calories if that. And it ranges from day to day. My goal is to be on a weekly basis in a caloric surplus. But from day to day, I might not be.

• 22:14Nick Bare?

  You know, one day I might have run more and lifted more and expended more calories, not consumed enough, and I might have actually been in a deficit. But I'm not looking at this caloric surplus on a day to day, but more so from a week to week. And I'm judging that surplus based off of a few things, subjectively and objectively. Because the question's going to be, how do I know I'm in a caloric surplus if I'm not tracking? Well, I assess, how do my workouts feel? Do I feel strong? Am I performing? How's my recovery? Am I able to recover from these workouts?

• 22:59Nick Bare?

  How am I sleeping? How is my energy? How's my appetite? And what is the scale doing? So I'm looking at all these things. I'm assessing how I subjectively feel. And then objectively, what do the numbers say? What does the scale say? What does my sleep say? What do my workouts say? For example. So I'm not too.

• 23:31Nick Bare?

  Married to controlling this caloric surplus, but intuitively, I'm just maintaining awareness around how I'm feeling, how I'm performing, and then I'm modifying or refining my diet based off of that. Now, I've been doing this for a long time. I'm very in tune and aware of my body in terms of how I recover, how I perform, what I need to eat, what I need to change on a regular basis. If you don't have this type of experience or intuitive knowledge, you might have to track more accurately. You might have to track your food and your calories,

• 24:16Nick Bare?

  your macronutrients to ensure that you're in a caloric surplus or deficit if you're trying to lose weight in this next year. But for me, I don't track through an app or I don't track a lot of numbers because I'm just aware and mindful of how I'm feeling and how I'm performing. Now, one of the responses I heard a lot from people was that they struggle to eat enough. You know, people want to gain weight. They want to gain size. They want to get bigger. They're going to the gym. They're training hard, but they struggle to eat enough. So I have a few solutions to that.

• 25:00Nick Bare?

  If you want to be in a caloric surplus, you want to put on some size, especially during the winter months. You know, me personally, if I'm going to put on size and a little bit of weight and a little bit of fluff, but get stronger with that intent and purpose, I want to do it in the winter. And then maybe shred down a little bit come spring and summer. I'm sure many of you have that same approach and philosophy. But if you struggle with eating enough, here are my solutions. One, have a plan. So know what you're going to eat, when you're going to eat, how you're going to eat to ensure that you can eat enough food throughout the day.

• 25:43Nick Bare?

  Consume that first meal early. Now, my first meal every day is at 6:00 a.m. But if you wait until 11:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m. to have that first meal, and you're struggling to get your calories in on a daily basis, you know, it might help to eat that first meal earlier. And if you don't have a large appetite in the morning, well, maybe make a shake or choose more calorically dense foods. This is something I have found is extremely beneficial when you're trying to gain weight or be in a caloric surplus. If your appetite isn't highly stimulated, choose foods that are more calorically dense.

• 26:28Nick Bare?

  This can be protein sources that have a higher fat content, you know, 80/20 ground beef as opposed to 93/7 ground beef, chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts.

• 26:42Nick Bare?

  You can choose a fattier fish like salmon, which has great omega-3 fatty acid content. Consume more nuts and seeds, nut butters. Avocados are calorically dense. But if you're trying to gain weight

• 27:04Nick Bare?

  and just eat a lot of chicken breasts, steamed broccoli and white rice, it does become challenging because those foods are higher volume and less calorically dense. So if you're struggling to eat enough, eat earlier and eat calorically dense foods. And try to front load your calories earlier on in the day so you're not force-feeding at night. I have some friends who are trying to gain weight and be in a caloric surplus, and they might eat a small breakfast and a small lunch. And they'll text me, they'll be like, "I gotta eat 1,800 calories before I go to bed tonight and it's 7:00 p.m." I'm like, "Brother, you're just setting yourself up for failure.

• 27:49Nick Bare?

  You're gonna force-feed, you're gonna be really full and uncomfortable. You're probably not gonna sleep really well." And you're setting yourself up for failure. So front load those calories earlier on in the day. Choose, like I said, calorically dense options. So you can have a plan and ensure you're hitting your goals consistently day in and day out. But right now, like I've said, my, my focus, my goal is to put on size, strength, build muscle, especially coming off of Ironman prep. And for me to do that, I know I need to be in a caloric surplus.

• 28:34Nick Bare?

  It's gonna help me build. It's gonna help me recover. It's gonna help my sleep. It's going to make me feel better, give me the energy. So a caloric surplus, a slight caloric surplus is the focus going into 2026. Okay, the second approach in philosophy is to train hard. Yeah, I just got done before recording this episode, training legs. And I trained legs really hard. So my workout today, lower body, I hit lower body twice a week right now.

• 29:17Nick Bare?

  So I'm training lower body twice a week. I train chest and triceps once a week, back and biceps once a week, shoulders and arms once a week. And I'm running about 20 to 25 miles a week. That's my current training split. Today's workout, my second lower body workout of the week. I did five sets of leg extensions, hitting leg extensions really hard.

• 29:49Nick Bare?

  Five sets of leg curls, three sets of sissy squats for as many reps as possible. At this point, my legs were pumped out of control. Then I went into barbell squats. I did seven sets of barbell squats. The main sets were four sets, 315 pounds, anywhere from five to six reps. Then I did three sets of walking barbell lunges, 24 reps per set, which was 12 reps per leg. And then I went into this reverse lunge Bulgarian split squat hybrid on the Smith machine movement that I've been doing recently.

• 30:34Nick Bare?

  Three sets, each leg, eight to 10 reps. Killer workout. It taxed the muscular system as well as my central nervous system. It feels really good to be back in the gym again, especially coming off of Ironman prep. Those first couple of weeks of training, after not having done really any resistance training for 18 to 20 weeks, were brutal. I was sore, everything hurt. Triceps, biceps, back, shoulders, chest, legs, glutes, all of it hurt. But now my body is acclimated to the training once again and it feels good and I'm making

• 31:18Nick Bare?

  some progress. But one thing that I think many people who walk into the gym, maybe 95, maybe more percent of people, could train harder than they're actually training.

• 31:41Nick Bare?

  You know, if we compare resistance training to running, when it comes to running, 80% of your runs roughly are easy runs, aerobic based runs. And then maybe 15 to 20% of your running is speed work. It's more intense, it's uncomfortable. You're doing tempo workouts, critical velocity, you're on the track, shorter distances, faster paces, you're breathing heavy, your heart rate increases. It's tough. Those workouts are hard. They're hard to hold pace. Intensity is jacked up, it's a big effort, they're hard, right? But 80% of your training when it comes to endurance work

• 32:27Nick Bare?

  is this easy stuff.

• 32:30Nick Bare?

  You know, you're kind of just going through the motions because the volume

• 32:36Nick Bare?

  creates the adaptation that you're trying to achieve.

• 32:41Nick Bare?

  That same philosophy doesn't necessarily correlate to strength training. I believe that when you're going into the gym and you're strength training, you should be training really hard, you should be pushing it. If you want to get bigger, you want to get stronger, you want to grow, you want to stimulate adaptation within the muscle, you gotta train hard. Now, it's not training

• 33:09Nick Bare?

  uncontrollably hard. That puts you at risk of injury. But it is controlled discomfort and effort. Like today, when I trained lower body, I pushed those sets, many of those sets to failure. Even leg extensions and leg curls, extremely uncomfortable and painful.

• 33:36Nick Bare?

  Like the lactic acid that was building up in the muscle hurts so bad.

• 33:42Nick Bare?

  But it's really easy to go into the gym and apply the easy run

• 33:48Nick Bare?

  philosophy and mindset to the gym. Hop on a machine, do a movement, rest for a minute during that rest period, get your phone out, scroll, text, email, Slack. Do another set, same thing, phone out, scroll, text, email, Slack, another set, move through the moments or the movements and the motions and just before you know it, after an hour, workout's done. Didn't really put out much of an effort, didn't sweat at all. Easy.

• 34:22Nick Bare?

  That is not going to stimulate the growth that you want.

• 34:29Nick Bare?

  When we go into the gym, when I go into the gym and I train,

• 34:35Nick Bare?

  I want to put out a big effort.

• 34:38Nick Bare?

  Every workout has the ability to propel me forward, to grow, to stimulate adaptation.

• 34:47Nick Bare?

  I love strength training. But not strength training just to go through the motions and just to get it done, but to really work.

• 34:57Nick Bare?

  So my mindset, my philosophy, my approach in the gym this year is every workout matters. Every workout I'm going to train with intention,

• 35:09Nick Bare?

  and effort, and intensity, and hard. I'm gonna train hard. It's actually why I'm taking longer rest periods in between sets. You know, right now I'm taking longer rest periods in between sets than I've probably ever taken before because I'm hitting the sets really hard. And I need the rest to be ready to go into that next set to be prepared.

• 35:37Nick Bare?

  And one of the most common responses I hear to this is, "Yeah, but Nick, I don't want to get too big."

• 35:44Nick Bare?

  I don't think many of us have to worry about getting too big by training too hard. It just, it doesn't work that way. You're not going to look like Jay Cutler and Ronnie Coleman stepping on a bodybuilding stage by training too hard. I can, I can promise you that.

• 36:05Nick Bare?

  If you train really hard, you're going to stimulate the adaptation, you're going to get stronger, you're going to build muscle, you're going to feel better, you're going to sleep better, you're going to look better. It's going to give you everything you want and need out of your training.

• 36:19Nick Bare?

  But very few of us need to worry about getting too big in the gym by training too hard. I can promise you that.

• 36:29Nick Bare?

  Now, strength training has so many benefits. And the benefits are, are very different from endurance training. Strength training is much more than building muscle and improving strength. It has many downstream effects, positive downstream effects on the body that are massively beneficial.

• 36:56Nick Bare?

  But you gotta train hard, and you gotta put out a big effort, and you're going to get the best stimulation from these multi-joint compound movements.

• 37:07Nick Bare?

  Using barbells and dumbbells and kettlebells.

• 37:13Nick Bare?

  Most of the time as opposed to cables or machines.

• 37:21Nick Bare?

  Now, I'm going to talk about some of these downstream positive effects that strength training creates. But I want to note that all these benefits can be thrown out of the window

• 37:35Nick Bare?

  if over-training or under-recovering exists. So, you can either over-train by training too much, too often, too hard, too frequently.

• 37:50Nick Bare?

  Or you can under-recover and they can be one in the same. But under-recover could be that you're not giving yourself enough time in between workouts. You're not consuming enough calories. You're not in a surplus. You're not sleeping well or enough. You're not hydrating. So, one of the best ways that we can minimize over-training is by prioritizing recovery. So, strength training optimizes many parts of the human body. But specifically, what I want to talk about is the endocrine system. Hormone system.

• 38:31Nick Bare?

  Our hormones can be optimized by strength training because of these downstream effects in the body. When it comes to males, testosterone. There is an acute increase in testosterone after training that supports healthy baseline levels over time. In females, there is a supported balance of estrogen and strength training improves progesterone, excuse me, sensitivity. But it does not cause or create masculine features in females. So, as a female, if you strength train very heavily, it's not going to make you look

• 39:15Nick Bare?

  like a male unless you take exogenous testosterone or steroids. That's the truth. In terms of growth hormone, there is an increase post-exercise in growth hormone, which stimulates muscle repair, fat breakdown, and improves recovery and sleep quality. And insulin. So, there is an increase in insulin sensitivity and, over time, chronic insulin levels decrease from strength training. Muscles become more efficient at pulling glucose from the blood and less insulin is needed to manage the intake of carbohydrates.

• 40:00Nick Bare?

  And when it comes to thyroid hormones like T3 and T4, strength training supports healthy thyroid signaling. So, there are many positive effects on the body. When it comes to strength training. But this is just one category of benefits being how it impacts and improves areas of the endocrine or hormone system in both men and women. The benefits of training hard. Multi-joint compound movements, strength training are numerous. But you gotta train hard.

• 40:41Nick Bare?

  You gotta train really hard, intense, intentional, deliberate. I'm training really hard until in 26. Every workout, every training session. It is one training session. That's going to move me closer towards my goals to get bigger, to get stronger, to get faster, to improve body composition, to feel better. But it's not just going through the motions. Okay, the next approach and philosophy is food quality over food quantity. I was thinking about this this morning.

• 41:24Nick Bare?

  As I was giving our son Nico a bottle at 3:30 a.m. Nico did not have the best night of sleep last night. He must be going through a growth spurt. Because we had to give him three bottles throughout the night last night. He was starving. His first bottle, he woke up around midnight, we gave him a bottle. Then he woke up an hour and a half, two hours later, we gave him another bottle. And then at 3:30, he woke up and he wanted another bottle. He was starving. He drank so much milk throughout the night last night. And I was, I was sitting on the chair in his bedroom at 3:30 a.m.

• 42:09Nick Bare?

  I just ended up staying awake after that. And went for a run after giving him that bottle. But I was thinking about how my diet has changed over the years.

• 42:23Nick Bare?

  And it has evolved and improved and I've put more focus on quality nutrition as opposed to quantity of nutrition over the years. And one of the reasons is that as life has become more complex and complicated and my responsibilities have grown, there's a lot of things in my life that I can't control.

• 42:59Nick Bare?

  You know, I can't control when my son wakes up and how much he sleeps and when he wants a bottle and the growth spurts that he's experiencing. Now, last night, me and staff, my wife, we didn't get much sleep.

• 43:16Nick Bare?

  And that's just part of being a parent, especially with younger kids. Some nights, we get six and a half, seven, seven and a half hours of sleep. Some nights, we get three to four hours of sleep. Really depends on what the kids are feeling and how they're sleeping and what leap they're going through and all of those things.

• 43:41Nick Bare?

  But one of the things I was thinking about as I was giving Nico a bottle is at this phase of my life, there's lots that I can't control. Sometimes I can't control how much sleep I get. Sometimes I can't control if I can go train certain times throughout the day based off of work responsibilities and family responsibilities and being a dad and having children and those responsibilities. But if there's one thing I can control, it is the food that I put in my body.

• 44:16Nick Bare?

  I can control prepping food and what food I buy and the quality of it and what I end up putting in my mouth and consuming and digesting. As I was sitting in Nico's chair, giving him a bottle this morning, thinking about this episode I was going to record a few hours later, that's something I wanted to really hammer in. That's how my approach and philosophy around nutrition has evolved over the years.

• 44:50Nick Bare?

  Where, you know, before having kids,

• 44:56Nick Bare?

  there was a focus from both Steph and I on high-quality nutrition.

• 45:02Nick Bare?

  But I'll be honest, there's more things that we could have gotten away with. Not eating as clean or as of high quality as we do now. Because there was less stress, there was less life responsibilities. We were always sleeping really good, could train when we wanted.

• 45:23Nick Bare?

  Could control more variables in our life, but as I've thought about it, life has become more complex and responsibilities have increased. There are certain things, certain variables I can't control, but the one thing I can is my diet.

• 45:40Nick Bare?

  And I've improved my diet over the years in terms of quality nutrition and sourcing and making

• 45:51Nick Bare?

  more better decisions, more frequently on a consistent basis, because I know those things make me feel better. We go out to eat less now than we ever had before.

• 46:06Nick Bare?

  One of those reasons is because we have two young kids and going to dinner with two young kids can be challenging, but two, it's because we want to be able to control what we're consuming and eating on a regular basis. One of the ways that we do this and we will continue to do throughout this next year and for the foreseeable future is you have readily accessible and available foods at our fingertips at all times. This goes back to, like I was talking about earlier, the convenience of food and meal prep and making food and meal prep work around our lives as opposed to carving out four, five, six hours once a week to prepare all these meals and foods.

• 46:52Nick Bare?

  It's having potatoes and rice and chicken and ground beef readily accessible. It's making sure that when we go to the grocery store, we have a plan. We have a list and we're filling our carts first with protein and then produce, fruits and vegetables, and then quality carbohydrate sources, and then everything else.

• 47:14Nick Bare?

  But I see a lot of people going to the grocery store with no plan, with no list, and just buying whatever looks good. It's also really dangerous if you're going to the grocery store already hungry. You never know what you're going to come home with.

• 47:30Nick Bare?

  But we like to go to the grocery store with a plan, with a list. And like I said, we fill our carts. We go through the grocery store, first filling it with our protein sources, then our produce, fruits and vegetables, then carbohydrates, then everything else. And for my diet, it is very consistent in terms of the same meals, pretty much day in and day out. My first meal, my breakfast, is typically the same. My second meal is typically the same. My third meal is typically the same. Dinner is where there is the most variation in terms of protein sources, carbohydrate

• 48:09Nick Bare?

  sources, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, oils, all of the things. And then my last meal before going to bed is pretty much the same. But I'm adding in variation with the dinner.

• 48:28Nick Bare?

  But the way that I've set up my first three meals, my last meal, and that fourth meal that has the most variation is focused on quality.

• 48:38Nick Bare?

  I want good, healthy carbohydrate sources, most of them being oats, rice, potatoes, sourdough bread, fruits, vegetables, grass-fed, grass-finished beef, pasture-raised chickens,

• 49:03Nick Bare?

  pasture-raised eggs, wild-caught fish, high-quality Greek yogurts.

• 49:17Nick Bare?

  I'm choosing sources now that are higher quality. They're going to provide me not just the macronutrients I need, but also the micronutrients. Fiber is a big priority for me now.

• 49:34Nick Bare?

  You know, I get most of my variety in terms of

• 49:41Nick Bare?

  different sources of foods from fruits, vegetables, and micronutrient-dense sources.

• 49:49Nick Bare?

  So the carbohydrates in the proteins that I consume on a regular basis are pretty consistent. They have said it's chicken, beef, eggs, Greek yogurt.

• 50:00Nick Bare?

  It's oats, sourdough, fruits, vegetables, rice, potatoes for the carbohydrate sources. And then the way and the place that I add in most variety is from different nuts and seeds, different fruits and vegetables that are in season versus out of season.

• 50:25Nick Bare?

  I'm looking for ways that I can get more micronutrient diversity in my diet through those things as opposed to the proteins or the carbohydrate sources.

• 50:41Nick Bare?

  And the last thing I wanted to really touch on in terms of food quality versus food quantity is how I eat while traveling. And as well as cost, I know cost, it was a big concern for people when I prompted the question on Instagram.

• 50:59Nick Bare?

  When it comes to traveling,

• 51:02Nick Bare?

  it becomes harder to stay on track with your diet. There's no doubt about that. But it is definitely achievable. It requires a little bit more intention, a little bit more research, a little bit more planning.

• 51:19Nick Bare?

  But one of the things I've noticed while traveling with people, whether that's personal relationships or for work, is that sometimes travel or going to dinner is instantly viewed as a vacation or a luxury or an opportunity to fall off track.

• 51:45Nick Bare?

  And I used to be like this back in the day. You know, random Wednesday night and

• 51:53Nick Bare?

  we're going to dinner with friends.

• 51:56Nick Bare?

  And there's a time and place to eat whatever you want, you know, get the burger, get the fries, get the pizza, get the chicken wings, you know, whatever that place is known for. But if you travel a lot or you have to go out to dinner a lot for work.

• 52:13Nick Bare?

  You know, there's a lot of people who travel weekly for work. Going to a restaurant doesn't always have to be a reason or an opportunity to just eat whatever you want.

• 52:25Nick Bare?

  I have found that most restaurants are very accommodating and willing to modify anything on the menu

• 52:35Nick Bare?

  that you ask for. So sometimes if I'm traveling and I want to stay on track, I'm going to a restaurant, for example. I will ask for things on their item à la carte.

• 52:49Nick Bare?

  You know, the easy thing to do, the

• 52:53Nick Bare?

  the, the decision you can make that will steer you away from progress and your goals and staying on track would be just ordering whatever's on the menu. I'll take a burger and french fries. I'll take that pizza. I'll take a basket of chicken wings and fries on the side. You don't have to make those decisions. Just because you're traveling, just because you're going out to dinner, whether it's for a business meeting or you're going to dinner with friends or, or whatever is the case. You can still stay on track. An example, Steph and I, we were traveling to Pittsburgh last weekend

• 53:37Nick Bare?

  for, for a BPN event. And we got into our hotel late at night and we went to the, the hotel restaurant. It was the Fairmont in Pittsburgh. And looking at the menu, and the menu was great, looked amazing. And it had like the entrees and it had salads and it had starters and soups and all of these things. And there was this one dish. It was a half chicken, which I love. I love any restaurant that has a half chicken. Like that's my go to. So you have half rotisserie chicken, but it came

• 54:15Nick Bare?

  with like mashed potatoes and this sauce on top and all these extra things that we didn't really need or want. So Steph and I both ordered the half chicken. We asked for nothing on it. And then a side salad.

• 54:36Nick Bare?

  And that's what we ate. It ended up coming out. It was, it was a half chicken. We each had a half chicken. No sauces, no mashed potatoes, none of the extra stuff on it. And we had our side salad. So with chicken and salad, great sources of protein, lots of protein. We had some vegetables in there. We were able to modify those meals to stay on track.

• 55:02Nick Bare?

  You can do that. That's an option. Just because you're going to dinner, doesn't mean you have to order the burger and fries. Just because this restaurant is known for their chicken wings and their pizza, doesn't mean you have to order the chicken wings and the pizza. Just because you're going to, to a restaurant or you're traveling, doesn't mean it's a free for all, to eat whatever, whenever, wherever. You can still stay on track. And you can still choose quality over quantity. And even though I'm focused on a surplus, a slight surplus

• 55:40Nick Bare?

  down this next year, it does not mean a free for all, just eat anything whenever I want. This is not a dirty bulk. This is a caloric surplus, an intentional caloric surplus.

• 55:57Nick Bare?

  Now I know that when people hear quality over quantity, the first thing they think of is

• 56:05Nick Bare?

  price.

• 56:08Nick Bare?

  And when I prompted the question on Instagram, one of the most responded responses was that cost and price holds a lot of people back.

• 56:23Nick Bare?

  Now, I'll be honest that the foods that I purchased now today,

• 56:29Nick Bare?

  based off my ability, are much more expensive than I was consuming three years ago and 10 years ago and when I was in college.

• 56:40Nick Bare?

  But even when I was in college, even 10 years ago, even three years ago,

• 56:47Nick Bare?

  I didn't have the ability to purchase very high quality foods very frequently. But I could still consume

• 56:58Nick Bare?

  great quality nutrition. Cost does not have to be a deterring factor.

• 57:07Nick Bare?

  You can consume high quality nutrition, good food on a regular, consistent basis

• 57:18Nick Bare?

  on a budget. I promise you that. I was doing it in college. I had no money to my name in college.

• 57:25Nick Bare?

  And I would go to the grocery store and I'd find deals and sales. And I'd stock up in bulk with chicken and ground beef and leading a lot of tilapia and tuna and rice and potatoes and bananas and oatmeal.

• 57:43Nick Bare?

  You can still consume high quality nutrition. It doesn't have to be grass fed, grass finished, organic, pasteurized. It doesn't have to be. It can be if you prefer that. But it doesn't have to be to consume high quality nutrition.

• 58:02Nick Bare?

  Like I remember in college, I can't remember what grocery store I would shop at, but on Tuesdays, chicken at this grocery store was half off per pound. It was a steal and I would get to this grocery store as soon as they would open to ensure that I could stock up. And I'd stock up for the whole week. I'd freeze it if I had to. Cause I was saving a lot of money on this chicken because it was half off per pound. And I would look for deals and sales wherever I could and I'd buy in bulk. I remember when I first got down to Texas, me, Preston and Joe, we found this restaurant that was selling in bulk 20 pounds at a time chicken breast.

• 58:48Nick Bare?

  And we went and bought 20 pounds of chicken breast at a time and we would cut it up and we would freeze it. And it was pennies on the dollar per pound.

• 59:00Nick Bare?

  And we would just stock up. We were on a budget.

• 59:04Nick Bare?

  So, cost does not have to be a deterring factor from consuming high-quality nutrition and hold you back from reaching your fitness, your nutrition, your performance, your body composition goals. The next philosophy and approach is to run with purpose, not for numbers. Numbers meaning mileage and pace.

• 59:32Nick Bare?

  I think it's really easy in the world we live in today, especially in a world of social media, comparison and Strava, which I'm personally not a big Strava person, but I know people live for the Strava numbers,

• 59:51Nick Bare?

  that you constantly have to, to level up and surpass others. You know, like this person ran 60 miles this week, so I gotta run 61. This person was running 7:30 minute per mile paces. I gotta run a 7:28 minute per mile pace to be considered worthy or good.

• 1:00:15Nick Bare?

  And this next year, I'm, I'm not necessarily running for any numbers. I don't have any races or competitions or events that I plan to prep for.

• 1:00:30Nick Bare?

  Which I'll get into in my last bullet, which is training for the love of the lifestyle, not for the finish line.

• 1:00:37Nick Bare?

  So I've reduced my running volume because I am prioritizing strength, size, muscle building. I've reduced it to about 20 to 25 miles per week to prioritize the goal. Now, running, cardiovascular fitness and conditioning is and always will be important to me, but it's not the the main goal right now.

• 1:01:07Nick Bare?

  I have found that with less running,

• 1:01:11Nick Bare?

  my mental and physical energy is better.

• 1:01:17Nick Bare?

  But you can't rebuke the benefits, the mental benefits of running and endurance training. And that's why I'm still running 20 to 25 miles a week, one for the health performance and physical benefits, but the mental clarity, the mental

• 1:01:39Nick Bare?

  just feel good high that I get from running

• 1:01:45Nick Bare?

  to four days a week.

• 1:01:48Nick Bare?

  I don't ever want to lose that. I love running for the mental clarity,

• 1:01:54Nick Bare?

  for the the mental release and relaxation and peace and joy that I get from it.

• 1:02:04Nick Bare?

  So I run for a purpose and that purpose is that clarity. It's that high. It's that dopamine rush and hit that that I desire. But I'm not running for numbers. I'm not running for a race or competitions here. I'm running because I love running and it's a big part of my life. But I'm running with a purpose in this next year,

• 1:02:33Nick Bare?

  not to compare or to compete. On the heels of running with purpose, my next philosophy and approach is to eat with purpose, not to idolize food. I think a question we all have to ask ourselves is, what does our relationship with food look like and why?

• 1:02:57Nick Bare?

  You know, I had a severe eating disorder when I was in my mid teens. I've shared the story many times before.

• 1:03:07Nick Bare?

  Was 14 years old.

• 1:03:10Nick Bare?

  Starved myself, put myself in the hospital because of it. Since then, I have had

• 1:03:18Nick Bare?

  varying degrees of healthy and unhealthy relationships with food over time.

• 1:03:26Nick Bare?

  And in the past, when I've shared my previous eating disorder, in this concept around a relationship with food, I've experienced pushback. I've heard people say, "You don't have a relationship with food, you have a relationship with people."

• 1:03:43Nick Bare?

  But I don't agree with that. And anyone who has had an unhealthy relationship with food

• 1:03:50Nick Bare?

  probably wouldn't agree with that either. We actually all have personal relationships with food. And it's kind of weird when you think about it.

• 1:04:01Nick Bare?

  But I'm a very observational person, especially with people and their food, because of my previous eating disorder. And it's interesting when you take the time to just watch, learn, and experience

• 1:04:19Nick Bare?

  how people have different relationships with food. Some healthy, some unhealthy, some extremely unhealthy.

• 1:04:32Nick Bare?

  But I think we all should ask ourselves and seriously consider, what does our relationship with food look like and why? Are there parts that are healthy? Are there parts that are unhealthy? And what can we do to improve those relationships?

• 1:04:50Nick Bare?

  You know, I used to idolize food.

• 1:04:54Nick Bare?

  I didn't even know it.

• 1:04:57Nick Bare?

  I would think about food more than I would have liked. And I justified it by calling myself a foodie. I would think about

• 1:05:09Nick Bare?

  what I was gonna eat next while I was still eating my current meal. I was thinking about going out to dinner Friday night and what I was gonna order when it was Tuesday afternoon. I was thinking about Sunday dinner and how much food I was gonna eat and consume and gorge myself with when it was Thursday morning.

• 1:05:34Nick Bare?

  And I never thought it was a problem until I realized I was idolizing food.

• 1:05:44Nick Bare?

  And my goal for 2026,

• 1:05:52Nick Bare?

  my approach, my philosophy, is to eat with purpose, not to idolize food. And I do feel, I can confidently say this, I have a healthy relationship with food right now. Typically, when I'm in a prep, like when I was in my Ironman prep, that's when my tendencies for my previous eating disorder start to come back a little bit.

• 1:06:19Nick Bare?

  My relationship with food becomes more unhealthy when I'm in a prep towards a big fitness goal. But then when I'm out of prep,

• 1:06:30Nick Bare?

  I experience more healthy relationships with food.

• 1:06:39Nick Bare?

  But I share this so that we, my hope is that you become more mindful and aware that we have relationships with food. We do, and they're all unique and different.

• 1:06:54Nick Bare?

  But that we should eat with purpose. And that purpose should drive performance. It should drive health. It should, it should drive energy. It should drive recovery in the way that we feel. You know, as I prompted the question on Instagram,

• 1:07:13Nick Bare?

  there were a lot of responses around people experiencing common problems with, like I said, snacking, binge eating, cheating on their diet, and getting bored of eating the same meals.

• 1:07:31Nick Bare?

  And I think a lot of these responses are driven by the problem that people idolize food. They're not eating for purpose,

• 1:07:42Nick Bare?

  but they end up worshiping the food and the meal and the ingredients. Again, I'm not saying we shouldn't enjoy our foods and celebrate food and feasting with people and in a relationship and the experience, but

• 1:07:59Nick Bare?

  there's a fine line between celebrating and feasting and enjoying and idolizing and worshiping the food and the meals and living for the food itself.

• 1:08:13Nick Bare?

  Yeah, I, I hear the question all the time. I get so bored of eating the same thing day in and day out.

• 1:08:20Nick Bare?

  And I, I can't necessarily relate to this because I don't get bored of the same meals. Because we do add in a lot of variety into our dinner, which is my fourth meal of the day typically.

• 1:08:32Nick Bare?

  But one of the things I would say and encourage you to do is find ways to, to spice it up.

• 1:08:39Nick Bare?

  And an example of that for me is like my second meal of the day, the base is always 300 grams of rice. It might be jasmine rice or like today I had sushi rice. It's a cup and a half of rice. And then it's typically ground beef or chicken. Or today I had ground beef and chicken. I had four ounces of ground beef and four ounces of chicken thighs. Because that's what we had left over at the house from, from some dinners and uh, some foods that were prepped. And ways you can spice it up and have a brand new meal every day

• 1:09:19Nick Bare?

  is by different condiments and spices and pickled vegetables or toppings. Like right now, my go to lunch that I look forward to every day. 300 grams of rice, eight ounces of ground beef, which is sometimes a combination of ground elk, bison and ground beef. I do a little bit of primal kitchen's buffalo sauce in there. And I add pickled onion. And I get these pickles at the farmer's market. They're spicy and sweet pickles. They are delicious.

• 1:10:04Nick Bare?

  I add some of the pickles in there, add some of the pickled juice. So I love pickled vegetables. Uh, there's some great prebiotic fibers, fermented, you know, food fibers in there. And you can change the sauces, the condiments, the toppings. You can have a brand new meal every day, but the base stays the same. That's how I avoid getting bored of meals. Take a bowl, add your carbs, add your meat, spice it up in any way you want. Preferably in a way that doesn't add a bunch of calories and oils and extra unhealthy ingredients.

• 1:10:47Nick Bare?

  But you can spice up a meal with relatively low caloric options. And it can taste completely different from day one to day two to day three to day four. And my last and final approach and philosophy going into this next year.

• 1:11:06Nick Bare?

  As I've alluded to before, so train for the love of the lifestyle and not for the finish line. As I've shared, I don't have any races, competitions, or preps that I'm planning to do in this next year.

• 1:11:26Nick Bare?

  Fitness for me needs to fit into my life and not the other way around.

• 1:11:34Nick Bare?

  I have young kids, I have a wife, I have a family, I have my faith, I have my business, the team, I'm a leader here. I have responsibilities and my life at this point no longer revolves around fitness. It's not finding ways for my family to fit into my fitness and my business to fit into my fitness. And my leadership abilities and responsibilities to fit into my fitness. It is building my fitness around my other responsibilities in rhythms of life. And I love training, I do. I love the lifestyle, I love prepping the food.

• 1:12:17Nick Bare?

  I love eating healthy nutrition that fuels my body and performance. I love running, I love strength training really hard.

• 1:12:28Nick Bare?

  I love the pre-workout ritual and the post-workout shake, I love it all. I enjoy every part of it, but not for the prep, not for the competition, not for the finish line. Because of what it adds to my life and the experience and the energy that it stimulates and creates.

• 1:12:54Nick Bare?

  There have been many moments and periods in my life, the last couple of years,

• 1:13:02Nick Bare?

  where I've been deep into a fitness prep and I've been living in zombie mode. And maybe you can relate, and I see this all the time with athletes where

• 1:13:14Nick Bare?

  you put majority of your energy on a daily basis into the training, into the prep. You wear yourself down to a point where...

• 1:13:25Nick Bare?

  The best part of your day where you have the most physical and mental energy is spent and dedicated to the training and every other part of your life gets the table scraps, gets zombie mode. I've done this in the past. I've been that person. I'm not proud of that, but there have been moments in my life where I have prioritized the prep, the race, the competition, the finish line over other life responsibilities.

• 1:13:56Nick Bare?

  And that's a sacrifice that I'm not willing to make anymore.

• 1:14:02Nick Bare?

  I don't want to live in zombie mode. I don't want to dedicate all of my mental and physical energy to the fitness and the training so that everyone and everything else gets those table scraps. I'm training this year for the love of the lifestyle because I do truly love it. I enjoy it, every part of it.

• 1:14:27Nick Bare?

  It is commitment and the truth about commitment is that commitment has no finish lines. It is a forever evolving journey and process

• 1:14:40Nick Bare?

  for continuous improvement and betterment and pursuit.

• 1:14:47Nick Bare?

  So that's my approach. Those are my philosophies for this next year around training, around diet, nutrition, life, commitment. So I hope you guys enjoy this one. I hope you can relate to it. I hope that going into this next year, you lay out some approaches and philosophies that you are committed to and that honor your responsibilities. So you can show up, not just for yourself, but for the people in your lives as well.

• 1:15:25Nick Bare?

  Thanks for tuning in. I appreciate you guys. And as always, go one more.