The Meat Mafia Podcast

Welcome back to another episode of the Meat Mafia podcast. Brett Ender, how we doing? Harrison Gray, I'm doing fantastic. Thanks for hosting me. Oh, got another episode here. Another Brett and Harry episode. These, these are so much fun, man. First episode was great, how to eat healthy. I think it was a great Um, like macro level blueprint for just anyone looking to get their metabolic health kicked into gear.

And we're going to follow this up with a great episode 2, which is how to source your food. How to source food. Before we get into it, what's our caffeination level at right now? I would say that I'm sitting here at probably 350 milligrams on the day. Okay. And it is 10:32 AM central time. I had a couple nice chameleon cold brews with raw cream prior to our men's group run.

And uh, you got me a nice little double espresso. Single, single espresso? Double. Double. I think probably three. There's no such thing as, I think I probably three 50 Millis right now. Where does that put you? On a zero to 10. In terms of total caffeination for the day? Yeah, like just if you had to say like, you know, 10 is, you've gone off the rails fully caffeinated.

I'm probably at a 5 right now. Okay, good. I think I've got a few more shots left in me. Yeah, so if you're not at a 5 right now in terms of caffeination and you're listening to this, get to the 5. If you're listening to this, take a double espresso in honor of us and get juiced up. Buckle up. Just sit in your car.

Buckle up. We're about to get into it. Any, um, update, Mafia updates, housekeeping updates for the, for the beautiful listeners out there. Yes, we have a little bit of housekeeping. So episodes released this week, we had AJ Nwosu. Legend. Unbelievable. One of the conversations where you're just sitting there and you're like, you're hearing things that you've never heard before, his level of focus and like, persistence to be excellent, is just like, so inspiring.

Definitely. I feel like you walk out of that conversation and you're like, I need to be more like that guy. Yeah, I think that's how we both felt, and there's certain conversations where you're like, I wish I didn't even have to be a part of this conversation because I literally just want to take notes and listen to this guy go on a monologue because he's just so smart and driven and hardworking and really good blueprint for just like the modern male.

I think yeah, totally. Yeah. So, so we had AJ go out and then us, us first solo episode healthy, very well, very well received. Look, if you're, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, we'd love to hear from you. so much. We'd love to hear how you're interpreting these, uh, Brett and Harry episodes, if you're enjoying them, they seem to be doing better.

We just look at numbers on the screen, though, we'd love to get your feedback, so hit us up, Instagram, Twitter, or you have our Telegram group, which We're poppin off. Poppin off. We got 38 members. It's poppin off. 38, but We're only gonna be talking about the Telegram group on the podcast. So it's gonna be listeners only which will be sick.

Yep, and We're trying to figure out a name for the group. So some people have been throwing out the herd Oh, I like the herd. I still like the Don's Club. I like the Don's Club I also I also like just mafia or yeah consigliere's. I don't know there's There's a lot of things we can do with the Mafia, or the family.

I like the family. Yeah, so, we'll figure it out. Um, whatever sticks will stick. The herd has been getting tossed around. I like it. I like the herd. I like the herd, but I like something Mafioso as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, hey, we're gonna let you guys decide. We'll let it naturally develop. And then, um We had, what, this, this Monday, Kelsey Charen, yeah, which was a powerful episode, two hours plus of, you know, going deep into her story, uh, ex combat veteran, really getting into the mental health space, talking about her story, her qualifications of just like being able to speak to some of those topics was what stood out to me, just someone who's been through that a lot.

experience of serving overseas and then coming back and having to reacclimate and assimilate back into, you know, everyday life. And, you know, given the world that we're in today, it was just interesting getting her perspective on mental health in general. Um, And some of the things that she's doing just to, to focus on and prioritize mental health.

So I thought it was a great conversation, really enjoyed her perspective on things. Yeah, it's amazing when you see someone that's been exposed to extreme darkness and they still make that conscious decision to show up and figure out what they need to do to repair themselves to become a productive member of society.

She personally went through that, um, credibly inspiring and humbling story. And then. You know, works with a ton of veterans around the country to try and help facilitate those same experiences to help kind of pull them out of the darkness, um, with what they've seen deploying and facing nature, you know, facing hell on earth and choosing to overcome that and become better.

So it was, it was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I think some of those just like practical piece of advice too. I mean, you probably sound like a broken record at this point, but. It's just like a lot of the basics of physical health. I think that we have this capacity to want to like split mental health and physical health into two different worlds, but they're one and the same in a lot of ways.

So like, the way you treat your body is gonna be, like, it's gonna flow through to how your mind is operating. Yes. I do think that, um, it's all about the basics. She talked about sleep quality, eating the right foods. Cold therapy. Yeah, cold therapy. It's all, it's all additive and, and does, uh, has a, can have a compounding effect on mental health.

So great episode. Go check that out. If you're listening to this. All right. Let's dig into sourcing food. Sourcing food. Yeah. So with this episode, we kind of broke this down into, uh, three categories, actually I'll say four, but we don't really, the fourth category is one that we don't have much experience with.

So, um, the first is. Grocery store. The next is online Slash delivery services and then the next is farm slash farmers market So kind of like the three main areas where most people are getting their food and then the fourth is hunting So I just figured we'd throw that in there We don't really not qualified to talk on literally not qualified at all, but but we'll still touch on it Yeah, why was it important for you?

Like why is sourcing food so important? When it comes to your health for me It's much more about a little bit about like the meta around food the part That's like if you spend time doing like the right things in terms of sourcing the food. You're actually gonna care about The quality and the ingredients and you're going to do the work and you're going to hold this food that you're putting into your body in a different light than someone who's just like, Oh, you know, like I don't, I don't spend any time on thinking about sourcing food.

I almost feel weird saying sourcing food because you're just so used to just going and grabbing chips from 7 Eleven. So for me, it's much more about the reframe and just like how it actually positions food as a priority in your life. Therefore, you're now really just investing in food as opposed to just like passively, you know, having it being an expense, and you're not really caring too much about where it comes from.

It just shows up, and you're, you know, the convenience factor is there, and you're not putting that additional layer of thought into why. I'm doing this and why I should care about where the food is coming from. There's so many reasons why you can dig into that. But for me, it's much more just about the prioritization of food is the fundamental base layer of your health outside of, you know, activity and getting sunlight and sleep.

Food is, is so important. It's, it's the habit that we're doing every single day. And so, reinforcing that with just really truly showing that, like, I care about it. I think that's the ultimate, um, reason for me. Yeah. Yeah, it's like this, to your point, Harry, it's really this, um, this like sacred transaction of, number one, I think we talked about this in episode one, having this mindset shift of what is food?

It's not this ultra processed food like substance that's kind of conditioned the American mind and flooding the grocery store. You know, it's meat, meat, fish, egg, fruit, vegetable. grown in nature, grown by God, single ingredient, um, you know, very limited shelf life. And then you have an obligation to consistently eat those foods and find various combinations that work really well for you and share those meals and those foods with people that you love.

And it's this incredibly nourishing experience. And your body has this amazing, like metabolic machinery and can process these things in such an amazing way where you just continue to cook your meals and source your foods really well and you look back in 30 days and you're like, wow, I'm down, you know, 20 pounds of body fat.

My mindset feels amazing. My energy feels amazing. My skin feels amazing. I'm getting great workouts. I feel like I have more energy to do my job. You know, you fundamentally transform as a person. And part of why this episode is so important is like. I think you and I both believe that if you don't take the time to source your food and cook your own meals, it's very, very difficult to get healthy.

Definitely. Right? And the reason why is when you're ordering food out, you just, there are only so many variables that you can control, right? Like, you could go to some local restaurant and be like, I'm going to get the steak and the broccoli. So from a macronutrient perspective, seems healthy enough. You have no idea what type of seasonings or additives they're adding to the food.

You have basically no control over what seed oil or vegetable oil they're cooking it in. And it's really difficult to be healthy. But when you take autonomy over the foods that you're putting into your system and you're saying, Look, I'm going to just cook all my meals. You can control every single input, which is going to help you get so much healthier, faster.

Yeah. It's really this game of like, you know, taking ownership of your health and being the CEO of your own health. We talk about that concept a lot, but it's really. It's as simple as being the person who's gonna go out and have the conversations with the person who's raising your food and shortening that gap between the Person who raises your food and how it gets to your table.

So just like closing the distance, you know Making it so that it's only one other person that you have to interact with It's not going from the farm to some factory to some Uh, grocery store to, you know, like there's so many steps and we've grown so distant between how we get our food and how it actually ends up on our table that I think that.

The knowledge gap that ends up being filled into that space becomes massive, like the more distance that we create between our food, we just kind of, um, grow less and less appreciative and less and less, um, concerned. And I think that's kind of the big issue is like we've created this distance between food that really was never there.

They're intended to be there and a lot of people talk about like the industrialization of food. It's just separating us from the process of finding food for ourselves and the more and more distance that's created there. I think that's how these negative health outcomes happen. Like we, we don't understand what food is anymore in a lot of ways.

Yes. We just think that since it's at a grocery store, it's food that's wrong. Yeah. Dude, you just said so many good things. It's like, I was just thinking about this, how health. Your health is truly a reflection of the autonomy that you take over that process and you can be this bystander to that process and order your food on DoorDash where they're like you said, there's 25 different touch points from the slaughterhouse in Brazil to the time it hits your plate from DoorDash.

or you can actually be the owner of your own health and the architect and, you know, seek out a great farmer or potentially go hunting or prioritize your food super well at the grocery store and take the time to prepare those meals. That's what health really is. We, we wrote about this a couple of weeks ago.

We called the piece the energy flywheel and the theory was that the more energy you put in, the more energy you get out of the process. It's like it's, it seems very counterintuitive, but it's the same feeling of. Going for a morning run in the morning and then you feel like you have more energy, even though you were burning calories and depleting yourself, you get the rush.

And the same thing is with your food is like, if you go out and spend more money, spend more energy, spend more time, you're going to benefit from all these incredible things that you're putting into your body as a source of your effort. So the effort that you put in with your food results in the effort that you get in your body.

Yeah. It's biblical. It's like the, you give, the more you give, the more you get back in theory, right? Yeah. Or, um, yeah, and I think that that's true with how you approach getting your food. Like, you know, the more energy and time that you put into it, the more benefits you get in return. Yes, and I love for this episode, you put together these awesome, like, almost four layers of your journey, which is actually, like, The four layers that we've gone on outside of the hunting.

We still need to check that one off. I mean, you have gone on hunt. I haven't, so it doesn't count. I did not pull the trigger. So you have, you have level one, which is grocery store, which is the most relatable. It's the best entry point for people looking to get their health in order. Um, phase two is like finding a D to C, like a meat shipping company.

Yeah. Um, or. Or phase, and then phase three is like farmer's market, finding a local rancher. Farm, farmer's market, yeah. Um, and then phase, phase four is then actually hunting and procuring your own food directly from nature. Which is like a PhD in food sourcing that we're still in the process of getting.

Yeah. Um, one of the things too that I wanted to say before we get into this, it's so fascinating to me how advanced we are technologically, where it, it forces our, in some ways we are not consciously making decisions. Yeah. Um. And we have this capacity right now to leverage technology in the most massive way possible where you could, in theory, order directly from a regenerative farm, like, up the street or like nearby.

Order online and they deliver it to your door and like that technological advancement. I think we'll continue to grow Yeah, but for a lot of people they don't even realize that these resources resources are out there and I just think Becoming more aware and more conscious of the decisions that we're making in terms of how we're going about getting our food is huge And if you are leveraging this technology that we have available to us You can become a completely different version of yourself just based on Like the food that we're able to have access to, like, you no longer have to know how to shoot a gun or like shoot a spear in order to get really high quality food.

And, um, you know, I think that that is obviously a huge step in the right direction. Um, and now if more people are kind of like take those steps to leveraging the technology that we have, like you can have access to the most nutrient dense foods. You know, possible. A hundred percent. I couldn't agree more.

So when we're talking about phase one, which is actually the supermarket, what are the big things that you think people should know about sourcing food from the supermarket? Because that's how you and I both started when we decided to get our health in line and start going carnivore and animal based and all that good stuff.

Yeah. I would say if you're. The good thing about like I think the grocery store is an amazing step for a lot of people because a lot of people right now Are just like ordering out a lot They're uber eating or they're just like getting fast food to go and a lot of times That food isn't all that healthy for you so like going to the grocery store is basically you making the decision to be like I'm gonna get food so that I cook these meals and I think you know, you're winning if you're making that step So like congrats, I think that's huge for me when I first started going to the grocery store and and starting to commit to cooking More of my meals.

I was really I was going down the keto rabbit hole at the time So I was really focused on just finding really high quality protein sources, but my framework now would be just like the shorter the shelf life The better it is for you. So go find the foods that are fresh and that are gonna expire at some point and just focus on eating those.

And a lot of times we, you know, we talk about this, it's the outer aisle of the grocery store. It's like the cliche saying shop on the outer aisles of the grocery store. I think you could probably like just fully eliminate the things that are on the inner aisle of the grocery store by and large, and just focus on the fruits, the meat section.

And I mean, I'll tell you that, like, if you're, if you're. Um, looking for, you know, more things, more direction in the grocery store, like I would really just like encourage people to go in with like a handful of recipes that you're excited about cooking that week that are like animal based and, you know, just go, go with a list of like 10 ingredients and try to figure out a few different recipes to cook with those.

So yeah. Yeah. I would, I would approach it from the outer aisles and just try to eliminate those aisles. You, this is a, this is like a fundamentally super important part of what you're talking about with just your, your nutrition journey in general. And I remember the first time I heard about a carnivore diet and I was getting really intentional about going to the grocery store and buying my own, my own food.

I remember going to the Whole Foods in the Upper East Side of New York and just like. Walking around the entire store and walking the outer aisles, walking the inner aisles and just like reading labels and just being shocked at how long the shelf life was for a lot of these products and how many ingredients there were, industrial additives and refined sugars and seed oils and I just remember thinking, I'm like, The grocery store is more of a labyrinth than it is a grocery store where it's like if you don't know how to navigate The labyrinth and you end up in the inner aisles, you're it's just 30, 000 different items of just industrial sludge That's gonna destroy your health But then if you know how to navigate the labyrinth properly and stick to the outer aisles where the real foods are It's like dude, it's the most empowering incredible feeling and to your point It's like what you should be looking for is if it If the food can't die or it doesn't have an expiration of two weeks, it's probably not real food.

That's a, yeah. It's like, don't put it in your body, you know, it's objectively not food. Like it might serve as like a bridge, but yeah, it's, it's not real sustenance. Yeah. One ingredient or less. And like you said, outer aisle, real food. So there's going to be a butcher's counter where you can load up on red meat, chicken, pork, there's going to be fish.

There's going to, you know, oyster, salmon. Yogurt, butter, um, I'm trying to think what else in the outer isle, fruits, vegetables, like you said, and then really if you're going to go to the inner isle where all the industrial crap lies, you just need to be strategic. So water's in the inner isle, spices are in the inner isle, coffee is in the inner isle if you drink coffee, um, pickled vegetables can be in the inner isle, and then like, bone broth, and then um, Um, you know, seed oil free condiments.

I think those six things are why you're going into the inner aisle. And then if you're not, if you don't need those six things, you are living in the outer aisle. Yeah. Um, yeah. The only thing I could possibly think to add, and this is just on the point about like the expiration date, but it's, or the, the fact that like a lot of these processed foods just have like an insane, um, shelf life.

It's like if in nature, like in nature, if it's not on the vine, it's, it's dying. Like, within 24 hours, it's probably not gonna be able to be consumed. So just like, have that in your mind when you're walking to the grocery store. Like, you, you want foods that are fresh. That are gonna have, uh, life to them that were alive at some point.

Like, that really is a great frame. You know, I think the, the grocery store can take you, like, 80 or 90 percent of the way there. Like, as we talk through these other phases, like, there definitely are levels to this, but when I went carnivore in 2019, I've talked about this extensively. I could only afford the budget cuts of meat at the outer aisle of the grocery store.

And guess what? That cured my symptoms. It got me off all the drugs and meds eating cheap grocery store meat because the cheap meat was still way better than any of the crap and the alcohol that I was drinking prior to myself getting sick. And I live and die by that. So, I think the grocery store is really phase one.

And, and there's nuance too, right? It's like some of the downsides of the grocery store are It's really tough to verify whether meat is grass fed versus grass finished versus grain finished. It's tough to tell if, um, chicken is actually pasture raised and non incornon corn and soy fed. You know, it can be difficult to truly verify whether fish is wild caught or not.

Um, it's tough to tell if eggs are actually pasture raised too. So, the issue is like with the grocery store, you are still disconnected. There's ayou're a few steps removed from your rancher. So it's very tough to verify the sourcing of your meat. So unless there, there are some Whole Foods and brands that will carry like force of nature, right?

So, you know, force of nature is grass finished. Um, there were a few grocery stores in California that carry pasture bird, which is actually pasture raised corn and soy free chicken. But unless you know of those brands, it's very tough to verify the sourcing and ask questions about the meat themselves. So like the macronutrients are very good, but in terms of like regenerative practices, maximizing your micronutrients from the meat, it's very difficult to verify unless it's like a super high end grocery store that's probably super local and independent, not a chain.

Totally. I appreciate the call out on the practical nature of just the grocery store. And we were actually having a really good conversation in the telegram group. with, uh, this, uh, Peter and Brent in the Telegram group, talking about just being more practical and trying to be, like, trying to. Have conversations that are relatable to people.

Yeah, and the grocery store like you can win the game in the grocery store You don't need to do the next level stuff Necessarily if you're really focused on your health And and I think you can give yourself grace and time to like evolve into certain levels of this But the grocery store is where you can make serious change and if you're trying to do these things in an affordable way I think a lot of times you're gonna be paying less if you end up going to the grocery store if you're avoiding the inner aisles.

Definitely. So definitely this could be controversial, but I think if there's someone that's listening to this, that's just looking to get consistent on their health journey. Do not worry about organic. Do not worry about labels. Like literally I would just. Make your list of approved foods that you enjoy eating for the week when we can, we'll get into that, whether it's, you know, meat, fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables, dairy, et cetera, and just prioritize your shopping, your, your shopping cart being filled with those items and just do that for like a month and then come back to me, like, don't worry about the sourcing as much as just the right foods and then the sourcing can come in terms of like phase two, phase three, phase four.

Yeah, I like that. I think it's, I think it needs to be said. Like it's the good, better, best model that, that, uh, and, and Weldon talk about where it's like, just start off with getting the right habits formed around like the what's like, what should I be consuming? Yes. And just a quick practical tip on grocery shopping in general.

Um, if I'm going to the grocery store, if I'm not sourcing stuff from like a local farmer or shipping beef online, whatever, um, I like to do two trips a week. I like to go on, I like to chunk it up into two trips, a Sunday and a Wednesday trip. I think we might've talked about this in the first episode. And what I've calculated is that I'm around, I'm around 200 pounds.

So I'm trying to eat a gram of protein per pound of body weight. So I'm eating about 200 grams of protein per day, which typically comes out to. Two to three pounds of meat. So what I'll do is like I'm if I'm shopping for Sunday through Tuesday night I've calculated how many pounds of meat I'm eating.

So maybe Monday It's like I'll do a pound of ground beef a pound of chicken thighs and then maybe a ribeye if I'm gonna eat three pounds and then I map out how much protein I need for Tuesday and then for Wednesday as well and then the bulk of My cart or the protein dominant meals And then I throw in things like berries.

I'll buy some, some grass fed butter, some yogurt, if I'm going to have some yogurt. And then I have my fix ins, but my grocery list is based off of the animal protein. Cause those are, that's primarily where I'm deriving my macro nutrients and my protein from there. Um, and then I like just chunking it down into two trips.

Cause I think it's a nice way to break up the week and also kind of ensure that your meat is, the meat is as fresh as possible going throughout the week. Yeah. I like that. And I think an alternative, a caveat to that could be too, if you're someone who only can make one trip to the grocery store, think about some dishes that You know, you can batch cook like a stew or chili or some sort of roast because you could cook that up.

You could probably get, you know, something somewhere between like six to eight pounds of meat cooked up for the week and just have that be a consistent meal that you're, you're having throughout the week. So definitely a little tip, definitely a little, uh, hairy tip there. All right. Henry tip, Harry tip, um, online grocery store slash delivery.

What, um, what's your experience been with this sort of service? Hmm, it's, yeah, it's a good question. I, um, I started off using ButcherBox in 2021. Okay, dang. No, 2020. I used to start using them in 2020 when COVID hit. And the stores in New Jersey were just sold out of, sold out of meat. And, um, I got a subscription to ButcherBox.

And I liked it. I liked the convenience of it. I loved loading my freezer up with steaks. Um, I will say, candidly, that I thought that the discrepancy in quality was very different from one box to the next. Which makes me think that they're getting their stuff from a bunch of different farms. I don't know if that's true or not.

Yeah. I would just find that some, some boxes, it was delicious. And the other box, I was like, this meat is absolutely terrible. Rancid. That's just, just fully transparent. Yeah. Um, I personally, I love perennial pastures. Yes. Um, in San Diego, they are a local farm in San Diego. incredible guy, first generation rancher.

They have a great DTC shipping business as well. So you can get ground beef, ancestral blends, steaks, tallow, et cetera. They are local. So sometimes they can be sold out, but a lot of the, and they also, they also ship beef in bulk, which is great too. Um, so I love their mission. Yeah. It's an incredible mission, amazing people, awesome farm, we've been out there multiple times.

And they're one of the few ranches that is actually logistically able to ship beef in bulk, so if you want to do a smaller beef box, you can do that, but also if you want like, you know, an eighth, quarter, half whole beef, they also ship that right to your front door with a chest freezer, which is pretty sweet.

Kev's also sending chest freezers across the country. Oh, he's a, he's a maniac. A madman. Yeah, so you can get a chest freezer. Um, White Oak Pastures also has a great service. You know, Will Harris, one of our idols. They have pretty much every cut on there too. Um, Good Ranchers is kind of like a regenerative version of Butcher's Box where they're a meat company, they're not a rancher, but what they do is they work with local ranchers, source all the meat, and then sell it off their website.

Um, so they're great. I'm trying to think if I've any force of nature, force of nature was one that I used. Um, I also used, so, um, force of nature, they, they kind of have an aggregator model where they're sourcing from different farms. Also a meat company. Yeah. Yeah. Um, they're phenomenal. Regeneratively raised, uh, grass fed grass finished beef.

Um, they also have bison, venison, some sausages, really high quality stuff. They're actually also in a lot of whole foods now, I think so. Um, love them and then one for me that I used locally in the Northeast was Walden Local. Yes. They were phenomenal. I don't even know if they're still around anymore, but Walden Local was phenomenal.

Um, trying to think also a marketplace that's out there that can be for like pantry fillers, healthy pantry fillers, just thrive market. Mm. I like that. Like for basic stuff like honey, bone broth, um, some salts and spices, beef sticks too. Yeah. Beef sticks. Yeah. So just things that you're gonna. Potentially get And if you just want to like, have that on subscription, I would just, I would check out Thrive.

Dude, the, the other thing too that you're talking about is like, preparation is the name of the game. Oh yeah. So if you can get, it kind of sounds maybe overly methodical, but that's why if you just make a food journal of the stuff you go through throughout the week. Mm hmm. Meals. snacks, how you felt, your energy levels, then you can kind of work backwards and be like, all right, these are the snacks that I like to go through.

I'm going to order them off thrive. I'm going to have them scheduled out for this day. And then you always just stay loaded up. That was one of the things we talked about in episode one is when you don't prepare, that's when you're so susceptible to getting off the path. And when you have your freezer and your fridge and your office filled with these incredible snacks that are actually nutrient dense and good for you.

While also being delicious. That's really how you stay on the path. Yeah. Yeah. I, I feel I have this like, um, interesting take on the preparedness part where I, I wanna give people the feeling of like empowering them to be prepared, but also like not having that guilty pressure where like Yeah, if you're, if you mess up Yeah.

Then you're like immediately off the path. Yeah. Off the path, you know? Yes. Like it's. Like, it should be flo you should get to the point where, at first, there's probably a lot of resistance to the change because you're doing the hard things that you've never done, you're trying to redesign how your habits are formed currently, but then, at a certain point, it should just be fu like, more fun and flowy than it is, like, rigid and, I need to do these things in order to have some success when it comes to being healthy.

It's like, well, maybe just, like, prioritize at the beginning just the things you like to eat that are healthy, and start there. Like, and, you know. Um. Give yourself a little bit of, uh, bandwidth to grow into being healthier. No, it's a good point to not be overly robotic and overly methodical. And I also think there's this element of you need to know yourself and your emotional relationship with food, which is what you talked extensively about in episode one.

And I think partially in the beginning when you're building out this metabolic machinery and you don't know what to do. You need to be strict and dialed in which is why like having this stuff ordered and delivered to your door is great And then also like they're dude I think over time a lot of people trend more towards the 80 20 principle of 80 percent meals being good 20 percent being kind of off the path and they're great, but I know my emotional relationship with food is like When I open up the floodgates, it's typically not one meal.

It leads into a few days of bad eating. So for me, when I'm dialed in, it's like, I kind of just draw that line in the sand. But again, it comes down to what is your own relationship with some of this stuff? What kind of person are you? What type of an emotional eater are you? Discipline is freedom at the end of the day too.

a certain level of discipline. Yes. Um, so love thrive market perennial pastures, white oak pastures, um, Walden, local meats, force of nature. There's so many good options online. Now there's, there's this generation, this new wave of ranchers that went from serving the local community to now being able to logistically ship beef online.

So shipping beef is great. If you know, you don't want the. Energy output of going out to find a local farm or hey, you're like, look, I don't really like ground beef. I don't need to buy a cow in full, but I like steaks and I can just have a steak box delivered. So like you can have some of these subscriptions set up where you know you go through a box of meat a week.

Maybe it's like six ribeyes, four strips, five pounds of ground beef for a week. You can just have that auto delivered to your door at your cadence. It's like very customizable and clean. Yeah. So I think that's the benefit of D2C is just convenience and customization to Like the type of meat consumption that you have.

And you know, I think that these business models are very hard to operate. So I feel very good spending my money with supporting these guys who are trying to make this, uh, they're trying to replace the convenience factor of grocery store shopping with, you know, cutting out the middleman and provide being able to provide the sustenance directly to your door.

Definitely. So I just, I love supporting these guys. Two other things I want to say strong sisters who are on our podcast, they have a company called nourish. Uh, and it's a co op so you can order eggs and other great locally sourced fresh food directly from them. So I would check that out too, they're awesome.

I just, uh, believe in their mission as well. And then the other resources, so eatwild. com is one that we talk about all the time. If you're not resonating with any of the brands that we're throwing out there now, just go to eatwild. com and you'll be able to find Some D to C farm or some farm that you might be able to deliver from, um, and this is a good transition into the next section, which is finding a farm and farmer's market.

It's level three. Yeah, this is level three. We're, we're taking the stairs up to the, this is what, not PhD is grad school. Yeah. It's, you know what it is. It's almost like farmer's market is level 2. 5 and then local farm is level three. Definitely. Yeah. Cause the farmer's market, there's. People the one thing that people need to be aware of about a farmer's markets is like there's a lot of people there who have insanely good intentions and then you can like be at a farmer's market and Buy beef from the grocery store and resell it.

Yeah, unfortunately That's what a lot of people don't realize is like there can there can even though you're getting that direct touch point There could still be some of that greenwashing that's going on, but at least you have the opportunity to verify Definitely, and I think if you're looking somebody eyes and getting to talk and ask questions to the farmer directly And you know you see and are able to hear him tell him or her tell the story around their farm Yeah, that's a good good layer of Um, you know, sussing out and getting, getting trust and, uh, getting the credentials of the person raising your food.

Like speaking to them in person is a very great way to suss out whether or not it's high quality food or not. Yeah. I think one of the biggest things. You and I have believed in over this, you know, decade long health journey is just being able to build a relationship with your local rancher is one of the best investments you could possibly make in terms of the way you spend your money, your health, the food product you're getting, the system you're choosing to support.

And the reason why farmers market is great is if you don't really know where to find a local rancher. Literally, I promise you if you just take your zip code and just say, go on Google and say local farmer's market near me with the zip code, I guarantee you could find a farmer's market 10 to 15 minutes away no matter where you are in the country.

And the farmer's market is just aggregating all these local ranchers and farmers. So when I moved to San Diego two years, two years ago, I went to the farmer's market downtown and that's actually how I found perennial pastures because they were showing up at the farmer's market every Sunday. I got to meet, um, I first met one of Kev's employees, then I met Kev and I could just ask him all the questions that I wanted around like, you know, do you vaccinate?

Is your cattle grass finished? What type of cows do you use? Um, do you ever supplement with grain? Are they pasture raised? And then you just get to verify and try the meat and build that relationship. And that's the benefit of a farmer's market is you're just putting all those people in the area, um, in one central location and then you can vet and build your relationships and choose who you want to source your food from.

Yeah. I love that. Also, I just wanted to mention this. We have a discount code for Perennial Pastors, which people can use, you know. One of the benefits of having the show and one of the things that we love is the fact that we're able to provide resources to the listeners. Yeah. And they can get Some level of discount off of it.

So definitely if you guys resonate with what they're doing at perennial, go check them out. I think it's, it's code meat mafia, meat mafia. Yeah. So check for a nice percentage off the order. Yeah. And it's just a core relationship. Cause like we were saying, you know, we've ordered from them when I was in San Diego and I've worked with them for the last like two to three years.

And, uh, it's just really special what they're doing, but yeah, literally, literally met them at the farmer's market. Um, and to your point. You know, maybe you go to the farmer's market, you find a great ranch, you just build that relationship, go direct to them, but if you're still like, where do I find a local rancher, eatwild.

com is an amazing website because there's thousands and thousands of ranches on there where you can search for the exact product that you want. Maybe it's meat, maybe it's pasturates, eggs, maybe it's raw milk, etc. Pop your zip code in, pop your state in, it'll show you a bunch of ranches. Um. Also, the Beef Initiative, too, which is an organization that we love, that we've been connected with for a long time.

They're super passionate about connecting you with your local rancher as well, so they have about 200 plus verified ranchers by state, um, that are doing things the right way. So if you go to the beef initiative as well, you can search for local ranchers in your area too. And they're doing amazing work. I love it.

Um, just in terms of connecting with a farm or going to the farmers market, what do you think some like core questions people should be asking? They're, they're a farmer. You just ran through a few, but I think like having like the top two to, two to three things to, to ask your farmer just as you get to know them a little bit better.

Yeah, I think you're just kind of looking for transparency and like your ability to trust them. So I'm not going to tell you if you should prioritize like, grass finished meat or grain finished meat, but I think you should be able to just ask the rancher the question, like, do you guys supplement with grains?

Do you finish them on grains? Do you finish them on grass? And be able to trust that you're giving you an honest answer. Yeah. Like I care way more about you connecting with a local rancher, even if it's grain finished versus like. Um, just blanket grass fed meat that might be greenwashed from somewhere else, you know?

Um, so I think, you know, getting an honest answer, I think maybe asking them if they would be open to you coming out to the farm, I think that's always a great indication if the farmer or the rancher is proactive about like, hey, you know, we do monthly events out here. Hey, you can come do a farm tour or whatever.

I think that's a great aspect of the transparency. Um, I think just asking them about like the actual conditions of their animals and how much time are they spending out in pasture. You know, do they implement regenerative practices? I think those are all just like good things to know. Yeah. Um, what else, what else am I missing?

Yeah. I, I really liked the way that you put that. I don't know if I have much to add. Um, like just getting the transparency is the most important part, like understanding, and if you get the sense that someone's trying to like hide or withhold information from you, that's probably not someone you want to be having a relationship with.

So. Yeah, for, yeah, for me, it's much more about just getting the right information that, you know, what, what they're doing is what they say they're doing. And, um, one of the, I think one of the ways to do that is asking if you can go on a farm tour, come check out the farm. Like, that's a very easy, that's a very common question that we've, we've heard from several people.

A lot of ranchers just say, hey, ask, just ask them if you can go onto their farm and see what their operation looks like. Because anyone who has anything to hide is going to say, no, you can't come to the farm. Definitely, definitely. And when it's the right rancher, I mean, we've, these ranchers are literally the coolest, best people.

They're so passionate about feeding their local community. Yeah. And I think that's why we love talking about this because we went through this mindset shift of just. You know, hey, we're penny pinching, you know, I need to go buy the budget, the cheap budget meat in the outer aisle of the grocery store, which is like a great phase one, and then phase two is, no, I want to take my hard earned money and give it to this amazing person that's working so frickin hard to grow meat and raise real food the right way in a counter cultural way to this industrial Franken industry that the entire world.

U. S. has been swept up by. It's like these people are so counter cultural. They're so passionate about making their local community healthy. And it's like this sacred transaction where, like the Beef Initiative talks about, you know, you shake their hand, you have a personal relationship with them, you know.

They know the exact cuts of meat that you want, they're giving you a discount, they're hooking it up, you're sending your friends and family over there, it's like this amazing, um, it's just this amazing, sacred relationship that we shouldn't take for granted, and that's how it used to be. It used to be customer, processor, rancher.

And now it's like 35 different touch points from industrial slaughterhouse until the meat ever hits your plate and that's not natural. Yeah Yeah, it made me think you're making me think of our conversation the other day with Kareem that we oh my gosh You know this episode will be released before the episode with Kareem but for anyone who doesn't know Kareem is the founder of KG barbecue, which is this Insane barbeque place here in Austin, Texas.

Uh, Egyptian, yeah, true art. So it's Egyptian fusion with, or, Egyptian barbeque infused with, sorry I'm saying this backwards. No, no. Texas barbeque infused with Egyptian flavor. And, dude. So good. It's so good, but his story is insane, and he was just talking about this artful, like, the art behind food preparation and how much energy and focus and Determination and just like all these skills that he'd acquired over the course of his life were going into this one endeavor Which create this amazing fusion of food and it took a lot of failure and a lot of iterations to get to that point but then he has this art at the end of the day and I think that The same can be said around raising high quality food.

Yeah. Like these regenerative farmers that we've met. When I think about people, like, that we've gone out to talk to, it's like, Will Harris, Jason Rick, um, these regenerative Kevin, yeah. Kevin Munoz. It's like, you see how they're approaching food production. And the interconnection of these different worlds where they have, uh, chickens playing a specific role, turkeys playing a specific role, pigs playing a specific role, cows playing a specific role on the farm, like they're orchestrating this amazing natural process and there's so much art infused into it.

And that's, you know, obviously a lot of science infused into it, but it's artistic the way that they're piecing these things together. And then you contrast that with the industrial system, there's such a contrast between the godlessness in the industrial system where you're pulling out all of the interconnectedness, and it's just very A to B, very mechanistic in the way that the relationships are formed in the food system.

And then you have this interwoven, interconnected system that's a regenerative system, and it's art. It's beautiful. And I think that when you look at things in that way, you can almost view, like, the health outcomes that come from those two systems. It's like, that farmer's putting so much time, attention, love into what he's doing.

So if you're eating that quality food, that type of food, you're going to be getting the benefits of all of that effort and all that attention. Definitely. And, um, I think one of the debates was always like, okay, well, how much more nutrient dense is grass finished meat versus grain finished meat? And this, this topic is still highly contentious.

I would just, the cool part about this is that there are people like Stefan Van Vliet out of Utah state that are actually doing studies on regenerative meat and they're quantifying. The micronutrients of grass finished meat versus grain finished meat. And I'm not here to tell you what you should or shouldn't prioritize, because I think if where you're at is going to the grocery store and buying the grain fed ribeyes, and you're going to prioritize that over the industrial stuff, like Keep going, keep crushing it.

You're going to get into amazing shape. That's what I did when I started off. It worked super well for me and where I've evolved to is if I have the opportunity to be able to connect with a rancher and buy a grass finish regenerative product, I personally feel like I process and digest that food better.

And my energy just feels elevated, whether that's a placebo or not, that's just how I feel. And that's what I'm going to choose to prioritize. And there's also this intangible thing that you hinted at of just supporting the right system. Like, I don't want my money to go to some massive industrial farm that's getting their stuff from Brazil.

They're slapping a U. S. label on it. They're breaking the back of the American farmer. I'd rather give my dollar to the American farmer as well. And you're willing to pay a premium, and you will pay a premium for that, but you will be supporting the right system, and you will be inheriting more micronutrients from the meat as well.

So you're actually getting more for what your dollar is paying. Yeah, and I think, too, it's like getting the right gym membership, too. Like, if you're paying a dollar to go to the gym, odds are you don't value that gym membership all that much. So, when you're talking about your health, I mean I'll speak for myself.

I value my health higher than like anything outside of like, you know, my family and, and, uh, personal relationships, but it's like, you know, the things that you value, you should, you should prescribe like the appropriate, um, you know, attention and value to it. Yes. Um, you know, be willing to, to pay that price.

And I know obviously it's easier said than done and, you know, we all have our own constraints around money that exist, but there's nothing better than investing in something that's going to give you more and more energy and continue to have a compounding positive effect on your life. Definitely. And once you've experienced these foods, it just comes down to like, This is now just what you do.

You're like, look, if my food is 25 percent of my total budget or 30%, like, I am going to pay this because I feel So damn good totally for me paying 30 percent of my budget on high quality food is a lot cheaper than paying 400, 000 worth of Remicade every single year like I was on for six plus years So don't convince me that it's more expensive because I know it's not And I've just accepted the fact that like I my entire family my future family my unborn You know my unborn kids my future wife like we will be eating like this forever And if I have issues From a budgetary perspective, I better make some more money to be able to afford my kids to do that.

And I, and I think people should have more of that mindset. Yeah, and I, uh, yeah, that was a mic drop. So I don't even know if I can, I don't even, I don't even know if I can say anything after that. It's the, it's the espresso. Yeah, are you still at a 5 or have you cranked up to like a 6 or 7 at this point? I might be at an 8.

5 right now. Well, I think you, you just get We both just get so excited about this stuff because it's changed our lives and a lot of our friends and family members and like, it sounds like such a simple playbook, but just eating God given foods and cooking your meals and sourcing them well, like that is literally 90 percent of the playbook to get into amazing health.

Definitely. Yeah. Like, the simple stuff isn't sexy, but it's the stuff that's gonna pay you dividends over and over again. Focus on the basics. Yeah, what's funny is the simple stuff isn't sexy. Yet this simple stuff makes you sexy. Yeah. Long term. I like that. It's so Can we brand that something? No, it's down.

What other, um, just like food source Are there any other like food sourcing hacks or frameworks or like methodologies that have helped you a lot? Um,

I feel like you, you go all, you kind of touched on this in episode one, I feel like you find these like unique dishes that are simple, but really delicious. So like I remember in Boston when you were having a really successful like paleo kick and you were losing a bunch of weight, you like love taco salads and you would just like perfect the taco salad.

Yeah. There's something to that. Like. Yeah. I, I found four dishes that I was obsessed with making. Yeah. One of them was, I did like this, it was basically like an egg casserole type of thing. But I was trying to solve, the thing I was trying to solve for is very healthy, and something that I could have multiple times that week, because I wanted to cook it once and then have a lot to just feed myself throughout the week.

So I would make, get like a casserole dish, whip up like a full dozen eggs, throw some bacon in there, throw some cheese in there, and like, that's As easy and simple of a meal as you can, you throw it in the oven for like 20 minutes, and you have this six, uh, Like I would cut it up into six squares, and I would probably eat like two at a time.

Yes. And you're good, that's three meals right there. Yeah. Then I would do like chili. Or some sort of roast. And then I would do this big ass salad. Shout out Mark Sisson. Um, and that would be like two meals. So I would just find these ways where I would like, really enjoy eating the meals. And it would take me like 30 minutes to make them.

But I could have 3 to 6 meals out of each thing. So I was just trying to answer the right questions. Make it taste good. Make it affordable. Make it so that I could spend as little time as possible on making the dish. And that Gave me a flywheel effect because I really look forward to cooking the food. I look forward to eating the food I look forward to going to the grocery store and getting the food because I was like, all right I'm gonna try this new cut of meat or you know, see if I can make this recipe a little bit better Yes, it's a little bit of like gamification.

It is gamification and it's to your point It's like you basically found dishes and foods that you were excited to eat Yeah every single day and I think that Everyone has like three to five dishes where you could almost you could eat it like once a day because it's so good Yeah, and you should be making notes of what those are and finding different variations of those like obviously a lot of people feel like This we can eat a ribeye every single day.

Yeah, but there's a lot of different ways that you can make a ribeye, right? It's like you could put blue cheese on it. You could put balsamic drizzle on it, too You can make it like Korean style with spices There's all these different variations that are simple that can spice up a dish and make it taste like something very unique that gives you that like palette variety Day after day.

Yeah, the one thing I'll add to that just to to hit at home is try to reduce the friction as much as possible at the beginning so that you can you need to cross the chasm of like I'm not someone who cooks their meals to like I cook my meals regularly. I cook my meals regularly. So you just need to reduce the friction as much as possible and have that be the spark to like create some velocity and be the type of person who's cooking, you know, Four or five times a week because you love doing it and because the process is actually enjoyable to you And then you start getting healthier and you feel better and it's just a compounding effect But at the beginning I think it's really important to one get started and then to reduce the friction as much as possible so that You actually can have some of that momentum build because yes, it's all about building that momentum.

It's all about momentum and Once we source those foods. I know there's certain people that live and swear by like a big meal prep block where like Sunday they meal prep for the week or maybe they do a Sunday meal prep block a Wednesday meal prep block. That's great. I've always just kept it simple where I either have an air fryer in the In the office, and if I can't prep my lunch, I will literally bring a steak or chicken into the office and just make something simple that's protein dense, I can have it ready in the air fryer in 10 minutes, or whatever I'm making for dinner, I make two of it, and then I put it into a glass Tupperware container, and then I bring it for lunch.

The air fryer. We might need to do a full episode on the air fryer, because you recently christened me in the, the amazingness of the air fryer. It's insane. Dude, you have a gourmet steak ready to go in 10 minutes. Like this goes against basically everything we just said about the art and effort and all.

Yes. Everything about, you know, the process having to be a little bit more arduous and you paying attention and putting energy and effort into this process. The air fryer is like insane. It is a life changing piece of. machinery. Yeah, whoever invented the air fryer is a, yeah, complete wizard. Yeah. He's a wizard.

He's a genius. He's a genius. He or she, he or she, you know, I'm not going to rule it out. Um, the other thing too, with an air fryer is you can actually throw a frozen steak in there and have it fully cooked in like 15 minutes. If you, if you YouTube frozen steak, air fryer recipe, you can literally put a frozen block of meat in there And it will have it ready to go in like 15 or so minutes.

Michaela Peterson and Chris Williamson do that. And um, another thing. Shout out to my girlfriend Dana. She put us onto this. A nod. A nod, noose. The meat defrosting tray is a life changing tool. Remember the, imagine the first, remember the first time you had that meat defrosting tray? Yeah, it's like, it's magic.

You throw the, you throw a frozen block of meat on this, like, seemingly useless piece of metal. Yeah, it's a piece of metal. It's just a piece of metal. It looks like nothing special. It just conducts the heat out of it. Yeah, and it will literally take a frozen Piece of meat and have it ready to go in like 20 minutes.

Yeah, it is a game changer. Yeah I was like in disbelief the first time we used that. Yeah, literally go on Amazon meat defrosting tray It's gonna look like a black square and it will change your entire life. Yeah, should we talk about hunting here for a minute? I know I told you we're gonna get out of here at 1115.

It's 1123. So yeah, let's quickly talk about hunting hunting aspirational for both of us We have no qualifications to be talking about hunting, but this is like, yeah, this is the cream of the crop, the pinnacle. Um, my younger brother is a hunter and just the concept of him, like killing a deer and being able to like give out.

cuts of meat to us, and he cooked me up a bunch of, like, ground venison after he had a kill. It's just, like, such an incredible process, and, um, I think that's the next step for us, obviously, but just growing in the appreciation of where our food comes from and being able to go through the process of actually taking the animal's life that you're going to end up eating.

I couldn't imagine a more sacred experience. It's, it's sacred, and um, I would say that the biggest hunters we know are also the biggest conservationists we know, and also just have the most respect for the entire process, because they're, they're not outsourcing death to everyone. They're tracking the animal, they're finding the animal, they're killing the animal, they're butchering the animal.

Then they're filling their freezer with that animal and they're either eating it themselves or they're giving it to their family, friends, loved ones, like you said. I'm trying to think. Some of the hunting episodes we've done is, uh, sacred Hunting. Sacred Hunting, yep. With Monsul. Yep. Incredible episode.

Yeah. Um, rock. Go check out sacred hunting.com too. Yes. Sacred hunting.com. If you want. If you're a beginner, I wanna get involved. Like Monsul is the man. Yes. Monsul Denton is the man. He was an amazing guest. He told the story of him. Uh, I think, did he track and kill a grizzly bear? Yes. Which is insane that he killed a grizzly bear.

Yeah. He's a psychopath. Yeah, every hunting episode that we've had I feel like I've just been in complete disbelief about the stories that they're telling. It's insane. I'm like, tracked down a frickin bear and killed it. Yeah, so Monsel and then Robbie Kroger from Blood Origins One of our best episodes ever.

That guy He will change everything you know, even about like big game and trophy hunting. He has like just an incredible contrarian perspective on why those things are actually good and why we should be doing them and how a lot of the. I think even trophy hunting, like, supports a lot of these, um, third world countries and their economy and things like that.

It was super interesting. His ability to tell stories was like, it was unlike anything I've ever heard. It was amazing. And he's got that silky, silky accent too. He's a stud. Yeah, beast. Um, and then Matt Schweitzer, uh, had a revenue at HopDotty. Incredible hunter. He has, he has amazing stories too. Yeah. Any, I'm trying to think of any other hunters.

We're working, we're working to get Cammie Haynes on the podcast. Our last episode.

Taylor, Matt's wife. We need to, we need to get her back on the podcast. Otherwise we're soy boys. Taylor, if you're listening to this, I know you're not. Um, yeah, we, we recorded an amazing episode with Matt's wife, Taylor, who is in all amount, all around American badass Patriot Hunter, uh, works at staccato pistol company.

Um, former FBI agent, the most passionate American you'll ever meet. She's just an incredible human. Ripped a great episode with her, and we just completely lost the footage, so we will have Taylor back on the podcast. We need to make that happen. She was, she is so cool. Yes, and she could kick both of our asses too, easily.

Literally, literally. Um, alright, so, how to source food. Yeah. We've got four phases, right? Grocery store, we've got D2C, meat company, online market, like Thrive Market, find your local farmer's market, eatwild. com, find a local rancher. And then hunting. Yeah. Yeah, and our goal with this episode is for you to never order Uber Eats again.

Yeah. Do not, you are, you are sexier than Uber Eats. You're better than that. You're better than Uber Eats. Just say that to yourself. So the next time you're thinking about getting Chipotle delivered to your front door, you're going to hear our voices in your head. Don't do it. Don't do it. You're better than that.

Um, but yeah, I mean, this is, this has been one of our biggest unlocks ever. So I just, I hope that everyone just digests this and really takes it into account and If you do this for 30 days, you will fundamentally transform as a person. Yes. And, um, if you are looking for a little bit more information on this episode, we have our ebook, um, or e guide really.

It's a couple of pages that will give you all this information. All these resources will expand on some of these topics a bit more. Go check that out. It's in the show notes. And then also, on top of that, we have the newsletter. Food for Thought newsletter. We ta We take deep dives into all the different things that we just talked about.

We're trying to bring the most relevant information to the table that will get you healthier, so go check out our newsletter. It's the Food for Thought newsletter. It's in the link in the bio. Um, and yeah. Also, join the Telegram group. It's getting fun. So, yeah. That's all I got. Love it. Appreciate you, brother.

Great episode. Yeah. Appreciate you. You're the man. Later. See ya. Heard.