Why Your Training Isn’t Working [And How to Finally Fix It] w/ Dil

0:00Yo, right. Welcome back to the podcast today. We are joined with the former professional triathlete. Dell, Osborne, we're going to talk about drinking beers and surfing, the importance of data and how you can hear the same thing a hundred times and still have to make your own decisions. I want to let's get into it. I'm not a professional. Anyway, we wanted to sit down. I mean, Dell said I wanted to sit down with him, but I think he wanted to sit down with me because he has been going through the level zero process and he has been learning along the way and has asked many in his words, stupid questions, but as we all know, there are no stupid questions. I thought it was probably better that we just do it in terms of actually putting it on the internet because he is not the only person that has these questions. So I guess my question to you is how are you going to good? Actually, oh, perfect, 30. See you next week. Okay, let's take it right back because we've

1:06tried to do this before. Well, I was going to say not record the podcast. We have tried to record the podcast before, but we fucked it. Why even in real awkward reality? I don't know what I said. There's someone who points the camera at people a lot now. He's on the wrong side of the camera doesn't know what the fuck's going on. Anyway, so we have tried to put you through the coaching process before so you can get a bit more of an insight as to what everybody goes through. Let's say we've had a couple of false starts, but this time so far, so good, we're four and a half weeks in. What is different this time? I realized I couldn't do it by myself. I think that was the key. I think that was for. Yeah. Okay. So before I guess we need to travel a bit deeper into that before who was coaching me and AI. Okay. So let's start there. Why did that not work out for you? Turns out AI is not really that useful unless you've, well, it doesn't really do much to you, apart from just throw a word and spit words at you. And I guess the reason I ended up in that

2:10situation is my background has always been quite athletic, right? You wouldn't know that if you'd met me in the last five years, but 35 years of my life, athlete, five years of my life, beer, five years, ruin 35 years, nice quickly. So then I was always like, oh, yeah, I've got generally I've got fitness under control because I burned a lot of calories, doing a lot of cardio-based sports. And then as I slowed down and got older and approached 40, things took a turn for their worst. In so many, so many different ways. And then when I was like, started working with you, I was like, oh, yeah, like, this is cool. I'm working with Ben. That'll be the inspiration I need. I don't, like, this should just be fine. As you come to your gym once a week, you're like, pretty much. I'm nailing it. Yeah, pretty much. Like, you do the reps. I film you. And then I'm like, whoa, fuck it. I was intense. I can find like, I'm right shoulder just from holding that camera. So apart from isometric holds with the camera that I wasn't redoing much. So then I was kind of

3:10just going, I don't need this. Like, this is for everybody else. I should be totally fine. And then we tried a little bit. I mean, I step one. I was joined the gym. That was the first time ever. So you graduated from the Argos special plastic gold lifting all of your wits in the gym. I threw those out in the garage. You did? Two days ago. I just took them to the skip. I was like, these are just, these are bullshit. Yeah, fuck these. Yeah, yeah, at least. Yeah. Okay. So you graduated from, from, I guess, moving wits around your garage to going to a gym. Yeah. I mean, when we first started, you were like, telling me about everybody's home setups and how you get the photographs. And then you asked me for mine. And I was like, well, I have this surfboard without any fins on it that I practice on. And then I've got these weights. And they were like those gold ones. What are they from? Like, fucking years ago, the 19s. I'm pretty Argos. Yeah. They were actually. Yeah. And then, and I got them off somebody else. But I literally was like, I've maxed out the amount of weights. So I was lifting all the weights that I earned. Nice. I wasn't done that yet. I can't lift all the

4:11weights that I own. I think I was really proud of that though as well. You remember when I said to you, like, I think it was like the first, the first event I went to. And I'd like, yeah, I've like, I'm lifted everything. And then I watched Jan lift. And then I did the math back. And I was like, fuck, I'm lifting like, where your share is the one is much stronger than you are much stronger. But I lifted like a third of what she was lifting. And I was like, I don't even think I could deadlift what she was squatting at that point. And I was like, that's embarrassing. Yeah, very, very embarrassing. Okay. For enough. So the first step was you joined the gym. Yep. How is that? The learning process of joining the gym. What was your lessons? I was super nervous at the start walking in. I don't really like to look like an idiot unless I make myself into an idiot. So walking in there was a bit like, it was a bit nerve wracking. And I kind of found myself like rather just walking to a machine and looking like I knew what I was doing. So I ended up going to machines that I understood. And I mean, as machines, fan machine, fan machine, fan machine,

5:14standing on a water dispenser ages. What I would do is like, when I was on one that I understood, I would watch other people and be like, okay, that's it. And hilariously, the first one I went to was La Ropolda. And it was like in like a separate room as a pure gym was in a separate room of bits. And I did it backwards. Nice sound it. But I clocked that I was doing it backwards by three reps in. And I mean, I say I'm a pretty switched on guy. And I was like, wow, I've misjudged the situation. So I was like doing it. I mean, I was pulling it right away, but I was facing the wrong way. So I was looking out. And then I realized three reps and this is the wrong way around. So I just dropped after three or four and stood up and stretched, like as if it was on some intentional stretches. And then did a few stretches. Now I just turned around and carried on. So I'm hoping somebody watched me and was like, cut it. I warm it up back with one of the benefits out of that turns out I just fact it. Okay. So you joined the gym. You, I mean, I remember when we were in Phoenix, you said it was your first gym experience. That was a like,

6:14is you not record a stuff in the gym before, but it was essentially you, you know, you were observing in a gym environment. Why was that? It was, it was, it was interesting. It was mad. I actually seen what, I mean, it was hard because it wasn't like a standard gym environment, because you there were the huge group of people who were all backing each other. So I think there's two aspects of the gym environment was kind of cool. And it was eye opening to understand and see the machines and how people use them. And what different people do on what machines? Like one person lifting one weight that's maybe nothing to somebody else, but they're fucking dead lifting that weight. So that was kind of cool to be going, to be able to see that and say, okay, everybody has their own limits and that's fair. And the other aspect of it was seeing the support network of people pushing each other. And which is now two years later, I understand when I'm trying, when I think I'm pushing myself and I got, I couldn't do heavier than that. But I imagine you don't do that when you try yourself. I'm dressed straight and I think you could probably push a little bit more in your butt wink. Okay, so you have

7:16moved from the working in the beer industry, I guess, to working somewhat in the fitness industry. You've joined a gym. You've got AI as your coach. And I suggested, right, let's go through this level zero process. Yeah. And I mean, I think I, I think I attempted this last year when we did the program setup. And I tried and I like, I don't, I, I'll use all the excuses that everybody else uses. I got distracted. Shit came up. There was other stuff I had to do. And don't worry about this. I've got this. And then towards the end of the year, we were talking about apps. And I thought, hey, this would be kind of cool. I was messing around in base 44. And I thought, I want to just understand how to build an app in base 44. So I thought, well, why don't just build a fitness app, which I did successfully built the app. You didn't use it successfully, but it exists. It's called Dildo's Fitness. It reads Dildo's an app store. Not only app store yet, because I haven't paid to launch it, but you could, I could quite give you the thing. And you could like, I created an app on my phone. You could put me a coach, you can build those fitness reads Dildo's fitness.

8:18So I don't know what's the next one. Okay. So we'll take it back a year. I think we're backwards forwards here. So we tried to do this last year when we did the program, which was the, I guess, the previous version of level zero. And we didn't exactly nail it when I say we, I mean, you didn't nail, I nailed it. There was no defense. No, Dildo, but did, but from that point, you had joined the gym and my observation of you last year as you went to the gym more times than you have ever went to the gym before in your life. Yeah. They won. I doubled that, I think. Good job. Yeah. So well done. So progress was made. You didn't exactly execute 100% on the program, but you started going to the gym and that was progress for sure. Yeah. We spoke about this upstairs, but you, you said, I guess it was this time last year or whenever it was that people had started to notice you had a lost weight. And this time people aren't noticing. How's that?

9:20I was weird. I mean, I only twigged yesterday because I went to cricket practice and like, you were expecting to a hoodie off. And everyone went, all right, they'll grow in the hair out. And I was like, what's the left of it? Yes. And no one said it like at a bite. I felt. Were you expecting? I mean, I mean, I felt good. So I was expecting somebody to go, hey, looking, looking sharp. No one said anything. The only person to say anything is pal, I mean, I've been around in my mom's dad's house. And they're just like, hello. And like, went out with my mates. Yeah. And no one said anything. And I was like, oh, that's fucking weird. But then yesterday, I went for a series of group chat going on. And I was like, don't be matting in the bill. This is a side by way of everybody. Everybody's in. I don't want everybody that you know. And like, don't be matting until we go bully him into this. So I was like, I mean, I felt better this time. I feel like the last time I did it on my, I'm saying on my own because I didn't really listen to anything. I cut calories. And I mean, I would say I cut calories dramatically for me to 1800 a day. And I did that.

10:22Pretty well for about probably about a four to six weeks. So it was pretty, I mean, I fucked it a few days, but like for the most part. And I'm not saying I wasn't going from 2500. I thought I was a 2500 calories. I thought my daily input was around there. And then when I started tracking it, I was like, whoa, like I ruined it at night time, like destroyed it. Like I would get through a day and be like 2300 calories. And then just eat another 2300? Yeah. Yeah. Quite easily. Like, and I think I realized I've always eaten like that, but because I did high cardio sports all the time, like surfing rose. I mean, there was a point where I did triathlon. So I was like, those, and I rode BMX bikes and mountain bikes. People would find that so hard to believe. I know. I know. There's people that only know me from the last five years. So when I say that, they go, bless them. There's no way that guy ever did sport. He read a book about a triathlon or something one time. Okay. So we've now graduated to tracking and understand the calories. What were your lessons there? My lessons were

11:24there's some foods that are way more calorie dense, like that I didn't, that I underestimated, like about, well, like a total run. Yes. A full, fat, like giant, not even like a single portion. Like I'm talking full elite. Yeah. Like the one you get in the airport. Did you bring home for someone? Yeah. When you're going back to a family and you go, I brought you all this bar. That's not a one. For me, that was like a, just silly, I'll eat that while I'm watching this movie. And like not once a month, like regularly enough. Or like a whole box of those, those like shellfish. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's my favorite. Yeah. They're good. So I was eating those. But then, but then silly things actually were, I mean, I kind of knew that they were bad and they're eyes how bad. But like, when you say bad, can you please clarify what you mean? Because I don't want to get in the good bad food. Well, I mean, I mean bad is, and it's purely in calorie numbers, like the amount of calories. They were high in calories. They're not bad. Yeah. Food is not bad. No, but they were just high in calories. Yeah. To the point where, like, I thought I was doing an extra 500, but I was actually about 1700. You know, it was like, I just got that. Okay. So the lesson then in this is what you think

12:31and what the reality of number one, how much you consume and number two, how much are how many calories is actually in some foods was way off both of those things. Yeah. And like dramaticly off, not like close at all, like so wildly off. But I went, oh my god. So what's the lesson for the viewers listeners? Track your food. Why? Because it'll teach you what you're eating. It'll teach you how the foods change. It'll teach you what's in them and it'll teach you where your patterns are and where you fail. And I always would say, I generally eat quite well. But there's a period of time and night where I was just destroying it. And it was always like after dinner. So what you're saying is like, you can eat well. You can't eat healthy 80% of the time, but also you can completely fuck that in 20% of the time. And unconsciously almost. Yeah. You were unconscious. You were unconscious. I mean, so much. You, you can like unsubconsciously. Is the word probably? Yes. Not unconscious. You were unconscious.

13:31Unconsciously. I mean, if I can subconsciously, you can eat it. Yeah, you can really ruin it. I think that was for me is the one of the biggest learning lessons lessons learned. So I can forgetting how to speak was that I was doing this without thinking. And the amount of times, and I've caught myself on now, I'm getting a lot better at it. But like I would just I will eat a new joke. We joke about eating a cake by accident. Yes. And you when you told me that story, you liked and I laughed with you. But I was like, I mean, I can't really eat the cake by accident. Okay. And then go, yeah, I had a slice. Yeah. Yeah. It was just it was you made most of it. Yeah. Well, that depends what. Yeah. It was kind of slice. So the lesson in this is track your food to get an understanding. No, I will admit tracking your foods a pinhole. Like I do it some of the time, not all the time, but I have done it on and off for 12 years. So I have a pretty good understanding of food. But people don't like tracking it. People procrastinate on tracking it. It's not necessarily to

14:35just track your food because someone told you or you think you need to. There's a learning within it. There is yet. And I've changed the way I do that. I don't track it. I plan it now. That changed everything. So I get up in the morning and I plan. I put into my fitness pile what I'm going to eat. One entire tool. But I'm like, that's that hits my target of calories for the day. No macros at all. No, I stick it. I put everything in first. And then I can I almost use it as an assessment to be like, how does that get me to my protein goal? How does what does that do for carbs? Like the amount of fiber I don't eat is absolutely amazing. And then where does that set my calories? Because what I've learned is that's me making a conscious choice as to what I'm going to eat during the day. And it also allows me to correct problems before they happen. Because the other thing I would do is I would eat it. And then if you eat it and track it, then you're sitting like, yeah, what do we do now? Okay. Okay. So you're

15:39choosing your food. It's not choosing you. Yeah. Okay. Good. Okay. So we didn't exactly in the program last year. But by being aware through osmosis of being here and listening to me talk about the same stuff over and over and again videos, you are not at the point of getting to the end of 2025. You go to the gym somewhat regularly and you have an understanding of food. Yeah. So progress. Yeah. Yeah. Solid progress, I think. Okay. So then January 12th, we start into level zero. You commit to doing the process. We're four and a half weeks in. What's changed? Well, my arm is done for into my wetsuit for the first time, maybe. So that was that was a positive. Yeah. I think good. Yeah. So you're going to cut them off. Yeah. The sleeves, not my arms. Okay. Um, what has changed? I think my, the main thing for me is being my understanding that this isn't just a thing I'm doing until I get to a point. It's more like, this is how I do

16:41things now. And not I have to. And that was for me was a key word to change. Like, I'm not doing that. So someone's like, Hey, do you want a donut? Oh, I'm not eating donuts. That phrase for me doesn't work for me. Because that first of it follows up with why. Yeah. And also donuts are delicious. And then yeah, exactly. So I just go, Oh, no, thanks. Because and then I go, why not? If someone does, that's why I just don't want one. And it's because I've got myself around to the idea of it's just, it's kind of how I want to do things and how I am doing stuff, rather than like an end goal. Because I don't want the end, the end goal isn't, I want to get to point where I can do another triathlon. The end goal is that I die eventually. Okay. Having had fun. Okay. Okay. Cool. Right. And goal is that perfect. Right. So it's interesting though, because I mean, obviously, whenever I go through this, normally with somebody who has reached out through whatever way they, they reach out, you know, I'll ask them why they're doing it. And generally, it's like, you know, insert whatever reason or fear of death

17:44or be there for the family or whatever. But we didn't have that conversation. You've done it because you've just been in this environment. Yeah. Twofold. Yeah. One, you said to me, your representation of my brand stopped drinking beers and donuts. That was a good driver, though. Like I take a bit of mild bullying is like positive reinforcement. But yes, the other part of it being that like I hilarious, I identify as a surfer. I'm like, in my mind, I'm a surfer. I'm South African born. I grew up at the coast. I surf. And then sometimes I see a reflection of me in a wet seat. And I go, that guy doesn't surf. Would you, is there a previous version of you that would have seen the current version of you or not the current, but like the recent version of your mind? Absolutely. I mean, there's the current version of me that looks at other current versions of me. And last, because they're like, I'm in parallel. It goes, I mean, Paul gave it about me and the fucking way to not far off. She said that it did set it to me one day. She was like, that's not far off

18:45what you look like. And I was like, fuck off. And then she was like, I'm being daily serious. And that was a bit of an eye-opener, I think, because it was like, I remember writing. I used to write a lot of road cycling as well. And I remember cycling with my brother and we're going up like what he would call a hill. I would barely call a bump and he was fucked. And I was like, it was wrong with you. Like, this is what we could do. It's all day. And he was like, he was, he stopped the coups. Like, I physically can't. And even out my wife on walks, sometimes she have to stop on a hike. And I'm like, I don't never understood that. And then I got to the point where I was that. I say, oh, I'm depleted now. I've hit a wall and I never really hit walls. And it's just like, I could lift my stamina. I could just keep going for ages on bikes, boards. And now like, I mean, I remember younger, I was, I say younger, like mid 20s to 30. I was, I could paddle in the water for three, four hours. We're now like an hour and a half session. And I'm fucked. And I had a real eye opener a couple of years ago. It was when it was in the middle of it. I think for me, the problem was the pandemic happened as I started working in the beer industry. And it's not that the beer industry is the blame for it. It's just that I got absorbed into that and drank a lot more and did way less activity. And that combination,

19:48as I hit 40, well, approach 40, all was. Okay. First of all, the pandemic was five or six years ago. That was where it's, that was where the shit show started. So that's important. Because I think for me, I obviously have, I come from the other side of it of like always having to try and and game with. And I often wonder, like, there are times, probably this time last year, if we look back and reflection of the Cleveland video, that's the, I'll say the biggest version of me. And I also wonder, like, is there not a point that, you know, as you're gaining weight or becoming somewhat unhappy with how you look and feel it, you catch yourself on to me. So like, it's obviously been a gradual going from being a triathlete to, yes, representing someone who works in the beer industry. So like, what, you know, how did you not realize? I have no idea. And you know what, I would be super critical of people like that as well. I would be like, you fuck, there's no way. There's no way you didn't just get up. What I,

20:51Jenny, money, I actually said to Pamela the other day, maybe it's not the tumble dryer. For years, I was like, it's fucking tumble dryer. It's spring tumble dryer in my clothes. I don't even know the tumble dryer. I used to blame it on the arms, but then I got a measurement thing done at it. And some guys said you got short arms. I was like, like, maybe the short arms have always been an issue. You know, tumble dryer. But I mean, like, I don't, I actually don't know, I think it was like, I think you just, you just tell yourself stories. Don't you? I always use the laugh about going, like, if I was going out somewhere because I would, as someone who takes photos and videos, everybody else, I'm very rarely on the other end of it, unless I'm doing it. So if I have no problem being on camera, but I film myself, when I film myself, I have control over my angles and I'm very, you know, when someone else takes a photo, I'm like, there must be someone wrong with that because I left that house looking like a stallion and I look like an overweight gorilla. But you say this about when people look at their photos and be like, can you make me look good? And like, that's, that's what you look like. That's what you look like. And it is a harsh truth. And then when I see someone else's photo, I'm like, fuck, that's why people I look like. And a lot

21:53of it was posture. Like I would stand, when I'm in the mirror, I'd stand up, you know, quite stupid. Pigeon chest and I'm like, again, that's a solid turn around you. Yeah. And as soon as I've all gone, straight into fucking gorilla mode and I just drag my knuckles out the door. Streckly even the fucking. So I think it just gradually happened. And yeah, gradually happened. And then I think it was a bit of like denial, I guess. You just don't want to admit it. And I also thought like, I can fix this. Like I have these band t-shirts that my kids wear now because they got the point of thought. No. But I was like, how much did we get rid of these? And I was like, no, no, no, I'll get back into wearing those. I mean, it was men's small t-shirts. I fell into a men's small t-shirt. Not with armed children. Not with these on. Yeah. Right. So it was a gradual process. And then we haven't mentioned like the, I guess, the actual change in terms of like weird lost. So last year you said that you lost weight. That's when people noticed like what is that processing? Okay. So I think like it was a hilarious time that you and I were the same with. Yes. Yes. There was. That was that was wild. Two very different shapes. Yes.

22:57Identical. Both pretty much 100 kilo. Yeah. One of us, 100 kilo in upper body and the other around the belt. Right. So how much, I guess, total weight have you lost if we want to talk about that? I mean, total weight. So I think for me, if I think like, I mean, I was a conversion. I always looked back at when I was fit and surfed in that and I was about 11. Was it just stone minus? No, I mean, I'm just thinking like because back then it was stone. Right. So it was 11.5 stone, whereas now I'm about 14.4. So that's what I gained since 25. Right. In weight. That's a hell of a lot of weight to have gained over those years. But I was since you were 25 since I was 25. Not 20, 25. No, not 20, 25. No, no, no, no, no. In other words, we're doing it all wrong. Are you just eating total ones? Are you doing anything? Okay. Right. No idea what a stone is. So that's what I'm saying. So I'm 90 or right now I'm 95 kilos. Okay. All right. But I think when I when I was like, fuck it, I think I hit the 100 kilo mark. That was when we were in Cleveland last year. And I mean, I'm a bit a bit like Hartman where I blame

24:02on, you know, thick not bones, but legs. And when I got a big leg, what I do have big legs because I cycle for years. A lot of my weight is in my legs. But most of it, I do know that he's way your leg. Yeah, just one leg. I just, it's just an excuse. It's an excuse and an assumption based on the fact that I just have large legs, but I don't know if that's like an all-fatter muscle or what. But I think I hit 100. And that was when I was like, oh, fuck, I need to cut this back. So the middle of summer last year, I think I went on. That's when I went on a stronger stricter.