https://youtu.be/nEGRJFhPSXQ
What a year! Our team has grown and evolved, and our community is stronger than ever. In this video we take some time to reflect on 2024 and look at future plans.
Transcript:
Dani:
Hey everybody, welcome back to the channel. My name is Dani Taylor, co owner of vegan proteins online coaching, and I have Giacomo and Ben and we’re going to be doing a year in review for 2024. This is Ben’s idea, so we’re going to let Ben lead this conversation.
Ben:
Okay. So the reason I came up with the idea for this video because at the end of the year, people like to reflect a lot on the year. What went well, maybe what could have gone better. And they like to think a lot ahead to the new year. And I feel like it was a cool opportunity for us to reminisce or reflect on this past year and some of the changes that were brought about and maybe what we’re looking forward to in the new year. So in the spirit of that, I think it would be interesting to first
start with vegan proteins and then maybe we can talk about vegan strong and plant built and then work our way down to more the individual level and talk about some things in our own lives that happened this past year and that we’re thinking about as we enter the next year. So, Giacomo, we’ll start with you. Vegan proteins year in review. What’s coming to mind for you?
Giacomo:
Well, you came on board this year. Sawyer came on board later this year. And it has completely changed our dynamic. It’s changed the type of stuff that we talk about. It’s changed how we do things change. It feels much more so like a team than it ever has before. As opposed to Danny and I being the vegan proteins face and the couple. Now we are in fact a team of coaches, which is. Has been incredibly rewarding, honestly.
Dani:
It balanced out the energy too, because it was. First it was me and Giacomo, but then it was Giacomo and all women, and now it’s you and Sawyer. And I think it’s like almost exactly even. I think right now. Yeah, it’s even for the coaches anyway, if you count Christina, it’s a little more lady heavy, but that’s been really interesting and it’s.
I can already tell it’s kind of changing the audience as well. We were talking about that yesterday, which is a good thing because there’s not a lot of vegan guys out there. So the fact that now we have more guidance for them, that’s cool.
Ben:
At the start of this year, would you two have predicted that you’d be bringing on two new coaches for vegan proteins? Did you kind of see it going that direction or was that something that was kind of over? Oh, I guess this is something that needs to happen now.
Giacomo:
It’s a good question. Could not have predicted that we would have taken two new.
Dani:
Maybe one.
Giacomo:
Maybe one.
Dani:
Maybe one. But, yeah, it’s an interesting. As you know, it’s like an interesting industry because it can be, like, really, really quiet for a while, and then all of a sudden, you can get absolutely slammed. So it’s kind of a very feast or famine type of situation, and you don’t want to be caught in a situation where suddenly you don’t have enough coaches for the people who want to be
coached. So it was interesting. It felt like hurry up and wait sort of year, but in the best ways possible. And, like, it just couldn’t be better fits than. Than you and Sawyer.
Giacomo:
So the other cool thing is one thing affects the other. I don’t really have the right wording in the back of my mind for this, but basically, I feel like it all started with Athena, believe it or not. And it just created this cause and effect thing where all of a sudden we just started meeting other vegans who knew other vegans in the fitness world, and we started putting our eyes on other people who we were like, wow, these would be really cool fits for our team.
I wonder if that could ever happen. And then all of a sudden, serendipitously, y’all started reaching out to us before we even got a chance to reach out to you. And we’re like, oh, I don’t know. Can we do this?
Dani:
I wouldn’t have reached out because I feel like that would have been weird and rude. Honestly, really interesting. Yeah. Well, both you and Sawyer were, like, running your own coaching businesses. I feel like it’d be a little bit arrogant to be like, he, I know you’re doing this thing, but do you want to come work for us?
Ben:
I mean, at that time when I messaged you to see where you were at with vegan proteins, I had kind of transitioned out of that, and I was working at the small gym. I actually wonder if I would have reached out to you if I wasn’t in prep, because I think in prep, you get these, like, delusions of grandeur and all these wacky ideas that you’re like, yes, this is the thing that I’m going to do now.
And it gives you this almost false sense of confidence, I guess, or you just don’t care. And you’re like, maybe I would have hesitated because I had some sort of reservations in my mind, but I don’t care. I’m just gonna do it. So I think that was Something I was thinking about as well. I’m like, I wonder if I would have actually reached out if I wasn’t doing this thing right now.
Dani:
Your malnourished brain.
Ben:
Because I, I came. I literally came on when I was like two weeks out for my first competition. So that was an interesting.
Dani:
Yeah, I mean, that was also like a weird part of the year as well, was having both you and Alice deep in prep at the same time and realizing, like, okay, we could have. We potentially could have two landmines because we all mean. We know what it’s like to be impressed.
But you know, for you guys, there was a lot of having. Just having to experience a lot of the suck on your own to get like, get through that. Which obviously you guys both did. But it’s. It can be a little touch and go there for a minute.
Ben:
Yeah. And I think it’ll be interesting the next time to already having an established roster of clients versus trying to onboard clients and get up to speed. Because as we know, there’s a lot of time and attention that goes into making sure that somebody is welcomed appropriately into vegan proteins. And that’s a different experience than having people that you’ve built this rapport with, you’ve created and established a connection and somewhat of a different person when
you’re really deep into that yes. Scenario. So it’s interesting building that relationships when you’re at that point versus people have already known you, they’ve been with you for a few years, and there’s kind of that expectation going in.
Dani:
Yeah. And there’s just a lot of front loaded work as well of getting somebody set up and going through all of their data and asking a million questions and blah, blah, blah.
Ben:
I think I handled that part pretty well with the.
Dani:
Yeah.
Ben:
Because I heard all these stories. Oh, the brain fog, the scatter brain and all of that. I actually think being anxious all the time really helped with me staying on top of my work because I was like, I’m answering right away, like I’m staying right on top of things as opposed to usually when I’m a little bit more chill about things and of course still doing it in a timely manner. But it’s almost like you have a. Develop a little bit of a neurosis.
Dani:
Yep, that’s me. You summed me up in a nutshell. And any one of my clients that’s watching this will probably comment on it and be like, yup. The week that we took off last week, a couple of my clients, I reached out to a few people and they were like, what are you doing, please?
Ben:
I said that to you on Instagram when you were like, we’re having a meeting. I’m like, no meetings. Bringing it back to vegan proteins. Did you guys have any goals going into this year specifically? Or was it kind of just let’s keep doing more of the same and.
Dani:
Building and growing kind of loose goals? I think we had a loose goal and I don’t remember exactly what the number was, but for a certain number of clients, like one on one clients that we hope to have by the end of the year and members of Muscles by Brussels that we hope to have by the end of the year. And I think like we exceeded the one on one clients, but maybe fell a little short of the members. But, you know, it’s tough because it’s kind of like tracking your own fit and your physique
stats. It’s like there are numbers that you can put down on paper, but at the end it’s like that’s not really what the goal is. It’s like feeling a certain way or living a certain lifestyle. I kind of feel like that’s how I feel about company as well, is like, yes, there are metrics you have to track, but it’s really like a culture, I guess, or something that you’re trying to facilitate. That sounds like so corporate, bro.
Ben:
But no, but you don’t want to grow something just for the sake of growing it and lose the core values and the heart of what that thing is. Because as something grows and it starts to get bigger, you have to fight really hard to make sure that everyone is on board with that mission and growing things in the same way. So as you continue to expand, you want to maintain that.
Giacomo:
So I feel like we went with the flow. We had certain ideas on what we wanted to do. We’re like, well, we’ll get a bigger community, we’ll have more clients, we’ll take on another coach. And these things will and will get more people that we do challenges with. And then we went with it because it wasn’t just Danny and I anymore. And the tide changed, right?
And the whole culture thing stayed intact too. But I think our culture, like our. The way that we did things was just a lot more connected, put it that way. More people engage, more people talking. And what I’m most proud of this year is the fact that we show up for live calls with our team once a month and we all take turns with that and everyone loves it.
Dani:
Ends up being almost weekly for the clients.
Giacomo:
That’s Right. Yeah.
Dani:
Happen. Yeah. I’ve been really happy with that. And I can just tell, like, our community is more engaged not just with us, but with each other. And that’s really exciting. And that’s been a dream that I’ve personally had since probably, like, 2013 or something. And I remember trying to sort of facilitate that over a decade ago. And it was just like, go so.
Ben:
Hard at this at the start, because nobody wants to be that individual to put themselves out there when there’s a smaller number. But when you see other people starting to do it, you want to engage. And so I feel like I’ve noticed that as well, where on team calls, people are encouraging each other. They’re saying, oh, I saw your post in the Facebook group. They’re commenting, they’re being supportive, and it’s.
Dani:
Really wonderful to see they’re forming relationships with each other completely outside of the calls entirely.
Giacomo:
Yeah, we foster community, not just for a day, not just because, like, it is literally a core part of what we do. Like, you come here and you’re coached by one coach, but you’re also a part of something.
Dani:
But there’s also only so much that you can do or we can do. Like, at the end of the day, the community has to actually be interested enough to show up and, you know, have conversation with each other. So, I mean, I think a huge part of it is just that we have a really great. The people that we do draw into our community are just, like, particularly awesome people.
Giacomo:
Well, we also started asking for people to commit to working with us for a longer period of time, which was brand new. We changed the way that we did things. We didn’t. There’s so many quick fixes and short transformations, and people get into it for the. I would argue the wrong reason. They should look for a lifestyle change and for growth, but they’re looking to get ten pounds off or just look a certain way in a couple of months.
And it’s like, we stopped to. We stopped entertaining that idea. We’re like, no, if you’re gonna work with us, like, we’re gonna change it from the inside out. It’s gonna be a lifestyle change.
Dani:
Not to say that we can’t do that. Like, you know, obviously, if somebody wanted to lose 10 pounds, you could give them a plan, then they’d lose 10 pounds. But, like, do they want to keep it off then? There’s no one plan that’s gonna do that, so.
Ben:
Exactly. I see what you’re saying as well, about when you have someone who knows that they’re going to stick around for a year. They’re probably going to say, oh, well, if I’m going to be here for a year, I may as well get to know people and really dig my roots in deep, as opposed to I’m just this transient person who’s coming and going, and so why should I bother to get to know these people?
Because I’m going to be gone in 12 weeks, so I can appreciate that. So, looking forward to next year, is there anything that you’re thinking about that you’re really excited about that you have goals with, or is it kind of just keep growing and doing the same?
Dani:
I’m really excited to hopefully do that meet meetup next year in June. I think June is what we decided. So still that one of the things I wanted to work on last week was starting to really plan that, but like a client meetup for any of our clients or members to come out, hopefully to Vermont, hopefully.
Ben:
So if you want to get in on that, now’s the time to join.
Dani:
So that’ll be cool. But otherwise, like, I’ve just. When I was trying to jot down, like, okay, what went well in 2024 for vegan proteins, it was like, pretty much everything that happened went well for us in 2024. I mean, don’t get me wrong, they’re like, slow months. Shit happens. But on the whole, like, no, no complaints at all.
Giacomo:
It’s a really good year. A lot of things that we had wanted to do for a very long time happened this past year.
Dani:
The content we put out was, like, very consistent.
Giacomo:
I feel like we set the bar very high, which kind of gets me worried.
Dani:
For this year, we’re just going to cruise. We’re just going to keep cruising with what has been working.
Giacomo:
Yes.
Dani:
Which is how I outline my own personal years as well. Like, I look back and say, what’s working? Instead of just constantly adding to that.
Ben:
True.
Dani:
Just being like, this is working. Do not mess with it.
Ben:
And speaking of content, one thing I heard consistently from both of you is how nice it was to have other people adding their voice to those conversations. Because you have to say the same things over and over again because they stay relevant and they stayed pertinent to what people are doing. However, it’s nice to have some kind of fresh, fresh people in there.
Dani:
Just any other person. No offense, babe. Like, like, I love talking to Giacomo. We talk about a lot of this stuff in our downtime. But when you’re trying to make a podcast to put out specific information, it’s just nice to be speaking to somebody about something that you maybe have never spoken to that person about.
Giacomo:
Get rid of your head.
Dani:
Yeah. Puts a different spin on it.
Ben:
Yes. Okay, so I want to transition next to talking about vegan strong slash plant belt highlights from this year, things you’re looking forward to next year.
Giacomo:
That’s a whole other separate topic. That’s a beast of a topic right there. I don’t really know how we could condense that, but it was wildly successful. Yes. Beyond our wildest imaginations and hopes and dreams, this was far and away the most success that we have experienced as a team and as an organization by a landslide.
Dani:
It was. I mean, we had more athletes from more countries. I think we won more medals and more prestigious medals than we’ve ever won before. The public, like the media coverage afterwards I think was better than maybe it’s ever been with maybe one year of exception where something happened and buzzfeed picked us up and it went bananas. Back when buzzfeed was like, I remember, a big deal.
Giacomo:
Yeah.
Dani:
But yeah, so, I mean, that was really great. It is a massive undertaking, though. Like, I don’t. In some ways, I think it’s a much bigger undertaking than vegan proteins, which is our actual livelihood because of the.
Ben:
Amount of traveling that you’re doing for that and all the behind the scenes stuff that goes into coordination and, and.
Dani:
Just the number of people that you have like looking to you for the answer of what’s happening and what’s coming next. And. And when I say looking to you, I mostly mean Giacomo because when it comes to plant built, he’s the point person.
Ben:
Right.
Dani:
For that.
Giacomo:
I’m a planner by nature and I like planning with people and so I just take on a lot of the event planning for that stuff and communication with people behind the scenes. And there is, there are a ton of moving parts. There’s all kinds of detail that goes into that playing out just right no matter what the problems are. When we are on site competing together. The media I’m incredibly proud of because we got major mainstream media to pick us up all over the place this year.
Dani:
I just want to interrupt for a second. It’s important to note just for folks who are watching this who don’t know because all they watch is our vegan proteins content. Plant built, slash vegan strong. Like it’s a non profit education and advocacy group. So the whole point is just to get the message out there that, you know, plants have all the protein that you need to build a strong, healthy body. And be a competitive athletes. It’s not a job in that sense. It’s not our livelihood.
Giacomo:
Right. And in that arena we, we look to specifically reach non vegans, whereas with vegan proteins I think we particularly look to reach vegans.
Dani:
Yeah.
Ben:
I think one thing that’s really cool about the plant built team as well is that once we pull athletes in and they compete with us, they can keep coming back year after year in certain sports or something like bodybuilding that might come back every few years, but you continue to build the roster of really successful and impressive athletes.
And as that plant belt team grows, so will the success. And it kind of just seems to have this snowballing effect. More people talking about it, more people spreading that message, more people being a part of the team. So I’m excited to see how things continue to progress over the next few years.
Giacomo:
Well, this year we’re going to break the team up in half. Straight down the middle.
Dani:
Yeah, this is going to be a new thing.
Giacomo:
And I’m.
Dani:
And what he means by that is that normally we compete at one giant competition, the Mr. America in New Jersey. Jersey. And this coming year we’re going to have half the team down in Tampa for the Tampa Fit Fest and the other half the team at Mr. America.
Giacomo:
You’re just going to go with it. We’re going to have two giant competitions.
Ben:
Basically, I’m hoping to be there at both of them.
Dani:
Yeah, hope you’re there. It should be fun.
Giacomo:
If we have our way, we’re going to get our due with Olympic weightlifting, but that remains to be seen. We have to find some good quality. If you’re a high ranking, high scoring Olympic weightlifter, please reach out to us because we’re looking for you. We want a really solid Olympic weightlifting team. We had a team maybe like six, seven, eight years ago, but there were only a handful of us. It’s the one sport we haven’t got our due in yet that we’ve competed at in kettlebell.
Last year we were looking, we were trying to build a kettlebell sport team for over a decade and we weren’t able to build a team. And last year it was probably the best team out of all of our teams. So that to me was the highlight of the year, competitively speaking. And I think this year we’ll have an even better kettlebell sport team, believe it or not.
Ben:
That’s awesome. So if you want to keep up to date on any of that, you can go follow vegan strong and plant belt. Finally, where I want to go is personal or individual, maybe some highlights from this year, some things that you thought maybe were going to happen going in or that you wanted to happen going. You can talk about, did that happen, did that not happen? Pros, cons, positive negatives, and then maybe just what you’re looking forward to in the new year.
Dani:
Well, I want to hear from you first, actually, because.
Ben:
Yeah, yeah, this year was an interesting one. A lot of challenge, probably the most challenging year that I’ve had so far. I think a lot of that comes down to my bodybuilding prep just because it is so all encompassing. And I think that there are certain lessons that continue to come out of that even now as I reflect and gain more distance from what that experience showed me or taught me.
And I think leading up to this year, bodybuilding has been, I would say, like the primary focus or center of attention in my life because that’s what sparked, marked me wanting to get into coaching and what wanted, what cultivated my, my passion for physical fitness, for nutrition, for all of these things. And competing was something that, and when I first started getting into lifting weights and watching my, my nutrition habits, I didn’t think I was going to do.
But as I continued to get more into it, it became more appealing. And at first I was like, I’ll compete in 10 years, then it was seven years, then five years. And then I decided to take the plunge this year in a what that experience was like. And I’m glad that I did that. And I think it showed me some things that maybe would have taken me a lot longer to figure out had I not had that experience.
And so regardless of what the outcome was, I think in many ways it was at the time a disappointment for me. Not necessarily placings, because that was never really why I got into it. But what I was able to do with what I felt was my own potential competitively. And then coming out of that and saying, okay, well maybe this didn’t go the way that I had thought, but what are some lessons I can take from that moving forward?
And I think the main one that I’ve been reflecting on a lot recently was integrating bodybuilding and physical fitness with the rest of my life and not developing a resentment towards it for feeling like it’s taking away things or that I have to do a certain thing, because I think it was very easy for me to justify in the past, oh, well, I don’t want to travel or I don’t want to go and do this because my bodybuilding will be better if I don’t like, if I stay in and I, you know, I’m a hermit,
then, you know, I can justify it because I’m a competitive athlete, and I. And I want to be the best that I can at this thing. And I think over time, that kind of has. Has eaten away at me a little bit more in the prep. I think kind of exacerbated that to the max, where it was like, hey, I’m not having meals with my family anymore. I don’t feel like the same person.
I have a shorter temperament. I really don’t like the way that I’m behaving here. And it’s kind of showing me all these different things. Okay. These are areas that I really want to work on and that I should work on because I want it to be going forward, that if I’m going to keep doing this thing, I really want it to integrate with the rest of my life where it’s not, you know, you’re getting comments about, oh, you know, you.
You seem different or like, you. You know, you’re. Maybe you’re a little bit grumpy or whatever. Whatever it is, I want it to be more seamless. So no matter what my goals are, what I’m doing, it doesn’t affect as much the people around me, and it doesn’t affect the way that I carry myself throughout the. Throughout the world. So I think what I’m taking into next year is a lot of the things that I’ve maybe told myself that I have to do.
I’m letting go of a lot of that, so it’ll be interesting for me to explore this. But, for instance, start going into the gym with a general idea of what I want to do, but not having an exact training plan, that’s something that I haven’t done. And that’s when I think about what used to bring me a lot of enjoyment in the gym. It was when I was first starting out and I didn’t know anything, and it was like, this magical world to explore and figure out.
Ooh, like, should try this bicep exercise today. Like, that’s gonna be so fun. Or like, ooh, what if I just did, like, an arm day today? Like, that sounds really cool. And I think this past year, I kind of lost a little bit of, like, that passion or that love.
Dani:
You’re like, these are the six ideal exercises for my body.
Ben:
Or just, like, you know. You know, I’m somebody who follows my training plan to a T, and I’m not going to alter it, and I’m going to, like, force myself to do the same exercises every single time. And these are the days that I said I’m going to go to the gym and I’m going to do it this way and I’m going to eat my meals this time and I’m going to bed at this time.
And I think it kind of has gotten to the point where feeling like I have to do something, I don’t like that feeling. Like I’ve been thinking a lot about where do I want to live. And I’ve realized that I don’t like feeling tied to a particular place. I like to have the freedom to go to other places. And so I think it’s kind of this theme of like autonomy and letting things flow a little bit more and not having to have everything figured out, which is how my life has been the past couple years.
Very rigid, very structured, very, this is the way that things are and I’m not going to change. And so I feel like this next year for me is going to be a lot of like I’m going to just be a little bit more flowy with things. And I, the way I think of this is it’s like the four stages where there’s unconscious incompetence, then there’s conscious incompetence, then there’s conscious competence, then there’s unconscious competence. So getting to the point where, you know, you think
about like a musician or a basketball player, they can improvise because they know all the rules and they’ve learned all the things right and that’s something that you couldn’t do when you were first starting out. And I feel like I’ve gotten to that point now where I’ve done all the things I know what’s like, what’s optimal or what, you know, what you theoretically should do. And that gives me the freedom to be a little bit more free flowing.
Dani:
You know the rules.
Ben:
I don’t have to eat four meals every day, I can eat three, I can eat six. I can let things flow a little bit differently. As long as I’m training these muscles a certain number of times per week, it doesn’t have to be on these X days and I don’t have to go at the same time every single day. So I think it’s just giving myself the permission to do that. And my, my motto has that I’m thinking about going to the air is just, just like I want to make bodybuilding fun again for me.
And so I don’t know necessarily what that’s going to look like. And it could change week to week, month to month. But I kind of come back to the fact that if you’re doing the big rocks, if you’re eating your protein, if you’re getting good sleep, if you’re resistance training and seeing some progression, that’s like 80 to 90% of it. And who knows, maybe even more so.
I take comfort in that and knowing that that’s what I would say to a client that I was coaching and what I, you know, I know that a coach would say to myself. So of course there are theoretical things that are more optimal on paper, but I think about what is going to keep me actually, like, enjoying doing this thing. And that’s, that’s the most important thing.
Dani:
And if you don’t burn yourself out doing that final few percent now, when you actually need them in that game of inches, when you’re actually prepping or whatever, you’ll still, you’ll have the motive. You’ll be like, oh, this is new and exciting again to be so regimented.
Ben:
Yeah. And I’ve also thought about the fact, like, do I even want to compete, like, for, for the bodybuilding category? Like, I think about my prep and at what point it felt like really, really hard versus like, oh, this is pretty easy. And I would say the first, like 3/4 to 4/5 of my prep felt really easy. And I’m like, getting to that point, I could have probably competed in classic and done pretty well.
So I’m like, maybe I just don’t compete in like, like shredded glute bodybuilding and I compete in, in classic and that allows me to transition a little bit more. Still, still, you have to, I don’t want to make it sound easy still. You have to get quite lean and it’s, and it’s hard. It’s not, it’s not necessarily any easier, but I’m thinking about those things like, okay, is there a different way to bodybuild to what than what I’m doing right now that can allow me to do these things like
travel and to be a little bit more spontaneous and just enjoy 20, 30, 40 years I have of this? And, and if I want to go back to doing the monk thing, monk mode thing, where I just lock in and do the same thing every day, maybe I will. But right now I’ve realized that forcing myself into that isn’t something that’s appealing at all. And so I’m not going to. Not going to do that.
Dani:
I think that’s super relatable.
Giacomo:
Yeah, actually very much so.
Dani:
You know, Realizing that you don’t have to be absolutely obsessive about every single detail and still be really, really good is something that I feel like you can only really get to when you’ve paid your dues of being really, really obsessive for a while. And I sometimes feel that way just even coaching people where it’s like, you know, I’m telling them, you need to track your food, you need to do this, you need to do that right now, because these are your goals and this is what it’s
going to take to get there. While I don’t, I don’t do some of those things, because I don’t. And I could probably still reach those similar goals. Goals and not do it, but it’s because I did it, like, for like a thousand days straight without stopping, you know? And I feel like we all look at these influencers. Not we all, but in general, like, people look at these influencers who are all intuitively eating and have abs, and it’s like, yeah, that’s what they’re
doing now. But like, you missed the era where they were neurotic, like, to the nines, so that they could one day be, like, much more chill about it. So that’s exciting for you.
Ben:
So, yeah, that’s kind of things from a personal perspective then from a coaching perspective, continue to coach more people, gain more experience, be a better coach. Yeah, I think I, I mentioned a good amount of life stuff, just like, wanting to travel more and just get more experiences, living different places, perhaps mending, slash strengthening some relationships that were not tended to over the past year or so. That would definitely be on the list there.
Dani:
That’s one of the hardest prep lessons, I think. And, you know, you probably before you went through your bodybuilding prep, I’m sure you heard people like, like Eric Helms saying things like, you know, you want most of your bodybuilding prep to be like, nobody would even know you were prepping. And it’s like you hear that and you get it, but then you go through it and you’re like, oh, like, that’s, that’s what they were talking about was like those subtle personality changes that
happen that everybody else around you can see before you can see. And one day you wake up and you’re like, oh, I’m kind of a dick, aren’t I? Yep, yep. Yeah, bodybuilding costs a lot.
Ben:
And, you know, I tried to do that for a lot of my prep. Like, I don’t think I really announced it to people. Part of that was because I decided to compete Kind of last second. So that that played into it. But I think in future preps, we’ll see how much I want to kind of play my hand and, like, reveal to people that I’m in it because I’m almost like, like,
subconsciously they’ll be looking for that sort of behavior more versus, oh, I didn’t notice it until you’re six weeks out or five weeks out, instead of noticing it at 12 or 14 weeks out.
Dani:
Right.
Ben:
With behavior. So, yeah, I think that’ll be kind of a challenge. I just want to make it feel more integrated because when I hear somebody like a Jeff Alberts talking about that, it kind of just flows. And the people around him know that that’s part of his life, but he makes a very active effort to integrate what he’s doing with them and not.
Dani:
Make it a separate thing.
Ben:
Yeah. And as much as, like, a burden on them as. As it could be. So that’s definitely something that I want to try to emulate myself.
Dani:
Yeah, it’s tough. I think it’s tough.
Giacomo:
It’s very tough. It’s a balancing act that is supposed to get better over time, and it typically does. But every once in a while, you can get sidelined because prep can put you into some positions where if you’re going to choose to continue, you have to go with it even if things aren’t going well in life. And that’s a hard lesson to learn. And that’s a hard pill to swallow because at the end, because most bodybuilders.
Dani:
Are not, like, easily quitters. So we end up pushing ourselves past when, like, logically, we probably should have stopped earlier.
Giacomo:
Maybe don’t get in 20,000 steps just because. Because you can’t do it. Or maybe have that extra refeed, or maybe sleep a little more instead of training more at the gym. Or maybe spend another 15 minutes speaking to somebody instead of being short with them for 30 seconds because you’re afraid of what you might say or wondering how you’re feeling around them or about.
Dani:
The energy to talk anymore.
Giacomo:
And that. Or any one of those things where the shots that you should call, you don’t, because you’re competing. And it doesn’t matter what you think you want to do in terms of ideals, lifestyle wise, you can think about that stuff all you want, but at the end of the day, you’re on a mission, and your mission is to get on stage.
And when you get up on stage, none of that stuff shows. Just what you look like shows and how you play. So it’s hard. It’s hard to call those shots when you’re in it. And it’s hard when. Cause life is not predictable. There’s that too. Life is totally unpredictable.
Dani:
What about you? What are your personal things? Yeah.
Giacomo:
Well, after my prep two, three years ago, I did not have a good time. I did not do well recovering and I put my body through the wringer. And I’ve spent like the past three years getting my body to a good place where I could go through some solid bulks and cuts, where I wasn’t wasting muscle away to take off body fat and where I was in a good position to put on more muscle.
And this year I’ve pretty much gotten to the place that I need to be in the first time in my life. Honestly, more or less. It’s been 20 years of this. Believe it or not, that’s how long it could take. And I’m finally at a place where I feel like I’m at the body composition I need to be to bulk and to cut. And it doesn’t feel like I’m trying extremely hard to do it.
And it doesn’t feel like I have to be extremely regimented and disciplined to do it. It doesn’t feel like it’s governing my life and my choices and how I feel. And now I think it’s going to get good in 2025 and I want to see if I can push it even a little harder. So that’s been this whole year. And also just accepting like what I’m actually capable of, right?
So we all have our own genetics. I have only so much muscle that I could put on. No matter how much I train, no matter how well I do things, my muscles only going to look a certain kind of way. This is the way I look, right? And I’ve come to accept that I still think about like the what ifs. All the years that I spend thinking that my muscles could look like certain kind of way, like somewhat puffy, my shape could be a certain kind of way, all while, all the while telling myself I could just
bodybuild my way into changing my shape. And yeah, I can, but like I still am gonna look the way that I’m gonna look, right? So all of that swoliosis, is that what it is? Or like bigorexia, all those things where you think that you can, you can change your body and you can believe that you can change your body through bodybuilding,
you can, but you can only change so much. Come to accept what I actually look like and what I’m actually capable. Capable of, I think for the first time in my life this year.
Ben:
It sounds like that’s more encouraging to you than anything else. And maybe it hasn’t been that way in the past.
Giacomo:
Liberating, Liberating, yes. It’s mostly just been like faith that I can body build my way into changing my shape and belief and knowing that I could continue to look better and better and telling myself well I’m just proud of how I look and what I’m capable of. But deep down inside I knew like in my heart that I was uncomfortable with my body image and I was wishing that I could change the way that I look.
Look, that’s why I got into bodybuilding first place. But I’ve totally come to accept the way that I look and what I’m capable of this year and now I’m looking forward to seeing how that plays out. Also, body composition wise, I’m finally in a good place year round where I think I’m primed to really shape my body in a way where I think it’s going to look as good as my body could possibly look. And I’m hoping that all of those personal lessons that I have finally been able to learn and
employ, I’m hoping that I’m able to pass this along to everyone here that’s watching and to all my clients that’s my goal is to get them to be able to accept their body because I’ve finally gotten there 20 years later competing 30ish years later, working on wanting to look different than I looked. Had I not. Yeah, long journey. So it’s been a pretty good year for me in that regard.
Ben:
Danny?
Dani:
Oh this I guess it was, was a pretty good year for me. I had set a big goal. Well my motto for the year, for this past year was let go or get dragged like because I have like a death grip on a lot of things. So the idea was to like chill out and try to find some sense of balance I guess. And I would say that that was a fail on. I mean it’s not something that you can wake up and be like oh, today I found the balance.
So I’m just going to check that off. But it was not for lack of effort. I got a lot of like non work stuff in. Like as I was writing out the stuff that I did this year I was like oh that was a lot of, a lot of stuff that we did. But if you have turned relaxation into a task that you have to achieve as efficiently as possible, have you actually, actually achieved It.
So I would say no. Still working on that. And I do have some strategies for 2025 that I’m hoping will help with that. This could be a lifelong endeavor of trying to just be able to relax. It’s just not something I’m very good at in most ways. It was a very good. A lot of the stuff, the actual things on my list that I wanted to do this year, I did. Like, we traveled a fair bit.
We tacked on extra days to see friends in certain cities. I learned to scuba dive. I did all of this cool stuff with the kids. So all of that was really, really great. So it’s like, you see that list, and you’re like, okay, why don’t I feel better then? Since I did all of the things? And it’s. It’s probably much like when people set out for a fitness goal and they think, okay, well, If I lose 20 pounds, everything, I’m gonna be better.
Everything’s gonna be better as soon as I lose 20 pounds. It’s a very similar con. You lose the 20 pounds, and you’re like, nope, that wasn’t it. So it’s probably similar in that regard. So I don’t. I don’t have any, like, regrets or anything from this year. I think everything that happened was positive. Even this little staycation we took the last week.
Last week, yeah, was really hard for me. Like, I just sucked so bad at it to the point that it surprised me how hard it was. It’s like, this should be good, not bad. And even in that, probably similar to your prep. Like, there’s a lot to take from that. Like, there’s a lot to learn from that that I wouldn’t have known had we not done it, because we’ve never done that before.
We’ve never taken a week off just to take a week off. So how would I know that that would make me want to climb the walls? I wouldn’t. So now I know. Yeah. Trying to find a way to take some mental load sort of off my plate for the next year. Trying to incorporate shorter stints, like. Like some Fridays. Like, maybe take some Fridays off and see if I can tolerate that better than a five days off in a row.
That’s kind of what’s on the plate for the next year. And then as far as training and nutrition and stuff went super well. I can’t complain at all. This was one of the best training years I’ve had since probably 2018. I got sidelined a couple of months ago with this terrible shoulder injury that’s still going on, so that’s kind of a bummer. But I’m not. It’s going to get better. I’m going to get it better nutrition wise. You know, I did a little mini cut at the beginning of the year to lose
10 pounds or something and I’ve for the most part kept that off without much effort. That’s the thing is like for me, if you have to, if you have to white knuckle it the whole time, I don’t want it. But this was like, like with very little effort, just moving, I started doing cardio. I’m actually kind of liking it, which is surprising. So yeah, all, all good things. I have stuff to learn and stuff to work on, but all, all good things for the most part.
Ben:
I also started doing cardio, but I don’t like it.
Dani:
I got tricks, I got tricks for you to like it.
Giacomo:
You play sports outside of bodybuilding?
Ben:
Yeah. Ultimate Frisbee. I’ll get back into that maybe.
Giacomo:
Can you. Do you run in ultimate free Frisbee? Yeah.
Ben:
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Dani:
It’s like soccer with a frisbee, right?
Ben:
Yes.
Giacomo:
Okay, so that’s cardio then.
Ben:
Soccer times, basketball times Frisbee. Yeah, yeah, we’ll see, we’ll see.
Giacomo:
Okay.
Ben:
Was there anything else thinking about this year, next year that you feel like we had mentioned or.
Dani:
I don’t think so. I mean, keep your eyes on the content, guys. If there’s stuff you want to hear about. Like, I know we say this all the time, but put it in the comments, Put it in the comments. And you know, we really look at those and, and I painstakingly slave over spreadsheets to decide what kind of content we’re gonna make. So let us know because we wanna make the content that you wanna see. But that’s it. If you wanna be part of our meetup in June, work with us now.
Just saying, if you guys are interested in coaching, shoot us a message. Coacheganproteins.com that’s the email. Or you can just go to veganproteins.com and fill out a coaching application there. I think that’s it. If you like the video, hit like button. Hit the bell. Subscribe all the things I’m supposed to tell you to do at the end of a YouTube video and we will talk to you soon.
Giacomo:
Bye everyone.
