Sergei Boutenko

I am ready to launch. Thanks for having me.

Sergei Boutenko

That is a huge understatement. Yes, indeed.

Sergei Boutenko

Those of you who have followed me before know my family has been into raw food, and healthy eating was at the top of the list.

Sergei Boutenko

But in 2014, after a couple of years of just having a ton of stress in my life, I’m not making the best food decisions for myself and just indulging a little too hard. I found myself starting to gain weight rapidly, just feeling down in the pits, and self-esteem was at an all-time low.

I was going through before and after pictures on Pinterest or somewhere on the internet. What shocked me the most was not even the physical transformation but this twinkle in their eyes that people would have once they’ve achieved their fitness goals.

I started becoming envious of these people that I was seeing online and thought “Hmm. I wonder if I can do that.”

Sergei Boutenko

We’ve all seen those infomercials with the man with ripped abs who’s using the latest greatest abs machine. We all know better than to think he got it using that machine, but still, I had this idea of hope.

I embarked on a fitness journey and made myself a guinea pig for my fitness experiment. I hired a film crew to shadow me. I just jumped right in, stripped down to my speedo, had a professional photographer take my “before” pictures, and then gave myself three months where I said, “I’m going to do whatever it takes. I’m going to get to the bottom of what it takes, and is it possible?”

Sergei Boutenko

Through that, I found the genre of fitness called functional fitness, which is a pretty broad term, but it essentially means fitness that mimics everyday life. It’s not just going to the gym and doing bench presses or just working out on machines, though I do a little bit of that

Functional fitness is like doing movements that replicate life everything from digging holes to lifting stuff overhead. It’s essentially fitness that prepares you and keeps you healthy for life. That’s what I’m juiced on right now.

Sergei Boutenko

You have to be a little bit careful as with anything.

Sergei Boutenko

Whether it’s diet or fitness, be a bit careful because, in this age of information, there’s a lot of misinformation.

I don’t believe that any one recipe works for anybody.

I presume today as we continue having this discussion, you guys ask me questions, periodically, I’ll just turn those questions back to you.

Sergei Boutenko

What works for me may not necessarily work for you.  That’s my little preface.

Sergei Boutenko

For me, functional fitness included kettlebells. If you don’t know what those are, they’re huge cast iron weights that are in the shape of a ball with the handle on them. It’s a very oddly shaped weight, and when you start swinging this around, it starts engaging all of the micro muscles in your body. Not just the big muscles, but all of the stabilizing muscles, and it just works the entire core.

Sergei Boutenko

Now, before this project, I had no idea what core meant. I thought the core was just your abs, but as it turns out, your core is from your ankles up to your neck. That’s the core of your body.

Sergei Boutenko

I do that through kettle bells, BOSU balls, and yoga balls mainly.

Sergei Boutenko

Absolutely.

A funny thing about Tim Ferriss, I’m a fan of his, and sometimes, I feel like we’re the same person. Apparently, more people know about him than me, but when he talks about stuff, he’s like, “And then I’d started salsa dancing.” I’m like, “But wait a minute. I’ve been salsa dancing for ten years.” Then his like, “And then I started doing functional fitness.” It’s fun to listen to his stuff because it affirms what I’m doing.

Sergei Boutenko

Keep preaching, Luis. Keep going. I’m right there with you.

Sergei Boutenko

Absolutely, man.

Sergei Boutenko

I learned that getting in shape is a basic formula. Getting in shape is you find a program that works for you, and first and foremost that means something you enjoy doing.

I advocate that people go out and they try dance classes and kettle bells. Just find something that is exciting for you.

That’s why I chose kettlebells because when I’m swinging these suckers, snatching, and clinging them, I forget I’m doing exercise, and I trick myself. If you stick with it, the results are guaranteed

Sergei Boutenko

Going into the project of attaining true fitness, I thought, “I’m going to have to work out for six hours a day, seven days a week.” What I learned is it’s substantially less. It’s 50 minutes a day, three to five times per week. That’s a lot of time I guess, but it is so much less than I initially thought.

Sergei Boutenko

Just to give you some stats, I’d set out to do it in three months. I found that it took a little bit longer. This is not a magic pill. I got my results in four months, but I lost almost 20 pounds of weight. I went from 20%+ body fat down to less than 9 and gained 11 and a half pounds of muscle.

I felt/feel better than I ever have before just from exercising 50 minutes a day, eating five to seven small meals a day. The best part about it is unlike being a devout raw foodist, being super strict about everything, I still had a lot of joy in my life. I still get to eat out with my friends.

There’s a chapter in my new eBook called How To Cheat Like A Pro.

Having a cheat day is essential for increasing your gains, for burning fat, and just for enjoying your life.

Sergei Boutenko

This process has opened my mind to so much, and one of those things is moderation. We, humans, have this tendency to want to get extreme about stuff. I don’t yet know why this is, but certainly, in my life, this has materialized itself like this.

We immigrated to the US from Russia in 1990. We came to this country, and it blew our mind. There was just much abundance and availability. There is much interesting food that we just all freaked out and thought, “Oh my goodness! The Americans can’t do it wrong. We’re just going to eat all of their food, and it’s going to be amazing!”

In Russia back then, we didn’t have hardly anything. We had cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and vodka.

Sergei Boutenko

Apparently, the standard American diet led us to sickness, and it didn’t work. Then, we went to the complete opposite extreme, and we were like no cooked food, only fresh fruits, vegetables, and veganism only. We did that religiously for 23 years.

The veganism diet worked for a little while but also, in the end, led us to signs of less than perfect health, and is not sustainable in the long run.

Sergei Boutenko

Then, there’s this crazy revolutionary idea that I’m only now recognizing in my 30’s. It’s that if you pick a little point somewhere in the middle, somewhere between both of those extremes, not only can you live a happy, fun life full of interactions with other people, loved ones, sharing meals, but your health, well-being will just benefit immensely from that as well.

Picking a point somewhere between both extremes will not only give you a happy and fun life full of interactions with other people and loved ones, but also, your well-being will benefit immensely.

Sergei Boutenko

That’s easy. I have three just from the top of my head.

Sergei Boutenko

1. Cut out junk food and substitute it with fresh whole food ingredients.

Everybody has a good sense of what junk food is.

At one point in my life, I went with the camera down the street, and I just wanted to figure out if people knew what they should and shouldn’t be eating. Every single person I interviewed whether they were a 10-year old kid to a 75-year old lady, they all knew things like, “I should probably eat less salt in my diet,” and “Maybe I shouldn’t eat as much meat,” or “I should eat more fruits and vegetables.”

Most people understand what junk food is. I define junk food as anything that’s over packaged and can last on a shelf for months or years without going bad. That’s junk food.

Fresh whole food is just stuff that perishes like fresh vegetables, nuts seeds, grains, that kind of thing.

Sergei Boutenko

2. Eat 5 to 7 small meals per day instead of two or three large ones.

That in this process that I’ve been on for the last two years has been invaluable to me. What I found is that insulin will spike throughout the day and crash. It’ll spike and crash.

As I did it before, I’d wake up in the morning, skip breakfast because I didn’t think breakfast was substantial. By the time lunch rolled around, I was just ravenous. I was like “I don’t care what I eat but I need food now.” My insulin was low.

Then, I would gorge my face, eat two or three huge plates of food until I was stuffed. Now, my insulin is spiked, and I’m like in a coma. People say food coma for a reason.

Sergei Boutenko

Once I’m stuffed, again, take a large break, until I’m again ravenous. Then, eat three or four more servings. In this manner, low energy and weight gain are just absolutely going to happen.

The other way to do it is to wake up in the morning, eat a large breakfast, and then eat every few hours after that until after dinner. Then basically, fast for seven hours, and that’s number three.

Sergei Boutenko

3. Consume your meal pretty early on in the evening.

I’d choose 7PM and then fast for 12 hours until you wake up the next morning.

Sergei Boutenko

The good news is you’re not alone. I think the human tendency is to do that.

Growing up in the extremist raw food field, I got to know that desire very well. Then, I have since as an adult. My eyes are open to it, and I see it in almost anything. I see it in the running community, where people are like “You know what? I’m going to run 150 miles through Death Valley in July.” It’s like, seriously? Why don’t you just try running a marathon in the forest first?

Sergei Boutenko

What helps me to stay away from that, it’s not easy. First of all, I have to say if I’m honest, I’d catch myself always wanting to revert to that, but sticky notes help. My sister helps, talking with loved ones, and just sharing ideas.

I joke about it, but I’m serious. I write sticky notes all over my house. If you go to my website iwantabsmovie.com, you’ll see that I just have reminders, and it’s just simple as that.

You just write “moderation,” and then every time you sit in front of your computer, you see that and you’re like, “Uh! I get it.