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Transcript
- 06:35 About AJ Mihrzad
- 09:13 AJ’s Success Mantra
- 10:31 Methods for Achieving Transformation
- 11:30 Working with Clients
- 13:18 What Prevents People From Reaching their Health Goals
- 15:02 Psychology and the Mind-Body Connection
- 17:50 The Mind Body Solution
- 20:36 What’s New for AJ Mihrzad
- 22:13 The Online SuperCoach Podcast
- 23:33 The Most Pressing Health Issue in the World Today
- 30:13 Where to find AJ Mihrzad
Wendy Myers: Welcome to the Live to 110 podcast. My name is Wendy Myers and you can find me on myersdetox.com. You can find the video podcast in the corresponding blog post and on my YouTube channel WendyLiveto110, go there and subscribe.
Today, we are interviewing AJ Mirzhad. He has at OnlineSuperCoach.com and we’re going to be talking about his book, The Mind Body Solution. A Permanent Solution to Weight Loss and all about how your mindset affects your ability to lose weight and all about how he helps to train coaches, health coaches, to turn their passion into their dream in a way to make a living as well. So, great interview today.
But please keep in mind that this program is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or health condition and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. The Live to 110 podcast is solely informational in nature. So, please consult your healthcare practitioner before engaging in any treatment that we suggest on the show.
And I want to talk to you a little bit about my own personal story. For many, many years, I suffered from depression and I have had just a lot of mental issues over my life. I was just unhappy because I had not found my life’s purpose.
Now, I finally found my life’s purpose which is helping you to get healthy. I wake up every day excited. I wake up really early, too early sometimes, five or six a.m. in the morning, because I’m so excited to get up and work and really enjoy and love what I do every day and helping you guys get healthy.
But it wasn’t always like that and I think the key to happiness and the key to have a good mind, body set is to find your purpose. I think that’s when people feel truly fulfilled. Some are very lucky to find that early. I was a late bloomer. I didn’t find it for a while. But I know a lot of you out there are suffering from depression in various ways. That’s why I doing neurotransmitter testing for my clients.
When I did it for myself, I don’t know what took me so long to do it in the first place, but when I finally tested my neurotransmitters and found that I was low in just two – one is called PEA and for that, I supplemented a simple amino acid called phenylalanine and that completely took away my brain fog. I was able to focus on my work every day and I just could not believe how much better my brain is functioning just from taking a simple amino acid.
Before that, to get my PEA, I was doing it through food and PEA is abundant in chocolate. And so what I was doing was I was eating a gigantic chocolate bar every single day because I found when I did that about two or three o’clock, I just made a connection. I could focus more. I was much more involved in my work and able to really write really fast. My ideas are coming. That was what I was looking for, so that I could be creative and do what I do, writing a blog, et cetera.
But obviously not a good solution over a couple of years, I put on 20 pounds with that solution that I had come up with and it was also my dirtym little secret as a health coach. I’m telling people not to eat sugar and here I am everyday eating chocolates, stuffing my face with chocolate because biology will always overcome willpower. My body was seeking PEA that it needed for my brain to work.
Since supplementing with phenylalanine, I haven’t eaten sugar since. I have not eaten sugar in two months. A couple of times, I had a couple bites of dark chocolates, what have you. But old habits die hard. But I really have not had any cravings, those white-knuckle cravings that many of you are having come two or three p.m. during the day when you’re seeking an energy rush or a boost for your brain function or what have you.
And I know a lot of women out there are chocoholics because I hear from you all the time. You’re emailing me and struggling like I was with your addictions to sugar or chocolate or whatever it may be.
So, I just want to encourage you to test. Do a neurotransmitter screen. They’re available on the Live to 110 store at store.myersdetox.com and for me, it’s life-changing. It really dramatically changed my life for the better. I’m so much happier.
The other neurotransmitter I was low in was GABA. I just found that I wasn’t sleeping so great and even if I slept eight hours, I would still feel tired the next day. I realized based on my neurotransmitter test that I needed to take GABA. So I take phenotropic GABA. It’s phenylated which crosses the blood brain barrier and it’s much, much more effective than the typical forms of GABA that you find in most stores and health food stores, et cetera, and online.
So, I started taking GABA, amazing sleep! I’d fall asleep easier. It used to take me half an hour to sleep. I sleep so much better during the day and I have more brain focus the next day and reduced anxiety as well.
Just these two simple changes and these two inexpensive amino acids have dramatically changed my life, so I really encouraged you to seek the same so that you can you can feel better and live your best life.
Our guest today is AJ Mihrzad. He is the author of the best-selling book The Mind Body Solution: Train Your Brain For Permanent Weight Loss where he proves that key to a better body that is in shape, energized and youthful is a healthy brain.
AJ is a Fitness professional and has a Masters in psychology. He’s also been featured in the Huffington Post, Men’s Fitness and on BodyBuilding.com and he’s a key note speaker in various events. AJ is dedicated to helping fit pros and health coaches to create an ethical and profitable online income at OnlineSuperCoach.com.
AJ, thank you so much for coming on the show!
AJ MIHRZAD: Hey, Wendy! Thank you so much for having me!
Wendy Myers: Well, why don’t you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself and how you got into fitness?
AJ MIHRZAD: Oh yeah, sure! So, I was a former chubby kid turned personal trainer. I was overweight for most of my life. I was 60 pounds at my heaviest. I had man-boobs, big-old chipmunk cheeks and a huge stomach.
I was very insecure about my weight for many years. It wasn’t until in my early 20s when I said, “Enough is enough!” I couldn’t bear just the pain that I have, both physically and mentally, and I decided to really figure out how to get myself into shape.
And I was clueless when I first started because it was 20 years of being overweight having bad habits. I would be in a diet for a week and then stuff my face with Oreos and screw everything up.
Wendy Myers: That’s what a lot of people do. A lot of people do that.
AJ MIHRZAD: One step forward, one step back. And it wasn’t until I hired a personal trainer and then a nutritionist that I learned things the right way. I was like, “Wow! This is actually working. I’m doing things properly.”
And about a year’s time with professional help, I got myself in shape. I lost the 60 pounds. The chipmunk cheeks disintegrated and I actually had a six-pack. I was very skinny but lean. I was like, “Wow! This is such a big transformation!”
It really changed my life. I had a lot of self-confidence and more energy. But it made me realize that I really wanted to help others with their own personal transformation. I saw how much fitness just gave a new world of possibilities. So, I decided to go back to school and I majored in Bachelor Science in Nutrition. I really got into the ins and outs of understanding the mechanics of nutrition and biomechanics of the body. I started a personal training business and that just took off.
Being overweight my entire life, I had a great way of connecting with people and I understood their pain and how difficult it is to be on a diet and exercise. So, I was able to get some really profound transformations and word got around and my business grew from there.
I became so engulfed in understanding the ins and outs of fitness that I went back to school for psychology to take on my Masters’ degree. And that was a game changer. That allowed me to change my program in a very profound way.
Then over the years, I did a lot of things with online fitness. I wrote a book called The Mind Body Solution, which became a best-seller. And now, I’m just really trying to branch out and spread my personal story of transformation and help more people in the process.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. So, you have a mantra that I really liked. We talked about it at some point. So, what is your success quote, the mantra that really gets you fired up?
AJ MIHRZAD: Sure. I had a mentor, he’s name is Joe Polish. He said this one success quote to me and it changed my life and it says, “Be willing to destroy anything in your life that is not excellent.”
It allowed me to just look at everything that I’m doing and what is taking up my time, what is my lowest leverage point. I wanted to do things at my highest ideal. I want to simplify, so I could multiply.
So, I approached everything in life through that lens. And if something’s not working, let it go. Stop it. I focus activities that I love, that give me flow, be around people that give me energy. So anything in life that is not excellent, I’m willing to destroy.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. I love that. I feel that I am living that truth as well myself and letting go of people and projects and relationships that just don’t work. I just don’t enjoy them or they don’t serve you in some way or bring you down. You have to let them go, so you can be your best self. So, I love that. I really identify with that.
AJ MIHRZAD: Absolutely! Like that simple adage. If they lift you up, pull them close. If they bring you down, push them away.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. Exactly! So, after you became a fitness professional, what methods help you achieve your clients’ transformations?
AJ MIHRZAD: I found that once I went back to school to get my masters in psychology, just really understanding the inner workings of the mind and really seeing that we live in the information age. So, nutrition and exercise, that information is so readily available and its application, getting people to actually implement and take action with it.
So, understanding different ways to build a person’s discipline and understanding just human behavior, habits, all these different elements. And with that, I really transformed my program to focus more on, I guess , working on the inside out, right? Because when you get the inside right, the outside takes care of itself.
So, understanding that that is the core of my program, the mindset and then from there, we focus on the outer things like what to eat and what exercises to do.
Wendy Myers: So, what are some of the other things that like – how do you work with you clients? Do you work on their mind, body concepts? What kind of things do you do with them?
AJ MIHRZAD: So, what I do with them is really understanding what is causing the weight gain from the internal level. We all know that when you’re stressed out, your body releases a lot of cortisol. That can be a negative factor. It could be that just you’re so busy, your mind is so overactive that your –doing something called decision fatigue where your life is chaotic and you’re not allowing yourself to really simplify things to follow a regimented eating plan or make some time to go to the gym.
So, it’s really understanding like where a person is and what is the root cause of their weight gain because a lot of people that come to me, they’ll be on diets for like two, three months, lose weight and then gain it all back. And it’s like something within them that is sabotaging their success. Why can’t they can continuously lose weight or keep it all? Just getting to the root of that.
So, I’m very big on getting really deep into my clients’ minds in terms of using questionnaires, really deep, deep questions in terms of coaching to real issue. But also, I employ a lot of mindfulness, I find even with myself – for many years, when I was overweight, I couldn’t sit through a diet. I was just having a lot anxiety and feeling depressed. So many thoughts were circulating that I couldn’t really focus. It’s like how can I now develop daily habits that clear my mind and clear my thoughts, so I could focus on implementing small and simple tasks.
Wendy Myers: Is there anything else that you do? So, what are the main things that you find with your client that really prevents them from success and reaching their health goals and their fitness goals and their weight goals?
AJ MIHRZAD: I feel the main thing is that a lot of people, they follow a program and they look at it like it’s like a chore in a sense. It’s not a lifestyle change. It’s like, “Alright! Well, I have to be on this boring diet, which I hate. I have to go to the gym two to three times a week. I have to do these things that I don’t feel like doing.”
We are humans and we like the path of least resistances. So when we create this resistance for ourselves, we are not going to stick to it long term. So, how can we create a program that is more a lifestyle shift that perhaps is not just jumping into a very strict diet initially or doing morning cardio every day. It’s basically easing into it and taking baby steps.
I like to use progressive overload. Basically, maybe if you want to improve your diets, starting like 10% at a time, adding a little bit of cardio here and there. It doesn’t have to be 30, 45 minutes at a time and then easing yourself into it. You taper into a very progressive program. And over time, you become accustomed to it, you enjoy it, but also, giving a person a variety.
Picking foods that they enjoy, giving them recipes that they don’t mind eating all day long, doing exercise, doing activities. It doesn’t have to be on a boring treadmill. It can be outdoors or doing Zumba, something that is really enjoyable for them.
So, just finding how you can incorporate a healthy lifestyle that doesn’t feel like it’s this discipline that is taking over your life.
Wendy Myers: How do you get into psychology and helping make that mind/body connection to your clients?
AJ MIHRZAD: I guess it was my own overactive mind. I think most of you out there that end up studying psychology, they want to fix themselves.
I think the big shift was prior to me getting to the point where I wanted to lose weight and make a big shift, I was overweight, I was 60 pounds and I was very unhappy, but in my early 20s, I also drink a lot and I was using drugs and I just couldn’t turn this mind off. So, I was partying in during the weekends and it was always trying to escape from something.
So, then I was like, “Well, fitness is going to get me there.” So, I took off all my addictive habits and I focused on the gym. So, going for sometimes two or three hours a day, I was eating nothing but like lettuce and turkey just trying to lose the weight. So, I was like just like going to another extreme.
Wendy Myers: Rolling them up, the lettuce and turkey?
AJ MIHRZAD: Oh, yeah. Yeah! I was eating boiled egg. Oh, my God! I’m full. It was like a supermodel diet.
I was at a point where after a year’s time when I loss the weight and I became skinner, I had a six-pack, people would see me and I felt more confident and I felt like, “Wow! I’m a different man. However, I still felt unhappy,” realizing that even if I transformed myself physically, there was still something missing.
I really realized it. “Wow! This doesn’t make sense. I thought that I would find happiness and fulfillment with this new body that I have, but I still felt insecure.”
And of course, two decades of dealing with depression and addictions doesn’t go away just by getting a great body. So, how can I retrain myself within to be happy with myself, to get to a point where I’m fulfilled? So if I screw up (like during the holidays, I gained 15 pounds), I’m not going to get all depressed about it. Part of life is the journey. So, it’s not focusing on end goals.
So, that led me to understand why am I not fulfilled? What can I do to become happier? So, the more I understood the mindfulness and in psychology, I came to understand how our minds work, how to have everything, to have a great physique, be healthy, but at the end of the day, love yourself.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. I think women have a lot of problems with really loving themselves, really accepting themselves. I’ve certainly fallen victim to this as well for many, many years where they think that, “If I could be five pounds thinner, then I’d be happy.” It has to be a bug, you’re right about that.
Wendy Myers: Can we talk about a little bit about what’s the philosophy behind your bestselling book The Mind Body Solution and some of the solutions that you give people to psych themselves out to feel good about their bodies.
AJ MIHRZAD: absolutely. So, the philosophy behind is a lot of what I went through in my own personal journey of being overweight for many years. And then finally losing the weight, but still feeling unhappy. Really, a lot of my story in what I overcame, the lessons I’ve learned and then I get into a lot of tactical exercises, a lot of it is just to be in the moment.
It is one of the hardest things. It’s one of those theoretical things like, “Live now! The past doesn’t matter. Who cares about the future? Live now!” So, I said “How can you live in the moment?”
And I understood that there are things you can do on a daily basis that make you more present. And by training yourself to be more in the now, you will be a lot happier, a lot more fulfilled. But at the same time, you’ll make better decisions.
I don’t know what the exact statistics is, but we have 80.000 thoughts a day per se, right? Your mind’s always thinking. It’s very overactive. And that causes a lot of chaos because you’re thinking about something that happened in the past or thoughts about the future. When you get even 10% of clarity, it makes all the difference.
A lot of is like doing things like meditation. When you’re eating, being a lot more mindful and sometimes even closing your eyes and eating slowly and savoring the food. Those are a few practices. Or even when you’re exercising, to be there, to be fully engulfed with your headphones on, listening to music, just be involved in the exercises and don’t think about anything. So, it’s like less thinking more living.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. I really employ that exercise as well where I really try to focus on my food and really enjoy the taste of it, chew it slowly. I sit down quietly. There are not a lot of distractions. I’m not watching television, just relaxing and really being in the now with my food. There are a lot of people that they’re eating their meal and they’re horsing it down and they’re not psychologically fulfilled by it, so they eat more. And I think…
AJ MIHRZAD: Yeah, that is true. Satiety usually kicks in around 20 minutes. So, if people are scoffing their food down (sometimes not even sitting down because they live such a busy lifestyle), they’re not even full. The body doesn’t sense that point of fullness and they’re eating more. It’s like eating slowly has shown that the food digest slower, but also people that eat slower end up gaining less body fat because you process it much better and you stop right when you get full at the proper time.
Wendy Myers: You have a lot of projects going on right now. But what are you most excited about that you want to share with listeners?
AJ MIHRZAD: Sure! That’s a great so far. It gets me fired up. I had a significant change when I took my passion of fitness and helping people and took it online because I love just helping people get results and transformations. So, being a one-on-one personal trainer severely limited me because I was only able to take on clients within the hours in the day.
So I get up from 5am work until 10pm and the first couple of years, I could handle. Sure, I love what I do and I’m passionate, but then I got really burnt out to the point where I just hated going to work and I dreaded the hours.
I started an online business that just made a world of difference because it allowed me to now take my skills and expertise and leverage it and also use my superpowers. We have different ways of expanding our reach whether it’s through speaking, through video, through writing. It allowed me to reach more people. So I just wasn’t able to focus on the people in my local area. I had an international business.
And upon doing this, I was like “Wow! This really changed my life.” The same way when I lost weight, it was a transformation! This was a business transformation. It really allowed me to reach more people, write a book, just do all these things I’ve always dreamed about doing. So, I started a business where I helped personal trainers and health coaches, people that are in a service-based business expand on their talents, to leverage time and expertise and to help more people in the process.
Wendy Myers: And so, you even have a podcast where you’ve helped health entrepreneurs become better entrepreneurs. I was a guest on it. Thank you for having me on. So, can tell us a little bit more about that?
AJ MIHRZAD: Sure, I have a podcast called Online Super Coach. And Wendy, you are an awesome guest! You just gave so much value you were out-of-the box with the stuff you were saying. Most people, when they come on the podcast, it’s like they’re discussing how they created their brand and how they helped people, just these very generic answers. The answers you gave were very unique which I love.
Really, I want to show people that they can monetize they passion. So, I’d like to give different perspective. It’s like different type of coaches – dating coaches, health coaches, nutritionists, just a wide variety of them. But just seeing that if you are really passionate and you’re willing to do the work to understand the technical aspects of marketing and sales and having an online presence, you’re now able to reach people on a larger scale.
So, one of my main objectives is to really feature successful people just like you who’ve taken their passion and reached the masses and shared how they did it.
So, my podcast is for anyone who has an idea, has a philosophy and they wanted to help more people with it. So what are the building blocks, what are the step-by-step strategies that they could bring their message out into the world.
Wendy Myers: Well, I have a question that I’d like to ask for all of my guests. What do you think is the most pressing health issue in the world today?
AJ MIHRZAD: Great question! This is very near and dear to me because it goes back into my whole study of psychology and just understanding how both – it’s very beneficial. It’s not to say that the mind is that, but the mind is very hazardous as well.
Over the past six months, two very close friends of mine committed a suicide. It was a big shock to me, they’re both young. And on the exterior level, it seemed like they had everything going on their life. It was a total shock, total out of the blue.
When it happened, it really hit me hard. Of course, I still think about them from day to day It’s just very sad that a young person will take their own life.
So, realizing why did that happen, on their suicide notes, it was “I can’t turn brain off. I can’t stop thinking. I can’t live like this anymore.” Right then and there, you’ll see that there was something within their own beliefs that committing suicide, taking their own life was a better solution than living with an overactive mind.
So, realizing how hazardous this overthinking is because it could lead a person to brink of taking their own life and at the same time, it can lead a person to overeating or being stressed out, being unhappy.
So, just understanding the effect of a person’s mindset on their quality of life because I feel like it’s not just happiness that it affects, it affects your fitness, your nutritional choices, your relationships. So, I really want to get into the core of giving people the opportunity to not only share if they’re going through a stressful time or they’re having moments when they’re in despair and they don’t have any options, having the ability to talk and vent, but just bringing more awareness to the subject.
I think that in this day and age, we live in this world where we have social media, all these things are competing for attention and I feel like that there’s a lack of intimacy. Even though we’re so connected, there’s a way that we’re not having these deep conversations. And many times, we are not able to open up to certain people in our lives.
Just giving more awareness to that, just overall in health, the aspect of just looking within ourselves. You don’t have to do what I did, go and master psychology, but reach out to a coach, go to a therapist, go to trained professional who could help you.
I think at the end of the day, I always think back to my friends and say, “If there’s one conversation I could’ve had to stay a little bit longer, to keep on going, could I have done anything to stop them from committing suicide?” It breaks my heart. I always say that what I could do right now is bring more awareness to the subject and make people realize that that is not a solution. That should not even be an option. There are ways to get out of it. It’s not like it’s a permanent thing that’s going to happen. Suicide is a permanent solution for a temporary instance.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. I definitely understand. I was depressed for many years. I can understand that mindset very well. I also had a cousin that committed suicide. He was schizophrenic. He developed that in his 20s. He killed himself and it was devastating.
I think it’s sad because many people do reach that are depressed or have mental issues, they do reach out to people, but the traditional model of care does not work very well. I think that they are many psychiatric professionals are guessing at what’s wrong with people. They do talk therapy (which is great. That’s very, very helpful. Studies show that it helps), but psychiatrists that are dispensing psychotropic medications do no testing whatsoever to find out what is wrong with their patients.
And I love Dr. Daniel Amman who is a big proponent (he’s a psychiatrist) of doing brain scans or doing some kind of testing to figure out what is wrong with people so that you could appropriately treat them.
Many times, the psychiatric professionals today are missing the big picture that they are not even paying attention whatsoever to mineral deficiencies in the brain and to heavy metal and chemical toxicities that overstimulate the brain and cause their brain to ruminate and to be overstimulated where they can’t turn off their brains off. And even just simple amino acid replacement therapy, it’s so simple to do. Even a simple neurotransmitters test, a urine transmitter test can give a wealth of information.
A lot of professionals are not doing this and I think it’s wrong because when people don’t get their solutions, when they aren’t able to calm their brain down, they feel that the only way out is kill themselves. I think that’s the travesty and there needs to be change in the mental health profession.
AJ MIHRZAD: I agree. That’s a really great points. Sometimes, it’s not just seeing a therapist or psychologist. It’s actually getting your neurotransmitters checked. It’s simple blood test, mineral test…
Wendy Myers: Just anything, something!
AJ MIHRZAD: Yes, something. There are always solutions. There are always ways to fix the issue.
Wendy Myers: Yeah.
AJ MIHRZAD: Asimple diagnosis to say, “Oh, your serotonin levels are low… your dopamine, it’s not secreting itself at high levels,” you pinpoint the issue and find a solution, take a medication or whatever it is. I’m glad you bought that up because that’s getting right to the core of the issue.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I think that I’ve got a couple of friends that are under the care of psychiatrists and they first start with SSRI and, “Let’s see if that works!” And if that doesn’t work, then they give them something else. They give them an anti-psychotic drugs like Seroquel or something, “Let’s see if that works!” If that doesn’t work, they’ll add a third medication or they’ll increase the medication.
It’s just completely insane to me to do that, to be giving medications like that that have side effects without any kind of testing. So, that’s my personal opinion.
Wendy Myers: So, why don’t you tell our listeners about where they can find you and anything you think you want your listeners to know?
AJ MIHRZAD: Absolutely, Wendy. So, you could check out my book on Amazon. It’s called The Mind Body Solution: Train Your Brain for Permanent Weight Loss. Name AJ Mihrzad. You can find me on Facebook. I’m pretty active there. Feel free to add me. I would love to talk to you if you got any value from this interview. And that’s www.Facebook.com/AJFit.
If you’re interested in taking your passion or service or philosophy out in the marketplace, you want to have a tangible system, I actually wrote a book and it’s on my website OnlineSuperCoach.com. It’s a quick read, but it’ll give you the exact framework on how to take your idea, how to attract your ideal clients, how to sell and convert your services to sign them up to becoming coaching clients and then third, how how to leverage your time and expertise so you could serve people on a greater scale.
If you go to my website www.OnlineSuperCoach.com/freereport you can download the book there. It’s a PDF. It’s usually downloaded in an instant. You’ll get the entire pdf, the step-by-step process. And very quickly, it will give you a framework on how you bring your ideas onto the marketplace.
Wendy Myers: AJ, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I really appreciate it.
AJ MIHRZAD: This is awesome, Wendy! Thank you so much for having me.
Wendy Myers: Everyone, thank you so much for listening to Liveto110 podcast. You can find me on my website, myersdetox.com. And you can find my new health program, BodyBioRehab.com where I help you to fight adrenal fatigue and get your energy back. You =can learn about my healing and detox program at MineralPower.com, which I blab about all the time on the podcast at MineralPower.com. Thank you so much for listening to Live to 110 podcast.
