On this show I talk with Jason Ackerman of Own Your Eating!
And Subscribe At:
iTunes – Stitcher Radio – Google Play
In this episode you’ll learn about… Jason Ackerman of Own Your Eating, plus…
- What Jason’s philosophies are for eating.
- How Jason gets those ripped abs all year.
- Where you can connect with Jason.
- Why CrossFit is so great.
- And much, much more.
[inf_infusionsoft_inline optin_id=”optin_1″]
Connect with Jason Ackerman
– OwnYourEating.com
– TheJasonAckerman.com
– CrossFit Profile
– Instagram
– LinkedIn
– North Naples CrossFit
Here are the questions I asked Jason Ackerman
– What’s your story? Where are you from, what was your life like growing up, and how did that make an impression on who you are today?
– How did you get into CrossFit?
– What is a level 4 CrossFit coach?
– How did that lead into being a nutrition coach?
– What are you working towards in life?
– What are your fitness goals?
– What is Own Your Eating?
– What’s your favorite cheat day?
– We have a pretty big issue in the US with people being overweight and obese, how do you think we need to attack that issue?
Here’s the full written transcript of my podcast with Jason Ackerman
Joe Bauer:
Welcome to the allaroundjoe podcast where I share my personal experiences and athletes coach and all around self improvement Junkie, I should change that to my personal experience and my guests personal experience because on the show today I have Jason Ackerman of own your eating. Jason is a very interesting person, including a level 4 CrossFit coach. There are not many level for CrossFit coaches and in fact I think he will be the second or third that I have ever met. So Jason is very experienced. He’s bought and sold well, started and sold three CrossFit gyms. He’s just really fun guy. He’s an author, he’s writing a new book. He can help people with nutrition, with CrossFit. He’s energetic. Uh, I really can’t say enough about Jason. So I think you guys are really going to enjoy this interview.
Joe Bauer:
And before we get into it, this episode of the allaroundjoe podcast is brought to you by the get better project to get better project is my personal programming that helps you to get in shape. It is ideal for people who are working out at home or have a home gym and have done some sort of fitness in the past.
Joe Bauer:
So if you’ve gotten busy by having kids or having a career and you’re looking for somebody to follow that knows what they’re talking about and you can do your workout at home, you can interact in a group, you can ask questions, you can get your nutrition reviewed, you can have all of these things without having to make it too stressful for yourself. Head over to thegetbetterproject.com and just click on the programs like and then you want to join the get better project daily workout program. That is where it’s at.
Joe Bauer:
Right guys, without further ado, let’s jump right into my interview with Jason Ackerman of own your eating. Enjoy.
Joe Bauer:
Jason Ackerman. How’s it going man?
Jason Ackerman:
Very good. Thanks for taking the time. I’ve been enjoying catching up with you, filling me in on your van, but I’m really excited to be on your show.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah, I’m excited to have you. And you know, for those of those people that are just tuning in right now, Jason, I had been talking for the last, I dunno, 20 minutes or something about van life. So as everybody knows on the show on about nine months right now living in the van and it sounds like we need to Russell Jason into coming on the road with us
Jason Ackerman:
is that would be really awesome. Well you have room upstairs it looks like. So I will gladly hop in.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah man, I’ll get, I’ll share my calendar with you after this and we can set up some, some meetups and you and your wife and come out. We’ll just do CrossFit on the road somewhere.
Jason Ackerman:
Let’s do it.
Joe Bauer:
Cool. So I like to get to know people from, you know, how they’ve grown up, if there are any influential factors as you were growing up that got you to where you are today. Cause obviously you’ve been doing some really awesome stuff. You’re really successful at CrossFit, CrossFit coaching. Um, so if you could take us back, you know, how did you grow up? Were there any sports or influential figures or parents will figures that kind of molded you into the way that you are today? Or did you just pop out this way and then, you know, what were those factors that got you to the Jason Ackerman that is today?
Jason Ackerman:
Well, good timing for you to ask me that because I’m working on a book that kind of covers that whole story and I think most of my career can be brought back to a pivotal moment where I walked into my high school for the very first time to go to class, you know, fall of 1992 and my earth science teacher, you know, I balled me, looks me up and down and said, hey, I’d like for you to come out for the wrestling team. So that moment really impacted my life. It’s funny when you look back on your life and you’re like these little insignificant moments that really changed, you know, at that point in time I was probably about 12 no’s feel 13, 14 years old going into high school. And yeah, I was Chubby, I was unathletic. I had gone from being kind of the cool kid in elementary school to this Chubby nerd in high school because I just, you know, stop playing sports. My friends continued and I started geeking out in school and playing video games and this earth science teacher, my future wrestling coach, Mr. Ortega really changed my path.
Joe Bauer:
Very interesting. Where did you grow up?
Jason Ackerman:
So I grew up in Westchester, New York, and you know, wrestling was huge there and it wasn’t because he looked at me and was like, hey, this kid’s athletic. We need him to kick some ass on the wrestling mats. It was this kid’s 4 foot 10 and he can probably weight 91 pounds and we need to fill that void so we don’t give up six points every duel meet. And you know, he suckered me into joining. I had to, you know, I was immediately like, yeah, I want to do that. Only because I was like, cool, I’ll be part of a cool group. I’ll meet other people. I enjoyed wrestling, you know, from, uh, watching like the people on TV. I didn’t know any different, like the Hulk Hogan and the Macho Mans. I was like, cool, I would love to do that. And asked my mom, she was very hesitant. She’s like, I don’t think you should do that. It’s dangerous, you know, convinced her to let me do it. And that was that. I’ve been wrestling ever since for the last, you know, 30 years.
Joe Bauer:
And you mentioned that you had played some sports up until, was it did junior high level? What were those sports he played before that?
Jason Ackerman:
Just the typical stuff. I, you know, a little league really. I played some tennis, I was decent at tennis all the while, but you know, tennis doesn’t keep you in the same kind of condition as as wrestling does. So you know, it was a little league all star mostly again because I was small, I got walked a lot but I was decent. And then you get to that point where you know right around that middle school age, these kids are hitting growth spurts and getting stronger and better. And I just stayed the same, you know, all of a sudden I was getting struck out every time and I couldn’t get on base and I quit little league cause it wasn’t fun anymore. And you know, you go to high school, my mom puts me in the smarter kids classes, which you know, good for her. She wanted me to be a doctor, lawyer and you know, some hanging out with those kids who don’t do any activities really.
Jason Ackerman:
You know, they’re there to get smarter to go to Ivy League type schools. And I just didn’t fit in anywhere. It was no longer athletic. But I also wasn’t quite as smart as them. And I was like, well I need to find where I do fit. And it turns out, you know, it was on the wrestling mats.
Joe Bauer:
And where did you learn from wrestling in that high school experience? Like was it hard work? Was it the coach was really motivational, like you?
Jason Ackerman:
You know, it’s, it’s so strange. It’s just my, I think it was one of those things that just slowly became ingrained in my mind that I carry through to this day. And it was this mindset of not giving up. And I didn’t even realize at the time that I was doing it. You know, my freshman year I was, you know, I wound up wrestling for the 91 pound weight class, but I probably weighed about 80 pounds by the time the season got going, I just lost weight.
Jason Ackerman:
I was small and I got my butt kicked everyday by these bigger, stronger kids on the team. And it’s this weird dynamic where they’re like kicking your ass and you hate them, but deep down you’re looking up to them. You know when you’re a freshman in high school, seniors are like the coolest and they’re older and they’re strong and you’re like, wow, who are these kids? I want to be like them. And I just kept showing up day in and day out and at the end of the season I remember a couple of them pulled me aside and they were like, you know, we’re proud of you. You made it. We didn’t think you were going to stick it out. And it was like an initiation. And from that moment on, they were like my best friends for the next four years. Um, so, but it was just that mindset of not giving up and that carried through to be it, you know, going into the fitness career myself or training these days are just, you know, when it comes to being an entrepreneur, as you, as we were talking before, we got on, it’s like it’s easy to want to give up, but you know, that mindset of you’re responsible, you’re in control, you can do this.
Jason Ackerman:
And knowing that I thrive off of that mindset of doing more than I think other people can do. You know, I always tell people when it comes to a workout, I don’t need that. You can do it. I liked seeing other people fall apart and that’s what it makes me step up. Okay. I know it’s a weird, a weird thing, but it’s kind of that wrestling mentality. It’s like I want to break somebody down. Right? And I mean I want everybody to be successful this day and age, but it’s like in the middle of a workout looking over and seeing other people struggling is that mindset of like you need to push harder.
Joe Bauer:
Right. Have you read the book by David Goggins and just.
Jason Ackerman:
So funny, I’m reading it right now and as I was saying it, I was thinking about when he talks about taking souls. Yup. And that’s exempt as as the, as I was reading that I was like, that’s me. You know, obviously his, his background was a lot tougher than mine, but you know, when he’s talking about running ultras and meeting people, that mentality I’ve, you know, I used to love training at my box and doing 20 minute amwraps were my favorite because there’s that period of time where people will break and you know, 20 minute amrap if someone’s listening, you know, as many rounds as possible. Just a long workout. But I love that feeling of you’re breaking and I’m going to pick it up now. Yup. And I think that’s very much a wrestling mentality. You’re just trying to, you want to win. But a lot of times to when you have to, you know, you have to beat somebody.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah. And it’s really interesting to think about the energy that you get from that. And I feel the same way. Like if I’ve done some longer ultra marathon type things and when I pass somebody, I would get that boost of energy and it’s, I, I questioned now like where does that even come from? You know, is it coming from me? Is it coming from them? Is it coming from something that we don’t understand? But it’s, it’s very interesting to think about that.
Jason Ackerman:
Well, I had, I think it goes along with that entrepreneurial mindset. You know, I was talking, I didn’t another podcast yesterday and it was really about how, I don’t understand how people can go to work nine to five for somebody else. You know you’re in a van, you get it. Right. And it’s like, and it’s that same thing because, and it’s because it’s hard. It’s really hard to do what we do. And it’s, you know, there’s plenty of harder things out there. Don’t get me wrong, but you know, it’s hard to take that responsibility and say, all right, you know, it’s February 7th and I have to figure out how I’m making money today. Right. And if it were easy, everybody would be on the road living in a van or you know, semiretired in Florida at 40 years old. But I think, you know, it’s that same mindset of just every day, you know, I’ve been in matches and you know, I still compete in Jiu Jitsu where I’m under somebody bigger and stronger than me. And my mind goes to, okay, all you have to do is tap and this is over. And it’s the same thing in entrepreneurial life. There are days where I look at my wife and she looks at me and were like, let’s close this business, you know? And then, but we never do. And I never, you know, just like I never tapped just because I’m uncomfortable. So it’s the same principle.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah. So that’s a perfect lead into what is the, what is your business that you’re working on right now?
Jason Ackerman:
So my wife and I own own your eating. It’s a nutrition company where we help people work with macros and counting their macros and calories and regained control of their nutrition. We found most people have a decent idea of what eating well is. It’s a matter of actually doing it. And we all have that kind of messed up mentality and that misinformation. You talk to somebody that say, I know what healthy is, I know what good is and say, okay, well why aren’t you doing it? Because we all have that relationship with food and you know, just like a, our Facebook relationship status, it’s complicated. So, you know, my, and, and the reason I got so involved with it after I sold my CrossFit affiliates was because for me, all those years of wrestling really influenced the way I look at food.
Jason Ackerman:
To this day, you know, I tell everybody I’m a fat kid. Deep down inside I can eat way more than anyone I know and never. I tell people I’ve never been full once in my life. Um, and of course I have, but mentally I’m like, I can eat more eat more. And it’s fun for me to really help people see that they can change the way they look at food, improve their life, improve their relationships. Because you know, so much of what we do revolves around food and celebration or food and you know, drowning our sorrows. But you know, really we just have to understand what that represents to our lives.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah, absolutely. And what do you think or what are your coaching philosophies when it comes to the food and getting people to actually make the changes that they need to make.
Jason Ackerman:
And one of the big philosophies and lessons we teach early on is you have to eat foods you love.
Jason Ackerman:
You know, immediately when someone thinks about going on a diet, their first thought goes to, okay, what will I not be allowed to eat? I should go there right now. I should get it, you know, binge on it cause I can’t have it for 30 days. And I tell people know that, you know, that’s the wrong mentality. What you need to do is eat, learn how to eat that food, but responsibly, you know, you can eat anything you want. You can eat everything you want. So if you’re that guy or girl that loves pizza, you know, and you’re on the road and you know, whole foods make some decent pizza rather than saying, I can never eat that. I would say, hey no, you can eat that one slice. Maybe even too, you can have four or five or six every day. But anyone out there, anyone listening can eat foods they love daily be at pizza, a donut, some cookies, you know, and, and the point is you, you need to eat that food because if you don’t, we all know you’re going to anyway.
Jason Ackerman:
So it’s, it’s a matter of eating it responsibly and eating it with the intention and still staying on track. And of course you need to support that with good quality foods. You know, we eat a ton of fruits and vegetables, we eat foods that everyone agrees with, our healthy, chicken and potatoes and bananas and oatmeal. But then we also every day make it a priority to eat something we enjoy.
Joe Bauer:
Interesting. I like it. And he found that that has really opened up people’s, I kind of like idea to filling in with the rest of the quality food if they can have that thing that they really enjoy.
Jason Ackerman:
Yeah. Cause when you kind of have that goal at the end of the day, for most people that food’s kind of ended the day chill out time. Like for my wife and I, it’s like Netflix and chill type of thing. You know, watch the office, watch something to just relax our brain, relax our body and she’ll make, you know, some frozen yogurt with chocolate chips or something and I’ll have a couple of cookies or a donut or whatever I did decide for that day, but it’s really like okay that’s, if I’m good today, I get this food at the end. And sure I always wanted more, you know, if I have three or four Oreos at the end of the day, of course I want five or six or more. But that mindset of knowing, I’m going to do this again tomorrow carries me through.
Joe Bauer:
Cool. And guys, just so you know, you got to go look up a picture of Jason. Jason has ripped. So, um, what he’s, what he’s doing personally is working and I have no doubt that, you know, is how the coaching as well because man, just, just go Google, go do as well. Jason Ackerman CrossFit.
Jason Ackerman:
Well thank you. And you know, and that’s why it’s so important to me. I’m 40 years old and until I found flexible eating a little over five years ago, I ran the gamut of diets, you know, from terrible weight loss and wrestling to, I was on the bodybuilding stage doing chicken and Broccoli. I was a Yogi, you know, being a Vegan, I was a CrossFitter doing Paleo. And while I saw, you know, bits and pieces of success, meaning I looked how I wanted, it never was longterm. And I would tell you, you know, for the last five years, for the most part, I’ve had abs, you know? Sure. You know, I get bloated once in a while with travel and go a little crazy every so often. But it’s always an easy redirect right back to where I know I should be with flexible eating. So that’s why I’m passionate about it. And honestly more so than my body. It’s my mind, you know, food just controlled me where now I control it. I eat well, I feel satisfied and uh, you know, big picture is, I just feel good. I feel healthy. My, you know, numbers are all where they should be for 40 years old. You know, this day and age at 40 would check out your friends on Facebook and they’re all overweight, you know, complaining about aches and pains. Like their big goal is I’m going to run a mile by the end of the year, you know, and it’s like, hey cool, I’m not taking anything away from those people, but I don’t want to be one of them. You know, I want to be able to, you know, get out and deadlift 400 pounds and run a mile and hit a three minute Fran on any given day of the week.
Joe Bauer:
Yup. Amen. I love it. That’s fantastic. How, how much counting do you guys do? Are you keeping track in your program? Uh, you know, macros or calories or what do you, what do you do there?
Jason Ackerman:
So we use my fitness pal. Uh, we have, you know, that’s, we’re not attached to my fitness pal. Just right now happens to be the best tracking app out there. But we do have people using a few other ones, but we use my fitness pal so our, you know, our phones always nearby and you know, the, the question often comes up, doesn’t it get stressful? Like you’re attached to this. And I’m like, this stress that I get from that is, you know, far worth it to feel so good outside of it. I, I will tell you right now, if you were like, hey, you can’t track for the next week, I would be more stressed. And it’s like anything, I’m sure for you, you know, living in the van there was two to four weeks of like, how are we going to figure this out? And now it’s just second nature. Right. And it was the same, you know, for me, I don’t quite remember it, it was so long ago. But you know, we have people that start new in three days later, they’re like, my fitness pal or tracking is just so easy. It’s super intuitive. It’s, you know, we have accountants and if someone, if I talked to someone and there are a numbers guy, I’m like, you’re going to get this in two minutes. It’s just a budget. Know it’s a budget where you’re balancing protein, carbs and fat versus dollars and cents.
Joe Bauer:
Nice. Yup. I appreciate the same thing man. I, you know, you got to track it and know what you’re doing to move forward at all. So
Jason Ackerman:
Yeah, I imagine you know a lot of CrossFitters listen to your podcast.
Joe Bauer:
Yup.
New Speaker:
And it’s like the same thing when you, when you went to CrossFit and you’re like, what’s a muscle of, what’s a snatch? Like, you know, how do I do with the rest there? And now you walk in and you read the light organ, you know what to do, you know, anything. You have to battle through a little bit of complexity. And then on the other side of that, it’s super simple.
Joe Bauer:
Very true. Very true. So how did you get into CrossFit? How’d you go from wrestling to the, you said some bodybuilding, which is good. I did body building as well and then a CrossFit.
Jason Ackerman:
Yeah. You know, I was in the, you know, I think after my freshman year of, of wrestling, I was like, mom, I need to get stronger. Like I’m 80 pounds getting my butt kicked. My freshman year I won one match. Um, you know, lost like 17 by getting my butt in less than a minute. And I was like, if I’m going to continue to do this, I gotta get stronger. She, I joined the gym and you know, you’re obviously young and impressionable at that age started doing chest and tri’s type of thing. And you know, as, as wrestling went on and I got a little bigger and a little stronger, there are people at the gym that are like, Hey, you should bodybuild with us and step on stage. So I did all of that, went to college, continued to power lift and get stronger. Found Yoga for a short time out and a small yoga studio.
Jason Ackerman:
So I really did everything. But you know, at the heart of all of it, I always continued to wrestle and do Jujitsu, MMA type stuff, which I still do. And it was in 2006 we had finished, I remember vividly finished a Saturday practice and my buddy at the time, Chad, uh, pulls out muscle and fitness and he’s like, Hey Jay, do you see this Guy Chuck Liddell doing CrossFit? And I was like, you know, he knew I was a person that I was still, I stayed in the training industry. I never got a real job. And I was like, cool, let me check that out. Like most people went home, googled CrossFit, found the old site and that next day I hopped on. It was Cindy or Mary as they used to list it. Right. You can do one or the other. I had no idea how to do handstand pushups and pistol.
Jason Ackerman:
So I opted for Cindy went to the global gym that I was training people out of and you know, crushed myself and got like six or seven rounds of Cindy in 20 minutes. And I was like, I’m in, this is it. And from that day on, that’s all I did for my own job mean here and there. I’ll do a chest day or whatnot with some buddies. But I would say, you know, 99% of my training since 2006 has been CrossFit. And I started implementing it with my clients. And, and before long I was like, Hey, this is working for them and they’re loving it. Why don’t I try to get them all into the same class? Right. And I opened my first affiliate in 2007.
Joe Bauer:
And where was that?
Jason Ackerman:
So that was in Albany, in New York, upstate New York. I, I was working on like every gym in town. I was one of those trainers. I was just bouncing from gym to gym training people, teaching classes from kickboxing to yoga to spin. And the gym that I helped run was this old school racquetball court. So it’s like, it was kind of like taken from the 70s it was like preserved, like it looked like 1970 and you know, so is outdated, falling apart. And I’m looking around town from my own space to open. And then one of my clients actually said to me, hey Jay, why don’t you ask the owner if you could just rent a court? These courts are not being used, you know that there’s 18 courts, a handful get used every day. And I said, yeah. And I asked the owner, he said, sure, we’d kind of had a handshake agreement on $800 a month and you know, little did he realize five years later is a terrible decision, then he should have asked for more money, you know?
Jason Ackerman:
But neither of us knew what to expect. And that one racquetball court eventually became five and eventually became three locations. And eventually I sold that to him, to the owner of the building. And, and you know, that was that, but it was a really amazing journey along the way.
Joe Bauer:
Wow. So when you had five racquetball courts were, did you knock down walls and make it a big space, or were there just different rooms?
Jason Ackerman:
So along the way, both, you know, so I started with one court, and if, if someone’s never seen a racquetball court, it’s 20 by 40. So it’s 800 square feet of usable space in 2007. You know, Rogue Fitness was not around. So I’m fabricating everything and I am not handy, you know, I, you know, my buddy Chad actually, who introduced me to cross, it was very handy and he helped me put together, pull up bars on the wall.
Jason Ackerman:
We put together this crazy contraption for one set of rings because we needed to hang higher than the pull-up, you know, for muscle ups. Um, the floor were, um, it wasn’t even a horse stall mats. It was like these mats from Bj’s or Costco, these puzzle piece mats. And if you jump on him, they split apart, right? So we’re just damaging the floors, the walls, everything. But we’re growing. So exactly one year later I said, can I rent a second court? And I did. But there was a wall between, so I literally had two separate rooms, which imagine coaching in two separate rooms, right?
Jason Ackerman:
So I would have to run out and a, and a racquetball court door, if you’ve never been in one, is like a mini door and like Alison wonderland, like you did these small doors. So you know, I have to go out the door, go to the room next door, watch them grow again. I say, can I get a third room? This one was across the hall. So I had three rooms, kind of all kitty quarter to one another. And finally I was like, all right, I need to knock a wall down. You know. Long story short, we wound up knocking a bunch of walls down. So I had three courts on one side of the hallway to courts on the other, but I knocked down almost all the walls, those, this just massive like 5,000 square foot area. Wow. That was at the point where he’s like, cool, but you need to sign a lease. You know, cause he’s like, now you’re doing some damage to the building. I mean, we had a great relationship, me and the owner and I helped him run the gym. We really helped turn it around before CrossFit. And, and the truth of the matter was, although I was reaping more of the benefits, he was getting rent that he wasn’t getting before I was there and he had fresh blood in the gym versus these racketball and handball was primarily 70 and 80 year old men.
Jason Ackerman:
All of a sudden, I think everybody appreciated, you know, both the good looking physiques of the men and women that were coming in to do CrossFit as opposed to what they were used to seeing.
Joe Bauer:
Right. So you’re a level four CrossFit coach, is that correct?
Jason Ackerman:
Correct.
Joe Bauer:
What is that? I mean, like I’ve, I’ve only met a couple of level for CrossFit coaches in my day. One of them was the level four cross that out in Seattle because I’m from there. So one of the early.
Jason Ackerman:
Nadia?
Joe Bauer:
Uh, no, it was, um, actually level 4 because Nadia owns, or Curtis, I’ve met Curtis. Curtis has been my a couple of times.
Jason Ackerman:
Um, well there’s only a few. Yeah, there’s probably about 50 of us right now that have our level 4.
Joe Bauer:
John and Nancy. Is that sound right?
Jason Ackerman:
Maybe. Yeah.
Joe Bauer:
Um, so anyway, how did, how did you go from, all right, I’ve got a CrossFit gym, I’m blowing down walls in this, you know, racket ball court and I’m going to continue to educate myself to this ultimate CrossFit coach. Um, I know, and then like what was the koolaide drinking along the way? Because I think that a lot of people don’t even realize how interesting CrossFit is cause they hear the outside person hearing, oh there’s CrossFit, whatever. But the coaches and the coaching and the level, the seminars and things like that are so good, like amazing that I don’t touch on that if you wouldn’t mind as well. Cause I think that’s,
Jason Ackerman:
Yeah, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s cool as you’re asking me because I don’t think we’ve talked about, but I, I mentioned it briefly. I’m writing a book and you’re kind of bringing up memories that I need to add to this book. Um, so I’m excited to listen back to this podcast, but you know, so back then CrossFit seminars weren’t around like they are, you know, there’s 10 level 1’s every weekend plus level 2’s and specialty seminars. Back then it was like, hey, it’s coming to the east coast in three months. Let’s get signed up. So when I found CrossFit and then ultimately decided that I wanted to open my affiliate, there were two seminars on the east coast within like the six month period. I was like, okay, well I need to get to this one. I emailed the CrossFit, heard back from Nicole Carroll and she’s like, Hey, we’ll get you into this one in Toronto.
Jason Ackerman:
You know, I was in upstate New York, so like a six hour drive and we’ll let you affiliate before then, but you have to promise you’re going to take the seminar. So I signed up. So you know, I was an affiliate before I had my level one back, which you couldn’t do anymore. And even I remember showing up my level one and Nicole being, she was giving me praise about my affiliation essay. She’s like, I really liked it and which was really cool. Then coach Glassman walks by and you’re like, oh my God, there’s coach Glassman. So as soon as I showed up there in my mind, and I think a lot of people do this to this day, you’re like, I need to be a part of this crew. I need to be as good as these guys. Um, which was unique for me because I was totally content where it was in the fitness world that was, you know, having this internal turmoil of should I continue doing this fitness thing or should I leave it like we talked about earlier, cause I was like, you know, I’m barely, I was living in a terrible area of Albany, New York, like the ghetto of Albany.
Jason Ackerman:
Um, and chasing after like eight, $12 an hour. Like just, you know, it was, it was like, I don’t know how I pay my next bill is, it was, who am I going to train? Reaching out to people, accepting every a one on one session I can get you find CrossFit you’re like, wow, I didn’t expect it to lead me to where it did, but I was like, it’s gotta be better than where I’m at and it’s, you know that or get a real job. You know, all the while I was, I got my master’s degree, so I was like, I’m going to go back to school, be a teacher or whatever. So it found this CrossFit thing and I was just all in and as CrossFit grew in specialty seminars came out. Anytime they came within a five or six hour drive, I did them.
Jason Ackerman:
And it wasn’t ever like, okay, I want to be, there was no level 4 back then. Right. It wasn’t like I have this desire to be a the highest ranking coach you could be. It was just I want to learn more. And ultimately I knew my goal was to get on this staff and I figured the more I learned, more likely that was to happen. They eventually opened a level two in 2008 I flew out to California and passed my level 2 back then, which is similar to what it is today except the pass and fail was an evaluation on your ability to coach. Okay, so I take this level two and the evaluators are Dave Castro, Patch Sherwood Andy Stumpf, and you’re like, oh my gosh, these people they’re watching. Then you know that weekend ends, they take you upstairs at the old HQ, which was, if you go back to see where coach Glassman started, that’s where I did my level 2 in Santa Cruz.
Jason Ackerman:
They bring you upstairs and they’re like, you pass or fail. So these people are going up and down, coming down the stairs, no joke, grown men crying tears that they’re not passing. And I’m like, well, I’m not that good. There’s no way I’m passing. And I passed, you know? And so, you know, I remember Nicole Carroll looks at me, she’s like, you need to become a better coach, but people love being around you. And I was like, that’s cool, I’ll take that. You know? And, and you know, now looking back, it’s like presence and attitude. That’s what I teach people, you know? And, and I don’t think that’s something you can just develop, but I think you can certainly, you know, Max out where you’re capable of. And you know, from there I just was like, nonstop, how can I intern, how can I intern, how can I get on this staff?
Jason Ackerman:
And finally, you know, Dave Castro back, he’s like, we’re going to give you this opportunity to intern. And that’s a whole nother story. It was, you know, a couple of years worth of interning. And finally I got on that staff and you know, ultimately they had their level 3 and then I got put into their level 4 program intern.
Joe Bauer:
So, what did interning entail. Like was that following around the…
Jason Ackerman:
So interning has evolved now, but you know, for the most part it was okay. You show up at a level one, you know, it was, you didn’t just show up, you be, you know, you, they told you which one to be at and you know, so I did most of my interning in like New Jersey, Massachusetts area because I was living, you know, in, in Albany at the time. And you would just basically go there and help out. So the first one you show up and you really don’t have much responsibility other than being there having a good time enhancing participant’s experience. You do well there come back, you’re going to coach the air squat only come back again. You’re going to coach the entire squat, breakout, et cetera. And each time you’re getting more responsibility, but you’re getting a ton of feedback and evaluation. I mean, I think they would tell you, you know, 10% of the interns actually make it to staff something low like that. And for me it was always, every feedback was you have to become a better coach. You have to be able to see and correct better. You have to be able to see this movement pattern better. It was always, we love you. You enhance the participants, they love you. We love having a year. That was the only reason I got to come back. Um, and then finally I just kept working hard to become a better coach. And it was actually Curtis from, um, you know, that Washington area that gave me my sign off that we’re going to, you know, bring you on staff. But I mean that was years of interning, cause you don’t go every weekend. It’s months in between. There was a couple periods where they’re like, we need you to take six months and actually enhance your skills before you come back. So it was a gut check and it was hard, but it was, you know, one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life.
Joe Bauer:
Very cool. And, um, I’ve, you know, run a coaching staff myself up at, you know, a StoneWay CrossFit before. And I think that one of the things that I’ve always told the coaches is that, yeah, you, you have to be really good at that scene movement and helping people and making them or helping them to move better. We also have to get them to buy in. Like you’re the person up in front of the room or walking around the room, this leading them. You sounds like you do that really, really well. Like that was your gift to like get people to buy in. Do you have anything that you can share with us about how you do that you use? Do you understand what I’m saying? Like you got to get those people like excited and they just came from an office job and they’ve been sitting all day and they, they don’t, they may not even know who you are and you got to get them going. How you do that?
Jason Ackerman:
You know, that’s the million dollar question. Right? And that’s the book I’m writing is called best hour of their day. Cool. And you know, it’s all about lessons I learned and these are some of them. But yeah, I mean that’s what it’s all about. And I think, sure, I can probably give out a couple of tips and tricks and you know, the book is of course all about that. But it’s really, I think that is something that was somewhat innate. You know, it’s no different than you and I get on this call and I’m fascinated by you and no, no doubt you’re the same with everyone you interview. I think that’s just a trait some people have, like I don’t care if you live in a van or what you’re like, I love learning about people and I don’t need you to be rich and famous.
Jason Ackerman:
I prefer you not to be like, I wanna learn how you got here. And I think, you know, the, the lesson being, if it’s just that you care about people and that’s the one thing I, you know, I tell people at the end of their level 1 or level 2 or whatever we’re doing, I’m like, you’re going to be a really shitty coach on day one. And I know that because I still consider myself shitty and I’ve done this a lot longer than you, but your athletes will give you what they can have. You show them you care and you know, caring often looks like, how was your day? You know, how’s your wife? Did you feeling better? You know, you tweaked your shoulder two weeks ago. How you, how’s that coming along? You know, it’s, it’s just those simple things. Like I have this insane memory for the gym.
Jason Ackerman:
Like I can remember my anniversary but I can remember what Elliot dead lifted four weeks ago in this workout. Like it’s just weird, you know? And I think part of that is you train your brain in a certain way. Like, you know, most of the guys listening to this can do barbell math, right? Like I can tell you what, four 45 of the 25 on a barbell looks like and what it adds up to. And that was just the way I trained my brain. And they think by having that you can call back and, and your, your athletes appreciate it. You know that. And for some reason, for me, that’s where I am the most. Me, you know, we were recently on a cruise with WOD on the waves. It was called, it was like a CrossFit cruise. And my wife watched me coach a class and she’s just like, man, from the second you step out there, you’re just smiling, you’re high fiving. Like the energy is you. And she’s like, that is the most you when you’re out coaching. And I think it just goes back to just finding what you love and finding what you’re passionate about. You know, I get excited, I coach in a few hours here and no matter how busy I am, how stressful my day is, I look forward to that.
Joe Bauer:
Do you think you’re in flow when you’re doing that?
Jason Ackerman:
Yeah, I really do. I really do. I mean, I’m not forcing anything. I’m not thinking about anything. It’s just my natural state. Absolutely. Yeah. I think, you know, and I think that was why the business grew. I think if you look back like I came in the right time, it was as CrossFit was taking off, there was nothing in the area. You know, it really resonated with the people that were my age, like 30 at the time.
Jason Ackerman:
Like you’re out of school long enough where you want that group. You don’t necessarily want to go out drinking every weekend, but you want that group of friends that you can party with, you know, whether that means beer or barbells. And you know, I came in at the right time so I was lucky in that. And then just creating that culture and that community was just accidental, but at the same time, second nature.
Joe Bauer:
Very cool. What are you trying to achieve right now? Like what are your current life goals?
Jason Ackerman:
My current life goal is to, other than grow our business, write this book and it’s, the reason I do bring it up is not to promote it. It’s because every time I mention it is a reinforcer that I have to write. You know, I don’t love it. I love talking like this and I will probably try to transcribe a lot of what we’ve discussed and you know, get that put down on paper. But sitting down and writing is not one of my favorite things to do. But every time I tell someone I have a book coming out, it reminds me that I, I have to do this.
Joe Bauer:
And Are you doing the book all yourself?
Jason Ackerman:
Currently. You know, I have a couple of people reading it and just giving me advice, but I’m at about 40,000 words with my goal being 50,000 and 50,000 you know, actually this is, I always look at this book, I keep it in my closet, it’s called the obstacle is the way, but it’s like this is the kind of size book that I’m looking for, you know, a hardcover that’s like if I hand this to you, you’re like, wow, this is a real deal book. And I hope if I give this to any box on her coach or CrossFit are out there that they’ll look and be like, I learned something from this store. You know, it’s all stories like you and I have discussed. Um, but the lessons that I learned along the way.
Joe Bauer:
And what do you want people to get from this book?
Jason Ackerman:
You know, the, the goal is that they can become a better version of themselves. You know, in 2006 and where I am today in 2018 it’s like two different human beings. And if I hadn’t battled through all those lessons, I wouldn’t be where I am today. And I think, you know, if someone would have told me then I would have read a book, I would have been in a better place to learn those lessons and implement them. And I think that’s what I want for people. You know, the chapters are going to resonate with people that do CrossFit. You know, whether it’s the chapter about the guy at my box that would shave reps or the chapter about coaching someone to lose a hundred pounds or the time I yelled at my members because they didn’t show up to run a 5k.
Jason Ackerman:
Right? Like they’re all stories that you’re laughing because you know each and every one of those. Right. But it’s the lessons I learned, like no one told me in 2007 hey, it’s probably not a good idea to yell at your members and call them. Ask for not running a 5k. Right. Like, you would think that’s, you know, second nature. But it wasn’t for me, but it’s, you know, the bigger lesson of like, Hey, I know you need to run a five k because I’m a coach and I know you need to be in this oxidative pathway and it’s gonna Bleed over to this and it’s going to lend itself to that. But if you don’t want to show up because you hate 5 ks, I’m not a very good coach. Right. You know, so it’s really understanding that, I mean, at the end of the day, it’s, I think if they read the book, it will give them that answer that you asked me. Like, you know, how did, how does that happen? This is how it happens.
Joe Bauer:
Very cool. What are your current fitness goals?
Jason Ackerman:
That’s a good question. Um, you know, I would honestly say I don’t have a specific fitness goal right now, which is probably an issue. Um, my one goal that’s kind of hard to measure is to earn my brown belt in Jujitsu. You know, I’ve been a purple belt for a long time, which my same buddy Chad used to tell me, a bell only covers an inch of your ass. You have to cover their ass. So it’s in some vague and I’m like, I don’t care what belt I am, but it’s just a measure of, of my time on the maths. But as far as CrossFit right now, I don’t have a really specific goal other than to keep training and stay fit and healthy and be able to do this forever. You know? I think I’ll figure that out at some point. But my wife and I love traveling like you do and it’s hard to follow a specific program. He dropped in a box as you get workouts while you can, and to me right now, that’s the joy of fitness. It’s like whether I’m on a boat, I’m on the road or at the box, I can get in and get a good workout and feel good about myself.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. What’s your favorite cheat meal?
Jason Ackerman:
Well, I don’t really have cheat meals per se as you know, because I fit everything into my day. But if I were going to eat something that would just blow away my numbers, it would probably be Mac and cheese.
Joe Bauer:
And let’s dig in there. What kind of Mac and cheese is it something that you made is something you’d get at a restaurant?
Jason Ackerman:
You know, I’m a big fan of the cheap craft 99 cents a box of Mac and cheese. Yeah. That’s like, I always tell people like, I don’t want any of that fancy nonsense. Don’t put any lobster in it. Just give me a box of Kraft. I mean, you know, I can eat a box of Kraft and still be perfect throughout my day, so it’s not so much of a cheat, but, um, you know, I would, I would have a huge box of Kraft. I’d have probably some, a couple of donuts after. It would be more so just like, I don’t care about my numbers today, but it would, uh, yeah, that, but that’s why, that’s why America’s obese, right? For 99 cents, you can get this box of Kraft Mac and cheese for for a dollar. You can have 10 packages of ramen. You know, it’s uh, it’s no doubt that we have some issues going on out there.
Joe Bauer:
Oh my gosh. And I’m actually going to ask you a question about that in a second. But before we get into that specific question I’ve heard you talk about, and even a little bit earlier, you talked about how you can eat a lot of food and do you have any epic food stories of putting down a ton of food?
Jason Ackerman:
Well, so before flexible eating, I thought I was eating healthy and I was about, you know, right now you’re looking at me and I’m about 144 pounds. That’s like my average on the scale somewhere around there. So before flexible eating, I was training CrossFit, hard Jujitsu hard, and I was 170 pounds, you know, and that doesn’t sound like much, but I’m five three, that’s 25 to 30 pounds more than I am today. And I can tell you now, I’m just as strong and fit, so was bad way. And here’s why. You know, I would, I would eat what I considered healthy Monday through or Sunday through Friday I should say, which was for the most part Paleo, but it didn’t take much of an arm twist to get me to go out for some chicken wings or whatnot. But then regardless of that, Saturdays were the cheat day. So here I was not being perfect Monday through Friday, but still feeling like I earned a cheat day on Saturday. And I had, it was around the time of the four hour body, which I don’t know if your ad by Tim Ferriss and he called the slow carb diet. So I would do all these stupid tricks like I’ll do squats in the restaurant to burn off the glass, you know, cause that was his trick to be able to eat carbs. So a typical Saturday would be, you know, I’d, I’d wake up and go to the box and again go to the class and work out with my buddies and then we would go out to the diner and get like pancakes and French toast and bacon and eggs, chill out for a bit. I would always go to Starbucks and get myself event, a peppermint Mocha, which by itself is like 800,000 calories. And then we would go to this place called Beth’s down the road that would get buffalo chicken pizza and chicken wings. And at that point you’re like, all right, I would lay down on the couch for an hour or two rally cause we had like a bunch of, all the, all the coaches would do this together and then we would go somewhere else, like five guys or you know, some sort of other establishment to just eat more calories than it. We would always finish it off with cold stone. Uh, you know, the biggest, so I mean, I’m talking, I would, I would guesstimate I was having 7 to 8,000 calories every Saturday, you know, and that’s why I tell people, I’m like, I would have told you no joke.
Jason Ackerman:
I would have looked at you dead in the eyes with all sincerity and said, I eat healthy. Right. And you know, that’s where it was like, all right, I need to make a change. And you know, luckily I found flexible eating, but that, I mean that was a cheat day and that was standard. That was every single Saturday for years. And you know, I would almost get, I would get stressed out in two ways. One, I was like, I had to get my Saturday up and running because I wanted to make the most of it. So like if things were getting delayed, if people were running late, I would get mad. And then to, you know, after the, after those days are just like, you’re useless. You’re just your leg action, the exactly. You don’t feel right the next day. Um, so it was just this terrible cycle. And I finally got myself off of it. Nice.
Joe Bauer:
What was the psychology that you had to do to get yourself off of that? You personally,
Jason Ackerman:
it wasn’t, I don’t think it was anything that you might very bad. I would say I don’t have a very addictive personality. I do feel cold. Turkey was, it was looking in the mirror one day. I mean I talk about in the book too, I wrote this, uh, one of the chapters I went out, I had to buy new pants and I was, I hate clothes shopping, you know, I don’t like having a lot of clothes. I don’t like having a lot of anything, you know, much like that’s why the van life is really exciting. I like to have with just what I need. And I was like, well I don’t really need new pants but these aren’t fitting me. And I went to the mall, I needed a pair of jeans. I had only like Lulu Lemon and Reebok stuff. And I was like, I need a pair of jeans. And I always had to buy a slightly big jeans cause I had like a big bud, big size for my height and I, and I usually had size 30 genes and I was like, man, okay, I guess I got to get 32 is and I had to finally find a pair of 34’s that fit and I’m like holding up a pair of 34 is and go into the checkout. And the guy’s like, you find everything all right. And I’m like, in my mind, like I wrote it down. I’m like, what is this guy asking me? Like I was just so mad, so upset with myself and I was like, I’m good. I didn’t buy the jeans, went back home and I was like, I need to make a change. And that was it.
Jason Ackerman:
So it was around this time, everybody’s posting, you know, Hashtag flexible eating Hashtag if it fits your macros. And I go online research and I talked to a good friend of mine, her name was Ricky and she kind of was leading the charge. She was making wait for power lifting and hosting about donuts. And I was like, tell me about this. She gives me the whole rundown. Jay just so happened to be like around January 1st that wasn’t like what set me off. It was just around that time. She gives me the rundown and I started the next day and that was it. I was like, I’m never, I’m not buying those genes and I’m, I need to make a change. And I went from 170 to 140 in the next few months and never looked back.
Joe Bauer:
Awesome, so do you know, and as health and fitness professionals, I think that, you know, we can, we’re all trying to help this population and figure out how to kind of like dig into this obese and overweight weight issue. What do you think we need to do as a person, as a country? I asked this to everybody, all the health and fitness professionals on here and I think that if we talk about it enough, we’re smart enough people and you know, we can start to break this down, but what do you think we need to do?
Jason Ackerman:
Hey, I mean, I think it’s two fold. I think one, you have to get people moving. You know, and I’m not a, I love CrossFit, but I don’t care what people do. They just have to get off the couch and start moving. And that can be walking a mile. It could be Zoomba have to be yoga or it could be, you know, join your local affiliate. I think nutrition is the foundation that needs to be the priority. But I think for a lot of people, that feeling of exercise and empowerment and the endorphins, your body releases and feeling good about yourself will be the jumps are they need to eventually change the nutrition. So, you know, get people up and moving and some little things, even like the apps that have their steps and all like my aunts and town and she’s like, I get my 10,000 steps. And I’m like, that’s awesome. Like good that you know that you’re doing that. And now it’s just teaching people about nutrition. Slowly educating them that, you know, some of these gurus and commercials and doctors out there that are telling them this is good. And this is bad or not. Right. And ultimately, you know, if we need to eat the right amount of food for your body, and if we can have more people doing that rather than crazy fad diets, if they can do something that’s going to be longterm and sustainable, that’s what it takes. You know, we all have friends and family that have lost weight and put it back. We need to get you to lose weight and keep it off.
Joe Bauer:
Absolutely. Couldn’t have said it better myself, man. Um, so Jason, how can people find you? How can they get involved with your program and how can they stay in touch so they can get their hands on your book when it gets finished?
Jason Ackerman:
Well, everything is Own Your Eating, so it’s just own your eating.com and then all avenues of social media. And if you make your way to that site, you can email us and I’ll get that email. Um, and then I also have the Jason Ackerman for my personal website and Instagram. So either way they’ll, they’ll find me and I’m sure once the book is done and out it’ll be everywhere that I can promote it too. But, but those are the two ways. So if they stumble across the site and any Meles there or go to my personal profile and shoot me a message, I’m happy. You know, I get back to everybody to a fault. So if you have questions on CrossFit, nutrition, anything, I’m I’m happy to help you.
Joe Bauer:
Well Jason, this has been awesome. We’ll definitely have to do it again sometime and uh, yeah man. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll talk to you soon.
Jason Ackerman:
Next time in the van.
Joe Bauer:
All right, let’s do it. Hey Gang, that was my interview with Jason Ackerman of own your eating. As you could tell, Jason is just a fantastic human being and somebody that you should be following. Absolutely. Make sure that you keep in touch with him so that you can get his book when it comes out. I know that I’m going to be definitely checking that book out and he just has a really cool story post all kinds of fun stuff on his social media. I’ve been following him for a few months now, so I highly recommend that you stay involved with Jason.
Joe Bauer:
Remember this podcast is brought you by as get better project and to get better project daily workout program where you can get daily workouts including videos from me. I write this program every single day for you. It’s ideal for people have a home gym, either a gym or actually just want to work out at home without any equipment. There’s a program for each of you in there. I program it every single day. There’s a video that comes out with each day’s programming and you can get all of your nutrition reviewed. So if you’re looking to get yourself into awesome shape, meaning drop some body fat, get those abs to pop out field, great. Be able to, you know, go on a hike on a run. Just get yourself into the optimal conditioning that you should be in looking, feeling all that fun stuff. Head over to thegetbetterproject.com click on programs and you’ll see the daily programming right there. You can get yourself started today and I would love to have you on the program. If you have any questions, also, you can reach out to me.
Joe Bauer:
Remember, you can subscribe to this podcast for absolute free by going to allaroundjoe.com/itunes subscribe for free by going to allaroundjoe.com/itunes and hope you guys enjoyed this. I certainly did!
Partners mentioned in this podcast
– The Get Better Project Daily Workouts – click here to get started
*above could be affiliate links. I get a small commission if you click through them and buy, but they in no way make the products cost anymore. If you decide to use them please let me know so I can thank you. Affiliate Disclosure
Listening options
Help me out!
It would totally help me out if you could give me a quick iTunes review by clicking the link below. My goal is to help as many people as possible with this podcast, and each review helps me get more people listening.
Click here and follow prompts to “Ratings and Reviews”
[inf_infusionsoft_inline optin_id=”optin_1″]
