MENTAL MUSCLE MARVEL
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BACKSTORY
Robert Richardson II, a contestant on USA Network’s Season 1 “The Biggest Loser,” will touch your heart as he shares his transformational story of refusing to let his past feelings of defeat and disappointment take control of his life…
Starting “The Biggest Loser” at 409 LBS, Robert was the first contestant eliminated from the show and had to walk his journey alone. But against all of odds Robert stopped making excuses while at home and finished strong for his final weigh-in at the finale. That would have been enough of an accomplishment for many, but not Robert.
After the lights from the show dimmed, Robert continued his journey toward, fitness, health, and wellness so much so that he has not only surpassed what he accomplished on the show by leaps and bounds, he’s attracted a following of people who are following his lead to live their best life too!
LET’S GET STARTED!
Jay: I want to welcome everybody to another episode of Going Beyond The Scale. I’m very excited to have Robert Richardson the 2nd with us today. Roberts got a great story, and he’s an inspiring example of what's possible for any of us. Robert, welcome to the show. Thank you for being here.
Robert: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk with you, share some experiences, and just have some fun.
Jay: That's great! Okay, let’s get started. Anyone that watched your season of The Biggest Loser was not only inspired by your transformation, but the fact that you did 95% of it while you were at home. And probably even more impressive is what you've continued to transform day in, day out, ever since the show's been over. Because as you know that’s the BIG CHALLENGE for all Biggest Loser alumni, post show, when we all go back to the environment and potential lifestyle habits that created our ability to be considered as a contestant. We'll get into that a little bit later, but for the people who don't know, what’s your backstory?
Robert: My first journey of getting my health back on track was the time I lost 185 LBS. I was getting ready for tryouts with the Canadian Football League. I was trying to get back into college football, but I was like, Okay, I'm playing football for two years or almost a year. So let me go ahead and give Canadian Football League a shot and see if I can still do it. I left college initially because my dad went into a diabetic coma. I wanted to come home and help out with my mom and help him get back on his feet, so this is what I call a road to redemption kind of thing getting myself back into it and it didn't work out. After four knee surgeries I just could not perform the same way I used to perform in high school and beginning of college. I accepted it, but I accepted it in a way where it put me in a pit of depression. You know a lot of people you'll never see depression or failure on them you'll see something else like Oh, he's doing good, he's doing awesome. He’s joking, having fun, but behind that there's so much pain, open wounds that then you won't see. I was dealing with all of that, and my way of coping with it was just enjoying food and powerlifting. I love powerlifting because it’s a way to get my intensity out versus putting a helmet on. My powerlifting and eating was up and down, up and down, and…
I tried every diet.
I tried Keto.
I tried Atkins.
I tried Paleo.
I tried Vegan.
You name it… I tried everything… and nothing worked.
One day in my office I was sitting there like, man, I'm tired of this, like I'm tired of wearing 5XL, 6XL. I'm tired of heavy breathing, tired of going to the hospital because my blood pressure, I'm just I'm just sick of it. And I went on my social media platform just to see what's going on with the fitness world, and lo and behold, The Biggest Loser was coming back, and I thought what the heck what the heck, I'll apply create a video about why I should be on the Biggest Loser. Believe it or not, the very next day, literally the next day at 1pm in the afternoon, I got a phone call. And ever since then, it was like they were on me. They would not let me say no, or change my mind, and they treated me so good. It was truly a blessing to be on the show. I needed something to get me back into that mode of being an athlete again. I was so hurt and beaten by not making it to the Canadian Football League. That really took me out. And so now that I'm able, I can find that guy again who enjoys fitness, but now I want to take it to another level. So the reason I wanted apply for the Biggest Loser was because I wanted to get that guy back! I wanted that feeling like it was that itch. I wanted that athlete back, you know, so I was able to get myself back. Like when you go to the doctor, and he's going down a list of 20 things that are an issue… He says you got this, you got this… wait a minute, huh? You're like well, I guess I'm not paying attention to myself. I forgot about Rob, I forgot about myself. And in doing that I’m also forgetting my wife and son and I won’t have any of that.
Jay: Your dad, you, and others in your family had health issues, and like what most of us do we think and are concerned about everyone else, and we forget that others are worrying about us. It sounds like your family dynamic was like a lot of others. Everyone needs help and support, and no one wants to have that honest real conversation. So, people suffer in silence and concern. We'll get into more of that in a minute, but the audition for the next Biggest Loser is going on right now and there are lots of people that would love your thoughts on auditioning.
Robert: The biggest thing I can tell you is don't fake anything. Don't try to act. Just be you. You know if you're goofy if you active you love cartoons, Marvel movies. If I was a fly on the wall, would you act the same way you act on the on the wall on camera like no acting, we want to know why we should pick you. How are you going to impact people by looking at your story right now, but just pretend that no one's talking to your interviewer just be you. And that's who I was. I was me. I was the joyful guy. I was the energetic giant. And I showed my leadership and my intensity. I'm very competitive and so they knew that I rapped that and so just being just being yourself is the best thing you can do. Don't try to put a show or anything on just be yourself.
Jay: The thing that kind of broke my heart, and I think it happened for a lot of people that were watching the show, was the fact that you were the very first person to go home. It's a big deal to get on the show, tons of people audition, it's not easy to be chosen. Like your football career where it didn't happen for you, being the first to go home at first seemed to just be another thing that wasn’t going to happen for you. You had to go home, but you knew there still was a finale. You're competitive, you're home, you're not there. What was that like?
Robert: That was so tough for me. Not in a way that I was like, Okay, I'm going home. Here we go again. I had that feeling again, as if I was trying out for the football team. You think you did everything right did? You did. During that time, you’re thinking no way I'm going home. I work too hard. I did everything I was supposed to do, even to that moment, it just hit me hard. I thought this must be a joke. Me? I'm going home. Yeah, what's going on? I was more hurt because of the bond I built while I was there. We were total strangers. Everybody was looking at everybody when they were coming in through the audition hotel. We could only look at each other. We couldn't talk. We just sized each of us up in our minds.
He looks like he could do something.
Oh, he looks like an athlete, or she looks like an athlete.
And when we all came together in that house, I mean, for that short amount of time we became a family. Because we all were there for the same reason. We all missed our home. We all missed our family, and we all were there for each other during a time where we just we didn't feel like going anymore.
Going home was devastating to me because I had so much to do and to show.
I didn't think I could do it by myself if I went back home, so it hurt, it hurt tremendously when you go home.
Jay: Yes, you went home first, but eventually everyone goes home. As you know first-hand, the real challenge for all contestants is after the lights go away and the whole notoriety phase fades away, it's not unusual for people to slip back into the way they were before. I see that you and your wife are working together which is so critical to any type of sustainable success. I've seen that the people from the show that partnered with either the person they were on the show with, or family members that were inspired by their transformation makes a difference. I say to people all the time. We don't have a childhood obesity problem we have an adult obesity problem. Unfortunately, my passion for food, and not healthy food, and binge eating habits was a powerful catalyst for my wife, daughter and son to be challenged with their weight too. Where you that catalyst in your family too?
Robert: Yes. The same thing you were saying the thing you said resonated with me because what before I got my wife, my wife was healthy. She was in shape. And then because I was the big guy, I ate for two people. I always wanted to eat out, so she was okay with it because she wanted to hang out with me. We both just fell into a terrible habit. You know, of course because of her genetics, she didn't put on much weight. I realized I was causing this. I saw the problem. Coming back home, I said, I can either sit on my butt, which for two or three days I did. I gave up. I quit. My wife, my mom, my mother, my father-in-law, and my friends kept saying you gotta get going. Heck, even when I left, Steve said, when you go home, you have to keep going and kick butt because everybody here knows Rob is a competitor. They know that I could, that's because you're going home, they got it. They got to kick it up a notch here because they don't know what's gonna happen when you come back. Everybody's still gunning for you. So I took that. My wife and I already were in the juice business. And with my drive, we put that together. And it just can be something just blossom out of it. And it's beautiful what happened between both of us when it comes to our health and her transformation is amazing on top of what mine is she's gorgeous. So, her transformation will look 10 times better. I'm just a giant. So, you know, I don't have the great looks of her, but she kept me going. She was my biggest support.
Jay: Congratulations to the both of you. Whether it's your spouse or a friend, it's so much better, like you said, the camaraderie with others in your life that you care about. It's so much better when you have other people in your life. You can be open and honest. And sometimes there are times where you're like you said, you came home and like, you kind of lose your mojo and sometimes you need people to remind you of your potential.
Robert: Oh, man. I mean, she helped me wake up at four. I had a scheduled 445 in the morning, and then five o'clock in afternoon, so two days and then on Saturday and Sunday, one workout, you know, in the mornings, and so I definitely had to schedule on top of working on top of being the father. On top of being the husband and doing community stuff. There was so much going on. Definitely helped me out.
Jay: So sat for a couple of days, and then you started moving.
Richard, as you know we’re LIVE, and Lynn who’s watching has a question for you.
She wanted to know, what's the first thing you did when returning home after?
Was it exercise?
Was it going through your fridge or your pantry?
What did you do when you first came home besides sitting around for three days?
Robert: The first thing I did was go through my pantry and my fridge. That's the nucleus to all of this. I call that my Infinity Stones because I'm a big Marvel movie fanatic. He had the glove, but he needed the stones to control whatever you want to take over. So,the stone is kind of like your nutrition, your diet plan. So yeah, you can work out all day. Work out for two or three hours, six hours a day. But if you don't if your nutrition is crap, if you worked out, okay, I'm eating burger fries, drinking soda. And I say you can't stop eating that, but you must learn how to control that. So just, if you don't have the right tools, when it comes to nutrition, you're not going to be successful in any kind of body fat loss at all. It's not going to work. And you can sit here and be like, I give up. I can't lose weight. You can lose weight. It just takes modifications. Just must modify a bit, that's all. First thing I did was hit the pantry and refrigerator.
Jay: You said you tried all different diets? Got it? Okay. totally understand that. So, what is it you're doing now that's working for you?
Robert: I'm not on any kind of diet right now. I just don't eat processed foods. I don't eat fast foods. And when I do have my high calorie meal is either sushi, a turkey burger or something similar with fries, or go to Dairy Queen and get me a little mini chocolate chip cookie dough, but I implemented into my calories. So, I don't overeat, I don't go over my calories, I just make sure that I monitor what I'm putting in my body and if I know I had ice cream the day before, I know I need to wait on that following week you know so I'm just monitoring everything.
Jay: A lot of people really don't get that intermittent fasting is actually good for your body, and a lot of “diets or plans” work but bottom line no matter what you’re doing the caloric reduction equation is always in the background. Got it, you’re eating whole foods, not processed food, but you’re also paying attention to your calories.
Robert: If you don't really study the diet plan or study how to do the diet, people think because they fasted from, let's say, five the next day to eight or 10 people fast or to lunchtime, and it's like, okay, from 12 to five, I'll eat, like crazy and just shoveling in food. No, no, no, no, don't do that. Because I did that. And that's where my weight was going up. I was shoveling large portion of food and whenever I wanted to eat, because so many people, even fitness influencers, say hey, yeah, you can eat whatever you want. No, no, you can eat wherever you want. It still is and always will be some type of calorie reduction. You still must watch your calories.
Jay: That's great advice. You do a lot of powerlifting. I do more cardio than a lot of heavy lifting. If I do any quasi-powerlifting, I tend to do a lot of legs because my legs are very strong from years of carrying around a boatload of excess weight. I can get on a leg press and go nuts. But whenever I do any heavy lifting, I get pretty hungry. You have a lot of muscle on your body, how are you managing your mind and the muscle that you’ve got to deal with? Muscle wise and metabolically you're a big man, how are you managing your hunger?
Robert: After I'm done working out, I drink a post workout shake. My post workout shake will have a high amount of carbohydrates in it already. It keeps me full, which is great because my hour long HIIT training is intense, and I usually burn between 1200 to 1300 calories in that one hour. And if I’m super hungry I’ll also have some beef jerky, chicken breasts or fish. If it's weightlifting day, I'll have a meal and have a post workout meal ready at hand. I always tell people when you're done heavy lifting, and it's very intense, you have to eat right after that because it’s a great window for your body to recover, to lose weight and to build muscle. If you wait, after you talk to somebody for about an hour or two, you're going to get even hungrier and that's where that binge eating is gonna take over. You always should meal prep and have what I call as an emergency kit on hand. Protein shakes, protein bars, beef jerky, have them in your car so it prevents you from stopping at Taco Bell, or McDonald's or the gas station looking for some snacks that are pretty high in sodium, and most likely never good for you. My wife would open our bank account and say you stopped at McDonald's, Burger King. I'm like, huh? What do you mean. Somebody hacked our account. At nighttime I could go off to the gym nobody sees me So yeah, I could pull up a drive thru and eat it throw it away when I got home throw the trash can next to the house and walk in nobody knew but you know, so it's just oh yeah, cigarettes, sneaking food in was big for me.
Jay: I see you cook a lot. Do you just cook for your wife and your son too?
Robert: We both cook, but she's the chef. I'm more basic. My morning is real simple. I have my carbs in the morning, and my egg whites with spinach. I don't eat cheese anymore. I used to eat a lot of cheese, but not anymore because it messes with my stomach. I use popcorn cheddar seasoning on top of my egg whites spinach, and sometimes I put some on chicken. For lunch. I have some baked fish, or chicken with broccoli or spinach. For dinner she's the one that becomes creative. My wife tries every kind of dish that she sees that ethnic. She might make an Indian cuisine masala, or a Chinese dish modified with cauliflower rice and vegetables. She's a chef!
Jay: That's great, it sounds like she helps you with variety. That’s one thing that a lot of people are challenged with, they eat the same kinds of things all the time. And when that happens people get bored with what they’re eating and sooner than later they’ll go rogue and go off their plan. As you know, if you use the same muscles with the same intensity all the time, you're really not causing them to tear on break down and rebuild and grow, your body gets used to that rhythm. It’s becomes adapted to that ritual. The same thing happens with our metabolism, if you eat the same kinds of food all the time, it actually slows down our metabolism.
Robert: My metabolism was like crazy. I agree, I now notice that when you change it up, and you take something out and you replace it with something else, it’s makes a big difference.
Jay: The other thing I’m curious about. On your season did they do a body composition on each of you before, during and at your finale? Did they do like a DEXA scan?
Robert: No, they didn't do that there. The biggest thing for me was the sleep study test. That was the big thing that oh my goodness, did I it was it was bad. I stopped breathing 31 times each hour. That was that was just 31 times. That was just oh my goodness. I couldn't believe that when she told me that. They gave me a CPAP machine and I'm still using it because my dad had sleep apnea and I know for football players and guys with big necks it’s a big problem. I'll be getting tested by the end of the year again to see if my breathing while I sleep is now good enough to get off the CPAP now that I lost so much weight. But I still have a big neck, we’ll see. A buddy of mine is a bodybuilder and he's in great shape, and his sleep apnea is worse than mine. He's never been fat, always has been healthy, but he was waking up with really bad headaches. He got tested and found out he stopped breathing 72 times! One thing I really like about you Jay is that you're very transparent. People can really change when they’re transparent and honest with themselves and they’re not afraid to share their challenges with others. I don't have nothing to hide. Because if I can help somebody not make the same mistakes I made, that that's a win for me.
Jay: Robert you're very open, very transparent, very generous in how you’ve continued to share your journey after the finale which I know will really help a lot of people who are looking for ways to get healthier. It says a lot for your character that that’s how you’ve been post show, you didn’t have to do that, so I just wanted to thank that person for that.
Robert :Thank you. I really appreciate that. Thank you.
Jay:You've gotten this far. You are a young man, you’ve got a young family. So… with everything you've done so far. What’s next… what’s important to you in your life now that you’ve created, and continue to create a new lease on life for yourself?
Robert: Number one, I have a son, and I want to see him get bigger, and be a better version than I was growing up. I want to see how it would look because he looks just like me. But he's lean, he has my wife genetics, I want to show him how living healthier and enjoying life would be. How it would be for him long term, and not a generational thing when it comes to weight and food, I want him to stop it. I want him to take control of it. My long-term goal, my life mission is to see my son be the best he can be. So I'm going to focus on my child, and I'm going to focus on my wife to make sure she hits her goals. Personal training is my second goal. I'm going to help people who want to get involved with personal training and enjoying eating healthier. I don't like using the word diet, I like to talk about nutrition. My third goal is to help my community. First, I want to open up some community facilities where I live to focus on children. Families and children are really struggling during this time financially because of COVID and some companies are shutting down, and the first thing my mind goes to is children. I want to find a way to help them. Not just get an education but learn different skillsets. Help them become not just school driven, but business minded at a young age. Because children are very smart, they're very intelligent. They are sponges and they want to learn.
Jay: I’m not surprised by your mission and goals, that’s great! So Robert, where can people find you?
Robert: I have two large platforms. On Instagram you can find me @transformationwithrich that's a community fitness page. That's where people can network, they can share a weight loss or weight gain maintenance whatever their story is. I changed that platform from just from fitness to mental health and wellness too. That’s the biggest thing. I used to think that running eight miles, nine miles, pushing cars, pushing trucks and that's big, working out, get my body strong. Your body will quit on you if this is not strong. This will help you get through any challenge that you have. Now, I believe in God, I'm Christian. I believe in faith and that's one of the things that is missing is that people are afraid to pray on, or just love on one another. Don't be afraid to ask somebody how they're doing or have a good day or speak and smile at somebody. You're not weak because you show love and sympathy for someone. People need that in dire times, right? They need it bad. They need a hug. I know you can't hug anybody. Hi, how you doing? What's going on? You need anything from me? Talk to me for a second because believing that people want to talk to somebody, and they want somebody to listen to them for a minute. I just really hope that everybody can understand that. You can DM me, I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can. I'm not trying to, but I have a lot of DM right. I'm trying to hit everybody as soon as possible. But if you have a question, you need to just say, hey Rob, I need help mentally, please message me, please do, I’ll always respond to you.
Jay: You have a website too, right?
Robert: Yes, my website is RobertRichardsonII.com. Please go there and read my story, and send me a message to send an encouraging message to your friends and family. If anybody you know needs any tips or advice just let me know.
Jay: Are you doing any speaking?
Robert: We’re working on some things for speaking engagements. We're gonna start traveling to different areas, churches, and community service. But yeah, if you have any speaking engagements, you would like me to be at and certain topics you want me to cover, please have don't hesitate to message me or email me. My mom handles that.
Jay: I see your mom she lost 110 pounds.
Robert: Oh, yeah, my mom is fit and lean and trim It's become a family affair. That's the best. That's the best thing you can do.
Jay: Here's one last question. Mark wants to know; do you stop eating at a certain time at night or before you go to bed? That's a big one for many people that are eating at night. What's your deal with that, Robert?
Robert: I'm not a dietitian, of course, but my tip is that if you're hungry at night, find some fruit or low-fat yogurt. When I get hungry at night I watch the movie my wife, get some low-fat Greek yogurt and usually add some berries. The key the key for me is watching your fat content. So go on before bed make sure nothing's high in fat or starchy and that's my tip. Because when you lose a ton of weight your body your fat cells are looking for you to eat a ton of fat to get the feet of fat cells. So just don't be afraid. If you get hungry at night, find a shake, find some fruit, find a yogurt and eat.
Jay: Robert, I want to thank you for your generosity for being here today. I’m also looking forward to you coming back as a guest on “Going Beyond The Scale” and sharing your latest and greatest, especially what you're doing with your community initiatives.
Robert: Thank you again, for having me on the show. And I can't wait to talk to you more and to pick your brain off the show and see where I could take this to the next level as well. I'm honored to be here and talk with you, thank you so much.