In this episode of The Amberly Lago Show: Stories of True Grit and Grace, host Amberly Lago sits down with Chris Holt, a former architect turned nutritional coach, to discuss his transformative journey through multiple surgeries, including heart surgery, and his subsequent shift in life perspective. Chris shares his experiences of adjusting to a mechanical heart valve and tackling the challenges of living on blood thinners. They dive deep into the importance of nutrition over exercise, the addictive nature of refined foods, and the power of accountability in making conscious food choices. They also reflect on the pros and cons of living in different states, managing mental health through movement, and the significance of being intentional about people in one’s life. Join Amberly and Chris as they explore resilience, health transformation, and the impact of nutrition and lifestyle changes in this compelling conversation.

“Food is medicine. Movement is medicine.”

Highlights:

• [00:02:46] Identical triplets and rare zygosity.
• [00:04:18] Multilingual upbringing and struggles.
• [00:10:42] Urban safety concerns.
• [00:13:16] Multitalented siblings and their careers.
• [00:16:35] Heart condition and surgeries.
• [00:21:22] Longevity and life planning.
• [00:24:08] Choosing a mechanical valve.
• [00:29:56] Nutrition and dietary restrictions.
• [00:31:19] Transition from architecture to entrepreneurship.
• [00:34:31] Abs are made in the kitchen.
• [00:40:47] Overindulging in sugary fries.
• [00:42:00] Understanding addictive properties of food.
• [00:45:51] Healthy eating misconceptions.
• [00:49:24] Choosing positive influences.
• [00:54:27] Discipline over motivation.
• [00:57:13] Comedians and intelligence.

Follow Chris:

• Website
• Instagram

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Transcript

Amberly Lago:
Welcome to the Amberly Lago Show, Stories of True Grit and Grace. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Amberly Lago Show. I have somebody with a remarkable story of resilience on the show today. And we have actually been, I think it’s been almost two years we’ve been waiting to get him on the show. I have Chris Holt. He is a former architect turned nutritional coach. You might know him on social media as Beyond the Tats. And if you don’t, I suggest you head over there right now because you will thank me later. You’ll start binging his content. He makes you laugh. He teaches you things. He teaches you important lessons about everything from nutrition to health to really living a sustainable lifestyle. So, I’m so happy to have him on here with us today to talk about how to have a sustainable lifestyle, if I can say that word, and much, much more, and to share his amazing story. So Chris, thank you so much for being on the show.

Chris Holt: Super excited about this because I know this has been kind of in the making for a while.

Amberly Lago: It has. It’s so crazy. So we get on here to record. And I can’t believe this is the first time we’ve actually talked face to face or on Zoom. And we’ve talked through DMs. And I’ve been a major stalker of your account for a long time. And I just love all that you do and that you share. Before we get into sharing some amazing tips about everything from mental health to physical health to spiritual health, all the things, I would love to go back and talk about a little bit how you grew up because You’re an identical triplet, and you traveled all over the world for a long time growing up, and I didn’t realize that you went to high school in Texas.

Chris Holt: Yeah. What part of Texas? Houston, a small town. It’s kind of near the woodlands. So it’s a small town called Montgomery, Texas. So yeah.

Amberly Lago: Okay. How long were you in Texas?

Chris Holt: It was our last two years of high school. And so I still work because my dad worked for Exxon Mobil. So that’s obviously a big oil town. So we spent our last two years of high school there and then my parents still live there. So people ask me where I’m from and I just say wherever my parents are currently living. So I’ll just say I’m from Texas just to make it easy. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, for so yes, my brothers and I are identical triplets. And actually something that we didn’t know until we were in our 30s, because we had never done a zygosity test, which I guess we didn’t really care about. But one of my sister in law, or ex sister in law, got us a zygocity test for our birthday one year, and it came back saying that we’re monozygotic, which means we’re identical. And then looked up the rarity of that, especially in the 80s, because people, there was no IVF or, you know, any of that stuff. So it is pretty rare. I think it’s like one in 100 million or something like that. I don’t I don’t know how true that is. But yeah, so we’re born in Seoul, Korea. Our parents adopted us. My dad’s from Pennsylvania. My mom’s from New York. So they adopted all three of us. We flew over from Seoul to JFK. Wow. 17 months, 15 to 17 months old. By the time we came to the States, because I know after for a little bit, like Jeremy, was separated from me and Justin when we were born, so we were in two different foster homes. So got to JFK or the States, we lived in New Jersey for a little bit. And then my dad took his first overseas assignment, not first, but like with us. And so we moved overseas. So before kindergarten, we were in Sicily. Kindergarten to fifth grade, we were in Singapore. Sixth grade in the middle of seventh, we were in London. Middle of seventh to 10th grade, we were in Norway. And then the last two years of high school were in Texas.

Amberly Lago: Wow. So how many languages do you speak? OK, look, so you would think I was thinking you’re going to. Oh, I speak Italian, Korean. See, like I can barely speak English. So, hey, exactly.

Chris Holt: So like all my friends speak multiple languages. And I’m just my brothers and I were just not never picked it up easily. And more importantly, being an expat, you’re always in kind of a bubble. You’re in an American community. Right. And most countries we lived in, pretty much all of them, Everyone spoke English, right? So you never forced to speak the language. I could understand a little Norwegian when I lived there. Singapore, it’s like Mandarin, Cantonese, Chinese, which is super, super difficult. Obviously, England is English. And so Italy, I don’t really remember too much because we were so young. But yeah, I remember we were moving to London and because my parents would always do the same thing. They’d say, hey, family meeting. And that meant like code for moving. And they would always take us to the living room and whatever house we were living in. And they would have pamphlets of the school we were going to and then the country we were moving to. And that all sounds super exciting. But as a kid, it was problematic. It was in fact, we hated it. I mean, you know, you move somewhere. It’s not just moving to another state, right? You’re moving to another country, culture, customs, language, climate. I mean, it’s very jarring. So I just remember when they said we were moving to London, I got excited because I thought, oh man, by the time we leave London, I’m going to have a British accent. It’s going to be amazing. Yeah.

Amberly Lago: Well, I can imagine that would be so hard. I mean, look, I just moved back to Texas. Actually, next month, it’ll be two years ago that I moved back to Texas. I was in Los Angeles for 31 years. And it has been a big change. And you did a post. I don’t know how recent it was, but you did a post talking about how you moved to Salt Lake City. And it was a really hard move for you and you were like, I don’t know if this was the right thing for me to do. And you just shared like what you were feeling and how hard it was and how being in nature really helped you. And I think that’s what I miss about LA is I would really fill my cup I would connect to my higher power, who I call God, in nature, in the mountains. If I was ever stressed or if I was anxious or sad or anything, I would just go for a hike. Even if I had a 45-minute break, I could literally drive five miles down the road, do a quick hike up and over and be back and just feel better. And Utah, Salt Lake City, are you in Utah or Salt Lake City? It’s beautiful there.

Chris Holt: Yeah, I always say that if I could choose the mountains or the water, I would choose the water. But being like living in Miami for 17 years, I mean, dealing with hurricanes, it’s just like, that’s not, that’s not my jam. And then if you want to get to the water on the west coast, you know, like, California, I love California, but it’s just so expensive. And these other things. So there’s other factors there. So I said, well, the mountains, I feel like Salt Lake City is a diamond in the rough, which people are now kind of discovering.

Amberly Lago: It’s yeah. A lot of people have moved. One of my actually one of my really good friends just moved there to open his business there. But yeah, I’ve always said my husband and I have always said, like, we would love, you know, I need to have at least the mountains or the water. And we moved to Texas and there’s a lake. It’s no ocean, and it is flat. And I just had no idea just how much that I would miss the mountains. What part of Texas are you in? Dallas.

Chris Holt: Oh, I love Dallas, Fort Worth. I love that area. I think it’s not as hot and humid. Obviously it is, but not as much as like Houston. Yeah. You know, it kind of stays cooler a little longer. But what I like about Salt Lake is that it’s four seasons. I didn’t realize how much weather affected my mood and mental state until I left Miami, moved to Salt Lake, and then left Salt Lake. And then I realized, whoa, Texas is not my jam. As much as I love, obviously, my friends and my family, there’s nothing about the state itself that I’m like, yeah, this is awesome.

Amberly Lago: Yeah. I mean, I tell you what, it’s not like this is the first year we’re doing the holidays at my house. We’ve always celebrated. I’ve flown here and we go to my grandmother’s and everybody’s coming to our place for the holidays. And so it’s that that I love that I get to see family, And there’s so much opportunity here. There is so much.

Chris Holt: I think in terms of business, small business owners, there’s no state tax. A lot of people are coming to Austin. You look at every comedian that I follow, they’re all in Austin. I think from a business standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. I forgot that I moved and then my accountant said, oh, by the way, you’re going to have to start paying state tax because of Utah. I’m like, Man.

Amberly Lago: Yeah. Those little things, right? But then there’s other things that, you know, like the property taxes here in Texas are a lot more than- Oh, yeah. The houses. I mean, everything.

Chris Holt: Yeah. What you can get in Texas. Now, I mean, LA, you get like a studio apartment.

Amberly Lago: You know, it’s like- Well, I look at what our house is in LA because we kept our house in LA. And I said, you know, we’ve thought about moving back when my daughter graduates. And I’m like, I don’t know, after living in the house we’re at now, because you can get so much more for your money house-wise, I’m like, it’s going to be hard to move back to California and live in like, we’ll be empty nesters, but it’s going to be a big change, but I’m going to love those mountains.

Chris Holt: Oh, yeah. What part of LA were you living in?

Amberly Lago: Or is your house? Calabasas, Woodland Hills, like right off of Topanga.

Chris Holt: Okay. Okay. I was in LA Two weekends ago. I was in downtown and I’m it’s scary. Like downtown.

Amberly Lago: Well, that’s one of the reasons we left, because the homelessness has gotten out of control.

Chris Holt: I was walking around downtown in the middle of the day and I was like, I feel very unsafe.

Amberly Lago: And the only… And y’all, just if you aren’t watching this on YouTube and you’re listening, if you see him, like he looks like one tough mama-jama. I mean, he’s like tatted up all the way to like up his neck, around his ears, like big buff dude. Like you don’t look like anybody would want to mess with you.

Chris Holt: Well, that’s the only thing that I kept on telling myself. I’m like, okay, I looked the part. But I’m, you know, not like that at all. So, I mean, last night I was watching Love Actually. I mean, like, you know, I’m that kind of person. But yeah, LA was scary. It was really scary. And then I went out near like Orange County, Irvine. I went to Thousand Oaks and I’m like, okay, I get it. I would live in these areas for sure.

Amberly Lago: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Holt: It’s just, it’s, it’s, it’s, it just feels like a wasteland.

Amberly Lago: Well, I love it here because it’s so clean. And it’s so safe. And my daughter is thriving in school. And so next time you go visit your parents, you’ll have to make a plan to come on out to Dallas.

Chris Holt: Oh my gosh, I love Dallas Fort Worth. My ex fiance is from Cleburne, which is south of Fort Worth. Very small town. So we would go to Fort Worth, Dallas all the time. And I was like, man, if I were to live in Texas, it would have to be there. I would never live in Houston. I mean, I love Galveston, but it’s Galveston, you know? And so, I mean, look, it’s a beach and it’s water, you know, but it’s not pretty.

Amberly Lago: Now, where do your brothers live?

Chris Holt: So there’s, okay, there’s like, I should kind of zoom out. There’s technically eight siblings in my family. So my dad had two sons when he was first married. My older two brothers, who long story, I didn’t know about them until I got to college. And that’s a long story. But one of them lives here in Utah. So I became close with him when I moved out here. Then I have an older brother and sister who are my dad’s two kids from his second marriage. So my older sister is a partner at a immigration law firm in Miami. My older brother is a chief resident and professor at Yale University. So my daughter goes to Yale.

Amberly Lago: Oh, yeah. So he’s internal medicine. Okay, what is his name? I’m gonna ask her. Yeah, Stephen Holt. Okay, because she is studying medicine.

Chris Holt: Oh, then she would most likely know who he is.

Amberly Lago: Okay, I can’t wait to message her.

Chris Holt: He’s a professor there as well. And then my triplet brothers, Justin lives in Montreal. He’s a, used to be a texture painter for movies. So he did work for Industrial Light and Magic, Sony. So he worked on like, his first movie was like Happy Feet. Then he worked on Incredible Hulk, some of the Marvel films, Chappie, Elysium, like he did a lot of stuff. And then he left the movies because even though, you know, the people that make these movies, they really don’t make a lot of money. Now he runs textures for Epic International. So it’s Epic Games that created Fortnite. Wow. And then my brother Jeremy is, sorry, sibling. He’s non-binary. I keep on messing that up. My sibling, Jeremy, he lives in New York, and he’s a comic book writer. Oh, wow. Lots of success. Yeah, my younger sister is a teacher in San Antonio. Wow.

Amberly Lago: Wow. Well, so I want to get into a little bit of how you went from being an architect to a health coach. I mean, from what I understand, you are always into health and wellness. It sounds like we were a lot alike in drinking ripped fuel. And looking at the magazines and all that, it’s like, oh, I don’t do that anymore. But how long ago was your surgery? I want you to get into that, like when you found out you needed surgery. And how long ago was that?

Chris Holt: My heart surgery is June 12. So that’s six months ago.

Amberly Lago: Wow, you made a miraculous transformation from, and that just shows that, you know, your hard work, dedication, and muscle memory, because I saw you when you were in the hospital and afterwards and you, how much weight did you lose?

Chris Holt: it wasn’t actually didn’t lose a ton of weight. I lost, I lost like 15, 20 pounds.

Amberly Lago: Um, but that’s a lot because you’re so you’re like 3% body fat. So that was all muscle. So you shrink pretty quick when you stop working out, when you’re used to working out all the time. I mean, I lost 20 pounds in the hospital. Like I just could, all the muscles were withering away, but the good thing is you do have that muscle memory. But did you always know that something was going on with your heart? Or how did you discover that?

Chris Holt: Yeah, so kind of to kind of go from the beginning. So I’d already always known that I had like a heart murmur. And I remember that as a young kid, and first it was misdiagnosed many times. First, they said it was a mitral valve prolapse. And then they said it was a bicuspid aortic valve and all these things that went back and forth. Um, but eventually, uh, they said it’s a bicuspid aortic valve. So if you don’t know, the aortic valve has three leaflets that open and close. Um, I was born with technically two, um, or some people were born with like two of them kind of fused together. So there’s basically an opening. So your heart is working overtime just to compensate for that. So what happens for most people like myself, um, and this is the most common heart congenital heart defect. There is our Swartzenegger had one, you know, so, uh, so what happened with my valve is that it started, uh, my body started to create calcification around the opening to close it. And then that creates stenosis and atrophy of the valve. And then eventually that will fail. So I was asymptomatic, so I had no symptoms. And my cardiologist said, they said, look, we don’t understand how you’ve sustained the level of exercise you have for 15 plus years, but somehow your body’s figured it out. Because from what we’re looking at, your body’s only getting about 60% of the normal oxygen and blood to your brain and body than a normal human.

Amberly Lago: Wow. And I mean, y’all, he owned his own CrossFit gym. I mean, he’s like, talk about insane, intense workouts. I mean, we’re not talking about just little jog on the treadmill. You were like going hard. And so your body did adapt. It’s amazing how the body can. Oh, yeah.

Chris Holt: Yeah. And so but that was like, you know, I’ve known about the hard stuff for a while. But, you know, when I was younger, I was about 16. And I had my first lung collapse. And so then I had lung surgery. And how did your lung collapse? So the physicians say that I was born again, just a condition I was born with. They’re called blebs, which doesn’t sound very medical to me, or, you know, it’s just like, they’re basically the way they described it, they’re blisters on my lungs. If there’s too much pressure in my chest cavity, then they rupture and then my lung collapses. So the first one that still happened now. No. So based on the procedures they’ve done, they’ve tried to mitigate that. So the first one, I was 16. I was living in Norway. and they had to, uh, insert a chest tube. And in Norway, they don’t give you anesthesia. So you’re fully conscious and awake while they shove this tube into your chest cavity. So they give you Novocain for the incision, but that only works to a certain level. So in 16, I was like the longest 30 minutes of my life, because as soon as that chest tube separated my intercostal muscles, I could feel every millimeter that they bring this up into my chest cavity. And that was terrible. And so then They suck out the air, my lung reinflates, and it should heal itself. So that was the first procedure. Obviously, I have more blebs. So that right lung collapsed. The second time they went in, they did a pleurodesis, where basically they rough up the lung wall and the chest wall with like a Brillo pad. And then they throw in like this talc-like powder and it acts as an adhesive. So it sticks your lung wall to your chest wall. So your lung can’t collapse. Oh, wow. Yeah. So I had that done on the right side. And then I don’t know, a year or two later, my left lung collapsed because of my history. They did it right away. It was done incorrectly. So that lung collapsed, partially collapsed. I think it was a 50% collapse. So then they had to redo the procedure. And I remember this was in Texas at the time and we’re at Texas children’s in Houston. And the surgeon says, look, we have two options. You can go through your sternum or go through your back. And I’m like, if you go through my sternum, do you have to break my sternum? They said, yes. I said, you go through my back, you don’t have to break any bones that are like, correct. I said, go through the back. And he says, the back is a way longer recovery. I’m like, why? He says, it just is because we have to move a lot of things. Like, no, just go through the back. they did, they, I have a massive incision on my back. The surgeon takes his hand, puts it into my chest cavity, pulls my lung off the wall that it is attached to redo the whole procedure and then close it up. And I was like leaning like this for like four months. I couldn’t use any of these muscles. And it was a very, a lung surgery is way worse in terms of recovery than a heart surgery. So then, so yeah, so I’ve had four surgeries prior to my heart surgery. And then, you know, I think because of the trauma from those experiences, because I basically lived in a hospital for such a long time. And then after I was kind of out of the woods, I fell asleep driving, rolled my car down a hill, and then I was back in the hospital. I had a huge piece of windshield in my head. I, you know, I couldn’t sleep lying down for four or five months because of the head trauma. Um, so that was like some dark times in my life. Um, but because of that, I just put off the heart surgery. I just like, I don’t have symptoms. I’m good. I’m good. And then finally, one of the most recent checkups I had with my cardiologist says, look, this is going to have to happen. So you need to come to terms with this. You either do it now or you do it later, but you’re young, you’re healthy, you’ll recover faster. But at this point, you could work out, have a heart arrhythmia and just die. So like, do you want to risk that? And then I bought Peter Ortega’s book, Outlive, and it was just talking about, you know, number one cause of mortality in the United States for men and women is heart disease and heart issues. And it’s just talking about longevity. And then I was reading a book called 4K Weeks, which is talking about your life in weeks and, you know, you know, If you live to 80, you have roughly 4,000 weeks of life. And so I have a calendar right here that maps out my life in weeks. So I can physically see on a calendar that I’m already more than halfway through my life. And the second half isn’t guaranteed. So it makes me hyper conscious of like, how am I spending my time? And I need to be very intentional.

Amberly Lago: Oh, you know what? It’s so interesting you’re saying that because just this morning, so I’m having a big event in Dallas in April. You should come. But I’d love to see you. But I just got a message from my event planner this morning, and I had not thought of it in this way. She’s like, okay, we officially have 21 weeks until your event. And so you really have to think about every single podcast that you’re putting out there, every bit of information, like you’ve got that many. And when you look at your life in weeks, Um, and then I had somebody else on the show, um, and they have something called 18 summers and they talked about, you only have 18 summers with your children before they’re off. And, and who knows if they’ll ever be back to hang out with you in the summer, like 18, that’s all you get. And so it really shifts your perspective. But wow, I love that you like looking at the amount of weeks that you have. And I think something else, I think this heart surgery changed a lot at how you started to go after things because I haven’t talked to you in a while. And when we first got on, I was like, Chris, you were blowing up. I just see you doing things differently. And it’s beautiful to see you taking action. And there was even one post that you did where you were like, I have to be transparent with y’all. I keep it real here. And you were struggling with some depression. And you got on there and you were like, I really didn’t even feel like making this video. But I’m all about keeping it real because so many people suffer in silence. Um, do you think that out of all your surgeries, this heart surgery really changed the way that you approach things in life?

Chris Holt: I, I would say 100% because what I’ve realized is that in my life at this point, you know, my brothers and I are going to be 41 next month, I, I always want to choose the harder thing. And I think opting to do the surgery, which was essentially an elective surgery. It wasn’t like I needed it at the moment. That was the harder choice. And so after I got the valve replaced, and adjusting to a mechanical valve is a little jarring because I can hear the ticking all the time. And it sounds like I swallowed a clock and It’s weird.

Amberly Lago: Wow, you can actually like hear that all the time.

Chris Holt: If you if you watch some of my videos of me just talking, watch my stories if I’m talking because on my videos, I put music to it, because I put the music so you don’t hear the ticking because that can be very distracting. But everyone that I talked to on FaceTime or friends or I see in person, like I just saw a friend in LA and we were just having dinner and she’s sitting there in a restaurant and she’s like, I can hear it. I was like, what? I’m like, really? She’s like, yeah. So yes.

Amberly Lago: Is that something that they said that you will eventually kind of get used to?

Chris Holt: That’s what they said. Yeah. And I think to some degree, yes, I have kind of drowned it out. But in the beginning it, I couldn’t sleep, you know, and then noise canceling headphones on. then the ticking goes up into the center of my head and it sounds more like a chirp, like a smoke detector that needs a battery. Oh gosh. Yes. It’s maddening. It’s like, oh my God. But I’m like, that’s a small price to pay to have a brand new valve, right? And the mechanical valve I went with over a biological valve because biological valves need to be replaced every 10 to 15 years. And based on my age, I don’t want to do this again. So the only downside with a mechanical valve, which lasts forever, is that I have to be on blood thinners forever. So do yeah, so I’m on warfarin.

Amberly Lago: So yeah, so do you have to be careful? Like if you cut yourself? Is it like really hard to stop bleeding?

Chris Holt: Yes, certain cuts? Yes. I think I cut my leg moving. And it took like six hours to stop. Oh my god. But it’s weird because with tattooing, I’m fine. So like, I don’t know how that works. It’s I guess what tattooing doesn’t go as deep as maybe a cut might. But um, but yeah, so about bruises, do you bruise easily?

Amberly Lago: Really easily? Yeah. Because you should see me right now. We had moved some furniture around to put some holiday decorations up and the Christmas tree and stuff. And it was dark. It was early in the morning and it was still dark out. And I’d gotten up and I was getting up to turn the tea kettle off. And we had moved this big wooden block end table and I hit that thing. Oh, my gosh, you should see how bruised my foot and my leg is. It’s it’s bad. And so do you bruise easily? And I’m not on blood thinners. So I can only imagine what something like that would do to you.

Chris Holt: I bruise very easily and I have to do blood testing every two weeks. So every time I have to go to the doctor. So, um, we need to test my INR, which is your blood clotting ability. So all human beings form with a blood clotting ability of one. So just as a human, you’re, you’re a value at one. Um, so based on my mechanical valve, which is a more, uh, I don’t want to say advanced, but it’s just a newer valve. It can withstand a lower INR than necessary. Like most people have mechanical valves need to be two to three times thinner than an average person. So a value of two to three. I can be at a 1.5 based on this new valve because you need to be on blood thinners because you don’t want clotting around the mechanical valve because your body understands it’s a foreign piece of material, right? Yeah. So I do, I have a home kit. It’s kind of like testing blood glucose or ketones. You just prick your finger. It’s a strip. You test it. So but I know when I prick my finger, I bruise instantly. And that’s just pricking my finger. So there have been times where I look and I’m like, I am like, like, I don’t even when did I hit myself like that? Yeah.

Amberly Lago: Yeah, well, I mean that when you talk about a sustainable lifestyle, I can understand why you’re inspired to make a bigger difference with people’s their lives because of yours is like you had to make that decision to have the heart surgery. And now to sustain that, it’s not like, okay, I did this and I’m done. It’s like every two weeks you have to test your, you have to be on blood thinners. You have to do testing every couple of weeks. Did this change the way that you eat at all? Because I know that obviously it looks like you eat very well, very healthy. But I know after my accident, I thought I ate really healthy before, but when I was diagnosed with this nerve disease, I completely changed my eating. First of all, I’m on a medication and the main side effect is weight gain and suicidal thoughts. And I remember going to a psychiatrist and saying, I don’t want to take this medication because the side effect… Forget the suicidal thoughts. I was all conscious. I was like, weight gain? I don’t want to gain weight. And he goes, well, that’s up to you. He goes, that’s up to you and what you put in your mouth. He goes, if this slows your metabolism down a little bit, then you just eat a little less. And I was like, wow, that really instantly put me back in the driver’s seat. And I felt like I had a little bit of control over something that felt so out of control. And so that really helped. How has this affected you, first of all, how you eat? And is it also one of the things that really inspired you to become a nutritional coach?

Chris Holt: Well, it didn’t really, the only change that I had to make after the surgery and being on blood thinners is I have to stay away from foods that are rich in vitamin K because vitamin K is a blood clotting, um, vitamins. So like things that are basically dark, dark leafy greens, which sucks because those are all the things I love. Right. Oh yeah. Spinach and, and kale and like all those things that I like. even broccoli, I think. So I can have it like little spurts, but like, can’t be regular anymore. So that’s the only thing that changed. But what caused me to get into becoming a nutritional coach was just because of my, my kind of origin story of being an architect. I’ve wanted to be an architect since I was in seventh grade. Went to the University of Miami in Florida, five-year architecture degree, graduated in 06, worked for a firm downtown. They’re called Swanky Hayden Connell Architects. This company, when I started with them in 2006, they had just turned 2006-2007, they had just turned 100 years old as a company. So they’d been around a long time. They did the restoration for the Statue of Liberty. I mean, offices all over the world. They now no longer exist after 2008. So when the housing crisis happened and the economy crashed, they just went under. And so I remember once I got into architecture, I realized I hated it. The idea of an architect is nice, and I think people put architects on the same pedestal as a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer. But the big difference is that you don’t go into a doctor’s office, a lawyer’s office, and say, I’m not going to pay that for that surgery. I’m not paying that for that legal fee. It is what it is. In architecture, things can be value-engineered. So if someone doesn’t like it, they’re like, look, I’ll go find someone else that can build it cheaper. So architects make no money. Really? Oh, it’s shocking. For the amount of schooling and testing that we have to go through, you don’t even… I would say that… Like my sister probably makes… My starting salary in 2007 as an architect was $32,000 a year. Wow. Yeah. And my boss who had been a partner or not, no, she was a associate principal, wasn’t a part, like a principal yet, which is like a partner. She had been with the company for 10 years and she wasn’t making six figures.

Amberly Lago: Oh my gosh. So you’re like, you know what, I’m going to take my chances as an entrepreneur and start my own business. Yeah.

Chris Holt: So I, once I got let go in 2008, They did offer me a position up in the New York office. But I thought, man, I’ll be the last one in, first one out. It just feels like building is stopping. The economy is just not great. And I was doing CrossFit at the time for a few years. And so I was like, I didn’t think anything of it. And then I had one of my older brother’s friends saw on Facebook that I was doing CrossFit, and he was doing CrossFit in Virginia. And at the time, there were no affiliates in Miami. And he sent me a message like, hey, you should open a CrossFit gym. I’m like, I don’t know anything about owning a gym or a business. And he was a lawyer. He’s like, dude, I can help you with all the LLC stuff and the paperwork. It’s pretty easy. And more importantly, it’s a gym. You don’t have inventory. You buy equipment and it lasts a long time. It’s not like a restaurant or something like that. You could be one of the first affiliates. And as you know, CrossFit is growing.

Amberly Lago: And I was like, oh, it’s grown a lot. Now, do you still own that gym?

Chris Holt: No, no, no. I sold my portion of that in 2018. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I opened… At the time, we got our paperwork in late. So we were officially the second affiliate, which still bothers me to this day. But yeah, so I opened that gym with two business partners in 2008. We bought one of my partners out around like 2013, I think. And then Tony and I own that gym from 2008 to 2018. And now, unfortunately, it’s closed. It doesn’t exist anymore. So they closed maybe a year or two ago. But yeah, so what got me into nutrition was that CrossFit was the first program that really had the conversation about nutrition. It’s like, look, you can crush yourself in the gym, but if you want to really perform, it’s just like a car. If you piss in your car’s gas tank, it’s not going to run. So you need to be fueling it with optimal fuel.

Amberly Lago: Yeah. And that’s what I don’t think a lot of people understand. I mean, I was a fitness trainer for 26 years and people say, well, what ab exercises do I do for a six pack? And I was like, abs are made in the kitchen. You can do crunches all day long, but if you are taking in more calories than you’re burning off, those abs are going to be hidden. Yes. Well, what we used to call with a winter coat.

Chris Holt: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s the thing is, I think we see that all the time. You see millions of people go in and out of 24 hour fitness, Gold’s gym, you know, whatever, and they look the same, you know? And so for me, I realized, you know, going through the ebbs and flows of, of wanting to look a certain way and trying to find shortcuts when I was in college, which obviously didn’t work. But I really started getting the physique I wanted, not by focusing on the exercises, it was focusing on what I was eating. And then because as we know, it’s just body fat, right? Like, less body fat you have, the more you can see. And then I always say like, I’ve always said abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym. And I do believe that I think you know, to make it a little more accurate, I always say, the kitchen allows you to see ads, but you can build ads in the gym, right? Like build the muscle, I would say that I have very overdeveloped apps, just because I do a ton of, you know, GHD sit ups and toes to bar and a lot of core work. But You have to, like you said, consume less calories than you’re expending.

Amberly Lago: Yeah, for sure. And I want to give people some tips on some of the things they can do that you would suggest for people that are addicted to sugar. How would you suggest somebody break their habit? Well, and I know you say people are addicted to dopamine. And a lot of times that sugar is what gets that dopamine going. How do you break that cycle?

Chris Holt: I would say, first off, you need to just be aware of those things. Secondly, swap it out with something else. You know, it’s not gonna be perfect every single time, but you can get, you know, dopamine in other ways, right? So I say, you know, go for a walk, read a book, listen to music, watch a movie. spend time with friends, call a friend, you know, just do something that replaces food with, or, you know, with something else, right? Because the food is really the coping mechanism. And typically, that boils back down to a stressor, people cope with food to deal with stress. So we need better stress management tools. So box breathing, cold exposure, heat exposure, getting out and getting sun, like all these different things can help you know, relieve stress, right? And so that’s really what it is. I think people, I always say it’s not the food, right? Like, yes, there are addictive properties to sugar and processed foods and stuff like that. But I don’t want to demonize those things. I don’t think sugar is bad. I don’t think there’s such thing as good, bad, healthy or unhealthy. I think it’s okay to treat yourself with processed sugar once in a while. But the problem is, people have it too often. So that’s what I want to try to change people’s relationship with food. Because as soon as we start labeling these things as good or bad, that creates their perpetual cycle that we live in, right? That we’ve all been instilled in us, myself included. So what I do my best with my clients is to help them reframe those things. And it’s not about you know, you know, sometimes like I had a client today that, you know, was hiding food, you know, didn’t tell me about some candy she ate. And I’m like, okay, that’s fine. But you do understand candy is not the problem, right? You not telling me and hiding it, you are applying a negative connotation to that candy. And then that’s the vicious cycle.

Amberly Lago: It’s so true. I mean, look, I remember years ago, and this is like before I only had social media to like check to see what my oldest daughter was up to. You know, I didn’t really hardly post anything. I was like living on the gym floor. All my clients were through word of mouth. And I was working with a young girl and her food. I’m not, you know, I didn’t go to school for nutrition, but I knew enough about it where I could make suggestions. And I had a client that really wanted to lean out and she would tell me, I’m eating really healthy. I don’t know why I’m not losing weight. And I’m like, dude, I just saw you posted a picture of a steak the size of your head and a huge schooner of beer and mashed potatoes and gravy. I was like, what portions, it’s about portions. Steak isn’t bad if it’s, but I will say with sugar, and I know you just said sugar’s not bad. I can immediately tell if I have sugar, it will flare the nerve disease up that I was diagnosed with. It will completely, once you cut that out and you have a little, immediately, and I can go, and it makes me crash. So I just try to stay

Chris Holt: Well, I think cut out sugar for so long, processed sugar, uh, you’re hypersensitive to it. Right. So me, I was in a restaurant, I was going to treat myself with some sweet potato fries. So I remember taking one and I was like, Oh my God, there’s sugar all over this. And I go to the waiter. I’m like, Hey, uh, there’s sugar on this. And he’s like, no, there’s not. I said, I promise you there’s sugar on here. It’s like, why would they put sugar on fries? I said, that’s, I don’t know.

Amberly Lago: You can tell when you haven’t had sugar, you immediately can taste it.

Chris Holt: This waiter insisted. He’s like, sir, there is no sugar on those fries. I said, okay, just humor me. Can you just ask the chef? And he comes back. He says, wow, I owe you an apology. He totally put sugar on the fries. I was like, he says, why would he do that? I’m like, it’s a salty, savory thing or sweet, savory thing. Like, addictive. Like, You know, like, that’s why food companies put it in food right because it’s not regulated, it has addictive properties. So, we’re about profit margins, you know, their shareholders. Hey, if we can freely put this in here, and it’s not regulated, we make lots of money. And that’s unfortunately the system we live in so.

Amberly Lago: Well, how do you, what would you do to suggest for people to not overindulge, especially when they love those sugary fries? Like what are some tips to not overindulge?

Chris Holt: I think you need to get to a point where you have control. I think that that’s the biggest thing is that you need to go without it for a little bit to regulate and kind of reset everything. And then, you know, get to a point where If you decide to treat yourself with food, it’s a conscious choice you’re making and it’s not an emotion or food making the choice for you, which is typically what happens, right? I get stressed. I eat this. Someone said something to me and it upset me. I got in a fight with my spouse. My dog died. And it’s just like, there’s always a reason, right? So I just suggest to people, look, you need to go without it for a while so that you can gain control. And then when you The goal here is to get to a point where you do reintroduce it. It’s nothing about feelings of guilt. It’s more like, oh, I don’t feel good. That’s the aha moment. It’s like, oh, that hurt me enough. I just don’t want to do that again for a while. But too often, people have it so much. I always use the analogy of soda drinkers. They don’t realize how sweet it is because they have it every day. And you cut it out for 30 days and then reintroduce it. They can’t finish a can. It’s like, oh man, this is so it tastes like syrup. I’m like, well, it is syrup. But like, you wouldn’t know that because you’re so used to it. So you need to go without it for a while. But again, you get the withdrawal symptoms, right? And then that’s, that’s the hard part because of the properties of these foods. Because look, let’s look at it. You have Coca leaves, you have poppy plants, you have wheat, and you have sugarcane. And those four raw substances, physically impossible to get addicted to those. You can eat poppy plants all day, you just won’t pass the drug test. You can eat coca leaves to numb your cheek and altitude sickness and all those things, you’re not going to get addicted to coca leaves. You could chew on wheat, not going to taste very good. You can chew on sugarcane, it’s not that sweet. As soon as you refine these down to a fine powder, eat them, ingest them, snort them, or drink them, they’re highly, highly addictive. So that’s the difference. It’s like, look, it’s not, it’s just the form of it, right? You know, you’re just, it’s so concentrated. So, you know, helping people understand that, um, is one thing, but again, applying it as just a completely different beast because emotions and psychology and feelings are so closely linked to food. you know, in all cultures. And I know that just so that’s why most people can’t do it. It’s just hard to do on your own without accountability. So

Amberly Lago: So is that one of the things that you offer is like accountability for your clients?

Chris Holt: Yeah, all our clients send three food pictures a day. So making you hyper conscious, conscious of your choices. We we try to focus on three balanced meals in the beginning avoid snacking because snacking is ultimately with people in trouble. But as long as you’re getting three balanced meals, meaning there’s a source of protein, carbs and fat from a whole food list, this is a good jumping off point. Now, nothing’s set in stone. Everyone’s so different. Everyone’s starting places are different. Everyone’s lifestyles are different. Activity levels are different. So it’s just a jumping off point. So from there, we will dial in portions, dial in you know, timing of when you have your meals or whatever it is, but just keeping a three balanced meals a day is a great place to start. And then we kind of adjust course from there. And by focusing on real whole foods, you don’t really need to weigh and measure food and track macros and count calories and stuff like that.

Amberly Lago: Yeah, it’s the quality of the food, which I, that’s one thing I really, really, really miss about California because I used to shop at Whole Foods and Air One and Trader Joe’s and where I live, those, well, they don’t have Air One out here, but the nearest market that’s Whole Foods is like a 30-minute drive for me and Trader Joe’s. And so I get my insulated bags and make a trip to go so I can find healthier foods than what I… That’s right around where we live. And that’s an excuse that I hear a lot from people, even from a close family member who I know their health would change drastically if they just ate whole foods. I know you can’t always get organic, but there are so many ways that you can order food. Do you suggest people, because they’re now, I always just did all my shopping, but now I actually order food from like Thrive Market and places like that. Do you find that’s an excuse that you hear from people as well? I can’t afford healthy food or there’s just no place to shop around me because I feel like you can order it online. And yes, it’s a little bit more expensive, but the amount of money we spend on other things and our health is the most important thing we have. Without it, we have nothing else really matters.

Chris Holt: Yeah, I think there’s two parts to this. I think, yes, that is one thing I always hear is that, oh, eating healthy is expensive. And honestly, there are no legitimate studies showing that organic is better than non organic, right at this point, maybe 15 years ago, fine, but everything is marketed as organic. And yes, okay, free range. Yes, you’re going to see the color of the yolk be a little more darker and richer. Yes, there’s more nutrients in those things. But there are no studies showing that buying regular eggs at you know, WinCo or some, you know, dumpy supermarket is going to affect you in a negative way. So I tell a lot of people, look, go to Walmart. Walmart has great produce. They have great meats. They have everything.

Amberly Lago: Walmart does?

Chris Holt: Walmart. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So Walmart shoppers, let’s go. Yeah. And it’s, you can even buy organic and free range and grass fed in Walmart if you want to go that route. But if you’re on a budget, you don’t even have to do that. Just get the regular ground beef, the ground chicken, get regular eggs. You can get almond milk there. You can get

Amberly Lago: You don’t think that there’s like hormones pumped into all that meat when it’s like you’re buying meat from Walmart and it’s just a regular old package of meat?

Chris Holt: Like I said, it’s yes, most likely. But for me, again, I haven’t seen any studies showing long term negative effects by doing that. But more importantly, If it’s getting someone to just eat Whole Foods, I’d rather than do that.

Amberly Lago: That’s a starting point. Yeah.

Chris Holt: You know, it’s always going back to the lesser of the evils. I mean, do you want to just get regular ground beef from Walmart or do you want to go eat Taco Bell? It’s like, I’d rather you get regular beef from Walmart, you know? And then with regards to… I’m trying to remember that second part I wanted to say.

Amberly Lago: Ordering food from different

Chris Holt: Yeah, I mean, honestly, I shop at Walmart, I go to different grocery stores, I don’t always go to Whole Foods because it does, you know, Whole Foods is really expensive. Yeah, it’s nicknamed whole paycheck. Yeah, exactly. I think that’s the one thing that most people do talk about is this kind of excuse of, oh, I can’t afford that. But, you know, if you really look at it, it’s like, well, you’re buying six dollar coffees and you’re doing this and you’re doing that. It’s like, OK, well, there’s budget. You know, we just need to reallocate things. And yeah, I mean, But the tough part, I think, for most people is the, like I said, the accountability, because left to your own devices, you’re going to do whatever you want, right? Like you’re going to choose the easier route, you’re going to choose the easier option, the more convenient option. And I think that all of us do that myself included, you know, oh my goodness.

Amberly Lago: I look for after my motorcycle accident. I started drinking every day to help numb out the pain and I got addicted. I became a full-blown alcoholic and I tried to stop. on my own. And I just, I couldn’t do it. I have a sponsor. I have sober sisters. I go to recovery meetings. It’s the only way that I know how to stay sober and it’s that accountability. And also it’s the people that you hang around even, you know, If you’re hanging out with somebody who’s constantly eating fast food before long, you’re going to pick up a piece of that sugary French fry or the pizza or start drinking soda before long. But if you’re around somebody who eats healthy and I think of food now as fuel. I really look at it as fuel and the way it makes you feel. Yeah.

Chris Holt: Yeah, and I think going back to this idea of getting older and being more intentional about everything in my life. I also think about who do I surround myself with, you know, and if someone isn’t adding to my life or is just taking taking taking. they’re going to get purged because life is too short. And I think, you know, I have some clients that are in, that have friendships, right? With people for 20 plus years. And they’re not, in my opinion, great. They’re not even friendships to begin with. They’re just someone that just mooches off of them emotionally, spiritually, physically, monetarily, you know, this is not a friend, you know, I think, you know, and then you create that person creates guilt because it’s like, Oh, I feel bad. And it’s like, look, life is too short to be doing this, right? You know, some people come into your life for reasons, I believe that, but it’s really up to you to decide who you want, you know, that circle of people to be.

Amberly Lago: Yeah, and I think that knowing your values helps that, with that really helps you to decide who, you know, if there’s somebody that doesn’t have the same values as you at all, it’s, you have to really look and evaluate that friendship, which is hard. Well, we are running out of time. I just want one more question for you. And I know you’ve talked a lot about bouts of depression. I think that it’s hard. There’s a lot of people struggling right now, and they’re suffering silently. They don’t want to share that they are depressed. And I mean, I know for me, I’ve definitely been diagnosed with depression, and they wanted to put me on all these different kinds of antidepressants. And what really helped me get through that was moving my body. And I know that if I don’t move, I start to get a little blue, especially like today is a rainy, cold day outside and it kind of is gloomy. What are some things that you have done that help you when you have had depression or you can feel yourself starting to sink down into like a little bit of sadness? What are some things that you could do that you do and that you could offer for others that might be struggling a little bit?

Chris Holt: Yeah. First and foremost, anyone that struggles with any type of mental illness, we all have, hopefully have come to terms with the fact that it’s not going away. This is something that’s just not going to disappear one day. It doesn’t matter how much therapy you do. It’s chemical imbalances. It’s, it’s just the way your brain body is wired. Trauma, like there’s lots of different reasons, but for me, I never wanted to be dependent on pharmaceutical Um, interventions, I believe that they are suitable for some people and some people really do need them, but food is medicine. Movement is medicine. So for me, it’s getting movement. Even if it’s just like walking, just go for a walk. Walking is low hanging fruit. It’s a great way to burn fat. It’s low intensity, low impact walk, get steps in. And then for me, you know, obviously what I feel my body with. I think that there are lots of studies showing how poor food, poor quality food can make mental illness feel worse. And then, you know, I think things like meditation, breath work, you know, just down to cold exposure. I think cold exposure is one of those one things that I, I didn’t, I was like, oh, like, Why is everyone cold plunging? And even heat exposure for longevity. The data is there. The studies have been done. But it’s going back to choosing the harder thing. What’s harder? Just staying in bed, or getting up and getting a cold shower, or jumping in a cold body of water? Do the harder thing. Because I’ve noticed my anxiety has dramatically decreased the more I do cold exposure.

Amberly Lago: It’s also proving to yourself that you can do hard things and you can make a promise to yourself and stick with it. And there are a lot of people, even like for me, when I was stuck in the hospital bed, I mean, I couldn’t even get up to walk. I couldn’t, I was completely bed bound. And so I had a friend of mine that bring me some dumbbells. I had the doctors install a pull-up bar over my hospital bed because I knew I could at least do some sort of movement, even though I was stuck in the bed. And that made me feel like I was moving in the right direction. But yeah, when you move, it releases those endorphins, which make you feel good. It combats pain. And so there are days when I’m like, ah, I don’t feel like going to the gym. I feel like laying on this couch and watching Netflix and check it out.

Chris Holt: Yeah. There are so many days where I, and people think that I’m always motivated and I don’t believe in motivation. Motivation is this fallacy. I think there are more days where I don’t feel motivated, but it’s about consistency.

Amberly Lago: And like I said, it goes back. It’s so funny, Chris. Just this morning, I did a post about this and I was like, yes, motivation can be a spark, but discipline is the fire. It’s the it’s and it takes discipline. I completely agree.

Chris Holt: have to consider. And it’s like everything that I said to help with mental health, you can’t just do it once. And then that’s like saying, Oh, I, I did 10 setups. Why don’t I have apps? It’s like, it doesn’t work like that. You have to consistently do it day in and day out. So using the thing that you don’t want to do and honestly set yourself, that’s how I get myself to do it is that I always think, and it’s kind of an elitist approach in my head where I’m like, you know what? I’m not just a faceless head in the crowd. I’m not just a number. I’m not a lemming. You know, I am going to do something that most people aren’t willing to do. And that’s what sets me apart. I’m not special. I wasn’t genetically gifted. I mean, look at all the health problems I was born with, you know, but I choose to do the thing that most people aren’t willing to do. And that’s all it is. You know, if you can do that, then honestly, consistency outworks motivation. every single day of the week.

Amberly Lago: So it sure does. It really does. And I mean, I think that’s how, you know, our podcast is top one percent podcast globally. And that’s not because I’m the best podcaster. It’s because I have been consistent. So it’s that way, whether you’re doing a podcast or whether it’s with your workouts or your food, it’s just staying consistent. And it’s kind of like the marathon of life and sticking with it. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being on and sharing your story and all that you have overcome and continue to just rise above. What’s the best way for people if they are like, okay, I’m ready to have some accountability. I am going to be open, share my food because I’m majorly, I need some nutritional advice. Where’s the best place for people to find you?

Chris Holt: Yeah, it’s just my handle. You can go to beyondthetats.com. You can go to Instagram or TikTok at beyondthetats. Because, you know, I always say most people are always taking pictures of their food anyway. So it’s like, look, your phone eats first. So why not just take advantage of something that you’re kind of already doing? And then let’s apply some some structure to that. So you can definitely check out those those platforms on that website.

Amberly Lago: Well, thank you. Yeah, y’all definitely will want to watch some of his videos. Because you said earlier that you follow a lot of comedians. I’m like, you could be a comedian.

Chris Holt: Someone said that to me. And I’m like, that would be terrifying to me is be up in front. Like, I don’t know. And they said, Well, that’s part of it. Like, you’ll get better at it. I said, I don’t know. I think I’ll just stick to my lip syncing reels or whatever. I don’t know.

Amberly Lago: Yeah, did you know that lawyers and comedians usually when tested it’s they’ve done tests have the highest levels of testosterone? Really? Because it takes so much like courage and just Oh, yeah, I know that comedians are hyper intelligent.

Chris Holt: I mean, there’s a level of intelligence that people don’t really understand. And I mean, they’re all very, very smart.

Amberly Lago: Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. But well, Chris, thank you so much for being on the show and sharing your wisdom. Thank you for all that you continue to do to help people live a sustainable life and a healthy life. Thank you for tuning in to the Amberly Lago Show. And you know what? I love when you share this. Take a screenshot, either if you’re listening on Spotify, Apple, or maybe this is on YouTube, and just tag me at Amberley Lago Motivation and Chris at Beyond the Tats on Instagram. And when I see that, I always share it in my story. But thank you for tuning in. And it’s because of you that we have a Top 1% podcast. So I appreciate you being here to listen. And Chris, thank you again for being on the show.

Chris Holt: Thank you so much for having me. This was awesome. That hour went by really quickly.

Amberly Lago: Yes, it did. I feel like I could talk to you all day. And thank you all for tuning in. We will see you next week.