#350 – Zack George

Zack George (00:00):

Yeah, good. I’m looking forward to it.

Sevan Matossian (00:03):

Bam. We’re live. Okay. Let’s just dig in. Stop. Pusy footing around you ready?

Zack George (00:09):

I’m ready. Let’s do it.

Sevan Matossian (00:10):

Did will Smith really slap Chris rock?

Zack George (00:15):

Unbelievable in it. When I woke up this morning, I was like, what is going on in this world?

Sevan Matossian (00:17):

They’re just good actors, right? That’s just for fun. Right? That to give us something to, they just got $3 billion worth of free publicity. They’re just messing with us.

Zack George (00:27):

Yeah, it’s crazy. But Chris rock took it pretty well. Didn’t he?

Sevan Matossian (00:31):

I don’t know. I, I can’t. Is it real or not? So you think it’s real?

Zack George (00:34):

I think it’s pretty real. Yeah. Look like a very hard slap.

Sevan Matossian (00:39):

Have you seen any, I haven’t seen any MOS of it. Have you seen any slow MOS of it? Yeah,

Zack George (00:43):

I’ve seen slow MOS memes. Just so much better.

Sevan Matossian (00:47):

Okay. So it connects.

Zack George (00:49):

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A hundred percent.

Sevan Matossian (00:51):

Cause uh, uh, will Smith’s a big boy.

Zack George (00:53):

Yeah. It’s big dude. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (00:54):

And Chris rock is, uh, is, yeah, he’s got a little prince in him, you know, you know, you remember, do you remember prince? The, the singer? Yeah, he got a little Michael Jackson prince in him and uh, and Chris got rock and, uh, will Smith got a little bit of the rock in him? You know what I mean? Just you

Zack George (01:07):

Can, you can hear the connection when it, when it, when it hits that it was a pretty hefty slap.

Sevan Matossian (01:11):

Oh my goodness.

Zack George (01:12):

Yeah. Crazy, crazy morning.

Sevan Matossian (01:15):

And, and, and all these people, like I’m seeing that, like we’re consoling will Smith consoling will Smith. How about poor Chris rock?

Zack George (01:22):

Yeah. There’s a lot of people been divided down the line if they’re on Chris rock side or will Smith’s side. Um, yeah, I think it’s very divided.

Sevan Matossian (01:30):

I think you’re allowed to say whatever you want when you’re up there.

Zack George (01:33):

Yeah. But it is a pretty harsh joke on his wife. It’s you can see both sides of the story, I guess. But, um, what

Sevan Matossian (01:41):

Was, what was the joke that like, she has some hair issues and he cracked a joke about her hair loss.

Zack George (01:45):

Yeah, basically. Yeah. She’s bold. And um, I think she got alopecia. I think it is. Yeah. He made a joke about that, but okay.

Sevan Matossian (01:52):

Let me, let me ask you a question. Would you ever have a really tiny penis, ALO alopecia or live in Kiev right now?

Zack George (02:01):

Oh, fuck.

Sevan Matossian (02:02):

I’m gonna go with Aeia for the win.

Zack George (02:05):

Yeah. I’m I’m there I’m pretty much there already. So I don’t

Sevan Matossian (02:07):

Have,

Zack George (02:10):

But no, I think if it was will Smith, you’d probably wait to the, to the break to say something. You probably wouldn’t do it live. Yeah. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (02:16):

Or, or how about just wait out by his car afterwards? Oh, those two poor guys. I really like will Smith too. I mean, I love him, him

Zack George (02:24):

A favorite actor. He’s literally my favorite actor.

Sevan Matossian (02:27):

There’s the, well that, let me cross that off. Who is your favorite actor? That’s one of my favorite questions to ask, um,

Zack George (02:33):

Question.

Sevan Matossian (02:34):

I like, um, I like, uh, um, who’s the guy who got accused for, um, hitting his wife and he’s in all the, um, he’s he’s in all of the, um, pirate movies. What’s that guy’s name? Oh,

Zack George (02:49):

Uh, Johnny Depp.

Sevan Matossian (02:50):

Yeah. I like, I like anything. Johnny Depp does anything Denzel Washington does. And anything? Um,

Zack George (02:56):

Leonardo?

Sevan Matossian (02:57):

No, no, no, no. The guy we were just talking about, uh, will Smith

Zack George (03:00):

Will Smith. Yeah, yeah,

Sevan Matossian (03:01):

Yeah. I just want to go. Yeah.

Zack George (03:02):

Except for after earth. That was a terrible film.

Sevan Matossian (03:05):

I didn’t see that in what’s 22. Okay. I’ll give you another one. I can’t watch pirates of the Caribbean too. After saying all that. I just, I’m just not a fan. Yeah.

Zack George (03:12):

I’m not, I’m not a big fan of S anyway, but I like pretty much anything will Smith does apart from after earth and wild, wild west. That was a terrible film.

Sevan Matossian (03:19):

I didn’t see that either.

Zack George (03:21):

That’s really old, like 20 years old, but yeah. Terrible.

Sevan Matossian (03:23):

Yeah. He was great as the fresh prince. How old are you? Zach?

Zack George (03:27):

31.

Sevan Matossian (03:28):

Oh, okay. So you’re, you’re, you’re very young, but your oldest dirt for a CrossFitter.

Zack George (03:34):

Yeah, I’ve been doing crosses since I was 23, 24. So feel like I’m it for a long time now. I think when I started the open, it was my eighth year of my open. I was like, that’s gone crazy quick.

Sevan Matossian (03:47):

Let me see. I, uh, I spent all last night on the assault bike, um, trolling. You let’s see. Let’s see if I can. Usually I have someone who helps me. I don’t know where they are today. Your first open.

Zack George (04:03):

Yeah, one more. Is it,

Sevan Matossian (04:05):

Uh, two? Is it say, uh, I really enjoyed my first ever CrossFit open. I think it’s two, it says 2017, 979th in the world for your first attempt. That’s crazy.

Zack George (04:17):

Yeah, but I had no idea what I was doing. I think I, I attempted some of the 15 and sixties, but I didn’t submit any of my scores at all. My score, I think 17 was the first year I, I did the full open and submitted my scores.

Sevan Matossian (04:30):

You’re kind the opposite of me. I would always sign up and then submit someone else’s scores. So we’re, we’re a little bit different.

Zack George (04:36):

What else? In the videos

Sevan Matossian (04:38):

Where, um, where you know what I’m gonna do here, I’m gonna change your name to your Instagram account. Is it, uh, um, at just like, just the way it’s spelled?

Zack George (04:51):

Yeah. N S C K, and then George.

Sevan Matossian (04:54):

Um, you’re competing hard on YouTube with, uh, some little kid who, trains dogs. Did,

Zack George (04:59):

You know the amount, the amount of people who tagged me in dog stuff on Instagram is insane.

Sevan Matossian (05:05):

He doesn’t even spell, spell his name. Like you, I didn’t watch any of his videos. Is he English like you?

Zack George (05:09):

No, he is American. It spelled Z a K, but the amount of people, oh, look how well, my dog’s learning to go for toilet outside. Like I get so many, it’s crazy, but he’s got a massive following

Sevan Matossian (05:20):

It’s because you spell your name. Right. And he spells his name wrong.

Zack George (05:23):

Yeah. Not many people spell my name right. First time. But yeah, I get a lot of confusion with the others at George in America.

Sevan Matossian (05:29):

Um, maybe it’s just me, but I it’s, it’s amazing to me that you’re not more popular in the United States. Once I came across here, I was like, holy shit. How did I not see this guy? But I think the CrossFit community is kind of like that. There’s all of these amazing, like people just hidden in the nooks and crannies. Like another one of the guys is, um, you know, that guy, uh, they call him the fitness wizard. I don’t even know his first name. Do you know who that is?

Zack George (05:52):

No.

Sevan Matossian (05:53):

The fitness wizard, someone will put up his name. There’s just all of these people out there. It’s like, holy cow. Like I was going through your Instagram. Um, what a great following you have and what a great bunch of sponsors you have, you’ve really killed it. People have embraced the shit outta you.

Zack George (06:08):

Yeah. I think it’s, uh, a combination of, um, I’m a lot bigger than most CrossFiters. So when I’m on the, when I’m on a competition floor, I look like a body builder or on the floor. So I think I get a lot of attention due to that reason. Um, and every reason I think I, I post all my workouts most of my times on my Instagram. So I always try and to help motivate people, get them into fitness. Um, and I think people like that side of me and how I don’t hide a lot of the stuff I do. I just post it on social media for people to, to try or to see, um, to think combination of those two, um, probably helped me along the, along the years.

Sevan Matossian (06:42):

Do you know how, um, tall you are and how much you weigh in American numbers in American metrics?

Zack George (06:47):

Not in Amer I’m six foot, whatever that is. And then, um, 98 kilos now, but then when I’m in the off season, I’ll be about 1 0 1. Um,

Sevan Matossian (06:59):

I think that’s two, is it two, five pounds? Yeah. 20. Okay. Wow. That is big.

Zack George (07:06):

Yeah. It’s pretty heavy for CrossFit. I feel it in something like the first workout at the cores, the handstand press at one. Wow. That was, uh, that was tough.

Sevan Matossian (07:15):

Speaking of handstands, that was one of the cool things about your there’s a lot of cool things about your story as I dig into it. But one of the, uh, cool things is that you took a weakness, handstand, pushups, and you turned it into a strength. I think the manager at your gym was saying that in an interview and that, that, that sort of, I mean, that’s one of the, um, cornerstones of CrossFit, right?

Zack George (07:34):

Yeah. A hundred percent. It cost me the game spot in 2019. So, so I can’t remember my, my finishes in the UK. I think there’s roughly like first, second, first, third, and then 168. So it literally cost me, uh, yeah, the game spot that time. Um, so as soon as I, I did that work, I was at right. I’m I’d never wanna be in this position again. Um, and I, I did them pretty much four times a week for years on end and they’re, they’re good now. I think they’re good now for my size, but it’s still hard to keep up with the smaller dudes on movements like that. So it’s not like a massive hole now, but it’s still, I still wanna get better with them. I still wanna be able to compete with the smaller guys, um, at those sort of movements.

Sevan Matossian (08:18):

Where is home for you for those of us who are geographically illiterate?

Zack George (08:22):

So, uh, England, uh, little place called Lester. So bang in the Midlands of England

Sevan Matossian (08:28):

And, and what that’s, uh, west of London?

Zack George (08:31):

Uh, north

Sevan Matossian (08:32):

North. Okay. North.

Zack George (08:34):

So it’s round there, Birmingham. N it’s pretty much bang bang in the center.

Sevan Matossian (08:38):

How, how far from there? From London? Yeah, from London, just

Zack George (08:42):

On the train. 55 minutes driving two and a half hours.

Sevan Matossian (08:45):

Okay. Oh, wow. Wow.

Zack George (08:47):

Yeah. Wow. So train quick.

Sevan Matossian (08:49):

Is it considered a, is it considered a suburb?

Zack George (08:52):

Uh, yeah. Part of it. Yeah. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (08:55):

So, um, you and, and you’re, and you’re born there in, in London. Yeah. Born,

Zack George (09:01):

Born and raised in. No, no, no, I

Sevan Matossian (09:02):

Was, I mean, sorry in England.

Zack George (09:04):

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Sevan Matossian (09:05):

And your parents, are they born and raised in England?

Zack George (09:08):

Uh, my mom was, uh, my dad’s from Guyana in south America. Uh, he moved over to here when he was 11.

Sevan Matossian (09:16):

And, and what brought him there? How did he get there?

Zack George (09:19):

So crazy story really? Um, his mom moved over to England just for a bit of life. Um, but she couldn’t afford to bring any of her kids over. So he got my dad, his two brothers and his sister. So she moved over to England, worked for a year, then bit off from enough money to bring her daughter over and then did it year by year to eventually bring all the kids over.

Sevan Matossian (09:41):

Wow. That’s similar to my, uh, that’s similar to my family story. My dad, my dad came over and then one by one brought over his, his eight, seven or eight brothers and sisters and then his parents and yeah, bring them over one by one.

Zack George (09:55):

Yeah, it’s crazy. And, um, yeah, so my dad grew up here. It would’ve been a tough time cause racism was quite a, a big thing. But then so yeah, he had a lot of stuff to deal with. Um, but

Sevan Matossian (10:04):

What year? What year was that?

Zack George (10:06):

When he moved over? I dunno off the top of my head. So he’s 66 now. He moved over when he was 11.

Sevan Matossian (10:13):

Okay.

Zack George (10:14):

S

Sevan Matossian (10:15):

Um, there’s a great movie. I, I, I want, it’s not V L SASO it’s, maybe it is V L Sassoon. It’s one of the big, big haircut shampoo guys. And basically he, um, and he lived in London and his whole it’s, it’s fascinating from an art perspective because he changed the way people cut hair. I guess when he started cutting hair, they would cut women’s and then you would have to leave the hair like that for like weeks. Right. But he figured out, Hey, let’s cut women’s hair, like men’s hair basically, and just make it so they can wash it and just comb it and, and do it themselves every single day instead of have, have it style. But basically he, when he was in London, he would cut hair by day and then hunt Nazis by night. It was, it was, it was a fascinating movie. What made me think about that is, is that you talked about the racism. It’s funny. When I think of, when I think of the UK, I never think of, I don’t know, for some reason that never pops in my head, I just think of beer or, or of beer or pubs. Yeah. When I think of the UK, I just think of pubs. Yeah,

Zack George (11:13):

Yeah. Yeah. The English lover pub, um, it’s never been a big thing of mine, but, um, but yeah, he had, he had a, a quite a tough upbringing should I say, but yeah.

Sevan Matossian (11:24):

And then what’s he do for a living what’s your dad do for a living?

Zack George (11:26):

So my dad, um, so he came over, uh, he just went, obviously went to school, left school when he was 16, 17, and then he went into clothing, manufacturing, um, yeah. Had nothing. And then yeah, built up a really successful business with my mom. Um, and did that and retired when he was 40.

Sevan Matossian (11:44):

Oh, wow. So your dad’s an entrepreneur.

Zack George (11:47):

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, pretty amazingly had nothing. When, when they moved over

Sevan Matossian (11:52):

Hard worker doesn’t know how to stop.

Zack George (11:54):

Yeah. Very hard work. And him and my mom, they were, they’ve been together since we were 13. Um, and think they kept their relationship hidden for about 10 years because of the, the racial tension.

Sevan Matossian (12:07):

Because your dad is your dad, your dad’s black and your mom’s white. Yeah. That’s no good. That’s no good. You can’t do that.

Zack George (12:15):

My

Sevan Matossian (12:15):

Mom’s 40, 50 years ago.

Zack George (12:17):

Yeah. My mom’s parents weren’t keen on it. My dad’s parents weren’t keen it. So, um, yeah. They kept their relationship hidden for quite a long time.

Sevan Matossian (12:24):

Hey, did they, did they ever come around? Did your grandparents ever come around? Yeah, shit, right. Fine. Yeah.

Zack George (12:28):

Unfortunately it was, was a very nice, happy ending.

Sevan Matossian (12:32):

Oh, that’s awesome. You know, it’s like that with the, um, any, any of the pure bloods, you know, the Jews don’t want their kids marrying outside of the Jews. The Armenians don’t want them, their kids marrying outside, you know? Um, probably, you know, maybe for different reasons, maybe if you’re white or if you’re black, you don’t want it because of the, of the skin color. But within like being Jewish or being Armenian, you know, those families, they, they want you to marry within your, and I’m, I’m generalizing. They want you to marry within your ethnicity. Pretty strongly too. But then eventually you get old enough and they like, they don’t care. So like my wife’s mom, she wanted her to marry a Jew. But then after like, you get so old, they’re like, all right, just marry anyone. Yeah. That shorter Armenian guy. He’ll do. Yeah. Yeah. Get ’em. Um, and now, now do your parents, do your parents, are, are you married?

Zack George (13:15):

No, not married. No. I live with my girlfriend. Um, it’s still in Lester and then my, my parents still live where they live.

Sevan Matossian (13:22):

Were you married?

Zack George (13:23):

No. Never been married? No.

Sevan Matossian (13:25):

Oh, I thought, I thought I saw on your Instagram. You called, you referred to someone as your wifey.

Zack George (13:29):

Oh yeah. I was just like a, an English term.

Sevan Matossian (13:32):

Oh, okay.

Zack George (13:33):

Or like, yeah.

Sevan Matossian (13:35):

So you guys are like Americans, you use words. That really don’t mean what you’re saying. Good. I’m glad that I’m glad that happens over there too. We have a lot of, a lot of that going on here. And, um, when you saw your parent, did you see your parents, um, struggle? Did you see your mom and dad like up late at night? Working hard. And did you see? Yeah,

Zack George (13:53):

My, yeah, my dad was never was home to, he was, he was working a lot. He was always traveling to around Europe for different things. Um, so yeah, I definitely saw my dad working a lot of the time. Um, my mum worked with him to a certain point, but then she became, um, a stay-at-home mom and she just looked after me and my sister. Um, so I think that’s one of the main reason my dad retired so early, cuz he was just working so much. He was like, what’s the point in working so much, if you can’t enjoy it with your family, enjoy what you’ve earned. Um, so yeah, he just decided he wanted to retire and have a bit more family and a bit more quality of life rather than just working every single day.

Sevan Matossian (14:30):

Did you feel, did you feel for him when you would see him work? Like if you, as a kid, you remember being like, man, my dad’s grinding. Uh,

Zack George (14:36):

No not cause I don’t really, I don’t think you understand that as a kid. I don’t think you just, you just think your dad’s going to work and that’s what every dad does. You don’t really see any other people’s dads or how often they work. So for me it was just, just normal that my dad would be working a lot and my mom would be at home. Um, it’s not till you grow up and you appreciate how hard he worked and what he did for the family and yeah, the sacrifice he made. But um, yeah, I think you, you learn and you realize that as you get older,

Sevan Matossian (15:02):

When he retires, when he is 40, does he, does he start another business? Does an entrepreneur not be able to stay still? Like does he, uh,

Zack George (15:08):

Yeah, he had a few properties and things like that, but um, he literally just wanted a, from having so many years of working constantly. I think he literally just wanted to enjoy it and have, have some quality family time for a couple years. And he did that for 10, 15 years. Um, and now he’s finally got himself back into a few more things cuz he, he was just getting too bored, but yeah, I think he enjoyed retirement for quite a long time.

Sevan Matossian (15:31):

And your, and your parents are both very attractive. You got

Zack George (15:34):

Yeah, like mom there. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (15:35):

And it could have gone bad for you cuz you have a pretty mom and a pretty dad. And if, if they had had an ugly kid, it would’ve been all just messed up.

Zack George (15:43):

Yeah. Yeah. She looks, she looks really afraid. She’s 66. So yeah, she looks very good

Sevan Matossian (15:49):

And I, I saw some other picture of her. She used to look kind a punk rock and now she looks, she looks more proper. Like when your dad first started dating her, she looked like she had a little Cindy LA in her.

Zack George (15:58):

Yeah they, yeah. Cuz they were both into fashion. She was kind of, she’s like just dressed in crazy styles. So, um, yeah. She’s definitely someone that you’d walk down the street when she’s younger, but like she’d be dressed pretty cool. Um, but yeah, so I think that’s by about the job.

Sevan Matossian (16:13):

And do you have a sibling? You have a sister?

Zack George (16:15):

Yeah, my sister, she is seven years older than me. So when my mom was younger, um, she wanted a really big family. She always wanted like five to 10 kids.

Sevan Matossian (16:24):

Wow.

Zack George (16:25):

Yeah. She wanted a huge family. Uh, she had my sister and then she had seven miscarriages and then, then me. Um, so

Sevan Matossian (16:34):

Why did she, do you, what, was there an explanation for the seven miscarriages?

Zack George (16:38):

No, I don’t, I don’t know if there is a, um, an explanation for it. Um, or if there was, uh, obviously I didn’t know. I never really kind of asked her, I don’t think, but um, yeah, seven miscarriages in between and then finally had me

Sevan Matossian (16:51):

Man. Yeah.

Zack George (16:53):

Took a big toe.

Sevan Matossian (16:54):

My, my wife had a miscarriage. Then we had the first baby. Then we had, then she had another miscarriage and that second one like, like really screwed her up. Um, Yeah, because, uh, and she bled a lot, like physically it really, like I hear about people talk. I always thought that if, if my wife had a miscarriage, it would be emotionally on her. But this, I mean, of course it was emotionally tough on her, but not compared to the physical, but seven is nuts.

Zack George (17:19):

Yeah. And seven in a row as well.

Sevan Matossian (17:22):

Yeah.

Zack George (17:23):

And I was speaking to mum actually a couple of weeks ago about it and um, yeah. And she never really said this, but the last one really kind of messed her up mentally and um, yeah, she went a bit off the, off the, not off the rails, but mentally she really struggled for about a good couple of months after that. Um, just didn’t wanna get outta the house. She just staying in bed all day. Um,

Sevan Matossian (17:42):

Yeah. My wife’s skin color changed. She turned yellow and did, I mean, it took her five months to be normal again. Yeah.

Zack George (17:48):

It takes

Sevan Matossian (17:48):

The point lost so much blood

Zack George (17:50):

Get back into, to sink and all the hormones to level out and things like that. Um, excuse

Sevan Matossian (17:55):

Me. Did she almost ever die from any of those? Did you ever hear any stories where she was bleeding out or she had to be rushed to the hospital or anything like that?

Zack George (18:02):

Uh, yeah. I think two of them were quite, were quite bad. There’s a lot of blood loss. Um, and they’re all at different stages. So obviously the, her, you get down the pregnancy that the harder it is, um, I think she had to give her stillbirth and one of them as well. So yeah, it wasn’t, it wasn’t a nice, um, stretch of years. That was um, but I think that’s one of the reasons me and my mom are so close now is because when she finally had me, it was like a miracle that she could have another kid.

Sevan Matossian (18:26):

Yeah. Do you still sleep in the bed with you? How do you still sleep in the bed with your parents?

Zack George (18:31):

No, I just got out a couple of weeks ago. Good. It’s a big, big, big moment.

Sevan Matossian (18:34):

I’m kind of joking, but this morning as I’m getting up to do the podcast, I look over in my bed and my wife’s using my seven year old son as a pillow. I’m like, oh, this kid’s damaged. This kid is gonna be so damaged. Um, and, and did you feel that as a child just credible, just like attachment from your mom

Zack George (18:51):

A hundred percent. Yeah. Massively. Um,

Sevan Matossian (18:54):

And you must have loved that. Did you love that?

Zack George (18:55):

Yeah, it was great. And yeah, I wouldn’t wouldn’t change it for the world. It’s definitely what contributed to me being a very overweight kid as well. So I had his good points and his bad points, um, because my mom would, if I wanted, I used to eat horrendously when I was a kid, uh, super overweight, uh, used to have like bags of however, every single day McDonald’s three or four times a week KFC twice a week. But my mom would never say no. Um, just because I think she, she just loved me so much that she didn’t realize just saying yes to anything that I wanted is not gonna be great for me. Um, could see in that picture, I can’t remember how old I was there, but I was complete opposite of the person I am now extremely lazy, loved junk food. Didn’t wanna do any exercise. Um, just wanted to eat, eat junk food all day. And, um, were you,

Sevan Matossian (19:45):

Were you raised to avoid discomfort?

Zack George (19:49):

What, what do you mean?

Sevan Matossian (19:52):

Like my, like I just feel like I was raised to avoid discomfort. Like my mom would say, oh, that doesn’t feel good or that’s too hard. Or I just feel like that there were things like, and I grew up hating, sweating. I hated sweating really. Like, like even as a teenager, I hated sweating. Did you, did you avoid, did you, did you play sports? Did you avoid, like, I avoided that stuff if, uh, like we would do the presidential fitness exam and you’d have to run a mile, which was four laps and I’d let all the kids lap me. So I only had to run three and then I’d come in. Like, did you do stuff like that?

Zack George (20:22):

I used, uh, it was strange cause I loved sport. I was always been extremely sporty kid. Um, I was good at rugby. Good at several different sports, but I loved playing sport. If you asked me to go for walk or run outside of a sport environment, I’d be the St kid ever. Um, swimming’s the only thing that I really avoided cuz I was too embarrassed of how I looked. So I always kind of missed, um, swimming lessons, always missed swimming. Um, what

Sevan Matossian (20:47):

Do you mean? You just put on a white t-shirt so that way, when you jump in the water, it sticks to your body and everyone really knows how fat you are

Zack George (20:53):

And people know you, you stand out even more. Cause you’re wearing a t-shirt and no one else is wearing one.

Sevan Matossian (20:57):

I was that jackass.

Zack George (20:59):

So yeah, you just stand out even more. So I always used to fake, I was ill or so like, um, to try and get our swimming lessons. Yeah. Within a supporting environment. I was, I was really enjoyed it. But outside that I was uh, yeah, a very lazy kid.

Sevan Matossian (21:13):

Hey look at this picture of you here. How old are you in that? Red and green shirt.

Zack George (21:18):

So that was at stone get, so I think that must have been about year eight. So probably would’ve been about 11 or 12 maybe.

Sevan Matossian (21:24):

Hey, is that kid, is that kid standing up next? You

Zack George (21:28):

Yeah, so no he’s sitting on the bench in front.

Sevan Matossian (21:31):

Okay, good.

Zack George (21:33):

Absolute giant.

Sevan Matossian (21:35):

Um, you’re you’re lucky you didn’t damage your body. Yeah. You know what I mean? By that? You’re lucky you didn’t. Um, there there’s a lot of people out there now who’ve gotten so obese that when they lose the weight, their shit’s all fucked up. They’re like a, you know, like when a car gets totaled. Yeah, yeah. Like in the frame bends and they’re like, you could still drive it sometimes, but like your car will never be the same. Yeah. Like you could’ve you’re you look like you’re pretty close to doing that to yourself.

Zack George (22:02):

Yeah. Especially for the state in the habits I was doing back then up to the age of like 18, 19 that would’ve been yeah. Bad news. Um, and I think my dad, my dad recognized that and he was the one that said, look, pretty much, you need to lose some weight. Um, because if you carry on the path you’re going, you’re not gonna be, you’re not gonna be very happy as you grow up. And my mum being my mum, she was like, no, he doesn’t need to change. He’s perfect how he is. But my dad was like the realist and he was like, look, come on. We need we what it’s at now because it’s getting a bit out of control.

Sevan Matossian (22:33):

Um, did that put tension between your mom and your dad?

Zack George (22:36):

Uh, yeah. I’m pretty sure that that’s several arguments about it when I was younger. Uh, my mom’s saying he doesn’t need to change anything. My dad’s saying he does. He’s getting too. He is getting too big. Um, and the, the thing that really sparked it was, he basically said, I’ll buy you a PlayStation too, if you lose and wait. So he bribe me into a shift in the pounds.

Sevan Matossian (22:55):

It’s interesting you say that man, that incentive thing. So I have this thing with my kids that, um, my kid wanted, he saw a hundred dollars bill and he goes, I want a hundred dollars bill. I go easy. Just do a hundred workouts every time you do a workout, just Mar market on the, uh, on, on the board in the garage and you get a hundred dollars bill, you know, you, you incentivize it. Yeah. Um, when a kid gets, when a kid gets fat. Yeah. It’s interesting. Did, um, did anyone ever call you fat in your family? Like any of your, your sister, like be like, Hey fat boy or any of that shit?

Zack George (23:30):

No, definitely not. No. Not in my family. Um, at school. Yeah. People would, would call me, um, names a few times, but I was always very, I always got on with everyone at school. Um, so I think that that must have been helped. I didn’t really get bullied or anything like that.

Sevan Matossian (23:44):

I think the big go ahead.

Zack George (23:46):

The biggest, um, sort of thing in that department was when I used to place different schools at rugby. So you play in a school that no one knows you that’s when you get a lot of people calling you fat and calling you all different names, um, because they don’t know you are, they don’t know your personality, they dunno how that affects you. Um, so yeah, when, when different teams at school, that’s when you probably get the most people calling your names, but I never really had it too bad, um, in my own school or in my own family or anything that,

Sevan Matossian (24:13):

Um, this picture down here with your arm around this dude with the red shirt, um, how old are you there?

Zack George (24:18):

So that was, uh, in Mexico. I recognize about 16, 17. So that’s just probably after two years after I really started to get in shape and really look after my nutrition started training, um, three or four times a week. And I think that was the transition from me going from the overweight kid to becoming the sporty kid and the guy who was into his fitness, the most in the school. Um, yeah. And you can see, uh, probably got into a little bit too much.

Sevan Matossian (24:49):

Um, I, I don’t know. You look great. You look like, you look like just some duty, just kicks in on the beach and hits on girls. I like that lifestyle. Um, how did you, so you were, you were 11 years old or 12 years old when your dad said

Zack George (25:02):

Something. Yeah. Old. Yeah. Yeah. And he said, um, right, well, we’ll make a deal. Cause I would, you wanted a PlayStation two at the time. It was like, I’ll buy a PlayStation two. If you lose some weight over the course of the month, um, if you do it, then at that month, we’ll go get a PlayStation two, you can buy a game and then you’ve achieved it. So I

Sevan Matossian (25:20):

Remember how much did you weigh then? Do you know when he told you that? No,

Zack George (25:22):

I never, people always asked me. I can never remember how much it was. Can’t remember how much I lost in that time. Um, but I do

Sevan Matossian (25:27):

Too big. You’re big. You’re a big kid. You think you were 200 pounds? You think you were 200 pounds?

Zack George (25:31):

No, no, no, no, no. I don’t think so. Um, but uh, yeah, so he basically said, right, we’ll measure you now we’ll weigh you now in a month’s time. Um, we’ll do it again. And he left it up to me as well, which is my dad’s always good at that. He didn’t just say right now you’re gonna be in this. You’re gonna be in this. You’re gonna train this times a week. He said, look, this is your, if you want to do this, you figure out how to do it. Um, and I’ll reward it at the end. So I just basically said myself, right? If I’m having six McDonald’s a week, if I have two a week, I’m pretty much gonna lose some weight. So I just cut back on the junk food. Um, didn’t do any of the exercise just literally cut back the junk food probably by 50%. And then after the first month I remember I was really nervous. Um, we had the tape measure out. I lost a couple of, of my stomach, lost some weight and my dad was like, right, amazing. You’ve done it. You did it on your own. Let’s goodbye. Your PlayStation too. Um, and I remember going to RS, just this absolute like mansion of toys everywhere got to choose the console, got to choose my game, dude

Sevan Matossian (26:35):

Toys. RS was dope.

Zack George (26:37):

Yeah. It was literally the best like toys store when you were a kid, it was just like,

Sevan Matossian (26:42):

Yes.

Zack George (26:43):

Um, and yeah, it felt great. Felt great to have achieved something. It was the first time where I’d like set a goal, worked towards it for a period of time and then achieved that goal. And it was a really good feeling and I really enjoyed it. Um, and then it wasn’t till probably three or four years later we went to, um, an and Anthony Robinson seminar. So Don, if you

Sevan Matossian (27:05):

Well, is that Tony Robbins? Yeah. Yeah. Who’s we

Zack George (27:10):

Sorry.

Sevan Matossian (27:11):

Who’s we, you said we went to a Tony Robbins, uh, Anthony Robbins,

Zack George (27:15):

Uh, mom, all my family, mom, dad, and then my sister, me and my sister.

Sevan Matossian (27:19):

No shit.

Zack George (27:20):

Yeah. Yeah. And it was, uh, I was about, about 15 there. And um, I remember at the time that I really didn’t want to go, I didn’t know what it was about.

Sevan Matossian (27:27):

Yeah, fuck that guy. You’re 15 years old. You should be at the beach party and you wanna go see Anthony Robbins? Talk to me.

Zack George (27:35):

I just wanted to have a weekend roommates and, but yeah, my dad’s

Sevan Matossian (27:38):

Like throw rocks at cars and shit. Yeah.

Zack George (27:41):

I wanted to go to this weekend. I think it’s gonna be really good for the family. I was okay. Yeah. Fine. Whatever. So we went there and it was literally the biggest life changing experience probably of my youth.

Sevan Matossian (27:51):

So he just blew you away. He’s amazing. He said some shit that altered your course.

Zack George (27:55):

Yeah. It was unbelievable. It was all about kind of motivation, nutrition, like wanting more from yourself. Um, yeah, it was just absolutely amazing. We learned so much from the weekend and after that weekend, it was the first time where I wanted to get in shape and kind of live the best life I can for myself. I didn’t really need anyone else to gimme an external award. I didn’t need my dad to say, look, if you carry on this, I’ll reward you with this. Um, I literally just wanted to do it for myself. And we all came away as a family, really wanted to learn about nutrition and, and it’s really kind of kicked us in a really good direction. And uh, ever since then, I like fell in love with fitness and yeah, never looked back really.

Sevan Matossian (28:35):

Was, was your, was your sister jealous of your yours and your mom’s relationship?

Zack George (28:39):

No. No. We all are really close family. Um, super close. So I’m really close to my sister really close to my dad. Um, so not a,

Sevan Matossian (28:45):

She probably treasured you too. Cuz she saw your mom go through all that shit.

Zack George (28:49):

Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. And she, I really close my sister and I remember loads of times, like we’d be at home and would paint like would draw fake six back on my stomach and just all sorts of random stuff like that. But yeah, she, she’s definitely not a jealous person at all.

Sevan Matossian (29:02):

It’s um, it’s, it’s, it’s hard for a dad to see. Uh, I mean, I mean, I guess, I guess I can only speak for myself, but it’s sometimes it’s hard for me to see my wife. I don’t wanna say baby. She doesn’t baby them. Let’s say over nurture them. Yeah.

Zack George (29:22):

Yes. Good

Sevan Matossian (29:22):

Word over. Nurture them. It’s it’s hard. And, and I guess your dad just showed a lot of restraint, right?

Zack George (29:27):

Yeah. You could definitely, he could definitely, uh, say that to my mom was over nurturing me. He could see that and if he didn’t step in, then I dunno where I’d be today. So it was a very important role that he did, but sometimes stepping in can be quite tough. And like I said, it would’ve caused a few arguments, uh, between mom and my dad, but both of them would, would never change anything and it needed to happen.

Sevan Matossian (29:51):

I don’t know if I’m old, but your parents got hotter as they got older. Maybe that’s just cuz I’m old. And like my whole, like my perspective has changed. Yeah. They’ve uh, yeah, they.

The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.

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