Decoding the Science of Food and Fitness with Johnny Dickson of 'No Lab Coat Required'

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:00:00

Greetings and welcome to another episode of Queue Points Podcast. I am DJ Sir Daniel and my.

Jay Ray: 00:00:22

Name is Jay Ray, sometimes known by my government as Johnnie Ray Kornegay III. And Sir Daniel, for the first time in Queue Points history, I am not the only Johnny on the show.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:00:33

That's correct. Queue Points Podcast is the podcast dropping the needle on black music history. And it's so funny.

Before we get to our special guest, Jray, I was running up and down these steps trying to get ready for this recording. And needless to say, by the time I got here to the situated in front of the camera, I was a little winded.

And as I get closer to 50, that happens a lot more. These joints ain't what they used to be and there is a reason for all of that and there is a way that we can combat those things.

And our special guest is going to talk to us about that and some more facts regarding our health.

Jay Ray: 00:01:09

Absolutely. So without further ado, we are going to welcome to the show. We are so happy to have him here. Johnny Dixon from no Lab Coat Required.

Welcome to Queue Points.

Johnny Dickson: 00:01:23

Thank you. Thank you so much for the warm welcome. I'm excited to be here and chop it up with you guys.

Jay Ray: 00:01:27

Thank you. Thank you, man. Yes. I'm a huge fan of your channel. We love it over here on Queue Points. You teach us so much.

You're like a legit scientist and teaching us sciency things. So, yeah, let's jump into some of the things and helping us deal with some stuff, I think.

Johnny Dickson: 00:01:45

Yeah, here to help. Here to teach. The nail right on the head. I love to teach.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:01:51

So, Johnny, let's. Let's just get right to it. Johnny, why no Lab coat Required? What's the. What was the science behind the name?

And what gap in health education do you think it fills especially for the black community?

Johnny Dickson: 00:02:06

Oh, man. Well, the short answer is it came to me in the shower. That's when our best ideas come. That's where the title came from. That's the short answer.

was learning over time. So in: 2018

I chose to really hone in on what was my own passion, trying to find myself. And in this time, I'd read books and I'd gravitate toward books on nutrition, books on exercise, books on Sleep.

Um, and as I read these books, there is a ton of misconceptions that become unraveled. And you learn these things.

You have all of these, aha moments like, oh, my gosh, I never knew this, or this makes so much sense about, I don't know, cholesterol or. And you start to piece these things together. And for me, I love the body. So piecing these things together was like solving a puzzle.

That euphoric end, when you finally put that last puzzle piece in, I'd get that one over and over when I read these books and make these connections. And needless to say, it felt really good to learn. And I began putting out content on what I was coming across.

Like, hey, this is actually what's taking place when you consume seed oils. Or, this is what's taking place with your insulin when you eat this donut. And I love teaching about the body and putting content out.

And one of the things that you will learn about the world of academia, which is where science comes from, is that it is exclusive and it's a little snobby, and it's just not for the layman.

So what I did coming in as a young kid, basically, and, you know, don't have the regular, you know, old white man, a lab coat image, and I don't have a lab coat. I. I got one degree. It's. It's. It's in the right. It's in exercise science. And I started teaching about these things, and it landed on me in the shower.

This will be no LabCorp required. This is how we bridge the world of academia with the layman. So that's how I came to be.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:04:19

Well, your lab code is coming. Johnny, you say that right now. Your lab code is coming. We claim that right now.

Jay Ray: 00:04:27

Yes. Yo. So one of the things I will tell you, one of the things that kind of got me to your video.

Sir Daniel knows this, but I'm a caregiver for my parents, and I'm always looking for interesting information about, you know, the things that, you know, impact them and us generally. And one of the videos that led me over there was that insulin.

When you started talking about insulin, and it involved diabetes and, like, all of this stuff. So I want to just jump into that because it's really interesting.

So diabetes disproportionately infects folks of color, in particular, black and brown folks. Right? You talked about lifestyle, like, lifestyle choices, but really digging into sugar.

You talk about sugar in this interesting way as, like, you know, the menace, right, that jumps in. So I want to just ask you what are.

What's something important that we need to know about sugar and our intake of it, and what are some steps that we can take to kind of mitigate our sugar intake from your perspective?

Johnny Dickson: 00:05:34

Absolutely. Absolutely. Sugar man, it is. It is sneaky. I love talking about it because it just likes to float under the radar when it comes to sugar.

If I go on and I talk for six more hours on this pot on this podcast, the number one thing I'd want to be taken away is proactivity. If there's something that we want to be proactive about, it is sugar intake. It is something that we intake in elusive amounts.

Like, where did we even get all of this sugar from? Right. So it's. It. It is the only thing you got to be careful with saying words like only when it comes to science.

But for the sake of it, it really is one of the most dangerous molecules when consumed in accents. It's the only thing that can just absolutely slash your biology. It does not care who you are, what your background is, your skin color.

It's like, hey, we're gonna do what we want here. So that's why I like talking about it in that sense, because you. You can characterize it. Now, is it inherently evil? Absolutely not.

But when we talk about diabetes, but we have to talk about where does that come from? And it doesn't start when you're 40, when you're 50, when you're 60, it starts when you're younger than me, when you're a teenager.

So it's a big thing that regardless of where you are, you kind of want to hop on immediately. So that's why I talk about it and characterize it in such an interesting way. So sugar is like this. Let's start top level carbohydrates.

So when we talk about carbohydrates, we can put a lot of things under that umbrella. We can put potatoes under there, starchy foods, potatoes. We could put rice. We could put pasta.

And then there are the more obvious, blatant forms of sugar intake to buy brownies, which is my personal favorite. And you have candy, you know.

But then there's the elusive forms, which the most elusive form is, I'd say, is juice, which is one of those certified fatteners, because, sure, it's the sugar from a fruit, but what we're doing is we're extracting basically the sugar only from the fruit, which the body expects us to consume in tangent, because it comes with fiber, and it'll have a More balanced impact on our blood sugar.

So when we consume that, that, that sugar from just that fruit and it comes in a form of juice and it ends up having the same impact as a jolly rancher, right? A few jolly ranchers at that. And, and that's when the sugar really starts to pile in. So when I say it's elusive, that's what I mean.

It'll sneak up on you. So when it comes to action steps, proactivity is more so the attitude that we have to adapt. And I would say there's, there's a few things.

The first thing I'd say is we have to be able to measure to some degree, right? And that's what gets measured, gets improved. And when it comes to measuring our food, you can get really in the weeds of it.

You can get really granular and become a task. I don't want that to happen because that's just not sustainable.

So when it comes to actually doing something that could be sustained, it's like, what does this actually look like? Because the average person that goes to make an attempt and change their diet, they're going to say, you know what, I'm done with bread.

And that's a good start, that's a decent start. But you end up probably not eating bread for at most 36 hours. And then you see some bread that somebody brought in, you're like, I mean, I wouldn't.

Well, for 36 hours, right? There's no parameters set up. So there has to be an end goal and there has to be a way to track your progress. I love challenges.

So this is something where it's like, well, challenges, I don't know, I mean, I just do this thing for six weeks and then I have to get off. Well, no, in a challenge you really do it. It has a great result at the end.

But what's important, what's cool about a challenge is that you get to understand where your weaknesses are. And, and that leads me to my third rule. Restriction doesn't get us where we want because it's not sustainable.

We get a bad attitude, we're told we can't have something. So the thing I want to, to, you know, put exclamation point on is permission under conditions.

And this is the idea that I can have my two pack brownies, but maybe just twice a month. And this and this then allows me to say, hey man, I'm on point with the gym, I'm on point with this and this and this.

But I get to reward myself twice a month with my Brownies. And it's less of like no, and it's more of a condition where you say yes under X condition. Right. If. If we make it mathematical or whatever.

But I think those are the, really the, the core tenets to being able to set us up for success in terms of action steps to avoid sugar. So real quick recap. You gotta have proactivity. You gotta be serious about it. How bad do you want it? Right? And then don't make it so hard on yourself.

You go ahead and measure a couple things you need, you need a target date and you need to be able to track how you're doing, whatever that looks like for, for every person. If I'm getting really specific, I have this app, it's called Day since.

And it just tells you the last day you did X, whatever bad habits you want to put on there. You could put it. And it'll tell you it's been eight days since you ate sugar and informed two by brownies. Right.

And then permission under conditions would be the third thing I'd say, which the beauty of this framework I'm going to call it is that it can really be changed based on the individual. So if that resonates with anybody, hopefully it resonates with the listeners.

But I think that, I think that really starts up here in the attitude and then it kind of, it plays out in a practical way, so where you'll be able to navigate that elusive sugary world.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:11:00

See, Johnny, right now you are just speaking to my soul because everything you've mentioned, like getting an attitude, there have been times where I legit will be watching something on television and there'll be like a million experts telling you, well, you can't eat this now because experts believe that this was going to lead to your leg dropping off. And well, if you eaten now, what you need to do in order to lose £50 is you need to start eating more of this.

And so after a while, especially somebody that, like me, that has dealt with weight issues for the majority of their life and is trying to do things to make subtle changes. And I love what you said about putting things in context and, you know, giving yourself an action plan, giving yourself a.

A buy, a buy or a to date of things to happen and things to. And to then renegotiate or, or just check where you are, because that, I think that is very helpful.

But I gotta tell you, there's a lot of noise out there.

There's a lot of people telling you, you know, giving you, saying that you should eat this and if you're not eating, if you're not gulping down two teaspoons of flaxseed oil a day and you know, you're, you're not living right and there's just so much information. Everybody's an expert, Johnny.

Everybody is trying to get us to, to, to, to, to buy into and literally buy into some type of, for lifestyle change, whether it's a diet or exercising, working out. And we're going to get into, and I want to talk to you about the trainers or the trainer, the trainer culture that we have now.

You know, someone like me and I know there's plenty of us out there that are trying to find a balance, which I think is the, the correct word that we should be using or that we should be applying to our lives and how we eat. But then we've got, we're looking for that balance. But then where's the joy? You know, where's the joy in eating?

Because, because you have some, there's some super healthy people and you see what they're eating and they'll tell you straight up. People have told me. So there's straight up people that were like, oh, I don't eat because I enjoy it.

I just eat to fuel my body, you know, you know that gym bro? Oh, I just eat to feel my body. I don't care about how things taste and blah, blah, blah. But then that's a small majority of people.

What about the rest of us? That for all intents and purposes, food is at the center of all our celebrations. We talk about it, we talk about it daily.

When you get to work, you talk to your, you lean over to your, to your cubicle mate and say, what we doing for lunch?

And then, and then on social media we've got all these influencers that are, you know, doing the ASMR and tapping their fingers all over all the food ingredients as they chop up stuff and make food all the time. We're not escaping from food. So I guess, how do, where's the joy? What are we, where's the joy in eating nowadays?

And then, and how do we incorporate changes in our diets to protect our health without feeling restricted? Overly restricted?

Johnny Dickson: 00:14:29

Wow. Yeah. Where, where is the joy? So I, I am a, I, I, I, I still am by trade a fitness instructor. I don't do it as much.

YouTube is really the main book of what I do every day. But if my old boss calls me in and say, hey, come coach a class, I'll happily do so.

So I've dealt with Hundreds and hundreds of people right here in Chicago that are trying to figure out like, hey, is it a diet? It is a lifestyle. What is it? What can we do? Hey, calm down. First thing we need to understand is that this is a shared uphill battle.

We all have a common adversary and that is convenience.

We all know that on our way from home, from work, our way to home, from work, we're going to pass 6 minimum tempting fast food restaurants where we could be served food out of a brick wall. And we're gonna want to do that and think about the steps it takes. It's, it's, it's, it's, it doesn't take many steps at all.

Convenience is the modern day adversary. And for modern day adversaries, we need modern day weapons. You're not going to take a club and a stick to World War Three.

You're just not gonna, you're gonna get squashed. So what are some of those modern day weapons that we can actually implement?

I want to say one of the things that I have to do is almost, it sucks, but it does take a little bit of mental gymnastics. You have to relearn that good. That good is not necessarily synonymous with unhealthy. So a lot of times we have these foods that we really enjoy.

Let's, let's keep it in house. Collard greens, soul food. We just say it's not it. So collard greens, there's no way this is healthy. Look what we're putting in it.

But actually if we zoom out and we look at it again, depending on where we're cooking it with, right? Let's just say butter. Let's say we're add some to some, some ham fat or whatever the case is, right? And we, and we're talking about a collard green.

We're talking about a vegetable that is slow cooked and it's already nutritious because the black hand has touched it and prepared it. Does not make it unhealthy as a final product. It just means we prepared it. I can stand up for collard greens.

I can't stand up for the Mac and cheese, though. I'm not going to try to do that.

Jay Ray: 00:16:59

Okay, Johnny, what we're not going to have you do is coming over here.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:17:02

It was nice, it was nice meeting you, telling us. No, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. It's one of those hard truths. Go ahead.

Johnny Dickson: 00:17:11

It's one of those hard truths. But I do want us to exercise the freedom. Like, no, let's put our foot in this. But let's use the right ingredients, and it isn't bad.

So let's talk about sodium, for one example. The food that we cook probably isn't bad when it's just the food that we cook.

But when we've cooked just like once a month and everything else is basically takeout, we are disproportionately taking in a crazy amount of sodium. For example, if we zoom in on sodium, which, again, is not inherently bad, but we keep retorting, resorting to this balance word.

If you looked at the ingredients list of all the processed foods or takeout food, the sodium is in copious amounts. When you go to buy a potato, guess how much sodium is in it. Zero milligrams. Right? Guess how much sodium is in a strawberry. Zero milligrams.

Guess how many. How much sodium is in a tomato? 5 milligrams.

So when we talk about starting with foods that are whole foods, we're talking about foods that have next to zero sodium. It's only when we want to add our sodium is where we actually start to make the difference.

So we add our sodium and we like, oh, we shouldn't be adding all this salt. But no, it's not really the salt that you're adding.

It's the fact that four out of five days of the business, of the business week, we were eating processed foods for multiple meals. And that adds up that. That basically is. Is. Is. Is the bottom line. So we all have an uphill battle.

I was just out this last weekend, and I'm like, y' all going out for. For burgers? Like, where at can I smell lettuce? Like, so it's. It's tough. It's tough.

Jay Ray: 00:18:52

You standing over here in the corner like, man, y' all.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:18:59

Real quick. I want to stop you real quick, Johnny, and throw in another caveat. It's no secret. We are.

I'm so tired of hearing about it, but we're in tariff season. And things that. That really, really affect how we eat now is going to be the price of food. And so some people might feel like it's simpler.

And I know it's a trap. It's definitely a death trap. Those value meals might be a little more affordable to somebody who's already living on a very strict budget.

Whereas if I want to go down and get some organic vegetables and fruits and things that are better for me, I have to make a choice now on how much am I going to spend in order to eat.

I can either satiate my hunger now and be able to sleep throughout the night and get up and go to work the next day or I'm going to spend a little bit more and you know, hopefully prolong my life down the end. You know, those are things that speak to that, speak to those decisions that people are having, are definitely having to make these days.

Johnny Dickson: 00:20:11

Yeah. So I'll couple this in with the question you asked earlier. It's like, where's the joy?

I gotta not only does it take an uphill battle to eat healthy, but it cost how much? Eggs are several hundred dollars per cart right now, John.

Jay Ray: 00:20:23

So as a person who loves eggs, I be over it.

Johnny Dickson: 00:20:28

I'm right there with you. I, I, I've never questioned if I should pick eggs up or not, but now it's an actual question. I don't know if this is worth the money right now.

So it sucks. And one thing I'm not going to do is come on here on the Cute Points podcast and act like there is a legitimate convenient answer for everything.

I think that when it comes to some of us that are disadvantaged economically and we're in the inner city and we're surrounded by fast food and stuff costs and we can't necessarily afford it, it does take the helping hand of some. So we're in Chicago, we have a non profit program called Dion Chicago Dream. And this brother is doing some good work.

He is literally increasing food security by going out and setting up distribution channels to just literally give people fresh food.

Those of us on the south side of Chicago, black and brown skin, right, that are in Inglewood, that live in what we call a food desert, just not the same access to grocery stores as, as other parts of the nation. So we need stuff like that. Right. Because it, it really is an unfortunate reality of the world that we live in. Stuff is going to cost.

Now what I will say is that it's going to cost and it's really going to depend on asking yourself this one question which helped me kind of with my mental gymnastics and that is, is this worth it?

You have to walk into the grocery store and look at blueberries versus the blueberry fudge filled granola bill, process a granola bar like processed, you know, fruits snack and say like, is this blueberry worth it? And if you don't have a strong enough why you're going to fall every time. You're going to fall every time, right?

And there's in seasons where my why is so strong? It's like you can't get me to eat a morsel of processed food.

And there's some times Where I'm like, it's going to be the blueberry filling this time around. I don't know about kidding. It really does come down to. Because if we.

If we want to talk about the economic side of it, because I do think price discourages us, but I also do think we come up with some legitimate excuses to just get what we want. So I do think it does take a little bit of. Again, it's proactivity, but it's also a saying like, okay, let's talk economically.

What are some swaps I can actually realistically make? Because vegetables are actually the cheapest food group. Vegetables per se.

Fruits are a little bit more on the high side, but vegetables are actually the cheapest food group, right? So we do have some serious unfortunate economic things taking place.

But you have to be able to look at a food and ask yourself that question, like, is this worth it? Now, where's the fun in this is? Again, it kind of comes back down to two things can be true, right? This can be good and it can be healthy, right?

Just because I cook and I prepare it doesn't mean it's bad. It's just about using the right ingredients, right? Our food is information, right? Our ingredients is information.

We bring all these things together and we make our meals. The best way I can put it is from farm to plate. Who has more influence over your meal, you or the food industry?

If it's the food industry, you're going to get a lot of salt, a lot of sugar, and a lot of seed oils, right? And if it's you, even if it's on the sweeter side, even if it is, you know, it's not a hot and ready meal. But you want to do hamburger help.

It has some carbs. You may want to do a little cheese in there or whatever. You're probably better off, right, Starting that off from scratch than getting it picked up.

And that. And that.

If that empowers you at all, it is really that you having the most influence is one of the most advantageous things that you can do when it comes to preparing your food.

Jay Ray: 00:24:09

So Sir Daniel knows this about me, Johnny. But just sharing. I love to cook. And my favorite. And let me tell you what gets me every time.

And I'm going to tell y' all, I love having a pretty plate. Johnny Cornegade loves him a pretty plate of food that I done got up in that kitchen and whipped up that's got colors.

I literally cook based on what colors are on the plate. So you not gonna catch me with A brown plate. I. No, I am gonna have a mixture of things.

It's gonna be some reds and some yellows and some greens, you know, so that's a tip that I always use. Like yo shop for what that plate gonna look like at the end.

Johnny Dickson: 00:24:55

I like that, I like that.

Jay Ray: 00:24:56

Make sure them colors like gonna make you, gonna make you do something. I can sit, I can. I'm gonna put some pictures up as it relates to this. But. Okay, let's get into.

We have a few more things we want to cover with you real quick.

Johnny Dickson: 00:25:07

Awesome.

Jay Ray: 00:25:08

So Johnny, you mentioned this already. You worked in the fitness industry. Working out is, can be a challenge. Right. For a lot of reasons. People will cite lack of time and I get it.

It's real. Right. You know what I'm saying? In some instances. But I also, I'mma use an I statement. I always feel better after I've worked out.

So my favorite actually workouts to do are typically outside. At my big size and my big age, I love a walk, a long walk though I could regularly do five to seven miles. You know what I'm saying? Just walking.

I love it. Right. But there's barriers that get in the way. So what are a couple realistic workout strategies that you have found that might work well for folks?

Johnny Dickson: 00:26:04

Oh man, Absolutely. So that's a loaded question.

So, you know, I got tossed into the fitness world, right, coming out of college and I got a sense of what it was to coach people that are looking to better their lifestyle through fitness through group training.

So I, I get on a, a lot of calls prior to people joining the gym just to see, okay, like what tier do you want to join, what program do you want to get into? And you'd get the reasons why they can't join more often than not. And over 85% of the time it's time related.

And that is legit if you are a single mom, right. And you, you, you want that body. When you look in the mirror, you don't, you don't like that.

You want something different and you want to make that change. You get on the call and you're hopeful, but then you're faced with reality.

Like, hey, got a couple kids, they got to get back and forth to school, you got to prepare meals. That's a hard and harsh reality. But does that mean that you have no options? Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

So I'd be happy to empower that crowd, but then also speak a little bit to that, to that time factor as well to. Because one of the most practical Things that I used to tell some of the clients is, hey, let's audit it, let's audit the time, right?

And let's see if there are any places where you can find 30, 45 at the most, 50 minutes if you want, if you want to be gung ho, where can we find somewhere where we can get in some movement? And I don't care what the movement looks like. So let's get into that. I actually don't go to the gym right now. I work out right here.

This is a door to another room. I go in there and I just do a home workout.

Because when it comes to working out, you have to define your path of least resistance because that's where we're going to naturally gravitate to. You're not going to want to do anything that has a ton of resistance, Right.

So if you are a gym person, you have to make going to the gym extremely easy for yourself. You have to get the gym clothes out. Yes. You got to do the tried and true advice of getting the shoes out before, Right.

Like that stuff actually works. But it won't work if you have not defined your why strong enough.

If it's one of those willy nilly things like, you know, I want to get a better body, it may work for a week, but it just won't work long term. So when it comes to that, that, that mother, that, you know, a single mother or even, even you, J.

Ray, it's like what, what can we do to get into the gym or to, to make sure we're moving consistently or to be able to take a long walk when there are these realistic barriers. So number one would definitely be to define that why. Number two would be to audit that time and bit of sacrifice. Right.

At the end of the day we are talking about, this whole conversation has been about what an uphill battle, right? This is learning and teaching ourselves, almost relearning.

How can we wire our brains in a way to say actually this is the better choice and I'm going to execute on that better choice. Right. So, so, so that is, that is really what I'd say and I guess if I could speak about myself what I found that works extremely well.

And I don't want to, and I don't want to prescribe this as if this is just going to work for everybody. But what I found that keeps me going to this room next door behind me is that I have a killer routine. And if I don't have a routine, I'm not going.

No, no push ups no. No squats today. No kettlebell motions. None of that. And it starts with my domino habit, which for me is waking up on time.

If I don't wake up on time, everything else kind of falls into play. We all have a domino habit for somebody. They may be going to sleep on time for somebody. Maybe. Did I get XYZ activity? Right?

And if it's kind of like, if that habit falls, the rest of the healthy habits just all kind of fall. Right. So for me, that domino habit is getting up in the morning. And I find defining that routine makes all the difference for me. And I think.

I think that's practical. What do you guys think? Do you think that's helpful?

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:30:04

It's. Again, you. You preaching right now, Pastor Johnny. The. I would. I would throw in there.

Probably a good playlist would help out with that as well, because we are Queue Points. So we got to throw that in. We got to throw that in.

Jay Ray: 00:30:18

Good playlist works. Banging.

Johnny Dickson: 00:30:21

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think.

I think, again, if we're talking about hacking the brain, this may or may not work, but I actually intentionally, like, diminish the amount of music I listen to throughout the day. That way, when it comes to working out, I'm like, oh, I can look forward because I get to listen to music. Oh, I haven't listened to music in six.

Like, let's do this. Right. So I think that helps, too. It's. It's exciting. So that's a. That's a really good point there.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:30:44

Absolutely. Okay, so I mentioned this earlier, so we're going to get down to get to this. You, You.

You said you got into the fitness game at an early age, and as I had mentioned earlier, fitness, for lack of a better. Better term, is quite the hustle these days. There are a lot of people who. Who are trainers who will, you know, get you in that gym.

You have to have a membership at the gym that they work out at and, you know, and if you buy my waist trainer while you're working out, I'll knock off $20 out of your session.

Johnny Dickson: 00:31:26

It.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:31:27

Again, more noise, right? There's more noise for people who are trying to. Who wouldn't mind going to the gym, like myself.

I like going, but only because they have a swimming pool. Swimming for me is. Is what does it for me. Swimming and.

And using the resistance of water, I think helps me as far as my strength building and trying to remain flexible in those things. You couldn't. There was a time, though, you couldn't pay me to get out on that floor. Because that floor, first of all, if I'm not.

If I'm not dealing with the person who came, who forgot their headphones and decided that their little pill speaker is. Is the thing to listen to while everybody else is trying to work out, and then you have this person that's got their tripod set up. It's.

It's too much. It's too much. But besides that, let's get back to the trainers. How do I pick out a trainer that. That is a good one?

Because I've had people I've worked out with, people who, after I told them that I have very weak knees, my knees are not that good. After I've told them my age, they didn't take any of that into consideration. They just were just like, no, do this, do this, do this.

And, you know, I could have damaged something. I lost some weight, but I could have damaged some, you know, hurt myself. Seriously, what do you. And some. Anybody out there listening now?

What do they need to do when considering somebody, a partner on their workout journey?

Johnny Dickson: 00:32:58

Yeah. Yeah. So one of the. One of the interesting phrases and the.

And I want to say the black community, I don't know how well, it reaches far out in terms of just how it's said or whatever, you know, realm that it exists or whatever, but it's church hurt, right? Black people that go to church for a season of time, they get hurt somehow and then they're out of church. And that. We call that church hurt.

There's trainer hurt, too. Your trainer can scar you and give you a bad rep. Gives a bad rep to the trainers. So one of the things I.

I felt terrible is if I ever had an inkling of stepping on somebody's toes and disregarding what their.

What their disadvantages were like, tell me exactly what I need to know, and I'd feel terrible as a coach or wanting to somehow magically say, just get over it. Hey, your knees are weak. I don't care. Do the squats, right. I was never that coach, so a lot of my clients were lucky.

But a lot of them also told me, we enjoy you because you make these modifications for us. So let's get practical. First, if your coach isn't willing to make modifications for you, they probably don't even know them. First off, if they.

If they do know them, if they do know them, they're not giving to you, then they're just a jerk. So find out if your coach at least knows. And I would.

If we're talking practical man, I ask him on the phone or the meeting or zoom call, whatever it is. My knees are bad. I may need a modification. What would you do for me? If they can't give you a couple modifications. Let's keep going. Let's.

Let's keep going down the list of different trainers because you pick a trainer the same way you pick a therapist.

They say you're supposed to date your therapist and figure out who's going to work the best with me emotionally and psychologically and all that stuff. It's the same thing when it comes to. To getting a trainer. You want somebody who's going to gel with you. I'm a happy go, lucky guy.

I'm smiling, I'm supportive. A lot of people are like, I don't like you as a coach. You are too happy.

I need to be yo that like a drill sergeant, like some people want, you know, like rah, rah. You know what I'm saying? And. And I have that in me, right? But it's just like some people are just more intense or whatever, and that's fine.

But again, you pick what works for you. So if we're talking about how, man, first off, identify where your pain points are, your weakness, right?

And you say, hey, can you modify this for me? And if they can't tell you on the spot, then they either don't know or don't care. Look elsewhere and then find someone that you can jail with.

Jay Ray: 00:35:20

Man. That's a really good tip.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:35:23

Before we get out of here, I want you to specifically speak to other black men about because again, a lot of. There's a lot of noise out there telling us what we should and shouldn't do and who we should be, what are.

What do you want to change with no lab coat required? What do you want to change with the perception that black men specifically have about their health?

And because if we listen to those voices, everything is doom and gloom. You're going to die of a heart attack or diabetes. And. But then we do see our peers being taken out by those things. So what do you. What's.

What do you want to do specifically for people that look like you?

Johnny Dickson: 00:36:03

Johnny, man, Absolutely.

So one of the things that got me that kind of kicked me off into the health science world and world of academia is the curious point of how do I not get the. The body my father has and shout out pops. But.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:36:23

And that's when it lands are in style, though. Wait a minute.

Johnny Dickson: 00:36:29

And that's exactly what it was. So, you know, I've always been, you know, the skinny kid, slim kids, Slim kid, but my father is not skinny. So I'm like, that's.

That's where I'm headed. And then it dawned on me, but I don't want to head there, so what do I do? And I mean, like a. Like a baby out of the womb.

I started asking the basic questions, what is a carbohydrate? How do you lose weight? What does this even work? Like, and that's when it kind of all died. It kind of turned into that.

That gap year I took in: 2018

He was really my inspiration in trying to understand some of these misconceptions and trying to navigate this world that has just so many voices. So he was my one voice that I kept talking about, like, I will return to this person to find out what is the truth. And it worked wonders for me.

So through that, I. I plan to be a Sean Stevenson in my own way. Like, how can I find people that. How can I inspire people to.

To be the upcoming generation that starts to take a. A closer look at their health? Because the truth is, we are fighting the same battle, but that does not mean we have the same parameters.

But the science is the same. The science is the same. That. That's the bottom line. The science is the same. The issue is that we just got here, right? We just got here.

Like, how long was it? You know, we just. We just got the right to vote.

I talked about it earlier, scientific consensus, and that takes a long time to change, and then that takes a longer time to reach the public, and that ain't necessarily reaching the black people really, intentionally at all, right? So when we talk about this, we're talking about a problem of exposure and access. It's not necessarily that. So what.

That's what I mean by the parameters are different. We just don't come across this information as much. Right? We just. And when we do, we buy in, right? Like. Like, what were.

What were the things you guys said you were. You're drinking because NASA drunk it.

Jay Ray: 00:38:32

What, Tang?

Johnny Dickson: 00:38:33

Yeah. Right.

Jay Ray: 00:38:34

So it's like Tang was a thing. It's Tang and Kool Aid.

Johnny Dickson: 00:38:38

Yeah. Yeah.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:38:45

I liked you who pay me to drink this stuff now, but go ahead. Go ahead, Johnny.

Johnny Dickson: 00:38:50

Yeah, so. So my. My goal because. Because health comes from. Comes from three things.

It comes from marketing, it comes from advertisements, and then it comes from the I heard system, which is basically a lot of what we like to roll off of Like I heard this is. Yeah, good. I heard this about green juice. I heard this. I heard that. But what you have to understand is the.

In order to understand true health, science has to be done. We do have to do science to understand the body.

The problem is how many black scientists we got that's going to want to go out and tell the community how this works, right? So that if you, if we talk about, if we talk about black people, that is kind of the lane in which I kind of want to. And to dive into.

And I can't really share it now, but we did incorporate four months ago now as a nonprofit because we're looking to do some food security business out here in Chicago and kind of. And kind of help out that food issue, food insecurity that we were talking about. And hopefully I have more tangible things on that coming up.

But that is, you know, we are the change, right? People like me and then people that don't really care about this, they just want to get the information. I'm cool with that too. You know what I mean?

Like, find someone like me that is the nerd and get, get your stuff from them, right? Pick their brain. But someone has to go out and kind of.

And kind of get their grimy little hands in that exclusive and snobby world of academia and pull some stuff out for their community.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:40:22

Listen, I. It. It's been a pleasure. It's been a pleasure meeting you, Johnny, and to. And knowing that the future is in.

In your hands and hopefully other people like you and that, you know, when it comes to our health, like I said, it's just some really.

Just being kinder to ourselves and, and, and if we take that concept and you think about what we put in our mouths and, and the way we move our bodies and just one more time before we get out of here, please let the viewers and the listeners know how they can support you. And no lab coat required.

Johnny Dickson: 00:41:00

So we have some interesting stuff down coming down the pipeline, but I would just keep it simple.

The best thing you can do if you want to support no lab code required, is to go to YouTube.com backslash@nolabcore required, click the video you want to watch and watch it start to finish. That's the best way you can support us right now and what we have coming up. This was absolute pleasure.

DJ Sir Daniel and Jay Ray, I appreciate you all so much for this space and what you guys are doing as well. I've learned some things watching you all show, so I'll be sure to tune.

Jay Ray: 00:41:29

In more awesome, y' all. So listen, y' all know what to do. Thank you so much. If you could see our faces, if you can hear our voices, make sure that you subscribe.

Share the show with your family, friends, colleagues. If you love Queue Points, chances are they will love Queue Points as well.

Well, you can visit our website at QueuePoints.com there you can do a ton of stuff, including watch all of our old episodes. There are over 180 of them that you can watch. So there's a lot of really cool stuff there to check out.

And if you want to support the channel, keep the lights on at Queue Points Land. Shop our store@store.qpoints.com also check out Qpoints magazine as well. We appreciate y' all. We love y' all.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:42:06

That's right. In this life, what do I always say? You have a choice. You can either pick up the needle or let the record play. I'm DJ Sir Daniel.

Jay Ray: 00:42:12

My name is J. Ray, y' all. That's Johnny Dixon. No lab coat required.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:42:17

And this has been Queue Points podcast. Dropping the needle on black music history. We will see you on the next go round.

And now I'm about to get a shot of human growth serum along with some soursop or that green juice. Flaxseed oil.

Jay Ray: 00:42:31

Green juice.

Johnny Dickson: 00:42:32

I heard.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:42:33

I heard some kale. Yeah. Mix it all together. And that's all I'm doing for the next 30 days. Days.

Johnny Dickson: 00:42:38

Right.

DJ Sir Daniel: 00:42:41

Peace, y' all. Thank you.