The Forever Fit Blueprint: Master Body Recomposition on a Plant-Based Diet

In the world of men's fitness, there is a pervasive myth: if you want to build real muscle, you need animal protein and a no pain, no gain mentality. But as we age, that strategy often leads to metabolic crashes, chronic inflammation, and burnout.

On a recent episode of the Real Men Eat Plants podcast, Maxime Sigouin, founder of Mavi Wellness and author of Forever Fit, shared a different path. His system isn't about dieting, it's about Body Recomposition.

What is Body Recomposition?

Most people focus on the scale. Maxime focuses on variables. Body recomposition is the process of simultaneously decreasing body fat and increasing lean muscle tissue. This shift is vital for longevity. "If you increase lean muscle, you enjoy a longer life and more of that life," Maxime explains. It’s the difference between losing your independence in your 70s and going for a 20-mile hike with your grandkids.

The 5 Phases of Transformation

Maxime’s Forever Fit system is broken down into five distinct phases to ensure sustainability:

1. Body Composition: The initial shift in the fat-to-muscle ratio.

2. Reverse Dieting: Increasing caloric intake post-fat-loss to repair the metabolism.

3. Lean Muscle Building: Focused hypertrophy using plant-based fuel.

4. Maintenance: Learning to eat intuitively while life happens.

5. The Athletic Phase: Conquering a physical goal you previously thought was impossible.

The Protein Myth for Men Over 40

The Big Protein industry has convinced many men they need massive amounts of protein to maintain muscle. Maxime clarifies the math: "We aim for 1.2g to 1.6g per kg of ideal body weight." By focusing on whole foods like tofu, tempeh, and lentils, men can hit these targets easily while avoiding the inflammation and cholesterol associated with animal products.

Systems Over Willpower

The most profound takeaway from Maxime’s approach is the reliance on systems over willpower. Willpower is a fluctuating feeling; a system is a replicable schedule. By lowering the bar for success, such as committing to just two pages of reading or ten minutes of movement, you rebuild your identity as someone who keeps their promises to themselves.

The Inflammation Edge

Why are elite athletes switching to plants? It’s the Inflammation Edge. A whole-food plant-based diet reduces systemic inflammation, allowing the body to focus its resources on repairing muscle tissue. This leads to faster recovery times and less debilitating soreness (DOMS), allowing for more consistent training.

Final Thought: Being fit isn't about the number on a scale; it's about ensuring your body never becomes a limitation to living your best life.

Order "Forever Fit" by Maxime Sigouin at https://foreverfitbook.com/ or visit https://fitvegancoaching.com/ for a free consultation.

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Episode’s Transcript

Please understand that a transcription service provided the transcript below. It undoubtedly contains errors that invariably take place in voice transcriptions.

Justin Garfield (00:01.818)
It's another beautiful day here in California and welcome in to the Real Men Eat Plants podcast. Be sure to subscribe, like us, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm your host Justin and today we are very, very lucky to be welcoming in a big figure in the plant-based sector and someone who is quite accomplished. The founder of Mavy Fitness, the author of Forever Fit, the five phase blueprint to body recomposition.

Maxine Sigoyen, welcome to the show.

Maxime Sigouin (00:35.52)
Yeah, thank you for having me. Excited to be here, Justin.

Justin Garfield (00:39.294)
Excited to have you. How you doing today? How's everything been?

Maxime Sigouin (00:43.454)
I doing pretty good, know, woke up, read for an hour, went to the gym and now starting day with a podcast. It's pretty good start to the day.

Justin Garfield (00:52.51)
And I believe starting the day is one of the most important things to do, regardless of where you are at in your diet journey, your health journey. But you know a whole lot about the health journey. Can you tell me a little bit about how you start your mornings?

Maxime Sigouin (01:07.97)
Yeah, every morning is pretty much the same. I wake up, I drink water, I come and sit in my office and I journal. First, I always make sure to write one or two pages of kind of thoughts for the day and the things that I want to focus on and kind of just reflect. And then I read a minimum of two pages every morning because I found that if I set the bar too high, then I'm not going to read. So I put it at two pages. And if I feel good and I keep reading and then I usually end up reading like a lot more. And then it's just, you know, breakfast.

look at a few messages and then it's time to hit the gym for maybe an hour, an hour and a half with my wife.

Justin Garfield (01:44.334)
a couple workouts, that's pretty cool. How's that go?

Maxime Sigouin (01:48.239)
Yeah, it's super fun. Like we've been doing this, we've together for over four years now and we've worked out together since the start. So we always go to the gym and we play basketball just as a little warmup. Yeah, shoot some threes and free throws, play 21. And then we get into our strength training routine after. We don't do the same strength training routine, which we used to, but then it took way too long because I had to remove so many plates for her to do it and I had to put them back on in between every set. And it like tripled the duration of the workout.

Justin Garfield (02:18.888)
Classic. Wow. That's very cool. So the purpose of this pod, Max, is challenging the myth that plant-based men can't build elite muscle or maintain peak performance. And you, I understand, have an upcoming book, Forever Fit, Your Body Recomposition Transformation System, which is now out January 2026. First of all, congratulations on that. Could you tell me a little bit about the book and what people can expect when they open it for the first time?

Maxime Sigouin (02:44.184)
Thank you.

Maxime Sigouin (02:48.94)
Yeah, for sure. Like I actually just got my first copy here. So I'm happy to have that for the recording. What they can expect is kind of like, you know, a full body composition transformation system. So literally a step-by-step plan to be able to become the best, healthiest and fittest version of yourself on a whole food plan-based lifestyle and removing all the guesswork. That would kind of be like the overall of what they're going to get in the book.

Justin Garfield (03:16.422)
Awesome. So yeah, body recomposition. Can you go into a little bit more detail about what that might mean for somebody who is brand new to this and maybe tuning into our pod for the first time?

Maxime Sigouin (03:27.596)
Yeah, for sure. So, body recomposition is simply that we're shifting two variables in the body. So, there'll be a fat and a muscle variable. So, if you are to put on fat and lose muscle, technically that's a shift in body composition, but it's not one that most people want, but is one that most people...

lean towards as they get older when they're not being careful. What we're talking about is decreasing the amount of fat on the body and increasing the amount of lean muscle tissue in the body. Simply for, obviously there's the fun, you know, aesthetic side of it, but on the health side, right, if you decrease the amount of body fat down to a healthy level, you're decreasing your risk of dealing with a ton of chronic illnesses. And if you're increasing the amount of lean muscle you have on your body, you are...

putting yourself in a position where you're gonna be able to enjoy a longer life and more of that longer life. So that you, know, we have people that are in their 80s so that you don't lose your independence when you're in your 70s and your 80s, you're able to go for long bike rides and hikes with your family. You're able to like lift weights and do triathlons in your 60s so that you are, yeah, just able to be able to live life to the fullest.

Justin Garfield (04:37.896)
Wow, that really blew my mind. I'm not the super involved type where I know everything about health, but the way you just broke that down, really helped me to understand. So I hope that helped anybody listening too.

Maxime Sigouin (04:52.066)
Yeah, well, let me just add to that. Like people often ask me like, what does fit mean? And there's always a definition depending on the age and the chapter of life that you're at, if you have kids, grandkids. So to me, being fit is having a body that isn't a limitation to you living your best life. So if for a chapter of life, you want to run marathons and that's what fit means to you. If another chapter of life is

waking up without pain and being able to kind of exercise for 30 minutes a day, then that's what fit means to you at that chapter. But that definition always kind of changes and fluctuates as you get older.

Justin Garfield (05:28.67)
Sure, and on that note, there's some recent studies that have been showing that plant-based diets slow down biological aging and improve male sexual and hormonal health. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and how you feel like your book and your methods could help people achieve this sort of thing.

Maxime Sigouin (05:48.515)
Yeah, so from a, I can see from a nutrition standpoint, if you're eating foods that would be higher in vitamins and minerals and fiber that would give your body the building blocks to be able to function properly and heal and recover, I can see how all of these functions would improve just from shifting the food that you're eating. Also, again, reducing the inflammation and cholesterol and all those things. But if you're,

eating whole food plant-based or plant-based foods, and you're actively trying to improve your composition, meaning decrease the amount of fat on your body, we know that decreasing the amount of fat on your body can increase sex drive and a lot of those great functions that come from the body from having a fitter and leaner body. So from a losing weight standpoint, you would get some of those benefits, but also from eating foods that would fuel your body and give them the building blocks to like heal and recover better, like everything would just improve.

it would make sense that those would be the benefits.

Justin Garfield (06:47.582)
Absolutely, yeah. Now I want to dive into a little bit about your story because I know you've got quite a journey in your life and your health, your fitness, and just in general of how you got to where you are.

Maxime Sigouin (07:02.69)
Yeah. gosh. You know, I, I'll put it this way. I'll, I'll do it brief, but I started training when I was, I was active as a kid, but when I was 12, I started strength training because I was really skinny and scrawny and I really want to kind of like put on some muscles. I wouldn't be bullied in school so that it'd be better at basketball. And I'm six, four, and I was like six, two at 12. Like I was really tall and I was really tall. So many, I was very skinny, had a lot of growing pains growing up.

And so that's kind of what started my fitness journey. Fast forward to when I was about, oh gosh, like 18, probably like 19, 20. I was 240 pounds, big bodybuilder slash power lifter. I got recruited through my friend's agent to do modeling. Cause I was six four, she's like, hey, I see something under those big chubby cheeks, like try losing some weight and we'll see if we can do a photo shoot.

And so I went on Google and like, what's the fastest way to get skinny? And then vegan came up, like vegans are skinny and weak. I was like, all right, well, I don't like the idea of being weak, but I do need to get skinny. And obviously disclaimer, you can be strong and be an athlete as a vegan, but that's like over 11 years ago, there wasn't like that many great examples online like we have today. But ultimately that's what got me to veganism. I went vegan for a year.

I did everything I could to lose muscle. So as much as I was whole food, plant-based, I severely underate on my calories, tons of cardio and I stopped weightlifting because I had to lose muscle tissue and I lost 80 pounds in one year. And that allowed me to work in a high fashion industry in modeling. I was able to go to Milan and have some cool experiences out there. And once I got out of the modeling industry, then I was like,

should I stop eating this way? Because the only reason I was doing it was to stay this small. But the reason is I felt so darn good. I was like, man, there's no reason for me to go back to eating the way that I was prior because I realized how terrible I felt after I went vegan. I was like, oh my God, I feel so much better. I didn't know that I felt like shit before because that was just my norm. That was kind of my everyday life. So I ended up not going back. And then fast forward.

Maxime Sigouin (09:18.176)
till I was 22, I met my late partner and within three months of us dating, she gets diagnosed with breast cancer and decided to stay by her side and be for her caregiver for four and a half years before she unfortunately passed away. But when she got diagnosed, I was like, hey, there's a lot of studies showing that whole food plant based can help reduce the risk of these chronic illnesses. And so if it can help to reduce, it can maybe help heal at the same time.

And, you know, doctors gave her a year to live. She lived four and a half years with a great quality of life compared to some of the other cancer patients that we kind of saw along the journey. And that's what really like sealed the deal for me that like, this is the way to live. Like if it can make that much of a difference in someone that is so far back in their health, imagine what it can do for someone that is like not that far back, that even is in a small negative or the neutral position can help to.

greatly reduced the risk of putting people in that position. So like the fitness journey continued because I competed in half Ironman during that time and did a ton of races, had a good time and now training for basketball. But that's kind how the athletic and plan-based journey progressed from almost over 11 years ago.

Justin Garfield (10:34.844)
That's incredible and my condolences. know that was a long time ago, but it sounds like it really had an impact on Where you were and now how you're here today and the fact that you lost 80 pounds I mean, I understand you also grew up on a farm in Quebec,

Maxime Sigouin (10:40.622)
Thank you.

Maxime Sigouin (10:51.704)
Yes, yeah, farm like 50 cows, like a hundred chickens, geese, like 15 cats, like a proper 140 acres of land. did hay shovel, know, chicken shit in the land for the garden, like proper farmer.

Justin Garfield (11:08.666)
Yeah, wow. What was the diet like of a farmer in Quebec, which we know can be a very rugged, cold terrain type place, especially in the wintertime.

Maxime Sigouin (11:19.564)
Yeah. Yeah. It was a typical like meat eating diet, right? It was eggs for breakfast. It was, you know, chicken for me, chicken or fish or steak. Just because like we had a hundred chickens for me. So every year we'd like grow a hundred chickens and then kill them for me and store them in the freezer. We'd have, we had, I think it was like 15 chickens for eggs. So every day we'd have a dozen eggs basically. And then we would just live a lot off of the farm.

And then we had our garden for like vegetables and stuff. But it was very meat heavy. I think just like the majority of people are eating, but it was not full of processed foods like McDonald's and eating out just because we were living off of what we had at the farm.

Justin Garfield (12:03.998)
On a complete side note, I really, really enjoyed all the vegan options in Montreal. I'm sure that your farm was not remotely close to one of the bigger cities, I really love... I don't know, when did you leave Canada again?

Maxime Sigouin (12:22.376)
I left a long time ago, but one of my brothers lives there and I've been to Montreal many times in the past few years. So which restaurant did you like?

Justin Garfield (12:32.594)
There's one place that I'm still tasting in my mouth almost two years later and it's called Bloom Sushi. Have you been?

Maxime Sigouin (12:40.204)
No, I haven't tried that one. I'll have to.

Justin Garfield (12:41.914)
It's a fully plant-based sushi spot. And they had one particular thing, Maxim, that was this pulled mushroom cake almost, where it was like fish, but mushrooms. And I tasted it and it was so good. They had this big potato chip-like thing that you would put it on and take a bite out of. Highly recommend to anybody listening to this podcast who has plans to go to Montreal.

that was something else.

Maxime Sigouin (13:15.054)
Yeah, Montreal has a, I think it's called Love, there's another one in Montreal. They always go there. Yeah, every time we go back to Montreal, we eat there. That spot is super good. And you mentioned you live in California. Where are you in California?

Justin Garfield (13:19.534)
I did eat their food,

Justin Garfield (13:30.458)
I'm in Southern California, Los Angeles area.

Maxime Sigouin (13:34.026)
Okay, so I'm in Simi. So, Agoura Hills, there's a spot called Mackin Sushi. Best vegan sushi.

Justin Garfield (13:39.888)
The best sushi that I've had in America. The best sushi that I've had in America.

Maxime Sigouin (13:45.836)
Yeah, that spot is so good. We go there like every week or two weeks. I spend way too much money there.

Justin Garfield (13:51.538)
This is an unpaid sponsored ad for Maken Sushi. So by the way, if you have the means and you're in LA, it's always great to support small business Maken Sushi. You absolutely have to go. Yes. Let's bring it back to this though. So forever fit. So I understand it's not just about squats and kale. It's about building.

Maxime Sigouin (13:57.047)
Yeah.

Maxime Sigouin (14:05.954)
Yeah, yeah, 100%.

Justin Garfield (14:16.914)
foundation of health, strength, and mobility that lasts through retirement. Could you go into a bit more detail on your method and how it works fully?

Maxime Sigouin (14:25.932)
Yeah, for sure. So I think like the overarching theme now kind of go into the layers of it.

overarching theme of forever fit is it's not like you're going to do a transformation and lose 20 pounds and put on some muscle and you're going to stay like that for the rest of your life because the reality reality is that sometimes like you're going to be super on track and everything's going to be going great and then a family member gets sick and you have to take care of them or you lose your job or you have to move or you get sick right so life will throw you some curveball so it's being able to that whenever life does throw your curveball you're well equipped to handle it as best as you can but if ever you do

go back in your fitness or in your health, you have the tools necessary to get back at it. So to me, that's what it means being forever fit is being able to bounce back as fast as possible and minimize damage during, let's say life fluctuations. And then the layer below is

Like having the tools to get back in shape is one thing, but there's different types of tools. There's a type of tool that the majority of people in the world use, which is I'm gonna starve myself and over exercise to try to get there as fast as possible. But then there's no sustainability to that because like.

You have to live your life. Sometimes life will creep back in. You can't train two hours a day every day for the rest of your life. You can't eat like a bird 800 calories a day for the rest of your life. Like you're wanna eat more food. There's gonna be family gatherings and date nights and you're gonna be traveling. You're gonna wanna try different foods.

Maxime Sigouin (15:51.991)
So there's this like blueprint of really going fast and making it unsustainable, or there's a blueprint of like going slower and learning how to be fit and eat healthy while life is happening. How do you make decisions when you eat at a restaurant? How do you eat when you are stressed? How do you manage your schedule to work out whenever life gets really hectic? Like what's the bare minimum you can do? So in the book, I've shared the sustainable path on how to be able to navigate life while it's happening, because realistically, it's gonna keep happening until the day that you die.

So you might as well like figure out how to do it while exercising and making healthy decision for food.

Justin Garfield (16:29.33)
That's incredible. Thank you for sharing. When you rush into anything like that, you're gonna be compensating for something else, it seems. So when it comes to body recomposition versus standard weight loss, I love how you mentioned here that basically, sprinting towards that weight loss actually leads to those metabolic crashes. And there's gonna be nights where there's gonna be family gatherings. You're gonna have date nights. You're gonna be wanting to go out on the town. You're gonna be traveling. You're gonna wanna try.

that really good looking vegan junk food restaurant somewhere. And it's gonna be so fulfilling. And if you just continue to do all that, I mean, yes, once in a while it is okay, but make sure to keep up with your fitness and your dieting and everything. And it sounds like that is part of the secret sauce. But you also seem to have five phases of transformation. Can you go through those?

Maxime Sigouin (17:25.26)
Yeah, for sure. So phase one is body composition. like favorably shifting the body composition to decrease fat and build muscle. Phase two is reverse dieting. So you want to speed up your metabolism post transformation to ensure that you don't put the weight back on. Phase three is going to be lean muscle building. And then phase four is going to be maintenance. And then phase five is the athletic phase. So it's kind of like the completion of the whole transformation. We invite people or our members to pick something that they didn't think they could do before they started.

So it could be something as silly as like doing like 10 pull-ups as an example, or running a 5K or doing a triathlon or doing a 20 mile hike with their kids and grandkids. So we invite people to pick something and we prepare them for it. And then we kind of get them to do the event just so that they can have the mental unlock from doing something that they didn't think they can do. And then it just opens up a whole new world of...

what else can I do now? Because I've been limiting to like, I don't think I can do these things. And then it just gets them excited for life again.

Justin Garfield (18:27.496)
So awesome. So awesome. Yeah. I mean, with the body recomposition, reverse dieting, the muscle building, lean muscle building, the maintenance and intuitive eating and athletic phase. How about protein for men over 40? There's some of those in our audience and there's this myth out there that you need so much protein over and over again. In fact, it just seems like the protein industry, big protein, I guess I'll call them here.

has a stranglehold on the health of America saying that you need more protein than anything else in your body if you want to build muscle and focus only on that. And this is just fuel the protein powders of the world out there, the record sales. And unfortunately, a lot of those protein powders out there don't have the best or finest ingredients. So I'd love to hear your take on this. What is the protein myth and is it believable and is it true?

Maxime Sigouin (19:19.074)
Yeah.

Maxime Sigouin (19:27.884)
Yeah, no. So no, you don't need to consume that much protein, but obviously I want to put numbers to it. Cause a lot of people will say a lot of protein and people never put numbers to it. So they're like, maybe 50 is a lot or a hundred is a lot or 300 is a lot. So what we like to aim for when we're helping people shift their body composition is 1.2 gram to 1.6 gram per kg of ideal body weight.

So if you're 50 pounds overweight, there's no need to feel that extra 50 pounds of fat, right? So you don't need to consume all of that protein. So grab the way that you want to be, and then 1.2 gram to 1.6 gram. As long as you're within that range, you're more than fine to be able to recover and build muscle. Now there's a caveat to it. You need to strength train. Because if you don't tear those muscle fibers and give that opportunity to those muscles to be strained to rebuild stronger, then you're just consuming protein for the sake of consuming protein, right? Like you want to, you have to combine it

with resistance or strength training. So that's kind of the range that we want to aim for. And for a lot of people, that's a lot lower than what they think. And it's pretty doable to hit on a whole food plant-based lifestyle. Like I love protein powders. We have a really clean one that we use for ourself, for our members. I've actually liked it so much that I invested in the company because I had so many crappy ones reach out to me all the time to promote their stuff.

But if you don't use protein powder, you can easily do it with like tofu and tempeh, seitan if it fits well with your stomach, but like edamames, beans, chickpeas, then you go down to like the grains and some vegetables have higher amounts of protein, nuts and seeds. You just have to be more, put maybe a little more emphasis on being able to hit those numbers. So instead of eating a meal with like five sweet potatoes and some vegetables, maybe do two sweet potatoes and half a block of tofu, know? Similar calorie content, but a little bit more protein.

Justin Garfield (21:17.34)
Yeah, not to mention there's very good amino acids and tofu and tempeh and all those things that help rebuild those muscles too. And I really like what you said about the protein powder and that some of them just aren't trustworthy, but you found one that works for you and you decided to invest in that. I remember years ago, I was a brand ambassador for a certain protein bar company and they had some really good powders out there. They were pretty clean, but then all of sudden they got acquired by a giant. I'm not going to name names here.

but that really turned me away from them. And so I saw an alternative and I just feel like this is kind of off topic here, but in the plant-based industry, you're seeing that some of these smaller brands are getting acquired by the larger food giants out there. Does that help in your eyes or does it concern you in some ways when it comes to our food system and the mistrust in America and with us plant-based men trying to stay healthy and these products that we once loved and maybe still love.

Maxime Sigouin (21:46.968)
Yeah.

Justin Garfield (22:16.24)
aren't owned by the most ethical companies.

Maxime Sigouin (22:19.874)
Yeah, I think it is such a... How can I say that?

It's so interesting because like it's business at the end of the day. So I think people, especially in a plan-based industry, like, or any product industry, they're gonna start a product because like they want quality products out there. And eventually they get to position where they have the opportunity to be acquired, which is fantastic. Like there's a very small percentage of companies that have the opportunity to have an exit. And when they are, when they do get bought out, then the other companies can go like, great, like.

how do we increase profit margin on that product? Well, let's kind of keep the whole branding and everything the same, but let's kind of change the ingredients that are within the mix to kind of increase the profit margin. And so I understand why they do it, but I do think that it kills a little bit of the, like that trust that that company had previously built before they did get buy out, bought out and they lose some of those loyal customers.

but because those big companies buying them have such a massive marketing budget, they're able to reach a broader audience of people. So therefore, in a positive way, more people get exposed to plant-based powders or supplements or products. So I think it's like a, it's a mixture of both, right? They have such a big marketing budget, they can reach more people and help more people, but the quality does suffer because they're just trying to increase their margins.

Justin Garfield (23:45.982)
course, it's a catch-22 and there's just one way the other, you're going to win, you're going to lose, but at the end of the day, it's your perspective. These things are going to happen regardless and if you feel comfortable with the way that the bigger company is going to be changing the formula, if they're staying true to the mission of the original brand and using the finest ingredients, I think that's great and they have bigger means of production and distribution. But then, say if a company comes in,

like a private equity company wants to just shut down the brand or they want to change it to where they were once using organic, now they're using non-organic. That would bother me and I think I would stop in that regard. So totally get what you're saying. I want to shift real quick to the mindset game. So when you're working with clients or people are reading your book, what is the mindset that they need to be in in order to achieve the goals that they're coming to you for?

Maxime Sigouin (24:40.674)
Yeah, they have to have a willingness to be adaptable and be willing to take imperfect action. Like if you have these two things as the core from which you're moving from, you're gonna be successful simply because...

Obviously, like I always tell those people, I can give you the best workout plan in world and the best meal plan in the world, but if you don't follow it, nothing's going to change because you're just holding a piece of paper, right? It's not going to change your life. You actually have to execute on that plan. so taking imperfect action is something that drastically changed my life over six years ago. And this is how I started this whole company. It's how I started writing this book is you start and then you figure out like, wow, that didn't work. Great. We know now that this doesn't work, let's do this instead. And like that worked way better, but this little element didn't work. How do we make this little element better?

And you kind of just, you know, kind of trip and fall and learn and get better and progress over time. But I think everyone is so attached to...

Taking imperfect action, and I think it comes from fear of failure. Like no one likes to fail, no one wants to fail. But once you accept that failure is not the end, it's just an opportunity to have a lesson to move forward and actually get to the goal that you want to. That's a massive like mental unlock for health and transformation, for business, for relationship, for anything that you want to improve. And then just that kind of ties in with being adaptable. Like at the end of the day, you have to be adaptable. Life will throw you some curve ball. You need to be able to deal with the

and recover from them or learn how to dodge them, learn how to fight back. But if you have that willingness to be in that state, then nothing's gonna be able to stop you.

Justin Garfield (26:20.602)
of that. Can you touch a little bit more about systems versus willpower? How creating that environment for success could work?

Maxime Sigouin (26:29.548)
Yeah, so...

Like willpower is when you feel like it basically is what it comes down to. It's like, I feel like working out. therefore I'm going to go and work out or I feel like eating healthy and therefore I'm going to eat healthy. And if for some reason, I don't know, you had a stressful day at work, you couldn't work on the morning. Now it's 5pm and you know, you should get your workout in, but like I'm tired. Then you have to rely on willpower to be like, do I have enough of that oomph in me to get myself to the gym? And I mean, I've been exercising for 20 years now and there's a ton of work

that I don't want to do. There's a ton of workouts that I don't feel like doing. And some of them, a lot of them I do and some of them I'm just like, you know what? I'm gonna move it to the next day because I have a day off tomorrow and I'll be able to do it. So there needs to be that flexibility. But system is where like you really embed it into your schedule, into your life and you make it easy for you to do the right thing. So a system for success is make it easy for you to do the right thing and make it hard for you to do the wrong thing. So if there's...

ice cream vegan ice cream in your freezer and it's 9 p.m. at night very easy to do the hard thing

The ice cream is right there, right? Versus if it's not in your freezer, then you would have to go to the store, right? Or use DoorDash and order and wait for it to be delivered. So by putting systems in place, like not having unhealthy food in your house, like scheduling time in your schedule to meal prep your food for the week to if you need to put another system, like load Instacart with all the ingredients you need for your meal prep, order it. That way, you know, it's coming to your house and when you receive it, you can cook blocking off time to work out just like people block off time.

Maxime Sigouin (28:05.712)
I'll walk off time to do weekly date nights with my wife. That's our time. Nothing's going over that because I want to prioritize that. So those are little form of systems. It can be embedded into your calendar. It can be embedded into like automations on your phone. It could be little routines that you have in the morning, like the one that I have to read and write every single morning. But systems are gonna be something that are replicable and that you know are gonna get you a benefit.

Justin Garfield (28:31.016)
Love that. And one thing here that we're gonna transition to, just similar topic, but I speak with a lot of people who have a lot of self-esteem issues. And part of that, to help change the narrative, is positive self-talk. Could you tell me a little bit about the power of changing your mindset of, have to do this, to I get to do this?

Maxime Sigouin (28:56.491)
Yeah, for sure. I think, like that part is so, I think it's so complex.

Yes, changing the language to I get to do this versus I have to do this, because people don't realize how much of a blessing it is to be able to work out. Like when my lead partner was sick, like she wanted to be able to go for a walk for 30 minutes and not have to nap for six hours after, right? Like sometimes we don't realize how blessed we are that like we just get to go for a walk. Like we get to go to the gym and I get it. Like life's busy and you're stuck in your own head and your own little routine that you forget how blessed you are amidst all the craziness that is happening.

So taking those opportunities to reframe how your life is, is important. And it does take time to build that muscle, right? To kind of catch yourself more often than not to reinforce that.

But I also like to go the other way where I put the barrier to success so low because I feel like people that do lack self confidence like I had, know, growing up and kind of as I was aging is because I would set goals and then I wouldn't do them. And then I'd be like, wow, I suck. couldn't even do the thing that I said that I was going to do. And what I found is that when I became the person that did the thing that they said that they were going to do, I felt better about myself. Cause was like, yeah, like I read the book or like,

I did the workout or I did the meal prep or I made the healthy choice. But I feel like people put such a high bar to success. Like as an example, like every morning I read two pages. Like there's a reason why I don't tell myself I'm going to read for 30 minutes every morning. Because if I say that and in the morning I'm like, man, like I don't have 30 minutes, I'm busy today. Or like I don't feel like reading for 30 minutes, then I'm simply not going to read. But if I say two pages, so that's literally like one, two, and I can turn the page and I put it down.

Maxime Sigouin (30:47.01)
Right? And that's a lot of my mornings. I read two pages every morning and then I was like, you know what? I'm bored. I want to do something else. Well, that makes me feel successful because two pages every day over time, eventually you read a whole book. And so I think lowering the bar to success at the beginning to get yourself to build that identity that like you are someone that does the thing that they're say that they're going to do that builds confidence over time. And I think like in the bigger picture, like that's the ultimate confidence builder.

Justin Garfield (31:16.798)
I really like how you phrased that because in my personal life, I'll share for a second, there have been times where I've gone through big spurts of workout motivation and then big lulls of lack of motivation. And in order to get myself back in the gym, I told myself, okay, look, just spend 10 minutes in there working out straight. And even if you don't feel like anything happened, at least you got yourself in there and you did something.

And I also like how you mention the book, two pages, not 20 minutes. As somebody who's got severe ADD, it's so hard for me to stay focused and pay attention for 20 minutes straight. Now there's methods for that. But just to tell yourself, all I'm asking is two pages a day. Like you said, eventually you still read the book. You're just going a little bit slower. And eventually you're going to want to do more and accomplish more. So I really like the way that you phrased that, Max. That's really cool.

And speaking of all this here, let's transition a bit to the physical proof of all this. So performance and recovery. So once people have gone through your book, what kind of results can they expect?

Maxime Sigouin (32:27.086)
Yeah, honestly, whatever outcome they want to create from it. So again, a lot of it is gonna be centered around body recomposition because that's like a...

more of a straightforward process to get that done. So if you're gonna lose 10 pounds, 20 pounds, 30 pounds, 50 pounds, 60 pounds, 80 pounds, 100 pounds, like all the tools are in the book. Because I tell you like, once you start to plateau, if you have a lot of weight to lose, reverse diet and then go back to phase one and do a body recomposition. Like re-increase your food intake and then bam, go back into another fat loss if you have more weight to lose. So with the protocols that are in there, you can lose however much weight you want. And the reverse dieting process again, is pretty systematic, is pretty straightforward.

muscle building is the same thing. The only one that so basically what people can expect out of it is to be able to improve their body composition to whatever extent they want. And then the only caveat would be phase five would be the athletic one. I would say that one is I wouldn't be able to put that in the book simply because like in very detail because if you choose to do a marathon versus an Ironman like two different types of training, you know, and to be able to cover all the

the varieties of exercise you could do for that phase. So that one's pretty unique. So that one would require a bit more attention to details and customization. But yeah, if you get the book, you literally have all the tools to lose 10 to 100 to 200 pounds if you want to.

Justin Garfield (33:49.416)
Wow, that's incredible. Now, moving on here to the inflammation edge. in recent years, elite athletes are switching to plants for improved recovery as well as DOMS, which is delayed onset muscle soreness. Could you explain why that's happening as a basketball player yourself?

Maxime Sigouin (34:09.198)
Yeah, yeah, so we need a whole food plant based diet, helps to reduce, well, you're not adding bad inflammation in the body from consuming meat, from consuming a ton of processed foods, but you're also eating foods that are more alkaline will help to reduce the inflammation in the body. And so there's...

there's two types of inflammation. There's like good inflammation that comes from like after you're done exercising, your body will produce some inflammation to help speed up the recovery process. That is a normal natural process that is very helpful to your recovery. And that's why there's now more studies kind of showing that you should not take an ice bath after a hard workout of strength training, because it's affecting the good inflammation that's there to speed up the recovery process. But if you're creating bad inflammation in the body through chronic stress, chronic under sleeping, eating processed food,

eating animal products, well that's going to cause more inflammation which will ultimately make the recovery process a lot slower and longer. And that's why some people that are eating and living this way are, you know, taking days, potentially weeks to be able to recover from some hard training sessions. But when you transition to eating whole food plan based, a lot of the time when you focus on eating that way, it also brings on other healthy behaviors. Like if you care about eating whole food plan based, you probably care about getting good sleep, you probably care about trying to manage

your stress. So all those added parts will help to reduce the bad inflammation in the body and your recovery process will be a lot faster.

Right? So I can recover pretty quickly from a workout. can, trained six days a week, like one to two hours, depending if it's like a basketball thing or a weightlifting thing. But I'm able to go like the whole week and be absolutely fine. At one point when I was near my, my scouting event, I was trying twice a day for two hours at that point, because I was in peak condition to prep for the event and I was fine. I was able to recover. Was I sore? Yes. You're exercising hard. It's normal. Dom's is normal. You can't fully eliminated.

Maxime Sigouin (36:05.614)
But it's not something that's going to be debilitating and preventing you from not being able to enjoy the next day of your life.

Justin Garfield (36:14.194)
Very cool. How's the basketball pursuit going?

Maxime Sigouin (36:18.382)
I'm getting back into it. I'm getting back into basketball shape because when I went to my scouting event in July Man, I was doing so well. I was the captain of the team. I was like leading and then I got hit in the head. got a concussion So I got I got taken out right there at the event. I still got a scar in my inside of my eye And then recovered for a month and then I was fine. Sorry playing again

Honestly, was a game of my life. I couldn't miss a shot. was shooting, I could shoot three spinning in the air, closing my eyes and it would go in and took a jumper. One guy put his foot right under me and that landed on his foot and did a full 90 degrees with my ankle. And then that recovery took a while. So now I'm back to like dunking and sprinting and being in a good shape. So now I'm building back up for in Vegas in July of 2026.

Justin Garfield (37:12.028)
Very cool. you playing summer league? it?

Maxime Sigouin (37:15.47)
No, so I'm doing the European and Asian scouting events.

Justin Garfield (37:19.432)
Gotcha. Well, very cool. And we wish you all the best on that journey.

Maxime Sigouin (37:21.112)
Yeah, yeah.

Thank you. Honestly, I'm just trying to see if I can get a contract. won't take it because I love what I'm doing with the book and the business, but I just want to know if I can as an old man get a contract at my age, because everyone else is like 10 years younger than me. So it's just a personal goal.

Justin Garfield (37:42.894)
Absolutely. If Bruce was here, he'd be comparing this to like say you're in your mid age type and then you go see somebody who's attractive and then you see if you can get their number and then that tells you, yep, I still got it. I still got it.

Maxime Sigouin (37:59.375)
Yeah, exactly, exactly. now I wouldn't I wouldn't take a contract. Honestly, man, it's when I'm I'm 32 now. I'm playing against 18 and 19 year olds that got like fresh sets of knees that are jumping in their heads at the rim. And I'm just being the the older wise guy on the court, right? I'm pacing it shooting threes making plays. My knees hurt in my back too. So I'm just trying to preserve myself at this point.

Justin Garfield (38:26.206)
Well, we're very happy that you're going for this and like we said, we wish you the best of luck on this journey. So cool. Before we go, I'd love to hear a couple more things. What are your maximum muscle building staples per se?

Maxime Sigouin (38:42.766)
Yeah, for sure. like exercise, I'll give you a food annex like one for each. So one obviously strengthening at least three times a week would be the go-to compound movements, super important, especially when I'm trying to put on some size compound movements are going to be super important. Like bench press, deadlift, squat, overhead press, like multi-jointed exercise on the food part, a staple, like I eat so much tofu.

scrambled tofu, air fried tofu. Like we make so many dishes with that. So for sure, tofu, just because it's like really high in protein. I love the texture. You can do so much with it when you're cooking. And then the other one, which is to be honestly getting good sleep. Like there's no, there's no drug in the world that you can take that would be a good night of sleep when it comes to your mental health, to your recovery, to your, to your progress. So my wife and I are pretty cautious about, you know, getting good sleep every night. So those would be the big three for sure.

Justin Garfield (39:39.41)
love it. And real quickly, could you highlight on one of your success stories with we I've heard that you've worked with Dr. Dan Green, Robert Cheek, who found vitality later in life using your system.

Maxime Sigouin (39:52.503)
Yeah, gosh, we have so many of them. I'll grab Dr. Dan because you brought him up. I'll say my mom's a great transformation, she's also over 50 pounds too. yeah, Dr. Dan was, you know, he was a doctor working full time. He was planned base. And he had, and we've had this conversation, he was skinny fat, basically. Like he had like a good base, but he had a belly and he was carrying a lot of excess body fat on his body. But you couldn't really tell if he wasn't shirtless. Like he was close, he looked good.

And that's kind of what skinny fat is. When you take off the shirt, you're like, yeah, we can probably tighten this up. And honestly, man, at the end of it, he looked like he could be on a cover of Men's Health Magazine. Like I actually thought about like trying to submit him because he looked that good, but he's more private, so I didn't do it. But he looked like he got abs now, like his shoulders were defined and striated. And we helped him to prep for his first triathlon. And then he's done a few of them since that point.

And yeah, he's like, he's a dad's over 50. So he's in pretty good shape.

Justin Garfield (40:55.336)
That's amazing. And real quickly, where can people order Forever Fit? It's launching this month.

Maxime Sigouin (41:02.764)
Yeah, so going live on Amazon January 26. So you can go to foreverfedbook.com and it will redirect people there. Or you can just go on Amazon for whatever country you're in and you just type foreverfedbook and you'll be able to buy it from there. But if not just foreverfedbook.com and it'll give you all the right links.

Justin Garfield (41:21.214)
Absolutely, and where can people go if they want to work with you specifically one-on-one?

Maxime Sigouin (41:26.094)
Yeah, so with our coaching team, I don't coach anymore. 2025 was my last year coaching, because now we have an incredible team of doctors and nutritionists and people that have their masters and PhDs to coach our members. If you go to mavywellness.com, so M-A-V-Y, wellness.com. It's my wife and I's name together, Maxim and Ivy.

Justin Garfield (41:47.346)
Love that. Congratulations on the expansion and all your success. I know that big things are coming for you. And what is your Instagram if people want to follow you?

Maxime Sigouin (41:57.198)
Yeah, it'll just be my name, Maxim Sigwai. Yeah, if you just type Maxim Sigwai, I'll pop up on Instagram. If you type Mavi Wellness, you'll find the page. But honestly, if you just go to Mavi Wellness on any platform like YouTube, Instagram, you'll be able to find us.

Justin Garfield (42:12.454)
very nice very cool max and we can thank you enough for being here before we go we're gonna have a few rapid fire questions you ready

Maxime Sigouin (42:20.653)
Let's do it.

Justin Garfield (42:22.022)
Okay, one plant-based food you can't live without.

Maxime Sigouin (42:25.55)
tofu.

Justin Garfield (42:27.314)
favorite non-negotiable morning habit.

Maxime Sigouin (42:30.817)
reading.

Justin Garfield (42:32.54)
best advice for a man who thinks he's too old to start strength training.

Maxime Sigouin (42:37.678)
Look at our clients. We got some seven-year-olds that are so weightlifting. So if they can do it you can do it

Justin Garfield (42:43.43)
And lastly, what does true masculinity mean to you today?

Maxime Sigouin (42:48.078)
It means that you're able to show up for the people that you love and your body and your health is no limitation to that.

Justin Garfield (42:55.086)
Love it. Well, this has been another great episode of Real Men Eat Plants. Maxim, can't thank you enough. Maxim Sigoyne, please follow him on Instagram, Maxim Sigoyne, underscore on Instagram. Visit maviwellness.com for a free consultation with his team and be sure to pre-order Forever Fit launching January 26th. You could go to Amazon or wherever he just told you. Well, Maxim, thank you so much for being here and for everybody else. We'll see you next time.

Maxime Sigouin (43:25.666)
Thank you for having me.

Justin Garfield (43:27.878)
Have a good day.