Bodybuilder Brad Sedillo shares what it is like to compete. He placed third at the Natural Atlas competition in his category. Reminiscing with his favorite elementary school educator, he once was interested in politics but now embraces bodybuilding & transforming his physique with ways for you to transform yours.

I'm okay with getting into this sort of shape,

but doing the show itself involves this extra 5% that is insane.

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What's your pi?

Well, I am absolutely delighted to introduce my guest here on today's

show, and he's sitting next to me live.

I'm

yes,

as an educator, I have had the honor of shaping and

nurturing his critical thinking skills throughout his childhood.

I fondly remember reading his captivating stories in class.

Watching him lead the student council as they campaigned to protect Philmont

Boy Scout Ranch from coal mining, taking care of wildlife and listening

to him address the mayor about issues that matter to middle schoolers.

I cheered him on as he achieved his Eagle Scout rank.

Experiences that have all laid a strong foundation for his

high school journey and beyond.

His leadership has allowed him to navigate various paths to success.

Making lifelong friends along the way.

In his own words, he discovered himself through his group of friends.

He has committed himself to fitness training for his next competition.

And even authored a book titled Friend Boats.

He occasionally co-hosts your positive imprint.

I could go on and on and on about my remarkable former student,

but I'm gonna let him share his stories and his positive imprints.

Truly, truly, I am so excited to welcome the absolute incredible Brad Sedillo.

I'm excited to be here.

The tree of your seeds that you've been planting.

I am the tree.

My friends call me a tree.

So here we are.

I

love that they describe running into me, like running into a tree.

So there you go.

Well.

You are incredible.

And we go, my goodness, time.

We do go back a long time.

It's

20 years now.

I'm over 20.

Yes.

Yeah, I'm teasing.

Yeah.

Oh, we have

Uhhuh a

long, long way back and so we're gonna start there.

Actually,

I'm ready.

We're gonna head over to elementary school.

Okay?

Yes.

Brad having you in, and I still have one of your posters, by the way.

Yes.

The president's, uh, town.

How do you remember that?

Well, yeah.

'cause

we went to dinner that one time in that Italian restaurant

and you showed it to me again.

Yes.

Oh my gosh.

I, that's right.

I did Uhhuh.

Well, I, I still have it and I take it.

You know, and I show 'cause it was, it was so much fun.

Right.

And you were so creative and you chose all your little favorite presidents.

Mm-hmm.

Do you remember which presidents you chose?

I can't, I hope that Lincoln was there.

Okay.

I'm glad that young Brad at least chose Lincoln.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

So in, in third grade, you were very talkative in class.

Uhhuh not in.

Of the wrong ways.

Yeah.

But of course my class was very non-traditional.

Right.

But you, you had a lot of leadership skills that

you were building back even then because we had student council.

Right.

You were a social studies bus.

Yes.

Big time

uhhuh.

Yeah.

Well, you mentioned student council and obviously you getting me into

student council set me on a path through student government that lasted

all the way through my college career.

Mm-hmm.

So I very specifically remember doing a lot of student council stuff.

Cleaning out bottles and, , cans throughout the, , school and

all the different bins for the recycling program and doing that.

I remember one time we were making something, I can't remember what it

was, but someone dropped a ruler in a hallway and you thought it sounded

like a gunshot, so you freaked out.

That's a funny one, I remember.

Yeah, I remember that.

Heck out.

Um, let's see, I guess I remember desperately attempting to

learn multiplication tables, which I

do remember that

even now.

I don't remember very well.

So, and of course John Denver, I still talk to my friends about

Oh, awesome.

John Denver.

Okay, well there you go.

Yeah.

Listen to some John Denver.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Well we did, and I remember when you were on the phone,

Uhhuh.

To speak with Congresswoman Heather Wilson.

Okay.

About Philmont Boy Scout Ranch.

Hmm.

Yeah, that I remember her coming to campus once, and I was involved

in student council, so I was there to greet her as she came to campus.

Yeah.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

To the John Denver Day.

And we also had.

Martin Heinrich there, who's one of our senators now, but at that time

he was city counselor.

That's right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And he came, then we had state representatives, we had the mayor.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Those, those John Denver days were huge.

Yeah.

Isn't Mayor Marty always the mayor?

Well, he is not anymore,

but

back then.

But he came to, yeah, every single John Denver.

Yeah.

John Denver Day that, that we had.

And you wrote plays?

Mm-hmm.

You wrote the Boy Scout play with.

Some of your cohorts in student council and you acted it out

there in student council.

Do you remember that?

Ah, see now that's pretty, all the

Boy Scouts died.

Yeah,

because you drank the water.

Oh geez.

Well that sounds like my Boy Scout experience that it was good foreshadowing.

We are Boy Scouts and we like to camp, hike, and enjoy the environment.

One of our boy scout camps is in New Mexico, near the Valle Vidal.

Which is a really cool name.

It means the valley of life.

This place has lots of Boy Scouts and other folks like maybe your family who

come to hike and enjoy the outdoors.

There are some big corporations who want to take the life out of

the valley and drill for coal and oil in this area and that coal and.

Oil is going to make some people rich

Tony Sedillo: while the rest of us lose our fun area for hiking,

camping, and watching wildlife.

The digging will also pollute the environment and that can hurt our health.

We need to work on Robbie Ryan's ideas and do more research and alternate

fuels, and there's a coal bed.

Methane develop an oil drilling nearby.

Oh doctor, you mean the Coal methane that seeps into the water and begins

to kill off plants, lions, tigers, and bears and, oh, my Boy Scouts.

Yes, doctor.

And don't forget about the oil.

What could we have done to prevent the Future Boys of America from, you know,

we should have gotten to the alternative fuels when it came to our environment?

These boys wouldn't be.

You know, if we'd only done our part to protect and preserve the environment,

the

coal

mine didn't happen.

That's right.

Yeah.

You kids worked hard, but then you also had to

break the window with the raven.

Oh, geez.

Brad threw a raven, a little raven puppet at the window

to make it look like it was.

It was hitting the window,

and now I'm gonna have to go watch it too, to remember that.

It was great.

Big thump.

Yeah.

Education was fun.

Yeah.

When I was younger, I assumed that politics and sort of government is

the sort of the way I wanted to go.

So I was in student council all the way through middle school, and then in

high school I was class president most of the way through, and then I was the

student body president my senior year.

So I was really into student government and leadership and all

of that, even at the high school.

And then I went to the university, New Mexico, and I was involved in the

student government there, and I was attorney general for the, the campus.

I was, I ran twice for the student senate at A-S-U-N-M, which

is the government body there.

And the first election, uh, you run in slates.

So there were 10 of us on a, on a. Slate and nine of them won their

election and I was the 10th who did not.

So that was one of my two election losses in my career.

So I was Attorney General that year.

And then the next year I was able to serve as a student senator.

And it was interesting.

So by the time I was a senior in high school, I come to realize

that the aspects of politics and government that I really enjoyed.

We're actually the parts about history and so the more politicy type things, 'cause

I was at the same time working towards a political science degree, I realized

was not really fun and I didn't really enjoy it, especially in relation to how

the politics of the world changed in that same timeframe, uh, I realized that it's

not really what brought me joy and so I.

Realized that the politics was actually driving me towards history,

which is where my real passion is.

And so that's sort of then from there where I have sort of taken

it, but I still think it allows a good foundation of how to get along

with people and understand the past.

If you have a, a notion of how politics and government work, even if you yourself,

don't feel like you would like to be involved in that sort of thing, in

how it actually works in today's life.

Oh, in your book you talked about green theory politics.

Yeah.

Right.

It was a really interesting class I took in college and it was one of those

things that I sort of, it helped me move away from politics and towards history.

'cause I realized that all the political science classes I was taking were

actually just the history mm-hmm.

Of politics.

Right.

, so a really great professor, Ellen Grigsby at UNMI had this class called

Green Theory Politics and it was all.

Essentially environmentalism in the American political,

historical sort of evolution.

And so it was a really interesting class that had very many different takes.

We've read people like John Muir and all these people who throughout their nature

writing actually were talking about politics and current events at the time

that they were writing and all of these things, but it was more about the, the

environmentalism of the founding fathers.

And it's something you don't really think about in terms of.

What they were thinking of, but they were thinking of how do we steward the American

environment at the same time that we're trying to create an American nation?

And so it's sort of an interesting aspect of politics and history that

you wouldn't really think about, but which has been an important part of

a lot of it all the way throughout.

I never ever would've thought you would do.

Okay.

Oh, uhhuh.

Yeah.

Bodybuilding.

Yes.

Yeah, bodybuilding.

Uhhuh.

Oh my gosh.

It's, and

this is a recent picture too.

That's, yeah.

So bodybuilding.

Wow.

So we have these pictures.

Yeah.

That all that we can put up later, but on on YouTube.

So you're looking at these pictures of you and bodybuilding.

Mm-hmm.

Which in school you were never athletic.

That's my problem.

Yeah, that's your problem.

What do you think that's your problem?

Look to, I was never athletic.

That's what led me to it.

It was the

thing I was gonna ask you that.

So, because you worked athletic, so.

Not being athletic led you to bodybuilding.

Exactly, yeah.

So all throughout high school I was very into running.

I was in cross country for four years.

I was never good at it.

I was in what was called the slug club because it was very, the slow ones.

If by the time you're senior, the way you get a, a letter, like a high school

letter was that you had to run in three varsity races, and I was never good

enough over four years to ever do that.

And so they also give you a letter if you manage to stick it out for four years.

So I got a letter

because you stuck it out for four years As I graduate, as I

graduated, I.

Stuck it out for four years, being terrible at running.

So by the time I got to college, obviously I knew I wasn't

going to do any college sports.

So one of my very good friends that I talk about in the book, John, uh, John Tina,

who currently lives in Oklahoma City, he was a, , football player in high school.

And so he came to UNM.

And he was looking for something athletic to do and I was looking

for something athletic to replace.

You know, I was still active in high school, even if I wasn't athletic.

'cause I cannot play a sport that involves a ball.

I'm terrible at it.

Basketball, football, I'm awful.

And so he was like, well, why don't you come to the gym with me?

And so that was in 2014 that we started working out.

And so then from there it just became more of a, uh, it was a

fun thing to do with my friends.

And then it became a hobby and then at some point it just became.

A very specific and regimented part of my everyday life.

And so eventually I was like, I need to do something that would actually

have an output to all of this.

So I got into more of the.

Specific bodybuilding stuff.

So I got a trainer who's a professional and all these things.

So, um, yeah, it's been an interesting journey to get there.

I say that I can do bodybuilding and weightlifting because it involves very

little coordination or, or any of the, so the barbells haven't fallen on you yet?

It's, I haven't killed myself yet with the barbell in the head.

So, yeah, it's one of those things that I really enjoy and I love and I'm, I find

that I finally found a sport that I'm good at is essentially what happened so.

Well, you

are very good at it.

Yeah.

So it just took

me a long time.

Okay, so let's talk

about bodybuilding.

Yeah.

What does it take to.

Build this.

Is it just protein?

Is it, what's the

dedication?

What is the drive?

Well, so one of the things that I like about having a trainer

specifically is that they are professional bodybuilders in England actually.

So I don't need someone in the gym with me showing me how to

do the lifts, the themselves.

But the two of them, they're very good.

He does more of the male training and she does the female training.

They're very good at setting goals.

They're called the coaching couple.

They're very good about setting goals, about how to make

bodybuilding a lifestyle thing.

Therefore, it's not something that takes away all of your time.

It allows you to be active and healthy while also being a person, having a

job and family and all these things.

It involves a very large amount of dedication over time, and that's,

you know, people come to the gym and they say, Hey, your arms look

good and you know, all these things.

How do you do that?

What do you take?

I'm like, listen, that thing over there.

Pick it up several times and then put it down and do that

over a period of many years.

And it's sustained effort over time.

And the main thing that you need is dedication is essentially what it is.

Dedication and discipline to make it a routine is the most important part.

So,

so routine.

We were always taught to do arms one day.

Yeah.

Legs another day.

Yeah, so that's called the split is which

days you do, which body parts.

So the split that I generally do is you do a pull day, which is more arms and

back, or a push day, which is different part of your arms and your chest and

then legs and then you repeat and cycle.

So I do that with different workouts that, again, my trainers provide

for me every six or eight months.

I sort of change the routine that I do, but that's, that's essentially what it is.

And then of course the diet is, is a big part of it.

Those pictures would be if I am just in a maintaining mode, sort of my every day.

If you're going for a show, which I've done a couple of

bodybuilding shows those Yeah.

That requires much more on the diet and cardio, because what you're doing is

you're, you're getting your body into a period where you are expending more

calories every day than you're taking in.

And the way you do that is eating disciplined, uh, levels of food in

terms of both quantity and what it is that you're eating, and also cardio.

So by the time you get to a show like that, you're doing cardio.

That's almost two hours a day.

On top of your workout, on top of not eating very much food, so

it's something you can't maintain.

And so that's what they say.

, my trainers are very good about, this is something you, you set your mind to do.

This goal, a show on this day, it's like a marathon.

That's not how you live your whole life.

That's just to train to lead up to that day.

But you still maintain your ability to run and have aerobic.

Fitness on all of that throughout the rest of the year.

And so that's what I do most of the time.

So

when you're getting ready to do a show, what was this show called?

, Brad Sedillo: so this one, I, I'd have to go back and look at it again, but I think

it was the, uh, the Muscle Mania Show, , is the name of the You're right, yeah.

On the back, WrestleMania.

Um, and that one was, , here, , that was my, my first show that I did.

And it was in, uh, Houston actually.

And so.

You do the whole thing where you, you have to, first of all, you get into

that shape and then a week ahead of time you start doing all of these

very specific, like my trainers would tell you every hour what you're eating

for the whole day, and you need to make sure you're doing those things.

And then you start draining out your body of liquids because you

need to sort of look crispy is how they say it when you're on stage.

And that's sort of how some of the muscles can sort of pop.

Really.

Yeah.

So

you have to be very dehydrated when you go up on stage.

So it's like for the full 24 hours before you're on stage,

you don't drink any water.

Oh, I never knew that.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's crazy.

So, I mean, I, I'm okay with getting into this sort of shape,

but doing the show itself involves this extra 5% that is insane.

And then you have to get a spray tan, which you can see there I am.

Very, very white.

And that is a spray tan.

Yeah.

So you have to get a spray tan, which involves a first coat in

the morning and it's freezing.

And then you go a whole day in that and you smell awful and you can't shower.

And then you get a second coat the morning of, and then you go to the show

and you put something on your body, like literally Pam spray to make you all shiny.

And so it's, it's a whole thing.

So this is sort of the 5% after you're in good shape to do this thing for a day.

That's just sort of fun.

Yeah, I, I wanted it, I wanted it to say, Hey, I did this with this

outcome and here are the pictures.

I don't actually live that way.

Yeah.

What were some of the meals that you were eating?

Yeah,

so that week is called peak week.

It's the, the peak of your training and you eat rice

cakes with some almond butter.

There's your whole meal for

that hour.

For that hour.

And then the next hour, maybe you'll have a strip of, um, chicken

that you get from, uh, Costco.

If you get a big enough bag, you microwave one or two of those.

An hour and you eat that with another rice cake and maybe take

just a sip of water and no more.

And then my trainer said that if you're going to be dehydrated,

you also want to add salt into your body To sort of add to that.

Uh, hydration and he says that the pink Himalayan salt is the best type.

So you put the almond butter on a ice cake and then you sprinkle some

pink Himalayan salt on the top.

Oh, yu, and you're set.

Yeah.

It's very fulfilling.

Oh my goodness.

That for a whole, whole week, essentially whole

that diet.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Leading

up to that point.

And then as soon as you're done, we went to a very excellent

Italian restaurant and I ate.

A ton of carbs and tiramisu.

I had scotch, the whole thing.

Yeah, because there's no drinking involved here either.

That's a hard part too, man.

Yeah.

So,

wow.

So the dedication is incredible.

When I think about spraying Pamela over your body, you're putting something.

Chemical.

Mm-hmm.

On your body?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I mean it's, it's literally for maybe a 15 minute period,

you're on stage for the whole, the whole thing lasts less than 15 minutes.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

So it's, it's a very quick, you get in, get, get out and you shower 'cause you

don't, it's gross and you haven't showered in two days 'cause you have to spray tan

and so yeah, you take all of that off.

That's, I wouldn't get a spray tant any other time 'cause

I think it's kind of weird.

Um, and I obviously wouldn't do a suntan thing 'cause that's very bad

for your skin and such, so, okay.

Yeah.

I try to get that off as quickly as possible.

Yeah,

and that's interesting.

So the muscles uhhuh, because looking at you right now Yeah.

It doesn't look like the picture, right?

Yeah.

Because you don't have all this, right?

You don't do the diet,

the lighting, the, the whole thing.

So all of the things that you see on ins, Instagram and social media,

that's the whole thing, is all those pictures that people post

are when they're at their best.

Physique, first of all, and then also in the best circumstances in terms of

the humidity in the room or the lighting and the camera that they're using.

And if they're a professional person, it's all stage managed

to make those specific moments.

Make you look much more inhuman than you are

if

you were to see them walking around as a person on a normal day.

So, okay.

Yeah.

How interesting.

So you have Natural Atlas Uhhuh, and you have a medal.

Yes.

Yeah.

So that was one of the, uh, the things that I, so I didn't obviously win

the show and I wasn't going into it thinking, oh, I'm gonna win this.

I went into it thinking I'm gonna do well.

So I think I got third in my.

Category at that time, which is, was a novice 'cause I had never done it before.

So, yeah.

Well congratulations on that.

Yeah,

that's great.

I think

I'll take it.

Yeah.

So I got the medal and I have it framed in a nice thing and

it is like, Hey, I'm done.

There we, that felt good.

So yeah, I, I enjoyed it.

Yeah.

And then you said cardio.

Mm-hmm.

So what did you do for cardio to prepare for this?

Yeah, so my favorite is actually a stair stepper.

Uh, for whatever reason I just, the sweat that, that thing drums up is insane.

So I don't like running very much.

Um.

In, in that level of time or intensity.

'cause I just feel like I've done that.

It's, I, I've done that and I don't need to do anymore.

So I found a way where I can read and do cardio at the same time.

So I'm on a stationary bike or the stair stepper with a book, and the

book makes it go by so much faster.

If you have 45 minutes or an hour to do cardio, if you're able to read at

the same time, that's the way to do it.

It is 90% history and the other 10% are Agatha Christie books.

Yeah,

after bodybuilding.

So do you plan on doing another competition or you're,

I know that was a dream.

You had some dreams that you wanted to Yes,

pre my pre 30 goals or my pre, yeah, yeah.

Pre 30 goals.

I could be convinced to do another one at some point.

I really like getting into that shape.

I don't necessarily really like all of the, that 5% getting on stage stuff.

Um, and I'm not really interested in making it a professional thing where

some people go and they do it and try and make money and all of these things.

I don't really have an interest in that, so I could see it

happening again, but yeah.

Well, good luck if you decided to do that.

Thank you.

Yes.

And what a dedication

it's really lucky that I am not a very food motivated person.

'cause otherwise I'm not sure I could do it, so, yeah.

Oh, that's funny.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, okay, well now you've done some traveling.

Yes.

So there is, , a toast that we used to do, and I'm sure many of you

have heard this before at all of the parties that we used to have.

, and it goes, there are good ships and there are wood ships.

And there are ships that sail the sea, but the best ships are

friendships and may they ever be

Who is ready for bodybuilding?

I am.

I am.

No.

Oh my gosh.

What an adventure.

Brad went on.

We'll join Brad Sad next time where he talks about good ships and wood ships.

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