Ella Magers, MSW:

And will you pronounce your name, how you like to pronounce it? Because I hear everyone pronounces it differently.

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah. Maxim.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Maxim. Si. Si.

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah.

Ella Magers, MSW:

I’m glad I have that maxim. It’s so wonderful to have you here. Thank you for joining me.

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, of course. Thank you very much for having me.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Yeah, I’m excited. We have so many things in common and a lot of things that are different too. And your backstory is super unique. I want to get to that in a moment. First. Sometimes I like to start out with a lightning round. Are you up for that?

Maxime Sigouin:

Yes, absolutely.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Awesome. So I’ve just got five questions. We’ll try to keep them at 30 seconds or less. So first one’s a little bit of a different one. So behind or beyond your story and all the accolades. Tell us in 30 seconds or less, who is Maxim?

Maxime Sigouin:

A man with a big heart that really wants to not see people suffer, that really wants to help the world be better, be the better version of themselves behind all of this.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Love it. Alright. What are three to five habits that you attribute to keeping you on the path of holistic health?

Maxime Sigouin:

I wrote down some of them when I fill out your form, but I would maybe it’ll be one that might be different. So obviously meditation, I said priming promise. I like a Tony Robbins thing. It just great sets me up for the day. One of them would be reading and it would be just getting good sleep. I’m a nerd when it comes to tracking my sleep.

Ella Magers, MSW:

All right. I want to get back to the priming and just impromptu question, what are you reading right now?

Maxime Sigouin:

Inflation. It’s a book that Tony Robbins sent us. So it’s a book about money ultimately.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Got it. Okay. Something that was painful at the time in your life, but that you’re now grateful that it happened.

Maxime Sigouin:

When my ex-partner went through breast cancer and when she passed away, that whole journey kind of shaped the trajectory of my life ultimately, and I wouldn’t be who I am without her.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Well, we’ll get into that as well. One meal that you love that you just can’t seem to get tired of.

Maxime Sigouin:

My fiance’s spaghetti. Like a spaghetti with some pea protein and just a really killer tomato garlic sauce. But you don’t eat it fresh, you leave it in the fridge and the next day you eat it. Ah, that’s really

Ella Magers, MSW:

Good. That’s the secret. Yeah, the secret sauce. Alright, so what message would you put on a billboard for thousands of people to see every day?

Maxime Sigouin:

I’d say debating between you are worth it and you can do anything that you want. Would it kind of go hand in hand? Ultimately, whatever it is, the thing that your heart desires, you can get there as long as you give yourself enough time.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Both very empowering messages, which I know you work into, all that you do in your life and your work and your business. And like I said at the beginning, you’ve got quite the intriguing backstory and very atypical when it comes to both your journey into plant-based eating and your fitness journey. Really, both of those are very atypical. So I know you’ve shared this on multiple podcasts, but I would love for our audience to hear that and as we go through it, I think there’ll be points that I’d like to stop and dig a little deeper to of how that shaped what you do today, if that’s cool.

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, absolutely. Just feel free to interrupt me. I can talk forever. Okay,

Ella Magers, MSW:

Deal.

Maxime Sigouin:

That’s why I love doing podcasts.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Yes. Perfect.

Maxime Sigouin:

Awesome. So just basically my journey of why I went plant base and how I went plant base.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Well, I’m actually, could we start with your days as a bodybuilder and powerlifter and how you got into that?

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, for sure. I grew up a really skinny and insecure kid. I’m six foot four and I’ve been six foot four since I’m like 12 years old. So it was shaped like a spaghetti noodles throughout high school. Played some basketball and was bullied when I was on the basketball team because like I wasn’t that great, but my parents played basketball and I was tall and I really wanted to do the thing that my parents were doing. And so when I was in there, I was, I started strength training when I was 12 years old because I got tired of being pushed around. So I was like, lemme just work out so I can be strong and no one can mess with me. And then when I got recruited from high school to go to college, I got a scholarship to go play at a private school in Quebec.

And so I was like, okay, well if I’m going to go play college ball, I really need to level up. And so I was about 160 pounds when I got recruited out of high school and I was turning 18 different years for college and university in Quebec. And I told my dad, I was like, dad, I need to get big. He’s like, okay, I’ll give you my old plan that I was doing way back in the day. And he told me I could start lifting heavy. I was 18. He’s like, you can take supplements 18 now. So I just went on 5,000 calories a day and cleaned 5,000 calories, not like junk. 5,000 calorie started lifting heavy over the course of six months. I went from one 60 to 230 pounds, I think. What? So I just, I wasn’t ripped, so I’ll put it this way.

I was big and strong though. So when I got into college and we kind of started to practice the guy’s like, the heck happened to you? How’d you get so big? I was like, I’ve just been eating all the time. I would literally be, I was working as landscaping during the summer and I would have loafs of bread and bags of vegetables attached to my belt because I couldn’t get all my food in, drink my breaks. I would usually mow the lawn and eat just slices of bread and food as I was mowing along doing the whipper snipper and everything.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Yeah. Wow. No, I see. Had not heard this on any of the other podcasts.

Maxime Sigouin:

I’ve shared that before. Yeah.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Wow, that’s so interesting. And just from a perspective of a lot of the clients I work with are women trying to lose weight. Now here you are still, there’s this body image and this kind of worthiness and this identity kind of crisis going on. But in a reverse sense, can you talk about that and do you help clients now that how you help them with their body image?

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, absolutely. So to me it was the typical, whether you’re trying to lose weight or build muscle or trying to get bigger, it was the same thing. When I get there, things will be different. So when I lose a 30 pound, things will be different. When I put on 30 pounds, things will be different. And so to me, I went from this really skinny kid to 230 pounds at six four, I got really big. So I got to the place, and then when I got to the place, I was very disappointed to know that it didn’t change anything. But what had happened throughout the journey is that I start to build my identity around, I’m 230 pounds. I’m big and strong, no one can mess with me. And I became slightly aggressive because when people in high college, it’s your first year, you’re a rookie, there’s initiation and all that stuff.

And they would try to prank me and I would, I would punch ’em on the shoulder, punch ’em in the ribs. I was like, no, you don’t mess with me. And it was the first time in my life I could stand up for myself because I was big enough to defend myself at that point. And so I had build my identity around being this person, and there was frustration in that because I told myself, when I get there, everything will be solved and it wasn’t solved. So yeah, it’s the same forever. Whether you’re trying to lose weight or gain weight, when I get there, things will be different. And then you build your identity around that and not just, there’s a lot of disappointment that comes with that.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Yes, absolutely. Okay, so here you are, 230 pounds, you’re big guy. What’s next?

Maxime Sigouin:

Play basketball for a few years. And one day I was at the gym training and I met a guy that was just huge, way bigger than I was, and I was went up to talk to him. He is like, oh, I’m a bodybuilder. I compete. I’m a pro bodybuilder. And I was like, oh, what is that? He’s like, well, you step on stage and you show me photos. And I was like, ah, you’re going to be a Speedo. I don’t want to wear that.

And then I was like, but I like the idea of being muscular and lean. And so I was like, you know what, man? Lemme just hire you. That was my first coach I ever hired. Let me hire, I want try one of these things. I got big, let me just try one of this. So that’s when I started my bodybuilding journey, which was, again, I wasn’t vegan at the time, but it was a typical bro diet of a dozen eggs for breakfast, a bowl of oatmeal, blueberries, and peanut butter for breakfast. And it was two chicken breasts every two hours for five meals a day with rice and broccoli and hot sauce or mustard, zero calorie. And so I did that for a year, and then I prepped to step on stage and ultimately got down to about three 4% body fat. Never been this lean in my life.

It was a miserable day of my life to be that lean. Just the veins crawling up my stomach and off my chest. It looked cool, but I felt so terrible. And because the methodology to lose the weight was so strict to me, it said blueberries. So I asked him, can I have bananas? No banana’s not on the plant. So in my head it was like, okay, banana equals me putting on fat. So if it wasn’t on the plant, anything that was off that plan, I would equal to putting on fat. So I developed a really unhealthy relationship with food. And when you go to step on stage, you have to be really strict, especially towards the end because if you mess that up, you look terrible on stage. And so when I stepped on stage, I think after you have your big cheat meal at the restaurant, I just fell asleep halfway through it. I was so exhausted. And then the next day I was like party mode. I ate everything I could, as much of it as I could. And I went from a shredded six pack to having breast in 30 days. I put on 50 pounds in my first month after the show, but I was so hungry, I was still hungry even after 30 days because it was so strict and the method was so strict that I was like, I’m done with all of this. I’m just eat everything I want.

Ella Magers, MSW:

This is so interesting because I think a lot of our audience who’s not in that world, you think, you know, see these people up on stage and I’ve been up on stage myself and just think, wow, they’re amazing, the fitness industry about health and it has nothing to do, nothing to do with health. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, right?

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, yeah, it’s It’s unhealthy. Yeah, right. It’s the cherry on the sundae, let’s put it that way. This step on stage is a cherry on the sundae. You don’t need to do it.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Yeah. Yeah. I did it in 2007 and I had been vegan for so long, did not have a healthy relationship with food, but because I had been vegan, it really, it wasn’t a crazy experience like that. But yeah, I, bodybuilding shows are no joke, just the nasty tan stuff, all of it. Yeah, no, I mean, those who do it regularly, I’m just in awe of. Yeah. Okay. So you’ve now competed what’s next?

Maxime Sigouin:

Well, because such an unhealthy relationship food, I had a hard time going back on an eating plan, and so I still love working out. And so to me, I was like, well, how can I work out and justify being this fat? I was like, I can’t get lean because I don’t want to diet anymore. So how do I explain to people that I got fat?

Ella Magers, MSW:

Well, and did you share with anybody, was the relationship with food that you had at this point, I mean, was it, describe a little bit more about what that looked like now that you’re off the show. You’re not going to do that again. Yeah. And was that something that, was em a embarrassing? Did you hide binge at night? Can you share a little bit more, if you don’t mind? Yeah,

Maxime Sigouin:

For sure. I never shared it with anyone because I didn’t think there was anything to share. I didn’t know I had a bad relationship with food. I only knew that five years after when I learned about what a bad relationship with food was. To me, it was just my relationship with food. And so yeah, I put on 50 pounds in a month and I was like, well, I want to go back to having a six pack. And so every time I would think of the idea of going back on a diet plan, I would be like, well, okay, well I’m, I’m starting tomorrow, so let’s just meet everything as much as I can tonight so I can enjoy myself before I go back on this really strict plan. Because the blueprint I had in my head of fat loss was extremely unhealthy. And so I’d go to Tim Morton’s, buy a box of donuts, go to Subway, buy some cookies, and I just would just eat as much shit as I could. And then next day I’m like, okay, I’m ready to do this. And I’d be on track for three days. And it was so strict. I was like, I can’t do this. And I’d eat something else. And there was a point where I bought some donuts and then

Ella Magers, MSW:

Hold it. Okay, we’re back. You’re back. We’re back. Okay. You froze right after you said there was a point I bought some donuts and now you’re frozen again.

Maxime Sigouin:

I don’t know why it’s doing this. Oh, can you hear me?

Ella Magers, MSW:

Yeah, you’re back. Okay. Okay. Sorry about that. So you said no, I mean, it could be my end. I don’t know. I’m plugged in, so hopefully, but okay. You said I bought some donuts.

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, so I bought some donuts. There was one, I bought some donuts and I was like, well, I shouldn’t eat it, but I really want it, but I shouldn’t. And so I was like, let me do something drastically and just throw it in the garbage. And I threw in the garbage and I sat there watching tv. I was like, well, they’re still in the box. And so I went back and I grabbed one and I ate it, and I was like, well, that’s kind of fucked up. I went back into a garbage, eat a donut, and that’s what I had to learn is pour orange juice over it. So I couldn’t eat it. Wow. I was, and that’s when I was like, okay, I think there’s something wrong here that I have to pour orange juice over my trash to make sure that I go back and eat into it.

I was like, I think there’s a problem here. And so ultimately had a bad relationship with food. So I was like, well, what sport can I do that I can justifiably be fat, eat as much as I want and work out? And then I just was on YouTube and I was just watching videos, motivational videos, really popular back in the days, Greg Plait and kind of all that time. And then a video about power lifting came up. These guys are super chunky and they lift heavy weights. I’m like, let me do that thing. I could just be fat and lift heavy weight and be fat and strong. And so I was like, that’s my next goal, be fat and strong. And so I found a power lifting coach, started power lifting, and then I went on the whole diet. So the whole diet is you eat a whole cake, a whole pizza, a whole pint of ice cream, a whole of whatever you bought, you ate the whole thing.

And I was eating two 12 inch, two 12 inch subway sandwiches. I was just eating a ton, as much as I want. I was just like whatever I wanted, I ate. And then ultimately I went from, I think on my show I was about 1 65 when I stepped on stage, so put on 50 pounds, two 10 or whatever. I bulked up to 240 pounds. So I was two 40, I was strong. I think I was dead lifting 550 pounds squatting, 410 benching like three 10. So I was in a thousand club for power lifting. And then did that for a bit, I was going to compete in power lifting, but my numbers weren’t that great because I’m pretty heavy for what I was lifting. And you know how it works. It’s per ratio, it’s per weight and how much you can lift. And I wasn’t competitive. And just one day I was driving to my gym and there’s like an alley behind the gym and there’s speed bumps. And I was driving and I hit the speed bumps and my breast was just shaking for way too long after, and I was like, oh, this is not supposed to jiggle this much. And for that long after I was like, I think I need to lose weight now. And so that’s what started my next cutting journey ultimately. Well,

Ella Magers, MSW:

I have to give it to you. I mean, you are a determined human and a solution focused person. You were like, okay, here are my parameters. I’m going to find the sport that fits in there. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Okay, got it. Yeah. So well tell us the next little turn in this journey.

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, so I don’t know. Again, I’ve always watched YouTube more than I’ve watched TV when I grew up. And so there was this guy named Matt Ogus, I dunno if that sounds familiar, way back in the day when if it fits, your macro kind of just came out, it was starting to become popular. And then those guys were like, well, you can eat whatever you want. You can eat shit, food, whatever you want, as long as make it fit within these metrics. Then you can get treaded. And he would document himself eating burgers and pop-tarts and all that stuff. And I was like, I burgers. And so I was like, maybe that’s my solution to get lean. And so I started tracking my macros, and then I started eating whatever I wanted as long as it fit my protein, carbs, and fat ratios. And I got a six pack and I was like, oh, this is interesting. I ate all this terrible food and I was able to get lean. But now looking back, my skin was terrible. My energy was terrible, my digestion was terrible, my energy was terrible. Everything was terrible. But I had a six pack and I was probably like, I dunno how old I was. I was probably 18 at that point, maybe 19 years old.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Oh, wow. All of this had taken place

Maxime Sigouin:

Within a few years.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Oh wow, okay. Yeah.

Maxime Sigouin:

Wow. So I move fast. Anyone that’s around me knows I move fast when I want something, I just go and do it. And so that was kind of the start of it for me. I was like, oh, if it’s your macro, it’s a cool principle. And then I just moved forward with that methodology and then did that for a few years, and then I bulked up a bit more again. And then that’s when I met my modeling agent, and that started a whole different chapter of my life.

Ella Magers, MSW:

So what do you say now to people who say, well, what about if it fits your mate macros? What’s, if somebody just kind of in a passing elevator, elevator talk and somebody’s like, no, I’m on the, if it fits your macros plan, what do you think about that?

Maxime Sigouin:

It works, but the quality of the food that you eat will determine your energy, how your body will look, how you feel, your digestion and your energy. You can eat shit food and get t shredded. So a lot of people have proven that, but at the end of the day, do you want to look a certain way or do you want to look a certain way and feel great? I want to feel great and look great at the same time. So the quality matters tremendously.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Okay. All right. Let’s start this next chapter.

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah. So I was training with one of my friend who’s a fitness model, and he drove me to the gym. And so after the workout was like, Hey, I just need to stop by a quick, my friend’s house. So I was like, cool, and you gave me a ride. I need to, anyway, I need to go with you. So we walked to the apartment, there’s a runway, a high fashion runway in the apartment. I was like, what kind of friend do you have there? She’s like, oh, this is my modeling agent, Angie and Angie’s amazing woman, super cool. She’s changed my life. And she just looked at me and I had big chubby cheeks. She’s like, I see something. I need those big chubby cheeks. She just try losing some weight, see if we can do a photo shoot. And then at the time, again, I had done bodybuilding, had done power lifting, had done some of these things, and I want to prep for W World’s Bodybuilding Fitness, W B B F F, the Fitness Competition Show.

It’s been a while since I’ve kind of been in that world, but I was prepping for fitness modeling show in that we have the board shorts, and I was like, you know what? I’m going to cut anyways, might as well kind of get ready for that and then do a photo shoot at the same time. So I got lean, did my first photo shoot. I was great. I was getting compliments from a kid who was very insecure. So I got into bodybuilding, being bullied. I was like, people telling me I look good. I was like, I never had that in my life. This is great. Girls were telling me I look good. I was like, oh my God, this is awesome. Then I got a job and I made money. I was like, I get money by people taking photos of me. I’m working at Subway at 15 bucks an hour.

I’m like, this is so much better. I get to be fit and do different things. I don’t have to work a full day. And so I was like, you know what? Let me give this a shot. So I told her, I’m like, aj, I want more gigs. I want to make more money. I want to make a living out of this. She’s like, okay, well, you need to lose more weight. I was like, I’m shredded. I don’t have a lot of fat to lose anymore. She’s like, no, it’s not the fat, it’s the muscle. You have too much of it. So I was maybe wearing a large extra large shirt at the time. She’s like, you need to be in a small medium, a medium sized shirt. I was like, okay. I’m like, how much weight are we talking about here? She’s a lot of muscle.

You need to lose you. I couldn’t close the dress shirts or anything. And so I kind of sat with it and I was like, you know what? I did bodybuilding. I did power lifting. My whole identity was wrapped up around me being this fit muscular guy. I was like, let me give this new thing a shot. I went on Google. I googled, what’s the fastest way to get skinny, which showed up is vegans are skinny and weak. I was like, great. I don’t care if I’m weak, I just need to be skinny. So changed my breakfast of, again, the eggs and all that. The chicken per day till the next day was a bowl of blueberries, frozen blueberries, bananas in dates. That was my first vegan breakfast. I didn’t know how to fuel myself. I was an interesting journey, but ultimately it went vegan, lost 80 pounds in my first year, lost a ton of weight, was able to fit in the clothes, which ultimately I was able to go in New York. I was able to go in Milan. I was able to kind of work in that industry, but that’s originally what made me want to go vegan was like, I just need to get skinny as fast as possible.

Ella Magers, MSW:

So all the stereotypes that I was trying to my whole life take away from veganism. I was like, ah, I got to show people you, you’re not skinny, and you’re like, those are the reasons you went vegan. Were there any influencers in particular that you were falling at the beginning or when you were googling it? Around? What year was that?

Maxime Sigouin:

It’s almost nine years ago.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Okay.

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah. So it was around the era of durian rider, frilly, the banana girl rock, Christina of that whole gang. Okay,

Ella Magers, MSW:

Got it. Yeah. And did you do mostly raw or what was the diet?

Maxime Sigouin:

Well, at first it was when I transitioned, I didn’t know how to eat, so obviously went on Google and people were talking about raw vegan, raw till four, and I was like raw vegan. I dunno if I’m ready for that. So lemme just do raw till four. So I would eat raw food till 4:00 PM and I eat, eat cooked foods. But the thing was I was severely undereating. I’m trying to lose as much muscle mass as possible. Right, right. So I stopped strength training for a year. I just did cardio. I under ate and I didn’t eat enough protein, which is funny because that’s what people do when they’re trying to lose weight, right? They’re like, I’m going to do a bunch of cardio. I’m going to eat super low calories. I won’t worry about protein and I won’t lift weights. That’s what I did to lose muscle. So people are trying to transform doing that. I won’t work, you won’t look great after. So lost 80 pounds doing these things. Raw tail four, I tried raw vegan for a bit. I did Banana Island. We eat 30 bananas a day for a week. I did that whole culture that they had. I tried all of it ultimately.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Oh, what was that? Eating 30 bananas a day. I’ve never tried that. I don’t plan to either.

Maxime Sigouin:

No, no, no. So it was like banana and ice cream, banana smoothies, bananas. You just kind of made a different texture. It was rough because I’m from Quebec, Canada, which is minus 40 in the winter. It’s really cold. So eating raw foods in the middle of winter was a terrible experience because I was getting skinnier and I was eating cold foods all the time. It was, it was harsh. No

Ella Magers, MSW:

Insulation on your body. And then what about this identity? I mean, what is going on with you mentally and emotionally? I mean, I guess you’re working towards a new identity as a model now. So what was that transition like?

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, for sure. So that first year of losing the 80 pounds and going from this big muscular guy to going to this skinny scrawny guy, which ultimately I only did that because that was the look that they were looking for high fashion. And I think the year after was muscular beard and men, and I was like, dang, I could’ve waited a year. I don’t have a beard, but I was like, I could’ve stayed muscular. So it was tough because my whole identity was wrapped up around that. I genuinely had no personality. I was two 40. I was just this big strong guy. That’s who I was. I had no humor. I had no opinion on any subject. I genuinely had days where I was like, man, I wish I had opinions about things, that I can have conversations with people. That’s the thing that I thought about when I was that big. I was like, I can’t have conversation with people because all I know is e food and workout. And so as I lost the weight, I was like, man, if I’m not this big muscular guy, I need to develop a personality. I need to develop an opinion. And so I started to work on myself internally, work on my insecurities, work on all of these things. And now I have the amazing personality that you see in front of you today, but we’re

Ella Magers, MSW:

So lucky to experience it.

Maxime Sigouin:

That was the one year transition of I need to work on myself internally because obviously this external vessel didn’t fulfill me when I was two 40, and it’ll be less fulfilling, especially as I’m getting skinnier, losing that identity that I was so attached to.

Ella Magers, MSW:

What does that mean, work on yourself? Did you read books? Were there certain, what did that look like?

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, so to me, I did read some books. That’s when I found to awaken a giant within from Tony Robbins, which was the first book that kind of opened up in myself to I can improve myself. I have tools to improve myself. That’s kind of what opened up my world. But the big part was just me setting and following through on the things that I said that I was going to do. That was the real big goal because my insecurities was, yeah, to being skinny, and I proved that I could be big if I wanted to and had done power lifting if I wanted to. So at that point, I started to build a belief of whatever I want I can have, if there’s long enough of a timeline for me to get it. And that’s still true today. I can have whatever I want as long as there’s long enough of a timeline and I actually genuinely care about the thing that I’m going after. And so that’s when I started setting little goals for myself, whether that is to help my dad twice a week, whether that is to do my homework when I was in school, and it’s just actually following through on it. And then I built confidence because then I had proof that I could follow through on what it is that I said that I was going to do, and I started to put my identity in that versus being or looking a certain way.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Got it. Okay. And so now you’re lost this weight. You have this career path. How were you feeling physically? Did you feel weak as did you feel in How was your energy and what shifted next?

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, for sure. Well, I was feeling great when I transitioned for the first year. At first it was rough because I went from a significant amount of calorie to a lot lower, and I didn’t know how to fuel myself. But a few things happened. I had brain fogginess that again, I didn’t know I had because I had lived with it my whole life that lifted. And so I always felt like I was a bit slower when I was in school. I can’t focus, I can’t concentrate. I couldn’t remember anything. And then once I kind of lifted, I was like, God damn, I’m actually smart. I can focus on task. I can let you get things done. The other one is I had tension in my forehead, in my forehead and my nose. So I guess there was some mucus there. So there was some blockage again, lived that my whole life, did not know that was a thing that was going to happen, but it just kind of cleared up and I was like, oh my God, I can breathe better.

I don’t have this tension in my forehead. I had more energy, right? Because I wasn’t eating so much chicken and eggs and kind of all these things. And so I felt really good. I didn’t necessarily know that I was weaker because I stopped strength training for a year. So I had no ability to test that. But I was for sure weaker because I didn’t train for a year. But also disclaimer for people listening, you can be strong and be vegan. I purposefully tried to get weaker and skinnier. So just want to put it out there for people listening.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Thank you. Okay, so what shifted next?

Maxime Sigouin:

And so it went vegan, it lost 80 pounds. Then I started working in the industry. When I went to New York, went to Milan, did some photo shoot, had a fun time. It was great to travel, kind of experience that industry. But when I got to experience the international stage in Milan, that’s when I saw the dark side of the industry. It’s a very superficial world. If you’re not someone, no one talks to you. The whole drug thing is a real thing. The starving yourself and puking is a real thing. I think what was trending at the time is girls would sew cotton balls and orange juice and kind of eat them, so it’ll taste good, but it’ll make them feel full. And I was like, eh, I don’t know if I’m aligning value-wise too much with this, because I was vegan. So I was the health component because actually one thing I forgot to mention, within my first year of transition, my grandfather got diagnosed with cancer and passed away within a few months.

And so that’s when I watched Forks over a knife, and then I made the connection with my grandfather being sick. And I was like, oh, my grandfather shit didn’t really take care of himself. And so I was like, okay, there’s something there. And so when I was in the modeling world, I was like, it’s extremely unhealthy. My value is health. I lost my grandfather. I was like, this doesn’t make sense to me. And another part on a personal level, I hate people telling me what to do with passion. So every time I had jobs, I always had a hard time. And so being in the modeling industry, you can’t cut your hair. They have to tell you if you can cut your hair and what style you’re going to get. You can’t smile on photos. And I was getting upset with that. I like smiling, I’m a happy person.

And they’re like, well, you can’t smile on the photos and blah, blah, blah. So I was like, you know what? Let me just build my own brand. And then one day I’m going to be on the cover of a magazine because I build something, not because of the way that I look. And I was in Milan when I had that moment. And so I started a blog called Lucky Lucky’s Adventure. That was my nickname, lucky. So it was Lucky’s Adventure, and I document all my travels. I hitchhiked around a lot as well around that time. And so just kind of started that brand and it evolved to ultimately what is Fit Vegan today. But that was a journey of all of it. It was trying to get out that industry that just didn’t align with it.

Ella Magers, MSW:

So interesting. And how did you get the name lucky? The nickname?

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah. So again, there’s so many parts to this story, but going back when I was about maybe 19, 20 years old, that was after bodybuilding, that was after power lifting and all that. That was mid modeling. When I started, I decided to sell everything at my parents’ house because I was still living with them. And I was like, I just want to travel. I was like, you don’t have any money? I’m like, well, I sold my bed to my brother and I have a bit of money. So basically hitchhiked across Canada, ended up in Alberta, traveled around, stayed there for a bit, was at a hostel one day. And there’s this German guy that came to talk to me. His name was Florian Schwartz, one of my great friends who’ve been friends for over a decade now. I’m going to see him in August in Florida when I go and see him.

Nice. For the first time in a decade, he was from Germany. And in Germany school is free. So here people, their parents save money for you to go to school for him. They save money for him to travel the world. And so he was like, Hey, I’m just here traveling, visiting Canada. And he’s like, I want to buy a car so I can drive to bc, go to v Vancouver Island. And I was like, I know a lot about cars. And so I went shopping with him. He bought a Dodge Caravan that I kind of help him fix up. And he was like, you want to come with me? I was like, yeah, why not? So we lived in the back of a Dodge Caravan for four months and travel all of Alberta and kind of BC for a bit.

Ella Magers, MSW:

How fun. How fun. And he gave you the nickname.

Maxime Sigouin:

So while we were traveling, his nickname was Flo. It was like his hippie name because his name’s Florian. And to me, I had hitchhiked over about 200 rides at that point, and he’s like, dude, how’d you hitchhike this much? You’re really lucky. I was like, well, law of attraction, whatever you put out is what you get back because you put out good things, you have good things happen to you. It’s like you’re just always lucky. Then he’s like, that should be your nickname. Lucky. And so I just went with it. And then so he was lucky for several years after.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Nice. Okay. I’ve been curious about that too, getting your emails like, oh, what’s this lucky thing about? Okay,

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, I need to change it. I didn’t change it everywhere yet.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Okay, so here we are, next leg of your journey.

Maxime Sigouin:

So modern Italy, kind of come back to Canada, decided to go to Vegas for a conference. And then since I’m there, I’m like, lemme just go to Los Angeles for a bit again, just being a hippie, staying wherever I can, making things work. I was in Los Angeles, stayed in a mansion because my friend was staying there, and he was like, you’d stay with me here. And so I chatted with him. I was like, man, I really want to build this big thing, this empire of some sort. And he is like, well, you need stability if you’re going to do that. And then I was running out of time in the United States, you only get six months as a Canadian. And so I was like, I have to go back to Canada. And the only flight I could afford, I had 200 bucks in my bank account.

Vancouver was the only flight I could afford to get out to. And I knew, I think one person in Vancouver. And so he was like, go to Vancouver trying us stay there for a few years. I promise you, once you gain stability, you’ll be able to build something. And I really respected his opinion. I was like, cool. Went to Vancouver, went and met with my friend who was broke. So I stayed on his floor with my hoodie and my backpack as my pillow. I think my first job I got, I cleaned a dirty spa somewhere. I was on Craigslist looking for jobs, and I bought myself a pillow and a blanket, which I still have that blanket to this day. So bought that, and I was like, oh, I have a blanket for me to sleep on. And then evolved from there. Within three months of me being there, I meet my ex-partner.

And then we started dating. Three months after we started dating, she gets diagnosed with breast cancer. And so at that point, again, we’re not living together. We’ve only known each other for three months. I’ve never had an apartment. I live with my parents and I’ve just been hitchhiking around everywhere. I’ve never had bills, I’ve never had responsibilities. And so I was like, you know what? I love her. Let me stay. Let me take care of her. And so got an apartment with her again, never lived with a girl, never paid rent, never paid bills. Now I have someone’s life that’s on the line that I need to care for. And so we moved in together, started taking care of her, and we were together for almost four and a half years before she passed away. And ultimately she saw me, this kid that was mooching off people’s couch and just kind of living and doing whatever he wanted. And then to this man that I became after, because that was the roughest I’ve ever had to go through my entire life.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Wow, that’s really incredible. I to have known her three months and to feel that love and to take that on again, that’s like this new shift in your identity and your role and purpose on the planet.

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, I feel like to me it’s always been, there’s a feeling that that’s the thing that I should be doing. And then to me, that was the thing that it was just so strong in my heart that, how can I put it this way? My whole life, if there’s something that’s in my heart and in my body that I need to be doing, I can’t be doing the opposite because I will feel uncomfortable until I go and do the thing. And so to me, I was like, well, I need to do this. This is what my heart is telling me to do. And so ultimately that’s why I stayed. And again, it was a challenging journey because cancer treatment’s very expensive. She chose to heal holistically. So there was no chemo radiation or anything like that. We didn’t know what that involved, didn’t know the cost that was involved in that.

And I think it was several hundred thousand dollars later in debt of paying, because I was making $12,000 a year when I first met her at a smoothie bar. And then I managed to kind of upgrade, make a little bit of money, but $40,000 a year, not six figures a year. I still had a lot of cancer treatments to pay. So just accumulated debt and trying to pay for as many treatments as possible, support her on her journey as much as possible. And ultimately, the doctors gave her one year to live. She made it four and a half years by switching her diet to whole food plant base, which reduced inflammatory markers, shrunk down the tumor for a long period of time, and eventually got the best of her at the end. But she ended up living four and a half years with really good quality of life compared to some of the other people that got diagnosed in the meantime. And some of them didn’t make it through.

Ella Magers, MSW:

At what point did you make it your mission to extend the help you were giving her to really the world?

Maxime Sigouin:

It started with my fundraising bike trip. I did, because financially I was screwed, right? I couldn’t make enough money. I couldn’t work enough jobs to pay for all of it. And so I was like, well, raising money, I don’t like the energy of raising money. It just, it’s coming from such a needy place. And so that was my experience because I was always relying on friends and people to help support the cancer treatment. So I always had to be in that energy of I don’t have, and I have to ask. And so I was like, lemme just do something that’s really hard, because I think Iron Cowboy came out at the same time, right? 50 Ironmans in 50 days, in 50 different states. And I was like, I don’t take that much time away from taking care of her. Obviously I don’t have the funds to do that.

So I’m like, lemme just do something crazy. Let me bike from Vancouver, Canada to San Francisco and camp every night and raise some money for cancer patients. So I found five cancer patients, one of them being my ex-partner, Jennifer, and the other four, one was a guy, I think he was 18 years old, he had four types of cancer. Another guy named Derek, which unfortunately passed away a few years ago. It was a few really cool people that we were supporting. And we ended up raising, I think over six, $7,000 or whatever, and being able to help for some of their cancer treatments when they were done. And so that was my way of raising money without just having to ask. I’m like, let me just do something to document and kind of entertain people. And so when that happened and I gave the check to the cancer patients that felt so good, I was like, man, I wish someone would do that for us.

I was like, it is just me. I can only rely on me. And so that’s kind of what started it. And then when I started the business, I think when I started, I started in April. She passed away in February. So almost a year before she passed away, I started the business. And that’s when I was, I was honestly, all my funds was going to her. I don’t know how I kept the business alive because I was giving everything to cancer treatments, the employee salaries, the proportion of put this much aside for taxes. I didn’t know all of that. It was just all going to cancer treatments. And when she passed away, I was like, man, this was such a horrendous journey that she had to go through. And hers was livestock. It wasn’t genetics, it was purely lifestyle. Because she was an entrepreneur, she pushed herself, she didn’t eat well, she didn’t sleep well.

And so I was like healthy lifestyle, eating whole food and living an active lifestyle. Those two things was a greatly reduced her risk. She passed away when she was 39, so 34, she got diagnosed, that’s which is really young to get diagnosed with breast cancer. And so I was like, man, I don’t want anyone to have to go through what she went through, because I saw what’s on the flip side of you losing your health. I only got a glimpse of it. It’s maybe 1% of what the actual pain was that she was experiencing. But to me, I’ve seen that on a day-to-day basis for almost five years. I was like, there’s no way I want anyone to have to go through that when it can be easily prevented. And so that was the original mission for Fit Vigi when it started. And that’s why now we donate monthly to families that are battling cancer. We go to nonprofits that are educating people on how to reverse chronic disease. That’s going to start at the whole journey that I’m on now.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Got it. Got it. And what about your own grief and just the trauma of losing someone that you loved so much that was so close to you? How have you dealt with that?

Maxime Sigouin:

I stopped working. I was very blessed with a team that stepped in when needed to, I think it took two, three months off. And then I chose to go to Mexico, the Tulum, because there’s actually in Merida in Mexico, it was one of her favorite towns, and we were always supposed to go together. And so I was like, lemme go spread her ashes there. And so I’d never been to Mexico, and so I just flew down there. Her ashes went to Tulum. She told me that we would have a good time when we went there. And I was like, you know what? I’m not ready to go back to Canada. So I let go of my apartment, everything that was in it, I had refurnished it before I left because I wanted to come back to a different energy. And then I just drove everything brand new that I just bought.

Stayed in Tulum for a bit and just spent time by myself, just crying, reflecting, riding, being alone. And then met Nema Delgado became buddies, and he was like, come to La Bianca’s birthday party. I was like, you know what? I think I did my time here in Tulum. Lemme just go to Los Angeles. Went to Los Angeles, met a cool doctor, and he was like, Hey, there’s this healing ceremony happening. And everything just kind of aligned perfectly. So, and I dunno how much I can say on this, depends on your audience, but it was a mushroom and m d m a ceremony. I’ve never done any of those two things, but everything just kind of aligned perfectly and felt so good that I was like, you know what? At this point I’m in so much pain. What if this helps? It was a game changer for me.

It ultimately changed everything. There was so much healing that came out of that, so much forgiveness. It was the most powerful experience of my life ultimately. And that’s what allowed me when I came out of it to be like, I’m not lucky anymore. I’m Maxim, I’m me. I realized that Lucky was this armor that I had put to show that, Hey, everything’s okay. I’m going to take care of it. It was this persona, and then I was just ready to vert back to being who I was. And so that’s why I reverted back my name to Maxim. That’s why I’m still, it’s been o over two years, almost like a year and a half now, still working on changing the emails and everything, but just kind of reverted back to me, had these cool healing experiences and had this meeting with the energy healer that was Jen’s energy healer.

She had sessions with her for a year before she passed away. And so when I chatted with her, she’s like, you know what? I get a message from Jen that she’s going to put someone in your life that’s very special. Soon I’m soon. I mean, she just passed away six months ago. She’s like, she’s going to put someone very special in your life and this person’s going to wow you. You’ll know once you meet her. And then I just was on Instagram, this girl, we just kind of connected. We met for dinner and I chatted with her and I just had this genuine moment. I was like, fuck, she’s so impressive. And then I caught myself an hour later. I was like, whoa. And that’s my fiance Ivy, and we’re getting married in three months. Oh,

Ella Magers, MSW:

What a cool story. Congratulations number one.

Maxime Sigouin:

Thank you.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Wow. Wow, wow. So that was a year and a half ago you had that ceremony about

Maxime Sigouin:

Yes, probably a bit more than that, but within, she passed away in April. So in April it was two years. So I think the ceremony happened six months after she passed away. So yeah, about that year and a half.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Wow, that’s insane. Oh my gosh. And is psychedelics a part of your continued journey process or

Maxime Sigouin:

Nah, not, no, just someone after that. I think I did it one more time because I was like, this is such a powerful experience. The second time wasn’t that great of an experience, I’ll be honest with you. But the intention was obviously with Ivy, it’s tough being the partner after you just lost your partner. And so she’s been so strong since we met, but obviously it’s had its challenges. And so we decided to do our ceremony together and to me it was like, I need to know if this is who I need to be with. And it was like the scariest experience I’ve ever had. But I got my confirmation pretty loud and clear that Ivy and I were meant to be together. She got her own experiences. I was like, yeah, this is it. And then after that I was like, man, I don’t have any desire, not closed off to it in the future, but I know that when I think of it, my body is just like a hard no. So I’m just listening to my body ultimately.

Ella Magers, MSW:

How do you help other people? Most people are so disconnected from their bodies and from their own message and their internal intuition. Is that a part of how you work with people is helping them reconnect with their bodies and feel into that?

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, absolutely. Because the whole transformation as much as me, that’s not about the plan. The plan’s going to work if you follow it, what’s the thing that’s preventing you from following the plan? That’s the thing we need to deal with. And a lot of the time this thing, there’s two variables. One of them is you need enough time to be able to deal with the things that you need to deal with. And then second is you need to slow down enough to realize what are the things that you need to deal with? Because if not, if you’re just constantly trying to push and move forward, there’s this constant blockage, we don’t know what it’s there, and all you’re doing is just pushing it down so you can move forward. But ultimately this lesson keeps coming back because there’s something there that you need to confront, learn, or deal with. And so just slowing down and having enough time to deal with it, you can’t, can’t rush healing. And my friend sent me a song called You Can’t Rush Your Healing when I met him in Tulum. And it has just been such a powerful song. But it’s true. You can’t like, you just need enough time and enough awareness, right? Enough slowing down for you to be able to deal with it.

Ella Magers, MSW:

I feel like we could talk for hours, move forward in our last little bit here and talk about what you’re most inspired by now about your business and where is now and where you’re taking it so that you can fulfill your mission.

Maxime Sigouin:

Yes, absolutely. Well, let me show the big mission for people to understand where, why I’m doing everything that I’m doing. So it’s to help 10,000 people get lean, thrive, and disease proof their bodies on plants by 2033. So my ex-partner was older than I was. She was 12 years older than I was. So by the time it’s 2033, I will be her age. And so I want to honor, I wanted to transform 10,000 people by the time I turned her age. And in the next milestone is a million by 2050. And so when I started my business, I was like, that’s what I want to do and impact 10,000 people. And I realized that’s a lot of people just to do by myself. And so I built the first company, we’re at 650 plus now in three years, which is a good pace, but if I continue at this pace, I want to hit 10,000.

And so I realized, how can I not make it just about me building a big business, but how do I make it about the mission even more? I was like, okay, well if it’s not about me and it’s about the mission, well who cares if I’m the one that transformed people? I need to find other people that are on a similar mission. And I realized that my skills is building systems and scaling companies. I’m really good at that. And so I was like, let me go to someone that has a large following in the vegan space that’s already a coach potentially that is struggling, that wants to make a better living, that we can impact more lives together. And so right now we have several companies under umbrella with different faces, and ultimately if they each impact a hundred people, well that’s several hundred more people towards the mission because it’s not about me transforming people, it’s about those people being impacted. And so the goal is to have about 15, 20 companies going that way we can impact more people and bust that 10,000 goal, bust that million, that million people goal. Ultimately,

Ella Magers, MSW:

What’s your favorite part of what you do these days

Maxime Sigouin:

Is getting the messages from the members, whether that’s through our program or the other programs that we help run and being like, I couldn’t do this now, I can’t do that. Or I used to struggle with this health issues and I don’t have this health issue anymore. I think that’s the coolest part, is just seeing those wins from people’s life will transform. Because ultimately it’s very basic what needs to happen. And we both know that it’s very basic what needs to happen to get an amazing transformation, but the not so basic part is to get someone to stick to it. And once people deal with that and they’re able to stick with it. They feel great for two reasons because they dealt with whatever trauma or thing that was holding them back. And then second, their body’s transforming and they have this glow and this confidence of like, damn, I can do this thing. This is easy. Now, what else can I take on?

Ella Magers, MSW:

Let’s give our listeners some of your top kind of tips or getting started strategies. So most of our listeners, I think just most of the United States at least, and a lot of the world are looking to lose some weight. And then that’s usually the end. I need to lose some weight. Some people are dealing with some health issues as well, but I think the majority of my audience, if you ask them, what’s your number one physical goal, most of them will be like, well, I’d love to lose some pounds. Yeah. So what are your top tips in helping and maybe any valuable insights that you want to share with our audience?

Maxime Sigouin:

So the first one is going to be unconventional. It’ll be cut out on eating out. Sell all the shit in your house that you absolutely don’t need. Use that money and hire a coach. Here’s why my life didn’t change until I hired someone that could show me the way to do it. Right. Again, I could be still Googling and YouTubing how to do all of this. I, I paid a man that told me exactly how to do it, and then I did it and it worked because he’s done it multiple times. And so to me, you’re buying time with that because again, we all have a limited amount of time on this earth so that you sell your old iPods, your old iPad, whatever you need, get a coach. I’ll tell you exactly how to do it. That’s the first one. And then once you’re on that journey, because I could say, don’t eat processed food.

People already know it. I can tell you a bunch of things, but if it’s not within the right structure, you won’t get there as fast as you possibly could in a healthy way. So it’s a waste of time to try to do anything else. And besides having a proper plan, once you’re on a proper plan, several things that I say to my members is, trust the process. You and I are really good at what we do, or else we wouldn’t be in business. Genuinely, when I go skydiving or budget jumping, I don’t, I’m not scared because if they sucked, they wouldn’t be in business. All particular shut down a long time ago. I wouldn’t go to a new skydiving business. I’m going to go to the oldest one. They’ve been around for a while. So trust the process. The other one is manage your expectations, right?

Because if your expectation is that everything’s going to go perfectly, your weight is going to drop down, you’ll never have any slip ups. You’ll do all of your workout, you’ll never have any cravings, you’re going to be severely disappointed. And then you’re going to be like, well, this is not doing what I want to, and you’re going to bail out, right? Because if you quit, well, you’re going to fail, but realize that you can’t fail if you don’t quit. So the game basically is just the timeline and the management of expectations. So give yourself enough time, give yourself grace. And the other one is for people that struggle with nutrition, which is the majority of people, I would say workout is very rare that people struggle with it. It’s when the next meal, so many people will have their moments where they slip up on a breakfast, on their lunch, they have some wine, they have some dessert, whatever it may be, and then they beat themself up over it, and then the next day they try to compensate with exercise or they’re trying to cut more food to make up for it.

You’re just starting a really vicious cycle that you can’t win. Literally, if you ate 6,000 calories on Saturday night, who cares? Eat your breakfast the next day. Eat your snack the next day. Eat your lunch the next day. Don’t wait till the longest timeline is like, ah, new next New Year’s resolution. That’ll be the time, right? Six months from now, or Let me start next month, or let me start next Monday, or let me start tomorrow. How about you just win the next meal right away? Because how fast you get back on track will determine how successful you’re going to be. Ultimately, those would be the top ones.

Ella Magers, MSW:

I love that. I love that. It’s so true. And people will, oftentimes, one of my questions on my pre pre-program questionnaire is how often do you say, oh, well, I already messed it up. I’m going to keep going on that route today and I’ll start over tomorrow or Monday. Yeah, yeah. Being able to, and the pause, I know you talk about that a lot. We call it the power pause and so amazing. What’s next for you and how do you keep from burning out?

Maxime Sigouin:

Great question. So what’s next for me is continuing to expand how many people we have on the mission. Ultimately, fit vegan will always be my baby, and I think we built something incredible there. But ultimately helping other coaches have an incredible program that will be able to service people. I honestly, a lot of coaches doing really weird things to clients out there that the values are not super aligned. Like I say it with respect, I don’t have an issue saying this because I know you don’t do that, but a lot of other coaches, let me just starve you and do over exercise. Any dummy can make you lose weight if you do those two things. So I want to make sure that we get coaches that are aligned with the value and the mission and they’re doing things properly. So continuing to expand that, and I to prevent myself from burning out, I’m doing what I’m doing next week. I take a one week vacation every quarter. So I’m doing no social media, no electronics, and I want to preface this that my team will be posting for me. So I will not be the one online. But ultimately I want to continue to spread the mission. But I’m taking one week off of just all electronics that go camping, be in the woods, reconnect with my fiance, and just spend downtime the old way before we had phones.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Beautiful. Well, I think that’s going to wrap us up for today. Where can people find you? Any last words?

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, thank, well, first of all, thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate you asked some great questions. Actually went deeper into some of my stories than I have on any other podcast. So you definitely have things in here that I’ve never said, and I’ve recorded hundreds and hundreds of podcasts. So great questions. Thank you. And to find me@fitvegan.ca, like the podcast is on there. Our episode’s going to be on there that we recorded together, YouTube, Instagram, all that fun stuff might be the best place to find. And then last words of wisdom is I’ll share what I share with all my members when I add a group call and it shocks everyone. Everything we talked about today is absolutely worthless and means nothing, and none of it will ever be able to change your life unless you do something with it. It’ll just be cool things that you heard on this podcast that you can tell your friends that, but ultimately, none of it will ever have an impact on your life unless you take action on one of these things. So what I’d recommend is there something that connected with you today? Pick that one thing and finding a way to take action on it today, right? Because if you wait till tomorrow, something else is going to show up, you’re going to get busy. So it’s all worthless unless you do something with the information.

Ella Magers, MSW:

Brilliant, simple, yet so true. Thank you. Again, really appreciate you taking the time and sharing your wisdom, getting vulnerable. Sharon, I’ll, I’ll be in an open book. Thank you.

Maxime Sigouin:

Yeah, thank you for having me.