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Live Longer And Better with Ryan Schneider - E37
52 Plays3 months ago
Living longer and better requires a comprehensive approach to longevity that extends beyond mere lifespan to healthspan—the quality of those additional years.
The pursuit of relentless productivity often leaves little room for relationships, fun, and overall well-being. In this episode, we delve into an inspiring story about an entrepreneur-slash-dad who was burnt out and hyper-fixated on his career, but turned his entire life around when he decided to get fit and start taking better care of himself. We also cover cutting down on sugar, the need for balance when it comes to a fitness routine and why longevity is the key to a healthier, more fulfilling life.
Ryan Schneider, the founder and curator of Thrive25, transformed his personal quest for optimal health into a resource now celebrated by busy millions globally. After turning 40, welcoming his second child, and relocating, Ryan delved deep into the science of longevity, inspired by the works of Peter Attia and Andrew Huberman. Named after this transformative journey, Thrive25 turns complicated information about health and wellness into digestible insights for those seeking to maximise their vitality. The platform's success underscores Ryan's mission to empower others with personalized, concise, practical health guidance drawn from his collaborations with leading experts and continuous personal experimentation.
“It was the connections that [were] the determining factor on the quality of your life.” - Ryan Schneider
In this episode you will learn:
- Why life isn’t about achieving perfection and how it can impact your health and longevity.
- How shifting priorities and facing personal changes led Ryan to create the Thrive25 health optimization platform.
- The importance of integrating fun and relationships into your health journey to maximise your lifespan.
- Strategies on managing stress and cultivating a better mindset, including breathwork and the power of pausing.
- The profound effects of maintaining strong social connections and the role it plays in leading a fulfilling life.
- Insight into personalised nutrition and fitness strategies, with a focus on moderation and balanced routines.
Resources
- Connect with Thrive25 on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thrive25labs/
- Discover the Thrive25 platform: https://www.thrive25.com/
This podcast was produced by the team at Zapods Podcast Agency:
https://www.zapods.com
Find the products, practices, and routines discussed on the Alively website:
https://alively.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Theme
00:00:00
Speaker
Life is not made to be perfect, right? Oliver Berkman talks about this in 4,000 weeks. There's no way to spend your day. You don't want to be productive in every single moment. You don't want to be as efficient as possible. Like that's not how to live. And so most of the people probably listening to this are really dedicated to their health and longevity.
00:00:15
Speaker
They're really trying to like maximize every day to be, you know, so that they live longer, they live better. Fun is a big part of that, right? Or relationships is a big part of that. It's not completely abstaining from things you enjoy because then what the hell's the point?
00:00:32
Speaker
This is the Home of Health Spam podcast, where we profile health and wellness role models, sharing their stories and the tools, practices, and routines they use to live a lively life.
Guest Introduction and Life Transitions
00:00:46
Speaker
Ryan, it great to be here with you, not just because it's always wonderful to catch up and I learned a lot, but also because last two times you were supposed to catch up, Mother Nature got in the way. We had Helene, then we had Milton. And so I am happy that you are safe and sound and that there's not a hurricane coming either of our ways today. So welcome.
00:01:05
Speaker
Yeah, thank you. Glad we have bright sunshine and it's really good to connect with you, man. Yeah, it's wonderful to to speak with you. I was actually in Florida, unfortunately missed you last weekend um for the Eudaimonia Summit, which I think was a ah really, really good time.
00:01:21
Speaker
But this is... an industry you spend a lot of time and For those that might not know, the the Thrive 25 newsletter, it's one of my favorites. I certainly look at it. but Can you tell us a little bit about not just what Thrive 25 is, but why you started doing that, what your realization was, and and what brought you into to putting that together in the first place?
Thrive 25: A Health-Centric Newsletter
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, so right around the time of 2020, was having my second kid, and just turned 40, and we had moved from California to Florida. kind of re So it was kind of, you you hit that reset button, right? You try to figure out, okay, what what direction my is my life going? You hit a little bit of an inflection point.
00:02:03
Speaker
And as my schedule was just off, especially with the newborn, I think it was the first time in my life um I started maybe feeling my age or whatever you want to call it, maybe feeling like i wasn't at my peak anymore. So growing up as an athlete and even after playing sports, just doing races and triathlons and things, you know, you just yeah I definitely think I just took it for granted.
00:02:25
Speaker
And as that started kind of hitting me a little bit, I said, you know, um I'm not ready to slow down and I don't feel 40 most of the time. But those few instances when I did, we got to do something
Simplifying Health for Longevity
00:02:36
Speaker
about that. And at the exact same time, we started hearing from a lot of the research that was coming out in this concept of longevity, right?
00:02:43
Speaker
The Peter Atiyahs, the Andrew Hubermans. And so I started really going deeper into the science of what's happening to our body. Not so much the biohacking of it, but just literally trying to understand the foundation, right? Why do we slow down?
00:02:57
Speaker
What can we do to to maybe compensate against that? And I started thinking about doing it professionally, but I was really just interested in personally. I couldn't keep up with all the content that was out there. I don't have two hours to listen to you know podcasts or read you know every book that comes out.
00:03:13
Speaker
And so my thought was, as I was talking to more and more of my colleagues and you know other people, older dads, they they were saying the same thing. And I was like, well, how do we get the cliff notes version of this? How do we just really get the key points for the person that's maybe not as into it as you and I are, but can give them the education that they need so that they don't have to slow down and they can get the key ah parts of it that will keep them active, get better sleep and do those things so that they can be a better dad, a better partner, a better colleague, just like, you know, you and I have talked about a lot.
00:03:44
Speaker
Yeah, and and on it, I mean, it's a deliberate design choice. I think back to McKinsey, you would put things in a specific structure for the deck. And it wasn't because that's the only way to communicate. It's how the partners were trained to engage so they could quickly weigh in and provide that back because it was a consistent structure. Same if you go to a VC pitch, right? There's a consistent, what's the problem? What's the solution? Here's the team.
00:04:07
Speaker
And so it seems like you were thoughtful about the design of what should be included in how we structure this
Broadening Health Perspectives
00:04:14
Speaker
newsletter, right? And can you talk about what those sections are and why you picked those ones?
00:04:18
Speaker
Yeah. So we really kind of thought about, i want to learn one thing. I want to have one thing I can do, one action item, and then, ah maybe one, one takeaway, which could be, ah finding an additional resource, uh,
00:04:34
Speaker
you you know, laughing, finding some entertainment, you know, just so it was kind of like that one, one, one, almost like kind of like a James Clear thing where I'm going to walk away having gotten one piece of information, one thing I can kind of quickly implement.
00:04:46
Speaker
And then one thing that I'm kind of glad I took, I digested that content today. Right. So that was, that's the structure of what we want to get to. And sometimes learning that one thing, it could be a little bit longer, right? I mean, health is complicated. So some of those topics could be longer or shorter.
00:04:59
Speaker
So we weren't so much worried about word count. It was really around those objectives and putting, like you said, um the structure was around the empathy of the reader and understanding these are busy professionals, busy working parents for the most part.
00:05:13
Speaker
And so we wanted to make it worth their time that we know everyone's inbox is completely overloaded. um How do we stand out from the crowd? It's not like I came from a massive social following or I have any big personality. We wanted the content to speak for itself.
00:05:26
Speaker
um And so that was really what it was about. And then the other conscious decision we made around the structure was we created this wheel of nine elements. And so, you know, we think about eat what we eat, we think about exercise, we think about sleep, um but we wanted to really focus on all the holistic, the whole 360 degree view of everything that affects our health. And so our mindset, even how we continue to grow intellectually um and as individuals, the connections we keep,
00:05:54
Speaker
um our environment around us, having fun. um And so you can see there's nine elements, but we really wanted to you know hit upon even those things that maybe aren't top of mind for so many of
From Athlete to Holistic Health
00:06:04
Speaker
us. That's been one of the reasons this the newsletter has been successful. We've hit like 400 issues just this past week.
00:06:09
Speaker
And it's because we're not just hitting people over the head with the same information, but really giving them some things that you know maybe are headline news and then other things that maybe aren't so much top of mind, but um kind of give you that little aha moment you know when you when you when you read it.
00:06:24
Speaker
Yeah, and I definitely want to come back to some of those less obvious ones. um But maybe if we could start, because I think your journey is very similar to mine, not just because we're similar in age and like so many of the the components of our background are similar, but probably a lot of the listeners are similar. a lot of your readers are similar of when you're young.
00:06:45
Speaker
and the identity of an athlete. I'm an athlete. I'm athletic. that's's It's basically around fitness. Fitness is health. And I know, at least for me, and mortgage sleep. I mortgage recovery. I mortgage, like, we didn't think about nutrition because you're young and it didn't matter what you eat. You're burning so many calories, swiming whatever you're doing.
00:07:00
Speaker
So, Can you talk about, guess it was that feeling, right? Was it a lack of energy, a lack of mental sharpness? Like, what was it that kind of first hit you that you you noticed and said, hey, maybe it's not just about fitness. Like, maybe there's some other things I need to be thinking about at this stage of my life.
Mental Health and Performance
00:07:20
Speaker
Yeah. You know, so i think I realized it wasn't just about fitness, but maybe fitness was what called attention that something was off. Right. So we moved to Florida because we have in-laws here. We had a lot of support with our kids. My wife's incredible. And so I was still able to run, i guess, as frequently maybe as I had, you know, four or five, however many times a week.
00:07:43
Speaker
But it was the stress, the you know kind of emotional or mental stress on me, the lack of sleep that I was getting that when I would go for that run, It felt like some of those runs maybe we had after we were hungover when we were little or younger, rather, you know, you kind of know like, I just don't have it today, but I'm going to go sweat it out.
00:08:00
Speaker
Like it was happening too frequently that my pace just wasn't what it was. And I was trudging through it and trying and almost looking forward to the end as opposed to getting the the endorphins and getting the high from the run.
00:08:11
Speaker
it just started happening more and more frequently. And I was like, something is amiss here. Like something, i'm I'm feeling like I don't have that bounce in my step that I'm, you know, just kind of getting through the exercise. And so that's what led me to believe like I'm doing the same route, right? I'm trying to run the same times.
00:08:29
Speaker
but my body's not letting me or my mind maybe isn't letting me, right? As we find out more and more how much of it is mental and what our what our brain holds us back. And so I recognize that the stress I was feeling as potentially starting a new business with ah with a newborn, not sleeping very much um in a new environment where I didn't have the same social connections and the same number of friends and relationships that I did back in l LA,
00:08:54
Speaker
All of those things were compound compounding without me actually realizing it. And I think it was manifesting itself when I tried to like exert, you know, the most energy when I was working out. It's a really good point. So it's, uh,
00:09:08
Speaker
I literally was given Talk this weekend for TEDx Bermuda around all this measuring we do, but not paying attention to the things that matter most. And so it's interesting with the the running, right? It's a measurement of there's a clock and I can see on the clock that something's off.
00:09:23
Speaker
But what was impacting it was these other things that aren't easy to put numbers next to. yeah It was the stress I'm under. It was the the lack of social connection I had and investing in those, which I think I'm guessing is what fed a lot into this nine.
00:09:40
Speaker
Yeah, you're still right, man. And and I think that the thing with the running, and you probably feel this, and and I know you just, you know, coming from your swimming background too, like you have time to ruminate, right? And you you it's so mental. And there's so many things that go through your head.
00:09:54
Speaker
And I got to the point where I would recognize when something was heavy on my mind, I could feel it from my head all the way down to my feet as I was trying to run versus those mornings when, oh my God, he slept through the night or I just had a great date night with my my part my wife and everything's great.
00:10:14
Speaker
All of a sudden, then the feet start moving a little faster and and then and and that's where you really start to recognize it's like, wow, this this isn't just about how often are you getting tying your shoes on. This is really about what's going on in my brain and and how is my mental ability allowing me to be the best version
Mindfulness in Parenting and Stress Management
00:10:30
Speaker
of myself.
00:10:30
Speaker
Yes, I'd love to dig on that a bit now. So for for that mindset space, for that stress management, given what you then dove into over the past four years to study and what you've been sharing, how has that impacted what you now do on a daily or weekly or monthly basis to to check in with yourself on that, to manage that, to kind of pre- get ahead of it before it's a problem. Yeah.
00:10:58
Speaker
I definitely have changed you know my morning to be more intentional around the things that matter. Again, this isn't going to be surprising to anyone. Everyone's kind of gone through. I'm not going to say I have some perfect 5 a.m. routine, but I definitely am trying to move my body and be present with both myself and my family before you know I get online and things like that.
00:11:18
Speaker
I did meditate for a while. I'll be honest. um I found breath work actually works a lot better than meditation for me. you know I've read every book that you you can possibly imagine. It's not about the thoughts coming into your brain. It's just like letting them wash through. And and and I know how to do it, but I actually felt more immediate effects of doing cyclic sign or deep breathing and, and, and, uh, focusing on that. So I do that every day, but I think what's the biggest piece of advice, this is from the book, do hard things,
00:11:49
Speaker
by Steve Magnus was there's a difference between reacting and responding. And life is really made in that moment when something happens to us, some stimulus hits us. And when we're stressed, we just, you know, our amygdala kicks in and we just like kind of react with our emotions.
00:12:05
Speaker
And that oftentimes leads to bad decisions and it's a snowball effect, right? Like whether you yell at a colleague, you get frustrated with your partner, whatever it might be, we react to so many things. And when you look at a professional athlete, it looks like they talk about Michael Jordan or Tom Brady, the the game is moving slower for them. Like they're always a step ahead. And that's like when it's moving in slow motion, you can make better decisions, your brain can process things. And so I've really been focused on the pause.
00:12:32
Speaker
So whether it's with Thrive 25 or a tantrum for my kid, how do I pause, allow my brain to catch up so I can actually respond instead of react and not make a potential small situation really negative that will like take my day sideways?
00:12:52
Speaker
That's honestly probably been the biggest thing that I've taken away of almost all the research that that I've done in so many of the issues over the last couple of years. I mean, as a parent, it's such an impactful tool. I was just yesterday. It was with my daughter. We were playing with her friends at the park and one friend had to leave early and we stayed longer.
00:13:12
Speaker
And then at the end, some were going over for dinner. it's like, look, you've been out late three nights in a row. We need to get you to bed on time and go back. And so it's a huge tantrum. The whole drive back, meltdown, meltdown. We get home. And instead of like arguing and going back for, I just went in and said, look, she she wasn't going to eat dinner. I'm just brushing my teeth. I'm not hungry. I said, okay, you can do it. But can I just get two minutes?
00:13:33
Speaker
We can now decide if we're going to remember today for all the fun we had at the park. And when those other people left, we got that extra time and we got to play all that. And we could focus on the abundance of what we got, or we could really focus on that one thing we didn't.
00:13:47
Speaker
And we get to decide which story we're going now tell. And I walked away. And a minute later, she just ran and said, I'm so sorry, daddy. And gave me you a big hug and came to dinner and like everything was fine. But it could have, I could have just fought and would have terrible night.
00:13:59
Speaker
But, I say I know that story because that's not always my initial reaction, right? Like it took me work to get there to take that pause. And I'm curious for you, is it the breathwork? Do you do? Because I like for me, I do a lot of journaling of, hey, man, I really like dropped the ball on this and here's next time. So I kind of have to replay it for myself next time I'm in this situation.
00:14:24
Speaker
Here's some of the things I want to try. Here's some strategies. What other than breathwork or is it just breathwork that helps you get better at noticing those times? Yeah, I mean, i think I actually have tried to slow everything down. And it's so hard when, ah you know, example, my to do list today is overwhelming, right? of We're trying to get this, you know, app launched and the whole platform and got all these people in our beta ready to go and get Can't tell you how many technical challenges we're running into the last 72 hours and um trying to do all this stuff.
00:14:57
Speaker
But I'm trying to be much more meticulous and understand the limitations of what we can do as opposed to running too fast in almost any situation. So I think it's just slowing everything down. And don't get me wrong.
00:15:09
Speaker
I have the same things with my kids and both my, both of my kids would tell me what what you just said, that I get frustrated and I don't have that moment. But I think I loved how you position that story because you empowered them to have the opportunity. You didn't tell them like, let's, this is what we can think about. We have the choice of what to do there.
00:15:26
Speaker
And, You know, earlier when I was mentioning me if something's heavy in my head when I'm running versus not, I'm glad you mentioned journaling. I'm not very good at it, but I do recognize when I have that gratitude journal at the end of the night, those few times I do remember, you know, not about are we, you know, whatever struggles we're dealing with, but how fortunate we are.
00:15:46
Speaker
It is a game changer to help slow that slow those things down. Right. And get that on top of your head and be like, wow, we were able to go get organic food at Whole Foods or where I was able to go run on this beautiful waterfront, you know, things that we we hit the status quo. Right. The what is it? Hedonic adaptation. Yeah. Yeah. And we just get used to it.
00:16:06
Speaker
And yeah, the more I think you can. appreciate it where you're at and what you have, um then you can just slow down in general. And then you can kind of take that opportunity to not just be so reactionary.
00:16:17
Speaker
Because, yeah, I mean, I think as an early parent, I was definitely way too controlling and trying to create the life I thought my parents my kids should should what they should do or how they should learn or what they should be.
00:16:30
Speaker
and then you realize like quickly, like that's one, just a fool's errand, but two, in no way, shape or form, how you want to allow a kid to form into him or
Teaching Healthy Habits to Children
00:16:38
Speaker
herself. And so, yeah, being a parent's been an amazing education.
00:16:42
Speaker
You know, people talk about go do Buddhist retreat or something. And then the, the, like the monks are like, look, parenting is your retreat. like, you can your you know lifetime long retreat on it. I, I,
00:16:53
Speaker
I really wanted to ask you, too, on the things you're learning, how that then informs your parenting. Because, for example, you just brought up the hedonic treadmill. And this was a conversation I was literally having with my eight-year-old this morning. on She's like, well, yeah, if you got all the toys in the world, you would be happy. i was like, actually, you won't. like Have you ever noticed...
00:17:12
Speaker
Once you get it, you get bored after a day or two. And so if you had everything, you're going to get bored. And she's like, oh, okay. Was it the same with food? It's like, well, and I don't think so because food, we have to fuel our body. So we need to keep getting food. Like we actually need it versus something that we want.
00:17:28
Speaker
And so it's a weird conversation to have with a child that's so young. But how do you think about instilling that in a way that's not like pushing it? Like you said, you were trying early, right? We're going to force this down versus helping them see this as a possibility. i go back and forth, I guess, because was like, oh, maybe this is way too young.
00:17:51
Speaker
But then Ryan Holiday had this line of you have to get it into them before their defenses are up. Because once they hit puberty, their brain lights up differently from ah their peers versus their parents.
00:18:03
Speaker
And so at this time, they're more receptive to our message. So how has that played in to how you communicate this stuff? Yeah, and you you brought up food. i mean, the bane of my existence as a parent, and honestly, in Florida compared to California has been nutrition, right? My kids preschool, the snacks after every sporting event that the parents bring, know, the grandparents. I mean, it's like...
00:18:26
Speaker
keeping sugar added sugar out of my kids hands and out of their mouth is just, uh, been the biggest uphill battle. And my seven year old, she loves to, she loves to bake. Like she actually watches baking shows. She wants to get in the kitchen and do it. And I appreciate how much she's learned, whether it's around math or autonomy or, you know, just taking over the kitchen.
00:18:48
Speaker
So I'm, I'm supporting of that, but like, I'm trying to get her to understand how to still make things that are healthy. And she, um, you know, I think I was again being too much of a hammer, you know, just being like, you can't eat sugar, or like this is bad for you, or this is you know toxic, or this or that.
00:19:02
Speaker
But as she's been in you know sports, or she's getting into more competitive tests and quizzes at school, trying to get her to connect the dots between fuel and poison so that her brain, how this is how your brain works. Or when you're in gymnastics and you're feeling really strong, or you're running in softball and you're really fast,
00:19:20
Speaker
that's because you know you're putting great fuel in your body for your body to function the way it has to. And so again, rather than being that blunt hammer, trying to understand what's important to her and get her to see the cause and effect and knowing it's going to take time and being patient to allow that to to happen.
00:19:39
Speaker
So that's, yeah, that's definitely been a big transformation because I, at first I just was like, would you please just stop eating junk? But you know she's part of her peer group too and it's like you don't want her to like never um be able to enjoy what her friends are enjoying I really like that frame. i mean, it gets back to the golden rule versus the platinum rule of, hey, treat others like you would want to be treated. So where you are in your life, you're saying, hey, here are all the health benefits. Here's why I want to eat this.
00:20:03
Speaker
Whereas there are certain things that are motivating her. Like, I love feeling good and racing fast and having this energy. like, okay, well, let's let's look at the things and how we feel after it. I remember my mom talking to my niece. She's like, you just ate this entire sweet roll. no but Now you have a headache. Now you feel terrible. Like,
00:20:24
Speaker
Let's associate these things so you understand what you're putting in your body. It's not costless. like it can It can be an additive or it can be detrimental, but really trying to make those associations one-to-one clear for them around the things that they value. right Yeah, and and you mentioned, you know, Ryan Holiday and the age of these kids. i mean, my three-year-old would basically come back and be like, oh, I shouldn't have had that ice cream.
00:20:51
Speaker
My stomach hurts or I've got an eczema flare up or what have you. And he was he was able sometimes to make those connections because we had kind of ingrained it into him enough. And so, yeah, I think we we should never underestimate what's actually being absorbed, whether it's being communicated back or not.
Embracing Imperfection and Enjoyment
00:21:07
Speaker
Very, very young kids are taking a lot of this in so long as you're presenting it to them in a way that's like you said, it's not being aggressive or assertive, but in a way that is just trying to help empower them.
00:21:18
Speaker
ah It might not happen tomorrow, but as long as you you keep at it, you'd be amazed what ah even a three year old is actually soaking up. The one thing I've noticed that I had to be a little more explicit on and careful of, of back to those stories, right? Of, I always try to explain to my daughter, like the Hamlet, there's neither good nor bad. It's our thinking makes it so.
00:21:39
Speaker
And that she gets to decide the story. I'm like, Hey, here's going to be my story from today. What's your story going to be? And it some point it hit me that she thought she was flawed. She was like,
00:21:53
Speaker
There was something wrong with her because she wasn't automatically jumping to that story. And so it had to be an explicit conversation like, whoa, no, no, like you're eight. This is something I didn't even understand the power of these stories till my late 30s.
00:22:06
Speaker
So if you're doing it at all, you're ahead of where I was. And a lot of people like a lot of people don't ever get to this. So you're just getting it earlier. this is not natural to always go to that.
00:22:16
Speaker
But it's just learning, wait, this is a tool that I have that I can come back to. Because I think the flip side of teaching them when they're younger can be that they think that's the default and you're having to teach it because there's something wrong with them that it's not coming naturally.
00:22:31
Speaker
And so it's just a conversation I've had to have pretty explicitly with her on, no, you're you're ahead of the curp You're doing well um versus you're coming from a place of deficit. That's so interesting, man. I'm so that's that's really powerful lesson that you're instilling in her. And I think the reinforcement of what you said there at the end is something that we struggle with, too, is, you know, the concept of perfectionism. Right. Like she's now thinking like she's fought and trying to do all these things that, you know, you're trying to instill in her. And I get that, too. And I've really, really taken a step back with the.
00:23:02
Speaker
academic pushing of anything. I mean, like, look, she's going to learn things when she learns them. And I think we've all recognized that social intelligence and the ability to connect with others far surpasses a lot of the things they're going to learn in the class itself.
00:23:16
Speaker
And what you've done there and what I really want to help her and what we can talk to anyone that's listening to this is that idea of you know, perfectionism and like life is not made to be perfect.
Balanced Nutrition and Lifestyle
00:23:26
Speaker
Right. Oliver Berkman talks about this in 4000 weeks. There's no way to spend your day.
00:23:29
Speaker
You don't want to be productive in every single moment. You don't want to be as efficient as possible. Like that's not how to live. And so, you know, I think most of the people probably listening to this are really, really dedicated to their health and longevity.
00:23:42
Speaker
They're really trying to like maximize every day to be, you know, so that they live longer, they live better. But the reason we go back to those those seven elements, right? Fun is a big part of that, right? Or relationships is a big part of that.
00:23:54
Speaker
It's not completely abstaining from things you enjoy because then what the hell's the point, right? And so the same thing for our kids. It's like, I want to instill the values in her but not make it to where she's robotic that has to like do all these things perfectly. That's beautifully put.
00:24:09
Speaker
On the nutrition front, so you touched on the difference in Florida and California, right? There are regional differences or even neighborhood differences, right? And and all this behind it. What does your nutritional approach look like these days, right? Coming from eudaimonia where you had carnivore camp, vegan camp, ever it's it's a whole minefield.
00:24:30
Speaker
What is your approach? Yeah, it's a good question. You know, and I think honestly, you know, Peter Atiyah talks about this, that most of the research is observational studies and, you know, nutrition is really going to be personalized to every individual person, whether it's based on their gut microbiome or their DNA or whatever works for them.
00:24:49
Speaker
You know, I think there's still even controversy right around, you know, mTOR and protein and all that, kind you know, you could you could go and in in many different ways what the science is is relating to.
00:25:00
Speaker
For me, I know I feel better when I don't eat a lot um and I don't overindulge, right? So I think it's it's all things in moderation. I don't eat a whole lot of gluten, but once in a while, if my wife has, you know, a multi-grain avocado salmon toast, I'm going to have a slice too because it's really freaking good for you and it's delicious. So I don't, I'm not celiac. So it's like, that's okay. So I normally wake up I start with a glass of warm water, pink Himalayan salt and lemon juice, kind of do that. And then I've got two glasses of water, regular water after that before I typically will do a workout. So I've already been pretty well hydrated to start the day.
00:25:41
Speaker
And then it's after that workout that I'll probably start with a whey protein shake. um Do you have a favorite brand? Mostly momentous momentous products and things like that with you know frozen berries, um some greens, protein, not not a whole lot going on, some nut butter.
00:25:57
Speaker
That normally gets me through either to the point where I have... um maybe just some like nuts or something or a little snack in the afternoon into a dinner.
00:26:07
Speaker
Or I might have a, you know, heartier salad bowl or something with my wife in the late afternoon. And then again, kind of a later meal that I'm done by eating with the kids, 6.30, 7 o'clock, we're totally done. Try to close up shop. And so then when people talk about intermittent fasting, it's like, well, if I don't eat after seven and then I go work out and don't that protein smoothie until...
00:26:29
Speaker
I mean, heck, even if I have it at nine, right, you're already at 14 hours. yeah um So then if I don't have that till 10 or 11, I've got a whole 16 hour, you know, kind of fast there. So again, not not a hard and fast rule i'm like, I can't eat for 16 hours, but it just kind of happens naturally.
00:26:45
Speaker
And those are the days I definitely feel. feel the best. I can tell if I go above 2000 calories without measuring anything, I don't track any counting or anything, but I just, you kind of know when you feel a little bit heavy and you feel a little bit groggy mentally.
00:26:58
Speaker
So that's where I kind of go and and where I lean. I do, I don't eat any added sugar. I'm fortunately don't have a sweet tooth. Um, My kryptonite would be more like chips and guac. I'd eat way too many tortillas than I would anything sweet.
00:27:12
Speaker
But I limit a lot of the simple carbs. I don't drink any soda or fructose or anything. I think the key is if you stick with water and tea is what you drink, you're already halfway there.
00:27:23
Speaker
um I've cut out... alcohol mostly this year. i think my wife and I would say, you know, i probably have a drink a month or something like that. If we have a date night, a glass of wine.
00:27:35
Speaker
Um, so again, I'm doing it in such a way where it's like, I'm not completely abstaining where I made it a hard and fast rule, but I've pretty much cut it out because I didn't feel like it was actually adding as much value to my life as what it was detracting the next day, how I felt.
00:27:47
Speaker
So that's mostly, I would say, i don't know if there's any more specifics, but that's pretty much how i follow my nutrition. Yeah, so I mean, it sounds like you're getting those electrolytes early, just natural with the Himalayan salt, the lemon. Do you ever supplement? I mean, with running and the heat in the summer in Florida, did do you ever add any other electrolytes in?
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I have Element. And then there's a new one i actually just found at Whole Foods. Yeah, magnesium to me is a really, really key nutrient that I'm really focused on. I'm not taking a pill form supplement, but I do, yeah, especially down here in Florida. i mean, heck, it's...
00:28:22
Speaker
November 11th, I think it's going to be 89 today. So I'm still pretty drenched every time we work out outside. But yeah, definitely doing the electrolytes and steering clear of any of the sports drinks. Do I have any fructose or especially have any of the artificial dyes and colors in it for sure?
00:28:37
Speaker
And you said you don't take the pill form of magnesium, but are there other supplements? I mean, do you throw in creatine? like you do need i You know, it's I do creatine maybe once a week. I found, I don't know why, um I find them pretty...
00:28:53
Speaker
heavy on it. Um, I think it adds mass too quickly for my frame of how much I want to have on it. Um, so I don't feel great having it every day, but I do just a small scoop of it once a week. So again, I have some from momentous and I think it lasts me pretty much forever with that kind of frequency.
00:29:11
Speaker
Um, I do some psyllium husk for my gut. I found that that is helpful in my smoothie. Um, Actually, compared to a lot of things, I found that really, really helps. I had leaky gut probably four or five years ago. So nothing serious now, but I just and helps really with my my digestion.
00:29:27
Speaker
And then because I know I don't drink or I don't eat enough fish, I do um take a Nordic Naturals Omega-3 supplement. um And I think vitamin d down here in Florida, we still fortunately have the angle of the sun that we're pretty good. I get outside enough for that.
00:29:44
Speaker
um And those are the three I really care would care about, right? I think everyone's foundation, vitamin omega-3, magnesium, and like probiotics are kind of like the things that everyone should at least be aware of, hopefully mostly from real food.
00:29:57
Speaker
Do you supplement ever probiotics? You talked about the leak you got. like Did you do for a while to dial that in and then stop later or... Went to a functional medicine doctor who gave me some some supplements to take temporarily for that. So I was taking everything from, know, 5-HTP to some other, you know, gut um bacteria things and chlorella and things like that.
00:30:21
Speaker
I don't take anything now. I have gotten into, um I don't recall the brand, I can look it up, but a coconut um yogurt that's fortified lot of probiotics that I like putting a lot of berries in. That'll be one of my afternoon snacks that I go to.
00:30:35
Speaker
but I don't have any specific probiotic supplements that I take right now. Yeah. I mean, I think for listeners, this is probably a pretty interesting one and and we'll go through the others, but the fact that you spend so much time in this space and you have a newsletter and you're doing the research and all that.
00:30:52
Speaker
And so you hear one in the spectrum, there are people who take 150, 200 pills a day, right? And it sounds like your approach, and you can look at it, you're very healthy, everything going on, is saying it's really about the macros, right? These nine things of having strong relationships and making sure I get enough sleep and that I'm moving my body and that I'm putting the right whole foods in my body in the first place. It doesn't necessarily take a bunch of extra outside things to get there. Is that fair?
00:31:22
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's absolutely fair. I think we can do a lot of those things naturally and we should be getting them more whole foods because if you read, you know, even like there's a great book, The Younger You by Kara Fitzgerald, she actually goes through the difference between eating an apple and drinking and taking like a cure sit in supplement, right? And like,
00:31:39
Speaker
the the way in which all of our nutrients and all of these vitamins and minerals interact in our body, it's like there's there's such a magic there when you eat the whole food and you get all of the polyphenols and all the antioxidants together versus just taking a single supplement um and hopefully absorbing as much as you can from that.
00:31:56
Speaker
So I do think real food matters more. And I also think there's a time and place for supplements, but I don't think, I think very few supplements should be permanently part of your diet. So as an example, like ashwagandha, I mentioned like there are times I absolutely go through stressful situations.
00:32:12
Speaker
Um, and I don't if this is interesting or too much for the people listening, but like, I can almost feel like a garlic onion smell when I work out when I when i know my cortisol is high. You can literally smell cortisol. Like I know when I'm like above and beyond where I should be.
00:32:26
Speaker
And so in those those moments, right, doubling down on the breath work, putting some ashwagandha and some other adaptogens that are really going to help kind of manage the cortisol, which can have so many negative effects, everything from lower testosterone to your mood to so many things.
Benefits of Fasting and Fitness Routines
00:32:40
Speaker
So I will cycle through those those supplements, but I do that in a way that's responsive to how I'm feeling and what I kind of know being more aware of my body rather than just blindly saying every morning umm putting these pills in a bag and taking them with me, you know,
00:32:54
Speaker
as part of my, my, my, my daily routine. and mean, you just definitely taught me something because I, I'm about to start my next five day fast. I do a couple of year and there's definitely a smell. And it was like, Hey, I wonder if fasting kicks up your cortisol. and I guess that's what that smell is. Cause wake up like, what is this?
00:33:10
Speaker
And it's, I guess my cortisol is going ballistic, uh, fourth and fifth day of the fast. Interesting. Okay. How do you feel with the fast? i've So I've done, I think once or twice a year, I'll do a four day fast. How how do you feel? How's, how's it been? or did you say you're about to do it or did you just do it?
00:33:24
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i I've been doing them for a few years. So I do, I was, I started at four year, then I went down to three and then I thought I was losing strength. So I just do two a year, kind of one around November, one around May before it gets too hot, before it gets too cold.
00:33:37
Speaker
And I feel good. mean, it's, it seems like a kind of cleansing of my body. The first couple days I sleep insanely well, my HRV almost doubles. Like the body just is able to go into full repair recovery mode by day four or five.
00:33:52
Speaker
I don't know if it's psychological, if it's, Hey, I'm so excited because the next day I'm going to get to eat. Like what it is. I don't sleep great the last couple of nights, but the first, first few nights, it's magic. I do think that for me, at least there's a separate, and I've talked to others that do it. that There's a whole psychological benefit of it too. Like,
00:34:09
Speaker
People, oh, I'm hangry. I can't do anything if I'm hungry. And once you can go for five days, like if you have to skip a launch, if you have to, like, it just doesn't phase you the same way. Like, look, I can go five days. Like this, missing this one snack or this one meal, it's not going to make my day better or worse. Like I can get through this and be fine.
00:34:26
Speaker
And just that back to you can do hard things of, I think I just get a separate benefit from it that may not be as physical as the autophagy and other things that I'm chasing.
00:34:36
Speaker
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think anything that we can control, right? um As opposed to it controlling us is is huge. um Big, big part of of what you get from from a longer fast, for sure.
00:34:49
Speaker
Now, you talked about, we certainly talked about the running side of the fitness and running the same routes and and getting the times. um yeah I was just, again, eudaimonia and Dr. Lyon is really big big on muscular, your skeletal muscle.
00:35:06
Speaker
especially as we age and the need to maintain that lean mass. It sounds like if you can just start taking creatine and put on the mass, maybe it's not as much an issue for you. But how do you think of your whole fitness movement routine at this stage of life and and what you do kind of on a daily, weekly type basis?
00:35:23
Speaker
Yeah, so i would say my go-to exercises are more of a there's ah there's a gym here that it's more of a circuit bootcamp where there's like eight stations for four minutes. And one of those stations literally could be barbell deadlifts um and pull-ups, right? And you do eight, eight, and you just keep switching back and forth for four minutes. And the next you know station could be box jumps and planks, right? So it's a really intense exercise.
00:35:48
Speaker
four minutes on, one minute off for that. And so that to me is like my go-to. And actually here in Tampa, I mentioned running along the water. I live right here in Bayshore, which is by downtown Tampa, and they have a mile long track along the water with, I think it's 10 or 12 stations. So ah again, you're doing pushups, you're doing you know box jumps, you're doing pull-ups, ah reverse pull-ups, you're doing squats.
00:36:14
Speaker
And I would just literally run and almost sprint from one station to the other and run back. And so you've done a two mile run, keeping your heart rate real high, but I'm doing strength exercises in the middle of those things. That to me is, that's absolutely my go-to workout. That's when I get my most endorphins.
00:36:29
Speaker
I will also run, you know, just an easier four miles is kind of my go-to right now, four to five miles. And then I probably go to the gym by myself for more of a heavier lift when I'm just going and doing more of ah a bench press, you know,
00:36:44
Speaker
weight rack with squats and deadlifts and and and whatever once to twice a week. And what i really miss and I have to get back to then is the once to twice a week where I'm doing like a yoga class. Cause I know my mobility is definitely limited right now. And you mentioned kind of that recovery piece.
00:37:00
Speaker
I think that is so key. And I'd love to get your thoughts cause I know you're such an intense athlete too, that even if we can do the same exercises we used to, it's so, so key on what we do afterwards for the recovery, right? For the mobility, for all of that.
00:37:16
Speaker
And so for me, what what I struggle with is if I skip a workout in a given week, if I work out like five days instead of six, the first thing that goes is the yoga class. And I don't think that's a good idea. I really want to get back to making sure I have, not just from the stretching perspective, but the mobility um and just the body movement that I think is so key as we start to lose that um as we get a little bit older.
00:37:40
Speaker
Because there's a difference. It all goes under the same bucket, but the the fitness versus the movement and mobility. And we want both. We want strength. We want fitness, but we need the mobility. You want to be able to get up and down off the ground or out of a chair. I just saw somebody fall into a couch last week and it's like, man, they didn't make this for old people to get I'm like, man, I hope I maintain myself so I can just get up and out of a couch when I'm that age. age And I am similar to you, right? I had...
00:38:09
Speaker
Uh, yoga was one day a week. That would be kind of my off recovery day. And I would do yoga and then COVID hit. And so I stopped going to the studio and I still, I found Nicole wild, actually one of our house and role models on a lively on YouTube. And she ended up having a cool as she created. So I would do her classes, but it's by far the least consistent because actually twice, I tore my meniscus doing yoga, doing pistol squats, and and both with bucket-handled tears, I just had to cut them out.
00:38:43
Speaker
And so out of that, I ended up working with a personal trainer on recovery. And then we found all sorts of imbalances. Like, I have an enormous right lat versus the left, but then my low and mid traps on my right are super atrophied because I overload the lat. And so now, instead of yoga, that one day a week for me is much more...
00:39:04
Speaker
trying to work on those imbalances, like small shoulder exercises, small back exercises. And it's something maybe I could learn to do on my own, but I don't know, I got 43 years into it without even knowing they were there.
00:39:19
Speaker
it's going to take me a long time to really tell if I'm being balanced or just having someone there as if it's just an accountability partner, but also who's a professional who can look at and say, okay. And and it it took time. Like we'd work on something and he'd take a photo and it'd take a while. and he's like, oh wait, now I see it. Like you see how this is a little off and it's because that lat is so big, this doesn't extend the same way. And so what we need to work on is elongation here.
00:39:45
Speaker
And so i guess all of that being a long winded to say, whether it's yoga or, know, you know, there are these stretching studios now or it's someone to work on specifically on mobility or balance or, you know, wherever you are in your life.
00:40:00
Speaker
That has to be really should be a component of it because it can't just be the strength. It's how you use that strength. Because. I think what most people listening to this are going for is resilience.
00:40:14
Speaker
That's really what we're after. And all these other things kind of feed to it. But if you got to the essence of, hey, I want to be resilient. I i want to... ah i mean, you follow it to you. So you've you've seen...
00:40:25
Speaker
Aging isn't a steady decline. It happens in punctuated equilibrium, right? Like it's, you get injured and you never get back to where you were. And then you get injured again and never get back to where you are.
00:40:37
Speaker
And that's how you lose most of your muscle mass. That's how you lose most of your mobility. So really investing and building for that resilience, I think is the name of the game. However, you build your package to do it.
00:40:50
Speaker
Yeah, i couldn't agree more. That's i was going to say. I'm so glad you said that at the end. I mean, whether it's like a lot of the research where people coming out showing how important your feet are, right, and your toes and how we're doing the wrong things with our our shoes and our socks, whether it's our ankle mobility, which then affects our knees and then affects our hips. Like, so I know for me, like, I need to really, really get to that 30 degrees where I can move my knees. you know, um, Achilles and calf and open that up.
00:41:15
Speaker
I'm trying to not do heavy weights with squats, but I'm going really, really deep. And to your point, trying to make sure I'm being aware of which side is tighter than the other, because that imbalance, like you said, is going to be there.
00:41:26
Speaker
If I'm doing deadlifts, very lightweight so that I can protect my lower, build my lower back and my core without hurting it. Because, That's what how many guys do we know our age that are they hurt their lower back? And you're exactly right. If you're laid up for two weeks, you're not playing golf anymore. You're not walking. You're not lifting.
00:41:41
Speaker
Those two weeks are and c incredible in terms of what it's doing to, you know, depress your muscle mass and your strength. And like you said, you'll never get back into it. And those are the things that start to build up over time. Yeah, I think it's just more how how can you be intelligent and get out there so that you can push yourself without getting injured? Because that once you're laid up, that's that's the biggest problem.
00:42:00
Speaker
I mean, you you talk about what we do with our feet and everything. So I'm goingnna have to show like these are my go to. I don't know if everybody can get get away with wearing these in the office, but my own shoes, what Kiva is. They're like they're the lightest thing. It's basically your barefoot, but it you have fully split to full movement of the foot. I swear by them.
00:42:19
Speaker
And so do you have, it sounds like, I mean, with running and with the trail near your house, you're pretty set. But if you're traveling or you can't get all of the house, you have any kind of at-home equipment or travel equipment? You say, hey, I like to travel with this hand-strengthening thing or bands or anything like that.
00:42:35
Speaker
I do have a grip strengthener. I probably don't use it very, very frequently. i mean, honestly, I've got ah great workout where, know, between squats, good mornings, push-ups, jumping jacks, and getting outside, you know, i and I even do, you know, handstand push-ups against a wall, right? You know, I mean, it's like, so I think there's almost...
00:42:56
Speaker
If I could find a bar for pull-ups or you know doing the the reverse pull-ups, I can do just about anything I need. And I love getting outside. i think the other piece, ah you know whether it's Michael Easter or other people talking about getting outside in nature right and and not letting weather get in your way and just be be a human.
00:43:15
Speaker
Don't let cold stop you. Don't let rain stop you. It's like, just get outside and and move your body and actually, you know, feel that challenge and embrace it a little bit. So, um, yeah, the, the least amount of equipment that the necessary for me.
Optimizing Sleep and Hydration
00:43:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:27
Speaker
Love that. And on the recovery side, so we kind of started this maybe with your son being born with some sleep deprivation, How do you think about your sleep and recovery now? right like you You already talked about, hey, I probably should do more yoga to work on that mobility on the the recovery.
00:43:48
Speaker
But what are the things, not just that you should do that, but you are a little more consistent on when it comes to sleep and recovery? So when it comes to sleep, um you know, I think any any buddy or any couple will probably go through ebbs and flows of being really good and being on a good schedule. And then sometimes they're not.
00:44:07
Speaker
But the one thing that I've read and I wish I could remember who I attribute this to, you might you probably have heard it, but. don't stay up for anything that you wouldn't you know wake up early or set your alarm to do.
00:44:19
Speaker
right So how many people are just stuck scrolling Instagram or YouTube or watching Netflix or watching some rerun of you know Seinfeld or whatever it might be and you like catch yourself you're like oh man, it's 11 o'clock now I should go to bed. It's like, would you have set your alarm to do that tomorrow morning? And if the answer is no, then it's not worth staying up for that.
00:44:38
Speaker
And so I think that's really helped that unless I'm working, unless my wife and I are having some time together, we're much, much better at having a consistent time to get into bed, do some you know reading that's not on a screen um and call it a night. So that when we have our early mornings with the kids, we've gotten that seven to nine hours, you probably not nine, seven to eight hours worth of sleep.
00:44:58
Speaker
You know, again, it's not about being perfect. Enjoy some of your weekends or whatnot, but definitely. just having that mental kind of thing, like, why am I staying up for doing this? what i Is it important enough to me that I would have set my alarm to do this? And if it's not,
00:45:11
Speaker
It helps you kind of get to bed a little bit earlier. You could potentially take it to the next step of saying for sleep consistency, I am going to shift this to the morning. So, I mean, for me, I just think when you were saying those things, cause I don't watch TV, like the TV that we have in our house in Bermuda has never, ever been turned on.
00:45:30
Speaker
So it's like, those aren't things that I would do. So when you were saying, would you get up early? The one thing I could think would be it's work. And for me, I'm way more productive in the morning. So like those things not only would I set my alarm to do, but I typically prefer to do it. like no I'd rather keep my consistent bedtime because I'm going to be sharper in the morning. If I go to bed now, I'm going to get this done, and half the time, it's going twice as good.
00:45:53
Speaker
So let me shift it over there. That could be a good kind of tie-your-hands-to-the-mask thing of, hey, after this time, anything that it is, I'm just going to set my alarm early to go do. And then as you get into bed, you're like, you know, that that next episode, I could probably just wait.
00:46:06
Speaker
I probably don't need to set it 30 minutes early to go watch it. Do you have any special things around your sleep routine? Like me, I have ear, wax earplugs because I'm noise sensitive. I have a mask because I'm light sensitive.
00:46:21
Speaker
I do my chilling pads on the bed. Like, do you do you have any of the toys or a cootermall? My wife definitely has a lot of the things with her ears. um She has like headphones and stuff to make sure she's not hearing a lot of things. i hope it's not me.
00:46:36
Speaker
But yeah so we we have a super dark room. We definitely keep the upstairs really, really chilled into the upper 60s for us and the kids to sleep. So from a climate perspective, from a light perspective, the environment is pretty well set.
00:46:51
Speaker
And then I think, like I said, I'm pretty good about the screens, the food. um I'm not drinking alcohol and then just even the water. Right. So not eating three hours before not having water, even an hour or two before I've actually.
00:47:07
Speaker
I've been very fortunate, knock on wood, I've never really had any prostate issues or I have to get up in the middle of the night so I can sleep easily through the night, but I don't want to change that. And then I don't really, like you said, watch screens or anything scary.
00:47:19
Speaker
um I try to write anything down that I might be ruminating with. You mentioned like doing work in the morning. I think if you don't fall asleep, it's probably because you're thinking you didn't get enough done that day or you're thinking about how much you have to do tomorrow.
00:47:32
Speaker
And what I find is as long as you can get that on paper and you know it's documented, then you can release it a little bit and then you're you know you're set up for for better sleep. We don't have any of the toys. I do know my my my wife has a subsidy. i think we're going to try the Eight Sleep ah mattress pad. um that's That's on our list for 2025 to get.
00:47:51
Speaker
um But otherwise, yeah, dark, cold, clear your head, empty stomach and yeah, try to relax. The liquid one was eye-opening to me because a I think it came from swimming in the summers in Florida. And then in general, my parents were physicians. I think if if you consume a ton of fluid, your kidneys can get less and less efficient with time.
00:48:15
Speaker
And so it's like almost the more you're drinking, the more you end up needing. I don't know if there's science behind this, but this was my dad's theory. And so I would drink. you start the day with two to three liters of water before I even got to the gym.
00:48:29
Speaker
right and It was just an absurd amount. and I was getting up multiple times at night to pee. I can't remember it was Lane Norton or Andy Yalpin talking about that is a bad trade-off to make, the the hydration for disrupting your quality of sleep. The quality of sleep is 10x more important in that situation.
00:48:48
Speaker
And so doing like you and saying, hey, after kind of three or four o'clock, I'm not really drinking much fluid. And if I am, I'm just sipping it instead of gulping it. And and really, after a certain time, not at all.
00:49:00
Speaker
And quality sleep's changed dramatically. Instead of getting up twice a night, it's every now and then I get up once, and it's on the back end of the night. So it's for anybody listening that may have that issue, for me, changing my fluid intake,
00:49:13
Speaker
which is super obvious, but for me, for some reason, it wasn't until i heard it from an expert. made a big difference. Yeah, i agree. And I'm not the expert either, but I have read similar things that, you know, when people talk about the circadian rhythm, from what I understand, different parts of our body a different are on their own rhythm or on their own cycle. And our kidneys aren't as efficient at night, right? Like they are supposed to be doing more of that detox. And so um drinking in the morning is totally fine because it's that's when it's ah alive and and and working well. And that is what happens if we drink too late. So
00:49:45
Speaker
Yeah. Knock on wood. Never have to get up at night. I haven't had any issues so far.
Social Connections and Well-being
00:49:50
Speaker
Now, I think if it's okay, I'd like to take us back to where we started on the softer side of some of these. the We talk about the five pillars. You talk about the the wheel nine, but the softer side with that the connection piece and relocating where you didn't necessarily have the network and the connections that you initially had in California until you invested the time to to build them in Florida.
00:50:17
Speaker
What does that look like for you at this stage of your life? I mean, because it's you're building a business, you're now launching new technology, you have kids, you have your wife. Like, how do you prioritize or fit that in, whether it's the family or connections outside the family?
00:50:36
Speaker
Yeah. So from a family perspective, you know, my wife has her own amazing career where she's doing phenomenal things as well. So we're definitely a 50-50 partnership or I hope she would say agree. It's almost a 50-50 partnership when it comes to, you know, everything involved with the kids. And so, yeah, i mean that, you know, there, there's a ah special time from call it five to eight o'clock that, you know, I'm,
00:51:01
Speaker
and I'm dad first and foremost, and unless things are really out of out of whack, you know, really protecting that time and getting as much value from that time as we can between school and you know eating dinner with them and getting them to bed.
00:51:15
Speaker
So I think having a strong partnership is amazing, especially when you're not making a lot of money as an entrepreneur and you've got this promise of what the, what it will be, but you're making a lot of near-term financial sacrifices. You need an absolute partner in crime that that's there supporting you, understands that and is going through those sacrifices. I'm not the only one making that. I can be like, Oh, I don't, I don't need to go buy,
00:51:36
Speaker
any clothes this year. I don't need, you know, I don't need to go to any extravagant vacation, but it's not just for me anymore. Right now it's for the family's not taking that trip or my wife's not taking that trip or we're not doing whatever we need to around the house. And so having that support of her, I think has been absolutely critical because it's almost impossible to do if you're,
00:51:54
Speaker
not only facing the uphill battle of trying to build a company, but then fighting that battle at home. So that, you know, you just read about it in like that partnership. if you're going to have that partnership, it has to be one of of support in terms of connections. I just look at it is.
00:52:12
Speaker
Just take a step back and think about the days when you have breakfast or lunch or you go on a walk or do a workout with friends. How great do you feel at the end of the day? Again, it's like subliminal that sometimes we can miss it. But like it's really hard to have a bad day when you start out, you know, going on on on a walk or run with guys at six in the morning or, you know, you just have have a lunch with that. I mean, back when I was in l L.A.,
00:52:36
Speaker
sunrise surf session with three or four buddies, you know, out in Manhattan Beach or Malibu, like it almost didn't matter what happened the rest of the day. You know, like it was just like this is like You just appreciate the beauty of the sun coming up, being out in the cold water, moving your body to be on these waves and just talking, talking with these guys, catching up what's going on in their life.
00:52:58
Speaker
And it's easy to miss. It's easy to skip when you fall out of that routine. But um what's the book, The Good Life by, you know, the long, long standing Harvard study of, you know, yeah Everyone that's at the end of their life will tell you that the relationships are what matter in terms of fulfillment and giving you the best limited time that we have here.
00:53:15
Speaker
And so we all say it, but we're all still going to potentially be guilty of it if we don't pay attention. And I don't want to say, i wish I would have, could have, should have spent more time with these people that are important to me.
00:53:26
Speaker
So you just, you got to prioritize it. And I just look at it like... The day is just better, right? Even today, you and I don't know each other that well, and we're obviously not in person. But today, this is going to be part of, like you said, with your daughter way back when we started this conversation, what's your story from today?
00:53:42
Speaker
I might get here back from my tech team and have five problems that's going to delay us two more days or whatever. But my story today is going to be the the conversation you and I had and the way we connected on so many things that are similar.
00:53:54
Speaker
And you realize that's really all that matters when it comes down to it We're human beings, we're social, and we need each other. And That's what makes life exciting when you wake up. If we could just like bottle that, close it, and and do that, it would be perfect. Because I think the message is so important and resonant right now. you know Adult loneliness has increased fivefold over the past 30 years.
00:54:15
Speaker
And it it's always more comfortable to sit on your couch and watch Netflix, but that's not rewarding or fulfilling life. And just to take one example, you you' talked about the the group work runs or surf sessions and the same trainer that helps me with the shoulder, he he sees these group exercises.
00:54:34
Speaker
It's like, oh my God, like there's no value in that. There's terrible, know, doing classes. It's like, I'm not sure that's true, right? If it's going to get one people who wouldn't come otherwise to move,
00:54:45
Speaker
It's greater than zero. So it's a win. Maybe it's not as physically rewarding as having a one-on-one trainer that's grinding you, etc. But there's a separate piece that the most global ah recent global well-being report showed. If you can find a sense of belonging in group exercise, over baseline, you see a 20% boost in your well-being.
00:55:04
Speaker
And so there's this entire separate benefit from... you know You were saying that Oliver Burkhardt, it's not just about efficiency. Yeah, maybe it's more efficient not to have to coordinate with other people and just get into the git gym and get out and never communicate with anybody and get your exercise done. And you get it done in 45 minutes instead of a slightly less good workout in 45 minutes or you take 60 minutes to get the same thing done.
00:55:27
Speaker
But the benefits of that other 15 minutes on the entire rest of your day, when we understand that that social side, that connectivity side is at least as important,
00:55:40
Speaker
especially for the quality of life, like the good life study of saying, look, when we pulled back, it didn't matter your education, didn't matter your wealth, didn't matter where you started anything. It was the connections. That was the determining factor on the quality of your life by the end.
00:55:55
Speaker
Then we can't put too much attention on that. And if anything, we're at the risk of going far, far and the other direction right now. Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
00:56:05
Speaker
and And especially, i don't want to say especially for guys, because i mean, women are struggling with it too, but I think guys over 40, right? Like it's it's hard to really make new friends. um I was very fortunate. There was a guy who moved from LA to Tampa almost the same time I did.
00:56:19
Speaker
He was part of a group in LA, and you probably obviously know the name in the space, Drew Pruitt, who has a famous podcast here in the space. he He has a group of guys called Man Morning out in LA, and they do 6 a.m. walks along the beach or in the Santa Monica Mountains.
00:56:32
Speaker
This guy moved out to Tampa and wanted to start that same thing. And especially for guys, I found it's so incredible when you're not doing a happy hour, or you're not at dinner face to face, but you're just walking, you're outside, you're're it's so much less intimidating, right, to be open with someone when you're not like in this like of confrontational setting where you're facing each other.
00:56:53
Speaker
It's incredible that guys that don't even know each other that well, how open they'll be when you're just doing a sunrise walk outside and getting to know them. And just like all of a sudden it just like the guard comes down. Someone is vulnerable and then someone else doesn't try to solve anything, just listens and is vulnerable in much that same way. And I know some of these guys are trying to scale that, you know, to more and more people to open this up, because I do think going back to what I said, if that's how you start your day,
00:57:18
Speaker
you're already playing with the house's money, you know, for what happens for the next, you know, 12 hours you're awake.
Starting Small for Health Improvement
00:57:23
Speaker
So if anyone listening to this is going to have one takeaway on where you can start, right? Cause we had a bunch of different things. You have nine things in the wheel.
00:57:31
Speaker
It can be overwhelming, but if someone's just getting started to say, Hey, wherever I am today, what is the one thing that would be the right next step? And I realize it's personal.
00:57:42
Speaker
Um, but yeah, What's the most likely for someone, do you think, to if they were kind of where you were in 2020? I think you know the first thing is we talked about, and i'll I'll get to be very succinct, but just give me a minute to kind of set up, like to not be perfect. Don't worry about being perfect.
00:58:00
Speaker
Don't worry about changing you know from wherever you are, going from A to B, whatever that end result is. Just thinking about what makes you feel better. Because I think that first step that we talked about, maybe it is with friends. Maybe it is you know walking.
00:58:13
Speaker
Maybe it is you know just finding some delicious food instead of a sweet. Like it could be depending upon your different goals. But I think for anything to become habitual and to stick with it, you have to enjoy it. And there's so much of what we're talking about to increase your health span that doesn't, shouldn't feel like taking your medicine. It shouldn't feel like a sacrifice. And so I just think if you want to live better and longer,
00:58:38
Speaker
The first thing is how do you make yourself enjoy that more? And so taking that first step to like something that, to your point, like I hope that doesn't mean Netflix or something, but you know, most of the time it doesn't, if you're really honest with yourself, it's like, I would argue a morning walk with someone that you really enjoy their company,
00:58:53
Speaker
can't be a bad first step if you're not already doing that because that's going to get you on the track of moving. That's going to boost your connection. It's going to get you outside. It's going to get you out earlier in the day. All of these things, you know, so that's like one small step that might have a snowball effect of, okay, now what do I do next?
00:59:09
Speaker
And it gives the room for one step away from the perfection and two, to personalize it to you, right? Instead of generic advice saying, Hey, lean into what's going to feel good as that first step.
00:59:20
Speaker
Just beautiful. Ryan, i I really appreciate not just your time today, but really the work you do with Thrive25. I think it's a fantastic newsletter. Anyone who's not subscribing really should.
00:59:32
Speaker
um Other than the the newsletter, where can people find you? Yeah. So I'm on LinkedIn. I'll be posting hopefully a little bit more frequently.
00:59:42
Speaker
But yeah, check out thrive25.com. We've got a wait list for a brand new platform that we're launching here really soon that I'd love to share with people. In the meantime, the newsletter, we're on number 400 and we come out every Tuesday and Friday to share stuff on on health and longevity, or you can follow my posts on LinkedIn. Fantastic. Well, thank you. And we will put all this in the show notes and hope everyone has a lively day.
01:00:07
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Home of Healthspan podcast. Remember, you can always find the products, practices, and routines mentioned by today's guests, as well as many other healthspan role models on Alively.com.
01:00:19
Speaker
Enjoy a lively day.