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Chapter 7
327 Plays6 months ago
Walk Before You Run! Dave learns to use his toes at the gym, then tiptoes through a butter farm talk with Doc!
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Transcript
Introduction and Revisiting Past Insights
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, Dave here. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining us. Before you listen to this episode, you should go back and listen to chapter six because David Thunder blew my mind apart and I'm still recovering from it. I don't even know how to walk. Isn't that amazing? Now I'm doing Toga. What is Toga? That's a great question.
00:00:20
Speaker
Well, you'll find out when you listen to this episode because I'm gonna dip my toe into going to the gym and then Dr. Val's gonna have me tiptoe through the exotic butter farms. It's a what am I even talking about? Let's find out together. It's chapter 7 of Dr. Val saves Dave.
00:00:44
Speaker
Hey everybody, have you heard the news? Dave's turning 50 and he's got the blues He's out of shape and this is true He needs help, he has no clue He grabs his phone and she can't quit Taco Bell will do her trick She'll be tough, there's no free pass
00:01:02
Speaker
They get off your ass! Dr. Val, can you save Dave? He's quite alive. Do you think that he'll behave? I believe not. Or do you think he will cave? Listen, and he's back in school! It's his body, but it's Dr. Val's rules. It's his body, but it's Dr. Val's rules.
Dave's Fitness Journey Begins
00:01:28
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back to Dr. Val saves Dave. And the fact that we're here means so far she's still doing a great job. This is chapter seven of our journey that started on January 14th. And now here we are March 1st. So we are now six weeks in basically. And I'm feeling pretty good. I gotta be honest. How you doing doc? Yay. I am awesome and really glad to hear the good news.
00:01:59
Speaker
Feeling pretty, pretty good, as Larry David would say. So it's all been worth it.
00:02:05
Speaker
You know what? It's pretty exciting. I'm coming off of the David Thunder episode. For those of you who, if you haven't listened to last week's episode, you really should. David Thunder, the movement specialist slash wizard from England, who illustrated that I'm not that good at walking. Which apparently you can't do it at all. Apparently I don't know how to walk, which is shocking.
00:02:32
Speaker
Uh, to me, I'm a scratch golfer. There's a lot of walking in golf. I've been able to get around the golf course my whole life, but, uh, I've been doing it wrong. So, uh, that's really messed with my head a little bit. You know, and you probably know this better than I do, doc, but a little bit of knowledge. It's a dangerous thing.
00:02:52
Speaker
It turns out, because now I'm walking, trying to use my toes, which I don't know how to. I'm trying
Social Strategies and Gym Life
00:02:57
Speaker
not to swing my shoulders, even though I don't know how much of that I should or shouldn't be doing. My head's bobbing around, because I don't know where it's supposed to be. Apparently, I don't use my glutes enough, which is shocking to me. I got a pretty big caboose, so I can just imagine it's been driving the train all this time. But I'm leaving horsepower on the table. I'm a mess, doc. I'm all broke up over this walking thing.
00:03:20
Speaker
But David assures me that he will be teaching me how to walk. Yes, lovely. Going forward. So that's something to look forward to. So from an update standpoint, my weight is 207. Yay. So that means we've lost 13 pounds in roughly six weeks. Now, as of yesterday, it was only five weeks, which was three pounds a week. But now that it's six weeks, it's all kinds of math.
00:03:50
Speaker
which we shouldn't be doing early. We're going to have an average. I don't know what two point something. I don't get it. You're the doctor. So is that a typical amount? Is that a good amount? I mean, three pounds a week seems like, you know, at some point that should end, right? Like I'm not going to end up weighing 18 pounds. No, but so that will end. It will plateau. But for where you were starting,
00:04:18
Speaker
the lifestyle that you had and where your body can be. Repoint yourself. And it turns out that 25 years of being fun to drink with at comedy clubs means when people see me at comedy clubs, hey, let's have a drink. And you don't want to disappoint your fans. It's been tricky. My new trick move, and for those of you going through this at all, if you feel any pressure drinking, my new trick is I get a vodka soda.
00:04:46
Speaker
in front of people, like, yeah, let's get one of our soda. And then I just asked the bartender to keep topping up the soda. So eventually I'm just drinking soda by the end. It's very smart, but now you've just revealed all of your secrets. So people are going to know.
00:05:04
Speaker
Yeah, but friends don't listen to friends podcast. One would hope that your fan will. That's right. And thank you for continuing to listen. That's right. I'm not an only fans. I'm an only fan. It's not as popular a website. Thanks dad. Oh, that's terrible. But he does like that I've lost the weight.
00:05:33
Speaker
So on the journey, and again, not entirely sure who's listening to all this, but please keep commenting, let us know, chime in. But if you are also on a path or joining me in a quest to lose weight or get in shape, then I can say this after a five, six weeks now of cutting some weight, I have so much more energy.
00:05:59
Speaker
A, because I'm lighter, but B, because I'm eating, you might say properly. Clean. Clean. So because of my clean eating, I guess I have more energy. So it's time to start going to the gym with this energy.
00:06:14
Speaker
As long as you don't try walking on your toes and pulling a muscle. It feels weird taking a scooter to the gym and explaining to people, no, I actually- I hurt myself walking. I'm not allowed to walk right now until I get...
00:06:30
Speaker
But you know what, it's a good point because I really do feel like I think when you're starting at the gym for the first time in a long time, you should start so light. It's so easy to yourself. You have a young person's brain and like inside you, there's a young person living in your head. Yes. Who used to do all these exercises, but now you have this older person's body.
00:06:50
Speaker
Yes. Well, and see, but the same is going to be true with the drinking. So you're going to remember how you used to drink. And so when people start buying you a few drinks and you get a few drinks in you, you're going to forget that you can't drink like that anymore.
00:07:05
Speaker
Well, the answer to how I used to drink was magnificently. How will I drink now? What are you saying? I'm going to be amateur again. You're going to be a bit of a lightweight. You know what? We'll get to this because it was this interesting thing that happened. But for those of you joining on the journey, I did
00:07:23
Speaker
go to the gym this week. And now going to the gym is hard when you're bouncing your life. It's tricky. So I decided to do the full throttle move. And I said to myself, since I'm going to go anyways, which is shocking enough, I might as well go full shock and go first thing in the morning. So now first thing in the morning used to mean, you know, noon.
00:07:46
Speaker
when I was in comedy as a younger person. But now, you know, I've got to get a kid to school and the whole thing. So in order to really find that time, I had to get up at 5.30 in the morning and go to the gym for 6 a.m. Now, this is how Dr. Val lives, right? And I'm starting to wonder if I've joined a cult here and if you're actually running some sort of a scam to get turned people into morning people.
00:08:14
Speaker
Okay. So you tell me why you like working out so early in the morning first. Well, the first and most obvious is that, listen, if I get it done first thing in the morning, it sets my day. So I get more energy for the day. I'm more likely to eat clean and it's more likely to happen. It doesn't get derailed. So I get that out of the way and then I know it's done. It's taken care of because otherwise if I leave it till later, there's other things that are going to come up that I'm going to have to take care of that are going to take me away and
00:08:44
Speaker
I might not stay less on track. It's totally, totally correct. The problem with working out later in the day is it's also in your head all day of when am I gonna go? When can I carve out time? When can I go? Whereas if you wake up and just go mentally, you're free of that burden of carrying that all day. When do I go? How long can I go? Et cetera. Plus managing your energy gets a lot harder as the day goes on. I mean, in the morning you got what you got.
00:09:10
Speaker
Yeah. That's it. But during the day, you can play all those games of like, oh, well, I'll eat first and then, oh, well, I'll wait. Well, see, for me, my energy is highest first thing in the morning. So when my patients ask me, okay, what's the best time to work out? I say the first thing that I say is, okay, when do you have the most energy and when can you fit it in your schedule?
00:09:28
Speaker
When, when you can fit it into your schedule is the best time, but then you can make it consistent. Right. But then also when do you have the best energy? So for me, I'm one of those people, I wake up at four or five in the morning. I don't sleep in my body. Just even if I don't set an alarm, my body will wake me up. And I'm one of those annoying people. That's really chipper. And I'm like, good morning, morning. So if you're not a morning person, you're going to hate me. Okay. That just, that just made me want to drink.
00:09:54
Speaker
Morning, morning. I love the morning. That was a bunch of stuff. I'm a morning dove. So I'm one of those people, I'm up, hello, let's get out, let's move. You know those cats that like they're awake and they sit there and they either stare at you or they start smacking your face? Like that would be me, that's my personality. So I'm going to go to the gym and not annoy the humans around me. Fair enough. And here's the bonus.
00:10:23
Speaker
four or five in the morning at the gym, there's no one else there. I own that gym. Nice. It's true. Getting on the machines is an issue at times. You know, if you have a workout in mind, you know, you go to the gym, there's usually only a couple of each machine. So this is what I found. So my gym strategy going in anyway, I started it bright and early and I went and I haven't been to the gym, you know, really since the pandemic. I mean, I've stopped by a couple of times,
Balancing Fitness with Life
00:10:52
Speaker
you know, for a look.
00:10:55
Speaker
Yeah, but the bar was closed. So no, but I went and I have to treat it like I'm coming off of rehab. Like I've gone to the lightest weights, you know, just to get the range of motion. And I know you should, but there's ego involved, right? When you're grabbing the light weights and people are grabbing the bigger weights, you know, there's
00:11:13
Speaker
guys beside me grabbing way bigger weights than I am. So, you know, I just, I grab my shoulder a lot and I act like I'm rehabbing. You know, so when I'm moving the 10 pound dumbbells, I try to sell like there's a reason. And this is purely for my own vanity or self affection. Is that fair to say? But having said that, I guess avoiding injury is the number one thing to focus on when you're starting though.
00:11:42
Speaker
I would say good form, because if you focus on proper form, then you will avoid the injury. If you focus on avoiding the injury, you'll probably hurt yourself, because you're focusing on the injury. You know what's nice now, and this is aging myself, but we all know I'm turning 50, so I don't have to, is there is now the internet. When I started going to the gym as a younger guy, you didn't really know what proper form was. Now I can Google every single exercise
00:12:11
Speaker
You know, even if you get a workout from a friend, like, uh, you know, what's the right way to do, uh, uh, you know, preacher curl. And, uh, and so off I went with my upright rows and my lateral raises and all kinds of, uh, and let's just, if anyone's listening, please, for God's sake, shoulder raises. Can we talk about what a horrible feeling it is to do lateral? If you want to feel weak, lift something out to your sides. What a horrible, horrible feeling. Especially with kettlebells.
00:12:39
Speaker
Sure. Anything, just anything moving away from your body is an awful feeling. So now that I've gone to the gym, surely I can start eating terrible foods, right? Nope. I'm not earning that with each workout. Nope. No. And the reason for that is I still don't speak body. That's exactly it. So our goal is
00:13:02
Speaker
basically to get you back in touch with your body. Because what happens is we start going through life and we stop listening to ourselves. And we start listening to what people tell us. So for example, there's this idea that the calorie in, calorie out model works for weight loss. And we've got a lot of evidence over a lot of decades saying that, nope, that's not what's going on.
00:13:24
Speaker
But we think that, hey, if I want to lose weight, I should exercise more and eat less. Simple formula. Yeah, it's not true. It hasn't ever been true. So what's going to happen is you're going to stop listening to your body and then you're going to be on the go. You're going to be skipping meals or you're going to be eating late or you're going to be eating bad food. And you just start to get all of this noise happening in your body. So we kind of
00:13:48
Speaker
distance ourselves from our body. We disconnect. So we got to bring you back in and teach you like, what is your body trying to say? Every symptom you have is just your body's way of trying to tell you how it wants to be nurtured and cared for. So I love the saying, there is no failure, only feedback. So, but the problem is we stop listening to the feedback and we start listening to the experts. And so we somehow make ourselves and our body wrong.
00:14:16
Speaker
And so when you can't listen to the body signals, you will, let's say, have a coffee, you know, if you're wanting the traditional Tim Hortons triple-triple, which is big in the Toronto area. You know, what's going to happen is you're going to have all this caffeine in your system. You're going to have all the sugar happening inside of your bloodstream. It's going to spike and crash your sugar levels.
00:14:39
Speaker
So your sugar levels go up fast, then they come crashing down. You get tired, you get hungry, but instead of thinking, hey, it's because I didn't eat properly. You think I'm just tired and hungry. I'm going to go grab a donut or another triple, triple, or I'm getting tired now. This is my, I need an afternoon nap. Let's get some coffee to wake me up. So you're not listening to what, how your body is saying like, this is how I want to be fed. This is how I want to be treated.
00:15:05
Speaker
The triple, triple, it may taste fantastic and wonderful. I'm not suggesting that it doesn't, but is it great for your energy and health to do that every single day, especially two or three times? You're not setting yourself up for health success that way.
00:15:21
Speaker
So, first of all, what you call feedback, the rest of us call noise. The rest of us call, I'm not paying attention. Because I don't speak body yet. It's just noise, right? Exactly. And so the body goes, we need something. I'm like, I don't know what. And then you look around and it's like, well, what's that? And it's like, I think I have coffee and donuts. You go, okay, we'll try it. And you go, oh, okay. Or you try it and you go, oh, that was a bad idea.
00:15:44
Speaker
But I'm not qualified by your own description to know what the heck is going to sort me out with the feedback, right? But I can confirm that being a little tired this week because of the gym visits sure made it harder to try to eat clean.
00:16:02
Speaker
because the impulse items, the temptation monsters, were barking pretty loud this week. And so I guess when we're tired, we lose our discipline. If we're tired, we're going to crave sugar to wake the brain up.
00:16:20
Speaker
And you're saying we shouldn't have that? I thought we should listen to the feedback if the feedback is saying we need a spike here. The feedback is, I'm tired and hungry, how we interpret it is. Give me more sugar because it's quick fuel. But if you did something with protein, that would be much better because it would stabilize blood sugar levels.
00:16:35
Speaker
Okay, so I'm tired coming off the workout. I can't have a coffee and a donut. You've taken these things away from me. I don't have any protein with me. What, why? It's a hypothetical. That's why. Why are you not taking a shake to the gym? Protein powder, put it in a little Ziploc bag. I drank it and it didn't take. Well, this is true. Now I'm still hungry and tired because I did a super workout and I'm a giant person.
00:17:04
Speaker
compared to you. So let's say it didn't work. Okay. I'm out in the world. What can I take as a quick fix then? Or what do you recommend people do in those? Or let's just say I'm panicking. Let's say I'm drowning in fatigue and temptation. Do you have a car? Are you in Toronto? Sure. Okay, perfect. I'm in a major city. Great. Because you can go to a grocery store.
00:17:27
Speaker
And at grocery stores, they have, they have chicken, they have fish. I'm going to punch somebody in the back of the head if they get in my way. I'm that hungry. I'm that tired. I've been there, you know, I don't punch people in the back of the head. But you're in a car or where are you? Yeah, fast-feed situation. Where do I go? If I go to a
00:17:45
Speaker
Starbucks, can I get one of those little protein packets and eat a hard-boiled egg? Will that do anything? If you have just the hard-boiled egg, that would be fantastic. So in groceries, yes. So a hard-boiled egg is a quick emergence of eggs. Yeah, but the egg bites, you couldn't. Have you ever read the ingredients of a Starbucks egg bite? I challenge all of our viewers, okay, you go and you look what's in that stuff. It's pretty awful.
00:18:10
Speaker
It's got tons of dairy, tons of sugar. It's got all of these extra added stuff. You'd be surprised. It's been a while since we've been sued. So this is great. Let's take down Starbucks while we're at it. The peanut butter people are already lined up. I know. Listen, I didn't name any names. I just said peanuts. It could be anybody. Yeah, before. But now we're getting specific. We're going to backhand the Starbucks. OK. So anyway, Doc's point is always going to be be prepared.
00:18:38
Speaker
bring protein with you, be responsible. But then, look, eat real food. That's what it boils down to. So if you can get a hard-boiled egg, that's fantastic. If you can't, you know, if you can get an apple, great. At least it's real food. And if you can't get an apple, Starbucks does sell bananas. I've seen them. Am I allowed to eat a banana?
00:18:58
Speaker
If it's real food, because a banana is real food, it turns into sugar really quickly, so it's not ideal. Your sugar levels are going to crash later, but if it'll get you to where you need to go until you can get the protein, it's better than not eating. It's better than punching someone. That's the better alternative, and at least it's real food.
00:19:19
Speaker
So I can get a banana milkshake is what I'm hearing. Yeah, that's not real food. No. How much plastic is in a banana milkshake? Oh, here we go. I don't know.
Prioritizing Health and New Experiences
00:19:30
Speaker
Why don't we take down some more fast food companies while we're at it? It's just a question. I don't know. Does McDonald's make a banana shake? Let's go after the companies with the big limes. Let's go after the ones that are bright neon colors. Yeah. Those are the ones we want to attack now, right?
00:19:49
Speaker
You know what I do want to say, and this is shocking, is the Thursday night. I had to do a comedy show Thursday night and it's still an adjustment to me going to do a comedy without, you know, going out all night without having drinks, et cetera. Some friends came in and I feel bad when friends come to the shows because they want to hang out after, of course, because before the show it's hard to visit because your head's on the show.
00:20:15
Speaker
But then afterwards they're there, they're having drinks. And this is all revelations to me. It was 11-ish. I said, okay, I'll give you guys till midnight. I'll hang out till midnight. And then at 11, 20, I said, you know what, turns out I lied. I'm going to go because I wanted to work out in the morning. I didn't want to miss that morning workout because it's so important to establish these habits. I know that.
00:20:38
Speaker
See, welcome to my world because this is what it becomes. You're going to have those times where you're going to ask yourself, is this, you know, I'm assuming you've watched Seinfeld and I don't, we might have to cut this, but you know, where the episode where Elaine is like, is this person's sponge worthy? This is what you're going to be like. You're going to be like, is this person and is this event worthy of me staying out late and blowing things and then missing the gym in the morning?
00:21:07
Speaker
or getting off my routine. And you're going to start to prioritize things a little bit differently. And there are people who you're going to be like, yeah, this is worth it. And I'm going to stay out and I'm going to go off track. And that's going to be fine. And I'll deal with the consequences. I'm happy because these are great people. And then there are going to be people where you're going to be like, this is not gym worthy. You're not going to mess with my gym time. I want to stay on track.
00:21:29
Speaker
It's all shocking. It's all just a different world. I mean, I was watching myself walk out of there going, what's happening here? What exactly is going on? Who am I? And then getting there. But I did. I got up this morning. This is Friday. I went to the gym this morning. So I got home midnight-ish. Yeah.
00:21:46
Speaker
and was up at 5.25, which by the way, I've gone to bed at five in the morning. Nine times as many times as I've gotten up at five in the morning. I've gotten up at five in the morning to catch a flight. I've gotten up at five in the morning to go golfing. Those are the only two reasons I've gotten up at five in the morning in the last 20 years for sure.
00:22:08
Speaker
Um, and now this week you can add, uh, to go to the gym and, uh, wow, I gotta say it actually, I'm actually liking it, but most importantly, I want to say this to whoever's listing honest to goodness, if I can do it, anybody, literally anybody, I am the least morning person of all time. Uh, I was shocked to discover a, the, uh, the good, uh, endorphins are real.
00:22:30
Speaker
Like once you get there, B, you come back, you got to charge. And as a qualifying metric, I put in some personal bests on the crosswords this week, the New York Times crosswords. So maybe there's some brain function starting to clear up. Increase brain performance for sure. Me starting to think good. Me run more, me think better.
00:22:57
Speaker
is what's starting to happen. Better blood flow. So that's another thing, right? And less cortisol. Is it? Oh, less cortisol. Yes. Right. Because the exercise is helping. Stress relieving. Stress relieving. Interesting. So this whole time I've just been stressed. I've actually been in amazing shape.
00:23:18
Speaker
just too stressed from not going home and getting sleep. Well, you know, if you lack in sleep, that will affect your health and that will affect performance. So if I could learn to relax, I could go back to drinking and eating cheeseburgers. No, exactly. So the point is the exercise is also, it's not just the stress relief. It's not. It's the blood flow. It's the activity. I got the heart pumping. Exactly. Now talk to me about cold showers. Do you cold shower?
00:23:47
Speaker
So I think cold showers are fantastic. Wim Hof is amazing. And so you necessarily, you don't have to do the whole shower cold for people who have never experienced this concept before. You can end with cold doing the last 30 seconds.
00:24:03
Speaker
or you can start working up to a minute. Now Wim Hof gets you doing, sitting in cold and doing ice baths and maybe even dipping in a cold lake or ocean depending on where you are. And you do that and it helps in terms of increasing your metabolism, lowering cortisol, lowering blood sugar levels, helps with your stress response. So it can be a very, very healthy thing to do.
00:24:26
Speaker
So for people who don't know Wim Hof, it's going to sound like we suddenly have a speech impediment. Oh, good. So I'm just going to jump in. Wim is his first name. Wim Hof is a person, a mega dude, who you should check out. He's the Iceman. W-I-M-H-O-F. Wim Hof, the Iceman. Yeah, by all means Google this guy. Check him out. He is a super stud.
00:24:48
Speaker
And so I've done, I did this this week. I started dabbling with the cold showers, even though we hadn't discussed this, even though it was not on my doctor's note. I went renegade this week and said, I'm going to try some cold showers. And I got to tell you, game changer. It's terrifying, like you're going into a haunted house. It was so scary to get a cold shower going, like just turning the knob.
00:25:13
Speaker
Oh yeah. And I did it the baby steps way. I have my regular shower and then I was like, okay, we're going cold. Did you do it for 30 seconds? Oh, I did it for a minute. Thank you. Wow. And I did that. And she talks about these noises come out of you.
00:25:31
Speaker
And so from what I understood was the point is you have to learn to relax in the cold. So you tense, the instant reaction is to go, and then your shoulders hit your earlobes and your fists start. So you learn to relax the hands, relax the shoulders and breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe. Wim Hof is all about the breathing.
00:25:51
Speaker
And then it worked. That's another total dopamine cheat. Yes, it is. Is it not? Yes, it is. So if you wake up and you're a little groggy, like I was today, five hours sleep, a little cold blast. Yeah. Great. Right? Yes. If you are like me, though, and you get cold really easy and you freeze all the time, you're not going to like the cold showers. So there are other things that you can do to lower the cortisol. For example? For example, infrared saunas.
00:26:21
Speaker
infrared saunas. This sounds like the exact opposite of cold shower. So how does an infrared sauna do this? How does that work? Infrared saunas are great for helping in terms of stimulating serotonin levels. They help in terms of detoxification and they can help in terms of calming down the central nervous system.
00:26:42
Speaker
So we have two parts of the central nervous system. We have one that's a fight or flight, and then we have the other that's rest and digest. And so for most of us, we're always on that fight or flight. And that's what David Thunder was talking about when he was saying, hey, you can get locked into this from even from childhood. So that's just your chronic default pattern. And it can be really protective. And we've got to teach the body how to stop being in fight or flight and tell
00:27:06
Speaker
your body that hey the environment is safe and so infrared saunas are very detoxifying but at the same time they can start to shift the body back into that parasympathetic mode into that mode where we rest
Understanding Food Labels and Nutrition
00:27:20
Speaker
and digest.
00:27:20
Speaker
So you tell me instead of having that freezing cold shower, I could have just crawled down to the heat lamp at McDonald's. Yeah, because that's what they would like. I would have felt just as good. You're just trying to redeem yourself with McDonald's right now, aren't you? I'm just trying to figure out a way I can get some junk back in my life. I don't want them suing us. So maybe they'll offer that an infrared service. Hey McDonald's, we'll partner up with you here.
00:27:48
Speaker
Exactly. You can have a salad under an infrared sauna. You can sit with your own burger. Nobody goes to the playlands anymore. Let's turn them all into infrared saunas. There we go. Oh, you could cook with your own burger. You could, you see. Oh, and the meat sauna. Yeah, yeah. That's nice. Yeah, exactly. That's great. Ooh, speaking of which, am I allowed mustard? You're allowed mustard powder. Mix it yourself with your apple cider vinegar.
00:28:15
Speaker
Okay. Why aren't I allowed regular mustard? There's no sugar in it. Have you read the ingredients? Yes. Yes. And there was no sugar in it. And what food dye is in there? I didn't see any. Yellow number seven. No, ma'am. I did not see any yellow number seven in a bottle of French's. Really? Really.
00:28:36
Speaker
Oh, this is a hot issue here. I wish I had brought a bottle with me. Well, you know, if we want, we can just grab some technology. If only there was technology that would allow us to research on the internet. We'll be right back. I'm going to throw to our commercial break. We're going to take an imaginary commercial break and we'll be right back. We'll have sponsors by this time. Let's play some music for this one.
00:29:02
Speaker
This is a fact check break on Dr. Val Saves Dave. Let's do it. Deep dive into ingredients. Our medical disclaimer. Welcome to Dr. Val Saves Dave, where a naturopathic doctor and a comedian team up together to tickle your funny bone and maybe even teach you a thing or two about health. But hey, before you go down the rabbit hole of kale smoothies and laughter yoga, a quick reminder, we're not your doctor.
00:29:29
Speaker
We might have the prescription for a good joke, but when it comes to your health, consult the pros. So laugh and learn, but keep that stethoscope handy. Just in case. And we're back, everybody. And as you might be able to tell from the enthusiasm in this guy's voice, what did we discover, doc?
00:29:51
Speaker
We discovered that there was no food coloring in French's mustard. Oh, well, well, so we can keep a sponsor. Hey, French food mustard. Dr. Val approved. As soon as we're done with these Starbucks and McDonald's lawsuits. If you want to take it to that extra level of health, if instead of the distilled vinegar, you used apple cider vinegar, that would be even better because the apple cider vinegar has, it's fermented, it has good bacteria and it's great for the gut microbiome.
00:30:18
Speaker
No, I totally understand why you'd want to move this conversation in another direction now to where you're the most correct. But first things first, why don't we just circle back for half a heartbeat to where I was right, the old French's mustard, and I finally taught the doc something. Way to go, French's. There we go. Yeah, seven episodes in.
00:30:41
Speaker
So now this means I could have some, for example, on a turkey burger or whatever other healthy snack lunch item I might choose for myself. You can. But let me just save you the butt. You're going to make a case that I should make my own mustard, which I didn't even know you could do. So why don't you walk me through that for half a heartbeat.
00:31:04
Speaker
Well, you could just use mustard powder and apple cider vinegar and you can mix that up. And then if you wanted to make your own salad dressing, for example, and you wanted to do like a honey mustard, you could add a little bit of stevia or xylitol for sweetness to that. Okay, so anybody listening who's made their own mustard, please comment or say.
00:31:25
Speaker
And let me know if this is actually a thing, because I want to bet most people have not made their own mustard. Well, most people don't even think what's in the ingredients. Most people don't really read them. Or they believe the marketing that's on different types of food. So you have a particular food, and you read the label. And the label says, this is organic, and this is high protein. And it very may well be, but it's usually a marketing tactic.
00:31:53
Speaker
So what you always have to do is look at the labels and read the ingredients because some things, especially, you know, I've seen some products that are keto, for example, and they say, this is keto, and then it has sugar in it. And I'm like, why are you putting sugar in a keto product? And how can this be keto if you're putting sugar in it? So, you know, again, when you read a package and it sounds like it's healthy,
00:32:19
Speaker
don't believe the hype because what they write on the package is for marketing purposes. So always read the labels and always read the ingredients. Don't even go buy, oh, but there's only so many grams of sugar because, you know, if you look at the sugar grams, it could be very, very misleading.
00:32:36
Speaker
because the serving size could be made so small that, you know, you're not going to have like, you know, it could be like, oh, this is the serving size for one chip. And then you're like, oh, this looks really good and it looks low, but then it's the type of sugar that's in there. It's a simple sugar. It's how is it digested? What did they use? Cane sugar is no healthier for you than white sugar or brown sugar. They're all equal. Wait, what? I know. Come on. I thought cane sugar was the good one. Nope.
00:33:05
Speaker
Why not? So what I like to say to my patients and my students when I'm teaching them is, instead of the word sugar, start substituting the word cocaine. Because then you're going to see this game that marketing plays, right? Oh, it's only two grams of cocaine. Oh, it's fruit cocaine. OK. It's cane cocaine. It must be healthier. Cane cocaine was a wrestler, I think.
00:33:33
Speaker
I'm saying it's only heroin. It's
Healthy Eating for Families
00:33:38
Speaker
two grams of heroin. I'm sure that over time that will kill you. Okay, well, going forward, you know, I'll try to find some keto stuff and I'll quiz you on their ingredients and packages. You can keep playing this game. Wasn't that a game on the prices, right?
00:34:03
Speaker
You know, one thing you were just saying that made me think about, you know, in raising a child, like,
00:34:09
Speaker
And I remember when our child was, you know, three or whatever, or up until five, basically, in those first couple of years, you couldn't give them anything you were eating, because they're only eating real, healthy, good foods. You know, and you're like, no, don't, don't give them that. And I remember sitting there watching, I go, why does the baby get all these great foods that are good for you? And I'm eating this garbage.
00:34:31
Speaker
It's a good question. Then five or six years old it flips to where you don't want to eat anything the kids are eating. Like it's all nuggets and hot dogs and macaroni and cheese with glow in the dark radioactive cheese. Unless you want to backhand some other companies. I think we all know which one we're picturing.
00:34:51
Speaker
I think it comes with a biohazard label on the back. Have you ever looked at kids menus and how bad kids menus are at most of the places? And is this a thing that... It's a cause for concern. What can we do to substitute for kids? Kids love salt.
00:35:10
Speaker
Kids, they don't like spice, for the most part. Now, some of you, before you get upset, I'm sure you've raised your kid eating exotic spices and your kid eats amazing, and that's great. Good for you. Most of the kids I've seen don't. They live on pizza, french fries. Welcome to North America. Yeah, and I get some hot dogs. So I'd love to learn some new tricks of how to start sneaking the healthy food in with kids to make it fun. Himalayan salt, you said, is one that's okay to try and get that salty thing.
00:35:39
Speaker
Are sweet potato fries? They're a much better option, especially if you can make them yourself. Now, you've got to read the ingredients because there are some sweet potato fries. They've got sweet potato. Oh, yeah? Read the ingredients. Well, making my own, it's just a sweet potato. If you're making your own, that's fine. But if you're going and you're buying it from a grocery store, you've got to read the ingredients because not all companies are the same. So if you get one with just sweet potato, that's fantastic. But usually you'll find there's
00:36:08
Speaker
fat added to it. There might be gluten. There might be different types of spices. There may be sugar, cornstarch. So you got to read the labels for everything. All right. Let me put you on the spot with this one. Missed notes so much. Okay. What's the difference between a sweet potato and a yam? Well, they would be two different types of tubers.
00:36:29
Speaker
go on. They look similar, but they're two different families. And is one better than the other? Are they both good for you? They're both good for you. Are they? Very high in vitamin A, which is fantastic. High in fiber if you eat the skin. So I could make a yam fries for my kid. That would be great. And now is there a? Or celeriac. Have you ever seen celeriac root? That sounds like something you should call your doctor if you have.
00:36:57
Speaker
Celeriac? Is that genetic? Does that run in fans? How do you get celeriac? It's celery root. Oh. Sounds like a horrible disease. It's fantastic though. You don't want me to make my own celery now, do you? This is getting a bit much. No, but the root, you can take it and when you cut it, it looks like basically a potato.
00:37:20
Speaker
So you can make your own celeriac fries. You can make your own mash with celeriac. And there's no carbohydrate content. It's got a lot of fiber in it. So it's fantastic for helping in terms of mimicking a fry. Gives you some great taste. Great in an air fryer. Love air fryers. Boom.
00:37:39
Speaker
So you're telling me I could air fry from some celeriac. Yeah. And that's going to come off looking like a French fry. Yes. OK, I like this. Now, what about a chicken nugget? What can I do to make a healthy chicken nugget? So I love using a little bit of pumpkin seed protein powder because it's very kind of nutty. And then you add in the spices like that you would for shake and bake, like your oregano, your thyme, maybe a little bit of black pepper.
00:38:06
Speaker
You know, whatever spices you want to chili powder cumin. If you want black pepper salt and you mix them all together and shake it up. It's like shake and bake. So you can make a coating of bread and coating out of that. If you're doing some type of, you know, if you want to use a gluten free flour. You could use like a rice flour or a buckwheat flour or coconut flour if you're keto. But I like using the the pumpkin seed protein powder because that's high protein.
00:38:31
Speaker
So I'm going to tell you a little something here that I did this week and I'm telling it hopefully to get stickers in my book. I want my brownie pints, my good stickers. So I was asking about the gym, what can you do, et cetera. I'll tell you what I did. I panicked.
00:38:47
Speaker
Yeah. And ran home because I was like, I'm going to eat something I shouldn't in the world. Yeah. So I ran home and I made two turkey burgers. Nice. And then I got a lettuce, a big piece of lettuce that I could use as a wrap. Yeah. And I put in a bunch of hummus in between turkey burgers and then some pickles, cut up some pickles. Beautiful. That double turkey burger with pickles and hummus lettuce wrap. Nice. And it had Big Mac qualities. The hummus and the pickles kind of came together.
00:39:17
Speaker
It was like a big taco. It was like a double turkey taco the way I held it in the end. Nice. And I got to tell you, my friends, if you're looking for a healthy emergency snack,
00:39:27
Speaker
There you go. That was a legitimate fix. That was, uh, that was something I enjoyed that I could eat again. Yeah. And again, I don't know who I am. I can't believe the things coming out of my mouth. I'm up at five 30. I'm making Turkey tacos out of lettuce and hummus. And if you like Thai food, you could actually make a Thai Turkey burger. So you take the Turkey burger.
00:39:52
Speaker
And you can use pumpkin seed butter or almond butter or cashew butter, depending on your name. Or all kinds of things you don't own. You could invent all kinds of foods that nobody has at home. They're actually already out there. Oh yeah, where did I put my pumpkin seed butter? Is it behind the almond butter?
00:40:13
Speaker
How do you not make your own Nutella? Okay. First of all, I didn't even know there was pumpkin seed butter until you just said pumpkin seed butter. Second of all, whoa, make your own Nutella. Talk to me.
00:40:26
Speaker
cocoa powder, pumpkin seed butter instead of like the hazelnut butter. Or you could get a natural hazelnut butter, but put your own cocoa powder in there and a little bit of stevia, a little bit of cinnamon, stir it all up. But I like the pumpkin seed butter for men because it has higher zinc content.
Cooking Techniques and Healthy Substitutions
00:40:41
Speaker
Sure, great. I'll just pop by the fantasy butter farm on my home. Can I get the steak butter? Just making up butters that exist.
00:40:51
Speaker
There's no way these are actual butters. They are. Okay, great. I'll have the Haagen-Dazs butter with the Butterscotch butter. You should be able to get it at Sobies. I've seen it at Sobies.
00:41:02
Speaker
That's plug some good places now. First of all, now we're going to have to plug some recipes in online. The Thai turkey burgers are awesome. I want you to show me how to make the Thai turkey burgers. I want you to show me how to make my own Nutella for sure, because that's going to be a hit. And then I want to see you make these fries out of celeriac. Awesome. You want to say that right? Yeah, celeriac. Yeah. So many recipes online.
00:41:32
Speaker
Isn't there medication for that? Yeah, I think that's right for you. This is crazy. Okay, well I'm excited now for some of these new foods because I'm getting really bored of the chicken-fish-veg combo. Absolutely. It's getting a little...
00:41:46
Speaker
And I know you don't like curry, because if you did... I'm learning to... I will eat anything right now that's not what I've been eating. Okay, because I've got some chicken curry kabobs that are done. I kind of modified a recipe. So on the recipe, it called for yogurt, but I use coconut yogurt instead. Okay, sure. Why not... Let's give it a try. Why not yogurt butter? They were so good. From the butter farm. From the fantasy butter farm. There we go. Coconut oil is still okay. It's not too processed.
00:42:16
Speaker
You want the extra virgin coconut oil, obviously. Or if you're going to grab an MCT oil, you want one from a good company. But generally, no. I thought extra virgin was just for olive oils. It's also for coconut oil. Coconut oils. Get more labels to read, everybody. Well, it usually will say it right on the main package. Yeah, yeah. You want to promote if you're an extra virgin. Yes, yes. One thing I know about virginity is if you're an extra virgin, let people know.
00:42:45
Speaker
I'm sorry. It hurts. This is not as fun. It was great changing the diet. That part was, you know, as much as it was, you know, uncomfortable. Yeah. It was fine. I've embraced it. The going to the gym part.
00:43:00
Speaker
So for those of you who are hanging in with me, this week was the first week in the gym. And it was just an overall strength exercise routine. It was targeting some body groups. First day was shoulders. The second day was back. Third day was legs. Fourth day was chest and tris. And then day five was biceps and shoulders combo again tomorrow.
00:43:26
Speaker
will be hamstrings and glutes. And then a Sunday will be a day of rest naturally, as the good Lord intended.
Strength Training and Fitness Goals
00:43:35
Speaker
So we're starting with that, but as we move forward, so I found my muscles, they feel okay. The joints, the tendons, the ligaments, they're all a little creaky, a little noisy. Is that sort of how it goes in the beginning?
00:43:49
Speaker
Yeah, and there are better exercises for building the ligament strength and the tendon strength versus muscle strength. But we care more about the tendons and ligaments. Those are the ones that we want to focus on for overall health and longevity. So if you're looking for, hey, I want to make sure that when I'm in my 90s and past that I can be very mobile, that I can live on my own, that I have a good quality of life, we really have to focus on those tendons and ligaments.
00:44:18
Speaker
And so David Thunder is going to give you some exercises that are going to focus on really boosting those tendon and ligament strengths and building on that. And I'm going to send him a jar of homemade mustard as a thank you. That's what I'm going to do now for people on their birthdays and stuff. Just this is a jar of mustard I've made from my own powdery garden. Not the turkey burger? No, no, they can get their own turkey burgers, but my signature homemade mustard, that'll be big, right? It's made from fantasy butters.
00:44:49
Speaker
Which is another business we're opening is the fantasy butter farm. Don't get all your exotic butters. This one's made of caramilk. This is a score butter. It's not a real plant. No, it's gonna be like blizzards now.
00:45:05
Speaker
which is they're going to be butters with their, this has got Reese's Pieces butter. Yeah. Well we can do cause I've got the Reese's peanut butter. Um, they're, they're actually pumpkin seed butter cups. Right. Because I know how you feel about peanut butter. Not going to bring it up again. So, uh, okay. So this week was about trying to get some strength training back. I'm going to do more strength training next week, right?
Balancing Workouts and Listening to the Body
00:45:27
Speaker
We're going to keep this going. Eventually we're going to start adding some cardio, like hit.
00:45:31
Speaker
For now, my cardio is just walking. So I've worked out five days a week. I've done cardio a couple of days a week, not all the days, because that's just not, because I've failed. Is that what you want to hear? Because I let you down, because I didn't do it right. I know I'm supposed to do cardio every day. I've done a couple of 40 minute cardio walks around the neighborhood. I prefer getting out for a walk at night as where I can, but then I was working and doing shows a couple of nights.
00:46:00
Speaker
And so I saved my energy for that. I made an executive decision. I'm sorry. You can take away a sticker, but, uh, only four stars instead of five. That's, you know, I want to work for it. I want to, I want to earn my stars. That's for sure. So I am going to continue this quest. Do you think that if there is a day where I had to do a weightlifting or a cardio, if I only had time to go to the gym and do one, which would you say is more important right now? And why two part question.
00:46:29
Speaker
I would say it depends. And right now it's going to depend on... That's what I said too. I came up with depends. But for an actual answer. For an actual answer, we're going to say, okay, what you're going to assess is what are my most important goals?
00:46:47
Speaker
And what was my sleep pattern like? And what is my energy like? Because you don't want to be going to the gym on a day where you haven't had a lot of sleep and then push it. You want really good quality of rest for the muscles. So you want to make sure that when you're in the gym that you're rested, that you're fueled, that you're supported. If your goals are
00:47:09
Speaker
hey let's it's time to focus on building the muscle up a little bit then great go to the gym and get that in and get the strength workout in but if the goals are hey I want to just relax a little bit maybe if you haven't slept very well the night before you've got a really busy day and you need some stress relief going outside for a walk especially in the morning time and getting the sunshine in your in your eyes
00:47:34
Speaker
that's really important. And so it would really depend on what the goal was for that moment in time. And I would check in, check in with your body and say, okay, body, like, okay, what do I want to do today? What's going to honor and nurture me more? Is it, yeah, I feel really pumped to get into the gym and work out with those weights, want to put some size on, maybe watch, you know, a few of those little videos on, you know, Instagram of people working out and looking fantastic. Um, or you're kind of like, you know what,
00:48:01
Speaker
Just a little bit mentally exhausted and feeling better like it would feel better to just go for a walk. My body and I are still only speaking through an intermediary right now. My body's not thrilled with me just yet, not just for how I've treated it all along. I mean, there's some history between us.
00:48:20
Speaker
The walking in. My body, based on what's happened at the gym this week, I can tell my body still has a chip on its shoulder and has not quite forgiven me. So we'll try to talk. We'll see. It's not returning my calls. My body is still just basically saying no. Well, you did ghost it for a while. I did. And then I suddenly dragged it to the gym and threw it in a cold shower. So it's just like, what are you doing?
00:48:46
Speaker
There's very strange trust levels between my body and I right now. But hopefully those will heal in time now that I know I'm going to live till I'm 90. When in doubt, go for a walk. If not 100. When in doubt, go for a walk. There it is. There's the takeaway, everybody.
Encouragement and Conclusion
00:49:02
Speaker
When in doubt, make your own mustard. Go for a walk. And dream up a new butter. There's one out there waiting for you. As long as it doesn't have peanuts in it, Dr. Val will like you. That's right. Okay.
00:49:15
Speaker
Well, that's enough for this week because I'm tired.
00:49:19
Speaker
Because you were at the gym. Because I was at the gym on five hours sleep from doing the comedy shows. But I got to tell you, all in all, I feel a lot better and I feel younger. I feel years younger than I did six, eight months ago. I feel better than I have in a while. So if you are considering changing your life, A, do it, B, if you need help, reach out to Dr. Val. Or, you know, you can listen to me.
00:49:47
Speaker
I just make it up as I go along and give you permission to do whatever you want. Yeah, that's right. Have a drink. Have a drink if you want one. Do what you want. Listen to your body. Yeah. Listen to the crashing blood sugars. So yeah, there's my takeaway. I got to learn to turn the noise into feedback. Yeah.
00:50:07
Speaker
And I got to learn to continue to speak body. I've got months to do it. I can do it. I mean, and I can do this phase now. I like it. I feel younger. I feel better. I'm going to keep going. And honest to goodness people, if I can do it, you can do it. I swear to gosh. If you've watched me live for the last 20 years, you'd be like, there's no way that guy's ever getting healthy. And the jury's out. So far, so good. Thanks again, doc. Thanks. See you next week. See you next week.
00:50:40
Speaker
Do you save Dave? Do you think that he'll behave? Or do you think he will cave? Listen in, he's back in school! It's his funny buddy's Dr. Val's rules!