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#43 - From Flat to Flow: Movement as Medicine & Recovery as Training
34 Plays9 days ago
I’m twenty days from a 20-mile trail race and on a mission to drop 10 pounds—no guessing, no “good enough.” In this episode, I break down the shift: a new diet, the food scale as non-negotiable, and every gram with a purpose. I unpack the six-day full stop, the three-week rebuild from burnout, and how I treated recovery like training—sleep, hydration, mobility, boundaries—so the system could come back online.
Then we go straight at the truth most people dodge: movement creates energy. I’ll share how deliberate walks, easy runs, and controlled sessions flipped the switch from “flat” to “firing,” without blowing the fuse.
If you’re drained or drifting, steal this playbook: weigh it, plan it, move anyway, and stack small wins until the engine roars.
Inside this episode:
- The 20-day countdown strategy for a 20-miler
- Cutting toward -10 lbs with precision (food scale > feelings)
- The burnout reset: 6 days off, 3 weeks rebuilding
- Recovery as training: sleep, hydration, mobility, boundaries
- Why targeted movement is the medicine when you’re flat
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Mindset Mutiny and Personal Insights
00:00:21
Speaker
What's up everybody? Mike Ivanov here with Mindset Mutiny. Sunday afternoon, 428 p.m. And I'm sitting on the ground here on the and the carpet, you know, ah Spent a lot of time on the floor, stretching and, you know, I feel comfortable there. You know, jujitsu is all on the floor. or So, i you know, I feel like I've grown accustomed or feeling happy sitting on the floor because it's such a happy place for me. So there's like a good correlation there to being seated on the floor. and
00:00:54
Speaker
At times that, you know, i enjoy myself. um So anyway, that's just a small little factoid
Teaser of a 4 a.m. Run Story
00:01:01
Speaker
for today. So I had a long run today. ah Woke up at... geez
00:01:09
Speaker
3.30 in the morning, got some miles in, but I'm going to do a separate podcast on that because was pretty wild. Out in the middle of the night, you know, ah I'd say, well, not the middle the night, 4 a.m.
00:01:21
Speaker
Was running through complete darkness in the woods through a ah working farm. So a lot of animals and anyway, I'll
New Podcast Format and Identity Challenges
00:01:30
Speaker
get into that another time. So anyway, i'm sitting on the floor here stretching, figured I'd get a podcast.
00:01:34
Speaker
Going got dinner tonight with Devin. She's scheduled Some time for us to spend which so appreciative of because if she didn't do it Might not get done and it's very very important for us um And I have a lot to work on there so I've just been reflecting and just going over some of the facts of the week.
00:01:57
Speaker
um And I was just kind of thinking a little bit further that we're on like the fourth week of the new format for the podcast. And the reason that is, is the podcast for me was really starting to feel like a burden.
00:02:11
Speaker
um It's a lot to do on top of everything else that I'm trying to do. So like the last thing I want to do is sit here and, you know, document my week and what I've done and how that, you know, is going to either improve my next week or take away from the previous week as far as, you know, my mindset and performance goes. Um,
00:02:36
Speaker
So yeah, it's just been a lot. um But now i'm trying to kind of with the new style, I'm trying to reframe that thought and trying to enjoy doing the podcast and look at it as more of a,
00:02:52
Speaker
like a review of the notes of the week, like an after action report. You know, I always talk to people about how important it is to kind of reflect on every day and then on every week and every month and every year and then a series of years. so So you can just make sure you're optimizing.
00:03:06
Speaker
um
00:03:09
Speaker
So yeah, but the problem you know with the podcast for me was, felt like I was, the reason for the new format, is I felt like I was trying to like just be like everybody else's podcast.
00:03:20
Speaker
um Mine's not necessarily like a podcast podcast. Of course, like I want to have some more visitors and when I get that you know all worked out, I'm going to get the second microphone working and it's probably really easy for a 20-year-old kid.
00:03:33
Speaker
Maybe I should ask one. um So when I get there, I'd like to have some guests, but I just want to make it about like my own thing. Just my training week to week, what I'm doing mentally week to week and maybe a little bit of my life in there. We'll see how that goes. But, you know, i'm more than just the guy who wants to yell at you over the microphone. And to be honest with you,
00:03:59
Speaker
Well, yelling at people doesn't really work. It may be temporary like for motivating them, but it's not how it works. The real way to get that to work um is to make people think.
00:04:14
Speaker
you know and When you can provoke that thought on why they should get better or you you find some angle you can help them with, get in the mind to think is what's really important.
Learning from Historical Figures and Quotes
00:04:27
Speaker
You know, for me, when I've been going on this journey, self-improvement and and everything else that's cooking, I just find that the more I work on me, the better.
00:04:38
Speaker
But, you know, I always look at people's notes on that, you know, and and however they break the journey down. And I try to take a little bit from everybody else's game and try to bring it to one place and try to give everybody the truth on what works.
00:04:52
Speaker
um Rather than trying to for me, I was like, pretend trying to figure out like, pretending what I knew, out like pretending I knew what I was doing. um You know, I'd always like try to be like, nah, nah, nah, I think I got it and and being stubborn and that's my ego.
00:05:05
Speaker
So now when I'm hearing how other people have done it and yeah I really start to study that. And, you know, even, you know, for example, this book I'm reading right now, I talked about rest. All the things from, you know, these Nobel Prize winners, Winston Churchill, all how these people operated.
00:05:20
Speaker
I've been studying their routines and trying to take things away from from that to try to make my routine better. So you come here knowing that like every day I'm studying to try to figure all this out.
00:05:32
Speaker
And I'm looking for every angle. So for me, I just try to save you some time ah So you can continue on with your own lives and do your thing I'm just telling you what I'm discovering and that's from how I think to what I read What kind of exercise I'm doing, you know and what I'm training for?
00:05:48
Speaker
It's different stuff like that and I want to read you a quote. I think that kind of wraps it up beautifully and I'll just you know give you a second to kind of listen to it, but this is how it reads and Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored for.
00:06:13
Speaker
going read again.
00:06:16
Speaker
Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored for.
00:06:27
Speaker
good one. That's Socrates, 399 BC.
00:06:36
Speaker
That's 2,424 years ago, and it's still relevant today.
00:06:46
Speaker
This is the stuff I'm talking about. I'm not just trying to pretend like I know what I'm doing because I don't. So I got to find the information from these guys.
00:07:01
Speaker
guys in the philosophy area. i mean I'm pretty sure Pretty sure Socrates was the founder of Western psychology. Philosophy.
00:07:12
Speaker
Fuck that up. Anyway, no edits. That's how I do it. and And that's something I want
Diet, Training, and Energy Levels
00:07:19
Speaker
to leave you with, right? So let's get started into my week. Pretty happy with how it went.
00:07:24
Speaker
You know, you know I'm on a new diet. And I got to tell you, there's some some real, real good things happening for me. And I think I'll review kind of kind of a like the diet kind of summary of like kind of what i'm doing um you know look through the macronutrients and stuff but i want to start with how my week went you know because i'm getting back to really ramping it up you know i got let's see probably 20 days out from that 20 miler trail race and uh
00:07:58
Speaker
Monday did jujitsu that went great felt great Tuesday I had a morning run it's a four-mile morning run and then Wednesday ah hit another seven-mile run And Thursday I woke up, I wanted to do another big run.
00:08:15
Speaker
oh i i just, I woke up. I was like, I got to play it smart. I got to not run. And I went back to bed and got three hours more of sleep.
00:08:26
Speaker
I think that that was a really important thing for me to do. And I was going to see if I could recover quick and be able to get running Friday, Saturday. Wasn't planning on running Sunday.
00:08:38
Speaker
So it was hard for me to pull up pull up the shoot on Thursday. um But what I ended up doing was resting, bought some more energy. Friday, I was able to get into the gym and lift the shoulders.
00:08:54
Speaker
And then I ran two miles on the treadmill. And I thought that was going to be the end of my week. I thought I was going to be kind of done there.
00:09:03
Speaker
But sorry, my ah my throat's dry from that run today. I sucked in some bugs and the allergies are bad. A little stuffy here. i apologize. But Friday, i was happy because was able to get back in the gym and get a lift in. And I've been really kind of worn out and tired and and haven't been recovering enough to really be doing that. So that felt really great.
00:09:25
Speaker
um Saturday, you know, I did my thing, went to the farm, had a coffee, relaxed, met up with Devin. We went to the beach, which was awesome.
00:09:36
Speaker
Beautiful weather. Gave me some nice time to recover. Yeah. think we were there four hours maybe. lot of sun, did some swimming. The what water was beautiful, wicked warm.
00:09:51
Speaker
But Sunday had no intention of really doing anything until about halfway through the day. Saturday, i was driving by one of the farms I like to go for trail runs at.
00:10:03
Speaker
And think it was, i don't know, maybe like noontime. And I was like popped into my head like man you should go for an early morning run there tomorrow and only do like four miles or whatever that was the plan.
00:10:18
Speaker
So like when the mind, for me, when the mind does something like that, it comes up with an idea. used to like long time ago, four or five years ago, I used to kind of slap that idea out of my head and, you know, make some excuse as to why I couldn't do that. But in fact, I could do that. I just, who wants to go to bed early on a Saturday to wake up super early on a Sunday to go for a run when, know, I mean, you probably could be resting or, you know, nobody would know you'd be sleeping in.
00:10:49
Speaker
So when an idea like that pops into my head, that goes for anything, right? I just have to say, yep, okay, we're doing it. So you know I instantly he instantly jumped on social media and just said, hey, I'm going for a run tomorrow at like whatever, 3.30 in the morning. I gotta to get up and I'll be on the trail by four.
00:11:08
Speaker
is what it is. So I put it out there because I know now I have to do it. Because I know like that evening, come like six, seven o'clock, I'm not going to want to go to bed and wake up at 3.30 in the morning go do this.
00:11:21
Speaker
So put it out there. And that's kind of the way that I hack my way towards some of these things, right? Where I'll put it on social media, and if I say it, you know I'm going to do it. And it works the same in my you know in my inner circle. I tell people I'm gonna do things, and because I say it, I'm going to do it.
00:11:36
Speaker
And that's one way to kind of help you move forward into that fear, because if you're a man of your word or woman of your word, which you should be, you know, you'll use it to motivate yourself and to move yourself forward by telling others where you want to go. So also they'll hold you accountable to it.
00:11:53
Speaker
So I put it out there. And I'll tell you, that feeling came because I was on the beach at like 5.30, 6 o'clock. We went for a late, like, um Devin packed up like a nice little picnic. It was great.
00:12:07
Speaker
But we got there early enough to be able to get some real good sun and for me to go swimming. So had a great, great evening, kind of relaxing, recovering. But I get back to the house and I'm like, man, I got to go to bed.
00:12:19
Speaker
like I start getting that whiny little bitch feeling rolling in. Start feeling bad for myself and then I feel like, ah, you know, I don't have to do it. I won't do it. But, oh shit, no, I told people I had to do it. Ah, I just, you know, no one will ask me, right? I'm like, fuck that, bro. Let's go to bed.
00:12:34
Speaker
So the whole time I've always wanted to do it. I, you know, I was prepared to go to bed, but the mind is just sitting there like talking. and And, know, luckily now for me, I can, I can pick up on that, you know, whereas back in the day I couldn't.
00:12:49
Speaker
So I can pick up on that and I can just kind of handle it the way I need to handle it. And that and that's just keep your feet moving, right? So kept my feet moving, I got in bed and tried to settle down for a little bit of rest. I couldn't fall asleep right away. it was kind of like excited, but a little nervous, you know, running in the complete darkness underneath the headlamp through the woods. and through a working farm where you know there's animals and you know whatever kind of was bugging me too right so i'm like that's this a stupid idea but hey listen i said i was going to do it you know what we can handle it whatever comes our way we're going to handle it right that's the whole point of everything i've been doing so
00:13:28
Speaker
Woke up 3.30 this morning, got that run finished. But I'm really excited because I had finished my week thinking that you know Saturday and Sunday were gonna be complete rest days and that I wasn't gonna be able to do any any movement those days. See, I got Jiu Jitsu tomorrow.
00:13:46
Speaker
But because of the diet, like I feel like I've been really able to recover faster and because of the attention I'm really paying towards it, and we'll go over the macros in a little bit here, and And we're only one week in, but I'm already down two pounds, which is, you know, which is really great um because we all know that I'm trying to lose some weight to be able to recover faster.
00:14:06
Speaker
And that was suggested to me by a professional. So very important to mention that. So I didn't have any plans to be able to run. And I ended up getting like, when I think I finished up, I said I was gonna like, oh I'll be all right with 13 or 14 for the week. And then ended up finishing up at 21 miles this week, total of three hours and 34 minutes of running. so 21 mile a week.
00:14:32
Speaker
ah that's That's awesome. I think that is the best week I've had. That's the best week I've had in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 weeks. And that was out of a ah zero mile week before. that's, excuse me, I'm really happy about that.
00:14:50
Speaker
I'm telling you man Breathing All that stuff In the woods Is really Really affects My respiratory system i don't know if I could do it every day This run on the street Seems to be a little bit Better on my lungs But um Whatever. So I ended up having a really good good week, a 21 mile week, got jujitsu in once, you know i want to do it twice a week again, but I got to power it down a little bit, turn the switch down, ah the dial, right, so that I can get to this race and in good condition, you know. ah
00:15:22
Speaker
you know what's funny is I've been in denial about it for so long, and I've been talking to Ben Kelly, and he's like, dude, you're not going to want to hear my advice. I'm like, what? He's like, you got to relax on the jujitsu before this race. And as usual, Ben is right, and I sometimes have a hard time listening to that.
00:15:40
Speaker
um But what's really interesting to mention, right, is Friday night, I got home from work and I was picking up on some of the symptoms that I had written down last week of like what ah you burnout kind of felt like or being overtrained or whatnot.
00:15:59
Speaker
Kind of felt like mentally. So I was experiencing some of those things. i was having some brain fog. i was having some hard time listening. You know, Devon was trying to talk to me and i was having a real hard time listening and you know, i could just pick up on that. I wasn't able to really kind of digest what she was saying. It kind of making me anxious. um So i was kind of anxious last night and I said, you know what, I know what this is and that's why I pulled the shoot on Saturday and said
Adjustments for Better Nutrition
00:16:25
Speaker
I need to recover. So what's cool about this week is I've paid a lot of attention.
00:16:29
Speaker
to training energy levels and absolutely like cranking the diet in tight. Like I'm talking tracking every bit of food with a scale and even, you know, even like logging Altoids. That's how I know you're locked in, right? When you're logging your Altoids, that's when you know your diet is locked the fuck in. And, you know, i got down to 200 pounds May, it was like May 1st.
00:16:54
Speaker
And I've been like probably on a month of like weighing my food really tight like I am now. And then i went to Mexico. it was it May or March?
00:17:09
Speaker
I can't remember. Hold on. Let me check. When I was at my lowest, just want to be positive here. Just give me a second. Let pull up the weight app here and check it out.
00:17:22
Speaker
So, you know, I got everything tracked for, let's see, today's going to be 2,181 days I've been tracking my food, but there's tight tracking and loose tracking, right? Like, so loose tracking would like, hey, I'm estimating like what I'm eating. I'm tracking every bit of food I'm eating.
00:17:40
Speaker
Just kind of going by approximations by eye, like blah, blah, blah, which is, you know, some people are like, that's miserable. I would never want to do that. Well, that's just, that's like beginner level shit. You know, like I was doing that. I'm going to get you the lowest body weight. Sorry, I get, always get distracted here.
00:17:57
Speaker
Okay, I got down to 199.3. one ninety nine point three I'm right now. 199.3 April 25th, and then I started climbing back up to 205. I had a high weight of 206. Yeah, so I'm playing with five pounds here of fluctuation because I didn't really lock in as tight as I needed to.
00:18:20
Speaker
um So yes, I ended up building my weight up from 200 to 205. But when I was at 200, remember i remember really like really tracking tight, right? So that was like weighing my food, um tracking all sorts of any little ancillary item, any little drink, anything that goes in the body that's not water,
00:18:41
Speaker
was getting tracked down to the gram, every single thing. And that's where I'm at right now. And that's, ah you know, flipped that switch on what, Monday started.
00:18:52
Speaker
Now I'm down two pounds. I got energy levels through the roof. Very, very interesting. there's a lot going on in my body right now. I'm fucking jacked the fuck up, which is really great I'm excited about.
00:19:03
Speaker
Whole new level of energy while still being able to train pretty hard. You know, sitting here today, geez, a long week after a long week. 20 miles in the bank, like I feel pretty good um mentally as well.
00:19:19
Speaker
So body and mind feels good. So I'm excited for Jiu-Jitsu tomorrow. But let's go over like where I could have improved on my diet. I got my journal here. I spent some time Yesterday morning, kind of analyzing my diet for the week and how I did well and what I didn't do well at. So total calories was 2,456.
00:19:39
Speaker
My average protein was 156 grams. That was my weekly average. That's not great. In fact, it should be one gram per pound of body weight. I weigh 205, and then I'm beating the crap out of my body, so I need to really raise that protein number.
00:19:56
Speaker
So I'll have to find a solution. I have a solution a little bit further down here that I kind of wrote down. So as a way to bring the protein number up, and I'll share that with you in a minute.
00:20:10
Speaker
Actually, let me just look down here. Okay, so I ended up figuring out that I could add more tuna and more sardines and have hard-boiled eggs on hand. So if you have hard-boiled eggs on hand, you like when you're hungry, you can just go to the fridge and get something good as opposed to like having like whole separate meals.
00:20:28
Speaker
Right so I can raise my protein level by keeping hard-boiled eggs on hand and I did Start adding like sardines to my salad my wife will make a great salad And I'll add some sardines to it to kind of get that extra protein in and that fish. It's pretty healthy so 206 grams of carbs was 156 grams of protein which is 32% and 206 grams of carbs, which is 36 I think I'm gonna to 40 like to see 250 carbs i think i'm try to get up past forty like to see like two hundred and fifty carbs But I felt good this week on this diet.
00:21:02
Speaker
So that's kind of interesting how to think about. So I felt pretty good. All what else we got here? I'll just keep an eye on the time. 83 fats, 30%. So grams of protein, grams of carbs, fats.
00:21:20
Speaker
need to have a hundred fats. All right. So I got to come up a little bit. So I need to eat a little bit more carbs, a little bit more protein and not more fat, a lot more protein actually for probably 40 grams is what I'd be looking for.
00:21:35
Speaker
Anyway, all in all good week, feel great. You know, couldn't be happier. So I like reporting those, kind of those informational items as, um,
00:21:47
Speaker
Last week or the week before, it wasn't like things weren't going good, right? So you can see how quick you can turn something around when you like pay deep attention to it, right? I was in bed three weeks ago. i was in bed, smoked, totally out of gas. And I've addressed a few things.
00:22:02
Speaker
Diet, been more strategic about my rest and really, really paying a lot of attention to how I'm feeling. So really, really happy with the progression. And it's because I've been studying.
00:22:13
Speaker
I've been seeing what works. I've been journaling. I've been writing down every detail. Like, I mean, I just read down in my journal. These are like notes I took throughout the day, time where I'm like literally looking back and reflecting on the math of what's going on. You know, I'm not like, oh, I'm on a diet and like, you know, fucking around, looking and happily estimating, right?
00:22:32
Speaker
Because you're always off. That's the problem. You're always off. And then you end up eating like At the end of the week, 2,000 more calories, 3,000 more calories than you should have because you weren't tracking right. And that's you know that's a full day of eating pretty much. If you're not like if you're not really cranking the exercise, it's not going to go well.
00:22:51
Speaker
So that's why it's so important so to keep an eye on your maintenance calories. So for me, really, right now, I'm eating a lot of ground beef, eggs, sardines, do a lot of like romaine, romaine salads.
00:23:04
Speaker
I'll add blue cheese onto the ground beef. like oh And it's a really good blue cheese from like a cheese specialist up there in Wenham, Vin Formage. I tell you I go in there and they have some of the best blue cheese, 30, $40 a pound, just top quality. It's always rotating and super local stuff. Like I had a mocha blue cheese from there and it literally had like mocha coffee on it. Like it was, it was delicious.
00:23:33
Speaker
And I've been killing the pickled onions. So I'll make my own. I love doing it. uh,
00:23:41
Speaker
I end up adding a little bit of white vinegar, little bit of apple cider vinegar. ah Instead of sugar, like, you know, from like the bag, I end up adding Vermont maple maple syrup.
00:23:53
Speaker
ah Super, super awesome addition. And then I add a little bit of water and some spices. I like some garlic spice, maybe some chives, a little bit of Kalima sea salt.
00:24:06
Speaker
And just take note, you got to look up Kalima sea salt. It will change your life. Like if you go like you go on like a salt journey, which I have over the last five years, you know, you know like start with Himalayan and you're like, well, some people start with like Morton's, right? Which is you're killing yourself, right? If you're using Morton's sea salt, like...
00:24:25
Speaker
You want to have a problem. It's fucking crazy, right? So the next step up, I think my mom and dad use Morton's sea salt. I've still been working on them with the salt. I have to check in because they've been weighing all their food and they're fucking crushing it.
00:24:39
Speaker
My mom can do like legit up and down pull-ups like better than most men. And yeah, it's just great. My dad was down like 60 pounds. I think you he's lighter than he was in high school.
00:24:51
Speaker
to talk to them about their salt. But you start with Morton's, right, as a kid or whatever. And then when you start to have some sense about you or you can kind of like do your research on salt, you end up with Himalayan.
00:25:02
Speaker
And, you know, Himalayan salt for some people is like, oh, this is the best salt, you know, you can find. But later on in your journey, you'll find Celtic sea salt. which is like pretty gray and it's kind of wet.
00:25:13
Speaker
um It's harvested right off the beaches. I don't want to butcher. I thought maybe England, but you'll have to double check me. Celtic sea salt. But I was like, I got to find the best salt, like all around best.
00:25:24
Speaker
And I came to Kalima sea salt. um Absolutely delicious. It's the brightest white. It's hand hand harvested. ah On the beaches, I believe it's in Mexico. Yes, Mexico.
00:25:39
Speaker
Dos Soles, maybe? and Don't quote me.
00:25:43
Speaker
Definitely don't quote me. Kalima Sea Salt. That's the best salt. So I add that to the pickled onions. Long story short, right? Five minutes talking the pickled onions. But then I get some olives that have been fromage. They have great ones as well. And they do still have some really good, like, tuna fillets there. Canned tuna fillets, which is easy to add to a salad.
00:26:03
Speaker
And it's way better than the grocery store crap. So I don't think they get it from the United States. I'd have to check the label on it, but it's definitely not from the United States. um It's cool. It's like a cute little wine store with all this like beautiful...
00:26:21
Speaker
meat cheese artisan goods great breads um i mean it's an experience i i've definitely not given vin fromage enough time because it's like i walked into france uh when i walk in that store it's it's awesome and everybody there really cares Um, they make me feel like they know me, which makes me also feel great.
00:26:45
Speaker
Um, but maybe they do know me. I certainly know they know the passion for my blue cheese. Uh, cause I tell everybody everything. And like my wife says, I, um, my diet is my personality sometimes, right?
00:27:00
Speaker
Which is ground beef and blue cheese. Um, take that however you want. Um,
00:27:08
Speaker
So tomatoes, peppers, sauerkraut, berries, oranges, cucumber, added rice in. I was really staying away. was staying away a lot from vegetables and staying a lot away from rice, which just probably why didn't have a lot of energy because I wasn't consuming enough carbs, which is a little diagnosis that I've kind of made from changing up the diet, kind of paying attention to energy levels.
00:27:29
Speaker
But... When I have rice, because of Ethan's plan, you know, I used to do like a cup of rice. He was recommending some three-quarter cup. um So I'm implementing that depending on my energy levels.
00:27:42
Speaker
So I'll alter rice size servings, which has been really, really helpful. And rice cakes with yogurt. Greek yogurt and like pumpkin seeds with honey is another one that's been really helpful.
00:27:59
Speaker
um But that's pretty much all i'm eating. And like everything is whole food. So everything is one ingredient food for the most part. um And that has been a big thing too that I've changed.
00:28:10
Speaker
So really excited about that. I mean, don't let me get you wrong. Let me get it wrong. Like I was eating some like as best as you could, but once every Friday after jujitsu, I'd have a half a freshetta frozen gluten-free pizza with pepperoni on it. That was like my one thing. And I've been skipping that.
00:28:30
Speaker
And yes, I'm sad about it, but a whole food diet is the way to go. And that's how I feel my best. I mean, I can just feel my hormone levels are like in a really good place, right?
00:28:42
Speaker
For... for those men who want to talk about their hormones so anyway i'm going to run through my supplement list just because i think that's important for people to know i've built this supplement list over this last six years and it's been optimized and i feel that it's like it really is extremely, extremely
Overcoming Mental Barriers in Training
00:29:00
Speaker
good. So if you're wondering anything about supplements, what supplements should I take or anything like that, I mean, I have, this has been and tested on me for five years and I feel my best with that, with this particular list. And some things have come on and some things have gone off, but I'm just going to run through it right now.
00:29:16
Speaker
This is a great stack. So I'll use protein powder. um i go with BPN. I like Nick Baer. So that's kind of a one that I get from him. My creatine, my L-glutamine, and my electrolytes, I all get from like supplement, bulk supplement warehouse.
00:29:33
Speaker
I just feel that that's the, you know, that's some things that you don't have to spend all the money on. um And my BCAs, right? I think I said that. BCAs, creatine, L-glutamine, all I get from bulk bulk supplement superstore or something like that.
00:29:48
Speaker
if you If you just Google bulk supplement creatine, they'll come up. They have like an orange label, like a guy, like a little stick figure in orange. That's their label. And then electrolytes I get from BPN. Again, Nick Baer, I think, has it dialed in.
00:30:02
Speaker
I really like what he does, and he uses all of his own supplements. started actually from a dorm room in his college and he turned it into a mega million dollar business um and he's got an amazing personal brand.
00:30:19
Speaker
Anyway, I also use collagen. And collagen I get from Momentus. It's a good quality company. I've even seen some of them, some of the times you go for a supplement and they'll be like, no, we removed it um because we didn't think that it would actually worked.
00:30:36
Speaker
um So I think that that's cool. So they kind of like use science to support what they sell versus just selling all sorts of, I guess, snake oil, which is out there. Yeah.
00:30:48
Speaker
I like that. I remember i was looking to try to buy um ah some sort of supplement that I was using. It was one that went with uh Fadoja Agrestis that's what it was it's for testosterone support um and you know it was like decent amount of money ah for supplement and they're like we stopped selling it because I would take that Fadoja Tonkat Ali and zinc together and they're like we didn't find enough evidence that Fadoja was you know good for you know what it says it's good for or for supporting our you know um
00:31:22
Speaker
Supporting our customer. So they felt that customers' money, they weren't getting what they, you know, they weren't getting what they were paying for. So Momentus took it off the shelf. So like that. So let's get into vitamins.
00:31:35
Speaker
I take a fish oil.
00:31:38
Speaker
I've been doing that for like the last two years and I definitely do notice a difference in joint health. um I was back and forth on fish oil for a little while. um But if you if you pay attention, i this is to sound funny, but
00:31:55
Speaker
Pay attention to your dosage um and you'll know if you have too much fish oil because your feces will be, I guess, feces will be sticky, right? So you notice that. So you can kind of moderate the right dosage based on what you're your your shit looks like, okay?
00:32:17
Speaker
Listen, man, I got everything down to science, all right? You could you know... based off of like that type of thing, that's a good signal to see how your diet is. Because if you know if you eat eat enough carbohydrate and then you're taking the fish oil, yeah you won't have an issue.
00:32:31
Speaker
So fish oil, I take D3K2, you can get it together. ah take a Momentus Essential Multi, which is their multivitamin. um I did some research again on Momentus and that multi, and it's better than most others. So I just don't really mess around. I so i don't I'm not really brand conscious with anything else. Well, actually that's a lie.
00:32:52
Speaker
I'm brand conscious with the following. The multivitamin, Tonkat Ali, methyl B12,
00:33:02
Speaker
and the zinc, Momentus, that's what I use. So I got fish oil, D3K2, Momentus Essential Multi, Tonkat Ali, Methyl B12, zinc, magnesium citrate, and I just added ashwagandha maybe about a month ago and seems to be good.
00:33:20
Speaker
Anxiety levels or seem to be great, um except for when I'm on the verge of burning myself out, then that's a trigger to me that I need to relax. But yeah, that's ah that's what we're doing, man.
00:33:32
Speaker
That's the stack right now. And I just gotta tell you, coming off a little rest period was definitely hard to get cranking it back up again. And I just want everybody to know that. um you know I was down for six days, seven days, and maybe a little bit more.
The Power and Benefits of Exercise
00:33:48
Speaker
um And then coming back, I could just feel my like my body, just like not wanting to wind it back up again. But more importantly, my mind. My mind was like really just being like stubborn about it and it was throwing all sorts of doubt at me like, oh geez, you know, you're not gonna be able to run all those miles when you get back since you've been off, you know, all all these things, all these stories we tell ourselves that aren't true.
00:34:13
Speaker
So when I got back to to exercising again, even though I was off six days, I came back so much stronger, felt way better. And what's great is if you listen to a couple episodes before this, you know I was doubting the rest, you know I couldn't find the answer.
00:34:29
Speaker
and i And I had to go out and I had to ask people and I had to share where I was struggling to be able help people fill in with the appropriate information so that I could get back to running at this capacity that I love to run at.
00:34:42
Speaker
And when I say run at, I mean function at. um So, you know, as you listen to the last three episodes, you'll see that there was some doubt in me believing in the process of rest. And and i'm I'm really buying into it. And it's showing in my performance, but more so...
00:34:59
Speaker
My diet as well, right? Where I Engaged with Ethan about my recovery, right? And he mentioned, hey, listen, I could do something for you Write you up a plan to address some of these things to help you recover And here it is So like I was having a problem I talked to some people about my problem I was having They gave me some advice. I listened to it. I executed on it. And now i'm sitting here, had an amazing had an amazing week.
00:35:23
Speaker
20 mile week, ran at 4 a.m. this morning for, you know, what, hour and 25 minutes, like crushing it right now. And I want you guys to be able to share in that. So these are kind of the facts.
00:35:37
Speaker
Energy, right, is generated through like and through exercise. I can feel it, right? When I was resting, I wasn't feeling great. I had to get back to like recovery, but like most of you that are sitting around every day, just go out and exercise. And I mean, it'll it'll change your entire world.
00:35:56
Speaker
it's um It's crazy to actually think about just the return on investment I've seen exercising. um is just so great. I have some yeah have some science to share on it too.
00:36:08
Speaker
Let me see if I can find it because I think it's important to back some of this stuff up with science. I think we have think we're doing it right on time. We're at like 35 minutes.
00:36:21
Speaker
I want to get all the important stuff in, so let me just find it on the computer here. had something laid out for today.
00:36:30
Speaker
All right, so here's some of the science on like energy being generated through like exercise. um There's like five things that we can know touch on quickly, but it's important to back up. like I always want to kind of back up what I'm saying and kind of where I'm getting it from, but this is like also what I'm studying because I'm like, oh my God.
00:36:52
Speaker
you know I did some things and I feel great this week. like Maybe it's just a coincidence, but then I like start looking, I'm like, all right, there's science to back that up, there's science to back that up, there's science to back that up. And then I'm making sure to take the accurate notes right here in the in the journal.
00:37:04
Speaker
and And then going through, like I just reviewed with you my macros for the week. like I'm trying to tweak it to be able to find the most energy. So selfishly, I can do whatever I want to do. So we've got 10 minutes here before I got to run out for dinner.
00:37:20
Speaker
We'll talk about mitochondrial activation, right? Exercise stimulates the mitochondria to produce ATP. And it even increases the number of mitochondria in your cells over time.
00:37:33
Speaker
That's what exercise does. So the more mitochondria you have, the better they function and the more energy you can generate on demand. So if you look at it like mitochondria equals more ATP equals more energy.
00:37:46
Speaker
It's pretty cool. So exercise can increase your mitochondrial density, leading to a higher energy availability.
00:38:01
Speaker
So energy generates, movement generates energy, right? Movement generates energy is how I'm looking at it. When I move and when I exercise, I have more energy. When I'm resting and I'm kind of like, you know, feeling bad for myself, I don't have any energy. And that's the whole problem, right? Where people are like, I can't get moving, I can't get rolling.
00:38:19
Speaker
It's like, just get up and move. Just go for a 20 minute walk. That's it. Go for a 20 minute walk for a week. All right. And do it for two weeks and then for three weeks and then for four weeks and then for five weeks.
00:38:30
Speaker
And then think about, hey, maybe I'll go for like, let's go see if I can do a six mile walk on a weekend or something. Right. And you just slowly push yourself. And if you're out there like running like me or anything else, just continue.
00:38:44
Speaker
Like if I'm going to do if I want to really get better, if I want to, I'm going to do 10 miles a week 10 weeks. for ten weeks And then I'm going up, right? So it depends. You just have to do that and you can slowly generate more energy.
00:38:58
Speaker
So endurance training can actually increase the mitochondrial density by 30 to 40%. And it only takes about six to eight weeks. So your cells literally will build more little power plants inside you.
00:39:14
Speaker
And with more power plants, you can burn more energy. So I find that to be very interesting. And then I mentioned the hormonal response, right? But there is science there, all right? So movement will trigger a cascade of hormones that wake you up, right? Quote, unquote, wake you up.
00:39:31
Speaker
Adrenaline, endorphins, and dopamine. So 20 minutes of moderate exercise can increase dopamine by 50%. And dopamine boosts that focus and the motivation.
00:39:44
Speaker
But this isn't cheap dopamine, right? It doesn't work with swiping on Instagram, right? That dopamine is gonna kill you. This is the positive dopamine, 50% increase when you exercise. So your endorphins, right?
00:39:56
Speaker
They spike during intense exercise. and And it's proven scientifically, right, that this endorphin hit from exercise, scientists will compare it to the effect of morphine on pain perception.
00:40:14
Speaker
That's fucking wild. So you don't need a pill, okay? Your body moving is the pharmacy for what you're dealing with. but you have to move to unlock it, right?
00:40:29
Speaker
Circulation and and and oxygen delivery. and Man, I'm dying over here. Let's talk about VO2 max.
00:40:42
Speaker
Your VO2 max right is your abilities your body's ability to use the oxygen. That can improve by 15% to 20% in three months. in three months
00:40:55
Speaker
In three months, you can improve your body's ability to use oxygen, VO2 max, in three months. Imagine if you had $100,000, okay?
00:41:08
Speaker
In three months, it'll just give you $20,000. You get a $20,000 return on investment in three months. You can do that with your body.
00:41:20
Speaker
Everybody take that other deal. Why don't you take this deal? Right? Because it's hard. You got to get fucking moving. All right? But 20% return. The more oxygen in the bloodstream, the more efficient the energy production.
00:41:34
Speaker
Okay? And the more efficiently you can produce energy, the less fatigue you deal with.
00:41:40
Speaker
That's why Ethan suggested to me, hey, dude, lose 10 pounds and you can recover faster. Lose 20 pounds and you can recover faster, right? The more efficiently you can use energy, produce energy, the less you're fatigued.
00:41:55
Speaker
All right. Neuroplasticity and mental energy. This is what I really want to touch on.
00:42:05
Speaker
Exercise increases a nootropic factor. It's a brain-derived nootropic factor. Okay, i don't understand what that means. It stands for BDNF, okay? It helps your brain adapt and grow new neural pathways.
00:42:20
Speaker
I always tell people, reading and running, if you research it, builds new neural pathways in the brain.
00:42:30
Speaker
I don't run because I love to run. I run for the effects of what it does for me. Okay, and that's why I read as well. I can literally build new neural pathways in my brain.
00:42:40
Speaker
The more BDNF, you have a better mood, you can think faster, and you have more mental drive. I'd say I have a good amount of BDNF in my fucking brain right now to go out and run at 4 a.m., seven miles, right?
00:42:56
Speaker
I couldn't always do that. I've been building more of that brain chemical in my mind with exercise and with doing the hard shit, okay?
00:43:07
Speaker
BDNF. will literally spike every time you exercise, and it literally improves every part of your brain function. I can feel it. A single workout can boost BDNF by 200% to 300%.
00:43:23
Speaker
It drives the learning, the memory, and the mental sharpness. i I didn't create that line, okay? That's from the book Frontiers in Neuroscience, all right?
00:43:35
Speaker
That BDNF levels can go up 200 to 300% from a single workout, and it helps you learn better, memorize things, and keeps you mentally sharp.
00:43:51
Speaker
Exercise has been proven
00:43:56
Speaker
20 to 30% in
00:44:02
Speaker
brain function. Sorry.
00:44:08
Speaker
Exercise improves the cognitive function 20 to 30%. Immediately post-exercise. That's what I'm trying to say. Sorry. Making a couple mistakes today.
00:44:24
Speaker
So literally...
00:44:27
Speaker
Working out, exercise, walking, any movement makes you smarter. You get fitter and you get smarter.
00:44:38
Speaker
How would you not want to try it? That's what exercise can do. That's I'm so passionate about it. And then lastly, it's definitely a use it or lose it type of situation. So your mitochondria will shrink and become less efficient.
00:44:55
Speaker
When you don't move, your hormone response will dull. you'll end up in like this low energy cycle where like inactivity breeds more fatigue.
00:45:07
Speaker
So because you're inactive, you keep feeling more inactive and it just keeps getting worse, right? So you can train your body to be a body that moves a lot or you can train it to be a body that doesn't move at all, all right?
00:45:22
Speaker
It's just two different ways of looking at it. When you sit on the couch, that takes work, right? i I can't sit on the couch. But for me to sit on the couch, I have to train myself to sit on the couch.
00:45:33
Speaker
But you can go too far into that training and you can never get off the couch. Or you can go the opposite way and just train your body to move and it just keeps moving and moving and moving, all right? Some people want to find a balance in that.
00:45:46
Speaker
Others want to just see how far they can move or how long they can move for. All right. That's kind of how I look at it. You might want to rewind it, listen to that again, but that's kind of the facts.
00:45:59
Speaker
So just two weeks. This is from the Journal of Physiology. Just two weeks of physical activity can reduce muscle mitochondrial efficiency by up to 25%.
00:46:15
Speaker
The CDC says that sedentary people are 60% more likely to report daily fatigue compared to active people.
00:46:28
Speaker
If you sit long enough and your body kills off its own engine, you literally are training yourself to be tired.
00:46:43
Speaker
That's the point I'm trying to make. When I talk about sitting on the couch, I say sitting on the couch for me is hard. Resting is hard. Okay.
00:46:56
Speaker
Training is hard.
00:46:59
Speaker
So I could train myself to sit on that couch, never fucking move, and then I would get good at it. I would get good at training myself to stay sedentary.
00:47:10
Speaker
Because that's a whole mindset. All right. But I can also train that same person to move all the time and to chase their goals and to do all these things if I change the way that they think.
00:47:23
Speaker
But you could train either way. You could train somebody to be sedentary. You could train somebody to be active.
00:47:30
Speaker
That's how the mind works. But it's just what are you going to consume so that mentally, what you eat, what you going to consume that the body can be more efficient in producing that energy?
00:47:44
Speaker
so that the training is easier to train it to move. It's more efficient. It's easier to produce more energy. When you can produce more energy, you can do more things.
00:47:55
Speaker
And it starts with sleep, diet, and then the exercise, right? Those are the three pillars. So that's a very important part for me. You have two options.
00:48:07
Speaker
You can train to have the energy or you can train to be slow. Which then means you're training yourself to actually be dumber, which is scary.
00:48:22
Speaker
Because if exercise creates more neural pathways, makes you smarter, makes you more cognitively aware, um if you don't do those things, you're allowing yourself to get dumber.
00:48:37
Speaker
and get more out of shape. So those are the only things for me. ah
00:48:44
Speaker
That's it. It's like a two-for-one deal. If you exercise, you'll get in better shape, and you'll be smarter. So get after it.