Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 396: 25 Habits for a HEALTHY 2025

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

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Welcome in everybody to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue Podcast. As always, I'm your host Danny Matrenga, and in this episode, I'm going to go into what I believe are 25 habits for the new year 2025 that can make a really big difference in your health in a few different areas. We're going to be talking about five different categories specifically. And those categories are your eating, your exercise, your lifestyle, the environment you live in, and your interaction with various products, and your mental health slash mind. I'm also going to unpack what having a kid is like as this is my first time sitting down in the recording studio and getting to a podcast since having my baby, who turns two months

old in just six days. So it's been nice. It's been fun. I've been away from the microphone for quite some time, but welcome back to the podcast, folks. Excited to dive back in. Enjoy the episode. This podcast has some awesome partners. And one of my favorite, of course, is Legion Athletics. Legion is my go to supplement manufacturer for what I like to call my big rock supplements. This would be my protein powder, my pre-training formula, my post-training formula and creatine,

and my kind of ancillary vitamins and micronutrient protection. So why do I like Legion so much? What sets them apart? It's quite simple. Legion uses all natural ingredients. All the formulas include natural coloring and natural sweeteners. No artificial sweeteners, just stevia. And every single formulation,

be it a pre-workout or a vitamin, contains clinically effective dosages of ingredients shown to work in humans in clinical research supported by robust trials. No filler, just legit ingredients in each and every formulation proven to work. The whey protein isolate is so light, it's fantastic, it mixes in water, it tastes amazing and I drink it every day even as somebody who's lactose intolerant. That's just how high quality this whey protein is and it's sourced from Irish dairy cows that are raised well, eat their natural diet and packaged in climate friendly packaging. I love their plant protein too for those of you who like something that's a little on the thicker side and you aren't a fan of animal products.

Also, I love Legion's pre-workout, but specifically the pre-workout that does not contain caffeine. That would be their Stem Free Pulse. I'm a huge huge fan of beta-alanine and L-citrulline, but I don't like taking in wildly high amounts of caffeine. So, if you are somebody who likes pre-workout with caffeine, you can try Pulse. Or if you like it without caffeine, because you maybe want to enjoy your morning coffee or monitor your caffeine consumption, try the Pulse Stim Free. My favorite flavors there for sure are the New Grape and the Amazing Amazing Tropical Punch. As for my creatine, I get that from Legion's Recharge. Five grams each and every day. I take it on the days I train as well as the days I do not because Recharge also contains

L-Carnitine, which can help with promoting muscle recovery and decreasing soreness, as well as some ingredients to help with creatine utilization. And of course, my favorite supplements for my ancillary micronutrient health are Legion's Multivitamin and Legion's Greens powder. Not only do these two products contain a ton of high quality vitamins and minerals, they also contain unique adaptogens like KSM 66 Ashwagandha and Raishi Mushroom,

which I like to take each and every day to promote my health. If you wanna cover all your bases with a high quality protein, creatine, post-workout, or the ancillary micronutrient health stuff like Greens Powders and Multivitamin, I encourage you to go over to legionathletics.com protein, creatine, post-workout, or the ancillary micronutrient health stuff like greens, powders, and multivitamin, I encourage you to go over to LegionAthletics.com and check out using the promo code Danny. That'll save you 20% on your first order and you'll rack up points that you can use the

same way as Cash every time you use the code and you'll also be supporting the show. So before we get into the 25 healthy habits I have for you for the year 2025, I want to download with you guys really quickly on what my transition into fatherhood has been like. If I want to keep it short and sweet, I will say so far so good. And I think that's because my relative expectation was that things would be really crazy. You know, when you are expecting or your wife is pregnant and you are about or your partner is pregnant, you're about to have a child, people will tell you quite a bit about how difficult it will be, how much it will impact your sleep.

And you know, so I, my wife and I both went into this, you know, expecting things to be quite challenging. And throughout the pregnancy, we were gifted with good health, good fortune, and we have the privilege of being able to eat healthy, to take care of our bodies. So my wife really navigated the nine months of pregnancy quite well. And on October 16, she had some really heavy contractions throughout the evening. We went to the hospital they were like, okay, you're five centimeters dilated at this point and You are gonna have this baby today. And so we were in the hospital for About six hours from start to finish from like when we checked into when my wife

Got the baby out, maybe seven hours, eight hours. So the labor was relatively quick and she did really well and you know we feel very fortunate and that's something that I think is unique about the situation is you have the opportunity to look at how challenging you know everything from fertility to pregnancy to childbirth to postpartum can be for a woman. And having trained so many women, I've seen that firsthand. And it's really challenging because every woman is different and every situation is unique and we felt that, you know, as far as, you know, when you take it all in and

all things are considered, we were very fortunate and we just felt that it went very well for our family. The baby's been here now for two months and he's breastfeeding gaining weight and allowing us to sleep for large chunks throughout the evening multiple hours sometimes as many as four hours without waking up for a feeding. So, you know, that feels pretty good too. And we're learning as we go. But so far, so good. This is actually my first time getting into the studio to record since having the baby. Everything you've heard for the last two months was pre-recorded because I really wanted to have that time to be at home and be with the baby, be with my family. And so yeah, now we're back on the microphone, focused on 2025,

excited to kind of revitalize the podcast here. And like I told you in the intro, these habits that I have are habits that I implement or I implement with my clients and that I think are generally sound recommendations. You can add to these. You can pick one from each category. You can try to shoot for all 25. Frankly, I think just a few will make a big difference. Again, dividing it into five categories, diet or nutrition, training or exercise, lifestyle, environment, and mind.

I think environment is a big one that not a lot of people talk about. And without getting too into the woo-woo, I definitely have some environmental health-related things that I've implemented that have made a really big difference for me. So I'd love to share those. Okay, first, let's go ahead and start with the food category. The first habit that I think will make a massive difference is to include plants specifically from the categories of fruit and vegetable and like tuber, AKA potatoes, carrots, include plants with every meal and that means like a full sit-down meal. This could

also just mean your lunch and your dinner. This could mean, you know, any time you sit down to eat. Why I think this makes a huge difference is three primary categories that benefit from the, you know, ingestion of more plant matter. The first is your blood lipids. Okay, This is your cholesterol. Fiber actually helps bile bind to cholesterol and it helps regulate cholesterol. Cholesterol is regulated by the ingestion of, partially by the ingestion of things like fiber and it can make a really big difference.

This is something that a lot of my clients struggle with because things like genetics can heavily influence our blood cholesterol level and it seems that eating more plants or more fibrous plant matter can help with this. The second huge benefit from eating plants with fiber at every meal is for your gut microbiome. You see, the bacterial organisms that line your gut are primarily looking to eat at least the good ones, things like resistant starch and fiber, fiber from

plants that have cellulose. The bacteria and yeasts and microorganisms that you don't particularly want on populating your gut love to eat things like sugar. So if you prioritize foods that, you know, are based in the plant kingdom, you have more plant foods, especially with each meal. It kind of allows you to get a little less sugar on the plate, sugar in the diet for various different reasons, the third of which we'll talk about in a minute, but it's amazing and tremendous for your gut and making sure that you're populating your gut with the right organisms.

The third benefit is the regulation of your blood sugar. Fiber helps with blood sugar regulation. A lot of people think about this as management of insulin. They want to avoid spiking their insulin. Eating more fiber can help regulate your insulin. It's just one of the many benefits. There's cardiovascular benefits, there's microbiology or microbiota specific benefits, and there's benefits specific to your pancreas, your blood sugar, diabetes management, just to name a few. With fiber

ingestion and if you move to eating plants with every meal, you will increase your micronutrient exposure, fiber exposure and benefit in some really big areas. Okay, the second thing, this is something I've been doing more lately and I can't tell you how big of a difference it's made in my digestion, how big of a difference it's made in my training quality. I train in the morning, fasted often and I tend to forget when I am in the winter because of the cold weather and the cold temperature. I often think to myself, okay, it's cold, I'm not thirsty,

so I drink less water. Or when it's hot, I guess I feel the heat and I go, okay, I'm thirsty, I'm gonna drink more water. So it's hot I guess I feel the heat and I go okay I'm thirsty I'm gonna drink more water so when the winter rolls around I often forget to hydrate but if I start my day with more water and I'll give you an easy number let's say between 30 and 40 ounces that's gonna give me a really nice head start as somebody who aims for about 100 ounces a day. You might not need 100 ounces a day. You might need more depending on your sweat rate, your activity, and your general thirst.

I like 100 ounces as a recommendation, but the habit is not to aim for 100 ounces daily. It's to aim for 40 ounces of water in the morning. This helps my training tremendously. This helps my training tremendously. This helps my recovery tremendously. This helps me get better pumps, especially if I have electrolytes in my water, which is something I like to do, very much optional, not something you have to do, especially if I train in the morning. And it helps my digestion, my bowel movements, regularity. And I find throughout the day my lips are less chapped, my skin looks better, my eyes look less puffy and baggy, and my digestion is better.

Why? Because I'm well hydrated, and it's so much easier to guarantee hydration on a daily basis when you start early. My third habit in the category of nutrition is specific to protein. Protein is really all the rage right now. Everyone's talking about it, not just in the bodybuilding, body composition, sports performance, strength sports space, but in the general health space.

I think what you're gonna see is more people in the coming years focused on muscle as an organ of importance. For many years, you would see people talk a lot about bone density and maintaining bone density see people talk a lot about bone density and maintaining bone density. And I do think that bone density is important, especially in women. But now you're seeing a huge push for the maintenance of muscle tissue and the development even of muscle tissue and strength in general population. Adults for a multitude

of reasons, primarily to stave off some of the losses of function associated with aging, things like bone density and sarcopenia. You get quite a bit out of exercise and eating more protein in those areas. And so a lot of people are conscious about eating more protein. And I will give you a tip that has really helped myself, my clients, and anybody really

who I know that wants to eat more protein is to take the total protein goal you have for that day. If you have a body composition goal, it might be something like one gram per pound. If you have a weight management goal, it could be between like 0.7 to one gram per pound. If you have a general health goal, protein and increase goal could be a half a gram a pound and that might be fluctuating depending on your current weight and body composition. But just take that total number you're aiming for and divide it into fours or into fourths and eat that protein total in four servings. Spreading your protein across the day is

great for managing blood sugar, hunger, which is very important for weight management, which is probably the principal issue Americans face. But it's also great for increasing protein synthesis and I think helping with recovering from training. It'll also make sure that you don't ever have to tackle too much protein at any one feeding, which can be really difficult.

So that third habit is, if you are not already dividing your protein for your performance, which many of you do, obviously that's something I'm gonna have my clients do, but if you're just like, hey, I wanna live healthier, hit that protein goal, yes, but spread it out a little bit. It will probably increase your ability to hit it on a day-to-day basis, and don't be afraid if you're like,

well, what if I'm having a steak later? If you're having a steak later you can just have more protein later in the day. So if you're splitting a hundred grams into you know four feedings and you have a steakhouse dinner plan you can have 25 in the morning 25 in the afternoon and combine the two 25 later to like something closer to 50. It doesn't have to be exact. You can have more than that quarter at each feeding. I tend to find that going over on protein for the general population is okay

and often is just going to improve body composition. Okay, the fourth tip I have for you is to, this is a nutrition thing, but it's also kind of a gadget thing. It's a household thing. It will probably be more relevant to many of the guys who are listening than the ladies because a lot of you have your kitchen skills down. But there are some technological gadgets that can really enhance your ability to enjoy healthier food.

Many people like using devices like air fryers or instant pot slash pressure cookers. I think often of the quote unquote ninja creamy, the ice cream maker that allows you to make ice cream with cottage cheese, honey, protein powder, and just develop incredibly thick texturally similar ice creams with ridiculously high proteins. And I go, wow, okay, we've really entered an era of enhanced technological capabilities

for our cooking. Things are easier than ever. We have the ability to cook multiple different types of foods in one implement. You can cook vegetables and protein in an air fryer at the same time. You can cook things faster. The excuses one might have for not being able to prepare nutrient dense whole food meals are limited when you have access to some of these technologies and gadgets. So I was at Best Buy the other day of all places and they have a massive section of kitchen tech.

And I would encourage going in and upgrading one to two or adding one to two pieces of kitchen tech that will increase the amount of food you cook at home and make cooking at home easier. It's hard to learn the intricacies of becoming a good chef. Being a chef and cooking are not the same thing. I think, you know, when one acknowledges their quote unquote, chefing it up, you know, you are, it's pseudo-artistic,

but it's also a science. There's certain types of cooking, like baking that are very scientific and precise. Some of the other types of cooking, like baking, that are very scientific and precise. Some of the other types are artistic, but if you're just trying to make healthy food, it's more of a mechanical thing than a skill thing. And having limitations like, oh, well, that's going to take forever in the oven, or I don't like cooking on the stove. You can neutralize a lot of that with some of these new cooking technologies.

And I think that's really, really cool. the stove, you can neutralize a lot of that with some of these new cooking technologies. I think that's really, really cool. My fifth tip in the nutrition department, and this is just such an easy habit to start with. You can literally just implement it today. It's a framework that you're eating is really just a combination of one meal at a time. So you can you can never get too high or too low on one meal because and you should really

never have a bad quote unquote day or blow it up because you can always get on track at the very next meal, the very next eating opportunity or yes in some situations the very next meal, the very next eating opportunity, or yes, in some situations, the very next day. So I would call this mindset like a next meal up or next opportunity mindset with food. A lot of you guys, this is more true for people who struggle with their health. When they have a meal and they enjoy a meal,

it's highly pleasurable, they know it's high in calories, they know it's maybe lower in nutrition than they want, they will get down on themselves. And that downward spiral oftentimes looks like having another meal that's not particularly healthy, having another meal, and so on. Binge eating disorder is actually the most common eating disorder in the country. And I would imagine that even if you are not diagnosed with binge eating disorder, the negative spiral a lot of people experience and feel frustrated with when they over consume foods they know aren't healthy, is a huge setback. But if you adopt this mentality that, hey, I'm on my very next meal, I can do better on my very next, the very next time I put something in my mouth, I can make a better decision. It's kind of like having a short memory with food, but I mean that in the very best of ways. It's like a quarterback who goes out and throws

an interception, but on the very next drive is not phased by that mistake. It doesn't affect or impact the quality of their play. They go out there on the very next drive and they lead a touchdown drive because they're locked back in after making a mistake. That would be how I would, like I said, you can adopt this mindset right now. You can try it with every meal you eat today. Okay, the second category is our exercise category. And the first one is pretty simple. It's more of a recommendation for the guys than the girls, but it's to actually do your conditioning work.

And so as a coach or personal trainer, you know, your certifications aren't nearly as important as your intentions and your skills. But you know, my primary certification is what is known as the CSCS, which stands for a certified strength and conditioning coach. And I will tell you this, even myself, I really, really falling to the trap. A lot of us do this of over emphasizing the strength and not emphasizing enough the importance of the conditioning, strength and not emphasizing enough the importance of the conditioning, strength and conditioning.

Okay? Workouts, training, strength and conditioning, same jargon, but conditioning is particularly important because strength represents anaerobic fitness. The development of strength in tissues that don't use oxygen or aren't dependent on oxygen to produce ATP. These are often muscle tissues. Our anaerobic training is training that does not require the electron transport chain and our mitochondria to dump a ton of ATP out via the metabolism of fat. We use carbs. Carb driven exercise equals anaerobic exercise that tends to be weights, that tends to be sprints. Conditioning can include sprints,

but it's oftentimes lower level cardio and it's often categorized as aerobic in nature, meaning the electron transport chain and the mitochondria need to metabolize fat to pump out enough ATP. This is oftentimes considered lower level aerobics. People often target this on treadmill like I am in the quote unquote fat burning zone. That is often emblematic of a zone where in which you are mostly using the aerobic pathway to produce ATP. So that'd be the zone two cardio you probably hear people talk about so much. So that'd be the zone two cardio you probably hear people talk about so much. And that's really what I'm pushing for.

I'm pushing for you in 2025, especially to the guys, do some fucking conditioning, do some cardio, do a little aerobic work. I had an awesome client success story in this last year, a client of mine named Andrew, who we started with primarily what I would describe as like physique and mobility goals, which is an interesting combo. We wanted to really unlock his mobility and enhance his muscularity and lose some body fat. He got

incredibly quick mobility adaptations while kind of locking in the diet and losing weight. Over the year, he lost over 30 pounds of fat. But what was kind of cool is once we kind of unlocked the mobility, we still stayed focused, of course, on the strength work. But we really dived into the conditioning, even doing a couple Spartan races of significant distance. And in doing this, no muscle was lost, which is always awesome. We love that.

No strength was lost. No injuries occurred. Aerobic health was maintained. Cardiovascular health was enhanced. Lung health was enhanced. Mitochondria health was enhanced. Fat loss was enhanced. Just from saying, hey, we're going to take a couple months out of the year to like remember

the conditioning part of strength and conditioning. And now that we're not training for those races, we're just doing relatively moderate amounts of cardiovascular exercise. But I know one thing's for sure. He's much healthier. And that's what I want for you guys in 2025 is to actually do your cardio. Okay. Number two, haha, another one of kind of the same vein. It's actually do some fucking mobility, actually warm up before you train, actually prime your body. It's very easy to go in and get straight into your warm up sets. It's also very easy to have like an insanely long warm up. I don't really like any of that. I like couplets, triplets, quick little movement slash mobility, couplets, triplets to get you going. This could be something like before a leg session,

you could do some 90-90 hip switches, which are an active kind of mobility exercise. It's not a passive stretch into like some single leg bridges to build some pelvic stability and train hip extension and some ball slams to wake up the nervous system. That triplet of three things will definitely help you perform better in a lower body session. And that could take you five minutes to run through two sets of each of those exercise, which is substantially more effective, I think,

than just foam rolling for five minutes. I also would recommend doing an aerobic warm up prior to your training always. And that is going to probably get you between six and ten minutes of quote unquote free cardio because let's face it, especially based on the last tip I gave, we know people don't just love their cardio. But if you want to warm up optimally before you train, and I think this tip is actually to quote unquote warm up, getting your tissue temperature elevated is important and doing a little aerobic work will actually do that. It's not just to quote unquote get the blood flowing, but actually warm up in 2025 guys. I have quick efficient warmups for my

clients who I see one-on-one, who I train virtually in my remote coaching one-to-one practice, and also for the app. Like I'm philosophically against long annoying warmups, but one to two things done prior to your training can knock out a considerable amount of your cardio each week and kind of bake your mobility into the training you already do. And all of that can count as your quote unquote warm up, which is a great opportunity to get your mind right as well. Okay. Third thing is to do this is this is a habit for me. This is a habit for you. This is a habit that I think we could all work on. Assuming you are, um, you know, if you don't have orthopedic issues, I would recommend getting stronger on your squat and your deadlift in 2025. Those two damn lifts

have so much carry over to everything you do and I won't be archaic and say you need to barbell squat and you need to barbell deadlift, you can swap your barbell squat for something like a hack squat, a Bulgarian split squat, or even a leg press. And you can swap your barbell deadlift for a hex bar deadlift or a sumo deadlift or even a Romanian deadlift. But getting really strong at a knee flexion dominant exercise and a hip extension dominant exercise for the general population, for the untrained population, for the training population, for the athletic population, highest return possible that I can think of.

Between those two, you'll train a ton of muscle, sure, but in strengthening those patterns, your body will function much better. It will be much more resilient. You can choose options that are orthopedically advantage or advantageous for you. They don't hurt, they don't suck, they feel good. But get strong at them. Get good at them. Have good technique with them.

And your entire performance, the way your body looks, the way your body feels, will really improve. And if you're not currently doing any resistance training, and some of you are exercisers but you're not lifters, just learn how to do those two lifts. Some type of squat, some type of deadlift. And then if you would like to add some upper body, I'd recommend some type of press, overhead or bench, some type of pull, like a lat pulldown

or a row. Those are the only really four compounds I'd recommend for a totally new person who wanted to do like a minimalist non-lifting program that made you strong. But just getting good at the squat and deadlift will completely overhaul your body's capabilities if you're not training. What's going on guys? Taking a break from this episode to tell you a little bit about my coaching company, Core Coaching Method. More specifically, our app-based training. We partnered with Train Heroic

to bring app-based training to you using the best technology and best user interface possible. You can join either my Home Heroes team, or you can train from home with bands and dumbbells, or Elite Physique, which is a female bodybuilding-focused program where you can train at the gym with equipment designed specifically to help you develop strength as well as the glutes, hamstrings, quads, and back.

I have more teams coming planned for a variety of different fitness levels, but what's cool about this is when you join these programs, you get programming that's updated every single week, the sets to do, the reps to do, exercise tutorials filmed by me with me and my team. So you'll get my exact coaching expertise as to how to perform the movement, whether you're training at home or you're training in the gym. And again, these teams are somewhat specific, so you'll find other members of those communities looking to pursue similar goals at similar fitness levels. You can chat, ask questions, upload form for form review, ask for substitutions.

It's a really cool training community and you can try it completely free for seven days. Just click the link in the podcast description below. Can't wait to see you in the Core Coaching Collective, my app-based training community, back to the show. Okay, the fourth training habit I have in 2025. And this goes for a lot of you who are more aerobic centric in your training, you're more strength centric in your training, or

maybe you don't like bodybuilding culture. I get it. I still think in 2025, you should try to build as much muscle as a reasonably possible. This could mean doing a bodybuilding program for the first time for like 12 weeks, not hiring a bodybuilding coach and doing a show, just being like, I'm going to do a protocol specific for building muscle. These are training protocols that typically have higher volumes, train closer to failure, use combination of isolation lifts and compound lifts.

It's predominantly about changing your aesthetics, the culture of it. I get it. Looking better, looking buff, having a big butt. I get it. Yeah, that's actually not what we're after though. Our goal with this habit, even for those of you who are untrained or unconcerned about your physique, our goal is to build muscle for the preservation of our metabolism, our strength, and our function

as we age. And I think just like when young people put a lot of money on the stock market and take advantage of time and the compounding effects of time, you get the same thing from muscle. So if you're 30, 40, even 50 and beyond, frankly, but I know how old the average podcast listener is between like 20 and 45. If you're in that demographic, you're uniquely poised to build some muscle and set yourself up for success down the road. So in 2025, try to build as much muscle as possible and I think you'll be setting yourself up not just to look and feel better but also to have better health down the road. Okay and my fifth thing for exercise and movement is to engage in a challenging or fun or playful form of movement that is

outside of a conventional gym setting. This can be hiking, swimming, dancing, kickboxing, joining a recreational sport. Ideally, this will be social in nature, but I have found that when my clients who are already seeing me for their strength and conditioning add in things like soccer, co-ed basketball, a run club, doing a little muay thai, things only improve. It only makes people healthier and more likely to engage with exercise when they find forms of exercise they love, and they tend to complement what they're already doing very well. People also tend to need more social connection and doing team-based things can be really,

really important. So a habit for 2025 is to find something to do for your fitness that is fun, playful, team-based, social, or new. Any one of those things can be really beneficial and it'll probably enhance what you're already doing. Okay, moving into category three, which is lifestyle. Okay, so this is kind of a fun one and this is your lifestyle, your circle, your social health, components of wellness that I think are frequently overlooked. The first habit or goal I have for you in 2025, my guess is if you're listening to this podcast,

you're a fitness-focused person. I want us to all be stewards of wellness and that we wanna encourage more people to engage with it and we wanna share it and spread it and appreciate it. So goal I have for you in 2025 is to get one person you love who is not currently engaging in health promoting behaviors to engage with them by going out of your way to connect with them in that area. This means find a friend, a family member, co-worker, or someone you care about to invite

on a walk, to invite to the gym, to get going in health and fitness. It might even mean taking like the first one to two months to drag a friend with you to the gym during the New Year's resolution who's always said they want to get in shape. You know it has a low compliance rate, but you're still going to say, hey, we're going to go at this time. I'm going to join you.

You can work out with me. I'm going to open the opportunity. Right? You're somebody who's into it. Maybe you're following one of my programs. Maybe you're one of my clients. You have total permission to take your individualized programming or your group programming and bring a friend, tag a friend along, right?

You know, I don't care. I want us to share the love. Now, this doesn't mean share your login. That's fucked up. I'm kidding, but yeah, that is. But mostly what I want you guys to do is be stewards of the game. Find people around you that you can share this with and you know be a be prophetic in a way without being you know annoying. We want to remind everyone right now as we go

through this collective struggle with our wellness and our health and our mental health how important movement is and encourage social connection and get people to do this with us, especially if it's people we love because it'll be good for us in the long term. Okay, the second thing in the lifestyle category is to plan a vacation. Okay, I understand that cost of living is very high

and everybody's economic position is different. So please temper what I'm about to say. I know that I might be in a privileged position to go on a vacation right now, but you know, one thing I often think of is all the amazing free opportunities that exist around me where I live. Obviously California is unique, but we have national parks, we have state parks, we have beautiful places that one can go, even just for the day or a couple days,

to connect with something majestic like nature. But really the point of planning a trip or a vacation is for your mental wellness. You see, if you plan something exciting to go and do, whether it's an explorative trip somewhere you've never been, a cultural excursion to where you come from, a bucket list trip where you're going to conquer your fear of who knows what, climbing Half Dome, I don't know. But planning something and having

it be planned far enough ahead that you get to look forward to it is very beneficial for your health. It is nice to have things to look forward to. It is a really powerful motivator and driver. I promise you it will help you be more productive and work harder to know that you have something coming that is positive and enjoyable that will make you more resilient. It will allow you to think about it

and look forward to it. And that is a really positive thing. And our lives are short. And many of the people who listen to this podcast take good care of their bodies. They are hardworking. Aaron, you guys are investing in your future in one way or another. You need to remember always to enjoy the moment you have. And I often remind people that your health is not guaranteed.

So if you have the opportunity to go and do things that you want to do and you know, you can squeeze them in whether it's visiting someplace or going and doing something once a year, a couple times a year, it can be really good for your health and your mental health if you can swing it financially. And even if you can't, you know, blow big bucks on it, you can do quite a bit around you in an effort to look forward to something on the calendar that will be positive. Okay, the third tip I have for you kind of segues and aligns with the second tip, but it's to explicitly spend more time in nature. When we're in nature, we're often away from our phones, our headphones.

Maybe you go on a walk in nature with your headphones in while you scroll your phone. I don't know. That's definitely not the goal here. The goal here is to actually go into nature and that doesn't mean like the forest. It can mean whatever the geography around you allows and I understand the limitations. Many of you do not have that. If you live in a suburb, you might be able to drive somewhere. If you live in the city, you might have to drive quite a long ways. It's hard to find pockets of nature. Really getting outside is a beneficial thing, even if you live in a more urban area. But if you have the opportunity to connect with nature, specifically things like forest, trees, lakes, streams, mountains, oceans, beaches, it has a tremendous effect on your mental wellbeing.

And I think it's a lifestyle goal, a mindset goal, not a mind cycle, but really a lifestyle goal that is aligned with wellness, which is to connect with the natural world. It might sound a little hippie woo woo, but this is something that I am rather passionate about, which is, I have a hard time believing that, you know, I subscribe to the theory of human evolution that we evolved to be the organism we are now. And the idea that every animal conceivable thrives outside of captivity

and humans are spending increasingly more and more time in these pseudo captive areas where, if we're not captive physically and that we're not locked in place, we lock ourselves in place with technologies and phones and devices. And we continue year after year to interface less and less with the world around us. And I think we are animals and being outside is good for us. It sounds silly like I'm talking to dogs, but I really do believe that that segues to my worth lifestyle tip, which is less social media, less screen time. I think

that social media is a explicitly bad technology for your wellness. I know many of you found this podcast because of my presence on social media or you I know many of you found this podcast because of my presence on social media or you follow me on social media and I kind of juggle every day my relationship with social media. I for young people, and we spend so much time on it as a culture. We really sink a lot of time into it. We turn to it when we want to disconnect, and if it's not social media, it's often something else screen based, and I think this can be challenging and not particularly good for you. So I definitely recommend moving away from screen time and doing a little less social media, making that a habit for a twenty, twenty five final tip here for your lifestyle is to continue to surround yourself. If you

have not done this already with people who prioritize health and wellness, this isn't saying to get rid of all the people in your life who don't it's to and wellness. This isn't saying to get rid of all the people in your life who don't. It's to find more people around you who care, who are invested, who are walking the path of improving their well-being. It is very hard to find. I know many of you. I am personally spoiled. I own my gym. I work around other great trainers. I am connected to other good thought leaders in the space of fitness and health. So my circle are fitness adjacent people and a lot of you are the fittest person in your life or you care about it the most of anyone you can Think of and that can be isolating

But I encourage you in the new year to find more people around you or connect with more people around you Even if it's people at your gym where you train That you can walk this path with or be friendly with or connect with more people around you, even if it's people at your gym where you train that you can walk this path with or be friendly with or you know, bounce things off of it's. It's important to know you're not alone on this thing. Okay, getting into the fourth category, which are habits for a healthier environment. We'll be talking about things specific to like chemical exposure. I'm not going

to sit here and be proselytizing you about avoiding everything in your fucking house like a shirtless grocery store influencer, no. But I've had some sensitivities over the years. I've made some swaps in my household that were fricking fantastic and I want to share those with you because I think they made me healthier. So the first one is I use substantially fewer heavily scented laundry products. This isn't to say that you have to resign yourself to smelling like shit either. There are tons of low scent or no scent products that can easily eradicate very

sweaty stinky clothes or poopy baby clothes, let me tell you. But the reason I have gone away from heavily scented laundry products was when I was using heavily scented detergents and fabric softeners, my skin was more prone to eczema, irritation, redness and generally more discomfort. And when I switched from those products to products of the same, oftentimes manufacturers that were free from the scents specifically, many of them are also free of dyes, but I believe it was the scent or the compounds used to elicit the scent. My skin seemed to be substantially less irritated and I, like you, as a health-focused person, am probably aware of everything that I put in my body and one of the things I think we forget is that our skin is an organ.

If you're wearing a shirt around all day that is holding these compounds that are designed to release scent in your skin like mine is sensitive to them can really add up over time and create some skin irritation so switching to those I think has been good for my skin and I really recommend that to people who struggle with maybe skin specific conditions okay this one's for the guys but it'd be great for the ladies too. And that is to cool it on the screaming hot showers. Remember to exfoliate your skin. Okay, these are a few things I have picked up over the years. This is

bro to bro, guy to guy. Super duper hot showers can really dry out your skin. Hot temperatures can break down the oils of your skin a little easier and dry you out. And in the winter, it's easy to take super hot showers, but it's also not great for the, the, um, oils on your scalp to take like scaldingly hot showers. And I know a lot of men care about their scalp help, their hair health and their hairline. So I just want to remind you guys to if you have like a one to 100 scale on your shower and you always crank it to like 95 heat, maybe get comfortable between 80 and 85. At least when you wash your hair and your scalp, I tend to find it's good for my skin. It's also good for my hair

and then exfoliating is something that I'll admit I've only learned about more recently you can get this with the loofah on your skin. You can also you know use Various creams or products to exfoliate the skin on your face which can be more sensitive but that peels off the top layer of skin which oftentimes is comprised of a lot of dead skin and I guess it doesn't peel off the top layer per se but it of dead skin and I guess it doesn't peel off the top layer per se but it can help with impurities, it can help with opening the pores or not opening the pores but increasing circulation to the skin and it seems to be a good thing and it's helped me a lot especially as a hairier person given my Mediterranean descent with things like ingrown hairs. Okay, number three, I have a ton of house plants because I once read that house plants are

exceptionally good for removing impurities in your air. And I also find that being around things that are green or natural or plants are really positive for me. Um, so I'm kind of hoping to add more plants into the space in 2025 and I already have, but I've add more plants into the space in 2025 than I already have, but I've moved a few into the garage gym, which I quite like and think is super duper cool. I'm only now becoming skilled enough to not kill all my indoor plants. I was like the, I was like a plant murderer for many years because it's so, so difficult for me to not overwater

plants, but I've learned my lesson and now I'm a competent plant keeper. You might build some skill from that, but actually believe it or not, I do think you can help to filter impurities from your air, not just with an air filter, but you know what? I'll be honest, many of you have not changed your HVAC air filter and I'm going to sound like an like your dad calling you, but change your HVAC air filter every six months. Get some house plants. Okay, here's an obvious one. Drink out of fewer plastic bottles. Okay, so you always hear people freak

out about micro plastics and males. You've probably heard people joke about like micro plastics in your balls, but the truth is the average American ingests almost a credit card worth of plastic every week in the form of micro plastics. At least that's what I've heard. It maybe it was a month, but either way, let's assume that's a pretty absurd amount of plastic to be ingesting, and there's micro plastics in a lot of product, and I would worry more about the plastics that leach from bottles into beverages more than I would other plastics, because even a plastic like a plastic bottle that's BPA free. That means that a lot of those leachable plastics are not going to leach,

but if you are a soda drinker, a diet soda drinker, a bottled water drinker, and you have maybe you drink these in the car or maybe you know you know somebody who drinks a lot of these in the car and they leave them in the car and they get hit by the hot sun or they take their plastic water bottle into the sauna and it's probably better to be hydrated in the sauna and then like not pass out, but if you're taking plastic beverages that can get warmed up in plastic into the sun or leaving them in the sun and drinking from them. I know this might sound woo woo, but there is a ton of micro plastic leech in that particular

instance. Think about warming up your food as well inside of plastic versus inside of glass. These are a lot of people on the internet guys who push this stuff are really annoying in other areas I totally get it. But when it comes to managing the home environment, I really do think Man is thinking about how much shit am I eating out of like garbage plastic? Can be a great place to start if you want to minimize your exposure to certain environmental factors They could impact your health.

Okay. Number five, kind of antithetical to everything I said here, but I think it really summarizes how nuanced my position is, is not to lose sleep over environmental toxicity. I do see some people taking it too far. And I think that it can create almost a neurosis in people where they become borderline obsessive and fearful of everything in the environment having a negative impact on your health.

And that can create a very strong nocebo effect. So I think it's important to always manage your risk, make good decisions, maybe follow some of these tips, but don't freak out to the point that it affects your mental health. Okay, that brings me to our fifth and final category, which is the wellness and health of your mind. So the first thing I have for you on this, the number one healthy habit for your mental

health is sleep. You need to sleep as much as possible if you want to have good high quality mental wellbeing. I struggle with anxiety and depression, full transparency on the days that I do not sleep well, I feel those feelings more powerfully. On the days that I do sleep well, I'm able to tackle those feelings with more confidence. I think many of us struggle with our mental health. I'm not going to sit here and diagnose you. I'm not gonna recommend anything to you to fix it. But one thing I have noticed over and over again is obviously sleep improves my physical performance.

Obviously sleep improves my cognitive performance. But the habit of good, regular, consistent sleep improves my mental health and my outlook on life. So I'm all over that in 2025, which is continuing to make sleep a priority. Okay. The second habit in the mind category is to reduce stimulant usage, primarily caffeine and alcohol. Alcohol is uniquely bad for your health. We've talked about ad nauseam on the podcast, so you know, that's its own thing,

but on the stimulant note, specifically caffeine, a lot of you guys are consuming three hundred milligrams or more of caffeine, which is like a fine dose to for physical performance and such, but that's a lot of caffeine. And I think many people who struggle with insomnia, many people who struggle with anxiety or feeling frantic or feeling hurried or rushed, they might be over caffeinating. And I know a lot of young people who really rely heavily on caffeination and high amounts of caffeine. And I think it's probably a good idea to over time, reduce your dependence on stimulants.

Okay. The third thing for your mental health is mental health coaching, therapy, anything like that. I'm not a psychologist, but I have a therapist and it's been helpful for me. And it could be really, really helpful for you. Okay. The fourth thing for your mental health, this is a great one for me. This is a habit that I think we could all engage with more. And that is to just worry less about other people,

talk less about other people, talk less about other people. There's a great quote that goes, and all I'll expand on what I mean by worry less about other people in a second, but there's a great quote that goes, you know, smart people talk or dumb people talk about people, smart people talk about things or smart people talk about ideas, and it's always great to leave other people's problems, leave other people's struggles out of your mouth. Just don't bad mouth people don't drag them, don't be overly concerned with their

drama, focus on yourself, the people you care about. There's a lot that doesn't matter in the world that pulls us into focusing on other people on status on things and it might not be worth it in the end to be so focused on other people's lives and it's often the case that not as many people as you think are focused on yours. Okay and the fifth one is to try to end or manage or cut off some drama. If you have drama in your life, you have a person that you're dramatic with, you have a family member that's always creating drama,

you have a friend that's just a high drama person, a couple of them, a couple of places, sources, find the drama in your life, quote unquote drama, look to tone it down, examine your role in it, and remove as much of it as possible because I don't think that shit is particularly good for you at all. All right guys, there you have it. That's our 2025 healthy habits list. We have 25 different habits. You can try any one of them. I hope you enjoyed the episode.

If you did, be sure to leave us a five star rating and review on Apple and Spotify. It'll help more people find the podcast and we'll catch you on the next episode.