Habits and Hustle - Episode 160: Max Lugavere, Part 2 – Host of The Genius Life Podcast, Best-Selling Author

Episode Date: March 29, 2022

Max Lugavere is a Health and Science Journalist, Host of The Genius Life Podcast, Best-Selling Author. Joining us in discussion around his new book, “Genius Kitchen…” Max gets to show off a bit with his immense knowledge of nutrition. Talking through his heartbreaking story about his mother’s illness which led to her eventual death, then pivoting into how he landed a job with Al Gore, and working his way through every tidbit and “hack” he can think of in the space of health, fitness, and nutrition, Max delivers and then some! Interested in some researched health-based recipes? Maybe you’ve just heard of him and haven’t had a chance to dig in yet. We’re not sure how, but this man makes potatoes and baby fat interesting! How could you miss that? Give it a listen. Youtube Link to This Episode Max’s Website Max’s Instagram ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Did you learn something from tuning in today? Please pay it forward and write us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. 📧If you have feedback for the show, please email [e-mail]  📙Get yourself a copy of Jennifer Cohen’s newest book from Habit Nest, Badass Body Goals Journal. ℹ️Habits & Hustle Website 📚Habit Nest Website 📱Follow Jennifer – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter – Jennifer’s Website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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leave a review, subscribe, whatever it is, just communicate some way. So I know you know I care. All right. Have a great time listening to this podcast. Enjoy. I have Max Luga-Viers back on habits in hospital, you guys. And this is the second visit. First one was on the treadmill. It was on the treadmill. I'm happy to be seated for this, this way.

You are, right? Because you were sweaty, profusely, so with I, it was very hot in there that day. And today, of course, we're actually civilized sitting here. And Max has yet another book coming out. Very exciting, very anxiety producing. I'm a little self-conscious because I'm actually

on the cover of this book. He's more than just on the cover. First of all, I was laughing because it's basically like a coffee table of Max Luga beer. It's basically like a coffee table of Max Luga beer. It's basically like modeling in different shots with different types of food. Here's Max with spaghetti.

Oh my God. Here's Max with a kid, you know, with a spaghetti squash. I don't know, it's hilarious. It is nuts. It definitely, I had to like take a handfuls and X before shooting, now I'm kidding. I don't think you must like it a little bit. No, I mean, there definitely, there's a side of me

that loves to perform and that loves to communicate to an audience and yeah, there definitely is that slightly narcissistic gene in me, which I think makes me perfect for what it is that I'm doing. Right, right, you have to have a little bit of it. Yeah, because I mean, I get for the same amount of, like, for the same, like, praise that I get, I get like a certain fraction of criticism as well, that the fact that I love doing what I do is what makes it all worth it. It's what pulls me forward. It's what Jordan Peterson

calls the noble aim. Now, it's like, it's definitely built into my DNA to enjoy what it is that I'm doing. And so, yeah, I don't think that emotionally, I'd have the grit for the haters online and the trolls and whatever, if I didn't. So, yeah, so I do, I like it. I can't imagine who's actually gonna be criticized.

Not the ladies, the ladies are definitely criticizing you hence the coffee table book. But I guess people who are just the haters who are either jealous or, I mean, that's who we usually are, the trolls and the ones who hate. Or the ones who are kind of unhappy with what they are in their life. Well, it's interesting.

When you write about nutrition, nutrition is something that people have very strong opinions about because how you eat is part of your identity. So if you're out talking about a diet that doesn't jive with the diet that you've built your whole identity on, then you're going to feel in a front to who it is that you are at your core. And so I get a lot of people, I mean my primary haters are vegans. Yeah, which is interesting because I'm also very much pro eating plants. So my haters are not, I don't have a lot of carnivore haters. But for some reason it's the vegan, it's whatever the mindset is that that compels a person

to take on such an extreme diet. Right. Yes. They tend to come after me and they're not, they're not like, they don't necessarily follow me. They usually find my posts from the explorer page or they stumble upon like one of my videos online. But I, you know, I've got nothing but love for them, nonetheless, even though the things that they can, that they say sometimes can be really vitriolic and mean spirited, which is kind of ironic. But yeah, for me, it's really all

about helping people separate fact from fiction. And if that means going to places that could be potentially not the most politically correct, then I just have to go there. Right. It's probably not. It's also being authentic to who you are. But I think overall social media is that way,

where if you are not on board with exactly what that person or that organization is, then you're demonized in general. So, like, it's the same. Food's especially, I mean, with the very, there's people who are super, the vegans are, they could be so fundamentally vegan. If you got, I've lost actually a couple of friends in mind who were very, very vitriolic towards me because I like to eat chicken. And they won't go out for dinner with me now because offensive to them. It's silly, it doesn't make any sense to me, it really doesn't.

Yeah, it's a problem. The other cohort that I think I get some hate from are like the hardcore credentialists, like people who are like, if you don't have an MD or a PhD after your name, you have no business talking about nutrition. And I'm like journalists can talk about whatever the hell they want for one.

That's true. And second of all, I think that if there's anything you have no business talking about nutrition. And I'm like journalists can talk about whatever the hell they want for war. That's true. And second of all, I think that if there's anything the past two years have shown us, is that credentials don't really necessarily guarantee that a person knows what they're talking about. Absolutely not. You know, just take the range of opinions

that we have about any given topic today. And so yeah, it's a. Well, you always, like, because like you were saying, or like just now, like you've become a little bit more outspoken with like how you believe. Like you're not, so I don't, it's not that so extreme, but you know, where you're concerned about like the cancel culture at the beginning, or never, you just want to kind of be honest

and be who you were. Yeah, I was never concerned about cancel culture, right? To me, authenticity is the, it's the number, it's the most important thing. It's like the most important thing, especially for me, because I don't have those credentials to rely on, I have my story. That's my credential, the fact that I got into this

because I had a family member, which we talked about on the previous podcast, but that my mother was so sick and that, you know, for years, I was meeting my family where we were left desperate for answers, and it compelled me to use the skills that I had to become a sort of citizen investigator to try to get to the bottom of why my mom was so sick, why she developed this rare form of dementia

at such a young age, what could be done to potentially help her? Was there a dietary pattern out there, any diet? And I approached these topics with an open mind. So if you would have told me 10 years ago that veganism was the way, I would have said, okay, show me the evidence, but I'm game if that's what is born out in the research, which is of course not the case. But yeah, so I just approached these topics with an open mind, and I was as rigorous as

I could be, and I always stayed open to learning and to being challenged and to challenging my own assumptions, which I think is so important. And that's what drives me every day. It's, I'm grateful that I've been able to, you know, now I have genius kitchen coming out. I've been, I'm so grateful that I get to do this for a living, but it really is the only way that I'd be able to focus on this full time. So it's, it's come full circle in a, in a really beautiful way that I get to do what it is that I feel like I'm meant to be doing right I mean, so your first book was called genius was genius life genius foods first book. Jean. What was the second one?

Genius life. Okay, right. I got them confused. Yeah, and then now this one genius the whole brand is basically was next You know, I don't know. That's a good question. I am really interested in, I mean, I guess, you know, I could potentially do like a fitness book. That's something that I'm super interested in, just personally. So I've always been, that would be sort of a homecoming for me, because personally, I've always been interested in that. Like, what would it be like, genius fitness? Something like that. I haven't thought that far ahead. Honestly, writing a book is very emotionally, it's a draining experience. I'm finishing mind this week. Mine is due to my publisher this week too. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. It's also not a healthy endeavor in any sense. It's a lot of

time sitting in front of your computer screen or standing in front of your computer screen, but a lot of sedentary behavior, lots of, you know, I mean, me, I take my writing really seriously, so I mean there are days where I could be working on the same paragraph, trying to finesse it and perfect it. Really? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because you're a writer, so like for people who maybe don't know you or didn't hear the

first podcast, right? Yeah. Because it's been like a hundred podcasts since then. Why don't you give your story? Because I know your story, and you know, a lot of people do, but you're a journalist, but explain, you kind of deal with your mom, and then kind of talk about what kind of like the evolution of why fitness, why kitchen, just... Yeah.

Al Gore. Al Gore. Yeah, so I started college, I'll try to make it as concise as I can, but basically I started college and I was really interested, I had been really interested in fitness and nutrition and I was on a pre-med track and I was destined, I thought, to go into medicine. Where did you get a college by the way? University of Miami. You did? In Florida, yeah. I didn't know that. Okay. Yeah, I love that school. Shout out to the Canes. Yeah. And they're from New York, right? From New York City. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Halfway through college I realized that I had a revelation.

I realized that I was creative. That I enjoyed storytelling. That I had an aesthetic sensibility, like a sense, I was sensitive to aesthetic and I became sort of, I was a film fanatic. I was really interested in music, obsessed with music my whole life. And so, halfway through college, I realized, well, it was two things. It was that. And then it was also that my academic career, that my grades were never that great.

I would get A's in the classes that I was passionate about. So all my science classes, actually, I got A's in biology chemistry. But then I would get really bad grades in classes that were way easier than those science classes, just because my brain, my heart and soul in mind was in it, you know? Like I remember I took an introductory to religion class,

which was a class that, I mean, no shade to anybody at UM who's in that major or anything like that, but it was kind of known to be a class that you take easy at. The easy at, yeah, yeah, yeah. Introduction to religion, right? I mean, it's just like storytelling, essentially. And I just, I did really bad in it because I never showed up.

I never studied for any of the tests, but the science classes, which is where my heart was And I did really bad in it because I never showed up. I never studied for any of the tests, but the science classes, which is where my heart was, I did really well. But that sort of conundrum for me, like to not the best GPA, and I just wasn't super focused at that time. I just really, I was, the revelation that I was creative meant a lot to me.

And so I went in that direction, and I ended up switching to a double major in film and psychology, which led to me creating a film as an undergrad that got me this job as soon as I graduated from college, working for Al Gore. And so it landed me this amazing gig where I was like on TV. In 100 million homes in the US,

I was a journalist in a T-shirt on TV, talking about fairly heady concepts. Yeah. And I had like free reign to bring into the fold and discuss things that I was passionate about to some degree. I would talk about health whenever I had the opportunity to music whenever I was able to. And so I did that for six years and I got to work with some of the best in the field of

journalism. You know, a lot of the people that were my mentors at current gave a lot of the best of the best in the field of journalism. You know, a lot of the people that were my mentors at Current gave a lot of the people who were now household names on networks like CNN and others. Their first jobs. Really like who? Yeah. While the guy who hired me, his name was David Newman.

He was the one who was known for discovering Anderson Cooper. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. And Lisa Ling and. I love her. So that O'Brien, like many household names in the field of journal, he was my mentor for six years.

Shout out to David. That's amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then how did that path become this path? Like where was the, because when your mother got sick, is that when you kind of really deep dived into Alzheimer's and that? Yeah, so-

And not going that route of like being on seat like, why did you not do this that route that he would be? Well, that's an interesting question. I wasn't really interested in- I wasn't interested in politics. I've never really been interested in politics. Right. It's kind of odd that over the past two years I've become somewhat interested. It will size a little bit, yeah. Yes, somewhat and I underscore somewhat, but yeah, it's not really something that I'm all somewhat interested. You'll notice I has a little bit, yeah. Yes, somewhat and I underscore somewhat, but yeah, it's not really something that I'm all that interested in.

So, you know, I didn't want to do that and I wasn't interested in entertainment journalism. I was really interested mostly in two things. I mean, over the course of my life, my brain is like, I'm interested in two things. Health and music. I may be like, you can put film in there as well. But those are my two big nerd,

I'm a nerd for both of those two areas. And so that left me with not many places to go after my experience at current TV. How long were you there for? Like six years. Okay, six years, okay. Yeah, six years. And...

That's a long time. So yeah, being so young to be at the same place for so long. Oh, yeah. I mean, I wasn't making a lot of money. I was on a salary, but it was like not, yeah, it was like not six figures. And I was doing it for six years.

Yeah. Living in LA. And also working really hard, but not, not, social media had just sort of come about. Right. I mean, Facebook was a thing and Twitter had launched in 2008, so I still had current when Twitter was around. Okay.

But we weren't like being, there weren't enough viewers. So I had this great job on paper, and I had all this press and all these accolades, but I had like no money in the bank essentially, because I was like working paycheck to paycheck for this job, and I wasn't famous enough to guarantee that I was gonna have a place to land when this job ended. Exactly.

So it was sort of like an existential crisis that I had deferred post college. And I was now having it like just as this job was about to come to an end. Right. And then in tandem with that, in my personal life, my mom got sick and started to show the first symptoms of what would ultimately be diagnosed as a form of dementia. How old was she when she first got diagnosed?

She was 58 when she began to show symptoms, and I believe it was also around that time when she was diagnosed with some kind of neurodegenerative condition. She was prescribed drugs for both Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, even though she didn't. Her presentation of her symptoms didn't classically fit into either disease category, so she didn't have actually have Alzheimer's disease and she didn't have classical Parkinson's disease. It was years later that we found out it was a condition called Louis body dementia, which is a rare form of dementia effects, one in five cases, one in five people with dementia

have Louis body, and it's actually what Robin Williams had prior to. Right, it's gonna say. Yeah, dying by suicide. So, wow. Yeah, so it was like, I mean, that was like the low point of my life that it's amazing to me like looking back that I like made it through to the other side.

And I credit, and we can talk about this later if you want. I credit self-care, honestly, for helping me get through it. The fact that I like during that period when I felt like my career was in the toilet and I had nowhere else to go and no career, no job prospects and that the person who I love most in my life was suddenly diagnosed with this incurable terminal condition. It was like, I mean, it was, it was the worst period of my life that I can remember that I'll probably ever have. And the fact that I still, it was the worst period of my life that I can remember that I'll probably ever have and the fact that I still You know made it to the gym Four days a week during that period. That's what kept me afloat like my mental health

You know, it was it was so valuable to me and eating healthy and doing all the things that I know to do But it was at that point that I that I became you know, I had circled back because I told you I was passionate I had been passionate about fitness and nutrition You know, I had circled back because I told you I was passionate. I had been passionate about fitness and nutrition as a high schooler and in college and privately post-college, but it was then that I really became fixated on trying to understand what was going on with my mom what could be done to help her and to see if there was anything well because now I knew that I had a risk factor Right and my mother so DQ presents

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So hurry in and get your cake batter fixed today. Only a DQ. Happy taste good. Who else in your family had it before your mom? Anybody signs of anybody else with? Nobody. Nobody. I mean, my mom's mom, there was this really tragic thing that we had observed in my family.

Honestly, when I think back, it's just so awful. The fact that I'm not more traumatized by the experience, it's just a testament really to how resilient we can be, really, when we're pushed to the edge. My mom, my maternal grandmother had been living in the house with my mom. And I think at that point, I was even living in my mom's house because I had moved back from LA to live with my mom.

I remember. It was going on, yeah. Yeah. How long did you move with your, with your mom? I was there for, uh, well, I was probably living with my mom for a year and then I moved in with my brother in the same building. And so I was, yeah, I was like four or five years that I was back living with my mom for a year, and then I moved in with my brother in the same building. And so I was, yeah, I was like four or five years that I was back in New York.

And it was, yeah, I mean, New York was, there were some fun moments, and I got a lot done work wise, but it was not a good, I had sacrificed a lot to be there to be with my mom. I remember that. You're a good son, though, my God. I mean, that's why I like you so much. Seriously, I'm endeared by you, because you were such a good son though. My God. I mean, that's why I like you so much. Seriously, I'm endeared by you because you were such a, you're such a, uh, devoted son.

Like it's amazing to me. It's, I mean, I don't Jewish families. It's something like that. But as a, maybe a Jewish mother, seeing someone like you taking care of your mom like that and like doing everything you can to help her and be there for her, I think it's just, you, you don't see it to that level. Unfortunately, as much as you should. And you, like, you just, I think it blew me away.

You, I remember when you were living here and you went back to be with your mom. Yeah, it was, it was a lot. And it's not, it's certainly not a Jewish thing, but it's um, No, but it's family is very important. Family art, yeah. Yeah, super, super important.

And it was important for my mom, it was important for my dad. My mom and dad didn't have the best marriage, but they said, they had sacrificed was important for my mom, it was important for my dad. My mom and dad didn't have the best marriage, but they had sacrificed a lot for the sake of the family. And so I grew up in a very small family, and we had really strong family bond, strong family values. But there was this period where my mom was starting to noticeably decline cognitively.

And in the house was her, living there was her mother, who was in her nineties, and cognitively sharper than her daughter. So just picture that. You have a woman who's like, Wow. Who's declining in her mother, who's obviously a way older woman,

sharper than her daughter. It was like, it was really odd. It was surreal. Oh, cool. It was like the craziest thing that one could possibly imagine. So, no, I mean, there was no dementia that I know of prior to my mother having experienced it. Did you, okay, so because you did all of this research, you were like, it was like, it was, you're on a mission to figure out ways you can help your mother, maybe not cure her, but help her. Now, being honest with all the stuff that you've done, did anything that you've, any foods or anything you really

noticed make any difference in terms of how the progression of it, to the doctors, say, the progression of it, or stifling it, or anything at all? You know, I think it's possible that it slowed it, because my mom had suffered with it for, I don't know, it was like seven, eight years Which is sort of the higher end of the average life expectancy for somebody with well at least with Alzheimer's disease, so we don't necessarily know What I would assume that it's actually shorter for somebody diagnosed with Louis-Bite dementia, but the average life expectancy for somebody from the point of diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease is about seven years.

So my mom lived for seven, eight years, and I think that she probably could have lived even longer than that. But she, I mean, this is just going back to the tragedy of my mom's life in Labor Day of 2018, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. And that's actually what I know. Are you sure? Yeah know it's horrible. It's horrible. And it was three months, essentially,

from the point of diagnosis that she was gone. So that's what she died from. That's what you died from. Yeah. Yeah, it's, and so that experience really made me look at the world in a new way in a different way. And because there was obviously something about her environment that was toxic. And there's, there are aspects of all of our environments that are toxic.

Our bodies are in a constant state of stress as a result, whether it's the food environment, whether it's the light environment, whether it's the stress environment, you know, the emotional environment, the fact that so few of us take sleep seriously. So there are many, many factors, but yeah, her health was just really, really unfortunate, but I do think that by insisting that my mom minimize her consumption of ultra processed foods, get rid of the grain

and seed oils that we had grown up consuming, and that my mom had consumed for decades, like the canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, margarine and the... Margarine, that's what that was a big one when we grew up too. That's because everyone thought that was the healthy way to be. Right. Yeah, also low fat was a big one. 100%. too, because everyone thought that was the healthy way to be. Right. Yeah. Also low fat was a big one. 100%.

Yeah. My mom was of a generation. They didn't have the internet. And my mom was not tech savvy at all. So I mean, even after the birth of the internet, she wasn't on it. No, my mom might not either. I think it's a generational thing. It's a generational thing.

Yeah. So my mom never really had access to any kind of nutritional insight other than what was coming out through the mainstream media. And the dietary dogma for the prior four or five decades had been to benefit your cardiovascular health, avoid fat, specifically saturated fat, and avoid dietary cholesterol. And that's the dietary pattern that the gods on is truth that my mom adhered to for the entirety of her life. I'd never saw her eat eggs until, you know, in her very final years, I got her to eat like a scramble every now and then, but for the majority of her life, no eggs, no, you know, no red meat ever. She was also an animal rights advocate.

So when she was. Yeah. So whenever she would eat animal protein, it would be just boneless, skinless chicken breast on a salad occasionally and like a piece of fish, that's it. But it was a very low fat diet, cholesterol free, and saturated with these grain and seed oils and margins and stuff. Yeah. So I cleaned up her diet in that sense. Without being too rigorous about it, I think this is a really important point.

I think when we come back from the mountaintop, so to speak, with the diet that we want to adopt for ourselves, we want to evangelize a diet. We're talking about that a little bit early. So it's sort of it inevitably to some degrees going to become part of your identity, right? And so at first, I was like trying to get rid of all of the indulgences that my mom had around the house, but at a certain point, you realize that people are going to live the way that they want to live and they should be able to live the way that they want to live. And that the last thing you want to do is compromise your relationship with the loved one and to make them feel any kind of shame or guilt about what it is that they're eating.

So I tried to teach as gently as I could and I made some improvements to my mom's diet. I got her to start eating more like wild salmon. Things like that I mentioned I started making her like once or twice a week, she'd have like an egg. And I got her exercising. So I got her to start with a personal trainer. Yeah. And so she was exercising quite a bit, which we know is great for both Alzheimer's disease, any kind of dementia really, and also Parkinson's disease. And you know, I think it kept her fairly stable for a good number of years, but I'll never know, obviously. Right.

And it didn't save her ultimately, but. I wanted to prevent it, though. You were saying even earlier how what saved you was like your self-care, if you're fitness and you're nutrition, but you already made it a habit, right? So it was now so habitual for you to go to the gym. It would be weird that you, if you wouldn't go anymore, right? So I mean, and why that like just keyed into me

because I am all about habits, rituals obviously, and fitness to me is that too. I mean, it also teaches you discipline and goal setting and all these other things are so fundamental in like overall life success, in my opinion, and mental health too. How do you, like, I know you're not a fitness expert, obviously, but, you know,

what are you going to do? Why, obviously, because you're here talking about kitball, you are a model now. Excuse me. You're neck, your fourth book, you are a model now. Excuse me. You're neck, you're fourth book. That's right. Until that fitness book comes out. No, I mean, I'm not looking at sell to Stefano.

Okay. Well, not yet. Not yet. By the way, do you see those pictures of his abs that he's posting on? Oh, he's a beast. He's a beast that guy. It's an unhigh-sal.

We love sell. We love sell. Mine pump. Shout out to all the mine pump. Yeah, mine plump exactly. But how do you tell people, it's so hard to, like, to get, if in your mom, to get people to start, let's stop is always in the start, to get people motivated, I hate that word, to even start this on this path of, like, being healthier, like, working out.

And I'm sure people ask you all the time on Instagram, like what kind of advice or hack would you give people to start, like how do they could start? Not just say start small, we all hear that. But what are some like easy things they can do? Well, I mean, I think you kind of nailed it on the head when you said you have to create healthy habits for yourself. You can't just, you know, that your first month

in your first month eating healthy foods should not be about weight loss. Your first month in the gym shouldn't be about trying to build as much muscle as you can build. Those, that first month should be about creating habits for yourself. Because that, I think, is the most important thing. And I think when it comes to creating habits,

I like this idea, and I'm certainly not the first to talk about it, but habit stacking, I think it's called a new. Have it stacking, yeah. I'll just give you like an example, just for my own life. And there's nothing to do with nutrition, but I started, I had been trained to meditate

like years ago, but I never did it. What type do you do? It's like Vedic, like TM style meditation. And I'm still, I'm not an everyday meditator, I try my best to do it every day. It's something that my therapist says, I could really benefit from. So that's a whole other conversation.

Yeah, whole other conversation. So I'm trying to meditate more, but I realized, and this is the, I've been meditating the most I've ever meditated over the past two months, and I'll tell you how I did it when I first started. Okay. So first of all, my bedroom is on the top floor of my,

like townhouse, so it's on the top floor, kitchens on the bottom floor. Before I do anything in the morning, I get out of bed, I go pee, and then I meditate. And to meditate, I, so that's like already my routine, my routine, already in the morning, get out of bed, go pee. I sit on a yoga mat, but rather than, like, unroll my yoga mat every morning

and then roll it back up, I leave that thing laid out in front of my bed. So I'm reducing the friction. So I don't have to think about unrolling my yoga mat. It's not an excuse for me. I don't feel like unrolling my yoga mat. It's there. It's like already there beckoning me.

It's like a reminder. Exactly. You know, my yoga mat's already out there. I don't move it. I mean, luckily I live by myself. So your husband's like beautiful all the time. Yeah, no, there's things. Supestetically pleasing, I'm sure.

No, it's not bad. It's not bad. I've gotten a lot better over time. But I don't have a girlfriend or anything like that. I've got no one pleased. Which is a whole other story, which we have to get into. He's like literally the most eligible bachelor for those of you who don't know.

Go look at him. That's why he the most eligible bachelor for those of you who don't know, they'll look at him. That's why he has the coffee table with pictures of him. Like the, the, the, the recipe book is literally filled with max pictures. Oh god. It's hilarious. You said it, not me. I did.

I'll say it again and again. I'm ready, buddy, who wants to hear it. So, okay, back on track. So, but I will say, I will say one more thing. So, I, people would always laugh at me, even to this day because my house is like a gym or like, it looks like a frat boy because I have like those things around my house

with those pull up, you know, you put them on the door on the door hinges and pull up. So I put them around my house. So when I walk by, it's, well, it's right there. I might as well just do one or two to get stronger. Just two, yeah. Right? And like, does it look that nice?

No. But like, and we have a bunch of like yoga mats around my house, because if I have a few minutes, why don't just do a few like planks or whatever. Like, so I create situations environmentally where, you know, my house looks like literally like equinox or worse. It's, it's the absolutely crucial looks like literally like equinox or worse. It's absolutely crucial.

I learned to play guitar by doing that. I made sure that my guitar was always out. Oh, yeah, you see it, right? It's visible. Yeah, it's always out. It's in the middle of my living room. So whenever I see it, I'm like, oh, maybe I should pick it up. If it's out of sight, it's out of mind.

100%. 100%. So, started meditating and long, long story short, story short well I started I was like this in TM you're supposed to do it for 20 minutes and at first I was like that's so freaking long I'm not gonna be able to actually yeah you're supposed to do it for 20 minutes twice I know yeah So I don't do it twice a day but um but that's there's like this perfectionist thing where it's like You know you might be inclined to think if you read anything or you watch YouTube videos on on trends in the Dental meditation that if you don't do it for 20 minutes twice a day you might be inclined to think if you read anything or you watch YouTube videos on trends in the dental meditation,

that if you don't do it for 20 minutes or so a day, you might as well not do it, but that's not true. It's like, it's like, even a shitty workout is better than no workout. Exactly, exactly. You know, have you had that woman on your podcast? She just wrote peak mind, or? Yes.

She's all about mindfulness. I mean, she job. Yeah, I thought about, because she also- She's a U.M. professor. And. Yeah, I thought about it. Because she also... She's a U.M. professor. That's why I thought of it. Because you said you went to U.M. And she even said, like, even doing, like, nope,

it's not, like, you don't have to do TM or this. Just sit there and like concentrate and think for a minute or two is better than doing zero. Yeah, absolutely. So TM, I mean, shame on you, TM, because who can do 40? 40 minutes is a long time for people. It's a lot, it's a lot. And you've gotta lower the ball, I think, for most people.

So I was like, I'm gonna lower the bar. I'm sure that 10 minutes is better than no minutes. So I'm gonna start with 10 minutes. So I started doing 10 minutes. And I did that three days in a row because it's so easy. And my yoga mat was already out. 10 minutes is a long time actually too.

Is it? Yeah. Yeah, you did a long time actually too. Is it? Yeah. Yeah, you did 10 minutes, no problem. Well, I did 10 minutes because I have a timer and I just did, yeah, I was just, I did, did your mind wander? Maybe I did, well, your mind's supposed to wander. That's the thing about meditation, which is a whole other topic

and I'm not a meditation expert, but I've taken like hour and hours of classes, I play one on TV, but I do think that I understand like how to meditate and the whole point is that your mind is gonna wander the same way that you can't stop your heart from beating, like your do think that I understand how to meditate. The whole point is that your mind is going to wander the same way that you can't stop your heart from beating. That's what your mind goes. The whole point of meditation is to be able to gently just take your mind without judgment

off of those thoughts and bring it back to the present moment, bring it back to the mantra. That's what it's all about. That's the whole freaking thing. It's like people love to overcomplicate it, and yeah, you can put thousands of dollars on courses, but I'll tell you right now to meditate, Vedic style, all you gotta do is find a mantra, a word that has no meaning or a syllable or whatever. It doesn't have to make any sense.

It's just a, it could be like blah, but blah kind of has a connotation. But you're a word. It's a, well you're not supposed to share it. Oh, you're not. Which is like a superstition. But it's just a syllable that doesn't mean anything. It's just a Sanskrit sounding syllable that doesn't mean anything. It's just a Sanskrit sounding syllable

that doesn't mean anything, okay, one syllable. And you just sit there meditate with your eyes closed and your mind is gonna freaking go wherever it does. That's, you shouldn't expect it to not, because that's what the mind does. So you're gonna think about the emails, you're gonna think about how much you want that coffee, like you're morning coffee,

you're gonna think about how much you wanna cuddle your cat who's playing in front of you, or, you know, all these different things. Like your mind is gonna go. You just gently volley back to the mantra. That's it, you just repeat the mantra in your head. It's like you just repeat it, repeat it, repeat it. Does it help you?

Has it helped you, I should say? I'll ask your therapist. Yeah, I think it's helped. Really? Yeah, so yeah, the first couple of days I was doing like, maybe I even started with five minutes. I don't remember, but I know that I started with just a short amount of time,

and then it was like 10 minutes, and I did 10 minutes, three or four days and around. And I was like, you know, if I could do 10 minutes, I could do 12 minutes, but I did 12 minutes for a few days. And then I was like, you know, that went by pretty fast this time. I'm gonna see if I can do 15 minutes, say, I did 15 minutes, and then I got up to 20 minutes,

and I've done 20 minutes, and I, every, I did 15 minutes, and then I got up to 20 minutes and I've done 20 minutes. And I, every period I did it every single day for a week, and then I traveled, and then I fell off, and then, but I never took the yoga mat up, and so the yoga mat's still there. And so now, like, I wake up, and I don't go back, and I'll do it. And you don't have to be broke, but perfect.

If I skip a day, I'm not hard on myself. I'm like, no big deal, but it definitely, it's, that's how you create habits. You lower the bar for yourself. Totally true. I could not agree with you more. So then you would say to me, honestly, that since you've been doing it for two months, very regularly, you've seen a difference in your stress level and what, in your feel

on the blank. Yeah. I've seen a difference in my anxiety. I've seen a difference. Here's one of the major benefits of meditation is that we all experience thoughts over the course of the day that we'd rather not have, right? True. I maybe I read something that somebody tweeted about me

or somebody on YouTube, you know, you get millions of comments on YouTube, not all of them are gonna be nice. Right. So maybe, and I have the unfortunate habit of reading my comments. Yeah. Yeah.

So I'll go and read it and I'll read something that like triggers me, you know, or I'll think about like an ex girlfriend and I don't wanna be thinking about her, or I'll think about like an ex-girlfriend and I don't wanna be thinking about her, or something like that. We all have thoughts that we would rather not have over the course of the day. That's exactly the meditation helps with.

Is it helps you volley, because when you're having those thoughts, you're not in the present moment. You're going back to the past. Or you're thinking about the future. You're just, whatever the case may be, you're not in the present. Meditation helps you volley gently without judgment,

off of those thoughts, and put the focus back on the present moment. That's it. So it has helped you. I think it's helped. Yeah, and I'm not a woo guy. You won't find crystals in my house. You, you know, I'm very much like about the science

and whatever. I'm a skeptic. Like, it took me a while to get this meditation thing, but it's not, it has nothing to do with spirituality, it's just literally like you're training your mind. Yeah, you're training your mind, that's exactly what it is. So what are some of the other habits that you stack?

So you do that, you wake up, you do that 10 minute or 12 minute. Yeah, yeah, yeah, meditation. I mean, I'm obsessed with fitness, so every, for the most mornings I'll go to the gym around 10, 30 in the morning. Even now with the whole pandemic and mask'll go to the gym around 10 30 in the morning even now with the whole Pandemic and mask it or the mask than there. I go to equinox. I go to equinox. Yeah, or should do it Let me guess you go to the Santa Monica location

Or West Hollywood Should I have just revealed that on your huge podcast? I think I think you're gonna be just fine You think I think there are other people who are gonna West Hollywood who are maybe a little more famous than you. I think you're probably right. I think you're probably right. But I don't know, maybe not. Maybe not any more.

I do get people recognize me in that gym. I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just sure all the time you got that messy bat, you know, the boy band looking hair. There you go. You're a cute smile. You got your, you know,

you got your coffee book table pictures of you. I mean, listen, you got your, you know, you got your coffee book table pictures of you. I mean, listen, you're like, especially in the Jewish community, you must be like catnip over there. Oh my God, I'm not really in the Jewish community. I know, but you're still Jewish. Yeah. So you're still a Jewish person who's kind of like spread their wings a little bit. But still, you know, you are like a heartthrob. I always tease Max because he is.

You're like a teenage heartthrob. You still look like you're like 21, by the way. I've never, I don't think I've ever dated a Jewish girl. I don't know if I should admit that. I always date shicks. You do, I think you told my mom. Yes, your mother, I'm sure. I would say my mom would, yeah.

But look, no judgment. I don't, I'm not religious, so I don't care. I'm just saying all this, everything that I've just said was ingest. I'm not, but no one's judging you here. It's okay, it's all good. But I know, I love the tradition and the culture and yeah, I'm very proud of the fact that I'm Jewish, but I'm not a religious.

Well, you always kind of like the cute guy, though, that everyone, like you joined up a girlfriend and when you were the younger in school, do all the girls like you? Yes. Don't lie. I mean, I was, I was, you were the younger in school, do all the girls like you? Yes. Don't lie. I mean, I was... Did you go to Jewish school?

No. I mean, I went to, I did go to Hebrew school for a little bit, but there was like, no, it wasn't a Jewish school. It wasn't like my main school was a public school in New York City. Okay. Oh, really? Yeah, I had a lot of female friends, but I wasn't like the heartthrob or anything like that.

It was, I went to a very small school. So when did you become kind of like heart throby? Jesus. Like where your hair all like messy and like kind of like styled, but pretending you just woke up kind of thing. God. I would say it all began my senior year of high school. Senior year of high school. Like why did you grow a lot?

Like did you grow a foot? Um, I was, uh was, I started, no, well, I did grow a little bit, but I started high school with braces and a bad hairstyle, and then I ended high school with a cool hairstyle, no braces, and I had started working out. I became interested in fitness, so. You kind of revamped yourself. A little bit, yeah.

And you haven't looked back. I haven't looked back. So what is your fitness thing? So you go to the gym. So even when you go in the hole, like besides when it was closed, but you went right back and you just wore the mask when you were at two or? Um, yeah, yeah, you have to wear a mask and it's horrible.

It's a L.A. thing. You know, I've spent a lot of time recently in Texas and in Florida. You don't wear masks. No, I know, both play. Are you there on work? The related stuff or are you just... Working fun, like my family, we like Florida,

my dad lives in Florida. I love Florida. Wearing Florida. He lives in North Miami Beach. Yeah, you have to, it's like freedom over there. Freedom, yeah. Yeah, which, you know, look, I think that the whole, wearing a mask

while in a gym thing is brutal. Brutal, yeah, and I don't know how much it's helping, but it's hindering. First of all, you go and date, that you're like the journalist, health journalist. Can you talk, how is that a good thing? Because you're breathing in like bad air. Like you're, isn't it carbon dioxide,

you're breathing, what is it that you're breathing back into your system? How's it healthy? Well, no carbon dioxide, you know I've worn a pulse oxymeter while wearing a mask just to test it out to see if wearing a mask had any impact on my blood oxygen saturation and it didn't so You know, I don't I don't think that it really is gonna affect your oxygen saturation, but it's just, it's very uncomfortable. And it makes me less, it makes me work out less hard. You know, I'm less inclined to wanna do cardio

if I have to have a freaking mask over my mouth and nose. They know, that's why, why don't you just knock with a gym for cardio and just do it outside or your house or? Yeah, I mean, we should have done the treadmill today. We should have. I, it's okay. It's okay. I, you know, I hike like, you don't have done the treadmill today. I know. We should have. I, it's okay.

I, you know, I hike like you don't have to wear a mask. Outdoor is obviously so. Obviously. So what is your routine though? What do you do? Like when you go to the gym or workout, like what are your, what are your, what's your fitness of choice? Well, there are two things that I really enjoy.

One is I love lifting weights. I've always loved like always loved just living weights. Because you're a guy. I think that may be it, but I just... But I like it too, so maybe I'm a guy. I don't know. No, I think it's great when women lift weights, it's a beautiful thing. It's also the way...

That's how you really build the muscle mass. That's really the only way. You can do all these other things, but at the end of the day, that is the most efficient way to do it. Building muscles crucial, it's crucial. So I do that, and then I've started over the past two years boxing. So taking like, I love that.

Where do you go for that? I have a boxing trainer, and I just do it like in the park in West Hollywood. Oh, that's my favorite. Yeah. Oh, I love that. So fun. It's good. I feel like I can kick somebody ass now, kick somebody's ass, which I've never been able to, I would never say that I'd be able to do like previously

I've because I'm out of fighter, but You're a lover not a fighter. There you go. No, I just um, it's a wonderful. It's great for the brain also Providing you're not getting it in the head, but the coordination aspect of things It's it's really powerful in the cardiovascular workout but because my trainer is like 101 and he's a professional boxer. Who is it? His name is Minju. I found out on Instagram Minju's Fight Club. He's a really, really great talent. If you live in LA, you need a boxing trainer. Minju's Fight Club. He's awesome. That might get that information from you. Yeah. Seriously, because I am looking for a new person. We spar. I mean, we will, he'll like, you know,

I mean, defense is a big thing. Like, so it's not, it's not like I'm like, going to rumble or something. Yeah, yeah, you're like, you're doing legit boxing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I go boxing gym, sometimes to train with him. Like a real boxing gym. Yeah, like a real boxing gym.

I love it. So it's, yeah, it's legit. I love it and I love, and I love just like weight training. And like, you know, that's sort of what I do. Cardio, I'm not, I, it's legit. I love it and I love and I love just like weight training and like, you know That's sort of what I do cardio. I'm not I prefer to do cardio um I actually don't love doing cardio. I like to like walk. I love like any opportunity to walk Mm-hmm. I don't I don't I don't get enough opportunity in LA. I feel like to just walk

Isn't that so ironic? You live in a very health oriented, nice weather place, and no one walks here. Walking from a health standpoint is so underappreciated, and it's probably the best thing, because you don't have to go to a gym to be in your best health. Like, you don't have to build big muscles, although it definitely helps to be strong.

But walking, I think, is like bar none, like the best exercise. You know that my first book was called No Jim Required, right? I mean, you probably didn't know. And my whole company is called No Jim Required. I love that.

And it's true. It's all of the simple ways people could be fit without going in the gym. And people think you have to go to the gym, gym's nice. But walking is number one, the most, not that that's underrated, but it's just not glamorous, right? So people are trying to find these other modalities

to work out that are not walking, but walking is a great way for bone density even. Bone density, yeah, non-exercise physical activity. Yeah, low impact. It provides a huge opportunity for calorie expenditure, just walking. It's great for you. Kali, should I have the treadmill? Now I'm upset and annoyed that I were not on those treadmills again.

It's okay. I was on a, I did a little bit like elliptical earlier. Okay. Well, that's what you couldn't, you can't double up. You can double up on the meditation, but not on the fitness. I guess I could, I guess I could have. Yeah. Okay, well, that's good. couldn't you can't double up you can double up on the meditation. I guess I could no I guess I could I guess I could have Yeah, okay Well, we already did that been there done that you're right. We got to like move on like kind of evolve or

More sit down and style interview. Yeah, it's true. I guess it's like yeah, we can keep the variety all right I like that all right, so you do that and then what else to do for your habit stacking um well The other thing so I mean I exercise pretty, the other thing, so I mean, I exercise pretty regularly, the other thing that I do. Every day? I try to do something every day, even though I'm always conscious of overtraining.

I could drive myself to overtraining, because the guy loved going to the gym that much, but no, I try to alternate it, and maybe on one day I'll go in a hike or something like that. Are you a yoga person? I used to be. I'm not so much anymore, but I do I do love yoga. I just haven't gone to a class and like forever.

I do spend a lot of time doing like contrast hydrotherapy. So sauna and cold water immersion. I saw you have a sauna. I do it. It's amazing. I love that thing. The information. That's like the best thing in the world. The best thing I've ever gotten with that thing.

It's great, yeah. Do you do it every day? I do it like five days a week. That's almost every day. Yeah, almost every day. How long do you go? I don't, I don't have a sauna, I used to have a sauna in my house.

I don't anymore. Now I go to a place that's open five days a week. And I do like hot Russian, it's like called Banya, which is a sauna that's like just really hot. How hot does that one get? Oh my God, it gets up to like 250 degrees. No. Yeah, it's, are you able to sit in that?

It's ridiculous. Like you literally feel like you're dying after 15, 20 minutes in a sauna. Can you do that for that lot? And you literally are probably dying unless you get out. Yeah, I do it for 15, 15, 20 minutes. It's hot. It's hard.

It's difficult. At that temperature? Yeah. I mean, sometimes less than 15 minutes, sometimes like 10 minutes. It's really hot. It's really hot. That's how the Russians do it. And sometimes they make it even hotter.

They'll throw like beer onto the hot stones and then they wave a towel around in the whole room. It heats up. It's nuts. It's nuts. It's crazy. Does it, he, so what is the difference? Is there a, at that point, is that even a health benefit?

Isn't that too hot for your body to even take? No, it's great. It's heat stress. Yeah, I mean, your body, you sweat, you're activating heat shock proteins, you're boosting nitro oxide all over your freaking body. Better than infrared. Is that one better than an infrared? Um, I don't know if we know whether or not it's better or worse, but I know that most of the research is on actual sauna because most of the research on sauna and the health benefits associated

with it come from Finland, which is where it's like the sauna capital of the world. And so they don't use infrared sauna there. In fact, the International Sona Association doesn't even actually consider infrared saunas to be saunas in the traditional sense of the... Really? Yeah, they actually, they don't think that infrared saunas should be called saunas, because a sauna is like a hot room. Usually it's lit, usually warmed by stones. So where did it come from? How did it become like the, you know, biohackers? Welcome.

I mean, because I think it works. It does raise core body temperature. And it makes you sweat and it's inexpensive and it's practical, right? You can put it in your house. It's expensive. But you mean inexpensive. These things are super expensive. They, I mean, they're not cheap, but they're not as expensive as it would be to build like an actual son in your house.

A cheaper than building like an actual son in your house. A cheaper than building an actual son, I think. I don't. Maybe not actually. Maybe not. So does the benefits of like an infrared son versus the kind that you do, you don't know like, okay, this one does. You're basically, I had no idea. I did hear once actually on the Andrew Huberman's podcast.

How do I mean? Am I pronouncing his name right? I think it's Huberman Andrew Huberman's podcast, how do I remember my pronouncing his name right? I think it's Huberman, right? Yeah, yeah. He's also not a big fan of the infrareds. He was saying that like to your point, it's as long as you're in a sauna, it doesn't have to be an infrared sauna

or another kind of sauna. Look, you get a lot of the benefits from being in a sauna, sitting in a hot tub. So there's a lot of benefits that spill over from modality to modality because the core mechanism by which we get benefit from these different activities is heat, the application of heat on the body and the raising of core body temperature. So whatever it happened, whether it's whether it's sitting in a hot bath, I mean, you could achieve many of the same benefits. You

sweat when you're in hot water, you're boosting nitric oxide, you're inducing heat shock proteins. So whatever you have access to, that's the thing to do. I mean, if you have an infrared sauna, then don't feel bad about not having a traditional finish sauna. If you don't have either and you just, you know, all you can do is take hot baths, then do that. It's fine. But the, but the majority of research on sauna comes from Finland and what they use there is without you know

almost without exception are like stone or wood-heated traditional sauna. But you're the one that you're going into is so so hot. Is there a is there an extra added benefit? Yeah, from being in that to get your bite to that because no matter if I I'm sitting in my sauna that goes, let's say, to 160 or 170, right? And it takes me a while to get super, super sweaty in there. Is there a difference between that versus being 10 minutes like a, it's a kit training going into the 20, in 220 from sauna? No, it's a good question. I mean, I think that the benefits are probably similar, although more, yeah, I mean, that's a good analogy, like hit training, like more, you're getting the same benefits

in a more compressed time frame. Yeah. Because it is a significant stress on the body. I mean, as I mentioned, you feel like you're dying in there and that stress is that whor medic effect that you want. That's really where the money is. Yeah, I know. With all of these different modalities.

And then you jump into the cold plunge. And then I jump into the cold plunge. And you do that for what, three minutes? Yeah, two, three minutes. I put my whole body up to my head in there. I mean, I'll dunk my head too, but I go up to my chin generally because we accumulate brown fat,

which is metabolically active fat to shoot in our collarbone, among other places are armpits and stuff. So I want, I want to try and get a collarbone. A collarbone. Yeah. So in our, in our, in this region, like really, yeah, yeah, that's what, but can't you collect it anywhere else in the body like my butt? No, you don't get it.

No, you don't get it everywhere. Brown fat is only found in a few places. Up and down your spine in your armpits or in your collarbone. Um, I didn't know that, in your armpits or on your collarbone. I didn't know that. In your neck, yeah, probably to some degree around your vital organs, but it's not everywhere. Everywhere else you have white out of post tissue. So if you're covering that, you're going to say, what is the benefit of doing that? So the benefit of cold water immersion,

over your brown fat. Yeah, well, you know, over your neck that Over your brown fat. Yeah. Well, you know, over your neck that would have brown fat underneath, but yeah. Well the idea is that when you lower your core body temperature, you're encouraging the proliferation of this type of fat. That's brown because it has more mitochondria. It's metabolically active. It burns fat.

It burns sugar. It increases your overall calorie burn so it can boost your resting metabolic rate. And we used to think that this wasn't able to be cultivated in adults. Brown babies are born with brown fat, but unlike adults, babies don't have the ability to shiver. So what they have is they have brown fat, which is again, it's metabolically active and it's thermogenic meaning it creates heat. And so that's how babies stay warm when they're cold. Babies can't shiver up. I always learn these very interesting little fact toys

from you, even in your book, by the way, about the potato. Oh, no, this is what I like about you. This is why these little things, he gave me more like that, babies can't shiver. Oh man, I'm full. Brown fat around the collarbone. Yeah. So so babies are have a lot more brown fat than adults, but adults, you know, because adults we can have more agency, right? We can wear things. Babies

don't they're pretty impudent, right? Like the world. So if they're cold, they they have this fat and that fat is there to protect them. Almost like an internal heating pad is essentially what it is. Wow. Adults, we have it, but it was thought for a while, since the discovery of brown fat, that we couldn't create more of it, that it was just sort of this vestigial quality of adults, that we don't really have it used for it. But now we know that it helps with cold acclimation,

it gets active when we're cold, and we can increase the production of it by spending more time in cold environments. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread

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At Weaver, people are our formula. We believe relationships should be stronger than your internet connection, which is why we're committed to understanding your goals and helping you achieve them. Learn more at weaver.com. So how long have you been doing the the cold and hot and did you see a difference between how you How you felt any kind of health before you started doing that stuff versus doing it continue like continuously Yeah, I mean, I've been doing it continuously for for some time. How long would you say? Well, when I was in New York, I had access to a cold plunge in a sauna too, which I was doing. Oh you do religiously yeah Uh I took a brief break last year.

Last year I lived, I spent a little more time on the west side and I didn't have access to one the way that I currently do. Yeah, but for quite a number of years at this point, I've had fairly regular access to hot saunas and cold plunges. And so yeah, I mean, I think the benefits are like, the benefits that I've seen, I've seen benefits to my skin, I've seen benefits to inflammation. I have like, you know, chronic to some degree, like low back issues that have dramatically improved

with this, with the cold water immersion specifically. I mean, I also know from a research standpoint that the hot therapy can boost BDNF in the brain, can sort of potentiate the work that we do in the gym, so it can sort of facilitate that, helps us excrete various environmental toxins and our sweat. facilitate that helps us excrete various environmental toxins and our sweat. Could get it with one because I hate the cold. Yeah. That's my problem, but I love the sauna. But can you get the same benefits or if you don't like the, I know the hot and colds very, very, you don't have to do them back to fourth. I mean, or what if I just did the hot

or you just did the cold? They're all great. It's all great. Very zero. Yeah, it's better. Well, and they have distinct benefits just did the hot or just did the cold. It's all great. Very zero. That's a bit of a deal. They have distinct benefits. The hot is great. The cold is great. If you don't like being hot, just do cold.

If you don't like being cold, just do hot. But they have different benefits. Different benefits. Yeah. I think that one of the most profound benefits that I get from the cold is the mental benefit. It's like, it's a state change for me. When I take a cold shower and look, even for me, it takes discipline getting into cold water.

It's like, you just have to kind of psych yourself up and do it. It's a psyching yourself up. It's never easy, but I'm always grateful that I did it afterwards. It's sort of like a workout. A workout, exactly. I've never once regretted getting into the cold water.

Yeah. There's a big hurdle to get over, a big sort of mental hurdle to get over when it comes to actually getting in, but after I do it, I'm so grateful to myself that I had the grit to be able to do it. Because it is a state change. If I'm feeling fatigued, arctic, depressed, anxious, whatever it, whatever it happens

to be, it's like getting into that water is like it cleanses the slate. It's like it's like hitting control all or set or whatever control delete delete. I know you meant that. Yeah, on your on your brain. Um, yeah, or the computer. But then I haven't asked me, oh my God, okay. But I'm just asking you, don't even ask with us on here. I wanted to ask you a bunch of questions about,

no, we'll get to that in two seconds. But other habits that you do that have been really, that you have it stack. Other habits, let me think about that. Well, I'm gonna ask you other questions. Yeah, no, I mean, there's a lot of, like my sleep routine is pretty robust at this point. What are you doing? I just got this mattress from 8-slate.

Have you tried this thing? It's like body temperature. It basically can change the temperature of the mattress. I have a competing product by a chilly sleep. It's called the other. Oh, I heard it's really good. Yeah, it's pretty good. Although I hear A Sleep is good too,

I'm sure they're both great. Well, how does yours work? Mine is a thing that goes over the mattress and it lets you set your temperature. It's just a cooling or heating pad that goes over the mattress. Yeah, and you can set it up. You can heat it too, but you can eat it.

So do you go negative three to when you fall asleep or negative four and then when when you're in a ram It goes to like no mind is not it's not that sophisticated So I think that that's where the eight sleep has the the leg up But mine it's automatic so every night at like 11 o'clock in night It goes on and it goes to like whatever. I think it's like set to 64 degrees. Oh Goes in that way, okay, yeah, And then it stays that temperature up until like 7 30 in the morning and then it shuts off. But you can set that. And it's like again, it does a

really good job of like the habit stacking thing. It does it automatically. So I don't even have to think about it. I just. Is it necessary though? Like I mean, one of those cooling pads. No, it's not necessary at all. But I'm a. Does it make you sleep better, honestly? I tend to be a hot sleeper. Like there are nights where I wake up like sweaty and this is fixed that problem for me. And I say that full, you know, no financial affiliation. Right, you just like it. Yeah, yeah.

It's fixed that problem for me. I've always been a good sleeper, but I did, I would often wake up like, you know, like dampen. It's not, it's not a comfortable, it's not a comfortable way to wake up. Like that's such a crazy, that's one of those words that makes me laugh. Yeah. You're looking and you're such a sleep guy and yet you're not wearing an aura or a ring, you're not wearing a wook, you're not wearing a wook. No, I'm not big on those like tracking devices, although I'll use them occasionally for

time. Um, I'm not them occasionally for a time. It's a bit of the EMF it can give off. No, it's not that. I just like, I want to spend less time on my devices anyway. I don't want to be like, that's why I'm not waiting to wait up checking my phone to see how I slept. No, I want to be able to like, check in with myself to see how I've slept. And I respect those devices.

Look, I think there's utility for them. I do want to, you know, I think like as an experiment Like it's it's worthwhile to like audit your sleep and there is there is a little experiment that I do want to run with myself With an aura ring like but it's not the kind of thing that I feel the need to wear all the time right for example I Want to run this test so one of the things that I do sometimes when I go to sleep, not every night, but a lot of nights, I'll tape my mouth closed, which forces nose breathing. I want to see if that has any, I want to see if nose breathing versus mouth breathing has any

effect on overnight heart rate. My hypothesis is that, because I've actually heard anecdotally from somebody else that when they tape their mouths, their overnight heart rate is much lower, which is a good thing. And so I wanna see if that is, in fact, the case for me. Oh, so you haven't done it. I think so you have to. No, I haven't run that experiment on myself.

I do wanna try it though, but I do tape my mouth occasionally, and I do find that I sleep much deeper. Really? With it, and I wake up feeling great. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like I've been hearing more and more about that recently.

Yeah, I mean, I think nose breathing is super important. Whether or not you need to every night, I don't know, I think it's good to at least give it a shot. Sometimes I get congested at night, and so that makes the nose taping, the mouth taping not the most comfortable, but most nights I think I can do it and I do do it and it's great, it's like I'm really into it.

I also sometimes I'll pair the mouth tape with a nose strip. No wonder you don't have a girlfriend. I'm not doing it. No, my sleep routine is pretty insane. So what do you, let me get this straight, okay? So you have the match, we got that. Then you tape your mouth and you put like

when those things on your nose like to- Yeah, yeah, it's not a, it's like a breatherite strip. Although I don't like breatherite strips because it leaves a residue. So I use like the generic CVS strips. Do you wear like invisal lines or like, no, what do you call those, not what do you call those things in your mouth like?

Like a bike guard? Yeah. No, no, no. No, I don't wear a bike guard. I don't Like a bike guard? Yeah. No, no, no. No, I don't wear a bike guard. I don't wear a bike guard, but I use the nasal strip sometimes, mouth tape. I also, I've got my ulla running. My red, my room has a red light bulb in the lamp

by the bed, which makes my room look like a strip club. Like a red light? Yeah. I don't have any like overhead lights in my room. You don't? So the red light. Yeah. My room, my room, I basically keep dark. Like I keep, like any overhead lights in my room. You don't? So the red light. Yeah, my room, my room, I basically keep dark. When I'm in my room, getting ready for bed,

even in my bathroom, which is connected to my bedroom, I don't put the lights on. So I'm doing everything in the dark. Really? Like a hunter gatherer. I have a little red night light. It's a very low. Is a red light, by the way, a red light for red light therapy?

Is it just? No, no, no, it's just like a red. Yeah, it way, like a red light for like red light therapy? Is it just? No, no, no. It's just like a red. Yeah, it's just like a red. Like a stripper light just for fun. Just this, yeah, yeah, I want to. Just for your guests to come over. I literally there's nothing special about it.

I just went to a light bulb store. I bought a red light bulb. And I have a lamp on my bed, but the red light bulb in the lamp. So I put that on. Boost the purpose of having the red light versus like just like a light that you would just turn on super low. Super low. Well, A, I don't want it to be overhead. B, red is the opposite end of

the visible light spectrum from its opposite blue. And you don't want blue light for bed because it signals to your brain. You're awake. That's like daytime. And it's also just very soothing. When you put your phone on night mode, it becomes really orange. Red is the more extreme version of that. And so it's just like really soothing from a, it doesn't perturb your melatonin production in your brain. It really has been like a game changer for me, actually.

Because I used to have a low, like what you're talking about, like a low light bulb instead of the red light bulb in my lab. But even that was not, it's still too bright. It's still too bright. It's got all the different like wave lengths in it. It's just not as soothing.

I mean, you'll notice, like if you go out and try getting like a life, they're like five bucks. A red light. Yeah, red light bulb, just plug it in there. And you'll see it's like really soothing at night. And I'm gonna try that. Yeah, it's great.

And I use like I've got like a red little night light in my bathroom, but I'm not putting on the light switches like on the wall. Like I'm doing everything mostly in the dark. In the dark. How about in terms of eating then? You're not eating before. I would imagine you're probably intermittent fast.

Yeah, to some degree. I generally won't eat until 11 or 12 every day. I try to stop eating three hours before bed. I'm not perfect though. Sometimes if I'm hanging out late with friends or whatever, I'll be snacking. But you're not like, you're not like, diligent about it. But you're...

Yeah, I try to. I mean, I, you know, the research is, I think, pretty compelling that even, even, like, if you're controlling your calories, there still seems to be a cardiometabolic health benefit to not eating too late at night. An improvement in glucose, homeostasis, so like your body's ability to manage blood sugar, there seems to be an improvement in blood pressure. Some people will argue that it's just a means of controlling your calorie intake. Right, that's what I was gonna argue, right?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think there's that, but I think that there's also this interesting signal. A lot of the research is being done by Sachin Panda at Salk University, it's like the, I don't know, the circadian guy. And what they're showing is that even when you control for calories, there seem to be other benefits.

Whether or not those benefits are clinically meaningful over the long haul, who knows, but I'm optimistic that that intermittent or time restricted feeding is useful, especially for people who don't have the option to improve their food quality, right? For people that live in like food deserts, I think it's really interesting.

And compelling that like they might actually be able to just compress their feeding window and see health benefits if they don't have access to like a Whole Foods or an Aeroan or what have you. You love that Aeroan. Yeah, always comes up in every conversation I have with you. I spend a little too much money there. It's been, I mean that place is so ridiculously expensive. I don't shop there though.

I shop at like, I mean I shop at you too. I shop at Whole Foods which is still expensive but Aeroan makes Whole Foods look like Trader Justice. No I miss look like Vans. I'm telling you that, which is still expensive, but everyone makes Whole Foods look like Trader Joss. No, I'm just looking at Vons. I'm telling you, that place is like insanely expensive. I have a bunch of these questions that I wanted to ask they saw in your new book that what I found was interesting. Okay, first of all, these are not necessarily, but you said something that I wanted to

just go on to calories. You don't think that I calories just to calorie, right? That's not your, like, there are people with big calories in versus calories out. That's not what you think. Uh, no. Do you think that I'm not saying yes or no, I'm just asking you. Yeah, no, I do think calories matter. I do think they, they, they definitely matter. Yeah, energy balance matters, but so does the source of the calories. A calories just a unit of measurement. So a calorie is a calorie. It's like saying a mile is not a mile,

but the problem is a mile walking uphill is a lot different than a mile walking downhill. 100%. So if I had a Mars bar, for example, which is 180 calories versus having, you know, a piece of salmon that's four ounces, five ounces, there's a difference in how your body metabolizes it or you tell me what your... There is a difference. Yeah, yeah. I mean, 100 calories of protein, your is only going to yield About 70 calories right because protein is a much higher thermic effect than fat or carbohydrates for example calories, you just said though that's so true a mile up versus a mile down very different very very different right 100 calories Broccoli is going to be a lot different than 100 calories from Oreo cookies So the where the calories come from absolutely matters and that's not something that I feel like is being is discussed enough amongst fitness

circles. Well, that's, well, that's why I wanted to bring. I think there's a lot of people, the 50% of the people think, you know, your body, I think it doesn't affect your body composition. That's my take on it. But there are people say, no, it doesn't matter. If you have, if you have, if you're diet to 800 calories, it doesn't matter where you're gaining those calories from. I do think it matters. I think for your, how you're gonna optimize your brain, your overall energy, makes a big difference. Mine is my opinion.

Well, I think everybody would agree at this point that, I mean, the thing is, sometimes you'll see headlines like nutrition professor prove that you can lose weight by eating only twinkies, right? Right, or like the subway dude that lost. The subway dude, yes, yeah. When you control for protein, it really doesn't matter from a weight loss standpoint,

what the other, where the other macronutrients come from, carbs and fat. Right. From purely the standpoint of near term, like weight loss and body composition, as long as we're controlling for protein, because protein helps us maintain our lean mass. So if you're talking about just losing weight from your body, which shouldn't be anybody's goal, then it really is all about calories. But if we're talking about losing fat, then we want to control for protein so that we maintain our lean mass and then you can and then dial down the fat and carbohydrate intake. But

Does that mean that you can fill out the fat and carbs with like the if it fits your macros model of just like whatever else No, because your body still needs micronutrients that help keep you young and that's gonna reflect in your skin It's gonna reflect in your metabolic health It's going to reflect in your metabolic health. It's going to reflect in so many aspects of your existence that I'm absolutely 100% advocate of being mindful where your calories come from. I will, you know, we were say this earlier, but like vegan for a vegan diet, right, or vegetarian diet. I still don't know how many people come on this podcast or I've speak to like in my regular life, I don't know where the gang enough protein. I don't, well, broccoli has protein.

Broccoli does not have enough protein to build lean muscle mass. Absolutely not. But I don't understand by how this is not more common knowledge. Yeah, it's, it's just like, yeah, I mean, I don't know who's out there saying, and certainly people are saying that broccoli has enough protein. Well, vegans and people who don't eat meat, they're like,

very low quality protein, not, you know, appropriate. A lentil though, like, my toes have protein, yeah. But you're not, if I want to build muscle, is it more, maybe it's more about, you're the journalist, maybe you've done way more research but I'm talking from experience. Oh, yeah, I live in Brutal stuff. Yeah. Right.

Like, I think if I need to like lean out and like build muscle, I need to eat salmon, chicken, meat, like animal protein, fish, I don't know where you're going to get your protein from if you're a vegan. Yeah, I mean, soy is fairly high quality actually, if you can believe it. And so there's nothing wrong with that. Also legumes are legumes have protein. Also lots of carbs in there. But also lots of other non-protein calories. Right.

So if you're trying to lose weight, that's where that becomes relevant, right? Yeah. And not granted, not everybody's trying to lose weight. But people want to be more muscular and more lean muscle. As you get older, who doesn't want to have more lean muscle? There you go. The highest quality protein is bar none animal protein. It's like the protein, the protein scoring method that is currently in use to determine

protein quality has shown us that like whether it's chicken, beef, fish, eggs, dairy, the best, the best of the best, really. And soy is up there, it's not quite as high as animal protein, but soy is a decent quality from a digestibility standpoint. It's not something that I would eat regularly, but no, animal protein is definitely the way to go. Right, you're also a big fan of way protein in your book, you talk about it. Yeah, I'm a fan of way protein.

I take it, I use way protein isolate. It's got a great amino acid profile. It's very easy to hit the leucine threshold of 2.5 grams of leucine, which we need for muscle proteins synthesis. Which brand you like, and then the other thing, well, first time in what brand you like, I'm curious to find a good one. I currently use, there are two brands that I go back and forth with and I have no financial affiliation with either. One is a brand called Muscle Feast, which is a funny name. I never heard of those ones that guy or that.

Muscle Feast. It's on Amazon and I get the way protein isolate. Like the vanilla I think is pretty good. The problem that I have with a lot of these protein powders is that they're too sweet. So sometimes I just buy the unflavered versions. Really? I saw what you said in your book,

this is what I was gonna say in your book, they also learned about chocolate protein, a chocolate flavor versus vanilla, that chocolate is more, what was it? Like, it was more arson, a jet note. More lead. More lead. Yeah.

In the chocolate protein versus in any brand. Well, it varies brand to brand. But why would chocolate have more lead or it was something else in it too? Codium. Yeah. Because chocolate can be a source of lead and cadmium for people.

Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, you know, these are very small amounts. Right. These are lead and cadmium are neurotoxins. So they're heavy metals that you really shouldn't be ingesting. So people should have the vanilla protein. Yeah, vanilla.

Or plain. Vanilla, vanilla you're saving. You just don't know where they're getting their cacao from in these protein brands. They're not like chocolate tears, right? So they're probably just getting like the cheapest of the cheap, to cow flavoring or whatever. And so there was a, I believe the study was done by consumer reports that found that on average,

the chocolate flavored versions of these protein powders had higher levels of lead and cadmium. Now, are they levels that are really worth, that are worth worrying about? Probably not. But if you're consuming this like every single day, then maybe you do want to be sharing. Right. The other thing, okay, so let's talk about this other thing I was like, wow, this potato

thing, the having a cold potato versus a hot potato. And well, I didn't know that either. Talk about the potato. Like, can we go over like a, give me a few of these like, food hacks. Yeah. So my love that stuff. Absolutely.

So genius kitchen is full of, of this stuff, but. And the olive oil. Yeah. Potatoes are, when we cook them, we create a highly digestible form of starch, right? A raw potato is rich in resistance starch. It's resistant to digestion and we have to cook it to break that starch down so that it becomes available to us as a calorie source. Well, you can actually retrograde the starch in a cooked potato and turn it

into what's called retrograde resistance starch by just cooling it off, allowing it to return to room temperature is one option or you just throw it in the fridge. And what does it do? Was the benefit of that? So it's a really powerful food source for gut bacteria. Really good for improving insulin sensitivity. So this is like a lot of people struggle with insulin resistance, but I think primarily it's like a fiber source.

But it's a really potent fiber source for gut bacteria. That your gut bacteria, these microbes that live in your large intestine, they consume this resistant starch, and they turn out metabolites like butyrate butyric acid, which is a short chain fatty acid that's known to be really quite anti-inflammatory. So you end up getting this like, you end up like firing up this like anti-inflammatory drug factory you got by eating, resistance starch. So you take a potato, you cool it down for how long? Yeah, you just will, you bring it to room time.

You take a quick, you bring it to room time. And you'll actually, you could notice that there's a texture change in the potato. It starts to like gel a little bit. Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah, it's not so fluffy, kind of. It's not so fluffy and granny. Yeah. You can also throw in the fridge and like one meal prep tip is you can batch make a bunch of potatoes and throw them in the fridge and then use them later on and like scramble or for like

future meals because you'll already have retrograded the starch in the potato. So it's great. I love that. It's a good food act. And also, and potatoes are not the only starch that have that ability. Rice can become retrograde resistant starch one of the reasons why sushi rice is great. It's like cooked and cooled rice, right? Right. You can do the same thing, not that I, I don't eat pasta, but like,

or wheat-based pasta, but you can do the same thing with pasta. I believe legumes are another source of resistance starch. So cooling your starches is a really good strategy. And so the benefits would be like you said, insulated. Yeah, also like less carbs, like less of a glycemic impact of these foods. Those are great.

So you take the same potato, one is freshly cooked, one is cooked and cooled, the net carbohydrate content of the one that was cooked and cooled is less than the freshly baked potato. That's a great one. So if I take french fries and just cool them down, does that work too? You could potentially. Yeah, baked french fries.

Yeah, absolutely could. Or else thinking more not baked. I wouldn't do not bake because of the unhealthy fats, you know. And the oils. Well, the other ones, like you were saying all of put let's talk about the olive oil Like people are blending these olive oils without even would I not know if it's blended because you're talking about like olive oils that been blended Yeah, you just want to look on the oh, so say like it would say it would say blend yeah Where are the best oils to cook with coconut oil olive oil?

I don't know Avocado that's what I didn't mean that. Avocado oil. Avocado oil is great. Coconut oil is great. Butter and ghee occasionally I'll use, but primarily it's extra virgin olive oil and it's avocado oil. It's a myth that you can't cook with with extra virgin olive oil. You can, just I would use it. The smoke point though I thought was not high enough. It's not super high. It's higher with avocado oil, but for low to medium heat it's perfectly fine to cook with extra virgin olive oil. So let's talk quickly about foods that are seemingly considered to be healthy for us, but they're actually not healthy, but people think that they're super healthy. There are a lot of those. I know. Yeah. Let's talk about your top two.

Yeah. I think agave syrup is one of those that a lot of people think is healthy. Do they still think that's healthy? Well, I walk through, I mean, that's a bring up error one again, but like. But you have to. Do they pay you on the side? They come on.

Absolutely not. No, they definitely don't. I've never gotten so much as even like a meal credit. I mean, they should, that you should be on some kind of like retainer for them. No, I've never gotten any of this wrong. Yeah. But yeah, I mean lots of products in there or in Whole Foods will still like proudly promote it.

Promote it. promote that they're sweet, it's sweetened with a gavi syrup. Yeah, I think it's got a health halo on it. I don't know because people perceive it as being natural. It comes from the blue agave plant or whatever. But yeah, it's like 80% fruit toast, which is just like pure isolated sugar that has a metabolic effect on the body that when we're eating it and this extracted isolated form, it's not good. Isn't maple syrup so much better than that because it's a natural.

Yeah, maple syrup is better. It's still very calorie dense. But yeah, maple syrup is a better option. And honey? Honey's good. Honey's good but yeah, maple syrup is a better option. And honey. Honey's good, honey's good. Yeah, they're all different, they're a number of different. But I call it all of them and watch it. It's not sugar, it's like pure sugar. Yeah, I'm very pro, like, I mean,

I'll use like monk fruit, stevia. I'm, there's a lot of people that like for some reason don't like certain sugar alcohols, like a rhythm at all. I'm super on board with a rhythm at all. You are? Yeah, I think a rhythm at all is great. Alulose is another good non-chloric sweetener. Yeah, people are not like, why is that?

Why is there such a bad thing? Because here's the thing, I'm halo on those things. Yeah, some sugar alcohols, I think people have bad experiences with certain sugar. I mean, sugar alcohols is like a category. There's a million of them. There's like tons of different sugar alcohols. I think people have bad experiences with certain sugar. I mean, sugar alcohols is like a category. There's a million of them. There's like tons of different sugar alcohols. Now to tell, sorbitol. The bloat is supposed to be bloating as well.

Oh, it does. If you eat too much of certain sugar alcohols, you'll get like crazy like gas and diarrhea that you've never experienced in your life. If you overindulge on some of them, and they use these sugar alcohols in various, you know, sugar-free processed foods, like diatetic foods.

And so people will think that it's like a free ride, they'll eat lots of whatever it is. Like I remember there was a chocolate bar that Trader Joe's used to make, they probably still make it. That's a sugar-free dark chocolate bar that I used to buy. And it had a lot of the, it was like sweetened primarily

with sugar alcohols. With these in particular. With these ones, yeah. Yeah. And I remember not like being all that aware of what was in them. And I would just like over and dull to them. And I would notice that get so bloated afterwards.

And I was like, is that the chocolate or is that something in the chocolate? Yeah, right, right. That's causing this effect. And it's like one of them. It's like sorbitol or melted toll. I think those are the two primary. Sorbitol splendor or otherwise known as splendor, isn't it?

No. There's that suple rose. That's suple rose, right? Yeah. But sorbitol actually is, I believe it's sorbitol that's naturally occurring in prunes. One of the major reasons why prunes are such a powerful accident is that they're very high and I believe it's sorbitol, but it's not sorbitol. It's one of these sugar alcohols.

Really? It's naturally occurring in prunes. very high and I believe it's sorbitol, but it's not sorbitol, it's one of these sugar alcohols. It's naturally occurring in prunes. Yeah, a lot of people think that prunes have this effect of making you go to the bathroom because of the fiber. It has nothing to do with the fiber in prunes. It's like, I'd almost like a drug-like effect. If you didn't have prunes, within an hour you're going to be sitting on the toilet. Really?

Yeah, yeah. It's because of the presence of certain sugar alcohols in primes. But I didn't know that. But what's important, I think the nuance here is that not all sugar alcohols have that effect. So some of them don't get absorbed and they make their way all the way down to the large intestine where they get fermented by the bacteria that live there. And some also have the effect of drawing water into the gut. And so that's where you get the diarrhea and the gas and all these problems that occur because these sugar alcohols, they don't get absorbed and they end up in the large intestine in that, you know,

colonic microflora environment. But a rithroid tall, it gets mostly like the vast majority of it actually is absorbed in the small intestine and then you just pee it out. So that's why it doesn't really have the same GI effect. Oh. As like the sorbitol or melted all there's like a few others. They're very confusing now. They all sound similar when they're very complicated. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm pro or other it's all like I personally eat that several times. I have no no affiliation with any. Are you a big cook? I mean you have a cookbook. But I am any. Are you a big cook? I mean, you have a cookbook. But. Are you actually, are these your recipes?

Yeah. I mean, no, no, no. I mean, I've worked with a recipe developer on a handful of them. A lot are my own recipes that I've all. But you actually do, like you like to. Oh, yeah, no, no, I actually do cook. Yeah, I had to take up cooking when my mom got sick.

And so I started cooking for, like, my brothers and myself. And it's also a healthier way to eat Totally, you know, so because when you go to even if you're ordering like so pristinely at a restaurant You got to add on another 500 calories because you don't know what they're even cooking on they can be cooking on Lord for all you know or doing all these added you know things that you don't even think about Oh, yeah eating it eating at, being able to cook at home and eating at home is associated with better metabolic health, better cardiovascular health, better neurological health,

better lower BMI, and also improve family dynamics. Like cooking together as a family is one of the best ways to bring the family closer together. I think that's so true. Yeah. And it's become a lost lost, a lost thing. Like people are not doing it at all anymore. It's so easy, even, even, well, now it's pandemic, maybe not. But people, people like order in or they do take out or they're going

to rest that no one's really cooking together, communally. Yeah. It's a lost art. It is a lost art. One of the reasons why I want to write Genie's kitchen. I mean, it's a great, I mean, some of those recipes are actually, I shouldn't say it so surprisingly. They're actually very... No, I can cook. Cressive. No, they're impressive. And I worked with somebody, but no, I mean, not... Like, if you look at my Instagram, like, I've got recipes, I've gotten into the recipe, like, over time. No, you, I know. Like, you're page even, you have a lot of food stuff. You and guitar, I see you playing a little bit even. You have a lot of food stuff. You and guitar.

I see you playing a little bit of the guitar. We haven't even talked about that, my God. I feel like this has to be part one and part two. We'll do it. We'll do a part two. We'll do a part two. Wait, okay. How about foods for your optimizing your brain?

Because I was going to, I wanted to really talk about that and we really didn't really speak that much about it. But. We got pretty side track, but this is a really good conversation. No, it was a pleasure talking to you, but besides, I think I'm so sick of hearing wild salmon, blueberries, can you give people a few things

that maybe are not so obvious that people can think of to optimize your brain? Because we've heard the same things over and over again. We have, I mean, I'm a big advocate and all of well, you know, I truly believe that animal products. I mean, we're talking about protein quality, I think, but like grass fed beef, eggs, I think these are really, really important brain foods. I agree.

Do you ever have that guy on your podcast, the carnivore guy? Paul Saladino. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Adam Saladino. Yeah, I've had him on. We disagree about obviously the place of vegetables and he's definitely shifted over time. Has he? I thought he was hardcore not eating anything.

No, he know he's like fruit and honey and avocados and things like that. Since when? I don't know, since a couple months ago. I mean, he's a good guy, very smart. But he's flipped a little bit. Well, his whole thing was I will eat the, you know, from, was it tip, he eats like everything, like the groin of the clouds. Oh my God, yeah.

Test, bowl testicle. Yeah, bowl testicles. I mean, a lot I saw him on his Instagram, drinking like turkey blood the other day, I commented and I was like, he was like talking about our answers So she's like my answers just did not do this. Yeah, they probably did I was like no Jews would not do that Drew no, no, no, no, have you not seen about the cudd? Do you know what shall I'm about what kosher means? Yeah, no not happening So then where did he switch like where did he pivot because he was pretty hard for not even eating a piece of broccoli?

You know, I don't know where it happened for him. I'm just glad that it happened. I think that's one of the true signs of somebody who's like really authentic in their journey as somebody who's willing to change their mind about things. He was staunchly anti any kind of plant material for a very long time. Absolutely.

Not even necessarily a very long time. I mean, he was, I think he had been on a carnivore diet for like two years, when he started proselytizing it. And then he, he's a doctor too. He's a doctor, yeah. And then he realized the value of honey. I think it had to do with him spending time with the HASDA.

He went on a journey where he was spending time with hunter gathers and he saw how much they would integrate honey into their diet. And it just, for him, that's, I think, the evidence that he needed to know that not all produce is created equal. Equal.

But I mean, in all fairness to the science, I mean, he should have, he never should have drawn such a hard line to begin with. No, I know. That's so extreme. It's so crazy. I mean, that to me was like, it was just, it was crazy. It was how long can you be doing that? Yeah. I mean, you'd think for health purposes. But you know, you said, I wanted to ask, I forgot.

What do you think about? I think there's now like a lot more people are doing this, eating fruit till noon situation. Only fruit till noon. What do you think of that? Is that good or bad? In your opinion. Uh, there's really no, like, reason why they should, you know, fruit at noon is going to be different from the standpoint. Yeah, but it's going to be like what you can't eat at 2 p.m.

That's it. To me, it just sounds like a way of controlling like calories. Controlling your calories, but are you a fruit person? I am, yeah, I love whole fruit. But I eat fruit like in moderation. I eat whole fruit, you know, zero to twice a day is sort of how I integrate it. I don't like, feel like I need to eat it every day, but I certainly enjoy the occasional honey crisp apple or, you know, now we're, it's seasonal for sumo oranges.

Or in season, I freaking love those things. The big, huge fruit. Yeah, I love fruit. I love fruit. Do you think it's very like fattening though, if you eat too much of it? Are you one of those? I mean, fruit.

It's sugar, so it's a bit sugar. Yeah, fruit has calories, so it doesn't get like a free pass or anything like that. But I think the beautiful thing about whole fresh fruit as opposed to dry fruit or fruit juice is that it's very satiating. It's got a lot of water in it. It's got a lot of fiber.

It's got a lot of minerals and stuff like that. So it's self limiting in the sense that there are only so many whole apples you can consume, right? Well, yeah, I mean. I mean, I could eat like, after one, I'm satiated. I don't feel the need to eat too. I don't know about you. Well, I can eat like two.

And I love apples. I say I can eat like two and then probably. But wait, I cut you off. So tell me some foods that are brain foods and then we can wrap it up. God knows what time it is. Lower, this has been forever. Oh man, so good though.

It feels, feels quick. It's been like almost two hours. We covered so many, so many different topics. I didn't even ask you any questions. That's okay. We went to other places. You got to know. You have to come back. We thought on our toes. We're going to do part two on the treadmill though. We'll do part two on the treadmill. Yeah. Okay. Wait. We covered a lot of good stuff. I will say go be easy. Be kind to yourself. I'm not going to be that kind to myself because I had things I wanted to ask you, but let's talk about automatically.

Why don't we just do like rapid fire, rapid fire? Okay, fine. Brain foods go. Yeah, brain foods. Well, I said eggs, grass, food, beef. Is that another food? It's another food. Dark chocolate.

I mean, I know I was talking about dark chocolate. I mean, some brands have lower concentrations of those having metals in others, but I think dark chocolate is a really great brain food. But you don't have to eat any of those foods. I think the best thing that you can do for your brains is to just cut out the ultra processed foods. The ultra processed refined grain convenience, shelf stable products, and also ditch the grain and seed oils,

like canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, et cetera. And there's also, I saw that even though they're smoke points super high, which is why people use them, it's a rate toxic at a lower temperature, you said. Yeah, those kinds of oils. Yeah, they boast very high smoke points and they're processed so that they have high smoke points for cooking, but that has no bearing on the stability of the oil in terms of its chemistry. And a damaged oil can damage you. So I implore people to cut those oils out. A little bit here and there, no harm, no foul. The dose makes the poison, but I think from the standpoint of the brain, the brain is made of fat. So you really want to feed your body the best fat so you can

that you can afford to feed it. Right I think means cutting out the industrially refined granite seed oils that are seemingly everywhere in the modern food environment. Okay, mouthwash. Why is it bad for you? Totally tension. Yeah, that's the thing. Well, mouthwash destroys indiscriminately oral bacteria. So it destroys the bad bacteria that can cause

dental carries. I just picked a question from each area. Bad breath, yeah. But it also kills off a good bacteria that we want in our mouths. And the oral microbiome helps us synthesize nitric oxide, which we talked about in the context of sonas, right? But nitric oxide, again, it helps to fortify vascular health, so the health of our cardiovascular system. Nitrogoxide is super, super important. And so when you eat foods like arugula, like any dark leafy green, really, beets, which are a very high source of dietary nitrates, the oral bacteria synthesize these compounds which increase nitric oxide in your vascular chart, in your arteries. And so that boosts blood flow to the brain.

It's really good for sexual function. It's important for insulin signaling. It's a crucially important compound. But as I mentioned, we rely on oral bacteria to do that job. And so if you're nuking that that that beneficial bacteria, you're basically short-changing the ability of your food to have a cardio protective effect. So you could be eating all the vegetables and healthy foods, beets, whatever that, you know, you can be making a real effort, right? Like to be to be eating a salad every day, for example. But if you are nuking the bacteria that live in your mouth,

you're not really deriving all of the value of those foods that you should be. There's also evidence that shows that mouthwash after exercise can reduce some of the blood pressure lowering effects of exercise. Really? Yeah, so mouthwash is definitely something that you want to avoid.

I mean, specifically antiseptic mouthwash, like alcohol based or I don't know what they're. You don't use any mouthwash. No, I don't use any mouthwash. Yeah, definitely not. You know, medically sometimes there's a necessity for it. That's fine, but day to day. Day to day, you don't.

Yeah. You know, I should ask, I mean, I want to ask you this. It was, it doesn't really fall into any category, but you do so much research and you're like, you just are so knowledgeable. You know, I lost my taste in my smell when I got COVID, even though I'm in vaccinated, and I still have not got it back. And I think from because of it, I've talked to so many people and it's sustained with everybody.

Like a lot of people are still, you know, lost their sense of taste and smell. They still have not got it back. Do you have any suggestions or any information or I don't know, ideas of how people can get it back? Me? Yeah, no, it's a good question. I mean, I'm just gonna throw my own hypothesis, mix with anecdote into the mix.

I had COVID too and I didn't lose my sensor smell at all. What did you get it? Of taste or smell at all. I got it in, I believe it was like July, this past year. And I had it like my symptoms were not super mild. Like I was pretty sick for like eight days. Oh, that's yeah. Yeah, but uh, but I didn't lose my, my sense of taste or smell and those are neurological symptoms. Yeah, it's brain is for you. Yeah. So my hypothesis is, and I can't prove this, but um, that it's my, it's the diet. It's the genius foods. The fact that I'm eating these foods on a consistent basis that are helping sort of guard, you know,

provide protection to my brain. We know that carotenoids, you know, DHA fat. And again, I'll never be able to prove this. I eat so much of that, though. It's an anecdote, there's no research, but it's just me kind of speculating as to why, because everybody else that I know lost their sense of taste and smell.

And I didn't, not even for a day. So. But how do you get it back, is a question. I'm gonna try and train my brain by smelling essential oils and doing all sorts of like, whatever wacky things, but nothing seems to be working. Yeah, I don't know. No, oh God, Max, I thought you would like surprise me

with some, like tidbit. I think that, on that note. Well, yeah, I don't know. I think it's, I mean here, I'm like, I think it was something. Yeah, no. Like tidbit. I think that. On that note. Well, yeah, I don't know. I think it's, I mean here, I'm like, I think it's, you know, if you don't know something, you should say that you don't know something. But I think, you know, my, I would speculate that eating brain foods will help.

I mean, also exercise, we know that exercise gives you the brain boosts blood flow to the brain. I do it every day, babe. It doesn't work. Healing, yeah. Healing requires nutrition, good nutrition. I know. Well, maybe you can research it and come back for part two.

I mean, no. Well, there is data that suggests that healthy diets are associated with better COVID outcomes. I was sick for a day now. Yeah. And it's just this one lingering thing. I think I have it back a little bit. What a recent, how recent was it? Yeah, like, yes, no, I'm joking yesterday.

No, I'm joking. I tested negative a bunch since, but three weeks ago. Oh, yeah, I would give it some time. That was still pretty recent. And you probably had like Omicron, which is primarily, it looks like an upper respiratory condition, which is actually a good thing. Super congested.

Yeah. Yeah, I was kind of flew like for a day and a half, but it's really the congestion that killed me. Yeah, I had, I mean, I probably, what I had was Delta, which was not as mild. I mean, I was fine. I was never at risk, you know, as far as I know, new of going to the hospital or anything like that.

You just felt like shit. You just felt like shit. I just felt like shit. Yeah. I was like, I lived, you couldn't peel me off my couch for eight days. That's a long time. I actually think I actually had Delta because you don't lose your, from what I understand, you don't lose your taste and your smell with. Oh my god. Yeah.

That's interesting. Yeah, I haven't heard that as much. Yeah, you don't. It's more like Aiki for a few days. It's the most mild of all of them, but it's the Delta that you're losing your taste in this and your smell and the other whatever it was before. Wow.

Yeah, you got lucky. What's the hybrid Delta Cron? Delta Cron and maybe I have that. Maybe you had Fluro Nile. Fluro Nile. Or what, there's all these different like... Fluro Nile is like the big thing right now, but then by tomorrow or next week, they'll be like for other variants. Flur. It's like it's like the new shark NATO

Yeah, it's 222 shark. They it's so true. That it really literally does sound like a bad. Oh, it does like straight to video Yeah, like a home like a home video. Yeah, but I feel like we're I feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel I think all McCron is a blessing in disguise, based on the current data. Because it keeps on getting more mild and higher in the later. Yeah, it's increasing in transmissibility, but who cares if it's less virulent?

Yeah, it's less virulent. It's 100% true, right? That is gonna usher in natural herd immunity. And act as like a booster for everybody who's gotten their vaccines, right? Right, absolutely. That's why I like that. And for those who haven't. So it's a...

So I feel I hope you're right. I hope you're right. But oh jeez. Okay, we're gonna wrap this because we have a whole other thing we're doing right now. Oh man. Yeah, Max and I are now moving to the kitchen and we're gonna be doing a cooking with Cohen episode. This was so fun. Thanks for having me. This was so fun. I love having you on. So, I mean, not for people who don't know Max and you're just like getting to know him now,

Max, tell us and tell people where they can find you and all your wonderful details. Absolutely. Your address, phone number for the ladies. My address, or. Definitely big on my new book, Genius Kitchen, which is a kitchen resource and recipe book. It's probably gonna be a best seller

like all the other ones. Oh man, I don't know. I hope so. I worked really hard. I'm very proud of the format. It's not just a recipe book. It's got a lot of information in it. He works really hard on the photo shoot.

Yeah. It looks great. It looks great. It looks great. I host my own podcast called The Genius Life. Number one, right? In health. It's been number one. I don'tone Podcast called the Genius Life. Number one, right? In health? It's been number one.

I don't think it's currently number one, but it's definitely. It's a great podcast. Yeah, thank you. You're welcome. That means a lot coming from you. And I'm on Instagram. At Max. At Max Lugodir.

Yes. Easy to find. Yes. And thank you, Jen. You're so knowledgeable, so cute. I love having you and thank you for being a guest. Be inspired, this is your moment, excuses we in heaven at The Habitat hustle podcast, power by happiness