Habits and Hustle - Episode 55: Max Lugavere – TV Personality, Health & Science Journalist, Host of The Genius Life Podcast

Episode Date: March 17, 2020

Max Lugavere is TV Personality, Health & Science Journalist, and Host of The Genius Life Podcast. He discusses the hardship of growing up with a mother who was diagnosed with dementia and cancer at a young age. Max also goes into his first book, Genius Foods, which identifies foods we should be eating to protect us as we age — a nutritional manual to the brain. Youtube Link to this Episode Max’s Website – https://www.maxlugavere.com/ Max’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/maxlugavere/ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 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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Welcome to the Habits and Hustle Podcast. A podcast that uncovers the rituals, unspoken habits, and mindsets of extraordinary people. A podcast powered by Habit Nest. Now here's your host, Jennifer Cohen. All right, so on Habits and Hustle, we have Max Lugavir, who, by the way, I am a big fan of because I think you're so smart.

And I loved your first book. So he wrote Genius Foods, which was a New York Times bestseller. And I was new book that is coming out, I guess, since we're going to be doing it up now, let's say. Right now. Right now, Genius Life is a guest as our guest today. So welcome.

Thanks for having me. This is cool. It's the first interview I've ever given while on a treadmill. So, already I'm having a good time. Well, good. I'm glad to hear. First of all, you should be a big fan because in your first, was it your first book and you talked about how it's,

when people are moving and talking, they end up remembering things better. And it's great for your cognitive functioning, but you can talk about that. Yeah, I mean, it activates, your exercise activates your prefrontal cortex, which is basically the hub of self-awareness, of executive function, and executive function

is this broad sort of cognitive domain, but it includes being able to take in stimuli, manipulate ideas, respond, and also maybe even remember things better. There was a study where they, I think it was done in China where they were teaching students English, and they put them on these bicycles, these aerobic bicycles while they were learning and they found that the people who were on bicycles while they received their English lesson

were able to retain a lot more like a significant amount, you know, significantly more than the controls that were just like seated in desks. Right. That makes sense because when you're moving I'm getting like, you know, fresh blood up to my brain, carrying nutrients and fuel and oxygen and things like that. So it stands to reason that the brain would work better when we're actually moving than it does when we're just sedentary.

And what we know now is that being sedentary for an extended period of time drains blood from the brain. So this is cool. I'm glad that you like it. This might be my best interview yet because I'm actually like active while I'm giving it. I love that. And it's exactly, you killed two birds with one stone

because you're gonna burn a lot of calories and you're doing something good for your body as you are also doing something for your mind, right? And it's interesting because I think you said in your book that where did you do it like kettlebell swings if you tween? I remember that. Like it was like you and the doctor guy

that you were writing the book with. Yeah. You would do a kettlebell swings and then he would do it and you guys would like change off. We would take in between. I remember that. It was like you and the doctor guy that you were writing the book with. You would do a kettlebell swings and then he would do it and you guys would like change off. I remember that. We would take turns. Yeah, well, as we were writing the chapters, we would like take turns doing like kettlebell swings.

And that was my first time ever really doing kettlebell stuff. Like I'm not a cross fitter. He was Dr. Paul Graywall, who's my co-author in genius foods. He was a big cross fit, and so he was teaching me how to do all these hip hinges and swings and things like that. So yeah, it was cool. It definitely, I mean, I think the fact that I was so active while writing the book

is one of the reasons why the book is as good as I think it says. It's so good. Thank you. And I don't say that to most people come on the show. In fact, most of the time I don't say anything. But the first book, you had such amazing pieces like nuggets of information that weren't stale. Like a lot of times people come up with a health book and it's like yeah yeah yeah I've seen that

have heard that like repackaged a zillion times but you talked so much about like brain health and other things that I just I actually genuinely really liked it and so I was actually kind of like a fan of yours. Like I'm not, you know what I mean? As much as I can be like, I follow you, I listen to what you say. So awesome. And you're like, and you're smart.

Like you really are. Like people will tell in the next little while. Like things just spew out of your brain. And I'm like, how does he, he says it like so like non-shelotely. Like, looted. And or whatever you're just talking about pretty soon. I think it's because I'm a, you know, I mean, I definitely have very nerdy tendencies.

Like that's, you know, I may wear the swavvix terrier of an angelino. I mean, I don't actually think so, but, no, but I'm deep down I'm a nerd and I'm particularly nerdy about this very narrow range of topics and health and nutrition and exercise one of those topics. If you ask me about politics, I don't know anything about politics, if you ask me about sports or world history, I go deep on just a handful of topics and then we were talking

before we got rolling our mutual friend, mine, Pumps out. Yeah, I love him. Yeah, shout out to Sal, he's got like such a breadth of knowledge. And I feel like he goes deep on a broad number of topics. For me, I'm really only interested in like a handful of things. What are the things that you're interested in brain health? I know brain health. Super interested in brain health, dementia, risk mitigation,

nutrition, you know, body composition, metabolic health. I'm just interested in health. Like, and it comes from a place that is, I think simultaneously, altruistic. Like, I want to help people reach their healthier selves because at this point, I'm very aware of the statistics in this country of the fact that, you know, so many people are struggling with problems related to.

Wait, age-related chronic disease, things like that. But it also kind of has a, there's a narcissistic angle as well where I just don't want to come to the ravages of aging. I've seen what aging does, except especially when it's accelerated, you know, which I think is what, what I got to witness in my mom. My mom was very sick from a young age and so I don't want that to ever happen to myself. So, so where, you know, it's just that I'm, yeah, I become so interested and so, and so fixated on these topics because they're relevant to me in my life and how I feel and how I look and how I perform and, you know, I just, I don't think there's anything more important actually. Right. I mean, I remember when I was, when I first got introduced to you, which, of course,

you don't remember, but I do, two years ago or so, for your first book, it was really about, you were really dealing with Alzheimer's and brain because of your mom. And I'm sorry, I heard that she passed away, I'm sorry to hear that. I do. You're welcome. And when did she even get Alzheimer's? How old was she? She was very young, you say?

Yeah, my mom was 58 when she was first diagnosed. Yeah, super young. She beautiful, spirited woman and she started to show these very strange symptoms and honestly at first because there was no precedent for what she had in my family. We had no family history of any kind of neurodegenerative disease. Me and my brothers would actually like kind of poke fun at my mom, you know, for what she was experiencing, because we just couldn't believe that there could be something other that, you know, we just thought we thought she was acting essentially like my mom. You know, my mom was a quirky, you know, personality, a big personality. We thought that she was just kind of maybe attention-seeking with it all.

Like, we were so callous, and it's something that I regret. But I don't blame me or my brothers because again, there was no precedent. We were just so completely ignorant. And it took going to the Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio, I went with my mom, and it was there for the first time that she was diagnosed with a narrowed generative condition.

And at that point, it wasn't for the first time that she was diagnosed with a narrowed generative condition. And at that point it wasn't clear what it was that she had, but she was prescribed drugs for both Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. And so that began this seven-year journey and you know it was just horrible watching her decline. And some days were better than others of course, but she was very handicapped by the end of it. It really took the life out of her even before she passed away. It was just, it was awful. And I love my mom more than, more than anything.

And so, you know, my hope is that somehow with my work, what I've been able to do is going to help inspire other people to take steps that are going to minimize their risk. Prevent dementia altogether, maybe minimize their risk, maybe whatever language you choose to use. I think, you know, we're at an interesting point now where we don't have to sit idly on our hands as we await whatever's in our genetic hand of cards. And, you know, if anything, what my mom had proved to me that genes are not everything, because, again, there was no, we had no precedent in the family tree. My mom's mom, actually, my maternal grandmother lived to 96.

Oh my. And was cognitively sharp until the end. I mean, she had a few of the foibles that I think we associate with. Just aging more generally, but she was cognitively, she was sharp. And it was this weird thing where she was living in my mom's house because physically,

she had become decrepit. But she was cognitively, she was sharper than my mom who was because physically, she had become decrepit, but she was cognitively, she was sharper than my mom, who was coming to dimension. It was super strange, because we all think of dementia as being an old person's disease. Right, that's exactly it. It was just so, yeah, it was awful. I figured that was kind of like, because I know,

because how did you get on this path? Because weren't you doing a documentary for, you had a documentary about, I don't know what it was about. What was a documentary about? So I was pre-med in college, but then I ended up, halfway through college, realizing a love of storytelling and creativity, and then I ended up switching out of the pre-med track to double major in film and psychology.

And when I chose to major in film, it was really documentary filmmaking that was my focus to tell real stories Until I could be able to investigate whatever it was. I mean back in college I didn't you know, I was into a number of different things, but what college did you go to university Miami? Okay, really? Yeah. Oh, okay. I would never take you for that. I don't I thought you'd be like more of a Ignorathese as you see see, at law, not in Hawaii, you, Columbia. Oh, yeah. No, to be honest, I probably wouldn't have gotten into those schools.

Dartmouth. Yeah, I would not, no, I wouldn't have, because you know what, my grades were not great in high school. I, as I mentioned, when I'm into something, I go deep. So deep, yeah. Yeah, but if I'm not into something, my brain is like a light switch.

It's either like fully immersed, it's fixated, it's been obsessed, or not interested at all. And so it was always very difficult for me to kind of fit my brain into the constraints of the one-size-fits-all education system. So my grades suffered, even though teachers always really liked me, because I was always very curious. I was just not a good student.

So I probably wouldn't have gotten into those schools. I ended up getting into university of Miami and I went there and I graduated with a double major in film and psychology and I went after I graduated from college, I got an amazing job working for Al Gore and he hired me to become the face of his TV network which was called Current TV.

It was like a news and information network for young people. So for day one. I haven't forget that. That's like a big one. It wasn't something like small little, yes, current TV. That was going to be nice, right? Yeah, so I mean, from day one, my career has been about informing people, like informing big audiences.

And, you know, the network reached 100 million homes. It was like not something that, like the ratings weren't very high. But nonetheless, every single day I had to show up. I was on camera and I was talking about issues that were both small and big. And I, you know, I learned how to communicate delicate topics and how important language is. And so I did that. And then, you know, six years of doing that, I decided to leave.

And around that time is when my mom got sick. And so I did that and then, you know, six years of doing that, I decided to leave and around that time is when my mom got sick and I didn't have a platform because I was no longer at the TV network and so what I decided to do was to create a documentary, a movie, where I could basically go around the world interviewing researchers who were really ushering in this idea of dementia as a potentially preventable condition. And I started reaching out to scientists and visiting their labs and we did this amazing Kickstarter campaign and got the film funded initially. And that was really kind of like the beginning of what would ultimately

turn into what it's turned into. The documentary was the first project. And I saw that there was a need for this kind of information. So the documentary, I'm actually still working on the documentary. But ironically, doing a documentary is a lot more difficult than even writing a book. Because you can write a book in isolation.

You can write a book like, sitting at your desk by yourself. A documentary requires a lot of money, and a lot of moving pieces, and a lot of personnel. And we're actually, we're still in the fundraising process for the movie. So really. Yeah. You know, it's funny that you just said that

because I was at a thing last night in an event, and I met this guy who was, he just did the Hillary Clinton documentary, and it was at Sundance. And with, I mean, they got a lot of money for it, but even with something of that caliber, having her name, having everything, the moving pieces, it took forever, he said.

And this is from a lot of people who, some people who are Oscar-winning documentaries, it's the same thing, it's like, it's the hardest piece of any kind of movie film, type of entertainment business, it's, documentaries. Well, because the problem is most documentaries don't make any money. Yeah, make no money.

So there's no reason for investors really to ever want to get involved. I mean, I've had countless meetings with investors or donors, and I'm like, you know, I mean, what I offer is like, you can be a part of this film, which is the first of its kind. It's a documentary about dementia prevention. It has the potential to do a lot of good for a lot of people. It's not doom and gloom. It's not being told or being directed

by some stodgy old filmmaker. It's got this cool kind of like vice-like vibe to it. But still, it's like it's not us. This is show business after all, right? It's like, it's not show fun, it's show business. And so, it's fun. But you can show that, what you can try to sell that, like you have enough it sounds like to go to Netflix,

Apple, wherever. Yeah, we've had meetings and the meetings with those companies, they're all very positive, but nobody has yet pulled the trigger and brought in the film. So, going the private route, you know, or just, you know, I don't know, I might do an event at some point

and use a portion of the proceeds to help fund the documentary. I might do another Kickstarter campaign. I don't yet know, but- How much do you need? We probably need another $100,000 to do it, which seems like a lot of money for your average person, but in terms of moviemaking

It's actually a very small small amount of money. Would you ever think of like funding it yourself and... I could, I mean like, you know, it's still a lot of money. I know, it's a lot of money just to put up on your own, but it's also not a good, it's not a good habit to get into because I think if you're not able to convince, I don't know, I mean, I think funding a film yourself, it's always tricky. It's always tricky to invest in your own projects, no matter what it is, but especially with a creative project, what I've heard from other people who've done documentaries is that

you generally don't want to put your own money up because being able to convince somebody to invest in the project is a litmus test as to the validity of the work of the creative, you know, merit of the project. And so, I don't know, I mean, I'm not taking anything off the table. I do want to get it done. We do have a rough cut. So everything that we've raised so far, we haven't able to achieve a rough cut of the documentary. And it really is an homage to both the science and my mother, who of course passed away. And so it's everything to me to get the film out. And I just, we haven't yet figured it out,

but it's still in production, and we're still working on it. And still working on it. Yeah, still working on it. So from the first, but we'll get to the second book. But what are some good takeaways? You think the most important takeaways would be from the first book about having

that people can implement for brain health. So they don't have that can help them or assist them in brain health, basically. Yeah, I mean, the first book really was all about the foods that are going to give your brain the nutrients that it requires to basically protect itself as it ages and also to help it create healthy new brain cells stay plastic, you know, this property known as neuroplasticity. I think it's something that I talk a lot about in the first book.

The first book is also, it's a nutritional care manual to the brain. And it goes deep into dementia prevention. It goes deep in. I mean, it really is like kind of a love letter to the science of dementia prevention. And also, nutritional psychiatry, which is this sort of growing field, looking at how food affects mood and things like that.

You're saying, yeah, you're talking about how people who are an antidepressant and it can be a diet, if they tweak or change their diet, it can really change their brain chemistry or from your plasticity. Yeah, I mean, we know at this point that certain micronutrients are involved in optimal brain function. And that when you're deficient in certain micronutrients that your brain function suffers, your mood can suffer. Vitamin B12 is just one example, but vitamin D we know is involved in the synthesis

of serotonin, which is neurotransmitter involved in mood. And think of how many people are on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, right? It's a boost serotonin. Basically, at the synapse, you look at the population statistics and a huge number of people. I think it's like, it's anywhere between 50% and 75% of people are deficient in vitamin D. Right. Even people who live in L.A. or California, think of it sunny that they're getting

enough. Exactly. Yeah. I talk a lot about vitamin D actually in the new book. In the new book too, I know, it's going say. It's super important, I mean, it acts like a hormone in the body. And so- How much do you take a day, 5,000? I mean, I take 5,000, I take 5,000 international units a day. Sometimes I don't, if I'm spending time in the sun, you know, I won't take it. Because the thing about supplementation is that it is possible to take too much.

Right. And when you're getting vitamin D from the sun, I mean the sun performs all these other important functions and anchors your body, circadian rhythm. Which is a big part of your... Big part of the new book, yeah. It's like the UVA rays from the sun create nitric oxide, so you know, really good for boosting blood flow, facilitating healthy blood pressure. But yeah, so like you get when you get vitamin, when you get the UVB rays from the sun on

your skin, your skin creates as much vitamin D as you need and then it degrades the rest. So it's not like you don't really have the risk of over supplementing. I was going to say what happens if someone takes too much vitamin D? Is there any type of side effects that are? Well, it just boosts calcium absorption in the gut and you can develop what's called hypercalcemia, which is just too much calcium in the blood, which... Yeah, I was actually interviewing this medical doctor, this cardiologist Thomas Levy, and he was saying that excess calcium actually acts like a pro-oxidant.

You know, you want to keep it within this very narrow range. And there's actually also studies that show that women who supplement with calcium have an increased risk for heart disease. So that's dangerous, right? But people have to put people to get out. Too much calcium. Yeah, you don't want too much calcium. No, but people who take too much vitamin D, that can be...

Yeah, you don't want too much vitamin D. So the range that there's no universally accepted optimal range for vitamin D. But the most recent studies that I've looked at seem to suggest that the lowest risk of all cause mortality occurs at a range, a vitamin D range of between 40 and 60 nanograms per milliliter. So you can easily get that test in your doctor's office. It's a very cheap test. I believe insurance covers it. And yeah, you should be anywhere between 40 and 60 nanograms.

So in the middle of that would actually probably be ideal from a brain health standpoint. So about 50. I was going to ask you because I heard that you need, and this could be just not, it could be wrong, that you need K2, vitamin K22 with vitamin D for it to absorb. Is that correct or not? Not for it to absorb, but K2 what it does is it basically guides calcium deposition in the body.

Oh, okay. So calcium, right? So we want calcium is important. Right. We need it. We need it in our bones and our teeth, but it can also deposit itself in our soft tissue and our arteries and our skin. So vitamin K2, what vitamin K2 is supposed to do is it basically keeps calcium where we

want it and it keeps it out of places that we don't want. So the more, you know, I mean, if you're in optimal vitamin D status, you probably want to make sure that you're getting vitamin K2 as well. And we know that K2 is found naturally in other very healthy foods. Right. So like, grass-fed butter, this Japanese dish called natto, you can find that in grass-fed beef. We actually make it, make vitamin K2, like the bacteria in our guts, make it to some degree. So yeah, there was a really great book on vitamin K2 that I read. I was just enthralled by it.

You read a whole book, I'm not making it. I'm not making it. Oh, no, shocking. Am I not surprised, okay? Yeah. It's by a woman named Kate Room Blue. I don't know how to pronounce her, like, she's got two last names, but it's called the calcium paradox. Okay.

And she writes all about this. The whole book is about vitamin K2. And you're the whole book, and you retained it. Yeah, I mean not- God bless you, Max. Yeah, I don't think I, I mean not all of it, but like a lot of it. Yeah, I was just like very interested. It's a cool book. This episode is brought to you by FX is The Bear.

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So how did like, what case of what do you take? Like in your day to day, like, because I mean, now you've, you've so much knowledge and you retain all the knowledge. Like, I read a lot and then like 99% of it just like dissipates. I have no idea what I even like read, I'm like, remember. So of all this stuff, what do you, aren't you confused? Like, what do you do every day? Yeah, I mean, the thing is for me, it's weird. Like, it's easy for me to remember this stuff. Aren't you confused? What do you do every day?

Yeah, I mean the thing is for me, it's easy for me to remember this stuff because I'm interested in it. So are mine. But there are other things that I read that I'm like, you described the way that I retain information about Loosing, Gucci, whatever. I just remember you always saying that word. Loosing, loosing, looting, looting. Looting, looting, but what is it? Like, it's a carotenoid, so it's like a... Oh yeah, carotenoid, yes. Yeah, it's um, it's a plant pigment. Okay. You also find it in egg yolks, you find it in the fat of grass-fed beef.

Really good for eye health, really good for brain health. Okay, right. That's right. Yeah, I'm just like about about this health stuff. I retain it. But I'm not like that with any other thing. With music, I'm kind of like that, you know, with media, with movies, I'm a bit of a cinephile. But. With healthy just like you just, it just naturally spews off your tongue.

That's it. So in what case a vitamin D, so what do you do? I mean, you talk about your morning routine. What people should be doing in the morning when they wake up. Yeah. What do you... My morning routine, I wake up. I, you know, in the best case scenario, I wake up, I do some stretching, I go outside

of my terrace. What time do you wake up? It depends. I can be a night owl. So if I go to bed late, I have no problem waking up in nine, you know, which is like, I'm sculling. I mean, you know,

I know some people that are like, you know, they, if I, if they wake up any later than six p.m. they're like the whole day's gone. I prefer waking up early, but I don't always wake up early. Yeah, okay. So if I wake up at like,

What time do you go to bed? I can go to bed, I mean, I can go to bed at midnight, I can go to bed at one. Generally that's, midnight is like these days. 11pm to midnight is generally these days. One of them.

All right, that's like okay, similar to me. Yeah. Although I see you with a lot of things, but I know many times it's going to like, I saw you at the group event. Yeah, I was there briefly. Yeah, and then I see you at Arrow, like Arrow one a lot.

Oh, it's a time, yeah. Like I've been, I've been, I've been distanced. I'm like, oh my god, there he's again. Like if I'm there, I know I'm gonna see you. Pretty much, pretty much. Do you have stock in that place? I wish. I know.

I know. It's crazy. Do you buy everything, even your toilet paper there, because you're there, oh, please. No, well, that's the big secret. Is that buying groceries that everyone is a total rookie move? Nobody buys groceries. I know, nobody buys groceries.

I mean, if you're balling at a control, maybe the bag groceries in our one. But for my groceries, generally, I'll go to Whole Foods. Even like, everyone makes Whole Foods look like a bargain bag. Oh, yeah. It's a joke. I mean, Whole Foods looks like Albertsons compared to.

That was a present. Yeah, I love the produce at Whole Foods. And then also, for some stuff, I'll go to Trader Joe's. But generally, it's like Whole Foods at this point is where I do most of my shopping. See I can't, you'd buy toilet paper at Whole Foods, that's also like a working move. So I buy toilet paper. Is it gonna cost go or like target or you know? That's generally, yeah, that's where I buy that kind of stuff.

Or like, you know, I'm not at era one. Trader Joe's, yeah, I wouldn't buy, yeah, I wouldn't buy paper towels or toilet paper at Whole Foods. I'll use a Costco. Actually, I do have my brother works for a company called Boxed. Box is an online Costco thing. If you really want to know where I get my toilet paper from, I get it from Boxed. I get my paper towels from there too.

And do you basically have a tent set up at Error One in the back. You just gonna come out sometimes. Air mattress, yeah. Okay, air mattress, okay. And it's without fail. And the one, and I never, I don't go to the one down there on West Hollywood, right? Very, very often.

But the four or five times I've been there, I kid you not. I'm there. You were there. Well, I go there because, well, well I go for two reasons I go there for the hot girls. I know why come on Okay, three reasons I go there for one because the hot foods bar is They really there's not a lot of you know You won't find a lot of like canola oil or grape seed oil or any of that crap that you'll see at the whole food top

bar right so the whole food Top Bar I generally will not eat because it's all canola oil. It's really not the best quality stuff. At everyone, and I hate to give them such a big shout out, but the beef will be grass-fed, the chicken will be organic, you won't find any canola oil. That's some unhealthy stuff too, of course,

but generally it tastes really good and it's good for you I feel great is portion controlled right if you leave me alone at the freaking Whole Foods bar You know like I've no sense of like I'll just like loaded up and I'll end up walking out three pounds of food At everyone they like warn you if it's over a pound because they know that you're gonna be paying $50 for it So oh easily like I've never seen a grocery store that expensive probably in my entire life. Yeah Yes, it's ridiculous So they were selling like you know, pomegranates that are peeled. Yeah, it was in a like a little bowl It was $30. I thought like I thought I was seeing things like even asked the guy. I'm like is this proper? Is this not?

It's ridiculous. I won't I know by groceries there. I just buy the hot foods bar and for that I think it's a value It's like honestly $17 $17, $18. It's a lot for some people for a meal, but for me, it's like, I don't have to think about it. And it tastes good. And so the second reason why I love it, there's just like a sense of community there. LA can feel kind of isolating sometimes,

and I go there, and I bump into people. I know, like, I saw you. I would say, hey, what's up, Jen? Right, right, right. So that's cool. I just peer I see you from a distance And I ask you isn't who I am not gonna bother him and then the third thing is that there's a lot of attractive people that shop there And I'm a single guy and you know, I've seen you actually with different girls Yeah, I mean, I don't know I could bring me just friends or whatever, but like that's probably the reason why I don't even bother You like I think off he's on a date. I don't want a bother. I don't think but or like whatever

You know you're the middle talking to somebody, I'm not gonna be like, hey, remember me from two years ago? So I just leave you alone. If anything, it's only gonna boost my style. Oh yeah, that's true, Cal, remember that next time I see it, it'll probably happen soon. So you don't cook then, you're not a,

you're not a, no I do cook, I love to cook, but I don't like to cook by myself. Yeah. I just feel like lonely when I cook by myself and I eat it by myself. It's just not as fun. So I'd rather, I cook with my brothers sometimes. So my brothers now live in L.A.

Oh, thank you. Yeah, everybody moved. So my whole, what remains of my family is now in L.A. So we cook sometimes. And so that's really great. But when I'm by myself, no, I usually call, go out, I'll go to Erwan, I'll go to wherever. I'll camp out, I love camp out.

I got tough, yes, it's very good. I call it a meat. Very high quality meat. So, okay, let's get back to your morning routine. So you wake up maybe nine, maybe not, and what happens? I go, I mean, usually I drink some water, I go over to my reverse osmosis water purifier and I drink some water with some trace minerals in it. Hydrate?

Trace minerals, like where? I just buy them on Amazon, no affiliation with any company, it comes in a little bottle. Because the reverse osmosis water purifier removes everything, it removes heavy metals. Right. But it also removes the minerals that we know that are good for us in water. So I'll then replace them with these like, trans minerals in there. Then sometimes I'll drink some coffee. I'm kind of like, I have a love-hate relationship with coffee, mostly I love it, but sometimes I find myself drinking too much, but right now I'm like back on the coffee thing, so I'll drink some coffee.

A specific kind, or does it have to be organic? I use my French press, I try to buy organic. Sometimes I will blend it. If I'm not planning on eating anytime soon, like if I wake up really early, if I wake up at 6am, and I drink coffee, I'll blend it sometimes with maybe a little bit of MCT oil, maybe a little bit of grass-head butter. Yeah, I'm not gonna say it's a health food, but maybe it is, I don't know. It definitely tastes really good. And it's satiating.

It doesn't like, I think it slows down the infusion rate of caffeine into the blood. And so I find that because coffee is a little acidic and that on an empty stomach, if I just drink plain black coffee, sometimes I can like, you know, make my, it doesn't, it just doesn't necessarily feel that great. And I am more prone to jitters, like feeling that kind of anxiety. If I'm waking up on the later side, and I know that I have a meal coming up, then I won't do the whole butter thing because you shouldn't drink your calories.

But if it's like to get me five hours to the next meal, then I'll do it. And do you think, I'm sorry, it's an introduction, but do you think that the fat and the coffee actually does something for your brain, that it's good for your brain, or is it just a station thing? Because for so long, remember that was a big thing, right?

Yeah. And I never understood that. It just seemed like a silly thing for people to do. There's no scientific evidence on it. Some people, depending on genes, actually, it can cause an aberration of your lipids. Like, there's been case reports of people adopting this buttery coffee phenomena, and they go,

and they see like their LDL levels go through the roof. So it's not something that I recommend to people. You know, it's personally I enjoy it and it doesn't do anything magical to the brain. You know, you don't need to consume butter for the brain or anything like that. MCT oil, MCT actually does provide ketones to the brain. So I think that there might be some kind of benefit there. The research is a little bit like equivocal, but MCT oil, it gets converted by the liver to ketones. And ketones are a very powerful brain fuel.

They also act as like a signaling molecule in the brain, like they boost levels of BDNF, which is this miracle growth protein that promotes neuroplasticity. I think coffee can be good for the brain. I mean, it certainly makes us feel good. There's polyphenols in it. Coffee consumption is related to seemingly better brain health.

Yeah, well more mental, you're more like mental ed, you better more mental edge, I feel. Yeah. But you could do too much and then you're like, which you want to do too much. Yeah, you don't want to do too much. The only fats really that I recommend that people adopt in their diets,

we know that we need essential fatty acids. So no matter what, making sure they're getting preformed, EPA and DHA fat. I'm definitely a fan of getting them from fish or animal-based sources as opposed to plant-based sources. And then aside from that, monolensaturated fat seems to be super healthy. So extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil. I'm not a big advocate of consuming an excessive amount of saturated fat.

I just don't think that it is. It's not warranted from an evidence standpoint. And some people, you know, everybody is different. So I like to kind of, you know, my message is, my message really, I try to cater it to what's going to do the most good for the most people, acknowledging that there's really no, there is no such thing as a one size fits all. Right. And you do intermittent fasting then, or?

Yeah, I try to go 16 hours a day where I'm not eating, you know. Right. I'm going to eat our window. Yeah. That's not terrible. No, I mean, sometimes, sometimes it'll be 14 hours're gonna eat our window. Yeah. That's not terrible. No, I mean, sometimes it'll be 14 hours, sometimes it'll be 12 hours. I don't like obsessed over it, but I try not to eat too late at night, and I try, I'm generally not eating as soon as I wake up, you know, like I'll wait, you know, once, two

to three hours after I wake up. I mean, I definitely think that we're meant to eat during the day, and if anything, having an earlier dinner is going to be better for you than having a later breakfast, the meal breaks you fast. But yeah, generally, I'm eating from 11 a.m. maybe noon to about 8 p.m. And if I wake up at 6 a.m., I'll have the coffee with a little bit of butter and it just to keep me satiated. And that holds you over. Yeah, it's just like, you know what it is?

It's a comfort thing. It's like grounding. It's like a nice ritual to have in the morning. Some people like to make their beds. I don't make my bed. And I don't drink it every day. And I also don't, there's nothing magic about it, but I just I enjoy it some days. More from our guest, the first a few words from our sponsor.

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You know, try to kind of like enjoy the quietude of the morning. Try to make sure that all my blinds are open so that I'm getting nice morning light. Right. You know, that's super important. You know, I end up going to my computer, taking care of the emails, the follow-ups, and things like that, when my brain is super clear in the morning.

So for me, it's like really easy to reply to the emails that I know I need to reply to, or answer interviews, or maybe a record and intro to my podcast, or something. I'm just feeling like sharp and at my best. I love your podcast. I think it's a lot of you. You're welcome. You're very good. So I thought you go outside though for like for that day light. Is it better to go outside if you have it. That's good scenario. Yeah. I try to. I don't have it outdoor space where I currently live. All right. That's about to change because I'm moving. But I yeah, like if I had an outdoor space,

if I had a back, if I had like a patio, that would be my morning routine. I would like take my laptop and I would go sit outside and yeah, just to be in natural light to get some sun, that's the best. What do you think of red light therapy? Well, I was given a unit by Juve, you know, so I've been using it. I was. And, uh, yeah. Violight, violight. Have you.

Here's the thing. I don't yet have a fully fleshed out opinion of my own. I enjoy using it. I find that it causes, like, you know, I definitely feel like it feels like laying in the sun, and when I look in the mirror after using it, I definitely feel like a little more vascular, like I feel like there's, it makes me boosting nitric oxide, you know. And I also do a lot of smart people who really believe in the technology, and I've listened to a few podcasts with some doctors talking about red light photo biomonulation. And it seems like really cool and really promising. I don't yet, you know, I don't like to jump on bandwagon and I don't like to talk out of my

ass. So, you know, I think that it, you know, I mean, it feels like it's doing something, but I don't know. No, I got you. I kind of like you in the same way. I mean, what I was nervous about, if it replenished your cells and turned over your cells, I was thinking that wouldn't that cause cancer, right? Because that's what cancer is.

It's like re-duplic, it's multiplying your cells really fast, right? Yeah. So like, you know, my mom was a doctor. It was like, don't you dare use that thing. It did it it it it it, it's not enough research. But then like, there is research that backs it and says it's not the same type it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it and maybe more so at certain times of day than others. And now we spend 93% of our time indoors. So to me, it doesn't really take a huge stretch

of the imagination to conceive that this light might be doing something to our biology, whether it's purely a visual thing or whether or not it's actually activating mitochondria there. I know that there is a good amount of research on it. I'm just not super well versed in it. And, you know, a lot of the research really has been done

for super specific things and also in animals, animal studies. Right, animal. Like there have been studies where they've put this red light on the testicles of rats. And they see a boost in testosterone. So you see a lot of guys in the biohacker space who are using these little light

and they're standing there with it on their nuts. And you know, there is like a couple millimeter penetration you know, that the light is able to go through the skin. And you know, your testes are like in this thin skin like it doesn't, you know, it seems pretty good. So you're not doing that at home basically. Well, I stand in front of it and make it because it's what you're supposed to do.

So I don't know. So I don't know. I do the big one, the big panel, yeah. Yeah, I've got the big a naked, because I'm supposed to do. Right, you're supposed to do. So I don't know. I do the big one, the big panel, yeah. Yeah, I've got the big one, yeah. Yeah, me too, okay. But I don't freaking know. I'm just doing it, because I got, I mean, it feels cool, I got it for free.

It's, you know, it's like 10 minutes of like meditation while I'm doing it. I don't freaking know. Just do 10 minutes this way, like, front to then 10 minutes back, like 20 all together. Yeah, although, yeah, I probably get bored about 15 minutes in

it. Right. I'm still my phone when I'm doing it. Is that bad? I think it probably is. It is FDA approved for certain things though. Yeah. For what though? Well, I believe... At the anti-inflammatory... No, maybe is it the anti-inflammatory? Here's the thing. I mean, if it's FDA approved for something, that means that it's doing something. Do something. You know. Right. So I don't know. There's just not a ton of, I think, research like in people or high quality research in people, but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Right. So I remain open-minded. How often do you do? I don't pay me anything. No, I know. Nora does mine.

I'm just, I, listen, I'm not, I just don't know, you know, like it's just like not that I cannot say something. Like I haven't, people say it helps with like fine lines and wrinkles, people say it helps with inflammatory, people say all sorts of things. And then this research that says some things, but it's, I thought you being like health, you know, Jesus. Yeah, I don't know the health, you know, Jesus, that you are. Yeah, I don't know. That's the thing, I, you know,

I don't really talk about the things that I don't know about, which I think is why my followers appreciate me, because it's like, I can talk about what I know about, but then I'm not like, you know, I don't just kind of like, I'm just blabbed for the sake of blabbing. Yeah, there's a lot of people, and there's other people that people that I think, you know, there's other people out there that are, I think,

a little bit more liberal in terms of their adoption of these more innovative health things. But for me, I feel like most people are gonna get a lot more bang for their buck with sort of the low hanging fruit, you know. Right, right. For me, I mean, I exercise a lot, I eat pretty healthy.

So for me, you know, I'm the kind of person who would benefit from red light if it's doing anything, you know but if you're One of the I don't know I mean people today are just you know 12% of people are in what researchers would call good metabolic health, you know So there's like a lot of bigger fish that need to be fried But that being said, you know from from the standpoint of just like So there's a lot of bigger fish that need to be fried. But that being said, from the standpoint of just light and health and circadian rhythms, it would make sense that light would have some kind of value on ourselves.

So you just mentioned metabolic health. So what are some ways that we can, how do we know if we are in good metabolic health? I mean labs really are, you know, like, there are some subjective ways that you can get a sense if you're always hungry. You know, if you have a bulging midsection, that's a pretty good indicator that you're, that's something needs to be, you know, looked at. Looked at. Because having a bulging midsection, especially if you have that apple-shaped body where you're essentially skinny fat and you've got a lot of visceral fat, that's a good indicator that you're in poor metabolic health. In fact, that's what researchers use.

That's one of the metrics that, you know, that a clinician will use to assess your metabolic status, you know, like having a bulging midsection is a sign of the metabolic syndrome. So, but other than that, you can go get labs. You can look at your HDL cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides, your insulin levels, your glucose levels, your A1C, which is a measure of your three month fasting, your three month average blood sugar levels. And so these are all kind of related, you know, and they're all they're all signs of how your body is processing energy metabolizing energy

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In the 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited and Grand Cherokee L Limited. Competitive vehicles exclude all other FCA vehicles. Contact dealer for details. Take retail delivery by 531-23. Jeep is a registered trademark. Now isn't your circadian rhythm kind of directly linked to your metabolic health? Isn't it if you're on, if you're doing something, if you're doing something, you're routine daily where you wake up at the same time and when you go to bed similar at the same time

and do that helps with your... Absolutely, yeah, having a routine and sticking to it. Making sure that you're eating in the daytime, you're not eating too late at night. You're eating your carbohydrates primarily in the daytime or in the post workout setting because we happen to be more insulin sensitive in the day. So that's how that's one way in which, you know, our circadian rhythms effect metabolism. We're better at metabolizing carbohydrates. Right. And just energy in general in the daytime. But you talk about that blood in your book, though, I feel.

Like, that's like a pattern about your circadian rhythm. Yeah. So what else is it about? Like, give me some more information about it. Well, making sure that you're getting good quality light in through your eyes in the daytime. That affects your metabolism. Because what, what, a lot of people when they wake up, especially if they wake up

due to an alarm clock, like if they wake up unnaturally early, there's a good chance that they're melatonin levels have not fully subsided, right? Like melatonin is a sleep hormone, and it actually makes us less insulin sensitive because it's winding us down for the night, it's getting us paired for sleep. Sleep is not a time in which we're metabolizing a whole bunch of energy. So melatonin is a great hormone, but if it hasn't fully

subsided in the morning and then you go and you reach for the standard American breakfast, which is like orange juice and a brand muffin, you're going to be less insulin sensitive at that point in the morning. So what light does is it basically makes sure it basically suppresses meltdown production. So it's a great way to just make sure that your body is primed for the day. It's also a great way to activate your brain, your prefrontal cortex, boost mood, and things like that. It doesn't matter if it's cloudy outside, like you're saying to get sunlight, right? What happens if you're in a place

that's super cloudy, bad weather? Like I'm Canadian, you know? It's cool question, yeah. Terrible. It can be totally cloudy and overcast. Still the light that you're getting. Yeah, it really has to be the measure of light intensity. It's about 1,000 locks of light

to tell your brain that it's daytime. And so you can easily achieve that on an overcast day. Just go outside or stand by your window, or if you're driving to work, make sure that you've got your sunglasses off. Stand glasses off. Yeah, because you don't wanna block the light. Like during that point.

Well, I mean, if you've got a super tinted car, like you're not basically seizing that opportunity to anchor your body circadian rhythm, which we know is, you know, it's involved in energy, metabolism, focus, attention, but also in the morning can, it affects when melatonin starts to be secreted in the evening, so bright light can actually bring, can cause us to secrete melatonin earlier, which is, you know, it'll help you get to bed. Earlier, it also can help protect you against blue light induced melatonin suppression. So that's another thing that I talk about in the new book is that maintaining our circadian rhythm

has become one of the one of the major challenges of modern life because we're just inundated with bright artificial light all the time. Like this? Like this, yeah. But by getting bright light during the day, like from the sun, you kind of are helping, you're basically protecting your brain, you know, from getting like desinked due to artificial light, which is a great thing because we all, you know, are prone to binge watching our favorite shows on Netflix and using our devices, so it's a great tip.

And so, how about exercise? Is that part of it like, if you exercise at the same time? Does it matter or you're kind of like it doesn't matter when you exercise? Which you're yeah, there's definitely well, it's funny because there's definitely circadian influence to when we're gonna be at our most Coordinated when we're gonna be at our strongest, but at the end of the day The time at which you're able to get to the gym is that's the best time. You know, like exercise, just being able to exercise trumps, you know, it's like it's splitting hairs to borrow a term from our friend, Lime Pump Cell, splitting hairs to try to optimize the time of day that you work out.

You could say that in mid afternoon, you know, we're stronger, we're at our most coordinated, so it's going to reduce risk of injury, perhaps. But, uh... But when do you work out? I like to work out in the mornings. I actually like to work out when I'm fasted because I feel that I have more energy. Because I'm not dealing with post-mule fatigue. Right. You know, I find that like after I eat, it's not, my energy levels are not always predictable.

I mean, certainly I could eat a lower carb diet, which is going to reduce, you know, any blood sugar excursions that are going to like mess up my energy levels. But generally, I know that I'm pretty, that my energy levels are very consistent when I'm fasted in the morning. You know, you've got this hormonal milieu that, you know, wants food, so it's going to energize you the same with your neurotransmitters. Your neurotransmitters are oriented in a way to make sure that you're primed to hunt for your, or forage for food. So I feel very energetic in the morning.

I don't feel like weighed down. I'm not digesting anything, so the blood is free to go to my muscles and like, yeah. But if you don't like to work out in the morning, you don't have to work out in the morning. If you feel great working on the afternoon, then work out in the afternoon. So for you, I kept on interrupting you. So basically, then you have your breakfast,

but you didn't tell me what you had for breakfast. Your breakfast, we don't know, and then what you were to end your exercise routine. You still haven't got into that. So breakfast, well, you know, I'll work out fasted usually, and then I'll go immediately afterwards to break my fast, because, you know, I'll work out, fasted usually, and then I'll go immediately afterwards to break my fast, because, you know, when it comes to protein,

you really don't need to worry about protein timing with the exception of the fasted workout. With a fasted workout, if you're working out first thing in the morning, you really wanna like make sure that very soon after that morning workout, you're going to get like high protein. If you had eaten a few hours earlier, or just before, it's less of a concern, but if you're going into your workout fasted, you've just had an overnight fast, then you really want

to make sure that you're getting a decent amount of protein afterwards. So usually how we'll break the fast is I'll get a big plate of half of it is going to be some kind of meat, and the other half is going to be some kind of vegetable. And that's what I saw in your book. So you're eating like actual meats in the meal like chicken or beef in the morning. Yeah. Protein. I love. Yeah. You don't care if it's like morning night. It's like that doesn't matter. Always. Yeah. Always in prioritizing protein. So chicken or grass food be for fish or whatever. And then always some fibers veggies. I happen to love like a big salad, you know, like kale salad or whatever. And then depending on like the level of intensity of my workouts and where I am in my workout, I'll have, you know, some sweet potatoes or...

Is your first meal? This is your first meal. Yeah, first meal. Okay. So is it first meal of your biggest meal or that's? Yeah, I mean You know, I don't I just eat until I'm satiated. That's it like I don't you know I eat so that I don't have to smack you know Yeah, to hold myself over until dinner like I like to like eat a big meal feel satiated not have to think about it And then I know that around 6 p.m 6.30 p.m. I'll be eating like another big dinner, you know. Right, because you don't eat the breakfast, right? Because, or, you have this two meals.

Yeah. Generally two meals and occasionally all like snack, but I try not to snack, but I will, if I'm working from home, you know, like, and there's dark chocolate around. Yes, so far not. Yeah, I'll be hitting the dark chocolate for sure. Maybe some beef jerky, I'm a big fan of like, low sugar beef jerky's. Which one? Low sugar ones. Low sodium ones, do you know of any of them? I've never seen one yet. Yeah, no low sodium. Like some built-hongs are pretty good. I also, there's a product that I really love

and no affiliation with the company, but they're called beef fins, but I think it's like new primal. They're like maybe one of the best beef jerky's ever had. Really? They're like crispy beef jerky thins, beef thins. Where do you buy them at, era one? They know it's on an era one. Yeah, they sell the whole food. They sell the whole food?

Okay, I like that. I'm going to try those once. Very overpriced. Shocking. Shockingly, it's like, no, I know exactly because I buy them all the time. How much is it? It's like $5 for an ounce of this stuff, which is insane That's so expensive so expensive. Yeah, so expensive. I got I but actually

Most of the time I don't even buy them on at Whole Foods I buy them on Amazon because you find discounts. Yeah, what's it called? I'm gonna I'm gonna Be just be fends. Okay. I'm gonna totally check that out. Okay. They're Addicting the other tasty. I mean I always I always eat like two bags That's good. How do you eat with one ounce of that? That's like nothing. It's like nothing Yeah, it's for bags. I usually like two bags So it's two ounces. I'm like 26 grams of protein and you said you said what beef is it's called beef thins? Yeah, so they're called all right I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna look at okay, so where was I was I now? I was talking about your work. 13. Oh yeah, which your work out routine. What do you do?

Um, I'm definitely like like a love lifting weights, but I have like a low back issue so it prevents me from doing, you know, like some days I go in and I have a great workout. I'm feeling very limber and mobile. Where do you work out? Equinox? Yeah. Which one? I don't see you there. That's, I know, I know good. That one.... West Hollywood. West Hollywood. I don't see you there, that's. I know good that one, that's fine. I go to the other E. Quinox. Which one? I go to West LA, or I work out at my house, or I go to Westwood.

Got it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I go there. I'm in the process of moving and my plan is to get, like, some workout equipment for my house. Yeah, it's so much easier. I feel like when I go to the gym it takes up so much time to get there. You start socializing even though you don't mean to. It takes like a huge chunk of time. Yeah, I love you though because it gets me out of the house. I feel social.

You know, there's like other things there. Sometimes I have great workouts, sometimes I have really crappy workouts, but at the end of the day, just, you know, something's better than nothing. Yeah, absolutely true. Exactly. Okay, so then, whenever there's some of the other habits and rituals you do.

Other habits, rituals I do, well I'm a big fan of Saunas. I'm, you know, like whenever I get the opportunity to use a Saunah, I'm in it. Yeah. Like an infrared sauna or just... I'm actually not as big of a fan of infrared saunas. I know infrared saunas are all the rage, but... There's so many all the rage is all the time.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of infrared saunas. So the International Sauna Association actually doesn't even consider an infrared sauna, an actual sauna. They're like, stop using the word sauna. Yeah. Because it's, yeah, it's not, it doesn't mean... It's not a sauna. It's not, yeah, sauna's not, it doesn't mean the... It's a sauna. It's not, yeah, sauna is a finish thing. It's a finish phenomenon, right?

Yeah. It's a finish word. And so the infrared sauna, it's just not, it's a new technology. I mean, they get you to sweat, they're good for you in that sense. But, but you know, they take too long, I just don't have the patience. I like sitting in a freaking sauna for 45 minutes. If you go into a regular Russian or Finnish hot sauna, you can only be in it for 20 minutes and you're gushing sweat.

Beyond. Beyond. And yeah, you're in and out. And so that's like, that's what I love. Okay, like that. Okay. Where do you go for that? Really, there's no good places in LA to do that.

So I'm in the process of actually getting a sauna for my house, which I hope I can make happen. Oh, wow, that's amazing. Yeah. How about a dry... Like a real one. Like a dry sauna. Yeah.

Those are great. Yeah, they're great. So like a barrel sauna, that's what I'm trying to get for the roof of my new place, a moving Santa Monica. So... You are? Yeah, so I have a roof. I'm surprised that you don't even live there already.

I picture you as a Santa Monica Venice. Seriously? Yeah. I find... I don't know live there already. I picture you as a Santa Monica venez. Seriously? Yeah. I find, I don't know how I feel about that, because I know a lot of guys that are like the venez type, and I don't feel like I, you don't think you fit them all. You don't think you fit them all?

No. Really, why do you think that? They're just all, they seem to be all like a little too in touch with their like feminine side. Something, I don't know. I feel like I'm a New Yorker. I like West Hollywood. I'd like to bring a little bit of that kind of like masculinity, maybe to like that side. Something, I don't know. I feel like I'm a New Yorker, I like West Hollywood. I'd like to bring a little bit of that kind of like masculinity maybe to like that side.

But it needs you there, it needs you there. My experience in Venice is that, okay, so you go to Erwan, all the guys are wearing these like Native American appropriated like freaking shawls, right? They're all, they've all done like one too many plant medicine journeys, right? That's gonna ask asking about that. Yeah, and I just feel like it's a little disconnected. Like it's like, it's kind of like, it's a uniform that just reminds me like a hipster uniform of like Williamsburg Brokelin or something.

Yeah, I totally agree. It's just another freaking uniform. And like... Attention, Kroger Shoppers. Did you know there's a world of innovative services and patient care right in store? It's where an award-winning pharmacy and nationally recognized care come together. Connect with one of our licensed pharmacists today at your local Kroger and experience the care you and your family deserve.

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I'm right right right right. You're totally right, okay, so right. But you kind of have that vibe a little bit, and then on top of that because of your interest in healthy living and healthy lifestyle, I feel like people migrate over there when it's that way. And it's just for no particular reason, it just is. And so that's why I thought that I would take you for someone who lives there. But maybe not so, like, depends like where in Santa Monica,

like how deep in Santa Monica you're going. Are you going to the Venice area? Are you staying more like? Here's the thing, I've lived in LA for on and off for like 15 years, I've never wanted to move to the West side. For that reason, it's just, it hasn't, you know, I like, I come from a cosmopolitan place. West Hollywood to me feels like it's at the hub

of the pop culture wherever. The reason why I'm moving there Now is because I just feel like I welcome the change and I want to like grow and see what it has to offer And I found a really nice place. It's gonna give me space and I feel like it's gonna be it's gonna inspire me to be even more creative and you know and and I dig that but But yeah, I mean I feel like I might I don't know. I don't know how I'm going to feel. I love West Hollywood. I love the hustle vibe.

Yeah, I totally agree. I don't know, but yeah, I don't know. Who knows? Well, you'll let me know. When you move there, by the way. Technically next week, but I'm going to get a town to the week after. But I have the place to take over the leaves next week. Oh, you can.

Okay, so what are you working? Besides your book that of course just came out, what else are you doing? Like what else do you spend your time with besides, of course, exercise and doing some saunas and yeah. And some other types of, what else do you do? You do.

I do. You do cold water immersion. I see that. We talk about that a lot. I like to work on my podcast. I like to play music. I like to like practice my guitar playing and my singing, which I love to do. Who's your favorite guest on your podcast so far?

That's a really good question. I've had a few really good guests. I love doing my podcast, which I never thought that I would. Like it as much. Yeah, but I love it. I really do love it. It's super fun. When I first started, I didn't think that I would be any good

as a podcast host. And now I just, yeah, who have I loved, man? I had Dr. Mark Heimann on it recently, who's great. Oh, he's coming on my podcast. Oh, cool. Yeah, he's. I love him. He's also so knowledgeable.

He's a knowledgeable. He's good. So with my podcast, you know, it's not just, I don't like to like just stay in the lane of health, you know, and if people are only following me because they have certain expectations, then, you know, they're gonna be disappointed because like, I like to have on people who interest me

and they can be in the health of wellness vertical, they can be foodies, they can be my favorite musicians, they can be whoever. I mean, I always try to bring the conversation back to some way that, you know, something actionable that listeners can use to improve their lives in some way, but some of my favorite episodes I had a guy on who's just a world-renowned expert in an extra virgin olive oil.

So we just go deep on that, which is an amazing thing to get started on for an hour, you know? What did he say, anything that, like, what was the main, the crux of the... Well, all the little nuances, you know, like all the little nuances, color has no bearing on the quality of the oil. No.

How about cold press versus? I think probably cold press is good. I don't remember the specifics, but yeah, I mean, cold press is good. I'll listen to that. You don't want it hot press, but really the most important thing is that the bottle has a harvest date,

and that extra virgin olive oil, unlike wine, so wine has a appreciative potential. Wine can age, and it can get better with time. Extra virgin olive oil only gets worse. So it's a fresh fruit juice. Interesting. Olive is a fruit. And you want to make sure that the harvest date

was relatively recent. You want it to be as fresh as possible. I didn't know that, thank you. You want your olive oil fresh. And that you shouldn't buy the cheapest olive oil you could find. You should buy something that's going to be a, what, you know, spend what you're comfortable spending on it.

But don't buy the cheapest one. Buy like either the middle of the shelf or top shelf. Also single cultivar, like you know, you don't generally don't wanna blend, although sometimes I've ever blend, but you also wanna buy the smallest bottle that you can find that you're gonna use quickly. So if you're using a ton of olive oil all the time,

then you can buy a bigger bottle. But like I said, it only is gonna get worse over time and being open, you know, the oxygen is going to catalyze how best. So you want to just like buy it music quickly, buy fresh, use it quickly, buy fresh, use it quickly. Yeah, that's good. So no, that's a good tip. Yeah. Okay, tell me some other people you've had that are like really, really great ones. Well, I've done a lot of, I've done a lot of episodes on women's health, which I think is really cool, just the mysteries and the wonders of the female body. I think- Just because you're curious yourself.

Yeah, I'm curious and I don't know. I think it's, yeah, it's super interesting. We've talked all about birth control. We've talked about menstrual cycles, things like that. I think it's super fun. Yeah, good. I'm glad. Yeah.

What else? Name someone that came on that was like Mark Heimann and Great. That's in the health, the guy that did the olive oil. Name someone outside your lane that you had on that you really loved. Outside my lane, let me see if I can come up, if I can think of somebody where, yeah man, hard to say, you know, I don't know. Well, my friend Paul Saladino, I've had him

I shut twice. He's a carnivore physician, he only eats meat. I mean, only is in terms of his, that's the only thing he actually eats or he's just someone who's not a vegetarian. Not only he only eats beef, no plants, no plant matter. We're only gonna put pepper on his steak. So he only eats me like all day?

All day, that's all he eats. Literally all he eats, doesn't drink coffee because coffee comes from a plant. He's a carnivore, he's not an omnivore, he only eats meat. He's a growing trend and he's a medical doctor. He's a very, very smart guy, I learned something new from him all the time, but I just don't agree with him in the fat, you know, in this idea. Yeah, what does he say? What does he say?

Well, you know, he's way more nuanced than I'll, you know, be able to do justice, but basically that plants have these toxic compounds that they create to ward off predators, and for a significant portion of the population, these compounds actually can be problematic if you suffer from autoimmune condition or an inflammatory condition that they can actually make those exacerbate those conditions. And he's a doctor. He's a medical doctor. And is he have, or all his blood, it's everything intact with him? He looks great.

He's ripped and yeah, he's great. I mean he's a he's a walking testament but who knows I mean he's been on this diet for two three years. Who knows if he sticks with it you know it's a hard it's a very hard diet to adhere to. Who knows what you know 10 years is gonna bring it on the diet. You never know. And so you're not you're like an omnibor I would imagine. I'm omnibor yeah I think it's good, yeah. I think it's good to eat plants. I think it's good to eat animals. I think it's good to eat. You know, both of those things. I do agree with him that, you know, if you had to compare a 100% carnivore based diet to a 100% animal based diet to a 100% plant based diet, I think that the animal based diet

is probably has an upper hand. You know, I think animal foods are just great. I think that they're super nutritious. But I also think like berries and dark leafy greens and things like that. Crucifer's vegetables all are super healthy as well. So what do you think of like the whole thing about like the impossible burgers and all as a healthy as a healthy trend? To me, that's not healthy. Total crap. It's all sodium and filled with it's filler. It's filler, ultra processed garbage. And people are saying to eat that versus having

a piece of protein. Definitely not. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, actually, you'll talk about this with Mark Heim and because that's the focus of his new book, is that these, you know, to produce a Beyond Burger or a possible burger. I mean, it's adding that, you know, the confluence, all the different production processes and the packaging and whatever, to create one of those burgers, it's throwing a lot of carbon into the atmosphere, whereas a grass fed burger actually is carbon negative. You know, I mean, there's obviously the shipping that has to come into play, but all the water that it takes to grow a grass fed cows was called green water. So it's from literally rain.

It's not irrigation. You need a lot of irrigation to feed the, to grow the grains and all the crap that they feed to these industrial factory-formed cows. But this whole, with the statement that like eating meat is implicitly bad for the environment, is just total BS propaganda. You hear it all the time in Hollywood.

Have you seen game changers? Yeah, it's just crap. Total bias movie. For every one ass, this ass, actually it's vegan and they're the strongest person in the world. I can name 100,000 people who are not. It's the same, you know, who eat meat. It was totally and I would imagine given

that how you feel. So I was like, yeah, me and mine come sell, we did a whole, we did a great episode debating tearing down game changers. And yeah, it's a problem, man, because like now diets are becoming politicized. That's something that sell, it's be very, very eloquently too.

But yeah, you see it all the time in Hollywood with the people who are environmentalists and they're super, I don't know, they politicize meat eating, and they take these uber simplified worldviews, like meat is all bad, eat less meat. I know. I agree. And it really doesn't make any sense when you look at the science

and when you consider the complexity of the food system. Like the food system is just so complicated. And even me, I'm a freaking armchair expert. I don't know half of what it entails to grow food and produce food and ship food and to store food today. I know more than I think your average person, but it's just infinitely more complex than Karen on Facebook. Has any concept of what she gets into the comments section is like, you know, I want to save the environment, eat less meat.

Of course. And I agree. And that's... Karen doesn't know. Yeah. No. Like, and there's a lot of Karen's out there, unfortunately. There's a ton of Karen's.

Well, is there anything else that we should talk about? I feel like I've kept you on this treadmill for a very long time, over an hour. It's good. I like it. I mean, getting my meat in for the day. Exactly. It's right. Are you going to go do weights after this? Or this is basically... No, I think you're good. I like it. I mean getting my meat in for the day. Me exactly. It's right. Are you gonna go do weights after this? Or this is basically no, I think I think I'm gonna need another shower

Well actually I'm sweating. That's okay. You actually don't even look like you're like even Even like break a sweat. No, I really enjoy this because I you know I think one of the problems with LA is that you know you're not always as active as you need to be and you know The irony of it though. It's irony. Yeah, it's irony. It's always in your car But I'm that's one of the things active as you need to be. You know, I think- Well, the irony of it, though. The irony, yeah. The irony is just always in your car. But that's one of the things I'm looking forward to about the West Side. Because in West Hollywood, where I live, walking around,

do you feel like people are looking at you? Like, really? Yeah, because it's like, you know, it's not really, it's kind of seedy, you know, like- It's kind of where you are, but I totally agree. I find it so ironic, right? Because people think LA, California California is such a healthy place. And yet I've never been so sedentary as I am,

what I'm here, when I'm in New York, I walk everywhere. Like I'm constantly on the go and moving. And that's why actually I live where I live because it's off of me and vessel. So I can walk places, I can get places, I can like walk to a bank, I can walk to restaurants, I can walk to the mall, versus being in a very like enclosed area where you can never get anywhere. It's like very, because LA is terrible like that. So I agree. The genius life, heal the mind, strengthen your body and become extraordinary. Max,

thank you. This is great. Thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for having me. This has been very fun, and I can't wait to have you on again if you ever come on again for your third book. Yeah, well, thank you. Hopefully there's a third book. Of course there'll be a third book. Come on.

Come on. Why would there not be? With that kind of wealth of knowledge? Oh, man. Listen. You're too kind. So where do people find you if they don't know already? You can find me on Instagram at MaxLugavir.leg.av.re. My podcast is called The Genius Life,

so come over, hit subscribe, and pick up my new book, The Genius Life. It's good. As far as a noble Amazon, you can go to GeniusLifebook.com. It's available everywhere. Well's Barnes and Noble Amazon. You can go to geniuslifebook.com. It's available everywhere. Well, thank you so much. And oh, quickly, press that white button. How many calories did you burn?

Oh, damn, 205. Okay, well, 205 you didn't do before, so that's good. I love that. Yeah, thanks for letting me burn those calories. Absolutely, thank you. Bye. Ciao. This episode is brought to you by the YAP Media Podcast Network. I'm Holla Taha, CEO of the award-winning digital media empire YAP Media, and host of

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