Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1457: Five Ways to Reduce Seasonal Depression

Episode Date: December 31, 2020

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin discuss five ways to combat seasonal depression. Why seasonal affective disorder (SAD) affects most people. (2:31) Five Ways to Reduce Seasonal Depression. (8:11) #1 – Sunlight therapy. (8:55) #2 – Exercise. (11:59) #3 – Stick to a schedule. (18:37) #4 – Supplement with Vitamin-D. (23:24) #5 – Look at your diet. (27:08) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Legion Athletics for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code “mindpump” at checkout** Mind Pump Store December Special: 3 MAPS Bundles for your level of fitness! Seasonal Depression (SAD): Symptoms & Treatments Seasonal affective disorder treatment: Choosing a light therapy box Visit Joovv for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Mind Pump #1452: Your 10 Minute Workout For The Holiday Season Here’s Why Hitting The Snooze Button Is Not A Good Thing The 7 Best Sunrise Alarm Clocks of 2020: Wake up Energized! Vitamin D vs broad spectrum phototherapy in the treatment of seasonal affective disorder New Study Found 80% of COVID-19 Patients Were Vitamin D Deficient Mind Pump #1227: The 5 Most Important Supplements To Take Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You are listening to the number one fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Now, you know, we're going into the winter season. It's cold, it's dark. And we just realized this, 20% of Americans

start to get a little depressed. There's a condition called seasonal effective disorder. Sad is the acronym. And it's quite common. So in today's episode, we talk about the natural ways you can help alleviate your seasonal depression. Now, this episode is brought to you by our sponsor, Legion, Legion makes them the best

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So if you're trying to buy gifts for anybody, a $100 gift card at the minepumpstore.com will get you a free Maps workout program of your choice to give away as a gift. Now, if you're thinking for yourself, you can also check out some of these bundles we've put together for different types of people. Let me go over them with you real quick here. The first one is the beginner bundle. It's called the new-to-weight lifting bundle. It's a nine-month exercise program all laid out for you. The next one is for those of you who are intermediate lifters. It's called the Body Transformation Bundle. And the third one is for Advanced Lifters.

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That's maps, M-A-P-S-D-Sember.com. Hey, did you guys know, first of all, do you guys know what the acronym sad? Have you heard of this? What it stands for? No. Sad or sad, SAID? No, sad. Sad.

Seasonal effective disorder or seasonal depression. That's a thing? Yes, sad. It's an actual diagnosis. Well, you guys know this, I'm sure that people tend to. Is that the real meaning behind sad or is it just like something they attach to it because you know it worked?

No, I think sad existed before the acronym. Okay. But that was a smart answer. So seasonal depression. You're thinking, Josh, I'm just saying. I'm just a smart answer. So, seasonal depression. You're thinking, Joseph. I'm just saying. I really, I really didn't know what that was. Sal had to think about that for a second.

I know. Wait a second. I really wait. It's, but seasonal depression is a real thing. I looked this up. I didn't realize it was this common, this common. 20% of Americans suffer from seasonal depression, at least a mild form of it. I mean, that's millions and millions and millions of people

that notice enough changes in the way that they feel emotionally to report it. So it's actually a big thing. There's a lot of factors that go into this, right? In terms of just, you know, the holidays and seasonal things and, you know, maybe you have a lost loved one or, you know, like it gets darker earlier, like the days are running. Yeah, like it just seems like there's a lot of compounding factors that lead into that. There is. And the further away from the equator you live, the more people

get affected by it. So it's really tied to the rhythms of the sun and the seasons. That's why they call it seasonal depression. I'm somebody that I would say that I noticed this for myself. I'm a, I love the sun. You guys know this. Summer time for me is my favorite. You guys have heard me, how many times have you guys heard me say I don't like the winter?

Yeah, I hate it. It's because when it's dark, I do notice a change in my moods a little bit. So I'm one of these people, but I don't really as it was 20%. I train a lot of clients like this. Now what does that say if you're the opposite, right? I feel like winter time. I know, Vembers, my favorite month. Because I mean, yeah, snow is amazing.

It's not one. I don't get shit. You know what I'm saying? It's the greatest month. It's not matter. Not because it's about me. No, it has nothing to do with that. I just like the weather around that time.

Like I sleep the best. I don't have allergies at that time. Great sports are happening. I mean, good TV is going on. Like it's just for me and I like winter sports. I'm into those things. I can put my flannels back on. Yeah, I like the fits.

I have terrible calves, so some are sucks for me. You know what I'm saying? Like there's so many things that make it. You get to hide all your ugly parts. The positives, you can focus on it. That's what we're trying to say. No, you know, I didn't look that up on the flip side, but I do know a lot of people like that,

that love the winter and stuff, but there's a bigger percentage of people that, again, will report that they have mild forms of depression that get lifted when the season changes now i would imagine that's that's closely connected to the same things that uh... drives the suicide suicide rate up in places like i believe washington which is like the number one state that they say right they do say that they have the most rainy days most dark days like cloudy days the cloudy that that. That's what they say.

Now I've had clients that have talked about this. Well, they'll say that when it gets dark outside, it makes them sad, they don't feel as energetic. When I looked this up into little research, women and younger people are more likely to notice the effects of seasonal depression. So why do you think that? Not quite sure, although as we go through this,

we might be able to speculate a little bit as to why it is. I mean, there's a few theories. The prevailing theory has to do with how serotonin and melatonin are disrupted in the body, right? So the sun goes down earlier, people's sleep schedules tend to be thrown off a little bit, and melatonin starts to change, and as a result it affects serotonin.

Both of those are connected to kind of, you know, well-being. Right, happy feeling. The happy feelings, right? So again, this is kind of a big thing, and look, we noticed this in the gyms as well. I noticed this in the gyms, when it gets cold, less people work out.

Yeah, you notice that right away, like a lot of people are calling in or canceling, and it happens a lot more frequently. I wonder if that's why I have a little bit of bias towards the winter too, because I grew up in working in the gym. And so I like that there's nobody inside there. Because I'm trying to think of like, you know, why do I not get as depressed in the winter

time? And I know you've talked to Sal about, I mean, you're like a sun worshipper. So I know like, you're all about the summertime and not a fan of the winter at all. And I do know that I've had lots of family, friends, clients that are connected to me that during the winter time, it's a very real thing. I'm trying to like add up, why is that not for me? I also tend to, and here we are right now again, getting ready to get back in a consistency

with dieting. Yeah, you tell me you tend to get lean in the winter. I do, and I never planned it. Just like how this wasn't planned, right? All of a sudden, we just decided we're gonna start meeting each other here at eight o'clock in the morning and training together, and now we're starting to do that, and here it is in the middle of December,

in a December that we're doing this. And it's like, that's kind of how it's always played out for me, I don't know why. It's interesting, but I do notice it in the gyms. And it's funny because you would think that people would be more motivated in the winter because you're not outside as much. There's less activities to do outside.

So you're more likely to, I would think, wanna work out, but no, Jim slow down in the winter, even before Christmas, you know, you start to see it in October already. Now, all the things that we're going to allude to here in a minute as far as like what we're talking about that contribute to this, is there an order or is there one that stands out more than the other? I know like they all can result in this, but are there certain things that like they've done and said, okay, this is for sure the number one factor than there's other factors?

Depends on the person. So when you read the studies, because we're going to go through five ways that you can help yourself with this, it depends on the person. So as we go through them, and if you think to yourself, like, oh, I already do that, then that's probably not the one that's going to help you the most. If it's something that you tend to lack in, that that one may have the biggest impact.

At least that would be my guess, right? So the first thing you can do, and this is one of the more traditional therapies, is sunlight therapy. Now, you think, well, you know, it's dark, what do you mean by that? Well, what they do is when the sun is out, go outside, get as much as possible, open your sun roof in your car if you have one, not maybe not the whole window, but at least the, you know, the part that covers the sun, open your blinds at home, sit next to the window, you know, just because there is less sun, but you can make up for it by being exposed to it

a little longer. So although it's cloudy, you're still getting some sun. And by the way, a big reason why people may be feeling sad has to do with the fact that the sun's rhythms, that's what they're connecting. Have you done any reading on what they recommend for the average amount of sun time? And I know this is gonna be different like based off your skin, right?

So like some people can handle their skin tolerance, right? So how some people can handle the sun for hours, some minutes, but is there like a generic average everybody should spend some time? I don't know. Now here's the interesting thing with light therapy. They've even done what are called light boxes. So a light box is a light bulb

with that puts out a full spectrum of light. It's not even the sunlight. So it's not like they're getting a tan or anything. It's not a tanning bed, but people will feel much better. It's literally just light, the spectrum of light that you get from the sun, that makes people feel better. Well, I noticed that from, so when we first started working with Juve years ago, and I know today's not even like a Juve commercial, but this is so true.

I mean, I remember when we first started messing with them, I was using them the most in the winter time because I wasn't getting out in the sun. And I'm gonna say huge difference in it. And maybe that's what it is is when there's that much of a discrepancy, like in the summertime, sure we're in this building a lot, I don't get as much sun,

but I'm still getting more sun than I get in December. So, I would always notice if I would, yeah, three times a week, if I got in there three times a week 20 minute shots Always notice a difference in my energy levels and how I slept Yeah, I used to have a client that this was a big deal for her and even if what she used to do is and she didn't she Obviously moved to California which you train with me But she lived on the East Coast. I really had seasons and I said what would you do when?

Because it's over here in California doesn't rain that much, it obviously doesn't snow where we're at. And she said, when it, unless it was snowing or storming or whatever, she would still make herself go outside and go for a walk. And she said that made a huge difference with her. Even though it's overcast, you get some sunlight.

Well, I'm thinking back, I remember when I was in Chicago, I really struggled. And I thought, I attributed it mostly because I was like away from home and it was like a totally shell shock culture. Like they actually had real seasons and it was freezing. And, but a lot of it was me just staying hunker down inside.

And I wasn't getting outside because it was just like, I just didn't acclimate to it yet. And it took me a good like two, three years before I finally was able to like, you know, bear the elements there and figured out. But I guarantee like just seeing, even if it was foggy, that made a massive difference in my mood. Yeah, that's true. I forgot that you went out there. So you notice a difference because of the change. 100%. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Now, the next one is a very powerful one, especially if you don't do this, which is exercise. And we're going to get into more of the specifics, but exercise alone has been shown to be as effective as antidepressants for mild to moderate forms of all depression and in studies.

And may actually be more effective in the long term. In fact, exercise, they continue to review this. I think one of the reasons why they don't necessarily recommend it is because people tend to not take the advice, but they're starting to make this like a first line treatment for people with just depression, not just seasonal depression, but your typical types of depression. Which is really hard to do though when you're in that, right? Like, there's, I mean, it's already hard enough for people to be consistent with, you know, strength training

and exercise, right? It's even harder when you're already find yourself in this position. And so, and this does remind me of when I kind of went through this a couple of years back on the show and I shared, you know, the key is really is to start small and build on that because it's tough. If you're already in this, if we're talking to somebody right now and this is resonating with them, and they're like, man, I'm in the thick of it. I'm super depressed, I'm

watching TV all day long, I don't want to get up on a duty and then you're like, hey, you should follow a map set of balls. And it's like, wow, it's such a leap from where they're at right now. And so I would recommend just, you know, start with like the first one, which is like they're getting out there and getting out in the sun, like, go for a nice walk, you know? And if an hour walk is really long for you right now, start with 15, 20 minutes and break it up multiple times a day if you can, but, and then that activity,

you can start to build upon that. So start with a little bit of activity, more than what you're doing currently now, and then slowly start to build a weight training routine. And even when you start building a weight training routine, there's nothing wrong with the weight training. When you're talking about health, right, and depression and things like this, you know, we're not talking about maximizing muscle building or, you know, accelerating fat loss.

It's like you just want to be mentally healthy right here. There's nothing wrong with you doing Turkish get-ups. Like the last, the one of the last episodes we did not long ago, where we talked about some just skill workouts for a day, go in there and just squat or just deadlift, like getting that movement and getting going with something, and then you could build a much more robust routine later on. Yeah, I had a client years ago whose daughter just,

she just would not get off the couch or whatever, and she's like, can you work with her and say, yeah, absolutely And so we did structure something similar to what you're saying Adam So the way I did it actually was is and we negotiated right so first I was like can you do a 30 minute walk and can you be consistent? You know now I don't think so or whatever so eventually what we did is I said, okay. Here's what I want you to do For the next week. I want you to they had a long driveway So I'd say I want you to walk out to the mailbox once a day. Just walk out to the mailbox and come back. And when you do it, write it down for me.

And then that's what she did. And then the second, after we did that for a little while, I don't remember how long it was, but she did that for a little while. I said, okay, now I want you to walk to the mailbox twice a day. And we slowly but surely worked up to three, 15 minute walks a day. After she started doing the three, 15 minute walks a day, she started because it does have a profound effect

on how you feel. Here's the interesting, you know, kind of weird physics of activity. You feel bad and down, so you don't wanna exercise, but the more you move, the more you want to move. So it's very strange, right? So you think movement promotes momentum. It does, right?

So when she was doing it, 15 minute walks three times a day, next thing I know, she comes to me and says, all right, what other kind of workouts can I do on my own? And she started to add it up herself. So think of that yourself. If this is you and you're feeling really down, know that the movement itself will make you want to do more movement.

Getting started is the hard part. Once you start to move, the body starts to produce these feel good chemicals. The brain is bathed in, you know, BDNF, which helps as a brain become healthier, and you start to want to move a little more. Some of the best strategies for that, like I said, you make a really small goal. It can literally be as little as whatever it is for you.

It can be very individual. It can literally be, I'm going to walk down the street and back. That's all I'm going to do. I can commit to that, so that's all I'll do. And then increase it. One of the best ways to make it a habit is to attach your movement to something you do daily anyway. So you eat lunch every single day.

So maybe you say to yourself, I won't eat lunch unless I walk for 10 minutes. Or after dinner before I eat the last, whatever, I'm going to walk 10 minutes. If you attach it to things you already do, it's more likely to be a habit. Once you feel up for it, or if you already feel up for it, lifting weights is one of the best forms of exercise for this because resistance training positively affects the pro tissue hormones, testosterone, growth hormone. It makes your body more insulin sensitive. When your body's adding tissue, that's very active, like muscle, it's getting the signal that you're healthy,

right? If your body's not healthy and if it's stressed, it reduces muscle. If it's building muscle, it's getting the signal to build muscle, it's like, oh no, we feel good. As you build muscle, you start to feel better. So resistance training, if you feel good enough to pick your form of exercise, I would say pick that and focus on the compound lifts and you don't need to do a lot of it. Even twice a

week of, you know, four exercises, squat overhead press, bench press, and a row, and you're really, really good. Keep it super basic. I mean, even if it's a bit of a stretch, you know, going from walking to then lifting weights, like even if you do a few, a handful of body weight exercises and just start with actual mechanics of it and getting your muscles to express and to stretch and contract, that's gonna be a big step for you.

Your body is gonna provide that kind of feedback, a rewarding feedback for that, which then you can build upon. It's all about really like sparking it, getting the momentum going. I like going outside and walking because now you could get part of the sun. You can get a fresh air.

Like, I mean, all that makes a humongous difference for your body to feel in its in a different environment. Oh, you just combine the two that we said, right? Sunlight and exercise. Now you got two birds with one stone or as they say, feed two birds with one stone, or as they say, feed two birds with one stone.

Let's go. Let's go. We're now PC. Yeah, so PETA doesn't get angry. But you do those two things. In one, you'll get the dual benefit. The third one, this one sounds silly, but it actually makes a huge difference.

And that is to stick to a schedule. We don't realize just how much our schedule gets dictated by the sun and how the sun looks outside and whatever. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every single day. They've shown in studies that this maximizes melatonin production.

This improves our sleep. I think what we tend to do is we tend to sleep a particular way Monday Monday through Thursday, and then Friday night, Saturday night, it's a totally different schedule. And then we have this kind of sleep hangover, come Monday and Tuesday. This may be one of the reasons why people hate Monday so much, because Friday night, Saturday night, they went to bed super late, and they slept in, and now they're circadian rhythm all's off, and the circadianadian rhythm very closely connected to seasonal depression. So stick to a schedule, give yourself a bedtime

and a wake time and they find that that makes a huge difference in your wellbeing. And get up when the alarm goes off the first time. I can't remember what I was reading something and they're talking about how much that improves your mood and productivity for the day by not snoozing. Did you know that? Yeah, there's a big, there's, they did some study.

I believe it. Yeah, I read it a long time ago and I remember going, oh, that's wild, because I know at this time I was snoozing my alarm a lot, right? So it reminds me of my roommate in college with snooze like 20 times. I finally unplugged it. I was that dude, I was this guy until I read that.

Like I can't remember what it was. I wish I could remember exactly what the study said, but I do know that it made a very good case, good case for why you want to get up right away. Soon as that alarm goes off versus snoozing, it really sets the tone for you. In fact, a little side step here, sunrise clocks are great for those.

I was gonna mention those. Yeah, they make a lot of them now, where you set your alarm, and then, let's say it's at 6.30 a.m., at 6.15, it looks like a sunrise, it slowly starts to glow and by 6.30 it's fully bright. It fills up the whole room. And what you find is it's actually quite effective.

So you can have the option to make it make sound at 6.32 so it can also go off. I don't even do that. Just the light turning on. Well, I like it. Wakes me up naturally. Because they have like birds chirping and you know things. It just sounds like things in the morning that you know are everything sort of waking up.

And it is, it's weird. It sounds like you know something that's not that big a deal, but I you know started using that. And it was like just having the light on and gradually coming up was such a better experience waking up. Totally. And here's another one with schedule. You know people in my experience training clients,

and I'd love you guys' feedback, people tend to work best with simple rules, right? We could talk about all the complexities of diet, but oftentimes, if I told my clients very simple rules, especially in the, to get started, it was a lot easier for them to follow. And one of these rules is to schedule your nutrition and saying something like, okay,

don't eat past 7 pm. And now there's no magic, really no magic about eating past 7 pm. It's like after 7 pm, all the food turns into body fat or anything like that. But what I noticed with my clients is the majority of the bad crappy food that people would eat tended to be after seven or eight o'clock at night.

And so when you gave them a hard rule like that, then it was like, no, I'm not going to eat past seven. And it was easier for them to stick to their nutrition. I found this same thing. And I know you guys tease me before on the show was the the top order thing. I mean, if I made my, if I gave my client a, like, if I said, you could eat it as long as it just came out of the, it was portioned in the tub where, so we get like these, you know,

similar to what you got over here, Sal, like you can only fit, you know, five to 700 calories of food inside those tub where. So I would basically tell them like, you know, if you're hungry, you know, here's your food choices that I want you to eat from, but just kept it really simple, just get portioned out, put it in there,

you gotta eat it out of there, just simply telling that versus giving them all these crazy calorie rules or weighing your food or telling them they can't have this, they can't have that, I just made them portion it out like that and see their food. And it's amazing how much you don't overeat when you just portion it out

and you see when you're done with it. It's like a rule, right? Yeah, and that's kind of like scheduling, like we just said, like you're scheduling nutrition. There's a time, or this is how much I'm gonna eat. Believe it or not, this makes a big difference. People tend to overeat in the winter, probably to compensate for feeling kind of down,

but then that adds to it, right? So now you're kind of feeling down, plus you're gaining body fat and you're eating bad. Then the bad food makes you feel worse. That makes you wanna eat more and it becomes this kind of endless. Well, and then to your point of eating sort of past seven or later, I've just found that, you know, even the slightest bit of activity, you know, maybe like adverse type of digestion that I'm now trying to sleep with, you know, is going to interrupt that whole thing and

then it's like, I'm paying for that the next day. Totally. Now, the next one, this one's interesting, okay. They found in studies, they did studies on people with seasonal effective disorder and they found that when they supplemented with vitamin D, a significant percentage of them saw a dramatic reduction in their seasonal depression. Now this goes along with studies I've read on vitamin D and how one study said as much as 40% of Americans are become deficient in vitamin D during the winter. This may be one of the way reasons why illness spikes, why there's an illness season,

why people tend to get, there's a flu in a cold season, and some people think it has more to do with declining vitamin D levels because people aren't getting as much sunlight. I know in some countries that don't get a lot of sunlight, supplementing with things like cod liver oil, is a staple in their culture, and this is because cod liver oil is high in vitamin D3, which again, this is an

important supplement. So if you're sad in the winter, you might want to try supplementing with vitamin D or at least get your vitamin D levels tested to see where you're at. Aren't they connecting this with COVID right now too? Oh yeah. Like the percentage of people that are getting hit by COVID harder like super low, right? There was one study I read that showed that 80 something percent of people in the hospital with COVID were deficient in vitamin D. Yeah, and I know it is with the flu. I know when people get the flu,

the symptoms are way worse. One vitamin D levels are low. Aren't they, isn't that some of the theory behind why we have such, why we have a flu season? That's what I just said, yes, is exactly due to that. Absolutely. So I would test your vitamin D, see where you're at. You may be surprised, like I said, I read one study that said as much as 40%.

That's huge of an essential micronutrient like vitamin D. Now you can cod liver oil, one of my favorite supplements to take. You get the fish oil, plus it's got the vitamin D in it. Or you can just buy vitamin D. And you also get it from the sun. So this is one of those things that you go back to the original point that Justin made about, you know, getting out with activity and walking out in the sun.

So you get so many benefits just from doing that. So this is another reason why you should do that. And here's what's interesting too, is that, so like me, use me as an example, right? I think I get some sunlight, probably not as much as I should. I'm relatively, I like, you know, darker skin, so I probably need more sunlight to get the same vitamin D benefits as like, let's say, doug or Justin. So I supplement with 5 to 10,000 I use a vitamin D on a regular basis. Oh, usually 5, 5,000, right? And I've been doing this for a long

time. I get my vitamin D levels tested and I'm in the middle. So I have to supplement with five thousand I use of vitamin D three just to be in the middle to have good vitamin D. Well, I told you that's what happened to me and when most people have to be deficient. Yeah, I had to bump to 10,000 because I was doing 5,000 consistently

and I tested still below. So I wasn't even in the middle on 5,000 a day. So I mean, I highly recommend getting this tested. I think that that's what it is. It's an easy test too. In vitamin D, low vitamin D is connected to low testosterone and men, it's connected to depression. It acts like a hormone in the body.

Does it affect like the strength of your immune system too? Or is it huge? It's a huge part. Exactly. That's why like we said, people with the flu, people with COVID, people with really bad colds tend to have low vitamin D levels. So this is an important thing to get checked out. And again, that study that I read about people who took vitamin D who had seasonal depression, a significant portion felt much better. So it may be that a lot of people

feel sad in the winter because their their D levels just get too low. Now the last one this one is I feel like it's an obvious one but we need to talk about it and it's diet. Look at your diet. I would be I would not be surprised if the reason why majority of people feel crappy because their diets are good. Well yeah I mean look at we're in that you're right in the middle of, you know, Thanksgiving to Christmas time. When you come off a Halloween first, you know, Halloween is just like a candy rush.

Right. From the end of October, all the way till January 2nd, it's alcohol, candy, sweets, pies, cakes, you know, to tradition that gets in the way. Yeah. And you know how it is, too, right? You go to a family event. I'm sure it happened to you guys when you guys went for Thanksgiving, even with all the small intimate

Thanksgiving's everybody had this year. Still, I think we cooked the same as if we were cooking for 30 people, you know. So there's leftovers like crazy. I mean, we just threw away a bunch of stuff from our refrigerator, Katrina says, okay, I'm gonna throw this out now. It's been here long enough and I was like,

yes, please do. It's been driving me crazy, sitting in the refrigerator, tempting me long enough. And I was like, yes, please do. It's been driving me crazy sitting in the fridge or tempting me every day. And I feel like I have a lot of self discipline. And I'm like, I can't imagine the average person that already struggles for motivation to work out and struggles with, they feel depressed in the winter time. And then you've got all the feel good foods

inside your refrigerator. It does make you feel temporarily. Yeah, it's like like you can sit down, you can comfort yourself a bit with it. So it's just another thing that sort of gets in the way of progress. Process food consumption goes up a lot in the winter. A couple of reasons why one,

we're not growing as many fruits and vegetables, depending where you are in the country. I remember traveling to Ohio, and it was in the winter and I went to the grocery store to buy fruit and I looked at the fruit and I'm like, oh my God, this looks terrible. And I forgot that in California, we have so much access to fruits and vegetables year round

that around the country in some places, people just don't eat it as much because it doesn't look as appealing. So processed food consumption goes to the roof during the winter. I didn't know that. Process foods, we've said this many times, encourages you to overeat. One of the best things you could do to prevent yourself from overeating is to cut out heavily processed food, eat whole natural food. Now there are winter natural foods, you know, winter squashes and certain other vegetables that you can eat during the winter.

and certain other vegetables that you can eat during the winter. Meats are all, you know, unprocessed, right? Steak and beef and lamb and chicken and fish and that kind of stuff. Eggs are all unprocessed. Stick to whole natural foods. You'll naturally consume less calories. And overconsumption in calories just makes you feel crappy. Doesn't it seem weird that this is like what you're recommending and it's probably how you, we all all naturally evolve like if before we had all the

The stuff the technology that we have today and advancement with science with what how we can grow strawberries in January if we wanted to that Naturally as humans you would probably eat a lot of fruits and veggies and things like that in the summer summertime spring and summer time And then in the winter time you would naturally move move to these, you know, animal fats and high fats, high protein type of meals. Yes. And exactly what people are deficient of around this time. Absolutely.

I would, I would even guess that in the winter, we probably evolved to go through periods of fasting just because food might be hard to find. So fasting for some people might be an option with this. Omega-3 fatty acids. Eating fish is a great source of this. Omega-3 fatty acids are great for reducing inflammation. Inflammation is strongly connected to mild forms of depression. You can also supplement with omega-3 fatty acids.

It's really easy to take fish oil, and you'd want to take about four grams or more a day so long as you don't have a blood thinning disorder on blood thinning medications. And that should be enough to kind of help control the inflammation. Now, where are you at with omega-3s? And if you're eating a highly processed diet and you're eating over-consuming, because I read an article a years ago that said that, you know, if you are eating tons of processed foods and over-consuming, and so you're in taking a lot of the sixes and nine so that they out-compete the three a good point, like if you have a crappy diet, buying a bottle of fish oil,

isn't gonna do much for you. So that's why I wanted to share that, then highlight that, because I know, supplementing with cod liver oil and omega-3 are like the easy things, right? And what I don't want people to take away from this conversation. They're eating the redos and... Right, right, and then just like,

oh, I'll make sure, listen to my pump, take our vitamin D and our omega three. It's, you may as well throw it in the trash if you're not doing the big ones or they get out in the sun, walk, move, you know. Have a good diet. Right. Now vitamin D is different though.

If you're deficient and you eat a crappy diet, you still benefit from taking vitamin D because you need that. But the omega three is probably not. Look, mine pump is recorded on videos, as well as audio, come find us on YouTube, Mind Pump Podcasts, you can also find all of us on Instagram. You can find Justin at Mind Pump Justin, me at Mind Pump Sal and Adam at Mind Pump Adder.

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