Something You Should Know - The Powerful Influence Strangers Have On You & How to Speed Up Your Metabolism

Episode Date: October 24, 2019

You probably know the many ways supermarkets use psychology to get you to spend more money. Well it turns out that airports do the same thing. This episode begins with a discussion how airports are designed to manipulate you to spend, spend,spend while you wait to take-off. http://www.neatorama.com/2015/06/11/12-Behind-the-Scenes-Secrets-of-Airports/ Humans tend to hang out with their own kind. It just is the way it is. And yet meeting and spending time with strangers and people NOT like you can have tremendous benefits. Strategy and innovation consultant Alan Gregerman, author of the book The Necessity of Strangers (https://amzn.to/2NkRxX5) explores the importance and payoffs of being around people who are different than you. This is the time of year people bring firewood into their homes to prepare for the looming cold weather. Bad idea! Listen as I discuss how bringing firewood into your house can have a lot of very bad unintended consequences. http://stlouispestcontrolblog.com/2011/12/ You have no doubt heard about metabolism. You have a metabolism and it has something to do with how you do or don’t lose weight. Well, here to clear up the mystery of exactly what metabolism is how it works and how to speed it up is Angelo Poli. Angelo is a fitness and nutrition expert and founder of MetPro (www.MetPro.co). Angelo joins me to explain how your metabolism works and simple and seldom heard strategies to speed it up and keep your weight under control.  This Week’s Sponsors -Capterra. To find the best software for your business for free go to www.Capterra.com/something –Airbnb. To learn more about being an Airbnb host visit www.Airbnb.com/host -Babbel. Get 6 months for the price of 3 when you use the promo code SYSK at www.Babbel.com  -Calming Comfort. To get 15% off the displayed price go to www.CalmingComfortBlanket.com and use the promo code: something. -3 Day Blinds. For their “Buy 1/Get 1 at half-off” deal go to www.3DayPodcast.com and use promo code: SOMETHING.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a listener to Something You Should Know, I can only assume that you are someone who likes to learn about new and interesting things and bring more knowledge to work for you in your everyday life. I mean, that's kind of what Something You Should Know was all about. And so I want to invite you to listen to another podcast called TED Talks Daily. Now, you know about TED Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks. Well, you see, TED Talks Daily is a podcast that brings you a new TED Talk every weekday in less than 15 minutes. Join host Elise Hu.

She goes beyond the headlines so you can hear about the big ideas shaping our future. Learn about things like sustainable fashion, embracing your entrepreneurial spirit, the future of robotics, and so much more. Like I said, if you like this podcast, Something You Should Know, I'm pretty sure you're going to like TED Talks Daily. And you get TED Talks Daily wherever you get your podcasts. Today on Something You Should Know, the sneaky ways airports get you to spend more money while you're waiting for your flight. Then how strangers can have a profoundly positive influence on you. With strangers in our lives, there's a chance if we are open to it, the light bulb might go off and I might with them be able to come up with a

dramatically different or breakthrough way to create an opportunity or solve a problem that really matters. Then if you're bringing firewood into your home for the winter, wait until you hear what I have to say. And understanding your metabolism, what it is, how it works, and how it determines your body weight. And oh, by the way, you can change your metabolism. We've proven that. It changes based on your intake and activity. So if it can slow down, that also means that it can speed up. All this today on Something You Should Know. Since I host a podcast, it's pretty common for me to be asked to recommend a podcast.

And I tell people, if you like Something You Should Know, you're going to like The Jordan Harbinger Show. Every episode is a conversation with a fascinating guest. Of course, a lot of podcasts are conversations with guests, but Jordan does it better than most. Recently, he had a fascinating conversation with a British woman who was recruited and radicalized by ISIS and went to prison for three years. She now works to raise awareness on this issue. It's a great conversation. And he spoke with Dr. Sarah Hill about how taking birth control not only

prevents pregnancy, it can influence a woman's partner preferences, career choices, and overall behavior due to the hormonal changes it causes. Apple named The Jordan Harbinger Show one of the best podcasts a few years back, and in a nutshell, the show is aimed at making you a better, more informed critical thinker. Check out The Jordan Harbinger Show. There's so much for you in this podcast. The Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Something you should know. Fascinating intel. The world's top experts. And practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers.

Hi, welcome to Something You Should Know. I want to mention, and I've mentioned it before and I'm sure I'll mention it again, that we have great advertisers, great sponsors on this podcast. And the best way to support the Something You Should Know podcast is to do business with our advertisers. Many of our advertisers have special discounts and special offers if you use their promo code or visit a special website that we mention. And all of those promo codes and websites are in the show notes, so they're easy to find if you can't write it down while you're listening. First up today, you know how retail stores use psychology to get you to spend more money?

Well, did you know that airports do the same thing? At an airport, while the hallways are linoleum, you'll notice that the gate waiting area is carpeted. This is an attempt to make holding areas more relaxing, like your living room. Happy, relaxed passengers spend 7% more money on average on retail items and 10% more on duty-free items. You'll see more and more airport shops with windows to the outside. Passengers tend to walk more into shops that have direct access to sunlight,

according to research. In airport lingo, the time between when a passenger clears security and they board the plane is called dwell time. This is when passengers are most likely to spend. Especially crucial is the golden hour. That's the first 60 minutes after you get through security. That's when passengers are in a more self-indulgent mood. Security is a profit killer.

One study found that for every 10 minutes a passenger spends in the security line, they spend 30% less on retail items. And shops and restaurants are often clustered to evoke a Main Street feel in the airport because people tend to shop in bustling environments. And that is something you should know. You might think that the important people in your life, your family, your friends, your business colleagues, that these are the people who matter the most. And clearly they matter a lot. But don't forget about the strangers in your life, the people you come in contact with that you don't know. They're not part of your inner circle.

These strangers can transform your life in an instant and give you advice and guidance you will never hear from the people close to you. Strangers are critically important, according to Alan Gregerman. Alan runs a strategy and innovation consulting firm, and he's author of the book, The Necessity of Strangers. Hi, Alan. Welcome. Well, greetings, and thanks for giving me the chance to be on. Sure. So it seems that humans, by nature, are programmed to not seek out strangers,

that we like people like us, that we want to be with people like us, our friends tend to be like us, and that's why strangers are strangers. Yeah, so not only do we tend to like people who are like us, it turns out that there's a lot of research that suggests that there's almost even a gravitational pull that we have to kind of surround ourselves with people who are like us. And it's interesting, if we were to spend a few minutes and kind of look and see who our friends are, as well as the business associates that we tend to hang out with most, we'd find they really are way more like us than different than us, which is great in terms of confirming

the things we know best, but not super great in terms of pushing our thinking. And when you say that we tend to like people who are like us, like us in what way? It's not just people who look like us necessarily, or is it? Yes, so it's certainly more than that. But we tend to kind of connect with people who view the world the same way we do, who tend to look in an organizational sense, who tend to kind of see and look at problems in a similar way to the way that we do. They tend to see the same challenges or problems. They seem to see the same types of opportunities. And then they seem to have a

relatively similar thought process in terms of the way they might go about solving those things. We tend also to be connected and work with people who have similar types of training as us and similar types of expertise. And we certainly in organizations don't help that out because we tend to organize and group people by certain sets of expertise. So I'm in the finance department, or I'm in operations, or I'm in marketing, or I'm in sales. And so that reinforces my hanging out with and believing in all these folks who are just like me. And so what's wrong with that? I mean, if I like hanging around with my kind of people, my tribe, people who think like me, who are interested in what I'm interested in, so what?

I mean, what's wrong with that? No, I think in some ways it's absolutely awesome. But what I like people to think about is the simple idea that if I'm hanging out with people who are a lot like me and looking at kind of challenges that we share, we're probably going to be great at coming up with kind of tweaks or incrementally better ways of doing the things that matter most. If I'm hanging out with a lot of people who have very different ideas and different approaches, and I'm open to listening to those, the light bulb might go off, and I might, with them, be able to come up with a dramatically different or

breakthrough way to create an opportunity or solve a problem that really matters. Well, but it could just be different. It may not be better. It could just be different. Oh, yeah. So I have to do some homework, too, and I have to think about and really kind of evaluate the different ideas I come up with. But the likelihood I'm going to come up with a different idea is probably much greater. So what is it in particular about being with a stranger or strangers that generates different ideas? Is it because they have different ideas?

Explain that. With strangers in our lives, there's a chance if we are open to it to create fresh connections that are filled with possibilities that might not occur with people we know particularly well. There might be a chance for us to stretch and, as you said, be open to some new ideas or new possibilities simply because there's something kind of powerfully intriguing about a stranger who knows something different, who might kind of engage us in thinking about a different type of music than we might be comfortable generally listening to, who might get us to think about some things that are tied to other people's cultures that might be kind of interesting practices

for us to kind of understand or appreciate, who might open our eyes to the perspectives that someone might have if they're from a different place or a different generation. And I think it's in those moments where we have like an epic chance to really learn and grow

and stretch and do different things. I've also heard it said and it sounds true to me that when you're just talking with people in your circle they have a vested interest in you staying who you are and so there isn't a lot of motivation to create new things and new ideas and new ways of doing things, because in your circle, we like the way things are. You know, I think that's absolutely fair. And I think it gets back to the whole idea that what we need in our lives, I think, are certainly these anchor relationships of people we're really close to that we can confide in, that we can trust, who understand us deeply, who in some way understand us deeply of reinforcement, but who get us in a way to kind of broaden our own palates, to get us to believe that maybe there's even more to what I should be interested in. There's maybe more to what I can even achieve. There are a bunch of other things that haven't been on my radar that I ought to be open to,

and that this connection with somebody who's actually quite passionate about one of those things could be a gateway for me to be kind of more engaged, more thoughtful, more curious, more desiring to learn about something new and different. Humans have, though, historically, evolutionarily, stuck to their own kind. I mean, that's just kind of what we've done. And there must be a benefit to that. There must be some value in that that makes it hard to break out of hanging out with your own kind. Yeah, so I'm guessing probably that's the case.

So I'm not trained as a psychologist, so I don't know enough about the answer to that. But I think, you know, as we've been talking, there's a lot of comfort to hanging out with folks who are like us. And I think we're generally disinclined. And in addition to kind of the comfort of that, we've been kind of conditioned and trained since the time we were kids to avoid people who are different than us. So whether folks were told by their parents that strangers were dangerous, whether they were just kind of protected in a way from folks who seem to be at odds with kind of the direction that they wanted to go in. I know that we as a society certainly, and actually in most societies, tend to avoid people who we don't know and who are different than us.

But the reality is at some point, with the exception of family, everybody that we've met and even became friends with were strangers. And so at some point we took a chance in some way. Now, granted, what we've been talking about is we typically took a chance because we thought those people were enough like us. They resonated with us. We felt comfortable with them. We felt we could trust them. And I want people to think about the notion that really 99% of the people in the world are worth knowing.

And so we don't have to be living in fear of strangers. And not only are 99% of people in the world worth knowing, I would argue I could learn something significant from any other person on the planet if I was open to that, and it doesn't matter how different they are to me. So how do you connect with strangers without looking kind of foolish, like, hi, you're not much like me, so I'd like to be your friend? Well, so that gets to a fundamentally cool thing that I believe makes it easy to connect with strangers. It turns out, even though I'm always trying to think about how can I find people who are different

and know something that I don't know that would help me in whatever I'm trying to do. I also understand that when you get down to it, we're all like 99% the same because we're humans. We all laugh, we cry, we all hope each morning to wake up and make something significant happen. Family matters to us. Where we're from matters to us. So there's similarities to all of us. And so I ought to, in that way, be able literally to connect with any other person on Earth because we're humans.

If I understand that, it makes it easier to reach out and connect with somebody. Now, most people will say, well, that's kind of hard to do. Should I just start to walk up and talk to somebody? How do I engage with folks? That's going to depend a lot on your own kind of personality and what your comfort level is. But I think we miss opportunities to connect with people. And those connections could either go nowhere or go somewhere. So you go to a conference, you sit down next to somebody, they're a stranger. You can say hi, say, so what brings you here? That's a good human question to ask.

And that's the starting point for starting a conversation. I'm waiting in line to go to a movie. I make eye contact with the person in front of me or behind me. I say, have you ever gone to a film by this director before? What brings you here? Have you read anything interesting about this film? And so I look for a way to start a conversation that then allows humans to connect. And what I find is as humans, we're going to resonate in some ways. We're talking about strangers, and I guess the benefit of talking to strangers, no matter what your mother told you. And my guest is Alan Gregerman, author of the book, The Necessity of Strangers.

Hi, this is Rob Benedict. And I am Richard Spate. We were both on a little show you might know called Supernatural. It had a pretty good run, 15 seasons, 327 episodes. And though we have seen, of course, every episode many times, we figured, hey, now that we're wrapped, let's watch it all again. And we can't do that alone. So we're inviting the cast and crew that made the show along for the ride.

We've got writers, producers, composers, directors, and we'll of course have some actors on as well, including some certain guys that played some certain pretty iconic brothers. It was kind of a little bit of a left field choice in the best way possible. The note from Kripke was, he's great, we love him, but we're looking for like a really intelligent Duchovny type. With 15 seasons to explore, it's going to be the road trip of several lifetimes. So please join us and subscribe to hear new ideas and perspectives. So I want to tell you about a podcast that is full of new ideas and perspectives, and one I've started listening to called Intelligence Squared.

It's the podcast where great minds meet. Listen in for some great talks on science, tech, politics, creativity, wellness, and a lot more. A couple of recent examples, Mustafa Suleiman, the CEO creativity, wellness, and a lot more. A couple of recent examples, Mustafa Suleiman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, discussing the future of technology. That's pretty cool. And writer, podcaster, and filmmaker John Ronson, discussing the rise of conspiracies and culture wars.

Intelligence Squared is the kind of podcast that gets you thinking a little more openly about the important conversations going on today. Being curious, you're probably just the type of person Intelligence Squared is meant for. Check out Intelligence Squared wherever you get your podcasts. So Alan, it would seem to me that most of those encounters that you were just talking about, the guy on the plane, the guy in the movie line, that 99% of the time those encounters are going to lead nowhere, that they're just a momentary encounter, that nothing results from it. I'm of a couple of opinions about that.

I think overall you're probably right. If I were to connect with 100 people that way, probably very few of those would lead to anything. But I have to admit, of those 100 people I might connect with, a handful or even two handfuls might be people that over time I build some type of relationship with. Over time, I involve in a social or civic activity that I'm involved in. I do a lot of work in the local public schools trying to inspire and kind of tutor kids. And so I've made connections that way that have brought a wide range of people into some of the things that matter to me that I do in the community. Others have suggested things that I might study or learn or places I might travel to.

And while I may not have stayed connected with those folks, I may have done something that was sparked by insights that I gained from them. You mentioned something that's interesting a little while ago, and that is that all of our friends that we have started out as strangers. And it is interesting that some strangers we connect with, and it actually develops into a friendship. Other strangers we connect with, and that thing never happens. And maybe it's because they're not enough like us, or maybe it's something else? I think what happens is we start to make friends or we connect with people based on something that we think is somewhat similar about them to us.

Now, it could have been that we were the only folks who had no one sitting next to us in the cafeteria at school, and so we shared a plight as opposed to necessarily being similar. But more often than not, it was that we saw something about them that we thought was something that really mattered or resonated with us. But all of us, while the bulk of our friends are a lot like us, all of us seem to have a few friends at least who are outliers. And I'd suggest the most creative people actually have a bigger group of friends who are outliers. And I'd suggest the most creative people actually have a bigger group of friends who are outliers. And since I spent a lot of time thinking about creativity, I'm often challenged to say, what would get us to actually start to connect with people

who are intriguing in some way and in some way very different than us? So I have to admit, I'd love to be way more musical. I'm not particularly musical. And yet, I have a group of friends that just, it seems so cool to me to be able to connect with people who are musical and to kind of have them around and to develop friendships and then to understand more deeply kind of how they look at the world, how they engage with the world, how music becomes a core theme of kind of their lives, how it helps them in thinking about some of the other elements of what they do. And so I think for some of us, we tend to find some attraction, certainly, in people who are quite different.

And then the idea is, you know, how do we engage with them? How do we learn from them? And, you know, hopefully, did they find some things about what's different about us that are worth having as part of their life? Yeah, so I think it is an interesting thing. And I think we do generally have a mix. But what I found in kind of life and in the work that I do is most people tend to have most of their friends be a lot like them. And I always say you're only going to be as creative as your weirdest friends. I like that. Well, when you connect what you just said, that you like hanging out with musical people, you get a lot from that.

But what do they get from you? I mean, in other words, I guess what I'm saying is when you try to connect with strangers who are not like you, it's a higher risk that they won't like you just as much as you might not like them, because just as they're different from you, you're different from them, and they may say, no, you're not my kind of guy. The thing to think about is not every connection turns into a significant relationship or a lifetime relationship, and that's absolutely fine. I'm willing to believe that every single person that I could

meet is remarkable in some way, but what's remarkable about them might or might not resonate with me. So I might try to connect with somebody who's fascinating to me in a certain way because they're particularly artistic. And they may not, in the quick chance I have to try to start a relationship, see in me something that makes it worthwhile for them to want to stay engaged with me. But they may also see something about me that's a kind of refreshing kind of counterbalance or a refreshing difference to the way they generally look at the world. And so I think for anyone who's listening, I really believe that there are remarkable things about you. And with the right people, they're going to resonate. Some of those are going to be people who really think of themselves as being very similar in that respect. Some are going to be people who are quite different, who quickly grasp in you something that's different about you

that's kind of compelling to them, that you're very steady, you know, maybe if you're not so artistic, that you tend to have a kind of structured way that you look at the world. And maybe someone says, you know, for part of my life, I need to be more structured. Maybe it's an artist who says, you know, there's actually a business side to being an artist, you know, for part of my life, I need to be more structured. Maybe it's an artist who says, you know, there's actually a business side to being an artist, you know, and it benefits me to hang around a few people who actually know how to actually kind of develop a plan and get

something done. If I could do that, I'd be way more successful as an artist. Or you've never listened to the type of music I listen to. I'd be kind of curious to know what you find to be appealing about it, but, you know, where it doesn't quite resonate with you. That'd be interesting to me. I'm trying to broaden my audience. I'm trying to get a better sense than simply the niche of people that I seem to appeal to. So I think if we can just start to build a connection with people, they're going to hopefully feel connected to us because there are a lot of similarities, and then the right folks are going to appreciate what makes us special and feel that ought to be part of their network of friends and relationships.

It does seem that there are some differences that are deal-breakers, particularly today. I mean, people with political differences, you know, I have friends where we don't agree politically, and so we agree not to discuss that, so we stay friends. But it does seem that there are some differences that are too great for much to happen. I think if there are differences that have to do with kind of values or certain core beliefs that are so diametrically opposed that it's hard for us to just say those are off the table because they enter into kind of our worldview, I think that's going to be tough for people, and that's fair. I don't have the bandwidth, probably, to be friends

with seven and a half billion people on Earth. I'd't have the bandwidth, probably, to be friends with seven and a half billion people on Earth. I'd like to meet as many of them as I could. But I think other than a kind of few basic things, and certainly, you know, there probably are people who we even consider friends that we don't talk about politics or religion or some basic things. But I think for the most part, if we share kind of the same kind of values, if we wake up each morning wanting to make a difference, let's say, that's really all I need to have to have the basis for really trying to build a relationship with somebody. If I get a sense that somebody really cares about kind of the world they live in

and that desire in whatever way they do it, in whatever field or discipline, in whatever they do in their free time, to end up leaving the world a bit better than they found it, then for me, any other difference is actually pretty insignificant to me because we seem to be aligned ultimately with how we engage the world and look at what our place in it is. Lastly, it would seem that this has to be a very deliberate effort that just by nature of the fact that people are strangers to pull them into your life

seems like it's going to take some work. Well, so think about it this way. Think about that there are people I am likely to meet through serendipity, and some of them will become friends, and most of them won't. I think you were reasonable in talking about that a little while ago. But so think about that there are people who I meet who are strangers, and it's through serendipity that I just bump into them. I go to a party. I start to talk with somebody. I do bump into somebody at the library where I see them check out a book,

and I ask, what do you know about that author? I take a neighborhood walk, and I see someone with a dog, and since I have a dog, I have a gravitational pull to dogs and then kind of the humans who are with them. And so that's one. But the other is I selectively and in a targeted way can engage with strangers. Let's say I'm trying to solve a challenge. Let's say I'm trying to do something in the community. Or let's say someone in my family has a health related issue. I can actually start to do some homework and find people who I know are thinking about or have insight about the challenge I have, and I can actually connect with them.

That's kind of the power of living in today's world with the Internet, even with all of its challenges. I can find out about people. I can do a little bit of homework so I understand their ideas. And I don't just send them a note that says, hey, I'd love to connect. I send them a note and say, you know, this is an issue that really matters to me, or this is something I'm trying to do in our community. I read something about you that really got me to think that you had a lot of insight about this, that you were being quite creative and thoughtful in how you brought people together to solve a challenge. I would love to connect with you, is there any chance we could? And I've got to be honest, when I do something like that and do a bit of homework and have a

clear purpose and I'm humble about not knowing the answer to something and reach out to people that I believe would know more, 75% of people get back to me and say, I'd love to engage with you and try and be helpful to you. So that's a whole different way of engaging with strangers that I think is vitally important too. We literally have the ability to connect with almost any other human being on the planet if we're open to finding out about them,

humble about what we know and what we could know, respectful of the fact that they might provide some additional insight, and have kind of a sense of kind of honesty and caring about our desire to engage with them. And so I think the combination of these two ought to fill our bucketed away with a whole host of people that if we just didn't think about the power of strangers, we just wouldn't be engaged with. Well, I know that I and I'm certainly everybody has encountered a stranger and pretty much dismissed it as, well, they're just a stranger.

It doesn't really matter. But in fact, there could be some magical moments in meeting those strangers. And it's interesting to talk about and hear what the potential is. Alan Gregerman has been my guest. He runs a strategy and innovation consulting firm, and he is author of the book, The Necessity of Strangers. There's a link to that book at Amazon in the show notes. Thanks, Alan. Thanks, Mike, for giving me the chance to be on the show. It's been a pleasure. Do you love Disney? Then you are going to love our hit podcast, Disney Countdown. I'm Megan, the Magical Millennial. And I'm the Dapper Danielle. On every episode of our fun and

family-friendly show, we count down our top 10 lists of all things Disney. There is nothing we don't cover. We are famous for rabbit holes, Disney themed games, and fun facts you didn't know you needed, but you definitely need in your life. So if you're looking for a healthy dose of Disney magic, check out Disney Countdown wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, join me, Megan Rinks. And me, Melissa Demonts for Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong? Each week, we deliver four fun-filled shows. In Don't Blame Me, we tackle our listeners' dilemmas

with hilariously honest advice. Then we have But Am I Wrong?, which is for the listeners that didn't take our advice. Plus, we share our hot takes on current events. Then tune in to see you next Tuesday for our listener poll results from But Am I Wrong. And finally, wrap up your week with Fisting Friday, where we catch up and talk all things pop culture. Listen to Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Anytime people talk about weight loss or dieting or fitness, at some point in the conversation, the subject of metabolism comes up. And yet, I must admit, I don't really know what your metabolism is exactly, other than it has something to do with how fast or slow your body burns calories. And yet, understanding your metabolism a bit better could be the key to helping you get to and maintain a healthy weight. Here to talk about metabolism so we can all understand it a bit better is Angelo Poli.

Angelo is an expert in fitness and nutrition. He's the founder of MetPro, the world's first algorithm-based transformation engine. And his work has been featured in Men's Health, Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal, and many others. Welcome, Angelo. Mike, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. So let's start by talking about exactly what metabolism is and why it is so hard to understand and get a handle on.

So part of the issue comes from how the concept of metabolism is presented. It's presented in popular media and in information we look at day to day as if someone who is healthy or eats good foods or even exercises has a fast metabolism versus if somebody's eating bad foods, the wrong foods or junk foods, for example, has a slow metabolism. And while all of the goals of what that's trying to accomplish are virtuous, we want to promote eating healthy and we want to avoid unhealthy practices. That's not really how the metabolism works. It's not judiciary as to healthy, unhealthy. Really what the metabolism does is it acts kind of like a throttle where if you're eating more, it down regulates or up regulates to manage that extra

fuel. If you're eating less, it down regulates to keep you up and active and moving despite less fuel coming in. And it does so for the simple and somewhat blunt purpose of keeping us alive. If we were to either gain or lose weight too rapidly, we would die. So why has this issue of metabolism and weight loss and people being fatter now than ever before, why is this a big issue now and it wasn't such a big that kind of encompasses lifestyle and modernization and technology and how we used to move our bodies a lot more before. And the foods that we had access to were less preserved, lower density calorically. And so everything, there's a lot of pieces that go into that. But the reason that today there seems to be so much confusion and frustration around it is because what we see is that mechanic in the metabolism where it's adjusting to your intake. So somebody who is, for example, eating too much food, they'll notice that they start

gaining weight, maybe even gaining weight rapidly at first. But eventually, even though they may continue to gain weight, it slows down the pace. The same thing happens with weight loss. We start to lose weight, maybe rapidly when we go on a diet or we start a program. But after usually just a few weeks, that pace tapers off. That's the metabolism acclimating to our environment and really doing what it was designed to do. So today we just deal with this a lot more because like you said, Mike, we just have so many more

people battling with obesity and the effects of a sedentary lifestyle and modernization. So I want to understand this better. Is metabolism a thing? Is it a concept? Is it a formula? What can you point to it and say, ah, there it is? Or is it just numbers on a page? What is it exactly?

What is the definition of the word metabolism? That's a great question. So from a functional standpoint, your metabolism is a combination of all the biological and hormonal mechanisms in your body that goes into regulating your energy in and energy out. That's a down and dirty, but basically a functional description of how it works. It regulates your energy and food intake with your expenditure, which is why, you know, we get those heart rate monitors and calorie trackers and we get on the elliptical

machine or the treadmill and our track will say, well, you just burned, you know, 800 calories, you know, in that intense workout you just did. But then you start doing the math and it's like, wow, it seems like I should be losing more weight or it seems like my body should be changing more. And if you've ever been someone who's experienced that, that's the missing piece that's not being accounted for is that acclimation process of the metabolism adjusting to become more efficient, more liberal, or more restrictive based on your environment. And what else affects it besides food in and exercise out? I imagine age affects it. I imagine there are other factors that affect it and how well it works.

I'm asked that question almost weekly. And my preferred answer is to lie and say age doesn't affect it. And here's why. Because as a coach, age isn't one of the levers that we have. We can't change it. You can't do anything about that. Now, is it true that as we age, your metabolism changes? Yes, absolutely. I think everybody knows that. That's common sense, but it's not a death sentence. It's not something that can't be worked around. What it means is that the items that you do have control over, your lifestyle, your food intake, your exercise, those just become even more of a priority because you can control those. And oh, by the way, you can change your metabolism.

We've proven that. It changes based on your intake and activity. So if it can slow down, that also means that it can speed up. So how do you, if it's the function of all these, basically these systems in the body that regulate, how do you test for it? Is there a number? How do you figure it out? So anyone who's listened to any of my stuff in the past knows I'm a big proponent of a concept called baseline testing. In order to figure out what we should be eating and what we should be doing, the mistake that people make is they look over or behind their shoulder at the guy to their left and say, well, you look good. What are you eating? That really has no bearing on how your body is going to respond. What baseline

testing does is it lets us know where your body is today. So we would start with basically a static meal plan, a simple meal plan. And don't think about anything too fancy, too restrictive, too difficult. Just think about something that's consistent enough to where we can calculate it, where we know how many calories you're eating. We know the macronutrient ratios, that is how much of those calories are coming from carbs versus fats versus protein, etc. And we know how many meals it's split over. If we have a basic meal plan like that, and somebody

follows it for even just a few days, then what we get is empirical data. So this person was eating 2000 calories, they're eating 200 grams of carbohydrates, etc, etc, etc. And they lost two pounds in five days. That's empirical data that gives us a heading, or they gained two pounds in five days. That's not the data we want. It's not good news, but it's relevant and accurate news. And you wouldn't have had that if you didn't baseline test first. So that's why I'm always promoting starting with a process of evaluation to see where your body is, because the next question is, well, what do I eat? So there's two major lines of thought. And that is either you have to restrict calories or you restrict carbohydrates or alter meal timing, etc. The problem is they both work.

It's not that this diet works and that diet doesn't work. I have seen every diet approach work. It's a matter of identifying which one is going to work best for you. So what that means is for someone who's already restricting calories, restricting a little further probably isn't going to produce much leverage. There's not going to be a lot for the body to adapt to. Very little effect is going to take place. Meanwhile, if somebody is already restricting carbohydrates, restricting a little further probably isn't going to be enough to be meaningful for their body. So by evaluating and

seeing how our body is responding on a baseline meal plan, we can determine, okay, is leveraging calories, is leveraging carbohydrates, is a combination of the two, is exercise, which piece of the equation is going to be the most potent for you? So here's the illustration that I give of the three ladies, their neighbors. They all go on the same diet together, and they're eating 1,500 calories a day. One gains weight, one loses weight, and one stays the same weight. Just with that knowledge, we can, with some accuracy, predict or be able to tell what they were previously accustomed to eating. So the woman who gained weight was used to eating likely less than 1500 calories. The lady who lost weight was used to eating more than 1500 calories. And the lady who stayed the

same way was used to eating about 1500 calories. So your response is going to be less tied to the quality of the diet, whether or not this is a good or bad meal plan or diet, and more tied to how much contrast it is from what your body is currently accustomed to. And so how big a role is exercise? Because people, I think, believe that if you're overweight, what you need to do is, yeah, you need to look at your diet. But if you start burning more calories, that is a big part of the equation. It absolutely is a big part of the equation. And I don't like to say that exercise is less important than diet. What it is is less immediate than diet. So your exercise is the long game.

The role of exercise, now I'm talking about in a weight loss setting, not an athletic performance setting. The role of weight of exercise in a weight loss setting is to enable you to continue losing some body fat, losing some weight for a longer period of time without your metabolism bottoming out. And the reason you would lose weight is mostly from the intake adjustment from your food but if you adjust your food down you'll start losing weight but your metabolism is able to decelerate a bit quicker now if you're exercising and you reduce your intake your metabolism will still decelerate you can't avoid that it'll

just make it harder to do so So it'll take longer for your metabolism to acclimate to your new lower intake. Therefore, you'll lose weight for a longer period of time. That's the beauty of exercise. So talk about, because in the examples that you're giving, if you eat like this, if you restrict that, and if you exercise like this, then you will lose weight and everything will be fine. And that's great, but that doesn't take into account that people succumb to temptation. They eat M&Ms and donuts and they, you know, unless you're a bodybuilder or a bikini model where this is your life and you are so committed to this, It's very easy to not do the things you're talking about. And guess what, Mike?

I'm tempted by M&Ms and all the sweets and the junk food. And guess what? My bodybuilders are too. And they do indulge from time to time. That's just life. So the number one reason why people will deviate from their diet, any diet they choose, is not willpower. That's a fallacy. Now, I'm not saying that doesn't exist. There is a subset of people that is a factor. However, 90% of the time, hey, Johnny,

I saw that we went sideways on our meal plan today. What happened? Oh, Angelo, I got up. I had my healthy breakfast. Then out the door I went. But work was busy. I had a meeting that ran late. And so I had to grab something quick. And so whatever is quick is what's immediately around you.

And that is not going to be practical or convenient to get something healthy. So the first thing I tell people for practical action steps is if you can only do one thing, I want you to prepare an afternoon snack. If you can do two things, I want you to prepare a lunch or plan for your lunch in advance to eat at a place you know you can order healthy and prepare that afternoon snack. And what does that afternoon snack look like? Keep it simple. So it just needs to be present, healthy, and balanced calorically. A great recommendation is nuts and fruit.

So don't think too elaborate. There is no, if I eat this, it's going to work. If I eat that, it's not. It's not a candy bar, right? It can be, it can be a simple source. It could be like some, some cheese and some fruit, or it could be like a low calorie cracker, like a rice cake and some peanut butter. But I try and keep it simple. And here's another thing that I want you to do. I want you to keep it portable and low perishable. I had a client

who is a good friend of mine. He said, Angela, I just struggle with that afternoon snack. I really love cottage cheese and strawberries, but by three o'clock in the afternoon and 98 degree weather, it just doesn't taste so good in my car. So what you need is something that is healthy, balanced, but also portable, not messy and low perishable. So that's why I love things like, oh, like apples. They'll keep for a couple of days. They don't make a mess. I love nuts. I love jerky. Things like that work really well for snacks. And it's a minimal barrier to entry. If someone says, well, Angela, I can't prepare some almonds and some jerky for a snack each day, then you're probably not at a place where you're ready to make changes in your life.

What's so magic about the afternoon snack? Psychologically, I know I have that afternoon snack. So I'm more likely to eat an earlier lunch, which helps me overall. I'm also less likely to eat an earlier lunch, which helps me overall. I'm also less likely to overeat at lunch. I'm unlikely to miss my lunch because people don't typically miss lunch, though there are those outliers. So when you eat that lunch, you're more likely to make good choices. Then when you have that afternoon snack, now you're in a routine where I've had breakfast, I've had lunch, I've had an afternoon snack. It's controlling my blood sugar and my appetite. So I'm not getting those

peaks and valleys in my blood sugar, which means I'm much more likely to have a managed dinner and less cravings that night. So we've got the afternoon snack as a starting practical strategy. What else for makeup days. Now, when I say exercise daily, you're probably thinking, well, I don't have time to drive to the gym and work out for an hour. I'm more interested in the routine. Exercise can be 10, 12 minutes if you're just getting started. A simple routine, but I prefer it to be a daily part of your habit because that tends to be something we can build on versus the weekend warrior mentality where someone will go and do an hour and a half blowout, you know, boot camp once a week, but then no consistency with exercise again the next seven days. So try and do something short, time managed that you can repeat

day in and day out and build on it. But don't exercise until that afternoon snack is prepared. Because if weight management is your primary goal, then it starts with nutrition. Once you have the exercise in place, once you have some prepared snacks, then you can move into a little bit more specificity, such as don't take snacks socially. So a lot of people I hear, well, I can't control my meals because I'm at a business lunch or I'm dinner with the family. And you're right. That is the case sometimes. But you don't take your afternoon snack socially. Usually that's just something you pull out of your drawer, you eat real quick. So what I recommend people is pick a healthy carb that they're going to have at that snack

that they can count on and then either lunch or dinner, not necessarily both, but at lunch or dinner, it might be simple to make it a habit of doing mostly protein and vegetables. Because if you know you're going to get that consistent, predictable, prepared carb in the afternoon, then your body's probably going to be all right if you're a little lower in carbs at one or the other meal, lunch or dinner. And it's easier to order out that way. So if you're eating at a restaurant, if you're getting something quick, it's easy. You can get some like a chicken salad or some protein and veggies almost anywhere.

And if you're more plant-based, that's easy to accommodate as well. Then there's some lifestyle tips and that is if you're going somewhere socially, bring a healthy dish. Because you don't have to be somewhere that only has healthy food. You just want to be somewhere that also has healthy food. Because then at least you have one good option to go to. Bring your own alcohol. I know that sounds weird, but different alcohol types can have massive effects. So things like beer, mixed drinks like margaritas directly undermine your weight loss efforts.

Whereas something like hard alcohol, though not necessarily better for your health, but clear hard alcohol in particular for the alcohol content in it has a little bit less impact on your weight loss. So if you bring something like that, then you'll know it's available at the social gathering. And then lastly, look for simple restaurants to eat at. American food, steakhouses, breakfast houses, seafood restaurants. Now that's tough for me. I love all kinds of ethnic foods. I love Chinese food. I love Mexican food. I love all the different types. But the problem with those types of foods when you're on a diet is that each restaurant kind of has their own formula. So when I order the Kung Pao chicken at one restaurant,

it might be a very healthy sauce, very clean. And then the next restaurant, it's a completely different recipe. Whereas if I go to a steakhouse and I order, you know, I order a lean steak, grilled asparagus, a side salad, and maybe some quinoa or brown rice, I know exactly what I'm going to get. I'm going to get the same thing at every restaurant I go to. So try and at least emphasize simple restaurants to eat at. That's great advice. And if you've been listening to what Angelo has been saying, you probably now have a much better understanding of what your metabolism is and how it works. My guest has been fitness and nutrition expert Angelo Poli. He is founder of MetPro.

MetPro analyzes your metabolism and provides an individualized approach to obtaining your health goals. Their website is metpro.co and there's a link to that in the show notes as well. Thanks, Angelo. Thanks, Mike.

As the weather turns colder, people start bringing firewood into the house because people like to have some logs right near the fire for that first cold, chilly winter night. That's probably a bad idea. Experts say that you should really only take firewood into your house when you're ready to throw it directly onto the fire. See, a lot of creatures take refuge in that firewood, including millipedes, beetles, spiders, and possibly even snakes and mice. They crawl into cracks in the wood or under a piece of loose bark and they'll settle in. Then, when you bring that wood into the house, they come to life and start exploring the inside

of your home. Firewood should be stored outside, preferably on a rack off the ground and away from the house. Keeping it against the house or in a garage gives wood-boring pests easy access to your home. And that is something you should know.

Please take a moment and leave a rating and or review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts. I'm Mike Carruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been

investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. Chinook, starring Kelly Marie Tran and Sanaa Lathan. Listen to Chinook wherever you get your podcasts. Search for The Silver Lining, a fantasy adventure series about a spirited young girl named Isla who time travels to the mythical land of Camelot. Look for The Search for The Silver Lining on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.