The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Your DNA, Your Life by Cee McDermott

Episode Date: November 1, 2022

Your DNA, Your Life by Cee McDermott Ceemcdermott.com A guide for anyone looking to utilize the key information their DNA inherently provides to unlock the mechanisms for health and wellness. No longer are we bound by the deterministic fate of our genetics. Science now tells us that our health destiny is in our hands. This guide lays the foundation for optimizing living based on your DNA and lifestyle habits. Unlock the key to your wellness destiny by using simple, practical information to up and down regulate the expression of your genes. Backed with scientific data and clinical research, this book provides the reader with novice to expert additions to implement in their life. Along with action and insight prompts, Your DNA, Your Life guides readers to start a path toward optimal wellness. Through these actions, readers find their flow for a life of grace, ease, and joy.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from the chrisvossshow.com, the chrisvossshow.com. Hey, welcome to another episode of our podcast. We certainly appreciate you guys tuning in.

As always, we're for the show to your family, friends, and relatives. Remember, The Chris Foss Show is the family that loves you but does not judge you, at least not harshly as your family does. I mean, your mom is still trying to decide if she loves you or not. But we've all been there, haven't we? Anyway, folks, go to YouTube.com, Fortress Chris Foss. Go to Goodreads.com for just chris voss go all those places on the internet that we are the big linkedin group of 130 000 people

subscribe to that big linkedin newsletter all the things we're doing on linkedin linkedin is really a great place and then we're getting real popular on tiktok we're trying to be so check out what's going on over there it should be pretty interesting. We've got Ambassador Sondland on the show next week. He was the UN ambassador, or I'm sorry, he was the EU ambassador. We're going to have him on a Tuesday, so be sure and check out that show. It's going to be pretty explosive with his amazing books that he has. You may have seen him on TV during the impeachment hearings. He had some things to say, but he's got a tell-all book, and so we like tell-all books,

so he's going to be on the show, so check that that out and some of the other amazing guests we have next week today we have an amazing author on the show she's the author of the new book that just came out october 25th 2022 holy crap we're almost to november i'm it's like next week i was i was scheduling the show and i'm'm like, November? What? We've even had authors on that you guys will see here coming up that have books coming out in January of 2023. That's where we're at, boys. Anyway, guys, October 25th, 2022, her new book is out, Your DNA, Your Life. C. McDermott is on the show with us today.

She's going to be talking about her amazing new book and insights in her coaching business and all the stuff that she does. She holds a doctorate in philosophy in integrative nutrition. She is the founder of C. McDermott, LLC, has a precision wellness practice. She is a certified holistic coach. I'm sorry. Let me redo that. She is a certified holistic health and nutrition practitioner, behavior change specialist, a certified personal trainer, cognitive health specialist, epigenetic specialist, yoga teacher, herbalist, meditation teacher. Help me with this one. Reiki master. Reiki. Reiki master. Clearly, I need to learn a few things today. We will. That's why she's here. Reckie Master Teacher, writer, wife, and mom to two young boys. I know how to pronounce two young boys and writer mom.

So there you go. She lives in New Jersey, spends her time learning cooking, traveling, let's see, volunteering, teaching, and guiding others to find their flow for enhanced human experience through optimized wellness. Now, wellness is always good. I've heard about that. I heard it's pretty good. You can find out more about our work at cmcdermott.com. In fact, I was going to ask you for that plug.

Welcome to the show, C. How are you? I'm great. Thanks so much for having me. There you go. And boy, you've got some big names there in the bio. So pretty cool. Is C. McDermott the best place for people to find you?

Yeah, cmcdermott.com. And there'll be a link on the Chris Voss show, but let me give you the readout here so people can do it if they're listening there at home. C as in Charles, E-E-M-C-D-E-R-M-O-T-T, cmcdermott.com. So welcome to the show, C. How are you? I'm great. Thanks for having me. Awesome sauce. I may have asked that twice, but I just wanted to make sure. I'm extra good, though. Yeah, we just wanted to make sure you were extra good, because the extra is what matters. So welcome to the show. Congratulations on the new book.

Tell us a little bit overview of who you are, what you do, and then we'll talk about the book a bit. Yeah. So I am a precision wellness practitioner. So I kind of fill in the gaps where people might have questionsositions to prevent any dis-ease in the body and to promote optimal living. So we look at things like sleep, nutrition, micronutrients, cellular health, athletics. I train people as a personal trainer sometimes, and sometimes I just teach meditation. So I kind of do a lot of different things, but I like to as a personal trainer sometimes, and sometimes I just teach meditation. So I kind of do a lot of different things, but I like to have a really holistic approach to all things wellness. Yeah, eating well, being well, nutrition, all that sort of good stuff is really important because, you know, I found that out the kind of the hard way in later in life. But I've learned that eating well and being well, what's a pound of wealth or a health is worth a pound of cure or something? I don't know. Clearly, I don't know if you've

seen me lately, but no. So you get into people, how do you look at their DNA? How do you get a deep dive? Yeah. So it's actually just a little swab in the cheek and I send it off to a lab. And unlike a lot of direct-to-consumer products, all of your DNA data and everything is super secure and it's not for sale. And it's owned by you when you work with me, which is key in the industry of privacy and concerns. But yeah, and that way you can delete your data when you're looking at it and interpreting it. But I just look at that. I look at 750,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms to see where you have underlying genetic predispositions that we can up or down regulate. we now know that the majority of disease and really pretty much anything to do with aging or any really discomfort in the body overall is really, we're able to control that with our lifestyle factors. So with proper sleep, proper nutrition, but sometimes there are discrepancies based on your genetics. So for instance, there's certain genetics that you should avoid certain types of fat or that you would enjoy larger types of certain types of fat and less of others.

There's some genetics that work better on a super early bird, you know, waking at 5 a.m. And there's some genetics that are better waking up at 8 a.m. And we're able to look at those things. And when you live within those parameters, those genetics really kind of up and down regulate. I like to think of it like a dimmer switch. So if you have, like, say you had a genetic predisposition for insulin resistance, if you have the right lifestyle factors, it's really never going to be upregulated. It's never going to turn it all the way up, turning it into insulin resistance. It may never express, but you just have to live the right kind of lifestyle in line with those genetics.

So we're just learning so much about this space. It's actually been around for about 20 years, but really hitting the mainstream much more now. And you'll see a lot of new phases in the space. So there's definitely a lot of testing out there, but I have a clinical grade test. So there's a lot deeper dive and I base it more on clinical research and really outcomes and less correlation. So there's just a lot more data these days. Is that maybe why people that are overweight have overweight kids or is it because maybe there's that insulin resistance predisposition in their DNA or is it it because they're, because maybe there's a, that, that insulin resistance predisposition in their DNA, or is it just because they're just eating the same sort of diet?

So it's a little of both. They might have preexisting conditions in their, like a predisposition in their DNA that they pass on to their children. And then there's something also called the transgenerational epigenetics. That's kind of a little bit different, but similar essentially that we, we pass on those very quick, almost like evolution is taking a shortcut. And really, there's a few studies that show how this takes place. But what happens is, essentially, if you turn up the genes, say, for eating, like needing a ton of calories, right? There was a famous study where children were born during a famine, the mothers were pregnant during a famine, so their genes were turned down. So they needed to have very true calories so they could survive. But then when the babies were born and they were no longer in a famine, they actually became very overweight because the genetics returned to this state that they didn't need that many calories. And then when they were fed a

regular diet, they ended up overweight. So that's more of the transgenerational route. But we also inherit a lot of lifestyle from our parents, right? Or whoever raises us. So when we're in that space, you know, you have not only habits, but physical lifestyle factors. Like if your parents work out a lot, you probably grew up in a household where that was normal and you might have picked up that habit yourself. If you had a more sedentary lifestyle in your household or you out a lot, you probably grew up in a household where that was normal and you might have picked up that habit yourself. If you had a more sedentary lifestyle in your household or you ate a lot of convenience foods, you might do that as an adult. And so we've always thought, well, it must be my genetics, but perhaps it's actually more based on lifestyle. Wow. So is it possible, because I'm pretty sure about this, I'm almost 100% sure, but

is it possible that my genetics are predisposed to where I need eight hours of sleep a day, I need to be able to stay up don't do the DNA, but humans need somewhere between seven and a half and nine hours of sleep is kind of the sweet spot. But we are able to see if you need kind of on that lower end or on the higher end of that. Most definitely. What about the tacos thing? Tacos? Well, I mean, it depends. If you're talking deep tacos, some people really thrive on a high protein diet. So yes, we could probably determine that. I'm just not sure what the toppings would look like. Does Taco Bell qualify? Asking for a friend. I'm not even sure there's real meat in there. Yeah, I'm not sure what that is. No offense to anyone that eats tacos from Taco Bell. I have a few friends that are big tacos.

That's okay. They're in the bathroom right now. Probably for half the day. So we just lost Taco Bell as a sponsor. Oops. Pretty sure we lost them. No, this is, this is one thing I had to learn when I lost weight and I started intermittent fasting was learning better nutrition and I became vegan-ish. I use that term loosely. So for all the vegan Nazis out there who are like, they, you know, there's like, I think

there's 5 million variations of veganism. So I, I always thought always thought that you know starting new plants was kind of veganish and i joined some veganish groups and was thereby crucified by not using the right thing for it but no i found that you know eating food that is nutritious that has nutrients in fact mcdonald's doesn't you know it has stuff that can nourish your body and give you vitamins and everything else. I eat a salad every day of spinach. So I make sure that I do that. And it feels really good. If I don't have my spinach salad every day, I kind of feel off.

And so people have to learn this sort of stuff. Let's touch on your book and stuff. So the new book that's out that just came out this week, Your DNA, Your Life, what motivated you to want to write this and get the book out? Yeah. So I guess I just kind of get the same question from everyone that kind of knows what I do. And it's really just a foundational information. There are a lot of reference to genetics in it. There's a brief overview of how it works just so that people can have an idea of what we're really looking at. But then I just kind of take a deeper dive into sleep. And I say movement because that can look like different, fitness can look different to everyone. So whether that's just moving your body intuitively,

or if that's like Olympic weightlifting, anything in between movement is good, right? So whatever works best in your body. And then I just include nourishment as everything that we've kind of put in and around our bodies. That includes obviously the food you eat, but even the relationships you have and the environment you're in as far as the air you breathe and the media that you consume. And maybe that's spending a lot of time on tiktok or you know whatever it may be as long as you get some positive aspect of it right and then i i do have a focus on cognitive health and that really just has to do with longevity really being able to keep our brain power as we age you know living to 100 is not super worthwhile in my opinion unless

you can think and move and feel and, you know, enjoy life, right? So, and like habits and have a focus on cognitive health, which we now know is so, so dependent on nutrition and environment. And then, of course, kind of probably one of the main things people would be interested in is stress and mindset. So the way that we look at stress, the way we relate to stress, and then the way that our body reacts and cortisol production and response is very interesting in genetics. And then I include a section about spiritual health because as we, as many people know, anybody that has any sort of spiritual health or spiritual connection, whatever that may look like, whether it's religion or not, all of these people seem to have better outcomes in health. And it's nice to have some

sort of community basis there. So each chapter comes up with a few ideas that you can choose where you can add or subtract some things from life just to feel a little more. There you go. You're not stuck with your genetics. You're not stuck with your GNA or your GNA, your GNA. What the hell? Genetics. Yeah, that's, I just formed a new definition. It's called genetics and a, I don't even know what DNA stands for, but it must be science clearly. But no, I like how you have the whole well-rounded thing of, of life balance. You know, I've had to learn these things the hard way.

You know, it used to be for 20 years, I used vodka to put me to sleep at night. And I thought that made me sleep better. And probably a few things other better. I'm staying up late at night, working longer in the hours. You know, being an entrepreneur, you're always working. And so it ended up being like a work juice for me where I'm like, I still need to finish a couple things and do the books or whatever for the business or some sales marketing stuff. And I'm like, oh, I'll drink some. And then, you know, for some reason that's just like a fuel for me. And, but that wasn't ever good. You know, I think we had eight sleep send us the big eight sleep

bed that we've got that we're reviewing right now and learning to sleep eight hours, getting myself to sleep eight hours and then seeing the patterns that it does, you know, the night, the depth of my sleep, how well it sleeps. And it's a pretty cool bed too, because it learns your patterns and learns what temperatures work for you. And it keeps you at just the optimal temperature to get the best sleep. And I don't think I've gotten a better sleep in my life. And of course, getting rid of the vodka too helped. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people think, you know, oh, I can have coffee right before bed and go right to sleep. Or, oh, I just have like a glass of wine or something, which nothing wrong with that necessarily. But if that's something you're using to get sleep, it's probably not really helping. It just might feel like that.

But you really do need those different cycles of sleep within the night. And deep sleep is so important. Now we have so many tracking devices. You know, it can be overload of data sometimes if people get really obsessed with it. But it's really nice to take a look every now and then at least check in with the body and see. And then see how it actually feels in your body, too. If you wear a watch to bed or an Oura ring or something like that, you're really able to see. Now, they're not like wildly accurate yet. I think like the technology will definitely get there. But for right now, it's interesting to take a look and see like maybe there are some habits you can do like wear some blue eyeglasses during the afternoon and evening hours. Avoid extra screen time for, you know, and in the book, I suggest starting with just an hour before bed. And then as you progress, do it 75 minutes, then 90 minutes, and then really take it up to two hours. Maybe cut out the Netflix binging at night and just get in bed a little earlier, get a little extra sleep.

Because there's even some people that have genetics based, making them have excessive sleep movement or more sleep disruption, which means you just need a little more time in bed to get to the deep sleep that you need. So there's a lot you can look at with genetics and that really people wouldn't have any insight into. So at least we can kind of calibrate sleep a little bit more. And it's so foundational. It's why it's like the first chapter in my book. It's just really every living thing needs sleep, right? Definitely, definitely.

You know, I've learned that's so important, especially the older I've gotten. I mean, if I don't get my eight hours of sleep, people are in risk of their lives around me. You know, sometimes I can get by at four hours of sleep, but I've got to have another four in the afternoon. And it's funny, that second four will always be that deep REM sleep where you drool on half the pillow and you have the crazy mushroom-type dreams where you're like, what the hell is going on there?

And those dreams, those're like, what the hell is going on there? And, and, and those, those dreams, those deep things, man, if I, if I sleep for eight hours now straight and I get that deep sleep where I have those crazy dreams that sometimes I hate, you know, like one, one of my recent dreams, the dreams I always hate is where I can't find my dogs and I'm searching for it. I have two Siberian Huskies and when they escape, it's a nightmare and you worry about it. And so I'll have these dreams where they've escaped and I'm just spending, you know,

hours searching for them, worrying about it. It's the horriblest nightmares ever. But it doesn't happen often. But, you know, those deep, like really visually and experientially things,

those are actually the times I get my best rest except for in those nightmares chasing my dogs. But I used to don't wake up too heavy, but I am rested when it happens but yeah I've learned so much of this stuff you know I've lost weight I've lost 75 pounds twice over since 2016 you know I've learned that nutrition is good I quit drinking just because I got tired of how I felt I started really listening to my body listening listening to, you know,

I started noticing that if, you know, a couple hours, you know, on a Friday or something, drinking some booze and, you know, getting that little buzz on and stuff, you know, I would feel that for three days of the dehydration, the water gain, the, you know, all the stuff that would go on with it. In fact, I lose like one to two pounds if I, if I actually go up one or two pounds, if I only get four hours of sleep and then I want to get that second four hours of sleep, a nap in the afternoon, all these like two to three pounds. It's like insane. Yeah. I mean, sleep has a lot to do with body weight metabolism in general.

Another thing you can do to help have better sleep at night is really to get some morning sunlight. It helps your body really produce melatonin. And it kind of starts in the morning. So that morning sunlight exposure, not only do you get exposure to vitamin D synthesis, but little tip is just wait from waking about 90 minutes usually before having any caffeine. If you have coffee or tea or whatever it may be, because your cortisol is already high when you wake up. So to add more kind of, you know, that's the stress hormones. To add more to it is not really necessary. And it can kind of like spike the cortisol further.

So if you give it about 90 minutes and have your coffee, it's a little bit better for the adrenals. Really? Yeah. What if you're someone who wakes up and they're a bear for two hours in the morning? My girlfriends have always said I'm a bear and there's lots of murdering that might take place if I don't get my coffee. Well, I always suggest meditation upon waking. If that doesn't fit into your lifestyle, then I guess sometime outside. Yeah. The judge says I can't do any more murdering. Get that ankle bracelet. No, I'm just kidding. That's a joke, people. Don't do murdering.

But I have heard, we've had doctors on the show that, you're right, there's a thing about starting your Arcadia rhythms. Is that what it's called? Arcadian rhythm, yeah. See, clearly I'm not a doctor. But I play one on TV.

No, I'm just kidding. So they said what you should do is go out. There's a lot of people who say this. You should go out in the morning, have your coffee out in the sun, sit out there and start your Arcadian cycle. Or what's the word? It's Arcadian. It's Arcadian cycle. And this is why we bring professionals like you on the show, and I'm just the dummy who hosts.

But no, that's brilliant brilliant i don't know maybe i should try meditation in the morning and maybe it will lead to less murdering um that's usually the outcome because i'm a bear i'm like a bear like i've had girlfriends that the moment they wake up they they're like birds they're like they leap out of bed the moment they achieve, I don't know, consciousness or being awake. They leap out of bed, and they're just buzzing around the house, and that's usually when I'm considering the murder. Well, I'm wondering if you have a later circadian rhythm, too.

Maybe you're waking up too early or going to bed too early or late. So you could always check your circadian rhythm with your genetics and see what your predisposition is. I've always been kind of a night person. And it doesn't help that I lived in Vegas for 20 years. And when it's really hot during the day, you kind of become a night person, especially if you're like me where you can do whatever you want. I've been an entrepreneur since I was 18, and I think I've worked at home since I was 2004. So being able to do whatever you want at any hours and you do your business on the Internet,

I've always been able to kind of hold my own hours. And with Vegas being a 24-hour city, you almost become like a vampire during, especially if you're single. You almost become like a vampire. And so you shop at night. You do everything at night. You go out and do everything at night because it's 150 billion degrees during the day. It's like when you go to Vegas, when you live in Vegas, you go to the store, it's like 10 o'clock at night because it's finally cooled down a little bit. Everyone's at the store.

Yeah. You're doing your grocery shopping, but it's still 107. It's just not. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, yeah. At least when you get back to the car, it's not, you know, completely on fire from the sun. And so all that good stuff. But no, maybe that's my problem.

I stay up too late and I've always felt like I'm a night person. I don't know. I have more energy at night. I'm like, I just turn on. And I just have always, maybe I'm a moon baby. Does the moon have anything to do with my genetics and DNA and stuff? Not that I'm aware of. Maybe. I a moon baby. Does the moon have anything to do with my genetics and DNA and stuff? Not that I'm aware of, maybe. I don't know.

Maybe I'm just a werewolf and we need to check my DNA. So you do coaching. Let's talk about your coaching business as well. Yeah. So when I look at, as I mentioned, the genetic predispositions, I also look at your epigenetic, like the expression of your genetics. So that would be through methylation testing. And then I often look at labs and everything just to see where people are kind of starting from. And then I like to support people in their wellness journey in any way I can, which usually involves some sort of stress management techniques, HRV training, breath work, and some breath training. And then of course, any kind of fitness related training. And yeah, we really just like to go through usually about a six month journey together and really help people hit those goals. And just people really just to feel better in their bodies, more alive and kind of optimizing,

as I mentioned, the human experience, because just waking up more alive and kind of optimizing, as I mentioned, the human experience, because just waking up each day and kind of feeling like you're stuck on that hamster wheel, it's, you know, it's kind of a low standard. So I really, I really like every client that I work with to really shoot for really big goals and be able to attain them. And it's totally attainable. You're not stuck in this rut of, well, this is what my genetics have handed me or my whole family experienced this. You can kind of break that cycle, right? And we know so many stories like this, right? Like where someone was thought that they were kind of destined for this one road and then they were able to really just make big radical shifts and just live a much better life than they had maybe ever expected. There you go. There you go. Do you work with both men and women, I guess? I do. There you go. You know, I can testify to this because eating better, eating food that's

nutrient rich and kind of, yeah, I know people aren't like big on plants, but if you learn to cook them right, if you learn to prepare them right, you know, we kind of eat for taste and stuff. And so if you learn to prepare it right, your body thanks you, your body's like, thank you very much for. Yeah. And once you have really kind of weaned yourself from the standard American diet, which is just so kind of fraught with like those quick hits of sugar and salt and, and fat that we know are kind of scientifically calibrated to make us crave them. Once you kind of remove that from your lifestyle, then you know are kind of scientifically calibrated to make us crave them. Once you kind of remove that from your lifestyle, then you can actually kind of get more of a taste for real foods, like real foods that were put here for a reason for us to enjoy. And you mentioned being

vegan, but I think a lot of people really just embrace the term plant-based. Like I really like to eat a lot of plant foods, but I also eat animal foods if I want, if that works for me or whatever that lifestyle looks like. There's definitely a lot of hardcore vegans out there and there's some hardcore carnivore. And now we have the actual carnivore diet where you truly just eat meat. But you don't have to follow any one thing because it's just not one size fits all. Just because your friend did a ketogenic diet and they had great results that may have just happened to be in line with their genetics, but that might not work for you. Whereas maybe the ketogenic diet is perfect for you and your genetics and you'll find that it works great. So having that information really just kind of

narrows down the choices, right? So there's just so much noise out there, particularly in the wellness space where it's like, you can go on tiktok or instagram you're gonna find like do this do that it's the best diet ever and you know the diet industry is fraught with kind of like you know like distrust and just kind of you know that it kind of benefits people to like bring you in and out of the cycle right just to keep paying but instead we just kind of narrow that focus like hey what works not only your genetics but what works in your lifestyle because say, hey, listen, you should probably follow a more plant-based diet. But somebody says, I'm never going to do that. Then we have to find something that works for them, right?

Because they still have to enjoy their life. And they're not going to enjoy it if they're not feeling well. But they're also not going to enjoy it if they're so stringent about what they eat and what they do that they're just not enjoying themselves, right? That's what we're here to do is feel good, enjoy ourselves. Like, you know. Wait, we're supposed to enjoy this? Yeah, it's supposed to be fun. Wait, note to self.

It should be fun. No, it should be. You know, one thing I learned, you talk about how you vary, you help vary with your coaching, the diets that apply to their lifestyle. That's a really important factor. You know, one thing I learned from Penn Jillette, in fact, we're talking with Penn Jillette about coming on the show for his new book, but he put out a book, Presto, that changed my life

and made me lose my first 75 pounds. And one of the rules he had, which I believe came from Cray, and I'm also friends with Cray Ray, that he cites in the book, is if it's in your house, it's in your mouth. And so, you know, we all do that negotiation with ourselves at the store where we're like, well, I'll buy the 12-pack amount and do, but only have like one can a day or maybe once a week, you know. Then you go buy the 12-pack amount and do.

Right, and the availability thing we look at. We actually have something. There are a lot of SNPs in genetics that look at snacking propensity and propensity for sweets, depending on how you perceive sweets with your taste buds. And there's a genetic propensity for that. So there's actually some of the information is based on one specific study. And it's a pretty big study. And they essentially said, well, these are the people that if there was sweets or snacks around, they would eat them. And then there's this other group of people that were like, I'm never going to eat those. And it just wouldn't bother me. You could have Oreos in the house and they'd never touch them.

And then there's a third group. And they're the people that are really just kind of have a predisposition to sweet addiction. And they'll be like, there's no ice cream in the house. But I will get in my car, I'll drive 10 minutes to the store and i'll go pick it up and come home and eat it so they they will like delay the gratification for a full hour just to have that gratification because they just have that predisposition there's genetics but it's something we can work with because if we know that then we can just say to ourselves you know we can we can have clients work with that information and it's just kind of more helpful to know a little bit of insight.

I always say it's like a genetic blueprint, right? So it's not set in stone. Of course, these things can change throughout your lifestyle. It's just like where you're predisposed to something. So I like to work with clients very deeply and say, how is this expressed in your life? Was there a time where you were that person that got in the car and drove to the store?

Has that changed? And how can we prevent that from happening in the future? See, I'm really lazy and I hate to go to the store. A lot of people say, well, I would never do that. But there are some people that are genetically wired to say, I'm going to get in the car and I'm going to go get some ice cream. I do the forging for tacos sometimes that way where I'm just like, fuck it, I'm getting tacos or In-N-Out Burger, which is like a once a month thing. But, you know, the one, my friends on Facebook, I shared my journey with them and use them as the accountability tool or every day I was posting my work. And so I, you know, they would know if I cheated or gone in and out the day before.

And, you know, I'm single, so I live alone. I've got my two Huskies. And so it's very easy for me to have that if it's in your house it's in your mouth policy where you just don't buy it you just don't bring it home but you know the one thing my friends you know let me know that are married they have kids and stuff if one of them's the the food preparer the cooker you know they may be on a certain diet but you know the kids might not be you know the kids might want some Twizzlers or soda or whatever you're feeding them, little monsters. And so it's harder because they have to have that stuff in the house.

And you're just like, well, I'll give them a Twizzler and I'll take two for myself. Well, what's interesting, too, is I find most of my clients that have kids, really the whole family benefits. Because then the kids are eating a little healthier lifestyle, too. I mean, because Twizzlers is not a food group, right? We don't really need Twizzlers. We don't need Twizzlers. I mean, I think some people would argue, like, maybe chocolate's a food group. I know that's a popular one, but you could still have chocolate.

Maybe this one with less additives, a little, you know, dark chocolate has been proven to actually be healthy in moderation. So, yeah, I think there's, while I do like to find things that work in people's lifestyles, sometimes a radical shift is needed. And we do need to really remove candy from the house. We do need to kind of take out any of the, you know, guesswork when it comes to like, what am I going to eat today? Like, let's make it meal delivery. Let's make it very planned out. And these are different strategies that people can find helpful. And then there's some people that are just like, oh yeah, no, that's super easy. And I'll throw that aside. I'll never do it again. Again, these are all based on how the neurotransmitters

work in the body and really how the brain functions with certain people. And it really will depend. Asking for a friend, do you ever find when you do the DNA poll that there's people that need to eat pizza to survive? No, there's no gene that I'm aware of. Although there's still time though. Right. Although I think,

yeah, I think there's maybe, I mean, we do look at some like dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitters, which I think might, you know, be reacted by things like quick hits of carbohydratesin neurotransmitters, which I think might, you know, be reacted by things like quick hits of carbohydrates like pizza. So technically I think there is a bit of

a pizza gene. I'm sure pepperoni is in my DNA. I love pepperoni. I'm one of those people that I can just get a pepperoni sticks and eat it. When I was growing up as a kid, there was an Italian deli near us back in the sevents when they're real delis. And I learned to get a pension for pepperoni. It is so good. I could live on pepperoni, I'm pretty sure, but it's probably not healthy. Stephen sends us a question from LinkedIn. Thanks, Stephen. How come we have fast with food? It's a little weirdly written, but I think what he means is how can we have to fast with food? We have fast with other things, but we don't have fast sleep.

Maybe it's a hard rule on eight hours a night. I'm not sure how to interpret that, but how can we have fast with food? Like fast food? Like we eat? I'm not sure. I don't know if he's asking if you have to fast with food. Why do we have to fast? If he's talking about fasting, yeah, there's definitely benefits to fasting.

And it doesn't necessarily have to be like 24 hours, 36 hours fasting, of course. Really, most people, particularly in the United States, we have a very small window where we're not eating. So the average person really only, and we will literally eat in like a 16, 18 hour window. It's like, when are you sleeping? So people will eat right before they go to bed and right before they wake up, which is really probably for most people's caloric needs. It's probably more based on habit, right? It's probably unlikely that we need to eat that many times in the day to get all of our calories. And the idea that we used to have in many times in the day to get all of our calories. And the idea that we used to have in the very flawed science or whoever this got started, I swear if I ever find out, you know, I would love to know who came up with the original, eat every three hours to keep your blood sugar regulated, which is actually the worst thing you can do for your blood sugar. I think it was Pillsbury.

Which we now know. Right. I'm wondering who's really behind it, honestly. Maybe somebody can dig into that for us and let us know. But yeah, it's really great if you can have about a 12-hour window where your body gets a rest from digestion. And we know this is much healthier for the body. And then there's a lot of people that do more time-restricted eating. I don't recommend that for anyone that has any disordered eating or a past of disordered eating, but for the average individual looking to really work on cellular health and digestive

health, something a little longer, 14 hours, 16 hours in between eating. So you just eat in a smaller window. It doesn't mean you skip meals per se. Some people just like skip breakfast and that might be fine. They might still get enough calories and they may get all the nutrients they need. They still might get the right amount of protein and carbohydrates and fats and everything. But some people just end up eating, you know, at 9 a.m. and then again at noon and again at, you know, four, five o'clock. That's it. That's all you need to do. And you're really just giving your digestion just a pretty big rest, which is really great. And I mean, there's so many signaling pathways that are opened and, you know, you're getting rid of old cells and you're regenerating cells at a healthy rate, not so fast and slow. So there's so many, I mean, we could get really like deep into the science on it, but certainly just the main takeaway on fasting is anything around 12 hours is probably needed for the average individual. And then, you know, 16 hours. And I know plenty of people that do a fast one day a month, that's 36 hours. and people do five days, once a year, you know,

and of course, something like that you'd want to do under the care of, you know, a physician or at least with some personal knowledge of exactly how that would react from your body. But yeah, I mean, just the daily more or less fast of waking up and then eating right away might not be the best method we now know. And as information changes, we should kind of change our lifestyle, right? We kind of need to reel it in a little bit and look back to where we used to be perhaps before the Industrial Revolution where we all got up, went to work, and came home. But look back to how human beings were meant to live, right? Which is probably not eating every three hours for 18 hours a day. Yeah. I use a 23 one hour fast, right? Eat for 23 hours and fast for an hour. I'm kidding. I don't

do that. The 16-8 is what I try and achieve every day if I can. Yeah. That seems the most common. And it doesn't for everybody. And it's not always the best for women. It's not, you know, it's definitely, it's certainly not good if you're pregnant. So you really have to kind of be aware of your, where your health begins when you started. And I would always, of course, you know, I'm not a medical doctor, but I would always mention to somebody to consult with a physician before doing any very long fasting. But yeah, the 16 to 8 window is a common one that seems to be the most generous health outcomes. It's pretty easy to do, especially for someone like me who really lives on coffee

now that I gave up the vodka. And in fact, we had someone on the show who talked about how you can flip the model where you can eat in the morning and just stop the, you do the 16 hours in a different place where you eat breakfast in the morning and maybe lunch, and then you just go the rest of the time and you get that sleep. So this seems to be working for a lot of people, in particular, the people, some people really love breakfast and they're like, I'm not giving up my breakfast food. They want eggs, which is great because eggs are a really great source of high protein and they're really healthy for most people. But yeah, the morning, maybe there's now some evidence that perhaps getting a protein load in the morning is better. And some people find that

they can sleep better at night if they're not eating a huge meal and then going to sleep, even though you're like, oh, I'm so satisfied. I'm just going to sleep straight through a food coma, right? Like Thanksgiving evening. But every day of that, your body really, like when your body goes to sleep, if it's busy digesting, it's probably not doing a great job at either digestion or sleep, right? But if your body is not digesting anything, then you can get, usually people find deeper sleep that way. You wake up in the middle of the night with that rock gut going on and those tacos. Injected in things, you know, eating. Tacos are in there going, yeah,

we went to Taco Bell, buddy. We're coming for you. Wait till tomorrow. Another write-in, this is kind of interesting. This is from about 20 minutes ago. So I think this is when we were talking about going out and getting rhythms in the sun for vitamin D. But he wrote, that's a Ben Franklin. He used to call them airbats. He would go outside not wearing any clothes sitting there. Not sure I really wanted that image in my head of Ben Franklin with his bald head and weird hair. It's an old man. Well, you know, I will say there's a lot of evidence that like Vedic science and Chinese medicine has done this for thousands of years, which we have outside sun exposure and really direct, just direct like feet in the grass,

you know, like earthing essentially what people, some people call because like living in a high rise where you're never really connected to the earth, we're learning that might not be the best thing, at least as long as you come down to the earth, right? Take the elevator death in the morning. But just that outside time in the morning is great. And I think we're learning a lot about the science of circuiting rhythms now, which is kind of funny because we've been you know people did this for thousands of years before knowing the science but people were also really in tune with their bodies at that time because they had to be they didn't have any science that would point to this direct correlation just yet so a lot of those kind of more older traditions that people participated in we can always like kind of learn something from it right and now And now we have science to back it up. Definitely. You know, we wonder why we're so

screwed up. We're putting on weight. We have vitamin D deficiencies, things of that nature. It used to be that we lived in that environment you talked about where, you know, we were out in the sun. We were tilling the soil, you know, going out and doing things. And now we live in this air conditioned environment where, you know where we don't go see the sun. We don't pick up that natural vitamin D. My dogs go out every day and they lay in the sun, pick up their vitamin D. That's what they're doing out there. I have friends that be like, why do Siberians go out when it's freezing cold and lay in the sun? They're getting their vitamin D. Even just being outdoors, something that's interesting is people will be like, oh, your

eyes are really connected to your brain, but that's not really true will be like, oh, your eyes are really connected to your brain. But that's not really true. Your eyes are your brain. Oh, really? How about that? They're part of your brain. It's kind of exposed to the outside. So we, I mean, you know, you mentioned you work on the internet.

I also work from home. I work on my computer the vast majority of the day. What's interesting is when you go outside and you have the farther vision where you're looking over horizon and you're looking farther away, it's building the muscles in your eyeballs, which is part of your brain, right? So if you're only looking, there's a real epidemic now of vision issues and really just not having any musculature behind the eyes where we're only looking, how far are you looking at your screen? Two feet? You know, we're never looking at the horizon anymore. And as you mentioned, we used to look at horizon all day. We were out farming. We were out, you know, even before farming, we were out

hunting and gathering. Whatever that looks like, we'll never be totally certain, but we can be sure that people were outdoors and they were certainly looking at far distances, up close again and far away. And it's that variation that really trains the, the, the muscle musculature of the eye, which again is the brain. Yeah. I just got a message from my prology. He wanted to remind people that I had tried myself, the going outside naked part for vitamin D.

And he says, the Chris Voss remind him that you needed a fence to do that. That's where the neighbor. Yeah. I mean, you're a suburban area. I mean, I, I, I think you just like take your shoes that. That's where the neighbor completed. Yeah, I mean, you're a suburban area. I mean, I think you just take your shoes off. That's totally fine.

I think where you're living is probably fine. But, you know, I mean, listen, if you live out in Nevada and you're not in the actual city there, I mean, there's plenty of people out in the desert hanging out. If you go out naked in your backyard, make sure that the neighbor's windows aren't up, eh? Yeah. And have a fence.

Be wise. That's good. That's why I used to have my jacuzzi inside my garage because we had neighbors next to us. Their whole wall of the house, the side wall, was just windows. And I'm like, I don't want people watching when I'm up to my jacuzzi and hanging out. Jacuzzis are really fun, too. I love jacuzzis. They used to be really good for relaxing.

I'm not sure if they're totally healthy for you though, because there's a lot of bromine chlorine. Well, yeah, the chlorine is probably not the best. I know a lot of people prefer like the saltwater swimming pool nowadays. Although, you know,

maybe you can make it into a cold plunge pool instead and just put ice water in it. And you know, the pool plunge is very popular right now, but also very, very good for you. I saw somebody doing that and they bought like, they sell the tubs now. Oh, yeah. And there's some local places that do the deep freeze thing that you can go to professionally.

The cryogenic therapy, sure. Have you ever tried that? I have. And it's actually, there are some genetics that will let you know whether it's helpful for you. And it can, there's some genetics that it really correlates to an increased metabolism and mitochondrial support. You know, when I used to eat a lot and eat badly, I would hold open the freezer and just sit there and look at it, try and figure out what to eat. Well, if you can't do a cold plunge, you could always do, you know, one of the things that I recommend to people that want to do cold thermogenesis, but maybe don't have the time or resources to do cryotherapy or don't have a

place near them because it's kind of rare. You can really just take a regular shower and the last minute, two minutes, three minutes, you work your way up. Maybe you start with 30 seconds, really cold water. There you go.

It's going to make a difference. Yeah. There you go. Well, we've learned lots of wonderful things to see anything more we need to know before we go out that you want to tease out about? Who you are, what you do, and how you do it? Yeah, I'm actually working on a nervous system resilience course based on Kundalini Yoga Meditation and Breathwork.

That's going to be starting in January. It's three months long, and it's a group online setting. And we'll be meeting once a week. And yeah, so we'll be doing some great yoga kriyas and meditations to really support nervous system resilience and really be able to kind of make sense of all of the information coming at us and have the body kind of react in an appropriate way instead of staying in that flight or flight really just for more resilience and stress management. So that's coming in January and you can find it on my website. That's pretty brilliant. I like that because I don't think a lot of people realize they go in that fight or flight state when you read, like, well, news. Yeah.

You're like, holy crap, what's going on today? I'm on a news detox for about 10 months now, so I couldn't possibly. Good for you. I couldn't possibly talk to you about it. I love that. You know, that probably keeps the murdering down. I should probably take that up. Let me talk to my parole agent on that.

I go, I went a real long talk to my parole agent on that. I go along. I went a real long way with the parole agent fence thing. That was like a real long way to set up a joke, but I don't know. I think it came out in the end. We'll see how it goes. We'll ask him. Anyway, guys, this has been wonderful. See, and people should really focus on this. I can, I can testify to everything and second everything you said. You, the better nutrients, the better you treat your body, the better it's going to be. And the one piece of advice I give to everybody, don't wait like this dummy until you're like 45, 50 to start fixing. But it's never too late.

It's never too late. That's true, too. That's true, too. And my body thanks me a whole lot more. I sleep better. I eat those nutrients. Like I say, my body's kind of adjusted now where if I don't get that daily salad, it's like we're not going to be happy with you today. And you're probably having just more fun in life, right?

Pretty much. I mean, it's only to lose some weight or losing the weight, doing the fasting. Fasting really is interesting because with fasting, intermittent fasting, your brain's sharper. Oh, yeah. Like my focus is sharper. Big cognitive benefits from it. Yeah. I really love it.

And you don't feel degraded. You know, you can tell when you've eaten something. You just start listening to your body more. And it's interesting what your body tells you. And I'm glad you help people with that. Give me your.com so people can find you on the interwebs. It's cmcdermott.com. There you go.

There you go, guys. Brilliant discussion today. And seriously, people, look into more of this. Get to know C-Better. Find her on the interweb. Order up the book. You can get it. Your DNA, Your Life by C. McDermott just came out October 25th, 22.

Read it to be the first one on your block to see you got it. Recalibrate your DNA to move through life with grace, ease, and joy. It will make you happier. Trust me. It's you eat better, you live better, you sleep better. Sleep is like, I mean, I'm a bear, man. If I don't get my sleep, there's murdering that takes place. And that's why the parole agent keeps sending me messages.

Anyway, thank you, C, for being on the show. We really appreciate it. Thank you so much. People are like, we should check and see how much murdering he's done. It's like a whole episode. Anyway, guys, the jokes are always there. Don't do murdering. We appreciate all my audience coming by.

Thank you for the questions that came in from LinkedIn. There always are wonderful people there on LinkedIn. Go see all the places there on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, all the places we are, the interwebs. Thanks for tuning in. Be good, be true. Stay safe. Don't do murdering. We'll see you next time.

We came up murdering.