The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - Ben Azadi On How To Reset Your Metabolism, Eliminate Cravings, & Lose Fat For Good

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

#988: Join Michael & Lauryn as they sit down with Ben Azadi – leading authority on metabolic health, New York Times bestselling author of Metabolic Freedom, and one of the most influential voices helping people take back control of their health. After losing 80 pounds and completely transforming his life, Ben is on a mission to help 1 billion people break free from physical and mental obesity. In this episode, he reveals the metabolic health mistakes that are keeping 93% of Americans unhealthy, the science behind fasting and exactly what happens to your body at every stage, how to eliminate cravings and stop snacking for good, the best meal timing strategies for better sleep and fat loss, and simple ways to optimize your metabolism for lasting results. Ben also dives into the connection between mindset, manifestation, and self-image – sharing how changing the way you think is the key to creating lasting transformation in every area of your life.   For Detailed Show Notes visit TheBossticks.com   To connect with Ben Azadi click HERE   To connect with Lauryn Bosstick click HERE   To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE   Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE   Head to our ShopMy page HERE and LTK page HERE to find all of the products mentioned in each episode.   To learn more about Ben Azadi visit https://benazadi.com.    This episode is sponsored by The Skinny Confidential Your daily routine done better – with The Skinny Confidential Caffeinated Sunscreen. Subscribe today at http://bit.ly/TSCSunscreen and get it delivered right to your door – because great skin doesn't take days off!   This episode is sponsored by Little Spoon Get 30% off your first online order at http://littlespoon.com/SKINNY30 with code SKINNY30.   This episode is sponsored by Kion Go to http://getkion.com/skinny to get 20% off.    This episode is sponsored by CORT Rent today at http://cort.com/podcast.   This episode is sponsored by Just Thrive Get your health in check and save 20% on your first order at https://justthrivehealth.com/SKINNY with code SKINNY.    This episode is sponsored by Caldera + Lab Go to http://calderalab.com/SKINNY and use code SKINNY for 20% off your first order.   This episode is sponsored by HERS Ready to reach your goals? Visit http://forhers.com/skinny to get personalized, affordable care that gets you.   This episode is sponsored by Just Ingredients Visit https://justingredients.com/SKINNY and use code SKINNY for 20% off your first order. Produced by Dear Media

Hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Boss Six. Today we have Ben Azadi on the show. Ben is a leading authority on metabolic health, a New York Times bestselling author of metabolic freedom and one of the most impactful voices in the space today. After losing 80 pounds personally in transforming his own life, he's on a mission to help one billion people break free from physical and mental obesity. And today we're talking insulin resistance, fasting, gut health and fat loss and how we can heal our guts and use a positive mindset to get basically anything we want out of life. With that, Ben, welcome to the Bostics. Welcome to the Bostics, starring Lauren Bostic and Michael Bostick. Together, they are the Bostics. If someone says that my metabolism is broken, what does that mean?

What do you say? I'll tell them that the metabolism is not broken. It's doing exactly what it's designed to do based off of the signals you're giving it. And Lauren, one of the things I hear all the time is I have a slow metabolism or my metabolism has slow down because I turn 40 or 50. When I dug into the research on metabolism, I learned that the metabolism doesn't even operate in speeds. There's no such thing as a slow metabolism or a fast metabolism. It's either an efficient metabolism or an inefficient metabolism. So what happens is the metabolism gets blocked. You do that with the foods you eat, sometimes even with the thoughts

you think, but also lack of sleep, different stressors. So when there's interference in your metabolism, it will do what it's designed to do, which is to survive, the body's designed to survive. And it's not about a slow metabolism. It's about a blocked metabolism. So if you could give me a chart on an efficient metabolism versus an inefficient metabolism, what does that look like? An efficient metabolism is somebody that could eat carbohydrates, fat, and or protein, use that for energy and still be lean.

Is that you, Michael? I hope it's me. I hope so. She's pointing at you. I got a little bit down on the, you know, as I'm getting older. I could work a little bit. But no, you know what? I am guilty.

I can eat like kind of what I want to eat. And then you feel good. Energy levels are good even after a high carbohydrate meal. Yeah. I mean, if I eat some, like the other day she threw a party for our kid and there was some crap there and I ate it and I felt like I felt terrible.

But if I eat relatively good ingredients and good things, then yeah, I can use it for fuel and feel great. So that is metabolic flexibility. That's what we want. Now, here's a crazy stat for you. 93% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy. 93% Such a terrible stuff.

It is. I mean, you think about it. I was just in the airport. I flew in from Miami to Austin. You just look around the airport. There's a lot of unhealthy people. But it's not just the aesthetic side of things because somebody could be skinny on the outside, but fat on the inside.

And they're actually at a higher risk of diseases versus the person who's obviously overweight. So they're metabolically inflexible. Their metabolism is only burning sugar, sugar and glucose. And when it's stuck burning sugar and glucose, it's going to create symptoms and then eventually disease. And what is an ineffectual? It's somebody who's designed to eat carbohydrates all day long, snack and graze, and if they don't snack and graze, their energy drops. They have all this food noise. They keep thinking about food. They keep going to the kitchen.

That's somebody who's a sugar burner. Their metabolism is not efficient because it's only burning sugar and glucose. We need to teach them to burn fat, stored fat. What's crazy is that so many people have all this extra fat on them, 50 pounds overweight, 100 pounds overweight. This is stored calories and they can't access it because they're burning food for fuel, not body fat for fuel. Their metabolism is inefficient. So how do you get to that point? I mean, I know there's obviously eat poorly, don't exercise, too much sugar, alcohol, like all the things we know. But what is a sign that you're heading in that direction and how do you start to turn it around? I could walk into a room filled with 40, 50 people and I could spot insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome with my eyes.

Okay. Do I have it? Don't lie. No, you don't. Are you sure? Here's what I'm looking for. Because you could see what I'm talking about here. I'm looking for skin tags. Skin tags are usually around the eyelids and the neck.

Okay. Have you seen skin tags before? Yeah. That's a sign of insulin resistance. I'm looking for that. And if somebody has a tank top on, I'll look for that on their like shoulder or upper back. You don't have, I mean, you don't have it under face. I'm also looking for brown patches around people's neck.

This brown patch signifies insulin resistance, visceral fat. You both don't have that. And then obviously I'm looking for, you know, extra belly, extra weight on their body. But here's the thing. I'm looking more for this round, hard belly versus jiggly fat. Because there's two different types of fat. There's the subcutaneous fat that you could pinch like this, like this. That's healthy.

There's the round hard fat. That's the visceral fat, the fat that gets packed around your organs. That's the most dangerous fat in your body. So is that the classic like beer belly gut? Exactly. And that is the most dangerous fat inside of the body. If someone comes to you and they say, Ben, I want to make my metabolism. metabolism so optimized that it's like a well-engined machine. What do you tell them to do?

Two easy steps, and then we can go a little bit more advance if you want. Okay. The first step is what I call what I tell my students, the kitchen is closed rule. Okay. There is a period during the day, actually during the night, that's the most important period for burning fat and restoring your metabolism. That's the first half of sleep. Okay. It's the two to three to four hours after you fallen asleep. And if you eat too close to bed, you miss that whole window of fat burning. Okay, so let's say I go to bed at 8.30. When can I not eat? Do you go to bed at 830? Sometimes, yeah. I'm jealous. But we got three little kids. So when it's lights out in the house, we just go to bed with it. I'm jealous. My wife would not allow that. I have to wait until 10,

but I would do that if I was single. The latest I'm in bed is unless I'm out having a party is nine. Okay, but let's do the hour. I'm usually asleep by 10. I think the average person by 10 o'clock a night. If you go to sleep by 10. It's the three hour rule. Right. So if it's 830, 5.30 should be your last bite of food. It's 10, 7 o'clock would be the last bite of food. See, the problem is, Lauren, though, if you go to bed at 8.30, but we have dinner tonight with your parents at 6.30. No, but then she's tonight's shot then, right? You got to wait. Yeah, here's what happens. Okay, so what happens is the first few hours after you fall in asleep, your body pulses growth hormone, which is one of the most important fat-burning, anti-aging hormones. What blocks that pulse is when

insulin is high. When you eat too close to bed, you raise glucose, and then insulin stays high for hours. and then you miss that entire wave of what's called deep delta sleep. And then you wake up in the morning feeling groggy. And for a lot of people, it causes them to gain weight or prevent them from losing weight. So the kitchen is closed rule. It means no food at least three hours before bed to get deep fat burning sleep. I drink this drink every night. So does Michael.

It's called a Vesper. And it's by peak tea. It's so good. It's like a little adaptogen. Yeah. I like pink tea. You like it. Okay.

So we put that in our drink and then we put sparkling water on top of rice. We have it every night. It's like a moktail. Is that count as the kitchen's closed or does that not matter? That's not going to count. So what I'm counting as what breaks that fast or what violates that rule is when you raise glucose and insulin and you start digesting food, that's different. So if it's a nighttime drink, a sleep drink, that's different. Herbal teas, that's okay.

But food, that's the issue. So is it, let me ask you another question. Say you're going out to dinner with friends and it's a later dinner. Maybe it's like 8.30 dinner. And you finish at 10. Are you better off delaying sleep for three hours after that or going home and crashing? If your goal is weight loss and igniting metabolism, because I think what happens, a lot of people that go out, they do that, then they just crash right away.

Yeah. You know, that's a really great question that nobody has ever asked me before. Like, spot on question. I'm trying to apply to my own. I have some late nights sometimes. Yeah, me too. There are exceptions for me as well. I personally still go to bed at the same time because I still want to get the total amount

of sleep that I want to get. I know that because I look at my scores with my ring and I look at, I see it. I see what happens when I eat too close to bed. My resting heart rate goes up. My heart rate variability goes down. Those are both things you don't want. And then my deep sleep is destroyed and my REM sleep is also destroyed. So I see it. But I go to bed at the same time. So it's more important you think to get the full sleep than to delay the sleep. Yes, I do. And here's what you can do. If you find yourself eating late at night, what you can do is go for a 10 to 20 minute walk right after that meal to help digest it and blunt that glucose and insulin response so it doesn't cause as much damage.

You could probably mitigate that glucose and insulin response by a short 10-minute walk by 20 to 33 percent. So I would go for a walk. Yeah, just by going for a short walk. Okay. So let's say for the majority of people, like if they're like, you know, that are, you know, struggling with us, if they're doing those kind of like midnight snacks or they're eating right before bed and then crashing or they're, you know, doing that on a regular basis,

they're going to have a very hard time igniting their metabolism and making it efficient. It's going to be impossible for them to become efficient and be metabolically flexible. Absolutely. And here's what you can do. Impossible. It's going to be impossible because their body is going to be digesting food instead of sleeping and repairing and doing all the maize and things that happen when you sleep. But by having a protein-rich meal for your last meal of the day, dinner, it will really prevent the cravings at night. That's what I tell my students, get at least 30 grams of protein at that meal. You're not going to have the cravings at night. You're not going to have that food noise.

It's going to help you go to bed. And then a simple tip, I tell people just brush your teeth right after that meal. Because chances are you're not going to want to brush your teeth again because he brushed it already and you won't snack and break that fast. Ben, in seven million episodes, this is the first time I'm going to say this on the mic. So everyone get ready. Carson, maybe we can add a drum roll. Is this a big moment? I know.

The balloons are going to come from the ceiling. My husband was right. He has been. Just make one fucking clip about that. Just keep the clip. Just keep the, that's what every man's dream just got nailed. My husband. I'm back.

Just shut it down. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ben. He has been telling me to stop eating before I go to bed since I was 21 years old. And I never listened to him. I'm like, shut the fuck up. You don't know.

I'm going to eat my fucking sourdough toast with crunchy salt in bed. Leave me alone. But Ben says it and I'm going to make some changes. Wow. You know, I don't know what it is. My whole life, I have had some intuition just around eating. And what it was for me is I don't feel well when I eat that close. And I feel like, and now I have the same.

I use the woup sometimes. He's Asian. And I can see, but it's the same thing. Now I watch the resting heart rate. I watch the HRV. And every time I do it, every number is off. And I just, but I do think that we've, as humans, we've gotten far away from just listening to how we feel after doing things.

and it's so much data and what other people are saying. Like, you have to be able to, like, sink down sometimes and just be like what feels right and what feels wrong. I agree. You know, there's valuable, it's valuable to use a ring or a loop or whatever it is to track and see the data. But, like, if you went to bed and you wake up in the morning, you're like, damn, that was a great night of sleep.

I'm so recovered. I feel so great. I'm going to be so energized and productive today. And then you go and check your scores, and it says, no, you should actually feel awful today. Are you going to let a ring determine how you want to feel? No, you want to listen to your body. You use it as data, but you listen to yourself as,

is your point. Then I agree. Use your intuition and get in tune with how your body feels. That's the most important thing. So, okay, that was the number one thing. You said. What's the second thing? You said that is an easy thing. The second thing, so the first thing is no food at least three hours before bed. The second thing is no snacking in between your meals. You want a crazy stat? My colleague, Dr. Don Clem, did a patient population survey, a study, a study, hundreds of patients. And what he essentially had them do was just write down every time they ate something in a journal, whether it was a snack or a meal. And the average American was eating 17 to 23 times per day.

Wow. What? How is that possible? How do they have the time? How do they have the time, right? Think about it's the grazing, though. It's not just they're sitting at a table eating a full meal 17 to 23 times a day. It's the handful of almonds, the sip of the kombucha, the protein shake.

Every time you do that, it's a meal to the body. And every time you do that, you spike glucose and insulin, and you teach your metabolism, burn sugar, burn the food you just ate. So by eliminating the snacks, just have your breakfast, lunch and dinner, no snacks in between. If you want snacks, have them with your meals. You allow glucose and insulin to drop in between those meals. And insulin out of the hundreds of hormones in the body, insulin is the only hormone inside of the body that causes you to store fat. And what raises glucose and insulin is the snacking. It's the carbs.

It's the grazing. So we want to drop insulin to let your body switch over to fat burning. Okay, since we're on the topic of insulin, people are. are doing gLP ones left and right to balance their insulin. Is that the right verbiage balance? Yeah, balance, lower insulin, lose weight, yeah. What's your vibe on that? So gLP1 drugs are very popular these days, very, very, very popular. And there is a small percentage of people who could benefit from gLP one drugs. And I believe those people are somebody who just, they're very much overweight. They have no idea where to start. They need some momentum. Maybe a low dose glp1 drug could get them

kickstarted and then get them some momentum. They changed their lifestyle and then they get off the GLP1 drug. But most people don't use it that way. Most people abuse it. They use it for a very long time. And here's the thing. GLP1 drugs, OZempic, for example, it will help you lose weight. You will lose weight on it for most people. But you don't necessarily want to lose weight. You want to lose fat. There's a difference. A good percentage of the weight loss is fat and muscle. About 38% plus could be muscle. And what happens is when you, you stay on it for a long time, six to 12 months, the fat comes back, but the muscle does not come back. And muscle is your metabolic currency. It is the organ of longevity. The more muscle mass you

have, the more insulin sensitive you are. You lose that muscle mass. You become more insulin resistant. And long term, these individuals, they gain the way back and now they're more frustrated. So I'm not a fan of it to be abused. I'm a fan of the lifestyle changes. Now, if somebody does it, they get enough protein, they're lifting weights to preserving muscle. There's a right way to do that. but most people don't do it that way. You lost 80 pounds. I did. Tell me something that people would not know about losing 80 pounds.

Maybe it's something, a mindset shift that you had to make. Maybe when you lost the weight, maybe you felt you were still overweight. I've heard that a lot. I feel people like have an identity crisis. What's something that no one knows about losing that much weight? I talk about that, right? What you said right there in my previous book, Metabolic Freedom, my self-image. So I lost 80 pounds in nine months.

I was obese for most of my life. My mom worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken when I was a kid, and she brought me Kentucky Fried Chicken. And for 23, 24 years, I was obese. And in 2007, I went through this transformation. I lost 80 pounds in nine months. I went from 34% body fat at my highest to 6% at my lowest. So dramatic shift.

Wow. And I achieved this physical six-pack, and I always dreamed of that as a kid. But the most important benefit was not the physical six-pack. the mental six-pack is what it did for my i used to have suicidal thoughts i would look go on the internet look for ways to end my life and what stopped me was thinking about my mother i didn't want to cause that devastation to her so that was the only thread that i was hanging on and after the transformation the physical transformation what it did for my mental health was

tremendous but you know to your point Lauren i lost the weight i'm looking in the mirror i'm seeing my abs and i'm still seeing this obese ben my self-image identified as obese ben so i kept finding ways to sabotage myself to gain the way back to match that self-image I had of myself. I literally had to write on a card. I'm so happy and grateful now I'm at my perfect body weight. The perfect health I seek is now seeking me. I remove any blockages between us. I had to reprogram my subconscious mind to identify with a new image of myself, which is healthy lean ben, because the old image kept trying to sabotage me to go back. And that happens to so many people when they lose weight. Their image sabotages them to go back. So they find themselves eating

Cheetos, eating a whole bunch of fast food to gain the weight back to match that self-image that they never changed at a subconscious level. I have two questions that are, because I know you brought us some books on the way in and it seems like you're a reader and self-owner. First, what was the thing or the spark that got you to get motivated to lose the weight in the first place? And then second, what kind of content or books were you consuming while you were doing this? And how did you know to even write those notes to yourself? The spark was going through a breakup with my ex-girlfriend. She she broke up with me and the reason I believe she broke up with me is because I was just overweight and unhealthy. That probably wasn't the reason, but that was what I told myself.

So I wanted to show her. I'm going to show her what she lost. I'm going to get these six-pack abs. I'm going to win her back. So it was very vanity motivation-based, which was fine because it got me started, but I believe it's not about the motivation. It's about the inspiration to find that from within. And then I just started to fall in love with training. I started to fall love with nutrition. and I started seeing these changes. And then, you know, I didn't have chat, cheap BT back then. I didn't have YouTube and I didn't have these, like your amazing podcast to listen to. So for me, it was like men's health magazine, bodybuilding.com, and just trying to figure

things out on my own. But I really just did some simple changes. I just started to eat real food, like single ingredient, whole foods. I started moving my body. I was very young at that time, 24 years old. And when I was doing that before the transformation, at 24 years old, erectile dysfunction, high blood pressure, high blood, blood sugar, 80 pounds overweight, explaining this to my doctor during my appointment. Never once did he ask me, what are you eating? Let's talk about your lifestyle. Not once did he

ask me that? It's so crazy because I mean, we've done, we've talked to so many people and, you know, and you get so many of that's like, there's so many people looking for like the thing, the quick fix. And it's, but when you hear real stories, like, I started eating right, started taking care of myself, started exercising, started crowding my mind with the right stuff. It's like, the answers are always there right in front of us. And it's, it's, it's, the The answers are simple. The implementation is really hard and the discipline is hard. That's right. That's right. And you know, that's the difference between motivation and inspiration. We've got to be inspired to make lasting changes. Not just motivation is external.

It's you need something external. Like I wanted to show this ex-girlfriend that which she lost out on. And then I started to fall in love with myself. I started listening and reading Dr. Wayne Dyer's work. Have you, have you heard Dr. Wayne Dyer? She's a big fan. Yeah. Every morning. Every morning. Me too. Me too. Every morning. Still? Every morning. Me too, Warren. This morning too. Wayne is in my back.

before my husband. Oh boy. I'm sure you're okay with that. He's in there with us. Wait, I listen to him like, I always get this word wrong. What's a, a sermon? Sermon.

Sermon. Sermon. Got it. I listened to like a sermon. A couple of vowels off. You almost could have gone on a different direction. Not a seaman, a sermon. Every single morning, I listen like, it's like,

it's so spiritual to wake up to his voice and his words. His voice is just so like angelic, right? Yes. So I have a, a book from Dr. Wayne Dyer called 365 days of meditations. So every day of the year, there's a passage from him. And then I just reflect on that. So every morning I read that, like this morning, I read it back in Miami. But during the transformation, I would read his work. And he used the word responsibility back then. He's like, you got to take responsibility for your health, for your life.

And I'm like, okay, that's obvious. But what exactly does that mean? I hear it all the time, responsibility, take responsibility. And then he explained it in a way that I never really understood. He said, responsibility is your ability to respond to life. That is your responsibility. And if you're the victim, if you're blaming other people, like I was blaming my slow metabolism and my enabling mom and my bad genetics, I'm going to get poor results. But when I took ownership and said, this, I am responsible, everything changed from me. And that is the starting point to great change. When you actually declare those words, I am responsible, which I did back then. And it changed my life. Ed Milet, he talks about the temperature and how when you lose weight like you did, you want to cool your

identity back to what's comfortable. Exactly right. Is that how you felt? And what was the aha moment that got you out of that? That's exactly what happens. It's like a thermostat. A thermostat. Yeah, exactly.

And it's kind of like, so there's a book called Psycho-Cybernetics. Have you heard of it? I have not. Maxwell Malts from the 1960s. And in this book, the author, he was a plastic surgeon. He was a world-renowned plastic surgeon. And this is relevant to your question, by the way. And he noticed that, so he would perform surgeries on individuals who had these wicked facial disformities,

who were they were unhappy, they were depressed, they were very self-conscious, they identified with that deformity. So he would perform surgery, and he would remove the deformity, and they would look perfect, like they were restored. But he noticed about half of his patients still were self-conscious. depressed and unhappy. They would literally look in the mirror and see the deformity, even though it was removed because they identified, their self-image identified with that deformity. And it wasn't until he changed that self-image that they changed their happiness levels and their health and everything

else. It's the same thing with our weight. What happens is when we start to lose weight, by the way, we don't want to lose weight. We want to release the weight. When we lose things, we try to find those things, right? So we want to release the weight. That's an important caveat in language. But when we released the weight and you're still identifying as the overweight person like I was, you will find a way the thermostat to course correct and get the weight back because you haven't changed the subconscious in terms of your self-image. So for me, I started learning about this through Wayne Dyer and Bob Proctor. So I wrote down the new self-image. I wrote it on the card and I wrote those words. I'm so happy and grateful. And then I wrote the new self-image of myself

and I kept reading it every single day, every single day to replace the old self-image because there's only two ways to change that, Lauren and Michael. There's only two ways to change that paradigm. An emotional impact is number one, which is like a death scare or you lose somebody you love. It changes the way you think. It changes your paradigm. That's unpredictable and usually negative. The second way, which is the way I prefer, is the constant spaced repetition of that new idea. You write the new self-image and you read it every day and every night enough times, third did 60 days until it replaces the old image and that's what I did. So say you want to become the best businessman on the planet.

Let me just using this as an example. To identify with that new person, you would write it down on the card and you would constantly look at it every single day. So you're almost brainwashing yourself. Yes. You write it down the present tense. I mean, I have a card right here that I carry with me. It's called a goal card.

And I have the biggest goal I want to accomplish and I have it written down in the present tense. And I read it and I feel like I'm already there. And I can tell you it sounds woo-woo some people, but I'll give you a story. Not to you. Not to me. I know you're into this, but let me sure. I would tattoo it on my ass if I could.

could. So last year, so this book, Metabolic Freedom that came out last year, six months before it came out, I wrote on a card. I'm so happy and grateful now that my published book with Hayhouse, Metabolic Freedom, is a New York Times bestseller. Now, I've never done that before. It's very difficult to make the New York Times list. Millions of books, only 10 books a week make it in that category. I've never done it. It's like so rare, right? I wrote it down, and I became that person before the book came out. I could tell you what I mean by that. I was being interviewed for a documentary a month before the book came out. And they said, Ben, introduce yourself. And I said, my name's Ben Azadi. I'm the New York Times bestselling

author of metabolic freedom. A month before the book came out. Like, if I didn't hit that list, I'd have to reach out to them and say, you got to remove that part. I recorded video celebrating hitting the list, paid my editor to edit them, got it scheduled into the queue on social media for when the list came out. So I acted as if. And then the list came out and we hit the list. We hit the New York Times list. This happens with New York Times. This happened with my dream house that I just got. It happens over and over and over. But you have to write it in the present tense. Carry it with you. I have my current goal card here. Read it every single day. And it's just a matter of time before it becomes a reality. And you're published with Hay House. Yes. Louise Hay. And Dr. Wayne Dyer.

And by the way, she says to when you say I'm losing weight exactly to what you said, you need to say you're releasing. To your point, for me personally, my entire life, there's people that I look to that I admire and that I, you know, look to as kind of like roadmaps. And the people in history are just people that are currently living. And my attitude is, if that's where I'm going, then why not just behave like that now? And I know it sounds strange and sometimes it can be perceived as arrogant. But my, I think what a lot of people do is they, they're like, well, I need to wait to behave that way or I need to get the credentials or I need to like get the permission. And my whole thing is like, if they're there and I'm going to be there,

as well just start acting like they act right now as the as the same way they do. Does that make sense? A hundred percent makes sense. And it may it may kind of like it sometimes look a little off putting to someone that's like, well, you don't have the experience, you don't have the credentials or why are you doing? I mean, we got even this show. Like we've talked on it for a long time now. So I think we have the credentials to do the show. But in the beginning, like, how can you do this? How can you speak on that? And my whole thought is like, well, if I'm going to eventually be this thing or get to that level of be that person, then I might as well just be that now. Exactly right. And eventually what happens is that. And eventually what happens is that.

That just becomes your identity. And you're kind of like, of course, that's how it is. That's who I am. That's it. Right? You're literally being an actor. Yeah, of course. It's different than faking it to you make it.

This is not where we're talking about here. You're literally acting as if. Because the acting makes you take the action to behave as the person who would do those kind of things. And then everybody sees you as that as well. They see you from that lens. Now, it's very difficult to do, especially when people are familiar with who you were. They'll laugh at you.

Talk about that. They laughed at me. I've been laughed at before all the time. It's like it sucks sometimes. And it's going to have. happen, but they don't, they don't see your vision. They don't understand what's happening and they don't have the faith. The bottom line is like, faith and fear are both two things that you cannot see, but you're choosing what you're putting your energy into. Why not choose the positive

route? And that word faith is so important to me. You know, Bob Proctor explained faith, like the greatest definition to faith. He said, faith is the ability to see the invisible, to believe in the incredible, which will permit you to achieve what most people think is impossible. That's what faith is, right? most people don't think that way. So you have to be so bold. You have to be so strong. And if they're not on board, I had to cut a lot of people out of my life or spend less time with them.

No, sure. I mean, it's funny because everyone has different people in their lives. So we have some friends that I'll use into dating that you like on the surface, you look at these people not because they're aesthetic, just the way they're behaving like, oh, they would never get this kind of girl, this kind of person. But because like they are the personification of they believe like, of course that girl wants me. Like, of course, like I'm going to get like, of course I'm going to walk. of like for some reason it works out for them.

And then you have the other, it's like you look at that person like, oh, that person's the person that's going to get everybody, but they don't believe they deserve it. And then they never get it. And it's just, it's this weird dichotomy where you look at this. And it's really like it's a behavioral thing. It's how people perceive themselves. And sometimes it's like, hey, man, you're delusional. But the delusion works in their favor.

That's right. Like I've seen some of my friends that I'm like, there is absolutely no chance you're going to end up with that girl. And they just walk over there. And it's, it's an energy thing. It's the person believing that they believe, right? And I think you see this in different walks of life. You see it in business.

You see it in sales. You see it in relationships. You see it in fitness. A lot of people that achieve huge fitness goals, they have these stories where, you know, that person's never going to be the next thing you know. They're like champions. That's right. It's the way you've, that's exactly what separates like musicians, for example.

Like somebody who's world famous musician, who's not the most talented, but everybody knows them, that musician sees themselves as a rock star. But then you have somebody who's even more talented who's playing in a hotel lobby and nobody knows who they are. And they're more talented because they see themselves as a hotel lobby musician. So it's the way you see yourself. I think I saw Tom Brady the other day speaking to somebody, I guess when he was, and I'm going to get this wrong, because I'm not a huge football guy. But he was talking about how he called his agent and was like trying to buy some house, even when he was sitting on the bench or maybe not even being able to draft. And the guy's like, what are you talking about?

You don't even have the job yet and you're like on the bench. and he saw himself as the person he is then, even before he had the role. And then all of a sudden he did it. Right. So I think mindset, and we were talking about this off air, plays a bigger part than even the tactics of like doing the thing. By the way, my manifestation is that you come back on the show more. Deal. Yeah.

And I still need to share my story with you, maybe offline of how I manifested a dream house recently. Well, no, you can still share that with us. You want to share that with us now? Share it. Okay. This is wild. last year I had no intentions of buying a house. Me and my wife were renting and I was good with that. And then I walked around my neighborhood. I live in Miami and it's a beautiful neighborhood.

And I see this incredible house and it had a for sale sign. And I saw, okay, that's really interesting. I'm going to go online and see what it looks like on the inside. And I looked at the photos and like, that's a beautiful home. So I texted my realtor friend. I said, look, I want to go look at this house. I have no intentions of buying it. I really don't want to waste your time or the realtors time, but I want to just look at it for like future dream building. And then I walk into the house and I told my wife to come with me and I'm walking around. I start seeing like my future children walking around. I start saying, okay, I could turn this backyard into a basketball court. I love basketball. I could turn this guest house into a studio.

So I start dreaming and I'm, and I leave that appointment and I'm like, I want this house. Should I pay for this house? That's the question. And then Bob Proctor came into my head and he said, it doesn't matter what the price is. The question is, do you want it? Do you really want it? And then I asked myself, do I really want it? The answer was yes. So I made an offer. Part of me was like, I hope they don't accept because I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into here, but they accept it. And then I had about 90 days to come up with a million dollars that I didn't have without like liquidifying things and finding creative ways like new income I wanted to bring it. I didn't want to use what I currently had. So I had 90 days to do that.

And I came up with most of it until two weeks prior to closing. I was about 180,000 short without liquidating things. And I really didn't want to liquidate things. So I'm in Tampa speaking at an event. and I'm kind of stressed. I have two weeks to close. What am I going to do? Buying a house is really stressful.

It is stressful. Yeah. So I met all the deadlines for the deposits on that. But two weeks. Anyways, I let it go. I said, I'm just going to let it go. I'll figure it out when I go back to Miami. And then I go to dinner that night.

And a friend of mine is at dinner. And he comes up to me and he says, Ben, I heard you're buying a house. How's it going? I have a question for you. Let's talk more about this. Let's go outside. So we go outside. And he's telling me how I've changed his life because I met him back in 2022 when he was going

through divorce. He was suicidal. he was obese and I helped him, like health coached him. He lost a ton of weight. He's now remarried. He's thriving. And he's telling me how thankful he is. And he's telling me he's so successful. He had $44 in his bank account. Now he's worth XYZ. And he's asking me how's going with the house. I said, I'm about 180K short and I have two weeks to close. And he goes, I'm just going to give it to you. What do you mean? You're going to give me a loan. We want to sign a contract. No contract. You want to pay me back. Pay me back. You don't. It's fine. On Monday, when you get back to Miami,

give me your banking details, I'm going to watch. to you. What's your friend? Where's the committee's number later? And you wired it to me. Wow. Wow. Like, because I committed to the house.

And Bob Proctor used to say, because they, he had a couple that wanted to buy a house, they didn't have the money and he goes, you don't need any money. And they're like, what do you mean? I don't need any money. I don't need any money. You don't need any money. You haven't made a decision. Why do you need the money?

Once you commit and make a decision, then the money comes and that's exactly what I did. And it came in at the two week mark of the closing. I don't mean to like annoy you, but this is where you say my wife is right. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is what I always say. As it relates to these kind of things. He'll stress out about stuff and I'll be like, it'll happen. I literally, he wants me to like have emotional residency where I get worked up over something and I don't.

No, my stress lives in the moments of indecision, really, like what you're just saying. When I make a decision, I'm not stressed at all. It's the indecision. It's the, when I, when I'm going to do something, no matter how intense it is, like, that's not what worries me. Like, if I'm going to go to something with the business or buy something, that doesn't, it's the moments of like when I'm not sure. That's my, that's where I like, I'm just like opening every drawer in my brain and slamming it and not knowing it until I can resolve that. It's stressful. Yeah.

Well, there's one more piece to this. And then I'm done. I promise. Please. I close in the house. We move in. It's a beautiful house. We love it.

Three months later, I got a text from the same friend. Coming out of my pool. Beautiful Monday. afternoon and he texts me. Ben, it's long text. Essentially, I'm sorry to do this, going through a lot of challenges with my businesses. And I need the 150, he gave me actually 150K. I need the 150K back, like, ASAP. I'm like, oh, I just got a 150K bill that I did not expect. And I had every intention of paying them back, by the way, but not so soon. And I didn't react. You know, my old version would have reacted. And I sat there. I'm like, wherever the money is, it's coming to me. It's coming to me. I'm going to

figure it out kind of like what you said. I'm not stressing over this. So I was thinking, where is the money going to come from? How can I bring in this new income to pay him as soon as possible? So I thought, oh, my publisher, Hayhouse. My books, you know, came out last year. I haven't been paid a royalty yet because I got the advance and the royalties come out later. So anyways, I emailed the VP of Hayhouse and I asked her, hey, I know my first royalty check's coming in a few weeks. I have no idea what that's going to be. Can you check accounting and let me know? She gets back to me, 12 hours later when she said $150,000, the exact amount to pay him back. That is very, very Louise Hay.

Yes. By the way. I know. I almost feel like she has a story that's similar to that. Oh, does she? It's not the same story, but it's like there is, what you just described is so Louise Hay, but people, they do want to call it woo-woo. How do you deal with that?

Because I actually like being called woo-woo. Like, I'm very into it. I am woo-woo. I hope no one forgets it. I am, too. But what do you say when someone says you're woo-woo? I say, if your way is not working, why don't you try mine? Even if it's woo-woo.

Give me 30 days of this woo-woo and let's see what happens. I love it. The thing is, like, I don't think it's a good strategy to be closed off to other strategies to begin with. You do a good job of that, Michael. Michael's open. Michael, as we've gone on, it has gotten way more woo-wool. Well, no, it's not that I'm way more woo-woo. I just don't see the logic in closing off strategies to your point that are and could be working for other people. Like, there's some people that say it's, it only can be done this way. Like, I have ideas about how certain things to be done. And then there's certain things. I'm like, well, maybe if that's not working, I got to try somebody else. It's like, I want to go through any outlet that makes sense and gets it done. I don't want to be closed off to different ideas. I think that's a really, that's limiting beliefs. Yes, 100%. I got to ask you about fasting. Please. What is everyone doing wrong when it comes to fasting and how can we do it right?

Fasting is the greatest health tool available to us. It's greater than any biohack out there, sauna, plunge, PMF. And I love all that stuff. I have all those things. But there's nothing that could replace the healing powers of fasting when done right. It's the greatest way to harness this innate intelligence we have within the body, this inner physician that God put within every single cell. It's with fasting, remove the interference, remove the food, remove the noise.

Now, where people get it wrong is that they don't understand that fasting is a stress to the body. And you might think, okay, well, then I should never fast because it's a stress. Well, no, that's not necessarily true. Exercise is a stress, but when you adapt to exercise, you get stronger. Same thing with fasting. It's a stress, but you want to make sure you adapt. Same thing with sauna and cold plunge. Same thing with every single biohack.

Exactly. So there's a principle called hormesis. Have you had a guess? No, talk more. I know, but talk more about it. Hormesis is a principle that states when you apply a stress or a human being and that human being adapts to it, you're stronger and healthier. Got it.

But if you don't adapt to that stress, then you're actually more inflamed. So exercise is the perfect example. If you're a couch potato and you go and do a crossfit workout, you did too much stress, you're not going to adapt, you could really hurt yourself. If you've never fasted and you're eating 17 to 23 times a day, you're a sugar burner and you go into a 24-hour fast, not a good idea. You're not going to adapt to that stress. So you want to make sure you're easing into fasting.

Fasting is like a muscle. Do you like prolon? It's a good option for people who are on a standard American diet. It's a great shift into the world of fasting. For me, prolon is a step back because I already do five-day water fast. I do three-day fast. I'm fasted today. I haven't eaten since yesterday.

I'm used to water fasting. To me, prolons a step back. But for most people, it's a good step in the right direction. How often are you doing these fasts? Like a long fast, like five days? Yeah. Once a year for five days. And today happens to be one of the fasts?

Today's 24, like 26 hours right now because it was a travel day and I never eat on the plane. I never eat at the airport. And then I want it to be focused for you guys. And I'm going to go to the Commodore after this and break the fast. Yeah. So, but a long fast is good once a year, like three days or longer. Only once a year. Once is enough.

I mean, you could do it once a quarter if you want. If you're really overweight, you could probably get away with once a quarter. But people fall in love with fasting and then they forget they also need a feast. You got a feast. You've got to eat enough protein, eat enough calories as well. It's very important, not just to fast, but to feast as well. And that's where people make a mistake with fasting. So when you break a fast, you feast.

Oh, I feast. What are we feasting on tonight? I'm going to have their bone marrow tacos. The best. I'm going to have their ribby. Okay. And then I forget what else they have, whatever, probably a whole bunch of other appetizers and a mottale. So it'll be a heavy meal tonight after the fast.

Yeah. But you won't have a cocktail. I don't drink. It would be a moktail. Do you not drink for health reasons? Ten years ago, I gave it up because it was taking me away from my goals. And every time I drank, I was a step or two behind the next day. And I thought it wasn't worth it to me.

So I set a goal that was a stupid goal. But I said, maybe not stupid. But I said, when I become a millionaire, I'll have my next sip of alcohol. But I felt like I didn't deserve it then. And then I became, you know, thankfully I was able to earn that, but I still didn't drink because I feel so good without it. So it is a health reason. I never had a drinking problem. But for me, it was taking me away from my goal.

and I'm so committed to the vision that I don't want anything that's going to take me away from it. So for somebody who, when you say it's one of the greatest tools we have for overall health, what are some of the things fasting can do for an individual from your perspective? So what happens inside of your body when you go without food for 100 hours, which is four days and four hours is incredible. There is not a pill, a supplement, anything out there that could do what this does, right? Okay, 14 hours without food. Pretty basic.

14 hours. You're done eating, let's say, at 7 p.m. And you don't eat until 9 a.m. the next morning, that's 14 hours. At that 14 hour mark, there are two benefits that happen. Number one, you lower insulin. Insulin is the only hormone that stores fat. So that means you're lowering insulin and you're actually getting access to fat for fuel. The second benefit at the 14 hour mark is your body has completed digesting your last meal.

And it takes a lot of energy to digest food. That's why when you feast, you feel sluggish, right? So what happens when you're done digesting food at the 14 hours? hour mark, a process called energy diversion gets turned on, where the energy that was used for being used for digestion is now being diverted to the brain. So you get more focus. That happens at 14 hour mark. 17 hours into the fast without food, 17 hours without food, your body ramps up a process called autophagy, which I'm sure you had some guests talk about, which is the cellular cleanup process. It's kind of like Pac-Man going within your cells, looking for damage cells and

eating it for fuel. Really, really important to prevent cancer and heal mitochondria. So that gets ramped up 17 hours and 24 hours into the fast. There's a surge in human growth hormone. Like us men, studies show there's a 2,000% increase in H.D.H at that 2,000 hour mark. Oh, my God. Ladies. Michael sold on the fast. Yes.

Wait, wait, what about for ladies? Go on. 1,300% for ladies. Human growth hormone is muscle building, anti-aging, and fat burning. And you could spend thousands of dollars getting injected, but you get it for free with it. And does that happen because the body recognizes that it needs. to keep the muscle on. Exactly right. The body's so smart. It wants to preserve muscle, which is very important. So it raises human growth hormone. So you're not breaking down muscle.

You're breaking down fat. Interesting. Quick break to talk about court furniture. Here's the deal. Moving season is here. You're getting that new apartment, that new job, maybe we're moving to a new city. But then comes the furniture problem. It's a total headache, trying to furnish a new place, trying to go out in furniture shop. It's expensive. It's not sustainable. It's not durable. And it's not something that you're going to keep forever. You don't know what you're doing. I know when I was younger, I was constantly on the move, moving different cities, different apartments, different places, and every single time the space required a little bit of different furniture. I wish I knew about court back then because

buying furniture is expensive, delivery takes forever, and assembling it, it's a nightmare. Every time they say it's easy to assemble, it's not. It's always a mess. What I love about court is court furniture rental gets it. They help people furnish homes, apartments, and temporary spaces without the stress, the waste, or the big upfront cost. Getting the apartment, getting the new place, getting the new condo, getting the new house is just one part of the cost. Then you have to furnish the thing. And it's expensive. And there's nothing worse than being strapped for cash just for a place to live. This is why court's so great because all you have to do is choose a curated move-in ready package or create your own custom package. You pick your delivery date and court delivers and sets everything up. So when

you walk in, your place is already done. It's ready to go, ready to live. And it's a rental. So you don't have to think about it when you leave. When you're done with it, you just return and stop paying and you don't carry that financial burden of having to go and store all that stuff, move it to a new place. And again, it looks great and is perfect for the space that you're moving into. The other thing that's so important to me personally, there's no assembly trauma, no furniture waste, and no furniture guilt. Like I said, don't have to keep anything. You don't have to store anything. And most importantly, you don't have to put anything together, which is a total nightmare. So check them out. Rent today at court.com slash podcast. That's c-oartt.com slash podcast.

Feeding my children is a whole to do. I am trying to appease all three of them. Bond will eat everything. Zaza will eat specific things and then Towns is probably the pickiest. So enter Little Spoon. If you are someone that has picky eaters, let me put you on to this. First, they have the baby stage. So this starts with baby cereal and baby blends when solids begin. First bites, first spoons, all of it. And they're all about making sure that the nutrients are there to supplement your baby. Everything is designed for the stages that babies are in made with simple ingredients. Then we have the toddler phase. So this is like biteables that are cut to size.

The puffs are the perfect snacks for toddlers. If you're looking for organic, simple ingredients, they have you covered. And then, of course, they have big kids too. So lunchers are nostalgic, better for you versions of the classics we grew up with, and have 10 grams of protein per meal. Feeding the kids doesn't have to be complicated. Little spoon makes it easy with real nutritionally balanced meals and snacks designed for every stage. It shows up ready to cut.

takes the pressure off and somehow still gets devoured. Veggies and all. No artificial dyes, flavors, or sweeteners either. And you know what? That is a win I'll take every time. Get 30% off your first online order at L-Spoon.com slash skinny 30 with code skinny 30. That's L-I-T-L-E-S-P-O-O-N.com slash skinny 30 with code skinny 30 for 30% off your first order. Every single day before I go to the gym, I make the same drink. It's so simple. and not live without it. You know what it is. Key on Aminos has to be the mango flavor. It's all nine

essential amino acids. It's caffeine-free, non-GMO, sugar-free vegan, third-party tested. I have told my kids that this is called candy water, so they think it's candy. But actually, what it is, is it's everything you need in a scoop, which is nine essential amino acids. So important. I do two scoops. I do a scoop of their creatine. I froth it up. I put it over ice and water. do a big cup, I take it to the gym. I do not leave home without it. Michael has copied me. He likes the mango too. So we're both mango fans. They also have watermelon. They have like a lemon lime. I think aminos are so important. If you're looking for lean muscle and you want to support your metabolic health and your physical strength, you need aminos. Everyone needs aminos. And what I've

found with aminos is I have found my hair is looking luscious and I've noticed that I have faster recovery. It supports my metabolism. This is a non-negotiable for me. It's a non-negotiable for my kids. They have to have it. I have to have it every single day. Sometimes you guys, I even sip on it all day long. So I'll take one to the gym and do one later. So try it. Let me know what you think. Kion is the premium option. It's transparent, research backed, clean, and easy to take every single day. Go to get kion.com slash skinny for 20% off. That's get kion.com slash skinny for 20% off. Just Thrive Gut Essentials bundle. We love Just Thrive products.

We've been taking them for years. So let's talk about the Just Thrive Gut Essentials bundle. If you've accepted bloat cravings in that postmill crash after eating as your new normal, I'm challenging you to feel better. And I'm giving you the cheat code. The Just Thrive Gut Essentials bundle. It pairs two clinically proven gut superstars, the Just Thrived probiotic, which we've talked about for years and have taken for years, and their new digestive bitters.

The Just Thribe probiotic is the only probiotic clinically proven to arrive 100% alive in your gut for a difference you'll actually feel. We're talking less bloat, better energy, and even clear skin. And then there's the new digestive bitters. It packs 12 science-backed herbs in one tasteless capsule that jumpstarts your digestion and supports GLP1 production so cravings don't control you. Together, they'll transform the health of your gut so you can feel like your best sell fast. There's even 100% money-back guarantee, so you've got nothing to lose. Like I said, Lauren and I swear by this company, we swear by this probiotic, and we love their

digestive bidders. From their award-winning probiotic to their full line of gut immune and brain health supplements, you really can't go wrong. Just Thrive is ready to help you live your healthiest life. Take the Just Thrive Feel Better Challenge today and save 20% on your first gut essentials bundle. Visit justthrivehealth.com slash skinny and save 20% off with promo code Skinny. See the difference for yourself or get a full product refund. No questions ask.

That's just thrivehealth.com slash skinny. Be the best you with Just Thrive. Is it true? You mentioned cancer. Is it true that if someone has cancerous cells in their system that the fast health gets rid of that? Yes, for most cancers because a lot of cancers fee off of sugar and glucose. So by fasting, you starve the cancer cell, the tumor with this energy source, which is sugar

and glucose, and then you're producing ketones, which I'll talk about more later. But yes, it works for a lot of cancers. It's really, really good. Now, somebody's really skinny and they have cancer. It could be difficult to fast because it makes them even more like they're caecic and you don't want to fast too much. So it's difficult for individuals who are very skinny and with cancer and they want to do fasting, but for other individuals, it's a valuable tool for cancer. Yes. 30 hours in. This is one of my favorite

benefits of a fast. 30 hours in, 30 hours no food. The brain starts producing something called brain-derived neurotropic factor, BDNF, which is like miracle grow for the brain, brain fertilizer. Have you any of you done 30 hours or longer? No. Didn't we do? No, we did prolon. Okay. So this is a feeling that's hard to explain, but you feel euphoric. It makes sense to me why every religion has fasting in it because you get connected to your source. And that is for a reason because the body thinks you're going through a famine and it wants to survive. It doesn't understand that I could go on my phone and order Uber Eats or go to my pantry. It automatically goes into this mode. And it produces, the brain produces BDNF so you're more creative and focused to

go out there and hunt and kill, but you're going to use it for like a podcast interview. I'm actually approaching that 30 hour mark. So I'm getting that BDNF. 36 hours into a fast, your body is crushing fat cells, you've now depleted your sugar reserves, and you're now only burning fat for fuel, so your body produces ketones. And those ketones tell your mitochondria to reproduce, and you produce 400% more energy when you're using ketones versus sugar, which is really really important because you're going to feel better. The next one is 48 hours in. This is called a dopamine fast. We live in a world where not only do we have insulin resistance, we have something called dopamine resistance. Dopamine is the chemical your brain produces to fuel.

good to have drive inspiration. And we are getting dinged with notifications left and right, processed junk food, all the stimulation, which requires dopamine. And we want more dopamine to feel the same way. So now the receptor sites for dopamine are resistant, meaning we don't feel as good. We need more of these stimulations. Well, at the 48 hour mark of the fast, this is super cool, those receptor sites for dopamine get resensitized. It's like a reset button. So you break fast and now you don't need as much stimulation. Maybe there's an addiction you have that you could wean off of. So 72 hours in your immune system regenerates. So you mentioned prolon. The founder of it is Dr. Volta Longo. He's been on the show. Oh, he's been on the show. Oh, fantastic.

He loves it. He was one of the leading researchers to show what happens to the immune system, 72 hours without food, where you get that maxetophagy and all these what's called synescent cell zombie cells are not being used for fuel. And then your body uses new, fresh stem cells to replace it. So it's a regeneration of your entire immune system, 72 hours without food. And then at that 100 hour mark right before you break the fast, which is four days and four hours, there's a surge of stem cells. And people pay for stem cell therapy, which is great, but you get a surge of it with a 100 hour fast. It's completely life-changing. So you waited to come on our show. Did you strategically set up the fast so you could come on our show and have a surge of stem cells

and then go eat guacamole? I strategically did it because I wanted to, feel good during the conversation and I knew I was going to feast tonight and it was a travel day and I don't want to eat while I travel. So I did do it and I'm metabolically flexible and I feel great. Hold on just really quick. It's been four days and four hours when you eat. No, no, no, no, no. It's been about 27 hours for me. So you're not, so you're not doing the full one right now. No, no, no, I didn't do that now. Michael just got sold on the fast. So, no, for sure I'm sold on it and I've been thinking about doing it for a while, but you're the perfect person. Don't be around me. Is it going to be an asshole? You're the perfect person to talk to. If somebody is, okay, take me, if I want to do this,

what's the best way to kind of, I don't say ease into it, but what's the best way to do it if you're just, if you're going to be your first time or, you know, and you don't want to like go five days right on day one. What's your longest fast that you've done just with water? We've just done pro long. But you know, I think when you were talking about just like, I mean, I could do 16, 18 hours, no problem. Like that doesn't sound like even like a challenge to me. With just water, you feel fine. Yeah. I mean, could I have coffee?

Coffee's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, water coffee. I could do that. I have one cup of coffee. But like that doesn't seem. And I imagine you're using like a clean source of coffee beans. Of course. Okay. Do you like Keon? Keon's great. Yeah. Yeah. So you use Keon. Yeah. Yeah. But I could do what. But so anyways. But if I say I wanted to do like 36 hours to start. Is that a good place to start or is that too much for them? If you're going from 16 or 18 hours to 36, it might be a little bit of a stretch.

Now you could go for it, Michael, and see what happens. I would do 24 hours instead. I would go 24. I would go 24 and then go for 24 to 34. and then 36 to the 100-hour fast. Can we text you if we're going to do this so you can give us the blueprint? I'm sure it's in your books, but I want to know. I'm happy to do that. And for people that are thinking about doing this, why do most people quit the fast when they're in it? Like, do they get scared?

Do they get nervous? Do they just, like, what is it? It's a multitude of things. So, number one, they go into it as sugar burner and then they feel awful during a fast. They're like, oh, my gosh, Ben explained it like all these amazing things were going to happen. And I feel like crap, like he lied to me. Well, because they went into it as a sugar burner. want to first get fat adapted. I teach that in keto flex, but you, it sounds like you're fat

adapted. I mean, you're not eating. Are you snacking and grazing? No, Michael, Michael's the perfect person. Yeah, it sounds like you're pretty metabolic effects. Well, you're, you're more of a fat burner than a sugar burner. So you're safe. And then the second part to it, why people quit, it's like a section, psychologically, it's weird to not eat food. We're so conditioned to do it. And, you know, your wife cooks, your husband cooks, and then you want to go eat. His wife doesn't cook. How many days? And you know this. How many days can the human, body actually go without food till you starve? Let me ask you,

what do you think the Guinness World Record is for the longest recorded fast? Let me guess too. 108 days. Okay. Am I wrong? Not 108. I'm going to say... I'm going to say, hold on. It was a good guess, though.

I'm going to say six months. Six months. Okay. 382 days. So I was closer. You were closer. Angus Barberies. His name actually wrote about him in the book. He was a Scotsman. He was 400.

150 pounds on day one, and he was 180 pounds on day 382. He didn't eat food technically, but he was eating from his body. He had all this stored energy, body fat. So he was able to do that long and the fast. So the more fat you have, the longer you could fast. No, I don't recommend doing one one year fast, but it just shows. Oh, his wife was probably like, get me the fuck out of here. Probably.

He's so grumpy. Okay. So now, now I'm like, if I can't, if I can't do 24 hours, I'm going to be thinking of Angus. No, you can do 24 hours. Let Angus and inspire. I actually think you could do three days. Now, technically this guy, Angus, just for the fact checkers, he had water, coffee, he had a multivitamin and nutritional yeast, but not really a meal.

Okay, but I mean, nutritional yeast? That doesn't count, right? It's not technically a water fast, but still, I mean, 382 days. And he was medically supervised. I looked at his blood work. Everything looked great. Still pretty impressive, though. Pretty impressive.

I mean, we're over here. I'm over here talking about it against a 36. You know what I mean? No, okay, so I'm going to go for, I'm going to do the 24. I'm going to work my way up. But, and I'll report back. But I think it's important to do this just, again, to our point, it's a yes, it's great for the body for all the things you listen.

But I also think it's like a mental discipline for people, especially if maybe you're, if you're bearing to a metabolically unhealthy place, this is a thing that it costs no money. You don't have, there's no magic pill. You don't have to spend it. You can do it yourself. You just got to have some discipline and mental fortitude. And that discipline does transfer to other areas. I'm sure.

And it's real quick. The best way to do a long fast, if you want my coaching on this, you can text me. You want to look at your blood glucose and ketones because that's an important gauge. And I talk about in KetoFlex, where you prick your finger, you put it into the meter. And you want to see your glucose gradually drop during the fast and your ketones go up. If you see the opposite, it signifies break the fast. Do you have to do that? You don't have to do it.

It's a tool, but you don't have to do it. No. You don't like pricking your finger? No. Okay. Oh, I'd rather fast for three days. Let's take a quick break to talk about just ingredients. Over the years, Lauren and I have become obsessed with hydration.

I know it's a big topic. Many people think about it. And there's tons of products out there that are trying to solve the hydration problem. Here's the problem. Many of these products have harmful chemical ingredients, artificial ingredients, things that we know we should not be putting in our body. This is why Lauren and I love a product we recently discovered called Just Ingredients Electrolites because they're made with real fruit and organic coconut water, things that

actually nourish our body. There's no added sugar, no artificial flavors, sweeteners or colors, and no sugar alcohols. It's got two electrolyte options, the everyday electrolytes, which is a three to one potassium to sodium ratio, no overly salted tastes great for the whole family, and they have their performance electrolytes, which is my favorite. This is for high intensity activity or days you sweat more. Lorna and I regularly do sauna sessions at the house. Sona is really beneficial, and you're sweating a lot in these sessions. It's so important that after you're rehydrating and most importantly getting that sodium replace. If you don't, you're going to get headaches, you're going to get

fatigue or you get dehydrated. So this is the one that I like after a strong sauna session. Regardless of sauna sessions, everyone should be hydrating properly. It's not just about water. We've talked about this on this show endlessly. It's about getting that proper electrolyte ratio. So if you've been looking for one that actually works with good ingredients, just ingredients has you covered. Of course, we have an incredible offer for our listeners. You can visit just ingegger.com slash skinny and use code skinny at checkout for 20% off your first full price purchase. That's J-U-S-I-N-G-R-E-D-I-N-T-S. Dot com slash skinny. Use code skinny for 20% off your first order. This applies only to full price orders. You deserve to feel good in your body this summer. That's why weight loss by hers now

offers access to FDA-approved We-GoV-Pill and We-Go v-Pen. Designed to help you lose weight and keep it off. If you've been waiting for the right time to tackle your weight loss goals, this is it. With Wigovi at HERS, lose up to 20% of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise. It helps you regulate your appetite, eat less, and keep the weight off. Plus, Wigovi is the first ever GLP 1 for weight loss. So there are no needles needed. Everything is 100% online through hers. You'll connect with a licensed provider who will determine if treatment is right for you. If prescribed, your medication is delivered right to your door. No insurance necessary. Weight loss by hers goes beyond medication by offering access to 24-7 messaging with your care team

and tons of in-app lifestyle and nutrition tips like recipes, meal plans, fitness videos, sleep content, and more. Ready to reach your goals, visit forehors.com slash skinny to get personalized affordable care that gets you. That's F-O-R-H-H-E-R-S.com slash skinny. For-Hurz.com slash skinny. Weight loss by hers is not available in all 50 states. WeGOVie is the registered trademark of Novo Nordisk AS. To get started and learn more, including important safety information, we go v clinical study information and restrictions.

Visit for hers.com. Thank God that Michael has committed to skincare. I mean, he looks young, he looks fresh, he looks glowing. And that is a big thanks to Caldera Lab. This is specifically designed for men's thicker skin. And they have this simple focus with products. It's just four simple products. It takes only a couple minutes, morning and night.

And it's like brushing your teeth. Once I knew exactly what to use in which order, it became a no-brander for me. It just became a real easy routine to start incorporating into my health routine, just like everything else. And what I think is so important for the men out there is that skincare can be overwhelming. It's not something we're taught as young kids. We're not really turned on to it. And so we kind of feel weird about it.

But with Caldera Loud Products, they make it easy and seamless and they make it feel part of your routine. What I love most about it, like I said, as well, is you feel good after doing it. Everything takes a couple of minutes in morning and night. But the best part of this brand is its clean non-toxic ingredients. You know how I feel about my ingredients. So I can give him these products and feel good about it. Sometimes there's a stigma around skin care with men.

But for me personally, ever since I started taking care of my skin, I felt more confident, I feel better, and I feel more youthful. Additionally, the hydro layer was also named Best for Anti-Aging by Men's Health Magazine. And you can try Caldera Lab risk-free for 60 days. You really have nothing to lose. And we have an incredible offer for our listeners and viewers. go to caldera lab.com slash skinny and use code skinny for 20% off your first order. That's caldera lab.com slash skinny and code skinny for 20% off your first order. Does my skin look tight?

I hope it does because I am wearing caffeinated sunscreen. It makes such a difference, okay, when you're applying makeup to have a caffeinated sunscreen on. This one tightens my skin, my pores, and it gives me a really nice, like layer to put on foundation. I also like how the caffeine gives you like a slight tint. It's so beautiful, so nice. I just went on vacation. We were in Turks and I was using the sunscreen the entire trip. And I didn't even have to wear makeup because the caffeine just gives you such a pretty

subtle, tight, tinted glow. It's just everything you want in a sunscreen. How I apply it is I use a beauty blender and I get the beauty blender a little bit wet. And then I take the sunscreen and I put it on the beauty blend. and I like tap it on my skin. And then I just brush up my brows. I brought the brow peptide here. And I'm good to go after a swipe of lip gloss.

That's all I need for vacation. But I also honestly like the skinny confidentials caffeinated sunscreen. Just under foundation as a primer. I use it all the time for that. So if you're looking for a great SPF that lays nice under your makeup, something with a little tint, you have to check out the skinny confidential's caffeinated sunscreen. It is 33% off right now. I would get two since it's summer.

and definitely grab the brow peptide while you're on the site. And like I said, just add some nice lip gloss and you are good to go. It will upgrade your sunscreen routine and you'll get protection while you're looking all glowy and dewy. Go to shopskinyconfidential.com and stock the products. That's shop skinnyconfidential.com. Why do most people struggle to remove that last bit of belly fat under the belly button? Because they stick with the same things that help them lose the first set of weight and you need to change it up for that last. last mile. That's what I'm doing.

You're changing things up? No, I'm doing what you're saying. Oh, you're stuck in the same way. Eating a lot of meat got me to, I had to lose 60 pounds three times. Pregnancy. Okay, got it. 60 pounds three times. The losing the weight with the meat and the strength training got me to where I wanted to be, but I'm still doing that and I have about 15 more pounds. So you would say to switch that up? Yes, switch it up because every great personal trainer understands that philosophy of adaptation, right? They always change up the workout to get change it to chicken. What do you mean? Are you doing carnivore diet? No, I'm doing, I don't do carnivore. I do a lot of meat. Okay, me too. Me too. I love me. Do you do carbs? Do you do

carbs? Do you do, do you do, do you do, do your carbs. Oh my God. I got to, I got to bring in my cycle. I don't even know when my cycle is. Well, I'll keep it simple for you. The week before your period is when you want to increase your carbs. Got it. Is when you want to increase your carbs. Okay. The week of your period, do the meat, do the fasting. The week before is when you want to increase your carbs. You might have to text me this. That's not how my brain works. What you just said, you might have to text me. So the week before my period, I increase my carbs. And the week of my period, I go more meat. Meat and fasting and strain training, because that's when, that's when, that's when hormones are low and then the stressors could be high. But the week before,

hormones need to be high, like estrogen and progester on. Well, meat's bloody. That's how I'll remember it. There you go. There you go. I know this is a controversial statement these days, but I as a man do not get my period. So what do I do? So men could be more aggressive. Now for men, I always tell them, I would tell women to revisit the fundamentals and make sure those are down pat. So sleep here. You want to make sure you're getting about 90 minutes of deep sleep and REM sleep every night. Do you get that? I would say normally uninterrupted, yes, but we have three kids under six.

No, it's not our other two kids. It's the baby. The baby's up a lot right now. And I'm up with the baby a lot. So it's... The baby goes like this and he's up. Well, I can't. I'm a light sleeper.

I'm like you, dude. My wife, she sleeps through everything. Yeah. She never wakes up. That's how I am. Oh, that's how you are too? Yes. There could be like, we could be robbed and she would not know what's happening.

If someone robbed me, I'd be like, just don't make me up. What am I going to do? I can't do anything. But that's why in our relationship, that's why I get up because I'm like, she's not getting up and I'm awake, so I might as well just do it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, you know, sleep as much as you can.

I know you have a new baby. Let's talk about something outside of sleep. Sprinting is fantastic for belly fat. Do you do any sprinting? I need more of it. I used to do more. No, I was doing it for a while really well. and I was doing the assault bike.

I got to get back into sprinting. I just hate it so much. And sprinting in a fasted state, even better. And it doesn't really mean you're spending for an hour, like 20 seconds or 30 seconds all-out effort, and then a minute and a half rest for like five rounds in a fasted state. You'll start to see that belly fat shred. Oh, my gosh.

Well, I know. It's the reason I ask it's like that last bit that everybody kind of complains about. It's like you get it, then it's that last bit. Before you go, tell us about keto flex. and then I insist that you come back in like eight months. Well, I'm writing a new book all about belly fat and visceral fat, so I'll come back and talk all about that. It's about 80% done.

It's actually my favorite book that I've written to date. This book, Keto Flex, is being released July 21st. It has a 45-day plan for how to practice keto flexing. So I'm a big fan of keto, big fan of carnivore, big fan of fasting, but not long-term ketosis, not long-term carnivore and not extreme fasting. So this teaches you how to get the best of both worlds, a chapter on how women do it, with a menstrual cycle, how post-menopausal women, and then how men do it. So it's all mapped out in a 45-day plan.

You get to understand what keto is. It's not a diet. It's a metabolic process. There's some recipes at the end. And there's a beginner guide and an advanced guide depending on where you're at with their journey. The link for it for free bonuses if anybody wants it is KetoFlexbook.com. I already make these pancakes for my kids. They're called mommy waffles.

Look at it. It's in here, except I do add. You didn't title it, right? You call it banana egg. They're called mommy waffles. You don't cook. I cook mommy waffles. And guess what?

My kids think I am the best cook on the planet. Michael Tell them. I eat the mommy waffles. They're pretty good, actually. They're pretty good. But I do instead of, and I want to know your opinion actually on this. I do ground non-glyphosicate. Oatmeal.

Do you like Casanova flour better? It says cassava flour. Yeah. Casanova flower and glyc. Do you like that better than oatmeal? because I'm going to switch it. They're probably even. They're probably going to be even.

As long as it's glyphosate-free, you don't have to switch it. There's only one brand that I've found that has no whatever it's called. Glyphosate. One degree. That's the brand. I don't know that brand, but that's great. That's great. This is amazing that I just opened the page to this because I make, I'm going to like show this recipe.

You guys have to go get his book. Mommy Waffles are in here. Mommy Waffles. I'm going to tell my publisher, we got a rename it on the reprinted edition. Sue your ass, right? This is really great. I really like the recipe section, too, because it seems like these are really easy recipes to make and not overwhelming. That's what I wanted.

And, you know, I don't cook, so I don't really care for recipes, but I wanted to make sure it had my high standards. And it was easy to make. And that's why it's in there. I think you're fantastic. That was a home run episode. Yeah, we could go on. There's probably a million rabbit holes we go down. You guys go get Ben's book on Amazon.

He brought both of them to us. He also, if you watched my Instagram story, brought me his favorite book. he says it's right after the Bible and it's called the science of getting rich. That's right. And that's not by you, but you love it. That's not by me. Wallace D. Waddles. There is. Wollos D. Waddles. There you go from 1911. I recommended chapters four, 14, and seven for 90 days in a row. Actually, at the end of this month, for me, it's going to be 365 days in a row listening or reading those three chapters and it's changed my life. Wow. Every day. Every day. I did it on the plane. Do you listen or read it? Mostly listen because of convenience, but I get more out of reading.

You know, I was going to tell you quickly, and I've said this on the show a few times over the years. But the reason that I can't listen to as many things that I can read is I read this book. And I was bad in school, too. But there's a book called Managing One Self by Peter Drucker. Have you ever read it? I know Peter Drucker. I haven't read the book. Okay.

So you'd like it. It's a small little book. Well, now you've got to get him. Next time you come on the show. I'll get it. But he was talking. He said that most people are either a listening learner or a reading learner. And the example he gave is when Dwight D. Eisenhower was the general of the European

armies and during World War II. He was, and I might get this backwards, because it's been a while, but he was incredible because he would basically be able to listen to all the, or no, he would be able to read all the reports from his subgeneral's to be able to figure out what's going on the battlefield and respond accordingly and just like crush it. Then he became president later and all of his reports from his subordinates were verbal. And he became like a disaster. Interesting. And it's, and it's not because he wasn't an effective leader or wasn't smart or intelligent. It's because the type of learner he was was different. And so, When I read that, for me, I'm like, oh, anytime I pick up a book or I read something, I can retain it and I can act on it and I can pick up the lesson.

But my whole life in school is terrible because I can't, I'm not the best listening. Oh, my God. This explains our whole marriage. I'm going to write you a letter. So what happens, if you write me a letter, I'll be good. But so what happens is when she puts the tapes on with, you know, some of the people she has, I can't, like I can't deal with. But then if I read the books, if I read the writings of these people, then I really like retain it. Okay. So it's good. You guys. I mentioned it because it's a tangent.

It makes total sense to me, by the way, total sense. Which is why I do a podcast where I listen to people all the time. Yeah. What a great person to be married to? It's different though if I can talk to people. Okay. So like if I interrupt some people who's like, oh, why is it interrupted on the show? But it's, I'm processing.

I understand. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But if you just were droning on talking about this, I'd be lost. Ben, you're the man. Thank you very much. Wait, where Instagram? What do people want to say?

At the Benazotti on Instagram. And then my biggest platform is YouTube, which is Benazotti on YouTube. Okay, I'm going to find you right now on Instagram. That was amazing.