#156 - Health is Wealth #2 A Biohacker's Journey: Sang Kim on Mastering Routines for Optimal Health

Imagine waking up every day feeling invigorated, supercharged, and ready to seize the day. Sounds like an idyllic dream? Our guest, Sang Kim, is here to tell you it's not. An ex collegiate wrestler, healthcare entrepreneur, and a passionate biohacker, Sang takes us on a journey through his life, demonstrating how he harnessed the transformative power of routines to elevate his health, wellbeing and lifestyle. We dive deep into the world of circadian rhythms, the importance of flexibility within routines, and the essence of weekend routines - after all, weekends constitute 104 days of the year!

Do you know that the secret to invigorating every cell in your body lies in your breath? This episode peels back the layers on breath work, as we delve into the groundbreaking technique developed by Wim Hof. This unique approach to breathing, coupled with diaphragmatic exercises, can dramatically increase oxygen levels in your body, boosting energy levels and overall vitality. We also explore practical ways to embed breath work into your daily routine, from peaceful walks to tranquil meditation sessions, and even machine-assisted methods for those seeking a more comprehensive approach.

But our conversation doesn't stop there. We provide actionable insights on optimizing your morning and evening routines. You will learn how to kickstart your day with hydration using Billy Beck III's innovative hydration formula, and the significance of timing coffee consumption. Sang and I also let you in on the science-backed benefits of warm showers at night and invigorating cold showers in the morning, and how these can significantly enhance your wellbeing. We even share the underestimated impact of a mere five-minute adjustment in your bedtime or wake up time. Tune in to the episode, and you will be amazed at the significant transformation small, seemingly insignificant changes can bring about in your life.

Wim Hof Breathing: https://youtu.be/tybOi4hjZFQ?si=61JpGjmu6MxYl-wJ

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:00

Hey, what's going on? I'm super excited for today. We are on episode two of Health Is Wealth with Jordan Edwards and Sang Kim, and what we're gonna discuss today is about routines and the importance of them and why we have to do them and why they can change us internally and externally. However, first we're gonna have Sang tell us a little bit about himself. What drew you to health? Why are you into this field? What's the importance of health?

Speaker 2: 1:33

Jordan. As usual, I'm so excited to be here today. I'm so passionate about health and you know a little bit about my past being a big, being an overweight, fat, obese, a Korean kid growing up in a variety store, just like Kim's convenience on Netflix. Right, that was my life. But just a quick background. Yeah, I'm a former physical and health education teacher in Canada. I'm an ex collegiate wrestler, a coach wrestling at the national level for about 20 years. I'm a healthcare entrepreneur. I've run seven marathons, four half Ironman trathlons. I'm a biohacker, I'm just, I'm so into it. And you know my kids. I got two kids that are right at the rock climbing, so they got me in a rock climbing and I'm learning how to manage that. So, yeah, I've been a student of health ever since I was, I would say, 11 years old.

Speaker 1: 2:40

Incredible and Sang. If anyone saw the video or heard the audio, they think you're how old 30?. How old are you actually Sang?

Speaker 2: 2:48

Yeah, I can say this. You know what I tell my friends? I always start and say that I'm 79 years old, and then I pause. And then they say what? And then I say, wow, actually I'm 56.

Speaker 1: 3:07

Yeah, and the best part about Sang is like I was with him a few years ago when we were at this hotel and we were going to grab breakfast. And I'm in New Jersey for the first time in a while and I'm gonna go grab the bagel and Sang goes. No, we just had an incredible morning playing a racquetball. We cannot grab the bagel, it will send you backwards. Do you wanna go to bed? Because Sang viewed food as energy.

Speaker 1: 3:33

I was viewing it as taste and not saying that it's good or bad, but it's just there's a lot of different things and why it's so important to learn about these different routines. So, sang, give us a little perspective on this morning routine, because we've heard about it. The best time I had one was back when I was it was 2020. And the other thing I want everyone to realize is like, with a lot of people working from home now, there's obviously people going in, but that commute time that you usually have maybe it's 20 minutes, maybe it's an hour and a half take advantage of that. That is to be taken advantage of, whether it's you pick up one of these habits. It's not saying, hey, you gotta completely change your new routine, but Sang's gonna explain the top morning routines and why that is. Because most of the time it's like do this, why no one has an answer. Just do this and Sang's gonna explain the reasoning behind that.

Speaker 2: 4:36

So yeah, just understand. Yeah, like, let's give some context before we start talking about morning routines and routines in general. So the human body is and you think about our bodies react to a 24 hour cycle, when the sun rises to when the sun goes down, and all of our systems react to this thing called the circadian rhythm. Right so? The circadian rhythm, if you look at it, what's the definition of it? Right, it really is all of these systems in our body the mental, physical, emotional, the organ systems, how our cells are being replicated and every cell has a circadian rhythm. And when you think about it, if that 24 hour clock is off, your body is off. Wow, right, so that means that if your circadian rhythm is off and your cells are dividing, and let's say you've had two or three weekend benders and you're sleeping not well, well, guess what? Your cells aren't doing their jobs at the right time. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:05

So just like a car engine. What happens if the timing is off in the engine? Does it work? Yeah. It doesn't work right.

Speaker 1: 6:15

And I love this part because most of the time we don't think about it. But normal routine most people are working five days a week, maybe Monday through Friday, just speaking about the general public, and then Saturday and Sunday they might let loose or change their habits. And this was me a couple of years ago and it's still me sometimes, but I've toned back the parameters a lot. Where it's, I usually am going to bed between nine and 10 am, nine and 10 pm, and then I'm waking up around like probably five to six am. That's just usually my ranges. Now, when I get to the weekends, maybe I'll stay up to like 11, 12, one the latest. But you end up getting back on that routine. So, like, say, you stay up to one and then you end up waking up the next day at like nine. Then the next day you go out again and now you're staying up to three in the morning and you wake about 11, that's gonna throw off your entire week. And that's why you think, oh, I don't feel good until Wednesday, like we're trying to eliminate all of that. And it was really interesting.

Speaker 1: 7:26

I was listening to a friend of mine and he was telling me how, instead of going out or drinking or anything. He was doing it one day a week, which is only Saturday instead of Friday and Saturday. And I started to sit there and I thought about it. If you just go out 52, like think about the weekends, saturday and Sunday Friday and Saturday are 104 days a year. That's a third of your year. You think a week? That doesn't make sense, it's two seven. I was at a third of your year because the weekends are 104 days. I guess it's like between a third and a fourth. If you cut out one day now it drops to a sixth. So that's a massive increase. That's almost 20% increase. And it's just getting back in control one day. And think about what have you got in control all the days. Now you're compounding on compounding, on compounding.

Speaker 2: 8:22

Yeah, I love the way you're thinking at Jordan, because it's small changes, right? Yeah, so instead of partying two nights a week, go to one night.

Speaker 2: 8:35

And here's the thing, right, and I've heard a few different studies but the circadian rhythm. Even if you're off your waking schedule and your bedtime schedule and you do it once some of the literature is suggesting that it takes two weeks before your circadian rhythm gets back to normal. Two weeks. So maybe you think you're feeling fine, but your body on the inside is messed up. The timing chips, the cells are off, your hormone systems are off, your waste management system is off, your sleep is off, right, you know everything gets messed up right. So I know it sounds ludicrous, but you know you function better if you get up at the same time, the best as you can, and go to bed at the same time, and then your body knows what's going on. Right, and ideally you get up when the sun rises.

Speaker 2: 9:41

Right, and this is Dr Andrew Rubin, get outside, see the sunlight and do your breathing exercises, right. You know, and we'll talk about Wim Hof and then we'll put in links to the Wim Hof would be one of the breathing strategies that could take you eight minutes. You know it's three sets of 30 deep breaths and then you could do a one minute hold between sets. But that in itself the breath work in the morning and that sunlight is a game changer. Yes.

Speaker 2: 10:17

Really, really is, because now you're oxygenating your body in the morning and reducing your cortisol levels, right? So getting on these routines the best you can. And then, like you say, I love that On Friday, don't go out too late. Yeah, go out one night a week. If you're young, so you want to get out there, right?

Speaker 1: 10:40

Absolutely, and even like I even have friends nowadays who will go out and they just won't drink, and then, when it's their time, they'll usually end up going back to bed at a similar time because they're not in place to stay out that long.

Speaker 1: 10:54

Now, the other thing that you brought up that was really interesting is the outside of the sunlight. So when I coach people, it's a very simple thing, but it's like, hey, if you go on runs, you'll feel better. And it's not because, hey, running is good, it's because you're getting outside, you're getting that sunlight and you're doing inherent breathing. It's not the intentional breathing exercises like we're going to dive into, but you see people as they go outside, as they get more air, as they get that experience. That's why, in the mornings, I try to go on a walk, and it's always the debate for me is should I work out or should I go on a walk? And it's like I do like a 45 minute walk in the morning, like I just do because it's so nice, because you see the sun rising and everything's changing and it's bringing it all together and yeah, yeah, that's.

Speaker 2: 11:42

You know. You're so aware of what's happening in your surroundings and yourself, jordan and I have to commend you on that. There's, I'm sure there's, tons of 50 year olds that don't have your awareness. So good on you, man. Good on you.

Speaker 1: 12:01

So, yeah, the thing is that and I want you to get out of this episode is that most people are very bogged down by their job or their responsibilities and I just want this episode, if you guys are listening to just be a wake up or maybe a reminder, or maybe a new perspective of oh, I could do breathing. It's eight minutes, I can do that, or I could walk outside. I have a dog or I can do this, like yes.

Speaker 2: 12:29

Yeah, yeah, you know it's interesting, right, it is like eight minutes and I would say, for anyone listening to this conversation out there, when we get this posted, if I could just do one thing, right, what would I do? And you don't have to do a lot, right and I've been thinking about this over the last couple of weeks is you can walk like most of us can walk, and so what I've been doing is that morning walk. I do my 90 deep breaths while I'm walking. I know people probably look at me like it's like fricking, I'm crazy, right, but I get my walk in, get the sunlight and my breath work, and it's getting a little chilly now, like I'm in London, ontario, and then I'm getting that cold exposure. So actually I'm out in shorts now. So now, and I'm getting that little bit of cold exposure, right, so look what's happening I'm getting my walk, the sunlight, the breath work, and I'm getting the cold exposure. So I'm out there in shorts and you know, just like, basically like a shirt. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:51

And I'm getting four of those things in one activity.

Speaker 1: 13:56

And this is why I wanted to bring Sang back and have this as a monthly thing is because I know it's very confusing and can be hard to do new activities Because it's like, oh, I gotta do this, I gotta do this, I gotta do this. How do you make it as simple as possible, like what is the easiest way? And it's like, okay, if you're gonna walk for four, like the way I used to walk is, I have Madison and it's our time to talk. We might talk about nothing, but it's a good way to connect. So it's how do you get the most valuable time out of the time you have? And so tell us a little bit about this breath work, cause I've done a little bit of the Tony Robbins priming. I've heard incredible things about the breath work. Yeah, and I'm not doing it currently, but I'd love to learn and explain why people should do it.

Speaker 2: 14:49

Yeah, let's look at this from the biggest macro perspective. Right, we have trillions of cells in our body. What do they need to work and function optimally? Every cell in our body needs oxygen, right? Yeah, that's fundamental to life. Yeah, if you have oxygen now, it goes to this whole Krebs cycle, gives oxygen to the ATP and then produces this energy in the mitochondria. This whole thing goes on. But oxygen how simple is that? And we have these amazing people like Wim Hof, and he's unbelievable and we'll put the link down right, and what I like about Wim Hof is that it's like eight minutes and what he Just to give a quick thing, saying just to give a quick for anyone listening.

Speaker 1: 15:46

Wim Hof is this guy I believe he's in Poland, I wanna say and what he does is he does these breathing. So he was very depressed after his wife passed away and basically what ended up happening was he was finding a way to overcome his pain and he started doing cold exposure and he was doing these bizarre things where he would like run a marathon in the desert with no water, or he would go outside and hike a mountain without, like, literally in his underwear, and it's just he's jumping around doing all these crazy things and everyone's like how are you doing this? And then he started showing people how and it was this bizarre thing because they were like the benefits, are this certain same? But no one knew Like yes, so I just wanna preface that who we all did.

Speaker 2: 16:33

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I mean you can go. I mean we could spend five hours talking about Wim Hof, but here's the executive summary on his fundamental technique right, His fundamental technique is inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth, and it's diaphragmic breathing, right? So you gotta use the lower part of your gut right, and not chest breathing, chest breathing and short, shallow breathing, like what most of us are doing when we're on the computer, right? So it really is getting these deep breaths in. So what he does is three sets of 30 breaths, right, so that's 90 altogether. So 30, 30, 30, but after the first 30, you're gonna hold your breath for a minute, right, and then you're gonna breathe out for another 15 seconds. But there's this 30, 30, 30, and that takes about eight minutes and it's on YouTube so we can put the link in. And if you're gonna do only one thing, you only have time for one thing eight minutes of breath work. And we're gonna talk about other types of breath work, and Wim Hof is one example. So I'm a curious dude, so I try out lots of different ways to breathe right, from different experts, right, but Wim Hof is certainly a great place to start for your part of your morning routine, right.

Speaker 2: 18:22

And Gary Brecht from 10x Health he's another fellow that's really pumping the breath work. He's helping us. You're giving energy to every single cell in the body and you're waking yourself up, right, and it's really wild, because when you start getting into it, you're gonna feel a little bit dizzy, right, and there's a number of reasons for it, but one of the reasons for that is that your brain isn't used to getting all this oxygen. It's one thing. So now you're stretching out the ability of your brain and other parts of your body, your cells, to receive the oxygen, because it hasn't happened in a long time, right. So this is a game changer. If you've got only one thing to do, all right so how long have the?

Speaker 1: 19:21

how has the results been for you and could it think about it? The normal person's probably waking up to an alarm, going hopping in the shower really quick if they get a shower in, grabbing their coffee and being like I'm gonna try to take on the day. So for you, like, what does this breathing exercise do differently to the body? Because most of us think we need things to wake us up, but it's we have our own breathing, like he brought up saying Gary Brecca has this $5,000 machine that you can use as a breathing tool and like a map that you can lie on and do all these other things. But he's like, if I don't have anything, I'm doing this breathing and the breathing is free and that's why I wanted you to do this, cause I asked, saying I go what is the biggest outsize returns? Like what gives way bigger returns than the amount of effort it takes? And this is yeah, it's okay.

Speaker 2: 20:24

Yeah, yeah, so, and I tell you what I've been experimenting with, right. So here's some different examples that the way that you could approach this right and what I would. You know what I like to do. You know, just to get you into this habit of breathing, what we'll talk about habit creation in a bit. But let's say I get up at 6.30, right, so I'm usually gonna go pee first thing, right, and then I'm going to either do my breath work right, right, right in my bed, right, or sitting in my chair. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:11

Or I'm gonna do it on my walk right. Or I'm doing my breath work while I'm meditating, so there's some options there. Yeah. Right. And then you can actually sort of rotate them too, because I like the variety, right. But what I would do is pick one of those, right. So let's say, okay, I'm gonna commit to going, for I like going for a walk and doing those deep breaths, because now I'm getting a two for one deal, a three for it's like four for one deal, right. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:44

Right, it could be a 30 minute walk right, yeah, so I like the idea of the walk with the deep breaths. See the sun come up, you wake up right, and if it's cold and you're into the cold exposure, you can do that too. If you don't want to, that's okay, right. Yeah. But you're getting the four. That's a really good way to do it, right, yeah, right. So now let's just go back a step. So you wake up, I go P and then I hydrate. Yeah. Hydrate first, before my breathing. Okay.

Speaker 2: 22:23

Okay so. I forgot that. So, hydration, why do you hydrate? Before anything Because overnight you're going to drift two, three, some people five or six pounds of water while you're sleeping. Because, remember, your body is still humming, it's still working and metabolizing and doing all this stuff, digesting, it's burning calories and also, because of the heat that it's generating, you're going to lose water right, yes.

Speaker 2: 22:56

So when you have water, don't just drink water, add some sea salt in it. Okay, why is that Sea salt? So when you have an animal cell remember grade nine, grade 10, biology you got an animal cell. You know it's like a circle. What circle actually has? Like two cell membranes. Right. And for water to get into the cell, you got to have this potassium sodium ratio.

Speaker 1: 23:26

You don't get into it.

Speaker 2: 23:27

I'll just keep it. Big picture, the potassium sodium ratio has got to be ideal. And then it transports the water into the cell. Oh, wow, okay. So. So US military I mean, they're out in the desert, the Iraq war, right, they always have salt, so they have to be biohackers. It's life and death. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:55

Right, some sea salt. So I would recommend sea salt. You know I'm not too sure about Himalayan salt, just because who knows where it's coming from? We don't know if it's true. But you know, celtic salt is supposed to be really good and I'm experimenting with that and I use a Costco sea salt because I trust Costco and they're you know the way they get suppliers right. So the hydration is really important and then go into the breath work.

Speaker 1: 24:25

Yeah. So I just want to add into the hydration because for myself, each morning it's you go to the gym and you don't realize that when you sleep six, seven, eight hours, that's eight hours of no drinking water. So like you might feel that inclination of them thirsty after, maybe if it's really hot in your room or if you had a night out or any of that, but you're dehydrated like 99% of the time in the morning. It's almost impossible to be hydrated in the morning. So it's key that you get that early water in and, yes, we can add the salt, we can go an extra level, we can do that. But if you just need to grab a glass of water and chug it, that's good too, because you'll feel much better. And the thing is, these are easy ways to feel better and feelings are super important because most of the time we're just dragging through the day and when you have that coffee, that's dehydrates. You Like little things to get optimized in a healthy, free way.

Speaker 2: 25:32

To make it simple for you yeah, yeah, and the simplest thing to do is prepare your water before you go to bed and have it on your nightstand your water bottle. I love that.

Speaker 2: 25:49

So you just make it a routine, right, and make sure you get that pinch of sea salt. Now, billy Beck III I mean he's like now. The reason why I mentioned him is because he gave us a formula that he uses for his clients. And Billy Beck III, he's this, he's very mild manner and he is basically the personal trainer for Tony Robbins and a whole bunch of professional athletes very low key kind of dude, right, and he's actually I believe he's a professional athlete. I believe he's trained the rock for four or five years, right, a lot of people don't know, right.

Speaker 2: 26:34

And anyhow, he gave me a great formula for hydration that he uses and it's unbelievable. So the formula is it's roughly about 30% coconut water, 70% filtered water and then a pinch of sea salt. Now I did the math on the racial potassium in sodium, okay, and there is a ratio that's ideal for the water to enter the cell walls and that mixture is pretty darn close to what's ideal. It's amazing and so I use, you know, here we go Costco, I'm promoting Costco, costco, organic coconut water, right, okay, and it's, it is, and I would kind of taste a little weird at the beginning, but you want to feel hydrated like nothing else.

Speaker 2: 27:41

And notice, I didn't say Gatorade or Prime or you know all these other sports drinks, because they have a lot of sugar. You don't want to have a lot of sugar in the morning at all, because all these sports drinks have way too much sugar, right. You don't want a sugar spike in the morning because you're going to crash in the morning very fast, right?

Speaker 2: 28:02

And as well for all the coffee drinkers you don't want to have caffeine three hours from waking, so if you're up at 630, your first coffee should be 930. And the reason for that is that the coffee will block right Different parts of the cell and it's not going to give you the right stimulation that you need, because it's just hovering up the fact that you're tired, right. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 28:41

Actually, it's better to wait three hours from waking to have the coffee. Wow, Right. So there's all this timing that you want to optimize your body. So you get up, go pee, hydrate. Do your breath work on the walk or during your meditation. You got breath work or the Wim Hof or the walk. Yeah, you got some good options there right yeah, and then you've got. I mean, that's an amazing morning.

Speaker 1: 29:15

Yeah, and that's the other thing that I want to bring up is most people are just thinking about the things they have to do I have to go do this, I have to go do this, I have to go do this and a good way to think about this is I get to. So it was talking about how do you make your mornings more fun, how do you make it more exciting, how do you make it a win Like something me and Madison did two days ago was we got in the car and we drove five minutes down the road and we walked a different area. It sounds simple. Most people don't do it, and it was like whoa, this is a new scenery, this is cool, this is different, this is exciting and it's not a big deal.

Speaker 1: 29:56

And I say this because to implement your life and to change your life is micro-distinction, it's two millimeter moves. It's not oh, we have to change our whole world. No, it's just, instead of waking up and looking at your phone for an hour, how about we go outside, do some breath, work, drink some water and explore? Like it's just these little distinctions that help a lot. Yeah, and they're helping me too, because, I'll be honest, I wake up like 30 to 40 minutes before Madison and I'm usually on my phone. My phone is my immediate go-to and that's because I'm always in the on mode. But that causes me to be very jumpy in the morning and throughout the day, and that's why I love having Sengom, because he's adding a new perspective. But I want to be honest with myself and the audience about where I'm at currently.

Speaker 2: 30:49

Absolutely, absolutely Right, and this is about changing these changes. Tough right, but if you have a mindset and let's talk about the mindset of these changes, is really that two millimeter shift right? This idea that, hey, if I could improve my health? My mindset 1% a month a day or a year. 12% can change your freaking life. Yes.

Speaker 2: 31:21

Right. So that's what we're talking about, right? So maybe you get up at 7 o'clock and you go OK, well, maybe I get to get up at 6 30. So maybe you can't drop it right from 7 o'clock to 6 30, but you dial it back five minutes a day until you get to 6 30.

Speaker 1: 31:41

Yeah, the other big thing, and the big thing about that that I realized was everyone's like well, if I wake up earlier, then I have to go to bed earlier. I'm going to be honest After 9, I don't know what productive things happen Very few, very few. No, because for me it was a decision where I'm like I'd rather trade in the 10 o'clock to 11 o'clock hour and I would like the 5 to 6 am back. That is the trade I am willing to make, and I say that because I enjoy the morning. I enjoy creating a day, making good habits and building these and feeling excited about my day and looking forward to it. Because we've even talked about we're talking about the actions it takes, but how does that carry you throughout the day? How does that keep you motivated throughout the day?

Speaker 2: 32:34

How does that?

Speaker 1: 32:34

change your headspace.

Speaker 2: 32:36

Yeah, yeah. This is a great discussion and we're not talking about doing a ton of stuff right now. We're talking about the basics. You get the basics down, you've got 80% of this, this Pareto principle. Let's focus on the basics and get this body in our mind or soul. Optimize to a high level. Like 80% is pretty damn good, because most people in North America and the world are operating at 20%. 93% of Americans have a dysfunctional metabolic issue. The way they consume and use energy does not work well. Type 2 diabetes is rampant and all of this matters. It all starts from when you get up and when you go to bed. Let's work on that. Let's work on getting a regular bedtime and a regular wake-up time. So maybe we should have backed up and said, ok, here's the basics, here's the structure, let's do that first here's what I'm going to wake up, here's where I'm going to go to bed.

Speaker 2: 34:02

And then, when we talk about routines, what you do in the evening affects your morning. So it's not separate. You know what I mean. It's actually continuous, so let's just call it a routine what happens to being the morning, what happens to being the evening, what happens to being the evening.

Speaker 2: 34:20

But what you do in the evening affects what happens in the morning. So let's talk about the evening routine, and the best one I've heard is 3, 2, 1. Simple to remember Three hours before bedtime. So let's say, jordan, you're going to bed at 10 PM. You are done eating by 7 PM. No snacks, nothing else, you're done. You're done Because if you eat close to your bedtime you're going to affect your sleep dramatically. You're trying to fall asleep. Let's say, you ate something at 9.30. And you're going to bed at 10. Well, guess what? Your body is now working overtime digesting your food, and it's not focused on sleep, it's working now. It's on working mode. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 35:14

Right, so three hours before, no food. Two hours before do the best you can to get off the screens. Yeah. And because that wires your brain and your brain's working right. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 35:33

And giving all this data and the stimuli right and you can wear blue blocking glasses, blue blockers to help with the screens and then, absolutely one hour before, you've got to turn your brain off and you shouldn't be working Right, you've got to turn it off your brain. So no more emails like by nine o'clock. Let's get into the Zen mode and your brain. We want it to chill out. Yeah, right. And for a lot of us that's a great time to maybe, you know, do some meditation Right. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 36:13

You know, and it could be like eight to 10 minutes. It doesn't have to be long and prepare yourself for bed. Yeah. So prepare yourself for bed and you think about it. Let's go back to when you were a kid. What would your mom do? Give you a warm bath? Yes, read you a book. Dim the lights. Now it's time for bed, jordan. Tuck you in Right, boom. We need to go back to mom's routines, grandma's routines on four-year-old, eight-year-old, jordan. Yes.

Speaker 2: 36:54

That slows things down, yeah, and then your probability of a good sleep goes up. I'm not saying it's perfect, right, there's always stuff going on, but we always want to do is increase the probability of a good sleep.

Speaker 1: 37:10

Yes, and I think the part you brought up which I was going to mention actually is like in the night you should be taking a warm shower. It relaxes you. In the morning, you should take a cold shower. It wakes you up. And these two things were very eye-opening to me because I'm like oh, do you always take a cold shower? Or a cold shower is the only way to do it? Well, if you take a cold one at night time, you might be a little up. But understanding these little things are big distinctions. The other big thing I'd recommend is and I think I said this in the first one but some sort of fitness tracker, because Sang's like oh, a good sleep. Who gauges a good sleep? You know what I mean. We have so many things to track, but if you wear a fitness tracker whether it's a loop, a Fitbit, an Apple Watch and anything they tell you your sleep score every single night, do you know at least that you're tracking something and that can help you learn about the direction that you want to trend in?

Speaker 2: 38:09

Yeah yeah, great point on the sleep tracking and great point on the showers. So let's dig a little bit deeper on the physiological changes of those two types of showers the warm and hot and the cold. So why the warm shower in the evening? All right, so this is. The science behind it is that we have a warm shower. Not only it relaxes you, then you dry off and then you're still a little damp.

Speaker 2: 38:46

So the warm shower, the water, is evaporating from your skin, taking heat away from your skin and cooling your body down. That's an important distinction. So you got hot water on your skin. It's evaporating, pulling heat away from the body, cooling your body down. And in order to fall asleep quickly, you want to be on the cool side, to fall asleep quickly. So you want to have a cool room, or 63 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal.

Speaker 2: 39:30

All the sleep experts talk about that range. It has to be cool. Now your significant other might want it to be a little bit warmer, but it has to be cool for maximum sleep. So you're going to have to figure out how to keep her warmer, like maybe she's got an extra blanket, and then you might have to get a cooling pad. So there's all these different technologies to get your body cool. So the warm shower cools your body down and your body needs to be cool to fall asleep physiologically. On the other end, the cold showers in the morning. That's important because you think about it, the body reacts and wants to get you warmer, so it stimulates the warmth, so you become warmer after a cold shower. And the other thing I love about cold showers and I've been doing cold showers regularly Jordan- is.

Speaker 2: 40:32

I know from taking my genetic tests that I have a dysfunctional dopamine gene, which is really I mean, it's attributed to a lot of people that have challenges with focus Right, ADHD and focus, but pretty much most people that have challenges with ADHD have a dysfunctional dopamine gene, Right? So let's go back to the cold showers, Actually increase your dopamine for up to like three hours. So dopamine goes up for three hours and then, as a result, your head is clear, you're more awake, you're more alive, and it's not a quick fix like caffeine. It's slow and my mornings are super productive.

Speaker 2: 41:25

So, if you're an entrepreneur, you want to get everything, all the most important stuff, done before like 11 o'clock. Yeah. And then you can almost chill out the rest of the day If you can create this focus time of where you need to do the most important activities.

Speaker 1: 41:45

Yeah, where you're taking the actions that you want to do and you need to do that. That's why it's tough when you have meetings in the morning or any of that like it can be productive and it can be helpful. But if you are able to focus yourself and show up and be like I'm ready to go, that's super beneficial too.

Speaker 2: 42:02

Yeah, yeah, and it's you know. These are things that everyone can use, right? Not everybody has a cold plunge, right? Yeah, you know the cold shower. Actually I find it's harder than a cold plunge. So Neil and I were in Lake Ontario last spring. It was 35 degrees Fahrenheit. The first minute was like freaking cold cold. But after the first minute. I could stay in there for three minutes, no problem. Oh, wow.

Speaker 2: 42:40

Right, no problem. Now, really, three to six minutes is where a lot of the scientists have focused their time and you're getting really good benefits. Three to six minutes you don't need to go too far longer than that. But the cold shower. You've got millions of droplets of water hitting you. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 43:02

So it's a different experience. It's actually harder because you're getting beat down by millions of drops of water hitting you instead of being in this cold, and you're sort of like it's actually more comforting in a plunge. The plunge is easier. That's what I'd say For me anyways, for me.

Speaker 1: 43:23

Yeah, absolutely. I mean it's interesting. So the things that I wanted to discuss and we discussed today are all free items. They're free things, they're free actions. It's the breathing, it's the water intake in the morning, it's the type of shower you take, and it's not you have to change your whole life, but it's these little things. So saying I know there's one more thing that you wanted to discuss about regarding social media is emails. When do you think about approaching that? In the morning, like when you go about it, because sometimes it's we use our phone as an alarm clock. Is that wrong? Yeah, like it can be very challenging. How do you think about all this? Like I have? Like for me, for example, I know it's my, it's on me because I have my phone and I have sleep mode, quote unquote, from 10 to 7 am. Yeah, does that mean that I can click on the app and open it? Yes, but it means that I have an awareness. So it's not me waking up to everything that I'm approaching that day.

Speaker 2: 44:28

Yeah, I love, I love what you said there. You know the sleep mode is important, right, and you know, and it's everything is in context, right. So it depends on you as a person. So if you're the kind of person that is having a lot of difficulty looking at your phone, right, you got to put it somewhere else, put it in the kitchen, so it's harder to grab it, so there's friction involved to getting your phone. So if you don't have the discipline right now, I would say get it out of your bedroom and then use an old digital clock or a clock with batteries, with hands in it, and you probably don't even know what those are, right, like you've never seen them before.

Speaker 1: 45:23

But the thing, the thing I love that you just brought up and you don't even think about it. But we're talking about how to remove friction. Yeah, with our daily habits already we remove fiction. Like leaving our phone next to it makes it easy to accessible, going to the gym in the morning easier when you're wearing gym clothes to bed. Like these are all little things that are like that friction reduced, friction reduced. So it's what habits are you doing today? Like do you not know where your clothes are? Like if your clothes are everywhere, then you're going to have an issue. You don't know where your gym shirt is, if you don't have running shoes, we're going to have an issue. Like these are little things, but that's talk. Talk about that, actually, because we got 10 minutes left and I'd love to discuss habit.

Speaker 2: 46:07

Yeah, you know what?

Speaker 1: 46:11

One thing at a time, but this is, like, maybe the most important part.

Speaker 2: 46:14

Yeah, it's like okay, I love what you said. Like if I want to ensure that I'm going to go to yoga, right, like I love doing lots of different things, right, yeah. So the night before I have all my yoga gear out on the bed right or on the side table, it's all ready. Yeah, and let's say, you do yoga at six o'clock in the morning, right yeah? So, I'm up at five and. I'll have a sleep. You know, there's a moment where I don't want to go to yoga.

Speaker 2: 46:51

There's that moment, right. So what I say to myself is saying any freaking guy, any jimoki you know it's an old term, I don't even know what that means but any jimoki can go to yoga for four minutes, right. So that stops the friction. Right there my brain goes.

Speaker 1: 47:10

I don't want to go to yoga.

Speaker 2: 47:11

I don't want to go to yoga. Four minute yoga, four minute rule. And then I get up, oh hey, my shorts are there. That's easy. I just put my shorts on, I get my shirt and my shoes are right there, and then, on my pathway to the front door, is my bag. It has everything in it. Yes, my shirt bottom, my towel and my yoga mat is on top, and I have my keys. I could do this in my sleep my keys and my wallet in the same place, and I can just pick them up on the way there, and then my bag is there. Then I go to my car. You see how there's less friction, like my pathway to my car is all set up, so I don't have to think about it.

Speaker 1: 48:01

It's a process and this is developed the night before. Yes, so when we think about new habits and new ideas, when you wake up in the morning, it's not like, oh, it's 5.30 in the morning, yoga would be fantastic today. No, it's like the night before. You're like I'm going to yoga, I already signed up for the class. There's a $10 cancel fee. Yeah, you're just doing whatever it is, but it's. These plans are made the night before. And if you want to be like I'm a spontaneous person, that's fine. But with intentionality, you're going to get a lot more done in the morning.

Speaker 2: 48:38

Yeah, I really believe you set up your life, so it's not hard, it's not challenging, it's easy to be successful because you set yourself up for success. Yes, I, performers have systems and processes for everything in their life, right? Yes, and then they can just do it over and over and over again, effortlessly.

Speaker 1: 49:11

Yes, so like, for example, just so everyone knows, this podcast, us recording this saying is the one bringing the knowledge, I'm the one who adds a little of my input and host but I'm the one who's bringing the recording of the podcast, cutting up the clips, putting it out, because I'm so used to doing that. I do it with all my podcasts every single week. Saying that's not as an area, so as area is hey, I've been in health for 45 years, jordan. I know a thing or two. I can help the audience, which is why I bring them on, because I'm like doesn't matter to me, I just love getting the new information and it's a wake up call for me. So I want you guys to know that I'm doing this so I can learn, because saying is bringing a lot of valuable insight.

Speaker 2: 50:05

Yeah, yeah, and we talked about creating less friction, right Even from that four minute rule. I still use it today and it's when your brain goes can you swear on this show? Yeah. Do your thing. Yeah, you know when your brain goes oh, I don't fucking want to work out, right. And then the other side of me says, saying it's only four minutes. Any fucking jimoku can do four minutes, right. So there's this battle in your head, right? Four minutes in my brain is easy. So I tricked my brain.

Speaker 2: 50:46

It's a easy rule that I created. It's not a hard rule, it's an easy rule. And then I get through the friction of this negative brain. Right, I never want to get up early, right? Never do I jump up and say I want to get up at five o'clock. But I know the process, I know how this game works. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 51:10

Right, so you gamemify it right. So what if you say every time you don't want to work out and you say, okay, you know what, I don't feel like working out, but you know what? Four minutes I'm going to go for a walk, for four fucking minutes? Right. Guess what? You go out for four minutes. You feel better. Oh, I can do another four minutes, and then four minutes. All of a sudden you're at 45 minutes. Yes.

Speaker 2: 51:36

Right. So we all can do that. Whatever that number is, I just chose four, you know, even right, but more importantly, I believe in the four minutes. Yes. I believe it because it works. I've attached meaning to the four minutes to say that's my rule. So create your easy rule to overcome that monkey brain.

Speaker 1: 52:01

That's stopping you. Yeah, the other thing I would add is it's not even it's a rule, but it's more of a question you ask yourself, Like another one could be do winners not have a hard life? Do winners have an easy life? And it's like if you want to be a winner, you know winners have to do hard things. So like I'm going to do the hard thing, and it's these little questions that you ask yourself, because you know what you want to do and in the morning we're so malleable, like we can change our head space and we can change everything. And that's why most people, if they and then you get in the routine of doing these activities day in, day out and you're feeling better, you're going to want to do it more, like it's just inherent. We always do that and it's always the case. It's all that to be true. When I did 75R. Yeah, we always have that experience.

Speaker 2: 52:52

Yeah, and if you take your hormone test right. So there's some great hormone tests and this has to do with the morning routines and we're going to relate it back physiologically. So physiologically cortisol or the stress hormone. Yes rises in the morning. Yes.

Speaker 2: 53:10

So there's this hormone test called the Dutch test, right, and then you've got to take it in the morning and it's a urine test morning, noon and afternoon, evening, right, and then you can see the hormone. So when you start testing and doing assessments on yourself, you go oh my gosh, stress levels are high in the morning. Yes.

Speaker 2: 53:34

Because that's a physiological change that occurred to back when we were evolving as human beings, that we had to wake up. Or when the sun rose, us cavemen. We had to wake up, otherwise we were going to get eaten by the Saber II Tiger. So evolution will say we got to put stress up. So you wake up? Wow, well, with toluen drops when the sun hits your skin. Yeah. Horses go up and you better freaking wake up, or otherwise you're getting eaten. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 54:06

So we know that. So we have to manage your stress in the morning. And back to the social media. Social media causes more stress. Looking at your emails in the morning causes more stress. Well, your stress is high physiologically. Why are you stressing yourself out even more? You're going like this right Now. It's not low stress. You multiply it.

Speaker 1: 54:32

And the biggest thing about that is and we have a few more minutes left but the biggest thing about that is that it's external stress. So you wake up, you're internal, you are one, you're with whoever you are with, but when you enter that phone, when you enter that email, when you enter that social media platform, you have to remember that it's external. It's other people deciding things for you, Meaning that they are maybe having requests, they are having questions, they are having stuff, but that is all external and you have to make sure that your internal is ready to take on the day.

Speaker 2: 55:08

Yeah, and that's well said, jordan, well said. And if you look at it and you say, ok, if I get up at 6.30 or 6 o'clock, what's sort of like a good rule of thumb Absolutely do not look at your phone in the first hour of waking up, for sure, like waiting an hour would be really tough, but necessary. Get your body awake. Do these morning routines that fuel you that we talked about, the hydration, meditation, breath work, going for that walk. Some people, like I, like working out in the mornings too. So that's why you got to get up earlier, because you got to do all this stuff.

Speaker 1: 56:04

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 56:08

And then you feel amazing, and then you get a better chance of being in a beautiful state. Yes.

Speaker 2: 56:19

And why we talk about beautiful state? Because really I was at a meditation session with Sri Prithaji and she's like a world leader in transforming 80,000 human beings into enlightenment. She's from India and it's just unbelievable. She's just like we'll put that link into her meditations as well. It's just phenomenal. And she reminded me at her session it was in Toronto on the weekend that you either live in a beautiful state or a stress state, right. So you choose Right. And if you're always in a stressful state, your cortisol levels are high, your stress is high and that stress is causing inflammation in your body. And whatever is happening in your body, your joints, your skin, all the itis, inflammatory responses, colitis, all of these inflammatory things happening in the body get accelerated. Yes.

Speaker 2: 57:31

Living in a beautiful state. You're not creating more stress in your body and that's aging you, that's causing cancer, that's causing more inflammation, arthritis, the whole bunch of stuff, right? So it really is all about focusing in on what's great in your life and being grateful and being focused on all these beautiful emotions.

Speaker 1: 58:03

Yes, and all the abundance that we have, and I think that that's a great way to conclude this is we've talked about the habits, we've talked about the free exercises, we've talked about the things, but something for myself that's always helped me is that we can't be angry and grateful at the same time. So it's choosing gratitude. There's a lot of stress in the world, there's a lot of scary things, and it's just if we can choose gratitude, it will help us be in that beautiful state that Sang just mentioned and it will really take us to the next level. So, sang, I'm so pumped for episode three. It's going to be coming very soon. Tell us, is there any last things that you want to leave the audience with? This has been incredible.

Speaker 2: 58:49

Yeah, the quick summary would be wake up, go pee, hydrate and the breath work. There's different ways you can do the breath work, but we'll keep it at the breath work, all right, and let's leave it at that. And there's a whole bunch of other stuff that you can do, but let's start small, right, start small. Create a four minute rule to get over your monkey brain. Use a calendar that you can see and write down every day that you do that new task, because if you can see it, it helps and I've got a 21 day rule.

Speaker 2: 59:34

From anything I want to create a habit. I know I do it 21 days in a row. It's a habit, it's in me. Right. Right, and then think about 1% improvement a month. Yeah, that's powerful. It's not too big, two millimeter shifts. Yeah. Right and be grateful to be alive, be grateful for your partner. Yes, and focus on what's great right now.

Speaker 1: 1:00:06

Absolutely, absolutely Sang. Thank you, this is incredible.

Speaker 2: 1:00:12

Namaste brother.

Speaker 1: 1:00:14

Namaste.