Well, this is different. Instead of me being the interviewer, I am the interviewee.
Valeria Teles, of the site fitforjoy.com, interviews me and we touch on lots of fascinating subjects, from fitness and nutrition, to mindfulness and meditation.
Tune in to hear the "Traffic Analogy" of meditation, how to be a Zen master, a little debate on the ratio between carbs fats and protein, the worst fitness advice ever given in the United States, and more.
Enjoy!
See all episode artwork, links and notes at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Well, this is different. Instead of me being the interviewer, I am the interviewee.
Valeria Teles, of the site fitforjoy.com, interviews me and we touch on lots of fascinating subjects, from fitness and nutrition, to mindfulness and meditation.
Tune in to hear the "Traffic Analogy" of meditation, how to be a Zen master, a little debate on the ratio between carbs fats and protein, the worst fitness advice ever given in the United States, and more.
Enjoy!
See all episode artwork, links and notes at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
[inaudible].
Speaker 2:Hello, welcome to the podcast. In this episode we're going to turn the tables and play recording for you of me being interviewed by another podcast or Valyria. Telez is her pen name and she has a website called fit for joy.com. It's actually a really excellent site. She's interviewed a lot of interesting people. She's kind of on a quest for meaning and the relationship between mental health and physical health. And it was a really interesting interview. She asked me a lot of great questions. We touched on everything from what is fitness and is there such a thing as being too strong or too fit training versus exercising what it means to be dedicated, how to get more dedicated, uh, motivation versus dedication. Uh, she asked me a lot about my mental training and mindfulness and meditation practice and it was just a really fun discussion and hopefully you'll pick up a few tidbits in here. She asked some great questions. It was a fun conversation and there's some things in here that I haven't explored on my own podcast. And so a interesting conversation. I hope you enjoy this interview with me. And malaria at fit for joy. Here we go.
Speaker 1:[inaudible]
Speaker 3:in your own words, who is David Sherwin.
Speaker 2:Wow. Uh, that is a big question and I don't want to take too long with it. So in my own words, who is day sharing? Well, I am a fitness buff. It's kind of even where I make my living now. So I do love the health and fitness industry. I am a family man. I am happily married for 30 years with six children. I have a very big family, and that is where most of my joy comes from, is my children. And I have three grandchildren, which is, uh, even more fun than children because less work, lots of fun, right? So, uh, I love to golf. Um, I'm an entrepreneur. I owned my own business. Um, uh, we sell dietary supplements@darabi.com which I also absolutely love and fits in with my health and fitness, uh, lifestyle. And so I am a fitness buff. I am, I'm very recently in my life, uh, big into mindfulness and meditation, which I hope we get to talk about here. I'm sure we will. Yes. And, uh, so you know, a family man, an athlete, a competitor, entrepreneur. Those are some of the words I'd use to describe myself.
Speaker 3:That's wonderful. Thank you. So my official first question is what is to be healthy in your opinion?
Speaker 2:Well that is a really interesting question and I don't think there's any one right answer. So let me just tackle it with a few thoughts. Yes. I would say number one is to be disease free. And a lot of people don't think about that when they think about health, they think, uh, you know, if you're young you might say you might not see any further than having six pack abs. Um, and that's what they think of fitnesses is the pictures they see on Instagram. As you get older, you start to appreciate your health after you've had some health setbacks. I think that's when you really start to mature and what you think about health. And so I would say that simply avoiding the negatives in health is really number one, which is often done through prevention, but sometimes cannot be helped. I mean my heart goes out to those people that have been in a car accident or have genetics that have led them to have a disease or those types of things. And so those of us that enjoy good health cannot take it for granted and we've got to do everything we can. And of course those people who have challenges also still want to have the very best health that they can have. So being disease-free is, is one part of it. Um, being fit I think is an important part of it. Uh, for example, the American Heart Association says that if you're over 20 pounds overweight, your risk of cardiovascular problems are multiplied versus those people that aren't overweight. So that doesn't mean six pack abs, right? If you're 10 to 15 pounds overweight, you could be considered very, very healthy. And so there can be too much stress put on looks for health for sure. And yet in our society, I'm also seeing the other kind of pushed to where we're trying to make people feel good about unhealthy lifestyles. And I'm, I'm, I'm really conflicted about that because we certainly don't want to body shame anybody. And we do understand when people struggle with weight issues and so, so that's part of it as well is trying to understand that we want to be as close to our ideal body weight as possible given our genetics and our goals. Another part, another really important thing that comes to mind when you answer, ask the question, what is health? It really is personal. It depends on your personal goals. I have participated in, in uh, athletics my whole life. And so for me, my standard is quite high. It involves performance. I want to be able to lift a decent amount of weight. I want to be able to run, I want to be flexible. Um, I've done a marathon, I've done many triathlons. I even did the national championships in triathlon and that took a tremendous amount of dedication. I was training 15 hours a week, but I had a big goal. So for me, health is probably compared to the norm out there, probably very, very high. What my personal standard is because I want to be as healthy fit as long as I possibly can. So those are some of my thoughts on it. And again, I don't think there's a one right answer. So for those listening, it's really a great question. That's something they would ask themselves because not many people want to participate in the national championships in triathlon, right? Sure. So I would save whoever's listening to answer the question would be, what are my goals? Part of part of it, for me as longevity, I picture myself playing good golf in my nineties and that's kind of my, my longterm seeing myself walking 18 holes of golf and, and still being healthy and fit and probably have slowed down quite a bit. Um, but hopefully not in a wheelchair. Right? I want to, I want to age well and, and gracefully and be fit right to the end. So those are some of the thoughts I have.[inaudible]
Speaker 3:would you say that to be healthy it's also to be free of mental distress and negativity?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And as a matter of fact, that's really where our health flows from. Right? Like when a person wakes up in the morning and they'd want, they'd gone to bed the night before by setting the alarm going, I'm going to get up at 6:00 AM and I'm going to go to the gym. The alarm goes off at six o'clock in the morning and from their brain comes to thought, I don't feel like going to the gym anymore. I feel like lying in bed for another hour.[inaudible] well, that's happening in their consciousness. Right? So what's happening in their consciousness is going to determine whether they go to the gym, whether they have a healthy breakfast or whether they have coffee and a doughnut and so on. So yes, at that very simple level of the decisions we make all flow from what we think. Right. And then of course, yeah, mental health and wellness, uh, we're all learning as a society. I think more and more about it and we're getting more mature as far as dealing with people who have, um, uh, situations like depression and, and, uh, eating disorders and, and you name it. There's many things in society that we used to be very, very judgmental about and kind of maybe even thinking, well, what's wrong with you? Just, you know, don't do that. Or you know, um, we, we think depression is just something a person can just, you know, change their mind about, hey, have a more positive attitude. Right? So we're learning much more than we used to know about that. But absolutely. Uh, our, our, our caught in, in the end, all we really have is our consciousness and the contents of our consciousness and how well we will work with that and use that to then make our decisions, uh, is going to determine the quality of our life. And so to me, the answer's a big yes. The entire quality of our life flows from our mental health and our consciousness.
Speaker 3:Mm. Yeah, I believe that very much. You talk about high levels of fitness. So, um, I have, I guess I have three questions for you and then what is to obtain a high level of fitness? First question. Second, are you there? And third is at a sustainable level.
Speaker 2:Really good questions. So for me, I, I hang with a pretty fit crowd and that really helps me in. So I, I do have some benchmarks to go by in terms of what fitnesses is for me now, am I at the highest level of fitness for my age? I'm really not. There's people at my age, I'm 53 years old. There's people who could do extraordinary feats in, in the fitness world of either strength or endurance, whether it's triathlon, whether it's running marathons, those types of things. So I would not consider myself an elite athlete. What I am is an enthusiast, someone who, uh, I exercise every day, seven days a week. I tone it down. For example, yesterday I did a very heavy hard hour and 15 minutes in the gym. Uh, this morning I did Tai Chi and then I did yoga, right? So, uh, I, I very much work in hard work with recovery and um, and flexibility and all those benefits that come from more mindful practice. Yeah. And so I consider myself fit. I am quite fit. I'm at my die ideal body weight. I'm fairly strong. I'm stronger today than I've ever been in my life. Um, it's just a few months ago, I dead lifted 405 pounds. Uh, when I was 25, I, I could maybe deadlift 250. Uh, so I'm actually physically stronger right now than I've ever been in my life. Now maintenance though, your, your last part of your question I think is a really, really important one because I don't take risks anymore. As a matter of fact, that 405 pound dead lift I did is the last very heavy deadlift I will ever do. I did it. I'm happy I did it and when it was done I was like, ah, you know what the, the chances of of injury from this are are high if I carry on with heavy weight lifting. And so I've actually cut back to about 60% of what I used to lift on purpose. I'm doing higher reps, lighter weight, and, and because I am very interested in sustainability, I want to be as fit as I can, as long as I can. That's not gonna happen if I injure myself. So as I age, I'm trying to adjust for how I feel and what my goals are and so that it's the highest level of fitness I can achieve at the given age. Right. So that's my goal. Yeah,
Speaker 3:that sounds good. Yeah. I don't really, um, think that we need to lift weights, heavy weights. Um, it's really like it recovery, it's really tough. It's hard, depends on what you eat and sleep, but also, um, it causes injury, inflammation, it's related to that. Um, and uh, also like, uh, lower back and spine problems. I see people who lift when the lifted really heavy, they have bad posture to the way they walk. And so it's kind of hindering them. Um, I see myself too, when I was lifting heavy, I was not as healthy as I am now. Lifting much less lighter and not as often 20 minutes, three times a week I feel stronger and healthier. So what is your take on that date?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my take on that is, um, mostly I agree. Again, it depends who we are. Okay. Like, uh, for example, my, my boys, we were having this conversation about the strong men of Iceland who lift like the thousand pound logs, right? And they're dead by the time they're 40.[inaudible] and, and I said, well, you know, cause that doesn't fit with my goals and my life. And my boy said, yeah, but this is what they do. They don't care. Their life is about that. They're about being big, strong men. And if they die early, they'd rather die early than not live the life that they chose. Now that's a personal decision. I disagree with it, but I can't tell anyone else you know, what's right or wrong from them. I think what I take away from what you're saying though is mostly that is accurate. What is really about is muscle development. We know for sure the science supports that having muscle is good for the body. It's good for longevity. It may be better for women as they age. Then for men, interestingly, men tend to be more interested in weightlifting. And yet we know from the research that women who build muscle, and I'm not talking about bodybuilding, I'm just talking about general having, you know, working on some muscular building regimen, they're more likely to avoid osteoarthritis. They're more likely to, um, burn, they burn more fat. And this is true for both men and women. And so yeah, there's no reason to take unreasonable risks in your weightlifting. And it doesn't have to be weightlifting. There are other to build muscle than lifting weights. So the key to me isn't actually about how much weight can you lift. The key is do you have enough muscle to maintain the lifestyle that you want?
Speaker 3:Right. Yeah. Now that is true. You gotta take into account, yeah. The lifestyle. What do you do with your body right now? We use it on a daily basis, right? Yeah. What is it you want? Yeah. Right. Um, that question, I don't know, because a lot of times people don't really know what they want. They, they just go by whatever the mind tells them. And some times the mind's not well, so they're just doing things out of, um, habits. Just bad habits. Uh, in my case was emotional pain. So lifting weights, being at the gym around people looking at me just made me feel better. But that was not really the solution for my, um, problems or issues. So, and I see that with the, I have seen that with a lot of people around me at the gym, that they all had some under laying issues, emotional issues to be lifting that heavy and that consistently every single day. It just doesn't make sense to me. It didn't make sense, but I, I was not aware enough and now it doesn't make sense at all.
Speaker 2:You know, I mentioned I hanged with a fit crowd I have for a long time and I gotta tell Ya, I know some people that are very happy, very stable, very successful, that exercise all the time. They do a combination usually of things, whether it's endurance, sports, maybe they run on one day and they lift weights on another day. And that lifestyle really supports what they do. And so I think that, uh, what, what you're alluding to is those people that maybe aren't, they have not yet figured out what it is they really want. Maybe they go to the gym cause they want other people to look at them and it's all about ego and it's about filling in some void in their life that they're not even aware of. So that's a really good point. I think you really want to be able to decide what it is you are really after. What really floats your boat? What really brings you joy? What would you do if no one was watching? Like, you know, are you going to the gym? I, I, I do see, I do see people that give me the same census. What you're saying that it seems to me like I see them in the, at the gym, in their outfits and the way they look and the way they're looking at everybody else and funny. And you, you certainly do judge, right? Like, I don't know. There's people that show up and they just get to work and they work out and they go home. And there's others that feel like they're at the gym. So I get it. I get where you're going. And so I guess it comes right down to, you know, is it bringing you joy? Is it supporting your life? Is it giving you strength and energy and vitality and that's why you're doing it? Or is there else there that you ought to be looking at? So spending that quality of time, deciding what it is you really want out of your health and fitness is time well spent.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. I think it has a lot to do with self knowledge here. The more we know about ourselves, the better we act right in the world, the healthier we act. Yeah. There are exceptions to the rule. I know there are a lot of people who exercise and I see that they, they have fit, but they're happy to did joy for their release. They have great relationships and I s and I, it's easier. I mean, it's gonna clear to me when they have healthy relationships that they're, that's coming from the relationship that they have with themselves. And that's a way of measuring.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You know, my, my wife is a great example of this. She rarely goes to the gym. Uh, she exercises in our family room. She exercises almost every day. She doesn't care who's watching. She doesn't get all dressed up for anyone else to see her or anything like that. She just puts on her workout clothes. She puts on often just simple free youtube videos of where could be Zoomba or dance or some type of a, it's usually high energy, good music. And she just goes down there. She exercises, she keeps a very fit and she loves it. And I know she's happier from the workouts that she does and by, by keeping herself fit. And she's just a great example of that. She's, she's not a bodybuilder. She's not setting records or competing into anything at all. She simply likes being fit and it's all internal for her and no one has to see her do it. Yeah. And so that, that I think is a great example of, of someone who just for themselves exercises every day just for what it does for them. And that's, yeah, it works great for her. She loves it and it, it keeps her fit. And so, you know, it's kind of back to your earlier question about high level of fitness. A lot of people really don't need a high level of fitness. It's just a matter of if you're really competitive and you want to go do some race. For me it's helped me be more fit when I always have a goal. If I've got a race I'm competing at preparing for, I'm always more fit than if I'm just working out. I learned in my life that when I'm training, I am more fit and dedicated and I eat better than when I'm just exercising again. That that's personal. But it really works for me. For many years I've always had a race. I've always had something I'm working towards and so it's kept me at a better level of health, uh, than if I, I didn't. So again, that's just, that's how I roll.
Speaker 3:Cool. Um, what is to be dedicated days?
Speaker 2:What is to be dedicated? No. Well, I think consistency comes to mind. I think dedication involves working out regularly, exercising very[inaudible] in the terms of health. If we're talking about dedication, a dedication I think means living the way you want to to reach those fitness goals on a daily basis. Um, it's funny you mentioned that I had, I have a friend who's very successful in business, but he really struggles with his health. And we were golfing one day, a bout a month ago, and he was asking me all these questions about exercise and nutrition and I was answering them and I was sharing ideas and everything and part way through he just looked at me and said, how do you do it?[inaudible] and I said, what do you mean? He goes, well, you're telling me all this stuff. It makes perfect sense, but I can't get myself to do it all the time. Oh my God. And, and maybe, maybe he's missing dedication, right. Maybe that, that is it, his dedication is the ability to carry out your goals.
Speaker 3:Is that connected to motivation? Like what motivates us to become dedicated or it's motivated and dedicated? The same thing.
Speaker 2:They seem different to me. Um, dedication to me feels more like a word. That means commitment and following through with what you do. Motivation is something that can come and go. I have plenty of days, I'm not motivated to go to the gym. There's a whole lot of times I wake up in the morning and my first thought is to go back to bed. And so in that case I have low motivation and that's where I feel like the dedication part kicks in of no, I know I'll regret it later if I don't go. I always feel good after I wreck exercise. And so this is where the mental part of it kicks in, right? Is what, which thoughts are you going to let win the mental battle that's almost always going on inside all of us all the time. Right? And so to me, motivation feels more like something that we have but doesn't necessarily last all the time. Where dedication is probably how well we follow through on the things we decided we were going to do.
Speaker 3:Right. Um, how do you work? Oh, train. Um, you're for mental health, like in your case to keep yourself motivated and dedicated. What kind of mental training do you do?
Speaker 2:I meditate and that involves, uh, two very distinct things. So I do a daily meditation that's personal on my own and not very sophisticated. I'm, I'm no Buddhist monk or anything like that. They typically involve apps. Um, I really like Sam Harris's waking up app. That's what I've been doing for about the last six months. I've also used headspace and Oh, can call me at 10% happier. So I'm a big fan of, of um, of apps. Okay. And then the second part of it is I'm a member of two groups and that to me has made a tremendous difference over simply meditating on my own. Um, I go to an event every Sunday called um, Awakening Valley Tsonga just right here in my valley. And it's a meditation community. We meet for an hour and a half and there's something about getting with the group. I know it may sound really weird to people listening who've never meditated as a group. They probably going, why in the world would you
Speaker 3:go sit and meditate with a group of people? Okay.
Speaker 2:Ah, but I'll tell you what, it takes it to a whole higher level because there's teaching and instruction and it really helps to have a teacher. Now that's not where I have my teacher. My teacher is Thomas McConkie and he has a group that I belong to as well. So I have my Sunday meeting, I go to once a week and then I'm a member of another group that does, uh, retreats and uh, monthly. We have two online monthly meetings. We have one tonight as a matter of fact, where it's through zoom, everyone just gets on zoom and Thomas does some training, does a Q and a and that does kind of an online meditation. And then they do events. They do various retreats and whatnot. So between my daily practice, what I do on my own, and then attending a weekly meeting and then this other group that has kind of longer, bigger events that is really better. It just really works for me and it gives me more than just what I get from my own practice. And so, but yeah, that's, those are, those are the activities I do to, uh, to meditate and work on, on mindfulness, which are we, we use the terms mindfulness and meditation are there, there are two kind of different things at def. Definitely. Are they, they go together and they support each other, but there are different things[inaudible]
Speaker 3:yeah. So can you elaborate on that for a moment? The difference between mindfulness and meditation?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So mindfulness is something that anyone can do anytime and we should do, we live in a society that is constantly
Speaker 4:okay.
Speaker 2:Conspiring to distract us from everything that we're doing. Right. We, we see, we see young people sitting beside each other looking at their phones. Right. Oh my gosh, that's funny. It happens a lot. Yeah, it does. And when you're mindful, you realize how awful that is because they ought to be mindful to each other. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing, there's nothing wrong with, you know, checking a text or looking at your phone. It's not like you can not be with a friend and and see something else that's going on, but there's times that you're supposed to be with your friend and your friend needs you and you should be chatting. And the whole reason you got together was to spend time together and your phone ought to be upside down. Um, in, in Zen they say that the difference between a zen master and a normal person is that the master, when they eat, they just eat. And when they walk, they just walk. And when they work, they just work. It sounds simplistic, but if you're washing the dishes to just wash the dishes without, without a screen on, without music, on to just be fully immersed in the present moment is actually rare in our society. And yet, and maybe sounds boring to people listening who don't understand the concept, but in actual fact, the present moment is all we have in all of eternity. The only thing we can control and the only place we can live is right here. Right now. Right. The past is gone. But we sometimes we're, you know, we sometimes are remember and recall embarrassments from it. The future is never coming because it will always be now and yet we worry about the future even though we can do anything about it, we bring worry from the future into our present moment. But through my, through, through mindfulness is being 100% immersed in the present moment. And when you find out, I love know Rochette as podcast, the secular Buddhist, he has one episode called um oh my gosh. Radical okayness. Yeah. And it's the concept that that right now, the present moment, what, what you have, where you are, who you're with is okay. And when you get that, that you don't have to always have music on to make every moment special. You don't always have to be watching a screen. You don't have to be always waiting for the next text account or how many people liked your last post. But what you're doing right now is really okay and is really terrific and, and that worrying about the future or recalling embarrassments from the past are not serving you in this present moment. To me that's mindfulness and meditation is the way that you get there. Meditation is the way that you train your mind. Um, and all that. People misunderstand. They think that meditation is designed to train your mind to kind of overcome your thoughts. That's not it at all. Now, I'm kind of going on here, but can I give of one little story to demonstrate this? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. This is the best analogy I've thought of for it. Our minds are just going like if I could try to stop thinking like if we all go quiet right now for one minute, Kay and everyone listening and you and me all decide to have no thoughts for one minute, can we do it? Hmm. I don't think so. No one can do it. I'm telling you, nobody can do it within seconds. The thought comes in, Oh, it's hot in here. Oh, I itch. Oh, uh, I'm not comfortable. Oh, what are we having for dinner? I mean, who knows what, right? Our mind, scientists estimate we have twins at 20,000 to 80,000 thoughts every day. Now, for most people, they are living in like this storm of fonts that is like controlling them and they don't get it. It's their own thoughts. But they can't even say where they come from. We don't even know. Science does not even know where our thoughts come from. If you stop your mind right this minute, as long as you can, which would be probably less than five seconds a thought will pop into your head from where we don't know. We don't even know what it will be. We can't predict what it will be. It will come. Thoughts think themselves. This is true. And you can prove it to yourself in the next 10 seconds.[inaudible] yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 3:Well, no, what I heard the other days, one of my guests said something very interesting, I'd never heard before. He said, we are being thought. So that was like, hmm. Interesting. So thoughts are actually using us. We have be thought by something.
Speaker 2:Yes. And so if this is true, what do we do about it? Well, here's my analogy. Imagine, I don't know if you've ever been on a freeway and got a flat tire, but it's a horrifying experience for those listening, right? If you haven't done it, you can imagine it. The traffic is going by at 80 miles an hour. You're standing beside your car, you can feel the wind from the trucks, you feel like you're going to get run over at any minute and that sensation is horrifying and you want to get that tire fixed as fast as you can. You can't get out of there and you probably not going to think about much else until you fix that tire. Now step away from the freeway just 10 feet and all of a sudden there's this huge, oh, okay, I'm not afraid of getting run over. Now the trucks are still whizzing by. You still feel the wind. It's still very, very loud and it's not a place you're going to be very comfortable. So back up another hundred feet. Now when you're a hundred feet away, you can hear the traffic, but you have no sense of impending doom and it could be more of a a scene that you're watching. Now imagine you're a mile away in a high rise building watching a freeway. All of a sudden it can become a peaceful type of a scene where those exact same trucks that were absolutely scaring you to death when you were changing your tire now look like they're just slowly creeping along and it's very peaceful and you can't hear a thing. To me, this is the objective of meditation. People who aren't mindful and who aren't developing mindfulness through meditation oftentimes are not even in control of their own thoughts. Their anger can last a very long time. Their disgust can last a long time of negative emotions can just last too long and linger. They can be dwelling on things that happened in the past that they can't control, worried about things that may never even happen in the future. So in my analogy, the traffic is still going. The traffic doesn't stop. All that's happening is your perspective on the traffic is completely different. Where you are now in control, you are now the observer of the traffic. You're not the one who's being scared of being run over. And so that's my metaphor for why meditation is so important.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. Right? A lot of sense. Um, I guess we have to experience, right, that to be able to practice apply in our lives. It takes experiences. So, uh, how often do you meditate? Do you do it every day for how long?
Speaker 2:Every day? And believe it or not, it's often just for 10 minutes, just for the length of the app. Now I do have 30 minute segments and I do have 45 and sometimes I do those. And then I do have the other groups I told you about. So for tonight, a tonight for example, from seven to eight, it will be a one hour session. A Sunday will be an hour and a half. And so I just do my own thing just for 10 minutes. And then, uh, and then I do these other sessions. So I end up with, you know, four or five hours a week maybe when you add it all up.
Speaker 3:All right, that's great. Why do you think so many people respond? Um, with, um, almost like a sense of, um, they responded in a way that's interesting to me. It's almost like it's impossible to meditate for them. They often say, no, I can't do that. It's not possible. Why do you think that is
Speaker 2:the same reason why I reacted that way 20 years ago. You have to be ready for thing,
Speaker 3:right.
Speaker 2:There just seems to come a time in people's lives when they're ready to hear something. They were not ready to hear. I had this conversation with people I want to for, I went to my first retreat, um, a few months ago and I absolutely loved it. I mean, the afterglow effect of that event was incredible. While I was there, I really had transformative experiences. I really felt like I, I felt, I felt like it was taking six months of practice and condensing it into one weekend. It was a wonderful experience and I was sharing it with a friend. And, and it didn't take very long for me to realize that not only did he not understand and I couldn't explain it to him, but he just wasn't really interested. And so I don't know the answer to that other than I've been there. Um, I've dabbled in meditation for a very long time. As a matter of fact, I really had a great, what, you know, psychologists call a peak experience with meditation probably 15 years ago. And yet I didn't carry on with the habit. It, I never clued in that this is something I had to do every single day. I don't know why. I guess I just wasn't ready for those listening. All I could say is if you could overcome that now, like if you could say, you know, maybe that'll be me in 10 years. Hey, just do it now. If you're not feeling ready, but you're willing to give it a try, I'll tell you what, you, you, uh, you pick up any of these apps to make it really easy, right? Get yourself waking up headspace oak or calm, and there's probably others that I don't even know about. And try them for a month. And I bet you never go back.
Speaker 3:Hmm. Wow. I like what you said earlier that it's just so true. Um, most people, oh, some people, they're just not ready. And that's why they don't, they don't engage in certain, um, healthy practices. They are simply not ready. Um, so, um, I'll be talking to you now about nutrition, but before that it seems like we have been talking about how the mind can change the brain. So do you think that the brain can change the mind as well?
Speaker 2:You know, I honestly don't know what the difference is. I don't get it. I, I've been listening to so many different podcasts and I've, I've read so much on Buddhism and I'm really into the neuroscience of it. And, um, you know, science can't tell us what consciousness is, right? The, these guys were, and women with PhDs in the subject argue about it. Right? So there, there are things here that, you know, you know, it's all happening in our brain. We have a sense that there's something different than the brain, right? We all feel like there's something greater than just this meat sack that we live in. And so I, I guess I can't answer your question. I even in meditation, we spent so much time, you know, considering what consciousness is, especially if you do the waking up Hap, which I really recommend and really enjoy that. That one's by Sam Harris who has a phd in neuroscience. And so it comes from a fairly scientific type of background. Um, and he talks a lot about consciousness. He just uses the term consciousness. And so I guess I don't have a good answer for your question. I'm sorry. To me, it's a matter of trying to have the healthiest consciousness that we can, trying to back up from that, that highway. That is our raging torrent of thoughts. If we're not careful. Um, and whether that's our brain or our mind or they're both the same thing, I don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But that kind of makes sense, Dave[inaudible] in the sense that, um, if we eat right healthy and we actually size, we sleep well, then the mind will be more prepared to have healthy thoughts too. What's attracted them, don't you think?
Speaker 2:Well, there's no doubt about that. There is absolutely a physiological component because eating the wrong diet can be overstimulating our entire system, right? We have all types of, of stimulants in our food and what we drink and all those things are having an effect. Absolutely. Look at, look at children and, and some of these children that, you know, the difference between a child who wakes up and has a bowl of fruit loops for breakfast and a child who has a green smoothie or some eggs or you know, just anything better than a bowl of fruit loops. That's, that's feeling having a physiological effect. You followed, followed two children through their school day. One Who has a healthy, uh, lunch and breakfast and one who doesn't and it'll be obvious through their behavior. Uh, so yeah, our, our nutrition, uh, absolutely makes a difference sooner or later on our overall wellbeing.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 3:And that leads me to my first question about nutrition. Talk to me about simple nutrition for optimal health. What is that? What does it mean to, uh, to have a simple nutrition? Not to have, but I don't even know how to formulate that question.
Speaker 2:No, I think I like it and I liked that you used the word simple. The first thing, the first thing that comes to mind is fall out of love with all of the named diets or people or anything that people are or are evangelical about, right? We all by a dogmatism diet. Dogmatism is, is not healthy. I don't think it's healthy. It's not good for people. Look there, there's three major forms of food, right? The macro nutrients, there are protein, carbs and fat and there is absolutely evidence that manipulating those three things, low fat, high protein, low carb. It mostly just leads people to be anxious in my opinion. I mean there are healthy carbs, there are healthy fats and they're healthy proteins and we need them all. And so here's my simple answer. The best answer. Now my health certification is through precision nutrition and that was very on purpose because to me they are the kings of really high level nutrition that has kept a very, very simple and here's what they teach is to try to get healthy carbs, fats, and protein with every single meal and include vegetables. With that. Vegetables of course are a carb, but it's the starchy carbs that gives us, gives us more energy. The vegetables like Kale and spinach, all the green leafy vegetables, they don't have many calories, but they have most of the micronutrients that we need. And so we teach all of our people to eat according to the hand rules of get a thumb size of oil, healthy oil with every meal, a fistful of starchy carbs, the size of your palm and protein and um, an an open hand full of um, uh, vegetables. So I'm not sure if I said that right. So, uh, if you, forgive me if I did, but if you go to my website,[inaudible] dot com go to the blog and look up hand rules. We have a whole blog post on this. And you don't have to get it exactly right. Again, keep it simple. But if you try to get healthy carbs, fat, protein, and five to nine servings of fruits and veggies every day, you can't go wrong. I don't care what people tell you about, you know, Keto, Paleo, south beach, Atkins, right? All of the named diets. Now, there's nothing wrong with the name diets. Please don't get mad at me. Those of you who are having tremendous success on them, you absolutely can have tremendous success. But the reason people are having tremendous success is usually because of what they cut out. Because when people go on these names, diets, what they do is they stop drinking soda pop, they cut out most of the sugar, they cut up most of the bad carbs, and they often adopt a healthy fitness regimen. And all of that adds up to being more healthy than they were. They feel like 1 million bucks and they feel like it was because they did Paleo and it wasn't necessarily because they did Paleo, it was because they stopped drinking a six pack of beer after dinner. Right? So that's it from the hell good, healthy carbs, fat, protein, eat more vegetables. If everyone just did that, it'd be amazing how much better they feel.
Speaker 3:Right. Um, regarding protein, do we really need, cause this is a huge, um, subject in the fitness industry and for the general public too, are we just focusing a little too much on protein and the body doesn't really metabolize or utilize, um, the protein we eat anyway. And that's a protein is connected to inflammation and cancer, isn't it? The healthiest diets? From what my understanding, it's like high in healthy fats, the fatty acids and um, vegetables, like you said, fruits, mostly berries, organic too, but low in them. Animal products and protein.
Speaker 2:Well, you can certainly mess with the ratios, but protein, I don't believe there's any scientific argument that we don't need protein. We absolutely do need protein. It's a building block of our body. We are Omnivores, uh, from our canine teeth all the way through our digestive system. I understand if people want to avoid meat for moral reasons, I totally support that. But we do have to acknowledge that the human animal is an omnivore. The minute that you decide you're either not an animal or not an Omnivore, you have to compensate for what evolution has done. And so evolution has designed us to, to digest well, uh, everything from things we have to chew, like meat. Uh, and we have the teeth for it. We have the enzymes for it, we have the whole digestive tract is designed for it. And so my answer is I would, are you and I would probably disagree on this subject somewhat. So, um, my answer is we are omnivores. We need meat. We need, uh, one way, say meat again. I don't want to offend anybody who is Vegan or vegetarian, but you going to have to find a substitute. There's no doubt about it. There are definitely people. I'll tell you what, if you ever know an uneducated vegetarian, you found someone who's quite unhealthy. And so if you're going to, if you're going to deviate from the basic building blocks of health, which are protein, carbs and fat, you have to know what you're doing because you're going to lose something. And so, um, maybe we're not that far off base. You and I don't know because it depends what percentage we're talking about. Now there's different body types. Okay. So, um, an ectomorph needs very different ratios than an endo apo am forgetting my, my uh, you know, uh, 12th grade biology here, but yo, we got ecto more fan to where we've got very different body types of people that need different ratios of protein, fat and carbs. There's an excellent article on this, again@precisionnutrition.com on eating right for your type. And I think there's a lot to be said for that. So I guess it comes back to again who you are, right? You personally may have found a ratio of low protein, high carb, high fat that really works well for you. Uh, let me tell you what though, I've experiment with these things a lot. Personally, I did a ketogenic type diet about seven years ago when I was really, uh, highly competitive in running races and triathlon. And for the first six months I felt like 1 million bucks, very low carb, high fat, high protein. And then after about eight months, my body was like falling apart. I kid you not. I was, I was, I wasn't sleeping very well. I wasn't recovering from my workouts. I started to have hormone imbalances for the first time in my life and I had to start eating carbs again. And that was just a personal experience that I went through. And it took six months and for six months I felt terrific. As a matter of fact, it was one of my most successful racing years of my life. But over the long haul, it would not have worked for me. So again, I certainly don't want anyone to think that I'm an expert in this for them or, um, everyone's different. We all, we all do need to find out what works the very best for us. I can't tell you one thing. We all could do what? Well by good eating, less sugar and less stuff made inboxes, right. Whole foods, getting rid of processed foods and eating whole foods, it's hard to go wrong. Right? Sure. And so, um, where we all may disagree on ratios of the building blocks. No one disagrees that if we're eating as much as possible from farms and not from factories, it's hard to go wrong.
Speaker 3:That is true. Yeah. I have been experimenting with um, plant based proteins like coming from hemp seeds coming from uh, pumpkin seeds, um, protein. And that has changed. Um, my health, like the energy level and everything. Like I'd feel much better in meat like um, meat, protein coming from um, animal products, just um, very little. It's almost like a sprinkle when I on top of my food, um, rice, beans and the vegetables and then I f I feel much healthier, less inflammation cause I have a new problem and my knees just doing so much better. So I'm just wondering for that's affecting, it's helping with inflammation.
Speaker 2:Well now remember
Speaker 3:when I said protein, I didn't necessarily mean meat. Although meat is the most dense form of protein. So that's why everyone kind of defaults to meat when it comes to protein. But, um, uh, there are definitely plant based proteins and we certainly need them. And beans is a really great one. Um, and then of course what you're talking about, plant based protein powders are a very convenient, easy way to get plant based protein. So, and for those that don't want to do meat, of course eggs. Now again, some people don't want to do eggs. I'm telling you eggs are an excellent source of, of fat and protein and yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2:Right? So that's a great way. Nuts. Yeah. Are an excellent way to get protein and fat.
Speaker 3:I love the macadamia nuts.
Speaker 2:I do too. I do too. Uh, so, so yes, I, you can get your protein from healthy sources. Now another thing I want to mention is I buy both my eggs and my meat from local farms. Uh, and for anyone who can do that, I highly recommend it. Uh, for those of you that have a Sam's club in your area, there's an egg company called the, uh, happy, uh, the happy chicken egg company. Something like that. And they're a company out in California that does farm raised, uh, eggs. The eggs are the, the chickens are actually outside pasture fed and uh, you can buy like a 18 eggs is like four or$5. So they're not super expensive, uh, as some of the natural eggs could be. Um, and so that's something to look for. Or if you have a local farm in your area, you can buy x from and then meet, uh, we have a company in our town that, uh, gets all, uh, very healthy meats from local farmers and I buy my meat there. So that is something to really look at too, because if you, if you understand how a lot of meat is raised, you, you wouldn't eat it. That's right. And so I'm a huge fan of local farmers.
Speaker 3:Yeah. The thing with the meeting general, I, yeah, I see what you mean. But at grass fed, yeah, that's the healthy way of eating animal products. But meat especially. But I still think that there's just low in fiber and we need far more fiber in our diets. And I think animal protein should be a small percentage in our plate, not the most people that have like half of the plate, sometimes even more. And with the huge piece of meat. And that doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 2:Oh that's, that's really a good point. Now we're in the hand rules of precision nutrition. The um, the Po protein portion is the size of your fist. So if you take a look at your fist, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm getting this wrong. Your Palm, not your fist. That's pretty large. Your helm that for some people, for a smaller woman might be two eggs. I don't know. You know, you kind of eyeball it might be three for someone with a bigger hand. Um, yeah, a piece of meat that big would be a quarter of the size of your plate, probably, right? Not half, like what you're describing.
Speaker 3:Yes. Right. Cause you see it that like people eat in that way. Like, yeah, half lunch. Oh yeah. It's too much. Right
Speaker 2:as it can be, as little as 20% of your, of your macros could be protein and you do just fine. So I do agree with you that most people do eat too much. Uh, so, and it doesn't all have to come from me. That's the other thing. There's plenty of other sources of protein.
Speaker 3:Yes. Right. Like you mentioned, um, eggs. Yeah, I like the not egg whites, not the but yolk. Yeah, the wall, the Yolk. It's healthier for me. But you know another thing, David's a food allergy. A lot of duplan allergic to a lot of foods. Even superfoods, like I am allergic to a lot of things and they don't know. And that caused a lot of problems to disease cause affects your immune system.
Speaker 2:And this is why health is so personal. It's why I'm kind of against all these diets that people get so invalid angelical about because the best diet is the best diet for you. Yeah. And the best diet that your friend lost 40 pounds on is not necessarily the best diet for you. It depends how much you exercise. It depends what your goals are. It depends if you're a male or female. It depends if you're on a younger, old, it depends on how much you're exercising. All these things play in. And again, it doesn't have to be that hard. If we just, uh, you know, we really can trust our body, uh, eat when we're hungry. Uh, don't eat, uh, you know, eat slowly and mindful. Now, this is where mindfulness comes in. If you'll put your phone away and turn off the television and eat your food slowly and mindfully. Food is one of the great pleasures of life. When we sit to have a meal, it should be an enjoyable experience. Like the Europeans, not a fast, shut it down your throat like the Americans. Oh my God. Yeah. Right. No appreciation, right? That's right. Slowly and mindfully, and according to precision nutrition, if everyone would eat to 80% full, slowly and mindfully, that's the number one thing they can do to improve their health. Number one, before you decide what you're going to eat, whatever you're going to eat, if you'll just eat it slowly, mindfully, and stop when you're 80% full, you would eliminate many of the problems that people deal with.
Speaker 3:It makes so much sense. You know what it is. I think a lot of us are just, um, we don't want to take the time to, uh, study ourselves to think for ourselves. It's sort of easier to just follow what other people say, what other people do, you know, watch stuff on TV and just try to copy it. I think that's the main problem. If we listen to ourselves more, oh, most of our problems, we just vanish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree. I think you're absolutely right. Again, back to the whole mindfulness of meditation thing. The longer you do that, the more you realize how much you are, the source of most of your problems and your happiness and your happiness, and you realize that your health, it's so many things you used to worry so much about. You just don't have to. And and people that feel too busy and overwhelmed, that's all contents of their own consciousness. It's half of it isn't even real. Right. And a, and w we often don't even discover this until we do that. Self-Inquiry you're talking about I couldn't agree more. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It is the foundation of, of a wellbeing and a self knowledge and I have no doubt about that. Otherwise I doubt everything and I don't believe in everything. But I also investigate, I like experience just going through experiences and just finding what is true and what's not from my, from myself.
Speaker 2:And that marks the end of part one of this interview with Valeria. And in the second part you won't want to miss it because we get into the meaning of life, the universe and everything and basically solve all of the universe's problems and the answer to life, the universe and everything is not 42 a lot of people think that, but it is not correct. So if you want to know the actual answer to all of the most important questions of life, make sure and tune into the next episode where we just answered them for you. This is Dave Sherwin wishing you health and success and reminding you that you can also find answers to life, the universe and everything@dirobi.com trust me.