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The Berman Method
The Berman Method
Episode #206: Thanksgiving Gratitude & Simple Tip
In this Thanksgiving-week episode of The Berman Method Podcast, Dr. Jake and PA Jenni dive into the REAL reasons people feel rundown during the holiday season — and how your mindset, your habits, and even the words you speak have the power to change everything.
From the chaos of kids home all week, to the five-week stretch of overindulgence that leads straight into “flu season,” the Bermans break down what’s actually happening inside your body this time of year — and how simple daily gratitude can completely shift your cortisol, inflammation, sleep, and energy.
They share hilarious stories from home (including Walker splashing in the dog bowl and Vera smiling through her toddler mischief 😆), plus an unforgettable mindset lesson from Jesse Itzler’s 100-mile race that proves one thing:
Whatever you tell yourself… becomes your reality.
You’ll hear:
✨ Why gratitude affects your hormones more than you think
✨ Why “feeling old” has nothing to do with age
✨ The holiday habits that wreck sleep, joints, and immunity
✨ The power of “I never get tired” — and how Jake used it to set a new PR
✨ The truth about waking up at night (hint: it’s NOT your age)
✨ Why this season is actually the MOST important time to stay consistent
PLUS — the Bermans reveal details about Walker’s First Birthday Special, their biggest and most comprehensive physical + chemical + regenerative program ever.
If you’re ready to glide through the holidays feeling younger, stronger, clearer, and more energized than ever… this episode is your pre-season playbook.
Happy Thanksgiving — and don’t forget to practice gratitude today AND every day. 🧡
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And we are rolling, baby, with the Berman Method Podcast. Dr. Jake Berman here with my beautiful co-hosts.
SPEAKER_01:Jenny Berman, physician assistant.
SPEAKER_00:And we are back. This episode is brought to you by Berman Health Club. Berman Health Club specializes in helping seniors transform into ultimate boomers since 2015. So who wouldn't want to arrive at 80 feeling 60?
SPEAKER_01:That's right. Even if you're only 30 right now, you can still in 50 years at 80 feel 60.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. Little shameless plug there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, because we're we don't only help ultimate boomers. I went to a seminar and I said that, and there the crowd was like, We are boomers. And I was like, Well, one day you will be in that category, so we can still help you feel 60 at 80 whenever that time comes. So there it is.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's all relative. Arrive at 60, feeling 40, arrive at 50, feeling 30. Just arrive feeling younger than the rest of your peers that are the same age.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I wanted everybody to arrive at 80 feeling 40. And that seemed dramatic. It's not dramatic though. Okay. Here we go.
SPEAKER_00:Here we are. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. I hope everybody is off to a great start for the week and excited for the year's best weekend of travel.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. And the kids are out of school for the whole week. The whole week? The whole week. What? I know. All the moms are like, yep. I know.
SPEAKER_00:Putting their asses to work.
SPEAKER_01:Mm-hmm. A whole week out of school. Very busy travel, but it's also the start to five weeks of gaining seven pounds, sleeping like garbage, and your joints hurting. And then getting the flu in January.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because we're right in the middle of the precursor to quote unquote flu season. But the reality is flu season is precursed by a candy holiday, Halloween, followed by an eat as much as you possibly can overindulging sugar holiday, which is Thanksgiving, followed by booze sugar and more overindulgence. For all of December. Yeah, because it's holiday party after Christmas party after holiday party after Christmas party.
SPEAKER_01:The music festivals and all the things that want to happen in December. And then we have a drinking holiday.
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah. Forgot about that. The most important one, New Year's. New Year's.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. So we've recorded on that. Maybe we should uh tag that podcast in the show notes about.
SPEAKER_00:We wonder why we get sick in January and call it flu season. Right, right. Come on. Okay. Is it flu season or covet season?
SPEAKER_01:Well, now it's all three. Flu A, flu B, and COVID. Oh my God. O and RSV is back.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's you know what's funny about COVID is I didn't even know it was still around, and I went out to Missouri hunting out there, and I was in this little tiny town, and somebody mentioned that they got COVID, and I'm going, How first of all, I didn't know it still existed. Second of all, how did you know? They said, Well, I did the test up the nose. I'm like, You're still sticking things up your nose to see if you got a cold?
SPEAKER_01:Basically.
SPEAKER_00:Like, what in the world? We are not the same people.
SPEAKER_01:In our little bubble down here.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:All right. So it's Thanksgiving week. We're thankful and grateful for all of our people in our world. Yeah. All of our clients, all of our staff. Yeah. Our family. Family, friends.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Everybody that's been so supportive and helpful. Everybody that loves our children.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Our health.
SPEAKER_00:Our health. Grateful for health.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Lots to be grateful and thankful for.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Something that we should all get in a habit of is being grateful on a regular basis. And so often we use Thanksgiving as the one time a year to say that we're thankful for this food on our plate. We're thankful for whatever it is. We say it around the dinner table. But the reality is being grateful on a daily basis is really, really important. And it doesn't have to be anything crazy. I'm grateful that I live in America. I'm grateful that the sun is shining. I'm grateful that I have clothes to put on. And this repetition, this habit of expressing gratitude translates into so much more. I'm grateful that I get to go to the gym and torture myself because there's a lot of people in this world that can't go to the gym. They're physically incapable. Their health isn't, won't allow them. So this practice of gratitude is something that I'm trying to get into more and more as I get older. And it's a it's a fun thing to do. It's something that we start every one of our team meetings here in the office. Every time we start a team meeting, we go around Robin circle and say, What are you grateful for? And you can't use the same one twice because you could literally be grateful for a thousand things a day. So don't say the same thing two weeks in a row.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right. And the impact that the positivity has on our cortisol, our stress response, our sleep, um, what happens tomorrow in our day just because of that positive internal dialogue and the endorphins that it releases by saying something positive. It's just like seeing somebody smile automatically releases endorphins in your body, just looking at someone smile versus seeing them cry or sad has the negative effect, the opposite effect of endorphins being the happy upper hormones that we have in our brain. So by looking at somebody that's positive, by hearing somebody that's positive, and by having that internal positive dialogue, it's making drastic changes on the internal inflammation and stress that's inside of your body, which will affect your body's abilities tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. Smiles are so contagious. The words that we say are so contagious.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's just like looking at Vera when you're like, Vera, our two-year-old, don't do that. And she'll look at you and smile and do it anyways. And her smile just like makes you laugh. Like, how can you be mad at the fact that she just did what you told her not to do because she did it staring at you in the eye, smiling?
SPEAKER_00:Every time she does that, I have to run around the corner so that she doesn't see me smile back. It's like what?
SPEAKER_01:That's it's releasing that endorphin. How could you be angry when somebody is smiling?
SPEAKER_00:Now, Walker is doing it, so he he's a year old this week. Oh my gosh. And he loves playing in the dog's water bowl. I mean, just loves it. Just goes over there and just splish, splash, splish, splash, splash, splash, completely soaked.
SPEAKER_01:Yesterday he put his face in it and then started crying. And I was like, Well, there you go.
SPEAKER_00:So at a year old, you know, they start to they're understanding, they they're able to understand enough. They're able to communicate. So we've started the no and all of this stuff. So I come around the corner and I say, No. And he looks up, turns his head and looks over at me initially with a scared look. Then he sees me and just smiles and then continues to splash the water. Right back in the water bowl. You son of a gun.
SPEAKER_01:But it's true, you can't like not smile when that happens. So smiling is contagious. It releases that internal endorphin in your body, but so does positive thinking in your head. So being grateful, like you said. But in all reality, we are so grateful for our Berman Health and Health Club team, our clients, our family, our friends, everybody that's been supportive of this journey of helping one more person to treat problems and not just symptoms.
SPEAKER_00:Love it. Absolutely love it. Speaking of the words that you say and how important they are, I think that we should bring up that example of Jesse Itzler at our last event. If you don't know who Jessie, Jesse Itzler is, Google him. Super cool story. And to avoid going into the detail of telling his story and screwing it up, you guys go get it on your own. Anyways, he comes and he's the keynote speaker in one of our events, and he's telling the story of where he chose to run a hundred-mile ultra marathon. What is it called? I don't know. A hundred miles straight. Yeah, a hundred mile race. Without stopping. And he again, I'm probably gonna butcher this, but he hires this Marine to help him train for it. And then right before the race, the Marine goes, I'll run the race with you. And he's never run more than a 5k. So they're on mile 75, and Jesse Itzler breaks down, he hits a wall, he sits in a falls down, gets in a chair, and gives up, says, I'm not doing this, not happening. And this Marine, I forget his name, shows up and full of energy. He goes, Hey Jesse, so I didn't tell you something that I probably should have told you before we started this race. And Jesse's there on the edge of his deathbed in this chair, and he goes, No, not now, man, not now. He goes, No, I'm serious, Jesse. I probably should have told you this is where we started this grace. This race, it's the craziest thing. I never get tired.
SPEAKER_01:I never get tired.
SPEAKER_00:And Jesse goes, No, not now. I can't do this anymore. He goes, No, Jesse, I'm serious, man. Yeah, I never get tired. I can't explain it. I just never get tired. And Jesse goes, No, I'm telling you, I'm done. And then the Marine gets mean. He goes, Jesse, say it over and over again right now. Say the words. I never get tired. So long story short, Jesse plays ball with him and he starts saying the words over and over again out loud. I never get tired. I never get tired. And he finishes the hundred-mile race, and they got pictures, and yay.
SPEAKER_01:He says, I get up with six toenails floating in my shoes.
SPEAKER_00:Floating around in his shoes somewhere. Keep going. And he finishes the race. So coincidentally, the following Monday after this talk, I'm on the Peloton and I'm going, screw it. I'm going to try it. And it's for a 30-minute ride. And I usually do 20-minute rides, but I did a 30-minute ride and I had my record there on whatever the kilocalories was. And I chose a hard ride. And 10 minutes left. So I've done 20 minutes of this 30-minute class. There's 10 minutes left, and I'm not even close to passing my record. So I crank up the resistance, I get out of the saddle, and I just start grinding away, literally saying out loud over and over again, I never get tired. I never get tired. And I just said it over and over again out loud for 10 minutes. If anybody was outside of my barn at five in the morning, they would have been like, What the hell is going on in there? Ten minutes later, I had passed my PR by a lot. Like I don't even remember what it was, but it it was a lot. It wasn't even close. Right. It was significantly more than I had ever done ever. Now, is that a one-off? I don't know. I don't know how sustainable it is that you can do it over and over again. But the point of it is the mindset is so important. The words that you say are so important. If you think that you have a bad knee, you do have a bad knee. If you think you have a spare tire around your belly and that's just your body type and you're never going to get rid of it, and that's the way you're going to have to live, then that's true. Right. It doesn't matter what it is, whatever you think, it's true. I think one of the sayings is whether you think you're right or you're wrong, whether you think you can or you can't, you're right.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Whatever you're telling your body is, or telling your mind, whatever you whatever dialogue you're talking on the inside is what it is.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So if we bring that full circle to where we are right now, the week of Thanksgiving, going into the quote unquote holiday season, everybody's gonna party for the next four weeks and say, screw it, I'll pick up first week of January and get back in shape again. Not everybody. 90% will though. I'm traveling, I've got family in town, I've got company in town. Yeah, that always I never can understand that when people use company being in town as a reason to skip their appointments with us. And I'm going, you mean your company doesn't care if you're healthy or not? Right. Like you can't let your company self-fend for themselves for 90 minutes out of a day. Right. You have to be there. Are they infants? Are they childs?
SPEAKER_01:So especially when you can come in at 7 a.m. or do virtual where you don't even have to waste the time driving.
SPEAKER_00:Like it just doesn't make sense. It's all bullshit that we tell ourselves. Right. And it's not true. So here we are in the holiday season. Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right. Whether you think you can continue momentum through the holiday season or you can't, you're right. Whether you think you have to wait until New Year's to get better or continue doing it now, you're right. Whatever it is. And my challenge to you is this is when you should take advantage of our Black Friday sale. Right. Right. So another shameless plug. We're doing a Black Friday sale this week through the end of the week. It's actually Walker's first birthday special. Oh, sorry, not a Black Friday sale. It's Walker's first birthday sale. Special. Special, not sale. Yeah. And we gotten really creative on this one where we've created some programs that incorporate physical, chemical, regenerative therapies that are just it's so close to the easy button, it's almost unfair.
SPEAKER_01:And what that means, wellness visits, um, you know, looking at your body from the inside out on the medical and chemical side, then the physical training side, um, and then regenerative. So using the modalities to reduce inflammation and that stress response.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. So if you can move better and you feel better, you will be better. Right. Exactly. And that's what we started this episode with is feeling old. Feel it when you think you're old, it's because of a feeling. Nobody that's 90 years old who has zero pain at all and can do everything that they want to do considers themselves old. Right. Like this was black and white in the Blue Zones Projects documentary, where if you can still do everything that you want to do and you don't have aches and pains, you don't consider yourself old. Absolutely. The minute you can't do something that you want to do physically, the minute that you feel aches and pains physically, you feel old.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Or where you're limited on what you can do or what you are able to accomplish throughout the day that maybe you used to be able to do.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. Brain fog, not having energy throughout the day, having to take a nap, not sleeping through the night. Oh my freaking God. If I get another person that blames not sleeping through the night on age, I'm gonna lose my freaking mind. I I know it's not true. It's not your age. It's not true. You're not waking up to go pee because you're old. You're waking up because your blood sugar is crashing, and because it crashes, it triggers your brain to wake up, and because you're now awake, your bladder starts contracting, you're like, oh, I should get out of bed to go pee. It's just a protective mechanism, so you don't freaking die.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right. Yep. Or your vitamin levels are where they should be to help your body rest and recover and your brain to quiet down. So, yes, it's not your age.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my gosh. I thought I was gonna make it through this whole episode without a rant.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that'll mean the nay.
SPEAKER_00:So let's wrap things up there. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Be grateful, not thankful. Thankful is such a transient, superficial thing to say. Be grateful. Gratitude is so much more impactful than being thankful. Thank you for coming in today, versus I'm grateful that you spent the time to come in and hang out with us. Absolutely. I'm grateful that you spent the time to press play on this podcast and get all the way to the very end.
SPEAKER_01:I'm grateful to learn about Walker's first birthday special.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. Make sure you check out the first birthday special. This is a ridiculous one. Absolutely. Yeah, this is the first time that we've ever done a sale this big with all three entities. With all three entities. Yes. Like this is insane.
SPEAKER_01:Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Ciao for now.