Built, Not Found: The Daily Systems Behind Real Health

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We're gonna be talking about everything. Health related. So health is a big, big theme going into every new year, and I know that we're approaching the new year here in about two weeks or so, or maybe you're watching the recording of this. And we're long past the new year. Health is typically one of the most, uh, I guess, uh, the most brought up topics during this time of the year because a lot of people are looking to kind of get back in shape as they set these new year resolutions. And as we all know, most New Year resolutions. Typically people don't follow through. You even have a national quitters day, um, during the month of January for all the people who set those new year resolutions and then basically just kind of put'em on the back burner for the rest of the year. So my question to you is, has that been the case for you? How, how did your New Year resolutions go early this year? Did you follow through? Are you still working on them? And I'm a firm believer that it's much better to build momentum going into the new year than just to start from scratch. Today's podcast episode is built, not Found, the daily systems behind Real Health. So when it comes to just navigating through, through health, a lot of it really does come down to your systems, how you go about. Your health. I always say that systems, I remember learning years ago that system is an acronym for saving yourself some time, energy, and money. So when it comes to your health, how do you systemize your health? What, what is your daily ritual? What is your weekly ritual? What are some of the things that you do every single day or every single week that make the biggest difference? You know, health is, is interesting because I feel like when it comes to your overall health. Health is one of those areas where you don't really see the, the drastic impact of your, your daily rituals right away. And I think that's a big reason why people kind of put their health on the back burner. And I know I've been guilty of this myself. I'll go 3, 4, 5 days and you don't really notice it initially, but then it eventually catches up to you. So it, it's super important to always spend some time every single day dedicating time to your health. And when we talk about health. A lot of people have this idea of health, like going into the gym or eating healthy, but there's so many different dimensions of your health. You have your mental, your physical, your emotional right. All of these different aspects of your health that most people typically don't think about. So for example, how do you navigate through your emotional health? How do you, how do you take care of your emotional health? What are you doing every single day to take care of your emotional health? In terms of the way you feel, because I remember hearing years ago by a great mentor of mine that. The quality of your life is determined by the quality of emotions you consistently feel. So it would definitely make sense to take care of your emotions if you're really cognizant of your overall health. And what about mental health? Mental health is a big, big part of your overall health. And I think about, I went to a mental health symposium that I spoke at a couple of months ago, and there was a lot of different talks about. Uh, so many aspects of, of dealing and navigating through mental health challenges. When you think about it, most of us go through some type of mental health challenge through throughout the course of our lives. Sometimes it's, it's going through burnout, it's overwhelm, it's anxiety, it's stress. It's so many different things that, that really affect our mental health. But what are you doing every single day or every single week to cater to your mental health? Because most of the things that we typically do, and not, not all of us, but a lot of people typically will, will put a, a bandaid on a gaping wound, right? And that bandaid is going out, partying, going out, drinking, kind of distracting yourself from feeling what it is that you need to feel to do the healing necessary for true transformation. So what are you doing? What are you implementing in your system to kind of. Navigate through these different mental or emotional health challenges. So yes, when, when navigating through or dealing with health in general is super important to understand that it's not just going to the gym. It's not just eating healthy, but it's also the other things that you do to take care of your mental and emotional health. So let's jump right into it. If you guys don't mind, drop a like, comment, share, tag someone who can get value from this. If you're on YouTube, subscribe. It most certainly helps get this message out to the world. There's so many people that could really benefit from starting off their Tuesday with some Breakfast Club sessions. So here we go. We're gonna start off with some fun facts and life hacks to get us kickstarted. The very first fun fact that we have is you can't out exercise poor sleep. You can't out exercise. Poor sleep. One night of bad sleep can reduce insulin sensitivity by up to 25%, meaning your body processes food worse the next day. You see, sometimes it's not about just the food you consume, it's about the way your body processes the food. And if you're not getting adequate amounts of sleep, if you're not. Properly hydrating, it does affect the way your body processes the food. So it's, it's, it's one thing again, to, let's just say have a very lean diet, a very clean diet, but it's another thing to make sure that you're guarding your insulin levels by just getting enough sleep, right? So this is a big, big part of it. So remember, you can't out exercise, poor sleep, no matter how in shape you are. You have to make sure that you, you have that good sleep. It's like exercise can be your left hand and then sleep is your right hand and they kinda work together when you're working on your overall health. The second fun fact is your gut produces over 90% of your serotonin. So you guys hear me talk a lot about serotonin on this show. Serotonin is a happy chemical in your body. It's a mood stabilizer and it's the the feeling you get when you have. High levels of social esteem or you feel a sense of gratitude when you feel a sense of wellbeing and peace. This is serotonin and it's important to understand that 90% over 90% of it is producing your gut because, uh, mental health. Physical health are inseparable. What you eat directly affects how you feel emotionally. It's a big, big part of the process. So when we talk about emotional health, understand that your food, the food that you consume, does play a big part in that. Okay. And there's a lot of ways you can boost serotonin levels through like meditation, you can go out and get sunlight. Sunlight does help produce serotonin in your body as well. Third fun fact is most people die from. Lifestyle created conditions, not genetics. Studies show genetics typically account for less than 10 to 15% of chronic disease risk. So this is really, really good to understand because think about it, the people that you know, think about the last 10 to 20 people that you know that have passed away, and I, I oftentimes ask groups of people this just to kind of give some perspective. When I, when I reflect back on 10, the last 10 to 20 people that I know that have passed away, the vast majority of them, it was due to health challenges, right? But then when you even go deeper and you peel back the layers of that onion, when you get to the root of it, you end up finding a lot of lifestyle habits that weren't necessarily conducive to that person's health. Sometimes it wasn't, let's say, the lack of exercise, it was possibly the amount of stress that they had. The way they navigated through stress. It was their relationships. It was, it was so many aspects of their mental health that was not necessarily, uh, being taken care of. It was being neglected and, and that affected their overall health in general. So it, it is super, super important to just acknowledge the fact that we have a lot more control than we realize when it comes to our overall lives, down to our longevity. Moving forward The third life. Uh, well, now going into the life hacks actually, so the first three fun facts was you can't out exercise. Poor sleep. Your gut produces over 90% of your serotonin. And the third was most people die from lifestyle created conditions, not genetics. Now, as we go into life hacks, the very first life hack is the, the 10 minute. Walk rule, the 10 minute walk rule. So the way it works is you walk for 10 minutes after your largest meal of the day, it significantly improves digestion, blood sugar, and energy. So I, I remember when I was growing up, you kind of like had it beat into your head to just relax and not do any physical exertion. At least I did. And I remember just hearing this and like you, you kind of have to just properly digest your food and just lay there. But. It's, it's interesting when you see how other people live, especially people who are health fanatics, and you start to realize that sometimes the, the things that you learned in your early years are actually not always necessarily the most beneficial. So as you can see, most people would not think to go for a 10 minute walk directly after a large meal, but it absolutely does. Help. Second thing is protein first in every meal. So eating protein first reduces blood sugar spikes and naturally regulates appetite. Without counting calories. So when was the last time you genuinely thought about eating protein? First, we never really think about the sequence in which we eat our food, but it, it is super helpful to know the actual, uh, sequence or the best sequence. So for, for optimal health. Okay, so protein first in every meal is the idea, so, so you can reduce that blood sugar spike and naturally regulate appetite without counting your calories. Lastly, we have sunlight before screens. Getting five to 10 minutes of morning sunlight resets your circadian rhythm, improving sleep focus, and hormone balance. So sunlight is very important and I love tuning into the Andrew Huber Andrew Huberman podcast. He's a a Stanford professor and a phenomenal. Scientists in general, and he talks a lot about different health hacks and everything like that. If you've never tuned into a show, I definitely recommend it. And you know, on the Huberman show, one of the things that I learned is whenever you wanna reset your CI circadian rhythm, for those of you who are struggling with your sleep, maybe it's very difficult to get optimal sleep throughout the night. There's a few things that I actually wanna recommend. A lot of people don't take these things into account. So a lot of people, when they think about getting good, good sleep, they only think about getting, let's say, seven to eight hours. However, if you really wanna improve your sleep, there's so many different aspects of of sleep to take into consideration. Prime example, if you can eat three hours before three hours or more before you go to sleep. It's definitely going to improve your sleep. Why is that? Because remember, your body is digesting food while it sleeps, so if you want to get adequate sleep, make sure that you eat again over three hours before going to sleep, if at least two hours ideally. But if you can go over three hours before you go to sleep, it's even better. Another thing is. Screen time after 10:00 PM There's tons of research these days that shows how screen time has a direct effect on the quality of your sleep. So do your best, especially those of you who like to read before you go to bed, try not to read it a, a book from your phone. Right now you have all kinds of kindles and, and devices these days that limit the amount of light exposure to your eye, but have a, either a book or technology that's specifically designed to not. Add so much light to to your eyes right before you go to sleep because it does affect the quality of your sleep. Sometimes also, we have these lights on while we sleep, so there'll be lights, and that light actually affects the quality of your sleep as well. So this is something that I had to be very mindful of. We add to. Really, uh, uh, be mindful of the types of curtains that we use because we have these huge windows in our bedroom and our bedroom brings in a lot of light. So one of the things that we did was we got curtains specifically to darken out the room. Whenever we do take naps throughout the day, or even better, if you can wear an eye mask, that eye mask also helps just shut down your brain, because once your brain sees that. It's lights out. It's naturally programmed to start to shut down. So light exposure plays a big, big part when it comes to your overall sleep. And then let's see if there's any, I know there's tons of different ways also having your room be cold instead of. Warm. So if you're hot throughout the night, it's definitely going to affect your sleep. So I know for me, I'm one of those people who have to have the AC cranking and the fan blowing and be bundled up under a cover in order to have the very best sleep possible. And lastly, what comes to mind is making sure that you don't drink fluids before going to sleep, because some of us will wake up throughout the night and then it obviously is gonna have an effect on your sleep if you can't sleep throughout the entire night. So all critical aspects of getting really, really good sleep. Okay, here we go. The very first segment today is gonna be redefining optimal health. So what that actually looks like. So remember this, health isn't the absence of sickness. It's the presence of energy, clarity, and resilience. I remember hearing from a doctor friend of mine, he would always reference the quote that an ounce of pre, uh, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. It's so much better to prevent bad health, right? Or just, uh, you know, uh, I shouldn't even say bad health. It's just sickness in the body because health is health, right? So when you have this ease in the body, a lot of the times. It's things that you could have prevented just from simple lifestyle changes. So again, the key message is health isn't the absence of sickness. It's the presence of energy, clarity, and resilience. You optimize your health so that you can live a better quality of life. Oftentimes when we think of health, we are thinking, okay, how in shape do I look? How, how many pounds am I? But it's so much more than that. You should look at your health as functional health. Health that you could actually use for your day-to-day life, to help you navigate through whatever it is that you do, uh, with your life, whether it's being a parent or being a community leader, or being a business owner, whatever it is, that's why you optimize your health so you can do more of what you were called to do now. One of the things that's super important to understand is looking healthy does not equate. To being healthy. A lot of people think that, oh, just because someone is shredded or has six pack abs that they're necessarily healthy. No, sometimes people just have really good genes and they look a lot healthy, healthier than they are, but it's, it's so much more than that. Okay, so there's four pillars of optimal health. There's your physical. So I always say, I, I go to the the gym for two things to look good and to feel good. So you sculpt your body. But let's be real. Working on biceps isn't necessarily going to be the thing that makes you feel good throughout the day. It might make you look good. They, they used to always joke when I played football back in the day, they would always joke and say, curls are for the girls, right? Curls for the girls because. The curls wasn't really helping your performance in football, having huge biceps does nothing to your football abilities, but it, it was just your confidence level, right? So physical is one aspect, but then you have the mental, as I mentioned, and your mental health. How do you navigate through that? And one thing you have to understand is that your body and brain are interconnected. They're both influencing each other at any given moment. You wanna boost your serotonin levels, you wanna boost your dopamine levels. Things as simple as gratitude exercises where it's more mental could have a direct effect on the happy chemicals that flow through your body and brain. Next is emotional, the emotional pillar. So how you feel throughout the day. Ask yourself this, what's your emotional home? If you had to describe your emotional home in terms of how you typically feel throughout the course of the week, how would you describe it? How do you typically feel? Remember the quality of your life is determined by the quality of emotions you consistently feel. Every single thing that we do in life is a means to an end emotion. We want to experience. Isn't this the case? Think about it. Why do we go out with friends? Why do we pursue romantic relationships? Why do we just create, and all of these things essentially are a means to an end emotion we want to experience. So emotions are far more important than we realize. And last but not least is lifestyle health. Lifestyle health. When was the, when was the last time you genuinely thought of a pillar of health as lifestyle health? And we'll get a little bit more into that. So why most people chase symptoms instead of systems? When you think about why most people chase symptoms, for example, a lot of people don't really pay attention to their health until it's too late. Until they're forced to actually pay attention to their health. And this is so unfortunate because again. Your your lifestyle habits, it are those silent killers that you really don't realize until it's too late. And it's essential to always ensure that you're giving your, your health the time, energy, and attention that it deserves, because you don't wanna wait until the last minute. Remember, you don't have another body hanging up in the closet somewhere. This is your temple. The you take you wherever you go. It's like if you had a vehicle and you knew that this was the only vehicle you would drive for the rest of your life, you probably would be a little bit more mindful about how you go about the maintenance of that vehicle. You're not just gonna go about. Owning that vehicle and driving that vehicle without any oil changes or tire changes or just any changes for that matter. When it comes to the vehicle, it constantly needs maintenance, and it's the same with our bodies. So remember, optimal health is when your body works for your goals, not against them. That's what it's about. Sometimes people are like, well, I ain't about to be up in that gym no two hours because I gotta get to this back. I gotta provide for my family. Listen. You don't have to get into the gym. It's not about being a gym rat where you're in the gym for two to three hours. It's genuinely just taking some time. Sometimes it's just maintenance. When, when people ask me about my health regimen. Oftentimes, you know, I, I'll let them know I'm, I'm in and out of the gym within 25 to 30 minutes on average day, sometimes a little bit longer, but usually I'll go in, I'll do like 10 minutes on the cycle for some cardio. I may do some abs. Then I'll super set some workouts and it may be chest and back. It may be legs, it may be shoulders and traps, but I'm typically super setting so that I can get in and out of the gym. For those of you who are not familiar with super setting, it's pretty much getting like two or three or a combination of workouts all in the same workout rotation. So you may do, let's just say. Chest press and then lateral raises or extensions, and you may do, let's just say 10 reps of that of chest and then 10 reps of back. Then repeat the cycle three or four sets. So whenever, whenever I work out, I, I'm typically doing my best to get between eight to 12 rep repetitions in. And, and then I, I do my best to get at least four sets of that and I'll super set. And this is the way that I maintain and I'm in and out of the gym. Now when it comes to overall diet. One of my, my, the diet philosophy that I aspire to live by, and I don't always hit it right on the head, but it's, it's always a goal of mine. 80% green, 20% gangster. Now the 80% green, 20% gangster. People typically laugh when I say this, but really what am I talking about is the majority of the time you're re you're eating super healthy, but then you leave a little room for some cheat meals. You leave a little room. For maybe you, you're not eating the healthiest, and if you're familiar with the bodybuilding world, you typically have cheat days in the bodybuilding world. So kind of like. Celebrate yourself or to, to just indulge, right? Because it's not always easy eating the healthiest food, but being very mindful about the, the percentage you should be eating far more healthy than you do. Uh, ba badly. So yesterday I had a, a burger, for example. I don't always eat burgers. My wife made homemade burgers. Last night, and you know, you, I'm not obviously going to eat burgers every single day because it does have negative consequences, um, especially the type of burger that you eat, but. All in all right. It's, it's just giving yourself some permission to have a really good meal. Especially for those of y'all who are foodies like me. I mean, I, I love me a good meal. I'm not big on the desserts, but I, I love just going out and trying different things. And if you're taking care of everybody in the right way and you're eating healthy, the majority of the time, you don't have nothing to worry about. So the next part of today's segment is gonna be the foundation. So energy management over time management. Okay. Before I jump into this, uh, for those of you who don't know, I ran a tiny challenge. So we've been doing these five day challenges to close out the year, and I have one last opening as we get ready to wrap up the year. We only have about two weeks to close out the year. So the way these. These challenges work. It's five days working with me one-on-one. It's very different than any challenge that we've ever launched in the past. Typically, when you think of a challenge that you'll do with a coach or a mentor, it's usually in a group setting. So this is very different. I'm hand selecting a, a group of people to work with. It's five days where you get to work with me on whatever it is that you wanna work on. So a lot of you guys. Wanna go into the new year, and maybe you're on that new year, new me wave. And you want to just work on whether it's your health, it could be your business, it could be your finances, it could be your relationships, whatever it is. Maybe a project, maybe you wanna get into podcasting, speaking, writing a book, anything like that. And if that's the case for you, DM me the word. Challenge and I'll send you some information. I can answer any questions that you have on how the challenge works, but it's 5 45 minute sessions with me over the course of a week. So I just wrapped up two different rounds of it. We've been doing it over the last two to three weeks. It's been amazing and it's been so nice just connecting with a lot of you guys. So there's only one of me, so I can only do this with a hand select group of people. But. I would highly recommend DM me the word challenge. Even right now as you're listening to the Breakfast Club, and maybe you're tuning into this weeks after DM Me. Anyway, I'll be more than happy to fill you in on how this works. I may be doing this ongoing throughout the course of next year. I'll have a few select slots every single month that I dedicate just to doing these five day challenges with you guys. So super excited to connect with many of you now, the Foundation, energy Management over Time Management. Now you wanna tie this into your broader brand around performance, um, and or just, uh, tie it into your, your overall routine, right? When it comes to your performance and your fulfillment. And, and that's what energy management. It's interesting. I was talking to a, a men's group, uh, men's business leaders group, uh, about two weeks ago, and the, the topic was time management and one of the things that I mentioned was. Energy management is just as important as time management because sometimes you may block out time on your calendar to do something that you know you need to do, but you don't have any energy for it. So energy management is just as important. And in fact, whenever I'm working with clients on optimizing their calendar, we're optimizing their calendar to do the things that are the most arduous task when they have the most energy throughout the day. Or sometimes it's creative work and you find yourself being more creative, for example, in the morning or the night, and you wanna optimize your calendar. So you're doing those tasks specifically around how your energy works in your body. And everybody's body is different. Okay, so remember this. Fatigue is the real epidemic when it comes to your overall health because if you're tired, if you're lethargic, if you have no energy, this is going to be one of the biggest enemies to your productivity, one of the biggest enemies to your dream. It's just not having the energy for it. And it's, it's so important to know how to optimize your health so that you do have the most energy possible. Okay, so there's so many different factors when it comes to fatigue as well, like the role of sleep. As it pertains to fatigue, hydration, sometimes you are just not adequately Hi, adequately hydrated. I always, my rule of thumb is drinking at least half a gallon of water every single day, and I actually carry around a jug of water with me every single day to remind myself, okay, I, I have to get through this entire jug to be properly hydrated. And then remember, stress. Plays a big part in your overall energy as well, so sleep, hydration, and stress. Now, chronic stress quietly destroys health. What, what do we mean by that when it comes to stress? I remember going to, uh, a conference with my church prob years ago, probably over 10 years ago, and I remember there was this, this gentleman that traveled all around the country. Just his ministry was teaching the ministry on overall health and how to optimize health. And I remember him talking about how stress worked in the body and it's kind of like a dripping faucet. So when you think about tribal times, when we lived as as tribes or nomadic tribes. Thousands of years ago, the way stress worked then is very different than the way stress works in modern society. So back then, if you ran into a Saber two tiger, yeah, it was gonna be fight, flight, or freeze. And in that moment, your adrenal glands. Just start firing and, and you have just your survival mechanism, right? That that epinephrine, that dopamine kicks in in your body and you're either gonna fight in that moment or flee, or some people will just freeze and get eaten to death by some animal. But most of the time it's gonna be a fight orf flight situation. And that was the extent of the stress. Once that saber tooth was gone or whatever, you were in danger of, maybe you were at war with a, with another tribe. But once that was done, you essentially went back to a state of equanimity. You, you were no longer stressed. Whereas in modern times, it's interesting because in modern times you have ongoing prolonged stress. It's like a dripping faucet, and eventually that dripping faucet is going to cause you to have a very expensive water bill Now. When you think about, for example, modern day society, you, you have the stress of finances, which most people can relate to, especially in this economy. You'll find that a lot of people, I, I'm in tons of entrepreneurial groups and when I tell you the amount of struggle. Is real. It, it is crazy in this economy navigating through it as an entrepreneur, and I know from personal experience, so that that creates stress. Sometimes it's relational stress. You're at odds with your relationship and these things kind of, they, they intertwine in a sense because when you think about it, most, most marriages don't end because of finances. Most marriages end because of the communication on finances. It's not necessarily the the finances that end the marriage, it's the way you navigate through these financial challenges. So the relational issues, the relational issues can be caused by the money issues. And then sometimes you have just stress over work. You're working 60, 70, 80 hours a week, and these companies are milking the hell out of you and you're just burnt out. You have that kind of stress and there's just so many different things. And many times it's even the idea of relative deprivation where you're comparing yourself to other people who pretend that they have all of their shit together on social media. And the reality, reality is if you really look behind the curtain, it's rarely ever the case we we're all going through something. Life is life for the vast majority of us. So. Being very mindful about the comparison trap is, is super important because you end up stressing yourself the hell out for no reason, not realizing that the person or people that you're comparing yourself to probably have it even worse than you do. Okay? So some actionable tools that you can implement are fixed sleep or wake times. Right. So having an idea of just when exactly you're going to sleep, so whenever I'm optimizing a client's calendar, I'm, I'm always mindful of, okay, what's the optimal time to get some sleep? Maybe. You're not able to get a full seven, eight hours of sleep through the night, but you kind of make up for it throughout the the day with naps, whatever works for you, and then getting your body on a routine when it comes to the wake times. Now, another thing could be a wind down ritual, a wind down ritual. What do you do to genuinely wind down? Before you go to sleep, and it can be, let's just say journaling. It can be prayer, meditation, or reading scripture or whatever it is, but having some kind of a wind down ritual, sometimes it's just watching a good show. I remember my mentor, who's, uh, he runs mul, multiple billion dollar companies. He's known around the world. For peak performance and all of this. And his wind down ritual is literally watching family guy in the night to take his mind off of everything that he navigated through, uh, throughout the day and whatever it is that works for you, but have some kind of a wind down ritual. Now, for those of you who are tuning in right now, drop a comment if you have a wind down ritual. I'm curious as to what is your wind down ritual? Drop a comment on what specifically you do. I know for me it's usually I'm, I'm listening to like audio books. I'll play an audio book and the audio book will naturally put me to sleep. Sometimes it's doing some kind of a meditation, or it may even be journaling at at the end of the night. It just depends. Every night is something a little different, but I, I do my absolute best to not be on social media. Before I go to bed, I also, I, last night I read my kids, I read my kids like these bible stories, they have like a children's bible book and I'll read my kids Bible stories, um, uh, many times and they love it. So that's like a wind down ritual as well. And then we'll, we'll kind of pray before we go to bed and Yeah. But what is your specific wind down ritual? And if you don't have one, why not? Last but not least, we have one daily. Uh, one daily stress release habit, and this could be so many things for me, it's walking. Yesterday I went to a, uh, a coffee shop probably about 25 minutes from where I live, but it's a, in a beautiful neighborhood. So sometimes I'll just leave the coffee shop and just walk and work or just walk and think. But having some kind of stress release habit goes a long way. It could be breath work. It could be prayer, it could be journaling. You guys hear me talk about tapping? If you're not familiar with the tapping method, it's literally tapping on specific meridians on the body to calm your nervous system, and tapping is really, really good. But having some kind of a daily stress release is very helpful when it comes to breathing. I love box breathing. It's always easy to remember. It's four count breaths. Four times. So inhaling for four seconds, holding your breath on empty lungs or on on full lungs for four seconds. Exhaling on four seconds, and then holding that breath. Right for our empty lungs for four seconds and doing it four times, and you'll notice a significant change in the way that you feel. Alright, ne. Next we have nutrition without extremes. Nutrition without extremes. It's funny because sometimes. I'll talk to people about their, their diet, and you'll hear them, you know, talk about all these, you know, keto diets and all kinds of extreme diets where they'll be like fasting and then eating and then fasting again and, and what we're talking about. Today is, is not diets, but more systems. Because diets, yeah, you can implement diets, but for most people who go on diets, the moment they get off that diet, you'll see that they'll put the weight back on because they've never updated their system, right? They never updated their lifestyle habits. Or maybe it was their coping mechanisms. Perhaps their coping mechanism is eating food whenever they're stressed out. So you have to have systems because maybe the system. It helps you navigate through the stress. Okay, so why do most diets fail long term? It can be identity issues, right? Some people identify as overweight people and they'll lose the weight and then pack it right back on. Sometimes it's just the way they cope with stress, as I mentioned. And sometimes it's just, again, lifestyle choices. You may be drinking with friends or getting back into drinking, or maybe you're around. People in your household who are constantly munching on snacks and things like that. So it's updating your systems and also just re-imagining your identity. Identifying as someone who has optimal help. Oftentimes when, whenever I talk to people like, you know, people are like, Josh, how in the world do you still have abs? And you know, you've got kids and like, why didn't you ever have the dad bod? Why, why do you still have abs? And a lot of it has to do with the way that I identify with, with myself. And it sounds crazy. Some of you're like, ah, that's bs. It's all genetics or whatever. I don't know about that. I still do ab workouts every single week and I've always identified as someone who, who has had abs. You know, I talk about it or, um, people will talk about it and it kind of reinforces. That as, as your identity, if you will, or just being in shape like I was a college athlete and a lot of my, just my athleticism or my passion for sports, right? That that was also a big part of my identity and still is to this day. So your identity plays a major, major factor when it comes to just keeping the weight off of staying in shape. Now another thing is looking at. Food is information as opposed to just calories. Usually when people are going about their diets, they're just counting their calories, but it's much more than that. You have to look at food as information. You can. You can learn a lot about where you are from a health standpoint. Even even looking at stool, I know like this is probably not the first thing you want to hear rolling into the morning, but it's important like looking at your stool. And seeing like, okay, I probably need a little bit more fiber in my diet. Okay. There's so many ways to know, even like urine, you typically know if you're dehydrated by looking at the color of your urine. If it's dark, if it's super yellow, then you're dehydrated. If it's clear, then you obviously know that you're hydrated. So looking at at what comes out of your body is, is so important when it comes to just your, your overall health, so you'll know. Okay, well. When it comes to food being information, do I need more fiber in my diet? Or maybe you, you just know how your health is by how lethargic you feel. Sometimes you'll hear people say, man, that food gave me the itis, right? I ate some Turkey for Thanksgiving and I had the itis during the holidays, and you should not be feeling lethargic and feeling lazy after food. Food is meant to. Energize you, not deplete you of your energy. So typically the way you feel is a clear indication of just your overall health. Okay? And food, again, look at it as information, not just calories. Now there's also a major danger of constantly spiking your insulin. And there's so many things that spike your insulin levels. And remember, it's about how your body processes the food as well. And whenever you're eating a lot of sugar, you're eating processed foods. All of this plays a major factor. Stress levels, fatigue, hydration, all of that. So being mindful of your insulin levels because when you have that high blood sugar. I'm telling you, it's, that is nothing to play with. Especially as you get older, it's, it's important and it'll creep up on you out of nowhere, I've seen people pass out in front of me like literally faint because of their blood sugar levels. So also very important to understand, and it's not just the food, it's, it's the way you, you get your, your adequate levels of sleep and so much more now. Here's some simple principles you can put into practice eating real food. Most of the time, and when I say real food, I'm not talking about right, just going to McDonald's and ordering the salad, right? Like sometimes people will think, oh, well, I'll just order the salad, like eat eating real food. The vast majority of the time is, is essential because especially if you're eating like TV dinners, I, I don't know if that's even a thing. I remember back in the day we would eat TV dinners and it was like. Probably the worst thing you can put in your body, or you're just eating a lot of fast food. Most fast food isn't real nutrition, so just again, it's okay from time to time, but if you create a lifestyle habit of eating tons of fast food and processed food, it will catch up. Um, again, another principle is prioritizing protein, fiber, and healthy fats into your diet. So avocado, they say avocado is the perfect fruit, and avocado is, I mean, I, we probably eat avocado every single day in my household, and that's a prime example of like healthy fats. Not all fats are bad. Reduce ultra processed foods, as I mentioned. And remember, consistency is greater than perfection. Consistency is greater than perfection. I see someone commenting on used, used to love TV dinners, and man, I, I remember those Hungry Mans. I I used to eat all of that chunk, uh, chunky Noodle Soup and all that chunk, those chunky soups and, and the the Hungry Man TV dinners. I, I used to love it and it's like. You know, when you know better, you gotta do better. And it's, it's crazy because when you reflect back. On the nineties, you know, back in the nineties, nobody gave a damn about health. It was like you, you would drink all kinds of soda and eat some Skittles and eat all kinds of bags of chips. And like you, you had no regard for health back in those days. Like everything was processed. And these days we, we know a lot more. There's been a lot of documentaries, a lot of information out there, and it is just. Important to do better when you do know better. Okay, and here's a really great quote. Your body doesn't need punishment. It needs partnership. So good. Your body doesn't need punishment, it needs partnership. Don't look at. Your health journey is something that's super daunting and something that requires a crazy amount of discipline. No, it's, it's just, it's a lifestyle enhancement, right? You're gonna feel better and you're gonna look better, and that's what it's all about. It's, it's the way you look, the way you feel, having that confidence because you look good and feel good. Now, uh, we have the next segment is on movement as medicine. Movement as medicine. You wanna reframe exercise as longevity, not aesthetics. So most of us think about exercise as, okay, I wanna, I wanna. Sharpen up my, my, my biceps and triceps. I wanna get a cut here and I want my trap, my traps to look better. And I wanna sculpt my abs. And it's all about aesthetics. But you wanna look at your health journey more for longevity functionality, like how. Functional, are you? It, it is like if you're this, this big, bulky bodybuilder, but you're not flexible, you, you, you could barely like turn your body or wipe your own ass. It's like what's the point of, of being all big and buffed if, if it's not functional? So if want to be as functional. As possible when it comes to your health journey. All right, now, why I'm over here cracking up. Sometimes you, you laugh at your own self. You're like, man, I can't believe I said that. Uh, next we have why, uh, why movement matters more than workouts. Why movement matters more than workouts. I, I love a lot of Asians do Tai Chi. You'll see them in a park in, in parts of Brooklyn. They're like predominantly Asian. And you'll see them. Doing all kinds of tai chi, and there's no coincidence as to why. Especially like in places like Okinawa, Japan, where they have like some of the, the longest living people on earth. And a lot of it has to do with, with things like Tai Chi, where they're just constantly moving or they may have a garden and they're constantly gardening, but always moving your body is essential. Another thing is strength, mobi mobility, and cardiovascular health. Okay. Stretching. Stretching is one of those things that we probably used to do it back in, in our high school days, during gym class or something. And then as we get older, we just stop stretching. And stretching is really good for blood flow and so much more. So taking time to just stretch your body. Okay. And the minimum effective dose for real health, what's the baseline for minimum? For me, baseline hydration, sleep. At least going for a walk and getting into the gym at least three to four times a week. Okay. That's like baseline. If you can do more than that, go for more, but, and, and then meditation for mental and emotional. All right? And you have the spiritual aspect of it as well. Okay? So you could possibly do whatever is your, your, your rhythm, your weekly method of operation, if you will. It can be two to three days of strength sessions per week. And strength training is super important. Having muscle mass is essential, especially as you get older because you can fall and if you fall and you have no muscle to protect your bones, this is how people end up needing like hip replacements and all kinds of stuff. Okay? Daily walking and mobility and stretching for longevity. Okay? So all of these things are things that you can integrate into your weekly method of operation. Okay? The next segment is mental and emotional health, which is the missing link. And this is where, right, like true wisdom really shines because we, we again, think of health as what we put in our bodies and exercise, but it's so much more now. Remember, unresolved emotions become. Physical symptoms. This is super important to understand because the human body, right, the mind, body, soul, all of it is energy. And we oftentimes fail to realize how trauma really has an effect on our overall health. These are energy blocks that build up in your system and they later manifest themselves into TU tumors, cancers all kinds of dis-ease in the body, so you have to. Take care of your emotional health. You have to be very mindful at how you even interpret life's life situations. Sometimes life is life and, and you're looking at life is happening to you instead of for you, and you're taking in all of this trauma. So how you process it, how you reframe what it is that you're looking at. Okay. The next thing is the connection between mindset, stress. And inflammation. Mindset, stress and inflammation. Inflammation is important when it comes to your overall health as well. A lot of, a lot of bad health just comes from a lot of inflammation in the body and some of the ways that you reduce inflammation. Again, it, it can be exercise, it can be proper breathing, it can be reducing stress. All of that and your mindset, your attitude. This is why the, the idea of an attitude of gratitude is, is essential when it comes to your overall health because your mind affects your body and vice versa. Now, inner peace is also a major, major health strategy. Inner peace. And it's interesting because when you do research on these quote unquote blue zones around the world where people have the longest lifespan, you'll oftentimes find that they have very great social connection. Social connection produces oxytocin in the body. Oxytocin is the love chemical. It's what makes you feel those warm and fuzzy feelings when you're connecting with people. It is essential to have really great social connections because it is one of the best things that you can do for your, for your health. Okay, so some tools are, again, emotional awareness, gratitude practices, community, and relationships. If you're not around community, I'm telling you it, it is like community's one of the best things that you can do for your overall emotional state, and then letting go of perfectionism sometimes. Sometimes we just need to be kind to ourselves. Sometimes we're a bit hard on ourselves and we're so caught up in perfectionism where we end up not making any progress or we limit ourselves, right? We start to feel a sense of guilt or shame, and you have to let go of the perfectionism. Perfectionism is the enemy to execution, so the more you're caught up in that, the the less productive you're gonna be. And here's a really great quote. A regulated nervous system is a competitive. Advantage, a regulated nervous system. I always talk about getting on an even keel, getting to a place of equanimity where you're not all over the place emotionally. It is very, very helpful to just have a regulated nervous system, especially for those of you who are entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is already stressful, navigating through all the challenges that it brings. However, if you properly regulate your nervous system, you can have a competitive advantage. Next we have health as a lifestyle identity. Okay, A lifestyle identity. Now, health as an identity, not a phase. Some people just look at their health as, okay, in this season, right, new Year knew me and maybe they're just on their health journey the first three months of the year. Listen, it has to become a long-term identity for you. This is who you are. When you identify, you identify as a healthy person, okay? Remember too, discipline creates freedom. Discipline creates freedom because when it comes to your health, it's like, pay me now or pay me later. You may think that you're saving time, you're saving money, but eventually it'll catch up to you. It'll catch up to you. In those hospital visits, sometimes people end up having to get surgery and it takes some weeks after that surgery to to recover and get back to work, right? So remember, discipline. You're not, you're not. Doing something that's limiting you per se. Discipline is so that you have more freedom down the road. And remember to teach your kids and community by example. Don't, don't. You know, it's interesting, there's all this talk about parenting and how to go about parenting, but think about this. If your kids followed your example on how you go about health. How would they end up in life? Would you, would you want them to even follow your example? And the apple doesn't fall far from the tree when they, you hear about these generational curses, they're really generational cycles. Your kids will see the way you went about your health. And chances are, and not, not, not in all cases'cause I damn sure don't go about my health the way my, my parents or grandparents did, but a lot of kids do and they're following your lead. So one of the best things that you can do. Is love them so much that you take care of you because you know by you taking care of you, they'll follow your example. Okay, and here's a final thought. The goal isn't to live forever. The goal is to live well for as long as you are here. Remember, it's not the life in your, it's not the years in your life. It's the life in your years. And if you optimize your health. You can have a lot of phenomenal years walking on this planet. That's what it's about more than anything. Think about it. Imagine if you can go into your sixties and seventies, still productive, still on fire, still vibrant, still with optimal health like. That's a great life to be able to, to live that long. The hu human beings weren't even meant we're, we're not designed to live past 40 years old for the vast majority of our humanity. Most human beings by 40 years old, they're out of here. They didn't live that long. Our ancestors didn't live to 60, 70, 80 plus years old. But we do. And if you're gonna live that long, you might as well be very, very cognizant of. The way you go about your health and very intentional. If there's anything you're gonna give your T to your time, energy, and attention, it should be your health. Okay? Because health truly is wealth. Sometimes we think about wealth like, oh, I wanna run up a bag. I wanna just get rich and have all this money in my bank account, have my credit, and all of that. Listen. All of that goes out the window when you can't even get out of your hospital bed. Health truly is like, it's, it's foundational to wealth. Wealth is irrelevant. What's a billion dollars to a cancer patient, right? So always start off with your health and then the wealth will follow in a lot of different ways. So my question to you as we wrap up here, what's one system you can build this week to support your health? Okay. And I wanna encourage you all to start small, stay consistent, and always think long-term. So if you got value out of today's session, drop a comment, drop a V in the comments if this was valuable for you. I know today not everybody cares to talk about health, but I think that it is. On time because we're going into the new year and we are just now getting through the holidays and stuff. And many times we don't necessarily eat the healthiest during the holidays. But set your intention for how you go into the new year. And this is also a message back to myself because I've been a few days outta the gym. Definitely need to get myself back in there and my hope is that you start to build your rhythm, your weekly method of operation when it comes to not only. Going to the gym, but also what you eat, how you eat your, your sleep, right? All of that stuff. Your mental, emotional health. Everything plays a big, big part. It's your holistic health. It's the wellbeing of your whole being. So ladies and gentlemen, breakfast is officially served. I hope that this was valuable for you. Again, drop a comment. I read through all of them. Appreciate you guys like, comment, share. Tag someone follow me on YouTube. You can subscribe to my channel. You always will get the updates when this pops up. And also you can follow me on Instagram at the world traveler and I'll be seeing you guys next week. Take care. God bless guys. Breakfast is served.