Michelle MacDonald (00:00):

That's one of the gifts of getting older is you know that you can completely waste your life if you're not present. And as you said, you just rack up bad decisions.

David Stewart (00:09):

And the thing, I spent the first 20 years of my life sort of in this state of bored, angst, depression because I didn't know any better. And once it was just like I'd sit around and I watch TV and I lived in this little town and it was just like, this is so boring. But I thought that's what life was. And once I sort of got out of that box, now it's like, oh my god, I never want to do that again.

Michelle MacDonald (00:41):

Welcome back to Stronger By Design. This is episode two of my conversation with David Stewart. He's the founder of Ageist and the Visionary Behind Super Age where I'm proud to be an advisor. In this episode, we're going to go deeper into the cultural, the physiological and psychological shifts that shape how we live and lead after 50. If part one sparked your curiosity, we're going to go even deeper in part two. If you haven't listened to part one yet, please go ahead and check that out. You're going to understand more about his journey, like most of us, how his own challenges in his forties drove him to be much more interested in how to optimize as we age. Alright, here we're going to dive into the future of age tech to redefining purpose beyond traditional career arcs. David and I dig into what it truly means to live with agency in the second half of life. Welcome back to the show guys, episode two with David Stewart from Ageist and Super Age. Welcome back to the show David.

David Stewart (01:50):

Good to see you Michelle.

Michelle MacDonald (01:51):

Good to see you. So in this episode we're going to dive into the science behind thriving at any age. I mean you have an incredible podcast, ageist your platform, ageist.com. You've interviewed so many experts, but also influencers, including my mom in this field of aging really, really well, aging like never before. And so I'd love to pick your brain a little bit. How do we stay vital? How do we stay relevant? How do we stay inspired, right? Because we're going to live a long time these days. Hopefully you want to live well.

David Stewart (02:24):

Yeah. So the first thing is if you want to stay inspired, you got to take care of your body. You got to take care of your physicality, you got to take care of your mental health. I think that there's some really very basic things. People love the exotic stuff. They really love talking about the purple supplement pill, whatever. Okay great, you got to go to sleep, alright? Sleep is like number one. If you're not sleeping well, none of this other stuff is going to work for you. So that's like number one. If you're not sleeping well figure it out. Get yourself sleep tracker. Figure out a nighttime routine. Figure out a wind down routine. As Norma Kamala told me, your sleep begins the moment you wake up in the morning. So Norma told me the function of the day is very for sleep. So that's super important.

(03:17):

The next thing is your body. How are you moving your body? How are you taking care of this thing? So strength, training, agility, what's your aerobic capacity? These are things that we have unbelievable agency on and we can make, I mean this is right. We know we can make enormous improvements there. The next thing is you are in control. You have a total agency over what goes into your mouth. Mouth, yeah. No one is shoving anything in your mouth. You did that. So choose wisely, figure out again what works for you. And some people, some diets work better for other people and at different times in life. And I think it depends on what's your activity level, what are your goals? But figure it out if you don't know, there are people out there that you can speak to who know a lot about this and they can just help you out with that.

Michelle MacDonald (04:12):

I want to pick your brain a little bit about the things that you've talked about. So you've got sleep, we've got training, we've got nutrition, but there's so much. You must hear this so much. I get it all the time. It's so confusing. It's so controversial. One expert saying this, another expert saying that. So can you speak a little bit about that? Again, you've interviewed a smorgasbord of experts. What's your conclusion? What's your conclusion?

David Stewart (04:38):

David? If you listen to somebody who tells you this is the protocol, you must do this, turn it off. I'm sorry that's not you. There's some sort of basic guidelines here that we all know we need to drink. Make sure you drink enough water. There's no controversy about this. No one is going to tell you stop drinking water. So make sure you're drinking enough water. Try and make sure you're getting enough protein. I think especially for women and especially as we get older, I have found that in fact, I just learned this in the last six months, I weigh 170 pounds. So I've decided, okay, this is kind of hard, but I'm going to make sure I get 170 grams of protein A. That requires some effort on my part. To do that, you got to focus

Michelle MacDonald (05:32):

On that. I've done contest preps where I've had 170 grams of protein a day.

David Stewart (05:40):

I really, you got to think about

Michelle MacDonald (05:41):

It, right? I don't do that. I don't do that anymore, but I've done that. It is a lot of protein.

David Stewart (05:45):

It's a lot of protein, but what I found was my ability to put on muscle really goes up. But that's just me, right? So I'm older, I don't absorb protein that well and I train four or five times a week, okay, up the protein, make sure you're getting enough calories, make sure you're getting enough fiber. This is the stuff like your grandmother told you this stuff. It's not particularly exotic. And I think one of the things, the pieces people miss here is the idea of stress. So you need to think of stress as like you have a stress battery and it's only so large and emotional stress, mental stress, physical stress, it all comes out of clean battery. So you need to be careful about understanding how to recover quickly because the sooner if you're training, the sooner you can go from that highly sympathetic, which is that flight or fight really jacked up to dial that down to parasympathetic so you can get into recovery.

(06:53):

The sooner you can do that and you can train that, the better you're going to recover and the sooner you're going to be able to train again, because remember the stuff you do outside of the gym, if it has a stress component to it, you're taking from that battery and it's only so big. So if you're a metric nerd, I am, you measure your HRV every morning and you see where you're at. So this morning mine was kind of low. I really wanted to do my DO two max trading this morning, but I said no, we're just going to do an hour of slow zone two and then tomorrow it'll be up and we can have at it again.

Michelle MacDonald (07:32):

Can you explain a little bit just in case the audience are unfamiliar with this, what is HRV and what tech are you using to measure it?

David Stewart (07:39):

Oh yeah, sure. So HRV is something called heart rate variability. So this comes out of the Russians back, I think it was like in the seventies. They figured this out. So your heart does not beat. There's a variability between the heartbeat. So it's not an exact rhythm. And in fact, counterintuitively you want variability. You don't want it to be rigidly metronome. So the more variability means it's you have more ability to manage stress, any kind of stress, and you can measure this. So there's a lot of ways people measure them. I think pretty much all like whoop has one, the Apple watch has one. All these things. I use something I'm friendly with Joel Jameson who's the conditioning expert and he has a thing called AM Morpheus. And what I do for the last four years before I got out of bed in the morning, I put the Morpheus on my wrist two and a half minutes. I just stay still. And so then it gets me a fixed point every day that I know this is my HRV at this point every day. So then I'm comparing apples to apples. A lot of the other ones are these sort of funny algorithms that sort of average out during the day and they semi useful.

Michelle MacDonald (08:54):

So is this one called, again, the audience might be interested. I mean you're interviewing all these people, you probably have some insights on what might be a better product.

David Stewart (09:02):

Yeah, Joel is like the MMA conditioning coach. So if you want to know about conditioning, he's the dude. So it's called AM Morpheus and either comes as a chest strap or I have one that I wear on my wrist. On

Michelle MacDonald (09:17):

Your wrist, okay. How do you spell it?

David Stewart (09:20):

Morpheus? I think the name of the same character from

Michelle MacDonald (09:24):

The movie?

David Stewart (09:25):

Yes, from the Matrix. Morpheus.

Michelle MacDonald (09:27):

Okay. Easy. Perfect. Yeah, HRV. Great, right? Yeah. Okay. Anything else? A practice. You also mentioned about self-awareness and it's a skill that you can train. I actually just interviewed Michelle Beats from the space of neuroscience and we talked a lot about introspection and how to practice it during training actually to develop

David Stewart (09:46):

It. Yes, you can train that. So again, something, I mean I learned this from Joel that this idea that if you see a highly trained athlete, somebody who's like an MMA fighter or a boxer like an Olympian, you'll see that after they do their thing, they're able to, their heart rate is jacked, it's max and they're able to just bring it down. So the way they're able to do another round or another competition is how quickly can they bring that down? So my sport is I'm a ski racer, which is I know not exactly aligned with longevity, I get that. But you'll see an Olympic level world cup level ski racer. It's about a two and a half minute race. By the end of it, it is basically fully anaerobic, but they'll do at the end, they'll be like three or four deep breaths and they're good. That is a highly, they've trained that. So you can do that. So after the easy way to do this, the beginner way to do this is after you've been in the gym. So your system, you can just feel it's all jacked up and you're kind of trembly and I got to get down

Michelle MacDonald (10:58):

Hopefully. Hopefully you've trained that hard.

David Stewart (11:01):

Well if you do, so some of us do you want to, I mean, the easiest way is something called box breathing. So you just sit down or you lay down if your feet are up, so up against the wall that helps put something over your eyes, put on some kind of really super mellow music and practice. Four beats in hold, four beats, exhale, four beats repeat. So four by four by four. So you want to do that and you'll probably have a heart rate monitor on and you can see, okay, once I know my heart rate is down around 80, it's like, okay, mission accomplished. Now I can go. What you don't want to do is go from this highly physically stimulating environment to pick up the phone and like, oh my god, my taxes are due. I got to talk to that account or whatever. So now you're just prolonging that enhanced sympathetic state. No recovery is happening. So you want to be able to pull that down.

Michelle MacDonald (12:02):

Beautiful. Yeah. What about other simple strategies say that you can't lie down, you're in a work environment. A lot of things that you've done,

David Stewart (12:13):

I mean a lot of it is just your breath. Your breath is an enormously powerful thing. And if you can get control over that, if you can just breathe in slowly breathe out and just become aware your body. So if you are at an end of a workout, if sometimes I'm a little shaky, and so I learned this from a doctor told me this a couple of weeks ago. She was like, just look at your hands, look at your arms and ask them what they need. And it brings you into this body awareness. Like, okay, what do you need? And sometimes an Olympian told me this in the morning when she wakes up, she just feels her body and she's like, what do I need today? So she's a very highly dialed athlete. Now I need an HRV monitor because I'm going to lie to myself so she doesn't. So for me, feelings are not facts for her. Feelings are facts. And so can just, people at that level can just say, coach, this is how I'm feeling today. We should do this or this is how I'm feeling. Let's really go at it today.

Michelle MacDonald (13:28):

What about mindset stuff? Do you work on that? Do you do any mind games or, I know my mom was doing Elevate. It's an app. She does a lot of games where they're sharpening your mind.

David Stewart (13:38):

That's an interesting thing. I think that actually I meditate and I was on the wagon for about six months because I started this other business and I was realizing I was not making great decisions. So I got back into meditation. So I've done it for about 10 years. You only have to do it for somewhere between 10 and 12 minutes a day. I think that's super helpful. I think it helps your cognitive ability. I think it helps you athletic performance. I've spoken to pretty much every elite athlete I've spoken to, meditates, the elite sort of war fighting community, the SEAL team folks very into this. It's about bringing everything down and how can I say this again, not being reactive. So being more in the moment. And I think that if we just take it to the realm of something like deadlifts. So you want to be present with your deadlift.

(14:43):

You don't want to just jerk this thing. You're going to hurt yourself. So be present with your body, wear your feet. Where are your hips? How are you feeling? Are you settled into this thing? Is the weight too heavy today? Can you not pull it safely? Making these things rather than I'm going to knock back a bunch of caffeine and put on eighties arena rock and I'm, I'm going to pull this thing no matter what. Okay, there's probably, that's a strategy, but you may want to be more as mindful, the more mindful and present that we can be through everything we do in the day. This is why we at Super Age, our publication is called The Mindset. Because that's like the thing, if you're not present for this, you're going to do it incorrectly. You're not going to be where you want to be.

Michelle MacDonald (15:36):

And probably that's one of the gifts of getting older is you know that you can completely waste your life if you're not present. And as you said, you just rack up bad decisions

David Stewart (15:46):

You make. And the thing, I spent the first 20 years of my life sort of in this state of bored, angst, depression because I didn't know any better. And it was just once. It was just like I'd sit around and I watch TV and I lived in this little town and this is so boring. But I thought that's what life was. And once I sort of got out of that box, now it's like, oh my god, I never want to do that again. I want to be fully here for everything.

Michelle MacDonald (16:14):

Yeah. Can we talk a little bit about community, right? I know this is big for you. I am the same way. We're the product of the people, the closest people, the people in our inner circle. What can people do? They're stuck. They're like, okay, this is my geographic reality. This is the life I created for myself, but I want more. What recommendations would you give?

David Stewart (16:33):

Get more. You deserve more. Love me. Just

Michelle MacDonald (16:36):

Get right to the point.

David Stewart (16:38):

Number one, you deserve it, right? That's the first thing. Understand, love yourself enough to know you deserve these things. You deserve the kind of people around you. As we discussed, we are the sum total of the five people around us. Choose wisely. If you don't like those people, there's another 20 billion people out there. Find a couple more and okay, you're somewhere where it's hard to meet people. There's an internet, it's filled with people. Find your community. Go out there, say yes, be a joiner. Say hello to people. Engage with people. You have agency in this situation. You are not powerless.

Michelle MacDonald (17:20):

A lot of times I feel we can convince ourselves that the reason we can't have that abundance in our community is because of other people. But again, this idea of the internal narrative, a lot of times we're in our own way and expecting one person or two people to be everything to us, especially if who we are are us is trying to shift and change. Doesn't make sense. Let those people be. You can still evolve the relationship you have with them. You're evolving, they're evolving. What you want is evolving. But go ahead and lean in to those other challenges of presenting yourself to new people, being interested in what other people are up to, being open and curious.

David Stewart (18:01):

Be interested,

Michelle MacDonald (18:02):

Be interested.

David Stewart (18:03):

That's really key to this.

Michelle MacDonald (18:07):

What are some of the mistakes that people make that lead to stagnation in life? And I think the lack of curiosity is probably going to be one of them.

David Stewart (18:16):

Oh, there are two things.

Michelle MacDonald (18:19):

Okay, two, just two.

David Stewart (18:21):

They're basically two things.

Michelle MacDonald (18:22):

Perfect.

David Stewart (18:23):

The first one is whatever the, we're all doing an ROI calculation, right? What's my return on investment? Meaning if I go to the gym, am I really going to return If I read this book, am I going to get a return on investment? Is it worth my time? So we say, no, it's not going to be worth my time. It's not going to work on me. It's worked for 99.9% of these other people, but I'm different. It's not going to work for me. Okay, get over that. The second thing is you are worth it. And remember this because it doesn't matter how much information I give you, how many resources I give you. If you don't think you're worth it, you don't move. So you need to feel that you are worth it. Try and expect positive outcome rather than think about what are the negative things that can happen because we all as humans, because of the saber tooth tiger out there that we saw once, it might chase us. Don't go over there again. So of thing, we have this negativity wiring from our primitive brain. Try and say to yourself, what are the good things that could happen? What are the possibilities? What are the good possibilities that could happen here versus what are the bad things? I mean, we can think about bad things until the end of time. That's not going to get you anywhere. Expect positive outcome. You're one of those people that this is going to work for. So let's do it.

Michelle MacDonald (19:49):

Last question before we wrap up. This is, and again, I'm thinking of ageist. I'm thinking of what you're doing with super age two, really excited. I'm so excited to be invited even to be part of, be part of it. And I love how much integrity that you are holding for that space of longevity because it's a real space of gifting. But what I want to ask is, if you think of this future and not a distant future, but around the corner future, this community that you are actively trying to cultivate, right? We're here, people are here that want to grow and are here for the transformation and are still curious and evolving and choosing growth. But what you are doing, and I'm doing it in my small way with t ww, is we're actually creating a community and we're helping to give words to something that we're sort of feeling and it becomes a rallying cry. So I know what I envision this world of 50 year olds and 60 year olds strutting into the gym and doing all the things and being strong. What vision do you have where you're like, God, I made an impact. What do you

David Stewart (21:03):

See? I want to have, I think what we do is we authenticate people. We say, you're not a weirdo. We see you. It's okay. We got you with this. And I think that we're seeing a time now where people who used to be interested in longevity, health and wellness tended to be older. The people who work for me here, a lot of 'em are quite young. They're in their twenties. They know as much about this or more than I do, and they practice it. And I think we're starting to see not by far, not everyone, there's a lot of issues out there, but people are understanding that this is not some sort of grim reality, that you just have to suck it up. You have agency. And I think the biggest change that I've seen in the last five years is this idea of we have agency.

(22:07):

So with our healthcare providers, it's not so much top down direction. They are partners. We make decisions about our health, we go forward and we're surrounded with a group of people that explore. We explore together what works. And sometimes we say things that we get wrong and we have to correct and we say, oh, we thought that worked, but that doesn't work. So let's try this other thing. To not try and be so rigid about things. And I think this idea of at Super Age, we're never going to tell you, you must do this. We're going to say to you, it'll probably better if you sleep better. Probably test it out, see how you feel. And I think we all have this personal responsibility and bringing that back. So yes, there is authority. Yes, there is science. Yes, there are things that we can look at, but at the end of the day, the responsibility is ours. And that's a really heavy thing. As you were saying earlier, telling the world who you are and saying, this is who I am. This is what matters to me. These are the people that are important to me. At the same time, taking responsibility for who we are and what we do. Acting on that.

(23:36):

That's how I want to support people.

Michelle MacDonald (23:40):

I love that so much. I mean, we're following such similar paths, even though we're doing it so uniquely differently. And I have so much gratitude for you being on this podcast, David, and a lot of gratitude as well for all the stuff that you're doing in the world, I'm really excited about Super age. It's phenomenal. You've done such great work with Ageist and I know that super age is going to be phenomenal as well. So I'm excited. Thank you.

David Stewart (24:14):

You are the OG rockstar in the space. I just got to tell you,

Michelle MacDonald (24:19):

I'm just warming up. Thank you so much.

David Stewart (24:23):

Alright, thanks Melissa. Michelle.

Michelle MacDonald (24:24):

Bye-bye. I could talk to David Stewart all day as insight on thriving as we age. It's so grounded, it's so empowering and refreshingly honest, and I really love his take on personal agency and the reminder that Future Vitality is something that we build. We build it today, we don't wait for it. Here are my top three takeaways from today's episode. Number one, master the basics first before reaching for that next supplement or hack. And God knows we're inundated with hacks these days. Please lock into the fundamentals, and I say the same thing myself. Sleep, strength, aerobic capacity, hydration, protein, especially for women. These are the true non-negotiables for aging. Well number two, manage your stress. Battery. Everybody. Think of stress like a battery with limited charge, physical, mental, emotional. It all draws from the same source. Build recovery into your day with tools like Breathwork walking or HRV awareness.

(25:28):

Go ahead and listen to my episode with Michelle Beatty. She talks more about how to recharge your battery. Number three, act first. Think later. If you're stuck, move, take a walk, lift something, connect with someone. Action precedes confidence. Always. If this episode hit home, please share it with a friend. Again, the podcast is doing so well and I want to continue to reach more people. So share it with a friend. Give us a review. Let's get this podcast out there on the mainstream. You can dive deeper@superage.com. You can go head over to the wonder woman.com to explore our coaching and downloads. And as always, check out my website, Michelle McDonald official.com, and grab the Empowered Strength book under the shop tab to get started on your strength journey today. Thanks for listening to Stronger By and see you next time.