The Farmer's Greatest Asset Podcast
The Farmer's Greatest Asset podcast is dedicated to supporting and empowering farmers by recognizing that their greatest assets are the knowledge, experience, mind and health. Hosted by husband-and-wife duo Jesse and Dr. Leah, this podcast combines their unique backgrounds to provide valuable insights. Together, they explore topics that help farmers thrive both personally and professionally. Tune in for a blend of practical advice, real conversations, while having a little fun along the way as they talk about all thing's agriculture and family.
The Farmer's Greatest Asset Podcast
Hydration and Sleep: Two Non-Negotiables for Health
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We explore the fundamentals of health by focusing on two critical but often overlooked aspects: proper hydration and quality sleep. These two pillars form the foundation of success by ensuring farmers maintain their most valuable asset - their own health and wellbeing.
• Drink half your body weight in ounces of water daily to maintain proper hydration
• Replace sugary beverages (including sports drinks and energy drinks) with plain water
• Consider a home water filtration system to remove heavy metals and contaminants
• Create complete darkness in your bedroom by removing all light sources
• Maintain a sleep-friendly environment with temperatures below 69°F
• Stop caffeine consumption after lunch to prevent sleep disruption
• Expose your face to morning sunlight to help regulate your circadian rhythm
• Understand that physical symptoms like fatigue often stem from dehydration
• Recognize the connection between gut health, inflammation, and nutrient absorption
• Start implementing these habits now - your body can rebuild itself within a few years
Send us an email at farmersgreatesasset@gmail.com with your questions or topics you'd like us to cover. If you've received value from this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to help other farmers discover this information.
The Farmer's Greatest Asset podcast. We believe the farm's greatest asset is the farmer their knowledge, experience, mind and health. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Jesse and I'm Dr Leah. This week we're going to start talking a little bit about healthy habits.
Speaker 2So the first thing that I thought would be the easiest implementation in your daily life, especially in the busy spring season, is water intake. The number one thing that I believe we as a society need to do is decrease the amount of sugary drinks that we're drinking. So if you are, in your everyday life, drinking sodas even if they're diet putting creamer in your coffees Now I'm not talking about like butter coffee or coconut oil- in your in your coffee, like if you're using pure sources of those types of things.
Speaker 2They can actually be beneficial to your system and help decrease the amount of stress hormone that is released when you drink coffee. I'm talking about creamers and milk and the sugar that goes into your drinks the sugar that goes into your drinks. So water intake is very important. How much water do you need to drink? Half of your weight in ounces of water every day.
Speaker 1That's a lot of water.
Speaker 2It is a lot of water, but we need to take the time to do that.
Speaker 1Half your weight.
Speaker 2Half of your weight in ounces of water, right? So if you're a 100-pound person, you need to drink in ounces of water, right? So if you're a 100 pound person, you need to drink 50 ounces of water right.
Speaker 1So over a gallon ain't so bad a gallon of water a gallon of water is a lot of water.
Speaker 2It's a lot of peeing. That's probably the hardest part it's a lot of peeing. So you had to take it there, didn't you?
Speaker 1yes, it's a lot of peeing. You had to take it there, didn't you?
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1Because it takes a lot of time. Jeez, it's true, but a gallon of water, that's a pretty good benchmark to hit Try to hit.
Water Intake: How Much You Need
Speaker 2So the first thing to do is to cut out sugary drinks. That's number one. Soda Now. Energy drinks don't have a lot of calories in them, but they are not healthful at all. They actually are a hindrance and they entice you with B vitamins, but your gut is not absorbing those vitamins because of how they're being ingested, so they are not a healthy source of caffeine for you.
Speaker 1I'll play devil's advocate, but I'll drink Gatorade all day. So, there is, it is not better.
Speaker 2Gatorade is not good. They have a wonderful marketing campaign. That's what Gatorade is not better. Gatorade is not good. They have a wonderful marketing campaign. That is what Gatorade is a wonderful marketing campaign. So it's basically salt and sugar in a bottle with food coloring and we, even as farmers, think oh, I've been out in the heat, I need to replace my electrolytes. You're probably getting enough sodium in your diet that you don't need to replace electrolytes with Gatorade. It is not better than soda and it is rotting our teeth.
Speaker 1Terrible for your teeth.
Speaker 2Same with soda. Diet soda is, um, again, not something that I would recommend. It is full of artificial sweeteners, which actually disrupt the bacteria that are beneficial in your gut and allow vitamins and minerals to be absorbed in your body, so it actually is maybe even worse than regular soda.
Speaker 1What about Pedialyte and stuff like that Same thing.
Speaker 2Same thing I would say. If you have a sick child, you know, and they're recommending Pedialyte, you can listen to your doctor in that aspect, but it is not something that you need to drink on a daily basis. If you want to have something with some flavor in it, you can just use like lemon juice. Squeeze a lemon or a lime into your water. Add a little bit of of sea salt. If you can get sea salt from like Celtic sea salt or some ancient sea salt that can add more minerals into your, into your diet.
Speaker 1So those flavored watered things you squirt in your water bottle, again full of coloring and sugar.
Truth About Sports & Energy Drinks
Speaker 2Yep or art, of most of its artificial sweeteners and it's actually a little packet of poison Every time you use one. Every time you drink a soda, it's a can of poison. Every time you drink an energy drink, it's a little can of poison or not little can, depending on what size you get. So the number one thing that you can do is drink water. So when you look at it from a good, better, best standpoint, if you can get your sugary drinks out of your cooler for the day, if you're out in the field and put in water, tea would be an alternative.
Speaker 2Unsweetened tea, that would be an alternative that, if you wanted to brew some sun tea or something like that, can there be toxins in that? Yes, there can be toxins in that. Yes, there can be toxins in that as well. If you do a good, better, best practice, good would be to exchange sugary drinks, caffeinated beverages, for water. The next step up would be better if you can not use bottles like plastic bottles of water but actually fill glass jars or glass bottles of water. The glass will be better for you than getting the plastics. And then best would be getting a good water filtration system within your house so you are cleaning your tap water. Tap water is not benign.
Speaker 1It actually houses a lot of it it's treated.
Speaker 2Yes, it's treated. It houses a lot of heavy metals and things that can be hard on your immune system so first step is try to drink the water correct and and eliminate everything else.
Speaker 1You don't need the pop or the energy drink. If you need some variety, try drape black coffee, unsweetened tea.
Speaker 2Herbal teas. You can brew your own herbal teas and it might sound a little foo-foo, but you can try different herbs and even put, like some raspberries and sage, in a jar with some water and let it steep overnight. You can filter it in the morning and then you have a flavored drink.
Speaker 1So we do that sometimes just throw some fruit in some water bottles, gives you a little flavor.
Speaker 2It's really that we have conditioned ourself to need constant flavor in our mouth and we really are. It really, then, detracts from the flavors when you eat good, healthy food. So the more salt and sugar you have in your drink and diet, the more flavors are diminished within your food right.
Speaker 1So when you actually can start cutting out the sugar, especially in the drinks and even the candy, so then you're not used to all the sugar. All of your food tastes so much better, and then there gets to be a point where the sugar literally tastes bad.
Speaker 2Well, and it makes you feel bad because you change the flora which are the bacteria in your gut. Change the flora, which are the bacteria in your gut to process a diet more of what we should be eating more whole foods and then, when you put sugar back into it, you increase the fermentation and you get bloated and gassy.
Speaker 1So it is hard to kick the habit, because sugar is just a habit, it's an addiction. Trying to kick that habit and just drinking water is hard.
Filtering Your Water Properly
Speaker 2Or easy. I mean you can easily wean yourself off of it in a week. It's like more addictive than cocaine and but it's something that can easily get removed or put into your diet. So it's all about making those small, consistent, little choices. And a lot of fatigue and inability to sleep at night has to do with caffeine intake and also like. So the inability to sleep at night has to do with caffeine intake and when you're drinking that. And the fatigue has to do with dehydration, because most of us are over-caffeinated and under-hydrated, are over-caffeinated and under hydrated and it makes us tired and it makes our muscles hurt, especially. You know, as you get older, your body isn't going to process that stuff as well, because it's had so many toxins that you need the water intake to filter your system. So your liver and kidneys have time to and your lymph system has time to process all of those toxins that are taken in and that your body produces in a day. So hydration is probably one of the most important steps that you can take to improve your health.
Speaker 1So you basically need to start carrying a water bottle.
Speaker 2So I would say the easiest thing would be just to grab a water bottle out of your refrigerator. The better thing would be to have, like a stainless steel thermos to Get your Stanley cup Right Right To take with you.
Speaker 1Be trendy.
Speaker 2Glass actually would be better. That's not always easy. It takes a little bit of a habit change, but glass would be better even than the steel. The first thing that I would do is to decrease your amount of flavored drinks and replace that with water. Get in the habit of carrying water with you all day. The next thing that I would do is then to increase your amount of water that you're drinking, to try and get half of your weight in ounces of water. The third thing that you can do is to get a filtration system for at least one sink in your home that you can drink water out of, wash produce with and cook your food in.
Speaker 1So we have a reverse osmosis filtration system under one of our sinks. Yes, it's actually really simple to install.
Speaker 2The good ones are going to be, you know, $800 to $1,000. But if you think about how much you spend on bottled water?
Speaker 1How much does it take to buy, to pay for that RO system?
Speaker 2Right, and you have to change the filters regularly as well, but what it is going to do for your health is going to far outweigh the cost of that device.
Speaker 1I know I feel better. I haven't had soda for months, I don't know exactly how long, not that I drank a ton.
Speaker 2You used to, I used to, I did too.
Speaker 1Absolutely, Because it was always easier to just grab that can of soda out of the fridge and run with it. So then I started drinking. I don't remember what they're called, but they had a lot of caffeine in them.
Speaker 2Ice the ice, yes, and they had artificial sweeteners.
Speaker 1And the first man. They were good. They gave me a lot of caffeine but, wow, it didn't take long. I don't know if my taste buds were gone or what, but nothing tastes good. Those started tasting bad. So once you can kick the habit, it's literally just a habit of grabbing that can of soda or monster or whatever it is, and I'm not great at carrying a bottle of water, thermos or whatever.
Speaker 2It's ups and downs, and I I have a hard time too, especially if I'm working outside. I will find water when I get super thirsty, but during the day, if I'm out working, it's hard to remember to get all that water in, and I struggle with it too.
Speaker 1So a good thing to do would be, first thing in the morning, try to get up and get a large glass of water in like 16, yeah, 24 ounces of water.
Speaker 2Just get a good start if you can put a little lemon juice in it like squeeze a lemon, it actually helps with liver, with your liver function get a lot of water in you in the morning and then try to carry a thermos or something with you during the day.
Speaker 1Get. Get another 24 ounces in you in the morning and then try to carry a thermos or something with you during the day. Get, get another 24 ounces in you in the morning. So if you got 16 ounce glass in you when you wake up, another 24 ounces before noon. You're up to 30, some ounces.
Speaker 2You're halfway there yeah, and then you aren't trying to meet your deadline at the end of the day, chugging it before bed and then having to wake up at night. So when I first started making the transition because when I was in residency I did not drink coffee, so I drank Diet Pepsi. I drank so much Diet Pepsi I'm sure I still have those toxins in my body.
Speaker 1It says diet on it because it's better right.
Speaker 2Right. And then I transitioned to coffee and the only way that I could do coffee was with creamer. So I've gone through all of these changes myself. So how I transitioned was I would make myself a deal Like if I was before I could have my next cup of coffee, I had to drink so many ounces of water.
Speaker 2So in order for me, like I would drink four 30 ounce glasses of water in a day and I would try and get three of those done before this is when I was practicing medicine tried to get three of those done before I went quote unquote home for the day, so by five. So I'd let myself have a cup of coffee and then I'd have to drink 30 ounces of water. Then I let myself have another cup of coffee and then drink 30 ounces of water, and that was like I wanted my coffee. So I made sure that I was getting plenty of water. So sometimes I mean that's the little trick I played with myself and it was successful, so I probably should start doing that again. It worked for me in the past, so hopefully that'll work for some of you out there.
Speaker 1Again, it's about creating the habit. So, but get the water in you. So I have a bad habit of coming home and chugging a lot of water. So then at seven, eight o'clock at night, I'm drinking a lot of water, two great big glasses of ice water, so that I'm up at night because I got to pee. So that's not good either, because it's interrupting my sleep, because sleep is as important as anything.
Speaker 2It's definitely one of the top five things that will really affect your health.
Speaker 1yes, so try to get the water in you before five. Six o'clock at night Sounds hard, it could be if you make it hard, but it's not bad.
Sleep Hygiene Fundamentals
Speaker 2So sleep hygiene is another one of the core health habits that I feel is important. Everyone wants to think oh, I can function on less sleep than most. So and I shouldn't say everyone a lot of people want to say I can function on less than eight hours of sleep, but your body really needs eight hours of sleep. The best things to do for sleep hygiene number one to get off of screens at least an hour before you go to bed. So that means television and phone, and I would say this is probably the hardest thing for me. Like I like to just relax and watch TV and that to me is such a habit, like I've had that habit since I was a child, that I just watch TV and then I go to bed, it's probably less of a problem.
Speaker 2Tv is less of a problem for you.
Speaker 1I mean, unless sports are on or something. I like to watch sports, but any more of the shows and stuff I don't care. I watch them because you're watching them. The phone or iPad or computer are bad for me, so I need to just put them down. And again, that's just a habit.
Speaker 2When it comes to how to get the best sleep, number one you need a dark room. You need to get all of the lighted objects out of your room. So if you can paint your room a dark color, get either blackout curtains or blinds or both on your windows and get all the light sources out. So if you have, you know, your phone on your bedside table next to you and it's like has the time on it, or you have an alarm clock with the time on it and it's illuminated, get all of that out of your room or dim it so there is no light. Your body will respond to that even if you have your eyes closed.
Speaker 1It's called circadian rhythm. Day and night. Your body wants to sleep at night.
Speaker 2I'm glad that you brought that up it's it's really important as well to your sleep cycles to get up and get sun on your face at least 30 seconds every morning minimum. But if you can just get up and go out and put your face in the sun all year round, it's highly important for adjusting your circadian rhythm and it's also good for your body to see the sun going down, so kind of to watch the sunrise and sunset. I think that God made them so beautiful so that we could see them and want to see them, because it's an important part of our sleep cycles and actually our vitamin D absorption as well.
Speaker 1We're not absorbing vitamin D, though, right, because I can remember I had a blood draw once and I'm out in the sun all of the time and pretty dark complected, but my vitamin D is low. Why is that?
Speaker 2Well, because you have gut dysbiosis. So when you are eating a diet that is not full of whole food, so eating a lot of processed foods, the bacteria that live in your gut that help you process those foods changes and then the you know the standard american diet, which is really sad, sad, standard american diet because it's a terrible diet the standard american diet was really conducive to gut dysbiosis, and it does not allow your body to absorb vitamins and minerals that are found naturally.
Speaker 2So getting your gut back in check will help with vitamin D absorption.
Speaker 1So my point yes, that is all very good and true and right, but my point was again just because we're farmers and we're outside and we're active and we're in the sun doesn't cure it all.
Speaker 2No.
Speaker 1I am low on vitamin D and I'm out in the sun all day, so I probably should take some supplements, because our food and everything else is, if nothing, is in balance and I'm out in the sun trying to get some vitamin D, I'm not absorbing it. Everything is connected, right.
Speaker 2Everything is connected.
Speaker 1Everything needs to be in balance, so when you're full of sugar, your gut is screwed up.
Understanding Sleep Apnea
Speaker 2So nothing's going to, you're not going to absorb stuff, and then when you are, you can be like heavy and you know overweight and eating a lot of calories, but malnourished because you are not absorbing what you need to. And that has to do with your gut I mean, it's the first place to start and your immune system, your lymphatic drainage and clearing of all of the toxins in the body. So back to sleep hygiene having a dark room, getting the lights out of your room, setting yourself up to go to bed and rise when the sun comes up and goes down. So I said that backwards, didn't I? For sleep, you want to go to bed when the sun goes down and rise when the sun comes up.
Speaker 1That makes more sense.
Speaker 2So you want to try and reestablish that circadian rhythm and to really stay on it as much as you can. Make sure that you're, if you can, your room is cooler. Your body actually wants to sleep in a in a room that's under 69 degrees. So if you can keep your bedroom cooler, that will help you and have the ability to thermoregulate. You know, like multiple blankets if you need them, that you can remove as you sleep through the night if you need to shed blankets. Also, stop drinking caffeine after lunch. So caffeine has a half-life of six hours. So you have your initial dose and six hours later it is half of that dose.
Speaker 2So if you are drinking a bunch of coffee in the afternoon and people will be like, oh well, caffeine just doesn't affect me like that anymore, it will, it will, it will. So how it acts, it will disrupt your sleep, even if you are used to drinking a lot of it. Physical activity can actually be beneficial in your sleep cycle. So if you are physically exhausted, you usually will sleep better. If you don't feel like you are sleeping well, evaluation for sleep apnea might be something that you want to evaluate. But before you go down that road like eating healthy, weight loss. All of those types of things can really help with sleep apnea as well.
Speaker 2Explain what sleep apnea is of things can really help with sleep apnea as well.
Speaker 2Explain what sleep apnea is.
Speaker 2Sleep apnea is a condition where people will actually stop breathing while they're sleeping and what happens is the there is a dysfunction within the airway, so like as people are sleeping on their backs they're, you know, the tongue and soft tissues are heavy on that airway and it will block the airway and it will wake you at night, so you'll actually stop breathing and you'll have to wake yourself up.
Speaker 2Although you are not completely awake, you wake yourself up enough that you move or you overcome that pressure that has been created by the airway getting cut off by your soft tissues. Basically put a machine on them to create a positive airflow through there so that doesn't get closed off while they're sleeping. So they can, number one, get better sleep but also not have episodes of hypoxia, which means that the oxygen in your blood goes down because you aren't breathing while you're sleeping. Decreasing the soft tissue with weight reduction will greatly help and can make sleep apnea go away. And I think, too, a lot of that isn't always just people who are overweight, but if you have a lot of inflammation in your tissues and you have a lot of fluid built up in your tissues because your lymphatic system isn't draining well and your liver and kidneys aren't getting rid of the toxins like they should. That, too, can go to a sleep apnea picture and in a need for that.
Speaker 1So really, we're all so inflamed because of our diets and sugar and that's a lot of the problem for a lot of people, myself included.
Creating Sustainable Healthy Habits
Speaker 2Me too, totally Me too. It's the sad, the sad American diet. As we get older, we do not tolerate staying up late like we used to, and we can really push ourselves to stay up late, but it's not necessarily the best thing for our health. So really getting into that circadian rhythm is going to be important. Your body needs that time to rest, recharge and start rebuilding cells. Your liver and kidneys need that time to detoxify your body. So sleep is incredibly important in the aging process and increasing longevity, which becomes really important and should start in your teens and 20s. Create these consistent healthy habits at those ages and it's not too late to get those healthy habits.
Speaker 1The best time to start is now.
Speaker 2Right Today.
Speaker 1It's never too late.
Speaker 2It is never too late. Right, you can read rebuild the majority of your body in just a couple of years and you can rebuild your entire body in seven.
Speaker 1so the human body is pretty amazing, it is you always say it's got everything in it that it needs to heal itself as long as you give it good stuff and let it recharge and the good lord has given us the good stuff. So if the good Lord gives it to you, it's bound to be good. Sleep and water are two good habits that you can focus on, Water being the first that you really try to focus on that can change a lot of things.
Speaker 2Absolutely. If you're feeling fatigued every day, one of the first things I would do is to start drinking more water and get rid of the sugar and caffeine. I'm not saying you have to get rid of the caffeine completely, unless the only way you're getting it is with soda, coffee or tea.
Speaker 1Yeah, so it's just afterter and I've not had as much sugar, not that I've. I'm trying to cut it out, but at easter had lucy made an amazing pineapple carrot cake it was amazing and holy cow, there was so much sugar in that thing. And then I had to have the jelly beans. I have felt terrible the day after easter because of all the sugar, because I have weaned back on it. And then I had this huge glut of sugar.
Speaker 2I just felt terrible yesterday your gut didn't like it at all. It did not Because you had rebuilt the bacteria in your gut.
Speaker 1Right. So if you think about it think of like brewing beer or making wine you add all that sugar, to yeast and all that stuff. It's just sitting there brewing and bubbling.
Speaker 2Fermentation.
Speaker 1Fermenting and that's what's happening in your gut. When you add all this sugar to the good stuff that's in your, your gut, it's just sitting there, creating gas and bloating and inflammation. And I know it and I still do it. I can say it because I, I do it.
Speaker 2I'm here, right there but you're doing really well with it. You used to stop at the gas station a lot.
Speaker 1Oatmeal, cream pies and orange soda and squirt and ruby red squirt. Yes, yes, I did.
Challenge and Closing Thoughts
Speaker 2And your body can tell the difference. So I think a lot of us feel we're dehydrated, not eating well, feel we're dehydrated, not eating well and going out and working, but not as physically active as we used to be, and our bodies really can tell and it hurts, it makes your body hurt and ache, and all of that can be changed. So let's start with increasing our water intake and improving our sleep that's the challenge water sleep water and sleep resting is healing.
Speaker 2I think that's probably a hard time with that resting part yeah, well, and and rest like just resting doesn't necessarily mean doing nothing, but it's doing things that bring you joy, and not constantly being in the grind and pushing.
Speaker 2And that, too, is a challenge here in the springtime, especially. You know row crop and livestock farmers you're just so used to the grind, especially you know row crop and livestock farmers like you're, you're just so used to the grind, and that is a habit and an addiction in and of itself. So spring starts and it's just well, we have to do this and we have to do that, and then this, and then it gets to hay, and then we have to do this and then we have to do that. You know it's one step after another, after another, and before you know it, the year is gone and you still haven't adopted those healthy habits. So we are going to consistently be putting out messages and reminding everyone to put you first. You are the asset, like you are the greatest asset to your farm, and your health is wealth. Continue to put you first, even though you haven't done that in the past.
Speaker 1Yeah, so you guys have the challenge. We're challenging ourselves as well.
Speaker 2Leave us a comment, like and share our podcast if you've received any value.
Speaker 1If you can give us a review on apple or spotify, we'd greatly appreciate that yeah, send us an email, give us some ideas, if you want to hear us talk about something or not. That we're experts, but we can talk about it.
Speaker 2I'm kind of an expert.
Speaker 1I shouldn't even say kind of you are.
Speaker 2I'm a human being living through all of it and I actually know a lot about these types of things.
Speaker 1So again, I appreciate you listening. Go, leave us a review on Spotifyify and apple. That'd be great. Get us out there more. The whole point is to just help other farmers and people in general, so help us, help you. Send us an email at farmers greatest asset at gmailcom. It's a good day. Have a great day.
