Hot Topics: Muscle, Mindset, and the Future of Wellness

In this episode of the Oh Health Yeah podcast, Gus and Zach dive into a "Hot Topic" edition to debate the latest trends shifting the health and wellness landscape. They move past the surface-level conversations to discuss what it really takes to build long term resilience and a culture that actually supports well-being.
On the table today:
 The New Currency of Longevity: Why the conversation is shifting from simple weight loss to building metabolic resilience through skeletal muscle.
 The "Gas in the Car" Theory: A debate on why mental health and human connection might be the foundational fuel required before any physical progress can happen.
 Corporate Culture vs. Corporate Mumbo Jumbo: How workplace wellness is evolving from a fringe benefit into a concierge style necessity for combating burnout.
Listening as a Clinical Tool: Why the "Healthy Is" approach focuses on the idea that nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.
 The Second Brain: A look into the personalization of gut health and why your microbiome is far more than just taking a generic probiotic.
Gus and Zach also share personal stories about the power of community, second chances, and why true health is never a "one size fits all" journey. Tune in to hear why staying curious is the only way to navigate the ever-changing world of wellness.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome into the Oh Health Yeah podcast brought to you by Healthy is Wellness. As you all know, our mission is to empower you to take control of your health and elicit a little bit of curiosity in your life when it comes to the world of wellness. Thank you so much for tuning in today. And if you have loved ones or friends that you think would benefit from this, share it with them. Let's get this thing going. Welcome to Healthy Is family. We are back with another edition of the Oh Health Yeah podcast brought to you by Health is. We're super excited to be back on with you all. Today we're going to be doing one of our fan favorites. We're going to be doing a hot topic episode where Zach, the man behind the camera, the guru, the man, the myth, the legend, is going to be looking up some hot topics in the wellness world as well as some stuff that people have shared with us. And we're going to talk about these things. We're going to debate a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

We're going to see where we stand on different hot topics in the health and wellness world. Ready, Zach?

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Yes, I am. Are you ready? I'm ready, man. Let's do this thing. All right. We're going to go number one. Muscle as a metabolic health marker. The conversation has officially moved past simple weight loss. The loss of skeletal muscle is now recognized as a major risk factor for metabolic decline. As a result, longevity training is taking center stage. Consumers want to know their exact muscle-to-fat ratios, focusing on heavy strength training and protein optimization to build metabolic resilience. Deep, accurate body composition data is becoming a baseline expectation for anyone serious about their long-term health.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Oh, wow. So muscle as a longevity predictor is what you're saying, correct?

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Yeah, rather than your A1C or your cholesterol, I think is what we're going with here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Well, Gabrielle Lyon, she's one of the gals, one of the experts in the wellness world, she has a quote that she's pretty famous for. But what she says is that muscle is the currency of longevity. And I think that is so true. And I think we see it on a day-in, day-out basis. Like when we see people that are maintaining their health into their 70s, their 80s, I think the majority of those people have a pretty good amount of muscle mass that they've also maintained throughout that. And I think muscle is extremely important for the body because not only does it allow us to do the things we love, but it also helps with caloric expenditure. The more muscle mass you have, the more metabolically acted your body is. And when I'm thinking like longevity of life and enjoyment of life, if you do not have muscle mass, you probably cannot do the things you love. Like honestly.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

And the more muscle mass you have, the more you can eat. Realistically, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:44

The more you can go out and fish and hunt and snowboard, if you like to snowboard or golf, like the muscle mass side of things, not only is it important to have just for like day-to-day, but also being able to do the things you love, which then plays into your mental health, which then plays into every other aspect of health. So I think it makes total sense that it's a predictor of not only risk, but all cause mortality, all that.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

It's it's an interesting metric. It is. My mind kind of lingers to a certain place that might be a bit controversial when we talk about that, right? So like obviously we know that like GLP ones are like the big craze right now that are helping kickstart people's weight loss journeys and helping take care of diabetes and all sorts of stuff like that, right? So if muscle mass is so important, why wouldn't somebody just take something like an anabolic steroid to gain their muscle mass?

SPEAKER_01 3:50

The negative side effects that come alongside that, I think, is the main reason.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Do you know a lot about the negative side effects of steroids?

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Not a ton, because I've never done them or used them. Right. I've been around people that have in my life. So there's negative side effects that come from overusage of anything.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Do you think that's the do you okay? So look, let me have there, there's a nuance right there. In your opinion, does that mean that there could be a world where steroid usage, if it was controlled and monitored, like for example, testosterone.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Well, GLP1s are the same, kind of the opposite, but the same. To where if you were to control it and manage it and have a doctor or somebody work alongside, you could steroids be healthy. It's kind of what you're after. I think there's definitely like peptides and all that good stuff that helped.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Peptides are as big. That that's gonna have to be another. I think you and I should both do some research on the peptide stuff because that is becoming a little bit more prevalent in this space.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

There's quite a few out there that help with muscle gain. Like BPC157 is one, thymusin beta is another. There's multiple different peptides that help with muscle growth. So although it's not necessarily anabolic steroids, there's definitely ways to increase muscle mass that help the body to increase longevity too. Like not even going a steroid route, but I think of creatine. Like I talk a lot about creatine. Not only is creatine beneficial for the brain and the body, but it helps to pull water into the muscle bellies. And in turn, it helps you to gain muscle mass and helps with energy production due to adenosin triphosphate. So there's definitely levers that you can pull to help increase muscle that are exogenous from the body. Like you said, testosterone too. Like people utilize testosterone. When they're low in testosterone, it can negatively impact their health in a ton of ways. I had a client actually this week that started using testosterone and his muscle came up like four pounds. And so not only are I probably his blood markers changing too, but now he's sleeping better. His mental health is better because he had more has more energy. He's a better husband, father, probably all those things. But you see that muscle mass increase. And although we know not one number defines your health, well, that muscle and mass number goes up. Oftentimes the other chronic risk factors are often doing what they should do when it comes to reducing risk.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Which is a very, very similar conversation to any type of weight loss when you lose that weight a ton. And it doesn't fix every problem. Certainly doesn't fix every problem, but a ton of those comorbidities or the risk of comorbidities just plummet, just drop. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Um is very true.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

That all being said, I do have to disclaimer here don't do steroids.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Don't do steroids. Zach said don't do it. I think what you just said too comes back to that idea of like a lot of people in America talk about whether we have an obesity epidemic or an undermuscled epidemic in our society. And I think some like grip strength, like we test grip strength with all of our clients. And I would be naive to say that the younger people in our society have very low grip strength in comparison to people that are older and people that have worked with their hands. I don't know if it's necessarily a a predictor of all-cause mortality directly, but the lack of muscle that we have now. I mean, protein has been stripped from a lot of our food sources, now they're trying to put it back in because they're as GLP1s. But the lack of muscle.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

I gotta disagree with you.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

In what way?

SPEAKER_00 7:25

First of all, I think that there is a problem with obesity and a lack of muscle in the United States. But I think that is a comorbid problem. I think those two problems are second to the mental health crisis in the United States. I think that's a bigger, I think that is it's kind of like we talked about it before, but major in the majors before you minor in the minors. And I feel like it's like if somebody came to you that had a severe alcohol problem, and you're like, bro, you gotta cut out the the freaking vegetable oil. You know what I mean? Like, I think if you tackle the issue that causes the other issues, right? You want to get to the root of the problem, not just trim the top of the tree. And I think that obesity and a lack of muscle are at the top of that tree. Don't get me wrong, I think they are important. I do. But I think if you can get a handle on your mental health with therapy and talking to your doctor, medication, connection, we talk about connection all the time. I think those comorbidities, while they're not gonna go away all on their own, you know, they still take dedicated work. Just like when we see someone lose weight, we see a lot of their health markers improve, right? If we can help somebody increase, improve their mental health, we're gonna see the weight come down or the muscle go up. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 9:07

It's all kind. Yeah. I wouldn't I wouldn't say you're necessarily disagreeing with what I said. I think I agree with everything you just said. Because in the same way that if their weight comes down, if they're focused on weight loss, I feel like that's also gonna help with the mental health side of things too. Like if you see that number changing or that value changing, or you're focused on an outcome, just like if my outcome was working out three days a week, and I started to have success with working out three days a week mentally, I think that's gonna propel me forward. So I agree with what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Yeah, so the met what's that what's the Nick's talked about it before in one of the coffee talks? It's like a mastery experience, is like causes like a dopamine hit in your brain, which makes you want that's why you want to start small and not start zig. So you actually accomplish something and that kind of hooks sets the hook in you, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yeah. And it's also why like wellness coaching is not it's not a one size fits all type thing. Like what we do is so niche and so person dependent and so person drip. Like just like you just said, with a weight loss journey or a muscle gain journey or any wellness journey, you might start with nutrition, or you might start with mental health, or you might start with sleep, or you might start with movement. Like it's very dependent on the person and what that person needs and then where we can get them all in. So I agree with you're saying, like the mental health side of things is is what drives a lot of the other risk factors that come alongside just health in general. It's like the biggest driver by far. I remember when I was talking to you about the mayor asking me what the biggest I don't know if you remember this, but he asked me what the biggest health crisis was in the state of Montana. Like, what's the biggest thing that you struggle with? Is it people being all the weight? Is it this, this, and this? And I said basically exactly what you said. I said mental health and vitamin D. Those two things oftentimes lead to the other things. Okay, because when you don't have that health, when you don't have your mental health and you don't feel fully present in the moment and confident.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

It's like having a it's like your mental health is the gas in the car. You can have a healthy engine, healthy transmission, but if you don't have gas in the car, you're not going anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Exactly. You know?

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Yeah, you have to have fuel in your tank.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Well, it's connected to everything. Like your body composition, the stuff that we look at when you come in and see us, oftentimes you can tell if somebody's gonna make progress towards their goals based off of the energy that they bring into that session. Let's say the smile on their face. Like it's always interesting to me when we have people that come back from vacations and they're like, oh my gosh, like this is gonna be so bad. I was in frickin' Costa Rica all week last week. I didn't do anything. And then they scan, and let's say their visceral fat's down or their inflammation's down or their body fat's down. How's your mental health? Well, it's awesome. I just took a week off. Like I've got a week away from work.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Sweet.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

Like, okay, well, it's all connected.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

And when I have clients come in, I think the most success I've found with like actually getting them to invest in not only us, but themselves especially, right? Is when I can turn around like it sounds corny, but to turn a frown upside down. Like I can't tell you how many people genuinely, I mean, you've been on site with me, man. People cry to me a lot. It happens a lot, but those people become incredibly loyal, healthy is clients. They come all the time and they start to take their health seriously. So sometimes it takes two or three months of cracking that egg to get them to come in and start to my favorite quote of all time, genuinely, even more than the one I talked about before, is a quote that you said. I don't know where you heard it, but it's uh nobody cares what you know until they know that you care. And I think that is literally the epitome of what this space should look like at all times. Yeah, everybody you can. I mean, that we we can all acknowledge anybody that's listening to this polyg this polyg this podcast can acknowledge that the health and wellness space is entirely oversaturated with information and oftentimes it's conflicting information. Who cares what you know? I could Google it. Gus, I could Google anything that you know about anything and find the answer. But it's the fact that you take the time to look me in the eye. Do you know how many people have told me you're the best listener? Like you listened, and I'm not just trying, I'm not just trying to pet your ego, but that's what makes that's what makes it different. I know that you care, and that's why I'd I'd I'd listen to you over I would listen to Google or AI or whatever, you know?

SPEAKER_01 13:58

So that's what makes us us.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

That's what makes healthy as healthy is. His listening, and it's also the same reason that like the things that you bring you brought up there with the mental health versus obesity versus muscle. I don't think anything's like we've talked about this, like nothing is automatic in this field. Like I think to be a good wellness coach or to feel like you're in control of your health, your trajectory is going to be ever changing. Your life is gonna be ever changing. Although a study might say today that eating eggs for breakfast is gonna help me uh gain 15 pounds of moss one a month, the way that I work with that and the way that I frame that in my life is completely different than the way that you would frame that in your life, which is completely different than any of our listeners. So, knowing that as we get into this field, I hope that more people in this industry listen, similar to how we do, and hear the clientele, because that's what's most important. And I think it's also where Western medicine sometimes failed. Like Joe comes in and Joe has a high blood pressure. So Joe gets this. What do you do for your blood pressure?

SPEAKER_03 15:03

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

I think that I genuinely think I was talking I've I've been talking to some of my friends about this lately, and I think that's what sets you apart as a boss is the fact that when you hire, and I've been along the ride for you hiring multiple people at this point, and I kind of know what you're looking for and what you're definitely looking to avoid. And I would say, and you can disagree with me if you need to, but I would say the the most important thing to you as far as a resume and and and in those interviews is if you have a preconceived notion that your way is the right way, you're not gonna work with us. I like you like some what do you think about that?

SPEAKER_01 15:47

I think the only way to have success in the health and wellness world is if you feel like you've never arrived.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Yeah, true. The more you know, the less you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

If you ever feel like you've arrived, you've lost. And in turn, your clients have lost. Because if you think you're the expert of all things, you're not. Like the health and wellness world is ever changing. And just like you said, like it's not that I don't want we want people that are confident and believe in themselves and know that they can change people's lives. But at the same time, my number one thing is do you want to change people's lives? Yeah, yeah. Because we can teach anything, and the science is ever changing anyway.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Whatever I teach 20 years ago, eggs were bad. Eggs were bad. Coffee's just as bad as cigarettes. For real. So for real. So, with that being said, this this isn't on my list of questions, but in your opinion, do you think that anybody could be a good health coach? Yes or no? No nuance, just yes or no, and then we can go into it.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Oh. My original answer is yes, anybody could. But it's based off of what that person's intentions are. I don't think being a good health coach means you have a exceedingly high expectation in health and wellness or not expectation, education in health and wellness. I don't think you need that. I think you need to care about the person sitting across from you. You need to know what tools are available to said person at said time. You need to listen to the person and understand behavior change. Have a base level of understanding of behavior change.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

I love that. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Really helping somebody is allowing them to begin taking control. And when we don't have control, that's one of the my pet peeves of like most wellness businesses. It's either you get to get you get two things in the wellness world. You get somebody that comes and draws your blood, sends you an email with your blood results, and you look at it and you're like, okay, I'm gonna go Google whatever Billy Rubin. I'm gonna see where I sit, and then I might worry about it a little bit. So that's one. Or you get the other wellness business that shows up to your door, you go to their office and they say, Yeah, Gus, you're 218 pounds, you need to eat 2,246 calories.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

Here's what you can eat. Good luck, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Don't like the just straight black and white.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Oh, okay. Well, it's like, okay, like you leave me with this, and is this empowering? Probably not. Is this helpful? It might be for a short amount of time. Like if I eat these calories, maybe I'll get to my goal weight, but what's real for long term? So that's my thoughts on the wellness world.

unknown 18:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Coming back to your first question, muscle as a predictor of chronic risk, all cause mortality, 100% believe it.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Number two. Concierge and corporate wellness upgrades. Workplace wellness is shedding its reputation as a simple fringe benefit. Companies are moving towards concierge-style programs that offer continuous year-round care. This proactive approach focuses on keeping employees ahead of health issues through integrated health coaching, telehealth, and mental fitness programs, building a genuine culture of health within an organization is now seen as an essential for combating burnout and boosting productivity. I'd like to say we're part of the reason that Google wrote that.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Oh gosh, that's huge. It's so real. I saw something a couple days ago too on LinkedIn. That's the only social media that I have now. But some guy was posting, some guy was posting about that, about how corporate wellness is becoming more than corporate wellness. Like it's a part of the culture. And I think that's something that I've pushed for for a long time. Like in my renewal meetings, I oftentimes say, like, whatever the business is, let's say it's healthy is. I don't want you to just be a healthy as employee. I want you to be a healthy as employee that also takes control of their health. Like we are a part of your business, your group. City of Billings is one that allows us to talk about them. You're not only a City of Billings employee, but you're also a City of Billings employee that's a part of the healthy as well of this family.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

I've I, you know, I I I think before I started this job or before I was two years in, I would disagree with you. I hated the whole we're a family corporate mumbo jumbo. But man, when we go to some, especially being in Montana and we go to some of these smaller towns and we go to these accounts, and you really learn that a lot of these companies have like adopted us into their families. Like sometimes they're inviting us as a company, and you know, our five employees. We have five, right? Six. Six. We have six people. We get invited to barbecues and families and funerals, you know. Like we are a part, we we get to know these people on such a granular level. And that's one of my favorite things about healthy as wellness, about what we do, is you know, you have these companies that are just an email. You know, it's just an email, it's just uh one thing you have to knock off. It's if you have to go get your blood drawn to get a discount on your insurance, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Other, but or it can be, I'm gonna go talk to Courtney today and take a 10-minute break from the heck hell that today has been. Like, I know that we get to be that reprieve. I've heard so many of our clients talk about how they just needed a break. And sometimes we we are we're playing the the peer counselor to them. You know, we're just letting them vent and talk and talk through their problems. And I think that's if if I were if if I were to try to explain what healthy is and wellness is to a random person on the street, or trying to, you know, elevator pitch sell it to them. It's like, I want to make you feel like you matter and that you can take control of your health. I think that's what matters the most to me. Absolutely. But in that order, I want to make you feel like you matter to me because you do. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Yep. Well, and that just ties back to what I said earlier about the majority of wellness companies. Like you either get a blood draw on an email or you get a plan that tells you how many calories you should eat. Does that show you that you matter? Absolutely not. Does that really help you feel like you got this? Absolutely not. The first portion of it, the one where you just get the email, is very disempowering. It's not enough information. The opposite side of it, where you have the calorie number and that's all you're focused on, could be empowering because you feel like you have a plan, but at the same time, is that plan sustainable forever? And that's where like the corporate wellness culture changing towards more interactions, like more one-on-one sessions. It makes sense to me because, like you've talked about on this podcast, the health journey is up and down. Like you're on a roller coaster. It's not like you're gonna go from here to here and it's gonna be a straight line. It's up and down. And so the more that businesses can take wellness and make that a part of their business, their business is gonna be more successful. I heard somebody say any dollar that you spend on wellness programs, if they're done right, will make your business $2 back. Doubles its own money. And that's just if it's done right. Like in most wellness companies get 20 to 30% participation. Some of our groups, we get like 60 to 70 percent. So it's a direct ROI. Yeah. But I think what's hard for businesses sometimes is the things that you can't measure. Like one of the things that you just mentioned was the relationships that you create with people. I know for a fact that there is turnover that we've saved our businesses. And turnover costs a lot of money. How do you measure that when it comes to a quantitative perspective? Very hard to do. Like, how do we say that Joe didn't leave X business? Because he came into us every single month and we talked to him about the problems. We talked to him about the things he's facing. So there's things like turnover. There's things like like sleep is another one that I think we make a big difference on our clients. And if you lack sleep, you're not as good of an employee as you are if you are 100% facts. Those little things, that's what makes it difficult to measure and assess what's what's best for the business, because a lot of those business minds are very financially focused.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

You know what I think would be so cool for the future of healthy is I think it'd be so cool if we were able to because like one of the things that's important to us is not going outside of our scope, right? We're not therapists, we're not doctors, we're not nutritionists.

unknown 24:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

So with that being said, I think it would be so amazing if we could have our own therapist that we could just be like, bam, book with this person, you can do it telehealth, give them a call, do your session, here's your discount because we're a fill they we we employ them. That would be just like just like we just launched this new partnership with D1, right? We have somewhere to send somebody, and I think that's something that's lacking a little bit with healthy is, but it's something for us to aspire towards. I would love, and I mean love, to have a therapist on staff for us, and it's something that I am going to be working towards over the next year or so. I think it would be so, so, so sick. Because it's just like one of the one of the most important things to us is what's next. We talk to somebody that's having some severe mental health issues. Of course we can be there for them, of course we can support them, but again, we're not therapists. What the help that they need might be out of our range, you know?

SPEAKER_01 25:14

You're 100% right. I just had this conversation with the girls. Did you really? We were leaving a business last week. I said we need to figure out a a a way to a therapist that we trust or employ somebody, one or the other.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

I got you. I I have been talking to a therapist about it.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Mental health expert in the field because one of our coaches had a tough session last week, and it was one of those ones where it's like we do everything we can in the session, but it might involve somebody else. And as a business owner, I am not naive to the fact that healthy as wellness is not going to be the best business in the world at everything. I think we are damn good at empowering people and helping people begin taking control of their health. Do I think we're damn good mental health experts? No. Do I think we're damn good personal trainers? No. But I think we can empower people. And what we want to be is a conduit to any, any avenues that will help them. So just like you said with D1. Like we just partnered with a group called D1 here in Billings that's focused on activity because we're not personal trainers. We don't have time to personal train people. We're coaching people on site.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

But we have the expertise to know when we need to shut up and pass the torch to the person that does have the expertise. Yes. I love the idea. Like, ult like let's just talk about the big dream for healthy as wellness, and that's opening up our own gym. And I just think it would be so cool if we had like, and I'm talking like big, big dreams, like 10 years from now, a nutritionist, a personal trainer, a therapist, and then we have our health coaches. Oh, it's a one-stop shop and a gym, like just everything all at once. That's it. That would be so I mean, heck, maybe we could get an NP on so they, you know, if their problems were a little bit more medical-based and they needed a little dude.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Yeah, it doesn't get more convenient than that.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

I mean, just the the impact we we always talk about. Impact, impact, impact. I I think that is the pinnacle of impact, being able to do that at an affordable price that makes everybody feel included, wanted, and a part of a family, man. That is my dream. Like that's what gets my heart pumping. I remember, I remember when I lost all the weight at at the end of the journey. I remember before I started with Healthy Is, or maybe it was right at the same time, I remember texting my dietitian and telling her that that was my dream was to start some type of practice someday where she could be involved because she saved my life. Her name is Paige Cross or Paige Sidowski now. She she got married, she came to my wedding. I remember, do you mind if I share the story? Oh, go for it. So I was 700 pounds. I'd had, you know, there's a million excuses in why I had gotten to that size. A lot of it was a lack of self-discipline. I had given up on myself, I had given up on life.

SPEAKER_03 27:59

Coming back to your mental health point though.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Yeah. Yeah. My sister died when I was 11 and or just about 11. And it really, really messed me up. Something fierce. Um, she died from a disease called cystic fibrosis, and my brother also has that disease. And uh to to kind of skip over all the the long, excruciating details, I think I was 18 or 19, and my doctor had referred me to Page Cross. And I walk into this dietitian's office, and I'm like, this is probably my second or third go-around with a dietitian because I had gotten up there in size. So I want to say this was right when I met my wife, Cassidy. I walked in and I had such a bias. I had such a bias towards this woman. She was probably 115 pounds, five foot four, five foot three, tiny. Mind you, I'm six foot three, seven hundred pounds at this point. And I just had such a hard time trusting that someone that has no frame of reference at all for what I was going through at that current point, regardless of whose fault it was. There's no way that she could understand me. But she was the expert. So we kind of went on, you know, doing calories, blah, blah, blah. And I lost like 40 or 50 pounds. And then I got into a car accident. Nothing major at all, it's fine, but it just caused me to, I used it as an excuse, I should say, to kind of just give up on that. So that was October of 2019, September of 2019. Had my wreck right around Thanksgiving. We had a really bad, I know you won't remember, but we had a really, really bad snowstorm right around in the middle of November, end of November of 2019. Mind you, Cassidy and I had just started dating. Um, and then I wrecked my car, and Cassidy let me drive her, Cassidy's family let me drive her car while she went home to Oregon for Christmas for a month. Because she was still an undergrad getting her bachelor's. And she went home, and then when she was on her way back, I she so she came back, all was good. I went there, blah, blah, blah. Um, spring break came. Sorry, I mean let me get to the point here. Spring break came, and when she was, she went back home for spring break, I believe it was, and when she was on the way to her airport, that is the day we were like, oh man, COVID. Like, COVID, like her parents were like, maybe you should just stay home. And Cassidy was like, absolutely not. Anyway, COVID forced me to really start to eat even more, even more. So that 50 pounds I gained or I lost, I gained back. Then a couple months go by. I went to somebody's house to buy an air conditioner. 700 pounds, and I pick up this air conditioner and I fall down. You you you are in concrete, you know what exposed aggregate is. You know what a staircase looks like made of exposed aggregate. I fell down the four or five steps of exposed aggregate, and it messed me up something fierce. I mean, it I was bleeding on both of my legs, just I mean, it it was gnarly. And I thought I was okay. I went home, excuse me. And a couple days later, Cassidy and I bought a tent to start going camping, which was something that I always loved when I was young, but I couldn't do because I was so big. And um my brother came over to help us set it up, and I couldn't stand up. That was like the moment I was like, I need to go to the hospital. I like my back hurt so bad. I can't stand for more than like without just a pinching pain. Once again, to make a long story short, I was too big to fit in a CT, too big to fit in an MRI, wasn't gonna work. The X-ray that they did take, they saw what was the shape of like a wedge in my spine of some sort, something, some type of slope was in there. But there was no way for them to confirm or deny what that wedge was because I was too big for the table, too big to fit in a CT, too big for whatever, right? Well, the neurologist or the neurosurgeon came in because you know, the brain and spine and stuff. Him and his nurse practitioner came in, or physician's assistant, I'm not sure. They came in. I was in the hospital for like two days. I'd updated everybody in my life on what was going on, and they were like, So here's the deal we can't confirm or deny what's going on in your back. So we're gonna recommend that you go into a nursing home for six months. My heart broke right in that moment. I was 21 years old and about to go into a nursing home for six months because of how big I was, and my heart just shattered into a million pieces. And this is probably one of the coolest things my wife ever did. Out of the back of her pocket, she pulls out this card, not physically for our listeners, but she goes to our doctor and the PA or MP or whatever it was. She was like, Well, don't you have x-rays from when he broke his arm when he was 17? Or CTs? And they're like, Yeah, we should. And they looked it up right there on the spot, and they're like, they pointed at it, and they're like, That wedge was there before. You just have a muscle strain. So Cassidy saved me from going into a nursing home for six months. And that was people ask me all the time, like, what changed? I got a second chance to live. I think that would have been the end if I would have gone into a nursing home for six months. I had already given up a lot on life, but that felt like a death sentence to me, you know? And so I messaged my doctor and I was like, all hands on deck. Send me back to Paige. Let's get me in cognitive behavioral therapy, let's get the medications right, let's do everything we need to do. And that's where Night hit it from all sides. My friends were supportive. Darcy, Matt, uh Connor, not so much Connor, because I we we had not rekindled our friendship yet, but like Matt and Sidney lived with me, and Darcy and Justice were just so pro me. And obviously, Cassidy was just meal prepping. I remember last thing I'll say about it of how supportive my friends were, was they were I had lost like a hundred pounds in like four months. I was kicking butt. My friends were a little worried. I was really worried about my lack of exercise going into the winter. We all got YMCA memberships that started going together, and we were playing badminton on the racquetball courts. It was amazing. But anyway, I've sidetracked for way too long. Thank you for listening to my story.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

No, you didn't sidetrack. Thanks for sharing it. Yeah, I think it comes back to the community thing that you were talking about and like the goal of having wellness under one roof and the connection side of things too.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Dude, doing it with your friends and having your friends support.

unknown 35:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

I would I 100% wouldn't have been able to do what I did without Darcy, Matt, Alan, my brother, Sidney, JT, especially. JT and Darcy and Matt and all those guys, and Cassidy and my dad at certain times.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

So yeah. Well, you take all that and what you just shared, and then going back to the question that you asked, the corporate wellness thing, like corporate wellness is starting to get more engaging. What you just shared is how important it is to have a community that believes in you and people that support you. And so with corporate wellness, the more that businesses buy into it and actually believe in us and support us, the higher the likelihood of us changing our people's lives. And it comes back to connection, it comes back to everything you just shared in the story that you just shared. So thanks for sharing that.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

Absolutely. Thanks for listening.

unknown 36:41

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Should we do another one? Let's do one more. Let's do one more. Okay, I'm gonna pick of these ones.

SPEAKER_03 36:47

Oh, you get a pick?

SPEAKER_00 36:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

Tell me on the list.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

There's five. Okay. Well, we're already at 36 minutes. Oh wow, okay. I think that story I might took like eight or ten. It's okay, man.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

So go on longer episodes.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

I'm gonna let you pick just based on the headlines, okay?

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Just do five. I like the number five. Is that okay?

SPEAKER_00 37:11

Number five. Gut health and microbiome personalization. Okay. We have moved far beyond generic probiotics. Research continues to link gut ecosystem imbalances directly to cognitive decline, metabolic syndrome, and skin issues. Precision nutrition collision. You should start wrapping that.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

Precision nutrition collision?

SPEAKER_03 37:32

I don't even know what we got going on.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

Precision nutrition tailored to an individual's specific microbiome is gaining massive traction with an influx of smart fiber blends, fermented snacks, and targeted prebiotics hitting the market. By the way, favorite fermented snack. Go before we start. Favorite fermented sack, that's tough. Like, what do you what is your favorite thing that's fermented?

SPEAKER_03 37:57

Sauerkraut.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Same, bro. Actually, though, sauerkraut on a bratwurst. Couldn't get more German. That's good stuff. Dude, it's so good. Yeah. So I do like some kombucha though. Kombucha is great.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

Here's a here's a quick quick yogurt's kinda. I mean, I don't know if I would consider it fermented like other things, but here's a very quick funny story for our people.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

He's on tangents. Sorry. I remember a few years ago, Gus and I's first bio together. Our boss had bought us. This was back when Gus wasn't the boss. We were both just coaches. Um, our boss had gotten us kombucha. And Gus and I hadn't really either had kombucha. I mean, we've I feel like we'd both probably tried it, but we'd never gotten our own bottle of it. And both of us are just like, obviously, it's full of a bunch of stuff. So shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake. And then I think it happened to you too. It exploded. Like it exploded on and over.

SPEAKER_03 38:54

I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

And that's when we learned with kombucha, you do the swirl to mix it up. But anyway, continue.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

I think tons of science out about microbiome health, connection to cognitive health, connection to overall well-being. I think this comes back to similar how we talked about the mental health thing at the beginning of this, Zach, with connection and like how your mental health is connected to your physical health, which is connected to your microbiome health. Everything is connected. I think one of the things that really sticks out to me with this front is when we see people that are exceed extremely stressed and they might not feel it, but they talk about like gut issues and gut permeability. And so in my mind, I think there's a direct correlation between overall health and wellness and microbiome health, but I don't think it's necessarily causation. I think everything is just connected. I think that the better you are controlling the stress, the better your mental health is, the better your sleep is, oftentimes the better your gut health is. Now we know the benefits of things like fiber, we know the benefits of eating your colors, we know that those things are great for the microbiome.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

But what I'm trying to say is I think, I think, I think, tell me if I'm wrong here, but I think what you might be trying to say is you could be the most dialed-in person when it comes to coloring your microbiome and eating healthy and not eating artificial sweeteners and not eating inflammatory oils and XXXXX. But if you're stressed out to the max, cortisol from the second you wake up to the second you go to sleep, it's not going to offset it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

Like trusting your digestion. Yeah. Microbiomes are different. Every single person's microbiome is different. So although I take seed probiotic, like for example, if I give that to somebody else and they take it, it might blood them up or it might do something completely different. So your gut health is completely different than somebody else's. So it doesn't mean that it's a one size fits all approach, but I think I understand that science is coming out showing that microbiome health is extremely important. And when we think about health, we talk about oftentimes like what helps you to be fully present in the moment. If you're having gut issues, if you're having to go to the bathroom, if you're plugged up, those things are not going to help you be fully present in the moment. So it's tied into overall health and overall well-being for sure. I like that. I like that. It's an interesting topic, though. And everybody calls it the second brain. That's because there's so many sensors. There's so many things that are going on down there. And I don't think we trust our digestion as much as we should sometimes. It comes back to like the health is not just science. Like, oh, a study shows that eggs are great for muscle building. And then I eat eggs and I have diarrhea for seven days. Should I eat eggs?

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Probably not. You know what though? The kind of egg. We found that out just a couple uh lactan in two years. Could be what you cooked it in. Could be could be the Teflon on your pan. It could be cast iron. You could already have too much iron, you know, stuff like I mean there, there's a lot of variables on how. I JT has uh chickens and ducks, and I had a duck egg for the first time. I don't know what it is, but it was a pretty common theme amongst all of our friends. We all tried the duck eggs, it's just a little bit harder to digest than chicken eggs. I don't know if it's because our bodies are so much used to used, so much more used to digesting chicken eggs, but those duck eggs were like they were delicious, and it didn't really taste too much different, but it was just like, okay, you got an upset stomach too? Because I do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:20

And I think we do a bad job sometimes of listening to our body. Yeah. Like we think, and it's also it comes back to media and all those things. Like, we see these videos of what a healthy breakfast looks like for Joe. And I think that I have to have that healthy breakfast because that's what's healthy for Joe. Versus like, okay, if I eat that and I have gut permeability or I feel icky, maybe I need to trust my gut a little bit more. I had this conversation with somebody this morning that was asking me about protein shakes. Like, should I have protein shakes? Should I not? What protein shake should I have? Well, there's the obvious things that we can look at. Like, can you opt for ones with less sugar or less ingredients? But also trust your body. Like people talk about the protein farts, it's because your body's not digesting that the way it should.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

Well, you say gut permeability. Do you mean like leaky gut?

SPEAKER_01 43:05

Yes, yep. That's a way another way to say it.

SPEAKER_00 43:07

I've heard of some experts saying that that's not actually real.

SPEAKER_01 43:11

In what way?

SPEAKER_00 43:12

I honestly I'm speaking, I really I'm gonna table this because I'm gonna do my own research into it.

SPEAKER_01 43:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:21

And then we'll come back to it and have an argument. Or I'll agree with you. We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

Yeah, there's a lot of different sayings for I think the thing that people get upset with is people use it as a blanket approach. Like doctors prescribe, like, okay, you come in and you have gut issues, or you just have IBS, here's what we can do for you. Just like, well, you just have hypertension, here's what I could do for you. Versus like digging into the root cause. Yeah. Like I have a family member that struggles with gut permeability really bad. And so they did the whole 30 diet, they did the elimination diet, they did all these things. And the one thing that she did that was the best thing that she did for her gut nasal breathing. Really so dang stressed that her body, just like we talked about. About with that mind gut card, her body's not digesting things the way that it should. So is she like holding on to carbon dioxide? Holding on to stress, holding on to cortisol, all those things. So the body is not in a relaxed state to be able to absorb the nutrients that come from said food item. She tried the, like I said, the elimination dihology, all that best thing she did was breathe, relax. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

My mom has after years and years and years and years and years of what we thought was like some variation or rendition of cyclic vomiting syndrome. Come to find out, at least at this point, they think it's diverticulitis. But another she has COPD from years and years and years of smoking, she can't breathe. She can't breathe. I remember when she was in the hospital two years ago, and uh occupational therapist came in, was trying to help her breathe correctly and breathe with her diaphragm. She can't, she cannot do it very well, not effectively enough to actually expel the carbon dioxide from her body. So that carbon dioxide is just sitting in there.

SPEAKER_01 45:05

Oh, shallow breath, too. Yeah, like your heart rate rises, and so it nangularly impacts all that stuff. That's it. I mean, health is connection. There's so many different things.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

Oh, I have a little off-scale victory I want to share with our peeps that are listening. You got so I'm losing weight, guys. I'm working really hard at losing weight and but I'm not using the scale because the last time I lost a lot of weight, I became very obsessed with the scale. I noticed the other night when I started taking my antidepressants uh about eight, sixteen, seventeen months ago and gaining weight at the same time, my resting my resting heart rate when I was at my lowest weight was like 4849 BPM, which is fantastic. When I started to take those meds and gain the weight, my resting heart rate shh skyrocketed for to like 85 to 100. I'm back down to 72. Sweet. And that makes me feel really good. That's a that was a really nice off-scale victory for me. That felt real good. So that's good.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

You'll probably start sleeping better too due with uh the heart rate coming down. Oh so boys are gonna be getting Z. Snoozing.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

Perfect. Thank you guys very much for tuning in. If you ever have ideas that you want to hear from us on these hot topic episodes, shoot them to us, whether it's on social media or in the comments. Let us know what you want to hear from us. Thank you very much for listening. We'll be back with you guys here in another week.