Burning Questions!

After taking an unexpected week off, we are back to make it up to you with our longest episode to date! Clocking in at almost an hour long, Zach and Gus are back in the studio, and this time, one of them has a secret script. Welcome back to Oh Health Yeah, the official podcast of Healthy Is Wellness.
We reached out to our inner circle to collect the absolute biggest, most unfiltered health and wellness questions they’ve been harboring. In this episode, we are putting everything on the table and diving into the topics people usually only search for in private browser tabs.
Here is a glimpse of what we are unpacking:
The Peptide Wave: Are they actually the ultimate biological lock and key for recovery, or is the internet hyping up cheap imports?
Cortisol and The Chemo Ache: Real, low-barrier ways to calm a system under extreme stress and natural ways to find comfort when your body is fighting its toughest battles?
The Taboo Bowel Talk: Colon cancer is rising in younger generations. We need to talk about fiber, regular routines, and what it means when your gut is rejecting what you put into it?
Hyper-Fixation Foods: What do you do when your brain decides it only wants one safe food, even if that food is highly processed gas station pizza or sodium-heavy soup?
Healthy Burnout: How do you practice wellness when you are working 14-hour days and just trying to survive?
The Positivity Trap: When does staying optimistic cross the line into toxic territory, and how does childhood survival shape the way we lead today?
Finally, we put each other on the spot with a killer closing question: If you could convince the world to do just one thing for their health every day, what would it be? The answers might surprise you.
Tune in to Oh Health Yeah now to hear us get nitty-gritty, highly contextual, and entirely honest.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 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. What is up, Healthy is Family? We are back with another edition of the Oh Health, Yeah podcast. Zach and Gus here today. Zach actually has a script for this one. So I have no idea what he wants to talk about today. He just popped into the office and he said, We're going to shoot a podcast, and he's the one being the star of the show today. So Zach's going to tell us what we're talking about, and we're going to dive into it head first. What do you got, Zampe?

SPEAKER_02 0:56

We've been on a bit of a break. We took a week off. So what we're going to do today is I messaged a bunch of our friends and family and asked them to hit me with one or two burning questions. So this podcast episode is going to just be questions, questions, questions. Some are going to be about mental health, some are going to be about weight loss, some are going to be about burnout. There's going to be, I've got, I think, between seven and ten questions to ask.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Burning questions.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

Yeah, just burning questions, health and wellness related in some facet. Okay. Sweet. All right, are you ready? I'm ready. We're going to start with the infamous.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Are you answering these two?

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Yeah. Yeah, we're going to discuss. Okay. We are going to begin with the infamous and former healthy as wellness employee, Miss Jennifer Hull. Well she got Jay Hall. Jay Hull says peptides. Any and all things about all the peptides you see online. What you got?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Peptides have been around forever. And I think there's a direct benefit to peptides. I think they're a tool, whether that's something like a GLP1 or BPC 157, thymus and beta. I actually had a client this morning that was on BPC to help with recovery. I think peptides are the real deal. There's benefits to them. I think sourcing matters, knowing where you get a peptide. We have people that are getting them from China for very cheap. I think knowing where you get the peptide from and then making sure that it's in line with your why. If you're going to utilize a peptide to help you reach a health goal, make sure that what you're utilizing is best for what you're trying to achieve. So my short answer on peptides, I think they're here to stay. I think there's definitely benefits to them. And I think make sure that you do your research on where you get them from if you're going to use them. What do you think?

SPEAKER_02 2:44

I honestly don't know really anything about peptides. I'm not going to lie. So that's something I should definitely delve into research-wise. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Peptides are cool because they work, they work alongside the body's already existing pathways. Okay. So they're almost like a key and a lock system to where the key is the peptide itself and it's unlocking something within the body to allow the body to do said things. So like BPC 157, for example, is something that helps the body to recover and also main like maintain or gain muscle mass. I had a client today that had a meniscus repair surgery and he wanted to recover as fast as possible. He got on BPC 157 and it completely changed his recovery. So peptides are something that can be extremely beneficial if they're used the correct way.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Okay. For sure. Now we are on to my mother-in-law, Melanie Pfaff from Oregon. Sweet. She has two questions. Number one, what are natural ways to lower cortisol? Obviously, my mother-in-law is going through a lot right now. She's going through her own chemo treatment. You guys might remember that Gus did a podcast episode of coaching with her. Um, but her husband just had a hemorrhagic stroke about a month ago. That's why we've been a little MIA. I had to go to Oregon for three weeks and help take care of things there. So obviously her stress is a little bit high. The cortisol is high. So, what are some natural things that she can do? Lower that cortisol.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

My first two things that come to my mind that are low barriers to entry, one is breath, any form of breath work, breathing, spending time breathing. I actually heard a podcast they were talking about how most Americans, we've talked about this before, most Americans have very shallow breath. If you actually focus on your breath and focus on diaphragmatic breathing and slow it down and realize, like, holy moly, we breathe so fast. In turn, our body is in a state to where it's always fight or flight. If we can relax the body, it can help to decrease cord for levels. So, step one for me is breath, focusing on breath, specifically with breath, nasal breathing, or box breathing, you can look that up, but it's where you're breathing in for four, hold for four, out for four, whatever cadence you want. So, breath is one for me. And the second thing is kind of an interesting one. But one thing that I think is extremely beneficial for cortisol and a low barrier to entry is early morning sunlight. And you see all the social media people that are like, go outside and they got to do all these things or they can even do whatever. But I think just going outside and getting like 30 seconds to five minutes of sun exposure in the morning can be extremely beneficial, not only for cortisol, but it locks in your circadian rhythm so your body knows when you're waking up. Little lizard action. Yeah. So those are my two kind of like very easy low barrier to entry ones that I think can fit the mold for most people. Breath, and then early morning sun exposure of some sort.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

What do you got? I think the breath one is really underrated. When I was, I was it was a good time when I was in Oregon, but it was really stressful. There was a lot of pressure to get things done and and uh make things safe for my father-in-law. I love them so much. I really genuinely hit the lottery with my in-laws, love them so much. Excuse me. So with that, you know, I was just so so stressed out and worried about my wife and my mother-in-law, and especially my father-in-law, that I actually downloaded some apps. Or one thing that I really that's super, super easy to get into is just look up breathing exercise on YouTube and it'll show you some brock box breathing exercises, and you can literally just follow along with them. And it it seems like it like breathing, especially like box breathing, or what is it, 484 or 444? What is it? There's different cadences. Yeah, there's different cadences, but it seems like God, it's almost like it's too good to be true. You're like, there's no way that something that's free and like easy can actually be effective, but man, it can really help you feel in control when everything else feels out of control. And that's what I think we cling to as humans is control. And when everything feels out of control, if there's one thing that we can cling to, it can help us kind of work from the top down or the bottom up, however you want to look at it. And breathing was really helpful for me with that.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

So yeah, low barrier to entry too for both of those things. Breath, everybody breathes. Yeah, you don't have to go buy nothing. You got you can get on YouTube and watch video, yeah, and then sun exposure, the sun's gonna come up no matter where you're at. Some places not as much as others, but you can go outside and get 30 seconds of sunlight relatively easy.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

So we often um, my friend Darcy, the one that lives in Juneau, one of my best friends in the world, when she's going through a hard time or I'm going through a hard time, the one thing that we hold each other accountable to is the uh double inhale that Nick talks about. We do a double inhale to control our breath and to breathe through the stressful moments. So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Yeah, breath's definitely a tool.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

All right, ready for part two of Melanie's question? Yes, what's part two? What are the best natural pain relievers? Again, she's going through chemo, so she's achy, achy, achy. And man, I could see it when I was there for that long. You can see when she likes she'll do, I think she does like three weeks on, one week off, and you can just see the different pep in her step on that week off because that chemo, man, it just hits her joints and she's achy in pain, and I just feel bad for her. So if there's something that we can do to encourage natural pain relief, God, there's part of me that wants to recommend sauna. They have a hot tub, but it's just so it's it's a bit of a this sounds like such a first world problem, but it's a lot of work to get out there and get in the hot tub and get out and dry, and especially, you know, women can't just take their shirt off and hop in. They've got to get into a swimsuit and do all this thing. Not that they have to, but I know who Melanie is, and that's what she would prefer to do. So do you think like one of the portable saunas like I have set up in her bedroom might help? Like what do you think I that helped my pain levels a lot because it it it increases? I don't know. Chemo is a chemo is such a it's unique, such a unique thing. What would you recommend to her if she asked you that?

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Was there how many recommendations? Two? Just two things on just what are the best natural pain relievers. So the first thing that comes to my mind is actually decreasing inflammation in the diet. Because that's not something you have to take. It's just okay, how do I decrease inflammatory foods?

SPEAKER_02 9:22

See, and I this is what I have to contest you on. She doesn't do artificial sweeteners, she doesn't do inflammatory oils, she's very she eats super clean, she's very picky about what she puts in her body. Cool.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

So for most people, if they are eating an inflammatory diet, that's where I would start. But since she's not eating inflammatory, second thing I would go to is hydration, making sure that she's getting her water intake because water flushes so many things out. So especially with going through chemo, like ideally, I would want to shoot four, and just if she's listening to this at some point, 64 ounces of water a day or half of your body weight in ounces of water, which can seem like a lot. It's a lot of water. But at the same time, water levels can help to decrease inflammation by actually washing things out. So those are two things that come to my mind right away. Sauna can be extremely beneficial for inflammation, but it's very dependent on the person. Right. So in my mind, I would want to know like this is one of those things where I'd want to dig into the context of her life. Like, what things do you think are causing inflammation? Because if there's some form of inflammation living and the pain is in one specific spot, then that could be a whole different story. Or if it's all the way across the body, and do you know more?

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Like, is it I think the the main driver of her pain is this chemo has affected her sleep so badly that she's not recovering enough. She's running herself ragged with taking care of Steve and doing all the things, you know, she's she's doing physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy all alongside him. Yeah, and it's exhausting. And I think the sleep is the biggest thing for her. And what's tough is like when we were there, you know, we were going 100 miles an hour, remodeling this, fixing that, replacing this, whatever. And she was getting good sleep because she was running herself ragged. And I think that was helping, but uh, I just I wonder if like hitting the sauna before bed, like if I was if we were able to convince her to buy the $150 sauna that I got. Um I wonder if she did that before bed if it would help her sleep. That would make sense. Exhausted her enough that it help allowed her to actually get some good sleep. She've tried every natural random, you know, magnesium, melatonin, this sleep aid, that sleep aid. It nothing really works aside from exhaustion, like pure exhaustion.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

So I think sleep is probably your driver then. Like just like you said, and that's why these questions are so interesting because it's so context-dependent. Yeah. Like if sleep is what's lacking there, then obviously sleep is playing to the inflammation because that's when our body rests and recovers. So the more that she can optimize that sleep, the sauna would make sense because then it drops the core body temperature. It's gonna heat you up, and then your body's gonna fight to come back down because the body, that's what the body does. So I think even a hot shower before bed, even if you don't want to get the sauna, like trying to heat the body up there, so then you're fighting to cool back down, breath work before bed, that can be extremely beneficial.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Here's a little 2.5 question off of that. Have you seen those portable saunas that exclude your head? Have you seen those? Like you zip it up over your neck. Do you think that you get the same benefits to your body if your head, because a lot of people can't handle the heat on their face. Does your body get the same benefits of sitting in that super good heat if your head isn't in it?

SPEAKER_00 12:50

I would think yes. And the only reason, I don't know the research on it, but the only reason that I say that is because I see UFC fighters cutting weight and they use those a lot. And those guys have the best of the best of the best people in their corner telling them how to cut weight and teaching them, and they have more money than anybody else to be able to do those things. So the fact that they're using those, I would say you probably get relatively the same benefits as a full sauna.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

Patty the batty. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I love Patty. Dude, that was crazy. Um, anyway, okay, there you go, Melanie. Now we're gonna move on to Cassidy and I's good friend Elena. Um, she said, okay, if you're willing to go into poop mode, could you talk about bowel movements, especially with colon cancer on the rise in young people? Oh I love this. We've touched on this. Fiber, fiber, fiber, fiber, fiber. I personally think that fiber is just barely seconded to protein. I think a lot of our generation and the at this point it's become so big that the the food and beverage world has caught on to protein, protein, protein. Everything has protein, protein, pasta, protein, pancakes, protein, oatmeal. Everything has protein. I think you need fiber just as much. And colon cancer is so on the rise, especially in young men and women. You know, it's it's a silent killer, man.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

I think the rise in protein is if you follow the money trail. It's like so many people are getting on GLP ones. Yep. What's the biggest thing with GLP ones? Are causing people to lose weight, possibly. Well, then all the food marketers are like, well, we need protein and everything, because one in seven Americans are now on GLP1s. They're pushing on that so hard. Yep. I agree with you that fiber is extremely important when it comes to digestion. And as Americans, we underate fiber significantly. Bah. Like super bad. But when it comes to the poop side of things and the digestion side of things, it's almost like an equation to figure out what works best for you. Yeah. Because, like, just because I go to the bathroom X amount of times a day doesn't mean you need to go to the bathroom X amount of times a day. So figuring out what makes you regular, one, how you become comfortable with that. One of the things that worked the best for me is seed probiotic. It's a pre and probiotic. Their capsule, and we're not associated with them whatsoever, but their capsule is made to where it doesn't break down until it actually gets into your digestive tract. A lot of pre- and probiotics will break down before they even get there on their way down. That freaking seed changed my life. Okay. To where like it was bonkers. And I have friends now that I recommend it too. I'm like, dude, you got to try this out. My buddies are on it, and they're like, this changed my life. I had a buddy that worked construction and he needed to be near a porter body all the time. He's like, I'm so regular. Like, it's amazing. So I think fiber one, pre-probiotics, those both of those play into digestion. And then there's natural ways to get those two. Things like yogurt, kimchi, like different things that you can ingest in your diet to see it. Help you with the gut bugs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:55

There's there's such polarity to this spectrum. Like, I have friends that, like you just said, have to be within you know a radius of the toilet because of like an early irritable bowel syndrome or something going on. But I also like my buddy Bernie, Brendan, that dude poops once a week.

unknown 16:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

And he's lean. I mean, he's he's probably sub-10% just naturally. Like when he was working out, the kid probably got down to five or six percent. But just naturally, he's walking around at 10% body fat. He's just he's but he, you know, he's probably 5'10, 5'11, 145 pounds, 150 pounds. It's a good amount of muscle, but no matter how much he eats, he's just he poops like once or twice a week, and he says it is so painful when he does, you know, because it's like uh an entire week's worth of food.

unknown 16:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

So like I would every single day I'd be like, you need to you need to incorporate some healthy fats and some fiber, those are the two big things. Like, you're probably over consuming protein, not that you're eating too much protein, but in proportion to the fats and fiber that you're eating, because you're not. I mean, I hate to be gory guys, but you know, you're not you need lubricity. You that's the fiber is insoluble to your body, and it kind of helps grease the tracks, you know? Yeah, what would you say to Brendan?

SPEAKER_00 17:25

That's tough, man. If he's in pain like that, that's no place to be. I mean, you're asking for an ulcer or or you know, fissures, even like digestive enzymes in that instance, something to play with just to push it through. But it's so different because it's different for every single person. Yeah, it is. Like there's other people that go in the bathroom all the time. Yeah, like running through them. And so in that instance, I'm like, okay, trust your body. Like you might have an intolerance to some of these foods that you're eating. True.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

To do a little bit of an elimination diet and see if there's something that's triggering. There's a reason that stuff's going straight through you.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Yeah. And so I think the thing with digestion is one figuring out your equation, but knowing that pieces of that equation are going to be fiber intake, for sure, pre and probiotics, whether you want to take them or get them from natural foods, you can do either one of those. Okay. But they're extremely important to get it to where you're digesting regular. And one thing that I love to share with our clients if things are going straight through you, your body is rejecting them for a reason. Whether your body doesn't need it or your body has an intolerance to it. I love talking to people about that with protein shakes because so many people are like, Gus, what protein shake should I take? What do you digest well? What actually works for you? Because if you're just, if you're drinking a protein shake and within two minutes you got to be in the bathroom, your body's telling you, hey, I don't like this. Even if it's 99 cents at the grocery store, it might not be the best one for your body.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

So I will say though, let's let's let's not, I don't want to fear monger. I think that's something that I really like that you and I do differently. If you see Gus drinking that cup of coffee, coffee is a laxative and a diuretic. It's going to make you poop. Caffeine is going to encourage pooping. So if coffee makes you sit on the pot, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's cause for alarm. And there's different foods that are, you know, five. If you if you eat a bunch of chia seeds and then you have to poop, that makes sense. It tracks, it's full of fiber. Yeah. So don't want to fearmonger. That's the one thing I wanted to add. Yeah. I'm talking about like when you can tell that your body is rejecting something. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you just eat something and then just spicy diarrhea. Yeah. Yeah, no. We're getting nitty-gritty, guys. Okay, now we're gonna go to Darcy's question. Darcy is one of my best friends in the world. She lives in Juneau, Alaska. When you're trying to lose weight and you have a food that you're hyper fixating on, which I'm seeing, especially in women, my personal experience is becoming more and more common in your coaching. I'm sure you've heard people be like, oh, all I could eat for breakfast for a month for three months was eggs. And I ate so many eggs, I can't even eat eggs anymore. Okay. So her question is when you're trying to lose weight and you have a food that you're hyper fixated on, and that food doesn't feel very healthy, what would you recommend? Like people have you ever heard of an ARF uh or FARF uh avoidant restrictive food disorder, like ARF D or something like that. Some people, you know, they create, especially when we're talking about hyperfixations, you'll get someone that will become hyperfixated on a certain food that feels safe to them, and that ties into mental health as well. So, like for example, Darcy loves tomato soup, loves tomato soup. It's safe for her, it makes it where she's getting some vegetables in. It's it's kind of her her foundational food. She loves, loves tomato soup. Yeah, but sometimes she feels like it's not very healthy to be eating that much sodium, you know. So what would you do to encourage that? And another one, for example, would be like eating pizza regularly because it feels safe, it feels easy. You know, some people that have these complex eating disorders, I'm not saying that Darcy does, but sometimes she'll have a hyperfixation and anything else feels like you just can't eat. And sometimes when somebody has that hyperfixation, I think I think the direction I think you would go is trying to pair good things around it. So if your safe food is a crappy pizza from the gas station, for example, what can you surround? I I think you would go food sequencing.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Definitely timing. I don't food sequencing is number two on my list. The other one's when. Rather than focusing on what you eat, can you focus on when you eat? So even if my food fixation, I'm gonna use my son oak and he'll. Loves those dang cake pops from Starbucks. Oh my gosh, he's in love with cake pops. So if my food fixation or the thing that I'm leaning towards is cake pops, and let's say I wanted to eat cake pops all day, that's all I wanted to eat was cake pops. Instead of coming to that session or mentally meeting with myself with Gus, you have to give up cake pops. What I would say to start, depending on the conversation with myself, would be, okay, I'm gonna eat as many cake pops as I want, but I'm gonna do that within a 12-hour time period. This is very dependent on the person. And we know that that can cause some people to binge eat. But instead of focusing on what you eat, the tomato soup, the cake pop, the pizza, I'm gonna focus on when. And so maybe for that first month, if it works for me, depending or my client, depending on how the situation is, I'm just gonna try to get a 12-hour break from food. That's all I'm gonna do. And if I want my damn tomato soup, I'm gonna have my damn tomato soup. So that's one way you could go with it. Second is exactly what you said, adding in additional foods. So if it is a, if it's cake pop, how can I have a cheese stick with my cake pop? Or how can I have a protein shake with my cake pop? Or how can I, if it's tomato soup, how can I throw some veggies in there? Yeah. Like what do you what do you like with your even pepper on top? Something simple, simple and tiny, but just adding in other foods that add nutrient value to you and to your body, but also are in line with your goal. I think what's wrong with most diet plans, most wellness companies, is instead of figuring out how they can add things to your life, they try to take away.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

So for example, if Darcy sat down with somebody who was like, you know, I just I eat 10 cans of soup a day. And that person was like, well, you should probably get down to eight cans of soup, you know, by next month. That probably wouldn't be the best route to go. Instead, let's figure out how we can empower her to add things into her life. Maybe it's a time span of when you eat, or maybe it's different foods that you add to your tomato soup. And then maybe a year from now, if you want to start decreasing tomato soup, great. But we don't have to do that immediately. So that's where my mind goes with it.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

What would you think about maybe adding in like an AG1 drink to get some micros, some micronutrients? Yeah. I think that would be a really good option for somebody in that specific situation. If you if you're worried about that you're not getting essential vitamins and nutrients, vitamins and minerals and nutrients, you could add something like a protein shake, cheese stick, you know, or because I I I guess my mind just goes to like people when when you are feeling food avoidant, the alternative is not eating at all. And that's not healthy, right? So what if it's not food? What if it's a EG1 drink or microgreens or something along those lines? Yeah. I think that would be a great idea too. Not associated with microgreens or EG1s, just an idea.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

Yeah, those are all wins. And I think that's where the shake makes sense for a lot of people too, when they have that kind of relationship with food. Yeah. Where it's like a big multivitamin-ish shake with all these things in it. Yeah. And it's boom, here you go. That's where it's a win. But everything with within this world of wellness is so context dependent. It is. So that's why I love having conversations with people about these things.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

Okay. Now we've got Sydney B. Oh, let's go, let's go. We both know Sydney B. Her question is what does healthy look like in burnout? That's a good question.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

What does healthy look like in burnout? So when you're in burnout mode, how are you healthy?

SPEAKER_02 25:24

Or how do you find the space to be healthy? Healthy in quotes when you're burned out, but you have to keep going. When you're working, you know, 12, 13, 14 hour days just to stay alive, just to stay afloat. How do you prioritize your health when all you can think about is trying to survive?

SPEAKER_00 25:51

I think pulling the pulling the simplest and most convenient levers that help you to be present in the moment, even if that moment is only 30 seconds long. So in my mind, like when burnout occurs or when when things feel feel crazy, you're busy, you got a lot going on, work's crazy, kids are crazy, what things can you do to be fully present in the moment that don't take up a ton of your time? Because really, all we're trying to do, I feel like when somebody's in burnout mode, is just get a light recharge. Like, I'm not trying to get you to go to the gym five days a week. I'm not trying to get you to go do X, Y, or Z. Like, what can you do for 30 seconds that helps you fill your cup? So, in my mind, for me, from a personal perspective, cold exposure, five-minute cold plunge, boom, that helps me out a ton. Like journaling for 30 seconds, even writing down three things I'm grateful for, boom, that helps me recharge a little bit. But burnout is something that so many people struggle with. And I think the things that help each individual are probably different. But it comes back to what things help you be fully present in the moment and how do you fit those things in your day? There's a reason that we see so many clients that come in to see us and they're like, I'm going on a vacation for a week, I'm going to Mexico, or I'm going to Alaska, and I'm going to recharge. Hmm, recharge. What does that really mean? They're going to be present. They're going to enjoy their time with whoever they're going with. And throughout the work week, they don't feel like they're able to reach. Right, right. So in my mind, it's like, what little levers can you pull to be present in whatever moment you're in to hopefully help you recharge? What do you think?

SPEAKER_02 27:26

If I was in a coaching session and somebody asked me that question, what does healthy or how what does healthy look like in burnout? I my response back would be a question, and that is, what does unhealthy feel like in burnout? So for example, I'm not saying, I'm not speaking for Sydney, but let's say she said, I'm so burned out, I can't prioritize food, and I'm just eating junk food and fast food all the time because I don't have the capacity to cook and clean and all of the things that come along with eating in a healthy way. If it's food, food is what's healthy. That's the lever I'd pull. I try to touch on that. Or maybe it's I can't make it to the gym, but twice a month. I would try to incorporate some really, really simple exercises they could do. Even if it's look, we talk about tiny habits parking farther away, doing something to give a little bit of control back to her. Because sometimes I think I think the easy cop-out answer is, well, what can you do to get out of burnout? Sometimes that's not possible. Sometimes people are stuck in burnout and there's nothing they can do about it right now. So let's see what we can do to help it, you know? So I think it is very dependent on what is making them feel like they are unhealthy. Yep. And let's let's let's work on that. Let's let's add let's pepper something small to help you feel in control.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Low barriers entry, yeah, I'm veniant, whatever that is. Yep. And then the other thing too to keep in mind, and you do a great job of this on site too, but there's times where you got to give yourself grace. Yeah. Like the world's not an easy place all the time. So if you're going through burnout and maybe your body composition isn't changing in the way you want it to, or you're not achieving that five-day-a-week goal, there's times where you got to give yourself grace and realize that your health isn't just a number on a scale, it's your ability to be fully present in any moment. So if burnout is something that you're facing, there may be times where you got to give yourself grace and take a little break and then jump back in when the timing is right.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

So perfect. Okay, we got two more. Cool. This comes from my big brother, Alan. Big bro. He said risks and benefits of magnesium for sleep and L-theanine for focus.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Oh man. I don't know of a ton of risks. I mean, it's very dependent on the person and what their pre-existing things are, obviously. In my mind, magnesium's big time for sleep. We talk to the majority of our clients about magnesium and getting it in some form. L-theanine is huge. It's something that allows the body to not only focus but almost slow down to where you're more present in the moment. I've even seen like coffees are coming out with L-theanine in the coffee to slow down the like Yeah, they're adding L-theanine to energy drinks, to um pre-workout as well, I believe.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

And L L L-thenine and L-terosine, I believe, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:28

I think so. Yeah. And the big thing with these is similar to the protein, kind of like I said, paying attention to the way your body feels. Because if you start sleeping better when you take magnesium or if you feel like an increase in your focus, then to me, that's your body saying, hey, I needed this. And not necessarily I needed this, but it's benefiting, it's benefiting me. Whereas if you're taking these things and you're not noticing a difference, it's not one of those things where you have to spend the money on it. What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_02 30:53

I think the only risk that comes to mind right off the bat, without doing a bunch of prior or of research prior to this topic, would be is just making sure you're taking the correct type of magnesium. Typically, sleep magnesium is going to be magnesium glycinate. So don't go and buy magnesium um citrate for poo. Citrate, because that'll make you poop your brains out. Brendan take magnesium citrushcake. So I think it's just being informed on what each magnesium does. Magnesium torate can help with body cramps and your heart a bit. Um what are the other ones? There, I mean, there's uh magnesium L3 and A. Misty talks about magnesium L3 and A. What's what does that one do?

SPEAKER_00 31:40

I think that one's a sleep focus too, isn't it? I can't remember, honestly. I want to say it is. Make sure that you look into what the magnesium is that you're taking. But from my perspective, I don't know if there's many negative implications for taking it.

SPEAKER_02 31:52

Good. Not that I know of. I think it's important that you feel comfortable enough to talk to your doctor about what you're doing when you're adding in something like that. Okay, here is a risk, actually. Making sure, and this is where talking to your doctor can play a big role in adding any supplement. Sometimes supplements can interfere with prescription medications. And I think it's really important that you do research and talk to your physician about taking certain supplements with things like SSRIs or stimulants or downers like benzodiazepines. I think it's really important that you talk about drug interaction. I think that can be definite, a definite risk. Yeah. Some, like, for example, some stimulants, having citrus with certain stimulants will make it much less effective. It kind of, and like a lot of SSRIs, which is a selective serotonin rehup reuptake inhibitor, they a lot of them say do not eat grapefruit. Do not eat grapefruit because it interfute interferes and it kind of cancels out the way that it works. So I think drug interaction is probably the biggest concern now that I've now that I really think about it with taking supplements.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Yeah. And the other thing, too, with supplements is to test, do blood tests of some sort, depending on what you're taking, to see if they're making a difference for you. Yeah. Because if you're taking a supplement and you're spending your hard-earned dollar on magnesium or creatine or anything, making sure that whatever you're utilizing is actually benefiting the body. Because if not, you're just throwing your money away.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

There's a lot of noise around supplements right now. There is. What's the the other one that doesn't isn't as effective as creatine monohydrate? That's what you need is creatine monohydrate. There's all sorts of things. But there's different formulas that are unnecessary and because they want you to spend money on it. I saw a statistic the other day, and don't quote me on this, but it was something along the lines of like the pharmaceutical industry, you know, we we especially in the wellness industry, we talk about how big pharma is worth, you know, billions and billions and billions of dollars. I saw that the wellness industry has well surpassed the pharmaceutical industry. Like up, I want to say up into the high billions or even the trillions, which makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 34:14

I wonder what quantifies as the wellness industry. I wonder where peptides fit into that.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

Right. I mean health and wellness huge, man. Yeah, well, the rise of peptides is blown up. Yeah, it really has. Yeah. Is GLP one a peptide?

SPEAKER_00 34:27

Glucagon like peptide one. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

Yep. Cool. All right. Last one. You ready? Yeah. Another former healthy as wellness employee and one of my very good friends, Jesse. He says, Maybe talk about phone slash screen addiction or dopamine addiction in general. I think that's becoming a pretty prevalent obstacle. Oh man, that's a tough one. Jesse's a smart cookie man. He did this thing, so he's seen it too.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

Might ruffle some feathers. Ruffle them. So phones and screens, as we all know, are extremely addictive. The interesting thing about this is that we need a lot of us need it for work. You need it to be able to, like your social media stuff, the podcast that we're shooting right now, we're using phones, we're using tablets, yeah, we're using all sorts of devices. What people don't understand is that we have more ways to stay connected as a society than we've ever had. But at the same time, we're the least connected we've ever been due to devices. So in my mind, my relationship with devices comes back to that definition of health of being fully present in the moment. What things help you to do that? Like I like to utilize devices as a tool to be able to help me complete my job in a quicker way so that I can go be present with my family. I think what's so common now is how many people just sit behind their device and try to use that as a way to connect. I would rather people go out and spend time with other people around them, like face to face, talk to individuals, get to know people. I think it's better for your mental health, it's better for all aspects of health. And I think there's a lot of studies out that show this. But just the social media side of things, and it's not just social media, it's just the fact that we're addicted to scrolling and the instant gratification. I see it a lot in my own life because I quit social media. I think it's been almost two years now that I stopped social media. I'll go hang out with my friends, and it's very interesting because I'll sit around a table like this, everybody's on their phone except for me. And it's like, so weird. Or even when we're working, like people are on their phones, and I'm just sitting there, like, okay, this is awkward. So it's definitely something that's arise in our culture, and it's definitely not going anywhere anytime soon. But my relationship with it is how can I utilize technology as a tool to help me be fully present in the moment that I'm in? So, like work-wise, I'm trying to get stuff done more efficiently. You've helped me utilize some different tools to be able to do that. So then I can be more present in the moment at night with my kids.

SPEAKER_03 36:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

It's definitely a hard one. Holy cow, it's a hard one. Yes, it is. What are your thoughts on it?

SPEAKER_02 37:04

Oh man. It's such a complex thing for me. Because, like you said, you know, I use my phone and my tablet and my laptop for to make a living. That's a big part of what I do. I think finding balance has been the most important thing for me. My notification, my I have stopped paying attention to my watch so much. I've been back for seven days in Montana and it's got it back on. It's still in organ time. Like I just that has been such a stress reliever for me to not have a notifications on my watch. And we talked about that in a prior episode. So I just think it's balanced. Like you said, it's not going anywhere. So it's just about finding balance and creating boundaries with it. One we do have another question from Justice, I forgot to mention um when we'll get there. But I know that one of her questions touches on like social media and like the good and the bad. Yeah. I think in a way, social media and dopamine addiction and TikTok and Instagram and all of the things have shortened our attention spans a lot. But I also think that it's done a lot of good for humanity. I think it's connected us more than we've ever been connected, which is a good and a bad. Oh, it's such a nuanced, complicated subject. I'm almost at a loss for words because I think it saves lives, and I also think that it's detrimental to lives as well. It's so hard. It's really this is such a hard subject for me to talk about.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

It comes back to similar to food, similar to exercise, similar to I don't care what it is, anything. You can have a healthy relationship with it, you can have an unhealthy relationship. I don't care if it's cigarettes. You can have a healthy relationship with cigarettes or an unhealthy relationship with cigarettes. Social media is the same way. You can have a healthy relationship with it, Lord.

SPEAKER_02 39:18

It's so easy to have an overconsumption issue with technology.

SPEAKER_00 39:24

It's just like hyper-processed food is made to be addictive. Hyper palatable. Yeah. Right. It's made to be addictive. So figuring out ways that you can ways that you can build in different rules for yourself. And I think for me, it's always about like, how do I be present with the people around me, the people that matter to me. Because when I'm laying on my deathbed someday, am I really going to care about what happened on Facebook, Instagram? I might if it would have changed my life. But at the same time, I'm definitely going to care about what I did with my spouse, what I did with my kids. And so social media is a tool or phones or a tool that we can use to level up our lives. But at the same time, I don't think they should be our whole life.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

Yeah, I would agree with that. I think it I think I hate, it sounds like a cop-out, but I think my bare bones answer would just be trying to find balance. Setting boundaries with social media and and technology.

SPEAKER_00 40:19

And my bare bones answer would be do whatever helps you feel fully present in the moment. Yeah. Because if you're sitting there with your friend and they're scrolling, maybe you want to scroll too. But if you're sitting there with your friend and they're trying to talk to you, maybe you should talk to you.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

Okay, now on to Justice's questions. Alright. She said.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

What is it healthy to always stay positive? Or can that become toxic?

SPEAKER_00 40:49

Oh man. You're talking to the expert here. Yes. I just had this conversation with Courtney this morning when we were working. I think it's healthy. It's healthy to stay positive if you take into consideration the negatives of life. There's real-world problems.

SPEAKER_02 41:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:07

There's real world things that people go through. Days suck. Like life sucks at times. Viewing it from a positive outlook can be healthy if you are able to identify the negatives and you're not naive to the negatives. Like life is gonna suck. There's gonna be hard times. I think the way that I view positivity is always taking a step forward as best you can. So even when my AC went out, like, okay, can we go turn the fans on? I'm so thankful that we have fans, like that type of thing. But it's not like I don't know. It's an interesting thing because I'm an extremely positive person, but my perception of negative is skewed differently than other people's perception of negative because of what I've been through in my life, because of what somebody else has been through in their lives. Like something that's yeah, negative to somebody else might not be negative to me.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

You are the most top the most positive person I've ever met. And I will say, you know, we've worked very closely for three and a half years now. Very seldom has it ever become an actual issue. I think I can think of a couple times where I was like, God damn your positivity. When things some like you said, sometimes things just suck. And I think the uh to be completely like unabashedly honest with you, like the are you okay if I give an example? Go for it. I remember the what you were out of town, you were on a vacation, which you well deserved, and the roads were bad. And we had to go on a road trip for work, the whole crew, and you were texting me, and it wasn't I felt that it wasn't safe, and because of your positivity, and the and this is partly on me, but I felt that I couldn't be negative with you because I knew that you'd spin it into something positive. I could there wasn't a a space for me to just be like, Gus, these roads suck. I don't think we should go because I figured that I just I just didn't feel like I could just straight up say that to you. And that's partly on me, that I didn't feel like I could directly communicate that to you. And it turned into a situation where we probably should have rescheduled the service, which I know is it's hard for everybody involved, but that's like one of the only things was like sometimes it creates an environment in which people don't feel like they can be totally truthfully honest with you. That's the only thing. But as I've gotten to know you, I have also seen you embrace the suck a few times, and that has humanized that you do. I know that you do understand. I do feel that space now. Yeah, I do feel like I can tell you no, and that I can tell you that yeah, that's. Not gonna work, or that sucks, or that that's not the best way to do it, even if you think it's you can make it work. I know that you can obviously we can make anything work, it's just a matter of do we want to put our people through that? So I think the toxic positivity can be really hard. But then again, I've been trying for the past month to always see the positive in something first, just letting life lead me by being positive. And the best thing that I've that's come out of that, it depends on who you ask. Some people would say that I'm an optimistic person, and some people would say that I'm a pessimistic person. But I've been trying to look for the positive things first, and this comes back to one of our challenges that we talk about, and that I always like to analogize for people. And that's when you buy a brand new car, you start to see that car everywhere. If you look for the positive first, you'll see the positive first. But that doesn't mean that you're naive to the negative. What do you have? What do we got?

SPEAKER_00 45:01

Positivity is everything to me, man.

SPEAKER_02 45:03

I know.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

I feel like without it, life would suck.

SPEAKER_02 45:05

You'd be, I think I don't think you'd be half the person that you are if you weren't the positive person that you are. And I've learned to love that person and accept that person. Sometimes you go to different people for different things, you know?

SPEAKER_00 45:18

No, absolutely. Well, and I think when you go through hard things in life at a young age, positivity is something that you can cling on. Like you don't always have your dad there. You don't always have so-and-so there, you don't always have somebody to go to. But if you're always positive, you know you can rely on yourself. So for me, like I've been a lead, I've been quote unquote a leader since I was little. Like my dad was gone when I was little. He he did his own thing. He wanted nothing to do with me. So I was in the position where I was I was the leader of my own pack from three years old until today, to the point where like in high school I was a quarterback, I was the leader of the football team. Now I own this business. Like it's always been a leader thing for me. And as a leader, I believe it's my job to be positive no matter what the situation is. Yeah. And as a business, we're here to empower people to take control of their health. And I'm gonna do everything in my power to help us do that. Do I want to put your guys' lives at risk? Heck no. Maybe we should have stayed. Like, if I would have been here, I probably would have been like, heck no Z. Yeah. But at the same time, positivity for me is something that I think most good leaders in the world have some form of positivity because they know that no matter what happens, we're gonna get through this. And that's both from a family perspective, but also from a work perspective and a team perspective. And can it be negative? I think if you don't identify and validate the negative things, the shitty things, then yes, it is negative. Once you've gotten to that point where you just don't even realize the things are negative, then it's too far. It's too far.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

Um I think that positivity, especially in your case, not to psyche you, comes to come back to control. Yep, does you couldn't control your dad? You couldn't control the stuff that was happening when you were a kid, but you could control your attitude.

SPEAKER_00 47:10

Exactly. And control your emotions always. Yeah. No matter what. 100%.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

Some people can.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

Some people can't. True. True, true.

SPEAKER_02 47:20

So. Last question. Oh, we got another one? Just one more from Justice. She sent me four, so I've got to pick out of the four. This one's gonna be so hard for you guys. This is the bow tie we're gonna add on it. We're gonna ice gus real hard right now. You can only give one answer.

unknown 47:40

One answer.

SPEAKER_02 47:41

If you could convince everyone to do one thing for their health every day, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Gosh, that's so hard. I figured it would be. Can I give two? I suppose. 12-hour break from food. And creatine. No. My second one is writing down three things you're grateful for. Okay. I think the 12-hour break from food will help with sleep. It'll help with digestion. It'll help with natural caloric restriction. It'll help people to be able to rest and relax. Hopefully decrease inflammation. Write down three things you're grateful for helps with mental health. It helps you see the positive things in life, like we just talked about. And it might be heavy on my mind because we just talked about positivity. Yeah. But my two right away would be three things you're grateful for, 12-hour break from food. What would yours be? That's so hard because it's every person in the world is different.

SPEAKER_02 48:44

Honest to God, it'd be be kind. Be kind. Show kindness. Even when it's hard. You never know what someone is going through. And you could save someone's life directly or indirectly. I think it's just be kind. Be kind. Please be kind to people. That's it. There you go. Foundational. Be good human. Be a good human. Sweet. That's all we got.

SPEAKER_00 49:13

Awesome, possum. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Thanks to Zampi for putting together the questions and everybody that kind of pushed forward a question. Thank you guys very much. We look forward to being back on with you all in about a week. Enjoy your day.