Performance, Biology, And Longevity With Dr. Eric

In this episode of Lof Office Hours, Coach Mike is joined by Dr. Eric Fete to discuss the medical future of Lifestyle Of Fitness and the role of medically informed coaching in long-term transformation.

As LOF moves through its 15th anniversary transformation series, Mike and Dr. Eric explore the growing interest in peptides, hormones, testosterone, lab work, recovery, longevity, and performance.

But instead of starting with the newest hack, this conversation brings the focus back to the foundation.

Sleep.

Stress.

Nutrition.

Exercise.

Circadian rhythm.

Nature.

Community.

Spirituality.

Habits.

Awareness.

Dr. Eric explains why peptides and hormones may have a role for some people, but should not be treated as a shortcut, a trend, or a one-size-fits-all solution. He also discusses the importance of qualified medical guidance, appropriate lab work, pharmaceutical-grade sourcing, and understanding the full person before deciding which tools make sense.

Inside this episode, we cover:

• Why Peptides And Hormones Are Not The Foundation
• Why Sleep, Stress, Nutrition, And Exercise Still Matter Most
• Why There Is No Cookie-Cutter Protocol
• Why Symptoms, Goals, History, And Context Matter
• How Lab Work Should Be Used Thoughtfully
• Why Pharmaceutical-Grade Sourcing Matters
• Why Research Peptides Can Be Risky
• How Circadian Rhythm And Morning Light Impact Health
• Why Seasonal Patterns May Influence Training And Recovery
• How Technology, Screens, And Dopamine Loops Affect Behavior
• Why Routines Eventually Become Habits
• Why Bandwidth May Matter More Than Time
• How Small Daily Actions Create Long-Term Transformation

This episode is educational only and is not personal medical advice. Always consult a qualified medical provider before starting, stopping, or changing any medication, hormone therapy, peptide, supplement, or medical treatment.

💭 Thanks for listening to The Lifestyle of Fitness Podcast with Coach Mike Caulo - NBC-HWC health coach, retired pro Muay Thai fighter, father of 4, and founder of the LOF 100-Day Comback System, 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:23

And welcome everybody. So we actually have a special guest today uh joining us from Primax, Dr. Eric. Dr. Eric, thank you for joining again. If you've seen our content in the past, you've seen Dr. Eric, he's been a uh guest and part of our content. And also, I'm excited today. We're gonna be talking about how we're kind of shifting the future of lifestyle of fitness, integrating some medically informed perspective with Dr. Eric, having him tag in from some medical directive support. And honestly, the theme that we're gonna be going to the rest of the year is transformation. So it's our 15-year anniversary of Sarah's Life of a Fighter in the Business. And I'm really excited. I went into that in the last episode, and we're gonna be diving into just the transformation theme. And I have some questions that came in that y'all sent in ahead of time that I appreciate. And if you guys are watching live and you want to comment or chat, feel free to do so. Also, if you want to see more of Dr. Eric, not only with what we're doing, you can also see him uh at Prime X. And I have the website I'm gonna put in the comments, and you'll see it in the description below. But that's a long way to intro for you, Dr. Eric. Thank you for taking the time and joining.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Yeah, dude, as always, thanks for having me. Uh, you've always uh we you and I always have good conversations. I'm happy to uh come on board and hopefully make some laughs and provide some value for listeners and followers, man. So I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Yeah, of course, and like that's something I I really have appreciated. I'm gonna circle back, even with like the theme of transformation. Is you've been an impactful part of even my own transition, actually, from when I was retiring from fighting and figuring out what that looked like and just kind of recovering because I had spent so much time manipulating my body weight and cutting and having strategies and fighting anywhere from 155 to 175 pounds, getting up to 200 pounds, cutting back down. And as I evolved prior to meeting you, I had learned strategies on how to not have so much weight gain and fluctuation happen. But my body had paid a price. You know, I was even consuming a lot of THC at a higher body fat percentage after retiring. And you came in and we had talked about it. Where I got introduced to you was even with the theme of peptides years ago.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

So, and one of the things I really appreciate now continuously bring up, and that's why when we're looking for a medical director and have some medically informed physician support with the insurance side of our business and the medically integrated side, you came to mind because of the trust that I have for you and where you're coming from. Because to me, it's easy to push, I shouldn't even say push, it's easy to turn to peptides and hormones and things like that. Not that they're wrong and not to vilify that, but the most impactful thing that jumped out to me, and I'd love to hear where you're at with this now, too, is you really helped me look at sleep, stress, continuously like training wasn't the hard part, but even helped in that side of it, the nutrition side, but uncovering some of the other impactful dynamics that I think as parents, as business owners, and as just like like a retired athlete, I was facing. And that was massive. And even since then, like I've actually, I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but I've stopped consuming THC altogether. That's been pretty impactful. Um, again, I'm not saying it's wrong for anyone, it's just for me, I noticed that it was enabling certain habits, uh even transforming my own like beliefs and like exploring spirituality again and different things that just have come up through that time. So I wanted to acknowledge that. And I'd love to like with that being said, pick your brain because there's been an interesting time and some topics have come in around peptide questions, around hormones, but we don't have to jump right into that. But I'd love to get your thoughts on when it comes to that, where you tend to see a lot of starting places for people, and maybe even give a little bit of a uh preface to that where you think it's appropriate. Anything you want to like lead into that with, but yeah, I know a lot of people are asking me questions around like, oh, like what peptide's the best for this, or what hormones are that, and especially now with everything that's going on. I'd love to like pick your brain. I think it's really timely having you on.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Oh my gosh. Yeah, I could talk for an hour just about this topic, but like for sure, and to your point, um, what you mentioned with your story is kind of it is perfect for what the bigger topic of what you just mentioned because it fits so and I appreciate what you said and what you did. And to your to your uh you know, to to your um benefit, it's and it's uh you're you know, you're very coachable, right? Like I talked about some things a lot of people because I think that's how it came up about you know, what about a peptide or about this? And like you know, it's kind of drilling down to the basics, and a lot of people would just kind of blow that up. You took it to heart and you're like, holy crap, you're right. And I and you ran with it and you did it and you did great. So um, so kudos to you on that. So um, and I see that today. So, and that kind of is a great segue to what we're talking about because a lot of times, like you said, especially nowadays with our social media crazy society, everybody's looking for that clickbait ad or like hey, the cool new supplement, or the cool new peptide, or the cool new this, it's like the the hack, the hack this, hack that, get a quick, quick this, quick that. It's like that's how they draw you in, right? But it's like, and that's how people come to you or come to me or whatever. But most of the time, kind of like with you, that's the icing on the cake, or it's actually like what I heard somebody say is like the letters on the icing on the cake, it's like the last thing, like the tip of the pyramid. So the base is always the foundation of stuff, and people sometimes are like, Oh, it's boring, or like they roll their eyes, but it's it's that's why it's there. It's kind of like saving, like when people talk and want to hear about the cool hot new stock, but the base is always, you know, save your money, pay off debt, get insurance. It's like the boring stuff, but that's foundational. That's why it's at the base of the castle, it holds everything else up. So same thing with us, it's like the foundation is sleep, stress, nutrition, exercise, circadian rhythm alignment, um, you know, the the whole community spiritual side, gratitude, all that stuff. You have to do that. You know, it's like, you know, and I've had, you know, I do advanced biodenttical hormones, as you know, and like I have guys that come in, I'm like, look, you you know, I could have the magic pill, and unless you're doing the basics, it's not gonna work. Either it's not gonna work at all, or it's gonna work at like a fraction of what you could be getting. And I've I've seen it time and again where guys and and women implement it, and they're like, they're they come into me doing this, and like, eh, it's okay, but I'm not really seeing much. And I tweak it up and they're like, Wow, now I've now I know I'm doing the same thing, but I feel so much better. I'm like, Yeah, you have to put all the pieces together, it's a big puzzle. So, you know, everybody on social media makes it out like it's this quick, easy thing. And unfortunately, you know, just uh my soapbox thing is always like, you know, I'm always like saying, Look, there's a there's a lot of people out there practicing medicine without a license. Let's just put it that way. There's yeah Jim Bros and trainers and these guys that everybody's like all of a sudden everybody's talking about peptides, everybody's uh you know, a hormone expert, a peptide expert in interpreting blood work and basically practicing medicine without a license, but they should not be doing it's like it's like going to like uh the stewardess, the the flight attendant, but like telling you know, learn how to fly a plane. You know, could they probably, but would you? I'd rather go to the pilot or draft a legal document, you know, off of uh Chat GPT. Should you do that? Can you? Maybe, but I'd rather go to the attorney, right? So that's why they do years of training and and learning about this. There's a reason for it, right? Uh and people are like, well, you don't learn that in med school. No, but you learn all the basics, the things that lead up to it. It's like you're not like an overnight success. You have to build up and learn and see take care of patients on multiple levels in different scenarios for over thousands of thousands of times, just like a pro athlete, you put in your reps, you know, like you, you know, you're in the ring for how many hours, man, how many like years and decades, right? I mean, you don't just walk in and throw a perfect roundhouse, you know, you've been practicing that for thousands of times, right? So, you know, boring stuff, right? But that's how you get there. So, anyway, so yeah, I mean, I my colleagues and I, we've been doing using peptides for you know almost 10 years now, like pre-COVID, right? And it's like, so now it's like everybody's talking about it. It's cool that they're getting more awareness, but the downside is that we get all these sorry for the you know, the people just talking out their butt who just don't know, they're just looking to make a quick butt and they're selling these research peptides that not coming from a pharmacy. You don't know what the hell you're getting. I'm seeing side effects and misuse and bad stuff. And of course, now the FDA is getting involved and they're putting a smack down on them because just like with hormones, like you go on the black market and buy any test or wind straw or whatever, doesn't mean it's gonna be good or you're gonna know what the hell you're doing. Not a good idea. Um, but same with the peptides, so it's good, but it's it's getting a lot of bad press too because people are misusing it and it's just going the wrong way. People are just trying to jump on the bandwagon and and as opposed to doing it the right way. Um, so it's good and bad. So, um, like I said, it's icing on the cake, and I love them, they do a great job, but there's other things that you usually have to get in there, build that sand castle from the base up first.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

So you get it, and to your point, there's actually a question that came in that was basically just saying, like, looking at uh my interpretation of this question is like sourcing of peptides and being able to have that. And I we don't even have to dump right into that, but I because I think you what you touched on is a really important piece. I don't want to just skip past, which is the foundation versus like the icing or even the lettering on the icing of the cake. It's like, yes, that's the sexy thing, right? The sexy thing is like, what's the cool thing I can take? What's the stack? What's it doing? But it's like, yeah, if you're not getting adequate restful sleep, if you're not hitting these marks, if we're not doing those pieces, it you're not optimizing and say what's it really doing, right? And is it sustainable too? That's like the other thing. And even someone that came and asked a question, they got their labs done. I thought this was an interesting one, just to give some like not their personal information, but from numbers, like where their testosterone was at versus like, oh, should I pay attention to cloud? They didn't even know what to look at, they didn't even know what to ask their doctor, and their doctor was just kind of somewhat brushing things off, too. So I wanted to a maybe start with the inquiry of like sourcing peptides, and that's as a strategy, and then even figuring out where that comes into play and going through that foundational stack of like even maybe it's more so backtracking to like when you order labs, what are you looking at? If that makes sense, and like what becomes a priority? Because that was impactful when we first did that, started reviewing it. It was impactful and helpful to see even like supplementation and nutrition-wise, what can I focus on food to help me get certain micronutrients and the value from that and how it serves.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Right. Yeah, absolutely. You know, and that's where that all comes in. So for me, it's always about, you know, I ask a lot of questions on the console, like I did with you. Um, and that's that whole medical decision making, that's the whole medical history. It's like, you know, I learned out of medical school. It's like 99% of the time you're gonna get the answer from the history, not the you know, not the physical exam, not the blood work, but the a smart clinician can figure it out by asking the right questions, as opposed to, yo, bro, what's your stack? You know, here's what's the cookie-cutter protocol. Let's just give you this and get you going. Like, no, it just doesn't work that way. So um, you ask the right questions, you can figure out the right tool for the job, you know. Um, so the questions are everything, and your symptoms are everything. Even when it comes to like testosterone hormone optimization, everybody wants to know their blood work, their way, you know, the guys are like, What's my level? What's my level? It's like that's really not the most important thing. That's actually lower down on the total pool. I there's a whole bunch of questions I ask and other symptoms, and look then to your point, looking at what else are you doing? Look at it, you look at your stress, whether supplements are you taking, whether medications are you take, prescription medications, there's interactions, um, you know, all these other things. So it's really more important about how you feel. Again, it comes down to the patient, you know, and the in the in my client. You know, what are they feeling? What kinds are they having signs of symptoms of a of a benefit from a hormone or peptide? Are they having side effects or are they having something adverse happen that I need to address? Then I quote I bring in the lab work and I will order the blood work based on what they're coming to me for, what and based on their symptoms, right? If they're coming to me for fatigue and lack of energy versus weight gain versus lack of sex drive or some combination thereof, that's could be a multitude of tests, right? I have to, again, most of them I'm gonna figure out from asking my questions, but I tailor the lab work to their symptoms and what we're trying to accomplish. As you know, like one of the first things I ask you, what are your goals? What do you really want to accomplish? Then I'll go down my list, and then you find the right tools for the job and the right tests to do. It's not just a shotgun approach of testing everything and throwing everything out, and that doesn't work. Um, you know, you know, can you do that? Yeah, but that's still it's dumb and you're gonna waste a lot of money. So you want to do it smart and you want to be official, and I want to be mindful of my pay, you know, mindful. I'm not gonna try to spend you know my patients' money. I'd rather I always start with like the free stuff, right? I always like, look, you know, meditation and sleep and circadian rhythms, it's free, you know, right? Then we'll worry about eating and working out, and then we'll slowly layer in like maybe some inexpensive supplements, and then if we need to do some hormones, then we'll save the peptides for last because they're typically the most expensive. Um, so anyway, so blood work does come in for absolutely. Um, not only in the initially, but as we're following them along because we don't monitor for any side effects or any adverse reactions, and there's a lot of things, and you know, peptides and hormones and medications that can affect a lot of things in your body. So you have to look for those things, and some of them can be potentially dangerous. Um, so you have to watch for that, you know. Um, you know, peptides, you know, to your point, like I only get mine from certified pharmacies. I know they're pharmacy grade because they do a whole another level of testing and certification and batch testing, lot testing, etc. etc., that a lot of these online places do. Most of what most of what you see is like from research grade peptides, like the whoever that was that made that comment, like from China. And yeah, a lot of people, even pharmacies, may get some stuff from China, right? But then they do the testing and they all the certification, etc. One of my peptide colleagues, one of the gurus in the space, and we presented at a lecture this is years ago, and he put and he put some data on the screen, and it was all you know, verifiable data from you know, reputable journals, etc. And it was kind of showing like, here's all the different places that sell the peptides, and how many of them were either not pure uh or had other contaminants in them, or who knows what the hell they had in them. And every one of them is gonna say, Oh, we test them, and you know, we do our own research, we do our own testing. Of course, they're gonna say that, but do they? And number two, you there's a list of questions you ask, and most of them won't want to answer them, you know, when you ask them, you know. So, and like, yeah, even if it's 95% pure or 99%, what's in that other five percent? I I don't if I'm gonna put something in my body, I want to be 100% pure and tested, certified the whole kit in caboodle. That's just the bottom line. Are there a couple or there are a few, you know, quote unquote research peptide places that are okay, maybe? Um, there's a couple that I know that in a pinch might work, but again, as a physician, especially my license a lot, I'm only using pharmaceutical grade, and most patients I think should be too. Um, can you get it cheap online? Yeah, but you kind of get what you're paying for, right? Kind of like hiring a doctor, hiring a coach like you, you know, could you figure it out on yourself? You're do you want to pay the money to do it right? You know, so you know, again, when it comes to your health, man, it's you know, money is the last thing. I mean, I I may it's it's a concern, but you know, to me, health is wealth. And if I'm gonna take care of my body, I want to be around for a very long time, my family be around, I'm gonna spend the money to do it right. So, and I think everybody else should be too.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Yeah, and I think that's an important part. To your point is the investment because uh one of the things that comes up in the health space and in the medically integrated space is like, okay, yeah, maybe it's a higher cost, the perceived value, but like what's actually more costly 10, 20, 30, 40 years down the line from now? What if you have a heart attack? Okay, that's an extreme example, or what if you have some other type of related comorbidity event or some type of issue that comes up that's way higher cost in a multitude of arenas that people don't think about. Like, I even think about the analogy I give is in fighting, and I always thought it won't be me as far as injuries, like maybe it's injured fighting, by the way. There's like zero percent from my understanding and data, I don't like to speak in absolutes, but like from what I've seen, zero percent of people get out of fighting without some kind of injury somewhere along the path of you're doing it as a profession. It's just what degree, what severity, and how do you handle it? And I just thought it wasn't gonna be me. And the point of saying all that in the comparison I draw is like, okay, if you're rolling the dice with what you're putting into your body, food, supplementation, peptides, hormones, whatever the thing is, at some point you're probably going to pay a tax. Again, I can't speak in absolutes. I'll stay within my scope and you know, the arenas around that, but I think that's an impactful piece. Even I had a conversation with actually a supplement company the other day as a sidestep of like they were very adamant actually about like, hey, we'll provide you a certificate of analysis, we'll provide you for each individual canister that we're going to send you a proof of how much was in it, where it came from, good manufacturing practices. Now, again, supplements and peptides, obviously, I'm not saying the same thing, but to your point, what jumps out to me is the quality and the process you can go through and having it on the line and not just claiming it on a piece of paper, but being able to show it. And I guess the other piece that jumped out to me too, and that's why I was really excited to have you be a part of not only the ability to reference because I've referenced my own clients to you just in in my network because I trust you and because they also trust me and they have great experiences when I talk to them after the fact, and even and I follow up with them, even when I'm not worrying them anymore, they have positive things to say because of that dynamic, and that's why I think it's so important. And that was why I was actually excited to transition and share with people like the other part of what I like celebrating this time of year, because it's gonna be 15 years. I've ran the business of LOF. And again, we started as a fight company. Thank you, by the way. We started as a fight company, and now we're transforming years later, almost two decades later, being a kind of medically informed health coaching and wellness company and having someone like you bring that insight. So the cool thing is people can come in, and and what we've added to the mix is being able to, depending on the route, we can have some insurance supported services, obviously, with oversight, with you being able to oversee that. And also the other piece we offer, even for our clients that are paying in their cash programs and their coaching, they can have access to you. That's the thing that we can refer out to and source and bring you in. And that's something I get really excited about. Not just yes, we can to your point do peptides, we do labs, we can do hormones, but like being able to share your experience, being able to share your expertise. And that's something that I've I figured would be a great opportunity to share with everyone. So, because like you'll have some of the behind-the-scenes stuff that I refer to, or I'll like check in with you. But I appreciate anytime we get to put you in front, and you also have great content for everyone. Check out obviously Dr. Eric's like content, and I have it below, and we'll put it in the comments for Primex as well. But I I guess to bring this full circle, since the last time we chatted or put things out like publicly, it was kind of like looking at some of the baseline peptides and hormones and looking at things. But I wonder if there's any new insight that you've gained or just solidified when it comes to the foundational stuff, the sleep, the stress management, the you know, how we move our bodies, how we're putting food into our system. What if anything might be impactful to focus on from that arena too?

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yeah, I think number one is like the individuality of everybody's different, you know, there's no cookie cut approach. Everybody is different, even like you know, people get really uh passionate about their diets, right? You know, it's keto, it's high carb, it's low carb, it's pale, you know, whatever it's like, you know, there's no one, you know, everything everybody has to find their own way. And sometimes there's just trial and error, and you have to figure it out. So there's the same with training, same with supplementation. Some things are like on paper, like this works for everybody. It's like there's always an exception, right? You know, yeah. So you have to be mindful of that. And yeah, the foundational stuff is true. You know, like I said, I'm big on like sleep, stress, nutrition. One of the things I've in the last I don't know a year and a half or so, I really like learned, you know, learned more about it and incorporated is more um kind of like the the blending of the old and new, like getting back to truly. I've always been about nature, but really blending nature and circadian rhythms that play such a big part. Now, of course, in the last I don't know year, we've seen more and more people talking about, you know, everybody talks about you know wearing their blue blockers or getting out in the sun. It's it's become a little bit more uh mainstream, but you know, for you know a long time it really wasn't. People are like, oh, that's a bunch of woo-woo stuff, you know, grounding and looking at the sun and all this stuff. They're like, that's that's hogwash. And it's like, well, now there's a lot of, I mean, there's actually been a lot of scientific data and studies backing a lot of this stuff up. So I'm really big on like, you know, nowadays, I think I told you this before, it's like I hate the fact that we're always like inside on our phones in front of computers. We're never outside in the woods, talking to people face to face. We're, you know, tech is great, but it's it's taking away our humanity, taking away from where we've been for millions of years as human beings, right? Being outside, um, socializing, talking, touching each other, um, playing in the in plants and the soil and nature, you know what I mean? So I'm really big on trying to get outside as much as you can, get out in the first thing in the morning and looking at the sun, get that circum rhythm alignment, get your cortisol optimized, your melatonin starting to make it starts starts in the morning, not in the evening, you know, getting everything aligned and same thing in the night, you know, getting off the DM devices and wearing, you know, red light mode. And then when it comes to you know, speaking of peptides, it's like there's actually, you know, one of my colleagues did a nice presentation on this, and uh, I've been kind of using it a little bit too, is like kind of like you know, working out, it's like you can actually kind of follow the not just the circating patterns, but the seasonal patterns with certain peptides, you know, dietary strategies too, you know, in the spring and summer, right? What's happening outside? Everything's growing, right? Everything's your plants are coming up, your buddy's growing uh food. Maybe we should be too, right? Maybe that's the time, that's the time to worry about you know, putting bulking up, you know, putting on some muscle, taking certain peptides to augment you know, regeneration and muscle growth. And then in the winter, it's kind of the fall winter, it's the opposite where everybody's kind of slumbering, the animals are hibernating, the plants are dying. So the same thing. We should be resting, we should be changing our diet a little bit to focus on that, switching out our peptide stack or different things to kind of foster rejuvenation, just like nature, right? I mean, it makes sense. You know, nature's kind of smart, you know, it's been around for millions of years. So let's follow those patterns. So uh a lot of people getting some pretty cool results with that. So that's kind of a new thing I've been incorporating a little bit. Not that you know, some people want to do it, some people don't. That's totally fine. And there's some stuff that's foundational, right? Like when a woman's in menopause, a guy, you know, andropause, you know, they're gonna be on hormone therapy pretty much all year round. You can't really rotate that, nor should you there's really no need to. Um, but peptides, dietary strategies, workout strategies, I think they can be cycled in and out throughout the year, and depending on where you are um in the year and where you are in your in your stage of life. So there's a some more advanced strategies, but those are some kind of cool things that a lot of people don't talk about too much.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Yeah, no, I want to highlight that and pause and just like reiterate that because that's awesome. It's what's like interesting about I talked to my fiance Carrie about this, who she's got like an interesting background where she started in the more medical route, was going the nursing path, and then eventually, potentially maybe being like a um NP or something like that. Ended up leaving that pursuit and ended going more like actually got into jujitsu and then discovered yoga and Arivedic, if I'm saying it correct. I'm horrible at pronunciation. It's like a different type of like uh health conscious, I guess, uh approach. The point of saying we talk about seasonality. That was like really what was coming up was like seasons, a cycling food, depending on the season, like what foods are in season and Also, how we approach our patterns to your point. And actually, that's the first time I've heard it come up in a conversation. So I really appreciate you saying that because it's been maybe back-end conversations I've heard with Carrie and other things, but not put out. And I really appreciate the idea of like seasonally approaching how to put on muscle or where to conserve and shift our focus, whether it's to expand in life and business and personally, or to conserve, to conserve energy and to like reflect inward and to decide where we're going with this next stage of life and like be able to bloom new opportunities and all those types of things. So I really appreciate that. And to pair that with potential peptides, with nutrition protocols, with training, with hormones, with whatever comes of that supplementation, and then being able to adjust as necessary. That's actually a really cool piece to it. And kind of pairing with that, now that was like another aspect that I appreciate that you mentioned is I was having another conversation. It's like, let's say someone does decide they they already, like, you know what, they've gone down maybe because of a clinic that they were working with, or a path of starting with TRT or an HRT protocol. I think one of the interesting things heard is like, hey, once you start, you're not going to stop, whether it's because of testosterone or anything like that. Again, I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but I'm curious from your experience. Again, just speaking from yours, you don't have to diagnose anyone. And I know there's this is very like depends on the person, but curious for that dynamic, once you're starting with hormones, um, and and altering that, like the subsequent effect, basically the ripple effect. If there is one, I don't want to assume that there is one, but I'm curious from your experience how that tends to look in a general capacity, if that's like for hormones, like is there a downstream effect? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Yeah, it's a great question. Um, you know, yes and no. I think once someone no, I guess uh to your point, like is I always look for you know where they are in life and what's going on. Is there an identifiable cause? Because if someone comes in, they're younger or there's an acute event that can be remedied, like if somebody went had a horrible infection or went through a traumatic event or you know, something that threw off their hormone patterns, you know, and then it could be a temporary thing if that could be overcome and fixed, then maybe they don't even either one don't need it or they could do a short term and come off of it and let their body kind of reboot. Um, that's not super common, but it definitely happens. Um, the most common scenario I see, of course, is someone like you know, the you know, guys are getting into, you know, in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and they're unfortunately with time they're their testosterone dropping. We live in a very toxic world. We're surrounded by so much junk and microplastics and phthalates and you know, uh these endocrine disrupting chemicals. I'm seeing younger and younger people having hormone levels that um you know, of somebody decades older, you know, we're seeing it more and more, unfortunately. So once a guy gets there, and you know, again, is there something we can fix? Is it like is there diet off? Is there sleep and stress and jacked up? I mean, if a guy's like Eve McDonald's not working out, staying up all night playing video games, going and smoking pot all night, well, no wonder his testosterone is ended up. Let's fix all that. And you know, and boom, there we go. Um, that being said, sometimes um they need a little jump start, and then again, maybe we can take them off for a little bit, you know, especially if they're younger. Um, or it might be on the flip side, might be like what in my perspective, like a medical emergency. If I get somebody who's like maybe in his 40s and 50s, and he's he's a you know, we call a complete disaster. His cholesterol lipids are back, his inflammatory markers are high, he's overweight, he's got sleep at his blood pressure's up, and he's like, I'm tired, I can't do anything. He's just a mess. I mean, should he say, Yeah, get out, work out, eat right, you know, get your butt moving? Yeah, but is he gonna do it? Probably not, because he feels terrible. So I'm gonna throw everything at him, put him on hormone therapy, some supplements, give him all the lifestyle. Let's just hit the full court press and let's get him out of that because otherwise he's a he's gonna have a heart attack, he's gonna have something bad happen. Now, at that point, once he starts dropping the weight, feeling better, can we take him off stuff? Maybe, maybe not. But again, most of the time, once a guy's older or a woman goes through menopause, paramenopause, menopause, more than likely they're gonna need it for life because they're just not gonna go back. You know, it's just that's biology, that's just how we are. Um, you know, once we get to a certain point, you know, if you got a guy and he's uh balls the wall doing everything right, you know, to a T, which not too many people do, can you maintain your testosterone levels where they need to be to feel great? You can, but it takes a lot of work and dedication. Even then, he still might not get it, depending on his work environment, what he's doing, all the other factors we're talking about, it can be very difficult. So, you know, if you know if a guy's like in his you know 50s and 60s, can he maintain it? Maybe, but uh you know, odds are pretty highly stacked against him. And once once he's low, he's gonna need hormone support because he's his body's just kind of like, I'm tapped out, right? It's like it's you know, you know, biologically, you know, our human, you know, we weren't designed to to go this far, right? You know, we're you know, we you know for thousands of years, you know, we're you know, you know, we're tapping out in the you know 30s and 40s, right? So now we're living obviously much, much longer. So, you know, so the point is like, you know, are we messing with nature? Do we need to do this? Well, the point, you know, we all want to live longer. And if we're doing it safely and we're improving our health parameters, there's no harm in that. It's not like it's cheating, we're just giving our body what it needs. You know, we should, you know, if we're gonna live longer, we should should live better and give our give ourselves the hormones and the nutrient support that it takes to thrive and to be a good person to and to to give back, you know, why not? It's not harming anything, it's just putting back what we've lost and what we've had in our bodies our whole life. So there's no harm in that, especially if it's done with uh bioidentic hormones, not synthetic drugs, not synthetic hormones, but true bioidentical hormones. We're just giving our body back what it's had its whole life. There's no harm in that. So um, you know, can you go off it? Yeah, but say you're you know 50, you know, and your levels are like a two out of 10, right? And you feel terrible, and then we augment it, and then if we stop it in the 60s, yeah, he's just gonna drop down to where you would have been at 60 anyway. And there's no harm, no foul, but he's gonna lose all the benefits. Right. Um, you know, heart protection, bone protection, Alzheimer's protection, you know, you're gonna live longer, less mortality. So there's so many benefits besides the obvious, you know, a lot of people do it just because they want to look better, improve their sex life. But the health benefits, the main reason I do it. You're gonna reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, uh, metabolic syndrome, diabetes. I mean, you can fix that, cure a lot of that stuff with proper hormone optimization and lifestyle medicine. Um, so why would you want to give that up? You know, so uh to your point, can you come off it and switch it out? Yeah, but there's no harm in maintaining it. You know, you're only gonna benefit from it, especially as you get later older in life.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Yeah, I think that's really I appreciate that context. And the thing that jumped out to me is like longevity and quality of life. Yeah, from that is like how that leads into it and being able to see, hey, yeah, pending again to your point, like circumstance, right? Each individual, each circumstance, what are we adjusting? I found very uh impactful from the suggestions that you and the insight that we got from like cleaning up my nutrition, not being up till two in the morning. Surprise, surprise, getting more sleep, and you know, maybe not consuming THC all the time, and like when I say all the time, like I was using it consistently in the evening time as an unwind tool. But how is it affecting my sleep? Also affecting my eating habits, my body composition because of it, and doing some of those things, I see a drastic effect. And one of the things I actually wanted to share and get your thoughts on as a complete side note is we actually took all the TVs out of our house. Like literally this week, I made that decision. Obviously, I still have my computer and I have my phone, but we took the TVs out of the house. Now we moved to a nice, like, luxury apartment complex. We have a clubhouse and they have TVs there. So if we want to have a movie night, we want to do something, we can do that and we can go out to the movies. But we're experimenting over the summer for all of our girls to not have TVs, and they will, our three older ones are gonna go to their co-parents, like our significant others, like um house. So they'll still have exposure to TV and things like that. But our youngest, our one-year-old that Carrie and I have together, she's she's literally never seen a T, she's never watched TV before. So our goal is for her to go her whole life without having like home exposure, like she's gonna go out and have screens and all of that, but it'll be a fun opportunity, and I'm really looking forward to that over the at least the summer. We're gonna give it 90 days and see how everyone does, even myself. Like, I can tell you, I literally haven't stayed up past 11 o'clock since not having a TV in the like living room setup, and it's been already massive.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

I think that's great that you're doing. I think I wish more people would do that. Same with the phones and computers. I think it's great. If you have the discipline to like turn it off after a certain time, you know, great, but most people don't. I mean, I mean, I'm guilty of it too. Something my wife and I at the end of the night we'll sit down and watch something on on uh you know uh Netflix or something or whatever for 45 minutes or something, but and then we'll go, but then I then I go upstairs and I and I'm wearing my blue blockers and I go upstairs and I have my red light and I read and I you know meditate, pray, whatever, the last half hour before we go to bed. So I do have my wine down, uh, but ideally I shouldn't even be watching it at all. So I think it's great that you do that, especially with kids. Like I said, I hate the fact that most kids they're always on their phone, always on their devices. I mean, I hate you know that that's probably the I mean they have their their benefits, of course, but I think like to your point, like most kids and parents don't have that discipline to do it, and once they're on it, they're on it. It's hard, you know. And so I think kudos to you. I think that's a brilliant idea. I think that's fantastic for your especially for your little ones.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

Yeah, and I'm I'm again, I'm not attached. I'll also what I've entertained is because I still have a smartphone, I have an iPhone. I'm the goal is after 90 days, I'm gonna take it in blocks. I've learned to instead of there's also this ADHD oriented part of my brain, or we can call it that, whatever we want to. Like, I guess I don't have to like diagnose it. But that part of my brain wants to go all or nothing. So I'm like, I'm gonna get rid of all of our smart tech. I'm gonna like completely not do any remote coaching anymore. I'm only gonna do in person, which I'm not gonna do on this all overnight, but I am swapping out my smartphone for a flip phone, like uh like I'm gonna make phone calls. You I can still do T9 texting. Do you remember that? Like the yeah, yeah, like you have to type in the number three times to hit the letter or whatever it is, and then I'll keep my smartphone to connect to Wi-Fi if I need to do like live streams or whatever. But that's it. So it's gonna be three months from now. We're gonna keep the TVs out, then we're gonna downgrade to a flip phone, mostly because to your point, I respect, I think it's really impressive to have the discipline to watch TV for 45 minutes or a period of time and then cut it off. Some days I can do that, but I've noticed a lot of the times I'm like, I would go through these like cycles, these dopamine cycles of where I pair it. I also have a strong association to like downtime with TV and then sugary foods. So I'm like hitting dopamine, especially late at night, that doesn't really serve. And then I found even already, like I'm playing guitar more, I'm reading the Bible and like journaling, and I'm not telling anyone they need to do any of these things, but I found it really impactful for me because I'm even re-establishing my own relationship. I'm like, yeah, I haven't read the Bible in like 20 years, so like I want to re-establish that relationship, see what comes of that, and reconnect to my own spirituality in that sense.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Yeah, that's part of my morning routine too. I'll journal and I'll read the Bible for you know 15 minutes, 20 minutes in the morning. I'll meditate, I'll do my morning routine, I'll I'll you know, I'll read, I'll journal, I'll read the Bible, you know, I'll do my uh a little bit of gentle movement, then I'll go for a walk, and then I'll do I have this whole kind of morning routine, but to your point, yeah, I think that's huge, especially in the morning to kind of you know not turn that phone on. You hear that all the time. You shouldn't turn your phone on in the first you know, hour of your day. Don't you know, same thing at the end of the day, you know, and I and I was reading in a book, um oh what's the name of it? Uh I'm totally blanking. I just got another book, but anyway, it's all about uh you know the compiler, Ikigai, about compile accomplishing Japanese, yeah, Japanese wisdom, you know, Kaizen, Ikigai, and all these habits, and they have a ton of great little tips in there. And um, you know, it's kind of like the pomodoro technique. It's kind of like if you do are gonna scroll or do something, put a timer on, you know, five minutes, you know, or what or something if you can't do it yourself, because you will, you'll get sucked down that hole and just do it, give yourself two minutes or whatever, one minute, whatever you want to do. Same with the TV, like okay, I'm gonna set the timer if you can't discipline yourself because otherwise you'll get sucked down that hole, you know. And then, you know, with your habits, like you said, I think once you just as with everything, once you do it, you link it to something positive, right? Like when I come down the mower, I'm gonna get my glass of water, whatever, to hydrate. And as soon as I do that, I'm gonna read the Bible, or as soon as I brush my teeth, I'm gonna practice this, or I'm gonna go say some gratitude, you know, link them together. Uh, and then after you do it for a while, it gets it's it is true. What does I say? You know, there's different things. Some people say 30 days, some people say 20 days, some people say 60 days to establish a new habit or whatever, but uh it's different for everybody, I think. But once you do it, then when you not do it, you feel weird, you know, because like I'll have days where I will like I'm running behind, I don't read my Bible or I don't meditate on it. I'm like, I feel weird. I'm like something's off, you know. I I hate that, you know. So it gets easier the the longer you do it, I think.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Yeah, and that's I really appreciate that point of it. So I've like in in even like um repurposing like even the books that we have, I have behind me, and like I know I've sent you like the some of the drafts on the new version of it, like going from the 28-day reset to our 100-day protocol, and like the reason we landed even on a hundred day was like I saw a variety of different things looking at like meta-analysis around like habits and transformation, and like it seemed to be on average was like 66, 67 days or 60 days. That's assuming it could be as little as three weeks, it could be as long as like 180 days. I saw in some of these, but like averaging it like ish two months can be an impactful part. The point of saying that is it could take time for a habit and establishing it, but once you have it, and the way I'm curious how this feels for you, or distinguishing between routine and habit, because that's a question I get a lot in more of the health coaching arena. When I even work with like ADHD-oriented um coaching contracts that I have is like neurodivergent brain chemistry, is like what's the difference between a routine and a habit? And the way I think of it is routine is something we have to put bandwidth to. Like you have to intentionally think about, and habit is something it's like almost unconscious. Like, I make coffee in the morning and I walk now. We walk to our clubhouse. That's like a it's a way to get outside. They have a nice coffee maker, so I like to get all the kids together. We go over, we we go by the gym. So that's like a habit that I don't have to think about. And to your point, I feel a difference if I don't do it. And the routine right now, I'll be honest, is like my playing the guitar, reading the Bible, the journal and the planner. Actually, that's a habit. But I've added in the Bible part and playing a guitar in the morning, but that's still routine for me. I have to think about it. But eventually the goal is to make it a habit. And I'm curious, I don't know, from your experience, even like it's kind of nuanced, maybe thinking the difference between routine and habit, but I think that's kind of a fun way to like separate them.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

Yeah, and that's I think that's very insightful. I've actually never thought about that, but you're right. There's a slight difference. But I think to your point, you're after a while, your routines become your habits, you know. If you do them enough, you know, if you're they're pre-concepted, if it's like, you know, compared to like I'm gonna live three days a week, that's a routine. But it does it kind of become a habit, maybe, but you do have to think about it, right? So you got to say, okay, I'm gonna go work out. But the other stuff, like you said, making coffee, brushing your teeth, you know, praying, you know, doing that just becomes a habit, like you said, you know, and sometimes you do still have to think about it. But I've gotten that point, like I have a I call my morning routine, but it's almost a habit now because I do this almost the same thing every morning. So it's like I just like I like you said, like, make cause that you're on autopilot. I could like close my eyes, just I'm gonna go to this room and I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna go to this room and do that, and I'm gonna go outside, and you know, it's just like boom, you know, it's like almost like you're sleepwalking. But uh that's a good thing, that's what you want. You because it, you know, the less you think, it takes that that that brain power, right? You know, kind of like you know, everybody talked about like you know, fatigue, decision fatigue, they call it, right? You know, it's like Steve Jobs always wore the black turtleneck, right? It's just one less thing to think about, you know, eating the same thing every day, doing the same work, whatever it is. You know, it's like we have enough to think about. Let's let's take out the routine stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

Yeah, the a word that jumps out to me is bandwidth. I think about like because people will say, Hey, I don't have time. It's like I don't know if it's the time thing, I think it's a bandwidth thing. I think it's energetic and a combination. Yes, it can be time too. I don't think that's always not true, but I a lot of times feel like it's a bandwidth to your point. And I was going through the CEU and like there was a a dietitian that was presenting on this topic about on average from the study they had reviewed and presented on was the average American had made about 200 nutrition choices a day in this study. And at first that number blew my mind, it still kind of does. But I'm like, if you think about it, just think about your coffee in the morning. If you're gonna make coffee, what kind of coffee are you gonna have? Are you gonna have a black? Are you gonna have cream? Are you gonna have sugar? How much sugar? Like, right, you could probably have 10 choices just around your coffee, right? I'm thinking about your hydration. And so the point is like, yeah, managing the bandwidth fatigue and being able to lower that so you can have more, and then I go to like impulse control, and like when you get more sleep, from what I've seen and my own experiences, when I'm well rested, I have the capacity, at least I feel the bandwidth, to have more impulse control, to have more decision, uh discipline around certain things that shows over time.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

So, yeah, I think you know, going back to my, you know, that's that's that's a great point, and again, very insightful on your part um to to recognize that. And I love that bandwidth part. I'm gonna start using that. So um, because it's true, you know, I think you're right. Everybody has time, but the bandwidth, you know. So um, you know, kind of going back to my thing about nature and the old. I love reading the old stuff, and like I'm a big I love to read like stoic philosophy. I'm big on that, and like uh some of the Oriental, I've always like enjoyed martial arts, and I like reading like like Geekigai and Kaizen and all these different things, but I love the Stoics and I love reading about ancient ancient history because there's they were so smart back, even like read Ben Franklin, you know, any the back in this the the Greeks and the Romans, even our in our revolutionary war times. I mean, look at their writing, how they wrote and they communicated. They were so eloquent and they were so incredibly intelligent in how they wrote compared to like today, where it's like uh TBH, you know, we can't even talk could a whole sense. It's like texting, you know, it's like we lost a lot of that, despite how advanced we are. I think we've gone backwards in terms of how we think. So sometimes I think it's important to kind of just build that bandwidth to your point and to slow down, get outside, get in nature. You know, like you said about the TV, I like to like have on a Sunday just be, you know, that's my day in the woods. I go hike in the woods for an hour, just get out in nature and try not to be on my device or do any kind of work at all, as much as pot try to just read, you know, not do anything electronic, you know, take that break once a week, um, and really get back to nature. And I think you know, people talk about meditation or just sitting in quiet. That's something, and even like um if you don't get into that kind of stuff a lot, you know, from a business financial perspective, a lot of the smart, you know, businessmen and COs, all these people talk about that, you know, just spending an like an hour or even a whole day of just in quiet and just thinking. We've lost that art. And then it come down to when you get that, you get awareness. So I've been trying to actually spend more time just sitting in quiet. Like I'm my goal is to get up to an hour just sitting and just meditate, not even meditate, just sit there and just sit and just let my brain reconnect. And just everybody who does that says it's life-changing that how you learn to think and be aware and the thoughts and connecting with nature and yourself and becoming becoming aware of your own body and your thoughts. I mean, like what you said about um how you how you notice when you're well rested. I've noticed that too. Like, if I'm if I'm tired and get enough sleep, I know like the next day I'm kind of snippy, you know, and um things piss me off that they shouldn't. And a lot of times in the past, I would just it just kept going, but now I'm aware that I'm like, oh, I just said that I don't normally talk like that. Like it's probably because of this. And I'm so I'm you know, over time become more aware of things. Um, and that's how you get that's how you improve. That's how you better yourself and you better the people around you by becoming aware and becoming more self self-aware, you know, and we've lost that art, and I think it's something we can all do, and that'll help us on many levels physically, mentally, emotionally, and as a person.

SPEAKER_01 41:59

Yeah, there's so much to take away from that. Like the thing I actually interestingly that you mentioned, even with like stoicism or or with stoic philosophy and some of those kind of um principles. I I got into watching there's a great YouTube channel by Ryan Holiday, or I think it's great, and he kind of like dives into stoic philosophy and he has a book on well, I guess it's a planner, and there's also a book, and it's basically like daily stoic daily stoic, yeah. It's great.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

I have it, yes.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

And I actually had that's why so I pair that with I'll do like Bible, I have my planner. I actually made my own planner, I'm experimenting with it's not like totally dialed in yet, but it's basically like, all right, what are the three things I'm gonna accomplish today? Like, I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm telling you guys out there for those of you watching, if you have three very clear, intentional, action-oriented items, and you can hit those marks, it will compound over time. And I take it in 100-day blocks. And the cool part I've learned to like tweak, I actually pulled from another uh kind of planner was gamifying it by assigning points to tasks, and not everyone needs to do this, but I just find I like it from the competitive and sports side of my brain. So the goal is to get 21 points a day, and there's a certain amount of points assigned to different tasks, and like so there's three main tasks, they're worth four points each. Then it's like scheduled items and like self-care stuff. And if you add it up, you can maybe get 32 points in a day. If you do everything perfect, no one's gonna be perfect, and not all the time, at least.

SPEAKER_02 43:17

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

So I like that the idea is like, cool, if you get 21 points and you do that seven days a week, the goal is to get 141 points in a week. You had an outstanding week. And I was like, what if I had an outstanding week every week for a year? What would happen? I did that over the last year and I've seen massive impact. Now I'm like, okay, the goal is to have an outstanding week every week forever, as long as I can. But I'm saying that I pair that with the daily stoic journal prompts, and I really enjoy the AM and PM reflections and the weekly themes of like, I think this week where I'm at, I kind of started it not according to their calendar. So he's like, You're supposed to start at January 1st and they have prompts each day and week. I started in my own calendar, so I changed the dates. But like this week's like no haters, or like you know, the idea of haters and what to do with that, not allocate bandwidth to it. And again, freeing up bands. So, anyways, that's a bit of a rant, but I just like really get excited to see that piece because this is what I think is so interesting. Like, notice what we're talking about. Like, and again, you are a like an elite level, like professional and healthcare and physician, and maybe you won't say this. I'll say this for you because my experience of you and what I know you do and what you're capable of. And yeah, we could talk about all the nuanced details of peptides, and that's great. We could talk about all the nuanced aspects of hormones and receptors and uptake, and that's great too. But look at some of the foundational stuff we're really talking about, and what is consistent there. So I'm almost like tempted to like pause it there because a we could keep going. I don't not that I don't want to, but B, I'd love to A, we'll have to have you come back on and the idea of the the idea of this is what leads to transformation. And I I just want to also be respectful of your time too.

SPEAKER_00 44:49

No, I appreciate that. And to your point, I I read the Daily Stoke every day too. That's on my nightstand. So I have a I have like a couple books where you just read one page a day. And it's like it was like in that book EQ guy, it's like a little bit of changes, and like Robin Sharma is another author I really like. It's like little things done day add up to big things, so everybody's like, Oh, I can't. Do all just read one page of a book a day, do meditate for one minute, you know, walk for one, you know, exercise for five minutes, you know, whatever, and then slowly you build it up over time to your like you said, three things, or just start with one thing I want to do today, just start small. And and people are probably like, Yeah, I want the this, like you said, the peptide, this and that's great. And that's kind of how we all start. It's like I'm you know, really want people, you know, get into like kind of like working out or training. It's like, let's just get the routine and let's start lifting weights. Okay, now we're gonna work on eating, and then we're gonna work on hormones, and then we're gonna do peptides. And then over time, we all evolve, especially as we get older, we evolve. That's kind of where I'm more on the spiritual mental. How can I evolve my brain, my awareness, my spirituality, connecting with nature? And that's I'm getting more and more into my going to the past, you know, looking at and getting into my spirituality side and trying to meditate more and and learning how I can be a better person, how I can give back and really evolve my thinking. Like, it's like we all start out like, okay, you know, like I'm gonna work on throwing, I just want to throw a jab.

SPEAKER_02 46:03

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

Now I'm gonna do a jab and a cross, you know. And eventually everybody's like, I just want to do this, you know, the roundhouse kick or the spin kick, or but no, start with start here. And how do how do you how do I do all these combinations and how do they move so fast? It's like start small, start with the basics and work your way. Same here. It's like let's let's move more, let's eat better, let's optimize our hormones, let's maybe then we throw in the peptides and then we take it to the next level. We do start, you know, rotating, you know. So it's all about building things up, it's all about the evolution, and it takes time, you know. We're in uh you know, Americans, we all you know, everybody wants things yesterday, right? But we have to slow things down, build it up, and over time, that's how you do it the smart way, to your point. So I think uh it's all about evolution and and transformation, as you said. So everybody's listening is like, yeah, but what about this? And like we can talk about that. And I'm happy to come back and talk about more specifics, but as with everything, again, if you're gonna do it right, slow it down, start with the basics, and build build it up. And it doesn't have to be all at once. You're like, oh my gosh, now you're these guys are telling me I gotta sleep, I gotta do this diet, and I gotta do this routine, and then I gotta do this, and then I gotta, and then I can take these medications. Like we could do it different ways in different patterns, but we'll get there. But it's it's not as daunting as it sounds, it's actually pretty darn easy, you know.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

So yeah, and I I would I what you just said, I think is actually really important that I do want to highlight for everyone from a takeaway. Because I always like to wrap things up with one thing to take away. If there's one thing we can focus on, and it would be literally pick one thing, pick one action-oriented item you can do today. Like one of the things I think, and I'm just gonna pull from what you literally just said, is finding something like focus on the first three to five minutes of whatever the thing is, focus on that first access point. If it's like literally for me, if I'm not gonna use my planner, at least have my planner out somewhere in the morning where I can see it. And I just open it, even if I'm not gonna do it. Or I love what you said, by the way, with especially I'm finding with not having TVs, is like literally sitting in silence can be uncomfortable for me because I'm so conditioned at a certain stage, like dopamine and those stimulations. But like I'm sitting more in silence and being like, Hey, what am I gonna receive? What messages am I gonna get, either from my internal brain or if you want to call connecting to God or whatever thing you want to explore that as? Like, I think there's an interesting path to that. And that doesn't mean start with an hour of sitting in silence. Maybe you sit in one minute without looking at your phone to your point. So that's the one invite actionably that I would put for everyone is pick any arena, whether it's your exercise, whether it's nutrition, if it's your sleep, if it's pick it and start with one minute and then stack from there. But I also am curious what if any insight you would invite because I'm literally just pulling what you just said. So that's literally robbing your actionable item.

SPEAKER_00 48:39

But yeah, no, I I love that one. You know, start small, you know, chunk it down, keep it simple. You know, it's like I want to do all these things, like, well, I don't have to do all these detailed planning, like, you know, after every meal, take a 10-minute walk, you know, 15-minute walk, you know, one thing, you know, get up 15 minutes earlier. For the people that are on, like asking, they're curious about peptides, you're curious about death. It's like, are you really curious about that? Or is it because you heard of something? So I want everybody to do is get up just 15 minutes earlier and spend a little time just thinking, what do I want? Just what do I want in my life? Do I really want that peptide? Do I really want that horn? Do I really want that diet? Because why? Why do I want that? Oh, well, I guess I just heard about, or is it something like I want to get in shape, I want to lose weight. Well, why? Well, oh, I got that wedding coming up in six months. I want to get whatever, I want to be around for my kids and really spend time with yourself. Just 15 minutes. Think, really think about what you want, what are your goals and why do you want that? Because this is with everything, it's the why that's important. And you may think that you know what, I don't want that cool new injectable peptide. I want this, or I do want it, but here's why I want it, and now I'm gonna go down this road. So, really think about what do you really want and why. So, just get I want everybody to get up 15 minutes earlier today. Always people like, well, I can't eat, I can't work, I can't have time. We all have time. So, what are you doing with that time? You know, Robin Charman in his book, The 5 a.m. Club, he's like, get up an hour earlier, like 5 a.m., right? And you have plenty of time to get your morning routine, but just start with 15 minutes, 15 minutes and write down, just spend some spend 10 10 minutes thinking, and then the last five minutes writing down what do you want and why, and then then come back and on our next call, everybody can type in their questions of what they came up with.

SPEAKER_01 50:14

Yeah, I I I love that. That's totally something I'm gonna invite for everyone as I continuously get questions. Um, and that's a great action. So we'll leave it at that again. Thank you, Dr. Eric, by the way. And also just to like call out how awesome you are and behind the scenes. Like, I even hit Dr. Eric up like an hour before we had the schedule. Like, I think I'm gonna have to like pivot my kid, like chaos with the bedtime routine and all that. Like, I can literally also hear the kids in the other room. So, like my office is right next to the girls' bedroom. Um, our other daughters asleep in the other bedroom, and I can hear them like in there, like getting a little rowdy for like Carrie. So I'm like, all right, I'm gonna go take it. But um, I just wanted to like applaud that. And the but the point of saying that too is like we're parents, we get it. And then, like, meaning it's doesn't have to be perfect. So I I applaud that.

SPEAKER_00 50:58

No, you know, it's kind of like the you know, if everybody's like you gotta you know, roll their eyes again because I keep talking about, but like the stoic philosophy is like things just are, you know, things aren't good or bad, things happen. You know, it's just it's how you interpret it and how you respond to it. Take out your emotions, take out your judgment, like oh, the car just crashed or the kids crying or whatever. Well, it just is, it's not good or bad, it's just how you interpret it, and then what do you do about it? You know, what can you control? What can you not control? You know, worry about the things you can't control, your life will get a lot less stressful. That takes practice, it takes a lot of practice, just me.

SPEAKER_01 51:26

Yeah, yes, but we get to get those reps, right? There's opportunities every day, so there's opportunity every day.

SPEAKER_00 51:32

Yeah, thank you so much for your compliments and your kind words. I appreciate you're always great, you're always a gracious host, and I'm happy to come on anytime. And anybody has questions, then please hit me up. I'm always happy available and answer any questions about anything medically related or anything with anything for that matter. So just let me know.

SPEAKER_01 51:46

Yeah, again, thank you, Dr. Again. Below we have not only Dr. Eric's website you can check out, we're gonna have continuous opportunities integrate in our coaching where you'll be able to consult with him if you want to, and we'll have him back on again. Check out his content and uh have a happy fourth of July, everybody.

SPEAKER_00 52:01

For those of you 250 years, celebrate.

SPEAKER_01 52:03

Yeah, we we I figured this was perfect timing. All right, take care, y'all.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

See everybody.