Master Metabolic Health with Dr. Nick - @thefittestdoc - Episode #222

Unlock the secrets to peak metabolic health and disease prevention with our latest guest, Dr. Nick, aka @thefittestdoc on Instagram. His captivating insights debunk the myths surrounding fad diets and strategically align your carbohydrate intake with your workout regimen for optimum results. Check out his website here! As we chat with Dr. Nick, you'll be equipped with hormone-focused, data-driven approaches tailored to shield your body from the modern lifestyle's detrimental effects. Get ready to take a proactive step towards banishing belly fat, enhancing your metabolic health, and elevating your overall well-being.

In the realm of nutrition and fitness, Dr. Nick emphasizes the pivotal role of protein, particularly for those with an active lifestyle. By making subtle yet impactful dietary tweaks, he guides us on how to feel and perform at our best. This episode isn't merely about listening—it's a call to action for anyone looking to move and live with the vibrancy of an athlete. Join us and discover practical steps to transform yourself into a more health-conscious individual, ready to embrace the challenges of a healthier, active lifestyle with Dr. Nick leading the way.

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Other episodes you might enjoy:
World Strongest Man Mitchell Hooper,  Taylor Learmont (Little "T" Fitness), Bruce Boudreau (Vancouver Canucks), Rhonda Rajsich (Most Decorated US Racquetball player), Zach Bitter (Ultra Marathon Runner), Zion Clark (Netflix docuseries), Jana Webb (Founder of JOGA), Ben Johns (#1 Pickleball Player in the World)

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

How do you optimize things? And that doesn't mean searching for a shortcut, that doesn't mean searching for a hack, because more often than not, people who search for those things find that they wasted their very valuable time.

Speaker 2: 0:19

Episode 222 of the Athletes Podcast. You, folks, just made the best decision of your life. You wanna know why? Because today you get to learn from dr nick, also known as at the fittest doc on instagram. He breaks down peak metabolic health, disease prevention, why fad diets are a thing and how you can be timing your carbohydrates properly so that you're getting the most out of your workouts. Folks, this is the 222nd episode of the Athletes Podcast, today powered by Perfect Sports.

Speaker 2: 0:48

Thank you for tuning in to this episode. If you're just joining us, you're probably not familiar with our athlete agreement. That's because 95 plus percent of you who are watching this aren't even subscribed to the channel. So what we have to do is ask that you hit the subscribe button, whether you're listening on Apple, spotify, youtube, wherever you're consuming the athletes podcast. If you could do me a huge favor, hit that subscribe button, share this with an athlete that you know it will impact. It would mean the world to me and it will fulfill our need for you to complete the athlete agreement. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 1:22

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about Dr Nick. He can help you banish belly fat, increase your metabolic health and create data-centric, customized systems focused on hormones for you. Obviously, this is important and prevalent during this day and age, when so many things in our lives are impacting and that is negatively impacting our bodies. At the end of the day, we're all human beings, we all should be and moving like athletes, so you want to know what helps with that, making sure you get your protein in. I mentioned it at the beginning we're powered by Perfect Sports. This is episode 222 of the Athlete's Podcast, featuring the fittest doc, dr Nick. Here we go.

Speaker 3: 2:01

You're the most decorated racquetball player in US history, world's strongest man, from childhood passion to professional athlete, eight-time Ironman champion. So what was it like making your debut in the NHL? What is your biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes, from underdogs to national champions? This is the Athletes Podcast, where high-performance individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of athletes. Here we go.

Speaker 2: 2:33

Dr Nick to the Athletes Podcast. I appreciate you jumping on here on our mission to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of athletes, and it's only fitting to have the fittest doc from Instagram. Come on and be a part of that journey. So welcome to the show. We're excited to learn a bit more about metabolic health, crumble cookies, crossfit and everything in between.

Speaker 1: 2:54

David, how long have you been following me? The fact that you know about crumble cookies when I haven't posted about that for eight months, that tells me a lot.

Speaker 2: 3:02

We do our research here on the Athletes Podcast. It's a one-team dream here, but we're making it work, sure.

Speaker 1: 3:09

Awesome, Awesome, man. Well, yeah, no, hey, I'm glad to be on. I appreciate you for inviting me on. I did a little bit of research about you guys and the type of people you've interviewed in the past and I think obviously our values align, which is, I think, what's most important in something like this. So, yeah, I'm excited to have the conversation with you and go wherever we take it.

Speaker 2: 3:32

I'm mainly excited for this one because I know your mind is operating as one of an engineer and that permeates through all aspects of your life. That you've called it both logical, systematic, systematic making content online maybe sometimes lacks the nuance and context that you would ideally like to see in person, but hopefully during this conversation, uh, we're going to be able to share some insights, knowledge and wisdom for the next gen athletes and, ultimately, human beings, as to how they should be living healthier, more active lifestyles, instead of reaching for that magic pill or hack that everyone so desperately looks for.

Speaker 1: 4:07

This is why I knew that we'd have a good conversation. Anybody who says what you just said is my type of person. If you ignore the hack, ignore the shortcuts and instead try to find, we should all be looking for the most efficacious path. Obviously, absolutely, because in my this is going to sound morbid, but I've said this on other podcasts I live life imagining that I have a clock above my head ticking down right. Have you ever heard of momentum, maury? Teach me.

Speaker 1: 4:37

Well, it's just basically an outlook on life that every day, if you graph out the average lifespan of the average individual, you can basically I have this chart at home where you can basically kind of cross off every day that you're living and to sit back and reflect on memento mori and what it means.

Speaker 1: 5:02

It basically means that listen, listen.

Speaker 1: 5:03

We don't have time to waste as human beings.

Speaker 1: 5:06

You know, I think, life growing up as a teenager, when you're younger, you feel like, oh, life is just so long and you know you're gonna live forever or whatever other type of nonsense we tell each other, and once you realize that your days are numbered, then you start to.

Speaker 1: 5:21

Once you realize that and you come to terms with it, then the next question is how do you live your days most efficiently? Right, how do you optimize things? And that doesn't mean searching for a shortcut, that doesn't mean searching for a hack, because more often than not, people who search for those things find that they wasted their very valuable time. So instead, you know, I personally encourage and I think I can just tell from your mindset that you agree it's definitely all about finding the most efficient path, the most efficacious path, but that doesn't necessarily involve looking for a shortcut or the magic pill or surgery, or a pill or a shot or anything that will you know in your mind, will hyper accelerate your progress, or a shot or anything that'll you know in your mind will hyper accelerate your progress but unfortunately has more downsides than upsides.

Speaker 2: 6:10

One of the things that I've heard you say on previous podcasts is that our results are the culmination of many different consistent actions, and one of the things that your Instagram handle on its own there is I've heard you describe it it it's not a declaration, as if you're the fittest doc, but it's aspirational. It's in the pursuit of the fittest version of yourself, and that's ultimately what you're trying to do here. I mean, I'm mid late 20s, however you want to describe it, and I'm like I want to be 13 years from now in the same position that you are looking, all jacked up, the fittest, whatever podcaster in the world you know. However, we're going to describe it um how do you kind of shift that ignore the haters.

Speaker 2: 6:51

Give me some insights.

Speaker 1: 6:53

Oh, I, I don't, uh, ignore the haters. I don't have haters. What do you thought you? Just you, just I? I think when you say something like ignore the haters, you're basically giving them a certain, a modicicum or larger, of authority and respect in your viewpoint. I think I've been blessed to live a life where I don't have haters who are ballsy no, what's another word Confident enough to hate in my face. I genuinely don't experience haters. Sure, now, absolutely Whenever I post something on Instagram like what did I post two or three weeks ago?

Speaker 1: 7:31

And there was another, oh, it was something about intermittent fasting, which I'm not over here saying it's a magic pill, but some people find efficacy in it, right. And some other doctor, another MD, came in and he was like show me the research. Blah, blah, blah. And I was like, first of all, I remember tapping into his profile. I was like you don't even follow me. I was like how are you? Like? You're just jumping onto my page to hate. And then I also tapped in his profile and I just, you know, I? I genuinely think this is going to be a little bit contentious and a little bit but, but I genuinely think that you can tell a lot just looking at somebody and evaluating their body habitus Because, as you just stated, right, our results are the summation or the culmination of many different decisions. So somebody can look at me and tell, okay, you know, this person has been consistent and diligent with programming, with a strength and conditioning programming that has worked. And obviously, for it to have worked, he needed to live his life in a certain way from a movement standpoint to a nutrition standpoint, to a recovery standpoint, stress management, the whole picture right. So, by the same token, this gentleman who, this other medical doctor who came on my Instagram, I literally just took one look at his Instagram and I literally said to myself I'm not responding to this, like it's just not worth my time. And what's funny is, david is, and you can still find this comment. I need to leave it. It's still somewhere on my Instagram.

Speaker 1: 8:58

Another medical doctor who follows me I believe her name is Dr Emmy. She responded, she literally gave him like four or five studies and just responded and I was like I literally I did. I responded to her. I was like, hey, listen, props to you for taking the time out to respond to him, because I just took a look at his profile, I was like this is not worth my time. I mean you're, you're an MD in my mind, right?

Speaker 1: 9:21

The, the, the biggest, how do I say this? The biggest waste of knowledge is being a medical doctor who knows everything that you know and you are still not representative of either the pinnacle of human performance or at least the pinnacle of you, right? So the fittest doc, right? I aspire to always become, to not only be the fittest version of myself, but always one-up it, right, and I actually did that last night and we can talk about that later 75 snatch. I saw that med school entails, you know, 18 hour days of study for years on end. You know being, you know just the assault of med school and residency. And you're telling me that you still are not the best version of yourself.

Speaker 1: 10:17

Why am I going to take anything you say with any degree of legitimacy? I'm not even going to entertain it with a modicum of thought. I just think it's a waste of legitimacy. I'm not even going to entertain it with a modicum of thought. I just think it's a waste of time. So this guy, you know, when he responds and hates on my Instagram or he hates on a post, talking crap about intermittent fasting like a part of me is like, dude, like come on, I'm not going to waste my effort with this. Like look at me and look at you and you're going to try and I'm incorrect. Like that doesn't make any sense. Bro, just chill with the ego and just think about this. So yeah, I think that that's.

Speaker 1: 10:48

I love the fact that you said that no shortcuts, no hacks. You know, life should be about finding the most effective path towards your chosen objective and following that path right, which is why, if you think about it, mentors are so highly sought after, because the mere act of seeking and following a mentor's advice is acknowledging that your life is limited and you will either waste time and save money, or you will spend money and save time, and only one of those things is a non-renewable resource. Money is not a non-renewable resource. Your time and the seconds you spend on this earth that is a non-renewable resource. So if you're doing anything in your life where you're not keeping that in mind and acting accordingly, you are, by definition, wasting your time.

Speaker 2: 11:46

Yeah, and it's tough to see people doing that right. I'm sure you see it on a daily basis. You're witnessing people I've heard you talk about it when they check out. You ultimately have to check out because there's only so much bandwidth that you have, absolutely, absolutely. And I know you graduated medical school in 2015. You're fitter now at 40 than you were then, which is back to your point of every single day trying to get a little bit better, to continue to develop, continue to see success. You started as an engineer. You got your full degree or your scholarship that way and that's how you funded school was fitness, health, wellness, always in the back of your mind, and becoming the engineer was just basically the vehicle to get you there.

Speaker 1: 12:50

Okay, I think you asked two questions in there. So, yes, fitness, wellness, health was always in my life, but I didn't necessarily think that engineering was a vehicle to get me there, or med school For me, you know. So my dad I've talked about this in other podcasts too my dad forced me, Dude. I was playing video games and just not wanting to go to the gym with any degree of consistency when I was a teenager, and my dad at like 16, 17, he was like nope, come to the YMCA with me, and he would just force me, and so I kept that up consistently and I did enjoy the YMCA.

Speaker 1: 13:24

The issue with the Y that I have is that anybody who goes to the Y on their own accord usually follows their own programming. So they assume a degree of knowledge that they may not have. They assume that, oh, I can just go to the gym and pick up this dumbbell and start lifting it and I'm going to get bigger and stronger, and that's unfortunately not the case in my experience. So I remember, you know, as a teenager, you you have the gift of uh, of an incredibly anabolic hormonal profile, right, yeah, uh.

Speaker 2: 13:57

And most juice you'll ever have the most, the most.

Speaker 1: 14:01

You're not naturally on steroids. So, yeah, you know, I kept doing that. I remember one day at the YMCA, the Olympics. The Olympics were on and I was watching 130 pound little Chinese women snatch like 200 pounds and I was like dude the best word to describe how I felt befuddled. I was absolutely just flabbergasted. I was like this, the best word to describe how I felt befuddled. I was absolutely just flabbergasted. I was like this doesn't make any sense. How is a little human being like that? I'm bigger than her and I can't snatch 200 pounds, right?

Speaker 1: 14:33

So then that kind of began me trying to explore and learn snatching and clean and jerking by myself, though I remember back then snatching made me very, very, very paranoid. I mean the thought of having a bar over your head and collapsing on your head and breaking your neck. So instead I was trying to learn to do cleans and jerks for myself and then fast forward. You know, I kept going to the Y doing my own thing, with minimal degree of efficacy but, like I said, right, I'm sure because of my, my age and hormonal profile, I was still putting on some masks. But I have. I have pictures. It it's funny, I have pictures and video of me from back then. I have a very um. There's a video I posted on instagram of me at the ymca when I started in, like I literally look like I do now, except there's just, it's just, I have less layers. It's almost like the muscle has just layered on over the years of consistency. Um, but uh, uh anyway.

Speaker 1: 15:30

So then moved into engineering and, um, engineering for me was always a vehicle to med school, so I got a full ride, um, and I knew I was like hell, I really can't do. I can't live up my undergrad years like a lot of students. Do you know? Getting drunk, partying all week or all weekend, rather simply because I wanted to graduate with as high a GPA as possible so that I could get into medical school, given that med schools accept non-traditional students across the board, across the nation. So as an engineer, I would be a non-traditional student. I'm not a pre-med major, right.

Speaker 1: 16:08

So I graduated mechanical engineering from Michigan State University with a bachelor's and my GPA was really high. It was 3.75 to the extent that med schools across the nation were sending me invites and I ended up accepting Ohio State. And you will laugh, one of the reasons I accepted Ohio state, beyond just liking the environment, was the gym. So they have a gym called the RPAC. Dude, I stepped into the RPAC I was like this is amazing, sign me up to this school. So, yeah, yeah For me, for me, you know to answer.

Speaker 1: 16:42

You know, your first question kind of fitness and health was always in the background and, to be honest, I have no one to thank for that but my dad, because I think when you look at the staggering rates of adolescent and pediatric obesity in this country, it's terrifying, it's absolutely terrifying.

Speaker 1: 17:02

More and more kids, more and more of the pediatric population, are becoming overweight and obese and, more importantly, having the manifestation of, you know, many different metabolic diseases at a very young age now, and it's, you know, it's scary.

Speaker 1: 17:19

So I think that I'm very grateful to my dad for forcing me to go to the YMCA and kind of instilling this pattern of understanding that, in as much as we have other priorities in life, all throughout life, I genuinely feel that doing whatever you can to maximize your health and fitness should be an absolute priority, because without those things, without your health, without a degree of your fitness, you will not be able to enjoy the rest of your life.

Speaker 1: 17:54

Think about somebody like Steve Jobs who, if I remember right I'm going off just memory here, but I think he died at 56, right, and he died of pancreatic cancer. But there are many examples of people who have died young or, if not died, had their lives horribly afflicted and then had a high degree of morbidity secondary to not prioritizing the things that should be prioritized. I'm not over here saying you shouldn't have career aspirations, you shouldn't have career aspirations, you shouldn't have family aspirations, you shouldn't prioritize other things in your life, but I genuinely think that the things that should be prioritized most highly are the things that nothing else can be enjoyed without, and health and fitness are one of those things. So, yeah, that's kind of my mindset about it.

Speaker 2: 18:46

It is terrifying seeing the amount of health issues that our society is experiencing, put it that way, and it is things that we could eliminate or at least reduce. For sure, mitchell Pelkey, past guest of the show, referenced the Ohio State gym as well. It's amazing. I definitely need to get a workout in, absolutely. You also mentioned during during the olympics, watching women. Can we just take a minute, a minute, to appreciate women who pay attention and take care of their bodies, and how much more?

Speaker 1: 19:17

attractive they are. Oh, absolutely, no, no, no, I, I could not agree with that more. I think that, um, you know, and I think that that, obviously, as two heterosexual males, we can appreciate that. But I think just people in general, right, who do that, I mean, it's a beautiful thing, you know, women who take care of themselves and work out and lift and actually also resist the programming. Because we have to admit, david, there is some degree of societal programming in our culture.

Speaker 1: 19:54

And, yes, was this more prominent in the 80s and the 90s and the early 2000s?

Speaker 1: 19:58

Yes, I think it's less prominent today, but there's still some degree of it where, like, women are like, or some women, not all women Some women are like oh, I don't want to bulk up, I don't want to put on muscle, and you know.

Speaker 1: 20:09

And then there are other girls who are like nope, forget that, I'm going to do that. And, yeah, I want to most highly consider somebody who takes their health seriously. Right, you want to commit to somebody, you want to be with somebody, you want them to be with you for as long of their life as possible. Why am I going to commit to somebody who does not take her health seriously, right, and quite clearly deprioritizes something that should be a priority. And then you know I can't even speak to how many health issues that would imply that she increases her risk of. She doesn't obviously guarantee, but she absolutely increases her risk of. You know a litany of different issues and you know, personally, as somebody who likes to mitigate my disease risk profile, I think that I don't want to necessarily be with somebody who wants to maximize their disease risk profile.

Speaker 2: 21:14

Yeah, and at the end of the day, just to clarify, you know some of the things that you said you could lift every single day. Ladies, you're not going to look like a bodybuilder. It doesn't happen like that. Uh, and you can, you know, it's just, it's just not going to happen. Live for five years and if you come back bulky, you can trip me about this david, even for us right yeah confidently right, I'm like, I'm not. Yo I'm grinding, I'm not getting both don't worry and.

Speaker 1: 21:42

I'm doing what?

Speaker 2: 21:43

I should be doing right. I'm focusing on my nutrition, I'm working on my movements. My recovery, my stress management needs some work. That was maybe something I wanted to ask you about, because I know that's something that obviously is one of the pillars that you speak to. I suffer maybe a bit more in the chronic stress versus the transient stress, which is obviously the better of the latter. How do you introduce ways to mitigate that? What would be your suggestions for a guy like Steve Jobs, who passed away before the age of 60, probably had a lot of life left him if he had treated it properly? Tips for chronic stress yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:20

Yeah, I think that it's something that I definitely always keep an eye on in myself, always keep an eye on in my clients, my one-on-one clients, and essentially, I think that, when it comes to managing stress, there is a whole lot of unlearning, what you have learned. I have had clients and patients who are literally addicted to exercise, who are literally addicted to exercise and I, you know, this is something that, like you know, I think it's interesting to watch people who are, who are literally addicted to working out and I think, obviously, it speaks to the ability of the human brain to, you know, associate dopamine with any number of our choices throughout our day. And, you know, obviously, you know, display addictive tendencies when it comes to exercise. But I think that when you need to balance, because exercise obviously isn't the only type of stressor right, you have, you know, you have physiological stressors, you have physical stressors, you have mental stressors, and I think that going through your day and being aware of each and every one of those, such that you utilize them to actually modify your schedule, is important. I can't, I can't tell you how many days I will wake up, you know, and I will just kind of observe how I feel, observe. Observe some metrics that I try, like resting heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, body temperature, a number of different metrics, and that is all within the global picture of how recovered I am. So it isn't just about the numbers, it's also about how I feel right and where my mental space is at. But I think that one of the worst things you can do is just hold yourself to a schedule and say every single day, I'm going to absolutely do this and essentially ignore the signals that your body is sending you.

Speaker 1: 24:23

You know, one of the things that I utilize I even utilize it last night in my competition is believer and tracker. This is obviously the engineer in me, but tracker of data. So I have a velocity based training unit that I use with my barbell lifts and I can actually always tell when given that I can always tell where my central nervous system is right Am I in a place where I can either output 100% of my potential as compared to my past metrics, or am I even moving faster than I have ever moved in the past. So I like looking at things like that. That'll even tell me, you know, that'll kind of give me an indicator of how well recovered I am, because the reason why I think that's important is, let's say, hypothetically, I put my velocity-based training unit on and I'm tracking the first couple of warm-up reps of a lift let's say a clean or a depth lift or a snatch.

Speaker 1: 25:28

Let's say a clean or a or a or a deadlift or a snatch and I can tell that the very first warm-up lifts at 95 pounds or 135 pounds, no matter how fast I'm trying to move them, they're not moving as fast as they had, uh, in the past, as they're not moving as fast as I am used to them moving in the past.

Speaker 1: 25:43

Well, if I see that data, first of all, that's objective, right, there's no emotion in there. There's no oh, I feel like I can try a little harder. No, the data is showing you that today you're not moving as quickly as you had in the past. Therefore, that gives you a huge insight, that gives you a huge value proposition and that it enables you to immediately auto-regulate for the day. Right, if, even at your lightest weight, you're not moving the weight as fast as you had in the past, that immediately brings down your standard of reference, that brings down your expectations for the day. And that doesn't mean you can't still lift? You can still lift, but now, hopefully, you know, hopefully you are lifting with a mindset that, hey, I don't want to injure myself.

Speaker 1: 26:33

So, I'm not going to go balls to the wall today. I'm still going to get a good lift in, but I'm going to hold back a little bit. So those are the days where you know that's how. That's one element. That's one degree of how I handle stress. Another degree is, like I said, right, I will just straight up, wake up certain days and say, yep, I'm not going to CrossFit today. Now, does that mean that I can't exercise and I can't work out? Absolutely not. As I tell my clients, I tell my patients on those days, you can absolutely still move.

Speaker 1: 26:59

I genuinely believe movement is medicine. Human beings from an ancestral time, we have always been moving right. I personally believe that a lot of the mental health issues that we suffer as human beings is secondary to a lack of movement and a lack of exercise and a lack of prioritizing the things that we should prioritize, in kind of, in our day-to-day lives. So, going back to what I was saying, I think that even on days when you are not well recovered and you don't want to do something as intense as CrossFit, you can go for a walk, you can get on a stationary bike or, if you have a non-stationary bike, go for a bike in the neighborhood. So there are still exercises, there are still movements that you can get in that essentially have a much smaller probability of injury, a much lower risk of hurting yourself. And I think that you know, listening to the data, listening to your body, listening to how you feel on a day-to-day basis, is important for that.

Speaker 2: 28:06

Okay, all this talk about carbohydrates, proteins, fats, these nutrients, it's making me hungry. So you want to know what I do during my day when I am feeling a little hungry but I don't have the time to make a full meal. I take a scoop of New Zealand whey isolate diesel sports protein powder and I mix in maybe a banana, maybe some oats, some other fruits. It's a good way for me to get 27 grams of the best quality protein on the market mixed up in a flavor that I can take down super fast. And oh, did I mention that? It just is amazing. I can't get enough of this stuff. If you folks haven't tried Perfect Sports Diesel Way Isolate Protein yet, please do so. Use the code AP20 to save 20%. Let me know your favorite flavor down below. Let's get back to the episode featuring Dr Nick.

Speaker 1: 28:53

You also insinuated another question earlier which I think is always important to cover with people, right? How does somebody live a life where they're always pursuing the fittest them, the fittest you, a life where they're always pursuing the fittest them, that you know, the fittest you? And I think that the way to do that is to always keep in mind the answer, the correct answer, to a trick question that I like asking people all the time. So I'll ask somebody at the gym hey, what's the number one priority here? What's the goal You're going into gym? Why are you here? Oh, I want to get stronger. Oh, I want to get a bikini body. Oh, I want to lose weight. No, none of that is a priority.

Speaker 1: 29:28

The priority when you're here, over everything, the number one priority should be to remain injury-free, because only with remaining injury-free can you achieve that beach body, can you get stronger, can you lose weight, can you gain more muscle? You get stronger, can you lose weight, can you gain more muscle, can you gain more confidence. All of these things are dependent upon what Consistency and sustainability. And if you injure yourself all of a sudden, that consistency and sustainability becomes an afterthought because you're not able to go to the gym if you have a hip injury, if you have a back injury, if you have any number of injuries, you're not able to be consistent. And I think the singular thing that you know since 2005 or 2006 that I started lifting consistently actually no, even earlier than that the singular thing that has kept me in a place where, or rather has put me in a place where you know I am objectively not talking about emotion, right, I can run a mile faster than I've. You know I've ever ran. I can snatch more than I've ever snatched and clean and jerk, deadlift back, squat, blah, blah, blah. The single greatest facilitator of that is consistency, is the fact that I've never needed to take two months off, three months off, five months off, six months off to recover from an injury.

Speaker 1: 30:47

And when you keep in mind that that should be your singular target, it becomes a lot easier to regulate your ego, it becomes a lot easier to regulate yourself based off of your day-to-day recovery. Because, hell, even if I wake up today and it's a poor recovery day and I determined that I can't go to CrossFit, that does not mean that if I listen to my body and I listen to the present day reality of the situation, that does not mean that a week from now I will not be able to PR, or a week from now I will not be able to go 100%. So I think people having a and I understand this is a lot harder when you're younger, right, when you're a teenager. I didn't have this mindset when I was a teenager. But you know, if you can, if you can get as early in your life a mindset of focusing on the long term and a mindset of kind of looking down the scope rather and kind of looking far away and planning things, planning things from a long-term standpoint, you will easily get to the place where you know you are, you're, as you grow older, you're just better and better.

Speaker 1: 31:57

And you know, I think I don't know if you're familiar with a lot of CrossFitters, but Ron Ortiz is like, I think, 51 or 52. Dude, if I show you a picture of this guy, he is like you would not look at him and be like that's a 52 year old. He's massive, he just has a whole bunch of muscle. He makes me look small, let's put it that way.

Speaker 1: 32:14

So, yeah, you know, I think that I think a lot of this stuff, man, comes down to mindset and from what I've seen with patients, from what I've seen with clients, a lot of people have a maladaptive, kind of poor mindset that they may be unaware, but it really puts them in a bad position. Because if you have a bad mindset, how the hell are you going to make the right decisions and choose the right actions with any degree of consistency? It's not going to happen, right. You're going to be yo-yoing with your decisions, right? Some days you're going to make a good decision, other days you're going to make bad decisions, and when you extrapolate the summative results of all those decisions, it's just going to be either a flat line or a little bit of a, basically moving towards worsening as opposed to improving.

Speaker 2: 33:08

So, yeah, I appreciate the way you are able to articulate your thoughts. Uh, not many are able to both see the results, go through it and then also articulate it afterwards. Um, you touched on a piece there around the ego. I love that we have younger listeners. Obviously it's difficult when you're 17, 18, you got all that juice flowing through you to not try and PR every time you hit the gym. But as someone who's speaking from experience, it's not worth it to have that injury and to be off for six, eight, 12 weeks.

Speaker 2: 33:38

The other part I love about your approach is like building habits to fit into people's lives and the prevention over your aspect. I guess if there were things that you could suggest again. Obviously this is social media. You don't know who you're speaking to directly. But what should we do be doing from a preventative aspect? Are there specific things from your nutrition diet routine that you typically incorporate across the board with all of your clients that you know, even on a daily basis? If we're adding progressive overload, it's not to the point where it's too stressing. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1: 34:15

Yeah, I would say, you know, as you said, right, I definitely do have a very strong belief that prevention is better than cure. I also have a very strong belief that the human body, from our infancy, just the way we are designed by God if you are spiritual, like I am, or by evolution, if you're not spiritual but the way we are designed we are inherently a system that is able to self repair and prevent a disease within ourselves. However, and as much as I do believe this to be the case, I also believe it to be the case that, uh, we are. There are many things, there are many decisions throughout our lives that, with a hubris of humanity and the hubris of, of, of just kind of being human, sometimes we, we put ourselves in a position where we're literally preventing our body from healing, right? So you're smoking cigarettes, that's, I mean, it's not a good decision, right? This is basically putting yourself in a bad decision. You're always drinking what is literally a toxin, what your body literally has to detoxify, alcohol. So, you know, know, you're always eating processed foods. You're not emphasizing movements. You're not emphasizing some degree of of movement with something you enjoy, right?

Speaker 1: 35:35

Listen, I think that one of the things that a lot of people have against crossfitters is that some crossfitters are like CrossFit is all you can do. I've actually never been of that mindset with my patients, with my clients. I do not encourage CrossFit. What I do encourage is you need to find something you enjoy. I don't care what it is, skiing, snowboarding, parkour, parkour I don't care what it is right. You need to find something that you enjoy and stick to it. So, and too often people don't find, people feel like, oh okay, well, I'm an adult, this isn't recess anymore, I'm not a kid, and all of a sudden, movement is something that bleeds out of their life. They're not consistent with it anymore.

Speaker 1: 36:25

So, going back to what I was saying, though, I think that all too often I mean, think about how many people you know look forward to the weekend for no other reason than to get shit face, for no other reason than to just drink, and it's, it's, it's interesting to me, right? It speaks to something about human behavior and and it you know, human decision making, and personally, it's something that I've never necessarily aligned with, not to say I've never been drunk. I mean, I've asked you know human decision making and personally, it's something that I've never necessarily aligned with Not to say I've never been drunk. I mean, I've asked you know I I could go out tonight and drink, but I don't. I don't have an affinity for it where I'm like, okay, well, I have to do this every weekend. I have to. You know, I have to drink so much that I can't remember my name, like I can't even tell you, as we said here the last time I was drunk, I literally can't tell you that.

Speaker 1: 37:05

So you know, I think that living your life in a way such that you understand that your body and I remember learning about this in med school specifically but there are, literally there are so many restorative mechanisms in the human body that are literally meant to repair and rejuvenate and bring us back to a place of optimal health. But these mechanisms cannot work if we on the outside are doing things that are preventing them, we are doing things that are holding them back, we are doing things that are essentially working against us. And I think that all these different things that we just talked about, I mean, even if somebody doesn't smoke and they don't drink, okay, I guarantee I can look at their food intake and they are likely. If they're like most Americans, they're likely eating a large degree of processed foods, right, whether that's fast food or frozen, or TV dinners or frozen food or otherwise. So I think that, truly, when somebody wants to live with a mindset of becoming the fittest them and realizing that prevention is better than care, they need to realize really that that's the the the crux of the matter.

Speaker 1: 38:20

The crux of that mindset is is in your day-to-day choices. You know, in your day-to-day choices, you know your day-to-day habits, um, and, and this is why you know, like you know, even when we speak about metabolic health, I don't just say the words, metabolic health, right, in my opinion, metabolic health consists of nutrition, movement, recovery, stress management. And then the last one that supports all of these is mindset, um. So you know, I think that it's definitely something that somebody can if they truly want to. Because here's the thing, david, a lot of people I found truly are not living in a mindset, mindset they don't care about improving.

Speaker 1: 39:04

I've always found that fascinating. I'm somebody who's like I'm just always obsessed with self-improvement and progress and just endless, endless progress. So when I come across somebody who is either okay with the status quo or they're okay with, for them, good is good enough, I find that interesting. But I also think that who the hell am I to say that my mindset should be the mindset that everybody has? And I don't necessarily think that. But it is interesting to me that there are so many people who don't necessarily try, they don't want to have that constant improvement. And what's interesting to me that I've noticed is those are the same people who don't see constant improvement.

Speaker 1: 39:46

And what's interesting to me that I've noticed is those are the same people who don't see constant improvement who, when they see somebody else who looks better, whether with age, or they're able to do things physically that they're not able to do, they immediately point the finger and they're like this person is cheating in some way, somehow their surgery is steroids, drugs, whatever the case may be.

Speaker 1: 40:06

And it's interesting to sometimes hear those people talk and because if you sit back and you evaluate things, you realize it's a mindset issue. Fundamentally it's a mindset, it's a belief issue and if you can just have a conversation with them, like we are having, and get to the bottom of their mindset, I don't, I don't, you know, like to chastise anybody or denigrate them, but I will absolutely eviscerate. If you give me the chance and we're talking. I will literally eviscerate it and get to the bottom of your mindset until you realize that this is not. This is not a mindset that is conducive to your progress. It's not a mindset that is conducive to you being in a better place one year from now than you are today. And once you get people to realize that, more often than not they can change your behavior.

Speaker 2: 40:56

Yeah, I'll be vulnerable. I've struggled with that, I've lost friendships over it. When you have a growth mindset and you possess it and you see others who don't, it's tough to continue to surround yourself with those individuals, right, because at the end of the day you know that quote you're the average of the five people surround yourself with, whether you like to believe it or not. You know those are the people that ultimately have an impact on your life and you know. One of the aspects that you've touched on also is like, if you can measure it, you can improve it. Right, and those other pillars that you talked about, you can measure where you're at, find a baseline and improve on that Peter Atiyah talks about. He references like a six foot broad jump, some pillars for strength training, eccentrics jumping I know you've talked about, like your pillars there in particular, but I know you've also touched on insulin, insulin sensitivity pillars there in particular.

Speaker 2: 41:44

But I know you've also touched on insulin, insulin sensitivity, skin aging, the five different layers of skin. So let's dive into the metabolic health aspect. A couple of weeks ago we had Justin Rothling, who's doing cellular testing with his own coaching, and I'm curious like where's the overlap? How is this all like. Explain to me metabolic health in layman's terms for a 12 year old or a 16 year old who's like Mom? I really want to make sure that I'm healthy heading into my final years of high school and into my post-secondary education so that I'm performing my best when it comes to trying to become a professional athlete.

Speaker 1: 42:20

So I'll try to simplify this as much as I can. Metabolic health is essentially your body choosing the right fuel at the right time. So ideally in the human body, when it comes to oxidation of metabolic substrates right, we ideally have only fat or carbs. Protein can be oxidized for energy, but in a state of energy balance or energy surplus it is not ever oxidized. It's very rarely oxidized in those specific states and if you think about it, that's a good thing, right, we don't want protein. It's best to think about it as a structural macronutrient, not an energy macronutrient. It's best to think about things like fat and carbs as an energy macronutrient. So you know, metabolic health, metabolic flexibility, is essentially OK. Are you able to utilize the right fuels at the byproducts of oxidation of metabolic substrate oxidation of either fat or carbs, kind of at a broad level, oxidation of carbs is a little bit dirty, right, there are byproducts like reactive oxygen species that are released which, from a cellular standpoint, are not a good thing. They cause premature aging and just a whole bunch of other negatives which our body does actually have means to control that, but only to a certain limit, right? So if your body's burning nothing but carbs all the time, you're going to essentially overwhelm your body's capacity to deal with those waste products, with the reactive oxygen species and other things. So I think that ultimately, when I try to explain this to somebody, another analogy that makes a lot of sense is if you consider a hybrid car.

Speaker 1: 44:26

A hybrid car can burn gas. It can also utilize electricity. Now, when it is burning gas, what is happening? It's burning gas. It can generate more power during that time that it's burning gas. Hybrid cars usually switch to engine mode and burn gas when they're going up a hill or towing something or doing something very strenuous. However, in that moment that it's burning gas, what is it also producing? It's producing byproducts of that gas combustion right or fuel combustion, and those byproducts are in Sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 1: 45:05

It's fascinating the way you're describing it oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were talking to someone else. Um, yeah, so so those, those, those, uh, those byproducts of that fuel combustion. That's a very good way to think about carbohydrates in the body, that when you uh, when you go through, uh, respiration right of oxidation of carbohydrates, you're essentially creating byproducts that are very analogous to that gas. I'm sorry that hybrid car switching to the engine mode. Now consider the electric mode, the electric mode. There are no byproducts of that energy generation, that hybrid car utilizing its electric mode, but it also cannot generate. I mean, in my example, you have to ignore Tesla's, because I was about to say it can't generate as much power, but you have to ignore the faster electric cars the Rimac Navara, the Tesla Model. S Plus.

Speaker 1: 46:00

We'll use the.

Speaker 1: 46:02

Leaf yeah, we'll talk about a Nissan Leaf or a Prius, right, so we'll talk about what it does. So in that electric mode it can't generate as much power, but there's no byproducts. So that electric mode is very analogous to fat oxidation. So, as much as possible, every single one of us should be oxidizing fats for fuel throughout our day. For, as for throughout the day, as much, as as much as you can, right, um, now, when is that not going to be the case? That's not going to be the case when you eat food, uh, especially food that contains any degree of carbohydrates, because, uh, you want to be burning carbs. At those times, you know the carbs that you very recently ate. That's not going to be true if you're doing a very intense workout, for example CrossFit. Every time I go to CrossFit and I do a Metcon or metabolic conditioning workout, that is not. You are not burning fat, you are burning a very high percentage of carbs 90% carbs, sometimes even higher than that. Right, you can. You can get to a heart rate where you're burning 99% carbs and very little fat, but if you think about that, that is a very excuse me, that is a very small proportion of your day. So, essentially, what we should all be doing throughout the day is going through periods of heightened fat oxidation and periods of lower fat oxidation, where now more of your energy production is coming from carbohydrate oxidation.

Speaker 1: 47:38

The problem in this country a large problem is that so many people have a very high degree of metabolic dysfunction that what I just mentioned is not happening for them. So they for these people, they find that it's much easier to put on weight. They find that they are lethargic and they have midday fatigue. They find that it's hard for them in the middle of the day to focus and to concentrate. Even on a cognitive level they are affected. They find that their performance at the gym they're not able to perform to the degree that other people may be able to perform, and that's all.

Speaker 1: 48:17

It all comes down to what we stated initially right, metabolic health is the ability, or a high degree of metabolic health is the ability, to use the right fuel at the right time. So you know, throughout the day, when we're in periods of higher stress whether that's physical stress or physiological stress, otherwise, or even cognitive stress yeah, there will be times when your body ideally needs to derive more of its energy from carbohydrates. But if you're in a place where you know. Let's say here's a good example If somebody wakes up in the morning and they are oxidizing mostly carbs, you are very unhealthy. That's a very telling sign that you have a large degree of metabolic dysfunction and the reason I can say that with certainty is because there is no other time period, assuming that you sleep the normal six, seven eight hours.

Speaker 2: 49:10

Say that again. You're supposed to be fasting that point. Your body is technically fast yeah.

Speaker 1: 49:16

Spot on. You've been fasting. That's the longest period of fasting throughout your day is when you're sleeping. So if you wake up and you're still oxidizing carbs, like that speaks to a large degree of metabolic dysfunction. And then, unfortunately right, you probably know this, david, but nine out of 10 Americans have some degree of metabolic dysfunction. We live in a very sick culture, a very sick society, where so many people I mean there are more undiagnosed people with pre-diabetes than you would, than you would even imagine. It is a staggering amount of people with pre-diabetes and they're just going about their day. They don't think you know they. They sure as hell don't know about it. Um, because hopefully they knew about it, they would change it. But you know, when you look at the degree of people with metabolic dysfunction, it's genuinely disheartening. And the reason why I think it's so disheartening is because so many of our issues as a society if you go to the CDC's website and you look at the top 10 killers of Americans from cardiovascular disease to hypertension to even things like cancer One of the primary so there are a lot of risk factors for a lot of diseases, but one of the primary risk factors in many of the diseases on the top 10 list of US killers from the CDC. A primary risk factor is metabolic dysfunction. Cdc a primary risk factor is metabolic dysfunction. Primary risk factor is people not even knowing that something like metabolic dysfunction is present in their lives and is the nidus right, is the kind of puppeteer, so to speak, of their high blood pressure or their high cholesterol or their high blood sugar, all these things that so many other doctors do. Not necessarily the way I like to think about things. I like to think about trying to get to the root cause and fixing the root cause.

Speaker 1: 51:19

Unfortunately, we live in a healthcare system that I really don't call a healthcare system. I call it instead of sick care system because we will treat the symptoms. We'll say hey, you have high blood pressure, take this pill, take lisinopril, take hydrochloric dioxide, right? Yeah, absolutely. It's incredibly disheartening, but in defense of doctors and in defense of this healthcare system, we also live in a society where so many people patients, clients, just people alike so many people don't want to do the fundamental work, as you stated earlier. So many people would rather take a shortcut, they would rather take a pill, they would rather do something that is an instant fix, and I've seen this myself so many times. I've had patients who I have to tell them I'm like, hey, I don't think I'm an appropriate doctor for you. I think that it would be much more appropriate for you to find another doctor who is very aligned with your belief system and your values and prioritizes a quick fix and prioritizes just giving you pills.

Speaker 1: 52:22

Because you know, I very much prefer sitting down with people and just tearing into their lives and asking them all types of nuanced questions that reveal what's the most likely causative etiology is of their either symptoms or their disease, and then making the the necessary recommendations to them, assuming that their disease is not so advanced that there's no coming back right, for example, with type 2 diabetes.

Speaker 1: 52:57

You can get to a place with type 2 diabetes where the uh, the, the, the pancreatic cells that are uh responsible for for creating insulin, where they are just simply exhausted and they do not create any more insulin, um, and that that can happen. And in a case like that, there's no amount of lifestyle change that can help you. So that's why I think it's very important for people to you need to make the right decisions as early as possible and then be consistent with those decisions. And, yeah, some of those decisions will absolutely require and mandate a change in your life, a change in your habits, a change in your day-to-day decisions. But in the long term, is it worth it? Personally, I think so, but I can't speak for everybody.

Speaker 2: 53:39

Hey, I agree with you and I think, fortunately, there's people like yourself out there in this world that are sharing the positives, the ways that you can improve physically, mentally, emotionally, with your mindset. I can't thank you enough for what you've been doing, dr Nick, it's been a pleasure being. As a last point before we wrap up is that polypharmacy healthcare system that we're at, and Mitchell Hooper, world's Strongest man, episode 165, brought it up. You know, we're at a state where most people in society over the age of 50 are consuming crazy amounts of medications that are probably counteracting each other, and there's stats around if you're over five medications, you're probably doing discomfort. Anyway, you're the expert in this. Do you want to describe it? You described it perfectly.

Speaker 1: 54:35

Polypharmacy is a huge is a huge issue that most people aren't even aware exists. But you know, when you're taking one drug that causes you to have side effects, that you need another drug for that's then causing you to have side effects, that you need another drug for Right, or that may not even be the case, but then you have so many different diseases that you know your doctor has made you aware of and has diagnosed you with, and so now you're on all these medications that counteract one another in terms of I don't mean counteract, I mean interact that interact with one another in any number of ways. I mean you have to keep in mind. You know, obviously we live in 2024. We're developing things like AI and, you know, embodied robots, and we have a pretty advanced society, but I genuinely feel that, as it stands, there's truly nothing more advanced right now than the human body, and we're still. I think nothing speaks to that more than the fact that we're still learning new things about the human body. Research is revealing new things about the human body all the time, right? So when you consider, I mean, the amount of variables in the human body is something that I don't think anybody maybe a supercomputer sometime in the future will be able to illustrate all the interconnections within our body. But I think that when you back up and you understand that as true and you take that as fact, then you understand why putting all these medications into your body, you're basically you're asking at least in my opinion right or entirely disregard the need and necessity for any medication. Because, like I said, our bodies are incredibly complicated and I think that medical science and the pharmaceutical industry which I've never been a fan of, but the pharmaceutical industry assumes a degree of mastery of the human body when we're able to say something like hey, here's this pill, take this pill for the rest of your life which is a problem in and of itself that I don't want to get into right now, but I just think the fact that you'll need to take something for the rest of your life just annoys me to no end. But, yeah, take this pill for the rest of your life. And oh, your body is the most complicated organism in the body, but we know everything. So we're going to make this pill and you should take it, and you shouldn't think about any downstream effects of the pill, any downstream effects of the medication and what it could cause in you within the next couple of years, or how it could affect your life from a negative standpoint.

Speaker 1: 57:24

Because, obviously, when big pharma pushes these medications, they only talk about the positives. They only that's all they'll focus on, they'll never, ever touch on. Hey, these are the potential negatives and I think that, honestly, I think you need both. I think that any time in life that somebody's trying to sell you on something, okay, that's fine that you tell me the positives, but I want to know the negatives too. You need a proper risk assessment in your mind and you cannot do an adequate risk assessment if you only know the positives and that the negatives are sped up. You know, uh, sped up times 10 and put in a little subtitle at the bottom of the commercial Right. Just ridiculous. But uh, you know, you know, that's kind of the. That's a state that we live in. So, yeah, I think polypharmacy is a huge issue.

Speaker 1: 58:10

I think that anybody who doesn't realize that we live in a sick care society and you know understand that they should do everything they can to prevent and minimize the risk of disease. Given fact, I think they're doing themselves a disservice because, you know, I, I, I personally I don't think that when you see enough people who are sick, you see enough people in the hospital, you see enough people die, you don't want that for anybody and um, the problem is, you know people, no one can live enough. I feel like if enough people live their lives through the eyes of a doctor, of either being in the emergency room or being in the ICU, many people would make different decisions, but the fact of the matter is that most people are shrouded from that reality of life, and because they're shrouded from that reality of life, and because they're shrouded from that reality of life, it doesn't become a clear and present danger to them until it is literally in front of their face, and by that time it's usually all too late.

Speaker 2: 59:15

So, yeah, being proactive versus reactive. Even the guy who knows about the neural engine in the iPhone and knows about all the different self-driving Teslas and has 95% of his driving done by his Tesla. Hey, you know that at the end of the day, the genetics load the gun and your habits pull the trigger right.

Speaker 1: 59:34

Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I love the fact that you know that. Quote genetics load the gun, habits pull the trigger, and I think that when you zoom out, people need to realize listen, from a genetic standpoint, we are not that different than we were a millennia ago. And what does that imply and entail? It implies that much of the life that we live right now, at least from a nutrition standpoint, from a go, go, go, go, go, like no rest, maximum stress standpoint, like no rest, maximum stress standpoint there are so many elements of our lives that we live in a way that are absolutely not reflective of the fact that our genes are the same. Right, we sound like we have upgraded 2024 genes and you know every other human being who has lived, you know, before us is irrelevant and you know their genetics don't matter anymore. No, their genetics are literally inside of us and we need to, we need to live accordingly.

Speaker 1: 1:00:27

So, personally, that's what I try and do. Listen, I'm not perfect. You brought up crumble cookies earlier. Right, I haven't had crumble in a while, but you know, I I find myself like I really like in the past, just knowing me, I really like sugar and learning more and more about the effects of sugar, learning more and more about what we discussed earlier about carbohydrate oxidation and fat oxidation. This is why people who just do nothing but go throughout their day and they just eat nothing but carbs, they find that they're hungry all throughout the day. They find a high degree of hunger throughout the day. They find a high degree of hunger. It isn't because they're not eating enough. More often than not, it's because the cellular machinery of their body is biased towards is biased towards carb oxidation. So, basically, the only way that they can sustain, the only way they can have any degree of satiety, is to keep eating carbs, because it's almost like their cellular machinery doesn't ever know how to.

Speaker 1: 1:01:32

Hey, you have all this fat on your body. Why don't we upregulate the enzymes? Because there are there are many enzymes that are responsible for fat oxidation specifically, but but for your body to oxidize that fat, all those enzymes need to be upregulated to a requisite amount. But that's not going to happen if you're eating in a way such that those enzymes remain suppressed, because now you put yourself in a situation where your body can store fat and it just keeps storing that fat and you just get bigger and bigger and all the other side effects that we mentioned earlier poor metabolic health, from cognition, from poor cognition to poor physical performance, to poor sleep, blah, blah, blah all those other side effects you will, you will, you will find. And your body just keeps storing that fat. And it's just amazing because it's almost like it's almost like a gas tank that's full and your body cannot burn, your body cannot utilize the energy in that gas tank.

Speaker 1: 1:02:24

Right, and instead, for you to have any degree of satiety and for you to feel like you're not hungry, you just need to keep eating carbs. That's a state, like I said, right, nine out of ten Americans have a high degree of metabolic dysfunction. So nine out of ten Americans live their life in very much the same manner, where they can't ever get enough and they always have to keep eating. And you know it speaks to why our country, per capita, is sick, is sicker than most other countries who don't spend even a fraction of what we spend on health care. So, yeah, obviously that's another conversation entirely, but you know there are a lot of problems, absolutely, and I think you know we haven't spoken about it, but I actually one of the things that I wanted to do for quite some time and very recently I started it within the last week start a low cost community of people who are not just have the desire to improve their health, but actually want to enact on that desire with action. So it's, it's literally you know it's incredibly cheap, you can literally buy you. You can literally buy a coffee a day, right, and and and not not pay what you pay for for, for the community that I put together and the resources and, even more importantly, the resources that I put in. So I'm trying to organize a place where there are other people who are very interested in the same lifestyle changes and lifestyle optimizations that the next person is is interested in.

Speaker 1: 1:03:57

Because, ultimately, human beings are, we are very communal, we are very. We're not a species of, you know, we just live by ourselves. We very much depend upon others. So, in reality, as you spoke about earlier, if you are the sum of your five closest friends, why would you put yourself around people who do not have the same mindset, who do not have the same ideology that you have? That's working against you. That is, by definition, maladaptive. So, in creating a community of like-minded people and filling that community with a whole bunch of lessons, courses that I've made courses into sleep improvement, sustainable fat loss, sustainable lean mass and muscle improvements as you grow older and older, the fundamentals of nutrition testosterone improvement, you know, cortisol, elevated cortisol, and how to improve that with time.

Speaker 1: 1:04:52

Getting into the nuances of metabolic health and metabolic flexibility, and just what metabolism is, you know, I truly think that I feel like I'm not living to my beliefs and my mindset and my ideology if I don't create a solution, if I can only talk about the problem and not present a possible solution that many people can use to not only find optimal health but then keep optimal health, and I'm really not doing anything effective. So, um, yeah, I can, I'll uh, I can send you the link to that uh later so anybody can check out the community. I actually have a free uh nutrition masterclass, so anybody can check out that nutrition masterclass even without joining the community. And I think, as what I wanted to, what I hope for with that nutrition masterclass is for people to learn and understand, because I think that nutrition is fundamental out of all the things of metabolic health, that the thing that rises to the top is the thing that you do most often, every single day.

Speaker 1: 1:05:55

And what is that? That isn't necessarily. People don't necessarily exercise every single day or every hour of every day, but, but more often than not, people eat. Everybody has to eat. You have to eat food right. So I think that getting to the basics of nutrition is something that was my priority, which is why I made the free nutrition masterclass and made it available to people, so I'll send you the website to that as well.

Speaker 2: 1:06:18

Couldn't agree with you more. Can't thank you enough for doing it. It justifies. I made some muffins. My dad was like I thought muffins weren't good. I thought you were avoiding carbs. I'm like man, I got to get my carbs before my workout somehow. So it's perfect. This is perfect. I know for a fact. Actually, our listeners will appreciate this conversation for a variety of reasons. Whether it's our 15 year old athletes who are aspiring to be professionals, or the 50 year olds who are trying to stay healthy for the next 4050 years, both are important, both need to be satisfied. Both are going to benefit from this conversation. I can't thank you enough, dr Nick. The way we wrap up every episode is we ask our guests their biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes. I feel like I just want to open the floor for you to share whatever that is, whether it's for athletes, whether it's for human beings in general. You're the fittest doc on Instagram. This is the Athletes Podcast. It only makes sense for us to continue having these conversations. The floor is yours.

Speaker 1: 1:07:18

Yeah, I would go back to what I said earlier. The biggest thing I would recommend is you need to think long term. You need to think from the scope of sustainability. Try to tell yourself that you will never be willing to start something that you do not foresee yourself sustaining over the long term. That will prevent a whole lot of waste of time which, as I said earlier, right Time is the one non-renewable resource. You do not want to waste that. So if you do that, if you know, if you see yourself starting something that uh, uh, you know doesn't have any long-term benefit, isn't something you can sustain, uh, just just, it's a waste of time. It's a waste of time to start it.

Speaker 1: 1:07:55

Um, and I realized, like I said earlier, I realized that when you're younger, it's very difficult to have this mindset and to truly internalize the ethos and live accordingly. But I think that the older you get, the more you realize. You know, listen, life is a marathon, it's not a sprint, and you have to live accordingly. And when you don't live accordingly, that's when regret, you know, rears its head. And you know, hopefully we can all live a life without regret. Step one is you, you have to have to prioritize sustainability can't thank you enough, dr nick.

Speaker 2: 1:08:29

Uh, fascinating conversation. Here's to many more. Uh, thank you for uh coming on the show sharing your knowledge, wisdom, and uh, we'll look forward to all the questions that come from this and uh, hopefully catching up in person. Maybe I can see if I can get my snatch up to the same 275 that you're at, and uh, we'll have what's your what's what's yours no, no, no, no, I have not snatched.

Speaker 2: 1:08:49

I would be in the beginner phase of what we just talked about. Um, I'm going 500 deadlift right now and, uh, I'm going for the five minute mile. I think that's. That's kind of where my head's at around. I can. Can do that combo in the same. Wait, what's your mile right now? Not five minutes.

Speaker 1: 1:09:07

Okay, okay, okay. Still, five-minute mile would be very impressive. I've never made that my goal. I made a six-minute mile my goal and I achieved that. But there's a guy at our gym who can. There's a guy at our gym, at Rob Icross' gym, who can run a four, 58 mile and then come inside and do deadlifts and I was like hell, that's impressive, man, that's really impressive. But yeah, no, I love those goals. You got to set them for yourself. You know, with with a 275 pound power snatch that I PR yesterday about 10 pounds, my new goal for 2024 is, I'm like, if I can power snatch, 275,.

Speaker 2: 1:09:44

I should be able to squat, snatch 300. I'm gonna make it happen. Let's go. I love it, hey, uh, let's chat when you do that, okay? Uh, I appreciate your time, absolutely, absolutely okay, take care, great, hey, that's it. That's the show. Thank you, folks for tuning in. My name is david stark, host of the athletes podcast. I want to thank you, though, for tuning into this episode, making yourself a better human being, helping yourself perform, live and ultimately achieve a healthier, active lifestyle. I hope that what we're doing here on a weekly basis helps you. If it does, share it with someone. Hit that subscribe button. I truly mean it when I say this means the world to me. When you do something as simple as that, it takes five seconds out of your day. Thank you, folks, for tuning in. We'll see you next week for another new episode. Hope you have a great rest of your day. Bye.