Transcription
There's no such thing as a healthy sedentary person. O, this is a non-negotiable. It's a one core principle that they must get down. You have to be physically active.
What are the top three things that you recommend for high performers? Very easy. Number one, she is a physician. She is a New York Times bestselling author. She's an expert in geriatrics, in nutrition, in health, and longevity. Dr. Gabrielle Lions.
The more overweight you are, the wider your waistline, the lower the brain volume. Batter you are, dumber you are. You heard it here, folks. Okay, just raise my strap jacket.
The average American is eating around 300 g or so of carbs a day. The recommendation is 130 g. Wait, what? Anything above that, you have to earn through exercise.
You cannot wait for motivation. It is never going to come. The fact of me not taking that action, number one, it compounds. Number two, you're going to worry about it all day. And number three, you are slowly actually getting more unwell the less that you do.
The biology doesn't like chaos. If you are going to intermittent fast, great. But stick to those feeding windows. If it's 8 to nine hours, then stick to that.
If you want to be the guaranteed unhealthiest person you can be, what do you do? Inverse thinking. Perfect. Uh, this episode, the body reset, all about how you should eat, exercise for fat loss and health. We're going to nail it all today in as little time as possible with the one expert I trust more than anybody else, Dr. Gabrielle Lion.
If you feel like your brain isn't functioning at the level that you want it to function at, or if you feel like right now in your life, your health overall isn't at the tippy tappy, don't worry. You can see my doctor. Gabrielle Lion's going to break it down for us live. Let's get into it with my friend and trusted confidant who now becomes your doctor, too, on the Big Deal Podcast. I'm Cody Sanchez.
Why should someone who just scrolled to this and is listening, why should they stay here? What are we going to give them from listening to this episode? Any entrepreneur, anyone interested in business or doing well in life cannot outpace their biology. And if you want to do well or achieve or whatever it is that drives you, you must be healthy. It's how to eat, how to move, how to think, how to recover because we all know that there's a huge delta between information and action. It's uh exactly what to do. Yeah, I need that. I I don't want I don't actually want to guess. I want to be bossed around when it comes down. Got you covered. I know you do. You're always me around. Here's what to eat. Yeah. Yeah.
Because you've had two kids. You work non-stop and a very large former Navy Seal manchild. I know this is how we became buddies. And yet you're jacked and healthy and have a huge business. So, actually, let's start here. For entrepreneurs, it's not just about being healthy and having a six-pack. There's a lot that your studies have shown that I've seen that say there's ties between exercise and brain health. What do the studies tell us about exercise and brain health?
Well, first of all, exercise because you are focusing on muscle. And for those listening, muscle is the organ of longevity. It is an organ system that we have taken for granted forever. Meaning the thyroid is also an organ system we have no control over. Skeletal muscle is the only organ system we have voluntary control over. So when we choose to engage in cardiovascular exercise or resistance training, we become smarter humans and we also depending on the way in which we train can think faster.
What is the right way to train in order to think faster? Train fast. And does that mean like I've done sprints? Yeah, some kind of sprint interval. So here is how I think about training. First of all, here's how I think about muscle. Muscle is the sink for metabolism. For the entrepreneur, they are worried about brain function. They are worried about Alzheimer's. And the healthier your brain is, the less likely you are going to get Alzheimer's because Alzheimer's is type three diabetes of the brain.
If you want to be a good entrepreneur, then you have to have the physical skills in place, which is uh resistance training, which is a physical skill to build and maintain muscle. It doesn't get easier. You have to do some kind of cardiovascular activity again for brain function, for healthy vascule. And it it's not much more complex than that. We could talk about mobility. We could talk about all these other things. But if someone is listening to the podcast or watching, the chances are extremely high that they're not training because 74% of Americans are not meeting the baseline recommendation. Of 150 minutes and 2 days a week of resistance training.
So in order to hit what you have to hit to have a smarter brain, not get Alzheimer's, perform, you have to do what? Three days a week of resistance training, at least one session of high-intensity interval training, or somehow meet that 150 minutes. But if I were to choose the perfect plan for you, it would be step one, 3 days a week of resistance training. Step two, add in one day a week or two, but we can just say one of high-intensity interval training, 20 minutes, a minute on, a minute off. Step three, move more. If you are taking calls, walk. If you are yelling at your kids, which I'm just talking from a friend's perspective, then walk. Whatever it is that you are doing that you have the opportunity to be sedentary, move. And that will cover your physical needs. You will also have a less likely chances of dying from nearly all cause mortality from anything because you're active. That's wild.
Yeah. I mean, you're so good at this. It's like I see you all the time whenever I FaceTime you. You're lifting your two children all around who are adorable. Just like one finger. They're literally they're on these sleds like and you're pushing them and then you guys are doing push-ups. It's pretty incredible how you have integrated workouts into your life with your kids. I really struggle with that. Do you know this? Cuz do you? Yeah. I saw you can't even get the 10,000 steps a day in. Gabrielle, help me. How do I get Is this true?
So this is a non-negotiable because there's no such thing as a healthy sedentary person. O and also muscle. We want it to look like a fillet. One of the main problems that happens is when we are sedentary, our muscle transitions from looking like a filt to a wagu steak, which is more expensive but not great. And also not very strong. Yeah. Also, it affects for guys erections. The more healthy muscle and We just published this paper and the paper demonstrates that the more healthy muscle mass you have, the greater sexual function you have. Wow.
So, does that just mean more erections or longer erections? More healthy, harder erections. So, now that we've gotten the attention of every single man in the world, let me tell you this. By the age of 40, 40% of men will have erectile dysfunction. Whoa. By the age of 50, 50% of men will suffer from erectile dysfunction. And the cure to it is lift heavy. One cure to it is lift and get your cardiovascular activity because that's the plumbing.
So this isn't like the little blue pill cuz I think the doctors get it wrong. They're like, "You'll have an erection forever." All the wives are like, "Please, dear God, no. Can you please?" Uh, this has been going on over 24 hours. That's a medical emergency. Like if it's more than five minutes, I'm out. But but actually what this does instead, it's not duration. It's like when you want one, it'll come. It'll be there for the period in which you want it as opposed to some sort of monster penis. Yeah, we don't want that. And by the way, if you also do not use your genitalia, if you do not use your penis, you will lose it. This is this is crazy, but you can lose a centimeter from just not from your penis of not if you are not getting erection and you are not having sex over a period of time. If you're not getting blood flow to that muscle, it is a use it or lose it muscle. Whoa. That is wild. And that's a clip. You're welcome.
But anyway, I say all of this because as an entrepreneur, I'm one myself, you have to be very focused. And the more discerning you are and the less distracted you are, you can take the next right step. There are only a handful of things that really distract people. Again, I've been taking care of entrepreneurs for uh more than 15 years. Their health becomes very distracting and they will say, "I don't have time for exercise." And then I will say, well, how are you gonna have time for sickness? Yeah. And so, one core principle that they must get down is you have to be physically active.
So, what what did what hacks do you have for like busy people who have too much going on, who have all the excuses in the world like me? How do we make sure that we prioritize exercise? It has to be non-negotiable. It has to be built into your calendar. I cannot believe that you are not getting your 10,000 steps. I think that we uh we have to have a major major discussion. We got to have an intervention. Yeah, we need an intervention. Okay, fine.
Um, so number one, you cannot wait for motivation. It's never going to come. Some people like our husbands love to train. The rest of the world, I'm already bitching about my workout on Wednesday, starting Tuesday night, but I'm still going to do it because the fact of me not taking that action, number one, it compounds. Number two, you're going to worry about it all day. And number three, you are slowly, it's not the opposite of physical activity, you're actually getting more unwell the less that you do.
What about the saying that people say lately where it's like, um, if you had to choose between 10,000 steps a day or 10 minutes of intense exercise, it would be better to do 10 minutes or like 10 minutes of squats instead of 10,000 steps. What's the truth between the two? So, for me, I would say that the more intense the better. And I can equate this to if you're doing work, you would rather have 10 minutes of excellent work than a day of I don't know what I accomplished. That's a good point. Unless you're my employee, then we want 10 minutes. You're like, I'm done. David's like done for the day. I heard it first here.
But it's it's a really small hack. And entrepreneurs and business owners can not afford to train because one of the biggest things that take people out is being sick. It's extremely easy to be well. Well, also, I mean, I I kind of feel better about that because 10,000 steps actually takes a long time at my rate of stepping apparently. That's like an hour. Is that true? Yeah. I mean, and it's like what, four miles or something like that. 10,000 steps, which means that I need an hour walking plus like an hour for my lifting. Plus, you know, I'm working. Plus, my husband likes to hang out way too much. You know, this it's the same. My kids are about to be here. It's going to be Oh, I can't wait. Just wait till the cameras start crashing. This is like your Hey, you said to bring them, but you couldn't easily, if I were to give you just a few hacks, you can get a treadmill dust. Yeah, you can do that. And they're like a hundred bucks on Amazon. So, if if you have very little money, very little time, what are the top three things that you recommend for high performers? Very easy. Number one, get yourself a treadmill desk. Number two, get either a kettle bell or some kind of resistance band. And number three, have your first meal of the day. Let's just call it a protein shake. Set and ready to go. That's good. So easy. I don't do any of those things, dude. I know you're doctor. How is this possible? I know. I got I'm changing it up. I'm on it. Somebody write this down.
Okay. Um, but it it's kind of helpful because I think in my brain, I built this thing up, you know, and I think a lot of people listening are probably the same. You're like, uh, you know, I hear from Andrew Huberman I got a 47step routine and then I got cold pluns and then I got ice baths and then I got and uh at some point I'm like, you know, I can't wear my Lululemon leggings cuz I going to get cancer. You're not going to be No, you're you're going to be okay with that. I'm going to be okay. So So really at the end of the day, there's fewer better things that we can do that drive most of the performance. Humans love novelty and novelty is one of the biggest distractions for health. We already have great innovations. It's kind of like the phone. We had the flip phone. Well, we had the rotary phone, then we had the flip phone, then there was like the 1980s juggernaut of a phone, and now we have the iPhone. Do we really need another phone? No. We need to upgrade our software. Humans love novelty. We like the smoking diet and the fentamine diet and the cabbage soup diet, but our biology, we have a drive to eat a certain way. And once we put those foundational pieces in place, then we can chase less novelty.
So, for example, anchoring your day in a high quality protein, one shake, it affects brain function. You're going to be much less likely to eat any of the snacks in your [ __ ] snack room, which is like chips. And I don't even know who designed that. We We need to have you go through that. But the reality is you augment your willpower. So right now people think they have to depend on their own willpower. But if you prioritize your diet well, then you're not chasing these es and flows of blood sugar. Something very simple, practical, and tactical is 30 grams of protein first thing in the morning.
What are examples of fast ways to get protein in the morning? If you had five options, what are they? Protein shake. It could be a whey protein shake. If you don't like whey, it could be a rice pea blend. Greek yogurt, not hard. six eggs or a handful of eggs. Some people like steak and eggs. You can have a chicken patty. You can have Some people eat salmon for breakfast. There's a million different ways to do it. Okay. All right. So, we we nailed this in the morning. What other high performance daily routines do you have that we can steal?
Yep. Get outside first thing in the morning. Good sleep starts in the morning. Also, consistent sleep wake times. If you are someone who has the tendency to stay up late, don't decide that your bedtime is going to be 10:00. You go to bed every night at 10:00 and you wake up at the same time. I do that. I'm really good at that. You are? Yeah. Yeah. I go to bed at 10 every night. Okay. Do you feel better? Yeah. I sleep like a little like a little baby. Yes, you do. I can vouch for that. All of a sudden, I was reading I was reading you and we were in DC and I was reading you. I was so excited about this idea of amino acids and how whatever it was the wartime died and I look over and you're asleep because it's the most She goes I have a fascinating study I want to read you. It's like 12:00 at night cuz you are the Energizer Bunny. It's weird how much energy you have actually. I mean actually and you read me the world's most boring study which is what you like to read for fun which is also weird. Also you're a hater but yes it's true. And uh if you get outside in the morning and you get sunlight in your eyes, no glasses, no contacts, just get out there. You're anchoring. You know, we work in a 24-hour circadian rhythm. Mhm. We're mammals. That's what we do. If you anchor your morning, it sets up your night. So, you are releasing melatonin, which helps with the sleep drive. It really sets you up for success because brain function can be improved with proper sleep. cuz we do not think about it. When you have sleep deprivation, you are more likely to make mistakes. Not to mention, your muscle protein synthesis, which is a big fancy word for it's kind of a proxy for muscle health, is suppressed. We don't want that. No.
So, what does it look like when you get up in the morning? I have two kids. It's chaos. That's enough. But theoretically, you get up and you walk your little kids outside. We go right outside. Immediately outside. Yes. Because it's important for them. Okay. Well, it's not entirely true. You take your coffee with you. I was just about to say that's not entirely true. Okay. You get up, you make a coffee, you go outside with the kids. With the kids. Then we hang out. Do you ever just pull up Tik Tok or Instagram and scroll immediately in bed and more? Never. No. Wow. No. Okay. We need to be like, I need a bracelet that says what would Gabrielle Lion do and do the opposite of what would Cody do in the morning. It would be create purposeful friction. To me, that's all distraction. Yeah. And the more clear we are about the things that are important, the less we are going to make bad choices.
What do you mean by create purposeful friction? What does that look like? Again, human beings were so predictable and in order to be able to mitigate those highs and lows, which you know early on maybe in your entrepreneurial career, you probably allowed yourself to get really hyped up. Is that true? Yeah. And following that hyped experience, did you fall equally as low? Sure. Yeah. But you did it probably for, I don't know, a handful of years. But at that peak of you amping yourself up, doing push-ups, listening to loud music before you got on stage or before you closed a big deal, most entrepreneurs will tell me that they feel kind of depressed the next day. Yeah. Yeah. because they are chasing these highs and these lows at the peak and the trough meaning at the peak as high as you go and as low as you go those are both vulnerabilities. vulnerabilities as a doctor who cares for these people from health perspectives. That is the moment where you go off your diet plan, you know, you just feel like you need more sugar or I don't know, they buy a car or they find a girlfriend, whatever it is, whatever their vice is, they'll go to towards that. Similarly, when they are low, they are much less likely to make good physical choices. they are not going to after a big event go exercise. But if they were to do those things, then we don't have to spend four months trying to get you back on track, but it's predictable.
So, how do we build up our uh kind of vulnerability body armor? We don't do it at the big event. Mhm. We do it before. So, I'm going to give you three things that you can do. Number one, you create purposeful restriction. Meaning, I love caffeine. I love loud music. And then I'll go work out. But all of that helps with dopamine release. So it fuels to that drive of wanting more. I flip a coin. Heads I get it. Tails I don't. Interesting. Annoying. Yeah. Very annoying. But can you imagine after the fifth time of doing that, you're way less annoyed. And you can do it in any area of your life of something that you desire. For example, Starbucks, flip a coin. Heads you get it, tails you don't. And I encourage people to try this because we are of the culture to just get, but it doesn't help us when we need to mitigate those highs and lows. That's great. So, you kind of take the it's the offers off the table. It's like, it's not up to you. It's up to this coin flip. That's right. And then I just keep my promise to myself. I like that.
You talk a lot about sleep. I think this is super important. I was reading a a article the other day that um we have a sleep epidemic in tandem with what you talk about often, which is a health epidemic. Like people are sleeping less, their sleep quality is worse than ever. If somebody's listening to this right now and saying, "I I literally cannot sleep. I'm suffering from it." What else do you do? What do you tell somebody to do who's suffering from sleep?
Yeah, a lot of people are not sleeping well. And to be frank, I don't actually love sleeping, but you have to do it. Here's a handful of things. So number one is wake up at the same time and go to bed at the same time. Limit overhead lights and a lot of stimulation. Number two, do not have it's not great to have these huge meals before bed, but one of the things that we've seen in our clinical practice is people get hypoglycemic before or actually in the middle of the night. So about 4 hours after people fall asleep, we see that they oftentimes get reactive hypoglycemia, which is just a big word for low blood sugar and it wakes them up. So having a mixed meal, maybe a handful of carbohydrates and a handful of protein, you don't need to over complicate it. Handful of both could be yogurt and some fruit. and then you go to bed, you're much less likely to wake up with this reactive hypoglycemia. Is that what most hap often happens with people who are sleeping? It's they wake up in the middle of the night. Not that they have a hard time falling asleep. They do. Interesting. And they could wake up from sleep apnnea. Mhm. If you have bigger than a 17 and a half inch neck, you probably have sleep apnnea. No. Everyone's You do not. Everyone's checking their neck. Okay. If your partner snores, they probably have sleep apnnea. Yeah, I think Chris has sleep apnnea. Well, yeah, of course. Every team guy I've ever met has sleep apnnea. Yeah, but you know, they kind of don't like when they go to bed wearing the mask and the earplugs and the eye mask, they look like they're ready for takeoff. It's just kind of like instant birth control. But still it's really important because the data shows so when I was um a fellow so I did my fellowship in geriatrics and nutritional sciences at Wu and one of the risk factors for Alzheimer's was very poor sleep over time and sleep apnnea. Interesting.
So what do you do if you have sleep apnnea? You get tested and you get treated and that is not just mouth tape. No. Uh oftentimes people need to lose weight. Some people um it can be positional and some people just have the kind of sleep apnnea that requires an intervention and there's nothing wrong with it, but you have to get tested and you can do at home sleep tests. It's not a big deal. It's super easy.
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I want to ask you a bunch of rapid fire questions actually that I've been wanting to ask you for a while. So, this is for me mostly. Yes, I wear deodorant. Oh, you do? I'm so sorry. Is it organic though? Nope. Yeah, it is. It is. Right. Is that true? Sometimes it doubles as hand sanitizer, but yeah. Oh, actually I know this about you. You've given this. Oh, share this hack. This is such a good hack. Okay. I was smelly one day. Kids, don't try this at home. But if you have an organic hand sanitizer that is mostly alcohol, you can all It also doubles as deodorant. Yeah. Which not mouthwash, but definitely deodorant cuz I've tried it. Yeah. And you gave it to me and I didn't I thought it was actual deodorant. I used it for like a week straight. You didn't tell me this. I trust you too much.
Um, okay. So, you do use deodorant, but you don't use non-organic ones because there is some data that shows that it's linked to cancer. Well, there are a lot of environmental exposures. And I want to be very careful. There is the information overload. Everything is toxic. So, there's kind of these two camps that everything is toxic. You have to eat organic. And then the other group that is organic is a waste of money. Don't worry about all this stuff. It's okay to have dyes. And I think the truth is often somewhere in the middle. But what we do know is that a lot of the stuff that we are using, it does contain a lot of chemicals. And this is true. It is probably the amount that we are using over a lifetime is probably not what we are using say a month at a time. For me and our household, we try to do as natural as possible. Yeah. So you're not going to be sponsored by Celsius. I'm waiting. But again, so say the big deodorant companies.
Um, so Celsius artificial sweeteners is another big, for example, hot topic. I don't think the data is very strong that most artificial sweeteners are negative to the brain or the human body. Really? So you actually I mean you do drink as much caffeine as like I don't know a 300 pound bodybuilder per day. So maybe the other question is I saw a video the other day that I was like whoa this is a title and it was is caffeine killing us? No. No. Some people do have a genetic snip that they are more susceptible to the negative side effects of caffeine but you will know if you if you are that person. I mean you can always of course test for it. Happy to come to our clinic. We'll test you for it. But the reality is caffeine in a moderate dose is not going to be detrimental. Yeah.
What about is caffeine bad for women when we're trying to get pregnant? I read another one saying coffee is bad for pregnant women. So you just want to steal all my joy. I am sorry. When I was pregnant, I did not go over 200 milligrams of caffeine. What about before you were pregnant? Like trying to get pregnant? I'm not pregnant yet. Sign me up. Yeah. Interesting. God, there's so many things. Okay, how about this one? Are Lululemons making us infert? Are Lululemon leggings making us infertile?
I if I were to put and rank the hierarchy of what is causing infertility and let's say what is the number one cause of female infertility for young women? It's polycystic ovarian syndrome which is also known as PCOS. There are two types of PCOS. One comes from the brain and the other is metabolic. The other being metabolic. Guess where the biggest lever that we can pull for improving our chances of fertility if you are someone who has PCOS is muscle. Muscle. Exercise. Really? And diet. Wait. So you were saying if you have PCOS right now, you should be lifting and following a strength regime. Yes. I have never heard a doctor say that before. And I interviewed on my podcast one of the world leading experts in PCOS. Her name is Dr. Melanie Cree. She was an M. She is an MD PhD and she did if there are 10 studies on ompic or GLP1s and fertility, she's done two of them. And I asked her, she was, you know, we're in a podcast and I said, "Okay, so what percent body fat is it that allows someone to get pregnant or the ones that are going to really suffer on an ongoing basis?" And she looked at me and she's like, "Gabrielle, it has nothing to do with body fat percentage. It has everything to do with interuscular atapost tissue. To break that down, it's how much fat is actually stored in your muscle. And that comes from insulin resistance, which in part of that is being sedentary. I mean, there are genetic risks for PCOS, but what we do know is that exercise and a good diet will often, I'm I'm being very careful about how I'm saying this, will improve people's likelihood of conceiving.
Why is it that doctors by and large don't tell us things like that? It's a lot to ask for someone to be trained at an expert level in multiple domains. In order to become a physician, you're already going through four years of undergrad, four years of medical school, then training, and then a fellowship. To also ask that person to be an expert at nutrition is a lot. How many studies you have to read to go probably better that you work out? Not that many. Not that many. So, like, is that really an excuse for doctors to not use it or is it like a liability if they say it? I don't I don't get it. No, but I will say I and I'm just speaking from my own perspective. I think for physicians because there is so much noise out there. I don't think that they like to step into that noisy realm. And what do I mean by this? I'll give you an example. So, in order to be a board-certified physician, it you still have to study. It doesn't just go away once you graduate and start practicing. And many doctors would say, "Don't eat red meat and reduce your dietary cholesterol." But they were misinformed because dietary cholesterol recommendations were taken out of the dietary guidelines in 2015. Therefore, the information of don't eat eggs or don't eat red meat because it's bad for your cholesterol. Cholesterol is not even part of the guidelines right now. Wow. What what changed? I think that the the scientists determined that it wasn't relevant, that dietary cholesterol had very little impact on blood level cholesterol.
Dude, I feel like doctors need like a a beeper or something. Like just like can they give them the updates? Like is there some nationwide system where when new data comes out they say, "Well, all doctors should know this or there's not really a way." That's a really good point. Um, there is but it's per specialty and it again nutrition is challenging because it's something that everybody does eat becomes very difficult to get through the noise. Yeah. The tough part is there's the other side of the coin too, right? which is like we have all these people online giving all of this advice who are definitely not a doctor, never read a study before or read one like on the side, don't really understand how to analyze peer-reviewed studies and are also sharing a lot of information like if you eat seed oils, you about to die. Uh and so it can kind of become we know that that's not true. That's so controversial, too, because I feel like if we had, you know, let's say I had Paul Saladino here, you here, Huberman here, and Alex Clark, there'd be a war. But here's what I would say. I would say, let's call in the people that have done these studies and let's talk to them. So, for example, Dr. Kevin Mackey, he was the and he still might be the president of the Lipid Association. This guy's a career scientist. And I was like, Kevin, what's the deal? and he said the evidence doesn't support that seed oils are causing the derangement that people are saying. What about when they say that's because the studies haven't been around long enough or the you know big pharma and the food industry are the ones that pay for it so people will always look to something but that's not what you're seeing in the data. You're saying these studies actually seem reasonable. We have enough data. We're analyzing it in real time. And the good studies will also talk about the limitations. And we also know that whole foods are a great choice. And if we think about that, then we can become less hyperfocused on these little things. So the issue isn't food dyes. The issue isn't seed oils. The bigger issue is how do we feed for human health? All these other things are distractions.
Then why when I go to Europe can I eat all the bread and all the food and I lose weight? Uh, you're probably walking more than 10,000 steps. probably about 2,000 here, about 12,000 there. And also, you're probably eating from whole food sources. Maybe you're getting outside more. But the reality is it's very difficult to hyperfocus on one thing. It would be like for the entrepreneur, the one problem in your business is just because of this. You have a really rude front desk person and you're like, "Uh, no, you guys are not taking care of your taxes. You don't have good lead genen. There's a whole I could find a hundred other reasons, but the foundation is your business is not set up well. The same is for nutrition. Yeah.
Okay. What about I heard a study the other day that said loneliness causes dementia. We are and I actually saw that study. So, we are social creatures. And I don't know if it's loneliness. I mean, I think that that's probably subjective and they probably use survey data. But we do know that not being in relationships and having relationships around you is a risk factor for depression and anxiety and dementia. And so what's the solve for that? Hang out more. I like that. But not necessarily. It's interesting. So when I say hang out more, and I haven't seen this data, but we're not talking about social media hangout. having real relationships with real people that you can count on because AI is coming in and take over and people are creating relationships with AI bots and it is very disruptive for the human connection.
What does the data tell us about uh AI relationships or uh parasocial relationships versus in-person relationships? Like does one supplement the other? If I'm talking to my AI all day, if I'm on Instagram all day and I feel like I'm engaging with people, does that actually feel like engagement in my body? It's it's not the same. But there there is data to suggest that you do have that same feeling, but it is um it it is not the same. And I I think we're also going to start to see more of that data as well. So like for our health factor, it doesn't make me healthier and less lonely to engage online, but it does make me healthier to engage in person. Yes. And I can't say for sure. Again, I have to be very clear about, you know, again, uh doctors and scientists, it's we have to be very careful about what we're saying. For some people, could it be better? Yes. But I think that it will always be better if you are engaging in person because we have nonverbal cues. Yeah. And we are somewhat of a connected nervous system. You know, our eyes connect. I mean, this is how we communicate. It's not just verbal communication. You cannot do that with a robot. Yeah.
Well, and then obviously, aren't there a lot of studies out there about physical touch, too, and how important that is? And so, if we're completely replacing physical touch, I imagine that can't be great. I mean, I I saw it with my grandparents, for instance. They one side of the family had my grandma uh super engaged. Like, we stayed in touch with her. um she still had relationships. She still went out in the world during COVID. The other side, they were super quarantined. Nobody was around them. They never left their house. They were really antisocial. Sort of like mandated. And one side, I mean, it was wild. My grandma is older. Um she's like, she's like asking me about Chad. She'd be TNAI now. She's so with it. She's 100 years old. The other two, I mean, [ __ ] we lost them the last five years. complete dementia, like lack of idea about where they are, not able to to really use their own faculties at all anymore. And of course, this is all, you know, uh, qualitative, not quantitative, but it was hard actually watching it and seeing them um completely decline almost the second that they stopped having interaction. And I personally was like, I'd rather die from COVID than like slowly decline in dementia because I'm by myself. Yeah, it's really tough. And there are other factors that we know. So for example, physical touch releases oxytocin and oxytocin is what we think of as that bonding hormone. If you are sitting in a chair and uh have the massager chair, you don't release the same amount of oxytocin. And there are biological and physiological differences when you are engaging with human connection. So if they're not getting any of that, they're not having oxytocin release. And what does oxytocin release do? Is that good for your brain? Essentially, it is good for your brain. It's good for your mood. Yeah, it's, you know, think about it. Women release oxytocin when they have a baby, when they have sex, or when they orgasm. Good, good clarifier. Just want to let you can also take oxytocin intraasally, which you can Wait, what? Yeah. For mood, for milk let down. Men and women can take it like like you snuff oxytocin up your nose with like a sprayer. Yeah. You know, some people take allergy spray. I love that you go. Yeah, totally. Aren't you doing it too, Cody? Yeah, I've got some in my purse, as a matter of fact.
But the reality is what we are talking about is what are we going to do with this society that we live in now? How do we reorient ourselves to just a healthy lifestyle, which again starts with muscle, training, protein? It's not that complicated, but also good relationships, especially in the wake of this increase in AI online community. And again, if people want to perform at their best, then the ways to do that, I think, are very clear.
What do the studies tell us about being negative and being smarter or having a healthier brain? Like, if you have negative thought patterns, are you more likely to shrink your brain size? Are you more likely to have a stronger brain? Does it matter if I'm negative or positive? Well, I can't say that I have looked at those studies, but here's what I will tell you about the brain. that the from a metabolic perspective because this all ties in. The more overweight you are, the wider your waistline, the lower the brain volume. That's not good. Fatter you are, dumber you are. You heard it here, folks. Okay, just race jacket. The other thing is that when you are training and when you are moving and doing cardiovascular activity, doing resistance training, you will have less atrophy. your brain will be more robust in terms of preventing shrinkage. And this is what we see as women go through permenopause, menopause. You do not want to be dealing with type 3 diabetes of the brain. As far as negative and positive, we know that sleep can help with brain function. That's the time the brain cleans itself. Uh all very important. But again, a depressed brain, would someone say that that is a more unhealthy brain? I I would say probably.
And is this something that we are seeing accelerate in our country? Like it seems like these days more often than not when I talk to you know my friends grandparents they have some version of dementia or Alzheimer's. So this is accelerating. And why do you think that is? Is this purely because of obesity and lack of muscle? I think that uh it's not purely but I think that that is the main driver because think about all the activities that ride with healthy muscle. You're out. You're moving more. You're motivated. Is it the muscle itself? From a metabolic perspective, yes. Type three diabetes of the brain is insulin resistance of the brain. What your body does, your brain also does. Like, do doctors recommend muscle, you know, strength training. Good doctors do. Good doctors do. Yeah. But most of them today would recommend basically pills and crossword puzzles, right? I think that we are starting to see a shift. For the last 50 so years, we've been focused on obesity as if this is the sole problem. And I would argue that obesity is just one problem. Alzheimer's, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, that these are all symptoms of unhealthy skeletal muscle. And if you are worried about all of these other things, including your performance at work, then you have to focus on the things that you actually have agency for, which is not actually weight loss. I cannot tell my body to lose two pounds, but I can tell my body, okay, you're going to go squat 120 pounds. So, there are things that we have the option to control and then the things that we don't.
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We've been blown away by how fast the show is growing. Like, getting to hang out with you every single week is so cool. But most of the people who tune in every week still haven't subscribed, which is crazy. It is the simplest way though to help me us keep scaling. So, I can't thank you enough for your support. Like, we would be nowhere without you guys. And I just want to jump back into my conversation, but I also want you to do it subscribed. Oh, and share it with a friend if you like this episode. I think it's better when you profit together, you know?
I think we should try some hot takes on health. What's the dumbest diet trend you've seen people fall for? There are two. Do I have to have been alive for them? No. But there was the lucky diet. People smoked to lose weight. Wow, that's wild. I just can't imagine how bad you would feel and how bad you would smell. Very smelly. I mean, we were definitely single. Totally single. So, the the lucky diet. There was also the um amphetamine diet. The fenfen diet. Yeah, I don't think that was probably a good one. Cabbage soup diet. Is that a real thing right now? That is. And also the wine and egg diet. Sounds great. And this was three each meal. So, for three meals, a glass of wine and two eggs. Get out of town. Disgusting. I mean, your breath is going to be terrible. So, there's a lot of down. Oh, god. Yeah. Could you imagine hanging out with that chick at a cocktail party? No thanks.
Um, is intermittent. What about intermittent fasting? Is that a breakthrough or is that just starving with better branding? I love that. Uh, intermittent fasting, if we were to, uh, quantify that, that's eating in an 8 to nine hour window. We recommend that to our patients all the time. I do not recommend 24-hour fasts or longer because again it's difficult to hold on to muscle as it is. So if you reorient yourself to muscle then fasting over 24 hours is you know that's like the no-go zone. You know the crazy hot matrix. It's the no-go zone. Right. It's like Tiffany plus a hairdresser. Exactly. No go zone. But 8 to nine hour feeding window can be great because the body the biology doesn't like chaos. And as we are thinking about how do we get better and more healthy so that we can produce more or just show up more fully then less chaos is better. If you are going to intermittent fast great but stick to those feeding windows. If it's 8 to 9 hours then stick to that.
So for a woman listening who's busy got a lot going on and has been told all these different things. She now knows she needs to strength train probably. What is she eating and what is she not doing? Like what can we tell ourselves? Like you can just take that off a list. Don't even worry about that right now. Okay. Should we start with the what she's not doing? Yeah. If she is very busy and not training, then she should not commit carbide. And what is this? This is the body. So the average American is eating around 300 gram or so of carbs a day. The recommendation is 130 g. Anything above that you have to earn through exercise. So what she's not doing if I could say
Listen, lady, if you are not training and you are sedentary, do not eat a high carbohydrate diet, or you are essentially giving yourself an oral glucose tolerance test three times a day. We don't want that because as we have these metabolic dysfunctions, she then is at a greater risk for Alzheimer's and all these other diseases. So that means no bread or less bread, less rice, less potatoes unless you're going to train. Okay, that's But this is easy. Reduce your processed carbs.
Okay, what she is doing is she's having around 100 grams of protein a day. Make it simple. 50 grams in that first meal, 50 grams in that last meal. So that's like just that's the minimum she can do that. Uh-huh. Okay. Which would be like a shake and some eggs. Great. Or a shake and a half. Okay. Or she or if she likes recipes. I have about 60 of them. I like that. Where would we go to get the recipes? This playbook. Where? Let's be more specific. What playbook? And like come over to my house under the tree. Just kidding. Um, they can get on Amazon. It's the Forever Strong playbook. It's the book that I wish I had. It has how to train, exactly what to do, exactly how to eat, exactly how to think about all these concepts, and how to recover, which no one does. Yeah. In a very concise manual. Yeah. You don't have to read the because the the Forever Strong book is incredible. You'll fall asleep. You fell asleep. No, I read it and I listened to it on audiobook. Okay. You kind of fall asleep. I did not fall asleep. But if I could just get the playbook of only what I'm supposed to do, I'm on it. Yeah. Like, so, okay, we'll include the link below and then Forever Strong playbook anywhere you go buy it.
Here's my question. You see entrepreneurs all the time and business owners. What is the disconnect between actually taking the action to get healthy? They will never outpace their biology, ever. Why? If you know this is going to make you a better business person, and if we think that entrepreneurs are like these modern-day warriors because listen, they can suffer more than anyone else that I've ever seen. So take out the military, like you guys are in your own whole other category, but entrepreneurs can suffer more pain, more loss, are willing to take risks. Yeah. Yet you ask them to do 100 push-ups and they're like, "I'm out." I don't know. There's something wrong with our brains because I'm the same way. It's It's so I think maybe it might be the difference between like acute and what is that called? Like continuous stress. Chronic. Yeah, chronic. Like we do really well, I think, with chronic stress and like chronic. We're like a bunch of marathoners. We're just over here running continuously in our business. But when you give us acute stress, which would be like acute physical stress, so like I got to go do burpees or workout with Gabrielle, it's like for some reason it it seems like it bothers a lot of entrepreneurs. So I think there's that one. We're we're marathoners. We're not sprinters um in in many ways. And then I think the next thing is just habit stacking. We've habit stacked for so long our number one priority as being business related uh or money related that you know, we just have to rewire our system to say no, no, no, this actually makes me money here. But it's very hard to see the direct line correlation between my workout and my balance sheet. You know, that is somehow we just lose all causation between the two.
But what about getting that right meal in? Yeah. Because a lot of entrepreneurs, you call them right after lunch, 90 minutes later they're napping under their desk. Yeah. But if you can just get that one meal right, you'll feel better by the next meal. Yeah. It's totally rational. I don't know. It is. Well, I think the other thing too is a lot of entrepreneurs when you think about it, you have so much misery during the day. I think you have a great case in your head. Humans are incredible self-rationalizers, right? So I'm like, I worked so hard today. I worked hard all day today. I took all the issue. I've also got decision fatigue by the end of the day because I'm decision, decision, decision. At the end of the day, where's my glass of wine? I just I deserve it. You deserve it, you know. And so we have a a negative narrative. We have a name for that, you know. We have a name for that. That's called the midlife body starter kit right there. The "I deserve it." The midlife body starter kit. I guarantee you another 40 lbs. That is actually very true. I mean, yeah. But yeah, I think that if we can I believe that we can be a healthier, stronger, more robust society just like you think we can all be business owners. Yeah. So if we can connect the two, then you have a culture that is unstoppable and that and that I think is what we're trying to get to. Yeah.
I mean, I think the other thing that's like help like when I get in a flow and I'm going for a few weeks, I'm killing like my step count high. I'm in the gym. I got the trainer. You know, you've got the weight vest on. Whatever happened to our our weight vest calls and talks like that just completely fell off. Well, you kept doing it. I did not. And you know, I think um I have a very high tolerance for doing the the business stuff, but I got a habit stack in order to do the the physical thing. And so, um that's why I like listening to you because it's just this it's a reminder. You're like you're like the female David Goggins. You're like, "Listen, [ __ ] get moving." No one is going to run that long. I run like four feet and I'm done. That's it. Well, we do. We do call you the what do we call you? Ant-woman and the tiny tornado. Because half these videos of you, which I should put up here, that last one you sent me, you're throwing like a b it's a boulder over your shoulder, wasn't it? With your she just goes um but I think sometimes like you can't be what you can't see. So when I see when I see a mom like you who has two kids, who has a successful business, who is a doctor and still prioritizes health, it's like what excuse do I got? And it doesn't mean it's easy and it doesn't mean it's convenient. No. But I know that I am never going to be able to talk myself into it. But as long as I don't talk myself out of it and I just have a commitment in place, then I don't have to rely on anything else. If we give them the three steps of here, this is how much protein you're going to get. You're committed to it. This is what you're going to do for training. It's three days a week. You got this. We're going to put a a standing treadmill desk because it's not just about being building a financial legacy machine. You know, there's a saying that people will have a million problems until they have one health problem. And it really does seem like we're getting cancer more than we ever have before. You know, I just saw today a woman that I really respect whose name is Britney Turner. Um, she just announced that she has cancer and she's like a badass who What kind of cancer? It's a good question. I don't know. I saw it on the Instagrams and um super healthy from the outside looking and so um, you know, and then I I have another girlfriend whose name is Bridget who's been battling cancer for a year. That's really sad. Uh-huh. And she's super young. Um, you know, maybe 35, 38 something like that. Yeah. And I also want to say that if someone is really young and they get cancer, typically there's a genetic cause. Um, and that also cancer is not anybody's fault. And if you see a good physician and there's a lot of discussion whether people should do this or not, but we do this in our clinic and we do uh full body pronova or full body MRI scans and also we've done it for you. We do blood tests for cancers, just screening at the very least, it's peace of mind. And so um, we do know that there are certain behaviors that increase people's risks of various cancers. Obesity is one of them. Um, I'm pretty sure alcohol is a carcinogen. This is going to be really controversial, but a ton of sun exposure. I thought that was a new thing. We don't do sunscreen anymore. I was just telling my mom today, no, mom, yes, we do do sunscreen or at least we do sun protection clothing, okay? You know, um, I'm into the clothing. I thought there was new things about how all the sunscreen has all the chemicals in it. So, pick one that is a mineral-based sunscreen or wear clothes. All right. But the sun is going to at some point cause DNA damage and you know it's a risk factor for skin cancer. Yeah. I was there more for like the aesthetic stuff. I don't want the wrinkles. Yes. I Well, me neither. But but again, how do we think about um preparing for the inevitable, which sucks, but aging is going to happen to everybody. It's inevitable. And these things are responsibilities. How do we get your jawline? Are you You got to talk to my parents. You got to talk to my parents. Son of a gun. I literally that if you have You know what? If you chew enough gum and drink enough caffeine, come talk to me in the air. I'll be Gabriel Lion with the kids call that snatched jawline these days. You know that that's what you have. Well, good. Must be nice. I don't have that.
Okay, so, uh, I want to talk about alcohol really quick. How bad is alcohol for us? Really? It's not good. Bar like get rid of it. Don't drink it. No good. I'm going to give you my personal opinion. Uh, correct. I do not think alcohol. I think it is a toxin, period. And when we were examining people and we were saying, "Okay, so what is this person's risk factor for some kind of cognitive impairment?" Alcohol was on the list. And people will say, "Well, a little bit of alcohol is okay." Okay, maybe. But it's kind of like, are you wanting to rationalize the fact that you are using it? Yes. Is it is it good? No. I personally don't think it is. Could you probably find some studies where X ounces a day is okay for you? Okay, fine. But if you want to pick a vice, just pick a different one. What What vice do you supplement it with at the end of the day? Push-ups. I don't know. Oh god. Just psychopath. Or how about this? If you want to have some carbohydrates, fine. Have your carbohydrates, then go for your walk. Okay, so leverage your body to balance out your choice. Okay, I like that. That seems reasonable.
Okay, let's end on if you want to be the guaranteed unhealthiest person you can be, what do you do? Inverse thinking. Perfect. Do not exercise. Do not move. Walk less than 3,000 steps. Number two, absolutely, without a doubt, high calorie, high carb, processed food diet. And number three, don't have any friends. All right. Guaranteed my recipe for misery and get hammered every night. Yeah, perfect. Now we're gonna be the number one worst. Okay.
Um, I I think the only thing that I want to end with is um, you have this new book coming out. Uh, you you made it basically for me and people like me who won't read the whole book. Um, what better what what do we need to know about this book? Who is this book for? Why should we pick it up right now? If you have a body, this book is for you. Period. It is how to think, how to move, how to eat, how to recover. It will tell you everything and it is evidence-based. It is not a workbook, but it's a playbook. So, you know, they've got like the playbook for life. This is the book that I wish that I had had. So good. Dr. Gabriel Lion, thank you for being here. Thank you for being my bud. Thank you for bullying me. No problem. You will bully me into heavy things, having friends. I mean, sucks, but doing what I say I'm going to do. So lame. Okay, bye.