Transforming Your Health into a Competitive Advantage in Business | Ted Ryce

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That's R-U-B-R-I-K.com. Testosterone is a symptom of the problem. Clomid, by the way, what it does is it stops this process called aromatization. What is aromatization? It's when testosterone gets converted into estrogen.

Guess where that happens? In your fat cells. In fact, women need that because it-- and, you know, women who compete in, like, bodybuilding and natural bodybuilding without drugs, their-- when they get super lean, their estrogen levels drop. The number one thing that's causing issues with testosterone is excess body fat, especially visceral body fat. It-- guys are so quick to go out and take TRT.

If you wanna do things the right way, you gotta fix the root cause. You have to lose the excess body fat. All right, Ted, dude, so excited to have you on the show. These are some of my favorite shows because I would consider myself like a, like a fitness hobbyist. You know?

I would never, ever present myself as I know what I'm talking about, but I love to try all kinds of different exercises, uh, routines. Uh, I got a cold plunge, I got a sauna, I got a-- you know, I love-- And you know what's fun is I like the testing part because you find out what works and what doesn't, but I technically don't know anything. So I love when I get, uh, people like yourself on here that I can just pepper with questions, and I know the audience loves it too. So thank you so much for your time, my friend. Yeah, happy to be here.

And I appreciate how you're starting out because I deal with a lot of people who, uh, th- fr- they believe they know a lot, and, and in many cases they do. But w- the way I define how good you are at health and fitness is the real world results. To-- just like you would say to someone who's giving business advice, like, "Oh, here's what you need to do with your business. You gotta do this, you gotta run these ads, you gotta..." And it's like, "Okay, man, you must have a killer business."

"Ah, actually, we're struggling." It's like, okay. Yeah. Hmm. I don't think I'm gonna listen to you then, right?

And so, um, so, so I think that's really important. And there are people who, and we can talk about this too, there's a lot of people who get results but don't even know how they're getting them, like low-carb diet people or carnivore diet people. Uh, they're like, "Oh, carnivore diet changed my life." It's like, no, you finally got into a calorie deficit, you lost the weight, your inflammation came down because visceral fat secretes inflammatory chemicals, makes you feel horrible, increases, uh, you know, oxidation and stress in your body and all these things, and you lost that visceral fat, and now you're feeling better. But you could have used-- you could have even done a vegan diet, right?

So we can get into all that. You know- Yeah ... you just, uh, let me know where you wanna start. Yeah. So I'm gonna use this as, like, a personal fitness consulting, uh, hour that I get. So I'm just gonna pep- now, yes and no.

Um- Go for it. No, I know th- the-- I know the audience, um, loves this particular topic. So the-- our audience and, and it, it's, it's a tremendous group. It tends to be men and women who-- driven, ambitious. If you listen to all the crazy shit on this show and the people I bring on, right, and you stick around, then, then this is kind of where your head is at.

And, you know, f- I know fitness is a big part for a lot of people, and there's-- and I did a poll about six months ago and got a l- got some, like, feedback on the audience, and, uh, a lot of our listeners tend to be in, like, that 35 to 50 range. We do tend to skew more towards men, but we have a lot of females as well. And, you know, people are kind of across the spectrum in their health journey. Like, I didn't get detailed in the question. It was more like, where are you and where, where would you classify yourself in your health journey right now?

And I, I'd say it's a very broad spectrum. So, um, you know, don't feel like you're being too simple or too complex. There's a-- people across the board that have interest in these topics. So, um- Sure ... I really wanna focus on the transition, uh, in health from 30s to 40s and using that as the construct.

One, that's kind of what I just went through. I'm 44 years old. Two, a lot of the people that I interact with, peers, um, uh, even some of the, uh, founders and stuff that I coach, they're, they're either coming up to that transition, right- Mm-hmm ... which tends to be a moment, or they're kind of-- they've made the transition into their 40s and now they're going, "Hey, I, I would like to be fit as long as I can into this second half of my life." So I'd like to use that as our construct as we talk through this, 'cause I know your recommendations or ideas for a 22-year-old would be different for a 50-year-old. Yeah.

So we'll kind of use that as our construct as we talk through these things. So- Sure ... first and foremost, um, you have this quote that I think is fantastic and kind of sets the table for our conversation today, which is, "Success means nothing if you're exhausted." Right? I love this because it's right to the point. If you're waking up every day and, and you feel like crap, or you don't have energy, or you're just not excited about who you see in the mirror, that sets the tone for the rest of your day.

So one, um, I'd like maybe you to talk a little bit, just, just kind of give us some context around your, your own, uh, health journey and, and how-- where you've come from and kind of where your-- why you've made this your career and, uh, then I wanna get into some very specific things and, and start talking through some things. Yeah, sure. So Health and fitness saved my life. Everyone thinks when they meet me, "Oh, you must have played sports in high school and must have been a jock." But I wasn't.

I was a, a weed-smoking, skateboarding, rock T-shirt-wearing kind of guy, right? And, uh, when I turned 19, ended up going... I, I kinda screwed around in high school, didn't do well. Got into college, started really getting into physiology, and I wanted to study neuroscience. I was, in particular, I was super fascinated by it.

And then, um, I don't know how deep you wanna get into this, but my nine-year-old brother was kidnapped and murdered, and it's like big news, big story in Miami. Anyone who was living in Miami during that time knows my brother's name, Jimmy Rice. Hmm. Don't look up the story. It's really bad, but it, it was a very high-profile case.

They ended up catching the guy who did it. But when it comes to my story and how that plays into why I chose health and fitness to dedicate my life to is because during that time, I was like, "Okay, my life is over," right? I didn't have my parent... Like, my parents were very focused on... They, they got laws passed, and they're, did all this great stuff for missing children in the United States, met with two presidents, et cetera.

But I was just falling apart mentally, emotionally, in- including physically. And I dropped out of school, didn't know what to do with my life, and I ended up founding, uh, finding my way into the gym again 'cause although I was like the, the skateboarding kinda party guy, I had lifted weights too, and I did martial arts, so I wasn't completely just... You know, I was a skinny, very active kid. Um, I just happened to party, and that was kind of my thing. And I found my way back into the gym, and that was my path to healing.

That was my path to getting back to a place where like, oh, there is a light at the end of the tunnel after this terrible, tragic, horrible story, right, that, that really devastated my family, um, and, and put me in a dark place that took years to come out of. And again, health and fitness was the thing. And, and the, and, uh, I wanna make it relevant to everyone listening because that's a really hard story. Like, h- hopefully that, nothing like that will even, even remotely similar to that will ever happen to you, I, I hope. Um, but we all go through hard things, right?

Your parent, best case scenario, you had the best childhood in the world, you're gonna watch your parents get old and die. In fact, a lot of, uh, the people in the demographic that you mentioned, that's who I work with, my clients, and we can talk about this 'cause people love to talk about like, "Oh, my metabolism is slow." It's like, no, you are a caretaker for, for your dad who has cancer for the second time and your mom who has signs of Alzheimer's. And, you know, it's like these things that, um, happen in our social life that really take a toll on our time, on our stress levels. And so a lot of people in their 40s end up having kids that require a lot of money, attention, and then require, uh, and then have parents that require a lot of attention and sometimes money too.

And, and that's what a lot of people's experience in their 40s are. So what I do is, again, health and fitness helped me pull out of that bad place, and I help people who found themselves in a place where like, "Man, in a way, it's my best time of my life. I'm in my 40s. I'm more successful than ever, more confident in who I am, and, um, I look in the mirror, and I don't recognize the, the person stand- uh, looking back." And it's like, will I ever be able to get that back?

And a lot of people don't believe they can, but I'm here to tell you that it's possible, and it's easier than you think. So I appreciate you sharing that story with us. Um, and while, you know, I'm assuming most people can't relate to the depth and public nature of the tragedy, I, I appreciate that you shared it to give us some context on, you know, your... You know, we all have things, right? We all have things.

And, and, you know, one of the things, guys, that I would l- I would caution you on this is don't compare your thing to someone else's thing. Your thing doesn't need to be as perceptually as big or disastrous for it to have a similar impact on you, your body, your mental, your depression, right? So it's not like, you know, it could, for you, it could be getting fired from a job, or it could be, uh, a girlfriend or your wife leaves you, or you're just having problems, or, you know, a business partner does something. You know, there's, there's plenty of things that can put us down this spiral, and don't feel like your thing isn't as important or whatever. Like, we all have things, and we have to pull ourselves out, and that's what we're here to talk about today is how do we optimize our physical health 'cause I've been saying for a long time on this show, your health's a competitive advantage, right?

When you're thinking about competitive- Love that ... advantages in business, your health is a competitive advantage. And, and I mean this sincerely. You know, I, uh, and, and I, I'll... You know, my kinda story with health is, uh, I had college athlete, athlete in high school, always just saw myself as this athletic guy. But then into my late 20s, early 30s, I had kids, I was married, working a lot, all the things you just said, right?

Um, in 2017, uh, I am, uh, hosting a conference and, and emceeing it, and the final session of a two-day conference was I was doing a fireside chat with our last speaker to close out the day. And I'm standing behind the curtain, and we're like two or three minutes from going on, and I collapse, pass out. Um, I... My physical health, my drinking too much, not sleeping, eating crap, um, you know, just, just all the things, I had just-- I paid zero attention to any of them, you know, 'cause I was so focused on, on work. And, uh, the speaker had to go out on his own, and essentially I walked out, sat in the chair, you know, after pulling myself back together, um, and basically said, "Hey, I think..."

You know, his name was Michael. "Michael wants to get after it, Michael. Dude, we're here to see you anyways. Go do your thing." And I sat in the chair and literally, like, was, like, worried about passing out again while he went and did it, thank God.

And no one even knew in the conference. It was fine. But I realized I had hit this low. Like, if I can't, at 36 years old or whatever I was, not being able to make it through a two-day conference, you know, without passing out is bad. And, uh, and that's when I started my journey, and what I found at that time was, um, and when I started to lose weight, is all of a sudden I could create more, I could be better for my team members, I could give more attention to my kids at night because I wasn't exhausted by the day.

Like, all these amazing things started happening. So, so someone comes to you, right? And they're in the situation that I'm in. They, they, they, they want to get better, right? So you're not convincing them they need to get better.

They've come to you and said, "Hey, I'm in this place. I'm 20 pounds, 25," whatever it is, "40 pounds overweight from where I would like to be. I don't have energy." How do you start digging in with them? Like, I know a lot of people get stuck on where to start 'cause it feels like such a big thing.

Do I start running? Do I start lifting? Do I take testosterone? You know, like, where do I, where do I get started with this journey in turning my health around so I can make it a competitive advantage for me in business? Yeah, and the, the real answer is hire an expert like me, and they'll be able to guide you through the process in a way that doesn't lead to losing the weight, gaining it back, or overdoing it.

But I know that's, that's gonna come across self-serving, but that is the truth, right? If you want the fastest, the fastest path to regaining your health and, and getting into shape where you, you can be in the best shape of your life in your 40s, 50s, even 60s, provided you weren't, like, an elite, like, an elite athlete in your 20s, of course, right? So but let's get into the steps, like, separate from that. But I just wanna drop that because how do you grow your business the fastest i- if you're not already, like, just a, a business wizard? Well, you hire someone to help you, right?

You hire a mentor. You wanna get good at golf, you hire someone to help you. Wanna get good at tennis, hire someone to help you. I got my black belt a lot faster... I, I, I told you earlier, I got my black belt in jujitsu a lot faster than I had planned on.

I, I was planning on spending a year in Brazil to make it happen. I thought it would happen in, like, nine months, some eight or nine months. I got it in, um, less than six months because I hired someone. I hired a, the best person I could to train with. That's, and helped me level up, and I was already good, right?

But and, and I think that's another thing a lot of people are like, "Oh, but I know what I'm doing." It's like, eh, and here's, here's coming into the, the part where, you know, if, if you're not sold on working with someone yet, totally cool, but here's what I want you to focus on then. You think you're knowledgeable about health, fitness, diet, and you probably are in a trivia sense. Like, if you go to a party and you can talk about the L-theanine and shiitake and king oyster mushrooms and the sulforaphane in broccoli sprouts, fantastic. What results can you get for yourself in health and fitness?

What are your numbers, in fact? So that's what I start off clients with. Go get a DEXA scan to see your body fat percentage and also your muscle mass and your, specifically your visceral fat. Not all DEXA scans do them, so you have to make sure you go to one that will test how much visceral fat you have. Because if you have that, you're not in, you're not that healthy because I'll, I'll come back to the, the data in a second, but, um, a big mistake people make is tell them stories, uh, tell...

They, they tell stories about what they're doing instead of about the results. It's kinda like someone in business saying, "Hey, we're running ads. I just hired a rock star. Man, our, our business is crushing it. We're closing deals."

How much money are you making this year compared to last year, right? If that was the goal, let's say. And if it's not different, then, then you're just talk, it's just talk, right? And so there's people... I, I remember a very obese guy telling me, "Hey, listen, I drink green juice, and I'm eating the açaí, and I'm doing this.

I'm, I'm going, I'm doing cardio. I'm lifting wei-" It's like you're out of shape. I don't need anything else. Yeah. What you're saying is completely irrelevant.

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ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. And I went through this journey too where I had, I had the same thing. I had a story about... I, I was also got out of shape in, um, my mid-30s and changed things around after that. Um, but start with data.

Go get your blood work. I've worked with so many high performers that haven't been to the doctor and gotten blood work in a while. Go- this is, if you're in your 40s, you don't have time to mess around. I had one client, he went and got a CT, uh, not a CT scan, a calcium score, and it was elevated. Calcium score is how much hard plaque is in your arteries.

It should be zero at his age, but it was quite high, right? And so, um, so get the data. Get a DEXA scan. If you have heart disease risks in your family, get a s- calcium score. I'd, I had a CT angiogram.

I don't even have heart disease in my family. Luckily, it came out fine. Go get your colonoscopy because, um, people are getting colon cancer earlier than before. Um- Ed, can I, can I ask you one question- Sure. Go for it ... for the DEXA scan?

So I have one of those, um, it, the comp- the brand that I use is Withings. Uh, but it's a- Right. Sure ... DEXA scan scale. How accurate, like, like I know it's probably all relative, like you wanna see the numbers in general heading in the right direction, but like how accurate are those types of, uh, scales, like at home scales?

Yeah, they're, they're typically not, right? You wanna go to an InBody at the very least, which is bioelectrical impedance, and a DEXA scan is best. Now, a DEXA scan does come with a little bit of radiation, but it's very, very low, right? Like, so do dental X-rays, and so does flying in an airplane and, you know, so- Little bit of radiation never hurt anybody, you know what I mean? It...

Yeah. Outside my realm of expertise, and I'm very, I'll tell you when, when I know stuff like, uh, uh, radiation dosages, it's not something I read a lot about. But, but anyway, it's not gonna, it, you know, it's, it, having a DEXA scan is, is gonna help you a lot. So one of those scales would be good in general for trends if you're, if you're, if you're in the process seeing, you know, obviously weight, but seeing like, you know, a, a, a fat percentage come down, visceral fat percentage come down, like muscle, muscle mass going up as a percentage of body. Like seeing the trends, it might help.

But ultimately, if you wanna know where you're at, you need to go to a facility and get like a DEXA scan and get an InBody scan so that you have like real accurate numbers. Yeah. DEXA scan's gonna be best. And because the Withings scale, it's, you know, I, I've seen it trend similarly with, uh, with DEXA scans or, or InBody or bioelectrical impedance. But man, it's just i- it's kind of like a better guess- Yeah ... instead of...

Even the DEXA scan has a margin of error, but it's quite low. So, um, yeah, there, there's always margin of error, but, but definitely the DEXA scan's like the goal- Yeah, that's really good to know ... standard when it comes to that. That's good to know. So I, uh, I have a Whoop. I'm not wearing it right now 'cause I go through cycles with it 'cause I, I don't love having it on my wrist, but I love the data.

And, uh- Yeah ... the sca- the scale... So guys, so you know what I'm talking about when I say a Withings scale, and there's other brands. This is just one brand. But like it's the scales that you step on, and you pull the like little bar up, and you hold it, and it sends electricity through your body and figures out, you know, these different things. And, um, I found it good for trends, but I've always kinda been like... 'Cause right now it says my body fat is like, this morning it was like 7.7%.

That's not accurate. And I'm like, I'm like look- No ... I, I, I know I've brought my- I can see that right now- Yeah, I was like I've brought my- ... in your face, Ryan ... body fat percentage down. Like I know- That's not right ... that's true. But to think that I'm like 8% body fat is crazy.

Like that's just not, that's just not the truth, so. You would have veins, and here's how you know how lean you are. It's not what the muscle striations and that type of thing. It's the veins, the vascularity. If you have veins popping, you would have veins popping out on your chest and your abs, um, at that level of body fat.

I would see veins on your neck right now- Yeah, which I- ... at that level of body fat ... which for those just listening to the audio, I, I don't have that. That's, that's not... And that's also not my goal, right? It's just that, that was kinda like when I saw that, you know, as I've worked- Sure ... through this, um, whatever, you know, I've been kind of on a, on a mission the last like three or four months to kinda get myself back to where I wanted to be. I let myself, not go, but whatever.

Doesn't matter. Um, and you know, I've, I was always kind of been like, this feels like good for tr- what direction you're trending, not, not like you could, you couldn't quote 8% body fat. Like that would be insane. Like, you know what I mean? It's basically just lean muscle.

Another thing about that and low body fat, some guys feel... Like it, it, I think this is a misconception that a lot of people have. Like the bodybuilders or let's say the Men's Health cover models, when they diet down, their sex drive is low. Their energy is low. Yeah, they might be 7% body fat, but they're feeling horrible.

They look amazing for sure, but a lot of guys, they can't maintain super low body fat Because of the hunger that happens, the lethargy, the low libido, uh, you wanna drop your testosterone levels into the double d- digits, which, um, if you're, y- you know, if you're measuring nanograms per deciliter, which is what you, what, what, the metric they, we use in United States, it's like low is 300 or 280 depending on the lab. I've seen bodybuilders with double digits when they get contest. Uh, now it comes back, right? And these are natural bodybuilders, 'cause if they're taking testosterone, their test- their testosterone will stay at the level that they're injecting, right? Um, but, uh, but yeah, for natural, if you're natural and not taking TRT, which I'm not a fan of by the way, um, it, it's, it's gonna tank.

So just keep that in mind. What you think might be your ideal based on, especially now with social media and with all the, the steroid use and, um, you know, the women with the BBLs and, and getting liposuction and people get, guys get liposuction on their abs too, like Drake. I, I don't have anything against people doing any of this stuff. Like for example, Drake's a, a, you know, a m- rap, uh, slash musician, rap- rapper slash musician, but you could see going back, if you look at his photo, h- if he had this, this crease in his abdominal area and his arms, you couldn't see any veins, right? If he were that lean, you would be able to see vascularity on his...

You'd see bicep and forearm veins just popping. Uh, but he didn't have that. So a lot of w- and people use software as well. Yeah. So, um- And I think the goal- ... it's just crazy times we're living in ... a- and, and I love that you brought that up, 'cause I think this is, this is what happens to a lot of people, right?

So, um, you know, I, my, my fight is against dad bod, right? I don't wanna be dad bod. Not, not even so much 'cause I care about the look or what I- I mean, I don't, I don't like the look, I don't like the way I feel when I put on weight, but, like, but at the sa- it's more, it's more the discipline of it, right? To me, when we start putting on the keg belly and we start accepting, you know, our back pain and our knee pain, and it's like, to me, that feels more like giving up. Like you've just kind of acquiesced to life.

And, you know, my, you know, m- I say, you know, I, I refuse to go quietly into the night. I'm gonna fight this thing kicking and screaming as much as I can in terms of taking care, being, being diligent, you know, focusing on fitness, focusing on what I eat, focusing on mental health, and all the different things, like, right. I'm not just gonna, you know, ride out what the universe det- decides to throw me from a mental and physical health perspective. I'm gonna fight it, right? That's kinda my goal.

And, uh, really where that came from was, uh, not this January we just went past, but the January before, right? I, so I live in Upstate New York. Used to 66 days of sun, right? So in January and February, you're basically drinking vitamin D and doing everything you possibly can to not get, like, the winter, the winter, uh, the winter blues. Uh, but I'm used to it.

Every, it happen, no matter what you do, you have this dip in energy, just you don't see the sun, all this stuff. Okay. Very used to that. So not this last January, but the January before, so that would be January of 2024, it's like I ran into a brick wall, dude. Couldn't get out of bed, no energy, brain fog, no libido, um, just the whole thing.

And I knew something was different. A- and I don't have a great GP. Hopefully she doesn't listen to this show, but she's kinda not awesome. I don't trust her. She constantly wants to put me on drugs.

What drugs? So, so I've traditionally had very high cholesterol. Uh, not very high- Right. Right ... traditionally, so since I was a kid, I've had a cholesterol over 200. I've always been over 200.

Mm-hmm. And in the last 10 years, I've seen it go from 200 up to, uh, the last time, I just got my blood work yesterday, but before that, I was at, like, 275. Mm-hmm. And it was over indexed on the LDL. So, but I went, so I go to my GP and, you know, I find, I get this number, 275 or whatever it was.

It, that, 273, something like that. Doesn't matter. She goes, "Oh, your cholesterol is high. I'll just write you a, a prescription for Lipitor." And I was like, "Uh, I don't wanna go on Lipitor."

I'm just like, "I don't, I don't want..." One, I just don't like taking things that I feel are unnecessary, and two, I know there are side effects to Lipitor, and I'm just like, "I don't wanna do that." I don't wanna just go, I don't wanna just, like, go on Lipitor. So, um, I'd done enough research, cholesterol being an issue for me as long as it has been, uh, to know that that nu- that amount of cholesterol, if my plaque is zero, is essentially an, a, n- not an issue, or at least not enough of an issue to go on Lipitor. So I, so I come back to her and I go, "Well, can you write me, uh, a ticket to go get, uh, a plaque and a plaque scan?

Because, you know, if my calcium is zero and my plaque, if my plaque is zero, then I really don't no- need to go on Lipitor." And she agreed, and I went, and it was zero. So, you know, that was great. You had a CT angiogram? Yeah.

Yeah. I got the whole- Or- ... thing, the, in the machine ... so you got injected with contrast? Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So I got the whole thing, and, um, and, you know, came back zero, which is great. Uh, awesome. Okay. So where I'm going with this is, I'm, uh, I, I ended up getting, it was one of the services that, uh, Humor- Huberman talks about for men's hormonal testing.

I just got an at home blood test, right? So it comes in the mail, you take the blood, you mail it out, and they send you your results. And I did that twice, because the first time I did it, it was 77 for all testosterone, not just free. And the second time, it was 84. So I'm, like, I'm, like, in the 6th or 7th percentile of men for testosterone according to the stats, right?

So that's not free testosterone, guys. That's all testosterone in my body, which is not good. My free testosterone was, like, five So, um, I ended up getting a prescription for Enclomidine, M-clemin... Uh, I always permit E-N-C-L-O, En-encloma-- It's a natural-- It's a steroid that naturally activates your body's, like, testosterone production ability. Um, and it's, you know, so it's not TRT or whatever.

Uh, you take it su-sublingual, and, uh, after about three months, that had amazing effect, right? My testosterone came back up, and-- But then I started-- This is what sent me down the journey that we're on, that we're talking about today, was because I was like, "Oh my God," like, I've been relatively healthy since twenty seventeen, you know, varying degrees, but for the most part, on the healthier side for men my age. And this, my testosterone just dropped off the map for, for two months. And, um, and that's what kinda put me down this path of I'm not, I'm gonna fight this thing. Like I'm gonna make su-- you know, within reason, I'm not gonna fly to some shady country and get injected with some experimental chemical.

But, you know, with as much as I can, you know, as reasonable as I can be, I'm gonna do the things necessary to create healthy longevity in my life. And that's kinda how we got to, you know, wanting to talk to professionals like yourself who know so much about this stuff. 'Cause- Yeah ... you really have to do-- If you're not working with an expert, this is the last thing I'm gonna say, and I know I'm talking a long time, I apologize. No, no, no. All good. That's gonna make-- To your point about working with an expert, if I, if I wasn't like a research OCD psychopath, right?

Which is what makes me good at certain aspects of my job. But, like, if I wasn't so willing to invest hours and hours into reading and, and listening to all these different people and comparing notes and trying to figure out what could work for me, and then going out and finding the professionals that could help, right? I have no idea, and I'm probably still sitting here with super low testosterone feeling like shit, just thinking my, my li- this is what my life is, right? So going back to your point of working with an expert, I know guys that when, you know, someone like Ted comes on a show and it's what he do, and you hear that, you're like, "Oh, that's 'cause..." No.

What Ted said wasn't call me. He said, "Find somebody that you can work with who can be your guide," because I'm telling you, unless you are a complete psychopath, this is very hard to do yourself, and it will take much longer, and you will make a lot of mistakes. So I just wanted to double into that point that I found a local hormone optimization specialist who I work with here in my local area, and she has completely changed- You've finally broken loose from work. Three friends, one tee time, and then the text: "Honey, there's water in the basement." Not exactly how you pictured your Saturday.

That's when you call us, Cincinnati Insurance. We always answer the call, because real protection means showing up, even when things are in the rough. Cincinnati Insurance. Let us make your bad day better. Find an agent at cinfin.com Game for me.

But it wasn't until I found her-- I was doing all kinds of different things until I found her. So, so I just wanted to kinda push into, I do think it's very important that if this is important to you, that you find somebody like yourself to work with. Yeah, definitely. And, and just to, um... So were you-- You're taking Clomid, is that correct? 'Cause you said Clomadine.

I c- I could tell you exactly what it is. Maximize. But I'll talk in the... Clomiphene, right? Yeah, Enclomiphene.

Yep, Enclomiphene. Yeah. Um, yeah, so what that does is it stops, uh, again, I'm not an expert in this area, but what it does is it, it stops... So, so here's what happens, right? 'Cause I, we, we can talk about testosterone, because testosterone is a downstream effect. And so what I mean by that is you might say, "Man, my problem, I don't have any money.

I don't have any money. That is my problem." It's like, no, no, no, no. Uh, do you have a job? Yep.

Is your business-- Like that's, that's a- Yeah ... symptom of your problem. So testosterone is a symptom of the problem. Clomid, by the way, what it does, uh, to my recollection, right, is it stops this process called aromatization. What is aromatization? It's when testosterone gets converted into estrogen.

Guess where that happens? In your fat cells. In fact, women need that because it... And, uh, you know women who compete in like bodybuilding, in natural bodybuilding without drugs, their, um, when they get super lean, their estrogen levels drop, right? So, so the number one thing that's causing issues with testosterone, according to the best literature that we have, is excess body fat, especially visceral body fat, right?

And so, uh, guys are so quick to go out and take TRT or some other type of medication, and look, you know what? It's-- Everyone... I, I've put things in my body, MDMA, one, alcohol. Alcohol is one of the worst things you can do. But, um, I'm not judging.

But if you wanna do things the right way, you gotta fix the root cause, and the root cause is this: It's like you have to lose the excess body fat. And another thing about that is we know that there's what's called a personal fat threshold. For example, um, Chinese people get diabetes at a lower BMI, right? So at a lower weight. BMI is just a measurement of your height and your weight.

They get higher rates of obesity at a lower BMI than Americans do. Well, why is that? Well, some people have a genetic predisposition to having, uh, diabetes or insulin resistance at lower levels of body fat. Just like I was to- I had a CT angiogram too My calcium score is zero. I had what's called zero stenosis in my arteries, so there's no signs of any type of issues, uh, with my heart, with my arteries.

I'm 48 years old. But I had a precancerous polyp removed from my colon back in 2021, and I have to get colonoscopies, um, I'm, you know, uh, quite frequently, right? So why? Because I had a genetic predisposition to it. So, so you can't compare yourself to people, and that's why going back to the second thing I said, first was, you know, hire, hire an expert to help you.

But the second was get the data, right? You don't wanna tell yourself a story about how you're doing. Go get a DEXA scan. Go get your blood work, right? Go get, um, go get a VO2 max, 'cause that's...

A VO2 max test is something that measures cardiorespiratory fitness. In other words, how fit you are cardiovascularly. 'Cause a lot of people aren't very fit cardiovascularly, especially if you're fat, right? If you've got excess body fat, if you've got a big belly, you may go- be going out and, and pushing yourself, and it feels like you're pushing yourself, but the issue is you're already out of shape. You're alread- Your body is under stress already, right? You have, you've got ox- what's called oxidation is higher, right?

Um, oxidative stress is higher. If you're, if you're too overweight, you're gonna have some sleep apnea, so your sleep isn't gonna be good. Um, you're gonna already in- you're gonna already have issues. And as we get older, to your point earlier, we... Age is not just a number, okay?

It's a good thing to say that, and you should say that if you're currently saying that. But the reality is this, even if you're, like, doing everything perfect. Let's take... Th-this person doesn't exist, but let's just imagine there's a lean, fit person, they've been fit their whole life. They're like Olympic level of in- Olympic level cyclist le- uh, uh, VO2 max, right?

And they just, they've been doing the same thing. They've never changed. The only thing that's changed is their age. Their VO2 max is gonna come down. We're, we're super focused on building muscle and strength, which is the foundation in my opinion.

But VO2 max is something where you can get your strength. You, you can, you can be strong and have muscle in your 70s, you know? Six- 50s, 60s, 70s, not a problem. But your VO2 max is, like, it's kind of like you have an opportunity, the younger you are, the more you can invest in it to build it up, and then the, the less the decline, right? And every year that goes by, you're missing out on that if you're not doing dedicated cardiovascular training.

And our levels of what's called low-grade chronic inflammation go up. Mm-hmm. Scientists are, call it inflammaging, right? And so these levels of, uh, inflammation go up even if you're doing everything right. And if you're not doing everything right, which is like 99.9% of us, right?

U-u-unless you live, unless you're part of the Tsimane tribe in Bolivia living off the land, right? Hunting your food, which none of us listening to this are, you're, you're not as healthy as you think. Modern life is, is just, you know, it just, it is what it is. We- that's why we have to work so hard to stay healthy- Yeah ... 'cause we're really working against, um, you know, the, the amazing and fun life that we've created. But it's a, a bit far away from, let's say, what our biology is designed for.

Yeah. Um, okay. So, uh, good news with the enclomiphene. Uh, I used it for about a year, and then my doctor and I cycled off of it once we felt we had everything stabilized. Nice.

So it was more of like a, um, get yourself fixed, and then all the things that you said. So it was funny. She said, basically what she said to me was, "In order to get you back to operational speed, we're gonna use this tool, right? For a period of time. And then in the meantime, what I need you to do is get your shit together." 'Cause I- Yeah ... in, in the end of 2023, I was selling a company.

There was a lot of stress. I was exiting. You know, there was all this stuff going on. So like 2023, I kind- I'd put on about 10 or 15 pounds from where I'd like to be, which is pretty much where I am today. And, um, so some of that and, you know, just all the things, right?

You, you, you, you g- I'm, I'm just as susceptible as anybody else to the, "Oh, I'll just have one drink tonight 'cause I earned it," you know? Sure. "'Cause I worked so hard today." And you know, that kind of shit like adds up. And, um, I, I have a bunch of questions on some individual things that I'm gonna save for the end, uh, and kind of like maybe we'll do like a rapid fire section.

Sure. But there's two, there's two additional topics that I wanna touch on, um, that I know a lot of people are thinking about, hearing about. Uh, and let's start with the big one, and that's, uh, GLP-1s, right? And as I shared with you in the pre-show, and you know, I don't know that I've ever shared this on the show, but you know, I'm obviously, you know, it is what it is. I take, uh, tirzepatide Mounjaro, which is, uh, what is a second generation, uh, GLP-1.

Um, I take a micro dose of that. So I take one point something milliliters or milligrams or whatever the metric is, um, I take it once a week. And I, so I'll, I'll give you what I have seen as the result, right? Sure. So the reason that I wanted to take it, and I did months and months of research on this, right?

So one, it wasn't about fat loss. Uh, I was already on that journey and kinda knew how to do it. It wasn't ne- you know? The things that I was the most interested in were, one, uh, reducing food noise, right? So one of the things that I found is with the micro dose, all my food noise is gone Still, still like to eat protein.

I still hit my calorie numbers. It's not like I'm just not hungry, but I don't think about food all day. You know what I mean? I don't get, I don't get cravings. I'm not craving.

I'm just like, "Oh, I'm hungry. I'm gonna go eat eggs," or, "I'm gonna go, you know, do whatever." Uh, inflammation, which also comes with reduction of fat, fat, but there's some anti-inflammation. And then the other one was, uh, I wanted to completely cut sugar for the mo- you know, for the most part, any processed sugar outside of like fruits or whatever out of my diet. And what I've found is, again, with the micro dose, I have zero desire for sugar, right?

So my, you know, my mom... And, and part of that was my mom went pre-diabetic about six months ago. So there's a little bit of nervousness in me that that might be, there's might be a hereditary to that or, you know, whatever. And I was like, I'm not a big sugar guy to begin with, whatever. So, so I have really enjoyed it.

I've had no stomach issues. I feel like I, I wake up with energy. I feel, um, like I said, no food noise. Um, the inflammation stuff has been great and, you know, in general, it's been a very positive experience. But again, I'm taking like, I'm taking less than what is normally a micro dose for most people if they're gonna do it.

So that's kinda where I'm at with these. But I, you know, obviously we started, we, we were talking on the, um, in the green room and I was-- you started giving me your response and I was like, "Wait, no, no, no, no, no, no." Like I wanna get into it in the show. So talk to us- Yeah ... about GLP-1s. Um, you know, and you're not gonna hurt my feelings, so, so, you know, share your honest opinions on how people should be thinking about these positive use cases, places we need to be careful, et cetera.

Yeah, and it-- I'm a little bit, I, I'm a little bit more biased against, uh, using testosterone, uh, because guys are like, "No, I couldn't, I couldn't, uh, lose the fat and then I started taking TRT." It's like, no, you're eating too many calories. You think you know that you're training properly, but you're actually not, right? And then you take testosterone, you build muscle. Like we've done studies where people or, or one group goes into the gym, starts lifting weights, the other group sits on the couch and injects testosterone.

I forget the levels that they use, right? 'Cause that's, it's really not something I know, like the, the specific dosages. But anyway, the point is the people who sat on the couch and took testosterone gained muscle. The more muscle you have, the easier it is to lose fat, right? It-- 'Cause your body mass goes up. By the way, what do you think is the number one thing that, that determines how many calories or, or how many calories you burn per day?

What's the number one thing do you think? Do you walk? How many steps? How much you weigh. A 300-pound person requires way more calories to main- You have...

The inter- Like, it's like people saying, "Hey, let's, uh, let's forgive the debt of the college students." It's like, well, someone has to pay for that. You cannot build fat. You can't move to a desert island and, you know, be starving and eating bugs and climbing trees for coconuts and cracking them open and, you know, barely getting by and maintain a 300-pound body if you're like, you know, 5'9" or 5'11", right? It's not gonna happen.

You simply don't have the energy to do it. Now, this is, this might sound controversial, but it's not. There's a lot of what's called metabolic ward data, um, showing like this is, this is like the case. So anyway, I know I kinda went off on a tangent, but I wanted to just be clear about that before moving on to GLP-1s where I work with clients who take GLP-1s. Um, I'm not as against them, and the reason is I think taking TRT because you, you think-- I think it's just, I think it's a total cop-out.

Unless you've been, had a, a traumatic brain injury or you had a testicular injury and you actually need it, think it's a total cop-out. And there's so many doctors who will prescribe it like, "Come on in. Let's try, let's do some TRT." When it comes to GLP-1, here's, here's what changes my mind about it. We know that to some extent, um, obesity is heritable.

Really good person on this is Stephan Guyenet. He was on the Joe Rogan show, um, and he's written a book. I've had him on my show a bunch of times. When I first had him on, he's a neurobiologist that studies obesity. I was like, "What the hell does neuroscience have to do with obesity?"

But the biggest breakthroughs in obesity, including GLP-1s, have come from neuroscience. In fact, what do GLP-1s do? All they do is they affect the reward part of your brain to quiet it down so that you're not like, "Oh man, I'm feeling a little stressed. Let me go get some M&M's," or what- whatever the case is. So, so we know that there's obesity, and this is something I changed my mind on, uh, as I've matured and educated myself.

It's like, okay, there's a reason that, that I work with clients who are extremely successful deca-millionaires, and they're 260 pounds at 5'11". And it's not because they're lazy or lack work ethic. Uh-uh, right? And then I work with guys who don't struggle as much. And, and it's like, okay, something's going on here, and some people just have...

This is all a brain issue, and some people, um, if, if it helps, here's, here's my thoughts on it. If-- Do the right thing because you don't want it to be a cop-out. I've talked to people who wanted to work with me, and they're like, "Yeah, but I'm taking a GLP-1." It's like, well, 25% of what you lost is muscle because- Yeah ... you aren't doing the right things. Yeah.

You don't know how much protein you're eating. You're not lifting weights. I'm glad that you feel better, and that's great, but I'm, I, I'm striving for ex- I help people who wanna achieve excellence here, not just- Well, that's the Ozempic face that people talk about, right? So- Right ... when, when you, when you do none of the work, right? When you continue to eat the same, uh, macro, uh, uh, macro percentages, right?

Which normally are over-indexed towards, uh, carbs instead of protein, and you're not wei- li- weightlifting weights, et cetera, and you're just taking the, the, the GLP-1s, that's when you get that kinda gray, sunken face look that y- that you've seen in a lot of celebrities, right? And, you know, this was one of the biggest things when I was doing my own research was, you know, I'm trying to get as close to my body weight, which is 195 pounds, uh, in protein. And, and if I can be within 70% of that, I'm happy, right? I mean, some days, you know, you go a little bigger or whatever. But, um, you know, that has been a big part of not having any, I feel, any structural changes, is all I really did was ramp up the protein and keep the carbs enough so I had energy, and that way you don't get that, that Ozempic face that people talk about.

And if you Google Ozempic face, you'll see some pretty gnarly looking things. But that- I've not done that, actually. Oh, yeah, yeah. There's, do you know, you, they gotta... There's a ton...

And what you see is, like, your fa- your skin starts to turn a little gray 'cause they, they're not eating enough protein, they're not eating enough food in general, and they get this, like, skinny, fat, sunken face look, right? Because they're not, they're j- all that's happening i- they're not doing anything to improve their body structure. They're literally just eating less calories 'cause they're, 'cause the, uh, GLP-1s is telling their body, you know, is not giving them that indication. It's really wild. So don't get Ozempic face.

All right, keep going. Sorry. Don't get it. Yeah. And, and starting off with lower dosages, I think.

Uh, you know, I, I'm, I've worked with, uh, several clients on GLP-1 agonists and, um, yeah, one of 'em still s- struggles. So it's not a, it doesn't work the same for everyone, and it's something that you have to commit to long term. If, in, in other words, the research shows that when people stop taking it, they gain the weight back, right? I don't know about microdoses and, you know, what we know about that, but the, the food noise comes back. Um, and depending on who you are and how much food noise you have to deal with, right?

Um, maybe it makes sense to take a microdose for a long time. Now, here's the thing. I've created, like, a, a framework. I call it the metabolic reset sequence. There are ways that you can manage your hunger and cravings without that.

Um, you know, a- again, depending on who you are and how much you struggle, you still might have to... Yeah, y- it... I'm, I'm not against using GLP-1 agonists. Um, but again, in the context of doing the right things. Yes.

And I'll say this, too. If you're someone who's like, "I'm never gonna do the right thing. I'm gonna drink alcohol. I'm gonna eat what I want. I'm not gonna exercise.

But, um, yeah, give me a shot. Like, I'll take a shot, though." It's like, okay, then do that, right? I, I- It's better than losing- ... your life to being overweight. But I, I- Yeah ... agree with you.

And, and just so everyone knows, I, part of my protocol is, has been, you know, I have made necessary, uh, uh, physical activity and diet changes and structures and discipline to go along with it. It's not like, this wasn't just like, "Oh, I'm overweight. I, I wanna lose weight." This was like, "Look, I'm trying to optimize myself. I know the places that I'm weak.

Um, I know the places that, that I need help with, and the things that I wanna keep outta my body," right? Like, I... And I'm, I'm interested in your take on this if you feel differently, but to me, like, sugar's the fucking devil, right? And- No. Yeah.

Disagree. Re- okay. So hard. Yeah. Hit me with that.

Yeah. No, I'm into that. So- Look. Yeah. Go f- uh, so look, sugar, the devil, okay?

Um, I'll start by saying this. Sugar's found in fruit. It's not structurally... There's different types of sugar, right? Fructose, sucrose, uh, galactose, lactose.

But it's not... So, so it's not really sugar, right? And going back to this brain thing, right? 'Cause nobody is overeating oranges. There might be someone who's doing that, but that's a different problem, right? Um, what we're really talking about, the thing that hijacks people's brain, if you look at, like, when you think about sugar, tell, tell me a food that, you know, like, "Oh, that's a high sugar food."

Tell me what you think of. Uh, I think of candies, baked goods, uh, cupcakes, treats, ice cream. Um- Let's go with that. Yeah, that kinda shit. So candy for sure.

Um, like jelly beans, that's like 100% sugar. Most people, though, if they're eating, like, ice cream or cookies, crumble cookies or whatever, if you look at the fat content, the calories coming from fat are much higher, or they're equal to sugar. So what it really is, and this is... Look, I, and I wanna say this, too. I was low carb, like staunch low carb for 10 years until I got fat in my mid-30s, and I was like, "I'm doing everything right."

Yeah. "Why did this happen to me?" And I was so frustrated. And now I, I really, I get into arguments with the low carb community all the time because of this. So sugar being the devil.

If you have metabolic dysfunction, meaning if you're pre-diabetic or diabetic, the more sugar you have, the more it's gonna disrupt your, um, your blood sugar for sure. However, what even causes diabetes? What do you think? I, I don't know the ans- uh, I know it has something to do with insulin resistance, our inability- Right ... to create insulin Right? And what causes that is fat deposits in your pancreas, which p- your pancreas is what secretes insulin.

So what this really is, like, you cannot cure diabetes by going low carb. You cure diabetes by losing fat, right? Or they may not-- I think the medical community uses remission or whatever. They, they don't say cure. Can you cure diabetes?

That's not... That's for, you know, someone, uh, uh, for a medical doctor to really explain the nuance there. But I'll tell you this. I've worked with diabetics and people with pre-diabetic blood sugar levels. Um, the way you drop it is by two ways.

Number one, build more muscle because your muscles are a sink for glucose. You store carbohydrate in your muscles. It's called glycogen. For some people, sugar is a performance-enhancing food or drug or whatever you wanna call it, right? For-- But if you're, if you're, like, sitting around and jacking up your blood sugar levels 'cause you're, you know, munching on, um, j- you know, gummy, gummy bears or whatever, yeah, okay, it's probably, probably, probably gonna mess you up more if you, you keep that up and, and you're not doing any type of exercise and, in general, uh, you have high levels of body fat for sure.

But it's kinda throwing-- Eating sugar is like throwing gasoline on the fire. What's causing the fire? It is the fact that you have too much body fat and specifically fat in your organs, the visceral fat. And again, when-- Like, one of the biggest thing that, that-- One of the biggest issues is liver fat. People have non-alcoholic fatty liver.

It's being diagnosed at higher and higher rates. These aren't people who are drinking a lot, right? So why is that happening? Well, it's because fat deposits start to get into, um, the liver, start causing it to start disrupting its function. So, so really the answer is not about going back to data, right? 'Cause I, I, I eat sugar, right?

I eat, uh... Let's, let's say let's go beyond just using macronutrients or, uh, a type of macronutrient, right? Sub, subtype of macronutrient, sugar, which is a carbohydrate. What is the root problem? If you can't s- If you're-- Let's say if you're not under 20% body fat, you've got work to do.

If you've got a belly, you've got work to do. If you don't lift weights at all, you got work to do. And-- Or if you have high hemoglobin A1C, which is a measure of elevated blood sugar, um, over the course of several months, you've got work to do. If you have fasting insulin, fasting glucose high, C-peptide high, like, the answer is not in the foods you eat. It's in, uh, it's in your blood work.

It's in your body fat percentage because we're going-- Now, look, if that's a helpful heuristic for you to not eat sugar, I'm not saying to you or to anyone listening, "No, you, you gotta eat sugar." That's not true. It's definitely not helping you, okay? But I want to make sure that we're clear, right, on, let's say you wanna make sure that, uh, i- if your business is having a problem, you don't say, "Well, we need to hire more sales guys," or you wanna be sure, like, well, is it because we don't have enough sales guys to handle the volume? Or is it, you know-- Or do the guys just need better training?

Right? You need to- You wanna get to the root cause, not symptom. You wanna get to the root cause. Yeah. And so look, sugar is b- And, and here's something else.

Saturated fat never gets talked about because saturate-- Fat was demonized in the '80s unfairly, and now it's shifted to, um, sugar, right, which is now being demonized unfairly and, or carbohydrates generally and sugar specifically without the conversation, uh, with all the nuance 'cause that, that's really the issue here is nutrition is very nuanced. For example, there are studies showing, like, if you wanted to increase the liver fat in someone, um, we know that saturated fat inc- having a higher percentage of calories coming from saturated fat increases liver fat faster than sugar does. Nobody talks about it. Why? It's not popular to talk about.

Comes from research. Research is boring. You know, scientists don't explain it well. And I'm not saying saturated fat is bad either, right? Because again, it's, it's how much are you eating and who's eating it.

Because if I eat saturated fat, guess what? I can see my abs. I've got veins all my shoul- You know, I'm lean. It's not gonna be a big deal versus someone who's out of shape. Again, it's these things that people are missing.

So especially if, um, you'll see a lot of people in the keto and, and carnivore community. I, I have this one screenshot from, from someone. Now, I h- we have studies proving this, but it's always fun to share the anecdotes. I take screenshots from these groups. Like, there was a guy doing keto.

He was in a carnivore group on Facebook. He was doing keto. Lost a bunch of, like 40 pounds, I believe the, the weight was. He switched to carnivore to get even leaner because that's gotta be the answer. And he gained 20 pounds back after doing it, and he was dumbfounded why.

And people are, you know, doing mental gymnastics in, in those groups. It's completely insane what you read in there. But it-- The answer is this: If you go from doing keto, which I don't like it, but at least you're getting veggies and doing other things, and you're filling yourself up with, with, with more than just meat. What most carnivore people do, 'cause they show it off in their fixtures, uh, uh, their photos, right, their social media photos, they're, they're cooking ribeye in, in, um, in butter and then eating bacon and eating cheeseburgers covered in chee- uh, you know, like c- uh, I'm sorry, hamburgers covered in cheese. It's like, dude, if you overdo your calories And especially if a lot of them, and it's easy to overdo your calories from fat.

In fact, the biggest change in the, in, in the American diet is more calories are coming from fat than before. Now, in the form of vegetable oils usually, because, um, there's been an increase in, um, you know, junk food basically, right? And so people are eating more food, eating more junk food, eating bigger size, uh, portions. But, um, yeah, it's a more nuanced conversation. Um, Ted, so, uh, do you have a few more minutes?

I know we're over our time. Yeah, let's do it. Okay. So I wanna, I wanna hit you with like a, a little rapid fire section, maybe spend, you know, two, three minutes on each one of these. You go, you know, 'cause I think we could probably do entire episodes on each one of these things that I wanna hit.

Um, and I'm gonna jump around a little bit. So, um, the first one I wanna talk about is- Can I say one more thing before we go on? Yeah, please. Yeah, yeah I know I said something controversial, so here, here's what I want you to do. If you're like, "Nah, this guy's full of it.

He doesn't know what he's talking about," I, uh, there's an influencer on TikTok that said something different, and so here's what I want you to do. You can either do a couple things actually. There's something called... Now, I don't endorse these, but just as an experiment for a few days. There's something called the potato hack where you eat nothing but potatoes.

And potatoes, you know, people demonize carbs, um, and say they make you fat. Potatoes actually score very high on in satiety. In other words, it's hard to eat a lot of them unless they're doctored up or, or embellished with cheese and sour cream, et cetera. So do the potato hack. Look at what it is.

It's bas- basically eating potatoes, right? Boiled potatoes. You will lose weight 'cause you're not gonna wanna eat a bunch of potatoes, right? You just naturally start bringing your calories low and eating less. So do it for three days and you'll lose fat.

If you wanna t- test the sugar thing, do a juice cleanse. A juice, it, it's not really a cleanse, you're just losing body fat and, um, you're drinking nothing but juice, which is sugar. And I don't love fruit juice generally except for maybe pomegranate juice. Story for another time. But, um, you will lose weight in three days of doing that.

Now, you'll gain it back as soon as you go back to your old diet, but you can prove to yourself that sugar does not cause you to gain weight. It can cause you to lose it and improve your, if you did me- uh, you know, I wouldn't recommend going and have your blood- I'm here on the job site with Dale, who's a framing contractor. Hey. Good morning. Dale traded up to GEICO Commercial Auto Insurance for all his business vehicles.

We're here where he needs us most. Yep, they sure are. We make it easy for him to save on all his insurance needs, all in one place, with coverage that fits his business and bottom line. Oh, I shouldn't have looked down. It's all right.

We're, we're so far up here. Look at me. Take a deep breath. No, I'm good. S- so good.

Get a commercial auto insurance quote today at geico.com and see how much you could save. Get more with GEICO. done before and after, but you could do it, and you're, because of the low calories, you know, 'cause you, on a juice cleanse you're having something in the neighborhood of 1,000 or 1,200 calories per day in juice. It's really hard to drink l- that much juice. And you can see that, um- Sorry. This is, this is what I'm strugg- I don't mean to interrupt you.

The reason that I've been struggling is my children convinced me to get a kitten, and the kitten won't leave me alone. I apologize to everyone at home. Oh, good. The last, like, two minutes he has been messing with me, and I had to just get him out of the screen. I apologize, Ted.

Cats, cats, uh, listen to no one, right? They- Oh my God ... march to their own beat. How, I'm such a sucker to allow my children to talk me into getting this kitten and, you know, it's whatever. It's all good. I apologize.

Um, um- So anyway, you can try that experiment and, and that's what I suggest that you do. Try these experiments d- because to be honest, people don't have the knowledge or experience to really even know, like, uh, maybe I come across, hopefully I come across as knowledgeable and confident, um, in what I do 'cause I am, but, but you don't know me so I might be just, you know, just another person. Test these things and you will see, um, that you can improve metabolic health and lose weight doing things that you wouldn't think were even possible. Yeah. Again, I don't condone those as, as ways of living or, you know, but just as an experiment.

Yeah. And I think I, what I love about that is, is exactly what you said, the, the experiment part, right? Like, my, I'd say my fitness journey being not an expert, you know, armchair, you know, just hacking my own body, it's just been experiments, right? Everything's been an experiment. Does, does, does lifting weights or does boxing or does running or does yo- you know, what is-- And then, and then in s- once you find the things that seem to work for you, what's the cadence?

What's the rhythm? How often, right? Like, I was seven days a week lifting weights for a while. I realized that was too much. Oof.

Right? Then it was m- a lot of it i- some of the stuff that I do too, just so everyone's clear, and, and the, and listeners know this about me, sometimes it's just mental health stuff, right? So it's not even like I'm going to the gym to lift weights 'cause I'm trying to get jacked or think that's even the right thing to do. Your body needs a chance to respond. Your muscles need a chance to regrow and, and, and all that.

But, um, it was more, like, mental, but I realized I wasn't, at a certain point, at a certain number of months of that, right, I stopped feeling as good. I stopped getting gains. I s- and I said, "Okay, I gotta dial it back." And now, like, two heavy lifts, maybe three a week has become a good rhythm. But it, uh, I, and you've said this over and over in different ways, and I think it's just a core point here, is we have to, one, we have to be intentional with this stuff, right?

Two, uh, there is absolute value in, in data and knowledge, so your actual stats, as you've mentioned, working with someone who knows how to interpret those stats and apply them to, to you and, and what you're trying, your goals are, et cetera. And if you do that and, and think of these things as tests, like the potato hack or a juice cleanse, whatever, right? All they're really doing is, is helping you get better in tuned, right? If I'm, if I'm taking what you said. They're all, these little tests help you get in tune with what works and what doesn't, which then allows you to Eventually come up with the routine that puts you in the best place.

I mean, that's what we're trying to get to. And, uh, I think thinking of these things as tests or experiments is absolutely the right way, guys. And too often we, too often we just get caught up on, like, like you said- A narrative ... I'm gonna do keto. Yeah.

Right? And then it's, and keto is hard as hell, and there's, and you know, and, and it's very difficult, especially for the age, this, this 35 to 50 range that we're talking about because you have kids, you have a spouse or a partner, your job is probably the most stressful it has ever been at that point, right? 'Cause you're either growing it if you're an owner or a founder, or you're trying to raise up your career and advance to the next level. So you have all this reality, right? That isn't just, I'm gonna wake up every day and spend every minute that I'm awake thinking about my physical and mental health, right? So it's about finding that cadence.

And, and to that extent, you know, I wanted to hit you with three over-the-counter, uh, now over-the-counter in most places, um, uh, we'll call them chemical compounds and, and their impact on our body. And the first is, uh, nicotine, right? Tucker Carlson has ALPs, Joe Rogan's putting in Zyns. Talk to me a little bit about nicotine. I just saw, um, Dave Asprey was on a buddy of mine's show, uh, The Mick Unplugged Show, which I highly recommend everyone listen to if you're into business stuff, and he was talking about, you know, five milligrams a day of nicotine is great for mental health and, you know, fighting off dementia and all this shit.

And like, like where... W- One, is nicotine use positive at all? 'Cause some people will tell you just in general it's terrible, don't listen to anybody. Two, is there an amount or range that feels like it does have some positive benefits and, you know, kinda walk us through nicotine real quick. Oof. That's, that's, that's a random one, but I'll tell you, uh, I might smoke a cigar every once in a while, but I, I respond very poorly to nicotine.

We know that it's similar to caffeine in that it can, um, you know, enhance cognitive function, but it's more addictive. It, it can cause issu- cardiovascular issues. I wouldn't, uh... The best, the best thing that you can do to improve cognitive function is to get lean. Make sure your VO2 max is high.

In other words, spend time doing cardio, things like zone two and HIIT training, and, um, lose fat, sleep well, and caffeine i- is, is, uh, a preferred. I wouldn't mess around with nicotine, especially if you have an addictive, uh, a tendency towards addiction. Yeah, and I, and I, and I'll double into just personally. Uh, so I do, I, I use, um, the, uh, uh, Tucker Carlson's ALPs mo- ALP brand mostly because they have a, a three milligram that seems to work very well. I do one, maybe two a day.

Um, I do have an addictive personality, and what I found is because, uh, because of, uh, I, I have pretty hardcore hyperactivity and, um, and I found that, one, it does help me focus a little. And when I first started using these, because of the focus enhancements, which were very positive for me at a, at a low dose, you know, if I kept dosing myself during the day, I felt awful in the evening. Mm. Awful. Mm-hmm.

So I have to be very careful, one, two, three milligram a day tops. If I go to a third or a fourth, I immediately... And, you know, if you're, you, if you're not hydrated enough, the cardiovascular stuff, you can start to feel some heart palpitations, lightheadedness. So I, I would agree. This isn't my favorite thing.

I have found that a small dose has a positive effect. But if I, if I go past the small dose, I, I see rapid negative impact. So I, I would agree. Stay away from it, guys, if you can. If you do, go way lower than...

Like, they're selling sixes, nines- Oh my gosh ... 13s in stores. A 13 milligram pouch of Zyn, which I think Zyn is the only brand in the States right now that sells like a, anything over 10, that's gonna put you on your ass. Like there is no reason to have that much nicotine in your body, in my opinion. Um, okay.

Uh, the next one I wanna talk about is weed, right? New York State, it's legal now. It's legal a lot of places. It's become commonplace. Uh, if you drive down the road in most states that it's legalized, you're like driving by cars, you can smell it everywhere.

Um, you know, it has become very normalized, uh, in our life now. W- what should we be thinking about with weed? Is this, is it, is it, is, is there, are, are there any positives to it outside of the recreational kind of take you away from yourself? Or is this just pure recreation, and if you're gonna use the substance, understand why you're using it, don't try to convince yourself of anything else, and, you know, just understand there's negatives to it? Yeah, look, I, I, I, that was my drug of choice, right?

And every once in a while I still might, might do it depending on the circumstances. But, um, but yeah, there's nothing healthy about weed, right? If, if you have cancer and if it helps stimulate your appetite, uh, in that situation, it's like, do what you need to do. But if you're trying to optimize health and your overall, you know, I don't wanna say healthy 'cause it's a rare thing in today's society, but let's say you're, you're focused on health and you have no major chronic illnesses, it's not gonna help you, right? It messes up with your brain chemistry, makes you more likely to have anxiety.

Um, a- again, I think that the, the, the poison is in the dose. And certainly aside from the con- uh, cannabinoids that are in marijuana, combustion, breathing in smoke, or now we know vapes. Like, oof, vapes are in particular, uh, we're coming, we're, we're starting to learn that it's pretty bad for your lungs. You're sucking in with, you know- And so inhaling smoke is not good for you. Uh, it doesn't matter where the smoke is from.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, good. So, so I, um, you know, I'd say in the second half of my adult life, uh, I've tried to replace When, when, in the, in the, in the days when I'm running the excuse play of I need to land the ship, you know what I mean? When, when I'm running that excuse play for my own mental, um, you know, I've, I've trans- I tried to, I've transitioned a little away from alcohol, and I don't drink as much.

Um, or substantially less. Uh, but what I found was, um, and I liked it for that reason, right? At first. But I found that continued use over time, even once or twice a week, um, I, I lost my snappiness, you know? Mm-hmm.

I wasn't, like, I've always prided myself on, for better or for worse, I could, I could index things in my brain fairly quickly. And I felt like it, it just throttled that ability, and I really didn't like it, and I've, I've substantially, in the last six months or so, kinda downshifted on that because, again, if it doesn't have a positive impact and, um, you know, you're not just using it for recreation, for recreational purposes, which is okay. You know what I mean? No judgment on anyone who decides to do that. But the idea that you can smoke or, you know, uh, take, uh, edibles every night before bed, it, you're, you're just harming yourself, you know?

There's no, that's not a, that's not a victimless crime, I guess, if your brain would be the victim in that example. Yeah. We, we know it affects sleep architecture. I believe it, it suppresses REM sleep in particular- Yeah ... if I, m- I remember correctly. It's not, not really that necessary to kind of...

It, it's like it's not good for you. Alcohol, too, not good for you, right? Past two drinks a week, we know that there's, risks start, uh, happening, right? No amount of alcohol is good for you. And listen, I drink.

I'm, I'm not saying that at, with any sort of moral judgment. Just sort of like just own your, your decisions. We all live, and we die, and we have to decide, uh, how, you know, what experiences we want along the way. And, and I think it's okay. I, I, I'm in Brazil right now.

I drink wine here. I like caipirinhas, which are sugar with fruit and just a, a liquor called cachaça shaken up. Like, that's, that's... I, I don't like other types of drinks. I like that one, you know?

And so yeah, I'll, I'll do it every once in a while. But just, I don't, I just, I don't make any excuses about it or try to, try to, what do you call it? Justify. Use a euphemism. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. It's, it's, it's not good for me. It can be fun. Um, and I think, I think there is some benefit to that 'cause I do believe that health goes beyond just the, the physical. It, it, it has to do with social, has to do with, um, psychological, and some people would argue spiritual, right?

So, um, I think there can be an argument made for it. But again, if you're... You don't wanna justify chronic use with, uh, like you shouldn't be doing anything every week, even drinking every week. If you're going through a period where you're going out and meeting with clients, okay, but you need to rein it in. Yeah.

You shouldn't be doing any of that every week. Yeah. You know? There's definitely some mental catharsis in sitting around with your bros having a couple cocktails talking shit for a couple hours. There's, you, there's- 100% ... virtues in that, right?

So no, I, I think that's phenomenal. And, um, you know, I think- You wanna get high? Join Brazilian jujitsu. Yeah. That's what everybody says.

That's what everybody says. My- It'll stimulate... I've been doing it for 20 years, man. Yeah. It just, the, the amount of complexity, it's not as probably, uh, adre- uh, like it's, you know, doing like the Birdman suits or squirrel suits, whatever they're called, right?

It's not as crazy as that, but it's super stimulating. You never get to the top. It's just spiraling levels of complexity and challenge for your brain. And, and you make a lot of friends, too. There's a great social aspect- Yeah ... because it, it calms guys down with their attitude 'cause everybody gets their butt kicked in there, right?

Yeah, yeah. Or, uh, you know- Or can ... got their butt kicked along the way. Yeah. Some people are really good. I train with this one guy, four-time world champion.

Um, you know, uh, yeah, I don't think he gets his butt kicked very often, but- Uh, yeah. But anyway, so, so it... Doing s- finding... I, I believe, too, just modern life is so easy. I know it's hard.

It's stressful. It's weird. Like, I'm going through, we're, we're running ads right now and trying to, um, you know, figure out like what the right combination of ads to scale our business, you know? And it's, it's super frustrating. But on the other hand, it's, life has never been easier.

You're not suffering from... Like the Tsimane tribe in Bolivia, for example, they're kind of untouched by processed food. They, um, you know, 70 years old, and they have no, no cardiovascular disease, no plaque in their arteries at 70. Like, they have unheard of cardiovascular health. But guess what?

They're dying from infectious diseases. They get a... You know what I mean? Like, like we're living such a good life, it gets a little boring, so we have, especially if we're high performers, busi- we, we come home after a hard day at work solving problems and complex issues and being creative and then you're home. You're like, "Man, I'm watching TV, and I don't, this series is boring.

Let me, let me have some popcorn and a little bit of wine or maybe a few caramels," you know? Um, and, and we're kinda suffering from life being too good. Yeah. There's too much availability. There's, there's not enough challenge to get to the resources to make them scarce enough that we consider them.

We just go to the store, buy another bag of whatever, and pop it in our face. Um, all right. I wanna, I wanna wrap up. I appreciate your time. This has been amazing.

We've gone so many different directions and talked about so much stuff, and I really appreciate you being... The last thing that I just wanna ask you and take, you know, we don't have to spend a lot of time here, but, um, I mentioned that I used to wear WHOOP. I know there's Oura Rings. The WHOOP- I get a lot of questions from people, and again, not an expert, so I, this is why I have guys like you on, 'cause I wanna know. Like- One, do you think wearing these devices adds real value?

Like, I, I love the stats as, like, a high-performance kinda crazy person, but I, I don't always know, like... Like, what I find is I go in cycles. I'll wear the Whoop for, like, three months. I'll kinda figure out how to calibrate myself and what the impact is. And guys, I can tell you point-blank, weed and alcohol absolutely impact your sleep.

If you've ever worn a Whoop or an Oura Ring, 100% you can see the difference. Number one, number one thing that helps me sleep is sex before bed, like good sex- Mm-hmm ... before bed. So w- really interesting. You know, and I'm, that's not, that's not, I'm not, uh, I'm not throwing that line out there, ladies. Just, just letting you know, um- ... you know, what the results came back.

It, that, for me too, like, or any type of light- Yeah ... exercise or, you know, somewhat vigorous exercise depending on the mood. Yes. But my, my, I guess my question is, like, if I'm starting a journey, right? So I, w- so we've talked about this personally. I'm...

Is it worth investing in an Oura Ring or a Whoop to help us stay on track, to have metrics, to, to kinda watch trends, et cetera? Are these devices worth the investment? I know they're not terribly expensive, but it's a couple hundred bucks and, you know, maybe there's an, a monthly fee or whatever to some of them depending on what you get. Like, is it worth investing in these items, um, to help us along? Uh, like, is the juice worth the squeeze, I guess is what I'm asking.

So I'm wearing an Oura Ring right now. Okay. Right? I got the Gen 4. Um, for me it's worth it, but here's the thing.

A lot... I don't pay attention to most of what Oura talks about. The readiness score, I throw that out, right? A lot of, 'cause what they do, they try to gamify it to, um, one, make it more proprietary. Also, look, people are super...

Their attention sucks, so they, like, get bored with the same stats. So you can tell, like, over the, the... I've been using an Oura Ring since I think 20, 2019, and you can tell, like, Oura's evolved. Like, I'm like, "Man, just tell me what I wanna know, like, this other stuff." Some of it's interesting, but it, a lot of it's, it doesn't replace solid testing like what I talked about earlier.

But what is solid about it is it can track your ac- uh, just I, I don't like the Whoop. Oura Ring has studies comparing it to polysom- uh, somnography, which is the gold standard of measuring sleep architecture or sleep quality. Uh, Whoop doesn't to my knowledge. Maybe they've done something more recently, but... So Oura's the gold standard in that.

Um, it's still not as good as going and getting a sleep study though if you need one, but it can help you change your behavior. Like, I, I have fragmented sleep. I wake up. Um, you know, so I, it, it helps me to dial in my bedtime. So the things that matter are, like, what time are you going to bed?

Because if you're going to bed at different times, you're, you're, even if you're sleeping eight hours, you're, you're, you're gonna feel the effects of that, the circadian disruption. Um, your sleep efficiency, how long out of the time you're in bed, how long were you actually asleep, right? Um, how long you were asleep, how much movement. Like, as far as the different phases, 'cause people are, like, writing articles about, like, "Here's how to optimize your REM sleep." There's even arguments about, from, from sleep doctors who use polysomic, somnography about what phase starts when and how many phases.

So I don't think Oura's quite at the level. Uh, so you have to know what to pay attention to. Generally speaking, though, if you buy it and, and just kinda mess around 'cause you're, you're not at, quite at the point where you wanna, um, hire someone to help you, try it if it does get you... 'Cause the thing is, people buy supplements a- and it motivates them even though they don't know what their blood work is. They just read something or- Yeah, yeah ... someone on Instagram. So they buy it, and it kind of, you know, it's like this health, a small win for their health and, and it gets them motivated.

The, the big thing is does it help you behaviorally, you know? And if it does improve because you can quantify your steps or your sleep, I'd say, I'd say it's worth it, you know? Um, yeah, I'd say in general it's worth it, but it's good to be intentional and know, like, some of the things. Like, I don't, I don't give a shit about your readiness score. That doesn't, like...

I've woke, I've had some of my best workouts, um, with a bad sleep and, and a, and a bad readiness score, right? Or if you had sex right before bed and your heart rate's elevated, right? And then you fall asleep. Oura will say, "Hey, your heart rate was elevated last night, but you actually slept well." It was not elevated because, you know, you're thinking about, you know, uh, so like some of my clients, uh, I, I have a client who's just being made CEO because there was this big issue with the CEO and his son and some craziness happening.

And so, like, it's not because of mental stress, it's because you did a little bit of exercise before bed. So, so you have to, you have to have some knowledge if you really want to understand, like, what to pay attention to- Yeah ... whatnot. But if, i- if it generally... Give it a, a try if you're struggling with your health and a little bit of quantification and gamification can help, um, you know, get you more active, then go for it. Yeah.

Ted- Give it a test ... I, I appreciate it, man. You, uh, this has been phenomenal. I appreciate you- Yeah ... taking the, you know, following around, you know, kinda going all different directions, but this has really been a master class, man. I think we've given people, um, you know, some, some, some great things to dig into.

If they wanna go deeper into your world, right? Get to know you better, follow your work, and, and maybe even ultimately work with you, um, where's the best place for them to go? Yeah, you can find my podcast on Apple or wherever, iTunes, wherever you listen to podcasts, Legendary Life, Ted Ryce. Um, my last name's spelled R-Y-C-E, so watch out for that. But if you wanna learn more about, like, the, the metabolic reset sequence that I do, uh, you can go watch a, a free master class that I've put together.

It's about 30 minutes long, and you go to legendarylifepodcast.com/free. Awesome. Guys, I'll have the links too, so whether you're watching on YouTube or you're listening wherever you listen, just scroll down into the description or the show notes and, uh, I'll have links to all this stuff. Ted, I appreciate the hell outta you, man. I'd love to have you back sometime, 'cause there's, like, I got a million more questions that we didn't even get to.

Um- Let's do it ... but, but, uh, love it, dude. This has been fantastic. I appreciate all the extra time, and I wish you nothing but the best. Thanks, Ryan. Really appreciate it.

It was, uh, my pleasure. Happy holidays. Want to give your host a gift? Consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing the show this holiday season. It really helps the show grow.

From all of us at Believe, have a merry Christmas, everyone, and a happy holiday. If you liked the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.