What Are We Doing to... Age Well? | The Aging Well Podcast | Ep. 300 - The Aging Well Podcast

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
We ask all our guests what they are doing to age well, but what
about us? What have we learned about aging
and what are we as hosts doing to age well?
Welcome to the Aging Well Podcast where we explore the
science stories and strategies behind living a longer,
healthier and more purposeful life.
I am your host, Doctor Jeff Armstrong, an exercise

(00:21):
physiologist with a passion for making science simple and life
better as we age with my Co hostCorbin Bruton.
This is the 300th episode of theAging Well Podcast.
We have had a lot of knowledgeable guests over the
span of 3 1/2 years. We've learned a lot.
We have made some shifts in our thinking.
In this episode, we'll explore what we are doing from the

(00:42):
perspective and the spies model and our six pillars, all in the
pursuit of aging well. The Aging Well podcast
encourages informed decision making and always consult your
physician in scientific literature when making decisions
about your health. So Corbin, this is our 300th
episode of the Aging Well podcast, not counting bonus

(01:05):
episodes, which probably puts usa little bit over that, probably
even closer to about 310. But I thought it'd be fun for us
to kind of, you know, we, we askall our guests, what are you
doing to age well? What are you doing personally to
age well? Maybe it's time we talk with our
listeners and our viewers about what we are doing to age well.
Because I feel like over the last 3 1/2 years, I've really

(01:26):
learned a lot. My kids joke a lot with my wife
that every time I have a new guest on the podcast, I'm
changing my diet or doing something different in my
behavior and says, you know, dadjust changing his diet again.
So let's kind of go through thisfrom the perspective of our
spies model and for any new viewers or listeners, remember
that is our spiritual, physical,intellectual, emotional and

(01:49):
social well-being that we have labeled as spies are well
centered fitness. And with the perspective of our
pillar, 6 pillars, which is 6 pillars again are exercise,
physical activity, maintaining healthy body composition,
healthy diet, not smoking, getting good sleep hygiene and
most importantly good purposefulsocial connections.

(02:13):
So where would you like to start?
I guess where I would like to start as Doctor Armstrong, what
are you doing to personally age well?
Well, again, where you want to start because I'm working on all
those different areas. So what do you say?
Let's just go through kind of the spies model, because as we
go through spies, we talk spiritual and physical really

(02:36):
tends to encompass those pillarsa little bit more.
So we can start with the spiritual.
Hopefully that doesn't turn people away quickly from the
podcast. And remember when we talked
about spiritual and I get a little bit deeper into it in the
We have a spiritual problem podcast.
So I'll get a little plug for that, that anybody that's
looking for a second podcast to to listen to on a weekly basis,

(03:01):
they have that to go to. But we define spiritual as the
mindset that there is something greater than self.
And it doesn't have to be religion.
It doesn't have to be what you're doing church wise or not
church wise and encompasses anything from a atheist belief

(03:21):
to any faith of a higher power. And so for me, I mean,
spiritually, that's that's big folks.
I guess one of the things that I'm doing to age well is
offering that we have a spiritual problem podcast, you
know, going in deeper into thoseareas, I would include some of
my mindful practices by journaling and those types of

(03:44):
things as being part of my kind of spiritual approach to aging
well. And there's probably more, but
let's hear what? What about yourself?
Well, I mean, if we want to go down the spiritual route, most
of our listeners know that for the last five years I've been
going down my own spiritual journey and walking with Christ.

(04:04):
I've developed a relationship with him.
And a part of that, what that looks like for me to age well is
just kind of, for lack of a better word, killing my old self
and becoming a new version, the version that He created me to
be. I feel like for me, there was

(04:24):
this kind of little, little internal battle between the
person I was tempted to be versus the person I'm created to
be. And in order to understand who
it is that I'm created to be, have to have that good
relationship with them. And you know, there's this,
there's this scripture and it kind of talks about tithing of
giving that 10%, but it also talks about giving your first

(04:48):
and your best. And what I try to do is I try to
give my first and my best with with the Lord.
I am first thing when I wake up in the morning, I'm diving into
scripture and just reading. But I'm not just reading it to
just kind of blow through it. I'm reading it.
And sometimes I'll have to read it multiple times until
something pops off the page and gets to me.

(05:12):
And then whatever that is, whatever it's popping off the
page. Specifically in the book of
Proverbs, I'm just sitting on that and I'm meditating on that
almost almost all day long. And then it's just a matter of
fellowshipping with him and having a conversation with him
every day. You know, a lot of people think,
oh, I got to pray. I got to like, oh, please do

(05:32):
this, Please do that. And it's it's like, no, it's not
that. It's just having a conversation
with them. Like, Lord, what do you want me
to do today? Lord, get in the car with me.
Like we're, we're going on an adventure.
We're driving. What a beautiful day it is.
Wow, I can't, I believe you created this.
And so just having that perspective, it also helps me
have that Christ mindset, havingmore patience, loving each

(05:58):
other, loving, you know, just sacrificing my own self.
And yeah, given, I mean, I have a great marriage, you know, and
I'm really involved in our church community.
I hope that answers the questionis yeah, just kind of putting
the Lord 1st and then then putting my my marriage 2nd and

(06:22):
then me, me third. So kind of going off of what you
used to say past podcast episodeof I am 3 and I just, ever since
you said that I just, I, I love it and it's, it truly is a good
thing for me to stand on. The the phrase is actually I am
third is from Gale Sayers autobiography.

(06:44):
That's a statement that was on the desk of his track coach at
the University of Kansas. And I mean, you know, kind of
refers to in in his case, it's you know, my my Lord is first,
my friends are second and I am third.
I expanded a bit to my Lord is first, family and friends are
second and I am third. So yeah, it's a really good
principle. I think that's a good aging well

(07:05):
principle to live by. I think it encompasses my
aspiration spiritually. I I have been on a journey of
kind of going down to Hardy Chardin rabbit hole of kind of a
broader spirituality, you know, more than just my church faith.
And again, if somebody wants to really dive into my church faith

(07:26):
a little bit more, watch that Wehave a Spiritual problem
podcast. I talk a lot more on that.
I'm not really so focused on my church aspects because, you
know, religiously, I mean, yes, I'm, I'm doing things at my
church, but I'm looking at the kind of broader aspects of

(07:46):
spirituality as I'm attempting to age well and to hard talks
about the Omega Point and its spiritual evolution.
And so it's this constant efforttoward growth spiritually to
better myself in terms of my relationships, not just with God
or with Christ or, you know, within my religious

(08:07):
understanding, but to expand kind of beyond that.
And I've been doing a lot more than just simply, you know,
church life kind of share early on in this episode.
And and I'm going to have an episode coming up on we have a
spiritual problem podcast that will share this whole
experience. But in my recent trip to
Colorado had the opportunity listeners, regular listeners of

(08:29):
this podcast don't know Sandy Griffin.
She's been on several different episodes of this.
She's a very, a close friend of mine.
It was revealed to me as we were, I met her for the first
time in person, her and her husband Griff just this past
weekend and till a week ago. And then it's been almost 15
years that we've known each other and never met in person
and has become such a close friend.

(08:51):
And you know, when I arrived andwent went to Colorado Springs to
kind of visit them and to participate and help in their
health and fitness Expo. And so when I arrived at the
Expo on Friday to help us set up, you know, I see Sandy in the
distance go over and it's like there was number feeling like I
was meeting her for the first time in a physical presence.

(09:12):
And it was just an amazing thing.
And I met several other people that have been guests on this
podcast and other podcasts that were at the conference.
And it was that same feeling. And Sandy and Griff had another
friend there, Sam, I've never met before, but I walk, it's
like I know him. And it was just such a spiritual
feeling for me to just deeper and have a deeper understanding

(09:34):
of that connectedness between us.
Even though we might not connectin a physical presence, we get
down in that deeper metaphysicalspiritual relationship of how
we're all connected is 1 It it just gets a little bit deeper in
some of those relationships. And this past Sunday, so the

(09:54):
beginning of the week that we'reactually recording this episode,
Sandy took Sam and I on a hike and I had my first psilocybin
experience and, you know, try and plant, you know, the kind of
the traditional plant medicines of our ancestry.

(10:14):
And it was not at all what I expected, but it was everything
I expected. You know, I, I just also kind of
realized I could see things in much greater detail, much
greater clarity. Got up at one point to go out to
the restroom and I realized, oh,my God, there, everything is
just brighter. You know, there's distinct
greens and golds and yellows andoranges.

(10:37):
And, you know, the sky was brighter.
And, you know, at one point and kind of looking down over the
hill and there's the stove and afawn come kind of running up the
hill and it's just staring back.And, you know, just having this
connection with the deer. And you know, it was like, first
of all, with my eyesight, I would never have been able to
see the deer's eyes from the distance I was saying.
So everything was so crystal clear and amazing vision.

(11:03):
And so I just felt connected with this deer, connected with
the environment. And then, you know, Sam and
Sandy being right next to me, having their own experiences.
And it was just like there was such a connection there that
goes beyond understanding. And I and I, I want to leave
that for that other podcast so that I don't take away from

(11:24):
their conversation. And also just to kind of keep
this short, but it's one thing Ithink I've we've been promoting
a bit more on the podcast, becoming a bit more advocates
for the role that plant medicinecan play in therapy.
And I plan on having Sally Roberts on here shortly.
I hope I get her schedule prettysoon to talk about her

(11:44):
experience. And she's had PTSD.
She's had a tremendous turn around in her life by going
through psilocybin assisted or psychedelic assisted therapy.
And so just kind of opening my mind up to other explorations of
how I can become more deeply connected spiritually, not only

(12:05):
to what I label as God. And I always spell God in kind
of all small caps, similar to how in the Old Testament, in the
Christian Bible, Old Testament, they label Yahweh as Lord in all
caps. And so just kind of to me, to
represent that God is something bigger than I can perceive on my

(12:26):
of my own. And that your perspective of God
is going to be different than mine, and it's going to be
different than probably every viewer listener that is
participating in this podcast today.
And so having that openness to being able to recognize that,
first of all, that my perceptions of God are limited
and that my need to grow is infinite.

(12:49):
And it's kind of where I'm at with my spiritual aspect of my
aging. Wow, that was a long way around.
Yeah, that was a long. Yeah, that's a lot to.
Yeah, and usually that's why I do the other podcast because
there's a lot more to unpack in that pursuit.
But let's move on to the next component, next dimension of our

(13:09):
well centered fitness or of spies the physical, because
that's where we can kind of get into our our pillars a little
bit more. And it'll obviously tie as well
into the intellectual, emotionaland social.
But physically, kind of what areyou doing lately to if you're
enjoying the Aging Well podcast,be sure to like, subscribe or
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(13:29):
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(13:50):
Thank you. And now back to the podcast.
Physically, I'm just trying to get more.
I'm just trying to get more active.
At the beginning of this year, Itold our listeners that, hey,
I'm going to, I'm start getting back into shape.
I need to, I need to lock in. And I said listeners hold me
accountable. And I actually, I've been

(14:12):
holding myself accountable. I don't know if it shows on
camera, but I'm actually, I'm down 25 lbs from when I was when
I first said that. And you know, it's, I'm just
trying to do a combination of everything that we talk about on
this podcast and, and preach on.I throw in a little bit of my

(14:37):
little bit more of my routine, alittle bit different.
So after, after every meal, I, Iactually have the luxury of on
my lunch break at work, after I eat my meal, I can go walk
around the building and I try and hit like a about a two mile
walk just doing that lap after every meal to help regulate

(15:00):
insulin levels and also just kind of be more active.
And I know it seems really minute, but those two miles
every single day that that adds up.
And then I'm, I'm also adding in, I would like it to be a lot
more, but I'm adding in two to three days of resistance
training. And then I've, I've learned that

(15:22):
once, once you get off the bandwagon for so long, it's it
you're not as strong as you oncewere.
And so I'm actually, I guess psychologically I'm kind of
getting over that, that ego lifting of, hey, I'm not here to
focus so much on the heavier lifting and the strength of

(15:42):
where I once was. Right now I just need form.
I need technique, I need slow and steady reps And yeah, that's
what's been helping me. And the one thing I do need to
add more of is I need to add more stretching and balance
style. So I'm actually upon the
horizon. I'm thinking about adding maybe

(16:05):
either like a, it's gonna sound weird, a Pilates class, or just
something to help with balance and stability.
I think, I think flexibility we kind of take for granted.
But yeah, that's also something I'm recognizing about myself is
I need that flexibility to continue to do movements not

(16:27):
just in the gym but also in daily living.
Like flexibility. It's surprising how important it
is. It's not surprising.
I mean, we talk about that all the time.
I know I just, I never used to stretch and now that I'm like,
I'm in my coming up late 30s nowI'm like, ah man, it's it's

(16:48):
really important to get that stretching so.
So pretty much basic, Have you changed any behaviors in the
kind of physical dimension since, you know, 3 1/2 years of
this podcast? Yeah, I mean, just being more
active and honestly, I'm trying to prioritize sleep, especially

(17:10):
after all of these subject matter experts on sleep study
talking about the importance of sleep hygiene.
I just prioritizing sleep, prioritizing that rest,
prioritizing that recovery, and then also just being strict on
trying not to eat past seven. I've noticed when I don't eat

(17:32):
past seven, I get a way better night's rest.
So just, I mean, that's, that's really it.
Be more active than I once was because I, I really got off that
bandwagon and let myself go whenI'm, I'm getting back into it
and it's, it's a journey. But I, I, you know, we can't,
can't have an aging well podcastif we ourselves aren't going to

(17:54):
be aging well. Yeah, so I, you know, I've been
pretty much sticking to the sameexercise routine, probably not
as frequent as I'd like because this podcast has been taking a
lot more of my time as we're doing 3 episodes currently a
week plus the other podcast. But I'm still, you know, doing
weights. I keep my weights kind of
limited, very minimalist. If I can only do one exercise is

(18:16):
going to be that Zurcher squat. But I'm, you know, getting
getting the weights in, I'm lifting heavy enough to maintain
strength. I'm really focused more on
strength over bodybuilding styletraining or any of that kind of
stuff. Getting on the treadmill a lot
more walking the dogs. But I think with the areas where
I've changed the most and kind of altered my thinking a little

(18:38):
bit more and unlearn some of thestuff that I've taught and been
taught in exercise science over the years is really coming down
to more of the the diet and management of sleep a lot more.
I've elevated sleep and social connectedness to a higher level
than the exercise. The importance of exercise and

(18:59):
aging well, I know that's a shock since I'm an exercise
physiologist, but that has been a big part of my approach is,
you know, what am I doing to getbetter sleep?
So I'm tracking sleep more effectively.
And I think we could talk a little bit about the technology
that we might be incorporating in our pursuits of aging well,
but tracking sleep. And I'm also changing my diet a

(19:22):
lot more. I'm I'm really struggling right
now with how much protein to have or not have.
Because as we look at the different and you know, we
consider the different experts that we've had on, there's a
pretty diverse perspective on how much protein is appropriate.
Now, there's solid evidence in the, in the research literature

(19:43):
on longevity, that protein restriction in animals can
benefit the longevity. However, when we look at humans,
you know, we want to be able to maintain muscle mass.
We have different function and then mice.
And so mice don't need as much muscle mass as we do.

(20:03):
So caloric restriction may be much more beneficial to them.
But I think we need a certain amount of protein in order to
maintain muscle mass as we age. And in order to age effectively,
to age well, we we need to be gaining muscle mass.
And so that's going to require some protein.
That being said, caloric restriction is important as

(20:23):
well, but not to the extreme. So I'm trying to eat less.
I'm trying to really lower my body fat levels.
Metabolism wise, that's been a little bit more difficult.
So I'm looking at what do I haveto do to adjust my sleep,
cortisol levels and other hormonal levels in order to
improve on that sleep, get better exercise and get better

(20:44):
recovery. And so protein.
I've shifted a little bit more to a more plant based approach
to eating. I'm not going to ever, I don't
ever think I can go full on vegetarian.
And we've had several guests andI would point out Louis Burtis,
Dr. Thompson and Doctor Thompsonwas one that pointed me to

(21:07):
Michael Gregor's book, How Not to Age.
Yeah, How not to Age. He's got several others, How Not
to Die, How Not to Diet. I assume they're probably all
about the same. It really pushes a totally plant
based diet. I think I need a little bit more
protein. So I'm limiting my protein a
little bit more, eating less meat protein, trying to get more

(21:29):
legumes, trying to eat more cruciferous vegetables.
And I'll talk to you shortly about kind of the role of
sulfuraphane and trying to get more of that.
But I'm shifting to trying to get the nutrients that are going
to foster lowering my cholesterol, giving me more
energy, helping my body to be more anti-inflammatory as

(21:54):
opposed to pro inflammatory and eating like that.
So that's one thing I think I'vechanged to greater extent is
that diet piece just trying to eat more fruits and vegetables,
not be so focused on protein. I have never really been a big
keto person except for, you know, maybe individuals who have
certain neurological disorders could benefit from a pure pure.

(22:17):
I'm going to under score that pure strict ketogenic diet, not
what a lot of people think they're doing in the ketogenic,
which tends to be more carnivoreapproach, but trying to balance
that that continuum between vegetarian and pure carnivore to
get adequate protein, good animal protein.
It's going to help build muscle.As we look at leucine and

(22:39):
branched chain amino acids, there's a lot of controversy in
the literature over that. On one hand, you know, we can
see evidence that leucine can increase risk of cancer and
other things in the body, but onthe other hand it can also
increase our ability to synthesize muscle protein.

(23:00):
And so I think we need to have abalance in that approach and not
go overboard with the protein, but keep ourselves in a good
balance, eat that protein in conjunction with exercise,
resistance based exercise so that that leucine, there's amino
acids are going into building the muscle as opposed to
floating around saying, OK, well, where are we going to go?

(23:21):
Let's build this cancer cell. So I think there needs to be a
balance in there and we'll probably cover more of that as
we go forward in some of the future episodes.
Anything I didn't cover as we talked about kind of the
physical side? Yeah, after having all of the
nutritionist or dietitians that we've had on this podcast, is

(23:41):
there anything that specificallyhas stuck out to you where
you're like, you know what I mean, they're going to
completely remove this one thingfrom my diet because the
science, the literature like that, that was such a mind
alternating change of lifestyle that needs to happen.
Or is there something where you're like, you know what, I

(24:03):
never really paid much attentionto this.
I'm going to start adding this to my diet.
And if so, how has that made youfeel?
I'd say the only thing I've really said, OK, I got to take,
I've obviously got to. I want to reduce meat a little
bit, especially look at the quality of the meat that I'm
eating. Try and limit red meat,
saturated fats. Probably should focus a little

(24:26):
bit more on fish. I'm still going to stick with
chicken, even though chicken canbe a little bit more
inflammatory, but try and eat itwithout any skin or fat on it.
I have only one big shift is I've stopped putting coconut oil
in my coffee in the morning. Curious to see what that's going
to do to my cholesterol levels. You know, it's kind of a mixed

(24:48):
bag in terms of health benefits of it.
And it's like, do I really need it in my diet?
It's one way to reduce some calories.
I don't need it in the coffee. And so I'm just I'm stopping
that seeing what effect that's going to have and really just
focusing more on getting my my fats in my oils from olive oil,
avocado, nuts and just the natural healthy fats in the

(25:11):
food. Trying not to add any additional
fat to my diet. So that's probably 1 area I
think I probably cut the most. For me, I mean, I just, I've
stopped for many years taking Omega threes and then, you know,
once we started getting people to talk about the benefits of
Omega threes, I started just adding that midday.

(25:33):
And what I've noticed is it's really help increase natural
energy level and it's actually helped me stay focused
throughout the day. Now, the brand of Omega threes
that I choose, they don't smell because I thought that was
really interesting where we wereinterviewing someone and they

(25:55):
said if you're Omega's smell, then the oil's gone rancid.
And so I've picked a brand whereit doesn't have that funky fish
water smell and I'm not burping it up all day long.
So that's that's kind of a benefit.
And then when we interviewed jigsaw puzzles or jigsaw, jigsaw

(26:17):
nutrition. With.
Jigsaw Health. Patrick Sullivan from Jigsaw
Health. Yeah, shout out to him.
He provided us with some magnesium supplements.
And yeah, I, I've been I've beentaking magnesium, different,
different kinds of magnesium, switch it up with magnesium

(26:37):
glycinate. I use that with NAC and then
magnesium triglycinate to and tohelp with like brain function
and you know, I, I feel great. So I don't know that's those.
There's just some things I've done and then obviously just
really listening to people, specifically, I think it was

(27:01):
Doctor Farrow talking about whatwe put into our body and how it
causes little miniature stress on the body.
Pizza. I'm so weary to have pizza now
ever since we talked about that and I loved pizza.
But just being aware that whatever we put into our body
like it's, there's going to be, there's going to be a huge

(27:24):
effect. Even if we don't recognize it,
even if we don't see it, it's something's happened on a micro
microbiological level. And being conscious of that,
being aware of that. I think it's a big thing to be
said just for eating overall healthy, Whole Foods priority,
but enjoying some things. I'm going to enjoy pizza once in
a while, but you know what? I'm not going to be going out of

(27:46):
my way to buy. I'm not going to go out of my
way in the state of Oregon to buy pizza because it sucks.
But you know, when I go back to Pittsburgh, I'm going to get
pizza. Or if I go to New York, when I
went back in April, took some students to the National
Conference Undergraduate Research, I had to take them

(28:07):
around and I ate some crap food because it was something I can
only get in Pittsburgh. I went to Permani Brothers, had
my, you know, Pittsburgher and it went through.
And I'm going to give a shout out to sliced on Broadway, which
got the award this year in Las Vegas is the the best cheese of
cheese slice. And it is the best cheese slice

(28:29):
of pizza I have ever had. And I've been in New York, I've
had all the in the if you're in Chicago, you're going to tell me
that your pizza's better. And that's not true to me.
Pittsburgh pizza is there is thebest pizza in Pittsburgh.
But overall, if you want really consistently good pizza where
you walk into a pizzeria, it's going to be good.
It's going to be New York, maybeNew Jersey, but Pittsburgh has a

(28:52):
few really good pizza places that I've ever had.
So, but you know, there's nothing wrong with having pizza,
but just be aware that it may have a little bit more of a
disruptive effect on your sleep.It's not the healthiest of foods
to eat on a regular basis, but enjoying, you know, if you're
going to enjoy the food, then it's okay.

(29:13):
It's when we get into eating food and we take a bite of it
and it's like, that was not whatI expected.
And next like, oh, that really sucks.
Why am I keep eating this? That's kind of food that we
don't want to be eating. But if it's something you're
doing infrequently in a moderatedosage and enjoying it and, and
enjoying it in a social setting,I mean, if you're eating pizza

(29:35):
by yourself, that's probably nothealthy for sure, you know, But
if you're having, you know, guests over and you get a good
pizza and you enjoy that, then that's I think a good approach
to aging well, because we're going to have balance.
I don't want to be, I don't wantto be Brian Johnson who is
overly restricting my life and is going to spend millions of

(29:56):
dollars a year for, you know, I think what it'd be another 60
years or more that no more than that.
I think he wants to live to 140.So he got about 90 more years on
this earth. 80 years, 80 years of eating overly strict and
drawing your kids blood and all that kind of stuff is not how I
want to live. But I want to age well in a way
that I'm going to be healthy andfunctional and enjoying life.

(30:18):
And I think that's a very important approach.
You've kind of mentioned supplements.
I've historically been a really leery of, of supplements.
I've shifted a little bit in terms of Omega threes.
I'm not as in favor of supplementing Omega threes.
I'm really preferring to get more out of food, whether it's,

(30:39):
you know, good quality fish sources like salmon or I put, we
put flaxseed in our coffee when we brew it in the morning.
I'm also putting flaxseed, hemp seed, chia seed, and wheat germ
in my oatmeal and my steel cut oats that I'm pretty much eating
every day. And those are very high in Omega
threes And just trying to limit the fats that are going to be

(31:02):
they're saturated or low in Omega threes or excessively high
in Omega 6 fatty acids. But if you're going to get a
supplement, it needs to be one that it probably requires
refrigeration. Encapsulation is probably not
the best approach was we had Udo, was it Udo's choice?

(31:24):
We had Udo Rassman on was it season 2 or maybe early season 3
to talk about Omega threes. And I think his product is
really good because it has it requires refrigeration and
there's a very distinct difference in that quality
versus, you know, what I've seenin most capsules.

(31:46):
Jigsaw Health has a good product.
They have cod liver oil as well,which is something I would
recommend that I'm not taking itpresently.
But right now, the only real supplements I'm taking, I'm
taking the magnesium SRT from Jigsaw Health, which, you know,
just to kind of help with musclecramps, help with sleep, and
just learning so much. You know, we just had Morley

(32:07):
Robinson recently to talk about the role of copper and how we
probably overly focus on iron. And I encouraged viewers and
listeners to go to that episode to learn a little bit more about
how we may be making our bodies toxic by supplementing with iron
and neglecting things like magnesium and copper in our

(32:28):
diet. And so I've been focused on
trying to get magnesium more from my Whole Foods, eating a
lot more like pumpkin seeds is agood source, eating nuts, but
also supplementing that on a daily basis.
So that's one supplement. Creatine is one that they
continue to take about 10 grams now a day just for better brain

(32:51):
health as well As for maintaining muscle mass.
I'm actually consuming less wheyprotein as I'm trying to little
less protein and focus a little bit more on the wholeer foods
approach to it and just with timing and probably want to go
back to work and I need a quick meal.
I'm probably going to go back toa little bit more whey protein.

(33:13):
I'm trying to eat a lot more cruciferous vegetables,
broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, because of the
tremendous health benefits of those and a lot more green leafy
vegetables. But one thing I learned, and we
just recently had Kathy Easton on from Berkeley Life and
talking about the importance of chewing the food more slowly,

(33:36):
particularly those vegetables slowly.
Because if we chew them too fastor we don't chew them at all,
we, we tend to lose a lot of thebenefits of, you know, like the
sulfuryphane and, and the other components that in there that
can help to increase our nitric oxide or nitrates in our body to

(33:57):
get better vascular function, just better immune function,
better anti-inflammatory function, improving glutathione
and other antioxidant functions within the body.
But I also learn, you know, the importance of copper, magnesium
in ATP synthesis that again, I've taught Physiology for 27

(34:21):
years and that has never come upin the reading or the literature
or in any of the exercise science textbooks.
And it's like, it is so important for the balance of
calcium and magnesium, for the muscle contraction, muscle
function, but also cellular function in our mitochondria.
And so I've been much more focused on trying to increase
the quality of the vegetables that I'm getting, but also

(34:44):
chewing them so that I'm gettinggood benefit from those.
And I've also just I just started tracking my nitrate
levels after the episode with with Kathy and Berkeley Life.
And they sent me a starter kit and you get test strips.
I tested yesterday for the firsttime.

(35:04):
I was between low and just underthreshold and took the
supplement and I was just above threshold.
I tested this morning and I was above threshold.
I was really more in an optimal level.
So the supplement is immediatelyhaving a benefit for me.
So I'm going to continue to try that and we'll probably give
some more feedback on how that is working.

(35:26):
But you know, the importance of really maintaining our higher
levels of nitric oxide, you know, I'm trying to do, but also
looking at other benefits. And we're going to have on the
founders of Newson, which is a company that makes a product
called Brad. It's BR Capital RAD.
It's basically broccoli and radish, but their means of

(35:51):
drying it out and powdering it and and using sprouted broccoli
as opposed to whole broccoli. It's just a very unique approach
that gives you higher levels of sulfuraphane that just have
tremendous benefits. As you know, we look at the
benefits of sulfuraphane. You have the antioxidant,
anti-inflammatory. There's evidence of it being

(36:12):
preventative for cancer, certainly for cardiovascular
health, improving our cholesterol levels.
So I'm curious what that's goingto do for me, reducing
inflammation. There's evidence of it
benefiting our neurological health, reducing the risk of
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. It also helps the body to
naturally detoxify by increasingcertain enzymes in the body that

(36:33):
can help us to reduce some of those harmful substances.
It's also shown to have benefitsin terms of glucose control,
skin health, gut health, and andso we can get that in our food.
And broccoli is an excellent source.
Cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, they all contain
sulfurafane. Ideally you want to chew it

(36:54):
slowly, but this Brad supplement, I found it very
beneficial. I mean, immediately my recovery
scores have gone up as I track those.
Really. But yeah.
And you smell it and you compareit to I'm using, I've been using
kind of a cheaper super greens powder that I've had to my whey

(37:16):
protein and such. And you smell the difference
and, and they've done comparisons on like a 1G or AG 1
and in essentially in a lot of those powders because of the way
they are formulated. If you do an analysis of it.
And I encourage any viewer that wants to spend the money, see
how effective their AG One or their Super Green supplement is

(37:38):
to have it sent out to a third party analysis.
And you'll find that they're really low levels of any of the
vitamins that they claim to be in there because they're all
lost in the process. They might contain large amounts
of all of these different greensand vegetables and such, but
you're not getting the full nutrients out of it.
You look at that B Rad or Brad and you actually open up and

(38:00):
smell it. It smells like fresh
cauliflower. And they purport to have, you
know, more in a teaspoon of thatpowder than I think it's at
least a cup of whole broccoli. And so working on taking that.
But the important thing and the thing that I would stress above
supplementation when it comes toeating our vegetables is eating

(38:22):
those vegetables slowly chewing them.
Because this is I've learned rather recently is that there
are enzymes in our saliva and mouth and how those nitrates are
triggered within the body and how that those sulfuraphane are
being released into the body is dramatically affected by how

(38:44):
much time it spends in our mouth.
And so, you know, Kathy Eason said, you know, when you, and
because I was like, well, maybe I shouldn't be drinking my
smoothie, put my broccoli in my smoothie.
And she said, no, that's fine aslong as you chew your smoothie,
because I got, I'll put almost 8ounces of spinach in a, in a
smoothie and which is a great source of all these nutrients.

(39:05):
But if I'm drinking it really fast, I'm losing out on some of
the absorption of those nutrients.
So when we're eating our broccoli and our spinach and our
kale and all those things take time to chew and to kind of
savor and allow that to spend time in your mouth.
And it's going to give you better oral health.
It's going to give you better gut health and it's going to
give you better overall health. So that's one of the big things

(39:26):
I think I've learned and that I've adjusted in terms of my
nutrient consumption is just trying to eat more vegetables,
but also savoring it. And I think if we incorporate
into that having meals with other people and having
conversation during those meals,taking our time to eat meals,
we're going to get better healthout of our nutrition, no, no

(39:47):
matter what quality of food we're eating.
Yeah. Well, it's interesting that you
bring up the more time it's spent in your mouth.
Do you think that's a result of just kind of the enzyme
breakdown process? Like we we all have ketones in
our mouth to help breakdown foodand then once we swallow it, it
hits the stomach and then the pepsins breakdown.

(40:08):
Back down. Is it just like, hey, it's, it's
getting broken down a lot more and it's absorbed into the
bloodstream a little bit in the mouth the the more we chew and
then by the time it gets into the stomach, the pepsins can do
their thing and then they can break it down even more.
Is that? Is that kind of the logic behind
it or? No.

(40:29):
I mean, there's more to it than that.
And it's probably beyond kind ofmy scope of being able to
articulate it very quickly in, you know, in this particular
episode, since we're covering somany different topics.
But again, I would, I would probably refer the listeners to
the conversation with Kathy Easton and also, you know,

(40:49):
Morley Robbins to get a little bit more of that perspective on
how these are absorbed. But it, it's more than just kind
of what's going on in the gut. It actually it triggers
responses in the in the mouth. You know, it's, you know,
because we have a lot of nervoussensory connections within the
mouth that in that feed this whole enzymatic process and help

(41:12):
us to recycle nitrates in the body and, and so on.
And so it's the presence in the mouth is triggering certain
enzymatic reactions, but it's also triggering certain
neurological reactions. And there's a lot going on in
that process. And so if we eat our food too
fast, it's going to have some effects on kind of delaying the

(41:33):
overall process and it and then generally to then once it gets
to the gut, if it hasn't been processed appropriately, it can
have a negative effect in terms of the microbiome and in the
gut. I want to explore on this
podcast a little bit more the microbiome and the brain gut
connection we've had. We have some guests coming up
that'll come up after this episode that will address that

(41:54):
as well. So stay tuned.
But there's a lot that goes on. And so I think it's important
that we're eating a good qualityof food, but we're also taking
the time to savor that food so that the brain is able to
interact with that food and regulate satiety.
I hate saying that word and justhow much we're going to eat when

(42:18):
we stop eating so that we can kind of get to that stopping
when we're 80% full kind of deal.
And but also it, it's impacting how different hormones and
enzymes and things are being released in response to that
food that has an impact on our endothelial tissue, on our gut
health, on our digestive liver function.

(42:40):
All these things are all intertwined.
And so it's a very fascinating, but I think it's one of those
things that we tend to skip over.
We just, you know, we teach the food pyramid and, and that's it.
And we don't understand the interactions for food and our
Physiology. And so that's probably been one
of my biggest steps, you know, So if I'm looking at the
supplements that I have on a daily basis, it's going to be

(43:02):
the magnesium. It's going to be at least for
some time. I don't have to do it for long
duration, but I'm going to be trying out the the nitric oxide
stimulating supplements from BioBio from Berkeley Health.
Rather I'm taking Glynac ET. And I'm not sure if that's the

(43:25):
best and I might may or may not continue that depending on how
these other supplements are kindof helping in the formation of
glutathione in my body. I would love to be taking oral
wellnesses. I forget what they call their
their spray, but it's a glutathione.
It's basically a glutathione transdermal spray.
I love that stuff, but it's out of my price range.

(43:48):
And then I take the daily, I'm taking either the mellow mints,
the mellow Mints and then at night I take the, forget what
they call it, the sleep mints for rebalance health.
Those have had, you know, skip ahead to the social dimension of

(44:09):
our well-being. Those have had a dramatic effect
on just my mood, my interaction with others.
Kids have noticed that I'm yelling less and I'm calmer and
those types of things. And so taking those on a daily
basis is been very helpful for me.
So that continues to help regulate my cortisol levels,
helping me with sleep and so on.That's it for supplements.

(44:30):
I want to eat my food. I don't want to supplement my
food. So let's anything else within
the physical realm, let's talk sleep.
What are you doing? I mean, quickly talk sleep.
Do you track your sleep? No, I really don't have a way.
I have a Fitbit but it doesn't. Even though it has a sleep
tracking option, it actually does not track my sleep at all.

(44:52):
So I don't have I have a physical way to.
So no I'm not tracking it. I have a bedtime and then I try
and utilize that as much as I can.
I've become a sleep, a sleep biomarker geek.
I'm really tracking that significantly.
I've used the Garmin watch for probably it was about at least a

(45:14):
year and a half and I'm not poo pooing the Garmin watch because
I think their algorithm is Doctor Torkin had indicated it's
probably one of the better ones of all the different options.
But the battery life on mine is horrible.
And I've also heard from people that have like a Fitbits and the
Apple Watches that the battery life just really sucks on those.

(45:34):
So I recently purchased the amaze fit Helio strap and for
anybody viewing I got it on right now, I'll show the on
camera. If you're listening, you can
kind of check it out on Amazon or on Google.
I like this one. It gives me really good sleep
data. It may not be exactly the same

(45:56):
as the Garmin or the Whoop. The big difference between it
and the Whoop and I've seen a lot of different reviews of the
two products, but WOOP is subscription based and so it's a
very similar watch. They look almost identical, but
you have to pay on a annual basis.
And you know, if you buy the watch, you get like so many

(46:18):
years of subscription, but this is $99, no subscription.
And it has a fantastic battery life.
I mean, it is literally at least10 days to the point where I
almost forget that I need to charge.
I, I drain about 10% of the battery everyday and so it

(46:40):
lasts. And so I don't have to worry
about, you know, losing data on such a regular basis because I'm
charging it, you know, so I charge, it takes about an hour
to fully charge, take it off an hour, do something else, put it
back on and I'm right back to get my, they call Biocharge
state variability with sleep. It tells me how long I've slept

(47:01):
when and how, how long I've beenawake, gives me my REM sleep, my
deep sleep. It's about my respirations, my
heart rhythm throughout sleep. It also gives me a hypopnea
score, which is interesting because, you know, as I've been
using my CPAP over the last what, four months, I get a

(47:23):
different reading from that thanmy own C pap machine tells me.
Although in talking to my sleep doctor, the scores are still
better that I've improved my sleep by using the C pap.
But I'm still not quite sure that that's what I want to
continue doing, especially sincemy wife feels like she's
sleeping with Darth Vader. But you know, I'm I'm able to

(47:44):
track those scores and get thoseon a daily basis and be able to
look at trends. So if I change my diet or you
know, if I stay up a little bit later or if I have pizza, if I
have alcohol, if I, what do I do?
What impact does that have on mysleep?
And I think it's very helpful toreally track that because better
sleep is going to give us betterlongevity just in terms of brain

(48:08):
health, better muscle function, better gut health, everything.
Yes, I mean, I've been tracking that.
And I would encourage most of our viewers, if you, if it's
within your budget and $99, it'spretty affordable for most
people. Maybe it's something you ask for
for a birthday or Christmas present or whatever holidays you
get presents for it. It's, it's worthwhile to kind of

(48:29):
track that. If you can afford Whoop, whoop
is good as well. And then there's the aura rings
too. Those are relatively expensive.
Also. Those are probably the high end,
but I don't think there's that much separation between the high
end and the more budget friendly, and I'm all budget
friendly. So the only other thing, and I
know we need to move on to the next, but for physical for me,

(48:51):
something that I've done, we interviewed a specialist that
talked about gum health and oralhygiene.
And obviously that's common knowledge.
They talk about that since elementary school.
But man, seeing the dangers thatthe bacteria of our mouth
actually has on the heart, on the liver, on the brain, started

(49:15):
flossing a lot more and kind of prioritizing that just to just
to get that locked in. So I really shout out to I'm
drawing a blank on her name, butthank you because.
That was Doctor Nami Patel. Yep, Doctor Nami Patel Yep, that
was that was a huge aha moment for me because it's like, why

(49:40):
put yourself through that much health issues that can easily be
prevented? Just just just just adding a
couple of minute or two to your to your night routine.
So I I locked in on that, so thank you.
Yeah, I I've stopped using antiseptic mouthwash.
I got into a real habit of usingthat during COVID because it did

(50:05):
and does have benefits in terms of killing the virus in the oral
cavity so that you can reduce that risk of contracting it.
And I did never get COVID, but Irealized as well that I probably
destroyed a lot of the microbes in my mouth that would benefit
my gut health. And so I kind of see that, OK,

(50:27):
some of these issues is, is, youknow, I was able in COVID to
really cut weight pretty easily,got leaner, but a lot of that
has shifted away. And it's a lot harder right now
to manage body composition and just, you know, cholesterol
being higher and things like that.
Like, OK, that might be part of the issue.
I've also, you know, they had some shoulder issues and was

(50:49):
taking a lot of ibuprofen, naproxyfen, you know, NSAID's in
order to manage the pain. And I feel like that's probably
had a negative impact on my liver function as well.
So I'm trying really not to takeany kind of NSAID unless I
absolutely need it and then focusing more on an highly

(51:09):
anti-inflammatory diet and trying to eat less things that
are pro inflammatory in order tomanage that a little bit more
effectively. So let's go intellectually, I
think we could kind of this whole podcast has been an
intellectual, intellectual journey for for both of us, for
us, hopefully for our listeners and viewers as well.

(51:31):
So we don't have to really go down that I'm reading a lot
more. And those who watch the podcast
religiously know that we've had a lot of authors on the podcast.
And I tend to read every one of those books, which eats into my
time a lot. But I mean, I've read some
really, really fascinating stuff.
And I encourage anybody who, youknow, enjoys one of our guests

(51:54):
who's an author to purchase their book.
We, we do offer as an Amazon affiliate to, you know, they can
get, they don't get a discount on the book, but we can make
some money to help support the podcast by buying their books
through Amazon using the link weprovide.
But it's this has been a definite intellectual journey
for me. So do we move on to emotional or

(52:16):
do you have anything else? I would just say I would just
encourage our listeners to constantly seek seek task,
whether it's reading, whether it's studying, just seek stuff
to keep that brain sharp and have you be intellectually
challenged everyday like seek seek to learn more knowledge.

(52:40):
The books Doctor Armstrong are talking about a lot of our
guests. They, they are phenomenal people
and they have great things to say, whether it's the science
behind aging, whether it's motivation to live a better
life, or maybe if you want to change subjects altogether and
you want to look into historicalevents to learn from the past to

(53:03):
better your future. That like these are all great
things. And I, I would encourage anyone
to, to not be stagnant with their own mind or their own
sharpness and just know that youcan improve your intelligence
just like you can improve your body and your muscles and
everything else. It's you just got to put in the

(53:23):
work to do it. That's that would be the only
thing I would say on. That yeah, I'd say challenge
yourself in what you're reading.Don't just scroll the Internet
and absorb everything that you read and hear because there's so
much BS out there on both sides.You know, Fact Check yourself.
Read into the science behind some of these things that you're

(53:45):
hearing, but read it from books and knowledgeable sources, not
from the Internet. Get away from just simply
mindless scrolling and YouTube videos.
Do watch your podcast, you know,particularly this particular
podcast or listen to it, you know, do it while you're
exercising is always a good thing.
While you're moving, while you're driving to or from work.

(54:05):
You know, use podcasts for an intellectual tool when you can
more passively absorb the information.
But be active in terms of opening a book once in a while,
reading the book, reading thingsthat interest you that maybe you
haven't studied before, and havea deep conversation with people

(54:25):
that are knowledgeable. One thing that has been a joy
for me and this kind of leads into the social.
My son is a very intellectual individual and he's got very
different interests in me and he's learning things that really
weren't available to me when I was his age.
And he's into, you know, we've we have conversations about art,

(54:46):
culture, politics, all these different things.
And then just having those deep conversations really help us to
grow intellectually. And that's where I think, you
know, when we talk about the spies model that the
intellectual and feeds into our emotional, it's based on our
foundation of the physical and the spiritual pull those
together and that is going to help us emotionally and even

(55:07):
socially. So what are you doing to age
well emotionally? Well, to age well emotionally,
it comes back to the spiritual aspect of it.
I do believe that those are handin glove and I think they're,
you know, as we age in the physical, there's also a sense
of mental and emotional maturitythat come with it.

(55:29):
But recognizing that a lot of things may appear to be out of
our control, but if we hand it over to God, I've noticed that I
can control my emotions significantly more than I ever
had in the past. I can certain thoughts captive

(55:50):
and I don't allow I just, I don't know in, in certain hectic
situations, I don't allow the emotions to completely control
my, my, my life or how I'm goingto respond in that particular
scenario. Now, I'm not perfect by any

(56:11):
means. It's, it's still a, still a
journey, you know, but I've, I think it's a night and day
difference. I've actually, I no longer have
anxiety and I no longer have depression and I'm a lot more
presence in when I'm interactingwith people.

(56:32):
I don't know, it's pretty cool. And I, I feel, I feel joy and,
and not just happiness, but actual joy and peace in an
emotional state. And it's, it's really, it's
really cool. So I guess I hope that answers
your question because as far as what I'm doing, I'm, I'm just,
I'm doing my best. It's the best answer for that,

(56:55):
yeah. Well, I for me, you know what
what I'm doing to do my best. Again, I would reiterate the
rebalance Health mints have really helped me balance out
emotions a little bit more. I'm going to explore more of the
potential like micro doses here and there of the psilocybin and

(57:18):
to see where that can take me. A lot of it is just being more
consciously aware of others. I mean, my, the whole spies
model has fed my emotion, my emotional well-being for, for
years, but just being more awareof how my emotional responses

(57:39):
are impacting others has been probably one of the things that
I'm most focused on. Journaling really helps with
that certain level of meditativepractice.
But also, you know, just focusing in on the bigger
spiritual picture for me has helped me emotionally.
And so, you know, I, I use the kind of the mantra carpe

(58:03):
memento, seize the moment, trying to live in the moment and
realizing the decisions I make right now in this instant are
going to have impacts going forward.
The decision that I made 5 seconds ago, it's past.
I can't do anything about that. And I just did a recent episode
on that. So I encourage the viewers to
again go to we have a spiritual problem podcast or talk about

(58:27):
the two questions that were I'm often asked and we've addressed
them somewhat on here. The first question being, you
know, if you could go back in time and change anything, what
would you change? And my response says, always, I
wouldn't change anything. So it's that understanding that
whatever has happened in the past has happened for the
purpose of getting us all. I mean, whatever decision I made

(58:50):
twenty, 30-40 years ago has had an impact on others.
And that has led to this cascadeof different events that we have
no control over. And we can't even begin to
define how those would change. But if I'd go back and change
that one decision, who knows howthat would change the the world,

(59:11):
the universe right now? I mean, we think our decisions
are insignificant and small, butinsignificant decisions impact a
lot of different people. And we had Rob Kelly on
actually, it was actually the other podcast that he brought
this up, but he talked about what, you know, I'll tell people
I can watch this. I can change this person's life
in 2 words. And he said, you know, walks by,

(59:33):
the person says nice sneakers. And then you just kind of walk
away and you kind of look back and you see that person will be
looking at their sneakers. They're kind of smiling.
They're standing taller. You know, they're feeling
pretty. Yeah, they are nice sneakers,
you know, and then they walk on.They're going to interact
differently with the next person.
Yeah, they might go home and rather than yelling at their
wife, they might complement their wife.

(59:55):
They're going to be more favorable to be around.
And it's just going to have a positive impact not only on that
person, but on every person thatthat person impacts and in every
other person that is impacted bythat person and so on and so on
and so. That perspective helps me a lot
in terms of aging well. And it just recently kind of
came across what I call the Purie question, which I don't

(01:00:15):
know if we've talked about it onthis podcast yet, but that's the
question that Stephen Purie asked me about.
If you were given a magic wand that you could only use once,
but it could change anything in the world, how would you use it?
And I'm not going to reveal my answer to that, but it kind of
gives me a perspective on the importance of what I'm doing,

(01:00:36):
what power I have in the world. And it also reminds me that I
literally have that magic wand available to me every moment of
my life. You know, so I have a one time
opportunity in the decision thatI make right now that I can't
take back that is going to have an impact on on the on the
universe. And all those decisions that I
make are having that impact. And so when I think about that,

(01:00:59):
it gives me better emotional well-being.
It helps me understand that shits gonna happen but and not
necessarily happening to change me, but it does change me.
But it's an opportunity for me to grow and to to be a better

(01:01:20):
person, to make a better universe.
And everything that happens to us, good, bad or indifferent is
all part of you know, till hardwood have referred to as
that spiritual evolution. And I think we are evolving.
I personally believe we are evolving as humans toward his a
mega point. You know what I mean?
Not perfect. Again, that's one person's
perspective and I add into it myperspective.

(01:01:42):
But as I look at all the crap that's going on in in the United
States and across the globe withjust the division and the
animosity and the hatred and allthese kind of things, I look at
it with a level of optimism thatthis is just simply a period of
friction in humankind that is either going to break us or

(01:02:04):
propel us forward. And I'm optimistic enough to
think that it's going to propel us toward being better people.
And so that's kind of my emotional piece.
So what about social? We'll kind of wrap up with
social. Well, what are you?
Doing well with social, I think,I mean, I don't know, I feel
like socialness. I'm more using your example of,

(01:02:29):
you know, hey, nice shoes. I think it's, it's a, what I've
learned is it's not what you say, it's how you say it, but
it's also who's saying it. So if you walk up to someone and
you're like nice shoes, totally going to change their
perspective. But if you walk up to them,
you're like nice shoes, it's going to have a different
reaction. So I'm learning from a social

(01:02:53):
point of view that it's not necessarily what you say or even
how you mean it. It also could be how the person
is interpreting it, whether they're reading your your non
verbals, your body language or the tones and the and the
inflections. All these little things make a
difference. And you know, I'm getting more

(01:03:16):
involved in my church and I'm actually, I'm actually a part of
our youth group. I'm one of one of the leaders
there and not a leader leader, but taking on a leader role.
And it's, it's awesome. But let me tell you this Gen.
Z, Gen. Alpha, this younger generation,

(01:03:37):
they are, they are different than my generation when I was
young and I was a teenager. So, you know, being a part of
that, that youth, it's it's justreally taught me that, you know,
it's not just what we say and how we say it, but it's also
it's also our non verbals as well.
Yeah. So for me with the social piece,

(01:03:58):
it's just again, trying to explore deeper social
connectedness, you know, keepingit purposeful.
I think that's one of the most important things I've learned
over the last 3 1/2 years with this podcast is that social
connections is probably one of the most important dimensions of
components of or pillars of aging Well.

(01:04:19):
And you know, when you look at the Blue Zones, that's probably
one of the most common underlying themes in all those
areas is the people have strong social connections or whether
it's belonging to to church groups, participating in church
groups, having, you know, belonging to a club.
I don't have a lot of close physical personal relationships

(01:04:40):
here in Oregon yet. And, you know, it's only been 17
years, but I've found a lot moreconnection to older friends.
You know, talk about Jay, who coined the, the, the acronym
spies for us. You know, Jay and I hadn't seen
each other since we graduated high school.

(01:05:01):
And, you know, we have gotten a deeper friendship and bond just
by, you know, calling once in a while through the podcast and
such. And I mentioned Sandeen, Sam and
Griff, you know, just trying to even if the relationship is
going to be virtual, trying to make the deeper spiritual
connection with the people. And, you know, if I have

(01:05:23):
conversations with people that you're just you're feeling that
relationship is so shallow. You know, I just I take the old
Bob from what about Bob approachis I just hang up.
It's just it's not you, it's just a bad connection and just
move on. All right.
And so not being overly negativein social interactions.

(01:05:48):
So using social media in a more positive fashion, if it's
negative, just kind of getting the hell out of there.
If relationships aren't deep enough, then move on.
Find, find that core, find your 5610 people that you can have
close deep relationships with and focus more on the closer

(01:06:11):
proximity relationships. Your, your family, you know, And
so I'm really, really focused onhow am I impacting the life of
my wife, my kids, trying to build deeper relationships with
my kids. You know, Liam and I went
through, you know, as most parents do when their kids are
older teenagers, really a rough spot for a few months there
where he almost wasn't even talking to me.

(01:06:33):
And now we're having like reallydeep, full conversations.
And a lot of it is just me having to let go.
I would kind of summarize the the social connectedness with I
am 3rd and the challenge when trying to apply the I am third
philosophy is that we have a tendency as human beings to

(01:06:54):
maybe do that, to put our God first, put our family and
friends 2nd and say, OK, I'm 3rd.
I'm going to stress the importance of their
relationship, their needs. But you sometimes start sitting
back and say, wait a minute, I'mdoing all this stuff, I'm
sacrificing here, but nobody is sacrificing for me.
And then you start to back off from that and start thinking
about me. So it has to be a good balance

(01:07:14):
between focusing in on your own health and again, if you're
focusing on the spiritual, the physical, intellectual,
emotional well-being, it's a little bit easier to give of
yourself in those social connections if we're not.
And that's usually kind of the biggest red flag to me that I
need to work on those other 4 dimensions is when I start

(01:07:34):
having a bit more struggle with social connections, you know,
with some of my relationships. And so really just kind of
balancing all of those areas, focusing in on the six pillars,
you know, getting my regular exercise and physical activity,
trying to focus more on resistance training over
cardiovascular, but not neglecting cardiovascular.

(01:07:58):
You know, maybe doing a little bit more high intensity interval
training for cardiovascular, buttrying to do low intensity
walking and doing all that more.I'm just getting as much
activity as possible, really focusing in on my diet so that
my diet is going to impact my physical activity, my sleep, my
body composition. That's been a big piece of what

(01:08:19):
I'm doing to age well. I'm trying to really zero in on
the healthiest of diets, lookingat my body composition, trying
to build muscle, build strength.I'm more focused on building the
strength and maintaining good solid muscle as opposed to
trying to think I'm going to be a bodybuilder in my 60s and put
on a lot of muscle mass that I've never been able to put on.

(01:08:40):
But I'm, you know, lifting, really focusing on maintaining
muscle mass and strength. Smoking has never been an issue
and we didn't bring that up in today's conversation is one of
the six pillars. But really, you know, I avoid
even being around people that are smoking so that I don't get
that second hand smoke. Let's see.
So we covered those for the sleep, talked about sleep and

(01:09:02):
really focused in on sleep is a major importance.
Again, top priority is putting the purpose in those social
connections and trying to have good solid social connectedness
to help me to age well. Any summary of your own?
No, that's beautiful. I really think he covered it all
to be honest. Well, again, is we, we've shared

(01:09:23):
this today to under score what we are doing because in every
episode, nearly every episode, we're asking guess what are they
doing to age well? And you get a different
perspective. Most everybody is working within
those dimensions or those pillars in what they're doing to
age well. And really underscoring the fact

(01:09:44):
that nowhere in the SPIES model or the six pillars do we talk
about biohacking or even just a drug therapy or medical therapy
treatment, trying to reverse theaging process.
We're all about trying to, from conception on in life, trying to

(01:10:07):
age well. And so that's what I want to
under score in this conversation.
So hopefully people are picking up OK, These are things that I
can do, you know, baby steps toward aging well.
Make small changes in your spiritual, physical,
intellectual, emotional and social dimensions.
Improve on those different pillars as you're able.
And you know, if we keep doing those to whatever capacities we

(01:10:29):
do it, we may not hit 120 years,but the goal was not necessarily
to live longer. It's to live longer younger.
And that's what we're after. And so I'm just going to end
this with, you know, just make the baby steps, keep doing what
you're doing and progressive micro steps every day and keep

(01:10:50):
aging well. Thank you for listening.
Hope you benefited from today's podcast and until next time,
keep aging well.

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What Are We Doing to... Age Well? | The Aging Well Podcast | Ep. 300

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}What Are We Doing to... Age Well? | The Aging Well Podcast | Ep. 300