Gen X Health (An interview with Author Chris Benjamin)

In this episode, with Chris Benjamin, author of RESET: The Gen X Complete Health Transformation, (link below) we explore what it was like for Chris to write a book.  He also gives us practical tools that actually help make life better for Gen X.  Whether you are balancing your career, family stress, a changing body or you just feel overwhelmed, this book has something useful for everyone.  We dive into the what limiting belief are and how to overcome them, the importance of sleep and some other great surprises along the way.  I hope you enjoy this conversation and get some awesome new tools to work on a healthier you. 

Book: https://stan.store/coachbenj/p/reset-h1yzbiof
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IG- @Iamchrisbenjamin
LinkedIn/Facebook- Chris Benjamin
Skool.com- Reset Society

https://www.epidemicsound.com/music/tracks/78229ae6-fa69-4486-84d9-3f7fa4d56d99/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone. We're back today with a special guest. His name is Chris Benjamin. And I asked him to be on the podcast because he wrote a fantastic book. The name of the book is called Reset, The Gen X Complete Health Transformation. The book was absolutely excellent. And I'll link it below in the description, as well as all the ways you can find Chris. Chris and I are gonna explore what it was like for him to write a book. And he's gonna share some practical wisdom and tools that actually make life easier and better for the Gen Xers that are balancing careers, family stress, changing bodies, and most likely feeling that wellness has maybe felt like it's become another full-time job. This book was written with a refreshing and realistic take on Gen X health. One that cuts through all the noise and focuses on simple, sustainable tools that fit into your everyday life with practical ways to improve your health, your energy, your mindset, and longevity. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Well, writing the book was actually something that I didn't even have planned. Yeah, because this the idea for the book is actually almost 10 years old. The entire um theme of the book started in probably 2017. I had gone to Costa Rica for a health and wellness beautiful place. I can't wait to go back. I don't know when I'm going, but I need to get back there. And it was through a guy I'd met who I had a student. Her mom actually was the dean of students at Springfield College, and we were talking about something, and she goes, Oh, I got this guy, Pat, who can help you out. And so I gave him a call and went and saw him. We did some you know functional tests for movement and strength and stuff like that. And we kind of became like friends a little bit. And he started to introduce me to all of these other health and wellness professionals from around the world, you know, mainly social media type stuff. But I would go to a conference if it was in Boston or New York and see these people speak. And one of them, his name's Dr. Ben House, and he held retreats in Austin for like this type of thing. And I think it was just an excuse to get a whole bunch of smart people together and just talk about stuff that they found interesting. And he had moved to the jungle in Costa Rica and decided to host one there. So there was about 30 of us who went down. And most of the time I was always the one going, I know this is a dumb question, but they kind of like handled it with such grace. They're like, oh, you want to learn. So, you know, we have no problem explaining these things. Where to the rest of the community that was there, it was probably kind of like common knowledge. And and it was, it was just really cool to like listen to how they talk to each other about health and wellness. And, you know, I went to Springfield College and you know, right out of high school, got my degree in in psychology and exercise science. And so that world has always been important to me. And so listening to how they shared information was was really neat. And at this point, so if this was 2017, I've already been in the field, you know, 20 years or so. And like, well, how can I share out a lot of the stuff that I know? You know, even you know, being a strength and conditioning coach for the high school and working with athletes from middle school to worked with somebody in the NFL and somebody in the NHL. You know, so I saw a whole bunch of different athletes. And, you know, how could I apply that type of information to regular people who needed help? And that led to me starting to look online. I I'd done my master's in education completely online, and so I knew there was that vessel that you could use to help teach people. And so I started to build it. And at the time, I had just moved to Connecticut with my girlfriend who would then become my fiance, and we had a house and I would be working on the kitchen table and and stuff, and then I would put it away and then I would go back to it. And then we got married in 2018, and then 2000 August of 2019, I knew something was wrong, something was off. And I asked my wife, I'm like, hey, what what's up? What's going on? And she was just, I don't want to be married anymore. And so that was, you know, the entire floor fell out underneath me, and my health just nosedived. And, you know, the first like month and a half, I lost like 20 pounds, like not in a good way, not not sleeping, my stress levels through the roof, snapping at people. You know, I was coaching football, and I wasn't the best coach that year. And I I've always been a real private person, so like I really didn't talk about it because you know I'm Gen X. We don't talk about things, we we eat our feelings, and but then I started to have panic attacks, which I've never really talked about with anybody. So, I mean, my family didn't know, my friends didn't know, and you know, not being able to go to a restaurant by yourself to get something to eat was jarring to me because that was something I could always do. And so at the time I was still living with my wife, you know, so like and she would spend time at her parents' house in southern Connecticut, and we we she was a teacher as well, and I'm a seventh grade science teacher, and we decided, you know, we'll sell the house, take care of everything once we get to summer. So this is right when COVID hit. Not only are we working on getting divorced, we're cohabitating and teaching from our home. And so the my health was definitely on the back burner there. And so I was we were able to sell the house in summertime. I was able to get into a new place. And so as I was going through all of these emotions and struggles, it it was almost embarrassing in a way where I'm a health professional, I have a degree in this stuff, I teach people how to do these things, and yet I'm not getting better myself. Like everything I tried that I knew worked would fail. And so I would start looking back at the stuff that I started to create and try to build plans from there. And it wasn't until it was the end of 2021, I heard of a guy's name's uh Dr. Joe Dispenza.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

And love Joe Dispenza. I know exactly who you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

So I bought his book, Supernatural. So as I was reading it, there's a whole bunch of information about limiting beliefs in there. And that's where I started for me, started to connect some dots where even though I had all of these plans and habits, I was still trying to align it to an identity I no longer had. And that was really eye-opening. It connected so many dots for me, and I realized I had to start thinking from the person I wanted to be and align those behaviors to that, right? And that's where you know your brain really can either get in the way or it can help. So once I started to identify my own limiting beliefs, I was able to, you know, start to write the ship, if you will. And a limiting belief that was really, really hard for me to accept was I'm not good enough. And so when I really started to like look at my life and how, where did this belief come from, patterns started to emerge. And, you know, when it when it comes to things like limiting beliefs, they are inadvertently installed, usually at a young age. And you know, I don't remember any specific event with my family, friends, brother, sister, coaches, but I know when I was in high school and playing sports, like I want to be all Western Mass. I want to be first team all Western Mass. And my senior, I was second team all Western Mass. So, you know, kind of let that one rung down. And then in the spring, I was running track and I was one of the the better hurdlers in Western Mass. I was the number one seed going into Western Mass. Finished second. And so that, you know, and then when I got into college, I played football and I was I was the runt of the litter at at Springfield, where in my high school I was a pretty good player, you know, for the area, but you know, big fish, small pond type thing. I went into a very large pond and I was a very small fish. And so my career ended badly. I got hit by a drunk driver my junior year, messed up my back. Doctor was like, probably shouldn't play. So that was tough. So, but that was also kind of like finishing second and not being good enough to play college sports. And then to get in, get married and then get divorced, not good enough again. And and I know that's not true, but that was definitely a belief that I held. And so it took me a little while to to break through that belief. And as I started to do that, I started to go back to the book. Or at the time it was still gonna be like an online course type thing. And, you know, so fast forward a few years, one of the people I had met at that retreat in in Costa Rica at the end of 2024, she had gotten onto like Instagram and Facebook and digital marketing and stuff like that. And and I'd been in contact with her. And I'm like, well, maybe this could be the the way to start to get my word out and like teach to people because being a classroom teacher and teaching 12, 13, and 14-year-olds, they could give a shit about a lot of this stuff. Like that, you know, health and wellness is so far out of their mind that you know, I mean, that's part of like being a kid, you know, kids are gonna make mistakes. And if they didn't make mistakes, I wouldn't have a job. So as I started to work with this woman who was in the digital marketing space, that's when I started to like really put myself out there on social media and just I was just talking about like stupid stuff at the beginning, like Generation X humor, you know, like the last generation to come home when the lights went on, you know, things like that, or first generation to use dial up for internet.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Well, I have to I have to say, uh this whole thing, how I even was like, I need to have you come on this, is because we've been Facebook friends for forever, never saw anything on, and then one day it was like you are my only friend on Facebook. Really? I I I told this to your sister. I was like, what is your brother doing? I'm like, he is just I wake up, there he is, I go to bed, there he is. I'm like, he's in my algorithm everywhere. And I was like, okay. And I I had asked her a hundred times. I'm like, I need you to tell me what it is that he's doing because I don't the funny things were hilarious because I'm I was born in '82. So I'm technically You're right on the edge there.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

I am.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

So I don't get a lot of credit in either world, right? Like the millennials don't want me, the genetics don't want me. Well, here's the thing I knew a life without a computer and I knew a life without a phone. So I feel like I do. I feel like I do. But anyways, yeah. So then when I saw that you wrote a book, I'm like, oh my God, this will help me understand Chris so much better. I'm just gonna get the book and I'm gonna figure it out. So please continue. But yes, the digital stuff was like, wow, you were doing great because it was everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Right. And that was the thing that I was learning is that, you know, you if you just can't do one post and pray, you know, because especially depending on which platform you use, the like Instagram will show the people that already follow you, TikTok will show nobody you follow that that follow you just to try to build audience. And and that's actually true. Like my TikTok blew up in the last year compared to my Instagram, but that's a whole nother discussion. And it was neat getting like some of the feedback, you know. You know, even if I only get a couple likes or a couple comments, which are which are fine, because if that one person gets something valuable, then I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, right? And last summer, I kind of came up with just like a very basic online course called the five pillar reset, which during all of the times of me building the program and all the actually I have to go back. So when I started to put everything together, I looked at all of the things that I had done over 20 something years of health and wellness, and I was able to put them in five different buckets or what I ended up calling pillars, dealing with mindset, healthy eating, sleep and recovery, movement, aka exercise, and the environment. And now the environment could be internal and external. So as I put those together, I came up with a way to talk about how everybody has a limiting belief in each of those buckets. And you have to do some some shadow work, right? And then find out like what that that that limiting belief is. You know, for example, like mindset, especially people in my demographic, that it's always, well, I'm too old to change. Like I am that stubborn Gen X, I'm never going to change. And well, that's bullshit. People change every day. And there are people who are dealing with the same exact issues that some thrive and others die from it. And it's you have the same exact problems, you have you have the access to the same information. Why is this person able to succeed and this person isn't? If they're they make the same amount of money, they have the same family structure. Why can one succeed and why does the other not? Well, the one that succeeds is a lot is able to align their behaviors with that belief. And so I ran it with a a couple girls who I went to high school with. They loved it, they had a great time with it, and they got a lot out of it. But it was it was still very crude. You know, design and aesthetics is really not my thing. It's like I let's just nail these two pieces of wood together and see what it looks like. And so I started, and then football season started. So now it was kind of tough. I just did a few posts a day, a few things. But then once winter hit, and the winter that we had, there was a lot of in-house time not being outside because I hate living in a place where the cold hurts my face. But um, we uh I I started to use AI a little bit to help organize. And you know, when it comes to writing, I have to work really, really hard on it. And I was able to like build the entire structure of what I wanted to say, and I would, you know, put into AI as far as well, how what should go where, and try to make a much better flow to it. And it was able to build it into a book a lot easier than it was for me to record 50 videos to make an online course, which is in the pipeline and something if you want to.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Yeah, how could you not do that? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

You know, the book is just kind of like, hey, it's on your own pace. Here's a workbook that goes along with it.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

The workbook is great too.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Thank you. And I'm actually like what I'm trying for the summer is to get the get the two of them into one book. So it's more of like a working journal. Because one of the things that not just Gen X, but everybody does, it's like, I'll start tomorrow. I'll start tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow. You know, so I knew I could if I could just get the book into a PDF, I can get it out there now, versus waiting for it to be perfect to print. I've been sitting on basically the structure of it for nine years. And it was very catharic for me, uh especially like with what I went through and what I did with, because when I when I talk to especially teachers in my building, just listening to the struggles and things that they go through, and it's like, oh, like this is for you. Like here, take it. Like just you know, try to make some improvements. And I was talking to one the other day because she had downloaded the book and and she's on the opposite end of the building of me. So I'd I'd walk down, be like, stick my head in, like, so what do you think? I was like, Oh, and she's like, Oh, you know, this part's great, this part's great, but like, but the time factor is real. She's like, I gotta work, you know, two jobs, you know, to help pay for my my kids' sports and prep school, and I gotta do this, I gotta do this, I gotta do this. And it's like, yeah, this is you are who this is for. And what would really made me feel good was she started talking to her children about limiting beliefs. And so, you know, what one of the daughters is a organizational nightmare. And I had her as a student, so I can attest to that. Um, great kid, I love her though. Um, and she would work over, like, you know, you need to stop saying I'm not organized and I am improving in that aspect. Because that at least will point you in the right direction to start acting like that person you want to become. Because if you can't envision that, you're always going to get sabotaged. And I had was having this discussion about a month ago with somebody, and they were like, uh, that's bullshit, that's not true. I go, go to any gym in America on January 1st and go back February 1st. What's changed? You know, those people had the motivation to go, they they had the desire to make changes, but how does it fizzle out in a few weeks? And it's because they're they're not aligned, they're the frequencies don't match. And so, you know, people just need the guidance on how to get to that that person they want to be. You know, it's not a shock to anybody. It's everybody's first time living. Like no, no, there was no rule book to this.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

And it's first time I'll be in human.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Yeah, so people need help. And this is what I've been has been a major part of my life for you know, even going back into high school, like athletics and nutrition and working out have always been a huge part of my life and had it provides so many positives that you know, there's a lot of things I take for granted, right? Just like I was talking about being in Costa Rica, those people who would hear a very basic question from from me in their eyes is you know, graduate doctorate level questions in my eyes. People have that about nutrition, they have it about mindfulness, they have it about sleep hygiene, they have it about what types of workouts they should be doing, right? Because you know, you still go to the gym and you see people working with them with the five-pound pink dumbbells, and it's like you need a little bit more than that. I'm just making fun of you because I saw them over there.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Oh, hilarious. I even have two pounders over there, too.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

Good for rehab.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, yeah, those are actually my mom's. They're not even mine. I don't work out like that. I don't use dumbbells, but anyways, hilarious that they're over there. No, I'm more of a jump rover, walker, hiker, nothing of that. Push up yoga girl than nothing of that. I can't be indoors like that. Can't do it.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

You have a great space to build an outdoor gym. Some rocks you can carry around.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

All those rocks out there are me carrying them. I collect them on the road and then I bring them back. So um, yeah. So, okay, I got I have a question for you. I love that you called it movement, aka exercise. People think that, like what you just said, the gym, right? That has to be where we go. And it's not the truth. Your body has to stay in motion. And if even if your my L1 is slipped and my doctor says I shouldn't do it, you can still move your body. You can still create circulation in your legs and stomp edema and you know, make sure that your tendons and ligaments are mobile and lubricated with synovial fluid, and there's there's all these things. And so, yeah, I'm just that was a kind of aside, but I love that you called it movement, aka exercise. Um, but I just can't see that you actually have a limiting belief in the in the movement. What will you share that with us?

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Well, limiting beliefs of movement, like a lot of times, could stem from gym class, right? Growing up in your gym class and you know, back in the 70s and 80s, a lot of phys head instructors would tell you you weren't an athlete, right? So if you know, if you get picked last, if if you you know the people on your your volleyball team never let you participate, now I am not a good athlete translates into, well, I can't exercise well. And it's because the the thing I I think people don't realize is that everybody is an athlete, right? Like movement is definition of being athletic.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

But we've evolved from needing our bodies in order to survive. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

We didn't, we died, or the tribe would throw us out off a cliff because we were useless. And we just did genetics in my class, that's wicked funny. And um, so if you reframe it as a movement practice, right, it's it's still exercise, but it's also a little bit more inviting. You know, if I if I go to the you know, the 55-year-old woman who's got grandchildren, I'm like, all right, we're gonna go exercise and we're gonna do, you know, you know, squats and deadlifts, which do have a lot of benefit, they're gonna be like, hell no, like I'm I'm not doing that. But if you translate it into, well, instead of squats and deadlifts, getting up off the toilet when you're 70 without help, playing with your grandchildren and picking them up in a safe way where you don't throw your back out. You know, so limiting beliefs with movement are a lot more common when you know what to look for.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Yeah, I guess no, that's very true. Actually, you brought this up, and I had I'd asked you before this if I could read something in your book. This got me so good. Basically, the science, I'm just reading this. So, how limiting beliefs form in the brain. Between birth and approximately age seven, the human brain operates predominantly in the theta brainwave state, the same state adults enter during deep meditation. The prefrontal cortex is not yet fully developed, so the brain is essentially an open recording device, absorbing information without the filtering capacity to evaluate whether what it's recording is true. A parent that says we can't afford that becomes I don't deserve a good thing. Or a coach who says you're not athletic becomes exercise isn't for people like me. And that the reason why I wanted to read that is that first of all, there's so much information in there, even just talking about the prefrontal cortex in children. I don't think parents realize enough that every single thing that comes out of your mouth, and not to say you're gonna make mistakes, you're gonna probably screw your kid up and the you're what I tell the girls I work with is you're not trying to keep them out of therapy, you're trying to limit how much they need. That's all. That's all we're trying to do.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

Everybody needs therapy.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Yeah. I mean, I the the one that hit me was, you know, we we can't afford that. That was, oh my God, that was my whole childhood, every day, all day. And I was like, I don't even know how much we're eating right now because we can't afford anything. And it was really interesting that I actually I listened to, and I don't recall where I heard this, so I apologize for that. But somebody said, especially to her children, instead of saying we can't afford that, is that's Not where our money is budgeted towards right now, or something along those same lines where it's just like, no, we can have great things. We just can't have that thing because we haven't planned for it, or because it actually doesn't make sense, or it's not in our best interest, or whatever. And yeah, I mean, I just loved that. I loved all about it. With this like my favorite part of the whole book, just that one little thing. So with the prefrontal cortex, as a child, because it's not developed, it doesn't have the capacity or the means to differentiate, well, this isn't a reality, those are just words being spoken.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

It's wild that, but the reason for that is because there's there's no gatekeeper, right? The prefrontal cortex is basically the bouncer at the bar, right? And they're looking for information that could be detrimental, you know. You know, especially with children, they're they're just sponges, right? And you know, we have this discussion at my school a lot about foreign language, where you know, foreign languages are amazing, but in the United States, we don't start them when they're in elementary school. They don't start until they get to sixth, seventh grade, so it's harder for them to acquire and keep that language. You know, we have a lot of students who are multilanguage because they weren't born in the United States. You know, I have students from the Ukraine who speak Ukraine, Turkish, Russian, and English. You know, like hypnotic suggestions, right? When you're in that meditative state, that's when the information can bypass the rational part of your brain and start to recode or rewire the brain. And you know, going back to limiting beliefs, one of the the techniques that I talk about is you know, you can get recordings that play while you're falling asleep. And so when your brain starts to enter that meditative state, if you have something on a loop that says, you know, I am constantly growing, I'm constantly learning, I am more responsible with money, you know, fill in the blank, that can now get into your subconscious because your subconscious is a supercomputer and your conscious brain is like still writing on a piece of paper with a rock, you know.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_02 24:15

Yeah, and that's one of the things I talk about in the book. Your your conscious awareness can only take in between 50 and 100 bits of information where your subconscious can process 11 million bits per second. And that's to keep you alive, right? The brain's main job is to keep you alive. And if you had to constantly be aware of your surroundings and what's coming near you, and if that a rattlesnake on the ground, you know, you would you wouldn't be able to have conversations, you wouldn't be able to do anything. And so your brain is constantly looking for threats. And when it comes to limiting beliefs, your brain is gonna look for reasons why you're right. You know, it doesn't matter if it's real or wrong, it's gonna prove why you're right. You know, for example of how this works, I remember when I was looking to buy my truck, right? I wanted a big black truck, black rims, black on black. And I'm like, that'd be a really cool looking vehicle to have. I just I go to upstate New York, I find the one I want, I buy it. On the way home, I had to see a hundred black trucks. Now, did a hundred black trucks just appear? No, my brain started to look for something I thought was important. One of the things in my latest uh social media posts that I had was, you know, every morning you should be asking the universe for, you know, show me the wins. You know, where where is my life being successful? And so now your brain will start over time will start hunting for wins. It could be getting a green light, getting a parking spot, it could be finding a dollar on the ground, it could be having a good round of golf, it could be having a um a great meal. And then you start to see a lot of times people talk about how much their life sucks. And it's like I I try to remove from the environment, which is another section that I talk a lot about, is try to stay out of those conversations because if you keep getting bombarded with that negative stuff, your brand's gonna start looking for it. So, like if you watch the news over and over again, you know, the majority of the the news is negative.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

All of it is, it's they don't even have the fun puppy stories anymore.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Like that might be one at the end. It's like in closing, here's little Joey and jumping on the bed and knocking his sister over. So now you your brain starts constantly looking for negative things. And I've been out with people like for dinner who I know do this, and they'll point out every single thing that's wrong in the restaurant. And it's like, yeah, but that drink was good, the appetizer was really good. You saw that person you haven't seen in you know, so like just the the power of the subconscious to you know, they're not being negative because they want to be negative, it's because it's they're programming, and that's the the whole basis of the book is just to rewire that programming so you can achieve whatever health goals you want, or you can obviously apply it to anything else that you want, but like without health, like that's the most important goal there is, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:14

And there's so many different layers to health. Well, I think one of the one places that I love to land on when it comes to health is is sleep because I think I think it's so underrated. I feel like nobody talks about it and everybody has some limiting belief, like, oh, I only need four hours of sleep. Whatever.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

Sleep when I'm dead.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Yeah. I'm gonna be honest, I've said that multiple times. Oh only because I really love life so much and it's annoying that I have to sleep. I also hate eating it. That's annoying. I want to take a pill for food and I want to sleep two hours a day, and then I want to love the rest of the day. I actually do love sleep. Yeah, even though it's annoying that I have to do it, it's just so inconvenient for me.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

But it interrupts the actual experiencing the fun.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

It interrupts all the fun. So yeah, but anyways.

SPEAKER_02 28:02

I love that. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Yeah. Well, that's how I feel about it. I'm like, there's so much life out there, I just don't want to have to go to sleep. But whatever I need it, and it's fine. But I actually spent, um, if I was honest with myself, it probably took me about two years to reset my circadian rhythm to get my sleep. But I am so in tune with my circadian rhythm now that literally I made it so that I literally, so I go to bed every night at 9 p.m. Around so I don't eat about two hours before bed. I did stop for a long time drinking before, but like not alcohol. I don't drink alcohol, but the um, but water, right? I was like, oh, maybe I I don't want to have to get up and pee. But what I actually I did a lot of research on it and they actually recommend not doing that. Just get up and pee. It's better for you to be hydrated than it is for you to be dehydrated. So that took me a little while to get over. As far as screens go, like even when I get home from work, I don't even turn the TV on anymore. I'm like, I don't care. I love reading books. People make fun of me because I want, like, you know, the library book. Like, I'm definitely going to the library book. Please, I'm I will buy your book for a second time just to have an actual print of it. I'm also somebody who takes notes in my books. And if I don't know what a word is, I'll write the definition in it. Like I read books with a dictionary. So yeah, there's whatever. And I know I'm weird. But yeah, so now I'm like, okay, there's no TV, there's no cell phones, there's no food. And I'm like, holy shit, I actually fall asleep at nine. I get up at 4 a.m. every day because I I go on my morning walk of gratitude. That's what I call it. Um, and I want to do that when the animals are up and when nobody needs me. So that's why I go so early in the morning. I don't even need an alarm clock. When nine o'clock, even when seven o'clock rolls around, I'm like, oh, I'm starting to feel a little, yeah, I'll do like a little yoga routine and then I'll go sit in bed and read for a little bit. And I'm like, oh my God, this is amazing. Feeling rested and well all the time. Not to mention my skin cleared up. I feel like my vision got better. Like, even driving to work, I'm or driving home from work, I'm not like, oh my God, what an exhausting day. Stressors that happen don't even phase me anymore. I'm like, I got this. Don't worry, I'll put the fire out. It's fine. But, anyways, tell me tell me your thoughts on sleep.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

Oh god, yeah. Like you said at the beginning, is it's the I with my athletes, I say it's the best athletic development or performance-enhancing drug you can do. Um, especially with how screwed up teenagers are in their sleep. Their cycles are definitely different, and sleep is what allows the body to heal, clears out metabolic waste, gets rid of the junk that's been uh produced in our brain.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

The gymphatic system. Yeah, that was the best system ever to learn. Yeah, I'm such a nerd. I love it. I'm like, oh my god, this little gymphatic system, it's like all active at night and it cleans it out and brushes all the trash out. It's amazing. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

I think the the best thing that for me in circadian rhythm was my dog. Really? So because she gets up early. She likes to eat, you know, and so if she thinks it's morning time to get up, and once I'm up, that's it. Like there's no going back to sleep. Even on weekends, if she gets up early and I feed her and I go back and lie down, I'm just kind of just hanging out. I'm not going back to sleep. Um, but getting sunlight in the first 20 minutes that the sun's up is pivotal to help regulate your circadian rhythm. You know, as you know, circadian rhythm is allows us to fall asleep and allows us to wake up, deals with cortisol and melatonin. Um, cortisol to wake you up, melatonin to help knock you out. And the screens, as it's well documented, I'm pretty sure everyone has heard this before, but the frequency of light that comes out of a computer, a cell phone is no different than the light we get from the sun. So if you're on screens at night a lot, your brain doesn't know if it's daytime or if it's night. And so that will make falling asleep harder. And so, what do a lot of people do when they can't sleep? They scroll. And so, which just causes this cycle of not being able to completely wind down.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

Well, I think the new argument is right, I have a blue light screen or something, and you're like, okay, well, hang on, because it's not just your eyes. No, you're stimulating your mind, watching a nice reel, a funny reel, a shitty reel, sad reel. That overstimulation is also causing your brain to not be prepared for sleep. So it's not just the the screen itself, it's the overstimulation.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

It's the act of engagement of Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

When you're reading a book, you're reading one story, you're following this very specific thing. That's fine. But to for you to be just back and forth between emotions.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

Right. Like I was listening to um what what was his name? Boss Hughes. So one of the things that he was saying is that one of the biggest complaints that teachers and parents have with kids is like they don't have attention spans anymore. And he and he disagrees. But it's not that they don't have attention spans, is that their attention spans are evolving to uh get rid of as much bullshit as possible that they don't find is interesting. And that's one of the big problems I'm having with education as a teacher is we need to be looking at ways on how to keep them engaged in the classroom because the the old I'm gonna stand up at the chalkboard and you're gonna take notes. The kids can't it's not interesting enough for them. So you need to have uh different frameworks of how to get that information across, whether it's your movements in the classroom to how many slides you change, because I was reading somewhere like a net all Netflix movies has a cutscene or a change of camera angle every two to three seconds.

SPEAKER_00 33:42

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02 33:43

And when once you notice it, it's annoying. Like you put on, go watch a Netflix show and just keep track of how many times your reference point changes.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Interesting. Well, good on them that they did that statistic and figured it out. Like that's intelligent.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

And that's one of the things that you'll see in a lot of like the most popular social media is their content is engaging because they cut and move all over the place to keep the person hooked to watch the entire reel. Not just kids, but adults, like the attention spans are just they're not that they are attention deficit, they just don't look at shit that's not interesting.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

I don't I don't hang out with children as much as I would love to, because I think children are way more interesting than adults, but the people in my generation are just as bad.

SPEAKER_02 34:33

And so, like to your point, you know, that's kind of one of the other underlying foundational principles of the book is if you can dial in all the other pieces, it makes sleep easier.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

100%. Right?

SPEAKER_02 34:46

Like so if you have the right mindset and you're you know, you incorporate mindfulness and meditation, gratitude in your eating healthier, right? You know, more, you know, not that I'm a nutritionist or anything like that. I am looking to get a certification back. And then, you know, obviously if you're exercising and you're maintaining an environment that doesn't jack up your stress, yeah, right, you're gonna have a much easier time falling asleep. And so, you know, stress is something that we we obviously need, right, in order to adapt and improve because there's no plateauing, either you're getting better or you're getting worse. So you have to constantly invoke little things of stress that are good for you, and to make adaptations from that requires energy. And if you're and if you're using energy to make these adaptations and changes, you're gonna sleep better. Right. And if you sleep better, that means you're gonna get up at a better time and you're gonna help balance your circadian rhythm. And if you're gonna go for your walks, you're gonna probably eat healthier, you know. And if you're going to the gym more or getting any type of movement practice in, you're gonna eat better and then while we recover from it. And you know, to back to environment, if you're hanging out with five people that don't do anything and they drink and they smoke and they eat junk food all the time, you're not gonna stay in that environment. Or you're gonna change into those people.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Yep. So yeah, no, it's difficult. So, okay, one of the last things that I wanted to ask you about, um, it was basically a quote in your book that you wrote in your step two weekly check-in, uh I'm sorry, weekly checklist. You wrote, and I'll put this in quotation marks, is put it in your calendar what time you will do your morning practice, not when I wake up. And while you're referring to morning practices that we're not gonna get into, just that quote alone hit me so hard that I'm like, I say this all the time to people. I'm like, if you're gonna do something, it's not like, oh, maybe I'll go fishing when I'm on vacation. No, dude, I'm going fishing Wednesday at 4 p.m. while I'm on vacation. And then and then it's set in your mind that like there is not that's a non-negotiable now. I do that now. It's the same thing with my morning walk is I'm like, people are like, you're crazy. Why do you do that? I'm like, because A, nobody needs me. I have the time to do it. And B, it's to me the beginning of my day that's non-negotiable. Nobody can take that from me, right? But, anyways, yeah, talk, talk a little bit about how you came up with that and how that kind of became part of the relevant.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

It actually came from a joke, really. I my friends from college, we're all still really close, and that we were planning to do something. I don't remember exactly what, but I just remember one of my buddies being like, well, it's not in my calendar, so I forgot about it. You know, you started thinking about things that, you know, if it's in the calendar, you're gonna be way less likely not to do it, right? Because you're already by by putting it onto your calendar with whether it's a physical calendar or it's on your phone, it lives there and you will see it leading up to that point. And so if you're trying to align that identity, which I think the most the best health identity that you can try to adopt is I am someone who does this, right? I am someone who values my health. I am someone who gets up early and does X, Y, and Z. And so if it's on the calendar and you're practicing that belief, after a few weeks, it starts to become part of who you are, right? And so, to your point, when I get up, that could be different for many people depending on their work schedules. You know, for me, I my schedule is fairly consistent, but my students make fun of me all the time because I still get up at like 4 30 on Saturdays and Sundays. Well, why do you do that? I'm like, well, it's it's who I am.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

Also, it's healthier for you.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

And and I I love getting more stuff done before most people are out of bed. So by scheduling things, it makes it more likely that you're going to do it. You're always you're kind of like making this commitment to yourself already. And that's one of the things in like the environment section that you know, your environment is obviously internal and external, but like that external is it's who you surround yourself with. And so if you're not planning fun things with people you love and care about, whether we want to admit it or not, we're still a tribal species, right? You know, the the the tribe has changed, it might be your work tribe, it might be your family, it might be your online tribe, you know, whatever, but there's still that connection piece or those things that bond you to another human. And so my college friends and I, we we book some major trip every year. That's you know, whether we're going to South Carolina or if we're going to the Connecticut Shore, we're going to New Hampshire, upstate New York. We we plan at least one big one and we do a lot of like multi ones, and it's like get into the calendar. And that gives you something to look forward to, it's something to get excited about. And I think that's a problem with a lot of people is that they don't plan things to get excited about.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_02 39:40

They have nothing to look forward to, and everything is just routine, and you're living this the same life for 50 years, year in, year out.

SPEAKER_00 39:49

And 50 years goes by.

SPEAKER_02 39:51

Oh my god, I I just turned 50 last week.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

Oh, happy birthday! Oh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 39:56

Like, I don't feel like it. I still feel like you know, I did in my 20s and 30s. I I still, you know, I still run, I still lift weights, I still do jujitsu, I still golf, and like and I feel good. Now, are some days harder than others? Of course. You know, there's some there's some miles on these you're still human, right? And so, but my goal is I'm playing the long game. It it's not a sprint. I want to be that guy who's 90 years old on the golf course and still rolling on the mat. And but I have to set that foundation now. Or you know, I can't build that house on a sandy foundation, and it all starts with your health.

SPEAKER_00 40:30

When I found out you wrote a book, I'm like, oh my god, I need to talk. Like, that's an amazing accomplishment. That's not that's no joke. Right. Like, I cannot tell you how many people in my life have been like, maybe I'll write a book one day. And that will never happen for those people. And I know, like, you've wrote a book.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

Like, it's short. It needs to be very short.

SPEAKER_00 40:50

Right. You can play humble volume, and I'm gonna not take, like, take your humble and shove it out the window. Okay, like there's no room for that right now. Like, let somebody honor that for you. I mean, especially your book has so much information about I mean, biology and and and chemistry and just hormones and the brain and and our patterns and stuff. But like, I just can't imagine you walking down the hallway and being like, I wrote a book, and me being like, it's nice. Like, I'm like, what? I want to read it.

SPEAKER_02 41:17

Yeah, it's you know, it's I'm not very good at self-promotion, you know, where so this might work out good.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

I'm gonna, I mean, I have like two followers, so maybe two new sales for you. Right, perfect.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

As long as it's helping people like that's a goal because that was another driving force when you know when I was married, like the topic of kids came up. And, you know, I was already in my 40s, she was approaching for you know, it's kind of like, do we really want to do this? And we just at the time, you know, we decided not to. And so obviously, I'm now older and kids are not my future. It's this is information and advice from somebody who did it, right?

SPEAKER_00 42:02

And do you feel like you're kind of passing that down to like yeah, oh my god, I love that.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

Yeah, it's like historical thing, right? Like people always pass down what they knew to the next generation, and that's how society is advanced, right?

SPEAKER_00 42:16

It's in print now, right?

SPEAKER_02 42:17

And so to have something that I I want to leave something for people to learn from. It's it's information that I wish I had when I was growing up, right? And you know, even as as a as a teenager in my 20s, you know, when now granted at that point in time you still think you're indestructible and you can do whatever, but at least it's there where you could lean on it to help shape where you want to go, right? It's a lot like the anger I have for not knowing about investing until I was like in my mid-30s and started doing it. And the amount that I've been able to like save up in such a short period of time, I was like, damn it, if I only knew that when I was 20, right?

SPEAKER_00 43:00

Can't look back, you can only look forward.

unknown 43:02

Right.

SPEAKER_02 43:03

Like it's in the it's a cautionary tale.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

Well, I think even you talking about Gen X, I mean you're you're talking about what the boomers never taught us. You know what I mean? They were at work. They're like, I don't have time to teach you finance, I don't have time to teach you about your brain or your chemistry or your hormones. Give me a break.

SPEAKER_02 43:19

Like my my dad had a very successful building business. Yeah, I know nothing about business other than that when I worked for me.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

My brother's like, kid, come on to work with me and I'll teach you.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

You know, my mom was the the bookkeeper. She handled like documents and bankroll and you know how to keep track of finances, how to get loans and stuff. And it's like I never learned that.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

Did were you naturally good at it, or did you struggle with it?

SPEAKER_02 43:42

Oh my god, good at it? No, I I don't know if that's it. I'm good at it. Like I I know how to open up my own account and just go. I I've read a couple books on you know, just buy EFTs and just keep buying them and just leave them there.

SPEAKER_00 43:54

And so and forget your password. Yeah. It's like the best. No, keep forgetting your password. That's how great. You don't try to do things with it. It's the best way. Yeah. Okay. Well, anyways, I know. Well, let's wrap this up. Um, I just want to say thank you so much for coming. Oh, this was great. No, it was amazing. I can't believe that you wrote a book and you're this humble about it. Not necessary. I think you should shout it to the top of the world. Um, yeah, having these conversations has been really fun for me, but this one was especially fun because there was a book to talk about and there was something tangible that we could dig into and get into. So the book, get the book, definitely do the workbook. I love the workbook. Um, and yeah, we'll have Chris back on because this has been too fun not to. And even if nobody listens to it, I'm having a good time.

SPEAKER_02 44:37

Yeah, I enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_00 44:38

All right, thanks so much. We'll see you guys next week.