Let's transition and talk about poop, we keep saying the poop diet right now by the way for those of you that are listening or watching. I just want to stress to you again like this is a part like you know what fascinates me like. I ask people they're like oh i'm, just i'm really unhealthy and i want to you know i want to lose weight and i'll just say how many times a day do you poop, which is a really fun question when you like, just met somebody right because they're, Like what did i say well, is it once a week? Is it once a day? Is it twice a week and they go? Oh, my god. It's like you know like maybe like once a week and i just think to myself you're full of blank right and then i'll say well how many meals do you have per day? Well, i have three and i'm like so how many times do you think you should be going to the bathroom per day and people have like x's on their eyes like? How is that not common sense right right? I'm sorry we're talking gut health.

Ladies and gentlemen, right poop test and it's it's important, it's it's super important and it's it's amazing again, another one of those things. We learn nothing about right. You don't talk about people, oh no, most people aren't raised in a family where poop ever comes up. Yes, my wife is right here we talk about poop all the time you know when i was when i was starting, my my new career path into functional medicine and i started in chinese medicine.

The chinese are all about the poop right. Yes wanted to know everything about it. We had to know all of the details in in functional medicine. You know there's so much we can tell in the poop, because if you think about it, it's the downstream effect of all of the digestive process.

So most of you are familiar with things like colonoscopies and and endoscopies. That's looking at the mechanical function. Do i have a tumor or do i have you know some kind of a pocket or a polyp or something like that? But you can't look in the colon or the digestive system and tell whether or not you have enough of the right kinds of enzymes or the right kinds of bacteria and for those of you out there who are paying any kind of attention. This bacteria, the good bacteria, the microbiome we call it is critical.

Yes, we know now that about 37 pounds of you is that bacteria that you're carrying around and it makes all the decisions all day long for everything, that's going to happen in your body, so we can tell a lot from the poop by uh. You know looking um at these different areas that we can't see in some of the mechanical tests that we can get done in a conventional. You know medical office, so i can say that a poop test super critical in my office. Everybody gets one yeah.

It's about a three-day process and it will look at everything from housing. It's not a three-day process of pooping just well. It takes three days to collect, so it is a three yeah. You collect over three days, collect over three days and you send it in yeah, and just that is is interesting.

Conversation with your spouse and it's interesting how many of my patients will say, but i don't i you mean it's consecutive days. Oh, i know yeah, it's like i only poop every three days or maybe once a week or and again no former knowledge that it was important. So you know i mean the minimum is once a day and for those that are really optimized. You watch your dog folks, they poop after every meal.

Right bingo humans should do the same thing, yes um, and but it takes some optimization to get that to happen. So we're able to look at the stool and tell uh whether or not you digest the food. You ate whether you're absorbing all the nutrients that you need to absorb, whether you have any inflammation in there, whether there's parasites or bacteria or fungus, or it's a lot of information. If anything, you could tell, we could talk parasite stories, but yeah and people are like.

Oh, but i've never traveled out of the you think people think you have to go like to india or something like a parasite. You ever had a hamburger went down to in and out you've got a parasite you ever had sushi like have you ever had food yeah, there's parasites, yeah, absolutely so um. So it's important to to look at that digestive function, because here's the deal the digestive system is where you intake all of the nutrients that are going to fuel all of the processes of the body. So if you aren't um, you know all of us seem to be eating plenty when you look at our population, so it's not that we're not eating nutrients, but we're not absorbing them yeah, so we are malnourished in a sense, even though we may not look like That on the outside, and you can be grossly obese and be malnourished, yeah, actually men most would be like most of most obese people are, and so the digestive system is really where it starts.

It is the the key beginning in a functional medicine. Environment is to look at the function of one of the most important systems and it has a direct line to the brain right. So you hear this gut brain interaction. They um, you know, there's many out there now that are saying that the gut is actually the first brain and it's where all that microbiome is stored and if we don't keep that bacteria healthy, it doesn't matter what's going on up here.

So a poop test is super important and i have all of my clients do it, because once you see that on paper, there's no going back from that right, you are. You have to change that when you optimize the gut. You now have made a major difference in the function of the whole body. Just in that one space, that's super important, but again i think what was cool about working with you in the very beginning and obviously we have an ongoing.

You know incredible relationship. I knew to do my blood back from like tony robbins in like the early 90s, like stu middleman and his wife right. We're like doing blood work in the back of the room, and i was like i'm gon na go check that out right and they would show us our blood like in real time under a microscope, microscope right. It was crazy and then peter diamandis and others, but like you're, the first person.

That said no, you really need to check all three and i knew it was like. I knew the. I think. The thing that freaks people out is there's so much noise and so much confusion and so much sort of like this is the way right, but not enough people saying you need to check out your body first and then make some good decisions right.

Is that fair? Absolutely right because it's easy to say: here's a diet right and there's a program and the reason why you know there's all that exists is because we're all different at the baseline. So if we're all different, what ends up happening? Is you get a bunch of different stuff flying around out there, but is it the right thing for you yeah? This is called personalized approach to medicine or personalized approach to health and you're, not going to know what is going to work best for you until you know, what's not working yeah, and so that's where again, i think, building i i talked to my clients about building A health optimization plan: well, it starts with understanding: what's not optimized already right. Where is the function already a problem and where's your lifestyle contributing to that right? So that's kind of where we start and the labs honestly aren't something i need to necessarily seek, as i can tell after all the years i've been doing this just by talking to you what i would need to do. It's evidence for you yes right, because if i can't that's an interesting distinction yeah, if i can't give you a reason to have a strong enough why to go on and make the changes, i'm going to ask you to make we're not going to be successful.

So the labs are really the evidence that we're gathering and it does it tightens up my suggestions about supplements that you might take or different kinds of treatments you might need. But evidence is there for you to kind of fuel your why that you're going to go on to carry out the plan. So so, even though i say uh, it's a very confusing space, even before blood and poop and spit, you said: hey look, there's like five core things that, like obviously, each one's gon na be customized based upon the results right, but like there's five core things. You have to do right.

I think it'd be really good right now for the listener, just to say, hey, no matter what right here's five core things by doing, though the blood the poop and the spit, you can really optimize it more customize. It is that the right way to describe it exactly so talk to us about those five most important actions: okay, um, you know it's not going to be what people think right, because everybody's expecting me to say less work, yeah work out more yeah, no there's five Things number one is sleep, guys yeah and if you're, not if you're not getting enough and, more importantly, you're, not getting the right quality deep enough sleep, it's when the body repairs itself. So if we're not optimizing sleep, we're not repairing, it would be like it would be like a drive-through, auto mechanic right, you pull in, and you say you got one minute to fix everything. They're not gon na.

Be able to do that same thing. If you get into bed - and you don't sleep deeply - your body will not repair. Okay, i'm literally pulling up my sleep cycle app, which i swear by and if you have not checked this out, i strongly recommend it. Last night i had a 72 percent effective night of rest.

I have now been tracking pam 2197 nights and when i started i was at 4.2 hours of sleep per night, because i had this hallucination in my head. That, like i i'll, die and that's when i finally catch up on all my rest right like that was like literally, that was my mindset. I'm now at seven hours and seven minutes which to me almost seems insane. But when i look at like the statistics - and i see like the numbers tracking like look at this horrible night of sleep, i was in bed seven hours and 50 minutes, but i only and i'm trying to show you on the camera here.

I only really got two deep rem, sleep cycles, which is why i had a bad night of sleep yeah right. If i have a really good night i'll be like 85 90 and i'll get four deep rem, sleep cycles right, explain to the people that are listening or watching. What is that, and why does it matter? Well, first of all, i would say that the minimum amount of time you have to sleep is going to be seven hours. Minimum yeah right optimal is eight for some of us, it's going to be nine, and eamon is now saying eight.

If you want your brain to do that natural detox wash, which happens after seven hours right right exactly so um the the there's different levels of sleep - rem, sleep, deep sleep - you spend you know probably more time in ram deep - is a little bit less often of A a part of the pattern at night, but there's definitely a certain pattern that happens and it's during those times that many of the uh metabolic processes repair themselves right, you get the brain wash out. You make a human growth hormone. I think that happens like before. 2 a.m.

So if you're going to bed at midnight, you've missed the window to even create the right hormones and just repair tissue repair. Everything that you did you know we damage our body all day, long pollution, stress bad diet and then we go to bed and that's when the body fixes itself. So if we don't have optimized quality of sleep and there's lots of reasons why people don't get sleep, they don't allow enough time. They don't have the right environment for sleep.

It's got to be cool, it's got to be dark, it's got to be quiet which is challenging. You know, in our day, we use our electronics too close to bedtime right should be an hour, no electronics, an hour before bed. So we don't have good what i call sleep, hygiene yeah or we have a problem right. The hormones are out of balance.

Cortisol is too high. Um, you know many of the menopausal women i drank with caffeine at seven o'clock at night or something right and alcohol is a big alcohol right. Alcohol at night really disturbs the sleep, um and there's some really great science data on that matthew, walker's new book. How we sleep so it's, it is um, it's number one, it's the most critical thing.

If you don't sleep, all bets are off. We can't optimize. So a lot of my friends. Now we used to brag like as these you know: crazy entrepreneurs guys and gals we'd.

All say, like oh man, i'm getting four hours a night of sleep man. I was like burning the midnight oil. I was up till 2am. Now we all brag about what time we go to bed yeah.

I was in bed by nine. It was a friday night. Yes, i think a big part of it is just changing people's paradigm yeah, absolutely like like people just like. Maybe the lack of awareness of recognizing my body needs to rest, so i can heal up.

So i can go out and attack right exactly right. I mean it used to be a badge of honor to be able to get by on three or four hours a night exactly. We know now that that is ultimately going to be an early death. Yeah and definitely you know, you're not going to make the longevity or health span that we talked about.

Yes, so sleep is, you know, absolutely number one. What's number two um, i would say it's not even number two. It's like one point, one: okay, good. Okay, one! A one yes and um it, because it's that important, but but it can't nothing, trumps sleep.

So it's stress response management. Yes, so when i i recognize, i just haven't come up with a better term for it when i say that to my patients, i get this sort of blank stare like what the hell is that yeah, we all have stress, there's no way to get around it. I don't care, i have people tell me, i don't have any stress off all the money. I want great relationships, i'm, like you have stress, you live in this world, you have stress, yeah and stress, you don't even recognize like the pollution and emfs and whatever physical stress you have to have a daily plan for how you are going to respond both emotionally And physically to the stress that you are exposed to and there's very few things that qualify for this, and i kind of think of it, as i put on my suit of armor in the morning to protect me from the stress i'm going to have during my Day, there's really basically maybe three things that fit into that category meditation.

I was so glad you said that yeah, yes, meditation is really the key folks meditation all different forms, tm mindfulness just do one get an app on your phone. Do meditation exactly biofeedback, which is just a form of meditation, but i i kind of think biofeedback tricks, the brain a little bit, because when many of us are in a super stressed out mode, very high levels of cortisol, your brain, the primitive brain thinks that you Are in danger because the primitive brain recognizes two modes, death and vacation, and since most of us aren't even on vacation when we're on vacation death is pretty much where we're at so the brain wants you to be running away from whatever's trying to kill you. So when many people sit down and meditate they're like i can't turn off my brain, i can't do it. Biofeedback is still meditation deep breath, which is the deep breath, is the only signal to the nervous system that you're not going to die okay, so everything involves deep breath if you think about it: meditation's, deep, breathing, biofeedback's, deep breathing but you're usually holding your phone.

It's an app your eyes are open, so your brain gets a little bit tricked thinking that you're doing something, even though you're actually deep, breathing and changing your heart rate variability, which is very important, that's a whole podcast on its own and then um yoga. Some forms of yoga, not stressful forms of yoga, but your traditional forms of yoga and restorative yoga, so everybody can do yoga everybody, no matter what your physical abilities are. You can do there's many different forms that you can take, but but again, what is the premise of yoga deep breath deep breath under duress, which is a pose that you're having a really hard time holding it's about deep breathing through that? So it's it's all about deep breathing. That's the only thing that qualifies as a fix to this, where sleep had several things.

Yes, this doesn't yeah. It's basically that yeah um. There are supplemental things. We can do to help calm cortisol, but i always tell my patients.

You have to start with this first, because, if you don't do that, it doesn't matter what i give you isn't going to fix it. Yeah, okay, yeah just give me the pills, relax, it's all about breathing and doing it as often as you can, but i think starting the day that way and ending at least the book ends of the day. So you got to at least do that so tristan right here uh, i don't know where we were last week and and literally uh rj and tristan walk inside my my hotel suite and i am basically i could have just snapped. I could have just killed someone, because i was looking at two weeks of work that i'm behind on phone calls text all these new disciplines.

I've taken on all this stuff, my to-do list, and i and i had to go, get fired up and go to a seminar, and i literally i'm like we need to do a meditation person's like yeah, whatever, let's go and all the it was like a calm. App 11 minute meditation as soon as it was done. I was like okay, i got this like it is just it is just remarkable to just stop and have that awareness and say: okay, i'm feeling the stress and tension of this listing i'm about to launch this deal. That's falling apart.

My spouse just called me and said: hey you know like i feel like we're not connected right now or the kids are missing you or whatever. It is and not to react, but instead to stop, do a little meditation, eight ten minutes something and just create some mindfulness, yes right and that switches the nervous system from death, yes to vacation mode instantly. Yes, i was in minnesota. I don't think in january.

It was not vacation mode, i'm not knocking in minnesota. I'm just saying it was an indoor deal. So what's number, is it two or is it one b yeah? Well, i think number number two would be exercise. Yes, i haven't gone to diet, yet i know exercise yeah, it's critical.

It is really critical for longevity and health space. If you are not doing it, you need to be doing it every day, every day, every day, some kind of movement on a daily basis. Okay, now a few days a week, it should be something definitely much more planned and more figures could be a gym. Workout a peloton ride whatever, but the other days of the week is not on the couch in the bathrobe.

It is moving whether it's walking or doing a little rebounding or a little bit of yoga, and i say you know really mix it up. What i do see a lot in my practice is people who are really fixated on cardio only i do cardio cardio cardio. We need strength, training, we need cardio, we need flexibility, we need balance, so it has to be the gamut one of the easiest firm flexible. I love that critical without it that health span we talked about, and certainly the longevity is not an option.

I don't care how good you eat. You have to move the body and you pretty much. You have to move every day at least a few days a week. You need to do it more vigorously for sure cool.

What's number three would be diet all right, and this is where it gets tricky for a lot of people, because there are so many choices, yes, and what i would what i would say about most of the meal or food or eating plans out there is they All have pieces and parts that make sense, but none of them are a one. Size fits all so with nutrition, it takes a little bit of, i think, experimentation and it helps when you're working with someone like me, where you're seeing all the evidence. We know whether or not say, for instance, you're interested in doing a ketogenic diet. We can tell by looking at your labs whether or not that's going to be a beneficial approach for you or, if you're, an athlete.

We can talk about whether or not that makes sense, but really at the baseline of nutrition right. If we just got out of mother nature's way, folks yeah, all the food was already created. So if you just stick, here's my tenants on diet, stick as close as you can to the natural food process right now, you're into cycles of, like you know, spring summer fall winter. Well, i'm i'm talking about first order, there's more green stuff than meat stuff yeah! The with the food itself, right, it is, is um the the least amount of processing possible right so uh, you know eating fruits and vegetables and in my practice, what i tell people is: i'm not going to give you a diet, i'm going to give you a Picture yeah so just take a plate.

It's a round circle. Half of it at minimum, should be vegetables, half of it two handfuls one quarter. It should be your protein palm full. I don't care where that comes from.

It could be an animal make sure it's clean. Organic grass-fed wild all-important it could be for people who are vegetarian. It could be a grain protein like quinoa, but everybody a handful, not a plate, full of lentils, not a plateful yeah, a handful notice. How big you made that plate too yeah yeah and then um.

The rest of the plate, which is a pretty tiny little sliver, is i just call it six bites yeah anything else. You think that you might consume at that meal, whether that's a potato or some rice or for your friend kirk. It was his piece of cake. Yes has to fit in there and not be more than six bites.

Sorry kirk castle, yeah um six bites yeah, so that limits all of that other stuff, the process and all of that, so we had mostly vegetables a moderate amount of protein minimal amounts of anything else. You thought you would have and then ample amounts of good fats in the process of the cooking in the dressing, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts seed, nut butters for your snacks in between couple pieces of fruit, max no juice, no dried fruit, just fruit. It was made that way because the fiber and the sugar in it when you eat that it's a slow process in the body when you squeeze all the juice out of it, it's just sugar, water yeah. So that's so so for me, that's the basic approach to nutrition.

Once you've got that dialed in and you've got your optimal weight and you're feeling amazing, and you want to experiment with something like fasting or ketogenic. Then, by all means do it yeah, but don't start there. When i made the comment about joe rogan, like you know where that came from it's jordan peterson, whose daughter is dealing with some very rare diseases, and the only thing that they discovered through documentation, was, if she just ate meat, she was able to maintain less pain. Greater greater health levels and then he started doing the same thing and now all of a sudden rogan's doing the same thing, but he's experimenting right clearly, and i think that i i love experimentation, i'm a total biohacker.

I am an n of one all the time. However, i can say that i have a very strong baseline that i started from. If i didn't create that baseline first now, i'm off biohacking and practicing and experimenting it's going to go bad really bad. So you have to start there and i think, and for many people they don't have to go beyond that.

That could just be your diet. Yes, right, that is a that is really an optimal health baseline and that diet, by the way folks, is very similar to like a mediterranean diet exactly okay, so lots of veggies, moderate protein, moderately high good fat and very little bits of anything else that doesn't fit In those three, yes, yes, twinkies aren't on the list. Twinkies aren't on the list, occasionally right, it's okay to have have occasional right. When i think occasionally, i usually give myself you know, maybe a once a week, i can do like some kind of cheat or yeah, but again i'm really optimized.

So if i did it two or three times a week, i can make it up in everything else that i'm doing, but for those of you out there who are looking to lose weight or you've got a disease process already, these five things are really what you Need to be focused on until you get to a place where you're stable and then you can play a little bit yeah. So what's the so i got sleep. I got stress, uh response management, which is really deep, breathing and yoga and meditation right. I got exercise.

I got diet what's number four or technically number five, it's it's a broad category that i'm going to call support. Okay and it's it is it's so so critical and we really found this in our level up program at level. 10. Health is one of the key components to the success of a lot of people on our program, has been the community support, yeah right and we're seeing that now with all the social media.

You know, and everybody belongs to a lot of different um communities and that support is really critical, um and uh. So i think community support is important. I think family support, even if your family members aren't going to join you in this process. They need to know what you're doing yes right.

So you craft your plan and you present it, and you say this is what i'm going to do to get healthy yeah. They need to at least know, and hopefully, they'll come along for the ride, but they i have so many patients that don't do that and then they end up. It ends up becoming an excuse for why they don't you know finish the the plan yeah, but it also can be a roadblock, so i think that's important and then the support of nutritional supplementation, and that can mean many things and again that goes back to that Evidence right, personalized medicine, what function has already gone awry has declined, and how do we, aside from those five things, how do we restore function and a lot of times that needs some kind of a what i would think of as a nutraceutical treatment or approach, and I put that in the support category, because supplement means to supplement to support. Yes, don't start there yeah, i see all these people and don't do don't do supplements but not change.

Your diet still not sleep. It is taking the western medicine mentality of give me the pill to fix me yeah over here to functional medicine. Give me the supplement to fix me. I have news for you folks, there isn't one you have to do the work and then the supplements can exponentially bingo increase your results.