Well, hello, ladies and gents Robert Sykes ketose happen.com to them, get special guest stars Garcia on the line and we dive deep into what all he's learned throughout the years, as far as his nutrition manipulations. He has been an avid Runner. He Dove deep into the vegan vegetarian lifestyle, for quite some time deviated from that has now gone towards more of a ketogenic animal-based diet. So we dive into that.
We talk about what all his routine consists of, we talked about his experience with long covid, he got covid back these Past couple years and had really bad, long covid symptoms. He was in the hospital, he was totally totally out of commission for several months. We talked about, he wrote a book called after covid. So we talked about what modalities he's done. Post covid to improve his health. Improves cardiovascular function
and get back on track. We just dive into a lot of daily routine stuff like how he's learned to optimize his own life. We talked about longevity principles that he puts into practice to improve his health span thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. Learned a lot have No doubt that you will take something from it so that for their do is sit back, relax and do a podcast with Oz Garcia. And we are live Oz Garcia. How are you sir? I'm terrific. Robert. Thank you for having me on
board. Hey, I'm excited to have you. So I feel like we're going to dive into your discovery of the Fountain of Youth here, right? That's pretty good. Way to put it, right? I think it's a good starting point. Absolutely. Before we started recording, you were giving me some back story. As to what got you into health and nutrition. You turned out as a runner, you were doing all kinds of marathons. Just gonna give you some backstory on that, man. Let's flush that out further.
So I want to hear about what what happened with your running Endeavors that made you look towards diving deeper nutrition to begin? With. There were a number of things coming out of the background that I embodied, which is pretty much the culture of the 60s, late 60s. I was a rock and roll Kid in New York City and I was in a very different career path. I was an art history, teacher, professor and got very interested from there in Beauty and Fashion photography.
So that was a great kind of Lifestyle for somebody in their early 20s and I found that as I got more interested in what was what would possibly lead to a more meaningful life, a healthier life, I quit smoking this is very kind back in the 70s and you and I know historically in America to light up a cigarette and anywhere you know it's amazing. Now if You get an airplane to think about the fact that up until the 1970s smoking on most Airlines was allowed.
So I kind of quit smoking also and it occurred to me. I really don't know how I had a dear friend that had started jogging in South America, actually started jogging South American Peru, with the Indians that are well known for covering extremely long distances, you know, that tens of miles. Along the beaches and he started running with them, he was my inspiration. And I started running a little bit at a time in New York City here in Manhattan.
Those of you that don't know, as quartz is Park, it's called Central Park and there's a reservoir, then you could run it about a mile and a half. So, I started running the reservoir and bit by bit. It went from a mile and a half to running the reservoir twice. I clock three miles and the full circuit in Central Park is 6 miles. So, within a matter of months, I'd say around 74, 75. I would run several times a week, the full Park and be
exhausted. So I wanted to know if there were other things that could possibly have an impact on my running quitting, cigarettes, getting adequate sleep, making sure that I got body work back then if you went out to get a massage mean, nobody even knew what that was. So I got really interested in in Bodywork and I found a kind of body work called Rolfing. Which is based on the work of women, a model Ralph and that's where you get your body work.
Now, like a massage, very uncomfortable, Robert. But what they what the Bodywork it does with the raw for does is go in very, very deeply in different areas of your body. So you'll get an intense session episode. Let's say what the ralpher different parts of your body worked on for each session over the course of 10, sexual your Get your calves and your feet, on your back, down your neck done. And it actually stretch me out in ways that I couldn't imagine made me a better Runner.
And that along with the dietary protocols that I was files. Very different than what you? And I are going to talk about now, which is the role of Quito. But back then going from a highly refined American diet, lot of fast, food. Lot of sugar, a lot of carbs I'm Cuban. So Cuban food also with I amount of Hydrates, that it took a hit when I got very interested in macrobiotics for short.
While I got interested in vegetarianism than being vegan, is took into the 1980s, the early 80s and I started to lose an immense amount of weight and didn't feel also well after I would do my run. So I just started to wonder if there were other ways that you could structure eating and that speak that began this journey that's going on now for For over four decades and so far as what's the best way of eating, is there a benefit to being a high fat?
High animal protein consumer, low carbohydrate consumption and the impact on not only running, but you and I would agree the microbiome, the health of your colon beyond that, the health of your brain and whether or not you're going to live a long life, but not only live, a long life but live a Healthy strong infirm, free life. So that's where you and I crossed paths when it comes to the role of of eating and eating in the ways that you're an advocate for totaling.
So when you're doing a vegan that was in the 80s, that's when you're doing a lot. That's when you're logging quite a few miles a day to write. Sure. Yeah. And and and so the result of that was starving all the time. You know, being vegetarian and it's really being vegan for the time. That I was doing you get away with a lot when you're younger. So being in my late 20s and being vegan and eating pretty much everything raw cooked in to the extent that you would say,
Indians cook in air dryers. So pretty much everything that I was doing was growing. My own Sprouts. I was very influenced by the work of Hippocrates the Hippocrates Institute so Grass, wheat grass, juice, or chooses? We grass animals. We can say that in the show. So these are very common in terms of the early days of quote-unquote, holistic, health, and that just began to wipe me
out. So how can you Marathon, how can you erase the kind of races that I wanted to do and just live on vegetables and fruit and to the extent that bit by bit? I began to introduce competition. Lex carbohydrates, cook. If you can imagine brown rice, whole wheat bread. So so it just completely threw me off. Yes, I was able to manage my weight but I just wasn't able to manage my energy properly. Yeah. So back then I was working for a
very well-known nature, path. And he would tell me you need to start eating some food, some animal protein. Actually, I I think he did say, you need to start. Some food you can't you just can't live on that this kind of crappy diet that you're on and despite the fact that this is a very well-known nature path at the time, had a point.
And so, I remember to this day, Robert having my first piece of fish after having been vegetarian / vegan / macrobiotic, advocate for well, over five years and waking up the next day after having a big piece of blue fish, Shhhh at a very well-known seafood restaurant downtown back. Then waking up the next day I'm feeling terrific. And I thought to myself, okay so what is this?
What is this mean and and the inclination back then was for and and still now to a large extent this to move was to move towards a more ecological way of eating. You know. Save the Planet kind of stuff. Frances Moore lappe had written die for a small planet to Advocate primarily for Vegetarian ways of eating and
even even lappe. Now before she died, spoke about the fact that some people need need me because some people do need animal protein as a very big gap for her, to leap over to come from advocating vegetarianism, to admitting that many human beings would need me. But that, there we needed to find a solution that actually work for the individual and for the plan, Right totally totally agree with them.
So when a lot of people like right now, carnivores really popular, a lot of people don't like eating vegetables anyway. So for them share moving vegetables, entirely is not too big of a late for someone like yourself that came from following a strict vegetarian vegan diet for five-plus years. Do you make it a point to incorporate a lot of green
still? Or how do you kind of structure your nutrition knowing what, you know, now, but then also kind of leaning on what you've learned from past. Experimentation, Well, what I do is I rotate during a week during a month kind of following ancestral dietary habits. I pretty much structure my eating. So I'm navigating out of under feeding feeding overfeeding and and, and I'm trying to match what a hunter-gatherer would have been doing. I don't know before agriculture
20 25,000 30,000 years ago. Thousand years ago, I suppose. So if you were out hunting, typically, you could go long periods of time without any success at all. Most Predators certainly Cana excuse me. It's only big cats. Be look at a female cat, a lioness, you know, a leopard beat. These are animals that spend an immense amount of their time
while they're hunting. And looking to get a kill very hungry, so human beings, when they would go out and / date because we are predatory, we are killer primates. We would go through periods where you just couldn't get anything really if you were looking at, I suppose an antelope couple of hundred yards out in front of you. I'm certain that there were several other eyeballs, maybe several hundred other eyeballs looking at the same piece of moving meat. So On the way to getting your
kill. You would scavenge, you would eat low-hanging, fruit. Whatever you could uproot, anything that you could pick up bushes on the way to a Kill. So I'm not going to do that but I'm certainly going to try in terms of what you and I would work. Let's say when you're looking to increase a certain amount of phytochemicals that are found in plants that are found in certain, Roots. I'm going to adjust my diet accordingly so yeah, I'll be there for the most part.
I'm doing a kind of format where Monday's primarily on liquids. That's my kind of underfeeding day, my quote, unquote fasting day and then I begin to reintroduce certain kinds of foods. The next day. Bye-bye, middle of the week into Friday. I'm banging high-protein. And still because the chemicals. I'm well aware are featured in particular greens. These are going to go primarily my smoothies.
So if you look at my smoothie I mean I'm going to check it out with everything from a half avocado in there to a handful of mixed nuts to crucifix vegetables, I'll just read a half a head of broccoli that'll go in there may be some spinach handful of mixed berries and then the base which is typically a high protein base and I'll go Go with black toes, free, milk, protein, primarily way based, or I'm going to go with a really good branched-chain amino acid, mix, certain kinds that?
I like a lot. So I'm going to get my high protein, hit with the right amount of fat hit. I'll use coconut oil as a fat in my smoothie, for instance, also. And and that's that's the way I'll start most mornings. Afternoons, typically I'll have half Organic chicken. A nice piece of fish with some roasted vegetables in the side, that works extremely well for me.
And then because of certain reasons again, going off, genetics and my blood type and and what my blood work reveals which I think is is data that most of your listeners are probably appreciate. Then I'm going to modify how much big meat I'm going to eat. Even though I like It a lot. I'm cautious. My main source of animal protein, tends to be Seafood for the most part, but I like a nice hit of meat, big animal meet at least once a week.
So you're doing like a like the early part of the week, doing more liquid days. More of these smoothies probably cracked lower caloric intake over on then as the week progresses you're incorporating more like ruminant style, ground beef steak, something of that nature and You can transition to a more of a caloric surplus of the but Saturday Sunday, you're eating well over your maintenance intake, you got it. And what I'm looking to do is kind of trigger as much as I can
or topology and apoptosis. So you're going to you're going to kick in both those systems and and harvest is many dead cells on B cells aging cells senescent cells by underfeeding. So So so depending again, time of year and so on climate plays a big role being on a lengthy underfeeding protocol.
Let's say when it's 20 degrees out Fahrenheit, I'm not going to do it two or three day fast typically, I'll do a day like my Monday so that I can trigger most of the systems that can actually reduce Worse. The speed of which my body's aging take a lot of pressure off my kidneys, my liver my SEC, just give my whole body a rest from food. And then I begin to introduce a little bit more food and you're correct by the end of the week, I'm overfeeding. So I'm following a format, may vary.
No, by, or ehof meckler, I suspect, you know, how him and his work. He's a brilliant. I'm Fitness, coach used to train the military in Israel. Guy is an amazing shape and, and he's written a lot about intermittent, fasting, intermittent, feasting the book that I admire the mouse by him is pretty.
I think, it's this last was full of seven principles of stress and in it. He talks about the way that you can stress your body in in ways, that actually, Toot good stress you stress and how you can actually get to slow the Aging of your body, the premature wear and tear on it by underfeeding overfeeding again. What he calls, intermittent
fasting intimate and feasting. So that's the format that I follow and it's worked extremely well for me now as I'm heading into my, my 70s, I think modulating the caloric intake like that is super important. It's like so many people are
stuck. In this chronic fasting state where they're just wanna clear restricting and I've tried to really be outspoken about having periods, honestly, more period than not needs to be spent in a caloric Surplus for most people especially from like a muscle building and preservation standpoint, especially as you age. I just see so many people. They just chronically restrict.
I mean eating, you know, sub 1000 calories for far too long, their metabolism depressive the hormones down regulate and they just lose lean tissue. Very, very rapidly. So I think, you know, having this modulation approach toward which your offsetting those caloric, you know, lows with these Surplus periods is really, really brilliant. Thank you. And and again, these are for
your right when I was younger. I could get away with underfeeding for long periods of time through an extensive fast and so on. But as the years, go on, certainly as you get older if you're not careful with. At the protein that you consuming, you're going to pay a price, you're going to lose muscle mass release, the muscle that you have is going to be all that healthy. And if you're going to work out in ways that you would advocate for instance, you're going to have to be very very aware.
And on top of your caloric intake, I think, for people that want to lose weight and I'm talking about losing weight and as fat. So Just getting out and office scale. I think doesn't really work unless you're able to, unless you, you understand that there are the metrics you need to be looking at percentage of body fat. Well, how much of you is is water? How much of you is inflamed?
How much of you is muscle? So when I'm working with somebody, I want to drill down and get somebody to understand. What what's the most important metrics they need to be paying attention to? I'm going to have them get They're a really good scale that's going to rest measure percentage of body fat, better yet a fat caliper probably a digital fat caliper, so they can get educated and so far as when they're talking about losing weight. Well, what do you mean? You know, let's take a look at
your percentage of body fat. And what does that fall? And then, how do we target that? So I'm going to go into a ketogenic format with with intermittent fasting, but but I want to make that real clear and I Who would agree that it's got to be intermittent. So I may have clients that want to lose percentage of body fat working out on a fasting. Regiment. In other words, last meal was
dinner an early dinner bed? Early up early, maybe they want to stimulant some tea or coffee, maybe some product that actually offers them caffeine, if that's what they want. So that they can get themselves into the gym with. Any food in their body. So if you get somebody fasting and working out, if you can tolerate that you're going to get a very interesting effect in terms of the percentage of body fat that you burn off then load rapidly with an extremely dense.
High protein shake afterwards or a high-protein fatty meal right after their workout. Yeah, I think having a protein is Paramount when it comes to protein, there's a lot of controversy around that, as far as you know, what is there? What is a protein and there's a lot of generic recommendations like one gram protein per pound of lean mass per pound of body
weight. You have any general recommendations that you like to use around that I stopped actually recommend I won't have anybody count calories and I do agree with you in terms of the protein recommendation although I'm going to discourage most clients from being that targeted and specific it. Just noticed over four Decades of doing this unless I'm working and and you would probably agree with an athlete. Who's got a lot of the line in terms of hitting a Target spot on?
If it's a football player that I'm working with, if it's a basketball player that I'm working with, so that they're able to maintain the right amount of muscle mass, how it is, they can recover quicker from the work, ask, then I'm going to get really specific and so far as what it is that they're assuming, you know, the amount of starchy vegetables that I want them to have the amount of lean protein and fat that I wanted to have, will I measure that.
But but what I want is and I want to be careful with this so it doesn't sound ridiculous a more instinctual way of eating Robert. So so anybody that I'm working with start to get a sense of what their primate palette is dictating. And and if I'm transitioning somebody from just really Dietary habits to a way of eating that you and I would agree is going to work best for them. Then I wanted to be thoughtful.
What's going to be a thoughtful mindful way of eating during the whole day so that they're not stuck on? All right. Well, how many calories, how many calories do I need? So that I can maintain my way to lose weight and, and, and, and discourage that way of thinking
about food. So, when I'm working with somebody, if I I'm using, let's say glucose monitor and a fat caliper then I can pretty much lock them into actually understanding what it is that they need to consume based on quantifying results rather than going off the metrics on a spreadsheet. Yeah, that makes that makes no
sense. I feel like especially if people are not athletes just simply removing all the hyper palatable processed food and just return to some degree of real food is going to provide the most Just proverbial bang for the buck. That's correct. You know, I couldn't agree with you more and then also, I'm looking at their overall practices and habits, how much sleep be getting? What time you going to bed. What time do you wake up? What's, what time did you have your last meal?
So so, I want people to make, I want people to measure their sleep better than I do. The food values of what it is that they're consuming. Zooming. So if your sleep is off you and I both know that the errors that somebody's going to make when it comes to, what you're eating is going to be massive. So somebody's going to bed late and and eating late and they're metabolizing food during the
night. You and I know that this is going to screw with their insolence going to mess with their state of being when they wake up, right? You want to have a clear mind when you wake up you don't want to be coming off of if you sept 8 hours. Two or three of those hours, you would metabolizing and breaking down food and distributing sugar, all over the place and
fat. And and, and so, I think it's important when I'm working with anybody and so far, it's teaching them how to eat how to sleep, right? So that the amount of sleep, did you get in here, in the quality of the sleep that you get is going to have an impact on the choices that you're making with your diet? You know, with the choices you make, when you wake up, should you eat when you wake up? Cup, you know, is it better that
you eat a little bit later. So a lot of this will be determined as I'm getting people into their cycles that they're gone. Oh, I see that's why I would wake up, feeling exhausted, but that's why at night time, I got to, I got to eat something to just because they're making errors in terms of how they getting through their day.
And again, if there's a lot of starch carbohydrate consumption or alcohol, Ian and then we're going to have problems and so far as the body being able to stabilize itself and instinctually make make proper choices. If alcohol is not part of the equation and you just looking to real food diet, as far as meal timing goes, is there a specific recommendation? You have? As far as wind, how much time should be between someone's last
meal, the time they go to sleep. This is going to be a bit extreme, but but then again, I'm it's what may be on your mind. And certainly in my mind, I am going to give myself at least three hours. Yeah. So maybe even a little bit longer, but at least three hours, wouldn't you think? Yeah. I feel like it kind of depends on what to eat to if I have a high bowls of protein before I go to bed, I don't sleep nearly, as well as if I have a high bowls of fat before I go to bed
calories. Equated. Okay, good. So so give me an example. I'm curious so weird lately. My last meal has been like a, like a full fat yogurt with some type of oil or heavy cream in there. And so, so more calories in terms of dietary fat, than protein, that has been pretty good because I've digest that fairly well. I don't have any issues with that, throughout the night. I try to have that a few hours before I go to sleep.
But if I was to have something like, you know, chicken breasts before going to sleep, Without a dietary fat to slow that, I gestured of that protein that I would not sleep nearly as well. Incredible actually, this is interesting setup, talking about late-night eating or sleeping or what you're going to eat. If you're going to eat late, I'm just going to reference re half
meckler. Again, he wrote a book called The Warrior Diet. At this may go go back almost 20 years but there's so much relevance in that his recommendation or some Is would be, don't eat most of the day, you know, under feet all day. And then just have a huge meal at night time. Some people that seems to work unbelievably well, I don't know how, you know, I do great with my, my biggest meal later in the day, but but at least three to five hours out from when I'm going to go to go to.
Excuse me, going to go. Go to bed, very light eater in the morning, very light eater in the afternoon and And I think for many people again, unless you're on a bulking up program, eating lighter. During the day, allows your brain to be much clearer. Totally kind of their supplement
that. Yeah, and there are supplements that I think can drive your performance better during the day, if you're eating much lighter up until your last meal and again, keeping keeping your distance from when you're going to go to bed, totally agree. What this may be a little bit of a tangent. Here's to get your take on. What's your opinion of coffee? Are you, are you a pro coffee consumption or do you try to avoid it?
It's an interesting question and I'll tell you why, you know, being Cube and I don't remember being a kid and not being a coffee drinker. I think I started drinking coffee when I was three years old.
And I just remember, recall my dad giving me coffee before I go to school, even in kindergarten and then growing up in America, you know, you had bi I drink called a trigger to tell cup of coffee at my parents in kindergarten and then Coca-Cola 7Up and school which is you know jam-packed with caffeine even cook junko call it night with your dinner.
So I was so caffeinated. I just can't even believe it back in the 70s, I was probably consuming between four to six cups of coffee a day, a lot of it. Now when I got into nutritional Self-care and got very interested in mindfulness practices. I found that quality was interfering with that so I stopped drinking coffee. Probably for about 15 years.
I think I stopped and 80 and you know, here and there I'd have a cup but it would be a one-off like every four or five months have a cup of coffee and I couldn't stand how I felt. I noticed that it would just bring back a lot of anxiety for me now. That now I did enjoy some caffeine. Once also where I would get my caffeine will be primarily with tea especially matcha tea. I was in Japan for several months goes back about 15 years
ago and T was everywhere. And and depending on the temperature, which you would heat the tea would determine the volume of caffeine present or active as opposed to the amount of the uni. So, in Japan, they be drinking tea at night, I'd be drinking tea. Tea with my house, but the temperature of the water would determine whether or not the caffeine was active or the theanine, which would allow you to be relaxed, calm or go to bed and the caffeine wouldn't affect you at all.
So now, I probably have a cup of coffee to three times a week. I just enjoy it. The rest of the time. I'll drink tea weekends at typically, try to lay off any caffeinated beverages. If I begin to ramp What happens is, how I'm aware that by about three or four. I start crashing a little bit and that's more off of coffee and and I don't get the same reaction with teal, though. I got friends and clients that the reverse is true. So I think coffee moderately and I think taking a holiday from
coffee. Periodically works out for a lot of people and now you and I both know, Their study available. That seem to indicate that coffee consumed. Carefully can have very beneficial effects in the human body. Although again, I think it depends on how you're affected mentally. If you can drink coffee and your fine, it doesn't affect your moods. Then by all means. Enjoy your cup of coffee, but I do think that periodically to normalize certain states of Mind, certain brain waves, if
you want to meditate. If you want to be a more mindful people person, then I think being very careful with coffee would make sense. Yeah, I totally agree with you. I've been an avid coffee drinker for as long as I can remember, but I'm playing around with the idea of minimizing. I don't have too much comfortably have two cups a day first thing in the morning and for shortly after waking. And that's pretty much my only caffeine consumption for the
day. I don't do pre workouts or anything like that but I'm playing around with the idea of Weaning off of coffee as well and just can't transitioning to more tea because I like tea, and sure there's even less caffeine in most teas. And I don't want to ever feel dependent upon any substance and coffee can certainly hold a tight grip on many people's lives. I don't want to have that, you know, addictive tendency towards
anything, very true when I quit. I mean, this is again, the the you know, 1979 1980, I just was wondering and remember what I said to his drinking. A lot of coffee. Drink it all day long. I it occurred to me that maybe at the source of much of my anxiety was the fact that I shrink as much, but it just occurred to me. So there weren't any references back then. You know, there was no internet or whatever, but I remember reading a book entitled, Sugar Blues by William Duffy and Duffy
back. Then was talking about, obviously the Dead, the horrific effects of consuming sugar on a regular basis. And I thought, okay, well I'm drinking several cups of coffee day, all them with a lot of sugar, what would happen if I stop. And so I stopped from one day to the other and you know that that you should we know up and I got a massive headache after the second day. I think I did a four or five. I almost got fired from my job. I couldn't focus.
It couldn't concentrate. I was like bouncing off of walls like that. What's wrong with that? Now, you got to remember, I had a not drank coffee for almost 30 years on a daily basis. So I didn't drink any and and I just kind of powered through it as exhausted. Irritable, headachy and about two weeks later, this is just how tapering off. I just went cold turkey. Two weeks later. I felt so clear-headed, and, and so present. And, and I thought to myself,
what is this? And, and I actually went running that day. Remember this, the dear friend of mine was one of the best friends I ever had and an emotionally, the effects of being loved. So much caffeine and reducing being in high beta brainwaves High gamma. You know what you're anxious and irritable and snappy all of that just disappear. So, So so yeah so now again it's winter here there's nothing more enticing than a nice cup of coffee but same Theory.
They are very cautious. I have probably half of what most people have. I mix it up with a little bit of monk fruit and almond milk and you know kind of pretend that it's a real cup of coffee and enjoy my morning. Yeah and I feel like like I don't notice any increased things. Xiety from it and maybe it's because I haven't had it without it. So maybe I would notice that difference.
Once I wean off of it, but for me, I think there's the overall increase in acidity from the coffee itself isn't really doing any favors. Yeah, and for many people drinking coffee, especially on an empty stomach and trigger a lot of acidity digestive problems. But even on current Gene testing from many of the companies that you, and I know that that are out there. You can actually test for whether or not you're genetically inclined to not only like coffee, but to thrive with
coffee or caffeine. Yeah, so they're Gene sequences. That would Point towards Whether you're a good coffee metabolizer caffeine metabolizer or not, and if your Gene sequences tend to indicate that you're prone to anxiety, the period, the likelihood is that you're going to have the gene sequences that would indicate your low caffeine metabolizer makes total sense. Another kind of switch gears and talk a little bit about sharing your books. You've written five books down
total correct? That's correct. Yes, can you kind of give us a rundown of those? And I guess leading up to your most latest book here. Thank you, Robert. Yeah, well you and I were talking about before the show about my earliest book I started writing in the 90s and I came out with my birth first book was called the balance on harpercollins and that did
remarkably. Well, it's really the beginning of this part of my career, haven't been an author and it kind of Spun me out into the world from that. I wrote two books on on age reversal, one was called Healthy high tech body which is one of the earliest books on age reversal. And then the follow-up to that was look and feel fabulous, forever, redesigning 50, which is my book targeting women and had actually reverse a lot of the premature aging or wrinkling that happens without having to
get a facelift, for instance. So, I use a lot of the diet material because maybe cosmetic material that now is pretty mainstream And I wrote a book on children's health and then from there, I kind of laid back. I didn't write anything for for quite a while up, until last year, my book is on the subject matter of surviving covid and it's entitled after covid. So two years ago at this time, I picked up from somebody that I
didn't know all that. Well, traveled here from England, this is before testing was required before you Flew before the vaccines were available and the gentleman bought over. What you and I now know the population knows was was a strain of covid called Delta, Delta plus which was out of control in Europe in England at that time and I got it. I was in a very poor immunological State at the time. I just got in sport surgery on my neck. Again, from all the years of
running. So getting slime with covid, almost took me down. I develop very severe. Very Advanced covid, pneumonia and I wound up in the hospital for about three weeks. So, so when I got out, I went from being an extremely fit individual, that could do. 150 push-ups in the morning. Go for a run, get after it at any point. Hit Equinox three times a week and to somebody that could hardly catch his breath. Walking from my bed to my bathroom.
So, I had to kind of rebuild my whole life afterwards. The the, in the effect of covid, Ami was beyond devastating. And the book itself after covid, tells both my story of what occurred to me. And then the second part is the workbook, I targeted About everything. And I'm sure you're very familiar with from heike do, which is what I went on. I mean, I needed to get my weight back, I lost 45 pounds of muscle. So when I got home, I just looked as.
So I been through a famine and I structured, my diet with a high amount of fat. I'm about to me, literally breakfast would be a steak piece of salmon with roasted vegetables. Bowls a yam with butter on. It lunch would be half a chicken with some roasted vegetables. And dinner would be roasted fish lamb chops with roasted vegetables in the side and maybe a yogurt smoothie. So that's how I got my muscle back and and I wrote also about peptides which, you know, are now.
Ubiquitous but I want it, I want it. To write about peptides in a way that people understood how they can be used safely and should be used safely to gain muscle mass. Reverse aging, make your hair grow back. My libido was completely blown. I just couldn't understand going from somebody who had such a high interest to somebody that had none. So how do you recover back? Your sexual desire. How do you get your looks back? How do you get your muscle mass back?
And the book itself have to cover, pretty much covers that information so that anybody that's interested in. How do you get over long covert or postcodes entomologist with the book is a terrific addition to your library. What a long covid thing is interesting and I had Victoria feel in the podcast a while back and she is like crazy,
incredibly fit and healthy. She's been doing everything you know as as we know to do with regards to nutrition and then she got here and it just totally wiped her out as well. It's so strange because like, I got a strain and I got it, I don't know. Six months or so, and it didn't really faze me much at all. I guess I got a lighter strain, but for the people that got some of the original strains and had
long covid symptoms. I mean, I'm lucky, I did not have what you had, so I got to say, yes. Yeah, I would agree, and, and it was my bad luck. There's also a genetic. Predisposition, we now know that some people have a superpower Power where they can withstand the ferocity of all the stars, viruses, including covid, especially covid. It looks like through time and evolution many people that have survived pandemics going back, thousands and thousands of years have passed on their Gene
sequences. So that in the modern world, same thing. If you were to do a good comprehensive Gene test, you can, you can see if you got the superpowers. Lassiter withstand covid. And there are people that were exposed as terrible as I was, that never got sick at all. Certainly when the stranger around brutally and somebody like, you may likely have those particular Gene sequences, that will give you greater capacity to withstand exposure, to covid, right in.
And even if it were a heavy, you know, brutal straight. Like what I got, it probably wouldn't affect you. So, Badly and I've known people like that that got sick at about the same time that I did and it wasn't all that big a problem. What did you do as far as like training, like you can get your nutrition dialed in to kind of preserve the muscle tissue you've got. But if you're having a hard time maintaining any type of cardiovascular fitness like how do you start scaling that back up?
When you're going through it I got I have a dear friend who's very well-known football player and He turned me on to different breathing devices. One of them is the arrow fit and of, you know, which one it is. But I, when I got home, I needed to be on an oxygen compressor, that would give me a tremendous amount of auxiliary oxygen about 6 liters extra per minute.
So if this is being attached to an oxygen compressor, 24 hours a day for the Two months after I got out of the hospital and that meant that if I wanted to go to the bat, I mean I was literally crawling to the bathroom and then crawling back. I had just add no lung capacity, nocardia capacity at all. So I with this with this breathing device Arrow fit, and it's available on Amazon, you can train yourself.
But by forcing yourself with the device, the device will withhold And for kids, I'm C, so it makes you go hyper and as so you're going up in altitude, so to sitting on your couch you can adjust it. So it mimics being up in Aspen, for instance, you could, you can make the device, mimic being up a base camp, in in Everest. So, it would literally, I would literally start by forcing myself to breathe. So, I were high altitude for one minute a day. That eventually got to a minute and a half.
That eventually got 23 minutes that eventually got to ten minutes and now I can I can between Arrow fit. My hiking I could run up 20 flights of stairs now whereas I couldn't walk you know 20 feet when I got out of the hospital. But but I was very, very driven to repair my cardio capacity and I think using devices like The Arrow fit, I think there's no one called breather. There's another one that I keep in my Pocket called breathe, right?
And I can adjust it so that if I'm walking around, if I'm just walking, I'll put it in my mouth. May look a little ridiculous, but but it's forced me to breathe harder. And and so I'm training myself every day to breathe in ways that mimic when I used to be able to run and race. And and I also practice a certain certain breathing exercises every day.
A independent of whether I'm using something like a device that's going to mimic being at high altitude, there are other high-altitude devices that are used to, which would be called intimate and hypoxic training. So that means that not unlike intermittent fasting. Their devices that I have, I have one here, koala seldom in, in my office, in my home that you put on as a mass and And it will move you through different stages of low oxygen High oxygen, low, oxygen, High
oxygen. And it gives your your lungs. The ability to expand dramatically. You got to work hard and it also builds up tremendous, cardiovascular capacity. So I think for anybody that's looking to get fit and certainly if you're coming you're in long covid and you just out of are walking from your bed to the bathroom. Or is this exhausted? All the The time depending on your level of discipline. Most of my discipline, Robert, I got from the all the years that
I train. I mean, I had no desire to do anything, once I was sick. And certainly when I got home after being sick, but I would think James Clear, his book Atomic habits, had a massive impact on my thinking and reading his book, quote unquote, in the hospital inaudible listening to it. And then Getting home and knowing that just doing one percent better every day to the day before is what got me through.
So if I needed to crawl 20 feet to the bathroom could I could I could crawl 15 feet the next day and walk live and until finally. I was able to walk there and back completely, I love it. I love it. Do you feel like you're 100% banked where you were pre sickness now, I experiment about 95, you know, the third I do have that little Marge and that I play with that, I think. Oh, yeah, yeah, feeling
terrific. When I, but yeah, I'm reminded that if I break out of my practices, my habits, my routines, I can still hurt myself. So I rarely mess around with the time that I go to bed, the time that I get. Get up what my morning routines
are my eating protocols. And and I would say that so long as I stay within the discipline that I think people need to actually recover fully from long-haul covid, people, suffer you and I know this is the estimate is 15 to 20 million Americans are suffering from Long Haul or some post covid, symptomatology unfortunately. Well, I certainly hope that that whole pandemic created some sense of urgency.
Of people to realize the significance of proper daily habits proper Health, proper Focus, towards nutrition and exalt, exercise routine. Because I feel like if that were the case, I would be significantly fewer. People played with lot of the illness that they have been faced with. So hopefully that was a motivating factor in and of itself. Now, very much so, and and and I don't know how much help you have generally for the American population in terms of its
overall. Health you and I know that obesity is an epidemic. Type 2. Diabetes is epidemic cancer with all the amount of money funding war on cancer. It's been going on as in really changed all that much in any number of cancers that are still plaguing, the American population mental illness, the instability that people are suffering from now, when it comes to You unstable moods and and the fact that we're looking at the first generation of Americans that are going to live
shorter lives. You know, was it a consequence of the pandemic and the suffering involved over the last several years? The lifespan of Americans is for the first time since these Trends have been recorded by shortening so the average American life span for a male is 7 39 years of age. And of course, you're in are going to break that. I don't believe it at all for me and I suspect you don't. Yeah. But but it's it has a population. It's dropping. I think it's down to 77 now and
and that's scary. That speaks a lot about all the conditions under which people live that that's costing them. Not only how long they're going to live, but how well do you live? Yeah, it's a sad reality, and it's strange because the knowledge Of nutrition and Longevity and exercise science and what we've been able to accomplish from a technological standpoint with you know, Medical in the medical realm. Like that's only improved but
it's like as a whole people's. I don't know as the masses, it seems like the trend is going downhill which is not good to see that it's very true. And and also at we can't forget for a moment that that that we are. Primates after. All right. And we're a primate that's designed to survive and, and to survive and ways. That means getting your hands on as much food as you can get, respect of of what it is.
Given the way that we evolved, which is in an environment where there was often for access to protein, poor access to Foods on a regular basis. We now You know, when we when we would get a good kill when food sources were plentiful, we would eat and and kind of harvest all that consumption in anticipation, that there wouldn't be anything to hunt killer gather tomorrow the day after. So we are by design, build to Gorge. Not unlike a wolf. Yeah I didn't.
And and to know that we're predatory just that way. So when what you You have the kind of access to food. Now, where food is ubiquitous the, the inflationary environment that within notwithstanding and the cost of boo people just can't stop eating. And and that's his built into their nervous system and and hardwired and baked into the biology. So unless you've got the thinking, the restraint that you need to impose and then you just blow your body's up.
And and and, and you, and I know that you could, you can, you can still eat cheaply at a fast-food destination and jam into 3,000 calories for under six dollars. You know, one meal and and so people do blow their bodies up their hearts along with it, their brains along with it, their immune systems, along with it. You're right. Yeah, we definitely are not in this time of scarcity that we
once were. And I feel like in line of that You have to enforce some, some self-discipline and basically just create this self-imposed hardship in your life and have some degree of sacrifice sacrifice over the abundance that we now find ourselves in and that can be done through, you know, sacrificing the quantity of food that you're consuming or sacrificing, the ability that we have to Simply sit down and, you know, be very lazy.
Like we have to fight that urge. We have to fight that desire and just simply create, the self-imposed, hardships, that life is not Too easy, because I feel like anything too, easy ones up backfiring on us, and I think that's exactly what we're seeing with regards to the overall obesity epidemic. Very, very true. I, I remind people that discipline is an ally that, that should be your Shadow going
through life. And knowing that discipline is something that you can rely on and fall on and, and understand it for what it is. Not Something to rebel against, you know, like I'm going to Rebel. I'm going to eat whatever I want it like really? Yeah, like what are you talking about? You know, that there's there's a deep appreciation for discipline that I have. Now that I've had most of my adult life certainly when it came to running and how I go
about taking care of myself. But it played an even bigger role in my recovery and that Doesn't mean that I'm perfect hardly at all, but I do know what my triggers are. And when I'm going too far, how it is that I impose order over chaos and real myself in and and not let it get, you know, like, literally catch myself in the other. What do you, what do you, what are you doing to get? You put that away. You don't need to eat that. Yeah, you don't need to go there, you know, you don't, you
know, you're out with friends. And you already had a glass of Rosé, a Why are you ordering a second one? Oh, yeah. Let it go. Oh, and, and understanding that discipline is is very much in partnership, with mindfulness, just be mindful. Bring bring your mind back when when you're about to lose it, you know, and and rely on on your good thinking rather than your bad impulses. Yeah, I completely agree.
And I feel like if you, I feel like associating yourself with other people, people that are doing that very thing. Reading other works, listen to audio books and just simply, like I said, having that mindfulness aspect of it. Like once, once you're able to look at life through this stoic lens, so to speak and see how your direct actions, dictate your destiny as it goes. You realize pretty quickly that just simply being a slob with all of your day-to-day.
Happenstance is not likely going to bode well for your long-term health and happiness. No question about it that. There's that that that's something that you and I would agree as we listen more and more to people like David Goggins or Tim Ferriss or to you that that we both know it's inevitable if you don't allow for mindfulness and for discipline to discipline and stoic way of beating, you know, you being, I'm thinking about Ryan Today who's our current heroic thinker.
When it comes to stoicism. You find that that just taking managing yourself is a form of self respect, and an understanding that if you want to stick around for one sec around and good condition. Then then yet you have to practice a great deal of self-respect, when it comes to how you go about eating and and drinking and you socialize with your personal practices and the environments that you're All of that. Completely agree, completely
agree. Well as what's in the pipeline for man you just finished this book to have another book in the pipeline. What what's the next comic? It's thank you, Robert. I'm thinking about the next two to three decades of my life. If I'm fortunate to be around that long, I don't want to come out with another book on
antiaging. I want to talk about what I think is Meaningful as the years go on and a lot of that comes out of my experience with having survived covid, that almost killed me and, and how it's a split, my value system on its head, you know, rather than being a rock star nutritionist.
How do you be a rock star in terms of being compassionate, being caring, being grateful, being Sighing, you know, to yourself and to others and, and kind of putting together a whole value system, and, and writing about it.
So that people understand that being a good person isn't about being a goody-goody, it just, it just serves your your enlightened self-interest in. Those are the people that you interact with, on a daily basis and and so rather than it being a book on biohack and I think it's going to be a book on on
values. I'm all about them and I Actually not to sound too more but but earlier this morning for it I got word of a close family friend of ours that was in a fatal car accident last night and he's not going to be with us here in Long in a moment longer. And it really brings Focus to the fact that you're not guaranteed anything. Like, you know, we hear this like we hear these, you know, cliche sayings of like yeah you know, life's short live in the
moment we hear all these things. But until you know, it hits home for you. It's like it's easy to just push that by, but once you recognize that and you believe it and, you know, it to be true. Then you realize that the time you have on this Earth is all about the values. The character traits, the quality of the relationships, like, all the other stuff is great, like it certainly can bring value, but that isn't the underlying foundational core of it all. And I feel like placing more of
an emphasis on being a better. Her character being a better person to your fellow human. Like that is, that is of Paramount importance, no question about it. And, and I keep a journal every day, I keep a gratitude Journal. I think this is very important to drop that here and which is
you can get the app. It's the 5-minute journal and it makes you think in the morning about gratitude for five minutes and then at the end of the day and we now know from neuroscience, And many, many many studies research has been done on how to actually regulate your thinking better your states of Mind better is by practicing gratitude and and puppet actually engage in thinking about it for 10 minutes a day, five, and five. So that that's my best
recommendation. I can make on top of everything that you and I talked about today. I love it. I love actually was just running it. My newsletter this past week about starting a journaling habit of sorts. So you're a fan of the 5-minute journal in the mornings and he loved your go to Nice. You know. Absolutely love it. Absolutely love it.
Is there any other specific morning routines that you have found throughout the habit forming that that you've found to be specifically beneficial for you? Sure. Not. Look at your phone right away. Yeah. I'll wait a little while. I of course I want to look at my or ring and look at my my sleeping scores but don't turn on anything digital. I'll put on good put on Jazz. I mean I love listening to Jazz to admit.
I get up, I yell at my Alexa play some cool Jazz soon as I'm up two glasses of water which you need to do because you're probably burning off about a quart of water while you're sleeping. You need to hydrate right away. I got my shower going, or my tub going. So I can do an ice bath or a freezing shower for a couple minutes. So, so, so from there, I then put. Then I'll put on my mindfulness Apple. Listen to Sam. Harris waking up. I'll do that. Do my my journaling. Believe it or not.
That that. Can you meet that can take up an hour? Yeah, not believe it, man. It's like, oh my God. Where did that? Where did, where did that? Sour go that's can then, from there, I used my foam rollers, so do my rolling in the morning depending on how much time I have, I'll do either a heavy
workout or a light workout. And then I start, then I'll read the, the exercise that I recommend to everybody is you need to read at least 10 pages a day and so that that bad happens, by that point, I'll probably start looking at my phone, but but, but I'd say that takes up about two hours so between In doing my mindfulness practices my journaling. My shower, my water, my rollers that that's already got me into an hour and a half two hours. I love it.
I love and see when you do that every single day, like it just becomes part of your teens. As much as part of the day is brushing your teeth is and you don't even think twice about it, but that like, simple list of tasks compounded over a lifetime like that is literally all it takes to differentiate you from someone that has a high achiever to someone.
That is not And it also takes attention off your worries instead of catastrophizing about the future and obsessing about what you could have done it just drives it to be much more present. The minute that you do in an ice bath or a nice shower. You dopamine is flying and and it certainly puts you in flow and it gets out of your head. Yeah. Yeah. And then from there it's kind of like all right let me do my journaling and and let me Review what it is that I want to read
this morning. So so you start off in a way that, that really sets you up for the day, I'll either make my smoothie, my green tea if it's a day that I want to enjoy a little bit more, for whatever reason, I may have, like I said, a very like coffee but but that that just putting gluing together. What I just said, can easily take up to minimum an hour to two hours? My morning and everybody has have a morning routine, everybody. Yeah. And it shouldn't be. You get up.
You look at your phone. You're going through your emails in the first 10 minutes. Trying to get emails, zero. Take a look at Instagram with what's going on there, all right, let me have my cup of coffee before. You know it's just wreckage walking out the door total agreement, it sets the tone for the rest of the either, good or bad, completely green. Well, I was, it's been an absolute pleasure, man. Where do people go to find out more about you and dive deeper into your World.
Go to my website, Oz Garcia.com, everything's there in terms of all my books, my work. And of course an Amazon you can get after covid by us Garcia and you'll probably find the rest of my books. Also they 21 I review them. Now that most of them have already been moved over to Kindle but but after covid, I think would be terrific over Amazon and my email is also on our website Site to perfect.
Well I will certainly link into that, make it easy for people to find you and I really appreciate the time and learned a lot if there's ever anything I can do for you, by all means, let me know. I'm thrilled Robert, I'm thrilled. You're terrific, you know and I've enjoyed today. Man's life likewise sir, take care you two