#1652 Increase Your Health-Span - Harps

lifespan is. That's the number of years you spend on the planet, years, months, days, and your health span is essentially how many of those days are good. So we know that some people live to eighty ninety one hundred. We know that some people live a bit longer. We know that some people get to eighty, for example, and at eighty they're actually healthy and fit and strong and functional and not too medicated, and then they might for whatever reason pass away by the time they're eighty or

eight one or eighty two. But at eighty they were quite healthy. So you would say they had a long health span because for most of their life they were healthy. And we know also that the life expectancy in Australians and most first world country populations is higher than it was fifty years ago. But it doesn't mean we're necessarily

living well or healthier for longer. We're just living longer, and in many cases we're living longer because we've got access to more and more drugs which keep people alive. They don't necessarily keep people alive in a great state, but they keep people alive. And of course there's a place for medicine, and there's a place for drugs, but

there's a lot of other things that we can do. Obviously, I'm preaching to the converted, I know that, but I just want to share some no brainers with you in terms of and many of these will be just revisioned. There's a couple in there that you might there's one or two controversial ones in here which I very much believe in. Not everyone does, but I do. I'm going to share those with you. So and for some of you this for some this might be all new. For

some of you, there'll be a bit of familiarity. For some it might be almost revisioned. And for some of you maybe you don't need to listen to it because you're a bit of an expert already in this place. But your health span is what percentage of your life span is lived in a healthy state. So my goal irrespective of how long I live. Of course, I want

to live for as long as I can. But I don't want to live for a long time if the last twenty years are absolute dogshit, because I'm physically, mentally, emotionally, medically stuffed. That's just me. I would rather live eighty great years and then die kind of quickly. That's just me. I'm not suggesting that to anyone, rather than live eighty years or ninety years and the last fifteen or twenty years are in acute pain, lots of suffering, lots of dysfunction,

no real quality of life. And that's not to say it's got to be one or the other. Of course, there are a lot of variables, a myriad of variables. But that's just me. I want to live, and I want most, but I want everyone to live most. What do I say? I want everyone to live if it's possible, which it is possible, but not likely to live as well as they can for as long as they can. So here are some Here are some no brainers on increasing your health span. Of course, I'm going to say,

lifting weights. These are not necessarily an order of importance, but this stuff is becoming very very relevant for me. I'm sixty one soon, I'm sixty years old. I'm sixty one at my next birthday, which is and not because I have great genetics, and not because I'm a freak, and not because I do anything strange or weird, but because I have consistently lifted weights, done strength training for you know, almost daily for for held was I fifteen, so forty five years, four and a half decades. I'm

recording this at two fifty one. I trained this morning between eleven and midday with my training partner, the Crab. I trained yesterday, I'll train tomorrow. And because I lift weights regularly, I'm uncharacteristically strong for somebody my age. And again there's no ego in this, because I don't have great genetics and I'm not naturally super strong, but because I do the right things. I train the right way.

I trained progressively and intelligently and methodically, and I train according to my capability and my medical issues and my body type and my goals and all of those things. I get to walk around and live in a body which is from a strength perspective, much younger biologically, physiologically, functionally than the chronology would typically represent. And that's because I lift weight so too. So Number one is weight strength training. There are lots of different ways to strength training.

And if you're thinking, yeah, but you know what if I'm super old, Well, my dad is super old. I'm going up there tomorrow. He's eighty five years old and we're going to train. And I've taken him to the gym. He's going to live stuff. He's eighty five years old, like I said, And I am in the middle of a program with him. Another guy trains him. I trained him,

and he does. I train him and he does one a week by himself, so three a week at the moment, and he is he is building muscle, increasing bone density, improving function, balance, motor skills, gross motor skills, and so on. He's had a couple of issues, is coming through those medically, clinically, he's coming out the other side and we're ramping back up. He's training. But the beauty of it is, even at eighty five, he can improve function, he can improve strength,

he can improve muscle mass, he can build muscle. At eighty five, he can build power, he can increase his cardiovascular fitness, range of movement, balance, flexibility, motor skills. All of these things are trainable at any age. Of course, there are lots of variables that we need to factor in, but bottom line is bodies are pretty fucking amazing and pretty adaptable. So strength training, cardio training, no brainer. Next one also no brainer. Just minimal junk in our diet.

Minimal process foods, you know, so food that's close to whole foods, good fats, minimal sugar, enough protein, quality carbs. And I'm going to chuck this in with my next suggestion, which is still relating to food, which is just just

enough calories. And I've spoken many times about I believe the number one mistake that we make, apart from eating not great food, so the quality of our food for many Australians anyway, the quality of the food is fucking terrible while pretending that it's not terrible because we read the bloody front of the box, which is a marketing campaign or an advertisement or a smoke and mirrors kind of story about how fucking great the contents are, which

is also why they have the actual ingredients on the back. On the back down the bottom in a tiny little box with the smallest fucking lettering you've ever seen, because they don't want you to know what's actually in there. If they're really proud of the ingredients and all the additives and preservatives and bullshit that haven't plastered across the front with arrows pointing at it, and there's a reason they don't, and that's because they want to sell you something.

Then they don't give a fuck about your personal wellbeing or health, and neither do they need to, because it's not their job to manage your body or your health. It's your job. It's your job to control and manage carefully choose what you put in your body. So put great shit in your body all the time, all the time, not when you're on a fucking health kick all the time all the time, and do not eat more than you need to. I know I'm bossy today. Funk, where's

it coming from? But anyway, you know, I just get to the point where I look at people doing dumb fucking things to them body smart people doing dumb things, and then coming up with bullshit excuses to rationalize the dumb thing. Again this morning, another guy said to me, Yeah, but you've got to have a life. So inferring to me that if he doesn't eat shit or drink booze, or eat cake or have a high fat, high salt, high sugar, low nutrition food, that he is somehow missing out.

How fucking ironic that he thinks that. My paradigm is he's missing out because he could be in a strong, healthy, fit, functional body. But his story is he's missing out if he has to eat like I eat. Isn't it funny how we create stories to support whatever it is that we want to do that we want to do. I'm not saying you need to live in a cave and live on fucking olfalfa and chicken breasts and distilled water,

but great food choices. Do not eat more and you need People are often amazed when they find out how little food I eat because I don't need much food. I eat breakfast at dinner if I'm hungry through the day, which is not often. But as I've said before on this show, I would eat a few almonds. I would eat thirty almends just to give you an idea. Thirty almends is about thirty grams. It is about one hundred and eighty calories is about fifteen grams of fat. All good,

A little bit of food that just satisfies me. But generally it'll be a breakfast around eight or eight thirty and a dinner around six and pretty much that's me and a couple of coffees through the day. That's me for the day. Okay, what else we know correlates really profoundly with living better, longer, longer and stronger and healthier

is sleep quality and quantity. People who are chronically underslept in terms of how many hours they're getting, but also how many good hours of ram sleep deep sleep that has a real impact on you know, high risks of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and even cognitive performance, dementia and so on over time. And it you know, here's the thing. Our body repairs and rejuvenates when we are in that

deep sleep. So our cardiovascular system, our nervous system, our muscular system, our endocrime system, all of those systems that kind of keep us working in inverted commas, they all they all kind of get back to that set point that we need them to get back to when we sleep well and when we are chronically underslept, that doesn't happen. So what happens then, is we start instead of starting the day at ten out of ten, whatever ten out of ten. You looks like I'm talking about, not your

ten compared to my ten. I'm just talking about whatever your version of ten is. If you are even if you get everything else right, all the other variables perfect, right, But if your sleep quality is poor and your sleep quantity is poor, you will definitely be starting the day behind. You will be starting at a disadvantage. All right. The

next one is easier said than done. But managing managing your mind and managing stress, and managing overthinking, and managing the fucking chaos that can be the space between our ears. More and more we're understanding, and I know this is no revelation to you, but let's just underline it and remind ourselves more and more where we're being reminded that you know, it's mind, its body, its emotion, it's brain,

it's nervous system, it's all intertwined. You know, your thoughts, which are non physical things, have physical consequences, and one of the one of the physical consequences of stressful thinking, of overthinking, of rumination, of worry, of fear, One of the consequences of that is elevated heart rate, another is elevated blood pressure, is increased cortisol production and adrenaline production, and you know, all these things I've banged on about,

just this this ability that we have, for better or worse, to change our physiology with our mind. But the beautiful thing with this is conversely, when I learned to manage my mind. And I've said this many times on this show.

If you live in a fir Will country, and you've ticked all the normal kind of basic requirement boxes of food and safety, and you know, some lights and some hot water and all the fundamentals, I believe that for most people, not all people, but for most people, the biggest challenge they will have period is managing their mind. And for me, that is true. Managing my mind has been the ongoing challenge because my mind is my control room for my life. It is it is me HQ.

My mind is where I make decisions, and my decisions have consequences. My mind is where I interpret the data. My mind is where I give meaning to the world around me. My mind is where I tell stories, good and bad. My mind is the starting point for these physiological consequences that can be good and bad. So for me,

I understand the power of my mind. You need to understand the power of your mind to impact not only your body, but also your relationships, also your efficiency in productivity, also the quality of your life, the quality of your sleep, the quality of everything on planet you. Your mind is it is the thing that is at the epicenter of your experience. And not only that, it creates your experience.

Think about that. Think about the fact that things happen on planet you, in your external physical world, events and situations and people and words and media and social media and all these inbound stimuli. Right, all of these things happen, and then your mind makes sense of it or sometimes no sense, sometimes for better or worse. But your mind gives it meaning, your mind comes up with a story about that thing. Now, depending on the story, that's also

going to have impact one way or the other. So and so how does this relate to health span? So when we manage our mind, when we get ourselves closer to the end of the scale, that is calm versus elevated and anxious. Easier said than done, I understand. But when we're in that place that is closer to calm and still and peaceful and tranquil. Then we're producing better results period with our physiology and biology. We're looking we're

actually looking after our body. The next one is not surprising. Also, we know that people with strong social networks and healthy relationships live longer and stronger. Loneliness, disconnection, social isolation, not feeling loved, not belonging, not being seen in, not having intimacy, not feeling like anyone gives a shit. That's bad for us. Of course, it's bad emotionally and socially and psychologically. But once again, it has a negative impact on cardiovascular system,

immune system, cognitive health, and so on. Being sad is bad, literally bad for our health. Being sad is bad. You know, being lonely is bad. Loneliness is a fucking epidemic. Right now.

You get the eighty year old dude or lady who lives in wherever and they have no health problems per se, and they've got enough money, and they've got a car, and they've got you know, they've got a telly, and they've got access to resources, but nobody cares about them, or they feel like nobody cares about them, or they spend twenty three hours and fifty minutes a day on their own. They don't have interaction and connection and that kind of social familiarity with others and so on. It's

literally bad for their health. It's literally bad for their health spaan. So my next one is lifelong learning. I'm

a lifelong learner. I'm a fully committed lifelong learner. Sometimes that's a pain in the ass, but we absolutely know that keeping our brain active through learning, through problem solving, through engaging in mentally stimulating activities, through listening to conversations like this one which involve a bit of science, a bit of technical stuff, and you might take down some notes, and you might you might memorize some things over time

and then put those things into practice operationalize them. But learning and cognitive engagement and having our having our brain going to the in inverted commas gym on a daily basis, the gym that is learning. The world is our classroom. Everyone's a potential teacher, and everything we go through is a potential lesson. And all of that sounds really fucking cheesy,

but also it's really true. It's really true when we spend our life looking for lessons and opportunities to grow and learn and to solve problems and to keep our brain lifting, keep our brain working out. We do obviously, we do some great stuff for our cognitive capacity, memory and mental acuity and all of those you know, problem solving, question asking, interaction, communication, all of those normal things. But also again we're doing something good for our overall health.

Next one, I don't talk about enough. I don't know why don't talk about it enough. There's no obvious reason. But when I thought of this, I went, yeah, so again this is a no brain and blokes are worse at this typically than ladies are. And that's just health screening and preventative care. You know, so many people die who don't need to die because they didn't get checked soon enough. And I don't want to bang on about

this because we all know. But regular checkups and preventative health screenings helps us detect issues early, allows us to get interventions in place early. And you know, when we find stuff like here's the thing too. I don't know why we're so well. I guess we're terrified because we're scared of death. But the irony is the sooner we go, the less likely we're you know, if you've got something, you've got it. You know. It's like when people would

this is it's kind of related, but silly. I remember when some of my clients in the old days would stand on the scales. Not that I'm obsessed with weight, as you know, but we do an assessment, we do body camp, we do all these things. They'd get on the scales, but they wouldn't want to know. They wouldn't want me to tell them. They didn't want to know the number. And I'm like, well, whatever, you wait, whether or not you know the number or don't know the number,

it's still the number. So let's know the number so we can at least be in reality. We don't need to attribute too much meaning to it. We don't need to lose any sleep. I understand you've got weight issues psychologically and emotionally and literally weight issues, but we can't deal with the thing that we won't acknowledge. And so, you know, I think getting in, you know, I just went in stupidly for this is and this is maybe

this is why it came to mind for me. But I typically go every year to get my skin checked. I did not in COVID and I have not since four COVID, so that was about five years and as many of you would know because you would have seen a couple of picks I put up, I ended up having multiple things, you know, So three skin cancers on my face, basal cell carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas, and I've also got three more to get cut off my

shoulders and back, and I'm a dummy. Should have gone earlier. Fortunately, I think it's going to be all okay. A friend of mine, Andrew Simmons from Vision Personal Training, shout out Simo and the team from Vision. If you work at Vision or train at Vision, tell him. I said hi. He sent me a message the other day with an even more gruesome photo of his gone off the back of my social media post where I was kind of

encouraging people to go and get your shit checked. He went and got his shit checked and got a big chunk of crap cup cut out of his head. He had no inclination or no thought to do it. Then he saw my pictures and went, well, he's over fifty as well, and boom, went and did it. And it was a good thing he did. And if he didn't do it, who knows. What would have happened if he had a waited all right, The next one is just being well hydrated. Now, it's very hard to get accurate

data on hydration. You know. Somebody told me once that half the population's regularly dehydrated. I don't know how. I don't know how we would find that out, but I do know that a lot of the people that I personally have worked with over the years don't drink enough water or are not properly hydrated. So it's, you know, depending on what our diet is comprised of. So if you have lots of fruit and lots of veggies, which are high water content foods, you maybe don't need to

drink lots of water. If you weigh fifty kilos and your friend weighs one hundred kilos, and everything else is standard, and you move the same, then you're going to need less water because you've got less weight to hydrate. If you're a bigger person, you know, I'm eighty five kilos, I'm going to need more. If my mum and moved my mum and I moved the same amount today, which is unlikely, but I would need more water than her,

more hydrating than her. Just because I weigh probably forty kilos heavier than her because she is tiny, so I'm nearly double her weight. She's probably forty five k's. So, you know, being well hydrated like skin health, kidney function, cognitive performance, you know, cardiovascular health. Your blood is about ninety percent water. Your brain is like largely water. You are largely water, sixty to seventy percent water. And when you are dehydrated, then your cells are not healthy, and

a whole bunch of things happen. So even if we just go we think about what happens with your blood. So you're quite dehydrated, your blood, which is primarily water, is now increasing in viscosity, which is thickness. Because you're getting dehydrated. You've still got to transport the oxygen the red blood cells around the body, but now you've got less blood volume, which is a bugger because you're dehydrated. And now your blood is thicker, which is a bugger.

So now your heart's got to work harder, which is a bugger. And now you're more predisposed having a heart attack, cardiac episode in general, and or a stroke or some other fucking catastrophe. So for foxx sake, drink water, drink water. All right, let's whip through it. How am I? Well, we're heading up to half an hour of course, tobacco and booze and drugs in general. Like, I don't even need to I don't even need to go there doing I'm going to say. Typically, typically, when when people talk

about this, they talk about maintaining a healthy weight. Now you've heard me talk about this before. Body weight matters to a point, but body composition matters more because body weight doesn't necessarily give us an accurate indication of the shape and body well. I don't mean literal shape, I mean how well or healthier person is because some people

that are overweight in inverted commas, like me. According to a high weight chart, I'm right in the middle of my BMI as twenty seven and a half nearly twenty eight. My body mass index puts me in the middle of the twenty five to thirty category, which is the overweight category. If I put on even a few kilos, even if it was all muscle, I would be considered obese, which obviously I'm not obese, and it's kind of ridiculous. So

it's a flawed metric. It's a flawed measurement in some instances that can be mildly indicative, But I am much more interested in, irrespective of what you weigh, what is your body made up of? You know how much muscle do you have, how much lend tissue, and how much body fat are you carrying? Because body fat is more an accurate indicator of health over long terms. So bottom line is and this is not judgment. We're not talking about what somebody looks like and whether or not they're

a good person because of their body shape. We just know absolutely no, this is not an opinion. We know that there is a correlation between obestie and increased increased risk of a plethora of physiological conditions illnesses, medical issues, functional issues, and of course correlate strongly with health span. Right, So we don't need to be an elite athlete, we don't need abs, we don't need to be living on

bloody elfa, we don't need to be starving ourselves. But of course maintaining a body composition that is in you know, somewhere in the healthy range is of course a great idea. All right, So here's my slightly here's my two one or my two suggestions that are going to help you in terms of keeping you healthy and well. And by healthy and well I mean all around mind, brain, emotional system,

and body. My second last one is not controversial, but not something that people think about to talk about too much, and that is have a purpose, have a purpose as you get older, have a purpose, have a focus, have a to do list, stay engaged. That doesn't mean you've got to be, you know, a workaholic or busy or flat out all day. But the idea, and this old Hi this in with my last one, which is don't retire.

I'll explain that in more detail. But this idea that we have in our head that we're going to get to a point in our life where we're just going to switch off. We're going to fucking put our feet up. We're going to go hard for about sixty five years and then we're just going to kick back and life is going to be awesome. And while that's a really good sales pitch, it's bullshit. It's bullshit because well, no, it's bullshit. When putting our feet up means now we're

moving less. Now, we're not exercising, Now, we have less social connections. Now we're not stimulating our brain or our mind. We're not solving problems very often, and so there's a plethora of potential things that can happen when people get older, and especially when they retire. And the amount of people that I have trained, worked with, conversed with, intersected, interacted with over the years who almost on the day that

they retired, they stopped working, they started spiral. Now, of course, I'm not suggesting that we have a job in inverted commism tool where one hundred or even necessarily past sixty five. I'm not saying don't literally retire. I'm not saying just keep working forever. What I am saying is, don't retire from having a focus, having a to do list, having having a reason to use your brain on a daily basis.

Don't retire from solving problems. Don't retire from learning new things, don't retire from being creative, don't retire from developing and optimizing your potential. Don't retire from having fucking great conversations and great relationships and doing new things and having adventures. If retirement looks like the couch and the telly, it's the beginning of the end. And if you want to

see a person deteriorate rapidly. Watch somebody who goes from doing a job where they're busy, they're on their feet quite often, they're solving problems, they're working with other humans, they're part of something bigger than themselves. They're using their brain and their mind on a regular basis. And watch that person when they retire, and retirement equals couch and TV pretty much, just watch their demise. It begins within weeks.

So we don't want that. If you want to live long and healthy, healthy for long, study, learn solve problems, train your brain, maintain relationships, do new things, travel, volunteer, just anything that you can do. You don't need to wear yourself out. But the whole I'm just going to hang out and retire. I'm just gonna relax. That wears off really fucking quickly. Anyway, there you go, a quick snap shot for you on how to increase your health span