#1857 The Wisdom Of Your Body - Dr. Jodi Richardson

tears and laughed. A bit of joy, a bit of transformation and inspiration and education and all of that shit. And clearly, if anyone's got all the answers to all the big questions in life's greatest mysteries, it's jumbo. It's

fatty harp. So you should definitely come. No, not really, but I have spent a lifetime swimming in the deep end of the human experience and talking to people for a very long time about their stuff psychology and physiology and emotion and career and all that stuff that kind of comprises our life and how we can think better, do better, create better and be better. So that's what it's really about. It's ten weeks, it's online, it's on zoom, it's you know, it's you and me in a zoom room,

as the kids call it. And you can watch it in real time, you can interact in real time. You can watch it on delay, or you can do both. Some people come every Monday night, which it is, and they sit in there and take notes, and then they come back through the week and take some more notes. That's what some people do. So we're talking about brains and bodies and beliefs and bullshit and why and how

we keep getting in our own way. And we're going to unpack fear and self doubt and communication and motivation and purpose and money and meaning and mental health and a lot of that shit that we don't deal with until it punches us in the gob. So it's structured. It's kind of structured in that we have a different theme and a different topic each week. As you know me, I'm like four year old in a lolly shop. I do veer from the intended path from time to time,

but we get there. We cover everything. It's deep and philosophical, but not cheesy and cringey, and if you're expecting you know, firewalks and ice bars and unicorns and dream boards and just think positive, well you'll be disappointed. But having said that, I'll probably bring my drain catcher at least one night, So there's that. Anyway, if you're ready to stop fucking around or roll up your sleeves and actually do some work in a supportive and fun and curious and probably

sweary environment, then saddle the fuck up. Kids. We start April twenty eight. Are we there? And I hope you are too. Head to my website which is crak Harper dot net. Creak Harper dot net for all the deats, I'll get a team. Welcome to another in storm in the show, it's bloody. It's bloody, Jody Richardson, it's the doc. It's the coin of anxiety. You know, that's not a good label. It's the coint of educating people and informing and inspiring and helping people around their challenges.

she was so good. Anyway, the biggest change is that I wasn't eating nearly enough food, and I have changed my diet so that I hit at least one hundred grams of protein every single day. And this is the eighth day, and I'm feeling so good.

It means if you're a sixty kilod lady, based on point eightive gram of protein per kilogram of body weight that you have, you would consume about forty eight grams of protein a day, which is not very much. And Jody's just told that she's having one hundred. So's that's you somewhere in the ballpark. Not quite, but it's been the ballpark of nearly well, no, about double the recommendation. Yeah, So how are you feeling? What kind of protein are you using? Is it all food? Is there a supplement?

Do tell?

fat body fat composition, and it's an adjustment Craig. Honestly, it is an adjustment because you know, we grow up with all of these ideals, and I mean I grew up with Kate moss is a you know, one of the models in Vogue when I was sort of like really impressionable, and obviously she was anorexic or sorry, I shouldn't say, that's a huge assumption, but she looked skeletal.

when am I getting fed? Next? Women, we need more body fat than men is you know, just to sort of maintain you know, homeostasis, I suppose you could say, and.

very good. But yes, so basically the day after seeing Ali, I kind of brought in a little bit more protein, but I had to go and shop and plan a little bit more and you know, set myself up. And then I have just been keeping a note of every day what I've been eating in terms of protein. So all I'm sort of adding up each day is am

I getting one hundred grams of protein? And she said, the big focus for me, and obviously it's different for everyone, is just making sure I get the protein but also plenty of fiber as well.

talking to you, trying to teach you. But because we are, and I'm put up my hand like if I'm being one hundred percent real, raw vulnerable, do I still have body issues?

others think we look like. And you know, it's so that physiological stuff is so intertwined with the psychological and emotional and sociological right, and so it's so easy to become emotional about things like food, where despite the fact that you intellectually understand something, you're emotionally uncomfortable to do it.

So fuck it, I'm doing what's comfortable and then and I've done it probably more than you've done it, But is then you make, you know, decisions that kind of make you comfortable, but ultimately they're irrational and they don't make sense because when you look at the data, which is you know, oh, I feel like shit, I've got no energy when I train, I'm fucked halfway through the session, or my brain's not working. I can't focus, I can't

think at two o'clock, I want to fall asleep. All of this, you know, we can call this data and equals one data. But in the middle of that is fear and anxiety and but what if this? And what if I gain fat? And then people won't love me and I can't belong to this group and how could I go to the beach? And all this myriad of

bullshit right, which is just human. Yeah, that is why it is great to have an alley or a someone who isn't you, because they can have a level of objectivity about you that you can never have because you fucking are you. So this is why conversations like this, even with people like you and me, who we might say we're somewhat educated. You're more educated than me, but we're somewhat educated. But just being smart or having education or having written books or having podcasts like you and

I have done all of that. Shit doesn't mean we're not going to make dumb decisions or be emotional, or be reactive or produce bad outcomes, right.

sharing about like the way. I mean, I think I'm assuming here making a generalization, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn't assess themselves and how they look and think about it, and you know, it's a part of life, Like how we feel about the way we look has a big bearing on how we kind of feel about ourselves. And it's and it you know, we don't want it to be that way because we know that, you know, body shapes change and looks fade, and we age and we're lucky if we do.

But it's a part of life. I think it's a part of life. And I don't think you know, I mean, I know people who are ten fifteen years older than you, Craig who it's still a part of everyday's kind of reflection. How am I feeling about how I'm looking? And I somewhat sometime a guy, I sort of went more from the point of view of what are the aesthetics here? To how healthy am I? And how am I functioning? But the aesthetics still come into it. But I grew up, I was so I was so thin, Craig, I grew up.

I think I was like fifty six kilos for probably up until gosh, nearly thirty. I mean, I lost a lot of weight when I went through depression. And even I'm an ectomorphic kind of you know, body type and

hard to put on muscle, but always had exercised. But you know, when you're someone like me, just in my end of one, and I used to I mean I used to just binge on, not binge like I'd never had an eating disorder, but just like I could eat a whole family sized block of gabri derium milk no problems, and I could get away with it because from the

point of view that I didn't put weight on. And then as you start getting old and you have kids in your body shape changes, and then now menopause, you no like it's you can't help but look at yourself and think, gosh, I'm so different and it's an adjustment, and I want to be so healthy. I want to be so functionally healthy like my dad is the exact opposite of that. My mum's super functional and healthy and she's about to do another Camino, which is amazing. Shout

out to mum. But yeah, I just sort of thought, you know, what if not now when I am on the go, I'm juggling a business, family life, my own exercise. I was snacking a lot. I knew I wasn't nourishing myself. It wasn't being a good pescatarian from the point of view of having all of the food groups and legumes and things like that. And some nights i'd you know, cook my family and meal and just eat the vegetables,

you know, not not bother. So yeah, like you, because you know, we could all get on chat JPT, we could all google. You know, it's not hard to find information. And you've said this before. People know how to lose weight, you know, move more, even more nourishing diet, you know, but it's one thing to know it. It's another thing, like you say, to have someone in your corner who understands your exact where are you, what are you doing, why are you doing it? What do you need and

can tailor something to help you get there. It's just it's just been gold like, so good, well.

money and like the biggest you know. That's why this show is called that You Project, because the biggest project in your life, despite the myriad of things you have to attend to, the ultimate project is going to be yourself because if you can't self regulate and self manage, then you're not going to be great at anything else, because you're starting every day at a three out of ten, right, And so it's not about being self absorbed or self obsessed,

but rather self aware, you know, And like I think this very often spoken about concept here on The You Project of biofeedback. That is, your body is always talking to you or telling you something. And I've said this, I actually have a little bit of mildly interesting news. But yeah, well, in pursuant to this conversation, your.

chin ups, I can lift moderate weight. I've got some I would think I've got pretty good bone density, I've got some muscles. So it's all good, right. But during COVID, you know, things changed. I moved less, I couldn't train, probably because the gyms were shut, and I I rocketed up to about I don't know, not I being facetious, but eighty seven or eighty eight, So I put on a few kilos, which for me was like it's not like quick all the cops, you know, but it was like, oh,

this is not great. So I decided, and again sorry for my listeners, but I don't know if you know this, but I decided, I'm just going to cut out lunch for a couple of weeks. So I'm just going to have breakfast and dinner. And the unintended byproduct of that was that the normal tiredness that I was getting later in the afternoon because I'm and then so that was you know, I was probably fifty five or fifty four, and I went out, well, I'm getting tired in the

afternoon because I'm fifty five. I guess fifty five year olds get tired in the afternoon. And then I cut out lunch, and my energy was great all day and I lost the weight, and you know, like a week later, two weeks later, I'm back to about where I need to be, give or take. And I felt better and I was finding I wasn't getting hungry through the day, and my energy was better. But most importantly, like almost to a level that was un believable, my cognitive function

was so much better like my brain. And you know, for you and me, our brain is a real for everyone, but especially when you're researching, studying like you, interviewing people, writing books, solving problems. I mean, for everyone, cognitive function is massive. But when you're up to your you know, eyeballs in a PhD and all that stuff, and so it was really important. So I went, well, fuck it, I'm just going to do this for a while and I'll just see how I go. So then my body

kind of everything kind of adjusted. And then I just sat at about, you know again in eighty five, and I probably had a little bit bigger dinner, but I would eat, you know that, I'd have a meal and then twelve hours than a meal, and so I literally ate every twelve hours and I felt good. And then about five months ago, my an alarm went on my I don't know if I've told you this alarm went on my phone basically telling me, you need to walk more. Yeah, yep.

And so I started walking more and I started the next day. I tripled my steps. In it, I went from one day to the next tripled my steps, and my steps have stayed about give or take tripled. I think I average about twelve thirteen thousand a days. Some days it's you know, it's a lazy day, it's ten and a half. If it's a normal day, it's twelve, thirteen and fourteen. It's a big day, it's twenty. But

generally it's in the thirteen ballpark. And I've really started to train better and just just tot like all the what you call in footy, the one percent is right without becoming obsessed, Like I still eat, like my breakfast is a big calorie breakfast, Like it's got seeds and nuts and protein powder and oats, and like my breakfast would be at least eight hundred calories, like it's a big and my dinner would be more right. So it's not like I'm starving, but there's twelve hours, constant, twelve

hour cycles where I'm eating nothing. Right Anyway, yesterday morning and I noticed that I'm leaner, and when I train, I'm like, I look bigger, but I'm not bigger. But you know when you reduce body fat and then you must kind of and I went, I wonder what I weigh And I got on the scales yesterday and I was eighty one. Really yeah, like I was eighty one. I was four kilos but I only weighed myself twice a year if fat right, Yeah, And I went, oh

and no, wonder I feel different. And I'm like, I think this is I think this is my new number because I feel so fucking good. And also I shut up after this, so like you, a bit more protein, a bit less carbs. I'm not anti carbs everyone, so don't panic. But for me, it's got to be the right kind. Taking creatine, which I've spoken about ten grams a day I think, called trimethyl glysine, which is a supplement, and a thing called NMN, which is basically a eutropic

or a cognitive enhancer. They're the only Oh and some of that you know, like the vital green stuff.

it in. But I think that one of the things that you're saying here is that it's so important just to know how you are responding to the changes that you are making. There's no blanket rule for anybody about what to do when it comes to these kind of nutritional adjustments. But I mean, there are some foundational things we really need to be paying attention to, which you are. You've got your greens, you've got your protein, good quality

complex carbohydrates, hopefully some good fats in there. You're getting you know, your nourishment. I know, I know you love your almonds, you know. But I think another thing too, is that what's really interesting for women is that what works for men and what works for women is different. And we need to like we need to wake up and eat, and it's very easy to I mean on

a day that I'm not training. I mean, gosh, when I was fasting two days a week, I would delay having anything for as long as possible because it was kind of like, once I woke up, my stomach it was like a hungry monster that wanted feeding. So if I could just delay, delay, delay, and I was just probably eating into so much muscle and my body fat was being held on to, like you know, my body's like you're not letting go of the fat. You can

have the muscle. But yeah, I think it's really good that we can kind of talk about these these changes and think about it kind of in response and think about it from the point of view. I'm going to do this. I'm going to see how I feel. I'm going to see how I feel about how my body composition changes. The weight on the scale, I mean, we've never had scales. I don't know what I weigh I'm probably the heaviest other than being pregnant, I'm probably I'm

guessing I'm somewhere between sixty five and sixty eight. I don't know. But we talked about the waste measurement when I was with Ali. She we talked about the wasste measurement being eighty or less for me one hundred or less at the smallest part of the waist, just to kind of keep an eye on that bellly fat that can creep on.

I tell you, I I feel like I'm on all the steroids. I don't know what that would make if you feel like that's probably a bad analogy, but but I feel fucking I'm on the best vitamin of all time. And like the other tweaks and adjustments, the weight loss, caring for kilos less, having a bit less body fat, and what I'm else I'm starting to do is I'm starting to train all the ship that I've never trained, Like well, okay, let me let me clarify that not

trained enough, so we'll come back. But here's what I can tell you this is this is really interesting. So evolutionarily, back in the day, for most of the kind of modern you know, modern human development and evolution, we've always eaten food that required a lot of chewing. Yeah, we

don't anymore, like not, I mean some of us. But a lot of food that a lot of people eat is essentially mush or it doesn't require much work, and so a lot of the strength and musculature that we had through the jaw that's that's gone, and it's it's even I watched this interesting little mini doco yesterday on how it's fucked up the way people's teeth are now because ouraw used to be bigger and stronger and now it's become over time weaker and smaller, and the teeth

can't fit in. So we're seeing a lot of people having problems with their teeth because of this diminishing size of the jaw and all this stuff. But also like, for example, my chest is really strong, my back is really strong, my arms are really strong, but my neck is not. So you have this weak link. So it compared to the average neck, it's probably fine, but compared to the rest of my body, Like if the rest of my body is eight out of ten for my potential,

my neck is fucking three. So what happens is and this is getting very specific. So and you're an exose phusiologist, you completely get this as well or better than me. But you know, we sit in this forward head posture where now we've got our neck flexaws, like our Sterno Clyde mastoid SCM underload and shortened and tightened, and the muscles at the back of the neck everyone, which we

call neck extenses. They're now stretched and elongated, and over time, the muscles at the front become stronger and shorter, and the muscles at the back of the neck become weaker and longer, and then we end up with this fucking neanderthal head forward position. So our head's not in a neutral position back in our kind of center of mass, what we would call basically the middle of if we could divide our body exactly front to back in half with a weight or center of mass, our ears should

be somewhere in the middle. But if you have a look at a lot of kids, you haven't looked a lot of people on buses or in cars or anywhere that are looking at a screen or a computer or a phone or whatever. Most of them, and the kids in the gym even they're sitting on the bench or whatever they're doing, and their head is sitting way forward

of the rest of their body. So apart from all the neck problems, which are fucking prolific, every headache right and headaches, then you get the muscular churre just below that, in between the shoulder blades, and then you get people where because they're sitting in this forward, then this position. I'll shut up after this. But then their shoulders come forward, and then their peck muscles tighten, and then the muscles at the back, rhomboids, etc. They start to elongate and stretch,

and now they have caiphosis. Now they have this hunchy back where their shoulders are forward, they're back in the thoracic region or shoulder braid blade region. Everyone is hunched. Yeah, so posture is a real issue as well. So I've just been trying to fix everything. So I'm training my neck, front and back. I'm training my hamstrings, I'm training my glutes, my ass properly. Like my cords are stronger than my hamstrings,

which is a lot of people. My upper back is stronger than my lower back, like a lot of dudes and girls who train in gym's, women and men who train in gym's have got like they train their upper back quite quite well their lower back sometimes not at all. Yeah, So you have these lats and rhomboids and rear adults that are eight nine out of ten, and then you have a lower back that is a two out of ten. So guess what you're going to injure.

listening or a mum with little kids, goodness. Peter and I, Mahabby and I were just reflecting the other day about how many times and night or a week our daughter would wake I've had a bad dream, and then I'd go and you know, it's such disjointed sleep. It's really tough.

But yeah, when we can stop because it's easy to go and buy a taber crea teine, it's easy to go and buy a protein powder, But none of that is going to make as much of a difference to how you feel, how you move, and our longevity and our ability to sort of for this body to carry us through until you know, we're eighty ninety. If we're lucky, enough to be in good health if we don't take care of those things. And sleep is not something to

be sacrificed. It's one of the biggest changes that we can make if some people need extra help with it, because stress, stress during the day that accumulates can really impact on sleep in the night. So it's not just about what's happening in the night, it's about what's happening kind of throughout, you know, the twenty four hour kind of period. But yeah, the posturals stuff like, especially with

the way we're using devices. I don't you know. I saw a lady yesterday who must have had osteoporosis, where you know, the hunching starts and then the bones on the front of the vertebral columns start to kind of disintegrate, and then that and then oh gosh, you look at that and you think, right, stand up straight. I have this thing that I try to remember, which is I've made up this little kind of memorable way to remind myself, you know, the stop drop and roll that you do

when there's smoke in the house. I tell myself stop scrunching, so I like sort of lift up my shoulders to my ears, so I'm stopping that. So I think about a scrunch and then a drop and then a roll, and obviously you can see me, Craig, but I'm just lifting up my shoulders, dropping them down, and then calling them back to kind of reposition and reset, just because I think I'm a bit prone to that. And my mum started with a bit of cayphosis and a bit

of osteoporosis, and I'm like, ah, we don't. There's so much we can't undo once some dominoes have fallen, but there's a lot we can do. You know, the best time is twenty years ago. The second best time is now. As the saying goes, yeah, yeah, do.

but that's just my personal bullshit. But they're actually really good, and so why they can be good is because you can literally use them as a chair, so you can sit on them. Not all the time necessarily. But the good thing about using something that's round sitting on something that's round is now you're on something that's unstable, which

seems like a bad idea. Now, if you're my mum, maybe don't sit on a ball, right, But if you're relatively operational and you just want to activate the muscles around your waist more, you know, your stomach muscles, your lower back muscles transversu subdominus rectus rector subdominus blah blah blah,

and spine erecta, the muscles in your lower back. Sitting on something that's unstable means you're going to use your stabilizing muscles, which is great, and it also means, if you do it properly, you're going to sit up straight, because otherwise it's really uncomfortable. Right. And then the other thing you can do is, and I've got one downstairs. I just I'll in my studio, not where I'm at currently in my office, but I will push the ball

back and then I get on my back. So now the ball is in the middle of my shoulder blades. I put my arms up in the air Superman style, and I take them back over the ball. Now, everyone, when you're in that position, when you're lying backwards over the ball and your arms are straight above your head so to speak, and I mean horizontal to the floor, not vertical to the floor. But so now you're in almost like that Superman position with your arms above your head,

hands together. Now you're in what's called thoracic extension, which is just extending those muscles between the vertebrae, between the spine or the shoulder blades in that area that normally get very kind of curved forward in what we call flexion. And just getting in that position for like a minute, three four, five times a day, it's like just joy

for your back, you know. So having a you know, go and spending fifty bucks on a ball that's probably going to last you the next ten years not the worst investment.

should be getting up and walking. I use a Pomodoro timer on occasion if I really need to knuckle down, and I'm like, right, I've got a few big things to get done, I'll just keep setting the top and then when it goes off, I usually get out, you know, working from home, I'll go and throw the ball for Dusty. Or I'll I mean, I shouldn't really be doing a load of washing during the day because it's such precious

work time. Or I'll go for a little walk outside, touch a tree, check the chickens, just a little stretch, just to kind of rea. But other days I could be sitting there for three or four hours and not move and it's not good. It's not good. But if we've got something that helps us kind of get going, like the timer that goes off, that's that's helpful.

sit here for two hours. Now when I finish with you, five minutes after I finish with you, I will be out the door and walking. And so even when I'm doing something like let's say I'm cooking my dinner and let's say I put it in the microwave and it's going to take five minutes, I'll literally walk out the side gate, which is ten meters from the microwave. I'll walk up the side street where I live. I live on a corner, so I walk up the side street. I'll walk two and a half minutes one way, two

and a half minutes back. I get back, the buzzer goes, my dinner's ready, and I've just walked eight hundred meters or whatever I've done, right, or I'll do I'll do twenty squats and twenty push ups times four. Like it's just going, oh, I've got two minutes. I could do two minutes of something, and that it just becomes like I was saying, I was talking about this with Bobby and without getting too weird or too deep, too fast. Yesterday, okay,

on Saturday, so we're recording this. Thursday, I had coffee with one of my best friends and he'd been feeling a little bit average, and he had some tests done and all this, and I said, when you find out about the test, he said, yesterday, I said, ring me. So he rings me, and he's got lung cancer right now. Anyway, that's a whole other thing. But here's my thing. Like so many of us, and I know I bang on about this and people probably resent, and that's cool. Don't care.

So many of us fucking wait until something breaks. Now obviously he couldn't control that. He doesn't even spoke. It's a different thing. But what I'm saying is there are so many things that we can do that don't require a gym membership. They don't require special clothing, they don't require any equipment in the garage. There are so many things that we can do that move the needle, and when we combine all of these little things, that creates

a big impact. But not if we only do it for fucking three days, and not if we're always telling ourselves, Oh, you don't understand how hard my life is. You know, it's like we need to get because of course life's hard. Of course life's inconvenient, and of course the universe doesn't give a fuck about you or your body fat, or

your emotions or your hormones. And in the middle of all of that shit that doesn't care about you, you need to put on your big boy pants, your big girl pants, and go, fuck, this is what I need to do. Yes, you know, in your case menopause sucks. Yes, being sixty one year old bloke, it's not the So what you do is you go, well, I'm a fiftyish year old lady who's who's doing menopause, and I'm a sixty one year old bloke who's just doing fucking sixty one.

But with that, okay, So with that, what's the best thing I can do?

go for a walk, whatever. But I'm like, how about we try to do a bit more of this together and it would have been Oh my gosh. I wouldn't have taken much convincing, you know, for me to go. I'm like, gosh, how about we go for a walk And he was like, yeah, cool. But if he had a said let's watch another episode of our program, I would have been on the couch so fast, because it's

so much of what we do so comfy. But the bonus of it is I read somewhere somebody said you might not like it when you do it, but you like how it feels once you've finished. But in fact, actually once you get started, it's good. It's sometimes it's just that, you know, I love Mail Robins, you know you for me with Mail Robins five four three two one, Yeah,

for any listener that's not familiar with it. She just came up with this idea that if you've got something you need to do, whether it's getting out of bed or going out for your walk, or drinking that vital Greens mush that you have to drink, you're going to want. You want to do it. You know what's good for you, Just go right five four three two one go. I've

been doing that a bit. If I go for a swim with my friend down in the bay because we know we're going to go under, and you can stand there for ten minutes thinking about it, or you can just go five four, three to one, and once you've done it, it's just exhilarating. Yeah, it's that getting that momentum. It's just getting started. I know we've spoken about this before many times.

do be and create the thing that is good. Conversely, some of the things that feel good in the moment, so many things can easily land me and you in a world of physical, psychological, and emotional hurt over the long term. And that's it. It's like, well, of course it doesn't feel good because you're unfit, and that's okay, that's not a judgment, that's not hate, that's just going all right, well, right now I'm unfit, So this is

going to suck. Yeah, of course, and that's okay. And it's like, well, of course you're terrified of doing that thing because you've never done it. But once you start, the terror will die down. You'll build skill and understanding and confidence and a bit of courage. It's like, not everything needs to be comfortable. We're so fucking addicted to and focused on and obsessed with comfort. Yeah, it's actually I think being preoccupied with comfort and convenience is a handbreak to your potential.

step towards learning a new skill, piano art, something. When you're in the middle of it, this thing that is uncomfortable, just reflect, Just step out of yourself for a moment and just think what is it here that is unco Like, how is this uncomfortable? I often do that when I'm training Craig, when I'm across it, I'm like, what is holding me back here? What is so hard about this? Right now? And then I'm like, am I in pain? No? Can I catch my breath? Can I breathe? Yes? Okay? Am I tired?

I'm not in pain, like I'm not. You know, all the things you might have predicted might not be happening, or most of them, And when you land on that one thing that is uncomfortable, you're kind of like, oh, okay, that's what it is. What can I do about it? Something? Nothing? And then you go from there. But I think that reflection can often help you when you come back to it next time, to go, well, it's the thought of doing it, the thought of starting. As we know, it's

like washing the windows at home. But what a gift if you've never exercised. Peter was telling me. A couple of his mates from high school have started. They were never playing sport, they weren't into exercise or engaging in any thing until now when they're late forties, early fifties, and they've got really good joints and they've got you know, they haven't got the wear and tear on their joints that many of us will have from a lifetime of

doing things. And Craig, you and I both know when you start exercising, yes, it's hard, but the progress that you make relatively quickly compared to someone who's got training maturity, it's so rewarding, isn't it.

like yeah, exactly. And it's but when you introduce any variable that you needed that you weren't kind of utilizing like for you. Okay, now, so you have probably been somewhat protein deficient for a long time. Yeah, and now your body's like, oh god, fin It's like you've been breathing through half a nostril for three years. Now you've got both nostrils and your mouth and you're like, oh, fuck,

Oxygen's good. You know. It's like, ah, this is what it's like to breathe, and your body's going, oh, thank God. Now I can build muscle. Now I can have more energy. Now I can recover optimally. Now all my everything can work better because I'm not starved of one of the most important macro nutrients. You know, it's only three and you're not giving me one of them, you know.

about mercury and heavy metals. And she's like, she said that the tinge tuna that we can purchase here is smaller. They're smaller fish, so it's and also and then I'm like, oh, I really love salmon, but I hate farmed salmon. And it's seventy five bucks a kilo for the wild caught salmon in New Zealand. And she said, you know you

can get wild caught salmon in a tin. I'm like, oh, so I've made these beautiful big salmon patties and you know, definitely supplementation, protein, shake, protein, yogurt, but I'm also adding in some really good omega threes through flex seed and hamp and I'm eating like mostly whole food some supplements.

in the middle of the day. I'm fucking starving, yeah, but I'm generally not. But yesterday and I had this little ninety five gram gram so a small can of tuna which had its in oil, and it's got tomato and onion. Yeah this sounds this sounds terrible, right, So I scoop out the ninety five grams, which is fuck all.

if it's super healthy. I mean, I've still got to enjoy what I eat, so I make sure that you know, I have spices and herbs and curry and whatever, but it's it's yeah, so I eat that breakfast is like I've said before, it's almonds and seeds and you know, protein powder and oats and but yeah, I don't. I'm very in like I'm lucky that I seem to be able to dial in where it just becomes normal and

it doesn't feel like some big sacrifice. Yeah, I feel sorry for people who and I mean this genuinely, they always feel like they're missing out if they're not having a beer or eating cake or and they whereas I don't feel like that at all. So for me, it doesn't require really any discipline. It's like, there's nothing in me that wants to eat cake or drink booze, or eat a pizza or eat fried demos with salt or

And I'm not saying people shouldn't do that. I'm saying I don't want to do that, and I don't need to do that. And I also know that I am not genetically gifted. So for me, my protocol needs to be pretty buttoned down. Yeah, there can't be too much latitude with me because despite what I said earlier, I mean I literally was twenty kilos heavier than I am now when I was fourteen years old, so I could

get that really quickly and unhealthy really quickly. Yeah, So trying to find that and I think that's, you know, for me, that's almost been a lifelong curiosity, is just trying to find what is going to work for you without building an operating system that in the middle of you feel like you're fucking deprived all the time. I don't feel like that.

it's healthy, like mostly whole foods. Yes, some protein powder, but get I get the raw brand, which is a plant based protein, but not a lot of other you know additives, You've got to be mindful of these sorts of things. But I'm a sweet tooth opposite to you. Oh my gosh, Like I have to make better I make better choices now. But I love ice cream. I love chocolate, And now what I do is like I

just get linked like a lint seventy. Although Allie said, let's go for the eighty five percent coco, okay, but just to have one a piece after dinner. So there's something sweet. I don't have dessert normally, but just something It's not so delicious that you want to just eat rose and rows of it like cabri oreo. But yeah, it's enough to kind of like satisfy that. And I just think, I'm I'm making a choice here. I can

choose to have more. I'm not dieting, I'm not restricting anything, but there's not really much of an appetite for it because my blood sugar levels are probably way more stable. I'm satiated, if that's the right pronunciation, satisfied, satiated, I don't know, satiated, And so I just urge anyone sort of listening, Like, we know diets don't work. We've established

it's pretty human thing too. You know, care about how we look and how we feel in our bodies, and there's really healthy ways that we can make change that is not just about the aesthetics. It's about function and maximizing potential. I mean, I'm fifty, I only halfway there. This is midlife.

how they feel, how they function right? Look feel function right? Yeah, And I said most people, if they're being I think, if they're being honest, most people. Not all, But at the top of the list is how I look. Right.

So I think like people have almost not by you, not by me, but people have almost been made to feel guilty about wanting to look good, Like it doesn't matter what you look like? Oh okay, Well to you it doesn't, but to me it does. Like I think imposing this you shouldn't worry about what you look like, Well, that's complete fucking bullshit. If you care about how you look, that's fine. That's not to say that you're obsessed with your appearance or you get your entire sense of self

worth from your appearance. That's something different. But these things how I look and how I feel and how I function, they don't need to be completely independent variables that can't correlate. Yeah, Like, it's okay that you care how you look. It's okay. It's probably not healthy to be obsessed with your appearance. That's a different thing. But do you care about whether

or not your body works well? And you've got energy and your immune system strong, and you've got good posture and bone density, and also that you know, you're relatively happy with how you look, whatever that is for you. You know. I just think that there's too much moralizing around, Oh, you shouldn't this, And I'm like, fuck you, fuck you. Don't tell me what I should think about my body or what my priorities should be, and don't tell others.

If others care how they look good, that's fine, you do you let them do them and I'll do me. And also, I would think ultimately for most people, health and wellness and performance is the paramount consideration. But yeah, steps down.

who's looking after their bones. They're managing their glucose metabolism with the foods they're eating, and the exercise they're doing. And that's one of the hangovers from I think, you know, days gone by, is that women, you know, women go to the cardio, men go to the weightlifting. You know, women on the treadmill, men on you know, the smith machine, or with the free weights or and I just want to say to the women listening, we need to be

lifting weights. We need to be lifting weights. And you don't. You don't dive into squats and power cleans and snatches. You don't have to do any of that. Ever, if you don't want to scots are great, you'll probably want

to do air scots at the very least. But just that that we can how you look does not necessarily translate to how healthy you are, which which we know in either direction, but just that when it comes to improving body composition, which improves health, improves how we feel and improves how we function, weight training has got to be part of it. No more just going for a big walk every day or jog a few times a week. You've got to be lifting weights. That's there. I'm off the soaf box now.

work that I absolutely love to do. So and yeah, Craig, thank you for having me again.