This is The Eds with Eddie Judge and Edwin Aoyavi. The husbands know Best Too, Cheese Production. Welcome back. This is our twelve episodes of The Eds. We are back for another episode with a topic about men's health. I love men's health because I'm a man and I love health. I love health as well, so yeah, yeah, we both as well this topic. So you know, somebody said that recently to me. They said the new wealthy is health or something to that effect.
Like every time I get depressed, I'm just or every time I get pissed off about something or I get in bad mood, I just remind myself you are in great at health. Your family's in great health. Life spit. Yeah, health as wealth. Like if you're health life as well, I don't care how much money you gave me. I do not want to be, you know, ready to die.
Yeah yeah E terminated, like yeah where did where did you learn your health habits or at what stage in your life did you start finally like understanding how important this is for your not just your your obness, your you're down to your cellular level, but your mental health and your productivity and all the benefits that you get from health.
When did that happen for you?
Well, I think health for me started my mom put me in Tik one Do when I was young, very young, and it taught me discipline, and then she put me I loved football, so I loved watching football, so I
wanted to play football. And then you know, that taught me, you know, just the grind of things and if you can, that taught me how to be competitive and if you work hard at something, you know you could, you could make it happen, right, because I wasn't the most talented, So for me, that's when I first got introduced kind of the health is like just the sports and the competitiveness of it, the community of it, the unity of it.
And I kind of started loving fitness then. And then I wanted to be different, so I just started working out. I wanted to be shredded. I used to watch how Old That You? Probably around eighteen is when I really started getting into my fitness, and I was I became obsessed with with having abs. In fact, I had a Calvin climbox that I would literally have in my little room that I was in, Yeah, and I'd always look at that box. And then if you remember Fight Club
from nineteen ninety nine. I had like a poster Brad Pitt, and like that's the body that I wanted, right, And so at first I did it for vanity reasons, and you know, now that I'm older, it's really just about like that's what keeps me sane. Like I often say, like there's people that take pills to calm them down, Like for me, it's it's my workouts. Yeah. When I work out, man, I just I get so relaxed. I get comfortable, and it doesn't matter what comes my way.
Like I'm good because I'm so overlashed. Right, So I love running now and all that good stuff. When did it start for you?
For me? Very similar young sports and discipline and pushing through you know, the pain, and just getting it done to get to the other side and feel good about yourself mentally, physically, emotionally. There's so many benefits with it. I didn't start lifting weights until after high school because somebody told me that if you start lifting weights too young, you're gonna stay short, and of course I didn't want
to be a short guy. And then when I got into bodybuilding, I really just started hitting the ways hard and at the time, I really didn't know what nutrition was about. I would eat burritos, hamburgers, tacos, everything in large substance, and it just didn't work out well. Put some weight on me, but it didn't really work out well.
And then in college it took some nutrition classes and in combination with that and talking to the actual bodybuilders that I used to work out around that Gold gym, it taught me that nutrition is super, super important, not just for growth, but for definition and performance and longevity. And I really got into it and that was all
about it. While I was going to college. I remember taking my food to class and you know, it's it's eating time, so I'm going to open it up and it's it's a really smelly chicken dish that's got a lot of garlic, and it nervody in the room is like can you go outside and eat? Like, hey, I gotta eat, man, it's time to eat. I want to schedule right here. So I was so into it, and then I that's kind of what got me into the
fitness and health space. I started training clients and I was dating a girl who was a trainer, and I really got into it. She talked me into start teaching classes on stage. I was scared to death, but it really taught me, you know, what I needed to know to get my confidence because, as I mentioned early on, my vision in the future was to be wearing a suit talking business to a group of people who are
listening to my subject. Right, So that was my visual and when it came down to it, in teaching a class, a group fitness class, I was in front of an audience, but I was in my shorts and T shirt and teaching a group fitness class, which obviously I truly enjoyed and I still enjoyed to this date. It's so much fun.
Well there was it like a hit workout you were teaching.
It was what it was called. The first class was called body Pump and it was a group fitness class with lighter weights, high repetitions, slow tempo, great introductory class to lifting weights. Because during my era, it was the stereotypical when you go to the gym, all the girls around cardio equipment and all the guys are in the weight room and never did they ever cross, you know, paths. And for me, I loved both worlds. I'm a cyclist at heart, I'm an endurance athlete at heart, but I
also love to lift weights. Because the vanity side took over and said, you can be a good cyclist, but you don't want to look like a good cyclist. You want to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger on the bike. And that's a complete dichotomy, totally against everything that you know physically that you can do. You're either an endurance athlete or a power athlete. You just can't be both. But I did it. I enjoyed it. I really had a
great time with it. And you know, thinking back back back before I got this heart issue, I was always thinking like, what did I do to create this hard issue? Apheb And I just can't help but think that maybe pushing myself so hard, so long, so many years might have contributed to my heart issue. In other words, I was like a Ferrari pulling an eighteen wheeler up a mountain on a bicycle. Right. It's just it doesn't make any sense. But that's what I enjoyed, and that's what
I loved about it. I love riding my bike everywhere and riding it hard. I love lifting, and I just love the way I felt and the way people around me admired me, right, not just the aesthetics of it, but the respect you get from people who know how hard it is to build that kind of body, or to build that kind of strength, or to build that kind of performance. Right, it feels good, it feels It made me taste the beginnings of success. It made me feel really good that if you work hard, you will
succeed and people will respect you for that. Right.
And you mentioned the heart issue, right, A FIB. I think it's what it's called, right, Yeah, So that came out of nowhere, right, that was.
Left field.
So are you like in the best shape of your life at the time.
No, I was just I think I was in the fourth or fifth, maybe sixth year of the gym when we had the gym cut Fitness, and I was training clients and I was transitioning from cycling into running because I wanted to do more spartan racing. And it was exciting to me because I was kind of venturing out trying new things because there's so much more to just
exercising or training clients. Everybody's so different. I was looking for a different motivation experience that I can share with potential clients, that can come to me and say, well, why am I doing this? And that was my biggest question to them all the time, what is your why why are you here training? And for me it was like, I just don't want to do another bicyc curl for no reason. I don't want to do another squat for
no reason. And when I got into Spartan, it was a little bit about everything endurance and strength, but not bodybuilder strength and not you know, like marathon endurance, but somewhere in between. So I really tried to find myself in that world of obstacle course racing. It was a lot of fun. I was pretty good at it. I had the strength, I had the endurance. But the one thing I remember is I didn't have the control of
my heart when I was running. I would just run and my heart would be, you know, beaten out of my chest, and I'd be like, that's normal, that's what I'm That's just part of the pain that you feel when you're exercising. And it wasn't until I beat it up too much, you know, probably three years into Spartan racing. Then I started having these weird episodes where I couldn't breathe. It felt like I had asthma. I would run like ten yards and I feel like I just sprinted one
hundred meters. And that's when I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what it was. I had no idea that it was my heart. I thought it was my lungs because I couldn't breathe right. And when I went to the doctor, the general practitioners you know, checked me out. You seem to be fine. I'm going to send you to a cardiologist. I said, okay, I want to see a cardiologist. Cardiologist says, okay, I can get
you in in two months. I'm like, okay, the problem's going on right now, but i'll see you in two months. And sure enough, leading up to the appointment, I was in really good shape because I had a spartan race coming up and again just pushing through the pain, pushing through the two hundred beats per minute because I were a heart rate monitor. It hard, yeah, and it wasn't.
It wasn't that I was pushing that hard, but because the way atrofibrillation works, your heart shaking like this, so it gives off a signal that your heart's beating twice as fast, right, and the signal that comes on your heart rate monitors, like two hundred beats from inn it and what the hell is this? I'm not I'm not like a teenager. I shouldn't be in this high range, right, But it didn't make sense to me. It didn't. It just didn't click, and I didn't figure it out until
you know, long story short, I met a doctor. I told him the the my friend doctor Lee. I told him what the symptoms were and he says, it sounds like you had aphib and you should go see a doctor right away. So we made an appointment and it was three months later, and my wife's like, we can't wait that long. So we found another doctor that could get us sin sooner, and within about two weeks we were and I think in sant Ana. There's a hospital there, I forget the name of it that a doctor that
specializes in heart issues. And he diagnosed me and figured it out. We have aphib we're dealing with. And he says, here's how it works. Because of your insurance, I can't go straight to and do a ablation. I have to put you on drugs first. After the drugs don't work, which is the minimum of two weeks you have to take these drugs. Then I have to do a cardio version on you, which is a like a resetting your
heart to rhythm. And if that doesn't work, then I'm authorized to do a cart an ablation on you, which is where they go into your heart and I try not to think about it, but they go into your heart, to your fremortal arteries and they zap your heart wall so that the additional signals that are piercing through your heart creating this electrical issue won't work anymore and you get back to regular heartbeat. And that's the solution to
aphib right. The others obviously is drugs. And that's what the first doctor said, is like, if these procedures don't work, you can live with aphib and take drugs for the rest of your life. I'm like, bro, I spent my life exercising, eating healthy, taking care of my health, so I don't end up on pharmaceuticals for the rest of my life, and so I don't end up relying on doctors for the rest of my life. This is why I lived this lifestyle. So no, I am not taking drugs.
And he even proceeded to say, after the last ablation, or the first ablation he did. He proceeded to say, well, it didn't work, and the drugs aren't working, and we have this one drug that we can try that you have to stay in the hospital for three days, two or three days because in case you die, we have to bring you back. And I'm like, what part of I don't want to take drugs? Did you not understand?
Right?
So it was it was a scary time. The doctors really couldn't tell me what caused it. They just they said it's partially hereditary. And there's five profiles of people that get this atro fibrillation. Women I think around sixty five plus. They're susceptible, men seventy five plus. They're susceptible, obese and sick, and you know, metabolic challenge people, smokers, drug addicts, and people that abuse substances, and endurance athletes.
I'm like, okay, I never considered myself an endurance athlete, but when I sat down and thought about it, I realized, Okay, well, maybe riding a bike one hundred miles up a mountain back and forth, that might be considered a lot of work on the body and a lot of stress on the body. So maybe I am an endurance athlete because for me at the time, the definition of an durance athlete is somebody that can run one hundred miles, right,
or ride a bike for two hundred miles. It's all relative, right, I Mean when I used to talk about, yeah, I just went on a fifty mile bike ride, People's eyes like, you rode your bike for fifty miles. I don't even drive my car twenty miles a day. How do you ride for fifteen miles? Right, So it didn't really hit me until I understood, Okay, so I am an endurance athlete. I am pushing myself really hard and full circle. You know. Still to today, I'm still trying to figure out what
caused it. I'm taking clues here and there. I'm still learning on you know, the best nutrition practices, the best way to avoid these things from happening. And it has completely changed my way of looking at fitness in a way where I'm looking for a longevity now. Because, yeah, I grew up as an athlete. I know that pain is just part of the journey. But if you're not getting paid to be a professional athlete or to push yourself that hard, it's it's not worth doing hit every day.
It's not worth kicking your ass in the gym every day. I know it feels good, especially a good hit workout just clears your head, but long term, think about the risk reward. And I used to tell my clients, like, you know, I don't totally have anything against CrossFit, but ninety nine percent of the people that are human don't qualify for CrossFit. It's too hard, it's too strong, it's
too taxing. And sure enough, you know, there was a run of about five years of CrossFit where everybody was getting hurt because they shouldn't be doing CrossFit it's just too hard.
Like I was running seven days a week and man, I started to get some lower back issues that I was just like, okay, but I really need to run seven days a week, you know, five miles a day, Like, no, let me bring that back down to three. Because I don't want to get as I get older, Like I want to be able to walk and not be in pain. I want to be able to play with the kids
and not be in pain. So like, I think that's such a great point that you bring up into like moderation, right, like you don't overdo it, especially when you're not getting paid and you don't really have to go that hard.
How was your mental health after, because that's one of the things that I worry about, Like I don't like lifting heavy at all, just because I know how much I love working out, and I'm like, man, if I get hurt and I can't work out for the next week or two weeks, I'm going to be in a bad mood. And so obviously you have this heart condition at the time, Well, I guess you kind of still is like do you still do or it's pretty much gone.
It's pretty mu's gone. But that one year I was diagnosed on December eighth, I think, twenty eighteen, and then January twenty nineteen is when the journey started, and that whole entire year was in and out of the hospital, you know, trying to get diagnosed, trying to get fixed, and trying to get the right drugs that don't have or have very little side effects.
At this point, do you still have your cut business?
Yeah?
Business? Yeah, So this is happening through you as you have the gym.
Yeah. And here is you know, a coach and a leader in the space where I am motivating people to do things that they don't think they can do physically right, and I can't keep up with myself. I started feeling a little about of depression, I think in the middle of the year. And prior to that, I used to think depression is just stupid excuse not to do anything right. I mean, just get off your ass and go. And I've had close friends and family that have experienced depression.
I'm like, you know, just get over it. It's stupid, it's nothing right. But I think I actually experienced about a depression because I couldn't exercise because it was exercise and deuce, so I couldn't do any cardio. I really didn't want to lift any weights because I just didn't have the energy, didn't want to go to work. I felt like an eighty year old man. I needed to take a nap in the afternoon. I was not productive and I didn't want to do a whole lot of anything.
I even hired one of my trainers to manage the gym while I wasn't there. And I just really felt bad about myself, you know, getting to this point where what am I going to do? This is my livelihood, this is my life, this is how I live this is how I manage my mental health, my physical health, my emotional health. This is all me. What am I going to do now? You know, I'm not going to take drugs for the rest of my life. You know,
it's just that's just not going to happen. So I did a lot of research, I did a lot of reading, and I learned, you know that you can fight it, that there is a possibility that you can win. There's a great book called Beat eight FIB or something like that that really motivated me because it gave me scenarios of other people that have gone through a FIB and what they did to beat it and how they beat it.
And I was very fortunate, very fortunate. I think that's one of the reasons that that kind of God put me in the path of being famous, right because being famous gave me the privilege to reach out to one of the top doctors in the world that said, you know what, if nobody can fix you, I will take you on and I'll fix you. And sure enough he did. This guy was just an amazing doctor. Yeah, and he's got like five or something like ten patents in the industry.
He's the guy that other doctors go to to hear him speak and learn about it. So I I mean, there's royalty that goes to this doctor from around the world to have him fix them. And I got lucky enough to have the best doctor help me, and he fixed me. He really is. I call him my guardian angel because he gave me a second chance to be who I am today and help people, you know, because you got to look at the silver lining. I'm on
this platform I can. I've had so many conversations with other people who have had APHAN and experienced it and asked me questions, you know, and I just experience share. That's that's the best thing I can do.
As you're as you're going through the depression that you're going through, the little mental health issue because obviously, again you're used to working out every day, all of a sudden that's taken away from you. Doest thou now start to affect your marriage at all? Like are you snapping? Are you just in a bad mood? Did that mess with your marriage at all?
My wife told me that leading up to it, I was pretty snappy and irritable a lot. And I don't know if it was my health or it was just you know, sometimes when you own a business, there's a lot of shit going on. I would say all the time, right, But during the journey, it really brought us closer together. It was never like there was some back and forth because I in the beginning I didn't want to take the drugs and she totally called me out on that in front of the doctor, and I'm like, babe, I
thought you were on my side. But you know, she was definitely looking out for my best interest, and there was just I had a terrible experience with the drugs. I don't like taking drugs. I don't like the way they make me feel. But outside of that, she was there supporting me, helping me, doing this much as she can for me, you know, short of catering to me, you know, because she's not that type of person. She was really there to help me if I needed anything
anything at all, love, support, kindness, you know. Just she was amazing. And she was struggling with it herself too, like thinking like the worst case scenario, like what if you diees, what do you as a stroke? Because it's not aphib that is the medical problem or the risks, it's the heart doing this and not pumping one hundred percent of the blood in and out of the heart. That causes clots to form in your heart and this
little area called the appendage. So if clots start to form there after a little bit of time, those things will go into your brain and now you have a stroke. And that's when things get really, really nasty. You know, when you have you're pretty much screwed. Part of your brain is dead, and now somebody has to take care of you. And you know, jokingly, my wife would you know, frequently joke about it, like if you get a stroke, I'm not taking care of you. I Am not wiping
your ass for the rest of your life. So I said, it's not going to happen, but definitely scared me, definitely woke me up. I'm still not totally for going to see the doctor for any little reason. I still believe that we all have to be responsible for our own health and wellness and only go to the doctor to
do the deep dive. Like I just recently had my blood drawn so I can get all my levels checked and see where I'm at, you know, from my testosterone to my cholesterol, to my vitamins and stuff like that, vitamin levels just so I can stay aware, you know, of how I'm doing. When I was in a in the hospital and had APHEB, they I did all the tests that you can imagine, everything came back clear and my only problem was aphib So it was a very
rare thing to see. Right, most of the older generation or the older people that get aphib or the people that abuse their body get aphib is because of the abuse, the trauma that your heart has gone through that creates aphib So the only trauma that I can only think of that I created for myself was pushing myself so hard that my heart finally said, hey, I've had enough of this one hundred and eighty beats per minute, I'm done. Yeah,
it really was a scary time. It took me about three years to really start feeling confident that I can get back to my normal life, which is cycling, you know, for fifty sixty eighty miles, hiking, riding my dirt bike, riding my Harley, staying active. I just love to stay active and be outdoors and enjoy my life and traveling right and being sick, you can't do any of those things.
Well, it's so important to move your body right, like whenever I'm also like I find myself in a bad mood or just going through a bad you know, you have those bad days or just that two hours, like I'll go walk or just around the corner, I'll get on the treadmill, or you know, I'll go on a little run. And it's just crazy how much you how better you feel after you move your body, right versus if you're just kind of laying there in bed all
day like that. I don't know about you, but that puts me in a bad mood when I'm not moving my body. I want to move my body all the time. And you know, it's funny. Even when I take phone calls. You know, now with the headphones and stuff, you can't hear anything. I mean, the person listening to you can They can only hear your voice. So most people don't know.
But I'm actually playing basketball as I'm talking to them, like I'm shooting I'm driving in because I just I love moving my moving my body, and it puts me in like this good state, you know, like a peak state, you know. And it's interesting. I tell people all the time, don't make decisions when you're feeling bad or when you're when you're in a bad sort of state of mind because you're taking council from worry and doubt and fear. So you want to put yourself in a good place
before you make a decision. So sometimes when I did make a decision, I'll go run for twenty minutes, or if I'm pissed off at someone, I'll go run for twenty minutes, and then all of a sudden, I'm it's like I have clarity. Yeah, yeah, right, and totally the importance of that, right. So yeah, so I love everything
you said there. I actually like going to the doctor every year and I like make sure they check everything because you know, we just had Terry debro On prior to this, andeah, you know he talked about, you know, just the importance of catching stuff early, and like I'm like, I personally want to live to one hundred years hopefully, right, and and I want to catch it up early. So I'm always like once a year, I'm going to the
doctor check for everything. And you know, obviously there's that little fear part, but I just I rather know early so we can fix something right, because you can't improve on something you're not aware of.
You did that preneuble scan. Right, my wife did that.
I did anything? No, thank god they didn't. So a great condition. And you know that was my whole thing is I want to be able to find you know. I was like, I'm terrified of like because I see so many people that are in good health all of a sudden have a heart attack. Right, So I'm like telling the doctor, Hey, what do we gotta do? What do we got to check? So my heart's in a good condition, So like what do I need to do? And and I mean so far, so so good. But yeah,
that's something I'm I'm very intentional about. You know, as I get older, I'm eating less red meat. You know, it's funny I had the same thing happen to me with with when I was younger. I used to work out in the gym for like two and a half hours, and then after I'd go to Jack in the Box. I'd go to a double Ultimate cheeseburger, I'd get the fries, I'd get the cheesecake, and you know, I didn't know any better, right, So it's just like why was my
body changing them? I mean like I was getting big arms and you know, I was getting a big chest. But like I just I wasn't eating right, but I was putting two and a half hours right.
Yeah.
And then what's interesting is when I flipped the script and I actually ate right. I only had to work out for like forty minutes, yeah, forty minutes, forty five minutes and eat right, and I was and I got shredded. But what they say is true. Abs are made in the kitchen. They are.
They are.
Yeah, you could do an AB workout all you want, but if you're not eating right, it's not gonna happen.
Right.
So the you know the importance of eating right from mental health as well. And now have you heard that? I forgot where I read this, But if you had a chance with what's better for your mental health? They say either reading right, I'm sorry to exercise your mind right, what's better reading or running? Running is number one? I thought it was pretty interesting.
Yeah, yeah, to me it makes sense because when you're running, you're pumping fresh oxygen into your muscles, into your blood. It's almost like circulating fresh air, which feeds the cells, which makes you healthier, which makes them stronger. And I think that is what gets into your head, the fresh blood, the fresh fluids and everything that just cleanses you. If you will just sweating, you know, that's a natural reaction
of exercising. You're detoxifying that way. Sitting still reading, Yeah, it exercises your mind, but then the rest of your body will deteriorate because it's not moving.
M Son.
Eventually, if you do just sit and read, your brain might be active and we can, you know, cut your head off and hold you there so you can read, but the rest of your body is going to be atrophied because it can't do anything.
So I do this, I think just because I got used to it, But I don't know, Like I know it does great for me, but I don't know the science behind it. You being obviously, you know, taking all the courses that you've taken, you probably could answer this. But like for me, water is so important. Like I feel that most people are tired all the time because they're dehydrated and they don't even know it. But like for me, like I got to have my gallon of water every day, and that keeps me fresh and gives
me energy. And also I find that it doesn't it allows me with not getting hungry. I'm constantly drinking my water. Right, Well, so what are your thoughts on that.
My thoughts on water is that it is very important, and that's probably one of the first lessons I learned. Your muscles are made of seventy three percent water, right, so logically you want to keep those hydrated so they function properly, because the worst thing that can happen to you is dehydration. Dehydration creates headaches, dehydration creates weakness and cramping in your muscles. So water in and of itself
is really good for you. Now, the new science lately is that salt, electrolytes, potassium, they all are essential nutrients, minerals that your body needs to really take advantage of the water because with water, if you drink too much water, like a gallon of water, there's such a thing that you can drown yourself.
I heard about it.
I've only heard it about two people, and I've and I have a friend, really good friend of mine, and that data a girl who used to do that. And when I met her, she would drink a gallon of water and a couple of months later I found out that she had that condition where she her brain was full of water. She was just drinking too much water, you know, excessive amounts of water for water. In my opinion,
it comes down to your lifestyle and environment. So if you live in the desert and you're active, you definitely have to increase your water intake. It's a no brainer, right. But if you live in Alaska, where it's colder, maybe drier, and you're not very active, you don't really need that much water because you'll get it from your fresh food. I mean most of the food in Alaska, fish and stuff, it's fresh, right, or you do get water from fresh
whole foods. So if you live a life where you're on the go all the time and you're eating out of boxes and bags and you know, just everything processed, you're definitely going to dehydrate yourself because your body uses the water to process all these dry foods. And here's a perfect example. This is a new revelation. Our last dog that we had was on dry kibble food, you know, the dry dog food, and he would drink water all the time. Now, our new dog that we just got,
he's on wet food. We order his food. He's kind of spoiled, but all he eats is fresh wet food, fresh vegetables, and fresh chicken and stuff like that, and he hardly ever drinks water. And to me, the logic is he's getting his nutrition and his hydration from the food, so he doesn't feel like he has to drink a lot of water. Now, when we go up to the mountains because it is drier, he does drink a little
bit more water. And you know, that just leads me to believe the dogs pretty much are pretty smart animals. They know when they need more water and when they don't.
Right, interesting for us for someone for someone that drinks a lot of coffee, you need a lot more water, right.
I would say yes, because it's diuretic, But I mean, don't go into extremes. You know, what is the definition of a lot of coffee? Is it a pot of coffee? Yeah, that's successive. But remember there's still liquid in the coffee. The problem is not the hydration. The problem is the amount of caffeine you're taken in. That's going to cause other issues, right, Adrenal fatigue because you're running on fake energy,
you know what I mean. To me, coffee is a nice thing to enjoy in the morning, but maybe one cup or two at the most. I've been around people who drink a pot of coffee. I had a client who milligrams do you think is too much coffee? Yeah, I'd say one cup of coffee it's around twenty five to fifty milligrams, depending on whether it's an expresso or just regular coffee.
Right.
Yeah, if you have more than four cups, that's successive. So anything above one hundred milligrams with caffe is probably excessive. And there's a lot of drinks out there that easily taught that. You know, there's a lot of energy drinks that are two hundred milligrams of caffeine, and that's why people like them. It's not the taste, it's not the health benefits. It's the two hundred milligrams of caffeine that
give you this fake energy. And you think you're operating that your optimum performance, when in reality is you're not getting much sleep, you're not eating enough healthy nutrients to feed yourself, so your organs work properly, and you're tired
all the time. But your solution is to drink more coffee and more coffee, more energy drinks, more energy drinks, and you know, you get to the point where like, okay, none of that is working, So maybe let's try a pharmaceutical adderall, you know, so then they start taking adderall and that stops working. So now let's try cocaine, and
let's try all these things you know that are fake energy. Right, Natural pure energy, if you've ever experienced it and you have, comes from the sun, comes from your diet, comes from your level of activity, and you're obviously your mental health. You know, all those things are really important to give you that natural energy. That's why I actually have friends that bounce off the wall that don't drink coffee.
Well, it's so I'm glad you mentioned that because you mentioned the sun, Like the sun is so important, Like in the morning, I try to get sun as soon as I can, right yeah, because it just it gets you in, Like it gets me in a good mood, right yeah. I notice when I'm in my office all day, I'm just not in a very good mood. The sun just puts you in a good mood. I'd like to, you know, fifteen twenty minutes, I'll take a call outside in the sun. I try to do it in the
morning before it gets crazy hot. Yeah, but there's something about just being in the sun in the morning that just like you know, puts me in this mood and it's like good peak mode, peak state.
And consequently when it's you know, a month or two of no sun and just that puts you in a bad mood too, right, right, I'm not kidding our son in California, and maybe that's when we get her into our red light therapy sauna and get our you know, our feed from that. But I have a friend who created this protocol called Superhuman Protocol and it's it's three protocols that bring cellular energy to you. The first is grounding. Have you ever grounded or heard of grounding?
I heard about it. This is when you walk in cement and stuff, well just just walk barefoot un dirt or grass, and the the energy from the earth electrifies your cells and balances them out and kind of kind of puts them in a pot in a position where they're they're functioning an optimal performance and they're ready to their charge, ready to absorb whatever you put it through.
That's the first protocol. And they make a electrical mat it's called the PMF mat that you can lay on for ten minutes a day and it does the exact same thing. So the purpose behind that is for people who are afraid to, you know, go barefoot anywhere, you can use this map for that. The second part of the protocol is oxygen. Forcing oxygen into your lungs to get that into your cells, into your muscles, and you
don't have to do super hard cardio. You just put this oxygen mask into your face and you do intervals for like ten or fifteen minutes just to get your heart rate up to pump that fresh, like ninety eight percent fresh oxygen into your system. That pure oxygen continues to charge the cells, continues to fill the body. And this is something I learned recently about pain. Anywhere you feel pain, it's because there's lack of oxygen in there.
So like if somebody kicks you or knees you and Charlie Horse, you know, that cuts the oxygen flow into that muscle, and that's where the pain comes from. Is the lack of oxygen happens with low back issues as well, or back issues where it's just you're not moving, you're not using it, so it's going to lack the oxygen,
it's going to start creating pain. So the second part of the protocol is pretty awesome because it's just you're getting either on a bicycle or you get it on a stair step or whatever you can do to get your heart rate up and down for about ten fifteen minutes and you break a little sweat. But again, it doesn't have to be an all out, high intense interval session because you're getting pure ninety eight percent oxygen into
your lungs. Then after that you sit in red light therapy and then that's where the magic happens because your body's open, your cells are open, and everything comes together. To me, it's the equivalent of running barefoot on a grassy area doing intervals up and down the hill, absorbed the sun for maybe you know, fifteen to thirty minutes. You know, just it's a quick session barefoot. But you know, we live in an age where everybody has to wear shoes.
You know, Nike sells your shoes because they make you believe that you need shoes. But I remember when I was literal, I'd run around with no shoes all the time, no shirt, and you know, play in the dirt and grass and roll around and I just felt the best I had, you know, unlimited amounts of energy. So I do believe in that combination, getting you know, connected with the earth, getting you know, that vibration from the earth,
the electrical charge, getting fresh as fresh oxygen. And where's the best place to get as fresh oxygen without having to pay for it in the woods next to all the trees, right. And then of course the red light therapy is the safe therapy of sunlight. You know, there are some bad rays that you do get from the sun if you stay out there too long. But the sun, I believe, is essential and it gives you energy and it makes you feel good mentally and physically. Right, it's
just not a physical thing. It's not just about vitamin D. You do feel good when you're out in the sun.
For me nowadays, speaking of energy, like for me, I noticed too that well, first of all, I love to cold plunge like that's been a game changer for me. Yeah, especially as I was doing these hit workouts and just getting older. It's just what it did to my joints. It took all my pain away like that and a huge change, and then you burn a ton of calories doing it. It's quick, but more importantly for me, it was like the joint pain went away I do the sauna.
I love to meditate. The meditation for me has helped me with focus just you know, nowadays is where you can easily get distracted so well, so easily, right that, Like I think like attention is like the new currency. Like if you can master attention, you're going to do pretty well for yourself. Because what I found is one of the best ways to show people that you care about them is by paying attention to them, right, because
now you show them that they're important to you. But if you're constantly and what meditation does really when you do it is you just realize that your mind started to wonder, wander and bring it back to meditating, right, Like that's the whole point of it, is just become aware of when your mind loses focus and then bring it back to your breathing. So that for me has
helped me a ton. And I try to do it while I'm in the sauna at one hundred and seventy degrees because my body's kind of under you know, the rest, and like I'm I'm having a hard time breathing, yet I got to focus on the breathing and so I like doing it. I like doing it while I'm there. And then the other thing for me about just I don't know for you, but like for me, being productive gives me energy. Like I realized, when I'm not productive
is when I'm depleted of all energy. Right, Like I could work a sixteen hour day and as long as I feel productive, I can come home and I have endless energy. But there's times where I'll work a sixteen hour day and I'm depleted the ball energy because I didn't get anything done.
You got when done day the entire.
Or you didn't get anything done and you just put this whole day of work, right, So like you know, for me, I love saying that, you know, execute being overwhelmed by overwhelming execution, right, you know, I think for me, like in my experience, I'm just talking for me, the cured of my anxiety is action. When I'm productive, like my anxiety goes away. You know. It's like if you spend your time and energy being productive, you'll have less
time and energy or anxiety. Like, spend your time kicking ass instead of worrying about how much ass you have to kick, right, And you know that's that's the thing with me with like with the mental health stuff, for me, Like, I just I like to be productive, and I notice when I'm not productive, that's when my mind starts going a little craikray, right, and so like you know, I call it a the high frequency. When I'm in a high frequency is when I have clarity and I don't
have much thought, right, Like you're not thinking right. When you're in a low frequency is when you have a lot of clutter in your head and you're just thinking about all kinds of crazy stuff. Like think about when you're overthinking stuff, it's always bad stuff, Like when have we overthought great stuff? Like you're not going to sit around for two hours just thinking about how great your life is. Right, Yet when it's bad, things like you're overthinking the crap out of it and the whole yeah,
the whole day. You're just obsessed with all the shit that could go wrong. And that's why, like you know, as far as like my mental health and stuff, I'm like, Okay, you could either choose faith or you can choose fear. Right, they're both the same thing, right, one is the projection. One is the projection of the most positive thing for the future, and the other one is the projection of the worst possible thing the future. So whether you like
it or not, you're you're faith based. So like ninety of winning is just remaining positive, positive, right, And I think for me, that's why gratitude is so important for mental health. And I think you know, forgiveness and gratitude are inseparable, and bitterness and ungratefulness are also inseparable, right, And I think that's the beauty of gratitude is that you know, when you forgive, you're going to be grateful, and then when you're grateful, it unlocks love and it unleashes love, right.
And that is totally beneficial as well. To forgive yourself, you know, because we sometimes are the worst critic and the hardest on ourselves, especially for highly high achievers. If we don't forgive ourselves for making a mistake or not accomplishing something, that just stacks on top of the anxiety. And yes, that's where you know, self wellness is really important. I've had many clients that feel guilty that they're taking care of their health, you know, like.
The number one thing they should invest in. Yeah, because if you feel good about yourself, that's what you're going to transfer to other people. But if you like if you feel like shit, then that's what you're going to transfer to other people, because you can't transfer something you're not experiencing.
Right, I always used to tell them. I use the example of flying. You know, when you fly, I don't know. They never change the story when if there's an issue and those gas you know, masks come down, put yours on first before you help anybody else. Right, is that selfish or is that smart? That's smart because now you're functional, Now you're getting the oxygen, and now you can help people, So it's not selfish.
It's such a good point, Eddie that you bring up, because you know, I lost a I was bitter about losing a ton of money, and when you're bitter, I found myself ungrateful. And it wasn't until I forgave myself for losing that amount of money that I started to be grateful again.
Mm hmm.
Right. And that's why I say, for you know, forgiveness and gratitude are inseparable, but so is bitterness and ungratefulness. And and to your point, like when you forgive yourself, all of a sudden you have gratitude, you know, And and the funny part about bitterness too, it's bitterness. You know, your the past for some reason is always gives you bitter, like when you're constantly in the past, it's like you're gonna find yourself kind of bitter, right, And.
It's not productive. It really is that, it's not productive at all. It's kind of like jealousy. Jealousy is a little productive because women want you to be jealous because they feel loved, right, But to me, jealousy has always been a negative emotion and I've always avoided it. And I've come across situations where women used to think, well, you obviously don't love me because you're not jealous, and I used to explain to them, it's not that it's
not that I'm not jealous. I'm just not going to fall for that emotion because it's not productive.
No, yeah, that's so good. You could probably talk for another hour on health, but yeah, yeah for sure. But yeah, so good.
Awesome. Well again, it was great tacking with you and catching up. I'm glad you're doing well and I look forward to our next podcast.
Yes, yes, yes, another good show.
Guys, Thanks for tuning in, Thank you for tuning in.
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