Hack Your Health (While Still Enjoying Life)

00:00:00.000 | I also find it helpful to kind of like literally look up all of the health benefits of it because

00:00:04.040 | the second that you are aware of all of the massive benefits you can get in your life

00:00:08.080 | by doing something like meditating, it just becomes so much more motivated.

00:00:11.460 | And you can also do I on the focus episode of the podcast, we talked about like whether

00:00:15.680 | you could just do activities mindfully, like mindfully wash your dishes or mindfully go

00:00:19.960 | for a walk.

00:00:20.960 | And that does have a certain amount of benefits, but not nearly the same benefits as that concentrated

00:00:26.000 | dose of mindfulness of 12 minutes a day.

00:00:29.000 | What she talked about interestingly is partially like training ourselves to sit in discomfort

00:00:33.840 | and training ourselves to not like the experience in a way.

00:00:38.800 | I like that.

00:00:39.800 | Yeah.

00:00:40.800 | Like forcing yourself to be uncomfortable.

00:00:41.800 | Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks, a show about upgrading your life,

00:00:47.200 | money and travel.

00:00:48.640 | I'm Chris Hutchins, and I am excited to have you here for a conversation with Liz Moody.

00:00:53.960 | Liz is a longtime writer, editor and healthy recipe developer.

00:00:58.160 | She's the author of two cookbooks, Healthier Together and Glow Pops.

00:01:02.540 | She was formerly the food director for Mind Body Green, and she's had her work featured

00:01:06.860 | in Vogue, Women's Health and many more places.

00:01:10.520 | And last but certainly not least, she's the host of the hit wellness podcast, Healthier

00:01:16.280 | Together, which features intimate interviews with some of the biggest names in the wellness

00:01:20.840 | world, as well as a few non-wellness guests like yours truly.

00:01:25.460 | In fact, the episode I did on her show just went live today as well.

00:01:30.280 | And in case you aren't watching on YouTube, we recorded both those episodes live from

00:01:34.640 | the All The Hacks studio, AKA my basement.

00:01:38.800 | This conversation is going to be chocked full of all kinds of health and wellness hacks.

00:01:43.340 | But if you hear that and think it might be too healthy for you, then you should definitely

00:01:47.160 | stick around because I happen to know we both share a fondness for a certain unhealthy cereal

00:01:52.840 | and that while Liz certainly believes in the power of food to heal and nourish your body,

00:01:57.520 | she also knows that a good pasta carbonara has a place on the table because sometimes

00:02:02.400 | it can just heal your soul.

00:02:05.040 | We're here to talk spices, cold showers, circadian walks, meditation, vitamins, taping your mouth

00:02:12.040 | at night, hacks to make frozen veggies taste great, and a lot more.

00:02:16.860 | That is a lot to cover, so let's jump in.

00:02:18.900 | Liz, thanks for being here.

00:02:26.080 | Thanks for having me in your house.

00:02:27.680 | This feels very intimate and fun.

00:02:29.580 | I know.

00:02:30.580 | I have done almost all virtual recordings online and then two this week in person.

00:02:35.080 | It feels like the new normal.

00:02:36.440 | Oh, I'm so happy with it.

00:02:38.520 | I love people so much and I'm an introverted extrovert or an extroverted introvert.

00:02:43.440 | I always forget which one I identify with the most, but I love being around people until

00:02:48.080 | I absolutely don't.

00:02:49.080 | And then I need to go not be around people ever again.

00:02:51.640 | Yeah, I think I'm an extroverted extrovert.

00:02:55.840 | So I'm going to start by letting you know that I, too, love Fruity Pebbles.

00:03:00.360 | That is not where I thought you would start.

00:03:04.520 | Is it your cereal of choice?

00:03:06.520 | I wouldn't go as far as cereal of choice, but it's definitely in like the top two or

00:03:10.440 | three.

00:03:11.440 | I only say not of choice because like it's not a healthy cereal.

00:03:15.400 | It's not a natural cereal.

00:03:17.040 | I thought the colors were like they always say eat the rainbow.

00:03:19.800 | Is that not?

00:03:20.800 | No, that's Skittle.

00:03:21.800 | Also not natural.

00:03:22.800 | But people are not going to listen to any of my health advice from this moment on.

00:03:27.880 | Well, actually, I think the opposite, because so often I feel like you're talking to people

00:03:33.640 | who have an opinion about health and ways to eat healthier and live healthier and healthier.

00:03:40.080 | And you get all of this feedback that is like you can't do anything fun.

00:03:44.540 | And so I wanted to start with that, because when I was reading part of your cookbook and

00:03:49.880 | I was just reading some of the content you wrote, I listened to some of your podcasts.

00:03:52.880 | There is a lot of advice on how you can live a happier, healthier life.

00:03:57.160 | Yes.

00:03:58.160 | But I also heard that you love Fruity Pebbles, which makes me feel like you're a normal person

00:04:02.200 | and you're not someone who's just like figured out how to never eat anything unhealthy, which

00:04:06.840 | I just is not an option in my world.

00:04:08.560 | Like, you know, I like cinnamon rolls.

00:04:09.960 | I like donuts.

00:04:10.960 | I like Fruity Pebbles.

00:04:12.960 | Do I want to eat them in moderation?

00:04:14.400 | Do I want to use hacks to make it better?

00:04:16.120 | Yes.

00:04:17.120 | Yes.

00:04:18.120 | But I want to at least set the ground with talking about food first, that you are not

00:04:22.360 | this rare person that just doesn't like sweet food and that's how you're healthy.

00:04:25.960 | No, I absolutely love sweet food.

00:04:28.040 | So I always say that wellness is a tool, not an end unto itself.

00:04:33.160 | So the second that wellness makes your life worse, it's no longer wellness.

00:04:36.160 | And I think a lot of people are like, oh, I'm like living this really healthy life,

00:04:40.440 | but they're miserable all of the time with all of the things that they're doing to be

00:04:43.720 | quote unquote healthy.

00:04:44.720 | And healthy includes how we feel in our body, but also how we feel in our brain.

00:04:48.880 | So if you're like, I can't go out to dinner with my friends because what am I going to

00:04:51.760 | eat?

00:04:52.760 | I can't ever eat these like foods that really make me smile and bring me joy.

00:04:57.080 | That's not wellness.

00:04:58.400 | Wellness is actually getting in the way of you living your best life.

00:05:01.040 | So I always like people to kind of zoom out and have that perspective with wellness.

00:05:06.040 | And with any of the health tools that I provide my audience with, I'm like, sometimes I'll

00:05:10.280 | say like, oh, here's my nighttime routine and people be like, well, what if I am out

00:05:14.560 | late drinking with my friends or I'm at a work party and I can't do it?

00:05:17.480 | And I'm like, then don't do it.

00:05:19.400 | Like if you can do it, do it.

00:05:21.320 | If you can't do it, don't do it.

00:05:22.640 | It's also all designed to help us get optimal sleep.

00:05:25.040 | So if you're super tired and you're just going to fall asleep anyways, good, fall asleep.

00:05:30.120 | That's amazing.

00:05:31.360 | On top of that, I think there are also a lot of things that you can do to make the things

00:05:36.840 | that feel a little bit more fun, a little bit more indulgent, not feel as negative on

00:05:41.120 | your body.

00:05:42.120 | So let's take sugar.

00:05:43.120 | For example, when I was writing my cookbook, I spent way too much time.

00:05:47.360 | I drove my editor crazy with this because I was like, for everything I wanted to have

00:05:50.520 | like my very specific perspective and why I was making the assertion that that thing

00:05:55.880 | was healthy.

00:05:57.120 | And for dessert, I was like, well, what is quote unquote unhealthy about dessert?

00:06:01.900 | And the main thing is, is that it spikes your blood sugar.

00:06:04.080 | So you're having a lot of sugar, your blood sugar goes up and then it'll crash down.

00:06:08.320 | You'll feel lethargic.

00:06:09.840 | We've all had that sort of like tired, you know, sometimes you get like a little shaky.

00:06:14.160 | You just don't feel good when your blood sugar rises and then crashes.

00:06:17.560 | So that's the problem.

00:06:19.000 | What can we do to solve that?

00:06:20.600 | There's a few things we can do.

00:06:21.680 | One, you can kind of change the format of the dessert itself.

00:06:24.580 | So I do that by adding fat fiber protein to my desserts.

00:06:28.040 | You know, I'll put in something like Greek yogurt or almond butter or almond flour and

00:06:32.320 | just kind of make it a more stable blood sugar experience from the get go.

00:06:37.280 | But then there's also other fun things you can do too.

00:06:39.380 | So I had a woman who calls herself the glucose goddess on my podcast.

00:06:43.320 | She is amazing.

00:06:44.560 | She's a biochemist who kind of hacks glucose in her body.

00:06:47.760 | She wears a continuous glucose monitor and she her whole thing is studying the different

00:06:52.840 | effects that things have on your glucose.

00:06:55.600 | So she has a few different like little tricks that she recommends that I really like.

00:06:59.600 | One is if you want to eat a sweet thing like Fruity Pebbles.

00:07:02.540 | We all love our Fruity Pebbles and I honestly think Fruity Pebbles got me through the pandemic.

00:07:06.120 | I'm like not sure.

00:07:07.120 | I was in New York for the early parts of it and I am like if I didn't have my Fruity Pebbles

00:07:11.060 | like would I be okay right now mentally?

00:07:13.920 | And I don't think so.

00:07:14.920 | But if you want something like your Fruity Pebbles, don't have it as a snack.

00:07:18.900 | Have it as an actual dessert, which means after you've consumed some other type of form

00:07:23.400 | of food.

00:07:24.400 | So after you've had a main course with your protein, with your fat, your fiber, all of

00:07:28.520 | that.

00:07:29.520 | If you're craving a cookie in the middle of the day, if you're craving your Fruity Pebbles,

00:07:32.600 | be like that's not off limits to me.

00:07:34.400 | I'm still going to have it, but I'm going to move it to after a meal.

00:07:38.920 | That's a really great hack that'll just kind of elongate your blood sugar curve and make

00:07:42.720 | sure that your glucose doesn't spike and crash.

00:07:45.280 | Again eliminating all those quote unquote negative effects in your body of eating a

00:07:49.080 | lot of sugar.

00:07:50.700 | Another one that I really like is her green starter hack, which is just eat something

00:07:54.720 | green before you eat anything else.

00:07:56.800 | So if you eat something with a lot of fiber, it kind of creates almost like a little stopper

00:08:02.520 | in your intestines and it just slows the absorption of everything else in your body.

00:08:06.960 | So literally you can do this for anything that you eat.

00:08:09.800 | Just eat like a little green salad before some vegetables if you're out at a restaurant

00:08:13.600 | before you go for the bread, which is a lot of carbs, a lot of stuff that would spike

00:08:17.880 | your blood sugar.

00:08:18.880 | Have a little vegetable side first.

00:08:20.480 | Have a little salad first.

00:08:21.480 | You can do that with literally anything.

00:08:23.840 | And that brings me to my last point, which is that I think if we think of wellness as

00:08:28.960 | deprivation based, it's not going to stick.

00:08:31.440 | Again, it feels like it's making our life worse.

00:08:33.480 | So with every single part of health, I like to think about what I can add to my life instead

00:08:38.920 | of what I can take away.

00:08:40.360 | So instead of being like, I'm not going to eat any sugar and that's going to make me

00:08:43.520 | feel so much better, you think about I'm going to add a vegetable to every single meal and

00:08:48.720 | I'm not going to take anything away.

00:08:50.200 | And I think if we start to think about what can we add to our lives, we start to feel

00:08:53.440 | nourished, we start to feel taken care of, and we start to feel like these things are

00:08:58.920 | making our life better instead of being dogmatic and taking away from our experience on this

00:09:04.160 | planet.

00:09:05.160 | So is that as simple as like, I want to order pizza tonight, but I'm just going to like

00:09:08.840 | whip up some broccoli and eat that alongside?

00:09:11.080 | A hundred percent.

00:09:12.080 | Yeah.

00:09:13.080 | So my husband and I eat frozen pizza like quite often for dinner and we'll just make

00:09:17.040 | a little salad that we'll eat, so we'll get like one of those containers of pre-washed

00:09:21.800 | greens.

00:09:22.800 | We'll put some olive oil.

00:09:23.840 | I like to like microplane a little bit of garlic, a little bit of lemon zest, and then

00:09:27.880 | squeeze the lemon juice and some salt.

00:09:30.240 | And we'll eat that first.

00:09:31.240 | So the thing is you eat the green thing first, or we keep frozen broccoli on hand.

00:09:36.240 | I love roasting frozen vegetables.

00:09:38.240 | Have you ever tried that?

00:09:39.400 | No, but I know from looking you up, it's like you said roasting frozen vegetables.

00:09:44.920 | And I was like, gosh, most people you talk to that have written a cookbook are like,

00:09:49.360 | the only vegetable you should eat is like fresh from the farmer's market.

00:09:52.320 | No, no, no.

00:09:53.320 | I mean, I love the farmer's market.

00:09:55.000 | It's like very much my happy place.

00:09:56.560 | And I think it's a wonderful way to get excited about food.

00:10:00.880 | It feels like a very visceral experience.

00:10:02.600 | You can walk around and like sample things and it feels beautiful.

00:10:05.560 | And I think anything that gets you excited about healthy eating is wonderful.

00:10:09.620 | But frozen vegetables and frozen fruits are phenomenal.

00:10:13.640 | They often contain more nutrients than their fresh counterparts because they're flash frozen

00:10:18.320 | at peak ripeness.

00:10:19.320 | So if you pick broccoli, every bit of its journey from being picked to the grocery store,

00:10:25.480 | it's going to go in a truck, it might cross the country, it might cross several countries

00:10:29.720 | to get to you.

00:10:30.720 | And then it's going to sit on the grocery store shelf for often quite a while before

00:10:34.760 | we're actually purchasing it.

00:10:36.600 | And every little bit of that way, it's losing its nutrients.

00:10:40.100 | So things like vitamin C especially are really quick to be lost in that journey, whereas

00:10:44.800 | if you are getting something flash frozen, it's preserving a lot more of those nutrients.

00:10:49.040 | So I think we should eat fresh vegetables and fresh fruits as much as we possibly can.

00:10:53.880 | But I also think that frozen fruits and veggies can be a really beautiful part of the journey.

00:10:58.120 | And my frozen veggie roasting hack is like one of my absolute favorites.

00:11:02.640 | So the thing that you do is you put your frozen veggies like frozen broccoli, let's say, out

00:11:07.780 | on some parchment paper, and then you put it in the oven at like 425 or something like

00:11:11.320 | that, but with nothing on it.

00:11:13.060 | And the idea, I learned this when I was trying all these different ways to roast chickpeas

00:11:18.080 | and make them super, super crispy for my cookbook.

00:11:20.960 | And people were like, "Oh, do it with oil at this point," or you should start with fresh

00:11:27.680 | chickpeas or whatever.

00:11:28.680 | And the thing I found that worked the best is you roast them completely dry, no oil,

00:11:33.280 | because the oil traps in the moisture.

00:11:35.480 | So you want all of that moisture to evaporate, and then you add the oil, and then you cook

00:11:39.940 | them normally.

00:11:40.940 | So with the broccoli, you want to cook, you want to like literally not touch it, like

00:11:44.160 | dump the bag on the parchment paper, spread it out, put it in the oven, and then roast

00:11:48.800 | it until all of that moisture's evaporated.

00:11:51.640 | It's already starting to brown a little bit, and then you toss it with the oil, toss it

00:11:55.560 | with some salt, toss it with whatever seasonings you want.

00:11:58.760 | Cook it for like five more minutes, and you've got like beautiful frozen roasted broccoli.

00:12:03.800 | Are there other vegetables it works with?

00:12:05.600 | Yeah.

00:12:06.600 | Most of them.

00:12:07.600 | Definitely anything cruciferous.

00:12:08.600 | So like cauliflower, it works pretty well, brussel sprouts, you're not going to get quite

00:12:11.720 | the same effect as you would with like a fresh brussel sprout.

00:12:16.880 | Definitely like squash and things like that that are kind of chopped and pre-prepared.

00:12:20.960 | You mentioned adding veggies, and you mentioned how to do it if they're frozen, but like are

00:12:23.880 | there other good tips for how to take what you do now and make it better?

00:12:28.000 | Oh yeah.

00:12:29.000 | I mean, there's like a zillion.

00:12:30.960 | So if we're in the realm of like still frozen veggies, which I'm really into, one of my

00:12:37.520 | favorite hacks is to keep a bag of cauliflower rice in your freezer, and you can buy this

00:12:42.000 | at like any grocery store, just like pre-prepared cauliflower rice.

00:12:45.520 | It's just going to be riced cauliflower, and then you can use that as a sub for ground

00:12:49.980 | beef in pretty much any recipe.

00:12:53.080 | Just do a one, like I do half ground beef and then half the cauliflower rice, so like

00:12:57.320 | a bolognese.

00:12:58.580 | You can brown the ground beef and then add the cauliflower rice in and you won't know

00:13:03.640 | that it's there, but you've just added this like significant portion of vegetables to

00:13:07.920 | your dish.

00:13:08.920 | I also think that cauliflower rice is amazing for thickening soups if you're making a soup

00:13:13.040 | and it kind of feels, I don't know, not that, not that, it doesn't have as much body as

00:13:18.080 | you'd like.

00:13:19.080 | It doesn't have as much heft.

00:13:20.080 | You can take half the soup and then blend it with some sauteed cauliflower rice and

00:13:23.920 | then pour that back in and you'll have this really thick and beautiful and rich soup.

00:13:28.400 | So I think that keeping some frozen cauliflower rice on hand at all times is a really wonderful

00:13:33.660 | hack.

00:13:34.660 | I also love to sub it, like I'll put it in for half of my white rice in a dish.

00:13:37.800 | So I'll cook up some white rice, delicious, lots of salt.

00:13:41.320 | That's the secret to making white rice taste really good, but then I'll saute up some cauliflower

00:13:45.060 | rice and I'll just mix them together and I cannot do, like I'm not a person who can do

00:13:49.040 | cauliflower rice on its own and pretend that it's rice because it's not and it doesn't

00:13:53.840 | taste good and I need my food to taste good and that is like my number one rule of food

00:13:58.880 | is that it needs to taste good, but mixed in with normal rice, it actually adds like

00:14:03.840 | a really nice nutty note and I think enhances the dish and adds veggies instead of detracting

00:14:09.280 | from it in any way.

00:14:10.760 | I mean I'm going to ask what else because frozen cauliflower, rice, frozen broccoli,

00:14:15.760 | both good hacks.

00:14:16.760 | Yeah.

00:14:17.760 | So I would say a few things.

00:14:19.040 | One, use your spices way, way, way, way, way more spices.

00:14:23.200 | I always call them the original superfood, so people are always kind of trying to like

00:14:26.800 | go get these like fancy superfood powders and add them to their lives and enhance their

00:14:31.000 | health journey that way and that's great if that's what you want to do, wonderful.

00:14:34.880 | But spices have so many potent therapeutic properties and they make everything you eat

00:14:40.480 | taste really, really delicious.

00:14:41.960 | So I always like if there's spices listed in a recipe, I almost always pretty much double

00:14:46.720 | them like obviously do it to taste, but people way under season their food and it makes it

00:14:53.040 | healthier and it makes it tastier.

00:14:55.040 | So big fan of that.

00:14:56.580 | Also a big fan of starting every single morning with a green smoothie, which I would be remiss

00:15:00.120 | not to mention.

00:15:01.160 | I'm sort of like known for my green smoothies both in my personal life when I push them

00:15:06.440 | on people at all times.

00:15:08.760 | I have a video on my Instagram where I was like testing out different green smoothies

00:15:13.560 | until I won over my little sister who hated green smoothies and I did.

00:15:16.680 | I got her with a pina colada one, which I was very proud of and she liked it and drinks.

00:15:21.440 | She drinks green smoothies every single morning now, which I'm very, very proud of.

00:15:25.680 | But also, you know, in my public life, I have a green smoothie society on patrion at patreon.com/lizmoody,

00:15:33.440 | which just has like all of these green smoothie recipes.

00:15:36.840 | I think it's a really beautiful thing you can integrate into your day.

00:15:40.600 | It tastes like a milkshake.

00:15:41.840 | It takes less than five minutes to make and if you do it in the morning, for instance,

00:15:45.880 | you will have had more vegetables before like 9am than most people eat in an entire day,

00:15:50.160 | which just makes you feel really good about yourself.

00:15:52.440 | So I'm a big fan of like the all in greens and I'm I'm what what's in these green

00:15:58.440 | smoothies.

00:15:59.440 | Okay, so the formula is greens and you can do like spinach.

00:16:03.280 | You can do mixed greens.

00:16:04.280 | You can do something like arugula, but you need to balance it with I would say something

00:16:08.040 | that's a little peppery that leans into those notes, but I'd say for a starter, spinach

00:16:12.020 | or mixed mixed greens is a really nice base.

00:16:14.400 | And then on top of that, you're going to do a banana, I would say, will make it taste

00:16:18.080 | really good.

00:16:19.080 | You're not going to taste the banana, but if you're just going for a delicious flavor,

00:16:22.600 | put the banana in there.

00:16:23.600 | I have some recipes without if you're banana free, but good starter.

00:16:26.660 | And then you want some sort of fat.

00:16:28.600 | So that can be an avocado that can be Greek yogurt that can be a nut or a seed.

00:16:33.160 | I think like pistachio is a really fun thing to include in a smoothie that can be chia

00:16:37.440 | seeds that can be flax seeds that can be hemp seeds that can be a nut butter, but some sort

00:16:41.860 | of nut or some sort of fat to get the nutrient absorption from the vegetables that you're

00:16:48.360 | putting in.

00:16:49.360 | So something like greens has a lot of fat soluble vitamins in them, and you want to

00:16:53.440 | make sure that you're actually absorbing all of those vitamins from those grains.

00:16:57.080 | So some sort of fat, and that's also going to help you stay full through lunch, which

00:17:00.420 | is what we want.

00:17:01.960 | That said, if your green smoothie does not make you full, please eat some food.

00:17:05.560 | Like that's very important to me.

00:17:07.400 | This is not meant to be a diet thing.

00:17:09.600 | This is again, not meant to be restrictive in any way, shape or form.

00:17:13.080 | If you're hungry, listen to your body, eat.

00:17:15.840 | A lot of people will do green smoothie with like a scrambled egg on the side or something

00:17:19.360 | like that.

00:17:20.360 | I switch it up.

00:17:21.360 | Some days a green smoothie is enough.

00:17:22.360 | Some days I like to have a more robust breakfast.

00:17:24.240 | So I go either way.

00:17:25.240 | So we've got our greens, our banana, our fat, and then you want to add some protein.

00:17:29.160 | So if you're using some nuts or seeds, they're going to have a certain amount of protein.

00:17:33.240 | You can also add in something like a protein powder.

00:17:35.800 | You can add in collagen.

00:17:37.160 | Again, that protein is going to elongate your blood sugar curve and it's going to keep you

00:17:41.140 | full longer.

00:17:42.140 | So that's really, really important.

00:17:44.200 | I like to add some frozen berries, usually like blueberries or blackberries or strawberries.

00:17:49.960 | And then I like to put in like my fun flavor elements.

00:17:53.120 | So this can be spices.

00:17:54.400 | I love cinnamon in smoothies.

00:17:55.960 | I love cardamom in smoothies.

00:17:57.400 | I love cayenne is like a little bit of spice in a smoothie.

00:18:00.520 | I love cacao, which just makes it taste like chocolate, which is the dream and everything.

00:18:05.480 | I also love zest.

00:18:06.760 | So using like some lemon zest or some orange zest, it has so many therapeutic properties,

00:18:11.680 | the skin of the citrus, but it also tastes really strongly of that thing.

00:18:16.040 | So if you put like orange juice in your smoothie, putting orange zest in the smoothie will taste

00:18:20.600 | even more orangey essentially, which is really, really nice.

00:18:24.160 | And then a little pinch of sea salt, which is just going to bring out all of those flavors.

00:18:28.480 | You always want a little bit of salt in anything that you cook.

00:18:31.560 | Even if it's a sweet thing, you know, we put salt in our cookies, it brings out those flavors

00:18:35.840 | and it also adds some minerals if you're using a sea salt or a mineral salt or something

00:18:40.340 | like that.

00:18:41.340 | And then just add water.

00:18:42.340 | I think that blending your smoothies with a nut milk is a huge waste of money.

00:18:45.920 | Like I'm just like, what are we looking for there?

00:18:49.160 | Like save your nut milk for your fruity pebbles and use water in your smoothies, blend it

00:18:54.200 | up and drink it.

00:18:55.200 | And then they also keep for, I'd say 24 hours solidly in a tightly sealed container in the

00:19:00.000 | fridge.

00:19:01.000 | So if you want to make a smoothie for two days, which I love doing a little gift from

00:19:04.940 | past you, highly recommend that as well.

00:19:07.320 | I love it.

00:19:08.320 | You mentioned spices at the end.

00:19:09.640 | I want to go back to your previous comment on spices and ask, do you replace your spices

00:19:15.940 | regularly?

00:19:16.940 | I wonder, I always wonder if this spice rack that I assume we probably bought 15 years

00:19:21.540 | ago or something is like, have they expired?

00:19:24.060 | Do they go bad?

00:19:25.140 | They don't like go bad per se, like you're not probably going to get food poisoning or

00:19:29.820 | something like that from your spices, but they will lose their potency in terms of both

00:19:34.360 | flavor and therapeutic benefits.

00:19:36.020 | So you, if you want to know if your spice is still giving you all those therapeutic

00:19:40.000 | benefits, you can literally just taste it.

00:19:41.920 | And if it doesn't taste robust and, and of that thing, then you've probably lost a fair

00:19:47.000 | amount of the therapeutic benefits.

00:19:48.300 | So there's a few things you can do to prevent that.

00:19:50.320 | You want to keep your spices somewhere as cold and dark and dry as possible.

00:19:55.160 | So in a cabinet, not right next to your stove, not like lined up on your wall where the sun

00:20:00.400 | is coming in every single day, just as cold and dark and dry as possible.

00:20:05.020 | And that will make them last longer and then seal them as well as possible.

00:20:08.560 | And then use them more so that you're like, not, I mean, it's a little bit, it's a little

00:20:12.880 | bit tricky because I feel like by having them put away, you're maybe not as inspired to

00:20:17.560 | use them.

00:20:18.560 | So take inventory regularly, put them in your dishes so that they're, they're not dying

00:20:24.000 | before you get the chance to use them.

00:20:26.020 | And how long would you say the average spice lasts?

00:20:28.840 | I'd say like a year.

00:20:31.000 | So would you say you do like a turnover of your whole spice?

00:20:34.560 | I don't because I use them all.

00:20:37.360 | I imagine most people listening, and maybe I'm completely wrong.

00:20:41.700 | I'll speak for myself.

00:20:42.700 | Yeah.

00:20:43.700 | I would say most of the spices in our spice drawer that we don't use a lot of are like

00:20:47.480 | five plus years old.

00:20:49.540 | So maybe before you leave, since we're in person, give me a little spice inventory.

00:20:53.680 | And I would also say that I don't think you need maybe as many spices as you think.

00:20:58.400 | So sometimes people go and they try to do like this fully stocked spice rack, but then

00:21:01.560 | they realize they're really just using the same five or six spices on a regular basis

00:21:05.960 | and maybe lean into those spices.

00:21:07.800 | And if a recipe has like 45 spices, be like, do I really need all of these?

00:21:11.880 | Like, can I experiment with getting most of the way there with what I have?

00:21:15.480 | I also think that spice blends are super underutilized.

00:21:18.760 | So instead of buying all of the spices in something, have one or two go to spice blends

00:21:24.840 | that you're always using.

00:21:26.140 | If you want to like roast vegetables and have it taste really good.

00:21:29.080 | If you're doing a stir fry, you want to have it taste really good.

00:21:31.400 | You have your spice blends that you can go through with that.

00:21:33.960 | And that way you can use it up much more quickly.

00:21:35.640 | I love it.

00:21:36.640 | Now I'm getting hungry.

00:21:39.160 | And we don't have dinner plans at this house tonight.

00:21:41.760 | So I'm curious, like pick a recipe from your cookbook that I and anyone listening can make

00:21:47.640 | for a meal tonight that you think will just make everyone happy.

00:21:52.520 | Ooh.

00:21:53.520 | Okay.

00:21:54.520 | That I can also link to so people can try it.

00:21:56.640 | Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:21:57.640 | I'm trying to think.

00:21:58.640 | So this isn't up yet, but it will be up by the time that this goes up.

00:22:01.760 | It's a taco salad.

00:22:03.360 | I like salad, but the salad has to take like really, really, really good if I'm going to

00:22:08.600 | eat salad.

00:22:09.600 | And so I'm a big fan of like hearty salads and exciting salads and things like that.

00:22:13.600 | And I had a taco salad out at a restaurant in the Bay Area and I was deeply disappointed

00:22:18.360 | by it.

00:22:19.360 | And I was like, this could be so much better.

00:22:20.720 | So this is just a very quick and easy taco salad.

00:22:24.520 | The taco meat is plant-based, not because I am plant-based, but because I thought it

00:22:28.240 | actually tasted better that way.

00:22:29.980 | So I call it accidentally plant-based.

00:22:32.080 | It's a mix of pecans and frozen cauliflower rice.

00:22:35.000 | So you can pull out your frozen cauliflower rice and make that with that.

00:22:38.600 | And then it's just quickly seasoned and then everything else you're just kind of like chopping

00:22:41.760 | up and you're making a really quick jalapeno dressing, which I love and pouring it over

00:22:46.700 | the top.

00:22:47.700 | It's going to be really nourishing.

00:22:48.700 | It's going to be really delicious.

00:22:49.700 | And it's going to make you feel really, really good after you eat it.

00:22:52.720 | All right.

00:22:53.720 | We will link to that in the show notes.

00:22:54.720 | Yes.

00:22:55.720 | So you were looking at the cookbook, gluten-free, dairy-free, dairy-free and plant-centered.

00:23:01.440 | Is that because you are gluten-free and dairy-free or is that because you feel like that's a

00:23:05.940 | healthier way to live or how did you make that call?

00:23:08.640 | So for a few reasons, if I'm going to be completely honest, it's because the powers that be at

00:23:13.760 | publishing houses like marketing terms.

00:23:16.200 | And so those are easy marketing terms that help people identify it.

00:23:20.240 | And I get it.

00:23:21.240 | You know, if you're looking at a cookbook cover on Amazon, you need to be able to tell

00:23:23.520 | so quickly whether that's something that you're going to want in your life.

00:23:27.400 | So identifying terms like that are really, really important.

00:23:32.080 | Also I'm trying to make my food as accessible to as many people as possible.

00:23:35.960 | And there definitely are people out there with celiac disease, with allergies and things

00:23:40.520 | like that.

00:23:41.520 | I would say plant forward a hundred percent.

00:23:43.280 | I am trying to smoosh in vegetables at whenever possible.

00:23:47.760 | I'm the biggest fan of them.

00:23:49.280 | I've interviewed probably thousands of doctors at this point in my life.

00:23:53.520 | And it's so interesting because they disagree about so many things about what constitutes

00:23:58.880 | a healthy diet.

00:23:59.940 | But the one thing they all agree on is that like more vegetables is better.

00:24:04.000 | 80% or so of your diet should just be like focusing on putting vegetables in.

00:24:08.760 | So I'm like, let's stop arguing over that last little bit about whether like meat or

00:24:14.160 | no meat or grains or no grains.

00:24:16.200 | If we all just got the vegetable part right, we would all feel so much better.

00:24:21.640 | We're arguing about that like tiny tweaky bit when we don't have the foundation laid.

00:24:25.880 | And I think that happens with a lot of wellness stuff.

00:24:27.840 | We're trying to like hyper optimize instead of laying the foundation that would actually

00:24:32.600 | make the difference.

00:24:33.600 | So I would say plant forward a hundred percent.

00:24:36.280 | Vegetables are the foundation.

00:24:37.280 | I'm going to smoosh them in anywhere.

00:24:39.920 | But I don't follow any food rules with my diet.

00:24:44.920 | And I think unless you have a specific health reason, something like celiac disease or an

00:24:50.820 | allergy or something like that, I would not encourage anybody to follow any restrictive

00:24:56.120 | rules either.

00:24:57.560 | And for all those vegetables, do you feel like vegetables, fruits, anything, do they

00:25:01.240 | all need to be organic or what's your stance on organic food?

00:25:05.000 | So look, I think that we all do the best that we can within the circumstances that we have.

00:25:10.200 | The reasons to buy organic are a few, like obviously there's pesticides and things that

00:25:15.360 | you maybe don't want in your body.

00:25:17.840 | And then I think you can follow easily something like the clean 15 and the dirty dozen, which

00:25:21.600 | you can easily look up online.

00:25:23.000 | And that's basically a list of, you know, produce that is going to be more likely to

00:25:28.840 | be sprayed with pesticides or things that you'd put in your body.

00:25:31.440 | You can also follow easy rules like bananas, avocados, things that you're not eating the

00:25:35.960 | skin.

00:25:36.960 | You probably don't need to spend your money on organic.

00:25:39.360 | But then there's also issues with a lot of organic farming practices where they're using

00:25:43.920 | heavy metals and other things that you maybe don't want in your body as well.

00:25:47.840 | So I think that it's complicated and it's nuanced.

00:25:51.360 | And the best way to get around it is by knowing your farmer as much as possible.

00:25:57.200 | And obviously that's a very privileged thing to do.

00:25:59.120 | But I do think if you can go to a farmer's market and ask how they're farming, what they're

00:26:04.440 | using when they're growing, that's the absolute best practice.

00:26:07.360 | And then beyond that, I would say in general, roughly, if you can afford to buy organic,

00:26:13.240 | do it for things that you are eating the skin of, especially something that like when I

00:26:17.400 | was talking about the zesting, if you can get that organic, great, that's really nice.

00:26:21.040 | And if you can't, then don't sweat it.

00:26:22.920 | There is never a circumstance in which it's worse for you to be eating the produce.

00:26:27.240 | Like if you're like, I can't afford organic produce, should I be buying produce?

00:26:30.400 | Like, yes, a hundred percent.

00:26:31.840 | It's still the best thing you should be putting into your body.

00:26:35.040 | Do you feel similarly about meats?

00:26:38.200 | I think meats are a little bit trickier for me.

00:26:41.700 | I would say that I lean towards grass-fed, pasture-raised, ethical practices.

00:26:46.920 | I'm also sort of like a borderline meat eater as is for ethical reasons and environmental

00:26:53.480 | reasons.

00:26:54.480 | But when it comes to meat meat, I really want it to have been raised in as ethical a way

00:26:58.840 | as possible.

00:26:59.840 | I think because we're talking about a living creature, it's a little bit different than

00:27:03.440 | when we're talking about a carrot.

00:27:05.520 | You haven't mentioned anything about supplements, vitamins, that kind of stuff.

00:27:10.840 | Do those have a role in like a healthy lifestyle?

00:27:14.160 | I think they absolutely can and do.

00:27:17.120 | But I think it depends what your goals are.

00:27:19.360 | I hate when people, you open somebody's supplement cabinet and they have like so many of them

00:27:23.960 | and you're like, "Well, what are these for?"

00:27:25.120 | And they're like, "I don't know.

00:27:26.520 | It's part of being healthy."

00:27:28.160 | And I think you should be able to point to every single supplement that you are taking

00:27:31.720 | and say, "This is the need that it's filling.

00:27:34.360 | This is the problem that it's solving."

00:27:35.800 | So for me, for instance, I don't eat seafood at all.

00:27:38.440 | I take fish oil.

00:27:39.440 | I know that having omega-3s in my diet is really good for my brain.

00:27:43.520 | It's really good for my overall health.

00:27:45.300 | So that is why I take my fish oil supplement.

00:27:48.080 | I think that if you're kind of willy-nilly attacking it and taking too many, you're probably

00:27:55.000 | not having the effects, the positive effects that you want.

00:27:57.680 | You're probably wasting a lot of money.

00:28:00.200 | And I just think it should be a lot more of a thoughtful practice than people are using

00:28:03.800 | it for.

00:28:04.800 | Is that the same with like a daily vitamin?

00:28:07.120 | Or is that a thing?

00:28:08.120 | I think...

00:28:09.120 | So I take...

00:28:10.120 | We were talking about this off-air a little bit.

00:28:11.480 | I take athletic grains.

00:28:12.760 | I love athletic grains.

00:28:14.400 | I think that something like a daily vitamin, particularly if it's a vitamin like athletic

00:28:19.480 | grains that's sourced in a whole food form, it's a really nice nutritional insurance.

00:28:23.920 | So a lot of us would like to eat a lot better than we are eating, or we don't have time

00:28:29.180 | to make these robust veggie-rich meals.

00:28:31.600 | And also there is some truth to the fact that produce doesn't necessarily have the same

00:28:36.440 | nutrient profile that it would have at one point.

00:28:39.160 | The soil has been really depleted through farming practices, et cetera, et cetera.

00:28:42.480 | So I think that it's a nice practice to have a little bit of insurance, but again, it's

00:28:47.400 | a nice to have.

00:28:48.520 | And if all you can afford is really good produce, do that.

00:28:52.960 | Your number one thing I want you spending money on is really good produce.

00:28:57.120 | That is...

00:28:58.680 | If you can fill your diet with vegetables, you will feel better than almost any other

00:29:03.080 | practice that you can add in.

00:29:04.240 | And then everything else, it's bonuses.

00:29:06.660 | It's a little bit of a cherry on top.

00:29:08.040 | So stack your sundae, again, lay those foundations.

00:29:11.320 | And then if you want to add the cherry on top of that, all the better.

00:29:14.760 | And when you say really good produce, do you mean fresh?

00:29:18.120 | I mean...

00:29:19.120 | What's the really good?

00:29:20.120 | I mean a variety, I would say.

00:29:22.400 | So I mean like a diverse, beautiful array of produce.

00:29:25.840 | So I think something that gets lost in the produce conversation often and in the healthy

00:29:30.120 | eating conversation is how much diversity is important to our health.

00:29:34.680 | So I've interviewed a number of gut health experts and people are always like looking

00:29:39.240 | for these little gut health hacks and it really comes down to eat as many types of plants

00:29:44.400 | as you possibly can on as regular of a basis as you can.

00:29:48.000 | So if you're regularly eating broccoli, maybe try Brussels sprouts, maybe try cauliflower.

00:29:53.000 | If you're making your smoothie with spinach all the time, maybe swap in some mixed greens.

00:29:57.040 | If you have pretty much any dish, add some fresh herbs on top.

00:30:01.120 | That's a type of produce and it's going to make it taste better, it's going to make it

00:30:05.480 | look more visually appealing, so just as large of a variety as possible, as much diversity

00:30:10.560 | as possible.

00:30:11.560 | It's going to feed your gut microbiome, you're going to be really happy.

00:30:15.200 | It sounds great.

00:30:16.980 | One of our favorite things to do, and I can put a link in the show notes but you don't

00:30:20.640 | need it, is to literally go to the farmer's market and just buy all the vegetables and

00:30:24.680 | make a crazy big stir fry with just all vegetables.

00:30:27.160 | I love that.

00:30:28.160 | There's probably 10 or 12 vegetables in it at any given time and it's really good.

00:30:33.040 | Yeah, and again, it's about finding the ways to make the vegetables taste really good because

00:30:37.280 | if you're sitting there and you're like stabbing a sad piece of broccoli, you're not going

00:30:41.360 | to enjoy the process of eating.

00:30:43.280 | And also, there's some really interesting studies that show that the mood that you're

00:30:46.280 | in when you're consuming food literally impacts your digestion, impacts your nutrient absorption,

00:30:51.480 | so making food tasty actually technically makes it better for you too.

00:30:55.960 | I like it.

00:30:56.960 | Okay, let's get out of food for a moment.

00:30:59.440 | Talk about hacks related to health, right?

00:31:02.040 | The theme here and what you've written about, what you blog about, what you podcast about.

00:31:06.040 | It's like about being healthier with people.

00:31:09.280 | What have you got?

00:31:10.280 | I know there are a bunch of things you do in your routine.

00:31:13.520 | Let's talk about some.

00:31:15.120 | Let's just like throw some stuff out there.

00:31:16.800 | Okay, so a hack that I'm loving right now is to set the bar way lower.

00:31:20.780 | So I think a lot of people think about something like working out or meditation and they're

00:31:26.360 | like, "I don't know.

00:31:27.360 | I'm so busy already.

00:31:28.720 | I know these things are good for me, but how do I actually fit them into my life?"

00:31:32.440 | And I think that if instead of sitting down and being like, "Well, I have to do 20 minutes

00:31:35.520 | of meditation to make it effective," if you're like, "I'm going to do five minutes of meditation.

00:31:39.160 | I'm going to do 10 minutes of meditation," first of all, it makes it so much more achievable

00:31:44.000 | and attainable.

00:31:45.000 | And if something is achievable and attainable, you're so much more likely to keep going at

00:31:48.680 | it.

00:31:49.680 | You're not going to try to do it for a week, fail and give up.

00:31:52.760 | But then also, most of the time when you sit down and try to meditate for 10 minutes,

00:31:57.400 | you're going to love it.

00:31:58.400 | You'll feel really good and you might even want to keep going.

00:32:01.200 | Or maybe you'll do 10 minutes for a week and then the next week you'll do 11 minutes, the

00:32:05.200 | next week you'll do 12 minutes.

00:32:07.360 | And actually, I had a woman on my podcast who studies focus and she studies meditation

00:32:11.500 | and its effects on your brain.

00:32:13.240 | And 12 minutes is literally the minimum viable dose to have incredibly potent neurological

00:32:19.120 | effects.

00:32:20.120 | So if you're one of those people who feels scattered all the time and you go to answer

00:32:24.820 | an email and then you find yourself on Instagram and you don't even know how your phone got

00:32:28.320 | into your hand, doing just 12 minutes of mindfulness practice every single day will massively help

00:32:36.040 | that type of thing.

00:32:37.040 | It'll help you focus your attention, it'll help you use your attention in the way that

00:32:40.600 | you want to use your attention.

00:32:42.260 | So that's so much less than most of us think.

00:32:46.080 | And by the way, that's not even every single day she does that.

00:32:48.160 | I think four to five days a week was the study.

00:32:50.320 | So 12 minutes, four to five days a week.

00:32:52.940 | Same thing with working out.

00:32:54.000 | I had a doctor on my podcast for a Ask the Doctor Burnout Edition.

00:32:57.740 | So we talked all about what are the causes of burnout in our bodies and our brains and

00:33:02.160 | how can we address them.

00:33:04.480 | And she was, we were talking about the minimum viable dose of working out and it's anything

00:33:09.560 | that gives you a state of change.

00:33:12.080 | So anything that makes it so that you sweat so that your heart rate goes up, that is quote

00:33:16.520 | unquote enough.

00:33:17.920 | And I think that bar is so much lower than get in your car, driving to the gym, doing

00:33:23.360 | an hour class and yelling at yourself if you're not doing all of those things.

00:33:28.200 | So one of my favorite hacks is anything that you want to do in your life, make it easier,

00:33:34.040 | make it like less, less of a time commitment and make it fun.

00:33:39.000 | That's another really good hack is that anything that you want to do, if you can make it enjoyable,

00:33:44.920 | which sounds so silly, you're like, of course, like if you make something enjoyable, it will

00:33:49.080 | be easier to do.

00:33:50.280 | But we, I think there's this pervasive attitude with wellness that unless you're like beating

00:33:55.380 | yourself up, it's not really wellness, that there's like an element of suffering involved.

00:34:00.320 | And that's not true at all.

00:34:01.560 | So for instance, I had Katie Melkman on my podcast and she studies how we can essentially

00:34:08.120 | make the choices that we want to make and actually stick to them, how we can make those

00:34:12.000 | changes.

00:34:13.000 | And one of her favorite things that she recommends is taking something that you really love.

00:34:17.560 | So if you really love like a TV show or a specific podcast, like all the hacks are healthier

00:34:21.680 | together, save that podcast for some time that you're doing something that's a little

00:34:26.720 | bit hard for you to motivate yourself to do.

00:34:28.560 | So for me, that's working out.

00:34:29.680 | I hate working out.

00:34:30.680 | I literally like if I could just lay on the couch like a potato for the rest of my life,

00:34:34.840 | I would absolutely do it.

00:34:36.360 | But I know that I feel so much better after I work out.

00:34:39.660 | So I save my favorite podcasts.

00:34:41.080 | I only listen to them when I work out and then I get excited to work out because I'm

00:34:45.440 | like, Oh my gosh, I get to listen to my favorite podcast.

00:34:48.920 | You can put on music that you love while doing your taxes.

00:34:53.500 | You can have like a little treat, like a food that you eat or a favorite wine or something

00:34:58.800 | like that, or a friend that you call when you go for walks.

00:35:01.880 | There's all these ways to sort of pair the thing that you really, really love with the

00:35:06.480 | thing that you have a harder time motivating yourself to do.

00:35:09.680 | And it makes it fun and it creates that association in your brain so that you start to love the

00:35:13.960 | thing that you thought you didn't love in the first place.

00:35:16.560 | Does that mean that you wouldn't listen to your favorite podcast unless you're working

00:35:20.160 | out?

00:35:21.160 | She recommends saving your like maybe you listen to other podcasts another time, but

00:35:24.960 | she recommends saving the things that like you really love that really motivate you for

00:35:28.680 | when you're doing the hard things.

00:35:30.280 | I like that.

00:35:31.280 | And I know meditation because I've heard you talk about it was something that you tried

00:35:35.520 | for a while and it just didn't stick.

00:35:37.240 | And I think I know I have and many people have been like, "Yeah, I downloaded Headspace

00:35:40.900 | and I did that and then it didn't work" and you found a way to make it work.

00:35:44.840 | Can you talk a little bit about that journey?

00:35:47.120 | So my meditation journey has been really interesting.

00:35:50.240 | I started meditating during like what I like to call my mental breakdown period.

00:35:55.840 | I was living in London with my now husband and I became completely agoraphobic.

00:36:01.920 | I started having panic attacks whenever I left the house.

00:36:06.920 | And that's kind of the beginning of my wellness journey in general.

00:36:09.720 | I was like, I was like laying prone in bed and like emailing sources about how I could

00:36:15.000 | essentially stop having panic attacks at every single second.

00:36:19.040 | And a lot of them emailed me back, which was really surprising.

00:36:21.960 | I was like literally emailing like the head of neurology at Stanford and I was like, "Please

00:36:26.240 | sir, can you help me?

00:36:27.240 | I can't leave my house."

00:36:29.040 | And a lot of them recommended meditation, which really surprised me because I was reaching

00:36:32.660 | out to kind of people more in the hard science arena.

00:36:35.400 | They also recommended foods and supplements and that's how I began to cobble together

00:36:40.200 | my personal wellness journey.

00:36:42.920 | So I've tried meditating with headspace and it did help a little bit.

00:36:47.520 | I will say the Andy Pudding Comb has like a very soothing voice, so nice, nice British

00:36:52.720 | tones in there.

00:36:54.040 | And I was in England and that was probably the only British person that I was like regularly

00:36:57.560 | having interactions with was Andy Pudding Comb in my ears.

00:37:01.360 | So I do think that it helped a little bit.

00:37:04.000 | And then later for a story, I did Vedic meditation training, which is much like transcendental

00:37:10.200 | meditation training.

00:37:12.640 | And that worked for me, but not for the reasons that you might think.

00:37:15.800 | So TM is a mantra based meditation.

00:37:18.240 | So you get a secret mantra, you like go, you pay money and then you go to this like five

00:37:23.260 | day workshop and then they whisper to you your secret mantra.

00:37:27.200 | I don't know where it comes from or like why.

00:37:29.400 | They pick it.

00:37:30.400 | They like tell you your mantra.

00:37:32.400 | And I think the idea is that like if you went to five different teachers, they'd like tell

00:37:35.720 | you the same mantra based on, I don't know.

00:37:37.840 | I literally don't know what is based on like your height or your vibe or your energy or

00:37:41.400 | like your name.

00:37:42.400 | I literally don't know.

00:37:43.400 | Um, but you get your mantra, you're not supposed to tell it to anybody.

00:37:46.000 | So like, I don't know my husband's mantra and he doesn't know my mantra, but we know

00:37:49.320 | like he knows my Gmail password, but he doesn't know my mantra.

00:37:52.840 | Um, and then you repeat that mantra to yourself in your head over and over and over when you

00:37:57.880 | meditate.

00:37:58.880 | So one of the reasons that I think it works is because it focuses your attention instead

00:38:03.920 | of being like, don't think about anything, which makes you think about everything.

00:38:09.000 | You have a thing to think about.

00:38:11.000 | You just think about your mantra over and over.

00:38:12.720 | So I think you could use literally any mantra and it would have that effect.

00:38:15.840 | So hum is a really great starter mantra.

00:38:18.400 | You can just sit there and repeat so hum to yourself in your head and I think it'll have

00:38:21.640 | a really positive effect.

00:38:22.920 | You can also just sit there and like watch your breath or you could listen to Andy and

00:38:26.320 | that's great.

00:38:27.320 | But the other reason that I think that it was so effective was because it was really

00:38:31.200 | expensive and I think that making an investment in something in that way is so motivating

00:38:38.720 | in a way that we don't talk about.

00:38:40.360 | So instead of being like, well, I don't feel like meditating today, I was like, oh, I spent

00:38:45.320 | $500 on this stupid course.

00:38:46.880 | Like you better meditate to make it worth the money that you spent on the course.

00:38:51.080 | So I do think that to the extent that you have the privilege to make a financial investment

00:38:55.440 | in something, it works for something like, um, booking a workout class in advance.

00:39:01.480 | Or there's even sites where you can like bet against your ability to do something.

00:39:05.880 | So like if you want to quit smoking or you want to, you know, work out every day or something

00:39:10.240 | like that.

00:39:11.240 | I do think if you can tie your finances in with it a little bit, it is weirdly motivating.

00:39:17.140 | So I've been a pretty regular meditator again.

00:39:21.360 | My bar is low.

00:39:22.360 | I don't think I need to be perfect.

00:39:23.920 | I don't need to do it every single day and I don't break myself ever.

00:39:28.720 | But I do think that putting the cost investment on the line was a really big motivating factor

00:39:33.600 | for it.

00:39:34.600 | Finally sticking.

00:39:35.600 | That's awesome.

00:39:36.600 | Yeah.

00:39:37.600 | I know a handful of people that swear by their mantra.

00:39:40.680 | And every time I'm like, I don't understand it.

00:39:42.040 | What is the mantra?

00:39:43.040 | No one will ever look into it like more like, where does the mantra come from?

00:39:47.240 | I don't know.

00:39:48.240 | Yeah.

00:39:49.240 | Yeah.

00:39:50.240 | I have no idea.

00:39:51.240 | You should try it.

00:39:52.240 | Do you meditate?

00:39:53.240 | Yeah.

00:39:54.240 | I have like spent time with it, trying it.

00:39:56.720 | And you know, like we were in on a trip, we'll go in a hotel, might have like a breath meditation

00:40:01.760 | class.

00:40:02.760 | We'll go do it.

00:40:03.760 | I'm not afraid of it, but I just have not ever found a way to make it stick.

00:40:07.520 | Yeah.

00:40:08.520 | But it's something that it's like on that long list of things that I want to bring back

00:40:12.280 | into life, but has been on the list for years.

00:40:14.520 | I also find it helpful to kind of like literally look up all of the health benefits of it because

00:40:18.560 | the second that you are aware of all of the massive benefits you can get in your life

00:40:22.560 | by doing something like meditating, it just becomes so much more motivated.

00:40:25.960 | And you can also do I on the focus episode of the podcast, we talked about like whether

00:40:30.200 | you could just do activities mindfully, like mindfully wash your dishes or mindfully go

00:40:34.440 | for a walk.

00:40:35.440 | And that does have a certain amount of benefits, but not nearly the same benefits as that concentrated

00:40:40.520 | dose of mindfulness of 12 minutes a day, which she talked about, interestingly, is partially

00:40:45.480 | like training ourselves to sit in discomfort and training ourselves to not like the experience

00:40:52.000 | in a way.

00:40:53.000 | I like that.

00:40:54.000 | Yeah.

00:40:55.000 | Like forcing yourself to be uncomfortable.

00:40:56.000 | Yeah.

00:40:57.000 | A few other things that I know you at least regularly do.

00:41:00.120 | Yeah.

00:41:01.120 | Cold showers.

00:41:02.120 | Cold showers.

00:41:03.120 | I know.

00:41:04.120 | We talked about this on my, when I interviewed you.

00:41:05.120 | You don't do them.

00:41:06.120 | Well, it's funny.

00:41:07.120 | So I, sometimes I want a cold shower.

00:41:08.720 | It's not about if you want a cold shower, but sometimes, so I don't have a practice

00:41:13.480 | of like forcing myself to take a cold shower, but sometimes I'm like, I just kind of enjoy

00:41:17.640 | a cold shower right now.

00:41:18.800 | My wife thinks I'm crazy.

00:41:20.200 | When you're in like Columbia or like just in normal life, like some days I'm like, I'm

00:41:24.640 | running hot today and I'll take a shower and I'll just like, it's not the coldest it gets,

00:41:30.320 | but it's by no means warm.

00:41:31.920 | Right.

00:41:32.920 | Okay.

00:41:33.920 | I think what you do is not that.

00:41:34.920 | It is not that.

00:41:35.920 | And I would actually say that wanting to do it almost takes away from the reason that

00:41:41.200 | we do it.

00:41:42.200 | And when I explain why you'll understand.

00:41:43.760 | So first of all, I want to preface, I do not do the whole shower cold.

00:41:46.800 | Like I am shampoo weed and washing my body in a nice warm, toasty shower, like you might

00:41:51.400 | think.

00:41:52.400 | And then at the very end, I breathe in really deeply and I turn the thing to as cold as

00:41:57.840 | it gets.

00:41:58.840 | And the idea is you want to be as cold as you can comfortably be without feeling like

00:42:03.600 | you're in any sort of danger in any way.

00:42:06.000 | So I go as cold as possible and I do a minute is my goal.

00:42:10.720 | Always again, kind of having those lower goalposts, but sometimes I'll go a minute and a half

00:42:15.160 | up to two minutes.

00:42:16.160 | And I think aiming for 12 to 15 minutes a week is ideal.

00:42:19.920 | Not a day.

00:42:20.920 | I mean, when I heard 12 to 15 minutes, I was like, wow, that's a, you know, I got 12 minutes

00:42:26.280 | of meditation a day.

00:42:27.280 | I got 12 minutes of cold, 12 to 15 minutes a week, which is not that much.

00:42:31.040 | And again, you're kind of like habit stacking.

00:42:32.800 | You're in the shower already.

00:42:34.080 | I like it because it's this tiny, tiny, tiny thing that you can do that'll have a big effect

00:42:39.000 | on your health.

00:42:40.000 | So you're like, what is the effect on your health?

00:42:41.560 | First of all, if your vein, a cold shower is going to make your skin glow.

00:42:44.600 | It's going to make your hair really shiny.

00:42:46.160 | So like, just if you want to look really pretty, which I can tell by your face, you're like,

00:42:49.720 | this is appealing to me.

00:42:51.400 | If that is the goal, it's going to help with that.

00:42:55.120 | So the same reason you see people do like their ice rollers for inflammation and like

00:42:58.840 | face puffiness, the cold shower is going to have that effect, but basically on your entire

00:43:03.120 | body.

00:43:04.120 | Wonderful.

00:43:05.120 | The reason I do it though, is to help balance my dopamine levels.

00:43:07.760 | So do you know Dr. Anna Lemke?

00:43:09.840 | I do not.

00:43:10.840 | She is a wonderful Stanford professor who basically her entire practice is devoted to

00:43:16.600 | studying dopamine and dopamine is the neurochemical of motivation.

00:43:21.840 | So it's the thing when you're like, I wish, I think people confuse it with serotonin a

00:43:25.400 | lot and I certainly did before I interviewed her.

00:43:27.400 | It's not the chemical of happiness.

00:43:29.400 | It's about motivation.

00:43:30.400 | It's about our desire and drive to do things.

00:43:33.580 | So the thing with dopamine is that when you are doing things that are really like dopamine,

00:43:39.440 | they really encourage the dopamine production in your brain.

00:43:41.800 | So a lot of the technology that we use and drugs and alcohol, these things that are like

00:43:47.020 | so easy to motivate yourself to do, it's because they encourage your dopamine receptors to

00:43:52.000 | essentially pump out dopamine.

00:43:53.600 | But when you do that, your dopamine can essentially get out of balance, which has a number of

00:43:58.360 | pretty negative effects on you.

00:43:59.720 | It makes it harder for you to be motivated to do the things that you want to do in your

00:44:03.920 | life and it can also make it harder for you to find pleasure in the same way in simple

00:44:10.240 | things like going for a walk or watching the sunset or just these like little moments.

00:44:16.080 | It's why I think sometimes you'll see like a group of friends out at dinner together

00:44:19.860 | and instead of wanting to talk to each other, they're all kind of like wanting to be on

00:44:23.020 | their phones and you're like, you're, you're doing the fun thing.

00:44:26.600 | Like you're out with your friends, but that dopamine imbalance is causing you to want

00:44:31.940 | to reach for your technology even in those moments.

00:44:34.840 | So if we can do things that feel a little bit uncomfortable, we can bring our dopamine

00:44:40.240 | back into balance, which will make it easier for us to motivate ourselves to do hard things

00:44:45.180 | in the other facets of our lives and easier for us to experience pleasure in those like

00:44:50.400 | smaller moments that aren't causing these huge dopamine bursts.

00:44:54.920 | So hard things include things like cold showers.

00:44:59.080 | So if you can just add in this little moment of being uncomfortable, of pushing yourself

00:45:05.200 | to do something that's a little bit difficult for you, it has all of these longer outsized

00:45:11.560 | positive effects.

00:45:12.560 | By the way, it doesn't need to just be a cold shower.

00:45:14.680 | Things like she mentioned in the episode, like walking to your groceries in the rain.

00:45:19.280 | Like the big takeaway for me was that discomfort isn't something that we're trying to eliminate

00:45:26.120 | from our lives.

00:45:27.520 | Discomfort actually has this really positive and balancing effect.

00:45:31.700 | So if you find yourself as the type of person who's always reaching for your phone, who

00:45:36.400 | has a hard time getting motivated, who isn't sure like where they can find those little

00:45:41.760 | moments of pleasure in their life, I think looking and leaning into those moments of

00:45:46.140 | discomfort can feel really satisfying.

00:45:50.120 | There are also a lot of health benefits of cold water as a therapy.

00:45:54.480 | So you didn't even mention all that world, but I know that cold plunges and Wim Hof,

00:46:01.760 | who some people listening know other people can Google, has done a ton of stuff with the

00:46:07.820 | health benefits of cold water therapy.

00:46:10.760 | And I think a lot of that comes down to inflammation.

00:46:13.640 | I think if we can sort of manage our inflammation levels at a base state, it has these cascading

00:46:18.760 | positive effects on our bodies.

00:46:20.880 | But for me, as a person who finds it very hard to do hard things, I like the idea that

00:46:26.800 | I can do this one little hard thing and I'll make all the other hard things feel so much

00:46:30.360 | easier.

00:46:31.360 | Yeah, I love it.

00:46:32.360 | So to get very specific, you turn on the cold water.

00:46:34.800 | Yeah.

00:46:35.800 | Are you then like showering, splashing all over, getting it everywhere?

00:46:39.760 | Yeah.

00:46:40.760 | So I'm clean by then.

00:46:41.760 | Are you just like standing there frozen?

00:46:42.760 | So at first I do my face because again, I'm trying for my glowing skin effects.

00:46:46.160 | So I am vain.

00:46:47.640 | And so I first put my face on her.

00:46:49.120 | That's horrible.

00:46:50.120 | That's like excruciating.

00:46:51.160 | But I do that probably for like 20 to 30 seconds.

00:46:54.160 | Then I do my front and then I turn around and I do my back.

00:46:57.320 | I do try to kind of do right on the back of my neck because that encourages brown fat

00:47:01.520 | in your body, which has a whole host of positive effects.

00:47:04.600 | Look up brown fat if you would like to.

00:47:08.400 | And then I just try to withstand it as long as I possibly can until I turn it off and

00:47:13.440 | get out.

00:47:14.440 | And again, I give myself full permission to stop at 60 seconds every single time.

00:47:17.920 | I think that keeping it as quick as possible in the 60 seconds goes by really, really fast,

00:47:23.760 | you know?

00:47:24.760 | I like it.

00:47:25.760 | I will.

00:47:26.760 | Will you try it?

00:47:27.760 | I will try it.

00:47:28.760 | Will you commit to try it for?

00:47:29.760 | This is another wellness thing.

00:47:30.760 | I think that we often are like, oh, I like did the wellness thing.

00:47:34.040 | Where's my great effect?

00:47:35.040 | But you're not using it long enough and not using it consistently enough to get those

00:47:39.160 | benefits.

00:47:40.160 | That same with pretty much anything in wellness.

00:47:42.160 | So add in your vegetables, do it for a month, do your workout for a month or two before

00:47:47.020 | you start sitting around and being like, why isn't it working?

00:47:50.500 | Meditate for a month or two.

00:47:51.500 | So how long are you going to commit to doing your cold showers for?

00:47:54.200 | Hmm.

00:47:55.200 | It's funny because we almost, we have a hot tub and I was like, maybe I should just turn

00:47:58.600 | the water and just let it get cold and then just do like the full submersion.

00:48:02.940 | You can buy a cold plunge pool.

00:48:04.680 | I know.

00:48:05.680 | In a conversation in a past episode, I talked about the DIY versus like the fancy expensive

00:48:11.280 | one.

00:48:12.280 | I'm down to experiment.

00:48:13.840 | But okay.

00:48:14.840 | So this I do think though, you're immediately trying to like complicate it.

00:48:19.400 | And I feel like do the plunge thing later.

00:48:22.640 | Yeah.

00:48:23.640 | Transform your hot tub later.

00:48:25.080 | But for right now, literally with doing nothing, you could take a cold shower at the end of

00:48:29.360 | your shower today.

00:48:30.360 | So I'm like, set your bar a little lower.

00:48:32.480 | Well, let's, let's, I'll try it for April.

00:48:34.880 | Okay.

00:48:35.880 | All of April.

00:48:36.880 | And then you, will you like announce on Twitter or something how it went for you?

00:48:41.080 | I'll just talk about it.

00:48:42.080 | I'll bring it up.

00:48:43.080 | Okay.

00:48:44.080 | Yeah.

00:48:45.080 | Yeah.

00:48:46.080 | Yeah.

00:48:47.080 | Stay tuned for Chris's cold shower journey.

00:48:48.080 | I'm going to do cold showers for a month.

00:48:49.080 | Everybody should join you too.

00:48:50.080 | Anybody listening who hasn't had a cold shower, join Chris on his cold shower journey.

00:48:52.080 | Yeah.

00:48:53.080 | Let's do it.

00:48:54.080 | 30 days or 30.

00:48:55.080 | Yeah.

00:48:56.080 | April's 30 days.

00:48:57.080 | Um, though, by the time you hear this, maybe you'll make it May.

00:48:58.960 | Yeah.

00:48:59.960 | What about circadian walks?

00:49:00.960 | Sounds much more pleasurable than a cold shower.

00:49:03.640 | I love my cirque walk.

00:49:04.960 | So the circadian walk is the idea.

00:49:07.200 | I don't know if you've heard of a hot girl walk, but that's just like, I have not heard

00:49:11.320 | of a hot girl walk.

00:49:12.320 | It's literally just walking.

00:49:13.680 | And I think there's a lot of different ways that people are kind of trying to make something

00:49:17.240 | as simple and wonderful as walking like trendy and circadian walks essentially bring a little

00:49:23.280 | bit of science into the age old practice of walking, which is a really beautiful and wonderful

00:49:28.080 | practice.

00:49:29.080 | Um, speaking of the focus episode, she said one of the best ways if you want to like regain

00:49:32.440 | focus for a meeting or something like that, it's just go for like a 10 minute walk.

00:49:36.440 | Something where you can look a long ways in the distance where you're not thinking about

00:49:40.400 | anything directed.

00:49:41.840 | And if you have like a big meeting or a speech or presentation, it'll help massively with

00:49:45.440 | reinvigorating that focus.

00:49:47.200 | But a circadian walk, you get the benefits of ambulation of walking, but also you're

00:49:52.360 | going to help control your circadian rhythm.

00:49:54.220 | So this is a 10 minute walk outside before 10 a.m. to help set your circadian rhythm

00:49:59.440 | for your day.

00:50:00.640 | What is your circadian rhythm?

00:50:01.640 | Do you know what your circadian rhythm is?

00:50:02.640 | Yeah.

00:50:03.640 | I mean, I probably am not going to explain it like you would, but, uh, the kind of general,

00:50:08.240 | yeah, let's just let you explain it.

00:50:10.800 | So your circadian rhythm, I think a lot of people think about it in the context of sleep.

00:50:15.280 | So it does impact your sleep hugely.

00:50:18.280 | And I would say if you go for a circadian walk again, 10 minutes outside before 10 a.m.

00:50:23.680 | for I'd say a week or two, you'll probably start to notice some really positive effects

00:50:27.820 | in your sleep, but your circadian rhythm also impacts so much more than that.

00:50:33.120 | Like pretty much every single part of your body is running on its own little clock.

00:50:38.480 | Like your digestion is running on its own little circadian rhythm, your hormones.

00:50:43.560 | So when you set your circadian rhythm, when you encourage your circadian rhythm to function

00:50:47.500 | optimally, you're actually having all of these downstream effects of it outside of just your

00:50:53.320 | sleep being better.

00:50:54.800 | So again, it's 10 minutes before 10 a.m.

00:50:57.820 | You do not have to walk.

00:50:59.520 | You can just stand there and look at the sun.

00:51:01.320 | I do think there's like minor benefits to moving your body.

00:51:04.240 | It helps wake you up if you're going to just like stand there.

00:51:06.800 | Why not?

00:51:07.800 | But sometimes I will if I'm feeling very lazy.

00:51:10.400 | And then I would say the second and that's my circ walk.

00:51:12.960 | I have a highlight on my Instagram at Liz Moody that has kind of like a bunch of detailed

00:51:17.400 | questions.

00:51:18.400 | Although if you want to ask any, we can get into it like sunglasses or no sunglasses,

00:51:21.520 | sunscreen or no sunscreen.

00:51:22.520 | Like people really like to nitpick the little details apart.

00:51:27.560 | But then I'd say the second circadian walk is the walk that's right as the sun is going

00:51:31.480 | down.

00:51:32.480 | So the number one time if you can do it is in the morning, closer to when you wake up

00:51:36.880 | is better.

00:51:37.880 | But I would say 10 a.m. is sort of the cutoff to get the benefits.

00:51:40.960 | And then if you can also do it as the sun is going down, as you're getting those sort

00:51:43.880 | of like pinky orangey yellow tones of sunset, again, that will help kind of encourage your

00:51:48.800 | circadian rhythm to function at its optimal level, which is going to help your sleep.

00:51:52.640 | It's going to help your mood.

00:51:53.880 | It's going to help your hormones.

00:51:55.240 | It's going to help your digestion the whole the whole nine yards.

00:51:58.600 | I love it.

00:51:59.600 | What other things in your routine are you doing?

00:52:01.160 | We got cold showers.

00:52:02.160 | We got circadian walks.

00:52:03.400 | Yeah.

00:52:04.400 | OK, so here's a weird one.

00:52:06.200 | Do you know what hydroxyapatite is?

00:52:08.120 | No, I just assume the answer to all of these obscure questions.

00:52:12.360 | The answer is just hydroxyapatite is it's a fluoride alternative in toothpaste.

00:52:17.960 | So I had I do these like Ask the Doctor episodes where I do deep dives with functional medicine

00:52:22.520 | practitioners and I had a dentist on and I hear all the time people are like, oh, I don't

00:52:25.960 | want to listen to the dentist episode because that sounds really boring.

00:52:29.000 | But the more that we find out about our mouths, the more that we're finding out that it really

00:52:33.720 | impacts our entire health of our body.

00:52:36.720 | Like so much so that when I had the doctor on the Ask the Doctor immune health edition,

00:52:40.720 | I said, what's one thing we can do that will support our immune system?

00:52:43.160 | She was like, take care of your mouth because it's impacting your immune system.

00:52:46.840 | It's impacting your cardiovascular health.

00:52:49.000 | It's impacting your brain health.

00:52:50.360 | Like literally your mouth microbiome is where all of these things are starting.

00:52:55.080 | And fluoride, we're finding out more and more has these really negative impacts on our overall

00:53:00.600 | health.

00:53:01.600 | So you want all the benefits.

00:53:03.680 | It's good for teeth.

00:53:04.680 | Nobody's disputing that.

00:53:05.680 | Everybody's like fluoride.

00:53:06.680 | Great for teeth.

00:53:07.680 | We love it.

00:53:08.680 | Maybe not so much for our overall health.

00:53:10.400 | So if we want the benefits of fluoride for our teeth without having the negative elements

00:53:15.200 | of fluoride for our health, hydroxyapatite is a fluoride alternative.

00:53:19.280 | It's been used in Japan for like 30 years now.

00:53:22.520 | It's very safe.

00:53:23.960 | It's literally as effective or more effective than fluoride in tons and tons of studies.

00:53:29.520 | You can find it in a toothpaste called Risewell, a toothpaste called Boca.

00:53:33.120 | Those are just like normal toothpaste that you can buy online and you're getting all

00:53:36.960 | of the mouth benefits while protecting your mouth microbiome and protecting the more downstream

00:53:42.320 | effects of fluoride in your body.

00:53:43.700 | So hydroxyapatite toothpaste.

00:53:44.700 | And I'd say in a larger way, making little swaps to the things that you use every single

00:53:51.020 | day.

00:53:52.020 | So that's another, you know, people are like, oh, do I have to like wear organic clothes

00:53:55.700 | and do all this stuff?

00:53:57.420 | And I'm like, well, make over your bed.

00:53:59.420 | Like you're going to spend 12 hours, well, you're going to spend eight hours a day in

00:54:03.860 | your bed.

00:54:05.460 | And if you can make your bed this little wellness haven, then you can kind of skip a lot of

00:54:09.940 | the other stuff.

00:54:10.940 | You can get a mattress that's not off gassing.

00:54:14.220 | If you can get like I have organic sheets, I have a hypoallergenic pillow, things like

00:54:18.900 | that.

00:54:19.900 | I have a silk pillowcase so that my hair and my skin looks really good.

00:54:23.580 | I tape my mouth at night to sleep.

00:54:26.180 | I think there's all of these things that you can do while you're sleeping to essentially

00:54:30.780 | enhance your wellness that you're not like having to think about during the day.

00:54:34.880 | So that was a lot of things.

00:54:37.020 | What is taping your mouth?

00:54:38.620 | Taping your mouth is the idea that essentially when you're breathing through your nose, you're

00:54:43.940 | getting a lot more health benefits for your body than when you're breathing through your

00:54:47.860 | mouth.

00:54:48.860 | And I feel very strongly about this.

00:54:49.860 | I actually had a reconstructive rhinoplasty in October where they took, I broke my, I

00:54:55.820 | went surfing one time in my whole life and I broke my nose.

00:55:00.300 | I hit myself in the face with the surfboard in Brazil and I got it like fixed after that.

00:55:06.100 | And after they fixed it, I couldn't breathe through my nose.

00:55:08.780 | And the effects of not being able to breathe through your nose are so well researched and

00:55:14.460 | so much worse than what we think.

00:55:16.180 | So for instance, my really severe anxiety started pretty closely with the time that

00:55:22.660 | I stopped being able to breathe through my nose.

00:55:24.340 | And I'm not saying it's just that because obviously there's so many factors in one's

00:55:28.140 | life that you have to consider with something like anxiety.

00:55:30.740 | But I also don't think that it's completely separate or completely unrelated.

00:55:34.720 | So we want to breathe through our nose as much as possible.

00:55:38.620 | It decreases stress.

00:55:40.220 | It takes your body out of this like fight or flight mode.

00:55:43.900 | It just helps with so many, it helps you think better.

00:55:46.580 | It helps eliminate that sort of like foggy brain situation.

00:55:51.540 | It's just generally so good for us.

00:55:53.540 | But many of us have trained ourselves to breathe through our mouths all the time.

00:55:57.940 | So if you have a nose that can have air go through it, which I do now because I had a

00:56:03.820 | piece of my rib taken and they built out my nose so it's like bigger and has passageways

00:56:09.520 | that are wide enough for air now.

00:56:10.860 | So if you have a nose that can have air go through it, a nice practice to do is to sort

00:56:17.420 | of gently tape your mouth and then it forces you to breathe through your nose.

00:56:21.740 | So it's not a physical issue.

00:56:23.620 | It's more of a habitual issue that you're trying to correct.

00:56:26.860 | And if you're worried about it, if you're worried about like suffocating, there's mouth

00:56:30.180 | tapes that you can get online that very much allow you to breathe through your mouth.

00:56:33.860 | They just kind of encourage you to breathe through your nose to experience all those

00:56:38.020 | positive effects.

00:56:39.020 | And you do this every night?

00:56:40.260 | I do it most nights.

00:56:41.580 | Yeah.

00:56:42.580 | Wow.

00:56:43.580 | It also like helps with snoring.

00:56:44.580 | Again, if we're going from a vanity perspective, a lot of people who have like weaker chins,

00:56:50.580 | you'll start to see a difference in that if you start breathing through your nose because

00:56:54.020 | it literally reshapes your jaw.

00:56:56.180 | In essence, it'll help with your teeth health because when you're breathing through your

00:56:59.460 | mouth overnight, your mouth is drying out and you want to keep all that saliva in there

00:57:04.260 | because that's the thing that's like essentially protecting your enamel.

00:57:09.380 | So if you're, yeah, it'll help with your teeth health, which will again have all those downstream

00:57:13.900 | positive effects because of your oral microbiome taking care of that.

00:57:17.740 | Your mouth won't, your breath won't smell as bad in the morning.

00:57:20.500 | Not you.

00:57:21.500 | I don't mean to point to you.

00:57:22.500 | I'm like, wow, I'm sitting here.

00:57:23.500 | I'm like, we're only five feet away and it's afternoon, but okay.

00:57:27.320 | So so much of what we do nowadays, especially I think about me and work and living at home

00:57:32.480 | during the pandemic, everything's online, everything's virtual.

00:57:36.500 | When you came here today, you gave me a physical product, which I thought was so cool.

00:57:40.540 | And it immediately made me jealous because I was like, "Gosh, I have a podcast.

00:57:43.060 | I have all these listeners.

00:57:44.060 | I don't have a physical product.

00:57:45.140 | I wish I could have something to give people yet."

00:57:48.060 | So I need to get inspired there.

00:57:50.020 | If anyone has ideas, let me know.

00:57:52.060 | But can you talk about the deck of cards you gave me?

00:57:55.380 | Yeah.

00:57:56.380 | Okay.

00:57:57.380 | It's the Healthier Together deck.

00:57:58.380 | I'm just, I'm allergic to boring conversation.

00:58:00.820 | I am also, like I mentioned, I'm a extroverted introvert and introverted extrovert.

00:58:06.060 | So I want to be around people and I want to have the conversations.

00:58:08.700 | But sometimes I think there's a lot of pressure into taking it to those deep levels.

00:58:12.940 | I think that there's, you kind of stay in the like, well, how are you?

00:58:16.620 | What's going on in your life?

00:58:18.580 | What are the world events?

00:58:19.700 | When actually we really want to talk about like those foundational things, like the things

00:58:23.340 | that make us the people that we are.

00:58:25.340 | So I wanted to create a deck that basically gives you an excuse to have all the types

00:58:29.940 | of conversations that we want to be having that maybe are harder to bring into our everyday

00:58:35.220 | lives.

00:58:36.220 | I actually think it's a huge reason why people love podcasts is because I just met you, but

00:58:40.540 | we're getting to have these sort of like deeper, more introspective conversations simply because

00:58:44.620 | there's a mic in front of us.

00:58:45.900 | So what I like to say about the deck is it lets you get a lot of the benefits of doing

00:58:49.860 | something like a podcast.

00:58:51.220 | It lets us bring the questions of something like a podcast into your kitchen table.

00:58:54.860 | So I recommend like having one in your car, I made it really pretty so you can like leave

00:58:59.000 | it out on your coffee table, leave it out on your kitchen table, and then you can just

00:59:01.780 | pull out a card anytime with a friend, with your partner, with like your mom and dad on

00:59:06.660 | a zoom date instead of you're just like, okay, we like talked about Aunt Sally last week.

00:59:11.060 | That's so great.

00:59:12.060 | Um, I'm glad your golf game is good.

00:59:13.900 | You know, you can pull out a card and really get to know people as people and people will

00:59:18.900 | surprise you.

00:59:19.900 | My husband surprises me with his answers all of the time and it makes me feel closer to

00:59:25.180 | him and more connected to him and love him so much more.

00:59:29.100 | I love it.

00:59:30.100 | Um, funny enough, when we had our au pair first arrived, the au pair agency sent us

00:59:34.620 | a deck of cards with questions.

00:59:36.300 | Oh my God.

00:59:37.300 | To try to get to know each other and your family.

00:59:39.940 | Oh my God.

00:59:40.940 | That's so fun.

00:59:41.940 | The weird thing was...

00:59:42.940 | Were they good?

00:59:43.940 | Some of them were good.

00:59:44.940 | The strangest thing was some of them are labeled like this is an au pair only question and

00:59:49.220 | this is a host family only question.

00:59:51.180 | Huh.

00:59:52.180 | And you would think they would be things like, what is it like growing up in America?

00:59:56.020 | Yeah.

00:59:57.020 | But some of them were strange where it's like the host family no au pair question is like,

01:00:02.340 | what does happiness mean?

01:00:03.340 | And it's like, why is this a specific question?

01:00:04.860 | Why can't we all discuss it?

01:00:05.860 | Yeah.

01:00:06.860 | That's so interesting.

01:00:07.860 | Um, but I've really liked that, but we've tapped it out and it's not as big of a deck

01:00:12.260 | as this.

01:00:13.260 | So I'm excited for this.

01:00:14.500 | The card I pulled out somewhat randomly that I'll share as an example of a conversation

01:00:19.240 | starter is, have you been anywhere in the world where you've thought that people here

01:00:22.940 | really got it right in terms of living a happy or healthier life?

01:00:26.900 | So where was it?

01:00:27.900 | Yeah.

01:00:28.900 | So that's one of the questions that actually came directly out of my podcast.

01:00:30.860 | So I like to ask people that at the end of episodes, because I think it says a lot about

01:00:36.500 | what we consider a good life.

01:00:37.960 | It's not just about where are people getting it right.

01:00:40.540 | It's like, what is getting it right mean to you?

01:00:42.660 | And the questions are really designed around that.

01:00:44.820 | And they're also designed, we talked a lot when I interviewed you for my podcast about

01:00:49.180 | some of the more uncomfortable conversations, especially around money and things like that.

01:00:53.180 | We have a whole wealth category in there.

01:00:55.180 | So there's one, uh, question and I love these questions.

01:00:59.300 | They are interactive.

01:01:01.080 | So there's one that's like, would you feel comfortable sharing your salary with the group

01:01:04.880 | of people that you're playing with?

01:01:06.220 | Why or why not?

01:01:07.260 | And you can kind of explore these, these more taboo topics that people feel less comfortable

01:01:13.420 | directly addressing, but it's not you.

01:01:14.980 | You're not the one bringing up the card.

01:01:16.300 | Like it's not on you.

01:01:17.300 | It gives you a little bit of like a, an excuse to go there.

01:01:20.180 | Well, I like it.

01:01:21.780 | We're going to bring this to dinner tonight and I'll let you know how it goes.

01:01:25.660 | For what it's worth.

01:01:26.660 | My answer to that question, because you didn't ask me, uh, in our conversation was that when

01:01:31.660 | we were in Syria for about three weeks, Syria is my favorite country in the world.

01:01:35.900 | I cannot believe you've been there because you've been, yeah, yeah.

01:01:39.020 | What I found was that everyone was willing to put everything in their life on hold to

01:01:45.660 | get to know someone.

01:01:47.500 | And so we would be like meeting someone and like, you would think no one had anything

01:01:53.900 | to do.

01:01:54.900 | We later learned that's not the case.

01:01:55.900 | They'd be like, do you want to come in for coffee?

01:01:57.340 | Yeah.

01:01:58.340 | The aggressive tea and coffee consumption.

01:02:00.420 | And then we would meet someone and someone's uncle would show up and then the uncle would

01:02:04.420 | be like, do you want to come to my house and meet my family?

01:02:06.540 | And we were like, but it was more about getting to meet people and hospitality and all kinds

01:02:13.140 | of stuff.

01:02:14.140 | Then it was, it wasn't required.

01:02:15.500 | I had no expectation and it just felt like people genuinely wanted to get to know you

01:02:20.020 | and they would go grab things from their family and show you pictures.

01:02:23.060 | And these are strangers, like people I didn't know.

01:02:25.940 | And it was so great.

01:02:27.520 | And I feel like, you know, we're, especially in the last two years, we're not in America,

01:02:34.140 | we're not so much like that.

01:02:35.340 | We're not like, Hey, random person.

01:02:36.700 | I don't know.

01:02:37.700 | Come on over.

01:02:38.700 | Although in our case, you were here in my house and we met in person today.

01:02:42.740 | I can't believe you've been, I think it's, the hospitality is unmatched.

01:02:46.900 | The people are so kind.

01:02:47.980 | I think that like literally expresses in such a beautiful way.

01:02:50.660 | One of the many reasons I love that country so much also because there's citrus trees

01:02:54.140 | everywhere.

01:02:55.140 | Like your Damascus is this like walled city and the streets are so tiny.

01:02:59.740 | Like they're basically walking only streets and they're like cobblestone or sometimes

01:03:03.700 | a tiny car will like try to drive through and everybody like, ah, but like they smell

01:03:07.900 | like citrus.

01:03:09.300 | And I just think it's like one of the, I mean, when did you go?

01:03:12.940 | We went in 2009.

01:03:13.940 | I went in 2009 too.

01:03:14.940 | Yeah.

01:03:15.940 | So it was wonderful.

01:03:16.940 | Like right before.

01:03:18.380 | I don't know when it'll be a great place I would recommend going to.

01:03:21.060 | But I want to take my husband so much.

01:03:23.100 | I'm certain in the future it will.

01:03:25.240 | And that leads me to the last question I want to ask you, which is, and I'll, I'll give

01:03:29.540 | you because we didn't talk much about your experience living nomadically.

01:03:33.660 | So someone will have to find you on the internet to learn more there, the latitude to pick

01:03:38.740 | anywhere you want.

01:03:39.740 | Oh my gosh.

01:03:40.740 | Most people pick wherever they're from, but I'm not from anywhere right now.

01:03:45.340 | And just tell me a place that, uh, you know, a place to someone you'd recommend have a

01:03:50.020 | meal, grab a drink and something they should do.

01:03:53.180 | Okay.

01:03:54.180 | Okay.

01:03:55.180 | I'm going to do London, which I haven't gone to in my nomad life.

01:03:57.380 | So just for a little bit of context, my husband and I have been living nomadically for like

01:04:01.300 | the last two years.

01:04:02.300 | So we spend four to six weeks in different places usually because they're beautiful mountain

01:04:06.660 | places.

01:04:07.660 | We live in Airbnbs, uh, and, and just explore, which has been really, really wonderful.

01:04:11.780 | And we can spend our rent money, which was New York rent money on the Airbnbs.

01:04:15.820 | And that's, it's, it's been really magical, but we lived in London, uh, I'd say like five

01:04:21.780 | or 10.

01:04:22.780 | I don't know.

01:04:23.780 | We lived in London when he went to graduate school and it's a really wonderful city.

01:04:26.860 | So I would say the thing I want you to eat is I want you to go to Dishoom, which have

01:04:30.980 | you heard of Dishoom?

01:04:31.980 | No.

01:04:32.980 | It is a phenomenal Indian restaurant.

01:04:34.700 | They have started to sort of like branch it out a little bit more.

01:04:37.780 | I think there's one in Edinburgh now and there's, um, a few in different parts of London.

01:04:42.260 | I like the shortage one.

01:04:44.020 | It's such a cool vibe inside.

01:04:45.660 | It's just like very cool decorations.

01:04:47.780 | The black doll is one of the best things I've ever eaten in my entire life.

01:04:51.420 | It's just phenomenal Indian food.

01:04:53.740 | So I want you to eat there.

01:04:55.280 | You can get a cocktail there too, because you know, we'll have you get a drink elsewhere,

01:04:58.760 | but I want you to eat there roughly.

01:05:00.980 | And then I want you to go for a canal walk.

01:05:04.140 | So this is one of my favorite things to do.

01:05:06.700 | You can start, um, at, okay, you can start at Paddington station.

01:05:12.220 | I think you can even start further along, but you can start at Paddington and you can

01:05:16.260 | essentially walk the canals through the entire city of London.

01:05:19.820 | You can walk pretty much all the way to East London, but I like to walk to Camden and then

01:05:24.140 | get out at Camden, get out, like walk up from the canals and then you can go to Camden market.

01:05:29.300 | But it's so, it's such a magical way.

01:05:32.540 | England is a huge walking country.

01:05:34.300 | Like all my friends in England, I went to a wedding and we, the next day after the wedding,

01:05:39.420 | they were like, well, should we walk back to London?

01:05:40.900 | And I was like, what?

01:05:42.460 | And we were in the middle of the countryside and they were like, yeah, you can just like

01:05:44.620 | walk along the Thames until you get to London.

01:05:46.900 | And that's like what they do.

01:05:47.940 | They're like all my friends, my British friends, they love to walk.

01:05:51.380 | We get to somebody's family house and they're like, all right, should we go for a walk?

01:05:55.660 | And you can walk London in this really beautiful kind of hidden way.

01:05:59.340 | You can see a lot of the houses from along the canals.

01:06:02.020 | You can see all the boats in the canals.

01:06:03.820 | Sometimes there's like a coffee shop on a houseboat in the canal.

01:06:06.980 | There's a little bookshop on a houseboat in the canal.

01:06:09.460 | Um, you walk through the zoo so you actually can see like bird cages and stuff in the zoo.

01:06:14.940 | And then you get out at Camden market and go for a little shop, get some like nitrogen

01:06:18.840 | ice cream.

01:06:20.180 | And that's a really fun thing to do.

01:06:22.220 | And then I'm failing to remember the name of the bar, so I will give it to you and put

01:06:26.460 | it in the show notes.

01:06:27.460 | But there's a bar right along the river that I believe is the oldest working wine bar either

01:06:32.780 | in the UK or all of Europe.

01:06:34.680 | And you walk in and it's like dark stones and it's just a really cool vibe.

01:06:39.980 | So that would be my place.

01:06:40.980 | I would say to have a drink.

01:06:42.220 | That is awesome.

01:06:43.220 | I have...

01:06:44.220 | My wife has not been to London.

01:06:45.220 | Oh, you guys have to go.

01:06:46.220 | One of the few...

01:06:47.220 | Your Syria with your husband for us is like London and Australia.

01:06:51.140 | So they're high on the list.

01:06:53.140 | Before we go though, where can people find everything you're doing online?

01:06:57.420 | Yeah.

01:06:58.420 | So the first thing I would say is that if you're interested in Chris and hearing all

01:07:02.340 | of the hacks that he's ever learned in his life from the podcast and from beyond, you

01:07:07.700 | should definitely go listen to me interview him on my podcast, which is called Healthier

01:07:11.660 | Together.

01:07:12.660 | It has basically everything you need to live your healthiest, happiest life.

01:07:16.400 | So I interview world-class experts, doctors, I try to get as many like tangible, actionable

01:07:22.860 | takeaways as possible.

01:07:24.500 | So you won't just sit back and be like, well, I learned a lot, but what am I going to actually

01:07:28.580 | do with that?

01:07:29.580 | I like to like get to the like, here's what you can do today to change your life in the

01:07:33.540 | ways that you want to change your life.

01:07:35.100 | So Healthier Together podcast, you can find it on Spotify, you can find it on Apple podcast,

01:07:39.300 | anywhere you listen to podcasts.

01:07:40.980 | And then I am on Instagram at Liz Moody.

01:07:43.380 | You can find tons of healthy recipes, little tips and hacks.

01:07:48.220 | I'm on my stories all the time, just kind of like answering questions and giving little

01:07:52.740 | bits of advice and feedback.

01:07:54.480 | And I just love that dynamic and hanging out with people.

01:07:57.540 | So definitely come hang out with me on my stories.

01:07:59.400 | And then on my website, which is lizmoody.com, you can find, oh, and thehtdeck.com.

01:08:04.460 | If you would like a Healthier Together deck for yourself, that's on htdeck.com.

01:08:09.100 | And you can start asking those fun questions and bring that element of great conversation

01:08:14.280 | into your life.

01:08:15.280 | Awesome.

01:08:16.280 | All those will be in the show notes.

01:08:17.280 | Thank you so much for being here.

01:08:18.960 | Thank you so much for having me.

01:08:20.180 | (upbeat music)

Hack Your Health (While Still Enjoying Life) | All The Hacks #52

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