When it comes to effective methods of supporting healthy aging for men, the most important and relevant topic to focus on is how to maintain (and increase) testosterone.

As the ultimate performance and anti-aging hormone, testosterone does many wonderful things for your body, including enhancing peak performance (cognitive and physical). In this episode, you’ll learn why we can actually think of testosterone as a “social status hormone” and why your ability to stay calm, cool, and collected (as described by John Gray) is actually indicative of high testosterone levels.

We also talk about the wonderful effects testosterone has on focus and motivation (did you know that chess masters actually have higher blood testosterone levels than the opponents they beat?) and the very distressing fact that the average male testosterone level has been declining at a rate of 1% per year since the 1980s. 

The MOFO mission is simple: to reclaim your manhood and preserve your male essence as you age. However, this process is often way easier said than done—that is, if you don’t have all the right information. That’s where the MOFO Mission assignments come in: to identify the 10 most crucial factors and practices you need to know about in order to easily adapt your habits and lifestyle to suit your body’s needs as it ages.

Stay tuned to hear the last 5 assignments in an upcoming episode, and to learn more about the MOFO Mission and the life-changing supplement at the center of it, go to Bradkearns.com/MOFO.

TIMESTAMPS:

This podcast is focusing on the performance goals of men as they age. [01:24]

Testosterone is a social status hormone. It is not an aggression hormone. [02:46]

Alarming studies from around the world find the average male testosterone level is declining at a rate of 1% per year. [05:06]

Taking supplements for testosterone replacement therapy needs to be accompanied with a healthy lifestyle.  [09:44]

Extra belly fat is considered another distinct organ in the body. [11:49]

The MOFO mission has 10 elements. Number 1 is sleep. Make good sleep your top priority. [12:56]

Clean up your act is Number 2. Ditch the refined sugars, grains, and industrial seed oils. [22:30]

This also includes cleaning up toxic relationships which can diminish testosterone. [25:27]

Number 3 assignment is to eat ancestral foods that come from natural sources. [29:42]

Feeling MOFO powerful is assignment Number 4. Learn to build and recharge. [32:41]

Number 5 is move frequently at a slow pace. You don’t have to push yourself to get aerobically fit. [35:36]

LINKS:

• Brad Kearns. com
• Brad’s shopping page
• YouTube Charles Allie
• Ancestral Supplements. Com
• raoptics.com
• The Sleep Revolution
• ChiliSleep
• Brad Kearns Morning Routine
• The Carnivore Scores chart
• Two Meals a Day overview
• Butcher Box
• Primal Kitchen
• Move Your DNA
• Dry Farm Wines
• Mark’s Daily Apple

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Sponsors

Check out each of these companies because they are absolutely awesome or they wouldn’t occupy this revered space. Seriously, Brad won’t sell out to anyone if he doesn’t love the product. Ask anyone.

• Brad’s Macadamia Masterpiece: Mind-blowing, life-changing nut butter blend
• Male Optimization Formula with Organs (MOFO): Optimize testosterone naturally with 100% grassfed animal organ supplement
• Chili Sleep Systems: Temperature controlled mattress systems for optimizing evening sleep
• NuOptimal: 3 nootropic supplements designed to improve your focus, memory, and drive
• Inside Tracker: Ultra-personalized blood, genetic, and fitness data all-in-one online portal
• Dry Farm Wines: Clean, keto-friendly, chemical free wines like no other
• Primal Blueprint 21-Day Primal Reset: Online multimedia Mastery Course to get healthy and drop fat the right way

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B.Rad Podcast

Brad (01:24):
Hey listeners, how are ya? How are you everybody, everybody, everybody. Let’s have some fun in the sun and talk about testosterone on the phone or at least on the podcast. Yes. What a favorite and terribly important subject, especially for males as they pass the prime time of life. Let’s say up to age 30, where you’re not too worried about your male hormone status. And then as the years and decades accumulate, we want to age gracefully. We want to maintain some of that fighting spirit, go out there and have fun. Being able to perform athletically, physically and not be on the couch recovering for days afterward. Keep that spare tire off the body still look pretty good, still feel good, still perform in and out of the arena, the bedroom everywhere. And that is highly dependent upon testosterone, the ultimate, uh, performance anti-aging hormone. And as Ashley Merryman, uh, points out so beautifully in her research and her books like a Top Dog, The Science of Winning and Losing, uh, our common notion of testosterone is a little bit narrow.

Brad (02:47):
Uh, we think of it as the, uh, the male aggression hormone and the guy who lifts the weights has more testosterone, uh, but really it should be better characterized as a social status hormone. So it enhances your peak performance, both cognitive and physical in whatever endeavor you’re pursue. And so the main goal or the main function of testosterone is to elevate social status. That’s the deepest biological drive, especially for the male. And this might be, uh, in the world of chess. And they have interesting research that chess masters, the guys who are winning have higher blood testosterone levels than the opponents that they beat. So they’re more focused, uh, more dialed in to winning even as they sit there on a chair. And of course, testosterone is crucial for athletic performance, recovery and all those things, but testosterone also has wonderful effects for focus and motivation as you strive to study for your law degree and pass the bar exam or excel as a parent, as a spouse, as a recreational athlete. John Gray, the number one bestselling relationship author of all time with his series of books.

Brad (04:02):
Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus describes how the ideal male disposition in the relationship is to be calm, cool, and collected like a Kung Fu master. And that is indicative of a high testosterone level. That’s a male who’s confident and in control and in healthy hormone status and contrary to common misconception, uh, the idiot who cuts you off in traffic and then flips you off for being a bad driver when he was the one that made the mistake and you yell, wow, you have too much testosterone, needed to calm down, uh, an out of control male who is not regulating his emotions. This is actually indicative of low testosterone and an unhealthy imbalance, uh, with excess estrogen, low testosterone, uh, high cortisol, which antagonizes testosterone. So testosterone is not really the aggression hormone, uh, of the toughest guy on the playground, but actually someone who’s in their zone in their peak performance zone, calm, cool, and collected like a Kung Fu master.

Brad (05:06):
Thank you, John Gray for that great clarification. And now here’s the very, very distressing news that modern research confirms different studies from across the globe, finding the same conclusion that the average male testosterone level is declining at a rate of 1% per year. Dating back to the 1980s. I’m not talking about the natural decline as you age. That’s a whole different factor. I’ll discuss shortly. This is the average from generations past. So whether you’re 30, 40, 50, or 60, you have significantly less testosterone than your father or grandfather did at the same age. That’s what the research is sewing. You get the difference here. So a 47 year old back in 1989, uh, had a mean testosterone level of whatever, 700 and something. And now since we’re 25, 30, 40 years past that the decline is a precipitous, uh, distressing incredibly relevant. And this is something that is being blamed on the various stress factors in hectic, modern life, especially the, uh, influx of technology and mobile devices and things that are affecting our rest and recovery.

Brad (06:24):
And also our, uh, way that we interact with the environment, the excess artificial light and digital stimulation after dark, all kinds of modern stuff, that’s conspired to trash, our testosterone levels. You hear about the plastics and the environmental estrogens, which is a huge deal also. So what I’ve created is this mission to try to reclaim your manhood and preserve your male essence as you age, to the extent that chronological aging is a very minor variable in this inevitable decline in your peak performance and male functioning in all ways. And research shows that healthy fit subjects can maintain healthy sexual function, healthy testosterone levels, deep into their seventies and eighties, and look no further than the amazing, uh, athletic exploits of the great masters athletes. One of my favorites, you can find on YouTube with a quick search for Charles Allie, A L L I E running the 400 meters, one lap around the track in under 60 seconds breaking the world record for the 70 plus division.

Brad (07:36):
So grandpa Charlie, if he went to a high school track meet to watch a theoretical grandson running in the mile, relay could step out of the stands and drop time on the varsity players running the quarter mile and under 60 seconds, absolutely phenomenal athlete. And of course you might say, oh, these guys are outliers. Just like that guy in the gym with the huge muscles or the great Art DeVany one of the founding fathers of the paleo movement, still going strong at 84 years old, maybe even more. And you can find him on YouTube with his physique and, uh, pulling a lot of weight and towing his car with a rope and fun things like that. Sisson is now up there in age. What is he? 67 years old. Oh my goodness. And still in top form able to perform amazing athletic feats. Let me tell you, because I went down to Miami and did his, uh, beach fat tire mountain bike ride, where you’re cruising along on the soft sand, and then the sand gets softer and softer and softer, and you have to peddle like you’re sprinting to the finish line of the Tour de France, just to keep the bike upright.

Brad (08:39):
And I was absolutely toast, uh, doing the Sisson hometown ride there. And he’s able to just gracefully float through the sand, putting out a lot of power, a lot of wattage, even though his legs are 68 years old, still preserving his physique. Everything’s the real deal. He’s living the dream, walking the talk. So boy, it’s certainly possible, and it doesn’t require this huge all day long, complete lifestyle monk mode in order to preserve testosterone, you just have to check off some of the big picture items, and we’re going to go through these during this podcast. As I described the 10 assignments of the MOFO mission, and you can learn more if you visit Brad kearns.com and click on, uh, that’s actually an acronym for male optimization formula with organs, which is a wonderful supplement, uh, that I promote with the folks down@ancestralsupplements.com. So with the idea of introducing this custom supplement designed to naturally optimize testosterone production, uh, I wanted to have an entire lifestyle approach.

Brad (09:44):
So it’s not just pitching a product, uh, but it does really help to nail down your diet and nourish your body at the cellular level because you’re most likely to deplete it even if you’re trying to eat healthy and watch what you eat. Uh, most people are deficient in magnesium, even healthy eaters, and we’re not doing a wonderful job overall with this nose to tail animal consumption, objective, uh, thereby missing out on some of the most nutrient rich foods on the planet, which are the organ meats. Uh, those of you listening to this podcast are probably aware of the, uh, the nose to tail movement or the emphasis on that, especially in the ancestral health scene, the carnivore diet is emerging as a real player and is helping many people. So we all have that insight in the back of our mind that, yeah, I should be eating some more liver.

Brad (10:39):
And then when you try to prepare it, doesn’t taste that great. So the supplements do a great job and they’ve been a real life-changer for me. Uh, I’ve been taking them devotedly for the past two-and-a-half years. And this MOFO supplement is really something because it contains the proteins, peptides, enzymes, co-factors and molecular bio directors that trigger a natural boost in your internal testosterone production. The product is made with testicles, prostate, heart, liver, and bone marrow freeze, dried animal organ tissue. Uh, so that’s a pretty good pitch for a product right there. But as I said, even taking a wonder drug, even taking testosterone replacement therapy has been found to be ineffective unless you are dialed in with your lifestyle. There’s a process called aromatization. I wonder if you’ve heard of it. Uh, this is where a male hormones are aromatized or converted into estrogen if you have an inflammatory, uh, of environment in the body.

Brad (11:49):
So this is especially evident when you’re walking around with visceral fat or belly fat, this is a special kind of fat that has inflammatory properties. It’s been described as a separate and distinct organ in the body, the belly fat, because it secretes inflammatory cytokines into the bloodstream. So if you add a little tiny bit of spare tire, as the years go by, which is so common, right from basically from adverse lifestyle practices, it’s not from aging, right? Uh, but if you pick up a little bit of a spare tire and start releasing these inflammatory chemicals into the bloodstream, it has the, uh, the effect of begetting, the accumulation of more visceral fat, because you’re inflamed, you’re secreting these hormones, and then you’re converting testosterone. Your natural testosterone gets converted into estrogen. You have a greater tendency to store fat and lose muscle mass rather than, uh, the intended, uh, gaining or preserving muscle mass and keeping, uh, especially keeping visceral fat at bay.

Brad (12:56):
So when that’s happening, then you’re going to lower your testosterone levels. You’re not going to have as much energy or as much response to workout stimulus. And what happens is you start to set yourself on a path of accelerated aging and demise, and eventually sitting on the sidelines rather than getting out there and kicking butt. So with this comprehensive lifestyle approach, you can strive to improve your male hormone status. And I’m going to give you the 10 assignments. Your mission that you should choose to accept it is as follows. Number one on the list is sleep. And of course, sleep is number one with all other healthy dietary and lifestyle objectives flowing downstream from getting adequate or exceptional sleep. And this is one where we really screw up today because of the propensity for excess artificial light and digital stimulation after dark. This is one of the most profound genetic disconnects.

Brad (14:02):
If you think about it, uh, prior to Thomas Edison. So for two and a half million years, until recent times, uh, when the sun went down, everything changed in life. And this is something that all creatures, all living things on earth, uh, are highly attuned to a circadian rhythm. And the circadian rhythm dictates that when it’s get, when it gets dark, all kinds of metabolic and hormonal functions ensue to slow us down, wind us down, get us sleepy and help us transition into a good night’s sleep. And then an easy and graceful awakening at, or around sunrise, full of energy and alertness and enthusiasm for a big day ahead. And if you can raise your hand and say, ah, that’s not quite me. I’m a drag-ass. I’m trying to wake up in the morning. I need a cup of coffee before I can think, oh, those kinds of things that we come to view as normal, it all stems from this huge and etic disconnect of keeping the day going after dark.

Brad (15:01):
So when the sun sets, I want you to turn and face the sun and honor that wonderful moment. Every single day, we have the appreciation of sunset. And when that happens, I want to kind of make it a cue in your brain to make an attempt, to wind things down and minimize your exposure to artificial light. Uh, it’s so popular to have the orange lenses, uh, the light colored lenses that offer you the protection, but you can still see a really well and people are putting those on, uh, in the final hours before bedtime. And that helps minimize the adverse impact of this artificial light into our, uh, our suprachiasmatic nucleus, the, uh, sensor that tells the hypothalamus to stay awake and to suppress the release of melatonin. And that’s the sleepiness hormone, but it also does so many other wonderful things in the body.

Brad (15:50):
And we want this dim light melatonin onset to occur, uh, soon after sunset to help us slow down and get the repair processes and the restoration processes going, uh, that happened, especially when we fall asleep, uh, when that melatonin is suppressed by artificial light and the flood of stress hormones, like cortisol into the bloodstream to keep us awake and alert as we go through our Netflix queue in the evening, or try to open up that lid of the laptop and catch up on emails that we fell behind on during the day. So we’re stressing ourselves when it’s dark. We’re keeping ourselves awake. The body’s responding of course, because the flood of cortisol keeps us alert and energized so we can finish the Netflix show. Uh, but it’s interfering with a good night’s sleep. So if you can make every effort to just, uh, engage in a mellow, quiet and darker evening, that is going to allow your body to do its thing and make you tired and get you in the mood for rest.

Brad (16:54):
And then the rest of it is a bread and butter, because if you can get those nights handled, you will start to wake up earlier, uh, closer to sunrise when all these wonderful, wonderful hormonal processes kick in to make us feel alert and energized. So around sunrise, cortisol starts to spike, uh, serotonin the mood elevating hormone, start to spike. Identizine picks up and we feel alert and energized the opposite of what happens in the evening. So really a good night’s sleep starts with a, uh, energizing morning where you wake up, expose your eyeballs to direct sunlight, not staring at the sun, but getting outside without sunglasses and absorbing as much natural light as possible to start your day. That is going to set up the desirable hormonal processes in the evening with the melatonin release. So that’s the assignment to tone down and wind down those evenings gracefully.

Brad (17:53):
I love getting the Himalayan salt lamps, uh, as the main source of light in the evening, rather than the offensive, uh, white light bulbs, uh, trying to get whatever computer work, uh, cognitive work done earlier in the evening, rather than closer to bedtime. And if you do want to relax and enjoy a show, and we all deserve to do that after a busy, stressful day put on those UV blocking orange colored lenses, you can go over to, uh, our friend, Matt, Maruca his wonderful website at raoptics.com. R A Optics.com. If you want to get a fancy stylish pair, and you can also go onto Amazon and buy some UVEX lenses for $10. And, uh, they work pretty well too, but get that artificial light and digital stimulation tone down. And then in the final hour before bedtime, why don’t you try to put in some relaxing rituals that can get wired into habit and be part of your everyday life such that the behaviors are automatic.

Brad (18:55):
So when it comes, what an hour before bedtime, it’s time to leash up the dog and take the dog for a final walk around the block, enjoy that fresh air. Look at the stars, relax, put your device away and just engage with nature, the animal and something that will be a trigger or a cue that is time to wind down and get away from screens and, uh, cognitive stimulation. Arianna Huffington, uh, prominent entrepreneur, and best-selling author does a great job promoting this concept of a bedtime ritual in her book, The Sleep Revolution. So you pick anything you want that is enjoyable to you and something that you can repeat gracefully every single day. It might be, uh, just jumping into bed to read some fiction. That’s the recommendation, nothing intense or requiring a lot of cognitive energy, uh, as your last reading material, but something pleasant that you can read.

Brad (19:52):
Uh, I like to put on the miner’s lamp, you know, that you strap around your head and it’s a small beam of light rather than keeping the lights on in the room and just having a dark, calm, quiet, mellow evening. Uh, Ariana’s a big fan of the warm bath, and that also serves an important purpose of when you get out of the bath. Of course, the bath is nice and warm, but as soon as you get out of the bath, uh, you will experience a slight decline in body temperature, uh, because the blood moving from, uh, the extremities back into the core and that decline in body temperature is a key facilitator of a good night’s sleep. So our body temperature needs to drop about two degrees in order to have this, uh, good transition into sleep. Uh, this is good research promoted by the folks over at, uh, ChiliPad chili technology and check out their website for more information.

Brad (20:47):
And you’ve probably heard of these cooling mattress pads. Mark Sisson is one of the, uh, early, uh, consultants and investors in the company. And they’re becoming really popular. I use one, and it is really interesting to experience jumping into a pre cooled bed, especially if you live in a warm environment, but even if you live in a, a moderate where you’re not going to complain that it’s, uh, summer in Arizona, uh, but getting into that bed where I set mine down to around 60 degrees, it is a wonderful facilitator of sleep because we want that body temperature cooled, and that’s dating back to ancestral evolutionary times where we were sleeping in the caves or wherever and body temperature cooling important. That’s why we don’t want to do exercise, uh, within an hour or two of bed because the elevated body temperature is going to interfere with your transition into sleep.

Brad (21:39):
So on mission assignment, number one is to put sleep as your top priority. It’s called sleep is number one, getting down that artificial light and digital stimulation after dark doing a wind down ritual of your personal preference and enjoyment, uh, in the evening. So it becomes habit. And then finally, uh, bouncing out of bed and getting moving in the morning. And I’m such a huge fan of my morning routine. It’s been, life-changing, I’d love for you to go over on YouTube and look for Brad Kearns morning routine. Uh, the new version. You can see how it’s evolved over the years. Uh, but the one I filmed and I describe all the, uh, core strengthening and leg strengthening movements that I do. Uh, but whatever you like to do, if you can get out of bed and get physically moving into outside, uh, sunlight, that will be a great way to wake up and set your hormones for a nice energetic morning.

Brad (22:30):
And it could be something as simple as doing the yoga sun salute could be leashing up the dog and walking around the block. Uh, but that’ll be a great difference from just, uh, lingering around and reaching for your phone and doing those kinds of things that are more common than doing a physical movement, outdoor ritual, okay. Sleep is number one. Number two is clean up your act. People, not just with your dietary choices, but primarily that’s the main area that we really need to clean up. So keeping it simple and focus, I’m just going to suggest that you ditch the big three toxic modern foods, which are refined sugars, grains, and industrial seed oils. Uh, boy, these comprise a huge percentage of the modern diet, uh, Dr. Loren Cordain author of The Paleo Diet early, early proponent of the paleo diet cites research that 71% of the calories in the standard American diet come from foods that were entirely absent during evolutionary paleolithic times.

Brad (23:39):
So the processed foods are supplying a huge percentage of the calories. Hopefully you’re doing a whole hell of a lot better than slamming 71% of your calories from Starbucks, McDonald’s and a frozen meals. Uh, but even so we all have, uh, room for improvement, right? And I like to advocate for a zero tolerance policy with the grain, sugars, and refined industrial seed oils. If they are dominating your life and you’re locked in carbohydrate dependency. Then over time, as you establish a new baseline where you’re eating cleanly and choosing ancestral foods, of course, you’re going to have some celebratory events where you’re going to have a slice of cheesecake on your birthday. As I did on my birthday a few months ago, enjoyed the hell out of it. But that’s a big difference from having these foods be habitual and routine and centerpiece of your diet, especially the industrial seed oils, because it’s no sacrifice.

Brad (24:35):
It’s not like they taste good or make the, uh, the recipe possible. You can easily substitute these highly offensive oils that are directly associated with all kinds of, uh, metabolic dysfunction and serious disease. And that’s a matter of looking at the label on the bottle, throwing out any of those things like canola oil, corn, soybean, sunflower, and then looking at labels on products that you buy. And most of the process stuff we don’t want to be eating anyway. But these oils can sneak into different foods where you’d be surprised. And that’s what a Primal Kitchen is all about because most commercial salad dressings have these nasty, toxic, industrial seed oils. Uh, so there’s always a new and better option, and you can really be disciplined at all times about ditching the big three, uh, of course, ditching other toxic substances if they happen to be part of your life.

Brad (25:27):
And that might even be, uh, recreational or prescription drugs, you can aspire to live a life that’s clean from these outside agents that can have toxic properties and side effects, um, abuse of alcohol, for example, things like that. And then putting it back into a privilege, a treat a sensible indulgence rather than a habit that’s, uh, has having all kinds of adverse effects. And so as we go down the list of cleaning up our act, uh, starting with food, of course, uh, we also want to consider this idea of toxic relationships and how these things have a tendency to linger in everyday life to the great destruction of human health. And yes, back to the discussion point of testosterone, uh, we can easily have a diminished male hormone status from engaging in toxic relationships, especially the romantic relationship, the centerpiece of a male hormone health.

Brad (26:26):
And there’s a whole, uh, assignment dedicated, uh, number 10, I’m going to give you a sneak preview. It’s called quit being a Dick to your wife or girlfriend. And so what we’re going to talk about that one in detail. Uh, but right now, if you have these toxic relationships in your life, there are assorted ways to deal with it. One of them is to sever the relationship and move on. And sometimes we, uh, decide to, uh, endure in the name of, let’s say, preserving our career, or what have you. So if you’re not going to sever a toxic relationship, you can do a huge number to improve it by changing your own behavior and your own mindset, right? So when one person changes by definition, the relationship changes, I’m not saying your boss is going to all of a sudden become easier to deal with nor your family member that you have a repeated head budding with, but boy, oh boy, what a great personal growth opportunity to say, yes, this is a difficult relationship right now, and I’m going to do something about it.

Brad (27:26):
I’m going to make a change in my own behavior and mindset and see if I can stick to it. Even if the other person continues to be a or a jerk or whatever. Yeah. A great growth opportunity. Okay. So instead of drifting into these familiar, but highly dysfunctional routines and ruts, you can take action, identify where some of these relationships are turning into, uh, downers, hormone, destroyers, uh, ruining your day and do something about it and stand for change, make the world a better place. Yeah. I like listening to Deepak Chopra on this topic of having a more pleasant, happier life. And he has this, uh, mantra that he recites every morning during his two hour morning meditation. I know as pretty, bad-ass pretty high level there. I think it’s from 4:00 AM to 6:00 AM, as he described on a certain podcast. And I think he was even asked, uh, you know, about w w how do you wake up at 4:00 AM?

Brad (28:26):
Don’t you need more sleep. And he, he claims and backs it with research that his two hour meditation axle actually is so restful that it is superior to sleep in terms of setting his mindset and even his body on a healthy, uh, stress balance path. And it makes a lot of sense. It’s believable. And boy, wouldn’t that be incredible. If all of a sudden you needed two hours less sleep because you were such a kickass meditator. And so you dedicated four to six to meditation, and then 6:00 you finally got up and got into it. Okay. Something to think about for the future, but the quickly, the four daily intentions expressed by Deepak number one is joyful, energetic body. Number two is loving, compassionate, heart. Number three is reflective, quiet alert mind. And number four is a lightness of being. So he reminds himself of these four goals, these four intentions every single day, and in everything that he faces wanting to continue to preserve these so joyful, energetic body, that’s going to help you clean up your act and ditch the toxic modern foods and substances, loving, compassionate hearts going to help you with those relationships.

Brad (29:42):
And so that’s why I mentioned it here on assignment. Number two of clean up your act. Okay. How about assignment number three. Eat anscestral foods, uh, with particular attention to finding sources of sustainable naturally raised sources of the nose to tail superfoods. This would be the animal organs that I mentioned earlier, the oily cold water fish, the pasture raised eggs, and with my friend and primal health coach, Kate Cretsinger, we prepared this beautiful chart called the Carnivores Scores. You can find it@bradkearns.com, uh, download it, print it out, put it on your refrigerator. And it’s basically a ranking of the most nutrient dense foods on earth, uh, particularly emphasizing the animal foods. So you have your organ meats up there at the top ranking. You have things like oysters and salmon roe as the truly superior nutrient dense foods on the planet. And then we have, uh, grass-fed beef and other organs, and we have, uh, pasture raised eggs, all those great things.

Brad (30:54):
And so those are the centerpiece of your diet. Of course, there’s a place for colorful, nutritious carbs, especially as you pursue peak performance and want to recover from a training stress, things like that. And so those are on the chart as well. The most favorable plants and kind of getting rid of those foods that offer minimal nutritional value, but, uh, high cohort density, uh, the refined grains and sugars. So eating ancestrally certainly know all about that from listening to the great podcasts and experts on this, on this channel. And if you just found us, uh, maybe go listen to the Two Meals a Day overview, uh, that I did with Mark Sisson, cause that kind of gets into some basics of how to eat in an ancestral manner. And again, I’m going to put in a plug for zero tolerance policy for junk foods, processed foods, even the concentrated animal feeding operation offerings.

Brad (31:49):
So that would be your mainstream eggs or steaks or burgers or chicken or pork things that have been raised in a manner that’s offensive to the environment, the animals, not very healthy, all kinds of reasons to pass on those and go looking for the highest quality animals you can find. And yes, there’s some budget impact there, but there’s also a budget impact for throwing in all these processed foods, uh, to sustain you in a carbohydrate dependency pattern. So if you cut out the Starbucks and the treats and the snacks and the indulgences, uh, that start to add up and just have centerpiece meals that are extremely nutrient dense, uh, the budget impact is going to be, uh, more minimal than you think. Oh my gosh, I’ve been going to ButcherBox if you’ve heard of them, uh, where they do a custom, a custom designed, uh, order.

Brad (32:41):
So you can pick and choose from their offerings and they ship it to your house every month. And for the very top quality standards that they adhere to. So the grass fed, pasture raised poultry, heritage breed, pork, you are getting really good value, and then it’s right there sitting in your freezer. So it’s really easy to stay aligned with healthy eating when you sign up for a program like that. Same with the, uh, the meal preparation programs, if you’re into it. So taking a little bit of action to set up your environment, uh, for winning and healthy eating at all times. And that is assignment number three, eat ancestral foods. And then for number four, I call it power MOFO. And I talked about the supplement a little bit, and boy, if you’re a little bit tired and depleted, like I have been at times in my life from periods of time where, uh, I had excess stress, especially too much training.

Brad (33:34):
Boy, you just feel like your baseline has slipped down to 85 out of a hundred score rather than a 97 or wherever we want it to be. And I know what it’s like to lack the motivation, lack that natural energy spark to get out the door and get shit done in the gym or on the road if you’re just not feeling it. And so to recharge and replenish and rebuild from a destructive lifestyle practices that have maybe been in place for years or decades, that is a huge objective, um, look around and see what you need if your diet is A plus plus, and you’re eating organ meats every single day, and you’re having six pastured eggs, six to nine pastured, egg yolks in your smoothie every day, like Brian Liver King Johnson, the founder of ancestral supplements, go check him out at the website and click on the about us page because he is so dialed in to a level beyond, uh, anyone you’ll ever hear about.

Brad (34:34):
Uh, but if you’re, if you’re knocking it out of the park on all those dietary objectives, that’s great. But if you need a little support, if you’re busy, you’re traveling a lot, whatever, uh, consider the MOFO program and the other offerings, especially in that organ meat category. And boy, if you’re going to go looking for other supplements, uh, do a good job scrutinizing, uh, to find the absolute, highest quality because supplements as we know are unregulated and there’s great stuff. And then there’s questionable stuff. If you’re going to the big box store and grabbing a giant bottle off the shelf for $9.99, you can bet that you’re not getting the highest quality products. So boy, there’s some good commentary at the Primal Kitchen website about the, uh, primal nutrition supplements. And those might have a good place for you, especially the collagen. I’m really become a big fan of that at my age, trying to preserve my joints and my skin and hair and nails and Mark and Carrie have both, uh, uh, told me strongly that they take 30 grams a day and they will do so for the rest of their life.

Brad (35:36):
So collagen is definitely on the list because it’s super difficult to get that in the diet. And then the animal organs definitely on the list because not all of us are pounding animal organs and having centerpiece animal organ meals, uh, throughout the day. So number four is pound the and number five, oh, this is going to sound familiar to Primal Blueprint enthusiasts. It’s called move frequently at a slow pace. So we are getting into the Primal Blueprint fitness objectives, that wonderful balance between regular low level movement and comfortably paced cardio, as well as putting your body under a resistance load, doing some intensity, doing some sprinting, and that’s going to come in number six, but this move frequently objective is now rising to the forefront as the single most important fitness objective, more important than adhering to a devoted fitness regimen. Uh, and that is just finding ways to avoid prolonged periods of stillness, getting up and moving more frequently throughout the day, uh, finding different ways to move.

Brad (36:44):
And this is, uh, the great work of Katy Bowman, who was, uh, been on the podcast before her book called Move Your DNA. Just talking about the importance of moving as a human for human health, uh, distinct and separate from being a fit person. So of course, fitness endeavors are not only necessary and beneficial and also enjoyable and can be a centerpiece of your social experience, but this need to move, uh, is rising up the rankings man, because we’re sucking at it, right? Uh, even the fit community. And a lot of times, especially the fitness community that is people like the triathlon scene that I was involved in seem to carry around hall passes, uh, to sit around rather than just engage in general everyday movement because of their devoted fitness regimen. So if you’re a fitness, bad-ass, let’s say you go to CrossFit four days a week and you go to the gym the other days and you do a long 10 kilometer run on the weekend.

Brad (37:41):
And you’ve got all the check boxes marked for extreme fitness enthusiast, but you’re taking the subway to work. You’re sitting in front of a screen all day. Uh, you’re engaging in leisure time on the couch watching Netflix. And then you get up when the alarm rings at 6:00 AM and go bust out an awesome workout. Well, that’s a lot better than not doing it. Uh, but this need to move has so many ramifications for fat metabolism, hormonal function, cognitive function. There’s interesting research showing that, uh, sitting still for as little as 20 minutes can prompt a noticeable decline in glucose tolerance. In other words, you’re going to start to lose cognitive function, get a little hungry for a snack and start to feel tired and become a worse at burning fat. Uh, when you sit there and you right this so easily by just popping up and taking a break for a minute or two to do a micro workout or to just walk.

Brad (38:44):
And so Mark Sisson likes to say, J F W is the centerpiece of this objective that stands for just f-ing walk and finding ways and orchestrating ways to walk more because life is so comfortable now that we don’t really need to walk. We can drive our car everywhere. So we’re talking about taking the stairs instead of the elevators as a, as a lifelong commitment, uh, turning into the giant parking lot where you’re not going to buy your vitamins at the big box store and turning left instead of right. And parking at the furthest spot all the way down and walking in, keeping the dings off of your nice car and just getting more foot time. Oh my goodness. My favorite example is if you own an animal, you owe it to that creature to get it out for regular activity. And so even if you’re not motivated to walk, leash up that dog and take a walk at least around the block twice a day, as a commitment to the animal, not to mention yourself.

Brad (39:41):
So finding ways to move more frequently in every day life and, you know, from, uh, the books and the podcasts, how important it is when you’re doing cardio to do it in a manner that’s comfortably paced, rather than that medium to difficult level where you get into the, uh, horrible health drawbacks of chronic cardio. So this idea that workouts are supposed to be a stressful and slightly depleting in nature, uh, is now being strongly refuted with great research and science about the dangers and the risks and the benefits of simply going out there and walking, uh, delivers a wonderful cardiovascular training effect, even for a well-trained athlete who has competitive aspirations. So if you’re trying to race in the marathon six months from now, or do your first half marathon, these walks around the block will indeed deliver a wonderful cardiovascular training effect, even though they’re at lower intensity than what you intend to compete at. What will not be beneficial for your training is to go out there and exceed this maximum aerobic heart rate frequently during your workouts.

Brad (40:52):
Because as you exceed your maximum aerobic function, that’s the point where you’re burning the maximum number of fat calories per minute, but you’re not stimulating that much glucose burning or stress hormone production. So it’s a comfortable, a very comfortable pace. That’s where you want to stay at or below or well below as with walking, right? So walking still going to double your heart rate, uh, from a resting state, you’re going to get a cardiovascular training effect even from walking and you’re going to get a wonderful fat burning energy building, cardiovascular training effect for everything up to the maximum aerobic heart rate. And then as you drift above that, you’re going to transition away from maximum fat burning to burning a greater and greater percentage of glucose in the workout and start burning less fat calories, fewer fat calories per minute, than you do at this, uh, important maximum aerobic function heart rate.

Brad (41:48):
Dr. Phil Maffetone world leader on this stuff. He’s a prominent feature in the Primal Endurance Mastery Course. Uh, he has identified the, uh, the maximum aerobic function heart rate of 180 minus your age in beats per minute. 180 minus age in beats per minute is the pace at which you should not exceed if you want to get a proper aerobic fat burning workout benefit. If you do exceed that, you’re doing so for other reasons, such as preparing for a competitive event or doing it once in a while to achieve a fitness breakthrough. But if you do it routinely, that’s when you start to get into this chronic pattern, overproduction of stress hormones, suppression of immune function, tendency to stimulate appetite and prompt a decrease in general everyday activity, because you’re too tired because you hammered through that 45 minute Peloton session at 6:00 AM thinking you were doing yourself a solid and building your fitness.

Brad (42:50):
But what you’re actually doing is stimulating a little bit of stress hormones, uh, burning more glucose than you intended, and suppressing fat burning and effect, which can continue to, uh, last for hours after the workout. So if you’re aspiring to escape carbohydrate dependency in the diet and become a fat burning beast, as promised by the primal lifestyle, your workout is going to compromise those goals, because it’s going to push you back in the direction of carbohydrate dependency. How do you know you’ll know if you’re craving sugar right after the workout. If you notice a trend, a tendency to pair vigorous aerobic workouts with consumption of pints ofBen, and Jerry’s later that same day, you’ll know if you kind of have a history of breakdown, burnout, illness, and injury, that would be getting a few colds every single year, uh, having this and that nagging injuries, things that show signs of a slightly too significantly, overly stressful exercise patterns.

Brad (44:00):
And so the magic, the wonderful, uh, experience of slowing down to get fitter faster, healthier, and happier. That’s the essence of the message in primal endurance. So if you’re a real endurance athlete and have interests there, uh, I strongly recommend that book and that, uh, uh, online multimedia mastery course, but for all of us who have general fitness ambitions slowing down and going for that 180 minus age, and if you’re not familiar with this type of training, this philosophy, oh my gosh, you’re going to be really surprised at just how comfortable of a pace it is to carry on at 180 minus your age and heartbeats per minute. So let’s say, uh, an, uh, an older age group athlete, like myself, 180 minus age, 55 is 125 beats per minute. And that is a nice, slow jog down the street because I happen to be pretty fit.

Brad (44:59):
Otherwise it would be a fast walk. And for many people out there who are right now jogging or working in the stair machine, or the elliptical and huffing and puffing and showing a little bit red in the face and getting sweaty as they try to accomplish their cardiovascular session, they would be much better served to back off by 10, 20, 25 beats. Because it’s so comfortable, it’s super easy to exceed it, especially if you’re not paying close attention to your heart rate. So this big objective to summarize assignment number five, moving frequently at a slow pace is to get that cardio under control, especially watch out for the chronic cardio patterns of exceeding maximum aerobic heart rate. And Hey, if you’re not getting out there enough, oh my gosh, it’s so simple and fun to cruise down the street at a fast walking pace. If you’re really fit, it might turn into jogging or get on an exercise bike and just peddle away while you’re watching a show.

Brad (45:52):
It doesn’t have to be sweat dripping onto the handlebars like they show in the Peloton commercial. That’s not the aspect of getting fit and healthy. Uh, that that’s the truth. And boy, if you want some, uh, rationale or justification for it, look at the training patterns of the world’s elite endurance athletes in every sport. They are so fit that they’re moving fast and training, and they’re dancing up the hill, uh, on the bicycle or running down the path at an extraordinary pace, but they are well under control and well within their aerobic capacity. So by comparison, you want to have a workout that has a similar metabolic impact to that of the elite athlete. That means that you’re going to be pace walking instead of jogging, or you’re going to be gently pedaling the bicycle down to the farmer’s market. And you’ll be right there in the aerobic training zone.

Brad (46:43):
You don’t have to push yourself to get aerobically fit. So this, uh, assignment to move frequently includes JFW as the centerpiece, the basic movement. It includes structuring your cardiovascular workouts correctly, and then throwing in all other forms of general everyday movement. And this can even be a formal movement practices like yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, all this counts towards your daily movement objective. Also, especially taking those brief breaks from prolonged periods of stillness at your work desk to move your body in some way, you want to do a micro workout. That’s great. A brief burst of explosive effort. We’re going to talk about that in the next assignment, but even as simple as climbing up three flights of stairs in the office building and walking back down. Boy, that is a huge difference from having a day where you’re sitting there still for hours and hours.

Brad (47:38):
So find any and every way possible to move frequently at a slow pace. And my favorite recommendation is to do something at the very beginning of the day. Just like I talked about in assignment, number one, to get your sleep dialed. If you can wake up, get out of bed, get sunlight on your face, not necessarily bright sun, but even an outdoor day. Even if it’s cloudy, you’re getting a great light exposure. Get up and get moving as your first thing. Uh, it’s going to feel wonderful over time, and you’re going to just wake up easier. You’re going to be in a routine of moving your body. Your body’s going to be used to it. And it’s much more fun than, uh, sliding and shuffling around when you’re having difficulty waking up because of your adverse lifestyle practices and light exposure the night before. Oh man, I know I’m throwing a lot at you with the MOFO mission here, but if you can dial in these 10 assignments, oh my goodness.

Brad (48:29):
It’s going to be life-changing cause hormone optimization is what it’s all about. It’s what it’s all about when it comes to weight loss. That’s what it’s all about when it comes to anti-aging. So here we go with a, a recap of the first five assignments of the mission, and we’re going to do five more on a subsequent show. Uh, number one, get your sleep dialed, minimize artificial light and digital stimulation after dark, implement these wind down soothing rituals in the final hours or minutes before bedtime, such as a hot bath, such as reading in bed, such as taking the dog for a walk around the block, and then your good night’s sleep starts in the morning with some sun exposure and physical movement. As soon as you wake up, number two is clean up your act, starting with a zero tolerance policy and aggressive elimination of the big three toxic modern foods in life.

Brad (49:25):
And that is refined grains, sugars and industrial seed oils. Also getting rid of any other toxic substances, such as alcohol to excess or alcohol period, right? If I’m going to make a recommendation on the show, you don’t need that stuff to live a healthy, fulfilling life, but if you choose to drink, be smart about it and look up the blog post on Mark’s daily apple about dry farm wines, or go over and check that website because they have this commitment to presenting you with sugar-free chemical free wines, which is actually really where rare in the wine scene. So you can drink responsibly. Oh my gosh, I mentioned liver king and the ancestral supplements.com about us page, but he has this whole amazing primer on how to drink alcohol in the least destructive manner. And it might seem a little over the top at first, because he’s directing you to consume liver pills and have a completely empty stomach and drink the strongest, most direct source of alcohol, which is ever clear.

Brad (50:27):
Uh, but it’s pretty funny because you’ll get a nice buzz, you’ll have a social experience, but you won’t have that damaging effect of consuming a bunch of junk along with your alcohol, such as a mixed drink. So if you’re into that, uh, check it out. It’s also on their social media. Uh, I believe on the Instagram site, they have that alcohol drinking primer. So Dry Farm Wines and Ancestral Supplements style, uh, but ditching those toxic substances or mitigating the damaging effects. Also looking at your relationships in life and either severing truly toxic relationships that you don’t need to continue with or changing your mindset and your approach as a personal growth experience and trying to write things that have been kind of, uh, regressing into dysfunctional routines and ruts living by Deepak Chopra’s four daily intentions, joyful, energetic body, loving, compassionate, heart, reflective, quiet alert, mind and forth lightness of being.

Brad (51:24):
So that is assignment number two, clean up your act assignment, number three, eat ancestral foods with particular attention to that nose to tail strategy and integrating and emphasizing the most nutrient dense foods on earth, which are animal organs, oily, cold water fish, pasture-raised eggs, grass-fed beef, getting those as the centerpiece, and then all the colorful, nutritious carbohydrates and plant foods that you enjoy. And zero tolerance policy, especially for the industrial seed oils now, and forevermore get those out of your life. Number four, I call pound the MOFO and that is to supplement and cover all those bases and those shortcomings. Uh, we talked about magnesium as a huge deficiency, even among healthy people. Collagen is another area where modern diet comes up short, unless you’re a huge nose to tail extremist. And of course the, uh, nutrient treasure trove that is animal organs with liver being at the top of the list as possibly arguably the most nutrient dense food on the planet.

Brad (52:27):
So if you’re not channeling down a bunch of liver in your daily life, go get some liver pills. And if you have an interest in optimizing testosterone, MOFO is the way to go. So check it out, learn more and try these things out, give it a full, a rundown, you know, try a supplement protocol for 60 or 90 days and take note of any, uh, differences or improvements. Uh, what I notice when I’m really doing well with my supplementing is a lack of, or a mitigation of the crash and burn periods. So I’m never going to say, and I take offense to people saying I’m taking this supplement and I feel 10% better and all my workouts are better. Yeah. Then try harder without the supplement dude. Cause that’s kind of a joke, right? I mean, you’re not going to swallow something. That’s going to make you, uh, you know, an extraordinary better athlete, but to manage the recovery process, to improve on areas where you might be suffering from depletion or that can be life-changing because then you’re allowed to be the best you can be. Okay. So that was, uh, assignment number four, pound the, and then assignment number five, move frequently. JFW frequent breaks from prolonged periods of stillness at work and doing that cardio correctly at heart rates of 180 minus your age or below. Thank you so much for listening to this action packed part one of the MOFO mission have a great day.

Brad (54:10):
Thank you for listening to the show. I love sharing the experience with you and greatly appreciate your support please. Email podcast@bradventures.com with feedback, suggestions and questions for the Q and A shows. Subscribe to our email list to Brad kearns.com for a weekly blast about the published episodes and a wonderful bi-monthly newsletter edition with informative articles and practical tips for all aspects of healthy living. You can also download several awesome free eBooks when you subscribe to the email list. And if you could go to the trouble to leave a five or five star review with apple podcasts or wherever else, you listen to the shows that would be super, incredibly awesome. It helps raise the profile of the B.rad Podcast and attract new listeners. And did you know that you can share a show with a friend or loved one by just hitting a few buttons in your player and firing off a text message? My awesome podcast player called Overcast allows you to actually record a soundbite excerpt from the episode you’re listening to and fire it off with a quick text message. Thank you so much for spreading the word and remember B.rad.

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