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Welcome to part 2 of our journey around the clock detailing all aspects of my daily routine. 

After the detailed presentation in Part 1 covering my morning exercise routine and workout options, it’s time to get to work! Part 2 starts out with an honest and unfiltered account of how I spend my workday, from the highlights, like my strong philosophical foundation of pursuing the highest expression of my talents and making a unique contribution; to the low lights of my penchant for distraction by way of the email inbox, doing routine tasks during times of the day better suited for peak cognitive tasks, and drifting away from important responsibilities into the world of YouTube high jump videos. I even take a diversion during the show, while talking about my tendency to get distracted! I also like to do what Gretchen Rubin calls, “procrasticlearing”—fussing around doing efficient and seemingly important tasks, but delaying a deep immersion into challenging and high-priority work. 

You’ll get some helpful tips and tricks about habit forming and focus inspired by popular books like Deep Work, Atomic Habits, and former podcast guests Gretchen Rubin and Seth Godin. I also talk about my five different “typical” daily eating patterns, and you will pick up some themes about a C&C dietary strategy (could be the title of my next book?), which stands for carnivore-ish and chocolate as my dietary centerpieces. We talk about trying to optimize afternoon work habits, where there is a higher risk of drifting away from peak focus, and detail the all-important topic of napping. We cover evening eating habits, leisure time, and bedtime practices that you may find helpful or at least get a kick out of. Hopefully you will find value in these lengthy shows that will hopefully get you thinking about the best strategies to make the most of your day.

TIMESTAMPS:

Brad starts his official workday after about 40 minutes of his routine he discussed in the previous podcast.  [02:13]

As Brad starts his day, he sometimes uses his computer for other things than his writing, acknowledging his potential for distraction. [05:15]

You should try to strive for two 90-minute bursts per day of peak cognitive performance. [10:03]

Turn that stuff off and get the work done! [13:07]

There are four requirements to succeed in habit change. Make it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying. [15:05]

You might want to try a habit scorecard where you can look at both good habits and bad habits. A habit must be established before it can be improved [18:04]

Brad organizes his day. He tries to prioritize what’s most important to the high energy times, and save the less important for down time. [21:06]

Find your calling.  Do what fits for you. [30:34]
A little bit of a struggle and challenge thrown in there sprinkled into our comfortable, modern life can pay great dividends. [31:33]

Brad prefers email to phone calls so he can control the use of his time better, but it takes discipline not to get distracted. [37:32]

Brad has described his busy workday, and also admits to frittering plenty. [42:37]

It’s important to never get discouraged. [44:31]

Often, we procrast-a-clear, thinking we are getting our mind clear so we can work. [47:22]

Brad varies what he eats during the day as he thinks he should be free of any compulsion or regimentation. [49:17]

The all-important nap is next on Brad’s busy schedule. [59:52]

The afternoon time can be an opportunity to get sidetracked.  Micro workouts are how Brad handles that. [01:05:20]

Brad knows how to zone out and calm the pace of the modern technology we are bombarded with. [01:09:14]

When he can, he gets in some speed golf at the end of the day. Then home for dinner. [01:12:05]
It’s virtually impossible to accumulate excess body fat over time if you are eliminating processed foods and eating only predominantly nutrient-dense foods, [01:20:59]

The pairing of carbohydrates and fat is the most damaging combination. [01:23:12]

Evening entertainment consists of visiting, good TV shows, or perhaps catching up on his work that was missed during the day. [01:27:37]

LINKS:

QUOTES:

  • “Brain research reveals that the way to experience a rich and meaningful life comes from persevering through challenges by using skills you’ve worked really hard to develop, to solve a problem or create something of beauty.”

LISTEN:

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.

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This free podcast offering is a team effort from Brad, Daniel, Siena, Gail, TJ, Vuk, RedCircle, our awesome guests, and our incredibly cool advertising partners. We are now poised and proud to double dip by both soliciting a donation and having you listen to ads! If you wanna cough up a few bucks to salute the show, we really appreciate it and will use the funds wisely for continued excellence. Go big (whatever that means to you…) and we’ll send you a free jar of Brad’s Macadamia Masterpiece as a thank you! Email to alert us! Choose to donate now, later, or never. Either way, we thank you for choosing from the first two options…

 

B.Rad Podcast

Brad (00:01:11):
Hi listeners. Welcome to part two of Brad’s complete daily routine fitness, food, fun focus, and more. I hope you listen to part one. We covered,, in detail waking up in the morning, striving for consistent bedtime and awakening habits. And then of course my award-winning morning exercise routine, talking about the rationale and the benefits for doing that. We also then talked about the various workout options that I indulge in on certain days of the week after the morning routine, sometimes nothing getting straight into the work day and what have you. But we covered six main categories of workouts that comprise my, my, my training regimen that would be sprinting or jumping practice at the track. The, a big one some home-based sessions that I do with the X three bar, the stretch cords, the hexagonal deadlift bar and the pullup bar, providing all the options I need.

Brad (00:02:13):
The big five workout as detailed on my podcast with Dr. Doug McGuff when I’m going to the gym and doing these single sets to complete muscular failure on five major full body functional movements. And then some other things like my quick sprint workout on the Carol stationary bike or playing speed golf. And so those were my options that I covered in detail and we’re still in the morning hours. And we, and ran out of time. We done ran out time and had to save the rest for part two. And in part two, oh my gosh. I mean, it’s time to get to work after all that. So I’m starting into the workday opening up that laptop, the ceremonial opening of the laptop screen to get going and get into it, hopefully with good success and focus. But as you’ll learn on this authentic open and honest show, sometimes there’s a little bit of drifting and things that I still need to work on works in progress.

Brad (00:03:13):
So in any case, I’m either starting my official workday after the 40 minute morning routine and a little putzing around here and there preparing myself my kombucha drink, or what have you. Maybe doing some minor household chores and then finally getting into it. Or I’m starting the workday after the morning routine plus one of the workout choices that I detailed in the first show. And if that’s the case, then time is really ticking here. Because again, I’m not waking up at zero dark 30 Dawn. I’m usually waking up between 7:15 and 7:45 year round. That’s a pretty tight window there, but it implies, or it ensures get a ton of sleep. So I’m usually sleeping right around that magical nine hour mark, which a lot of people that might seem ridiculous or extensive, but I really have discovered that that’s pretty much what I need, especially when I’m trying to deliver some impressive exercise output over the, of the week, the months and the years that are clicking away.

Brad (00:04:24):
So I do think I would probably get away and benefit be fine with less sleep if I wasn’t working out to that point where I’m pretty much pushing my, the limits of my capabilities. So there it is nine hours of sleep. Then in that 40 minute template, then a workout. If you’re adding well at home, we’re talking about getting into the, the nines, the 9:30s, even the 10 o’clock, if there was something going on, just tending to duties or whatever. And so there’s a little bit of pressure and intensity built up. If I haven’t started my work day, until kind of, uh, deep into the morning. And I wish I could say at that point, when I do flip the lid that I go into my cave and start cranking away with peak cognitive performance.

Brad (00:05:15):
But this is also a weak area because when I do flip that lid and engage with the world, connect with the internet, a lot of times I’m going into kind of routine tasks or, uh, house cleaning, things of that nature. Let’s say, looking at the flights on the wonderful Southwest airline website for an upcoming trip. Or maybe there was some stuff I wanted to on Amazon, interesting food items, supplements, fitness equipment, apparel on eBay, used pair of shoes. I don’t know what let’s see. What do I order? Oh my gosh. Talk about an open, honest, authentic show. Let’s just jump right in there. Unfiltered commentary about stuff Brad orders on Amazon.com and eBay. Okay, here we go. Order history. Oh, all natural handcrafted gourmet black licorice. Yes. I had licorice on my epic Cactus to Clouds hike the 13 hour hike on the single most difficult hiking trail in the United States of America.

Brad (00:06:22):
Maybe the world in Palm Springs, California, and with John and Philip, my boys. And they told me to eat all day long. It totally worked. And, licorice was especially enjoyable. So I stocked up for the next epic hike. Here is a bottle of whey protein. I’m doing some taste testing in development of my own fantastic, amazing, super fuel product coming soon. Here’s another pullup bar that I’m gonna install a few inches off the ground to do the Nordic hamstring curls, some coconut cream for use and my smoothie, some healthy dog treats, some nasal strips for using in the evening to make sure I breathe through my nose as well as during workouts. Another kind of skin serum since Ben Greenfield stopped making his epic, fantastic product. Now I have to go find something else. I bought Ben Patrick’s new book, the knees over toes guy.

Brad (00:07:17):
It’s called Knee Ability, Zero. Oh my gosh. Scrolling scrolling. Look at all this stuff. I love it though, because that means I’m not going into stores. Here’s the book, The Oxygen Advantage. I purchased that as a gift. Here’s a helmet mirror for bicycles. One of my most common gifts that I give people, cuz I wanted to be safe out there on the road. Here is a wooden slant board to help with my standup desk experience, standing at an angle and getting that nice calf stretch for a long time. More healthy dog treats. These are freeze dried beef liver snacks. Oh my gosh. The dog loves ’em. A replacement case for my AirPods pro which I lost on the running trail one day. Here are some plastic bags for traveling. See through plastic bags. Yeah. They’re kind of like makeup bags and you can see everything that’s inside.

Brad (00:08:09):
I love taking those, putting ’em in my backpack. I yank one out and I can see everything that’s in there. Here is a dorm room refrigerator, birthday gift for my nephew. Here’s some more or shredded coconut. Here’s some Ancestral Supplements products. Here is a massage ball, the vibrating massage ball. I love those hyperized things. Here’s some special golf tees that I use some athletic tape, some mini bands for doing the stretches, another blood glucose meter and test strips for fun at home to calibrate with my Nutrisense, CGM that goes on the arm to make sure they’re super accurate and dial that in and on and on we go. On eBay. Oh my goodness. Let’s see. What’s here.Another vibrating massage ball purchased as a gift, some used running shoes. I talked about those puffy super padded shoes I used on the hike as sort of a alternative strategy to what I usually use, which are the minimalist shoes.

Brad (00:09:08):
I’m especially loving my zero shoes that I got from Steven Sachen, podcast guest, fantastic product. I’m using them all the time. Now here’s a couple more used apparel, athletic apparel items, tight fitting shirts for doing sprint workouts and high jumping. I don’t like to have billowing T-shirts on. Here’s a unique pair of Vibram five fingers that has a carbon fiber sole. I believe they came from Europe cuz I’ve never seen him for sale. Some more athletic apparel used Himalayan salt lamp. That’s a gift bunch of high jump stickers to put on my laptop, blah, blah, blah. I wonder if that was a interesting detour or a weird one, but back into the mix and how I’m describing the potential for or distraction when I start my workday, how about that potential for distraction while I’m making a podcast about being distracted at the start of my workday.

Brad (00:10:03):
So I’m really interested in this subject and I have a commitment to improve, improve, uh, but it still seems to be a challenge. And when I hear great commentary from guys like Andrew Huberman on the Huberman lab podcast- And he talks about striving for these two 90-minute bursts per day of peak cognitive performance. So he cites research that we are good to go for about 90 minutes after which we really require a cognitive break. And if we don’t take one, one will be taken for us, we will start to zone out, drift out start processing things with less capability. So if you can kind of step into the workday realizing that you’re probably only good for that total at your best, that really seems doable. It seems feasible. But the trick is that you really have to shut out the outside world and go deep for 90 minutes. One stint in the morning and perhaps another stint after a break maybe after the midday break, lunch break, whatever.

Brad (00:11:14):
And then you go and crank away again for another 90 minutes. That’s only three hours a day of really peak and focus cognitive output. But when you break it down and I will definitely validate this when I think about the process of writing books, which I’ve been immersed in nonstop for probably the last 15 or 16 or 17 years to get that book done. Really, it’s not about sitting down at the computer for eight hours a day. I don’t know too many people that can do that. Maybe no one. And if you can get in two good 90 minute bursts of proper writing and research and, and deep work onto a manuscript, that is a fantastic day. That’s plenty to strive for and aspire to. So Huberman is talking about the two times 90 minute gaps. Uh, there’s a book called Deep Work by Cal Newport.

Brad (00:12:10):
He actually has a podcast now. And his theory is that WHEW! The world is, you know, overwhelming us with constant digital stimulation and potential for distraction. And so we have to embrace this idea of getting into deep work and shutting out the outside world and really focusing and concentrating. And the better we get at this, the greater advantage, we will have to rise above in the competitive career and workplace setting to be someone truly special. And so young listeners, people who are, you know, on that career path and striving for more and more and climbing up to the highest heights and, uh, pursuing the highest expression of their talents throughout their a career would be the dream for everyone, right? He says, the more you can do that, the more you’ll distinguish yourself from all of us and all the influences that make us just merely reactive humans all day long.

Brad (00:13:07):
So we’re just spending the whole day interacting with, uh, text messaging, emailing, responding to phone calls, whatever. And I know that’s the core responsibility for a lot of people that they are there to react all day long. But for those of us that have the opportunity to use our creative potential, use our creative energy and produce something special, we have to get into this strategy, this mode of deep work. And Cal Newport provides all kinds of tips and tricks to facilitate this. You can listen to some of those honest podcast or get into the book. My former podcast guest, Seth Godin, the marketing guru author of This is Marketing author of The Dip. And many other bestselling books gave me one of the most memorable quips I’ve ever had delivered to me on the show during some Q and A, when I mentioned how, gee, I’m trying to concentrate on writing a book and I seem to be easily distracted by the email inbox.

Brad (00:14:11):
Do you have any suggestions for this Seth? And he said, yeah, turn that shit off and get the work done. The work is too important. Oh, I love that quote. And think about that as we go through our days and as we fritter around and indulge in instant screen entertainment or whatever other diversions we’re engaged in. Hey, maybe you’re on a, a play land to transform your diet, transform your physique. And you get diverted by the allure of a pint of ice cream sitting there in the freezer, or you can get in your car and drive six minutes over to Baskin Robbins. And let’s think about that quote and apply that in other directions saying with your fitness endeavors, the work is too important. Your goals are too important. Your health is too important and see if we can recalibrate that. So I think about that quote all the time, just turn it off.

Brad (00:15:05):
That was his answer. He didn’t gimme any tips about setting a timer or turning on the device that, uh, shuts down your internet for 20 minute periods at a time. And then you turn it back on. It’s just turn that shit off. Get the work done. Okay. Another great book by James Clear called Atomic Habits. And he’s had, a very popular blog for a long time with productivity peak performance. And he describes how there are four requirements to succeed with habit change. One of ’em is to make it obvious. Number two, make it attractive. Number three, make it easy and number four, make it satisfying. And so if we take the simple example of you wish you could work out more or get more exercise going such as the goal of adding micro workouts to your day. So obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying would be putting a kettlebell in plain sight.

Brad (00:16:05):
And this is important. Not a things stored away in a drawer or far away from you, but there’s a kettlebell right there in your office that you can look at at all times, or on my show with Dude Spellings. He described how he places the hexagonal deadlift bar in the way, right in the path of the door to and from his office. So that every time he leaves his office to go the restroom or get a snack or get another pad of post-it notes from the storage cupboard, he has to step through his hexagonal deadlift bar. And of course execute a single set of deadlift. And that will happen several times a day. So obvious, attractive. Attractive could be that, you know, that you’re only doing a single set. So you’re not interrupting your busy day with a 20 minute workout because that’s been recommended.

Brad (00:16:56):
And isn’t that great? No, it’s just a, a 30 second effort. That’s easy to do. And so that’s number three. It’s attractive, it’s easy. And then finally it’s satisfying. So when you throw these things in, when you sprinkle these things in, you get that instant payoff, that instant gratification, that it feels good to breathe hard a little bit and mix up prolonged periods of stillness and inactivity. So that’s how to build in a good habit. And if you want to get rid of a bad habit, you just invert. The aforementioned four elements, obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying. So we replace easy with hard and we replace the other ones with the, the, the inverse and make things tough. So if you’re trying to stay away from the pint of ice cream, that’s in your freezer, guess what? Get it out of your freezer, do not bring it into the home. Make it very difficult and maybe put in some consequences and repercussions if you need to, uh, such as accountability partners and things like that, I think you get the, the point there.

Brad (00:18:04):
And so another thing that Clear recommends doing is conduct this exercise called a habit scorecard. And that would be sitting down with a pad of paper and kind of describing what you do throughout the day and making a scoreboard to identify both good habits and bad habits. I guess that’s what this exercise is all about when I’m making a show about my daily habits and routines by doing so I’m illuminating the good stuff as well as the bad stuff. And then finally, I love this one. He calls it the two minute rule and that is the idea that a habit must be established before it can be improved upon. So when we’re looking at this, friction, this difficulty in getting going with a regular sustained exercise program or transforming diet to eliminate the junk foods and the things that you identify, you want to, you want to turn the corner on. You have to make it so easy and so doable that it truly does land in the category of habit.

Brad (00:19:17):
And then you can aspire to build upon that success. So I talk about the morning routine all the time, boasting about how it’s now extended up to 40 minutes and isn’t that great for me, but guess what? First I had to integrate the act of getting outta bed and exercising immediately into habit. So as I mentioned on the first show, this habit began with a very easy 12 minute sequence rather than the pretty difficult 40 minute sequence that it has evolved into today. If this 12 minute is too much for you to ask too much to ask in the morning, Hey, take a two minute commitment and say, I’m gonna wake up and get outta bed and do the yoga sun salute sequence of stretches, where you raise your hands over your head, you sweep ’em down, you sweep, ’em halfway up to tabletop.

Brad (00:20:11):
You sweep up again. It’s very common. You can look at it on YouTube or anything that takes two minutes and do that and build some momentum. Do it for a week in a row. Do it for a month in a row. And when you have this two minute morning exercise habit locked in, then you can strive to expand it, modify it, intensify your commitment. A habit must be established before it can be improved. And I think, oh my gosh, so many of us get tripped up here by setting ourselves up for failure by throwing down these amazing goals. And we’re all good at writing down goals and specifying our goals and being, you know, diligent with this exercise. But then if the goal is too daunting and it, fizzles before it can be integrated into true habit. And habit is that automatic behavior that you don’t have to think about.

Brad (00:21:06):
You don’t have to use willpower, creativity or any of these great forces that we can harness. You just do it without thinking about it. And the obvious examples are brushing your teeth and all the rest of them, fastening your seatbelt. Okay. So enough about that. And let’s see, I’m trying to get in into it to start my day and on a good day. Here’s how it looks. Let’s say the camera crew was coming over to film a day in the life of Brad Kearns. So let’s see what happens. Oh, look at that great morning exercise routine he does. And then very shortly he’s up at his standup desk cranking away. And one thing that gets me, focused is an appointment for a podcast interview, right? So I know that at 9:00 AM, I’m gonna start on the very day that I’m recording this.

Brad (00:21:56):
I had an amazing conversation with Dr. D’Agostino expert on the ketogenic diet. And so I am on a roll having finished that recording. I’m standing here in the studio. It’s all set up. Uh, the microphone is still plugged in, and so I will flow into recording another show. I also, when I’m in the mode here of recording, I will do all the peripheral work necessary to produce the show, publish the show at the same time. And that would be for example, recording an introduction as I tee up the guest, I’m not gonna do it a day later, or two days later. I’m highly incentivized to get into the mix when everything is still fresh in my brain. And then secondly, that includes writing the written descriptions and setting up everything else and positioning this material over to the team, the dream team to continue the flow to the final published products.

Brad (00:22:56):
So, I think that’s really important. I think it’s easier on the brain too, when you stay focused on, uh, whatever project you’re working on and bring it to some completion or resolution rather than having a bunch of loose ends. Now that can’t always be done, right? We can’t completely finish one project and then move to the other and then finish that one and move to the next, just to the nature of for most of us, the crazy dynamic workplace that we’re, we’ve evolved to today. And so in those examples, I will say that I do a very good job of writing down and keeping track of the loose ends that I need to complete. So I use the notes program on apple system, and so I can enter items onto my to-do list, either on my laptop or on my phone and the material transfers over.

Brad (00:23:56):
So that’s great when I’m on the go, I can add to the list and when I’m here in the office in headquarters, I can also add, subtract, revise, edit the list that’s going to mobile device. So that’s really nice to just keep track of the things that you have to do that you can’t get done right away. And also key, I think to the success of this strategy is to refer to it frequently and keep it in nice top shape, edit it. The things that you’ve done are off your list. It’s not a rag tag haphazard list, but it’s very active and functional. So if I’m not staying in perfect linear progression from task to task, at least I know what’s ahead of me later. And I would really love to that I could write down all the low priority stuff that come into my head, you know, first thing in the morning or whatever, and then do ’em later, cuz there’s a lot of recommendations.

Brad (00:24:56):
It’s a very strong recommendation that when you’re in your peak focus, that’s when you should do your hardest and most meaningful work and then save the airplane reservations for later, for example, in the afternoon, when a lot of us experience an energy dip and are best suited to lower cognitive demand tasks than our best stuff, our best material. But a lot of times I’m jumping the gun here and I’m shopping on Amazon when I’m alert and energized rather than doing it when I’m drifting away at whatever time a day where I’ve, you know, I’ve had it and I’ve, um, I’ve, I’ve drained my cognitive energy. So that would be nice. And that’s a goal is to kind of maintain a strict focus on prioritization so that the low-demand stuff can just get written to out taking care of later.

Brad (00:25:49):
And that’s a work in progress. Okay. So, on the good day, I’m in the studio, recording podcasts, finishing all the peripheral information that I need to do to kind of package the show and pass it off in good shape. And a lot of times we will flow into further recording. So in other words, batching my time at the microphone rather than plugging it in haphazard manner. Okay. So recording is one major area of focus and emphasis. And the other one is to open up the laptop lid start cranking on a manuscript because I’ve been basically involved in a book project of one form or another nonstop for about 16 years in a row with zero break. So once one book was completed, the other book is somewhere in the starting phase and then there’s another deadline facing me.

Brad (00:26:51):
Don’t ask me how I back myself into this kind of corner. But it is a nice, it’s been a nice journey because I feel like very fulfilled. It’s a great challenge. And you could call that one of the highest expressions of my talents and unique contributions. So I’m a book writer, however, unlike many writers, this is not a complete focus and devotion. I have all kinds of other stuff going and have had that going for this entire to time that I’d been immersed in book writing. This would be marketing and editing and, and doing all manner, when we were running Primal Blueprint Publishing. And so not only was I writing a book, I was editing and working with other authors as we published books from other writers during that time at Primal Blueprint Publishing where we’re also involved in different things like planning and executing live retreats.

Brad (00:27:52):
I was always, I’ve always been creating audio and video content over that time as well, and assorted other things, uh, and marketing products, things like that, developing products just as I’m doing now. So that puts me in kind of a unique situation where I’m not that guy with the scarf around my neck and the steaming hot coffee looking out at the, at the falling snow, from my secret mountain cabin, as I crank out another manuscript. It’s always been kind of mixing and matching and that it’s possibly a good thing because I don’t feel like I’m burnt out on the process. I can’t imagine sitting down and just having to write all day long. It would probably be a whole different realm that maybe doesn’t match my personality as well. So I like to be involved in different things and take on different types of challenges.

New Speaker (00:28:49):
It’s been, it’s been extremely challenging to get the Brad’s Macadam Masterpiece nut butter to market in so many ways. And so many moving parts. From the initial development of the product to finding a partner to produce the product, deal with all the logistics and moving parts of becoming a vendor on amazon.com, building and designing a website, all that fun stuff. And so if my brain gets to go there for a certain portion of the day, then when I sit down and focus on the task of writing a book, it comes with a little bit of balance there, where if that was all I was doing, that might be a tough, a tough challenge for me. More so than moving from one thing to the next, you know what I’m saying? So I’m not sure that’s good advice for anyone who’s an aspiring writer..

Brad (00:29:41):
There’s probably an easier way or a more efficient way to follow that path. But I will say that, the one thing I’ve learned when people ask me for advice about writing is be careful taking advice from others and never ever get intimidated or discouraged by hot shots. Do what works for you. Cuz I have been a member of the audience listening to a prominent writer give advice that comes off as little haughty and condescending, cuz you’re already listening to someone who’s super successful and they’re telling you, that this is how it goes. And if you, if you don’t like it, and you can’t wake up at five in the morning and write for five hours straight until 10 in the morning, it’s probably not gonna work out. And that’s just not, really helpful advice.

Brad (00:30:34):
So I think anyone’s capable of stepping up and making an effort in the way they at you see- fit and that works for you. And so for me, it’s been to juggle a bunch of different products while I had a book going on in the background. So too bad for anyone who doesn’t like that. Right. Get what I’m saying here. Just go with the flow and do what works for you and do what feels right is kind of my, my message here. Now I will put in a plug at this time for finding your calling and doing something that’s incredibly challenging and taps into your unique talents, interests and passions. Because I feel like we’re immersed in a world now where we’re, we have the potential to be constantly entertained and stimulated to the extent that we really don’t create anything of meaningful value ourselves.

Brad (00:31:33):
We’re just a consumer of information and entertainment. This was highlighted in Dr. Robert Lustig’s book, The Hacking of the American Mind. He was my guest on the podcast where he was mainly talking about his most recent book Metabolical. But that book touched me deeply. It was incredibly well written and he was talking about how the various indulgences that we have today, flood the dopamine pathways of the brain at the expense of the serotonin oxytocin pathways. The other neurotransmitters that provide the sensations of rich, satisfying, meaningful life. And the dopamine pathways, of course, are relating to instant gratification, motivation toward instant gratification as being our driving force rather than lighting up the other pathways which have more long lasting richness and satisfaction. Brain research reveals that the way to experience a rich and meaningful life comes from persevering through challenges by using skills you’ve worked really hard to develop, to solve a problem or create something of beauty.

Brad (00:32:50):
That’s my quote, paraphrasing from numerous sources and pulling together a lot of that research. But we humans like to take on challenges. We like to try to conquer our environment, conquer the challenges, feel a sense of satisfaction, but it’s persevering through struggle. That is where the magic lies. I love Sir Roger Banister’s quote. The late Sir Roger banister, the first person to break the four minute mile. And his quote was a struggle gives meaning and richness to life. And, of course, he was talking about his pursuit of the world record in the mile and the incredible athletic accomplishments that he achieved. But he was talking about the enjoyment and the appreciation of the process rather than this obsession with the end result and success and wealth and fame and all the things that have spun outta control in today’s life.

Brad (00:33:44):
So let’s think about maybe grab a copy of Dr. Lustig’s book, The Hacking of the American Mind, and you can learn how all these dopamine triggers that are strongly driven by marketing forces, corporate marketing forces that seek to make a profit off of indulging our consumption and entertainment needs. I’d much, much prefer. That is to say, I’d much prefer writing a book to watching a ton of shows on television, or even reading a bunch of books or a bunch of articles and information on the internet at certain point. I start to feel that that burn deep inside, where I want to transition from information gathering stage to writing. And I kind of do this backwards at times where, you know, the proper way maybe to write a book is in the old days, it would go to the library, check out a stack of books, take notes, formulate a plan, formulate an outline.

Brad (00:34:40):
But a lot of times I purposely go backward where I’ll just get out of the, open up the file and start typing and start actually writing pages of the book before I properly know entirely what I’m talking about. And then I will kind of back into my story after a bunch of stuff is written because I wanna make it purposely hard out of the gate, rather than sitting back in my relaxing chair and reading a bunch of stuff other people wrote that will help me one day write the book. I’d rather kind of fact check after I talk outta my ass and write a bunch of stuff and then realize, oh, I was off track a little bit here. These two books really told the story well and that I can correct and revise my work, as an editor having already written something that maybe came from the heart or came from my own inference that can be improved upon after I do the research. You get what I’m saying? And those are just little tricks and devices to try to continue to move forward with a manuscript project rather than get stuck.

Brad (00:35:47):
People call it writer’s block where they’re just reading other stuff all day and they can’t type on the blank screen. And that’s never happened to me because of this strategy where I just start cranking away and writing down what, what I’m thinking, what I’m feeling, and then work through it later. Okay. So, the reward and the satisfaction of persevering through challenges by using skills that I’ve worked hard to develop, uh, that I think is the essence of a rich and meaningful life. And of course, that comes from writing books and it comes in many other pathways too, especially, the pursuit of athletics and fitness goals. Oh my gosh. If it were easy to jump over the high jump bar, it wouldn’t be as fun as when I’m super frustrated out there. And almost to the point of, you know, breaking down, screaming in the air, like, why can’t I get this technique attribute right.

Brad (00:36:38):
I’ve tried and tried. I’m watching the video. I’m cursing at the video of myself high jumping because my right leg is still dragging too low, close to the ground, and I can’t seem to do it. Why is it that hard? And, uh, boy, when you do finally make progress, it feels so good. So, look for difficult challenges, all areas of life and paradoxically that is going to be the path to more happiness and satisfaction. That’s what things like the cold exposure is all about, right? And the people who are promoting that, it’s like, what is that crazy notion of jumping into cold water and until you do it, and until you make it a habit, you won’t realize the richness and the value that it has, and the great appreciation that you have for, let’s say things like going straight from the cold plunge into the warm spa, the warm shower, right?

Brad (00:37:32):
So a little bit of a struggle and challenge thrown in there sprinkled into our comfortable, modern life can pay great dividends. So back to my daily routine and what’s going on. I mentioned recording a podcast as door number one, or I’m opening up the manuscript and cranking away and working on actual writing. I’m also doing things that you could call business operations, working with the team. We got a lot of people involved in this podcast. I got a lot of other cool things going on, like the development of nutritional products and online educational courses. I’m working with the primal health coach company, right now, as I record this in late 2021 on a top secret fitness project, it’s gonna be super fantastic. Doing things like redesigning the website, working with those professionals.

Brad (00:38:26):
So there’s a lot of personal interaction with other people that are making a contribution. We’re making a contribution together. And a lot of that comes through email, which is a fantastic mode of communication. I love it. I’ve been an incredible consumer, contributor with email for many, many years. I think it’s a lot better than the phone because you can kind of protect your productivity level of your day better when everything’s going over email, except for the truly important phone calls. And so I’m trying to minimize that phone time during the workday to an absolute bare minimum. And that has been a wonderful thing to open up more productivity, less stress, because again, when the phone rings, you are in reactive mode, whatever you were doing, you have to kind of put down or you can ignore the phone call. But you know what I’m saying, how the phone can easily get you off track, whereas email, at least you’re still in the proactive mode.

Brad (00:39:28):
Unfortunately, it does leak into, uh, the picture where it’s potentially diverting you from getting into that, you know, that 90 minute zone that Dr. Huberman talks about, where you’re in your intense concentration and pursuing the highest expression of your talents without interruption or without diversion of focus. So if you can use it to your advantage, it’s great. If you can’t, and this is what I’m copping to right now, when that window is open and somehow I flick over there, maybe it’s because I need to send something. And so I want to compose a single email and ask a question to someone because it’s relating to the book project that working on right now. But guess what happens when you go over there and compose a single email, that’s right. You’re gonna be looking at your inbox and responding to 10 exciting new messages that have come through.

Brad (00:40:29):
So it requires tremendous discipline to avoid making email and energy drain a place of constant potential distraction. I kind of like the idea that a lot of people advocate of batching your interaction with email. So you go on there for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, and I’ve never really executed that well myself for some reason. But it’s one suggestion that seems to make sense if you have that discipline and if it can fit with the workplace dynamics that you have. Maybe people are waiting five hours for your reply. So that’s not really gonna work for certain people where the team is counting on you for a prompt response. I also, so, like I also like the idea of striving to maximize your efficiency with your use of email like concise answers, having pre pre-printed responses to things that come up commonly, right?

Brad (00:41:37):
If I get a bunch of questions about this or that I’m gonna paste in a prepared response, maybe edit it a bit from the template. But that can be a really good time saver. I love how my friend Joe Ochoa, a super productive fast-paced hard working guy is very efficient with his email replies using the software tool Loom to deliver a video response to the email. So you can actually see a screen visual of him pointing with a mouse at the stuff I wrote in this lengthy email. And he’s just commenting on it, without having to lift a finger to type any keys. Greg Merrilys of Studio One Designs, the people who redesigned my website in Australia, fantastic company. And that’s how he communicates with his clients as well. He just flicks on the camera and says, “Hey, here’s what I think about the, the last four emails that you wrote me.”

Brad (00:42:37):
So, people who are immersed in a lot of back and forth maybe think about some of those tools. Okay. So that was a look at the things I might be doing during my workday. Right. And I will admit to fooling around plenty and frittering away time with this thing or that thing, especially doing stuff around the house. Maybe it’s a micro workout. Maybe it’s going and making a meal and, oh, I should go make some more kombucha as well. So the quick snack or the quick meal turned into a longer period time in the kitchen. But I also will admit that I’m totally dedicated to pursuing the highest expression of my talents, my gifts, my passions, by creating content and spreading that message. And so I love doing that. I love being productive.

Brad (00:43:33):
I love spreading the message and I’m totally committed to the process, such that even if no one listens, even if no one’s out there commenting or liking or buying the book, it’s still, that’s my calling. And I get great satisfaction from the process of cranking out content in this example. And believe me, this has been the case, cuz I’ve written over 20 books at this point and a handful of them, no one’s ever read, they were never published. It was just the journey of writing the book, improving my skills as a writer. Some of the books we’ve had great success with and that’s really nice to have a winner. The Keto Reset diet is still highly ranked on Amazon and one of the top selling, uh, books on the ketogenic diet ever. And so that’s been great. But boy, the people don’t see the stuff that’s sitting here on my hard drive and you know, it never turned into a winning project.

Brad (00:44:31):
But it’s all good because it all contributes to that rich, meaningful, satisfying life. And so that’s an important point, cause I think it’s easy for us these days to work hard, try hard, have big ambitions. Oh, we’re doing a startup, we’re building a new app and then it fails it, tanks something happen and you’re depressed, discouraged, and kind of into a rut because you didn’t succeed on a material level or meet the expectation that you thought. And I think we need to get out of that mindset, no matter what. So it’s important to never get discouraged, but to continue to, and try to be the best you can be regardless of the outcome and to release your the attachment of your self-esteem to the outcome of what you’re doing. I’m really enjoying how some of the leaders, cultural leaders, business leaders are conveying this idea more and more in recent years.

Brad (00:45:32):
And, a lot of times it might seem like blather when you listen to a billionaire interviewed on the podcast and his main goal in life is to give back and see how he can be in service to others and all that great stuff. But then you start to realize that they really mean it and they believe it. And we’ve had kind of a transition, in the nature of the economy and society to the extent that you can actually march through life with this goal of being in service to others and making a contribution and giving and be rewarded for it in a way that maybe was more difficult when the economy wasn’t so smart, intelligent, and using the internet to connect people. So, by that example, I mean, Hey, look at these people on Instagram who are posting great videos every day about how to exercise.

Brad (00:46:23):
And these are some interesting techniques that you can use here and there, and everything’s free. You never have to buy anything from them. But of course people are going to drift over and very likely purchase some of their for sale content. But that being said, boy, you can just spend the rest of your life on YouTube and become highly educated without having to, uh, participate in economic transaction. And that’s really cool. Okay. So, on a good day, I’m creating in content and I can have something to show for at the end of the day. But typically what’s happening at some level, either mild to severe, is I’m doing what my former podcast guest, Gretchen Rubin called procrast-a-clearing. Procrast-a-clear time. What means as you can guess from the term that she made up is somehow getting your mind, right?

Brad (00:47:22):
Getting your mind clear so that you can immerse yourself into deep work. But it’s kind of a little game that we play. I know it especially comes up for me when it’s time to, uh, get deep into the incredible challenge of working on a manuscript is I will do other things instead in the name of clearing my mind and getting my, my thoughts sorted out or my errands, knocked off before I start in with the book. Oh, yes. There’s some travel plans to make. There’s some bills to pay. There’s some crap to buy on Amazon. Oh. And then there’s this household chore because, it seems like it is time to vacuum. And then, and only then will I feel, motivated and clearheaded enough to plunge deep in. I think in a way I’m not gonna beat myself up too bad over this.

Brad (00:48:11):
Maybe you can relate, maybe you do this yourself. But I notice when I’m procrast-a-clearing extensively that finally ultimately, some pressure and some energy will build up internally to the point where I get a little chippy with myself going, “All right,. Now come on.” You’ve done enough chores. Get your ass up to your screen and start in. And so whatever it takes to kind of create that pressure, that tension and that motivation that drive to get going, I’m gonna accept that that’s okay, once in a while. And also guess what? I got a lot of organizing and paper shuffling and rearranging my desk. And now it does look cleaner and more tidy. And so it’s not all lost. I wasn’t frittering away time merely indulging in high jump videos on YouTube. But again, it’s a little bit of a diversion technique that probably could be cleaned up or at least a careful watch remaining on it so that the procrast-a-clearing does not get out of hand. I can’t believe I pronounced that beautifully three times. Cuz a lot of times you can try it yourself. Say it, three times out loud, fast procrast-a-clear procrast-a-clear, procrast-a-clear. Thanks, Gretchen.

Brad (00:49:17):
Okay. So now let’s say a fairly productive morning has played out nicely and we’re getting to midday and it’s probably time to talk a little bit about food, right? We haven’t mentioned that at all. We’ve just been working out, typing away, dealing with the email inbox. So, just as I mentioned with my six to different workout options, my typical quote unquote typical day will actually be, uh, an assortment of options. And there’s a great deal of variability in my daily dietary patterns. And I want to put in a plug right now for that variability because I think it’s really healthy to be free from any addiction compulsion and regimentation

Brad (00:50:15):
when it comes to eating or when it comes to anything really. I don’t wanna have to create any frustration or tension because my eating habits have not gone perfectly according to plan. So I wanna be open and flexible and realize that if you do the hard work to become fat adapted, that you don’t have to rely on regular meals as we have been trained to our entire lives, when we’re immersed that high carbohydrate dietary pattern where our primary source of energy is dietary carbohydrates rather than the primary source of energy being stored body fat, which is ideal for human health and longevity. So that’s the short, uh. the long way of saying that I don’t really need food to start my day or even continue deep into my day. So that’s one of the choices. Number one would be if I’m busy, if I’m, uh, on the camera, on the microphone and there’s no break, I’ll have absolutely nothing until I’m just starting to build up hunger sensations eventually.

Brad (00:51:27):
And so once in a while, I will last until 1:00 PM 2:00 PM sometimes even later than that, before I consume any calories. So that would be door number one is I’m just busy going with the flow who knows, maybe I’m traveling. I jumped in the car for an early morning car ride trying to beat traffic and no talk of food or meals until deep into the afternoon. Mainly, I’d say this is probably the most common, is that I’m not sitting down to big meals in the morning hours, but I am nibbling on my wonderful collection of dark chocolate. And so I will have some bites of dark chocolate here and there, leading me toward a significant midday meal. So that would be door number two is the chocolate until lunch strategy there. This is very common because I’m sitting here in my office doing work in the morning and the chocolate stash is within arm’s reach and it’s delicious.

Brad (00:52:30):
And it does take the edge off of a complete and total fast, which in my personal case, I don’t see that as a high priority. My main focus here is on athletic performance as well as longevity and recovery from athletic performance and working out. So with my body composition at the optimal level and my blood work also looking good. My insulin fasting insulin was 2.3, which is very low. My triglycerides were 27, which is extremely low, possibly too low by some accounts. Chris Kelly mentioned this on our interview, the Nourish Balance Thrive proprietor. And so I am not in that category where I’m going to accumulate a bunch of benefits or improve blood markers by engaging in aggressive and extensive fasting. So that’s kind of changed some of my habits and my approach in recent years when I realized, look, my main thing as I head into, um, you know, the later decades and the increasing importance of promoting longevity is to preserve lean muscle mass as I age and preserve athletic competency more so than correcting my, my blood values or getting rid of my spare tire.

Brad (00:54:01):
So for others, fasting can be the incredible gateway to all kinds of metabolic health improvements. And so that could be much more, much more closely examined. I end up fasting extensively anyway. A lot of times it’s the nibbles of dark chocolate until 12 noon with the previous meal being ended at 8:00 PM or so. And so that that’s banking a lot of fast hours anyway. But that brings me to bullet point number three, which is my recent fascination and devotion to a super nutrition smoothie sometime in the morning hours. And this is what I consider to be a strategic ingestion of you could call it medicine. It’s a dose of incredible nutrient dense foods with the specific goal of improving my athletic performance and recovery and the nutritional quality of my diet. So I’m trying to maximize the nutrient of my diet is my main dietary goal, as well as enjoy myself.

Brad (00:55:11):
But this smoothie preparation is contemplated to give me the maximum amount of nutrients I need in a very easy delivery form, such that I’m not a sweating over perfect optimization of all these meals. And so what goes in there are frozen chunks of raw liver, raw eggs, oftentimes duck eggs, the bigger ones, some excellent protein powder, and then a concoction of different performance agents that I’ve been making myself in consultation, some great experts, like Mark Sisson and Ben Greenfield, Paul Saladino. And so I throw in all these other agents, creatine, glutamine, things like that. And so it’s all going into this, uh, smoothie mixture. The base is typically raw milk. If I can find that at a good grocery store or one of the, almond or coconut milks will go in there. A little bit of carbohydrate in the form of frozen banana or chunks of frozen papaya or mango.

Brad (00:56:16):
A lot of whey protein, also some collagen protein, a whole bunch of ancestral supplements, pills, various different products, starting with MOFO and including numerous other ones. So I’m taking extra prostate, I’m taking their new mineral compilation. I’m taking things like lung and trachea and just dumping it all in there rather than swallowing 24 pills, just stick ’em in the smoothie container. I’m throwing in cinnamon and vanilla to make sure the flavor is okay. It’s still a very strong liver flavor because that’s my main delivery vehicle for the most nutrient dense food on earth that is liver. I’m not big on integrating into meals. I don’t do a great job at that, but at least I’m getting several ounces through the smoothie. And so again, this has been a devotion that’s been only in the recent year or so. But I think it’s been working great for me to get all that nutritional density in and blend it up and drink that.

Brad (00:57:17):
And of course it’s extremely filling when you heard what goes in there. And so that has kind of recalibrated my dietary needs for real food where I can actually relax and not really have any hunger sensations until dinnertime when I hit this thing hard sometime in the late morning hours. That’s not every single day but I’m getting better and better about that, especially in my particular situation here where I’m trying for peak performance recovery and nutrient density. So I’m gonna strongly recommend it. And as I told you, I’m coming out with a super fantastic protein, super fuel product that will be the centerpiece of this smoothie. Putting together all the stuff I do by hand into a single product. So that would be choice number three, that I, and the first one was absolutely nothing.

Brad (00:58:06):
The second one was dark chocolate until a proper midday meal. The third one was this super nutrition smoothie. And then the fourth one would be describing when this proper lunch comes about. And usually I’m very narrow in my food choices, cuz I love every single day. I’m like, what should I make? And I’m gonna make eggs, steak and the fried mini corn tortillas to wrap it up and send it down. Delicious. I put a little chillula sauce on there and oftentimes guacamole or avocado. I’ve taken pictures of these preparations on my Instagram and you can see some of the stuff I post there. They’re pretty similar, right? So I’m not getting incredibly creative in preparing these gourmet meals. So that is the food discussion getting us to midday. And we’ll talk a little bit more about food when we talk about the evening meal.

Brad (00:58:57):
So that brings us into the afternoon hours and I’m still trying to stay focused and productive. A lot of things can throw me off such as a mere trip to the kitchen for a meal. And especially if I’m having to run around somewhere outside. As you can hear from the recording so far, I’m trying to stay in the control tower, so to speak and getting out and about and running errands. I absolutely despise it. It causes me, so much diversion from focus. And so I’m trying to minimize my trips out into the world, especially for shopping and going to store. So that’s why I’m so happy to be able to shop on the internet and not have to be running all over town. It’s really hard for me to gain momentum after a binge of errands, because guess what?

Brad (00:59:52):
Oh, what’s near the next errand? A golf course. Oh right. I’m gonna go hit some balls and there goes another 45 minutes. And, by the time I get back, I’m maybe tired from running around town and, um, yeah, it doesn’t doesn’t work great for me. So, when it’s time to run around town, I really do like to batch that. So I’ll build up the pressure for days and days. And by the time, you know, I’m midway through the week, I haven’t left the house yet, then I can go and do six things at once. That’s great. And no discussion of the afternoon time block would be complete without mentioning the all important nap. And I’ve definitely become a professional napper in my adult life. I think dating back to my days as a professional triathlete when I was training so hard that I absolutely positively had to go down for around two hours every afternoon to absorb all the workout stress, and then get up again and have to go do another workout after the nap.

Brad (01:00:55):
And boy, those were tough days, man. That was, that was a rough feeling. When you wake up from that nap, you feel a little groggy cuz two hours is a long duration for a nap, realizing that I was still facing a swim workout that evening or a run or whatever was still left on the slate. Yep. Those triathletes work hard. I think harder as hard or harder than athletes in any other sport, I’m gonna put Tour de France cyclists up there. I’m gonna put boxers and MMA fighters and the diverse training they have to do. Maybe a basketball player, especially at the NBA level where they’re playing, you know, 82 or more games per year. What an incredible grind and the diverse athletic skills necessary to excel in basketball. But as far as pure endurance training and getting out there and working hard in three different sports, the triathletes are, are very impressive.

Brad (01:01:44):
I can’t even believe the regimen that I adhered to back then. So that nap is going to happen. I would say the majority of the days of my life, maybe it’s five days a week. I can’t be sure. But I usually have fantastic benefits experience from even a very short duration nap. So I have no problem fitting this into my schedule, so to speak. And I will go down for around 20 minutes. And I usually notice cuz I’m using the the raindrops app on my iPhone, and it tells how long the rain has been falling. And so I realize that my nap was only 20 minutes, but I wake up feeling fantastic and yes, indeed I almost all the time actually fall asleep and, and go out as soon as I close my eyes. And I think this has been from devoted practice and habit forming.

Brad (01:02:39):
I talk to so many people that say, oh, I, I, I can’t relax. I never take a nap. And if I do I just lay there and I don’t fall asleep. And I think we have to give ourselves permission to go down for the nap. Get it a beautiful environment where it’s completely dark ideally, and you have a white noise miss machine or things that unplug you from any potential disruption, even mild disruption, and then give yourself permission to nap for as long as you need. Cause I think one thing that messes us up is knowing that we only have 30 minutes before an important engagement later in the afternoon and we don’t really relax fully or get into that parasympathetic state because our mind’s racing about what’s ahead. And so I never put a time limit on my nap.

Brad (01:03:29):
I will go down saying, Hey, I’m gonna sleep as long as I need. Usually it’s that short duration of around 20 minutes and I will wake up feel fantastic and be rarin’ to go and on occasion I will go down for longer. And these are directly associated with things like a high intensity workout earlier in the day. Or of course, traveling and adjusting to jet lag is gonna put you into deep napping mode where the time duration might be longer, but it rarely longer than 40 minutes. Not that I have any aversion to taking a longer nap. My sister’s a professional napper as well, and she will go for a marathon two and a half, three hour nap on the weekend because her sleep is compromised as a physician during the week. But that, that’s not my case, right.

Brad (01:04:20):
I’m sleeping in a very tight, uh, window every single night with extensive sleep, averaging around nine hours. So I don’t have that intense need. But that, key napping period of 20 minutes, I feel like when I wake up, I’m vastly more productive and cognitively focused to the extent that it benefits my productivity rather than gives me a check mark against it that I wasted 20 minutes of time in the afternoon. That’s been strongly supported by scientific research and therefore I want to give a very strong plug for taking that cognitive break during the afternoon time when we have a natural lull in our circadian rhythm anyway, and going down for a nap. Now during the warm summer months, when it’s possible to lay outside in the sun, I love that experience. I’ll get some good vitamin D production, some tanning going on and it just feels nice to soak up sun as part of the nap.

Brad (01:05:20):
And so that period of time, I’ll try to maximize that as much as possible or so I’m either out in the sun, of course with nice blindfold and my face covered from the sun. Cause I don’t want to get extra sun on my face. I don’t need that. But I’ll have the rest of my body exposed laying there in a bathing suit trying to maximize vitamin D production. So it’s either out in the sun or it’s pitch dark, indoor location because again, it’s hard enough to go down for a properly falling asleep during the day. So I think finding a dark spot is really great and my recording studio is great for that, cuz it’s a pitch black even in the middle of the day. Okay. And then I’m working away working away. But the, the afternoon is a really good opportunity to get sidetracked and allow your peak cognitive focus to drift a bit and definitely happens to me, especially if I’m engaged in prolonged work time at the computer without taking little breaks for things like micro workouts or maybe a meal or some social interaction or something.

Brad (01:06:33):
And so if I’m cranking away, cranking away, I’m usually gonna donate some of that time back, uh, with a diversion. And it’s often going over to YouTube to look at high jump videos or immerse deeper into click click and learn more about the stats of one of the great jumpers. For example, did you know that the German Carlo Thranhardt holds the current master’s world record in my division of 55 to 59 in the high jump at a height of 1.9 meters. That’s six feet, five inches off the ground. That is like a state finalist level high school, a varsity athlete, high jumper, and this old man in the 55 to 59 division can jump that incredible height. And if you don’t recognize the name, guess what he is the number two jumper of all time indoors in the high jump with this height back in his prime of 7’11” .

Brad (01:07:33):
So, his attrition in 35 years from his prime into the master’s division, he’s about 20 inches shorter than his all time best. He jumped 6’5″ as an old man and seven7’11” in his prime. And by comparison, I jumped five feet in high school and was able to jump 5’4″ at age 51. So, and not only have, has there been no attrition, I’ve gained four inches of positive improvement, therefore, I’ve kicked Carlo’s ass in that department. So I got that to show for me, not that I’m ever gonna be able to jump 6’5″ at the age of 55 and that record’s held for a long time, so good for him. And it really is cool to see a former elite level, the highest level of elite performer, continuing to enjoy his passion, 35 years later. So he must be doing a lot of things, right.

Brad (01:08:26):
And that’s a good example of, uh, getting diverted. So here we are back with the show after that nice little high jump interlude. One great thing to do in the afternoon is a little micro workout. So that’ll get the blood flowing, the energy boosted again, uh, the cognitive fo function, uh, back a little sharper. So if you can grab some time and go do a set of dead lifts or a set of pull ups, or one thing I do is I just sprint up the flight of stairs any, and every time I climb stairs throughout the day. So if I see a staircase it’s meant for sprinting up and that’s kind of fun and it definitely breaks up the day and then I don’t mind going up and down stairs. I forgot something. I don’t care. It’s just another opportunity to attack the stairs.

Brad (01:09:14):
I also find that if I’m really cranking that my brain needs a break over and above the nap time. And one thing I’ll do, especially on a cold day is just jump in the hot tub and zone out for anywhere from five to 15 minutes. And I think this is a unique genetic particular to me that I need this brain break. But I just can’t sustain that long term unbroken cognitive focus. I find that my brain will just fry and I know Mia Moore’s different. She can crank away for 12 hours straight seemingly to know ill effects. But I I’m sort of this crash and burn type of pattern where I can go, go, go. Maybe I’m getting some work, good work done on my manuscript, but I will soon be found sitting in the jacuzzi, just zoning out to kind of recalibrate.

Brad (01:10:10):
And so I gleefully take those opportunities to stay finely tuned and try to aware of those times where the brain does need to turn off. I think we’re so bombarded with digital stimulation that we can kind of compromise these, precious moments that we used to have routinely. So when we were standing in line at the bank or the grocery store or at a red light and zoning out, we don’t have those anymore because now we’re playing a podcast or, doing something to keep the brain constantly stimulated. And this modern life is sometimes overwhelming to me to where I’m just cooked out and I need to go zone out. Okay. So that kind of covers the after or noon time. And now as we wrap up this whole thing, we have a few comments to make for the evening and then we will finish the journey around the clock.

Brad (01:11:10):
Okay. So by and large, I get all of my exercise working out, done almost entirely in the morning hours, save for little bitty micro workouts that might happen throughout the day, except for that golden opportunity speed golf window, which is the final 30 minutes be before dark. So if it’s one of those days, I will rush over to the golf course and get there and head off to the tee right before dark to ensure that there are little or no golfers remaining on the course, especially if I’m starting on the front nine, right?. Everybody’s almost finishing before dark. But I can cover nine holes easily in around 30 minutes. And so I can get a lot of golf in, in a short time and be back home before you know, it in time for dinner. So I was doing this incredibly frequently when I was obsessed with speed golf for many years.

Brad (01:12:05):
And then I went on this cold turkey 18 month away from even swinging a club. Don’t ask me why. And that’s another personality attribute. Like, what are you talking about? This is I lived and breathed this sport for four years. And then I became totally obsessed and captivated with high jumping and sprinting. And so all of my athletic energy was devoted into those workouts to the extent that I just needed a break from speed golf. So I’m kind of, I guess, that extreme personality type in certain ways where it was an all or nothing scene. And, fortunately I’ve returned to the golf course and rekindled my passion for the incredibly wonderful sport of speed golf, partly, deliberately, to balance my devotion who high jumping and sprinting, because I keep getting injured from overdoing it.

Brad (01:12:58):
So now I purposely threw a golf into the mix so that I’ll have a little more balance with my workouts. Say whatever works. Right? Okay. So if I’m out there on the course, I’ll get a quick round in. I’ll be back home. And then when we’re talking about the dinner meal, I think one of the adjustments with quarantine is the dining out is more seldom. Now. I think we’ve all had to adjust and prepare more meals at home. And I do enjoy that because I feel like I can beat most restaurants with my home preparation in terms of food quality, quantity. Right? A lot of times I’m going to the restaurant, especially, you know, a higher end restaurant where it’s like, yeah, that salmon was really delicious, but it was about four or five ounces. I could easily eat two, maybe three of those.

Brad (01:13:46):
So at home we get to cook whatever portions we want. And usually from a superior quality raw materials, I’m a big fan of Butcher Box and US Wellness Meats. So I get the very best meat and animal products available. I love when the delivery comes every month and I’m always stocked with great options for home cooking. And it appears that my dietary choices have become minimized and narrowed. And I feel like there’s a lot of benefits in that realm. For me, it minimizes decision fatigue.It kind of streamlines meal preparation where I’ll have a handful of go-to meals that are easy for me to prepare. I have the supplies right there? I think you get a inadvertent reduction in total caloric intake intake like Dr. Dom D’Agostino was talking about with the ketogenic diet because you have all these restrictions, you’re not eating as much food, and that’s why I’ve joked at times about the C and C diet that I’ve followed to great success, to drop excess body fat that, that creeped on over time because I’m mainly eating a carnivore ish style pattern along with dark chocolate, the C and C diet.

Brad (01:15:05):
Yeah. So I have my go-to meals, steak, salmon, not much turkey or chicken anymore because they have an inferior nutritional profile to red meat. So I’m really loading up on the red meat. Grass fed beef from Butcher Box different cuts like rib eye as well as ground beef. It’s always wild cut salmon, of course. And I have this oxtail stew that I make is fantastic in crock pot. It lasts for several days. I make huge portions and then the mini corn tortillas will often find their way into the meal. And I pan fry those with delicious first cold press, extra Virgin olive oil. And I just kind of, I could eat the same thing every day. As far as carbs, I’m getting so efficient dose from the incidental carbs found in dark chocolate in my smoothie, as I mentioned, with those frozen fruit opportunities going in there. And then frequently sweet potatoes or squash or things like that will be participating in the evening meal.

Brad (01:16:12):
We’re especially fond of these purple Okinawa style sweet potatoes that are dark purple on the outside and dark purple all the way through the inside. Don’t get confused by the ones that are purpleish on the outside and then light on the inside. And, we enjoy these on the big island of Hawaii, and now it’s like, they’re hard to find in stores, but, ah, delicious dark purple, great source of fiber and the nutritious carbohydrate, that can be a good addition to the diet if you enjoy them. And in my case, I feel like they help me with recovering from especially high intensity exercise. So, my carb intake will be somewhat aligned with the training load to the extent that I kind of naturally gravitate toward bigger servings of carbs when I’m in the aftermath of high intensity workouts.

Brad (01:17:09):
So that’s kind of the home preparations. And then if we are dining out, um, going to try places that I can’t replicate easily at home, right. I think that’s what dining out should be all about. So we’ll definitely hit the happy hour sushi. the PF Changs, the chain has a nice happy hour. And then there’s a guy that sets up a taco truck on the weekends making absolutely fantastic fresh made right there on the side of the road. You just pull over and order up. And he has some organ options too, like buche, cabeza and tripe (stomach.) buche is the throat. The Cabeza is the brain. And making little tacos, mini street tacos out of that. Fantastic. One key point that I’m trying to make here is that I’m not on this gourmet whirlwind mode where I’m sling away on these exotic preparations.

Brad (01:18:02):
I’m keeping my general dietary patterns, very simple, and there’s a lot of fasting and meals skipping going on or odd timed meals going on. Sometimes I’ll feel super hungry at 4:00 PM. I’ll cook up an entire pound of ground beef. Throw some other stuff in there, maybe some eggs, the mini corn tortillas, of course. I’ll eat a ton at that time of day. And then the rest of the night will kind of drift away into maybe some dark chocolate and maybe the occasional bowl of popcorn that I’ve talked about so many times, including the entire show titled The Fatty Popcorn Boy Saga. So what I don’t need is this constant requirement for indulgent and entertainment and knocking my socks off with amazing meals. Nor do I need to sit down in a regimented manner in the morning in the midday and in the evening.

Brad (01:18:59):
And so I think this is an opportunity for all of us to reflect on how we have this constant potential for dazzling cuisine and instant gratification. I mean, it’s a huge industry, right? You can drive down the road and find a hundred restaurants within miles of your home. We can also order up and push the button and get any kind of food we want delivered to the home. And so I think there’s a place in life for indulgence and the experience of a beautiful cuisine. Mainly going hand in hand with traveling would be something that comes to mind. But in day to day life, I’m second guessing that need to be constantly wowed and, uh, indulged by every single meal. And so instead, of course I want to enjoy what I eat and, and things that I don’t enjoy, but I’m mainly focused on increasing the nutrient density of my diet.

Brad (01:20:00):
So I’m picking stuff that tastes good and offers a lot of nutritional benefit, like the smoothie that I mentioned earlier. And so, when I look at the things I enjoy the most and have high nutrient density, that’s where I get this C and C pattern of the animal based meals and the dark chocolate. And please go to my website, Brad kearns.com, scroll to the bottom of the homepage click, and you can download The Carnivore Scores food rankings chart, where Kate Cretsinger and I, the co-creators of this wonderful chart, uh, provide a tiered system that you can observe at a glance tape, the piece of paper, print out the PDF, tape it to your refrigerator, and you can strive to emphasize the foods that are in the higher tiered rankings. For example, the lauded superstars in food, the highest nutrient dense foods in the world would be liver, oysters, salmon eggs.

Brad (01:20:59):
And then we have up high ranked are the other organ meats, grass fed beef, oily, cold water fish, pasture eggs. And so on down, down the tiers. We have a whole bunch of approved plant foods that have high nutrient density and minimal concerns with plant toxin reactivity. So things like avocados, raw honey, the fresh berries, things like that. And so if you just look at this chart, you can kind of get into a good rhythm of including super nutritious foods that you enjoy and having these nutrient dense meals that give you incredible pleasure and also high satiety. So when you’re eating rich meals that have high nutrient density, you automatically have higher satiety and love. I love this argument presented by Dr. Robert Lustig and others. Uh, but Lustig describing it on my show that it’s virtually impossible to accumulate excess body fat over time.

Brad (01:22:04):
If you are eliminating processed foods and eating only predominantly nutrient dense foods, I think we can all relate to this. Have you ever been to the omelet bar and felt stuffed and terrible because you overate, you had three omelets instead of two, or you ate too many steaks at the steakhouse? These occasions are far less common than overeating with the potato chips in the ice cream and the nutrient deficient food. Dr. Ted Naiman, who was a guest on the show and William Shewfelt also a guest on the show, together they wrote this wonderful book called the PE diet, the Protein to Energy ratio diet. You can find it on Amazon. And, Dr. Ted describes really nicely on our show, how the protein, the protein lever theory, I believe it’s called whereby the brain and the appetite and satiety receptors in our bodies are calibrated to, uh, compel us to consume calories until we meet our daily average protein requirements, because protein is the essential survival macronutrient, right?

Brad (01:23:12):
So that’s what we really strongly desire in order to survive and support general everyday body function. So if we are consuming a bunch of nutrient deficient, processed foods, especially the pairing of carbohydrate and fat together, as you see in all banner of indulgent foods, if you think about what ice cream is, cheesecake, uh, pasta with meat sauce on it, all the pairings, right? Bread and butter, for example. And so on down the line. If we consume a lot of those foods that are very low in protein, we’re gonna continue to eat them and eat them and eat them because we have not yet met our protein needs. In contrast, if we emphasize protein in the diet and we have meals like the omelet or servings of oily cold water, fish, or steak, and things like that in good quantity, we’re gonna feel completely satisfied because we have met our survival needs, and it’s gonna turn off those appetite receptors that compel us to go looking for sweets. Really interesting concept.

Brad (01:24:20):
And it’s nice to see a protein kind of emerging at the forefront again, as a popular dietary trend, especially because for a while there, uh, the experts were warning us against consuming excess protein, because it could advance the growth factors in the bloodstream and increase risk of cancer. And now a lot of this has been strongly refuted and deemphasize that the body can do just fine, even when consuming what was previously considered to be too much protein. So I think a final note here I should mention is that, as I tone down my fascination for creating exotic desserts, even the healthy keto approved ones, once in a while sure fun. But when you start to get deep into this stuff off and, and overdo it, kind of turns into a habit. Of course, this stuff tastes good and gives you pleasure, but I’m gonna vote here.

Brad (01:25:15):
and declare that it feels much better to live life at 162 pounds than it did at 172 pounds. As I describe in The Fatty Popcorn Boy Saga podcast episode, where I just allowed little leakages and loosening up of the reigns here and there, especially with the evening popcorn binge to the extent that I was walking around still at a healthy body weight, no doctor or medical professional gonna be concerned. But it was a difference for someone who’s interested in athletics, particularly high jumping, jumping off the ground is a little easier when you have 10 pounds less of body fat. And I thank so much my private high jump coach that I’ve met here in Sacramento, the former Olympic triple jumper, Victor Sotnikov. When we met on the very first day when I was so excited to find an actual Olympian and longtime elite level coach available for hire, that could help me with my high jump.

Brad (01:26:15):
And I walked out to the track. We met, and I was so enthusiastically telling him about my training regimen. And yeah, I used to be a triathlete and I like doing this stuff, and this is how I work out. And he said, so, are you going to reduce your body weight? I said, I guess so, if you say so coach. And that was a nice wake up call, of course. Why wouldn’t that be one of the major variables when you’re talking about jumping higher off the ground? Okay. So though, when it is time to indulge, I don’t wanna sound like a spoil sport here. But when it’s time to indulge, make sure that you enjoy the crap out of it, and that your choices are extremely precise and high minded and indulgent in celebratory. So on those hot summer nights, when we feel like driving across us town to get to the homemade ice cream store and wait in line like everybody else, and have it be this celebration, this special event in the community. Or when we’re traveling to Seattle, land of the wonderful handmade ice cream shops, of course, you’re gonna find me there in line ordering up big servings, enjoying the heck out of it, but recalibrating to more of a streamlined, basic starting point of go-to meals that are nutrient dense and not necessarily super duper indulgent.

Brad (01:27:37):
Okay. Now we’re getting into the evening hours. What’s going on? What about your evening leisure time? Well, yes, indeed. I enjoy visiting, socializing, maybe watching, some of our favorite shows. I’m very particular with my entertainment choices, so, uh, it has to be good or great. Otherwise I’m just not interested and especially, I feel like my brain’s tired in the evening. So, engaging in more screen, a lot of times it’s overwhelming to me and I just need to chill out and go sit in the jacuzzi. I love taking my dog for a pretty lengthy walk in the evening. And, it’s, you know, giving her the best life possible, uh, including the, the morning outing as well. So, uh, the other thing I have to mention is that, if I had been goofing around sufficiently during the day, I’m often compelled to catch up.

Brad (01:28:30):
And so I wish I could say it’s always evening leisure time, but a lot of times I’m sitting there with the computer on my lap because I was out there spliting speed golf before dark and in the winter time, that means I’m departing from the workplace at 4:00 PM or 4:15. So that’s pretty early, pretty early knockoff time. Or if I’ve been working out a lot in the morning, sometimes those, uh, morning session, morning exercise session, high jump session, coming back, recovering, making the smoothie, and then I’m starting work really late. And so I’m on the catch up mode in the evening. And, that’s okay. I’m, I’m okay controlling my own destiny here and I’m not complaining about it. So, speaking of good shows, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Hard to top that one. Watching office reruns with my daughter, the ultimate at Office aficionado. Of course, a movie, carefully picked movie, enjoying The Morning Show with the great actors involved there.

Brad (01:29:31):
Everyone’s telling me I should watch this show Ted Lasso. So I finally gave it a look and we loved it. One thing I especially like about that is there’s so much programming that’s of this high intensity, extreme emotion, extreme drama, like someone’s life is really screwed up and we’re gonna watch them go and commit a bunch of crimes or whatever it is. And it seems like there’s too much programming that bends in that direction. And I think it has high shock value to the audience. It draws you in, but I’m tired of watching that crap. And so watching this guy with this ultimate positive attitude and positive energy, yeah, it’s really fun. And I think we, uh, we need more of that like lower shock value, you know, destruction of society type, uh, programming that, you know, the murders and the investigations and all that stuff.

Brad (01:30:24):
I goes on enough in real life. Huh. So that’s my vote for, uh, more lighthearted stuff. I guess the, the comedy stuff like Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office would fall in that category too. So there you go. There’s my preferences. And then as we get near the end of the clock, the bedtime ritual, you know, what I seem to go down on cue really easily. So my incredible devotion to grabbing the orange lenses or spending the last hour by candlelight or taking a warm bath, like Ariana Huffington recommends to wind down, I wind down with the snap of the finger. So I don’t have an intense need to wind down. Those of you who have trouble winding down. Yeah. Let’s try a bunch of stuff, including a 30 second cold shower or turning off the screen early.

Brad (01:31:21):
But a lot of times the screen will be the thing I do, which is exactly what I don’t recommend. But I have no problem doing it. So I’m giving myself a little bit of leeway there, saying with Mia Moore. Even to more extreme, she will, uh, flip off the mobile device, roll over and go into, hibernation mode for the next seven or eight hours. No problem. And so right around 10:00 PM is when the dim light melatonin onset floods my system big time. And I start to become nonfunctional really quickly. I’m just ready to go down and I fall asleep, uh, with no problem. So I’d say the lights out are almost always around 10:30 PM with very minimal standard deviation from that 10:30 PM lights out. And then as I described before, that’s gonna get me up around 7:30 AM for a nine hour stint, maybe, longer than that coming off of days of intense exercise.

Brad (01:32:22):
And of course the seasonal variation that I talked about in show number one. And my bedtime habits are very particular and prickly has to be just right. I can’t have any darn noise in the room or any light, what so ever, even with a blindfold, I can, I can sense I have a sixth sense, that, uh, someone is up messing with their tiny little screen with a little tiny bit of light emitting into the room. And, it kind of throws me off. So a warning right there. Okay. So I am wearing the blindfold. I’m trying to create a room that is completely dark as dark as possible. We’re always running the essential oils. I like things like cinnamon lemon eucalyptus, just for my favorite smells. I can’t smell very well. So I need really strong and I put in like way more drops than necessary.

Brad (01:33:15):
Sometimes I’ll burn out the motor accordingly and have to get a new essential oil diffuser. I have white noise going both with the Chilipad. You have a choice to have the Chilipad operating on silent, or it can put out some pretty nice white noise. And I have a HEPA filter. It’s a combination air filter, and deionizer in the room that’s cranking on high. If I do have to get up in the middle of the night, I have a red huge flashlight instead of white, cuz we don’t want any of that interference in the middle of the night. And yeah, I admit that I have to get up and pee in the middle of the night. Dr. Phil Maffetone doesn’t like it. He says that’s a sign of adrenal stimulation and Dr. Huberman on his show, says no big deal.

Brad (01:34:02):
He does it too. So I don’t know what to make of that. But I, I wish I didn’t have to, but that’s sometimes the way it goes or frequently. But again, I go back to sleep. No problem. So, I’m glad to report all that. Maybe I’m just lucky, but I’m also gonna attribute this to living a healthy, active lifestyle, making good dietary choices, good exercise choices. And so, that’s pretty boring. No big drama to report on. Going to sleep, staying asleep and waking up. And that takes us around the clock. And if you haven’t listened to episode one, Hey, if you listen to this one first, go back and I’ll start that episode with waking up in the morning. Fun times. I so enjoyed sharing my day with you. Who knows maybe in five years, I’ll do an updated show with differences. But I don’t think so.

Brad (01:34:54):
Cuz I love everything that’s going on. I am planning on continuing and just getting better, especially on that focus part. I would love to hear from you with your feedback comments and sharing your own experiences and we’ll have good content to do a Q and A show in the future, perhaps. So, share with us at the email address of podcastatbradventures.com. And if you like this show or others, Hey, click a button on your podcast player and share it with someone that you think might enjoy it. That helps us so much. I love my Overcast podcast app where I can push a single button and, and prepare a clip of what I’m listening to right at that moment. And it can extend up for 90 seconds. And so, you like something, you push the button and you send a text message to anybody you want saying, Hey, listen to this clip and you might wanna listen to the whole show.

Brad (01:35:54):
I hope you can do that with other apps, but of course you can always, uh, share a link to, uh, the podcast or the podcast episode with other people. And leaving a review also helps so much on apple podcasts or overcast or wherever you consume podcasts. That’s the show. Thanks for listening. 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 bimonthly letter 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 podcast or wherever else, you listen to the shows that would be super in 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 sound bite 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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