Philosophy for Life
Welcome to the Philosophy for Life podcast, hosted by Darron Brown, where we explore the profound questions and timeless wisdom that shape our existence. Join us on a journey of self-discovery and intellectual exploration as we delve into the depths of philosophy, spirituality, ethics, and the human experience. Through thought-provoking discussions, engaging interviews, and insightful analysis, we seek to unravel the mysteries of life and uncover the underlying truths that guide us. Discover practical insights and philosophical perspectives that can enrich your daily life, challenge your perspectives, and inspire personal growth. Whether you're a curious seeker, a deep thinker, or simply someone passionate about understanding the complexities of our world, Philosophy for Life is your gateway to wisdom and enlightenment. Subscribe now and embark on a transformative quest to gain clarity, find purpose, and embrace the profound beauty of existence.
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Philosophy for Life
Mike Vera on Critical Thinking in Health and Wellness
Join us for an engaging conversation with Mike Vera, host of the Healthy and Awake Podcast, as he shares his intriguing shift from personal training to becoming a board-certified health coach. Discover how his journey, influenced by the pandemic, transformed not just his career but also his approach to mindfulness, business, and communication. Mike opens up about the contrasting worlds of personal training and health coaching, revealing how his focus expanded from specific fitness goals to holistic lifestyle changes that encompass nutrition, sleep, and managing stress.
In our discussion, Mike delves into the heart of health coaching, sharing personal stories that highlight the importance of compassion and resilience. He reflects on working with clients facing various struggles and how these experiences have enriched his empathy, allowing him to create a nurturing space for healing and growth. We also tackle the impact of technology on mental health, exploring the role of social media, pharmaceutical solutions, and the challenges of maintaining mental well-being in today's fast-paced world.
Mike's insights extend into cultural influences and systemic pressures that shape our health choices and decision-making. Through anecdotes, he emphasizes the necessity of critical thinking and self-advocacy in both educational and healthcare settings. Our conversation also touches on the power of podcasts in raising health awareness and the importance of maintaining healthy skepticism towards the information we encounter daily. Tune in to explore these transformative insights and gain a fresh perspective on navigating health and wellness in a complex world.
Hey, what's up guys? Your host, Deron Brown. This is the podcast Philosophy for Life. I'm here with Mike Vera. He is the host of Healthy and Awake Podcast. Mike, could you give yourself a short introduction?
Speaker 2:certified health coach. I help people implement lifestyle changes with my health coaching business, and I'm also the host of Healthy and Awake podcast, where I talk to mostly medical doctors from around the world who challenge the status quo in health.
Speaker 1:How long have you been in that field?
Speaker 2:The health coaching well, coaching in general I've been doing for six or seven years now almost a decade and the health coaching in particular has been for the past three years. So I actually transitioned from personal training into board certified health coaching.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, so you're a personal trainer. Are there any kind of I want to say, is there any crossover between both fields? Because I know that when you work with people, you're both in like the health area, but is there any kind of crossover?
Speaker 2:A little bit, but they are very different things and I'm glad you asked that, because a lot of people when I tell them I'm a health coach, they think I'm a personal trainer. And that's not exactly the same thing. And from my experience, personal trainers spend much more time telling you what to do. And you know that's all well and good, because that's kind of what people are coming to you for, like, hey, I want to put on muscle or I want to lose weight. It's like, okay, well, here's the exercises you're going to do, here's how often you're going to do them, here's the way that you're going to do them. And you know that works well. For many people.
Speaker 2:Now, health coaching is quite different, because fitness is usually a topic that we explore, but I don't really tell people what to do as a health coach. So initially they'll come to me and they have some idea of what they want to accomplish, and that could be losing weight. It could be some of the stuff that they might accomplish in the gym. Uh, or it can be. You know I want to work on my nutrition, my sleep, my stress, chronic illness. It could be any of those really health topics, and there's accountability is a big part of it Proper goal setting, motivation, removing obstacles, time management. There's just so many pieces in play when it comes to just about any health goal and personal training. You know, it's really just the fitness you show up, you're going to get your workouts, but health coaching is much more in depth.
Speaker 2:How did you get to health coaching? It's weird, because I kind of just felt like I needed a change, and the pandemic was a big part of it, because I was working in gyms. I was working with meatheads and powerlifting gyms and I love that, but I actually had a sense that gyms were going to close even. You know, as the pandemic approached, I had some feeling that something like that was going to happen, and so I started to make preparations to really just work online, and that's what health coaching allows me to do. And it's a long process because to become specifically a board certified health coach, you have to go through the specific training and experience. You have to have a certain amount of hours that are supervised in coaching. And it just worked out because that is what happened. The gyms closed and I still got to work online. So where are you located? The gyms closed and I still got to work online. So where are you located? Well, I'm from Philly originally, and right now I'm in South Carolina.
Speaker 1:So were you in South Carolina during COVID.
Speaker 2:No, I was in Pennsylvania and I wish I was in South Carolina during COVID, because Pennsylvania I mean there there were people who were just really freaking out and you know, I know everybody has different opinions on COVID and the measures that were taken and all that. I respect people's opinions, but my experience was that a lot of those people took it way too far. I think they let fear really consume them and it allowed them to really make some mistakes and it was just not a healthy environment for me to be in, because I don't want to be around people who are just, like you know, out of their minds with fear all the time. And my experience in South Carolina, which was after the pandemic, to be fair, but people just have a different mentality about that here.
Speaker 1:Reason I asked because I'm in Utah and Utah did not shut down at all. Everything was operating. I remember when my mom came to visit me and she was just like overreacting you guys don't have a mask on Right. Right, Like calm down, we're good. In what way has your life changed since you became a health coach? Has it leveled?
Speaker 2:up. It's leveled up a lot. You know the number one. You know I'm going to come back to the number one thing. Okay, it's. It's made me a more mindful person. It's made me better with business. It's improved my communication skills with people, and I mean listening skills when I say communication, because I I could talk all day. Most people are perfectly okay with talking a bit, are perfectly okay with talking a bit, but listening is a very specific skill that you have to be very good at to be a good health coach. So better listening skills is really powerful.
Speaker 2:But the number one thing that really changed my life from being a health coach is more compassion. And you know, as a young man I got I I consider myself a high testosterone young man and that can actually make compassion sometimes difficult because it kind of makes you a just I'm naturally aggressive, you could say, and compassion is something that is kind of a skill. Also it can take work and it's something that the more you practice compassion, the more default it becomes. And I'm very grateful for that and I don't mean to sound like I'm just a totally discompassionate like Jeffrey Dahmer type person not at all but it is something that I didn't really think much about and you know you have to have that to be present as a health coach and I'm very grateful for really honing in on that compassion.
Speaker 1:I feel you you never know what, what external force, is going to make you do that. But I feel like in life, the goal is to expand. We always judge people by this guy's richer, this guy's poorer, they come from this class, et cetera. But it's all about expansion. That's why you get kids from the upper class that are being reckless because they don't know what it's like to experience things on the down, and the people who are from are in those harder environments. They're trying to get out. But it's all about it's all about experiences, which helps us expand our personality. In what ways? Like, what about the business made you more compassionate and mindful?
Speaker 2:Well, a big part of what I do. First of all, I talk to a lot of people, a lot of different people, with a lot of different struggles and challenges and even traumas that they've gone through. And you know you may have heard the phrase everyone around you is going through a battle you know nothing about. And I feel that every time I work with someone Because really there's things that people are carrying around that they just don't get to talk to people. Maybe their family doesn't understand or they don't care, Maybe they just don't talk to their friends about this because they don't want to be a burden and drop heavy things on their friends.
Speaker 2:And so, as a health coach, I make it very well known that this is a place where you can work these things out and express them and figure out how to overcome them or really how you can move forward so that those aren't even an issue. How can you make yourself not only stronger but more resilient? And you know, feeling that in each session is just really powerful and, I'll admit, sometimes draining, and I'm not complaining about that, but it's very heavy sometimes and you can either let it break you and you can become depressed and sort of carry other people's pain on their behalf, or you can learn to be really compassionate in a in a strong way, I would say, because you do as a coach, I think need that resilience also, so you don't let it get to you.
Speaker 1:I feel what you're saying, man. I had an experience not too long ago that gave me extreme amount of anxiety and I never really had anxiety growing up. So I was kind of like what the hell is going on? What's wrong with my body, why am I acting like this? And it took me a few days to get over that, to get over the major part, and then a few weeks after I felt better.
Speaker 1:But after that experience I literally went through my phone and there were people in my life who were having panic attacks and anxiety and I kind of was just like get over it, or I had no kind of empathy for those people. But until I had that experience myself and I knew what was going on in my body, I felt, I felt like shit because this is it. I felt like shit because it's a whole other pain, that it's a whole other pain, that it's so unique that it's different from boxing in the ring, it's different from getting stabbed. This is like emotional pain that just shuts your body down and you just can't operate Primal, primal. So I can completely relate to that and that experience made me a way better person, way better friend, way better partner. I just know how to handle situations a lot better.
Speaker 2:Well I'm wondering. You mentioned it took you a few days to get over that anxiety. What helped you get over it?
Speaker 1:What helped me get over it was, um, I started I want to give away all my, all my personal stuff. But I'll tell you what. The thing that really helped me get over it was um, I was talking to the person that was uh, I was talking to the person I was having an issue with and then, when I realized that that person really wasn't going to be there for me the way I need them to be there for me, that's when I took responsibility in myself. I was like I need to save myself, because this is like I don't know. I need to save myself, I need to get out of this, I need to get back to being Deron. So I knew one thing.
Speaker 1:I noticed that while I was going through that was usually I have like issues with people Like, um, I want to get revenge on this guy from you know second grade, or this guy did this a few years ago. So I have that like packed into my mind, like, okay, I'll get this guy, I'll get them back. I have all these different little issues or enemies, but when I had that experience, it was like nothing else mattered. I had to let go of everything If I was going to become the person I needed to be and get out of that situation. I had to let go of everything else tie me down and I had to get back to being not the previous version of me but like the version that, the universe spirit that made me to be. Cause I think a lot of people life we we have like splinters, we have layers of like some kind of trauma that prevents us from being our authentic self absolutely, and the only way you get out of that is by letting go and being free. You have to, you have to just let go and just be you. That was the only way I was going to save myself. And then I noticed um, I just noticed over time and then also I met what they um I can't remember the name of his actual title, but it's a guy that helps people with that kind of anxiety, helped me understand what was going on, helped me understand situations better and it made me, it brought me, it brought me down a piece.
Speaker 1:I think he also mentioned a lot of the trauma that people deal with is from the childhood. It's just lost memories that you don't remember and things like that. So that's what helped me get out of the ultimate low. I had to be responsible for saving myself and I had to let go of any kind of anger, jealousy or, you know, any kind of resentment I had towards any kind of person, family member, et cetera. I had to let that go and that's what really helped me get 100. Thanks for asking me that, man, because it was. It was a hell of an experience. I kept it to myself. I recently told my best friend like a week I was like man, I didn't want to tell you because I was embarrassed. I was like man, this is crazy. And he opened up and told me his own experiences that were probably a little bit crazier than mine. I was like, okay, how?
Speaker 2:did you get?
Speaker 1:out of that yeah no-transcript. Thank you, man. I could not sleep. I was waking up at 2 am going for like hour long runs. I was like, oh my goodness, I had so much energy. It's crazy how Mother Nature works. It's like I couldn't stay still. I use that and use that to make myself more productive and ultimately try to become a better version of myself. But you're right, some people, do you know, become alcoholics. It's one of the sides of it, you know?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ok. So yeah, we got off a little bit topic, but I wanted to know the people. When you typically work with these people like, what kind of issues are they dealing with?
Speaker 2:Well, really all kinds. I would say maybe 50% of the people that I work with are dealing with some kind of chronic health issue rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, gut issues like irritable bowel disease, crohn's things like that and so really everybody amongst that group has a different focus, but generally it's reduce the symptoms of your chronic illness, try to avoid medications that are unnecessary, figuring out what I can be doing differently or better. What am I leaving out of my health journey that I should be paying attention to? And so that's the chronic illness people as well. You know, a lot of that applies to people who are more interested in just general health, and a lot of that's driven by the podcast the podcast I do.
Speaker 2:So I might talk about a specific health topic and my audience sees it, and then all of a sudden they're inspired to work on that issue. So I might talk to a cardiologist, or I might talk to someone who's an expert in circadian rhythm, which is often left out of the health discussion, and so then I'll have people coming to me like, hey, I want to go all in on that, let's talk about that and implement that into my life. So I like that. It's very different from person to person. It really keeps me on my toes. It's a challenge and I'm not giving anyone a cookie cutter program.
Speaker 1:It's all individualized thinking it's like diet related, and then a weight is like um, the political, you know the political issues that we have within the country. That's what I was thinking, but this is like on some, this is a whole nother level. Did you always want to go into this type of space specifically, or were you like? What did you know about this area, this space, before moving from bodybuilding?
Speaker 2:I have a mixed answer for that because, I you know, health coaching is still pretty new. It's not something that I even knew about until my mom actually kind of suggested it to me, and that's when, I, you know, I saw it as a disruption to the status quo in the broken healthcare system that we have. So I didn't know. I wanted to do exactly this health coaching. But right now, where I'm at, I feel like I have found my calling and I'm where I should be, because I've always had this attitude of challenging the status quo, which is exactly what I do. And even further this you mentioned, healthy and awake.
Speaker 2:When I was 13 years old, do you know the stand-up comedian George Carlin? Yes, I do. When I was 13, I downloaded him on Napster and he was telling me challenge authority, be skeptical, question everything. That's the opposite of all I heard throughout my whole life. All I heard in my life was be obedient, listen to what we say, listen to your parents, listen to your teachers, stop asking so many questions. And George Carlin was telling me to do the opposite of that and that kind of woke me up, and so I just for the rest of my life, became skeptical of institutions and mandates and follow the rules and even in education, listen to the teachers and you know. So I started to see that everywhere and ultimately that carried into what I do now and I, like I said, I challenged the status quo. I'm skeptical about what the government and health authorities tell me and from a healthy sense of skepticism I'm not saying go full Alex Jones and put on a tinfoil hat, but skepticism is healthy.
Speaker 1:I want to ask you, because you mentioned something about follow, listen to your teachers, do whatever they want you know. Basically, do what they tell you to do. How old are you? I'm 36. Are you up there? 33. 33. Okay, so for me, growing up like I had a lot more freedoms in school, like people could fight and not worry about, you know, their whole life falling apart. But it seems like a lot of the kids today have a lot more freedoms in school. People could fight and not worry about their whole life falling apart. But it seems like a lot of the kids today have a lot more fear and anxiety, self-confidence issues. I think I was more cocky when I was a kid, but I want to know what is your standard? How do you feel about mental health issues today, because it seems to be coming rapid.
Speaker 2:Well, it's definitely important. I mean, if you look around in society and I say this with no judgment, but it's very clear that there's a mental health crisis in the United States and so I think it is important. I believe that a lot and this is just my opinion, but I believe a lot of the solutions that are put out there for people with serious mental health issues are not the best approaches, and I specifically mean psychiatric pharmaceutical drugs. This is actually what first launched me. You know I was originally going to be a clinical psychologist. I was on the or even a clinical psychiatrist, and I read a book by someone called Dr David Healy.
Speaker 2:It's a book called Pharmageddon and it just ruthlessly details the aspects of the broken system for mental health and how a lot of the pharmaceuticals that are pushed on these vulnerable people often cause more harm than help. And there's a lot of research that is manipulated and buried and, honestly, flat out statistical lies that make potentially dangerous drugs look like the perfect solution to the problems, and that's not just targeting the patients. It's actually targeting more the doctors. So medical propaganda from the pharmaceutical industry targeting these doctors to give some not so helpful solutions to patients who really need help, and I think it's only made worse by social media. Now, don't get me wrong. I love social media for a lot of reasons, but it also comes along with a whole host of some serious negative consequences, and you can see that in the children, uh, from the anxiety that you mentioned, the self-confidence issues that you mentioned and all that. I do think, uh and I'll pause here cause this is a whole separate topic but I think the uh, social media and the internet plays a big role in that.
Speaker 1:What about that? Well, let's get into it. What about social media? What, what role? How does it impact the kids negatively?
Speaker 2:Well, there's a lot of layers to that, so I guess you could start one physiologically you see me wearing these weird looking red glasses that these are actually blue light blocking glasses. So we know, in circadian health, circadian rhythm. Well, actually, let me ask you, how familiar are you with this idea of circadian rhythm? Well, actually, let me ask you?
Speaker 1:how familiar are you with this idea of circadian rhythm? I've heard it before.
Speaker 2:I can't remember what it is, can you? Yeah, perfect. So circadian rhythm is this idea? Well, a well substantiated by scientific evidence idea that your biological functions are driven by the light in your environment, meaning, when you wake up and you see that the sun is out, the sun enters the eyes and tells the body oh, I better make serotonin so I have a good mood and energy to get me through the day. I better get the hunger hormones going. The ghrelin and the leptin better be doing each of the things that they're supposed to do, so I get hungry when I'm supposed to, because I need that energy to get me throughout the day. So all of these functions that we don't think about are driven by the sun. And now, further, all the sleep related activities, the melatonin being produced, getting tired, all of that is driven by the absence of the sun or nighttime. Now, here's where things go wrong. Driven by the absence of the sun or nighttime. Now here's where things go wrong.
Speaker 2:A lot of us I'd say most of us midnight, we're scrolling through our phones, we're watching TV, we're exposing light to our eyes that essentially tricks the body into thinking it's daytime, even if it's midnight. And so what's going to happen? Well, if I'm telling my body it's daytime, it's going to start to do daytime things. It's going to start to make me hungry. This is why people get munchies at midnight. This is why people get energy at midnight and they have trouble falling asleep because they're telling their body it's daytime developing and so they're looking on their iPad and it's just really messing up their circadian health. So that's one of the ways that this technology is negatively affecting the kids. So I I'm going to pause there because there's more I could say, but it looks like maybe you have some thoughts.
Speaker 1:Wow, I had no idea that it was like that deep. You know, when I do look at my phone at night and I have noticed that if I, if I zoom in, if I zone in or whatever I'm watching on my phone, it is a lot harder for me to fall asleep. I noticed that it was like, okay, and I didn't know. It was like even these layers it messes up your circadian rhythm and I guess and I thought, and that has to do with your, that has to do with your quality of sleep, right.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. It affects the quality of your sleep. That's how okay.
Speaker 1:So that's how I heard it originally. Oh, wow, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, that's what most people like. That's kind of the go-to. When we talk about circadian health or artificial light at night exposure, sleep is like the number one thing, and especially that's how they sell a lot of these glasses Like do you want better sleep? Well, where are these blue light blocking glasses? It'll help with that. But that is true. The reality, though, is that it does so much more and, to be clear, you know I've spoken about this topic with literally the world's leading experts on circadian rhythm. So I'm talking the guy who discovered the part of the brain that regulates circadian rhythm, and I'm talking about the people who go around the globe, literally, and spread these messages to people and this is well substantiated that even something like streetlights outside have a role contributing to cancer and diabetes. So this goes well beyond sleep. The light in our environment, especially the artificial light at night, light bulbs, tvs, phones, laptops that can disrupt our sleep. It can contribute to cancer, diabetes, all kinds of chronic illness, depression, you name it. This is well substantiated.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, I didn't know. Okay, I didn't know it was really I didn't know it was that deep Cause. When you talk about cancer, I'm thinking like the foods that they feed us, you know cause.
Speaker 1:You said you said you want to go against the status quo when it goes when it goes to well, health and wellness, and I me, as somebody who's not really an expert in this field I'm thinking more of like the diet, the foods that they have, and like things they put in our fast food. That's what I'm thinking, but I guess there's levels to it. It comes down even to the technology that we use.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, absolutely. And the food is a big part of it. There's almost so much that it's kind of hard to parse sometimes. I mean, we could spend a whole hour talking about some of the sources of toxic exposure in our food and elsewhere, right, like plastic bottles, fragrances, bathroom products. I mean, we're, we're really getting poisoned from just about every angle. And when I say that, you know there doesn't need to be conspiracy theories in play to believe that we're getting poisoned. I mean this is non, non debatable, like if there, we know there are things in your food that are harming your health, that is poison, your health, that is poison. So you can believe that it's, it's a deliberate conspiracy, or you can believe that it's greed or incompetence. Whatever you want to believe, that's fine, but there's no denying that this is actually the case is that our food is basically filled with poison, and you know. So, yeah, there is a little bit of challenging the status quo there as well.
Speaker 1:Well, how can you I mean as an American like, how can you say you want to start your wellness journey today? Like what would? What would you recommend? What are the first steps?
Speaker 2:So my first steps are pretty unconventional to what I think most other people would say, and this is where the awake comes in. So, looking at the landscape that we're in now, one thing that is never discussed is the amount of influence in our environment. So I mentioned earlier the TV, the phone, the laptop, social media. Every time we open up those devices, we are exposing ourselves to influence, and when we talk to our friends and this influence I mean marketing, advertising, propaganda, social pressure nobody thinks about these things on a regular basis at all, which leaves us vulnerable and susceptible to the influence of other people and their agendas. So the question becomes how can I even be making the best decisions for me if I'm constantly allowing myself to be influenced based on other people's decisions for me Through their influence campaigns? And here's a perfect example that everybody can relate to I go into Target and I tell myself I'm going to buy two things.
Speaker 2:What happens when we leave Target? We have a cart full of stuff. We have 10 things or more, and that's when we're vulnerable. We reach for the cookies that we don't need, or the brownies we don't need, or some pair of shoes or some other stupid thing for the house that we really don't need. None of that is accidental. That is deliberately coordinated by suits in a boardroom who strategize to influence you and make decisions on your behalf, and they do that with the placement of products, with the packaging colors, with the messaging, with the lighting, the smells, the music that's only in the store. That's not even talking about all the influence that goes beyond the store to get you in there. So we're constantly, if we allow it, we're constantly having our strings pulled and our buttons pushed and if that's the case, we're barely in control of our own decisions. So if you really want to be healthy and make the best decisions whether you're talking about health, family, business or anything else wake up to the decision or to the influence in your environment.
Speaker 1:Well said, well said. So just to summarize that, you said first you want to detox from social media, be mindful of the things you get from the media, be mindful of what you're watching and how it's affecting you. I guess, and then also, on top of that, I don't know, I don't know if most people even are, most people can. I don't know, most people are aware enough to even know how we're, how marketing impacts us and makes us purchase specific types of food, and how the coloring works. I know exactly what you mean with the coloring, cause it it, it makes you certain colors have a certain vibration or a certain feeling associated with it. So I completely understand what you're saying.
Speaker 1:Man. It's uh, it's crazy that, um, we're, we're being basically brainwashed on so many different levels. What do you think are some steps if people are trying to escape this, because this is going to be something that's very hard to do, I would say for myself, I'm pretty disciplined, but if we were to, as a culturally, move in, I guess, a better direction, like, what are some steps that we could take?
Speaker 2:Well, the answer for, on a cultural level, is different from an individual. So, culturally, the education system uh, the way I see it, and even my own experience, is that education is more well, the public education system, to be clear, is more of an indoctrination process than an educational process, and I touched on that a little earlier. Where it's listen to me, because I'm the teacher and what you're going to do is you're going to read this textbook, memorize it and regurgitate it onto a test. And that's the general experience that most kids get in education, and you can tell that it's not really enhancing their ability to critically think or think even creatively. We have the evidence for that. Look at the numbers.
Speaker 2:The United States is amongst the worst performing on academic metrics. Even John D Rockefeller, who played a major role in the development of the current educational system in the United States, explicitly said I do not want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers. This is the guy who helped build the system that educates our youth today. So there seems to be an active effort to squash critical thinking in the education system. So to answer your question on a cultural level, we need a major upheaval of the education system or more people homeschooling their kids Now, on an individual level, a lot of people, if they want to, can sort of take that into their own hands so they can have a healthy sense of skepticism and they can learn to critically think.
Speaker 2:That's not easy. It's actually quite uncomfortable and laborious and that's why a lot of people don't do it. And our environment is constructed to make thinking as easy as possible. We're going to put the answers in front of you and we're going to do what it takes to engineer and manufacture consent and that's you know that's a whole other topic. I'll probably stop there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're being engineered to do many different things, Not only to not think. It tells us who our partners should be, what our lifestyle should be, what we should like, et cetera. It's funny. I was telling a friend of mine very good friend of mine, I want to say about a week or so ago, as of when I was going through a hard time. He told me we were talking about our childhood and one thing I noticed when I was a kid, my teachers, they hated my guts and I didn't go to a good school at all, man. So Where'd you go to school? I grew up in California. I grew up in a town called East Palo Alto. Stanford university is in Palo Alto. I grew up in the town, literally right next to it Cool.
Speaker 1:Um, grown up I was. I love school. From kindergarten to third grade I was one of the top students, but for whatever reason, once I got into fourth grade, even all the way through college, I was just seen as an athlete and in my environment, um, we didn't have the best as an athlete, and in my environment we didn't have the best. Almost we didn't have the best. It wasn't the best education system, but I was a kid that was pretty aggressive. Teachers didn't like that.
Speaker 1:But I was smart, I was good at math, but my teachers just didn't teach me. They sat me at a table called Menace of Society, sat us in the corner and didn't give us any attention. Some of the teachers would even go on their computers and say, hey, pull your books out in case somebody comes in, and they would just go on, yeah, so it was that kind of school and I remember because, because I didn't have my, I didn't need the approval of my teachers. You know it gave me the freedom to actually learn and do what I wanted to do. So I learned how to teach myself at a very young age was ultimately helped me get out of that environment and get to where I'm at right now.
Speaker 1:But I think that a lot of kids, based off of what you said, a lot of we're not just based off of what you said a lot of kids they don't. They're so dependent on the opinion of their, the validation that they get from their teachers, their you know their classmates. They really they. They lose their sense of self, which actually affects their, affects their creativity and prevents them from actually building, creating a life. You know, because you don't I told my friend this you don't compete your life, you don't compare your life, you create your life and I think a lot of people are falling short there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do want to be clear that I'm not blanket criticizing teachers. I work with a lot of teachers. I know there's a lot of great teachers out there. I've had some great teachers. I know there's a lot of great teachers out there. I've had some great teachers. It's really the same thing with doctors. You could say the same thing about doctors. There's a lot of great doctors out there. I work with a lot of great doctors. There's also a lot of terrible doctors.
Speaker 2:So when I criticize education or I criticize medicine, I'm not talking about the individuals, I'm talking about the system. You know these systems are broken and that's maybe not even the right way to say it. You could make a case that these systems are doing exactly what they're designed to do. So maybe they're not broken, Maybe they're deliberately put into place in a specific way to do everything we talked about to not get people the right help, to not actually educate people and foster critical thinking. It's really not the teachers and the doctors. I think it's the system and they're kind of just, you know, a victim of the system.
Speaker 1:It's funny you say that because I remember I have a daughter, so I remember when we went to like these pre-pregnancy classes and they teach you, like I guess, how to they walk, the women I can't remember all this stuff, but they walk, teach how to breathe, and then the guys are there like holding their stomachs and stuff. And one of the things that the women said the woman that was hosting it said she said that the hospitals, the doctors, they're going to try to convince you to get a C-section. They convince everybody to get a C-section because it I guess they get like five grand or certain five grand per each person. They can convince to do that. More billables, yes, yes, and it's so.
Speaker 1:It's crazy because a lot of the women they want to be good mothers, they want their kids to live, so it's hard for them to like fight the system because they don't want something to happen to themselves or their kids. I was like man, this is, we're designed to have babies. You know, if there is an issue, I'm sure we have the equipment to work for. But you to say this, to say this let's just have a C-section on like day one, that's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and what's even more ridiculous is you know this is a very vulnerable population. These are mothers who have their own anxieties and fears about the next nine months and you know all the things that could go right or could go wrong. And I have to think about feeding the baby and all this Like. So they have all these new thoughts running through their mind. They have to learn new routines, they're adjusting to changes in their body. These are vulnerable people and this system, in a sense, praise on these people and says like, hey, don't worry about, don't even think about it. Just this is what's best for you. Listen to us, we're the experts and just do what you're told and go on your way. And thankfully, in my experience, a lot of people are waking up and asking questions and pushing back, and I think that's important thanks to the pandemic, where a lot of people realized, you know, maybe trusting the experts blindly isn't the best idea, and I'm glad people are starting to recognize that.
Speaker 1:It's so funny, I'm having a flashback. I know, um, I tore my bicep right and I went to the doctor. I was in the emergency room and, uh, I said I think I was trying to, I was trying to get my arm evaluated so I can get surgery. And the woman the nurse she had said okay, we're going to give you an x-ray. I was like I don't need an x-ray. I tore my bicep. It's obvious that it's a muscle issue. I don't need an x-ray, and she's. And then she looked at me and she aggressively said the doctor said you need an x-ray. And I said well, I'm leaving. And I left because those x-rays are expensive, man, and I knew I didn't need that. And I went to another doctor and said, hey, you don't need all that. It's obvious. They gave me a surgery, it was great.
Speaker 2:But yeah, the system doesn't give a damn about any of us Right, and I mean there's a lot of reasons for that. You know the I don't know if you're familiar with the ICD codes which was implemented maybe 12 years ago. These are insurance codes that digitize basically all medical interactions. So if you have a bicep tear, there is a specific insurance code for a bicep tear, and there's even crazy ones like struck by a turtle is an ICD code.
Speaker 2:I got injured at the opera house. I mean there's a code for everything, and I understand the appeal. It's like, well, we need the data so we can kind of see what's going on and keep track of things. But it's also created a mess for medical doctors, where this is why, when a lot of people go to the doctor, they have 12 minutes. Eight of those minutes are spent the doctor looking at the computer screen to figure out which insurance code to put in. And then, when they finally find the right code, they take not all of them, but a lot of them take this cookbook approach where, oh well, you have this code which means you need this pharmaceutical drug, and so you know, people aren't getting the attention, the help, the listening that is really required for actual health and that's why a lot of people come to me because I'm actually listening to them and I'm not looking at some ICD codes the whole time.
Speaker 2:And this is what a lot of people refer to as the sick care system, where the system we have now we don't care about you until you get sick or injured. Then we'll pay attention to you, and that's really not how health works. Health is this lifelong ongoing process that you as an individual should work on. Don't wait till you get sick to see some doctor who's going to you. Know, barely give you attention anyway, do you?
Speaker 1:have any? Do you have any fear associated talking about these types of issues? Cause I think that I can't remember, but there was a, there was another like health health doctor that spoke about the different types of food that can prevent cancer and help you live long, et cetera, and it was a conspiracy that he was like murdered because he was basically hurting our, our, um, our medical, our, our medical industry. Do you, do you have any kind of fear associated with that, Putting these, uh, letting people know about these types of information?
Speaker 2:I love that question. Uh, I really don't. You know I, and maybe that's a problem, you know, maybe I should, because I run my mouth sometimes and I say things that I know come across as pretty controversial or harsh. But no, I feel like and I mean this I was put on this earth to talk about these sorts of things. I'm here to buck the system and challenge the status quo. So if that's going to piss some people off, at least I'm going to have fun doing it. That's how I see it Lovely.
Speaker 1:Lovely, you found your purpose, oh yeah. Okay, so we've been talking about mental, mental health issues for the most part. How does your diet affect that as well?
Speaker 2:Tremendously. I mean we know from the research that the standard American diet has negative impact on factors like depression or even cognitive output, so literally their ability to think, and so what is it in food that's causing people to be more depressed?
Speaker 1:I understand like sleeping, not sleeping well how that affects you, but what about the food? How does that make you more depressed?
Speaker 2:So there's a lot to this and it's very controversial because you'll find you know one very well-educated and experienced doctors say that vegan, veganism, the vegan diet, is the perfect answer to all your problems. And, to be fair, a lot of people, when they switch to the vegan diet, they have noticeable improvements in their blood markers. Now, at the same time, you'll have another very experienced, well-credentialed medical doctor saying oh, the carnivore diet is the answer to all your problems, the total opposite of a vegan. And similarly, a lot of people report feeling better, losing weight, more energy. So it's really hard to say on a general level what is contributing to things like depression or other mental health issues when it comes to the food. But we do know that a poor diet of ultra processed food tends to be bad for mental health. So that's the bagged foods with the bright colors, the box foods with the bright colors. Then like so that's really overeating is a big part of it. Like, if you're just consuming more calories than you need, you become overweight. That health status of being overweight, having high blood pressure, high blood sugar that's going to lead to some mental health issues. Just on, regardless of which diet you're eating, if you're eating too much that's going to happen.
Speaker 2:But then you can take that further and you can look at some of these industrial ingredients that are added to the food where, for some reason, plenty of people online like to defend these mystery chemicals like artificial colors or even pesticides. Some people will defend being in our food, but there's a lot of good research and a lot of good reasons and evidence to suggest that pesticides in your food is not very good. Suggest that pesticides in your food is not very good. Artificial colors in your food is not very good. Forever chemicals from the packaging of your food, the BPA from the water bottles, like these, are extra chemicals that the body has to process and in many cases there are things like endocrine disruptors that are going to really damage the way your hormones function. Now, I know I threw a lot at you just there, but you're throwing a lot at me.
Speaker 1:The whole podcast. There's levels to this.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I guess to summarize that concisely on one hand, eating too much is going to lead to mental health issues if you're overweight and just unhealthy. And then the extra ingredients even if you physically appear healthy, a lot of these ingredients in our food are very questionable and even have some good research showing that you should avoid them as much as you can. And I mean we could get more specific than that, but that's just the general layer of it.
Speaker 1:So you said you create custom programs for each person and somebody will come to you. Do you typically? Do you deal with both physical and mental, or which? Which type of people do you deal with for the most more commonly?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do deal with both physical and mental but, it's important to note, I'm not a therapist. You know a lot of the people that I work with. They will tell me the health coaching process feels therapeutic, which is great. But I'm not a licensed therapist, where a lot of people maybe who do focus more on the mental side of things might go to a therapist and they explore traumas and things like that and that's all well and good. But when we explore the mental side of things or the physical side of things, they're all kind of intertwined. It's like well, okay, so you want to exercise more? Let's say I'll ask you know how does? Like okay, great, you exercise, that was part of your goal last week. How did you feel? So we'll explore the mental side of things and I'll kind of use that as a lever to encourage them to do it more. Well, I felt great. I felt like I had more energy, I felt confident, good, like let's try to keep that going.
Speaker 2:Um, now, sometimes people do express some kind of trauma or emotional pain and I have to hold space for them. I have to meet them where they're at. You know, if they're crying during a session which does happen, you know I'm not going to have the same energy that I do right now. You know I have to change my energy and and sort of uh, try to match theirs a little bit and give them the space to process. Sometimes it can be uncomfortable for me Cause I I might just be sitting there giving them the time to like hey, you know, process what you need, to cry all you want, that's fine, and I'll just be sitting there waiting for them to collect themselves, so it. I didn't give you exactly a specific example there, but it's really different for everybody, ok and I understand it.
Speaker 1:I understand Sometimes you just have to talk to somebody to get out of your system, definitely, completely understand how you think you're not helping, you think it's not much but it does a lot to just be heard and to just get everything, get all of that negative energy out of your body.
Speaker 2:Well, being heard is something that a lot of people don't really get to experience, quite honestly, because even when we talk to our friends or we talk to our family people who aren't trained in communication skills specifically listening a lot of the times we might be talking to someone. They're just waiting for you to stop talking so that I can say the best thing, like I have the perfect response to what you just said. Well, if that's the case, you're not listening to me at all. You're kind of just like waiting to say what you want to say. Now, as a health coach, as a trained board certified health coach, I have to relinquish my own agenda. I have to relinquish my desire to say something that I think might be interesting or funny. Yeah, I still am funny during sessions, but I have to relinquish a lot of that desire to just say things and chime in like you would in normal conversation. My focus is listening.
Speaker 1:Lovely. How is this? I want to say, how has this impacted your relationships? Because you're so aware of, like, how food is hurting us, you're aware of how the media hurts us, and you know way more than that. Like, I'm wondering, when it comes to like, your personal relationships, like, has this impacted those at all?
Speaker 2:Some better, some worse, you know, because I think what I talk about is so specific. I talk a lot about influence and propaganda and the nefarious efforts that happened during COVID and, just because of the state of the country, how it's so politically divided, there are like half people who maybe hate what I'm saying and have distanced themselves from me, and then half of the people maybe love what I'm saying and they identify with it and they say, hey, keep it up, keep going. I love that. I love both, actually, cause I don't want to, you know, cater my message and make it so vanilla that it appears to everybody I'm saying what I believe to be true, and if somebody doesn't like that, that that's fine by me. I don't want to offend you, I don't want to upset you. Maybe you're just not ready to hear these sorts of things, and that's fine, um, but yeah, you know, it's had different impacts on different people and, uh, I guess, in terms of more personal relationships, it's made me a more understanding person, even when I disagree with someone. It's, I think, even made me better at getting along with people I disagree with, and I can give you a specific example.
Speaker 2:So I occasionally get hateful comments on some of my posts. When somebody disagrees with what I say and historically and for a lot of other people, they might engage in a heated debate and argue, and sometimes it can get vicious and mean and you might say things online that you would never say to somebody face-to-face in real life. And so one thing I started doing is saying, hey, we clearly don't agree on this topic and that's okay, but I bet if we met face-to-face we would find that we have a lot more in common than we have different. So how about we meet over Zoom for 10 to 15 minutes? Just get to know each other a little better and maybe next time we disagree on something we can approach it a little differently. That has been an absolute game changer for my entire life and I challenge people to do that. The next time they find themselves tempted to argue with some stranger on the internet, try to extend an olive branch instead. Has anybody ever jumped on Zoom with?
Speaker 2:you branch instead. Has anybody ever jumped on the zoom with you? Oh yeah, absolutely. Um, especially um, medical professionals, health professionals who feel compelled to strongly disagree with whatever I'm putting out. And and, to be clear, a lot of what I'm putting out is just information from other medical doctors, so it's not always me saying these things. I'm kind of just saying, hey, here's what this doctor said on my show. And, um, I've met with mostly MDs, mostly doctors who disagree with me, Cause I, you know, I like doctors and they're smart people, even when I disagree with them, they're intelligent people, and it's just been. I can't even tell you, man, how incredible of an experience it is to actually meet with someone who you're just like viciously arguing online with, and then you meet face to face on zoom and it's like, hey, you know what? You're not so bad, uh, and for both of us, we have that reaction.
Speaker 1:I'm definitely going to try that. I I I had a. Somebody left a comment on one of my IG posts and I said would you be willing to have a hour long conversation about like relate relationships? We chopped it up. That guy has been my biggest supporter ever since then. He comments every single post, you know, and he doesn't agree with everything I say, but he supports me. I can. I can feel it, you know. He'll even text me now occasionally.
Speaker 2:So isn't that the coolest thing ever? That's been my experience too. It's crazy how that works. I'm glad to hear that's happened.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I want to talk about your podcast a little bit. Why did you start the podcast? Yeah, first let's get to that. Why did you start the podcast?
Speaker 2:Well, a few reasons. I think a lot of things are said on my show that need to be said. I think there's a lot of people out there with strong messages that you know. Quite frankly, a lot of the people on my show, a lot of the doctors they put their careers on the line to say some of what they say, and I'm talking about someone like Dr Peter McCullough, who's one of the most published cardiologists in the world, who challenges a lot of the narratives around the pandemic, and I want to broadcast his message. You know I want to get the word out there.
Speaker 2:Literally, my mission is to help make the world a healthier, more awake place. Literally, my mission is to help make the world a healthier, more awake place. So the podcast is part of my mission to make the world a healthier, more awake place. That's really the number one reason. And, secondarily, I personally have a lot to say and since starting the podcast I've been talking my friend's ear off quite less because I kind of get it all out. You know what I mean. Like I have a platform where I can say these things, so I'm not bothering my friends with all these ideas in my head quite so much If they want to tune in, they can hear it. If not, I'm not going to bother you with this stuff.
Speaker 1:That's why I asked you how has it impacted your personal relations?
Speaker 2:Because you know most people are that tuned into you know to these, to these areas, or they don't take them that serious.
Speaker 2:Well, a lot of people who hated me a few years ago have I don't know if it's just they've become awake or they start to question what's going on in the world or what it is. But all the things I'm saying today I've been saying for a decade, and years ago, before the pandemic, it made people way more uncomfortable. A lot of people didn't like me more. They thought I was a conspiracy theorist and all sorts of things like that, calling me pejorative names like a conspiracy theorist, um. But now some of those people are, are hiding. You know, I don't see them at all, maybe from embarrassment, or maybe they're just so committed to their view. But a lot of other people, I think, have woken up and they've reached out to me and said I kind of see the way that crazy, saying things that you believe to be true, and as time went by, a lot of the things that I was saying turned out to be true. So it is what it is. Covid has woken up a lot of people, definitely.
Speaker 1:I remember that. I remember the transition. I can't remember exactly what was going on, but there was like a cultural transition when people became a lot more skeptical about what was going on. So your last statement you said everything you said that will come true is coming true. Are you familiar with Cat Williams, the comedian? Absolutely. He had an interview with Shannon Sharp and he was like throwing all these people in Hollywood under the bus and he says 2024 will be the year that all these people go down. And all these people are going down and, uh, p Diddy, jay-z, they're all getting caught up in some kind of wild Hollywood thing. So it's just it's funny how that, how that works. Yeah, who would you want to have on your show if you could?
Speaker 2:Well, I've been very blessed that a lot of the people I've wanted to have on my show have come on. Like a lot of the people I reach out to uh end up agreeing to be on healthy and awake podcast. I already mentioned Dr Peter McCullough. Is is so far my favorite guest, just because he's so prominent and says things that need to be said. But coming up, I actually have a few interviews coming up with Dr David Healy, who I mentioned earlier. Also, he wrote Pharmageddon exposing the psychiatric industry, giving drugs to people. I have I don't know if you know Dr Sean Baker. He is the carnivore MD. Now, you know I don't push that diet onto people. I've just experimented with it on my own and I had tremendous health benefits because I was dealing with a specific health issue. And, um, he's huge. I mean he's been on Joe Rogan multiple times. He has a I think a million followers on social media and he's coming up to be on the show. So I'm I'm quite happy with where things are at on the show.
Speaker 1:Uh, regarding the diet, I noticed for myself my diet changes with, I don't know. I think my, my genes change. So as my genetics change, the food that I crave is different because, um, like, I'm eating a lot more vegetables now, I couldn't eat. I couldn't do this in my twenties. You know, for whatever reason, the food that I crave, I crave different. I don't know if it's associated with the colors, but there's something about the food that we eat that it impacts as we age. There's certain types of food that we need to eat as we age, based off our DNA, Because I know there was a period where I was just eating a bunch of meat. Now I can't. Now I have to mix it up, I have to be balanced.
Speaker 2:I don't need to eat as much food as I did before. I'm 220, only eat one meal a day. So it's weird how the body works. Have you seen anything like that with your body? Well, definitely. I look at it a little differently.
Speaker 2:So I think of gut microbiome, so basically the ecosystem in your gut that's made up of bacteria and even, believe it or not, things like fungus are in your gut and those very much drive cravings. So, for instance, if I'm eating sugar all day, every day, if I'm eating 50% of my diet is chocolate chip cookies, well my gut microbiome is going to construct itself in a way where I'm going to be craving those cookies, because that's the environment that I've built for myself and that really drives a lot of those cravings. And so the foods that we eat consciously can shape. That can shape our cravings, can shape our gut health and you know, if it gets so bad, you get into gut dysbiosis, which is basically like an imbalance in the gut. Things can get pretty messy.
Speaker 2:But I want to go back to something I said earlier that has a tremendous impact on gut microbiome and cravings, and that is light environment. So I already mentioned cancer, diabetes, depression. Well, when we chronically expose ourselves to blue light at night, it actually damages a pathway called the leptin melanocortin pathway, and I won't bore you with the science-y jargon behind all that, but what it basically means is that we are going to be craving foods that are maybe not the best for us at the times that are not the best for us. So if we have those broken pathways due to artificial light exposure, we might find that we're not hungry in the morning when we should be. We might find at night we're craving tons of carbs and fortunately there's a way to fix that by avoiding the light at night and several other things. But that is how I think about it.
Speaker 1:Awesome. No man, you're not boring me with anything that you said. It's just that the information that you're providing. I didn't know that it was that much going on behind the scenes and it's like I definitely learned a lot during the show. Do you have any last words? This is our we're at the end of the show. You have any last words?
Speaker 2:I just would reemphasize have a healthy sense of skepticism, and I would even apply that towards me. Don't take everything I'm saying at face value. Feel free to do your own research and challenge what I say, but make sure to apply that to everyone else, especially the people on TV, especially the people in white coats. You know healthy sense of skepticism, so don't go crazy Question. You know healthy sense of skepticism, so don't go crazy question the people in white coats. But find a doctor you trust, you know so, do the critical thinking that's required and ultimately, stay healthy and stay awake.
Speaker 1:Amen, mike. Thank you for coming on the show man. It was a pleasure speaking with you. I learned a lot. I'm definitely going to rewatch the show I have I have so many clips that I can make off of this. So thank you, man, I appreciate it and, uh, let's do it again sometime.
Speaker 2:Duran, thank you, I'd be happy to do it again. This was fun.
