LIFTS Episode 81 - Connecting the Dots in Wellness: From Recovery Shoes to Artificial Dyes | Brian von Ancken

0:00Matthew Januszek:On this week's episode, we discuss biohacking, poop doping for performance. Could swapping gut bacteria from elite athletes be the next big edge or just madness? Starbucks protein foam. Is protein cold foam at your local cafe the start of a new trend or just hype? Super shoes and recovery clogs. Are we stepping into a future where shoes act like performance drugs? Plus, why do American foods still have artificial dyes, Europe banned long ago? This and more on this week's episode.

0:36Matthew Januszek:Welcome to this week's episode of Lyfts. I'm back from what it seems like three weeks on the road. Nice to be back at home again, recovering from jet lag. And I'm here with my co-host, Mo. How are you doing today, Mo? I'm doing good. We are just on the back of July 4th weekend. Were you even in the US for July 4th? I'm not sure. I know you were traveling. I was. I was. I got back and I was enjoying the fireworks that you guys do here and watching how they were blowing up everything. That is a very American thing. We did a little staycation. We went up to Baltimore, which is about an hour north of where I am in D.C., stayed by the harbor, watched the fireworks with the kids and had a really good time.

1:19So it was a nice little staycation and glad to be back. We've kicked off the last couple of episodes, Matthew, talking about some new wellness packs or products or things we've tried. So I want to kick this off with one that I've actually ordered and tried. I think you know that I've talked about being on this tonal 12-week program. I've got one more workout left. I'm feeling yoked and really, really good. I've gained 10 pounds, Brian, and we'll get to you here in a minute. And I really wish I had this body pod scale. So I ordered, I paid for this. It's called Hume Health. With the Father's Day discount, it ended up being about just over$200.

2:03But I've been really impressed by what it could do from a body comp analysis standpoint. Not just your weight, but skeletal mass, water retention, just breaking down your lean muscle mass, and so on. It's been a fantastic product. and I'm telling everyone about it again, we're not sponsored by them or I did not get this killed for free, but just a product that I literally ordered. And I wish I had this from the beginning of this 12 week program that I did, because I think I could have really tracked to find out, well, how much of my 10 pounds that I gained is muscle. I'm guessing it's about six pounds versus how much is fat.

2:44But more importantly, on Sunday, I went out for a run in DC it gets really hot and humid. And I noticed that for my scale, it showed that I was not fully hydrated. So I hydrated well before the run. And that was just really fascinating kind of feedback. And again, for a$200 scale that gave me a lot of the same feedback as a sticker scale or an e-bolt scale, I found it pretty impressive.

3:11Matthew Januszek:What do you know about the technology? I've heard good and bad things about some of these scales and the accuracy and and how much you pay for them and everything like it would you know being a sort of a technologist are they using good um technology or sensors to be able to to give you a good good i assume they are otherwise you won't be using it but what do you know i did my i definitely did my homework before getting it look so the interesting thing is two days before i did my first hume health scale and measurement I actually went to try out eGym's new CICA scale. It's a 20 grand CICA integrated scale into the eGym wellness pod.

3:53So I had all of my metrics there. I also did my wellness check because I turned 45 at the doctor and I had all of their metrics from their scale. So I had two points of comparison and see this$200 scale was spot on, like literally spot on, which is why I was just blown away by it. So from a technology perspective, they're definitely using an ECG technology for sure, because they're having you hold the handle up, you know, as you're doing the measurement and they're using bioimpedance to get hydration, bone density, body fat percentages and things like that. So it's technology that's been out there, but not at this price point.

4:35So I've been incredibly impressed by it. So that's been my new wellness tip for the week. Matthew, how about you?

4:44Matthew Januszek:Well, I've been traveling a lot in quite a few different time zones. I've been to East Coast, West Coast, London, Europe, and all over. So I thought, well, I want to really figure out my sleep. And I've tried over the years a bunch of these sleep aids, but I always feel a little bit groggy or it tends to do more damage when I get back. So I thought, well, I'll avoid doing anything. And I was reading up about doing this sort of 20 hours off, four hours on intermittent fasting protocol, specifically around my travel, the whole period, like from when I left to when I was there. And it seemed to really help with, you know, when I felt great when I went on the flight itself, Normally, if you do a long international flight and you don't feel very well, like, you know, you kind of get to the other side, feel a little bit groggy, feel a bit tired.

5:37Matthew Januszek:But I got the other side, had a had a small coffee, some hydrates, hydrate myself and felt pretty good the whole day. Didn't drink and managed to sleep pretty well throughout the night. And I kept that up for about about 14 days. And I've got back as well, just just just just this past weekend. and I've not had any issues whatsoever. I woke up a little bit in the night as you typically do, but I'm not sure. As I was reading it, apparently they reckon it can sort of, there is some research in terms of how it helps to realign your carcadine systems because of the eating, apparently. I don't know what that means and how that affects things, but certainly I'd recommend if you are doing a long flight, then give that a go.

6:23Matthew Januszek:It's essentially 20 hours fasting, four hours eating, And then within the eating window, I kind of kept, you know, pretty high protein, relatively low carbs and, you know, had sort of fruits and that sort of stuff. So it's a pretty, you know, the four hours was with good food. But, you know, it's definitely one of the best sort of experience I've had, you know, with an international flight so far. And so did you keep that 20-hour fasting and four-hour eating throughout the entire trip or just for the whole trip? Yeah, for the whole trip. Yeah. Yeah. So prior to going and then for the whole period.

6:56Matthew Januszek:So I think that's the key. I think you've got to sort of keep it up. Now, the only thing which I did when I got to the UK, which I wouldn't recommend, is that when I did my four hour, because of how my meetings were scheduled, I was eating sort of later in the day. So I finished my meal at nine o 'clock, which I wouldn't recommend. But it was just, you know, if I could do it, I would probably finish at around about six or seven. But it just wasn't possible with everything I got lined up to get the good food. But, you know, outside of that, you know, it was work to dream. No, great to hear that.

7:29That was my next question is when did you have your four-wind-of-eating and how did you time that for training? Or did you train?

7:35Matthew Januszek:I just trained in the evening. So I worked out, like almost did a sort of fasted workout, and then I ate afterwards. That bit probably needs a little bit of working out. But as you know, when you're traveling and you've got business meetings and everything, it's difficult to cram all of your ideal sort of workouts out some food timings in there. But yeah, yeah. No, I agree. But look, I'm excited to have our special guest on today. So this is someone who has helped scale some of the most recognizable names in our space, including Tough Mudder, Barry's Bootcamp, and other ship. But I think what really sets them apart, and I've gotten to know Brian over the last few months, is really how he's bringing founders and operators together in a very new way.

8:21And Matthew, you and I have had an opportunity to connect in one of his sessions. Brian is the founder of Wellness Growth Mastermind, which is a thriving community of more than 200 wellness leaders who come together, not just to network, but to, and we've seen this, really actively help each other grow. It's part collective brain trust, I think part support system in how I look at it. And it's become a go-to resource for some of the most ambitious brands in the space. Prior to that, he founded Ancor, which is a mindful social workout that blended connection, presence, and movement. Brian, welcome to Lyfts.

9:02You've had a front row seat at how this industry has been evolving in so many ways, just based off your mastermind group. And in many ways, you also helped shape some of it. I wanted to start with a question for you. What is the biggest shift you're seeing right now in the wellness world? And what do you think is still being over a lot. Well, thanks for having me guys. It's love your little tips. I mean, I feel like I'm somebody who I can fall victims. If I hear anything new, I'm just like, oh, I can't wait to try 20 hours on, you know, four hours and excited to get the new scale too. And but no, I mean, yeah, I'm somebody who I'm lucky enough to have been in the industry for a while now, really early at Tough Mudder, really early at Othership, spent time helping Berries grow, been a founder myself.

9:52So I kind of have worn a number of different hats. And I think that now, as I run this community of like, you know, 200 founders, and just to be clear, it's not just in the fitness space. These are people who are wearable. You know, we've got people from Aura, Atsleep, Peloton, Headspace, like we are some, you know, brick and mortar, but also some food, you know food is medicine so i think what i'm just really witnessing and i guess we've been seeing it for a while is you know ultimately the consumer at this point expects health and wellness and everything to be fully integrated they expect you know their gym to be well versed in all the different areas be it nutrition be it mental health be it recovery and uh and then at the same time i just think that there's such partnership potential and opportunity to collaborate between these spaces.

10:38And so what I think is a bit overlooked is I think, um, I still see the spaces a bit siloed and I see myself as like a bridge as like, okay, Hey, let's make sure we're not just talking to the, um, you know, gym manufacturers or just talking to people who are in the fitness space, but also people who are building aura or people are building headspace because ultimately there's a lot of learnings out there. And I think one of the things I've just learned over this long-ish career so far is that every six months, something changes, right? So, you know, Tough Mudder was the cream of the crop for a couple of years, and then things change.

11:13And, you know, now there's different, you know, large event companies that are doing well. And it's kind of like, how do you just be aware of that fact, collaborate with other people, believe it's an all boats rise industry, genuinely want to help other people. And then if you do, really good things can happen and unexpected partnerships can come from them, unexpected ideas, creative ways to grow. Anyway, I'll stop there, but lots and lots of other ideas.

11:40Matthew Januszek:Well, I think that ties nicely into our first story, unexpected ideas. I was listening to a podcast as I was traveling and one story caught my attention by this microbiologist called Lauren Peterson and apparently they've done this what they call a it was a DIY what they call fecal transplant and and they basically um they realized that that elite athletes have a very different sort of distinct gut bacterial profile and what it does it it helps them to perform differently to other people and and and so what they were what they were doing here is that they were they They were basically taking, we'll call it poop or whatever the sort of technical term is, and basically putting it in people's guts.

12:27Matthew Januszek:And they were finding that they had this significant improvement. And there's a bunch of clinics that are starting to pop up out there where they're doing these transplants. And apparently there's a number of different things that they can prevent, improve, and sort of generally increase your health or performance by sort of having these sort of implants done. And so I guess I've known for a while the importance of your gut bacteria and how that can affect everything in terms of how you think, your mood. but I you know this this is definitely taking it to another level so you know a question to you Brian like obviously you're on the cutting edge I had the pleasure of joining one of your groups and going off in you know having joining a really interesting group of people in one of your mastermind sessions where there was some really interesting conversations going on so I'm just wondering you know would this typically fit into the into the realm of some of the people you mentor or is this a little bit sort of too far on the edge at the moment?

13:36Yeah. Well, I mean, I think first of all, the gut microbiome is, I would bet on it. I would totally put some money in there because I think we're still early days in what we can do. There actually is a company in my group called Enjoy that kind of does like, you know, you get your blood work panels, they do that for your gut microbiome. And so I see there's going to be lots and lots of opportunities like that. I think that some of the stuff that you highlighted around fecal transplants and stuff like that, I think those are really important. I love the Brian Johnsons of the world. They're the tip of the spear, as I like to call them.

14:11They're trying to figure out what's actually going to work out there. And I think the odds of it having mass appeal of all these different things is pretty low. But the people out there who are willing to be that tip of the spear and push the envelope, I think is a really important part of our industry. And so I think it's great that they exist. And, you know, for me, it's, it's less about, I really delineate between healthcare and what I'm working on. So I think if you're covered by insurance, if you're in a hospital system, that's not to say that we don't want you in this group, but, but I like, you know, we kind of feel like an us versus them mentality where it's kind of like, Hey, we have to deal with all these headwinds of behavior change.

14:47We have to deal with the fact that there's a sick care system that doesn't, you know, it's discretionary income you have to deal with. And so we have this kind of like, hey, we're in it together. Let's try to do what we can to be successful despite the fact. So I think it would be less about if it's out there enough and more about who is behind it. What are their reasons behind it? And, you know, kind of how are they doing so far? Where are they in their stage of growth? Are they, you know, have they got some traction and need to expand more? And if so, then they're probably pretty perfect for the group.

15:16Yeah, this was new to me, Matthew, when you sent it over. But I've been around elite athletes, work with the elite athletes. And Brian, we should jam on your early Tough Mudder days, because I was working very closely with Joe DeSena and Spartan. And I just remember us outspending each other on Facebook and just trying to grab people. And then it's funny to see years and years later during the pandemic that Spartan ends up acquiring Tough Mudder. But yeah, lots of, I'm sure, stories that we could both share about those early days. Look, as it relates to this, I think elite athletes are going to look for literally any edge that they can get.

15:56I think they should, right? We are, as humans, we want to progress. We want to push the limits and boundaries of what is physically and humanly possible. So the fact that you could take, you know, fecal matter from a donor and insert it into your gut and again, improve performance and improve different markers of performance. And from what I typically understand here is that it lasts for many months, weeks or months once you do it. It's not like you have to do it kind of all the time. And it's been shown in some studies to do better. But the question is that, and this is what we always look for, things like lactate sensing or CGM in Aleve Adelaide, ultimately those things found their way down to the mainstream customer or to the biohacker customer.

16:45Is this something that could ultimately get us there? Or could this eventually in five years, maybe three years at the pace of innovation today, we see a supplement where, sure, you're not going to be inserting donor fecal matter in here, but maybe we identify the activation or we identify the active mechanism that's happening. We find a supplement that could maybe give us some of the same benefits to here. So it's interesting, but I don't think it's got mainstream application, at least in the near term.

17:15Matthew Januszek:I'm conjuring up all these different ad campaigns of maybe what this could look like. Probably we'll stop at that point and maybe move on to the next story, which is protein. This is something I've been talking about quite a lot. And it seems as though protein has hit mainstream i i think you know you've had like athletic greens where you know you've got your mums taking athletic greens now it's gone from something that that people who were in a you know in the small group sort of underground that really understood greens um now it's it's it's everywhere it's it's in airports and everybody's realizing that you know having a green supplement is important and i've kind of seen this now with protein everyone's talking about it my kids are talking about, are you getting enough protein?

18:03Matthew Januszek:I did read social media posts where someone was almost saying, look, this protein hype is hype. You don't actually need as much as what they're saying you need. And typically, when you get these big pushes, there's always a little bit of a backlash. But I was curious to see Starbucks have actually come up with this what they call protein cold foam. it says Starbucks has just developed an ingenious way to add 15 grams of protein to almost any drink. So they've got some sort of new technology. And, you know, now you can go to your Starbucks and get protein in your coffee. I'm wondering whether this is potentially a marketing ploy, because when I was sort of researching this, it said that Starbucks have come off five straight quarters of falling sales.

18:55Matthew Januszek:So I'm wondering, you know, with the sort of whole coffee scenes changing and a lot more competition and what there was, whether this is just a sign that, you know, they're sort of grabbing at straws. But yeah, interesting. I guess, again, question to you guys, you know, what do you think about this sort of this protein trend where we're putting protein in literally everything that you could put it into? And then secondly, the move of a big, very large consumer brand, Starbucks now, jumping on that trend. When I started training in the mid-90s, I remember, and I was in high school at the time, but protein, one, your doctor would tell you, my parents, right, be careful on how much protein you take, and you don't need all that protein and all that.

19:46And it was really kind of tied to the bodybuilding culture. And it didn't have a real positive view. So I think, one, protein, what we've seen in the last five years, is really shedding its bodybuilder-only image, which I think is a good thing. And it's becoming a lifestyle product. It's become a macro that people track all the time. It's also not just for men. Women are now tracking their protein intake as much as men. And it's also not just post-workout. A protein shake isn't something that you just drink after work, but you should, but it's also something that you can consume all the time. So I think with Starbucks jumping in, you know that this trend, if you want to call it that, or awareness has really jumped mainstream.

20:33And with the struggles that you mentioned, Matthew, of Starbucks struggling, yeah, they're probably looking for ways to bring customers back in. And if they've got an innovative foam method to get 15 grams of protein in, I haven't seen anyone else do that. And certainly not your, you know, one of the people that they're really losing to, especially in urban areas where we all live in, is your local coffee shop. Like we've got a local coffee chain in DC here. There's a couple, I'm sure, you know, in New York, there's several and same in Southern California. So it's really about the format of protein.

21:06So we all know that you need to get more protein. It's not about fish, chicken, beef, tofu, soy, whatever your format is. But it's also about, okay, there's other ways to ingest it. We need to have more of it. And people just don't want to eat plain old chicken breast. So I think this is a great move. And we're seeing protein not just in Starbucks, but you're also seeing it come in all kinds of goods, right? I have Magic Spoon cereal, and there's umpteen cereal companies which are doing it. there's protein that's being incorporated in chips and Quest has done a good job in having all these new products around it.

21:42There's protein cookies and muffins and all of that. I don't think we're seeing a maturity of it. I still think that we're kind of in the scale up phase of protein in food products.

21:55Matthew Januszek:Brian, where do you see this with the kind of demographic and the community that that you um i guess you're you're probably sort of involved with people that are a little bit more closer to the the research and where things should be like you know what where do you stand on this yeah so it's fine i feel like i'm on a talk show it's like hey have you seen this have you heard about this what do you think so it's it's great and and yeah i i think that okay so i think protein is just a an example of something that's just true throughout our industry where at the end of the day, we probably don't know, and we never did know the exact correct amount of protein that you should get that's totally right.

22:37And I think one thing that I witnessed, I was at a New York Times wellness event recently, and they had Peter Atiyah on the stage, and he just got grilled by the person interviewing him about his protein level. Like, well, he's recommending protein that are here, and other scientists say it here, and it was like, you know, how could you go against science? And, and I just think with all of this, from my perspective is that if we're just having a conversation that yet we can say it's about protein, but like deep down, it's like, okay, well, people want to be stronger. People want to be healthier.

23:10They're being intentional about what they're putting in their bodies instead of like, you know, sugar and like candy and whatever. And so I'm just not a fan of like perfection and feeling like there's, if we're talking about this and there's a movement, I have no problem. let's engage it, let's see where it can go. And then the market will correct itself. Once Starbucks starts doing what they're doing, odds are, okay, maybe we got a little heated and we need to cool off here and we need to shift to something else. But I mean, I'm somebody who I have, if you've ever heard a smear case, they're like protein packed ice cream.

23:43I feel a little bit better about myself eating ice cream when it's protein packed. And so I think that, like I said, it's not about perfection. It's just about finding what it is that we can do to move the world in a direction where we're being a little bit more health conscious. That's kind of how I think about it. Yeah. I just want to add, look, I look for protein in anything that I eat. So in the evening, my go-to treat is a Greek yogurt. I switched from like a Chobani Greek yogurt to something called ratio. And there's other kind of performance-based yogurts out there. And this ratio product has 25 grams of protein in it.

24:18So I'm always in, I have two of those. So that's 50 grams right there. I'm at post-workout shake. I have about 50 to 60 grams of protein. So I am always thinking about, you know, am I getting the right proteins? Am I getting the right fats? And those are the two things I'm always thinking about. Then the carbs, because carbs are easy, right? Carb, you know, to me, when I talk about the macro being carbs.

24:40Matthew Januszek:Or good carbs or bad carbs. Oh, good carbs and bad carbs are, I think, easy. It's like spending money, right? Anyone can spend money. It's harder to actually make money. So to me, that's the analogy I use with carbohydrates. It's anyone can eat carbs. You can eat good carbs and bad carbs. But in order to get the right protein and the right fats, you've got to be intentional about it. So if brands are making it easier for you to kind of fill that bucket, I'm all in. Protein is one of these, again, I wouldn't say it's a buzzword, but it's one of these trends that everybody, as you say, is jumping on the back of.