MBA2410 Must Read: Outlive by Peter Attia

0:09Heyo! Welcome to the$100 MBA show, the business podcast that's always got your back with our practical business lessons. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zinhome, and Happy New Year. It is 2024. Let's make this year a great one. And let's start with this episode. Today's episode is a must-read episode where I share with you a book that has influenced me, has impacted me, and why you should read it too. Today's must-read is Outlive by Dr. Peter Atiyah. I thought this was a very fitting and timely book given that it's the first day of the year and most people have these New Year's resolutions to get healthy, to get fit, to really focus on their health.

0:52And this book is all about how to live not only longer, but better in your later years. How to put in the investment now so that you're active, you're mobile, and independent for longer. Why is this book so important and why am I discussing it on this podcast, a business podcast. Well, if you don't have your health, you really don't have anything. You can't do anything. You can't work on your business. You can't go after your goals. You can't even enjoy the fruits of your labor from the business. You can't serve your family. You can't help out friends. You can't do much. And this is why I've always said on this podcast that you need, you need to prioritize your health.

1:36Your health and wellness, your physical wellness, your spiritual wellness, your mental wellness is so important because you are the leader of the business. And if you're in great shape in all these areas, you will impact your business in a great way. It's not like you and the person that's making the decisions for your business are two separate people. If you feel good, if you are good, you're going to perform well. And this book, in all honesty, is the best book I've read on this topic. I'm gonna share with you what differentiates this book from other fitness, health, wellness books I've read or are out there.

2:13What is the one thing that if you do it will make all the difference in your health? How to add a bonus decade to your life filled with vigor and energy and a whole lot more. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. I gotta be honest with you, this book was totally not on my radar, but I was visiting a friend and it was laying on his couch. And I asked my friend, what is this book all about? And he just started raving about it. He said, this is an incredible book. And I was staying over his house for a few days. So I grabbed the book and I started reading it over the course of the next few days.

2:48And I asked him, hey, can I take this book home with me? I'll give it back to you next time I see you because it's a pretty hefty book. It's a little over 400 pages and then some with the references and everything in the back. I want to say this book is not opinion, okay? If you read this book, you realize, wow, this book is backed with so much research, medical journals, case studies, all these different real-life academic studies done to prove points in the book. The author of this book, Dr. Peter Atiyah, starts the book by telling his story how he's a trauma surgeon and how most of his medical training is all about how to make sure you can help somebody when they're in need, meaning if they're sick, if they're about to die because they got in a car accident.

3:37But modern medicine up to this point really hasn't really gone deep on how to make people healthy so they don't have to go to the hospital. But more importantly, the book is about how to not only increase your health lifespan, but to increase the level of your health as you get older. So when you get older, instead of you having a certain level of health when you're in your 60s or 70s, you have the health of a person that's much, much younger biologically. So it's really about the quality of your life rather than trying to just live to 200 years or something like that. But in all honesty, there's a lot of studies that a lot of people are trying to extend their life beyond 100, 120, 130.

4:19And he talks about this in the book, but he really focuses on quality. Like how can you live an active lifestyle for as long as possible? So you're 70, you're 80, and you still are 100 % mobile. You still can play tennis. You still can go on hikes. Your brain is still sharp. You still can do intense activities. And that's what really appealed to me in this book because we don't know when we're gonna die, right? And he talks about this in the book. We all can have a shorter life than expected, but if we try to invest in our health now, and if we do have the blessing of living longer, we want to make sure that those later years are filled with energy, with joy, and the ability to live the lives you want.

5:03And from a personal point of view, I don't want to be a burden on anybody as I get older. I want to be able to take care of myself, be independent, and continue to do the things I love to do for as long as I can. So I want to just share some of the big things that he talks about in the book and then share my favorite takeaways so that you can get enticed to read it too and get really deep. I love this book. It's one of my favorite books I've read on the topic of health and wellness. So the book starts out by talking about what is the biggest cause of death? And we say natural causes when somebody actually dies as they get older.

5:40And he calls them the four horsemen, or they're known as the four horsemen in the medical world. And what are the four horsemen? Are the four horsemen of death? Well, it's heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease or disorders, and metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes. This is why people wither away and die. These things. This is also why people don't have the best life as they get older. In their older years, they suffer from... these types of problems. And this really hit home for me because I know so many people in my family that have suffered from one of these as they got older.

6:19Now, I do have a large family. My dad is one of nine children. My mom is one of six. I have, you know, 50 plus cousins. So the likelihood of me knowing somebody that has one of these or had one of these is quite high, but it still hits home, whether they suffer from heart disease or cancer or had some really bad Alzheimer's or has type 2 diabetes. I know many people in my family that type 2 diabetes. So in the book, he talks about how do you actually do the things today when you're in your 30s, 40s, 50s to stop these from occurring, from these things developing. Some of these are harder than others like cancer, but there are things you can do to improve your health, to be in peak position to fight these deadly four horsemen.

7:02Now, I'm going to just tell you straight up the biggest takeaway from this book. And it's a shocker. And at the same time, it's not. Dr. Peter Atiyah shares with you what is the number one thing you can do to improve your health, to extend your life, to have more powerful longevity, or what he calls a longevity drug. And it's very simple. It's people who exercise regularly and do several different types of exercise are the ones that live longer and have more longevity, more energy as they get older. And it actually isn't even close, meaning people that exercise regularly, whether they play tennis, strength train, run, play basketball, whatever it is, right?

7:47And he encourages a variety of exercises. So you might lift weights and do cardio, something like that. But he just simplifies this as if there's somebody out there that actually exercise on a regular basis four or five times a week, their health level is way above anybody who doesn't actually exercise. And the crazy thing is he has these charts and graphs all over the book, but the craziest one of all is people that exercise regularly four or five times a week, but also maybe eat a lot of fat or have a bad diet or smoke or drink or whatever that we think is criminally bad for your health. Those people are far healthier and have a far likelihood of living longer and stronger than somebody who doesn't do any of that bad stuff, but doesn't exercise.

8:36And again, the margins are so large, meaning it's not even close. And this is why he concludes by saying exercise is the most powerful longevity drug any individual can do. So you got to make it a habit. You got to fall in love with some form of exercise that you are happily going to do four to five times a week. I just saw Richard Branson live here in Sydney, and the guy's 74 years old, and he's fit as a fiddle. I know people that have spent time with him, and if you read his documentaries and you ever hear his interviews, fitness is a huge part of his life. He spends a couple hours playing tennis, singles tennis, in the morning, every morning.

9:17Then he swims, he does bike riding, does all kinds of physical activity. Spends about three or four hours a day just exercising. Now, that might seem excessive to you, and maybe that's just his billionaire lifestyle. And it's probably a lot of hours spent on exercise, but he's probably one of the fittest 74-year-olds you're going to see. And for him, he wants to continue to contribute to the world with his businesses, with his charities, with his philanthropy, with his speeches. And it's not going to happen without great health. So that's a great example of an entrepreneur implementing some of the stuff that he talks about in this book to the maximum level, but to a level that actually proves his point.

9:56Now, Dr. Artia in this book also says that nutrition is an important facet of an individual's ability to delay or prevent the diseases from attacking their bodies. He says that people that eat fewer calories over their lifetime generally live longer than those who eat in excess. It doesn't mean to starve yourself, but don't go over to extremes all the time. If you're on holiday and you're in front of an open buffet, go ahead and enjoy, of course, but don't eat that much every day. It's what you do consistently that matters, whether it's exercise or how you eat. Centenarians, those who live to 100 years old, people that live like in Sardinia in Italy or in Okinawa, Japan, if you study them, and there's actually a really good documentary on Netflix called Live to 100, The Secrets of the Blue Zones.

10:47If you study these people, you see them in this documentary, their diets are not like fat-free and low-calorie or zero carbs. Actually, they eat a lot of carbs. And they eat and they drink and they are enjoying life. But they don't eat processed foods. They don't eat junk. They don't eat too much sugar. They definitely don't eat fast food. But the big thing that all these people have in common is that they move. They move their bodies every day. They're going up and down stairs. They're going up and down hills. They're herding sheep. They're bending down. They're squatting like 10, 20, 30, 40 times a day just because they're doing their work or they're doing their craft.

11:24And Dr. Atiyah in this book, Outlive, echoes this, that actually how you move your body, how much you move your body has a lot to do with how long you live and how healthy you are as you get older. This is so important for you and I as entrepreneurs, as business owners, especially online business owners, because we will spend a lot of time on the computer, on our phones, sitting down, not moving around. We have to make a major effort to get off our rear ends and move, whether it's to get those steps in, to go for a walk, to go to the gym, to exercise, to play sport, to get fresh air, to just do things around the house.

12:04You know, maybe some house repairs to use your body. It's just not going to happen by itself. You have to make the time. You have to make the effort. Now, what's great about this book, Outlive, is that it shows you not only the science behind what he discovers and the science behind what he advises, but he actually shows you how to get healthy. He shows you what you need to do and how to measure your health from measuring your VO2 levels, which is how much oxygen your lungs can take in, and measuring your VO2 max between your resting heart rate and your maximum heart rate, but also some recommended tests that you should do with your doctor, whether they're blood tests and things like that.

12:45Listen, you only have one body, one mind, one you. You've got to take care of it. Warren Buffett is famous for saying, if I bought you any car you want, the car of your dreams, but there's one catch, that you cannot sell this car or have any other car for the rest of your life, how would you treat that car? You would pamper this car. You would make sure it's garage. You would make sure that you would take good care of it. You would change the oil before you had to change the oil. You'll keep it in pristine condition. You would wax it. You would clean it, all that kind of stuff, right? Because it's the only car you can have for the rest of your life.

13:26Well, that's your body. You only get one. So take care of it, okay? Be mindful of what you put into it, but how you use it, right? Don't neglect it because you and your body are the vehicles that are going to allow you to achieve whatever you want in your life, in your business, in your personal goals, in your relationships, whatever it might be. Now, here's some practical advice because I know it's the start of the year and a lot of people have a New Year's resolution to get fit and they sign up for the gym and they're, I'm going to do it and they're all motivated. But then three weeks later, February rolls around and things kind of fall off.

13:58And the reason why is because you're seeing this as things you have to do rather than who you have to become. And the best way to do this is something that I've learned along the years is that you have to just tell yourself, I am now a healthy person. I'm an active person. I'm one of those people that prioritizes exercise and exercises every day. So people that are healthy, people that are athletes, people that are in shape, what do they do? I have to do what those people do. I have to exercise. I have to be mindful of what I eat. I have to take care of my body. I have to be mindful of if things are not right.

14:31I have to go to the doctor and do a checkup and get things tested even if I'm not sick. That's what athletes do, right? So once you start changing your mindset that I'm a healthy person and I just do what healthy people do, you just hold yourself to that standard. So it's not really about going to the gym or eating right or dieting or whatever it might be. It's you are a healthy person now. So you got to do the healthy person actions. You got to live the healthy person's lifestyle. My other piece of advice is don't go so hard at the start. You need momentum. Momentum is very powerful. In my opinion, if you can get past six weeks, you probably can get through the whole year being consistent with your health.

15:09So in order to get to the six weeks, don't go so hard. meaning your goal should be just show up and do exercise five days a week. It doesn't matter how hard you exercise or how long, as long as you just show up consistently. That is the definition of winning. Whether it's just rocking to the gym, it doesn't matter if you have a two-hour workout or a 30-minute workout. You've gone to the gym today, you are consistent. Whether it's playing tennis or basketball or going for a jog, just show up, lace them up, get out there and do it. Showing up is really 85 % of the battle. Being consistent is the rest, right?

15:44Just show up and be consistent. And lastly, read books like Outlive because when I read this book and books like it, I'm reminded of how important my health is and I need to take care of it. Sometimes we need reminders. Sometimes we need to be convinced in different ways so that we can start changing the way we do things, the way we believe, the way we act. And that's why I highly recommend you pick up Outlive by Dr. Peter Atiyah. It's a big, hefty book, but it's worth the read. It might just add 10 more years to your life of activity and wellness. Thanks so much for listening to The$100 MBA Show.

16:23If you love what you hear, hit subscribe, hit follow on your favorite podcast app. We will continue to provide great value on this podcast, helping you along the way in 2024 and beyond. and the easiest way to make sure you get these lessons is to hit follow or subscribe. Go ahead and click that button that has a check mark or plus sign, whether you're on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or any podcast app, we are there for you. Before I go, I wanna leave you with this. This book was a little bit outside the business genre or wheelhouse, but we're helping you build a better you so you can build a better business.

16:58We're not gonna ignore the fact that you are a person, You're a human being and you need to improve in many ways so that you can improve your business. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in Wednesday's episode. Q &A Wednesday, I'll see you then. Take care.

17:30Thank you.