Introducing The Energy Equation with Oli Patrick (and Arron Crascall)

0:00Watch it early on the High Performance App. Available now, Roman Kemp, the broadcaster, opens up a powerful conversation on success and mental health.

0:32who are trusted by us so that you know that you can trust them as well. And for a long time, we've wanted to have conversations about your physical health, but going way deeper than we believe any other podcast or any other show is going. And you know what? We finally believe we've found the host, we found the show, and we're about to introduce it to you. And Damien, from our perspective, this is actually a really sort of important moment from High Performance, isn't it? Yeah, it's a seminal moment, Jake, and it's one that I've been really excited to share with our listeners because in an age where we're bombarded with so much information and often it can be conflicting, I think knowing who we can trust and whose advice we can follow is never more important.

1:12And that's why I'm really delighted to introduce the energetic, the ebullying and the highly engaging new host, Ollie Patrick, to come and share with us a little bit more about the energy equation. That is the greatest introduction of all time. And I take that trust seriously, both of you, and I'm absolutely delighted to try and distill, I suppose, meaningful context to this wild west of well-being. Well-being, physical health, it's become a sea of misinformation. And what we've seen, certainly through the hundreds of episodes you've discussed with your guests, their physical being plays a huge role in their ability to achieve high performance.

1:52So the chance as a physiologist to get under the hood, talk to individuals about their physical behaviors how they're managing their well-being and specifically their energy it's a huge thrill for me to be involved with high performance and with you too so ollie we spoke about uh trust and trusting our experts tell us a little bit about you and why we can trust you i hope you can trust me because i've got no skin in the game i've spent 25 years as a physiologist in clinical practice trying to help individuals and organizations work out, A, if they are well, and how that has an individual meaning to everyone you talk to.

2:28And secondly, what are the tools we have at our disposal to improve our state of wellness? And I think really over the years, I've tried to fuse the latest science and distilling what we're learning from the research institutes with what's going on in technical and clinical practice through the lens of the individual in question. So I've tried to bring the lived experience of thousands of individuals I've helped to improve their state of health, well-being and performance and try and use that database to help both our guests but more importantly perhaps our listeners. Look Ollie, I know because I know you that you've been involved in this world for 25 years.

3:04You've got such vast experience. You've met and spoken to thousands of people in that time about the health and how they can find a path to greater health. But what about your show? Who have you been talking to and what have you found out? We've done something jolly exciting with the show. So what we've taken is my favorite test from those 25 years of clinical experience, which is a monitor people can wear that investigates objectively how stressed they are. It objectively measures the quality of their sleep and recovery. And it objectively gives me insight into their physical activity and cardiovascular fitness.

3:38And what that allows me to do is take these high-performing individuals and get to the truth of how they're managing their energy and the lifestyle choices they're taking day in, day out that have both enabled them to get to the top of their field, but importantly are keeping them there. So who've you been speaking to? So we've had Sir Steve Redgrave. We've had Aaron Craskill. We've had Spencer Matthews. We've had Angela Scanlon, Louise Minchin, Emily English, known as M the Nutritionist, Billy Billingham. We've got Stacey Solomon, the Stoltman brothers, the world's strongest brothers. It is an extraordinary cohort of individuals coming from both athletic performance, broadcasting, content creation, and we're seeing this breadth of stories and different versions of performance, and what are the common themes around the lifestyles they lead.

4:27Which sounds amazing. So who are we going to hear from first? We're kicking off with Aaron Kraskell, who describes himself as a content creator, and he's an enormously popular guy through the social media platforms for making hilarious videos. he's also a DJ and an artist and what I expected was a really you know uplifting energized conversation about someone who portrays a high energy persona what we got through the use of the data was a discovery around addiction his ability to again quit alcohol and move into sobriety we got a discussion around faith and the energy he draws from a higher power the energy of creativity we got to look at the physicality of a DJ session.

5:08We got a great insight into a man who's gone through an incredible transition from where he perceived or was perceived to be happy and high energy, but wasn't. And now he's taken a number of changes that really lead him to a very good place in life. Oli, it sounds fantastic. And as a special gift to you, the High Performance listeners, we're going to give you the very first episode with Aaron Kraskell right now, right here on the High Performance feed. And you can also hear the second episode right now with nutritionist and chef Emily English, which is on the Energy Equation feed. So all you need to do is follow Energy Equation wherever you get your podcasts and you can hear this brand new series with the amazing Ollie Patrick from High Performance.

5:48Ollie, thank you so much, mate. Absolute joy. So excited. And I'll continue to listen to your podcast in every spare second of my life. You're a good man. Here we go then. An exciting moment as we bring you the very first episode of the energy equation with guest Aaron Kraskel.

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7:50I was drinking so much alcohol, never ever fitness. My sleep was absolutely horrendous. And it was like, if I don't drink, I'm going to die. I was just ego-driven, a complete and utter monster in my own head because it was like I just wanted to destroy myself all the time. Welcome to The Energy Equation, a podcast that takes a deep dive into how we use, manage and unlock energy. I'm Oli Patrick, and I'm a physiologist with years providing healthcare to people at the top of their game. Every episode, I invite a guest onto the show to discuss their lifestyle. But there's a catch. They've all been wearing a state-of-the-art health monitor, so there's nowhere to hide.

8:32This approach will give you an understanding of how they go about managing their energy levels through busy careers and personal lives, in the hope you'll learn from their successes and their mistakes. Now, Aaron Craskill is someone who, to look at, brims with energy. Rising to prominence on social media with his hilarious pranks and skits, he's built an enormous following of fans who love seeing his fearless approach to comedy. But as you'll hear in this episode, the Aaron we've been seeing online has concealed a harmful relationship with alcohol, which has affected not just his energy, but his relationships too.

9:06You'll hear about Aaron's struggles and the joy he's found in living alcohol-free. Before we begin, please remember that we're only just getting started. So if you like this podcast, please help us out by following us, leaving a review, sharing with a friend, or maybe even all three.

9:26Aaron Craskill. How are you doing? I'm so good. I'm really excited. Well, welcome to the Energy Equation, optimized by PureSport. This is the only podcast where you get homework. You get given this device. We spoke beforehand to get you set up with this. And you've been wearing this funky monitor. I did, yeah, since Wednesday last week or Thursday last week. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Took off Sunday morning. I can't wait to share those results with you. I cannot wait. I know, I'm excited. Before we get to those, we've got to frame who you are. I know you. I actually have followed you for a long time.

9:57Oh, really? Yeah, not just because you're coming on here. Thank you. You've been part of our family makeup for a while. Oh, amazing. From when you first started making extraordinary videos, and you were probably one of the earliest content creators. Literally, you're one of the first, yeah. Yeah, and now we would define you as a content creator. Would that be the right way? I think so. I don't even know what I am anymore. Well, content creator, artist. I'm an artist, yeah. I do paint. DJ. DJ, yeah. Music artist as well. Making music, and... Oh my God, yeah, I make videos... I suppose it is like an art form, really, isn't it?

10:29It is. What would you describe yourself as? I love it. The framework of today is to work out where your energy comes from. And to do that, I think it's really interesting to find out where you're starting from. So a question we always ask our guests is, if we're thinking back over the last six weeks minimum, but you know, last few months, and we're thinking of energy as how energized your body feels, whether you're knackered or not, your mental energy, your emotional energy, your spiritual energy, and we sort of smash those together and say 100 is the best it could ever be and zero is completely dysfunctional before i reveal the results of our monitor where would you place your energy giving me one number between with all of them all of them together 75 love it 75 with three quarters of the way full we are i think so anyway compared to what i was oh my goodness you're looking at like 10 before what what would the number have been Aaron 12 minutes ago god 20 really yeah I was a mess I like emotional physical mentally mess just absolute hopeless hopeless is a is a is a heavy word and I think you know I'm so pleased that we're here so am I you know and 75 which is a real message of hope yeah we move from hopeless to hope yes and and I think we want to use this time together to try and pull out some of those strands of where that energy has come from, what are the mechanisms to get you there.

11:55But I've also got to share this data piece with you because I've got a number. You have got a number. I've got a number for you. And again, this monitor, so it's a clever heart rate variability monitor. What it's looking at is not, of course, all energies, but it's saying if we look across areas of fitness, particularly cardiovascular fitness, if we look at your sleep and we look at your management of stress and recovery, Then we're going to get an objective biological marker of all of those three. Smash those together and we get a score. My sleep is terrible. Well, interestingly, maybe not as terrible as you think.

12:27So your score? 66. 66 out of 100, which is not far away. Fairly good. Fairly good. Fairly good. Now, fairly good, it feels very saccharine, very middle of the road. I want to dive into that. What that score is made up of is three different strands. And you've got three separate scores. I'll give you those three scores and then we'll dive into them. piece by piece and unpick this again energy for you there is one score on there that sticks out can you see your health 39 well i would say that's interesting oh my god health effects of physical activity 100 yeah you've gone straight to your worst score i would go to you got 100 out of 100 for what for the for how physically active you were over the three days you wore this and how impactful that physical activity was i spent a day playing my xbox well you did but you also had an outstanding exercise session yeah i do gym now you do do gym and i want to dive into that and we get to see how physically dynamic djing is so i dj'd saturday night with the with the piece on i went to the gym saturday day i dj'd saturday night from 11 till 12 and my sets are very high energy because i'm a drum and bass dj um i'm talking like three tunes a minute i'm I'm literally sweating.

13:41I can feel my heartbeat going through my body. I'm like a shaking wreck. But I love it. Do you know what I mean? It's very adrenaline-based. So after, it's very... I'm quite knackered after a long-based set. Yeah. So I'm really excited to see if it comes out as like a fitness level. Oh, well, that's probably going to reveal. I spoke to all my DJs on the scene, like all my mates who were there that night DJing as well. I spoke to them about it. They're like, oh, we can't wait to hear the results. Amazing. Well, you're going to be the poster boy for DJ Fitness. Wow, okay. and again exercise is in the context of the person because what we get a score of 100 it's the right dose right so it's not we don't win with exercise I didn't walk very far I think I did walk a little bit and then I never do running I never do cardio at the gym I always lift weights in the gym yeah because I always got told by Eddie Hall if you want to lose weight and the most effective way is to push weights really right and again it's nice that Eddie Hall people who don't know the world's previous strongest man yeah it's not a bad coach to be giving you advice He's definitely a good coach.

14:38Albeit, we have the Stoltman brothers on here and we have to transition. Often strongman is not particularly healthy. Let's also be clear. Especially diet. Yeah, but that is good advice. So if we take fitness, let's go one step back and say, where does your relationship with fitness sit? How important is that gym to you? To get into the gym at first, it was so, it was based on fear because I suffer with a lot of social anxiety. So if there's a crowd of people outside now, I will make a video and not care. If I have to go to a gym, I'm a nervous wreck. That's so interesting. It is so strange and I have no idea what it is, but I've overcome it because I sat in my car for like 15 minutes like, don't be a dick.

15:19Sorry for swearing. Don't be a dick. Just get out your car and go to the gym and it took me about half an hour to build up the strength to get into that gym in the first place and it was just such a stupid, I'm the most confident guy in the world. Well, I thought I was. And that was gym specific. That wasn't a small group. It was very much that environment. I'm good with anything like that. Well, for people who haven't seen your videos, you are the opposite of social anxiety. Oh, God. Because you're... It fears me. Well, you know, my daughter loves your videos because they show no fear. Yeah. You will do something outrageous or ludicrous in a public setting.

15:53Absolutely. Scream on a tube, sing, dance. I don't care. Wear whatever it is. I don't care. But the gym itself... Oh, my God. It was terrifying. And could you think why that would have been? Not knowing what to do, not knowing who's going to be in there or people watching me or it's nothing to do with the fact that people might film me or something because i'm a i'm this popular guy or whatever i don't really look at myself like that so yeah i had nothing to do with that i think it was just like the unknown yeah do you know what i mean and and having a goal in my head that i really really really want to do this but then it's like what if i fail i've got a lot of fear-based anxiety fear-based stuff so it's part of my addiction i suppose that's a great and it's a great example there is there is a well-known phrase called gym timidation have you heard that before that's exactly what it was exactly what it was yeah and you know there'll be a lot of people listening to that who hear it and of course now you're i mean a lot of your content is created within the gyms yeah so it feels like the gym has gone it's like a second home now yeah and i love it was there a moment where that changed i met i met someone in there so i've got a guy called rishma he's like a little studio uh a uni student and um he was like can you spot me on this machine i was like yeah yeah i took my headphones out because I have my headphones in.

17:02So I just want to go into like a, no one talked to me. I don't come across like that, but he's like, can you spot me? And we start talking and talking, got each other's numbers and then we train together now. It's like, I love it. That's amazing. Just a genuine workout buddy. Yeah. Then he's got friends in there who come over and speak to us while we're training and I've got new friends in there now. It's like, it is lovely. Do you know what I mean? And when I cut, when I leave the gym, because I'm starting to notice a change in my body, like my arms, my chest, I'm starting to, when I stand still, I can see shape coming.

17:31Which I'm so happy about. But there's obviously stuff I'm finding about myself. Like I've got fat underneath my chest and on the right hand side and left hand side of my chest, underneath my pecs or whatever you want to call it. I definitely call them pecs. And it's hard to, I've looked into it, but they're not shifting and it's really starting to, when I put a tight t-shirt on or I put a t-shirt on because I've finally got the confidence to do it. I can see the fat. I can feel the muscle here, but I can see the fat under it. It's starting to get on my, starting to really affect my um confidence okay so i'm looking into um maybe a bit because i've been fat all my life right let's i'm gonna say i've been fat since i was 10 and i just you were and were you aware you were overweight oh god all the time i always covered up with massive i still wear hoodies now i could wear a t-shirt now but yes i just feel better in a hoodie and i love the winter months because i can dress how i want to dress i don't have to dress uh i'm 42 years old and I still get anxiety about dressing.

18:27That's normal. There's lots of people who have that. Yeah. But I think what's amazing, we've got to also think where you've come from, right? So what are we talking in terms of weight loss? Because when I look back at those earlier videos, you were definitely... 15 stone 5 to 13, 4 now. So again, you're two stone... I was 12 stone 10. So that's 14 kilograms for anyone who's in the metric. These are big changes. That's a huge shift. I feel amazing. My stomach was so bloated. It had not just the front, but it was sticking out the sides as well. Yeah. because I was just eating like a maniac, like, because my anxiety was based on hangovers, not drinking, and not being able to drink, gave me anxiety, because I needed that drink to get rid of the anxiety, so then it was like, if I had a big meal, or a curry, or a Chinese, or something like that, it kind of took the edge off, but it made me feel full and good, but then it was sluggish and horrible, and then I'd feel crap, and I'd look in the mirror and go, oh my god, look at the state of you, and it was just a constant snowball effect, all the time then I'd get well and then it would be like okay I'm going to eat an avocado today and then I'd not I wouldn't have carbs like bread and I'd be like oh my god I feel like this because I'm not eating bread it was like all in my mind so I'd rush to get a loaf of bread like rip the loaf open and just eat two slices of bread but no butter on and go oh it was like I don't know what I don't know what was happening I still I'm still coming to terms with what I was going through because I I was in such a mess for the last eight years bad last two years I don't even know how in my life like I was drinking so much alcohol doing other things as well obviously I'm not going to talk about it but it's in the social scene people know what it is I was doing that as well on top never ever fitness my sleep was absolutely horrendous and I was just living day to day.

20:24I was literally living day to day. And it was like, if I don't drink, I'm going to die. And in the sort of spectrum, because I want to talk about your relationship with alcohol when we come to stress because that sits at the heart of it. I thought it took it away, but it didn't. Well, that's what lots of people think. And that's how it's marketed. So that's not a natural. Where did fitness sit in the change? Running to the pub when it was closing. That's the only fitness I kind of got. I'd probably be playing a fruit machine and my heart would think I'm in a fucking fitness. Okay. regime because it was thumping that bad i remember getting home sleeping and just feel i could feel my chest go and it was just it was just that was normal behavior um the adrenaline for making videos in the daytime was really really good but then the adrenaline stopped kind of falling i my dopamine levels i've looked into all this now so my dopamine levels with what i do for a living had dropped so i could get a video i could make a video now edit it now in this room yeah upload it and see a million views in an hour and go, yay, brilliant.

21:27That was it. Doesn't mean it. Doesn't mean nothing anymore because it's my job. I now look at it as my main income and my main job. Before I looked at my career as, I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm blessed. Just thousands and thousands of pounds, gambling, drinking, casinos, seeing my mates, meals. I didn't care. I was just ego-driven, a complete and utter... monster in my own head because it was like i just wanted to destroy myself all the time so so again it's so great to see you here so i feel good to be here oh you know and and i think again where you've used these different tools to change yourself to a guy sitting here within self-reported energy of 75 who's 14 kilograms you know two stone less and is fit right so i want to add to a piece of this data that we've got here that i also ran a a test of your cardio respiratory fitness.

22:22And I would like you to have a result above about 32, 33. That'd be an adequate level of aerobic or cardiovascular fitness. How did you get this? So I captured this through a combination of you doing a little bit of walking with this device on. And then I use something called seismocardiography, which is a clever way of capturing how strong your heartbeat is. And from that, I can work out how much oxygen it can pump per pump. It's fancy and cool, isn't it? now the reality of that is i've got a clinically accurate measurement of this fitness is it proper accurate proper accurate so if you go and do the lab test that might have seven percent variance this will have about nine percent so it's this it's you know short of you slogging yourself in a laboratory oh my god it's brilliant now that test has told me something really interesting that your result is above 32 i would love your result to be 40 and your result was 41.5 so i'm objectively telling you stand how well i think that becomes relevant in terms of the first part of that result is it's milliliters of oxygen per kilogram and i smoke as well i'm not going to say i'm not going to lie i actually smoke yes not weed or anything yes i i don't do substances because i can't change the way i feel yes because it's all about my program and what i'm doing now but i do smoke a roll up yep um i'm talking maybe 15 a day yeah and because for me it releases it It releases...

23:43When I tried stopping drinking, I was vaping at the time. I was vaping excessively because when I stopped drinking it, I was a mess for the first couple of months because it's hard because it's a completely change of life. They say the best thing about stopping drinking is getting your feelings back. The worst thing about stopping drinking is getting your feelings back. It's hard to deal with life without knowing how to get rid of that. yeah so I and then I was vaping excessively and then coughing up this crap in the mornings it was like a flavoured glue I was yeah coughing up yeah it was disgusting yeah so I went back to cigarettes yeah and I smoke a really light tobacco which is yellow I use filters and I use I really I smoke really really thin roll ups and not not big fat ones and it kind of takes the edge off of how I am like but with this is really interesting because I thought I was really unhealthy and we've got to be careful that that's not a health check I'm not going to take it on the chin and go yeah I can smoke you're always looking at what's less unhealthy so if someone goes from smoking a strong tobacco to a less strong tobacco, that's a progress vaping isn't good for you but it's better than smoking I'm praying to stop smoking so it will happen eventually you've focused this year on changing your relationship with alcohol increasing your relationship with fitness those are huge wins So this isn't about being perfect, this is about progress.

25:09And there's huge progress here. So the question with that fitness result would be, what would it be if you didn't smoke? Of course it would be higher, right? Because that smoke binds to a bit of the oxygen traveling around your bloodstream. It limits you. But equally, you plus smoking equals a good fitness result. Now that fitness result becomes slightly relevant when we look at the two exercise sessions we caught. Now, you probably thought you only gave me one exercise session. I did. but you can tell your DJ mates that's not entirely true so I've got two exercise sessions the first one was when you went to the gym and you performed resistance training which is the type of training that Eddie Hall I was bench pressing and doing a bit of shoulder work and arms love it and as Eddie rightly says probably the best way to influence body shape and weight loss is resistance training that's absolutely true for reasons that we won't dive into now but what I'm interested in is if your weight training is either quite intense or almost circuit style, we get what we see here, which is we get a cardiovascular session embedded within the weight session.

26:14So your heart rate range there between 109 and 156 beats per minute. And you classified as a mid-level cardiovascular exercise session. So you weren't physically running on a treadmill, you weren't riding a bike, but the intensity of your resistance training meant you did improve your cardio respiratory Now, that was the second best exercise session you got of the day. Because if we look at the result there, we can say you got, again, two and a half out of five in terms of how much effort you got. Then someone pops along for his DJ set. Now, there you are. You're kidding me. This is a message to all DJs out there.

26:51If, again, it's dynamic enough, your body believes it's exercising, you had an average. Nearly 1 ,000 calories. You had 883 calories burned over a two-hour window with your heart rate going between 127 at baseline, 151 at top end. That just shows how much of a good DJ I am. I can't vouch for that. But what I can tell you is you're a high energy DJ. That's insane. Yeah, it's brilliant. Now, that would have benefited enormously from, and I assume you're relatively dynamic in that situation. You know, you're not sat down, you're stood up. Oh God. You're giving it, you know. Yeah, I can feel it. So what we get there is you actually had a double session that day.

27:31And targeted a little bit of cardio earlier in the day, but that DJing was outstanding. And when we look at sleep, that will of course be the reason why you couldn't fall asleep off the back of that. Because you trained effectively a cardio session. That's a mix of adrenaline. That's a mix of anticipation. That's a mix of excitement. But what that will have contributed to is good cardio-respiratory fitness. It's absolutely superb. So, you've done two things. So first of all, you're doing activity, even with your weight training that's targeting your cardio. So I love that. Plus you're doing DJing frequently, which is like a cardio session.

28:05Gyms every other day. Which is amazing. And you've lost 14 kilograms. So your heart has to deliver to 14 less mouths, which means there's more for everyone. So I can sit here and go, I haven't got a huge incentive for you to do more cardio. And you scoring 100 out of 100 is indicative of the fact your training quality looks good. Your, again, activity levels are sufficient. so if it isn't broken don't fix it keep going now what would that look like if you didn't smoke I'd love it but we can come back we can come back and it's one piece at a time so I want to move on to other areas because I don't want to just sit here praising your magnificence for the whole hour well we can do that as well no because I want to get bits that might be more usable to you but I think there you've got to say am I fit yeah you are fit wow and you've come on a hell of a journey I'm going to have a Chinese well that again is not what I'm hoping I'm joking.

28:57I couldn't eat that again. It destroys me after. But you'll also know that your relationship with activity has been a catalyst for improved eating. One of my diabetes is reversed. Well, that's an important phrase where lots of people would be saying, what? So you had type 2 diabetes. Yeah, six years. Six years, which is amazing. So that is a condition where you cannot stop the glucose in your blood rising up too high. So your body's basically lost the ability to stop sugar in the blood going too high. yet lots of people thought that was a one-way ticket but what we're now seeing is people can put that disease into remission absolutely and what you've done over this last again certainly 12 months in particular alongside the weight loss is you've changed your relationship with carbohydrate that's fair to say yeah literally um i have a piece so every single morning without fail i eat one avocado with one slice of wheat and rye toast so wheat and rye i wore a libra for six months and wheat and rice so just say libra is a continuous glucose monitor yes that tracks what your blood sugar's doing and there's lots of companies since i put one on i could i noticed a lot of it and you can always get a little nods yeah little nods blood sugar crew some people wear them for fitness yeah and just to monitor their what they're eating totally i'm i used it to i wanted to reverse i was sick of my diabetes because i was in a hopeless relationship with alcohol clearly i i stopped the i had no will to live anymore so i thought if i keep drinking and drinking i'm just gonna die anyway yeah so it was kind of it was like a way out for me yeah it was so strange uh i love being alive now yes i didn't back then yeah but i put this libra on to monitor what i was eating because what i thought i was doing okay yes it was terrible so i would have a big bowl of couscous with a steak and then a bit of veg on the side the couscous would like boost me to 19 when my blood should have been I think it was like 6 to 8 ideally yeah so that's a significant elevation of blood glucose oh my god white rice was even like a bit plain basmati rice yes which we've always been told it's great for you eat white boiled rice or whatever mate it was horrendous that's amazing so I instantly stopped couscous instantly stopped wholemeal bread because that used to spike me and rice and then I found I was looking through everything all these different types of bread I was doing sourdough, I was doing like whole grain with nuts and olive bread, I was trying everything because I love bread and then it was like I found wheat and rye and it didn't really spike me but then I was using spread but now I use real salted butter and that doesn't spike me anymore So now every morning I have one whole avocado with Celtic sea salt smeared all over it.

31:49Delicious. Powdered. Beautiful. Probably a couple of boiled eggs. Like this morning I had two sausages and one avocado and two eggs. Outstanding. So you've basically dropped those refined carbohydrates. And lots of those foods are technically healthy. Are avocados okay? Yeah. So avocados, you know, they're quite high calorie. Yes. They're full of, again, a different form of fats that is broadly beneficial to human physiology. on weight with avocados you can put on weight from anything that has too many calories in it so the great the great nutritional debate that rages in our time is is weight just the volume of calories you eat versus the volume of calories you burn or is the particular format of the calories make a big impact and and we'll be rowing at the top levels of nutrition before we solve that debate but the reality is you can still eat too many calories from healthy foods but it's much less likely.

32:40Right. Because those foods naturally promote a bit more of a feeling of saiety and feeling full. So it's rare someone is truly overeaten on whole foods, particularly vegetables, including avocados. So I'm loving that breakfast. But I think from a thematic point of view, you've reduced processed food. You've gone to more... Oh my god, I was having a fried breakfast, Chinese as Indians. I was getting just to eat three times a day. Amazing. Because I couldn't get off the sofa. So I was well enough to drink again. And again, this was a guy who was at 20 at tops. you know, energy-wise that year ago.

33:10And now we've got a really, you know, a fitness level that puts you in the good category. We've got you, you know, coming to an absolutely spot-on body composition. So I think we can box fitness and go, you've done the hard work there, you've done the diet to support that, that's outstanding. And then let's segue over to another topic, which is stress. Yes. Because stress, you didn't score 100 out of 100.

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35:38you scored a very reasonable but not ideal 58 out of 100 okay if i say the word stress to you what what does that you know do you feel you cope well with stress what what does stress look like i deal better with it now because i'm quite spiritual so um i live my life how god wants me to live it now when before if someone would beat their car horn at me i'd probably jump out my car and go crazy but now i've got like arrogance and dishonesty in my life so i i've treated people like that before so i don't let it bother me stress for me is now probably to do with my videos work related i get a lot of self where it's like oh man like why am i not getting invited to that place why are they that that really causes me stress out and i start oh god i do get at i i do get very angry so there's two pieces there so the first piece is is this spiritual bit is is that giving you a broader sense of it doesn't matter because yes yeah and and can you apply that to real-time situations yes absolutely i've done it three times today coming in okay well coming to london needs to probably 100 times on the way home yeah um so you you can pass that a cross?

36:55Is that prayer or is that just a general sense? I prayed in the toilet before coming here. Before you saw me? Yeah. I honestly did. I did. I literally went to the toilet, had a wee and a little prayer in the mirror. I love it. Because whatever I will be done, not mine. And does that bring instant calm? Instant. 100%. My self will. If I go on my own for three days, I'll drink again. 100%. My self will will take over. My self will is crazy. I need to now live a spiritual life. because if I don't I am going to die really powerful 100 % I know that now it's kept me sober it's kept me alive and where in the sobriety journey did that faith happen was it November 5th so as you decided so you've shared with me before November 5th was the day my sobriety date that was the sobriety date I went to pick up a bottle and someone told me not to and put it down and get help and then I put my arms out and said please help me wow and I was in the co-op I was in the co-op and prior to that you'd had no faith no oh I prayed for a heart attack because I was too scared to commit suicide okay that's the kind of faith I had I'd go to a church on a christening or a wedding yeah and now it's like when I see a church open I get the same buzz as when I used to drink that's amazing because I went in for a prayer like it's just I so it's a Christian yeah faith yeah I'm gonna try I'm gonna I'm starting an alpha course at the church in January and then I'm gonna get baptized as well absolutely brilliant honestly I don't care what anyone thinks like my faith has saved whatever happened to me that day it was something so basically my fellowship is built on a higher power yeah so basically whatever happened to me that day it was something bigger than me yes that's what i believe in and i totally believe it was either you're supposed to have like kind of one higher power but i've got three my dad you know jesus and god yeah i totally believe whatever happened to me that day you know when you get you know when you think i'm never drinking again oh i'm never drinking again yes i must have said that about 15 million times i did addiction therapy addiction counseling hypnotherapy normal counseling i did everything to stop drinking but the problem is i never knew that it was my self-will yes i had no power i am powerless to alcohol if i have one i could have one bottle of beer this big right yep and i have no idea when that's going to end because I've got an allergy to alcohol and it changes the way I feel instantly and the power I would have that drink now I would go from here home on a train with no alcohol and I'd be like this because the power of craving is too much yes I and my kids go out the window my missus goes out the window I don't give a fuck yep all I care about is that next drink and I've never known anything like it in my life and I've never had a craving to any I mean you can say oh I crave fish and chips on a Friday.

39:45Yeah, well, this craving I had, I cannot put into words how crazy and how desperate it makes you. Like, and again, if you have a drink now, I know you could probably put it down and go, I'm going to see my kids tonight. I can't wait to see my kids and have dinner with my wife. I couldn't care less about them. And towards the end, my addict was telling me, leave them. Leave your family. Please leave them because they're better off without you. You've done too much to them. you're better off without you. I was sitting, I'd be sitting around a dinner table on a Sunday because I used to make up excuses because I knew that my missus was literally to the point of no return.

40:24Yeah. And it was just getting to the point where, fuck it, I don't care. Yeah. Because it's going to finish anyway. I was waiting for the locks to be changed every time I put my key in the door. I was like, oh, bonus. It was that bad. Wow. I'd make up excuses like, I'd ring her dad and say, do you fancy having dinner on a Sunday? And he'd be like, yeah, of course. I know that her dad likes a few beers. Yeah. So I could have a couple of beers with him. Yes. I'd have two drinks because I'm driving my car. I'm driving my car, babe. Don't worry about it. I'm driving my car. I'm only having two Guinness or whatever.

40:50And I remember sitting, I could sit there looking at my family going, fucking hurry up and eat your fucking dinner. I'm like this. Yeah. And they're talking to me. I'm like, what? Because I can't hear them. Yeah. Because this power over me is like, you need to fucking drink now. You need to fucking get, you need to get out of here. It was that bad. It's such an important description though, Aaron. Oh my God. Because people haven't had that addiction. And it's one of the major reasons that, and I know alongside, you know, higher power, faith, you're also invested in, again, community. Because, you know, you're, again, enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous.

41:27Yes. Yeah, which, because you almost need that person who does understand what you're talking about. A lot of people are going, I've never felt that urge. And I think there's a lack of empathy towards it, perhaps. But that community brings you that. Yeah, I thought I was the only person doing this to myself. drinking a bottle of gin a day, hiding drinks in my house, lying to my missus, having all these mental episodes where I didn't know what was going on and the drink would take it away. As soon as I walked into a room with 30 other people, the same as me, it went away. And I was like, oh my God, I found this is it for me.

42:00I was sat in that room, my first meeting, I was a blubbering mess and I don't really remember much, but I remember, so basically the premises of an AA meeting is someone from the district, Kent or surrounding areas, comes down, does a 20-minute chair. Yeah. Then you all get five minutes around to share your experience on what they've just said. Yeah. Every single person in that room was talking. I was going, they're me. You're me. And it felt like it was a bunch of actors put on for me. I couldn't believe that I was in a room with other people the same as me. Yes. And mate, it was like, my name's Aaron, I'm alcoholic.

42:38and it was like oh my god this weight off my shoulders going home and I remember sitting on the sofa with my missus after my first meeting and just bawling to her saying I'm so sorry because I couldn't believe what I'd done I couldn't believe all the stuff I'd done and how much I was just hiding it all from my following I remember I remember making videos and like yes guys how you doing new video coming at five come on give it a like and then put my phone and go oh amazing it was fucking terrible yeah and there'll be a lot of people who do similar oh my god 100 % mate this industry's fucked with it there's no negatives to it whatsoever to the giving up yeah 100 % no but then sometimes I miss the fucking carnage but to admit that is the reality and it's crucial oh mate it's horrendous but that's also why that community is there oh god and we got this at 75 energy out of 100 as you're reporting it yeah we want to go to the next level I'd love to yeah but I think that that is such a really important story Aaron and you've shared it you know with incredible just honestly mate I've could I would have lied to you before well and that that in itself is is is energizing you know and I think in there you've got when we look at energy from emotional connection you've got it with family who again I'm sure are over the moon with this new version of you I'm a dad and a husband again I cannot imagine the joy that's bringing to everyone then you've got the the physical energy through the fitness and the diet you've got the spiritual energy through through faith and and again the ability to draw on a higher power.

44:07You are a bit of a textbook here, pal. Yeah. Very good. Don't make me cry. I'm not going to make you cry, but I'm very pleased with you. Yeah, it's amazing. There's a lot of people, and sometimes you need one of those building blocks. Yeah. Even today now, I'd have been here half an hour before. I'd have scoped out three pubs in the area, so I would have done a lap of this wherever we are now. Yes. I just got out of the car and come straight in. Yes. But before, I'd have got here half an hour before. Yeah. I would have done a walk around the area. I'd have seen two pubs or three pubs one what I really liked and I'd have been sat here going fucking I'd have been near my head going come on man yep and I'm looking like clock watching the stuff and I'm thinking mate please because I know I'm going to go directly there yes straight away after lied to my missus I've got two other meetings to attend yes I'm not going to be home till 10 anyway yep mate just got on it it's a huge change oh my god and again that doesn't doesn't mean you're now stress free oh no no no so we look at these results this is you plus being fitter plus being you know i've got to ask one thing tell me right so on the friday yeah i spent a lot of time playing my xbox and we play and i was with four three of my friends and we play warzone which is quite high intense talking shouting and it's you're getting towards the final circle and all this sort of stuff so is it quite high intense it's a really good question so on that that's your stress and recovery schematic from friday at 11 o 'clock you're actually in a state of physiological calm so you're quite chilled out not so in this evening session so friday evening friday evening i was at a meeting oh interesting from six until nine yeah so that's your highest that's your second highest stress peak of the day now that stress mummies are quite calm yeah well what's interesting about stress is that that doesn't mean you're stressed it means you're anticipating you're switched on so okay in that scenario good when we look at physiological stress it's not am I being attacked by a bear it's am I you know am I hating this would that be like that you'd be off you know the chart would be off the Richter scale what we're seeing here is you are very engaged very switched on so red on the graph which represents stress is not unhealthy what we're really looking for is is there enough green which represents periods of recovery and restoration and and there's not that much across the the few days notice and you know where you say you know when you're playing um you know when you're playing online gaming it's not necessarily a high stress situation but it won't induce physiological calm no so it's not going to restore you and it's a bit like it's a distraction from stress but it may not be a stress so maybe i need to take up medication uh meditation yeah well meditation is you know, and lots of people use prayer as meditation or meditate as prayer.

46:55So that's a really strong area. I think something that takes you away from technology and brings you into a sense of being in the present moment normally moves you green. You know, interestingly, you weren't that physically active outside of the training sessions and the DJing where again, your DJ fitness is crucial. But I think you going for sort of wanderers, you know, sort of aimless wander outside would would have meant there was more recovery captured across these three days before this thing so i can't say that you're you know gaming is is stressful but i can say is your gaming isn't relaxing it's definitely not no and and not everything needs to be right so what's the blues the blues where it thinks you're either physically active or you're so stressed it thinks you're physically active jeez so that that would fit with that gaming session oh god i've got to sort it out now if you're then why ask whether you're active when you're DJing when your heart rate's racing and you're in that sort of adrenalized yeah high that's great when you're moving that's not great if you're sedentary so your body doesn't like to have that all those adrenalizing feelings and sit on a couch or be on a beanbag so if that was a capture of the gaming in the afternoon that would potentially over time be a negative thing what why that's also relevant is is how close it is to the period where you go to sleep we'll come to sleep next because your sleep's not that bad and it's sort of it's working alongside other other areas to prop you up i think also you know from a stress and recovery point of view as i mentioned that's not too bad your your score would be better if there was more condensed blocks of recovery during the course of the day i need to and you had more low intensity cardio exercise now in this new version of yourself if you had a particularly intense block of time and you felt a bit wound up what would be your release valve um probably a drive probably go for a drive okay so drive and that is a is a great way if that drive was a walk in nature that would be outstanding I need to do that I think it was also I'm lazy mate what you're not lazy no it said well no no it doesn't say you're lazy I thought I really was you're not lazy you've got good fitness you're more active than most people so you know don't give yourself that banner it's not fair I feel like I've got a chilled life now when I had carnage before well that compared to where you were oh Jesus if I had If I'd have had this on for a week, man, you'd have been like, fucking hell, you're not dead.

49:15We'd have probably had an off-camera conversation. What I wonder on those three days is whether you did any artwork. For those who don't know, you have a studio. Where does your art sit in the decompression? Oh, the music's on, man. I walk in, lock the doors, the music's on, and I'm just me. It was carnage before. It was horrible because I used it as a, I can't drink today. We'll go in there and get it all on canvas. Now it's just like... Have you noticed the actual art itself? Oh, it's colourful now. It's really strange. I'll get you a piece, man. Oh, absolutely. I mean, I've followed it online.

49:48I love it. You know, that sort of graffiti-esque style. It's burst of colours. It's stunning work. Yeah. I mean, it's really very cool. I went down to Brighton on... Can you have a look? I got to Brighton at 10. On which day? Friday morning. Friday mid-morning. There's... Again, between that 10, 12 period, there's nice recovery. I, you know... That's driving. Okay, so driving often for people is that period. A bit like getting on a plane where there's nothing else you can do. What the hell is this? Yeah, that's what. 8 a.m. Anticipation? 8 a.m. I was rushing a bit. Yep. Had to pick up my mate by a quarter past.

50:25And it was quite stressy in the house because it was school run. School runs always shows up on here. Yeah. School run, I think it was Thursday morning, was horrendous. Yeah. So maybe I was a bit stressed then as well. And again, these aren't bad things. I think what I'm interested in is where the art plays a crucial piece in down-regulating your stress and keeping you energized. I'm so fascinated that the style of art has changed. And when you're in the art, are you in the moment? Is that your meditation? Absolutely in the moment. Well, then that's going to be a huge piece of this, right? So you don't have to meditate to meditate.

50:59You need to be in that moment. you know what you mentioned something earlier about you know being worried about what was going to happen in the future or being drawn on previous experiences yeah it's very synonymous with being well if we can live in the moment i've got yeah i've been told yeah and that and this very moment right now spot on nothing about next nothing about leaving here in a minute or nothing just nothing yes just just right this second this is it you and me right here now yeah and art is a vehicle for you to do that and i think again if i'm looking at your toolkit the fitness the diet the spirituality you know the stronger emotional relationships the artwork you are genuinely building a bit of a portfolio of what it looks like to create more energy because i love the art being in there i really do i do as well yeah which is great so from a stress point of view we've got the art that again if we add in a bit more non-game based i need so look yeah i know exactly what I'm just very I'm lazy I think I've got ADHD as well because a lot of things take over my mind when I'm just about to go and do something and then something else crop up and I'm doing this and I'm like Jesus Christ what the hell am I supposed to be doing that oh my god I've forgotten that it's like a filing cabinet everything I put in my brain yes so again it's undiagnosed I've kind of lived my life off it I think especially with my videos and stuff I'm crazy again it's been probably harnessed and we had Tom Stoltman who talked about his neurodivergence as being his superpower because it enabled him to become the world's strongest man.

52:34We're looking with you that if there is a trait in that area, it might have led to you being a fantastic content creator. But to manage it does require, again, some additional habits and behaviors. I think, again, finding ability to lock in routines around being away from technology in particular. I just love gaming, but I know it's just, it is just wasting time. Yeah. I do love it. It's not wasting time. You know, it is a block of time. But I could be out for a walk, a creative walk. And you can do both, right? One is not mutually exclusive of the other. You know, there's that fundamental... What are you doing here?

53:12Obviously, I'm adding here. So I have to practice what I preach. I'm adding some electrolytes to my drink. Okay. Because I'm an avid sauna user, Aaron. So what would that do if I had that now? it depends whether you are whether you've broken a sweat today or not have you done it absolutely not so generally if you do regular exercise and you sweat or you're in a hot climate you'll lose a bit of potassium you'll lose a bit of sodium I've had Celtic sea salt today all over my breakfast that'll top up this is basically a way of guaranteeing that you've got optimally hydrated this is the business this is a raspberry one and I honestly love it so I can give you one as well if you want yeah I'm trying not to it's got no sugar in though no sugar in and again the crucial piece for you is it the kind of stuff you have when you've got diarrhoea no that is very different that is diarrhoite diarrhoite yeah I used to have two of them when I was hangover that's trying to replenish some of the electrolytes you lose so there is a component two of them in a pint glass in the morning it used to be brand new I used to always and that was bad that must have been full of glucose like oh do you know what I'd need to check I don't know but I certainly wouldn't advise diarrhoite as a preventatively preventive strategy so a macadamide and a diarrhoite is not what we're selling what we are avocado and a bit of Celtic sea salt Celtic sea salt and avocado it's you know very quality sort of middle class yeah but extremely nourishing and and you've seen it control your glucose so I think you know from a stress point of view you've got an incredible range of things that go in if there's less gaming a bit more yeah you know a little bit more time outdoors lean into the got to do it yeah but also So this narrative of laziness, just catch that, Aaron.

54:54Maybe just do the score and then go down for 40 minutes on the beach. I've got a beach, for God's sake. Then you've genuinely got no excuse. And again, the benefit of that, which might tie into our next point, which is sleep, which is, you know, sleep was okay. Let's cover sleep. So sleep gave us a score. We're talking half 11 till half 12. That is the time I go to bed. Every single night. Let's not start with that because that may not be a problem. do you wake up restored no shit absolutely horrendous then we'll definitely start with that so your score here 39 out of 100 right what do you think is the biggest challenge with your sleep just going up to bed just go to bed just that inertia because I just kids go to bed she goes to bed I can watch a bit of telly I can do a bit of gaming it's my time that's what I look at it as very selfish there'll be millions of dads and mums around the country going, I get that.

55:50Yes. I get that. And not just those. Those people who haven't had their own energy restoration and then they try and steal it back in those later hours. But I've got to remember that when I do go to bed, it takes me at least half hour, 40 minutes to go to sleep. Always been the case? Always been the case. Okay. Yeah, always been the case. I mean, you know, when we look at your sleep, the biggest problem we've got with your sleep isn't actually the quality of the sleep. Now, your biggest issue as recorded by the three days we measured, which is you know a snapshot it's not it's not you all the time was just the volume you know your actual sleep architecture as in the quality of it the different stages doesn't look like it's a problem and i guarantee your removal of alcohol will have been transformative i mean you know oh god that's the alcohol and sleep fragmentation as we call it i was sleeping but i was definitely exactly so you passed out with alcohol i was passed out yeah so you know what we've got here is is what looks like a good sleep cycle there's just not enough of it yeah so you know you can't you've got to be a pretty special physiological specimen to really restore enough energy, particularly when you're active, on six, six and a half or less hours sleep.

56:57And no matter how good your behaviors are, that's a hard, you know, catch up to play. I know. I'm that good, man. I don't know why I don't just go to bed. And I think that comes down also to habit, right? Yeah, absolutely. There's one of those things where can we build in some of that self-time earlier in the day? Yes. And if you can say, look, I need to game, right? If you love online gaming, then... It is good for the mind. It can be great and great social connection. It's socializing, yeah. It's massive. I don't socialize anymore. So can we find a time to do it that isn't in those witching hours?

57:30That's a reality. Look, guys, I can do, and it might be a cost to time at family time. If you take 45 minutes an hour out of time the family's awake, but you're more energized... She'd never let me. That's a discussion. we could we could shout out to the classical family and say no but the reality is it better to have one hour of of you going deliberately and doing that and then going to bed together going to bed waking up and sometimes you got to put them on a piece of paper and go is that an option but she goes to bed at nine and that's way too early for me well that's we're seeing a lot of people doing that you know because the world is exhausting and sleep isn't just time between being awake she does so much i mean like i think if you know you nine o 'clock might be a stretch but bringing your bedtime easy to 10 i think what whatever is likely to be doable ongoing and leave my phone downstairs well you've said it before i now interestingly that was the only night where you you go into recovery before you go to bed so i can see on the other nights your brain is whirring because if your brain's whirring your body's whirring yeah just before this first that was the original that was the thursday night the second i come off i remember yeah and then DJ night it was red in there DJ night is you're still wired from that show and that hyper adrenalized state you just have to suck that up that's the way it goes if I gave you an intense exercise session I've never been in bed at like 3 in the morning I think it was 3 in the morning I was so tired do you have any techniques if you do finish late night DJing just go to bed just go put your head on the pillow put your phone down interesting so that again would require for you to go from hyperadrenalized, remember your heart rate there was 156 beats per minute, you burn nearly 900 calories.

59:15That's a heavy exercise session. You can't then expect all of your body's physiology to quickly then turn itself off. It's too much of a gear change. So in that scenario, we might find people having a bath. People use cold. Have you ever done anything with a cold? Oh man, I see these cold plunges. It's insane. I mean, everyone's going for it. I do it, but only in a social setting because I find it too uncomfortable Is it horrible, is it? Some people love it It's very strong in terms of the developing understanding for improving mental health but that was probably more of a morning thing I think it would give me anxiety to do it Well, if you buy the tub and then you don't do it that gives you anxiety So, you know, I think you have to work out will I do this?

59:58But the reality is going into cold is a very good way of calming your physiology down So, it's an option other option would be again it's shower change of clothes you know a real uh you know using things like lavender you know shower gels that say i'm no longer in the dj booth i'm back home with the family so scent is a really powerful marker for that um something that that convinces your body to cool down because in many ways what you've done is you've you've accelerated your physiology you've heated up and sleep requires cool again you know notice your kids in the night their skin feels a little cooler.

1:00:32Our core temperature drops by a degree during the night. So anything that blocks that gets in the way. Okay. And you may find it's better to go to bed half an hour, 45 minutes later and let that temperature come down and go into a better quality sleep than, as you say, go to sleep here straight away knackered and then be sort of regularly, frequently waking up. Yeah. That's what I was doing, wasn't I? Yeah. Why was I regularly waking up? Because your body's just wired. It's still part DJing. That's crazy. But we've always got to bear in mind, because the other nights are okay that's fine no one suffers from one bad night's sleep you know this is what we do most often so unless you're doing djing six days a week i think you know we can we can put that as a footnote rather than a headline yeah but i think you know for you something to create some way of of bringing sleep forward and getting that extra hour if we want to take that 75 energy score and i want to take my 66 and we both want to head into the 80s that is the lowest hanging fruit this is not a need to do but you're building this beautiful series of actions and behaviors that i think again is is getting absolutely the right direction also you know you are not lazy this is not these are not bad behaviors everyone out there is going to be feeling versions of this i absolutely promise you it's a case of saying can i embed a new habit at a reasonable level and if you went to bed 45 minutes an hour earlier with your technology detachment earlier in the day then that's that's a huge win from today yeah absolutely is it's crazy i'm so pleased that what you've done this thank you i'm so this is so surprising and and we got to celebrate progress let's have a let's have a let's have a celtic salt avocado a couple of sauces thrown in yes the reality is you you have become fit aaron you train three times a week yeah don't don't 30 the uk does less than 30 minutes of exercise a week right so let's not compare you to perfect i know you create a lot of content with some if i put in a half an hour walking a day as well on the beach oh we would be i mean we'll be rocking but you know you are fit and you've got good relationship with physical activity i love it and what was what we've seen is your cardio my heart's good you think that that's impossible to tell from this okay but we didn't pick up what we might call an arrhythmia um but this isn't a heart health check so you know when we've got someone who is smoking who's had type 2 diabetes albeit in remission and has had excessive body weight um then checking out the health of your heart is well worthwhile doing as an adjunct to this i can tell you all about that offline because there's no one test that tells your heart's healthy but if we're sitting here we would love to know your blood pressure is good, not just normal.

1:03:17And we'd love to know that some of the circulating risk factors like cholesterol, which would work alongside the glucose. Yeah, they told me that's a normal level now. Super. So again, you're fit. Your sleeping is pretty good, but just give it more space to operate. I need to, I know that, yeah. Your stress management, you're a bit of a poster boy in terms of everything from faith to art to family, but just a little more of a detachment from technology and a little bit more of a boundary around when that timing comes in. Absolutely, mate. But Aaron, you know, I think... It's a wake-up call, isn't it?

1:03:48Yeah, but you've given a lot of people, I think, a wake-up call in how you talk about, you know, your addiction, how you talk about sobriety, the opportunity. You have to be honest now, because I want to help others. I think you're helping people enormously. Not just in the humor and the, you know, the joy you bring to your videos, but this story, I think, is so powerful and you share it so eloquently and so honestly that I hugely appreciate you coming on to have. So thanks for coming on. Thank you. Thank you so much. Top man.

1:04:17thanks so much to Aaron for coming on I absolutely loved my time with him he is a huge bundle of energy he's so enthusiastic he's been so engaged through the whole process and I think really is on a journey of self-discovery his route to sobriety came through hardship and challenge but he's really loving that newfound energy and I loved to hear about how that's expressing into creative art into his pursuit of DJing and a whole range of creative pursuits that I'm sure wouldn't be possible were alcohol still a key part of his life as someone who also loves a bit of gaming it was great to discuss the role of of gaming in switching off and can Aaron bring that gaming a little earlier in the day to reduce the impact it has on his sleep I hope so the discussion around smoking is always controversial of course we know smoking is one of the most universally damaging habits but if keeping that smoking means you can stay off the alcohol then in the medium term it probably is a net positive.

1:05:15I hope Aaron can improve his relationship with smoking as time moves on but it's vital that he keeps this strong sobriety streak going and he gains all the benefits from doing it. I hope you've enjoyed that conversation with Aaron as much as I have. I'll be laughing even harder at his skits moving forward and so grateful he shared his reasons for positive and negative energy with all of us. I would love you to tell someone else about this podcast. Please make sure you're following us and please leave a review. It really helps for other people to discover us and helps us keep making these shows.

1:05:44We'll be back very soon with more from the Energy Equation.

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