5 Mind-Blowing Things That Are Proven To Increase Your Lifespan

26:11Shawn Stevenson:Oxytocin is getting this nickname of like the love hormone, the cuddle hormone. There's so many others, so many others, many we've not even identified yet. You know, there's anandamide there's you know prolactin has some roles in this like there's so many others so to just make it like that is the love hormone it's not it's not like that but what we do know is that it is one of the most remarkable hormones that is able to counteract the activity of cortisol all right so we know that most of us are just cortisol addicts that they just stress on tap. And cortisol is awesome. It has its role, but the amounts that we're producing because of our chronic low-grade stress all the time and the times that we're producing it is a problem as well.

26:57You know, circadian medicine, maybe you heard it here first.

27:00Shawn Stevenson:I've talked about it a little bit in my books, but that is, from my perspective, it's what's to come. It's circadian medicine, circadian nutrition, all that stuff. It's already here, but that's going to be a big topic of conversation coming up. And so oxytocin, cortisol, we were talking about cortisol, cortisol produced high levels at night, very disruptive to sleep quality. If you're watching Netflix, if you're watching Severance, you know, right before bed, your cortisol is going to be a little elevated. All right. And you might have your blue light blocking glasses on. I helped to popularize that.

27:32Shawn Stevenson:Okay. 12 years ago, Sleep Smarter came out. All right. So I get it. And it does help, but there's a stimulation when we're on our devices, right? And so oxytocin, spending some time, what if you unplug for a little bit, hang out with your family, hang out with your significant other, hang out with your puppy, whatever. Just spend a little time, down-regulate, all right? We mentioned a little bit of the microbiome exchange. That's also immune system data, all right? So a big part of longevity is not dying, all right? A big part of longevity is not dying. What are the main things taking us out, right?

28:10Shawn Stevenson:Heart disease. We'll talk more about that in a little bit, but in particular with the next one I'm going to share, but also all manner of immune system dysfunction, whether it's related to cancer, whether it's related to infectious diseases, we've got to make sure that our immune system is strong and resilient and intelligent, right? And so the ability to have immunomodulation is one of those things that is improved when you're around other people and having healthy social bonds and it goes back to the microbiome too because you're sharing microbes you're yeah cohabitating with people who are out in the world doing things bringing various benign microbes back into the house and it's one of the reasons why having a dog seems to be so consistently related with better immune function and longevity yep not so for cats not so much for cats which is kind of a bummer for me but uh how many cats do have i just got one i just got one okay just one but she's an indoor cat so it's she's not it's not like she's like out in the world bringing strange bugs back into the house yeah um which is i think the mechanism by which dogs are you know because they're just out sniffing things and tracking stuff in um super interesting stuff okay so social connection yeah so gut bacterial diversity we've got social connection which is super super important yeah what's number three Number three, we're just going to keep piggybacking.

29:34Shawn Stevenson:And this one with that social connection, number three, with some sound data on longevity, is sex. All right. So I'm going to share this study specifically. So this was - You just made a lot of people either really happy or really depressed. Well, okay, we're going to dive in. We're going to dive in. No pun intended. This was a 16-year study. This was published in the American Journal of Cardiology. All right. So again, this is a journal dedicated to the heart and cardiovascular system. The number one cause of death in the United States still is the champion is heart disease. And this was conducted with over 1 ,000 male participants.

30:12Shawn Stevenson:And we're going to talk about women as well, by the way. But this was over 1 ,000 male participants aged 40 to 70. And it found that men who had sex at least twice a week were almost 50 % less likely to die from heart disease than men who had sex once a month or less. There's a connection there. That is such a huge, like 50 % or 5 % is remarkable, but 50 % is mind-blowing. It should make us stop in our tracks, like what's going on here? Now, again, we can't talk about causation with this because it probably goes both ways, no pun intended. Is that gonna keep happening? So looking at the ability to have sex and have a healthy sexual relationship means you have good circulation, right?

30:58Shawn Stevenson:You have good blood flow. And one of my really good friends is Dr. Daniel Amen. And him and I have had multiple conversations about this and understanding that circulation, that blood flow. So this could be a chicken or egg scenario, but they help each other. They help each other. And with that being said, having that healthy social connection, it isn't a relationship, intimate connection in particular. it isn't just preventative of heart disease but also it is remarkable because he's a brain expert he has the largest database of spec imaging so he's scanned everybody's brain from Muhammad Ali to Justin Bieber yeah you know what I mean and his data was used for the big NFL study the list goes on on he's a he's a genius absolute brilliant guy but the sweetest guy as well and And his work was also mirrored by researchers at the University of Maryland who found that regular sexual activity was able to actually stimulate neurogenesis.

32:00Shawn Stevenson:All right. And when you hear that, there's another study coupled with that one that came out in 2010 that found, of course, it was a hippocampus, the memory center of the brain, glorified memory center of the brain. But this stimulates growth and development, new brain cells. or something about sex that is just like it pushes that button that turns on another pun, turns on that brain activity. And one of the things that he shared with me was that our largest sexual organ is the brain, you know, again, contrary to, you know, what the guy might say. But, you know, it's just keeping that in mind that, you know, this is it's great and nourishing for your brain, for your cardiovascular system.

32:41Shawn Stevenson:and there's studies in particular on orgasm with women and studying brain activity and seeing how remarkable it is with creating positive changes in the female brain. So helping to reduce stress, obviously, but making the brain much more resilient, more healthy blood flow and circulation in parts of the brain associated with better cognitive function, disease prevention, the list goes on and on. so we know that sex and orgasm but they don't necessarily go together or have to go together but that intimacy in particular again seeking that out being more intentional about that we're in a society that tends to pull that away right so a big part even even without the sexual intercourse part just the proximity being close to the person that you care about or that cares about you and for those who aren't currently uh maybe not doesn't have direct access to smashing all right right now it's totally okay of course you know you can have your eyes on that but just being around do whatever you can do to be around people that care about you there's so much benefit that comes from that we're just talking about going you know all the way like what does the data say now to get into some of the tactical things here that study noted that twice a week twice a week created a 50 reduction in heart disease versus once a month all right knowing this data is probably not a good idea well you maybe want to send your significant other this podcast maybe all right but just being like honey you know i need to this has only been once this week.

34:34Shawn Stevenson:It's, I need, you know, like, we're coming up on Friday. Yeah. So it's not like that. It's the other things that are involved in the process of sex and having a healthy sexual relationship that help to support our longevity and our health, which is intimacy, which is being intentional, which is being compassionate and understanding and listening or whatever, whatever quality needs to emerge from you to have that sexual health that you want to have. It isn't just this tactical thing. Like I need to bust a nut. Okay. Cause it's like this time of, you know, of the week, right? Yeah. There's a lot, there's a lot to unpack there.

35:10I mean, I think if you're, if you're able to, as a man, if you're able to, and also female, cause women have erectile tissue analogous to the penis. If you're able to, to achieve and sustain a healthy erection, I mean, that, that's a good sign for your cardiovascular health. That's one of the first things to go. You know, a lot of people with preclinical cardiovascular disease, I'm sure, you know, like they develop erectile dysfunction. So I think that's, yeah, even if you don't have a significant other, I mean, I would wager that, you know, if you're masturbating, you know, you pre and you're able to achieve healthy erections that way, like that's a good sign.

35:46It's also good for the prostate, prostate health. I was reading something, you know, recently and due to too rigorous a dive, but, um, it's good for men for the, for prostate health to ejaculate more more frequently i also think that mouth genital contact on particularly performed on women a lot of women in the audience probably be really happy to hear this it's my my hypothesis that that's very good for at the very least the male's microbiome because there's some good lactobacilli down there the vaginal my healthy vaginal microbiome you want to share that

36:25Shawn Stevenson:Yeah. We should put the title of this episode, Eat the Kitty. All right. It's going to have multiple meanings, you know, but this is one of those things where, you know, again, we in our culture today, things are slightly different, but the culture that I grew up in, this was such a foreign concept, right? Again, we're not taught about this stuff. We're just kind of thrust into, last one, that's my last pun. We are thrust into a sexual relationship without understanding the other person. We just had that awkward class in school, if you get that, right? Most of the time it's like middle school.

37:02And so little attention is paid to the female body, you know, and really understanding,

37:11Shawn Stevenson:you know the role of the clitoris and you know how pleasure is it can be different it's not just about this thing that you're you're thinking about as a guy for your own pleasure but being more intentional in that and learning about it read a book you know listen to some of these experts when you mentioned the prostate health it thought about i thought about my friend dr rena malik and she's shared she's a expert in sexual health for men and women and you know she talks about stimulation also dr jolene brighton is another person and sexual pleasure for women and so just getting some education and as max just threw on here for the for the science bros also you know you're going to be helping your own microbiome you know it's a it's a win-win yeah cunnilingus is the new kombucha no but actually did you there was a viral do you remember this there was a viral headline a couple years ago a woman cultured the bacteria from her own vagina and used it to make yogurt.

38:09Well, damn.

38:10Shawn Stevenson:I mean, you can make yogurt out of anything. That was a thing. Case in point. Yeah. We all know yogurt's good for you. Damn coconut yogurt. Yeah. That's crazy. Dairy-free. You've got lots of options. Lots of optionality there. Got a quick break coming up. We'll be right back. There's one beverage that rules them all when it comes to longevity. In fact, a study published just last year in The Lancet found that people who regularly drink tea age slower than people who do not. Now there are so many varieties of tea that come teeming with health benefits and flavor profiles from green tea to ginger tea and more.

38:48Shawn Stevenson:And speaking of anti-aging and anti-obesity effects, a study published in the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging took 59 overweight or mildly obese subjects to see if the renowned tea called Puerh makes a notable difference in weight loss. The randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial gave participants either a placebo or Puerh for a 20-week study period. There were no other interventions noted. Here's what happened. The researcher stated, quote, consumption of Puerh was associated with statistically significant weight loss when compared to the placebo. Fat loss was seen for the arms, legs, and the hip and belly region.

39:32Shawn Stevenson:The participants who received Pu-erh lost more overall body fat. And what was especially remarkable was that they maintained more of their muscle mass. And that is the equation for healthy aging. The tea that I personally drink most often is Pu-erh. But the only Pu-erh that I drink is from Peak Life. It's triple toxin screened for purity and made through a patented cold extraction technology that makes it as effective as what was seen in this study. It's wild harvested and truly the best Pu-erh on earth. Head over to peaklife.com forward slash model right now and you'll receive up to 20 % off plus some limited time free bonuses like an electric frother to mix your favorite beverages.

40:19Shawn Stevenson:and you get to try Peak Tease risk-free with their 30-day money-back guarantee. You'll either love it or you'll receive a full refund. Go to peaklife.com forward slash model right now. That's P-I-Q-U-E-L-I-F-E dot com forward slash model and get hooked up with all of this good stuff. That's peaklife.com forward slash model. And now back to the show.

40:50Shawn Stevenson:Next up, so we covered microbiome diversity. We covered the importance of healthy social bonds. We covered sex and the impact that can have on longevity. Tons of data and more is emerging on that as well. Number four, and this really ties into a lot of these other things and makes it possible to do these other things. number four is building and maintaining your muscle mass all right i'm so grateful so many of my friends and colleagues are just championing this message right now i've texted with dr gabrielle lion she's one of the sweetest people man she's always checking in on me making sure i'm making sure i'm good she's amazing um but she's a muscle-centric physician and this this it's really a revolution in understanding because it was kind of relegated, the idea of building muscle to the bodybuilding community or athletes.

41:49Shawn Stevenson:And the personification, like how we identified that domain oftentimes was associated with a shorter lifespan, ironically, or, you know, not as smart, not as good cognitive health or whatever the case might be, you know, dumb jock, right? Kind of a stereotype. when in reality, in reality, muscle is very likely of all of our different organs and organ systems, we could make a strong argument that it is the organ of longevity. Now, I'm going to give some reasons why. Now, this, of course, the brain is huge in this. Obviously, it's controlling all this stuff. The microbiome, huge. But our muscle tissue is one of the biggest factors for our survivability.

42:35Shawn Stevenson:Right? So being resilient, again, a big part of longevity is not dying. A big part of longevity is not dying, making us more resilient against whether it's cancer. We know that cancer, cancer trials, diagnoses, going through cancer treatment, people who have more muscle mass survive. All right. And whether this is, let's actually, let's check off some boxes here. so when it comes to muscle muscle is our body's primary source for glucose disposal right so we know that abnormal glucose regulation insulin resistance all these things are epidemics leading to higher rates of heart disease dementia cancer the list goes on and on we can make an argument that you know the majority of the 10 leading causes of death are directly connected to insulin resistance and poor glucose management.

43:30Shawn Stevenson:Muscle is the number one reservoir for absorbing and clearing the blood of glucose. If you have muscle, your body just does it way better. All right? So it's like an insurance policy against prediabetes and insulin resistance, all manner of blood sugar abnormalities, right? So that's number one. So again, helping you to not die. uh number two muscle is in a very interesting interesting way it's kind of like it's like a reservoir it's like a it's like a container that that holds on to and contains a lot of anti-aging compounds hormones that over time and this is why you know people who have a healthy amount of muscle if they get injured for example even at older age they tend to recover right they might break something, but they're not wheelchair bound for the rest of their lives.

44:23Shawn Stevenson:Muscle has like a reservoir that's able to pump these things into your system to help you to bounce back. All right. So it's very protective. It's like a reservoir for anti-aging hormones. And another aspect is the myokines. All right. So we know that the emerging science with these myokines that our muscles produce when we contract them, when we're using our muscles, they're producing these myokines that have powerful impacts on keeping your brain healthy and protective. They're neuroprotective. They're also very powerful at helping to regulate and support your immune system. Again, helping you to not die.

44:56Shawn Stevenson:All of this is going on with muscle. I can go on and on and on, but the most obvious one is just the pure functionality. Muscle, what is its purpose? Like just superficially is to help you to do stuff, to move around, to be able to do life stuff, right so whether we're talking about being with your community right being able to walk or to play a sport or whatever the case might be muscle is what is enabling you to do that um what about to i mean i have a very savvy audience so i don't know how many you know listeners right now are thinking this but just in the odd chance that that there are some females listening that are like well i don't want to be too bulky you know i don't want to pack on muscle like a bodybuilder become G.I.

45:42Jane, Demi Moore, you know, from G.I. Jane back in the day. How would you debunk that myth? Because it is a myth, right? Yeah. That that weight training makes women appear bulkier.

45:54Shawn Stevenson:My man, I've been talking about this for almost 20 years, for over 20 years, actually. And now I'm hearing a lot of things that I've shared, like being echoed by really influential people. and one of them that I had said like 20 years ago was just again very superficially very obvious men we do a lot of stuff to try to put muscle on we do a lot we're trying to we're trying to get in all these macros we're doing protein shakes we're working our ass off to try to build muscle it's hard it's hard to do all right and we have the hormonal cascade the testosterone advantage to be able to do it way better than women.

46:37Shawn Stevenson:It's so difficult for us to do it. And yet women are afraid like they're going to get bulky. Most men are struggling their ass off to try to get bulky. All right. So you could just put that to bed. This is not one of those things to put on a sizable, noticeable, intimidating, scary amount of muscle takes so much. It's like a full-time job. And then the will of, you know, I almost said Will Smith, but I don't know if that's, if it's too soon, but like the will of, you know, somebody who is very mentally like driven. Right. And so please just, even from that alone, just look at like, most guys are trying to get big and they can't, they're at the gym all the time.

47:21Shawn Stevenson:They just, they're just not putting on muscle like that. Now there is of course, strategy behind doing stuff and being able to, you know, see some progress for, for women. and thankfully this conversation has changed dramatically in the last few years a lot of women are just like no i'm done i'm done with that like that whole belief is it what i'm what's coming up for me is like my my wife being from kenya and having a physical culture right and so being much more active and understanding that women throughout history have been very active and doing a lot of like heavy lifting, in particular lifting kids, helping with gathering and things like that.

48:02Shawn Stevenson:I almost said hunting. I just watched this movie, Prey. It's like a predator movie. Oh, interesting. Yeah, I've heard of it. But she wants to be a hunter. That's the whole thing. But anyways, but just being able to help out and to do a lot of things that require muscle, that require a very physical culture. We had a much more physically literate culture where muscle was required. but today all of that has been muted and so there's been also this paradigm of the uh kind of demure or demure like very petite and soft and like you know just hidden tucked away very delicate woman there is a place for that obviously absolutely but also there is something your genes are expecting your genes expect you to be strong because it's about survivability right And your version of what muscle and what strength is going to look like is very different from a bulky guy.

49:00Shawn Stevenson:All right. For you to actually put on muscle that you feel like I'm, you know, I'm like whatever, you're probably going to have to take some, you know, some anabolic steroids and things like that. And, you know, you just can't do that eating good food and lifting weights. You know, it's just you got to just put that whole idea to bed. Yeah, almost every jack person that you see male or female on social media, they're all augmented. I mean, the vast majority of them, even those that will claim that they're natty, they're not. And also for women, like lifting heavy things is the best way to fortify bone strength.

49:33Shawn Stevenson:Yes, that part, that part. And that signal, your bone also, again, stem cells, all these different data aspects of like immune system function, cognitive function. there are things that are great for protecting and regenerating your brain tissue that are embedded in your bones and when you use your bones when you put late uh weight-bearing exercise onto your bones it helps your brain and this circles back to and i remember it was a conversation i had with andrew huberman about that and this comes back to how muscle and cognitive function actually go hand in hand as well we know that cardiovascular exercise is great for the brain We know that tons of studies on that, but there is less data now about lifting weights and cognitive function, but we do have some pretty remarkable sets of data on this.

50:22Shawn Stevenson:In particular, lifting legs, strong quad muscles, strong leg muscles, and having a better long-term memory and better problem-solving ability and less anxiety, more stress resilience when people have stronger legs and they're working their legs on a regular basis. So getting stronger legs. If you're going to work any muscles, don't skip leg day. All right? That paradigm is over as well. I feel like a lot of fellas need to hear that. Yeah. You know, fellas, where I tend to be, if I'm going to skip any day, it's going to be leg day. Yeah. And I feel like for women, it's probably the opposite. Of course.

51:02Shawn Stevenson:Right? Yeah. There's a, we have the, there's a paradigm of, you know, it's all about the booty right now, you know, so leg day and, you know, that whole thing. And for guys, it's still just like trying to get the big arms and the chest and that kind of thing and the big V taper. And I get it. Like, who doesn't like a nice butt? Yeah, I know. This goes back to the one we talked about earlier. So just keeping all this in mind, this is for all of us. Our genes expect us to be strong. Our genes expect us to walk. Our genes expect us to lift heavy things. Our genes expect us to be able to move quickly.

51:38Shawn Stevenson:these are all external environmental inputs that are telling our genes that i'm fit to be alive all right and so giving your body these inputs on a regular basis are just going to again it's going to lean towards you living longer it's very logical we're just talking about basic logic and then we get into the minutiae and so yes we talked about um the myokines we talked about anti-aging reservoir. We talked about glucose disposal, but the main obvious thing is just pure functionality, being able to move and do stuff in the world. Having more muscle is telling the environment, these environmental inputs, I'm qualified to live.

52:18Shawn Stevenson:I'm strong enough to hold my own in this world. And so my recommendation for everybody listening is to make this, especially, especially when you hit 40 40 and over your number one priority should be building muscle number one priority the cool thing is there's there's a lot of um depth data and this has been but from really unhealthy populations to be honest but on just how you how much muscle you lose each decade as you get older right sarcopenia kicking in eventually now we know that it doesn't have to happen it doesn't have to happen you can build and maintain your muscles at 80 you can still build muscle and you can still protect and maintain that muscle is it harder yeah it's harder all right so now is the time to bank the muscle bank it bank it you can kind of coast on that for decades if you just maintain the muscle mass that you build.

53:20Shawn Stevenson:But there's issues with protein metabolism as you get older. It is a thing. And it's more difficult, just even the energy and all the different things. So is it possible later on? Absolutely. But we want to get a jumpstart on it right now, especially again, once you hit 40, it should be your number one fitness priority, build muscle. Everything else is cool. Build muscle first. Amen. Yeah. I love how you described it as an insurance policy. I had a, an exercise scientist on the show recently, Bill Campbell, who, um, I mean, he cited some really interesting research showing that even people in their eighties, like are still totally capable of building muscle.

54:00Like it's really, it truly is never too late. Obviously there's higher risk of injury. You want to make sure that you're doing it safely. If you've never worked out before, like my dad, my dad's never been in a gym in his life. You want to work with a professional so that you don't hurt yourself but yeah super good advice and then nutritionally before moving on like how do you support that because protein you kind of touched on protein metabolism but yeah i would assume that that that there are certain nutritional uh recommendations that can help support those efforts absolutely and some of this stuff again

54:33Shawn Stevenson:it's captain obvious but because of the diet wars we can create this kind of um we can have blinders on in our minds and misses. And so when I started in this field and I've been, it's 22 years now, been working in health and fitness, starting off in my university gym, working as a personal trainer to opening my clinical practice, working as a nutritionist for years. I, when I had my nutritional science class in college, we were taught about the food pyramid, you know, and And we had this low fat paradigm. It was heavy, right? The teacher was talking about the studies on how fat, you know, leads to cardiovascular disease and da da da, right?

55:17Shawn Stevenson:And the thing was at the time, I wasn't as well versed in reading the research myself. Neither was my professor. Because if they actually read something, you know, it's more so like this is handed out, Like this is the, you know, the one sheet on what to talk about when it comes to this subject. So fat was shamed. Carbs more recently have been shamed, right? Low carb, low carb movement, low carb for life. And, you know, all the while with these, and by the way, there's value in each of these. It just depends on you. That's really where I got when working with people, thankfully, and this was years ago, was doing what was best for the person and not based on what my beliefs were, right?

56:02Shawn Stevenson:And so some people had more fat in their diet. Some people had more carbs in their diet, right? But what was left out of the conversation, these diet wars is protein. Protein was shamed big time because it's supposed to be like, this is the thing that shortens your lifespans. Too much protein, too much protein. and some of the most well-conducted studies that have analyzed the data on protein intake, it's far, it's far from like actually looking at not some isolated part of an animal food or like a casein molecule, but like looking at protein intake, it's far from, you know, this dogma that we've been taught.

56:37Shawn Stevenson:And so all that to be said, protein has been here as a pillar this whole time. it's the most valuable things that our ancestors were looking for all right throughout human this human experience hundreds of thousands of years protein you can get your hands on an animal you're you're gonna be all right all right and there are again thousands we're not um diminishing the value of plants and plant inputs because we get into a camp of that you know where it's just like plants are trying to kill you and then animals are like what do you eat then right We are omnivores. We are very intelligent at being able to find, and our ancestors figured out which foods we could eat and eat healthfully and safely because there's a limit to just about anything as well.

57:24Shawn Stevenson:Too much protein is bad too. You can eat too many. Some of these plants, there's a toxic tolerance. You can hit a threshold where it is hurting you. But getting a little bit of it can actually help your immune system and your gut diversity and give you all these other benefits. It's kind of like, you know, and, you know, we talked with Dr. Sharon Berkowitz about this as well. Oh, yeah. And those plant inputs actually being one of those keys to longevity is that, quote, healthy stressor. But for some of our colleagues, they're like, we don't want any of that stress because it's killing you. Right.

58:00Shawn Stevenson:That spinach is definitely it's murdering you. Right. And the reality is a little bit different, a lot different actually. But again, we don't want to go full in. We're not trying to have a massive spinach smoothie every day necessarily either. And so getting specifically to building muscle. Muscle is made from amino acids. It's made from proteins. This is just like if you don't provide your body with the raw materials to make it, if you don't eat protein, you don't grow. You don't build muscle, period. period that is just that simple now carbohydrates of course like our muscles can you know we're talking about like glycogen stores really fill you out right so um if i remember correctly it's like one one gram of um carbohydrate could help you carbohydrate listen to the name hydrate can hold on the four grams of, uh, of water, right?

59:00Shawn Stevenson:So one gram of carbohydrate, four grams of water. Maybe I'm flipping it a little bit. No, you're right. That's why when people initiate like low carb diets, they'll suddenly lose a lot of weight. But most of that weight in the initial phase of the, of the diet is just, it's like water weight. Yeah. Yeah. And it's cool. Like it's cool that you can manipulate your body and do stuff like that. But we holding onto hydration is another important tenet for survival, right? Your brain is also holding on to hydration as well, right? You don't want to dry it up. You can literally lose brain volume if you don't have the compounds that help your brain and also like electrolytes, sodium, things like that.

59:36Shawn Stevenson:But carbohydrates play a role in helping you to maintain a healthy water weight. Now, of course, most people eat way too many, of course, and garbage carbohydrates, but sweet potatoes, you know, rice, you know, some, there's a ton of really viable healthy carbohydrates humans have been eating a long time so primarily if we're talking about building muscle you need carbs all right i'm just again keto like i know the guys these are some of my good friends all right there's a place for that but even with the keto paradigm there's still room for carbohydrates and so you know it just depends on your goals on how much carbohydrates you're bringing in but there's so much value that can be found in a carbohydrate rich food.

1:00:19Shawn Stevenson:Yeah. Amen. I, um, I think that especially, especially for older adults, like, like optimizing for protein, super important. I don't, I don't think there's any downside. I mean, look, when we're talking about like you're slamming protein shakes and all you're doing is eating lean protein that can get problematic. But I think if you're prioritizing protein in your diet, there's a lot more good to be gained from even slightly over-consuming protein, which in and of itself is really difficult to do because it's so satiating, than under-consuming it. Because you under-consume protein, you're going to be hungrier for carbs and fat, right?

1:00:54It's like the protein leverage hypothesis.

1:00:56Shawn Stevenson:Exactly, yeah. And we talked about this on a previous episode, but a study was conducted at St. Louis University. You know, I'm from St. Louis, so. Shout out. Shout out to everybody in the loo. But they took test subjects and they put them on a weight loss protocol, right? So there was a calorie reduction, but they had their first meal of the day was the only difference between the two study groups. One group received a carbohydrate dominant food, which was a bagel for breakfast, but the other group received eggs, which is rich in protein and fat, same amount of calories. After the conclusion of the study, and this was like an eight or 12 week study.

1:01:35Shawn Stevenson:Again, I shared the details in Eat Smarter And also we talked about this previously, but at the conclusion of the studies, I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was over 50 % more weight loss in the group who had the protein breakfast, the high protein and fat breakfast. They lost significantly more belly fat. They lost more with their BMI. Everything was better. They outperformed. Same amount of calories, but having more protein and those healthy fats that come along with those eggs did something positive for their metabolism that helped them to shed the excess they were carrying. All right.

1:02:08Shawn Stevenson:It's just how it is, you know, and that's okay. No, but if you wanna have the bagel, you can have the bagel, all right? But you probably wanna put a couple of eggs with that too, you know what I mean? Make sure that you're getting your protein. And protein just makes everything work better. I'm not advocating for a high protein diet per se, but you need to make sure you're getting the right amount of protein for you, which is, it's not always easy because it's so satiating too, right? If you're trying to build muscle, that's what makes it so difficult, right? For a lot of guys in particular, is like you got to get in a lot of protein to build muscle to especially if you're trying to do it quickly and so what is that recommended amount well according to the most proficient people in this space you mentioned dr bill campbell you know he's a friend as well it's somewhere around 0.8 grams to one gram of protein per ideal body weight per ideal pounds of body weight.

1:03:00Shawn Stevenson:So if you're 135 pounds and you want to be 120, you're going to target somewhere around 100 to 120 grams of protein in a day, right? And so this is why a lot of our longevity expert friends are changing their tune on intermittent fasting a little bit because so many people were not getting in the amount of protein. It was creating negative effects with their muscle mass, which again, this is being touted as the organ of longevity. And so being able to get enough protein, it doesn't mean you can't intermittent fast, but you gotta be more intentional, right? And so, yeah. That's like three meals a deal.

1:03:38That's like 35 grams of protein per meal. Easy peasy.

1:03:41Shawn Stevenson:Not that difficult, but just being intentional about it, right? Taking that opportunity when you're having that food to get that protein in. Yeah, amen. All right, so what is the last secret hidden way to achieve longevity? Got one left, right? Got one left, yeah. So, and I actually brought these with me to make sure that I share this clearly because it's so remarkable. Two studies. Number one, this was published in the Journal of Chronic Diseases. And they were taking into consideration a variety of confounding factors, a variety of risk factors. and they found that the lack of satisfaction in the work that we do is a significant risk factor for coronary heart disease the number one thing that's killing us coupled with that a massive meta-analysis this was published in occupational environmental medicine this was almost 500 studies that were analyzed for this all right this is this is rare and they found that job satisfaction is one of the strongest influences on our mental and physical health.

1:04:47All right,

1:04:47Shawn Stevenson:so number five here is doing meaningful work. And there's a couple of things here. And if you hate your job right now, I've got good news for you, all right? We'll get to that. But there cannot be enough said about wanting to live because you have a reason to live, having a purpose. I remember one of my mentors, Bob Proctor, sharing with me that he couldn't even fathom the idea of retiring. He loved what he did so much. He wanted to work until, and to his last day, he was so full of vitality. He was so full of vitality. And he was just one of the sharpest, smartest people I've ever met. It's just like, is incredible.

1:05:33Shawn Stevenson:And having that sense of purpose, having something to dedicate your life to, something that helps you to, quote, get up out of bed in the morning, whether that's your family, you know, like being there as a grandparent or great grandparent, because you want to see, you know, your grandkids thrive, or you want to be there at your grandkids wedding, whether that is, you know, the work that you're doing, maybe there's a philanthropic thing that you're invested in, you know, the community that you are involved in, and you're trying to uplift and support, or of course the tactical quote work that you do, right?

1:06:07And so for you, I know this

1:06:11Shawn Stevenson:because we're very similar in this, it's like the work that we do matters and we feel it. And we know that it's making an impact and we know that we have a gift in this to be able to share and kind of, it would be selfish to withhold it. And so it was like, it motivates us to share what we know, to share our wisdom and also to highlight the wisdom of other people and to uplift and help to change, create a positive change in our lifetime here in a environment that is not doing well right now, you know? And so meaningful work is critical. Now, what if you don't have that meaningful work right now?

1:06:48Shawn Stevenson:This is not just relegated to the quote job that you have. Again, this could be having meaning in your family, right? Many people that are doing jobs that they don't necessarily enjoy are doing it because they want to take care of their family. Lean into that. Love it. And bring more love to what you're doing because you love your family. It's just all going up here in your mind. It's how you are framing it. And now this is coming from a guy that did a lot of stuff. When I was in college, my first job, of course, was the obligatory McDonald's fast food. You worked in McDonald's? Yes. 15 and a half.

1:07:28Shawn Stevenson:I think it was like, I'm not kidding,$4 and something per hour, minimum wage. This was like, what, 1995 or something like that? But this was like back in the day. So funny. And so I'm back there, which was, it sucked, man. I did come up with my own burger. I was like messing around with some stuff. But then from there, I worked at Target. it. I worked at the, being from St. Louis, I worked at the Kiel Center, which is where the hockey stadium was. And so, which was one of the funnest jobs ever. But I found value. I found meaning at Target, for example. And just like, I always had this personality, which I didn't realize until later in life, until I stopped having all these jobs.

1:08:11Shawn Stevenson:My personality was to be the boss, right? So I'm like 16 working at Target, but I found a way to like move up and to have, to be able to pass out so we can get stuff done. I just wanted to get stuff done, right? So that we can get on to whatever else we wanted to do. And so, but working at the hockey stadium was dope. Wayne Gresge was on the team for a brief moment in St. Louis on the blues, which was electric. All right. But from there, I got jobs when I was in college working in casinos in St. Louis. They were like some of the quote, good jobs. And it was hard, man. We're talking about manual labor, wearing a jumpsuit.

1:08:48Shawn Stevenson:I'm locked in a room. I was in the hard count department. So we had to count every coin in the casino every day, empty all the machines, count all the money, right? So it's a lot of heavy lifting, which I enjoyed. I ended up getting, when I was 19, I became a supervisor, right? And so I got people who were like 40, 50, 60. Like there's this old guy named Marshall, for example. It's just like, I don't know. I don't know how he was showing up, but he kept showing up. Like he chain smoked on his brakes. but like in his 60s some of them were not happy about that of course like having this young kid being the boss but like there's these personality traits that I found over time and my mindset even then was I'm doing this to get a job done like I found value in accomplishing this thing every day right we couldn't leave until the job was done which was really good for my personality type And so it made me more efficient.

1:09:42Shawn Stevenson:It made me more creative, right? So I found the value in a job that in many ways kind of sucks. Like I'm breathing in coin dust all day and like locked in this room. We couldn't get out unless security comes and wands us, right? And sometimes security is just being assholes and they take a long time or whatever, you know? And it's like this whole like, it's like a prisoner guard type of energy to it, you know? But I found value and it kept persevering. so just reframing in your mind whatever job you're doing i've had the great gift of noticing people that really love doing what they're doing and they're doing the same job or hate what they're doing doing the same job right so we had an air-conditioned guy come recently this guy he was a magician a young guy he's probably in his he seemed like early 20s but i'm gonna say maybe late 20s he was so thoughtful so kind the way he communicated you know just like Like, he even, he looked me in my eyes and like, he was very present.

1:10:41Shawn Stevenson:He had to come back a few days later with a part. And even, you know, he came around, we'll say 8 a.m. And he was just like, you know, very kind of like knocking lightly. Like, hey, is everybody up? You know, I don't want to wake anybody up if they're not, you know, he's like just thoughtful. Right. I was like, man, that's amazing. And also if we've seen air conditioned folks who are just like, you know, just like drudging through the day, you know. and so it's just about the internal mechanism and finding a way to find joy and find love in the thing that you are doing and it might be something outside of the job itself that it's for so it might be about again taking care of your family um you know finding some value in that so doing meaningful work and or finding meaning in what you're doing and last piece here is this this very powerful sentiment that i live by that i teach my sons all the time how you do anything is how you do everything.

1:11:37Shawn Stevenson:How you do anything is how you do everything. If you're going to be excellent at basketball, you better be excellent at washing these dishes. All right. You don't want to eat off of dishes that have like grime and all this stuff on it. Do you want, do you want that? Do you want your mom to eat off of that? Right. Do a good job, show up and do the best job you can. And the thing that you are faced with, because it's a habit. Excellence is a habit, right purpose being strong being insightful all these things are habits right so building those muscles in everything that we do right i'm not coming here to you know to to to be less than i'm not coming here to be a subpar version of myself if i'm going to show up i'm going to be the best i could possibly be and strive for even better it's so good take pride in what you do no matter what it is.

1:12:29I think it's so valuable. I'm a control freak. I tell you, I mean, I, everything that I put out, everything that I, for as long as I can remember, I've always took immense pride in my, in my work. You know, it's not to say that I'm perfect in all areas of my work nor in life, but I think it's really important to, um, yeah, to take stock of what it is that you're doing and to, uh, put your whole self into it.

1:12:54Shawn Stevenson:Yeah. The people that are listening and watching, just to reiterate this about you, Max is one of the most hands-on people with his education. He really cares about how things are getting communicated and shared. And so for some people would see it as a detriment or it's like something that might slow you down. But you are very intentional about how you do things. you know and so it's because you care and that's like a superpower that's how i see it you know at first when you told me i was like you're doing that too like somebody else could do that part you know even for me because i'm very similar though i'm very similar i care i don't want to just do any random thing right there's an intention behind it and you want to connect and you want to help and you want to do what you can to make sure that what you're quote putting out there is making the maximum impact and you take that very seriously thank you yeah Thank you, brother, for noticing.

1:13:50Yeah, man. Well, this was so fun. This was so great. What an empowering deep dive. And for those who are just listening, I mean, you've got your notes there. You bring the science, which I think is super cool. Everything you put out too, brother. It's like so important. And I love the courage with which you imbue all your work. Yeah, it's just so great getting to call myself among your colleagues. It's awesome.

1:14:17Shawn Stevenson:Thank you, man. I received that. I appreciate that, bro. Thank you. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode today. I hope that you got a lot of value out of this. If you did, please share it out with somebody that you care about. Of course, you can share this on social media. You know what to do. Take a screenshot of the episode, tag me. I'm at Sean model and share it out on Instagram, Facebook. I'm at the model health show on Facebook and X it's X now. So if you want to share it on X as well, I'm at Sean model on on X. There's so many different social media platforms, but the most important thing is just sharing your heart, share your voice.

1:14:54Shawn Stevenson:The best way to share is by modeling what you learn. It truly is infectious. There's a lot of infectious negative things, but health, good health, wellness, and empowerment can be infectious as well. And so modeling is the most important thing. Taking what you learn today, applying it in your life, and demonstrating it by being the person that you are. We've got some amazing masterclasses and world-class guests coming your way very, very soon. So make sure to stay tuned. Take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon. And for more after the show, make sure to head over to themodelhealthshow.com.

1:15:29Shawn Stevenson:That's where you can find all of the show notes. You can find transcriptions, videos for each episode. And if you got a comment, you can leave me a comment there as well. And please make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that the show is awesome. And I appreciate that so much and take care. I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.