Week 15: A Doctor’s 52 Week Journey to an Unprocessed Life

https://youtu.be/eAvMJAJgvfY

The 52-Week Journey to an Unprocessed Life: Week 15 Progress Report

Speaker Contributions

Dr. Brent Laartz: Acted as the primary contributor, detailing his "dollar cost averaging" philosophy for health. He shared his personal progress on his 52-week journey, emphasizing the importance of consistent daily investments in diet, exercise, sleep, motivation, and connection to secure long-term health.

Key Points and Decisions

Health as a Retirement Account: Dr. Laartz established the core metaphor that every healthy habit is a deposit into a long-term health account, while unhealthy choices function as early withdrawals that incur penalties.

Supplement Strategy: A firm decision was made to avoid unnecessary supplements. Dr. Laartz will only utilize calcium, Vitamin D, and B12, prioritizing whole foods over pills to avoid "chasing good money with bad money."

Mindset and Manifestation: The host emphasized that limiting beliefs and fear are the primary obstacles to health. He decided to reject the "status quo" of family medical history and instead manifest a future of vitality through proactive, daily action.

Plastic Reduction: The host committed to systematically removing plastics from his environment, specifically targeting his phone case, measuring tools, and cleaning supplies in favor of sustainable materials like wood, stainless steel, and concentrated, eco-friendly detergents.

Next Steps and Action Items

   *Diet**: Incorporate one new vegetable, fruit, or bean into the weekly diet and continue making homemade yogurt, hummus, and fermented foods.*   Movement: Resume trail running and perform yard work using electric equipment to maintain physical activity.*   Sleep: Begin using a natural reed diffuser with lavender and chamomile essential oils to improve sleep quality.*   Connection: Host a housewarming event featuring whole-food, locally sourced ingredients to foster community.*   Plastic Elimination: Replace his current plastic phone case with a wooden alternative and continue transitioning to plastic-free household cleaning products.

Announcer Lucas

 Welcome to the Go Unpro podcast, a doctor's 52-week journey to an unprocessed life. Now, here is your host Dr. Brent W. Lartz, Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine, neuroscientist, and best-selling author.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 All right, everyone. Welcome to the Go On Pro podcast. This is week 15, a doctor's 52-week journey to an unprocessed life This week! Really getting into the metaphorical aspect of this being a retirement account and the dollar cost averaging that could be used to motivate you. OK, so if the way to go here is by investing every day, that is the way to look at it. If the price is low, you've got some energy, get there, get out, and do the work, okay? Sometimes that price might be too high, and you might have some energy. You might have a lack of energy, or you might have a lack of time.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 You might have some sort of injury, or you might be too busy, okay? Then take a recovery day. Take that one day. OK, so but it's really about the dollar cost averaging. And if you take your efforts in all five of our pillars, our diet, our exercise, our sleep, our motivation and our connection and our creativity, get there. Our plastics, there might be a day where you have to use some plastics. Obviously, we can't live in this plastic world, completely plastic free. And so we need to get that dollar cost averaging on a daily basis. on a weekly basis, on a monthly basis, on a yearly basis. It's the dollar cost averaging of all of those investments.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 And then you're going to have this sum of money at the end of retirement and when you retire, or even when you're 50, even before you retire, because all of this is a dollar cost averaging that's going to add up to your health at any given time. Just like any kind of bank account, if you invest in it, if you put the money into it, then it's going to be better in the long run, right? So would you rather retire for $4 million in your account? or would you rather retire with just $50,000 or even less than that? Some people are retiring with almost no money. Okay, so hence Social Security, right?

Dr. Brent Laartz

 But when it comes to your health, do you want to rely on Social Security? Do you want to rely on something that somebody else is giving to you? Or do you want to put in the work yourself? And that's what I'm doing. I'm putting in the work now, and I've put in the work, I think, over a long run. and been pretty healthy overall. But what if I didn't have my health? What if I was already obese and realized that I need to do this for even for salvaging some health? Okay, so that is where a lot of people are. And really, you have to

Dr. Brent Laartz

 think about this and we're going to get into a little bit more of manifesting and all along in this process, this 52 weeks, I'm going to be talking about motivation and manifesting this because really it's all about manifesting where you're at in the long run. And If you have these limiting beliefs of I am obese and I'm always going to be obese, then that could be a problem. If I thought that I could go along with my life the way it was and shooting my weight up and seeing what could happen if I lived the status quo, seeing my parents and where they were at. with their diabetes and with their health. My mom, pretty healthy. My dad was not during those.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 Then obviously they had some of the same life, but I think there were some genetics and some predisposing conditions that caused the difference there, but never. take the status quo as what you have to settle for. And that's what I'm not doing. I'm not taking the status quo. I'm not taking my genetics and my family history, not taking that for what I want to do for the rest of my life. So again, each unhealthy withdrawal impacts greatly, right? So if you had a retirement account and all of a sudden you had to take a loan from it, what would happen with that? Obviously, you're not going to have that retirement account with as high of a balance at the end.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 And there is a penalty for early withdrawal, right? So you start to add up each of those little withdrawals. Think of each unhealthy thing, unhealthy snack as an early withdrawal and the penalties that can associate it with, okay? So would I rather have a $4 million account with no loans against it? or would I rather have some margin loans or something like that, whatever those would be called in the end. Again, just wanted to, I just looked at the screen for a second about the background here. You can see a lot of different boxes still in my podcast.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 studio here and this is the way it's going to be probably for a few months as I am modifying this podcast studio to get toward a full podcast studio here and some really again there even that setting it up for the future for after this 52 weeks is done because I want to turn this into a podcast not just my solo soliloquy, I guess, as I'm doing it here most of the time. I do have a couple of guests here periodically, but where we're headed with this is in the long run, getting set up for some situations of bringing guests on and getting their opinions in the long run as well. And You've seen some of the Sunday Science episodes.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 We have Sunday Science episodes strewn in here in between the weeks and showing some science about each of these topics we're talking about. And pretty soon we're going to have some science about essential oils affecting sleep. And as part of that, you'll see some of our activities we're doing this week. So let's talk about easy money. Okay. So each time we have each of these things we're doing, adding to our retirement account, there's also some easy money or thoughts of easy money out there. And just like with retirement and choices that people make for their retirement, there's never easy money. It should be a stepwise add as you go, adding up over time,

Dr. Brent Laartz

 that dollar cost averaging that puts your money into an account and put it at a...

Dr. Brent Laartz

 usual retirement rate, right? So 7%, 10%. If you put your money into some Bitcoin, which is an easy thing, right? And you put your money into something that you think is going to be all the rage and a fad, right? A fad investment. In general, most of those don't add up, okay? I've had some investments I've made over time that have not panned out, but I'll tell you the best investments I've made that have added up over time and continue to make money are the little things, the dollar cost averaging, putting money in on a timely basis, putting into stable investments that, and that could be. S&P 500. It could go down at some point, right?

Dr. Brent Laartz

 But the fact that you put money in puts you at a good advantage in your retirement age. And that's what I've been doing over time is dollar cost averaging, putting money in, and hopefully that puts money into a good retirement. I think I... have a decent retirement right now with my investments going that way. And let's put this back into the health situation, right? Same thing. If you put your work in, every workout, every meal, every snack, every bedtime, every plastic bottle that you avoid or use. puts either a deposit or a withdrawal on your health account. Okay, so put that into perspective as to what's going to happen in the long run and putting that into perspective of supplements here.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 And I think I've made my opinion. very clear here as far as supplements. There are supplements that are worthwhile and there are supplements that you're basically expensive urine and could potentially basically be an unexpected withdrawal if they actually do harm. So I research my supplements well. And in general, I don't do supplements that are not proven. I only do basically calcium and vitamin D. I do B12 because it's no harm in it. I do supplements that matter, okay? So I do, let's say, probiotics and yogurt, but I make my own. I don't go the easy route and get supplement pills that are not beneficial. And I also do a algae-based supplement for. my omega-3.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I do try to make that as much fish as I can in my diet, but not always is that able to be done. And B12 is not present in vegetables and a vegan diet. And so if I am gearing toward that, being a mostly plant-based diet. then I may need to add some B12 into my diet. So, so far, my B12 levels are fine. And hence, this is where we want to talk about chasing good money with bad money. I don't want to restart something that didn't work. So if I find something that didn't work, if I find something that in my research doesn't work, then I'm not going to chase. that good money with bad money.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I'm not going to put bad money into these supplements. If what I can achieve is just with my diet alone. Okay. So there's plenty of ways that you can get any of these numbers of things, even calcium, for example, I can get without. moving to a supplement, but I don't drink milk. So that's the way to get it for me. So same thing with vitamin D, but I live in Florida and vitamin D can be obtained naturally with sunlight. However, I don't want to make that choice for granted and leave some money on the table So it's been shown that 40 micrograms of vitamin D3 daily impacts and brings vitamin D levels overall to a level that is high enough.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 And even with some of those studies, that amount does sometimes over shoot the levels that you want, but it overshoots it in these studies to the point of maybe 125 nanograms per milliliter as far as a level in the system. And that level is still not toxic. It is, it's higher than needed. but not toxic. Okay. So let's talk about the motivation with this week 15. We're coming up on almost a third of the way through the year. And a third of the way is a good point where we can really look back and see how we're doing and our motivation. and what our motivation is.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I had a week this past week where I wasn't really motivated because I really didn't have the time because I had a really hectic work week. This week, I'm off, okay? So really putting in the time this week, didn't have the time last week, really took some withdrawals, really took some. days where I did not dollar cost average, I did not add into the account. Okay. And so now I'm back this week, taking every day to do extra work because when you are saving for retirement, and you don't make an IRA contribution or your 401k contribution for a particular week, you need to step it up the next week and add what you missed. Okay. So this is what I'm doing this week.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I'm adding to what I didn't do last week. Okay. So, all right. So really needed to figure out the motivation and my why. And that's what this is all about. Every time you try to manifest, you have to set your vision and set your why. And that's really the key to achieving this success and achieving this retirement account success for health. and for being able to lift to 100, being able to do what you want at every age from 50 to 70 to 90 to 100 to 110. Okay, really about being able to run on into the future is by decreasing inflammatory things in your life.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 choose and everybody is different choose wisely do the research don't do exactly everything I'm doing because even though I've researched and I've researched for myself and I've done the lab work I've done the tests that I need to do to look at see what exactly I need to do that exact thing is going to be different for you okay so and then manifest it okay everything i do i need to manifest i need the language and i need the language that i can change that i don't have to be exactly what the manifestation what the destination is you know the movie destination where that person, they, it's an interesting movie, an interesting concept that fate, right? That you can't change your fate.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 You can change your fate and I can change my fate. And I don't have to be diabetic. I don't have to be. unhealthy when I hit 70 80 90 or 110 and I can take those actions so fate is what you make it and that is the key here in the future and what I am doing for my manifestation nothing is set in stone those kind of language of anything of fate and setting in stone and I am I've always been those things. Those are the enemies of manifestation. Those are the enemies of being able to have this retirement account at age 110. The language of not wanting to live to be 100 because of

Dr. Brent Laartz

 The perceived lack of health in our old age in American diets, in American society, that sad, that standard American diet does not have to be, okay? So there's need to fear, removing fear and doubt. Those limiting beliefs, those limiting beliefs are the fear, okay? If you think anything negative about what you can and can't do, that is a limiting belief and that is based in fear and doubt, okay? So those fears and doubts are your body and your mind trying to keep you in a comfort situation. and I don't want to be in that comfort situation. I want to work.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I want to work at it just like I've worked with my career, just like I've worked with my retirement account, my savings account, not the metaphorical savings account of my health, but everything I've done forever. has been geared toward the future, okay? It's not geared toward the past. I am trying to get out of the past, get out of the past and get out of the family history, right? That I know is looming in the future if I don't act. And those things I know that I can do because I know that I've done them in my career. I come from a small town in Iowa where not everybody gets out of Iowa and not everybody is as successful.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I have people who stayed in Iowa, but they're successful, amazing, amazing friends who are back in Iowa who have maintained a successful life. And but yet I knew that if I wanted to. have the success that I wanted, I needed to get out of Iowa, at least for a time being. I could have gone back to Iowa, become a physician in Iowa. I went back to Iowa, the University of Iowa for my medical school. And, but I knew that I needed to get out of Iowa for my own health. I knew that I didn't like the cold, loved being around water. And that really has kept me active over my years as well.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 And really being able to do the things that I've done with my life. I needed to be where I am, floral, near the water, near where I can do something every day about my health and really loved it ever since I moved to Tampa. So then really it's about those tests that the universe puts toward you, right? You've got the language, you've got the action, but now something, just because you've done an action toward your manifestation, towards your goals, doesn't necessarily mean you're not going to have obstacles and challenges. You have to meet them head on. and treat them as opportunities.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 So every little failure that you have, like this last week that I had for some failures that I've had for my health, I treat those as opportunities and meet them head on, okay? And then you have to have gratitude, love for your life. Everything doesn't have to be a depressing thing. Realize that you have a failure. and move on and love your life, even with the need to change. So you know that your life needs to change, but have gratitude for everything that is with that.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 Everything that I've been able to accomplish, everything that I've, every person I've met through maybe some unhealthy attitudes may, you know, gone to bars and, and, uh, drank some beers with some friends and sometimes maybe to too much. But I'll tell you, I wouldn't not feel gratitude for everything that I've done. And so in that process, I need to inspire myself. And if I see someone who is healthy, I inspire myself through that, living vicariously through them, and then copying some of the things I want to copy from them. Some of the things that I know wouldn't work for me, not to copy. And that's the same thing that I expect that people would do that if they're watching me right now.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I don't expect anybody to copy everything I do. I don't expect that. And Even though I've trusted that process, I've also recognized that I need some professional help. I might need a doctor to help me with that. I might need some medication. to help with some of this. I might need a psychologist. I've had a psychologist before trying to get at why I might think that limiting beliefs and try to get rid of some of those limiting beliefs. Nutritionists that I've had, trainers that I've had, every everything that I've done in the past to learn how to exercise, how to lift weights has come through professional help. And that's where I want to be for myself.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 And I think that is where I think everybody should be and not to eschew the help that can be there. Okay. Don't go it alone. get the help you need. Okay. So that could be even coming here to this, maybe why you're listening to this to begin with, but I'm not just the professional help and don't take my advice. This is not advice. This is not medical advice on the show. This is my showing you exactly what I'm doing so that I can tell people what I'm doing. but that is not medical advice. Go get and seek your own help, professional help, physician, psychologist, nutritionist, trainers, etc. There are a multitude of different opinions out there.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 Also, within each of those situations and each of those professions, you will come across people who do not have the knowledge. As they say, the person who graduated last from their medical school class is still called a doctor, right? So take each of those advices and mine with a grain of salt and do your own research as I'm doing my own research, okay? So this week, all right, let's go through the five pillars of what we're doing on week 15, okay?

Dr. Brent Laartz

 So love what I've done so far even with last week and there were some successes I did make some of my own yogurt last week and did some movement even though I was working and with myself every time I'm working on a day I put in more than 10,000 steps because I'll tell you I go to three And each of those hospitals, even though I didn't put in some of the work for, let's say, my running or with resistance training, I am getting the steps every day because every hospital I go to, I go to the top floor, I use the steps, okay?

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I use the steps and I go to every single floor regardless of whether I have a patient on that floor. And so I go the extra steps for multiple reasons. And it's not just for my steps, but it is because I want to show my face and succeed. Success in business is showing your face everywhere. And even if I don't have a patient with X doctor who is consulting me, I'm going to get around to talk to them and try to see them in the hospital every day. That way it keeps me in the back of their mind so that when they do consult. And that I think is.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 made me a successful business person and consultant in the past is that and but it also gives me the steps if i'm walking up the steps and at the top i'm out of breath because i am getting to the fourth or fifth floor at these hospitals in general, my hospitals that I go to, one has two floors, one has four floors, one has five floors. So if I'm getting to the top. with the steps, then I'm going to be out of breath for the floor, for the four and five floor hospitals, two floor hospital. I try to go up and down the steps of multiple times to get around. Okay. So, and I'm walking and getting these steps in. Okay.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 But that's not enough that dollar cost averaging that 10,000 steps. is not enough for what i need i need the resistance training i need the diet i need the movement of cardiovascular exercise i need even more okay so i need that vo2 max i need that resistance training the grip strength the the leg lower extremity strength in the future and i need to put that in the bank so what did i do for diet this uh this coming week I'm trying to add a new vegetable that I haven't had recently each week from now on. OK, so we're adding new vegetable each week. We've already we already and let's put that for fruits also.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 So and maybe some new beans as well in my diet. OK, so we're adding something new each week. I had the luxury of being able to go to a lot of different farmers markets. We have an urban farm here that has a lot of really different cool things. We're supposed to go to the urban farm today. We're going to go tomorrow and get to that urban farm. Every time I go to this urban farm, they have something new. And it's amazing. I'm adding. And something I saw recently about. treating your diet and trying to get to a more healthy plant-based diet is not necessarily.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 subtraction but it's addition so the more things you can add to your diet that are plant-based the subtraction will happen naturally if you keep adding new vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts to your diet, the subtraction will happen naturally because your kitchen will not have some of these unhealthy things just because number one, you have to, there's only so much money you can get, right? And there's only so much money you can spend on food. So if you're spending money on food, that's healthy. then you're not going to have as much money to spend on things that are unhealthy.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 And I think that's one of the problems with our society right now is that even though people really complain about the economy and really complain and some of these middle class people say they want more, they want more, they want more. And so-and-so is not giving it to them, is not providing this economy for them. In general, most of us, and I say most of us, there are certainly a lot of us out there that are not making men's meat and cannot make men's meat. And I don't want to say that that is the case, but. A great majority of Americans, 50% or more of us, living above the poverty line can't afford a healthy diet. There are some that can't.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 And granted, I support and I volunteer and I help. as much as I can to get healthy diets in front of people. I volunteer for a charity here and I am actually in the food kitchen once a week approximately to actually help feed these people that can afford a healthy diet, a diet period. Okay. So there are those less fortunate. Those are not the people that I'm talking about here. I'm talking about people who are complaining about not having enough money, but yet they're at the bar spending money on alcohol, unhealthy things, etc. Okay, so try to make those choices. Try to make those choices. of the diet by adding and not subtracting necessarily, but subtract because it's necessary. Okay.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 But the subtraction will happen naturally. This week, we talked about that I made some homemade yogurt,

Dr. Brent Laartz

 homemade oat milk yogurt.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 And each of those, each time I do as a trial, my girlfriend really laughs, probably doesn't laugh because I try to do it my own way and learned that sometimes it's not necessarily the right way because a lot of people have worked on this for years and years and everything I've read. has been trying to get that accomplished. So each time you make oat milk, you're basically taking the fiber completely out of the yogurt, right? And so I try to add back in a little bit of that fiber from the oats, right? So with that oat milk yogurt, I try to make it as healthy as possible by adding only the things that will make it healthy.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I don't add any pectin or anything like that. I try to make it as healthy as possible. I don't add sugar to it. I do dates to my yogurt. And that, so then, so now I have my yogurt that is fermenting just overnight and that's my one week supply of yogurt. So every week I want to make my own yogurt. and I want to make my own hummus, and I want to make my own beans, okay? So I'm getting dry beans and making them myself, okay? So less canned goods. Every time that my girlfriend makes some things, let's say for our chili, our vegan chili that we make, She makes per se.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I don't I have made my own chili in the past, but she making it now. She uses canned beans. And I'm hoping to try to get that change using in this latest outbreak. And there are so many outbreaks of food based illnesses in the world and in this country, partially because of bad. farming practices and this most recent one in the news with cyclospora possibly is related to bad farming press practices and the need in our society to have for our fast food and a lot of this and this company's food gets put into fast food and why Because those fast food companies need huge amounts of food.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 They can't go to each of, let's say, a fast food restaurant, can't go to a local farm. They can, as can be proven by certain fast food companies. But a lot of these huge conglomerate food companies need a large amount of vegetables at a... let's say a stable price and a stable supply. And so they go to these huge conglomerate farm companies. And it's amazing. And this is why I don't eat at these places. And some of the initial suggestion is these, this outbreak is coming from a fast food restaurant that obtained lettuce and perhaps other vegetables from a conglomerate farm that is trying to get food into this sad standard American diet in as cheap as a way as possible.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 And that's the problem, I think, with The standard American diet is that everything we've done from adding high fructose corn syrup into everything that we do, everything that we eat, that's the problem is that that is what is the ultra processed. highly commercialized, highly standardized diet is that it has to be as cheap and as efficient as possible. And I'm telling you that it doesn't have to be that way. That's why I go to this urban farm. That's why I try to get my vegetables and my fruits as whole as possible and certainly frozen. Fruits are potentially useful as long as you get them from a good source, okay? So, all right, so I'm increasing my local source.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I'm increasing my dried beans, less canned goods. I get anything that I do get, I try to get it in glass jars and from local sources, local as I can, okay? Hence, I'm also making my own homemade granola this week, okay? I've already done my own hummus, my own fermented foods. We did a fermented, my own version of kimchi for cabbage and my own pickles. And those things are a great source of snacks. that are healthy, that add fermented foods. Fermented foods are the way to go for your health, okay? So choose your own. It could be yogurt, and try to make it yourself if you can, if you have the time, the money, the wherewithal to do it.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 Try to make your own. fermented foods very easy glass jars you can actually even just get ball jars and they make these lids that can go into the that have fermentation lids that you can get that can go with these glass jars or you can make your have these sealed jars like I've made for my All right. So I'm going to do a fermented hot sauce this week because I am having a housewarming party later in the week. And so I'm going to try to do a quick fermentation of some peppers and make a fermented hot sauce and salsa. And so that's going to occur tomorrow. So. All right. So then movement this week. I've had a bicycle.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 And I've done a lot of bicycling over the years and over the past two years, I've gotten away from bicycling. OK, so I've lived in a downtown area with without a bicycle and I haven't had a method to get my bicycle out to the trails. So that's what I'm changing this week. Okay, so doing some trail running, continuing my cardiovascular. The other thing I'm doing this week is yard work. Okay, so that's something I also haven't had in the last two years. In the past, every house I've had, I've tried to do my own yard work, not taking the easy way out.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I am going to take a little bit of the easy way out for the one thing that I don't have time for, and that's mowing the lawn. But everything else, weeding, pulling weeds, natural fertilizers, avoiding chemicals, those kind of things I'm doing myself. OK, so but and in addition to that, I'm using electric. lawn equipment. Okay. So if you can, if you have someone doing your lawn, if you don't have the ability to do it, try to go with an electric, all electric company. There are usually one or two at least in every city, and I've tried to do the research to obtain that ability here, and it is available.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 But I'm going to try to do my own work and do it that way. So every blue zone you can find, of which there are a few in America, really... Because, but we're working on it, working on getting that. But every blue zone in the world, these people do some of their own work to grow their own food, to take care of their own yard, for example, or their own piece of property. And they do a lot of their own work, cooking and etc. Not taking the shortcut. is what makes these people live to be a hundred years of age, not taking the shortcut.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 They usually live in a place where they can walk, where they have to walk to work, and they have to usually walk even more so uphill even, and they don't take the car to drive two miles, three miles down the road. They walk there, okay? So the next thing, the third pillar is sleep, right? And so essential oils are going to be the thing I'm going to try this week for my sleep. There are some studies, small studies. and a meta-analysis showing that some essential oils help with sleep, and these are mainly. lavender and chamomile are the two that I'm going to use. I think that there, I saw some

Dr. Brent Laartz

 frankincense out there, but I'm going to use these two essential oils at my bedside, and I'm going to try that this week to see if I can improve my sleep. In general, what The issue with my sleep has been is I've only get five hours because I don't go to bed until midnight and I have to wake up at 5 a.m. when I have to work. And so that is a situation that can be easily corrected without any kind of essential oil, right? But even though I sleep on days I have off, seven, eight hours. I don't get the number of percent of deep sleep. I get the REM sleep, but I don't get the deep sleep.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 And somehow, and I know that one of the problems in my past has been light in the room because of not being able to complete the dark blackout of my room. and that we're doing something to something about, but I think I can improve things maybe with essential oils. And we're going to try that this week and I'm going to use a natural reed diffuser. Okay. So certain reed diffusers don't work, but I don't want to use the plastic heat-based diffuser. So because I don't want to have that plastic and that burning of an essential oil and or the candles that some people use, I don't want that in my space.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I don't want to take up the carbon dioxide from these candles. that's burning in my household. Okay. So, uh, all right. So we're going to try some essential oils this week for sleep. The next thing is creativity and connection. Um, I wanted to, this week is not going to work out, but I am going to, in the very near future, go to a poetry reading open mic. I encourage everyone to try to get in touch with their creativity, all right? And family and friends reach out more often. I'm having a get together this week and that's really my connection this week. Inviting old friends, people I haven't seen in a little while and also then doing healthy activities, okay? We're making.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 pizza in a pizza oven with great ingredients natural ingredients locally sourced ingredients and getting together to enjoy that food okay enjoy that whole food may not necessarily be completely vegan i my girlfriend is a great sourdough baker and for the most part that is vegan And, but I'm sure there will be some cheese there on some of the pizzas, but all of our ingredients are going to be whole food ingredients for this pizza. And so we're going to have enjoyed some get together. I'm sure there will be some alcohol there. I limit that alcohol in my connection. digestion and in my diet, but it doesn't have to be zero. It's going to be a get together with some friends.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 So healthy activities with that get together. I encourage everyone to get together with their friends, even if it is at a bar, limit your alcohol. Okay. So every drink of alcohol. is bad for your health. Every single drink, okay? However, we don't have to be a Brian Johnson where we're getting rid of everything in our life that is fun. You can make your life fun without alcohol, but see how you can limit it. I drink When I drink some beers, I might drink a Guinness, for example. But then on the next Guinness, it's going to be a Guinness Zero. Tastes the same. I'm still having a beer with my friends. And so that is where we're at with Connection this week.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 Going to have a get-together. Going to have a get-together at my house. New house, just bought it. and having some healthy activities again also getting together in that connection of health joining run clubs having a club that gets together for some sort of whatever it is I have friends that are in bicycle clubs and get together riding bicycles and that is something in Tampa area There's something called the Swamp Club that gets together every Sunday for a bike ride, a mountain bike ride. And I love doing that in the past and haven't had the method to get my bicycle there recently, but that's going to change. OK, plastics.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 OK, this week, my plastic that I'm getting rid of this week is my phone case. I thought it was going to be here in time. So look at this phone case made completely of plastic. I have to put this to my ear, handle it every day, every five minutes of my life, probably. I'm going to get rid of this plastic case and I'm going to go toward a wooden case. Now, granted, this wooden case that I found, it has Kevlar on the inside to protect and has wood on this side, wood on this side. And. The side that I'm going to be contacting is wood.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 Now, with that said, it does have lacquer over that, and that is potentially some forever chemicals in that, but it is better. This particular case that I'm buying has better lacquer, good lacquer. The other thing that we did this week is got some new measuring cups. And that is my week this week, getting rid of plastics. measuring cups made out of stainless steel. They also have measuring cups made out of, we have glass ones that are great. I try to avoid the ones that have even the printing on the outside because that printing gets washed off in the dishwasher. And the other thing I did this already laundry tablets.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I started using dishwasher tablets also that all have natural enzymes and natural products in them and getting rid of anything with PVAs and PVCs, plastics. These come in Pouches that have less plastic as well. And just the fact that I can have a whole like six months worth of use of a. laundry detergent and a dishwasher detergent in a piece that's about this big a pouch instead of buying three or four big huge things the majority of our laundry and dish detergents is water so Why do I need that? Why do I need that water? And for the most part also, why do I need to have a spot finisher or rinse finisher on my glasses and my plates?

Dr. Brent Laartz

 I don't need to have that. I can handle having spots on my dishes and glasses. What is that chemical in that finish rinse? And so I've gotten rid of that a couple of years ago. And the dishwasher tells you on some dishwashers tells you refill your finished rinse. And I'm not going to do that. And I'm going to continue to have that reminder pop up. I don't care. I don't need to have that in my dishwasher. Okay. So that's what we've gotten rid of. And that's what we're doing this week. Week 15 of the Go On Pro Doctors 52 week journey to an unprocessed life. I love this unprocessed life I'm building and I can do it. That language, I can do it.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 Okay. The language, the action, every action I'm taking every week to make this a healthy life, to make my 10th decade, a healthy life to make my 11th decade, a healthy life. I'm going to have a healthy life at 110 years of age. Okay. So every bit of this retirement account that I'm building for my health, I'm doing a retirement account, my IRA, my individual retirement account is just that. It's for retirement. I'm putting it away. I'm dollar cost averaging, putting that 401k in. That 401k for my health is every single thing I'm doing for my health. That is that deposit. That is that deposit of I am being healthy every day of my life.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 And anything I'm doing is a As an unhealthy thing, every piece of candy I have, every soda that I have, every one of those things is that withdrawal. And I have to think of it that way is a withdrawal is taking away from my life in the future. So that is where we're at. Thanks for listening this week as we manifest our 52 week journey manifest putting it and the deposits into our retirement health account and thanks for listening again you can find this is a video podcast so some of the things that i do on some of these things on sunday science and with this podcast i'm going to be showing you on the camera

Dr. Brent Laartz

 You can find us even if you're listening to me on an audio podcast. This podcast comes in a video podcast on Apple, on Spotify, on Substack, on YouTube. You can find me in video if you want to get me in video. If you're listening to me in a car and have to be audio, that's fine. The video podcast, again, I tell you every week, the video podcast has a blue artwork. The audio podcast has this purplish maroon artwork, okay, for the podcast. So you can know immediately whether it's available in video on what you're listening to. Again, we are located anywhere where you get your podcast. Again. substack youtube on go on pro.com okay go on pro.

Dr. Brent Laartz

com listen to that g-o-u-n-p-r-o.com also on substack youtube spotify apple and everywhere where you get your audio podcasts as well All right. So thanks again for hanging with me again on the 15th week. We're almost a third of the way through the year. Love you guys. I love everything I'm doing. I love everything you're doing. I want to hear everything you're doing. We are. planning to have some Zoom phone calls, Zoom get togethers with you folks as well. And I look forward to doing that in the future. I'll have more information on that. We're getting it set up as we speak.

Dr. Brent Laartz

 We've had a couple of Zoom calls in the past, but we're trying to make it be a more regular. get together, um, with everyone. So I love you guys and I love everyone in my life and I love the healthy life I'm building. So I appreciate it. See you next week. Peace.

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