Week 2: A Doctor's 52 Week Journey to an Unprocessed Life

Dr. Brent Laartz

Key Points & Decisions:

Continuing the "Go Unpro" journey to an unprocessed life, building on progress from Week 1

Focusing on 4 pillars of longevity: diet, exercise, sleep, and social connection

Instituting a low-sugar, high-fiber, mostly plant-based diet

Avoiding processed foods, plastic containers, and seed oils

Implementing time-restricted feeding/intermittent fasting

Tracking habits and progress using apps for accountability

Next Steps:

Eliminate fast foods, limit packaged foods, and avoid soda this week

Drink 32oz of water twice daily

Eat berries daily, trying a new fruit/veggie each week

Aim for 40 different fruits, nuts, and veggies per week for microbiome

Incorporate 3 days per week each of cardio and resistance training

Improve sleep hygiene by reducing light exposure at night

Reconnect with someone you haven't spoken to in a while, 2-3 times per week

Practice mindfulness and creativity to support overall wellbeing

The key is a gradual, sustainable approach with celebration of small successes along the way. Dr. Lartz emphasizes the importance of self-love, therapy, and surrounding oneself with like-minded individuals to stay motivated and overcome obstacles on the journey to an unprocessed life.

Announcer Lucas

[ 00:00:00,000 ]Welcome to the Go Unpro Podcast, a doctor's 52-week journey to an unprocessed life. Now, here is your host, Dr. Brent W. Laartz, Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine, neuroscientist, and best-selling author.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:00:14,630 ] All right, everyone, welcome to week two of Go On Pro, where we are living our unprocessed life and trying to get rid of our processed life that we've had before. Last week, we talked about Detox Monday, we started using filtered water, we started using fiber, and we started instituting on that Detox Monday, we added berries into our diet, which are full of antioxidants.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:00:42,720 ] We started talking about the four pillars of longevity: diet, exercise, movement, sleep, social connection, and creativity. We're also getting rid of some of the plastic in our life. We got rid of the glass. We got rid of the plastic containers and instituted some glass containers in our life for storage of our food, which is hugely important for getting rid of plastic. Okay? So we're continuing on this week two on this journey. As you've seen from our prior episode, that I'm a physician. I have—potentially— a lack of time in my life to be able to do these things. However, I'm doing this in a gradual stepwise improvement with celebrations of my small successes. And I hope you can join me on this journey. And while I document my journey, you can institute some of the same changes in your life. If there are some different aspects of your life where you need to make some different changes or have different beliefs, certainly by all means, but first research those.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:01:54,880 ] Changes in your life to know that they are going to be geared toward your longevity.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:02:02,760 ] Avoiding orthorexia. Some people have said, you know, if you do certain things or somebody said, oh, that's orthorexia. I'm not practicing any kind of orthorexia because I know it can be potentially bad. I'm not an OCD person. Some people are. What is orthorexia? Orthorexia is 100% strict obsession with a diet. You've seen some of this with certain vegans who don't do... anything, right? Certain people who espouse a certain diet, it can even be the opposite of vegan, right? Carnivore diet, where they absolutely will not order a vegetable, right? So this potentially can help you avoid the... negative effects on your health of an OCD type of practice. It also could help you avoid nutrient deficiencies because there are certain nutrients that are in meat. So you may need some meat or There could be B12 deficiencies, iron and protein deficiencies if you institute a certain diet.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:03:05,950 ] So make sure you research your diet and make sure you're getting plenty of your macronutrients or your nutrients. If you are 100% vegan, which if I'm going to be... let's say 80% vegan, which is my goal, I may need some B12, I may need iron, I may need protein. So B12 is only going to be coming from a supplement. Iron can come from certain types of vegetables that have higher iron in them. Or protein, you need to think about those kinds of beans or nuts that have enough protein in them for your diet. So those four pillars, diet, movement, sleep, social interaction, and getting rid of plastics is where we're going to be.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:03:52,750 ] We had a question from last week's viewer about describing a busy day in my life and how I'm going to keep up with the habits that I've mentioned. Certainly my routine on Monday to Friday basis.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:04:10,990 ] is going to be pretty busy, right? So I'm a physician. And that is going to be the case for probably 90% of you out there, right? You're going to find yourself having to go in the morning, 6 a . m. to work, maybe. Some of you might have a 9 a . m. job. So, or some of you may be a night.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:04:31,510 ] employment, right? So my morning starts out at maybe somewhere between 5 and 7 a .m. I am going to first immediately have an eight ounce glass of water. I'm going to brush my teeth, do all those things. And after I'm all ready for work, I'm going to be Going downstairs, I'm going to be getting that fiber and psyllium husk in my diet. So approximately an eight ounce glass of water with psyllium husk, one to two tablespoons. Usually it's around two tablespoons.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:05:05,190 ] I don't have breakfast as I'm instituting most days, a time-restricted feeding where I don't eat until at least noon. So I'm going to need something to fill up my stomach. And it really feels good when I have that fiber in my intestines and my stomach to fill me up in the morning. The fiber is essentially zero calories, but it is food for my microbiome. So then, potentially, everybody's going to be a little different. Certainly, that fiber and filling up your stomach is going to potentially stimulate your intestines.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:05:43,090 ] So, at some point, you're going to have a bowel movement after that, right? And hopefully, especially once you've instituted this psyllium husk, then that's going to really help potentially those people who are constipated also, maybe.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:05:57,980 ] I'm going to then leave for work, right? So, and if I am leaving for work before the sun has risen, which many of you are going to have that case. Then, perhaps, at some point right when the sun is rising, when you get to work, you need to get that sunshine exposure. And I try to get that sunshine exposure then. It could be even in the car on the way there. Don't try to open your sunroof. Try to open your windows and try to get some sunshine. But then, some movement when you first get to work. Try to get there 10 minutes early so you can get some movement early in the morning. That movement early in the morning for me helps me to get that set of my circadian rhythms. In the afternoon, I'm an afternoon exerciser most days, unless it's my day off. If it's my day off, I'm going to exercise in the morning. And then I'm also instituting a time-restricted feeding. So my lunch might be... at the hospital. That is a problem for me because if you've ever seen doctor's lounges in the hospital, they are an unhealthy place to eat.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:07:04,260 ] Some of that is changing recently. And so in the past, I've tried to avoid the doctor's lounge where there are snacks, packaged foods— candy bars, chips, those kind of things. And there's so many sodas I can drink there that it's crazy. But I'll tell you.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:07:25,729 ] I've tried to have some impact on this and trying to get the people to have a salad bar, a better salad bar, something with some potential vegetarian options there. Right. And I think I've had the benefit of being in a in a hospital where there are a lot of Indian American physicians. And that's great because Indian American physicians tend to be vegetarian. So there's always at least some kind of option nowadays in the doctor's line. But the same thing has to be for you because you're going to find yourself at work, right? So if you're going to find yourself at work at a downtown office building, there may only be certain restaurants in the area. If you find there are some options that are not available for you, bring those with you from home. Do your meal preps. That's something my son has started to try to do at his work because there's only a cafeteria.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:08:27,540 ] Certain, let's say, office buildings, there's only an employer-provided cafeteria and is full of fatty foods and unhealthy foods, processed foods, et cetera.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:08:45,280 ] He started a meal prep on Sundays, and I think this is a great idea for everybody. I think this concept of meal prepping has pervaded our society now to where it's certainly recommended.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:09:01,800 ] Then my dinner is usually my main meal of the day. It's either going to be chicken, vegan, or seafood for me. And so therefore, I'm going to try to five to seven days out of the week, try to make that dinner as healthy as possible using whole foods, using fruits and vegetables in that situation.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:09:24,880 ] Also, something I didn't mention as far as my lunch situation is trying to institute some type of, and I use dairy-free yogurt along with those berries. That's a perfect time for me to get those berries into my diet. Now, certainly then there's going to be times where you're traveling, right? So whether traveling for business or vacation, bringing along something. And I'll be trying to help with this in some of our future times.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:09:56,440 ] traveling, either bringing along these aids to help you have a better diet and travel, certainly trying to find a hotel room that has a refrigerator. As we just had an issue with, refrigerators in hotel rooms will freeze your fruits, so be careful. And or immediately when you get there, trying to find an organic food store, something to get you beyond it. So let's get to the concepts of longevity here, because here's where this is extremely important.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:10:37,460 ] Of why we're doing these four pillars. And in our diet, especially, the research has shown that longevity and weight loss, for example, needs to have some sort of calorie restriction. And there are multiple ways to get there. and you can just do strict calorie restriction. You can still have three meals a day, but each of those meals needs to be very small. Or you can do some concept of restricted feeding, time-restricted feeding that I do, where I don't eat until noon every day. Your body initially is going to have some issues. My body has had some issues some days where I'm like, I'm hungry. I can't do this. People say, I was just talking to somebody yesterday about this, about the fact that they get hangry, what to do about that, right? So essentially, my body has now become used to the concept of being hungry and going without food for periods of time and this concept of either time-restricted feeding or intermittent fasting you don't have to be 100 successful with this immediately but the more you get into this and the more your

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:11:50,460 ] body becomes used to it Your body and my body have this microbiome in our intestines. Your bacteria inside of your intestines actually communicates with your brain to create certain situations of either feeling hungry, feeling satiated. or feeling unsatiated. When you eat processed food, there are signals getting sent to your brain that say you're still hungry, even though you've just eaten a processed food. And this has to do with... Either the preservatives, something in that processed food does that, but it's well documented that those.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:12:29,760 ] processed foods create that situation. So the more unprocessed you get, the better you're going to be able to tolerate this kind of calorie restriction or time-restricted feeding or intermittent fasting. I have instituted a low-sugar, high-fiber, and a mostly plant-based diet. and I'm avoiding those processed foods, and that is the secret for longevity.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:12:55,500 ] And one of the reasons why you need to have a low sugar and somebody says, oh, well, you're eating fruit or vegetables. Those are sugar. Those are carbs. Well, those are different types of carbs that have different consequences for your microbiome and for longevity. Glucose itself and also fructose age proteins in your body in your bloodstream. You have a hundred different proteins a thousand different proteins. Those get glycosylated by glucose in your body. Okay, so the less glucose you have, the less glycosylation you have. The simple situation of a blood test called hemoglobin A1c tells you exactly how this is happening. And that's just one thing. That's a protein called hemoglobin. That's what carries your oxygen in your body. And the amount of glycosylation— the amount of glucose that is on that hemoglobin— is actually the result of the blood test where you call hemoglobin A1C.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:13:56,170 ] It's the amount of glucose in that A1C position on the...

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:14:03,569 ] hemoglobin. So that is a telltale sign that the more sugar you have over the course of three months is going to permanently affect that one particular protein. And that glycosylation marks the protein for destruction. Same thing with hemoglobin. It marks that protein for destruction, and that hemoglobin A1C is that marker, right? So, but now let's talk about fructose and sucrose. Sugar is a combination of glucose and fructose. And then your body has to separate those in your intestines or in your small intestines or in your bloodstream. It has to separate those from each other to make those two glucose and fructose.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:14:53,410 ] Fructose, it's glucose and fructose. So sucrose. is essentially that combination. Fructose actually ages your proteins in your body 10 times stronger, 10 times faster, and 10 times as long, and so ages your proteins even more. So avoiding fructose, if you can. So avoiding table sugar, avoiding sugar is important unless there's a benefit to it, okay? So as I said, we're eating berries, right? We're eating fruits that have a benefit to them. By their antioxidants. So we're going to have some kind of carbohydrates in our diet, and you might as well make them beneficial. And obviously, there are benefits for vegetables also. Vegetables have some fructose in them, but they are going to have benefits of either antioxidants, fiber, or other things. That actually have been shown to increase longevity in animal models. So then the concept here of glucose and having an elevated glucose, if you have insulin resistance, Glucose increases insulin and insulin causes accumulation of fat cells.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:16:08,320 ] Insulin creates fat and fat storage elsewhere. If you have an excess amount of glucose, you'll need insulin, right? But if you don't— if you can avoid having a high amount of insulin in your body— it improves your health, okay? So insulin is actually the enemy if you're in a period of excess, right?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:16:32,800 ] Obviously, insulin is great because your body needs it, right? Your body needs to control your glucose, but you don't want an excess amount of insulin because it causes those fat stores. It causes it— it's a growth factor. So it actually causes detrimental effects in your body when it's in excess. It is actually itself a carcinogen. OK, so.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:16:57,730 ] And causes increased fat stores, as we said. So that concept of longevity and a longevity-based diet.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:17:06,500 ] Helps you in the situation with the plant-based diet. Okay, so you're going to have those essential fibers. You're going to have the essential antioxidants. There are certainly benefits to a carnivore diet or high-fat diets. In terms of weight loss, but there is data to say that it increases inflammation and increases gut and systemic microbiome effects in your body that are detrimental. Okay. So I am not necessarily going to completely.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:17:45,110 ] SU, a carnivore diet, high fat diets. But for me, I'm not going to do it because I know that potentially those diets have detrimental effects in animal models for longevity. Okay. So here's where...

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:18:01,910 ] I kind of depart also from some of the bros who are the gym bros online and the other influencers who are telling you you need to have an increased amount of protein in your diet. Okay. So studies have shown that Americans have a huge amount of protein in their diet over and above what they need. Most Americans are sedentary and they're still having two to three times the amount of protein that's recommended. If you're not building muscle mass, then why do you need that protein? You don't need that protein. If you have fat stores in your body, then that's a signal that you have either had excess glucose or excess protein in your diet, excess fat that needs to be stored. So the studies for longevity have suggested that calorie restriction.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:19:03,520 ] But that calorie restriction actually has a mechanism to it. That mechanism is through a gene and a protein called mTOR. Okay?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:19:15,770 ] mTOR is essentially a signal that there is macronutrient scarcity— either a scarcity of one of these fats, proteins, or glucose. Okay? So these macronutrient scarcities signal the fact that they are scarce to mTOR, and mTOR is downregulated.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:19:35,450 ] And when mTOR is downregulated, mice and other animal studies have shown that they live 20% to 40% longer. And essentially, there are studies suggesting that if you have a protein-deficient diet, you actually live longer. Now, with that said...

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:19:56,290 ] those mice were fed that and they're not needing to have muscle mass, right? They're completely different than it. They have a different diet than we do. They do have, in general, lab mice have a... an omnivorous diet, just like we do. But there are some different differences, right? So how can we translate that to humans? If you feed a mouse a diet that is deficient in one essential amino acid, leucine, those mice will live 20% longer. How is that? It's an essential amino acid, right? It's essential for us to build muscle. How can they, if you completely eliminate that from their body, it's because leucine... and proteins in the diet and other things will signal to your body and your cells to increase mTOR levels to show to the body and signal to the body that we have plenty of food in our diet.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:21:06,940 ] And that is actually detrimental to longevity.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:21:11,520 ] So now we've talked about that. We're going to have some science Sunday science to go through that. And we're going to show you those studies with protein deficiency and with. Um, and with a leucine deficiency and other mTOR studies. Okay. So think about mTOR as being the enemy of longevity. Okay. So, um, And that goes against what we think, right? We think we need muscles. We need muscle mass because there's also studies that say that's grip strength. and muscle mass is associated with longevity. And certainly this can't be the be-all end-all because let's say, for example, larger athletes who have a huge amount of muscle and grip strength, they often live... less long than people who are not those larger athletes of some sort football players etc and there's obviously reasons for that right there's potentially other reasons besides muscle mass so right so muscle mass is not the be-all end-all that some people some influencers are telling us so I've got

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:22:26,730 ] my concept of longevity in my brain and thinking about these things And again, I'm not being 100%. I'm not getting rid of protein from my diet. I'm trying to get a decent amount of protein in my diet. But at the same time, I am doing calorie restriction. I am doing some of these things that are going to help my diet, okay? So what about, so those goals and motivation, how am I going to further those goals? Here's something I've done that has really helped me and maybe can help you. I've instituted accountability into my program.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:23:02,850 ] I'm using apps on my phone. Okay, so we all can download these free apps. They're either called check calendars or habit trackers. These things are very important for me because I can actually, on a daily basis, track exactly what I did. So at the end of the day, or maybe the next morning, I can say, 'Oh, what was my diet yesterday?' And I can... I can track that. Okay. So there's different things I use. So on the phone app stores, you can search your app for habit trackers, goal check calendars, look for that habit calendars. Within that app, you can have different calendars. OK, so I've instituted a vegan calendar to check whether that day I've been vegan, whether that day I've exercised and what kind of exercise, alcohol use, sugar and sodas. I've instituted one of them. And I'll show you these, share them with you, and you can see exactly how poorly I've done.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:24:05,970 ] I'm nowhere near where I want to be, but we're going to be using these app trackers to track my situation, track where I'm at on my process, my journey to become unprocessed. You can use these for your intake of greens or intake of berries. Track that. Okay, so that's something. If we're going to be instituting a daily berry recommendation for my diet, then I need to track that. I need to see. You know, is there a day that I didn't eat berries because of whatever reason? And then I can track that and see how successful I am. And then look at the whole past month, how many alcohol drinks I've had for the last month trying to. If I have a goal, trying to track that, okay? So the other part of this is getting a daily weight. I think that for weight loss, it's been shown to help with weight loss if you have a scale at home and you can track your weight on a daily basis.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:25:10,800 ] Those people who have a scale at home and track their daily weights. actually do better at weight loss. I'm not saying you have to lose X amount of pounds because this is not the point of this diet here. Indeed, I've lost weight with this kind of diets and these kind of situations of having an unprocessed life, but at the same time, you're going to have a better idea of where you're at compared to previously if you track that weight. Um, and again, this is not about weight loss. It probably is because weight loss is probably going to help you with longevity if you are obese and then because you need to get back down into a normal weight, but weight and BMI is not necessarily the be all end all of this. The next thing I've tried to do is surround myself with like-minded people. Certainly, if you have someone you live with who is being unhealthy and being a detriment to your situation, or if you have friends who are goading you to go out and drink alcohol and go to a...

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:26:20,990 ] restaurant that has only poor choices, then that's going to be a situation where you need to, I've needed to try to change that. Okay. And some situations you can get to, you don't necessarily have to get rid of all of your friends. But try to branch out and get to new friends. And the ways to do this, I found, is this. Going to a vegan market, meeting those people, becoming outgoing. to go to either your local urban or co-op farm. Inside of cities, there are often urban farms or situations where you can get to a place where there are like-minded people. Meet people there. Meet the shop owner. That shop owner has some recommendations for you as to how to get out to meet some people. who are going to help you with that accountability. If you have somebody that you can commiserate about what you are doing and to help you with that and to congratulate you periodically for what you're doing, that's going to be all more important, right?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:27:22,770 ] There are produce stands you can try to find. There are bulletin boards at that vegan grocery store that are going to have some events. For example, at the urban co-op farm that we have in the Tampa Bay area, there's an urban farm called Meacham Urban Farm. This Meacham Urban Farm has a dinner every year. So there's an event where you can go meet. People, okay. So, and then there are classes that they have that teach different things. It might not necessarily be anything about food— it could be a craft thing that they're doing. And you're going to meet people who are interested in unprocessed foods at those events. So, you will 100% be able to find something at something. If you're not in an urban farm, there are usually co-op farms outside of the city that you could try to find. Those co-op farms are very important because trying to find organic and natural foods is going to be important.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:28:25,240 ] The other thing that I've done, and I don't use every day, but it could be helpful for you, are vegan apps. Vegan apps are things like Happy Cow, which I've used before. And then another one, because I'm instituting mostly olive oil for my cooking or maybe avocado oil. There's a seed oil scout is one particular one where you can find restaurants. That doesn't use seed oils or can at least help you to avoid seed oils. Certainly, seed oils and the avoidance thereof is kind of a controversial policy, right? So, and I am sure that somebody is going to comment on this and have some questions. What's so bad about seed oils, right? So, well, essentially, the... best oil you can find is going to have some antioxidants. Okay, if you can cook without oil, which you know the Chinese and Japanese actually before the institution of any of these seed oils, which actually used no oil in their cooking.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:29:34,830 ] Okay, so if you can try to get away with cooking without any oil, all the better. But olive oil and some seed oils actually have some antioxidants. The problem with some seed oils is that they are ultra-processed. Back in 1975, let's say, for example, approximately, I don't know exactly when it was, but let's say. The product Crisco, that tub of white oil that you could then just kind of take a spoonful, put in your pan, and that became such an easier process. For some reason, they came up with it. That product is actually oxidized. So they basically blow air through the oil and forcefully oxidize the oil, right? So anytime you have a process where the process is not an organic...

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:30:31,400 ] Pressed oil, that's going to be basically either heated or oxidized. And that is the enemy of longevity, enemy of health. OK, oxidation. So many seed oils, if they are not oxidization-free, if they're not pressed, if they're not cold pressed. Okay, so cold press is an important thing. So those seed oil scouts can help you with restaurants that actually might have a better effect on your health. So if you do have to go out to eat, a lot, then it might behoove you to try to find some of these that actually use avocado oil and olive oil, because those have antioxidants in them.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:31:17,070 ] So potentially, you know, I've needed that motivation. So motivation to help me stay on track is important, right? So what...

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:31:37,310 ] I need, you know, I've talked about that accountability in these accountability apps, but that's not all that's necessary, okay? So something that helps me to stay on track is going to be those things, but not only that, but it's a combination of different concepts of motivation.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:31:54,940 ] I had this patient who really needed to help improve her health, but she told me, she said, 'I know me and I'm just not going to do it.' When I was talking to her about needing to become more active and to help herself. And certainly going home from the hospital, she was going to go home and she's going to get physical therapy, right? What's the deal with physical therapy when somebody goes home from the hospital? They come in one hour, maybe daily. But usually, probably three times a week. But what that patient, and then by analogy, the same thing we need to do: we need to be motivated 24 hours a day, right? And that patient needed to be motivated. 24 hours a day to not only just do that physical therapy, but to move and do some exercise that's going to help her strength and help her prevent her from falling every day because this patient was having problems with falling.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:32:56,820 ] And she said, 'I know me.' And I'm just not going to do it. And I know that everybody out there, everybody's different. Everybody's coming from a different starting point, right? I'm starting from a pretty high level of motivation and I'm pretty motivated. And even myself, I find myself having times where I'm going to have a soda or I'm going to have something that is detrimental to me, but I know me and I'm just not going to do it. It's going to be the wrong situation for me and it's going to be the wrong situation for this patient because unless she has somebody to be there 24 hours a day to motivate her, to tell her exactly what she needs to live. Even if it, she, and she said, even if it means dying, she's not going to be motivated to do something. Okay. So, and I know I've seen that personally with family members who have, who have had problems with that. And I'm telling you. It is a struggle. And here's the deal.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:33:57,230 ] That motivation needs to come from loving yourself. Okay. So loving yourself is extremely important. Okay. And how do you get to that point? Because we don't all love ourselves. And we even people who love themselves don't love themselves 100% of the time. There might be a situation where you may get down, but your opinion of yourself is worth your weight in gold. And literally, it's worth your weight because obese people might have a lack of self-worth or self-esteem, okay? So even if they're doing their GLP-1 injection and they've lost a lot of weight, they still have that problem of potentially— they may, they may not, but they may self-load themselves. And that's how they got to be obese in the first place. And they may still have that. They just have a medication that's now artificially creating that feeling of satiety and that decrease in the blood sugars that's helping them with their weight, but they still have that issue.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:35:05,570 ] Here's what I've found. Number one, therapy. Therapy is extremely important in this situation of going on to having a healthy lifestyle, okay? Because I need to have that mindset. I've established with a therapist and done EMDR, finding any source of self-esteem issues. For me, I was kind of a nerdy kid, right? I had, you know, you're going to have bullies. You're going to have issues with— why you had that issue. Okay, so then everybody has these self-esteem issues. And this is one of the issues with when you go out and you talk to people and somebody seems like they have everything put together, but everybody has some similar self-esteem issues. And so. If you can tell me that you don't, I can tell you that you're a liar. Okay. So, um, working on this is a 24-hour a day, seven-day a week issue.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:36:11,180 ] And that therapist can help you with coping skills, can help you with relationships that might help you overcome. We talked about motivation. We talked about motivation.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:36:21,080 ] of having better relationships, that social connection, that therapist can help you with that. It helps with all four of these pillars of longevity. It helps with diet, helps with exercise, getting to the self-awareness to realize that you might have... Different impediments to having that exercise program. It might help you with your mindfulness and the social connections. It will help you with your...

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:36:53,610 ] creativity. It might help you to become more creative. I've actually noticed that in my writing, I've had situations where if I've had a therapist, it actually helps me with that. The other thing that I've used aside from therapists is these other potential technological innovations that help with this.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:37:18,320 ] Vision boards. Okay, so I found that vision boards are really helpful if I can look at them as often as possible and add to them. They can be electronic vision boards or they can be manual poster boards. I find potentially like a whiteboard potentially important, but put the pictures. It's very important to have something visual on there. Put the pictures on that poster, okay? Put the... pictures of what you want in that electronic app on either your computer or on your phone. Okay, so put the pictures. And so many people use vision boards for their professional or money goals. That's important, I think, because that's going to help you. There, but put your health in there. Have a separate vision board about your health and pay attention to it because you have to have reasons, right, for why you are.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:38:16,009 ] Going to head toward this healthier you, right? So, and you have to, and that's part of that therapy. You have to have a reason for that, right? Could be your children, could be wanting to see your grandchildren, could be wanting to enjoy hiking right now, or you enjoy traveling.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:38:34,120 ] Do you want to be 85 years old and not traveling? No, you want to be able to do those same things, right? So this is something I see a lot in people who don't want to live longer because they don't want to become what we have the concept of aging is.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:38:51,030 ] We need to destroy that concept of aging. And again, we talked about the longevity project at Stanford. get into and look up these longevity projects where it will give you some motivation that it actually is possible to live longer and healthier, okay? So I also use practice and practice daily affirmations. and correct any self-deprecation okay so um it's so common in our our society to want to not brag or actually talk down about bragging and when somebody gives you a compliment we self-deprecate right so in the past i've self-deprecated and said i don't want to live healthy because of X, Y, or Z. And self-deprecating, if you get a compliment, you know, you're looking like you've lost weight. Oh, well, I... Um, I, I haven't really lost that much weight or something like that.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:39:52,070 ] Trying to minimize that compliment, fully take in that compliment and use that as a, as an affirmation. Okay. And say, thank you. I've really been working hard at it or something like that, or anything where you get a compliment. try to reframe that as a daily affirmation of affirming why you're doing what you're doing and that compliment. So here's a couple that I repeat, and you can repeat after me if you want, but saying the words every morning, I am healthy.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:40:26,400 ] or I am doing my best to eat healthy and exercise. I am worthy of living into old age with my health intact. Those kinds of daily affirmations, and certainly you can do these for money, you can do these for your job, and for a lot of different things. To try to help bring in a positive aspect into your life. Meditation is important. I try to meditate 10 minutes periodically, and you don't necessarily have to do it every day, but this is important for clearing your mind of negatives and bringing in positive attitudes. And I've tried to bring these daily affirmations into my meditation. Everybody comes from a different starting point, right? About, you know, certainly I came from— not meditating at all. I came from not practicing these daily affirmations. And some people come from an actual self-deprecating situation that's even worse than that, right? One thing to not really practicing these, but a whole other thing to have a self-loathing attitude.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:41:32,680 ] And those kinds of things can be changed with these and with therapy, different things can help you. And I highly recommend because it has helped me so much with therapy. Vision boards, the daily affirmations, these help immensely. And also surrounding myself, as I said about the surrounding myself with like-minded people, this is something where you can really impact your life with those several different things. The last concept as far as motivation I'm going to be talking about is manifesting good health. Part of all of these situations here from therapy and surrounding yourself is really about manifesting good health. But you need to be clear in your vision. The very first step in manifesting something is creating that vision of where you want to be, the vision of what you want to be, okay? So, and then you need to basically essentially be that vision, okay? So, but then it's not just as simple as that because manifesting, the first thing when you read a manifesting book, or manifesting of anything, is that even if you're clear in that vision of what you want to be, you can't just think yourself into being that, okay?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:42:48,690 ] So, because there are obstacles in your way. And we just talked about that. What are the obstacles in your way? Okay. Those are your fears. Okay. So your fears are what is the obstacle in your way of getting to that, right? So Your fear of failure could be the problem, right? So your fear of disapproval from your peers, you may have these people who you go out with to drink beer and watch football with and eat steak while you're doing it and have.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:43:22,050 ] All of this processed non-plant-based diet, you're going to maybe have some disapproval from them because they're going to say, 'Well, I'm in a carnivore diet and I've lost this much weight.' But you know, you may have, and if you do some research, you may have some different ideas from that. So you may be fearful from that. You may have some problems with disapproval from your family. I had. You know, my family grew up in the Midwest and and they were farmers when they grew up. And so having a plant-based diet, they said, 'Well, I eat I love steak.' And, you know, you grew up in a farm household and. You know, farmers run them, help make America great, right? So, but my answer to that is very simple. You know, plants are grown on farms too, and especially organic farms are some of the smaller businesses that actually need help.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:44:23,400 ] And so, how is that such a problem? And so, you need to really document those fears. And then, you need to now listen to that as you hear that disapproval. And it's amazing to hear that from somebody you love, right? So, you know, because they don't have that concept of what you need, right?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:44:42,290 ] And then there's other situations in your fears that are your concept of your self-identity, the concept of 'I can't,' 'I'm blank,' or 'I've always been blank.' And it could be, I've always been big boned, or I've always been a... a person who's had to eat sweets. I've had, I've got a sweet tooth, so I need to eat sweets. No, you don't need to eat sweets. It's what your vision of what you are currently. And that vision can be changed if you have the motivation and the right tools. Okay. So I've always been blank— needs to be kind of a comment that needs to be completely eradicated out of your vocabulary. And I've tried to eradicate it out of my vocabulary because. One of the reasons why I've been able to be successful in business and other situations, and what I'm doing right now, is because, even though I've not always been a podcaster, I've not always been a great public speaker, but I've found that very rapidly, if I know what I'm talking about, I can overcome

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:45:53,790 ] those fears of becoming a good public speaker. It's amazing how that can occur. It takes practice. And same thing with your fears of living a healthy life. It takes practice and it takes a lot of work.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:46:09,100 ] First, document those fears. And then, the next thing about manifestation is the same thing we just talked about: daily affirmation. The language of success. The language of success is affirmation, is positive attitude and positive language. I can.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:46:26,540 ] I am worthy of, right? So that language of success and turning those negative.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:46:35,140 ] vocabulary, into a positive vocabulary. And then, as I said, it's not just about the thoughts, because there have been a thousand people, a million people, a hundred million people who have said, I'm going to be successful, who weren't successful just because they thought of it. You can't just think your way into good success and money. You can't just think you're good. way into good health either, because actions have to align that behavior and you need to act on it every day. And if you don't act on something, if you find yourself, procrastination is basically the enemy of success, right? So you need to align your behavior. If you are procrastinating, if you are having Poor actions, more often than not, that's not the way to manifesting because that's the way you need to get to this, is you need to align your action. And then you need to turn envy into motivation because you need to turn that negative, also being envious of someone or jealous of someone, you need to turn that negative and not be jealous of them, but to know that you can have that same exact thing because there is abundance, right?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:47:41,940 ] So the part of the manifesting and part of...

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:47:45,620 ] Part of meditation is knowing that the universe is abundant. Your success is not, number one, at the detriment of other people. So, number one, you need to help other people. Bring them up also. Be the ladder, okay? Be the ladder for people. And you need to surround yourself with other people who are louder also. So and then you need that feedback. You need to use those apps we just talked about. OK, so really, we've gotten to the last part of this podcast. We're going to get to what we're doing this week. Right. So this week, we're going to be eliminating fast foods. We're going to be eliminating and limiting packaged foods because you can't limit them completely. And we're going to be avoiding all soda if we can. It doesn't even mean you can't have one treat because you're having a soda somewhere. You have to have it for some reason. We're going to have our daily water. We're only going to be drinking water. That's our liquid of choice. OK, so 32 ounces twice. We're going to be eating berries daily.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:48:48,029 ] We talked about having berries on that Monday. Now we're going to be eating berries daily. It doesn't have to be every single day, but you're going to be tracking this, okay? And this is what we're going to do this week. So essentially what you need is to buy seven daily doses of berries.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:49:07,340 ] On Sunday, let's say. On Sunday, buy it and then have that daily dose every day. It amazes me the ingredients in fast food. So this is one of the reasons why. And so there are multiple different documentaries you can watch. And I encourage you to watch these documentaries. Supersize Me and other different documentaries on the farm industries and commercial farms. And the ingredients in these. So let's say, for example, French fries in a fast food restaurant. How many ingredients are in there? There's 10, 15, 20 different ingredients in them, sometimes including sugar, sometimes including artificial flavors. They've added artificial flavors to taste like beef.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:49:52,100 ] In a French fry, why do you need it to have taste like beef? Because they're certainly [I've had French fries that are amazing] that I made myself that just you make them with potatoes and you put them in a and bake them in the oven. It's amazing how those taste good. You might add, for example, you can add salt perhaps or different seasonings that are natural and organic, but avoid those artificial flavors that aren't needed. And that is what fast food is. I'm going to eat less meat, and we're talking about that, more vegetables, more of a plant-based diet. It doesn't have to eliminate meat completely. The supplements for me, what I do is I use calcium and vitamin D. I have omega-3 fish oils as a possibility, and those can be vegan if you'd like. B12 is very important if you're going to be going to a mostly plant-based diet because B12 is deficient in plant-based diets.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:50:51,820 ] Those may be some of the starting points of any supplements. And I want to avoid supplements if I can. My shopping list is going to be full of those things that have, they're the red, the purple, and the orange, right? and green potentially, but red cabbage, broccoli, dry chickpeas and dry beans. I like to make my own beans rather than get them in a can. Hummus. I try to make my own hummus. You don't necessarily have to do that, but hummus is a good protein source. Carrots, pepper. And then we're going to talk about fiber daily— psyllium husk in the morning, berries. Those berries have flavonols and antioxidants in them. There's a reason why they are important in a Mediterranean and a mind, the mind diet, and the reason why they are associated with decreased dementia risk.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:51:45,450 ] And those flavonols and antioxidants are the great thing.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:51:53,910 ] That balances out and more than outweighs the fact that you're imbibing some sugar and fructose into your diet. And we'll talk about protein at some point along the line.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:52:10,360 ] If you feel like you need a protein supplement for any reason—such as athletic or otherwise— again, we'll talk about the science behind why excess protein may be bad.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:52:23,540 ] Here's something I've done: trying a new fruit or new vegetable once each week. Certainly at some point you're going to run out of new fruits or vegetables, but try something new, something you haven't had in a while. I just tried Star Apple this week. Star Apple, if you see on my social media, I had it. It was incredibly sweet. Tasted a little bit like a lychee to me. A very sweet, nice taste to it. But it also is purple, right? So there's a purple part to it. You don't eat the skin, but there is some purple meat to it, along with the clear parts of the meat. And it tasted amazing. The other thing I've set as a goal is to try to eat 40 different fruits, nuts, and vegetables every week, because that's important for microbiome. Your microbiome wants something that is different so that it has different types of fibers. It wants soluble fiber and it wants insoluble fiber. And those things can be obtained from different types of fruits, nuts, and vegetables.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:53:25,040 ] Again, try something new, okay?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:53:28,080 ] Okay, so now we're on to another pillar. We've already talked about some motivation. We've talked about diet and something that I do in my movement every week. I try to improve on something. OK, so again, we're all at different starting points. So if you need to be starting out with just 10 minutes of walk, certainly. That's something that I've done in the past is, you know, when I've gone off of an exercise, just going out for a walk helps me immensely to then get to that situation. That walk helps with your sleep. That walk helps with your diet because it decreases your.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:54:11,810 ] insatiable need for some kind of processed food.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:54:15,770 ] And what I've done is I've tried to now, in my situation, try to do something three times a week that's cardiovascular and then try to do something three times a week that's resistance training. If you want to move to seven days a week, that's fine. If you want to have a day off for rest or something like that, that's fine.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:54:36,630 ] Here's the thing about longevity: there are a few things that are associated with longevity. You know, certainly in the elderly, falls are a risk. And as soon as you fall, you're going to have potentially a broken bone, something that's going to set you back. That then is associated with a lack of longevity. So by all means, if you're older, those things that can help prevent falling are going to be important. And I'm getting up to age 56 now. I'm 56, right? So I don't think I'm at risk for falling, but some people might be at age 56. Who knows?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:55:13,390 ] Increasing your strength, increasing your SVO2, which is basically your cardiovascular health, right? So increasing your SVO2 and increasing your strength. Grip strength is associated with increased longevity. Why would grip strength be associated with longevity? What do we need? To have a strong grip for. And it's really just a marker of overall strength, okay? Let's say, for example, that we have... a situation where somebody doesn't have a weight room, but they're a farmer, right? So they are doing something every day. My grandmother lived to be 102 years old.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:55:58,910 ] Possibly because she had a disabled child that she had to push around. And even at age 70, she picked up that wheelchair, putting it into cars to try to help the mobility of my aunt. So amazing how she lived to be that long, but it could be that her strength was the fact that she gardened. The fact that she did different things like this, that in every, so everybody's different. You don't necessarily have a, have to have a weight room. It is really, it is somewhat important though, because nowadays weight rooms are everywhere, right? So nowadays, and certainly, let's say, for example, older women going to the gym. There's certain societal expectations and actual lack of expectation or actually inhibitions to go to the gym, right?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:57:01,220 ] So my mom doesn't want to go to the gym because she doesn't think it's expected. She knows that she can go to the pool in her facility or her area and do aerobic training and do some little things in the pool.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:57:21,850 ] But she doesn't want to go to the gym. Why not? It's something societal, right? But resistance training is important for that longevity. It's strengthening your legs and actual strength to prevent you from falling in your older age, but keeping that muscle mass from age 30 to age 40 to 50. into your 80s, that resistance training is going to be important. The other pillar of sleep being important in our longevity is something you need to start right away in week two with with our circadian rhythms is going to be important. Okay. So we'll talk about this more and I'll kind of highlight this every, every talk and we'll have one week where we really. harp on just the sleep part. But really, light at night is the enemy of sleep. So you need to start turning your lights down before bedtime.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:58:22,880 ] Light is the benefit in the morning when you need to create that circadian rhythm. At night, your phone, my phone, I put it in the bathroom. Amazing how there are multiple studies showing that having... a phone at your bedside can inhibit your sleep. So potentially having that phone in the bathroom. You know, certainly there are situations where if you're on call, I'm on calls periodically. Right. So I need to be able to hear that. But at the same time, we also have ring or watch tracking or sleep tracking. That's important, too, because then you can really on a daily basis show the effect of, let's say, one drink or one alcoholic drink or eating close to bedtime, how that can impact your sleep. And then you need electronic free periods. And that period should probably be while you're sleeping, right? So electronic free periods.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:59:23,730 ] If you have that ring, that is a tracking ring. Put it on airplane mode so that it is not communicating with your phone during that time when you're sleeping. So and then let's talk just a short time about purpose and social connection, because this is another important thing, right? So this is something I want to do and I want to track. Starting here in week two, I want to call someone that I've not talked to in a while every day or at least a couple of times a week. Text someone a couple times a week. Text someone you haven't texted in a while. Go through your phone contact list. Start at the A's. Find someone that you haven't talked to in a while and either call them or text them. Reconnect. That connection is hugely important, okay? But then also get out. Get out to someplace social. Get out to join a club or a meetup, something like that. That's something I'm trying to do. More and more often.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:00:24,290 ] And there are apps for that. There are apps to meet people. Also, I can't say— you know, obviously we need to be safe. There's Bumble Friends that the young people are using, right? But this isn't just for young people; you can't use those things. It doesn't need to be a dating app. Let's get away from needing to meet people just for dating. Try to find somebody who has a like-minded head. Try to find a vegan friend that can help you. You can find those things. Okay. The other thing is mindfulness and those apps and yoga, using waking up or something like that. And waking up is an app from Sam Harris. Do some meditation in the morning. That's something I'm trying to do in my shower or something where I can meditate and become more mindful. This improves inflammation. The other thing I want to think about is... becoming more creative and something I'm going to be doing. As you've noticed, if you've tracked or followed me, that I've written a couple of novels completely out of my mindset.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:01:27,260 ] but I am a creative individual. And then right there, do you hear that little daily affirmation? I am a creative individual. I wouldn't have thought that I was a creative individual when I was younger growing up. I read a lot and I was introverted, right? But you can be a creative individual and you can make music. You can make art. Get a paint set or write something. Write some poetry. Put this into action and do something creative. The last part I'm going to talk about is the plastics and our need to get rid of plastics out of our life. I'm going to share.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:02:06,110 ] a few things on the screen and just going to share and this is just showing the different utensils that i had in my um in my kitchen right so these plastic things so certainly if you've got plastic spatulas right so plastic spatulas in a in a pan where it's being superheated and if you've never noticed your plastic utensil um melting Think about what that's putting into your food, right? So changing that to wood. And certainly this is not perfect, but changing to wood utensils. Look at these. Amazing how you can just with one simple...

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:02:54,800 ] purchase on let's say amazon or walmart somewhere where you can get some wood utensils right getting rid of plastic measuring cups right you can get stainless steel measuring cups and you can get stainless steel measuring spoons glass measuring cups okay so so these are all important And let me go back to let me show you the tracking apps I have. Right. So you'll see a little bit into my life here. And and I'm not perfect. Look at this. I had some sugar and soda a couple of days this week already. Right. So I'm on my week off. So look at that. So you can see there. Look at that. Not perfect. But I'm getting there, okay? So I can track this with a green check mark on days I didn't have any sugar, right? So I can also track my vegan attitude. Looking right here, I'm only like two days a week where I'm vegan right now. Having a lot of chicken, though, maybe cheese, probably had some pizza that day. Right. So but my pizza had no meat on it, but it was delicious.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:03:57,280 ] Right. So I had.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:03:59,470 ] seafood last night I had sushi and I had some different things okay so these are this is my tracking app this is I think something called habit calendar habit tracker let's see what else do we have here ethanol. You can see how many drinks I'm having. I'm trying to drink. I'm kind of trying to cut down to one to two per day and that only being one to two per week. If you can do one to two per day and that only one to two per week. That's going to help with longevity.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:04:33,900 ] Ethanol is associated with decreased lifespan, okay? So the more you can decrease your ethanol use, and certainly you're having a glass of wine with a girlfriend, you're having a glass of wine with your wife to talk about things, you're having a glass of wine with friends. If you can try to avoid hard liquor, if you can try to institute some things that have some antioxidants in them, that might be beneficial to you and that might cut down on that. But essentially, so I've had seven drinks in the month of November so far. So seven drinks. That's just over one per every other day. So if I'm going to try to have 15 drinks a month, the maximum, to try to get to that one to two, one to two per week, then that's going to get me to that point. These are my berries.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:05:28,140 ] I use check marks to say when I'm completely fasting. I'm usually fasting on Mondays. Look at this app here. So here you can see my exercise. I had four days where I worked a lot, so I wasn't able to exercise. I am improving this. And again, that affirmation, I am doing the best I can. And I am improving my health.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:05:50,420 ] Okay, so again, there you can see just a few things. And now we're heading toward a process to become unprocessed. Okay, so I've got my four pillars: my whole foods, mostly vegan, Mediterranean and mind diet, and also less meats, less sugar, more fiber. Okay. Those kinds of things to help with my microbiome and my longevity are important. And I. Thank you for going along with me, going along on this journey, going along on this big carpet ride where we're going to live into our 80s. I'm going to live into my 80s. I'm going to live to be 100 years of age. I'm going to be a member of the centenarian Olympics where we try to do things like hiking, things like running at age 100, things like things like swimming, and things like maintaining muscle mass, maintaining a healthy diet, and maintaining the youthfulness of the proteins and everything in my body. And my mind, obviously.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:06:51,550 ] You don't want to also have a mind that goes also, right? That's where this mind diet is important, okay? So look at the studies for the mind diet. It is extremely important. Google 'mind diet' and its benefits. And then... adhere to a mind diet. If you don't want to be vegan, at least adhere to a mind diet, because that mind diet will help you when you're 80 years of age, and it will completely eradicate your need to say, 'I don't want to live into my 80s.' Okay, so let's, let's find common ground here—perhaps not necessarily be 100% vegan, but it will be some sort of mostly plant-based diet, whole foods, and a mind diet, okay? Along with exercise, along with sleep, along with some kind of purpose and social connection that I've talked about. Thank you very much for being with me. We'll see you in week three, and we're going to add to this process for an unprocessed life, okay?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:07:54,810 ] Thank you for being with me. Take care.

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