Ep. 195 – Dominate 2026; 9 Ways to Boost Performance, Sleep, Productivity & Mental Health

(00:00:00):

What's going on guys? Welcome to another episode of the Terminator Training Show. I'm Kevin Smith. It is officially 2026. Hope everyone had an awesome New Year's and Christmas and holidays. I can't remember if I did an episode. This time of year is just kind of a blur as far as what day of the week it is and what month it is and what I'm supposed to be doing every day. I think it's probably similar for a lot of people, especially that week between Christmas and New Year's. So I can't remember if I said Merry Christmas last episode or not. But either way, Merry Christmas, happy new, [00:00:30] and hope everyone is ready to crush 2026 and hope everyone had a 2025 that they are proud of. And on the note of the new year, I am going to today share some things that I have developed over the last few years.

(00:00:46):

Some habits I've developed that have really been high payoff and high ROI. Some of these habits that I'm going to go over are really pretty low effort. They just take a little bit of conscious thought. Other ones are [00:01:00] pretty high effort, like the first one I'm going to get into. It took me a lot of effort. It was pretty rough at first. It was painful, but they've all paid dividends down the road. And I guess the theme of them is honestly, any habit that's going to drive you forward in life, whatever it may be, whether it's fitness related or sleep related or productivity related or relationship related, whatever it is, is usually going to require some sort of delayed gratification. And [00:01:30] I find that most people who are able to accept delayed gratification and just kind of lean into it as opposed to instant pleasure, like I'm hungry, so I'm going to grab my phone and order fast food.

(00:01:41):

Or I'm anxious, so I'm going to go to the fridge and grab some alcohol, or I'm bored, so I'm going to open my phone and scroll or watch 12 YouTube videos in a row. People who are able to sacrifice that at least most of the time for future gain are generally just going to be more successful in life and also [00:02:00] they're going to be more fulfilled. More importantly, they're just going to feel better about themselves even though it's probably more enjoyable right now for me to grab my phone and start scrolling than it is to work. I do like recording these episodes, but say I was doing something that I didn't really love doing. There's certain parts behind the scenes at TTM that I don't love every second of, but I still do them and I still feel better about myself afterwards than I would if I just went for an hour and scrolled Instagram or watched seven YouTube golf videos in a row.

(00:02:29):

Not [00:02:30] that I never do that, but for the most part I choose delayed gratification over instant pleasure. And I find that I'm not the most successful human being in the world. I'm probably not the most fulfilled human being in the world, but I certainly am more successful and more fulfilled than I would be had I just blown that stuff off and always gone for that instant pleasure. And most of these are going to be right down that alley, right up that alley I should say. So the main purpose of this, I'm doing it around New Year's. I honestly not a single one [00:03:00] of these I implemented as a New Year's resolution. I've never really been into New Year's resolutions. When I hear of something that sounds beneficial or maybe beneficial, I usually just implement it. And I would say for you guys, whether you've already started on a New Year's resolution, hopefully you're still sticking to it because it's early in the year, but whether or not you make them, there's nothing wrong with starting one of these things on January 9th or January 21st or the second you hear it, whatever it is, [00:03:30] there's nothing magic about the day on the calendar.

(00:03:32):

And honestly, most habit changes, most especially if it's very, very different from what you do right now, especially if it's a really high effort type of habit to build, which is going to be a little bit different for everyone. It's going to be painful at first. It's going to be uncomfortable at first, and you can either decide to feel that pain and discomfort right away or maybe later today when you implement it or maybe tomorrow or you can just kick the can down the road. [00:04:00] And whether you implement it or not, if you do decide to implement it, you're going to feel that pain. You're going to feel that discomfort whenever you do decide to. And that's honestly why most people are kind of stuck in their own little cycles of maybe telling other people, maybe telling themselves, Hey, I'm going to start doing this on Monday, or I'm going to start doing this January 1st, or I'm going to start doing this even tomorrow.

(00:04:24):

And they just never do. Or they start it and they realize how painful it is and they stop and they quit. So [00:04:30] I am going to just put these out there. I'm going to explain how I came across them. I'm going to explain how I started to implement them and maybe a little bit about how long it took for it to really catch on and become a habit. By the way, a habit is something that takes no discipline or willpower or white knuckling to do. You just automatically do it. And a lot of people will say that habits are built in 21 days. There's this myth out there that habits are built in 21 days that came from a study, if I'm [00:05:00] not mistaken, where the average habit built was in 21 days. But it's going to depend on the person. It's going to depend on the habit.

(00:05:07):

Of course, certain habits you could probably build in one day, other habits might take you a year to build and anything in between. So I'm going to share how I went about that and my experience with it as well as how I've benefited from these things in hopes that maybe you hear something on here that strikes a chord or sparks an interest in you and maybe you try it out and [00:05:30] maybe it benefits you. It's not really a high horse thing. Like, look how disciplined I am, look how undisciplined everyone else is. It's just I want to help people out. And I talk a lot about fitness, I talk a lot about personal development and just in line with that, some of these things will help your fitness. Some of these things will help your overall productivity in life, your relationships, your confidence as a person.

(00:05:53):

So that's the goal with this episode is just to put 'em out there and explain a little bit why you might be able to benefit from [00:06:00] them. So I'm going to go through nine of them. And let's start with number one, which was definitely the hardest one to build because it was the most different from what I was doing before for well over a decade before, and that is quitting booze. I have not had a sip of alcohol since November 11th or 12th. I'm not exactly sure if I stopped drinking before midnight or not the night I stopped. But that's one of the main reasons I stopped because I can't remember certain things when I drink too much or when I drank too much. [00:06:30] But anyway, I haven't had a drink since November. Basically Veteran's Day weekend of 2022. And this has been by far the highest payoff habit just because there's so many different benefits I'll get into here in a second.

(00:06:42):

It shouldn't be much of a shock, all the benefits of not drinking. But I will get into some specific ones that I've experienced, and it was also the hardest one to really stick to at first. But I will share a little bit about how, if you're interested or potentially interested in at least dial [00:07:00] and back your drinking, but maybe even stopping how I would go about thinking about this instead of being like, no, I'm just never going to drink ever again. That can be a little bit of a burden, but there's other ways to go about it. And honestly, when I quit, I didn't really think that way either. It just kind of happened. So I'll get into that a little bit too. But basically throughout my entire twenties, I was a pretty heavy drinker, a regular drinker for sure. I would drink almost every single night.

(00:07:26):

I would have one or two high alcohol content beers. [00:07:30] So I wasn't drinking Michelob Ultras or Bud Lights. I was drinking stuff from the beer store that has 8, 9, 10, 11, 12% alcohol. So enough, even if I had one 16 ounce, 12% alcohol, I'd feel it. I wasn't drunk or anything like that, but I would feel it. And that was during the week. Weekends was a whole different story. I would drink a lot more. And although I never felt like I was completely out of control with my alcohol, I definitely had some alcoholic tendencies. And that's [00:08:00] really, really common for type A individuals, really common for soft guys to be more reliant on alcohol than they'd like to admit or they'd like to think. And I was certainly in that boat, and I of course most people know or knew the effects of alcohol, the negative effects.

(00:08:20):

There's not a lot of positive effects of alcohol if a lot of people will say it helps you have fun and it helps you let loose, but I am living proof that you can do that without booze and [00:08:30] it's a whole lot better. But the physical benefits are just not existent, honestly. Even small amounts, even small amounts of alcohol. Some of you may have watched or listened to the humor Min episode that he did a few years ago that was pretty close to around when I stopped drinking altogether. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist. It doesn't take you reading a bunch of studies to know that you wake up with a splitting hangover. You probably can deduce that. That's not really all that beneficial for your health [00:09:00] in general. For me, the main things that were really, really destructive, at least in my experience, were the mental health effects of coming down off a big weekend of drinking.

(00:09:15):

So this particular weekend that it was my last time I drank and my last official bender, I was super depressed, very, very depressed and anxious for two or three days after. And there's no way I need to stop drinking for a really long time. But it was [00:09:30] pretty much like that all the time. But prior to quitting, prior to having that big weekend bender, before that, I hadn't drank in three months and then before that I hadn't drank three or four months prior to that. So it was really, really long periods of time and not even the weekday drinks that I was talking about earlier that I drank in my twenties. So the effects were like extra profound. I was extra hungover and the come down afterwards was extra rough. So I basically told myself, I'm not going to drink for at least 90 [00:10:00] days.

(00:10:00):

I'm not going to drink for three months. And that three months went by and it was very, very difficult at first, especially the first month, I'm sure most of you guys have been there that do drink. You've probably told yourself after a night of drinking like I'm never going to drink again, and then you just go back to drinking the next weekend, which I've done that plenty, plenty, plenty of times. And this one was kind of similar. I didn't want to drink necessarily the next weekend, but throughout that first month, I definitely had the urge to drink several times [00:10:30] and I kind of just had to white knuckle my way through that and just stick to what I told myself I was going to do. One of the things that really builds self-esteem and self-confidence is telling yourself you're going to do if something, even if nobody else knows about it.

(00:10:44):

I didn't tell even my wife about this that I wasn't going to drink for 90 days. I just did it. I told myself and I held myself accountable. And that's one of the things that really builds confidence. If you can't trust yourself, how are you supposed to have top tier? I don't [00:11:00] think it is even possible. And on the flip side of that, lying to yourself, which a lot of people do, whether they know about it or not, whether they're aware of it or not, a lot of people do that every single day. They'll say they're going to wake up at a certain time and they don't say they're going to go train at a certain time or they're going to train in general and they don't. They say they're going to eat this meal prep meal and their friends are going out to eat, and so they don't eat the meal prep meal.

(00:11:22):

They go out and eat whatever their friends are eating. All these are kind of human nature things, but they all add up and they all just tick away at your self-esteem. [00:11:30] And so I was really, really gungho about holding myself accountable to this one because it just had such a profound effect on my life, like a negative effect on my life, all the drinking I was doing, and I was pretty proud of myself once I made it through that first three months. And also I felt like every single day I woke up feeling clear and good, not hung over, not super anxious, not depressed, [00:12:00] not sweating and rapid heart rate and anxious. I felt really good and I didn't really want to go back to waking up hung over or waking up after a night of drinking. Even certain times I would have maybe one or two drinks, but there were higher alcohol and I'd still feel not a lot of clarity.

(00:12:18):

The next day I would be a little less motivated. I'd have to kind of drag myself through things and I didn't miss that feeling at all. And pretty much every single day that's passed since that first [00:12:30] probably 30 to 60 days, I don't remember exactly, I've wanted to drink a little bit less and a little bit less, and the thought of waking up with a hangover has been even less and less and less appealing to me. Honestly, right now thinking about it makes me feel a little bit like viscerally nauseous. So this has been huge. I mean, honestly across the board I sleep way better. I think more clearly. I'm way more motivated. I am way more effective in my business. I am a better person to [00:13:00] be around. I'm a better spouse. I am just a better individual. Honestly, I feel like I'm better at social skills and I'm more charismatic now than I was, even though I felt like I needed that in order to basically I felt like I needed to be under the influence in order to let loose and not be so introverted.

(00:13:22):

I'm naturally very introverted and turns out being competent in a social situation, [00:13:30] honestly, it's just a bunch of skills. The more you practice those skills, ideally sober, the better you get at them, the more confident you get at them. Also, you're just more aware of what you're doing. You can rate yourself like, Hey, how did I handle that situation? Was I interrupting someone? Was I not asking enough about them? Was I not making eye contact when I was talking? Was I doing all these weird things in my hands as I was talking? I do talk with my hands, but just awkward stuff like crossing your arms, putting 'em in their pockets, things like that, and you can learn those things. I did a lot, a lot [00:14:00] of reading about social skills and most books that I've read about it have some sort of practical exercise or multiple practical exercises that you can do in practice and rate yourself and get a little bit better over time.

(00:14:14):

It's just like any other skill or set of skills. There's a lot of different skills that go into being charismatic and being likable and around good around other people, but it can be built and you can do it sober. I never thought you could. And at first when I would go out and socialize or [00:14:30] I would go to gatherings that I used to drink for and everyone else was still drinking or most other people were still drinking, I definitely was uncomfortable and I struggled. But over time, you get better at it if you actually try. And so that was one of the bigger things I was worried about. A lot of people also are worried about how their buddies or their acquaintances or their people they drink with are going to accept or not accept their decision to stop drinking. Generally speaking, what I tell people is just don't try and push your agenda on other people.

(00:14:59):

If someone [00:15:00] asks about why you don't drink or what benefits you've seen from not drinking, then yeah, of course tell them and maybe encourage them to consider it. But no one likes the guy who just thinks he's too good for everyone else and tells them, I am too good for you, or I'm too good for alcohol, whatever. Even though people deep down if anyone gives you grief about not drinking, usually it's because they know [00:15:30] that they probably could benefit from it too, and they see you benefiting from it, especially if they're longtime drinking buddies, which also, by the way, if someone doesn't like you anymore or doesn't want to hang out with you anymore, that probably is a really good indication that they're not your actual friend, your drinking buddy, which is definitely different if it's your true friend or if someone really supports you, they're going to support your decision not to drink.

(00:15:55):

That's just how it is. And honestly, I thought a lot of people were going to be like that. Really [00:16:00] not a lot of people were. I was still in the military too, and I would drink in the team room with the boys, I'd go out with the boys before I stopped drinking and I stopped. And it wasn't a huge deal, mainly because I didn't push my agenda on anyone else, and I was just confident with it. I don't drink anymore. That's just it. It's a rule I don't drink. And if you're confident and you you stand your ground, then it's not really something I'd worry about. Honestly, if it comes down to it and someone's really giving you shit, just tell [00:16:30] them. I would rather not willingly put a substance in my body that is terrible for my physical health. Terrible for my mental health is going to make me feel and perform terribly tomorrow, whether it's at the gym training or whether it's in a training for your job situation or whatever it may be.

(00:16:49):

And I'd rather basically not poison myself. And if you want to give me shit for deciding not to poison myself, so be it. But I'm going to stick to my guns. And usually that shuts people [00:17:00] up. It definitely ruffles some feathers, and I've never actually had to do that in person. I've never said that to anyone in person, but I guess if it comes down to it, that's probably what I would do or that's probably what you could do if you get too much shit for it and you can't stand it or whatever it is. A lot of people will say they can't trust people who don't drink, and I think that's absolutely insane. I trust someone a lot more that doesn't drink than someone who does drink. You're way better able to make decisions, think clearly, control yourself, and you're just more of an adult when you're [00:17:30] sober and clear thinking and not inebriated in any way, shape or form.

(00:17:34):

So these days I have absolutely no intention to drink again, but at the same time, I've never said, I'm never going to drink again. Maybe I will, but I strongly, strongly doubt it. And I will say if you give it that 90 days, that's my recommendation. If you want to consider stop drinking, you could quit forever. If you have alcohol problems, I'm not your guy, I would definitely go seek professional help or go to AA or something like that. But if you just feel like it's not [00:18:00] serving you, you can definitely quit booze just because you feel like it's not serving you even if you don't have a problem with it. That is totally allowed. And more and more people are actually doing this these days now that people are more aware of all the health detriments that were apparently a mystery before. I don't know how, but they were.

(00:18:17):

And I think it's a great thing to consider even just to prove to yourself that even if you do go back to drinking after 90 days or whatever, if you can prove to yourself you can go 90 days without it, you can go however long without [00:18:30] it as you want. So that's number one. Let's get into number two, which is by the way, these are not really in order. I would say highest ROI was definitely quitting drinking just because it has so many different benefits, but the rest aren't really in order. They're just all pretty solid habits that I have benefited a lot from. But this one is consistent sleep and wake times, which I've talked about a lot in lots of different episodes in the past. But I never used to do this probably up until a year or two before I got out of the army, which [00:19:00] is probably four years ago from now.

(00:19:03):

But I was just not very good at sleeping at all. I have always kind of just been a spotty sleeper. Sometimes I'd sleep really good, sometimes I wouldn't. I have always been really into trying to maximize my sleep. Not always, I shouldn't say that because if you drink, you can't also be into maximizing your sleep. It's just like those two don't combine. But I've always on nights that I was actually taking it seriously. I would do the right things before bed. I would have my pre-bed [00:19:30] routine. I'd get out in the morning, I would make sure the environment, it was dark, it was nice and cool things I talk about all the time. But one thing I just never got into, which is honestly what most people don't get into because it's really, really hard and you have to make lots of sacrifices, is going to bed and waking up at the same time.

(00:19:47):

And today, I absolutely do it. I am not perfect. Some nights I stay up a little later if I have a social obligation or something like that. Sometimes those are totally worth staying up a little later. My body just naturally gets [00:20:00] up at the same time. So if I stay up till 9, 10, 11 1 night, I'm still going to get up at four. That's usually my wake up time. I usually get up between 3 45 and four 15 just naturally because I'm used to it. And that's the thing, when you do this, you're not going to need an alarm anymore. You might need an alarm at first, but after a couple of weeks when your body gets used to it, you won't need an alarm. And I can absolutely say without question that this has made by far the biggest difference in my sleep quality. Here's the thing, A lot of people think it's [00:20:30] just quantity.

(00:20:30):

They think as long as you're in bed for eight hours or nine hours or seven hours, whatever it may be, and yes, duration's important too, but a lot of people think that as long as they're in the bed a certain amount of time, they're good and you're actually not good. You're not going to sleep the same way. Some people will stay up. Actually, I would say most people stay up way later on weekends and they wake up for work or whatever during the weekday and they usually go to bed a little earlier. But what that does is just throw your body's circadian clock way off. It's almost like say [00:21:00] you go to bed at 9:00 PM and you sleep until 5:00 PM 5:00 AM on weekdays and you regularly stay up till midnight on weekends and you sleep in till eight or nine or whatever time it is.

(00:21:13):

Essentially what you're doing is flying to the west coast from the east coast every single weekend and then flying back. That's what you're doing to your body's clock. So most people have probably flown across the country or changed time zones and not felt themselves, not felt [00:21:30] spot on, very, very clear, very, very motivated, super fresh, ready to go, ready to cross the day. Lots of vitality for a day, maybe two days, maybe three days after. They say science says usually it's like for every hour you change time zones, it's going to take you about a day to get back on track. And either way, if you're doing that every single weekend, you're basically giving yourself jet lag every weekend. And it's actually called social jet lag when you have all over the place sleep and wake schedules. So when I first started doing [00:22:00] this, I was also in the same period of time where I was starting TTM, and the only time, and I'll get into this a little bit later more in detail, but the only time I really had to work on the business was first thing in the morning before I went to work.

(00:22:14):

So I knew that I would have to get up super early and also because I needed to be able to think and put focus into things and be motivated and then, oh, by the way, go to my day job as a green Beret and perform there and be safe and be a good teammate there. I needed my sleep. I needed to get enough sleep. [00:22:30] And so I sort came the determination that I needed to get up around three 30 in the morning in order to work on the business. This was especially the case when I had pretty much decided that TTM was going to be my exit strategy and I was going to get out and just put all my eggs in TTM basket. So of course I had to work on the business. I had to build a following. I had to do content all the time.

(00:22:55):

I had to write programs, I had to record podcasts. I was doing podcasts back then and everything. [00:23:00] So because my brain just doesn't really work all that well in the evening, especially after a full day of work as a green beret, you're stressed out all day. Most of the days you are working hard, you're thinking you're just kind of running, gunning. That's basically what the day looks like most of the time, not always, but certain days. And the only real option I had, I couldn't really work on it during the day and I knew I wouldn't get anything important or anything productive done in the evening. So [00:23:30] I got a pearly and I worked on it. And also with that, I started to go to bed early, usually around seven 30, sometimes eight o'clock. I found over time that A, I felt better because I was sleeping just much higher quality.

(00:23:43):

Your body, by the way, your circadian clock is not something you can just decide to on a dime change. You actually have to do things a k, a go to bed and wake up at the same time. But my body was functioning a lot better. My brain was functioning a lot better. My mental outlook on life was way, [00:24:00] way better. And it's been something I've stuck to ever since I got out. Even to this day, I still go to bed around 8:00 PM and I wake up around 4:00 AM sometimes a little earlier. My brain is super duper active depending on what I have going on. So sometimes I'll wake up and start my day a little bit early like three o'clock, which is not super healthy, not great, but at the same time, I sometimes will just lie awake in bed for 30 minutes. I'm like, all right, well, may as well get up.

(00:24:28):

But most of the time I'm sleeping until 3 45, [00:24:30] 4:00 AM sometimes four 15. Usually I don't get up any later than four 15. And it has been just a massive, massive shift in my overall wellbeing, my performance, cognitive and physical performance. And yes, I understand this definitely takes some sacrifice. There's probably a lot of things that you do at nighttime that you really enjoy doing that you might have to give up at least some of the time in order to implement this habit. There are [00:25:00] probably nights where you want to sit on the couch and watch 4, 5, 6, 7 episodes on Netflix in a row, or you want to do a bunch of scrolling or you want to party with your friends. I get it. But at the same time, you have to weigh the consequences. What am I going to be like tomorrow? What about the next day when I go to bed at erratic times for the rest of the week and wake up at random times for the rest of the week?

(00:25:22):

How is that going to affect my future self? And a lot of people are totally fine with a trade off also. A lot of people [00:25:30] just don't know how much better they could feel and how much better they could perform if they tried this. And that's what I would recommend is just given this two weeks, if you give this two weeks and you don't feel any better, then you can call me a liar and you don't have to listen to my advice ever again. But given this two weeks is for me, it was definitely enough time. I originally heard Matthew Walker, who was the world's leading sleep expert, talk about this on a huberman podcast a long time ago. And I was like, well, I've tried everything, so I guess I will give [00:26:00] this a good solid two weeks and see how it works. And after the end of that two weeks, I had no intentions or no desire to go back to my old ways.

(00:26:07):

And again, I am not perfect with this. Sometimes I'll go out later at night. A lot of people like to do things later at night, and I value social relationships quite significantly. So there will be times where I am okay with the trade-off, but what I recommend to most people is on the nights you have the ability to, you have the control of your schedule, you don't have any obligations or you don't have any commitments in the evening, [00:26:30] and your choices are to do whatever you normally do from the hours of, and you don't necessarily have to go to bed at a certain time, wake up at a certain time. Everyone's a little different with their obligations and what their preferences are. I'm just a big time early bird, so I go to bed early and I wake up early. But there's no necessarily magic time.

(00:26:47):

Of course, if you have work at a certain time, yeah, you got to get up for that. But on the nights that you do have control, I would strongly recommend at least trying it for a little while and seeing how you feel. You're going to feel. I almost, [00:27:00] I don't know any situation. I've recommended this to tons and tons of clients. Not all of them do it, but the ones who do always get back to me and like, wow, what a night and day difference. There's some other ones on here that I'm going to go over that will also contribute to better sleep, but it's kind of just hard for me to, sometimes I feel a little anxious if I know I have an obligation or if I made a commitment that's later in the evening, I'm like, dang it, it's going to screw me up for the next day.

(00:27:24):

And even if it does screw you up a little bit the next day, you still get up on the same time. Even if you get six hours of sleep once in [00:27:30] a while, you're right back on track the next day you go to bed early that night at your normal time, you wake up at your normal time the following day and you're right back on track. Whereas a lot of people will just kind of go stay up way late one night, maybe sleep in a little bit, stay up a little bit earlier, but not quite as early as they usually do the next night, and then sleep in maybe a little more. And then, oh, by the way, maybe they're back to the late nights and then early mornings than early mornings, late nights, so on and so forth. And it's definitely, it requires some consistency and really nailing it in [00:28:00] for a little while and really thinking through, do I really want to stay up for whatever you're about to do?

(00:28:07):

But if you can find it in you too, just go to bed and stick to it. It's such a massive difference maker and something I'd strongly recommend. If you want to just benefit basically every aspect of your life, physical recovery, mental wellbeing, your ability to make good food choices, your ability to perform hard in training. I don't feel amazing all the time, but I feel pretty damn good and I can attribute a lot of it to doing this. So that's [00:28:30] number two. Let's get into number three, which is a great one and also a really hard one for a lot of people because it's way different from what they do right now, and it is the last one, first two rule. So what does that mean? It is a rule that I've implemented. I don't know, I've never really heard of this, talked about not saying I've made it up or anything, or that no one else does it, but I've never heard it called that.

(00:28:55):

I just kind of came up with that name. But essentially last one is the last [00:29:00] hour of the day. No phone. I have an alarm that goes off on my phone at 7:15 PM and I plug it in till the next day, no later than go to bedtime is 8:00 PM Usually I'm off my phone by like 6:00 PM so my phone's just sitting there and the alarm goes off. But even though I do this every night, I still have an alarm because it keeps me accountable and that's what I recommend. The only alarm I ever set on my phone, unless I have some random event throughout the day that I need to be reminded of. But the only alarm I consistently use on my phone is a nighttime alarm and it [00:29:30] goes off at seven 15, and that is my cue to a plug my phone in.

(00:29:33):

I plug my phone in the kitchen, which is not one of the things on here, but it's kind of a subcategory of this one, and it's something I would highly recommend not sleeping with your phone in your bedroom for many, many, many different reasons. One, the temptation of just looking at your phone when you're about to go to bed or if you can't sleep or looking at your phone first thing in the morning, which I'll get into here in a second. But I plug my phone in and I start my nighttime routine. For me right now, my nighttime routine is usually go for a walk with [00:30:00] my wife, just a light walk with the dogs. It's actually been really nice lately, so it's been pleasant, but usually even when it's really cold out, we'll still go for a walk and I turn off all screens.

(00:30:10):

We dim the lights in the house. We only use lights that we're actually using. I'll go for a walk, get back, take a nice warm shower, not super hot, not super cold, just warm when you get out of that shower. Also, by the way, part of that routine is to make sure the temperature of the house is in the right spot. Usually we put it on like 68 [00:30:30] in the summertime, the ac. I also have a mattress topper, so I used to sleep in much colder, but now that we have a mattress topper, I can keep my side of the bed warm or cold. My wife keeps it warm. We compromise a little bit with the actual temperature of the house, but in the summertime, we put on 68 in the wintertime, we put it in the mid sixties, we put the heat on because the house just naturally cools down overnight most nights.

(00:30:52):

And so when you take that warm shower, it kind of cools your body temperature down when you get out, when you're exposed to that ambient temperature and that is [00:31:00] required, it turns out to fall into a nice deep sleep, your temperature actually has to drop. I think it's one to three degrees Fahrenheit, so that helps. And then I usually get into bed. Sometimes I'll mess with the dogs a little bit. Sometimes I'll just chat with my wife. Sometimes I read, actually every night, I'll finish the night by reading, and usually I get 15, 20, 25 minutes of reading in and I'm out. It just puts me right to sleep. I have a rule later that also involves reading I'll get into, but that's our pre-bed routine. And [00:31:30] on the nights I do that, which is admittedly not every single night. Any night I have control over it and any night I'm not out and about or I don't have some sort of obligation going on.

(00:31:41):

We do that and I sleep really, really well. I've never had, honestly, my sleep issues have never been related to falling asleep. But sometimes I'll have issues if I am looking at screens too late or if I don't do some sort of pre-bed, calm down routine, I'll wake up at 2:00 AM and I'll [00:32:00] just be wide awake for the rest of the day, and that's not super fun. So that enhances my sleep quite significantly. And the first two is also, I would say for me, even more important, the first two hours of the next morning, I keep my phone plugged in. I don't look at it, it just stays in the kitchen, plugged in, just completely dormant. And by the way, you probably should put your phone on do not disturb or airplane mode or just turn it off, or if you have someone that needs to call you or whatever, you have to be available for someone.

(00:32:29):

Totally get that. [00:32:30] You can put it on personal, just put their number in as an exception. And so I don't touch it for the first two hours of the morning, and it just keeps me really focused. It keeps me in control of my morning as opposed to waking up like most people do. Not many people, most people do. The first thing they do is look at their phone and they'll either look at their email or their texts or Instagram or they'll read the news, and that just kind of puts other things in control of your day. You're not in control. [00:33:00] You are probably going to get sucked down some sort of rabbit hole, even if you don't get sucked down some sort of rabbit hole, you're still starting your day not on your terms. And the morning is very important to me. I get most of my important stuff done in the morning.

(00:33:13):

That's when I'm most focused. It's when I have the least distractions and it's basically my most productive time of the day. So because I don't have my phone with me, I don't really have a lot of options. I get up and read. I'll get into that in a second, but then it's just time to work. And honestly, most days I don't touch [00:33:30] my phone for three, four, sometimes five hours. Sometimes I don't touch my phone until noon, which is like eight hours after I get up. And I'm not saying this to boast, it's just it's such a habit now. I can't even imagine going and breaking it because it would just kind sap my mental acuity and it would s my feeling that I am in charge of my own morning, my own day, and just I'm not into that. It doesn't appeal to me right now.

(00:33:58):

So pretty simple, but [00:34:00] also a lot of people struggle with this one. I've got some clients that I've talked to this talked about this with, and they said it's one of the most difficult things they can ever imagine doing. But again, this is one of those things where just like the last one, if you give it a couple of weeks, you're going to start feeling so much better. Mostly mental. I feel the most benefits of this mental health wise, I just feel less anxious. I feel less distracted. I feel more clarity and more focus, and I just [00:34:30] feel really good about myself because I get up and I do things that are hard and do things that require a lot of energy and a lot of mental energy I should say. And a lot of focus on the other end of that, by the way, is that delayed gratification.

(00:34:45):

It's not the instant pleasure of looking at your phone, it's that delayed gratification of getting up and getting to work on whatever you have, whether you're going to train, whether you're doing a bunch of reading in the morning, whether you go for a walk, whether you take your kids to school, whatever it is. If you can do that without distractions and without [00:35:00] something else coming into your life and kind of ruling your morning, it can be high payoff. So another really good one, highly recommend at least trying it. And I mean, there's so many other different benefits of looking at your phone less and being less reliant on it. Of course, the pre-bed, it shouldn't be a secret at this point that looking at your phone right before bed A, the blue light B, what you're looking at on your phone or your computer or just watching TV shows, especially higher stress TV shows, dramas and whatnot, [00:35:30] it's just not ideal for your sleep quality and winding down for the day.

(00:35:33):

So that's a really good one. Let's get into the next one, which is the 10 minute rule. This one's so freaking simple, and this was actually one of the first newsletter emails that I ever wrote, and I actually got a lot of people who responded to it. Usually when I do email newsletters, maybe one or two people respond, but this was a long time ago. I had a tiny email list and I wrote about this rule, and a lot of people liked it, and they [00:36:00] said they're going to try it out. So 10 minute rule, super simple. This can be used for two different things. One, something that you really want to do, but you know shouldn't do. It's not part of what you should be doing. Two, it could be used for something you don't want to do, but you know need to do.

(00:36:18):

So typically, sometimes those go hand in hand, but usually when you really want to do something but you know shouldn't, it's probably going to be this instant pleasure thing. Or if you don't want do something [00:36:30] but you know need to do it, it's also one of those delayed gratification things. I'll give some examples here in a second, but pretty much what it is, is I want to do this thing, but I'm not going to do it for another 10 minutes. For example, I am on a clean food diet. I'm watching my nutrition right now. I am tracking my macros, and I am supposed to not eat a certain type of food. Maybe it's ice cream or cookies. I really, really want these cookies or I really want this ice cream, but I'm [00:37:00] going to allow myself to do it, but I'm going to give myself 10 minutes.

(00:37:03):

And ideally during that 10 minutes, you go do something that takes your mind off it instead of just sitting or standing right in front of the freezer, waiting for the 10 minutes to get up and then grabbing your ice cream. I really like to implement this with one of the later ones, which is walking. Take a 10 minute walk. Even if you're walking around your house, it's still better than just standing there and waiting for those 10 minutes to get up. And oftentimes, not every time, but oftentimes you'll find that after [00:37:30] 10 minutes after you get your mind away from it, you don't want to do it anymore, or you just don't want to do it quite as much, or sometimes you just forget about it. If you forget you even wanted to do it. And even if it works 20% of the time, it's still better than 0% of the time, especially on a diet.

(00:37:45):

If every single time you have a inkling to eat ice cream or eat cookies and you just give into it, probably not going to be great for your overall success longterm. Whereas if 20% of the time you use the 10 minute rule and 20% [00:38:00] of the time it works, at least you have proof to yourself that you sometimes can do it and you can get better at it over time, or it could be something else. It could be a work thing that I know I need to do, and for whatever reason I'm procrastinating. I don't want to do it. I procrastinate just like anyone else. So what I do is I force myself to do it for 10 minutes, and if I want to quit after 10 minutes, I, I'm free to. I absolutely can, and sometimes I do. This could be for some people, it could be going to the gym like, Hey, go to the gym, do your warmup for 10 minutes.

(00:38:30):

[00:38:30] If you want to leave after that, fine. But usually you get into a flow of it and you're like, okay, this isn't that bad. Usually things that you don't want to do once you start doing them, it's not as bad as you thought it was going to be. Honestly, sometimes it's just as bad. Sometimes it's worse, but rarely. I mean, usually it's not as bad. So this could be writing for me. Sometimes I will do the 10 minute rule. I don't feel like starting this paper, I'm just staring at a blank word document. I know I need to write something and [00:39:00] I say, screw it. I'm going to do this for 10 minutes, and I write 12 half sentences, and then I delete all of them because they all suck, or at least I think they all suck and I stop. But that's rare, honestly.

(00:39:12):

Usually I start writing and the words start flowing, and even if I don't love it, I still am in enough of a flow and kind of in enough of a rhythm to stick to it. And even if I only get it another five minutes or 10 minutes or 30 minutes, whatever it is, at least I got something done and at least I prove to myself [00:39:30] that I could stick to something and that I am generally equipped to make decisions based on right and wrong, not based on emotion, based on how I feel generally speaking, those who are better at making decisions based on is this the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do? Rather than do I feel like doing this or not feel like doing this? Generally those people are going to see more fulfillment in life. They're going to see more success in life.

(00:39:54):

That's just kind of how it's, and same with the opposite direction, people who are able to, Hey, I really want [00:40:00] this. I really feel like doing this. I really feel like it's going to be the right thing for me right now, but is it really the right thing? Probably not, but I, I'm going to give it 10 minutes. I'm going to go for a walk around the block, and if I still want it when I come back or if I still remember that I wanted it when I come back, I'll have it, but usually don't. But even when you do, at least sometimes it'll work and super duper simple rule, but you just got to be mindful of it. You got to be cognizant of it, and it's something that's helped me quite a bit. It sounds kind of lame and trite and whatever, but it definitely can help [00:40:30] you in many, many different ways.

(00:40:32):

Just be more disciplined and be more in control of your decisions and not let emotions make all your instant decisions for you. You just give that a little bit of time for you to think it through or maybe even not think it through, take your mind off it and it can really pay off. So let's get to the next one, which is waking up early. And I started waking up early, really, really early, a long time ago. When you're in the military, you kind of have to wake up early and turns out if you go to bed early [00:41:00] too, you feel a lot better and you get a lot more out of waking up early. So little pro tip, but I love waking up early, even today, even though I don't have to, I run my own schedule. I don't have any morning obligations. Every single morning on my calendar is just blue all the way until noon every single day of the week because just like I was talking about earlier, that's the time of day that I get the most done, and I'm the most focused and able to produce quality work.

(00:41:25):

But still, I love the early morning so much that I have continued to do [00:41:30] it even after I got out. And of course I had to get some work in before I went to work. Back then. I don't necessarily have to do that now, but one of the best feelings that I've experienced is getting 90%, sometimes even a hundred percent of your work done before 8:00 AM before 9:00 AM before most people even start their work day. And I'm not comparing myself to most people necessarily, but it's just a good feeling when I am driving to the golf course on a Wednesday morning and [00:42:00] I'm already done with all of my work tasks for that day and I'm seeing a bunch of other people going to work. It's just a really good feeling. It's hard to explain, but some of you guys may have felt something like that before.

(00:42:10):

There could be multiple different ways to feel feelings like this, but I find the early morning to be very cathartic. Waking up when it's still dark out and knocking something out that's hard, that takes a lot of my mental focus, that takes a lot of my willpower. Sometimes my discipline just feels really good. It's hard to really put your finger on it. It's [00:42:30] hard to explain, but trying it out is a good way to maybe see if it works for you. I know not everyone's a morning person, but a lot of people are. They say they're not morning people, but they actually could be if they actually put the effort into it. What do I mean by that? A lot of people say they're night owls, but if you think about what most people do at nighttime, it's not really moving the needle. It's not getting you closer to your goals.

(00:42:54):

And I'm not saying every single thing you do has to get you closer to your goals, but if you're just wasting a bunch of time [00:43:00] watching TV or watching YouTube or scrolling or drinking beer, whatever it is, every single night, you're not an actual night owl. Night owls are people who do their most productive and their most fruitful work in the evening, and then maybe they sleep in the next day and they get up and do it again. They do their most productive work in the evening. That's a true night owl. People who are the best functioning at nighttime, it's not people who like to stay up and just fuck off. So I don't know who came up with this quote, but [00:43:30] I really freaking love it. Stay up late for anything you wouldn't get up early for. And if you think about it, most people who get up really early aren't doing it just for fun.

(00:43:39):

They're not doing it to go fuck off. When I wake up early because my phone's plugged in, I really only have a couple options and I don't get up at 4:00 AM just so I can go binge watch YouTube or scroll on Instagram or anything like that. I get up for a reason, and I have found, especially for my mental health, and [00:44:00] this is different for everyone, of course, I'm not saying this is going to be for everyone, but my mental health is way, way better. If I wake up several hours before the sun comes up, I just feel so ahead of the game and it's just such a great feeling. So honestly, I would say I get 80 to 90% of my most fruitful and my most productive work done before 8:00 AM almost every single day. And if I didn't have that time, yeah, I could do it later in the day, but I just feel [00:44:30] a little bit behind the power curve.

(00:44:31):

This could be a completely irrational thought, but that's just how I feel. And because of that, I decide to take it upon myself to not feel that way by getting up early and getting there after it. So if you have any sort of aspirations to maybe start a side business or maybe really get yourself in shape, but you have a crazy busy day, or maybe you have kids and they get up at seven or eight and you want to get something productive done first thing in the morning, or you just want some alone time, you want some time to think and reflect, maybe go for a walk [00:45:00] or whatever it is, then consider, of course, moving your bedtime left. That's definitely step number one. But consider maybe waking up a little bit earlier than you do. Now, I originally learned about this, or I originally kind of had the seed planted when I read the book, the Perfect Day Formula by Craig Ballantine.

(00:45:20):

Really highly recommend that book. He also has one called The Perfect Week Formula, and then I think he has a new one that I haven't read yet, but I just kind of thought of it, and I'm probably going to order it after this called The Dark Sided [00:45:30] Discipline. And he talked about how every morning he'd get up, he'd go to bed at 8:00 PM he'd wake up at 4:00 AM and he would start writing, basically do his most important task for the first couple hours in the morning. You would be absolutely shocked how much you can get done when you have a, it's not sunny out, so there's no fomo. You're not like, oh, man, I should be outside B. Usually no one else is up, so no one's texting you, no one's calling you. Even your kids, if you got kids, they're not up nagging you, whatever.

(00:45:59):

They [00:46:00] don't have a bunch of things that you have to help them with. It's dark out. So you're just almost in this zone of focus and you're able to just produce, and it's a really, really good feeling. You can get so much more done than you think. Most people who, especially if you work at an office that's kind of an open air office and there's just people coming and asking you questions and asking for your thoughts on things or dropping things off at your desk or whatever. Honestly, there have been studies that show that [00:46:30] most people who work eight hours a day, they work like 10% of that time. And if you really want to push the needle forward and go get something in life, yes, you can do that anytime of day, but I would argue that the best time of day to do it is when you're not distracted.

(00:46:46):

You have all the willpower you're going to have that day, because by the way, throughout the day, the willpower kind of decreases in everyone. Your discipline is going to dwindle off because you're using discipline throughout the day on a bunch of other things. But in the morning, [00:47:00] you haven't had that drainage throughout the day. Your dopamine's not drained, you're up, and you are able to just put pedal to the metal and get it done. So not for everyone, but strongly recommend. If you're someone who likes to sleep in and kind of lolly gag in the morning, or if you are a self-proclaimed night owl, but you do all the things I was just talking about at nighttime, not actual needle moving things, just kind of fucking off, then this could be very beneficial for you. I wouldn't go [00:47:30] from, if you're currently sleeping from midnight to 8:00 AM I wouldn't just go to eight to four.

(00:47:34):

You're not going to really enjoy that. It's not going to be very good for you. It's going to take a while for you to get used to it. I would just start moving your bedtime earlier, 15 minutes and your wake up time earlier, 15 minutes. That's what actually Craig recommends in the book. Start moving it to the left 15 minutes at a time. Maybe stay there for a couple days. So body gets used to that and then bump it a little bit earlier and a little earlier. And there's no magic time to wake up. Me. I really like being up super early, but is it [00:48:00] totally necessary? Do I think it's necessary to get up at 3 45, 4:00 AM No, but you could probably get up a little earlier and even if you just dedicate an extra 15 to 30 minutes of time into something needle moving because you're getting up earlier and you have that extra time and that ability to focus during that time, you'd be surprised at how much that adds up.

(00:48:20):

If you do that 30 minutes a day, seven days a week, that's what, three and a half? No, what three hours and three and a half hours or so? [00:48:30] I'm not very good at math. But yeah, three and a half hours, that's three and a half hours a week that you are dedicating towards something that's probably going to help you in the longterm. Even if it takes you way, way, way longer than a week, maybe it takes you 10 weeks of three hours a week. Hey, that's still a win in my book. So huge one, definitely consider it and it's really been a high payoff thing for me. Which brings me to the next one, which is another really, really simple one, and that is two by 20 minute reading sessions. [00:49:00] And I always have convinced myself during the day that I have something better to do than read.

(00:49:06):

And a lot of people think reading is just kind of like fuck off time. And it can be if you're reading self-help books and you're not actually changing anything about your life, you're just learning all these different ways to improve your life, which by the way, I've been there. I mean, when I first started reading self-help books, I definitely didn't implement things like I do now or that I've done since. But if you're [00:49:30] reading things that are going to actually improve your life, improve your skills, make you more productive, make you more effective as an individual, make you more expand your knowledge base, it's not even close to being unproductive. It's actually very productive. You're basically paying 12 to $20, sometimes even less, to absorb and digest all this information from the author who has spent probably decades of time developing that knowledge, gaining [00:50:00] that knowledge from a bunch of different people.

(00:50:02):

And you get to read it all about it in a book and learn all about it in a book for very cheap. So it's almost like a cheat code. Honestly, if you choose the right books and you do the right things, you take the right action based on what you learn in the book. And believe me, you don't have to implement every single thing you ever read about in a book. Absolutely not just like you don't have to implement every single thing in this episode, but even if it's just one thing and it benefits your life in some way, shape or form or benefits someone around you's life [00:50:30] in some way, shape or form, then that's a win. You got something out of that book that's super valuable. And generally speaking, people that I meet, people that I know, and I'm not the only one to notice this or say this, but most people who read on a regular basis are just a lot more effective human beings.

(00:50:46):

They are obviously going to be more intelligent, they're going to have more of a knowledge base, and they're also going to just know more about just life in general. It does depend on what you read, but if you read a little bit of fiction, maybe a little bit of nonfiction, [00:51:00] it's just going to expand your, I guess, your well-roundedness as a human. And I also think that reading fiction can be very effective as well. It can be a productive way to use your time. Now, not always, if you're just using it as a distraction and you're reading all day or something like that and you're blowing off other things, other obligations, that's one thing. But I find when I read fiction, it kind of calms me down. It puts me in a more of a relaxed, creative state, and [00:51:30] it also can help my writing.

(00:51:32):

I do quite a bit of writing, and I think that even if you don't write for a living, which I don't write for a living, but what I do for a living involves a lot of writing. But even if you don't, just being a competent writer is a good human adult skill. You shouldn't need someone to proofread your email every single time before you send it regardless of what you're doing. It's just a good life skill to have. And fiction writers are often very, very good writers and you can learn a lot about how to implement certain things they do when you're writing. [00:52:00] So that's another benefit. And also it just allows you to formulate ideas, being able to take abstract ideas and put them into your own kind of perspective and use your imagination a little bit. I think it's a super beneficial thing to do.

(00:52:15):

So normally what I do is every single day I wake up and I read for at least 20 minutes. Sometimes it's 30, sometimes it's like an hour. If I don't have much going on that morning, I'll get sucked into a book and I'll read for an hour. There have been days where I read almost a whole book first thing [00:52:30] in the morning just because I don't have much going on and the book's really good and the last 20 minutes of the day I mentioned it earlier, at least I try to do it for 20 minutes. Sometimes I'm so tired that I pass out before that 20 minutes is up, but I will dedicate that amount of time to reading and it doesn't seem like much, but 40 minutes a day, I'm not going to do this math again, RD struggle with the 30 minutes a day.

(00:52:51):

English is definitely my strong suit. Reading, writing, not math, but 40 minutes a day, seven days a week. I mean that really, really adds up. You can [00:53:00] read a lot of books and really absorb a ton of knowledge. I've always said, and I think I've talked about this on a podcast before, but I would much rather someone like master the concepts of 10 books than read 500 books one time and just forget about 'em and just brag about how much you read. You're way better off reading a select few number of books, lots and lots of times until you basically master them, until you can teach someone else the concepts in those books. Then you are just reading [00:53:30] and reading and reading and onto the next one. So two by 20, because I've tried to read during the day before and I just never get around to it.

(00:53:39):

Or I'll read a page and be like, oh no, I should be doing this. And I think a lot of people are like that. If you can read during the day, great, awesome. More power to you. I just know myself and I know I won't be able to stick to it, but if I just start my day with it, already got that half of my daily reading done and then I end my day with it, it's a great way to kind of ease off into sleep. What I wouldn't do [00:54:00] right before bed, at least for most people, I wouldn't read serious self-help books right before bed that really get you thinking and motivated like, oh, I'm going to go implement this. So usually what I do is just read biographies or I have a book called Rituals that I've read 10 times, and it's all about rituals of famous artists and writers, and it just shows what they do throughout the day and it's actually really just interesting.

(00:54:21):

You're not going to learn a ton from it other than the fact that a lot of really, really highly successful artists and musicians and composers and writers [00:54:30] are major, major, major procrastinators and they also have these crazy drug problems and insomnia and all these issues. It's actually super interesting. I don't learn a lot from it, but it's a great book for me to read at nighttime as I wind down and sometimes I'll get 10 minutes in and I'm just ready to pass out. Sometimes I'll read 20 minutes, sometimes 30, but I kind of hold myself to those two reading windows per day. You could do like 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes midday, 10 minutes in the evening, that works too, or 15, [00:55:00] or you do two by 20. Or if you're someone who can read throughout the day, then great. I just strongly recommend no matter who you are or what you're trying to do, developing some sort of reading habit would be a really good idea.

(00:55:11):

It's just going to enhance your life in many, many, many different ways. So let's get into the next one, which is Sunday socials. This one's pretty simple. Basically I am just like anyone else in that I'm easily distractible and I can easily go down rabbit holes on social media, on YouTube, especially [00:55:30] YouTube golf. I absolutely love YouTube golf. It's like my new obsession and I love it and I still allow myself to do it. However, before probably I started doing this pretty soon after I got out of the army because I just realized that certain days I would just feel terrible about myself because I would just fuck off way, way, way too much. I would start planning my entire week out hour by hour every Sunday before I get into the week. And do I always stick to it? A hundred percent, absolutely not.

(00:56:00):

[00:56:00] I am usually pretty good on weeks. I'm really good. I feel really good about myself on weeks I'm not so good. I usually come up with some sort of plan to fix myself the following week, which I think iteration is a good thing for really anyone, whatever skill or whatever ability you're trying to build or habit in this case. But every Sunday I will plan out my week to include work tasks, training, golf, family time, whatever it may be. And I also put blocks on my calendar for times that I am completely [00:56:30] allowed to go fuck off on social media. And I think most people who are watching this are listening to this can probably agree that you don't usually go on Instagram, for example, for two hours accidentally. You weren't planning on doing it, you just happened to go on Instagram and you just got sucked down a rabbit hole and you get deep inside a death scroll.

(00:56:51):

You probably don't feel like, oh man, I'm so glad I did that afterwards. At least I don't. I usually feel terrible about it. And you get that post content [00:57:00] clarity where you're just like, what am I doing with my life? However, when you have it planned in your schedule and you have given yourself permission to do it at this time for this long, and you stick to that, you don't feel bad after you're like, I should be doing this right now. I'm allowed to do this right now. I plan to do this right now and therefore it's okay that I'm doing this right now. You don't feel bad after, at least I don't. Whereas if I don't plan it, then I feel terrible. So just planning things like this in whatever your vice [00:57:30] happens to be, whether it's Instagram or TikTok or Twitter or Reddit or watching Netflix episodes or whatever it is, anything that's kind of this quick pleasure, dopamine hit extravaganza.

(00:57:44):

If you plan that out and put it into your schedule and you stick to it, you just feel really good about yourself just at the end of the week, but also you feel totally, you don't feel really guilty when you're actually doing it. You probably do right now when you're accidentally doing this type of stuff. [00:58:00] And I would honestly, even if you don't have an intense weekly schedule or an intense work schedule, doing some sort of planning or time blocking that's planning the week ahead would be a very beneficial thing for most people to do. You just find that you waste a lot less time and you have a lot less going on clutter in your head, should I be doing this? Should I be doing this? Let me look at my calendar, that'll tell me what I should be doing. And then you do it.

(00:58:25):

Of course, like I said, I don't always stick to this. Sometimes I'm a naughty [00:58:30] boy, but most of the time I do. And it's definitely a big time life enhancer, especially because I set my own schedule and I could absolutely fuck off as much as I wanted and be okay, but I still wouldn't feel good about myself and I wouldn't feel very fulfilled. I would just feel like I'm doing a bunch of time wasting stuff and that's no way to go about life. So something to consider. And that brings us to number seven, no number eight, which is the second to last one, which is post-meal walks. Another really, really simple one [00:59:00] that does not really require a ton of effort just getting out after a meal. There's so many different benefits of walking in the first place, whether you had just eaten a meal or not, but getting out, you get a mental health boost.

(00:59:14):

I don't think anyone's ever come home from a walk and then been like, I really wish I didn't do that. That really just crushed my mental health. Usually it's the opposite. Of course, you get activity, most people could use activity, more activity in their life. You get a break from doing whatever you're doing throughout the day, you [00:59:30] are getting outside, you're getting the benefits of being in nature, which can be great for your overall mental health, your clarity, your creativity can give you some ideas. You are getting sunlight. Sunlight has countless different benefits and most people don't get anywhere near enough sunlight to include me. Most people just spend way too much time around screens, indoors, sitting still. And of course the more you can break that up and actually put a little bit of effort into getting outside the better off you're going to be in multiple, multiple different ways, not just from [01:00:00] the vitamin D exposure.

(01:00:01):

Sun has so many different benefits that a lot of people are, honestly, a lot of people are scared of the sun, which is super sad. I think it's been drilled into our heads that if you expose one inch of your skin for one second to the sun, you're going to get skin cancer. And that's just not how it is. You don't want to go get cooked all the time, but turns out if you get sun on a regular basis, your body gets used to it. You adapt to it just like your body adapts to literally everything that you do. So if you're getting small amounts [01:00:30] of sun exposure, you're going to benefit yourself in many, many different ways. And a great way to get sun exposure by the way is to walk. And that is just walking in general. Walking after meals has additional benefits.

(01:00:41):

One, if the 10 minute rule kind of struck a chord with you earlier and you tend to make bad decisions, especially after dinner, usually people have less willpower at the end of the day and they finish dinner, and that's when they start to really think of all their cravings. Like, I want some cookies, I want some ice cream. I want whatever your dessert of choice is. [01:01:00] If you can finish your dinner and no matter what, you go out for a 10 minute walk A, you're giving yourself that 10 minutes to take your mind off whatever food you were craving. But B, walking after you eat has digestion benefits. Gravity and locomotion are two components of digestion that enhance that process. It also helps with blood sugar and blood pressure control, and it's also a great way to have it stack. So no matter what you're going to eat throughout the day, I hope at least most people do.

(01:01:30):

[01:01:30] So if you're interested in getting more activity into your life regardless, you're going to eat. So you finish your meal and then you automatically just, Hey, it's time to walk. What I find too is especially if I'm eating during the day and I have to come back and do some focus work, that little walk after kind of helps that digestion. It makes me feel a little less sluggish and I'm able to focus a lot better on the work that I'm doing. Actually, I just got back from, I ate breakfast, then I went for a walk, and now I'm doing this episode [01:02:00] and I just feel like I'm a lot more clear and able to speak better. I'm able to focus better if I'm doing writing or programming, whatever it is. So that's another benefit. But basically it allows you to pair a habit that you already do no matter what to sustain your life.

(01:02:17):

You got to eat with a habit that you want to start doing. AKA walking James clear talks about habit stacking a lot in his book Atomic Habits, which I'm sure a lot of people have read before. And it is just a really high payoff [01:02:30] thing in multiple different ways. And do you have to do it every meal? Do I do it every meal? No, any meal, I can do it. I do, even if I'm out to eat, like my wife and I will go out to eat and we'll walk around town afterwards just to get that 10 minute walk in. Sometimes it's 15, sometimes it's seven, sometimes it's 20, but it's a walk and it's a habit and it's just got so many different benefits beyond just the act of walking, pairing it with a meal makes it even more beneficial. And I also find lastly on the walking, if you have a bigger dinner [01:03:00] and you find that eating bigger meals at nighttime can restrict your sleep or detract from your sleep, which I definitely do if I have a massive meal, I don't sleep as well right after, but if I go for a 10 minute walk, 20 minute walk, especially a little bit faster clip, I'm not trying to make it a cardio session or anything, but I'll go for a walk in the street and I find that I sleep better.

(01:03:19):

It almost expedites the beginning of your digestive process and it'll potentially interfere a little bit less with your sleep. So that's another big benefit to post-meal walks, especially in [01:03:30] the context of dinner. So last but not least, is eating GI friendly foods 99% of the time, whereas before, this is the most recent one that I started doing before I was eating like 80 20, I was following the classic 80 20, and that's fine for, it was fine for my overall health and my physique, and it wasn't like this crazy detrimental thing until I started to really notice some serious gut health issues. Earlier this summer. I was [01:04:00] just feeling nauseous all the time. I had no appetite, I lost a bunch of weight, I lost a bunch of muscle. I was losing motivation. I wasn't feeling very good. Those of you who pay close attention, you might've noticed that I kind of dropped off a little bit productivity wise.

(01:04:14):

I wasn't doing as many episodes, I wasn't making as many posts, I wasn't as present on social media. Basically all I could focus on was making sure my clients were good because that's number one priority always. And trying to fix my whatever was causing my nausea. [01:04:30] I think a lot of people have asked, what do you think it was? Honestly, most soft guys, no matter what, whether they realize it or not, most guys don't realize it or whether they accept it or not, don't really realize that their career has given them these potential minor two pretty significant gut health issues. You go all these different places around the world, you eat all this different food, you drink all this different water, you have weird schedules, you are exposed to lots of different things that are not ideal, and [01:05:00] your gut is pretty sensitive to the outside world, and you're going to eat food in different places that may or may not have some sort of contaminant in them that is not ideal for your overall GI tract.

(01:05:11):

And your gut, by the way, is one of the most complex systems in existence, not just in the body, but in existence. There's a bunch of different organs, there's a bunch of different bacteria, there's a bunch of different components of the gut. So gut health is just a very, very vague term, but all I knew was the fact that I was just nauseous all the [01:05:30] time or almost all the time, or I was nauseous just at random for no apparent reason. That was reason for intervention. So honestly, I felt at that time that I was very, very down on myself and I felt like I needed some accountability. So I went and hired a coach. I've talked about this a little bit recently, but I hired a coach and he basically put me on a very, very, very strict clean diet. And at first it was definitely a big calorie deficit.

(01:05:57):

I got really lean and [01:06:00] was feeling better. My nausea went away after a week when I was just eating super clean food. So basically all I ate at first, and honestly, this is pretty much all I eat right now other than the 1% where I deviate a little bit is meat. Any sort of meat, any sort of fish, any sort of dairy, low fat dairy, believe it or not, dairy doesn't mess with me. Some people we've got health issues, can't eat dairy. And if that's you, then that's how it is. But for me, that's was fine for me. It was mainly [01:06:30] sugar and grains and eating too many raw vegetables, believe it or not, would definitely exacerbate it. But animal products, pretty much any animal product, clean starches, so white rice, any sort of potato fruit, rice and grinds is one of my only foods that's sort of processed.

(01:06:49):

But at the same time, it's all clean ingredients. It's the most easy digesting food ever. I talk about it all the time. You guys are probably sick of me talking about it and healthy fats, but very low [01:07:00] fat diet. Basically it was like a combination of a gut health improvement diet and getting really lean so I can start a bulk, because when I first got to my coach and I first talked to him, I said, I want to put muscle back on because I lost a bunch of muscle. I haven't been able to eat much in the last few months. And he's like, we need to get your gut health in check first because if you start bulking when your digestion is terrible or when you're nauseous all the time, by the way, you're not going to be able to eat the food. You want to actually gain that muscle back.

(01:07:28):

And when you start a bulk [01:07:30] from a much leaner state. So I got down to like 7%, I'm back on my slow integration of more calories now, still eating the same foods, but I'm eating more. When you start a bulk from a very lean body fat percentage, you're insulin sensitive. So you are just more receptive to putting those calories to good use as opposed to storing them to fat. That's a very, very rudimentary definition of it. But basically you are just more susceptible to making better muscle gains and less fat gains when you are [01:08:00] eating in a calorie surplus. And I'm probably around maintenance right now. I'll get into a surplus here soon. It keeps bumping my carbs up just a little bit, slowly, a little bit at a time. And I started feeling way, way, way better, even though I was eating way fewer calories than I was before because all I could eat was processed stuff.

(01:08:18):

I felt like all I could eat was processed stuff to get enough calories in, and still I was losing weight just because my appetite was low. But that's just the state I was in. And over time I've started feeling way, way, way better. And this [01:08:30] has been amazing for not just my physical health, my gut health, my gym performance, my physique, but also my mental health. And I noticed this recently, it's the holidays and I've had a couple of nights where I've eaten off plan recently, like the 1% of the 99 1. And the next day I just feel like I'm in a slump. I don't feel great mentally. I don't have a great outlook on life. And it's crazy because before that was just my default. That's just the way I felt all [01:09:00] the time because I was eating like that and I was so used to it, I was accustomed to it.

(01:09:03):

And that's the thing, it's like most people get accustomed to this stuff I was talking about earlier, A lot of soft guys, they either don't accept the fact that they have poor gut health or digestive issues or they just don't realize it because it's their norm, it's their default and you don't really realize it, or you might not realize it until you actually get off it and really eat for your own health and your own wellbeing and your own digestion and your own performance and whatever [01:09:30] it is. And then you deviate a little bit, you get back off whatever, you have a cheat meal or a cheat day and you're like, oh my God, no wonder I felt so bad before. And that is a revelation that I've had recently and that's why I'm going to stick to this basically 99.1. Once in a while I'll go out, have a good time, I'll have some cookies, I'll have whatever.

(01:09:50):

But for the most part, if it's up to me and it's not a special occasion, then I stick to the good stuff and I feel way better that way and I perform better and I just have a [01:10:00] better outlook on life. And honestly, I would say the theme of all of these to wrap things up, is the thing I've benefited most from or noticed most is my outlook on life. I've had up and down mental health issues throughout most of my life. I don't talk about this stuff very much, but I think a lot of people do. And it can be remedied, you can get out of it. I don't think I'm ever going to have a day where I don't feel any anxiety or I never feel down for an entire month no matter what, but [01:10:30] way, way, way less so now than before.

(01:10:33):

And every single time I've implemented one of these and I've implemented these over time, it's not like I did it all at once and I wouldn't recommend doing it all at once, but every time I implement something new that's high RO, I like this, I start feeling a little bit better and a little bit better. And the more often you do it, the more likely it is to become a habit. And by the way, habits, like I said earlier, are things you just automatically do. It's like your new way of being and super high payoff, and I couldn't [01:11:00] recommend any of these enough. But even if just one of them rung a bell for you and you are interested in trying it, strongly recommend it. And if you want to leave a comment down below and ask more about any of them or share your experience with habits that you've implemented that have been super high, RO, I would love to see 'em.

(01:11:19):

And it makes me pumped up to see people just bettering themselves. So hopefully you guys got something good out of this and hopefully you learned something and maybe planted a seed, [01:11:30] something you can improve in your life. And I mean, that's a goal. If one person learned one thing and changes their life in some way, then I consider that a win. So anyway, thank you very much for tuning in. Thank you very much for your support in 2025. Super pumped for 2026. Big things to come and yeah, hope you guys have an awesome January. I'll be back soon with another episode. Till then, Terminator route.