00:00:00
I got in front of the red light.
00:00:01
I took a methylene blue, and, oh my goodness, I was I felt like I was bouncing off the wall.
00:00:07
It's what helps make your pants blue, but then it was kind of like a happy accident.
00:00:12
So they discovered underneath the microscope that it stained very well and that it was
00:00:17
antimicrobial, antimalarial.
00:00:20
Welcome to Health Decoded, your number one source for real health information with your
00:00:25
host,
00:00:26
doctor
00:00:26
Alessi and Matt Tack.
00:00:32
Hey, Health Decoded listeners.
00:00:34
Doctor Alessi here.
00:00:36
Let me ask you a serious question.
00:00:38
Are you tired of waiting until something goes wrong to finally see a doctor?
00:00:42
At Alessi Functional Health, we take a different approach, the right approach.
00:00:47
We believe true health care isn't about chasing symptoms.
00:00:50
It's about preventing them in the first place.
00:00:53
That's why we created the Alessi Total Care Program.
00:00:57
This is a functional medicine based membership that gives you proactive, personalized care
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year round.
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You'll get access to comprehensive blood work and functional testing, custom doctor grade
00:01:09
nutraceuticals, deep discounts on labs, protocols, and follow ups, as well as twenty
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00:01:21
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00:01:23
And here's the best part.
00:01:25
As a Health Decoded listener, you'll get your first three months completely free when you
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sign up for an annual membership.
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That's on top of hundreds in savings already built into the program.
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This is your chance to take responsibility for your health and join a movement that's
00:01:41
redefining what primary care should look like.
00:01:44
Head on over to alessifunctionalhealth.com, click on our services tab, and go to Total
00:01:49
Care.
00:01:50
Learn more about this program and claim your exclusive podcast listener offer.
00:01:55
Your health is your greatest asset.
00:01:57
Let's protect it proactively.
00:02:01
So welcome back to the Health Decoded podcast.
00:02:04
Listen, folks.
00:02:05
We have a special guest again, for the second time, but I get to interview him this time.
00:02:10
We get to talk about a little bit different things, that we we honestly I I don't think
00:02:15
we've, really honed in on probably lately in our Health Decoded side.
00:02:19
I know we talked a little bit about full field.
00:02:21
We brought on some really cool guests, Jay Campbell, and various things.
00:02:24
But Carter West has, he really has a cool background in this and really geeks out.
00:02:29
I geek out about it, but we're gonna talk about all things biohacking.
00:02:33
I think it's you know, I struggle with the word biohacking, honestly.
00:02:37
Me too.
00:02:38
I think it's bio optimization or bio harmony because the reality is, like, we're always
00:02:43
aging.
00:02:44
The reality is you're not hacking, you're aging.
00:02:47
But there is like a harmonization to it, and that's kind of like where I gear towards the
00:02:52
harmonizing piece.
00:02:53
So we're gonna talk about maybe a little bit bio harmonizing.
00:02:56
I I guess one of my friends, he said talking to your body intelligently.
00:03:02
Talking to your body intelligently.
00:03:04
Yeah.
00:03:04
Instead of biohacking.
00:03:05
I love that.
00:03:06
I love that.
00:03:07
You know, tomato, tomato, we're talking about it, and I think we're gonna talk about some
00:03:11
really cool stuff.
00:03:13
But, you know, one of the most important things, I guess, we'll start that people tend
00:03:18
to overlook a lot is sleeping.
00:03:22
So let's spend a couple minutes just on various things that you may be hacked into recently
00:03:27
where you've optimized your sleep a little bit.
00:03:29
Yeah.
00:03:29
So sleeping is actually an active problem that I'm currently working on.
00:03:35
I would love to get more into like the PEMF mats and and cooling and stuff because that's
00:03:41
something that I struggle with in my bedroom here in Florida is temperature.
00:03:45
But if there was one thing that I did that actually helped out my sleep, and if anyone
00:03:50
were to say, Hey, Carter, what's your favorite biohack ever?
00:03:53
I love mouth taping at night.
00:03:55
So I've read literature, I've read books just about nasal breathing.
00:04:00
Think of it as a muscle that you go to the gym to work out.
00:04:03
If you don't use it, you lose it.
00:04:05
Right?
00:04:05
So you get better quality of oxygen going through your nose that is able to better supply
00:04:12
to the rest of your tissues throughout your body.
00:04:15
So I just put tape over my mouth and just say, use this and use this only.
00:04:20
So and then one thing too is, I don't know if you've ever seen those nasal strips where,
00:04:25
like, you put them on and then it dilates.
00:04:28
I feel a difference when I use those when I sleep, and I've actually used them for working
00:04:32
out.
00:04:32
And when I work out, it's a game changer.
00:04:36
But yeah, so I'll do the nasal strip and the tape, and that's probably my two favorite
00:04:40
things for sleeping.
00:04:41
That's awesome.
00:04:42
So the one example I love always giving a breathing through your nose, right, and why the
00:04:46
importance of it.
00:04:47
Mhmm.
00:04:47
So if you take if you take something, like, you take water, right, and you there's a there's
00:04:53
just a bunch of dirt in the water, let's And then you put a filter over that water, and then
00:04:59
you have a new cup, right?
00:05:00
And you pour that water with the filter on top, and it catches all that dirt, and all that
00:05:06
biome, and whatever it is, right?
00:05:08
That's what essentially your nose is doing when you're breathing through your nose, there's a
00:05:11
lot of filtering mechanisms that it's capturing before you're breathing it in.
00:05:16
Your mouth doesn't have that filter, the filtering mechanism.
00:05:19
So, typically, if you're a mouth breather, you're probably more susceptible to getting
00:05:22
sick and getting more colds.
00:05:25
And so, it's more of an immunization component when you're breathing through your nose, is
00:05:30
that you typically stay healthier.
00:05:32
Yeah.
00:05:32
One other thing that I would like to capture is that I do it for a mechanical advantage.
00:05:38
So, mechanical meaning a structure.
00:05:41
So a lot of times when we breathe through our mouths, a lot of bigger people kind of do that.
00:05:47
So like, it'll add on some tissue.
00:05:50
And then when you're bigger, like, it'll occlude the throat a little bit more.
00:05:55
And then what it does specifically in your mouth is there's there's the palate, it will
00:06:00
shrink the palate a little bit more, and then the teeth start crowding.
00:06:03
So one of my favorite reasons for nasal breathing, putting tape over over my mouth is
00:06:09
so that way I can maintain a wide palate and so that way my teeth don't crowd.
00:06:13
That's awesome.
00:06:14
So like, if you want to be healthier, yes, do that.
00:06:18
But if you wanna look good and keep your teeth straight, that's why I would do it.
00:06:22
So maybe for some people, they're more moved by, do how I look better?
00:06:24
Superficial.
00:06:25
Yes.
00:06:25
I like it.
00:06:26
I mean, I'm a superficial person too.
00:06:27
Yeah.
00:06:28
Aren't we all?
00:06:29
Aren't we all?
00:06:30
Hey.
00:06:30
I think it's one of those things where like you honestly, everyone would wanna say like, hey, I
00:06:35
wanna look good.
00:06:35
Right?
00:06:36
Yeah.
00:06:36
Yeah.
00:06:36
Yeah.
00:06:37
That's the point, I think.
00:06:38
You know, I've been I've been thinking about this a lot more recently that I think
00:06:42
statistics say, like, after the age of pretty much 21 is that no one will ever live into a
00:06:49
body that they actually truly love or admire.
00:06:52
How sad is that?
00:06:53
And that's domestically speaking here in The United States, that majority, overwhelming
00:06:57
majority of people will not be in a body that they actually truly enjoy.
00:07:02
Yeah.
00:07:02
And those those are some some of the small things, like your face is something that you
00:07:06
look into every day that you wanna make like, I wanna look good, right?
00:07:09
I wanna look in the mirror and be like, hey, man, you you look good today.
00:07:12
So you look good are a winner.
00:07:14
Look good.
00:07:14
Make sure you're doing affirmations while you're doing that too.
00:07:16
That's right.
00:07:17
That's right.
00:07:18
So let's let's segue into this because I think sleep, alright?
00:07:22
So closing your mouth, like, I've actually started utilizing I was a mouth sleeper, and
00:07:26
then over the past month, I've actually started using a CPAP to just inject air Oh.
00:07:32
Into my nose.
00:07:33
Right?
00:07:34
And that has forced me to shut my mouth.
00:07:36
Like, you literally when you're using a CPAP, it kicks air up, and if I open up my mouth, air
00:07:40
is just blowing out my mouth.
00:07:42
So the CPAP has changed the game for me where I'm actually forced like, it's forced oxygen
00:07:49
going into my nose where it forces my mouth just to completely shut.
00:07:53
So that's just an alternative that I've But segueing off of that, I've seen more energy
00:08:00
throughout the day.
00:08:01
Mhmm.
00:08:01
So, like, I've seen, like, that sleep performance then comes to daytime optimization.
00:08:06
Yeah.
00:08:07
And so there's a number of different things we can talk in daytime optimization.
00:08:11
I and Doctor.
00:08:13
Alessi are we're massive believers in therapeutic testosterone.
00:08:17
Actually, was talking with a gentleman today.
00:08:19
He had his top line numbers were 195, which is insanely low for a 40 year old man, right?
00:08:28
Honestly don't know how he even functioned.
00:08:30
Mine were actually at two sixty seven when I was like, dude, I am taking charge of my
00:08:35
health.
00:08:36
Like, I'm taking it from here.
00:08:38
Right?
00:08:38
So I got on therapeutic testosterone.
00:08:41
I usually balance out between about 800 and a thousand.
00:08:44
That's something I do in That's my routine blood awesome.
00:08:48
And one thing I've noticed though is the derivative of everything, right?
00:08:52
So if I know I'm sleeping well, I'm performing well, my body's recovering well, then I can
00:08:57
start utilizing those things.
00:09:00
The testosterone can't come before my other habits, which is a really, really critical
00:09:05
thing that people need to understand and learn, is that you need to build healthy habits, and
00:09:11
then you can start adding these modalities.
00:09:13
So I want, as we go into some nerdy stuff, I also want to go to the core fundamental root of
00:09:21
what this all needs to, like, we need to come back to, is like building one by one really
00:09:27
healthy habits.
00:09:28
Sleep is a very much you need to mature that habit to then get optimization in the day.
00:09:34
So therapeutic testosterone, we won't get on that.
00:09:37
Carter's a fairly young guy.
00:09:39
Think he has relatively high testosterone.
00:09:40
Hey, he's also single ladies.
00:09:43
So this guy, single guy looking for a solid woman out there.
00:09:48
So Carter is he's single and ready to mingle.
00:09:52
We're just gonna make a note that we'll put the show notes of where he's at and where you can
00:09:56
find him.
00:09:56
Slip into his DMs, please, if you're a pretty girl.
00:09:58
So now that we get on to the nitty gritty of human optimization and what other things,
00:10:06
right, I think, you know, some of the things that I've talked with you about, can you dig a
00:10:11
little bit more into the methylene blue you're doing, maybe some of the red light therapy I
00:10:16
see you utilizing in the clinic, and some other metrics that you use throughout the day?
00:10:20
Yeah, so I'll delve into this a little bit with my most recent experience.
00:10:24
So here at Alessi Functional Health, we got a MitoRed light panel.
00:10:29
So I want to say it was on Monday.
00:10:32
Monday, I was kind of feeling a little bit groggy.
00:10:34
I was doing some computer work, and then I got in front of the red light.
00:10:38
I took a methylene blue, and, my goodness, I was I felt like I was bouncing off the wall.
00:10:44
Then I went to go work out after, and it was such a good pump.
00:10:49
Like, I anyway, so But describe methylene blue
00:10:53
for us.
00:10:53
Like, what is what is it?
00:10:55
And then also describe a a red light therapy and that can help us as well.
00:10:59
So methylene blue was discovered in the eighteen hundreds as more of an industrial dye.
00:11:03
It's what helps make your pants blue, but then it was kind of like a happy accident.
00:11:08
So they discovered underneath a microscope that it stained very well and that it was
00:11:14
antimicrobial, antimalarial, and then they found that it was very beneficial for
00:11:19
mitochondria.
00:11:20
And this was discovered over, you know, a hundred years ago, but then it's kinda nice
00:11:25
that with social media and all that, we kinda got talking about that again, you know, and
00:11:30
saying like, hey, you know, this has been known, but, you know, we need to expound some
00:11:35
awareness on this.
00:11:35
So one one of the reasons why I like doing it is inside of the mitochondria is the electron
00:11:41
transport chain, which I like to lichen to a to a dam with water.
00:11:47
Right?
00:11:47
So water goes through through a dam to produce electricity, and there's a certain rate and
00:11:53
frequency that water's going through the dam.
00:11:56
And protons, they go through a gradient in the mitochondria, kind of like water through a dam.
00:12:02
Methylene blue supercharges that process.
00:12:06
So instead of just like, you know, a couple of protons going in, there's a lot more.
00:12:11
So if it's spinning really fast, then there there's more production of ATP or the body's
00:12:18
cellular currency for energy.
00:12:20
So that's one of the reasons why I like doing it.
00:12:22
But then if you pair red light with that, it just supercharges that process.
00:12:26
I learned about that at a ACA symposium for the diagnosis and internal disorders chiropractic
00:12:32
group, which I'm really fond of.
00:12:34
The guy lecturing there said that, and I was like, okay, this is why I got to pair them
00:12:39
together.
00:12:40
So that's why I felt like I was supercharged.
00:12:43
The red light panel is really good for boosting circulation, reducing inflammation.
00:12:49
Probably my favorite reason for red light is I notice a big mood difference.
00:12:54
Just as a student, I'm about to graduate chiropractic school in December, I love
00:13:00
anything that boosts my brain, gives me a cognitive edge.
00:13:03
And I feel like red light therapy does it.
00:13:05
And even just while I'm here at, know, Alessi Functional Health, like I'll just be in front
00:13:11
of that red light panel for at least five minutes.
00:13:14
And I notice a big mood change.
00:13:16
So yes, it has mechanical structural, it can help out your muscles with recovery and your
00:13:23
soft tissue, but use it for your brain, please.
00:13:26
Like, that's something that I swear by.
00:13:28
Yeah, I that's exactly.
00:13:31
I mean, anytime anytime you can reduce inflammation, the body is just always going to
00:13:35
cater towards better enhancement from a neuroplasticity neuroplasticity standpoint
00:13:39
within your brain.
00:13:40
Right?
00:13:40
You're gonna operate more on on all cylinders.
00:13:43
And then the other component of that cardiovascular health.
00:13:46
Right?
00:13:46
Mhmm.
00:13:47
I think, know, those are the two major things that you know, I'm a big Peter Attia fan.
00:13:52
Yeah.
00:13:52
Yeah.
00:13:53
He's a good guy.
00:13:53
Just, you know, his measurables on what actually lifespan looks like instead of
00:14:00
lifespan is actually produced by health span.
00:14:02
Right?
00:14:02
It's not actually the number at which you live, but in a the one of the previous podcasts that
00:14:07
we just launched is becoming that athlete of life.
00:14:10
And I think this is a component of that.
00:14:12
It absolutely is a component of that, where putting in these just like small modalities,
00:14:19
you know, whether it be methylene blue, whether it be red light therapy, or just like as a
00:14:24
common function that you do on a weekly or even daily basis that inflames less takes the
00:14:32
inflammation out of the body and allows you to just look good, feel good, and play I keep it
00:14:37
that simple, right?
00:14:38
I just go back like, doesn't everyone wanna just get back to that look good, feel good,
00:14:42
play good?
00:14:42
Amen.
00:14:43
And so that's my motto, is just doing that, right?
00:14:47
And so like, what is one thing you can focus on over the next ninety days of just intentionally
00:14:54
incorporating that?
00:14:55
It could be red light therapy.
00:14:56
It could be a methylene blue.
00:14:57
It could be looking at getting your blood work back, get becoming more educated so that you
00:15:02
can really dial in.
00:15:04
They'll just maybe small, you know, nutritional deficiencies that you might have.
00:15:08
Right?
00:15:09
One thing for me specifically that we've, know, catered to a number of podcasts on, but is just
00:15:16
getting an adequate amount of protein in on a daily basis.
00:15:19
So for me, my goal is always 225 grams of protein.
00:15:22
How how do I do that?
00:15:24
I do that in a number of different ways, but mine's gonna be a shake in the morning.
00:15:28
I'm gonna build some carbohydrates in there.
00:15:30
Always whole food, bananas, strawberries are typically my choice when I incorporate that in,
00:15:35
maybe the little almond butter.
00:15:36
You have to you know, with almond butter, I I always I always worry about the oxalates a
00:15:41
little bit slightly because I eat and the bananas.
00:15:44
But, you know, one thing is is that if you're incorporating some level of resistance training
00:15:48
into it, that should never be, like, a true issue.
00:15:51
Your body should be releasing those.
00:15:53
Have you ever dug into oxalates,
00:15:54
by way?
00:15:54
Well, so I kind of follow more of the carnivore crowd.
00:15:58
And the only thing I really heard about that was the dark leafy greens and stuff.
00:16:04
Even yeah, I I actually did not know that about almond butter, so thanks for sharing.
00:16:08
Almonds have a little bit.
00:16:10
Bananas actually have the way you measure actually oxalates is pretty wild.
00:16:15
The so, like, after you eat spinach, if you have a a tingling sensation in your mouth where
00:16:20
there's, like, small like, you feel like there's small cuts going on, those are the
00:16:23
oxalates at play.
00:16:25
Oh.
00:16:25
So that's actually working against productivity within the body.
00:16:29
So that's just, you know, something to be educated about a little So I'm always I always
00:16:34
process and think a little bit differently when it comes to where I'm where I'm incorporating
00:16:40
my carbohydrates.
00:16:40
So mostly a smoothie, but, like, what else are you digging into?
00:16:43
Because that was actually a question that I had for you is, like, you know, what what do you
00:16:46
personally focus on with nutrition?
00:16:48
So you took you went into the smoothie, you know, what else are
00:16:51
you doing?
00:16:51
Yeah.
00:16:52
So for me, you know, this is goes back to previous podcast, Athlete of Life.
00:16:57
Right?
00:16:57
Mhmm.
00:16:58
And so I think, you know, everyone should program in.
00:17:02
I don't care if you played sports or not.
00:17:03
I think sports are a great analogy for life.
00:17:06
Right?
00:17:06
The athlete is just you becoming better.
00:17:08
Right?
00:17:09
Yes.
00:17:09
And so for me, I have what I call my in season and out of season.
00:17:14
My in season is when I'm a little bit leaner.
00:17:17
And so I'm doing a little bit more cutting.
00:17:20
I'm lower on the fats and carbohydrates.
00:17:22
I I'll I'll be very strategic about my fats.
00:17:26
Fat intake, high protein.
00:17:28
Yeah.
00:17:28
And so that's when I'm leaning the body up.
00:17:30
I'm actually reducing my body fat.
00:17:33
I typically probably am gonna feel like a little bit more better in that region, but I'm
00:17:37
also gonna be a little bit hungry.
00:17:38
I'm gonna I'm very primitive in nature.
00:17:40
Right?
00:17:40
I'm gonna be you know, because I'm not eating as many calories.
00:17:43
Yeah.
00:17:43
My out of season, right, is typically filled with a little bit denser weights in the weight
00:17:49
room, so I'm gonna be lifting a little bit heavier, but my caloric load is relatively
00:17:55
high.
00:17:55
Yeah.
00:17:55
So I'm I'm I'm packing on weight.
00:17:58
Right now, I'm in that.
00:17:59
So I'm actually about two fifteen, two twenty right now.
00:18:02
So I'm in that stacking phase more considered out of season, and I'll do that for anywhere
00:18:09
from two to three months before I go back in season.
00:18:12
In season, I'm gonna cut.
00:18:13
I'm a little look a little bit more shredded.
00:18:15
So I treat it that way, and that's just for me to play little games.
00:18:21
Right?
00:18:21
I'm I'm I'm the athlete of life.
00:18:23
I wanna get a little bit better.
00:18:24
And so, that's how I'm gonna just incorporate when I'm truly in this stacking mode, my
00:18:31
caloric intake goes up, but I'm still hitting my protein target.
00:18:34
Heck yeah.
00:18:35
I have a question for you, Matt,
00:18:36
because
00:18:37
this is a nutritional question.
00:18:39
So, there's some people where it feels like there's two sides of the story, where they
00:18:44
focus more on what they eat.
00:18:46
Like, don't eat this, it has all this synthetic processed garbage in there.
00:18:50
And then there's people that are more on like, it doesn't matter what you eat as long as
00:18:54
you're counting the calories and stuff.
00:18:55
So, I just wanted to get your thoughts on how do you reconcile those two things where you
00:19:00
obviously have goals of where you want to be physically and aesthetically with counting
00:19:04
calories, but then, you know, not a lot of things that we're eating are actually that good
00:19:09
for us, you know?
00:19:10
Like so, like, how do you remedy those two things?
00:19:12
Yeah.
00:19:13
We had a a long time ago, we had a podcast on soil enrichment.
00:19:17
Right?
00:19:17
So, like, the natural, like, whole foods are not even the same today as they were, you know,
00:19:23
twenty, thirty, forty years ago.
00:19:25
So that's even one thing to consider.
00:19:27
It's like, you know, what is it?
00:19:28
Like, even if you're getting something off the shelf for a whole food.
00:19:31
Now I cater towards whole foods.
00:19:33
I eat a lot of whole foods.
00:19:34
Mhmm.
00:19:34
But the reality is this, is that the whole seed oil thing, I actually don't care.
00:19:40
Like, you know, I I don't actually feed into a lot of, you know, the canola oil is bad for
00:19:46
you, vegetable oil is bad for you.
00:19:49
What I do prescribe to is that I am going to eat some foods that naturally are gonna have
00:19:55
some seed oils in it, you know, preservative foods.
00:19:58
I'd again, I my whole food source outweighs my any any type of snacking that I might do, but I
00:20:08
outwork myself at the gym.
00:20:09
Okay.
00:20:10
So this is the real thing that it comes down to for me, and this is my personal life, is that
00:20:15
when I go to the gym, I don't have my phone on.
00:20:19
And the reason why I don't have my phone on me is because I am getting a freaking sweat on.
00:20:24
I'm not letting anything else interfere.
00:20:27
Like, I go to the gym to do a purpose.
00:20:29
Right?
00:20:29
And that is to kick up my heart rate.
00:20:32
You can burn anything off when you work.
00:20:37
Right?
00:20:37
And so many people want to be focused on what am I you know, putting all these things into
00:20:44
your body.
00:20:45
Right?
00:20:45
Yes.
00:20:45
I cater towards more healthier, like, type snacks.
00:20:48
Right?
00:20:48
Yeah.
00:20:49
I'm eating some RX bars, but I'm dude, the the cruncher potato chips are phenomenal.
00:20:56
Like, the the jalapeno potato chips, like, get me every time.
00:20:59
Like, I love them.
00:21:00
But the reality is I'm not freaking eating the whole bag.
00:21:04
Right?
00:21:04
Yeah.
00:21:04
I'm eating some of those.
00:21:06
Those are, like, those are some things that I do eat.
00:21:09
But the fact of the matter is, is that we need to be more keen to, like, how efficient our
00:21:18
workouts are.
00:21:19
Mhmm.
00:21:19
I've what I've seen, and this is not anyone, like, to tack anyone, that like, hey, going to
00:21:26
the gym, like, I went to the gym today, but it's like then what did you get out of that?
00:21:30
What did you actually do?
00:21:31
And so this is this is for me.
00:21:34
Like, would I say I have the healthiest diet, especially right now while I'm stacking
00:21:39
healthiest diet in the world?
00:21:41
I would say absolutely not.
00:21:43
But the reality is is that my my heart rate, it goes it significantly goes up every day because
00:21:50
I attack the gym with a purpose.
00:21:51
My phone isn't there.
00:21:52
I'm not texting anybody while I'm going through resistance training.
00:21:56
And that is me then maintaining muscle mass.
00:22:00
Got it.
00:22:00
And so, I can burn a lot.
00:22:03
You definitely want to understand like how much you're bringing in Mhmm.
00:22:09
So that I can burn it off because I can't like have it this massive excess.
00:22:13
Right?
00:22:13
Yeah.
00:22:14
And it is.
00:22:16
The reality is if I if I have a lot of foods that I just naturally I think Leigh Norton
00:22:24
actually talks about this quite a bit.
00:22:27
If you eat preservative based foods where you and that's majority of your intake, you are
00:22:35
gonna have to work like two to three times harder to burn that off in the gym.
00:22:39
And I I believe I believe it's almost double.
00:22:42
Right?
00:22:42
It's like a one and a half to two times factor for preservatives to like break that down.
00:22:47
When it's a whole food, it's a lot easier when I go to the gym to break that down.
00:22:51
Yeah.
00:22:52
So, I do tend to, again, I don't wanna say I am just feeding myself with junk food all the
00:22:59
time, but the reality is I'm not gonna sit here and lie to you and be like, have the
00:23:03
healthiest, cleanest diet.
00:23:04
I never eat junk food.
00:23:05
I never do these things because I that that's not the reality.
00:23:09
So but what the reality is is that you need to understand to educate yourself that there are
00:23:16
times I play by the eighty twenty rule.
00:23:18
I can I can eat the dessert?
00:23:21
Right?
00:23:22
Knowing that I have enough discipline that I'm gonna go and I'm gonna go and attack that and
00:23:26
actually burn that off.
00:23:28
So the intention of the day is to attack what I need to attack Yeah.
00:23:34
And make sure I'm burning off those calories so that I I either maintain a slight deficit Mhmm.
00:23:40
Or it's barely a gain.
00:23:42
Right?
00:23:43
Yeah.
00:23:43
So that I'm not feeling like I'm gaining two to three pounds or four pounds in a month that I'm
00:23:49
then gonna carry into the next month to carry another four to five pounds.
00:23:53
And this is really true coming into the season, right?
00:23:58
Because the reality is, and statistics actually show this, that majority of people gain their
00:24:04
weight two months out of the year.
00:24:06
What are those two months, Carter?
00:24:09
I am imagining that it would be more of a winter month.
00:24:12
Maybe December, January?
00:24:14
It's November and December.
00:24:15
November, December. Have
00:24:16
Have Thanksgiving,
00:24:19
and you have Christmas, and people lay dormant during those months.
00:24:23
It's the best time to gain weight too.
00:24:24
It's the best time to gain weight.
00:24:26
So that's the reality.
00:24:27
Hey, those extra cookies that you're grabbing, like, do you plan apply.
00:24:31
Yeah.
00:24:31
Do you plan on working those off?
00:24:33
Like, that's a really big thing.
00:24:34
So, anyways, without going too long winded on that, I think you can have your cake and eat it
00:24:39
too.
00:24:39
That's the reality that you can have your cake and eat it too, but then you also we go back to
00:24:45
the habits.
00:24:45
Are you planning on burning that off?
00:24:47
And a lot of people don't.
00:24:48
Like, a lot of people don't have the mission to actually, hey.
00:24:51
I'm still an athlete.
00:24:52
I gotta burn this off.
00:24:54
Mhmm.
00:24:54
I gotcha.
00:24:55
Mhmm.
00:24:56
Yeah.
00:24:56
So something that I've noticed is when I go home for the holidays, I feel like it's harder
00:25:01
to, like, I'll eat stuff and then and then working out comes just a little bit harder when
00:25:08
I'm not in a routine.
00:25:09
You know, like here in Florida, I'm in a routine, like I'm I'm grinding through school
00:25:13
or I'm here at Alessi Functional Health doing my internship.
00:25:18
And when I have that level of consistency, I've noticed with myself, I'm way more mindful of
00:25:23
what I eat.
00:25:24
But then when I travel, it kinda gets lost in there.
00:25:28
I don't have you experienced anything like that where, like, when you travel or if you're on
00:25:34
vacation, like, how do you how do you approach that?
00:25:36
Yeah.
00:25:37
So that if there's a will, there's a way.
00:25:38
Right?
00:25:39
And then it all comes with proactive planning.
00:25:41
So I went to Europe last year.
00:25:44
Guess what I what what was one of the first things that I did?
00:25:47
And the when I looked for a city,
00:25:49
you were
00:25:49
in Madrid.
00:25:49
Madrid.
00:25:50
Okay.
00:25:50
So I was about to guess Italy, but you were in Spain.
00:25:53
Yeah.
00:25:53
Did you look for some sort of a bakery or something or,
00:25:58
for I mean, that would be true.
00:26:00
No.
00:26:00
Looked for a gym.
00:26:01
Right?
00:26:01
I found
00:26:02
the gyms in the area.
00:26:03
So I worked on my Spanish.
00:26:05
I've been working on my Spanish.
00:26:06
I love working on Spanish, but that is also another biohack we can talk about later as far
00:26:10
as building neuroplasticity of learning another language or reading a lot.
00:26:13
So anyways, I, I looked for gyms.
00:26:16
Right?
00:26:16
And so I found gyms that were close by to the Airbnbs that we were staying at so that I knew
00:26:21
I could still get to work at it.
00:26:22
Yeah.
00:26:23
I've heard that's that does wonders at helping out with jet lag.
00:26:28
Like, the soon the sooner than you 100%.
00:26:30
Okay.
00:26:30
1000%.
00:26:31
It's completely accurate.
00:26:33
And it's all just secreting, like your serotonin levels.
00:26:37
It just gives you that like it just that it's therapeutic.
00:26:41
Right?
00:26:41
When you come out of like the gym after a hard session, it's it completely is reverts that jet
00:26:46
lag.
00:26:47
It's it's absolutely amazing.
00:26:48
It's one of the first things that I always try to do is get a workout in.
00:26:52
Also, another, little biohack there too.
00:26:55
If you do travel a lot, just to notate is that, you can actually if you have sand nearby, you
00:27:02
can actually dig your feet in the sand and ten minutes will revert your internal clock.
00:27:07
That makes so much sense because you're with skin contact on the sand, you're probably
00:27:13
tapping into the, biomagnetic field of the earth.
00:27:16
So like, you're just harmonizing yourself with the rhythm of the planet that I've never
00:27:21
thought of it that way before.
00:27:22
It's wild.
00:27:23
It's wild how the body works.
00:27:25
So, yeah, you're it's intentional grounding.
00:27:27
Right?
00:27:27
Obviously, the softer the system is that you have underneath you is just naturally gonna
00:27:34
magnify, and you're gonna connect with the the earth.
00:27:36
And and then and then the the just the time clock shifts.
00:27:40
But I would say working out is still probably one of the best, if not the best, to actually
00:27:45
revert that time change if you're traveling to Europe or or vice versa.
00:27:49
So that's a really good one.
00:27:51
Another thing that I wanted to tap into though, which I think is I think is really critical for
00:27:57
specifically to like, in in today's in today's environment of, like, how we operate.
00:28:05
And it's that idea going back to people might not think it's biohacking, but one of the
00:28:13
things that I built to my repertoire is Duolingo and learning Spanish.
00:28:18
And so, it has forced me to really like, it's it's uncomfortable at times.
00:28:24
Right?
00:28:24
And then I have to try to expose myself and and, you know, talk to other people that only
00:28:29
speak Spanish.
00:28:30
But what I found is, like, that motive in and of itself is creating this neuroplasticity of
00:28:38
where I have to really, really dig into the brain.
00:28:42
When you have to think of words and then conjugate and feel like you're conjugating, it
00:28:47
is so extremely difficult.
00:28:49
It's it's more diff difficult than, like, lifting a heavy weight where you feel like
00:28:53
you're going into just, like, the absolute lowest synopsis of the brain.
00:28:58
Right?
00:28:59
Yeah.
00:28:59
To try to gear that.
00:29:01
And when you can do that over and over again, what the how the inner workings of the neurons
00:29:06
of the brain and your feedback loops that just are created out of that, how much that has
00:29:11
helped me.
00:29:12
Do you work on anything like that?
00:29:14
Or do you find that in reading or anything like that?
00:29:16
Yeah.
00:29:16
I find that mostly with for me, reading, meditation, breath work, those are great ways
00:29:23
to promote neuroplasticity, build new synapses in the brain.
00:29:29
Journaling can really help out with that too.
00:29:31
The other one that I've heard was that if you're learning a language is learning to play
00:29:36
a new instrument.
00:29:37
So I am not musically inclined.
00:29:40
So that's something that I could probably benefit from.
00:29:44
And I was just talking to my pops about this recently because I have I have three brothers
00:29:49
now that we grew I mean, we're gringos.
00:29:53
Right?
00:29:54
So, like, we grew up, you know, speaking English, but they speak Spanish now, and
00:29:58
they're very fluent.
00:29:59
So I'm like, okay.
00:30:01
I gotta catch up and see if I can learn a new skill because that's a cool flex that they've
00:30:06
got on their part.
00:30:08
But, yeah, musical instruments, I've heard do that really well.
00:30:11
And then just your basic brain building, meditation, journaling, prayer and scripture
00:30:17
study, depending on what kind of faith and cultural background that you come from is
00:30:22
really helpful for that
00:30:24
brain building.
00:30:25
That is so good.
00:30:26
So good.
00:30:27
So, you know, those are some helpful tips.
00:30:30
I hope you just grabbed a couple nuggets.
00:30:32
The point was not to overwhelm you with a crazy amount of things as podcasts because, you know,
00:30:38
you can do a number of things.
00:30:39
Right?
00:30:39
But at the end of the day, then you just need to pick one.
00:30:42
And so I've been doing this for probably around, you know, eight, nine years, really
00:30:47
where I've slowly built things into play.
00:30:50
I wake up pretty much in the morning, get sauna, do a little bit of cold I've actually
00:30:54
gotten in a cold plunge.
00:30:55
I I took a hiatus, and then I've recently got back into that.
00:30:58
But doing those small things, it's not something where you you you just jump into it.
00:31:05
You one thing that Carter said, anything done with consistency always compounds.
00:31:10
Right?
00:31:10
It's like money.
00:31:12
It's like biohacking.
00:31:14
Whatever you're doing, if you do it with a level of consistency and then you tighten that
00:31:19
gap of which you do it, it will compound.
00:31:22
And so taking two or three of these things that might be advantageous to you, but start
00:31:28
utilizing them in your day to day, and the more you do them, the more you will see the benefits
00:31:33
from them.
00:31:34
Yeah.
00:31:34
So, something that I would have to add is there's a lot of different biohacks or ways
00:31:40
that we can talk to our bodies intelligently, but sometimes people might feel a little bit
00:31:45
overwhelmed with all of that.
00:31:46
So, that's why I think working with a doctor or a coach or someone that can talk to you, talk
00:31:52
you through that on what's going to help you out the most.
00:31:55
Is it going to be the red light?
00:31:56
Is it going to be the cold plunge?
00:31:58
Is it going to be talking to yourself nicely with affirmations, journaling, all that?
00:32:04
Because if you can build just a few of those in, it can really make a big difference in your
00:32:09
day.
00:32:09
But, you know, do everything that you can to experiment with whatever works for you.
00:32:16
But then, you know, stick to those things as as Matt was talking about building that
00:32:20
consistency because that's where you're going to to notice it.
00:32:23
But this was just kind of mostly to reinforce myself because I've noticed a lot of these
00:32:28
other things, and it can be feel overwhelming.
00:32:31
I don't know how you guys are feeling about that, but find some things that you really like
00:32:36
that make sense that will get you the most benefit for yourself and then, you know, being
00:32:41
consistent with it.
00:32:42
Yeah.
00:32:42
And as Carter said, you know, this is what we do here at Alessi Functional Health is we
00:32:46
provide you that level of detail and that accountability throughout the process.
00:32:51
So if you ever want to, get more information, just head on to alessifxhealth.com and hit that
00:32:56
book now button, and we'll get on a call with you and make sure that we are the right fit.
00:33:01
So until next time, thank you so much, Carter.
00:33:04
I appreciate you.
00:33:05
As always, if you enjoyed this podcast, please share it with somebody.
00:33:09
And, lastly, as we always sign off with, your health is in your hands.
00:33:16
Thank you for tuning in to Health Decoded, where we break down the truth about all things
00:33:21
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00:33:24
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00:33:31
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00:33:39
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00:33:45
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00:33:51
Until next time.
00:33:52
Stay curious, stay empowered, and remember, your health is in your hands.