Let’s take a breather and get to the heart of the matter.
I go off on interesting tangents en route to asking you some important life questions out of Tim Ferriss’s personal journal, as communicated by an excellent article on forbes.com by Benjamin Hardy. Ferriss is going great things with his podcasts, helping us with personal improvement and self-reflection, and landing A-list celebrities that serve to advance the podcast medium in general. For example, Ferriss recently had LeBron James and his trainer on the show, and that started a tangent about how lame it is that LeBron still thinks an egg white omelet is a winner’s meal. Yes, the King and his trainer concur that this is a winning move. Weird because a couple of summers ago there was a big to-do about LeBron going keto to drop some body fat. I guess he’s back to the golden land of egg whites. He also mentioned stretching as the key to his longevity and injury prevention, which I also call into question as outdated.
After torching LeBron a bit and discussing how egg yolks are super nutritious, I mention how the Framingham Study and much more emerging science has refuted the decades-long egg yolk/cholesterol scare, and how the true risks for heart disease—oxidation and inflammation are caused by high carbohydrate, high insulin eating patterns, chronic exercise, insufficient sleep, and general overly stressful lifestyle patterns. Then I get to the centerpiece of this show, Hardy’s article about Ferriss’s journaling exercises. The article describes how Ferriss’s recent early midlife crisis/reflection time led him to journal important questions for all of us to ask ourselves about the direction and purpose of our lives. Along the way, I give another plug for my daily morning cold plunge, explaining how making this ritual a habit helps build focus and resilience in other areas of life (hopefully including disciplined use of technology!). This show may inspire you to start journaling to sort things out and empty your brain of clutter. Please play along and ask yourself the questions that Ferriss did.
TIME STAMPS:
Brad talks about hearing a podcast by Tim Ferris with some disappointing insights on LeBron James. [00:02:06]
The Framingham study refutes myths we have heard about eggs and fats and heart disease. [00:02:58]
The best tracker for heart disease risk is to look at the blood triglyceride levels to HDL ratio. [00:05:00]
Getting your triglycerides under 100 and HDL over 40 is a good goal. A ratio of one to one is best. [00:06:25]
It’s a good way to ask yourself some of these important questions from Tim Ferriss’s journal. [00:09:33]
Were my goals my own or simply what I thought I should want? [00:13:15]
How much of life have I missed from under planning or over planning? [00:13:51]
How can I be kinder to myself? [00:15:00]
How can I get better at saying “no?” [00:16:05]
How can I best reassess my life, my priority, my view of the world, my place in the world, and my trajectory in the world? [00:18:43]
What would this look like if it were easy? [00:20:08]
LINKS:
Tim Ferriss: A-one podcast host
LISTEN:
Welcome to the get over yourself podcast. This is Brad Kearns. Just listen to the show with LeBron James.
Pretty disappointed the LeBron James talking about eating his egg whites for breakfast and other such
technology that 20 years behind the times.
Welcome listeners original recording sufficiently distorted to avoid trademark infringement lawsuits and
back to business. Let's call this the Breather show of Brad's important notes from cool articles this and that
one thing to discuss is a great article in forbes.com by Benjamin Hardy and he was writing about Tim
Ferriss title of the article. Tim Ferriss is nine word question that changed his life. So we’ll get into that. I'm
starting to enjoy Tim Ferriss more and more obviously prominent podcast host and author. He does get the
A-list guests on there, which is great for the podcast medium in general and he's also been doing a lot of
reflecting and sharing with the audience and helping us. Think about this great question.
Better detailed in the article. Of course. He lands the big-time A List guest celebrities top athletes world
performers. Just listen to the show with LeBron James pretty disappointed LeBron James talking about
eating his egg whites for breakfast and other such technology that's 20 years behind the times as a
centerpiece of one's injury prevention strategy, flexibility, mobility, perhaps dynamic stretching vastly
more important, but you still see these athletes sitting at Mid court before the game doing the old-time
traditional stretches, which recent science has shown to weaken a muscle for up to 30 minutes. So despite
some of his training strategies and approaches that can be called into question here. He is dominating like
no other athlete so you can't say too much bad about them, but I will call them out for the egg white angle. I
mean come on, man, read the Framingham study the longest and most detailed epidemiological study in the
history of science. That is a study of a certain population for a long duration. And these are residents of
Framingham, Massachusetts. The study started in 1948 and has been tracking the diet exercise and lifestyle
habits of Framingham participants for these many generations. Some of the interesting conclusions that
came out of the study that we reference in the Primal Blueprint books. And a lot of the ancestral health
experts are pointing to egg intake has no correlation with blood cholesterol levels saturated fat intake has
no correlation with heart disease risk cholesterol levels have no correlation with heart disease risk. Also a
UCLA meta-study referenced by Dr.Ronesh Sinah in his wonderful book the South Asian Health Solution
and in our upcoming podcasts, we covered this a little bit but he pointed out that this meta study the study
of many many.
Other studies on heart disease risk revealed that 80% of heart attack victims have LDL cholesterol levels
that are considered to be in the safe range many of these folks have had their cholesterol artificially
suppressed by Statin medications, which have an assortment of risk factors when taking those including
depleting cellular energy to putting the critical coenzyme Q10 that causes fatigue and muscle weakness
leading to less exercise leading to elevated heart disease risk because of the statins that you’ve been
prescribed. But anyway, the takeaway point is that we have to look deeper than the lipid hypothesis of heart
disease that we’ve come to embrace as the gospel for the last 30 40 50 years whereby eating fat eating
cholesterol clogs your arteries and causes. The heart attack has been completely refuted by respected
science in
Recent years and now we have experts like Dr. Sinah how Dr. Cate Shannahan, author of Deep Nutrition,
saying that really the best tracker for heart disease risk is to look at your blood triglyceride level in a
routine blood test and striving to have a favorable ratio of triglycerides to HDL. That's the undisputed good
cholesterol. That is known as nature's garbage trucks for scavenging damage molecules in the bloodstream
and recycling them getting them out of there before they can cause damage. So you want high HDL levels
undisputed conclusion. And also you want to see low triglyceride levels because that's an indication of how
much fat is running through your bloodstream. If the levels are elevated that indicates your body's
overwhelmed and is likely to deposit some of that into the walls of the arteries and begin the terrible
process of heart disease playing out with the cholesterol molecules becoming oxidized and inflamed being
exposed to oxygen on the wall of the artery the immune system the white blood cells come to the rescue
because they see the inflammatory incident the macrophages come and turn into foam Stills. And that's
when you have a clot or a blockage in the artery and a heart attack occurs. So the true causes of heart
disease are oxidation and inflammation from a high stress lifestyle, not enough sleep, insufficient exercise,
often excessive exercise as we’re seeing in the extreme athletic Community a lot of heart disease risk from
the hardcore guys who are blasting their hearts with too much exercise over years and decades. So
oxidation and inflammation is what you want to stay away from and consuming healthy nutritious fats and
foods high in cholesterol, but also high in nutrition like the wonderful egg, one of the most nutritious foods
on the planet. It's obviously been a centerpiece of the human diet for two and a half million years. So this
ridiculously outdated back to LeBron concept of consuming egg whites with suggesting a simple kind of
inferior protein source, and nothing more in the white. All the nutrition is concentrated in the yolk who
back to the finishing the heart disease story. So if you have a high HDL level you’re going to have good
scavenging and cleansing of your bloodstream and a low triglyceride level. Meaning that your bloodstream
is not overwhelmed with too much fat that it's going to cause problems and the commonly cited levels are
getting your triglycerides under 150 as an urgent safety measure to get you out of the Red Zone the red flags
own doctor seen how would like to see your triglycerides under 100. So I would prefer to strive for that
number rather than the quote-unquote normal because normal is pretty crappy these days isn't it? So getting
your triglycerides under a hundred getting your HDL up over 40 as a minimum goal love to see that thing
over 60 and then with the ultimate goal of getting that triglyceride to HDL ratio at one-to-one or better.
That would be nice. Okay. So look at that on the blood test and don't worry so much about your total LDL
value. You can now test LDL particle size as a common blood test because physicians and medical science
is realizing the importance of distinguishing between the two types of LDL one considered large fluffy
LDL, which is generally considered to be harmless and then the potentially problematic small dense LDL,
which are the ones the molecules that are small and dense enough to Lodge on the walls of your arteries
and cause big trouble.
So when you get the particle size breakdown that view a better indication that your total LDL is not as
relevant. And if you have low triglycerides, you most likely have low levels of small dense LDL. So try to
get triglycerides to HDL in top shape when you go get your blood tests definitely an important thing to
track and make immediate changes to the diet. If you’re not looking at that one-to-one ratio, okay that aside
started with LeBron James and his egg whites. So back to the medium article breaking down some stuff
from Tim Ferriss. The author was Christopher Hardy. So Ferris turned 40 and 2017. The author of the
article says he had several friends die and other key events occur that caused him to be more reflective. So
the author of the article rights he sat down with his journal and oh my goodness, aren't we hearing so much
about journaling these days pretty interesting because we’ve been hit with so much.
Which stimulation hyper-connectivity constant influx of content into our brains and now the experts and
the thought leaders are asking us to sit down with pen and paper and compose a journal. The Gratitude
Journal is getting a lot of props as a wonderful lifestyle habit to write down and journal something that
you're grateful for every single day. Let's see do I have a notebook full of wonderful journal insights that I
write in every single day? Not really. Sorry folks. How about you do you do it? Do you like it? Send an
email in. Maybe we'll talk about it on a future show get over yourself broadcast at gmail.com. I'm pretty
busy writing and cranking out a lot of emails book projects articles. And so I'm a little deficient on the
journaling, but I will admit to writing down a lot of personal matters so that I can embed into my brain and
not have these transitory experiences where we get exposed to something really cool. And then we forget
about it in the days and weeks and months that follow as we get inundated with so much content every
single day great example is a golf lesson from my main man, Christopher Smith and Eugene, Oregon or my
other main man, Shannon Hoyt in Rocklin, California. I love getting the lesson. It's so important to have a
master watch you in action and help correct and refine your technique and your approach your mindset as
you have a Peak Performance goal in anything go out there and get expert help and support you will make
breakthroughs beyond what you can do figuring all that out for yourself in life. Anyway, after one of those
lessons, I will sit down and take copious notes about all the things that I learned so that I can refer to them
over and over as time goes on and make sure that you really own and appreciate these.
That you’ve been exposed to rather than let them drift away and slip away and get buried over time. So
that’s my commitment to journaling is to write down important things especially stuff that you think you
can remember like when you go to Home Depot and talk to the person about the different options for light
bulbs or paint colors or landscaping materials. And you go a ha. Yeah, ha makes sense. Okay, great and
then two days later you like what are the person say? So yeah, that's a great idea to make an effort to just be
precise and methodical with the organizing of all the important information in your life ditto for great
articles and concepts that I'm exposed to that I think will make for great content on the get over yourself
podcast. So this cool article carrying on as I do in a meandering manner to some of the concepts that Ferriss
has.
So he got out his journal and started asking himself important questions such as these are the questions that
Ferris asked himself and then answered in the journal in his year of reflection having hit the big 400 and
other life milestones occurring first one and this is for you now listener to participate and ask these
questions of yourself:
Were my goals my own or simply what I thought I should want? You can we have any reference points
here for perhaps the career path that you chose influenced by the measuring judging forces of society that
value economic success over perhaps following your passions or making a contribution that's not rewarded
with direct High compensation. Next question.
How much of life have I missed from under planning or over-planning? Whoo?
It's interesting. Yeah, there's some value to being spontaneous and there's also some value to getting a lot of
information in advance making good decisions. Aligning, for example, your travel plans with things that
you really like to do rather than constantly going with the flow. Mia Moore, my girlfriend's all over that.
She's got our iPad out. She's looking at restaurant reviews everywhere we go. We have advanced planning
and information usually works out great because we’re not surprised in a bad way. And then, hey, if
something catches your eye and causes you to divert your course and go do something cool because there’s
a street performer and you want to watch them instead of going to the appointed movie at the appointed time.
Fantastic go have fun. Knock yourself out. But yeah some advance planning would be great. Especially if
you’re one of those people that maybe is neglectful of that like I would say, maybe that's not my strong suit.
Okay. So repeating the question how much of life had I missed from under planning or over planning?
Being a little too rigid?
Third question. How could I be kinder to myself? whew! that one comes up a lot, too. Christopher
Smith, my golf Guru, the greatest speed golfer of all time. His mantra: (one of them) When you’re out there
on the course, have compassion for your mistakes. I think he directed that specifically at me more than
once …probably more than three or four times when I had a playing lesson with him following me on his
Kick-Ass Golf Board that he and Laird Hamilton helped invent. So he's sailing on the golf board, watching
me play speed golf in real time and he had to say have compassion for your mistakes several times because
I had several outbursts out there when I didn't hit the shot that I wanted and when you can stay in that
forgiving mindset about yourself, boy, it opens you up to more potential peak performance rather than
wallowing in pity and negative self-talk. Self-limiting beliefs that formulate when you’re not kind to
yourself.
Okay, next question. How can I get better at saying "no" to the noise and better at saying yes to the
adventures? I crave love that we can get inundated with busy work running around running errands
returning that we bought that we don't like that. We shouldn't have bought in the first place. Right? We got
a clear space to pursue the adventures We crave one thing that I noticed in my own life that is of great
benefit is if I lock into commitments and opportunities for adventure and exercise and then build my day
around those I mentioned the cold plunge a lot. So I know that I'm starting my day doing something for
myself that's building focus and resiliency because again the waters pretty cold. I'm jumping into 34 degree
water.
Even on a cold winter day. I'm going in there without a second thought without having to psych
myself up and by doing so every single morning and knowing that's a pattern behavior. I set myself up for
more success keeping two commitments and disciplined activities throughout the rest of the day still not so
great at disciplining my use of email. It kind of drags over drags my attention away from what I'm doing a
lot so we’ll have to do a whole nother show on that get some expert in their go back and listen to Dr.
Alicia Goldstein show about overcoming tech addiction. It was fantastic. But anyway, when I set up my
speed golf opportunities, for example, my choices for Speed golf are first thing in the morning the first guy
to tee off on the course, so no fooling around because if I get behind real golfers, I can’t pass them without
being disruptive. So my only opportunity is to get there first thing in the morning. Or right before dark in that
sweet spot of 30 minutes before the course gets dark knowing that it’s pretty much empty out there because
most people are finishing rather than starting. So there’s my only two opportunities throughout the day to
play Speed golf so you can count on me being on time for those opportunities because they’re so rare and
specific. So whatever is happening this time of year between 4:30 and 5:15. I am very very good at saying
"no" to because I can always manage many other opportunities going out to dinner running an errand at the
store either before or after that sweet spot of speed golf opportunity time. So that's my answer to question
number. That was number four.
Next question. Again, this is coming out of Tim Ferriss's Journal via the article recapping it, how can I best
reassess my life my priorities, my view of the world, my place in the world, and my trajectory in the world.
I don't like when they use those fancy go go go terms like trajectory. I think I’m too old for that stuff. I’m
going to make a whole vocabulary list of haughty terms like that. But anyway, no offense, how can I best
reassess where I’m headed in life? And then this is Christopher Hardy editorializing in examining these
questions Ferris openly admitted not experiencing immediate Clarity, but rather extreme anxiety and
overwhelm who I hope you guys aren’t getting extremely anxious and overwhelmed by listening to me ask
you those six questions at apheresis Journal. Anyway, nothing wrong with being extremely anxious and
overwhelmed because maybe that’ll help you dig to the truth and get some insights and maybe change
course, right? So what did Ferris do he asked himself a different question?
And this led to some very specific insights the inside he got from this one question led him to many of the
answers that he was seeking that costume anxiety. Okay, here it is and apparently him coming up with this
question asking himself. This question was the inspiration for his most recent best-selling book called Tribe
of Mentors. And that is a book that is short story short accounts from different successful people on the
planet and how they make it work whatever they’re doing. They’re investing Athletics Peak Performance
climbing mountains all kinds of amazing performers gathered in one place in this book Tribe of Mentors so
you can get some cool insights out of that and the question that he asked himself. What was what would
this look like if it were easy? Whoo, I like it. I'm feeling it. Are you feeling it? What would this look like if
it were easy?
Here's one. How about hiring? Someone who can do something better than you and for less money than
you earn in your core area of expertise. Here's the Insight that came from Ferris on that big question that he
asked himself. He says the quality of your life and success is in large part dependent upon how specific you
are specific in the questions. You ask specific in the people. You ask those questions too specific in the
strategies you go about attaining your goals as Ferriss states in his epic and Illuminating book Tribe of
Mentors short life advice from the best in the world quote. This is Ferris is talking: Life punishes the
vague wish and rewards the specific ask, end quote.
That one statement could be plastered on every person’s wall who seeks a successful life if you haven’t
already done. So please read that statement 10 times, says Hardy. Memorize it drill it deep into your
psyche. All right, there we go from egg whites to heart disease risk factors to asking specific questions of
yourself asking specific people and being specific in the strategies you go about attaining your goals.
Thank you for listening go over to Brad Kearns.com And subscribe for the tasteful Weekly Newsletter
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and resilient for a final aside before I close the show and look forward to hearing from you get over
yourself podcast at gmail.com. Have a great day.
