Ben Greenfield argues health pursuits are about stewardship, not vanity. He grounds the case in Christian faith, accepts human limits, and says most people can manage 45 to 60 minutes daily of self-care while keeping family and purpose first.
Welcome back to Part four of why Biohack. Hint it's not to live forever Last week and I'll put a link in the description I told you I would give you my perspective on striking a balance between the pursuit of health, being reasonable self care versus an unhealthy obsession. Now here's the most important thing to know. In order for becoming healthy or living a long time to not become some vain, selfish, time consuming infatuation, you must understand and accept that you will eventually break. No matter how strict you and I are and how fit you and I get, at the end of the day we'll be lying on our deathbed unless we happen to get hit by a bus or some other accident occurs with stringy beef jerky for muscles, porous bones, clogged arteries and plaqued brains. I'm a Christian. I read the Bible every day and it's chock full of these type of reminders. Second Corinthians 4:16 says Outwardly we are wasting away. The earthly tent we live in is eventually destroyed. That's in 2 Corinthians 5:1. Our lives are like grass. We flourish like the flower of the field and the wind blows us over and we're gone. That's in Psalm 103. We're fleeting shadows and we do not endure. That's in job 14. So I'm not interested based on many of these concepts in biohacking supplements, diet workouts and investigating the weird fringes of the health and fitness and longevity universe. Because I think six pack abs are to be worshiped as the pinnacle of human experience, or because I think that when I take my last breath the game is over. Or because my philosophy is to be some kind of a modern day golem like I was talking about in the last video. Instead, my goal is to live as healthy as reasonably possible, as close as possible to the day of my death, and to eventually die after a day of something like hella skiing in the Alps at 90 some years old, preferably, well, making love to my wife, a scenario she thinks would be a little awkward and admittedly logistically challenging. Anyways though, no matter whether you're doing the basic or the advanced stuff, there is value to caring for your body and brain because these are the vessels that God has given us to carry out God's purpose for our lives. That's the way I think about it. And it's simply harder to be as impactful as you can be or to fulfill that purpose, much less we wrestle or hike or throw a football with your grandkids or be any other kind of valuable asset to your family. If your brain is foggy and your joints hurt and you've got nerve irritation from type 2 diabetes and you're morbidly obese, so you should think about treating your body. Think about it this way. Like a house you get to live in for another maybe 50 or 60 or 70 years. Ideally, you can go wherever you want with these metaphors. The sink doesn't leak all night, the toilet mostly flushes, and there's at least a few shingles still left on the roof. And you can do this while balancing a stoic life of occasional cold plunging and kettlebell swinging and ascetic life that weaves in fasting or self denial, and an epicurean life that enjoys all of God's great creation without hedonism or gluttony or laziness or intemperance. And what that looks like is going to be different for each of us. For example, I'm in the fitness industry. It's my job to tinker with biohacks, experiment with new protocols, and frankly, to show proof of concept by looking halfway decent with my shirt off on Instagram. Now, since this world is my job and I get paid to immerse myself in it, I probably average a couple hours a day in some form of self care. Now, assuming you're weaving low levels of physical activity, exercise, snack breaks, and some amount of dietary temperance in your average day, you could easily get away with about 45 to 60 minutes of self care. And in the coming weeks, I'll tell you easily how to do that. But first, there's a very important concept that you must understand. It's a concept that's often ignored in the health and fitness industry, but it should form the baseline of the way that you think about maintaining your own health span and lifespan in a reasonable and balanced way. And I'll share that concept with you in the next video. In the meantime, leave your questions, comments and feedback below. I read them all. I'm especially interested in hearing what your own why is for your fitness, health or life longevity practice. Be sure to subscribe to this channel. Give it a like Share it around if this is helpful to you. Thanks for watching. I'll be back in the next video for more.
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