“Bodybuilding Destroyed My Hormones”: Jesse James West on Longevity, Fitness, and Self-Worth

What are top five tips that I could go change today for? Anti aging.

Change your mindset to don't die.

More of a religion.

It is.

I'm being for real.

Yeah. You want to be in, you cult leader? Yes.

All right, I'm in then. At least you're honest. An honest cult leader is a better one.

Why deny it?

Cheers. But don't die.

Jesse, I'm so glad you're in.

Dude. I am in. So when do we drink each other's blood?

Today I'm joined by my friend Jesse James West. He is a household name in the world of fitness and bodybuilding.

I'm a natural bodybuilder. I don't take steroids and not on anything.

Also, he does some of the coolest videos on YouTube.

What are the chances of this, like, causing death?

Today we're going beyond his viral moments and we're talking about why he does what he does, how he creates his own personal protocol.

The Jesse James green print is quite crazy.

Greenprint.

Okay, am I going to get sued?

And what's behind his motto of staying relentless.

I say my personality is my mom, my behavior is my dad. He would always say, never half ass anything. If you're going to half asset, don't do it. That's why I hustle so much. It's just like ingrained in me.

Will there be a Jesse James West AI that is better than you?

And you're like, bro, I'm excited as hell about AI. Is there an AI Brian? Am I talking to AI Brian right now? Is he, Is he real?

He would probably do a better job. So your schedule is very chaotic.

Very chaotic.

Yeah.

I would say it's either 100% chaotic or it's literally nothing. And the nothing is to recover from the chaotic. For example, I, I came to la, my brain, I'm like trying to think maybe a day and a half ago, and from 7am till midnight, pretty much each day I'm. It's go, go, go, go, go. Like four shoots a day. And that's, I mean, I live in Maryland. So like, I come here very. I don't come here all the time.

Yeah.

So when I'm here, I'm like, okay, I got to get every ounce of LA out of before. Out of it, before I leave. So I had like, like this morning, my first shoot started at 7:30. Then I had a shoot at 9 to 11:30, drove here for noon, and now it's like what, 2pm and we're just still going and then I gotta fly home immediately. After.

Yeah. Does that wear you out at the end of the day, are you toast or do you feel like.

Yeah, honestly, when I'm doing. When I'm doing the filming, I really don't feel toast. Like, it would take a lot. Maybe I'm, like, just physically tired. Like, you know, my body's been on. I've been on my feet all day and I need to sit down. But mentally, I probably can just go, go, go. I don't know why. I think I do love what I'm doing. Like, I love filming and I love. It's like. It's like we're hanging out and just working at the same time. It's awesome. So I get energy from that rather than exert all my energy and, like, feel like mush at the end. But, yeah, it takes a lot for me to be actually tired. I feel like I just genuinely have a lot of energy.

So you're high energy now. We did our. We did a great video together. You get on the plane, you sit down, then what. What happens?

First thing I do probably buy WI fi.

Yeah.

And then I'll have music on for sure. Just to kind of tune out everything I have in with the noise canceling, so I'm not hearing a bunch of people. And then I'll be on social media, I'll write down random ideas. I get a lot of random ideas that come to me when I'm on planes. Like, my best ideas, I feel, are just when I'm sitting there bored out of my mind, and I just start writing random things. I try to. I've been trying to do a habit and I haven't been succeeding. Do it sometimes. I try to write down, like, ten ideas a day. You know, different titles of videos, you know, maybe different. What can I do if I made a business? Like, there's just random ideas, like, to allow my creativity to flow. And I definitely am doing a lot of that on the plane along with just almost. Just kind of daydreaming of things that are going to happen and, like, what it could look like. Like, on the way here, I'm thinking through the multiple shoots that I have, and I'm almost like filming them in my head. And then I go do it. It's kind of weird.

Does it feel like work to you? Or does it feel like. Does it feel obligatory? Or when you have a moment of nothing, of. Of zero space, do you want to fill it with that or do you feel obliged to do so?

The reason I do what I do is, like, obviously I love what I do, but there's some. There was a driving force of working really hard my whole life, even when I was little with sports, that I definitely believe that my brain registered as working hard as self worth. So when I, when I'm not working and doing nothing, the only time I'm very okay with that is probably when I'm actually just spending time with my wife and, or friends or family. Like, when I'm just with them, then my attention's on them. But if I was to just sit and like, be alone, I'm probably, like, guilty that I'm not working or feeling like I, like, I got zoomies, like a dog that needs to run around. I have to either be really tired or just hanging out with my loved ones for me to actually be okay with doing nothing.

Yeah. What is the last time you encountered nothing space?

I was on, like three flights recently. One of the flights was, it was only like an hour and a half and had no wi fi, and that was probably the closest to nothing. And at first I was like, oh, my God, dude, I need, I need to be doing something. I'm bored. And then eventually I just kind of fell into just sitting there and just kind of daydreaming. But I definitely, whether it's subconscious or by choice, I definitely have a lot of things going on and I avoid that nothingness.

Yeah. Does it over time, does it weigh you down? Does it to have to be this busy with your schedule this tight with every moment spoken for. If, if basically, if nothingness is the enemy and. But then you find your play space, does that sometimes feel like it's too much?

I feel like I've had times where it's too much for sure. And I just, I just need, like, I, I, I, I want to do nothing, but then I, I have to kind of sit through the uncomfortable. It's like going on vacation. Like, I feel like any entrepreneur or someone that's just really driven understands this. You go on vacation for a week and you want to be on vacation. You're ready. You planned everything. The first two days, you're kind of like, it feels like you're, like, uncomfortable because you, you're coming out of what you were just going full steam on. And I feel that even if I want to do nothing, I still have to get through that little phase. And then I'm good. Once I get to like, day three or four on vacation, I actually. And like, I'm not going back. Like, I'm chilling. I'm not, I'm done working. I think I'm retiring.

Exactly.

And that's a great feeling.

Yeah, that's why I asked the question. Because throughout my life I've wondered how much I've chosen the systems I'm in and how much the systems are puppeting me. So did I really sign up for this? And am I now justifying everything I do of like, I'm doing this for this reason and this beautiful story, or am I being run by the system?

I definitely. Oh, I can easily say that I definitely get run by the system.

Really?

And it's the system that I have put myself in. It's not, it's not like social media. It's like literally me, I'm the system and I get run by it rather. But there's also like another version of me that can be ran in a healthier way. But I don't, I don't. I think I do have a very good work balance. Like, that's why, that's why I say, like, it's a lot or it's not a lot. I try to really utilize my time. Like if I'm away from my wife and my house and, and my animals, I see it as okay, if I'm away, the second I leave house, I'm just gonna, I should be working until I get back. And yes, I'm gonna get my sleep and stuff. We know it's good, we talked about that. Yeah, we gotta get that good sleep. But I feel that for me, I'm like, I don't wanna, I don't want to be away from that comfortability and that relaxation and not utilize all of it. So that's why it's so go, go, go. When I'm traveling and I try to do kind of batch filming because it's, it's one thing to go and film a video. Like if I came here just for this one segment, it's not really efficient. You know, there's, there's a few other people that are in the video. I gotta go, I gotta go fly to an island, fly to Florida, another LA trip, and then add it all together for one video. So it's like cost efficiency, my own brain efficiency and like work capacity efficiency I gotta keep in mind. And that's why I stay busy. But I really do enjoy what I do. I think the things that, the only things that burn me out are the things I don't enjoy. Like, which would be probably management, you know, like when I have to actually manage the team, it's, it's one thing. Some people are very self efficient. You just, hey, get, you get this done. That's all I got to say. But then, you know, there was times where I was hiring new editors and I have to train them because no one else can see my vision on this. Like the way I see it and it, and it's so much. I, I got to do my job of filming. Plus I have another role now of training, managing, checking in on people. And I, I'm slowly expanding my team. Like I'm about to hire a second editor. Then I'm going to go for another probably producer, assistant, producer, slash just like right hand person, which, which I have one. But I think like doubling the size of my team, which is I have a very small team, like three people and if I can get it to like six, I think that'd be an awesome spot to just be really efficient and like have a very proper workload.

Do you draw lessons from your parents or from others? Like, who do you model your behavior off of in life?

My behavior is definitely stemming from my dad, my mom too. I say my, my personality is my mom, my behavior is my dad and my mom's very lighthearted dream, big, creative, very like open spiritually to the world and the universe and accepting of energy and love. And she's literally the best. And my dad is tougher, love pushing, pushing me and my sister, I have a sister that's older than me, pushing his, his children to be the best version of themselves. Staying on top of us to make sure we do everything correctly. His saying is he'll text me this too. After all, I'll be like, I'm so busy. I'm like, I'm getting crushed by work right now. And he's like, you're killing it. Keep going three steps ahead. Like that's like. His saying is like always stay three steps ahead of other people of your own, yourself, your work, everything. He grew up very poor. He was on welfare as a kid and like parents weren't really there for him. So he kind of just fended for himself and only figured like, if I'm going to have any life at all, I have to work my ass off. So it became very habitual to him for to just be like, like super relentless. Which is why I have it tattooed on me. It's why it's my saying to stay relentless. Seeing him work a 40 hour job as an electrician, managing electricians at a specific place. I don't know if I can say it, but I'll just. He's an electrician and manager there and then Also was a landlord of five houses. Also worked on everything on the house, always worked on the cars himself. Like trees need to be cut down in the backyard. He's the one doing it. Toilet's broken, he's the one fixing it. Mom's cars, tires exploded. He's the one doing it and he's very much, he's the one putting his, his foot forward of doing it first, right. And he would always say like if you want something done right, you do it yourself. Which is, it's correct. Unfortunately there's people that can do things just as well, if not better in certain degrees of course, but in some degree it's somewhat true saying if you want something right, do it yourself. But then again it's also almost like a self sabotaging thing that you can only get so far with that. And I learned that through business and like my own social media and team. But his, he's always done things full force and never, he's never, he would always say never half ass anything. Like if you're going to half ass it, don't do it. And I feel like those things as a kid you absorb so much and that's really, that's why I hustle so much. It's just like ingrained in me from growing up under, under his sort of habits.

Let's say that a, a 14 year old is listening to this and they're trying to build out their models of the world. Like what, how do they behave, what do they pursue, how do they spend their day from 6am to 10pm how would you distill life? What principles would you set out for them?

I feel like to answer this properly, I'm going to put myself in. What would I tell 14 year old Jesse, my young self? I feel that 14 is young, even like 14, 15. Same, same, same sort of vibe. But I would say at that point in life you're really establishing your interests. So I think it's about trying a lot of different things and that's what time should be put into. Like trying different sports, whether it's instruments, theater. Like one thing I wish I got into is theater as a young kid, but I was just too afraid. I thought I'd be judged and you know, oh, like you nerd or whatever. But I truly wanted to do this. But I would say finding your interests and exploring different, whether it's hobbies, sports activities, entrepreneurism from a young age, like you know some, there's a lot of kids out there that are going to go make and sell things. You Know when I was, when I was growing up and I was really young, I was, I was collecting trash from the neighbors and like for money, I'd say I'll take your trash for, for a dollar, like this, I'm like 10 years old doing this. But what, what I realized later on is I just always had an interest in some sort of entrepreneurial background, I guess, just by nature, you know. So I think I would tell them through finding what they truly enjoy in their passions and, and to allow that to be, to allow, to allow that to lead them on a path and just try to stay like level headed in that where there's a lot of things when you're growing up, you can get so distracted. Girls, kids going out partying, smoking pot for the first time, like all those things and those are all distractions and I feel like if you can just focus on the experiences of your, of your passion and hobbies and things that you enjoy, that will take you so much farther earlier than anything else. When I was 14, 15, I discovered lifting. And I was like, I want to lift. I want to be on social media for this. I want to inspire people and help people. And I learned that from a young age and I kind of had so many other distractions that weren't my true passions that ended up leading me to a very kind of dark place in 2018 when I went to college for lacrosse. And if I would have actually listened to my own heart from a young age, maybe I wouldn't have had that happen. Now I'm grateful that happened.

What happened in the dark place?

So I was a top ranked lacrosse player my whole life. I played out in New Jersey, played on the travel teams, played all year round, like literally every day. And this is like the whole relentless thing of like, go, go, go. And from 15, I knew where I was going to college, fully committed, had a 90 scholarship to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Like, it's almost, it's like an almost like Ivy League school. Very, very good academics and the sports teams are really good. It's Division one was everything that me and my family ever thought was the right thing for me to do. But I always had this passion of fitness and social media that I, I just knew for a fact that I was going to do what I'm doing now. Like, if someone said if younger Jesse saw you now, would he be surprised? And I'd be like, no. Like I, I literally just like knew something in my brain was like, it will happen. It's just a matter of when and when I Got so deep. Got so deep in lacrosse. And I'm trying to do social media a little, but, like, it's just nearly impossible. Like, I don't have time. I don't have the energy to do this. I'm doing as much as I can, but it's not enough. And I go play at college, I play at Lehigh, and I'm kind of just being shoved down this path of should rather than meant to. Like, it's very much, you should be doing this rather than you're meant to be doing this. And I feel like that is that those two words have separated my decisions so much since then. Where, like, things that you should do. Okay, maybe you should do it. But, like, are you really going to put all your effort in the things you should do? Or what about things you're meant to? And I didn't know this until I started getting really, really depressed. And I've always been a really happy person. I've dealt with anxiety and stuff. Like, I. I'm an anxious person. I feel like it's kind of why I'm all like, ADHD and go, go, go. It helps me feel better that I'm moving and doing things. But growing up, definitely started getting, like, a little bit of depression, a little bit of, like, just this feeling that I'm. I'm at unease at all times. And then when I was basically playing lacrosse, every day, all day is the only thing I could think about. When I was at college, I started really losing, like, who I was and. And who I was meant to be. And I knew I wanted to be that, but I just. I wasn't allowed to. And that suppression just, like, held me down so much. And I. I always compare it. I literally remember telling the coach when I was quitting, I. He's like, what. What do you feel? And I said, I feel that someone is holding me by the neck in, like, shallow water, and. And I cannot get up. And it's just this, like, trap that I'm under and no one's touching me. I just. I don't know how. It's so, like, clear that that's the exact feeling I felt. Just I could not get up. And luckily, through a lot of talking to my mom and, And. And my sister, and I didn't really tell my dad any of it because I just. I was like, he's not going to accept it. Like, truthfully, he's changed so much through this experience, this whole story. But at first I was like, there's no point of telling dad. Like, he's just going to say like, you'll be fine. Just suck it up. Like you can get through it. Because that's just. That's all he knows. So when I'm feeling this, these terrible feelings, I'm. I'm confused. And if I even want to be alive anymore, like in my brain, I'm logically smart enough to know that I'm not going to, you know, un alive myself or anything. Like, I'm like, there's a way out. I know there's a way out. My mom's always told me when things are like this, like she'd explain experiences of her own, that I need to talk to someone, that it's never that bad. And I'm trying to tell myself this, but it's hard to. You're. You're like, logically, I know that, but. But I don't feel that way at all.

Yeah.

And my brain was set that if I'm here for another year doing this, I'm actually genuinely scared that I'm going to do something stupid. And maybe that's not the right word, but I'm gonna do something dangerous for myself. And that scared the, the fuck out of me thinking that thought of like in six months I might think, like.

That triggered a change.

And I was like, I. I cannot have that. And that literally was like, that was the pure change. I was like, I'm not letting that happen. Like, I do love life. I know I do. I normally do. But right now I don't. So I'm gonna make a change. I. I remember breaking down crying in target.

Like you, you know, you did.

I swear to God. No, you didn't. I swear to God. I swear to God. I went to Target. It was like parents weekend at college. And my dad was in the car still. They just saw me play scrimmage. I had a great game, I scored a few goals. My dad thinks everything's good. I'm in the Target. I'm walking my mom to check out. I start crying. I can't, I can't help it. Tears are going out and she's like, what's going on? I just say, I'm like, I'm like, I can't be here. Like, I'm so unhappy. I have no interest in girls lately. Like just no interest in anything. And I was always chasing girls. Like that was the, that was a fun thing in life. Like when you're young. That was like. I was like, why do I have. I have no interests? Like, the only thing I had interest in was going to the gym, truly. And listening to good music. No. Anything else. You could have punched me in the face and I would have been like, all right, whatever. Like, I'm bleeding from the nose now, you know, So I remember that happened and that was. She literally looked at me and was like, I'm going to tell your father. I don't care. Whatever you want. That's what's happening. If you want to leave, you're leaving. She just. You saw it on my face. That was like kind of the breaking of the ice in the family. And my dad, he, he had no problem. He was like, okay, like this. He knew my mom was, was standing on business. Like Justin Bieber says, you know, you only said, yeah, I don't know. I'm joking. Shit. But I should essentially now it's time I got to tell the coach that I'm. That I'm depressed, I'm leaving, I'm not taking the scholarship, I have to transfer schools. And I never forget. I put on a song like, it was like one of my hype gym songs.

Which one?

It was called Raised by Wolves by Falling in Reverse. It's like this like really like heavy guitar riff. He knows and it's fast. And I, I was doing this to literally prepare myself to go confront my coach. He, He's a great guy. Like, he had. He wasn't mad. He was very concerned. But like when you're 18 and you're literally about to alter your entire life based on literally one sentence saying, I'm quitting.

Yeah. One crying session in Target. Yeah.

Yeah. And one crying. You know what it does to you?

It's freaking.

It's powerful.

It's therapy.

Shout out Target.

Yeah, shout out Target.

Listen.

They lure you in and they get you to cry.

It's emotional.

It's a self discovery system. Yeah. That red dot, it's like low key.

Something about it. And yeah, I went in and I explained myself and I was so stern. It was one of the things where I remember thinking, like, you could offer me a million bucks and I'm not taking it. Like, I'm leaving. I don't care what you offer. Spoke to him, got it done. I. I ripped the band aid off. It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my. Like I've done hard things in my life physically. But to. As a choice in life as a teenager, that was the hardest thing. I'm not, I'm not with my parents. No friend, no family. As one on one with a, with a 45 year old man. That's paying you $60,000 a year to go there, basically. And I'm like, I'm not doing this. And that literally that exact day and experience altered my life forever. Where I now know that I'm the only one that's going to make the choice to save or break me. It's up to us as a singular person to define your choices and take a path. What was a great learning experience from this whole thing was that there is no one path that you have to be on. And that when you step off one path, there's another one waiting for you. And there's no dead end. It's a constant new path that you're stepping on. And as a teenager learning this, like, I felt like I woke up from life and I, I didn't understand life fully. Still don't. But I was like, wow, this is different now.

So now at 25 years old, how, how is your mental wellness?

I honestly, I think about this often and I think, I think I have times of like, either imposter syndrome sometimes because I'm constantly doing big things that are bigger than before and I'm like, like, I know I belong here, but this is, this is like, kind of hard to believe. So I feel like I'll deal with that a little bit. I definitely have the least amount of anxiety. I have almost no depression, I could say right now, none, zero. I have not felt depressed. It took a few years after 2018, took to like 2020, basically, until you get out of it, to get out of that, like, that. Like, I felt like I had, like, scars, like emotional scars, and took to like 2020. And that's when my career in fitness and influencing started to take off. And I feel like when I was really doing my, my life pursuit that I, that I was meant to do, I was healing myself, doing that. I would say. I, I'm really. I. I maybe very so often have, you know, a little spike of anxiety. Most of the time it's, I'll have, it's. It's near after having caffeine and then something negative in the business going like a fire that I need to put out. And it's a typical, you know, entrepreneurial anxiety. Like, oh, let's, we gotta fix this right now. That's where my anxiety stems, really. And then outside of that, I feel like I've really built my life and surrounded myself with people that allow me to be calmer and better. Better version of myself. Like, my wife absorbs all my anxiety and just it and deletes it. She Hits control, alt, delete on it. And it's just, I'm like, when I'm with her, it's very calm. She's a really calm person. I'm kind of like the spontaneous over the top one and she's the calm one that, that like the, it's just like it's a golden retriever, black cat kind of thing. And she's really calm and, and it's amazing. And I feel like as I've developed and gotten older, I've also just learned how to deal with anxiety where when I'm younger it might have turned to anger, it might have turned to just, yeah, an out, like a speaking out, things I shouldn't have said or yelling at somebody. And now I'm like, okay, I'm feeling anxiety in my head. Tell myself you are feeling anxiety. If you, if you zoom out and you see yourself in third person, like nothing has changed. You're just feeling this internally. Accept that you're feeling it and do something either about it or we're just going to, we're going to sit in it and feel it for a little.

I had a similar cycle with my depression. Yeah, just observe it that you are not it. Yeah, yeah. Once you get to see as a, as a thing other than you. I wrote this essay, Jesse, about the end of human greatness. And in the essay I was postulating that with AI improving at the speed as it is and now that AI models can basically become you, like there's a Brian AI model that. There's enough that I've said and written that it is pretty close to being me. I can converse with it. And it's pretty similar. You give it a question and it has very similar mental models, very similar branches of thought. And so we're really at this interesting time. So you just articulated where you've been from an emotional journey of how you deal with maturing, dealing with hard life circumstances. We've walked through the pressures you feel on a day to day basis of the intense work schedule you have maybe the slight discomfort of nothingness and how you deal with that and. But you can overcome it in vacation. We're now entering this new era of being human where it's not quite clear what the rules of the games are. Will we be working? Will we not? Will we have the same level of satisfaction? Will AI, will there be a Jesse James West AI that is better than you? And you're like, bro, you're still in my thunder. I want to be me, but you're doing a better job and it creates better banger videos. It has better thumbnails, you know, like, like, so do you think, where are we at in time? And like, if we're entering this phase that's moving, how do you create mental models of yourself and of the world given that this landscape is not quite certain where it's going?

You know, I'm excited as hell about AI. Like, I know some people are probably like, oh, it's going to be bad. We have no idea, I guess, of what could happen. But for me, it excites me because there, you know, how many times have. Have you said, I wish I could just duplicate myself? And that would be my, like, next employee. Like, why can't I just make another.

Brian, the assumption is that you control that version of you. Yeah, okay. Yes.

So I think, like, that that excites me to. To think that I might be able to almost expand myself in a way of, of whether I'm working synergistically with them or they're doing some sort of task or maybe they're the ones. I don't know, maybe, maybe they're on screen. We have. I don't know what the outcome will be. I think everyone's going to have to learn how to use it properly. And that's almost going to be the next courses and that's going to be the next curriculum eventually. And because that's the thing, like, people are like, oh, college is like, pointless. People can just do these. Not pointless. But college is less effective because ChatGPT and you could just write essays in seconds. And it's like, okay, when a car was made and we first learned to put gasoline in it, someone might have been like, but what if people. What if the horse and. Horse and buggy can't carry people anymore? It's like, well, then you adapt like the horses for something else. Horses for horse riding and the buggy. We took the parts and made a car with, like, it's all about evolving with the game. I feel, and I. Not knowing where the game's gonna go is crazy. But also, if someone was to say, can you think of something that doesn't exist? It's. It's almost. It's near impossible. You're like, I don't fucking know. Like, it doesn't exist. I think of a color. It doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. But the fact that we're me unlocking things that literally don't exist is so crazy and I love it. That's one thing. I actually want to hire somebody that's an expert in AI and be like, I want you to either build a system within my, my team's workflow or teach me how to do it.

Yeah, you can just hire an AI for that.

That's what, like I pretend you're an AI guy that I'm hiring.

There you go.

Teach me how to do this. Yeah, I guess so.

Yeah.

Do you use a lot of AI in what you stop nonstop. Is there an AI Brian? Am I talking AI Brian right now? Is he real?

He would probably do a better job.

Are we going to.

AI implies at this point he would like this AI would have run every word you've ever spoken. Ever done a deep analysis on that, seen patterns that I can't see, offer up insights, questions, and then penetrated the questions in a way that would even have surprised you. We've danced around a few topics like this and that, but I would imagine that it just, it's going to be more robust, it's going to have better insights. This is the thing that I think is really on the front door. And as I think about the 14 year old. So my son's, you know, Talmadge, who's here, he's just turned 20 and he's now trying to decide how to model out his life. And so this is why I asked the question for you. You're in the middle of it. Like, you're, you're in the middle of a societal system jamming out content, you're doing tons of videos, you have a lot of success behind you. When we were together two years ago, you're clearly climbing and doing bigger and better things all the time. And so it's just a. So normally we'd say we take this and we can map out a life of like, here's how it looks.

Yeah.

Whereas now it's like a curveball of where do we go, what do we do? So, Jesse, over the past couple years I've been really hard at work building my own protocol. But I'm curious, what is your protocol for health? Like, how do you actually approach. What do you do?

The Jesse James green print is quite crazy.

Green print, green print. Okay.

Am I gonna get sued? So it's definitely, it's evolved. I, honestly, ever since I met you, it's evolved even more. I, I've always been a very fitness focused person. I've always, you know, I wake up at a very reasonable time. I've never been somebody that's like an extreme night owl.

You wake, you go to bed.

At what time I go to bed? Probably I would say, on average, it's between 10 to 11:30. And then I'm getting up at like 8. 8, 8, 8 to 9, depending on if I. If I stay up till midnight. If I'm up till midnight, it's a little later.

What happens before 10? Are you on screens?

Yeah.

Yeah. What time's your last meal?

I try to, like, stop eating before 10, for sure. Like, at least an hour. In a perfect world, it's. It's eight. Like, if I'm on. If I'm on a strict diet, it's eight. Because I.

Because I actually, if you're doing a competition or something.

Yeah, yeah. I'm like. I'm like, I don't eat past eight because I just. I don't have enough calories left. I do enjoy my snacks at night.

I really enjoy. What's your go to move?

Let's think. I love. I love some sort of, like, rice cakes are pretty fire. Oh, I'm obsessed with Greek yogurt. Obsessed.

Do you combine the rice cakes with the Greek yogurt?

I haven't done that yet.

Do you dip it?

No. That sounds amazing, though. I feel like one truvia, you know, like, I just make sweeten it a little or a little Honey. Yeah, that's like.

That's.

That's lately my. My like, evening snack.

Is there a place in your house where you sit?

Definitely in front of the tv.

Yeah. So it's on a couch.

Couch.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And what's your posture? You're, like, laying down. Yeah. All right, There you go. Sit back. And where's the phone?

Probably like, it's either. You know what my phone is. Either I chuck it over there because I'm like. I don't. I don't want to have that dual stimulus is ridiculous. I'll either, like, throw it over there and just be like, hanging out. My wife or the show sucks and I'm like this. And she's watching.

Yeah.

And then I would say that's, like, kind of like my night. I'll go to bed. Let's say 11 every night before bed. I've. I've always been very strict on my skin care since I was probably 14.

Yeah.

Like, even my friends, they know, like, I never skipped a day.

You wash your face?

I wash my face. I do. What do I do? I do a toner. I do hyaluronic acid. I do tretinoin. Just a little bit. And then I do a moisturizer.

Yeah.

And that's like my nighttime, you know, little glass skin.

Yeah.

My wife is a. It's kind of like a beauty influencer. So she has like a billion products that she either uses or just gives to me. I've learned through her. I used to use like snail mucin. Like the Korean kind of look. Yeah, the Korean kind of skin care and stuff. So that's my nighttime. Then I wake up at, let's say. Let's say 8:15, just to be like, you know, in the middle. Sometimes I'm. I. Sometimes I check my phone and I get in the habit of like, is there a fire on. On in the business?

Yeah, like, give me an example of a fire.

Would be like, video got age restricted. And I'm like, me, man. Like, and it's. And I posted it yesterday and I'm like, it's. It's.

You missed out on all these views.

All these views are messed up. I gotta hit up my YouTube rep. I gotta. I gotta go look at what it. What it did appeal. It. Try to figure it out. And it's like a whole chaotic nightmare that's always like, very. But I have, like, I have a system now to not have that happen. And thankfully it hasn't happened in a while, but. So let's just say there's no fire. The perfect morning. I'm getting up. I. I'd say 50 of the time to 70 of the time, depending on how good I am. No phone, wake up immediately, take a pee. I brush my teeth, mouthwash, rinse my face. I don't really wash in the morning because I get too dry. Probably put moisturizer on head downstairs. In a perfect world, I know I'm doing sunscreen. I skipped a step. I was doing it for a while, having it a while.

But I'll be honest, there's no judgment for my. Yeah, I'm with you, man.

And then I go down. I chug a big thing of water with electrolytes just to get that hydration going.

How much sodium?

I think it's 750 milligrams with potassium.

The magnesium.

Yeah, it's. It's by Derek. More place. More dates. Like the. You had them on your. On your podcast.

Yeah.

And so I have that one pack every day. Chug that down. Then I have my. I just. I basically just have Greek yogurt in the morning lately. Like, just probably almost. Almost a cup. It's quite a lot. But like I said, I'm addicted to Greek yogurt, man. And then from there I will have a coffee. And then once I kind of have all that, I'll let my dog out and stuff. And then I'll most likely get into like the. The work that requires a lot of brain power. Depending on the phase of the year, I'll be either cold, plunging and then working or just lately. I don't cold plunge lately, but I'll get right into work and that's most of the time. The work that I do then is the creative decision making. Like my brain hasn't made any decisions besides waking up and brushing my teeth. So it's like I'm super fresh. I'll review videos, I'll review like maybe like the, the pre shoot. The pre shoot script, like what's coming up. I'll get back to everyone on my team. Kind of like all the computer writing and decisions. Like I did that all right away because I've tried it at night and my brain is a little slower by then. By 11, in a perfect world, I'm lifting, hitting the weights at the gym or the house. I have a home gym. Yeah, a little nicer than yours. I should.

Yeah, yeah. But you have the. Do you have the forest?

I don't have the forest, man.

What's your vibe?

I'll give you. The walls are like concrete, kind of like your bathroom. Like that concrete brush look. Then we have a nice accented black wall with these like, kind of like these beam lights, like like little dashes. So it's kind of like slight futuristic but very modern and minimalistic.

S tier.

Yeah. Oh, I mean like that's God tier, bro.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'll hit my lift and then honestly it's just more work, more, more. Make some meals that are healthy. Take my dog for a walk and that's kind of my. That's like my chill. That's like my at home, not nothing really going on that much.

Do you have a routine measurement? Do you do measure biomarkers, blood, do any imaging?

Typically I do like one blood test a year to make sure my testosterone and all is cooking. I need to get on that. I haven't in a while. I feel good though. I feel like my test is real high.

Yeah.

Like I feel like. I feel like I haven't competed in bodybuilding in over two years. And I can promise you my test is so much higher now. Like it gets crushed, which is so unhealthy and like bodybuilding.

So how low to get?

200. Wow, bro. I felt terrible.

Yeah.

But now that I haven't competed in so long, it's around 700. Like it. It normally it used to be. I Used to compete and take a year off and then compete and repeat and it would range about 500. But I took a full year and a half off of competing and I got all the way up to 700. That's also with eating more whole foods. I stopped eating low calorie things like the like low calorie syrup. It's just chemicals, it's trash. My wife is like, throws that shit out. She's like, you eat the real shit. And I'm like, honestly? Because I used to be afraid of the calories.

Yeah.

Like it's 150 calories wasted of sugar. She's like, yeah, but it's not chemicals. It's probably, it's not. It's like the organic one from the farm down the street. You know we try to eat really healthy. Yeah. We just eat healthy, train a lot, work a lot. That's like the at home schedule, I would say. My. I don't really have like a strict protocol on, on supplements yet. I do honestly do plan. I know you're sending me some the blueprint. Yeah, we're going to start annihilating those things.

Good.

Hell yeah.

Never a better time than now. Yeah.

I think the biggest thing for me like I really, I. The anti aging stuff is so interesting to me and I know I'm like technically like young to be really interested in it but obviously I've seen what you've done. We did the video two years ago where you were showing me all the stuff. I tried it out. We tried some stuff today. To me it's more interesting than bodybuilding for me. Like I feel that I will do slowly less and less bodybuilding and just maintain a nice solid aesthetic physique and be focused on pure mobility, longevity, health markers for the long term. I used to wear the whoop a lot. They did sponsor me for a while. Most. That was one of the main reasons I was wearing it. But the one thing it was, it was, it was constantly telling me that I wasn't very, very well recovered.

Yeah.

And I was like, but my sleep was perfect. I had 100% sleep and then my recovery was like 70. You know, maybe sometimes if it was, if it was 60 or below, I wouldn't work out that day.

Yeah.

But it was, I was like, I don't feel that though. Like I feel great today. Why is it telling me that I'm 60 or 65 today? I started almost feeling what the measurement was.

Yeah.

Like I would look at it in the morning and be like, oh, it's a It's a low day. I gotta like, I can't do much.

A lot of people have that. The thing is about health, about aging, is that I realized, yeah, you're 25 years old and we have this really good system in capitalism where you have a certain amount of money in your bank account and when you spend money, it lowers your bank account. You're like, oh, spending money lowers bank account or making money increases bank account. But we don't have the same kind of accounting system for age. And so we basically, like, we look at ourselves in the mirror every day and we're like, yeah, about the same. Or like I kind of feel the same. And so we don't understand at a molecular level what's happening inside. So there's no accounting. So people spend down their life just like they spend on a bank account and they don't realize they're spending it down. And so that's what measurement does. It's basically like a bank account where you see either the numbers, are you increasing in wealth or decreasing in wealth when you're 25, you think, I'm 100%. Like, there is no spend. Like, yeah, I'm the same age and I feel the same every day. And so that's, that's the trick is people say, they think it's like too early to start. Even in their teens, they think, I like, good, I'm going to be a teenager for life.

Yeah. I think one of the crazy things when you're young per se is you look at older people and it almost, I feel like I don't do it anymore. But I used to look at older people and it was almost as if they were different species.

Yes.

Like you're like, oh, that's. I am not, I'm not that species.

They're so far away from reality, you'll never be it.

But as you, as I, as my frontal lobe has developed, I'm like, oh my God. Wait. Yeah, he was once exactly this 80 year old man that's like just hobbling through the street or whatever. Like he was like, he was a boy. He still is a. There's a boy inside of, you know, inside of him. And it's so eye opening. And that's when I'm like, okay, that's where health matters so much. My mom, I have a very fit family. My dad runs a ton. Super healthy. My mom's super, My mom's jacked as hell. Like, like, just like aesthetic shreds. It's where I get a lot of my genetics. I think and I'm always on the phone and like her, some of her brothers are having like some health scares and stuff. And I try to give my advice of what I think could help and whatnot. And I tell her, I'm like, at this point in your life, she's 58, I believe I was like, at this point in your life your health is the number one priority. Like, because she's like, I, I don't want to only be around for 15 more years. I want to have so many more years. I'm not ready, I'm not ready to do it because she's starting, you know, it's starting to click like that her family is having health struggles and maybe that could have a major problem and she doesn't want to have that. And I just tell her, I'm like, just keep eating healthy, keep working on, on, on weightlifting, keep your mobility, keep all like, all the like the basic things that people have always told us like just keep doing and make sure dad's doing it and make sure you guys aren't just falling into the comfort and like get your blood work done. I always am trying to. My dad got his blood work done because he was feeling like a little off during some time and it turns out he actually had higher testosterone than me, which was crazy. But there were certain markers on him that Derek More Plates literally was given advice on what he should take, what he shouldn't do and he was working on his health and I'm just like, guys, health at anyone's age should be number one. But I feel like it's, it's, it's, you're very short sighted when you're young to think like, ah, I'll worry about health when I need to. Like I feel like once you get a certain age like you have to actually put it first or it's just steadily declining and, and you will just fall into comfort.

Yeah.

Do you think you'll ever, ever be an 80 year old man that actually looks 80 or you think you're going to like, do you think your look will stop? What is the goal with, with, with blueprint?

So it has been to slow down, speed, evasion. So I now I age half. So 12 months pass, I age for six months of that. That's been the most stunning thing we've accomplished.

That's crazy.

Yeah. And so I think slowing down is possible to some extent but we can't really reverse very well. And so you can offset some damage, like you can repair some, you know, worn down ligaments. You can make your heart run better or try to like chip away at some aging damage. But generally speaking, you can't reverse age yet. So like you can't take a 47 year old kidney or liver and like make it 19 years old. The technologies that are being built are age reversal. And so I think, yeah, in the next like 10, 20, 30 years, I think we will start reversing age of organs. I think we'll succeed. First things like liver, kidney, lungs, heart. I think the brain is going to be the toughest. So we may have, we may be very.

Oh my gosh. Everyone lives forever, but they all got like dementia.

Exactly. The brain is going to.

That's a crazy world.

Brain tough.

We need like AI in our brain.

Yeah, but like maybe, maybe there's gonna be a twist in the discovery where the brain actually is the one that is the easiest because we figure out something. Yeah, but I think I'm 47 now. My natural lifespan would be like 30, 40, 50 years. You know, in that, in that range, I think the discoveries that could happen to make this possible will, will most likely happen in that window, the time window. Given AI progress. Yeah, totally. I'm pretty bullish. I don't think that I would say my. The biggest risk is probably societal collapse or societal catastrophe on some level.

Yeah.

Greater probability than me not, you know.

Dying of natural causes or like a second ice age.

Yeah, you gotta watch out, bro. I mean like, honestly I feel like that would.

That would happen before we. Like that would, of course that would happen. You know, I mean like some shit like that. Do you, do you think that this is kind of like about aliens?

Yeah.

So we've, we've excelled so far in this lifetime. Yeah, whatever. Let's just say from year zero to now or whatever the years were, it doesn't matter. But millions of years as human species and you know how they're like, they discover like cities under these grounds and like ancient technology. That's not the technology we used. Do you think that there was an entirety of a different. Let's just say human race. Let's say if we're the human race now, there was an entire one before us that got wiped out that had technology, had anti aging, had whatever the hell it was or part alien. Do you think that exists?

Okay, my best guess would be no, that we would have discovered some evidence in the fossil record that if we could have pieced it together, like are there anomalies? Like how did the pyramids get built? Like, interesting. Like I think one of the more Weirder things that could happen is that we figure out that an alien species actually lives on this planet right now and they're outside our perception that like we like any like the paranormal things that happen. You know where the paranormal people are like, I swear it's legit. And then there's like entire group people are like, that's crazy. You know you.

Have you ever had any like.

Yeah, the paran people are like, I swear it's legit. And then there's like entire group people are like, that's crazy. You know you.

Have you ever had any like paranormal things?

No, but that's like the, that's the funniest outcome of that. Basically all the wackos of society who we've called wackos, they actually saw it. They're seeing it and everyone else is. Yeah.

So that conversation, dude. Oh my God. You're like, oh no. That guy, that guy's.

He.

He's got some problems. He's nuts.

Exactly.

He says he's seeing things. He's in that dimension, bro.

The funniest thing is when the sane become the insane and the insane become the sane. That would be the irony. I would love to see.

Damn. Have you ever done any sort of like brain altering substances for the purpose of anti aging or like brain discovery? Yeah, I know you posted about like mushrooms or something or psychedelics being beneficial.

No, we just did a deep dive and so we looked at what psychedelic drugs have the strongest properties for anti aging and we ranked them. So yeah, it was still, if I remember correctly, psilocybin, ketamine, lsd, ibogaine. And then I think the ones clearly that did not have a pro, you know, anti aging actually were aging were heroin, meth chemistry, cocaine. Fentanyl is not an anti aging, that's an anti.

Anti.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Anti everything.

So yeah, we're actually, we're designing now we're looking at how to trial an anti aging drug. So like for example, it would be interesting to do. Yeah. So like do a psilocybin. Go. Go somewhere like Mexico to Mexico, set up a protocol and then measure everything. Like do brain, age, body. Like just measure the entire body and say what effect does that have on the body? So we're planning that out.

That's so cool. I don't want to commit to it but if you maybe just let me know, let me know, I'll decide on the spot.

Do you want to go?

Maybe that'd be a crazy experience in video.

Exactly. Then you document. I was thinking about this. This Morning.

Oh, my gosh.

You document the entire thing, right? So you're actually in there, and you're, like, trying to explore it. You're also doing vital checks, so you're checking, looking at central blood pressure, and, dude, that's crazy. And so I measured my brain on ketamine. I did these really? I did the ketamine. I wore Colonel's brain. Your face. And I said, like, what happens to the brain when you do ketamine? Wow.

Do you make a video about that?

Yeah.

I got to watch that. Is it out?

It's, like, years ago.

Oh, wow.

Wasn't our recent video stuff. It was, like, four years ago.

What was the first thing that you did where you're like. Like, that triggered blueprint basically triggered the path, like, you step. What was the first stepping stone of your path that you're on now back in whenever, like, where you see a wrinkle and you're like, no more.

That was probably like, do I commit suicide or not? Yeah. It's probably like, that is a bifurcation of, like, do you want to live or not? Wow.

You went from not wanting to live to literally wanting to live forever. What do you think, like, change there?

I mean, it's like, I've read the philosopher Albert Camus, and you know, what an incredible intellectual force, and he just said, there's no meaning to life. Like, it's absolutely meaningless. And that if you recognize, if you reconcile with that, then the only question you have is, like, what do you do? And he said, you just play. Like, you just play your game. And so I thought, like, in that moment, the only answer is, existence itself is the highest virtue. Like, everything else you do after you exist is a meaning making game of some kind of story, which is all, like, we just make it up. Existence is the thing. And so that's what kind of started this whole thing of, like, actually maybe we're changing from death being inevitable to not dying, and it's gonna take us with us on this magical ride.

Dude, life is crazy.

This is, like, the moment we live in is. It's beyond our comprehension.

Do you have any practices for just mindfulness, like, being, like, present?

I do breath work and meditation twice a day. Oh, wow. Yeah. Morning right when I wake up, and then before I go to bed.

Beautiful. I do this thing where I don't know what the hell. I. I don't know where I found it. I. I'll be looking at somebody. I kind of. I need to hone in on a thing.

Yeah.

And in my head I'm going. I make like that noise like I'm talking to myself. My conscious is, is going.

Yeah.

And I. And it blocks out everything. Like all you hear, all your brain is thinking is. And I just look and I really lock in and I don't know.

I love BRO.

And it helps.

Yeah.

Helps wearing my glasses too.

Yeah. So you do this when you're talking to somebody?

Yeah. Like, like I was literally at the altar getting married and I was like, I would do it for like a second to like lock in and I swear to God, I've never been so present in my life. I was so fearful of getting married and I'm always just kind of passing through things, doing things and not always mindful and on to the next. I had a huge fear of going through my wedding day and being like, damn. Like I wasn't present. And I did a few of my. I swear, dude, I locked in and I was there.

Did you write vows?

We did.

What was your vow? What'd you say in your vows?

In a summary, I, I stated how I truly never thought I was gonna find love. Like I thought I was gonna be single for the rest of my life. Yeah, I was just like, I think it was like a self doubt that, that maybe I was like deserving of, of an actual like love from somebody else. I just like, like why would you, like, why would you. Why would someone want to be loving me? Which was kind of stems from like, like a, an insecurity or something, I guess. But so I started with that and then I moved into how, how she makes me a better person by. Because she's so empathetic and so kind. And I was saying how like, you know, you're gorgeous, but that's not the best part about you. It's about how, how you make everyone else around you better. And your kindness rubs off on me and reminds me to always be empathetic to other people and like really just be there for people. I made a, A, a list of promises to always give my 110 in the, in the relationship and to always put our future family.

That's mathematically incorrect.

What? 110?

You can't. Did she tell you?

She stopped me mid vows and was like, Jesse, you be correct that 100. Yeah, yeah. Just like promising to give my all in, in the way that I do with everything in my life. And then I, I wrote something about how we're not just husband and wife, but we're, we're soulmates and that I'll find her in the next and the next and the next life. And you know what's crazy? She wrote nearly the same damn things. We, we did not read each other's. We didn't write them next to each other. We wrote them at different times. And there was a few, like, key points that were like, probably big points for both of us that we both were on the same wavelength. So I was like, that's beautiful.

Yeah. How long have you known her?

I think I could say 44 exact years now.

Yes.

Four full year. Four years and a little bit. Yeah, we probably will. Yeah. I think it's where we're at the point where it's like we're just not going to not try and just.

Oh, just let it go.

If it happens, it happens. I don't know though.

You're icing in the sauna.

I gotta start doing that.

Yeah. After that.

Heard that. I was like, that's a good. I actually like. Because I told you I had that like at home sauna thing and I plan to get a wooden sauna.

Yeah.

And I was like, oh, I gotta keep that.

Have you measured your. Your fertility markers?

I have not. It's again, one of those things that.

You should do it. There's a few companies who have at home tests.

They do.

Yeah. That's really. Yeah.

I didn't want it to go somewhere and like, you know, bust one out real quick.

Yeah. And rooms are like. Yeah. They have magazines and I was gonna.

Have to ask the one of the nurses, like one of the guy nurses. It can't be a woman because I'm married, but the guy guy nurses. I'm gonna ask him to come help. And I feel like they find that weird at home.

Get your. Get. You can find out like your count motility, morphology. So it's really easy to do, but definitely know your numbers. I also, I did a microplastics test recently. I have microplastics in my ejaculate. What? Yeah.

From what?

I mean, just like, you know, like going about in the world like we have. All of us have just have microplastics.

Do you. Do you believe in the whole, like, you can't wear a certain type of underwear type thing that it lowers test?

I mean, I primarily wear cotton.

I was going to ask like, there's like a certain material people avoid. Like polyesters.

Exactly. Yeah.

Shoot. My.

Yeah. You want to. Yeah. You probably want to wear cottons.

Oh, my boys.

Yeah, exactly. Like, protect the boys, dude.

I got to protect them, man.

Yeah.

What, what, what are top five Tips that I could go change today for anti aging or just health. Being healthier. I mean, we know sleep, no sleep. Can't. Don't give me that one.

I'd say one, change your mindset to don't die number one. So there's. Yeah, there's this idea right now that like, when death is inevitable, we basically, we create a religion out of dai. So you actually martyr yourselves. Like, you stay up late, you eat junk food, you. You're willing to trade life for financial success or status of power or something like that. It's a form of martyrdom. And so the first one on don't die is like, you're just trying to train your mind to be aware, self aware. You actively commit slow suicide. And you call it, you know, living your best life or eating pancakes, like work ethic or like, like whatever, fill in your blank. But we basically, we glorify killing ourselves. So number one, it's like a mentality, like really shift it. And when you do that, you see everybody around you basically practicing slow boil suicide. That's crazy. And they're dancing. They're like, this is flourishing. And in while they're doing that, they're literally shrinking their consciousness. Like when you lose hearing.

Yeah.

You can't experience consciousness as fully. When your brain shrinks or your eyesight gets worse, you shrink your consciousness.

I don't like that.

It's like you literally like the. Like reality is getting smaller, and then as it gets smaller, you're like, fuck, yeah. You know, I was out there. Like, we pounded, you know, we got drunk, and then we blink and you're celebrating this stuff. So one is the don't die like mindset.

Yeah.

Two.

More of a religion.

It is.

I'm being for real.

Yeah. You want to be in you cult leader.

Yes, you are.

Yes.

All right. I mean, then at least you're honest. An honest cult leader is a better one.

Why deny it?

Cheers. So don't die.

Jesse, I'm so glad you're in.

Dude, I am in. So when do we drink each other's blood?

That's initiation too. We'll get there.

What's. What's number two on the list?

Number two is just start with basic measurement. So just the intuition. So people have wearables. I know sometimes can be a complicated relationship with wearables because they can say, you feel like this. You're like, I actually feel good. But you told me I feel bad. So like, I've got over that hump. Like I. I'm at a good place with measurement but just intuitively understand what to measure. Like blood work is really great. Wearables are really great. Yeah. That leads you to things like icing in the sauna is bad. Otherwise you miss these really big things in life and you're not aware of. So measurement three. So this is what I was asking. What I was really trying to get at is you're a hard charging entrepreneur and you're playing social media. Like you describe your day from 7:30 to 10:30. You get on the plane, phone's up, scroll ideas, writing down like you're doing this. That is tough. And in doing that you're naturally exposed to these relative comparisons. Like you see someone who has more views or you see someone who like. And there's. It's like a absolute clusterfuck of emotions where I know when I engage on online it's never like I'm walking away. Like I feel like a better human. I feel up, I'm exposed to like.

All things life, dysmorphia. It's like, it's like something dysmorphia. There's always something there.

Like there's like a subject, something interesting, something. There's something educational, there's something totally fucked up. There's something very emotionally disturbing. There's something that unsettles me. It's like it just fucks me up. I never ever leave social interaction feeling like I'm a better person. And I do it because I feel like I have to play the game. And it sucks. I hate it. I wish social media didn't exist.

Damn. Do you like doing it? Like we're on the pod, we're talking.

This is cool. I like playing the game and I like like sparring with trolls and hate like I like that whole game. I really.

Dude, I love the like bro Brian that you do. That's like you don't know what you're talking about. Go to sleep. You. I, I love that. It's so funny.

That's cool. That's good to hear.

Yeah, I think it's so funny cuz it's like, it's. It's like the perfect amount of humor. But you're being dead serious too. It's so good.

The three is mental health.

Okay.

I would say one is realize that most everybody, like literally most everybody is depressed and anxious and insecure and is hurting and like it's a disaster in their own mind. And they put on a pretty face and they smile and they're telling you all the great things about their life inside. They're in pain. And so realizing there's that disconnect between what you feel and what you think others feel. And so mental health is just, it's a, it's a lonely battle and you don't dare share with people. Like, I'm in pain. I hate what I'm doing. I wish I didn't have to do it. You just can't say those things. So I'm feeling trapped. Just know everybody else is also in pain and it's okay. But there's also things that of course, that are increasing pain. Like every. Corporations are basically saying, scroll my app, you know, do infinite scroll, eat my junk food, do this thing. And they're asking you to basically sacrifice your life so they can have profit. It's such a fucked up trade. It is such a weird thing. And that comes at the cost of your mental health. Because like otherwise if you say things like take pills or work out or sleep, whatever. No, like those are like too bland and. But those three things, like the pillars.

Of life, you know, I don't think you need four or five.

Exactly three.

Kill those.

Yeah. All right, let me just. That's pretty impressive. Yeah, it's pretty impressive, Brian.

So obviously bodybuilding.

Yeah.

A lot of it correlates with steroids. I'm a natural bodybuilder. I don't take steroids. I'm not on anything. In terms of health and anti aging. How negative are steroids?

Yeah, I haven't done the analysis. I know they do come at a cost. I don't know the exact numbers because.

I feel this is, this is just my witnessing of my observation. There are bodybuilders that go on steroids in their 20s.

Yeah.

And they look 45.

Yeah.

And then they'll come off and literally reverse 10 years in their face. Like Larry Wheels is a prime example. Blasted gear to be the strongest guy in the world. Was like 28 or something. Looked 40, stopped taking hard steroids, only took tests just because his testosterone stopped working and literally looked 28 again or like 30. And it was the craziest change. Even in just his face and everything. It was wild.

Yeah, Mike. I was asking Mike Israel about this as well.

Yeah. Yeah.

What's his experience? And like he, he knew that was the case, that he was paying the price, but he chose to do it.

Yeah. I mean truly, that's one of the, the largest reasons I will not do it.

Yeah.

I'm like, your face literally just looks 10 years older, like within a year.

The bodybuilding community is pretty amazing.

They're Hardcore experimenters, dude, bodybuilding is only, only people that work out to be less healthy. That's the truth. Body.

True. Yeah.

But it's a sacrifice that, that, that they choose to make because they love it.

I haven't spent a lot of time in that community. I would really enjoy being there. Like, I just understand, like, what are you doing? Why are you doing it? How do you do it? How do you learn? What's your measurement protocols? Like, I was hanging out with one of the best NFL running backs and I was blown away at how normal his health regimen was. Like, wow. Diet, new nutrition and whatever.

And a lot of those guys are not eating healthy. They're eating like, they're not. They're like, I have candy every night.

We had dinner together. And just.

It's genetics. And like, you're born with a skill.

Gift and like, what he put on his plate. I was like, bro, really? You like, why are you doing that? Like, you know, you're, you're in your 20s, your peak. Like, don't do that.

I think the hardest part, as someone that I, I self, I will self claim good genetics because I can eat and still look great, but obviously I'm intelligent enough to know, like, you can't do that all the time. Like, maybe I'll have, I'll do that once in a while, but I genuinely, I probably could eat 800 calories of literal dog a day and the rest good. And look shredded and, and get all the likes on social media and stuff. I don't do it. But that's, it's like, it's almost like a, like when you, you have like some extra snacks one night and then the next day, in the third night, you're like, dude, I look the same. Like, does it really matter that much? Like, those questions I totally have had at some point and still do sometimes. And I'm like, that's why it's harder for someone with good genetics, because you can, you, you literally can eat the Oreos.

And here's the thing, though, this is what I'm saying. You, this is why measurement is so important, is you think that's the case.

You're right.

You can't see it. So you can't see your bank account.

You're right.

Your life bank account is going down and you don't see it because it's happening at the end of your telomeres and in the way your cells are interacting. So it's at a site. You can't see the cellular level. Yeah. So that's why you're. You look in the mirror like, yep, I look good. Yeah, like that. That whole bag of Oreos, like did nothing to me. That's really such a fallacy. I think in the future we'll probably have like legit bank account monitors for our health.

It's like that movie that has the minutes time, the life.

Yeah. Ten minutes.

Yeah, that's. That's crazy.

That's coming. Yeah. I mean. I mean, with my stuff, I have a pretty good clock. Like we see with pretty high fidelity what is going on on a regular basis and what things. Like, I did international travel and we measured a bunch of stuff.

Does it wreck you?

Wrecks.

Dude, when. When I saw the whole like, no red eye thing, I was like, I'm done. I agree. I'm done taking red eyes.

And also like one international flight per quarter is like a pretty good budget.

Okay. Okay.

Yeah. Back of the envelope. Because it's not just during the trip, it's 15 days afterwards. Your body is still trying to recover his architecture, dude. What?

I mean, I feel like I can agree just on the feeling.

Yeah, exactly. Your body fully doesn't restore, you know, blood glucose is messed up. So it really has this compounded long term effect.

Should you not eat on planes? I've heard Gary Brecker say that.

I don't. Yeah, I follow. I fast. Did you drink water? A lot of water?

A lot of water, yeah.

So if you do the math, it's something like on a 10 hour flight, it's like, it's like, it's like. It's like 8 ounces per hour. Something like that.

You pee a lot then.

That's the thing, right?

Dude, I. I have to. I have to have an ilc. If I'm not like anywhere else on the plane. Like, if I'm an. If I'm in the window, people. People literally be like, are you all right? And I'm like, I just. It's going through me, bro. It's all water.

Yeah. You know, if you mineralize the liquid, it has that less of a fit effect. So either if you have salt and tea or electrolyte.

Okay.

If you drink straight water, it's not as mineralized. Then you will urinate more.

Okay, good to know. That's right. That's what I figured. But yeah, I'll pee like five times on a flight.

How long is the flight?

An hour? One hour?

No, how long is the flight?

If a flight's like coming to la, like if it's like a five hour flight, I'm Definitely peeing one time per hour. Yeah, I'm definitely doing, like, two to four times.

One thing you could do is a pee test. Like, you basically fill your bladder as much as you can. So you drink as much as you can, and you hold it as long as you can, and then you empty your bladder. So you see at two data points. You. One, you get your. Your urine flow. Like, what is your speed of pee?

Yeah.

Until you get total bladder size.

Oh, wow.

And then those two things give you good baseline markers for, like, how much.

You could take in and stuff.

Yeah, just like. Yeah, your capacity. But also it gives you a biological age because, you know, urine speed is. Is biologically aged. So as you age.

That's crazy.

Your urine stream decreases in. In overall C max.

That's wild.

So, yeah, if you don't. If you're not doing. If you're not p. Maxing, you know, you haven't. You're not.

There's looks maxing and then there's pmax.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

You're the ultimate. You're. You're a life. Maxing.

Yeah. Don't die, Maxine. Yeah, don't.

I'm maxing.

Yeah.

Hell, yeah.

I read the other day that a black hole was discovered that is 300 million times the size of our sun. And so when you. Yeah, deep. Deep. Yeah. Like, so we. If we just pause for a moment and we are sober about the insanity of our existence.

Oh, I know.

And then you start putting things in proportion of, like, black holes that size and galaxy that big and time this long. And, like, all these relative comparisons of the gi. Of the enormity of just our little teeny part of reality, whatever this is. And then the silliness of our existence, like, the games we play and the priorities we have, it's just like, it breaks.

Could you imagine wanting to live forever, bro? Come on.

Yep. So here's. I'm just kidding. That's it this year. So this is. I think people will need to hear this. So living forever. Like, people hear that and they're like, don't want it. But what they don't understand is living forever. And living for tomorrow is the same idea. So today's Thursday. You've got stuff going on tomorrow.

So gotta be around for tomorrow.

And then Saturday comes.

Gotta be around for Saturday, Sunday. You're right.

That's living forever. And so people don't realize that in this moment, they literally kill the idea of not dying because they. Their mind can't understand it. And there they say, therefore, I accept Death quicker than I'll accept that. My mind can't understand it. We give up on existence so fast. But then also we're pretty resilient in that, like when people get their back against the wall, like to how hard they'll fight. So we're kind of like the story.

About that one woman that took care of ALS patients.

Yes.

And then she got als.

Yes.

When I heard that, I was like, oh my God. Because everyone always be like, no, like, take me out, like, pull the plug, whatever it might be, like, I'm good. And then when you're there, you will fight to live.

Nobody wants to die. That's the thing is people think they want to die, but they think they're not going to care what they feel like when they're 80. And the 80 arrives are like, I really care how I, how I feel.

I met an 85 year old today. I was filming a video at Gold's Gym, reviewing the gym, and he comes up to me and he's like, I'm 85. I'm showing that that fitness at this age, like, is possible to motivate people. Goes, I have no pain. He kicks the air up to the air. Literally goes, I got no pain.

Ah.

I feel amazing. And I'm like, yeah, I was, I, I, I, I feel like my first thought was like, I gotta tell Brian. This guy is out there, we love you. But like, he was, he did a full squat. No pain. Crazy.

Yeah.

Brian, thank you for having me, bro.

It was great having you. Like, we got a good thing going, right? Like, we have a cycle, so every.

Two years we got to shorten the cycle.

So. Yeah, exactly.

Let me know when you got a. Not tonight. Obviously. You got the, the don't die dinner.

So if we get together in a year from now, what's gonna happen? What's gonna be up in Jesse?

My goal is, is the face markers.

Yeah.

I really want to fix those. I gotta be beautiful forever.

Yeah. Your wife, like, she, she would love bring her stuff too.

Okay. Hell yeah. Yeah, let's do it.

Yeah.

We'll both come to the don't die.

And like, we have all the skin therapies.

Yes.

Yeah.

No, because it'll be good. We show her she'll be hooked and then she'll, it'll justify my, my purchases.

Yeah.

Otherwise she'll be like, what the fuck are you doing?

And that's a path.

Why do we have 500k of stuff for this? Like, trust me. Stop yourself.

Exactly. Measure. Yeah. See this on the screen? Measure it.

But for real, I think in a year from now, I think my goal would just be to continuously improve on the ratio of, you know, how much healthy food versus, you know, some snacks. Like literally, like maybe years ago it was 70%, 7, 70, 30. Next year, let's get it 80, 20. I think it's not the one. It's not type of thing where you just. I think. I don't think it's a thing for myself to just snap and be like I'm Brian Johnson 2.0. But I think slowly, every year just implementing a little bit of things. Maybe I take more. A little bit more supplements this year. Maybe I focus on sleep a little major. Maybe I get back on that whoop. Like, I think it's just the percentages of getting better and that's a very realistic way for someone like myself to do it.

Yeah, I love hanging out, man. It was fun, dude.

Until the next time. Yeah, I'll be back. Yeah, my guy.