The Power of Philosophy

Hey, J.J. here. Can you believe how fast the holidays are knocking at the door this year? One minute it's pumpkin spice season, the next you're getting your guest room ready and wondering where their wrapping paper went. And that's when I turned to Wayfair. From bedding and towels to holiday decor and last minute stocking stuffers, Wayfair has everything you need to get your home and holidays together fast. And for way less. With Wayfair, I know I can refresh my guest room in no time. Maybe I'll add a soft new comforter or a few holiday throw pillows. With Wayfair, it's so easy and everything arrives super fast. Plus, there's free shipping for any order over $35 easy and total peace of mind. So whether you're hosting, gifting, or just adding those final festive touches, Wayfair has your back. And when the holidays wind down, Wayfair has everything you need to tuck it all neatly away. Smart storage solutions for every room from the kitchen to the closet. Get organized, refreshed and ready for the holidays. For way less head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair Every style, every home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I R.com hey, it's JJ here. You know, I've been talking about environmental toxins forever, and laundry detergent is a sneaky one. A lot of them contain harsh chemicals like dyes, preservatives, and even UV brighteners. Those brighteners don't actually clean anything. They just coat fabric so your eyes think things look whiter or brighter. That's more chemicals I don't want on my family sheets or skin. And if you've got sensitive skin or allergies around the house, this can be a big problem. That's what got my attention about Earth Breeze. It looks like a dryer sheet, but it's actually laundry detergent. You toss one in the washer and that's it. No pouring, no mess, and no heavy plastic jug. Their packaging is lightweight cardboard, which helps reduce plastic waste. And if you choose the fragrance free option, it's gentle, hypoallergenic, non irritating, and non sensitizing. I really like how simple it is and how fresh and clean everything comes out without those unnecessary chemicals. Right now you can try Earth Breeze for up to 40% off with free gifts@earthbreeze.com virgin that's earthbreeze.com virgin for up to 40% off plus free gifts on.

Your first order with Venmo Stache a taco in one hand and ordering a ride in the other means you're stacking cash back. Nice. Get up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash on your favorite brands when you pay with your Venmo debit card. From takeout to ride shares, entertainment and more, pick a bundle with your go tos and start earning cash back at those brands. Earn more cash when you do more with stash. Venmo Stash terms and exclusions apply. Max $100 cash back per month. See terms at Venmo Me Stash terms.

Hey, it's JJ Virgin and welcome to the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show where I talk nutrition, exercise, mindset and lifestyle with some of the coolest people in the world. Plus, I give you tips that you can put into fast action to uplevel your health so you can go out there and and live the big life you are meant to live. Now, today's show is all about philosophy. Of course, I almost failed at ucla. Not that kind of philosophy. Creating your own health philosophy. And I had to talk about this. I was actually in the car driving somewhere talking to Dr. Patrick Giantempo. Now, I've known him for years. And then I was up in Salt Lake City or no, Park City, and we got a chance to go, a bunch of us out to an outdoor concert together and hang out together. And I'm talking to him like, this guy is super cool. I mean, I'd known him and known about him for years. I heard him speak. But he started talking about something I'd never considered before. And it is all about the idea of using philosophy as this tool for success and achievement. And he actually did a TEDx talk on it called Unleashing the Power of Philosophy. And he's been published in Forbes and in a bunch of different places talking about this. And his quote is, everyone has a philosophy. The only question is whether they know it or not. And I started thinking about it and I'm like, oh my gosh. Every day I've got people writing in and like the vegans are battling the paleos and the yoga. People are battling the extreme, you know, the crossfitters. I'm like, this is crazy. We all do. But when you really accept it and create your own philosophy, it can become your blueprint for living. So I am excited to have this topic here today because it really can help shape you. When I think about, you know, my son being able to recover from his accident really came from us having a health philosophy and moving off of that because you get what you expect. So let me tell you a little bit about Patrick before I bring him on. He's the founder and CEO of Action Potential Holdings. He has been referred to as the philosopher entrepreneur. He's hugely well known and respected in the world of health, wellness, and business. He's a chiropractor. And as a chiropractor, he co developed innovative diagnostic technologies and got a bunch of patents and created a massive international business that he's been a CEO of for over 20 years. He's launched over a dozen companies. He's now got eight. He is just in. He is in there in the trenches and using this stuff. And that's what's so awesome, because he's going to share with you how he uses it and why it works so well, and then what simple things you can do to start to put this in place for yourself. And again, it can become your framework for living that helps you make the easy decisions. And in the interview, I'm going to share why this was so important for grant survival. So Today's guest is Dr. Patrick Gentempo. All right, so let's do it. Dr. Patrick Gentempo, welcome to the show. I am so glad you're here with me today.

Really happy to be here with you today, jj. Thank you.

This is a topic we've never discussed on this show. In fact, when we were talking about it on my drive, when we got on the phone a couple weeks ago, I was like, all right, you had me so intrigued, I had to bring you on. So let's dive into this whole idea about health philosophies. And I love the topic here of unleashing the power of philosophy. I must admit that philosophy is one of the classes I really thought I was going to fail when I was at ucla. So I'm bringing you on with a little fear. But let's talk about what do you really mean by a health philosophy and why do we need to have one?

Well, I think the thing that's critical for everybody to know is that they have a health philosophy. As a matter of fact, what you're promulgating and doing so well in the world is you're promulgating a health philosophy. But what happens is that if we don't have this kind of foundationally thought through and organized in our own minds, we end up chasing a bunch of different things kind of down blind alleys, and we never really stay on a path that leads us to results. So I think it's critical that people understand when they Hear the word philosophy, you're talking about back in your college days. When people hear the word philosophy, it conjures up these images of old guys in robes.

Exactly.

I just went to Greece. I'm like, okay, is Plato involved here? What are we doing? And ew, that sounds super hard. And what do I want to do with that?

Right, yeah. And that's the thing I'm trying to dissuade, is that certainly there's classical philosophy, where people are asking the bigger questions of life in general, but the thing that people don't understand is that philosophy is a very practical tool for success. And I'm talking about having you lose weight practical. Putting dollars in your pocket practical. Having a better relationship practical, Better parenting practical that we have philosophies about all these varying things in our lives. And if we really spent a little time organizing our philosophy and having a context from which to think and make decisions, it's transformative and can really help you increase your results and have a much better life.

You know, and it's interesting when you say we all actually do have this health philosophy, and, boy, people fight about it a lot. Yes, the vegan Paleo wars. My gosh.

Right, Exactly. And that's really what I'm talking about here, is that you formulate a philosophy, and you'll see there's a lot of conflicts and contradictions in the world of healthcare, especially with philosophy. And I will tell you that in many respects, working on your philosophy and coming to conclusions on it can be life changing. Because a lot of times people wait till there's some kind of a crisis, and then all of a sudden they're faced with alternatives. They don't know how to make a decision. And it could literally be. It could cost you your life in the wrong circumstances if you don't have this all organized ahead of time. So that's where, as you saying, vegans versus paleos, there's philosophy in nutrition, there's philosophy in other forms of healthcare. Look at chiropractic versus homeopathy versus acupuncture versus traditional medical thinking, et cetera. You know, all of them have a different context and a different philosophy on how they approach things. So I think it's important for people to understand these varying philosophies, see what resonates with them, and then start to clarify for themselves what actions they should take.

But, you know, at the foundation of all of it, and as you start to run through some of these different areas of medicine, from acupuncture to traditional Western medicine, it kind of comes down to really two camps. And it's really like healthcare or well care versus sick care. Right. And when you talk about a health philosophy, it seems like to me you're really kind of pushing people into like, let's get into real healthcare. So what's the difference between those?

Well, you're citing what I think is one of the most pivotal understandings in the realm of health and wellness versus sick care. We have in the United States what people are characterizing as a healthcare crisis. We spend over $3 trillion a year on what we call healthcare and we're getting sicker and sicker and services are become more burdened because of the economics of it, Obamacare. And I'm not trying to have a political discussion, but just saying there's a lot of challenge there. And I believe the biggest challenge is the fact that we have this contradiction where we call what we call healthcare is really sick care. And when you take sick care and give it to a culture as healthcare, you end up with a sick society, which is why we're spending the trillions of dollars a year while we're getting sicker by the day. And it doesn't look like there's any relief in sight. So. And I think in philosophy and why philosophy is important is that when you have contradictions in your basic philosophical premises, the only possible result is destruction. The amount of destruction is relative to the level of contradiction. So I think it's absolutely transformative for the people who are listening right now if they just understood that there is a difference between well care or healthcare and sick care. And I'm not saying that sick care is wrong or bad, but you can't practice it like healthcare, otherwise you have a problem.

Exactly.

And I'm just thinking about it goes back. I'm taping this documentary right now around my son's accident and the story. So it's like top of mind. But if my son hadn't gone into getting hit by a car at 40 miles an hour and being left for dead in the street, if he hadn't gone into that healthy. If he hadn't had his own healthcare going on and just went into, going into the hospital, saved his life, they fixed a torn aorta, but he, he had to be in good shape to do so. And I think for so many people, they say, okay, you go to the doctor and you have your well care visit once a year. It's like, no, no, that's not well care. You know, well care is eating and exercising and all of those sleeping well and Good relationships. So wouldn't you agree?

Yeah. I mean, what you're saying is very, very important for people to understand. So I would break it up. There's what your son had at the hospital was crisis intervention. I wouldn't want to live in a culture that didn't have that. I've been hit by a truck myself. You have broken bones, head injury, et cetera. So you want crisis intervention. Then there's a thing called disease care. Disease treatment is kind of another subcategory of crisis intervention or sick care, if you will. And then you have the wellness care or wellness orientation is more lifestyle based than the things that you described. But I'll tell you what you just said. A really good friend of mine out here in where I live is a heart surgeon, a cardiothoracic surgeon. And he said to me once, he said, you know, anybody who lives long enough, at some point you're going to face some kind of a marathon. You're going to have to run some kind of a big deal like your son's accident or like getting hit by a truck, or it might be cancer, or it might be heart disease. And he said, I can get anybody off my table alive. People come in, he does heart transplants, bowel transplants, bypasses, you name it. And he said, I'll get anybody off my table alive. He said, but what determines whether or not they're going to make it out of the hospital alive is how they lived before they got here. So what you're saying is really important that people understand that at some point there's a likelihood they're going to face some kind of a critical challenge which might be again, an accident, it might be development of cancer. What we're doing with our daily lifestyles is creating some sort of health assurance to say that if such a thing should happen to us, the likelihood that we're going to be able to transcend it and come out on the other side not only alive but healthy and have a full life after, is all about how we lived living up to that point.

And this is so critical because I find for so many people the catalyst to change is that life changing diagnosis, when it really needs to be going on way before that. Let's talk about your top health premises and where you would what you think people need to focus on.

Well, I think one of them that's a really critical premise for me is that you were born to be healthy. We're not born to be sick, we're not born to be defective. Our body is born intelligent. And it's equipped with everything it needs to express health and well being. So it's. If we are not expressing health, it's because something is interfering with the program. Our program is biased toward that. And that's why a lot of times people think, when I was in practice, for example, I have a lady that would come in and she would have headaches, but she wasn't coming in for that. And I'd say, well, you're getting headaches. She says, well, they're normal headaches. And I said, what do you mean by normal headaches? She said, well, I take a couple of Tylenol and they go away. And I'd say, well, do you think the reason you're having your headaches is because there's a lack of Tylenol in your blood? So we don't get sick because there's a lack of drugs in our system. We don't get sick because there's an excess of viscera in our body that need to be taken out. We get sick because. Or we lose our health. Do we have challenges because something's interfering with the process that we're born to express health with. So I always look to what's interfering with it. And of course, lifestyle stress. If you're not eating properly, you're not resting properly, you're not moving your body properly, all those things have an adverse impact and cause our body not to be able to operate like it was designed. You know, I also have the lens. I'm a chiropractor, so I have the lens of looking through that and saying that a properly functioning nervous system is essential. The nervous system is the master system and control of the body. If you interfere with nervous system function, it interferes with the ability for the body to heal and regulate properly. So rather than try to use drugs or other types of interventions to get a body to be healthy, I think the first thing to do is to try to give the body what it needs to express health, because that's how it was designed.

So let's talk about stress and how that relates to a healthy wellness lifestyle.

Well, this ties in and we talk about a health philosophy, I think foundationally for me, as I mentioned some of the premises. Another important premise is that there's stress. A lot of times people hear the word stress and they're automatically implying it's psychological stress and it's negative, which is one part of it. But there's really three dimensions of stress. And stress can be positive or stress can be negative. And zero stress means you're dead. I mean, so the body is prompted through stress response. And so the three dimensions of stress are physical, how you use your body, biochemical, what you put in your body, and psychological, which is the mind body connection. So examples of positive physical stress would be appropriate exercise, something that you really promulgate well in the world for people to move their bodies properly.

And I'm glad you said appropriate exercise.

Yes, well that's the whole point, right? Yes, well I look, I'd say I do a certain workout routine which is really great for me, but if my 81 year old mother tried to do it, it'd be really bad for her. It's a matter of contextual to the person, it's got to be appropriate. So an example of negative stress would be a car accident or something like that. That's a negative physical stress. Positive physical stress would be like I said, appropriate exercise, just as an example, biochemical stress, putting healthy nutrients into your body, eating whole foods, eating organic foods, et cetera, raw foods. These things, those are positive biochemical stresses. They encourage your body to move towards growth and health. Examples of negative biochemical stress would be toxins that people eat, pesticides in foods, those types of things where it's something that actually stresses the body in a negative way. Biochemically, positive psychological stress, you're in a loving relationship, you have great interaction with other people, social life, what have you. You're at a game and your son hits a home run, there's going to be amplified biochemistry or amplified physiology. When the sun hits the home run, it's excitement, but it's a positive thing. Negative psychological stress, financial problems, relationships that are tumultuous or that are somehow negative or toxic, those things are negative physical stresses. So we all have positive and negative stresses in these three dimensions on an ongoing basis. But if we have the context that I'm talking about or the framework and we sought to upgrade or improve on the positive stresses and look to manage or limit the negative stresses, it has a massive impact on your health and energy.

So key takeaway for someone listening, like one thing they could do right now, like a health premise they could incorporate in something they could put into their health philosophy. Because I'm sure with most people listening they go, I've never. Of course we all have a way we live that we think makes sense, but we probably never looked at it and evaluated it. So what would be a place for someone to start here?

I think kind of the easy template is if you look at the three dimensions, physical, again, biochemical, what you put into your body and psychological. If you just wrote those three things out and then said, okay, in each of those categories, what's one thing I could do right now to improve on those three categories? Meaning how do I move my body, what I'm eating, and what I'm thinking? Which again, suggestions. There might be meditation practice and other such things that can help to really manage your psychological stress. And then at the same time, on the negative side, what three things could I possibly eliminate from my life right now that could move me in a proper direction? And I'll tell you, everybody's got them. My experience tells me everybody, they instantly know things that they could be doing.

To either improve or subtract right now. And you know what, Patrick? You always have them. So you up level and then look around and things that you didn't really realize were problems before now become the new one. So it's like, I think it's a constant state. Wouldn't you agree?

There's no doubt it's a process. It's an evolutionary process. And it's all. And this is where philosophy comes in. What happens when we start to put this. When we stop paying attention to these things because we don't really have a framework or a context, we start to fade, Entropy takes over, and we start to degenerate in these areas. But as a result of people listening to us having this interaction right now, if they were to take the action that we're talking about, then it starts to organize their lives better and they start to move in a positive direction. One of the things I like to say is that illness and wellness exist on a continuum. And everybody who's listening to us right now, either you're moving toward wellness and away from illness, or you're moving toward illness and away from wellness. And if you had to be really honest with yourself right now, which way would you say you're moving? And I believe that what we're talking about here, that you can make decisions as soon as you're done listening to this, that can move you toward wellness and away from illness. But when you stop thinking about it, you're moving usually typically degenerating toward illness.

I love all this. This resonates so much for me because I totally believe that health is our own personal responsibility and you get what you expect. So, so much of this comes from the step one of being mindful. So I just love this different way of thinking that you presented today. So thank you so much for joining me and for everyone listening. You can go to patrickgentempo.com to learn more. And it's GE patrickchintempo.com and after the break, I'm going to be answering a listener's question. So stay with me.

It's scary but true. Sugar is hiding everywhere in diet foods, packaged foods, dressings, and even sugar substitutes. It's not about cutting out all sugar. It's knowing which sugars to choose and which to lose. What if you could drop seven hidden sugars, lose up to ten pounds in just two weeks? JJ Virgin will show you how with a simple four step plan to cut cravings and rev up your metabolism to lose fat fast and forever. Visit jjvirgin.com books and order the Sugar Impact diet. You can shed up to ten pounds in two weeks. Visit jjvirgin.com books welcome back.

This is the time where I answer a listener's question. And today's question comes from Stephanie. And Stephanie says, hey, jj, I include healthy fats at every meal. However, there's a disagreement from many different sources as to whether or not to include fats in your post workout meal. Is this true? All right. You know, I wanted to answer this question because it starts to come down to so many things like should I do endurance cardio or should I just do burst training, Should I do weight training or should I do yoga? You know, it's like, should I eat Paleo, Should I eat vegan? I think the big backup here is that if you start with the idea of what's your personal health blueprint? That's why I loved this topic so much. As it comes to, okay, what are your goals? How do you want to live your life? Because if you're going to work out, I mean, ideally I talk about the best thing you can do when you work out is to make sure you follow your workout with a great post recovery meal. Now, when I used to work out down at Gold's Gym in Venice, it was all these bodybuilders. And those bodybuilders always followed their workout as quickly as possible. They basically would run over to this restaurant across the street, I mean, what a well positioned restaurant. And have brown rice and chicken, chicken super lean. And of course they got the carbs from the brown rice that would go into their muscles to refuel their muscle stores of energy called glycogen. And then the protein would help rebuild their protein, helps with muscle protein resynthesis. And the two together were like this great magic because you want to have an insulin response so you can drive the protein back into the muscles and the glycogen back into the muscles. So the issue with fat in this situation is that fat can slow everything down. And that's why you'll see people go, you know, don't put fat into your meal right after a workout. So it really comes down to what are you trying to achieve because as we know, fat's very satiating. Fat can help you reduce inflammation, fat can have you have a healthy mood. So fat is super important for all those things. But if you're really trying to get the most out of your recovery workout, yes, you'd be great to have say a little bit of a carb protein hit right after your workout. So let's say you have breakfast and then you have a workout and then lunch would be, you know, exactly what I just said. It would be like wild rice and some chicken or some shrimp and, and then you'd have your dinner. So it really depends on your goals. If your goal, if you're really looking on how do I maximize my workout, how do I put on more muscle, how do I optimize that? Then yes, do that. If it's really, you're not in it for that reason and it's just for overall health and feeling better and maintaining muscle mass, then you don't have to get as granular as that. Go ahead and have a recovery shake and throw in some healthy fats as well. So that's the easy answer is if you don't feel that way, go ahead and have a shake and throw in some carbs and protein. If you and fat and if you're really dialing in, let's say you're a competitive athlete, then I would say, yes, keep the fat out for that immediate post recovery meal. And that just shows you that it really comes down to what's your point, what's your reason for it, what are your health premises and what's your health philosophy? And again, this is where you go through your own personal discovery process, right? You find which foods work for you and which foods don't. Both. On the virgin diet, sugar impact diet, you discovered the best exercise. That's for you. How much burst training or resistance training or yoga, what do you need more of? If you're an amped up, hyper person, you might find that you need to do the yoga to calm yourself down. If you're someone that's really looking to boost your metabolism, you may need to do more burst training. So again, let's get into what's going to work best for you. Now, if you'd like to submit a question, just go to jjvirgin.com ask and you can leave a voicemail for me. I can't wait to hear from you. And one more way, I'd love to hear from you. I would hugely appreciate it if you could jump on Stitcher or iTunes and leave a review for me. It helps a bunch and be sure to subscribe and share the show with your friends. This is JJ Virgin signing off and reminding you that you are worthy Dare to live a life that matters.

Hello listeners, this is Anne Bogle, author, blogger and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week I tag all things books and Reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next reading. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years, and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and visit our website what should I readnextpodcast.com to find out more.