Exercise as Medicine with Stephan Peeler

Hey everyone, I'm Jorge Cruise and welcome to the Jorge Cruise Podcast. I'm thrilled you're here, guys. This is our all new season and I'm thrilled you're here with us on this special episode. I can tell you for me, this episode means a lot because I started my career years ago in 2001 as an author by writing a book called 8 Minutes in the Morning, which was an exercise book where we did these strength training moves for, uh, 8 minutes in the morning. And I can tell you, it changed my life forever because it was translated into 16 languages and it sold 8 million copies and it just went around the world. It was amazing. Um, I'm grateful to my buddy Tony Robbins. He wrote the introduction to that book. And I'm grateful to Oprah for putting me on the map because a few years prior to that, A lot of things led to that point, and I thought I'd share that with you because in today's world, a lot of times we get stressed over a lot of things. And, and I can tell you, when you think life is happening to you instead of for you— there's a difference there— uh, you get stressed, you get angry, you live in fear. And that's when your ego, which we talked about in the last episode, kind of gets all fired up. And I can tell you, if you're all fired up, today's episode is going to help you feel great all day, partly with what we say here, but I hope with some action I'm going to ask you to take at the end of this episode where you're going to exercise, because I'm going to tell you, my career started with exercise and I still believe to this day that exercise is the most underutilized form of antidepressant. And it's so powerful because it releases serotonin, dopamine, and the science is out there. I mean, it's been out there since 2001. I talk about it in the original book, which you can get on Amazon. We'll have it in the show notes, 8 Minutes in the Morning. But more importantly, what exercise does is it calms your nervous system down. And it really just puts you to work, you know, because our bodies are meant to be used. You've heard the old statement, use it or lose it. And I can tell you, I was very blessed to see My grandmother lived to be 103. Maria was her name. You guys have heard me talk about her, and she lived to be 103, but she was active to the last day. And if you don't stay active, well, things kind of break down. That's kind of the, the, the, the, the, the game of life there. You would think by not moving you would be better, but you don't. And so exercise, what we knew back then was, yeah, sure, it burns calories, it keeps our muscles not just looking good but the bones strong. But now the science without question is is truly for mental health. And when I go to the gym these days, as much as I used to go for weight loss, I don't do it for that anymore. That, I believe, is in really another form of medicine, which is food, and understanding insulin, and understanding calories. And we're gonna have Dr. Jason Fung come back and share with us the whole fallacy of calories versus insulin, which I think is critical. But we're not talking about that today. Today's all about exercise. And I wanna tell you this, that if you can commit right now You and me, you know me, Jorge Cruise, you've known me hopefully for a couple years. And if you can make this a priority in your life, where you commit in here and maybe up here too, but it's a heartfelt commitment to yourself because the only person that you hurt by not exercising is yourself. You know, it gives you everything and it requires nothing. And it truly is the most underutilized form of antidepressant. And so joining us on today's show to help bring this point across is a new friend of mine. He's, uh, been a friend actually for almost 2 years, almost 3 now. Stephen Peeler is his name. He's a fashion designer out in Los Angeles. He's originally from North Carolina. He's a serial entrepreneur. He comes from a family of entrepreneurs, and his story is so compelling to show you that sometimes you may not know the direction of your career or your life, but if you just let go and have faith, the right thing happens. His story starts, um, as a kid playing a lot of sports and then getting injured at age 16, and that kind of led him in a different direction. And I'll let him tell the story, but really why I have Stephen here is because I have fallen in love with his, his apparel line. It's called Peeler's Apparel. I wear it all the time. It's something that he has made and designed, and I can tell you it feels like a cooling effect when you exercise. And most importantly, it has these incredible, um, compression pockets that I absolutely am in love with because I never lose anything when I'm at the gym now. And I can tell you, I think you may love 'em. They're unisex, so they're good for the ladies, they're good for us guys, and they're easy to get ahold of. You can get 'em on his website. We'll have that in the show notes as well. But I'll tell you, Stephen is truly a testament to life and overcoming obstacles. He's 36 now, and the thing is, he's just getting started, you know? And you're gonna hear his story of how he grew up in North Carolina and kind of, created this path to LA, you know? And now he's one of the hottest fashion designers, truly, in Los Angeles. I was at Fashion Week in March in LA with him, and I got a chance to meet his mom. And I can tell you, his stuff is sizzling hot. As you can see here in this clip here, it is just the most beautiful clothes that make you look great, you feel cool. Steven understands the power of exercise in the morning. He uses it for mental health as well. And I can tell you, the challenge is simple. I want you to commit to a minimum of 3 times a week to some sort of movement, whether it's walking, whether it's going to a gym, a yoga class, whatever you want, but where there's movement, a movement of your choice. It could even be dancing, whatever it is you love, but do something you love and do something in nature if you can get some fresh air, which is so, so important. And I think what will happen is you're going to start to condition your body to be its best self. And the endorphins will follow. And if you do it in the morning, guys, the benefits are crazy good. Pick up my book, 8 Minutes in the Morning, because I can tell you the science is still solid. And I can tell you that book is just an easy way to get started. And so check out 8 Minutes in the Morning, again, in the show notes. And then I want to introduce Stephen right now. Stephen Peeler, again, from North Carolina, the creator of Peeler's Apparel. And I'm going to cut right into the interview. We kind of removed a little bit of the opening because we had some audio issues, but it's the perfect spot. He describes this cooling effect, and then we get into his origin story, and we really get into it. And I hope, more importantly, you're gonna get inspired to move, to hopefully wear some clothes that feel good as well, and more importantly, to feel great all day. Hope that makes sense, guys. Peace and purpose. I'll see you on the next episode. And now, without any further ado, here's Steven Peeler.

My products all have just a unique feeling. Someone described— this is the Power Tank. They described it— the material is a very cooling nylon spandex blend, and as you put it on, it's so cooling that it almost feels like you're pouring the shirt on versus putting the shirt on. So I thought— I thought that was a cool way to explain it.

I'll throw in my two cents here because I've worn your clothes now for a year, over a year now. But when I put on your clothes, I feel like I'm at the top of my game. I truly feel at the top, and I feel like the top— that is my vibe on Peeler's. And if you can share with us this revolution you're doing in LA, because you're originally from— your family's originally from the South. Tell us a little bit about where you grew up and all that and how you came to LA and all that.

Yeah, and I definitely have a pretty rich history in entrepreneurship. I'm fourth generation in the Cheerwine family. My great-grandfather was Louis Peeler, who founded Cheerwine in 1917. So it's a 100-year-old company, family-owned. I was lucky because it's a big company, but it's not a huge company. So I would go with my dad on Saturdays and do inventory or, or payroll and I'd be skateboarding around the warehouse. So I got to see lots of little areas and it was just really great for me to see that. And also saw how a small business can treat employees more personal and, and really does become a family. And anyway, so I went to UNC Chapel Hill undergrad. I studied entrepreneurship and economics, but that led me to— right after college, I just started writing business plans, just ideas, and started bouncing a few off of my friends. And anyway, by— I don't know if I was 22 or 23, we started developing a mobile app called Picture This. Picture This was— yes, it was 2011. Picture This was you can take a picture on your, with your phone, draw on it, caption it, and then you can send it to all your friends. Um, based on social media and whatnot.

Yeah.

While we were working on this, and I don't know that there was not another app that did something like this, but while we were working on this, Snapchat, a little app called Snapchat blew up and did everything we were doing so much better. And the, I think we put, I think we put $20 grand into it that was developing. We developed the iOS first, the Apple system. Yeah, that was done in Pakistan, I believe. But yeah, so on, on— yeah, that's what it, that's what it takes to build an app. I learned a lot. I actually ended up going to get my master's in information technology and management, which kind of turned out to be not really what I was expecting. I wanted a little more hands-on programming and coding. I, I got, you know, a very brief intro to it, but not, you know, not as strong. Building that app was a great learning experience. I worked with two friends. Just a couple years after that, I was approached by one of the guys that worked on the app with me. And he asked me if I was interested in starting a brewery. Craft beer in North Carolina is a big deal. We make very good craft beer and there's a few reasons for that. That was in my, when I was 26, I thought, heck yeah, I'll help you start a craft brewery. That was exactly what I wanted to do. And I knew that between he and I, I was a bit more of the social one, the one that would get out and meet people. And he was a bit more of the just workhorse and he just gets the work done and he's, and he researches everything. He knows everything. What we would do is we'd go to breweries and we'd go meet people and I'd walk up and meet people and start telling them, oh, starting a malting operation. We grow and malt barley. Yeah. So ultimately, the beer industry in North Carolina is great. But I, we looked at it and there were at the time, I think 50 or 60 craft breweries in North Carolina. Wow. Which sounded like a lot then. Now there's 200. I think there's, I think there's well over 200. But what, what, what we decided was we could make beer and we could compete with all these other small independent craft breweries that are making already very good product, or, or we could take a step back and look at what is it, what does the industry need? Wow. And one of the needs of craft beer is, is malted barley. Malted barley is to beer what, what grapes are to wine. It's the fermentable sugar that you're getting out of the barley. And it's also a very bulky product. So besides the water, water's very heavy, of course, but yeah, the cereal grain, barley usually, or wheat or rye, but barley is the most common. That was, it's the second most, most voluminous or second heaviest input in beer. So, wow. If you're going to make your beer with local ingredients to import a bunch of products, you don't want to import your heaviest. Yeah, no, it's funny. I, for about 3 years, maybe more while starting that brand, I would have my mom or not just my mom, but I would have people ask me, oh, how's the hops business? Because everybody thinks hops, hops, hops. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you describe a beer, oh, this beer's hoppy, this beer's not hoppy, but every single beer has malted barley in it. There's just not a beer without it. So yeah, no, I learned a lot about agriculture and growing that, you know, being from North Carolina, I take a lot of pride in that. I understand that part of the supply chain better. And so that was great. Learned a lot. I'm still involved, but just from California now.

Wow.

And they, but yeah, I had, did that for about 5 years. Knew that I was gonna, me and my business partner, he was building the business. I was building the brand. And really once the brand was running, I really didn't have much. I was always number 2.

Yeah.

Yeah. So that was my retirement from malting barley and it was about time. I was drinking a lot of beer and just could not get rid of that extra weight. So no matter how much yoga I did. By the end of college, I was pretty, I'm not, I wouldn't say out of shape, but I was not in the best shape and really decided that I didn't want to be like that. So I started to work out. A hip injury, but actually feel it in my back.

Oh my God.

That was from, yeah, that was from high school. So at 16 years old, I have this hip injury.

Holy shit.

I can't even, just a few years later, I can hardly basically get out of bed in the morning. I did, I went to the doctor and he gave me this list of stretches to do. When I did these stretches, I, I really saw this big improvement. And when I went back to the doctor and he says, oh, you like those here, you want another page and hands me this other page and it's got You know, vinyasa yoga, blah, blah, blah. No way. I thought, I've been doing yoga? Me? Like, 22-year-old North Carolina boy? I don't do yoga. And so that just completely changed my opinion of yoga. Is that honestly even 10 minutes in a day and you can feel a big difference.

So you're almost tricked into it, but it's stretches.

But just about.

Yeah, totally.

Totally. And to be honest, had my 22-year-old brain, if somebody had told me, oh, these are yoga, you should do them. You'd be like, yeah, I just wouldn't have done them.

It's not what men do.

We don't do yoga. Yeah, just what a funny—

not true.

No. And now, so go from that to, I, I started going to the YMCA and doing a yoga class Wednesday evenings with Leslie is her name. Oh, hey, shout out to Leslie. Shout out to Leslie.

In North Carolina? Where was she?

In North Carolina.

No way.

And see, at mid-young 20s, I was often the only male in the class and I was almost always the youngest male. There might have been a man, older, mature German.

Sure.

And I did have one, one time tell me, I wish I had started doing this when I was your age.

Wow.

And that, that was to me just like, okay, I like this and it does make me feel good. And honestly, it's hard to say how long. For me, I didn't have to go more than once or twice a week. Yeah, I did use that as a way to get back into weightlifting. Yeah. And yeah, no, my, my normal, my, my progression hasn't gone just, you know, straight from there. I've had months off. I've had injuries and had to take time off. I had a thumb injury. I had, I've had continuously some back issues, but yeah, my two are weight training and yoga. That is, yeah, so that I specifically don't. Do a lot of cardio. I get my cardio from dancing. How about that?

There you go. I love that. Yeah, as we should. And I feel like fitness for you in your life has become this base that you've had to build your whole— I don't want to see your injury off of, but you had to build your recovery from, from that injury that was when you were a teenager. Like, you were like 16.

That's crazy. My dad took me to the hospital the night that I did that, and they said at 16 years old, very unlikely that a healthy Wow. Man, boy, I was a boy, let's be honest. Couldn't break his hip, like he, unless he was in a car wreck or something, but that, it, so what it was, I damaged tendons and ligaments and that's actually worse than it seemed because it was months back. But yeah, no, that's manifested itself in this just slow to get into it back that it's not impossible. Like I, yeah, but yeah, so yoga has been just very important for me. And I understand it's not for everybody. I don't even really see it as exercise. I see it— I usually like to work out in the morning. It does not do that for me.

Same.

Yeah, no. So I think it's also helped me go from thinking of working out, exercise for the body. When you're young, you think you're doing it for your body. You're doing it for your body. And yeah, so of course you are. But the older I get, the more I realize I'm doing this for my mental health, for my, for my—

100%.

Balance and clarity and, you know, I can feel a bigger difference from not doing it than I can. And yes, I'm not, you know, perfect. My, my consistency is often not so great, but I, right, right. Yeah, I do just try to stay. I try to stay where I am not going to be super sore if I stop. Just inherently, you're going to be upside down more. And so a couple of things I wanted to change is that if you're just wearing a t-shirt and you go into down dog, your shirt's going to constantly be coming up, constantly pulling it down. The flagship product are peelers. It's the compression legging. And I have, I worked really hard on getting it the perfect weight fabric so that it's coverage and support that you need, but also still breathable and light enough that you won't get too hot. It can be worn as a base layer underneath of a garment or on its own. So I will literally be walking around in my house looking for my phone and it will be in my pocket because I can't feel it sloshing.

I love that.

Any other shorts and And it's going to slosh around. And yeah, no, that's, that was an unintended benefit. I would say that that's probably the biggest reasons that pillows really are different than just yoga pants. I want clothes that do not get in your way and just make your workout better. I had a really cool shoot not too long ago, photo shoot with some models that did a couple exercises and they would love, they were loving it. Wow. That's so, that's such, that's the best thing to see is people shocked or taken aback. So the pants themselves are, they're great for yoga, of course, but then also skiing and any cold weather sport. I have some shorts as well. They're, one is a 4-inch inseam. Those are great. They're short. I call them Peelers Minis. Those are great for bodybuilding and, and any type of hot weather outdoor sports. I, I understand that not everybody's going to want to walk out of the house wearing compression leggings. So I made these short splits. They're like 3-in-1 seam. They look like a little running short, '70s running short. Some of the stores that I'm selling to that have swimwear, I've said these would be great next to a wall of swimwear because if you've got, I don't know, Speedo with this royal blue on it, and then you see the royal blue split shorts, they match very well.

I had this in my notes here. Are peelers only for men? Set the record straight.

Definitely. No, I had women in LA Fashion Week wearing the essentially the same men's pair and really couldn't tell.

No, it looked amazing. I have some things I want to change, but it did look good.

I think the common thread between my clothes—

no pun intended—

the common thread is that a lot of them have a high spandex count. And so physically when you're holding this garment and holding— I did a competitor's. Yeah. Nike, Under Armour.

All those.

Mine are dense. They're thicker, but they're also denser. You can stretch them till tomorrow. It's not rocket science. To make the best clothes, you start with the best materials.

For me, you're like a mental health brand because you really make us feel— I don't want to say sexy, maybe some people may not want that, but you feel like you're at your best and you feel—

I think everybody wants to be sexy. Just saying.

I think— or at least at the top, right? I want to be at the top of my game, even if I'm 53. Let alone if someone's 65 or like Oprah in their 70s. We want to be at our best at our game. I do have some questions I want to ask you, like what you do for mental health. Talk about, yeah, like things that can make us feel good, because I think to feel good all day is key.

I'm a morning workout, I get it done and I don't think about it again. I think the number one thing that if you're gonna start working out, if you haven't, if you haven't been into it the first few months, do not skip. If you can, do not skip. One of the best quotes I've ever heard is you'll never regret going to the gym. You can really be like, I don't want to go today. I don't feel good. This is going to make me feel bad. And then you do it and you're like, I'm glad I did that. But I would say like there almost nothing is better than just taking a walk. Yoga is obviously one of my go-tos. I don't really see it as an exercise as much as a meditation. I like to do my, I like to do vinyasa. It's a lot more flow, a lot more movement. And in all of us, our bodies can go further than our minds tell us we can. If somebody had a gun to your head and told you to run a marathon, you could run a marathon and you wouldn't think you could. You don't want to get shot in the head.

I think what you've shown us in today's episode is not only is fitness critical for fitness, but for inner fitness, Stephen. And now your clothes are giving people— going back to books and all that, but giving them a way to, to look extra sharp on the outside and feel their best. Give us how people can get in touch with you, and more importantly, if they want to try Peelers, obviously the website and all that. So please tell us where to find you, please.

The The whole collection is available at www.peelersapparel.com. Peelers Apparel, A-P-A-R-E-L dot com.