60 - EP 60 with CVC Wellness: Guide to Gut Health, Holistic Hormone Optimisation and Habit Stacking

Well, dude, I love— I just want to say to start, like, I love what you're doing on your page. I'm in full resonation with everything you're putting out there and, uh, just your lifestyle. You embody exactly how I'm living and Excited to brew some stuff up.

Yeah, I appreciate that, man. Uh, you usually just kind of roll into it straight away. So, um, for those at home, for myself as well, uh, welcome to Soulcast and appreciate having you here. CBC Wellness, uh, Christian as you go by, I'm sure. Uh, I remember seeing your profile being like, yep, uh, this guy's on the same wave, we're on the same, the same wavelength. So A lot of what you share is what I talk about as well, and I'm sure there's a lot that you know that I don't. So excited to kind of see how we differ, how we, you know, think about things the same, and hopefully people can get a lot out of this.

So welcome. I appreciate it, Sol Brah. I'm ready to brew some things up.

Yeah, so, uh, immediately just from, you know, where you are It seems like you've got a little home gym set up and, uh, some spiritual elements to that as well. So, uh, how about you dive into a little bit about how you got involved into where you are at this point, uh, in terms of both those things?

And then, yeah, yeah, so we're all multifaceted human beings, so a lot of things have taken me down this trajectory of overall, like, health optimization and to be honest, just natural healing in this totality. You know, one of the— this crazy story, man, is I was constipated back in high school, early high school, for about 6 days. And I was real into athletics my entire life, soccer, baseball, you know, I even played flag football and stuff like that. So, you know, I had the fitness down, but having this constipation woke me up into the world of gut health. And how important it is and how vital it is for our life source energy and having a good amount of energy and being able to have that personality in life. And so being constipated for 6 days really translated to— yeah, man, just imagine that. And so it was after a long weekend with my dad, just like on a float trip, you know, underage of course, drinking beer and things like that. And, uh, I came back and I was just in this hyper-stressed state and I was, uh, you know, day 2 passes, I'm like, what is going on? I'm feeling a little bloated here. I haven't had a bowel movement. I'm starting to get a little worried. And, uh, you know, still trying to figure it all out. And eventually after day 3, I'm like, I gotta get this checked out. So I went to, you know, traditional, uh, Western medicine, you know, I went to a GI specialist and they basically just talked to me for 5 minutes and prescribed me a bunch of laxatives. And I took that for a day or two and I realized this is not working. This is just making me feel like shit, no pun intended. Yeah, yeah. And so eventually I started tapping into just research online and I found some local acupuncturists in St. Louis, Missouri, where I'm from, and went to that. And that seemed to help a lot just with overall stress management. Even just one session with acupuncture was phenomenal. Uh, dove into colonics, got some, uh, water pumped up my butt by this woman who does it for a profession, so Uh, have you done enemas before, man?

No, it's something that I, I've had friends do coffee enemas and raved about them. Um, and I'm actually looking into doing a colonic of some kind because I've never done it, and it's one of those things that's like, oh, it's a bit gross or whatever. But like, yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of benefit to actually just getting a fresh start down there, right?

So it was an unusual experience to be being like 17, you know, getting all that done. But it opened me up into the world of just like real natural healing, which, you know, it— there's some weird stuff you can do to tap into your full potential. And so after that was done, you know, I started having the, the loose bowels and started getting back into my mojo after about 6 days. And I think it really started with diet as well. I just wasn't eating a good, uh, a clean diet. I was just eating inflammatory foods. And, uh, during that float trip with my dad, just eating a bunch of Cheez-Its and, you, you know, nasty stuff. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah, that's kind of what led me into the gut health world to start studying it, the micro and macrocosm of it. You know, after high school, after sports ended, I was like, okay, what do I do now? And I know you're really big on this, but lifting weights, right? Just tapping into a good weightlifting regimen and just resistance training. And so I was tired of being a skinny little kid, although looking fit and shredded, I was, you know, unhealthy on the inside and I wasn't, I didn't have any muscle mass, and so I started lifting weights, getting into powerlifting, bodybuilding for several years. Then that got kind of boring, so now I'm into like more functional fitness alongside that arena. And that's when I really delve into, uh, holistic nutrition and nutrition for performance overall.

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome, man. So how old are you now since starting that at 17?

Yeah, so I'm 25 right now, so I've been into this realm— now that I think about it, it's about 6 to 8 years, just about.

Awesome. Yeah, so gut health really is the precursor for everything else. And one of the major issues that I see with current modern-day bodybuilding, uh, fitness culture, social media, is like the reduction of fitness and health to how big the muscles can look. And that's the, the dedication is great, the effort put towards that is great. But if you are slamming down these fake pre-workout powders, processed protein powder, you know, skim milk, um, processed milk, that is non-raw milk, uh, these protein bars, like all of these things which are just fake artificial colorings, sweeteners— people are destroying their guts, they're destroying their mental health through them, their sleep quality, everything. And it, it's, it's kind of just done as like, oh yeah, it's just the taste. Like, there's no recognition of how the gut affects the actual muscles. But if your gut's in total disarray, then you're not assimilating the nutrients that you are eating as best as you could. And what you are actually eating is not, you know, food in general. So if your goal is to, you know, put on as much mass as possible, then the gut is something you really need to consider. And you know, do a deep dive into getting it right. So, you know, I think that that's just something to realize that I know I made the same mistakes for several years until later when I realized like, oh, the whole food, fermented food, all of these healing kind of gut foods is really, you know, Hippocrates, I think, said it, or Socrates is like, all disease starts in the gut. So, you know.

Oh, Hippocrates. It was Hippocrates.

You got it right.

Cool.

Um, it is a massive thing and, uh, people don't realize it.

It is, you know, and I think if we can address that and give it the fortitude it needs, I mean, it makes all facets of life much more improved and we feel that zest for life and that spunkiness. And so, um, you know, it's real simple. Stick to the basics. I think we can make it very complex, dial in gut health, but you know, there's a lot of basic things and fundamentals you can focus on.

What would you say they are?

Yeah, yeah, let's unpack that a little bit. So I'd say, you know, first is elimination. Like, if you're eating any processed foods continuously and all the time, uh, it's going to cause issues. You know, I'm really big on the moderation of 80/20, you know, for a lot of individuals. For me now, it's like 99/1. Like, I don't have any cravings for any trash foods, but for the general population, like, if you could just focus on 80/20 rule or 90/10, whatever, like, have those little moments you can have the trash foods or processed, ultra-processed foods made by man, you know, but for the bulk of your diet, if you can start with eliminating all the foods that are causing the troubling occurrences, right? The inflammation of the gut lining, you know, terrorizing the, the microvilli and villi of our gut, right? These are like little finger-like projections that line our cell wall and there's millions of 'em, right? And they have these little channels that absorb and it's— and help us assimilate nutrients. And if they're getting chopped away, or, you know, it's like Hiroshima and Nagasaki down there all the time, we're just going to be causing, causing issues with our, uh, our digestion. We aren't able to absorb. And that's where we're— you know, it's not just about the food you're eating, it's about are you assimilating the nutrients, right? So first things first, elimination, so you can have that proper metabolism of the food and energy production. You know, then you can start integrating healthy whole foods. And you— what I like how you brought up, man, is the, uh fermented foods. I mean, I think, you know, that's what we kind of ancestrally speaking really evolved our guts over time is, you know, all in ancient China and Ayurveda in ancient India and all of that. That's like the groundwork of human civilization. We had fermented foods all the time. Raw milk isn't even fermented, but it has like fermentation kind of qualities. It's loaded up in all these enzymes and probiotics. So I think if we can just get those on or in our gut, on a daily basis, that can be extremely beneficial. So you can equip, you know, the healthy bacteria, right? There's like two different types of bacteria. Um, they're like 90% of the bulk of our microbiota, and it's, uh, Firmicutes and then Bacteroidetes. It's kind of a complex word, Bacteroidetes. It's kind of like has the word roid in it, so it's kind of interesting. But these two have a little kind of balancing act, and if we have too many Firmicutes, these are kind of the bad guys then we're going to have this dysbiosis. We're going to start causing type 2 diabetes, improper glucose and fat metabolism. You know, we won't have the proper amino acid transport and metabolism. And overall, we're just going to have a crappy life because we're, we're feeding the wrong bacteria. And this is where dysbiosis comes in, right? We want to have that symbiosis of the gut and that, that beautiful colonization. And so if we can have more of the good guys but have that fine balance of of the bacterioidetes or the Firmicutes, then we're gonna live much more fruitful. And so I think addressing the gut through elimination, then integration with the fermented foods we just talked about, that can be helpful, or just get a good quality probiotic, 'cause in this day and age, I think a lot of us aren't gonna commit to eating fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir. We're not gonna eat that all the time. A lot of us don't commit to that. You can start with just a good quality probiotic that suits you well, like Lactobacillus or something. But even then, you got to be careful because if your gut's already out of whack and you're taking a probiotic, you might actually make it worse. So there's so many little intricacies that we need to focus on. And I just recommend hiring someone that knows what they're talking about. They can really just give you the outline, get it tested, all that stuff.

Yeah, I think the, the way that it works, right, is like the, the food that you're eating, you your body adapts to. So if you're eating trash food, it's going to increase the amount of microorganisms in the gut that eat that trash food. Same goes for sugar, alcohol, whatever it is. It's like your body will adapt and increase the— what it needs to process that food. Same with good food. This is why when you're eating good food a lot of the time consistently, and then you go back to eating the bad food, all of the bad bacteria that were breaking down the shitty food processed food you're eating before, they died off because they didn't have food to feed on. And now it's just the good bacteria left, so there's much more of a reaction when you do, you know, put that back into your gut. And that's what people feel. They think maybe like, what, uh, I'm healthier now, like, shouldn't I be able to handle like the bad food? You know, like, my body is at a higher, more optimal state, uh, and it is for proper food and real food.. But if you then introduce poison effectively back in, then, you know, it's not going to be able to deal with that. And that's an important thing to realize to some people, you know, that dynamic. Same with things like I had a friend recently who garlic or onion would give them, you know, very troublesome stomach pain and like gas and everything. And they had eaten onion and garlic for a lot of their life, but then for whatever reason You know, I think they had some sort of elimination diet, and then any onion and garlic, even in like a sauce, would give them trouble. Uh, so to re— kind of introduce that back in, what they had realized is the bacteria that were eating onion and garlic had died off because they were avoiding it for so long because it gave them, you know, these issues. So to reintroduce it, they started with fermented garlic stuff, fermented onion, you know, kind of cheese spreads and things like that. And when that, you know, the bacteria that you need to break down those things is already in that food, then you put it in your gut, then it repopulates those bacteria strains, which is, you know, really interesting. And now they can have raw onion, raw garlic just as easily. What do you find in terms of the playoff between raw foods and cooked foods and gut health as well as enzymes? What do you know about that?

Yeah, that's a dicey subject, man. I mean, there's so— everything related to nutrition is such a controversial subject. So I'm just going to say what I know and I believe about it. Um, in ancient Ayurveda and in Chinese medicine, one thing they're really big on is cooking certain foods, making it easily digestible through that. However, there's caveats to it. Some foods are good raw, right? It just depends on where you're at and where your gut is too, and your integrity in the moment. So I'd say, you know, for the most part, if you're eating, go easy on FODMAPs. FODMAPs are basically an acronym for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. These are just special types of different types of sugars and different chains that can ferment differently in the gut for people. And they tend to be really difficult to digest for most people, right? It'd be like, okay, let's go on a raw vegan diet and just eat broccoli. Let's eat raw Brussels sprouts. Let's eat raw Uh, cauliflower, let's see, raw, all those kind of foods that we can think of, the cruciferous typically, that would be hell, man. I'd be ripping ass all day long. Like, that'd be the worst experience. And some of us are doing that thinking that's a healthy way of life, but it's not. So listen to your body. If you get bloated or you get gas, you know, there are two, two things you can listen to from certain foods that are raw. Maybe cook them, see how you feel after that, you know, see how you respond. Um, for me, like, personally, if I eat raw garlic, I'm I'm gonna have kind of, you know, farts all day. If I eat raw broccoli in abundance, I'll have issues. But personally, I love raw carrots. We were just talking about carrots. I ate raw carrots every day. I have no trouble. So it just depends on what foods you're kind of looking into. So overall though, I think for the most part, many people can benefit from kind of, you can kind of open up the nutrients in many ways when you break down some of these heavy fibers through cooking. So I do recommend most people start with kind of lightly cooking or steaming their kind of veggies, that can make it a lot easier to assimilate.

Yeah, so things like the cruciferous vegetables, for sure cook, you're gonna have an easier time digesting those. But animal foods specifically, I think, are better off when they're not cooked as much. For instance, raw egg yolks specifically, cooking the whites I think is better. But when you cook the egg yolks, you're going to be breaking down a lot of the nutrition that's in there, so you want to avoid that if you can. Meat is perfectly fine to have raw. You know, beef tartare is, is something that's in a lot of our historical dishes, and people have been fine eating that. Obviously, like a steak on the inside, if you don't have it well done, it's raw as well. So if you kind of just back that up a bit. You cook it less, eat it raw, it's going to be fine. And I find that the— when I have raw meat, raw fish is awesome as well if you get it like a sashimi grade. I've also eaten raw salmon just, you know, from Whole Foods as well, and it's, it's been fine. So I think people are a bit too scared of that stuff. You know, if you were just catching a fish out of the ocean, just tear into it, it'd be fine. That's what pretty much every other animal does. It's— the issues lie in when it's like farmed and there's antibiotics and other things you don't really want to intake. But, um, yeah, animal foods you can have raw and that's going to be way easier to digest. Obviously dairy is a lot better raw because of those enzymes, enzymes being the things you need to break down the food. And if they're already in the food, then your body is going to have to deplete its stores of enzymes less. So vegetables and things like that, either have them fermented or cooked And then animal foods, I would lean more towards the raw side, but I still like cooking them if it's in, you know, like a ground beef in a pasta or, um, just a steak to cook the outside. I'm not a complete wild man savage yet.

It's good to have the flavor, man. I mean, it's— yeah, food is also like, it's medicine. It's also like, let's enjoy this, right? Um, and I think just somewhat raw or having off, at least from a safe source for the most part, is, you know, we're not cooking up the amino acids and entangling them in a way where our body has a hard time breaking them down, right? So like if we overcook some steak and it has all this char on the outside, the reason that's charred is these proteins have been completely flared up to the point where all these amino acids are getting so tangled up and then it becomes carcinogenic. So So it's also, you know, there's issues with that too where it's like, okay, charred food, be careful of. Overcooking, be careful of. It's super chewy. Like, that's kind of a sign like, don't— probably don't swallow that. Like, that's gonna be really difficult to chew and, and, yeah, or, uh, break down by your stomach, especially if you have messed up stomach acid, um, which a lot of us have poor stomach acid as well. So yeah, there's, there's so many little, little details in it, which is fun to explore.

Yeah, chewing is a massive one as well. People don't realize, like, they think, oh, just put it in my mouth, chew a couple times, and swallow. But the digestion process starts in the mouth, and you want to really make an effort to chew everything until it's pretty much a liquid, and then swallowing. And then also, rather than just using your jaw to chew, use your tongue to move the food around, like, actively. Rather than just kind of a little bit, because the movement of the tongue is what's gonna stimulate your salivary glands to put saliva into the— into your mouth, which mixes then with the food, and that begins to break down especially carbohydrates. But it also— your saliva will tag the type of food. So if it's predominantly protein, if it's fats, the saliva puts these little biomarkers on it, which then tells your stomach and gut what type of food this is to digest. Which is very interesting. And if you don't give your saliva enough time to mix throughout the food in your mouth, then your gut's going to have a harder time doing that. The other thing is, that's probably why it's easier to digest one or two types of food at once. Like these— there's this practice called mono meals. I don't know if you've heard of this, but like having a meal where it's just one type of food. So I used to have like a huge bowl of roast potatoes and just that, and that would be, you know, my carbohydrate meal for, you know, the morning or lunchtime or whatever. And then I would have my meat a bit later. And what that does is it allows your stomach to, you know, hit the stomach acid levels that are most optimal for that type of food because carbohydrates, you know, break down differently to proteins. And I think there are Ayurvedic principles where they say like, don't mix this type of food with that type of food, don't have fruit with meals. Although I, I don't always adhere to that one, but, um, there are several different kind of historical rules that have come out from this dynamic of your body being able to process one thing at once the best.

I love this topic. Yeah, food can combining, right? And I think it does have a lot of merit to it. You know, I think, you know, just from my own experience, like if I have a shit ton of potatoes, like you're saying, with like a ton of sweet potatoes, let's say, with a big ribeye or steak or whatever, like it does have a slight different digestive fire to it, right? Yeah. Maybe even more for some other people. So yeah, be aware, I think, of like combining starches with proteins or fruit with all that stuff. Yeah, those are kind of good ways to kind of gauge what is, gauge what is most optimal for your digestion for sure, is the food combining.

What about the, these kind of, I think I saw a reel of yours where we were talking about, or you were talking about how many grams of protein is needed for bodybuilding, and the number thrown out is like 2 to 2.2 grams per pound or something ridiculous. I don't know, I don't think I've hit that level. I'm not the biggest guy, but I am, you know, relatively muscular developed, muscularly developed. And I've always like calories for sure hit that, hit the amount needed, but I've never been like 400 grams of protein, 350 grams of protein per day. So I don't necessarily think it's, you know, really needed. And I've, I've seen accounts of other people is like, as long as the calories are there, you have enough protein to kind of repair and build, uh, carbohydrates are used for a lot of things, but I don't think it's necessary as much as people stress about it to the point where they're having like, yeah, 3 scoops of protein because I have to get my protein in for the day. And I'm wondering your thoughts on that and how your journey with, you know, you're not doing bodybuilding now, but how that has related to your kind of knowledge and, and how you train and eat now.

Yeah, uh, well, I'd start with, you know, the most optimal I find is anywhere from 0.7 to around like 1.1 grams of protein per pound of body weight. And the reason I enjoy that, and I think that is pretty feasible for most people too, is you can break down like 3 meals a day and have around 40 grams of protein per meal. And most people do really well with that. Um, but I'm really against the whole bodybuilding, you know, the typical fitness scene, how they're so big on this idea of like this gargantuan amount of protein. And unless you're training like rigorously one every day or twice a day, then it will probably be necessary because your body is in such a catabolic state, you need to refuel and get that anabolic, uh, protein in. But even then, I'm like, okay, what about your organs, right? This isn't all just about your muscle tissue. It is really hard on your kidneys and your liver to get that much protein in, right? It takes a lot of processing and nitrogen, right? Excess nitrogen production in the body. So I think it's important to have a fine balance and listen to your body. Like, I've explored this for a long time, man, where I would get that crazy amount of protein, 200+ grams a day, you know, and even somewhere upwards to 300. And I was taking the supplements and everything, and I would have a lot of gastric distress like all the time. But I looked great. Like, I had all this these gains coming from it. But at the same time, I'm still able to have incredible gains right now incorporating more intermittent fasting routine, you know, 12 to 17 hours a day. I'm eating less protein. Like, even today, man, all I've had is a fat bowl of fruit. Like, that's all I've had so far. And it's about noon where I'm at right now. And then later on, I'll have some, like, eggs and whatever. But I think the main idea is don't obsess about protein. The reason I do think protein is king is most people are on weight loss journeys or trying to burn fat. It's so incredible for, uh, upleveling your metabolism, your metabolic rate. Um, you know, it's about 3 calories per gram of protein versus like fat, which is around 9 calories per gram. And the reason I say it's 3, most people on the textbook world would say it's 4 calories per gram of protein, but it takes energy to break down proteins. Therefore, it's around 3 calories per gram. Right. So, I mean, it's gonna help with you being satiated, being full, holes. There's all these benefits to that. Um, I think it's just finding that balance around like 0.7 to 1.1 grams a day. That can really help a lot of people out. And for me, in the trial and error over the years of just still training 3, 4 days a week, my physique hasn't changed. If anything, I'm leaner and I'm feeling more light. I'm just feeling lighter energy from this shift.

Yeah, and there's a balance of like, if bodybuilding is your one goal and that's it, then I can see periods of time where that, that might be a strategy that you unfold. But I personally have, in terms of my, you know, entrepreneurial goals and the work that I put out and all the rest of it, it's easier to do more work when you are not eating as much. And, you know, for a lot of the time, like, my routine was having fruit in the morning raw cacao paste and, you know, maybe an espresso or something. And that would do me for from 6 till 9:30, 10 o'clock. And then I would have the proper meal. And then, you know, you'd get a bit slower because your body is processing things. And I think there has to be a balance and a trade-off between— yeah, would I be bigger if throughout these, you know, last couple years especially I had really pushed myself to get more protein in and more calories? Like, yeah, maybe. But would I have had the processing power in my brain and the energy to do everything else I wanted to do in life? I don't know. And it's just about, I guess, you know, everyone's different, everyone has different goals and what they want to do, but it's kind of unavoidable that if you eat a little bit less food, you're gonna have more energy, or at least feel like you have more energy, which is a, a bit of like a catch-22, or, you know, it doesn't make sense to people, but that is the payoff of, you know, how it works in the body.

Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. I think there's like that trade-off, like you're saying, like the productivity around it too, because it is— when I have a big protein meal, I'm like, damn, I kind of got all this fuel going to my gut versus my noggin, right? And then I kind of lose that that high, uh, high mental capacity to do a lot of things. So I agree with that for sure.

What are you working on right now? What do you— what are your major goals? Yeah, like just overall lifestyle, whatever, whatever you're working on and projects and things online.

Yeah, absolutely. So some big things, I'm just keep continually expanding my YouTube channel. Um, on top of that, I'm in the process of building out a really epic course for the InnerFit program in the next 3-4 months or so, hopefully launching at the at the end of the beginning of 2023. Um, and I'll just be chock-full of everything I've learned over the past 6, 7 years, you know, from nutrition to fitness to lifestyle, physique optimization. Um, you know, that Inner Fortitude stuff we're talking about with gut health, right? And so, uh, this is going to be a really powerful physique and lifestyle optimization program in the works of building out. So that's something that's been on my, my mind quite a bit lately. Yeah, overall, I mean, we're in the shift of seasons too, so I'm kind of bummed out here in Fayetteville right now. We're transitioning from this warm summer months into this, you know, fall season and winter. So lately, just taking advantage of that sun every single day as much as I can. And yeah, just looking forward to nature before it starts getting all cold.

Yeah, I might have to see if I can head somewhere a bit warmer once again. Gets to, gets to those darker months. But, um, I think there's, you know, the seasons of life. I think there's benefit to having the, the slower periods and more sleep and hibernation. But I also think like, yeah, if you can just get on a plane and still get that sun, then that's, uh, that's what I prefer anyway.

Oh yeah, yeah, I look forward to those traveling moments, man. I mean, that's the exciting part, is kind of find where you want to reside and then you know, had this— at least for me, I like having that ambition of every 2 to 4 months or so, every quarter, just having a big trip to kind of relax and rest and rebuild. I think it's kind of like the Tim Ferriss idea of just like working your ass off for 30 days or whatever and then having that good 2 to 4 weeks of just enjoying life and taking it easy, still putting work in but not like, you know, that hard-driven work. And I recommend everyone taps into that because we're We're just like indoctrinated in our society to think that we have to grind 3/4 of the year continuously, and then we get this 1-week little nestle to go out on vacation with our family. It's like, no, that is disgusting. That's a horrible way to live life. Like, you're, you're living life in the Matrix, and all of a sudden you try to hop out of it. It's like, no, that's not going to work very easy for you because your mind's going to be still racing. So I think everyone needs to tap into that. Just take a break and travel and explore the world.

Yeah, the The Matrix is an interesting topic because it's a week out of a year. I think Americans have the smallest amount of holiday in terms of the typical full-time work schedule. And one week, two weeks out of the whole year, it's just like, wow, your employer really has a hold on you and the work culture has a hold on you and the work ethic or the social programming that goes into making you feel like a bad person if you're not grinding every single day is counterproductive. It's, you know, probably why we have such a huge issue with stress and all the stress-related chronic diseases that come with that. But it is, you know, the driver of capitalism in a way. So I think understanding yourself, uh, there are certain types of people that, you you know, may thrive more under that. But as far as a creative, the creative mindset and being able to just put in work to something that you're building, you have to understand there will be cycles. There will be days where you grind, you know, pretty hard, but then there will also be, should be times at least, um, where you're, you know, chilling out and giving your body more time and giving your mind time to relax. And when you have your mind thinking about things in the moment, then there's no time, there's no space for the ideas from the super intelligent minds, the super intelligence of God, to give you ideas and give you these thoughts and things that will possibly bloom into projects or solve problems you have. If you're like constantly doing spreadsheet stuff, payroll, like all the nitty emails, all of that with your conscious mind getting in the way, then you have no time to figure out the real big leverage things that come from the ether and deliver to you, you know, that next level of— there's a quote, I can't remember who it said, who said it, but it goes something like, the man who works all day has no time to get rich because if he's working all the time then yeah, you don't have these ideas which could then turn into that million-dollar product. Or it could be as simple as, you know, starting a side business. But if you're always working on your part-time job or full-time job, then you will never just have the time to allow that super intelligence to give you those gifts of wisdom. And I think that's very important for people to realize.

Yeah, it's funny you bring all this up. I mean, even last Saturday I took I scheduled out, I blocked off my entire schedule, no calls, nothing. I was like, okay, I spent this whole Saturday, and I do this about once a month, a whole day just for myself. I went on a hike and I took some mushrooms and I was just out in nature for about 6 to 8 hours. Uh, yeah, and I was in the middle of nowhere, right? And I was just like, this is the way to go. Like, I was just more connected to self, did some breathwork. There's just so many things I could do. I was reading, speaking of all the things you're talking about, it's like Stoicism, man. Um, reading a ton of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, um, journaling. Just all that— all these downloads started coming into me, right? And it's not downloads from the matrix, it's downloads from my own mind, right? So, and my own soul. And so I, I'm, you know, after that trip, Sunday, back into gear. Yeah, it was like, all right, here I go. And so I, I think that little reset even once a week for people can be really helpful. And yeah, it doesn't have to be like a massive trip you have to take all the time. If you guys are grinding for a family and you're out there and you're trying to find you know, that balance with it all. Start with like the Pomodoro technique. Take a break every 30 minutes to an hour. That's 5 minutes to 30 minutes that you can just simply walk outside, ground, get some sunlight, move, get away from all the tech. Like, even that continuously on micro little things in your schedule can make all the difference in your psyche and your drive and, uh, you know, success.

Yeah, I think getting out of the cage of the the modern world is really essential to having any kind of success unless it's full investment banking mode, grind set, but all the power to people that do that, but I don't think that's a very happy existence for a lot of people. And I say that knowing people that have done that and had that career. So, yeah. Another thing I wanted to mention is this, kind of the difference between men and women in their work cycles. Men having this 24-hour cycle, uh, which is the same pretty much every day. And then women, obviously, with their periods, having a monthly cycle. And according to that monthly cycle and what days it is and ovulation and hormone changes, there exists a period of time where your work capacity, if you are someone that a woman that wants to do, you know, work online or just in their job where your creative capacities are much higher. And I don't have enough experience to say exactly when it is, and maybe that's different for woman to woman. But the hormones, you know, there's, there are some times where it is in your best interest to just rest. And men don't have this same kind of impact, influence of these changing hormones because we don't have the period, obviously. So if you're a girl that, you know, really wants to take optimization of their work cycle to the next level is like see when you are at your naturally most productive. Obviously, you get off birth control and stuff, so you have that more tapped into intuition from yourself to feel that. But that is something to consider, that sometimes in the month you're not going to be at your creative capacity at the best level. And obviously, I'm not telling women what to do. I'm not intimately involved with that, but I know that some women that I've spoken to have felt a lot of success in keeping that in mind. It's like not forcing yourself to adhere to the standards of the male 24-hour cycle where we can kind of have like, you know, work every single day, rest every single day. Um, just an interesting, interesting thought.

Yeah, and you know, I think that's a beautiful discussion. I think a resource that can help a lot of men and women out. I mean, I think men need to understand how women operate on a physiological level. I think that can help us just, uh, have a chill pill around some chaotic moments with women. Um, but there's a book called In the Flow, and it's by Alyssa Vitti— Vitti, uh, V-I-T-T-I— and that book is just revolutionary. I mean, it's super powerful. It gives you the whole in and out physiology of what goes on during your hormonal cycle and how you can optimize literally every facet of life around it. So In the Flow, I highly recommend people pick up as a resource, and I think it just can help you get a good grasp on how to go about optimizing these areas of workflow, of, you know, chilling out and taking time for yourself.

How do you like to operate your workflow? I— for me, it's wake up, lift, sunlight, hopefully do those at the same time, come back, eat some breakfast, work for about 3 hours altogether with those little breaks going outside. Hopefully I've got my laptop outside as well, so I'm in the sun doing that. And then it's, you know, some kind of walk and a nap— oh, sorry, lunch and then nap, and then back into like 3 hours or so of working, of working, and then some second kind of movement session, probably not lifting weights, but start some sort of cardiovascular or mobility work, and then the rest of the evening is just kind of chilling out. I find that works best for me.

Very similar, man. I mean, I operate very similar to that. I'll wake up typically around like 7 AM, um, and I'll get, you know, sun outside, have my morning routine. Um, and yeah, lately I have been enjoying kind of doing a little bit of a reverse where I do like kind of aerobic training, whether it's boxing outside in the sun, or I'll be doing like a little barefoot hike at this trail next, next to my house. Or, you know, just qigong or some kind of movement to kind of wake in the body. Usually kind of aerobic-based, 'cause I just love getting that expansion of lung volume in the morning and getting that breathwork tied to it. And then usually in the afternoon or several hours later, I'll get a lift in or something. But yeah, I'll usually break my fast around noon every day, whether it is a fruit bowl or it's something like eggs or, you know, some beef. Or something like that, avocado. And yeah, my work schedule is typically most optimal around like 9 a.m. to noon. That's like where I just feel like total brain flow into everything. Most— mostly analytical work I seem to go into a little bit more. Creative work is typically in the afternoon or evening. I just love doing kind of creative endeavors after a long day of doing kind of analytical masculine drive stuff where it's like, you know, all that, all that stuff that you can dive into. And then I typically operate really well, just kind of enjoying the creative work because that's, that's more fun to me anyway.

So yeah, awesome.

A day in the life.

What about, um, I know you're a fan of a nude sunning as well. How do you feel about that?

Oh man, I feel amazing. I was in the sun for a good 30 minutes, like about an hour today, to be honest, just out in the middle of the woods, like there's this little private area I go to all the time and just do qigong. And, uh, you know Troy Casey, right?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Troy's a good— he's a great friend of mine. Yeah, he's a legend. And, you know, I've learned a lot of different qigong things from him. And, um, so yeah, qigong's super fun to do. I do that in the mornings typically, again going barefoot grounding and toughening up my feet on some hard rocks and everything in the morning. But yeah, stacking, you know, it's kind of like the habit stack. And you brought up like, okay Uh, I hopefully I can get some sun while I'm working out. I just love doing that throughout the day. Like, okay, if I'm gonna have my fruit bowl, I'm not just gonna sit down and just, you know, eat at the, the table inside. I'm gonna go outside and eat it in the sun, right? Or, uh, you know, doing the qigong, go outside into the sun with it. Or, um, the sun, you could do anything. And let's be honest, a lot of people are like, how do I work for my laptop in the sun? It's like, dude, you can do that easily. Just hop outside, get the connection next to the Wi-Fi. But Yeah, uh, very big on nude sunbathing. I feel like this immediate surge of energy, you know, it's like the solar panels of the, the, your body, especially for guys. Just getting your balls out there every once in a while, and you don't even need a whole bunch of time out there, just at least 5 minutes a day, right? And, uh, I just feel, yeah, I feel amazing, man. I mean, we're like photosynthetic beings. Like, they've had a bunch of this data come out recently where they would put blindfolds on individuals at night and they noticed their melatonin secretion decreased when they had light exposed on their body and their skin, but not their eyes. So we have photoreceptors quite literally all over our body on our skin. Yeah. So like you, you might as well fix your, your rhythm, your circadian rhythm, and also just get the benefits of melanoma— melanin, excuse me, melanin production. Uh, you know, the tanning cells, basically melanocytes. If you can stimulate that, you're gonna live a longer life, feel more energized too. To use. So man, skip— get your body in the sun, right?

Yeah, well, light itself, like, people just think sun equals vitamin D, but the sun is information that is perceived by your body, by those photoreceptors, by the eyes, um, the melatonin production, the circadian rhythm effects that that has. Like, that times so many other different things in the body You know, the hunger hormones, ghrelin, leptin. Uh, there really is so much that the sun is telling our bodies that you can't just equate that to vitamin D levels and think, oh, if my vitamin D levels are— I'll just take a vitamin D supplement and then it's all good, then I don't need sun, then I'm— because I'm in the office under fluorescent light all day, that's all good, I've got my vitamin D supplement. Um, this is, you know, I think one of the biggest health issues of our time is how little sun we are getting now. And everyone's, you know, perception of the sun being this bad skin cancer-causing thing. And I think that that's by design, um, from the people that want to make money off, you know, sunscreen and, and these other chemicals. And, you know, you could look at it at a more esoteric level, is that when someone is getting, um, more sunlight, they are becoming more spiritually pure. Like, I think that there just is some unquantifiable feeling, uh, a supercharging of intuition, a connection to divinity that occurs when, uh, you're getting sunlight. Like, it's quite literally kind of burning away these, these negative things out of your mind. Like, if you notice how good you feel after 30 minutes of sunbathing, then you can kind of equate that. And, you know, like, if there's anything that I can say to people now, it's like get more sunlight. Whatever you think you're getting is like, oh yeah, I get out 30 minutes a day. It's like, yes, that's good, and that's what you should aim for at least. But, you know, the more the better. And the more you do it, you know, the more benefits your body will have. Because every other animal in the animal kingdom is, you know, maybe they're under shade in the forest and things like that, but for the most part, they're in the sun all day. And then when they sleep, it's pitch black. And that is really this duality of life that you see in everything that we don't really— we have this like gross mixed haze of we're waking up, we're indoors, we're in the car, then we're in an office, then it's fake light, then we get home, and then there's more fake light. The sun goes down and we've still got light sources, so it's like this completely messed up, uh, light information that your body's taking in that really, I think, is contributing to, you know, most of the health issues that we have today.

I love it, man. You're, you're speaking truth right now. And I think, you know, especially if you try to get that inflammation— just throw that shit out the window. Really work on keeping inflammation low through diet, through stress. Then it's going to make sun much more of your, your best friend, right? That's why people also have this enemy approach to the sun, is because their body's already inflamed. And so when they get in it for 30 minutes, they're like, I'm burning. It's like, well, I mean, if you started eating healthier fats, you know, eating those eggs, eating animal-based foods that are nutritious, throw in some healthy, you know, wild-caught fish, you know, like get those bases down with the fats, like get the cholesterol in, that's so important right there. That's gonna help out with more vitamin D3 synthesis as well. If we are going in a very, you know, raw vegan diet long-term, we're cutting out all this cholesterol which is— dietary cholesterol is gonna help you synthesize more vitamin D3. That's gonna help out with your testosterone if you're a guy. It's gonna help you out with your hormones and balancing that out. So I think really just crack the code on nutrition, get some more sun. Damn, you're gonna be living— you're gonna be living amazing. Nice and glowing skin, all that stuff.

Yeah, you can really tell when someone's getting sun. It's just like this glow inside them and they look healthier, and it really— you can tell when someone isn't getting enough sun. That's the thing, uh, that really annoys me about hospitals is the fact that, um, one, everything's bleached.

Everything is so bleached in there, man.

It's bleached, it's fake, the food is trash, um, there's no sunlight of course, and the fluorescent lights. And it's like, wow, there's no fresh air even, you know. You've got those air conditioners going all the time. It's like, how are you meant to heal? And that makes me think that, you know, the top-down, uh, Rockefeller-based modern medicine is literally designed to keep people sick, to stay in the hospital longer so they can charge more and make more money off you. And that's like, there's no, there's no benefit in, there's no profit in sunbathing. And that's why they don't recommend it, but they will recommend a vitamin D supplement. There's no profit in, you know, taking care of your own health, and there is profit in keeping you ill and slanging you these drugs to keep you stupefied, and, you know, painkillers. And then, you know, it is a massive— another massive issue which I think people need to be aware of.

Yeah, you bring all this up, man. My little sister Nina is also one of the biggest inspirations I've ever had in going into the health field and natural healing is, you know, she was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which is basically like a three-chambered heart where the ventricle on her left side of her heart was entirely filled up with muscle. She was just born that way. And so blood flow would come in, oxygenated blood would come in, and it would basically go to the lower atrium and then just go right through her body then and there so that she wouldn't have this extra pumping mechanism going through her body. Very weak blood flow, very weak circulation, terrible nitric oxide. On top of that, she was prescribed amoxicillin her entire life with antibiotics because she was born without a spleen. Um, and so they thought, okay, let's just give her a bunch of antibiotics because her body is going to attack herself. It's like, no, that's not how it works. And even today I'm trying to like convince her and be like, tailor off these antibiotics and do the opposite, add some probiotics to your life, right? So I'm extremely angry, and that's one thing I've worked on for years, is how do I channel this anger into positivity? And that's what what I'm doing today is just trying to help other people optimize their health. But she was admitted to the hospital March of 20— or, uh, December 25th, Christmas Day of 2013, and she had pneumonia. We thought she was just going to be in there for a little bit. 3 months later, she's still in the hospital bed, losing a ton of weight, sub-100 pounds. My family is just worried sick. It was a horrible experience, man. And eventually the doctors were like, she needs a heart transplant. So thank God she survived having a heart transplant, and someone unfortunately had to pass, but it keeps that that life source energy channeled through her. And so she has this big pumping heart nowadays. She's doing so much better here in St. Louis. But the thing that really opened my eyes at a young age, being her, you know, young older brother, right around the same time I also had this, you know, in the beginning we were talking about the gut troubles I had. This is right around the same time where I was waking up to my own health issues. And then I saw my little sister Nina being fed green beans, canned green beans, being fed all these pastries and all these processed foods that are just loaded up in the hospital beds. And I'm like, This girl just had a freaking heart taken out of her chest and a new one put in. Like, again, it's like getting a new engine put in your car and you're just going to fill up a Ferrari with diesel. That doesn't make sense, right? So I'm seeing this and I'm like kind of opening my eyes like, huh, interesting. Why is she being fed this garbage when she could use a freaking beef heart to help her out or something random, right? So I started looking into the field even more and trying to like figure out ways to help her. And yeah, it's, it's crazy, man, how one thing led to the next. Now I'm here today and she's doing much better now, but it's just all these little areas and pockets of Western medicine that are beautiful. She wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for it. You know, no hate to it. Yeah, awesome. Like, and you know, if you got injured, man, and you just like broke your arm, let's go to the— let's go to the ER right away, get that patched up. But we're taking it to the next level. We're handing out pills like it's nothing. Like Adderall is just handed out. I could have a 5-minute conversation with a doc and be like, I get anxiety, I can't focus. Oh, here's this pill. You know, this is just like a huge epidemic nowadays. And I think we need to open our eyes to it and tap into our own intuition and be our own doctors, right?

Yeah, well, you know, that's how it used to be. Um, maybe you had a village doctor or a village shaman who was, who was more trained in these things, but in general, you know, each family had knowledge of herbs that were used for certain things. And I'm sure a lot of people's grandmas still do, but we've lost that connection. The opioid epidemic being more of an issue than any of these fake diseases that we've been told to be scared of the last couple years. It's killing more people, literally. Fact. Um, the homeless crisis in a lot of the cities is a result of the drug trade as well. So it's like, you always got to zoom out on what the media wants you to focus on and what it's saying is the worst thing in the world, because that is always trying to take you away from looking at the things that are actually a much bigger deal, but people are profiting off them. People are profiting off the opioid epidemic, the Sackler Group, and those, you know, horrific families that are, you know, dodging settlement payments by just moving their funds offshore and not really caring about the negative externalities that their, you know, their medical profits have, you know, created. So That's something to be aware of as well, is that like you have to take things into your own hand. And this is why it's great that people like you out there, and what I try to share as well, is like, don't believe this shit that people are making money off, because everything that you need to be healthy is under your control. And whatever disease you think you may have is just a current expression of symptoms that your body has in reaction to its current environment, its current inputs. And all of that can be changed, and you can heal yourself. The human body exists in perfect harmony and function at a base level, and we're all born that way, um, you know, aside from obviously the, the genetic defects that we may, you know, in isolation have in minor amounts. But in general, like, people's bodies, they, they come to this homeostasis, this pivot point. You know, you cut your finger, it's not like your body doesn't know what to do. It, it eventually, in a few days, it'll heal itself and be back to that perfect smooth finger. You know, how does the body know how to do that? It's like this default state of health and harmony that if given the right inputs, the right environment, the right thoughts about yourself— our mental thoughts having a massive, massive input about our health. All you have to do is look at the placebo effect, is, is that your thoughts have the ability to heal yourself because of the way that those thoughts affect your energetic field that then your organs react to and so forth. But it's all under your control, and people like CBC Wellness and hopefully myself to some degree are, you know, that's what we want to do in life. So yeah, man, thank you so much for joining me. Uh, this has been Soulcast. Appreciate you. And, uh, where can people find you if they want to give you a message and check out your content?

Yeah, I appreciate you, man. And that icing on the cake, you ending with that, tap into your own intuition, right? Um, cvcwellness.com is a good, good place you can reach me at, or you can just find me on all social media platforms at CVC Wellness. And, uh, yeah, reach out, connect, let's, uh, let's brew something up.

Boom. All right, thanks, brother. Uh, see you. Thanks for listening at home, and, uh, talk to you soon.