Why Dentists Should Exercise

Episode Summary:

In this episode of The Dental Boardroom, host Wes dives into a vital yet often overlooked topic: the intersection of health, wellness, and dentistry. Joined by dental coach Steve Sperry and senior CFO advisor Andrew, the discussion highlights how dentists can integrate exercise, stretching, and stress management into their demanding schedules. From personal stories about back pain and family health to innovative wellness practices like stretching routines, yoga, and cold plunges, this conversation is packed with actionable insights to inspire healthier living.

Whether you're a dentist battling the physical toll of the profession or simply someone seeking to optimize your health journey, this episode offers practical advice, personal anecdotes, and even a sneak peek into emerging wellness trends.

Tune in to uncover insights, expand your horizons, and explore resources that could transform your perspective. Watch Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, Don't Die documentary and Poisoned documentary.

Key Points:

1. The Importance of Health for Dentists:

• The physical demands of dentistry often lead to back pain and other ergonomic issues.
• Why focusing on wellness can improve productivity, reduce stress, and extend longevity.

1. Stretching and Mobility:

• Andrew shares his journey to prioritize mobility and functional fitness.
• The benefits of visiting a professional stretching center like StretchLab.

1. The Mind-Body Connection:

• How stress impacts physical health, particularly back pain.
• Research linking stress levels to perceived pain, and strategies to manage it.

1. Innovative Wellness Tools:

• Cold plunges as a tool for reducing inflammation and boosting recovery.
• Steve and Wes share tips on incorporating cold therapy into daily routines.

1. Daily Wellness Habits:

• The role of sleep, hydration, and consistent morning routines in overall health.
• Insights into wearables and apps for tracking health progress.

#DentalHealth #WellnessJourney #ColdPlunge #Stretching #DentistryLife #Ergonomics #HealthyLiving #StressManagement #Longevity #FunctionalFitness #MindBodyConnection

Transcript:

Wes Read (2): [00:00:00] Welcome everybody to a new episode of The Dental Boardroom. It's Wes. I'm excited about the episode that we have today. It is on a subject that is near and dear to my heart and near and dear to the heart of two of my guests on the program who I'll introduce in just one moment. It is on the subject of health, exercise, and wellness, and working with a lot of dentists.

I have seen the toll that dentistry can take on the body and mind of a dentist. So I, I think there's gonna be a, if not every dentist may find the subjects of this podcast to be relevant to them. Now, I'm not on my feet as much as dentists. I sit down a lot as a CP and financial planner, but I still, uh, find that if I don't.

Add a strong element of wellness and health and exercise to my life. It, [00:01:00] it erodes so much of my productivity and my self-perception. So I'm excited to share with you some of the things that I've been doing, things that I've struggled with, and things that I'm doing to try to have a, a strong health journey in my life.

Let me introduce who we have with us. We have Steve Par, Steve Sperry. Steve, thanks for joining you and I did a, um, a podcast not too long ago, uh, on helping dentists with, uh, you know, with their business and their numbers. You are a, you are a dental coach. You've been doing this for, for a long time, and when we were sort of gearing up for that podcast, I learned just how passionate you are, Steve, for health.

And I thought we really, really should do a part two on health. So here we are on health. So welcome to the show, Steve.

Steve Sperry: Thanks. Yeah, looking forward to it.

Wes Read (2): And we've also got Andrew, and Andrew is a colleague of mine here at Practice CFO. [00:02:00] He's one of our lead senior CFO advisors. So he's working with dentists day in and day out as well.

And he is also very regimented in his health. And then going on some specific focuses this year in that journey. So excited to hear from you. Andrew. Welcome to the program. Thanks for having me. Alright guys, let's kick this off. This is gonna be a conversation. I think the main themes I want to talk about are a little bit the why.

I wanna talk about the methods of adding exercise and wellness into our life. A little bit about diet and food and how we're approaching that. Talk about some of the technology and maybe the wearables or the apps that we're seeing emerge a lot in this space over the past five to 10 years. And a little bit about sleep.

Even going almost scientific about this and talking about ways that we can even test for our health and our progress. Steve, would you mind kicking it off? Tell me, I don't wanna spend [00:03:00] too much time on the why, 'cause I think most dentists know why. But tell me, why should dentists make exercise and wellness a theme in their life?

Steve Sperry: Yeah, well thanks for the question. It's interesting being a dental coach for the past 40 years. I can't get dentists to stretch, let alone warm up. And we all play sports and you know, you're gonna stretch, you're gonna warm up, you're gonna get your heart rate going. And ergonomics are pro is probably the number one subject for me in dentistry.

It's very compelling, very interesting. I can't think of a client that I have that doesn't have back problems and it's almost all stretching. I'm actually kind of excited for Andrew to share his, his stretching routine. 'cause that's what life's all about, is how, how can we stay healthy. So for me, you know, my why, my mom lived till she was.

96, uh, longevity. But her health span might have been [00:04:00] 85. And what I mean by that is she didn't really get out of bed. She couldn't walk to get the mail, and she just didn't, she didn't really live, you know, a life, uh, in that, in those 11 years. So now my grandpa, the day before he passed at 92, was riding a horse.

So my why is I want, I want to be like my grandpa and I wanna live a healthy life. I don't wanna have a stroke, you know, I wanna live healthily and then, and then pass. So

Wes Read (2): that's my why. It reminds me a little bit of my, my dad right now is 77 going on 78. In fact, today is his birthday. Wow. I gotta call dad.

Happy birthday dad. Well, my dad, if you just looked at, my dad is healthy all around, but if you look at him from like the waist down, you would think he's 35 years old. His legs look as good as mine. In fact, they have better definition than mine do. [00:05:00] And I remember when I was young riding my bike, while my dad would run, my dad would run, uh, frequently and he would spend a lot of time, I remember stretching before and after when he would run.

That was his main form of exercise. But he was so consistent on it. Over the years, he ran a few marathons, but he wasn't. Like a, a, a persistent marathon runner. He just ran 10 Ks all the time. There was a race in Southern California called the Sconzo Garden Race, and we used to go as a family and run this thing.

And it was just, I just have the best memories about this, but I attribute the fact that my, so much of my dad's health right now is because he's so consistent on that. He's five foot nine, he's probably five foot eight now. Was five foot, uh, 10 at one point. But you know how that goes. And he probably weighs about 173 or so.

So he is, you know, he is just healthy. And so he always inspired me and I now think I'm at that age when I remember seeing my dad exercise a lot. Am I [00:06:00] maintaining that so I can be like my dad now who's almost 80 and he's. He's, he still runs, he does a lot of work around the house. He carries big tools.

He's just going as strong as he ever was and I just, I admire that and love that and want to be able to do the same thing. Andrew, let's pivot over to you and maybe, maybe emphasize your stretching goals. 'cause I know that's a theme you have this year. What's going on in your life? Physically speaking. Are you looking to sell a dental practice?

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Andrew Northcutt: Yeah, thanks for having me on the podcast. So I, I absolutely can, can relate and understand where you guys are coming from for the, the longevity [00:08:00] standpoint. I have good and bad examples in my family. I have a, a grandma who lived till she was 94 and she was, you know, square dancing, line dancing, I can't remember, some kind of dancing all the way up until the end.

And then I have, right now, I have, you know, a, a, a parent who is in very poor health, unfortunately and starting dialysis this week and, you know, only 74. And a lot of that is, is due to, to poor eating and exercise lifestyle choices over the last, last, well, his whole life. So for me, a big part of it is longevity as well.

I would say another big why is how it makes me feel in the short term as well, when I exercise, when I have that positive. Those positive feelings, and then the positive self-image. I'm just so much more productive at work. I'm a better parent to my kids. I'm a better husband. I'm a better friend. I, I do a lot more for others to try to help them and try to lift [00:09:00] them up because my bucket is fuller, so I'm able to give more because I feel better.

And if I feel better, I have more energy now I can, I can do more good in the world at, you know, at this age, you know, I go and jump with my kids on the trampoline every day because it's their favorite thing ever to, I, I have friends who say, oh, I can't jump on the trampoline because of, you know, list off whatever, whatever injury.

And I can relate to that because I, I did have, and I, I still do struggle with this sometimes, uh, you know, some sore, like a sore back with lower back pain and, uh, pain in my glutes as well. Just from ho honestly, probably stress probably sitting too much over the last several years. And so this year to the point you touched on Wes, I've really made it a focus to steer away from, from vanity muscles at the gym because my wife, my wife doesn't care at all.

I mean, I had results before. She was like, I didn't notice a difference. And I'm like, look at these before after picks and she just [00:10:00] doesn't care. So I thought, well, this is not helping my discomfort and pain, so I'm gonna drop this for a year. I'm still gonna do some resistance training, but mainly body weight stuff and just stuff to be functionally fit so I can do the things I wanna do and feel good.

And so as part of that, I've really, I've really started focusing on mobility and stretching. So essentially all the workouts and exercise I do right now, and I plan to do for this whole year to see how I feel is really focused on how can I move my body so that I'm more flexible, I can do the things I wanna do.

I reduce risk of injury and I feel good. And one of the things that's really helped me with that is I, I've been going to stretch lab. You guys heard of that before?

Wes Read (2): I only recently because you told me

Andrew Northcutt: and I have not, but

Steve Sperry: I wrote it down.

Andrew Northcutt: It's really interesting. So it's, I mean, if I were to ask you when's the last time you stretched for an hour straight, uh, you'd be hard pressed to find probably [00:11:00] anyone who's done that.

I mean, yoga is probably the closest you'll get, but there's still a lot of strength training in yoga a lot of the time, so it's not all stretching. And so what's nice about Stretch Lab is they really, do you, they use this, the software where you stand in front of this computer and there's a camera and it links to the different points on your body and it has, you do specific movements and it'll tell you based on their software where you're low in mobility, where your high end mobility, which muscles will probably need to get stretched.

It gives you a report, which is a really great way to have like a starting point. And then after you've. It's been going for a while. They do it for you again and say, here's your progress. And it's been, it's been a really, really good experience so far. And I mean, Wes, I know I've talked to you about the lower back pain stuff before, and I tell you, even in this last week and a half, I've felt the best I've felt in probably several years.

And so I'm, and

Wes Read (2): you attribute that to your [00:12:00] stretch lab experience?

Andrew Northcutt: I'm cautiously optimistic. It's almost too soon to be celebrating, you know, because I don't want to, I don't wanna jinx it, but, well, lemme ask you, you, on your lower

Wes Read (2): back, did you, do you have any, uh, herniated discs, any bulging in those discs going on?

So, I, I've never gotten,

Andrew Northcutt: I've never gotten an MRI for it, uh, because my pain would come and go. It would be there sometimes and it would, wouldn't be there other times. And it was usually associated with stress. And so I just, I made that. Connection. It's been really clear to me. And, uh, there was a really interesting study.

It's been replicated a few times, I believe it was done by a, by a boulder. But what they did was they, they took a hundred people and they asked a random sampling of a hundred people and asked them, do you have back pain? And had 'em rate their level of back pain. And then they took MRIs of all these same a hundred people.

Then they [00:13:00] took just the, just the images to doctors and said, okay, which of these people do you think has back pain? And they would point out ones that had bulging discs, herniated discs, all these things. And what they, when they compared to who actually reported having back pain, there was no correlation.

Literally none. Wow. Which was very interesting. And it sparked a new. A new line of research into the mind body type stuff where stress levels can really exacerbate pain and, and really started focusing in on that. And so I kind of went down the rabbit hole of that, this whole process. So I do think a big part of it for me as well is just being able to, you know, control my stress levels, manage my, manage my life.

So I don't feel like I'm just a, you know, I'm just a slave to it, but I'm actually living it. And so it's like physical and mental for me when it comes to, to dealing with, with [00:14:00] the issues I've had.

Wes Read (2): Yeah. Let me comment quickly on the back thing, which is my main theme right now is my lower back. I did get an MRIA couple weeks ago, which was a horrible experience by the way, getting in those little like.

Those little death cylinders. I could not believe my reaction, my claustrophobic reaction. I literally had to squeeze the emergency button as soon as I got in that thing, and, uh, really settled my mind to get back in it. It's so tight and claustrophobic, but I, I got through it. It was about 20 minutes or so, and I do have a, a slight bul.

Most of the commentary on there was the, the doctor used the term unremarkable, which is a good thing. It's a good thing. It's mostly normal, but I have, my back pain is, is, is really meddling with my life and I'm struggling to connect why the doctor says, for the most part you have. Healthy back. Everything looks good, but I'm feeling it every day and I can't go play tennis right now.

Uh, I'm embarrassed to say that I, it's really, really [00:15:00] struggling for me, and so I'm trying all kinds of things. I've got the inverter where I hang upside down. I got the. A cold plunge that stays at 41 degrees, 24 hours a day. And I'm, and I'm doing that a few days a week, four or five minutes in that, in that as well.

I, I am doing some stretch, not nearly as much as you are, Andrew. I think I'm gonna start Pilates and more yoga and just stretching. I do a lot of core at the work, so I'm trying to strengthen my core to support more of my spine. Uh, so the discs don't have to bear all of that, that weight. But what I'm, what I'm realizing, especially as you're talking, and that study's actually really fascinating to me, is that I have gone through a lot of just pressure, uh, last, this past year has been very pressure filled for me.

And if you think about the body, your spine is supporting weight, those discs are supporting weight, and there's something about the psychology of the mind that treats stress. Almost like [00:16:00] literal weight on your shoulders, and it, it just compresses that, it just collapses that. And I, I think I'm arriving at this conclusion, which I'm hoping is right since I'm always trying to diagnose this, is that I have to manage my stress better.

I have to manage that better as the most important thing to solve my back. And I think stretching is that added component to it. Steve, do you have any thoughts on that?

Steve Sperry: Oh, you know, the back is, it's tough for me. Testing is everything. So testing, stretching, I, I don't know what you guys' routine is in the morning.

Uh, but morning routine for me is everything. So I try to get the right amount of sleep, which my devices that I wear, I've totally changed my, my sleeping patterns because what I thought I was. When I thought I was getting good sleep, I was not. And so, you know, if I start the day out right, I wake up, I drink my [00:17:00] fluids, I do yoga for an hour every morning, probably five, five days a week, which gives me some stretching.

But Andrew, you're right, it's not deep stretching and I can't stretch. I like, you know, I, I can't stretch. I, and, and so I don't do yoga at a gym because of how funny, I know I look, you know, so I, I do it at home. But yeah, most of my clients have back problems. You know, it's all about core training. It's all lower body strength, and I'm not so sure it's a science right.

You know, you get an MRI and it's not conclusive, unremarkable, and yet, you know, you're not making it up, right? So, uh, what is that? And everything's inflammation. Everything that I read is all about reducing your inflammation. That's why I love the cold plunge is, you know, and I, I typically, I've been told, if you don't go three minutes, it's worthless.

And so five to six minutes is kind of that spot. [00:18:00] Anything over six minutes for me. I don't know about you, but it's hard for me. What, what's the longest you've gone, I'm curious in your class actually.

Wes Read (2): Six is the longest I've gone. I wanna park on this for a minute and talk about the cold plunge because it's a, it's a trend that's emerging really strong right now, and there's a lot of people who are, you know, I'm 46 moving into my back nine and I'm realizing my body just doesn't heal the way it used to and I had to treat and approach my body differently than I did the first half of my life.

This is a very stark truth now that I'm having to, to wrestle with. And so I got this as my Black Friday event. It's called a Nordic Wave. I really like this one. Just the, the shape of it, getting in, getting out. It does have a motor on it that keeps it cool 24 hours a day. I did some research on it and very happy with that.

In fact, I spoke to the owner and I said, Hey, do you want to come on my podcast and let's just talk about the coal plunge? So stay tuned, listeners. I'm scheduling that with [00:19:00] the owner right now, but I've been using this now for about a month and a half and. I find Steve, that the first 30 seconds is one of the most miserable experiences of your life.

I mean, when you first get in that thing and you're just panting, like, uh, you don't wanna pass out. You know, the first two minutes are pretty tough. I find that minutes three to five isn't that hard. I think I get numb enough. What actually is hard for me is my fingers get really, really, they, they, they pound.

If it wasn't for my fingers, I feel like I could stay in there longer. But I've never tried to go past six. I actually don't know what that point of like hypothermia is. Do you? I would think seven minutes or so that would kick in.

Steve Sperry: Uh, actually, so here's my son pushes me, you know, he's like 36 right now.

And. 10 years ago, he goes, if you heard of this Wim Hof [00:20:00] method. So I put it in the notes and it's this guy, Wim H who you know, who holds the world record Guinness World Record in I in Ice Plunges. And so I went to an all day seminar with PTSD focused people. So bad asses, I mean, every other person there was a Marine, right?

And. It was slightly frightening. And they took us through some yoga routines, some yoga stretches, super comfortable. And then they did breath work and they said, breathing is everything. Breathing is life. And I don't know, do you, do you, do you do breath work before you get into the ice plunge?

Wes Read (2): I don't, but I probably should.

Steve Sperry: You have to. And so, you know, breath work, it's almost to where you get lightheaded and you feel like you're gonna pass out. And some of the marines, the, the, the day that I went through that full day training did pass out. So they're breathing so hard, [00:21:00] so quickly, so deeply that they get, I forget what it's called, hypoxia, and they pass out.

And so breath work before you get into the water is critical for me. And then I'm not sure. About hypothermia because, uh, you know, the Wim Hof guy, I think it's, it's ridiculous how, how long he's gone and, and held his breath. And rather than throw a number out, you know, someone fact check me on Guinness, uh, world records with him.

But you know, ice reduces inflammation right throughout your entire body. And um, I do have a client in Santa Clarita that ice, he swims because his back is so messed up, he can't do anything else. And he does an ice plunge, you know, every morning and he's up to like eight, nine minutes and 40 degree, uh, you know, water, which is crazy.

So do you do that every day, Steve? Do you do a cold plunge

Andrew Northcutt: every

Steve Sperry: day? [00:22:00] I do not. Yeah. I, I, I'm curious to see which one, you know, Wes bought, um, and maybe to listen to the owner at the next podcast. 'cause I need one, I I am a hundred percent a believer in anything that's gonna reduce inflammation. And so, you know, sometimes you ask, will it hurt you?

No. It's not gonna hurt you.

Wes Read (2): Yeah. Commenting on that. So I, I just asked my good friend Chad, CPT, about this water temperature at 41, which is what my cold plunge is set at. It says hypothermia sets in at about 30 minutes. So, wow. You can stay a long time in that water, which is crazy because if I'm in there for five minutes, it takes me a while to thaw out.

I mean, it's a, it's a weird experience because I'll go from that. Then I'll go into my shower and my shower takes like three minutes to, to heat up and I'll just jump in there when my shower is still totally cold. But because it's like 50 or 55 degrees, it feels warm. [00:23:00] It's a really weird phenomenon when I get in the shower and I feel like I'm taking a warm shower when the shower's cold water because it's all relative to what the cold plunge was.

So I, I will work on that. Breath work. I have heard a lot of people talk about the need for good breath work. Um, but one of the things that I think I'll always do this, whether or not this is the exact solution for my back, is because my understanding is 90% or more of the chronic problems we have in our body result from inflammation.

And you're essentially ice packing your entire body when you get into a, uh, into a cold plunge. And my, my, uh, both my parents have some arthritis in their fingers. I've actually started to feel that over the past few years. So I'm doing that now. I don't have any feeling of arthritis at the moment in my, in my fingers.

So I think it's just gonna be a routine thing. I'll probably do it three or four times, uh, three or four times a a week. And stay tuned for that podcast episode. Steve, you mentioned testing. Can we [00:24:00] talk about that a little bit? 'cause I know that's a really important, um, part of your algorithm. Tell us about that.

Steve Sperry: Yeah, you know, thanks, uh, for asking. It's, it's probably the thing that I am most passionate about without testing. We don't know. And so I wanna know when I'm winning and I wanna celebrate my wins, but I also want to know when I'm losing. You know, so I can change my diet or my exercise and, you know, it's, it's micro changes, right?

So testing for me is where everything starts and ends, and I don't know about you, but my primary care physician is not there for me to prevent problems. She's there for me when I'm sick. You know, her annual physical she'll test maybe 35 biomarkers, you know, and if all we're doing is testing our cholesterol, there's at least 10 biomarkers that you should look at.

And your total cholesterol is not even the, you know, the, the, the most [00:25:00] concerning. So testing for me. You know, I use a company called Function Health. Uh, function Health is right there in Southern California. You know, the people that own that company and that are generating huge buzz, um, are legit. And they, they test 108 biomarkers every six months.

Now my son is an extreme athlete and he'll test every two to three months. And so he's making micro changes in his diet and he's making micro changes, you know, in his exercise and seeing how that affects his numbers. Now this is nothing new, so, you know, if you follow anybody, I'm gonna tell you to follow, um, the blueprint guy, Brian Johnson.

I don't know if either of you follow him. You both actually have to watch his, I think it's a Netflix, uh, show. And his name's Brian Johnson, [00:26:00] uh, don't Die, I think is what it's called, but I'm not sure. And he is created, obviously Mono, everybody, monetizes everything. But he's the, he's this billionaire. Um, he's the one who, uh, originally developed Venmo and sold Venmo and he publishes all of his blood work and he does blood work every day.

So, and he is slightly off. In fact, if you look him up right now, he's super weird looking. But when they test, they give you a biological age. So my biological age, the first time I tested was my, my chronological age. I'm 63 right now. My biological age is 51 right now. And I'm gonna say it's because. Of the testing, I've changed some of my biomarkers by eating differently and taking different supplements and then having a different approach.

And it's [00:27:00] almost all diet. You know, it's funny, the podcast design, exercise, but you know, you can't get away from diet's 70 plus percent, you know, of how we feel. So for me, testing is where it kind of starts. Like I believe in science, you know, and I know how my, how I feel, my body feels. And so I test every six months and I compare and contrast where am I up, where am I down in order for me?

Hopefully to get my biological age as low as possible. Now, Brian Johnson's biological age, I think he's 53, and his biological age is like 27. My son, who's 36, he goes, dad, he goes, I compare my biomarkers with Brian Johnson's and Brian Johnson has healthier biomarkers in every category except for one. And I, for honestly, I forget which one, but why not test?

You know, why not [00:28:00] know? You know, are we winning? Are we losing? You know, the only thing for me that's unacceptable is not knowing. Like, I just think that that's sad. And for me, I don't want to go to my primary care physician. In fact, they hate function health, you know? Oh, you don't need that. You need me to interpret your results.

And it's like, no, I want to take control of my own body. I want to make healthcare decisions without. Uh, the filter of a pri primary care physician, and, you know, that's statins. I don't know if either of you have taken statins yet. Seems like, you know, your cholesterol is 1 0 3 instead of under a hundred, and they throw a statin at you, and it's like, well slow down.

You know, I'm not overweight. I, I weigh 180 3. I'm six three. You know, why would I take a statin? You know? But that's the most recent thing for me. And so I'm looking at, I think it's Zetia, you [00:29:00] know, it's not a statin drug, but it'll lower cholesterol and just changing my diet somewhat. But I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make my own healthcare decisions, or at least know what those decisions should, should be.

But that's testing for me. Thanks for letting me talk about testing. Everyone should test. Period.

Wes Read (2): Yeah, I think you're right. I think that's a good takeaway from this is to do testing. A number of years back, I did some bio testing and then I met with a nutrition expert, and he gave me what types of vegetables I should be eating.

It was interesting because he told me that based on my testing, there were certain vegetables that actually led to inflammation and others didn't. And so where I thought. All dark leafy greens were gonna be great for me. For the most part, they are, but he had a specific set of vegetables. I found that really interesting.

And so I had a health food store down the street. This is one location hole in the wall, but they get everything local. There's nothing [00:30:00] processed, canned, bagged, everything. And it was called Greens, please. And I've been gonna this place for years and I gave them this recipe and so they made a special one for me and we called it the West Special.

And it's hanging on their wall and I've been getting it for years. I get a a half gallon and, and it lasts about three days or so. It's very thick because it's not juiced. It's all of the fiber is in there, which he said is really important to have the fiber in there as well. Well, unfortunately last week that the business just shut down and I, this is one thing I've really struggled with is finding truly healthy food.

I feel like every time I find something, whether it's a protein shake or some shake, a. Found something saying this is healthy. Then I find out from another source later on down the road, it has too many additives or it has this or that. So it's actually not healthy, that there's something healthier. Like I was drinking orain shakes for a long time.

Uh, Orain protein shakes come and I thought that was the healthiest protein shake. And then I [00:31:00] read things that actually there's a number of additives in there and there's other, uh, protein shakes I should be going at. And so it's a little bit of a confusing space sometimes to find a, just to find re actually truly.

Authentically healthy food just in their naked format, healthy food, and then not being sort of thrown off the path by thinking that there's actually unhealthy aspects to that food. A lot of the packaging we get in health foods is very deceptive. I think that's where I'm going. There's so much deception on packaging and the FDA, I think is in very close relationship with the, um, with the corporate food America out there, and it doesn't all come together for a benefit.

And so you have to take this into your own hands in your research. Um, what have you guys done to find truly healthy foods in a marketplace, in a food environment that just doesn't make that [00:32:00] easy?

Andrew Northcutt: I would say I 100% agree with what you're saying, and it's not only, I'd say it's not only the. The kinds of food that are available with additive additives and whatnot.

It's also what is truly healthy, because I, I think that's why I'm, I'm really interested in the testing you were talking about, Steve, because basically, I mean, everybody's different. Uh, I mean, everybody, like, everybody, every body like processes food and does food differently, and if you're an intense athlete or you're sitting at a desk all day, your diet's gonna look different.

Sometimes I get, I get frustrated when I feel like people that I respect in the health community or people I follow will say, you know, this is the way to eat. And then someone else that I also respect will say, no, that person's wrong. It's actually this. And you, you have seven or eight people that are all saying this is wrong.

That's wrong. It becomes, it becomes confusing. It almost feels like you can't agree on, no one can [00:33:00] agree on a lot of things, but I do feel like there are certain things that, that everyone agrees on. Like everyone agrees essentially that most processed foods. Are not healthy now processed even is, that's a definition that could be picked part too, because they say, well, what about, you know, Dave's killer whole wheat bread, it's technically processed food.

You know, is that the same thing as a bag of Fritos? Clearly not. Right. So the way that, the way that I've approached it, if it's on a spectrum where on one side you've got people who are having their own recipes for, you know, greens like you, Wes, which is, which is admirable, and the other side where they're just eating garbage all the time, I'm definitely on the, uh, on the side closer to you.

But I, I relinquish a little bit of the, of the burden perhaps to my own detriment of trying to get every single thing perfect. And I try to just, I try in my mind to stick with the, the major things like I try to [00:34:00] eat, you know, regular healthy meals with vegetables, fruits. Eggs. I try to get things that are few, as few ingredients as possible when I can.

And, and then sometimes I'll take a step further where certain, certain vegetables, certain fruits will get organic, but even then I could be wrong, right? Someone will, someone will say, well, organic doesn't matter. Organic doesn't matter. So that's where I get, I'm like, okay, look, I'm just gonna like, just gonna choose some of these things that I, that are the general, general direction of, of good eating and take it from there.

And then I also try to find substitutes for things that are, that I do like, that I want to continue to eat, but I don't want, I don't wanna give up. 'cause otherwise I just won't stay on that type of eating. And I mean, this is a sidetrack a little bit, but I would say my favorite purchase when it comes to eating and still being able to take part in things like, like ice.

Like ice cream, for example. I love ice cream is we bought one of those Creamies, the Ninja Creamy. [00:35:00] I dunno if you guys have heard of this, but No. Okay, so it's this technology that was used by restaurants and patented for a long time, and the patent came up or expired a few, a couple years back. So Ninja, the brand, jumped on it, created this, created this, this machine that processes that process is frozen, frozen liquids and turns into the consistency of ice cream.

So, for example, my wife and I, we love ice cream, but we don't want to eat ice cream on a regular basis. So we'll take a, a protein shake from Target, which admittedly probably has some additives, but it's still healthier than, you know, going out and getting a, you know, dairy Queen and you freeze it and then you process it in the, in the creamy, and there's no other ingredients besides just adding in the protein shake.

And you get the consistency of ice cream. So it's chocolate ice cream. So for us, having that a few times a week. That's a health benefit, right? It's all about like, where you are. [00:36:00] It's like we are eating ice cream too much. It's like, well, let's do something a little healthier, right? And maybe the next step will be something even healthier.

But it, it helps us stay on track because we're not going, for us, we're not going too extreme. 'cause then it just, for us, it gets too, too much to maintain, to maintain the lifestyle.

Wes Read (2): That could be also a great way to sneak in healthier foods for your kids also. So, great idea on that. You know, I watched something recently on, I think it was, I can't remember actually, but it was Chris Hemsworth called Limitless.

Have either of you heard of this?

Steve Sperry: Yes. Mm-hmm.

Wes Read (2): I actually found this fascinating and, uh, who wouldn't wanna look like Chris Hemsworth, but, um, he, uh, I didn't watch all of it. I, I watched the one on fasting. Which I, I found to be really interesting. And Steve, I feel like you're the seasoned vet here on health, and so I want you to share some thoughts on this.

I'll share what I, I did. So he fasted for four days, [00:37:00] and if you don't know the backstory of Limitless, it's Chris. It's engaging scientists and doctors who are all around health and longevity to figure out how to extend his body and his mind. Now, his, a lot of his career is a function of his body. Of course, we, we all know that in, in Thor and, and everything.

And, and the one of them was on fasting. And so he fasts, he does a water fast for four days and at the end of the four days he eats fish that he speared himself. And they were talking about how after four days the senses are heightened. Going back to US evolutionary speak, evolutionarily speaking that as hunters we would, we would go a few days without eating.

Sometimes when you didn't find your, your, your kill, but by the third or fourth day, your sense is. Peaked because your body said it's time we have to find food. And it kicks into this almost like superhuman gear, and you're able to hunt more effectively with your [00:38:00] ears and listening and your senses.

Everything locks into focus, and so that's why they have him go scuba diving, SC spearfishing on that last day as he's finding his own food, which he successfully did. So I did it for three days, and the first day was tough. That end of that first day, 24 hours, I could not sleep. I started it on a Thursday night and by Friday night I was, I was so hungry and I couldn't sleep.

I don't think I fell asleep until two in the morning, and I just kept wanting to get up outta bed, walk into my kitchen, throw in some Dow sourdough toast layer on butter, and just down half a loaf. I was so tempted to do that. That's my. Weakness sourdough toast at one in the morning, but stuck with it.

And the next day, about halfway through the day, so it was probably around 30 hours or so, 30, 33 hours, I felt energy suddenly start to kick back in. And I, I [00:39:00] think that's what you call ketosis. And I, I felt actually really good and I was able to work. I almost felt like I could have gone to do a little exercise.

I felt good. And then by the third day, I just felt sort of lethargic. I didn't feel terribly hungry. I just felt lethargic for most of the day, slightly grumpy. And then at the end of that third day, so it was the full three days, I ate a little bit of food and moved on, but I. Obviously I'm trying to sort of flush out that system a little bit and you do lose a little bit of weight, like really fast.

I think I lost six pounds. I gained most of it back within two days, but there's, uh, there's that side of things too. But I did, uh, I did find it to be useful and informational on how my body works and how it can. Reach those reserves if I just give it time to do so. Steve, what's [00:40:00] your take on fasting and do you have that as part of your regimen?

Steve Sperry: I, I do, I do different cleanses once per month. I have not fasted four days in a row. This is something that's pretty common out there. I have a client who just did it. That's what I love about you, Wes, is you're all in baby. I'm, I'm going to the ice plunge. You know, I'm going four days without food, you know, so my attitude on intermittent fasting is it absolutely works.

You know, we've all intermittent, fasted probably our whole lives once a month for me. You know, what I've read is intermittent fasting is you eat dinner at 6 p.m. and then you go until 6 p.m the next day before you eat something. I'll intermittent intermittent fast typically two times per month. I believe in cleanses and and and fasting.

Brian Johnson, it's interesting. His numbers show him that eating one meal [00:41:00] a day before eleven thirty in the morning is what his body needs. And so he'll take you know he'll only eat between five in the morning and eleven thirty in the morning. And that's his only his only food intake for that 24 hour period.

You know, he takes Do you guys take olive oil every day? No. Okay. I throw

Wes Read (2): it in the pan for my eggs. That's about it.

Steve Sperry: Yeah. You might, you might wanna, you might wanna write down, you know, extraversion olive oil. It's, uh, probably the single one, dietary change that I had that reduced my biological age from 63 to 50.

Uh, one is oil. And if you look up blueprint, you know, and if you look up Brian Johnson's numbers, it's like literally his number one. He's like, that's gonna be, I forget what percentage of his calori caloric [00:42:00] intake every day that is. Yeah. Fasting. Fasting works. Uh, do you think I should go four days?

Wes Read (2): I don't know.

That was the advice, uh, to Chris Hemsworth by that longevity doctor, that there are certain, here's, here's the bottom line with going that long, is there are certain. Healing powers within the body that do not unlock until you've gone a good three days plus and you, and so our body never accesses, they're like dormant because it's so difficult to access those healing powers.

It's the power of our body. It's the power of the human body to survive. And when it gets that desperate, it turns into another gear. To release that, whatever that is. It talks about you have these, these zombie cells and they're the these old dead cells that release sort of toxins throughout your body.

And the only way to sap those [00:43:00] things and get 'em out of your body is you've gotta completely make your body desperate for, for food, desperate to sort of go and it, it's very depths to, to get its energy and it, and it somehow releases the tools in the body to get rid of those zombie cells. 'cause those zombie cells are constantly releasing like small toxins, which are uh, have so many other negative.

Effects in our body. And I'm not a doctor, that is a very nonclinical way of explaining it, but that's conceptually what I understood from the benefit of long-term fasting. So should you do it or not? Up to you. I think it's worth watching that I plan on doing a three-day fast once or twice a year. That's my, that's my takeaway.

Steve Sperry: Yeah. It's funny. So I'll do all this and I'm, I'm super focused on diet and fitness, but I still have a glass of wine, so I'm drinking poison. Right. So it's, and I love ice [00:44:00] cream. I got pistachio, you know, ice cream in my freezer and I'll, I'll go down late at night and sneak it. You know, Andrew, I don't think.

We should focus on fitness and health to the point where you stress about it. It's like you can't be that fanatical. And probably my worst biomarker is cortisol, which is that that stress, that stress hormone, you know? And I don't feel like I'm someone who's stressed, but I think maybe I am stressing a little bit too much about my diet and my fitness.

I know we're running out of time, but. If you haven't seen the Netflix show on poisoned, you know, when we talk about food and salmonella, it's called poisoned and they have microbiologists that test our food sources and they listed the top 10 things they personally would never eat. And it's kind of one of those, you gotta be in the mood.

It's a little bit depressing, right? [00:45:00] Because I think there was a panel of three of them, cantaloupe. They will not eat cantaloupe. 'cause, 'cause the skin's rough. And if you cut through cantaloupe and it's salmonella poisoning, um, bagged lettuce and specifically romaine lettuce, they're like, you know, I'll eat romaine lettuce once a month, but like, you're rolling the dice And I don't, um, but it's called poisoned.

It's, it's worth watching because it will change if nothing else. Your attitude towards, you know what, what we're eating, especially with Leafy Greens.

Wes Read (2): Really good commentary there. I'm gonna do a little recap here in a minute. I just wanna mention a quote here that is so true, and it's this, I don't even know who said this, but people spend their health to grow their wealth, then spend their wealth to regain their health.

And as I'm turning into this part two of my life, it's becoming this really sharp reality [00:46:00] that my body has limits. And when you're, you're younger, you just don't think it has, you just think it's impenetrable and you hear about people with health issues and this and that, and I'm like, oh, you know, I'm sorry you have that in your life.

And thankfully I don't. And now here I am and I can't even go play tennis because I have. Really bad lower back pains. And so I'm going through all of these things. I'm even doing something a friend recommended called Peptide one 50 sevens, which are these sort of shots that you do. I'm trying that, it looks like you do that as well, Steve.

I'm trying everything.

Steve Sperry: Yeah. Wolverine. Yeah, I, I put it in the notes, but peptides are the future I think, you know, I, I obviously can't recommend them to anyone else 'cause they're not FDA approved and regulated, but it totally works for me when I have an injury to supplement, you know, with peptides. But yeah, it's, I, I dropped it in the chat.

I don't know if you can see that, but it's peptides, wolverine.

Wes Read (2): I'll check that out [00:47:00] and put it in the, uh, notes. If you could send me a place where they're not terribly expensive because they are a bit pricey. They're these peptides. Yeah, they're pricey. And of course you, you, you get the powder, you gotta put in the water.

You gotta be careful not to like ruin the peptides by shaking it too hard. There's a whole process here if you're gonna try the peptides. Now, I've only been doing the peptides for about a month, and so I hear you gotta sort of be consistent to see results on them three months. That's the, that's your takeaway.

Three months.

Steve Sperry: Yeah.

Wes Read (2): On those. So I'm gonna keep trying that as well. I think for me, the main thing I need to focus on is how do I. How do I have good balance in my life where every day I'm finding time to breathe? I'm, I'm trying to do nature walks. I hear that's really valuable, getting out, hearing the birds and the sounds of nature.

Evolutionarily our minds fi find home in that. Trying to find an element of spirituality and connection with the beyond in some way in our life as well. [00:48:00] Strengthening those relationships in our lives that matter so much. In other words, don't just try to work and work and work. I feel very, like you said, I'm all in.

So I'm very passionate about what I do at Practice CFO. I love what I do. I love the people I work with, and it can very much consume my mind. And a lot of dentists are gonna feel like this too. They're passionate about their practice, they're passionate about growing it, and we have to be careful about that.

One of the things you said, Andrew, that I just want to echo a little bit, is one time I heard somebody say on the radio, why would I go to the gym? Because the amount of gym, T gym time is about the amount of time I extend my life. So net net, it doesn't add any benefit to my life. But I thought a lot about that.

You realize that it's not the gym, it's not necessarily that you're extending your non gym life, although I think you probably are, but it's that your non gym life has such a better [00:49:00] living condition. Mentally, it's so much better. Physically you feel better, but this concept of energy, Andrew, you brought up, I think is probably the most valuable thing for, for the way that exercise plays into my non-exercise life, meaning my, my life outside of the, the periods of exercising.

When I show up every day at work, it's gotta be game on. There's a lot going on and dentists experience this as well. You walk in that office, there's patients, there's front office, there's billing issues, there's your equipment. You've got, you've got all of these issues you're trying to tackle and it's gotta be game on also with your family.

It's gotta be game on when you come home at night. You can't just be slouched on the couch and expect to run a good family life and be that example for your, your kids. So how do you have sustained energy throughout the day? Exer. I don't see how you can do it without exercise. And we all know Tony Robbins.[00:50:00]

Probably the, the biggest motivational guru of all time. Perhaps I've, sometimes I laugh at Tony Robbins and sometimes I'm inspired by him. But his thing, his main thing, my understanding of after listening to, to him a bit, it's, it's all about energy. If you have energy in your life and your mind and your psychology and your soul, you can accomplish.

So it's amazing what you can accomplish with that energy. And for that reason, I find that if I go even a, a, a couple days, two or three days without some form of exercise, I do see that energy start to atrophy in my life. And so for this, I try to keep exercise at a minimum, five to six days. Preferably seven days.

I do think I need to follow your advice, Andrew, and make more of those days about stretch and maybe some of those days about even walks or breathing or these other forms of wellness that to me, were like. For other people, you know, or for not, not, not the [00:51:00] man, you know, the man's not gonna sit down and breathe.

I gotta go to the gym, throw on a couple plates and see how many times I can put that up. That was all about exercise for so many years, and that is an exercise for me anymore. It just can't be. And you know what, I'm pivoting my mind to be okay with an entirely different format and sequence of, of exercises.

So, uh, so I just wanna thank you any, any parting words, Andrew or Steve?

Steve Sperry: I have a card called, it's Showtime. It's laser printed on wood and it says huddle and home. And it's one of the things I call myself an energy coach, you know, and I want people to show up at the huddle every morning. Um, they put this in their visor of their car and they mentally prepare.

To show up being positive and not negative. We all can be negative and we can bring negative energy to the workplace. But the reason I say home first is we don't [00:52:00] actually pause and we don't think about how important that first hug is of the pet or your spouse, or significant other, or your kids. And so it's, it's in the visor of my client's card just to remind them stop and pause.

The most critical time of the day that you have is when you make eye contact with your spouse, and then you do a minimum of 30 to 62nd eye contact and then heart hug, which heart hug is the opposite. Of what you do. So you want your hearts to touch. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but a heart hug is a family hug.

A friend hug is, you know, your other hug and just connect. You know, this is a safe place. I'm your biggest advocate, you know? But most dentists, they come home, I had a rough day, they almost sound like they're drunk. You know, where's my dinner? You know, I'm gonna sit down and watch football. And it's not conducive to [00:53:00] a healthy marriage or a healthy work environment when you show up negative.

And so for me, Showtime is critical in the morning, you know, get up, show up at the huddle, and then at the end of the day, get up, show up for that end of day heart hug and acknowledgement. But energy, you kind of ended it on my big thing. I call it pixie dust. You know, and Wes and Andrew, you both have pixie dust and pixie dust is how, how did we do that?

And, and oftentimes it's just state of mind. It's just, let's be positive. Um, excellent. So thanks Wes. Thanks

Wes Read (2): Steve.

Steve Sperry: Yeah.

Wes Read (2): Yeah. That's great. Andrew, final parting words here on the value of exercise and health For us and for dentists?

Andrew Northcutt: Well, I would be remiss to not make some comparison to, to money and investments, of course.

But I would say when you, when you look at money and the time value of money, money that you're getting 20 years from now still has value, but not as much [00:54:00] value as money you're getting today. And so I view exercise in a lot of the same way where exercise does provide for me a lot of value in the future, because I'll live longer, you know, ideally if I don't get hit by a bus.

But the value that exercise provides to me in the short term is the most important. So if I am able to boost my energy, like you were saying, Steve, if I go for a run in the morning or I go play pickleball, it brings me a ton of joy. I feel great, and I'm able to, like, that's the reward of exercise. Uh, you meant, you said how you heard on the radio.

Well, if I go to the gym and then I mean, they, they've already lost because first of all, he's making the gym sound like it's drudgery. Like, I, I genuinely enjoy going to the gym. I genuinely enjoy going to play racquetball. I love going for a run and listening to, you know, Wes' latest, latest podcast. You know, like, I, I enjoy the process.

And so I would say if you can find a way to make the process [00:55:00] itself enjoyable, and then the, if you can just really feel the short-term benefits, the long-term stuff takes care of itself because you don't have to grit your teeth and be like, I gotta go to the gym. Gotta exercise like you're. Find something you like to do and do it and be happy about it.

Like feel the fun and good feelings that come from it. And then everything takes care of itself. You know, if you're just enjoying the, enjoying the short term.

Wes Read (2): Yeah. The book, um, atomic Habits talks about that if you make it a habit, habits become really enjoyable. It because it's a mentality shift in your body and mind.

Enjoy those triggers and moving into that. I love. Going to the gym. Even though there are moments when I, let's say I'm on the treadmill or I'm running outside, or I'm doing some hit exercises and I'm, my heart is being at 180, I'm like, this is horrible. But in that moment, I'm actually enjoying it. When I'm done, I feel so great, and now my mind is conditioned to be excited when [00:56:00] I'm going to the gym.

The one thing I wish I did better was I wish I would exercise first thing when I get up. I really admire you, Steve, for doing that. I do think it's the best time of the day to do that. I just have always struggled as a morning person to get up early. My mind loves to be productive late at night and changing your circadian rhythm is extremely hard I have found.

And so I ultimately, I just sort of settled into, I tend to exercise at about four in the afternoon and I'll use my mornings to really try to get things done, but I've always wanted to do that and maybe I could do like a five minute something first thing when I get up with some stretch or some breathing.

Could be a good happy medium there. One of the things, or the thing I think I wanna close on is the concept of marginal thinking. I think when it comes down to it, everybody listening and pretty much everybody you talk to. Everybody. We all know that exercise and eating is critical in our life. [00:57:00] Wellness is critical to happiness.

I don't think that you can truly experience happiness as a human being. If you don't have some element of wellness regularly in your life, I think you're gonna be underachieving your happiness potential. But, and so we all understand that concept, but I think where we struggle is that, I listened to a TED talk on this.

It was a TED talk on health, why we have health issues. And if you're at a, if you're at a conference, let's say you're at a conference and it's a break and there's snacks at the table and you walk up to the table and they have a few carrots and some vegetables over here, and then over here they have some pastries and muffins and whatnot.

We always say, I'm going to eat healthy. But in that moment right there, you say, I'm gonna have a pastry right now. Why? 'cause it doesn't matter this one time, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna, I'm gonna do that starting tomorrow. And so this concept of marginal thinking, which is the belief [00:58:00] that it's okay to neglect a small but important decision because you feel the consequences is harmless.

That thought right there, which pervades so many areas of our life and leads to so many problems that accumulate over time into becoming a crisis has to be addressed. If you really want to make health a great part of your life is you have to overcome marginal thinking and saying, no. Right now, this decision, even though it feels small, this decision to go to the gym right now, this decision to put on my running shoes, this decision to get inside the the cold plunge, this decision to sit down with my spouse, this decision to go surfing with my son this morning, even though I kind of have a lot to do.

All of those moments right there are the ones that matter because those are the ones that aggregate up in the long run to create happiness. Or unhappiness if they're neglected. So may we all avoid marginal thinking in our health and as financial advisors in our financial decisions [00:59:00] also, and as well in the way we run our dental practice.

That's for you Steve, as a dental practice consultant. So thank you for joining everybody. So many great topics we could have got to as well on health. Uh, maybe at some point we'll do a part two. So a few takeaways. Number one, I think it's a great idea. Get tested. Where do you stand? What's your biological age?

See if you can change that. Number two, maybe get some olive oil as if there's one single thing you could do. Add some extra, um, some extra virgin olive oil in your life. Maybe watch, um, limitless with, uh, Chris Hemsworth. We also talked about, um, don't Die. I believe it was right, Steve. Yeah. Yep. So that one I would say veggies.

I can't tell you how many people who I know are even into health. The one thing they won't do is eat vegetables because they just really don't like vegetables and so they will do everything else. But I, I always say I don't eat vegetables 'cause I enjoy 'em. I mean sometimes I do, but a lot of times I just eat the [01:00:00] vegetables strictly because I know I need to be eating my vegetables.

I would say eat vegetables, poison. There's another one we could watch as well. I think you talked about that. And sleep. Get really good sleep. We didn't talk, I don't think enough about the value of sleep. I will let other things slide now. I will absolutely try to get my eight hours. That's become something I just won't, won't change now and other things can, can fall off, but not that.

So many great things. Thanks everybody for joining. And we will, uh, all go back to our.