EFR 745: 5 Mindset Shifts for Building Muscle and How to Be FOREVER STRONG: A Science Based Strategy for Aging Well with Dr. Gabrielle Lyon

0:11:07 - Speaker 2 Thank you so much for being here again.

0:11:11 - Speaker 1 Yes, I'm stoked to sit down with you. I love your work and the mission that you're on, and so I want to run through these kind of five core mindset beliefs around the book. And then I got a couple of kind of closing questions. I think that if we get to, we get to do. You have a hard stop. We've got until five technically. But, joseph, I can ask you if you could just let me know if I haven't wrapped up at 430, if you could just let me. You know, throw up five, let me know when it's 430. That'll kind of give me a cue on the timing. So I want to start it off. Thank you, okay, everything rolling we good, oh, yeah, yeah, okay, gabrielle, welcome back to the show.

0:11:57 - Speaker 2 Thanks for having me.

0:11:58 - Speaker 1 It's been a little over a year now and we're on your new journey with your new book. Congratulations.

0:12:04 - Speaker 2 Thank you, thank you.

0:12:06 - Speaker 1 Now you in the book have so much to offer in terms of scientific application, because is what you do as a clinician, as a doctor, as a healer. But what I want to do today for the audience is to provide the mindset, approaches, the shifts, the cues that I think are the most humanizing component to behavior change, but also to your work longevity. There's a lot of science to be had in the book and ways to apply it, but I believe where the mind goes, the body will follow. So let's go there, if we could.

0:12:38 - Speaker 2 Yeah Well, I'm so grateful that we are actually not talking science for this podcast.

It's amazing because when you think about providing good information. Yes, the evidence matters and yes, the plan matters, and if you don't have that right you're going to be in trouble. But if you nail that, the actual most important, that's actually the easy part, the hardest muscle to work, which I guess essentially your brain, is not a muscle, but the mind frame component is actually what truly moves the needle. And you and I were talking before the podcast started and I've been seeing patients since 2006.

0:13:19 - Speaker 1 That's quite a few. How many, how many patients have you seen?

0:13:21 - Speaker 2 I mean, I've seen thousands of patients and what becomes so obvious are it's the framework. It's the framework of functioning, the archetype of the person you think about a good physician. A good physician can recognize an illness. A capable physician recognizes not just the patterns of illness but patterns of people, Because when you recognize patterns of people, you can leverage who they are to get the best out of themselves.

0:13:53 - Speaker 1 Oh, well, said yeah.

0:13:55 - Speaker 2 So essentially you use medicine as a modality for personal development.

0:14:00 - Speaker 1 Oh, wow, yeah, that's the hack right there. Yeah, oh, any other doctors listening? We heard that. So if you do want to get all the science, definitely check out the book forever strong and I'll make sure to link in the video and podcast notes. But a year ago, episode 612, this is we're talking about plant versus animal protein and how to prevent disease and promote longevity, using your term here muscle centric medicine. So that's all waiting and ready for everybody. But today I want to start off with actually a little quote from your work. By highlighting muscle as your target for better health, you can create positive momentum. Focus on what you have to gain instead of what you need to lose. What are you hoping to achieve by focusing your life's work on bringing muscle to the top of mind of everybody listening right now?

0:14:48 - Speaker 2 Yeah, it's really a fascinating conversation and I'm excited that we can talk a little bit more about the nuance. And when we think about the landscape of health and wellness, we always think about weight loss, optimization and longevity, but what we don't frequently think about is actually the journey it takes to obtain those things, the person that you have to become to get the outcome, the work and the resistance and the resiliency that one has to go through to produce a certain effect and impact. And that's what's so fascinating and what I really hope to get across in this book is not just the science. The science is relevant. It's very evidence-based, trained for over a decade.

0:15:37 - Speaker 1 She's got pages referenced for everybody.

0:15:39 - Speaker 2 Pages Questioning. The science is there, but in order for us to become a better, stronger version of oneself, they have to really be aware of the process and what it's going to take, and my hope is that together we all become stronger. This book is about not just physical strength, not just the strength that you can see, but when you think about muscle as the organ of longevity, and if you were to think about muscle as currency, it's currency that you can't buy, you can't bargain for, you can't trade it. You, 100% of the time, have to earn it.

0:16:28 - Speaker 1 And to get it and to keep it.

0:16:30 - Speaker 2 In that process you develop into a certain type of person.

0:16:37 - Speaker 1 Which brings me to kind of the flow of the conversation I want to have, and that is the mindset, the thought process, where we need to get in terms of how we view our lives, how we view ourselves and how we view what we're capable of. In there you have nine sections, kind of nine mindset sections to the science part. I've pulled five that I want to focus on. That really stood out to me. Five mindset shifts for building muscle. One is harness your thoughts. Achieving your wellness goals depends on knowing what to do and how to do it. Can we start there please?

0:17:12 - Speaker 2 Yes, in the landscape of social media, everything is confusing. No, what gave that away? And because of that, it generates a huge distraction. And people are able to hide behind that distraction because they say they don't know what to do, and that may be very valid, but if you get really good information, then you actually eliminate the distraction of the unknown, of not knowing what to do, and that's really what this thing is is it's knowing what to do, when to do and how to do it, and you can't hide behind that anymore. You can't hide behind the anxiety of not having information. You can't hide behind the anxiety of there's so much information. I've legitimately provided a solid framework and listen, there's multiple ways to skin a cat and there are multiple nutrition plans and exercise plans to get to where you want to go. However, people typically do not follow through on execution, and one I mean. There's many reasons as to why, but one reason one it's obviously been a long day. One reason why is they say they don't know what to do, and to me, that's an excuse.

0:18:35 - Speaker 1 So then, when we're looking at all these resources of course, your work aside here, because we're team Gabrielle on that what would you recommend to somebody who is looking through social media looking? They're staring at the books right now in their bookstore. They're online watching YouTube. How can they know? How do they know how to decipher the information they're consuming as not only valid, but how to know when something really connects with them so that they're setting themselves up for adherent success long term?

0:19:02 - Speaker 2 Really good question, and there are a few things to that. Number one is if you are trying something and it's not working. For example, let's say you subscribe to a certain kind of diet and you hear that that diet is good for you, yet you don't feel well but you continue to beat your head against the wall because this is what you believe is good for you. I would say one should question that, be very discerning about the individual providing information. Yes, I'm trained in nutritional sciences. Yes, I'm a physician. I am one of many voices. I would also encourage individuals to choose people that have done the work in the space that they are talking about, actually trained in their modality of information, and that becomes important.

0:19:57 - Speaker 1 Absolutely. Where do you kind of put the weight of experience and expertise when someone is looking at an individual to like? You know what I'm going to actually take what you're talking about and apply it to my life.

0:20:09 - Speaker 2 What I'm hearing you say is how do you decipher between someone who's had experienced their self Is that what you're saying?

0:20:15 - Speaker 1 versus let's say, I put out a video online and I share my life story about the thing that overcame in my wellness journey, but I have no official formal training. Would someone have something to gain by listening to my story and maybe they can connect to a similar starting point or even a similar goal where they want to go, compared to someone who doesn't have that life experience. But you know what?

0:20:41 - Speaker 2 They can repeat stats. Basically, interesting question. There is a lot of value because there are certainly well trained people or well studied people that may have not gotten a degree in X, y and Z, absolutely, and I can definitely think of a few who I truly, truly respect. Yes, there is something to be gained from personal experience because it is also about connection. I will also say, on the flip side of that, that an individual who is trained in the science, that is incredibly valuable and there comes fundamental knowledge that has been hard earned. There is a bridge between the two, but in an ideal world, someone has that hard earned knowledge and the experience and that is totally gold.

0:21:33 - Speaker 1 Do you have a recent example in mind or can you think back to an experience with a patient you have had and you're presenting all the information the patient person presents with you? Go, okay, cool, here are the resources necessary to solve this, but that's not getting you anywhere. You need to take off doctor hat and put on human hat. Oh yeah, how did you navigate?

0:21:54 - Speaker 2 that Like a bullet, like a bullet. And so there was one individual she is a well known blogger in whatever food and she came to my office and she said well, I'm not going to change, this is what I eat. My company wants me to do this because they want me to get healthy, but I'm super happy with how I am and I don't like lifting weights. It's really difficult and I don't want to change the way I'm eating because I don't want to be one of those people that is micromanaging my food.

0:22:30 - Speaker 1 Yeah, so, right away, right away.

0:22:33 - Speaker 2 I was thinking, oh man, this is never going to work. And I just sat there and I listened to her story and I finally asked her one question, and that one question was do you feel worthy of having the health and wellness that you desire?

0:22:54 - Speaker 1 Wow, what did she?

0:22:55 - Speaker 2 say Broken on tears. So when someone doesn't feel worthy of having what it is that they desire, they will sabotage themselves every which way. That is a limiting experience for people and it's a total ceiling. People will only get as healthy and obviously there are conditions where individuals don't have control. You can always control your mind. The other side to that and the majority of people who are healthy or who are struggling with some self-imposed physical waking or inability to execute on this program or that program, it is actually not a discipline problem, it is not a information problem, it is not an other people problem. It is deeply a self-worth problem.

0:23:54 - Speaker 1 Well, if that doesn't get everybody's mindset in the place where I wanted to for the rest of this conversation, I don't know what will I mean. I think that's so powerful and it might, off the cuff, seem kind of dramatic for somebody to ask himself that I'm just trying to go to the gym a couple of times a week, I'm just trying to walk a couple of times a week, I'm just trying to this, just trying to that, but you have taken it to, I think, an important, far away place from that, because it is so much more. It's that person that we need to become along the way and the person that we might be, probably are afraid of because we do not have that self-worth or feel worthy enough to achieve that goal, despite all the work, despite all the science.

0:24:36 - Speaker 2 Absolutely. Think about it. Think about, you know. We talk about all these other diseases. We talk about diabetes, we talk about cardiovascular disease, alzheimer's, the list goes on. But what about something like, potentially, the disease of complacency? What happens when we become complacent? Yet we tell ourselves that this is good enough and this is what I have time for.

0:25:03 - Speaker 1 The window to take action closes as we get older and the I mean like to do the things, to do the same results becomes more difficult. It becomes more difficult Muscle.

0:25:16 - Speaker 2 It doesn't get easier to build muscle. It doesn't get easier to raise your testosterone. It doesn't get easier to X, y and Z. The window and the timeframe of optimal execution closes and if you are an individual that you have told yourself that this is okay, what happens is the like glass breaks, the window falls, the timeframe closes, and I've been at the bedside of way too many dying people. That was part of my training in geriatrics. The end of life. Do you know the one thing I think more painful than death? What's that Regret?

0:26:01 - Speaker 1 Probably Absolutely.

0:26:04 - Speaker 2 Regret of the things that you didn't do, regret of the success that you didn't have for the actions that you didn't take, and that I don't want to see anyone go through that. So, yes, this is a book on science, science-based tools and exercise program, all the things. But after reading this book, you will become a more resilient version of yourself. You will be aware of where your self-worth temperature is. You will be aware of, if you continue to make certain choices, what is that going to look like for your future. And listen, everybody knows they should eat right in exercise. People don't do it. 50% of the population doesn't exercise. 24% of the population actually even meets the recommended amount of exercise. Why are we so disconnected? And we are so disconnected because what rides along side of these other diseases is a disease of complacency.

0:27:13 - Speaker 1 Nobody listening to this show. That's what I'm sure, At least not for any long period of time. Look, I get in ruts just like anybody else, and I'm sure you've got great days and less than great days. But the important thing is be mindful of complacency, because it will stay if you let it.

0:27:28 - Speaker 2 But here's the thing is you can be your really thick eye. You could be better. I'm pretty fit myself. I could be better. It's not about complacency, is not about average. It is about being the best version of oneself, pushing to a limit and setting a standard, not a goal. We are not setting goals in this book.

We are setting standards. And where have I learned this? I have learned this from seeing patient after patient after patient. I have learned this from seeing some of the most successful entrepreneurs. To the Navy SEAL, ranger Green Beret we won't hold that against you guys, the Army, but Go, army, go.

0:28:21 - Speaker 1 Navy.

0:28:22 - Speaker 2 The most elite war fighters on the planet, and there's a handful of characteristics and way of processing that all of these people have in common. I'm gonna tell you a story, if I can get a little more comfortable. Let's go around a little bit. Excuse me, I need a booster chair, because I'm only five foot one and every time I come in there's candy and no booster. Is there a height filter? We can do in post-production.

0:28:49 - Speaker 1 Good goodness.

0:28:49 - Speaker 2 Let me tell you a story of one of my most favorite patients and at a time that deeply impacted me, really, that set the stage for an aha moment, and maybe I told you this before, but I don't think so. I used to have a practice in New York City on Fifth Avenue, very bougie. It was this very large guys. I never recommend that. Okay, I mean massive overhead and across from Central Park and a doorman. I had a Navy SEAL that had come in from. He'd been home on deployment so he had been home, home in R&R. Yeah, he was home. Well, actually, I'll tell you the story. So this is a guy, his name is Brian, he was a breacher. You know, a breacher is muscle 260, maybe 65., usually first man in. Yes, huge, the guy is a tree trunk. I'm sure that I could run into him and I would probably break my nose Like just massive dude, massive sized human. I didn't even know that they made those. And he again was in the teams for about 20 years and he was home on, you know, friendly soil. Whatever been to Afghanistan, iraq, all over, been in a ton of gunfights, ton of war zones. He was on his motorcycle going five miles an hour. Okay, whatever, every team guy pants, whatever 17 year old girl texting and driving takes him out. He lost his leg that day. No, from that, he lost his leg After 20 years in the teams serving our country and he's sitting in my office.

I was like hey, brian, you know how are you doing. And he was like oh, you know, I'm having this just like limb, phantom limb pain and I'm really low energy. I'm not sleeping great, you know. And here I am, five one. No, I'm going to get this guy. So I lean in. I'm like Brian, how are you doing? Like I'm thinking, dude, here's this huge alpha guy. And I got all these stories running around in my head that here, this is this huge alpha dude who served our country. I can't believe that his life is over. And I'm like just going on and on.

I'm leaning in and Brian, and he looks at me. He literally looked at me like I asked him for a box of tampons. He's like well, I just told you how I was doing. I'm having some phantom limb pain and I'm really tired. And I go no, brian, like how are you doing? And he goes oh, totally confused. Oh, oh, doc, you're asking me about my leg. That was six months ago. Like, what are you talking about? And I thought to myself Holy shit, this guy has no narrative about this whole big story, of anything that is happening. And so I call my husband and my husband goes. Oh, you know how was the meeting with Brian? You know, he told me that he saw you.

0:32:17 - Speaker 1 Blah, blah, blah he was a former team member.

0:32:19 - Speaker 2 Yeah, so my husband is also a former seal and I said, well, you know, I saw Brian and I asked him how he was doing and you know, he told me this and this and I'm listening and it's like dead silent on the other line and he is like honey, what are you talking about? That was like six months ago and I was like motherfucker, these guys don't have a narrative. Yeah, they have moved off the X Doc.

0:32:50 - Speaker 1 You're talking about the past, totally talking about the past.

0:32:54 - Speaker 2 What do I have to do to execute the future? You know. And then later you know, I said Brian, well, how did that work for you? He's like Well, I grieved, but I grieved a long time ago. I gave myself four weeks and I moved on. And at that moment I realized that those people, that first of all, number one, half of us haven't even we have not gotten over things that happened six years ago or things from our childhood.

Yeah, Okay that these guys and you don't have to be a seal or an elite operator to understand these concepts that he was operating in a domain of being his best asset. This guy is not a liability to himself, he is fully an asset, and that is one component that separates individuals that excel in life, in their health, in whatever it is. They understand the difference between being an asset and being a liability to themselves and their own mind, and it just changed the way I started to look at patients.

0:34:01 - Speaker 1 Brilliant, brilliant.

0:34:02 - Speaker 2 And I started seeing this pattern over and over and over again. The patients that would come in and say, oh, doc, this and that and attach a story to it, those are the ones that really struggle to get better over and over and over again. And then, when you course correct for a illness or for a less than optimal life, they are the ones that hold themselves down. So that is just one example of a characteristic that can be cultivated to really overcome whatever it is that anyone is thinking about.

0:34:43 - Speaker 1 I mean what a great great thing to just kind of pause and reflect on right away. I mean, if the listener takes nothing else away from the rest of this show, what values do you have around your health? What values do you have around the story you are telling or not telling yourself, around what you can do or cannot do? What narrative, like you said, do you have around injury, around success, around PRs, around all these things that typically we would look at? I need the right program, I need the right supplement, I need the right coach, I need all the science to get me there, but unless you have this other component dialed in, are you going to be able to keep it? Are you going to be able to know that this is for you? Are you going to be able to move forward in?

0:35:28 - Speaker 2 anything? Yeah, totally. And what if it was just a neutral mind? What if it's just neutral? What if everything is not that big of a deal and that way your ebbs and flows are different, when you can be neutral in your experience of life and I know people are going to say, well, but I want to get to the top. Yeah, totally go to the top, but be neutral. In the moment, be neutral. I'm going to share another tip that this is one again.

0:35:58 - Speaker 1 That's why you're here.

0:36:00 - Speaker 2 You're welcome. I think that this is one of the most transformative conversations that I have with entrepreneurs. That I see in my practice is that as high as an individual is going to go as amped up as they're going to go is as low as they're going to go. What do you mean by that, entrepreneurs? Let's say they put on a huge event. I have one entrepreneur in my mind that put on a huge event. He puts on a huge event maybe two or three times a year, and every time he puts on this huge event, it is literally like clockwork.

The next day he is depressed. He is looking for vices, whether it is buying a new car, going off his nutrition plan, looking for whatever stimulants you name it. Whatever it is, he's reaching for it. I'm there, okay, so I'm going to fix that for you. And it was predictable. It was a predictable pattern that left him vulnerable, but the vulnerability was clearly going to happen, yet he'd never planned for it. One of the things that we talked about was that in the brain, just the way that the brain chemistry works as you pump up your dopamine, as you pump up some of these neurotransmitters from the stimulus around you and the excitement, as high as you are going to go. You don't go back down to a baseline like this dopamine baseline or just kind of your baseline level.

0:37:31 - Speaker 1 You dig into the well.

0:37:33 - Speaker 2 You go lower. As high as an individual is going to go is as low as they're going to go. It is predictable. And then you layer on stimulants, and then you layer on shopping, and then you layer on all these vices to try to get back up to just Baseline, baseline, yeah. So what do you do? You go in. This is totally counterintuitive. You go into the experience totally neutral. So I said, hey brother, you've got this huge event in Vegas, here's what you're going to do. You are not going to hype yourself up before you go on stage. You are not going to amp yourself up, you are not going to be up all night doing the thing. You are just going to be steady, rolling into it. And every time you tell yourself this is so exciting, you're going to crush it. You're going to crush that thought. You're going to just glide, neutral, neutral, and people are going to say that's so depressing. I want to be pumped up in high spirits, pumped up and hyped up.

0:38:29 - Speaker 1 Not downplay, not saying you ain't shit, this isn't, this is going to block. You're just like hey, come down, come down.

0:38:36 - Speaker 2 Come down neutral, don't be so excited about it. You don't have to celebrate. You know, oh, you did this and that we're not even. We're not celebrating, we're not saying anything is negative, just neutral. What do you think happened after this massive event?

0:38:52 - Speaker 1 I would say one of two things happened. He probably dropped down from the event but was at baseline, so it seemed way less detrimental. Or he reached some new kind of experience of like what could be after an event. He kind of like reset, maybe a baseline.

0:39:10 - Speaker 2 He went to bed at nine o'clock, woke up the next day and was right on his feet.

0:39:15 - Speaker 1 Back on his old routine, back on his old routine, amazing, amazing.

0:39:19 - Speaker 2 The key is understanding your weaknesses and understanding your points of vulnerability, because, as humans, as the human animal, we are predictable in nature. Yet we are so shocked by our behaviors, which are so ridiculous, because I guarantee you, I could tell you your behavior, you could tell me my behavior. It's not that shocking.

0:39:43 - Speaker 1 Most of us are pretty damn predictable.

0:39:45 - Speaker 2 So predictable and yet it is so foreign to us that we could plan for the ways in which we act, both mentally and physically. When you manage your narrative, when you manage the experience and you move into a space of neutrality, then you don't have these highs and lows Like things. You make it not a big deal. It reminds me of stoicism. I mean so for me with this book, there's a lot of cool stuff happening. I just got in Publishers Weekly or something like that and some other big thing they wanted me. I mean, that's what we like. Neutral Congratulations, no neutral.

0:40:27 - Speaker 1 I'll hype you up. You chill, you chill.

0:40:29 - Speaker 2 But neutral. For me, it's neutral. It's neutral when I have to go speak on a stage. I'm neutral Because I know the consequence of not being neutral. And people are thinking well, what does this have to do about being forever strong? And my answer it has everything to do with it. Because being forever strong is not. It's cloaked in a diet book. It's cloaked in a diet nutrition book. But this is all about an intelligent lifestyle that will propel people towards the most sturdy and stoic and strong version of themselves. And that's again. Medicine is the modality that I'm using to get to people, but the real magic is who you become and the transformation that happens. So Amen to that.

0:41:23 - Speaker 1 Yeah, amen to that. You kind of already brought it up, and so I would love to go there. Next, when we're talking about standards, set standards to achieve health you deserve. You actually have two sections about standards in here, so I know it must be very important. We've also already talked about it, like I said. So because quote goals offer too much room for failure. Instead of goals, focus on the standards. Why standards, not goals?

0:41:47 - Speaker 2 Goals come and go. You set a goal. You didn't make it, so what? You set a standard for yourself. You are going to execute on that standard because it is not transient. You don't have a goal and then reach it. It is a standard for the way in which you live your life. You set a standard for the way in which you work. You set a standard for a way in which you train. You set a standard for yourself, and what happens is when people just set goals, they are in. They're not in alignment with their integrity.

0:42:23 - Speaker 1 How so.

0:42:24 - Speaker 2 When you set a standard, you create a like, a guidebook for your integrity. Your integrity is you don't drink. You show up at the gym at this time. This is how you eat, this is how you train, this is how you manage your time. You're.

0:42:38 - Speaker 1 SOP, you're standard operating.

0:42:39 - Speaker 2 Exactly, you make a promise to yourself and you execute on that integrity because those are your values and that is who you are. When you veer off course and you set a goal, what is that? How is a goal? If a goal is a moving target, how does that become in alignment with the values and the integrity of who you want to be? Now this becomes very dangerous because when you do things that are outside of your standards, that are less than your standards, and you give yourself leeway, you slowly erode this integrity to yourself, you slowly erode your confidence and you just slowly erode what it means to kind of embody yourself.

0:43:30 - Speaker 1 You're lowering your standards.

0:43:32 - Speaker 2 You will never feel good about that. That is why I don't believe in setting goals. You should set a standard for yourself and you should keep that, and we should set a standard for our children and they should keep that. And then this allows for guide rails. You're not going to be able to talk yourself out of something because it's not a goal, it's a standard operating procedure, and I think one of the things that we're seeing in life is that people are kind of moving away from stress and wanting to soften stress and soft times make weak people, and weak people in any respect. That's dangerous. It's dangerous whether it's mentally weak, whether it's physically weak. It's not just dangerous to other people, but it's dangerous to themselves, as you were kind of describing that you were talking about this moving target.

0:44:34 - Speaker 1 I literally maybe just being with you takes me back to my military days all the time, but I think back to how much more difficult it is to miss a target and then be bounding and keep trying to hit that moving target Instead of just what are the alternatives to do? Go back to your grouping, go back to zero, go back to center mass. So in this application, the goal, whatever that is for the person that moves, that changes. We miss it, we fall short. What do we do?

Instead of going back to baseline, going back to our standards, to then take the next best step in pursuit of that target, again, we just make up excuses and we try to accommodate and catch up for or change the goal. You know what? I'm just gonna keep that one over here. I'm just gonna go for this one over here because it's completely different than what I'm gonna do with the other one over here because I'm complacent. Now it's easier over here. When we miss that goal, instead of having a standard, we don't, I think, always go back to the same goal. We just make a new one that's easier for wherever we are now.

0:45:40 - Speaker 2 I agree with you. I agree with you and I think that that is extremely wise to point out. And that is part of the problem. And if we begin to set standards that really move the needle for ourselves and then we become an example, people don't listen to what you say. I mean they might, but they really watch.

0:45:59 - Speaker 1 They look for what you do.

0:46:00 - Speaker 2 They look for what you do and to see if there's any incongruencies. And if we set a standard that is so high that we all show up strong and capable, then that has the potential to move the needle and that becomes just critical. And the other thing that you said was what happens when you go off baseline. The people that are most successful go right back and get right back up fast. The faster that you can get back up, the faster that you take action and move yourself. I mean because you're gonna fail. I mean if you're not being vulnerable and not trying and not falling flat on your face, you're definitely doing something wrong. It's not if you're going to fail, it's when you're going to fail and it's the response to that failure. When you have a way and a plan in place where you bring yourself right back up, you are going to be successful in any diet, in anything in life, and that will allow you to move forward.

0:47:03 - Speaker 1 I've got a little story for you. Ooh, I love stories.

0:47:04 - Speaker 2 A little personal story, I love stories without Disney characters and away from my kids for two days.

0:47:13 - Speaker 1 so so we don't need an animated version here.

Yeah, thank goodness, but just as a real world experience of what you're talking about. The last year I kind of I have been flow with my goals in terms of physically, what I want to do, how I want to look, how I want to feel. I always have this general idea, this knowing of when I feel my best, when I look my best. I don't set a goal to a certain weight or body composition or numbers in the gym or anything like that. I just have been doing this for like 20 years, so I kind of have a knowing. And this year 2023, what has helped keep me on board with that knowing and that comfortability? That comfortability in my body, not comfortability in what I'm doing or not. Complacency is not okay. I figured out the best protocol in the gym or the right training days or anything like that. I shifted to going from that, what I used to do, to going Chase. I'm making a promise to you I'm talking to myself here. I'm gonna make a promise to myself to not go more than two days of inactivity.

0:48:15 - Speaker 2 Love that.

0:48:16 - Speaker 1 I made a promise to myself and then when I get to day two, I have this gut feeling response to yeah, I'm letting myself down and look, I know the numbers aren't gonna be there, the weight's not gonna be there, the feeling, the sleep, all that that's the science. That's where we can get bogged down in the right protocols and if A, then B. But the standard I have set for myself is the promise that I've made to myself Nice work. And it's been working wonders.

0:48:46 - Speaker 2 Nice work. And I think the other thing is it is predictable that you will totally try to talk yourself out of it.

0:48:52 - Speaker 1 No, Right. I mean, I know that I right, so I have a.

0:48:57 - Speaker 2 I'm here in LA. It is Thursday. I know Saturday morning I'm going to have a brutal workout. I'm gonna get my ass kicked. I'm already trying to think about how I'm going to. I don't know if I can make it. I gotta get up really early. Tomorrow is Friday.

0:49:14 - Speaker 1 I'm gonna be jealous, I'm gonna be so I already know.

0:49:17 - Speaker 2 Do you think I'm gonna show up? Heck yeah, Dude, I'm showing up. I've already paid for it and I already know that I'm gonna be trying to talk myself a million. Which ways out of it.

0:49:26 - Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

0:49:28 - Speaker 2 But that's gonna happen.

0:49:30 - Speaker 1 That's the important part people need to hear is you know, they might hear us talking about the standards we set for ourselves and how we keep them, but we are also humans. All of the fears and anxieties and excuses that people come up with for their own Dude, I got the best ones, oh my.

0:49:43 - Speaker 2 God. But it doesn't mean you have to listen to it Exactly and actually it's predictable. It's predictable, I'm telling you. I've already decided that I'm jet lagged and I'm tired and it's just gonna be so hard to show up. I'm showing up Saturday and then Sunday is the group workout where you just get your just beat down oh, I'm definitely too tired for that one, Like you're gonna go go all out.

I guess so but it is, there are patterns, and then you know yourself so well, and then it's just, it's comical, okay, cool, like right now I know that I'm so tired and I'm gonna go work on this physician course that I created, but no, I'm just gonna go and not work on it, I'm gonna go do something else. No, I'm not. I can tell, I mean, that's very entertaining, but I'm gonna get it done and I'm probably gonna bitch about it the whole time, but I'm gonna get it done.

0:50:27 - Speaker 1 But you're gonna get it done yeah.

0:50:29 - Speaker 2 Absolutely, totally, that's the important part.

0:50:32 - Speaker 1 We're all humans here people, Not my husband.

0:50:34 - Speaker 2 he is definitely a freak.

0:50:36 - Speaker 1 That dude's a freak. You're always gonna be some freak seller, no matter what.

0:50:39 - Speaker 2 Come on, just complain about something. Dude, like your 100 hour work weeks. So I go. It says side note right, I go. Shane, like how is residency? And he's a surgical resident, he's working 100 hours. He looks at me, he's like I don't know, I thought it was gonna be harder or something. I'm like I'm gonna just punch you in the throat right now Harder 100 hours a week.

0:51:00 - Speaker 1 Remind me not to ask you anymore about how 100 hours ago Exactly, blinders Done with you. The third mindset hack I picked up from your book is reclaim your right to health. You have in here you say, quote be forewarned what is waiting for us once we begin to unearth our internal protests.

0:51:23 - Speaker 2 Yeah, you know we have an amazing gift and this life is an amazing gift, and there are lots of things that don't. Unless you're David Goggins like, maybe running 100 miles doesn't feel fun and you're gonna protest and you're not gonna wanna do it. But the reality is, is the thing that you are often avoiding doing and the discomfort of doing the thing is actually exactly what you need to do, and then ultimately, what happens is is it no longer becomes an issue, whether it is you've never trained, you've never cold plunged, maybe I've always wanted to go to jujitsu and you've never done any of these things. But it's never going to get easier if you don't execute and you'll never build confidence if you don't try to do the hard thing, the discomfort thing, and really that's what that's about You're going to have internal protests.

0:52:17 - Speaker 1 You say a really unique word in there unearth. And I think in the pursuit of our standards, in the pursuit of a muscle-centric life as well, we're going to quite literally unearth some things. There's, I think, things and obstacles that we can probably count on, that we know are there, and it's just a matter of how willing are we to address them and work on them. But in that pursuit of that next self, there are things that just come up Totally. How do you recommend people navigate those unexpected landmines?

0:52:50 - Speaker 2 Welcome it. It is such a gift. It's going to be the thing that blows you up to the next level. We think that stress and we think that bringing up trauma or bringing up any kind of experiences like this bad thing and, oh my gosh, like I know I have to deal with it. What if we decided that instead of having a fear response, the fight or flight response to the experience, we mounted a different response? So the science would suggest that there's more than one response to a stimulus. We always think about the fear response, right? Oh well, I'm in fight or flight. Did you know that there are other responses?

0:53:31 - Speaker 1 All I hear are fight, flight and freeze.

0:53:33 - Speaker 2 Guess what there are two others what? There is the courage response, where, when things get really crazy, the initial response is courage. Like I got this. I'm stepping up, the door flies open, you're jumping out of a plane. Instead of the internalization of fight or flight, it's a courageous response. The other response is a tendon befriend response. Stress gets really high. Instead of fight or flight, it's community. A lot of women do this. I've heard this from you Calling up hey brother, how are you doing?

Hey girl, how are you doing? So, instead of internalizing a fight or flight, or freeze or paralysis, one reaches out.

0:54:18 - Speaker 1 Are these innate in some people more than others, or is this a choice? I believe so.

0:54:22 - Speaker 2 I believe it's innate, but I believe that we see and this was some work from Stanford and Kelly McGonigal really kind of brought this forward we experience fight or flight probably 90% of the time, and I'm just making that number up. And I think part of the reason we experience fight or flight 90% of the time is because that is what we are taught. We are taught how to respond to a stimulus over and over and over again until we believe that this is our human nature. Wow, yeah, but what if you taught your child, you're afraid.

Be courageous, you are afraid. Let's call grandma, let's see how grandma's doing. Let's put this fear aside, let's reach out, but instead all we hear is let's de-stress, fight, or fight, flight and freeze. But is that an innate response? In part it's innate, but there are other natural responses that have been so buried that we don't even have awareness of it, when, in fact, if we were to tune out the noise, you might find that you can cultivate those and that may be a much more natural response for a person. This is blowing my mind.

0:55:41 - Speaker 1 I'm kind of just opening up so many other. My mind goes to the science. Right, we hear things and we go, oh, if then, if then, if then. And in a lot of circumstances that applies to the vast majority of humans. We're not just talking about the human nature, the majority of humans. We're looking at the science, what makes us take and how we operate as these flesh bags. But what if we're excluding other possibilities that are innate human experiences, innate human responses, but they're not talked about, they're not glamorized, so therefore people don't hear them, they don't associate oh, that's me. So therefore they don't think it's true. But what if that is your truth?

0:56:21 - Speaker 2 That's right.

0:56:22 - Speaker 1 That you haven't been listening to the right science.

0:56:26 - Speaker 2 Or it's when things become repeated, so often we don't question things. That is why I started muscle-centric medicine. People have been trying to treat obesity for 50 years, but nobody questioned. Maybe we had this paradigm of thinking wrong and that's the same thing. So if the question is correct, we should be able to provide an answer. If we are asking the wrong question, then we will never get to the right outcome.

We don't need to be asking an obesity question. We need to be asking a strength question. We don't need to be asking a fear-based question. We need to be asking a cultivation of the human question. It's not about fear, it's about other adaptations. But we've been told we have an obesity epidemic and we've been told that when you get stressed, you go into fight, fight or whatever freeze and your cortisol goes up. But what if the interpretation of that is actually a courage response? Or the stimulus of the cortisol actually leverages the individual to make a connection which subsequently releases oxytocin? Wow, and these again, when we put blinders on and we ask questions, but we continue to ask the same question over and over and over again and we see no change in the landscape. It's the wrong question, it's the wrong paradigm and it's the wrong framework.

0:58:17 - Speaker 1 How many people right now are probably listening and going? I'm struggling to find the answer to my problem, but right now you just flipped it on their head. You're asking the wrong question.

0:58:28 - Speaker 2 Yeah.

0:58:29 - Speaker 1 You can't find the answer you're looking for, try asking a different question.

0:58:33 - Speaker 2 Yes.

0:58:35 - Speaker 1 Yes, I'm taking that with me today.

0:58:37 - Speaker 2 I'm rolling that one over as well, you know it's really a privilege to be a physician that has seen so many people.

0:58:45 - Speaker 1 Sure.

0:58:45 - Speaker 2 Because if you are the kind of person that is very interested in people, you will learn and see patterns that you are very intimate and very intimate to people. But you see, you have so much awareness of the different opportunities on how to process information, Yet if you just listen to the things that you hear and you execute on the things that you are taught, you will totally miss it. You'll totally miss it.

0:59:22 - Speaker 1 What you just said, god, it just strikes a chord with me because it kind of takes me back to my clinic days, and so I would see patients for about four years every day, and I think, how you just describe that experience, this pool of people, this sample size, if you will has been the best precursor to what I'm doing now. And that's exactly you know we're talking earlier about, you know, 700 plus episodes, now 60 years. I've been tired of this chase and it's that curiosity, that innate kind of curiosity that I'm being reminded of right now, of why I felt so comfortable and competent in my clinics and also what keeps me going here now. So thank you for that Just a personal reminder.

I'll take that Number four erecting guardrails for accountability. In here you say, quote develop scaffolding so stable it will keep you from falling off your gold wagon, no matter what People are going to say bullshit. No matter what scaffolding we have, no matter what the standards are, there are going to be some experiences. There's going to be one day where you know what that shit is coming off and I don't know what I'm going to do?

1:00:37 - Speaker 2 You're going to. Yeah, you could have a game plan. You could have a game plan with consequences if you fall off. I know it's not soft and fuzzy, but you know, again we talk about how we should just be more gentle and loving to ourselves and soft, and that's bullshit. I think that if you committed to something and you fell off, you're going to get back up much faster if you have a consequence in place, and I don't care what that consequence is.

1:01:04 - Speaker 1 Like. What would that look like?

1:01:05 - Speaker 2 I don't know, maybe you roll down the window and you got $20 bills and you know that if you fall off your nutrition plan and you don't show up for the gym, I don't know, maybe you're calling your mother-in-law, I mean you probably like your mother-in-law.

1:01:16 - Speaker 1 I do love you, murnish.

1:01:18 - Speaker 2 But pick something that just is ooh gosh, I really it would sting and it's a happy new year that's going to hurt, I'm going to donate $500 to a charity that I really am totally against.

1:01:30 - Speaker 1 There are programs for that. Actually, you can tie it in to like if you don't log in like a certain workout or something, it will donate to like a charity you hate.

1:01:38 - Speaker 2 Perfect, that sucks, that's perfect. Other party, or you're going to have to take out the garbage like five times, or I don't know, do the dishes. If you hate doing the dishes, do something. That's going to kind of suck. You did an action. There is a consequence to your action. Don't let yourself off the hook. I don't know, maybe it's 50 push-ups, yeah that would get you back in trouble, but I mean make it, so it's something that is kind of annoying.

1:02:02 - Speaker 1 What's one of your consequences? I don't need this anymore. I have to give my husband a back rub, and you just ask him.

1:02:09 - Speaker 2 The last time I gave him a back rub and never see. That is just enough to not make it happen. Like that's an example Just pick something that is I don't know, you don't get to watch your show or you don't, I don't know anything, anything that is marginally annoying. It also could be hey, you have a game plan in place, like an accountability. So with some of my concierge patients, man, I am up there ass all the time. Hey, I know you're going on vacation, but we made a deal You're not gonna be drinking and you're not gonna be partying.

Because you put this in place, I am your accountability. Pick someone. Pick someone you wouldn't want to let down, disappoint, and people will be like, oh well, you know, I mean ultimately, the ultimate person you let down, disappoint it yourself. But it's nice to be witnessed by other people because in witnessing it's not a secret, in witnessing it is exposed. In witnessing it takes out the power. Because, again, if you don't have this thought process or narrative and you are just like neutral, then you can execute and you can pick something you don't want to do and you can, you know, put a consequence in place and move on, love it. You put guardrails and then also with, that is, knowing where your weaknesses are.

1:03:28 - Speaker 1 How do we go about finding our weaknesses?

1:03:29 - Speaker 2 You know, I love these pineapple chips. Have you ever had the bear pineapple chips? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, weakness.

1:03:36 - Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm just kidding, oh, but it's fruit, right, it's good for you. There you go.

1:03:40 - Speaker 2 You could tell yourself all you want. It has like 88 grams of carbohydrates in the whole bag. I know that I'm gonna have a really heavy leg day and that's gonna be what I'm gonna have.

1:03:50 - Speaker 1 I've been there, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's not. Oh, but it's leg days. It's not on my plan, it's not on my plan.

1:03:55 - Speaker 2 I know exactly that that's what I'm gonna go to, so you know what is sitting next to it Some really not exciting beef jerky Cause. That's how my plan.

1:04:03 - Speaker 1 There you go.

1:04:05 - Speaker 2 So I have time for it.

1:04:06 - Speaker 1 It's like our man Sean says you gotta sack the conditions in your favor. So many times our success or our lack of success in pursuit of our goals is not about our ability to execute. It is about what contingencies have we set in place to support those goals, no matter where we are.

1:04:24 - Speaker 2 I agree, no matter our mindset as well, I agree. You know, for me, there's one thing I do I get off a plane and I go train.

1:04:33 - Speaker 1 That's like a non-negotiable for you.

1:04:34 - Speaker 2 Yeah, it's not fun. I'm trying to negotiate in my mind out of it. Oh, I'm getting in rush hour, I really don't wanna go. Nah, I'm gonna go. In fact, I've already set the car pickup taking me there. I have a nutrition plan that I follow. And did I pack canned chicken Gross? Yes, I totally did that. Canned chicken, packaged rice. And people are like, oh well, that's not natural. Well, you know what it's on my plan. I mean, these are guardrails. Oh, I'm hungry. Oh, I just want X, y and Z. All right, well, here's what you got.

1:05:11 - Speaker 1 Love it.

1:05:12 - Speaker 2 I mean, I know people are like oh man, that sounds like a drill sergeant. Not really, not really.

That's your support in you these are some of these standards that I've set. Some other standards are I read for at least 30 minutes every day. I might be freaking, exhausted, I might have been up at 4 am, but I've set a standard and made a promise to myself that in order to be a scholar, I actually need to take the action to be that scholar. So I will spend at least 30 minutes, but I'm not gonna miss 30 minutes. And it might be midnight and people are gonna say, oh, but you said that you were gonna get to sleep and I can't, you know what. Yeah, probably sleep would be arguably greater for me. But I mean, these are some of the things that you do because you set standards for yourself.

1:06:05 - Speaker 1 What a great mindset shift to kind of look at these things in our life that we know are in pursuit of helping us. Right, we set these things in place, but the human in us goes like, oh, it's this thing, not that thing, it's that place instead of this place, all these excuses. But if we choose to look at it, go, that's a guardrail, that's a guardrail, that's a guardrail. We're gonna begin to cultivate an entirely different outlook on everything, everything, you bulletproof your mind.

1:06:32 - Speaker 2 You're not doing something because it's easy. You're doing something precisely because it is not. You are doing it because it is hard, and what you cultivate in that process, that's who you become and that's the person you become proud of. Everyone's looking for a hack the biohacking. Yeah, you know what the hack is. It's freaking hard work. That is the fastest way forward. There are no shortcuts. There are no shortcuts to success. There are no shortcuts to a nutrition plan. Yes, you need to know what you have to do when you have to do it, but it is about hard work. It is, and if we can come to a place where that becomes enjoyable and we embrace this somewhat of a suck.

Like I'm in a grind right now. So I text my husband. I'm in a grind. I'm doing like you know. I have a full clinic, I have two kids, I run a business. I have multiple avenues that I'm responsible for, right, multiple parts of my business that I'm responsible for. I'm texting my husband like holy shit, I'm so tired. This sucks. You know I'm traveling. I'm gone three weeks out of the month. I said no man, you are so lucky to be in this. You are so lucky to be in this grind right now. You earned it. You earned to be in the grind.

1:08:05 - Speaker 1 Talk about the power of having the right people in your life as well.

1:08:08 - Speaker 2 Yeah, I just yeah, that's a whole nother component Meaningful quality relationships. You gotta have somebody in your corner, yeah, and you know, listen, I have friends that I love. You know, shout out to Emily for Sella, and I just like some real strong women that are just they're gangsters, man, they are just so capable. I'm gonna be like how do we do this? She's like I don't fucking know, this is crazy.

1:08:34 - Speaker 1 We're gonna figure it out. This is crazy you know.

1:08:38 - Speaker 2 But yeah, so again, we do things not because they're easy but precisely because they're hard, and then we just become a different type of person. That's powerful. And again, I know that this book is multifaceted, but what we're talking about right now is actually what I I don't wanna say I love it more, but that intangible aspect of the experiences, of what I have, of seeing these patients over time, doing a fellowship, being in the trenches taking care of operators there is an intangible aspect of that, that that experience is translatable to people. It's like how can I share with you not just a lived experience but the experience of seeing patient after patient? You know, that becomes powerful.

1:09:38 - Speaker 1 Yeah, oh my God, yeah, the most powerful thing.

1:09:41 - Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:09:43 - Speaker 1 Well, getting to number five here, overcoming resistance. Quote the best version of yourself comes from cultivation, not comfort. I wanna piggyback something else here that I loved. You talk about how you cannot negotiate with the voice of resistance. What do we do first when that little voice pops up that tells us to stop?

1:10:03 - Speaker 2 Yeah, number one it is a funny and expected and one should laugh at it and also don't negotiate with it. My very good friend of mine, beatrice Cooley, talks all about not negotiating with that inner bitch. There's no negotiation, that's gonna be there as soon as you begin to negotiate. It's a sliding, it's like a slippery slope that you are not gonna win. So your mind is well not to start. It's gonna happen. It's human. Just because you think thoughts doesn't mean you have to believe them.

Please say that again, just because you have a thought doesn't mean you have to believe it because, guess what? Your thoughts are probably not very interesting and you have the same thoughts that he has, that I have, and there's probably. Everybody has their own handful of nonsensical thoughts and, frankly, it's not very interesting.

1:11:00 - Speaker 1 It's not very realistic either. It's not interesting.

1:11:03 - Speaker 2 How crazy is it to get caught?

1:11:04 - Speaker 1 up in our thoughts and to actually believe it's reality.

1:11:08 - Speaker 2 I mean listen. Being able to embrace the fact that one could have joy or that one could accomplish certain things makes people feel very vulnerable. There is a certain level of vulnerability that comes from reaching the things and the way of being that you set out for yourself. It makes you stronger and it makes you more vulnerable.

You become stronger and more vulnerable at the same time, because in order to cultivate strength and in order to move towards the things that you want, you become and you gain joy and appreciation and gratitude, and when you have a child, you will see exactly what I am talking about. With that comes the deepest, most exposing vulnerability that you will ever encounter. I know it sounds crazy the more courage, the more vulnerable. It's not that courage makes you less vulnerable, it's actually the opposite.

1:12:11 - Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean to have courage. I think by definition means you also have to have fear. Courage is not the absence of fear, it is acting in spite of so, if we are putting ourselves in positions to not be fight, flight or freeze, but to be able to do something, or freeze but to respond out of courage and resiliency, means we are continuously putting ourselves in fearful situations, or even to have fearful thoughts internal and external self.

1:12:43 - Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm going to throw a curveball. What if I mean, yes, listen, I'm like all over the place here moving. But what if fear? So let's say that this is fearful what if, actually, the things that we think that we're afraid of and I'm not talking about the fear of success, but I'm talking about when you truly feel blessed to be doing the work I feel so grateful to have been able to write this book, so grateful to be in this position and place. In my career. I have worked very hard. That takes a lot of courage and now I've kind of reached a point where it's like, wow, this is so amazing.

And with that is like this tremendous vulnerability. I have a beautiful family right and these are all the things that, again, that maybe some people want, but certainly things that I wanted. So the fear isn't that I won't make it or the fear isn't that I won't be good enough. The fear is, I have all this great stuff and these people and one day it's gonna end. So the fear is not about the thing.

The fear, the vulnerability is actually can I allow myself enough freedom to embrace the joy? Wow, wow. And so when we think about what we are doing in our life and our health. As you become healthier and as you become stronger, you will realize that you have way more to lose and that the fear isn't the other stuff. The fear is actually can you step into embracing the joy of being fit and being healthy? Because with that, you know, one day it's actually gonna be taken away. And so it takes so much more courage to experience the things that you've worked for than fearing the other stuff, like that's distraction. That other fear and anxiety is distraction. The true fear and the true courage comes from being able to embrace the joy and the accomplishment, and then you'll see what it that really is.

1:15:18 - Speaker 1 I wanted to ask you, as a mother of two, when it comes to talking, the talk walking the walk. What has been the most difficult part of this for you? Maybe now, on the other side of being a mother, being more established in your career but particularly through the lens of mother what has been the hardest part for you when it comes to putting one foot in front of the other.

1:15:43 - Speaker 2 There's a few things there I'm really looking well. Number one I do hate to be away from my children, and there is a trade-off to provide them with a legacy and to provide them with a better way of life. I am traveling, that's one thing, but the other thing that I'll say to that is that is also what I want to be doing. So I'm saying that I miss them. It's really hard. That's all true. And also, I still have a career and a mission.

This is true, and yeah, and so is that reconciliation hard A part of that is actually hard. A part of the reconciliation that I am not built to just be a stay-at-home mom, which is so incredibly amazing. Right, my mom did that, but I am not the mom that's gonna be at the PTA meeting. I'm like showing up, oh shit, it's like conference time. Oh my God, oh my God. Hey, dr Lyon, your daughter came in with rainbow boots again and like an Elsa cape. We really have a school uniform. I'm not that mom. You guys will not get baked cookies. It is her birthday and you guys are getting beef sticks or whatever it is. I think the hardest part is accepting what I'm good at and really designed to do.

Oh, I like that okay, and even if it's not like the traditional role of a mother, that that's okay, that's okay. But I will say the other flip side of that coin is I teach myself and I teach my children ways of interfacing in the world. While I might not be teaching her how to bake, I'm teaching her how to think, I'm teaching her how to be courageous and how to feel worthy and how to feel loved and what it means to be strong. And we talk about those things. We talk about that. We talk about hey, what are your she's four, what are your wins for the day? Wait, what are your losses for the day?

1:18:12 - Speaker 1 Are you doing after action reviews? Yeah, I am.

1:18:16 - Speaker 2 Because you know why is she needs to learn, and my son needs to learn that it's not about all the things that just go right, because when things go wrong that's okay too. You can't fall apart at the seams, but I do spend a ton of time with my children, you know. The one guilt I have is that she's really naturally really good at jujitsu. She is extremely talented yes.

Her first day she pinned a little boy her size who'd been training, and she took down another little boy. What a badass. Yes, I'll show you the video. And so I guess the guilt is because I'm so busy in this season. I can't have her in jujitsu for the next two or three months, but again those two or three months will end and again we're a military family. So with my husband being a former seal, it's we can't. There's certain things that he just doesn't feel comfortable outsourcing. Could we find someone to take her? Do we have a nanny? Yes, but does he feel comfortable doing that? He doesn't. So that's just a very realistic thing. That, potentially, is less than ideal. Ok, which is something that is a little bit of a struggle Because I'm working, as opposed to again I'm here. I can't take her to jujitsu, but that will change in six weeks. That is going to change because that season of doing the traveling and the book.

1:19:47 - Speaker 1 And that's part of the standard you have set for yourself, and your family, absolutely.

1:19:51 - Speaker 2 Doesn't mean they're not working out, though.

1:19:54 - Speaker 1 You better believe it. You guys are getting up at five, we are downstairs.

1:19:58 - Speaker 2 That's what's happening.

1:20:00 - Speaker 1 Well, gabrielle, as we get to a close, anybody who writes a book, I usually always ask this question in writing your book, what maybe was really solidified for you, maybe something that you were a hypothesis you had that was, oh yes, absolutely, this is true and here it is. And what was maybe the biggest surprise in writing this book? What maybe shocked you or had you kind of scratched your head?

1:20:24 - Speaker 2 I'm going to provide you with an answer you're not expecting.

1:20:27 - Speaker 1 OK.

1:20:28 - Speaker 2 This book is dedicated to my mentor and best friend of a lifetime. We have been friends for 20 years. We talk nearly every day. The friendship to other people would seem so odd and what I really learned is that I wrote this book for him. I mean, I wrote this book for everybody listening, but I wanted to write this book and the times that I wanted to quit, this is for him. And you asked me what did I not expect? I would say I didn't expect how emotionally driven I was to write this book.

1:21:14 - Speaker 1 Interesting.

1:21:16 - Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, he's 75. And again, life is delicate and perishable and nothing will prepare us for the things that come. And I wrote this book for him, I mean, and again, and for the world.

1:21:36 - Speaker 1 But very unique answer yeah, was I surprised by any of the science.

1:21:43 - Speaker 2 No, I was surprised at how far behind the times everything is. But I knew that. I knew that going in that was the biggest takeaway.

1:21:53 - Speaker 1 Well, everybody is going to love this book. I did Make sure to check out Forever Strong, a new science-based strategy for aging. Well, and, as I asked my last question, I just want to say congratulations again on the book. Thank you, it's so good to have you back on the show, so good to see you.

I love you and the work that you do. It's so not even important. It's necessary. It's necessary. It's necessary for us to help us move forward in life. How would you say you are living a life ever for Gabrielle? When you hear those words now, here today? What does that mean to you?

1:22:27 - Speaker 2 You know, I think that there is a constant motion and ebb and flow, and while I've written this book, I'm proud of it. I've already moved on to the next thing.

1:22:37 - Speaker 1 Of course, of course.

1:22:40 - Speaker 2 And so it's almost like I'm bringing it to the world, but it's already forward steps for other things.

1:22:52 - Speaker 1 It's that neutrality I'm hearing again.

1:22:54 - Speaker 2 Yeah, yes, totally it is.

1:22:57 - Speaker 1 OK, let's move on.

1:22:58 - Speaker 2 Totally.

1:22:59 - Speaker 1 Totally Well, of course we're going to have all of your information in the book for everybody to check out on the show notes and video notes, but where can they go right now to connect with you? Where would you like them to go? Yeah?

1:23:09 - Speaker 2 You can go to my website, drgabriellioncom. If this episode comes out before the book, there's tons of incentives to purchase it early. Ok, full workout library 80 videos. By the way, I could never be a fitness influencer, because that is brutal, but I shot all 80 videos Actually 100.

1:23:27 - Speaker 1 Oh wow, yes 100.

1:23:29 - Speaker 2 Very impressive, very sweaty in. Houston, that's a lot of reps, yeah, lots of reps, yes, lots of re-dos. They can join the Forever Strong community. I'm very active. We have over 1,000 members Amazing and I get in there and I do a Q&A and I reply to messages, because I can't do this alone. This book is not about me, this is about us. It's about us as a community. And what does it mean? To rise up and be together and be strong together.

1:24:01 - Speaker 1 Well, you got a big supporter here. Thank you and again thank you for this work and I can't wait to see what you do next. Yeah, and talk to you with it again on the show.

1:24:09 - Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, so thank you so much for having me. We also have an I have my Own podcast which is doing very well, dr Gabrielle Lyons. Yes, and we also have a newsletter. Youtube and for people that are curious about what to eat after they hear our episode number 617 or whatever it was, what was?

1:24:26 - Speaker 1 it. Oh, our last one, it was 612. Oh 612.

1:24:31 - Speaker 2 612. 7 is my lucky number. I have a 30 Gs recipe that comes out once a week. Recipes Amazing, which is cool.

1:24:40 - Speaker 1 Her stuff is amazing, you guys, if you want to check it out. And Gabrielle, it's always a pleasure seeing you.

1:24:44 - Speaker 2 Thank you, thanks so much for having me, are you going?

1:24:45 - Speaker 1 to get back home To the kiddos and fam now.

1:24:47 - Speaker 2 So tomorrow morning eating and flight. And getting a workout afterwards too right, yes, yes, be complaining about that.