Feeling great, having a clear and focused mind, and having sustained energy throughout the day will help you achieve greatness in other areas of your life. But building habits can be hard, and sticking to those habits can be harder. How do you build the habits and keep the consistency so your short-term behavior change will turn into a long-term lifestyle change?
In today’s episode, Pasha Esfandiary and Cody Littlewood are delighted to welcome their health coach and mentor, Ryan Kennedy, as they go deep into the conversation around developing and sustaining habits, key deficiencies that nearly all men suffer from, and some biohacks to level up all aspects of your life for the long term.
Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:
Episode Highlights:
[06:44] The Value of a Coach
Living a sustainable healthy lifestyle all boils down to these things: time efficiency, structure and accountability, and having a daily plan. Direction gives people clarity. Finally, having a coach is a total game-changer, especially in those moments of low motivation or low discipline because they help you build habits and develop consistency.
[11:00] How Long It Takes to Form a Habit
Ryan says it takes a good three months for a habit to form, although this may vary from person to person. The idea of habit stacking is to pick one or two really important habits that you want to create now and focus on them before moving to the next habit. Building your habits systematically and incrementally completely changes the paradigm.
[18:19] Biohacks for Improving Your Testosterone
What kills a lot of testosterone is a combination of things such as lack of sun exposure, poor sleep, poor nutrition, and exposure to environmental chemicals found in personal care products and household cleaning materials. Therefore, focus on exercise, quality sleep, nutrition, and sun exposure. If you don't have access to the sun, get a red light device that can help mimic some of the benefits we get from sun exposure.
[41:13] Things to Consider When Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is having a compressed eating window that's over 12 hours, and ideally, over 14 or 15 hours, and then only eating during that set time. Ryan doesn’t recommend pushing it back into the evenings because it can lead to poor digestion, especially when you’re eating too close to bedtime. Instead of your energy going towards recovery, rejuvenation, and detoxification, it now has to focus on digestion that results in increased resting heart rate and poor sleep quality.
[52:19] Hacks for Better Sleep
Get outside for at least 10 minutes to soak in that natural light. This anchors your circadian rhythm and sets the stage for you to sleep better that night. On the flip side, try not to expose yourself to too many artificial lights late in the evenings because that suppresses your melatonin production. Then couple deep stretching with deep breathing.
Resources Mentioned:
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb
