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Transcript – 7 Signs Your Obsession with Being Fit is Unhealthy

Shawn:      Hey BioTrust Nation, we are back with another episode. I’m excited to be here. I’m your host, Shawn Wells, here with my co-host, Tim Skwiat.

Tim:          Copilot of the BioTrust Radio airplane.

Shawn:      I love that. We’re flying high above.

Tim:          Just made it up.

Shawn:      Up in the clouds, bringing you greatness. And we are thankful for you doing reviews on iTunes and wherever else you listen to us, like Stitcher, Google Play, and now Spotify. And we’re thankful that you also listen to us and check us out on BioTrustRadio.com, where we have all the transcripts, the show notes, the links, the cool stuff. It’s all there. So, we appreciate you being in both places. And we also appreciate you leaving questions for us that we can ask on the show, on BioTrust VIP Facebook group which is at BioTrust.com/VIP.

So, if you do that and we read your question on air, or if we read your review on air, we will send you a free product. So we appreciate you doing both. Because this is a community thing and the show is driven by you and we appreciate your support. So, Tim?

Tim:          Yes, so guys, thanks for leaving reviews on iTunes. It helps the show out, tremendously. And in honor of you, we want to send you a free product. So, if I read your review on the show, send me an email at [email protected] and I’ll hook you up with a free product. And today’s five-star review comes from user named TrevorRowan9185, and it’s titled, Great answers to progressive health questions. TrevorRowan9185 says, “If you have ever followed Robb Wolf, Chris Keslar, Dave Asprey, or Ben Greenfield, you will love this new podcast. It tackles numerous issues related to eating healthy and increasing your athletic performance. Some of my specific interests were dealt with right away on the podcast, like a low carb or ketogenic approach and what supplement types and methods are best for each individual. They have great low carb grass-fed protein mix which you should really try. I’m about to order a few of their cool supplements, which I haven’t seen anywhere else. I’m not a sponsor or company employee, but as a 50-year-old man, I highly recommend you reading about their different strategies and integrate them into your daily life, and stop eating so much sugar.”

Wow, Trevor, thank you so much for that very thoughtful review. That was awesome.

Shawn:      That means a lot.

Tim:          Yeah.

Shawn:      That was a pretty powerful.

Tim:          Special company, right there.

Shawn:      I was just going to say, those are some of my heroes. Those are some of the people that I listen to. So, we really appreciate that. It’s nice to hear that, that I think we’re channeling some of those people.

Tim:          Yeah.

Shawn:      Robb Wolf is a friend of mine. Ben Greenfield is a friend of mine. And I admire them greatly and I think they’re brilliant people. So, that’s cool. That’s really cool. And again, appreciate also what you said about our supplements. That wasn’t even called for in a review on the podcast, so we really appreciate you saying all that positive stuff.

Tim:          Yeah.

Shawn:      That means a lot. So, thank you.

Tim:          Yeah, Trevor. Just email me at [email protected] and we’ll get you more of those supplements that you haven’t tried. So, onto VIP questions. We actually have two. We have two fairly light-hearted questions today, to get us going, get the juices flowing. The first one comes from Christine Denaro. Oh, Christine, this is a funny one. Christine says, “I’m 50. Is Shawn single?”

Shawn:      For you, I am.

Tim:          Shelley, did you hear that?

Shawn:      [chuckles] Okay. And next question.

Tim:          Next question comes from Kathy Allmon. And Kathy says, “Just wondering what is your favorite exercise, and why?”

Shawn:      Oh. Um, favorite exercise and why? So, going back to the not being single thing, I would say, if we’re being honest, and science has shown this to be the case. And if wellbeing is important and long life is important, and intimacy is important, then I don’t want to get too crazy with this, but sexual activity is important. And I think that is a very good exercise. And there is tons and tons and tons of studies showing that it’s important for longevity, it’s important for, I guess, self-image. And then, again, intimacy and connection with a partner. I think that’s the most important exercise, if you’re with a significant other.

But beyond that, as far as if it’s, I guess, effectiveness for body composition and all that, we’ve talked about High Intensity Interval Training being probably the most effective thing that science has thrown at us. So, doing something as simple as walk‑to‑sprint or walk‑to‑jog, or jog‑to‑sprint, where you just vary the intensity and you just do it a number of times. Whatever your body allows you to do. And you don’t want to get into it being a cardio-type exercise. So, that’s where the sprints thing comes in. I think that would be one of the things that I’d throw in there.

Tim:          Yeah, that’s a great answer. I’m sure, unexpected by some, I think. But I don’t know. I’m thinking as like a strength coach, I love to exercise. It just makes me feel great. But I think that if I had to choose just one thing, actually it probably is walking. I think that, to me, is a very primal movement pattern and offers me like a mental health benefit. I feel more creative when I walk and I feel better. Just more energetic. I’m talking about walking outside.

Shawn:      In orthokinetics, where my trainers practice this, the number one exercise they would say to reset your body and strengthen your whole body and balance you out is a rotational lunge. They put you in a lunge stance where you’re activating your glutes, and you have to balance using your core, using your adductors. Again, obviously using your glutes. You’re up on your back foot, you’re planting deeply through your heel, so that you’re activating the glute. And your calf is activated, and your hamstrings with your back foot. And you do this rotational lunge where you are using like a pulley that’s like down low and you’re rotating your spine through your thoracic, and your torso’s moving. And you’re stabilizing with your scapula, which is your shoulder blade. You’re using everything, like traps, rhomboids, delts, biceps, triceps, and you’re doing this rotation.

Because quite often we’re laterally flexed, we’re rotated. They look at me often and just like a bad night’s sleep, I can be flexed one direction, meaning like my pelvis is kind of hiked up on one side and down on another. Or I can be rotated one direction. And it’s very common. And then that has drastic effects on you throughout the day because now you’re compensating in all kinds of ways. And then, if that goes on for a long time, then you create weaknesses and imbalances.

So, it’s an interesting thing. It’s not really easy to explain, but maybe we can link to it in our show notes.

Tim:          With a video.

Shawn:      Hey, that would be cool. That would be really cool if you could do that, a rotational lunge. So anyway, lunges are a great exercise, period.

Tim:          Yeah, absolutely.

Shawn:      But the rotational lunge is really unique. But maybe Tim can do that for us. But our topic, Being Fit Without Letting Food and Exercise Control You, and this is by Keith Lai. And it’s in Tiny Buddha: Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives. But this is a good one because Tim picked this topic out because Tim says he’s battled this before, and I’ve battled this before, too. I’ve had points in my life where I’ve been extremely skinny. I was basically anorexic. And then there’s other points when I was very depressed after car accidents and some very negative relationships in my life, and I was abusing food and I was extremely overweight. So, I’ve been on both ends of the spectrum, where exercise and food became my medicine or became my unhealthy focus.

And I think other people go through this in their lives. I mean, if we’re realistic, you see this a lot in fitness, where you think they’re super-fit and happy, but then you read all these posts on Instagram or Facebook and they say how for years they had this unhealthy relationship with exercise and food, and they had to have the perfect body. And then even when they got the “perfect body” they felt that it wasn’t perfect enough. And you just get this skewed reality, and you never get to where you’re happy with yourself. You’re always punishing yourself.

And it’s very difficult and I think we can dig into all the reasons that might be. And certainly, there’s some insecurity, if we were to go further back. And that’s what it was for me. It was insecurities that led to me being anorexic and unhappy with my body. Then it was me being miserable and tired and in pain that led to me self‑medicating with food. So, I get it. And Tim, I know you get it. You’ve had your own journey with this stuff.

But we thought it would be good if we dig into this and just tell people that they’re not alone. We may be trainers, we may be sport nutritionists, we may be dietitians, we may be strength and conditioning coaches, and we have a lot of experience and knowledge in the area of fitness and nutrition, but we’re not above it. And quite often, people seek out fields of study that have a passionate “why” behind them. I know most of the people in my dietetics program had eating disorders, and that’s not uncommon. And a lot of people that you were probably around with fitness had unhealthy body dysmorphia disorders, where they just thought that they were fat and thought that they didn’t have an attractive enough body and they could just continue to exercise and eat a certain way just to try and get to whatever perfect was, and they could never get there. Do you agree?

Tim:          Yeah, I definitely agree, Shawn. Those are super points. I think, at BioTrust Radio, we feel very privileged to be kind of like life and wellness coaches for you guys.

Shawn:      Yeah.

Tim:          And I think it always seems to come back to—not necessarily here, but when you look online, it’s always about exercise and nutrition. And I think something that we want to really hammer home is that those are just pieces of the puzzle. That’s not it. It’s not 80% nutrition and 20% diet. I don’t know what the percentages are, but that’s not it. [chuckles]

Shawn:      Right.

Tim:          And if you can think of it like the solar system. That exercise and nutrition are not the sun, they’re planets that revolve around this optimal health and wellbeing which is the sun. That’s the happiness, the joy, is the center of the universe. And these two pieces are just planets, among many, like we’ve talked about. Like social connections, being part of a tribe, sleep hygiene, stress management. There’s many planets in this solar system. Optimizing those is just part of the plan.

But you’ve kind of mentioned some things already, Shawn, where this significant emphasis can come into exercise and nutrition. My personal experience and many others is a lot of times there’s many areas, or one or more areas of life that are out of control. And these are elements that we can control. We can control every piece of food that goes into our body. We can control how much we exercise.

I remember when I was in in college, I used to weigh all of my food. I used to weigh everything, like on a little kitchen scale. And I think there’s value to doing that at some times because it helps you kind of understand portion control. But when you’ve been doing it for 4, 5, 6 years, like dude, you better have an idea of what portion control is without that scale. And 100 grams versus 105 grams, that extra 5 grams is not making a difference, and you don’t need to take that little grain of rice off the scale.

Shawn:      Right.

Tim:          So, going to that extent is not what most people need to be doing. And that’s a point where I was, personally. I got to the point, too, with meal timing and things like that where I was watching the clock, because I had to eat every 2 to 3 hours, god forbid what what’s going to happen.

Shawn:      Anabolic.

Tim:          [chuckles] Exactly. We can dig into more of my own personal experiences, but I do think that, for me, I know that there was some things in life that were spiraling out of control and that was certainly an element that I could control.

Shawn:      Right.

Tim:          But in hindsight, it didn’t make things better, and probably made things worse.

Shawn:      Right. And you usually do hear that also with anorexia nervosa or bulimia, you hear that it’s a control mechanism. Yeah, exactly what you were saying that other elements of their life feel like they’re chaotic or that they’re just spinning out of control, and they have depression, and they have frustration and anxiety. And this is the thing I can control, so therefore it’s some control I can exert on my life, and I feel like not everything is spinning out of control.

Tim:          Exactly.

Shawn:      And so at least I can control my eating and then possibly even exercise. I would say that while the eating disorder is seen and often discussed, and there is things like anorexia and bulimia and those things, the exercise disorder or body dysmorphia are a little bit more nebulous, and not as well seen or known. You get people that are exercise addicts that run themselves into the ground, that can be at the gym for four hours, just doing the Stairmaster, and just grinding themselves down. And often getting sinus infections, immune system conditions, being amenorrheic, if you’re a woman, losing your ability to have your period. And just trying to chase this idea of perfection, so that you can have your six-pack and a selfie in the gym locker room. And at what cost?

And again, it becomes a control thing. Maybe you’re in an abusive relationship and maybe hate the job you’re at. Maybe there’s all these other things. And it’s like, well this is something I’m getting complements on, or this is something that I can control, so I’m going to keep exercising or I’m going to not eat at all, or I’m going to eat and then throw up, or eat and then use laxatives; all of which are disorders.

And then there’s body dysmorphia, where you feel like your body, no matter what it looks like, is you have this distorted image of your body. You could be bone skinny. You could see all your ribs and you feel fat. You could be hyper muscular, on every steroid in the book. You could work out four hours a day. You could be 300 pounds of just lean beef, and you could be the biggest guy in the gym and you just feel like, “I’m skinny. I need to get more mass.” You become very skewed because it depends on who you’re focusing on. For one, you can start comparing yourself to this very, very, very narrow window of people. But two, you just see this filtered image in the mirror and it’s probably related to insecurity of all these things that you’ve heard that were reinforced for years and years and years. And your inner critic has become your inner demon, and it’s just destroying you from the inside, and you’re never good enough.

So, we definitely want to talk about this stuff. Get it out on the table because we’ve dealt with this. And a lot of people are dealing with this, too. And you don’t have to be someone who’s full-blown anorexic or someone who’s working out for four hours a day. I mean, we might just go through this for weeks. We might just have some degree of these things at various points because we want to exert control, and maybe the stress comes and goes. But it’s worth bringing up that this stuff happens and you need to be aware of it. And food and exercise, we promote, we think are super‑healthy, but those things can become very unhealthy as well as your body image.

Tim:          Yeah. And you said it earlier, Shawn, is perfect. What we do and we need to take stock of our relationship with food and with exercise. So, I love that you said the relationship with it. I think that’s something that’s really important to call out.

Shawn:      Cool. Well the quote that starts out this article, “Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.” Unknown is the quoted person there.

Tim:          [chuckles]

Shawn:      But that’s a valid point. It says, “Most people associate fitness with nothing but positive connotations.” And this is to my point, that if you are someone who exercises for four hours a day, people just laud you for your discipline. But meanwhile, there may be some unhealthy things that are going on there. Obviously, if you’re professional athlete, that’s great. [chuckles] But if you’re not a professional athlete, and everything else is suffering in your life because now you don’t have time for your relationships, you don’t have time to sit down with friends and family and have a meal, you don’t have time to go see a movie, you don’t have time to go and do things that are enjoyable, that are relaxing, that sow the seeds with companionship, then everything else is suffering so that you can exercise. And that’s not the point of exercise.

So, he says, “Exercising is the alleged solution to obesity and stress. Eating fresh, local, healthy foods is the age-old secret to a long life and a disease-free life. But what most people don’t realize is that striving to live a healthy lifestyle can carry some seriously negative consequences if you don’t approach it wisely. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for eating and exercising, but the moment your life begins to revolve around your fitness, then you’ve already lost.”

Tim:          Yeah, that’s a great segue into the next section, which is titled, Sacrificing Your Life to Be Healthy. And he says, “In my early attempts to build a healthy and fit body that I could be proud of, I ruined my life. My entire life would be structured around my workouts. My meals were planned at exact intervals. And if I missed any of my workouts or if my meals weren’t up to my standards, I would consider myself a failure and would get incredibly upset. Back then I took an all-or-nothing approach to health and fitness. If I had one bad day of eating, then the entire week would have been considered a waste. It was bad. My perfectionistic approach to fitness began drawing attention. I would go to parties and eat nothing but raw veggies and water. People would question me, stare at me for why I was being so phobic about food. My own parents began getting frustrated with me because I would only eat certain foods. My so-called dedication to fitness turned into an obsession; one that overtook my life. All of that exercising and healthy eating was meant to complement my life, not become it.”

This really resonated with me because I could think back to a time in my life where that was the case, too. Like I would literally prepare my meals and take them with me to family gatherings. And I thought I was doing the right thing.

Shawn:      Right.

Tim:          And there was people joking about it and things like that, and I was just, “Nope, this is what I do. Eat whatever you’re going to eat and I’m going to do this way.” It took me a while to really understand that this was an obsession. It overtaking things. But that section really stood out to me because my life really revolved and that was the sun of my universe. That eating and the exercise; everything really revolved around that. So this really struck a chord with me and I can see this being the case for a lot of people, that this is an issue. Especially like you start to see results and things like that.

Shawn:      Yeah, I get it. I was doing like 4, 5, 6 hours of exercise a day, playing basketball and working out. And I would go and eat probably 400 calories a day.

Tim:          Yeah.

Shawn:      At one point. I’m 6’2″-6’3″ and I got down to 169 pounds. For me, that was super super‑thin.

Tim:          Yeah.

Shawn:      I’m probably about 220 now. And that was not healthy, not healthy at all. But people, along the way, what makes it even worse is like people are like, “Oh, what are you doing? You look great.”

Tim:          Right. It’s reinforcing that.

Shawn:      Right. It reinforces all these habits. And I’d just skip eating around people and I just want to go exercise. And of course, I did all this with stimulants, too, on top of it. That’s how I compensated for an energy deficiencies.

Tim:          Yeah.

Shawn:      I did this over the course of a year, and I drove myself into the ground. And then I had many, many, many years of adrenal fatigue as a result, just from doing constant ephedrine, caffeine. It was a mess. It was a horrible mess. And yes, I was the thinnest I’ve been, and yes, I was playing basketball and I could do 360 dunks [chuckles] because I was so light. In some ways it was good, but in other ways it was just a very unhealthy mindset that is not a lifestyle.

And that’s why we talk about lifestyle being so important, is what is maintainable for life? You know, now that I do keto, yes, keto is exclusionary on certain foods, like he’s talking about here. But for me, it’s not difficult. Like I can go to a party, I can go to any restaurant, any restaurant, and I can make a keto meal. It’s so easy. If I’m out at a steak house, I just have a steak. If I’m out at a burger place, I just leave bun off and I can do a burger salad and have ranch on it, or whatever. Maybe it’s not the perfect, most healthy, organic, and, “Oh no, I’m having sucralose,” or having some processed oils that are in the dressing or in the mayonnaise. I get all that. But again, this goes back to lifestyle.

Tim:          Right.

Shawn:      I’m not going to beat myself up. I’m going to prioritize. I’m out with friends, this is what I’ve got. Okay. I’m okay.

Tim:          Yeah.

Shawn:      And what does more damage than any food or any of that stuff, like anything like that, is the stress that you cause yourself because you’re not getting the perfect food.

Tim:          Right.

Shawn:      No, just relax with your friends. [chuckles] Ride it out. It’s life. And I’ve said this before: one salad a week, if you’re eating McDonalds for the other 20 meals, is not going to make you healthy. And the reverse is true. The reverse is true. If you have one crap meal here and there and 95% of the time you’re healthy and you’re eating like whatever you think is the way you should eat, then good for you. And that’s not going to add up. That’s not going to take a toll. And if anything, it’s good that you do something that’s maintainable, that you have some comfort foods here and there, that you hang out with your friends and just have whatever sometimes.

Tim:          Yeah.

Shawn:      It’s okay, it’s okay. And it’s fine maybe after that, if you want to do something to compensate for that. Again, if you don’t feel like you’re beating yourself up over that, you could always fast the next meal. You could always just have a salad the next meal. And there you are. It’s easy to balance out. But you have to get to the point where you’re not beating yourself up. I guarantee you, I’m stressing this, that stressing yourself is destroying you, and has way more of an unhealthy impact than any food, than any exercise, than anything. If you beat yourself up, if you think these thoughts over and over and over, and torture yourself, that’s what’s killing you.

Tim:          Yeah.

Shawn:      Not the food.

Tim:          Yeah. I love the examples that you gave there, Shawn. One, that you talked about that you can go to any restaurant and get keto. What’s most important is that you’re eating there with your friends. I know in my situation back at that time when it was extreme, I wouldn’t have gone. I just wouldn’t have gone. Or I would have gone there and sat there, like you said, just stressing over it and not eat among my friends.

Shawn:      Right.

Tim:          So, I think that that was a really good example of that. And then also, it leads into the second part of that where you say it’s not all or nothing. Okay, it wasn’t a perfect meal, but that doesn’t mean go eat cheesecake and throw the rest of the week out.

Shawn:      Right.

Tim:          Some people say 80/20, whatever. But yeah, as long as most of the time you’re eating the best you can, then that’s great. Anyway, I thought that you shed some light on some really good examples.

So, moving on to the next section here in Keith’s article. This section is titled, When You Take Fitness Too Far. “When you weigh yourself every hour, when you compensate the extra food you ate with even more exercising, when you get angry because you missed your workout, when you refuse to have cake at any wedding, then you’ve officially taken health and fitness too far. Exercising and healthy eating are simply tools to help you live a happier and more fulfilling life. They are meant to make the things you enjoy doing even more enjoyable. We all want to look good, we all want to be fit and healthy, but at what cost?” So, then he talks about finding the middle ground.

Shawn:      What can I say? One thing about that. I love the example about cake at the wedding.

Tim:          Yeah.

Shawn:      That really is a good one because how often are you at a wedding? Once, twice, I don’t know, maybe three times a year? [laughs] You can have cake three times a year. You know what I mean? Yeah, don’t eat the whole thing. Don’t eat five pieces of cake. But geez, if you’re at somebody’s wedding and you’re celebrating, have a glass of champagne, have a slice of cake, and relax and enjoy, and have fun with people that are celebrating one of the greatest moments of their life. And that really is a good sign right there. I agree that you’ve taken fitness too far if you can’t have a single slice of cake at a wedding. You’re supposed to be having the time of your life and celebrating the best time of someone else’s life that you care about. So, that just comes to mind. I totally agree with that example.

Shawn:      Yeah, you’re right, Shawn. That was a great one. I mean, all of those are good but that one especially. So, he talks about finding the middle ground here. He says, “If you want your life and fitness habits to work in synergy, then you need to find the middle ground. The middle ground is where you can enjoy a piece of birthday cake without worrying about how it will make you look. It’s where you can miss a workout and not sweat it. It’s where you can go a day without weighing yourself. But of course, finding the middle ground is no easy task. Finding the middle ground isn’t so much about finding the perfect workout or diet as it is about forging the right mindset.”

Shawn:      Totally.

Tim:          That’s awesome. “We all make mistakes. We all fail. The most important thing to remember is how you failed. You must learn from your mistakes, as cliché as that sounds. Find out what triggered you to overeat. Was it stress? If so, what’s causing that stress and what can you do to fix it? Locate the root cause of your slip-ups and do your best to correct them.”

And this goes back to that whole idea of your relationship with food and exercise and being mindful about why you might be eating. But that statement about finding the middle ground isn’t so much about finding the perfect workout or diet as is about forging the right mindset.

Shawn:      It’s huge.

Tim:          How many times have we talked about mindset on the show?

Shawn:      Every episode is about mindset. No matter what it is we talk about, it tracks back to mindset. I also like this, “The most important thing you remember is how you failed.” That’s fascinating to me because it’s not about whether you fail. We all fail. We all make mistakes. I was listening to one of our old shows just the other day where we were talking about this, that out of mistakes come the greatest discoveries of mankind. Out of mistakes comes creativity and brilliance and fire, and need, and passion. And are they mistakes? Should we even use those words? It really is how you failed, like he said. It’s what led you to that failure and then what did you do about it. And that’s fascinating because, again, what does that mean? That’s mindset.

Tim:          Yeah. So, mindset-wise there’s growth versus fixed mindset. And so people that have growth mindset are instead like those setbacks, they’re not considered failures, we consider them learning opportunities.

Shawn:      Nice.

Tim:          Like we’ve talked about before, we put on these success-filtered glasses and we look at those things and like what can we take away, how can we use that to get better, and what can we tease out of there as opposed to like, “Oh man, I failed, so here we go again.”

Shawn:      Exactly. So, A Life Worth Living is the next section. “In this ultimate battle for health, in this pursuit of the perfect body, we sometimes fail to understand the true meaning of life and what’s really important. Of course, everyone has different interpretations on the meaning of life, but I think we can all agree on one thing. Life is meant to be enjoyed.” And we’ve talked about this on the show over and over, Tim. He says, “If you’re not enjoying life, then what’s the point of living? If all you think about is exercise and food and how certain things will affect your body, then you’re never going to truly enjoy the things that make you happy. You’re not living your own life, but instead you’re living a life controlled by something as menial as eating. That’s not a life worth living.”

And he says, “What is a life worth living? A life worth living is one where you can experience new foods without guilt. It’s one where you can pick up a fork and put it to your mouth without a care in the world on how it’s going to make you look. This is a life where you can go through the majority of your day without thinking about what time you’re going to the gym or whether you ate enough protein. There’s just so much more to life than having an impeccable exercise and nutrition plan. When your life and fitness habits are working together in perfect harmony, you’ll find everything you do more enjoyable. Food will taste better, sleep will become more restful, and most importantly, an enormous load of stress and relief will be lifted off your shoulders. How do you approach health and fitness? Do you control it or does it control you?” And that’s the end of the article.

And we read it because it was concise and he brings up a lot of great points, and I like this a lot. And again, Tim and I resonate with but much of what he’s been through in his journey, and totally agree about the power of a life worth living is his new experiences and not being controlled by these things of like exercise and the foods you eat.

If I think back, because I always like to talk about evolutionary stuff on this show and going back to our primal roots, is how ridiculous would it sound if I [chuckles] like pulled up to a caveman [Tim laughs] and I said “Excuse me, Mr. Caveman, are you getting enough exercise in? Is that like a huge focus for you?” and then, “Excuse me Mr. Caveman, the food you’re eating, are you worried about how it’s affecting your body composition?” If he could speak to me in the same language, he would look at me like I’m absolutely crazy. And yet, this is where we’ve come.

Tim:          Right.

Shawn:      And it’s so ridiculous if you put it in that kind of framing. He’s like, “No, I eat food to live. I eat food because it tastes good. Body composition? I’ve never even thought about that.”

Tim:          Right.

Shawn:      He’s never even thought about that.

Tim:          Right.

Shawn:      And it’s so crazy. Look, it’s important to have a good body composition in terms of it it’s healthier for your joints. If you’re an athlete, it means more power. When you have more strength and less body weight you move more freely. There’s some correlation to excess body weight and cardiovascular outcomes and mortality. But at the end of the day, a lot of our focus on body composition revolves around capitalism. And we have to love the skin we’re in. We have to love ourselves. And it’s fine if you say, “I want to lose weight because I want to be healthier.” It’s not fine if you say, “I want to lose weight because I feel ugly.”

And you’ve got some things you need to work out and know that we love you and we care about you. And we’re going to put some links in the show notes that say here are some resources. Tim’s wife is a therapist and Tim has a lot of experience with this, as does his wife, Amy. So, we want to get you help if that’s what you feel. If you feel deeply insecure, if you feel deep sadness, if you feel shame when you eat, if you feel shame when you look in the mirror, because that’s not a healthy way to live. And if you choose to lose weight or diet or go to the gym and exercise like crazy because you hate yourself, it’s not going to be a life worth living. A life worth living is one, that he points out in this article, where you have joy, where you love yourself, where you take that weight off your shoulders. And I think that’s an important thing to wrap up with here. But do you have any final thoughts on that, Tim?

Tim:          I do, because I just think that this whole topic gives rise to the significance of mental and emotional health, which we’ve come back to many, many times before. And yes, it can be as extreme as someone who is battling disordered eating habits, but it may not even be that extreme because the irony of body image and body composition and weight management is that we often get to an unhealthy place on one extreme because of mental and emotional issues that are going on. We also get to the other extreme, too skinny, too fit, or whatever you want to call it, for similar or completely different mental and emotional health issues.

So, I just think this whole topic gives rise to that. And once again, we continue to try to bring this up, even though it tends to be like kind of a skeleton in a closet, so to speak. The mental/emotional health, people don’t want to talk about it, but we keep bringing it up because it is so important for optimizing wellbeing. And so, just to fortify what you’re saying, Shawn, no matter where you sit on that spectrum, I think it’s important to have a discussion with a therapist about it, if any of this resonates with you.

Shawn:      Yeah, and don’t think a therapist means crazy. Don’t think a therapist is reserved for “psychos.” Therapists are there to help you. Therapists are there to listen to you. Therapists are needed by all of us. And when we have good friends, we have good mentors, we have gal time, girl time, guy time, boys’ time, dudes time, whatever you call it, that’s all therapy, and that’s cool. That’s what you need. And we all need it. We all need therapy.

So, if you ever hear someone talking about someone goes to a psychologist or a therapist, or a psychiatrist or whatever, and they say something negative about that, tell them to close their mouth because that’s something we all need. And I applaud those that address it and proactively take care of that. There’s nothing more important. We’ve talked about it on the show. The most important thing in life is wellbeing and joy. And a long life is achieved through quality of relationships and happiness, and how can you achieve that? Through mindset. So, a therapist is key to you achieving a healthy and long life and having joy in your life, period. So, there’s nothing wrong with that. And not only is there nothing wrong with it, it’s the better way forward.

Tim:          Yeah.

Shawn:      So, I’ll just I’ll leave it at that and thank you again for listening to the show. We appreciate you deeply. If you can leave us a review on iTunes or any of the other mediums you listen to us—Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify—we appreciate it. Please go to BioTrustRadio.com, where we’ll have videos and links and transcripts, and all the fun stuff on this show, including the actual podcast you can listen to there. And then check us out on BioTrust.com/VIP or the VIP Facebook group, and leave us some questions there. And if we read them on the air, you get a free product. And if you leave us a review on iTunes and we read it on the show, you get a free product. And we appreciate the community here and we’re here for you. Thanks guys. We really appreciate you.

Tim:          Thanks, guys. Here’s to a life worth living.

Shawn: Love you guys. See you.